Category — Life

That was Sean Carabine’s motto, and one he definitely lived his life according to. Today will always be a day of remembering and reminiscing for all who knew him. It has been a long three years without him, unbelievably long, and yet, sometimes it feels like it has only been days.

I wanted to share a playlist today in memory of Sean. This is a playlist that was created for his memorial services, initially. Over time, I have added and deleted songs from this list. I hope that you will enjoy it as much as I have. Some of the songs are songs that Sean loved, others are songs that remind me of him. (You can click on the play button to listen to the entire playlist right here.)

And, as a special bonus, here are some of the photos from the slideshow we ran over the weekend when we had our memorial gathering for Sean. I hope you all enjoy these as much as I do! (I apologize for the slideshow running off on the sidebar, but I wanted to make the photos as big as possible.)

We are officially into the second month of the new year and it has been an incredible year so far!

January brought lots of fun and surprises. I can hardly believe the turns my life has taken in the last few weeks! Let’s dive right in, but I am going to save the best news for last!

We started January off with a gigantic party with our closest friends to celebrate Shawn’s divorce finally being final! It has been such a long time coming, almost three years, and we were all so happy for him! A true fresh start. To celebrate, we had everyone over to get the night started with some drinks and snacks and we rented a limo bus to take us out on the town! We had an awesome fun time and it was a great way to start a new year!

Our last big hurrah for January was the Polar Bear Plunge. This is an awesome fundraiser for the Special Olympics of Maryland. The whole idea is to raise money for a wonderful cause, get a little crazy with your friends, and take a dip into the Chesapeake Bay, often frozen and always always cold! So Shawn and I ventured out with his boss’ Krav Maga martial arts group and boarded a bus to Sandy Point beach where we would take part in the big plunge. This all would have been fine and good if Maryland hadn’t been hit by a nice surprise snowstorm and 13 degree weather! It was freezing and started snowing at around 8:30 am. We were scheduled to plunge at 1:00. That’s a lot of waiting around in the cold and snow to jump into the frozen Bay. What the hell where we thinking??!!?!? As it turns out, since this is my first year actually making it into the water, it will also be my last! I am done with the Polar Bear Plunge. We had a fun time, until waiting on the beach to plunge and trying to thaw out after. We have had our fun with the PBP and will now retire our frozen bathing suits!

And the biggest most exciting news ever happened in January too! (drumroll…blrlrlrlrllrlrlrlrlrlrlrlrl…!)

Shawn and I are engaged to be married!

As of January 22nd we are officially a betrothed couple! I could not be more excited as this starts a whole new chapter of my life and our lives together. It’s amazing. I want to do a separate post for the whole story, but here is a little ring bling to tie you over!

It’s absolutely gorgeous! I could not love it more! The kite set diamond and the mill grain along the sides, it’s so vintage and beautiful! Thanks Babe, you’ve done good!

It is very hard to believe that we are starting a whole new decade, not just a new year, but a new decade. So much good and bad has happened in the last decade, I can’t even imagine what the new decade is going to bring my way, but I am excited to find out.

This New Years Eve was quite low-key. Shawn and I were joined by my mom, sister, aunt, uncle, and little cousin. We had a great time, playing games and hanging out. We don’t have cable tv anymore, so watching the ball drop in Times Square, which is definitely a huge part of New Years Eve for me, was a little challenging. We were able to find it being streamed online and so we watched that happily, but we were sad that the streaming was a little slow and we really celebrated the official New Year about 3 minutes late (shhhh don’t tell anyone!! )

Anyway, it was a very enjoyable night and a nice way to welcome in the new year, calm and relaxed. Here are some of the photos from the night, some of my favorites are of Shawn and I dancing a chorus line to New York New York! Ha!

I am back today to post the highlights of the second half of 2009. This year has definitely been a busy one and a good one. But now the New Year is here and it is time to put another year behind me and move forward. But before I turn to go, here is what happened during the second half of my year.

July found us gallivanting all over the place. First we spent a whole week in the Outer Banks of North Carolina with our good friends Jessop and Lauren, and Mike. We rented a really nice beach house and had a great time. Then we drove from North Carolina to West Virginia to meet my family for our big family reunion. Wow, what a trek! Despite the rain we had that weekend, we had a great time with everyone.

In August, we ventured back to good ole’ San Diego, our home away from home. We went to visit our dear TracyAnn and keep her company for a week. It was great to be there for so long, and we had such a blast while we were there.

In September we took our annual Labor Day trip to Ocean City. This year Nikki, Andy, and Sami joined us at the beach for the weekend. We had a great weekend of golf and good times.

October and November were really busy months for us. We hired Nikki to work with us on our new photography project Allure Studios. We visited my parents on Halloween and had a good time with the family. Then Thanksgiving we spent with Shawn’s family and then with mine. It was a very low-key holiday, and apparently so low-key that we didn’t take any photos!

December brought even more plans and we were busy as usual. The first weekend in December we got together with my mom’s family for our annual candy making.

Around the middle of December we took a group of friends to Hampden to see the Christmas Street lights. Nikki, Andy, Jessop and Lauren had never been to see the Christmas lights so this was a great opportunity to take them to enjoy the sights and experience.

The month continued with a Blizzard the week before Christmas. That was awesome! School was closed for two whole days and it was a wonderful much needed time off work. The night of the storm, Nikki, Andy and Sami came over to visit and enjoy being snowed in with ys.

And last, but not least, the end of December brought us another wonderful Christmas filled with our fantastic families and lots of good memories.

Well that’s a wrap! 2009 was a fantastic year but I am so excited to see what my 30th year has to bring me!

Happy New Year to all of you! Live Well, Laugh Often, and Love Much!

I do so love a new year. A fresh start. Moving on. Leaving the past behind. Well, maybe not leaving it behind completely, just tucking it away for safe keeping. New goals and hopes and dreams. New planning and plodding. Though I am not quite sure what is on my plans and goals list for 2010 yet, I do know that 2009 was a wonderful year, and if it is any indication of how the new year will go, I better hold on to my hat.

Here are the highlights of 2009, in photos of course, from the first half of the year.

January started off with lots of parties and nights out on the town with friends…

We closed out the first month of the year with the Polar Bear Plunge. Oh what a fun, fun day!!

February was a lot of fun, but surprisingly not a lot of photos. I know we took some from our Valentine’s Day weekend trip to Deep Creek Lake, but I have no idea where they are!

March was my birthday (again no photos…how does this keep happening?) But it was also the wedding of a family friend, Christen. She is my sister’s best friend. We all had a great time at her wedding.

April was Easter, which is always a nice time with our family.

April was also Leah’s Bridal Shower. I was so happy to be celebrating with my bestie. We had a great time planning her surprise.

May was our annual trip to Ocean City. Once with the gals for the Rubber Stamp convention and once for Memorial Day.

June was a wonderful, amazing month! Lots of fun and good memories! We had a very busy month in June…HonFest, No Doubt in concert, Leah’s Bachelorette party, Bert and Leah’s wedding, and camping and Dorney Park with Shawn’s family. Good times!

Well that is the first half of the year. I will post the second half tomorrow. I can’t believe how many good memories I have from this year.

It looks like it is shaping up to be a quiet New Years Eve around here. This might actually be perfect because then it will be quiet enough to listen to my new playlist for New Years!

I am a huge fan of playlists and mixes. It’s like the old mix tape, but quicker and easier and less painful. I can remember sitting for hours making mix tapes for friends (and myself) and while I still have many of them and they are treasured time capsules, I definitely enjoy the ease of the new-fangled playlist so much more.

I thought that I would share with you my most recent playlist. I have never created a New Years playlist before, though my Holiday music collection (and regular music collection) definitely houses a few tunes that easily lend themselves to such a playlist. I also used iTunes iMix for the first time to create said playlist. I wanted to use playlist.com for this since you could then listen to it right here, each song in its entirety, but they didn’t have all of the songs available. So here it is for your listening pleasure.

Not every song on it is great, but they are all about New Years, moving on, or starting over.

Happy listening! May you find some inspiration among the lyrics of these songs to help you jump-start your new year!

Well, it is seriously hard to believe, but December is just about here, only a few more hours to go. I really can’t believe how quickly this year has gone by. Either way, I am totally excited about the impending winter, holiday season, and upcoming year.

I have a ton of crafty projects waiting in the wings for the month of December including new ornaments for my tree, house decorations in my new holiday color scheme, holiday cards, a new advent calendar, and lots of fun holiday activities. I also want to try to keep a record of the daily events of the month, something sort of like Ali Edwards’ December Daily project which can be found here. I don’t think I will add an actual scrapbook to my projects for the month, but I would like to keep track of it all here.

Well I am off for tonight, I have one project that I need to finish by tomorrow. And I am completely exhausted from the holiday weekend and going back to work today. So I hope to be back tomorrow with some photos of my first complete holiday project.

Happy December!

Two years ago, Shawn moved in with me and we spent our first Thanksgiving together. Well sort of. It was more like the anti-Thanksgiving that we spent together. We ate fried chicken and went around town taking photos instead of spending time with our families. It was a down and out Thanksgiving, we were both in mourning over life’s disappointments and let downs. Our mental states were everything but stellar. It was a miserable day. However, we started a new tradition that day. Or at least I did. I had never heard this “song” before, but it was the best part of that dark Thanksgiving two years ago. (Well, maybe excepting the fried chicken). It has now become one of our Thanksgiving traditions. Without further adieu, I present to you…

1. Pumpkin Farm, 2. My Gratitude, 3. momiji leaves, 4. Untitled, 5. Autumn in the Vineyard, 6. Gnarled Beauty, 7. Autumn Deer, 8. last autumn colors, 9. The colours of autumn XX

A time to plant, a time to reap
A time to laugh, a time to weep
A time to build up, a time to break down
A time to dance, a time to mourn
A time to cast away stones, a time to gather stones together
A time to gain, a time to lose…

These are both lyrics from The Byrds’ song “Turn, Turn, Turn” and verses from the Book of Ecclesiastes from the Bible. As a young person these verses spoke to me on some higher level than most other verses in the Bible and the song was always a favorite of mine (especially after seeing Forrest Gump) because I liked these verses so much. Now, as an adult, approaching my 30th year, these words ring so true to who I have become and all that I have learned, endured, and enjoyed along the way.

This time of year is always a time of reflection for me. These words just seem very fitting for this time of year. I have been teaching my little ones at school all about Harvest and what this time of year means, why we celebrate Thanksgiving, and so on and I have found myself thinking more and more about gathering and reaping and thankfulness and what that looks like in my own life, today.

For me, this is definitely a time to gain. I have gained so much in the last year. I have an incredible amount to be thankful for. Despite the tough times that I have triumphed over the last few years, I really have begun to see a light at the end of that mournful tunnel. Yesterday was Thanksgiving and my traditions changed this year. I still got to spend time with my family and those close to me, but it was a different group of people this year and a different experience altogether. It was a wonderful day. A day to celebrate family and friends and loved ones both far and near, with us and no longer with us. For my family and friends, I am especially grateful.

It’s definitely a time to build up. At this point, I can honestly say that I have a lot on the horizon, and even more to look forward to in my life. 2010 is going to be a great year!

I hope that you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving as well and if you haven’t done it yet, count your blessings, reflect on the trials and tribulations you have endured. Be thankful.

This post is a little late, but better late than never is sort of my motto! Two weeks ago I tagged along with Shawn’s family for camping and a trip to Dorney Park in Pennsylvania. This is an amusement park that is owned by the same managing company as Cedar Point. We went to Cedar Point last year and had such an amazing time, that we decided it was something we wanted to do as often as we could. This year, we didn’t have as much time for vacation, so we decided to stay a little closer. We stayed at a KOA, pretty decent campground and it was the first time getting Shawn’s camper out this season. As always, it was a lot of fun!

Dorney Park is a much, MUCH smaller park than Cedar Point with only 5 or 6 major roller coasters, all pretty tame, compared to the coasters at CP. It was so nice, we got into the park around 11am and were pretty much finished with the roller coasters by lunch time at about 1pm. That was so nice! Not many lines, definitely not long lines, I think the longest we waited was maybe 20/30 minutes. It was awesome! That left us the rest of the day for the water park and second rides. It was a strange feeling to know that we could have left at lunch time and been completely satisfied with the day. After lunch we headed to the water park where we all had the best of intentions to cool off in the water attractions, but the place was so packed that it was hard to justify standing in line to ride the Lazy River. So we found a nice partly shady place to relax and snack while the kids enjoyed the water park. The evening was full of more rides and closing the park out.

Camping was so much fun. Shawn’s aunts were able to join us this year and they were the anti-campers, who actually ended up having a decent time (at least I think they did). Of course, the downpour of rain right after we finished setting up camp on Friday night didn’t kick the weekend off in the right direction. After that, the weather was gorgeous and we had a great time. Friday night was full of a lot of the camping favorites like homemade ice cream, pineapple upside-down cake, silver turtles, and card games.

Overall, it was a short, but really nice, fun trip. I think everyone really enjoyed themselves. Here are some pictures from the weekend, courtesy of Shawn’s mom~Thanks for sharing!