As most of you know, Nick and I recently moved into our first apartment together. So when the holidays rolled around (okay, let's be honest, as soon as Halloween was over) I decided it was time to decorate for Christmas. Nick on the other hand thought it needed to wait until after Thanksgiving. But nonetheless, we went Christmas tree shopping as soon as November hit. And I think we picked out a pretty good tree for our little place. Nick bought it thinking it was just a three piece tree. Ha! It turned out to be one of those ones that you put each branch on individually. It was a nice little bonding time for us, to say the least. And that's the way it stayed for a few days. Just a tree, no lights or ornaments on it. I also may have played with bubble wrap while Nick unboxed everything...
Then we got some lights on it. And then a few days later Nick sent me a picture of our tree with a star on top! And he had decorated our banister with lights too. I need to leave him home alone on Fridays more often ;-). Anyways, it stayed like that for a few days because I didn't have time to decorate it just yet. I slept next to the tree on Thanksgiving night because Nick was working over night and everyone talks about how peaceful it is to sleep next to the Christmas tree.
Then we finally had time to start putting ornaments on the tree. And the only ornaments we have are Nick's. He did buy some nice glittery ones, but most of them are either Bears, Cubs, Bulls or Blackhawks. The Cubs are the only ones that super bother me. I tried putting them all in the back, but Nick quickly noticed that and put an end to it... Nick also bought tinsel and decided that was his job... And I think he enjoyed it a little too much, the vacuum however, did not.
But now our tree is fully decorated and just waiting for me to put the wrapped presents under it! I'm so excited to have a tree and be able to be experiencing my first Christmas on my own with Nick. I can't wait to put Cardinals ornaments on it soon! :)
**This is a sponsored post, but all opinions are my own**
Okay, so awhile back I wrote this post on renting textbooks from a site called Campus Book Rentals. Well, once again the time has come to figure out what you're going to do with those books that you have had all semester that you payed way too much for. I mean really, why are books so much? I haven't had to worry about buying my books since I've been in college because my school rents our books to us. But for most of you, I know you have to deal with buying books that cost way too much for how little you probably use them. That's why Campus Book Rentals is a great place for you to check out!
To break it down here are some great reasons to check them out:
They save you 40%-90% on all of your books. Not joking. I just checked out how much it would be to rent or buy a book I had this semester. To rent from Campus Book Rentals would only cost me $37.06 until May 15. If I bought this book from Amazon it would cost me $145.70. And I used this book maybe 3 times and will never use it again. So renting your books from this site is a great alternative to buying your books!
They have free shipping both ways, which is awesome because I HATE paying for shipping
You can highlight in your books. This is an awesome perk to renting from them. I can't highlight in the books I rent from school, but with Campus Book Rentals you can. And trust me, there have been numerous times I have wished so badly that I could highlight in a book but couldn't.
They have flexible renting periods. They have multiple choices for renting periods, and if those don't fit your needs you can enter how long you'll need the book for and they'll give you a price based on how long you need that book!
They have live customer support. Seriously, I hate when I get a computer trying to figure out my problem if I call a customer support line. I just want to talk to a real person.
If you decide you want to buy the book, they allow you to do that through their site as well.
They donate to a special program known as Operation Smile. With each book rented, Campus Book Rentals donates money to this program which provides surgeries to children with a cleft lip. This awesome program saves children's lives, and when you rent a book from Campus Book Rentals, you are helping them to save a child's life.
And, do you already have some books that you've bought that you have no idea what to do with? Or you just can't justify selling it back for $1.00 when you bought it for $100? Well now Campus Book Rentals has a program called Rent Back. This lets you send them your book, for free, and they rent your book out to other students. Every time your book is rented, you get paid for it. It's like earning money for doing almost nothing. What college student doesn't love that?! You make 2-4x more money than you would just selling your book to one person and Campus Book Rentals does all the work for you!
Really, I don't understand why anyone would buy books ever again if you can just rent them for so much cheaper from Campus Book Rentals. And trust me, from experience with renting books, you will never miss those books. And if you do end up liking the book, they allow you to buy it right from their site. I promise, you can't go wrong with them!
I love my family. I am sure I have posted about them before. And the fact that they live all over the United States. And that we are all so close it's unbelievable. I know that if I call one of my cousins in Hawaii or Cali or Texas that they will be there to help me no matter what. So when some of my family from California decided to visit for Thanksgiving this year I was so stoked. And obviously, spending time with the family who lives in Illinois is always wonderful as well. We laughed, played games, and ate until our food babies were at about 8 months. And it was wonderful. Also, for some reason all of these pictures sent to my e-mail in a really crappy quality..so that sucks.
My uncle built a new, huge, garage over the past year. He calls it his barn. The following pictures are of a bathroom in it. He did all of this himself. Prettyyyy impressive.
The picture below is of Ethan's plate after about 2 hours. It may be because I fed him chocolate before dinner...
Sunday we had Aidens baptism. The party afterwards was set up so adorable, as always when it comes to my Aunt Cindy.
I wish the past week didn't end so quickly. I also wish I hadn't had to work as much as I had this past week. This past week was the first time I really did not like living on my own because I was 40 minutes away from all of the fun, which kind of sucked. But I am super thankful for the time I did get to see my family. I should have filmed the entire day of Thanksgiving so you could all see how much fun my family really is. We are a crazy, loud, awesome family and we get told all the time how much people wish they were a part of our family.
