New Year. New Home.

One my resolutions to myself this year, is to finish all the decorating in my house that I want to do. I still have tons of pictures and decorating that I want to get up and done. Hubby and I worked on a project New Years day... it went a little wrong and we ended up having to patch the holes and start all over again. We thought we had the correct color of paint still from the previous owners of our home, turns out that we don't. So, now we have to either try to match the wall paint or start over with a new color. But, the thought of painting our entire upstairs hallway doesn't excite me at all. So that's project #1.

Project #2: Paint the spare room. I've been wanting to do this for a while now, but time just got away from me. So now, I've decided that there's no time like now to finally decide on a paint sample and get going. This room we've dubbed our boat room, we have a nautical theme going on in this room.

Project #3: Refinish and old bookcase. I'm really into dressing up and re-working pieces that we already have. If I can give this bookcase a face lift without buying a new one, I'll be one happy girl.

Project #4: Put new lighting in the office, and our bedroom. Our doesn't have the greatest source of light. So I'd like to add more lamps or something...it's to dark. Here's what I am thinking for the office...

My office is pretty girly...and I think this fits just right. One day, this office will be turned into a nursery...and this will be perfect for a little girl. :)

Now, it's just time to get it all done.

Reading Challenge: We have a Winner!

You may remember my reading challenge post from last year, well it's 2009 and the idea was to see how many books between Hubby and I, who could read the most from September till December. Whoever won the challenge got a prize of their choosing. Well, I am happy to say with 4 books read by the end of December I Won!

My last book was "At First Sight" by Nicholas Sparks. I was 3 chapters into it, when we came home from the Labor Day weekend. By the time I got to the middle it was dragging and I was dreading trying to finish it. It was a very slow moving book, and it sounded a little all the familiar to me from some of the other stuff he's written that I've read. Could Sparks be loosing his touch? I don't know, but this one didn't wow me at all.

Even though we are fore going our original plan of winning a prize, I am still walking away with the victory of beating Orion in the book challenge!

Up Next: Orion got me for Christmas the new book by Jon & Kate Gosselin called Multiple Blessings. I love their show, and I am excited to take a look and read the book.

*Girlie Girls*

I love, love, love girlie fashion and the idea of getting dressed up in heels, a dress and going out. Or maybe just for no reason at all. I love when women dress like women, natural and fresh! Here's just a few of my recent favs of girlie girls:

Jennie Garth; I loved her as Kelly Taylor when I was 16, and I am loving her now at 26! I love this old Hollywood style she's doing right now. She looks amazing for a Mom of three little girls!

Miss Underwood; she could probably wear a paper sack over herself and she'd still look good and I'd still love her. She's daring with some of the stuff she wears, and I like it!

Jewel: Looking so fresh and springy (is that a word) Anyway, I'm loving her in this dress. Plus, nothing beats a great smile on a woman!

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all photos courtesy of msn.com

Miss Mankato 2009

It was an exciting weekend, as I braved the snow and ice to head down to Mankato for the pageant. Even though it took longer to get there than normal, it was still so much fun. Elizabeth did amazing, I'm so proud of her. Congrats, to Kelsey Malecha on being crowned Miss Mankato 2009! I'm excited to watch her at Miss MN this summer. Here's just a few pics from the event:

Elizabeth & I after the pageant.

Me & Angie afterwards. She's headed to Miss America soon, and I'm so excited for her!

Hubby Talk

Sometimes after couples have been married for a while, they can develop their own language with each other. And sometimes, if you're husband is anything like mine.... He's already come with his own language. There's a few things that my husband says on a regular basis, that are not the proper names for things...but I think it's so cute and funny I let him go ahead with his own way of talking. Here's just a few things that he's come up with:

= a "curling wand" in Hubby Talk.

= "blinders" in Hubby Talk.

Koolaid= any kind of juice, or tea for that matter.

Countdown to the Crown!

It's 20 days till I leave for Vegas, and 24 days till the Miss America Pageant premiers LIVE! I'm getting super excited. Pageant season is in full swing already for the year...here's a run down of some of the events:

Jan. 3rd- Miss Mankato Pageant

10th- Miss MN locals Meeting & Miss Minnesota Send off

17th- Miss Coon Rapids Style Show

21st- I leave for Vegas

24th- Miss America Pageant

25th- Come home!

I seriously can't wait! Tune in tomorrow night at 9pm on TLC for Miss America's reality show "Countdown to the Crown." I'm excited to watch Angie and the rest of the girls!

A Worley House Year in Review

Happy New Year! I hope that you all had a great Christmas. Today is the first day of a brand new year. Hubby and I spent New Years Eve out to dinner, and then met up with some friends. As we head into 2009, I'm taking a look back at the highlights in our lives during 2008! I can't believe how fast a year goes by....here's all the highs, lows, joys...and everything in between.

2008

January- Orion and I rang in the new year downtown at the hotel. Excited for a new year with my new job...and everything ahead of us.

February- We celebrated our "first" Valentines day as married people! We also celebrated Orion's 1 year at US Bank.

March- We started house hunting.

April- My nephew Collin was born. My sister's 3rd baby! We also found a house, and signed the papers closing at the end of the month.

May- First of the month we moved into our new house, and had a house warming party at the end of it. We also traveled to Oklahoma to visit friends and family and be there for Kyle's wedding.

June- A few more summer wedding were in the works for us, and I was busy picture taking! We headed to Iowa for my family reunion. And Angie was crowned Miss Minnesota the same weekend.

July- We celebrated our 1st Wedding Anniversary! It went by so fast! Orion got me a puppy, and we named him Bentley.

August- Things slowed down a little before the rest of the craziness of summer came.....

September- My little brother turned 20! Can't believe it! We went home to celebrate.

October- My brother left for Basic Training. We traveled to Boston for our friends wedding. Came back.... Celebrated my 26th birthday, I lost my job this month...... and Miss Twin Cities & Miss Capital City were crowned.

November- Orion turned 31!!! We left HPC, and headed to Celebration Church to help start Masters Commission.

December- We celebrated Christmas for the very 1st time just the two of us, before traveling to Iowa to be with family. Orion started training into a new position at the bank.

Today is the first day of 2009, don't ask me what the year holds... I don't know. I wouldn't have expected half the things that happend in '08.... I have no idea what the next year holds for us. But, I know it's something amazing!