Busy Days. Chapel Hill. And The 12th Month.

I'm so tired! Life is just whirling around happening and I can barely keep up! My constant struggle when I am working. I love it but I just can't find the perfect work and life balance. Always have and, it looks like, I always will! So is life!

We had the best time last weekend meeting up with my sister-in-law and nieces. They live here in North Carolina too. We drove up to UNC Chapel Hill and explored the Morehead Planetarium. The planetarium is small but the live shows were excellent. And the campus is insanely gorgeous! By far, the prettiest campus I have seen so far. Which let's be honest is few but still number one!

This is The Old Well on campus. If you Google images, UNC Chapel Hill, chances are this will pop up. We walked in a large circle around this site before getting directions right to it. We walked in front of it 2-3 times earlier. Something to laugh about :) The well has special powers to get students good luck and good grades. You must drink from it on the first day of school though! 

The campus is filled with old buildings and lots of trees. The campus is huge and well laid out. 

I have my fingers crossed one of my children go here so I can visit often. Not that they will want me too. So, I probably won't :( At least, I would have an excuse to go walk through the canopy of fall leaves in my sweater and boots with my Starbucks drink :)

I can't believe December is here! How did that happen? After Thanksgiving, life went into hyper speed. It always does! Our local mall is all decked out in Christmas decor. The boys and I went Black Friday window shopping, visited SantaLand, and grabbed a holiday latte.

My goal this year was to be done Christmas shopping by December 1st. I made a valiant effort but fell short. I have sooo much left to buy. *insert crying emoticon* This package is done and ready to be mailed. One down, twenty to go.

We got a tree! This is big because we are deployment status, which means the holidays are filled with mixed emotions. Without completely sounding like Scrooge, I just wish we could skip the whole holiday season. It makes me sad and miss him more. It's my ostrich moment, bury my head, and pretend it is not happening :( But, then you have kids who need consistency and for you to be the adult. So, we got a tree!

It's a fake tree. $25 from the Target store. I'm secretly loving it's pathetic simplicity. It's cute in a kitchy way.

Indulge me a minute with this tree, can you? I walked up to the house on Wednesday and noticed the color had changed on this tree overnight. It went from purple to this incredibly intense red. My kids noticed the same thing on the same day and were equally excited. We kind of like this season called Fall :)

A little snapshot of my night last night. Let's blame classrooms full of middle schoolers. They are quite something for your sanity :) 

Cheers to Friday and a weekend!