ALmost a New Year

Did you have a good Christmas? I did. It was very busy and hectic, but it was great just the same. Got some Christmas cash to go spend... (Maybe at RR? Their 40% off sale starts today. Anybody else want to go?) And got to spend time with my munchkins, always my favorite part.

Faxonisms:

Faxon: Santa’s going to bring me an Xbox, a PSP and a million games.
Me: A million? That’s a bunch. Santa’s elves are going to be working overtime.
Faxon: That’s okay, they’ll do it for me.
Me: I dunno. Those elves are union, ya know, and Santa doesn’t want to pay them overtime and mess with their union.
Faxon: Aw, they’ll do it. Because I’ve been extra special good this year.

(Said at the dinner table)
Me: Be careful with those plates. That’s the last thing I want to do is clean up a mess.
Faxon: Oh, sarcasm, (said with an eyeroll)
Me: Honey, I am the queen of sarcasm, you have a long way to go to catch up with me.

(Said while hamming it up for the kid’s flip camera that Cassidy got)
Faxon: This show is money, money, money, like cash in my pocket. I got a whole $20!!!

(Said at Nana’s house, a teenage cousin was visiting and she was talking about her younger cousin who also usually visits, but not this time.)
Faxon: Austin!?!?!? Never heard of him. (DH is laughing hysterically at this.)
(Then upon seeing said cousin’s picture...)
Faxon: That kid need’s a hair cut!

Add this to the story his father told me about how he placed a $900 order on Amazon. The only way BIL found out was the email confirmation was sent to his IPhone and he cancelled it immediately. Hoo boy, and this kid isn’t even 7 yet??? Look out!

There was a little drama (isn’t there always) as MIL and her mother aren’t speaking to each other. So we had to visit them separately instead of together. Let’s just say that some people have a knack for revisionist history. :eyeroll: But we moved on and the rest of the day was great.

Worked on Friday (that’s a story for another day.) and then went home around 2pm to take a nap. We had dinner at ABC Pizza and then stopped at Target, and I picked up a few things. I wanted a new tree, but all the ones they had only had clear lights, not colored ones, which is too bad, because they were at a good price.

I’m seeing light at the end of the tunnel in my scrap room. I went through 3 of my 4 sticker albums and took up half a garbage bag. Who knew???? All I have left is my desk, and one set of drawers which is mostly memorabilia, programs, ticket stubs, cards, things like that. Then comes the task of putting everything away. Oh, boy will this be fun. One thing I didn’t realize, is how much darn chipboard I’ve accumulated. I have almost a four foot high stack!

Well, this is getting long, I’m on page 2 of Word, so I will sign off for now. Happy New Year everyone.

Three Days Until Christmas

Ah, just three more days until the big day. I *almost* got all my Christmas cards out. Yes, I am a slacker. I finished almost all of them on Friday. I had a few stragglers I didn’t have addresses for, etc. Then on Saturday, someone I thought was off the list showed up again! ACK! (Did you read Sally Forth in the paper yesterday? I had that EXACT conversation on Saturday.)

So, I had everything ready to go today, or so I thought. I got here this morning and realized I’d forgotten the mailing labels. D’OH!!!! So they will get mailed tomorrow. So a few of you out there in blogland may be getting your card the day AFTER Christmas. Sorry about that folks. L

I did all my grocery shopping on Saturday for the week. I’m making my world famous (HA!) spinach dip for work, broccoli casserole, Cajun shrimp, these little chocolate mousie things I found in Simple & Delicious, and a pizza bread for the neighbor’s party tomorrow. I really don’t want to go to the neighbor’s “Hanakkamas”party, but it’s one of those “you feel obligated” things. I’m way closer to my bunco girls of course, but none of them will be at this party. Sigh! I do have a couple friends that will be there, though (both named Linda, ironically, enough!)

I cleaned like a freak yesterday, but still didn’t get the bathrooms done. Tonight I will do that. I did a ton of laundry. Got all but one load done, and started some of the ironing. Started the gift wrapping. Will finish that up tonite, too. Except for bows and ribbons, I wait until the last minute for those. If not, Miles will eat them. Hehe. I watched two different Christmas Carols on Saturday.

I’m on my fourth bag of scraproom garbage. How do we accumulate all this junk? This time it was mostly scraps. You know, when you make a page or something, and you think, Oh, I’m going to save this one little inch scrap because I can use it on a card or something else. And then what happens? You get overrun by those little scraps. So out they went.

Well, the carols are going, and it’s time for the final countdown. I’m feeling pretty calm and relaxed so far. Let’s hope it stays that way.

Lovin my gifts!!

Ah, good morning. I’m basking in the glow of a wonderful weekend. It was a great party Saturday night. Everyone had a great time and we had loads of yummy food. Oh, man, we had roast pork, and ham, and potatoes, and shrimp and crap dip, and a big ole salad, and about a gazillion desserts, including home made turtle! WOW!!! It was all so good.

We had a great gift exchange. Everyone is so blessed and lucky. I got a load of stuff from the great Miss Elle! Do you know how wonderful she is? Well, of course you do, but I thought I’d remind you. She just goes above and beyond for everyone. Even the babies got stuff. They got their own stocking and enough catnip toys to last them for a year!

And you know those great bags that Terese from the Hilltop girls makes? Well, I got not one, not two, BUT FOUR of them. Each one is a beauty. That Terese does some great work! And each one of them was filled with the brim. Let me tell you another thing that Elle did, that she was so talented at. She is embroidering now, and will have a business soon embroidering professionally. If you have a chance, too, check out her work. I think Kip took a few pics on her blog. It is simply gorgeous.

I had Gerri-Anne, and it looked like she had a lot of fun, too. I hope so. I hope she had a great time, and loved her gifts. She’s the best!

We also went to downtown Tarpon, and checked out some of the antique stores. Very cute! Found an old bar to hang out at. More fun! It was such a great night we really didn’t want it to end. So thanks to all my stocking pals, I love you all! And big huge thanks to Elle for making it extra special for me this year.

And one last big shoutout to Teri who passed her exams this semester. Just one more left!!

It's Friday again!

Well, is it Friday again? OMG, it is!!! Where did this week go? I got my FINAL Stocking Pal gift this morning. Yes, the final. Yes, I do procrastinate. I won’t say what it is. But I did get it while buying my coffee this morning. (Ah, heck, Mar, everyone had coffee something on their list, that’s not a hint.) hehehehe! You will just have to wait until tomorrow whoever you are. I hope you are (pleasantly!) surprised.

I am going over about 4. (JULES!) I don’t know if I am sleeping over or not. Jules may have a packed house, and DH is going to the neighborhood party (by himself, shocker!) It will all depend on how late we’re up, and of course, the alcohol consumption. LOL! (Me, a drinker? Never!)

So, as you can see I’m getting into this holiday spirit. Although Eric just told me that the Indian place we were supposed to eat lunch at has closed down. This was my delayed birthday lunch, since last week was such a mess, and with meetings and stuff we couldn’t go. And I had picked the Indian buffet, since Deb is off today and she hates Indian food. Well that’s a bummer. So we’re going to Fred Flemings instead. Let me tell you about this cornbread they have. It’s not just any cornbread. It’s about the size of your head, with lots of real corn and melted cheddar on top. OMG, it’s the best!!! I’m craving it.

I was going a little crazy yesterday, lots of work stuff piling on top of me. But I’ve seem to have gotten a handle on it. I went to the store. Lost my list and forgot half the stuff I needed to bake for tomorrow. Oh well, I have to run to Target anyway, so I’ll get that over with. Get my nails done, pick up my prescriptions (which I forgot yesterday, DOH!). Start my baking and my gift wrapping. I have a feeling it will be a late night.

Speaking of late nights, Miles’s favorite place to sleep is on top of my head. I have no idea why. It can’t be comfortable. It’s not comfortable for me. But Wednesday night he did not go to bed. Whenever I’d get up to go to the bathroom he wasn’t there. When I woke up the next morning I figured out why. Little shit had knocked over my little purple tree in the dining room. He must’ve had a guilty conscience and decided he better keep away. The little bugger!

Well, I’m keeping with the Christmas spirit. I’ve got my Christmas Tree Target T-Shirt on, and I’m listening to Christmas songs here at my desk. Right now, it’s playing the Misfit Toy song from Rudolph. (When Christmas Day is Here, the Most Wonderful Day of the Year!) So here’s looking forward to a weekend full of Christmas-y goodness!

Here we are again

Well, you know it rains, it pours.

I had fully expected to sleep in late on Friday, when about 6am, DH proceeds to tell me that our computer has crashed. Completely! All it does is cycle through like it’s going to log on, then it stops and cycles through again. Just lovely. I really needed this 3 weeks before Christmas.

So we got a new computer Friday. It’s a nice HP with 500 gig of memory and wireless LAN and lots of other fancy stuff that I will never use. I got a cheap HP printer too, for $30, since the other one was way old, and I knew for sure it wouldn’t be Vista compatible. DH spent almost all weekend loading it up with our old stuff, and everything else. Seems we’ve got most of the kinks worked out. One thing that is not working is the scanner. Epson has a driver that you are supposed to download to get it to work, but something about the driver is for 16 bit Vista, and we are using 32 bit.

We’re also having some issues with Windows Mail or whatever it is called. Apparently you can’t use Outlook Express with Vista???? Anyways, for some strange reason, it wants to combine mine and DH’s address books into one. And I’m not sure how to get around this. Any computer experts want to weigh in on this one?

The house is all decorated, at least the inside. The outside is DH’s job, and we have 3 reindeer and a tree, that’s it for now. The rest will go up sometime, we’re in no hurry.

I’ve been cleaning out the scraproom too. I so far am on my 3rd bag of garbage, and have another VERY full garbage bag of stuff to give away, charity, etc. If you know anyone who would like this stuff, let me know. It’s a lot of older stuff, some of those old CM kits, and some templates. I had four (4!) paper trimmers. What the heck do you do with 4 paper trimmers? You know the drill, you buy what you think is the greatest, then someone comes out with something better, and then something better than that, and so on and so on. I know DH is ready for me to be done with this room, because everything that is in the room is sitting in the hallway. Oopsie! Well, someday.

And I found a ton of cards from swaps and stuff. Looks like I am going the Linda-way and give these cards all out for Christmas. I just don’t see it possible to even begin to work on cards at this point. Everyone else is getting a store-bought card. Yes, I know hard to imagine, but right now, my heart’s not in it. Soon, I promise.

Right now, I’m just taking one day at a time.

My Baby Girl is Gone...

a kind of blue...

Well, as far as birthdays go, this one is going to be the crappiest.

Melody is not doing very good. She’s been very lethargic, labored breathing, and she’s been hiding under the bed the last few days. I’m going to call Dr. Keene when they open and take her in, hopefully this afternoon.

It seems no matter how much you prepare yourself for this, you never quite are. I think her being so healthy the last few months had lulled me into a false sense of security.

I just tell myself that we really don’t know her true age, as she was a stray. And you just have to know that we gave her an extra 10 years in a warm safe house with plenty of love and food, which is a lot better off than she would have been if we hadn’t of found her.

Still, it doesn’t make it easier does it?

Then I think back to my friend Eric, and the day he had. Somebody shot his dog on Tuesday.

Nikki had got out an open door, and before his wife could jump in the car after her, she heard the shots three doors down. The neighbor claims that the dog was attacking him, but there were witnesses that said the dog was walking away and he shot her in the back. Other neighbors had even heard the man say if he saw the dog out, he would shoot her. The police say that since the man felt threatened, and since he had a concealed weapons permit; there was nothing they could charge him with. I also found out that this neighbor threatened to kill my friend's wife in an email while she was HOA president. She has a copy of the email she is taking to the police today and is filing a restraining order and starting civil proceedings.
They have two little ones (and yes, they were there when this went down.) All of us were at Epcot over the weekend. Nikki was a good dog, never would attack anyone and was very loving to the two children.

It just makes me sick thinking about this. Why are human beings like this allowed to roam the earth? I just don’t get it.

Life just sucks sometimes, ya know? And you got to get it all out.