I’d like to say this was an active and productive day at our house – but it just isn’t so. We are the epitome of a lazy household. Randy is snoring in his chair. Nick’s upstairs probably experiencing some intergalactic battle via his game system. And me? I was thinking about doing … well, pretty much not thinking about doing anything right now.
Hard to believe that Christmas is behind us when I never really felt like Christmas was ahead of us. I don’t think I ever got into the Christmas spirit at least not until the last couple of days. I think because I had not had time to prepare – or even think about preparing – it just seemed HARD this year.
Thankfully I was able to take off the day before Christmas Eve and we always have Christmas Eve off already – so I got things pulled together pretty well.
It was so very enjoyable. I MEAN this!!! Just to be at home and spend time in my house doing things that needed done. Oh sure there are dozens of things that should be done yet, but won’t there always? My laundry room looks better than it has in a year. I was able to wipe things off and straighten things up. I think I could get into being a ‘stay at home person’. Or at least – a ‘not gone all the time person’. *smile*
Christmas Eve we invited family in for the evening. This is the 2nd year we’ve done this. I made a couple of crock pots of soup, some rolls and Rhiannon got a cake for Ryan’s birthday. I had a few cookies and other snacks. We did a little gift exchange – by reading a much too long ‘right/left/cross’ exchange game. Bellie and Mark win for providing the silliest gift. And Gail wins for bringing the most useful (Dominos).
After we ate – Rhiannon, Ryan, Gail and John delivered gifts to someone here in town that Vonda’s Vine subscribers had donated $$ to buy some things for. I appreciated that they were willing to do the delivery. I didn’t want the recipient to know I was in any way involved.
And then … Gail and Kate taught us how to play dominos. I love to play games - and was thankful to have people to play with. For me anyway, it was a fun FUN evening.
Joy didn’t come – her kids were gone. She was tired from shoveling snow and also her dog had given birth to a puppy and wasn’t taking care of it like she should have. Joy did her best to feed the pup and help it, but Nugget died on Christmas. I’m sure Nugget was treated extra nicely, as Joy is very tender like that. We were sorry she wasn’t here, but understood.
Earlier in the day (Christmas Eve) Randy and Nick had spent 2 hours at the church school helping to clean up water. Pipes had frozen and burst in a couple of spots. By the time it was discovered – nearly every square inch of the school had standing water.
Randy has checked it each day since and emptied the dehumidifiers. I went with him today – and while I don’t think the damage is as bad as I had anticipated, I know when the weather warms the smell in there is going to be strong and musty. The ideal thing would be for the doors and windows to be left open to air out and dry – but of course it IS the middle of winter and that isn’t terribly practical.
The puppies are growing by leaps and bounds. Randy has weighed them each day to monitor progress – yesterday saw the largest single gain since they’ve been born- one pup had a THREE OUNCE gain. Now, except for Twinkle, they are all two pounders. Twinkle has been the ‘runt’ since birth, but is keeping a respectable gain each day too. Eyes are beginning to open and they are beginning to amble around on all fours. Sort of. They take a lot of tumbles which reveals a lot of fat little puppy bellies when they go belly up.
Whenever Rooney is in their area – they are now able to kind of REACH UP to grab hold of the ‘spigots’. They are pretty aggressive little eaters and often sound more like a Quartet of little piggies with their lip smacking and squeals of delight.
Ryan enjoyed spending a lot of time with Rory (the little girl pup they are taking to live at their house). He hadn’t seen the pups since the day they were born. The little black one (Twinkle) is going to live in Minnesota – the deposit came for her and her new family is now anxiously awaiting the time when she is big enough to go. Randy is going to have a hard time. Despite me telling him he can NOT keep Taz – he thinks he is going to keep Taz.
We need many things. One of those is NOT another Shiba-Inu in our house. So if he doesn’t do it soon – I will have to pursue turning Taz into $550. Anyone looking for an adorable little boy Shiba? Let us know! *wink* (Picture on top is MN bound Twinkle – Picture on bottom is ‘ready for a good home’ Taz.)
There were plenty of nice gifts to go around yesterday. I tell you, again this year my family spoiled me rotten. For one thing I am TECHNO-MOMMA!!! Nick was all anxious for me to open his gift – “open it next mom”. I opened it and had no idea what I had opened. Turns out it was a memory stick for my phone. Okay ...??? I need a memory stick for my phone because ????Then I opened another present. I thought it looked like CD's of the NIV Bible. That's nice - I have the NKJV on CD's already but ... And then I found out that what I had opened was the MP3 version of the Bible and it can go on my phone. (That’s why I needed a bigger memory stick.) And I can play MP3's on my phone. Who knew?!! Now I do and I'm happy. I'll use that feature with the NIV.
AND I got a nice picture frame that will hold all my JAIMEE pictures and other pictures if any of them come turn out as fun and important as the Jaimee pictures! *smile* AND I am blue tooth enabled - or wait I probably was (seeing how my phone is a mysterious instrument of communication and entertainment) I have a blue tooth headset for my phone. I like it. It is small and I can wear it under my hair.
Randy called me this morning when I was in the Menard's parking lot. I answered by saying "HI” and immediately continued talking … “as soon as I can find my car (yes, it was lost) I'm going home." Some poor man nearby smiled and said "Hi!" his smile conveyed the rest of his thoughts i.e. Why do I need to know your car is lost and you’re going home when you find it??? -- oops! I forget that people think you're talking to them if they can't see a phone. *tee hee*
Rhiannon’s gifts had sort of a BABY theme to them. To Ryan’s chagrin – Nick got Rhiannon a set of three ISU onesies. There is a constant rivalry between Iowa State and the University of Iowa here!! Other baby items found their way down our non-existent chimney. How fun! Ryan got a curtain rod which he quickly christened a “LIGHT SABER”, lest he be too terribly disappointed in the gift.
If you didn’t get a Christmas card from us this year don’t feel slighted! *LOL* Again, far too many things on my ‘to-do’ list and that didn’t make it to the top! I thought of you all. I saw a young man that I had to do a double take on – it looked just like Paul B when he was maybe 15/16 years old. Once the Twilight Zone music stopped playing in my head – I realized that it was 2008 and it was NOT Paulie-Dollie.
Congrats to Joan and Kirk on the family expansion. I’m sure Scarlet will be a great big sister. Best wishes on the rest of your pregnancy and also that Kirk’s will soon find employment again.
I guess I will say good bye – probably won’t talk to you again until after 2008 becomes 2009. I will again be adding “lose weight’ to my New Year’s Resolution list. Too many jelly-bellies and other good stuff … UGH!
Will anxiously look forward to hearing from YOU – who is YOU? Well, are YOU reading this? Then YOU owe me a note! *wink*
Love to all - V
Hard to believe that Christmas is behind us when I never really felt like Christmas was ahead of us. I don’t think I ever got into the Christmas spirit at least not until the last couple of days. I think because I had not had time to prepare – or even think about preparing – it just seemed HARD this year.
Thankfully I was able to take off the day before Christmas Eve and we always have Christmas Eve off already – so I got things pulled together pretty well.
It was so very enjoyable. I MEAN this!!! Just to be at home and spend time in my house doing things that needed done. Oh sure there are dozens of things that should be done yet, but won’t there always? My laundry room looks better than it has in a year. I was able to wipe things off and straighten things up. I think I could get into being a ‘stay at home person’. Or at least – a ‘not gone all the time person’. *smile*
Christmas Eve we invited family in for the evening. This is the 2nd year we’ve done this. I made a couple of crock pots of soup, some rolls and Rhiannon got a cake for Ryan’s birthday. I had a few cookies and other snacks. We did a little gift exchange – by reading a much too long ‘right/left/cross’ exchange game. Bellie and Mark win for providing the silliest gift. And Gail wins for bringing the most useful (Dominos).
After we ate – Rhiannon, Ryan, Gail and John delivered gifts to someone here in town that Vonda’s Vine subscribers had donated $$ to buy some things for. I appreciated that they were willing to do the delivery. I didn’t want the recipient to know I was in any way involved.
And then … Gail and Kate taught us how to play dominos. I love to play games - and was thankful to have people to play with. For me anyway, it was a fun FUN evening.
Joy didn’t come – her kids were gone. She was tired from shoveling snow and also her dog had given birth to a puppy and wasn’t taking care of it like she should have. Joy did her best to feed the pup and help it, but Nugget died on Christmas. I’m sure Nugget was treated extra nicely, as Joy is very tender like that. We were sorry she wasn’t here, but understood.
Earlier in the day (Christmas Eve) Randy and Nick had spent 2 hours at the church school helping to clean up water. Pipes had frozen and burst in a couple of spots. By the time it was discovered – nearly every square inch of the school had standing water.
Randy has checked it each day since and emptied the dehumidifiers. I went with him today – and while I don’t think the damage is as bad as I had anticipated, I know when the weather warms the smell in there is going to be strong and musty. The ideal thing would be for the doors and windows to be left open to air out and dry – but of course it IS the middle of winter and that isn’t terribly practical.
The puppies are growing by leaps and bounds. Randy has weighed them each day to monitor progress – yesterday saw the largest single gain since they’ve been born- one pup had a THREE OUNCE gain. Now, except for Twinkle, they are all two pounders. Twinkle has been the ‘runt’ since birth, but is keeping a respectable gain each day too. Eyes are beginning to open and they are beginning to amble around on all fours. Sort of. They take a lot of tumbles which reveals a lot of fat little puppy bellies when they go belly up.
Whenever Rooney is in their area – they are now able to kind of REACH UP to grab hold of the ‘spigots’. They are pretty aggressive little eaters and often sound more like a Quartet of little piggies with their lip smacking and squeals of delight.
Ryan enjoyed spending a lot of time with Rory (the little girl pup they are taking to live at their house). He hadn’t seen the pups since the day they were born. The little black one (Twinkle) is going to live in Minnesota – the deposit came for her and her new family is now anxiously awaiting the time when she is big enough to go. Randy is going to have a hard time. Despite me telling him he can NOT keep Taz – he thinks he is going to keep Taz.
We need many things. One of those is NOT another Shiba-Inu in our house. So if he doesn’t do it soon – I will have to pursue turning Taz into $550. Anyone looking for an adorable little boy Shiba? Let us know! *wink* (Picture on top is MN bound Twinkle – Picture on bottom is ‘ready for a good home’ Taz.)
There were plenty of nice gifts to go around yesterday. I tell you, again this year my family spoiled me rotten. For one thing I am TECHNO-MOMMA!!! Nick was all anxious for me to open his gift – “open it next mom”. I opened it and had no idea what I had opened. Turns out it was a memory stick for my phone. Okay ...??? I need a memory stick for my phone because ????Then I opened another present. I thought it looked like CD's of the NIV Bible. That's nice - I have the NKJV on CD's already but ... And then I found out that what I had opened was the MP3 version of the Bible and it can go on my phone. (That’s why I needed a bigger memory stick.) And I can play MP3's on my phone. Who knew?!! Now I do and I'm happy. I'll use that feature with the NIV.
AND I got a nice picture frame that will hold all my JAIMEE pictures and other pictures if any of them come turn out as fun and important as the Jaimee pictures! *smile* AND I am blue tooth enabled - or wait I probably was (seeing how my phone is a mysterious instrument of communication and entertainment) I have a blue tooth headset for my phone. I like it. It is small and I can wear it under my hair.
Randy called me this morning when I was in the Menard's parking lot. I answered by saying "HI” and immediately continued talking … “as soon as I can find my car (yes, it was lost) I'm going home." Some poor man nearby smiled and said "Hi!" his smile conveyed the rest of his thoughts i.e. Why do I need to know your car is lost and you’re going home when you find it??? -- oops! I forget that people think you're talking to them if they can't see a phone. *tee hee*
Rhiannon’s gifts had sort of a BABY theme to them. To Ryan’s chagrin – Nick got Rhiannon a set of three ISU onesies. There is a constant rivalry between Iowa State and the University of Iowa here!! Other baby items found their way down our non-existent chimney. How fun! Ryan got a curtain rod which he quickly christened a “LIGHT SABER”, lest he be too terribly disappointed in the gift.
If you didn’t get a Christmas card from us this year don’t feel slighted! *LOL* Again, far too many things on my ‘to-do’ list and that didn’t make it to the top! I thought of you all. I saw a young man that I had to do a double take on – it looked just like Paul B when he was maybe 15/16 years old. Once the Twilight Zone music stopped playing in my head – I realized that it was 2008 and it was NOT Paulie-Dollie.
Congrats to Joan and Kirk on the family expansion. I’m sure Scarlet will be a great big sister. Best wishes on the rest of your pregnancy and also that Kirk’s will soon find employment again.
I guess I will say good bye – probably won’t talk to you again until after 2008 becomes 2009. I will again be adding “lose weight’ to my New Year’s Resolution list. Too many jelly-bellies and other good stuff … UGH!
Will anxiously look forward to hearing from YOU – who is YOU? Well, are YOU reading this? Then YOU owe me a note! *wink*
Love to all - V
