Forgot to share...

...my sister's big news. She's getting married! If you only KNEW my sister, you would understand why that's a big deal. A very big deal.

She's been dating this guy for 9 years. He was married before (has two sons in their 20s) and his ex is a LOON and he always swore he would never get married again. As long as it's been, we just assumed he meant what he said and would always be her "friend" Russell (I refuse to call a 40-something year old man a boyfriend LOL). So Sunday I'm standing in mom's kitchen frosting Dana's cake, and my sister said from behind me "Oh, Susan..." like she was going to tell me to make sure I didn't forget about the rolls in the oven or something. I said "Yeah?" and she said "Russell and I are getting married." It took about three seconds for it to sink it what she had just said, then I dropped the spatula and jumped back about two feet and yelled "SHUT UP!" She about died laughing.

(Oh, and Beth - that 'young people these days' was completely subconcious. I had to go back to my post to see what you were talking about. HA. I think that makes it even more sad.)

Well, Christmas is over

Though we still have one more family to get together with - our friends John and Stacie and their 4 yo daughter. Not sure when we'll see them. We had talked about getting together tomorrow but nothing more has been said about it, so I don't know. I still have to pick up a gift for the daughter.

We had a pretty good time here. We went to SIL's house for Christmas with Will's family on Christmas Eve, hung out there for a few hours then went to the Christmas service at church and came home to open our gifts to each other. Then we got up Christmas morning to see what the kids got from Santa (Santa only brings one gift for each kid, the rest is from us). We didn't have anywhere we had to be on Christmas day, that was so nice. The kids were able to just hang around and play all day.

Sunday we went to church (and I desperately wished I didn't have to teach, as my sinuses have been haywire for a few days, but alas) and then headed to my folks' house for Christmas with my family. Got to meet my nephew's new girlfriend, and ooh and ahh over his good grades last semester (his first year at college was NOT so good, LOL, so we were proud). His girlfriend's a pretty little thing, really quiet. Though I wish somebody would tell today's young folks that dyed black hair just does not look good. Oh and I took Dana's birthday cake with us so everybody could see it and sing happy birthday to her. That made her day. :)

Let's see if I can remember what all the kids got -

Dana:

New clothes
DVD player (we have to get a converter box for it though, her TV's too old to hook up to it)
Bunch of DVDs
Some girlie looking notepads, pencils, folders, etc
Coloring books
Crayons, markers, coloring pencils
Fruit, nuts, candy, cookies
Cabbage Patch doll
Littlest Pet Shop game and puzzle set
Doll stroller

Nathan:

New clothes
DVD player
Bunch of DVDs (I think he's watched Speed Racer a dozen times this weekend alone LOL)
Coloring books
Crayons, markers, coloring pencils
Fruit, nuts, candy, cookies
Heroscape game set (the Marvel set with Hulk/Abomination, Spiderman/Venom, etc)
Hot wheels
A dragon and a couple of knights
Couple of small K'nex sets
Remote controlled cars
Transformers

Jacob:

New clothes
DVDs
Coloring books
Crayons, markers, coloring pencils
Fruit, nuts, candy, cookies
HUMONGOUS Mega Blocks castle set - I couldn't believe how huge that thing was when it came in. Regularly $80, I got it for $23.
A dragon and a couple of knights
Hot wheels
Cars and trucks set
Transformers

There was some other stuff they opened at various places that was opened in such a flurry I don't even remember what all it was.

Will gave me the second season of the XFiles on DVD. Looooove it! I've watched it all already, except for the final episode which is a cliffhanger (I don't have the 3rd season to move into yet, so I don't want to torture myself LOL). My mom gave us a new microwave (remember that ours caught on fire?) and a new set of sheets. SIL knit me a pretty scarf/wrap. MIL gave us a framed picture of her and FIL (a rarity, FIL hated to have his picture taken). Will found a deer feeder on clearance and bought it, so that was my gift to him. Heh. His sister also gave him a black.....oh shoot, what's that hat called like Jamie on Mythbusters wears? One of those (Will shaves his head in the summer and wears a goatee, so it's a running joke that he's trying to look like Jamie) but it was too small so Dana wears it LOL. She looks cute.

Will and Dana are out delivering his annual pumpkin bread gifts to all his friends today. The boys are sitting here watching Scooby Doo and I'm coughing my head off and slathering up with Vicks rub. Good times.

Tomorrow is Will's birthday, I need to make him his cheesecake but I don't even know if we have room in the fridge for it. Might have to do that tomorrow morning instead. Can't believe we're at the end of another year! I mean, seriously. Time flies SO fast these days.

FIVE AND A HALF HOURS

That's how long it took me to finish wrapping gifts today. Cripes! And our kids don't even get that much stuff.

I think they're going to like everything. I'll wait until after Christmas to list everything, in case I have wandering eyes behind me sometime when I'm on here.

Mel, I got your card, thanks! Ya'll make a good looking couple. :)

Sigh

Surgery has been cancelled. I do have a hernia - two of them, in fact - and the bowel is involved, which is not good, but he won't do the surgery because he doesn't think he can repair it and it stay fixed. If I, and I quote, "Lose 50 lbs or so" I can go back and he'll take another look at it.

Yeah, I want to kill myself to lose a bunch of weight to have a surgery, and then spend the rest of my life terrified that if I gain it back (which I always do) then I'll be in even worse trouble. NOT. So, screw off dude. Guess I'll just do what I always do - deal with the pain and live my life as best I can.

In better news, Will's interview went really well. The guy told him they'll probably get back with him within the next couple of days. He says the job sounds really interesting, which is always a plus. He hates working somewhere where he's bored.

He's going to take the kids to his mom's tomorrow while I wrap presents. I haven't wrapped ANYthing yet, so it's a good two - three hour project. Not to mention, I have to remember where I hid everything and dig it out first. Heh.

That's it for today. Oh, no it's not. I tried my tiechel on, finally managed to get it on with the neat little bun thing at the back (with my hair braided) and wore it for a while. It's pretty comfortable, for which I'm thankful because I get a headache just wearing a headband. I'll start wearing it to church after the new year. (Since I'm teaching this month, I don't want to wear it in class. Some people might think that's a little too out there LOL.)

Saturday's stuff

Funny story about the stoopid dog while I'm thinking about it. Monday we got iced in, right? I had already made an amazon order Sunday night, planning to deposit the check we got from Will's grandma Monday morning, so when I realized I wasn't going to be making it to town I went to put the check in the mail to the bank. Since I have to drive down to the bottom of the driveway to get to the mailbox, I was taking Jacob with me. I carefully went down the steps of the porch and told Jake to wait until I had gotten to the bottom, then to hang onto the rail with one hand and my arm with the other to walk down. Well, I turned around to help him after I got to the bottom, and Oreo ran up and sat on his feet and bared her teeth at me. She would NOT let that child go down the steps. I would step away a few steps and call her to me, and by the time I got back to the porch she would be up there sitting on his feet again. I finally had to walk around to the other side of the porch and lift him down.

I think I've finally got all my Christmas cards in the mail. I had to to redo the last batch of them, the picture printed out too big and I didn't realize it until after I had started to glue them down and they were hanging off the edge. And I did the plate for my sister last night, got up this morning and realized the colors had bled so half of the castle (I made her a decorative plate with Edinburgh Castle on it) is bright green. UGH. And the picture I used is on the old computer, so now I have to wait until Will can hook it back up and transfer pictures, else I have to pay to download the picture again. DOUBLE UGH. And, I'm out of color ink so I have to wait until I can get some more to print it anyway. TRIPLE UGH.

In the good news, Will pulled two A's and three B's this semester. He is FLOORED. If his grades next semester are good enough, he can graduate with a 3.0 or higher. He never thought that would happen (he had less than a 2.0 going into this school).

In the not-so-good news, major layoffs at his company are a very real concern right now. Their sister company down the road from his location just laid off everybody that had been there less than 8 years, had a lot of "occurences" (like getting in late, taking days off without vacation time, etc) , and some other stuff that I don't remember now - and they said his location is next. He says he'll just go on unemployment until after this next semester if he gets laid off, but I know he would never be able to bring in as much on unemployment, and we're barely scraping by right now. Not good. But, he still has that interview coming up Monday so it may not affect him anyway.

I think the post office has lost one of my packages. I got a notice that they had two packages for me to pick up, but when Will went in to get them they could only find one. I've got to chase all the kids out of the room and see what all I've ordered that we've gotten in already and what's still missing I guess.

We watched 'Facing the Giants' the other night. Will had already seen it but I hadn't. I liked the storyline, though the acting left a lot to be desired. My favorite parts were the state championship game, where the player went down the line yelling "STONE WALL! STONE WALL!" (it tied into Nehemiah rebuilding the temple walls); and at the end where the coach was on his knees, covering his head and crying "God, I'm overwhelmed!" I've been at that place before, so that part was very real to me.

'End of the Spear' was also good (I could do without the dream I had afterward though, ugh). I especially liked the scenes of the real people that played over the credits. Myncaye's perception of drive-thru restaurants, and grocery stores, was absolutely hysterical. Oh and his wife complaining that when he came back, he was too fat to even go hunt anymore, he just laid down by a tree and groaned? BWAH.

The kids are out for Christmas break, yay! I made Nathan bring his glasses home (he only has to wear them in class) so I can take a picture of him in them over break. He looks so cute in them. They went to the dentist yesterday, no cavities and Dana got her final silver tooth pulled since it's been loose for months but won't come out. She's glad to have an all white smile again.

Will's taking tomorrow night off work since he has that interview Monday morning (he couldn't take just a half day) so maybe he'll go to church with us tomorrow morning. I'll be teaching, but it'd still be nice to have him there.

Gotta go fix lunch now I guess. Quesadillas and beef soup. Mmmm.

A different kind of Christmas story

Fascinating.

He got a ***B*** in calculus!!!!!

He made a 77 on his final, so not only did he have that grade, he got to replace his lowest test grade with a 77 as well. He ended up with a B! I'm so proud!!!

I think we are finished shopping for Christmas, except for a gift for our friends' daughter. We don't get together with them until the new year, so I've got a little time still. I'm glad to be done!