Oh, my! This is my first post of the year.

Lots has happened, both good an not so good since I last posted. At some point I may try to catch up but ...we'll see.

The biggest change is Cassi (my 'oldest little sister') married (despite all of my family's warnings and objections) January 1st and moved out. There was much drama. Long, long story. Quite frankly (and this is really sad), I'm glad to be rid of the drama and lies. Our relationship was torn to tatters over the past year and each time I tried to pick up the piece and put them back together she just ripped them into smaller bits. 


It snowed Friday/Saturday :D I mean it SNOWED-4 or 5 inches :D It was glorious. We played out in it Saturday (Dad even took off early from work :D ) and Sunday. Yesterday it was staring to get icy and today it's pretty much a nasty slush. But it was nice when it was light and powdery. Have I mentioned my love of snow before? We didn't meet at the HUT on Friday night or have church on Sunday because of the weather (even today the roads are pretty nasty). But it's snow :D They're saying we may have some more Saturday...I hope we do!


I've found a wonderful swapping site and have become addicted...well, not really, but it's cool. I've done a couple of tea bag swaps, some book mark swaps, some recipe swaps and some postcard swaps. It's a good excuse to break out the creative stuff and it's also nice to get stuff in the mail! Today I got in two post cards and some book marks (gorgeous!).


I'm still working on my pile of mail...it all seems to come in at once! 


I'll post some pictures of some of the artsy/craftsy stuff I've done lately here soon. I've already posted them on facebook.


well, I need to run now, I may post more later....

Odd in many ways...or, maybe not odd, but for lack of a better word....



Work went...okay...Good news: I don't have to deal with the nasty cards....I guess there's not any really bad news....nothing else got resolved though because the lady who I'm taking over for told our boss something other than what she'd told me (just last night).....so pretty much an 'eh' day there....


Work took a lot longer than I thought it would....


It's been rainy and messy all day :/


Poor Abbi fell off her bike and skinned her elbow really good. She was apparently trying to ride 'with no hands' through a mud puddle...:rolls eyes:


No mail for me :/ I did got by the post office to get some stamps for Christmas cards. I doubt I'll do snowflakes this year.


Got filled in a bit about Mom and Cassi's visit to the hospital Friday.... sometimes I wish I could just 'Gibbs" Cassi to make her come to her senses!


Choir was....rather odd on several accounts....Just before we began a lady had to leave after getting a call saying her mom (and possibly a nephew) had been in a head-on collision....the speakers were acting up again.....another lady passed out and Mr Bernie and his wife took her to the hospital....we finished early (big deal there!)......


Abbi and I stopped for a bite to eat on the way to Walmart before choir and her kid's thing.

I'm about ready to throw the computer out the window...Mom says it's working fine and she doesn't have any problems with it. I can't see how that happens though. It's not like I open tons of stuff (and even if I did it used to work well), just one Explorer frame. I guess since she's not having trouble with it (how can she not notice how much slower it's running? I mean, not a few seconds to open pages, but several minutes). It's not the modem as it's a cable modem. Arrrgggggg......


Watched NCIS with TJ. Worked on letters.....and here I am.



Blair's funeral is tomorrow :(

Only 24 more days until Christmas :D I love this time of year (says she who hasn't done a lick of shopping yet!). Only 30 more days of 2009 :O Where has the year gone?


Lots of random bits, but nothing really signifigant....


There was a ring around the moon tonight...that means it's supposed to snow....I'd love it! Until I had to drive to work in it! But that's not so bad.


Tried putting music on my new mp3 player....our wonky computer's USB port is loose or something and won't acknowledge that it's hooked up :/


Meeting my boss at the yucky Edenton stores tomorrow. I hope something can be done! The only draw back is the former 'care taker of the cards' is coming to help me take down the Thanksgiving and some of the issues with the store are things she's done/let go/let happen :eek: Yeah. She's a sweet lady, she was just too busy to take care of them properly.


The only mail for me today was a bill. How nice.


NCIS wasn't on because Obama was :/


Drew names for the Avonlea forum Secret Santa today :D I'm excited. But I can't tell you who I drew just in case they happen to read this....


Candy canes still coming out of our ears......good times, good times.




I'm debating on whether or not to attempt making snowflakes to go with all of my Christmas cards again this year....At this late in the year I'd have to do about ten a day and then block them....then there are the ones going to other countries that have to be mailed sooner.....(cards for the choir alone would be 70 some snowflakes-that's counting couples in the choir together-then there are other church members (I don't do all of them anyway...that would be like what, 350 families?), and pen pals)......yeah...I'm not thinking it will happen this year....or if it does I'll just do a few for my lovely penpals... I don't know yet.


Yes, I did it :D and no, I didn't end up winning any prizes for it :/ but hey... this arrangement of the photo would look much better if I had more to write....


Well, I think that's about it....

I did it :D Yay :D :does a happy little jig: I'm not a little happy. Can you tell ?


A pretty relaxed day. I worked on work stuff and some letters and played around on Facebook.


I'm trying to figure out work this week, I need to have my boss meet me at my yucky Edenton stores to try to get them straight. But I need to find out when services for Blair will be held. The computers isn't cooperating.


I got an early birthday present in the mail today :D Nattie sent me some Degas Dancers bookmarks. I love his Dancer paintings. I also got a letter from Angela. I've got a letter for Nat almost ready. I need to start thinking about Christmas cards. The 'post office' at church is already set up :D I love Christmas time.


There are only 31 more days left in this year :eek: and only 25 more days until Christmas. Where exactly has the year gone?!?!?!


Mom asked me what I want for my birthday and I have no idea right off the top of my head. I need to think on it some I guess....


I can't think of much else to type right now. I guess that means that I've successfully completed the NaBloPoMo Challenge :D

I am so tired of this computer running slower than molasses going uphill in January! Argg....


It's been a long day. I hit my snooze button more times than I should have and only had 10 minutes to get ready for church (how fortuitous that I already picked out my outfit!). Sunday school was good. Pretty fun as always. Service went well. Tony Meads preached. Great sermon, though you could tell he was nervous (I would be too!).


Kayla said I came in 2nd or 3rd in Balderdash the other night (pretty good considering I didn't end up playing that long and they played for me!).


After church I took Miss Margaret to run her errands. A guy tried to make a pass at me in the Dollar Tree. I tried not to be too rude as I started putting more space betwixt myself and he. Yeah. That was interesting.


By the time we got back we only had about two hours before we had to leave for church tonight (Abbi's choir practice was moved up to 5 since Singspiration started at 6, this meant we had to leave at 4). So I got a short nap in.


Read a bit while waiting to practice the song we (the choir) did tonight, though not much. The situation with the risers was interesting. I'm not a bit fan of them, though at least I wasn't on the back row this time! I couldn't here myself due to the voice blaring in my ear from the lady who is normally on the end. Yeah. I didn't have an earplug with me and I had no foreknowledge so I couldn't do anything about it anyway. Got bonked on the head a couple of times (there's really no room for books what we use the risers anyway). But we did fairly well. The Gospel choir that came was good. I'd love to hear them do Yolanda Adams' Victory. Their rhythm was impressive and they could sway clap AND sing (without music no less)....I wish we could get our choir to sway for certain songs! Got some more candy canes to do before Wednesday. Good times.


Checked the mail from yesterday when we got back, but there wasn't any :/


Watched the season finally of Storm Chasers with TJ. Those guys are insane.



No word on the plans for Blair's funeral :/

I'll prolly post more later..


Still in shock over Blair's sudden death. Hard to believe she's gone.


My day really started at midnight. I got back to the house I was 'sitting' and watched Monk (after checking in with The Lynam's-letting them know I made the five minute drive safely). What a cliff hanger. I can't believe there's only one more episode left! I stayed up and watched White Collar as well. I repacked my stuff while I watched though...got a bit of sleep, got up and tidied the house a bit and loaded my stuff in my car


Left for THanksgiving Dinner at Uncle Jim and Aunt Tamera's. Got gas on the way (Shell premium for 2.82 :D). The rest of my peoples didn't get there until like 2:30 (we didn't end up eating until almost 3). Sara, Cas, TJ, Scott and I watched Four Christmases while we ate. It was cold in the garage (were we ate/watched the movie). The movie was...okay...not great, though it had real potential.


I stopped back by the check in on the dogs just in case Miss Gina and Mr Scott weren't back yet, but they were.


as I said earlier, I'll likely post more later, but I'm so tired it isn't funny.

Not much going on today. Did some reading, and worked on a portrait.

Young adults meeting thingy tonight at church - looking forward to this!

Going to Uncle Jim's and Aunt Tamera's tomorrow for our family Thanksgiving get together.

My family is having two Thanksgiving meals. One today and one Saturday. Today we're cooking a traditional meal and taking it over to our neighbor, Mr Cliff's, house and celebrating with him. He has no family around here, so we always try to do something for him. Saturday, the whole clan (aunts, uncles, cousins etc) will be gathering at Uncle Jim and Aunt Tamera's. Those are pretty traditional meals usually.


Our traditional Thanksgiving menu looks like:
Turkey
mashed potatoes
stuffing (I learned last year it's actually dressing as we never do it in the bird, but we still call it stuffing!)
gravy
sweet potatoes (at grandma's they have marshmallows on top, at home it's a brown sugar/cinnamon mixture)
corn and corn pudding
collards (always, always have those)
butter beans
Grandma's home made macaroni (when we go to her house-which is most of the time)
pumpkin pie



~~~~~~~

It's nice and warm today.


Getting ready to go over to Mr Cliff's for dinner. We went out to see Della for a bit.


I'm about half way through The Lady of Milk Weed Manor. Wonderful book. A tear-jerker for sure, but a wonderful book. I really don't know if I'll make it to 52 books this year...


I really don't have to go anywhere tomorrow until tomorrow evening. We're having young adults.


Saturday we're going to Aunt Tamera's for the big family get together.


I need to spend tomorrow working on the portrait for the lady from church.


I plan to catch up some after this week. There's some stuff I'll fill in.


Happy Thanksgiving!

Work went well today. Came back and chilled.

No mail today.

Staying an extra day.

Work went pretty well today. I really love my new store. I've got to work again tomorrow, finish off the stores in Edenton.

The dogs and Zeus were up a lot last night.

The only mail I got today was a netflix movie.

Kind of rainy off and on most of today. Yucky!