Flashback Friday (another long one, my apologies!)

When you are asked who you would most like to see when you pass through the veil, who do you say you would first like to see? My answer, is my Grandma Emily. Grandma had such an influence in my life. We lived next door to her for my younger years and then in the next town for the rest of my growing up years. I'd say she was my 2nd mother.

Do you ever wonder what you will look like as a spirit or what you will look like when you are resurrected? Will you be young? Middle aged? or will you look like you did when you passed away? This is a picture of my grandma at the age she was married, it was either taken on her wedding day, or shortly before or after. I love this picture . . . will she look like this?

Or will she look like this? Here she is probably a little younger than I am now. She is right in the middle of raising her kids (I'm guessing she's 39) . . . her oldest child is married and she hasn't given birth to her youngest yet. There is a 21 year span from her 1st child to the last child. 5 children in all, 4 boys and 1 girl. At this time in her life, her husband, Alva had either just finished or was on a mission to Topeka, Kansas for the church. Can you even imagine? She not only took care of the kids, but the farm also, irrigating, milking cows, taking care of the livestock, her yard and whatever else needed being done. She was a strong woman. (Can you believe I found this picture on a google search?)
And this is how I remember her. Will I recognize her in her younger form? I can imagine sharing a joke with her and having a good laugh! I have so many memories of Grandma. When people would drop in she would bake her famous made-from-scratch yellow cake that was so good we couldn't even wait for frosting to be put on it. It was best eaten warm right out of the oven. If a surprise visitor would appear she or grandpa would say "If we would have known you were coming, we would have baked a cake."

We spent most Sunday afternoons at their house as did the other cousins who lived in the area. There were always cookies in the cookie jar, pink mints in the candy dish, ice cream in the freezer, vanilla wafers and a possibility of root beer floats. I got her knack of swearing without really swearing with a plethora of "slang" swearwords! She also had a brain that was full of nonsense words that I also have the knack for using. My children, piano and Sunday school students are all the recipients of my many nonsense words. She was a champion (in my book) crossword puzzle worker. She wore out a dictionary with her love for words. She felt it kept her mind sharp and in my opinion it did.

I loved to visit her and we would have very long discussions. Loved it!

Grandma was a hard worker. In addition to the mission my grandfather served, many winters, in order to supplement their income, he would go to work in the mines leaving her to do all the chores associated with farm life. Much later, when grandpa was around I have a memory of riding in the hay truck with her and being so small that all I could see was the dashboard!

From her history: One summer she broke her arm and while she was recuperating she decided to paint the exterior of her house. I remember the unusual colors she chose. She was not afraid of color!!!

Grandma would have loved blogging. She would have kept up with the best of us. She had a way with words and wrote poetry and for a time kept up a column in the local newspaper. She learned how to use a computer, when computers were a relatively new thing to have in your home. She wrote letters on the computer and wouldn't tear off the sides, (remember that paper for the old dot matrix printers?) so that people would know that she was writing the letter using a computer!

Til we meet again Grandma! I love you!

Merit Badge Woes

I've had blogger's block the past few days, and now my mind runneth over with stuff to blog. This blogging business can be stressful! It's either feast or famine.

Yesterday, because of the snow mutual was cancelled. I decided that I would sit down and help McKay with the 3 merit badges he is working on with his troop. Citizenship in the community, nation, and world. While I was giving piano lessons I gave him instructions to go and fill in the work sheets that he had been given by his leader. He already had most of the "community" one filled out, so he was working on the "nation" and "world" worksheets. After dinner, we made time to go over the worksheets together and I was not happy with the amount of work he had done on them. The only part that he had filled in on the "nation" worksheet was the stuff that fell under the subject of black history. Now, to make things clear, I have nothing against the fact that he knows a lot about black history. What I do have a problem with is that he knows more about black history than he knows about the Constitution of the United States, the Bill of Rights, and the Declaration of Independence.

We also went over the process that it takes to become a citizen of the United States if you weren't born here. Holy Smokes! I knew it was hard to become a citizen, but these people need to know more about our history than a naturally born citizen ever will know or will care to know. I'm am totally impressed with anyone who has gone through that process. My grandmother Emily is one of those. She was born a Canadian and became a citizen of the U.S. I remember her being proud of that fact . . . . she became a "postmistress" something kind of like a postmaster . . . and she ran for a political office (county commissioner). . . . if my memory serves me well. I find this all interesting, but McKay was bored out of his gourd!

Maybe my boys would be more interested in scouting if they had some of these merit badges:

Gaming Merit badge

Instant Messaging Merit Badge

Texting Merit Badge


This one would have to go to me . . . . Tetris Merit Badge

If the truth be known . . . . most of the merit badges should go to me.

Snow Day!

Today we are snowed in . . . .yesterday we got a couple inches of snow followed by freezing rain. So we have another day to stay home and veg. It seems like this school year has had very few 5 day weeks. No wonder we go to school through to mid June. In Utah, we never went to a day of school in June, it just doesn't seem right to do so!

Sugar and Spice and everything ________?

Today in a couple of ways, I reached my threshold, my tipping point . . . . I did 50 squats this morning and OH MY GOSH! I think it affected the rest of my day! First off, my legs were so shaky I could hardly ascend or descend my stairs. And things were kind-of hilter kilter for the rest of the day. I had invited a sweet friend and her beautiful daughter over for lunch and conversation. Beautiful daughter had a friend with her and with the friend came a personality change. Beautiful well behaved little daughter and friend became hmmmmmm, what would the words be? I hate to even try for the words. Let's just say, I reached my little girl threshold today (which I'm blaming on the squats and my weakened condition!)

Silver lining - I loved the lunch and conversation and Scrabble- - - - - - I am very thankful God blessed me with 3 boys and a tomboy girl - - - - - I am exceedingly thankful I am out of the little kid stage in my life (though will look forward to grandkids)- - - - - - - and lesson learned, don't do squats and have company on the same day!

I am going to be feeling those squats tomorrow and will have a renewed sense of foreboding before conquering the stairs!

P.S. Surprise, surprise, Lincoln actually got after me for not posting on my blog for the last few days! He went from a nonreader to an interested one in the last few weeks.

P.S.S. To my sweet friend, I had to dig deep for this one! You know how it is . . . . . . you'll forgive me won't you?

Pathetic

Last night while I was playing those stupid word games on Facebook. My son McKay came up to me and said. . . . "Why do you spend so much time playing those games?" WHAT!!!??? I had to come back at him and say "Why do YOU spend so much time playing the games you play?" He understood right away, but shook his head in wonderment that unscrambling letters could hold my attention. I am really beginning to hate days off. My kids won't do anything with me . . . mom just isn't cool anymore . . . . . though I DO have a plan for today. . . if I can get them out of bed . . . . we'll see.

On the other hand . . . I just started skimming through, (can't read it yet, because I've got to finish another book) the book club book this month "Freakonomics." It's a book that looks at situations and finds wacky conclusions to those situations. For example: It states that the reason crime rate has fallen in recent decades is because we have legalized abortion. It states that because "poor, unmarried, and teenage mothers" aren't having children and aren't raising those children that the people who were going to commit crime never came to be. I guess that has some merit. Abortion is a whole issue I don't want to get into right now . . . THIS IS JUST AN EXAMPLE. Well, I have another reason for the crime statistics falling. I would like to e-mail this author and let him in on my summation . . . . . I think it is because of the advent of these super addictive video game systems. All those would be criminals (who HAVE been born) are sitting at home mesmerized by their game systems! They aren't even on the streets. He could come to my house to see just how mesmerized these kids are.

Pathetic!!

Flashback Friday

I'm adding to mom's Flashback Friday last week. Sorry, it's another LONG post!!! This was such a fun reunion for all of us. We spent an afternoon at the "Res." This is a man-made reservoir with the purpose of providing water for the farmers in the area. It also provided us with a lot of fun in the summer time and ice skating in the winter time. The year is 2001. Below is Ceci and Halley.

Below we are engaging in one of our family's favorite pastimes. Whenever we get together we always play games. The game of the day was Canasta. Here is a rare picture with Trudy and Steve in it . . . were they hiding from the camera? I'm in a lot of the pictures, so it makes me wonder if Trudy was taking the pictures. See McKay toting that huge water gun?

Here is Sid standing next to George's little 2 seater boat. It could pull a water skier and give you a good time on a tube!

Bad picture, but I still like it. This is McKay and Sydney in the foreground and Justin in the background, could be Chancy by Justin . . . .
Here is ChanHei, she offered to pull all the grey from my head that day . . . it's funny what you remember. I didn't think I had much, and I regretted saying yes to her because my head felt like a pin cushion and she got much more than I expected . . . so a I had hurt head and a wounded ego:)

Here is Lora helping Emma to get ready for the water. Justin in the background again. Justin . . . .

This isn't my picture, I googled Amasy and couldn't come up with a thing . . . . I just wanted to put on a picture that gave you a sense of where we went and how lonely it is. You can go for weeks and not see another living human being or vehicle in the West Desert of Utah. We spent a lot of time in the desert growing up. No cell phones. You just left word with someone where you were going, and if you didn't return, they would come looking for you.

Our "energizer bunny" of a van couldn't make it up the road to get to Amasy. In fact only 1 of the 4 vehicles we had actually made it to the top.

I remember standing here discussing how we were going to ferry to the top of the mountain. Several trips? or just pile into Sid's truck?Part of us in the truck . . . . .And then all of us in the truck! Good thing Sid had a double cab!

This is a little Oasis that has grass and quaking aspens. I think someone actually planted the grass there and the cows that graze in the area keep it mowed!! Correct me if I'm wrong dad! See all the sage brush? One of my favorite smells is sage brush. Freshly crushed. Ahhhh!
Sid and Sydney . . . . at our get togethers we usually have some kind of mechanized form of entertainment.

This area used to be known for it's gold. There still is gold, just not enough to make it commercially feasible to mine. (I guess!) Sid brought his pan, and the guys had a go at trying to find "color." In the picture- - Chancy, Baxter, Halley Lincoln and Sid.

More panning . . . Lora is on the rock, Dad, George, Sid and Halley are in this picture.

Shooting Clay pigeons . . . . another favorite thing to do!

On the way down the mountain, I had this sinking feeling that this might be the last time for a while that we would all be together. It was dusk . . . . I made Sid stop the truck so we could get a picture of us all. I was right, we all haven't been together since then. East Coast, West Coast . . . and only my daughter left in Utah of our family. Hopefully we'll get together one of these years again. But as Doctor Seuss says, "Don't be sad because it's over, be happy that it happened"!!!

Mom, Trudy, Tina, Sid, George and Dad, July 2001

Hail to the Chief

Justin came in really early this morning and slept the rest of the morning away here. He was pretty excited when he came in and when I got him up in the morning (had to kick him off of the couch for a piano lesson I had) he was still excited. He had just been to one of the inaugural balls with the 257th Army Band. He played at the Southern Ball at the Armory in Washington DC. It was fun hearing him talk about it, from the Secret Service man who threw his guitar (probably because Justin asked him to take it easy with the guitar) to the band playing "Hail to the Chief" when Obama arrived at the ball. I guess they call it the Southern Ball because invited guests from the southern states attend it. Tickets were $150 a pop. The Armory isn't what you'd call a great place to have a ball. If you've been there, it is a pretty sterile, old place. Justin said he didn't even recognize the place. There was carpeting on the floor, a new ceiling and they must have done something with the walls also. Today it probably just looks like the old Armory again! Justin is getting some pretty cool experiences being in the band. I knew that was involved somehow in the inaugural experience, but I thought it would be the parade not the ball. Neat huh?

A behind the scenes story

Halley told me that the University of Utah band received a last minute invitation to the inaugural parade. . . . . it is a pretty cool story how it came about and how they came up with the money to come to DC. They got the invitation after the Sugar Bowl game. U of U Band Story

On the Inauguration . . .

As much as I said I didn't care, that I didn't want to watch, that I just want these 4 years to be over, I couldn't resist the pull I had to sit in front of the TV and watch the swearing in. I have to say, it was a pretty moving experience. I just can't overlook how great it is that an African American is the US President. It is a great day in that regard. It seems to me as if Obama has had a huge swing from being on the far left to being somewhere in the middle. He even said a few conservative things today in his speech. The one thing I admire about this man is that he seems very sincere. I'll be watching with baited breath hoping that he doesn't do some of the scary things he has promised to do. Thank goodness for the checks and balance system that makes very sure that nothing gets passed through the congress and senate without very deep consideration. This next four years are going to be interesting to say the least. God bless America!

The business of keeping warm (warning!! Long post. Pet peave of mine)

The temperatures are dipping into the teens and the business of keeping warm is now on my mind. Whenever I feel that something is not designed well I blame it on a "man" because a "woman" would have thought ahead enough to know that there might be a problem ahead. Well "Houston, we have a problem!" My problem is HEAT PUMPS! Heat pumps are awesome in the summer. They have the best refrigeration system ever! A/C is no problem. Heat is the problem. When the termperature gets into the 20's heat pumps become useless! The principle that makes them work just doesn't work in the winter . . . . a heat pump is like a refrigerator, so imagine your house as a giant refrigerator. You know all that heat that blows out the bottom of your refrigerator? That is the heat that is blowing into your house to keep you warm in the wintertime . . . and in the summer, it is reversed, the house becomes the refrigerator and the great outdoors gets the heat. . . . capeesh (sp)? Anyhow, when the temperature is in the 20's there is no "heat" to "pump" into this giant refrigerator of a house and so you either pay an arm and a leg heating your house with the auxiliary "emergency" heat or find an alternate method.

Lincoln usually worries about this . . . . . Our alternative heat of choice (because it was cheapest) was and is the Kerosene heater. I have a love/hate affair with the 2 that we own and operate in conditions like these.

1. I love the heat! have you ever noticed the difference between heat generated by electric, natural gas, propane, oil, or those blasted heat pumps? The heat feels different. Heat pump heat feels cold. . . . . I like to joke that if you want to stay warm in Maryland and you have a heat pump, go for a drive, your car is the warmest place in the winter time (it's not really a joke, it's true).

2. I love the heat!

3. Kerosene STINKS! and makes me cough, and gives me a sore throat.

4. You have to worry about suffocation . . . I have to keep a window cracked, thus undermining the alarm system I have in the house (but keep this a secret please, World Wide Web be darned).

5. Since Lincoln is gone the filling of the heater with Kerosene and the going to the store to buy Kerosene is falling on me . . . . My sons, will do it, but all the same, I am the one with one eye and ear open all night making sure it doesn't run out of fuel, etc. etc. etc.

6. And how does Lincoln fill that blasted thing without spilling a SINGLE drop? He has taught the boys this art also. I've just decided to ruin a towel with drops of Kerosene and hopefully don't have to learn the art of no spillage.

This can only last a few days! The good thing or silver lining to all of this is Maryland has very few days like this all year. Soon we'll be basking in the temperate weather!

Update from Lincoln

Lincoln called! It was nice to hear from him . . . . more about that on his blog!

We've launched!

The Tales of the Slim and Trim blog has launched . . . the more participation the better! ENJOY! The Tales of the Slim and Trim

Polling

I've been contemplating starting a new blog . . . . but this one would take help from you . . . . It would be an exercising . . . . eating . . . . motivational type blog. We could all burn our bridges . . . confess our goals . . . share our achievements . . . . or our failures . . . . would anyone be interested? Would you like to be an co-author with me? We could have several contributors. . . . . . .

Or does Tina need to get a reality check and just be happy with the blogs I already have?

Chime in please!!!

The comforts of home

Today is FINALLY the day that Lincoln headed off for Afghanistan. It has been a long road and I'm glad it is here so the days can start ticking to get him back again. It seems like it's been at least a year ago that we (yes we) decided that it would be okay for him to volunteer for this duty. Since that time we have had a series of date changes and location changes. Was he going to Iraq? Kuwait? Afghanistan? My vote was Kuwait, it is peaceful in Kuwait. . . but my vote didn't count very highly. My vote was for him to go right away, like last June or July, but again my vote didn't count for much.

So I'm home . . . choosing to smile at the moment. . . . but if I get whining or moany, my fellow bloggers, please forgive me!!

Anyhow, for 2 1/2 weeks Lincoln has been packing, and his packing mess has been all over our bedroom floor and spread all over hither and thither. Now it is gone. A clean floor. The thing that gets me the very most, and I need to replace it soon, is that he took his pillow on this trip. He has NEVER taken his pillow on a trip before. Me, myself and I, always take my pillow on trips. Lincoln always has done without. The closest I've come to tears is watching my boys tear up, it touches me that they are going to miss their dad. They've really taken an extra effort to join in and do things that we are doing . . . . things they usually refuse to do. It has been nice to watch.

So really, there are things to smile about!

The business of staying busy

We've had a fantastic few days trying to fill every minute with busyness. On Thursday, since Lincoln had the day off of work, I drug him around with me doing errands and then going to the mall and looking at what all the clearance racks had on them. I didn't find much, but did find a couple of treasures to buy. On Friday, I woke up with this great idea to go on a day trip. Both Lincoln and I like to explore old historical sights, but can't get our kids to go along with us. If we can get them to go, they make the trip as hard on us as they can by telling us how bored they are or asking how long it will be until we get home. Most of the historical sights that we hadn't seen already were either closed for the season or closed on Friday, so we took the whole day and went down into Virginia for a couple hour drive to the Montpelier Mansion that James and Dolly Madison lived in. We really enjoyed the trip and wished the kids were there (funny isn't it?) because there is nothing like learning history by standing on the sight in which it was made. There is quite a story behind the restoring of this house . . . . they are midway finished. It was a very nice tour. Above is the mansion (of course) and below is what they call "the temple." It is an original "Madison" building and quite pretty.I liked this picture of "the temple." James Madison would sit here and think and write. It would be fun to go back and visit when the gardens are green and in bloom.We topped off the night by rushing home to have one last farewell dinner and game night with the family before Lincoln leaves. Seems like we have been having a lot of farewells lately. Lincoln doesn't leave until Tuesday now . . . .he was suppossed to leave tomorrow, Sunday. Below is Lincoln and McKay playing "Pit." We laughed and laughed, and all had a great time.Mom and Dad . . . . . . Trudy, Stevie and Ceci.Chancy and Justin never play games with us. I guess I should never say never because they surprised me this time and without any arm twisting played some games with us. Justin actually stayed with us the whole night. Notice his new "skin head" do? Justin spent the night at the house and we got up and went to the first showing of the day of "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button." F. Scott Fitzgerald? I'm going to have to read this book! This is definitely NOT a children's movie. McKay was a little bored, but interested, and I had to hold my hands over his eyes a couple of times, but it was a pretty interesting (though long) movie. Justin on the other hand, surprised me by really liking this actionless picture. We also saw Bedtime Stories over the Christmas break. It was more of a kid's movie and was fun!After the movie we went and ate lunch and shot some pool for a few hours at Hard Times Cafe. I stink at pool, but it was a nice way to spend the afternoon. Did you know that if you buy lunch that you can shoot pool until 5 p.m. for free? Bring your own darts if you want to play darts though, they aren't supplying them anymore, people kept stealing them :()!!! Good Times!

Junk Mail - Inbox

I usually ignore my "junk mail inbox" but I took time to listen and watch this one and hope you do too . . . it brought tears to my eyes and is a message we can all use. ENJOY!

Ring around the collar

In church for the last several weeks I've noticed that my boys white shirts are . . . . well. . . . dingy! Dingier than the other white shirts and definitely more wrinkly. When the kids were very young I prided myself in polishing them up, making sure their hair was perfect and their clothes washed without stain. Having someone say, "Oh what a cute family you are!" just made my day. Now we have dingy wrinkly white shirts.

Help me solve this equation:

Child + clean almost blue/white shirt = good mother
Child + dingy wrinkly white shirt = bad mother
Child that does his own laundry + dingy wrinkly white shirt= X
X=?

I know the equation isn't algebraically sound, but just go with me here!

All I wish is that I could find a sign that I could pin on the boys that says - - -

"He does his own laundry!"

The funniest thing . . . .

I got what I thought was a very weird e-mail yesterday from McKay's "language arts" teacher. She started out by telling me that McKay was a wonderful student, always participated in class etc. etc. I thought "Oh no!!, what did he do?" she was buttering me up for some grizzly crime that he had committed. So what did he do? he forgot to bring his pencil to class . . . he came "unprepared for class" she said. WHA?????? I had to read it 3 times to see if I had missed anything! Since this teacher knows my e-mail address, couldn't she have been concerned about his grade last semester when it wasn't looking that great? Wouldn't you think she might be concerned that he hasn't even finished 5 of the 25 books he is supposed for to be reading this year? What silliness! So I reminded McKay to bring a pencil, and shot her back an e-mail telling her that I did so, but the responsibility for bringing a pencil has to lay ultimately on McKay! Holy Sh-mo-ley!

Give me the simple life

Something at church always gets my mind whirling . . . . today we discussed having a simple life. The teacher used an Ensign Article that used the book Walden Pond as an example of a simple life. I understand where the article was going with this analogy, but anyone who has tried to "live off the land" knows that "simple" can be very hard.


Simplicity seems to be a popular subject but I have a hard time wrapping my brain around a definition for simplicity. Is it a place? Some people say that farm living is simple . . . . but the first words out of my grandmother's mouth when she found out that Lincoln and I were leaving the farm were "So . . . . you are choosing the simple life, eghh? She felt that the big city held the simple life. I happen to agree with her, city living can be much more secure, much less time consuming and much less stressful. Country life has a slower pace, I'll grant you that but I'd much rather buy my food off of a shelf than grow it and harvest it and store it . . . . .


Is simplicity choosing to have a lack of material goods? Is it having less stuff? Is it reducing the amount of activities you participate in? Is it having time saving appliances? Is it having a smaller house? Is it recognizing wants vs. needs? Is it reducing your cost of living expenses? Using more environmentally friendly products? or is it perhaps some or all above? Everyone of us probably has a different definition. There are even some that may say that you can buy a simple life by overwhelming your needs, wants and desires with your income. I'd like to try THAT method!

It was a great RS lesson. Any lesson that causes a person to think is a good one.

Pollyanna Complex

Have you read Pollyanna? It is a children's classic that I read as an adult . . . . most children's classics I read as an adult . . . . maybe I didn't know they were classics when I was a child . . . . or maybe they weren't in the bookmobile that came to our community . . . don't know . . .

Anyway, Pollyanna is a girl who plays what she calls the "glad game." She finds the silver lining in every situation. Today I have been trying to find a silver lining in all that we have been doing. Today was our fix-it day. Lincoln must be getting the "nesting urge" you know . . kind of like the pregnant woman preparing her nest for her new arrival? . . . .he's just going away for a while and so he's trying to get everything up to par before he leaves. Here is what we (or mostly he) did today.

1. Tire was flat on our truck . . . . . went and got two new tires for the truck.

2. Oil change was due on the Miata . . . . oil change turned into another major car repair. . . Miata is still in the shop.

3. Dryer needed fixing. . . usually Lincoln doesn't do major appliances and we dug into it and have parts on order to finish fixing it. (didn't I just get my dryer fixed? YES! it needs it again!)

4. Fixed broken hood on the kitchen range . . . . yippee! (when I fixed dinner tonight, I forgot it was fixed and didn't use it . . . kinda like McKay and forgetting to use his broken arm that is now healed)

5. Already Lincoln is over fixing something at the townhouse . . . . hopefully this isn't a trend.

How do I find silver lining in all of this? I'm "glad" the repairs are getting done while Lincoln is still in town and they didn't all fall on my shoulders . . . . Hmmmm, now I need to think hard . . . . does anything else need fixing?

Essay question of the day

Do you remember back to your school days? Or if you are still in school do you dread the essay question of the day when you get back from a long break? I remember having to write the dreaded "What did you do during your Christmas break?" essay. . . . My mind would always turn to tar and I couldn't remember a blessed thing that I had done. While others were busily writing I was sitting there wondering what in the world they were writing and what in the world was I going to write. . . . . I hated those questions.


One thing I know is the break goes by much too fast . . . . Here's what we've done so far . . .


1. Watched movies (mostly of my choice!!)
2. Got Chancy new glasses (maybe he'll take out his contacts when he sleeps now! maybe)
3. Got McKay's cast off! (he can't remember how to use his right arm, he reaches for everything with his left hand!)
4. Started and finished a 1000 piece puzzle of multi-colored dice (Steve, I was wishing you'd drop in to do a bit of it a couple of times!)
5. Learned to play Guitar Hero World Tour somewhat (I'm up to medium level on the guitar and just started playing drums today, McKay is loving life! Lincoln sings for us!) (Sylvia, we'll have to set a date for a practice session, maybe practice is too serious of a word . . . )
6. Studied for my Sunday School Lesson (new class next this Sunday and new course of study!)
7. Went to a church get together . . . kind of a cool idea to get together and play games for a couple of hours (we needed to get McKay off of the Xbox)
8. RENTED THE TOWNHOUSE!!! This has been in the works for a month, but we have deposit, 1st months rent and they've moved in . . . Wooo Hoooo! Making double mortgage payments is getting old . . . . our SL house is empty at present and thankfully we only had 1 month of triple mortgages. Can you imagine?
9. Went to dinner (THANK YOU MOM AND DAD for the gift certificate . . . Lincoln and I went out by ourselves!)
10. Had fun with my sis's family and mom and dad on Christmas eve and Christmas.
11. And best of all I spent time with my honey, who will be gone for a while.


Since I hated the essay question . . . . . I can't understand why I decided to inflict this torture on myself . . . . . maybe its because I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel for something to blog!