2009 Tree with "Naked Santa"

I Don't Mind Sharing, But...

One of the best gifts I received Christmas 2008 was a beautiful green afghan knitted by Loni.  She spent a lot of time on it and carried it for many months to complete it in time for me, so besides being beautiful, it means a lot to me.

It is the perfect nap cover since I like a cover on me to nap even on days when the temperature is over 100.  It is a perfect cover for watching television in my cold house, and my friends will tell you I keep a cold house. 

It is because I keep a cold house that I don't mind sharing my afghan or one of the many quilts I keep in the living room when friends come over for an evening.  Loni, Mina, and Jill have all used my afghan at one time or another and I am happy for them to snuggle with it as long as they don't try to take it with them when they leave.  It is all part of being family.

I was quite shocked the other night though when one of the usual college kids that hangs here on holidays walked into the room and took the afghan off the back of the couch and walked back into the playroom as he told me over his shoulder that he was cold.  It was all I could do not to snatch it out of his hands.  I was not prepared to share it with a teenage boy and have it get boy cooties!  I ran into the playroom and offered to turn up the heat, but he said no, the afghan was plenty warm.  I wanted to scream. 

I walked back into the living room and tried to think of a polite way to snatch my afghan back without seeming like a crazed lunatic or worse an ungracious host.  If I turned up the heat, he might sweat on my afghan.  If I took him another blanket instead he might be insulted.  We hugged when he came in so I knew he didn't stink.  He wasn't eating or drinking anything so I knew he wouldn't soil my afghan.  I just didn't want him to have it or to share it with any of the other boys in the room. 

I finally decided to turn up the heat on that side of the house since it was almost midnight and the heat was about to go off for the night and the boys tend to stay until about 3 a.m.  After about 30 minutes I went in and the afghan was sitting on the recliner while the boys were gathered around the table playing cards.  I casually picked it up and took it back to its rightful place in the living room. 

Next time the college crowd comes over I will make sure to have the afghan wrapped around me and cheap fleece blankets available for the playroom. 

2009 Review

Summary of my life in 2009:

• Empty Nest
• New Boss
• Finally finished all but one quilt in the pile.
• New medication has really helped.
• A very special woman in my life passed away, but she left me with some wonderful life lessons.
• Lots of special times with friends.
• I was luckier than most financially during these unstable financial times thanks to lessons learned from my mother.
• Read lots of books, but Wally Lamb's "The Hour I First Believed" has really stayed in my mind.
• I have no major regrets in 2009. I still question some of my decisions, but I realize I can only push forward, as there are some things that just cannot be changed.  I will always want to be taller, thinner and  beautiful.  I will never have enough money to live where I want and do as I want, to support all my friends, and give millions to all my charities. I cannot bring Raymond back.  I cannot make my boys only do what I want them to do, no more than I can protect them from every harm.  Fortunately in 2009 I have learned to live with those facts easier than ever before.
• It was a good year.

2010 bring it on.  I am will take whatever you give me, just as I have in the past.  I hope it will be a really good year, and I will do the best I can to make it that way for all my loved ones, but I know (even if I don't act like it) that I cannot control everything, I can only make the very best of what is thrown at me and keep on plugging along.

Mobia

I finally finished settling my mother's estate and decided to give myself another gift from my mother.  A Mobia by Nautilus. 

I missed my treadmill more than I thought I would and started looking into something new to replace it.  I found this on the internet and thought it would be a good choice.  Then I had Loni and Sis look into it too. 

It was set up on Saturday, December 19 and I love it! 

The promotion for it says you will see benefits if you use it 30 minutes three times a week.  I will admit that I can not do 30 minutes at a time yet.  However, I can do it several times a day.  At first after 2 minutes I was done for.  This morning I did 8 minutes and could have probably made it 10, but I am easily bored and I had nothing to watch.  I was reading but I had been reading in bed for hours so was ready to move on.  I will get on it several more times today. 

I think this is a good choice for me to get more exercise, especially since I am working longer hours now.  Even when I was getting home at 3 p.m. I wouldn't get out of the house.

Now that I have been told I am a diabetic it is even more important that I exercise regularly.  I want to stay off medication as long as possible, which means I must lose weight (which I have been doing) in 2010. I can no longer keep talking about losing weight, I must take action.

My Four Christmases

Christmas Eve 2008 Loni, Mina and I went to see the movie "Four Christmases"  which reminded me so much of some of my Christmases growing up that I was crying through the laughter.   Growing up I often had several Christmases, not because of divorced families, but because there was my mom's family, dad's family, our family, and then my Christmas with friends.

This year I had my own four Christmases.

My first Christmas was on Sunday, December 20, when Loni, Mina, Stan, and Jill came over for dinner, my youngest's family birthday, and our Christmas gift exchange.  The boys and I had decorated the house  that morning and had the tree all ready for when everyone arrived.  I was so happy to have most of my extended family here.  Dinner went smoothly, there was lots of laughter, and no one seemed unhappy with their gifts.  When the gift exchange was over we transitioned over to having our "Survivor" night by watching the finale.  (Lousy choice of winner, but Eric's speech gave everyone permission to vote that way.)  A perfect evening for Mamma C.

My second Christmas was on Wednesday, December 23.  My oldest's girlfriend came to spend the night and we made dinner, went out to see the local Christmas lights, had a gift exchange, and then watched "Four Christmases."  She seemed to really enjoy herself and liked her gifts.  This is their first Christmas together so it was very sweet. I was happy because Jill was here with us so I did not feel like a third wheel.

 My third Christmas was Christmas Eve extended to Christmas Day when the boys and I exchanged our gifts and did our family thing.  The boys did good in picking out a new robe, slippers, gloves, and quilting supplies.  Okay, I helped on the quilting supplies and robe, but they did the rest.  It was a nice laid back time which was good since the oldest and I both had colds and were not feeling well.  I did make homemade hamburger buns and we had ham from Dickey's, plus all the leftover ziti from when the girlfriend was here.

My fourth Christmas was on Sunday, December 27.  It was with Sis and her husband. They usually come Christmas evening, but they were snowed in for their Christmas Eve family celebration, and everything got pushed back a little.  I had not seen her face in a while so it was wonderful to be with them for even a short time.

My four Christmases this year were perfect. I feel so very blessed. 

Happy Home

I am happy when I am in my house.  It is my favorite place to be. 

Last night was I was very happy in my home because my girls and my BFF were here.  Even though I was running around trying to find something I have misplaced, their presence made me so very happy. 

L was knitting and watching "Survivor" and "The Mentalist." 

M was studying for a test today.

BFF was looking at fabric and relaxing.

The only thing that would have made it better is if the boys had been in the other room laughing and goofing off.

Donations

I worked the food pantry today.  A large donation came in from one source.  I was so excited.  I thanked the person profusely because there was such wide variety and there was so much of everything.

About five minutes after they left I was cursing them. Everything they donated was expired.  I don't mean a couple of months expired, I'm talking about dates like 2007!

I have a rule about food I donate - if I won't eat it, then why should anyone else.

Sheesh!

I Just Wanted to Change the Light Bulb

How long does it take the oldest and me to change a light bulb?  1 1/2 hours.

The oldest stopped by today and I asked him to help me change the light bulb in my bedroom and I wanted to wash the glass fixture.  I told him it wouldn't be a big deal.  Ha...Famous last words.

When he went to take the glass off to get to the bulbs the whole fixture fell off the ceiling and was dangling by the wires. Turns out that the man that installed it did not put the bolt in the middle of the fixture to keep it attached to the ceiling when you turned the glass.

The oldest went to get the tools, ladder, etc while I held the fixture and tried to figure out what to do next.  When he came in with all the tools we realized we would have to actually disconnect it from the wires and ground to find the right size bolt which meant turning off the breaker.

The oldest went to turn off the breaker while I held the light fixture.  Unfortunately, whoever wired our house originally was very creative about it.  It doesn't flow in a line. The breaker to my bedroom turned off the hall, and part of the living room, but not the bedrooms next to mine.  When the power went off to the hall and living room the carbon monoxide detector went off as did the phone system.  So we had beeping and long screeching going. 

I held the fixture while the oldest went to try to shut up the carbon monoxide detector, only he couldn't.  I thought I was in the "Friends" episode where Phoebe could not get her smoke detector to stop beeping.  I suggested we just get back to what we were doing and not worry about the screeching.  Of course that was before I knew how long it would take to get the fixture back up.  At one point I thought it had stopped screeching, but evidently I had just lost the ability to hear that range of sound because the oldest assured me it was still screeching.

It took a while to find a bolt that would fit, then we couldn't get the fixture back up.

I finally had to leave it to my oldest while I went to get ready to hear the Itzel's at church.

By the time I was ready to go, the light was back up and working just fine, but the next time the bulb burns out, I think I will just buy another lamp.

Need a Stocking Stuffer?

I bought some soap from Vegan Soap Kitchen recently at an arts and crafts fair.  I tried the spearmint and the frankincense and myrhh.  I liked both of them.  They have a deal going right now, so if you need a few stocking stuffers, you might check out their site.
http://www.etsy.com/shop/vegansoapkitchen