Merry Christmas to you all

I know I have not been on much lately. But I did want to get on to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!!!!!!

May your holiday be a warm and loving one which surrounds you all with those you love. And, God Bless everyone of our men and women in the service, as well as their families, who are unable to be with their loved ones at this time. God Bless all of you too!

Blessings,

A sling & a prayer

Maybe not a favorite, but defineately a most memorable Christmas memory is one of our first together.

Hubby & I had been married for a couple of years. We'd been living in this old rental house and prior to the season had searched for, let's say, an upgrade in living arrangements.

We looked at some nice places but nothing was open for moving in. We couldn't find anything e loved enough to commit to buying either.

Holiday time rolled around & our search turned from new homes to Christmas trees. As has become our annual family tradition, we traveled to our favorite tree farm, traversed acres of tree rows and hunted that year's perfect tree.

We cut it, hauled it back to the bagging station, loaded it on top of the car, drove home, drug it up the stairs, set it up, strung the lights and hung the decorations. It was beautiful.

Within the week we received the call that one of the places we'd looked at had unexpectedly become available. There were other people wanting the new place so we had to act then or lose out on the deal.

Boxes were packed, address notifications were sent and yes...down came the tree & ornaments were carefully wrapped and put away.

We were off to our new home, and right before Christmas. How exciting!

That was the first & only time I can say I have ever moved a Christmas tree.

There was lots of craziness & hurried unpacking in attempt to reestablish some symblence of normalcy before Christmas.

Do you know how hard it is to place a Christmas tree into a stand, with any stability, a second time? Nature just doesn't grow a perfect trunk. At least not that year. I mean after you have already drilled holes into the trunk in the one place that holds it straight the first time, it just ain't happening right again.

We tried. To get the tree straight meant placing the tree stand screws too close to the previously drilled holes. Move the screws far enough away from the previous holes and our tree looked like it was bending at the waist.

Finally! We found the spot. Perfect tree stand placement.The tree was rapped with lights again and up went the ornaments.

We were officially in our new home. Bring on the holiday.

At some point that same night my husband & I were awakened from our peaceful slumber by the sounds of shattering ornaments as the tree crashed to the floor in the next room.

Standing half asleep, half in disbelief, my husband unplugged the tree, made sure there were no fires about to disrupt and we stumbeled, disappointed, back to bed.

The next morning we cleaned up the mess, salvaged what ornaments we could. Fought the trunk/tree stand battle to no avail and then fashioned a sling from twine rope that wrapped around the upper part of the tree trunk and hooked to a nail in the wall of our new home.

That was our Christmas tree. Once statuesque, now balanced in a tree stand on a prayer and a makeshift sling. At the time we were mortified that this is what our symbol of Christmas had deteriorated into. Now, we just laugh and chalk it up to the many curves one gets thrown in life.

Merry Christmas everyone. Maybe next post I'll recount the story of how my husband ended up in the rosebushes while hanging light on the roof of our house.

Anyone else have a crazy Christmas tale to tell?

I look forward to reading them, feel free to share.

D

Mania, Monsters & Monk

Hi Gang,

well I guess I'm off to a rousing start on catching you all up, huh?

As overwhelming at this last week has been let's just start there. I have never, and I mean never, since starting this job, been so glad for Friday. I normally could take it or leave it when Friday's come because I love my job. I really do. This week has just been one of those times when you stop yourself and take a good long look at why you chose to do what you do.

At one point this week, I entertained the comparison of how much more enjoyable my day would become if I picked up the stapler calling to me from the corner of my desk and gouged my eyes out with it. I quickly decided against it....it was not dull enough.

So, it is Friday. I am leaving slacker, "I just work here," employees who will never measure up to my personal standards at the door when I walk out of it. Monday is a new day and we will start again....hopefully without the high dollar faux paus, shitty I just work here attitudes and the believe that the company should be grateful to them that they just show up to get a check every pay day.

In the last 8 months there have been cancer scares, career chaos, household remodels, teenage meltdowns, antics and attitudes and somewhere along the way.....it feels like a couple hours of each day have been stolen.

Oh, and the arrival of a new pup into our family, who, by the way, I now affectionately call baby huey.

This little guy.....

(and yes, he is a guy...he was playing with a ribbon off of my Mother's Day package and had flipped it onto his back.....I had to snap the picture. It was too cute.)

THIS little guy,

so cute....and cudley.....

turned into my new baby Huey overnight....

Exibit A:(it is likely this picture was taken after he ate his weight in puppy chow, ran after and retrieved an untold number of balls, toys, socks, you-name-it, with a, "pant, pant, pant, please throw it again," look

Exibit B:(This mouth watering picture was likely taken as we arrived home from the store with a rather large bag of replacement puppy chow!)

I have started work on my new book...don't ask. I am very excited about this one and will entertain the idea of putting up teasers at some point but we are a way off from that.

Becca has, I think, made a decision on what college she wants to attend next year.

Aaron has made honor band with an invitation to try out for state band.

Steven has found love (but I am not supposed to tell anyone so keep it on the down-low)

Megan is looking for a new career...while she loves being a hair stylist...she is finding life isn't always what we want and sometimes we have to make sacrifices to live in this world.

I am now officially the General Manager of the newspaper

Rob is happy at his work and perfecting his BBQ smoking techniques at every opportunity.

Brandy is getting old and lets Koda know in no uncertain terms when she has had enough.

Koda is eating his way to Utopia.

Well gang, in a very tight nutshell, there you have it. My crazy life update in a 10 minute blog.

It is late and I have a date with Becca to watch the final episode of Monk in 45 minutes...we've been planning this for months now. I think I have it all solved. I know why Trudy was killed! But, who knows.....they could throw me for a loop.

Becca claims I have ruined the finale for her (I HAD to tell her my version of what happened- I have to be right and beat them to the punch like that.)

I'll let you know if I was right...Talk to you all soon.

Have a great and relaxing weekend if I don't post or hear from you sooner!