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Monday, December 27, 1999 in I Forgot To Pick A Category

family & holidays

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So this Christmas was perfect for us, as usual. No biggies, and the torment of having a pair of socks wrapped up with every single one of Addison’s presents went over well. He smiled anyway.

The girls are excited that they’re going bunk bed shopping, and not once did they say “Is this all?”, not even at Little Nanny’s.

Our big present to everyone else was family photos, which they all liked. “Even if they were taken at Sears,” said one unnamed recipient.

Ron’s parent’s stopped in on Christmas day, to drop off and pick up presents. They only live across the road, they could’ve taken off their coats… I don’t know what they thought of their Left Behind books, and I don’t care. We’re making a point, however subtle.

Where was I?

Oh… Ron did make it home on Thursday night, and I did have an actual pleasant visit with my mother, who gave me a very comfy brown chenille sweater, among other things, like the Muppet Christmas Special. Which I asked for. Honest.

Friday morning Ron & I high-tailed it to Freddy town early to finish shopping for the kids. I can’t believe we were done at Wal-mart by 10:30am. Divide and conquer works every time. We even managed to catch Wendy home and left the kids there while we went in town. Ron said he’d give them free snowplowing for the rest of the year in exchange. Ha ha ha.

We spent Friday afternoon wrapping presents in separate rooms, with much secretiveness and giggles. It’s always fine. That night we went to a candlelight service at church, and I sang God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen with Ron coming in on the chorus. I wasn’t sure if my voice would hold out, but it did.

My cold got worse instead of better and I spent Sunday lounging around in my housecoat and napping. I am also going mad looking for kleenex because I am sure I bought a mega pack of 12 at Wal-Mart for only $7.50. I can’t find the receipt to be sure, though.

The lowest point today was when I was on the phone discussing an upcoming baby shower for a favorite niece, with niece’s friend’s mother.

“Well, since she’s out of the hospital now…” she said.

Uhhh… no I didn’t know she was even in the hospital….

I mean, it wasn’t too bad or anything, excess amniotic fluid I think, but it was nice of someone to call and let us know what was going on. Considering most of our neighbours are family, ya gotta love that!

Monday, December 20, 1999 in I Forgot To Pick A Category

cleaning, like that’s fun.…

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I am cold. I mean freaking cold. It is 15 below zero. In Celsius, too. Don’t ask me what it is in Fahrenheit, I don’t know, I learned metric for cryin’ out loud.

Times like these I wish I had no convictions about anything, for I would be burning up those non-renewable fossil fuels to a toasty 20 degrees in here.

Anyway, the mental fog due to Ron’s absence has cleared. Well, somewhat. Seems he may be home as late as Thursday. Christmas Eve Eve. Other people are more freaked out about this than I am. Oh well, as long as he’s home in time. He didn’t sound too impressed on the phone either.

I do have shopping to finish for the girls, but I may just get a sitter. That’s a little hard when you’re cheap like me and want a free one. Too bad Wendy went and got a job, she’d do it, I know she would.

Anyway, we finally managed to really clean the house. At least the kitchen and living room. I think the girls were mad that I threw out a lot of their creations, but who really needs all of them? I did save a couple of the best for posterity, but I figure if they wanted to keep these things special, they’d keep them off the floor. And we really didn’t need to keep a Barbie box from last birthday.

And amazingly enough, we found enough pencils to outfit a classroom. Told them they were here somewhere. There’s complaints every day lately that they can’t do their work, because they can’t find a pencil.

And my neat freak grandmother came up Sunday, giving me a reason to really want the house clean. I also told her how I let the kids decorate the living room. They even put garland around the TV. She just looked at me with raised eyebrows. She takes a week to put ornaments on the tree, and nobody is allowed to touch it.

The kids showed her their rooms. I thought she was going to have a heart attack. She threatened to come up and spend a week to clean them. Rock on Grandma! You can sleep in my bed, and Ron and I will camp out in the yard! Woo hoo!

I also rearranged the kitchen on Saturday, switching fridges. It’s bigger, cleaner, and a nice white, which I’m sure I’ll complain about because it shows the dirt more, but at least it’s not yellow like the old one. I almost called up a big strong man to move my old stove out of the room, but after the clutter was gone, I pushed it in a corner and you hardly notice its there. I also piled presents on it so it’s very Christmassy.

I joked to Sarah that we could have just opened up the patio door and pushed it out to the ground below (because there’s no actual deck out there…) and she thought that was pretty funny. But the car was parked in the way, so we figured it was a bad idea.

I have also been sick. I think. Some of it may be more asthma, or maybe my cold. It’s hard to tell. All I know is ever since I got another hated inhaler, after trying to go without, I’ve needed it almost every day.

Monday, December 13, 1999 in I Forgot To Pick A Category

yeah well

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Well, well. Seems I am back.

Someone has been using the computer (hogging is the term) mostly at night and it seriously interfered with this. Since said someone was writing a computer program which shall pay the bills, I’m not complaining too too loudly.

Now that Ron is away for a week or more, installing said program on a system in Maine, I should be updating regularly, which can only be a good thing if anyone is actually reading. So if you do, just email me and say hi, ‘kay?

I figure also, since I wrote to say Hi to some journallers I read, I better get crackin’.

Most things are the same as we last left them, and on top of this, I am not very ready for Christmas. I tried to do some shopping, and did get some accomplished, but it was hard to buy things for the girls when I had them with me.

You know what annoys me about shopping at this time? Things you know stores have at all other times of the year, seem to be in short supply now! Or, they have tons, but not in the size you were looking for. Case in point, I wanted plain old jammies for my grandfather. The kind that Beaver’s Dad wore (if they ever showed him in jammies). Anyway, it seemed pretty likely that Sears would have them, and whatta ya know, they did.

As long as I wanted Extra Large with Extra Long legs & sleeves. Now I am a short person, and I got these genetic traits from both sides of my family, so NO I did not want extra anything! And yes, Sears had stacks of these. I eventually found 3 in the whole pile that were the right size. Then I got to pick from grey, grey, or navy.

Sarah, of course, asked for one of everything in pretty much every store we went into. By the end, even Meaghan was tired of it, and started to lecture her older sister on not asking for everything she can see.

We did however, make plans as to how to annoy Addison for Christmas. He really hates getting socks as a present, so we will wrap up a pair of socks in every single present we give to him. Hee hee, we are soooo mean.

Makes me wonder what they have in store for me?

Sunday, November 28, 1999 in I Forgot To Pick A Category

all to myself

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So everyone is gone, and I have the place to myself. What to do, what to do? Well, web browse for starters, and get caught up on all the fights in journal land. Heck I’m not even gonna comment, except to say most Canadians are nice.

I also went looking for costume ideas for the 12 days of Christmas. I got a call from one of the teachers at lunch saying this was what they were doing, and could I help out? Of course I said yes. hmm, how much stuff can I convince them to buy from me?

And here I sits, updating my journal like mad. I have been jotting down notes all week on my calendar too. I have two pot roasts in the oven, and need to tackle some potatoes too. Maybe I’ll get creative and do a real big traditional Sunday dinner spread. Maybe.

Y’know how they say the road to hell is paved with good intentions? Gee, I think I’m half-way there if that’s all its gonna take.

I also decided to write more like how I speak. It takes less time, for one – no more trying to figure out the proper wording for things, and heck, you get to know me better! Aren’tcha glad?

Saturday, November 27, 1999 in I Forgot To Pick A Category

no title

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I spent the morning working on more kitchen cabintes. I discovered more hardware missing, and a drawer back I can’t find. But I got a whole drawer unit together and placed in its proper spot. We move one peice of counter top onto the big unit that had the table top on it, and a piece of plywood where the counter *was*, where I had also put in the drawrs. Follow? Oh well, there’ll be pictures later. You can oooo and ahhhh then.

The afternoon was spent at practise for the Church Christmas concert, which is mostly a play. The girls are angels with one line they all say together, and I narrate a paragraph at the end. I got into an interesting discussion with a friend, a very large truck-drivin’ man, who thought it highly amusing that I had been working on my kitchen all by myself. I tried to explain that I really was, he could even come down and see, and anyways it was because I was the one who really wanted it done, so I should do it since Ron was busy working on his book. I explained my whole rationale about men & women, and he laughed even harder.
Ron said after it was because here I was explaining to this guy, a deacon, the man’s place in the household. I still don’t get why it was funny. Ron even said I was cute.

And on a final note, if you haven’t heard, Al has devastating news. I just can’t think of anything to say after that.

Friday, November 26, 1999 in I Forgot To Pick A Category

Coincidence?

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Well, I got up and Wendy was on my mind. Its been a long time since we spent any time together since she had the nerve to get a job and all. I’m missing those Friday afternoon visits at her house. The kids would all play, or fight, inside, outside – whatever. Wendy and I would sit, sip tea, gossip and solve the worlds problems. I miss that.
So i called, and for a second, it was like the phone wasn’t working right. SO I speed-dialed again. She’s #1, but you knew that. When she answers the phone, she knew it was me, because she had just tried to call.
That’s why the phone was screwy, becasue she was calling me just as I was calling her. We do that all the time. That’s what best friends are for.
So later in the day, we stopped in to our pastor’s place to pick something up for the bulletin. After a nice visit and chat with Dave’s mom, we realized she actually knows my grandparents! How freaky was that?

Then I piled all the kids in the truck to go to youth group, and when we got there I was told next week would be the last one before Christmas. Whoopee! This means more free time! I mean, the other leaders were a little sad it was going to finish for the holidays sooner, but hey, it was their decision. The kids have a lot to do between now and Christmas, youth group or otherwise, so it was a good decision. I find I’m a little less scheduled around the holidays, so its a real break for us. The store’s not near so busy, and we hardly have any company, and only go out to a couple places. I’m looking forward to it.

But not the cleaning and getting the house ready and decorating and shopping, that’s what I need the extra time for, I just remembered. Blech.