Wednesday, December 29, 2004

Photos and a "pimp"

As promised, I've added some pictures from Christmas. (Please note: When choosing these pictures, I managed to select the ones where the kids had their eyes closed! This was by mistake! LOL. But, since this is the second time I'm doing this {because I accidently deleted everything last night} I'm not changing them AGAIN!)

Also, please visit Ali's new journal and welcome her to AOL j-land. Ali is a long-time member of TSPR and a good friend of mine!

On other fronts, Herman is off all week! Yay! I have to work but I was off Monday and I'm off today. I may even get off on Friday! Wooo-hooo! Herman is hard at work painting my family room a cool shade of blue. I'll do some laundry and clean my leather furniture. (Yeah, we're a fun crowd! LOL)

Anyway...lots to do today so I'd better get going...Peace!

Sunday, December 26, 2004

Christmas, parties and other stuff..

Above you'll see pictures from Mark and Heather's Christmas party which took place on Dec. 18th. We all had a blast! (Some had a better time than others, tho...LOL) We didn't leave there til 230am. YIKES! Didn't get to sleep til well past 3am. I will add Christmas pictures at a later date. Have to upload them from the camera.

We were supposed to host 18 for Christmas dinner but once again, Herman's sister and family didn't make it due to one of her kids catching the flu. So, we were 13 instead. Our menu was: Appetizers- cheese and crackers, chips and dip. Dinner- Ham, ribs, shrimp scampi, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes. Dessert- Mini eclairs and cookies.

Herman and I busted our butts off yesterday, between cleaning, making dinner and then cleaning it all up. but, WE DID IT! Everything was cleaned up and put away before we went to bed. I conked out way before Herman did. I was up til 3am the night before. I served communion at the candlelight service on Christmas Eve so I was wound up for awhile after we got home at 1230am. I just hung out and watched TV for a bit. Our children all slept in on Christmas Day. They're all older now and besides, since they already knew what they were getting, there were no surprises waiting for them. Kinda sad, if you ask me. I used to love it when they still believed in Santa..they'd be up bright and early, checking out the loot before we rolled out of bed. ANd then squeals of delight. I miss it.

I'm gonna go for now...I'll add more pictures later. We're just hanging out, snuggling on the couch and watching movies. (If you get a chance to rent "Collateral", do it! Great movie! Even if you hate Tom Cruise, it's still a great action movie.)

Peace!

Wednesday, December 15, 2004

Mondo bizarro!!

I was just on "Hoaxbusters" and saw this!!! What some people do with their spare time!! LOL!!

Monday, December 13, 2004

This, that and other stuff..

The photos are from The Snow Ball that Becky attended on Saturday night. It was held at the high school. She looked so beautiful! She really had a great time..she was so excited!

I've stayed away from journaling for a bit because Jackie had a "setback". (Read: fell off the wagon, slipped, etc.) She used again and it was very upsetting because she knew full well that if she used again that she wouldn't be able to return to our home. She OD'd at her girlfriend's parent's home on Thursday Dec. 2. She managed to dial 911 and the police found her nearly unconcious. Oh, and she managed to call and leave a message on Rachel's cell while she was at school. Scared the hell out of Rachel as she was barely coherent and her message was to call an ambulance. Poor Rachel called me at work and all I knew was that Jackie had OD'd. For about half an hour, forty five minutes we had no idea if she was dead or alive. When Herman finally blasted the woman at the ER, she said that they had stabilized Jackie.( Very strict with the HIPAA rules.) So we knew that she was ok. SHe spent 2 nights in the ICU and then was moved to a semi-private room. She's still there, 11 days later. Because of all the years of heroin abuse, her veins are shot. They had to run the IV thru her groin. A few nights after she was admitted, she had a pain by the IV. They took it out and a day later discovered that she had blood clots in her leg. So they started her on coumidan, a blood thinner. She can't leave the hospital until they achieve the right level of coumidan in her bloodstream. Once they discharge her, she'll need to go back every 3 days to have blood work done to make sure that the levels are OK. They said that it may take as long as 6 months for the blood clots to dissolve.

My mom knows how upset we are with Jackie and has offered to allow Jackie to live with her for a bit. My mom has had Jackie there before and it wasn't easy on her. Jackie is a handful, to say the least! (I'm just gonna leave it at that, because Lord knows I could go on and on.)

On other fronts, I have not yet started Christams shopping but not to worry! I usually do it a few days before Christmas! Our tree is up..and it's choking me. We may have to re-think the whole live tree thing because the past 2 years I have had a hard time breathing while it was in the house. Oh, the tree isn't decorated..it's just up. LOL!

Herman is taking Rachel shopping for her presents tomorrow night. He takes the girls out and they choose what they want: the correct style, size and color. They bring it home, we wrap it and they open it Christmas Day. I'm really torn over this way of doing things for a couple of reasons: No surprises. No excitement of picking out something for them that I think they'll just love. Clothes..just clothes. That's all they pick out. What about cd players, cds, books, stuffed animals??! Where is the fun in it all??!!  HOWEVER, there is a part of me that LOVES this way of doing it: I don't take them Herman does! No exhanging clothes that are wrong style/size/color! AND I DON'T HAVE TO GO SHOPPING!! (I know I said that first but I really felt that it needed to be repeated.) John's another story. He has "pedals" picked out for his guitar. Oh, and a half-stack amp that I cannot possibly afford right now. I can still buy surprises for him because, unless it's pink or girly looking, he;ll wear just about anything I buy him. Besides, I have his whole look pinned down: black, big and no dragons on the shirts, for Pete's sake!

Ok..I'm done.

Peace!

(P.S. Would it be asking too much if I told the kids that they should wrap their own presents?! Just a thought...)

Wednesday, December 1, 2004

Some photos

Not too much to report. I had the day off ..YIPPEE! It's really windy here today. I'm kind of waiting for my front tree to lose it's last rotted branch. Won't that be fun? That, and all the leaves that were in nice neat piles in the backyard are now all on the other side of the yard...in NOT so neat piles. Actually, no piles at all! (We're paying the next door neighbor to clean up the yard..I'll bet he's wishing that he had bagged those leaves yesterday!) Jackie is staying at a friend's house all week..wooo-hooo! Peace and quiet! (I say that not because she's loud, but because it will eliminate my need to yell at her constantly! LOL) OK..well..that's all I have today!

Peace!