January 2007

We were only out of town one weekend in January, and although I can't list 3,000 things that we've done this month, I can gladly say that the month was very nice, very relaxing, very ideal. We spent New Year's Eve at the Childri's, and the highlights of the evening were playing Egyptian Rat Screw and Nertz (and I must mention Arie busting an artery while slapping the table so hard). D and I both had New Year's Day off, and mom and Aunt Libbie came up for brief visit and then we grabbed some grub at the Reeves' pig roast. The next weekend we headed to the Highland Lake Inn for the GSM Leader's Retreat, which was lots of fun like last year. Ever since: absolute wonderfulness. Finally being home a few weekend's in a row. And for this reason, we were able to watch some of our friends' dogs, which is a change from them watching Sadie. Bristol is now freakin' huge, outweighing Sadie by 15 lbs. Stabler stayed with us for a few days as well. I think it's funny that he, Stabler, is the only thing on this earth that I've witness tire out my husband. That dog is non-stop energy! We often caught Sadie giving us looks as if to say, "make him stop!" or "hide me! hide me! Stabler wants to play again!!" (she would sit at D's feet under his desk). Work has been good. They are about to switch me to a Mac to make the work-flow more efficient between Jim, MK, me and the worship services. I will still need to use some Window's applications, so I'll be able to switch back and forth between the two. I'm sure there will be a learning curve since I've been an IBM girl since birth, but I'm excited to have more "artistic" capabilities with the mac. So, today is February 1st and it has snowed! Sadie thinks it's great, and Donald does too since he's home from work. Me? I'm heading in. After all...there's people to be saved (okay, dear Jesus, I confess that my sarcasm is probably not appreciated). One last thing: Ellen and I put some dresses online to sell. She put her wedding dress up and I put 5 bridesmaid dresses. I had a 50 dollar offer on one of my dresses almost immediately, but the website people required payment (of 10%) before letting the seller (me) accept the offer from the buyer (random girl). So I paid the 5 bucks, and..... I've still yet to hear from the buyer and have no way of knowing who she is and how to get in touch with her. So, in a nutshell, this website is horrible and I do not recommended it. It's called, www.handmegowns.com, and I propose that they change their name to: handmeyourfivedollasuckaaaaa.com

December 2006

December had it's typical holiday traditions, but our once decorated tree is now lying naked on its side on our front porch, waiting for us to figure out what to do with it. Poor thing. Took all those years to grow to six feet, just to sit in our house for a month and then get thrown out. What strange traditions we come up with! It would make more sense if we ate the tennenbaum, and it's lovely branches, kinda like raising and fattening a cow to eat. What if people raised cows and then killed them and stuck them in their living rooms with lights on them, garland, and hung Baby's First Christmas ornaments from their ears? That would be weird. Oh wait- an eight-point deer head, mounted to a wood-paneled wall is coming to mind. Sorry friend-- it is weird, but at least they ate the rest of you. (please note: I am not a tree hugger, raising a stink about all the poor Christmas trees in the world who need to be saved from the commercialization of Christmas. I just think it's funny to think about how weird some of things we do are and how if you stand back and look at it, it's so silly. Another example would be lighting on fire little sticks made of wax, which are sticking out of cakes and then singing, and then blowing the fire out. Yes- if I were an alien who came to town, I would definitely think that was weird.)

Highlights of December 2006:
Charleston for Christmas- cracking 5 dozen eggs, frying 84 pieces of sausage, baking at least 150 french toast sticks, simmering 3 gallons of grits, and the list goes on. It is a tradition for Donald and his mom to cook breakfast Christmas morning for the entire Rose side of the family (which is his maternal grandfather on down - like 50 people) and other cousins, friends, and friends of friends (and friends of friends of friends). Since I am part of the family now, I jumped into position as a short-order cook and mainly managed the egg cracking, egg scrambling, coffee making, and plate replenishing operations. Thank goodness for Mylin, Evelyn, Frenchie, Dondie and their super powers. It was amazing. And we must thank Kenneth whose OCD led to a clean floor and empty trashcans in the midst of the chaos (and throwing the grease out in the back, which I hope we won't find a can of it in his bedroom next month).
We were also able to spend time with my family in Mount Pleasant, including Aunt Libbie who was in from CT. A bonus for December was that all 13 of us met up New Year's weekend for mom's 60th birthday (and I must make mention of Steph's 34th and mom's famous german chocolate birthday pie for her). We watched the Gamecocks pull it off against Houston in the Liberty Bowl Friday, and took mom out for a nice dinner in Newberry on Saturday night. That may have been the last weekend we will all be home before the house sells, which is kinda sad, but we made no mention of that, and it was a great weekend.
Other fun things in December: Ellen's birthday at Bojangles, dad's Christmas Concert at church, Ellen's shower and then wedding, going to the GSO Christmas Concert, our Small Group Christmas party at the Reed's, having people over for Chili, decorating the house, sleepover with the 7th grade girls, and getting an electric blanket for Christmas, which makes our bed very cozy.