I have nothing to say

I had lunch today with some old high school friends. There were 4 of us: Jennifer, Nichole, Danna and me. It's fun to get together with old friends and catch up. I keep up with Nichole because she lives in my ward, but Jennifer lives only a few blocks away but our paths don't cross as often as you would think (this is the same Jennifer who gave us the replacement Christmas stockings). Danna and I have had all kinds of fun catching up through the miracle of Facebook. It is fun to remenisce (that's not spelled right) and see where our lives have taken us.

I got Christmas all put away tonight. Whew - what a chore, and boy am I glad it's done. The big problem, though, is now I can see how dirty my carpet is. The chores just never end . . .

Yes, I am that stupid!

Since I hate everything in my house, Lane took pity on me and bought me a new couch. I have wanted a sectional for downstairs to replace the vile couch that I sincerely think is a health hazard. So we go to the store - the same store furniture store I visit faithfully every week or so just to stroke the microfiber sofas and sigh. So we found a sectional we both loved, not too big, and has an awesome huge ottoman. Who needs to measure? All sectionals come in 3 pices and none of the 3 pieces are very big, so no problem getting it in the house and down the stairs. You know what they say about people who assume . . . You guessed right. They couldn't get it downstairs. Turns out that since this sectional is "small," it only comes in 2 pieces, and the long side it just too dang long. Hmm. What to do, what to do. We could put it in our upstairs family room, except that the upstairs family room was designed by some moron who apparently thought that there would never be furniture in the room. The fireplace is right in the middle of the wall, there are 3 doorways, plus a stairway (which creates an odd little nook, impossible to work with). So NOW we decide to measure. Turns out the sectional will fit in the room, miracle of miracles! All I have to do is dismantle my computer desk and "home office" (I use that term loosely), move all that downstairs with the old upstairs family room couch to make room for the new couch. Normally this is only a minor inconvenience, no big deal. But today was no normal day. The couch was delivered around 2:30 or so, it took about an hour to decide it wasn't fitting downstairs, so now it's 3:30-ish, and I'm expecting a houseful of family at 4:30. Not cool! Thanks to my mother-in-law and Lane's grandma, we got it mostly pulled together before the rest of the family arrived. That left the downstairs a huge computer/home office/couch in the middle of the floor disaster. The kids were playing PS2, sitting on the couch about 18 inches from the TV. But now, 11:00 p.m., I have it mostly cleaned up and tolerable. It was supposed to be a seamless couch transition that in no way impacted the fact I had company coming. Everyone I told the story to tonight said, "why didn't you just measure it while you were at the store?" and I had only one answer: BECAUSE I AM JUST THAT STUPID!

It's Over - Bring on the New Year

I am so ready to put Christmas away. I'm like a little kid - short attention span, ready to move on to the next thing. I love Christmas as much as the next guy, but as soon as it's done, I'm ready to put it all away. I would have taken it down on the 26th if it was up to me. So I guess I'll get it taken down and put away on Tuesday. We have the last of the Christmas parties tomorrow so I have to leave it up for that.

I always love New Years. It is always a new beginning (of course, the new beginning is over and done with by mid-January). Like everyone else, I swear I will lose the weight this year, this year will be different, and so on. Unfortunately, I have no will power and am still looking for a way to lose weight without actually sacrificing anything. I don't want to give up my soda, or eating out, or chocolate . . . I don't want to get up early and exercise . . . And yet I wonder why I am not losing weight!?! I hate to be a defeatist, so maybe this year will be different, maybe I will grow a spine, maybe I will suddenly become a morning person. Who knows? But I do know that I will not be giving up my soda. I have to have one vice. (Yeah right, only one!)

Chrismas

Another Christmas is over so quickly! We had a great Christmas, all the kids seemed to be happy. I think Taylor was really thinking this would be the year that Santa would save her from being "the only person in the WHOLE junior high without a cell phone," but alas, Santa failed her yet again. I kept warning her that there would be no cell phone, but I think she thought I was kidding. She did get a new digital camera, and I'm hoping that softened the blow a little bit. Addie was thrilled to pieces with her new Hannah Montana slippers, because she felt like she was now too big for Dora slippers. We got a fun new game for the Wii. It's called "Outdoor Adventures" and you play it with a pad, kind of like a DDR pad, but it has more arrows. It's a pretty fun game. We also got Lego Batman and Guitar Hero for the PS2, so poor Jack is so overwhelmed he doesn't even know where to begin! Too many games!! We had my parents, Lane's grandma and Jesse and Kassie (my niece and her husband) here for Christmas Eve, and that was fun to have such a large crowd. Lane cooked up a turkey for dinner and we watched the Red Ryder BB Gun movie, opened presents and played Wii. Christmas morning we opened presents and lazed around all day. We got a little more snow, not a lot. Apparently the predicted Christmas Day storm hit Salt Lake hard, and parts of Utah county hard, but somehow skipped right over PG. Doesn't matter - we get stuck at the bottom of the driveway everytime we leave the house. Lane has started a fire for me almost every day, and not once has he burned up anything! My friend Jennifer gave us some extra Christmas stockings, with a warning that they WILL BURN if they come into contact with fire. Luckily, Lane has a good sense of humor about it, and we have all had a good laugh.

Jack and Addie went out to enjoy the snow today since the sun was shining. It keeps trying to snow a little bit, but mostly is nice out, but it is cold. I wonder how long Addie will stay out - hopefully she will come in when she gets cold and not try to do too much.

We had a good party last night with my family. We always do a white elephant game, and this year Lane and I ended up with a tube of lotion called "Udder Butter" and a bottle of "Naval Jelly." Don't really know what that is, but I always want to have something to re-use in next year's game, so that will be perfect. The coasters made their 3rd appearance this year, and my brother Troy got a whole big bag of used, much too small Tshirts, which is perfect for him. It's part of a family joke. My sister Mie who lives in Wisconsin and obviously wasn't at the party sent out a couple of Macadamia Nut boxes to get into the rotation. Another family joke. One year, MANY years ago, Sabrina gave Mie a gift in a Macadamia Nut candy box. You know, the kind from Hawaii. Anyway, Sabrina (I forget the reason) wrote a note to Mie in the top of the box. So after that, and the fact that a Macadamia Nut box will always stand out, it became a contest to see who would end up with the Macadamia nut box. It disappeared once or twice, but eventually found its way back. So who ever ends up with the Macadamia Nut box has to write what they got, from whom and the year in the lid of the box. It is stupid, I know, but one of those silly little things that makes Christmas Christmas. I think Lane's family in Colorado has a similar thing going with some green glassware or something. It's those little silly things that are unique to a family that make holidays so much fun. My sister Sabrina takes her family out for Chinese food on christmas eve thanks to the Red Ryder BB gun movie. I think that's hilarious.

Holy crap! We have a lot of snow! It started snowing about 9 am, and hasn't let up. It started with HUGE snowflakes, then smaller, now they are big again, but not as big. I have no idea how much snow there is, because all I can see is white and I have no landmark for comparison. Lane took me to work and came back for me, thank goodness, because I would hate to be out in it. We saw a rear end wreck and another car slide all the way across the road and yet another car spin around 360 degrees - I thought that one would go through the fence and into the emply canal. Our UPS driver at work got stuck in it. It's crazy. I don't remember when last we had snow like this, and I think it's supposed to last into tomorrow. We saw a bunch of really happy kids on our way home. They were sledding at the church and having a great time! I posted a picture from several hours ago, it's lots worse now, and I don't think the photograph gives a true appreciation of how much snow it is.

The other pictures are from our family Christmas party last night with Lane's extended family. Lots of family members were missing because they live out of state, and they were missed. It was a much smaller group than we have had for some time. We have my family Christmas party tonight. Luckily, 3 of us live close by. Troy lives in Sandy, so I expect he won't make the trip in this weather, but he surprised me on Friday, so we'll see.

Naughty or Naughtier!!

I had a terrible kid day today. I would think they woud be extra good, hoping Santa will be good to them. But they were positively rotten to the core - refusing to do their jobs, or if they did do their jobs, it was a very, very poor attempt. Oh - the screaming and yelling, and I think perhaps my head spun around a few times. It is really exhausting to have the repeat the same arguments every Saturday.

SO, SO cold today. It tried to snow a little, but mostly just blew around and didn't stick. I think more snow is expected tomorrow, so luckily we don't have to travel far for the family party.

Taylor finished the hats she has made to donate to the local Women's Shelter, so we can cross off another value in her Personal Progress. Next she is going to sew a "modest outfit." We are hoping to get that done over the Christmas break.