I need a vacation from my vacation...

South Carolina is beautiful. I forgot how wonderful big grass yards and tall trees were. In 7 days I drank in the beauty of the winding roads and the southern hospitality. But I missed home. I missed my friends, my cat, my bed and most of all I missed the no smoking laws and modern freeway system that I am so acustom to. I missed you too...my readers and the blogs that I read. I missed feeling connected and seeing things and doing things with wreckless abandon. I am home. I hugged the cat. I snuggled in my jersey sheets and I watched lots of old movies on cable snuggled in my favorite pjs and quilt on the couch. I missed it. I really did.

It's funny how as people we have let society tell us that you can't be content. Commercial after commercial, article after article and movie and movie tells us that we would be happy if only there was that one more thing. One more car, one more vacation, one more child, one more savings account, one more twinkie or one more glass of real Florida orange juice doesn't make us content. It just confirms our needy, greedy, "I want more" society based thoughts.

I am home and I can tell you now that I've lived in someone else's life for a week that more won't make you happy. More money won't give you better communication with your husband, more babies won't hide the fact that you're family isn't "all together", more pepsi won't calm your anxiety about being with people who you don't know how to cope with and more time won't make you feel like you got it all done.

More won't get you there. But by the grace of God love will. Patience is a virtue I do not possess but I have a loving hubby who knows how to make me smile and is willing to do the laundry when I don't feel well. I have a sister in law that can giggle in the face of another National Lampoons moment on my vacation and a brother in law that can say "that's nice, that's real nice" even if he's thinking something much more colorful. I have a nephew who is smarter and cooler than any baby I've ever known. And I am content to be at home, close to those I love and closer to God because now I know that he can get me through all the little things before they add up to one big mess.

I'm going now

So Long Folks...see you again in 7 days... I'm going on vacation...but don't worry I'll be back on the 14th.

Thursday 13 Favorite Secret Things

Thirteen Things about Allie

This is a list of my 13 favorite secret things

1. Hallmark Channel Movies- (ok so that's not a secret) every knows I like these but did you know that sometimes I spend an entire Saturday watching a Marathon of Sarah Plain and Tall or Love Comes Softly movies in my PJs. It's a horrible horrible addiction which leads me to neglect my housework, husband and sometimes even my hygiene.

2. Law & Order Marathons-The hubby and I have pretty much stopped watching prime time television entirely choosing to instead flip between the three channels with Law & Order on picking which ever episode is better (Criminal Intent, SVU or the original show). We know all the characters, most of the plots and can even tell you what other characters a given actor has been on a different version of the show..."hey wasn't she the serial killers wife in the episode with the dungeon?"

3. Cheeses with Snobby Names- Cheese.com is one of my new favorite lists. It lists all the different cheeses in the world by alphabetical order. No seriously. Everything from Abbaye de Belloc (which is a goat cheese) to Zanetti Parmigiano Reggiano (my favorite cheese) and all the ones in the middle. It's like a little to do list for the cheese lover in us all.

4. Wikipedia- I love dork conversations. In case you were wondering a dork conversation is any conversation in which the winner of said verbal debate is determined by looking the item up on the internet. "Ya right...google it" is a common phrase at my house and Wikipedia is like a fond old friend which whispers ever so coy in my opponents direction "I told you so"

5. The giggles- Sometimes a girl just needs to giggle. My ideal Friday night for a long time involved spending time with girlfriends and having a good case of the giggles at least once in my introduction to a new weekend. See guys don't giggle. Oh sure they get started laughing and they can't stop. Their eyes might water. They might even have to fall to the floor from a side cramp. But girls, girls know what it's all about...giggling, squelling, hiding your face because it's soo red, smearing your eyeliner, and almost peeing your pants. You can giggle anywhere, it's a special type of happiness you carry inside you. You can bust it out at the dinner table, sitting on the carpet in the den or sometimes if you've developed the skill...in target somewhere between the dvd's and the section filled with travel shampoo.

6. Mommy Blogs- You see, I'm not quite a Mommy but yet most of the people I list over there in the side bar are. I started off a young blogger who didn't know anyone else who blogged and somehow I found some Mommy's they were out there talking about motherhood in a beautiful and honest way, even the bad parts. I am addicted. I read them daily. I must imagine it even if I can't have it yet.

7. Pee Sticks- Pregnancy tests. What you're not addicted to constantly checking to see if you are with child? No? Well you must not be dealing with infertility. My new favorite website for pee sticks is Early Pregnancy Tests which I got from Parenthood (a place I read vaguely often). They sell a 20mIU test for HCG which is a really really strong test. I heart them. I ordered 20 which was less than 25 dollars. Can't beat that. Is it a plus? That's also a great secret to get to have.

8. Fashion Bug- I'm a bigger girl. I fill out my D cup and my size 16 pants. I'm not ashamed. I love my curves, bumps and even my billows but sometimes shopping can be a pain in the plush booty. For those days, I have The Fashion Bug which has knocked Lane Bryant off my favorite plus sized place to shop list by offering the same clothing in itty bitty sizes for my friends and nice two digit numbers for those of us who are a fan of cheesecake and carbonated beverages.

9. Costco Photo Center Online- Everyone loves Costco the discount bulk shopping stack those HUGE boxes of cereal to the ceiling place that brought us as a nation to a place that loves buying frozen chicken in a giant bag and have a box of detergent the size of Nebraska on top of the washing machine. But did you know that you can go to Costco's website and upload your digital pictures and then pick them up an hour later at your local Costco. The prices are great. You can also ship them to your home, make them into cool objects (mugs, calendars etc) and all without getting out of your pjs. But that's not the best part. You can email them to anyone you want and they can also order them shipped to their home or pick them up at their Costco. How awesome is that? Pretty awesome.

10. Ya that was me- My 10th favorite secret thing is that thing you think I did but wasn't sure about. No I'm not talking about smelly bathrooms or icky stains or any other gross natural byproduct. I mean sneaking a little note in your book or leaving a little money hidden in your jacket pocket. I once hijacked someone's house while they were at an appointment and decorated it for Christmas. I've been known to leave a toy for an unsuspecting kid to find or a brand new book at the public park just for someone to find and fall in love with. I get nothing out of it. I get to walk away and wonder what ever happened to it. But you see, sometimes wondering about something is the best secret we'll ever get to keep. They call the last one book crossing and for more information you can click this link.

11. Geo-caching- I haven't done this one in a long long time because I lost my GPS unit on a hiking trip at some point. If you found a yellow GPS in Columbia it's probably mine... but bygones... enjoy it. Geo- caching is fun for the whole family. It involves taking GPS coordinates for a secret object, looking for it, and logging yourself and leaving something for someone else. Think of it like a really big treasure hunt. For more information click this link to the Geo Caching website I like the best.

12. Vacate Folder- I have this file on my PC called the Vacate Folder. Currently it lives on my laptop at work. In it I save my favorite links to websites of places I'd go right this minute if I had a million dollars to travel and pay my bills while I'm gone. I also keep information on the places I've been and the places I'm planning on going in the near future. I plan vacations all the time that I have no reasonable reason to go on in the next year. But I plan them just the same.

13. This blog- you see... some of you know me & some of you don't but what some of you might not know is that I don't give this blog out to people I see on a regular basis unless I REALLY trust them so it's my little secret. I can talk about whatever I want and in the end it's just the few and the fortunate who know exactly what I mean.

Links to other Thursday Thirteens! Leave them in the comments section please!!

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Ten Things I Learned in 2006 MEME

1. If you are at a public or family event with a small child and you have an endless supply of extra clothing that will not fit me when you hand your child to me it will pee or poop on me much to your relief because "better me than you" and "oh he was constipated yesterday" both can be cured by Aunt Allie.

2. A small faint pink plus is enough to throw your entire existance into a whirl but if you get your hopes up something horrible will happen so practice your patient game face.

3. I used to believe that your friends bailed you out of jail but your good friends would be the ones sitting beside you saying "well I didn't see that coming" or "it sounded like a great idea". Now I know without a doubt that your friends are the people who know you enough to use you as a reference on a job application and your good friends are the ones who know what kind of ice cream to bring when you pretend like you don't want to cry. Good friends know you just need to cry it out. Good friends let you hang up on them. Good friends are just there.

4. Love is not patient, love is not kind. The bible said it but what it meant to say is "love is pretending to be patient when him completing one more level makes you want to stab yourself in the eye with a stilleto heel and love is kind even when you are thinking about the top 10 ways to kill former friends using the objects in the room which appear harmless". Love is knowing you are wrong when you think you are right. Love is still wanting to kiss morning breath and hug the I-just-raked-smell. Love is the only condition in which the happiness of another is essential for your own. Love is an action & it is a choice.

5. People love people who plan things. People love parties that are well thought out. People love trips with agendas. People love having someone to call when they don't know what course to take. People love dependable. They do not however love any of those things if they aren't part of the plan, can't keep up with the plan or have another plan in mind. So if you're planning something. Plan on staying out of the way.

6. Elope. I know what you're thinking..."but my friends and family will be so DISAPPOINTED". Listen to me... ELOPE! You can't make everyone happy. So make the top 1% happy. For instance yourself and your husband, those people should be happy. Take 10 people go to Vegas get married by Elvis or Marilyn Monroe. Take a vacation. Spend the money on a new house. Just do it. Elope.

7. It is possible to change your entire life in one year. You can go from Pagan to Christian. You can change job positions at work. You can get married. You can get pregnant. You can miscarry. You can lose people you were close to. You can reconnect with the people you've lost. You can find your financial stability. You can lose your grip. You can know someone. You can forget someone. You can find God. You can lose your agenda. You are an incredible person... because God made you in a way that can transform greatly in a short amount of time.

8. Being bored is a choice. I used to scream down the hallway at my grandparents ranch in the summer "grandma I'm bored". She'd yell back "boredom is a choice". I'd say "there is nothing to do". She'd list the chores that could be done. I'd yell "that's no FUN". She'd say "fun is a matter of opinion." I get it now Grandma I really do. Fun is that moment you know the dishes are done, the laundry is up to date, the bills are paid and you can now play air guitar standing on the couch next to a friend.

9. Being married is the 2nd best thing on the planet. (The 1st of course being eternal salvation which rocks!) Having someone to talk to, someone to laugh at, someone to make laugh, someone to cry with, someone to hold, someone who loves your bed head, someone who takes out the trash, someone who loses the remote, someone who steals the covers, someone who lets you steal the good pillows, someone willing to go to the store twice in the same day to keep you from panicing while you're planning an event, someone who wants to be the parent to your children, someone who understands why you're leaving early, someone who never lets you win but always lets you play, someone who teases you, someone who won't make lists but still has them, someone who you will always love. BEST!THING!EVER!!

10. It's just another year. 2006, 2007, 3014 it will just be another year. Another day at work, a weekend with friends, a few trips to someplace to do something with someone and the pictures to show the co-workers and a couple million little things in the middle. It's just another year... and we're ever so thankful we made it through it.

Preparing to Vacate

The hubby and I are going on vacation to South Carolina to visit family in Aiken & the surrounding area. We are leaving on Friday night taking a red eye flight with BIL & SIL & Cutest Nephew Ever. (It has been brought to my attention that my high number of BIL & SILs is confusing so from here on out I shall refer to this BIL as CableGuy and his wife as Quilty). Anyhow, the three of us are boarding a plan overnight to head to the Atlanta airport and enjoy a week (Friday to Friday) with no work, no computers (maybe) and no cell phone coverage *hopefully*.

I trip back and for between being excited for the week off and someplace to go and having high anxiety about meeting Hubby's grandparents (whom I have never met). Being a plane given my new little secret (don't worry I'll tell y'all soon) and spending time in someone else's house don't seem very exciting either. But I am excited about traveling with CableGuy, Quilty and the Nephew. Sigh... see... I'm torn.

Needless to say this week is filled with highly important things like packing, planning, and picking a house-sitter. So if I'm not on much that's why. I promise to tell y'all when I leave though so you will know to miss me that much more :)

Hello 007

It's year 007 and your mission should you choose to take it is to live the Mission Impossible and try to be content for a whole year with what the Lord gave you.

My grandmother used to tell us that the Lord couldn't give us everything so he only gave us each the parts we could use. I got wit, humor and a nurturing heart. That's what she used to tell me anyhow.

So 2007... here's laughing at you!

Family

The theme over at Mama Says Om this week is Family.

Family is getting to know your cousin better by trying to put her head in your mouth.

What's this?

Have you ever been in a good relationship with someone and have them do something non-climatic and suddenly flashback to a previous relationship and the way things were horrible and not be able to stop yourself from becoming either ragingly mad, moderately bitter, or pitifully scared? Have you ever done that?

Perhaps someone will call you and tell you about the plans they are making with someone and you'll flash back to how someone else used to do that and how it lead to them ultimately abandoning you and forcing you to break ties with their friendship and you will suddenly become fully aware of your own insecurities and wonder if you will have to walk the same path with this person. Then it gets akward...the silence crawls in and the night takes over your thoughts, parnoid and alone. You think about it too much. You want to scream and cry.

That's the enemy. That's satan in your head doing his best to make you doubt that you are whole. Are you good enough for them? Will they hurt you? Will they abandon you? Remember what it was like before, he whispers. Take caution and push away he silently urges. But then somewhere in the retreat in your head you can still see the glimpse of reality.

Small but pure the hope of something pure and better can pull you through. Talk it out. Pull yourself towards it with all that is in you. Find strength in it's dim light for the closer you get to the light the smaller the shadows will appear. Don't let it win.

Thursday 13- Mini Resolutions

Thirteen Things about Allie 1. Become more physically active. I'm at the least physically active that I've ever been. So this is about getting up and doing something more often. 2. Make a conscience effort to be affectionate in a less playful manner. Just because I think pillow fights, tickling and pretending to bite someone is funny sometimes, doesn't mean my hubby does. 3. Make and stick to a budget for 2007. This will be a hard one due to the fact that we're starting off a little behind in 2007 and we're going on vacation as soon as the year starts but it's worth a try. 4. Dinner at home 4 nights a week minimum. Lately we seem to be eating out a decent amount. While that's not too bad tasting it's definitely not good on the budget. 5. Monitor my fertility. I swore I'd never be one of those women with the thermometer and the calendar but my Dr seems to think it's a good idea so we're off the land of charts and calendars for 2007. 6. Girls Night Out. Time to work a girl’s night out on to my calendar for once a month. Probably to co-inside with a boys night in of some sort (or out). 7. All things in Moderation. Like food, chocolate, Pepsi and butter. Yea, you know it. This is the diet number. 8. Constant Diligence. Pray every day. Simple as it sounds, hard as it may be. Be more like Christ. Try harder. 9. Don't put it off until it's too late. Every year I talk about scrap booking and making a family cookbook for people for Christmas. Then I put it off for 12 months. Then it's too late. Then I swear to do it next year. This year... I'm doing NOW. 10. Keeping in touch. I was really bad last year about keeping up with my friends and family. Sure, I emailed a lot. But I mean calling and stopping by more than once a month. So this year I'm going to try to get the family circle back into a circle. 11. Putting my best foot forward. I don't mean to sound vain because I know I'm not a pretty girly girl. But I used to be a done up girl. I mean I used to look kempt and professional. Ah...the good old days. It's time to get into some up to date clothing and get my hair and nails done. Don't you think? 12. Rising to the challenge. This one is all about succeeding at work where I just took a new job. Passing the tests & making the difference. Changing the world. 13. Being real. I had this on my last list in another form called "no game face". I seem to be growing a new game face for the same old reason. Bye bye game face. Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!
View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Year In Review

You know you have hit a whole new level of pathetic posting when you are willing to cop out with a year in review post so that you can catch up on things at work instead of taking a real lunch break and posting a real blog. Sigh. Oh well... it's the best I have time for so while you try to contain your excitement I'm going to start posting...

January

2005 ended with me looking for a homeless man with several people my age in the rainy darkness of New Year's Eve in San Diego. We found him. We made a small non- memorable dent in a homeless ridden part of the country. It felt good but it was humbling. So January was spent in much the same way. I volunteered a lot at my church (Monte Vista Chapel) in the baby nursery and with some of the groups that I was active in at time.

February

For Valentine's Day the hubby (previously known as the boy in the rain) gave me a kiss. A kiss, I had said he could not have unless we were officially out in the open tell the world dating because we had been "closet dating" and hanging out for quite awhile without letting on how serious or not serious it was at any given time. I'd known for a while that he was the one. But him, he was stubborn. It took him longer and up until that kiss I was just a sitting duck.

March

March 28th is my birthday. I know you all want to write that down so you can send presents.I moved into my house and then last year for my birthday Hubby and I went to Disneyland. It was supposed to be Hubby, myself and 6 or so of my closest friends. They all bailed. So is life. So we went without them. It was the best 4 days of my year. We laughed, we played, he skipped in public, I wore stupid hats. There are almost 200 pictures from 4 days (including travel). It was AWESOME!

April

It wasn't long after Disneyland before Hubby and I knew we were "old married people". Everyone talked to us like we had been dating forever. We knew each other inside out and it was just RIGHT. So right in fact that Hubby asked me to marry him one night in casual conversation and the next morning (it's good to sleep on these things) I said yes. We set the date in Sept mainly based on the fact that we wanted around a 6 month engagement.

May

May was filled with wedding plans, fittings, bookings, food planning, invitation printing. Premartial counceling prep etc etc etc. I also coordinated a wedding in May for my BIL3 & SIL3 because their wedding coordinator went into labor on the day of their wedding (I used to coordinate weddings for a living). So May brought their rehearsal dinner, wedding and my nephew was born to BIL & SIL who was born on BIL birthday.

June

June was a busy month. Work was busy and it was the throws of summer. We spent a lot of time with friends this summer. We attended swimming parties, back yard BBQs and more than one impromtu board game or movie night at my house. Highlights from June include a lot of time spent in my bathing suit & the engagement announcement BBQ that the hubby and I held at our house.

July

4th of July we went to an awesome BBQ with friends and then watched the fireworks from the local college along side the road. After helping someone find their lost keys in the grass we went back to my place to play with sparklers and set off some ground fireworks of our own. July also had some great moments including a board game night at our house and time spent with family.

August

Hubby's birthday is in August. Again...write it down...send giftcards that's all he really wants anyhow. For his birthday I planned a weekend long trip to Humboldt which is where he went to college to visit all of his favorite spots including having some great BBQ and going to the Finnish Hot Tubs. Three days trapped in the car together with 7 people proved exhausting but Hubby loved the trip and I'm still glad we went. The end of August & beginning of Sept. was also both of our Bachlor/Bachlorette parties (his was a camping trip to Yosemite and mine was a road trip to Capitola), my bridal shower (thrown by SIL) & my SIL2's baby shower.

September

September 8th we were married. Officially the little Mr & Mrs we went on our honeymoon to South Lake Tahoe and enjoyed the perks of being married. With Hubby all moved in we quickly found out that I got pregnant on our honeymoon (hey it's easy to tell when you can't hold down food) and we marveled at how easy it actually was to get pregnant despite knowing I had fertility issues. Then it was back to work because financially getting married was a big burden and we wanted to get caught back up.

October

I miscarried in October. It was a horrible month filled with tears, disappointment, and doctor's appointments. Infertility became an obvious foe and we started dealing with prayer circles, horomone spikes and pitches and my inability to forgive people for being insensitive despite saying they were my closest friends. We canceled a lot of plans and tried to spend more quiet one-on-one time in October. But with that tragety there was also a gift or two...a return of an old friend which I had missed very much and the birth of our niece.

November

Just like everyone else we spent a lot of November focused on Thanksgiving. This was our first Thanksgiving as a married couple. Since October we have become very VERY very close to my BIL & SIL and my nephew. We spent a lot of November with them. We enjoyed Thanksgiving spent with my Mother in law (MOM2) and Hubby's side of the family. Our renewed ties with family in our time of loss was probably the thing we were most thankful for this year.

December

Our first Christmas was marked by a December calendar with plans on every single day. There was the Women's Ministry event at church with Judy Howard Peterson, Christmas Tree Lane, our Back in the day party, Christmas eve at MOM2's and Christmas day at our house. All in all, I think we couldn't have had a more better first Christmas. There was a unique mix of both sides of the family, we had a few glimpses of private time, friends came to laugh and play board games and we didn't get into any major disagreements about how Christmas Traditions would be.

So 2007, hit me with your best shot because after a few days off for the holidays I'm feeling very ready for you.

Till Next Time

Thursday I plan on posting the 13 things I intend to improve about myself in 2007. New Year's resolutions aren't really my thing so it's more like a To-do list for life. But until Thursday my life has a different sort of To Do List. It's a personal greedy little list and it looks something like this...

Remove all signs of Christmas from my house. You see I love Christmas and I normally leave it all over my house in various forms till the first week in January but the Hubby and I are going to South Carolina the first week in January to visit his family so I want it all put away before we come back.

Return, rebuy and respond in thanks. Today is the day I return the things that don't fit (like bras one size to small and pjs that won't fit on round chunky bottom) and I get new bras, better pjs and hopefully some new jeans with my ample bounty of gift cards. Then I send thank you emails. Because I don't have time to send cards this year.

Dishes, floors, cars & clothes. Clean up is my least favorite part of anything so I'll be happy when it's all finally caught back up around here.

Wonder about pee sticks. I thought I wouldn't have time to play with my boy in the rain but between church and family sometimes a little opportunity presents itself and now we get to wonder if it's really working.

Happy Birthday Wife of the Canadian. I need to send a friend some flowers. It's her birthday. Happy Birthday to her.

Lay around in a pile of sloth and gluttony. Last chance to binge eat and lay around in my pjs watching my new DVD's before I start packing for vacation and moving around furniture for my friend Pickles to move in the back bedroom for awhile. Ahhh gluttony and sloth. I heart thee tonight.

Twas the Day After Christmas

And all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even the toy mouse. The cat she was slipping on my new clothes with care, in hopes that small children would not be running every where.

It's over. We made it. We did it. We survived. We still love each other. It was fun. Everyone liked it. I'm relieved. You see, the thing I worry about most at Christmas is that the Hubby and I will turn into those people who fight over something stupid like who has to take out the trash or what color the twinkling lights should be this year. But it didn't happen. And it had lot's of ways to happen. So we're good to go. Would you like a recap?

Friday I got off work early. When I got home BIL and hubby were playing Tekken Tag. Hubby went to work and BIL went home. Batman was still Christmas shopping so he picked me up and we went to Borders, Target, Starbucks, the Movies (to get gift certificates) and then to pick up dinner. Then BIL and Batman brought over all their presents and I wrapped and I wrapped and then Pickles came over and there was WWE watching and napping on the couch. Then we watched the Full House season she got for Christmas. We stayed up late. Everyone went home.

Saturday we got up late. There was Christmas prep to be done. House stuff to clean. Tables to pick up and set up in the livingroom. Then BIL and Hubby and George played games for a long long time. Then SIL (BIL's wife) came over with the Monkey Baby (otherwise known as cutest nephew ever) and we put him to bed and played a few rounds of the card game Munchkin. We stayed up late, opened our Christmas presents. It was good. Real good.

Sunday was Christmas eve service at our church. BIL, SIL, Mom2 (Hubby's mom), SIL2 (Hubby's other sister), Pickles, The Monkey Baby and the Frog Baby (otherwise known as the neice who just learned to hold her head up) all went together. Then Hubby and I went to Perko's for Breakfast. We came home did some more prep stuff. Ran by starbucks to get a coffee and then went to Mom2's to spend Christmas eve with the Inlaws (mentioned above plus 2 more people). There was food. There were gifts. Babies cried. People laughed. It was good. Real good. We went home early (10ish) because I needed to prepare for Monday.

Monday was MERRY CHRISTMAS! I got up at 7:30 made a turkey and all the fixings and people came over starting at about noon. We ate at 2 right on time. Some more gifts were exchanged and then people hung out most of the day. We took down the tables and put back the couch. Around 6:30 we played some board games like Mad Gabs and Trivial Pursuit 90's. It was good. Real good.

We went to bed with all the love in our hearts, joy in our souls and tired feet. It was good. Real good.

Acting Like Grown Men

I am on day 3 of WWE wrestling video game yelling, cable movie channel flipping, junk food eating little boys... in the shape of grown men. Batman, Hubby and the Brother in Law (a.k.a. the BIL) have been hanging out for a few days now. Yesterday BIL & Batman even hung out while the Hubby was at work and I wrapped Christmas presents for them. Then Pickles came over and we all had a grand old time watching Mary Poppins, the WWE, and last but not least the 2nd season of Full House. We're grown adults...really we are... we'll prove it to you... next Wednesday at work.

Thursday Thirteen #72

Thirteen Things about Allie @ Christmas1. I'm rather smug about the fact that I'm completely done preparing for Christmas, gifts are wrapped and food is purchased. 2. My favorite Christmas ornament used to be my Grinch ornament but this year I got an Our First Christmas Ornament that knocked it out of first place. 3. The only time I've ever tried to snow board I broke my tailbone so instead I love to go to the snow and have a snowball fight while everyone else is speeding down the slopes. 4. My favorite Christmas song is "Baby It's Cold Outside" but my favorite Christmas Carol is "O Holy Night" 5. I used to make my own hot chocolate and marshmallows for Christmas gifts to other people, the year I switched to store bought gifts no one noticed...5 years later people started asking about it. 6. I have a really hard time making my Christmas list now that I am Christian because I feel very guilty about telling people how to show their love for me. This means that usually I like the presents that I get that aren't on my list MUCH more than the one's I've asked for. 7. I bought Christmas stockings this year for Children I do not have yet so that they will match the set that I got for myself and the Hubby 8. I usually buy my Christmas tree right after Thanksgiving. This year it was too close to the heating vent and we had to replace it last week. 9. I want a puppy from Santa Claus but I can't have one because I live in a rental. 10. My least favorite part of Christmas dinner prep is peeling things. Usually I try to get someone else to do that part. 11. My favorite thing at Christmas dinner is the Cranberry Relish that my Aunt Penny taught me to make when I was 11. 12. One year I got more presents from my extended family than my parents could fit in the car. I decided that year that when I grew up I'd limit my kids to 3 presents from me. I was 12. 13. This is my first Thursday Thirteen. I'm super excited about it. Links to other Thursday Thirteens!1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

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Traditions

The theme this week over at Mama says Om is traditions. Most of you have already read my post on Christmas Traditions which can be found here. I've spoken out about what Christmas is to me quite a bit in the last month. So I'm going to talk about a whole new sort of tradition. That tradition of setting yourself up for failure, also known as, the new years resolution.

See my traditional New Years Resolution used to be things like lose weight, find the perfect guy, pay off all my bills. Notice anything strange about that list? Like the fact that one of them is something you have no control over and the other two are things that require a long term commitment and plan. Yep- destined failure.

Last year, I had made a 6 month pact with myself not to do several things, or to work on several things. It was awesome. Knowing that I could always stop at the end of the 6th month mark helped me a lot. I actually successfully did most of the things on the list. Being as the list was still a work in progress when New Year came around I didn't make a resolution. I already had a list of over 20 things.

Thus my new tradition. The 6th month bargain with myself. I just recently started thinking of another list of 20 things that would make me a better, healthier, happier, closer to God sort of person. It's not done yet...a work in progress and I figure this time I'll actual start on Jan 1. Although I might make it my first Thursday Thirteen tomorrow... just for giggles.

How many times do you have to do something before it's a tradition? I've never missed a Christmas parade in my home town and it's been 27 years but this second year with "The List" seems like a much bigger deal. Keep checking back in and I promise to put up my list when it's done.

The Gnashing of Teeth

I have my own personal hell. It's snappy, gnashy and every person has a one liner they feel obligated to get in. I've been there. But not lately.

This weekend I spent in a different kind of place. My little heaven on earth. My solitude got a reprieve in the form of some of our friends G & J. No not Gin and Juice. People. I'll call one Batman and the other one Pickles. So Batman and Pickles spent the weekend. I laughed so hard that I cried. I loved it.

Pickles brings out the best in me. She makes me silly. She makes me love well. She makes me play air piano while Batman plays air guitar and my husband plays air drums and she dances like a ballerina the whole time to the Trans Siberian Orchestra. She catchs me off guard and she makes me feel that it's ok to be a dork. She's aDORKable. And I heart her.

Batman is my hero in the shadows. The kind of guy that makes me proud. I'm proud to be friends with someone who is so selfless in his ability to help others. He is the hero of friendship. He moves heavy objects without so much as a whimper of complaint. He drives to the far ends of the earth to save you from the things that hide under the bed at night. He has a baseball bat and he's willing to use it. But when he doesn't have on his hero outfit he's just a guy, a video game playing, board game competing hell of a great guy.

Combine those two great people with the Hubby. That man that makes my soul feel like it doesn't need to search. The man who's willing to build furniture with a moments notice and move every shelf in the house so that there is room for my whimsical love of redecorating the room...again. The boy who stood with me in the rain turned into such a brilliant man. A man who would let someone move in to feel safe one moment and who would do the dance from Grease lightening to make them laugh a second later.

It was an awesome weekend. It was a brilliant show of laughter, life and love. And there I was... a part of it but not responsible for it. It was beautiful.

Joy is an Air Band in the Livingroom

The Back in the Day Party...

So last night was our back in the day party. At any given time we had between 7 and 13 people here (not including us and babies). It was a blast. We played board games, watched Christmas movies and ate a lot of really great food.

My nephew who had been here the night before and my neice who came for awhile and then went to Grandma's house both got their fair share of time as the center of attention. Their childhood is very similar to mine in that every aunt and uncle is VERY involved with them and they get A LOT of attention. Which is good. Because we're learning to hold up heads and to crawl now but later in life when the lessons get harder they will already have that foundation of trust.

So I'm done for a little over a week. Then it will be Christmas day and I'll be cooking again. I love making ham so I'm excited about that. There will also be turkey, two kinds of stuffing, 3 kinds of veggies and some deviled eggs and home made rolls/bread. I heart food. I can't wait.

All the food around here has me thinking about New Year resolutions. Have you thought about yours yet?

Joy (day whatever it is)

The pillow fight.

FF

So it's time for Frankly Friday which is the point in the week where I acknowledge a great thing and a crappy thing from the week before as well as something I learned this week. It's a good way to keep the work week in perspective before moving on to the fun filled weekend. I was a slacker last week and I didn't post one. You people need to keep me on my toes.

Friday Fab- This week I was bless need with a lot of time with my neice and nephew. I'm watching my nephew (otherwise known as the cutest baby ever) again tonight. Overnight. It should be a blast. He's so stinking cute. He's starting to crawl. It's adorable.

Friday Flop- Work this week was a pain in the neck. Especially Tuesday when I had to drive to at training in the rain. That was totally not worth it.

Friday Fact-"An apple, potato, and onion all taste the same if you eat them with your nose plugged. " I found a site this week which gives you random facts. That was one of them. I've been amusing myself all week with things like "45.2% of people pee in the shower. " and "In Holland, you can be fined for not using a shopping basket at a grocery store! "