New Year's Eve

For lack of a better title. :-) It seems I've fallen behind again. A whole other week! ~sigh~

We had a nice Sunday, as I recall. We sang some Baptist songs (that's what we call those good old hymns that aren't found in the blue book--ha!) like To God be the Glory and Great is Thy Faithfulness. Some of those songs are soooooo good, but we so seldom sing them in the Church--so I really enjoyed them on Sunday. :-) Then James preached about not losing your spiritual vision, as did Eli.

After service we went to Pizza Hut to redeem our December Book It! coupons. We were almost out of time, you know! I had every intention of coming home and putting the house back together. (It was still trashed from the Christmas madness since I'd been sick most of the day!) By the time we were half way home I knew I was going to take a nap instead! Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do. ;-) I had a nice nap, then enjoyed a good CPMA service about the Church being the dove spoken of in Song of Solomon. "My dove, my undefiled, is but one." Sister Galaviz talked about the many characteristics of a dove and how they apply--or should apply--to The Church of God. Very neat.

We got home from church that night and I finally found the motivation I'd been lacking. :-) I got all of the trash collected and thrown out, the clutter sorted through and put away, the kitchen cleaned, and then finally went to try on the new clothes I got for Christmas. Then I went through all of the Christmas cards we received and made a list of them for next year. After the kids were in bed James and I watched “Shop Around the Corner” (an OLD Jimmy Stewart movie) and ran out of steam before I was able to break out a puzzle. As if that would have been too taxing or something.

By Monday morning all of my motivation had snuck away somewhere. I ended up accomplishing very little. A little laundry, I think. I did sit down and help Joe built his robot that day. That was fun. :-) And I did break out my new, incredibly difficult Doug Knutson puzzle. I'm still not finished with it! Ha!

Tuesday contained nothing monumental. I did manage to get the guys off the roof to come in for lunch. Most days they show up at the break of dawn (or before--seriously!) and work until it's too dark to work anymore, without ever taking a break. I feel so much better when I'm able to get them into the house to sit down for a few minutes and eat a good meal. Though I think I just fed them left-overs that day. Whatever. Tuesday was also the day Katie decided to come down sick. We like to share like that around here. ;-)

Wednesday was a different sort of day. Anybody who knows us at all knows that James goes to town all the time. I never, ever, ever, ever go to town--unless it's with the whole family, of course. But alone? Never. But I did on Wednesday. :-) Katie still wasn't feeling well, so we couldn't take the whole family that day. There were a few things that I needed to do in town that James couldn't do for me, so he got to stay home with the kids. :-) I took Charlie in for his appointment (it was time for a haircut--the last one grew out way too fast, so I had them clip him much shorter this time!), dropped James' suit off at the cleaners, then headed to the mall to take care of my business there, returning and exchanging Christmas gifts that didn't fit or work. I went to Penney's then walked to Kohl's, then all the way back to Penney's, then ended up at Kohl's again. I'll spare you the gory details. :-) In the end I was able to accomplish everything that needed accomplished, though it was no easy chore.

Left the mall and headed to Wal-Mart (in Albuquerque--ME?! Who would've thunk it???) to pick up a few things. Went through the drive-through at Wendy's, went to pick up my pitiful, embarrassed puppy who had just received his very first real poodle cut (what a sad thing), then took him to get his last puppy shot. I hate that. I think he'd be better off with no shots at all, but you can't get a license if he doesn't have his shots and most groomers won't clip him if he doesn't have a license. I really ought to just learn to clip him myself. It would save us the money on paying to have it done AND we wouldn't have to give him all of those nasty shots. Anyway, at the clinic Charlie met a 9 week old Saint Bernard. Charlie was almost as big as his head. Ha! He was soooooo cute. :-)

Made it home just after 3:00, I think, and the snow had begun to fall. The roofers had to leave early because it was getting so cold and windy and snowy. Poor guys.

Yesterday Katie finally started feeling a little better, though she's still not 100%. At least she was able to eat something (hadn't done that in a couple of days) and she was able to keep it down--that was a definite improvement. She still slept most of the day away, however, and never went out to talk to Brother Chris. That's the truth teller right there. There is NO WAY that girl would miss a chance to talk to Brother Chris if she were well! The guys had to leave early yesterday, too, because it was snowing more and more and they couldn't keep the roof cleared off enough to continue shingling up there. They've worked through so much bad weather--no normal roofers would have even tried until the weather cleared up. James had gone to Edgewood to get some things from Wal-Mart (we were suddenly out of everything!) and he had a hard time getting home. The roads were horrible, there were several accidents already, and the Interstate was being shut down. He was able to make it here, but could only get the van partially up the drive-way. It kept snowing all throughout the afternoon, making it obvious that we'd be missing church again. Crazy!

When we figured out we wouldn't be going anywhere, I somehow decided that I should start taking down the Christmas decor. That was dumb. But I kept thinking it would be a good time to do it. The house is a total catastrophe for a day or two when I do that and I've been worried--what if Jason called and said somebody wanted to come see the house in the middle of the mess?! When the mini-blizzard hit I figured it would be the best possible time to jump in there and get it done. Not many people are going to put chains on their tires to go look at houses, you know. ;-) So I spent all afternoon and evening tearing down the Christmas stuff, sorting it, and packing it much better than I usually do. Packing it to MOVE this time, not just sit in a shed. Felt good to do something that somehow felt like one tiny, little step on the road to Alabama. :-)

Of course, I ran out of steam at about 10:00 last night. I had all of the Christmas stuff down and packing in boxes and bins... that were still all over the living room and dining room. Ah, yes. Amidst the chaos of de-Christmas-ing the house, Charlie was HORRIBLE yesterday. He's been doing sooooooo good with the house training (4 or 5 days with no accidents at all, then just a couple, then 4 or 5 more perfect days) and had SEVERAL accidents in the house yesterday. I was ready to KILL HIM!!! But I was all caught up in the big, messy project and didn't have the time or attention to give him--except to yell and beat him and throw him outside when it was too late! Ha! Anyway, today we've been treating him like we did the very first week--watching him every waking moment and taking him outside over and over and over again. And he's done much better. I hope to have him entirely back on track by tomorrow. We'll see.

Today James helped me haul the bins and bins and boxes and boxes of Christmas stuff out to the shed in the frigid weather. I think it was 6 degrees at the time. (Perhaps that, coupled with the incredibly messy house, had something to do with Charlie not wanting to do his thing outside?!) Then I spent the rest of the day moving furniture, sweeping, mopping, dusting, and redecorating. I hate that job, but it feels soooooo good when it's all over with. :-) I did take a few breaks to spend some time with Charlie, hoping perhaps that would help with his "issues" as well. James keeps reminding me that I wanted a lap dog. Charlie is the lappiest dog I've ever seen! He loves to play, but when he's ready to sit he seems to think the only sensible place to do that is in my lap! He spent a good deal of time playing with the kids today and had to settle for Katie's lap most of the time. That was no problem, really, since the kids spent ALL DAY today sitting next to the stereo. James had pulled down his old books and records (you know, "turn the page when you hear the bell") and they thought they were just the coolest thing. So they sat there for hour after hour listening to records and flipping through books--Lady and the Tramp, The Fox and the Hound, The Flintstones, Popeye, Davy Crockett, Sinbad the Sailor, and dozens more. I love it that my kids think those old things are so great! Ha!

I made some fantastical ham and beans for dinner tonight. The chicken and noodles from last night turned out great, too. I just love making things like that when it's cold and snowy outside! Makes ya' feel nice and cozy and toasty warm. :-)

We let the kids stay up late tonight since it's New Year's Eve. It's not quite 11:00 right now, but they've all crashed in the past hour. It's just as well. New Year's Eve has never been that big of a deal where I come from. I recall some really great ones when we would pray in the new year at church, or have a party with all the young people... But when nothing like that is going on, what's there to do?! If I'm still up at midnight it won't be because I tried; it'll be because it just happens. Right now I'm not quite tired enough to go to bed. And I have a nice, warm, fuzzy poodle snoring in my lap and I'm rather enjoying it. :-)

In any case, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! I resolve to be a better blogger. Not really, but it's a nice thought. :-)