This week's warm weather and clear-sky Santa Ana was ushered out today in a big way with rain showers (and even hail!) and a cold wind from the north.
The change in weather was a good demarcation point to change from Thanksgiving into Christmas, which we're getting an early start on this year. Of course, the first course of action is to get the tree.
Now Penny has never had a tree in the house, and I'm not sure she entirely knows what to think about it. Wait until we put the lights and decorations on tomorrow!
The past week has been BUSY! Last weekend my little brother came to visit. We very much enjoyed having him out to hang with us for a few days. Rock Band got a lot of air time :) When we dropped him off at the airport and drove off, Stephan kept asking, “Where’s uncle Eilert?” and then we talked some about him, and I, being sad that uncle Eilert had to go home. He’s such a sweet little boy, already planning uncle’s next trip out!
I also made the apple pie for our mini "Turkey" feast.
After Eilert left, I endured my one and only workday of the week, rushing home to get down to the Pepsi Center so we could shoot some hoops before the Nuggets game. Unfortunately, we only ended up with five minutes because we got there so late and they booted us off the court earlier than I’d expected. We then walked across the parking lot for dinner and went back for the game. At halftime Stephan was part of the “High Five Squad” and got the chance to high five some very tall NBAers. Due to a mix up, he did not get to see the Nuggets up close, and some of the other kids parents were jerks, but he did get one Nets player to come up and give him a high five, which I tried to play up for his sake. He was disappointed to only high five one player, but that’s more than some people ever get so it was still pretty darn cool!
That afternoon I’d called my OB’s office and found out the preeclampsia labs she did all were fine. Still going to check my BP on Tuesday and see if I’ll need to start meds, but what a relief to know that it’s not preeclampsia, just the high blood pressure right now.
Wednesday Andy and I took Stephan to daycare and spent the day together. We went to see Pirate Radio (not a bad flick, but not the comedy I’d expected from the previews) and he took me to Red Robin for lunch. Also stopped at Sam’s for tp, but otherwise an official date mid week, something that doesn’t often happen.
Turkey day we went to Mimi’s Café for lunch with my in-laws. I’m not a huge turkey fan, so I just got a breakfast frittata that was pretty good and shared Andy’s pumpkin pie. Even though it was a pretty small meal, I didn’t eat much the rest of the day. We sent Stephan off with nana & papa and had another afternoon to ourselves before heading to the Bronco game. So glad they actually won again. A little chillier than I like, too bad the game wasn’t played in the afternoon when it was 60 and sunny out. On the way home we drove by Best Buy and Ultimate Electronics to see where we might have the most luck getting Andy his PS3 deal. I decided to ask him if he wanted that as his Cmas/Bday/Anniv gift this year and after combing the ads, those two stores were the only ones with deals. Best Buy looked NUTS already at 9:30pm so we decided to skip that and go for Ultimate since there were only about 15 people waiting there. After going home and getting a few hours of sleep, we got up at 3am to head out for …
Black Friday. This is only the second year we’ve done the BF thing. When we got to Ultimate, there were about 40-50 people in front of us and we plopped down in our camp chairs and bundled up in our blankies for a couple hours. When the store employees finally started walking down the line with vouchers we luckily got one for the PS3, 7 of 10! The deal there was that they were going to sell 10 PS3s with a bonus $100 gift card. With that bonus we were able to get the BluRay remote and a game for Andy and I got a game for my DS too since they were already sold out of my Mario game. Oh well, it’s on my Christmas list along with Wii Fit Plus! After the hour long wait to check out, we drove over to Target to see if they still had a couple toys in the ad for Stephan. They did. Andy was unsuccessful at finding his Psych season, but got a season of Monk instead. So far a pretty good morning. We stopped at McD’s and then went to Kohl’s to see what was left there after them being open for 3 hours or so. There was a toy I wanted to get for Stephan, something to hang on to and give him from the baby in the hospital, and some frames, and Andy said he’d wanted to have me pick out some earrings for my Christmas gift. We found everything and while the cheaper earrings that were in the ad were all gone, they probably looked kinda crappy anyway, and I found some pretty diamond earrings to coordinate with the necklace he and Stephan got me a couple years ago for Mother’s Day.
We went home and got everything inside. I decided that while Andy was setting up his PS3 I’d pull out Stephan’s presents and get them all unboxed and ready to go and then wrapped them so he wouldn’t discover them AND know what they were like he did this year before his birthday. Took a while, but now his gifts are not only purchased, but wrapped and ready to go under the tree and in his stocking. Good thing too, cause he’s already found them and asked about them and wanted them. Sheesh.
After waking up a little with showers, we headed up to nana & papa’s to get the kid and stopped along the way at Dick’s to see if we’d get lucky there too. While they did not have the plum Crocs I wanted (don't even think they stock that color), they did have my size in the cute emu ugg boots so I snagged those. I’ve been wanting a pair but holding out since so many are made in China and not Australia. I did not want to spend a ton of money on a pair of boots that are probably made for ¼ the cost or less. These were 60% off and have a cute button accent so I decided to give them a try and see if I like them enough to maybe order some that are really made in Australia.
I crashed with Stephan when we got home and had a lovely nap that got me through dinner and more Rock Band with some friends we haven’t seen in years, not since just after Stephan was born. We enjoyed catching up with them and just hanging out.
This morning Andy woke up feeling crummy after so little sleep yesterday. After he drank some water and ate some he started feeling better and we were off on our last errand of the weekend. Went to the mall and the Christian bookstore. Their deals were good for three days and not just three hours so I didn’t want to stress or feel like I needed to rush there yesterday. We got a couple Veggie Tales DVDs and CDs for Andy and I, Stephan picked out a Veggie ornament for his tree ... and we picked up a DVD and doll for my youngest niece.
WE ARE DONE WITH CHRISTMAS SHOPPING!! YAY!!!
One tradition left to go. Andy and I buy stocking suffers
for each other last minute. Have for years. We go to Target and make a game of avoiding each other in the store and seeing how much
we can get for the other person’s stocking for just $25. Fun challenge.
If Andy’s still feeling better he might go down to the garage and dig out the tree and all our other Christmas stuff. Right now of course, he’s shooting up somewhere in Warfare land on his Christmas gift. I’m glad everything worked out.
Tomorrow, we’ll head to church and then probably rest the afternoon away.
I only worked 8 days in Nov + one day at a conference. There are 12 up in Dec, three whole weeks and then Christmas break. I feel a bit spoiled. Hard to believe that come January I’ve only got about 10 more weeks till baby’s here and then I’ll have most of the rest of the year off before summer. This year has been QUICK.
Yup, I'm saying goodbye to Vox and moving to a brand new blog:
I just got my tickets to go home over Christmas.
I'm so excited!!!!
I haven't seen some of my immediate family in almost 3 years!!!!!
Yay! I Leave Chicago and Fly into London, Gatwick on the 16th and get THREE WHOLE WEEKS of family! WOOHOO!
I'm going home, I'm going home!
(does Numfar's dance of Joy and the Snoopy dance, and some of Elaine Benes' dance from Seinfeld)
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After a couple of days of feeling out of sorts, it seems that Penny’s puppy pharmaceutical treatment has helped out immensely and that there was a very energetic and eager pointer ready for a big mountain hike this morning.
We took a great long hike down and then up to the top of the mountain The Aerie rests on. There were great views out to the ocean and even down to Point Loma.
Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!
My kid went to his dad's this morning. Flew from Seattle to SanFran at the asscrack of dawn 6am. Since this is one of the busiest travel days of the year, we signed him up for the Unaccompanied Minor service on Virgin America. (That's an additional $160, it ain't free.) My whole reasoning is that I wanted them to be accountable for him if anything happened on this busy travel day and when he comes back -- reroutes due to weather, bad plane, whatever. They introduced him to the airline attendant, and even made me set up a password for me, the kid, and the exhusband. And hey! He gets free movies, free tv, free food... cool, right?
THEY LOST HIM.
My ex called me after everything was over, and told me what happened. He had spent over an hour with the Virgin America people trying to find out what the hell happened to him, Aside from the fact that THEY DIDN'T EVEN REALIZE HE WAS LOST - no one knew, no one had an answer, no one even instigated any kind of search until he started yelling (and my ex can YELL) and he just happened to see my kid walk by, looking for him as well. Lots more details to the story than that, but basically you get the gist. Their general take on the incident... they can't do anything, you're just SOL if they lose your kid.
FUCKERS. VIRGIN AMERICAN CAN GO FUCK THEMSELVES.*
*Bad pun strenuously intended.
I watched Mr "P" plant two tomato plants, two blueberry plants and one tangerine tree today. Supervising is hard work, it must be because I'm tired.
Mom and I made a Sonshine (no its not misspelled, son as in the Son of God) basket for a lady in our neighborhood whom we have never met but her husband stops by our house while walking his dog and talks to Mr "P" . Mr "P" was telling me the man's wife is very sick with cancer. I hope the little gifts and the Bible verses bring her some comfort and some happiness.
Black Friday is the unofficial kickoff to the holiday shopping season. When are you planning on beginning your holiday shopping?
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I start my holiday shopping the day after Christmas. If I see something throughout the year that I know a loved one would want I pick it up and store it in the 'gift closet' until it's time to pull out the Christmas paper and wrap it all up.
That being said. This year I bought stuff that will just stay in the closet until next year. I found some puzzles on clearance and picked them up as little 'hey Mom, saw this and was thinking about you' gifts. But, Mom has decided that we are not buying for anyone other than the great-grandkids this year. So, Mom doesn't get her puzzles and Jordan gets left out, too.
We may just stay in Tuscaloosa for Christmas this year. bah humbug!!
