TGIF

Sunday: The heater in the freezer stopped working so the entire fridge thawed out and everything got ruined. Not able to fix it until thursday.

Monday: Snowed.

Tuesday: My car wouldnt start. Ended up Borrowing my parents 1999 Huyundai Elantra, which sqeels horribly when you start it.

Wednesday: More snow. Emotional roller coaster of a day.

Thursday: Bingo with my dad and grandmother. Actually had fun. Went to a wine tasting dinner with Ken. Had 6 glasses of wine and made new friends.

Friday (today): Found out that my Realtor dues are due by January 12, which is $510. My cell phone that I got a week ago stopped recieving calls or texts. I can call out and send but for some reason cant recieve. On the phone with tech support for 59 minutes and 43 seconds only to ascertain that it is the device that is having the error and I need to take it to one of the local At&T shops to exchange for a new one. Got home (to pick up all of the accessories to take to AT&T) to find out that Sunshine had gotten sick in the kennel and there was poop everywhere. And I do mean everywhere. Two feet outside of the kennel, the entire kennel and both dogs were covered. Washing ensued, blankets and dogs and carpet. My back is killing me now, i'm wet and hungry. And then after her bath Sunshine decided she was mad at me for giving her a bath and she walks over to Carls bedroom door and pees.

Tomorrow? I dont want to know.

Where in the world...

New species found in Thailand and Vietnam. Holy cow! A rabbit that looks like a tiger, a rat that looks like a squirrel and a bright pink millipeid (ew...). It just still amazes me that they are still finding new speices of animals. With all the exploration and invading of land that man has done of the last umpteen years, there are still new beings out there to find. I wonder what's next.....

One foot of snow predicted by tomorrow morning!!!

It is insane out there at the moment. I only went into the office for a few hours today, but after it started snowing I got the hell out of there. I had to stop at Wal-mart on the way home (Carl needed the ingredients to make salsa for a christmas party tonight) and right as I pulled into the parking lot it hit hard. Seriously, for a desert girl, it was what I would imagine a blizzard would be like. (keep in mind I was born and raised here). I had had a pretty emotionally crappy morning tho, just felt like crying over everything. But walking into Walmart everyone was laughing and enjoying the snow, and I felt better. Kind of wierd that Walmart made me feel better, but I think it was the atmosphere. Everyone was in a cheerful mood, laughing and enjoying the snow, and it actually began to feel like christmas.

Hell froze over

Yes, it is true. We had snow in las vegas. If my frickin camera was working i'd take some pictures of the mountains. They are absolutely gorgeous. Every year we get maybe an hour or two of snow, and of course everyone freaks out. This year tho, it was actually forecasted. Yep. Everyone planned for this. Including me. Once I woke up and saw how gloomy and eyeore the sky was, snow or rain or hail was not going to get me out of the house. Not that i'm afraid of getting wet. It's the insane drivers here. We get 20 minutes of light rain and the auto accident rate jumps up 20%. So with snow, nope, no way I was leaving the house. Fortunately, I have a boss who shares this sentiment and after a 30 minute phone conference on what we could do by phone from our perspective homes, and watching a pigeon slip on the ice in the street, I planned my day. So what did I do with a whole monday home? Did I work on my blogs like I should have? Nope. Did I work on my Alibris account? Nope. I decided to be adventurous. See, this weekend I acquired a freezer. A stand up big as a fridge freezer just for me. Well, and for Carl since he lives here too, but seeing as how I do the majority of the cooking and shopping, it's for me. So I broke out all 3 of my crockpots and set to cooking. My goal - 3 different soups/stews, seperate them all into individual servings and freeze them. I dont feel right unless I have a months supply of everything. And I do mean everything. I have enough clothes to last me a month without doing laundry. I have enough toiletries (shampoo, toothpaste, etc) to last me a 3 months without going to the store. I have 40 piggy banks set around the house just for those emergencies. So now my goal is to have at least 30 frozen meals in the fridge. You know, just incase. All in all it was about an hour prep time, 2 hours watching "The Mummy" (ahhh Brendan Fraser), a 2 hour nap, and 2 hours on the phone and I had 11 meals for the freezer. The last recipe only made 3 servings, altho the recipe said it would make 4. I try to fill the rubbermaid dish tho when i'm freezing them so my servings tend to be a bit large. All in all I think they came out rather well. I was proud of them anyways. The recipes are on my other blog.

9 days of christmas

It actually felt like christmas today. Windy, chilly, and the smell of snow in the air. Not that we're likely to get any here in the valley, but hey stranger things have happened. They are saying tho that there is a chance, albeit small, that we might get some snow over the weekend. Only above 5000 feet tho, which means my folks house might get some. If it does i'm gonna have to take the girls up there. Sunshine was born in Texas and moved here when i think she was 7 months old and of course Bella was born here in the valley. (Sunshine is a Boston Terrier and Bella my 5 month old Rottweiler). I always said I would never be one of those people who put clothes on my dogs, but poor Sunshine is just shivering all the time. Freezing her non furry butt off while Bella is just as warm as a bug in a rug. So I broke down and got her 3 sweaters. She actually seems to enjoy wearing them, and doesnt fight me at all when I go to put them on her, which I expected her to do. And Bella seems a tad bit jealous that she doesnt have any clothes to wear, altho she's growing so fast i'm sure if I put one of my shirts on her it'd fit.

8 days of December

Well, that worked out well, huh? I said I was gonna post every day for the 24 days of december and then I never got around to posting again. It has just been crazy so far this month. But then december always is. So far all i've done is put up the decorations. No lights yet. I was going to tonight but it is super windy outside, actually feels like winter, so I thought me up on a ladder in 30 mph winds wasnt a good idea. I still cant' find my christmas tree though. Moving 3 times in the last 8 months has definately been good at helping me declutter and purge some of the crap i've been hauling around the last 33 years, but I didnt intend on loosing my tree. I've had that tree for 10 years now. Yeah it was getting a little frayed and worn, but it was still pretty. Plus I have enough decorations to fill 2 trees and now I have no where to put them. It's taking alot of will power to not rush out and buy a new one. But i'm determined that one will pop up somewhere. Most things that I truly need do.

1 day of December countdown

For the next 24 day's i'm going to journal different ideas, crafts, activities and gift ideas for the holidays. Alot of these can also be used throughout the year.

The night you put the christmas tree up, have a family slumber party. Set up sleeping bags around the tree, make sure you have lots of snacks and hot cocoa. Watch a favorite family holiday movie or tell christmas stories and share memories of holidays past.

Let the kids decorate their bedrooms too. Dont forget the bathrooms!

Everyone puts out disposable cameras for wedding receptions, so why not christmas? Place them all around the house to make sure you dont miss any holiday moments.

In my family we always made a countdown chain for christmas. On the first of the december, my mother would let us all pick a color ribbon. She would then weave these together and we all got to take turns cutting 'our' ribbon, counting down to christmas. It was always a big deal on our day.

Put green food coloring in hot oatmeal and top with cinnamon for a festive touch.

Hot glue bright glass ornaments to a styrafoam cone to create a festive ornament tree.

Use old christmas cards to create a holiday house. Use double sided tape to adhere to a box.