CAUTION: Woman In Progress

Hugs and smiles on this Christmas morning. Love, Jana and Libby

Adieu! Adieu! To you and you and you! Okay, so MAYBE I like the sound of music a little bit TOO much. Which is funny because before I ever saw it (pre-4th grade) I was convinced that I hated it. Mostly because everyone told me to hate it. But my 4th grade teacher, bless her heart, made us watch it as part of a sort of visual history/theatre/"treat" thing and I fell in love. The point of this post isn't to exalt the wonder that is Julie Andrews (although she is aMAZing!!) but instead to say, "It's that time of year again." The time of year where I shutter my blog for approximately two weeks and go off and do fun family things involving Christmas. ;-) This has been a roller coaster year for me, personally, though I would not say it has been bad. There have been hard times, disappointments and unique experiences I would not have chosen for myself but in everything there have been blessings. I don't even remember all the things that angsted me out over...

So. Getting a suitable Christmas card photo with the Devil Pup has been...how shall I put it? Difficult . Yes. Difficult. For some reason, she is just NOT INTO IT. Perhaps I've taken her photo too often over the years. Hmmmm... Either way, she adopted this sort of fool me once but then I'll bite you attitude. Which she did, once. Bite me, that is. Not hard. Just enough to let me know she meant business. More like a growl and teeth graze on my hand sort of thing, lest you think she's violent. ;-)  Notice she's not looking at the camera. This was the same face I got in just about every one that night.  Then it was a matter of not even coming near me.  I was sitting in the floor in front of her trying to coax her over and that's the incredulous look she gave me. Like, "WHATever."  She finally inched over enough to drape herself over my leg to lick my foot. That's when she teeth grazed me as I reached for her.    A couple n...

Ya'll. I'm not ordinarily much of a shopper. Hence my early morning grocery treks to avoid other shoppers. I'm a get in, get out kinda gal. (Insert a "That's what she he said" joke here. haha) Shopping is not my forte. Unfortunately, though, not all Christmas gifts can be purchased on-line. At least, not the kind of gifts I get. For instance, BIL loves the cheese straws and lemon straws produced by a company here in Mississippi and while, yes, they do offer them in an on-line store, the shipping is outrageous. So instead, I get them from a local gift shop. (Insert "shop local!" slogan here. That's one of the big PSA's around here this time of year.) That called for...dun, dun, dun...a shopping day! As in, all out, driving around town from one place to another shopping. Fortunately, this year I had a partner in crime misery. Sis2 jumped at the chance to leave the kids with Goofus and trek all over town with me. Hurray for a sister I don...

Just passing along this link to a blog that has listed links to places and ways to assist those in Conneticut. She's a semi-local person so I assume she's in the know. Also, the folks over at The Lettered Cottage posted a link to the branch of United Way who is collecting funds to help out. Bonus, Layla offered a lovely heartfelt prayer that I think was in most everyone's hearts this weekend. God bless.

I prayed for a happy and good day for myself and my family this morning on my way to work. After yesterday's fiasco with the mini-terrorists and all that had gone on with that and beyond, and then a repeat of it this morning (poor Mama!) I felt like we all needed a good day. Some happiness. Something to ease the frustration of dealing with destructive rodents. I should have prayed for the whole WORLD to have a happy day. My heart goes out to everyone in Connecticut affected by the tragic shooting. It's senseless and evil when a man can just decide that it's okay to go to a school--or anywhere!--and just kill whoever he crosses paths with. It's especially heinous to think it's okay to kill children . There is no "why" to this sort of thing. There is no reason. No explanation. Only evil. It definitely puts the concept of a "bad" day into perspective, huh?

I am convinced that mice are little mini-terrorists bent on destroying the world one wire at a time. Not only did they destroy half of Daddy's Christmas lights he'd stored in the shed. I mean, that's bad enough. But today really takes the cake. You may or may not know that My mother got a new Nissan Rogue last year.  Or earlier this year. No, I think it was late last year. ANYWAY, the car is barely a year old and this morning it would not crank. Well, it did at first, but when she cut if off it wouldn't start a second time. The problem? MICE. A mouse or a group of mice had built a nest under the hood somewhere and chewed through some wires. A $1300 fix, peeps, according to the dealership. Warranty doesn't cover such a thing and the insurance adjuster is giving her grief about it even though something like that SHOULD be covered under a comprehensive auto insurance plan. What the crap, mice? You don't have anything better to do than chew wires? They d...

So. Trix and I were talking about Christmas songs earlier and I mentioned that I have the warm and fuzzies for Elvis's Blue Christmas . Just Elvis's version of the song, though. It has to be Elvis. Unless it's Porky Pig. This is where Trix informs me that she has not had the delightful opportunity to indulge in such a pleasure as listening to Porky Pig sing Blue Christmas . So Trixie! This one's for you! :-D Enjoy!

Life. Blergh. In a nutshell this weekend I... ~grocery shopped ~Christmas shopped (I'm almost done!! Woot! Woot!) ~decorated the small tree in my bedroom. ~discovered that I'm (once again) an idiot. (No, Virginia. Two boxes of 20 count lights will NOT fill up a small tree with white lights.) ~strung up some "decorations" and lights outside. ~Talked to BFF on the phone. (It's been six months. Yikes!) ~Ate lightly. ~Lost 1lb. ~Finished TWO BOOKS!! (Brenda Novak FINALLY got out of the whole depressing/disturbing/dark thriller rut she was in. Can I get a Amen?) ~Watched The Holiday ~Slept. ~Washed clothes, dishes and myself. (Not at the same time.) ~Swept, vacuumed and partially dusted. (Again--not at the same time.) ~Finished decorating my dining table. (And forgot to photograph it.) ~Went to church. (Only once.) ~Offended my mother by smothering the bland hamburger "steak" she made for lunch Sunday with bbq sauce. ~Did...

So. I finally got the big ass tree up this week. Did I mention that already? Have I posted this week? I don't remember. :-/ Anyway. I started on the tree Monday night. Actually, I started Saturday by dragging it in and leaving it in the dining room. But I got it put together on Monday. 1.5 hours. Ugh.   I sat and rested for a while. Watched Rudolph. Ate peanuts. Drank coffee. Got my ankles bathed. You know. The usual. Then I got up and put a few decorations on while Blake Shelton murdered the spirit of Christmas with his Not so Family Christmas special. I love you, Blake, but really? Blech. But did you notice my new slipper socks? Aren't they cute? Five dollars at Wal-Mart. Loves me some Kermit. He was born in Mississippi. Did ya'll know that?? ;-) Anyhoo, I quit and went to bed about halfway through. Got back at is Wednesday night after supper. Another hour and a half or so. And I gotta say, I'm a tad bit disappointed. It looks almost e...

Cause I am done, done, done with one of the committees that has been running me ragged these past couple months. We are finito! We did what we set out to do and it's OVER. No more meetings! Well, for that committee, anyway. I still have the five other committees and two sub-committees that will be meeting periodically. But one is finished so I'm celebrating. As one of the librarians said after our last meeting, I now have some freed up brain space. Unfortunately, my brain is much like a re-writable DVD in the sense that after a while, the previously used and multiply rewritten space gets more and more warped with continued use until it's unusable. Which means, kids , I completely spazzed in one of my other meetings yesterday and got "the look" from the committee chair. Oopsies! Anyway, I just had to celebrate the dissolution of the one committee a little bit on zee blog because nobody in my "real" life cares. Just ask her ! In other ne...

When she was here for Thanksgiving (forever ago) Emmy had this song stuck in her head and thus got it stuck in MY head. Classic Mariah! ;-) Hope it's stuck in YOUR ears now! bwahahahahahaha