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I'm back!! I've missed you!! The holidays flew by... Work has been busy too, so I have not posted mich at all. There is so much to catch up on! More to come...

I hope everyone had a great Christmas!!!

I Love Christmas!!

I love my Christmas tree, I must upload a photo of it, but this cute little tree to the left will have to do!! Don't you love Christmas?? I love the decorations, the hustle and bustle, the food, and the cards. I love the nostalgic feeling I get with a familiar Christmas smell or memory. I enjoy turning off all the lights in the house, except for the white trees lights and just looking at the tree.

What is your favorite Christmas memory?

My favorite memory is going to get our Christmas tree in PA with Man and our dogs. At that time we only had Cody and Zack (our Boarder Collie last passed away last December) and we would take them along with us. We went to a house near our local ski area (tiny ski area we called Slushy Mountain) that sold trees from the woods he owned. You just parked your car and he gave you a saw and you trekked out into the woods and cut it down yourself. It was so beautiful in the woods, especially if there was snow. Cody and Zack loved to go and run around the woods. Zack loved the snow!! He would push snow at your feet hoping you would throw a snowball for him to chase. We would search and search for the most perfect tree and then drag it back to the house. The old man there would look at it and say something like "looks good-how bout $25?". We would load it in the back of the truck and head home with exhausted dogs to decorate.

Worst Christmas memory??

I have 3 bad memories....

My aunt committed suicide a couple days before Christmas when I was 13 years old. It was a very difficult Christmas, lots of tears. No need to say anything else about it.

There was a Christmas when I was like 10 years old and all my Mom got me and my sister was $10 in a Christmas card. It wasn't the fact that all we got was $10, it was the motive behind it. I have always felt she did it just to see what kind of reaction she would get from us. We just said thank you, she got no reaction out of us. She never said anything like money is tight this year, so this is all I could do. I always knew money was tight, so my expectations were always low. I want to believe she did that because of lack of money, but there is something in the back of my head that keeps coming back to the notion of vindictiveness. My Mom had it rough at times and I wouldn't put it past her to do something like that to us. Let's just say growing up with Mom wasn't the happy go lucky childhood that most kids have.

My third bad Christmas memory was when I was around 11 or 12. Our Dad didn't have enough money for Christmas presents for us. He was able to get us a few small things, but then promised to take us shopping when he got paid. My parents divorced when I was 8 years old. Dad paid child support to my Mom and she tried to get him for every penny she could. She would take us to the doctor over a sore throat and make my Dad pay the bill. What kid doesn't get dozens of sore throats growing up?? You don't go to the doctors for each one!!! Anyways, I felt really bad for my Dad because he was so sorry that he could do more. I remember him explaining and dropping his head down and saying he was sorry. He felt so bad, but my sister and I were fine with it. Again-we always had low expectations! I think of this as a bad memory because I know how bad my Dad must have felt that Christmas. I feel bad that he was hurting.

Even with all those bad memories, I still love Christmas!! Man and I have made our own memories and traditions. This year I am still trying to decide if I should bake Christmas cookies or not. I usually give most of them away. Man and I certainly don't need them in the house and he doesn't want me to take any to his work! I am leaning towards no. If I do it, it would be this weekend. This weekend may be my birthday weekend, since our water problem ruined it the first time. Thinking if a movie on Saturday afternoon and then dinner. Any movie ideas?? I am leaning towards The Blind Side. We will see what happens...

The $1200 Shower

Well my birthday dinner and movie never happened this weekend. Our water softer had to be replaced along with a pump and some piping. Our water pressure had been low for a few weeks, so we called our plumber. Since we have well water, our water softer was clogged up with yucky stuff, preventing normal water flow. The pipes had narrowed from the build up of 11 years of well water yuckiness. The pump was working so hard to pump the water that when we replaced everything it couldn't keep up with the now normal water flow. Man had to go buy a new pump. So, $1200 dollars later we have a heck of a good shower now!! This all happened Friday night to Saturday morning. We had no water during that time, which is not fun. We cancelled dinner Friday night because I had a money melt down. No movie on Saturday because Man spent most of the day replacing the pump in the pouring rain. Overall I am very happy with our water pressure now, but bummed out because my birthday celebration didn't happen. I never knew our shower could be so great and for $1200 it better last for years!!!

The Biggest Loser

I am a big loser!! I was whining about no one remembering my birthday and I was wrong.
Man sent me beautiful flowers, my co-workers brought me a big chocolate dessert and sang, both of my Grandmas called, my Uncle called, and my Dad and Sister left a message on my phone. My best friend from high school & college sent me an email. I got cards in the mail from my in-laws and my Dad. The dogs and Man got me cards and a cake too. We are going to dinner tonight and a movie tomorrow. No more whining for me, it was a good day!!

Happy Birthday To Me!!

Yes, it's my birthday!! I am 38 years old today!! Help me! No plans really, unless man surprises me. I doubt he will because he never has before. I am feeling a bit down because no one has acknowledged my b-day. Man called from work this morning, but that's it. No emails from family and only 2 b-day cards so far. Am I getting too old to feel like this? Am I being a baby?? I don't like attention, but I make an exception to my b-day. A little attention would be nice. I did tell Man not to get me anything. I said I just wanted dinner and a movie this weekend, which is planned already. Maybe I am testing Man, but that's not fair to him because I told him no gifts. No one at work remembered it's my b-day either. Should I tell people? If I do that then I feel like I am asking for something. What's wrong with me? Is it me or everyone else?? A cake would be nice. I make them for everyone else. What about me?? I'll quit whining now.

Anyways, Happy Depressing Birthday to me!!

Happy Belated Thanksgiving!!!

We had a busy weekend! Thanksgiving was okay. I went to a special spin class in the morning. It was a 1 1/2 hour endurance spin and it was great! I was afraid I wouldn't be able to keep up, but it was good. The first 40 minutes were the worst, then I got into a groove and sailed through the last 50 minutes. I felt so good afterwards! when I got home I made SOS for lunch. SOS is creamed chipped beef on toast. I was delicious!! I like to make a special breaksfast or lunch on holidays. Man and I spent the rest of the day cleaning out the garage and talking on the phone to family. We are pretty disappointed in our families because no one called us!! Man didn't call his family because he was pissed that no one called him. His sister did text him though. My Dad, my Mom, and my sister were all not home. I did get to talk to my Grandma and my Aunt, who filled me in on all the gossip. In fact, I had no idea were everyone was for Thanksgiving. It is a bit disheartening that your own family is not interested in wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving. Oh well, I tried...

In between mostly unsuccessful phone calls I tried to make a carmel sauce for my apple pie. I got one shot at it because I had just enough sugar for one batch. It was a complete flop! Who knew carmel sauce was so difficult to make?? You had to stir it until the water and sugar turned light brown. Light brown never happened... It went from clear to crystallized sugar. I added more water to try to dissolve the sugar again and it still wouldn't turn light brown. I just dumped it out!

We had Thanksgiving Dinner at the in-laws, it was okay. They didn't eat until almost 6:30 pm and there were no mashed potatoes! That should be a sin, mashed potatoes are a Thanksgiving staple!! Overall, the food was okay. I definitely didn't over eat! Yea! My pies were delicious too. There were only 5 of us for dinner. The 5th person was a friend of the in-laws. When she drinks too much wine she starts to make no sense! I miss the big family gathering with card games and football.

On Black Friday I went to the gym in the am and Man and I hit the stores in the afternoon. We had lunch at The Cheesecake factory and it was great. They have a salad that I love. It has mixed greens, roasted asparagus, beets, pecans, and goat cheese. I eat it without dressing and it rocks. I think it is called the French Country Salad. We also shared chips and fresh guacamole and of course there was cheesecake... Man had key lime cheesecake and I had the holiday special cheesecake-peppermint and white chocolate- it was amazing!! Parking at the restaurant was a hassle! It took Man 20 minutes to get a spot, needless to say he was in a rotten mood when he came into the restaurant. I managed to cheer him up though! After lunch we did some shopping. It really wasn't too bad at all, maybe because we waited until after lunch to start. We spent the rest of Friday evening at home.

Saturday I when to the gym and then finished shopping that I couldn't do while Man was with me. I did some work outside with the dogs. We went and got our Christmas tree!!! We get a real tree every year from the Bonita Springs Rotary Club. Prices were down this year, only $55 for a 6 foot Douglas fur. Then we went to Bella Maria for dinner and it was very good. It is a family owned and operated Chilean restaurant. The food is amazing, but service can be slow. They also have a lot if misspellings in their menu, it's funny.

Sunday I skipped the gym!!! I rarely do that! Don't tell anyone! Man and I walked the dogs and read the paper. I cleaned out our closet and rearranged our computer room. We had sold our treadmill that was in that room, so I wanted to change it around a bit. We have a lot more room in there now. We cleaned the boat, which we are selling too, we never use it! I did some laundry, reading, and made pasta with vodka sauce for dinner. Overall, it was a nice weekend with Man.

Last night we booked a cruise for May! We are going on the Oasis of the Sea, the new Royal Caribbean ship. We are going with friends from the east coast. It will be a lot of fun! Man and I may renew our vows since our 10th anniversary is in March. Who knows what will do....