The gifts Thursday 13

Thirteen Things Renéegot for Christmas 1. Fuzzy Purple socks from Darly. They keep my feet very warm and I love them! 2. Fuzzy Purple slippers from Darly. They have nice squishy soles. Very nice. 3. Purple suede looking shirt from MIL. Very nice, but wrong size. Returned because the store didn’t have my size. Will check with on-line store to see if my size is available. 4. Purple stripped shirt from MIL…same as above. 5. Calphalon commercial Bunt pan from Mom… I don’t have a bunt recipe. 6. Calphalon commercial muffin pan from Mom… great for pumpkin muffins. 7. Calphalon commercial mini- muffin pan from Mom. 8. Glass Angel ornament from Bro & SIL. 9. Glass TinkerBELL ornament from Bro & SIL. 10. Shania perfume set from Santa. Normally DH doesn’t like perfume. ??? 11. Bunny collage picture… see here… from Santa! Yay! Now we have to get the family room painted so we can hang it. 12. Under the cabinet CD/radio for the kitchen from DH. It's not quite that one, they must have sold out. Mine doesn't have the weather feature. 13. Kodak Easy Share digital camera from DH. And now for even more fun, my birthday is next Wednesday. I don’t think that I’ll get 13 presents for that as Santa usually doesn’t get me anything  BTW: Yes, I love the color purple. I hope that y’all are having a great holiday and see ya next week. Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. squashedtoad 2. ivoryfrog 3. Lisa 4. phoenix 5. Lazy Daisy 6. Kat 7. D 8. Running2Ks 9. Jennifer 10. laura 11. yellowrose 12. Jen 13. chickadee 14. sallwood 15. Veronika 16. bone 17. Prairierose 18. audra 19. Dawn N. 20. barbara 21. Karin 22. leanne 23. uzicue 24. Lisa @ The World.. 25. deejay 26. tc 27. texas ivy 28. holly 29. master enigma 30. Allison 31. Charity 32. ms. crystal 33. Jane 34. themartins 35. Lazy Daisy 36. anna 37. janet And welcoming new this week... 1. Heather 2. Nicole

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The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

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thursday thirteen

What's really important?

After all that gritching and whining. After I had just hit the Publish Post button... This song comes on. It's one of my favorites and I feel it came at just that moment for a reason...

Nichole Nordeman - What If From the album Brave

What if you’re right?
And he was just another nice guy
What if you’re right?
What if it’s true?
They say the cross will only make a fool of you
And what if it’s true?

What if he takes his palace in history
With all the prophets and the kings
Who taught us love and came in peace
But then the story ends
What then?

(Chorus)
But what if you’re wrong?
What if there’s more?
What if there’s hope you never dreamed of hoping for?
What if you jump?
And just close your eyes?
What if the arms that catch you, catch you by surprise?
What if He’s more than enough?
What if it’s love?

What if you dig, What if you dig
Way down deeper than your simple-minded friends
What if you dig?
What if you find
A thousand more unanswered questions inside
That’s all you find

What if you pick apart the logic
And begin to poke the holes
What if the crown of thorns is no more
Then folklore that must be told and retold

(Chorus)

You’ve been running as fast as you can
You’ve been looking for a place you can land so long
But what if you’re wrong?

What if you jump?
And just close your eyes?
What if the arms that catch you, catch you by surprise?
What if He’s more than enough?
What if it’s love?

Lyrics may not be reproduced without permission from the publisher.

Label: Sparrow Records You can go here http://www.klove.com/Music/LyricSearch.aspx and scroll down to the second box of songs...look for the one by Nicole and click on the hear it button to hear a sample if you like.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So what's more important? I know that all of what happened on Christmas Eve wasn't important. It may have all ended up in making my little girl happy, but what was really important was that it was when we remember the birth of my Savior.
I just love it when God sends me a reality check.

I blogged too soon....

the craziness was NOT over.

Dec 24th we went to MIL's house for our usualy Christmas Eve celebration. That all went fine. We stayed at her house until 10PM! Wow I can't believe that, usually MIL is tried and ready for us to leave by 8PM (she's on medication that makes her tired) but I think that we were still eating at 8...so anyway we don't leave her house until 10pm. It takes an hour to get home and Darly is still awake. But we were glad for that because last year she conked out in the car only to be fully rested and ready to stay up all night to catch Santa.

So we get home and Darly gets ready for bed and everyone is in bed by 12. DH sets the clock for 5am for Santa to arrive.

Then DH wakes me up at 2:20AM to ask why the dog is whining. How should I know??? But I get up and let the dog outside. She runs around like crazy looking for a spot to potty and then runs back in.

Since I'm up, I start getting the Santa items to take them downstairs. DH shows up and helps. We get them all down, he puts Santa's cookies back in the package and gets rid of Santa's water...we were almost out of milk. Then he says that we need a letter from Santa...inferring that I should be the one to write it. Oh great! So I flip on the computer, intending to type it and print it out or Darly will notice that the handwriting is differnt from last year's letter and looks very much like my handwriting. DH apparently doesn't think that will work, so he starts writing the letter and leaves it. We head off to bed, but the dog is confused and starts barking for us to stay with her. I say in a not so nice voice that it is time for BED! And she gives up.

We go back to bed. DH turns off the alarm clock. I'm dead to the world and then all the sudden BEEP! It's 4:something AM. I jump out of bed. Okay, which one of these STUPID smoke detectors needs a new battery NOW? I watch the one over my bed (it seems to eat batteries and is on a vaulted ceiling where it can't be reached w/o a ladder) but no, it's not that one. Thank goodness. I go to the one in the hall right outside of the bedroom (notice that I am the one searching for this smoke detector!) and luckily it's that one. I grab a step ladder and remove it, remove it's battery and shove the offending smoke detector under a stack of towels in the closet because it still won't shut up. DH in his infinite wisdom says that the smoke alarm won't quit because it has a capacitor in it... I already know this because we have like a million of these stupid smoke detectors in our house and their batteries like to go off at all different annoying times.
So in a very frustrated voice I say to DH "Why do I always have do do EVERYTHING!" And he thanks me for taking care of it and says Merry Christmas. I tell him "Sorry, I'm not feeling very Christmassy right NOW." I am NOT very nice w/o sleep.

We go back to sleep and luckily are not awakened again until 7AM... but I need to get up so that we can do all the gifts and be ready to go to Church. We get all the gifts done and Darly wants to start putting together her Barbie Cali Girl Hawaiian Hotel set. We get it started, but I soon realize that we aren't going to get it complete and get to Church on time...so I quit and start to get ready. Darly of course is MAD and DOESN'T WANT TO GO TO CHURCH! So we have the whole "who's birthday is it anyway?" talk and she's still grumbling but we get going. Hey, I had to give up playing with my new stuff too!

Other than all of that it was a very very nice Christmas. I plan on posting what loot I got for my Thursday 13, so stay tuned.

The HoliDAZE!

Well last night was my Holiday dinner. I got up and started cleaning the house like crazy. I even got out a chair and the furniture polish and dusted the knick knack shelves which haven't been touched in ages (because no one looks at them and no one looked at them last night either, but DH was complaining that I was going for the Dusty Atic look a few days ago...so I did it.)

I washed, I dusted, I put things away... I needed to take a shower, so I made a list of what still needed to be done and left it for DH & DD to work on. Dh said Okay, I'll work on it.

When I came back from the shower there was no noticiable difference that anything on my list had been done. I was hoping that the vacuuming would be finished. So I grabbed the vacuume and started doing it, even though I had just taken a shower. I ended up vacuuming with no shirt on because I was beginning to sweat and I didn't want to be all smelly and need another shower.

I got all the rooms vacuumed except for the kitchen, because DH was supposed to clean up all the newspapers off the floor...but he was "working" (reading his huge pile) of mail on the kitchen counter instead! Then he looks up and gives me a look of "OH! You need the FLOOR cleaned?" HUMPH! That was first on my list.

So he starts "cleaning" (reading) the huge stack of newspapers...to make sure there is nothing in there that he still wants to keep.

I went and did a million other things, including preparing lunch, and getting my rib roast into the oven, before the floors were finally cleared enough to vacuume. His "cleaning" included leaving plastic bags (for cleaning dog poop outside with) upon my plant shelf!!! As if I want our guests seeing that???

I had washed the kitchen counters off, except for the counter with the huge pile of mail on it. DH blows the dust off of it...

Finally the house was "As clean as it was gonna get." and I could focus on the cooking part. It seemed to take forever to get that rib roast to cook! And then it seemed to be cooking too fast, so I turned it down, and then had to crank it back up. (should have just trusted the method) MIL & BIL showed up early. BRO & SIL showed up late (they were supposed to be here early (before MIL/BIL) so we could exchange gifts so that didn't happen). But my nephew (21 months old) got to open his gift and he loved it... Stuffed Elmo, Books & a Puzzle along with some of Darly's old books & toys. The glee on his face was priceless... I wish I had a picture of him with his books.

Dinner turned out great and everyone was thoroughly stuffed. Now I'm off the hook until next year. Well there's that Santa gig tomorrow AM ('cuz Darly won't want to go to sleep to try and catch the elf!) But that won't be too bad, I've got her all taken care of.

Happy HoliDAZE to you all!

Grandma's Cheesecake recipe

I know y'all will be asking for this, so here it goes...

Grandma’s Cheesecake

Ingredients:


5 8oz packages of Cream Cheese softened
3 Tablespoons Flour
¼ teaspoon Lemon
¼ teaspoon Salt
¼ cup heavy cream
Butter-flavored cooking spray
1 ¾ cups sugar
¼ teaspoon vanilla
5 large eggs
2 egg yolks
¾ cup crushed graham crackers
½ stick of butter melted
1 can of cherry pie filling


Instructions:
• Set out Cream Cheese & eggs to come to room temp and soften.
• Pre-Heat oven to 500 degrees.
• Mix graham crackers & butter…press evenly in the bottom of a spring form pan and put in frig to cool.
• Beat cream cheese, adding 1 package at a time in a large mixer bowl for 25 minutes.
• Add sugar and beat for 5 more minutes
• Add eggs and yolks one at a time and mix in thoroughly after each one.
• Beat in flour, vanilla, whipping cream, lemon & salt
• Pour filling into pan
• Bake for 10 minutes
• Reduce heat to 200 degrees and bake for 1 hour longer.
• Without opening the door, turn oven off and leave cheese cake in for 1 more hour.
• Remove and let cool completely on a wire rack.
• Chill. Remove side of pan. Top with cherry pie filling before serving.

Get your slice first 'cuz it won't last very long.

Christmas Thursday 13

thursday thirteen

Thirteen Things that Renée loves about CHRISTMAS First I want you to notice that today's 13 is NOT posted on Wednesday night with the time monkeyed with. I really got up this moring at 6AM to do this. Well actually I got up because my oven's self-cleaner that I turned on last night was beeping at me... but I was still thinking about you too! :D 1. That all the radio stations are playing songs about Jesus' birth! 2. That my Christian radio station hasn't been playing Christmas songs non-stop since before Thanksgiving. Even today the first song that I heard wasn't about Christmas...they won't go full blown Christmas until the 24th. So I'm not sick of hearing them yet. YAY! I listen to http://www.KLOVE.com 3. I love decorating the house for Christmas. My decorations go up the day after Thanksgiving and will stay up until Jan 6th. My Mom used to say to leave them up until after the New Year to carry the Spirit into the New Year. Then I started leaving them up until Jan 4th for my birthday... and now I leave them up for the Epiphany. 4. I love seeing Darly open up gifts that are "JUST WHAT I ALWAYS WANTED!!!!" She's so cute when she gets a good gift. We still need to work on her reaction to when she gets a "not so good gift" because one year she questioned Santa's sanity when he gave her Halloween costumes...they were for dressing up. AND it turned out that she loved them and wouldn't take them off and wear normal clothes for weeks. SEE SANTA DOES know what he's doing. 5. I love figuring out the perfect gift for DH and suprising him with it. Last year I had managed to catch everything that he wanted and got it all for him (of course that left nothing for me to get him for his birthday in FEB, but oh well!) See if DH doesn't like a gift he just won't do anything with it. His laser level is still in the package in the basement...but not near his tools. He also still has a red Members Only jacket in the box that his mom got for him. 6. I love cooking Christmas dinner. I now have my "signature" meal. It took me a while of trying to come up with the perfect dish, but I did it. See, MIL has us come over on Christmas Eve for Church service & dinner of Ham. SIL has us come over on Christmas day (normally, but not this year) for prestents & Deep Fried Turkey. So my dinner this year is on the 23rd and is Beef Rib Roast. Yeah, it's expensive but it's only once a year and the stores put it on sale. 7. I'm also making my grandmother's cheesecake. This is very expensive too with 5 boxes of cream cheese & 7 eggs. But it's also only once a year and sooooo yummmy! And now that my grandmother can't make it anymore, it's up to me. One of these days, I'll have to go to FL to make it for grandma before it's too late. 8. I love my mom dearly, but I am so glad that she isn't here for the holidays. Why? Because even though I'm following the recipe perfectly, I'm not doing it right (and she messes it up!) The last time I was here, she had comments about how I do the laundry, how I have my kitchen arranged, how I seasoned the meat for Christmas dinner and how to make Grandma's cheesecake (adding stuff that Grandma doesn't and monkeying with the cooking.) 9. I love that MIL won't say anything if she doesn't like something, but lay on the praises if she does. She likes my cooking, but I don't think that she likes my cleaning (she's german and they always have floors so clean you can eat off of them... my floors look as if someone did eat off of them!) 10. I love that MIL lives 45 minutes away and Mom lives 5 states away. Mom whines that we don't come for Christmas, but who wants to spend Christmas in Florida when we live in Colorado? 11. I love that all my shopping is done early and is finally all wrapped. All I will have to do Christmas morning is to put it under the tree. It's also fun that Darly at age 7 and homeschooled still believes in Santa and except for trying to catch him is no where near figuring things out. When I was her age I already knew all about Santa. 12. I love Christmas eve service at Church. We will be going to MIL's Church this year and their service is always very lovely (our Church's service is great too and I hate to miss it, but we can't be at two places at once.) MIL's pastor always says "Jesus loves you, and so do I" at each service. He also says when it's time for communion that "The Gifts from God are FREE!" I know these, but I like to be reminded in this busy time of year of them. 13. And I'm so excited that this year Christmas falls on a Sunday so we will finally be going to Church on Christmas day. I'm sure it will be small and cozy and very special. I wish that all of you have a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone out there. Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. squashedtoad 2. ivoryfrog 3. Lisa 4. phoenix 5. Lazy Daisy 6. Kat 7. D 8. Running2Ks 9. Jennifer 10. laura 11. yellowrose 12. Jen 13. chickadee 14. sallwood 15. Veronika 16. bone 17. Prairierose 18. audra 19. Dawn N. 20. barbara 21. Karin 22. leanne 23. uzicue 24. Lisa @ The World.. 25. deejay 26. tc 27. texas ivy 28. holly New Friends: 1. master enigma 2. Allison 3. Charity 4. ms. crystal 5. Jane 6. themartins 7. Lazy Daisy 8. anna 9. janet (If you're a first time visitor, leave your link in comments, and I’ll add you here!)

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The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

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OOOOh lookie! it's Thursday 13!

Thirteen Things about Renée 1…. Oh goodie! It's Thursday again...well almost. I'm gonna monkey with the time of post again. ;o) 2. Pretty Please check out my Remember post below. I'm having so much fun with this and checking out other Remember posts too. It's so fun how creative we all are. 3. I have one of those Shiatsu (sp?) Massage pads in my computer chair, and I had it running. But it only goes for 20 minutes and apparently my time is up...bummer. 4. DH was supposed to be home today, but had to go to work for a meeting. Something must have come up at the meeting because he was supposed to stay home tomorrow too but now has to go in. This is a real bummer because these are "use it, or loose it" vacation days for him and he doesn't have too much time left to use them. He was supposed to also get my birthday off, but that got cancled and it's in January! 5. DH got a package on Tuesday from Dell. So I call him at work to ask where he would like me to put it. He says "Don't open it! It's not for you!" I say "Duh!" (which he hates) So we agree to just leave it on the counter with me not opening it. Tuesday was Teacher's Night Out for my homeschooling group and I'm REQUIRED ;o) to be there. So when I get home DH & Darly have wrapped up my Christmas gifts and put them under the tree...including the box that wasn't for me. hee hee! :D 6. So Darly insists that we wrap up DH's gifts today...right as he is due home from work and my hair is all wet from my new shower...so of course it looks terrible when DH gets home because we were wrapping up his gifts. We hear the garage and Darly jumps up to close the door...all the gifts are in boxes and while you know that they are clothes, you can't see what kind and DH is gonna figure out from the wrapped boxes that he got clothes... but anyway. So DH comes and knocks on the door, pretending like he wants to get in. ha ha. 7. Monday Darly & I had to help answer phones at Church. Darly went to help in the Pre-school. They like her down there...she's good with scissors ;o) I had lots of busy work to do while answering the phones and I got to learn how to get the Prayer Chain started... Not something that I really wanted to have to learn. :o( 8. Monday night was the Church's Women's Group potluck/ Christmas Party. I brought my pumpkin soup... and had a lot of fun. I drew for a new Secret Sister and she happened to be sitting at the same table with me. The soup I made can be made veggy/vegan... but I didn't have any veggy stock so I used chicken stock this time. I'm not a vegetarian, but after making this soup once w/o labeling it as not veggy I've learned my lesson and always post if it's veggy or not now. 9. I am officially done with all of my Christmas shopping. I still have wrapping to do, and I have to pick up one item...but everything is bought and paid for. :D And we sent out our Christmas cards, after Dec 1st but before now. But DH complained today that we sent them too early because now we are receiving cards and he doesn't have a chance to respond to them... NOPE! You are not gonna guilt me into waiting longer anymore. Next year I'm sending them DEC 1! bththth! 10. Today I ballanced 3 checkbooks and paid the bills for two of them and got deposits ready for two of them. (why does she have so many checkbooks?) I actually have more than just 3, but of the 3 I did today only one actually has any of my money in it. The other two were for LLL. I'm the treasurer for our state and for the group that I lead with. And which one didn't ballance at first? Mine! LOL! I had miscalculated one of the balances by $1 and had to go back to re-figure the whole thing. So I made a spreadsheet to do it for me...I love computers. 11. Mom called me today to ask if I got her package and to tell me that she found the product number for the pepper grinder that she wanted. Oh! I should tell you that story first. 12. Okay so I posted before that I had bid on Ebay for the pepper grinder that mom told me she wants for Christmas, and I asked that no one else go bid on it. Well I was keeping track of it every day, but skipped Dec 9th..got busy. I was the only one bidding on it. The auction ended on Dec 10th. The opening bid was $9.99 and the seller had a Buy it Now price of $11.99. Like I said, no one else was bidding, so I was winning at $9.99. I go back to check on it on Dec 10th and my bid has been errased and the auction ended. WHAT THE? So I email the seller and she writes back that the item was broken so she ended the auction. What about the second one that no one bid on??? I think what really happend is that the seller really wanted $11.99 for it. 13. So I bought the grinder from another seller and it's on it's way to Mom's house. So she calls me today to give me the product number and I tell her that the company doesn't carry it and Replacements Unlimited doesn't have it either...but she will have one cuz it's on it's way and it's actually only a few miles from where she lives. She's so happy! Dh says that I shouldn't have spoiled the suprize...but we don't opperate that way in my family. Hey, that's 13! post your link and I'll come check you out! Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. squashedtoad 2. ivoryfrog 3. Lisa 4. phoenix 5. Lazy Daisy 6. Kat 7. D 8. Running2Ks 9. Jennifer 10. laura 11. yellowrose 12. Jen 13. chickadee 14. sallwood 15. Veronika 16. bone 17. Prairierose 18. audra 19. Dawn N. 20. barbara 21. Karin 22. leanne 23. uzicue 24. Lisa @ The World.. 25. deejay 26. tc 27. texas ivy 28. holly (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!) Oh goodie! I woke up to lots of friends! :D

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted! EVEN THOUGH I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THEY ARE OR HOW TO DO THEM!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Remember that time we…

I got this from Running2ks who got it from Mindy’s and Rach’s: and I see that Rach got it for another site so it's been around, but is sure looks like a lot of fun.

Please post a comment with a COMPLETELY MADE UP AND FICTIONAL MEMORY OF YOU AND ME. It can be anything you want–good or bad–BUT IT HAS TO BE FAKE. When you’re finished, post this paragraph on your blog and be surprised (or mortified) about what people DON’T ACTUALLY remember about you.

He's so sweet....

After all the bitching I did about DH, I thought it might be high time to give him a little of the praise that he deserves.

Lately due to the temperature not going over 0 degrees here in CO our garage door opener has been slacking on the job. Mainly that it doesn't do 50% of it's job...it won't close the door!

So on Monday, I was taking Darly to her gymnastics class and DH was on the computer (Christmas shopping?). Darly & I get into the car and start to back out...and DH comes walking quickly into the garage in his practically bare feet. At first I thought that he was coming to tell us something, but he waves us out of the garage. I back out and see that DH is reaching up to grab at the garage door. We've found that to get the garage door to close in this cold that we have to grab the door and help it down. Awwwww isn't he sweet? He came out in his socks to help me get the door shut so I wouldn't have to get out of the car.
When we returned from gymnastics DH was in the garage on the ladder trying to figure out why it isn't working propperly... we think it's just the cold because it works fine if it warms up.

Then last night Darly & I returned home late from baking cookies at SIL's house and DH comes running out again in his socks to help close the garage door. Too sweet! I've gotta find something really special to give him from Santa. Don't know what though.

Your ideas are welcome, but remember I'm looking for a gift from SANTA that will be opened in front of Darly. I can take care of all the gifts from me myself. ;o)

Hummm... maybe a pair of slippers to leave by the door so he won't have to run out in his socks to help me close the door? Any other suggestions?

My silly car stories... Thursday 13

Thirteen Things about Renée My good buddy Jen was posting about her car misshaps and it got me to thinking about my own missadventures in the car area... The very first car story is when I was 2 years old my father was driving our VW van home from Kansas and hit a patch of water. The van hydroplaned and flipped over at least once. This was back in the days before car seats or even seat belt laws, so my parents had taken out one row of seats and put the play pen there for my brother. I was asleep across the seats until the accident. My mother & I were both thrown forward, my father & brother were both fine. Because the van was upside down with the roof smashed we had to exit the vehicle through the busted out windshield. I had stitches, Mom has a very messed up back. Good car story number 2: This was back in the day when no one thought anything about leaving their kids alone in the car. Mom had gone inside the store and left me and my brothers in the car. I decided to "drive the car", so I hopped into the driver's seat and began turning the steering wheel back and forth and grabbed the stick shift and moved it around...into neutral. The car was parked on an incline and we started rolling down it! Luckily a man ran over and reached in through the window to put the car back into gear... no harm done until Mom got back. Then my bottom was injured. Good car story #3: Mom left us alone in the car again (when will she ever learn?) and while she was gone, I played with the cigarette lighter and some rope. The rope never caught fire, but it did stink up the car. I rolled down all the windows so the smell was pretty faint by the time she came back, but she still noticed it. I don't remember any bottom injuries that time...but that doesn't mean there weren't any. Scary car story #4: Mom left us (yet again!) in the car by ourselves and some person came up to the car and started talking to us. I was slightly freaked out by this as we did not know this person and they were obiviously pretending that they DID know our parents. But they left and left us alone too. Whew! Good car story #5: Much older now, 18! At 18 I still didn't know how to drive a stick. One of the managers where I worked had a stick and would Always forget to turn off the lights on rainy days...so his battery would be dead. So since I was the smallest, I got elected to help him push start the car. He told me how I needed to hold in the clutch while they pushed for a while and then "pop" it, then stop the car. So we got the car going again and as soon as I stepped on the brake it would stall. We kept doing this over and over. Never figuring out why this car wouldn't stay started. Then it finally dawned on him that he had forgotten to tell me to push the cluch back in before I hit the brakes. Oh! Good car story #6: Finally someone is teaching me how to drive a stick. I'm 21 now. We take the car to an empty parking lot with lots of room and I get behind the wheel. We start going and then the car starts lurching and lurching... I'm not getting the whole gas to clutch ratio. But then the car quits! Totally quits! We pop the hood and can't figure out what is going on. It won't start.... long story short the battery area was made for a larger battery than the one installed and I had shaken the battery loose from the cables. I never got another stick lesson and I still don't know how to drive a stick. Sad car story #7: I'm 22 and my mom's coworker is selling her '75 VW bug. I need a car and mom thinks it would be great for me to "fix up" this bug... so she has her friend drive the car over and talks me into buying it. (mind you, this is a stick and I still don't know how to drive a stick!) So I get the car all registered and stuff and start trying to teach myself to drive it... but it stalls when you take your foot off the gas. So I arrange for the car to go to a mechanic...the VW mechanic is on the other side of town and the tow costs something like $80. They get the car and do some tests. Says it needs an $8 pin to make it work. It ends up costing me over $100 with the tow to get this $8 pin replaced and guess what? It is still doing the exact same thing! So a friend of mine takes me to the local dealership to buy a new car...she also drove my VW bug to the dealership for my trade in (complaining the whole time about how in the world I was supposed to learn to drive in this thing!) I bought my 2nd car... a Ford Tempo. So a few weeks later my brother locked my house key in the house (this is after I told him to not lock the door!) and we drive to my mom's work to get her house key. The friend who sold me the VW comes up and asks "You drove the VW here?" in amazement. I say "Nope! I traded that sucker in on a new car!" I get to hear later that she had sold me the car because she didn't want to trade it in to a dealer. Oops! Okay well that didn't get me to 13, so I'll have to come up with something else. 8. It's freezing cold here so today we stayed home and baked cookies. We made Oatmeal Raisin and started Snickerdoodles (just have to roll them in cinamon sugar & bake). 9. Our dog just had her hair cut last Friday, but she still wants to go outside to eat snow. She comes in shivering like crazy. Dumb dog! 10. Our rabbits who live in our basement seemed like they might be cold so I gave them a old towel to curl up in. I can't tell if they are using it or not and of course they aren't saying. 11. Speaking of rabbits (I collect them) and one of my yard bunnies took a headder off the front porch railing and lost his head! I don't know if I can repair him or not, but DH says I can't have any more because I killed that one. He BETTER be kidding or he'll find the yard over run with bunnies... heh heh heh! 12. I got my Bro & SIL's presents bought the other day! I also got some stocking stuffers for Darly. She found some earrings that I would really like to get for her, but then I'm done! Well, I need to find something from Santa for DH... don't want Darly to notice that Santa didn't bring him anything. 13. I colored my hair tuesday even though the hair dresser said that I shouldn't. Well actually she was very torn about it. It clearly needed to be done, but the ends were clearly TOAST! So she was telling me that I should only do the roots. So I bought one of those Nice & Easy root kits and used it. I liked the application, but the results weren't quite what I was going for. I don't think that anyone has noticed... and I can still see where the roots were. They just aren't as dark as they were before. Oh well. Maybe I should go for purple hair? LOL! Can you see it? Update & bonus: While leaving the house today I thought, "ya know, I should have included a car story about driving in the snow"... so here ya go! While living in Cheyenne, WY I learned some pretty important things about driving in the snow. I had my Ford Tempo at the time and had gone to the mall for some shopping. This particular mall (and if you've been there you can back me up, it's the only mall in Cheyenne) was built on a hill, where the "front" mall exits were all downhill and the back exits were all level. I hadn't figured this out yet and later I noticed that these exits would be blocked off in times of snow... but this day I didn't know and they didn't block the exit, so I tried to leave the mall at one of the front down hill exits. The stoplight was of course red and I applied the brakes... and slid about 2 feet out into the intersection in front of a semi-truck! Luckily the guy stopped and then was able to drive around me, but I was screaming at the top of my lungs on my trip down the hill with my feet both on my brake pedal so hard I thought I must have broken a hole in the floor. I lived and no one hit my car, but from then on I either avoided the mall in the snow or left from the back side. Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. Barbara 2. Karin 3. Jen 4. Lisa 5. Chickadee 6. Peri 7. Ammie 8. Lisa 9. Marie 10. Running2ks 11. bone 12. Uzicue 13. MadHotMamma 14. Angel 15. Shelli 16. Happy Momma to Three 17. Holly 18. sallwood I have a lot more friends now! And we are still alive despite what our parents did! :) (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

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Update: My Christmas list...

My DH took off from work today and took Darly shopping... SO I got to do a few things while they were gone. :D

This was my previous post...
My Christmas list...
Darly: done shopping! Although I did see a cool thing to get for her at Big Lots...hummm? Maybe next Monday. ;o) .I got to wrap all the stuff from the big guy today and then while she was at gymnastics I got some stocking stuffers.

DH: done shopping! I wrapped one of his items, the rest I can wrap in front of Darly as she was with me when I bought them.

MIL: done, I think...I got her a gift card. .Her gift card came and I got her a turkey platter too. I'll probably tape the gift card to the platter and wrap them together.

Mom & SD: done...got gift cards too. Mom's b-day is Dec 1st & got real present then.
.I called Mom on her birthday and she tellse me that she wants this salt shaker that she saw a few years back that goes with her china, 'cuz SD broke her old salt shaker. I only find the thing on ebay...so wish me luck and DO NOT BID on the one that is being bid on by me!

DB & SIL: don't know yet... have one item .Still don't have that one yet... any good ideas?

nephew/god child: don't know what to get yet, waiting for SIL to tell me...last year I did it on my own and SIL bought him the same thing! So I guess I chose correctly...just not fast enough! .SIL said that he wants a non-talking Elmo, so I ordered that online...should be here soon.

Gift Exchange: I have an idea, but they were out of them... .they got more in and I bought it! YAY! now to wrap it and wait for the party.

Darly's God Parents: she's making a craft gift for them .Maybe we'll get this done Wednesday...

Christmas cards: almost ready. DH wants to include a pix from his trip. I make a pix collage. .got a whole bunch of them done today! YAY they still need to hit the mail box though... I forgot to take them with me to the Post office when I bought the stamps... LOVE the new automated machines there!

Me fertile?

I understand that there's some sort of contest going on about posting preggo pix. While I have no expectations of winning, I thought that I would dig these out... now lets just hope that I can figure out how to get them up here.
This is me at my first baby shower at about 36 weeks preg. Sorry it looks so bad. It was taken almost 8 years ago and I didn't know anything about this contest back then! ;o)

This is at my second baby shower (I got 3 woo hoo!) at 37 weeks.

I never made it to the 3rd shower as I delivered 3 days before it, but since it was for 2 other gals too they still threw it and I got all the loot I was supposed to.

Forever 21

Okay, I admit that I am nowhere NEAR 21 years old. Hee hee Actually I'm closer to 41, well it's 34 days until my 39th birthday... so get ready to hit those virtual after Christmas sales for my gift ;o)

Back to the title... As you may have saw in my Thursday 13 post I hit the malls in search of something to wear for Christmas this year. I searched and searched. And like I mentioned before the designers of women's wear are SADISTS! (okay, I didn't say that) Everything that was intended for "Holiday" wear was sleeveless or frumpy. So I started looking at skirts that I could wear with one of my new sweaters. I found the same 3 skirts (seriously, same exact cut different label) in every store.

I had passed up the store with the name Forever 21 thinking that the clothing in there must be for the 20 something crowd...and maybe it was... but they had those exact same 3 skirts only much cheaper! So that's where I got my holiday skirts... yup, I bought two of the 3 skirts. And the nice thing was they actually had my size. I'm a small person and a lot of stores don't even carry my size...as if I don't exist?

So that's my holiday wear story...

I also got my hair cut yesterday. I went to the same lady who cut it last time and got the same cut and the same hair coloring lecture. My hair is really really damaged... I know this, I did it. But I'm not obsessed with how my hair looks. I like to have fun experimenting with my hair color... shoot I can only do this for a few more years before I get funny looks. But Ozzy had to give me a hard time. LOL! I still like her and I'll come back and I'm sure she'll give me the same lecture again...unless I let her color my hair... but who has the time?