Morning...er...afternoon!

DH and I slept in today (no, we didn't just get up! ) and it was great. We are planning on having dinner with our friends this evening (the ones with the new baby...maybe inspiring?? ). We're just bumming around the house until then. We have to finish creating a wedding video for these friends. They got married two years ago and almost all of the footage was lost (church was too dark and I recorded over some of the ceremony with the reception!!!). Anyway, we have FINALLY edited what we have together and are going to give that to them tonight. I hope that they like it.

Vickie, it sounds like you are in better spirits today, even if you aren't feeling well. I guess it's just having it all over with? Anyway, good luck finding those cookie tins. I have no idea! But I did see some cute ones at Wal-Mart. They also had some felt boxes with snowmen on them that would be cute if you lined it with wax paper or something.

Kathy, I'm glad that you are relaxing and not working too hard for those guys who won't appreciate it! And those clementines sound awesome. I've never had them but will have to try!

Lisa, I can't imagine skating of any kind. I'm quite impressed!

Sandra, it sounds like you did great last night! And I would love to read the article as well.

Angela, your dinner does sound very good. I have never had orange roughy either. But I did get an indoor grill for Christmas so I plan to start cooking fish regularly again.

OK, off to get some stuff done! We are DVR'ing "Ever After" and now I'm getting caught up in watching it as well. Gotta quit!

Hey Melissa! Have fun with your friends tonight. Don't get too inspired until you get home!

Ugh ... why do I get myself into these situations? Now I have to go bowling this evening.

The friends called and wanted us to go. After Judd doing all of those things by himself over the last few days, I felt bad saying I don't want to go, so I just said I'll do whatever you want. We're going to Main Event from 5:30 til 8:30 and then coming back here. My dinner is going to be interrupted but I didn't eat all of my turkey at lunch so I might take the LO in a little baggie along with some vegetables. At least it's a non-smoking place and it sounds like there'll only be 3-4 coming back over here afterwards, so that's good too.

Melissa, have a good time tonight. It sounds like a nice quiet evening ... well, as quiet as it can be with a baby!

Can't stay long, just a quick hi to all. I hope you have a fun night, whatever your plans. To all of the very nice people I have met in the past few days,

A Very Happy and Healthy New Year

Saundra

Yes, clementines have no seeds (usually) and they are SO easy to peel. Plus, they're small and so they're a good, handy snack. I know they have tangerine in them, so maybe Jim will like them. It's hard to get my favorite fruits (strawberries, pears) this season, so clementines are my "winter" fruit.

Gee, you guys, you make me feel so good! I WILL do well at the party tonight, I promise. I went out and got my shrimp cocktail, and some garlic herb Old Bay seasoning for my fish, so I'm set and ready. And I'm wearing my new pin stripe brown pants today, so I'm set for the tight clothes too.

Have any of you played that "Scene It?" game? I got it today for dh - I've been trying to get it for a year or more. I think it'll be fun to play tonight - we usually play board games after eating. We're also doing a white elephant type of gift exchange. We got a few interesting books on tape for our gifts.

I suppose I'd better clean up my house now, and get the little girl down to nap. She certainly needs it. She threw a tantrum on the floor at Target, right in front of all the registers. Sigh. Thankfully, most people looked sympathetic, not disgusted.

Okay, I'm off to clean up . I'll check back in later.

Angela

Angela, it's been a LONG season for us all! Jim and I will be playing the World Series edition of White Sox Monopoly tonight. I can't wait....except that I usually pick the Scottie (go figure) and there's no Scottie in this edition!

Saundra, back at you nice lady! Happy New Year to you too.

Hey Kathy....have the fires stopped yet?

Happy New Year Everyone!!!!
I've played Scene It and think it's great. This Christmas we also got the Classic Version of movies way back to the 40's--also much fun.
If you're looking for a great game, you might like "Who, What and Where."
The idea of the game is you get three cards that tell you the name of a famous person, an activity, and a location. You've got to draw the person doing an activity at that location and then the other players do the same thing at the same time. Then you trade pictures and everyone guesses everyone else's pictures. Well, I've managed to make it sound incredibly dull, but it's loads of fun and everyone we've played with has really enjoyed it.

Hope fires have died down. Hope Vickie feels well real soon. Hope all dd and ds and dh and dfriends get along and lighten up. Hope Ontarget's arrows find their mark. Hope 2006 finds us all healthy, happy and lighter. Good luck and s: to us all.
Judy Itry
234.6/206/thinner into onederland

Judy, Happy New Year to you too! Health in 2006 is a great wish for me and for all of us. Lighter would also be much appreciated!

I haven't heard of any new fires today.

We jumped up and ran to Target a little while ago, looking for some rugs to put down behind the loveseat that divides the family room from the bar. Didn't find anything, so we were about to leave and then we decided to get some food for tonight. Ahem ... $136 later, we left. Can you frickin' believe that? We got chips and dip and stuff to make rotel dip, cookies and lemon bars and taquitos and mini-tacos and quiche and cheese puffs and mushroom puffs and crab rangoon and mixed nuts and olives (for the cute olive boat) and good grief!! I think we're having 9 people now, but 3 are kids. Hopefully they're hungry.

So then we came home and cleaned like crazy! Judd even drove the Kirby, which he has hated and talked bad about for months. He ended up apologizing and saying that vacuuming was now fun. I'm relieved that I don't have to hear about it anymore. We swept and mopped and vacuumed and cleaned some spots in the new carpet (courtesy of Precious), he cleaned the bathroom while I wiped down all the kitchen counters -- finally got that done! and we're calling it good to go.

Now we're leaving. Main Event is a really nice place and I'm just relieved they didn't want to go to the regular bowling alley, which is smelly and smoky and trashy. This is a family place that has laser tag, video games, bowling, and pool. They do a lot of youth groups and team building exercises. Tonight they're charging $25 per person and it includes 3 hours of bowling and a pizza and italian buffet. There were a limited number of tickets they sold so it won't be super crowded.

They want to go now so I'd better get. I'll try to check in later. Happy New Year to you all!

Hey Kathy, Melissa, anyone else? What do you put in your crab salad? I remember a while back Kathy mentioning making up a delicious crab salad. I bought some imitation crab this week, and would love to make myself that salad.

Thanks!
Angela

hi, chickies. curtis is taking a nap so it's hopeful that we'll still be up around midnight. real party animals, aren't we?

angela, i've never made crab salad but i'm thinking the words ff mayo, onion, tomatoes, celery sound familiar. seems to me you make it like a chicken salad. but i'm not positive.

vickie, you're right. we are all perfectionists here. ain't it great!

kathy, i'll pm you the site as soon as the article is posted. i'm thinking it will be their january magazine so it should be out soon. we have talked to folks about alpine, but we have never gone there. cowtown bowmen archery club over in lake worth has a fantastic 3d archery range. we go there sometimes. indoor shooting is my favorite. we train at arlington archery world over on poly webb and also at david's archery in weatherford. we have a good friend who has an indoor and outdoor target range on his land just north of grandview. we train there, too. i have tried to "toss" clay pigeons before. it turned into a lucy/ricky episode. i just needed red hair and big eyes.

melissa, sounds like you're having a very peaceful day. maybe you two will get inspired for a little one tonight. keep us posted. i mean let us know when we're getting ready to be cyber aunts.

saundra, happy new year to you, too. i have been meaning to tell you--i know a lady down in texas who looks enough like you to be your twin. i thought you were she when i first saw your photo here.

angela, we got our grands "scene its" for christmas. we bought the disney one. we also bought the harry potter one for a niece but had to take it back. she's not a potter fan. have fun tonight.

judy, that sounds like fun to me. guess we'll be playing "who controls the remote?" tonight. i'll lose.

It's almost a new year! Isn't it exciting?

Angela, I made the crab salad a few ways, but mostly ff miracle whip, green onions, celery, black pepper and an herb seasoning. I think that's all I put in it. The celery is what really made it.

Sandra, I think we are going to make it to midnight too. It's only fifteen minutes away now! And yes, we had a discussion about babies on the way home.

Kathy, whoa, you know how to throw a party! Hope that you are having fun.

Well it's almost midnight, so time for me to snuggle with my honey and then go to bed. HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!

Happy New Year everyone!! And here's the good news: I made it through our whole party, eating only what I had planned!! I had a delicious cornmeal breaded orange roughy, shrimp cocktail, a crab leg, and veggies. I didn't even so much as lick the crackers, cheese & sausage, 3 kinds of chips, dip, fried seafood, and other stuff. It was definitely a huge success for me, because lately I've not had self-discipline when it came to parties.

I'm headed off to bed now, even though it's not midnight here yet. I'm tired, and I have church tomorrow.

Later chickies!
Angela

Yippee! I lived over it -- can you believe everybody left around 12:15? That is awesome! We invited the next door neighbor over because his wife and kids are out of town. We saw him in the driveway when we got home from bowling and started talking, found out he was alone, and told him to come on over. He did, and I was glad.

We put out about half of the food and it was just right. Now we have lots of things to cook later, but they will be things the kids will have to do because we are back on the wagon. I did very well tonight (although not as well as Angela!) and didn't overdo it on anything.

I'm tired now, so I think I'll go to bed. See you tomorrow!