Oh my gosh, thank you for the birthday wishes ladies, I feel so loved! :love: I am at work cranking out some estimates but after I am done I am outta here!!! (It's 7:50 a.m. :devil: ) The first night of Michael's Christmas program was really good, the singing was pretty together and they all made hand motions throughout the songs. They have 2 nuns that teach religion and music and these sisters can sing!!! They've done a really outstanding job with the kids this year.

Angie, that RV is beautiful! I wanna come along. Well, you have a relaxing vacation (or at least try to!) and I will be praying for safe roads for you. Merry Christmas!!! Oh, take pictures!

Cherie, have a great day at work and be safe on those roads. I forgot to say yesterday, I loved that picture of Cassie and the girls. She is so pretty and fits right into your family. The boxer is beautiful too. Hey, how are you and Hannah doing with the braces?

Hi Karen, thanks again for the b-day wishes. Hug Ginger and Sissy for me. :D

Hello to Cal, Kempy, Dips and everyone :wave: Gotta get this estimate out so I can hightail it outta here. Have a great weekend!

Hey guys, we are in Pennsylvania right now. It is pretty gross outside and we are trying to decide if we should try to leave now or stay another day. We will see when the sun comes up. We had a nice drive yesterday though. The weather was clear. I will try to check back when we get there.

Noelle, I hope you had a great day and your gift is on the way.

Good morning ladies. What a weekend! I think I celebrated my b-day for 4 days, starting on Thursday. I feel like a stuffed :moo:. We must've went out to dinner 3 times over the weekend. To make matters worse, I wasn't able to get out and exercise for 2 days. I did go yesterday morning though, so I'm still fighting.

Angie, I just heard on the news this morning that the weather in the north east is really bad. I hope the roads are safe for you. Thanks for the gift card, it arrived on Friday just in time for my b-day. You know how I love my Starbucks. :coffee::love:

Cal, thanks for calling on my b-day and I'm so sorry I missed your call. We were at Michael's Christmas program and then went out to dinner when you called. That was a bummer that I missed you. I have got to reprogram my phone with all of your phones numbers, when I got a new phone a few weeks ago the contact list did not transfer so I have to input everyone in manually. :headache:

So is everyone tying up their Christmas shopping? I try and I try to get everyone on my list but whenever I'm out in the stores I get overwhelmed and don't feel like shopping. Maybe I'll just make some gingerbread cookies for everyone. :shrug:

I've got to get some work done. Hope to see some posts.

Hey Everyone! Its MONDAY again. Angie.... hope you are doing OK... you are getting hit with the storm that tried to hit us last week and over the weekend... hope you make it to your vacation destination!

Noelle...sounds like you had a great birthday!

I had a good but very busy weekend. We had a party we went to on saturday. It's the couple that is going to be our Best Man and Matron of Honor.. they have been trying to get a house built all year, and it's just about finished... so they got to have their annual Christmas party in their building this year.... That was fun... just a little hectic... it tried to snow on us that day.. but thankfully, nothing major.

Alan decided to drop it on me that morning that he wanted to take our families and J & J to Hawaii to get married, instead of having the ceremony here with the reception. He was concerned about the building and the wedding site.. and just thought it would be neat to do that.. 18 of us. I don't think we could swing that... even with four of them paying for their own airfare... It would be wonderful, but I don't have a clue where to start planning... so I am going to try to talk him into just keeping things status quo and just dealing with the building and the outdoor site... less stress for me... but that will be decided later this week, hopefully.

This weekend, we are leaving to go to Pagosa Springs, CO and taking the kids.. all four of them, to go skiing. That should be interesting.

Anyway... I have a few more things around here I need to go finish before I can get out of here.. I'll check back in tomorrow!

Hey Noelle, Glad that you had a good birthday. I am not even going to worry about weight anymore until after the first of the year! Just too much other stuff happening around here!

Cherie, I hope you all have a good trip to Pagosa Springs! I've lived in Colorado since I was 5 years old and have still never been there or to a lot of other places around Colorado. Pretty pathetic huh!!

I just got back from finishing up my Christmas shopping. YAY!! Had to finally tell TIM STAY HOME!! But I got his and also bought Ginger and Sissy cute sweaters that match and also really pretty pink dresses with rhinestones on them for New Years Eve!!! They are so much fun to buy stuff for!! I'll have to take pictures of them and post for you to see! Can you say SPOILED???

Well, guess I'd better get going and get some stuff done here. I have invited the two oldest grandsons and their family (it had been 10 years since we had seen them before June of this year!) and my son and the other two grandkids plus 2 sets of grandparents (besides us) to be here Friday evening!! Could prove to be very interesting!!

Everybody have a good day!

Good Morning! Three more workdays til vacation!!!! :-)

Karen... Wow... you should go to Pagosa at some point. I am sure there are some really great small towns in Colorado... but I just LOVE Pagosa. Its such a quaint little town... and they have the springs there. You can smell them from MILES away! :-) (Sulpher Springs) I love that the ski area isn't as commercialized as Vail and places like that... and they have GREAT snow! Anyway... I can't wait to get there... I love that place!

I have to run payroll on Thursday, so I hope the managers start to send me their stuff today. I am also getting my crown to finish off my implant on Thursday... finally, I will have a full set of teeth in my mouth! The dentist pulled a tooth when I was about eleven to make room for my other teeth. Little did I know I would have to spend an arm and a leg 30 years later to replace it! Hopefully after that... I will be in the countdown to get these braces off my teeth. I have an appointment in January... and then I hope the next one in March will be to remove! :-)

OK.. back to work. I have a sick girl at home and a sick dryer. Thankfully Alan can work from home today and take care of both of them!

Hey ladies, Michael is out of school for Christmas break already and he and his cousin are busy playing video games and already driving me crazy with the noise. I worked a half day today and had to come home early. I must've slept on my arm wrong because I have this mean pain behind my right shoulder.... I am trying to stretch it out but it's making me cringe. :(

Cherie, wow, a Hawaiian wedding...that would be something really nice too. Is the kiddo feeling any better today? Have fun on your weekend trip, sounds like fun.

Karen, I know you will post pics of Ginger and Sissy in their new outfits later on. You should've seem my sister when she came back from her Bangkok shopping trip--she must've bought over 30 dog collars for Lucky--it's just crazy. But she is a dog groomer so she can always sell a few at her shop.

Oh man, I've got to get off this computer, my shoulder is just killing me. Have a good one and I'll try to post more later.

Woo-Hoo!!! :dance: I lost 3 lbs at my WI yesterday--and totally didn't expect it! We ate out so much last week and I didn't get to exercise every day like I usually do... but it's a late birthday present to myself I guess :lol: Yahoo! Now only 2 more weeks of holiday madness to get through.

Everyone have a great day!

Noelle!!! Wow.. WTG on the weight loss! I keep getting OFF track.. But once we come back from vacation, then I am going to really start making some changes.

I've been getting really stressed and depressed lately, and last night was one of those bad nights.. everything was just setting me off. I think I really need to start taking time for myself and getting back to the Y. So, that is my plan (along with everybody else) after the frist of the year.

Today, I am working on the last payroll of the year! And I almost had it done, but just got an update from someone JUST NOW.. So.. gotta go back and redo some of it. Later this afternoon, I get my TOOTH! :-) My Xmas present to myself. I am hoping that it looks halfway decent. Its gotta be better than this post that is sticking up from the implant.

Tomorrow we will be running around like crazy getting ready for the trip.. then we will be up at 4 AM on Saturday to leave... I'll be back home late next Thursday, so everyone, I hope you have a wonderful Christmas! I won't have internet access until next Friday when I come back to work... so I'll update then!

Today is the girls last day of school. I stayed up last night baking pumpkin bread loaves for my coworkers, for Alan's coworkers and for all of Hannah and Megan's teachers. Hannah had pajama day today.. so when she got up, she was READY for school! :-) Fun.

OK.. gotta get busy finishing payroll... take care everyone, I hope you have a wonderful holiday! I'll talk to you guys when I get home next week!!!!

Hello And MERRY CHRISTMAS to Everyone! I hope that you are all having a great weekend.

Noelle, Here are a few pictures of Ginger and Sissy in their new sweaters. I decided to go ahead and get them out yesterday since we had below 0 weather and blowing snow! But I still haven't got out their dresses yet!

We had all the grandkids, parents and grandparents over last night for a get together. The two oldest boys that are my sons we hadn't seen in about 10 years before this past June. (Bitter breakup) And in June my son wasn't able to see them since he was working out of town. Then last night we all got together and it was pretty fun! Although I'm pooped today!! I went ahead and put a picture of everybody on here too. I was so happy that it got done in spite of the bad weather! I think it was a pretty nice early Christmas for my son and his 2 oldest boys!

Noelle, Congrats on your 3 pounds lost! I think that I may have found them though!! ;) Oh well, back to serious business after the first of the year!!

Cherie, my brother and his son are coming out here on the 26th and he wants to take his son skiing. .So maybe I will just go along with them for the ride. I think they may just be going to Breckenridge though.. Guess I'll have to see how things work out. Sure hope you are enjoying your vacation in ski country!!

Angie, I guess you must be doing some vactioning too! Hope you are having a good time.

Well, I need to get busy and it is already time to think about supper! Take care everyone and I'll try to get back later to see how things are going.

OK-- Just letting you know ahead of time you will need the kleenex handy! It really makes you stop and think!


http://youtube.com/watch?v=zCdZwitrNoY

Hello ladies and hope everyone is enjoying their weekend. Only a few short days left before Christmas. I plan to go out and brave the evening crowds at the mall, I still have a gift or two to go.

Karen, I love the pictures of the gals and their sweaters, but especially the one of your extended family. How great that you got to see the grandsons again, I can't imagine you not being able to see them (or your son not being able to see them either!) for that long. This makes Christmas much more special no? I have to let you know that my contact lens fell out after listening to that youtube link. That kid sure is smart.

Cherie, enjoy your skiing, I know you are.

We just got a postcard from my cousin and his family who are living in CO, my cousin is around 42(?) and just found out that his stepdaughter will be having her first child next February--so he will be a grandpa! :lol: His youngest girl is in the 6th grade so I have to kid him about that.

I hope everyone else is doing great and not getting too stressed out, Christmas is all about family and being together and just enjoying each other. I hope you all have a good one.

Noelle,
Wasn't that phone call awesome!! Sorry your contact fell out though. That was an actual call to a radio station in Texas. I got this in an email and thought it would be nice to share something a little more light and funny! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!


EVER-FESTIVE EATING TIPS

1. Avoid carrot sticks. Anyone who puts carrots on a holiday buffet
table knows nothing of the Christmas spirit. In fact, if you see
carrots, leave immediately. Go next door, where they're serving rum
balls.

2. Drink as much eggnog as you can. And quickly, it's rare. You can't
find it any other time of year but now. So drink up! Who cares that it
has 10,000 calories in every sip? It's not as if you're going to turn
into an eggnog-aholic or something. It's a treat. Enjoy it. Have one for
me. Have two. It's later than you think. It's Christmas!

3. If something comes with gravy, use it. That's the whole point of
gravy. Gravy does not stand alone. Pour it on. Make a volcano out of
your mashed potatoes. Fill it with gravy. Eat the volcano. Repeat.

4. As for mashed potatoes... always ask if they're made with skim milk
or whole milk. If it's skim, pass. Why bother? It's like buying a sports
car with an automatic transmission.

5. Do NOT have a snack before going to a party in an effort to control
your eating. The whole point of going to a Christmas party is to eat
other people's food for free. Lots of it. Hello?

6. Under no circumstances should you exercise between now and New
Year's. You can do that in January when you have nothing else to do.
This is the time for long naps, which you'll need after circling the
buffet table while carrying a 10-pound plate of food and that vat of
eggnog.

7. If you come across something really good at a buffet table, like
frosted Christmas cookies in the shape and size of Santa, position
yourself near them and don't budge. Have as many as you can before
becoming the center of attention. They're like a beautiful pair of
shoes. If you leave them behind, you're never going to see them again.

8. Same for pies. Apple. Pumpkin. Pecan. Have a slice of each. Or, if
you don't like Pecan, have two apples and one pumpkin. Always have
three. When else do you get to have more than one dessert? Labor Day?

9. Did someone mention fruitcake? Granted, it's loaded with the mandatory
celebratory calories, but AVOID it at all cost. I mean, have SOME
standards.

10. One final tip: If you don't feel terrible when you leave the party
or get up from the table, you haven't been paying attention. Reread
tips; start over, but hurry, January is just around the corner.

Noelle--- MERRY CHRISTMAS and have a Wonderful time in Las Vegas! If we don't chat before I'll be anxious to hear from you when you get back!