Noelle I forgot to ask, how did everyone like your ornaments you made them with the pics on them? I bet it was fun handing them out!
Julie

Hey Julie, I hid the ornaments within the tree and had everyone look for their own. They were fairly easy to find though, since I grouped the ornaments by families. I even made a few of the dogs . We had a few good laughs over them since I put some 'special' pictures on a few (like those of when my sister as really little and wearing a few pairs of underwear over her pants) I need to go to the store to find a good, sturdy plastic ornament keeper so they will last til next year. Otherwise I will have to make more....who knows, maybe I have started a new tradition?

Gosh, we have been having some stormy weather here and it's been raining buckets since last night! I have got candles burning all around the house to keep the moisture from setting in. I can't complain though, did you hear the awful news about that 9.0 earthquake and resulting tsunami that is devasted parts of Asia? That is just catastrophic! I even read that the King of Thailand's grandson is missing and feared dead. The death toll keeps rising, I hate to turn on the news anymore. I pray for all those people who died and their families left behind who have to rebuild everything they've lost.

Noelle, those ornaments sound fun. I bet your sis loved that one . That would be a neat tradition to start. Yes, it is so very sad about those tons of people who have lost family members, homes, and basically their whole life....it makes me think how lucky I am. I guess I should not complain about the snow and freaking freezing temperatures.

Well I should get going, we all just played a game at the table after supper, all four of us played their new Hungry Hippos game. It was fun but loud. haha
For dinner we had chili with tons of melted cheese on it . I miss everyone so much, I can't wait until we can get everyone back and start motivating each other. Come back safe and soon everyone !

Does anyone know if Angie is coming back before or after the New Year? Thanks

Good morning everyone. Yesterday afternoon I was having trouble with my office phone lines, no dial tone at all. The rains were really heavy so I didn't think much of it. But later on when Rick came back to the office he found that all of the telephone wires to the building had been cut. Turns out some time the night before, thieves had cut the wires to disable the alarm systems and broke into the last warehouse. All of our alarm systems are independent but if they were triggered, the alarm would not contact the police since the lines were cut. Those damned thieves know how to do everything! Then the telephone repair people tell me we may have to wait til Thursday for a guy to come out and fix it. Rick raised **** with them because we have no landline available, no fax line and now no alarm to protect the place. They are sending someone this morning . Luckily we usually have the phones forwarded to our cell phones after hours so we can still get our customer phone calls. Anyway, what a way to end 2004.

Julie, I think Angie may get back on Saturday? I'm not reallly sure. I know they would be gone for 2 weeks. I remember that hungry hippos game--with the marbles right? Last night we played tic,tac,toe and connect four. Eventually all those little game pieces will get lost

I have a question for you guys. How do you celebrate on New Year's eve? Here in Hawaii, setting off fireworks is a big thing. I mean, doing it yourself, not going to a show or anything. Hawaii is one big choking, noisy, smoky mess on NYE and if you suffer from asthma or are afraid of loud noises, HI is not the place to be. We usually set off a string of 20K to a 100K firecrackers at the stroke of midnight. It's a cacophony like you wouldn't believe. Oh yeah, and we usually toast with champagne or something, if the guys haven't already passed out from drinking all night. I'm sure there will be a poker game, prime rib and king crab legs involved somewhere in there too. I'd be interested to know how you guys do your thing. Well, enough rambling for me.

Have a good day everyone.

Noelle those damn thieves is right!!! Oh my God! I can't believe that happen to your business. You must have that creepy feeling....like you know what I mean? Did you call the police? I am glad the phones are going to be fixed. Lord only knows you can't run a business without phone service. I hope they catch the you know whats ! But I am glad you and Rick are safe and were not there when it happened. You never know, they could had a weapon, well that is obvious they did if they cut the lines. Get some pepper spray girl! Now that you mention it I think Angie is coming home on Saturday.
Julie

Oh I forgot to answer your question I was so upset that someone is messing with you guys! LOL, Anyway we usually have been just celebrating at home with crab legs, lobster, scallops, shrimp, and steaks the last couple of years because the kids are younger. The only darn time of year we get crab legs and lobster. Haha....but now that my brother is in town my mom wants to go out which would be fun but I told her no way in h*ll I am going to bring a three and a five year old with me and try and control them. When I go out I want to have a few drinks get dressed up and not have to worry if they are minding their manners. You know? So I am trying to talk her into having champange and surf and turf at her house! But trying to find a sitter is going to be tough anyway. But she said she is leaving it up to my brother, which kind of pisses me off in a way. Excuse my language! I would love to come to HI and sit on the beach though and sip some champange or a pina colda.
We seemed to lose every puzzle and game piece too! haha....just part of having kids! Talk later with ya. It seems like you and I are keeping this board going strong while everyone is gone! I am proud of us that we are not on page five now! Okay I will shut up now!

Julie, I am proud of us too for keeping this thread going It's fun coming back here during the middle of the day and seeing what my friends have to say. Your New Year's eve celebrations sound like ours. Do you have a regular sitter that you use or would you have to go and find one? I'm really lucky in that I have my parents to rely on and if they're not available, one of my sister's is. If we lived near each other I'd take your kids off your hands so you can go out and cut loose every once in a while. I'm sure you'd do the same. I know what you mean about taking a kid out to eat somewhere, not only do you have to worry about their behavior, you have to worry about whether or not they'll eat what the restaurant serves! My son has this thing where if he really likes something, he'll eat too fast and then as fast as the food went down, it'll come right back up. Sorry for the visual But you know some of the gross things kids do

As far as the break-in situation, we are really fortunate that our warehouse unit was not hit. It's a 4 unit building and the business that got hit is on the other end--still, the cutting of the phone lines is a major inconvenience for all. The business that did get hit wholesales Hawaiian themed gift items (wooden bowls, rubber slippers (flip-flops), all kinds of little trinkets that have to do with Hawaii)...they seem to have had a rash of break-ins and all of us other tenants of the building are starting to think it's an inside job. They employ all these people who look like druggie-loser-lowlifes who probably only get paid minimum wage. I hate leaving my car parked outside during the day when these people are hanging around. Sometimes I drive right into the warehouse and pull the gate down. Makes me feel safer! Anyway, I'm waiting for the phone repair man who better show up soon. I'll be back later.

haha, speak of the devil here he is!

Telephone guy is repairing the lines right now. I'm entering my a/p invoices and my carpal tunnel is acting up...hmmm, too much Gameboy methinks.

Noelle I am glad he is there. About the sitter for my two darlings , we usually just use my mom or dh's mom, but mil just had knee surgery. I wish I had a sister. I know what you mean about eating too fast or too much before bed thingy! Haha....I am kind of in a weird mood today, kinda feeling funny, I told my new sil, mind you she wears all designer clothes, probally weighs 105 and has beautiful long black hair, anyway we were talking about pms and I told her I turn into a WWF wrestler and a talking trucker! I told her it should have been in my wedding vows that dh will be called some sort of name every month! She kind of looked at me funny! Then I kind of felt stupid. I LOL....my mom bought me a book as a joke for Christmas, I can't wait to read it, I believe the title is Hormone Jungle! Actually I don't think it was a joke. Well I am just a chatterbox today. It is to bad we can't do lunch today! Btw American Idol starts soon. My dh said he heard That Hung guy(that sounds bad) on the radio and he was just terrible it was so funny. I believe it was from his Christmas cd.

carpal tunnel is painful, do you have a brace?

Hey Julie, my carpal tunnel acts up only when I work (which isn't too often ) and I lent my secretary sister the brace... I have to lay off the Gameboy which will be a little difficult since Michael got all these new games Anyway, I had some business errands to run today which landed me at the mall. I did some after Xmas shopping and got 3 boxes of xmas cards, a cute little Santa snow globe, and a dozen cranberry-apple tealight candles--all for under $20.

Hormone Jungle? Let me know how you like it, maybe I'll go look it up at the library? I'm reading Chicken Soup to Inspire a Woman's Soul (only now did I realize it's a book for mid-life women ). I'll get there eventually.

Oh yeah, can't wait for A.I. either!

Good morning everyone/anyone....

Good morning everyone/anyone...


is that an echo in here? echo echo echo

Just popping in to say good morning. Getting ready for work and will be back later to chat. Have a good day.

Hey guys! We are back. We got home Monday night but I got REALLY sick. I havn't been that sick in all of my life. I would have gotten on to say hi yesterday but I had a fever of 100 and I couldn't do much of anything but sleep. I feel much better today though. I think my fever broke around 5 this morning so I and in a better mood today.

We had a good time in CA but it is good to be home. I don't know if you all heard but it snowed here on Chirstmas for the first time in I think 60 years. Of course we missed it. THAT SUCKS!! My neighboors took a pic of our house so that we could see it. I havn't seen it yet though. I bet it looked pretty cool. While it was snowing here in CA it was in the 70's. That just chapped my hide.

I don't have time right now to read the past posts. I have to go unpack. Something I should have done yesterday. I just wanted you guys to know that we are home and doing fine. I will be back on a little later to catch up.