The blahs

Maybe if I write blah blah blah blah enough it will eventually give way and become something else.... like in freewriting exercises in English 101 in college... ya think?

I woke up this morning all excited to scrap ~ then got caught up in the unfinished projects I have going (I can't even count how many unfinished personal projects I have, not to mention the projects I'm doing for other people!), and was trying to organize the photos that I have online, on discs, what photos are developed and waiting to get put into a scrapbook -- so it ends up I get no pictures on a page, and very little done with the so-called organization of my photos on the pc.

blah blah BLAH! ARGH!!

I did have a lovely day with Aunt Marlene, who gave me $100 Christmas money and so we shopped... I got a couple of things that I'm happy about, and she got a really neat new outfit. We went to Dillard's, which I've managed to avoid completely since being back in the states -- the store at Park Place (still Park Mall or Llam Krap in my mind) is so different it is hard to imagine that I once worked there. I found something for pop Larry for next Christmas, and also some things for Brian -- his birthday is February, and the other thing he really needs. Love these 1/2 price after-Christmas sales :-)

The scarf & necklace I got her from Maya Palace (note to self: when my ship comes in I'm going to spend A LOT of money there... yummy yummy stuff in there!!) went over well, and I'm glad she liked them and will be able to match things she has with them.

WAY too much food consumed at Beyond Bread. Went home instead of getting to Target to return stuff, to Curves (!), and to the grocery store to get goodies for the weekend.

I didn't make it to Curves 3 x this week ~ but I'm going tomorrow, and I hope they're open 1/2 a day on Saturday so I can get in at least 2 x this week. Nothing to stop me from getting on the treadmill... *sigh* I could learn a lot of music if I would just figure out my mp3 player and get the music I'm supposed to be learning on to the disk...

I think maybe I'm starting to truely understand the value of time - and the value of paying someone to do something that I could do myself but just don't have the time...

O.K. ~ I'm going to get that page kit done!

Shoulds and Oughttas

I really should clean my room.

I really oughtta put together my storage cubes so I have a place to put my stuff.

I REALLY need to stop coming up with excuses why I haven't done it yet.... like the Christmas stuff needs to be put away before I can put the Christmas Boxes that hold the Christmas stuff away. This is valid, yet feels like an excuse.


I procrastinate by doing other things I need to do... for instance, I just found an email address I've been thinking about needing to find to keep in touch with valuable friends from Scotland. Without the Fairgrieves I don't know how I would have survived... Rhona was willing to take me places and tell me how to find good craft resources!! And they'd pick me up for church when I wasn't driving, and she'd call me to invite me to a 'singing night' and get me started going to church again... so while it has been important to me to dig through my 800+ emails since last August to find her email address, I really need to work on my room.



bother.

Christmas 2005

Himself and I have had a pretty cool Christmas, with only one incident to mar the holiday -- but I'll get to that.

Christmas Eve we were on the road to Cave Creek to mom & "pop" Larry's by 12:15 pm - a small miracle to anyone that knows us. We picked up the beautiful custom stained glass windows mom commissioned for Larry as his Christmas present (by Ann, her 28th street tenant), the evening before, and packed our awesome Dodge Caravan Van (purchased this past July) stuffed full with presents and goodies.

We arrived by 3:30 pm - traffic wasn't bad at all - and himself helped Larry install the windows ~ I wrapped more presents upstairs, and we had a fabby dinner of tamales and chili. Mom goes every year after Thanksgiving with half a dozen others to help Roseanne make a zillion tamales. YUM!! [ancedote: when I was much younger, no one told me that to eat tamales you need to unwrap the paper AND the corn husk. So... it is no wonder that I always thought tamales were kinda gross and would wonder why and how anyone could eat them... then watched one time as someone unwrapped the corn husk. *lightbulb* OH!! D'oh!! I'm a wuss when it comes to very spicy, but like spicy... so I cut the green chili tamales with cream cheese, and they're fabulous!]

I ended up staying up until 1:15 am wrapping the gifts... earlier in December, D and M Gregory along with himself and I plotted and schemed on how we were going to 'get' mom with Popcorn Salt this year. My husband, who is extremely creative, came up with the idea that we should create our own Popcorn Salt combinations ~ and present her with a spice rack to hold our delicious creations. So we ended up creating: Pez Flavor, French Vanilla with Red Pepper Flavor, Malted Postum Flavor, Peppermint Parmesan Flavor, Parmesan Oregano Flavor, Popcorn Flavor (!), Marshmallow Flavor, and Cheeseburger Flavor. In addition, I created a sweatshirt transfer with the famous quote "I hate this crap and you give it to me every year!" for mom to wear. [I'll post the entire story and link it before too long...]

I brought up the scrapbook page from a couple years ago (Christmas 2002) with the story so Pop Larry would understand the joke. It was probably more fun for us coming up with the ideas and plotting... :-)

The thing that prevented the day from being perfect was that I had purchased himself's 'big' present from Hobbycraft USA on Tuesday, December 20th, it had shipped out UPS 2-day shipping on Wednesday morning... and did not arrive to Cave Creek. I went to Target at 5:15 pm on Christmas Eve for make-up gift shopping so my incredibly generous and supportive husband would at least have some toys to play with on Christmas Day. The plane I got was pretty good, but M. G. saved the day with Radio-Controlled Flying Saucers she got for both 'boys' himself and D... *WHEW!!* I still have to call Hobbycraft and get my $19.99 back, but will deal with that later this week.

Foyetta & Bob came over and brought green beans, turkey, mushroom fritters with pepper havarti cheese dip, shrimp in dill sauce and champagne. They gave us a Domino Train set and we played after dinner... very fun. Mom made an outstanding Standing Rib - aka Prime Rib dinner ~ complete with famous mashed pototoes, Brian brought bread [an ancedote related to Thanksgiving, which I'll get around to], and Foyetta also brought Pumpkin Pies and a wonderful Apple Caramel Pie from Costco -- and Mary made a delicious chocolate cheesecake. I think there were mashed yams/sweet potatoes on offer, but I didn't partake.

The boys had fun playing with their toys on the golf course in-between the golfers playing through... and overall it was a much fun day.

Brandy & Rosie got doggie treats, and everyone who owns a pet received a dog-biscuit cookie cutter and 4 recipes to make their own doggie treats... the pups were underfoot in the kitchen and were the only ones to get yelled at the entire day (!)... Brandy is the food-slut dog, ever-hopeful he'll be called upon to lick up what has dropped from above... Rosie is just happy to be close to someone who will give her a scratch & pat.

Of course, before the day started ~ M and D arrived around 10:30 am and we had the traditional breadsticks, eggs & bacon, fresh-squeezed juice mom picked from her orange trees at 28th street... stockings were opened and much 'fun and frivolity' was had by all.

I got tons of photos, which can be viewed online... www.carrieandbrian.shutterfly.com
password is (case sensitive) ladandlassie


Driving home on Boxing Day, himself expressed a bit of homesickness ~ and I too miss Christmas in Scotland ~ having his family over to our house for Christmas Eve Dinner and exchange of gifts, he and I staying up late to open gifts and have a play until 2am or so, then sleeping in Christmas Day and lazing around until early afternoon -- then getting ready and going over to either Wendy & Graeme's, or Norma's, or SIL sonya's for Christmas Dinner and an evening of watching UK 'telly' - eating a lot of food, drinking a lot of alchohol, and generally having a great laugh... then Boxing Day going over to his mum's for more lazing around and watching telly. Being so cold and damp outside (because it gets dark around 3pm in Scotland in winter) and coming into a nice warm, welcoming house all decked out in decorations and smelling of mince pies, sausage rolls, and drinking Advocaat -- *sigh* maybe we can alternate Christmases starting in a couple of years.... because while all that is said, himself also loves being able to pad out to our apartment balcony on a December morning in just his pj's and bare feet to have his coffee and fag (aka Cigarette ;-) and not freezing -- it being warm and sunny has been a fabulous change for him in general.

We got lots of stuff ~ but the best part was being together with loved ones -- sharing and making memories to last a lifetime. And of course, to celebrate the birth of Christ our Savior. Joy To The World.

First (?) Post - Why I'm Here

I've done one of these blogs before, but it was over a year ago, I didn't write down any of the pertinent information, and wasn't really thinking how useful it could be.... I'm getting worse about keeping in touch with people I care about, so I'm thinking (taking a cue from Tim Castle) that if I were to keep this blog somewhat up to date, it would give folks a chance to take a glimpse of my (our) life (lives) without me having to feel too guilty about not keeping in touch.

Not that there won't be any guilt. Because of course we all want to feel special and unique. Valued. Validated. So while I will check the box that says "Keeping in touch" - I won't be checking each and every individual's box that says "Keeping in touch in a unique and personal manner." Hope that is understood. *I know what I'm trying to say!*

Not that my (our) annual Christmas/New Year's/as-late-as-Valentines Day-one-year letter is personal and unique, either. But I've not even tried to keep up in the last couple years. One lame reason was because it cost a fortune to post anything from Scotland when you send to over 150 people and the letter(s) I compose are certainly not condensed... they're works of art (ha!) and I'm certain everyone wants to know every minute detail of our lives, no?!

So ~ back to my original intent... since I'm scrapbooking and have been incredibly lame in keeping up with my journal/diary in the last 6 months especially, I'll hopefully keep up to date online (since I'm on the computer all the time anyway), and then can refer back when I get around to scrapbooking and have dates, names and events already chronicalled (sp?). And the bonus side is that I can send this link to people and they can read/catch up with me and I only have to write stuff once. I'm such a lazy butt. But you knew that.