So yesterday, I cleaned and reorganized a couple of closets, cupboards, etc.  I didn’t mean to, but I started one thing which led to another, which led to another…well, you get the idea.  But my little bedroom looks better than it did, and the closets are much nicer now.  So it was worth it.

Halfway through the morning, I realized that I had never gotten some things that we didn’t end up using for the Christmas program at church.  They’d been sitting at the church for almost a month, and I wasn’t sure where they were anymore.  So I made a quick run over there, and happily, I found them all very quickly. 

I spent the afternoon with Mom and Karen at her house.  Dad came up to help Erik install some outdoor lights he’d gotten for his birthday, so the girls just hung out and ran errands. 

We went out to dinner (with my Eric, too) to O’Charleys for Karen’s birthday.  Sadly, I tried something new and didn’t like it.  I tried to explain to Eric that it is precisely such an experience that makes me NOT try new things at restaurants.  Almost every time I do…I don’t like my meal.  And $12 is a lot to waste for a meal I might not like.  Thankfully, my dad got full pretty fast, so he let me have some of his steak, which was pretty good. 

After dinner, I goofed off, watched TV, and then went to bed.  A lovely evening, if I do say so myself!

I think we’re having a family party on Sunday for her, but here’s a little something for her actual day!

Eric is back to work today, so I am on my own.  I started a cleaning project that I think is going to turn into something a bit more complicated than I’d originally intended.  Oops!  Well…at least this will keep me from buying stuff somewhere because I have nothing better to do!

The weekend was good, but very busy.  Here’s the quick recap:

Saturday: Did some baking and wrapping and cleaning up at my house before heading to Mom’s for the party.  Lots of babies and children, lots of food, lots of gift cards.  (Most importantly, I ended up with TWO gift cards to Victoria’s Secret since, after I’d gotten one earlier, Eric chose the final package and that’s what was inside.  So now I have lots of money for underwear.  And the big VS sale is now/soon…so I can get even more!!!)

Sunday: Got up for church, then left immediately from first service to drive to the farm.  Had dinner, opened gifts with the in-laws, and then hung out.  Both sets of grandparents came over for supper, so we had another small exchange with just us, since we wouldn’t see them on Christmas.  Then an early bedtime…so nice!

Monday: Hung out with my in-laws for most of the day.  We left for home about 5, and we relaxed at home for the evening, which was very nice. 

Tuesday: Opened our presents and then headed to Cedarville for the day.  We did a family Christmas, had egg casserole, and then played, chatted and goofed off in the afternoon.  Chris & Deb (and the girls, of course) headed for Michigan mid-afternoon, and the rest of us just relaxed at Mom’s house.  We had a yummy ham dinner, and then Eric and I headed home about 9.

Wednesday: Yesterday was a pretty lazy day at our house.  We both had headaches and sore necks from sleeping wrong or something.  So we weren’t ambitious by any stretch.  I organized the gifts under the tree and put away the wrapping stuff.  Eric got the weekend’s pictures ready to post (look for an email to come soon), and we went to a movie in the afternoon (National Treasure 2…pretty good).  Then we had a light supper and relaxed all evening.

So that’s the recap…later!

It took me all day, but yesterday, I managed to fit 3 chores into 12 hours.  I did clean my bathrooms, and I did finish the laundry.  And I did wrap the presents we had to be wrapped.  Other than that, I goofed off, watched television, started a small crocheting project, and talked to Eric.  I left the house to put the trash out and get the mail.  That was it…lovely!

Today, my parents are coming up to Columbus, and Karen & I will join them to do some shopping (mostly helping them shop for each other).  Mom and Karen go together, and I go with Dad.  It’s sort of a holiday tradition, but we have a good time.  So I probably won’t be on Xanga much through the midday and afternoon. 

But here’s a little fun thing right before Christmas…
Colored lights or white lights? white

Real tree or fake tree? Fake.  Eric’s family always did real, but I don’t know how to take care of them, and he doesn’t care. So we go with fake.

What is your least favorite thing about the holidays?  Trying to schedule everything and everyone.

What is the one thing that you would like to see under the tree this year?  A puppy.

What is your favorite thing to do/build in the snow?  Snow angel (or maybe a Fox-n-Geese trail)

What is your favorite holiday drink? Hot chocolate.

What is your favorite holiday smell?  Cookies baking

Who is your favorite reindeer?  Vixen

What is your Christmas Eve ritual?  It varies, but it often involves a gift exchange with the Edlunds!

Are you a Friday after Thanksgiving shopper? NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO

What is your favorite holiday food?  Molasses Cut-out Cookies

How did you find out that Santa wasn’t real?  Don’t remember…it wasn’t a big deal either way in our house.

Who do you want to be under the mistletoe with? Eric!

Have you bought all your presents yet?  Yep!

Do you spend Christmas with a lot of family? As many as possible.

Do you still make snowmen and snow angels? Whenever possible.

Do you still have snow ball fights? Of course!  That’s how I first flirted with my husband!

What’s your favorite Christmas movie?  White Christmas

What do you plan to do for New Year’s Eve? Nothing yet.

What’s the most expensive thing you’ve ever gotten for Christmas?  Not sure, but my full-length floor mirror would be one.

How early do you wake up on Christmas morning?  Whenever I feel like it, but probably 7-ish (am)

What do you usually get in your stocking?  Socks, mints, makeup stuff

What is your favorite religious Christmas carol? What Child is This?/ I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day

What is your favorite nonreligious Christmas song?  White Christmas/ Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree (Mercy Me version)

How long do you leave up your Christmas decorations? Into January

Here is a look at yesterday’s schedule:

6:45-7:10 – Get up, make coffee/Eric’s lunch, Xanga, send Eric to work
7:10 – Exercise
7:45 – Shower/Dress
8:00 – Breakfast/Goofing off
9:00 – Head for Polaris Fashion Place
9:30-10:45 – Shop at Polaris (4 stores, much success!)
11:00-11:40 – Shop at Hilliard-Rome Road (gift card, stop at Michaels)
12:00 – lunch at home, sort coupons
12:30-2:00 – grocery shopping, buy one last gift card
2:00-5:30 – put away groceries, goof off, ice cookies, wrap presents, greet Eric, goof off a bit more
5:30-6:30 – make dinner, eat dinner, watch end of Simpsons with Eric
7:00-9:00 – drive to Tuttle’s Best Buy (we got a free $10 gc with our purchase!), then to Easton, then home.
9:30-10:00 – goof off, read in bed, turn off lights.

So I got a ton done yesterday (I think I’m totally done buying gifts now), but wow what a day it was!

Today’s agenda includes staying home.  I might make one quick trip to WalMart, but if I can avoid it, I will.  Instead, I’m going to clean my house, do laundry, and finish wrapping presents.  And I might sit down and read, or knit or crochet something, or I might just goof off and do nothing productive between laundry loads. How’s that for a fabulous-sounding day!

I did a lot of running around yesterday.  I finished shopping for Eric, but I will be heading out again today to work on the rest of my list.  I wrapped presents in the afternoon, and I made sugar cookies after dinner. I will try to get those iced today (I was too tired last night). 

We did watch some TV last night, but Eric was watching shows on the Science Channel or HD Discovery.  So I learned about “How They Do That,” chocolate, and alternative fuels for cars.  The last one was somewhat interesting, but I mostly enjoyed listening to Eric correct their information, or at least the spin they put on the information.  He’s way to smart for his own good!

I can’t think of anything more interesting to tell you, I guess.  Maybe I’ll add more if I come up with something…

EDIT (11:45): I now have more to share:  So far this morning, I’ve been to Polaris and back.  And I stopped at Hilliard-Rome Road to buy a few things.  I got all my actual presents bought, and I’m down to about 4 gift cards that I still need to get!  I love crossing things off my list.  This afternoon, I think I’m going to go grocery shopping…we have a serious lack of food in this house!

The rest of the weekend…

So last Friday night, I got home exhausted and brain-dead.  I was late getting home, and it was very dark.  We had a light supper while watching TV, and then goofed off for the evening.  I even took a bath and went to bed early.  It was lovely!

Saturday I ran to Kohl’s to buy an ornament at 10:00 am.  It started snowing when I was walking across the parking lot.  Thirty minutes later, having gotten my ornament and stood in line to check out, the snow was coming down hard and already coating the ground.  I drove home (slowly), and stayed home until the Ornament Exchange that evening.  I debated all day about going, but by then, the rain had cleared the roads pretty well.  It was actually a good time, a much smaller party than usual, so it went much faster.  We were home by 9:00 pm.  Fabulous!

Sunday was church, then supper, then a party thrown by Eric’s boss for a couple of hours in the afternoon. After the party, we just hung out.  I was pretty tired after the social exertions of the weekend (I don’t have a lot of stamina for those sorts of things), so we just watched TV (holiday specials on the Food Network).

Yesterday, I ran some errands and goofed off a lot.  I did not clean my house.  It seems we may be starting to have some issues with our garage door.  I hope that doesn’t break on us this week, either trapping us inside OR outside the garage!  I left about 3:00 to go pick up Karen at Plain City and take her to her doctors appointment.  Then we had dinner at Panera and started registries for them at both Babies R Us and Target.  We had a fun time just being silly, and we were productive too!  And we were home between 8 and 8:30.  Lovely!  I pretty much crashed when I got home, and Eric and I vegged out in front of the TV again last night.  Hmmm….we’ve been doing a lot of that recently…we may have to work on it!

Today is another blank day.  I may go shopping for Eric.  I might run errands.  I might clean my house.  Maybe I’ll wash a load of jeans.  We shall just have to see what the day holds!

I’m DONE! I’m DONE! I’m DONE! I’m DONE! I’m DONE! I’m DONE!

That’s right, I turned in my last grades on Saturday morning, and I am finished with Fall Semester!  Praise Jesus!!!

I have to admit, this semester really wore me down.  SO I’d like to say a special thanks to all of you who prayed for me this fall…I am so grateful, and I needed it immensely.  You all are the best!

My agenda for the week is pretty much whatever I want to do!  I love that!  Today I might run some errands in the morning hours, but we’ll see.  I am picking Karen up from school today and taking her to her doctor’s appointment. Pray that the baby isn’t shy today so we can find out more definitely what they’re having!  Then after her appointment, we’re going to do some registering for the little one.  That should be fun, I think!

So…any suggestion from all you mothers (or super-fantastic aunts) about thing we should definitely put (or definitely NOT put) on the registry?  Thanks!

Shannah’s List of happy things for December 14th:

• It is my last day to go to CU until next year! 
• I graded 9 portfolios yesterday.
• I should finish grading Comp portfolios today and be able to submit grades for that class.
• I can bring home with me anything for Basic English, so I can submit those grades whenever it suits me.
• The winter storm they’re predicting won’t be here until tomorrow, so I won’t have to drive in yucky conditions today!
• I got to pick Karen up from school yesterday, so we had a nice chat in the afternoon.
• Last night’s meatloaf tasted very yummy!
• I watched TV last night that was actually funny (The Office, 30 Rock, part of the SNL special).
• I got a good night’s sleep last night.
• It’s Friday!!!!!

Yep…there is much to be happy about today.  Have a great day, Xanga friends!

So much to grade…so little time.  I didn’t get a single portfolio graded yesterday because I spent the entire day grading submissions or emailing and meeting students for Basic English.  It’s becoming more clear who is likely to finish and who isn’t.  Sadly, some of them will join me again next semester.

I did take a short break to watch my nieces.  But instead of going to their house, I ended up riding along with them to some doctor’s appointments and watching the girls in the car.  We watched Peter Pan and they had lunch.  Then they went on to the next appointment, and I went back to Cedarville for a quick lunch and a meeting with a student.

Last night I met up with a friend while Eric was at orchestra rehearsal.  They are leaving our church, and she wanted to tell me herself.  I had suspected that was her news for a while now, but it was nice to have my suspicions confirmed.  It seems like the new church will be a better fit for them, and she was really excited about the new ministry (which had 140 people show up for its first “official” service last week!).  But I am sad to see them go.

Today will be mostly dedicated to grading portfolios.  I do have to run and pick up Karen after school (they are a one-car family today, and Erik’s got the SUV), so that’ll get me out of the house at least once.  But really, my goal is to knock out a ton of grading so I can close out Comp tomorrow.  I’m almost, almost done!!!

Happy Tuesday!

I just got up a few minutes ago.  Eric is still in bed.  He said last night that his nose had been running less, but his throat was hurting a bit more.  He got up a couple of hours ago to take Advil and then came back to bed.  I think he’ll be going in late today or maybe taking the day off.  We’ll see when he gets up!

Classes are now over.  I always reach a point at the end of the semester where it is time for each class to move on, and I had definitely gotten there yesterday.  On the other hand, it was so nice to be able to just come home last night instead of driving to UD. We didn’t do very much, of course, but it’s much more fun to do nothing at home with Eric than in class in Dayton!

I brought home 5 portfolios to read today.  I have learned that if I just force myself to start reading a few per day, I’ll be done by Friday with no problem.  I’ve also figured out that if I read them in order from (what I expect to be) worst to best, then by the end of the week, when I’m tired of grading, I only have good ones left to consider. 

I also hope to get a haircut and run some errands today, but I think I’ll plan to do that in the afternoon.  Maybe if I grade in the morning, I’ll be more likely to actually do it!  We shall see…