Happy New Year.

I can't believe it, 2010 is rapidly coming to a close, and I'm at home, alone, suffering from a cold that I caught from the littlest one.  Thanks sweetie.  We weren't going to do much for the night, but then our neighbors popped over mid-week and invited us to a party at their house!  Fun!  Now hubby and littlest one are over having fun and I'm stuck home with a cold!  Matt did ask if I could muster some energy up and take one for the team, but I just feel rotten enough that I have no game tonight...so instead I called my momma and we reminisced a little about New Years Eve celebrations of the past.

I grew up in a very small town...very small - so small that if you happened to blink as you were were approaching it, you'd miss the turn to main street!  I guess one year, one of the neighbors decided it would be fun to host a New Year Eve celebration out in his shop.  I don't remember much of it - since I think the first time we went I was about 4 or 5, but I do remember sitting on hay bales, eating a delicious meal, and doing some dancing.  From what my mom tells me, it was NEGATIVE 40 degrees out, the neighbor provided the meat for the evening, and everything else was provided pot luck.  I remember it being VERY fun, despite it being frigid; mom told me that people would show up to the dance, and leave their 'outfits' running the whole evening just to be sure that they'd have something to drive home when midnight hit.   I don't have many memories of the parties, (I believe he hosted it for 4-5 years) but I do remember the smell of the hay bales that were provided as chairs, and the smell of the greasy shop that it was being hosted in.  I remember the hay bales being hard, but oh so cozy to fall asleep on when there was a pile of coats to lay on.  I remember one of the 'older' girls out kissing! one of the boys, and I'm sure she was mad that all the little girls were spying on them!  He he!  I remember someone sprinkling corn meal on the cement floor so peoples shoes would slide easier to dance.  I also remember getting to go spend the night with Gramma and Gramps after one party, who were staying out MUCH later than mom and dad, and seeing the town drunk passed out on the floor under the hay.  At the time I asked my Gramma if he was dead, and why he was under all that hay, and she assured me he wasn't dead, that he was just tired and was taking a nap...

After a few years of that the party was moved into town and was never quite the same...still fun, and still fun to have something to go to, but that smell was gone, and was never the same.  They still do it to this day, and every New Years Eve that I'm away from home makes me think of the celebration that will be happening there, and what a good time it is.  Tonight it is -20 degrees there but the party will go on.  Oh how I miss it.

Happy New Year to my itooshort readers!  May 2011 be a blessing to you and yours!

I coulda swore.

I don't know if it's just me, the time of year or what, but do you ever go to a store, have stuff picked out to buy and then not have the item in your bags when you get home?!!  I HAVE.  And it seems like it's happening more and more frequently.  I don't quite understand what it is, but when I bring my items to the checkout stand/lane, I am entrusting the checker to get everything I have purchased into a bag and hand it to me!  Is that too much to ask?  I realize - I can't watch out for every single thing that I buy - most the time I have baby girl with me, and I'm trying my darnedest to hold her, pay, and keep her from melting down...so I don't have TIME to monitor whether every single item that I'm PAYING for makes it into my bag/cart!  I know for a fact that I've paid for and not received by the time I've gotten home:  bananas, avocados, baking chocolate, and just recently TAPE!  Of course these are all separate trips, but it makes me swear. What kills me even more is that I can't go back and say I didn't receive my item...there would be no chance that would ever fly.

On a side note - my cousin was ringing herself up at the self checkout, and accidentally put the item number in the quantity when she was buying an avocado, so the item number being 1022, ended up registering as she buying 1,022 avocados!  So, the checker of the lane assured her that she got the transaction stopped, however, a few days later, the charge ended up on her card.  She went in to the store to explain what happened, and the store manager didn't BELIEVE HER!  Ummm....I think you'd know if someone really bought a thousand avocados from your store in one purchase...let's be real here.  Luckily the checker who was working that day remembered my cousin and was able to get it cleared up, but ONLY because she happened to be working at that moment did the issue get resolved...

The other thing that I'm noticing lately is when I have my arms full of kid and a basket full items to purchase, the checker looks at me and says "do you want a bag?".  Umm...well, seeing as though I don't have a reusable bag with me, YES, I would like a bag.  Thanks.

Ok, I'm done being a curmudgeon and scrooge this week.  Moving on.

It's Christmas this week!  Yay!  I'm nearly ready, I've nearly finished shopping, just a few things to pick up.  We are hosting Christmas Eve at our house this year, so need to prepare for our meal, which hopefully we can finish up on Thursday along with my last minute shopping.  I still need to decorate the rest of my sugar cookies,  and of course clean my house!  Here's wishing you a blessed Christmas - I hope you and yours have a wonderful and happy holiday!

Biggest Loser Season Wrap Up.

Admittedly, I've been bad about making my Biggest Loser episode recaps...I wasn't doing very well getting the episodes watched, and I was also was fed up with some of the players and their game play.  Especially, when my favorite Jesse went home.

The "fearsome" three had a scene back in one of their rooms where Brendan announced that they had this game won, and that one of the 3 of them would be the winner.  I'm glad that he said it, cause it came back to bite him and he got sent home!  YES!  The episodes waned on, and finally they were down to 4 contestants left, Frado, Ada, Elisabeth, and Patrick.  Ada and Elisabeth were up for the America's vote to be in the top 3, and thankfully Ada beat out that other chick, who was clearly more interested in moving into an apartment with her boyfriend, than concentrating on winning biggest loser.  BTW, I thought it was also interesting/sad to see that she immediately fell back into her pattern of being taken care of someone as soon as she moved home.  Apparently it didn't take her 2 weeks to move in with a boyfriend.

I guess it's no surprise to anyone that Patrick won.  He was skinny - although I didn't see his exact percentage of weight loss, I believe it was in the 45% range...which is pronominal, although he would have lost to Red Man, who lost 50%!  Amazing.  I thought the at-home-winner challenge was more interesting than the 3 finalists.  It started out with Blue man, then Jesse came and lost to him by a single POUND.  The green man beat blue man and then Red man beat Green man!!!  Exciting stuff, especially when these people were losing like 44%, 45%, 46%.

Looks like there's going to be 2 new trainers next season...but luckily Bob and Jillian will still be one the show as well...looks like there might be 2x the people playing...could be interesting.

New Baby!

We often say "seems like everybody we know are having babies", but I suppose that just has a lot to do with our age.  When we were in our early 20s, so were all of our friends.  Now, in our 30s, our siblings and friends are having babies.    On Tuesday, my sister had her baby!  A little one at that; her baby girl weighed in at 6lbs 0.5oz...  She's a couple weeks early, but since my sister was walking around 6 cm dilated, her doctor decided that they should break her water and get that baby born.  2 hours later, she had a baby to hold in her arms!  So, even though she wasn't supposed to be born until the 19th, she's a nice size! It's killing me not to fly to Montana and see the new bundle of joy...if only plane tickets weren't up 60% in price from last year!  I digress.

Welcome to the world sweet baby niece.  I can't wait to meet you!