Don't faint

Yeah, here I am, just a mere 2 days after my last post. Can't believe we are just 3 days from Christmas. No pictures taken here, no cards sent out. I won't make excuses like "too busy" or "no time"... fact is, time got away from me and I just didn't think about it enough. Maybe there will be some New Year letters/cards sent out after the 1st.

I think I finished up the last bit of shopping needed to get us ready for Tuesday. I imagine there will be quite a bit of wrapping left to do Monday. Brian has several items in his truck... we took my van in for an oil change earlier this week and had to transfer all the stuff I was hiding in it into his truck beforehand; we never got the chance to move anything back.

The kids and I went to see Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium at the base theater tonight. It was a cute film. I probably wouldn't pay full price to see it, but base prices are OK ($4 adult, $2 child).

Oh gee, I forgot some of the best news. We *finally* bought a new mattress set this week. Actually bought it Thursday afternoon and had it delivered late yesterday afternoon. Oh my holy heck, it sleeps great! It is a Sealy True Form and I am amazed at how comfortable it is. It is similar to the Tempurpedic in that it is a memory foam mattress, but doesn't carry the same hefty price tag. Brian also felt like the Tempurpedic was not as comfortable. In addition, we got a few memory foam pillows and are hooked on them.

One last item... go look at Franklin's blog and read his last few posts about the experiences he is having with his youth group in Omaha. Talk about keeping it real and taking it to the streets!

Looking forward to a fairly quiet day here tomorrow, just church and hanging out at home.

I'm losing my mind

Or at least parts of it. These days I can't seem to remember things for very long.... things that make me say "Oooh, I need to say something about that on my blog!" I think I've had that thought at least a half a dozen times this week, but when I try to remember what it was about, I come up almost empty-handed. I'll just have to see what does get dredged up from the gray matter and try to make it worth your time to read.

The adult choir's Christmas program this past Sunday went well. From the conversations I heard afterwards, one of the most talked-about songs was a gospel number called "Go Tell." It was mostly a solo with choir backup... and it really was an awesome number, if not for the sole reason that until the day before, the soloist and choir had never practiced the number together. She is a college student in Fresno and drove home for the weekend just to sing this with us. She'd been working on her part down there while we practiced with a CD here. She totally nailed it, ad libs and all.

The choir took our show on the road the following night and sang a few songs at an assisted living facility where one of our members is the activity director. We are also slated to sing at the local Six Flags this Saturday afternoon. (I am not sure whether I will be making that trip or not.)

The rainy season is upon us, and large portions of our back yard turn into small lakes. This makes for no small chore when the dogs need to come inside from their many trips out. Rory absolutely hates having her paws cleaned and dried off, but she is learning to submit (in a fashion... if you call trying to drag me out of the room while I have one back paw up and in my hands). The Swiffer Wet Jet, she is becoming a dear friend. That, and my Hoover Steam Cleaner. Of course, it wasn't mud stains that I had to drag it out for this past Sunday afternoon. No, it was chocolate pudding mix stains. Rory snitched a box out of the pantry and opened it in the living room. Rory is certainly all girl. She loves chocolate (yes, I know it isn't good for dogs) and leather. Unfortunately, she isn't content to carry leather, she prefers to chew it; I find myself removing Joel's baseball glove from her mouth several times a day.

Seen at Kerflop earlier this week: Holiday gift tags to print and use. I totally love these! I could picture using them when the kids are older. I especially like the one that says "Shopping for you is so hard, you should give me an extra gift for even trying. I mean that in a loving way."

Speaking of shopping, that is pretty much done for, except for a few stocking stuffers. I should be able to get those taken care of in the next couple of days.

It's off to the races now.... or more accurately, time to chauffeur Emily to school.

Alive and well, just busy as....

You fill in the blank. If you're the rhyming sort, feel free.

It's been a long month since my last post. I've been swimming across an endless lake of creamed corn, but finally reached the other shore. Let's hope there are no more of those in the future!

We have two Christmas performances down (Halle's children's musical last Sunday, and Emily's choir concert this past Tuesday evening) and one left to go tomorrow. Tomorrow morning is the adult Christmas choir's turn to sing. We had our last rehearsal today. I think it will be awesome. I'll have to be there at 7:45, and with Brian in Sacramento today/tonight, he probably won't make it home until then at the earliest. This means the younger kids will be getting up early to get ready and go with me. Won't that be fun!

I'm almost done with my fall reading challenge list. I am finally starting the last book. Of course, I've been able to pick up a few extra along the way as well, so that is always good. Books not on the list that I finished since the last update are:

• Alaska Twilight, Colleen Coble
• The Book of Jane, Anne Dayton
• Joshua's Family, Joseph Girzone
• In Search of Eden, Linda Nichols
• Bachelor's Puzzle, Judith Pella
• Crimson Eve, Brandilyn Collins
• After the Leaves Fall, Nicole Baart
• Searching for Eternity, Elizabeth Musser
• Pushed: the Painful Truth About Childbirth and Modern Maternity Care, Jennifer Block
• Mosaic, Pieces of My Life So Far, Amy Grant
  

Wow, makes it look like I've done nothing but read for the last month, but that is certainly not the case! In addition to that reading, I designed and printed graduation invitations for my husband's senior nurse anesthesia residents, as well as programs for their graduation ceremony held a little over a week ago. I also did the newsletter for the base homeschool group and uploaded it to our group site. Aaaannnddd... I designed the program for the school's Christmas concert, to the point of even making last-minute changes the day before the event. That last little job at least earns me "service hours" towards the 20 hours we are required to do a year. It's 20 hours or $200 (or $10 an hour for every hour under 20 you don't get in).

The tree is up and several presents are wrapped and under it. I was worried how Rory would handle it, but once we moved the one ornament she seemed most interested in (and it was a puppy ornament, go figure), she has seemed to pretty much leave it alone. I was afraid I wasn't going to get into the Christmas spirit this year but it seems to have arrived at last.

Tomorrow afternoon is a cookie exchange for the ladies at church, but I am doing a rare thing for me and opting out. I tend to be one of those people who tries to do everything.... not that I can't say no when it's something I don't want to do, just that I like doing as much as I can. But after being gone last Sunday night for 3 hours at the annual ladies' Christmas dinner, I think I will just stay home. With the running I've done today (rehearsal, groceries), I think I'll need to be home to get some laundry taken care of tomorrow anyhow.

So there you have it. Just a couple of hours left in the evening before I need to start getting kids bathed and ready for bed. I'm sure there are plenty of other things I should be doing other than this.... but they can wait a little while longer.