All Good Things Must Come to an End...

I know.. I'm a little late wrapping things up. Maybe it's because I wanted to hang on to my 24th year a little longer, maybe it's because I didn't get in until 2:30am on December 18th, or MAYBE it's because I left my camera on my desk at work all weekend so I'm just now getting to upload b'day pics! It was a fabulous day full of fun, food, and most of all friends. Josh Quick baked my favorite things - a 4Diamond Grilled Cheese, Fried Green Tomatoes and Brownies. The Swampers Kitchen Crew gave me a Chocolate Explosion, and I spent the entire day with my Chef who gave me Kit Kats and a Vegetarian Book/Cookbook. It was a good day.

SO, this is it. I'm wrapping up my 24th year. Here's my list of 24 things that I learned this year.

1. I'm still as bad of a cook as when I began the year.
2. You should NEVER wait 10 years between trips to the dentist.
3. If you have to have surgery, Valum is your best friend.
4. Chef is still the best roommate at the Marriott.
5. Hawaii is just as pretty the 2nd time around.
6. Being Volun-told can sometimes be a very good thing.
7. Teaching 2nd Grade Small Group was my true calling in life.
8. Little kids will tell ANYTHING.
9. When old friends come back into your life, it is a wonderful thing.
10. There are still so many things I wish I could ask my mom.
11. My Grandma is the COOLEST 85 year old lady I know.
12. Hanging out with Jenn and Mal is as much fun now as it was when we were 16, or 13 or 10.
13. No matter how much power you have in a company, it still doesn't make you a nice person.
14. It's not about ME.
15. I still don't handle change well.
16. I still turn into a giddy little kid when I get to talk to Jerry. (My 2nd biggest crush next to Coach Finley.)
17. Hockey is the BEST sport ever!
18. Being outside of Lynn is just as good as being inside.
19. Family may be the people you are blood-related to, but they can also be the people that you choose to surround yourself with.
20. Maybe God's not quite ready for me to settle down yet.
21. Sometimes it's okay to have a meltdown, so long as youj don't hurt anyone in the process and you quickly get over it.
22. I may be the "world's worst vegetarian" as Chef puts it, but I have learned to love mushrooms, peppers and onions.
23. Having the undivided attention of Coach Holladay seems to make everything okay again.
24. I am LOVED.

Hope you all had as much fun reading as I did writing this year. As soon as I get my new blog up, I'll let you know.

LOVE TO ALL!!! :0)

Happy Early Birthday to Meeeee.....

Grandmother stopped by tonight for a visit and it's obviously time for my birthday because she had her all famous RICE KRISPIES in hand!!! Every year since I can remember she has made us rice krispies in the shape of the number of our age for our birthday. It's beyond awesome and something we always look forward to. Tonight, they'd taken the grandkids out to see the Christmas lights and stopped on the way back through. I couldn't belive how big Taylor has gotten. She's the baby in the back. She looks just like Kev. Riley's grown too. She's the cutie in front. What a fun night! The other charactuers in this fun pic are Roger, who I call Marge and Kasey, Kev's wife. Good times. :0)

13 Icelandic Jólasveinar – Santa Clauses in Iceland

And here is my history lesson for you as promised. We are currently on #4 or whichever comes after Teeny Tiny Stufur. Stufur's my favorite. We once again went over the Icelandic Santas today becuase I told Chef they'd be my blog. This was all before we got into a discussion about how "Jazz Hands" just make everything better. We were laughing hysterically and I tried to get him to let me video him telling about going through a drive through with jazz hands, but he refused. I'm confident you're all like "What?" but that's okay. I told him that would happen. It doesn't read nearly as funny as it was in real life. SO, just enjoy your little lesson on Icelandic Santas.... they're quite creepy. :0)

13 Icelandic Jólasveinar – Santa Clauses in Iceland

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Oh the Mall...

Now I know that you were on the edge of your seat just waiting to learn about Icelandic Santa Clauses, but we're going to save that until tomorrow (my favorite of the Icelandic Santas comes tonight). Instead, I have a video and fun pic to share from my shopping trip to the mall tonight. We all know that I just love going to the mall and praying everytime that my children don't turn out to be freaks... because there are always a few running around in there. For some CRAZY reason, we had a couple of old guys that decided to play "Dueling Banjos" in the middle of the mall. Quite possibly the oddest attraction of the holiday season... that is until we walked to the end of the mall and saw the following sign with a group of rednecks in front of it that had walked in with their BOXER dog. A huge thing that obviously wasn't a seeing eye dog. His name was Rocky and he was there to get his pic made with Santa. Nothing says "Christmas Spirit" like a big RED sign that tells you you WILL be prosecuted for shoplifiting if you take a picture of their Christmas Decorations or Santa instead of paying the $50 for a package. Morons. So I took a pic of thier sign. And I hope if any little kids want to see Santa, they aren't scared off by the unspirited elves either. :0)

2 Extremely Random Posts...

I couldn't find any old pics on Dec. 9th, but I was rummaging through some stuff and found this one. Dec. 9th was Papa's birthday, so in honor of him, there's a pic of Me, Sister, and Him. I'd kill to have that figure again... that's me on the left... no hips! I'm totally rocking a leotard from dance class.

The other is of course, me and Chef. Since Bowz is out of town, it's just been us at the end of the hall together for about a week. He's the best roomie ever. Last night was also the first night of the Icelandic Christmas. They have 13 Santa Claus's. That may be the next few posts... I'll learn you all some Icelandic Christmas traditions. :0)

The Kids!!!

Here are the kiddies! Story for the day... we are attempting to study Jesus telling Peter to cast his net on the other side of the boat.

Me: OK. Put on your imagination hat and everybody pretend we are out by the river. Jesus has been preaching and now Peter's going out to catch some fish. We're all watching. Dressed up and wearing sandals.

Anna: I'm wearing a Hannah Montana robe!

Me: Ok. You're wearing a Hannah Montana robe.

Aubrey: I AM Hannah Montana.

Me: Ok. You can be Hannah Montana. Now can we get back to the boat?

Jonah: I'm John Cena!

Mallie: Who are we?

Me: What?

Mallie: Well Aubrey is Hannah Montana and Jonah's John Cena... who are we?

Me: We're just us.

Then, we decided to try and make those darn ornaments from Hobby Lobby. It would've been easier to construct a life size replica of the Great Wall of China with toothpics. No more of that business. The bazillion little pieces involved coupled with the fact that I had to work until midnight and only had about 5 hours of sleep and I'm so sore I could barely move...we're not going to try that again.

I'm not confident they learned a thing this morning, but we had fun. :0)

Those Crazy Dodd Sisters...

Oh was yesterday morning FUN. I was very surprised to see evidence of the Dodd sisters. Gran's sisters had come up to decorate Mama Dodd's grave for Christmas and spend a little time with my Gran.

They weren't there when I got there, but had left Gran's Christmas present with instructions for her not to open it. They didn't say anything about me. And being my grandmother's grandchild, I got into that thing without them even noticing and we discovered a beautiful purple gown. I even got it put back together before they got there. I snapped a pic of Gran trying to look into another of her gifts. She was smooth as well, after all... I learned my skills from the very best. And then the crazy arrived. They even brought Aunt Flora over as a surprise. We weren't expecting to see her. They were awesome. We sat around talking and eating and they told old stories. Such fun times. Best part of the holiday season. :0)
Helen is the sister with very dark hair and glasses. Aunt Flora is the one with beautiful white hair and glasses. Mary, the one that I constantly fight with all in good fun, is the one with the white shirt and red stripes and Faye is the one that looks like she's flipping me off. They truly are funnier than the Golden Girls. Such fun. :0)