Saturday, December 22, 2007

The Countdown Begins

Wow....you can believe Christmas is in a couple days. Presents are all wrapped, a few crafts are done, and tomorrow the goodie making gets done. The girls and I are spending the day making candy. Boy, the holidays have been a little stressful this year. I'm really having to re-think having a store, mail order business, and doing farm books. I'm kinda sad to see one of them have to go, but I've stretched myself a little thin. As I looked around the house the last couple of days, the house didn't have much of a Christmas feel, which makes me really sad. I tried to make up for that today and did a bunch of decorating.

The season just hasn't seemed like it should be here. Maybe with the flood the first of the month, being gone for a few days, and all the busy stuff the month slipped by. As I'm sitting here now, we have a houseful of teenagers here. I think about 8 or 9. Most of them are in vocal ensemble and they have been singing Christmas carols for the past 30 minutes after there movie got done. Nothing like carols to get you in the spirit......thank those teenagers. I think I needed that.

The kids have been busy the last couple of days. As I said, the house has been full of teenagers. They've been making caramel corn, fudge, soap, perfume, and who knows what else.....It was quite the sight last night as all of them, boys included, were wearing aprons. The boys had the girlie aprons on. I hope they got pics.

Well I best go. I got a new magazine I'm dying to read.
Have a great weekend, at least what's left.

xoxo
Lonnie

Thursday, December 20, 2007

EEEE-GATZ......ONLY A FEW DAYS LEFT

Oh my.....what happened to the month of December. Talk about a busy month.

Got back on Sunday from Vegas. The city that never sleeps. Didn't have a chance to get rested up on this trip. Joe and I went with 2 other couples. Arrived Thursday evening and stayed up way too late our first night. Sandy, Joan and I spent all day Friday at the Cowboy Christmas shows......oh my what a show. I found everything I wanted for furniture if we every build a new house. I love the rustic furniture. You know how they say.....everything but the kitchen sink.
Well let's just say I hauled a copper sink home in my luggage. It was quite the site. It is absolutely beautiful, a copper beauty with embossed pinecones on the inside of the basin. I told Joe we are building our new house around that sink. HaHa

Saturday I spent the day with Sandy shopping at Fashion Show Mall.......Joan needed her gambling fix. Spent most of the day at the mall until my arms couldn't hold anything more. That night we went to the great steakhouse, Gallaghers, at New York New York Casino. If you want a great steak dinner, that's the place to go. Let's just say we were stuffed to the gills.

Left Sunday afternoon for home. Now the chaos begins. I spent Monday catching up on mailorders that arrived while we were gone. Spent Tuesday at the shop and once I got home went through presents to see what else I needed. Let's say I was a little short and spent the day Wednesday in Portland doing mega shopping.

Well now it's Thursday and I think I'm done. Now the wrapping begins. Every year since the kids were little I only put tags on presents with no names. I love watching them trying to figure out whose are whose.....which means I have tags to make today and the wrapping begins.
I do my mother-in-laws shopping for the kids so I need to deliver presents to her today too.

Well I better get started.....I think it's gonna be another long day. My house needs a Christmas makeover. Let's just say I still have pumpkins on the porch. Tree's up with 6 ornaments....it's been that way for a week. At least it has lights. Chris said it looked pretty pathetic last night and was going up to the attic to get the boxes down. Boy I was waiting for someone to volunteer for that one. Thank goodness.

Have a wonderful, chaotic day. I know mine will be.
xoxo
Lonnie

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

LOOK OUT VEGAS.....HERE WE COME!!!!!

WOW....what a last couple of weeks. So much has gone on.

Spent our anniversary weekend in Portland. Did a little shopping the first night and had a great dinner at PF Changs. Joe got the best fortune....fit perfectly. It said: You and your spouse will be happy in your life together. He made me save the paper, like I wouldn't have anyway.

Next couple of shopping days didn't go so well. You know when you just aren't in the shopping mode, well that's were I was at. Saw tons of cute things, but didn't buy a thing. Can you believe 3 big shopping malls and not ONE purchase. Hopefully this weekend goes better.

The shop, mail order company and kids have been a zoo lately. Of course that happens when the holidays approach. Got my swaps off.....a couple days late though.

Had a major storm hit last week and it just threw me all off. We were out of power for 2 days, no phone service for 3 and our town looks like a hurricane hit and dumped 1000's of tons of mud. Luckily we didn't receive too much damage. Ours mostly consisted of a calf hutch deciding to rest in the side of the pickup. Amazing what winds up to 117 miles an hour will do. There were flash floods, high winds for a full 24 hours and major outages everywhere. The friends we are going with to Vegas just got power back yesterday. That had to be the longest week of hell, running only off a generator and trying to take care of cows. Let's just say.....they're ready to get out of Dodge.

We are off tomorrow until Sunday for some shopping, eating, Rodeo, more shopping, and of course a little blackjack (my favorite) I'm not a big gambler....I'd much rather leave my money at a cute boutique somewhere. Rodeo week is the highlight of the trip. We have tickets for finals night. Should be a blast!!!! Daughter, Christina, is mad she can't go. She loves everything COWBOY!!!!!!!!! Maybe she'll get to go next year when she turns 21. We are off with 2 other couples. We get to stay in there condo off the strip so we won't have to deal with all the noise if we don't want too. I'm taking extra bags so let's hope this trip is better than the last shopping trip. With less than 2 weeks until Christmas, I better get busy.

The girls just finished finals week at the college. So excited they got an "A" in Math 111. They were a little worried about that class. I think everyone is looking forward to Christmas break.

I'll post when we get back and let you know how things went. Hopefully my bags, belly and wallet will be full.

Have a great weekend!!
xoxo
Lonnie