When there's nothing else to do, ramble.

Ever hear the old phrase "How you ring in the new year is how your new year will go", or something to that effect?

It's dumb. Let's think here. Last year I rang it in with Paul 2 and some friends, somewhat jobless, totally broke. Yet nearly 365 days later here I am... a great job, money in the bank and taking control of my finances, and SINGLE. NOTHING would ever change if the above saying is true. It'd like living in an infinite loop. Yikes.

I've been struggling on the reading front lately. I thought maybe taking a break from best-sellers and even the occasional "teen lit" (i.e. Twilight, House of Night) that I read would be good for me to get me into a swing again. I should read something light and airy... fluffy and bad for my brain. What's better than Chick-Lit? Sophie Kinsella's Shop-a-Holic series I devoured several years ago. Even the great Something Borrowed/Something Blue duo by Emily Giffin that I loved. Jemima J by Jane Green was an all time favorite. So I go search. I look on Amazon at the list mainias on this fabulous form of literature. I'm finding nothing. I found two books at the library that my be promising. We'll see. I'm just tired of not reading.

Two major purchases are going to be thrown my way soon... I need a car. Which is going to take forever... because, and this is stellar, the insurance company for this guy... the woman I'm dealing with's files are down. I faxed over my salvage title yesterday... I NEED THAT CHECK. Of course, something else to put a hold on shit. So annoyed. I can't wait until all of this is over. What a pain in the ass.

I'm also going to need a computer. And soon. Crap.

Well, at least I'm better off than I was a year ago in most respects :)

I guess I'm just kind of "in a mood" today. Like that's anything new. Haha.

The Christmas Crunch

I have things of substance to write about, but as usual, I have no desire to get into them at the moment.

I spent most of this week sick with some sinus/cold thing. The annoyance is that I still don't have my sense of smell back. I just want to be 100% for Christmas.

Two more days of work until I'm off for a week and a half :) So excited for some down time. Let's see if I actually get anything accomplished though.

My mom is playing match-maker. Which most likely isn't as bad as it sounds. She's good with fixing people up and thinks long and hard about it before she does so.... we'll see in the next few weeks if anything occurs.

I have a ton of stuff to get done today and most likely over the next few days. I decided to host Christmas Morning here at the house, so I need to really clean and stuff. At least the grocery shopping is done... except I have to get up early early on Christmas Eve to go to the mall so I can get the silly Cinnabons for Christmas morning.

I really need to wrap presents too. It's the first time in years I have any substantial amount to wrap.

I think I'm going to make some No Bake Cookies today. Yum-o.

I suppose I should stop puttering around and get some stuff done... I need to update more often... hm..

Adventures in candy making.

I decided that this year I would make chocolate covered pretzels for my co-workers. Put some in festive little bags, tie a ribbon and an ornament onto the bag and viola!

Yeah... five hours later we were done.

My mom helped me... our idea was great but we didn't use the confectioners chocolate because of price so we used Nestle morsels... they melt too thickly to make using them for twisty pretzels any good. Decided to ditch what we had and use sourdough nuggets. THAT worked well :) Sprinkled them all with pretty sprinkles and they are done.

So are the stockings for my kiddos. I got my gifts for my co-teacher - Jenna, her son - Alexander, and Mike done and wrapped up for tomorrow. I have to wrap gifts for the rest of the family, most likely on Thursday night when I may have some time.

Going to Wal-Mart in a bit to get a few last minute things (gift tags, soda, etc).

I've been working to get debts paid off. Seriously a pain in the ass but obviously needs to get done now that I can afford it. Stupid school and medical related stuff.

I think I may join Curves... with my body issues I think I'd be more comfortable at a gym just for women, and I can deal with the hours they are open even if they are a bit wonky. We'll see though once I get ahold of them and go in to see the place, etc.

For now, it's time to find my hoodie and shoes and get ready for more errands.

Random rambles

Updates of a random variety. Of course... isn't this how I always do it?

Thanksgiving went really well. Small and quiet as usual. My Orange-Cranberry Relish went over well but the biggest hit was my pumpkin pie. I'm darn proud of that pie, haha.

Friday I put up all my Christmas decorations. Things came out really well this year. I am super excited because I finally have a manger for my Nativity set. Years ago I saw a Nativity set by Lenox and fell in love with it. I got most of the pieces (well all the main ones at least) before it was discontinued from stores. But all these years I didn't have a manger for them... my moms old one was too small. My dad said he'd build one but never did. However, a friend of my mom's does wood working, and made me an almost exact replica of the Lenox manger. It's awesome. I need to get pictures of everything.

On Wednesday a guy came out to look at the damage to my car. I got a phone call from the other guy's insurance agency yesterday telling me that my car was deemed a total loss :( Boo. Now we are waiting on them receiving a copy of the police report and accepting liability (arguing may start here). After that they have to make an offer... and most likely that will have some back and forth.

Anyone else watch that Britney Spears documentary thing on MTV? Is it me or does she seem really unstable still? Looking at her eyes makes me sad... she looks like she's about to fall off the edge of the proverbial cliff.

Nearly all of my Christmas shopping is done. If I don't have it for someone, I at least know what I'm getting them. Hopefully I can finish that up this weekend so that I can get on with the wrapping and stuff.

I'm exhausted and I still need to work on the evaluations for my kiddos. Add to that showering and reading for a while just because I want to.