Christmas Wrap Up

My future mother in law just left to head back to New Orleans, and honey just left to go to work after being off since Friday. He's off tomorrow and works New Year's Eve. He should be home before midnight, though. Cop's schedules suck, sometimes, but that's how it goes.

It was nice having M.J. in town, we don't get to see her often. She made this incredible cheese cake for our Monday Night Football Party, which was a nice bonus on top of Drew Brees record breaking year.  The fact that he broke Marino's record with a touchdown pass, in New Orleans and we beat the Falcons was awesome. We are hoping for another trip to the Super Bowl for our team this year!

Christmas itself was nice. This year was different in as much as we didn't have to spend Christmas Eve at the hospital with mom, like last year. Although it's been a rough year for the family, and especially my mother with her knee, we are beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

It's miraculous, really, considering that at one point we were being told to expect the worst. It's also a lesson in how to never take things for granted. A seemingly simple surgery can cascade into complications galore and change one's life in ways unintended.  This isn't to say that the experience was all bad. One learns things about oneself when faced with challenges. Whether we grow from them or not is up to each individual.

My Aunt Merle passed away in November. I am still so sad over that. My mother lost her only remaining sibling with her passing, and she was extremely close to Aunt Merle. If there is a blessing amongst this, it is that mom was well enough, or had the strength, to spend the last two weeks of Aunt Merle's life with her. She was at her side, along with my cousins, when she passed. I got to say a good-bye to her, as well, although I didn't know it was a good-bye at the time.

About a month before she died, when my dog accidentally called her on my cell phone, we had a nice chat. She told me that she was sorry to have to die before I graduated from school, but that she would proudly be watching me from Heaven. She went down hill so fast after that, we thought that she had at least a year. As much as we hate the fact that she is gone, the other blessing in this is that she did go so soon. The cancer had gotten into her bones, already weakened by Rheumatoid Arthritis, and that is a horribly painful cancer to have. At least she didn't have to suffer for a year, drugged up and in bed. She would have hated that.

Another blessing was the fact that I got to see some of my cousins again, and it had been far too long. We all live so far away from each other, our lives being lived, we never really lost touch, but we didn't see one another as often as we used to. In the way of love and family, though, it was like the years fell away. So when I found myself reminiscing about childhood Christmases at Aunt Merle's this season, it was bitter sweet, but also comforting. Especially when I hold, and smell the small rosary that my cousins (Aunt Merle's daughters) Carol and Mary had made. It is a beautiful piece and it's filled with the crushed flowers from Aunt Merle's funeral arrangements. They had one made for my mother, me and my two sisters. I carry it everywhere with me. I can wear it as a bracelet, but I am not ready for that yet.

I will wear it on my wedding day. I will wear it when I graduate from nursing school.

The June Cleaver Update

The other day, I posted on Facebook that I was going to spend the day baking. That came to naught, as a few last minute Christmas presents needed to be purchased, and it fell upon me to brave the maddening hordes. I can't even begin to describe the felicity that I experienced at the local Walmart, with it's many babies clad in tops and diapers, no pants to speak of, complete with runny noses and coughs. Their mothers left much to be desired in their choice of attire as well. I'm not saying that I journey out to shop dressed as if I am attending tea with the queen, but I do at least make sure that I am clad in something other than spandex and a too small t-shirt.  There are just some women who SHOUDN'T wear spandex, or too small t- shirts for that matter, yet they insist on doing so.  Scratch that. Unless you are a dancer or you work in your town's hooker area, you shouldn't wear spandex in public at all.  Think of it as the woman's version of a man in a Speedo...it just shouldn't be done.

I digress.

Today was the day that I finally did almost all of the baking that I didn't get to the other day. This almost came to naught as well, when I managed to pinch a finger in my folding step stool, which I was deploying in search of powdered sugar. Long story short, I managed to break my solar nail clear down to the quick of my finger, in the middle of the finger. It hurt like hell and bled too. The nail salon told me to come back after Christmas for a repair to give the skin of my nail bed time to heal. I am so looking forward to the repair. I hope that a liberal amount of super glue will be all that is required for the repair, and not the removal of my nail. I know that would hurt. Badly.

As for the baking, I made peanut butter cookies, chocolate chip cookies, thumb print cookies and 2 pounds of fudge.  It's very difficult kneading cookie dough with one hand, I didn't want to risk pulling the injured nail off as it wiggles, ewwww, but I managed quite well. I even had time to slice the left over ham to freeze for later use.

I am currently sitting in Mike's recliner (I do that when he's at work. I feel quite rebellious!) sipping a well earned Cosmopolitan, and contemplating tomorrow's tasks. I have sugar cookies to make, and the icing for them to make as well. I also have to finish getting the house ready for my future mother-in-law's Christmas visit.  We will also have a house full the Monday after Christmas for the Saint's Monday Night Football extravaganza. I am making a HUGE pot of shrimp and andoulle sausage gumbo for that.

My kids are currently upstairs, and being quiet. Thank god they stopped quarreling over the damn Wii. Perhaps the fact that I threatened to yank the thing out of the wall, and roll over it with the car, was a help. I don't know, and I'm not looking too much into it. No, I shall treasure the peace while it lasts.

I think that I will make the kids clean up the back yard tomorrow.

New Years Resolutions....

This year has flown by for me! I can't believe it's almost over.

A lot has happened to me this year, the biggie being I went back to school to study nursing. Made the dean's honors list, too!

So as the end of 2011 approaches, I have been contemplating changes that I need to make in my life and around the house. Most of these will make it easier to be a mom to 2 teenagers, a supportive fiancee to Mike and still make honors in school.

Did I mention that the wedding is in August?

So, here is a list of things that I am doing in 2012...

1. January 2, 2012; inventory all of the pantry and the two freezers. I will also inventory the stockpile in the garage and organize everything.

I need to know what I have so that I can shop for groceries more effectively. With the stock pile I have built now, I haven't had to grocery shop for anything except fresh produce, bread, milk and eggs for about a month now. I did buy a HUGE ham this week. It was .99 a pound, and I couldn't pass it up. It was baked yesterday, we had some for dinner last night and I am cutting it up to freeze for meals tonight.

2. Make the bouquets for me and my bridesmaids.  Hobby Lobby often puts stems of calla lilies on sale for half off. These faux flowers look and feel real...they are $5.00 a stem. I will buy them at half off when they go on sale and make my own arrangements.

3. I will try Once A Week Cooking. From every thing I've read, this might make my life a bit easier in as much as all I will have to do is pull dinner out of the fridge or freezer and voila! All that I will need to do is take care of the sides.

4. I will Christmas shop throughout the year. We have good intentions when it comes to a budget, but we always go over. NO MORE.  I am a savvy grocery shopper, and if I apply this savviness to Christmas, Birthdays etc, we should do well.  Since Mike and I have a wedding to pay for, this will be really helpful.

5. I will do the favors for the wedding. I've decided that personalized M&M's are the way to go. When the favor tins go on sale for half off, I can stock up.

6. I will NOT add anymore people to the wedding guest list!!!!!!  200 people is quite enough, thank you very much!

7. I will expand my vegetable and fruit garden this spring. So far, so good with what I have planted so far, so why not expand it. Fresh produce is better for us anyway.

8. I am refining my housekeeping schedule. It's pretty good now, but it can be improved upon. My biggest pet peeve is the DAMN PET HAIR and the DAMN DUST!!!! Oh, and the CLUTTER that keeps accumulating on this one counter in the kitchen.  GAH! It drives me nuts!

9. This falls in with the pantry inventory, I am re-organizing the pantry too. The above mentioned counter and cabinets in the kitchen will be used for lesser used items. The cabinets are in between the pantry and the fridge. I don't do prep work on this counter. Theoretically, it's supposed to function as my command-ops center where I keep the calendar, laptop etc. Maybe if I get all mean mom about it, the clutter will stop gathering there. WHO AM I KIDDING?

10. I am NOT going to lose weight...I am rather going to shape up what I have. I am, shockingly happy with what I weigh, I'm just not happy with the flabby parts. Gravity after 40 is a bitch.

11. I am going to have an AWESOME wedding. People will speak of it in the decades to come, it will be that awesome, and I am going to do it for LESS THAN $12K.

12. I am going to finish redecorating the master bedroom. I only have some touch ups to do, and I have to stain the furniture. I have everything I need, except the stain. I just have to do it!  It shall be done BY THE END OF MARCH!!!

13. I will complete all of my prerequisites for nursing school this year. I will make dean's honors every semester.

14. I will blog more. The adventures of a 40 something in college with a ton of 20 somethings. It should be interesting  if this first semester was any indication.


That's it for now. I'm sure that I will come up with more, though. I've always been an over achiever.