In the news today

Our leading headline:

I am a mother once again.

Today, I was delivered 25 Buff Orpington chicks. All girls. (I hope.) Of course I haven't seen the girls yet, Andy picked them up at the Post Office. They are currently in their pen in the garage. We're using a temporary brooder which is a plastic tote with sawdust in the bottom and a heat lamp hanging above. we don't have the electricity hooked up to the Chicken house, so can't put the babies out there yet. And with this cold spell, they will be better off in the garage where it doesn't get very cold.

I'm glad they arrived today, because while I still have to work today, the kids are out of school for their Christmas Break and are at home to watch over the babies. I just love babies...

In the entertainment world today

Kev and I are very lucky. We happen to be friends with "The Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie of the Mennonite world!" I know, isn't that exciting? My brush with fame! See, we carpool with "Brad". He works with Kev. (We went to his wedding reception last April.) Brad is a really nice guy and talks all.the.time on his cell phone as we drive back and forth to work. On Monday, he was visiting on the phone with a buddy and he's the one who christened himself and his wife as "Brad and Angelina." And, with their busy schedule and social life, I understand completely what he means, because someone is always inviting them somewhere.

As a part of his faith, Brad doesn't have a radio in his car. And sometimes, since we carpool, I have his car once we are in town. I have it today. While I don't miss the radio, I do miss him having a clock in the car. And, Brad's unreasonably tall, so I have to pull his seat forward in order to drive that darn car. Today, I'm returning some library books for Brad. Since I have the car and all, it's only fair that I do errands for him. You can just call me "Brad's personal assistant." (Be sure to tell all your friends that you actually know someone who works for "The Brad Pitt of the Mennonite World." That's my gift to you, a little brush of fame all your own.

-----
In library news today

It's the last day of the semester. I will be off until January 5. I have lots of things I want to get accomplished on my days off. However, realistically, most of them won't get accomplished. Today is extremely quiet, as students finished up yesterday. Two days ago, I bought some new DVD titles for our collection. Right now, they are all at my house, waiting for me to "preview" them to make sure all work. (That's my story, and I'm sticking to it!) One title I bought was Mama Mia. Miss Kat and I will have to watch that some time when Kev isn't home. He's not really into Musicals, but Miss Kat and I enjoy them. (Well, we both love Grease and Chicago, but I don't really care for the High School Musical ones.) Maybe I can teach her to jam to Abba tunes. Wouldn't that be a riot!

-----
In Christmas news today

I'm almost done. I need one more thing for Andy, and I have to pick up another gift today. While I bought stationary for a Christmas letter...it's still unopened. Maybe I can get that done this weekend.

In basketball news

We have a game tonight. Miss Kat's game last night was cancelled. Andy's doing really well and we're enjoying his last season of ball. I've gotten the proofs for his Senior Pictures too, and really need to get my butt in gear and get them ordered. He cleans up real well. And, he had some taken with his Shotgun and his bow. I really like a couple of those. (Does this make us rednecks?)

That's all of the news today folks. Stay tuned!

Men stuff vs. Mom stuff

We are currently in a nasty cold spell right now.

Andy's pickup won't start, but "we" haven't found the stuff to thaw the gas line or whatever is wrong. Actually, "we" haven't looked at the pickup to see what's wrong.

So, yesterday and today, he's driven the diesel. Diesels don't like cold weather. They made it fine yesterday. Today, at 7:55 a.m. I get a phone call:

"Mom, we're here on the highway on the hill just outside of town. The pickup died. I got it off the road, but what do I do?"

"Call the school, see if someone can pick you up and call your father."

Me thinks that "we" should have put the stuff in the gas tank to keep the diesel from gelling.
Me thinks that "we" should have looked at the other pickup last night.
Me thinks that this is a man thing, and not a "Mom" thing.
Me wonders why they always call MOM when something goes wrong.

Wanna bet that tonight Kev looks at both vehicles?
Wanna bet that tonight, "we" put "stuff" in both vehicles?
Wanna bet that somehow "Mom" will get involved in this "man" stuff?

I don't take bets on a sure thing...

Christmas shopping

This is the first year ever that I've done most of my Christmas shopping online.

I ordered Kev's gifts (and had one shipped to my Mom.)
I ordered Miss Kat's gifts (and they are hidden in various places in the house. I hope I can find them all!)
I ordered one of Andy's and did get one in town (It's not hidden as well as Miss Kat's gift, cause he's not as snoopy.)
I ordered my Mom's gift.
I ordered my MIL's gift.
I ordered my FIL's gift.
I ordered Kim and Bob's kid's gifts. (We adults don't exchange gifts, but I might buy them a jar of mayonnaise...it's a family joke. I'll share it sometime.)
I ordered my Dad's gift.
I ordered my brother's gift.

I still need something for one niece and 2 nephews, but I think they will get either Walmart gift cards or maybe itunes cards.

I think I'll bring my kids to town tomorrow and have them get something for each other and I'll then get their stocking stuffers.

And then, I'll be done. Yee haw.

But, it's rather nice to order your Christmas presents--they come straight to you, and you don't have to find a place to park, brave crowds, or stand in line for hours.

My only problem with ordering has been my snoopy daughter. In fact, last night she called and said, "Mom, you'd better be glad that Dad grounded me from the computer, because I could log on to Amazon and see what you've ordered."

That made me quiver, because, crap, if she looked, then the surprise would be gone. But, as I thought about it a little more, I realized that she doesn't know the password, so I'm fine. whew! Saved by a password!

I still need to get Andy one more gift. Boy, has he proven to be hard to buy for this year. His list is short, and has on it; a car and a Letterman's jacket. Yeah, the car is not happening'! He'd really like a Letterman's jacket, but why buy a Letterman's jacket for a kid who will only be in High School 6 more months? hummm, just got an idea...maybe if I get him a letter jacket, he'll consent to being held back...

Stitching projects

I've been cross stitching frantically, trying to get a baby gift done. Hey, he'll be a year old in February, so I'm not that late... G, you will get this one too, unless you tell me differently... And maybe your child won't be almost a year old when you get it. Guess what it's titled...yep, Baby Feet.I put aside my project for myself in order to get this one finished. All my personal project needs is it's backstitching, which is pretty extensive...here's a picture of it--it's titled, Frederick the literate.

All the titles of the books need to be back stitched, and some detail work to. It will go quickly, if I ever just sit down and do it!

I'd like to eventually have several "library" type of cross stitch pictures hanging in my office. This will be the second one. My first one is of a girl angel or fairy reading a book--in sepia tones. (I didn't save the pattern and can't find it anywhere anymore to give you the name of it, or to even find a picture on the web to post. Miss Kat has stolen the digital camera, so I can't even get a picture of it...yet.)

Anyway, I've been working on Fred on and off for the past year. The events of this past year haven't been conducive to me doing much stitching, but I keep hanging in there.

After I finish the baby one, then I'll go back and finish Fred. After that, I have 4 or 5 others that I've got waiting in the "office". And, I just ordered a bookmark of a Celtic design that I've loved for a long time. I might whip that up first, then again, I might not. Also in the office are some tea towels waiting to be embroidered for gifts. I'm hoping for a long winter, with snowy days and cold nights. Those will force me to stay home and stitch, and hopefully I can clean out my stash.

Problem is, is that I keep getting catalogs in the mail. In those catalogs are lots and lots of patterns that I'd love to do. I'd love to do a wolf picture for Jody. And I'd love to do something for my SIL's. And, every Christmas, I think that I need more Christmas ones up on the wall. And I'd love to do something wild, like a picture of fairy's or dragons in metallic floss. I like doing cut thread work. I'd like to do some red work, or blue work, or green work. I'd like to do some candlewicking. Heck, let's face it, I like doing needlework of just about any kind.

But right now, I need to concentrate on those feet. It's December 11. There's 14 days until it has to be finished. Wonder if my boss would mind if I worked on it at work...

I want that Wednesday

Today, let's talk about Christmas. More specifically, let's talk about what I want for Christmas.

This is an honest wish list.

1. I want my pellet stove hooked up. It's not saving us any money sitting in the garage, and if it's in the garage, then Andy can't park the pickup in there.
2. I want legs put on my Hoosier cabinet. (Which will mean that I will have to disassemble it and empty it again, but dang it, it needs legs.) I ordered legs a few weeks ago, but when I turned it over to get the legs put on...well, it isn't a standard kind of Hoosier, so the standard legs aren't the right legs. I'm not sure if it ever had legs or just large casters. And, I also ordered a latch because the latch that Grandad evidently replaced doesn't always latch. But the latch I ordered isn't the correct latch either, it's holes for screws won't line up with my screw holes. I think I have an off brand of a Hoosier cabinet, or I have one of the very early ones, because there never was a spot for a flour bin.
3. I want my plumbing fixed. There were a few plumbing issues in our house when we moved in last year. But, we wanted to get in it ASAP and said we'd fix them ourselves rather than wait on the plumber. Big mistake. One year later, they still aren't fixed. We bought new faucets, but they are sitting in boxes waiting for us to hook them up.
4. I want the garage doors fixed. Over the past 2 weeks, the garage doors have decided to strike and work when they want to. I want them fixed. (Kev does too...he's just not sure what to do.)
5. I want all the rest of the boxes emptied and put away...somewhere.
6. I want that "office" room cleaned up and looking like an "office."
7. I want the garage cleaned out. The stuff we had in Colby that we don't need here and we don't know what to do with...I want it gone.

My list is a rather strange list, I know, but when I try to think about things I want for Christmas, well, this is what keeps coming up in my mind. I could use some sweaters for work, but I'd rather just have "stuff" done. And that's what I want this week.