Well, everyone else seems to be doing this post, and I didn't want to feel left out.
It always amazes me to get to the end of a year, and wonder what the next year will bring. This year, I've decided to do something special for my year in review.
You've just been Rick-Rolled! If that isn't the best thing about 2008, I don't know what is. I don't even know if it is a 2008 phenomenon, or if someone thought about it earlier. I've seen it before when you click links on websites, but the other night, something happened to me that I didn't realize would or could happen.
I was Rick-Rolled on my cell phone.
One of Jen's boys, Chris, is apparently obsessed with calling people on their cell phones, and then playing this tune for them. When I answered my phone and heard nothing by the sweet strains of Rick Astley, I did what anyone else would do...I giggled hysterically and yelled to no one, "I've been Rick-Rolled on my cell phone!"
14 year-old boys are fun, aren't they? I've heard they eat a lot though, so I'm kinda glad I have my grocery bill right now, and not Jen's. Thanks for the giggle Chris...and YES, I did blog about it!
Thanks, Mary! I heart your blog too, but honestly I don't know when you have time to write anything. You see, Mary has two teenage daughters, a toddler daughter and a newborn daughter. And in her spare time, she goes to college. I'm not sure how she's even awake, much less giving out awards. She said she gave this award to me because one of my posts made her spit hot chocolate out of her nose. I'm not sure I'd give someone an award for that, it sounds painful! But I like my button, and will display it proudly.
According to Mary's directions, in order to accept my award I have to answer the following questions in one word only, then pass it along to five other people. So, here goes with the questions:
1. Where is your cell phone? Pocket 2. Where is your significant other? Colorado 3. Your hair color? Brown 4. Your mother? Mimi 5. Your father? Grandad 6. Your favorite thing? Peace 7. Your dream last night? Stealing 8. Your dream/goal? Significance 9. The room you're in? Office 10. Your hobby? None 11. Your fear? Dying 12. Where do you want to be in six years? Evolved 13. Where were you last night? Home 14. What you're not? Patient 15. One of your wish list items? House 16. Where you grew up? Tempe 17. The last thing you did? Typed 18. What are you wearing? Jeans 19. Your T.V.? Home 20. Your pet? Dog 21. Your computer? Toshiba 22. Your mood? Apprehensive 23. Missing someone? Terribly 24. Your car? Astro 25. Something you're not wearing? Shoes 26. Favorite store? Target 27. Your Summer? Sweaty 28. Love someone? Yes 29. Your favorite color? Purple 30. When is the last time you laughed? Now 31. Last time you cried? Yesterday
Now I'm passing this on to:
Jenifer, because I love her. Mom of the Year...Not!, because she gave me my first (and only other) award. Pam, because I just love her too. Sue, because she makes me laugh with every post. Greta and Kiki, because dangit, I heart their blog too.
If you don't want to go through the whole answering the questions thing, that's ok, just take the award! I heart you all that much! :)
Danni whipped by in a cleaning frenzy. This never happens, but I'm just letting it go, because I really like a clean house. I just don't want to clean it. I'm also fascinated by this new behavior.
I guess while Shannon and Kylie and I took the husband to the airport, Danni got into the new Guitar Hero World Tour, and started singing in the empty house. Which, according to her, got her all hyped up.
After we took Steve to the airport, we stopped at Target. We were looking for a memory card for Shannon's new phone so she can put music on it. While we were there, Shannon noticed all the bags of Christmas kisses and Doves chocolates 50% off. That's like, $1.39 a bag, y'all. I think we got four of them.
So we get home, and Danni just goes nuts cleaning the downstairs. In the middle of it, she's all, "Can Josh come over for a little while?" This was her plan all along. Josh is the new boyfriend. So I'm thinking, if this gets her to clean up my house, the boy can come over anytime he wants. But now, I'm stuck downstairs on the computer instead of upstairs in my bedroom, because I don't really want to leave the two of them alone down here, if you know what I'm saying. He seems like a nice enough kid, but they're 16, and ... yeah.
Has anyone else had this experience? This happened with Danni's other boyfriend last year, and now again with the new one. Every time he's over here, Kylie goes nuts. And by nuts, I mean she acts like a complete maniac, racing all over the house, practicing her "cartwheels", and just generally being a huge pain in the you-know-what. It's just insane.
So, Steve is gone back to Denver. He'll be home again in two weeks, but now it will only be for weekends. We're hoping he can come home every two weeks. We have tickets lined up for the 9th and for the 23rd so far. So now it's just us girls again. And my house (well, the downstairs half of it), looks great. Thanks, Danni!
Right before Josh got here, Danni asked me if there was anything for dinner. I said,
"Ummm...there's some leftover ham and some roasted potatoes that you could heat up. And you know, I just bought like four bags of chocolate at Target."
We pretty much had a chocolate dinner. Because that's the way I roll. Literally.
The calm before the storm. Actually, it's 7:30am and I can't believe none of the kids are awake yet! Wishing everyone a wonderful day with family and friends!
Kylie and I are watching the Weather Channel. It's supposed to rain tonight and into tomorrow. I'm excited by this, because it seems like the last few years it gets into the 70s and near 80 on Christmas, which never seems like Christmas at all. 58 degrees with rain helps me a lot. It will seem more like Christmas to me.
Kylie wanted to look at the Santa Tracker. This thing gets cooler every year. It's also a great geography lesson, both for her and for me! If you go here, you can watch Santa as he makes his way across the whole world. Occasionally there's a video showing him flying over certain landmarks, like the opera house in Sydney, Australia, The Great Wall of China, etc. It's a Google Earth map, and it shows you all the places Santa has already been. It looks like the eastern-most point is Providenyia, Russia (You know, the place Sarah Palin can see from her house), and then from there he's already hit New Zealand, all those islands where Survivor has gone (Vanatu, Fiji, Micronesia), eastern Australia, eastern China, Japan, and eastern Russia.
In fact, the video from the Great Wall just went up. I'm sorry, I just think this is way cool.
When Kylie found out it was going to rain tonight (maybe), she got a big grin on her face and said,
"Mom, Santa is really going to need Rudolph tonight, if the weather is going to be bad!"
Hee. I love that kid. If anyone knows any method by which I can keep her from ever turning 13, please let me know. I just love the innocence and wonder that is six. I love it so much it makes me cry. And I'm going to be so sad when it's gone. But for this year, I'm going to enjoy every single minute.
On a completely unrelated subject, the job from which I have been future-fired gave me a little Christmas gift. Well, not just me, but everyone in the company. I got a lovely Christmas card from the CEO (who does not even know I exist, much less that my job is going away), with a $50 AmEx gift card.
So, if you suddenly had $50 to spend on yourself, what would you buy? It's not enough to do what I really want, which is get my carpets cleaned. I could get half my carpet cleaned, but that would look funny.
I've always wanted my own DVD of "It's a Wonderful Life", but it's just never something I would go out and buy for myself. So I think I might do that. But I'm not sure what else.
Someday, you will learn that it's not a good idea to piss off the person from whom you want a ride to the mall. That person may just pretend to take the garbage out the back door, then sneak around to the front of the house, get in her van, and go to work, leaving your snotty, bitchy, ungrateful ass sitting on the couch.
Also, since your dad flew home for Christmas, his car is still in Colorado. That means the only one in the house right now with a car? Is your sister. I hope you have fun kissing her ass.
When I got home from work at about 6:30pm last night, Kylie told me to look under the Christmas tree. Since there are no presents under the tree yet (I'm slacking in the wrapping department), I immediately saw the little crayon-decorated white paper bag sitting there alone.
"Awww Kylie, did you make me a present at school?"
"Yup Mom! Open it!"
"Well, don't you think I should wait until Christmas?"
"No Mommy, open it now! You really need to."
"I need to? Are you sure? I really think I should wait for Christmas."
"No, open it now!"
So at her insistence, I retrieved the little white bag from underneath the tree. I carefully opened the stapled top, and pulled out my present:
Awww, a popsicle stick reindeer ornament! Now I see why she wanted me to open it now. Of course, we immediately found a good spot for Popsicle Rudolph on the tree. Cute, right?
Also in the bag, was this interesting card that she had hand-written herself:
In case you're having any trouble deciphering this, it says "Dear Dad, Mom is toltleinsan. I love you, Kylie." Or, "Dear Dad, I love you. Mom is toltleinsan. Kylie."
Also, in case you're not familiar with kindergarten spelling, this would translate as "Dear Dad, Mom is totally insane. I love you, Kylie."
At first I was a little speechless, then I starting laughing and I couldn't even read it to Danni, so she took it and read it and then she busted out laughing too.
When I got control of myself, I asked Kylie where she had heard the "Mom is totally insane" line, because I don't really think she came up with it on her own. I mean, she wrote it at school by herself, but she had to have heard it somewhere.
She was quick to throw Shannon under the bus, identifying her as the culprit. Big sisters are awesome, aren't they?
I think this could become the new standard for holiday greetings. If you're not sure whether to say "Merry Christmas", "Happy Holidays", "Happy Hanukkah", "Seasons Greetings" or whatever...just say "You're Totally Insane...and Happy New Year!"
I am the mother of three daughters: Danielle 23, Shannon 21, and Kylie 13, and wife to Steve.
After spending the first 42 years of my life in Phoenix, AZ, I'm now residing in Littleton, CO. I've been here since June of 2009. I love the winter. I love the snow and the cold. I love green trees, the mountains, a white Christmas and the leaves changing in autumn. The only thing I don't love is the hole in my heart that was created when I left my friends back in AZ.
