...and a happy new year!

Ok, so I had a lovely Christmas at my sister's house. I even had presents, swo I worried for nothing. I got to hold Baby Jack (6 weeks old) a lot of the time. My sister laughed at me for wanting to hold a crabby baby, but I didn't care. and he was never crabby for long. She asked me once if I was trying to get it out of my system, holding babies, but I said I was just trying to soak up as much as I could. He's so little!! Most of my nieces and nephews have been monster children, but Jack is Beckie's smallest, and he's still so tiny! I think he's still under 9 lbs. He's healthy, no worries, he's just not a monster child. Like two of his siblings. I'll get pictures posted to flikr sometime this week, I'll let you know when.

There were a lot of really good moments, too. Bonnie and Malena's grandmother Omi knew one of them loved Cinderella, but she got her wires crossed as to which one. So when Bonnie saw she was getting Cinderella toys and Malena was getting Sleeping Beauty, she immediately asked Malena if she wanted to trade. It was so sweet. Bonnie doesn't care that much as long as she gets toys. I mentioned this to Beckie, when the girls were in the room, and referred to Malena as a Cinderella-freak. Then I said I was a Star Wars freak. Malena said, "No, you're a DOLL freak! And I'm going to buy all your dolls from you when I get older!" "She's got you pegged," Beckie said. That was so fun. Doug didn't pull his usual disappearing act either, which was also nice. My sister married well. In PA, though, the house was so small, it felt like we were always on top of each other, so Doug would disappear into the depths or out to the garage. Their new house is almost twice as big, with no stairs, and a huge, huge yard. They're thinking of getting chickens. They need to fence in the yard, though, or a portion of it. The back of the yard has a pond. Not good for three-year-old inquisitive boys to be around. I really like their new house. Their family room is so large! I think you could fit my whole house in it! Probably not, but it's really big. Plenty of room for several activities to be going on at the same time. Baby Jack hasn't been blessed yet, so I'm thinking I may have to go back in February or March...

Thank you to all my friends. I'm at risk of becoming extremely sappy, so I'll stop now, but I do appreciate all you do for me. I go through periods of extreme anti-social behavior, but having you there when I pull out of it means the world to me. Thank you. I hope you all had Merry Christmases too.

hello, my friends!

I've been feeling rather out of sorts lately. I'm not sure if I'm coming down with something, or if it's just my usual end-of-year depression coming on. If not for my wonderful friend Lori I would have no presents under my Christmas tree. I asked my family to send them all to my sister's house since that's where I'll be. Even at that, I rather expect four cards, not actual presents. Ah, the lame life of being a single person with no family of her own.

Recently a friend seemed to trivialize a Christmas song, "Feed the World". I suppose she can't be blamed, she probably wasn't even born when that whole thing happened (or at least was very small). Bob Geldof heard about the famine in Ethiopia and really wanted to help. All he knew how to do was write and produce songs. So he called in all his musician buddies, and they recoreded a song. It sold millions--I did my part. My friend and I went in on it together, since we were poor High School students at the time. There were stories of how people would buy boxes and boxes of the record (yes, it was before CD's) and then give them back to the store so they could be sold a second time. The song brought international attention to the problem, and my church even got involved, declaring a special fast (which is how the Humanitarian Aid department of the church got started--people were very, very generous, far more than was needed). Bob Geldof recieved the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts, and every time I hear that song I am reminded of a time when the whole world seemed to pull together to help others. Others that didn't even believe in Christmas, true, but really, all that was required was that the people who heard it did believe in Christmas. Unfortunately, Bob didn't know that the Ethiopian government would interfere in his efforts and refuse to distribute the food, so I guess it wasn't the whole world that pulled together.

I've made a rather big decision regarding New Years. I'm not going to the Single Adult New Year's Conference this year. I've been feeling a lot of pressure to go from friends who are going, but quite frankly, all I've been feeling is stress when I think about going. So I will be home, taking care of my cat, and probably going to the movies and reading books for about five days (I return from SC on Thursday). I may even get motivated enough to work on my house. Depends on how Christmas goes. But I do forsee a shopping trip in my future... We'll have to see how good the New Year's sales are.

I went to three parties last weekend. On Friday I had almost triple-booked myself, but I cancelled one. I met up with my friend at the Temple Visitor's Center and we listened to the Handbells by a group from Virginia. It was really nice. My friend isn't LDS, and when she told her co-workers what she was doing they got very concerned. Turns out that they got Mormonism mixed up with Scientology. Weird. Then I went to another friend's party (I had told her I would be late). I heard it referred to as a 'couples' party, so I'm not sure why I was invited, but I went anyway. I made out with a great magnetic white board (that still needs to be put up, but that can be one of my after-Christmas projects), and the person who got the gift I brought seemed happy (although her husband wasn't *g*). Saturday started out with a baby shower, which I always love to attend, but don't necessarily care for the games. I mostly like to see the gifts. I felt kind of cheap for only bringing a baby blanket when it was obvious some people had spent a good $50-70 on their presents. Later that day was the Ward Christmas party, which was great. I didn't even get stuck at a table with old people (which tends to happen to me--they seem to follow me around wherever I go). I found a table with young people and children and we had a great time. And I love my scarf (everyone got white fleece scarves). We tried to get everyone in the Ward Choir (who had been asked to sing at the last minute, from what I understand) to wear theirs when we performed. I hope it was appreciated.

I've also been thinking about the things Mom's do for us. Birthday parties, Christmas presents, phone calls 2-3 times a month. My Dad just can't pull it off the way my Mom did. He does his best, bless his heart, but sometimes I just really miss my Mom. She would never allow my siblings to forget me for Christmas. Which has happened twice since she passed away. And two of them that did it before have me again this year.

This post may seem entirely too selfish and 'poor me' to anyone who reads it. Thank you for bearing with me. I'll try to be more positve next year.

I don't expect to be blogging much in the next couple of weeks, so let me take a moment to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year!

A song in my head...

For the last several weeks Christmas songs have been running around in my head. Not annoying ones, my favorites. This started about the same time the radio started playing Christmas songs. It's kind of nice, having this soundtrack in my head, without even needing an ipod or anything.

Anyway, I hope everyone has a nice weekend, and that the storm really doesn't start until everyone is home from the ward Christmas party tomorrow night.

LDS equivalent of drinking...

Anyone know what that might be? I'm thinking pizza, lots and lots of pizza...

Work has been indescribably bad lately. We've been asked to cut yet another $70 million from our budget. Some idiot suggested we outsource Mission Operations. My job. Thanks. A lot. so I've been going to a lot of meetings where we try to figure out how to prove to those idiots that this would be a REALLY Bad Idea. Very RISKY. Somehow the guy at NASA HQ got wind of the idea, and now we have to justify why it's better for APL to do it than to have some university try to pull of our operations. If I weren't LDS, boy, I'd be seriously tempted to hit a bar on the way home. Really shouldn't break my diet, either, even though the diet isn't going really well. I haven't lost anything in a month. Haven't gained either, though, so it's not a total failure.

Three words: Cost Cutting SUCKS.
When can I get to my real job? If they hadn't just made me an APL employee, I'd seriously consider finding something else to do.

So for some good news, Kitty/Padme is officially mine. I spoke with the housesitter--really the girlfriend of the guy who lives there, who has been in Australia for the last 4-5 months and is considering moving there. She, on the other hand, has two jobs and her own place (hence the reason I never saw her). So when I offered to adopt Padme, they were grateful. She still likes to be outside more than inside, but I think she's happy I've stopped kicking her out of my house. She does like to attack my toes while I'm sleeping, though. That has got to stop...

I'm here, really. I just haven't been in a blogging mood for a while.
So what have I been up to?

Here comes FIOS!
Last Tuesday stayed home in the morning for the Verizon/FIOS people that never came (they'd rescheduled and didn't tell me) So I stayed home from work this Tuesday (the 4th) as well, and they did come, and now I have hundreds of channels to watch!!! As if I didn't have enough of a problem sitting in front of the TV! But now I get BYU-TV, so no more trying to listen to Conference on the internet or shlepping up to the Stake Center! I should probably try to make it up there for at least one session, but being at home is so much EASIER!!

My internet is much faster too--at least, faster enough to be noticiable. Given that I had Comcast Cable before, this is a rather interesting fact.

Snowfall
As many of my friends noted on their blogs, it snowed on Wednesday (why? Why couldn't it have been Tuesday when I was home anyway??). I did go to work, and didn't get hit by other cars, or slide around, or anything. But it was nice and peaceful with the snow falling outside and my office mate staying home (she lives in VA, can't really blame her for that). We got a lot of snow, 4-5 inches (I never heard the final count, but there was a lot of snow on the ground). I didn't believe the weather people when they said it would snow. I thought they were talking about Western Maryland, or someplace else. Or that they were lying to us again. But no, they were right, and there was a lot of snow. And the schools didn't close. That was kind of amazing. Especially since it really did accumulate and cause many, many accidents on the highways.

Holiday Party
I went to the Relief Society's HF&PE night last night. It was a Christmas celebration, at the home of the RS president. It was very nice, and the program was beautiful. Most people crammed into the kitchen to talk to their friends, but I get really claustrophobic in large crowds, so I went in by the fire and sat. People came to me, and meanwhile I got to enjoy the beautiful decorations and quilt. Our RS president is really quite talented.

During the program one sister read O Henry's "the gift of the Magi". She was very expressive in her reading, and transported me to a different time and place. It was very nice. The music was really nice too, performed by several sisters in the ward.

Tin Man
A mini-series on Sci-Fi channel this week. It was a re-imagining of the Wizard of OZ story, and having seen Sci-Fi channel re-imaginings I was prepared for the worst, but it was actually quite good. It even had several homages to the original that were quite cute, such as the protaganist being the great-granddaughter of the original Dorothy Gale, and being named after her. It wasn't until my FIOS was installed that I realized I wouldn't be able to tape it off, or record it using my DVD Recorder (not the one that came in the FIOS box, either). I'm going to have to look into that, although I don't tend to tape that much anymore, just the occaisional movie or mini-series. I suppose I could buy it... sigh.

The Neighborhood Cat
Anyone who's visited me in the last several months knows about the neighborhood cat. She seems to think she lives at my house. Course, I do feed her, and I did get a cheapo litter box for her. I can't bear to think of her outside in this weather. But she's not a stray. Her current owner has been on travel for the last several months, and the house-sitter keeps letting the cat out, then leaving for work. Leaving the poor thing outside the whole time, til she returns late at night (often after I go to bed, then leaves before I get up). Not such a problem in the summer, but now that it's cold, she really shouldn't be outside so much. So I have a little furry roommate. I call her Kitty, for lack of knowing her real name. Maybe they'll let me keep her, and I can call her Padme like I want to...


Hoping everyone is having a happy (or at least not terribly stressful) holiday time.