New Years Eve

Tonight there is a Chinese New Year themed party at my work. I am here checking people in, and then I am looking forward to going home. Why, might you ask, am I as a young not quite single, fun loving girl going out for the evening? Well if the last three new years have taught me nothing else, they have taught me that I am just as likely to have fun at home as I would be going out somewhere. Let us take a walk down New Years past and look at the last few of mine...

December 31, 2005 is Steve and my first New Years together. We got back a few days earlier from the Bahamas so going out and doing anything to crazy is not an option. We end up at the local casino, board our of our minds. By the time it is 11:30 we are both very ready to go home, but being on the road at our first New Years does not sound very romantic. The solution: hang out in the sports bar and order some greasy goodness to bring in the New Year. The thing about the sports bar is that the new year came and went without anyone saying one word...

December 31, 2006 we plan ahead, to try to have a better New Year than the year before. We end up buying slightly expensive tickets to do something fun in San Francisco. We are both really looking forward to it and get all dolled up for the occasion. When we arrive we realize it is not nearly as cool as the fliers let on, and are completely out of our element. We give up at about 10:30, go to a liquor store to get some alcohol, and bring in the new year in the hotel room. Not the most exciting thing we have ever done...

December 30, 2007 we are in Vancouver, Canada for the holiday. We decide to go take a nap before we go out that evening. I take a nap, the firefighter falls asleep for the evening. One hour later I am wide awake, he is snoring next to me. I stay up until 4am reading Memoirs of a Geisha (still one of the best books I have read). This leads into

December 31, 2007 we are up early to do all sorts of tourist things in a foreign country. I make a big deal about going out that evening, and he had better not pass out on me again. We go out to a very nice dinner (even though we had to wait well over an hour to be seated), and decide to go back to the hotel to change into something more comfortable and warmer... At this point I decide I am to tired to take another step and tell him I have to go to bed. I think that I was asleep by about 10pm (the firefighter still harasses me about me passing out after threatening him repeatedly during the day about the need to go out).

So with that, we decide this is the year to just stay home, and that is exactly what we are going to do. Well, as soon as I am done checking people in that wanted to go out and party at work. Happy New Year!

This and That

I have a cold sore, and I hate cold sores


There is less than 40 days until the wedding (crazy)

Christmas is in two days (very crazy)


This is from the bridal shower. I don't know exactly what is going on with Heather in this picture, but I have a few ideas that involve my step-mother...

Me and my Brook e. at the shower. She sent me tons more pictures, but I don't really have time to upload them now, and I will be onto something new by the next time I post. (I bought this top the day before after I realized that I would be the center of attention at the shower and I must at least be wearing a cute shirt)

The Mountains

For those who have warm and fuzzy thoughts about living in the mountains, here is a little tid-bit of what I had to deal with on Monday morning as I was leaving for work. This is the firefighters truck.

Our house. We can't park in the driveway when it snows because we won't be able to get out.

And this is my truck. Did I mention that when I opened the door a pile of snow went all over my seat and I could not get it all off, so my seat was wet as I was driving to work, grrr. I took off my jacket to remedy the situation and sat on that.

I should also mention at this point that the firefighter wants me to trade my truck in so that we can get a car. I politely informed him that I do not know how to put on chains, and I am perfectly content never learning that skill. Our compromise: if/when it snows I will take his truck and he will drive the car to put on chains, so perhaps next year about this time there will be a picture of my firefighter trying to put on chains in the snow (evil giggle).

Orange Room

The upstairs bedroom, that is currently the guest bedroom, but will be the master bedroom sometime in the next year (if Steve has his way it will be next week, if I have my way it will be when all of the renovations are done, it is just smarter, I also want to wait until we can afford to furnish it all with furniture I actually like).

Me looking like a big dork while talking on the phone and beginning the painting...
The finished product, it really all is the cream color that is behind me in the picture above, it is just hard to tell without the white wall comparison.

The orange wall, I wanted to paint in a darker orange, but my wonderful firefighter did not, me being the good wifey gave in, and I am sure I will be slightly annoyed with the color as long as we live in the house, but oh well... Anna, we did not get to paint it your color because the closest store that sells Sherwin Williams is two hours away, wasn't going to happen...

This week in pictures

I don't think that there is anything more precious than slobber kisses from a child you love. This is my nephew Bradley, or Studley as I like to call him. Yes, he does have a shiner (he is a boy who has two cousins who know no fear)

Even better than slobber kisses is slobber kisses during bath time. I thought about putting the naked-po pictures of him lying on his back splashing like there was no tomorrow, but some things need to be saved for future embarrassment.

The best part...

of Thanksgiving was (other than hanging out with lots of family that I have not seen in a long time). OK, ok, the best single moment of Thanksgiving was- wait, the stuff leading up to it, you need to hear first.

My sister called me just as Steve was leaving Sonora and wanted my niece to go with us. Steve was going to pick me up at work, about an hour from where we live. Michaelyn called. I called Steve. Called Michaelyn. Called Steve. Called Michaelyn. Called Steve, at this point I got smart and told Steve to call Michaelyn so that I could be productive at my desk the last hour I would be there for a few days. Sure enough, an hour later Steve and my niece, Jenica, come walking into the office. They were a very cute pair. We drove to Reno (btw-driving in a car with a kid for four hours without any modern conveniences that many parents have like a DVD player, or books, toys, or anything that is slightly amusing is slightly annoying). I finally got phone service and purchased a game to play on my phone (another complaint, stupid new phones that don't come with any games for moments just like this).

We finally got to Reno, and helped my aunt do a lot of the prep work for dinner the next night. We hung out, played, had dinner, and finally left to the hotel.

This is where it gets good. Jenica has never been to Reno before, and she was amazed. One of my favorite of her phrases was, "This is so much better than Vegas." Oh wait, has Jenica ever been to Vegas, no. After we checked in and Steve and I decided the best place to take a kid when one is in Reno, Circus Circus. We saw a couple shows and won her a few stuffed animals. In the midst of all of this she ecstatically said, "THIS IS THE BEST NIGHT EVER!" It was very cute, perhaps my new favorite quote, and the best single moment of my Thanksgiving vacation. It loses a little umph in text, you'll just have to imagine.

A little poem

So, my sister just found this poem in one of my mom's books.

Testament

But how can I live without you? -she cried

I left all world to you when I died:
Beauty of earth and air and sea;
Leap of a swallow or a tree;
Kiss of rain and wind's embrace;
Passion of storm and winter's face;
Touch of feather, flower, and stone;
Chiselled line of branch or bone;
Flight of stars, nights caravan;
Song of crickets-and of man-
All these I put in my testament,
All these I bequeathed you when I went.

But how can I see them without your eyes
Or touch them without your hand?
How can I hear them without your ear,
Without your heart, understand?

These too, these too
I leave to you!
(I love in you)

The part in parenthesis my mom wrote in at the bottom of the page. I for the life of me cannot remember right now who the author is. It is a nice poem though.