Looking Back (and laughing).

I got this idea from Sandy at Falling Like Rain and thought it was a good one.

Some of my favorite posts from 08.

In January I got a little philosophical.

In February I celebrated an anniversary and joined a 12 step program, sort of.

In March we went on Spring Break to the beach. It was such a crazy trip that it required not one, not two, not even three, but 4 posts to tell the whole sad tale.

In April I tried to cry Uncle but they wouldn’t let me.

In May I went on a road trip with my sister and saw things that can only be seen in Texas and wrote a letter to my future daughter in laws.

In June I experienced a strange range of emotions and took issue with Wal-Mart.

In July I met some of Sir D’s new employees and made an impression I’m sure, and celebrated my birthday.

In August the Teenager had some trouble with his car and the other Teenager had the entire youth group laughing.

In September Sir D began to see clearly and I read some books.

In October I found another reason to worry about The Other Teenager, and spent a little time in the ER.

In November I watched some soccer and made some stuff.

In December Ann made a video and we dipped some stuff in chocolate.

Overall, a pretty darn good year here on the Hilltop.

Score!

I totally scored today! (Not THAT kind of score, what are you 14? Oh, no one thought that but me? Never mind.)

I went to Jo Ann's Fabrics today. I wasn't going to, but well the girls used up all of my scrap fabric, and they were having a big sale and well, I was right there nearby, and somehow I found myself inside.



This is what I scored for $40! Can you believe it? Everything is on sale (okay maybe not everything, but a lot of good stuff).

I got 2 yards of all of those fabrics, enough pink and brown yarn for a cute hat and scarf, some new white thread (the good kind only, because my aunt who gave me my machine said she'd kill me if I used cheap thread on it and even though she lives some 300 miles away from me, I am quite certain she'd instinctively know if I tried to slip some Walmart thread into The Bernina.) and two baby quilt kits that were originally $20 and I got them for $4! Did you hear that! $4!!!!

Now, If I could just get my hands to stop hurting so I could sew or crochet something...

Because We're Texans

For Christmas this year I got Sir D something I knew he would love. Something I know nothing about. I spoke his love language, you could say.

I paid for him to take the class at our local shooting range to get his concealed handgun license.

When he opened that envelope and saw that sad little printed-out-on-a-cheap-printer-at-the-gun-range gift certificate telling him everything he needed to legally tote a firearm had been paid for, well let’s just say he was a happy man.

(Yes, that is his 'Happy Man' look.)

Today, we went to early church and then came home. I’m a bit worn out from all the holiday festivities and the thought of sitting for the entire morning on those uncomfortable church chairs was more than my sad achy joints could take, because apparently I am 80. Once we got home Sir D decided he needed to go to the gun show.

Today is the last day it is going on and he simply had to go. The boys decided to stay for 2nd service at church so they were not home. I had no intention of going to the gun show; I would have rather stayed and sat on the horrid church chairs for 2 more hours than go walking around the gun show. Eve was also not too keen on spending her Sunday afternoon looking at various weaponry. Know who was interested? Ann.

She even dressed the part. She just left with Sir D in his Chevy Pick-up wearing green and pink camo pants, a pink shirt, pink cowboy boots and a camo cowboy hat.

And I totally let her.

We do what we can to perpetuate the myth.

I’m only sad I forgot to take a picture. And I am a little worried she’ll come home with a pink pocket revolver. This is Texas after-all.

Favorite Thing

The thing I liked the most that I received this year was a Mr. Coffee Iced Tea maker. I never thought I’d like one of those. It seemed, I don’t know, silly. But we drink so much iced tea around here I was making two pitchers of it every other day. I LOVE this little thing. It is so cool. (It doesn’t take much to make me happy apparently! :o)



The thing I enjoyed giving the most this year was the sewing machine I got for my dd’s. They have really enjoyed this gift. They have used up almost all my scrap cloth already and are begging to get started on the pj pants I gave them cloth for as part of their gift.



I however, am not quite ready for that yet. I have too much cleaning up to do before I’m ready to tackle that project.

So how about you? What was your favorite?

Merry Christmas!

From those of us at Hilltop Inc. Or, you know, me.

I think the Grinch said it best...

"And the Grinch, with his grinch-feet ice-cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling: "How could it be so? It came without ribbons! It came without tags! It came without packages, boxes or bags!" And he puzzled three hours, `till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before!

"Maybe Christmas," he thought, "doesn't come from a store. "Maybe Christmas... perhaps... means a little bit more!"

Praying that your Christmas is 'A little bit more' this year.

Everything is better dipped in chocolate.

I thought y'all might like to see what I did today.



I spent most of it like this. Sometimes without the phone. Mostly I was alone today, which was weird. Bob and Will had some teenage stuff to do with friends, Evelyn also had some teenage stuff to do with friends even though she is not yet a teen, she thinks she is.

Ann went to my SIL's house for a Gingerbread making marathon with her cousins (God bless you SIL R!).

She made our family in Gingerbread. See? Ginger-Mom, Ginger-Dad, and Ginger-siblings.



This is what I did today. Pretty huh? I am sending this to work with Sir D and his employees, and the other plates go to the neighbors.



I made chocolate chip/peanut butter chip oatmeal cookies then I dipped stuff in chocolate; cherries, strawberries, gingerbread men, peppermint sticks, really anything that wasn't nailed down got dipped in chocolate and stuck on a plate.



That's what it looked like once I had packaged almost all of it up. I wish I'd have thought to take a photo of everything all finished. It was covering the whole table. Things dripping in chocolate everywhere. YUM. I hope everything I dipped in chocolate was actually edible...

I have little more baking to do for Christmas Day and wrapping. Here is a photo of our tree. Those are gifts to\from the kids to\from each other. Also my gifts are there since Sir D bribed the children to wrap them for him.



On a totally different note. I have to take Bob to the Dr tomorrow and I am not looking forward to it. See, he had a birthmark removed from his back last week on Tuesday. I won't go into detail, but let me just say OUCH! It was a bit more invasive than I was anticipating. They basically cut a golf ball size hole in his back, through all three layers of skin, down to the muscle. Then they did two layers of stitches. YIKES!

He was told not to lift anything heavy or do any roughhousing for two weeks. Sure, no problem. Sounds reasonable. Um, see, the thing is...Bob is a pretty tough kid. He is also not a complainer. So when it came time to help his uncle move on Saturday, I sort of forgot that Bob should not be lifting heavy things. And he mentioned nothing about the giant healing hole in his back. He just went along and lifted refrigerator and couches and a washer and a dryer and whatnot without a word.

Then that night he asked me to put the ointment on it and cover it for him. Suddenly I remembered. I looked at his wound and some of the stitches have come out. The wound is not open and it really looks like it is healing nicely, but I am pretty sure the stitches were supposed to still be in there. Oops.

So now I get to go back to the dr and tell him that Bob was lifting refrigerators a mere 4 days after the surgery. Oh, joy.

Perhaps if I bring him a plate of cookies and stuff dipped in chocolate, he won't report me to CPS.

Holy Where-Did-the-Time-Go Batman?!?!

Christmas is on Thursday! Did you hear me? CHRISTMAS IS ON THRUSDAY!!!!

Crap!

I have 5 kazillion things to do. I have not wrapped one single gift!

Um, if the blog goes eerily quiet for a few days, it is okay. I am just scrambling to get it all done before Christmas.

And I have to go to the store...and make the potatoes...and buy a few more gifts...and...and...and...

Hold the pose!

I went to the Rheumatologist yesterday. They had a cancellation and I got in early. I am very glad I got in early, but sweet mercy that was a long day! I was in his office for 3 hours! 3 HOURS!

First I was in the exam room, wearing an icky paper gown. I hate those gowns, they are so degrading. It is hard to feel an equal to the dr, one intelligent person speaking to another, when one of you is in dress pants, shirt and a lab coat, and the other is in paper. At least this gown ties in the back so I wasn't hanging in the breeze.

The office visit lasted about an hour where we discussed everything under the sun, including, but not limited to; professional soccer European leagues or American Leagues? (the answer of course, is European Leagues). TV, Good or Bad? Should I have finished college and should I go back when the kids are older? And finally, why the heck my hands, feet, knees and wrists ache and are swollen.

I was told that I am well spoken and have very good reflexes (I hate that little hammer!) I had to laugh at the well spoken part. Little did he know I've rehearsed this conversation in my head about 60 times, but I'll take complements where I can get them.

Then, the maniacal syringe wielding nurse returned. (Actually this lady was nice and gentle, but maniacal syringe wielding nurse sounds better.) She took my blood, then took me to the x-ray room.

I spent about an hour and a half in the x ray room. The dr wanted an x ray of everything! I think the only thing he did not want x-rayed was my elbows. It sounds like it would be simple. Lay there while the giant machine that looks like something out of a Star Wars movie shoots radiation into my body. Not so. I had to stand in strange positions and 'hold that pose' for 30 second intervals. Still does not sound too bad, but the poses were weird and those 30 seconds add up.

I felt like I was playing twister, only without the cute little dotted mat and giggling friends.

It seemed to go something like this. "Take your right arm and cross it over your chest. Now take your left index finger and stick it in your right ear. Good. Now open your mouth wide, and lift your right knee. Good. Now hold that pose!" and she would disappear behind the safety shield to click the photo.

Of course I have no clear answered yet. Just less blood in my body more sympathy for professional models. They are going to run more tests. His guess is Rheumatoid Arthritis. Though I don't quite fit there either. I never seem to fit into any category. He said I have some classic symptoms of both Fibromyalgia and RA, but not really enough of either to give a definitive diagnose. And also I have some weird symptoms that don't fit into either category. I'm unique. (I prefer that term over strange thankyouverymuch!)

So, I wait again. I was really happy though, with this dr. He was thorough. He listened. He seemed interested in getting to the bottom of this. He even explained how the test were run and how some of them they do in-house with an actual person and not a machine. An actual person can detect changes in the cells that a machine cannot and that is why I may have been testing negative to things that I am actually positive for. He said this is common since they moved to machines about 10 years ago for several of the tests. So I feel like he is going to help me figure this out, and not tell me to get more rest/exercise/ and take this pill like the other Rheumatologist I saw 4 or 5 years ago said.

He did give me a prescription for the inflammation. It takes about a week to see any results and about a month to feel the full effects. So hopefully by Christmas I'll feel marginally better.

Today, I am going to have a low key day that includes taking my kiddos to Walmart to buy gifts for each other. Trust me, I think that will be easier than having a maniacal syringe wielding nurse contort my body and then yell "Hold the pose!"

Surprising Enthusiasm

I may have mentioned a time or twenty that my hands are a wee bit achy. I am finding it a tad bit tricky to get all the things done that I wanted to get done before Christmas.

I have given up on the homemade Christmas gifts this year. Hopefully everyone will be getting homemade birthday gifts throughout the year.

On that note. I went to get a pedicure and my eyebrows waxed yesterday. Wondering how that relates? Yeah so did Sir D. But it does. Follow me as I walk you through why I needed a pedicure and an eyebrow waxing.

See, I have an appointment with a Rheumatologist on the 24th. Said Dr. is going to want to check my feet. My toes had some toenail polish still on them. A sad unfortunate and garish hot pink that seemed like a good idea back in September when it was 100 degrees. My hands simply hurt too much to chisel the now semi permanent polish off my toes.

Also, I have enthusiastic eyebrows. They are nice, I think, when properly groomed. When not properly groomed they look a bit like this.



I wouldn't want to scare the little children this Christmas season with the mustache over my eyes. And remember? Hurting hands? See, I needed to go to the salon!

So I was so busy thinking up the above excuses giddy that I forgot to tell the eyebrow wax girl how I wanted them done.

That was a mistake. One I will be paying for for a few weeks. See the eyebrow wax girl was a little, shall we say, overly enthusiastic in her waxing.

Let's just say I will be walking around looking very surprised for a while.