I'm in Lawton, Oklahoma with Brett visiting his grandpa. Today is Papa's 82nd birthday. We will be joining him and his friends at the VFW this evening for a night filled with old people gossip and probably bad music from, the equally as old, house band. I wouldn't be bummed about it if my friends in Tulsa weren't getting together tonight. Oh well, I'm sure it won't be that bad and I'm sure Papa will enjoy us being there with him.

I guess I'll let you all in on my resolution. This year I plan to CONSUME LESS. I'm not talking about food only but in all areas of consumption. Gas, electricity, water, shampoo, detergent, etc... The list can go on and on. It's a bit intimidating but I think it'll do me some good. How awesome would it be if at this time next year I can look bad and see how much I saved! "Smaller Portions" is my new motto in everything. Starting tomorrow, of course, because I chowed down at Golden Corral today for lunch. Mmmmmmm good!

I hope you all have fun tonight doing whatever you're doing and wish you all the best new year. Get out your new calendars and get excited about all the cool things you get to write in them this year. Yeee Haw! 2006!!!

Sorry about the blank post earlier. It was Angel's last night here and in a mad dash she was trying to show me how to do colored font. I hope it works.
Well, I think I can speak for both of us when I say we had a great time! The hotel room was great, because it was free, and that truly was the only great thing about it! It was so very.....nothing! Nothing special, nothing nice, nothing like I had expected. I battle with feeling like a brat because again, it was a gift, but if the giver had known it was crummy she wouldn't have given it. Well, on a positive note, it did pay off big time when we were tired of carrying our bags and could just go upstairs and drop them off and continue our shopping. Big score!
Speaking of shopping, we did a lot of it. Angel got some great buys and very functional things but I was too picky. I came home with two pairs of shoes and a shirt. That's it! Oh well, I now have a grasp on the trends this season. Most of the stores have the exact same things. We got to the point where we'd just look at the store and could tell if it was worth going into or not. BTW - All of you Payless lovers out there - Way to go! We went into some very nice designer shoe boutiques and when we went into Payless they had some excellent knock-offs.
We got to catch up on all sorts of things. Girl talk is theraputic. (I hope I spelled that correctly) We didn't take many pictures in Dallas. We were too busy shopping. When Calvin got here on Monday he took over the role of photographer. It was great to have them both here - in our home, in our town. We love them both so much. I'm thankful every day for such a wonderful family. We ate out everyday, went to every mall and shopping center in Tulsa, laughed constantly, snuggled, wrestled, slept in, smiled for painfully long periods of time while Calvin set up the perfect shot, and remembered just how much fun we have together.
We got up early on Saturday morning to see them off. Sad sad sad. We went back to bed and Brett went to work around noon. When 3:00p.m. rolled around I decided that it was time to get out of bed. Brett got home a few hours later and we were bored. We were coming down from a company high and decided to keep the mood up by opening our Christmas presents. It was great fun. We went to have lunch with a family we worship with after services. (If I had the link thing figured out I'd link to Jman90) It was yummy. We braved the crowds at the mall on Monday and did some exchanging/returning. Today was life as usual. Work for both of us. Sigh*
Well, so, that's that. A perfect two weeks. BTW - My birthday was awesome! Angel wrote me a story. A fairy tale, literally, about a peasant girl named Kristena who lived with her father, Ronald, in a land ruled by King Aubert. Are you catching on yet? Well, Kristena was very troubled about her larger-than-normal cranium and was known to pout about it. When the heirless King Aubert died, Cassara the ambassador to the throne of men (a fairy!) took her to the throne room where the crown was placed on her huge dome head and....Ta Da! it fit! It just fell off of those measly pin heads! How blessed is the fat noggin of Queen Kristena!

Well, almost anyway. I have my suitcase packed and I'll just throw my bathroom stuff in a bag in the a.m. and I'll be officially done. I need to dust but I'm hoping that when my hubby said WE would get the house cleaned after worship tonight that he really meant WE not just ME. I did have a romantic birthday dinner with him tonight and got a beautiful pearl necklace. I never knew I liked pearls but this is definitely me. A very simple drop necklace. Love, love, love it and him. I guess he can come in from the dog house now. We like to call it Chateau Bow-Wow! He's wrapping my X-mas gifts right now and for a one-handed guy he's doing a bang up job. Angel is getting herself ready not only for our Big D trip but also for the following week when she will be here with us. She's also getting Calvin set up for when she's gone. Needless to say, we didn't talk on the phone long tonight because she had so much to do. I have a cat sitter to come by and feed Punkin while we're gone. Oh yea, Brett has decided to tag along and visit his dad that lives right outside of Dallas. I'm glad I won't have to do the driving.

*****Well, just so you know I was trying to open a bottle of jewelery cleaner just now and it spilled everywhere! Even though you can't tell, I had to quit typing for a while to clean it all up.

I do have a funny story. I was in the elevator today, leaving work, when the emergency telephone rings. I think maybe a kid had been on before me and was pulling a prank and I was going to be stuck with explaining. So, I push the button and the person on the other line and I exchange a few Hello's. After a short silence she says, "Hello, this is Lydia with Valor Telecom. Can I please speak with the person in charge of making the decisions about the long distance service." I'm already to the 1st floor and the door is open so everybody walking by can hear me cackling and I say, "This is an elevator phone!" She apologized and hung up. I thought it was so hillarious that I got an annoying customer service solicitation phone call in the elevator! I'd rather have that happen than get stuck or something. Well, it's getting late and I have to see which part of WE is going to do the dusting. I'll write again later! Bye everybody.

You have to say that title like Spongebob would to get the full effect! I like to describe waiting for my birthday like waiting in line for Santa. I took the kids I babysit to see Santa and the closer we scooted along in line the closer to me and more nervous they got. That's sort of how I feel about leaving my early twenties. I talked about it alot when it was farther away but now that I only have a week, I'm a bit hushed. Ready or not it's coming for me. I am going to milk it though! Brett and I are going out before worship on Wednesday b/c I'll be in Dallas the rest of the weekend that he's off and he has to work on my actual b-day. Then I'll celebrate again with Angel and Calvin when we pick him up from the airport Monday evening. Not a bad gig. I have to put up our X-mas lights outside and do a few more things before I leave. Brett is in charge of getting the house ready for company so I'll have to get a "honey-do" list started. Oh! One of the coolest things about babysitting is sitting on the side porch wrapped in an electric blanket, sipping hot chocolate while the kids are splashing (or as I called it that night - bathing) in the hot tub! Well, I have to go show Brett how to wrap a present b/c I refuse to wrap my own gifts this year!