I am SO frustrated at my mortgage company.

When they set up our loan, they estimated our property taxes for the year. Our mortgage payment has several parts: PMI (mortgage insurance), payment, homeowner's, and escrow for property taxes. Of our total monthly payment, *20%* of that payment each month is the escrow amount.

Fast forward to tax time. Instead of what *they* estimated in property taxes, our tax bill came almost HALF what they expected.

I called them up. They said they do the escrow analysis in early December, any overage amount will be sent to us in December, and any adjustments to our payment should be reflected in that analysis.

You'd think that our payment would go down, right? At least a couple hundred bucks a month, since taxes were low.

NO. They looked at last year's "estimated" number and just plugged that puppy into their calculations INSTEAD of the "actual" number for taxes.

Our payment did not change. They WILL get a call. There is no reason for us to be paying almost twice as much into escrow as they are going to pay out (while it makes for a nice holiday time check - i'd rather get interest on it myself).

GRRRRR! We pay on time, we're not subprime, and those idiots can't even look at one stinkin' number to make sure their calculations are on target?

Okay, off my soapbox now.

Woohoo!

The Digi Chick has release a kit for the holiday season, called "Secret Santa"....

With a $10 purchase, it's FREE! Look at how many goodies are in the kit...it's fabulous!

My sister sent me pictures of my niece and nephew in the latest snowfall. Aren't they adorable?

I couldn't resist!

I don't know these people, but this is just plain hilarious!

Yes, yes, I know, it's been a while. I've been busy! :)

I'll post later this evening with a whole bunch of layouts and information. In the meantime, check out the Amazon link on the right side navigation bar. My boss has a new book out!

I got my lower retainer yesterday. Ouch.

So, here's the skinny on the retainer.

- I have to take it out to eat
- I have to take it out to drink anything other than cold water
- I have to take it out to brush my teeth

Did I mention it hurts for a good 5 minutes after I put it back on?

If you're thinking, "Bet she's not going to take that retainer out all that often," you'd be right. No more snacking or impulse food! In fact, it better be a dang good reason to take the retainer out - I want to go through that pain as few times as possible!

They told me it could take two months to get used to this retainer. Guess I'll be losing a lot of weight in the next two months - this retainer will certainly keep me on the straight and narrow!

Monday, I got braces for the THIRD time. My teeth are bound and determined to move and crowd, while I am just as determined to keep them straight and uncrowded.

I realized that this is also a metaphor for my weight loss. This will be the time that my lifestyle changes will take effect. I always get stalled right around this weight, but this has to stop. I will get over this hump, and move on to the next size and goal.

I've set up a back massage appointment for next Friday. I am going to make every attempt to hit 190 before then - as it is my reward for hitting the "0" mark (my goals are based on 190, 180, 170, 150...).

Even if I'm close, I will deserve it, and use it as incentive to keep going. I will do what it takes to get the weight off, get in shape, get healthy, and lower cholesterol.

I will have these braces on for as long as it takes - no shortcuts! The same has to apply here for weight loss.

So cool!

I found out yesterday afternoon that I came in 3rd place in fundraising for my team for the Race for the Cure! I get a restaurant gift card and some other prizes...the DJ wasn't sure what was in the packet, but it's coming in the mail this week.

I raised $355 for my team with 11 donations from friends and family. Thanks so much to those who donated - you know who you are! :)

Today is the deadline for the Stand Up and Scrap Week 1 Challenge. I'm so relieved I got mine in on Friday, I'm not panicking to get a layout in before the deadline! We'll see if I make the top 10 this week....

I know I'm boring, but no one ever comments... :)

Today was a busy day! We started off going to the car wash - one of our vehicles needed a serious bath and cleaning/vacuuming. After that, we headed to the Oregon Convention Center for the Race for the Cure Health Expo to pick up our shirts and pins.

Once we got back home, I loaded up the scrap tote and headed over to a friend's for some paper scrapping. I'm entering the Quickutz contest at CKC Bellevue (er, for those non-scrapping folks, I'm entering a layout contest at a scrapbooking convention in Bellevue, WA), and I need time to whip up a paper layout. I figured out the page design/layout, chose the papers, and did some photo mats with inking. Now I need to take the pictures, print them out, and do some cool embellishing touches. Then scan it and print it out to take with me to the convention (no original layouts allowed - they'll ask for them if you win).

Fortunately, the CK and SS layout contests allow digital entries, so that will be much easier to do.

I'm in the Stand Up and Scrap contest as an advanced scrapper and just posted my Week 1 entry yesterday. To my shock, it has over 15 comments - and here I was thinking I belonged in the Intermediate section! :) I wish I could post it here, but we are posting anonymously and can only post in one gallery. Not even a link in this blog is allowed....just wait six weeks and you'll see them all!



This is a picture I took last weekend at the Oktoberfest in Mt Angel. I punched up the photo using Andie Smith's "Savannah" Lightroom preset. It just makes the clouds look so threatening and ominous...

I don't know if I mentioned that I've been going through physical therapy for my back. I just finished my 4th visit out of 6 visits. I'm steadily improving, and they are also giving me exercises (mat and resistance ball) to improve my core muscles. That seems to be the reason why I get out of alignment (or what I call "locking my sacroiliac joint") on a fairly regular basis.

Funny - the core area (abs, back, etcetera) is also where I carry most of my extra weight. Think there's a correlation? :) I do know that I've started losing weight since doing physical therapy, because I'm also doing Weight Watchers Online as well. I lost 1.5 lbs this week!

Twice in one day! :)

But I found a video of the opening act for Keith Urban, "The Wreckers":

We saw Keith Urban in concert last night. I didn't bring my camera (it's a Nikon D100) because I couldn't confirm the camera policy, and usually they give me grief on my "professional" level camera, so I was stuck using my cel phone camera.

I didn't get much that was good, but I touched them up in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom to make them look "artistic"...I used Andie Smith's "Munich" preset on the photos.

:)

Woohoo!

The insulation, drywall, and texture is done. The drywall guys showed up at 8:50 (10 minutes early) and started to prep for installing (figuring out which drywall pieces to use, cutting them to size) while waiting for the insulation guys to show...they showed at 9:15 and did probably the quickest job of their day. It took them all of 5 minutes to install the minimal amount of insulation and then they were off to the next job.

The drywall guys were done at 10:15 and I was at work by 10:35 - don't worry, I didn't break any land speed records on the way to work, that's actually longer than it normally takes me to get to work (I have a 15 minute commute).

The next step? The painter guys! :)

They are scheduled for 9 a.m. on Friday, and we have not decided which one of us gets the pleasure of telling their boss they'll be in late that day. Good thing it's slow at work right now.

Once it's done, I'll post pics of the original issue and a picture of the soon to look like nothing happened wall. :)

Okay, okay...forgive me, I've been meaning to post, really I have... :)

We've had quite the interesting last three weeks.

On Thursday, August 23rd, I came home from work and started putting the recycling and trash out for Friday pickup. I noticed a puddle of water on the rear patio. Hmmm....that shouldn't be there. So, once my husband gets home (5 minutes behind me), we go check out potential sources. It's not the washer (which is directly up the wall from where the water was coming out), so we go to check out the garage.

WOW!

It turns out that when the concrete was poured for the rear patio (after the siding was removed), someone (ie, a contractor) broke off the A/C condensate pipe that was coming out the garage wall. And it didn't just break, it broke off INSIDE the garage wall.

YEP!

You guessed it! We've had A/C on since May, and the A/C condensate pipe was draining INTO the exterior garage wall all that time.

Kudos to Centex Warranty, who promptly sent out an HVAC vendor (Dow Columbia) to fix the issue. They removed drywall, scraped off mold/mildew, sprayed the area with anti-microbial stuff (Microban), and set up a serious industrial strength fan to blow on the area for 4 days.

The warranty guy set up appointments for drywall repair, texturing, and paint. Yes, one of the reasons we did not notice mold or wet spots on the garage wall is because we had the garage drywall "textured and painted" - which apparently is not standard, but I hate the "unfinished" look of plain old taped drywall.

Today's update:

The drywall company was supposed to show up at 9 a.m. this morning, so my husband took the morning off (I've done all the previous appointments, it was *his* turn). 9:15 a.m. arrives and he calls me because they aren't there. I call the warranty guy, and he in turn calls the drywall company.

Guess what?

The drywall company "substitute scheduler" insists (despite all the evidence to the contrary) that our appointment was for tomorrow morning. Turns out the regular scheduler is out of the office today, and things always get screwed up when she's gone. The warranty guy got so upset talking with the "sub" that he hung up on her, after telling her to call me and straighten things out. She called me and STILL insisted the appointment was for tomorrow...but I told her they dang well better be ON TIME, early is even better, and they better have everything they need (the work order also says they need to bring insulation since some of that was ripped out when the drywall was removed).

If you like, I'll post a couple of photos of what it looked like.... :)

Andie Smith is having a $2 sale on most of her paper packs, alphas, and embellishment packs! Go check it out here: Andie Smith at My Digital Muse

Don't forget to check out Andie's awesome Lightroom and Adobe Camera Raw presets! You can see some of my photos using her presets here: Lightroom Photos

Andie is also selling some gorgeous masks and storyboards here: Pink Ink Studios. You can see a sample below, with a picture of my cousin Catherine and her boyfriend Michael.



This was done using Dirty Mask Set 1 - #2. I also used one of Andie's presets on a color photo before using the mask.

I met a couple of online friends while attending the family reunion. First was my friend Becky, who generously picked me up at the airport, AND hosted me in her home for the night. Her daughter Kayla even gave up her bedroom for the night! They took me out to dinner at Johnny Carino's (good Italian food, fabulous desserts). On Friday morning, I went to an Archiver's for the first time - I even had some stuff shipped back to me (much cheaper than paying for overage on baggage).



On Sunday, before I left town, I met up with my designer friend Rachel S, a fellow TDC chickie. Rachel picked me up at the hotel and took me to Starbucks, where we chatted like old friends for an hour or so.

I safely landed at the Atlanta airport yesterday, after getting up at the crack of dawn (2:45 a.m.) for a 6:30 a.m. flight.

I met up with my friend Becky, who generously took me into her home for the night. She is an online scrapping buddy that i've been chatting with for 3 years through several paper scrapping sites.

Becky dropped me off at Starbucks and went into work for a half day - she seemed awfully shocked that I wanted to get up this early and just sit in Starbucks with my laptop....but hey, I'm a digital scrapper, I can do layouts anywhere, right? :)

This afternoon, we are going to lunch and Archiver's (a serious paper scrapping mecca store, apparently - we don't have one in Oregon), then she'll drop me off at my hotel in the Buckhead area of Atlanta for my family reunion.

Well, I'm off to Atlanta for the family reunion! Bright and early (4:30) I'll be at the airport for my 6:30 a.m. flight, which puts me into Atlanta around 3:30 p.m. or so. I'll be going from relatively cool Pacific Northwest weather (between 75-90 degrees, low humidity) to the steamy Southern weather (97 degrees, 101 degrees heat index with humidity added in). And it's supposed to be 97 the entire time I'm there. Ugh! Yes, I have lots of shorts with me!

Here's the album from Saturday night's party at the Crystal Ballroom:

Saturday Night Reunion Photos

Okay, okay, here's the album for Friday night photos:

Friday Night Reunion Photos

Rachel

Whoa! I went to my reunion last night (I'll be going tonight too - see you there fellow classmates!) and had a good time. I took over 100 pictures, so there isn't anyway I'm posting them all here. I'm uploading to the Kodak Gallery website as we speak. I'll post a link to an album SOON!

Here's a teaser - me and Brenda Trout!

Wow! My photo was chosen as Photo of the Week at My Digital Muse! You can see the thread here:

Photo of the Week Thread

I feel so honored. I know it was a good photo, but Andie Smith's presets made it look that much better. :)

I want this book:

That's Life



Just released yesterday, by one of the scrapbookers on 2peas, Nic Howard.

This is the last time I took pictures of fireworks, in 2004. Created using Ronee Parsons' "StarStruck" kit and "Scrapper's Muse 6" template.

This kit, created by the amazing team of TDC designers, celebrates the best parts of summer... the cool, early mornings, the beautiful colors all around, the wonders of nature. It's perfect for so many different types of pages. What's the best thing about this kit? It's FREE! That's right, with your purchase of $10 or more through July 8, 2007, you receive this HUGE kit absolutely free.




To receive this kit free, simply fill your shopping cart with $10 or more in yummy goodies, then add this kit for a total order of $20 or more. At checkout, enter coupon code sweetsummer-0607 to subtract the cost of the kit.

Visit the TDC boutique for more information.

Later today, I'll post a layout I did with this kit. :)

Here's a layout I did about my mom's surprise birthday party this year:



I used the "Petites Fleurs" kit from Songbird Avenue. Gorgeous colors and papers - I just couldn't resist! :)

Another layout for Ronee Parsons, using the "Sky" kit and a template from "Scrapper's Muse 1," both available at Oscraps.




It's been a long week. Been working steadily towards end of project milestones at work, and I'm almost done with the 2nd project, which I'm leading. The STC nominating committee work is proceeding for the upcoming special election, and we are learning lessons that can be applied to the 2008 election. Notice how I really can't say specifics? :) Nothing is sacred out on the Internet...and you never know who is watching (or doing a Google alert).. :)

Here's a CT layout I did for the Ronee Parsons CT (creative team) I'm on:



I love the colors of the kit so much, I turned the photo b/w to make sure the photo stood out among the brightness. Plus you can't see my red cheeks from dancing (or that Long Island Iced tea drink I had... :))

Yippee! TGIF! :)

It seems like it has been a long week. Mostly work related, but some of it personal. I went to the dentist this week, because the filling on top of one tooth felt "open" - it turns out that the filling has a hairline crack, which needs to be replaced. There is also a very tiny cavity that needs a filling on the same tooth.

I can't wait for tomorrow. We are going to head to the Rose Festival and see if we can get in on a public tour of one of the tall ships in town. If we can't, we'll check out other stuff, like the dragon boat races. My friend Amy is a dragon boat racer, so that will be fun. Navy ships are in town too. One thing I won't be doing is going to the Grand Floral parade. That is going to be *interesting* with all the tape/reserving your spot frenzy going on.

I'm also heading to a friend's house to scrapbook, so that will be fun.

Aw man, they just found the missing 18 year old girl, dead. :(

I just don't get it. What possesses someone to do something like this?

Life sure can change in an instant....

A lightning strike hits a 110 foot Douglas Fir tree and only damages the roofs of three houses.

A teenager runs into Target to get a gift and is abducted as she puts her purchases into her car.

A woman smokes crack all day, then drives her car into a crowd of folks attending a festival, injuring at least 40 people.

Sometimes I think I read too much news, but I know I'm a news and information junkie, so it would be hard to give up the habit of checking the news.

Yeah, yeah, I know...it's been a while! :)

Here's a layout I did yesterday, my first digital layout in 2 months:



As you can tell, we went to the Oregon Coast last weekend. This time, we were joined by some friends from the Portland area.

Coming up next weekend, I'll be scrapping with a group of ladies at another house, after my husband and I go to see the tall ships in town for the Rose Festival.

It's been a really busy last three weeks or so!

Lots of tasks on my plate got accomplished, the last one just this afternoon. I also realized that I was way overcommitted this spring, and am taking baby steps to trim my obligations down to a manageable level. I'm learning how to say "no" which is something my husband has been saying I need to learn for months. :)

I found out that I will be receiving a service award at the STC conference in May. This award was totally unexpected - I didn't even find out until it was published in the monthly leadership newsletter. I hadn't even known I was nominated for it! :) And late last week, as I was looking at board meeting minutes for the last few months, I found out that my manager (who attended the last "in-person" board meeting in February) had known for 2 months, because he'd been at the board meeting where they granted the awards. Guess I better read those board meeting minutes a little bit sooner... :D

I'll be in Minneapolis in two weeks, attending the conference and taking pictures. I've been asked to post an "online diary with pics" on the Online SIG wiki, and also to take pictures that will be in the closing keynote session slide show.

Teaching is going well....now. I won't say anything more. :)

I'm attending one of Karen Russell's classes on National Scrapbook Day (May 5) where she is debuting a new class, "Snapshots of a Good Life"...looks like a fun mini-album project.

Well, Saturday at the coast started out rainy. :)

As I told my husband, it wouldn't be a vacation on the coast without rain....

Here's one of the pictures I took today, at Short Sands Beach in Oswald West State Park.

I've been tagged by Becky! :)

I'm sitting here at the beach, just relaxing.

- I hate being late. I hate it when others are late, because usually they've had plenty of time to get ready. I understand the occasional late thing, but both my sister and one of my friends are always late, and it's not always their kids who are the cause. My sister has even been late for Christmas morning at my folks house!

- I love reading. I don't think a day goes by that I don't read a book for at least 20 minutes (and I"m not talking work related stuff). For me, reading right before bed is my body's "cue" to my mind that it's time to stop whirring and shutdown for the night, instead of thinking and obsessing.

- I love it when I have short hair, but I also look too boyish, so once every year or two, I try to grow my hair. Right now, it's "long" to me, but it's not even shoulder length. This is the hardest part, getting past the point where I can do nothing with it (can't pull it back, must dry it to style, etc).

- I confess, I can't take a vacation without taking the laptop with me. :)

- I love naps. Naps were not made for the young. :D

- I can't sleep on soft beds - I won't sleep as deeply as I can sleeping on a firmer mattress.

- I almost always buy a book on vacation, even if I brought one with me.

I don't know who to tag, so I'll leave it at that....

Well now!

I am going to be teaching Adobe Creative Suite 2 at Portland State University, as of spring term! Starting April 2, every Monday night (except for Memorial Day and the day I'm at the STC conference) until June 11, I'll be teaching at least 16 students (3 undergrad, 13 grad so far) about Adobe CS2. Wow! If this works out, and the students want more classes, I could potentially have a sideline career. My manager, who recommended me to the university, heartily approves of this development, as he also teaches technical writing at the same university. We won't be teaching on the same nights, but at least I have a resource to talk to about grading and the "back end stuff" of the university system (dropping folks, adding grades, etc).

We are having movers come tomorrow and clean out our storage room to take the contents to our house. We are going too slow on getting stuff out of storage, and I want that "line item" off of our budget. Let's just say a 10x20 storage room is not cheap and is the equivalent of our car payment. Ouch! Means we can save more, or put more money towards an extra payment for the mortgage or vehicle.

BUSTED! Someone finally noticed (and commented) that I haven't posted for a while. Oops!

I've been a busy little beaver... :)

In case you're wondering, this is what I have on my schedule:

- Creative Team for two designers (Ronee Parsons & Marsha Zepeda)
- Creative Team for The Digi Chick
- Webmaster for the Willamette Valley Chapter STC website
- Judge for the STC International Tech Pubs Competition (lead judge of my team)
- Judge for the STC Newsletter Competition
- Judge for the STC Public Relations Competition
- Judge for the STC Community Achievement Award competition
- Member of the STC LCR
- Candidate for the 2007 STC election for one of two "Nominating Committee" positions

And just today, I got offered another opportunity - can't say much about it now, but after May I can...

Oh yeah, I work too...no wonder my creative energy seems a bit lost these days!

I promise, I'll be better about updating at least once a week! :D

My husband tells me I do too much. I know he's proud of me, but he's probably right. And he doesn't even know the half of what I do sometimes. I suppose it's part of the heritage my grandmother instilled in us - the spirit of volunteering. I've been involved in the Society for Technical Communication since 1998, and I wouldn't change a thing - I've learned a lot, and had lots of opportunities to manage and lead other people. That's not something I could have ever envisioned when I was 18 and fresh out of high school. I know I need to learn to say no...

Well, enough of the serious stuff! :)

My friend Becky T encouraged me to enter a contest with her, the Funk It Up! contest at scrapforums. She's doing the paper scrapping contest, I'm doing the digital contest. The first challenge is:

Use the lyrics of the song "Photograph" by Nickelback to inspire a fabulous layout!

With the following rules:

*You must use (at least) one complete line from the song somewhere (visible) on the layout. It can be the title, in your journaling or as an accent.

*At least one photo must be used.

*One or two page layouts are good and all size layouts are accepted.

*the layout must have journaling.

*The rest is up to you! Be creative, have fun and FUNK IT UP!

I think I know which lyrics to use, but I'm still hunting for the perfect picture. I guess it's a good excuse to finally hook up the scanner. :D

Bad bad blogger!

Life has been pretty busy in the last few weeks. On Monday nights, we go to ballroom dancing class, held through the parks and recreation district. It's pretty fun, even if we both feel like we have left feet (him more so than me). It gets us out of the house, and it's not too far away from home - we'll be able to easily bicycle there in the spring and summer.

On weekends, we've been kept busy unloading the storage room. We average at least 2 loads a weekend, but that's a glacial pace for someone who wants that storage room payment off the books. :) We can see the halfway mark - we're not there, but we can see it! We can also see the framed artwork boxes, and hopefully will get them out this weekend. That way we can put them up in time for our housewarming party on the 24th.

I'm also working on layouts for my creative teams. One of the designers I create layouts for is taking a breather, so that load will ease some. I survived all the way through the Amazing Digiscrapping Race, with the able help of my partner Dawn. We did not win the grand prize, but we completed the race - which was fun all the way around! :)

So much fun, that I decided to sign up for the Funk It Up contest on scrapforums.com. No idea if I will make it past round 1 there, but I at least entered. :)

The election I am running in has had some changes as well. First, I was one of two candidates for two positions. Then I was one of three candidates for two positions. And now I'm one of two candidates, which means unless we get a late petition entry, I'll be elected this year. Third time's the charm, right? :) I need to register for the conference in Minneapolis before the end of February, so I can take advantage of early bird rates.

Oh, and another thing...someone finally took on organizing the 20 year high school reunion. I missed out on the 10-year reunion, so I was determined to go to the 20-year this year. Of course, I don't think anyone but my two friends Lisa and Amy (we're still all friends) will remember me, but it will be fun!

I've been very very bad about updating my blog. I've been sick with bronchitis, and life has also been busy! I made it to week 3 of the Amazing Race, and have done two layouts this, for challenges #5 and #6.

Challenge #5 was to do a layout about books, in some form or fashion - no other requirements.



And challenge #6 was to scrap your partner's pictures. My partner is dawnmcd, and these are pictures of her daughter.

We are out of the apartment, at long last. No more Mr Stomper, no more constant road noise, no more Mr Cougher next door. Ah! That's a huge sigh of relief you hear... :)

Tomorrow, we'll be going to see Barry Manilow in concert. I've been a fan of Barry for a long time (probably since I heard "I Write the Songs" when I was a child), and I know I'd never want to pay the prices to see him at his show in Las Vegas, so this is the perfect compromise. He is doing a special concert to benefit cystic fibrosis, and I pretty much bought tickets the moment I got the email from K103 with the link to buy. My husband and I are sitting in the 20th row on the floor, those are pretty good seats at the Rose Garden Arena! :D

In return for my husband suffering through Manilow with me, we are going to see "A Night of Improv" in February, with the cast of Whose Line Is It Anyway (minus Drew Carey). The tickets sold out so fast, a 2nd show was added for later the same evening!

Ah the joys of being sick! NOT! I have stayed home all week long, trying to "rest" out this dang cold, and thought I was well on my way to recovery, until this morning. I was almost out the door, showered, dressed, keys in hand, when my energy level dipped below 0 and a coughing spasm started. I trudged back upstairs, sent an email to my boss, and crawled under the covers again. Sigh. I will go in on Monday, no matter how I feel. Dang cold!

In the meantime, during my periods of energy, I have been doing some digital scrapping for the Amazing Digiscrapping Race. Here's my 2nd challenge layout, which could only be done by one team member. It had to use a series of photos, and tell "the rest of the story" behind the series...you know, the story you wouldn't necessarily know just by looking at the photos. The twist? You could only use one item PER designer. Yeah, that stretched my horizons a bit, I'm one of those "stay within the kit" type folks, but I managed to do it. Good thing I have lots of designers on my external hard drive storage.

Here's the layout:

Here's the first layout for the Amazing Digiscrapping Race, challenge #1:




I completed the layout using Rachael Giallongo's Sketch Challenge #20 and the "Changes" collaboration kit from Oscraps.

Okay, okay, it's been a while since I posted. I admit it! :)

First, we moved into the new house on Dec 22. We were .....um.....loitering in the sales office as the agent called to see if she could give us our keys. And we weren't the only ones...um....loitering... :)

We spent the night on our queen size Aerobed (bought from Costco months ago, for guests), which feels a lot like sleeping on not quite so firm Jello. :D

On the 23rd, I headed to the apartment while my husband stayed at the new house. He got "Verizon" and "appliance" duty, while I got "movers" duty. I packed several more boxes waiting for the movers, then got out of their way while they moved our boxes and furniture onto the moving truck. We got to the house, and Verizon and the appliance folks still had not shown up...turns out the Verizon guy had a problem install before us, and shows up around 2 p.m. The appliance guys show up around 1 p.m., just as the moving guys start moving our stuff inside.

Did I mention it was raining? Did I tell you we bought a stainless steel refrigerator? Um yeah, that was fun to wipe off the prints. :D Especially since the appliance guys had to remove the doors of the refrigerator just to get it inside the house. They tried removing just the door handles (they were sticking out and the reason it was too wide), but it wasn't working, so they removed the doors.

Finally, we had our new fridge, washer, and dryer. Wow! That new washer and dryer have some interesting noises....so much so that Cleo (who was in my arms) spooked when the washer changed cycle and left a couple of nice long (and deep) gouges on my chest when trying to run off. No v-neck shirts for me for a couple of weeks! :)

Christmas Eve we just unpacked a little, rested a little, and had a nice pasta dinner. We usually go for something that isn't turkey or ham related, since we have to eat both on Christmas Day at two different meals.

Oh, before I forget, I started getting a cold on the day we moved our stuff (12/23). You'll see why this is important later. :)

Christmas Day we do our normal two step drive. Drive to my parents, open presents, have an early dinner. Drive to my husband's parents' house, open presents, eat dinner. Drive home.

On 12/26, I'm not feeling too good, but it's time for a niece's birthday party that has already been rescheduled twice. Yes, I still have a cold. *sniff* It probably didn't help that I went shopping for a few hours first thing in the morning.

The rest of the week, I'm miserable with a cold, and waiting for contractors to show up to finish some exterior stuff and some carpet cleaning. Oh yeah, my husband's office furniture, which should have showed up on 12/26 AT THE HOUSE, got sent to our mailing address at the UPS store. How stupid is that? Six boxes of "put it together yourself" furniture goes to the wrong address, so I have to go pick it up, but I can't unload it on the other end because I'm not strong enough (nor are my arms wide enough to wrap around some of these boxes). I go straight to Office Depot afterwards and get my "delivery" fee back - it turns out it was their screwup. They had put in both addresses (our mailing address is also our billing address), but had forgotten to "check the box" to indicate it should go to the house address, so it defaulted to the billing address. Good thing the UPS store employees know me and accepted the delivery, despite the fact it was against their policy.

Another niece has a birthday party on 12/29. Yep, still feeling miserable, but now I look like I'm miserable. Friday night at the cheap pizza joint favored for kids' parties, and oh crap, it's also karaoke night. There's nothing worse than being sick and having to hear peopl sing karaoke who shouldn't be anywhere NEAR a mike. Enough said. *shudder*

Quiet weekend for us, although we went to dinner on 12/30 with several friends. Nice place to find, we may go back there again someday.

A good friend of ours comes over on 12/31 to ring in the New Year. We had a nice dinner, and then sat in front of our widescreen TV to watch several episodes of Firefly. During the 2nd episode, we toasted the new year, but went straight back to Mal and his crew. :)

By 1/1/07, I'm still not feeling hot. Yep, I still have that pesky cold. I so didn't want to go back to work yet. I promise friends and family, yes, I will call the doctor Tuesday morning.

Back to work! 1/2/07 arrives and I'm back at my desk. Coughing, sneezing, and blowing my nose like there's no tomorrow. Get in to the doctor around 10:30. Turns out it is nothing more than a viral infection (aka the common cold), but she gives me a prescription cold drug to kick this cold out. I head back to work, where I take my medication. Taking the pill causes a coughing jag, which ends up with me being sent home to "rest" and keep my germs away from everyone else.

So here I am, 1/3/07, still at home. Sick with a cold. But at least I'm "resting"....and actually, I have been sleeping most of the time.