I'm back everyone!!!! I had a lovely Christmas celebration with the cousins.  The scanner/calendar drama got worse before it got better, but that's just life.  

Got two very special presents, both in honor of my Grandpa that passed away this fall.  I thought it would be a hard day, and for me it was.  I had to hide upstairs and cry a while.  They say grief comes in waves, and it is definately the truth.  One of the gifts was really neat.  At the funeral, as you came in the door there was a pile of pretty stationary.  Each person was instructed to write down their best memory of my Grandpa.  For Christmas, my Aunt Ruth made each of us a copy of it.  I haven't had the courage to read it yet, but just knowing it's there means a ton to me.

I went out to eat with James, his brother, and his mom tonight.  We had a ton of fun, and afterwords we went to Books-A-Million and I bought a new book (bargain priced of course LOL) about hiking.  I'm hoping that will inspire me to get in better shape before it gets warm, so that I can do a LOT of hiking this year! Then we came back and I showed all of my new yarn (the ones my roomate got me for Christmas) to James's mom.  Altogether a very nice time. 

My cousin Jo and I were talking (while racing around trying to get the calendars printed off LOL) and she commented on how everyone in the family is so into crafts... and that I just started late.  I had never thought of it that way... I just always felt like I didn't belong, because while everyone else was passionately pursuing a craft, I've never really gotten into one for any period of time.   Jane sews fancy stuff, Debby quilts, Amy makes stuff, Jo crochets intricate things,... and then there was always me, the littlest cousin.  The one who couldn't ever really DO anything. So now that I'm becoming so frightfully obsessed... I noticed that they don't love me any more than they all did before, cause they loved me before I could do anything special.  Talk about a warm fuzzy feeling!

Well, enough warm fuzzyness... I need to get off the puter and try and get some crocheting done before my roomate gets home so she can help me with the next step in decypering my first crochet pattern! 

Adios my blogging friends!!!! 

I wanted to let you all know that I'm getting ready to leave for my cousins house (the family Christmas is tomorrow) so I'm not sure when I'll be blogging again.  

Have a wonderful New Years everyone!!!! 

From: Question of the Day

What specific aspect of being a child do you miss the most?

Unlimited hours to be outside!!! Beating up on my friend Trish's little brothers (who are now much taller than I am! hahaha), going to the woods with my dad.

From: Five on Friday

In the new year...
1. List one person you've lost touch with that you will look up.  My dad.

2. List two places you want to go. Middle East, Ireland

3. List three habits you want to change.  Sleeping too late, sleeping to little, not exercising enough

4. List four things you hope to learn.  Html, Better Arabic, Better Spanish, Paint Shop Pro.

5. List five goals you would like to achieve.  Exercise consistently.  Stop overextending myself.  Pay off my debts.  Become more social.  Travel outside of the US.

From: Four for Friday

Q1 - Time: Comparing the last 365 days to the previous 365, do you have more, less, or about same amount of free time on your hands? If more or less, what changed over the last year?

Less time, because I took a second job.

Q2 - Money: Do you think having more money would buy you more, less, or the same amount of happiness as you have in your life today? If more or less money, how much more or less would it take?

More happiness, because I wouldn't have to work the second job.  Then I could spend more time on fun things.  It would take about 3000 to pay off debts and then enough to get a more reliable car. 

Q3 - Dating & Kissing: Thinking back to when you were in junior and senior high school, do you ever wish you would have kissed/dated more, less, or about the same number of people that you did back in the day?

The same.

Q4 - Exercise: Do you plan to exercise more, less, or about the same amount in 2006 as you did in 2005?

Definately MORE!!!!!! 

From: Friday Fun

As the new year approaches, I thought we'd take a look back at 2005!

1. What is the best thing that happened to you personally this past year? DEFINATELY moving to a new town and getting a new job. 

2. What is the best thing that you saw happen in the world around you? Ummm... Well... I saw dirty-faced kids from who knows what kind of families  being loved by adults with "normal" lives.

3. What is the biggest lesson you learned this year?  I learned that who I am is what matters, and what others think of me has GOT to take second place.  If I can't like me, then nothing I do to please others will matter.

4. What things do you hope change for you personally in the next year? I want to pay off my debts!!!!

5. What things do you hope change in the world around you?  Well... umm.... I have no idea.  I mean, the usual things... no more voilence, abuse, etc... but, nothing realistic.

6. Do you have any resolutions?  I have 10 daily resolutions I'll try to accomplish each day of 2006

OH while I was ranting I forgot to tell you that I also tried to get my blog listed at Technorati. 

THAT went even worse than the scanner saga!!!! Have any of you bloggers tried to list your blog at Technorati?? I could REALLY use some help!!! All this stuff about RSS feeds, and "claiming" my blog at Technorati... it's pushing my "badness level" up WAYYYYYYYYYYY too high!!!!

Did I ever rant about how I sporadically hate technology???

I tried earlier this week to get some pics to my cousin Jane for a family project we have to have done by tomorrow AM.    I was going to hand-deliver them to her Monday, but then I had to work in the evening.  So, I decided to get my scanner (which was living at my mom's house) and bring it home.

So, I get the scanner home, and discover... the power cord I brought wasn't the right one.  So, I fuss and fiddle, and eventually realize that the power cord to my speakers fits it.  So, plug it in, get it ready, and realize...

I don't have the installation CD.  It's in the box of CDs that I lost about 2 months ago... which I had torn up my room looking for on SEVERAL occasions. 

So, I went online, downloaded the drivers. (4 seperate large files, took an evening to download)  Then I realized that without the scanner program, I didn't know how to make the scanner scan.  That was probably about 11 PM Tuesday.

So Wednesday hurried home, excited about a art project I was going to do.  (Making a banner for Melba's new blog!) Got all my supplies together, got really going good... went to take a pic with my digital cam, and realized that it wouldn't take the quality of pics I needed. (It takes good pics of people, but not of stuff... always a glare, blah blah blah) So, I needed my scanner.

Ransacked the room, and found all my CDs!!!! FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Guess where they were?  In a box labeled "Bath Stuff!"  Hahaha! Logical huh?  (Moved the CDs into it after I had put the bath stuff in the bathroom, and forgot to re-label it)

So, I installed all the software, ALL excited!!! Then, went to scan... and got black with all kinds of wierd lines through it. 

So, figured I should have let the drivers be installed from the CD.  Went to try and uninstall the drivers, spent HOURS trying to do that... failed, gave up at 11:30 PM Wednesday PM 

Smelled melting plastic, was a little afraid.

Started trying again yesterday before work.  Still not working.  Talked with my cousin online, agreed to just drive there today after I got off work at Noon.  (Or so I thought)  Came home between works, tried again... and suddenly realized something.

When the stupid thing would scan, the light didn't even move across the scanner.  THE STUPID THING IS TOTALLY BROKEN!!!!!

Now, they can't work on the project til I get there with pics... and for some inexplicable reason my boss decided we couldn't get off at Noon like he'd said, we had to work til 2, despite the fact that my work is done (was done at 10:30!!!) and everyone else's seems to be done too!  

Which means that with travel time alone,  I couldn't get there until at least 4:30.  But, I still have to pack my clothes, wrap their Christmas presents, and all of that stuff... estimated time of arrival: 5:30.  Which gives us 4 hours to make 12 collages, get them all stapled, put together, and ready to be given out tomorrow morning. 

I haven't slept much this week... I've existed on Diet Cokes... My boss was being insufferable again yesterday... Everything I've attempted to accomplish this week has failed miserably... I have to cancel going to a youth rally tonight that I said I'd go to with a friend... and now even my cat isn't speaking to me!!!!! ARG!

I feel like Stitch... if Lilo drew my badness level right about now, I'd be all blue Hahahaha  

From: Question of the Day

If you were a migrating bird, where would you fly to for the winter?
I would migrate to Georgia most likely... Maybe Florida or Hawaii.  I'd love to go to the Middle East or India, but I think my wings would get tired! LOL

From: Are you more...

01) A Boxing Day/Week (post-Christmas) shopper or "I'm totally broke and why would I keep shopping after Christmas anyway"?   I love shopping any time of the year!!!! LOL

02) Someone who thinks the human culture far in the future will be much like now or someone who thinks human culture far in the future will be very different from now? I think it will be much different as the amount of technology we have increases, I think we will rely on it more for our interaction with others, and rely less on face-to-face contact.

03) A digger for truth or one who waits for truth to be brought to you? Definately a digger for truth.  I always have to know the "how" and the "why" of things.

04) A believer that biology explains most human behavior or a believer that higher mental processes dictate most human behavior? I believe that our lives and our destinies are defined by our choices.

05) Afraid of nuclear war happening or afraid of a mega-tsunami hitting shore near you? Nuclear war... I'm REALLY far from an ocean LOL

06) One who thinks that having different adulthood and drinking ages is sensible or one who thinks that having different adulthood and drinking ages is stupid?

07) One who thinks that having different adulthood and sexual consent ages is sensible or one who thinks that having different adulthood and sexual consent ages is stupid? I think it's illogical to say that a 14 year old is old enough to have sex in Canada, but not old enough to get a job at Burger King, quit school without parental consent,... !

08) A gear in the system or a monkey wrench in the system? I hate systems!

09) A stammering idiot when around a gorgeous specimen of whatever gender you're attracted to or the same around them as when you're around plain people? A stammering idiot.  Found that out when the hottest guy on the face of the earth came into my job once. 

10) One who feels stinged when someone you don't know is critical of you or one who honestly doesn't care when someone you don't know is critical of you? What gives strangers the right to think they can criticize me?! *Offended at the very thought*

No one had a chance to vote, so.... here's my SPT for this week.

I saw this on Ten on Tuesday and thought it might be good.  But instead of yearly resolutions, I thought I'd try daily ones. 

We learned an important principal one day at church: Work done in small increments, if done consistently, has a cumulative effect. 

So when you see this list, know that I may only do these things for literally 1 minute a day, but it's a start, because these are things I want to make a permanent part of my life.  And you as my blogging friends are going to keep me accountable, since I'll be posting these on the profile section of my blog (probably starting tomorrow, depending on how busy we are at work.)  Here they are!

Each day I want to:

1. Spend time in prayer
2. Read my Bible 
3. Exercise
4. Do something creative
5. Learn something new
6. Work on Memorizing a Scripture
7. Improve something at my job.
8. Clean 1 surface in my home.
9. Contact 1 friend/relative
10. Do something fun!