Merry Christmas to All...

and to all a good night.

I hope all my friends out there had a great Christmas.

Slugbo and I kept it really low key this year. Thanks to a really sweet neighbor we actually had gifts under the ceramic tree. Thankfully I have a full queue of planned knit items for said neighbors ready to work on so I can reciprocate, albeit a little late.

Yup, that's right. Given that we are trying to get expenses down and get our debt down, the Slug and I opted not to exchange gifts this year. With everything else going on, it would have just been too much to try to figure out what to get each other.

Plus he had a gottne a game he wanted just over a month ago and I just bought myself a new watch, after talking to Slug about it, which I can hook to my iPhone via Bluetooth and it vibrates when a call comes in and tells me via caller id display who's calling.

It's cool, it's huge (same width as my wrist), but I love it already. I was playing with the band today (which needs to be replaced for one that FITS me) and the phone went off and I look at the number on it and went "Oh look Mom's calling. Where's my phone?"

Slugbo, our friend Shane and two of the mutt boys, Oscar and Cliff, headed up to the camp ground tonight to get the rig in place before the storm that is supposed to move in tomorrow. It's a four hour drive. I expect they'll get to bed around midnight and have tomorrow morning to figure out what I forgot to pack, so they can buzz me and tell me to pick it up on my way there. We have peeps in place to take care of the cats and watch the house.

Scrat the Brat - who is sick, poor pup has a cold - and I are about to head into the house for back meds for me, heating pad for me, blanket for the two of us and curl up in the living room recliner with some knitting, a peanut butter sandwich and a movie.

Since I probably won't blog again till we get home after the new year, I hope you all have a happy and safe New Years. I for one am looking forward to 2010. How about you?

The Christmas Spirit

We aren't doing much at my house to get into the Christmas spirit this year.

This isn't necessarily good or bad. It's just the way things are.

Not having kids in the house makes it a bit harder for me to get into it.

We had so much hope coming into 2009. The IVF was going to work, we'd have a little munchkin in time for Christmas.

The IVF(s) didn't work. But things started moving with the foster program and we got a placement. Which we then lost.

We tried to get moving with the adoption folks but they don't play nice, so we started looking around for another group to get certified with.

We'd hoped to have another placement by Christmas, but the current wrench thrown in with our foster license means that we won't me getting another placement any time soon.

A dingbat 21 year old totaled my car because waving at her friend on the sidewalk was more important than paying attention to traffic. My back is still jacked up from that.

All that said, its been a roller coaster year and it's more or less ending on a level spot, which is okay after all the ups and downs.

Here's to hoping 2010 is a better year, because I really don't need another one like this one.

Still here

It's been a really long week.

Heck it's been a really long year.

I am so ready for 2009 to be over. 20 more days.

Good news is my 'new' car is mine now. Paid in full. So happy about that.

Bad news is I had my hearing exam Wednesday. It was the first time my audiologist ever recommended that I start tracking cochlear implant candidacy requirements.

This is NOT good news. If I go that route, I will lose whatever natural hearing I still have left. Completely. I will only be able to hear with the device.

This is an extremely scary proposition. Not to mention the not too pleasant hairdo I'll be sporting for a while after the operation. ;-) Yeah there is vanity here, but I'm even less excited about letting somebody cut my head open.

Cool hearing news is that I'm getting second aid (gotta love insurance) for the right ear and this one will be fire engine red. :-) The left ear one is purple. This part of hearing loss rocks.

I started PT for my back yesterday. Needless to say it's still pretty 'jacked up' to quote Mark even almost 2 months post accident. All I can say is OW.

Another good thing is my neighbor let me know that one of her munchkins asked for mittens. I said I'd make him some. I wanted them to be a surprise so I pulled a generic pattern and started them based on his age. Last night they LOOKED HUGE! Thankfully they are up too when I leave in the morning so I stopped by this morning to get him to try them on. Looks like they'll fit perfectly and I know how much longer I have to knit on the hand. Score all the way around. And as a bonus the yarn I had in the stash was his favorite color. Even better, his mom can safely wash it. Hehe.

Busy weekend ahead with first aid/CPR cert renewal tomorrow in Oakland, followed by a Christmas party tomorrow night.

If Only

Been sick, but not with the flu for the past week and a half or so.

So it looks like I've got the head cold that's been sticking to people for 2+ weeks this season.

But again, I don't have the flu so I'm okay with this.