So last night I went with this friend to her eldest sons D.A.R.E graduation.
Literally hundreds of fifth graders gathered together for possibly the most boring program ever.
Fortunately for both her and I, we realize that when you are with a good friend, even the most boring things can be filled with humor.
Funny thing number one...first the background - all of the children wrote essays at the end of the program, and several of them were chosen to read their essays during the graduation program.
Towards the end of the essays there was a little girl reading - at this point I had TOTALLY zoned out and was not paying a bit of attention to what she was saying - until my ear caught her saying '...in my own horrible little world...'    I immediately bit the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing out loud, and was kicking myself for not listening -in  what kind of context does a fifth grader use that kind of sentence?
I focused back into the essays after that - didn't want to miss any more 'good stuff' - and was not dissapointed.  The next little boy gets up and starts on his spiel of why he will never do drugs - all is well and good until he starts going into detail '....and I know that when you mix windex and 409 and bleach and ___ [fill in the blank with just about any and every kind of cleaning substance ever] it makes an extremelty toxic inhalant...'
Without even realizing it, he has just given an entire auditorium the recipe....   Too Funny.
Last, but not least on the funny scale was an unfortunate boy named Benjamin - his name was called when the teachers were handing out the certificates of completion - why is that unfortunate you ask?  Because his teacher shortened his name to Ben - and his last name is Hurt.
Ben Hurt.
Get it? 

sigh.  the guy from the repair shop called tonight with an update.

I choose to think about these things instead of going to the crybaby whinebag 'why me'....

From crappy to not so crappy at all.....

My day in a nutshell...

12:30am - car dies in neighborhood on way home from work.
12:45am - get to the house after aforementioned walk in the dark and cold.
2am - finally wind down enough to go to bed and sleep.
7:15am - get up to call Triple A for towing service so that I can be at the repair shop when they open at 8:30.
7:30am - shower, dress, etc...
8:15am - tow truck driver shows up to pick me up at the house - then on to pick up my poor little car.
8:45am - get to the repair shop and tell the owner the 'symptoms' of the sick car - they leave me with the impression that I am going to have to replace the entire engine and leave me with a 'but maybe it won't be that bad - we will look at it and give you a call'....to which I immediately in my mind go to worst case scenario [ie - this is gonna cost A LOT to fix - I don't want to accumulate more debt - is this going to push back my school plans? ACK!!!]
9am - place a call to Enterprise to come and pick me up so that I can rent/have a car to drive while mine is sick.
9:30am - still chatting with 'Bob' the owner of the place that I had the car towed - we are old pals by now - his front office assistant was feeling ill today, so he was doing her job and keeping me company at the same time...the *cute*  boy from Enterprise showed up to gather me from the repair shop [did he give me his card and tell me to call him?  Yes he did...do I intend to call him?  Hmmmmmmm] and take me to the office to fill out the rental agreement.
10am - on my way home in my shiny rental new Impala.  [what is it about driving a car that you are not 'responsible' for that makes it so much fun?  Is it just me?]
11:15am - leave to take my mom and grandma to the airport - they are flying to see my aunt for a couple of days and will be back on Saturday....
12:30-present.....lunch with, and chillin' in Wendy's office while she conducts finals - having blessed tiny bits of conversation in between classes....[geez I've missed her this last week!]  I needed to see her face BAD....

For those of you still with me [sorry about all the details - I know - sometimes I bore myself too - I totally understand ....I got a call from the repair shop and the total cost to fix the car is going to be less that $300 [to replace the engine would have been THOUSANDS] and it will be fixed and good as new by tomorrow.

Praise God.

My car just died a half a mile away from my house.
From the noise and burning smell, I think my beloved Beetle has burned up.
I got to walk the rest of the way home in the dark and cold at 12:30 in the morning.
Nice.

It has become tradition over the years that the weekend after Thanksgiving is the time for the annual Christmas tree hunting and gathering.  As you can imagine in a family with 10 children, 2 parents, 3 spouses, and [this year] 8 grandchildren [one in utero] - throw in a cousin or two and and our favorite aunt - well - that is a LOT of people to coordinate...
This year was no exception.  We were missing my brother Joe, and my brother Caleb and his family, but the rest of us were there in full force - even baby Addison at six weeks old....
The rest of us bundled up in our warmest post-ice storm winter wear and made the trek out to the tree farm.  It was the first year in a long time that there was snow, and it was beautiful...
Now let me explain how this all works - upon arrival at the tree farm, we pile out of the caravan of vehicles, gather the wagons for carting back the trees, grab some saws and head out over hill and dale - through the acres of hills that contain the tree farm. 
Since everything is a competition in our family, of course we all want to be the one to find the 'perfect' tree....so we spread out [while staying in the same vicinity - within hollering distance], and when a tree is found that you think is 'the one', you holler for everyone else to come and approve.
Again - with this many people involved, it can take a LONG TIME to find just the right one - one that everyone can agree on - or at least get a majority vote. 
Usually there is at least one heated discussion, or tears shed - even a declaration a time or two that 'I am NEVER doing this again - no one listens to me'...blah, blah, blah...
As my siblings have gotten married, and there are more households added to the mix, and more trees to gather - [this year three] the gathering becomes a lengthy process.  And cold. Like two and a half hours this year...
Despite [or maybe because of] all of these things however, this annual tradition has become a family favorite, and one that we look forward to every year.
I'll quit talking now and leave you with some of the pictures of the day.

So there you go.  Next year you wanna come? 

0 - the number of gallons of milk left in the entire store - we put in a call to our supplier [Prairie Farms] and they told us that everyone was in the same boat as us [no milk], and that they just didn't have the 'production' to fill the incoming orders - they need to kick some serious cow bootie - I'll tell you what, they'll let anycow give milk...geez...
1 - The main gear on my car that I used to drive home in the ice storm.
2 - The number of hours it took me to drive home.
3.5 - The hours early that I left work.
4 - The times that I my car lost traction and I slid while driving...
5 - The number of phone calls made and recieved while on the road [2 with my dad, 2 with my boss, and 1 from my Wendy]
6 - The regular sized trucks seen sporting their snow/ice scrapers - they always drive so freakin' fast and think because they are heavy duty and have those stupid blades that they are all big and bad.  hmph.  6 also happens to be the number of excedrin migraine swallowed today...
7 - The number of hours that I actually put in before leaving work.
9 - Salt trucks [not nearly enough in my opinion]
15 - Minutes taken to scrape the 1/2 inch of ice off my windows so that I could see to drive.
19.6 - Miles from my store to home.
30 - Songs listened to on my iPod - the best part?  The final song that came on while I was pulling into my neighborhood?  'Slide' by the GooGoo Dolls...

Boring, I know ya'll...but it's all I got right now...

Sorry for my absence...

Yes, I am still alive.

Bear with me...

Details later if I can...

That would be my official time for my first ever 5K.  The jingle bell run was a great time - so fun with all of the runners having jingle bells tied onto their shoes...it sounded super cool sound everyone took off - kinda like a salvation army bell ringer on crack or something...  

Never mind my time was more than double the first place runners time, or that I was passed by a lady in a strange felt costume pushing a stroller [yes - with her VERY new baby], many people who looked to be about 80 years older than me, and two kids that looked to be - ohhhhhh 6 and 8.  I finished - I ran the entire thing, and I wasn't the last person across the finish line - all of which made it a success for me.

Here are some pictures of the day...

And the best costume goes to.....the christmas tree!!!  She ran in that get-up, and yes, she did it faster than me...the wind must have caught in her boughs and propelled her forward...

My sweet brother Sammy has been running with me to prepare for the race - and ran with us today [well, actually he took off and finished way before us so that he could take pictures as we came to the finish line [gotta get it all saved on camera for posterity sake] - this is us before the race...

My very first race number.  I kept it and am going to do something cool with it to commemorate the day....

This is my friend Nicole from church - she is actually the one who told me about the jingle bell run.  THANKS Nicole!!!

Wendy, her friend Amy [and my new friend], and me on the approach to the finish line.  Thank you to the both of them for sticking with me despite me turning into REALLY CRABBY Havah at the two mile mark...Wendy was singing christmas carols - I think in an effort to distract me/us...hmmmmmm - at least it wasn't bad 80's love songs... 

Almost there.....

THE FINISH LINE!!!

Me, Wendy and Amy after the run....awwwwwww
[Did I get a TON of crap over doing my hair and makeup this morning?  You bet...do I care? Nope - I don't think I look like I just ran a 5K at all!]

Sam took second place in his age category - he ran it in 23 minutes thank you very much...here he is with his second place medal...[he would kill me if he knew I put this picture of him at his dorkiest best on here]  In his defense, he was cheesing it up for me...

So there you go - I have the running bug now - I am so motivated to do more, and to run faster...thanks for all of the support girls!!!  If you have never done anything like this, I would totally encourage you to try it - I cannot tell you how cool it feels to have done it - an empowerment really...I know that it sounds cheesy, but it is true...Thanks Wen, for pushing me and training with me and encouraging me to do this...you were right...

I just ran two and a half miles.  I am now quite sure that I am ready to run my first ever 5K on Sunday morning.  I was getting a little nervous, because I have totally been slacking for the last couple of weeks on the running...but now with tonights run under my belt and knowing that I could have gone the full 3.1....well - that felt really, really good.

38 days until Christmas -
I can do anything for 39 days...
Okay, maybe not stay awake, or run, or ummm - tweeze my eyebrows or do the hula for 39 days....
But you get the idea.
Retail can suck all the fun out of the holidays...
I refuse to let it do that to me!  Ain't gonna happen...