Silent-Decay.org

So I’m a few days late…. Happy New Year!! Things have been a bit busy around here so this is the first chance I’ve had to really sit down and make an entry. I can’t believe we’re nearing the end of the first decade of the new century. I remember when everyone was freaking out about Y2K lol! I decided not to make any new years resolutions this year. No not because I’m afraid I’m going to fail or because I’m lazy. I’ve just discovered that if a person is going to make a resolution to change something in their life, it should be done when they’re ready to do it and not based on the date on the calendar.

New Year’s Eve was fun. We went into town and ran some errands and picked up some Chinese food. We got home early enough to watch a movie before the big hockey game (which the Flames won thanks!). The game itself was really good - no fighting which is unusual between Oilers/Flames but there was lots of goals and lots of action AND it was on TSN so the comms and sportsdesk guys were highly entertaining. About halfway through the game Rick came over! We haven’t had him over in ages. He moved into the house behind us now and that morning I was looking out the bedroom window, decided it looked lonely over there and invited him over. He ended up staying until after 2am! We watched the whole countdown thing and then somehow we ended up on CMT watching them countdown the top 20 videos of all time and nobody wanted to go to bed until we found out what #1 was (Johnny Cash’s Hurt btw).

New Year’s Day was even better! DETROIT AND CHICAGO! WINTER CLASSIC! WRIGLEY FIELD! EPIC WIN! Detroit was down 3-1 at one point and came back to win 6-4. For awhile I was going to cry but thankfully my boys pulled one out. They’ve had a tendency to do that to me this year though (fall back really bad and then squeak out a win). One of my favorite moments of the game (besides seeing Chelios because I love that man even he’s 46) was seeing Chris Osgood sitting on the sidelines (at that point he still was out from a groin injury) with a big fuzzy toque on and wrapped in a HUGE blanket just yakking away to whoever it was he was sitting with. Oh yeah - the game was outside hence the blanket lol! There were some fantastic goals (like Datsyuk’s #2) and some great saves by both Chicago’s goalies. I felt so bad for Huet when he got pulled but dude - 6 goals.

After the hockey game I put together this meatball pasta bake casserole thing to take over to Bill and Karen’s for dinner. We had a great time as usual - why we only get together once a year is beyond me. Food was great, the kids were well behaved and we drank lots of Karen’s Jamaican rum muahahaha. Some of us more than others (BRIAN). I ended up leaving just before midnight because I had to work the next day and Brian and his mom finally wandered in around 2am.

Work has been work. I picked up a couple extra shifts through the break. Coming to work still seems to be optional for my co-workers as witnessed this weekend when I had to work BY MYSELF ALL WEEKEND - ALL DAY. Thankfully it was pretty quiet so it wasn’t too much to manage. Saturday there was alot of whining and tattling (”he said poop”, “she called me stupid”, “OMFG HE TOUCHED MEEEEE”) but once I threatened to kick them all out that stopped right quick. However the fact that we’re only getting a handful or less of kids to each program makes me worry about funding and job cuts. One co-worker thinks it’s because we aren’t doing van runs anymore for the little kids (I used to go pick up kids that needed rides but the van is dead) but honestly at most there were 1 or 2 kids that ever got picked up on a regular basis and 1 of them, their mom has no problem bringing him now and the other hated coming anyway and her parents forced her. So that’s only a difference of 2 kids and we’ve gone from 15-20 kids down to 3? I’m hoping it was just because of Christmas break and next weekend I’m overwhelmed honestly.

Today I’m not feeling so well - I picked up a bit of a bug last week and I’ve been fighting it off ever since. I was supposed to go help Brandy learn Wordpress today but I can’t stop running to the bathroom for different reasons. So I’m just going to take it easy and get some extra rest. I have to take the car in tomorrow to get the lock replaced (FINALLY) and then Wednesday I have a doctor’s appointment - nothing seriously just to get my ears done and some prescription refills and hopefully a referall to a specialist that’s not a fucking douchebag :).

I hope everyone had a great Christmas! Mine was very nice. It was nice to have company on Christmas morning. Christmas Eve we stayed in and watched some tv, some tv Christmas specials (Charlie Brown, Mickey and Garfield) and then we watched midnight mass from Rome on tv. It was entirely too cold to go out so that was a good compromise for me. Christmas day we slept in until about 9:30 and then we got up and had brunch (pancakes, eggs and sausage) and then opened stockings and gifts. I got some books, Britney’s new cd, Nickelback’s new cd, a music box, an electric blanket (!!! LOVE IT), a blender and some towels from my brother and Angie, some blu rays (Mama Mia, The Lion The Witch and The Wardroba and Prince Caspian), slippers, a Red Wings calendar (thanks MOM!!) and some candy and other goodies. I’m sure I’ve forgotten something haha!

After presents we kind of hung out and got ready to go to Cindy and Ingy’s for supper. I got all ready then I helped Brian’s mom do her hair and makeup. Of course obligatory pictures were done and then we headed out. Supper was great and the company was fantastic. I came home briefly to let Abby out around 8pm and there was a Checkstop just outside of town. I told the RCMP I’d be coming back in a few minutes haha - he just waved me through on my way back out. Thank you! We got home around midnight and I just crashed, I was so tired.

Boxing Day we went into town and did some shopping. I found some great pizza pans and cookie sheets as well as some pyrex glass casserole/baking pans. I LOVE THOSE THINGS! They’re usually pretty pricey and these ones came with snap on lids so no more fighting with the cling wrap etc. I also found a great electric skillet…. that turns out to have a giant crack in. So I’ll be taking that back this week.

We’ve been watching lots of movies (as you can see on my 50 movies page). I worked this weekend, extra hours which is nice - it was pretty quiet but there were still some kids who came in. It sounded like everyone had a good time.

Picture time!!!

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Things have been crazy around here as I’m sure it is for everyone else! Between getting the car “fixed (I’m not convinced it is), work, company coming, wrapping, baking and and cleaning this week has been crazy! I can’t believe it’s Christmas Eve already!

As most of my friends know Christmas Eve is always a little bittersweet for me. Growing up today was a BIG day in our family. It was my uncle’s birthday as well as my grandparents wedding anniversary (yes that’s right. They were married Xmas Eve and EXACTLY one year later had my uncle) so Christmas Eve was never just Christmas Eve. It was always a huge celebration of love and family and growing up that’s how I thought everyone celebrated Christmas. Then my uncle passed away when I was 18. Suddenly Christmas had a bit of sadness to it but it was still anniversary/Christmas so it was still a big party. If anything it brought us all closer together as a family.

Then my grandfather passed away. I still remember the last big Christmas Eve get together like it was yesterday. It was their 50th anniversary which is huge all by itself. We went and got a WHOLE family picture taken and headed over to my aunt and uncle’s for food and whatever. Everyone had made this scrapbook with pictures of the last 50 years. I clearly remember my grandfather seeing a picture of my grandma from when they first met and he started to cry. She was SO beautiful and he was so very handsome. My grandfather rarely cried but he sure did alot that night (some from being moved, some from laughing at all the craziness). We also did a chinese gift exchange and Papa (what I always called him) had made these 2 beautiful little keepsake boxes that everyone kept stealing from each other. In the end, fittingly, both of his daughters ended up with one. I remember the grand-daughters being sad and he promised to make us all some for next year… but next year never came. Suddenly Christmas Eve became….. just Christmas Eve. While I would never trade all the memories of all the special times, today is always bittersweet for me. I always worry about my Grammy - I’ll be calling her as soon as I post this, and if she’s doing ok.

This year, more than others for a long time, has me thinking about these things. I think part of it has to do with Brian’s Mom being here. I am enjoying her company and it’s wonderful to have family here to spend the holidays with. It just makes me really miss MY family and everything Christmas has always been to us. I’ve cried on numerous occasions over the last few days just remembering little moments like my uncle trying to convince me that the lyrics to Jingle Bells were actually “Jingle Bells, Santa smells” when I was about 7 years old and getting so mad at him for talking smack about Santa LOL!

To wrap this up, I hope all my family and friends have an amazing Christmas and I wish you all the joy, love and peace for 2009! Now I have to go chase down Abby who’s made off with it looks like Brian’s mom’s gloves haha!!

I know it’s cold everywhere right now. However it’s been this cold here for nearly 2 weeks now. It’s completely insane. This is also the best time to find out that the cord to your cars’ block heater needs replacing *note the sarcasm*. So all of the last week I’ve had to go out and start/run the car multiple times a day to make sure it doesn’t die on me. I finally get to take it in tomorrow and hoepfully it gets fixed properly whether it’s a new plug or a whole new cord. Frick if it’s a whole new block heater I don’t care! Well ok I might care about that because it’s Christmastime and I am poor.

Speaking of the car though…… I went into town late last week to pick up some Christmas stuff etc. Let’s preface the rest of the story with a note: 99% of the time I lock and unlock my car with the remote on my key. I rarely if ever actually put my key into the lock. I do know however that the past weekend Marley used the key in the lock when we were cleaning up from the Xmas party at work. So later that night I remembered I hadn’t locked the car when I came inside carrying an armful of stuff. I also wanted to see if I could have it running and lock it with the other key. That would be a no. At least not with the auto-lock. So I thought hmmm what if I manually lock it. I noticed the anti theft system didn’t chirp when I locked the care so to fix it you usually ahve to manually unlock it and relock it anway so I was going to kill 2 birds with one stone. So I go to put my key in the lock …… and find a big hole where the lock USED to be instead!!!!! AWESOME RIGHT?!?!!? There’s also some scratches where the hoodlums obviously tried really hard to break into the car and ended up just breaking the lock off instead. Thankfully my insurance is willing to cover it as long as I filed a police report (which I did. Turns out to be another frustrating story. Next paragraph). So now I have to take the car in to the damage estimator on Thursday before I can then take it in again to get fixed. Please remember this a 2 hour trip each time. Thankfully gas is cheap again and I hope it stays that way until I get this all straightened out!

So yes on to filing the RCMP report. I called the station in Flin Flin and they told me I could file the report at the mini station here so I didn’t have to make the trip in. So I literally spent 6 hours calling the station to see when would be a good time to come in and do the report. I kept getting an answering machine that just said office hours were between 8:30 and 4:30. Finally around 2:45pm I got in the frozen car and drove down there. THERE WAS NOBODY THERE!!!! I sat in the waiting area for 20 minutes and finally, pissed off, came home. I called again when I got in the door and left a message this time. I asked when would be good to come in because it obviously WASN’T DURING BUSINESS HOURS THANKYOUVERYMUCH. Within 10 minutes? I got a call back. Yeah. It then turned out I could do it over the phone with the precinct in Flin Flin in the first damn place. Let THAT one sink in for a minute ok? UGH. I finally found someone who knew what they were doing and had the report filed in about 10 minutes, called the insurance company back and that was that.

Work this weekend was really great. Not a ton of kids because it was so cold out (-42 C) but the kids that live on the same block as the centre came. Saturday I made gingerbread houses with both groups of kids. The littler kids had way more fun with it but to be fair with the older kids only one girl came and her friend came for a few minutes out of guilt and made it clear she wanted to be shopping instead. Both houses turned out …. they just turned out. One roof caved in so we decided it was an ABANDONED house instead *wink wink nudge nudge*. Sunday turned out to be even colder and quieter. I had 0 kids show up for the second program. Which is fine because the 1st program was so much fun!!! We started out playing SANTA bingo (So the letters for Santa instead of Bingo) for candy which involved alot of laughing and joking around. Snack time involved this fantastic fruit salad Denise made while I was busy playing with the kids hee hee. Then we noticed the sad and pathetic tree in the corner. The weekday youth workers were supposed to decorate it but it was just…. no effort at all. The lights were around only the bottom and all the ornaments were hung in big clumps. The top part of the tree was still folded up even!!! So we hunted around and found a big box full of oranaments, window decorations, garland and a star. We took down the stuff from the tree, restrung the lights and redecorated it and the whole centre. It took us about 2 hours and we had a BLAST! We played Xmas music and ate gingerbread houses :). The kids didn’t want to go home! If I had known that nobody was going to show up I would have definitely let them stay. Anyway, Christmas spirit sure makes little kids behave. I wish it was Christmas all year long (now I sound like one of the kids!)!

I got my parents/grandmother/brother’s gifts wrapped and in the mail today. Hopefully it makes it there in one piece and in time! Now I just have to find a few more things for Brian and get that all wrapped and started on my baking. I can’t believe Christmas is next week! AH!! Hope everyone is keeping warm and enjoying the holiday season!! <3

No pictures of my hair yet but here’s some of Abby in her new sweater, Isabel hanging out under the tree, my tree and of course my snowmen. How I love my snowmen. I’d like to know why Christmas trees always end up looking better in person than they do on film though? Maybe it’s the glow of the lights? Nothing else to talk about today so on with the pictures!!!

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Ok well Melanie is apparently brilliant and found this Wordpress plugin that will let me post here at Silent-Decay.org and have it automatically crosspost to LJ. Anything that makes things easier for me is good!

The weekend at work went fairly smoothly considering it was -30C (-22F) and the van I was supposed to use to pick up kids/families for the Christmas party was dead. And I mean dead. It just clicked when I tried to start it. I then discovered that whoever used it last didn’t plug it in. COME ON PEOPLE! It’s WINTER! IN NORTHERN CANADA. Plug the damn vehicle in ok? So thankfully someone had plugged the big 15 passenger vans in and the person driving it didn’t mind picking up the 2 families that I was supposed to get for me. The party was nice, I got to sit and visit with some parents which I don’t usually get to do. The food was okay and the kids were pretty well behaved (there was about 80 of them) considering. All in all I’m glad it’s done for another year though HAHA!

No big plans for the week really. The Christmas tree is up and just needs to be decorated. I was going to make popcorn garland again but I can’t seem to find the popcorn. I’ll have to ask Brian when he comes home for lunch. It’s a much bigger tree though so I have no idea if I really want to do that just to have the dog eat it anyway. We’ll see how motivated I am. I’ll have to make it before I put decorations on so I better decide soon! I did manage to find more ornaments that match the others and more bows so my burgandy/silver theme will still be on this new tree. I thought about buying a different angel or a star but I love my angel (even if the ex picked it out for me) and there’s nothing wrong with her so I just can’t part with her! I’ll try and get pictures posted once everything is done and cleaned up. There’s boxes everywhere with various Xmas things in all over the living room BOO!

I’m going in to the salon tomorrow to get my hair colored and foiled. I just want something different and I’m in love with this haircut so all that’s left is color! Still a darker brown but I want more blonde in it so I’ll have to post pictures of that too!

Alright I’m going to try and find something productive to do…. although I see Abby all snuggled up in my duvet giving me puppy eyes…….