Life in the Crazy Lane

Life has just been terribly (or wonderfully) busy these past couple of weeks. Adam's parents were in town the week of Thanksgiving. Having the built-in babysitters was fabulous, and of course, it was great to spend time with Mom and Dad, too. I'm now officially jealous of all you parents who have grandmas and grandpas living close by and willing to take your kids for an afternoon or everning every once in a while. Sigh.

Our expected houseful on Thanksgiving Day turned into a modest five as several guests were unable to make it at the last minute. So, the 17-pound turkey we'd purchased gave us lots of leftovers. Turkey and stuffing, reheated. Turkey sandwiches. Turkey corn chowder for a potluck dinner at church. Turkey with eggs for breakfast (actually, I only tried that one once. My daughter ate the eggs and left the turkey). And an excellent turkey-rice casserole, a twist on a yummy comfort food growing up.

Last week, I thought I'd have some lovely recovery time. The in-laws were headed to the other side of the country, the dishes and feast-day clean up was begun.... Then I started my work project for the website I design.

At first glance, I thought I could get it done in a few hours over a couple of days. Ahaha haha haha! Try 30 hours over six days! But it looks really nice now. I just have a few finishing touches I need to add, but I'm officially still on vacation from that today. Ahhh.

And one more thing to add to the mix, I'm on the Missions Team at church and we were getting Christmas packages ready to send to the missionaries we support. I was going to shop on Friday, then Saturday our whole team met to wrap and package all the gifts. But then it snowed on Friday. Some places were reporting 18 inches! Driving Adam to work in the morning took almost two hours (most of that time we were stuck in the snow in an uncleared parking lot--our daughter helped and encouraged us by sitting in her carseat chanting "Go! Go! Go! Go!"). After dropping him off, we started our shopping at a favorite superstore. Three hours later with a basket full of presents, I discovered that I'd left my wallet at the house. I almost started crying right there in the check-out line. Eventually it took two more trips back to the superstore and another to a local Christian bookstore in order to get all of the presents purchased for the next day.

The wrapping end of things went very well, however. My team plus a couple of additional volunteers, fueled with apple cider, coffee, and bagels, wrapped, ribboned, and packaged gifts for 4 families and 24 individuals. And we were done right at noon, exactly on schedule.

One last piece of business. Jenny over at Home is Where You Start From has tagged me for a meme: Six weird things about me.

One disclaimer before I begin...most of these things, I don't think are all that weird, but other people (mainly my husband) have told me so.

1. I enjoy sleeping in a cold bedroom in sweats and several blankets. If my nose is cold and my toes are toasty, I'm a happy camper.

2. I often like to eat something sweet followed by something salty. I completely grossed Adam out one night when our bridge group was over and I served dark chocolate followed by black olives. Yum!

3. The stock market makes no sense to me. How can all of these number-crunching, show-me-the-money types have come up with a system that is entirely dependant upon the reputation of companies and the fears of the public? I just don't get it.

4. I'm a bit of a math nerd. My favorite part of math in high school was geometry proofs and I still like long division.

5. I know all the words to the original Gilligan's Island theme song (beginning and ending credits). I also know what words changed in the second version.

6. For a while, in high school and college, my favorite movie was Tango & Cash with Kurt Russell and Sylvester Stallone. I think I even owned the video at one point.

So, there ya go. I'm a strange one, living a crazy life. But you love me anyway, right?