Year End Ramblings

Haven't posted in awhile. I lent my camera to son, who spent the holiday with the Ohio fam. So in leiu of Christmas pictures, it's a good time to revisit some warm weather favorites on this very last day of 2007. Enough with the ice photos! Doesn't this bring back lovely memories of warm sunny days?

Truth be told, I'm not a fan of New Year's Eve celebrating, making resolutions, or goal-setting, so you won't find any of that stuff here. A five-year plan? Good heavens, no way. I can't envision 5 days ahead. And turning the calendar on Jan. 1 reminds me of the first day of school. A mixed bag of excitement & anxiousness; so much unknown lies ahead. Plus that huge stack of textbooks all starting on page 1 (didn't we just finish the Revolutionary War?) and mounds of homework: aaagh! we'll never get through all this!

Actually, I'm facing that anxiety already in the form of closets. Why does one project lead to so many more? Here's how it started: I got a beautiful new jewelry box for Christmas. Which meant transferring my stuff from the old one. Which led to sorting through sentimental pieces, junk that I've been saving for my future grandaughters, good jewelry, tangled necklaces, and assorted earrings with no mates. I have some pieces in their original box in my, ahem, lingerie drawer. Which opened my eyes to what a mess that is! And if you clean out one drawer, of course you need to do the whole dresser. And armoire. And closet. And linen closet. And hall closet. (Not that I've done of any this. It's just loooooming in front of me like some monster waiting to pounce.)

But that's not all. Putting away the special holiday dishes revealed what a mess that cabinet is! I need to buy some more of those quilted plate storage thingys and organize that cupboard. Which will lead to the rest of the kitchen and pantry storage. 

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK! THERE'S MORE. Tomorrow is the day to take down the tree and put away Christmas decorations. Which, I know from 30 years experience, will begin another organizing/cleaning frenzy. Then January's cold, glaring sun always exposes six months of accumulated dust on the teapot collection and china cabinet. Another Saturday spent cleaning above & beyond the weekly chores awaits.

THAT's why I'm on here blogging before I go see a movie today. My phlegmatic gift of procrastination is the perfect balance to my organizational OCD.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

...and Heaven & Nature's Bling!

What a week! One of Tulsa's infamous winter storms drenched us in freezing rain Sunday night. Thankfully, the roads were still warm enough that they didn't freeze, but our poor trees! It looks like giants rampaged through the county, stomping on all the trees. Power outages all over the state. We were so fortunate to only be down for 8 hours on Monday. Our office has been closed 3 days; many friends just had power come on today and several are still without. Normally, I would get tons of stuff done being off on snow-days, but this time was very out of the ordinary. Life has just been 'on hold'. People have come over to visit, get warm, do laundry, check their email, sleep over, watch a movie. We were told the church's power would not be restored until late Thursday, so today we even had that phone line transferred to our number so people could at least talk to a person if they tried to call the church. And it rang constantly!

This is how my week began: I woke up Monday morning and looked out my bedroom window to see what all the ruckus was about all night long (did I mention there was lightening, too?). In the dim early morning light I saw the strangest sight and thought "what IS that?!?" It looked like a huge, white, tentacled alien crawling towards my bedroom window.
It was the neighbor's tree, so ice-laden the limbs were spread out on the ground. This picture doesn't even do justice to how ominous it looked at 6 in the morning, though. It really was rather frightful - but then again, I'm pretty foggy until about 10 a.m.

I went on to make the best of the day by capturing some of nature's psychotic beauty.

Hope you all are safe and warm out there!

Christmas Bling!

'Someone' in this family does not like to put up outside lights and 'Someone Else' really loves to have them on the house; (neither does she want to look like the Scrooge Family lives here). Normally appearances & keeping up with the neighbors are unimportant to Someone Else, but this important and festive season does carry a bit of pressure with it. Yet, in the spirit of compromise - an essential component in a good marriage - an agreement was reached many years ago that Someone would put lights up every other year. This approach worked nicely for awhile until last year Someone conveniently got too busy and the holiday season came and went with no outside color on the house.

Last weekend, Someone Else bought 2 simple light nets to put on a couple of shrubs, sadly thinking that at least that would be something and not overburden her dear one to lay them on the little shrubs. He sweetly agreed and promised to do it while she was at work. But then something wondrous happened...a true Christmas miracle. Not only did Someone cover the shrubs, but he outlined the fence, along the roof and - biggest surprise of all - he bought YARD ORNAMENTS!! We have never had yard ornaments! Someone Else came home for lunch & suddenly became a child again, squealing in delight to see spiral trees, midget snowmen, and an ANIMATED reindeer. Animated yard ornaments!!!!! Jesus must really be coming back this year. And 'Someone' is going to have a specially merry Christmas :)

MORE BLING: This week the crew has been hard at work getting the stage dressed out for December and the Christmas production (Dec 15, 6pm; Dec 16 both a.m. services). Here's a sneak peek at some of what you'll see Sunday....

It's FLYING!

TIME, that is. It seems to be going at warp speed (that means 'very fast' for you non-Trekkies). The pictures below were snapped one year ago today. I had taken 3 days extra off work after Thanksgiving. When it snowed, the office closed and I got 2 bonus days. I loved it! Joe & Justin both HATE cold and pretty much anything associated with it, especially snow. But I say: bring out the cookie sheets! Light the fireplace, wrap up in your favorite soft throw & pop in a movie. That's how you celebrate the first snow!

a nature-made design on our roof
from a garden chair to a snowy geometric design
Blu2 & Harley loved it. They ran, rolled, and frolicked like two children.

They were covered in snow & caked in ice but they didn't care; they had a blast.

A year ago. So much has changed in the past twelve months. Buckle up, kids. The ride ain't over!