Merry Christmas

I love you all and wish you were here.

Too much to do

I think I just haven't felt like Christmas. You can't tell it by our house, whose halls have been decked for some time now. But no presents. So I'm gonna go shopping today and tomorrow. Crazy huh?

Grandma Candy and Papa might come up on Christmas Day. They are going to Emma's for their usual Christmas eve dinner. I hope they come up. Otherwise we'll be alone most of the day since Sheldon and Amanda are working, now. We'll go to the LaVictoire's church in the morning (Paul and Susan) because Su and the kids are singing that morning. Then we'll come home and cuddle by a fire -- we're gonna have a fire I don't care if it's 80 friggin' degrees outside.

Then we'll have dinner when the kids get home. Sheldon wants ham. But we're having beef tenderloin? Why? Because I'm cooking and in charge of the menu. I have made about six dozen tamales and will likely make more before New Year's -- they turned out fairly good considering I don't make them often and have no idea what I'm doing.

The first batch needed a little more flavor. Sheldon called them "junior tamales." The second batch was better.

I think I'll back some muffins and bread and make some green slime too. I'm making Buenelos on New Year's, which I think we're supposed to have a party. Not sure about that. Gotta call some folks.

Well that gets ya'll up to speed.

It's cold here

I'm really not liking the cold weather as I get older. Playing in snow is overrated. I never have figured out why people pay so much money to go to ski lodges and slide down an ice-covered mountain. I'd rather be on the beach.

Really. I'm think North Carolina, Florida, (not Arizona, the whole cactus thing doesn't appeal to me at all.) Heck maybe even Georgia might be good. Not California, although that might work better for my plan to be a t.v. or movie star in my 60s -- you know they always need the cute old ladies in Hollywood.

I'm looking forward to 2006. This past year brought too many changes that I'm not happy with. So 2006 has got to be better. I miss reporting, so I imagine that I'm gonna really hit the job hunt hard after the 1st of the year.

I'm annoyed

Today, U.S. House of Represenatives opened the way for oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge bringing their legislative year to a close."

It was a bit hard for a lot of lawmakers to vote against this measure. Why? Because it was attached to a major defense spending bill, and had the $29 billion hurricane relief amendment in there too.
Convenient isn't it? Lumping a whole lot of things together like that. Vote against it, and during your next campaign your opponents can say you voted against the war -- it will be done, just watch. Vote against it and your opponents can say you voted against hurricane relief.

Again, the Dems were asleep at the wheel when that amendment was added.

697 miles

That's how many miles we logged on our car the last couple of days. It's been a wild week.

We went to Texas Wednesday for Sheldon's dad's funeral, and drove back.

On Thursday afternoon, I get a graduation announcement. My "baby" sister is graduating from college. The postmark said November, but I got the card Dec. 15.

We both found out at the last minute that we could get off, so we both left the office, packed in 30 minutes and drove to Canyon Texas in time to see my sister graduate. Heck, Anita flew in from Dallas for the big event, and we all still beat Armando to the graduation and he lives there. We had a very nice time, ate mother's great cooking and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. No regrets about the last-minute trip.

So today, we drove from Canyon, 3 hours to another town in Texas to pick up our daughter and then headed back to OKC. Whew. Tired, and the weekend just got worse.

Roy lost his battle with cancer. My prayer's are with Sylvia and Jim in Arizona tonight as they deal with the pain. I'm tired of people dying.

Working on this blog

I'm trying to jazz this up a bit. So it will be an ever changing process. I'm know that I can create my own logos etc. I just haven't quite figured out how to use Publisher -- now if I had Pagemaker that would be a different story. Can I ask Santa for that.

Hey, have ya'll paid attention to the news? There's geysers erupting in Oklahoma near Kingfisher. (Check out the Red River North site, there's a link)

We're going down to Texas tomorrow for the funeral. It's so sad. I hate funerals.

Update on our life

Ray's party went off without a hitch. He was truly surprised, which is truly amazing, considering all the people who knew about it. Last night -- a whole 24-hours after it happened, he's still trying to sort out what was true. He says, "Oh, that's what Amanda meant."

Apparently after Sheldon's dad died, he heard Amanda tell me I'd better not cancel Friday night. He thought she was talking about dinner out with friends.

Sheldon's dad's funeral is Wednesday. We had thought it was Monday, but they are waiting for some family to come to Vernon, so that means Wednesday. It's a tough deal. His dad was only 42. Puts turning 50 into perspective doesn't it. Not so bad to get old, considering the alternative.

I go from being busy and enjoying the holiday events with friends, to getting downright depressed about not having the grandkids around. But we'll see them in January/February. So expect Christmas to be a little lighter than planned. We're saving money for the plane tickets. For three of us, it will be about $700 (because we've already told Sondra we have to take Mason with us.) Those kiddos are really close. So we all need to decide where we really want to live long term and then all move there. Me -- I'd like somewhere warm. Florida? Ok, not necessarily warm. I'd be happy with Colorado. Heck, I'd even move to Arizona. All those have fishing spots (important to Brian, Shane and Ray).

So let's here it. Where do you guys want to live? And we can all focus on getting jobs there this next year. I'm not kidding. I'll move if you guys do. -- MOM

Happy 50th Ray!

Ray turns 50 today. Wow. 1955 was a very good year. The birth of The Maneater. The birth of my Ray.

A 1955 chevrolet is a classic.
So is Ray.

Happy birthday!

Sheldon's dad

Sheldon got the news this evening that his dad died today. He had been in the hospital since Thanksgiving, but had gotten a little better and was released from the hospital yesterday. Today everyone was out of the house except for Sheldon's 16-year-old brother. He went in to check on his dad, and found him not breathing. He called 911, but the paramedics couldn't revive him. Sheldon's dad was only 42 years old. He had really bad asthma and his lungs just failed.

Everyone's in shock. I don't think it's hit Sheldon yet. He hadn't had a chance to tell his dad that he had officially joined the Naval Reserves (Sheldon's first drill was to be this weekend.) I'm sure he will be excused from that this month. It's heart wrenching to watch him. It just hasn't sunk in yet, I don't think. We had just talked this evening about how proud his dad was going to be when he saw Sheldon in his uniform (his dad was retired Navy.)

Still don't know when the funeral will be, everything is in a bit of chaos. No one was expecting this, so it's been crazy. We're all still in shock.

Somebody's getting suspicious

I think maybe Ray's getting suspicous, or he's figuring to find few clues about his upcoming birthday. He's actually dropped a few hints about what he wants this year - something he never does. Anyway, he was actually reading my blog yesterday, and I caught on just in time to pull it down before he got to any revealing information. Now I think he thinks I'm having some online fling. Ha ha. So, I've edited any other mention of his birthday. And, I don't care if he actually reads this ...

Still decorating -- really pictures soon. This working full time interferes with my life.

23 days and counting

Wow. Where did this year go? Not that it's necessarily a bad thing, 2005 was not exactly a great year. So, I'm looking forward to 2006. We plan to ring it in downtown OKC - probably freezing our tushes off as we see them drop the ball.

Well, I understand not liking the inconveniences of snow. But heck, we would love to have moisture. Oklahoma is 6 inches short this year, and that's a lot. The last rain we got -- not much -- was on Halloween morning. Last year if you remember we only had a dusting of snow during winter. It's dry dry dry.

Ray's already looking forward to spring and working in the yard. I swear he ought to just give up accounting and go into landscaping.

Well, got lots of work to do. I'm baking all weekend.