CHRISTMAS EVE GIFT!!!!

Merry Christmas Eve!!! I just LOVE Christmas. Everything about it - lights, the tree, glitter everywhere, Santas all over the place, Christmas music, red and green together, sharing joy with everyone, the look on store keeper's faces when I say "Merry Christmas." It's all great. Clerks always seem surprised when I say Merry Christmas. I guess it's because people don't say it as often as they used to. Anyway, I love it. Of course, I don't love people being rude and pushy in the store, but I've found the best ways to deal with it are: #1) I don't go out during peak times so as to avoid such people and #2) When someone is rude I smile my best Christmas smile and say, "Oh excuse me, Merry Christmas." It really throws off the rude people. And then I forget them because they don't matter anyway. :o)

Ok, I'm sure you are wondering what the title of this post means. Well, it's a family tradition that I associate most with my Grandaddy Blevins because he would always call over to our house to say it. The way it goes is, if you yell "Christmas Eve gift" to someone first, they're supposed to give you a gift. But it's just in fun because I've never seen anyone actually give a gift. It's like a "get your goat" kind of thing. And if you don't understand the phrase "get your goat," well, you probably wouldn't understand anyway.

I am so excited about what I've gotten Steven, I almost want to post what it is since I'm sure he won't read this before the morning, but.....I'll resist temptation. I've been keeping it a secret for over a month so I guess I can wait one more night. The stinker already found out I was getting him a summer sausage for his stocking. I think he'll be completely surprised about his main gift though.

We both got a surprise this morning. We heard a loud knock on the door and since we had slept late, we were both still in pj's. Steven rushed to throw on some clothes but before he could get to the door, the visitor was gone. But, they left us a package! It turns out our visitor was UPS and my mom had sent us a package from a smokehouse with three kinds of smoked meats and some fancy mustards. It was a great surprise because we weren't expecting anything like that. We've never received a delivery from a holiday mailing company. She was very glad we were surprised. Thanks Mama!

Because I most likely won't post tomorrow:

Merry Christmas and Good Will To Men!!! and women.... :o)

33 hours

That's 33 hours I've been awake. No joke. I have not slept since I woke up at 6:30 Wednesday morning and now it is 3:07 PM Thursday afternoon. I am exhausted. I had so much to catch up on. I have no idea how I got so far behind. Oh wait, yes I do. I was sick for like, half the stinkin' semester, Hurricane Ike blew us all away, Daddy was in the hospital twice with emergency surgery once, Mema was in the hospital and also had to have emergency surgery, our family had some serious crises the days just before the semester started, I work and commute to school, and did I mention I am always sick?!

But now my semester is over. Unfortunately I still don't know if I'll be in methods. I've done the best I could. I was actually denied for methods, but that was bogus because they didn't have anything to go on. They can't deny me if my grades weren't reported yet. And when I asked if I had to reapply they said -"no, we'll let you know. It's not final." Well let me tell you...the denial letter got looked pretty final. So we'll see. Boo on methods. Because of all of that, I don't know if I'll have methods in the spring or have to take more regular classes. And I have no idea when I will know.

Anyway, I am exhausted and will now leave school to commute home. I've got Mamas and the Papas to keep me awake....don't worry.

oh, and PS - I had a really great birthday last weekend even though I was sick. I got a beautiful butterfly necklace from Steven with matching earrings, a really pretty nutcracker and a butterfly ornament from Olivia and Kevin, Mariel and Frank (our friends) gave me the new JK Rowling book "Beedle the Bard," and Mama and Daddy and Steven gave me a gift certificate for a spa day!!!!! I am so looking forward to that. Especially since finals are now officially over.

Research Paper

It would seem that I should have no trouble writing a paper about the Primitive Baptists for my religious history class but that is just not the case. You would think that having been raised by a preacher father, attended church for all of my (almost) 25 years, having been a member for 20 1/2 years, plus being in a family who has been Primitive Baptists for who knows how long, I wouldn't have so much trouble. However, having to back up what I inherently know is proving to be difficult. I know, I know...I shouldn't have procrastinated. But I did. Now I have to wallow in it. I think I may have to pull an all nighter. The truth is, I have never had to do this throughout college so I guess I've done ok. I was praying for enough snow to close school tomorrow so that I could at least have another day, but the weather man is against me.

Speaking of the snow, we had such a beautiful afternoon of steady snow showers. Are they called showers when it's snow? The kids at the daycare were glued to the windows in the gym today. After work, because I was the only one who had an ice scraper since my sweet husband grew up in Iowa and came equipped with one, I helped several teachers de-snow their windows. I promise there were at least two inches of snow on my car. It is just gorgeous. It steadily snowed for almost 4 hours. And real snow, not just freezing rain or snow/rain mix. It was real, honest to goodness snow. The weather man said this morning the snow fall would end before noon and that the temperatures would reach 50 degrees. Boy was he wrong! The Texas weather men just don't know how to predict cold weather. I'm not sure it even reached 40 degrees today and as stated earlier, we had 4 hours of steady snow fall. Unfortunately for me who wishes school would be cancelled, the roads weren't really accumulating any of the white stuff, just any other surface it could land on. The sign to our apartments looked beautiful. The snow was laying on the letters surrounded by Christmas lights and greenery. If I had seen it in a picture, I would never have guessed the scene was in Texas.

The forecast is that the temperatures will be close to 60 degrees tomorrow. Can you believe that? Yesterday we reach almost 80, today we don't even reach 40, and tomorrow we'll be back in the 60's. It's no wonder everyone is always sick! It sure would be nice to have a few more cold days like today. I could really get used to this. Perhaps I should move to Colorado after all!!!

While I continue to procrastinate on my paper, I might as well discuss the grades I've gotten so far. It will be a short discussion because I've only gotten one final grade. In my Literature and Film class, my last test grade was a 100. So, my final average is a 97! Since my grade is so high, and I didn't miss too many classes, I don't have to take a final. I think that was the best part. I just wish all my grades would be that high. I could still possibly make all A's. More realistically, I think I'll have at least one B. Worst case scenario is that I make two A's and two B's. Actually, the worst case scenario is that all of my teachers report my grades wrong and I make all F's. That would truly be catastrophic. But hopefully that won't happen. Knock on wood.

On another note, which now I realize I should have started with since it is so important, my dad is in the hospital. My mom took him to the doctor Monday and he has MRSA Staph infection. He had to have surgery yesterday to drain the infection and is on a machine that continuously drains the wound. He will be in the hospital at least until Friday. This infection is highly contagious and the MRSA strain can be fatal. We found out that last year at this time, they did not yet have the medication that they have now to help fight the infection. Isn't that scary? Please pray for him and my mother. My poor mom just dealt with my grandma's scary situation, and now is having to deal with this with my dad. And in reality, Mema is still not doing very well. She's at home but is not eating and still having trouble with her bowels. They are all in need of prayer.

Ok, now I really need to write my paper.

SNOW!

It snowed last night! Before I went to bed I checked the weather to see how cold it would be in the morning, and to my surprise, the radar showed snow! Not just snow/rain mix but real snow! But Steven and I thought since it had been 75 degrees that day, there would be no way it would stick. Imagine how shocked I was when I woke up to snow not just on the cars and roof, but also on the ground! It seems so strange! I don't remember getting weather like this so early in the season. When we have ice storms (which is usually what we get, not real snow), they are in January or early February. What a treat!

The roads weren't covered so school and work are all in session (boo), but at least we have a nice Christmasey look to things. I am not kidding that the weather was warm and humid yesterday at this time. I was so warm when I got to school, I didn't even finish my coffee because it was making me too hot. I guess it's true - If you don't like the weather in Texas, wait five minutes!!!!

Free Lance Writing

Does anyone know anything about free-lance writing? I looked some things up on the internet and found companies that pay per article. If these things are for real, I think it could be really good extra income for us. Plus it could open the door for a career in writing. Every company I've looked at request a writing sample. Most of what I've written are school papers and I don't know if that would be appropriate.

Anyone know anything about this?

What a great holiday!

I hope everyone had a great holiday! I know we did. We enjoyed the visit from our family from North Texas so much. They are so much fun, the time just flew by. I was so glad they were able to come and I look forward to another visit really soon!!! -- That is, I hope we get another visit really soon!!!

I always have so much fun cooking for Thanksgiving. This year I made a turkey, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, devilled eggs, gravy, and pumpkin pies. I had never made pumpkin pies but I think they turned out ok. I should have taken pictures of everything but I always forget. Oh well. It was good for the moment at least.

After everyone left, Steven and I went back to the Ren Fest since we had gotten free tickets from a friend. It was really nice just to go alone and take our time. We had originally hoped to be able to go on Friday after Thanksgiving to see one of my oldest friends, (that is, known the longest - she's younger than me!), Georgia, but we were not going to pass up spending time with cousins we don't get to see often. Well, it turns out, Georgia didn't get to go on Friday like she planned so she went Saturday when we did. It was so great to see her! I've missed her so much. We used to be inseparable. If anyone would have told me ten years ago that there would come a time that I would go a year without seeing her, I would have laughed. But now, we have grown up lives that keep us apart. The greatest thing about kindred spirits is that when we reunite, time has no bearing. Those kinds of friends are few and far between.

Our holiday was so wonderful, it's just terrible to have to get back to the daily grind. Actually, it's the daily grind plus some. There are only three more class days before finals and I have loads, tons, MOUNTAINS, of work that must be done before the end of next week. SIGH. I know there is no day but today but sometimes I wish I could hit fast forward. Like to graduation! :o)