It is the first day of the year 2007 and so far I have spent most of it in bed! Haha.  It was a late night last night, at least for me.  My goal was to stay awake long enough to bring in the new year properly and I think it was brought in great.  I guess this was my first official 'date', though we met up a couple of times before last night, just to get to know each other a little better before we decided to spend 7 hours stuck together!  Terry is a real nice guy, a perfect gentleman.  I had to remind myself to stand aside and let him open the doors, and take the jacket and things like that.  I am so use to doing those things myself.  We got there about 6:30 and had our meal.  I could have taken a whole plate of just tortellinis, they were so good.  We sat with some of the Kroger crew.  Dawn and Bruce, Claudette and Randy, and Dawns sister Deb and her husband.  Then we had to wait awhile until everyone got done and they cleared the buffet away.  They started drawing tickets then and the junior high lasted the first round.  Then it was time for some dancing, and he is a very good slow dancer, which I love!  And a good hugger/cuddler.  The junior high lost its bid early in the next round of drawing, Terry lost his second ticket a little after that, but Dawn's sister ended up in the final ten, they spit and all left richer.  I don't even know who else was in it!  Then there was more dancing, the it was midnight and we had our first kiss, which was nice.  Actually it was multiple kisses, but that is okay.  Another hour and it was over, time to go.  He took me home, walked me in, shared another kiss and hug and that was that.  He is going to call me again though and we will have more dates I am sure.  So that tough one is out of the way, right?  It is all easier after this? 

No, we don't have any yet, but this Christmas I realize that we have made some major shifts in the family and that there are going to have to be some changes made.  No more little feet coming down the stairs at an ungodly hour of the morning, grabbing stockings on the way down.  The little feet have mostly made their way out the door and on to new homes of their own, which is the way it should be, but it is hard to let go of the old sometimes. 

 

Well, well...new traditions?  I THINK SO!  I just heard from Shannon and by next Christmas I will have not one, but TWO new grandbabies to hold!  I am so excited, as are they and everyone else!  So good bye to the old and hello to the new.  I would write a bunch more here, but I have been talking online to Shannon for the past three hours and haven't got anything accomplished here.  I am going to Eric's moms for the afternoon and still have to get ready.  So hopefully tonight I will have a new post up.  Merry, Merry Christmas!

Almost two months since I posted anything here.  Sorry about that, but there are reasons.  One being that I got caught up in some sort of limbo with this Windows Live stuff, it doesn't recognize my password anywhere but here at home, and how often am I really at home.  Another is that I kept getting popups in explorer which makes typing a thing of frustration, since it keeps taking me to popups.  And another is that I just got lazy about keeping up.

Sooo...I have forgotten much of what happened in October and November, other than Shannon and Justin coming home.  We had a great time while they were here.  We met them at the airport on November 8th and were met by an awesome display of community pride when we pulled into town around 11 at night.  We knew that Dave Scott was going to meet us with the police car and escort us, but as we drew closer to town we saw several emergency vehicles with the lights a flashing up the road. They pulled in behind us and took us through town and back to Justin's parents house.  It was kind of funny seeing all the curiousity seekers coming by to see what was going on.  I am sure Shannon and Justen were exhausted by the time they went back to Germany on November 21st.  We kept them pretty busy.  We had our Thanksgiving on November 19th since they were leaving early, and I have to say it was one of our better family get togethers.  The weather didn't cooperate very good, it was cold, but we had a good time playing our annual football game and giving each other a hard time.  I spent my time taking photos (which I will try to post) and sitting in the 'announcers' booth (the upstairs loft).  The idea of getting slammed by some of those guys and gals makes me think twice about getting out there.  Pain is, well...painful. 

I spent the day after Thanksgiving with Kasi in Bloomington.  We were up early and hit some sales, but neither of us bought all that much.  Her and Eric are deeply invested in their new house and I had a lot of mine already.  But it is the getting together that keeps us doing it in the long run.  We did get some good buys.  Next year I expect ALL of us to go! 

Other than that I haven't really been doing all that much except moving on.  I may take up a New Years Eve invite...maybe.  Till then, I am keeping things light.  I know I left out a huge amount of what has been going on here, but hopefully I will start keeping up again.  Love to all!

The time has come to finally do some things to this place that have so desparately needed done for so long.  I am going to have to part with some money, but the end result will be worth it.  At least that is what I hope.  There are so many things I want to do, and I realize I can't do them all, but little by little I am going to try to add some value and at the same time make this place the way I want them to be. The first thing I am doing it not going to be seen much, but have been on the back burner for year.  The first landing to the basement.  I have ripped up the old green carpet off the steps and the landing, and have started painting the ceiling.  The color I picked out the other day for it turned out to be the lighter shade on the strip, so instead of running clear back to Menards in Decatur I am going to use it for the ceiling on both the stairway and the kitchen.  Then I will go to Storms and get the darker taupe color I wanted and do the wall in both areas.  I took off the storm door down there and will rescreen it, sand it and paint it.  I will also take the door off and paint it.  I got some berber carpet from Kasi and will use that for the steps and landing.  It will look much brighter and be so much nicer than it is now.  Then I am painting the kitchen the same taupe color.  Next comes new carpet for the living room and hall, and probably the stairway.  That is so the baby has a nice clean place to lay and play.  The hallway will lose the paneling and maybe the drop ceiling.  I need some ideas for that.   I want some track lighting to illuminate the arean where I hang family pictures, which will all be reframed and hung.  I was also thinking of knocking out part of the wall between the kitchen and hall, making some shelves there, which will be lighted also.  That will bring more light to the area and open it up a bit.  So far that is all I am going to do.  After that is all done I will concentrate on the bathroom, reflooring it, laying tile, and giving it a new wall treatment.  I am excited, but also know that I am in for a lot of work, cause I am doing most of it myself.  It will be a learning experience for sure.  I will be sure to take some before and after shots to share, though I already started in the basement.