Sparkle Harple

Meet Sparkle. Sparkle is our little hamster...isn't she cute? She doesn't come out of her igloo much anymore so when I saw her out filling up her cheeks tonight I thought I'd snap a few pictures. Caitlin got Sparkle in Oct. 2004 from Grandma Nut (Jason's mom). She is such a sweet little thing. Never once thought to bite what's not meant to be bitten. Never escaped (except once, when I left the cage open--oops!). She doesn't know any tricks--it's enough for her to be cute as a button.

Merry Merry Christmas...

The hustle and bustle of Christmas has come and gone and this is one of the few pictures we captured. This is the three of us at Jason's mom's house on Christmas day. I don't realize how tall Caitlin is until I see her standing next to me in a picture. Sheesh! Not sure why we all look cross-eyed in the pic. :) Cait is wearing her new sweatshirt from Grandpa and Grandma Metcalf. She cherishes that shirt! Her Grandpa has worked on or near the LSU campus several times and he couldn't just pick up any old LSU shirt--it had to be the real deal, straight from the LSU store. She loves it.

Merry Christmas!

Well, much to my dismay, no snow for Christmas. :( With just the little sprinkling on Friday and 45 degree temps today, it's not looking good for my white Christmas. Oh well...we can still spread holiday cheer without snow.

It's been kind of a quiet weekend. We did a little shopping Friday evening and yesterday morning, but not Christmas shopping. I was actually done with that last week! Amazing! It's crazy out there, so I've stayed home most of the weekend. I did some cleaning yesterday and a little baking today. Caitlin is in Hayward at her Grandpa and Grandma Carlson's until tomorrow morning. We usually head up north on Christmas Eve, but my parents are in Louisiana so no visit with them and Jason has to work 8:00 p.m. tonight until 8:00 a.m. tomorrow (BOOOOOO!!!). As soon as he gets home we'll hit the road to pick up Cait and then go to my brother's house for breakfast with his family. After that we'll move on to Hayward to go to Jason's mom's house and then his Grandma's for Christmas dinner. We haven't decided yet if we're going to spend tomorrow night or just come back home tomorrow evening. It's nice to spend the night, but it's also nice to be home in your own bed. I have to work Tuesday some time too. I don't need to be there until after noon, but I should probably go in earlier.

I hope all is well with you and yours and that you have a very merry Christmas!

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

It's snowing! YAY! I was dreading another brown Christmas...we have had very little snow this year so far, and what we did get didn't last for more than a couple of days because it's been so warm. I'm not one who plays in the snow (snowmobiling, skiing, etc.) so I can certainly do without, but when it comes to Christmas it just doesn't seem like Christmas without the white stuff. This would have only been the 3rd Christmas that I can remember that we didn't have snow. When I was a kid there were always piles of snow everywhere at Christmastime. It's been raining here for the past 36 hrs. so I was a little worried. Now we have some heavy, wet snow falling. Hopefully it will get cold enough tonight and snow some more and stay cold so that we have a white Christmas.

Happy Holidays Everyone!

HALLELUJAH!

At 1:00 p.m. today Jason stepped into the classroom at UWEC for the last time! YAAAHOOOOO!!!! I am extremely excited about this (just in case you were wondering). It has been an unbelievably long journey and I am so proud of him for sticking it out and getting to this day. The graduation ceremony will be on Saturday morning, and next week is finals week. SO...there won't be a diploma in the diploma cover, but it will follow shortly by mail. He has one paper to finish up and then he's DONE. No finals...this semester was his internship. All of the hard work, long hours, and patience (on my part) has finally paid off. Way to go Jas!

p.s. BLINKING AGAIN!

Still not blinking... :)

Update

LOL...

I plugged the lights on the tree in this afternoon and they're not blinking anymore! What a fun game this will be...or not! :)

Every Year!

It happened again! I don't know why I think it won't happen each year. I guess I just HOPE that it won't. Here's what happened...

Wednesday afternoon Jason and Caitlin went to get a Christmas tree. Cait didn't have school and Jason was home early. I couldn't get away from work so they just went. It was fine with me--it was COLD! :)

Wednesday night I hauled all of the Christmas lights and decorations and ornaments up from the basement and pulled out everything I wanted to use this year. I plugged all of the lights in to make sure they worked. We got as far as putting the lights on the tree and then it was bed time.

Thursday evening Cait and I decorated the tree. I love having a real tree! For the past few years we've had an artificial tree, but nothing beats a real Christmas pine.

Okay, so that was Thursday. We had the lights on Thursday. We had the lights on Friday morning before work and school. We had the lights on all of Friday afternoon/evening. We had the lights on this morning. The lights came on this evening and one string started BLINKING. UGH. It never fails. I plug those stupid lights in every year before putting them on the tree JUST TO MAKE SURE. And every year a couple of days after the lights have been on the tree at least one string starts blinking. This year it's the string on the bottom. Last year it was the string on the top. But really, it doesn't matter where it is. It's still frustrating and look silly! I don't know why I think "maybe they'll all work right this year". This year I think I will throw out the lights and buy all new next year.

Happy decorating!