the last couple of weeks

Like most others, I hate how blogger uploads pics.... so vs. taking awhile trying to fix it, I'm just going through the events in reverse order!

Baby R... sleeping away. I didn't get any good pictures of him, damnit!


His big brother O, who loves to say cheese for the camera!

Close up

Christmas Eve with my Mom's side of the family was at my brothers place. We were kept warm with the wood burner, and laughed a lot. Apparently one day on their boat, my brother said he wanted a straw hat - so for Christmas he got a straw hat!

Not sure when Maggie became a horse? :) M with Maggie.

Guitar hero with Aunt J.

B takin' my Mom down. This 'lil man is SO damn strong. I can fight with all that I have and he pins me... everytime. 8 years old!

Snow coming down!

SE Iowa had freezing rain, then it snowed, then more freezing rain.

Poor birds, thank goodness they have a warm place to go!

My parents yard after a 40 degree day and a few inches of rain.

My parents tree. Christmas was very good... Santa got me a new George Foreman grill, a new shower head, the last Stephanie Meyer "Twilight" series book and a few other things. I finished Eclipse over Christmas and read two other books. This book made me tear up on many occasions. I grew up with one of this soldier's nephew. The book was actually a gift to my Dad, but he let me read it! Dad remembers the times and some of the things that was talked about.

M, M, T and me

The Saturday before Christmas, my office had our work Christmas party at our boss' house. It was a ton of fun. I was so incredibly intoxicated.... I got home at 3:15 am and left to go to Iowa the same day. I was still drunk when I woke up, it was 9 degrees and freakin' windy... not a fun trip.

One of my besties at work...

Part of the gang
M opening his present from the team. We got him a couple of gift cards and a couple of sets of pjs.

M showing J some of the ornaments on their Hallmark tree.
I tried to make these cute ornament cupcakes I found online... cupcakes looked good.
Here was the top...they were supposed to look like this

Well, needless to say they didn't turn out like that. they weren't bad, but definitely not that cute.

I spent two weeks in Iowa and while it was fun, I was and am SO glad to be back home. My parents are the best, I can only hope that if I ever have children I am half the parent that they are.

One of the days Mom and I went shopping, we ran into some fun trying to get home. I told her to get into the wrong lane, and when trying to get back over she apparently pissed the van off behind her. He was practically on her bumper the entire way up the ramp... when coming up beside us, I made the mistake of flipping him off. Apparently that set him over the edge. He pulled over right in front of Mom, making her slam on her brakes and then stuck his arm out the window flipping us off. We busted out laughing. We stayed back aways from him... with the county plates he had I figured he would get off on the exit right before us. Well, apparently he wanted to make sure we knew he was pissed because he stayed in front of us, flipping us off yet again right before we exited.

I stayed in Cedar a few nights the week after Christmas. I was able to have dinner with my BFF, sadly we didn't get more time than about an hour together. I miss her! I was able to have lunch and dinner with some other good friends too!

NYE was very ... well call me an old soul but I enjoyed it. I stayed in, one of my friends came over to the hotel for awhile. While she was chilaxin in the hot tub, I saw an old HR manager... who was so drunk that she couldn't walk, had a nose piercing and was kissing on another lady... I couldn't stop laughing.

Tomorrow, its back to the daily grind. I'm definitely not ready. I texted my boss Friday and said I was taking another week off. Ha! He didn't think that was a good idea!

I still can't believe its 2009...its my golden birthday year! Like many others, I feel like this is going to be a great year! Hope it treats you well!