Sniffles, sniffles, please go away

I get sick once or twice a year. Some years it's just the sniffles sick, sometimes it's a full on eyes are watering and nose is running too fast to keep up sick , and other times it's 103 degree temperature in bed not moving sick.

It always starts out the same. A tingle in the nose and a little sniff-sniff her and there.

sniff.

sniff.

If the sick angel is watching/listening tonight... please have mercy on me and go visit someone else. You can come back (I swear) in a week. I promise! You can come back on January 5, 2010 to be exact if you will just go away for now.

sniff.

Being sick right now is just not a good time because I'm off work until the 4th and I don't want to be sick. I was conservative with my 4 weeks of vacation so I could take this week off and I don't want to be sick. I have a full day planned at the spa starting with hair at 9 moving on to facial at 11 and ending with mani pedi at 2 tomorrow and I don't want to be sick. We're having overnight guests starting on Thursday and I don't want to be sick. We're having a New Year's Party and I don't want to be sick.

And I don't want to be sick.

sniff.

It's aubergine and camel.

Last month I received a direct message on Twitter from my our friend Lisagh that read, "Random question, but you're just going to have to trust me on this one: What color is your bedroom."

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If you have been reading Lisagh's blog for the last what like 4 years you know a question like that is only going to mean awesome things for you. So I replied, "Uh-oh what are you up to?! May sound blech but it's aubergine & camel!"

Or yellow and purple as my son tells me.

Fast forward a month and it snows. It snows a lot here in Maryland. And the post doesn't come for 3 days. And then it comes along with about 13 boxes from UPS. When I looked at the pile of brown boxes...

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hey. I just realizes that's why the UPS men wear brown. They are like brown boxes, yes?! I'm a little slow. Back to my story.

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When I looked down at the pile of brown boxes one of them stood out. Kind of like Rudolph's nose. And if you saw the pile of boxes, you would even say it glowed. (like Rudolph's nose - get it?)

I was going to wait until Christmas to open it. But I couldn't because I knew there was some goodness in there that needed to come out!

And goodness it was! Check it out.

I was so excited to make my bed this morning.

Rain or Shine but not Snow!

"Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds" is an inscription on the James Farley Post Office in New York City, and I THOUGHT this was an official United States Postal Service has no official creed or motto.

Well. No. In fact the USPS has not "official" creed or motto.

And they may come in rain or shine... but they certainly do not come in snow 'round these parts. And they CAN be stopped and call it quits before they complete their appointed rounds.

To be fair we did get 22 inches of snow and the road we live on dead ends to the Chesapeake Bay. Heck, we don't even have street lights.

It started snowing around 9:30 Friday night and it didn't stop until around 11 PM SATURDAY NIGHT. The kids were in heaven. I was in a little bit of hell.

I had shopping to do!

I had Saturday and Sunday all mapped out with where I needed to go and what I needed to get and even how long it was going to take me. You see, Santa kind of waited until the last minute this year and well, she was scrambling a bit.

We haven't seen snow like this since 2003. We can handle 3 inches no problem - maybe even 6 with a delay or two. But 22? It shut us down! The MALLS were closed! You know when they close a mall around Christmas it's an emergency situation. And in fact it was... an official state of emergency Saturday in Maryland.

We FINALLY got mail today. It's Tuesday. We didn't get it Saturday OR Monday. UPS either.

I have a huge pile of boxes to sort through because Santa went a little nuts and panicked when he couldn't make it to the mall.

Did you know Santa has to pay for express shipping? Sucks to be Santa when it snows in Maryland.

P.S. There is one special box in the mix. A special box from a little reindeer I know from Winnipeg, Canada! I'm squealing with excitement over here and I can't wait to get into that special box!

OH NO I didn't!

It's a sad day here in my life. I am about beside myself. My life flashed before my eyes. And I almost fainted.

Why?

Because I just plucked (hate that word) a GRAY eyebrow! As in a gray haired eyebrow as in a grandma eyebrow!

If this is what I can expect now that I am on the verge of turning 40 I don't want any part of it.

Let's just say...

...you work from home every day and most days you don't shower until after 4PM. Just in time to take your children to swim team or basketball or you run out real quick to run an errand. You may or may not see the same people from one night to another and you're sure they have no clue because everyone is in their own little world.

And you you're not hanging outside much because you go from the house to the car in the garage to a building to a car in the garage back into the house.

And some days you don't even leave the house.

But of course you shower every day.

Is it OK to wear the same outfit every single day for an entire week?

What if this is your outfit? Just wondering.

Hot & Cold

I posted a week or so ago about our electric bill being so freakin' high. $485 in the month of October to be exact. And then our heating unit blew a fuse deep inside the unit so we didn't have heat for a few days. It was warmish out and we have electric blankets for the night. Not to mention everyone in my family are hot blooded - except me of course.

So it wasn't a big deal.

In fact, I was a little excited because I thought we'd benefit when we got our bill this month. So the heater guy came to fix the blown fuse just in time though because the weekend was ccccoooolllld. Well. He fixed the heater so we have heat.

BUT NOW THE HEAT WILL NOT SHUT OFF!

So it just runs continually unless I turn it off totally.

F.

So much for a lower electric bill this month because OF COURSE we didn't figure out what was going on for 24+ hours and I was too lazy to get out of bed last night to turn the heat off.

Electric bills scare me. So does my credit card bill for this month.

Shopapolooza!

It's been a regular shopapolooza around here lately!

When I am holiday shopping I always fall into the "one for them, two for me" mind set.

It's a sickness.

From eBay to J.Crew to Lands End to Red Envelope I can't stay away. Good news? I've started my holiday shopping. Bad news? I am not even close to being done.

My wallet can't take much more of this...