The First Snow... Brrrrrr.

I'm sitting inside, wishing I remembered to buy some hot cocoa at the grocery store this evening. There's snow on the ground, and no hot cocoa to help warm me up... bummer.

I had wonderful 4 days off from work, getting to see most of my friends and family. I had the chance to catch up on several things around the house and have Christmas gifts wrapped already. It's a very relaxing feeling... too bad I have to wait to pass out the presents.

Off to work I go tomorrow... the first 5 day week I've had to work in almost a month. I guess you'll have that.

Smithly Elves from St. Charles, MO

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Olson's do it in Style!

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Game Night Gone Christmas Country

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Elfin' around at work!

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Completely Hooked

I just discovered the perfect TV show for me, to fit my likings at the moment. The show is called Total Drama Island and it airs on the Cartoon Network. It's a "reality" challenge show, similar to Survivor, but totally quirky cartoony.

Besides watching a few episodes of TDI this weekend, I stopped by to visit the parents and grandpa a couple days. I had Friday off and did some holiday shopping with Aunt Cheryl. Then I picked up some pizza to take to Bartonville, and checked to see how Grandpa was doing. He seems to be a pretty good patient.

After tapping out my money on Friday, shopping was out of the question on Saturday, but I had ants in my pants... Bartonville, here I come! I watched some football with Grandpa and then helped Dad with a downed tree before I got popped in the face. I was glad to see my fat lip deflated by the time I woke up this morning.

Let's hear it for a 3-day work week! Yeah!

What to do?

I'm definitely in slacking off mode tonight. I could do dishes or laundry, but I'm choosing to sit at the computer and type a bit, while the heat blows over my feet. I started the holiday shopping this past weekend... quite late in the year for me, but there's still a month to finish what I just started.

I had a wonderful weekend in St. Louis visiting Brian, Joyce and John. I got a nice tour of the St. Louis area, some great home cookin', and even learned what webkinz are. I could have used another day off to recover from the visit. 8 year-olds and driving wear me out just a bit.

Other than that, things are just rolling along for me as usual.

Whirlwind Days

The last couple days have been whirlwind days and it's going to continue tomorrow. Thank goodness I have some R & R coming up.

Yesterday was a blast with gamenight at the Olson-Hertz's. I tried pizza combinations I would have never tried before. No new favorites, but I definitely broadened my horizons. Quelf was quite the fun game to play, yet again. I think the weirdest thing I had to do was take off my shoes and socks, wash my feet, and sit with a playing card between my toes until my next turn... or was it singing Happy Birthday like Marilyn Monroe to the Prime Minister of Quelf?

Anyway, I've been quite productive this evening with cleaning the house. I didn't hit every nook and cranny (or the bathroom), but I feel like I accomplished quite a bit. Other than cleaning like a spaz, I've spent a fair amount of time on the phone with several people this evening. I even got to talk to Sofia!

Did I mention that I got new windshield wipers for my car?... my windshield is now squeaky clean.

Jane vs. Leaves

I think I'm winning the battle against the leaves. I got 5 bags of them raked up this morning before the Bears game, and I have a frozen butt to prove it. I was keeping my fingers crossed that the sun would be out today, but I'll live with the non-drizzly day.

Gotta go drink some more fluids. Giving blood yesterday seems to have left me a bit parched. Speaking of yesterday, I broke the 5 minute barrier with a 4 min 38 second blood donation. I capped that off with some chocolate milk and cookies at their little food station.

Mom came over yesterday and gave me a little tutorial on my sewing machine and showed me how to put some darts in my pants. After she left, I finished the other two pairs on my own. It's not often, but I can say that I was proud of myself yesterday.

A day of freebies

Since I didn't have to vote this morning (thank you early voting), I decided to treat myself to a free iced mocha from McDonalds with coupon. It tasted pretty darn good, but they were quite disappointed that I didn't actually order anything to go along with it. Let me tell ya, I'll take my peanut butter waffles over McDs any day.

I made my way to work and my coworkers mentioned that Starbucks is giving out free coffee to anyone wearing an I voted sticker. Luckily, I saved my sticker to wear today, so I had one on. I don't know what I was thinking... having double caffeine. Yep, not the smartest thing I done in a while. I think I should stick to one caffeinated beverage or less a day. Oh, and definitely no more straight coffee... gotta stick to the frou-frou drinks.

Then tonight I went to rent some movies from Family Video. I stick to the 2 for a buck section and snagged 4 videos for the next week. Anyway, two of them were Free. Boils down to 25 a movie.... SWEETNESS. Even better because I'm guessing one or two of these will be a B movie.

4" x 6"ish Colored Pencil Drawings...

...are what you see below. Yes, I did them. I don't want to give away any more than that.

When it rains, it pours.

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Happy November

Today was a fun day out at Wildlife Prairie State Park and then out to Bartonville to bug the parents and Grandpa. Here's some bison at the overlook near the visitors' center.This photo has a mountain lion cleaning itself, curled up in a ball just below the left side of the downed tree in the middle of the photo. Some people think Jinkies is big, but this cat was impressive!Here's a black bear. He paced back and forth and right below us. We could see his feet stepping in the exact muddy footprints on each and every pass. I can't even do that real well in the snow when I'm looking... and I only have two legs.Here's a grizzly.... I mean this is Dad showing me the generator they got installed at the house. It's a heck of a piece of equipment. It's so large, it even has a muffler!

Happy Halloween

I went over to Tom and Laura's to "help" give out candy before going over to the Iadipaolo's for a game night in costumes. I think my favorite child's costume was decked out pirate with a hook. I went as a security guard and Laura was a jellyfish. I should have gotten a movie of her in motion. Her standing still, just doesn't do the costume justice. Here's a fuzzy video of Tom perfecting his walk as Lou Pinella. You should be able to hear my laughter at the end of the video. I just couldn't contain myself.