I've got it bad, I tell you. BAD.

I have not been a good Holidayer the last couple of years. I think a lot of it has to do with my kids not living at home anymore. I miss all the nights of Christmas movie marathons, of cookie masterpieces, and the kids trying to put their junky BEAUTIFUL homemade ornaments on my pretty, pretty tree (not to mention some hideous gold tinsel that they managed to sneak on every year), and Mr. P's light up deer in the LIVING ROOM (not the yard).


I passed on my insatiable love of all things holiday to my kids, and with them out of the house, I don't have their energy to propel me to the levels I normally yearn to go. Plus, last year, our relationships were in the dumps, so Christmas, well Christmas was just off. BUT, time, well time has done her job, and I am SO ready for the holidays that I broke my cardinal rule of no holiday movies prior to November 1 by already watching Love Actually and The Santa Clause (twice). I have already Christmas shopped. and well, last night, it got really weird when I made Mr. P stop the DVR to rewind this commercial:






me: What else is this?


Mr. P: What else is what?


me: What else is this song?


Mr. P: .....


me: I know this is a Christmas song (rewinding for another listen).


Mr. P: .....


Mr. P: (finally, laughing)...OH...it plays in Christmas Vacation when he is in the attic looking at movies.


me: (sighing with happiness) Right, I knew it was a Christmas song. When can we put up lights???

silver linings

I am waiting for some clothes to dry and then Mr. P and I are off to the beach for to celebrate my birthday. No, my birthday is not for another week, but I enjoy at least a week of getting my way with the ever popular (in my family), "...but it's my birthday!"

I am going to eat crab, drink something fruity whilst reading in a lounge chair, walk on the beach, and generally r.e.l.a.x.

OH, and I am very sorry to disappoint, but Mr. P took some time this week and schmoozed our way into NOT having to live at Mom's for that week...we will stay in the apartment for an extra 2 days, then move into the house 5 days early!

yeah, you probably SHOULD judge me

because I am eating bon-bons...but not MY bon-bons, but Mr. P's bon-bons because my Mom loves me and Penny and therefore did not give us any bon-bons. Oh, don't judge me for eating candy, but instead because while I eat bon-bons I am just now working on my Christmas cards.

AND

I wrote a.

a.
a.

Christmas letter. I know. I know. I laugh at the Christmas letter writer people.

also, judge me because I compiled a 'collage' photo to include. oh dear, how obnoxious am I?

Anyways, I thought I would share with all of you because other than a few people, I like my interwebs better than most I am sending this too. (Except for YOU, of course).

December 28, 2009
LATE LATE LATE!

We wanted to wish everyone a great holiday season, and even picked out cards out very, very early this year, but we wanted to include an updated family photo and time got away from us—

But…while we have your attention, we will provide a quick update, this has been a HUGE year!

CK2 graduated high school, got a scholarship to Auburn, moved into an apartment (with CK), and completed his first semester in college. He was in two community theater productions this year, Fiddler on the Roof and Miracle Worker.

CK turned TWENTY and is now a senior at Auburn. She has decided on her career…high school science teacher! She will graduate next December. CK spent her summer in upper NY working at Camp Echo Lake and currently works at the after school program where she attended Kindergarden, talk about full circle.

Mr. P and I are enjoying our empty nest, and are anxiously awaiting my tenure decision. I put my packet together in October and should get the final word in early spring. We are definitely hoping for tenure since my sister and her family, and my mother moved to Auburn this year.

It has been a good year for our family, and we hope all of you are well! Hope you had a terrific holiday season!!!

P.S. Santa brought our family a cruise to Mexico for Christmas, and that is when we finally managed to get all of us in a photo!

Commence barfing and gagging, and check out the photo collage:



Merry Christmas. again.

tis the season to go SHOPPING

Normally by this time every holiday season I am in shear panic mode trying to make sure that we are getting the kids the right gifts both in quantity and quality, and while I have done this to myself, I realized last year that I was kind of over that stress.

As if to assure me that last year I was correct in how the holidays were making me crazy, the same thing already started happening...I ordered the kids what I thought were comparable Advent calendars and once they arrived, CK2's was noticably better, and I don't want CK to be upset and so the parent guilt of keeping kids 'even' continues.

The Advent calendar debacle makes me even more grateful that Mr. P and I came to a decision in August that we put into motion in October. No presents this year. Well, no piles of gifts under the tree this Christmas morn. NO, we haven't gone all Scrooge or hippie or anything. (I don't know why I thought maybe hippies didn't give presents, but it fit in the sentence.)

Instead? We booked a 5 day cruise to Mexico for December 19- 24. We will be home by noon on Christmas Eve all set to do all of our traditional Christmas stuff after having spent 5 days together, the 4 of us, in sunny MEXICO. So that means I don't have to spend the next three weeks scouring the Internet for deals or trolling Best Buy and stacking and restacking and then stacking their gifts just.one.more.time to make sure they are going to be happy.

So, my biggest stress of Christmas? Gone.

But today Mr. P and I are going shopping. We have two Toys for Tots events...tonight a basketball game, and tomorrow the 10K, so we are going to go buy toys. FUN. Plus when we had family dinner at the mall on Wednesday I took a tag off a tree to buy a toy for a baby in need. That was the last thing we did, and we were all walking out of the mall, less one Mr. P.

When he caught up to us, and that crabby, grumpy, delicious Mr. P had a tag from the tree for Seniors that live in a local retirement home. He said, "I nearly teared up when I saw that someone made a tag and had to ask for lotion and a blanket."

This afternoon we will be dining at Olive Garden (DON'T you snicker. CARB loading for the 10K tomorrow), then buying 5 toys and lotion and a kick.ass blanket!

How about you? How do you feel about the shopping part of the holidays?

Best ADVENT calendar EVA

If you haven't been around these here parts long, then you don't know how I feel about the season of Advent from a gift perspective. I like, no LOVE getting a tiny gift each day, or different gifts leading up to Christmas. I am very gifty. It doesn't have to be much, I just love the thrill of opening presents here and there as opposed to all at once.

A few years ago Mr. P got this whole thing started by having the 12 Days of Christmas for me where I got a teensie tinsie ornament from Hallmark every day for 12 days to go on cutie picture frames. He did this for two years.

The next year, I got a Peyton Manning themed Advent which included a Peyton ornament, Colts stocking, a KICK.ASS official 18 Jersey, a Peyton Manning rookie football card and a subscription to Sports Illustrated. No daily prize, but here and there. It worked for me. (no duh, right?)

The next two years I did Advent for Mr. P. Both times I got him Lego Advent Calendars, the first I got at the Lego store at Disney, and because he dug it so much, last year I ordered Playmobil, Lego and Littlest Pet Shop calendars for all of us. Then.it.happened.

Long story short, Mr. P didn't do anything for me for Advent and my feelings were crushed. THEN he had the gall to complain when he got an ice cream stand as his prize. (I personally liked the Lego prisoner, complete with handcuffs as one of his prizes, what? You don't see the Christmas in that?) Anyway, I got completely defensive and told him it was all him next year. I expected a season of Advent from him next year, which coincidentally is right.now.



I was sure he hadn't done it and had no plans for it. I even sort of called him out. (Yeah, I am a spectacular human being.) I got home today and on the mantle there was a prize, wrapped, for me. It was this:

For those not from around here, this is an artistic rendering of the iconic building of our University. Cool, no?

You know what is cooler? Mr. P made it for me. MADE it. That is his theme for this year, he is making me stuff. I am so excited. I made a comment to him that he should have saved this one for later, because it rocks so hard it would be hard to beat it. He laughed and said, "OH NO, it won't be. Just wait."

He knows me better than that. I CAN'T.

SEVEN!

Yesterday afternoon I got so freaking pissed slightly annoyed at Mr. P's general crabbiness. I decided that I needed a little break from him and the house and where just one year ago I would have grabbed my book and gone to Moe's for nachos to give us time to chill the fuck out, I threw on my running gear and went for a little, teensie, tiny SEVEN mile run. During the first mile I was sure that a kickass divorce lawyer was surely the answer to our problems as Mr. P snapped at me for a Diet Coke can sitting by the sink instead of being in the recycling (and the can wasn't.even.mine and I had spent all morning doing all.his.laundry) and because we, wait for it, didn't even have an egg. But, after a few miles, I decided maybe just cutting him a little bit of slack because we did have a bunch of family stuff this week, his work is very stressful right now and he is really trying to cut back on smoking was probably a better idea.


When I returned , Mr. P and I made nice and then he went and gathered some Panera for dinner. Then we watched Four Christmases. Funny thing is that Dad and the girlfriend watched it Saturday night and said it was pretty bad and that it was just.too.weird. Ironically one of the Christmases is where the dude's MOM is with his friend from HIGH SCHOOL and of course, the dude is highly freaked.out. Mr. P and I just looked at each other and laughed...because right before they left yesterday (Dad and the girlfriend) they told me anytime that I thought our family was bad, I should watch this because it was WAY worse, and really? Seemed sort of exactly the same to me.


With the GINOURMOUS run yesterday, I elected to just do a 30 minute walk this morning at the break of dawn, and then I weighed in. EXACTLY the same as last week which I consider to be pretty victorious. So that means I am sitting at a Fat Test score of 84.53%.

I attribute much of that to the running of 12.5 miles over the last two days, because I really, truly did not watch what I ate at.all. Then this morning I was a bit rushed and ate Chick Fil A for breakfast instead of my yogurt, fruit, cereal combo. A biscuit and hash browns. SEVENTEEN POINTS. what the hell???? But I did journal it, and will eat a sensible lunch and dinner and try to get my exact same ass back in gear because getting to 80% in a month, this particular month, is going to actually require me to work.at.it.

a few Thanksgiving pictures

I have spent the ENTIRE day in my pajamas on my chaise with my laptop watching the Colts play the Texans (NFL). I have caught up on my farm, my blog reading, and even a little workity work. I am feeling very content and lazy and good.

I thought I might share a few photos from Thanksgiving...

I am celebrating Penny scoring a touchdown for the girls. I am NOT on the sidelines, I was a receiver in a spread offense! We play a sport every Thanksgiving afternoon, and it is always boys versus girls. It worked out much better for us when CK2 was a munchkin. Now that he is giant, not so great. If you look you can see tiny Eli too! The game ended in a tie.

After dinner my guts hurt so much from eating so MUCH FOOD (we had turkey, ham, two kinds of stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, baked acorn squash, roasted veggies, green bean casserole, sausage balls, mini pigs in blankets, blueberry salad, deviled eggs, coleslaw, and gravy) that I decided to lay on the floor and play with Eli. First we did Lincoln Logs then he wanted to draw. We made hand turkeys, and I am getting quite a bit of guidance on how mine should be.

My art was Thankstastic!

After resting for quite awhile we were ready for some dessert. We had trifle, bread pudding, blackberry cobbler and pumpkin pie. Here is an overhead view of my trifle. Angel food cake, berries, sugar-free fat free banana and vanilla puddings whipped with a bit of Fat Free Cool Whip, bananas, and the thing that pulled it all together? JAM. Sugar free blackberry jam and red rasberry preserves. On Thanksgiving I had one bite of dessert, I was just TOO full. I did manage a serving (or 5) of trifle yesterday. I have one bowl left for this evening.

I haven't stepped on the scale to determine the damage done, but just in the nick of time, another race week is upon us. We are doing a 10K this Saturday for Toys for Toys so we will be on our best healthy behavior all week!

giving THANKS

Over the past year I have done a bunch of moaning and groaning about various sources of angst...my parents, my job, my kids, my fat fat fattiness and occasionally even Mr. P. Yet over this last 10 days I have tried to do a lot of reflecting and thinking about where I am now that I am 40.

I have been married for 20 years to a man that will on any given day walk my dog for me, go out late to fetch a Diet Lo Cal Cherry Limeade, does laundry, dishes, cooks, is very handy and loves me very much. I tend to focus on when he farms too much, or smokes more than I would like, or is generally very crabby at restaurants. I don't really get what that is about, but man, dude is CRABBY at restaurants. My sister finally admitted that she always thought I was exaggerating, but now that she is with him more, she sees it too. For Mr. P, I am thankful.

I focus on my kids taking my MOVIES from my house and not telling me, or losing laptops or cell phones, or being messy. But I know how lucky I am to have smart, beautiful, funny and healthy kids, and for them, I am thankful.

I have a job that requires me to kiss more ass than I would like, at all levels, and I think I have been caused more angst than I should have and I focus on that. Not that I really only have to be in my office two days a week, can wear whatever I want when I am not teaching, can come and go as I please, and have LONG Christmas and summer breaks, not to mention it pays well. So for my job, especially in this economy, I am thankful.

I focus on my mother wearing bizarre clothes and just being weird. Sort of the same stuff with my Dad. But on Thanksgiving I spent all day with both of them and I have to say, I really enjoyed it. I didn't have to worry that the other was feeling left out, because they weren't. My dad was nice. My mom was nice. It was all so nice. I still have both of my parents and they are trying to be around and for that I am thankful.

My fattiness is been especially problematic the last few days for me because while I have lost a bunch of weight in most of the Thanksgiving pictures, well, I am still just fat. I have eaten a bunch of food, but I did manage to get in a 5.5 mile run this morning. Starting this running plan really, truly changed my life and gives me hope that I can keep up with this journey even during the eaty, eaty holidays, and for that, I am thankful.

Thanksgiving Eve is in the books

at Chez Potchery, and with only a tiny bit of blood shed (literally)...I shoved my hand in a drawer looking for a can opener and the food processor blade got me. ouch. My kids were both there and we all kind of thought we might be spending the evening at the urgent care place getting stitches, but a Diego bandaid is all I needed.

The girlfriend DID show, and as of right now, I feel completely bad for her situation, so she is welcome. Some weird drama with her kids and her ex and her ex's new wife (who I graduated high school with if we are keeping score). Now, I still don't get why someone MY AGE would want to be romantically involved with MY DAD, but whatevs.

We threw together a fun little barbecue with hamburgers, hot dogs, grilled chicken, baked potatoes (sweet and regular), corn on the cob, salad, fruit, and s'more fixings. We had a fire in the fire pit, had some drinks and now everyone is either watching Holiday Inn, or catching up on Biggest Loser and blogs (only I am doing that actually).

I hope everyone has a fantastic holiday, and I will wow you with pictures of my rock ass trifle tomorrow. (Think angel food cake in the shape of turkeys).

And so the holidays are right.up.on.us

So my Dad shows up for Thanksgiving tomorrow. He may or may not be bringing his girlfriend. You know, the one that is TWO years older than I am. I don't really get why she would come because she has a 14 year old child of her own that it seems like she might want to see at some point over the weekend. AND even though my sister is not thrilled at the prospect of her joining us, I don't even really believe she will come. There have been two other potential sightings and both times weird stuff (READ: Stuff she lied about) happened so she couldn't come. I hope that happens again.

AND, my Dad is also planning a get-together for my house tomorrow evening...he wants us to grill steak and sit outside around the fire pit having adult beverages under twinkling white lights. He had this whole plan for said twinkly lights that included some lumber and maybe a nail gun...we shall see. JUST IN CASE though, I did buy some marshmallows that are chocolate/vanilla swirl.

Then Thursday we have planned out every minute of the day beginning with pumpkin bread and "Thanksgiving" coffee (I don't know exactly about that, but check with Penny if you are curious), followed by some outdoor sporting activity (I hope for football this year), then sausage balls, then dinner, then fancy drinks, or maybe vice versa, then a block party downtown.

Block party? Downtown? On Thanksgiving? YES. Because while Thanksgiving is big, it isn't the BIGGEST thing happening this weekend in our neck of the woods. It is the Iron Bowl. Auburn verus Alabama. and I made a bet. A very, very scary bet. Jen, from Hey Y'all* is a die hard Bama girl. I am NOT. Loser will display themselves on their blog for all to see wearing a SNUGGIE from the other team. Mr. P is NOT pleased and swears he won't take the photo. So, on Friday afternoon, if you happen across CBS cheer for the orange and blue. That lunatic in the 13th row wearing orange and screaming her face off?

That will be me.

Last weekend was great. This weekend will be greatER.

War Eagle.

*I originally did the weblink wrong because I thought Jen used Wordpress. She doesn't. But, the chick at the other address was supposed to get asked out by some guy after he dumped his girlfriend but didn't. In case you were curious.

1:19:24. Take that Jolly Trolley!

Yesterday was a great.day. GREAT.

We lazed around in the morning, then we picked up Mom, then Penny, Eli and Teddy and headed to the race. We were all very very eager, and ended up at the race site with numbers pinned on, race bags back in the truck with an HOUR to wait for the race to start.

The weather was gorgeous. I was hydrated and carbed and when the race finally started I felt great. The course was quite hilly, so I was very glad I had trained the way that I had...I saw people really, really struggling doing a sprint/walk duo that seemed very hard, especially on the hills. What was great for me is that with my slow and steady plugging away, I was able to pass a bunch of people. A BUNCH of younger, thinner people.

Here I am about 100 yards from the finish...I had just yelled to my family, "NO TROLLEY!"

My official time was 1:19:24, but my REAL 10K time was 1:18:48 (I started my Nike + at the starting line when I was able to cross it). With a little time math you can see that I finished a good TEN minutes before the Trolley driver even started out to get the stragglers. Mr. P had a great race with 1:06, him and Penny were within eyesight of each other for most of the race which is a story in itself, but I don't want to steal her thunder regarding how she did (she rocked though).

I have read other people talk about race etiquette, and yesterday was the first time it got.on.my.nerves. If you are going to walk, and you know that, back your shit up and get in the back of the pack so that I don't have to go AROUND your group of 5 across that take up the whole running lane. If you are going to run/walk, don't get RIGHT.in.front.of.me. and then stop short to walk so I have to make sure I don't jog up on your feet when you stop. Does my running smugness make you laugh as much as it does me? You know what else? I had FUN yesterday doing that run, and I am sad that it is over.

Here we are post run..

You see how I am leaning in? I always do that because I always think I am going to be too big to fit in the picture. I hope to get over that.

But since that is a goal made and completed, I feel a bit more confident and ready to start 1/2 marathon training. YIKES!!

Oh, and belated thanks for the Christmas song ideas...my playlist was great! And also for the support while I was getting ready for this...you guys came to mind more than once while I was chugging away!

Official Holiday Kickoff

I love everything Thanksgiving/Christmas. I used to be able to keep my shiznit together and hold off on Christmas until after Thanksgiving, but then a few years ago I succumbed to 'mall' mentality and now as soon as the spiderwebs come down from Halloween, I start gearing up for Christmas. I have already bought 3 new ornaments and am beginning to plan my gingerbread masterpiece of 2009...maybe it will be better than 2008?

Anyway, the holiday season kicked off to a grand start when we DOMINATED the costume contest and our town's Halloween Block Party and Trick or Treating.

While Mr. P's idea of having clear shower curtains serve as our 'shakers' was a good one...it didn't translate that well in pictures. Steve was taking the picture, but you can see his costume over at Penny's place. We won a stellar gift bag that included a water bottle, a $5 off pizza coupon, and giant eyeball bath fizzies. SCORE.

Oh, and again this year I have decided to do NaBloPoMo...wish me luck!

I kinda knew, but they yet again confirmed...

My kids are awesome people. They are smart, funny, and beyond sweet to their 3-year old cousin. The way they treat him makes me feel like I did a decent job as a parent, something I question quite often, because I know that Mr. P and I butchered a LOT of things.

Eli (Penny's son) wanted to be Blue for Halloween (from Blue's Clues), so we jumped on board and will have Blue, Magenta, Steve, Mr. Salt, Mrs. Pepper, Paprika and Mailbox. We MADE all the costumes. MADE them. Just wait until you see the pictures...we are going to be awesome.

Anyway, College Kid, Penny and my mom came over for a bit this afternoon and we finished up the "shakers", and then I logged into Facebook for some quick farming, and I came across this video:



This is my 18 year old, college freshman, making his Mailbox costume so that he could participate in family trick or treating this evening. In public. Downtown. College Kid will be there too in all her Paprika splendor.

I wouldn't have done this for my cousins. I barely would have done it for my kids. But here are my kids freely and happily doing it for their cousin.

Yup, Mr. P and I did something right, even if it were purely genetic and/or accidental!

Happy Halloween!

They say it's your birthday

...it's my birthday too!

I am 40.

Well, not technically until 5:32pm which used to aggravate the shit out of me when I was a kid, but I am kind of digging it today. Wow. 40.

So should I be saying "My Adults"?

instead of 'my kids'? As of yesterday, I am the parent of two adults. Well, according to conventional aging wisdom...not sure it completely applies to my offspring.

The second college kid turned 18 years old yesterday. It is SO hard for me to believe that he is a man.

Healthy, healthy, healthy update: I have journaled. Yes, I have journaled ALL the stuff I have been eating, the FRIES, the ICE CREAM CAKE, the CHEESEBURGER. ALL the inappropriate stuff I have been eating and my ONE exercise of the week (the run on Monday). I have two more crazy weeks of work, then my life will calm down considerably and I can turn exercising back into my part-time lover.

poor old bat

you guys are awful. I do NOT mean my mother-in-law (that post requires photos and some detail work...so watch for it this week) or even my mother. Totally different type of old bat. This afternoon we were out perusing the newly de-pollened porch and Mr. P saw that we had a buddy:

From another angle:

We opened the door to the porch so he could escape when he woke up and we headed out for Mexican food and Star Trek. both were delicious. kudos to J.J. Abrahms and the new young crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise.

When we got home we checked on our tenant, and alas, he was not hanging from the lights. We were happy he had gone on his merry way. Then the highschool kid said, "oh. he isn't gone." And then I saw him. DEAD. on the table. right under where he was hanging. Mr. P checked on him, and his assessment on time of death, "a long ass time ago".

Poor old bat. literally.

Happy Mother's Day.

sickadoodle

I woke up early, early on Easter morning with a dreaded cold. I am stuffy, sore throat, body achey. It is the type of sick where it is feasible to function, but miserable to do so. I am working on getting my shit together to go teach today. I can't take any medication, makes me too fuzzy, and I am teaching querying today, so I need to be able to think. I kind of wrecked Easter for my family, I never even put my contacts in...and if you know me, I ONLY wear my glasses for the 30 minutes I am awake each night after I take my contacts out.

I was hesitant to take my Fat Test today, because after Saturday's 5K (39:38!!!!), I was NOT on my best food behavior. Yesterday I had 7 Laffy Taffy's, 1 Cadbury Egg, and a half a box of Velveeta Shells and Cheese. NOT healthy, healthy, healthy.

Somehow though, I lost 3 lbs, which puts my Fat Test score at 88.39%!

I am aware that I am going to be seeing the repurcussions of the weekend in a day or so, so I am back on my best healthy behavior. (Doesn't hurt that I have no appetite due to the afore mentioned cold).

Which President(s) exactly?

I want to think it is Lincoln and Washington, but not exactly sure. Whom ever we are celebrating today with closed banks and no mail, Mr. P and I both have to work, so our Presidential celebration will be a bit lacking, quite like the focus of this blog post.

Our Valentine's Day was FISHtastic. There was an open bar, very funny lecture about animal sex which included examples of walrus self-gratification, an 8 foot whale penis AND the soap opera digest version of the life of penguins. Oh,and FYI, dolphins are the skanks of the marine mammal world...apparently they have LOTS of sex, with boy dolphins, with girl dophins, and even other critters as the desire hits them. No wonder they always seem so happy. Anyway, we camped out in the tunnel of one of the huge aquariums, and it was really neat. However, I basically did not sleep at all, so once we got home yesterday that is about all I did.

I have a crazy amount of work to do in the next three days and then I am on a quick trip to visit my NEPHEW (and sister and brother-in-law)! I won't even mention how it is supposed to be SNOWY and WINDY this weekend at the airport.

Last, but not least, I took my fat test this morning. 94.53% ! I lost 1.6 lbs this week, which is right in the "recommended range" of no more than 2 lbs per week, but I got a message from Weight Watchers that if I am not happy with the amount I lost, I should try some activity. Kind of a bummer message considering the amount of activity I have already been doing.

Gots to shower and get to work. I am out.

Here's to you, 2009!

So, 2009 is here.

It is going to be a year full of really big changes. This time in 1 year, I will live in a different, smaller house that consists of me, Mr. P and the animals. I will have submitted my tenure packet and will be anxiously awaiting whether I will have to go on the job market.

My kid in college will be graduating from college in 5 months and off to start the adventure of living her life. My kid in high school will have graduated from high school, and will be one semester into his college career.

My sister will live by me again. I can't wait to be involved in her son's life, to give her date nights with her husband, to have someone to go get pedicures and lunch with, and all of the other benefits to having your sister live in the same town.

My mom might live by me again. I am not sure how this one will go. She drives me bat shit crazy. However, I really love playing Scrabble and Boggle, and noone else in my family does...so I can envision going over for dinner, making her make eggplant parm and playing Scrabble. Plus, those are QUIET games, so, in theory, she won't talk that much about the random crap she talks about...if you ever meet her, ask her about the time she wasn't allowed to take her umbrella on the plane because of the pointy tip, or about the time she got the Internet through the air from the dude from India, or even about the time she had to call the cell phone company because her phone was broken and she HADN'T TURNED IT ON.

I turn 40 this year, and Mr. P and I have our 20th anniversary. Two pretty big milestones.

Those are things that are going to happen, but there are also things that I hope will happen:

- Get physically fitter. I have come to the realization that I don't care so much about being fat, I care about not being able to DO things that I want to do. We were talking about next year taking a "snow" trip, which would involve skiing, tubing, etc. but right now I just wouldn't be able to do it. I hope I can get into a good frame of mind, keep up with WeightWatchers, keep my Nike Me happy, and all of the other things that go with getting my body to a better place.

- Get financially fitter. Mr. P and I have had atrocious credit in the past, and I want to get that under control. I want to pay off old debt, and get our few little current debts paid off. If I get tenure, I want to buy a house/condo/something in 2010.

- Get mentally fitter. I am really, really angry at my parents. I need to get some help letting go of that. NOT for their sakes, for my own.

There it is. I want to get fitter in 2009. Tell you what...meet me back here in 1 year, and we shall see how it went. Even better, stick around and we will make all of our resolutions come true together.

Here's to 2009!

Pajama Pants

I love to wear pajama pants. I am the Mr. Rogers of pajamas. I change out of them on the way out of the door, and right back into them as I step back in. Well, since I wear them for over 2/3's of my life (figure I am at work maybe 8 or so hours a day during the week, sometimes more, but not at all on the weekend), the TWO pair I have are so ratty and pretty gross. But one pair is Hello Kitty, and the other are lobsters. Awesome. Anyway, Mr. P asked me if maybe I should throw the old pants away. My reply was that I would only throw away pants if provided appropriate replacement pants.

So, on Christmas Eve evening, I get presented with a present. (That was an awesomely redundant sentence.) The present was a pair of very cute navy blue with snowflake pajama pants, flannely and snuggly. XXL.

THEY. DID. NOT. FIT.

So I am kind of embarrassed, and kind of furious at myself for letting it go this long, and kind of sad that I am so. so. fat. that I can not fit into XXL pants. That is TWO extras. EXTRA EXTRA fat pants. Not fitting. So, I am in the laundry room for a few minutes and Mr. P comes to check on me. I tell him in my most pitiful whining sad voice, "they don't fit ". (Did you get by the small font that I said it in a quiet little voice?) And his response, in his most sincere, apologetic voice,

"But, I bought the biggest size that Target had".

So, without any malice, Mr. P pushed me over the fat edge. I have spent the last several days getting used to the idea of getting back on Weight Watchers. We went and bought good, healthy groceries. I have loaded my iPod with my songs, gotten a new Nike +, and gotten it sync'ed up. I am ready to go. I am usually pretty decent with losing weight, I am not so good at dealing with myself once the weight is gone. I need to be healthy, I want to be healthy, so that means I am going to finally have to deal with that final piece...the mental aspect of what the weight represents to me. I am hoping I can work some of it out with the blog, but it might be time to deal with the other demons. Thanks for bearing with me, I leave you with my oh, so awesome, playlist:

Gives You Hell The All-American Rejects
Shine Anna Nalick
Girlfriend Avril Lavigne
Calling You Blue October
Womanizer Britney Spears
Hello (American Idol Performance) David Cook
I Don't Care (Single Version) Fall Out Boy
Fergalicious Fergie
I Don't Wanna Be In Love (Dance Floor Anthem) Good Charlotte
I'm Yours Jason Mraz
Won't Go Home Without You Maroon 5
Shattered (Turn the Car Around) O.A.R.
My Friends Over You A New Found Glory
Buttons The Pussycat Dolls
Steady As She Goes The Raconteurs
Kiss Me Sixpence None The Richer
Let Me Be Myself 3 Doors Down
World Spins Madly On The Weepies
Love Story Taylor Swift
Fall for You Secondhand Serenade
Chocolate Snow Patrol

This is my 93rd post. I feel like I have to do something spectacular for 100 like they do with television shows. Ideas?