After Christmas Relaxation

Whew, made it through another Christmas without poking any family members in the eyes. Warning, long post ahead.

We went to my mom's house on Christmas Eve, and before we left, I check the mail. Dad's present is here. COOL! So, being the impatient person I am, I bust the box open. Inside is 4 cookbooks (one being the breast cancer edition of the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook, which I've been pining for since I moved away from home), a butterfly necklace, a book light, and 3 miniature Pooh Bear ornaments.

We get to my mom's and haul our stuff in from the car (Christmas presents, laundry, knitting bag), and I'm carrying the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook, as I've been skimming through it on the entire 30 mile drive from my apartment to mom's. Mom asks "Where'd you get that", and I replied "Dad sent it to me for Christmas, along with 3 other cookbooks and some other neat stuff."

We get in the car to go to my aunt and uncle's house, and my card from my Grandma is in there. Yay for Christmas money! We get to my aunt and uncle's, and my cousin is there. She's 30 weeks pregnant. She's absolute adorable with her baby bump. We talk about her pregnancy, and just catch up in general. Had a good visit, my other (loud) aunt shows up. Insta-headache. We eat dinner, visit, loud aunt, her hubby, and her mother-in-law leave. I tell aunt and uncle to open their gift I gave them (I made them an afghan). Aunt's eyes leak. We go back to my mom's.

Stay up visiting, mom steals my cookbook! She can't remember how long she needs to bake the ham for. Go to bed around 11.

Bed is uncomfy. And small. It's a full sized bed, R and I are used to sleeping on a king. Can't roll over without dang nearly knocking him out of the bed. Restless night's sleep. I keep waking up and going into the bathroom to recharge the glowy on my watch, as I know that my mom and stepdad normally get up around 7:30. 8 rolls around. They aren't up. 9:30 rolls around. They're up! They're cooking breakfast! HOORAY!!!!!! Mom's biscuits and Pop's hashbrowns here I come!

I have a cup of coffee, and open my stocking. 2 candy canes, a Sweet Storybook, a toothbrush, and a 1 liter Cherry Pepsi. Sweet. I put Cherry Pepsi in the fridge, and start helping with breakfast. Breakfast is delish.

We start handing out gifts. 4 for me, 3 for Roger, 1 each for Mom and Pop from Roger and I (they don't buy for each other since buying the house). I'm poised with the heaviest gift in my lap. Mom says "Open that one last." Okay, I grab another one. I start. Eggplant colored long sleeve shirt. Gorgeous! Ropens his. Long sleeved dress shirt. Pretty! I open the next one. Black fleece vest with red edging. I LOVES FLEECE. R opens, moss colored fleece jacket. Did I mention I loves fleece? I open next one, red turtleneck to go with vest. SWEET! Christmas outfit to wear! R opens his, it's an eggplant colored longsleeve shirt with stripes. Pretty!

I tell Mom and Pop to open their gifts. They both got afghans. Both of them tell me how pretty they are and how much they love them. Mom curls up with hers immediately. I'm down to my last (heavy) gift.

I open it. Guess what's inside!!!!

A breast cancer edition of the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook! I look at mom and start laughing. She says "Now, gimme that, now we have matching cookbooks. Go to Dillards, and each of you find yourself some shoes and put them on hold for me to buy for you."

SWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET. I loves shoes almost more than I love fleece.

All in all, I got the following: Sterling silver and mother of pearl butterfly ring, gorgeous butterfly (handmade!) necklace, a butterfly cloissone pin/pendant, $75.00, Guitar Hero 3 for my computer (ROCK ON!), 4 cookbooks, 6 ornaments, some clothes, and a pair of shoes.

I've already spent some of the Christmas money, bought myself a bathrobe, some yarn, and a knitting stitchionary (dictionary of all knitting stitches).

Hope everyone had a FANTASTIC Christmas.

Oh, got my grades back for last semester. 3 B's, a B-, a C+, and a missing grade. Giving it until Monday then emailing my instructor, but she already said it'd be a C or better.

Christmas funny

Teehehehe, just a funny I found today out on the internets.

Merry Christmas, everybody!

And the tally says:

Safeway total spent: $73.90, total saved: $61.86

Albertsons total spent: $86.47, total saved: $40.34


Total spent: $160.37
Total saved: $ 102.50

Didn't figure I did too bad, plus we have meat coming from Omaha Steaks next Wednesday.

Little late than never, the menu!

Here's the menu for the month, I happened to get an awesome coupon for Omaha Steaks, so we have steaks and such coming this month.

12/13 - Soup and Sandwiches (R had his teeth worked on, so need something soft)
12/14 - Lasagna
12/15 - Subway (we generally get Subway every other weekend)
12/16 - Black bean burritos
12/17 - Beef Stew
12/18 - Chicken sandwiches
12/19 - Omelettes
12/20 - Burgers
12/21 - fend for yourself
12/22 - Steak, baked potatoes, etc
12/23 - Hashbrown soup and BLT's
12/24 - at mom's house, no cooking
12/25 - at mom's house, no cooking
12/26 - Chicken with rice and cream of mushroom soup
12/27 - Breakfast (biscuits and gravy?)
12/28 - Fend for yourself
12/29 - Burgers
12/30 - Chicken sandwiches
12/31 - Chicken and dumplings
1/1 - Hoppin' John and cornbread
1/2 - Steak, mashed potatoes, etc
1/3 - Black bean burritos
1/4 - Soup and sandwiches
1/5 - Subway

I know it's not for the whole month, but it's what I could think up right away. Going to go hit some sales around town on groceries, and I'll report back on total spending when I get home!

Also, as a side note, have gone 36 hours without a cigarette, and I haven't killed anyone!

First final grade result...

Drumroll please!

I got a B in my Juvenile Justice Systems class, we had our final this morning.

Have had 5 finals so far, one more to go tomorrow, and then I'm FREEEEEEEEEEEE for 2 weeks.

Scrambling.

I realize I haven't updated this in a while, school has been kicking my tush from here to Chinatown. However, come next Tuesday, I'm done with school for a few weeks. Starting to get majorly stressed out, and Friday I had all the thoughts of "I'm gonna flunk, I'm gonna fail out of school, I will have wasted 45k for nothing, my teachers dislike me..." Probably just the massive pile of stress that's weighing on my brain.

Still working on the afghans, I started one on a different set of needles (bigger ones) and I'm anxious to see how it's going to turn out, it seems to be knitting up MUCH faster than my other one. I hope I can manage to get them all done before Christmas.

In the realm of bad news, my car is in the shop. They're still not quite sure what's wrong with it, but it looks like I may have blown a seal or a gasket. I'm just praying it's not the head gasket, because that will cost way more than what we've got saved, and I would probably be better off selling the car. Will update when I know more.

Good news, I've started taking my Chantix. My quit date was changed to 12/13/07, because I misunderstood the schedule.

Also, R and I have started discussing more about the move, and what we're planning on doing. The plan so far is that over winter break, we're going to work on packing up things that we absolutely don't have to have out (cookie jars, my silver, books I've saved from school because I'd like to have them in a professional library, etc), and also discussing what is going to remain here in Montana while we're in Texas (storage unit), and that includes stuff like R's Camaro, the fish tanks (can't guarantee that they'll stay intact on the drive down there, and there's no way the fish will live through a trip in a hot vehicle from here to Texas in the middle of July), the kitchen table, that kinda stuff. It pains me to have to leave things behind, but at least I know they're still going to be here when I come back to Big Sky country.

Anyhow, I'm gonna get back to my afghan and wait for the Chinese food to show up. I'm planning on spending tomorrow doing nothing but knitting. My brain hurts from studying.

Oh, I got an invite to www.ravelry.com I less than three it. (<3)