2012 in review

Alright, alright…everyone else is sharing the year in review…guess I’ll jump on the bandwagon!  I enjoy reviewing the stats on my blog…seeing who is commenting and viewing, seeing what countries people are from, and what the most popular topics have been…although I have to admit, never in my wildest dreams would I have thought my most popular post would have been about panty hose…yeah, panty hose, really…go figure.

I want to take the time today to thank all of you who regularly follow my posts…some of you (and you know who you are) have been with me from the beginning and I appreciate it.  And there are the family and friends who’ve been with me even longer than I’ve been blogging…again, thanks for all of your support.

So…check out the stats below and join me tomorrow for the start of a new year…who knows what’ll happen?  What exciting adventures we’ll undertake?  How our lives will change?  New people we’ll welcome into our lives and, yes, the people we’ll have to say good-bye to.  No matter how the new year shapes up, it’ll be anything but boring…life is meant to be lived…let’s do it!

 

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 8,600 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 14 years to get that many views.

Click here to see the complete report.

Blizzard, anyone?

I had to be at work at 5 this morning…it was snowing, but the full brunt of the storm hadn’t hit yet at that time.  We were at work for a few minutes when the phone started ringing…and ringing again and again…with call-ins.  I couldn’t really blame any of the associates for calling in…the snow had started coming down hard with a nasty wind blowing it all over the place.  After talking with the district manager, we decided not to open for the day and headed out.  Holy moly, the roads were in much more treacherous condition than they’d been only two hours earlier.  I turned a corner and the back end of my car fishtailed…it was good to see that the instinct to turn into the skid was still there (from all of those years of driving on snow-covered country roads).  When I was almost home, the visibility was so bad that I couldn’t see anything in front of me.  Finally made it home and trudged through the drifted snow…I changed out of my wet clothes and tried to warm up.  Ahh…it was so good to be home, safe and sound.

Later in the day, I decided to see how things looked outside…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What is this?

Spook trying to decide what to do about the snow drifted up against the kitchen door.  She’s a pretty smart kitty, she decided to walk away.

Related articles

• Blizzard Walking (everythingisblooming.wordpress.com)

An Open Letter from a PTA Mom to Mike Huckabee: A Message for Those Who Long for God’s Presence in Schools

An Open Letter from a PTA Mom to Mike Huckabee: A Message for Those Who Long for God’s Presence in Schools.

Christmas shopping done…

English: Gift ideas for men – wrapping paper example. Please source http://www.giftideasformen.com (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

…now it’s time to get it all wrapped.  I have to admit, it’s not as difficult to “wrap” presents as it once was.  Back in the day, I would drag out the rolls of wrapping paper, ribbon, tags, tape, scissors, etc.  Then I’d have to unroll a length of paper, lay the present in the middle of it (well, after I scrounged up a box to put the gift in…I was never a fan of wrapping anything not in a box), cut the paper, carefully fold the paper around the box, making sure I’d actually cut the piece of paper big enough.  Then I’d tape the edges and fold each end, trying to make it look nice.  Once I had the box wrapped in the pretty paper, I’d try to match some ribbon to the paper.  Once I was satisfied with the ribbon I’d chosen, I’d wrap it around the box either crossing vertically and horizontally or just around the corners.  Then I’d pull out the curling ribbon and curl it with scissors, then tape it to the other ribbon.  After that was done, I’d paw through all of the gift tags I’d amassed over the years until I found one that matched both the package and the recipient.  Then I’d pen the to-from part of the tag and either tape the tag to the outside of the package or punch a hole in the tag and thread curling ribbon through the hole, then tape the whole thing into the middle of the curled ribbon already taped to the package.  And then I had to find a pretty bow (preferably not smashed) to match everything else.  Once satisfied with how the package looked, I’d set it aside and move on to the next one.

Now…well, let’s see…I gather the gifts I intend to package, some gift bags (with gift tags already attached) and some tissue paper.  Then I toss the present into the bottom of the bag, wad up some tissue paper to cover what’s inside the bag, write who the gift is for on the tag along with the from part…you know, either Aunt Patti, Patti, Momma (I’m kidding, I’m kidding…I never actually wrap the presents for the kitties…they get to them long before I could manage that)…and uh, well…that’s it.

Do I miss the old days of pretty packages sitting under the tree, twinkling lights reflecting from the shiny paper?  Umm…no, no, I can’t say as I do.  I spent an awful lot of time wrapping gifts in the old days…and it usually only took people a few seconds to unwrap them and toss the paper and ribbon to the side.  And gift bags are handy when it comes to getting all of your gifts home too.  And, of course, you can reuse a gift bag…just be sure you remove the original gift tag…take this bit of advice, I speak from experience…

Related articles

• Christmas gift-wrapping ideas (craftitbakeit.wordpress.com)
• 12 environmentally-friendly alternatives to wrapping paper (holykaw.alltop.com)

Do you know what two weeks from today is?

Santa Claus (Photo credit: Natashenka)

That’s right, boys and girls…in two short weeks it’ll be Christmas Eve.  Yes indeedy, the night that jolly old Saint Nick makes his rounds and rewards those of us who have been good with nifty gifts!  What?  You don’t know what I’m excited about?  What?  I haven’t been all that good this year?  What are you saying?  You think the big guy won’t be stopping at my house this year?  Well, I just…I…I don’t know what to say.  No visit from Santa?  No gifts?  Really?  Well…I’m feeling a bit distraught about this.  I tried to be good.  Doesn’t that count for something?  I mean, I was always told that honest effort meant something.  Are you telling me that Santa doesn’t care about how hard you try?  Only about whether or not you succeed?  Somehow that doesn’t seem quite right.  Shouldn’t he be a bit more forgiving and compassionate?

But wait!  I know Santa will come down my chimney…I just know it.  For one thing, he loves my cookies and I always leave him enough cookies to take back home to share with Mrs. Claus and those creepy elves.  And he always loves to stop and scratch Spooky’s head.  And now that I have Scout too…well, I’m absolutely certain that he won’t be able to stay away.  And he will so bring me some gifts.  I know he will.  And do you know how I know it?  That’s right.  I remember the year my good friend Chris was a very bad boy and he still got lots and lots of presents from Santa.

So…two weeks from tonight I’m going to go to bed early, dreaming about dancing sugar plums (whatever those are), and listening to hear reindeer hooves tapping on my roof.  And when I wake up, I’ll run down the stairs and be so thankful for all the gifts I have in my life.  Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

 

Related articles

• Is Elf on the Shelf spoiling magic of Christmas? (metronews.ca)

What do you do when you finally get a day off work?

bah, humbug: take two (Photo credit: PrincessFroglips)

First, let me say this, I have been working six days a week for around 12 hours a day.  So…tired?  You bet.  The only way I could drag myself out of bed yesterday was to keep reminding myself that I had today off.

I woke up this morning at 5…yes, you heard that right…5 am!  I got up, fed the cats and called in to work to make sure they understood my notes about what they needed to be doing.  Then I went back upstairs and climbed back into my soft, cozy bed with Kindle in hand.  I read for a while, then turned the light back off and slept until 9.  Got up and piddled around for a while, climbed back into bed around 11:30 and fell into a deep sleep for another couple of hours.  Felt oh so much better when I woke up.

But I still couldn’t get up the motivation to actually do anything worthwhile.  I did a load of laundry and the dishes, then fooled around on Facebook and Pinterest…now that’s a good way to waste some time, pinning things you’d like to do instead of actually doing them…but hey, when you’re mentally and physically exhausted…

Twenty days ’till Christmas…falalalala lalalala…bah humbug!!

Related articles

• Wish me anything you want… (shanson3871.wordpress.com)

Christmas is coming…

English: Image of an Appalachian Bewildered Cat dressed for Christmas (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

…and I’ll sure be glad to see it get here.  I’m exhausted!  This weekend was a nightmare…super busy (okay, that wasn’t the nightmare part…being busy is a good thing) and I had so many call-ins…and today was just more of the same as far as call-ins are concerned.  I don’t know if there’s something going around or if the wonderful weather we’ve had lately (70 degrees today…what? In December?) might play into some of the call-ins.  I know, I know…I’m so cynical.

I went to work at 4 this morning and left at just a few minutes before 4 this afternoon…did get a lot done, but still have a lot left to do.  I’m going in at 5 tomorrow morning, hopefully I’ll get everything done so I can take Wednesday off.

I tried talking myself out of stopping at PetSmart after work, but finally convinced myself to just do it.  And I bought some new toys for the kitties for Christmas…well, that was the plan.  I ended up giving them their gift early.  Why do I have to be such a softie???

I really am going to try to go to bed early tonight…my body is tired and my muscles are aching…sleep…it does a body good…

Related articles

• Early Morning Journal (christineevelynvance.wordpress.com)