Gigging

Yeah!! I got to go gigging tonight. It was a blast! I got three fish, my dad got two (one 'really' nice one). Those of you who do not know what I'm talking about, it's when you take a boat out at night with lights rigged on the front so you can see into the water, and then you stab fish with a pole that has prongs on the end of it (mainly sucker, drum, or buffalo). It's a lot of fun, you get to see some cool stuff (we found an old wooden john boat that had capsized and was in the water...they are going back for it later) and you get to see God's handy work in the river bottom. It was a bit chilly, we had small particles of ice on our poles and gloves...but nothing compared to times past when the whole pole was incased in ice. I had a lot of fun with my dad and our friend Nathan, a very good way to spend an evening out. (grin) (Gigging News) (Blurb about gigging) -- the 'blurb' is toward the bottom of the page. Enjoy!

Christmas...Shopping...Life

Wow...things have been a little crazy around here. It's already Thursday and I realized that I haven't posted in about a week (the three day weekend threw me off a little). Christmas was really good. Christmas Eve my mom's family came over to my house, there were about 21 of us (with one guest that was non-family). We had a lot of fun, though I'm not used to having that many people in my house...it was crazy. My nephew fell and hit his head on my stair trim, he instantly looked like the guy off of Star Trek, Worf (instant massive bump, crease, bruise). After everyone left our immediate family did Christmas, the kids were allowed to open their presents...then everyone left and I had quite (woo-hoo).

Christmas Day I went to Riley and Tara's for breakfast. My mom made chocolate gravey (yum!) at my request and pancakes at the request of Peyton. We watched the kids play with their toys (and played with them some ourselves), then we all left to our perspective engagements...me to my house to veg out and read a book and watch some Friends. We had our Christmas Day church service at 6:00 pm (which was really good) and then we went to my Dad's side of the family gathering, which consisted of everyone stopping at Grandma's house on the way home from church.

Monday...Day After Christmas Shopping. We braved the wild's and joined the masses of returnees and 'Oh, well that's cheap...give me twenty' people on Monday. I did find some really cute shoes for $8.00, regularly $26, and some jean skirts -- something I needed desperately. We actually only went to three stores and then came home, but it was worth it. (grin)

Then it was back to the ol' grind stone for me on Tuesday. Things are going pretty good, and God has totally blessed me this week with a job opportunity for this coming weekend.

Christmas Time is Here

Ah, it's Friday (TGIF) and only three days before Christmas (two if you don't actually count Christmas day). This week has been a little stressful, many things happened at work that were laid at my feet because I'm the 'manager' or because I stepped in in the last round and got the stuff taken care of (but still received flack from the fall out of the situation). But I made it through the week, and now we have a three day weekend. Oh, did I mention that I had to fire someone yesterday? That wasn't fun at all...but all part of being the 'boss' and it was past needing to be done. I did say three day weekend...and I'm looking to it with great longing.

Subject two: Today is my mom's birthday. We had a mini 'surprise' birthday party for her last night at my Aunt Claudette's house. My mom is a twin, but we did it minus one half of the twosome. My Aunt Diane was going to be able to spend the time with her husband who normally works nights...so we didn't call and invite them to join in the party. (sorry!) We had a lot of fun last night, just sitting around getting to talk to everyone (there were 11 adults there and 5 kids)...this was a 'small' gathering. It was good to laugh!

Subject three: Christmas!! Woo-Hoo!! We're having Christmas at my house on Saturday with my mom's family, then we'll open gifts with the kids (my two nieces and nephew) after they all leave. I'm not sure how many will be showing up, but it should be fun (I need to clean the house though). Then we'll do 'drop-in' Christmas with my dad's family on Sunday. This is when everyone just 'drops by' Grandma's house throughout the day. You get to visit with the ones that are there at that time, or you can wait around until someone else shows up. My church is doing a service Sunday night (for an hour) to celebrate the birthday of Christ.

I have a full weekend, but plenty of time to kick back and relax too (though I still need to wrap my gifts I've purchased). I hope that all of you have a 'very' Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

The Joy of PT Labor

As I mentioned a couple of post ago I started a part time job. This job is cleaning a bank in the evenings and on Sunday, I work Sun-Thur. It's not a hard job, and the extra cash will be nice to get (when I finally see it...this two week waiting period is 'great'). Anyway, to my title. I went on Sunday to clean and I couldn't get in. The key that had worked previously would not turn in the lock, so I called my supervisor and told him I couldn't get in. He ofcourse thought I was doing something wrong and told me to try again...me being the dutiful employee did just that then left a note requesting that they give me a new key since they had changed the locks. (My supervisor did not think they would do this without telling us...but I knew that my key would not work and it wasn't because I didn't stand on one foot, wrinkle my nose, and say 'open open open'.) So to save the day my supervisor went to Doniphan on Monday and picked up a key (after calling and verifying that they had changed the locks -- hello). They said 'sorry, we forgot all about you guys'. At least I know that I work at a 'safe bank'...they don't even let their employees in. (grin)

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

Today I put my Christmas Tree up. Many of you probably think I'm crazy for putting it up a week before Christmas, but my house was dubbed 'it' for the family gathering and the kids were not happy that I didn't have a tree. Therefore I took time out today, plus I didn't feel like going anywhere else, and put my tree up (you can see the finished product above). It only took me about two hours to put it totally together, string the lights, put the decorations on, and then clean up the mess of pine needles and put the empty boxes away. I didn't think that was bad...since I was doing it alone. But the thing is that now that it's up, I'll probably leave it till New Years so I get some use out of it. (grin)

Other than putting my tree up I didn't do anything else today, though I kept my brothers three kids tonight while they went to a church staff 'Christmas Party'. It was 'no children' because when they sat down and counted how many would be attending there was going to be thirteen kids there...all under the age of 12. I didn't understand why they wouldn't want to have them all there. (hehe) So I got to spend some quality time with my two nieces and nephew.

Mom Graduates

Last night my mom graduated from Black River Technical College with an AA in Business administration (something or another). We all met at Bonanza at 5:00 to eat dinner, which my grandfather paid for, then we all went over to the college to find a seat and cheer mom on when she walked across the stage. There were eleven of us present, plus a couple more from our church because Jennifer was graduating too. My mom ended up receiving a departmental award also...which was cool. This has been a long time coming, and my mom's first graduation ever (she did not graduate from high school)...it was a major milestone in her life, as well as ours. Riley and I helped her study for her GED classes when we were little, helped her with homework in college, and then had the opportunity to watch her graduate last night. (Way to go MOM!!)

Side note: Warning to anyone that will be traveling through Pocahontas, AR, DO NOT EAT AT BONANZA. It was great fellowship, but left a lot to be desired as far as food went.

Life Back...Part Time Job

I finally got my life back, Sunday, December 11. For the past month and a-half I have been doing nothing but working on Christmas at Our House play and getting stuff together. Last week (Dec 5-10) we had CAOH and approximately 1,630 people came through. It was awesome! The last night of the play we totally left out an important part of the play...it was kinda frustrating, but that's life. It was nice to be able to do nothing on Sunday except attend church and sleep. I had nowhere to be for anyone but myself. I kept Riley and Tara's kids Sunday after church while they went to the Bluff...we went to McDee's and then watched Polar Express (very good movie).

On Sunday I also started a part time job...I'm cleaning a local bank five nights a week (Sun-Thursday). I still have my weekends free, and it's a very simple job and the extra cash will be nice when trying to get some bills paid off. I'm not making tons of money off of it, but it's just a couple hours a night (1 1/2 tonight) and I still have a full evening to do whatever...like blog. :-)

Life has been crazy lately, and I'm ready for some serious down time...but I don't see that happening until after Christmas. Woo-Hoo for the Holiday Season.

Seven Sevens

There's apparently a thing going around about 'Seven Sevens', which works out to be seven list of seven items about yourself. I was listed by Liz on her list to do a list of my own (how many times can I type 'list' in one sentence)...so in all fairness (and out of some boredom) I decided to go with it. Following is my list of seven sevens:

Seven things I hope to do before I die:
1. Travel through Europe
2. Get married
3. Speak a foreign language fluently (preferably Spanish)
4. Learn how to throw meals together like my sister-in-law (out of nothing)
5. Travel through the states I haven't been to yet (mainly the middle ones)
6. Be spontaneous
7. Learn to trust without reservation

Seven things I cannot do:
1. Roll my tongue
2. Take compliments (though I am getting better)
3. Spell
4. Numbers: I have problems with zeros and decimal points (ask my boss) --grin--
5. Not be organized
6. Deal very well with stupid people
7. Speak a foreign language fluently

Seven things that attract me to my spouse/significant other/best friend:
1. She likes me for who and what I am...regardless
2. We can go without talking for days/weeks, but when we get together it's like we talked yesterday
3. She tells me like it is
4. I can count on her to be there for me
5. She likes helping others
6. She knows when to veg out and when to make plans
7. She helps me with my clothes -- making sure I match

Seven things I say often:
1. 'Hello' (with slight sarcasm)
2. 'Really' (with slight sarcasm)
3. Question...
4. Answer the phone (usually said at work)
5. 'Does this look o.k.' (when I get to church w/ a new outfit or variation of an old one)
6. 'GRRR...'
7. 'What a Moron'

Seven books or book series I love:
1. Gone with the Wind
2. John Grisham books
3. The Oath
4. This Present Darkness/Piercing the Darkness
5. Christie
6. The Sacketts (Louis L'Amour)
7. Chronicles of Narnia

Seven movies I could watch over and over:
1. How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
2. Anne of Green Gables
3. While You Were Sleeping
4. Bravehart
5. Return to Me
6. Wedding Planner
7. Count of Monte Cristo
(the list can go on...if it's a good movie, I can watch it several times)

Seven people I want to join in this Seven Sevens meme:
Well, since I don't have that many people that read my blog and I don't know many others that have blogs (besides those that have already done this), my Seven Sevens will actually only be Six Sixes.

Hope you guys enjoyed this...it's harder than a person would think to come up with seven items on some of these topics.

Opening Night

Well, we survived opening night of Christmas at Our House. It's amazing how nervous a person can get...I felt like I was going to upchuck, D.J. one of the other cast members went to the bathroom about five times (he was a little nervous), and Jennifer couldn't eat because her hands were shaking so bad she couldn't use a fork. It was crazy...but according to the crowd they loved us. D.J. pulled us out of a couple of spots (one of them being mine...I forgot a line), and we succeeded in completing it without a major mistake. I did step on someone when the lights went out between scenes...once the spot lights went down I was blinded and couldn't see what I was doing to get in place for the second scene. Jennifer and I got a good laugh out of it. The crowd was great! They were responsive to the comments and lines of the play, which makes it a lot easier on the cast to perform. All in all it was a great evening...the food was good, the play was good, and now we have five more nights to make it through. Woo-Hoo!!

Interesting Stories

Following are some stories that I came across while reading the news today, that I thought would totally enlighten you and give you great knowledge (or entertainment):

Bedbugs:
This story is really disgusting, I read it and went ewww. But I figured that the rest of you would want to be up-to-date on what can be eating on you during the night. Especially if you are on your way to a conference or vacation or somewhere that you will be staying in motels or someone else's house. (Enjoy)

Love or Money:
A couple in Texas, one a tax collector and one a tax assessor, have to wait three years to get married. The lady, Rector, is 54 years old and has served five terms in office and 'thinks' that she won't run for re-election. Do you think she really loves him? (True Love?)

Getting out of Debt -- FYI

I was reading in the paper today, online, and a story about credit card companies having the ability to up their 'minimum' payment to 4% of the balance as opposed to 2% caught my eye. The government has decided that personal debt is to high, so to help us out (during this Holiday Season) they have put new rules into effect as of December 1 that will allow credit card companies to double the payments due by consumers. Granted you get out of debt faster, but instead of having a month (two pay periods) to pay off that Christmas present this year, you'll have to have the funds up front when the bill is due. So be careful when shopping this year on how much you actually put on credit cards...it could get a little less than merry if you're not careful. (Minimum Payment Increases)

P.S. Is there something we can do for the government to get them out of debt?