Christmas 2002
I went out the next day to find christmas lights for the tree. All I could find on a string were some sort of garland-like lights that had bunches of four lights at a time, and they were clear. I bought them anyway. They sure made the tree brighter.
Speaking of the tree, it fell over one night and nearly landed on M. She had been laying on the floor near it and luckily rolled out of the way before it could hit her!
I blame it on the new tree stand we bought. Our old one had three bolts to hold the tree in, the new one has four. With three bolts, it's more stabilized because if the tree starts to move in the direction between two bolts, there's that third bolt to stop it. Not so with four bolts. If the tree starts moving between two bolts, there's an equal amount of space on the opposite side to let it fall.
We put on about half the ornaments we have.
I tried making sugar cookies with the girls, but it was a disaster. It was taking too long so I let them cut a few each and did the rest later after they were in bed. The dough was really bad to begin with, too crumbly.
I took the girls to the book store with me to buy my step-father's gift. When we brought it over later that day, C handed the gift to him and said, "Here, Grampa, we bought you books!" *sigh*
On Christmas Eve, I had just dropped the girls off at the sitter's and was getting into my car when an old lady walking up the street asked me if I could give her a ride. I don't know her from Eve, but she was elderly, so I said sure. She was sort of headed in my direction anyway. I dropped her off at the store she wanted to go to and then went to a local mall and bought hubby a gift certificate for Christmas.
That night, after work, I operated a camera for Midnight Mass which was televised here in Anchorage. The service was over a little after 1 a.m., but we had to break-down which took another hour, at least. I got home around 2:30 a.m. when I remembered I forgot something at work (another xmas gift for hubby me, two Columbia Titanium coats from "Santa") so went back to work to get them. When I finally got home, I had to wrap all the Christmas gifts. I think I finally went to bed around 4:15!
When the girls awoke around 8:30, we kept telling them they had to wait until we got up, another half hour or so. When I got up, I setup the video camera and the Christmas music and we opened gifts.
C got a Raggedy Ann doll, a doctor's kit, a Leap Pad from my dad, a set of toy horses from my sister, a teddy bear from M*rgana & MIL, a doll from my mom & step-dad, and a couple other things.
M got a dump truck, a new baby doll, a doll stroller, a teddy bear from M*rgana & MIL, a set of toy horses from my sister, and a couple other things.
Together, they got a set of books and a table/chairs set.
I got hubby the Columbia jacket and gift certificate to a shoe store.
From hubby I got a Kitchenaid stand mixer and a pair of diamond earrings.
In my family, we draw names each year and my brother drew mine this year. He made for me a set of mounted female walrus tusks! It is amazing and ranks right up there with the best gifts I've ever received. It's similar to this, but the tusks are longer and meet at the points, and the wood is different. I'll post a picture once I have one.
That afternoon, we went to MIL's for a couple hours and to eat the Christmas meal she prepared. Then we went to my Mom's & Step-Dad's for dinner. It was probably the best Christmas meal I've had in a long time. We had prime rib, garlic mashed potatoes, ham, broccoli salad, a delicious yam side-dish my mom made (not the usual brown sugar w/marshmallow topping), and eggnog cheesecake for dessert.
This Christmas was definitely better than last Christmas!
Thursday morning, I woke up with a headache, as usual. I decided to try one of hubby's prescription Percoset pills. Probably the dumbest mistake of my life! I went back to bed and 20 minutes later felt like shit. I kinda felt numb all over and nauseous. I tried to puke, but could only get the heaves. The damn med me so sleepy, I slept until noon! It didn't help the headache at all. Never again will I take Percoset!
That same day, hubby un-decorated the tree while I was at work. I took the tree out to the truck the next day. We'll bring it to a recycling area later.
I buzz-cut hubby's hair a couple nights ago to match the length in the area where the doctors had to cut so now his hair is 1/4" long all over!
Back to the Columbia Titanium coats I mentioned earlier... We had the chance at work to order them for $200 less than retail so I jumped at the chance and ordered one for hubby and one for myself and kept them at work, intending them to be our Christmas gifts from Santa. I ordered an XL-tall for hubby and a medium for me. I never tried mine on before Christmas. It turned out to be too small. I couldn't return it from where it was ordered from, so I took it it REI today to see if they'd do an exchange. The customer service guy first had to see if they sell that style. Luckily they do, and he let me, saying, "I'm doing you a favor." Yeah, whatever. The coat I ordered was yellow/dark grey (I had two choices at the time of ordering: yellow/dark grey or royal blue/black. Since I ordered blue for hubby, I ordered yellow for me, not wanting us to get our coats mixed up). They didn't have that style in yellow/dark grey but they did have it in a seafoam green color or a periwinkle blue/dark blue color. I went with the periwinkle. It's pretty.
I tried making a pie tonight. I really hate making/rolling pie dough. I can never get it off the rolling area and onto the pie in one piece. I finally gave up on that and went to the store to buy pre-made dough.
I've mentioned before that C was prenatally exposed to alcohol by her birth-mother. One of the effects is bad judgement and not being able to control impulses. For example, a few days ago, she and M were playing in the living room. M was laying on the floor and C just stepped on her. When I asked her why, she just said, "Because I wanted to." Today, I took her to REI with me and then to a grocery store after. At the grocery store, while I was looking at something else, I heard a *pop* and looked down to see that she had opened a box of milk and the foil seal inside! When I asked her why, she gave me the response again, "Because I wanted to." I don't know what to do! She's got to learn to control her impulses, learn right from wrong, what's okay and what's not okay. I tried enrolling her in a local preschool, Mt. Iliamna, that deals with kids like her, but only heard from them once after submitting the application, to tell me they received the application! They're supposed to do at least an evaluation on her! (Hey, mbwillow, if you've read this far, can ya maybe pull some strings for me here? 
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Well, it's late. I've been writing this for the past hour. I think it's long enough, don't you?
Good night!
since 2/25/2001
Hair
Wednesday, Oct. 06, 2004
Hair
Wednesday, Oct. 06, 2004
JFC!
Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2004
Fuck!
Monday, Sept. 13, 2004
Moving In
Thursday, Sept. 2, 2004
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