The cat was napping on Andy's present from Santa, but Andy didn't let him stay there for long!

Santa gave Tom Carharrt Arctic Extreme coveralls. If these don't keep him warm, nothing will!

Andy is staring in disbelief at the box - can it be?! Or did Santa just re-use the box?

Andy showing his affection for his present from Santa.

Here is Tom, after opening his Invader Zim DVDs.

Patient Name: Kringle, Kris
DOB: Unknown
Admission Date: 12/24/2005

DISCHARGE SUMMARY

REASON FOR ADMISSION: This is an elderly gentleman who was admitted because of excess fatigue. The patient stated he felt well, however, his wife insisted on him coming to the ER for evaluation.

HOSPITAL COURSE: The patient was admitted and evaluated. His physical exam was completely within normal limits. However, he exhibited extreme fatigue and would doze off quite frequently. It was determined that the patient needed rest, however, he had a steady stream of visitors which seemed to hamper sleep. At one point the patient's visitors had to be asked to leave and the patient was reminded that animals were not permitted in patient rooms, not only for sanitation reasons but because their antlers were becoming ensnared on IV poles. The patient agreed to ask his visitors to wait until he returned home, however, on the evening of admission several visitors of small stature, interestingly all with what appeared to be surgically modified ears, stated that it was of extreme importance that they visit the patient, and so were allowed to visit briefly. They, too, were eventually asked to leave as the male visitors began behaving inappropriately with the nursing staff.

The patient had laboratory tests done which included CBC, urinalysis and reindeer titer.

When the patient was seen at 1750 on the evening of admission, he seemed agitated and restless. When offered a sedative he declined and stated that he had to go home so that he could "ride around the world in a sleigh". At this point a psych consult was called, however, the patient left AMA.

Orange You Glad I'm Honest?!

Yesterday was an interesting day. Andy and I had a few errands to run, but we did a little shopping too, and generally had a very nice day. On Sunday we had gone grocery shopping at Safeway and I had gotten a large box of oranges. When I got to the cashier, I noticed that a couple oranges in the box were moldy - yuck! I told the cashier that I didn't want them and was getting ready to tell her that I didn't want a replacement, either, but before I could say it she had called the produce manager and was asking for someone to bring me a replacement box. After a minute the produce manager arrived and he took the lid off the box and we inspected all the oranges to make sure they were all okay. Then the box was put on the bottom of my shopping cart which was being loaded with my bagged groceries. Sunday evening I was thinking about those oranges and I didn't seem to remember the cashier ringing them up, so I got out my receipt to look. Sure enough, those oranges were not on the receipt. I knew I was going out Tuesday morning, so I decided that I would go by the store and see if the same cashier was there and try to pay for my oranges. Well, the cashier wasn't there, so I talked to another one. When I told her what had happened, she looked at me like I had three heads. Then she said, "And you want to pay for them?" When I told her yes, she said she needed to call a manager about this. She picked up the phone and turned her back toward me and the conversation (her side, anyway) went like this - "There's a lady here who says she didn't get charged for her oranges and now she wants to pay for them. Yeah, oranges. Yeah, she didn't get charged. Yes, pay. I don't know. She says she wants to pay for them. Yeah, I know. Okay. Bye." Then she turned around and said that "management" had said not to worry about it, and Merry Christmas from Safeway. While that was very nice and I am grateful, I can't shake the feeling that they thought I was just a little looney and just wanted to get me out of the store! Oh, well. At least I don't feel like I'm eating ill-begotten oranges now!

I worked it out with the post office about carrier pickup for my packages for eBay. It turns out that they do indeed pick up packages here, but since our carrier is a contracted one and not actually a USPS employee, the web site wasn't letting me enter information for pickup. The postmaster here told me to just call before 10:00 on any day I needed our mail carrier to pick up packages and she would get them when she delivered my mail. How cool is that?! I have two packages to go out today, so I called the post office and said I had packages for pickup, they said address, please? I said my address, and they said thank you, your packages will be picked up when your mail is delivered. End of conversation. That was easy!

Tomorrow night we are going to Outback Steak House with Jerry's mom and having our Christmas with her. This is the third year we've done this and it seems to work out pretty well. She usually spends Christmas eve and Christmas day with her other children so a few years ago we just decided to get together, have a nice meal out, then do the present thing back at our house afterwards. I haven't been to Outback since last Christmas when we went, so I am looking forward to it. The boys and I sometimes fracture words and turn them around just to make funny different words, and last year in the car on the way to dinner we were dissecting the words "Outback Steak House" and one of the renditions became Steakback Outhouse. So, now that's what we call it. I never claimed to have a normal family!

Weird Pets

Not much going on here, but I had a few pictures of our strange pets, so I thought I'd share. Our animals get weirder by the day, it seems. The old, senile cat decided to stretch out in his litter box and take a nap last night, but I didn't take a picture of that, (EWWW!!), so no pictures of him this time, just the other two. What a zoo we have here.

Buddy carries this piece of string around like Linus carries his blanket. He plays with it constantly and places it in his food dish when he's through with it for a while.

One of his favorite places to sleep is inside Andy's bass drum. Andy had put a pillow inside when he first got the set to tone down the "ringing" noise the drum made, but Peaches seemed to believe it was put there for him. No, he's never been inside when Andy plays!

I got a picture in between his hopping like a rabbit all over the yard and chasing snowballs that we were throwing near him. I said near him - not at him!

The snow must have gotten too cold for him, because we found him here a little while later!

Peaches rolled around in the snow and played in it like a puppy.

O Christmas Tree

We got our Christmas tree tonight. It is standing outside until tomorrow when we will decorate it. We went to Food Lion to do some shopping (that's where we got our tree) and had a laughing fit in one of the aisles. We (Jerry, Andy and I) were standing in front of a candle display sniffing all the different candle scents. We enjoy scented candles and have one that we have been burning in the foyer, but it smells just like Vicks cherry cough drops and gets a little cloying after awhile! We were in search of a new scent and so were reading the names and sniffing the scents. We saw names like Mountain Air, Cucumber Honeydew, Cranberry Grapefruit, and other yummy-sounding things, and they smelled just as nice as their names suggested. Then I came across one labeled "Family Gathering". Family gathering?! That could be quite a cacophony of smells! Aunt Zelda's mothballs mixed with Aunt Gertie's overpowering perfume, Uncle Bob's Ben Gay, Cousin Stumpy's body odor, and let's not forget Baby Molly's diaper. I was almost afraid to open the jar! I was laughing so hard that I couldn't open it, and so just handed it to Jerry. He looked at it and said that evidently whoever named that candle had never been to our house after a day of yard work and smelled one of our "family gatherings"! I'm still chuckling about that. We had more than a few people give us strange looks because of our laughter. Well, we were already getting strange looks because Jerry was dancing to the Muzak in the frozen foods and a couple of other aisles. He made at least one little boy laugh and a grown man chuckle. I told him he'd better stop before there were men with butterfly nets waiting for him at the doors. Oh, in case you're wondering, Family Gathering just smelled fruity to me. Fits my family perfectly!

I saw a commercial yesterday that really bugs me. It is for T.G.I. Fridays and shows a man at the bar who turns around and sees what we then discover is his wife sitting in a booth with some girlfriends. He walks over to her and asks her what she's doing there. When she says that her girlfriend called, he asks her where the kids are and she says they are with her mother. At this point they both turn and look and there is the grandmother with the children in one of the booths, too. Why was it okay for the man to be out and then question his wife when she went out?! Or at least he could have asked her what she was doing there in a nicer sort of way. The way he says it in the commercial is, I think, rather accusatory as if to say, "Hey! I can be here, but you're supposed to be home with the kids!" Double standard, anyone?!

Speaking of commercials, I saw one on the History Channel that had us shaking our heads. There were couples dancing in rather, er, intimate ways. The dancing was getting hotter, as were the dancers, and then the scene cut to ........ tires. Tires. Oh, someone please tell me what dirty dancing has to do with tires?! Perhaps I'm slow but I really fail to get the connection here! Yes, I know that sex sells, but tires?!

Neat Stuff!

Technology is wonderful. Two of the three items I had listed on eBay sold and I decided to try the new shipping options. Before, I would package whatever the item was then take it to the post office for shipping. Now I can print the label including postage right from my computer, tape it on the box, and drop it in the blue postal box in front of the post office. I had hoped for it to be even more convenient, but that didn't work out. There is an option after you print out your postage label that asks if you want to have your mail carrier pick up your packages for shipping when your mail is next delivered. I clicked on that option and entered my information, but it came back and said that carrier pickup wasn't available in my zip code. Oh, well. At least I could just drop the boxes in the blue box and not have to go in and stand in line. Such neat stuff you can do now! The label also included a tracking and confirmation number, something that I used to have to pay extra for when I went to the post office to ship.

I pulled up in front of the post office and Andy dropped the boxes into the blue box in exchange for me stopping by the convenience store and letting him go in to buy a soda. He is really growing up. I know that letting my son go by himself into a store to purchase his own stuff isn't such a big deal to most people, but to this mama it is! He fairly strutted into the store! I was disappointed for him when he was coming out of the store, though. He was coming out just as a grown man was coming into the store. I was so proud of Andy as he opened the door and then politely held it for the man coming in the store. The man never made an effort to get the door, never even acknowledged Andy standing there holding it open for him. He looked straight above Andy's head and into the store as he sauntered inside, just brushing past Andy. Such rudeness.

On a better note, maybe we'll get more snow on Thursday night. Oh, I really hope so! I'm not snowball-battled out yet!

It had been snowing for about three hours when I took this picture. The trees are much more covered now.

Our Christmas flag is up!

Snow! For Really!

Yay! It really is snowing. Tom went to work but has made it safely home now and they have left it up to his discretion whether to try to go in tomorrow or not. Jerry, Andy and I went to Safeway at about noon because Jerry said he was not about to be snowed in without Pepsi or snacks! Of course, the place was absolutely packed. I went along because there were a few things I needed. Like kitty litter. Our resident geriatric cat won't go outside in this weather because he is arthritic and the cold makes him so stiff and is so painful for him that he has trouble walking, so we let him stay in when it's like this - which means double duty with the litter box, because normally he is outside. Anyway, not that you needed to know our cat's litter habits......

Jerry also stopped at the tire place to purchase four tires for Tom. That is his Christmas present, but Jerry gave him the receipt this afternoon so he could have them put on because we really don't want him to wait another three weeks to get the tires since he is driving such long distances now and his tires are in sad shape. I felt kind of badly that Tom wouldn't have that as a gift on Christmas, but he was very happy and said he didn't mind at all. He said he knew he needed tires and was getting worried about how long it would take him to save up enough to get them.

It is really snowing now, and the wind is blowing too, so the snow blows sideways occasionally! I am going to go enjoy this day and enjoy the relative peace before Andy decides it's time for a snowball fight.

Snow?

Can we really be getting snow? I sure hope so. I won't be holding my breath, though, because many, many times when snow was predicted as almost a certainty, it was just rain. I will cheer when it begins and I can see that it really is the fluffy white stuff. Last night there was white stuff, but it was in the form of ice. It was around 11:00 last night when Andy and I heard something loud outside and it was ice coming down. Tom was still at Sam's and was due home at midnight, so I was a little worried about him being on the road. When I saw him pull up in the driveway, I ran to the door to catch him so I could remind him in his haste to get out of the weather to be careful on our wooden step. The wooden step out front always collects ice and snow first and is much more slippery than the concrete sidewalk around it. As he was coming up the sidewalk carefully, I reminded him about the step and he was careful. Just as I was breathing a sigh of relief at the fact that he had made it home safely and maneuvered the wooden step, there was a terrible thud and crash. I had been on my way back upstairs and Tom was heading downstairs when he fell on the stairs because his shoes were wet. Thankfully, he was okay, but oh, the irony!

I have been thinking that Tom should probably carry a card in his wallet or something that states that he has a rod and screws in his leg. I was thinking about that just the other day when I typed a report about a woman who came into the hospital unconscious and when they x-rayed her they found that she had hardware in her shoulder and so didn't do an MRI on her. It made me think that if for any reason Tom were to be unconscious, it might make a difference for it to be known that his leg and knee looked like an Ace hardware store. Not that I am expecting anything to happen to him - I pray for quite the opposite each day as he leaves for work - but sometimes stuff happens.

I am just about finished my Christmas shopping. I have done most of it online again this year. I found that in checking different stores there were sometimes large price differences. One item I looked at was $15.00 less at a different store.

My eBay auctions are ending today and two of the three items I had listed have bids on them. If the third doesn't sell, I will lower the price and relist it for another week. Then if it still doesn't sell, it's out of here. In sorting stuff this past week, I have come across more things to list but haven't had the time to do it.

Well, I'm going to go find our hats, gloves, scarves, sled, etc. You never know.................

Thank You, Lord!

I was so happy to talk to Dad last night. He sounds like a new man. He was so sick and I was so frightened when I talked with him Saturday night. He was wheezing horribly, could barely talk or breathe, and definitely wasn't himself. Last night he said he felt like a miracle had happened. His voice is back and he was cracking jokes again - back to his old self! Well, still moving a little slowly, but on the mend in any case. He is taking all the rest that he needs and not pushing himself. He assured me last night that he wasn't about to do anything as dumb as start to feel better, overdo it, and then be back in the same boat again. He said that even if he feels like putting in a full day at work today, he won't do it because he knows he needs to come home and rest. I have been praying so much for him and especially yesterday when I got worried when we didn't know where Dad was and Sherri couldn't get Mike on the phone. I prayed then - a lot! While I know that we are supposed to accept God's will for what happens in our lives, whether good or bad, I am very grateful that Dad is getting better. Even though it doesn't always feel like it, and we can't understand why death or sickness happens, we have to remember that God ALWAYS has our best interests at heart. He is a loving father who wants the best for His children. We humans are imperfect and yet as parents would never intentionally inflict pain or misery on our children - we want to give them good things and provide well for them. Well, imagine how much more God takes care of us because he is perfect and without faults - and He never makes mistakes. He can see the BIG picture when we can't, and knows how it all goes together. That what faith is - knowing that He is in control and that He knows what's best for us, His children whom He loves dearly. Okay - that being said, I just had to give praise and thanks for Dad being on the road to recovery!

It doesn't take much to impress this bunch here at my house (including myself!), but I must say I'm pretty pleased. The Gamecube video game system that the boys have just stopped working one day last week. It kept saying that it couldn't read the game disc, even though there was one in the machine. No matter what we tried, we couldn't get it to work. I got online and found that after a few years this sometimes happens - the reader "eye" no longer functions and needs to be replaced. A repair at Nintendo would include shipping (both ways), plus $50.00, plus any extras that may be deemed necessary in the repair process. We have had it too long and it was no longer under warranty, and when a new one at Wal-Mart was $70.00, I wasn't about to bother with shipping it and paying for repairs. I had told the boys that we could probably get another one but that it would have to wait until after Christmas as we have tightened our collective belts around here until after the holidays. I did some further research into this reader eye online and found that it can possibly be fixed, and found the instructions on how to try it. Sure enough, after dismantling the machine there was an adjustment screw on the fixture of the reader eye which adjusts it's strength. With a small adjustment counterclockwise, it is now working again and hasn't had a problem since. I also found out that this is exactly what repair places do. For a large fee. Taking the housing off of the machine was interesting, to say the least! You are supposed to have to buy a special bit that unscrews the special screws they use to assemble the machines (they can't just have anyone fixing their machines, you know!) I found the bit for sale at some electronics places, but at $19.99 plus shipping, then having to wait for it to arrive, no thank you. I found an easier method. I'm down a few ink pens, but it worked. I melted the end of a plastic pen (after removing the ink barrel, of course) and then held it down on top of the screw and waited about half a minute. I then was able to unscrew the screw perfectly and had created a custom screwdriver! Oh, the things you can learn to do online! I ended up needing to use a separate pen for each of the four screws and also learned the hard way that you must remove it at just the right time, or it will become hopelessly welded into the screw hole and one's husband must cuss at it and take great pains to remove the plastic shards. Ah, well. All's well that ends well. We just have to use pencils for a while!