With this badge . . .

With this post I thee finish! WOOT! I did it. I have crossed the finish line. And with only two really non-post posts.

There is much going on over here in Smock Land. I’ve been a nervous wreck and was not even aware of it until this morning as I sat in the care this morning waiting for SmockDaddy to come out of the car rental office. As I sat there I realized I must be nervous or more upset than I thought I was because I just bit/chewed everyone of my fingernails off. I have not done that in years and I mean years. I do keep them cut short and usually spend no time on them at all. I sometimes find myself tearing at them when I am nervous or upset and I stop myself, but the full blown biting - have not done since before I got married. I do not like it when SmockDaddy drives alone long distance. He gets mesmerized by the road and I worry about him having a wreck.

The grandparents were here this past week for Thanksgiving and they recently sold there house and made a move to a better situation for them - one story, no stairs (except for the attic/bonus room), slightly smaller yard and definitely flatter terrain for easier upkeep. It will be a little hard for us to get used to visiting them and not going to Birmingham anymore. We are hoping to get to visit them right after Christmas, but they still have boxes everywhere, well, mostly in the room where we will be staying and most of those things need to be in the attic. SmockDaddy has gone to help them do that - and will turn around and come right back tomorrow. He needs to be here for Sunday. We only have one car able to make a trip and the other car could leave me stranded anywhere in town so a rental was in order for this trip.

Abrupt subject change - DOINK!

We’ve been ironing and backing and cutting and gluing and Internet searching and wrapping and shipping and anything else that goes with the new little ponytail holder making and selling. I’ve got more pics to take and get put up.

DOINK!

The heater in the house is about to go out, yuck. Over a week ago we reported the house shaking noise the unit was making and they just sent their handyman last night to look at it. He confirmed that it was about to blow and needed replacing. They have not decided yet what to do. UGH! I hope they don’t take a week to decide. This is an old house and the heater either blows cold air or air so hot that it feels like a dragon is living in the furnace blowing fire hot air but for short spurts, you know a dying dragon. Each time the dragon blows the unit shakes so hard the whole house rattles and it is so loud that we have to bump up our vocal volume to the point of sounding like we are screaming. Well, we do scream and then we realize we are screaming when the dragon stops. It’s not blowing right now and my fingers are very cold and I am backspacing almost every third letter because my fingers are hurting.

DOINK!

Now that NaBloP is over I am not going to take the month of December off, but I do want to take a bit of time to work on some things behind the scenes. I’ve enjoyed the challenge of writing daily. I prefer a challenge of writing daily, but having something really worthwhile to write about. I’ve got a long list of goodies, but I want to do them justice and they need more than just a quick sit down at the computer, write, spell check, post. I need to really do them justice. I referred to some of those things during this past month and I hope to get it all lined up during this next month.

DOINK!

Advent begins tomorrow and I still have not properly prepared for it. While I have much to do tonight and tomorrow to get things ready, I am wondering if I’ll get it done. SmockDaddy will be gone tonight and that will upset Princerella greatly, but even more, she will be upset that Mog will not be here either. She has a slumber party to attend and Princerella can not sleep unless her big sister is in the room with her. I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve, but we’ll see. The slumber party is the other reason I am a bit nervous. The party is about 30 minutes away and with a family I know, but not very well. More than that, I am a bit worried about one particular child that will be there. She has not been too kind to my daughter lately, and I worry for Mog. Her feelings have been hurt a lot lately, but she pushes on. She has a great heart and is so much more worried about the girl who has been catty than she is of herself. She has talked to this girl about what was said and the attitude that hurts my daughter so much, but the girl does not think she has done or said anything wrong. It’s a tough one. “Mom, I just don’t understand why someone could say something like that and not care that it hurt someone else. I don’t understand why anyone would even want to be so mean?” She wants to handle it by herself. She has talked to the girl and told me that she hurts that the girl does not care that she said something that hurt, but she also told me she was going to the party anyway because “there will always be people like that in life and I’m not going to miss out on the fun because of them, even if they hurt me in the process.” I am so proud of her. She is growing up so much on the outside, but it’s obvious how much she is growing on the inside too. And you know what? With that kind of attitude I doubt she’ll get hurt much in the process anyway. It’s water off a duck’s back.

Now I’m off to make a few phone calls (I hope my phone is charged now), type a few labels, make a few plans for tonight (the rest of us just may have our own private party), and run an errand or two.