You're about to have a redneck Christmas if...

....you have a blow-up sculpture in your yard that incorporates FLAMINGOS

Yeah... I laughed pretty hard. Caught this in somebody's yard in some small town between Marshall and St. Cloud last weekend.

Christmas is in 6 days. I don't care. I just am not feeling it. Which is weird because I SO LOVE this time of year. The kids will leave on Saturday to their fathers' houses for the week. I have an extra week of shopping afforded to me, and I still am not prepared. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm...

I think mostly it's due to that nothing about Christmas this year is 'mine'. I am not spending it doing what I normally do; nor will my family and friends be here (or I there). I never had 'cookie day' with the kids. We didn't go see Santa. I barely got the cards done. I will spend half of Christmas Eve at work, the other half at home alone. Christmas I will get a glorius sleep in, before that sadness of the unopened presents sets in, and then I believe we're suppose to make an appearance at the in-laws.

On the upside...a friend that I missed dearly has reappeared, my friend and her husband had their 10th child yesterday and a couple more friends have announced they are expecting. More power to 'em!

I still hate my job beyond belief. My supervisor doesn't help that at all. She doesn't possess one iota of professionalism. And a new segment: "Dumb Calls I've Gotten This Week From Customers (I've actually considered making a list and writing a book when I leave Schwan's):

1. "A Schwan's man is peeing on my neighbor's bushes"
2. "Can you page my driver and have him come back as he left his wedding ring on my side table"
3. "My delivery was scheduled between 10-1 today and he hasn't shown up yet" (it's 1:03 in this person's time zone)

So I am gonna just bite the bullet, take a draw on my credit card and retake my dental exam. And I will pass it this time. I have to. I can't stand living paycheck to paycheck. My bills are soon increasing with the upcoming repayment of my school loans starting and I start my online classes at MSU (MN State, not MT State) in January. Will start with one class and go from there.

I hear there is a group of people that are trying to change "ho, ho, ho" to "ha, ha, ha" as it's less derogatory.... PLEASE SHUT UP

Things boys dream of..

On Alex's actual birthday, December 5th, we had a small family dinner at home. Beforehand, Todd had me bring him down to the shop so he could take him for a spin in a very large and brand new tractor. Then had a tour of the Combine shed. He had a blast!

The World Through Frosted Glass

This photo turned out fabulous! Took this of Doug one evening while he was here for Alex's birthday. He'd been outside and came in all fogged up!

Birthday Boy!

The first weekend of December we celebrated Alex's 6th birthday with a swim party at the YMCA. We had a great time! He had several school friends, a few neighbors and of course various family members there. I found it odd that hardly anyone ate the pizza and NOBODY touched the cake.. they were too excited to get in the pool I guess.