Fadedwords

I got a lovely, full-night’s sleep last night.  It was just what I needed… after a week of being away and busy non-stop, being back in my own bed was truly fantastic.

I wrote about Christmas.  Other than Thelma’s fall, it was a great holiday.  Jake told me that T-Lou pulled him aside and confided that she “really liked me” and told him “not to mess it up.” *smile* As if he could.

Wednesday we went to Brian and Mary Jo’s.  We enjoyed the night with some good food (steaks and potatoes mmm!) and Guitar Hero.  We went to bed somewhat early though, because we had to get up early on Thursday.  We left the house at around 8am for New Orleans.

I can’t tell you how much fun we had in New Orleans.  We walked and walked and walked… saw the things I’ve always heard about.  We walked Canal Street and Bourbon Street.  We saw the French Market.  We went to Cafe Du Monde.  It was just a really wonderful day.  Brian and Mary Jo are extremely fun to hang out with, and both Jake and I are glad we were able to spend so much time with them… especially touring New Orleans.  I’ll post pictures as soon as I have them all together.

Friday was a very lazy day.  We spent most of it lounging around the house reading, although we did take a trip out to the house Jake and his Dad lived in when he was younger.  When we got back from that we did some shooting down at the lake and then went back to the house and read some more.  I finished three books while we were in Mississippi:  The Rest of Her Life by L. Moriarty, The Pact by Jodi Picoult, and the third one I can’t remember the exact title.

We’re both glad to be home… really glad.  I went grocery shopping this morning, then we went to Cary and I got my hair chopped off.  Now we’re lounging around while dinner cooks.  I’m doing a roast and mashed potatoes, two things I’ve never cooked.  I’ll let you know how things turn out.

We made it back to North Carolina at around 6pm.  We’re both exhausted and glad to be home.

I’ll try to write a more in-depth entry tomorrow, complete with some pictures and links to all of them up in my gallery.

It’s been a good Christmas, other than missing my family a great deal.  I’m not a big holiday person… in fact I really don’t like Christmas at all.  I didn’t realize until this year how much it means to me to be with my family though.  Don’t get me wrong, I have loved being with Jake and his family.  I just missed mine.

We had some dramatics on Christmas Eve.  Jake’s step-mom was nowhere to be found.  His Dad started looking around the house, and as we were looking we heard a little yell.  So we went out the front door, and then could really hear the yelling.  It was Thelma.  She had apparently gone out to the little shed they keep a freezer and fridge in for extra storage to get something.  On her way out she stubbed her toe and lost her balance, falling and hitting her head on the sink.  I got to her first, and she was bleeding from her nose and from her hand.  She was already bruising badly in her chin.  We got her inside, cleaned up enough to see how bad the cut on her hand was, and then Jake and his Dad took her to the hospital.  I stayed home with Thelma’s niece T-Lou and cleaned up from dinner and set stuff cooking for Christmas Day dinner.  Thelma is OK, thank goodness.  She needed four stitches in her finger.  Her chin is horribly bruised and she has a bad black eye as well.

I got lots of lovely presents.  I think I got all the DVDs I asked for from my parents.  Jake got me two others that I’ve really been wanting.  He also got me an IPod.  I couldn’t believe it when I opened it.  He’s been telling me for awhile that he wished he could’ve afforded one… and he had me fooled.  Unfortunately, they sent us the wrong IPod.  They shipped us one with the wrong engraving on the back.  He’s on the phone right now with Apple Customer Service.  They’ve told him they’ll express ship a new one, but now he’s on hold to get some kind of a service number… and he’s been on hold forever.  Hopefully it goes through soon.  We have lots of other stuff to do today, and we’d both like the IPod to be at the house when we get back home.

I hope everyone else had a great Christmas.  It was so nice being with Jake… the first Christmas we’ve spent actually together in the nearly two years we’ve been dating.

Tomorrow we go to New Orleans with Brian and Mary Jo.

We made it to Mississippi in good time and without even a blip on the traffic radar.  Our arrival was right about dinner time, and we had a fabulous meal of spaghetti and homemade meatballs.  It’s been a great time so far.

I won’t have net access again until at least Wednesday, but probably Saturday.  I hope everyone has a fantastic Christmas.

A conversation from last night:

Me: *puts finger on Jake’s arm*
Jake: *puts finger on my arm*
Me: you have to let me win because I’m cranky
Jake: ok *removes finger*
Me: I win!

We will be leaving tomorrow morning bright and early for Mississippi. There is no internet at his father and step-mom’s house, so it’s not likely I’ll be updating here frequently. We will be visiting Hattiesburg at some point, and might stop at Java Works where they have WiFi. We’re also going to see Brian and Mary Jo!!! There will be many, many photos, and I will blog in OpenOffice until we get to a place that has internet.

I have tons to do today in preparation of our departure. Cleaning and packing and finalizing Christmas business. I just had to share one of the many reasons I love Jake so much; he’s able to let me win when I need him to… at the small things and the big things.