Fadedwords

I received my Christmas gift from one of my best friends, Monica, yesterday.  I was very excited because she had said how excited she was to give it to me.  When I opened it, I cannot begin to explain how moved and excited I was.

Yes, she drew that.  All by herself.  I’ve been hoping she would do a pencil drawing for me ever since I saw the first one she did.  I have one of her paintings that she gave me for Christmas several years ago hanging on the wall in my bedroom.  She is an incredibly talented photographer, but I will always think that her ability to draw is just astounding.  Please stop by her website and take a look at what she can do.  She is a photographer, portrait drawer, and she also makes incredible wooden boxes.

This drawing will be framed as soon as  I get paid and will be hung on our living room wall above the couch.  I want every single person who comes into this house to see what a talented and amazing friend I have.

Thank you Mon, for such an amazing gift.  I absolutely love it.

The last few days have been busy.  Here’s a breakdown:

• Thursday and Friday I was home sick.  Bronchitis.  Yay.
• Friday afternoon I manned up and drove to Plymouth.  I’d had the trip planned for about a month, and there was no way I was canceling.
• Spent about 2 hours hanging out with friends/former coworkers at the middle school I worked at when I first got down here.
• Had a great conversation with Jay, a very good friend from that school.  It was great to hang out with him.
• Went out to dinner with Courtney and Paul at Mama’s Pizza, my favorite place ever.
• Went to the most redneck party of my life.  No, seriously.  There was a confederate flag prominently displayed on the wall, a stripper pole installed in the ceiling, and I was one of two people who were not smoking.  Also, there was a girl going on and on about how much she hated another girl because she happened to like the company of black people.  Of course, she did not say it that way.   I lasted about two hours.  The combination of severe smoke inhalation, bronchitis and being a yankee that cannot put up with ignorance got the best of me.
• Up late late late on Friday night coughing, tossing, and turning.
• Slept in on Saturday.
• Went to the new Super W*l-mart in Williamston and got supplies for a dinner of snack food (cheese, crackers, veggies, french bread).
• Hung out with Courtney and Kristen enjoying food and many laughs.
• Watched Wall-E, which was incredibly adorable.
• Drove home today.
• Finished up the very last of my Christmas shopping.
• I got home at 1:30 and have been baking ever since.
• I have finished up gift boxes for my administrators, two friends, and the family of the little girl I provided homebound instruction for.  I’ll have 3 more boxes for people on my committee done as well.

I have to bake another batch of sugar cookies, oatmeal raisin cookies, and chocolate chip cookies.  I also need to make up another couple batches of peppermint bark.  Then all of my holiday baking will be done.

This week is going to drag by, simply because it’s the week before an extended break.  It is made worse by the fact that I have so much to look forward to next week because we’re going to New York for Christmas.  I can’t wait to get up there, see my family, and enjoy the time off with Jake.

I don’t think there will be a Merlin Monday tomorrow.  I don’t have any new photos of him, as I’ve been sick and way too busy to take any.  We’ll see how it goes though.

Yesterday, despite being sick and wanting to do nothing more than stay in my pjs curled up in bed, I went Christmas shopping with my good friend Bethany.  I hate shopping in general, so tacking on the word “Christmas” to the front of it really makes it miserable.  This is not my favorite time of year.  It’s not even in the top five.  People get ruder, the mall is even more crowded, and traffic is more hectic.  Don’t get me wrong; I truly love giving gifts.  I love seeing my friends and family members’ faces light up when I give them something they’ve really been wanting.  I love baking hundreds of cookies just to have something nice and homemade to give to all the people I care about.  I suppose it’s not exactly Christmas I hate… it’s the rampant commercialism and greed surrounding it.  *shrug* Just call me Ebbie, short for Ebeneazer and we’ll leave it at that.

In any case, we went out at about 11:30. We hit up Barnes and Noble, Old Navy, Best Buy and then walked up to the mall. We went to one of the largest in the area, and were lucky enough to score parking close by. It was nice to be with a friend that didn’t mind walking a bit to get to and fro. I have a lot of friends that would have been like, “It’s a block away!” Bethany rocks. All the stores were packed, but it wasn’t too awful. We ate some lunch before we got too into shopping mode, and then went on our various missions. Thankful neither one of us is a browsing shopper; we both knew what we needed to get, got it, and moved on. There were a couple places that we did do a little slow down, like B&N.  We both love bookstores though.

We were done in four hours, back in the car and ready to go home.  Sounds quick, easy, and incredbily safe right?  You’re wondering ‘How did you almost die Kate?’ Or at least you should be.  Because we almost did.

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We had a really lovely Thanksgiving Day.  There were no big plans, just us making dinner here at the house and enjoying it together.  Jake had decided to fry the turkey.  It came out so incredibly tasty.  The very top got a little bit crispy because it touched the fryer, but the meet was tender, juicy and very flavorful.

I’m proud of myself because I did not over eat.  I stayed within my points for the meal, and only went over for the day by about 3 points thanks to a second slice of pumpkin pie. 

I’m thankful for a great deal of things… my family who I miss terribly.  I’m thankful for my truly wonderful friends that have seen me through some tough times, as well as helped me find even more joy on the regular days.  I’m thankful for an 86 pound furry idiot that we like to call Merlin (or Noodle or Moose or Idiot) and the fact that he’s currently curled up with his nose on my lap. I’m thankful for my job and the fact that there’s never a time that I have to worry about having food or the things I need to survive.

I’m thankful for my wonderful boyfriend and the fact that this is our third Thanksgiving together.   It seems unbelievable to me that we’ve been together this long, that this is the third year celebrating this holiday together.  I feel incredibly lucky to have that in my life.

All of the pictures from Thanksgiving are here.  The food was yummy and the day was wonderful

In other news, I did something today that I never thought I’d do.  I went out shopping on Black Friday.  It wasn’t all that bad actually, much in part I’m sure to the economic situation in the country right now.  I found a GPS system for $110 and also was able to get a gift for my Dad.  I’m pretty excited about both;  I’ve wanted a GPS unit for quite some time, and now I have one.  It will be *so* nice to drive up to New York for Christmas with this.

I hope everyone out there had a wonderful holiday.

Last night my group of friends went out to celebrate Sarah’s 26th birthday.  It was a fantastic evening, made even more fun because Jake came.  This is the first time he’s been out and met all my friends, so he was a little bit nervous.  Everyone really liked him (as I knew they would), and he said he had fun.

Click on the photo to see the rest of the pictures.

I’ll admit that I had about 1/4 of a bowl of seafood pesto pasta, and it was outstanding.  I can tell I didn’t over do things because my stomach didn’t get all torn up from eating it.  It was fantastic, and totally worth the probably 18 points I used for it.

Today I’m going to go to the grocery store and get the last of the things I need for Thanksgiving.  This afternoon I’m heading up to Cary to hang out with my good friend Steve for the day.  We’re going to play some W*ii and then go out to dinner.

I have two days of school this week and then three glorious days off for the holiday.  On Wednesday Sarah, Bethany and I are going to go see T*wilight.  I’m very excited even though I know that it won’t be as good as the book.  We’re all turbo nerds, but I’m totally OK with it.  Next Saturday I’ll be going to my friend Bre’s house for an all-day crop.  I’m really looking forward to that because I have a project to finish for Christmas.

In other news, Jake sold his old motorcycle and bought a new one.  Head on over to his site and check out the photos of the new bike.  It’s very shiny and will absolutely mean that I will hardly ever see him because he’ll be out riding all the time.  :)  It makes him happy though, and that’s what matters.