The Super Fabulous Schneider Christmas Tree of 2012

Tabbie Hoffman is already watching for Santa Claus.  I told him that Santa will come down the chimney but he said everybody else comes through this door, Santa will, too. 

Giving Thanks

Today I am thankful for my family and I'm thankful that they can flat COOK!  This is my plate today.  I've been absolutely miserable since about eight bites in. Probably won't eat again until Tuesday.

Yum yum!!  Turkey and ham, dressing, giblet gravy, sweet potato souffle, mac and cheese, broccoli casserole, parmesan potatoes, Brussels sprouts, green bean casserole, sweet potato stacks, peas and a roll.  I think that's it.  I'm pretty sure something else was hiding under there, though.

 




I'm also thankful to have been born into a hilarious family.  Not many there today even like blue cheese so my sweet potato stacks weren't much of a hit.  They were delicious, if you like blue cheese.  Mama said she didn't know what kind of cheese that was but it was r'urnt and Daddy said he didn't know if he liked blue cheese or not 'cause he's from the country. They crack me up.

I'm thankful for this sweet girl here.  It's so awesome to have a baby in the family again!

I'm thankful for my husband, who loves me with all his heart and tells me so.

I'm thankful most of all for my faith in the Lord's plan for my life, that even when I can't make sense of it, HE knows what's going on.

And I'm very, very thankful for my home, my warm bed and my yoga pants, all of which will be seeing a lot of me tomorrow as I am not doing the Black Friday thing.  I'm doing the Slack Friday thing.

Happy Thanksgiving! 

This little light of mine

I've noticed for a week or so that my porch light fixture was looking baaaaaad.  It had a yellow burned spot right in the middle of the plastic.  And bugs.  Lots and lots of bugs.

I decided to get the ladder out today when I got home from work and get up there and at least clean the bugs out.  I took the cover off and the light bulb fell out, still attached but not attached.  Make sense?  The little metal piece holding it in place had rusted clean through and the bulb was just laying on the plastic cover.  

My paranoid delusions and ohmygod, what if perfectly normal fear of fire has intensified since Tabbie Hoffman came to live with me so I decided I was going to disconnect the whole thing and call an electrician to come hook up a new fixture.

Wait a minute.  I am an electrician.  Or at least I play one at the base.  I figured I could try it.  I mean, if I can kinda-sorta rewire an F-15 and install things on the jet like an angle of attack probe (oh, yes, I did.), I can do a simple home wiring job.

So I went over to Lowe's and got a new light fixture, came home, cut the power to the house and hooked that baby right on up!  I hooked up the hot wire, the neutral and the ground and halleluyer, it worked!  

I am so proud.  :)  Two years ago, I would not have attempted such a thing.  I have grown so much, learned so much with my course of study and my new job.  

When I flipped on the switch, I wondered if that was how God felt when He created light and darkness.  Looky here what I did!

Halfway through already??

I cannot believe it is November 16th and I've only written two posts this month!  Not that things are all that interesting in my life but some stuff has happened.  First of all, the election is over, my guy won but now there's all this talk of states wanting to secede from the union.  I think that's silly, childish and speaks of poor sports.  As I've said on Facebook, where's that "love it or leave it" attitude they gave us during the Bush years?  We bleeding hearts didn't threaten to abandon our country, we didn't suggest giving up and giving in.  We dug in and fought hard the next four years.  And, eventually, things turned our way.  I do still have my "He's NOT my president" t-shirt hanging in my closet if anybody wants it.  I'm just sayin'.

Thanksgiving is NEXT WEEK.  This month has gone by so fast!  I think my family is going to attempt something we've never done before.  We're talking about drawing names for Christmas.  There are only ten of us and Baby Lizzie but we've always bought everybody a gift (or four).  This year, we want to try drawing names.  I'm on both sides of this fence.  One side is me wanting to get everybody something like I've always done and the other side is me not wanting to lug home a bunch of gifts and try to find homes for them in my tiny 1,000 square foot house.  It messes with the minimalist way I'm trying to live.  Besides, I would love to just enjoy the true meaning of Christmas the way it deserves to be enjoyed.  A baby in a manger and my family together, warm and happy.
 


Speaking of Baby Lizzie, she came to visit me Monday night!  And she brought along her mommy and daddy.  It was such a wonderful surprise!  I took this picture of her while she was getting her diaper changed.  For modesty's sake, the picture has been cropped.  :)  She's such a sweetheart.  Just like her mama.

I love the "power to the people!" stance she's taking.  Baby girl is sho' after Aunt Ninner's heart.  She doesn't even need to try, though.  She's already got it.





Today we had F-15 Wingman Day at work.  We enjoyed a picnic of smoked Boston butt, baked beans, cole slaw, potato salad, cake and drinks in one of the parks on base.  As soon as I left, and I mean AS SOON as I got off base, I got a speeding ticket.  In that 40 mph speed trap on Russell.  Ugh.  I was going 58.  Oh well.  Merry Christmas, City of Warner Robins!

Monday, I start a new job in a new building to continue my training.  I'm really excited and not at all nervous.  I don't know how long I'll be there until they move me around again but I'm going to soak up everything I can about that particular part of the F-15's stay at Robins.  I registered for school on Election Day and signed up for the five classes I need to graduate in May.  17 credit hours.  That's gonna be tough but I'm determined to get done in one semester.  

 

I took Tabbie Hoffman for his booster vaccinations today.  He is SO hilarious.  Every time we go to the vet, he does this with his blanky in the kennel.  He doesn't want anybody to see him and he sure doesn't want to see anybody!





 


Here he is trying to get back IN the kennel after we took him out to weigh him and take his temperature.  He weighs eight pounds now.

 I know this thing has a hole in it somewhere!

 Ahh, there it is.  But what is this lock nonsense??

He makes me laugh every single day.  He's so funny and he has become very talkative in the past week or so.  We have long conversations about stuff.  Today was the first time that a vet actually told me something's physically wrong with his right ear.  It has never looked right.  Ami noticed it right away the day I found him.  It's a little wonky.  Well, it's deformed, from birth.  And the sweet little vet I saw today who looked all of fifteen years old told me that the canal is extremely narrow, which explains the constant ear infection we've fought since July.  Gah.  He's missing an inside fold in his ear, too.  Poor baby. All we can do is keep it clean and flush it out once a week with an ear cleanser to keep bacteria and debris out.  He's an inside kitty and my house stays super clean so that shouldn't be a problem.  Unless he kicks litter up in it, oh my God, does he love to kick litter.

So that just about catches my life up to now.  I'm really looking forward to next week and my new job assignment, Thanksgiving and getting Mama and Daddy's Christmas tree decorated.

Maybe I'll get my tree up, too.

Things I wish I'd known as a teenaged girl

I saw this on another blog and I thought it'd be fun to do!  Never Been Kissed is one of my very favorite movies.  Bless her heart.  :)  

Here's what I wish I'd known at that age.

 
Your mama is right.  About pretty much everything.  Listen to her.  She and your daddy really DO have your very best interest at heart.

It is perfectly FINE to stay home on Friday nights and watch "Dallas".  It's also more than fine not to have dates.  Girl, God has a love planned for you that you are not going to believe.  Shoot, NOBODY is going to believe it.  I remember Larry asking me shortly after we met how I could possibly not be taken and I told him, "'Cause I've been waiting for you."

It is NOT perfectly fine, however, to wear legwarmers to school every. day.  Not even if you have them in several different colors.  Not even then.

If you want to go to the prom, GO.

Don't be so shy and scared to try new things.  You are sure going to get over this one!  And don't worry so much about not fitting in.  You're not ever going to.  But they're going to love you anyway.  Except during election years.  :)

Don't be in such a hurry to grow up!  Enjoy these years because they are fleeting and precious.  And when they're gone, you are OLD.  

I wish I could go back and just reassure myself that it really is going to be all right.  And all those things that were the absolute-end-of-the-world-oh-my-god-how-will-I-ever-survive-this really weren't and you will.

But there will always be pie

Is it just me or did October zoom by???  Just like that, it's gone.  The fair, gone.  Pumpkins, carved and hopefully thrown in a compost somewhere.  Costumes thrown in toy boxes for rainy dress-up days.  Leftover candy?  Now there's my problem.

This week has totally kicked my ass and it's only Thursday.  I woke up around 2:00 yesterday morning feeling sick to my stomach and I couldn't keep anything down, not even water, until late yesterday afternoon.  I called in sick for my F-15 class that I'm taking this week, which is VERY good, by the way, crawled back into bed and didn't get up until after 3:30.  I had a temperature of 102, body aches, chills, hallucinations that it was the chipmunks in my backyard that had brought me to this lowly place, I cannot remember ever feeling so bad.  In my life.  

I scared poor Tabbie Hoffman half to death.  The first time.  By the fourth time, he was like, "Do you MIND??  My GOD, woman, I'm trying to sleep." 

I don't know what it was.  Stomach flu, food poisoning (I did have chicken salad from the pizza place on base for lunch Tuesday), just a friendly visit from da debil, I don't know.  I just know that it was SO BAD and I'm still not quite right yet.  I didn't even feel like doing trick-or-treat last night so now I have this huge bowl of candy.  The guys at work will appreciate it next week.

So November's here.  Lots of good stuff going on this month!  The election will be over, thank God, the final (thank God) installment of Twilight will be in theaters, there'll be pie, cooler temperatures, my beloved yoga pants, crunchier leaves and thinking about Christmas.  And there will be pie.