Christmas?

I wish this were my Christmas present...it's not available in the U.S. just yet.
Mark my words, I WILL HAVE MY SMART CAR!!!


Doesn't seem like Christmas is just a few days away.
I finally put the tree up last night, with the fishing lure ornaments and it is GORGEOUS! The redneck tree actually looks really nice. Gotta watch out for the hooks, though. Ow.
It's been really fair weather lately, a little over 60 degrees each day--but that is changing because we have wind today. Not just a breeze, a frikkin 20 mph WIND.
I thought my allergies were gonna get better!!

My brother, Grandpa Johnny

My brother is four years older than me, making him 38. We just found out he is going to be a grandpa in April.

Now, John has never had much good luck, all his life. He had awful acne as a teenager and turned to tattoos to take people's attention away from the scars and sores on his face. He hated authority and especially school so of course he was a dropout as soon as our dad died. Covered in tattoos, no diploma, and the very awful attitude pretty much determined the fate of his young adult life.

When he finally got his first real girlfriend, he'd just turned 18. He was still a virgin (and she was not) so of course they had sex as soon as possible. And she got pregnant. She decided she wanted to keep the baby. They soon broke up, and John shortly after that moved to Arizona. Right after that he was in a motorcycle accident and had to undergo brain surgery and subsequent physical therapy. He was pretty screwed up for a while.
The baby was born and John was court ordered to make child support payments. I think he managed to visit once or twice while the little girl was growing up--but she probably was better off without him in her life so much. Her mother married a guy and John's daughter was brought up in a strict, normal home.
She made contact with me right before her high school graduation this past year, and I was excited to hear about her college plans. I sent money as soon as possible, to help her get started on college. I periodically talked with her or her mom to keep up with things. As I got busy this past summer the communication kinda dropped off. That's when she got pregnant.

It's disappointing to see this girl live out the stupid life that her mother and grandmother lived before her; being a teenage mom in Omaha, Nebraska. It's especially disappointing because some of the conversations I had with her sounded as if she was interested in moving out of there once she finished a couple of years at the community college, so she could possibly go to a University here in Arizona.
We know people who could've really hooked her up with scholarships and grants, and we certainly would've helped her cover the costs.

God, I hate Omaha.

Scoff Law

My current license plate says CHICKA, and it has since I was in high school. I am so tired of it, I decided to order a new one.

SCOF LAW

Of course you have to tell the DMV the reason behind your plate choice, so I wrote, "I don't follow rules."

We'll see if it gets approved.

I'm Building This

So help me GAWD I will find a way, thru sponsors, donors, I don't care....

www.gametruckparty.com

And I will truly be queen of the party.

We saw it driving down the freeway in Phoenix and I think I need one. BADLY.

O

Santa Magic

Every year since I became computer literate, I have made my son's Christmas experience a little more thrilling. There's the NORAD site that tracks Santa's progress on Christmas Eve--we log onto that and check the map to see if it's time to hurry up and get to bed before Santa arrives. And then there's the www.emailsanta.com page that we visit.
Shay fills in a few key words like his name, age, where he lives, what he wants for Christmas, then clicks a button to "email" Santa. Santa immediately replies. "Ho ho ho Shay, glad to hear from ya. Mrs. Claus loves Lake Havasu, it's her favorite place to visit when it's cold up here in the North Pole." Etc, etc.

Shay had come home from school yesterday, kinda worried because his best buddy Andrew said he didn't believe in Santa. Now, I'm not quite ready to take Santa away from Shay, it seems to keep him a little more innocent. I didn't know what to say to calm his worries, though. It was his idea to email Santa, so we did after dinner.

Santa mentioned in his email back to Shay that, "I'm sure you're hearing some things from kids at school about me, but don't worry about that." Shay was absolutely stunned.
"He MUST BE REAL!! OH MY GOD! He knew what Andrew had said about him!!"
And what's really neat is, the emailsanta site already knew to stick that in the letter because of Shay's age. Kids naturally start that doubting stuff when they're 10.

We printed the email and Shay put it in his backpack to take to school this morning. He'll show it to Andrew and then that'll be the big buzz around the classroom. "Shay's got an email from Santa...."

In addition to the emailing thing on the site, there's photo galleries of the North Pole, the elves homes, the workshop, Santa's house, and lots of snow. It's probably just a village in Sweden or somethin, but Shay was floored. "Oh my GOD there's Santa's house!!!"

So I guess this means I'm Santa, for one more year....

Nobody Cares

Unless they're reading this, that is.

Good news, I have nearly all my Christmas shopping done. My son is very easy to shop for, and quite predictable right now. The only thing left for him is some new bedding for his bunk bed, and then some candy for his stocking.
I did ask him the other day what he would like for Christmas and he said a Playstation 3. Yeah, that's not happening. I'll let one of his other gift sources put out the money for that. He has me, his dad, his dad's parents, my parents, and his extended family who all buy stuff for him. That's something I'm COMPLETELY grateful for. When I was growing up, we didn't have that much family living near us.

Since I put so much thought and preparation into Steve's birthday, I am drawing a blank on his Christmas gift. Something came to me this morning but it will take a small loan from my boss to pull it off. And a couple of months of payments.