and other great mysteries.

Well, it’s not so mysterious, really. After all, I’m building a house and it’s December. That should be self-explanatory. I told someone that it always seems like by the first week of December, the month is half-over. I guess we let our schedules get fuller than they should. But what to say no to? My friends think I’m saying “no” at an alarming rate. But that doesn’t stop life from happening. So what has been going on? Thank goodness a picture is worth a thousand words. In this post, this will count for a whole dissertation.

 
Did he or did he not catch it? I can’t remember but it kinds bothers me seeing him hang there like that. The Montezuma boys came over last Saturday and played our boys (men in both cases). Our men lost but we’ll spare them the grief by not posting their score.

A baby shower for Lena and Marlin, who are expecting their first baby after 13 years of marriage.

Charity’s creative decor. The doll on the left belongs to Lena’s aunt Mary.

The weather has been quite warm. Right now it is raining for which we are tickled!!!! This picture was one I took one evening after work. There seemed to be a fog rising from the ground. It almost look eerie. Or ethereal.

Work has been very very busy. I said if it gets much busier I will have to hire a secretary for me! A little Christmas music and candlelight goes a long way to keeping things going there.

 
Or a new canvas for the wall. Recognize that picture? I got a 16×24 canvas wrap. The wrap is 1.5 inches deep. I bought an extra one for half price so now I need to find a market for it. This one is hanging in my office.

Playing with depth of focus on my camera. Our Christmas dinner is now history. Fun times!

Ginny and I are in charge of Ladies Night Out so we planned a Christmas Party. Neither of us were feeling to inspired but it all came together and I think everyone really enjoyed it. Myra helped us with decorations which was a tremendous help!! We had asked every lady to bring a small plate of food. Depending on the first letter of their last name, it was either 1. sandwiches 2. salty food (meatballs, quiches, pinwheels, chips, etc.) 3. something with dip 4. dessert/sweets. Well, we should’ve emphasized the SMALL plate in our request because the ladies brought large plates or trays of very fabulous food!!! We did not run out of calories that night!

We split the chairs up into three groups, thus encouraging easier conversation than a huge circle. We did not want tables since this was more of a fingerfood type meal. If we could’ve pulled off adding couches to the dining hall we would’ve. But alas, it looked like too much work.

We played charades, getting some serious laughs from the brave ladies who acted for us. Here Katy doesn’t realize she is a bride, kneeling before her groom, though she’s not supposed to be praying to him. They thought they were doing something with putting up Christmas decorations.

We also played a game called Commonalities and Uniquities. We divided up into groups of 5. For commonalities, we had to come up with as many things that we all had in common. Our group was laughing too hard to get much of a list together. We found out we don’t all have dandruff and we aren’t all constipated. Some of us obviously were, though, for that to come up. For the uniquities part, we had to come up with some things that were unique to only 1 person in the group. Then we read them to the whole group and they had to guess who it was.

Andrea, thanks for the link to the game. We were going to use it but ended up not playing it after all. Ginny did use it at the Choice Books banquet last week.

I did mention we’re building a house, right? Here are a few pics from today. I went over to seal the grout in the kitchen. Cabinets to be installed Mon. or Tues.

We did paint the front porch door black. Thanks for your many suggestions!!!

 
Our dining room light minus one globe. Notice the mystery spots on the wall. I was not using a flash and the spots were not on the walls. They only showed up on the pictures I took at this angle.

Looking from the dining room into the living room. Our house is built pretty much square, though it’s hard to tell from these pictures.

The tray ceiling in my room. Can you tell yet that we like green?

The tile around the tub/shower (more of my uncle Lewis’ handiwork!).

Lois’ bedroom has a tan suede paint which is beautiful but hard to get on camera. Looks a little like a canvas background. Hmmmm. Maybe a good backdrop for pictures. Maybe I need to find another chair though!!

Okay, that is a long enough post to last until 2009 or 2010 at least!! Hope you have a great week-before-Christmas. Don’t let your schedule do you in (like mine nearly did). Just say “no” (if you need to).