1. Stay in or go out on New Year’s Eve?

I’d prefer to go out, but I never have. I’m a loser. But at least I’m a safe loser.

2. If you stay home, do you stay up to ring in the new year, or fall asleep earlier?

I stay up to watch the ball drop. Normally I watch Dick Clark’s Rockin’ New Year’s Eve. I have ONE question – just how old IS that man?

3. If you go out, do you prefer to attend a party at someone’s home, or go to a bar/nightclub/restaurant?

Um .. I never go out for New Year’s, but I’d choose a big party at someone’s home.

4. Make resolutions, or do you not bother?

Usually I don’t bother because we all know I won’t keep them.

5. Ever been to Times Square (New York City) on New Year’s Eve, or just watched the ball drop on TV?

Sorry to say it, but I’ve only watched it through the TV screen.

6. Toast the New Year with champagne or a soft drink?

How about C, Amaretto Sour? *CHEERS*

7. Do you have a special New Year’s dinner or not?

Nope .. but tonight we had Outback take-out.

8. Do you already have your 2003 calendar, or do you wait to buy one until the stores mark them down?

I’ve had mine since August. My mom brought it back from Hawaii.

9. Take down Christmas decorations: before or after New Year’s?

If I had a box for my tree, it’d be down. But since I don’t – it’s still up. I’d really rather the Christmas decor kicked to the curb before New Year’s.

10. Funny hats and noisemakers, or a quieter celebration?

I’d prefer noisemakers, hats, the ’2003′ glasses .. kisses .. drinking .. but yeah – I’m on the computer sipping an Amaretto and watching the Sex & the City marathon. REAL festive, eh?

Psst! Only 15 hours left of 2002 here on the East Coast!

It’s time to start checking off my list of resolutions ..

001. First and foremost, I promise – no wait, vow – to be a good mother. This is the most important thing.

002. I don’t plan on losing weight, but can I gain a pound or two? I’m looking like a toothpick these days. Hey, can I pick the area I want the weight to go to? I know EXACTLY where it should go.

003. I resolve to be a better friend.

004. I want to stop using so much foul language. Ouch.

005. I promise to try and wear not so many turtleneck sweaters (but man, I love ‘em!). Haha!

006. I want to get off of the five year plan (Associate’s here I come).

007. I want to move out of my parent’s house.

008. I resolve to be more creative ..

009. .. and more frugal ..

010. .. and more loving ..

So that’s it so far..

Shanee, I am still waiting on that blog. Where ya at, girlie?

So here it is .. a brand spankin’ new layout for a brand spankin’ new year. Now Shanee can come off of strike (or ‘stike’ as she put it LOL) and write complete words again. I hope.

I am in lazy mode and REALLY didn’t feel like changing all of my usual pages, so for now everything has been consolidated. No one really reads the other stuff, right? Didn’t think so. If anyone wants to know anything, just IM me or email me .. I talk a lot and I’m pretty open, so I’d tell ya almost anything your little heart desires to know.

Do you see the picture in the top left corner? Shanee says it’s not showing up. If you can, look at it closely. I’ve seen the pictures tons of times and never realized that there were actually TWO women! I thought it was one woman and three men – that the person in the back was wearing pants. Nope. So instead of that being me – someone who is not a total girl and feels more comfortable watching the Atlanta game with the guys, it’s Shanee and I and our dream guys. Heh heh! Don’t we have the cutest shoes?

Jaiden’s site is finally up and running. Let’s chalk that one up to the ‘Someone didn’t do their job’ files. A few months ago I emailed support (for my old host, the company that I purchased my domains from) and asked for our DNS settings to be changed. Mine were changed, hers were not. Sigh. I am so glad that I am with a new host..

Oh – also new for this edition is the Tag Board. Use it. Abuse it. I just want to be cool like everyone else! Haha. I need to work on my comments, but I don’t feel like doing it yet. I’m too busy talking to folks on AIM.

I haven’t been up to too much. I am on vacation. I took time off because I thought I’d be out of town, but .. yeah. I’m here. Oh well. Not my loss, right?

Christmas was good – Jaiden and I got tons of stuff from my parents and brothers. Jaiden was completely spoiled – now she’s just like the rest of us, I imagine. I love spoiling her, though I know I shouldn’t. She’s a brat. But she’s MY brat, so I can do that.

I was pretty much spoiled as well – I got the photo printer I’ve wanted for ages, a cordless optical mouse, ergonomic mousepad, MS Office XP for Students and Teachers, Norton Anti_Virus 2003, clothes, a cookbook, sage green chenille pillows, a quilt, and Shanee gave me Amaretto, sour mix, shot glasses and cherries! Wahoo! I’ve been hooking up the Amaretto Sours since and I think I might have hooked up one too many last night.

I’ve really been using the heck out of my new photo printer. I LOVE IT! It’s a lot better than the Kodak Picture Maker at Wal-Mart! I have already printed out so much .. and everything comes out great! Even my 8x10s look like darkroom prints. I have one that I’m going to get a good frame for .. it’s Jaiden in the bathtub .. the picture looks awesome. It’s soft, almost a vignette sort of feel, a nice color balance, interest, blah blah blah .. it’s cool. So I printed it out and one of these days I’ll go down to Michael’s and buy a mat and a frame.

I am desperate for a new layout. When did it become so much work? I used to whip those suckers out on a weekly basis..

What are we .. four days until Christmas? (Well, really only three since it is almost midnight here on the East Coast ..) You know I still have things to buy? It’s really a little aggravating. I still have to buy for Mom, Dad, Ryne, the hubby’s sister & Shanee’s needs to be completed. PLUS, a certain person bought me something expensive and guess what? I am strapped and really don’t want to have to buy someone else something. Ugh.

I got the hubby something from Jaiden this afternoon. It’s a picture frame and on the inside is a slot with a poem about Daddies & babies and another slot for a picture of the two of them together. Everytime I read the poem I tear up. I hope he likes it. He isn’t into all that mushy stuff really – only when it comes to her.

I spent my night playing with the girl and wrapping gifts. I bought Jaiden a walker for Christmas, put it together late last night (you know, one less thing I’d have to do on Christmas day LOL), and we tested it out this evening. She loves it!! I am so glad! She might not enjoy the toybox (ever) or the rocking chair (yet), but she LOVES the walker! I was pushing her all around the house – she was ecstatic. Oh last night she got up on all fours, but not for very long. Maybe she’ll crawl soon? Heh heh.

I was a good daughter tonight. After dinner I did the dishes (voluntarily, which doesn’t happen often), cleaned the kitchen, and wrapped all unwrapped gifts in the house – all while watching Trading Spaces and While You Were Out. I’m a master of multi-tasking! Heh. But anyhow. I am tired of wrapping. Towards the end I got to a trivet, an iron skillet, and slotted spoons. I was tired of wrapping so I just taped bows to them and called it a night. I am not looking forward to wrapping my other gifts.

Ho hum. I’m going to bed. One more day of work until I can relax. OH WAIT. I have to go Christmas shopping again..

Shanee and I took the girls to The Picture People yesterday. We intend to start a tradition and get their picture taken together every Christmas. We had a lot of fun, as always. After our sitting, we were trying to get them situated – fed, changed, etc. Then we were putting them in this fire engine (one of their props) and taking pictures. This chick comes by and tells us that they do not allow that. Can we say ‘who cares’? I know they have issues with that – I would too, but I didn’t care yesterday. They were so rude to us from the moment we walked in the door. Our photographer was nice, but everyone else was a jerk. We got some really good ones – Shanee will have to upload them tomorrow. Here are the official Picture People pictures .. and our girls’ first Christmas picture together:

+ Whoever smelled it, dealt it! – We really liked this one .. it looks like either a mugshot or they’re smelling something foul!

+ HOHOHO! – This one is just plain CUTE! There were two poses like this and the first one was MUCH better of Ireland, but my Bebe Kid was CRYING. I feel really bad that my kid messed the picture up!! SORRY SHANEE!

Here are some candids from the past week:

+ Smiling Faces

+ Baby Want a Cwacka? – eating crackers in Target

+ Let’s Go Shopping! – at Big Lots

+ I Dot a Toof Mama! (but you can’t see it LOL)

+ Playing Nice Together

+ What’s Up, Duck?

+ What Exactly Are Your Issues, Ducky?

+ It’s a Wonderful Life!

There are more, but they’re on Shanee’s camera. She can even take video clips on her camera – I want it! She is actually telling me to get it and I might just do it.

Okay – sidenote – I just got a call from the Marine Corps recruiters wanting me to enlist. I told them I was preggo, what a quick way to get out that! He told me that he was fresh out of MCT and was on recruiter’s assistance. Why he told me this, I don’t know. He sounded hot though. He was telling me about his new niece .. aww. Maybe I should call him back? LOL

Anyhoo. Jaiden is growing up so much! Her first tooth erupted on Wednesday! She can roll from her back to her belly now. She can feed herself crackers and scoot to reach different things. She can sit up and is getting better and better at it every single day. Each new day brings something special – I am so lucky to have her. Soon she will be six months old and I can’t believe it. She is growing up so fast! She is just an amazing little person that puts a smile on my face and laughter in my heart every day, without fail. I can’t imagine spending a day without her, but sadly I might have to.

I got her a rocking chair the other day. I found one at Big Lots – it’s currently an oak finish, but I’ll be painting it white and putting her name on it. I think that today I’m going to Toys R Us and looking at toyboxes and walkers. I still have people to buy for, so I’ll be out doing that today. OH JOY.

Over the past week I haven’t been up to too much. I’ve worked a lot and today is my day off (YAY!). On Wednesday night I went out with a few of my classmates and our instructor. We went to Ruby Tuesday and just hung out .. gossiped a little, talked about life, children, etc. On Thursday I took Jai down to Shanee’s current residence in Virginia Beach. Shanee watched her for me while I worked! THANK YOU!! I guess she had fun there! Ireland has a walker and a doggy – two things we don’t have and she’s never seen. We used to have a dog, but Jaiden was two months old when she died, so she doesn’t remember her. Plus, all our dog did was lay around, so it was really different being around an active dog. When Sammy barked Jaiden cried! Heh heh! We’ve been talking about getting a dog for months (years, actually), but I don’t know when that will happen. My dad wants a hunting dog and my mom wants a little tiny dog. I am all for the tiny dog – we have always had big dogs (beagles, mutts, etc)! I want a Chihuahua or something really little like that. I think my mom wants a Lhasa Apso. Dad wants a hunting dog! Haha. We could go with a Chocolate Lab and a Chihuahua – that’ll be cool with me!

Can you believe that Christmas is only NINE days away? I haven’t started my shopping. I’ve picked up two books and a toy for Jaiden and a wolf calendar for Susan (my brother’s girlfriend) from Jaiden, but that’s it. My dad is getting long sleeved TShirts and JCPenney underwear (the only kind he wears), but as far as anyone else .. I have NO CLUE. I want to get Jaiden a toybox, white wicker rocking chair (Jaiden sized), and the Magic Rattle Pooh among other things. When we leave my parents’ house and get a place of our own, I want to get Jaiden a toybox like this one, only white, to put at the end of her bed or something. Can you tell I like WHITE furniture? Heh heh. (Oh BTW .. all of her furniture is already white.) For now I want to get her one of those plastic toy boxes, like this one from Little Tykes.

-Jaiden just rolled from her back to her belly!! YAY!-

Oooh .. this rocking chair is CUTE! I want WHITE, but this is too cute! Hahah! They have the cutest armoire to go with the chair! Anyway – they have the rocker that I want at Cracker Barrel, but it’s $75! This is it .. I see it everyday (Cracker Barrel is right next door to my job- and their hashbrown casserole is to die for – heh heh) and they have a TON of them. Do you think they’d notice if one just walked away? I wouldn’t really do that .. but it is tempting because they have them on their porch – hundreds of them – and they leave them out at night. Hmm.

Alrighty .. enough about that. Tomorrow is the hubby’s 24th birthday! I can’t believe he’s gonna be so old! I met him when we were 20 and 18, now we’re 24 and 22 and have a daughter. WOW. That reminds me that I need to get him a card from Jaiden – whoops.

Today is Shanee’s husband’s birthday – he’s 22. Happy Birthday Jer, though I know you don’t read this! Did ya pick up on the trend? Shanee’s birthday is the day before mine, her hubby’s birthday is the day before the hubby’s .. our girls are eight days apart .. we found out we were preggo a day apart .. all of these coincidences.

Okay .. I need to go before Shanee shows up in an hour and I’m not ready! Haha! We’re going down to Norfolk and then shopping!