Last Saturday

Yay today was my last Saturday working! Next Saturday I am back to having Saturday's off again and time for cleaning the house and reading blogs... And I day to sleep in... I don't think I have slept past 6am since before Thanksgiving... Today at work I put out almost all the women's fashion boots, stocked the shoe accessories, filled the kid's shoe clearance and almost opened all the last of the boxes that finally came in... Was plenty to do to make the day go fast... Tomorrow I only have to work in the morning to set the ad, so a short day... Then Monday-Wednesday I work full days and finally have a day off on Christmas... I'm hoping tomorrow to get some baking done and clean the kitchen a bit, make teriyaki chicken for dinner and then go look at Christmas lights in the neighborhood with hubby and the boys... Tonight I plan on having a wrapping frenzy and hopefully get all the wrapping done... The boys are off on computer games so they won't even notice where I've gone off to, lol... I'll watch The Bishop's Wife with Cary Grant, I don't think I have ever seen it... First I have to put a treat in the advent calendar as son3 keeps opening the door and it is empty, lol... We've all had a bit of something for dinner, I had the sausage experiment from the other night, which was not a success, lol... not enough Bisquick batter to cover the sausage... We agreed on a name for the new kitty... Someone in a comment suggested something Christmasy since she came at Christmas time :), so I was driving to work the other day and wasn't even thinking of it but it just popped in my head and it was similar to Kitty or Missy, son I asked son3 and he liked it, and I asked son2 and he liked it and then I told hubby and he said it was perfect as she is a bit prickly in her personality, she hisses and/or complains with a mew or two if she doesn't like something....... So we've decided on HOLLY.... What do ya think....

OK I'm off to wrap, which Holly will protest as she is sleeping on the bed where I will do the wrapping....

Happy Journaling...

Story of St. Nicholas

Story of St. Nicholas
He was a boy when he lost his parents very early in life. It was an epidemic that took them, but not before he was old enough for them to help him discover the gift of faith. Little Nicholas went to Myra and lived a life full of self-offering, and giving of himself. His life was full of sacrifice and love, just like Jesus. Nicholas lived such a Christ like life that when the town needed a bishop he was immediately elected. Later he was imprisoned for his Christian faith, but released by the Emperor Constantine. Thereafter, many stories of his generosity were collected and they spread from mouth to mouth all through out the lands. It was told how he begged food for the poor and how he would somehow get money for girls to use as a dowry so that they could have husbands. The story most often repeated was about how he would put on a disguise and go out and give gifts to the poor children. In fact Nicholas gave away everything he had, plus everything he could get. He died in AD 314; his body was moved to Italy where his remains are believed to be to this day. The story of Nicholas has spread all around the world, and today there are more European churches named after St. Nicholas than any other person in the history of the church, aside from the famous Bible characters. People have done many things to old St. Nick. Clement Moore the poet gave him a red nose and eight tiny reindeer. Artist Thomas Nast gave Nicholas a round belly and a red fir trimmed suit. But those things really aren’t that important are they? What is important is that he lived in the mind set and the life style of Christ. And because he lived that lifestyle, the life of Nicholas touched the whole world and it does to this very day. But here is the really important part of the story. That same Christ like mind set and that life style is supposed to be in all of us and lived by all of us. And that is the true story of St. Nick.-- Author Unknown
Happy Journaling...

Vacation from School

Woo Hoo the boys are on vacation, however we got off to a rocky start... Well son3 anyway... Besides having a rough week of not doing his classwork and bringing it all home to be done as homework and not giving us much time to study his spelling words and then believing him that they had the spelling test on Thursday, which was the practice test and that they weren't having one today and since there wasn't any homework last night we didn't study... So he got mad at himself in class that he didn't do well on the test... And shut down and refused to the next part of the classwork... But that wasn't the worst part of the day, the worst part was when he got mad at his friend and called him sh** and a$$ and the friend said it too and a third friend tried to break them up and they all three ended up getting in trouble... on the last day before vacation... sigh....... So he was on a time out in his room when he got home after a lecture from hubby and then a talk from me and then even son2 wasn't happy that he said bad words so he went and talked to him too... and he was grounded from computer games tonight...

Only four more days til Santa comes... My house is a mess... I need to vacuum and wash the kitchen floor and water the plants and I'm only about 30% done with wrapping, plus I want to make some cookies and fudge and more pumpkin bread, the first batch is all gone... And I need to get the cats on an eating schedule in their own bowls as they have both been begging for food every time someone walks into the kitchen... The dishes are caught up and the laundry is almost done but tons to hang up and put away... But the wrapping is the priority this weekend and then cleaning the house...
I am almost running out of things to do at work if that is possible... Just a few boxes left to open and not much stock left to bring to the sales floor... Lots of cleaning to be done though but that is boring, lol... I work all day tomorrow so will have to find ways to keep busy...
The boys are in bed and I am headed to bed myself and hubby is due home any minute...
Happy Journaling...

One More Week

I can't believe one week from today is Christmas... And that son3 did not have any homework today!! And tomorrow is the last day of school for this year... So son3's first question to me today was 'I don't have any homework so can I play games', lol... So he is playing a game just til dinner is ready... I am trying an experiment: sausage dogs with Bisquick and peas poured over them and baked in the oven... I couldn't find an exact recipe as I was looking through the Bisquick recipe book however, of how much Bisquick vs milk, and how do they not taste like pancakes, lol....

I guess we have a new kitty... She sleeps in my bed all day and sleeps in the garage all night and eats all Raisin's food and plays with his toys, so I guess she has moved in... Raisin tries to say hello to her but they just hiss at each other.... Now we are just deciding on a name... I was thinking Missy or Kitty but nothing for sure yet...

Work has been coming right along... I just keep moving to make the day go along... We have been barely getting any new stock in so we have almost got all the old stock out... And I can't believe how not busy we are so close to Christmas... There is always someone in the store but even on the weekends I am able to stock and not be in any one's way... We shall see if it picks up this weekend... I'm thinking everyone got all their shopping done early this year or are not shopping at all... Tomorrow I get off early as I didn't realize til just this week that son3 gets out early tomorrow for his last day of school before vacation... Hours have been starting to get cut back too so even though I am not off again til Christmas day, I will have some short days I hope, unless I get all the hours and they cut the Christmas help...

Son3 lost a tooth at school this week and the nurse put it in a cute little treasure box so he wouldn't lose it... Here he is finding bubble gum in the advent calendar... I need to put something in for today... Our movie this week was Dark Knight, son2's recent most favorite movie... I'm still trying to decide what I thought of it... I'm partial to Jack Nicholson's Joker although I like Heath Ledger as an actor just not as the Joker... I think we are all caught up on the TV shows except I fell asleep during Terminator and hubby fell asleep during CSI so we have to each watch those... Tonight CSI is a repeat but it is the very first episode so will have to watch... And then tomorrow night is a new Ghost Whisperer and Numbers and then I think repeats on most things til January... We still have a lot of Christmas movies to watch...

OK I'm off to check on dinner, fill the advent calendar and see what I can wrap today to put under the tree...

Happy Journaling...

**Hail**

Monday was hubby and mine last Monday off together again as this is the last Saturday hopefully I have to work... Anyway we got son3 off to school and had breakfast and we were off to Target to officially finish Christmas shopping... We had just got back and had a bit of lunch when the skies let loose with hail... Only lasted about five minutes but it was almost like snow, lol... Actually the snow level is down to 1000ft in the Sierra's... Last night it was only 16 degrees in Yosemite... The sun is peeking out here this afternoon but it is only 37 degrees right now here in the valley of Ca... At work I could see the snow on the mountains out the window of the break room while I ate lunch yesterday.... Brrrrrrrrr...

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Happy Journaling...

Decorating the tree

The decorations are officially done, the trees are decorated and the angel sits atop the tree, the Christmas shopping is done, the baking has begun, the cards have arrived at their destinations and several have been received... Two more days of school til vacation, grocery shopping of a ham and such needs to be done and wrapping has yet to be started... All will be done very soon as Christmas Eve is one week from today... Can you stand the excitement... I know the boys can't, lol...

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Happy Journaling...

A-Z Photo Challenge S

A-Z Photo Challenge S

To Play visit Martha at Menagerie

S is for Snowmen!

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Happy Journaling...