It's Caturday!

Totally stole Caturday from Two Peas . But I have to show you some great cat photos. yes.... It's come to this.



Jingles with the new tree that Gene just randomly bought me... and gave me when he was mad at me LOL. It's ok, I was mad back. It's cute tho, I love it, it's made of feathers and the funny thing is, I looked at it early that day and thought to myself I'd like to have one. He must have read my wee noggin cuz he went clear back across the store to go back to get it.

Jingly-puff helping me organize my scrapbook room. For some reason, he has the SHAPE of a pizza down, but he's extra thick and doesn't fit.

Jingles in the sb room again, looking out at the new fallen snow - day before xmas.

Mack - thinking he's still a kitten and batting around a scrap punch in my sb room. He IS A KITTEN.

Note to self... more mack pictures.

Or less cat pictures.

Blasphemy!!

OK, christmas doesn't suck.

OK I'm back. I had to take a break :) (obviously).

Holiday hectic-nick-ness (pun intended) got the best of me. No I do not hate Christmas.

A few notes:
1. Emma. It's hard to get in the spirit of xmas and snuggle with your man, when "your man" is covered in green fur. I won't say his name, but his initals are "The Grinch" :) He actually ended up doing quite well, as we got closer to christmas, the more "jolly" he got. He actually was caught on several occasions whistling christmas carols.
(his heart grew 3 sizes)

2. Amber. I'm sorry for freaking you out. You are off the hook for the xmas card lateness - lol. To rectify that egregious error, I put your pic on my fridge. And every one should know, I forgot to take amber her card cuz I left it at home. I didn't get it mailed cuz she moved. :)

3. I can't think of a 3. That's all I got.

Going to do my catch up 5-8 posts. LOL. It's easier for my noggin to think like that. You know it's time to update when you're writing blog posts in your HEAD!

I give up.

So blogging isn't just all "hey life is great" right?

Bear with me while I rant.

I'm sick of Christmas. Where is that spirit I used to have as a kid. I love(d) to wrap gifts and my mom didn't, so she would have me do them all (sometimes even mine after she hid them inside of a box). I always looked forward to the Christmas shopping, buying gifts for my sisters and brothers and even my closest friends as I got older. We'd make candies and cookies and snuggle in during christmas vacation. We'd empty the downstairs closet to get to the christmas decorations and decorate every square inch of the living room and dining room not to mention miles of lights. Sounds great right?

So where did that go? I now could give a crap less about christmas anymore. I'm disappointed in myself because I've let other ppl bring down the holidays but I think I'm more disappointed in other ppl for being such a drag the past 20 years that they've ruined it for me.

Tired of getting hard ppl to buy for, and when you ask them what they want, you get the "I don't know" or "I don't want anything." That pisses me off a bunch. I want .... have to buy you something so at least give me a damn clue ok? When I do finally find something I personally think you'd like, or what was suggested, if you don't like it, just friggin say thank you. "what the hell is this" is not an appropriate response.

I'm sick of going out to shop and having ppl oblivious to anyone but themselves. Get your gd cart out of the middle of the aisle, did you not realize that there's 14 ppl trying to get through?

Don't ask me what I want, and then when I come up with a list, just spend 1/2 hour running around the store getting exactly everything on the list with no deviation, no creativity on your own. Don't boss ppl into buying what you want them to buy.

Highly annoyed at spending tons of time and money looking for the perfect gift (and doing a damn good job) and not even getting a thank you, let alone a gift in return. How about a christmas card?

Speaking of Christmas cards, I've received one. I don't think I'll send them anymore. I send out over a dozen handmade ones, and barely get half that in return. Remember when snail mail was fun? After a year of putting up with ppl, I think I earned a stamp.

And lastly, don't take away the one thing I've always enjoyed the most. Let me watch everyone open up their gifts. I would rather have nothing at all and get to spend that time watching those around me appreciate what they got (I'd like to think that I can actually still suprise someone... but I'm beginning to doubt it). Do not nag me into opening gifts while everyone else is still opening theirs. Sorry, I've been this way since birth - I'd like to pretend like it's the spirit of christmas (giving not receiving).

So next year, act surprised when you open your impersonal gift cards. I doubt I'll go to the store the entire month of december. This includes my own children. when I was little, one easter my mom gave each of us kids a $5 bill. I thought it was so much fun and different than getting a basket full of stuff. Looking back, I'm sure it was because my mom thought it would just be easier that year. I didn't figure that out for about 30 years. So hope everyone has "fun" with their walmart gift cards.

Merry freaking Christmas. Let's go celebrate the birth of baby jesus and open our ipods and graphic t-shirts.

< /rant>

PS. We got electricity back last night. It's nice to have lights again.

Abraham Lincoln's Letter to His Brother

Interesting letter I heard about on Dave Ramsey today --- An age old lesson!!!

Abraham Lincoln's Letter to His Brother

Dear Johnston:--

Your request for eighty dollars, I do not think it best to comply with now.

At the various times when I have helped you a little, you have said to me, "We can get along very well now," but in a very short time I find you in the same difficulty again.

Now this can only happen by some defect in your conduct. What that defect is, I think I know. You are not _lazy_, and still you _are_ an _idler_. I doubt whether since I saw you, you have done a good whole day's work, in any one day. You do not very much dislike to work, and still you do not work much, merely because it does not seem to you that you could get much for it.

This habit of uselessly wasting time, is the whole difficulty; and it is vastly important to you,and still more so to your children, that you should break this habit. It is more important to them, because they have longer to live, and can keep out of an idle habit before they are in it easier than they can get out after they are in.

You are now in need of some ready money; and what I propose is,that you shall go to work, "tooth and nail," for somebody who will give you money for it. Let father and your boys take charge of things at home--prepare for a crop, and make the crop; and you go to work for the best money wages, or in discharge of any debt you owe, that you can get. And to secure you a fair reward for your labor, I now promise you that for every dollar you will, between this and the first of next May, get for your own labor either in money or in your own indebtedness, I will then give you one other dollar.

By this, if you hire yourself at ten dollars a month, from me you will get ten more, making twenty dollars a month for your work. In this, I do not mean you shall go off to St. Louis, or the lead mines, or the gold mines, in California, but I mean for you to go at it for the best wages you can get close to home, in Coles County.

Now if you will do this, you will soon be out of debt, and what is better, you will have a habit that will keep you from getting in debt again. But if I should now clear you out, next year you will be just as deep in as ever.

You say you would almost give your place in Heaven for $70 or $80. Then you value your place in Heaven very cheaply, for I am sure you can with the offer I make you get the seventy or eighty dollars for four or five months' work.

You say if I furnish you the money you will deed me the land, and if you don't pay the money back, you will deliver possession--Nonsense! If you can't now live _with_ the land, how will you then live without it?

You have always been kind to me, and I do not now mean to be unkind to you. On the contrary, if you will but follow my advice, you will find it worth more than eight times eighty dollars to you.

Affectionately your brother,
A. LINCOLN.

It's not so bad

It's almost kinda nice, with no TV, books/mags to read, a generator that works (cept that weird popping noise it seems to make sometimes) and a bunch of candles.

Gene and Jingles are in bed. Wish I could take a picture! I asked Gene not to kick him out cuz he was so cute and sleeping and cuddled up. Now it's time for me to go to bed. Glad Jingles was there to warm up my spot! LOL

Going to let the generator run til it runs out of fuel, maybe it will be over 55 when we wake up! It was cold this morning, and when we got home from work, it was 49! Poor kitties! (and fish).