if you ever want to have your heart stop, do this:

1. tell your husband that you washed his nasty dirty work t-shirts and that they are in the dryer, which is running.

2. notice that husband left dryer door hanging open after grabbing a kinda dry shirt to wear.

3. shut door and turn dryer back on

5. listen to the howling, crying animal outside your house and wonder what happened, only to realize that the animal is IN your house.

6. more accurately, in your dryer.

7. freak out as you grab your very warm, very fluffy orange cat out of the dryer.

8. wonder how long it will take your hands to stop shaking...and yes, he's fine. just a little huffy.

thanksgiving is done already? man, i was so looking forward to four days of not using my brain, but i feel like they flew by. i shall recap it for you by numbers since it wasn't all that exciting:

33 people at sister-in-laws for the feast. they kept saying "nobody came home this year." 33 nobodies. that's kind of funny.

3 bazillion calories consumed. i really don't know what i love best--the green bean casserole thing or the garlic mashed potatoes or a couple of the salads or the pumpkin pie or the pumpkin ice cream....

4 nights up past midnight. yawn.

1.5 hours of ice time during the family tradition of renting ice on friday night after thanksgiving. we missed you chris ;)

10 really stinky sweaty hockey players sitting around the table friday night around 9 pm for thanksgiving dinner part II (another family tradition).

500 square feet of wood flooring put down (and completed) in the new house.

3 grown men in a shower trying to install tile.

2 scabby knees acquired after scrubbing acres of kitchen, laundry and bathroom tiles multiple times to get all the grout cleaned off

2 attempts to see the blind side. sold out.

1 viewing of planet 51 instead, which was not worth the popcorn

0 shopping. you black friday people are insane.

and a million warm wishes to all of you for a happy and blessed Christmas season

i drove past four houses with beautiful christmas lights turned on tonite on my way back from working on the house. it seems early, too warm and a little scary that the holidays are almost here. we have so much going on with the house and hockey and work and all the stuff that goes with christmas. i pray that i can make time to ENJOY the season and make it special for my kids. all our decorations are in storage, we probably won't have lights or a tree this year since we will be moving right at christmas time (fingers crossed). i hope instead to do some baking with little j, who loves to cook with me. i will spend some time with big j reading about the first christmas. we're going to tone down the gift-giving and do some good stuff for others instead. i know things will be crazy and busy and hectic, but as i was driving past those houses tonite and thinking about the holidays, i could honestly hear God telling me to SLOW DOWN.

as i rounded the corner to a group of deer in the middle of the road, i had to smile.

God knows how much i love double meanings.

yesterday was a funny day. i am trying to organize some tv shoots and the subjects of the spots happen to be students. i have been trying to call these kids for about a week now on their cell phones and they won't call me back. i was telling the client about it and she says "well, did you try texting them?"

oh.

i texted both students and they texted me right back. the bad part is, i have the old school phone where texting takes forever (of course i do, did you have any doubt?).
basically, i spent the better part of my afternoon organizing two TV spots BY TEXT.

we did some focus groups awhile back and had students tell us they don't want to wait for email...it's too slow. they only want to communicate by text. they don't want to talk on the phone, either. i listened, but only yesterday did i realize they were serious. this young generation communicates in short, abbreviated bursts. which means i am officially old and out-of-touch. and writing this blog only proves it.

at any rate, it was a funny day. i am going to go get a phone with a keypad today for faster texting. before you know it, i will be lining up entire ad campaigns and presenting them by text.

and please don't tell me if it's already being done. sigh.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KAREN! Hope it's a good one because this is the year you celebrate over and over again, right? :)

well, it might have seemed like a long time to you, but it sure went fast for me. mom has come and gone but she rocked while she was here. literally. a wall and half a fireplace she rocked. i am proud to say i rocked right along with her, and have the sore body to prove it. that is some serious work! i did learn the hard way that mortar eats through your gloves AND your skin. but all in all, things are looking good. you can see we have siding and a front door--though it still needs to be painted.

anyway. that's your update. thanks again mom. next time you visit, you can just sit back and relax.

yeah. right.

just writing to say you probably won't hear from me again for awhile. we are in full tilt house mode, all the tile and all the wood are here. the husband took 9 days off work. my mom is flying out. my knees hurt just thinking about all that flooring. but it's going to be pretty. they have most of the siding on, and the beautiful front door is now in place. garage doors are on. it's all coming together. eeeeeek!

on top of all that, bobbi and i are in the midst of craziness as usual. after much sweating, a little swearing and some long days, we presented our campaign yesterday and were met with claps and happiness. i told the client i just love her poker face :)

so, with that, i better get some work done and then go put on my knee pads. i really think God was funny when he put that jacuzzi tub in our rental house. i cannot tell you how much it is going to get used this week...

oh, and no pictures for now. i want my mom to have some surprises when she gets here on wednesday.

i've got a big sore red eye today. nope, it's not pink eye.
i'm wearing the lovely glasses and wondering if i have finally destroyed my eyesight by sleeping in my contacts all the time.

bummer. i liked having eyesight, even if it was mostly fuzzy.