oh, hello! my. where do i start? first off, i missed you all--just caught up on you and honestly i'm feeling a little sappy right now. you are all just such special women and i am so glad i can stay connected to you like this.

ok, sappiness over.

where have i been? well. you know that big blizzard that kept bobbi on her couch for seven days? we moved right smack in the middle of it. yep. we don't ever do things the easy way here. you don't even want to hear the details. it was rugged. glad it's over.

we did have a nice christmas. we got some really thoughtful gifts and spent a lot of time stuck in two rooms with 4 dogs and about 25 people...he he. truly. there is something kinda fun about that kind of chaos. for a day or two, anyway. :)

the biggest news: we are in the house. we wanted so badly to stay here christmas eve but decided we better go back to the rental house so the husband wouldn't get stranded for his shift at the hospital on christmas day. i woke up christmas day in an empty house, but we had new toys to play with so it wasn't so bad.

we did stay here at the new house the day after christmas, on mattresses on the floor. now we are officially in beds, with some furniture and even a few decorations. i truly love this house, it feels like home. it always did i guess. it has my husbands' sweat and calloused hard working hands all over it, and even a few of mine. i keep just walking around it and around it with a big grin on my face.

we have also had quite a bit of ice skating and hockey time. i see the guy on the other side of the water plowed out a rink today. we are invited to our first "neighbor" gathering tomorrow night for new years eve. it's an outdoor skating party on the ice behind our house. see? we came to the right place.

otherwise, i am going to start this resolution thing off. 2010 needs to be less about me and more about others, serving more and wanting less. i know those two things will bring me more joy and happiness than the reverse.

to wrap this up, i have a funny "only me" story. so i got my husband's oldest sister's name for christmas, the self-professed "queen bee." she's great, but i do try to be on my best behavior around her. anyway. she wanted a gift card, but i thought that was kinda boring. so i decided to get her a movie to go with it since she loves to watch them. i'm looking and i see this movie i have heard a lot about. people say it's a great movie to watch with a spouse, and the cover looked like a cool action drama thing.

so christmas night, my niece says "who got FIREPROOF for Christmas?"

i say, "oh, i got that for you aunt."

she looks at me quizzically and says "why? are they having trouble?"

i was like "what are you talking about?"

she starts laughing and says "Fireproof is part of this program to help get troubled marriages back on track. There's this whole step-by-step plan that goes with it."

i have never laughed so hard. i got my oldest sister-in-law a program for troubled marriages for christmas? only me. only me.

happy new years. what's your resolution?