Catching up

I know I have been MIA. The holidays were crazy and it seems like we were hardly ever home. Then I had to give my dad's laptop back to him and FINALLY got mine back from Best Buy. It needed a new motherboard, but all was covered by warranty so it is cool for now. So now I will attempt to catch up from the holidays...

Christmas Eve

Corbin and I spent the morning cleaning and making cookies:

Then we went to my parents house and everyone started unloading their presents:

Took some family pictures:

And we went to mass. Corbin's class carried the baby Jesus and sheep up to the nativity. They did a great job. I am not sure that I can do late night mass again as I still had to wrap presents when we got home and was up until 2 a.m.! Christmas morning came very early.

Here is Corbin in front of the nativity:

My heart is heavy right now, as I just read that one of my former employers had to lay off 27 people in their headquarters. I know some of the people affected and am very sad for them. I also know that this must have been a very tough decision for the leadership of the company. They are really good people and I know they would have liked to avoid this if they could. Just a sign of the times.

On an even more serious note, I found out yesterday that one of my friends from high school is in the hospital right now. He was taken to the ER on Wednesday night with chest pains; they ruled out a heart attack but found that his lymph nodes are enlarged. They are doing a biopsy this morning, but are pretty sure that it is one of two types of cancer (but I guess both have a high cure rate). I don't know more specifics because I am hearing all this through another one of my guy friends, and you know how men can be with details. Anyway, I hope that whatever this turns out to be, it is treatable without too much suffering. He is a very good person and is getting married this summer.

We need some good news now!!!

Still alive...

I know...I've been missing. I haven't really felt the creative spark lately. But I'm still trucking.

My computer pooped out right after Thanksgiving. Two weeks later (yesterday) I finally found out that they have to replace my motherboard (I don't know what that is, but it sounds awesome) and my screen. Don't know what happened to cause the problems, aside from my bad luck with electronics in general. Seriously. The last digital camera I bought crapped out about 8 months after I bought it. The manufacturer replaced that for free. The thug who snatched my purse may be giving the replacement to his dear old granny for Christmas...or it may be sitting in some pawn shop, having been used to feed his addiction to blow. (I think the word blow is fun to use in reference to drugs, but I have to admit, I am not totally sure what drug I am referencing). But hopefully I will have my computer back next week.

I've started working out everyday again. I did ten miles on the exercise bike and 1.5 on the elliptical machine. I find working out is a better alternative to watching daytime TV and drinking a bottle of whiskey. (Note: I've never really drank an entire bottle of whiskey. Especially in the middle of the day. I just like to be dramatic.)

My parents were in a really bad car accident on Saturday night. They were driving to a meeting out in House Springs, and were driving down highway 30 and a 17-year-old girl pulled out right in front of them. We think their car is totaled, but, thankfully, everyone is okay. Just a little bruised. I picked up my parents from the accident site and took them to get a stiff drink. Everyone's nerves were a little shaken, but sitting across the table from them, I couldn't stop thinking about how grateful I was that they were not injured...or worse. Life can truly change in an instant.