ONE WEEK UNTIL CHRISTMAS!

Or seven days or 168 hours or 10,080 minutes. YIKES!
Thankfully, these numbers mean nothing to me, because I am done shopping - yes, done - not one thing left to buy. Do you know how good that feels?! Done-finito…all the gifts are ready to wrap, gifts for the nieces, nephews, sisters, brothers, Dennis' parents, my mom & Mike. All done - it's a good feeling.
This past Friday, I had a pretty awesome evening. Kari sent out an invite for a small get together at her house around 7. I wanted to go, if only to get a hug & figured I'd only stay a bit, as I don't know any of her friends. However, that was not the case, I stayed until I had to get Dennis @ 9:30 & would have stayed longer if I didn't have to get him! Her friends are funny & witty & after awhile, I was showing off pictures of Noah & Lola to Janeen & Ling, while they showed me their babies.
Sat morning, we took Cadence to my work Christmas party & she had fun. Got a My Little Pony from Santa & she was thrilled. We had Kathleen babysit her for a few hours that evening, while we finished our shopping.
Sunday we went to Church & to the grocery store & home to relax.
This evening, we are going to the funeral home to pay our respects to my Aunt Sharon, Uncle Scott & Uncle Tracy's mom, Nancy. My prayers are with them as they grieve their loss & celebrate her life.
Not much else really going on this week - I did pass my Crime test yesterday - go me…
Madison's b/day party tomorrow, for which Cadence wrapped the gifts - interesting wrapping tactics she used, by the way.
Visiting our old foster dog, Max fka Mohawk, on Sat. Looking forward to seeing him! Cadence still talks about him, so I'm telling her tonite we're going to see him. She is very impatient (hmmm..where does she get that wonderful quality?) so I've learned to only tell her about things we're going to do, a day or 2 before we actually do them.
She has a Christmas party w/her teammates on Sunday - that should be fun…we'll be making some goodies to take w/us for that.
And except for wrapping presents & Church, we will be home enjoying the Love of our Lord & remembering the reason for Christmas..

"There has been only one Christmas - the rest are anniversaries." ~W.J. Cameron

It's raining kittens...

For Christmas, Cadence would LOVE to have a kitten. Our cat Sativa hates Cadence…Sativa is almost 7 yrs old, she's got seniority on Cadence. I'm worried that one nite, while Cadence is lovingly FORCING Sativa to sleep w/her, Sativa will seek revenge & suffocate Cadence.
Yesterday I found an ad for free kittens. I drove to Wauseon to pick one up. My friend Amy is keeping it at her place until Christmas eve so that Cadence gets the kitten as a gift. Well there were 2 left, so I took them both. The gray one is sooooooooo loving & the whitish one loveeeeeessss to play!! They are adorable & I'm going nuts wanting Christmas to arrive so I can give them to her.

Noah chillin'

Noah on the left, Lolabelle on the right & Annabelle (Amy's parents dog)

Noah again - hmmm...I think Amy has a favorite...

Cadence & I baked cookies Tuesday - that was fun. She loves to help cook - it's always so much more mess, but really - isn't that what kids are about?
Looking forward to heading over to Kari's tonite. Just got an email she's having a little get together. Probably won't be able to stay long - I'm going to have to beg, borrow & steal to get a sitter, but I MISS Kari so much - it will be totally worth whatever I have to do to get a sitter!
I'm also going to stop by Denise's to pick up Cadence's Christmas pictures.
The kids Christmas party at work is tomorrow. Cadence will be excited to see Santa again. After that, we're going to do some Christmas shopping & then we should be all done for Christmas.
Have a great weekend!!

Happy Friday!

Oh how I've longed for this day. Monday morning @ 7 am, when I woke up, I was dreaming of Friday. Friday @ 4:30 would be better, but I'm not that greedy - just Friday is enough for me right now! In 4 hours I will be home ready to enjoy my weekend. We're even supposed to be getting snow - so I WON'T be able to go anywhere!
The last few days have been pretty quiet, although I didn't get my "Simple Woman's Day" hope of having the house done by Wed. I've been so busy, I get a little down each evening, but tonite is the nite! The house WILL be done!
In other news - we're finally getting into a bedtime routine w/Cadence. It's been difficult b/c of the moving around & everything, but she's finally getting it..well she's at least getting to the part of sleeping in her own room. Now, if only she'd quit fighting sleep & go right to sleep!
Any ideas on how to get her to fall asleep quickly? I'm desperate!
After finishing cleaning up tonite, Cadence & I are going to bake chocolate chip cookies! Mmmm..

I also saw a gingerbread house kit on sale at Walmart yesterday & am seriously considering buying it tonite, to make this weekend. I think they're so cute & I know Cadence would love it! Dennis wants to do it from scratch, but dang…that's A LOT of work & more expensive than the $9 kit at Walmart!
We'll see..have a great weekend & be safe & Andrea if you're reading this - I'll always dial 212 before I call you - even if I'm calling NYC!