It’s Christmas Eve, and I thought I’d put up the teaser for tomorrow’s big video. Today and tomorrow’s videos are what my parents and I spent hours and hours working on this past Saturday. Here, without further ado, is the debut of Teddy’s Tribbleations!
See you all tomorrow for “Penny & Teddy’s Christmas Special.” It’ll be the must-see video of Christmas!
It’s the Eve before the Eve before Christmas. There’s a mouthful. Not much to write, but I thought I’d share this video of our family singing the song Mary Did You Know at church this morning. The quality of the video is atrocious, but that’s mostly because I had no one to run the camera, and I left it sitting on a chair pointed in the right direction hoping it would catch something. I hope you enjoy our singing as much as we enjoyed singing!
-So, I spent the better part of today with my parents making the videos for both Monday & Tuesday’s blog entries. I’m super excited for all of you to see them, and hope that you all have as much fun watching them as we had making them.
-How about more snow pictures? I took a bunch of photos on Thursday after Draco had finally finished it’s work here. So, here’s what I took:
-I’m back doing job interviews. I’d forgotten how much I truly hate job hunting. It’s so incredibly stressful, and I have a terrible time judging whether an interview has gone well or not. I went to an interview on Wednesday, and got a call on Thursday asking me to come in for a second interview on Friday morning. At the end of the second interview, I was asked to sign the paperwork to have a background check done, and to also do a drug test. The background check was no biggie, but not unlike others in this world, the whole peeing in a cup thing is just not the easiest thing in the world for me to accomplish. The task proved impossible yesterday, so I found myself back trying again this morning (the place I’m doing this for is a lab, so the testing is done on-site). My mom, knowing that I have always struggled with the whole bladder not cooperating thing decided to encourage me by quoting Sheldon from the Big Bang Theory episode about the ring from Lord of the Rings. Basically, Sheldon does this whole bit about “Waterfalls…Leaky Faucets…Peeing!” in an effort to make the other guys have to pee. Normally, this sort of thing doesn’t work on me, but when my mom was yelling it at me as I was getting out of the car it certainly seemed to help. So, I guess I can say that Big Bang Theory helped me pee in a cup. Now, I’m just hoping to hear from the job that they want to hire me. The gal who gave me my second interview told me that the background check and drug test weren’t a job offer, but I know how both things are expensive, so I’m thinking that they’re at least seriously considering hiring me since they’re going ahead with the checks.
-I think I’m coming down with a cold. Not my idea of a fun way to head into Christmas.
-Saw The Hobbit in the IMAX 3D yesterday. It was so stunning! Plus, I found that the second viewing was even better than the first. I still hated to see it end. It’s going to be a long year waiting for The Desolation of Smaug.
-Am I the only one who cried when “The Hobbit” started and we all got to return to Middle Earth?
-Why do dragons automatically make a story better?
-Why is peeing in a cup so difficult? Follow up, is this TMI?
-So, are they going to “kill” Spock off in the new Star Trek film, just like they did in Wrath of Khan? Follow up, if that happens who is Spock going to implant his’ katra in? If he doesn’t leave it with Bones, maybe Uhura? Does that qualify as Spock throwing his katra around?
-Who else is ready for winter to be over?
-Why do people drive so badly when the roads aren’t clean?
-Why do chocolate and coconut go together so well?
-Any plans, now that the world hasn’t ended?
-A prospective job wanting to do a background check and drug test on you is a positive thing, right?
So, I got the joy of experiencing Winter Storm Caesar recently. That was when I went in a ditch in South Dakota. Today, I’ve been getting to experience the joy of Winter Storm Draco. I really am not feel very much a fan of the snow. However, the snow is pretty and makes for pretty photos.
About an hour after I took these photos I decided to try to get more photos. I found that my camera had a “snow” photo mode, so I decided to try it. Here’s the best of what I got:
Yeah, “snow” mode means I’m going to pick up the image of every flake in the air. Not quite what I was aiming for. I hope to get some decent photos when the snow stops and it’s calm. For now, though, I’m bundled up, and hanging out inside.
So, it’s a week until Christmas. Yay! I’m actually enjoying the Christmas spirit this year. I’m just so thankful to be with my family, it’s going to be a fantastic holiday.
Last Friday night I drove home from Grand Forks, and arrived in Omaha around midnight. The next morning I got up way earlier than I wanted so that I could rehearse music with my parents. We were doing the music at our church’s over-40’s Christmas party. Now, many years ago, my parents and I performed our take on gospel music quite regularly. However, it’s been about 7 years since the last time we performed anything for anyone. I had a grand total of one rehearsal with my parents going into the music presentation on Saturday night, and it didn’t go too badly. I managed to get video of the performance, and I thought I’d share part of it tonight. (Hopefully, I’ll be able to share the gospel music part in a few days.) Here’s the video of my family covering the Christmas “classic” Leroy the Redneck Reindeer:
My mama is playing the autoharp and dad is playing the banjo. I’m not playing an instrument (although, I’m about to get serious about learning mandolin), but I am singing with the group. It was a lot of fun.
This song has been a bit special to our family, because my Grampa’s (the one who passed this summer) first name was Leroy. The first time we performed this song was for him at family Christmas many years ago.
That wasn’t the only reminder of Grampa Saturday night. Every year for Christmas we’d give Grampa a can or box of ribbon candy. As long as I can remember he always got ribbon candy. Well, at the party on Saturday night, there was a white elephant give-away. My dad picked a package, and when opened found it was a box of ribbon candy. The exact kind of ribbon candy that we got for Grampa. It was a bittersweet moment. Kind of seemed like Grampa was looking down on us, letting us know he’s thinking about us.
I’ve been putting my thoughts together about going into the ditch in SD. There’s actually quite a bit more that happened after I wrote my last post, but I’ve had so much going on I haven’t gotten it put up on here yet. However, in the midst of all my drama, there was this whole nightmare that took place in Connecticut.
This is definitely one of those times that I’m glad I don’t have kids. I can’t imagine what the parents who’ve lost their babies are going through, and I can’t imagine what it must be like to have a child and try to decide how to attempt to keep your child safe. I’m not sure if the world has just been progressively getting more scary, or if it was always so scary and it’s just getting harder to hide how scary it is. If there’s one thing I learned from Finding Nemo, it’s that you can’t protect your kids from everything, and to promise them that you will is just lying to them. However, I don’t blame parents for wanting to protect their kids. There’s something wrong with someone if they don’t want to protect their kids.
Anyway, I’m still grouping my thoughts, but for now my prayers are with all the families who lost their children, all the families who are directly involved in that nightmare, all those who lost friends, and all those kids who had part of their innocence so senselessly ripped away.
First off, let me just say that I am NOT a fan of snow, and after today I never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever want to see snow ever again. Just like Taylor Swift I’m officially broken up (except, in my case it’s with a weather condition and not the latest in a never-ending string of boyfriends).
Today I headed back to ND, picking up my friend in Sioux City. The wind was terrible, but I could deal with it. Plus, before I left Omaha, I checked all the road reports and weather, and everything was saying it was all okay. When we got to Sioux Falls, there was some snow that was blowing across the road, but it wasn’t too terrible, and I decided to push on to Brookings (about 40 miles north). The blowing snow progressively got worse, and I ended up driving slower and slower. I should have pulled off at the Casino exit, but we were only about 12-15 miles from Brookings and I thought we could make it. I don’t know what happened, we were driving slow, and suddenly I felt the van sliding sideways and we ended up gliding off into the ditch. Honestly, if we had to go in the ditch, it could’ve been a million times worse. We went so slow and just glided and didn’t roll the vehicle.
I tried to dig the van out and poured the kitty litter and did all the things that you’re supposed to do to get unstuck and back on the road. Nothing worked. We were stuck. I called 9-1-1, and I regretted it. The South Dakota 9-1-1 dispatchers was incredibly rude and this was basically the conversation:
Me: Our vehicle went off the road and we’re stuck in a ditch and need help.
Dispatcher: Where are you at?
Me: About 10-12 miles south of Brookings.
Dispatcher: What county are you in?
Me: I have no idea, I’m not from around here.
Dispatcher: Let me transfer you to the sheriff’s department.
I was then transferred to the sheriff’s department.
Sheriff’s dispatcher: What county are you in (Listing off two county names I didn’t even recognize)?
Me: I have no idea, I’m not from here.
Sheriff’s dispatcher: Well, is anybody injured?
Me: No, but we’re stuck.
Sheriff’s dispatcher: Well, there’s a lot of people that have gone off the road, so someone will get there at some point.
And that was the whole of the conversation. I understand that their department was under quite a bit of stress, but there was no reason to treat a scared girl who was asking for help like they’re just causing a problem.
Fortunately, people from Katy’s company were passing by and able to pick us up. My car is currently stranded south of Brookings, but we’re safe. In case anyone’s wondering what the roads looked like, here’s some pictures!
I really wish that these pictures weren’t accurate, but that’s really how bad it looked.
-Who else is excited for The Hobbit?
-Why is it so easy to procrastinate?
-Why is Canadian Bacon called Canadian Bacon?
-Why am I suddenly craving s’mores?
I’m going home this weekend for one night. There is actually a logical explanation for why I’m going to make a 1,000 mile round trip in approximately 34 hours. Suffice it to say, it’s a good thing I’m going, even though it’s for one night, because it’ll allow me to take a load of belongings home.
Home.
What a mixture of emotions that thought conjures up.
I’m both excited and terrified of going. I have such wonderful pipe dream plans of things I hope to accomplish, and yet I find myself obsessing over the fact that I’m going home with no job. Yes, there are a few places that have indicated interest in possibly employing me (which is more than I had the last time I was unemployed), but there’s such a terror in the unknown.
I keep telling myself that I’m a strong young woman, and I don’t care a fig what everyone else thinks. This is progress. Even though a small part of me does care, I’ve at least reached a point where I can say out loud “I don’t care” and 99% mean it. I think no matter how much we don’t care, secretly we all somewhat have that 1% of desire for approval from others.
I am truly looking forward to seeing my “niece” more than once every 4 months. Babies grow fast. I always knew that, but it’s really hitting home with me now that I have this little girl in my life. She’s so precious, and I just melt when I’m around her. That’s never really happened for me before with a baby. I grew up an only child, and babies just weren’t a big part of my life. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve shied away from being around babies. I think this is mainly due to the fact that when I see a baby, it hurts something deep inside. It’s this reminder that much as I desire to be a wife and mother (not because I’m wishing I was a 50’s housewife, but because I want to love and nurture), to this point those are things I’ve been denied. I’ve avoided babies trying to protect myself, and it’s not just babies.
I’ve come to realize that in the last 10 years I’ve built up quite the wall around my heart. The building has been slow going. At first, whenever something hurt, or I was rejected, I’d put in another brick. Then, I began ending things before they could hurt me, which meant there were more bricks being placed around my heart. I did try, a few times, to take a chance on various things, but all ended in disaster, and I went from using bricks to welding a metal shield around my heart. When I was home at Thanksgiving, and I saw baby girl, I realized just how much I’ve sealed my heart off.
I’m going to try, very hard, to remove the shield, and undo the bricks. I don’t want to be a heartless old hag. I want to love and be loved. I want to be able to love and accept myself, even with the laundry list of faults I know I have. I’m not going to be perfect at it, but I’m going give it my best, and that’s all I can hope to do.
Any Second Now... 