a month of no blogging

been waaaayyy too long. tons of stuff has been going on. pennsylvania was great. i love spending time with my grandma. it's weird and wonderful to have an adult relationship with older people. we talk like we're friends and i found out lots of things about her life that i didn't know. the older she gets the more i want to spend time with her. i know that her good years are growing short and want to get all the memories i can with her. i got to see snow and lots of great aunts and an uncle. we also had a fun shopping day at thrift stores where i got lots of stuff for sooo cheap! i had to borrow a suitcase from grandma just to bring the stuff home.

karen's graduation was good. she was soo nauseous, but she made it through without yakking. we got some great pictures of the family and the reception afterward had yummy food. then back to work for three days and trying to get everything done for christmas. christmas eve i went to lake city and had lunch at cracker barrell with susan and her son michael. susan is my high school friend who i visit every year in alabama. we planned our next visit for late april and are roadtripping to ..... arkansas! i know you're like what, arkansas? but neither of us have been and its only 4 hours from her place. so now i have to study up on the state for some off the wall places to visit.

after lunch i went to cat and bill's. grandma was staying with them and brian and i spent the night too. aunt susan and her boyfriend gary showed up in their rv and we had a nice christmas eve. we played games and ate a yummy dinner. my aunt susan made a bean soup that was delicious! i made corn casserole and steamed asparagus to go with it. christmas morning everybody else showed up. we opened presents for 2 hours, we like to watch each gift be opened. poor karen just kind of lay back on the couch and watched. i really hope this sick pregnant woman thing gets better soon. after i put my lovely quilt cat made me (with six matching pillows!) in my car, i went back to sleep. at 4 i got yanked out of bed by bill's best friend and we ate turkey and other yumminess that cat and bill made. then i lay on the couch and watched movies with my grandma. i spent another night there since my roommate was in my bed and her mom in hers.

up early the next day to work. luckily it was slow. brian's goodbye party was sunday night. kate made awesome cupcakes with brian's name on them and i got a bunch of foods brian could eat. about 30 people were there and it was a nice send off. mom, dad and brian left monday to go to salt lake. karen and justin left monday to go on a 4 day anniversary trip in the ga mountains. wednesday finally showed up and grandma and i drove down to marco island.

we stayed with her sister helen. first day we watched the sunset on the resident's only beach. it was really gorgeous. the next day janet and larry took me around the island. we went to some indian mounds, the library (which i really, really liked!) and then on a very very long walk on tigertail beach looking for shells. after lunch we went to big cypress national preserve in the everglades and saw tons of cool birds and one brave alligator. it was so cold they where all in hiding. that night we had pork and sauerkraut and peas. tradition apparently. it was really good. i got them all to stay up until midnight to watch the ball drop. they hadn't done it in years.

the next day i stayed in bed most of the day and then went over to larry and janet's for beef stew and pork leftovers while we watched the gator game. larry and i are the only ones who lasted til the end. it was great to see the gators win big. oh how i'll miss my tebow. the next day we went to open houses, as helen is looking to move to marco full time and wants more space and a place with a water view and an elevator. we saw some small condos with amazing views and a $1 million house that was pretty spectacular. the next day we drove up the coast to sanibel and captiva. cold and beautiful, i really want to come back to captiva to spend a long weekend. we ate yummy seafood and watched the steelers at the sanibel grill. then some dairy queen outside, sooo cold! and then the vacay was over. back to gainesville. 3 hours of sleep and then i picked up sam at 4:45am and drove her and grandma to the orlando airport. then i went home and slept the day away.

back to work on the 5th. lots to do with scheduling all the programs for the march-may guide. early morning staff meeting where i had to talk. planning sandy's retirement party and doing her scrapbook. late nights. and soreness. emily and i did a bosu class tuesday night and ohh was i in pain. but at least i was at the gym. read several books. worked the weekend, which was way too busy. did a chinese new year program on sunday. kids are so cute! i had 20 people, which means it was the holidays that got numbers low, not that i suck. trips to the permenant location to look at the progress of the building coming along quite nicely. trying to figure out how some of it is gonna work. getting to know the new librarian and figuring out my new library specialist's schedule. hiring pages and an ls to replace sandy (is that possible?) gotta do an evaluation and start going through my desk and tossing stuff.

stayed in bed all day yesterday (bum!) but today went to the gym, grocery shopping, did laundry (including putting it away), and cleaning my room. this weekend i'm going to see ishu and her fam. her bday was new years, so i gotta go celebrate. 4 day weekend with working last weekend and mlk day. gotta take down christmas soon. gotta write brian and send thank you's to all the aunts i saw in penn and marco. i think that catches me up. 3am time for bed!