Bestest Christmas Present EVER!

1 more day till the Fat Man cometh....

Yep, Christmas Eve is upon us. I got up early today and headed out to run some errands. I told the girls last night that we needed to get up early to get out and back, but they didn't budge when I asked them to get up. I headed out to work first, to pick up schedules. What a time for those to be due. Oh well. Then I headed to Bed Bath & Beyond at Crossroads. That wasn't too bad, but I think it was because I was there early. Bought way too much and then headed home. Stopped by Target, picked up more stuff, then home. Girls were still in bed, so I got them up. Since I knew it was going to be more than 5 minutes, I quickly made some Pumpkin Bread and Cinnamon Struesel. By the time they were done, the girls were ready. We packed up goodies and headed out.

We had gift cards to pick up, lunch somewhere, headed to Harnett County to drop off suprise goodies. I hope they like them. We were trying to get all the running done before Mom got here.

I think I have gone more in and out of my house today than I have in 6 months. Everytime I would get home, I would think of something else. Mom got here around 1300 as we were pulling in the driveway. We continued running errands and then finally around 1630 we were officially DONE!

I probably didn't need anything I bought today, but it was fun going out anyway. Just seemed like yesterday Diane and I headed out at 0300 for Black Friday shopping! And in one day its all over.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and if anyone sees Santa tonight, let me know!

Anyone up for Round 2?

Dad had his 6 month follow-up CT done 2 weeks ago. It was questionable, due to 3-10cm spots showing up on his liver. Not good! He had a PET scan done on Tuesday morning and met back with the Surgeon Wednesday morning. If there was good news, I guess we got it. The cancer wasn't showing up in any other organ.

He had his port placed (again) today. He starts his chemo on Monday. Every Monday and Wednesday for awhile. Follow up with an Ablation Surgeon soon.

This chemo will be much different than before. Much more intense. Not good. Dad hated the 6 months of chemo he went through but I thought, for a chemo patient, he got through it pretty good. This Im sure is going to take its toll. He will probably have more bad days than good. He is strong and my Dad, so hopefully, with many prayers, he will make it through.

Cancer is such a horrible thing. No matter what type it is. It affects the best of people and takes lives every day. I hate it. You would think that with all the technology, science, research, etc. that someone would find out what could be cancer, of all types. Look at how many people cancer affects. Too many!

2010 Rex Holiday Party

So finally after 9 months of planning, it was time to relax! The girls and I checked in and ordered dinner. Even though they weren't going to the party, they love staying in hotels. I thought about asking Chris to come with me. We seem to be talking and texting, but then I always talk myself out of it. But it would be nice if he was here. Rafel and I met with the Planner, touched base on everything, picked up drink tickets and then we were good to go.

We had almost severyone who had signed up to go actually show up. Not too bad, considering what we went through in order to pull everything off. Food was good, room was great, music was good. Photographer didn't show up (put the wrong date in his calendar) but it was good!

Some of my favorite peeps! Jane and Jessica! Everyone seems to clean up well! We don't see anyone is clothes very often, not to mention actually showered and clothed!

Linda actually showed up! Not sure how long she stayed, but in all the years Ive been there, this is the 1st!

Hard to believe I went to school with Kenny in Charleston. Arun, on the other hand, love him! For some reason, if you are a MD and your last name begins with a M, then we will definately hire you!

Of course, this was before any drinks were consumed! ha ha. They didn't even plan this picture, either!

Renee and I are so alike in so many ways. Sometimes, thats not such a good thing. But we have grown as friends and had a very enjoyable evening!

Then on the other side of me was Elaine.....Of course I had to be the 'funny' one. Elaine is too serious! She does actually laugh, but Im too into fun all the time!

Now every year, Jonathan is always fun to watch on the dance floor. He is very entertaining. Lots of energy is expelled!

I think thats why he stays so trim. I told him he needs to use some of those moves at work!

And then my sister! At least everyone thinks we are. Lori and I don't work together too often, but its always good to see anyone OUTSIDE of work! Despite her trying to hook me up with a friend, I always have Chris in the back of my mind.

Then there is Tres!

All in all, it was a great evening. Everyone seemed to have a great time and we had a great turnout. I was so tired by the time everything was done! I was glad I only had to take an elevator ride up 7 floors! A few short months and we will be planning for the 2011 End of Year Party! Maybe I can get Chris to come then!~ Keep your fingers crossed!

Self portraits....Lauren French style

In todays day and age, the self-portrait is the way to go. I found these when uploading pics off Lauren's camera. They are so cute and she is growing up so fast. 7th grade! And doesn't look like my little girl any more.

I think sometimes she looks more like me than Allison, especially when she was younger. Im not sure anymore.....

Snow? In Raleigh?

Believe it or not, we got snow. I was actually sitting in the Lowes parking lot and looked up and had to do a double take....it was snowing! We hardly ever get snow. Mostly bad ice storms, but snow, never! That is one thing I miss about West Virginia.....big, fluffy snow and lots of it!

Although we didn't get enough to get out snow shovels, it did cover the ground, lightly. But it was nice to see!

Thats definately not dandruff in Laurens hair!~ Its SNOW! Isn't it amazing how North Carolinians act with a few flakes?

We had ran some errands and got back to this! We were sooooo excited! I know...not alot...but for us its AWESOME!

I made some footprints on the deck! It barely covered the deck...but if I could make footprints, it was good enough for me!

It was beautiful! It didn't last long but we didn't care. Something that the girls will never understand. That is definately something that I miss. Last year when I went to West Virgina, it was the perfect weekend. Big snow flakes all weekend. Snow everywhere. I truely miss that!

Pop N Son (theres no where else to buy a tree)

Every year we always head to Pop N Son Christmas Tree Farm to find that 'perfect' tree. Its something we always look forward to. This year we went the week after Thanksgiving. It was cold outside and when we got there, there weren't too many people, it was great. Its amazing coming year after year as they have changed so much. They now have a paved driveway that has a parking lot and a seperate barn. They have acres and acres of trees. All in different stages of growth, of course. They used to have an area where they had about 20-30 trees set up that were already cut, then they would show you the area where the trees that were 'ready' were.

We always take our time. Not too short, not too skinny, it has to be 'perfect'. Lauren loves going up and down and looking to help find our tree.

The taller trees are usually leaning on stands in one location. I picked this one up and had the girls look at it to make sure it looked good. No open spots. It definately was the one!

Its amazing how many people get excited over putting a cut, live tree in their house. I absolutely LOVE it. Thats why it has to be the 'right' one. Luckily, this year, I didn't have to fight anyone over the tree we picked!

This year our tree was too big to go through the netter. Not sure if its called a netter but you shove the tree through and it puts a net over the entire tree. It makes the tree easier to move, but not this year!

The guys ask who was getting the tree off the car. After I said 'we were'. He laughed and said "Can you take a video and put it on YouTube when you're done?", I said 'sure'. ha ha ha...

I was ready to get back in the car. It was cooooold outside! We headed home and actually pulled around back. I thought if we had a shorter distance to carry the tree the better off we were. After all, it was just Allison, Lauren and me...and someone had to take pictures, right?

Allison got the ties off the tree so we could 'roll' it off the roof of the car. Then the fun began. It was a little heavier than I thought. But we were all laughing trying to figure out how to get it up the stairs on the deck while someone took video and pictures.

But after many deep breaths and pulling together, we did it! Got it up onto the deck AND into the tree stand! Yeah us! I love it when we work together! It would have been better had Chris been here. Sometimes I really wish I wasn't so hard on everything. How do you just open up and say how you feel? Maybe by the time Im 30 Ill know.

Black Friday 2010- Round 2

After being home for about 30 minutes, Lauren wanted to go shopping. I didn't even hesitate. Back out we went. Headed to Kohls.
As you can see Lauren isn't into the Black Friday photos as much as I was. No shopping carts available. Oh well! The store wasn't overly crowded but it was busy. And since we didn't have a cart, it made it easy to get through the aisles....although a cart would be nice.

We have come to the conclusion that they now make a Snuggie in every type of theme you can think of. As much as Lauren loves SpongeBob...we are NOT buying a SpongeBob Snuggie! Sorry! After awhile we decided it was time to get in line to check out. Surprisingly, we were in the same spot that Diane and I were in at 0330. The line was still backed up around the store. I just laughed.

I heard someone make a comment 'it would help if they had all the registers open'. Um, sir...THEY DO! IDIOT! Maybe its BLACK FRIDAY and tons of people are shopping, or hey, maybe people are waiting until the total button is hit before they attempt to get their wallet out? Did you ever think of that?

We were only in line for about 15 minutes. It moved as quickly as it did earlier. We finally made it to the front! Yeah!

We left White Oak and headed for CrossRoads! 5 Below here we come! I had heard of this store but never been in it. Its like a Dollar Store but everything is under $5! Yeah...Im sure we can find some bargains!

Yep, that about sums it up! Tons of shirts. Lauren found one that says I love French Fries. And since everyone calls her French Fry..it was perfect!

They had everything from Christmas decorations to shirts to iPhone accessories, school supplies, candy, etc. Just a little of everything...and it was all for under $5! Woot Woot!

We left 5 Below and headed to Target! If you haven't seen the Target lady Christmas countdown commercial...its a must! She is hilarious!

Lauren didn't think this was too funny! She definately drew the line when I said I wanted her to film me running by the camera with a chute attached! ha ha... Watch the commercial!

We did get a cart full of stuff! And no waiting. What a day!

We headed to the car and ran into Kristen, who had been following my FB posts since 0230...

Kristen: I can't believe you are still shopping!

Me: I still have room in the car, why wouldn't I still be shopping?

As my 12 plus hours of Black Friday were coming to an end...I knew as soon as I got home I was going to drop. I decided to stop at Chik-fil-a to get the girls lunch!

Even the Chik-fil-a girl had a smile.....This was by far the BEST Black Friday shopping day I have ever had! I can't wait till next year!

Oh....I made need a trailer next year. And a ton more reuseable bags! Happy Holidays!

Black Friday - 0300 style....

Kohls was again leading the Black Friday stores with an opening time of 0300. I had posted on FB about making a list of Black Friday shopping and Diane wanted to go. I set my alarm for 0200, got up, dressed, teeth brushed and out the door! It look me about 10 minutes to get to Diane!

Diane had never been up Black Friday shopping so early! I warned her what White Oak was going to look like. We pulled in near Best Buy and the parking lots were full and Best Buy and Kohls were the only stores opening at 0300 and 0400 but there was hardly anywhere to park. By the time we got parked and headed to Kohls it was 0313~
As we got in the store the lines for both sets of registers were already all the way around the store...we just laughed! There wasn't anything 'important' that I was going to run over someone for, however, we did pick up somethings and then by the time we got all the way around the store, we figured we better get in line! Here we are in line, waiting!

About 15 minutes later we made it to the front of the line! We felt like winners! As you can see the lady behind us is half asleep! And the woman behind her is probably going 'who is holding up this line?'. ha ha...Its Black Friday people....get a grip!

We loaded the car and headed to my Target. After pulling out onto Highway 70 I remembered we just left White Oak where there WAS a Target. U-turn on Hwy 70 and back to Target. Again, parking lot full. They weren't opening until 0400 so we still had a few minutes. As we walked up Target had buggies lined up to allow entrance into the store through a line instead of everyone rushing the doors! We thought we would just wait until everyone got in and then they would move the buggies.....we soon realized that they weren't planning on moving any.

Everyone around us was kind of thinking the same thing....until we all figured out that they wanted ALL of us to go through the same line!....

I then realized that every buggy was zip-tied together at the front and back of the buggy! There were probably over 100 buggies! I just laughed!

As we walked in and saw every check-out lane with a buggy and a television....I just laughed. Im sure half these people can't pay the electric bill, however, all 5 of their kids had just bought a $300 television!

The electronics department was crazy! I did pick up some digital picture frames! But then we headed back up towards the front to check-out. Then it began! As we were passing the cosmetics section, we noticed they had roped off toward the registers and we were now doing the official Disney lines. We weaved through the cosmetics, laundry detergent and even dog food before getting to the front. We never saw so many WTF looks. As we would weave, people that were walking up to get in line, just looked at all of us like we were crazy...there was an almost musical unison of 100 people going through all these aisles. It was hilarious. People would look, look again....then the WTF look would arise! But once we got to the front of the line we just picked whatever lane. It actually moved fairly well. However, as I would give Target the award for organization this year....I would like to file a complaint as I never saw a booth for a Fast Pass! ha ha

As we were documenting this monumentous journey, the Target lady just laughed! Hell, its 0430 and there are more people shopping that at 1300! Have fun!

We left there and headed to Cary Towne Center! JC Penney here we come! Again, parking lot packed! And again, no shopping cart! I guess Ill have to carry everything! I did ok for awhile, then I couldn't hold anymore. Diane went shopping for shoes (imagine that) and when she came back I told her I had to check out as I couldn't hold anything else!

We actually took everything out to the car and then headed to the rest of the mall. Surprisingly, all the stores were open! We headed for Chik-fil-a for breakfast, as neither one of us had eaten since lunch yesterday!

We headed to Belk, Macy's, Kirklands, pretty much where-ever we wanted!

Of course, everyone likes fur! I think it was from roadkill from I-40 but I didn't want to tell Diane! Even the lady that kept circling the display, even though we had just gotten there! I think if we had stayed another 60 seconds she may have attacked us!

We looked and looked for Santa.....theres a big darn tree, but no Santa. He is obviously looking for my 2011 Audi TT in black at a discount! But we had to get a picture by the big tree. Again, we stopped a complete stranger!

If theres a sports store...Im definately stopping! We laughed so hard at these shirts! Of course, I bought some! They didn't have everything in Carolina Blue though, and I couldn't buy anything with that 'other' blue! Ill have to check back!

I definately wanted this shirt, but nothing in that beautiful blue! But I definately am digging that wording!

Now we headed to Crossroads! Old Navy here we come! Nothing special, just looking! I guess the shirt is made for me! Maybe there is hope out there! If only Chris knew! Maybe I should buy the shirt and send it to him? ha ha

Again, we stopped the Old Navy lady that Im sure thought we were drinking. This early, we should have. ha ha.

Michaels was the next stop! And this is the first store that we got a shopping cart! Yeah us! Again, a stranger took the picture! And she was laughing!

Whoopie pies? I had never heard of them. Diane had. So I bought them. I will try them and see how they taste! Then Ill delve into my own concoction!

I dropped Diane off around 1030 and then headed home. Unfortunately, I still had room in the back of the car! But, not too bad for 7 hours of shopping.

Little did I know that after getting home....30 minutes later...Round II would begin!