Bring on the holidays!!!

Okay...I am so over my snow fantasy. Just so yall know. We got a little cool snap and that was quite enough for me. It did get me in the holiday spirit, though. I did a little Christmas shopping this weekend. Cleaned my oven...the one thing I do the week of Thanksgiving...and I cleaned out a couple of kitchen cabinets. Just to get ready for my cooking spree that starts on Wednesday afternoon. Ooooh! I'm so excited!

Is it abnormal that an 18 year old female hates Bath-N-Body Works? I think so.

I'm getting a new IPOD for Christmas! Gonna pass Little Mona on down to A. I wonder if I should call my new IPOD Big Mona...or come up with a new name. (Man...I have a lot of serious stuff on my mind today. Can you tell?) M gave me a dollar limit this morning and said...go ahead and pick out what you want for Christmas...order it if you need to...then wrap it and put it under the tree. I can't complain because I get whatever I want...and I'm always happy with my presents on Christmas morning. Extremely happy...even totally excited...but never, ever surprised. Bo Bice will be under the tree. Amazing Grace will be under the tree. And of course, my IPOD. Maybe some clothes. A French-English dictionary. A book called Writers of the American South: Their Literary Landscapes by Hugh Howard and Roger Strauss.

Okay...now it's time to think about others...which I love to do. I love shopping for others. I've got to sit down and figure out what I have left to buy. One thing that A wants is to redo her room. So we're going to paint and she'll get new bedding and curtains. She's been reminding me "that she's growing up" and that her room needs an update. She's a lot of fun to shop for because she's at that really cool age.

A's with my mama today...and they are two peas in a pod. They love snuggling and bumming out all day. But I just talked to their sleepy butts and they are getting up to go to the zoo. How nice...I say as I'm sitting in this ugly office at this ugly desk...feeling quite claustrophobic.

The portfolio is coming along but I did not get it finished this weekend as planned. I can tell that I am going to have to really work on it some every night if I plan to complete it before the semester is over. It is due a week from today...so I've got some major work to do. I'll try to knock quite a bit out tonight. I need some creativity to bong me in the head in about seven hours. (I just had a student who's in this same class come by and tell me that he hasn't even started on his portfolio. He said he was going to do it this weekend. He said it was going to be a ten minute job. Oh my gosh...I've already spent so many hours on mine!)

My neck is hurting again. They are giving free aqua massages today from 10:00 til 2:00. I just may have to figure out a time to run down to the gym and see what that's all about.

Mama just called...she and A are going to Cracker Barrel. This is not fair. No fair...at all.

I think that I'm going to go back to Weight Watchers. My goal is not really to lose a ton of weight. But health and fitness. If I lose a few pounds...great. But WW requires planning and preparation. It encourages exercise and portion control. It stresses making healthy food choices and incorporating daily exercise into daily routines. It makes me stay away from my fast food haunts. I think, for me...WW encourages good habits...which is a big problem for me. I decided that I'm going to go back next Thursday (after Thanksgiving) because I don't want to have to deal with the after Christmas crowd. I decided that I am going to commit to at least one year of meetings...because by then, I will hopefully have developed some lifelong healthy habits. Then I am going to go back to the athletic club. We have a state of the art athletic club right here on campus. Now that A gets off the bus at home...I can go to the gym on the way home from work. Health and fitness is my goal for the upcoming year. I feel pretty darned good about making this decision. Now...for the action part...

Oh! I've got to go to class!