1. I think part of a best friend’s job should be to immediately clear
your computer history if you die.

2. Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you
realize you’re wrong.

3. I totally take back all those times I didn’t want to nap when I was
younger.

4. There is great need for a sarcasm font.

5. How are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

6. Was learning cursive really necessary?

7. Map Quest really needs to start their directions on #5. I’m pretty
sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.

8. Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the
person died.

9. I can’t remember the last time I wasn’t at least kind of tired.

10. Bad decisions make good stories.

11. You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at
work when you know that you just aren’t going to do anything productive
for the rest of the day.

12. Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after Blue Ray? I
don’t want to have to restart my collection…again.

13. I’m always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks
me if I want to save any changes to my ten-page paper that I swear I did
not make any changes to.

14. “Do not machine wash or tumble dry” means I will never wash this –
ever.

15. I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello? Damn
it!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to
voicemail. What’d you do after I didn’t answer? Drop the phone and run
away?

16. I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not
seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.

17. I keep some people’s phone numbers in my phone just so I know not
to answer when they call.

18. A man’s 4-year old son asked him in the car “Dad what would happen
if you ran over a ninja?” How the hell do you respond to that?

19. I think the freezer deserves a light as well.

20. I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or
Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lite than Kay.

So how is the weather at where you are? I hear the rain and bad weather is everywhere… Got any fun stories to share about what’s going on near you?

Another funny thing apparently we had tornado warnings here in Arizona yesterday… really! I couldn’t believe it! Arizona is the one state that doesn’t get many national disasters… no earthquakes… no tsunami’s…. no tornados… well wait we got that one LOL We usually only get a few minor flash floods that take out a road or two… but not usually loss of lives like everywhere else. I’d say we’ve got it pretty good (usually) hehe I even saw someone rafting across a green belt in a park yesterday… guess that is a good way to make the most of things

This weekend should be fun. The banquet usually is. Good music, good friends… oh yeah… alcohol and our racers go together like a tight glove!

And we’re all looking forward to NAMM and all the partying that goes along with rockstars and the music industry LOL Three late nights, hardly any sleep, bad hangovers, and TONS of fun!

I won’t be on my computer much while I’m away, but I’ll try to Twitter and take pics when I can…

Faith xoxo

I’m sure there were many more but those are what I can remember at the moment (in my slightly tired and hungover mind LOL)

It’s amazing all that has occurred in the last decade! And I look forward to celebrating the next decade! What milestones have occurred in your life the past decade?

In September 1960, I woke up one morning with six hungry babies and just 75 cents in my pocket.

Their father was gone.

The boys ranged from three months to seven years; their sister was two.

Their Dad had never been much more than a presence they feared.

Whenever they heard his tires crunch on the gravel driveway they would scramble to hide under their beds.

He did manage to leave $15 a week to buy groceries.

Now that he had decided to leave, there would be no more beatings, but no food either.

If there was a welfare system in effect in southern Indiana at that time, I certainly knew nothing about it.

I scrubbed the kids until they looked brand new and then put on my best homemade dress, loaded them into the rusty old 51 Chevy and drove off to find a job.

The seven of us went to every factory, store and restaurant in our small town.

No luck.

The kids stayed crammed into the car and tried to be quiet while I tried to convince who ever would listen that I was willing to learn or do anything. I had to have a job.

Still no luck. The last place we went to, just a few miles out of town, was an old Root Beer Barrel drive-in that had been converted to a truck stop.

It was called the Big Wheel.

An old lady named Granny owned the place and she peeked out of the window from time to time at all those kids.

She needed someone on the graveyard shift, 11 at night until seven in the morning.

She paid 65 cents an hour, and I could start that night.

I raced home and called the teenager down the street that baby-sat for people.

I bargained with her to come and sleep on my sofa for a dollar a night.

She could arrive with her pajamas on and the kids would already be asleep

This seemed like a good arrangement to her, so we made a deal.

That night when the little ones and I knelt to say our prayers, we all thanked God for finding Mommy a job. And so I started at the Big Wheel.

When I got home in the mornings I woke the baby-sitter up and sent her home with one dollar of my tip money– fully half of what I averaged every night.

As the weeks went by, heating bills added a strain to my meager wage.

The tires on the old Chevy had the consistency of penny balloons and began to leak. I had to fill them with air on the way to work and again every morning before I could go home.

One bleak fall morning, I dragged myself to the car to go home and found four tires in the back seat. New tires!

There was no note, no nothing, just those beautiful brand new tires.

Had angels taken up residence in Indiana ? I wondered.

I made a deal with the local service station.

In exchange for his mounting the new tires, I would clean up his office.

I remember it took me a lot longer to scrub his floor than it did for him to do the tires.

I was now working six nights instead of five and it still wasn’t enough.

Christmas was coming and I knew there would be no money for toys for the kids .

I found a can of red paint and started repairing and painting some old toys. Then I hid them in the basement so there would be something for Santa to deliver on Christmas morning.

Clothes were a worry too. I was sewing patches on top of patches on the boys pants and soon they would be too far gone to repair.

On Christmas Eve the usual customers were drinking coffee in the Big Wheel. There were the truckers, Les, Frank, and Jim, and a state trooper named Joe.

A few musicians were hanging around after a gig at the Legion and were dropping nickels in the pinball machine.

The regulars all just sat around and talked through the wee hours of the morning and then left to get home before the sun came up.

When it was time for me to go home at seven o’clock on Christmas morning, to my amazement, my old battered Chevy was filled full to the top with boxes of all shapes and sizes.

I quickly opened the driver’s side door, crawled inside and kneeled in the front facing the back seat.

Reaching back, I pulled off the lid of the top box.

Inside was whole case of little blue jeans, sizes 2-10!

I looked inside another box: It was full of shirts to go with the jeans.

Then I peeked inside some of the other boxes. There was candy and nuts and bananas and bags of groceries. There was an enormous ham for baking, and canned vegetables and potatoes.
There was pudding and Jell-O and cookies, pie filling and flour. There was whole bag of laundry supplies and cleaning items.

And there were five toy trucks and one beautiful little doll.

As I drove back through empty streets as the sun slowly rose on the most amazing Christmas Day of my life, I was sobbing with gratitude.

And I will never forget the joy on the faces of my little ones that precious morning.

Yes, there were angels in Indiana that long-ago December. And they all hung out at the Big Wheel truck stop.

So what are your family traditions? What are some new traditions you would like to start or plan on starting this year?

For us a quiet peaceful Christmas at home has been the trademark for years past. Staying in our pj’s from Christmas Eve through Christmas… sometimes if we’re able… all the way through Boxing Day (the day after Christmas). My husband is English, and Boxing Day is a national holiday there, and they not only get Christmas Day off work, but Boxing Day as well. So we try to celebrate that here too for him…

As for traditions, movies, board games and a roaring fire in the fireplace are mainstays in our house. Also whenever we go on a big trip anywhere, instead of buying souvenirs, we buy one ornament to put on our Christmas tree that represents that trip. One year when we went through Texas on a motorhome trip, we purchased a wooden ornament in the shape of Texas painted in Texas flag colors and The Alamo written on it. Another year we went to Disney World and purchased a train ornament that reminded us of Jack’s late father, since he loved trains, and we watched a train parade/show at Disney World. Every year when I put up my tree, I re-live those trips every time I hang up the ornaments To me that is the true meaning of Christmas… NOT getting another Wii game… or the latest perfume on the market.

So I’d love to hear your holiday traditions…

http://www.faith69.com/csets/calendar/calendar.html

Now my question to you… January starts a new year for my website. And I need your opinion. Did you enjoy the Calendar Girl Feature on my website this year? Would you like me to continue it again next year with new girls and new photos? Please post, email, or twitter me and let me know your thoughts… I don’t want to have it on there if you haven’t enjoyed it…

So far the next one on Netflix to come is The Proposal…