Happy 2007!

Welcome, 2007! Hope all of my blogger friends are having a good start to the new year. I know many of you have suffered a great deal of pain and indecision in the previous year. I know we've all experienced change and growth. I pray that the year ahead is one of peace, prosperity and joy for all of you. I pray that the worst of the hurting is over. As I heard on a radio station last night, "Let's nix 2006." Let's expect heaven in 2007."

In 2006, I got to know Neicy, Ellie, Pam, Pat, J.F. through this, my blog. What a blessing! My friendship with Holli grew closer, which was awesome. I stayed in touch with my friend, Deb, and a few other friends who kept up on my life just by reading my posts. I celebrated 2 years of blogging in July, and 200 posts in 2006 as well. I started a fitness blog, which, along with my poetry blog, have been neglected since...but hopefully I can change that in the upcoming year.

How was your Christmas? Good, I hope. I had one of the best Christmases ever this year. God is good and we were able to redirect some money from an investment account to pay off some bills, including the land contract on our city house. We had a nice Christmas, which included Rob and I buying some gifts for each other. For the last several years we have opted out of getting one another gifts. Without getting too extravagent, we spoiled each other this year.

Shutting down our toy shop meant we were able to bless a family with some toys for Christmas as well as give Jo some of the toys he had been salivating over. He got some clothes and a kids' guitar as well. The older two got MP3 players and clothes. Josh got video games and Jess got a digital camera. I had some reward certificates from Build a Bear, and I used them to get Jess a pink kitten and Jo a dog as well as some new outfits for them. Those gifts came as a total shock to them. I really had to plan it out to hide them. They were with me at the mall when I picked out the stuff, and Rob and I were sneaking around like CIA agents. Turns out, they had no clue they were getting them. I was amazed that we pulled that off.

I got lots of bath and shower stuff from Jess and her boyfriend, John, and his family. Jo got me some, also. I shouldn't run out of good smelling bath stuff for several months. Josh got me an OSU shirt. I got two Weird Al cds from Rob, a foot warmer for under my desk, a massaging back pad for my chair, two robes and two sets of p.j.s with slippers, and the "Shark" cordless vacuum, which I specifically asked for. It works great on our wood floors. I got him a Remington all purpose trimmer, some sweatshirts, socks, cheese and sausage gift sets and cologne. The kids got him Hickory Farms snacks and cologne as well.

All in all, it was an amazing Christmas.

What made it perfect was the ending. The day after Christmas I went to get the mail for a neighbor who was out of town. I was just walking back home when Rob pulled up in the van. He said, "C'mon Grandma." I was puzzled. I said something about taking too long, and walking slowly. I thought he was referring to me taking a long time to get home, as we were about 1/2 an hour away from picking up Josh from basketball practice. He smiled, and said something about me hurrying up so I wouldn't miss the excitement. I finally asked him what he was talking about. Then it dawned on me: Lilly, our pregnant guinea pig, must have had her babies. I yelled, "The babies!" He confirmed that it was indeed the babies.

I had been sensing that Lilly was close to delivering. I fixed up her tub with extra hay and shavings about two days before Christmas. I had been feeding her more fresh veggies and keeping a closer eye on her. My intuition was right on target. Three healthy little babies were running around the tub upon closer inspection. I'm guessing she had them sometime after we went to bed Christmas night. The umbilical cords were still in place, though neatly clipped by an attentive mommy, Lilly, when I checked them out. Their fur was clean and sleek and smooth. I think there are two girls and a boy if my powers of observation are still as sharp as before. They are so adorable! One of them, a girl, is two shades of brown. She looks like she has reddish eyes like Lilly. She is the calmest of the three so far. Lilly is a great mom, and sits on them to keep them warm and let them nurse as needed.

So, that was a big highlight in my week off.

How did you celebrate New Year's Eve?

Rob and I got the kids some party trays and snacks, got three cousins....one for each of the kids to come over. Then Rob and I went out to eat and went to see the movie, "Night at the Museum." It was VERY good. We were on our way home at midnight. I think we stayed up until oneish, then called it a night.

Today I've lazed around and have done nothing noteworthy other than finally posting here.

I'm going to post some pictures of our new babies. Also, I forgot to mention that my friend, Sheila, gave us an aquarium when she was moving. We got some fish for it this week, so I took some pictures of them, as well. We're more a Noah's Ark every day. :)

I'm going to close and try to get some scrapbooking in on this, my last day off. They say what you do on New Year's Day is what you'll be doing all year long. If that is true, I want to make sure that scrapbooking is in there somewhere! ;)

Thanks for listening to my rant, and Happy New Year! Blessings to you all!