[Insert witty title here]

This is officially my last Christmas blog. My intention was to post Christmas night, and be done with it, but I have pictures to post and no lie, every single time I went to find the camera, it was gone. Every single time.
So then I had to write stuff down I wanted to post so I wouldn't forget anything. But then I lost the paper. So this is me winging it.

I've never uploaded pictures to my blog (obviously) so I have no clue if its going to come out right. I'll trust you to put the descriptions with the correct photos if not. Think of it as sort of a matching game.

Okay, how ridiculously excited were you to wake up to snow Christmas morning??? Best. Day. Ever.
some of us were excited over the snow for more than one reason. Not only was it our first white Christmas EVER, but it gave us ( by us I mean my two sisters and myself) an excuse to wear more layers. Which meant we could pretty much wear 3/4 of our presents to Ihop. I'll start at our feet:

How cute are we? Mine are the hounds tooth. They actually are not a Christmas present, but it was snowing. And everybody else had theirs on. Bethany's are the "super cute polka dots" as she just now described them. She's helping me with the picture uploading because I'm computer illiterate. Kayla's are the peacock feathers. We get excited when it's cloudy outside now.

Now, this is going in the family album. We don't actually have a family album... but if we did this would be in it:

Please note that we all have on pea coats, scarves, and rain boots. Awwwww.


We go to Ihop every Christmas for breakfast. I think this year made eleven years we have done this. Every year, we get our server ( that's the politically correct term for waiter/waitress, in case you didn't know ) to take our picture. Here is this year's version:

Yay waitress. I mean server.

Every year, I get the exact same thing. The Ham Skillet. The last two years it hasn't been on the menu, but they still make it. This year, the cook had no clue what it even was. Apparently they got a new cook, and didn't inform him of me, and how I get the same thing every Christmas. The nerve. So, I had to decide on something new last minute... while I has having a mild inner meltdown over having to stray away from my usual routine. I decided on the Fruit Crepe, which wasn't too bad. But it wasn't amazing like the Ham Skillet.
I'm pretty sure I hid my disappointment, however. Except at my dad told our server " she's gonna freak out now". She didn't seem too concerned.
My favorite part of breakfast was this family seated behind us. It started snowing, I'm talking super huge, big as my hand flakes. One of their kids said "LOOK!!! IT"S SNOWING!!!" The mother responds, "I think that's just rain, honey." Really? rain drops that float? and are white and fluffy? Really?? Then she goes outside to check, and oh my word, it IS snow! She's snapping pics with her cell phone and waving to her family through the window. They must have been from the most southern part of Florida.

It's a mad, mad, mad world

Oh my word. You can't even imagine the madness I have endured this week. I don't even know where to begin. I'm aware today is only Tuesday but I feel like I've already seen enough people for it to be much further along into the week. I'm pretty sure I spoke to about 678 people at my register alone. It makes me really thirsty.

Let me just give a few examples of the madness that has occurred up in Bath and Body Works, more commonly known as BBW by those of us cool enough to work there, these last two days. Usually, the root cause of any madness is coupons. For some reason nobody understands how to use them, and they wait until I have 28 other people in my line behind them to ask how to use their pretty green magic piece of paper.
Why do they not just read the coupon, front and back you say? I have no clue. No clue.

Then, we have the ones who don't have the correct amount of items in order to get the current specials. Let me catch you up on those real fast, pay attention reader. 3 wick candles are 2 for $20, normally they are $19.50 a piece so it's pretty much buy on get one free. How many women can pass up a BOGO? Zero. How many women understand that 2 for $20 equals BOGO? Zero. Oh my gosh.  Okay, the next big steal is Buy 3 get 3. Buy any 3 items of our "Signature Collection" (body lotion, shower gel, body butter, body cream, hand cream, bubble bath, splash) get any 3 free. Mix and match... did you get all that? Reread if necessary because the illustration I'm about to give contains this info.

So I'm ringing people up like crazy, this lady sets her bag of goodies on the counter. She has one candle, and 3 bottles of lotion.
Me: "Did anyone tell you these candles are 2 for $20? or $19.50 a piece? you might as well grab another one."
Crazy Lady: "No thank you, I don't need another candle"
Me: "Are you sure?? It's buy one, get one free"
Crazy Lady: "I said I don't need another one"
Me:" Alllllrighty... I see you have three body lotions, you can get 3 more of anything in the collection for free"
Crazy Lady: "I get tired of you people trying to force everyone to buy more stuff. If I needed more of anything, I would have gotten it"
Me: "Please disappear before I kill you". No, I really said "Okay *big smile*"

Four minutes later, I see Crazy Lady in line again. Heaven help me. She is in Kelley's line, who happens to be one of the managers, and had just taken over the register to let another girl take a break.
Kelley: "Hi, what can I do for you?"
Crazy Lady: "I want all of this stuff voided because I just found out I only got half of what I could have, but nobody told me."
Me: "Come a little closer, lady, so I can hit you." Jk... I only thought that.
Kelley: " Sure! It will only take a second to take care of this and then I will go with you and show you exactly what you need!"
Crazy Lady: *glaring at me* "This young lady rang me up."
Me:"Yep. I did... Kelley, can I go on break?????"

Now that is just a taste of what goes down in BBW amidst the holiday madness. Despite the chaos, I like it there. I find people so amusing. Today I had this guy ask me "What does Warm Vanilla Sugar smell like?"
Umm.... Warm Vanilla Sugar. Duh... That's why it's named "Warm Vanilla Sugar". I didn't say that aloud, however. I made him smell it. And he said "mmmm, vanilla-y" Yeah, go figure.

Have I talked too much about my job today? Well too bad. It's my blog.

Christmas is Saturday!!! Yayyyyyy!!!

Christmas-ness

Hi. You probably thought I died, or was abducted by aliens. The outer space kind, not the illegal kind. Although... that could happen too.

Well I wasn't. I've just been busy with Christmas-ness. Working retail this time of year is chaotic. I leave work completely frazzled (on my favorite word list) and exhausted. Not that I'm complaining, I'm more than grateful for any hours.

Anyway. So today has had a lot of Christmas-ness. My house is oozing all things Christmas. Christmas music has played nonstop. We have made Christmas candy, baked Christmas cakes, and wrapped Christmas presents. Plus, every single thing with Christmas lights is plugged in. Even my nails are Christmas-y. Because that is my mood.

Over all, I'm very satisfied with everything today contained. It was one of those days that required list making, and checking off. I was able to check off everything. Does anyone realize what an accomplishment this is for me??? HUGE. Oh... wait, not everything. I have one load of laundry left to do, but I couldn't do it because my dad turned the water off in order to fix a leak. So, that really isn't my fault.


Can I just say how fabulous consignment shops are? Way fabulous. I took clothes to Deja Vu in Tuscaloosa a few weeks ago, and called today to check on my account. Guess how much money I have waiting on me. Seventy dollars. That's how much. And, I still have seven items out on the floor. Who was excited? This girl. I will be going to Tuscaloosa first thing in the morning. And by first thing, I mean eleven-ish.

Did I mention I was excited? Just checking.

Does anyone have any suggestions for websites with free backgrounds and buttons?? I want some more options for cuteness. Please and thank you.

Some say weird, I say quirky

 Okay, everybody has their... quirks. I have many. Some are relatively harmless, like painting my nails to match my mood (red=sassy, pink=girly, black=bold/daring, etc). While others are just plain weird. Like wanting only 4 ice cubes in my glass. I can't help it. Really.
 The fact that I am very much a creature of habit only makes my quirks more noticeable. I get considerably upset (on the inside) when my normal routine of doing certain things is thrown off its designated course. Like when I need to fill my car with gas, I always go to the same gas station and use the same pump. Pump 2. In my head its like the magic pump where nothing will mess up. One time someone else had pump 2 so I went to pump 4. Big. Mistake. I paid in cash (ten dollar bills to be exact) but, the cashier miscounted. So she says over the loud speaker "DID YOU WANT TEN OR ELEVEN DOLLARS WORTH OF GAS, HONEY?"
Oh my gosh. Please everyone stop looking at me.I quickly held up ten fingers and smiled sweetly. Can I just pump my gas now?? No. The pump isn't working. So of course, she starts talking into the loud speaker again. "SHIRLEY,CAN YOU GO OVER THERE AND FIX THE PUMP? SHE MESSED IT UP". *GASP* I did not!!!! Did this happen when the gas station was slow? No, of course not. The parking lot was filled to maximum capacity. To make a long story short, I did not in fact mess up the gas pump, it froze. So I had to get in my car, move to perfect pump 2, and  wait for her to set it before FINALLY pumping my gas. Now when pump 2 is taken, I wait patiently.

While I am on the subject of habit, I don't feel I can leave out my addiction to coke. Calm down everybody. Coke as in Coca~Cola. Addiction seems to be an understatement, its like my security blanket of sorts. When I wake up in the morning I want a Coke. At every meal, I want a Coke. It's become my trade mark. I used to work at Curves, which is a women's fitness center. What did I have in my hand at all times? A Coke. Clearly I wasn't promoting good nutrition but did I care? No sir. Or ma'am. This past summer I broke the addiction to caffeine and let me tell you, I literally thought I was going to DIE. I had severe migraines for almost two weeks, and my entire body ached. I felt like a heroin addict having withdrawals. I've even read articles on what the stuff does to your body minutes after consumed. Yet I still have to have it. HAVE TO HAVE IT. Too bad they don't have coke flavored water. That would be fabulous.

This probably isn't normal

I just need to take a minute to talk (vent) about a sadly common occurrence. The lack of proper grammar/punctuation use. Now, I know there are many confusing words in the english language. Homonyms, For example are very confusing. Here are a few examples: accept/except, elicit/illicit, than/then and the perhaps most commonly misused you're/your. Easy to mix up, I understand. And these such mistakes aren't necessarily what I am talking (venting) about,but rather the complete disregard for all grammar rules.

So, I'll just get straight to the point. This whole no capitalization/punctuation thing that seems to be acceptable in text, emails, social networks, etc. causes me MAJOR anxiety. I seriously cannot handle it. I read something without punctuation and I have to breathe into a paper bag for a few minutes. Normal? eh... who defines normal?

Oh, and the worst! adding 's' to the end of words. It's not "anyways", or "Belks". I promise.

Currently, there is no known phobia for a fear of lack of puncuation/incorrect spelling/adding 's' to the end of words. I checked. But I'm pretty sure there should be, I can't be the only person who suffers from this... right?

Since it's late I'm ending here. But just know that I have a ton more to say regarding this subject, and I will most likely bring it up again. Now I feel like everyone os going to double check my posts for grammatical errors... be gentle.

I swore I'd never do this...

Become a blogger. Because I assumed no one else would want to read the randomness that flows from my mind sometimes....well,most of the time. Yet here I sit typing away,the next five sentences already formed and ready to go.

Since this is my very first blog post, I thought I'd keep it light and cheery by keeping the subject on the holidays. Everyone loves the holidays right? Right?? All the shopping lists and traffic, packed stores, no parking, looooong lines and cantankerous (if you also love this word raise your hand) customers.

Wait...what? who said that?!

I meant to say, all the pretty decorations, good food, family time (which may or may not be a good thing,depending on your family) holiday specials, and the general warm fuzzy feeling that Christmas seems to bring. Some people get that from alcohol. I do not. Just saying.

You probably already know that I am currently pretty much out of a job. So Christmas has been a tad bit more stressful for me than usual. And by a tad bit,I mean a lot. Now here is where I'm going to point out something of substance, so if you don't want me to make you think about things, stop reading now.

I like my money. God likes my trust. Do you see where this is going? It's a tug-o'-war kind of deal. I have plenty of income to meet my needs and I tend to believe I'm pretty self  sufficient. This last month and a half or so has been interesting for me, watching God bring money from unexpected places. It has made me grateful to be who I am in the world.

Okay,thats enough with the deepness. Carry on with your day.