Odds and Ends

New Years Resolutions - I don't make them. I don't feel motivated to make resolitons until April. When I listen to General Conference then I make my resolutions and I re-evaluate them again in October. Somehow that seems more doable to me and can stay more motivated - especially since my husband listens to General Conference in the car whenever he is driving plus we read it as our couple scripture study from cover to cover.

Snow storms in Rhode Island make me laugh. You would think they never get them! We have been expecting 6-8 inches of snow today and we are under a winter storm warning. That is all fine and good but that warning went up last night. The snow isn't even expected until noon today! People go into an absolute dither whenever it snows here but it doesn't keep people off the roads. Plus they don't know how to plow here. They don't scrape the roads so there is always at least an inch of snow on the road that ALWAYS turns to slush then ice. It isn't the snow that is bad to drive in it is actually the next day when the slush turns into ice! Plus if we have too many snow storms then the unions actually will not allow the plows to run once the contract is up. This happened a couple of years ago. The cities were willing to pay overtime but the unions wouldn't allow it. They might this year with the tough economic times but I can't imagine the policy has changed if that is what is holding them back. I expect Clyde home any minute. I don't think they will be working long with a storm warning in effect.

I have the most fun grandchildren in the world. The fun part is that my daughters' let my grandchildren choose the gifts they give me. Because of this I now have two collections. One is WillowTree figurines. Carlye Anne is the one that usually gets me one of those. My other collection was started by Noah but has been added onto by my other grandchildren and daughters' and that is Webkinz. The thing that makes this one so fun is getting onto each others sites and taking care of them for each other plus we can send cyber-gifts and letters to each other whenever we want. At first I wondered why Noah thought this was so much fun but now I play it every day for myself and usually am on with a grandchild or two during that time. It keeps us in touch. I also have a kind of box collection because of the Pfiesters. Carlye Anne gave me a WillowTree box and Nathanael has given me another little box. That may not sound like much but because of that box I am now in possession of a Santa Claus box. Someone saw those two boxes together and assumed I must love boxes - so I may be on the way to a third collection that I never expected - a collection of boxes.

For those of you that are in on the joke - we will be celebrating the New Year as we always do - with Cherry 7-Up and watching the original KING KONG. Future note - don't ever ask your father what he does for a tradition.

As I do face the New Year I am grateful for my family. I am also grateful to mostly be pain free. Now if I can just get my stamina back so I can go back to the temple. I guess if I had a New Year's resolution - that would be it - to be able to go to the temple and be useful there again.