Out with the Old and In with the New

Happy 2009!

We stayed up later than usual on New Year's Eve, but still not till midnight! We attended an evening wedding on December 31. Rachel lived with us for 21 months several years ago, but got married this week. The wedding was at the church at 6:00 pm, then the reception was at the Flying W Restaurant about 10 minutes away. We had a good time because a lot of our friends were there.I had high hopes of accomplishing a lot this weekend with an extra day (New Year's Day). However, when I woke up on Thursday, I had no energy and a hint of a headache. As the day wore on, my headache got worse and I was sooo tired. Andy worked on the porch in the morning, but then he hit a snag and decided to call it a day. So we gathered up all our gift cards and went shopping. We stopped at Joseph A. Banks, Borders, Home Depot, Whole Foods and Wal-Mart.

We both worked all day yesterday at the office. I still had a headache and felt really tired. But fortunately, I felt better this morning. So since Andy was gone all morning (Nativity Take-Down), I felt it would be a good day to do some cleaning. When I mentioned this to a couple of people, they pooh-poohed the idea that my house was dirty. Well, as I was cleaning, I found wadded up Christmas wrapping behind the couch. I also found toys/cars under the furniture - left overs from family partying! There were crumbs and all kinds of other reminders of the fun times we had the last couple of weeks here. Happy memories made it enjoyable to work today.

I did a lot of laundry, dusted the furniture, then dust mopped under the living room furniture. I started vacuuming, but the vacuum didn't seem to be working. After changing the bag, it still didn't seem to work. On further investigation, I discovered it was not picking up the dirt, only moving it around. So now I had to take the vacuum cleaner to the repair shop. They said it was clogged and needed a few new parts and I needed to leave it till next Wednesday. Sigh! So much for my big plans of getting everything cleaned up around here.

While I was working away this morning, I took several breaks. I had a visit from my neighbor and good friend, Ruth. We visited for about an hour, catching up on Christmas happenings with our families. Mom also visited me a couple of times throughout the day.

When Andy came home around 2:00 pm, we went out to the patio and raked and swept up all the leaves that had accumulated in that corner from all the wind of the last couple of days. We also took out a couple of strings of lights that had burned out on the bushes and replaced them. It sure looks nice out there at nighttime.

Dawn came over for dinner tonight. She's also staying overnight because she's singing on the worship team tomorrow morning. I made Barbeque Chicken Pizza for dinner which made her and Andy (and myself!) very happy. Yummy!

In case anyone's interested, it's a simple recipe:

1 ready made crust from Trader Joe's
2/3 cup of Trader Joe's bold and smoky Kansas City barbeque sauce
chicken, cooked and diced
6 scallions, chopped fine
gouda cheese
mozzarella cheese

I mix the barbeque sauce, scallions and chicken together, then spread on the crust. Top with the cheeses and bake about 10-15 minutes.

We only had one little piece left.