... simply my life

Here's hoping you have a joyous holiday!

Our family was not able to gather on Christmas day for the first time ever. We were experiencing blizzard like conditions with drifts of snow blocking our doors, horrible road conditions and ridiculous cold temperatures. We were to be driving north to Horton for our first dinner @ my aunt & uncle's house. My cousin was working up a sage roasted turkey ... sad I missed out on that! Oh and grandma's rolls... I thought about going to get some, but didn't know how I'd get in and out of her driveway - boo!

When I picked up my rental car yesterday, the key was actually frozen in the lock - the whole side of the car was a sheet of ice! How our plane even landed was a miracle. I managed to get in the few last minute gifts I needed before the big storm hit.

I even missed dinner at the Magee's house last night because the weather was starting to get bad and I'm in a rental car - never as good as driving your own car! It's an SUV, but no 4WD!

We will try to gather the fam again tomorrow. Hopefully the weather will cooperate!

We had our first measurable snow yesterday - about an inch. Woke up to more this morning and we're supposed to be hammered later today and into tomorrow. Not loving that I have meetings downtown... I want to curl up on the couch and get a fire going and watch holiday movies.

The holiday decorations have been in place for a while now and I just had to take a photo of this little birdie. I just love him and his little birdie friends. It seems to be a bit of a theme on my tree - birds, jayhawks included. Ha!

Bit of a rough day - chasing purchase orders from coast to coast. Trying to get client comments so I don't miss a deadline. Finding out I'm going to have to travel the week of Christmas - for work! Nothing like being in Kansas twice in the same week. Have developed some sort of pain in my abdomen - right at my right hip bone. I think I must have twisted wrong and am now paying for that. Ran a few errands, but didn't make it to all the stores because I didn't want to push myself too far. I've got meetings downtown tomorrow morning.

Then I come home to a call about my refinance and find out that it's a no go. Well, they would proceed with it but the closing costs more than doubled from what was originally discussed. All this thanks to property value drop of 22% in my area! I paid $500 to find out that my condo is worth $30K less than what I paid for it three years ago. Booooooo!

At this point I HAVE to stay in my condo for at least two more years to 'break even.' If I do any improvement I will either have to cut my losses knowing I'll never recoup or stay here long enough to actually make some money back. Home ownership SUCKS!

To leave this post on a positive - I've almost completed my Christmas shopping and I feel great about that! Merry! Merry!