ah christmas. good times. it's been a little busy, hence the no blogging. i had to work christmas eve but it wasn't too bad. i raced home, changed clothes and hauled jeep up to orange where kat's grandparents live. i spent christmas eve with their family. it was a lot of fun. they have an incredible family and if i couldn't be with mine, it was great to be with theirs. we had dinner, laughed a lot and then hung out in the family room and did presents. the whole night they actually had a video chat up between their house and brandon, kat's cousin - my friend, who is in iraq. so that was cool to have that going. after a lot of fun, i headed back down the hills and headed home to go to bed.



christmas morning i woke up and headed up to the airport to fly down and spend the day with my grandma, aunt barb and uncle jon. my flight was supposed to land in phoenix at 11am. dinner was at noon. my flight landed around 1230. i wasn't too happy but hey, i figure hydrolics are pretty important so it's probably better to ground the plane until they are fixed. so, after i landed, i went to get my rental car and stood in line for close to an hour. they upgraded me from the basic, cheapo car to the 'really nice car.' i got out there and it was a hyundi azera. not gonna lie to ya, had never even heard of this car but whatever, it drove really really well. i'm used to the wrangler where, when you hit 70mph, you feel like you're going to die. i was on the freeway, reading my map and looked down...doing 98! needless to say, that didn't happen again. good heavens, i'm not ready for a new car, they're too easy to speed in!

i got to lunch and got to visit for a while, at some great food, and saw some people that i haven't seen in years. i got to see my cousin brian who i haven't seen in probably five years. i wish i would have been able to stay longer but with the delayed flight, i was limited to about three hours.

i drove grandma home from lunch and we spent some time in her house. i was able to fix her digital picture frame and get rid of some pictures that were making her sad and make room for some newer pictures. and before i knew it, it was time to head back to the airport and head home.




cali was lucky enough to spend the day with her friend domino the dalmation. they are so good together, they are so funny. it's like wrestle mania for the first couple hours and then all of a sudden they'll collapse. it's so great.



i was bummed that i didn't get to spend any time with my family for christmas. my neices and nephew are getting so big. the holidays aren't normal without my immediate family. jacob got an ipod shuffle, abby got a disney castle, and adia and tori got princess dresses, crowns and shoes. so funny. i wish i could have been there. i think i officially took the title of 'cool aunt katie.'







my moms dog bailey was not so excited about the christmas gifts. adia was convinced that bailey felt left out and she needed to wear a feather boa. bailey actually met my brother at the door wearing the boa, and not looking too happy.





friday marked the 17 year mark since my dad died. so strange. it's like some days it was yesterday and some days it feels like it was decades ago...which it almost was. maybe that's why i feel like i'm 35

it's christmas eve, its warm enough to wear flip flops and i'm at work. it's a strange strange world.

okay, i've survived. i'm semi well again. it's a good thing. for a while there i had such a low voice that my friends at work were calling me 'fog horn.' it was...interesting. thank you all for your care and concern!

i can't believe that christmas is right around the corner. it's very surreal. there is no snow, no family and it doesn't feel like christmas. it's strange. i'll be in phoenix for christmas day. it'll be fun.

today was my dads birthday. he would have been 59. thats even stranger.

i would like to take this opportunity to apologize to my friend ambers husband, ryan, who is a doctor. i did not mean to add to the rising immunity of antibiotics. i was desperate! i much prefer to see a doctor and actually be diagnosed. i promise i won't do it again. uncle mark, you are correct. grandpa holt probably would have flown out here to inform me that i was not doing the right thing.

two of my clients at work gave me christmas presents already. one gave me a card with a poem she had written (she's about 85) and a check for $25 and the other gave me a gift card for the movie theatre. my days off just got a little exciting!

i'm sorry again ryan, please let amber still be my friend. :o)

i'm not gonna lie to ya, i'm sick. it's not pretty. it's not fun. it's actually quite pathetic, really.

if you can recall, i was actually pretty sick last year, for quite a while. well, it's back and it's back with a vengence. so, since it's december 15 and my insurance switches over on jan 1. i'm in a holding patern. my insurance as it stands, has a $750 deductible. i must have been on crack when i chose that plan. so, i've opted to move up for 2007. however, i have only paid about $120 towards that $750 so anything right now would be out of pocket. so, it's the principle of the matter. i refuse to go to the doctor. i have come to terms with self medicating. i went to walmart and stocked up on anything over the counter that could possibly help. so, advil cold and sinus, shower soothers, cloreseptic, halls, kleenex and zicam later, here i am. oh, and i'm also kind of taking some antibiotics that i have left over from the last time i was sick... (amber, don't tell your husband and no one mention that to any doctor you might know)

so, here's to hoping that i'll get better or at least be able to cope until january 1. and you know what? i have january 1st off... i might go to the emergency room even if i'm healthy, just because i can. :O)

i wonder if i could mix a sleeping pill in with the rest of the junk i'm taking...probably not.

a friend of mine asked if i had gotten a flu shot and i never did. i never have. i've never needed to. though it may be a new tradition for 2007.

good night all and don't forget to get your flu shot!

i fotgot to mention that when meredith and i went to get lunch, we tried to turn down this street and it was blocked...by yellow caution tape and had police cars everywhere. they were all aimed at a house with the doors open and police behind the doors. this is not a good sign. i enjoy watching an episode of cops every once in a while and i know this is a bad sign. so then later, i get home and see on the news that it was a crazy police chase that happened about 10 minutes before we got there. click here to see it or past this address into your address bar: http://www.nbc4.tv/traffic/10510347/detail.html

tonight my friend meredith and i went to a friends fire station and hung out for a bit. they actually let us come and eat dinner with them. it was so much fun!

My friend dave took us around the block in the fire engine. it was very cool. this is meredith in the front of the fire engine during the ride along.



this is me, meredith and my friend dave.

here's meredith and i hanging out in the fire station wearing some fire gear. i'm pretty sure the firemen thought we were crazy since we were having so much fun.

here's me and meredith with her second grade class after doing our christmas project.

meredith and i in our jackets and the dalmation whilshire (this dog was on the dog whisperer on the animal planet)

meredith and i with her class

merediths second graders

my grandma sue was in town this week. i finally got to see her again, it's rare that i get to see her. we went out for dinner and caught up on a lot family talk. it was so great to see her. it's been way too long. i'm hoping that if i get to take a trip to florida in march/april, i'll get to catch up to her again.

i also learned a valuable lesson about cookies this week. i decided i wanted to make some cookies for work, sue, my aunt eileen and the firehouse. i didn't know how many one batch would make but i knew i needed more, so i doubled the batch. the problem was that i had so much cookie dough that i had to split it into two bowls. 14 dozen cookies later, everyone loved them!

i also, as the non teacher of the classroom, started a marshmallow fight today. i had meredith come into the class armed and ready and the kids were armed and ready and they all just threw marshmallows to their hearts content. it was a great day!

i want to cut my hair on friday. anyone have a suggestion on how short or how it should look? i'm open to ALMOST anything.

p.s. short is not a good look for me as we can all recall back to the winter of '03. not good friends, not good.

k

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip

i LOVE this show. there are many many reasons this is so, however one of the main reasons from last nights show is a line that danny uses when talking to jordan. he says something like, 'you should know that i'm falling in love with you and it's okay if your want to run in the other direction but you better get a good head start because you need to know that i'm coming after you.' loved it

another reason i love it. santa comes down the chimney and picks up a letter from a child. at the same time, a man walks through the front door and surprises santa and says, "can i ask why you thought coming to visit a 12 year old girl in the middle of the night was a good idea? im chris hanson from dateline nbc." so hysterical.