Below is a link to pictures from our Christmas in Illinois…
Christmas in Illinois

OK - just like everyone else, I’m addicted to the internet. Where the heck were we before the Internet? What did we do? It’s kinda like the “old” people before TV or even before *gasp* the radio! Never thought of it like that before, but it’s true.

Anyway…. I have 2 new favorite sites that I want to share with everyone.

1. http://www.craftster.org
2. http://www.etsy.com

For all you creative people out there - GO TO CRAFTSTER RIGHT NOW! I can sit on here for hours and peruse the different forums. What it is: a site for people making crafts (and that can be ANYTHING, even food.) to post their projects, get feedback, and most especially - my favorite part - Get Ideas. I have bookmarked more projects and patterns on here than I thought possible. Watch out everyone! You’re getting handmade in 2008!

The second site, etsy.com, I stumbled across because of Craftster. Many of the lovely people there have etsy stores, so I had to go check it out. And I like to call it the Online Craft Show. Remember Craft Shows before they became all about the let’s-buy-manufactured-stuff-and-pass-it-off-as-handmade or the let’s-add-infomercial-stuff-and-no-one-will-ever-notice?? Well, Etsy is an online platform for people to sell their handmade stuff. I love it. And I’m thinking that if I can’t make it, I’m buying it here. It’s a great concept and a great idea. And it’s always a good idea to support small businesses over Box Mart. (Thanks, Bonnie, Gloria, and Emma for teaching me this!)

So, that’s my two-bits.

…you wouldn’t think this would affect me, but then you don’t know me as well as you thought.

http://www.indiancountrytoday.com/content.cfm?id=1096416291

I first saw Mr Westerman in his performance as Ten Bears in Dances With Wolves. He has a very recognizable face and a kind heart. When I was studying at USD, I learned more about him - as I did about several other well-known Native celebrities and activists. There was never an unkind word said about him and I know he will be greatly missed.

The link above takes you to an article in Indian Country Today about his passing. It is very well-written and tells you exactly the kind of man he was.

Wašté.

Drug traffickers in a Rio slum opened fire on a helicopter carrying a Santa to a children’s party, apparently mistaking it for a police helicopter, police said on Tuesday.

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Since 2001, Hillary Clinton has delivered $500 million worth of earmarks that have specifically benefited 59 corporations. 64% of those corporations provided funds to her campaigns through donations made by executives, board members, or lobbyists. Clinton has earmarked more than $2.3 billion in federal appropriations for projects. Since Clinton arrived in the Senate, she has collected in excess of $1 million from earmark beneficiaries and their associates.read more | digg story

This was a CRAZY week.  Sunday was the annual church Christmas Concert with all of the choirs.  Jason is always VERY busy the entire week with the setup and rehearsals, there’s a big rehearsal on Saturday and then we’re at church all morning for services, PLUS the concert in the afternoon. It’s exhausting.  He’s running all over renting equipment, picking up supplies, etc.

Also had my 2nd follow-up after surgery this week - everything great from the doctor and we only need to go back when we discover we’re pregnant again.

Attended a bible study on Saturday and one of the questions asked was how we feel about giving gifts for Christmas? My first response? STRESSFUL.  Maybe I’m the only one who feels like this, but I look at every present I give and think, “Well, that’s not enough. I’ll have to add something to that.” As if every person needs a mound of presents from me…

Was up and out the door at 6am this morning, b/c Mr. Weatherman had threatened freezing rain through the night and this morning. I figured if I got a head start, I could avoid most of the traffic and go as slow as I wanted.  Traffic wasn’t bad - it was raining and if it sat long enough it would freeze. So, I got to work an hour early, had breakfast and am now killing time.

Lots of thoughts going through my head today. This morning, I was listening to the FLYShow on my ipod. This is a show by Flylady and the Dinner Diva and I just really have learned so much from them. Go to BlogTalkRadio to find out more. Anyway, this morning, Leanne was talking about LifeLock (www.lifelock.com) and about how great of a service it was. Just got done looking through the website and I think I may try to talk DH into it. The company runs credit reports every 3 months on you, they get all that junk mail (i.e. credit card applications) stopped, etc, etc. It’s all stuff that you can do yourself, but this company does it for you. And if someone does steal your identity, they will go to bat for you legally. Not too shabby.

Also was thinking this morning about ways to slow my life down. Funny, when you think about it. But December and the holidays are the time when I always think about it. My big problem right now is finding a time to do laundry, b/c we will go to the in-laws to do it. We never have the quarters to do it in our building and it gives us time with them. BUT for the last 3 weeks, instead of having our normal time to do it, we’ve had to “find time” to do it during the week. And it’s just thrown my entire schedule off. I feel like I continually argue with DH about it and use it as a “we need a house soon” ploy. Oh well.

But back to slowing down, why is that I feel like I’m constantly running, but don’t have any “reason” to? I don’t have any (living) children, I don’t have pets - I have a job, a husband, friends, am active in church - and that’s it. Hmmm… Any suggestions?