Auld Lang Syne

I always thought "Auld Lang Syne" meant old times' sake. Don't know why, but it seemed to make sense to me!! :-)

Well, Miss Smarty Pants was very wrong, so please make a note of it, hehe. According to the internet, it translates literally as old long since, and is taken from a Scottish poem written by Robert Burns in 1788. The most popular version sung by drunken partygoers:

Should old acquaintance be forgot,
And ne'er brought to mind,
Should old acquaintance be forgot
And days of auld lang syne.

(Chorus) For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne,
We'll take a cup o' kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

Here's are two lesser known verses that I also liked:

We two have paddled in the stream
From morning sun till dine,
But seas between us broad have roared,
Since auld lang syne.

And there's a hand, my trusty friend,
And give us hand o' thine,
And we'll take a right goodwill draught,
For auld lang syne.

For me, provided I can stay up until midnight, it's time to remember old friends, old lovers, old family, old times, and especially, old dogs. I can't say I'm alone in calling 2008 a rough ride, and I'm not usually sentimental about the passage of time. This year is a little different, I think because of all the changes suddenly thrust upon me and mine. I feel old and new all at the same time. Do you?

May 2009 bring an abundance of the following to all the ones I love - and you know who you are!

Health
Prosperity
Kindness
Optimism
Blessings
Joy
Goodwill
Memories--old cherished ones and new ones to be made this year
Sweetness
Awareness
Bliss
Photographs (you can never take too many)

Happy New Year with Love, Fran and BaumgardnersFour
(plus our beloved Tokyo Jones)

Still not back 100%

Today while the kids played outside, I read a few old magazines--one was an Oprah from December 2007 and another was a Martha Stewart Living from February 2008. Who keeps their shit that long?! Apparently, me, LMAO. I can't muster any more energy than that--still can't seem to shake the feeling of being sick. I can't stay up later than around 9:40 pm, which is quite early considering I'm usually too busy to go to bed until at least midnight. I have been forcing myself to do nothing, which, while sounding luxurious, is rather uncomfortable. I did do some laundry yesterday. It looked like a mountain, but ended up only being three loads. I'll never understand why it looks so distasteful lying on the floor, yet mindlessly benign just hanging in my closet.

I'm thinking that one of my new year's resolutions will be to do one thing at a time, rather than multi-task all day. It sounds lazy and unproductive. All the experts say multi-tasking is an illusion anyway, and that "to-do lists" are so yesterday. What will I do without my lists? 2009 will tell that story...... I'm betting it'll all be all right.

Little things like this make it all worthwhile

**WARNING: PUFFS ALERT**

Found this little ditty while cleaning out John Sam's backpack. Into the keepsake box it goes . . .

103.4

It's not the newest radio station here in Orlando--it's what my temperature has been for 3 days running.

Any day now I should start feeling better, right?

Sick of being sick

Well, John Sam was sick and got over it in only 2 days...... crossing our fingers that Caroline doesn't come down with it full-blown, but I'm afraid it's too late for that since I heard her coughing all last night. Today was my day to be sick. The morning started out all right, but after lunch, chills and sweating, nose running, coughing my lungs up. A few times I coughed so hard I gagged. Blech. Burning eyes, sweater on, sweater off. Hooooo-boy~

The tradition of my being sick at Christmas hasn't missed a year since John Sam was three and attended Kaley School (2003). Last year, I was sporting a robust case of pneumonia and stayed up on Christmas Eve till about 1:30 a.m. wrapping presents and stuffing stockings. (I guess technically that woulda been Christmas morning, but I digress.) I was so hoping to lay that tradition to rest. You know, since nobody has anything to do around the holidays, right?!

Airborne? Don't waste your money unless you just like drinking fizzy vitamin C. Tastes okay but doesn't work on industrial strength colds.

Maybe a stout 7 and 7 will kick it. I think I'll go try that since the kids are now in bed. Don't really have anything to lose except germs. ;-0

Here's hoping that if I'm sick the rest of this week, I'll be on the mend for next week. Fingers crossed.

A special "Feliz Cumpleanos, Amiga" to Waleska. Many happy returns to you~~~

Down by five

Missing five days from my post-once-per-day resolve. *sigh* Not enough hours in each day, I guess--at least on certain days. ;-0

So to totally cheese it out, I'm posting a picture of my newest Christmas ornament. I got it at the art festival at Lake Eola a few weeks back. I loved the clear tree with the dots that look like Skittles! I try to add a new ornament or two each year, and I chose this one because it is kinda different. It's made of glass.

O Tannenbaum

Finally, our Christmas tree is up. How is it that they get prettier every year? Two kids plus fuzzy Santa hats equals lots of fun--and cute pictures.

Prayers for Caylee Anthony

It's been so hard to watch the news today. I am sad about the outcome of this very strange but compelling story. I'd like to lift up prayers for little Caylee and would ask others to do the same.

Look for changes in the next day or so

on the blog's format. I felt like mixin' it up a little, so I previewed some new styles, and I am hoping tomorrow I'll have time to mess with it and update the look. I think I will start doing the "tags," which everyone seems to do, although I've not done that yet.

How's that for commercialism? Ha! "Check this space"

lmao

I want to be a Mentalist

It could be that Simon Baker is a cutie patootie, or it could be the brains that his character has. Either way, I've decided in my next career I'm going to be a Mentalist. ;-)

Other thoughts: I haven't sent my Christmas cards yet, and I haven't gotten a lot of them yet either. I wonder if a lot of people are planning on just doing e-mail cards? It is rather convenient, especially when you have pictures you might want to attach and considering the cost of sending snail mail. But I'm definitely going to send some holiday greetings through the mail. It's one of my favorite traditions during the holidays, even if it seems old-fashioned. If I'm completely honest, there's something about using my calligraphy pen to address the envelopes and greetings that spurs my creativity. I feel like I get so much more done after the cards are finished (decorating, baking, scrapbooking), and I get a lot of joy from doing the holidy projects. I have so many scrap layouts in my head that I have to get done and in the albums! Tomorrow I should get some fresh photos to play with.

Whoops! Missed a day....

Ah, well, so it's harder than I thought to do a post a day. We'll see what I feel like posting tomorrow. IF I post tomorrow~

hehe

Caroline Grace #6

The birthday girl is beautiful and sassy as the day she was born! Here are a few highlights from her 6th. 1st photo-She had just gotten out of bed and still has the sweet, sleepy look. 2nd-No little princess can have too many birthday crowns. 3rd-Chocolate on Chocolate. 4th-Make a wish~ All our love to Little Green, f/k/a Little Blue. Happy Birthday, Sweet Girl!

Late night

Each day this week Caroline has gotten up in the morning and said, "My birthday is Friday," except today, when she said "My birthday is tomorrow." So I told her that today was her last day of being five.... :)

So the hour is late, but the cake is bought, all the envelopes and packages have arrived on time, and I am done wrapping the presents. I'm putting the TV on sleep timer so it will turn itself off while I doze and try to pretend I'm watching Nightline.

Rudolph

Tonight the kids and I watched the classic cartoon, "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" narrated by Burl Ives. We have the other 2 classics, Charlie Brown Christmas and How the Grinch Stole Christmas on DVD. I really enjoy watching shows I loved as a kid with my own kids. The magic of Christmas is still around after all these years, and I hope to share it with them for more years to come. :)

More Artwork

John Sam's class made Thanksgiving cards for friends and family. We especially love how he signed the card ;) Caroline draws a lot of colorful pictures every day at school, and these are of "Hello Kitty" and her best friend forever, "Fifi." The Rubbermaid tub that holds all the artwork I've saved over the years is truly bursting at the seams, but I'll just keep adding more if the kids keep making such cute artwork.

Attempting a post a day

Going to try to do a post a day during December. Let's see how that works for me.

Nothing tonight except Boston Legal starts in four minutes.