Exceedingly Mundane

Boy, you get old, you blink and a month goes by in a flash!

It seems like we wait all year for football season, and when it FINALLY gets here, we’re so happy. Then, before you know it, BAM! It’s the end of January and it’s almost over. Although for us this year, for the first time EVAH, our team is going to the big game. Can’t wait! We’ve never really experienced a true Super Bowl experience. We have a party every year (not this year though!), so we always watch the game, but we never get to root for our team. Not so this year!

Ok, I actually meant to post about what little was going on around here in January.

* The month started out cold, then our water heater went out. It was an ordeal to get it replaced, but it all turned out fine in the end. It definitely gave me a whole new appreciation for HOT water, as well as for all of the little things in life that I can so easily take for granted.

* We went to our great-niece’s 4th birthday party, which was fun. We weren’t able to make it to our niece’s 5th birthday party, as it was out of town, on the same afternoon as the NFC Championship game and we had invited some people over to watch the game.

* We had the whole Saints in the playoffs, going to the Super Bowl thing that I just blogged about (and yes, I know I blog ad nauseum about football and the Saints!).

* I didn’t cook a whole lot in the month, we ate a lot of sandwiches and soups and easy stuff, plus we picked up food on the weekend. We’ve been going to Fresh Market every Sunday after church, and usually get stuff that we can “eat on” for a few days. Or we have leftovers from the football food that I fix (or pizza that we order!) from the weekend. I do have one or two new recipes that I have tried, that I need to post on our family website (but I haven’t gotten around to that yet)

* I didn’t read a lot of books in January. I finished three books and I’m about 20 pages away from finishing another book, here on Feb 1. I completed “Home for the Holidays” (part of the Grace Chapel Inn series), “Leaving Yesterday” by Kathryn Cushman and “Latte Trouble” by Cleo Coyle (part of the Coffeehouse mystery series). I enjoyed all the books, even though I didn’t blog about any of them. I am also working on the five books in the Chronicles of the Kings series by Lynn Austin and thoroughly, thoroughly enjoying them. I have so many books I want to read!

* We spent one very productive Saturday in January, when it wasn’t so cold, doing a lot of outside work. Tim got all the bushes and trees cut back, and raked leaves. He also cleaned up a lot in the garage and stuff. I spent a lot of that day working inside, getting the office cleaned up (and a bunch of stuff thrown out), gathering up some stuff for Goodwill. And, the biggie, I got all of the yearly “paperwork” done from last year - shredding things we won’t keep, getting papers organized for the taxes, and going thru receipts. The shredder got a workout that day!

* I spent a lot of time on Facebook. Mostly on Farmville and Cafe World. I continue to be addicted.

* I got back into walking with my walking buddy Julie. She wanted to start the C25K (couch to 5K) training program, so we did that. We’re into week 2, but I think we’re repeating week 1 on the program. It’s going to take us longer than the 9 weeks that the program thinks

* We played some of our new Wii games, in between football, tv and Netflix movies. I’m really enjoying Wii Fit Plus and Wii Sports Resort

Ok, February, bring it on! I have a dentist appointment and haircut to start the month off right, then there’s that all important “greeting-card” holiday that Tim loves to avoid. Mostly, we’re excited about the Super Bowl! February is a short month, so I expect it to fly by with equal speed, if not faster, than January did.

And to think, I wrote 2009 on a check the other day! I’d better get used to 2010 and a whole new decade, because it’s here with a vengeance!

Super Bowl bound, baby, Super Bowl bound! For the first time in 43 years, the New Orleans Saints are finally going to their first Super Bowl

Tim and I have never missed a game together in the last 15 years. We’ve watched them play horribly, play well, break our hearts, and make us happier than we could have believed as a Saints fan.

Tonight’s Vikings game was hard-won, they both played a really good, really close, really nerve-wracking game. The Colts are going to be even harder to play.

But tonight, we’re happy. Happy and excited and a little disbelieving that it has finally happened. I can barely talk, I’m so hoarse from all the yelling and screaming we’ve done for the last few hours. It’s good though, now, it’s all good

Who Dat!

Our website, and therefore my blog, was down during Super Bowl weekend, but I wanted to go back and post a little about it. We had a really good time, as always, and a house full this year. All of Tim’s family and my dad came, which was great. My dad will turn 86 in April, so it’s really good that he’s still able to get out and about, and come visit us a bunch. We also had some friends and extended family here. All in all, I think we had about 20 people or so.

Tim and I went on Saturday to Sam’s Club and bought food for the party. Note to self - if you take Tim, expect to load up on meat. It was definitely a male-oriented, cholesterol laden, meat festival at our house on Sunday. We had hamburgers, hot dogs, smoked sausage, 3 flavors of wings (thanks Terry!), a sausage stuffed/bacon wrapped concoction (thanks Mark!) that I dubbed the Bacon-ator. We had Lil’ Smokies, a meat and cheese platter, a vegetable tray, several kinds of dips and chips, Chex Mix, potato salad, fruit, and a double decker cookie cake for dessert. I had three things that I had planned for later in the day (game time or half time), but everyone filled up at lunchtime on the food we had, then nibbled throughout the afternoon and early evening. So, I put those into the freezer and we’ll have to plan another party so we can eat that food up As it is, Tim and I have been eating leftovers all week, which has been wonderful. I got out of cooking for many days! Since we purchased everything and Tim did the grilling, I was home free for this year’s party. I think that’s definitely the way to go, at least for me! Isn’t that terrible. You’d think I’d want to cook for 20 or more people, huh?!

I took a few videos of the guys playing Madden 09 on the Wii, but I’m not going to post those. They’re funny though Here’s a couple of still photos that I took. We had enough 3-D glasses for everyone, and big kids and little kids alike had a good time playing with them and waiting for the 3D commercial

Here’s the first round of meat on the grill…. 22 burgers, some of the sausage and hot dogs. Tim filled it up a second time!

Lots of Electronic toys here: Wii playing, iPod Touch, iPhones, Nintendo DS’s…

Having fun with 3D glasses:

I’ve lost count on what consecutive party this is that we’ve had. Tim and I have been married almost 13 years, so I’d say we have had a party at least 10 of those 12 years, and maybe 11 of those. We plan to have one next year. Unless the Saints go to the Super Bowl. If Tim’s beloved Saints ever make it, we have already told everyone we will not be having a party. We’ll lock every door in the house and tell people to go away, so we won’t miss a second of the game! As it is, I don’t get to watch a lot of the pregame or game (I did finally sit down and watch some of the second half this year though, it was a really good game). I didn’t get to see Faith Hill or Jennifer Hudson sing beforehand, and I missed the halftime show, which was fine because I’m not a Springsteen fan. I did watch the 3D commercial though. Gotta have your priorities straight. Anyway, we’re already missing football season around here. Training camp can’t come soon enough!