It’s our next to the last full day here in Heber Springs. I had quite a full day yesterday–it started at 6:30 a.m. with a morning flight with my dad! He’s training to be a small-plane private pilot, so he’s flying with an instructor in a small Cessna. We flew from 7:15-8:15 a.m. all around the Greers Ferry Lake area. Everything looked tiny–I never realized how small my town actually is. I wasn’t scared, even when he did his touch-and-gos.

After I got back, I slept until 10, ate a french toast brunch, and left for Searcy to see Justin’s sister. We opened presents, went to Arby’s, J.C. Penney’s, Hasting’s, and the jewelry store to get my wedding ring polished. I also got a ring from my Papa that used to belong to my meme. I found out from the jeweler after he cleaned it that it has actual rubies and diamonds in a white gold setting. It’s a small horseshoe because she loved horses.

After making the rounds in Searcy, we went to Bridget and Jameson’s apartment for some more hanging-outage (we’l see them again New Year’s eve). On the way home, we stopped at Midnight Oil (ah, how I miss thee!).

Justin and I got dressed up for dinner with Mom, Dad, and Aaron at the Getaway Cafe. We all got such dishes as Shrimp Scampi, Grilled Catfish, Grilled Chicken Pasta, Breaded Chicken Parmesan, and a Ribeye. They serve peasant bread with black bean hummus and butter, as well as house salads. We got dessert, too: Coconut Pie, Cheesecake, and Mousse Cake.

After dinner, Justin and I ventured out to our bed and breakfast by the river. We try to go to the Abbe house once a year, and mom and dad treat us to it either for Christmas or for my birthday. Justin and I rented The Aviator, but we didn’t know it was going to be a 3-hour movie! I had a hard time staying awake for it, though it was a well-done movie by Martin Scorsese. We got up for breakfast around 8:30, and ate our usual Southern fare: biscuits, sausage, coffee, OJ, eggs, and hashbrowns. I won’t be hungry for 2 more days…

We’re just hanging out now. I gave my mom a Mary Kay makeover, and Justin and Aaron are about to go to Radio Shack. More later~

So, we drove to Salt Lake City from Pocatello, flew to Denver, and flew to Little Rock on Monday. (There was a fuel leak on the plane we were supposed to take out of Denver, so we left a few hours late, but hey–that’s OK with me.) My sister Anna picked us up from the airport, and my family met us there just to say “hi.” We spent the night at my Papa’s house with Anna. We visited with Papa for a while, ate breakfast, looked at his antlers and eagles (ask me) and then ventured to my Granny and Pa’s house for a Christmas feast. At my Granny and Pa’s in Grapevine, AR there were:
my Dad
his wife, Rhonda
my cousins Chuck and Heather
their respective significant others, Lori and Mike
my aunt Robin
Granny and Pa
my half-brother, Oliver, and his wife, Meredith, and their baby boy, Layne
Anna, Justin, and me!

We had lots of goodies to eat: dressing, chicken, ham, potato salad, black-eyed peas, creamed corn, rolls, sweet tea, pecan pie, and coconut cake (Granny’s famous cake, and my personal favorite).

We talked, ate, opened gifts, and took pictures–lots of pictures–as we enjoyed the 72 degree afternoon. I got a sweater, earrings, money, a spice rack, some more money, a Wal-Mart gift card and a goodie mug.

Anna drove us up to Heber, and CJ followed us from Jacksonville. We spent the evening at my parents’ house opening our gifts and stockings. We got a Lowe’s gift card, a Hastings gift card, a free night at the Abbe house bed and breakfast, a Radio Shack gift card, and Old Navy gift card, a Sonic gift card, a Jitterbug coffee house gift certificate, and some other assorted goodies.

Today we slept in, but we walked to the coffee shop (.75 miles–I know because of my pedometer!) and I graded a couple of senior papers. When we walked back (in the sunny, warm December sun), I had some lunch, took a bath, and helped mom for two minutes on the big Christmas dinner. We at tonight with Anna, Daron, CJ, Aaron, Dad, Mom, and Justin. We had smoked turkey, dressing, green bean casserole, baked beans, apple pie, cranberry sauce, biscuits, a relish tray, and mashed potatoes and gravy. After dinner, Justin and I gave out our gifts, and then we just hung out. CJ jammed on the guitar, Daron did his now-famous “riverdance,” Aaron quoted half of Napolean Dynamite to a “t” (he does Kip especially well), and we all took a turn on Dad’s flight simulator. After coffee and biscotti, Anna’s friends Matt and Shannon came over, two must-haves for a par-tay of the Grubbs’ family type. Mom got her birds, Hop-sing and Belle, out for some visiting time, and then Daron and CJ had to go. Matt, Shannon, Anna and I got restless and we went out for a cruise. We drove around the cemetary to try to scare Shannon (it didn’t work), then we pulled down a much-coveted sign from a light pole (it’s now Shannon’s dorm room, I’m sure). We went to the municipal airport and took turns attempting to climb a (very tall) airport beacon light ladder. (I’ll post pictures ASAP.) Shannon had to go to the bathroom, so we went to Wal-Mart (my high school reunion location).

Upon returning home, Anna had to go back to Jonesboro to work on a project. I’m supposed to be in bed–dad’s taking me up in a plane tomorrow. *Scared!*

Update: I’ve logged in at least 2.07 miles, 5, 962 steps (only half of my goal!), 36 minutes of aerobic activity, and 114 calories today! This isn’t counting our evening jaunt to the airport/Wal-Mart.

Sunday: 760 steps
Monday: 5,744 steps
Tuesday: 2,978 steps

This Christmas has been unusual and busy! We awoke around 8:30, had cinnamon rolls, and got ready for church. After church, we came home, had lil’ smokies for a snack, and opened our presents. Christmas dinner followed: turkey with stuffing, yams, broccoli, green bean casserole, crescent rolls, mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberry sauce, and sparkling apple cider. A two hour nap was next in line for all….then we went to church again. Now we’re eating pie (apple and pumpkin) and getting re-packed for our trip tomorrow.

As far as presents, I got:
several CDs (Flogging Molly, Harry Potter Soundtrack, Mike Doughty, and the Chicago soundtrack)
a pedometer
garnet, silver celtic knot earrings
a large silver lyre earring holder
a gift from Brendan from World Vision (30 bibles for others in our name)
a collection of short stories
stocking stuffers (a large Symphony bar, Oprah magazine, Chapstick, an ornament, gum, etc.)

It’s so much fun to get items off of your Amazon wish list if you’ve forgotten what’s on there….

Now to board game playing!

Check out this picture from our drive around Pocatello. I took it on my camera phone, so it’s not that great.
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So far, I haven’t done much. I like to be productive, wake up early, and go to bed knowing that I’ve accomplished much.

However, vacations always tear me in two. Part of me says, “Hey! Sleep, eat, and veg out all you want to! you’ve earned it!!” The other, more responsible half of me says, “Hey! Now’s your chance to get caught up on all those things you haven’t made time for-get to it, lazybones!!”

I have gone for a walk and a jog, sorted through my advisory students’ files and made lists of the students not on track for graduation, graded 6th period’s notebooks, made copies of rubrics for senior papers, finished mailing Christmas cards, read several chapters of my book talk book, and read a chapter from our grad school book, but there is so much more to be done!

What are you guys’ thoughts about time off?

We’re in chilly, snowy Pocatello visiting Justin’s parents and brother. The town is in a valley, and is surrounded by large hills/small mountains, and it is SO much better than Houston in so many ways. There’s a quaint downtown strip with busy, lit-up stores, safe neighborhoods, a pet store with a live nativity, Californians’ new mansions on the hilltop, and a few businesses I’ve been missing in Seattle (Sonic Drive-in, for one).

I’m rather tired, as our 11-hour drive turned in to an icy overnight trip. We left Seattle around noon yesterday and met good driving conditions, but once we hit the night roads in SE Washington and most of Oregon, the roads were icy, foggy, slushy, and just plain nerve-wracking. Justin drove until about midnight. When we weren’t nervous, I read aloud to him or talked. When we were, we ate chips or crackers and sat on the edge of our seats. When he stopped driving to rest, we slept for a couple of hours at a truck stop. I got up around 2 or 3 and drove for a couple of hours, then stopped again when the road started to get blurry. I finished the driving job between 7 and 9 mountain time, and when we got here, we slept from about 10 until 2. I’m getting tired again, and I look forward to a full night’s sleep.

More exciting news to come!

We’re coming home! We leave today for Pocatello, ID to visit Justin’s family in a winter wonderland. Next stop: buy snow chains.

We’re flying to AR the day after Christmas to see my family–we’re sooo excited….sorry this is rushed. Heading out the door now. More when we get to destination “A”.

I love the weekends, don’t get me wrong. This past Friday night we went to a few kickin’ basketball games (Rainier Beach V.S. Cleveland). The next day we slept in and I went for a walk with Aaron and Andrea out in West Seattle on the sunny, chilly Saturday that it was. After working around the house for a while, we got ready to see a couple of my students in a tap/step team performance at a Kwanzaa festival, but they weren’t dancing that day after all. Justin and I then had dinner at a fancy Ethiopian restaurant, complete with candles, low lights, music, and beautiful colors and textures. After a Starbucks run, we met with Aaron and Andrea and went to our friend Joe’s choir concert at the University of Washington. We met up with the Drakes, Lukas, and Jason at the concert and then went to the “Dryhan’s” for games.

Sunday was church, cleaning, MK open house, grading, and taking care of business. Compare and contrast. Now you know why I think Sundays are stressful…

I just came back from the musical play Black Nativity. It was not really what I expected (especially the second half), but “exuberantly” joyous. One of my students from last year was in it as a singer/dancer. I was pleased to see Rev. McKinney, a respected older Black minister from Seattle, as the narrator and amazed at the talent present in the room. More later–time for bed!

Grad school is over….for a month at least. We stayed home yesterday to finish our portfolio and the other millions of assignments. I also went to the dentist and chiropractor (I had a major headache–now it’s gone). Class started at 4:30…..4:30 on a Friday, I tell you! After our three hour class, we were relieved, yet starved. I didn’t feel like making dinner, as we’d get home close to 8:30p.m., so we went to Lemongrass, a Vietnamese restaurant that we go to when celebrating beginnings and endings. We had good food, much-needed hot tea, and conversation before going home to watch a Robert DeNiro/Ed Norton/Marlon Brando heist movie called The Score.

Anyway, with that out of the way, we slept in LATE today (I’m not even going to say “this morning”) and I did such exciting activities as grocery shopping, exercising, going to the post office, cleaning the office/bedroom/closets/bathroom, cooking, and going to the bank.

I can’t tell you how good it feels to cross items off of my to do list and feel organized again. I can’t seem to sustain my organization; rather, it comes in pendulum swings.