I took Little Girl to her 4 year old well check today. She did a great job – she was chatting away with the doctor and he commented on how clear her speech is. He even said, “She is really smart – and I really mean that.” Not bad for a preemie, huh?

Then the nurse came back to give her shots – 5 of them (DTP, MMR, Polio, Chicken Pox and Flu). I had been warning her (or psyching her up) for the shots for a couple of weeks and she told me she was a big girl and she wasn’t going to cry. But cry she did. Who can blame her? Five shots in skinny little arms has got to hurt. I felt so bad for her. At least when they’re four you can explain to them why and they can begin to grasp it. That’s the bright side.

The good news? Next year, the flu shots will be the new spray types instead of the injections. And I don’t think she has to get anymore shots until before she starts kindergarten which will be summer of 2010. So, no more pokes for awhile. Thank goodness.

But afterwards, we did go to Cold Stone and get ice cream. Cold weather or not, I think 5 shots deserves a treat.

We signed a lease and used a credit card today. We’re totally helping the economy. Aren’t we awesome? (Read on …)

I know. Enough with the random thoughts already. ‘Fraid you’re stuck with them until the holiday has passed. Then again, who knows? You might get something more exciting one of these days by surprise!

• The rain finally left us today. However, it’s REALLY cold (for desert dwellers anyway). We were running around without our jackets earlier and I was a bit regretful. Luckily, we weren’t really outside for any length of time so we survived.

• Mike told me he filled his truck for just over $40 and my Escape for $22. Which is about the price I paid for a tank back when I was working before LG was born. Gas was under $1.50! I don’t know what it is where you are, but those are nice numbers to see. $1.50 I can live with. $4 I cannot.

• LG is going for her four year old well-check tomorrow. And that means shots. I’ve prepared her for that fact and she’s taking it in stride telling me she’s a big girl and she won’t cry. Hope that’s what actually happens because I’ll be awfully sad if she does.

• I made Natillas tonight for the first time. I feel so multicultural! Natillas is a popular Spanish/Mexican dessert that my friend Rochelle got me addicted to. And since I can’t beg her and her mom to make it for me all the time, they graciously gave me their family recipe. The recipe I linked to is not exactly their recipe, but it’s the closest I could find. If you like custards, you’ll probably like Natillas. So make some! Be multicultural like me! ;)

• While I was making the Natillas, I was texting Rochelle with one hand to make sure I was doing it right, and stirring with the other so the milk wouldn’t burn. LG asked me what I was doing and I told her “texting”. She then proceeded to sound out and spell “text”. Holy crap. I’m not going to be able to spell things to keep her in the dark much longer. That is going to really mess with my life, I’m telling you!

• Mike’s family Christmas get together is Saturday. Sunday is mass as usual. Monday we have rehearsal for Christmas mass. Tuesday we have a haircut. Wednesday is Christmas Eve and all that entails. Thursday is Christmas with Mike doing a morning mass and me cooking Christmas dinner for us and his parents and brother. Friday is day after Christmas shopping. Saturday is cleaning day. Sunday we have mass as usual and also we’ll go visit the cemetery for my Mom’s birthday since I don’t want to go alone to that neighborhood and Mike can’t go with me on Monday which is her actual birthday. Monday we’re having our yearly post-holidays choir party. And then life goes back to normal sort of. As of today, Mike doesn’t have a New Year’s Eve gig for the first time in several years. Definitely since we’ve been in this house and LG has been around. While we’ll miss the money, and it’s always a possibility that he’ll find a gig for the night, it would also be pretty cool to spend New Year’s Eve as a family. But we shall see.

I’ll try to keep posting throughout all this chaos, but the posts may be lame. I’m bound and determined to at least make it through December before I turn back into a slacker though!

• Sewing? Finished! All I have to do is get some bows and a quilt label from Joann’s tomorrow, sew them on to their respective projects and I am completely (and finally) done. Yay me!

• Decorating? Still not finished, but Mike left some unbreakable ornaments out for LG today and she completely decked out the bottom half of the tree. And she did a spectacular job, by the way. What does this mean to me? It means I hopefully will never have to decorate the tree! Yes!

• Stress level? A bit high. A lot high. I don’t know. See, here’s the thing. The church is cutting the budget and three office staff have already been laid off. No one knows if there are more layoffs to come or not. If there are, one could possibly be Mike. Or they could revamp his job. Or several other scenarios. It’s really stressful to not know if a check that you depend on could be cut off at any time. And to all those who are part of our choir/group, prepare yourself for the worst and hope for the best. You know as much as we do at this moment, so just be ready for anything. I do not like be stressed at Christmas. On top of that stress, my BFF found out her son will most likely be going to Iraq when he finishes his training. And that makes her sad, which makes me sad. And doggone it, no one should be sad or stressed out at Christmas.

• Weather? It was fairly dry today, but it’s pouring again. Thanks for the rain Mr. Syndromes! ;) I guess the weather fits my mood again today. Bah humbug.

• Anything else? Why, how about a photo to lighten the mood?

• I’m so close to being done with my Christmas sewing. All I have left is the project I’m doing for my goddaughter. How awesome is that? And technically, I have until Christmas Eve to get hers done. I’m sure I’ll probably have it done in the next day or two, but wow! It feels good to be almost done!

• I ordered a couple of things with the points I’ve earned from the Thank You Rewards program by using my credit card. I ordered a new dvd player for me (since the one in the bedroom died the other day) and a Leapster for LG. I was hoping it might make it before Christmas, but I wasn’t holding my breath since it said shipping took 2-3 weeks. I placed my order on Saturday. I received it today. Wow! I’m truly amazed. Apparently the reward fulfillment center is here in the Valley. But still! Who would have thunk?

• My great time waster/time suck/procrastination/avoidance mechanism of late has been Facebook. But! I just got back in touch with my bestest friend from childhood, so that’s pretty cool, right?

• And finally, it has been cold and wet. Very very wet. I love the rain, though. I guess that’s because we don’t get all that much of it. It makes it feel like winter time and Christmastime, though. I just don’t like driving in it.

I almost forgot to post something today. But I have 10 minutes to spare. So, let’s see if there’s even anything to post.

Well, it’s been raining. And it’s cold. And I have many errands to do. I did several of them today, but I still need to go grocery shopping tomorrow. Grocery shopping used to be less work, but since I’ve started doing the coupon thing, it’s much much more. But it’s worth it!

And that’s about all I’ve got today. I’ll try to be more interesting tomorrow!

Today is the 100th episode of the posts I love to call “Surfer Sunday”. (Can you believe it? I can’t.) I figure 100 of anything should require a little reflection to go along with it, so look for the poll at the bottom of this post to let me know what you want to happen in the future of Surfer Sunday. As in, do I keep doing this craziness or are you quite over it? (And feel free to leave me a comment if you have anything else to say.) And now, without further adieu, the 100th episode of Surfer Sunday!

Everybody Needs Gadgets

Hot chocolate maker

Manfrotto ModoPocket Tripod

Three section recycle bin

Butter bulbs (another one of those gadgets I want!)

Food! Glorious Food!

Pasta alla Vodka

Cinnamon Rolls

Substitutions for tomato sauce, sour cream, unsweetened chocolate and more!

Cranberry sorbet

All about beans, split peas and lentils

Creative Pursuits

Make your own greeting card holder.

How to lasso photos with textures.

25 projects for December.

Top 10 DIY photography tools

How to make ice wreaths

20 quick street photography tips

Photographing flowers

How to take a photograph out of a plane window.

The dawn to dusk project

7 travel photography tips

Find an optimal home location to minimize your commute.

SnapAsk gives you answers via email.

The ultimate social media etiquette handbook

Happy Holidays

Moravian Christmas Tree Cookies

Holiday hazards every parent should know about.

Gift guide for teachers and caregivers.

Cardboard Christmas tree

Time saving tips for the holidays

Christmas gift ideas using your own photos

Cookie dough log rolls

Felted sweater trees

Experimental mixology: The Christmas Edition

Life Is a Highway

The top 10 everything of 2008

How to dispose of unused medication.

Things That Make You Go Hmmm

Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong and again I say…WRONG!

And more wrong.

Get Involved

Help save handmade toys in the USA.

Public charter schools deserve equal access to federal support. Mark my words – charter schools are the future of education in this country.

Good Ideas

6 ways to teach your young children to give.

Auto lead rotation mechanical pencil

Laughter Is the Best Medicine

Weekly Features

Pretty recipe of the week

Cupcake of the week

Cupcake of the week 2

Poll

Just a quick note in case I don’t get a chance to post anything else today. The little one and I, along with a friend, are going to Snow Queen today. Then LG and her dad are going to the Christmas pageant at church while I catch up on all the sewing I didn’t get done yesterday. The forecast says rain rain rain next week, which we need, but couldn’t it wait until Christmas and maybe snow? Too much to hope for. ;)

Anyway, hope all of you are having a great weekend. We are! And look for the 100th episode of “Surfer Sunday” posting tomorrow. Woohoo!

So jury duty today. The worst part of it was the getting up and getting dressed at 7 am. My service was in one of the satellite courts – this one in the West Valley and probably the closest (or at least the easiest to get to) for me. It is, however, in the podunk town of Surprise. Now don’t get me wrong. I like Surprise. In fact, I worked there for several years and I have friends who live there and everyone at the courthouse was as nice as they can be – from the security officers to the clerks to the judges. However, it’s still a podunk town. The jury assembly room was so small it was claustrophobic (and there were only two trials today, yet it was full). And they don’t have wifi at this courthouse like they do downtown. Therefore…podunk.

No one said a word to us until around 9:30ish when a nicely dressed gentleman came in and told us he was a judge and that the people who were there for the other trial could go home. Of course, the rest of us were understandably bummed, but he told us that our case was “negotiating” and we might be able to leave soon as well. So we had hope. After all of those people left, we all resituated ourselves in our newfound breathing room and settled in to wait some more. About five minutes later, the clerk told us to follow her to the jury selection room. Are you kidding me? We all looked at each other and grumbled. Seems we were going to have to serve on a jury after all. We got to the courtroom and the judge was on the bench, but the rest of the room was empty. Guess what? He told that our case had decided not to go to trial as well and we could go home! Hurray! I was out of there in less than two hours. And other than the fact that I had to get up and dressed way too early and drive out to the podunk town, it wasn’t really that bad.

I decided since I was free and childless (Mike was at home with LG for the day), I’d take care of some Christmas shopping that I couldn’t do when she was with me, so I went to Payless (BOGO time so a pair of shoes for me and one for LG), Target (stocking stuffers) and the library.

The library had apparently just installed the self-service checkout kiosk, so I got to try that out. It was actually pretty cool. I’m sure it’s a cost-cutting measure, although I don’t want to know how much it cost.

I even made it home in time for LG’s 4 year old photo session with our friend Ryan. There are several really cute pictures!

Now Mike is putting up the lights on the house (which means for those of you following along at home that the lights he put up around 4 or 5 years ago and never took down are finally coming down…*ahem*). And I think we’re having tacos for dinner.

Did I miss anything? Other than the fact that I haven’t touched the sewing machine today? And tomorrow we are going to see my goddaughter and her older sister dance in Snow Queen?

Other than that, not much going on around here. ;)

I have jury duty tomorrow. I was hoping I’d call and they’d say my group didn’t have to report. But no such luck. In fact, nobody’s group doesn’t have to report. Probably because everyone postponed their service. Bleh. Oh well. Hopefully if I get stuck on a jury, it will be one day and done. It might be interesting. But I have a zillion things to do and a little girl at home without me. Mike will stay home tomorrow. Can’t really afford to do more than a day, though. I was hoping that maybe there wouldn’t be any cases – it being a Friday and December and all. But it didn’t work out that way. Maybe it won’t be so bad. I’ll take a book and get some reading done. Hopefully. And maybe I’ll be out of their by lunchtime? Could I be so lucky?

Wow! I just listened to my barely 4 year old daughter sound out and read an entire list of 3 letter words that I’d written down for her the other day. Not to mention the fact that she is picking out words she knows all around her. My baby is starting to read. How awesome is that?

The one thing I miss about non-cordless phones is the ability to slam down the receiver when you hang up on a sales call after rushing from the toilet to answer the phone. Somehow, hitting the “end” button doesn’t have the same satisfaction. And yes, we are on the do not call list. Not that it seems to matter. That is all.

I’ve been doing music ministry with my husband since long before we were married and long before I was even Catholic. One thing I’ve learned is that music is a ministry that touches people deeply and I’m so glad to have the opportunity to touch people’s lives with something I love to do. (Read on …)

Saw this at Bright Star’s. (Bold what you have done. I also italicized what I’d still like to do.)

1. Started my own blog (in March 2002 at LiveJournal – this one started in 2005)
2. Slept under the stars (not that I can remember)
3. Played in a band (I sing and play tambourine.)
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than I can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland/world
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis 
10. Sung a solo 
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched lightning at sea
14. Taught myself an art from scratch (quilting)
15. Adopted a child (Do dogs count?)
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown my own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France (Not that exciting.  The Venus de Milo is, however.)
20. Slept on an overnight train 
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitchhiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person (both sides even!)
34. Visited the birthplace of my ancestors (Northern Ireland)
35. Seen an Amish community 
36. Taught myself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had my portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud (ew)
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class 
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies 
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma (many many years ago – can’t do it anymore)
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy 
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book (a poem was published in one)
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had my picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life 
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous (Waylon Jennings when I was a baby and Tommy Shaw from Styx)
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone (I’ve been using a cell phone for over 10 years actually!)
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Ridden an elephant