The holidays are upon us...

Well, the holidays are upon us. I am so excited about spending time with family and having time off from work! Best of all, I'm getting PAID even though I have only been there for three weeks, I still get vacation pay! I love it!

Alan's mom was in the hospital over Thanksgiving and didn't come home until December 10th. She had to have a major surgery, but came through it well and is recovering at home now. We are both so thankful that we'll be able to spend Christmas with her.

Getting through the week she had the surgery was very difficult. We were in Huntsville because I was training for the new job there. Alan had taken the week off so that he could adjust to sleeping at night (he works third shift) before he had to take the LSAT. We were very stressed because we knew the severity of Kathy's condition, but were unable to go visit her before the surgery. The last day that we were there was the day she had her surgery. We drove straight from Huntsville to Sylacauga to see her in the hospital. After visiting for a little while, we had dinner and then headed back to Birmingham. What a long day!

Thanksgiving was fun for us, even though we didn't get to see Alan's family. We went to my mom's house after lunch at my grandparents' house. It was so much fun because ALL of my brothers were home AND all of the nieces and nephews were there! We played monopoly and I got second place...but I got beat by an eleven-year-old...lol :)

I went to a recipe swap at Erika's house and it was so much fun! Alabama winning the SEC championship made it that much more fun! The only thing that could have made it better was if Ashley could have been there :( We did have some fun watching the tow truck pull David's Blazer out of the yard...lol!

I went to an ornament swap with the Vestavia ladies and boy were there a lot of people there! We had 36! I ended up coming home with a Rock 'N Roll snowman ornament that is so cute! I did have a big scare on my way there. I was merging from I-65 to I-459 and there were about 6 cars in the second lane (the lane I was in). One car was lingering in the far right lane that was ending (there were MANY signs that said the right lane ended and to merge right). Well, they did not heed the signs and when that lane ended, they slammed on their breaks. Instead of continuing on and making them wait (since they had PLENTY of time to merge earlier), the car at the front of the pack of six SLAMS on their brakes...not a smart move considering the roads were wet (not soaked, just wet enough to make the oil and water mix and VERY slippery). I was about three cars behind them and there was no way I would have been able to stop without hitting the cars in front of me. I made a snap decision to change lanes to the left (no time to check the lane for cars, use my blinker, check mirrors, etc.). I prayed as I switched lanes that there was no car in the other lane. Thankfully for me, there were no cars in that lane and I was safe. I ended up switching lanes RIGHT before my bumper would have hit the car in front of me. I was okay at first until the seriousness of the situation hit me. I started shaking really badly and was at the brink of tears. The rest of the way to the party, I prayed over and over "Thank you, God." I was so mad at that other driver for not switching lanes in time, but I prayed to God for taking care of me and I tried not to be angry with that driver (what good would it do? I'll probably never see them again.)

Alan's birthday was Monday. We went to Firehouse to eat dinner and watched a movie at home. I love spending time with him! Money is really tight for us right now so I had to give him an IOU for a keyboard. I know he's really been wanting to learn how to play for a long time and I wanted to give him something to help fulfill that dream. I can't believe that's the 4th birthday we've spent together!

I'm almost done Christmas shopping...just a few little things to get. I also need to finish making two presents for Alan and one for his dad. I love the fun of getting presents for people. I like to try and get unique things that no one else would think of or appreciate like that person. I love the joy of finding a really good deal. Two gifts I purchased, for instance, were regularly priced $36 and I got them on sale for $4! How great is that!

One of my favorite parts of the holidays is looking at Christmas lights. We haven't done any looking yet this year because we aren't really familiar with the residential areas around here and don't know where to look. Even though we've been here for over six months (wow, has it been that long?!?), we still stick to the main highways, which have very few houses.

I'm so excited about the possibilities that are ahead of us! Alan is going to start applying for law schools soon. There are SO MANY out there and so much to consider. We both want to explore the country and think it would be so exciting to go somewhere different and out of state. At the same time, I finally have a stable, good-paying job and we don't know if I'll have that if we go somewhere else. There is just so much to think about and time is ticking! Right now, we are keeping our options very open though. I just can't believe law school time is almost here! I am so excited for Alan! This is what we have been looking forward to for so long...it's part of the 'Plan' he told me about when we were dating :)

There is so much that I want to write about, but just don't have the time! I have some serious housecleaning to do these next two weeks! Working outside of the home is one thing, but I am so busy and this job makes me so tired! I wake up at 5 am to start getting ready, leave for work at 7:20 am, work 8 am - 4:30 pm, don't get home til 5 or 5:15 pm (thanks a lot traffic!), change clothes, eat dinner, spend a little time with Alan and then go to bed! That doesn't leave a lot of time for housework! Also, the first weekend I had off from this job, I worked the entire weekend at my part-time job, which REALLY meant no time to catch up on housework! Now that I have two whole weeks off from work (hopefully off from part-time too), I can get some serious work done here! For right now, I'm going to stay at the part-time job also, until we can get caught up on some bills. I want to have as much money as possible saved up before Alan starts law school. Hopefully, he will get some scholarship money and we won't have to get too many loans. I think we can make it on my salary if we are very careful with our spending. We got some really nice things for everyone for Christmas this year, but I was VERY lucky to catch some incredible sales, so we ended up not spending very much at all (about $350 for 15 family members, 2 friends, plus each other's gifts). That may sound like a lot, but the actual value of all the gifts we purchased would be about $1500!

Well, I do need to get to bed so that I have energy for worship in the morning and to accomplish some things tomorrow in between services! Merry Christmas!