A Life Update From Me

For anyone who still reads and cares, after the really sparse posting over the past year, here's an update from me about life in general!

My friend J from Maryland has finished his finals with a respectable GPA for his first semester and gone back home for the holidays. I miss him, since he's been a great help with all the transitions this year. I hope he has a great visit with his parents and comes back for the spring with some good news! I think he'll have a GF by the end of January, that's the news I'm waiting to hear!

In my life, I'm busy packing and preparing to move into my new house. THe big moving party is next weekend for anyone who wants to come freeze in Phoenix and help, I'd appreciate it...LOL My friend, E, showed me a really cool ceiling fan last night, and I think that's what I'm going to buy for my bedroom...of course I have yet to begin to shop! I still need furniture, a washer/dryer (simply a matter of heading to the Maytag store and then having E see if it can be found any cheaper), but they're not open yet this morning, so I have to wait a little while yet! E wasn't feeling well last night, so I hope he's not too sick today. I haven't heard from him yet, so I'm assuming he went to church this morning and will call later. I showed him the new house last night and he was thrilled to see my fruit trees! Guess I know where all my extra oranges will be going!

Since J left, I'm not going out as much, but that's OK since J doesn't really enjoy shooting pool, and if I'm going to a bar, I prefer to be doing something more than just sitting, and its also better for my budget.

DD had her first volleyball tournament last weekend. She had a 7AM pool in Flagstaff, which is 2 hours north of here. SO Friday afternoon, J the kids and I piled into the car and headed up there to stay the night and watch the tournament on Saturday! Her team did relatively well, and took 6th place, which is about where Coach wanted them to be. This tournament was simly for seeding for the rest of the season, so a lower place allows them to practice and improve and win some games! This is all a really good thing, since the girls are still learning their overhand serve and need to build some confidence! I can't wait for the next tournament, which is on my birthday! I'm thinking about inviting E and his DD to come watch my DD play! That would be fun, and I think they'd enjoy it. His DD is about my DD's age and the girls are having a blast together. They wanted to have a sleepover last night, but it was simply too short a notice, but I imagine they'll be having one soon!

In other news:

Work is starting to pick up a little and that's a good thing, since i need to be working more hours and making more money. I hope to get a lot of the ball rolling while the kids are in FL visiting their dad after Christmas. DS is really enjoying being a practice player for the volleyball team, and his volleyball skills are improving a lot. I think he's hoping to play for the boys team in a couple of years when he's old enough to! I'd love it if both my kids played volleyball, since its one of my favorite sports!

I'm planning to try to quit smoking in the spring, and will make a serious effort towards that goal starting now, with, at least cutting down on the smoking! My friend B has been using the patch and he's cut from 2.5 packs a day to just a few cigarettes a day, from what he says! I'll use the nicorette gum and celery, which I've been somewhat successful with in the past when I've worked at quitting! I'd try at New Years, but I know better than to try then, I'm just not good at resolutions! My only concern is that I'll gain back all the weight I've lost, but I'm still going to try, since I really do want to quit. THat will also mean quitting drinking completely and probably forever, since when I drink I want to smoke more! But that's OK too, since AZ is going non-smoking in May, and it will be more of a pain to smoke while out than its really worth! I hope I can quit before then, and be successful at it this time! I know that will make E happy, since he doesn't smoke and is already making comments, in a nice way, that he'll help me when I'm ready to do it. I think I kind of grumped at him a little when he mentioned it last night, and I'm not sharing this with him, since I don't want to be bugged about it....XH did plenty of that to last me a lifetime! However I am posting this here, so you all can hold me accountable to the commitment I made to try to quit! I know that I'm getting stronger every day, and if I have other activities, where there's no temptation to smoke, I can go for quite awhile with a cigarette! When E came over last night, I didn't have a single cigarette until after he left...that was about 5 hours...not bad for me, *at all*! Last time I went that long without one, when I wasn't asleep or in an airplane, was last spring in Vegas when I was deathly ill with food poisoning!

I'm skipping the Redskins game at the bar today to go finish cleaning the new house, so that I can start moving in this week and have most of the smaller stuff moved before the group gets here to move the big stuff on Saturday! I can't wait to be in my own house and to get my cube with all my stuff in it! I'm so excited I can't see straight! Then I'll never have to move again...if I don't want to! So today its off to clean and maybe even get a small load moved over there, if I have enough energy. I'm also going to spend lots of money and get some stuff for the house! Too much fun!