The final exam is done and over with. Now I just have to grade the things.

The Christmas cards are signed, the Christmas letter is written, folded, and stuffed in an envelope with a current photo of the kidlings, and all the envelopes are addressed and most are stamped. (I ran out.) They will go in the mail today.

Today I plan to return the five movies I rented and that are now late. This is why I don’t rent movies.

And in my inbox today, I found out that I am now a Blue-Star member of eBay, which means I’ve had 50 positive transcations with 50 different eBay members. (Duplicate members/transactions don’t count.)

So today’s a good day. Except it’s Thursday. Blech.

This week some kids getting off the school bus and heading to daycare claimed an older man in a van asked them to get in.

The man, 86, claims he just said hello and asked the kids how school was going.

The man was shocked when one of the kids replied, "We don’t talk to strangers" and they all ran away.

And as a mother in a small town, I’m torn.

Part of me is cheering because the kids did the right thing. But then I’m also mourning a bit. Isn’t it sad that someone can’t say hello to kids? We have this whole "it takes a village" thing being promoted, but when the village says hi, we’re going to investigate them.

The man, by the way, doesn’t have a criminal history. He was still in the area, just a few doors down, when officers arrived. He didn’t pull over to talk to the kids. He was already way over to avoid an electric company crew, and he was stopped behind the school bus because you have to stop behind a school bus.

Yes, I know the man should have known better. The kids did the perfect right thing. But a part of me can’t help but wish my children could grow up in a community where we didn’t have to worry about sexual predators and kidnappings.

Plus, there’s the whole village thing again.

My community is trying to promote the 40 assets. Part of that is having a community support children. Smile at teens. Recognize when they do a good thing. It’s just sad.

Yesterday the kids didn’t have school, so hubby set his alarm later than normal.

Today, the kids had school yet the alarm hadn’t been changed back to normal. The bus arrived three minutes after I woke up the kids. Then they had less than a half hour to get ready. Plus, I wasn’t sure what time I had to get my middle school student to the elementary school to avoid driving into Houghton Lake.

I still don’t know, but I do know it’s earlier than 7:35 a.m. So, before 8 a.m. this morning, and before coffee, I drove more than20 miles to take my children to school. They all arrived before it started.

Waiting for me at home was a full pot of coffee, two loving dogs, and a box of Girl Scout cookies. Not just any GS cookies. Thin mints. They go so good with coffee!

The day has now improved, and I’m off to a 10 a.m. meeting.

Toodles.

I have not yet finished my Christmas shopping, but for the first time ever I have shopped online for Christmas. So I don’t feel quite as stressed as I might have otherwise.

I would like to go shopping with Steve in Traverse City, but I doubt that is going to happen. Steve resists shopping in general, and he doesn’t see a need to go to TC. I haven’t been there in ages. But in the end, I have to get the shopping done no matter what he says, so I may go by myself. Although I might not go to TC.

We’ll see. In the meantime, I’ll look online some more. I am not thrilled about shopping online. First of all, search engines don’t live up to their promise. I searched for one item at Target that I know they carry, and I didn’t get any results. I finally found it by drilling down through a ton of menus. But geez louise.

And anytime I search for anything on Walmart.com, I get results for books and music no matter what I’m looking for. I guess that means they don’t carry the item I’m looking for.

And as of yesterday I’m looking for doggy boots. Zeus has a cut in his paw from the snow and ice and I want to prevent it for the rest of the animals. I thought spending $35 each for the kids boots was bad. Think about spending $35 for a dog. I hope they keep them on.

So there’s the update. Later.

I can breathe. I’m not coughing up a lung every two seconds. My ribs no longer ache.

However, I’m not yet fully recovered. But it’s happening.

My Thanksgiving was very nice despite the nasty weather. The weather was bad with a capital B, as in Blizzard. My mom was worried about driving the half hour or so to my house. Actually, her biggest concern was she wouldn’t be able to get out of her driveway. So Steve, Maxine, Justin and I braved the roads and went to Grayling to get Mom. Steve drove and I only drew in my breath once on the way there.

My husband is a very good driver. He’s taking professional training on evasive driving. Plus he has the years of racecar driving experience. So I rarely worry. But it also gives him more confidence than I have, and so sometimes I gasp a bit. So far, he’s never earned my gasps.

Mom stayed at our house Thursday night and on Friday she helped me get out my Christmas decorations.

I have lots of Christmas decorations. More than 10 of those Rubbermaid storage boxes. As I was unpacking, Mom asked where I wanted things. At one point she actually said, "Are you going to use ALL of this?"

This question, keep in mind, came from a woman who has WAY more decorations than I do. When they are all out and on display, I once counted more than 500 various Santas in just one room. Most years, she has to take down her regular what nots to put up her Christmas what nots.

But Mom’s just not very motivated lately. She hardly has any of her regular what nots up, let alone energy to put up her Christmas ones.

This weekend we should be getting our Christmas tree. It will be a real tree. That’s not just because I really do prefer the real tree (except for the part of cleaning up the needles out of my Berber carpet). It’s also because I live in Missaukee County, home of Lake City, which is one of five cities in the U.S. that claims to be the Christmas Tree Capital of the world. Of course, Lake City is the champ despite the other claims.

I also would be disowned if I were to get a fake tree. My FIL, and at one time my husband, worked in the Christmas tree biz. My husband has a scar on his left wrist where he cut it with a machette-type knife while trimming trees as a teen. Forget flipping burgers, in the Lake City area trimming trees is the number one job for teen boys. Which really, is a much better job than spray-painting the trees green.

My father-in-law makes Christmas tree balers, shakers and elevators. These are not just any Christmas tree balers. They are Howey Christmas tree balers. Still don’t know what I’m talking about? Watch a short movie showing how a baler works.

Basically, when a tree is cut, the growers first put it in a shaker, which shakes the tree several times to get all the dead needles out of it. If the tree is going to be transported, they can put it through a baler, which has a large cone on one side, and it wraps the tree up with a net to make it easy to ship. Then an elevator helps carry the netted trees into the truck for shipping.

Howey is a well-known name in the Christmas tree biz. Around these parts, you’re likely to run into a real-life Howey as often as you do a baler. So for most of the year, my father-in-law works in a business dedicated to Christmas, and specifically the Christmas tree. So needless to say, you won’t find a fake tree in our house. We’ve even been known to grow our own. 

Oh, and my living room is finally done! This has been a redecorating project that I first planned to do last January when I took down the Christmas decorations. I then repaired the walls using drywall patches, thinking I’d be painting them soon. However, my husband nixed the idea of me painting in the winter because  of the smell. Then we were really busy all summer. So I’ve lived for more than a year with a pretty ugly living room.

But now, after my week of vacation, (actually the last two days), my walls are finally painted (Ponytail, a color you can find at Lowe’s). The paint I used doesn’t have much of a smell, which was definitely a selling point for me. Once the walls were done, the rest of the living room went together quickly. I have decorations on the wall again. We even have a fireplace.

Now, I’ve been wondering how to decorate my living room for a very long time. But I think I finally did it. I like it. It’s comfy and still looks good. Yeah me!