"It's not Christmas unless there's pizza"

For almost as long as I can remember, Mom, Dad and I have

eaten pizza and gone to the movies on Christmas Eve.

Followed by presents at home.

This year I was once again away from home for the holidays,

but my "road" family helped celebrate my way.

We went and saw the movie Four Christmases.

Then we couldn't find anyplace open, so we had to order in pizza.

From left to right: Shavar, Linda, Adrian, and myself.

Then I opened the presents my parents sent me.

Yay! Season 2 of SeaQuest.

Montreal, Canada and a Lot of Snow

We arrived in Montreal, Canada on December 15th. There was a lot of snow on the ground. Then we had load-in at the Theatre St. Denis. Normally, I drive the tractor at load-in and load-out. . . this time I shoveled snow off the ramp!

Look at it come down on the Racks crate!


Unfortunately, when we crossed the border into Canada. . . the customs officials felt the need to check out truck two. In their doing so, they took all the load bars and straps out of the truck. After leaving customs, everything in the truck shifted around and one of our dryers had an unfortunate accident.

It's totally broken, and we'll have to get a new one when we get to the warehouses in Palmetto.

Look at all the snow! Guess this guy won't be riding his bike home from work. . . .

Brookings, South Dakota

In Brookings, South Dakota, I had my coldest load-in/load-out. There was a blizzard a'brewing outside, and it tried to come inside!

Here's Jarred on the top of the ramps that came off the truck first. They had an inch plus of snow on them! Here's Andy trying to break the frozen lock on the back of truck 3. Note all the blurry spots, that would be snow.

Here's the locals putting the second set of ramps onto the truck.
Here's Andy sweeping snow and ice off the ramps. Did I mention this is Andy's last day in the 100 Acre Woods?
Finally when the ramps are clean enough, Michelle braves the first round of being on the tractor.


As I'm sitting on the tractor, Bill backs truck one up to the ramps. Check out that weather outside! It's about 7:30 in the morning!

These two photos (above and below) are the same exact shot. Above is taken with a flash, and the one below is taken without a flash. Please note all the snow, and the snow drift that has decided to make it's home right in front of the buses!

Here I am, after driving the tractor for an hour. Note all the snow in my hood.

How people live like this I do not know. I hate snow, I hate the cold. Thank God I live in Florida!

La Crosse, Wisconsin & a Surprise!

We spent the week of my birthday and Thanksgiving in La Crosse, Wisconsin. It was a really tiny town. It was cold, and there wasn't much to do but spend money. . . I spent most of the week in my room reading and enjoying my birthday presents.



On Wednesday, there was a big surprise in store for three birthday people. Myself, Rich who's birthday was on the 18th, and Brian who's birthday was on the 24th. . . . .

(Rich, Brian, Me)

Being that I am forever a goofball, I decided to frost the boys.


Frosting is sticky.

29th Birthday

For my 29th birthday, I was showered with gifts from friends and coworkers. I also got a very special delivery of my favorite color of roses from someone special who's far away.

I love these flowers! They're gorgeous!

It wasn't an exciting 29th birthday, but it was just right. Thanks everyone!

Springfield, Illinois

Springfield, Illinois is home to Abraham Lincoln. I was really sick during our stay in Springfield, but I forced myself to go to the Lincoln's Presidential Museum before we left. It was well worth it, even though we weren't allowed many pictures inside.

If you've been living under a rock the last couple of months, Twilight the movie was released last week. It's an amazing book by Stephanie Meyer that has now been made into a major motion picture. Greg and I went to the midnight premiere of it:

The movie wasn't as great as the book, but it was great to see with a full movie theatre!

Let's take a hot minute for. . . .

PANIC!!!!!

That's right folks, I'm having a bit of a panic attack. Nothing too crazy, but I am turning 29 exactly one week from today.

Reliving My Childhood

Last week we were in the middle of Iowa in a small town called Ottumwa. There was nothing to do there, so some of the girls and I rented a car and drove 4 hours to Kansas City to see the New Kids on the Block concert! It was AMAZING!!! I totally felt like I was 11!

I tried to take pictures and video, they are not the best, but it will keep the memories alive!

Little Rock, Arkansas

We spent a week in Little Rock, Arkansas. Here's a few pictures from around the downtown area.
Ooooh, pretty, the leaves are changing there!

There's Shioko, she's jaywalking!

William Jefferson Clinton Presidental Center

Inside

Replica of Clinton's Oval Office.

Here are some cute houses that I saw downtown.

Annual Halloween Party

We had our annual Halloween party on October 29th. Lots of people dressed up, which was amazing! I really wasn't feeling Halloween this year, so I just gathered up some things from my closet and went as a Goth cutie. Lame I know! But I really wasn't feeling it. Don't worry Mom, all those tattoos are fake. Funny little rub-ons for kiddies.
Tracy went as Judy Jetson. Sallie went as Kuromi, who is best friends with My Melody.

Rich went as a Blue Man, Karen went as some sort of queen.

Kevin went as the Green Arrow. I've never heard of him, but apparently he's a comic book super hero.

Jessi went as Jessie the cowgirl from Toy Story 2. Adrien went as Bobble the Tinker fairy from the new Tinkerbell movie.

Randy goes as a Ghostbuster, and Amy from FCP is a waitress.

Greg goes as Christian Siriano from Project Runway. It's "Fierce!" In the background, Mark wore a bed sheet as a toga.

Shioko dresses in Jason (her boyfriend) clothes and goes as him.

Shawn (left) and Dennis (right) go as sexy gay boy angels. Isaac (in the middle) goes as Beast from the X-men.

Krista (posing with Sallie) goes as Tree 2 from the show.

The crew guys have some interesting costumes. Jarred (far left) is Kurt Cobain, Dave (center) is a mop from the Swiffer commercials "Baby Come Back," and Shawn Carmen (left) is a really ugly woman.