New Bloggers Have It Made and Packing Tape is Under-rated!

For the last hour and a half I have been redoing some things in my template. Basically, removing links of blogs of people that don't visit here any longer, or maybe I don't go there, and adding ones I should have added ages ago and ones that are brand new to bloggy world.

In the new templates, blogger does everything for you. Browse...upload...viola! It would have taken me no time to make these changes on the new template, but with my template, you have to type in all the codes and you better get it right! Or, like me, you end up going back doing multiple changes because you forgot a "." or a "/" or a "<>" or one little letter that you keep missing as you scan over the code and over it again....and then one more time to finally view your mistake. And then you spend another thirty minutes clicking on the newly added links to make sure you've added them correctly. I'm just really happy right now that it's finished.

Today we went to my mother-in-law's house to take her Christmas tree down and put everything in the attic. She ordered Pizza Hut for lunch. We had a nice visit. I was showing her all the pictures I have on my ipod and that was fun. Then it was time to leave.

Bruce felt like he was running a little fever today so we (the kids and I) left him behind while we went to my parent's home to take down their tree and decorations and carry them to their building. We opted to just carry the tree, as is, to the building. Works for me, folks! But mom and dad like that flaky snow on their tree so when the tree was carried out of the house, ten billion and one little snow flakes rested on the floor to be vacuumed by Hannah. Then mom wanted her nativity put back in its white box. So I went to the building for the white box and came back with the wrong one. She told me exactly where it was so I went back out to get the white box and sure 'nuff...right where she said. It probably would have helped me the first time had she told me the white box was actually a styrofoam box that came in two pieces. Anyway, after trying to figure out how all the nativity pieces went into their styrofoam holes, which by the way is like working a puzzle, they were all securely nestled in their proper places, the styrofoam taped shut numerous times with packing tape, and then carried to the building, not to be seen again until next Christmas.

While I was taping the styrofoam, I was suddenly reminded of my dear Maw Maw, daddy's mom. She lived in Ashtabula, Ohio when we lived in Greenville, SC and would send us packages in the mail several times a year. Maw Maw would be out and buy anything she saw she thought us kids would like. She never seemed geared to a certain taste. As a matter of fact, daddy said she really had no taste. She just grabbed anything and everything that wasn't nailed to the shelves. Then she would pack everything in a nice big box, stuff it down real good, and tape the box with as much packing tape as she possibly could. Every corner, every line of the box, and then some. Most of the time the addresses were written across brown packing tape. She would buy puppets, coloring books, hats, pens, perfumes....OH, THE PERFUME! We were always excited to see a box waiting for us on the kitchen table, especially when it came from Ohio. We knew we were getting ready to open the box of unknown surprises. Oh what excitement! What intensity! We would begin to tug and pull and pull and tug on the packing tape that held our greedy little hands at bay. Frustration would grow as the tape would stretch and mingle together only making it more difficult to break. And of course, we weren't allowed to play with knives. Alas! John would begin to gnaw with his teeth. "GO, JOHN! GO!" YES! A break in the tape! A pause of rest for about three seconds, just long enough to look at one another. And then six arms and thirty fingers began to dig and place claim on the goods that lay inside. All the while, mom and dad laughing at our insanity of trying to open the package from Maw Maw. If she were here today, I would thank her for the memory.