Out with the old

It’s a sad day in the Thompson household (ok, not that sad, but keep reading). I was in the bathroom upstairs and Beth yelled to me. I could hear the concern with a touch of sadness in her voice, so I hurried up and got downstairs as soon as I could to find out what happened. When you’ve been on the receiving end of a phone call delivering tragic news it seems you are always somewhat on guard for the worst possible news. As it turns out…after over 20 years of faithful service…our pre-wedding toaster-oven has finally toasted its last bagel. We could tell in the past few weeks that senility was setting in a bit as we’d choose one darkness setting and the oven would surprise us with some extra crispness. In the past few years we’ve lost our early 1990’s sandwich maker, curling iron, and now the toaster oven – I bet our original blender is starting to get worried, especially as we’ve recently been given a “bullet” and a fancier blender.

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I got some year-end statistics from a tool I use when I write these blog posts showing the # of views I got by country in 2014 (not quite sure how this is calculated but I don’t really believe any of it is showing data I’d find relevant). I want to give a sincere thank-you to my faithful blog followers in Uruguay, Gaudalupe, and Finland. Your support this past year has given me the energy and inspiration to continue posting blog updates.

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I’ve been off of work for over two weeks. It took me at least a week to unwind, and I’ve finally been able to spend some time relaxing, reading, playing, etc. This includes a few days working on a puzzle. When doing puzzles you can’t help but tell Katherine-puzzle-stories which always makes me feel closer to her. I plan to get another puzzle out tonight or tomorrow too 🙂

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This is the time of year when so many people focus on resolutions. I continue to achieve my dreams using a list I keep updated all the time (if anyone ever wants to know more about this or wants me to help them get started following this very simple framework don’t hesitate to ever reach out to me). I committed to at least one blog post per month (which I did). And another one of my dreams/goals in 2014 was to get 100 followers to my Suicide Survivor Pinterest board (that I created last year). I met that goal by July. I still continue to post pins and get followers. I always wonder about the story behind people that decide to follow my board. I hope the positive quotes and the comments I add are able to help people. I’m sure many are having hard times over the holidays. Just this week several new people started following me, including this person who hasn’t ever posted or liked anything else, and is only following me (her stats are in the first row) – the pressure’s on for me to post some good stuff 😉

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Genesis (with a bit of my help) made Pan de Jamon on Christmas Eve. It turned out amazing – I loved it. It was great hot that night, and also great cold (or warmed) for the next several days. Yummy! While we were making it (and not sure how well it was coming together – especially with my ham carving skills) I kept calling it pandejamonium which made me chuckle every time but I don’t think translated so well. Guess my comedy career may struggle in Venezuela (and probably here too).

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Orca says thanks for the ridiculous antlers that make her the laughing stock of the doggie neighborhood. She’s been scorned – nobody has sniffed her behind all week. Sad doggie.

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Christopher and Genesis out catching our dinner. The squirrels and bunnies have nothing to fear. Sigh.

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This may have been Christmas night. Nice weather. No snow at all. I was fooling around with the camera when we realized my goofing off may actually create some fun effects. Ready for us to do your wedding photos???

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And this was the next day – we got snow overnight!!! When are the next Olympics? Megan will be ready!

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Here she is on her new Christmas sled. It lets you turn so she created a slalom course out of boxes and a watering can.

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Woof! Woof!

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We had a fun time with some friends a few days before New Years. They have a little birdy that likes to pick stuff out of your teeth (yuck). Here’s Colleen with Tater Tot trying to keep her teeth hidden (Tater Tot was especially eyeing her braces!).

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And lastly, it was great to see my parents at Thanksgiving. So glad they could spend a week with us and we could catch up on things. Lots of fun that week. Look at that picture – is Megan taller than Grandma?!?!?

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One Response to “Out with the old”

  1. Dad & Grandpa T says:

    I gave mom a chance to be first to comment, but guess I’ll go ahead. With all the time and effort you put into your blog, it’s too bad you don’t get more comments. Maybe it’s like my use of Facebook. I’m not friends with too many, but I occasionally peak at their FB pages to see what they’ve been up to. I’m impressed with the number of international blog viewers you have.

    Too bad about your toaster oven. Have you checked out YouTube to see if you can repair it? It’s amazing what’s out there and what people are showing others how to do things. Mom doesn’t understand, but I’m about to tear into my old and faithful HP printer. By the number of people doing it I see that I’m not the only one wanting to keep it going. Others have called this HP model a “work horse” and “tank.” It’s encouraging to see that others are trying to keep their 15-20 year old printers going. Speaking of things to be replaced, our electric toothbrush is slowing down. Can’t complain as we’ve had it many years. Also, I went to take some pictures when the boys and the girls were here to spend the night and the lens on our little camera wouldn’t open. We’ve replaced it, but I came across someone on YouTube who may help me try to fix it. Too bad the timing wasn’t better as some of the things could have been on gift lists.

    Mom does a lot of puzzles, but I don’t seem to get into some of those forms of relaxation. I’ve worked 4 days each the past two weeks. I think I’m finally getting over a cold that I’ve had all year. I also had a touch of conjunctivitis in both eyes. Mom and I have been taking advantage of our library’s electronic offerings. She has been downloading e-books and I usually go for the audio books so I can listen and do other things while listening.

    Enjoyed all the pics. The Christmas Eve treat Genesis made looks good. We are glad we were able to meet her and learn a little bit about Venezuela. Hope she is coping with the Minn. cold weather. Please tell her we say “hello.” Glad Chris and Genesis are protecting their eyes as Chris is shooting game for dinner. Maybe Megan should look for a helmet for some of her downhill thrills. I think one of the parakeets we had would go for our mouths. Kind of disgusting as I think back on it. That’s a good picture of everyone at your church. So glad we were able to come out and enjoy that service as well as the “Grinch”, dinners in and out and everything else we got to do.

    Will talk to you soon. Hope all is well.

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