Happy Belated Lumi, everyone! (Oh god, I've forgotten how to do emojis on here. Lol!)

You're welcome for your gifts and whoever else I got around to doing before I totally forgot and had to buy actual real life Christmas presents/wrap them/do Christmas things. Pah.

Thank you for mine those that have sent things over. I'm just getting around to checking everyone and sorting the gifts into where I want them.

Not too much change in my house although I did get a part time job in a secondary school (high school) kitchen a couple of months ago, so that's been good. And I've got jury service to do soon too! I got the call for the job from my friend one Monday (she was the manager of the kitchen) and then the next Monday I came home from work for the summons for jury service! Nobody wants me for years and then that happens. Haha. Made me laugh.

Ping, don't ping, doesn't really matter. I just realized that I can look at recent posts through the forum. So, if I can't find somewhere I posted, I'll just look there. :)

That email setup sounds interesting. Where did you find that? It may jiggle some memories loose from my dad's memory and I could get some funny family stories that way. His autobiography read like a resume or CV. No stories. I would ask the aunts but I don't know how to get a hold of any of them except through my sister.She's jealously guarding everything. She won't even tell me their current names so I can google them. I may try anyways and see what happens. XD Please pray that the internet maniacs don't get me. lol Either way, I'm leaving it alone for a bit as this past holiday was full of enough family. ;)

Oh, I'm doing that too! Working in the kitchen at the high school, that is. And thank you for the lumi gifts! LOL

Kat oooh, I looked at storyboard, but like.. everyone is gone now :P Might be really cool for Alex's grandpa, though?

That's a bit evil of your sister, though maybe she's afraid of everything upsetting the cart.. but still, you deserve to know things! And it's important that you at least know health history, etc!

Guys I went shopping today and didn't buy ANYTHING Christmas, except one red and white bead garland that I thought would be super cute for valentines day. I DID pick up food for our anniversary Monday, though! I got crab legs, scallops (Alexs favorite) and Argentinian rock shrimp (which I loveeee!), and baby potatoes to do salt potatoes, and some fresh green beans. Then I got home and was super sad that we have all this seafood that we can't eat yet, but Alex made salmon for dinner, so I was much happier :P

AND.. speaking of being old! (I had to ask google how old I was earlier. 37, for the record!), I made the invite for Lilys sweet 16 today, and bought some party decor. Crazy to think that's only a few weeks!

Yep, Mieke, she's my evil sister. Actually, she's a bit of a twit but I am going to directly ask her about it next time I talk to her. Oh, boy, that food sounds delicious! Are you going to steam it all? What are salt potatoes?

I feel like a slug. I haven't done anything today except make sure my son took out the garbage and picked up the mail. I think my step count is up to about 67 or so. I doubt I'll break my goal of 200. Yeah, I don't move around a lot because when I do, messes happen. Like this morning when I went in the bathroom and kicked a full bottle of rubbing alchol across the room. XDD Oh the stink! So, I've been banished to myrecliner while the floor is mopped so there's not a big clean patch by the bathroom. XD XD

Storyworth.com It's a website. You buy the subscription/book up front (so I paid $90). If I read correctly we get to review the book and approve of the layout etc, and can add pictures too, before it prints. You can buy extra books if wanted. That is a bit mean of your sister to be like that. Ugh.

- my dad keeps acting/talking like he is going to die any day now. Hopefully not. I know he does have some health issues but none so much that he should die soon. I think he's just feeling OLD. So I figured start with him. Maybe it'll give him something to live for hahaha! 😝 I think later, maybe for her birthday, definitely by next Christmas I'll do my mom. Also ... Do it for yourself if you don't have older family left. Ask yourself what you remember about them. It lets you pick pre-written questions or make up your own.

hi Hun! I saw you've been working on Legos!! Fun! I'm glad you got a job you enjoy!

4 pounds new potatoes

1 ½ cups fine salt

8 tablespoons butter, melted

Basically you just boil the baby potatoes in super salty water, then you drizzle butter over them, or you can just dip them in butter! Which is probably what we'll do, since we'll already have old bay butter made up for the crab..

And we'll steam the crab and sautee the scallops and shrimp, and probably the green beans, too haha.

It was probably like $75 worth of groceries, but we'll have leftover potatoes for another meal, and we would have spent at least $60 eating out just the two of us, and now we all get to eat, so I don't feel bad about it.

that's a good idea! I've written down a lot of stories about my grandparents, etc, but it might be a good idea to have some pre selected questions, stuff I've never thought of!

I GOT IT!! I GOT IT!! The DECAL scholarship! I just got an email saying it was approved!! YAAAAAAY Whew. One less stress.

Hmm I will have to try that on a smaller scale ;) Last time I made baby potatoes I just regular boiled them and then shook them (gently) around with melted butter and salt...they weren't quite what I remembered someone else making....which is what I was trying to do LOL

Some of the questions from storyworth are things like "What is your favorite holiday meal" and "What did it feel like learning to drive" and "What was your first job?". So, you can ask those basic type of questions, or for me, like I could make up and ask my dad more specific ones like "What was your favorite foreign country you visited while you were in the Navy" or "What ship was your favorite to be assigned to?" or "What was your favorite/highest rank" since he is retired Navy.

Oh, my, mieke - that sounds so good and a bargain to boot! I think I'm going to pester hubby to get some potatoes and make that.

Kat77 - Congrats on getting the scholarship! I bet that is a load off. As for the questions, I feel I have to be a bit more careful because there are things my dad isn't ready totalk about yet. He was a Marine in Viet Nam and won't tell me anything aside from where in Viet Nam he was stationed and the fact that he saw the Bob Hope OSI (?) show. There are other gaps in his resume that he won't talk about so I'm guessing I'll have to preface every question with a "If you're willing to talk about it." My friend said they have books like this on amazon although the one she got was for her to fill out with memories of her mother. She filled it out and gave it to her mother for Christmas. It was a hit. :D

Oh I get that. I dont think I'd ask about wars and service without saying if he wanted to talk about it. I was just using that as an example of me coming up with my own questions, as obviously not everyone is navy or even military so those types of questions may never come up from storyworth.

I am very glad to have gotten the scholarship, it pays up to $2500 to the school for tuition and other fees AND sends me $500 stipend for myself per semester. And all I have to do is send them my grades and next semester schedule at the end of each semester ,and have a 2.5 gpa to keep it. Excellent for me to have that help!! (I had a 3.9 gpa at the college I just finished, so that last won't be an issue I think)

YAY KAT, that's terrific! Ahhh I'm so happy for you haha. What a load off! (Though of course you were going to get it!)

Yesss, they're so yummy! But honestly, anything dipped in butter is going to delicious, I think?!

We went to Matts dads memorial last night, a bunch of the boys that were on the robotics team with Matt and Alex were there too. I will say, Carl gave me a hug but first he gave me a look like "wait, you're still around?!" Which I mean.. fair! :P

But Ben was there too, who was actually one of our best friends.. and Elly and Lilys godfathers. :/ He disappeared off the face of the planet after he got married, even though we and Matt were his only friends invited to his wedding.

And then I DID reach out a few years after that, to come to one of their birthday parties when I saw them at Target, but nothing. But he was like "Hey, Matt wants the four of us to hang out sometime" so.. who knows. Maybe, I guess?

I thought I'd be mean to him because sometimes when I'm sad I get mean (Total character defect, I'm aware! I'm WORKING ON IT!) but I wasn't.

Alex though, when we left was like "Soooo.. super nervous, huh?" and I was like what why and he goes "you were babbling SO. MUCH".

WHOOPS.

Kat - that will definitely help. College has so many hidden fees and things you need to get that extra money will def come in handy too.

mieke - (I keep wanting to spell your name "Meike" XD I agree, anything drenched in butter is delicious. Do you remember when Red Lobster was good and had the cornbread hush puppies? I loved those things dipped in melted butter. :D

so far the only hidden expense was the cost of the immunization tests 😳 I was not expecting it to be that much. Everything else so far has been known to me. And as casual as they were about it, I really just didn't think it would cost that much. I know there are fes for the GACE exams I have to do, and I got a warning about having to pay exam fees for proctors or something, which I haven't had to do before but different school now so....yea. Also I will need eventually to get my own laptop for the fall.

Aww mieke lol I get that tho, I either clam up and appear rude or end up babbling without realizing it til after and then fees I feel embarrassed. But eh. I think a lot of people are like that. Better to babble than be mean or rude I guess. I hope you reconnect with your other friends more. That would probably be nice. I wish I could reconnect to a few of mine. But when I reached out the last time I saw them, well they never got back to me. So again... Eh.

As for mieke's name...my phone always wants to change it to mike hahah and I've pinged poor Mike a few times but he's never shown up to talk 😂

- The college I went to rolled all our fees into the tuition so we only had one payment to worry about. It was nice because you weren't sent paperwork everytime a fee was needed or imminent. They really did try to make it pain-free and I'm very grateful for that. I would have gotten overwhelmed and dropped out if I had to deal with each fee individually. XD

Is there even a Mike here? Probably on an idle account. :P

Mieke I don't say anything in those situations. people have said I seem stuck-up or too good to talk to them but that's not the issue. I just never know what to say so I keep my mouth shut so I don't put my foot in it. :)

Oh not me, I babbbbbble for real haha.

I before E except after C! :P

We had friends over today, I got to hold my new nephew (he's a month old!) and we played lotsssss of games! Including a few new ones, which was fun!

Mieke - Yeah, except dyslexia loves to trip me up. :P Oh, one month old babies are so precious. I love the way they smell. You're so lucky! I'm glad you had fun with your friends. :D

LMAO @ looking up how old she is. 😆

& - I know it! I can't believe how long we have been here together!

🎉 CONGRATS 🎉

Does anyone know where/how one can get these goop items? Subetalodge only lists that they are "special" but not how one gets them.

Umm I would just buy them? hahaha!! No idea where they would be sold onsite besides user shops. and thanks!

- any fees for the college itself are like that. They even rent the textbooks (even tho most of them are online) and include that fee in tuition, tho you can opt out of the book bundle and search/buy the books on your own if you want. I looked back at the prices of books I'd done for previous classes (including the online books) and decided to just go with the book bundle for less stress. Things like the GACE tho - that is not from the college, that is a state test for educators so obviously I can't pay the college for that, I have to pay for it myself to the test site. And I've never had a proctored exam, but on my schedule it said that the exam may be proctored and that the proctoring fee would have to be paid to the proctoring site at the time of the exam. None of my previous exams were proctored, in fact ALL of them were simply online tests like everything else I've done, so I don't know how that would work at all.

There IS a mike, it doesn't come up "user not found" when I accidently ping, nor does it show frozen (the line thru the name) - but I've never gone to his lookup to see if he's idle or active LOL

I agree!! I love that new baby smell!! Precious!! I always want to take the babies from the parents when they bring them into the classroom, but I don't :P I do tell them I'm willing to hold the baby if they need me to ;) And ooh & ahhh over them and talk to the babies lol In the class we have a 4-5m. old baby brother and another littler one I don't see as often so I'm not sure how old. And a 3yr old sister I see all the time LOL Most of this year's class is the youngest or an only.

I also thought it was funny Mieke had to ask google how old she was. But hey, as the years go on, you get more forgetful :P I often have to think hard to remember is it 45 or 46? (I'm 46 now, but for some reason the entire beginning of the year before my birthday - in June - I kept saying I was already 46 and would be 47) eyeroll bad me LOL

EDIT - 735am Um so, I just did a thing - heheheheh! I just went and spent ALLLL my sp. So now: You currently have 79,757 sP! You are the 1,731st richest user on Subeta. I have a bunch of food and books in my BOOKS shop for me to use up tomorrow trying to get new years tokens, and and and, ummm Its weird to not have any sp. Hey! I can do Sarah's quests today! :P

Edit: 10am And all quests done, shop priced and now I am at: You currently have 5,187,211 sP! You are the 747th richest user on Subeta.

- I have no idea about proctored exams. All my exams were online also. Honestly, anyone could have taken my exams for me and the school would never have known, there was no sign in except to the main school system. I have a BFA in Creative WRiting and that didn't require any proctored anything.

What in the world did you just spend all your sp on? I thought you did quests to get New Year's tokens. What am I missing?

Well aren't they also given by random events too? So page views by reading books. If not, then I'll save the books for Vesnali :P And yes, I bought books. And some food. And then a sticker and a plushie or two. But mostly expensive food and books LOL

I just earned my associate in interdisciplinary studies (began as general education but switched so I could take the childhood classes as I knew they would transfer and the program at Mercer opened back up!) I also earned 3 TCC (technical certificate of credit) for ECCE (early childhood). So I am HOPING that those as well as the associate degree will bump my pay a little more hahah but I don't know. I know the degree will, I don't know if the TCC's will affect anything.

They are given by random events too! Though the richest user thing is super broken haha. I can't believe you spent all THAT much, that's crazy!

Yes, he was cute.. but also, I was so over him after not very long. Like.. you have to hold them all the time, can't just put them down to leave them to their own devices. And he's so floppy and weird and needy. Like.. enh, I was over it :P Maybe when he's a bit more fun.

Though I've always loved babies, so I don't know! Maybe I'm just outgrowing htem? haha. It's REALLY nice to just.. be able to leave the house without taking anyone with us or making plans or whatever....

Speaking of leaving the house! Today after church Lily and I went on an adventure! I really wanted Duck Donuts, so we went up there.. but first we went and did some shopping. I bought two pairs of work pants (because mine are disintegrating, and I work 3 days a week anyway, so I should really have more than one pair haha), and another pair of pants.. and some more stuff from bath and body works. Semi Annual sale, 75% off! And then I bought Lily a pair of drumsticks. We picked up our donuts, then went over to Five Guys (first time, it was pretty good, but not great, IDK), and then she talked me into taking her to Target, Michaels, 5 Below and Kohls LOL. I really didn't get too much though so.. go me.

The pants were EXPENSIVE, though!