Hey guys!

I DID finally thaw out from the Christmas Market! Though I've been so busy since then I haven't had time to come and sit. I've even missed 3 days of the advent calendar! (Though, let's be honest, without there being new things each day, it's easier to forget, I think!).

CONGRATS KAT AND BETH, on your grades! That's absolutely wonderful!

We have a half day here Tuesday, then we're off until the 5th. That's both good and bad, because the kids at school are driving me nuts, but also, I don't get paid when we're not there :P

Band and chorus concert was Wednesday, Lily had a very long solo in the chorus concert, so that was really cool. And she and Iz both played really well!

I'm hoping I'll have time to stuff trees before Christmas.. if not, everyone is getting New Years gifts! (Or Easter.. I mean.. we'll see what happens -.-)

Wow Mieke. Way to go straight from New Years to EASTER!! :P I mean, just skip half the year hahah Jumped right over Valentines, St Patricks Day, whoooosh! :P Its all good girl!! <3 I just finished stuffing everyones trees. And I have SO MUCH sP left (I yanked it out of my CHEAP items shop to go spending...I have TONS in my regular shop till still also, sheeeeesh - spending spree on myself after Christmas I guess LOL)

Yay Lily, and Iz too! Boo for not being paid. I am glad I get paid 12 months a year (our district divides our salary up, and my position is paid year round, thankfully!)

, the money is a real motivator with him. I pay him to be my personal assistant, to do all the stuff I can't do on my own or not at all anymore. He understands when I pull the blind cripple card it really is something I can't do or I'm feeling too rotten to do. He knows I'm trying to pull a guilt trip and goes along with it. He actually finds it funny when I try. He just calls me on it and then does what I ask anyways. He really is a good kid. I honestly am waiting for the evil side to pop out one day to make up for all the good in him. 😂 Now, with my older kids I had to get mean mom on them to get them to comply with simple stuff like "if you see the washer stop, pull the stuff out and put it in the dryer." They acted more like regular kids did. I hated going mean mom on them but they had to learn responsibility and if I didn't teach it to them someone else, who didn't care at all about them, would, and not in a nice, "mom" way. So, bean mom-mean to your sons. They will understand that you're doing it for their own good even if they grump or whine about it. If you're not, someone else, someone less caring then you, will do it. :/ Merry Christmas indeed. XD

- yeah hahah sometimes you gotta be mean mom. Nathan KNOWS what to do and how to do, is just tooooo lazy to do. eyeroll If he lived on his own, I bet he'd do it rather than leave it undone or for me to do.

Better late than never - I bought a storyworth subscription for my dad TWO years ago for Christmas, he renewed it last year unknown to me until like Jan/Feb. Kept doing stories. Today I asked him how much longer he wanted to keep adding stories? Because a lot of the questions are starting to repeat (worded differently). And some questions he didn't even really answer :/ Eh. Anyway he said go ahead and order and he'll cancel the subscription (he had it on auto-renew!!). So i went thru, fixed spelling errors that I saw, deleted some "junk" from email responses, and added some pictures. He discovered a work around on paying to print it - you can download a PDF of the stories! He did that, and he sent it to me and my brothers so they could read it. I told him when he passed on, this book is mine :P But for now, its his. I got a free black/white version, but I updated it to color version, and paid another $40 for his christmas gift this year I guess hahahah tho he won't get the book until mid-Jan.

Next Christmas I'll do my mom.

edit You found a fairy while making a post! You got a forum point while making a post! Check out the shop here!

Well .. GO ME!

- My older son is like that. He leaves things for others to do because he just can't be arsed to do it. If he ends being theonly one around that can do it then he has no problem doing it. It's just convincing him that you can't do it, he must, that gets aggravating. He's my problem child, though. He gets into messes that I actually wonder how he manages it. XD

Stories? What is this thing and is it easy to use? My dad has a lot of stories that he's been telling me in email but if I can get him to do it in the same format your dad is doing it it will make my job of putting it all together into a family book a lot easier. He also has a lot of letters and cassette tapes from when he was in Vietnam that he wants to give me. Will they take those and scan them in to add to the book?

Oh, I talked to my daughter. She thinks the little old lady that told you about the forgiveness is right. That you have to meet certain parameters before you get the loan forgiveness and she thinks the parameters quoted to you were correct but she's not 100% sure. She said she'll dig her paperwork out and let me know what it says. She just moved, though, so everythingis in boxes so it may take her a little bit to find it. :)

- My older son is like that. He leaves things for others to do because he just can't be arsed to do it. If he ends being theonly one around that can do it then he has no problem doing it. It's just convincing him that you can't do it, he must, that gets aggravating. He's my problem child, though. He gets into messes that I actually wonder how he manages it. XD

Stories? What is this thing and is it easy to use? My dad has a lot of stories that he's been telling me in email but if I can get him to do it in the same format your dad is doing it it will make my job of putting it all together into a family book a lot easier. He also has a lot of letters and cassette tapes from when he was in Vietnam that he wants to give me. Will they take those and scan them in to add to the book?

Oh, I talked to my daughter. She thinks the little old lady that told you about the forgiveness is right. That you have to meet certain parameters before you get the loan forgiveness and she thinks the parameters quoted to you were correct but she's not 100% sure. She said she'll dig her paperwork out and let me know what it says. She just moved, though, so everythingis in boxes so it may take her a little bit to find it. :)

Thanks guys! I am only 129 fairies away now! So close :D

Ugh is anyone else noticing the inflation on Kumos quest items? There was one sticker for one of my quests that was 1,200,000 sP! Ridiculous!

wow that was horrible to say to you, about you being difficult! Every kid can be difficult, but you don't blame them for who they are, especially when they're at an age they don't know any better! It's not just "oh my kid is difficult!" but it can be circumstances like the environment around them or something like not getting enough food. Even I understand without being a parent. I never got the impression that you were "bad" like that.

And yes! I feel so blessed to be part of this program! It JUST opened this year for two year programs through NY state. Anyone who was in healthcare settings for their programs including physician assistants and nurses qualified!

That's so cool that your dad is doing a book/some writing! My grandma did that, but no one else in the family has, as far as I know. I bet your mom has some great stories too! :D And I know that there is certainly a toss-up of emotions for your son paying you, because I feel as though I cause it for my parents. That's why I offer to pay gas and do some chores so I'm not a complete lump! Maybe one day he'll understand what you're doing for him, and not be forgetful or mad about it! (Been there!)

Hi ! Congrats to Lily for having a solo! Glad the concert went well for both Lily and Iz! :D Bummer about not being paid, but hopefully life won't hit too hard in-between when you got paid last and get paid again! Don't feel pressured to gift me! I gifted away SO MUCH clothing in my closet that it was over 1,500 items (mainly because I had stuff in there I wasn't as attached to anymore)

I had nearly 10,000,000,000 sP worth of items given because some of it was pricey in user shop worth and I gifted a LOT of people (such as when there were no gifts under the tree) I just love gifting at Christmas!

- Congrats to Lily! :D That sucks about the pay. I hope it resolves itself soon. :)

- Well, I hate to admit it but I was difficult but only for her. She had a mountain of psych issues and (I'm not using this as an excuse) couldn't help how she acted sometimes. XD As soon as I understood what she was doing I distanced myself from her as fast as I could. :D Yay on almost being done with the fairies. :D

Oh wow! I know how difficult even a few mental health issues (I have 3) impacts life. I hope you've found some peace now that you're distanced from her a bit!

Yes! I love the site theme (from what I've seen on the fandom!) Thank you guys again for helping <3

thanks! I'll be glad for the info whenever she finds it. storyworth is a website. I paid around $100 for a one year subscription - it sends him a question by email every week (you can adjust how often it sends it, once a month, once a day, I chose once a week) - but you can go in and write/answer as many questions as you want. They have pre-written questions you can pick from or you can write your own questions. Once the subscription is up (you can renew it if you want) you can get a free printed (black and white) book. Its a small book - 6x9 or something like that. But up to 400 pages per book. If your stories add up to more than 400 pages, it prints more than one book, but that costs extra. Printing in color costs extra (if you do pictures in color) - I did color and it cost me an extra $40 for the book because of that. Anyway, yeah. Its an online thing, sends an email reminder and you can respond by typing a reply to the email or you can go right onto the site to type stories. I do not know if they could transcribe/scan recordings/letters, but someone from your family who has access to the storyworth could do that. You can give as many people access as you want. I tried to give my brothers access, but only one of them ever looked and none of them responded to the stories (each person who has access can respond to the stories with comments about it).

Sorry I poofed! I went to bake cookies and play games with my neighbor. We made three recipes. I have two more I'll make later this week (maybe). I like baking. She needed cookies for her work Monday. Win-Win LOL

I like the Lumiaire theme except for the fact it cuts off at the bottom and looks wonky there. I love the image at the top tho. I usually end up using Arctic Frost one in winter because I don't like the cut off bit :/ Also yes. Inflation on items for kumos quests happens quite a lot :( Its so annoying. I know he's working on the system to try and not have that happen (I think it mostly happens because a quest asks for the same item for lots of people or repeatedly for the same people)

I’ve had a couple of people message me saying I don’t have a tree this year. I do. But for some reason it’s not showing on my profile. Nor do I know how to put it on there.

Hope you are all doing good. It’s been a while. To be honest I’m More over in Neo lately..but still pop in over here to see how you all doing.

Hope that everyone is ready for the festive season? I’m working Christmas Eve until 3. Then won’t go back to work till the Monday and then I have New Yeas Eve off 😀

Hope that everyone has a lovely festive season and a lovely new year.

- Go to the news page, click the link for the trees. It will take you to the kumos page for trees (Keith moved it over) Under the tree, toggle the thing that says "share to gallery" I did this when Beth said she couldn't see my tree and I think it worked ? However, I could see my tree on my profile before that anyway, I don't see one on your profile at all - maybe you are missing the section its in? Go to your own profile, click to edit it, add the "contact me" section and put it somewhere, and save it. This should add the tree to your profile Let me know when you fix it. I'll stuff more things under your tree. I am splurging big time this year hahaha!

Hope that helps!

- Happy Luminaire! :D

- Things are much better since she's been cut out of my life. It wasn't eazsy but the results were so worth it. :D

- One thing I miss about the holidays is the cooking. Now, I have to leave it to everyone else. Before I was the one who cooked. Did you sneak some of the cookies you baked? what kinds did you bake? :D

Actually I did NOT! Not until today. Today I ate one of the no-bake cookies I made. Yesterday my neighbor and I made M&M cookies (chocolate chip cookies, but M&Ms instead of chocolate chips), snickerdoodles and peanut butter cookies. I have sugar cookies to make later - I am thinking I'll see if the kids (hahah grown ups) want to do them. Usually we frost them, but Katie said at thanksgiving she didn't like frosted cookies and we could decorate them with colored sugar and she'd be more interested in doing them, so thats what we'll do if they want to make sugar cookies. (cut outs, christmas designs). I also have a bag mix of chocolate chip cookie mix - might not make that though, since I have 4 kinds of cookies now already and 5 if we do sugar cookies lol I gave about third of them to my neighbor, she has a friend coming that has grandkids and is going to give some to them, and is taking some to work. I'll try to pawn off a lot of them on Katie and Wes to take to his family lol I'll keep some, just not a lot. I have a pile of cookies/candy/snacks on the table from gifts from my kids at school and my secret santa at school. So I reallllly do not need cookies. But I wanted to bake.

Thank you again and ! I got my site theme this afternoon :D

I see what you mean Kat about the cut off! I'm just going to pretend that it's wooden planks or something I guess :D

Ooh what kind of no-bake? Traditional peanut butter chocolate? Mm I can just taste all those yummy treats! So kind of you to share with neighbors and others!

Beth, you are so welcome. Yep. I play on my desktop and it's just too annoying to me to use it for long.

And yes. Traditional no bake. Peanut butter, chocolate, loaded with sugar lol bad for me. Very bad. Soooooo yummy!!! I've reduced my sugar intake so much that eating one of those was so sweet I couldn't eat another. Used to eat three or four in one sitting lol

- I'd be in sugar heaven at your house. I used to love making ths sugar cut-out cookies with my kids during the holidays. I always let them paint them with colored sugar frosting. Some of them came out really good while others made me wonder if the child had e ver seen a human or Christmas decorations. 😂 I understand where you're coming from with the sweetnesss overload. I've gotten that way, too. 1 cookie and I'm done, it's too much for me anymore. But I sure do love smelling them. :D

- You're very welcome! Congrats on getting the Lumi theme. I've never seen it but am told it's nice (except for the bottom, lol ) :D

oh my gosh yes. I have seen some horribly decorated things and some awesome decorated ones, by the same child LOL I have always enjoyed decorating the cookies with them. I am totally looking forward to doing that with grandkids one day.

Also, Beth - if I didn't share, I wouldn't bake. Because its too many to have at home, they'd get thrown away :/ So I don't bake unless I have people to give them to. Used to bake for Nathans football team a lot. That was honestly the last major baking I did for a long time. Other than a batch of cookies here and there since then. Or a birthday cake. I miss doing lots of them. I even cut most of the recipes in half this time, trying to have LESS cookies (but you can't cut an egg in half, not really, so I could only half recipes that called for more than one egg lol)

- 😆 It really does make you wonder if they're channeling Picaso sometimes. 😆 My kids favorite activity after the cookis were painted was to bite the heads off any that had heads they could bite off. So, we ended up with a lot of headless angels. 😂

I made my cookies in batches this year, one type at a time, portioned everything into cookie dough balls, froze them and tossed them in the freezer. Then I could just bake off a few at a time when I needed them, and I really liked that.

... except I liked it so much I made a fresh, warm cookie or two every night, and then had to make another double batch to bake and give out :P