Whirlwind hiatus

It's catch up time. This is a little long so make sure you have some time. ;)

The funeral was sad as expected. Quite a few of the girls showed up to support our friend and I know she was very appreciative. The experience has definitely helped me think about what's important in life and I hope to hold on to some of that as time has passed.

Here are some pictures from our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We went to Nina and Nino's house for Christmas Eve where we played games, ate great food, and shared in some of the Christmas spirit. On Christmas morning we drove to my Dad's house to open gifts with the family and have our traditional Christmas breakfast. Later that day we made our way home to have our own family Christmas time opening gifts and letting Lil' Man watch a movie. We ended the night with plenty of warm fuzzies and an empty tree.

This past weekend I had a gift exchange with the Oxy Girls. They are called that, not because they love the skin care product, but because a majority of these friends attended Occidental College when I met them. Actually all of them did. I was the 3rd wheel high school friend that always hung out on campus with C while she attended college there legitimately. I became friends with her new friends and we've all stayed in touch through these years. Now I'm an honorary attendee according to them. ;)

Each year we have a gift exchange because we learned early that we'd go broke trying to buy for everyone individually, and on a college budget that wouldn't take long. The "traditions" have grown over the years and we still set aside one night to yak it up for as long as we can stay awake. This year had me home around 3 a.m. I don't have pictures because my camera battery died, but I can tell you that I ate too much, again, and drank too much. Again. And it was all good.

On my way out the door to this gift exchange I found an interesting letter at my door. It was from the apartment management company explaining that our lease had expired--duh! that was about a year and a half ago--and they want us to come in and sign a new one. Hmm...we are supposed to go month to month after the first year. I didn't like the sounds of this. I was on my way out so I passed it to Hubbs and told him we'd deal with it the next day.

The next day came and we found out that we had some decisions to make. The note said that we needed to commit to a 6, 12, or month to month lease--again, duh! that's what we have now--and proceeded to list the new pricing for the rents at each interval. Of course, they'd all increased. Nice! And we had until January 15th to decide and sign the new lease or the highest of the three options would be the default. Happy new year. : I

Well, guess what. We started looking around at our options on-line and made an appointment that same day to view some other apartments. By the time we'd come home we'd decided to give notice and move to one of the apartment communities we'd looked at on-line. Gotta love that Internet! At the end of this month we get to leave our semi-crappy abode to a less crappy abode. It's not a house, but it's a nicer apartment complex than where we are now and we can leave the drug dealers who live below us behind. Yipee!

One of the cool parts about this new apartment is that each month 20% of our rent payments will accumulate dollar for dollar credits towards a new home or condo purchase through KB Homes or Raymar Homes. We can apply our credits towards closing costs, upgrades, or a down payment. How cool is that? There are other things that appeal to us with this move so I think (hope!) it's a good decision. I hate packing and moving, and I had hoped our next move would be in to a house, but it's kind of exciting to start fresh at a new place.

OK, so now we're all caught up through Sunday before New Year's Eve. Monday I had planned to take down the ornaments and our tree, clean up around the house, take Lil' Man to return clothes he received that didn't fit him, and bake something to take to the NYE party we were attending later that night. I was about half way through my list of to-dos when I noticed I had a text message.

Text: Would you be available to be a witness for our wedding today?

Me in my head: WTF??

I got this text message from my sister's fiance around 1:30ish in the afternoon. What transpired from there would take too long to go into detail. The bottom line is that at 6:00 p.m. I was driving to my sister's house instead of getting ready for the party and by 7:15 p.m. Hubbs, Lil' Man, and I were driving to a little "Wedding Chapel" in da hood. The wedding march started at approximately 8:00 p.m. and by 8:04 it was all over. They had said "I do" and it was official. They were Mr. and Mrs.

I don't think the shock had worn off until some time today. Then again, I can't say for sure. My sister got married last night. Whoa. Yep, I'm still a little bit shocked.

They are still deciding whether or not to have a reception-like party for friends and family or if they'll have a full blown vow renewal complete with the dress, photographer, and whole sha-bang. There's always the option of nothing should they decide, but that is still up in the air. No, she's not pregnant. And no, he's not an illegal immigrant who's Visa was about to expire. I can't really pin point what the true motivation was behind the surprise nuptials, but I can say they were really happy last night. I guess at the end of the day that is what should matter most when you marry the person you love--to be happy.