It happened.
We had tickets to go home to PA for our annual Christmas party. The week before we left, my Aunt Joyce got an obstructed bowel and had to have emergency surgery. That surgery was do or die, no choice in the matter but what happened after wasn't good either.
When she woke up she started pulling the tubes out and they had to sedate her so she wouldn't do that. They kept her in a medical coma for a few days and then let her wake up. There seemed to be a glimmer of hope for a little while, but it wasn't to be.
Michael and I arrived in PA on Wednesday night around 9pm until we arrived at my mothers house. We were going to head for the hospital in the morning. At 9am Thursday we got the call from my uncle Richard. She was gone.
The last day or two she was in hospice care. Hospice seems to help the family, the living, just as much as the dying.
Friday night it started snowing and didn't stop until Saturday night. Thank goodness it didn't blow. No one would have gone anywhere. Leola got a good 10 inches I think. I didn't measure ;)
rest in peace Aunt Joyce, I am going to miss you
Well, it's Christmas at last, and from the sound of you all on Twitter your cards are sent, and your presents wrapped. It's been great hearing all your cries of delight recently, as your poor postmen and women have struggled with packages through the snowy weather!
Hope those of you who have time off over the festive season get everything you wish for, and those who are working have more fun than you might be expecting. We've published the dates we're working over the holidays, so if you find yourself in the office, you might well have company here in the UK, or over with the MOO Crew in the US.
We've had a great few weeks spotting unique gifts and ideas created with MOO, here's a few of our favourites:
A tetrabox advent calendar, by Bcome
Also by Bcome, this lovely looking memory game, complete with a great pattern on the back:
This super-cute Mosaic Frame, created by thisiswoly. Filled with 20 Minicards, it features the beautiful baby Sarah.
These wonderful looking alphabet game cards, by taraghb, which look like they were as fun to make as they will be to use!
And last but not least, look at this! another entry into our MiniCard Gift Box competition! Created by emusing-emma, it's really bought an extra flutter of Christmas cheer into MOO Towers. We love his little sledge!
Fancy joining in the fun? Closing date for entries to our competition is midnight PST 28th December 2009. Why not grab some festive paper, and see what you can do! More competition details can be found right here.
And now all that remains for me to say is a Very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from everyone at MOO!
Well, the last order dates for the holidays have passed, and Santa's final sacks of festive MOOs are filling up fast. We're still taking new orders though, and we'll be shipping them out as fast as we can - so don't hesitate to order thank you cards for all your lovely pressies!
Just so you know, here's our warehouse and customer service closure dates over the holiday season.
Thursday 24th December - LIMITED HOURS: we'll be shipping orders in the morning, but going home in the afternoon to wrap presents.
Friday 25th December - CLOSED : we'll be at home feasting on mince pies and turkey.
Monday 28th December - UK CLOSED: we'll be buying new trousers to fit our expanded waistlines!! (please note this is a UK Holiday only).
Tuesday 29th December - OPEN: business as usual.
Wednesday 30th December - OPEN: business as usual.
Thursday 31st December - OPEN: business as usual.
Friday 1st January - CLOSED : we'll be trying out our New Year resolutions and nursing hangovers.
Monday 4th January - OPEN: that's it, holidays over, back to work!
It's also important to note that our StickerBook turnaround in the UK is severely delayed over the holidays. Any orders placed after the 20th December will not be dispatched until the week of the 4th January.
That's all for now - Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from the MOO Warehouse Crew!
My Nook was delivered yesterday! I'm so excited about it - its
everything I was expecting and I'm excited to buy books for it. On
Tuesday night we drove to a Barnes & Nobles about thirty miles away in
order to get a cover for it (our B&N didn't have cases, just a
display) and I'm really happy with the one I choose. It was between
the brown one and a red one. The red one was nice, but I was looking
for low-key.
I was also happy to go online and see that B&N has adjusted their
eBook prices to MATCH Amazon! I bought "Her Fearful Symmetry" -
originally $26.99 in hardcover, now $7.29 in hardcover - for $5.79!
Brilliant, isn't it?! I've got so many books I want to buy - let's
just hope that I can hold back!
I should has it by Thursday night!!!!
[sent from mobile]
Well, my vacation is over - all ten days in a blink of an eye. This was the first vacation that I've taken since Evy was born and it was a bit of an eye opener. The biggest difference is that we couldn't simply drop everything - we had to maintain some kind of schedule and that kind of sucked. I was looking for that...vegetation period I've always had with vacations. But, no use crying over split milk - this is parenthood and I wanted it!
Tuesday we tried to go to Disneyland - but we were silly in thinking we were the only ones on vacation. The park was packed and we ended up leaving after three rides and a stroll around California Adventure. A big part was that I really wasn't feeling "it". I was initially excited to get out of the house just with Paul (we'd left Evy with my parents) but once we were going I didn't feel like talking much and I felt really "blah". Such a waste :( I also really missed Evy! Seeing so many cute cuddly kids at Disneyland while mine was at home was killing me. But the fact is that we can't ride hardly any rides unless we take someone with us, which we couldn't this time. Luckily, we got out of paying for parking because their credit card machine was down so I didn't feel that obligated to stay and make our $14 count. Unluckily, we hit traffic on the way home and after three hours of stop-and-go with our manual transmission we were pooped.
Thanksgiving went, in my opinion, REALLY well. My parents ended up coming as well, we all met at my sisters, and other than the kids making us start a little later than we'd like it was all amazing. Food was great, best candied yams I've had in awhile. I should have taken some with us, but I was so stuffed I had no eye for food as we were packing up the left overs.
My sister decorated for Christmas over the weekend and it's made me want to decorate as well. Last year we didn't decorate because we were moving ON Christmas Eve, and then Paul & I both got this really nasty stomach flu. The last time we did a live tree the mess was tremendous, so I think this year we're going to take a look at the artificial ones. However, if the price is too much then we'll probably do a live one and then take advantages of after Christmas sales in thought of NEXT year.
My Nook ships today!!!
Dina spent the first 2 and a half years in an orphanage waiting for the red tape to clear so her mommy and daddy could bring her home. She is loved and pampered and 18 years in the making :)
I love the way the sun turned Juliana's hair to gold. This was cookie day at the B's.
