If she had the proper words to say,

My scrapbook room looks incredible, and I'm loving it. Tomorrow will be CLEAN! Day, and I'm planning on using the upholstery attachment on my floor rug when I vacuum the hardwood floors. I can't wait!

I helped Jan for hours with her pictures. We had a great time, chatting it up. She had some juicy stories to tell me (concerning a whole host of folks I don't even know, but it was still fun to follow along), and then we ended the evening watching some cop cars a few doors down on my street - ooooh! She and her son Payton arrived a little before 1pm, and they left at almost 9pm (with a break in there for him to head to baseball practice, then come back).

Philip had a lot of studying to do down in Missouri, and he was bummed about missing tonight's episode of Memphis Beat. It was a good one, too. I had recorded it, and then I started it up as the boys were eating dessert (s'mores) at the bar. I guess they got sucked into the storyline from listening for the first ten minutes, and then they were snuggled tight to me watching the rest of the episode. I told them on a commercial break, "You guys don't have to watch this boring police crime show with me, you know. You can watch something else if you want in the playroom," but they both quickly assured me that they wanted to see how it ended. Funny guys!

I also watched the pilot episode of Covert Affairs tonight. It had originally caught my eye starring Piper Perabo (I absolutely adore Coyote Ugly!), and the show didn't disappoint. It had very clever twists, and I love her blind, male sidekick. Also, I caught a neat surprise: several glimpses of the sweet hunk from Center Stage (Maureen's boyfriend). I'm excited to see more from this show.

I finally turned my wall calendar over. I'd been hesitating, as June was a second "Jacob month" this year. I figured I'd better switch it, seeing as it's almost the middle of the month.

Tomorrow night, Heather and the Zippers will be in a hotel room in El Paso, sleeping near to the airport to prepare for coming to see us. We are all SO EXCITED! Someone was asking me last week if I was worried about Minot disappointing them... and I didn't even blink. For one, I'm not - we're really enjoying the Minot area. It's very cozy, and we've not found ourselves in wont of anything (other than Chick-Fil-A, which we didn't have in Alaska or Nebraska, either). For two, again, I'm not - Heather's not coming to see our town: she's coming to see US! And we want to see THEM, more than we care about showing them around. I really just can't even explain the kind of feel-good fuzzies I get when I think about seeing her again. She just... lifts me up just by being near, you know? Or just by hearing her voice on the phone. She's that kind of friend, and I've missed her so terribly. I can't wait to give her a hug - almost ten months has been far too long a wait!

So. Much. Unpacking.

It feels like it will never end! Realistically, however, it will be done late tomorrow or Tuesday - I can't tell just yet. I am so very much looking forward to calling the moving company and asking them to come back and pick up all their boxes and packing material! (I'll have space in my garage again - whee!)

My dining room is just gorgeous and huge. I still cannot get over all the space in there. That, to me, is the most drastic difference between our old house and this one. I love the fact that it's not situated off the main garage entrance into the house, and it's not near a television of any sorts. It's awesome, truly.

The plan tomorrow is for Philip and I to move/unpack all the stuff in the garage. See, the movers unloaded all our shed and garage items directly into the garage, so we've got to unpack everything and get it moved into its proper place in the storage room in the back. Philip already took apart our shed, and we'll put the pieces in our "renovation space." (When they renovated this house, they built on an extra room along the basement wall, and they entered through there, bringing all their equipment with them. Once they finished, they closed off the room and left a large access flap. We can easily open it via the flap, and it's an 8x10' space, at least.) While we're doing that, the boys will be playing hard in the snow. Once we're done, we'll have all our space back in the garage, and we'll move all the boxes and packing material to the breezeway until pick-up. Trash Day is also on Tuesday, and it'll be great to have all that gone, too. (Gosh, but moving creates a lot of excess trash!)

Depending on how long we're out in the garage tomorrow, we'll work on the office afterwards. It's the only room left, and that's because I considered it the lowest priority of all the rooms. I mean, *I* love this room, and I practically live in it sometimes... but everything I really need (computer, bills, filing cabinet, etc.), I can already reach, and we brought with us ahead of time. What needs to be unpacked are the bookshelves and lots of Philip's military memorabilia and knick-knacks. He heads back to work on Tuesday, and I can finish this room by myself, if needed.

As a reward once ALL of the unpacking is done, we plan to go see Alvin & the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel. The boys are dying to see it, and I think it looks pretty cute, too. I thought the first one was good, and I'm sure this one will be about the same. The boys are also anxious to spend some of their Christmas cash at the mall, too. *wink*

Speaking of movies, we all went to see New Moon last Friday. It was the boys' first time seeing it, Philip' second time, and my seventh time. I probably won't see it again in the theatre, but it was just as good this time again. A quick rundown of the showings I've been to:

1st - with Marissa as my 'date' to Amy's midnight premiere party (11/20)
2nd - with Marissa again on Sunday afternoon (11/22)
3rd - with Liz on Sunday night (11/22)
4th - with Philip the following Tuesday (11/24)
5th - with Cheyenne on Thanksgiving night (11/26)
6th - with Aimée on the Saturday after Thanksgiving (11/28)
7th - with the family (12/21)

We also recently saw The Princess and the Frog (on opening day!), and we all loved it. I cried a little near the end, but it was wonderful to see the old-style animation again. And - I was so surprised when the first song began! I'd almost forgotten how the older Disney movies always had original songs - how sad is that?! I thought the characters were very charming, and I really hope the movie does well enough that Disney will do another one in this style again soon.

We saw Disney's A Christmas Carol in 3D, too. I found it to be much darker than I'd imagined, but the effects were amazing. Honestly, though, there were parts of it that unsettled even me, and I don't think I'd let younger children see it yet (though the Disney Channel promotes it constantly). We were late to the game on this one, having been planning on seeing it ever since we rode the official movie train back in August (what a neat experience, too!). After seeing the movie, we bought my favorite as a young girl: Mickey's Christmas Carol. I didn't have the movie growing up, but I had a record of it, and I played that over and over all year long. I still have most of it memorized. :-)

I'm hoping to have mail tomorrow, but I'm not terribly optimistic. There was, of course, no mail yesterday in the face of this major blizzard, and then today was Sunday. Philip and I did watch some lady trudge through all the snow with her key, falling down in the deep drifts and then crawling on her knees atop them to get to the box, only to open it and find it empty, of course. We learned long ago (in both Alaska and Nebraska, actually) that even though the post office's motto is, "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds," that isn't always the case. We've had numerous times with no mail delivery due to inclement weather, and on a day where no travel is advised, I'm surprised that anyone would think there would be mail.

Perhaps she didn't check her box on Christmas Eve, then? *nods* We'll go with that. :-)

I stated on the first read of New Moon that I was all about Jacob/Bella. This hasn't changed, even in reading Eclipse and Breaking Dawn. I still wish things had worked for my pairing, but I enjoyed the series anyway.

BUT - the onslaught of "TEAM JACOB!" is now crazy. I'm proud to say I was an original Jacob fangirl - before he had short hair and crazy-good abs of steel. I'm very happy to see Jacob now getting the gamut of attention he was always due...

... but I still want an eensy-teensy kiss. Is that too much to ask? *sigh*

I've seen the new movie twice now, and it is even better the second time. Philip and I will be seeing it sometime as well - probably mid-week next week, I imagine. I'm already revved to see it again, so I hope he doesn't fall asleep in non-Twerdy boredom.

I'm so excited for the midnight showing of Twilight - just 24 more hours to wait! I'll probably get to the theatre in about 22 more hours, in fact...

*bounces*