I can’t believe another new year is just around the corner.  I’ve got one kid just about to leave for the Military, and one more half way through her Sophmore year.  Won’t be long and they’ll both be gone and my house will be quiet.  Too quiet.  Although I love the silence of a winter night, I’m not ready for it to be a permanent thing.  But, as each new year comes and goes, we must prepare for new things to enter our lives.

I had no intentions of this being such a sappy post.  We took down our tree tonight, and I realized it could be the last time my son and I put away the ornaments together.  A few years down the road, and I’ll be boxing up all his old things and sending them to his house.  I’ve spent years threatening him that I was going to ship all his things off if he didn’t clean his room, but I never thought I’d really have to do it.

My daughter wasn’t even here to help take the tree down.  She’s spending a few days in Colorado with family.  She needed some time away from Mom and Dad, but I wish her little head would peak into my room.  It annoys the crap out of me when she does it, but I miss it when she doesn’t.

My husband and I have been telling ourselves for years that as soon as our daughter graduated high school, we were going to sell everything we owned, buy a motorhome and we were gonna live off the land.  Sounds like a great plan, except that I’m getting to the age now where the idea of being on the go constantly sounds like a serious pain in the ass.  I just realized that I’m going to be that cranky old lady that sings to her cats.  Oh crap, I’m already that old lady.

Love your children, hug your friends, sing to your cats (and dogs).  Most people will think your a total nut job, but there will be a few who will jump in and join the club. 

Happy New Year!

When you think about earthquakes, you probably don’t think about Nebraska.  But, a 3.5 earthquake hit the South-Eastern part of the state on Wednesday evening (12-16-09).  People in and around the Auburn (NE) felt the quake at around 8:30 pm Central time.  Other towns that felt the quake were Nebraska City and Peru (NE).  It was also felt by people in Iowa and Missouri.

People have been reporting earthquakes in Nebraska for as long as it’s been considered a state.  The biggest quake was reported in 1877, which was a quake that registered 5.1 on the Richter scale.  Most people don’t realize that there are a couple fault lines that run through Nebraska.  Honestly, most people in the state don’t realize that they’re subject to earthquakes.  And those that have felt the effects of these tiny earthquakes, or “microquakes” as they’ve come to be called, either have no idea what they just felt or chalk it up to one of the thousands of trains that run through the state on a daily basis.

The 1877 quake was said to be the biggest on record for the state of Nebraska, but not the only one.  In 1964, another 5.1 earthquake hit the state, but this time it was closer to the Western side.  Towns such as Merriman, Rushville, and Alliance felt the shock waves of the event.  Stores found their products broken on the floor, buildings were damaged, and streets formed minor cracks.  Fortunately, nobody was seriously hurt.

Sadly, trying to find more information about the fault lines in Nebraska isn’t as easy as it sounds.  The more you look for this information, the more you see about California and Nevada, or the New Madrid fault line which runs through much of the Eastern part of the country.  Because most people don’t think of earthquakes happening in the middle of the country, apparently they don’t think there’s a need for vital information.  I hope this trend changes before it’s too late.

Well, as you can see, I didn’t get a post done on this site everyday.  In fact, I haven’t gotten anything posted here in several days.  Ok, more like a week.  I have learned one valuable lesson though.  Don’t give yourself more things to do during the busiest month of the year.  Between school functions, Boy Scout meetings, trying to get my mom’s gift finished, and still maintaining my wifely duties, I ran out of steam.  If I could figure out how to clone myself, without breaking ten thousand laws, I’d have it made.

So, I am hoping to try and do this again next month.  I won’t have near as many things to keep up with.  I’ll still have the normal crap, but it will be a whole lot easier.  I’m still going to try and get more posts done on this site this month, but next month I might try the whole daily posting thing at one of my other sites.  I might even try to do it at both sites.  LOL.  I mean if you’re going to dream, dream big.  If it works, cool.  If not, oh well.  I’ll try again the following month.

As soon as I get my mom’s gift done, I’ll post pictures.  I don’t have to worry about my mom seeing it before Christmas, as she doesn’t even have a computer.  We’ve tried to get her online, but she’s just not the technological type.  But that’s ok.  I show her all the cool stuff I’ve found when she comes to visit, and I look all smart and stuff.  LOL

Ok, time to get back to work.  Ten thousand things to do and no energy.  Story of my life.  LOLOLOL

I know there are people all over the country hoping for a white Christmas this year, but we’ve already had our fill and then some.  We’ve had snow off and on since the first part of October and it’s snowing again.  Don’t get me wrong, I love the snow, as long as I can watch it from the comfort of the warm house.  But, it is getting me more into the Christmas mood.  Which means I’m ready to get out the tree and get out all my pretty little decorations.

I’m kind of depressed that my Huskers didn’t win the Big 12 Championship last night, but they didn’t do too bad.  They did give the #3 team in the nation a run for their money, and only lost by a single point.  And, we do get to go to a bowl game:  The Holiday Bowl.  Not one of the more impressive bowl games, but a bowl game none the less.

Well, I need to get back to work on my quilts.  I’m hoping to have a few done before Christmas, to give as gifts to a few special people.  Plus, the new “Alice” movie starts on Sci-Fi tonight and I’ve been waiting a long time to see this one.  Hope it’s half as good as “Tin Man” was.  Until tomorrow. 

Whoo hoo, today is one of the biggest days for Nebraska football.  I’m a total Husker fan, which most of the people around here are.  Unlike most other places around the nation, Nebraska doesn’t have any professional sports teams to root for, so we take our college football very serious.  And, in the past few years, we haven’t had a lot to cheer about.  But that all changed last year when Bo Pelini took over as head coach and former head coach Tom Osborne took over as the school’s Athletic director.

Tom Osborne was one of the last great coaches for Nebraska (football).  After he retired, things kind of went downhill.  It wasn’t until Bill Calahan took over as head coach that our boys saw their worst games ever.  Calahan was a former professional football coach and decided to completely throw the old playbook out the window and created his own thing.  That thing sucked so bad that he and the athletic director at that time were both asked to leave.  Nobody in the state of Nebraska had anything nice to say about either one of them.

But, times have changed and Nebraska is making a huge comeback.  Out of 12 games, we only lost 3.  That’s not bad compared to what we’d done in the past 5 years.  And, tonight we go up against the #3 team in the nation, the Texas Longhorns.  It’s the Big 12 Championship, and our chance to once again make it to a bowl game.  Even if we lose, we still have a chance to get to a bowl game, but not one of the more well-known games.  I just want to see our boys be the big team they were in the glory days.  I miss watching other teams run in fear because the Nebraska Black Shirts were coming onto the field.  Our Black Shirts are back, and in a big way.  Now, I just hope our offense plays as well as they did last week against Colorado.

But, no matter what the end result, I’ll be thrilled that I got to watch my boys play one more time.  I’ve been a fan of Nebraska football since I was a little kid, and I’ll be a fan till I die.  So, let’s get this party started and Go Big Red!!!!!