I'm here...I bet cha cha is peeking in cuz she has lots to do too. Oh wait Lacey is home now. Maybe she is showing off all her pretty photos of Clay in the Heartland to the prodigal daughter.

I have actually studied this procrastinating thing I have to deal with. It all stems from being a perfectionist. The expectation ladder is so high that it is tough to take those first couple of steps.

My sister has it bad, she worked on her doctorate for 10 years and got to the end and never defended her research. OK she has it to the extreme but I'd be doing that too if I ever did anything THAT important. I can laugh about my stuff. Now that was not the sister many of you met in Raleigh. Barb is worse than me though. Not the procrastinating but the anal stuff. If she crosses something off a list she has to rewrite it. We're all sick I tell you.

I never bake Christmas cookies cuz then I eat them..... I know bad mom.... Shhhhh... don't tell Cheyanne. She's been baking cookies since Thanksgiving. And now my daughter is begging for gma's sugar cookies. Being far from home is making her all nostalgic.

I must go to bed cuz I have to make 20 dozen caramel pretzel turtles tomorrow. Ugh. I am sure I will visit mid double boiler chocolate melting. Ta ta for now.

I have to work tomorrow and there will vertually be no one in the office. I told this new gir is being drawn in to the Clay thing slowly that I will bring my portal DVD player tomorrow and we will sit and watch Clay.... what to bring!

I hope no one will bother us and we will enjoy the glow of Clay....


Good luck with your family Pat...wow I couldn't deal with with it but I wish you well.

I found out that my favorite Aunt died yesterday. My mother had 8 girls and 2 boys in her family and my Aunt was the third to pass, after my mother and the oldest. MY Aunt was the fun one, the one all the kids wanted to hang with but she lead a very lonely sad life in the end! I just hope that you are all around in the end for me and we can dream of our days of glory with Clay!

Welcome to Jean...we didn't get to meet during the chaotic Broadfest, but Cheyanne introduced us during intermission at the concert.

I love your Clay jewelry, it's always very tasteful and classy.

Hope you'll visit here on a regular basis!

Thank you Joanie for the nice welcome. It was a great weekend and so good to meet all of you. Will definitely pop in to keep in touch. Hope you're having a wonderful holiday!

Yaaay! I found an avatar!!

Yep - Pat you are right - I was checking in last night and this morning! Lacy is here and Lorien also spent the night! So it was a busy time, and we didn't even get back from the airport till 1 am!!

Today we raided the grocery store and now we're off on another jaunt to the store! Need meatballs!!

We went into the Family Dollar store and immediately gravitated to this CD player that had Clay's sweet voice coming out of the speakers!! It was DSIAFCD from MCWL! I complemented the cashier for her taste in music. I plan to go back later and see how claymatized she is!!

Welcome Jean!! I need to knwo more about the jewelry someone mentioned. You make jewelry?? Schweeet!!

TTFN!

5 dozen turtles and 8 dozen cookies to go. It's gonna be an all nighter I fear. Who's staying up with me? Have to come back in to visit cha cha's avatar. Giddyup ...gah!!!

winnie/jean you must read back many pages to see that we do say anything we want like Anni said...except for me. I am reserved and try to set an example for good behavior and decorum.

Patti sorry for your loss sweetie.....

I'll be there for ya... there are some nice old people homes in Arizona!!!!

Hey Pat I am hear I am gonna drop over and shee how the cellcert is going, last two nights of concerts from Clay..boooooooooooooooo.

I am supose to be cleaning, having procrastinated about it all week and now Drew is coming in tomorrow and I have to do this.. will be up late myself!

Don't listen to her [b]Cha Cha[/b], Pat is our resident comedian and twisted sister!

Twisted sister??? Isn't that a musical reference? Patti...alas you don't know me at all....

Finshed 22 dozen turtles, wrapped and stickered with Clay gift tags...oh yeah!!!! And cookie dough is in the fridge for early a.m.baking. All with the help of family and a good stiff (haha I said stiff) Bloody Mary. Life is good.

My son has even volunteered to go to the grocery store first thing tomorrow. (Haha he knows that I may be mellow tonight but it just might be the calm before the storm.) I tried to explain that was ME pre-Clay. Now I am mellow and laid back and happy as a clam. They are tired of hearing it.

Patti...still with me???? Box o' wine open?

PAT I also pride myself on the highest level of decorum!
It's a burden but someone must do it!
(It's fun to write these things to people who don't know me very well - I can be so full of it - for awhile anyway....:-)

You are all so 'domesticated' baking cookies and making turtles, me I get to clean up freeking leaves all day and am too tired to even take a shower. However, I am enjoying a glass of nice wine (Shiraz) and will probably keel over unless I eat something.

Patti - maybe we can share a room in the old folks home? Sit on our rockers and blast Clay all over the joint, watch DVD's, and revert to swooning or more like drooling and soiling our Depends

Pat - Patti was right, you are our 'twisted sister' and we love you just the way you are, don't ever change

Hi all so sad tonight, the last Concert. Drew is driving home tonight and I am hoping I can at least drop in on the cellcert for his last hurrah!

He didn't do his encore last night, wonder why? Time maybe, but I know he will be great tonight for the last concert!

Then off to Mexico, I wish him a safe trip.. thank GOD we will see him soon in NY! I miss him so much already.

Pat you are amazing baking and all!

Anni...yeah I will always be a "grovin" no matter how old I am! Yeah you and I can sit and watch Clay and remember "the days"! Oh and I gotta have that little box of wine!

I had a very emotional dream about Clay the other night..strange..I have some amazing dreams about him sometimes..but alas my age always seems to get in the way! Sad..but life has to have some dreams..especially when it comes to Clay.

Winnie ..... is that you? Are you in Corning? Do I need milk? What would Charlie say?

Cheyanne .. I love you. And thats all I have to say on THAT subject!

Winnie and Cheyanne and Joanie and Cha Cha and Joy and ... whew! Life is good here!

Awww, Jennifer, I love you, too, and that adorable son of yours!

Jennifer, Jean, Cha Cha, oh my - this is wonderful - welcome, welcome, welcome - I am sooooo happy to see you all here and what a nice surprise when I finally got a chance to check in on the YPs! It has been a busy, busy week!!!

The inlaws left about thirty minutes ago - I can barely keep my eyes open and we have to get up early to meet them for breakfast in the morning so I am off to bed, but I wanted to say welcome to everyone who signed in here this week - I am soooo happy to "see" you here! I have lots more to say but I'm just too tired right now!

Much love and huge hugs to all........................

Yay Jennifer...glad you found us, from your avetar it looks like you'll fit right in.

Well, I had a nice surprice yesterday when the UPS truck pulled up to my house and delivered this gorgeous package over 6' tall all wrapped in cellophane and wrapped with red ribbon. The only visible part was this strawberry blond head with a big smile on his face! It took me over half-an-hour to remove the cellophane, as I didn't want to bruise anything, I kept turning him round and round....Anyway, he said I was so cute at the Wilkes-Barre M&G so he stopped by on his way to Mexico to hand deliver my picture, which he had beautifully framed for meeeeeeeeeee! After I had him unwrapped, he gave me another one of those full body hugs....and I knew he was happy to see me. *g*

Well, I can't spill all the details, but before he left I gave him some Hot Pockets and a Dr. Pepper for the road. We also exchanged cell phone numbers so now I can text message him anytime I want and y'all can't...neener. neener.

The UPS truck came by to pick him up and I gave him some Hot Pockets and a Dr. Pepper for the road.

HEY...I can be as dilusional as any of those other "crazy fans."

Thank you, Cheyanne!
Bwah! Thanks Joanie!

Ok, Im going to post my Broadfest and concert experience here since this IS where I experienced it ... in beautiful Williamsport PA!

On Friday Dec. 14th Charlie and I headed out from our little town of Beamsville and crossed the border into the big US of A.



We headed to Rochester to pick up the very charming Jean and headed for Pennsylvania. Jean, I might add, is a wonderful passenger, navigator and new friend!!



The weather was good and we made it in about 6 hours. The beautiful and oh so sweet Cheyanne met us at our hotel, after alot of hugs and eeeeee'ing, whisked Jean away to her house. We felt very loved and privileged to be invited to a wonderful dinner and meeting of the Hubby later that evening. Not only was Cheyanne's hubby funny and charming but her 3 puppies charmed our socks off! Charlie fell in love with Champ and hasnt stopped talked about all 3 of 'em!

We left after filling our bellies and headed back to our hotel where both Charlie and I collapsed onto our lovely beds and fell fast asleep. On Dec. 15th we awoke to another relatively nice day and headed to the mall! YAY! I love shopping in Pennsylvania! We did some Christmas shopping, hung out in the room, went swimming, and prepared for the Broadfest that evening, and of course, Clay.

We arrived at the Holiday Inn restaurant to Cindy (whom I adore) and a beautifully prepared area with lots and lots of purple!



Cindy and Cheyanne had done it again!

Everywhere you looked .. purple and Clay! My mostest favoritist colour My mostest favoritist singer guy! Charlie, once again, was thrilled to receive his very own Clay gift, thoughtfully and lovingly bought by Cindy, for him. He talked about it for an entire year last year and will probably remind me of it for this entire coming year!

As the Broads wandered in we were eeeee'ing and hugging and meeting everyone! There are too many to mention and I just know I'll forget someone! I took lots of pictures this year. Last year I kinda hid in the corner but this year, we were still in the corner (haha Cha Cha) but I was much more myself and much more noisy!



We had a wonderful dinner and an even more wonderful time seeing everyone! Let me just say .. the Broads are some creative women. It was a purple-Christmas-fest! Thank you to every single one of you!

Cheyanne gave us our eagerly awaited tickets for the evening and I tucked them into my bra to make sure I didnt loose them. Thats probably the closest I'll ever get Clay to my Broadly parts so I enjoyed it while I could!

The concert. Wow. Just wow. 3rd row. Wow. Again, probably the closest I'll ever get to Clay in the near and far future so I brought a few napkins to wipe up the drool that inevitably would dribble down my chin. I must say they came in handy. He was exsquisite. Vocally dead on. Gorgeously gorgeous.

Charlie and I were very lucky indeed to be sitting next to a wonderful woman. Joanie was kind enough to lend us her binnocs so that we could see the man even closer. Charlie said "Mom, I can see his eyebrows!" Bwah! Thank you Joanie. You have no idea how much that meant to us!

And He wiggled his beautiful finger at Charlie when he saw him waving frantically at him. We were both thrilled. Someone even got Clack of it! Charlie has suggested we watch it at least twice every day since then!



And we spotted a famous photographer! Some of you might know her as Karen Eh!

The second we walked out of the venue it started freezing rain. Many of you know that the weather turned on us that night and we were all worried about Mr. President making it to Erie. We stayed put til Monday but many happily reported that Clay and Co. made it safely.

Jean, Charlie and I headed out Monday morning and made it home in just over 6 hours!

What an absolutely fantastically amazingly wonderful time we had.

Thank you Cheyanne! Thank you Cindy!

Here's to next year ... we cant wait!