Thursday, May 27, 2010

Crap day is finally over

5-27-10

I swore a lot yesterday. Don’t get me wrong. I swear a lot normally, but yesterday I think I swore more than I didn’t. It was a lot.

The best part about yesterday is that it is over.

The day started as busy as I had assumed. I worked feverishly on my cash forecasts all the while putting out mini fires in between. My boss came in and in the same breath he said good morning, he actually asked me for other reports. I quickly reminded him that I was already in the midst of another project he said was top priority, and that in a matter of a couple of hours we would be in a meeting. He quickly apologized and amended his request with the always helpful, “when you get a chance”.

Luckily, I still maintain my title of “Awesome” here, and managed to not only complete my forecasts 4 hours before deadline, but also the new request, along with a couple of other reports requested by other folks in the dept. That’s right. I rule.

The meeting was good, but long. I didn’t get back to my desk until a quarter till noon. There I would find multiple other fires that required Gena dousing. I sat down with my heated food, hoping to dink around online for a few minutes when my phone rang with a co-worker’s voice saying, “I don’t know what the hell this guy is talking about. Can you help?” I agreed to help, not realizing the guy she was referring to was about to be on a conference call with us.

I will say this for the record. I love accents. I love the idea that every country speaks in a unique fashion and that we are all different. That being said, if you plan on using a call center to do your work for you, perhaps teaching them some better English when they will be contact American companies would be useful.

The man who was on the line was clearly from India. He also clearly didn’t know how to think outside the script in front of him. “I would like to be telling you” was the start of EVERY sentence. This was should have been funnier at the time, especially since he sounded like Apu. But his ignorance and inability to think about what he was asking for, coupled with an already long day for me, was exhausting. When I had to tell him his request would not be honored since I didn’t know what he was talking about, it took every ounce of strength to not begin this information with “I would like to be telling you”.

Finally I got him to agree to email me the information he was seeking. It took me 10 minutes to explain to him my email address. Mind you, my email address is just gbrenan. It isn’t like it is complicated. I spelled it out, even used the G for Goat type crap. He was clueless. At this point, I then told him multiquip.com. He asked me to spell it. I lost it. I asked him, “It is spelled just like our company. Don’t you have that information in front of you??” He was clearly confused.

I hung up the phone, grumbling loudly, mocking his accent and stupidity. The dept was amused. My coworker who had put this call on me then comes over and tells me he tried emailing me and that I must have a bum email address and that he told her to have me talk to my IT. Are you fucking kidding me????

This email that I finally got was even less coherent than the phone call. I ended up forwarding this to the management of the customer and bitched them out for having call centers contact us to change their billings. I would like to point out that THIS ISN”T MY CUSTOMER!!! I am simply helping out a colleague. But since I am the resident Awesome person, I can’t complain.

The afternoon finally started to calm down to the point where I saw a light at the end of the tunnel. I was even considering slipping out early, which was great since I was pretty convinced I would be staying late. I packed up my stuff at 2:15. I had shut down my computer, had my purse on my shoulder when my phone rang. It was the boss. Dammit! I had to answer. Next thing I know, I am in a meeting for another 45 minutes, which was my co worker and I helping the boss recap what our morning meeting was about so he could send out an email. Sigh.

Even after I clocked out, I hung out for another 15 minutes, chit chatting with various folks about random things. Some work related, some kid related, some just life. I got out of my office about 3:10.

I pulled up to my house, only to find no parking. Sigh. I had to park down the block. I laughed since really, it was par for the course.

I picked up the boys and we went outside to play. Ken was up front with one of his employees who was picking up Lego, and I was in the kitchen prepping dinner when the blood curdling scream came. The boys had been playing with their tools, which are just tiny versions of real tools, including a pretty real hammer. I had been nervous about said hammer since the day before, but didn’t want to overreact. I should have probably trusted my gut on that.

I ran outside to see Dax screaming, jumping up and down in an angry fit. He was hitting his head with his hands and in tears. Bobby quickly told me he hit Dax in the head with the hammer, but that it was an accident. I believed him. I didn’t even know the full story, but perhaps as a mom I now can tell when he is full of shit or not.

I quickly told Bobby to put the tools away and I checked Dax’s head. The bump was similar to the one he had gotten only a couple weeks ago, and it took me a second to make sure I remembered that that one had in fact already gone away and that this was in fact a new bump. I quickly scooped him up and took him inside. I put him on the counter and placed the uber ice pack on his head. He screamed. He kicked. He thrashed. When Dax gets hurt, he doesn’t just feel pain, he is pissed. I rode it out, knowing that he needed to ice this. By the way, note to any inventors out there. Can someone please invent the kid ice helmet? That would be super helpful.

He calmed down enough to eat a lollipop while I continued to ice down the area. Ken went out and asked Bobby what had took place. Turned out, Bobby was up on the playhouse, and had the hammer. He accidently dropped it and it landed on Dax’s head, who was under the house. He ended up getting not one, but two bumps from this. We found the second bump later.

I gave him the Tylenol and Mickey Mouse treatment. He was way more willing to lie down on the ice pack, so this was cool, no pun intended. We of course watched for any signs of bad. Thankfully, he was up, dancing around pretty quickly.

I knew it was time to throw in the towel since now my crap day was hurting my kids. LOL!

We went and got some ice cream and ended the day on a few tantrums, but it was all ok. We turned in early, after watching House, which made me laugh since it was Laura Prepon playing a blogger. I so felt like I was watching me if I got really bad. LOL!!

I crashed out pretty hard pretty quickly, so this is a good thing. I had so much on my brain I was sure it would take me some time to shut down, but thankfully I was able to turn it all off and get some sleep.

I am thinking I have work to do today, but I don’t want to start any new stuff since I will be gone. So today I will just clear up any lose ends and I think I may slip out at noon.

Ken doesn’t have classes today, so he is thinking of doing a Daddy and Dax day, which is awesome. I told him he should take Dax to Disneyland, so this is a possibility. The only think that may prevent this is if Maria is having a party for Bobby. This is Bobby’s last day at Maria’s. WOO HOO!!! Maria might end up having a party. I doubt it, but you never know. That being said, if she is doing anything like that, Dax should be there. So we will see. Ken is going to ask her this morning. Honestly, if she is having a party, I may need to slip out even earlier.

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

way more busy than I like to be

5-26-10

I really don’t have time to write, but I am getting a little too zoned working on this report so I needed a quick break. The good news is I am going at a good pace and hopefully should be done with this before I go to my big meeting at 10.

As for the last couple days, there isn’t much new. Bobby continues to try to be in charge and on Monday, he ended up in bed, naked since I was tired of him kicking and screaming when it was time to get on jammies. For a fleeting moment, I understood why parents used to spank.

I am mostly ready for this trip. I do my finishing up of packing tonight with only the bathroom crap to be shoved in the suitcase as we walk out the door on Friday morning at like 4 am.

My parents stopped by last night with a picnic bench for us. That was way awesome. It is a folding one, which is even cooler! I am very excited. So much so that my dinner plans revolve around us eating out there tonight. LOL!

I am still in a Glee high. Holy crap, that was a fantastic episode last night. I was so drained afterwards. I cried, I laughed, I was in heaven.

I have two more hours to complete this, so off I go.

Monday, May 24, 2010

yard sale and travel

5-24-10

The yard sale wasn’t as successful as hoped. This was for a couple of reasons. First, we determined that the sign we up on one of the main streets was inadvertently being used for a different yard sale on the main street. So Ken changed the signs to indicate our street name.

In addition to that, we just didn’t have items that all yard salers wanted. A good chunk of our inventory was baby clothing. Well, let’s face it, if you are not pregnant or have little kids, you are probably not looking for a cute, slightly used onsie.

What amazed me, still, was the folks who still seemed to think $.25 was too much for things. Shoot, we were practically giving away some things, yet they all seemed so skeptical. Look, you can be like that before you spend $80 on a pair of jeans, but fuck you if you think that a quarter for a bag of books is a bad price. Asses.

We set up around 5 and stayed out till about noon. We sold about $60 worth of crap. We bagged up the rest of the clothing and drove it over to one of those charity mailboxes that take clothing. I still have my nice dishes I want to put on Ebay. I didn’t expect them to sell at the yard sale, but I was impressed with how many people were interested.

In the movement of gobs of crap and bending over a million times, I was in massive amounts of pain. My back and ankle were screaming at me most of the day and still now. I did manage to sit a lot, thankfully, in order to rest from the extreme energy output.

The boys played while we sold stuff. They rode their scooters up and down the block, which was fun. Bobby also kept being our little greeter to customers. He was loving that part. Dax was more indifferent to the folks rummaging through his old overalls.

The dogs hung with us on the porch, too. Luna was awesome, only barking at the first people she saw. Then she mostly just sat on the porch, eyeing everyone with a doggie smile. Lycos was more poofy with her vocal displeasure. She doesn’t trust people, just as her mother doesn’t. I let her go back inside, which she was ok with since she liked being able to sit at the screen door.

Monarch took a few adventures outside since we were there. Ittles did as well. In fact, the only family not out with us at some point were IO and One10. One10 was the only one a little bummed at this, but it was mostly due to her worry about Ittles being outside. We don’t let her out if we can help it due to her Vietnam Vet style flashbacks she seems to get the minute she steps outside. Our poor IO was probably thrilled to hang out by himself in the bedroom. He also was pleased when Monarch came back all exhausted from his travels and had curled up with his buddy.

Sunday was more mellow. We had bowling which was uneventful, shockingly. I credit this to my threats to Matt on Friday when he tried to pick numerous fights with me. I told him straight up that I wasn’t interested in his bullshit and told him that if he insisted on picking a fight with me, I would gather the boys and we would leave and he would then have to explain to our mother why she wasn’t going to get to see her grandchildren that day. My dad seemed amused with this. He said to Matt that it would be in his best interest to not piss me off as it would be a bad punishment to have Mom bitch him out. I was very calm in my explanation of what would take place.

After bowling, we did a couple of minor errands (btw-this is not to discount the happiness that Target presents me with when I get to go, but it was truly just a quick visit) and went home to start the clean up process from yard sale.

I managed to get almost all the laundry done. I have a load in each machine currently and one more on deck. I managed to also pack my clothing and pull out the boys’ outfits for the trip. I realize of course that I over packed for the boys. They need only really 2 sets of clothing, but I think I packed them each 4. LOL! Oh well, if it all fits, we are fine. We will have to pack 3 bags since I ended up needing the large suitcase for my stuff what with me being gone for a full week.

We also played with the boys and dogs out back for a couple hours. I knew that since I was leaving, I needed to bond with my dependents a bit for my own sanity. Sure, I had other things I needed to get done, but this was more important.

I printed out a bunch of recent pictures for my desk, which is all kinds of happy making. I have a couple of others I still need to print tonight. I also need to reprint the ones I did for Bobby. He wanted some more pictures for his photo album. I printed them all way too big. Oops!

I am still torn on cutting my hair. I spend a great deal of time mulling over the net images under my search of “medium length layered hair”. I am considering just trimming a couple inches off the back as that may pacify my need to cut it. Of course, that being said, I don’t want to spend the money if it is simply a trim. I want to see a difference. Since I am not sure, I will wait until after Ohio. I will probably be wearing my hair up a lot of the trip, so I don’t need to mess with the length to a point where pulling it back is a hassle.

The one fun thing about Bobby’s new hair is mousse. Spiking up his hair and making Mohawks is a great deal of fun. Last night Ken put a bunch of product in his hair and made it so freaking awesome. It was all spiked out and rock star like. Bobby also really likes me calling him my little rock star, so it is all goodness in my book.

I have work to do today in the form of report prep. I also have lots of reading ahead of my in the form of family history paperwork I have forgotten to scan in until this morning. Luckily, that is something I can do on the plane on the way out.

I packed multiple books for the trip. I know that even though we will be on the move a lot and down time will probably be rare, knowing me, I will not be able to sleep so I will need something to do. Plus, 6 hour flight back, let me tell you. I have a lot of time to kill. Sleep will only do so much. LOL!

Silly me started reading through kindergarten crap this morning. I read a prep list for the month before school down to the day of. Everything from introducing your child to the teacher to letting them check out the school. All of it is daunting only because I am fairly sure no matter how much prep is being done, both Bobby and I are going to be a mess. I need to reschedule Dax’s appt since the first day of school is the same day and I need to be able to concentrate all my energy on Bobby. I do want to get Bobby a new backpack for his momentous enrollment into big boy school. I also thought that he could pick out a new shirt for the day. I figure he isn’t going to need much in the way of new school clothes yet, so no need to splurge. I also am debating on lunch boxes. I wonder if perhaps a backpack that can hold a lunch pail would be best. I don’t know. I am over thinking everything. Gee, what a shock, right?

Friday, May 21, 2010

a little stress-but nothing a little pill can't help

5-21-10

Having a funky morning so far. Not sure what is up. I feel jittery and out of sorts. I just took a Xanax, which I normally don’t do at work. But with my meeting with the prez here in 90 minutes, I felt I needed to be less fucked up.

My calves hurt. The last couple days I have been more bouncy with my legs. I think I was doing the little shakes for an hour straight at one point. It feels like I worked out.

My side hurts. I thought I had messed up my back. Turns out, I have this gnarly bruise on one side. Ken was helping me last night by using our Thumper (this massage thing) on my back and we discovered the pain wasn’t muscle pain so much as I must have run into something. Ken remembers me bumping into something at my parents’ house a couple days ago, which is when the pain started, so surprise surprise, I am broken.

Big weekend in front of me. We have the yard sale tomorrow morning, which means no sleeping in for me. Luckily, yard sales are pretty easy. We have put up some signs tonight, and I suppose go get some change, but other than that, I think we are good to go.

Yesterday I had a sit down talk with the boys. When I had gotten home, I uber cleaned their rooms. Like crazy cleaning. When the boys walked in the door, I took them to their rooms and explained that this is what I mean by a clean room. I then sat them down and explained to them the rules of the land. Including schedules. In the morning I told them they have to get dressed when they get up. I also told them that they will not be having as much time to play anymore. Breakfast will need to be served at home. Ken wasn’t as thrilled with my demands. But I really believe that it is best for everyone involved for them to have a routine and schedule. They should get up no later than 6:30, be dressed, eat and be ready to go by 7:30. School starts at 8. Ken is concerned that with Maria serving breakfast at 9, Dax will end up eating too much. I sincerely doubt it. He doesn’t have to eat, and he doesn’t eat when he isn’t hungry. Plus, we can’t base our schedule around her fucked up schedule.

I hope we make a little bit of cash tomorrow. I figure it will be good spending cash for me in Ohio.

I have laundry to do this weekend, too since I need to pack for the trip. The packing for me isn’t too bad, since I am limiting myself to one bag that has very little in it. Packing light is just easier.

I also have to clean up the house after the hectic that was a yard sale. Since we are in crazy clutter mode right now, once everything is put out there will be the remains. LOL! Boxes and other things that do need to go back up into the attic should be taken care of so that when we leave a week from today (yie!!!) that Ken and the boys can come home to clean.

Holy fuck. I just looked at my itinerary. My flight home from Ohio is 6 hours and 15 minutes of travel time. Sheesh. That is all alone, too. On the way from Colorado to Ohio I have Andy, Holly and Papa Brenan, so much more fun. On the way home, frick on a stick! I think my best bet will be a good book and sleep. I have a handful of new books (I have my Edward Kennedy book I have been anxious to read) that may work. I am just nervous. I hate to bring more than one book since it is a lot to carry. But I also don’t want to just take one since it may end up sucking. LOL! Maybe I just need to bust out Harry Potter.

I hate flying. That is a lot of flight for me. I will be fine, but honestly, this is the longest flight I have ever taken by myself. Hopefully I can just get a window seat and relax.

I am actually sweating now. What the hell. I just turned on my fan. It must be a full on anxiety attack. I started thinking too much about Ohio and the travel stuff and all the things I have to do and I am nervous about my “breakfast” in 45 minutes.

Bobby got sent to bed at 5:30 last night. His testing continues. I told him to do something, and he actually said no. Good night, son! And when I was getting him dressed for bed, he kicked and screamed and tried to keep me from dressing him. Not scoring points, kid. He calmed down after a while. The best part of it was that Dax watched this all on the Bobby Vision while Ken narrated it, explaining to him that this was not a good idea. Dax was actually pretty good. Poor kid was having other issues since his elbow was itching again, despite putting more of his ointment on it. He finally settled in, though.

The punishment must have struck a chord since this morning, not only did Bobby get dressed on his own, both boys were quite good. Woo hoo!

Ok, so it is about time I head out. The meeting I think is like an hour or so. I suppose it doesn’t have a time limit. Then again, I don’t know. I have lots of things I want to say, but I don’t want to piss anyone off. Wish me luck!!

I made it!

Ok, that was actually a pretty good meeting. I asked maybe 3 or 4 questions (total questions asked? Maybe 6). In fact, I started us off, and had the last question. LOL!

The good news? The president seemed to really like me. He told me he loved my attitude and work ethic. Two of my questions were concerning loss of productivity. Plus, another topic touched on our dealings with dead beat customers. On all of them, he asked me to go ahead and email him some info. YAY! I have reports that I will be running next week that he can be CCed on. He agreed with my suggestions, too. I felt like a rock star.

He also said my department was the best credit and collections team he has ever worked with. That is pretty cool, actually. He used the words, you rock, which of course rules in my book.

I liked that he didn’t seem to upset with things I said. I pointed out that his town hall meetings were a bit dry and boring, and that they took too long. I also suggested we eat during so that there was less down time. He actually liked this. He wasn’t offended and agreed with me that they were a little long.

I considered slamming the one chick there, but in reality, it wasn’t the right forum. It seemed like a nice peaceful gathering, and what with my big meeting next week on that issue, it didn’t seem like a good idea to poke the bear.

Hmm…sounds like it is a skeleton crew on the 28th. I will be curious how that goes. I am not here, and I know now of 2 others. Plus, a possibility of another one! Hmmmm…will anything get done???

Thursday, May 20, 2010

disneyland and spoiled kids

5-20-10

I decided that yesterday would be a good day to go to Disneyland. Ken made sandwiches and as soon as I got home from work, the 4 of us set out.

We did have a little incident in which Dax declared that he had “wet poops”. Needless to say, we had to change his pants before we went into the park.

It turned out to be the best time and day to go ever! We headed to Space Mountain first. The boys and I headed to line while Ken stopped and got Fast Passes for Buzz Lightyear. Space Mountain must have been closed for a little while since as we followed the herd of guests, we never really had a line to wait in. The crowd was practically running we were moving so fast. We didn’t stop until we were inside the room to get on. Wait time had said 25 minutes. It took us maybe 10. It was awesome!

Bobby decided he did not care for Space Mountain. He said he didn’t like how dark it was and that he couldn’t see anything. He was much happier with Star Tours, which was our next stop. Wait time on that: 5 minutes.

The one two punch of Space Mountain and Star Tours was uncool. I was dizzy and ill. I even broke out into a sweat from feeling so icky. Of course, it probably didn’t help that I was a little hungry.

We walked across to Buzz. No wait there since we had Fast Pass. The 3 rides that we tend to do that take like 2 hours plus to go on took less than an hour. It was crazy! So we went over to Autopia. Dax shockingly did not want to drive, so I drove. We had fun, especially since once again, there wasn’t much of a wait. Don’t get me wrong, there were people there, but it just seemed to be pretty quiet.

We considered going on more rides, but I didn’t want to push our luck. We got on the train, and even managed to get on the one that faced the dinosaurs. It was crazy how our luck played out. It was time to go home.

Bobby did pitch a drama monkey fit when he was upset that we didn’t buy him anything. He declared it the “worst day ever” despite having just been at the Magic Kingdom. I told him that every time he said those words that he would go straight to bed. When we got home, he in fact went to bed.

I was very tired and after watching the duet between NPH and Mr Schuster on Glee again, I turned in. I am still so very tired. I keep sleeping odd and it hurts my lower back. I don’t know what I am doing. I need to just have a night where I conk out hard.

Since it is month end week, I have been in crazy work mode all morning. I have some other things to prep for reports next week, but I think I can get to those in a little bit. I also have my big “breakfast” with the main boss tomorrow. I still don’t know what I will wear. I had considered my pink outfit, but I made the mistake of wearing it on Monday. Oh well. I guess I will find something. I have decided to not be too professional. I want to still be me. I do a good job, and I sound pretty damn smart when I open my mouth, so I think it will be fun to show that I rock no matter the package.

I have been busy busy at work this morning. I suppose that is what happens when you are covering for someone at work who is out for 2 weeks. I don’t mind too much.

Apparently the boys were dreadful this morning, causing gobs of punishment. It is time to lay down the law. I am thinking of stripping down their rooms to the bare minimum of possessions. Plus, I think that they are lasing out about something else, so I need to figure out what that is. It could be lack of routine (which of course will only make things worse next week) and maybe just slightly spoiled things. We have considered chore charts for some time, but they never seem to work with our busy schedule. Well, times are changing. What with school and soccer coming up, and the possibility of pre-K, we need to establish some things. When I was a kid, we didn’t go places all the time. I need to make things more uniform, including after school/daycare chores. Bootcamp!

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

blip

5-19-10

I need to sleep. I really need sleep.

It is my fault entirely that I am so beat. I had to stay up for Glee last night. The good news is that the season is almost over so I won’t have to say up so late anymore.

My ankle still hurts.

My eye is twitching. I took a Xanax last night to see if that helped. It did. Not sure it that just means that I am under more stress or just the pill mellowed me out so that the lack of sleep turned into a very groggy person.

Kevin Smith is in studio today. How happy am I? Plus, they are going to talk to Bradley Whitford. I am still on my NPH high, so it is a good day!

Of course, I just missed the Glee-cap. But I can listen to it later, thankfully. My friend, Sunshine came and told me how she won Weenie Roast tickets, and she knew only I would understand how cool that was. I am so happy for her!!!

Bobby decided to test Ken last night. He refused to get into bed. Ken took away pretty much everything in his room. It was pretty brutal. But Bobby didn’t back down. He finally gave in, but went to bed screaming. I told him if he couldn’t handle being quiet in bed he could sleep outside. He fell asleep soon after this.

Dax is coming down with something. Between the little goop in his eyes, the sniffling and his broken out elbow, he was all kinds of out of sorts last night. That also was because instead of a show before bedtime, we watched a movie. Dax wanted to watch the Little Mermaid, so we did, and right after it was bedtime. Since it was out of routine, he broke down. It was kind of sad, actually.

That was interesting. I just talked to my coworker about illegal immigration. His family is from the Philippines. His dad came into this country by joining the military. Our government had recruitment in his country and he signed up in order to become a citizen and to have a better life in America. In fact, just about everyone in his family did this. His feeling is that his father came here legally, and even fought in Vietnam. He truly became an American. He is not a supporter of illegals. Plus, he pointed out that most Americans have never been to a third world country. He said that if we had, we would see that most countries are horrid to illegal immigrants. He said that truly, our goodwill doesn’t work both ways. It was interesting. He didn’t know where I stood on stuff, so it was cool to talk about it a little.

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Clean

5-18-10

I got into a cleaning fit yesterday. I love those. I got home a little late as I ended up staying at work due to a rush order. Getting home later actually spurred me on to clean for some reason. I got laundry done. I moved all the yard sale piles to one corner. I cleaned up our bedroom really well. The boys and I prepped the yard for rain and the gardeners. I even made the living room functional during this clutter time.

Ken started pulling items from the garage to sell and to trash. He came across a whole crate of booze. Note to anyone who drinks things like Kaluha: make sure to not leave in a garage for several years. BLEAH! It was chunky. I ended up dumping most of the alcohol including this nasty minty liqueur. Booze should not taste like mouthwash. All of this actually came from Conner at some point when he moved out of some place. I kept the ones that were new or still good and have them in my car to take to my dad.

I also spent much of the afternoon training Ittles. Last week the pans were not up to her standards. She likes the pans brand new every second of the day. Super annoying. So when she doesn’t get her way, she makes statements in the form of pee. She started peeing on our new bathroom mat. I was pretty pissed off about this. When there was no mat, she would pee in the tub. Less annoying since that is way easy to clean. So we re did the pans, and I figured this would fix the issue. Not so much. She continued to pee in the bathroom.

The beauty of Ittles is when she was little, I potty trained her by placing her in the box every 20 minutes and waiting until she peed. She got to the point where it is almost Pavlonian where when she smells the pan or is standing in it, she has to pee. I think it really pisses her off. I love just plopping her in the pan and even though she yells at me, she pees. So last night I was putting her in there every time she went near the bathroom. I got her to not only pee but poo. LOL!! We still are closing the bathroom door now, but I think this is helping.

I was up considerably later than I had planned. The problem was that DISH Network was being lame. The receiver for my Tivo went out, which is no big deal. They sent a new one. The problem was, they canceled not only my old one, but the one for our main Tivo. Dammit!!! It meant that House wasn’t recorded. It meant we almost missed another couple shows. Ken ended up fighting with India for more than an hour last night. You could tell that the tech person was a total tard. It was annoying. Thank goodness I had other things to work on. I was able to do more laundry and keep myself busy as Ken screamed at someone who was working off a script. Thankfully, it is fixed, and knowing Ken, we probably now have like 6 months credit on our account. LOL!

I gave back all the toys to the boys that had been confiscated during Daddy Cleaning Runs. Of course, they don’t know I gave them back. I kind of snuck them into their rooms and put them away so they wouldn’t see them right away. They had been collecting in our room to the point where we had quite the stash. At this point, the boys didn’t even care they were gone since they had been gone for a while. So I figured that they should go back to them so I could make my own room clean while then being able to have them re-discover toys that we can take away when they are bad.

Yay rain, btw! Not that it is pouring or anything, but it is nice that it was so cold last night. I actually needed an extra blanket, which is good since it means I get all cozy. I love that.

Tonight is my Glee episode with Neil Patrick Harris. OMG, I can hardly wait!!!!! It will be so happy making. He and the main teacher sing Dream On. Holy shit. I may pass out from excitement. Who knew I could get so excited about a show, a musical show, and a gay guy who used to play a child doctor?????

I love that the boys talk on the phone. I just got a call from Bobby to thank me for the golf balls I left for them on their table this morning. I gave them each a golf ball that I wrote their name on.

I love this! Ken is taking Bobby to Iron Man with him and Aaron today. I asked him if Aaron will mind, and he said he didn’t care. YAY!

Dammit. My new cool pink shirt has holes already. It figures.

Monday, May 17, 2010

lots of weekend

5-17-10

What a weekend.

It started on Friday with gobs of activity. I got home from work and retrieved the children. Before I headed out, I converted Dax’s car seat. YAY! That’s right, my boys now are in boosters. Woo hoo! It is amazing how much nicer that is.

Ken dropped the three of us off at my parents’ house where we played for a couple of hours. When Ken got back, we headed to the first of our Bobby adventures. We opted to go to Fantastic Sams.

Bobby was still ok with the whole thing until he got to the chair. He flipped out. He thought it would hurt. It didn’t help, either, that the lady planned on using the electric clippers right out of the gate. Bobby flipped out. We worked towards calming him, which took a bit. Finally, the hair cut lady decided to go ahead and use real scissors instead. This didn’t make Bobby scared, so he calmed down. We got him a lollipop and watched the hair fly.

Man, that kid had a lot of hair. You don’t realize it until it is in various piles on the floor. He was fine during all of the cutting. It was a little upsetting to me to watch him have all his beautiful hair cut, but I also knew that it would be good for him this summer.

I was super pissed as the haircut broad who said a couple of times to Bobby, “Oh, this is more of a boys’ cut.” Look, bitch, don’t give my son a fucking complex about long hair. Thankfully, Bobby wasn’t listening to her at all since he was memorized by his changing look and was content with his lollipop.

He looks more grownup now. I like it, but it is bittersweet. I like that I can see his eyes more, but I miss the beautiful hair.

After the cut, we went to sign him up for soccer. That was crazy just since here I was as the parent in this event, not the player. Very exciting! We went to Adams Middle School’s playground, which in itself was flashbacks to my youth. It was crazy.

We got home and put the boys to bed and I headed out with Stephanie to the Redondo Pier. We had dinner at El Torrito and then went to Killkenny’s for the evening. It was moderately crowded. We found a couple of Stephanie’s friends in a booth near the stage, so we hung out there for the evening. We saw three bands play, including her friend Dave’s band. We saw one band called the Floaters, which aside from the horrible band name, were not bad. Special C came on next and I was quite impressed with them. Very reggae like. I enjoyed that. After them was Dave’s band, Flith E .A lot more punk than the prior two bands. I really liked them. They seemed unhappy with their own performance, but I liked it quite a bit.

The crowd was kind of interesting fun. Obviously there were some regulars and they all seemed like cool people. Very mellow and even in their rocking out, it was cool. One of Stephanie’s friends who showed up unexpectedly was super wasted. She kept slamming into me to hug and hold on to Stephanie. Normally I would have been annoyed, but I was actually fine with her. She seemed so incredibly harmless, like she wasn’t normally a bitch or anything, just had a few too many to drink. LOL! She apologized to me a few times, and I found it all super funny.

Stephanie’s friends were sweethearts. Dave was very nice, asking me about how Ken’s business was doing. Her friend, Rick was awesome. I loved that they asked Stephanie about Sabrina and were very genuine in their affection for her. Here these were, rocking guys and they still dug kids. I love that!! Plus, they were so nice to me, so big points all around.

I woke up Saturday morning to the boys discussing the plan to get dressed to get a prize. It was way too early! LOL!!

The morning was spent working in the attic and going through boxes. I went through baby clothes and now have 4 bags of clothing to get rid of. I kept the outfits that I love and would want to use on a potential future child. I got rid of the rest since most of it was nothing great. I had so much!!! We had considered getting rid of the double stroller, but Ken was being practical and said let’s wait until we decide on the kid thing since I could always end up with twins. But we got rid of crap loads of stuff that even if we had another kid, I wouldn’t use.

My house is in super clutter mode, but it is a happy clutter since most of it is going out on our lawn come Saturday.

While we worked on this, you could see Bobby getting lethargic. He had been coughing and stuffy, but this was the first time he seemed out of it. He had a bit of a fever so he just vegged out a bit. We ended up going outside in the afternoon to watch the fly overs for the Armed Forces Day Parade. They played in the water since it was crazy hot out. Bobby seemed a little better, but the Tylenol we had given seemed to wear off.

He didn’t eat much lunch and no dinner. He had a fever of about 101. We got him some more Tylenol and got him to bed. Both boys fell asleep hard, which was good. I had asked Bobby before bed if he wanted to still try to go bowling, and he said yes, so that was the plan.

Ken and I watched the Hurt Locker, which was quite good. We had been putting it off for some time, but I was pleasantly surprised at it. Not sure if it was best picture quality, but a good film.

I fell asleep maybe 10 minutes before being woke up to Bobby upset. He said he felt like he had to throw up. We got him in the bathroom where he cradled the toilet. He never threw up, thankfully, but he was feverish. He actually kind of fell asleep over the toilet. We got him to drink some milk and water and got him back to bed, where he slept until 8 in the morning.

He had the fever part of the day Sunday. But he drank gobs of juice and water, which helped. I had him resting on the couch in the morning and had cold cloths on his head for a while.

He kept telling me, “Mom, I hate being sick. This isn’t fun.” Poor kid.

We went over to my parents’ house since he was pretty restless in his sick. Ken once again dropped us off (he had to go to a birthday party) and we hung out there for a couple hours. Bobby actually ate something, which was cool. They played and had a good time and I could see that he was feeling gobs better. Still tired, but better.

After Ken picked us up, we had a couple of errands to run and then we took the boys over to the military exhibit at the mall from the parade stuff. We got there when they were wrapping up, but they liked it. Plus, we got to watch the helicopters take off, which they really liked. Although, I think Ken liked that part more.

The evening was spent at the grocery store and then going home to BBQ dinner. I had some Morgan’s and coke and then all of the sudden didn’t feel great. I had to lie down for 10 minutes or so. It was odd. I didn’t feel drunk or even sick to my stomach. I just felt wrong. I was fine afterwards. I think it was dehydration since I had been out in the sun quite a bit and was tired. So then you add booze to that and you get faint.

Luna ate Bobby’s cupcake, which sucked. Poor kid was devastated. Luckily, he perked up with a banana, and both once again fell asleep quickly. It meant I could go to bed early. I think I was asleep by 8:30.

I couldn’t sleep well last night. My back hurt, which I think I messed up in all the box moving. I also had funky dreams, most of which I can’t remember, but I do know that Neil Patrick Harris was in them.

My good bra died. Although it died in a way I didn’t expect. The underwire decided to pip through the top. Grrr. Ken is going to try to stitch it. It sucks since I now realize why I wore that bra with this dress I am wearing.

I think I may cut my hair before Ohio so that it is less of a pain to deal with.

Oh, yes, Ohio is still on. Ken told me to not worry and that we have it all covered. He is worried that I am making excuses to not go. Not sure how right he is. I am worried about money still, but he said this trip is covered so to not stress. I will try to not freak out over the next 2 weeks. I leave next Friday!!

I am excited. I obtained two new bibles on Sunday. One belonged to my dad, which was inscribed with Tommy instead of Tom, which cracked me up. And the other was my mom’s when she was young. I have Ken’s old bible and of course the stack of ones we get from every trip. I am hoping some day to have an entire bookshelf of bibles. It will be a cool conversation piece.

Dax has decided “Damn” is his favorite word of all time. I don’t mind, since let’s face it, “Dammit” is one of mine. He walks around going, “Damn!” or “Oh Damn” just constantly. I considered correcting him, but I have a feeling it is a phase and not worth making a big deal about. He is also young enough that he can kind of get away with it. He tried to say “Shit” and that is where I did tell him that it would probably be best to not say that. He asked why and I told him it was a grownup word. He then said, “So I can say it when I can wear my Bumblebee shirt?” The shirt he was referring to was one that we got while yard sailing which will clearly not fit him for several years. I told him that this was a reasonable time frame and he was content with this.

I should make cupcakes or something for this Saturday. I can sell those, too. I figure we have gobs of cheap ass cake mix. Might be an extra couple bucks!

My hair is really unhappy with me today. It senses its impending doom. It knows it will be cut soon. Either that or I just needed to wash it this morning. Plus, I didn’t dry it. I am doing a very natural look today. Lighter makeup than normal and the funky hair. I just printed out some hair styles I am considering.

I just found out an old friend of mine is having a baby any day. So cute! Congrats to her!

I should work on this small project.

My left eye keeps twitching odd with muscle spasms. It is annoying me.

My last ankle pill was taken last night. We will see how my ankle feels this next week!

Bobby only has daycare for the next 2 weeks. Wow.

Ken made the boys cupcakes this morning since Bobby’s was eaten last night. They will be quite pleased this evening when they get home.

Rain?? What the hell? I have to make sure my yard is ready.

I am sleepy.

My parents got caller ID. This is not good for the likes of telemarketers. A survey company called while I was there, and my dad promptly said hello to their company. He then proceeded to tell them that he had a survey for them, including such questions as whether or not they preferred red or green apples. I could tell based on my dad’s responses that they were not sure what to do with this guy. My dad also responded to the idea that he was a list with mock outrage and contempt. It was awesome. Finally, I believe the poor person on the other end gave up and may very well have taken my dad’s name from their database.

How did I not ever play with iGoogle themes before????

Friday, May 14, 2010

Dang

5-14-10

I got to go to bed early last night which is a good thing since today is a big day.

After I am done with work, I am taking the boys to my parents’ house to play. My mom will be there early, so I am pretty much grabbing the boys when I get home and heading straight over.

I leave there around 5 and I have an hour to kill before soccer sign ups. During this hour, Bobby is getting his hair cut. YIE! Not sure where we are going yet to get it done, but probably some place in Redondo since the sign ups are right there at Adams.

After signups, we will head home and do the night time thing. Once the boys are in bed, I am heading out again. I am going with Stephanie to Killkennys in Redondo (my day is spend mostly in Redondo today) to see her friend’s band play. Should be a fun night. It has been some time since I saw bands play at a bar like that. I of course will be a little off my game since I get nervous with people I don’t know, but it should be fun either way.

Thank goodness I can sleep in tomorrow.

Saturday activities include more attic cleaning and letting Ken and the boys climb up on the roof to watch the planes fly over for the Armed Forces Day parade.

We were going to go to Sherri’s daughter’s birthday party, but it is in Apple Valley, and we really have a lot to get done for the yard sale next week. Hopefully it is not too hot tomorrow where we are melting in the attic, yet warm enough the boys can maybe play in the water a bit.

It has been such a lazy day today. I have work to do by I am so unmotivated. Instead, I have been reading up on random folks on Wikipedia all morning. Patsy Cline (even though I am sure I have read it a million times) Loretta Lynn, Bruce Lee, and Brandon Lee. They all have reasons.

My favorite bra is giving out. I am sad. Oh well. I will at some point need to get a new one. I am just excited I found a style of underwire I really like!

Ok, I have printed out three pictures of acceptable hair cuts for Bobby. One is a slightly messy shot cut. One is a mini Mohawk. One is just simple Caesar style cut that he expressed interest before. I think the first one is very doable for his hair. I am going to push for that one. I am scared!!!

Stephanie just recommended I take a nap this afternoon. LOL!! I sure hope I last!

This may change some plans. I just found an article in the Daily Breeze that said this salon in Torrance is doing free haircuts on Sunday as long as you donate $6 to the March of Dimes. This seems like a win win to me. They are contributing 25% of their profits on Saturday. Perhaps I will then hold off on hair cutting this evening and use that time to either get litter for the cars or just feed the boys. We still have registration at 6, but that shouldn’t take too long.

Money woes are hitting me hard right now. I was paid less than normal today due to a couple of unpaid absences at work. I really don’t have much in the way of vacation coming to me right now, and even earned, it won’t be enough to cover me for a week off. I am considering not going to Ohio. I can go to Colorado to see the graduation, and fly back with the boys and Ken on Sunday. I may take off the Tuesday still, but probably not. I will just report to work. These money issues also are making me second guess soccer right now. Not thrilled with any of this stress. Of course, I will need to talk with Ken when I see him in a few hours. I may even postpone Bobby’s hair cut for a bit since really, he only needs to have it cut by August. Plenty of time for us to wait. Sigh. I hate this. I know that it is a temporary thing right now due to some things, but still, it is frustrating.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

I wish I was better at titles

5-13-10

I need a nap.

I ended up sitting on my ass mostly yesterday when I got home from work. Ken did bring down from boxes for me so I could just sit and throw away things. I went through 6 boxes, condensed it down to one box of keep (still with gobs of room), 2 boxes of yard sale, and a lot of trash. Woo hoo! The boys helped since a couple of boxes were old toys. A few items got a stay of execution. Dax snagged a Diego doll and a couple other items. Bobby was excited to get Ken’s Mechs from his Battle Tech days.

I love going through the old stuff. I found some old pictures, high school folders with scribbles on them. Those are always the most entertaining. Random relationships announced in sharpie (Brandy loves David, Angela love Scott) and quotes from our youth in ball point pen. I did toss the folder. I know, how crazy, but in reality, it was not something I needed to save. If I saved every high school memento, I would need another house. Instead, I have been saving smaller things that I can put into one box.

I also came across my 1986 time capsule. I made this in school. It has since become a box full of more than just 1986 stuff, but there were still some remaining items from the original intent. There were garbage pail kids and a newspaper from when the Dodger won the World Series. There was also a TV Guide from May of 1986, which was fun since it had a spotlight on a little show called the Golden Girls, which seems amusingly timely being that Betty White just hosted SNL this last week.

I found the note Ken wrote me in 1993 where he told me he had missed me. I also found the note he wrote me when he had to leave work early to go work on some project with Aaron and that Jenni would drive me home. I also found the “shoulder” he left me to cry on.

I sorted through several ducks, giving a shocking amount to the boys to use in bath time fun. I also added to my yard sale pile my Aladdin and Jasmine doll and several toys and books that I am proud to have rid myself of.

We didn’t spend much time on these boxes. Really, 6 boxes poorly packed doesn’t take much time to condense. I am hoping to go through a few at a time so that I don’t end up with gobs of mess in my home. I expect some, though, since we need places to put these items which will end up on our lawn shortly.

I think that even though I wasn’t going to do this, I will have him bring down baby clothes tonight. Sure, I will pull some items that I would want to keep in case I had another child, but much of it can go to the lawn as well. If I ended up having another baby (fingers crossed here) I think I would probably get some newer clothing and hopefully some pink? Hee hee! Either way, there is a ton of stuff up there from several generous donations from people in the efforts to clothe my boys that can be sold at low low prices in the front of my house.

When I pulled up to the house yesterday, Ken said he knew I had arrived because Monarch, upside down on the cat tree, started chirping at the sight of my car. He said he was really cute in his excitement of my arrival. When I walked in, I was greeted by my giant tom cat who promptly stretched himself up to as tall as he could while reaching for my hand with his paws. Super cute on every level. My poor kitty is going to be so sad with me gone for a week!

We also worked on operation low light. The boys have used their little lamps as night lights for as long as I can remember. Although both are on dimmer switches and are as low as possible, they keep getting turned up and really, their rooms are anything but dark at night. In our box cleaning, I came across a wonderful duckie light I had forgotten about. It is practically a night light, just taller and cuter. So we replaced Dax’s lamp with this light. It makes him room way darker, but not scary dark.

With Bobby, I turned down his lamp again, which he was not thrilled about. But I gave him a glow stick, which I think will be our crutch for now. I want them to be ok in a darker room just because it isn’t always practical to have a room as lit as they have become accustomed to. They have clocks with the pseudo neon lights around them, but they light up the room like the Strip. Bobby has a little ladybug nightlight that doubles as a flashlight when you remove the bug from the leaf. It is pretty cool. But Bobby just does the “I am scared of monsters” crap, so it is tough to make him man up too much.

I may be taking Bobby to get his hair cut on Friday. Ken and I agreed that soccer will be harder to play with his bangs in his eyes. I mentioned this to Bobby and he said he was ok with getting it cut. I am thinking that we can run down to some place like Fantastic Sams before we go to the signups since we will have an hour to kill between going to my parents’ house and the signups at 6. I expect him to chicken out of course, but we will see how it goes.

Bobby needs to go back down to the doctor today for the doctor note for his TB test so that we can get it back to the school. I wonder if Ken will take him this morning. I need to find out since if he doesn’t, I may need to pick him and Dax up when I get home from work, rush down there, then rush back to the school to turn in the paperwork so that he gets his room assignment.

I have aspirations to write a piece about the controversy yesterday about this Newsweek columnist that wrote a piece about gay actors. He indicated that he felt it was more difficult to be believed as a gay guy playing straight than a straight guy playing gay. He sited his reasons and wondered if in today’s society it is harder to pull it off. His opinion was interesting. I didn’t agree with it fully, but I saw what he was saying. Either way, what was more upsetting was the hate this man got for an editorial piece. He even said it was an opinion and that obviously there have been actors who pull it off. But he points out that it might just be how much we know about actors now days. We know their entire life story, which makes it harder to see the character the actor is portraying. Look, Tom Cruise had a hard time with his image after he just jumped on a couch! So I understand his point of view.

The hate he got included an open letter from Kristen Chenowith (whom I actually adore) saying how offended she was that he would say these things about her co-stars. Look, as much as I don’t like people being homophobic, the guy who wrote this? He is gay! And open about it! He even said he might be wrong. Why the hate? Why not allow opinions? Of course, if I am ok with his opinion, I have to be ok with Kristen’s. That being said, she was angry and mis understood the point of the article he wrote. Wouldn’t it be more appropriate for her to have emailed the guy direct (his email is all over Newsweek) to have a talk? Maybe clear up things first? An letter published on Perez Hilton seems counter productive.

I have a lot of thoughts about this, but I think right now I don’t have enough thought to formulate a proper piece. Stay tuned!

I have been thinking about changing Dax from his 5 point harness seat over to just using the seat as a booster seat. Up until just now, I had been under the assumption that he was not allowed to use a booster seat until he was 4. I had always heard that the rule was 4/40. He had to be 4 years of age and 40 pounds in order to move over to Booster status. Then the 6/60 rule is for getting out of boosters and ever being allowed to sit in the front seat. Dax, who certainly meets the 40 pound part (which I also had been told was the most important part of the equation), was not going to be able to ditch the 5 point harness until August. I can tell you, I have been counting down the days! Not only does he barely fit in it, it is just a bitch to do. Plus, I am now spoiled with Bobby doing his own buckle up part. Dax has been in a booster on several occasions when riding in other peoples’ cars. But in our own car, it has always been the 5 point. Not anymore! I think now that I have discovered that the law is on our side with this one, we are going to convert him over to big boy status! Woo hoo! This is great, too, since the seats are easier to remove in case I had multiple adults in my car instead of kids. I am very jazzed. I almost can’t wait to get home just for that aspect!

Hmmm…I am thinking that if I get Bobby’s hair cut I should just go down to one of the beauty colleges. They do just fine, and they are way cheaper.

I have been going over in my head what it is that I should wear to the big “breakfast” with the big boss. It is casual, but let’s face it, as much as I want to stay true to myself, I should probably not rock the pink hair piece that day. Yet I do want to have a little Gena flare. Any suggestions?

This seems to be one of those days in which I am rather bummed about being all by my lonesome over in my corner. The one good thing is that I can see out through my windows how incredibly beautiful it is out. I love winter because of rain, but I think that summer may still win as my favorite time of the year. Especially the beginning of summer. It isn’t so hot that you have to have fans on, but it is just pleasant out so you can sit in the sun and then have dinner in the yard as late at 8 because it is still so wonderful out. Yesterday I really missed my Mustang. I miss having the top down on days like these. It was awesome. I can tell what I will get once my soccer mom days are over.

One of the things we hope to find in the Great Attic Cleanout of 2010 is Granddaddy.

I think I need to harass Ken into making the skirt he was going to do. We have fabric and thread and all that jazz. We just need to do it! I know, it takes time, but maybe we need to not do the video games for a couple nights and hop to it. Dammit!

Maybe I need to take a class on how to sew? I could then do these things myself.

Ken has a birthday party on Sunday morning. I wonder if perhaps I will make sure he brings down gobs of boxes for me to sort through while he is gone. No offense to him, but he is a way worse hoarder than I am, so when he is not around, I can toss things easier. LOL! Sure, I am sure I have tossed things I regretted (I apparently tossed a Plex finger puppet and of course Dax started asking for it recently despite having not played with the thing for 6 months), but ultimately, I need to rid our lives of so much junk! If we chip away at it now, it will mean that if we can move in 5 years, there will be way less packing.

After having lived in our house for more than 10 years, I am fearful of moving only due to how much crap there is to move. Hopefully, when we find out dream home, it will have not only space for my ducks to be out of stuffy boxes, but that we will actually have some dead space because we have tossed all the useless stuff we have.

When Ken took Bobby with him a couple days ago, they were at Downtown Disney. Bobby had been so good the entire adventure, even with being stuck in traffic, Ken told him they could go on one ride in the park. Bobby chose Star Tours (not shocking). As they entered the park and headed over to their ride, Bobby kept stressing to Ken that Mommy wasn’t there. He was really upset that I wasn’t there. He then followed this with the fact that Dax wasn’t either. He was so bummed that his little family wasn’t all together. Ken said it was really cute. I love that he was upset. I am glad he got over it, too, since I am glad he and Ken got to go play. I am tempted to take Dax or Bobby by myself to the park one of these days. I like the idea of the bonding.

Ken has Bobby with him today. He did take him down to the doctor this morning and he told me that he will be keeping him for the day. I think Ken only has a couple of classes today, so this is cool. I know how much Bobby enjoys the classes.

Aaron never responded to my last email to him, but he has told Ken that he would like to go see Iron Man next week. I am way on board with them going out. I just hope he doesn’t flake on him. I will be curious if Aaron brings up the kid thing with Ken.

Oh my good god. This guy just called about a pricing discrepancy. No problem, sometimes we enter the wrong pricing code. So I ask him what invoice and what the amount was that he was off. He proceeds to tell me he was quoted $153.00 on this order. We charged him, wait for it, $153.60. No fucking joke. This man actually wasted my time over $.60. I told him to short pay it while I bit my tongue hard to not call him a fucktard.

Is it any wonder how our species as survived as long as we have?

I am so pleased to report that Bobby actually liked one of the Hamburger Helpers. I know, minor victory, but every time the boys like something I can make for everyone, I feel so happy. If only they would eat things like lasagna. I love that tonight is chicken and rice and I know they will eat that.

I am loving that more and more people are coming to me in my department to help them. I really feel like I am almost like their supervisor when they don’t want to work with the boss. Ideally in my head, I would like to be in charge of the collectors. They would report to me and I would report to the boss. It would split the dept into two groups. Collectors and Support. I would be in charge of collections. Maybe if our company keeps doing well we will be able to do that some day!

When I was a kid, I taught myself how to snap with my left hand because I was embarrassed to have to be the reindeer in the Christmas play. See the reindeer had little hooves on so the snapping part of the song would not have to happen with me. So I set out to snap. I spent days just snapping with my hand until finally I had mastered it. I now have a pretty good snap on that hand. It was proof that practice makes perfect. The problem is, I never learned on my right. Today I started practicing on my right. I have actually gotten a flew clocks out of it. It is hard to practice at work. My plan is also to show Bobby how to snap by using my method. I want to practice with him every day to show him the progress. Then, maybe he can learn to snap.

I also want to teach Bobby some reading skills so that when he enters school he has a head start. I am thinking of setting aside 30 minutes a night where he and I can work on stuff. He may get some of this at camp, but I think some one on one time would be good. Maybe not just reading, but some math and different things. I would like to teach Dax, too, but I think one on one with Bobby first is better.

Yay! It is almost noon. For some reason noon is my end of day happy dance. I guess it is because I only have a short amount of time left. So until tomorrow!

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

A little all over the place

5-12-10

I have projects to work on today, but they are not as taxing as the last couple days. Phew!

I am tired. My own fault, really. Tuesdays I tend to push myself too far. American Idol followed by the wonderfulness that is Glee. I could watch them another time, but I just can’t help myself, especially when it comes to Glee. It is so damn good! OMG, and next week NPH is on! Holy crap, I am so excited.

I did at least nap yesterday. When I got home I crashed out for about 30 minutes before getting Dax. Then I picked up Dax and he decided he wanted to watch some Mickey Mouse since he didn’t have to compete with Bobby for the tv. He wanted to sit on my lap, which was fine by me, so I slept then, too. LOL!

Bobby was with Ken at work. Ken had picked him up in the morning since he had to drive out to Anaheim and wanted to use him for the carpool. LOL! So bad, I know. It worked out well, though, since he also took him to the school to get registered. Turns out he needed to get another TB test since you have to have it within a year of starting school, not just registering for school. Ken was able to take him down for the test, which is good. This means he is enrolled, but until he turns in the doctor ok, he doesn’t have a room assignment. So tomorrow we will take that down (we go back for the note tomorrow) and he is set!

I neglected to ice my ankle last night, and I think that was a bad thing. It is sore this morning. I don’t know what this means. Perhaps the pills and ice are working together to help? Maybe it is just the ice? I don’t know. Either way, I am not going to back to the doctor until after Ohio, so if it does need to be immobilized, it will be after the trip.

Bobby is not going with me to Ohio. I am bummed, but I understand the arguments against. I was using him as a crutch, so in reality, it is probably for the best.

I am thinking that perhaps I will do that nap thing again this afternoon.

I smell purdy. I love my lotions from Victoria’s secret.

I get to go to breakfast with the big boss!!!! Ok, it isn’t a real breakfast, and truly, it isn’t a huge deal, but I have been joking that I was not going to get to go. He is our fairly new president that wanted to have these breakfasts with every person here. He was getting small groups, one from each dept, and they went and chit chatted for an hour over bagels. Nothing big, but I really thought it would be interesting. I finally got my invite and I go next Friday. WOO HOO! I don’t know why I am so weird.

I feel like I am in a haze today. Not sure if it is tired or just in my own head. I don’t feel upset or sad. I think I feel happy, but it is just kind of like floating. I keep staring at the screen, thinking I will be motivated to do something. I work on some project, which I don’t even now remember completing because I am so out of it.

The attic is our first area we attack for the yard sale. There is plenty of crap up there that needs to go. I am anxious to see what we find that can go. Bobby is going to be excited since he has wanted us to do a yard sale for some time. LOL! Maybe I will tell the boys they can out their own stuff they don’t want and they can keep the money?

I want mashed potatoes

My tongue is not that long. I think perhaps everyone else’s are just short.

Do you ever spin in your chair just to do it?

Do you ever have one of those days where you seriously wonder if everyone just forgot how to do their job? I know that sometimes I forget. I had to look up my code to just get in the building this morning. Never you mind that I have been using said code for 3 years.

I love chatting with someone who doesn’t type as fast only because it cracks me up that I am probably overwhelming.

Are bugs ticklish?

I need a long pink wig so I can be Lava Girl for the boys. A short pink wig would be good so I can be Stephanie from Lazy Town. Both wigs would amuse the boys, and would go with several things I own.

I want arm warmers that I saw at Hot Topic. Just cause I do.

I may have to cut Bobby’s hair into a short style since he keeps holding his bangs from his eyes while he plays. Not that I care, but when he is playing soccer, I think that will be a problem. Luckily, I have until August before games start.

We decided that when we go to Vegas for the wedding of my cousin, we will just drive back that night instead of staying. That way we don’t spend extra money on the trip. It isn’t like we were going to spend a lot of time there. And, if anything, we may just stay at a place that is in CA on the way home so that it isn’t as pricey.

I think Ratticus needs a cage that is like one of those habitrails. That way she can run around all over.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

I thought I posted this but I guess not

5-11-10

Once again, I am short on time this morning. Working hard on these credit lines, trying to earn my money.

Yesterday I checked online to see when soccer signups are, and I found out one of the early days is this Friday. It means Bobby will get signed up after we leave my parents’ house on Friday. Yie!

As if that wasn’t monumental enough, I also went down to the school to get the kindergarten packet to sign him up for school. They also have some kind of a lottery in which Dax may get to do a pre-k program there. Woo hoo! This would mean no more daycare, which means savings of $300 a week. All kinds of good. The pre-k program is chosen by lottery, so who knows if we would even get in. But I am crossing my fingers. Plus, they might pick him just because statistic wise, they need at least one white kid, right?

The suggestion was run by Papa Brenan about having Bobby come with us to Ohio. It would allow him to be shown off to some relatives, plus, it would give me a nice crutch. I also think that he would have fun. He is really good, especially when he doesn’t have the Dax influence. Papa Brenan will be getting back to us on that. It may not be a go, but wouldn’t that be interesting? Plus, I like the idea of Bobby and me time.

Yard sale plans for the 22nd. Attic and garage cleaning will take place over the next two weeks.

I may be trying for a smidge of OT the next couple weeks. With Maryann out for the next two weeks, I could easily warrant an extra 30 minutes each day. I don’t know how happy I will be giving up my extra 30 minutes of free time, but it won’t be that bad, and it gives me a couple of hours of OT a week, which is good.

In my stressing about money yesterday, I did manage to do a lot of laundry until I ran out of detergent. There is more cleaning to do tonight.

Ok, I managed to finish the bulk of what needed to be done with the credit lines. I still have other stuff, but since the program crashed, I can work on it a little at a time over the next few days, which is good. Maryann paid me, too, so this is all good to have the money ready for soccer.

My morning appears to be over, thankfully, which means I can zone out this afternoon. Woo hoo!

Monday, May 10, 2010

working for extra cash

5-10-10

I have had no time to write this morning. I am earning some extra money with these projects for my co worker. Not complaining, btw. I am excited since it allows me to pick up my lotion! Woo hoo!

We watched the movie “Everybody’s Fine” over the weekend. Good movie, but if you were expecting a feel good movie, I would get something else.

I got a Zombie Devil Duckie. I am very happy with this.

I also got Don Jose’s this weekend. Pancakes, too! Yum!!

My dogs are clean. Thank goodness. The filth that washed out of their fur was nasty. I trimmed out the dreads from Luna and both dogs now sparkle.

Dax cracked his head pretty bad on Saturday. He fell backwards on his bike and made a deafening crack on the concrete. He ended up with a golf ball sized lump on the back of his head. Luckily, with ice and Tylenol, the swelling went down by Sunday. It still is pudgy, though. Not fun for him.

My ankle is feeling better. I have been icing it every night and taking my meds. It still is sore, but not as bad. Hopefully the improvements will continue and I will feel better by Ohio.

Bobby got dressed on his own two days in a row. I will be curious if he did so this morning. I will get the report in about 30 minutes.

Ok I need to get back to work.

Friday, May 7, 2010

quick update

5-7-10

Busy last couple of days. Not super busy in terms of it being exhausting. I just had no real down time.

Yesterday I updated some accounts for my coworker as she paid me $100 to help her out. Seemed like a pretty good deal to me. I have more to do, but I have to wait until Monday since the list I have to run will still have the ones I did on it and I don’t need to do double work.

This morning I opted to go to the doctor to have them x-ray my ankle. The pain has been getting to the point where it is downright annoying. The doctor, whom was one I had not seen before, walked into the room and looked at me confused. He looked at the chart, back at me and then sat down. He then asks me with confusion, “How long have you been pregnant?”

Ok, look, normally I would be insulted. Nothing worse than being a fat girl and then someone asks you if you are expecting. But based on how he asked, I don’t even think he believed it.

I laughed and asked him if perhaps he was in the wrong room since the last time I was pregnant was some time ago. He was so relieved. He laughed and said he didn’t think that I was and was pretty sure someone had accidently flagged me as preggers. He said some of it made sense. When I went in for my ankle in March, there was no x-ray, which he figured was due to my pregnancy. But then he looked at the meds I take, and that didn’t add up. LOL! He told me I had just saved him a lot of reading.

He checked it out, and we discussed the history on the injury and pain. He did not think it was broken, but was pretty adamant about me getting an x-ray, which I was thrilled about. He said that his guess was tendonitis. He likened my ankle to that of a door. The door fits into the frame easily, until the door gets a little warped. Even after it shrinks back down to size, it doesn’t fit quite right. So in order to see if there is other damage, we need to get the door back down to size.

I went down and got my ankle pics. The x-ray tech was this cute little grandma type. She was really nice and the x-rays didn’t take too long. I hobbled back upstairs and went into a different waiting room. I was in there a while, when the doc came back in. He apologized, telling me he had been looking for me everywhere since they put me in a different room. Without missing a beat, I told him that I had been in the maternity ward. He laughed a lot to this one.

Turns out his guess is correct. This means that prescribed me some super mega anti inflammatory meds to help settle my tendons. I think it is a 10 day supply, and after 3 weeks if it isn’t getting better, he will need to look into immobilization. We both hope the meds kick in quickly and help.

It was good I got the x-ray, too, since he found the cause of my planters fasciitis from last year. There was a little spur thing, that although now is not in a place to cause issues, he said if it ever did flare up again, it means they could put cortisone in that spot. This is good news. Not that those shots feel good, but having a cause always makes things better.

He told me that my ankle was in really good condition, too. He was impressed, actually. He said since it is a joint that gets a lot of wear and tear, it was in really good shape. This is a good thing simply because it means that despite my gut, the rest of my body is working well.

I am back in the land of work. Normally I would have taken off the whole day, but I have a pseudo meeting at 1, so I figured it was good to be here for that. Plus, I had a few things to work on.

On the way to the doc, Ken texted me to tell me that I needed a prize idea for Bobby. All week I have been telling the boys that if they get dressed on their own without being told that they would get a prize. I even set out Dax’s clothes, hoping it would inspire him. Bobby remembered this morning! I told him that it was good we had a General Gevious action figure we had picked up. My phone rings and it is Bobby. I told him how proud I was of him and he gushed about how he remembered and even tried to get Dax to get dressed. I told him his prize and he shouted, “Thanks, mom!” It was pretty cool. I happened to be near home, so I stopped in to use the restroom and was able to give him his prize in person. It was pretty awesome, really. Hopefully this inspires Dax for tomorrow.

I had amusing dreams last night. At one point, we were at a department store where there was supposed to be one of those cheesy free kids’ shows. There were several parents standing and kids sitting. I had placed the boys so they could see and I wandered around the racks near by. At this point, there was this homeless looking clown that staggered out from somewhere and went to the stage area. He was clearly intoxicated. No one said anything, and most everyone tried to ignore him. I was pissed. The drunk clown tried to juggle, and almost stepped on a kid. Still, there was no action. Finally, I yelled. I said, “Are you people for reals?” At which point, I stormed up to him, took the juggling balls from him and handed them to someone else. At this point I told off the drunk clown and kicked him out. The other moms looked pleased, but shocked. Ken was off to the side, laughing his ass off. My boys also were cheering, saying how cool I was. I rock.

The other dream had me at Robert Downey Jr’s house. He showed me his Oscars (I know he doesn’t have any, but it was a dream people). I held them and was surprised at how light they were. He told me they were only 32 ounces. I was not sure how heavy that would be, but we discussed the weight a lot. It was pretty dull in hindsight, but I didn’t have much control. At one point, I accidently broke one. He was not upset. He said it was bound to happen with such cheaply manufactured items. He hit on me a bit, too, but unfortunately, I woke up to the alarm before anymore getting to know Mr. Downey occurred. Lame!

Tomorrow Grammie is coming into town. I think we are doing the mommy’s day thing. I feel I need a picture with them I will assign Ken to this task. I am also thinking I need to load the Family Tree maker on my computer and bring it to maybe hit up Grammie for some data.

Yesterday I went by the Sketchers store with the hopes of finding some cute sandals for me. I did not see any that were fantastic. The only ones were all heels, which normally would not be a problem, but is amazing how little you want to be in anything that isn’t flat on the ground when you are injured. I did find a couple pair of Spongebob flip flops for the boys, though. They were only $5! They may be a smidge big for Dax, but they both liked them a lot.

Dammit! I missed this pampering event for moms at the mall last night. I forgot to add a reminder to my calendar. Since I started using iTty for the calendar instead of my phone, I have to remember to add the reminder. On the phone, it automatically sets an alarm. Not a huge deal, especially since I tend to remember most of the things I have on the calendar.

My little cousin is getting married. Ok, this isn’t sentimental. This is Robbie’s youngest. He is an idiot. Sorry, Robbie, but your son is! He and his girlfriend of probably 6 or so years have finally decided to get hitched. They have 3 kids. No joke. He is I think 24 or 25? She is a year or two older. And I know I am horrid for saying this but, damn, dem are some ugly ass kids. Any hoo, we got the invite and it is in August in Vegas. Road trip! My parents when I talked to them about it on Wednesday were not going, so we will be the representatives for that wedding. We like Vegas, and we figured there would be a lot to do if we stayed there. In fact, we are considering seeing the Blue Man Group with the boys. They would really dig the hell out of that. We will just stay at State Line. It will be a road trip adventure weekend. I love that! Maybe we can go see the Hoover Dam. I have never seen it! The wedding itself is Friday night. I like getting all dolled up, and the boys are always very cute. Should be fun. Plus, I feel like I owe it to Robbie to be there since she can’t.

Even though I had a nice 2 and a half hour break today, the day seems to be dragging. Bleah.

Thursday, May 6, 2010

no blog day

I don't have a blog planned for today. I am working on a project that is earning me an extra $100 which gets me some new sandals. WOO HOO!!

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

snippy

5-5-10

My ankle is not only jacked up, but now my foot. It is crazy since the last few days it has felt so much better. I sat down last night just to hang out for a moment. I wasn’t sitting on my foot, I wasn’t doing anything different. I stood up and I thought my foot was broken. It hurt that bad. Ken felt it and there seemed to be a bump and almost like I had pulled muscles. I iced it and Ken wrapped it for the night. It still hurts this morning, but I can at least walk. If it still feels this bad in a couple days, I will need to go back to the doctor. It isn’t that I am not functional, since I can manage. I just want to be able to have no pain there, and I would like to get my fat ass back on the Wii.

Aside from foot issues, I am decent this morning. I was cranky yesterday. I had folks at work being dumb all day, and then the boys were whiny and it was just taxing. I snipped at Ken, which wasn’t cool. I must have been spent. At one point, Ken tossed something at Luna’s cage to spook her since she also was whining (it was a theme at the Brenan house), but his warning to be about the toss wasn’t enough in advance. Monarch had been resting comfortably on my lap at the time, and the crash of the water bottle on the cage put his claws into my thigh. Un fun. I burst into tears. It hurt, I was a little in shock, and I think just exhaustion was in high gear.

Ken’s best friend, Aaron fucked up. Ok, it isn’t that extreme, but I am just tired of this. Ken has been friends with this guy since high school. A long ass time. Ken is the first to defend Aaron’s issues and has stood by him for everything. On Ken’s birthday, his phone rang and it was Aaron. I was pleased, assuming that Ken was getting some birthday wishes. Instead, the conversation was only work related. Mind you, Aaron knew Ken was out of town. Yet once again, it is on those days that Aaron seems to call Ken. Did he bother to just say the two simple words? Nope. Not a Happy Birthday. Not a, “Man, you are old!” Not a single word about Ken turning 40.

Sure, as we get older, birthdays are not as important. They kind of blend together and to some degree I suppose we try to forget them since maybe then we won’t age past 29. But even with no huge birthday party, it seems as though the person who is your best friend should at the very least send a text or something with well wishes.

I was pissed. I still am. So I emailed Aaron yesterday. Aaron talked to Ken several times over the weekend and on Monday, yet nothing was said. So I told him it was messed up. I didn’t bitch out as much as I probably should have, but bottom line, this is still Ken’s friend and I wasn’t going to be mega bitch.

He responded some time late last night and I got his email this morning. It went on and on about how he is bad with dates and blah blah blah. He said he would apologize to Ken and that yes, it was a dick move.

Fuck you, Aaron.

Aaron has an iPhone. Aaron has a lap top. Aaron has a calendar. I don’t give 2 cents about his lack of memory for birthdates. He has plenty of devices that are external brains. They will remember birthdays for him. They will even beep, honk, ring, yell or curse at you depending on the ring tone you so choose. If those are too hard to handle, perhaps you can spend a few bucks to have a service contact you. Or here’s a thought. You live with your folks. Maybe you can have them remind you on a few choice birthdates?

I am just tired of excuses. I am tired of the bullshit that he is too tired or too hurt or too out of his head to handle a handful of things in life. He has always been a piece of baggage in Ken’s life that I have been sensitive to. He has occasionally stepped up, but in reality, the few times he has been there for Ken, they should not have been remarkable. But since they are so few and far in between, they become amazing. How incredibly sad.

I am fiercely protective of my cave. I am not suggesting that Ken is seriously wounded by Aaron’s lack of basic friendship skills. I am not even sure he notices. I just feel as though Ken deserves better. Maybe he just is so used to this that he doesn’t have high standards. Unacceptable.

I emailed Aaron back and told him he needed to use his tools. I don’t know if that will be the last of it. I don’t even know what will happen. This is just one of those times where I needed to vent a bit about his lameness.

Ok, just got email back from Aaron. He tells me he hates kids in general. Sigh. This is a man, btw, who works with kids. This is a man who studied to be a teacher. You don’t have to guess how I now feel about this guy. I know people don’t like kids. I am ok with them. I am not asking you to like kids. I am telling you if you love me, you have to love Bobby and Dax. There are no exceptions anymore.

My feisty has been in full force this morning. I wrote my paper on illegal immigration. Not sure if it is any good, or if anyone will agree with my points. I didn’t bother to post it yet lest I piss someone off. LOL! I know, I am growing! I am making sure I don’t annoy people. I am quite pleased with my ending lines, even if they sound a little cheesy.

I am pretty sure I have done no work this morning. I suppose when I get all fired up, I have to get it out somehow. I snipped at a coworker for not reading his email fully and cced several folks. I was pissed. One of the cced even called me to make sure I was ok since it was a little out of character for me to be so pissy in email. Oh well.

We are going to Cozymel’s tonight for dinner. Yay! It is Cinco De Mayo, so what the hell, right? See, I may hate illegal immigration, but I am fine with Mexican food. I think the food has a green card. If not, I would be more than willing to marry it to get it here legally.

I am getting too feisty. I just picked a fight with my boss. Of course, as normal, he doesn’t listen to the whole argument. Whatever. I am just annoyed with the fact that no one around here wants to just do their job. This form needs his signature. It doesn’t need mine. In fact, mine is 100% useless. Yet AP brings me the form to have my boss sign it. No joke. So I take it down to him, with the poor AP guy in tow and ask the boss if he could please sign it. I then tell the boss that there is no point in me being a part of this process since I don’t count. He says he wants us as reps to check the account that this form references and to make sure the credit listed is ok to issue a check for (which is what the form is, a check request form). I point out that we have never denied these kind of requests and that if the credit was not there, the check could not issue since our system would not be able to do it so in reality his signature is just a check and balance to say he is ok with something that is always ok to do. Yet he still wants me to check it. So I then point out the credits are being issued on the wrong accounts. So the boss then says, well, is this how it always has been done? I say yes, so he says that there is no point in changing it then. Sigh. This tard is really lucky I like my job.

Since Luna has a love of balloons, I may need to get some water balloons for her. Her love of water and balloon together as one.

Luna is lucky to be alive today. Somehow, she got a hold of Ken’s last few bites of Tater Tot Casserole that his mom made him for his birthday. Ken has threatened puppy lake.

I may need to lay low the rest of the day lest I piss off the wrong person. It is always dangerous when I get like this. I really should just buckle down on work. Although, that makes me nervous since I may snip at a customer.

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

two days in one

5- 3-10

I hate being this tired. I am barely functional. We got to bed around 11:30 last night after our flight was about an hour late. Plus, it took forever for the shuttle to get to the car lot. It was a long evening.

It probably doesn’t help that it was an eventful weekend and therefore, there was just not enough sleep.

We got into Sac around 9:30. The flight was pretty basic. Dax watched Toy Story on my iPod. The only problem was that the ear popping hit Dax hard. He suddenly started screaming and banging on his head. It wasn’t good. I felt so bad for him since I didn’t know how to help him. I tried to get him to yawn. He just couldn’t. I even tried to have him growl like a lion, hoping opening his mouth like that, but he was too pissed. I tried to have him blow his nose. Nothing helped. Luckily, the minute his ears popped, it was all better and he was bright eyed and bushy tailed again.

Ken’s parents picked us up, but they had separate cars. I went with my MIL and Ken and the boys went with Papa Brenan. In my car ride, I learned of all the activities planned for the weekend.

The present they got for their son was a night out. They got us tickets for a show in town and wanted us to go to dinner on them. Seemed pretty cool to me! In turn, they were going to take the boys to see a movie. Awesome!

On Friday we did some grocery shopping for the weekend, and then I finally got a call back from my birthday present for Ken. He went to his sensory deprivation appt while the boys napped.

Based on the web site, you would have never guessed that the place was going to be so, well, rustic. In fact, Ken was convinced that the reason why I wasn’t getting a call back was that this place was actually a manufacturer of these tanks and the only appt they would have was one to purchase these things in bulk. Luckily, I spoke to the woman and she told me Ken could come down right then.

It was on the outside of Grass Valley and Ken’s pictures probably don’t do it justice. It was in a little shack with a creepy new age broad. The tank smelled a bit of mildew and the whole place looked like a cult compound.

On the plus side, although Ken didn’t have some cool visions or anything, he enjoyed the experience. He is even up to doing it again, in more modern facilities next time. There are several local, including one in Redondo, so that will hopefully happen at some point in the near future.

Grandma Brenan took the boys on a couple of exploring adventures, when Dax came in complaining about his butt. Turned out he has a rash. It wasn’t horrid, but a bath seemed to be the only thing to fix it. He was grouchy about his ass much of the trip.

We went to dinner at a place in town called Friar Tuk’s. It was right next door to the place where the play was. We gave ourselves about an hour and 15 minutes to eat. Thank goodness we gave ourselves that much! It took forever!! I polished off a bottle of wine and thankfully there were yummy appetizers consisting of fried calamari and garlic bread.

Out food showed up about 5 minutes before we needed to be at the play. We ended up taking much of that to go. We walked (ok, I staggered a bit) up to the theatre. Turned out we had some more time but I am glad we didn’t take that chance.

It was a tiny theater. It was really like a little restaurant that had a stage up front. When we got there, there was a guy on stage playing a guitar, singing songs from the 50’s. He was quite good. Not enough folks were enjoying it as far as I was concerned. He asked for requests, and I shouted (ok, I didn’t need to shout since he was only a few feet from me) out some songs from Buddy Holly and Bobby Vee. He was quite surprised that I knew who they were. I was the youngest person there aside from a couple of high school kids.

The production was 5 women and a guy, all reopening a 50’s diner and they sing and dance to all the old 50’s songs. I enjoyed myself since I liked most of the songs and knew them well. Ken just laughed at me. LOL! It was fun, cheesy and just a nice place to drink even more wine and have a fabulous desert. I even won a slinky! Yes, they had some audience participation, including at one point wanting us to complete the lyrics to the slinky jingle. I was not only the first, but probably one of the only ones despite it being a room full of people who probably saw the original commercial on tv when it first aired.

Saturday was more adventures. We went out to the animal shelter where there was an adoption fair. There had been some talk of a new puppy for the compound. There were several adorable kitties and dogs. It is probably good we were flying home. LOL! The most remarkable, and kind of cool thing was that there were empty cages! Yes, they were not over crowded. Plus, they are no kill, so this means they have a lot of success in adoptions, which made us quite happy.

After there, we went to the local arcade/mini golf place. We played video games for a couple hours, and the boys had a blast. I managed to win them a couple of frogs in the challenger machine, the same machine I had won Bobby a Blue doll years before. The frogs were a one shot grab, too. I would have had 3 in that, but one bounced the wrong way. I was pretty pleased with myself.

Ken found another game and got gobs of tickets which won the boys each a small gorilla doll. We had some pizza and then headed home, with two very tired kiddos.

We had one of Ken’s favorite dinners; Tater Tot Casserole. Then after wolfing down food, we rushed out to get to the singing event Ken’s mom was participating in. We figured out that her group would not perform until the second act, so Ken and I took the boys out around the high school campus it was at. It was a nice adventure. We looked at all the cool bird nests on the walls. We went down to the track. Bobby ran the 400 meters without stopping, which was awesome. Dax tried, but was exhausted by about half way. We tired these boys out!!

We went back and watched the performance, which was maybe 5 songs? Not too long. They lasted through that ok, but clearly they were restless. We made it through 2 songs on the next group, and luckily they got a standing O so we snuck out.

The boys ran around some more and the show was really only another 30 minutes, which was fine. Considering the boys were up way past their bedtime, they did great.

Sunday morning was birthday brunch for Ken. The day was pretty mellow. We had everyone watch Dr Horrible, and I was a little bummed they did not enjoy it. Oh well. The last hour was the most hectic of course since everything that they remembered they wanted Ken and I to do all of the sudden was remembered. Sigh. That being said, that was the only time all weekend in which I was a smidge stressed and annoyed. That is a pretty good record!

I drove to the airport with Scotty, which was nice since he had been helping me all weekend with ways to work with the boys for kindergarten prep. We bonded and it is always fun to chat with him. Andy drove Ken and the boys.

Our flight was an hour late. Actually, the plane was there, the crew had not arrived as their plane was running late. Not a huge deal. We managed. I was pretty spent, though, just from sheer exhaustion. All weekend I didn’t get to bed until midnight and still got up around 6. We got home Sunday night late and once again, I wasn’t asleep until midnight.

So this brings us to Monday. That is actually when I started writing this. LOL! It is now Tuesday. I went home yesterday. I was so tired I could hardly stand. Plus, I felt stomach icky. I tend to feel yucky after the trips up there. I think it is altitude and just tired. But the plane ride I think added to the icky. There was the slightest bit of turbulence along with poor Dax having ear issues again. Even my ears hurt. So I think that because of this, I was just out of it. Maryann told me to go home. She could see how icky I looked. So I did. I crawled into bed and slept till I think around 10. So this was like 4 hours worth of extra sleep? Good stuff.

After I woke up, I sat in front of the computer the rest of the morning/afternoon working on the photos from the trip. It allowed me to relax since when they were uploading, I watched 90210 and just hung out. It was so needed. I picked up the boys and we played outside until their own exhaustion was clear. It was an early night for all of us.

So today, I am bright eyed and bushy tailed. I have some work to catch up on. I haven’t even checked my voice mail yet. Yie. I am scared. I also have a lot of accounts I will need to work on this morning. I also have some things to write about, but think I will wait until tomorrow. One-I am going to break down how annoyed I am with Ken’s best friend. Another thing I may tackle is the Arizona stuff, which I have been meaning to do. So stay tuned!!