2-26-10
Never under estimate the influence you have on others around you. Everything from little gestures to the way you talk to just being there are all things that even though may seem trivial to you, are in fact very important to others.
My kids crack me up. On the way home from Costco last night, Bobby starts telling me how much he loves me. He says I am beautiful and that he loves me so much and wishes that he could even go to work with me all day. It is all very mushy and sweet, and he and I are having this conversation when Dax then, in his best old man voice (he really is Carl from Up) “Ok, that’s enough.” LOL!!!!!!
I am getting very stressed about tomorrow. The house still needs some finishing touches this evening, and I have some decorating to do. And if all of this isn’t a big deal, it is supposed to rain tomorrow. I am not happy. I just looked at the hourly forecast and it has it raining all fucking day tomorrow. Uncool. I wonder if we should cancel the bounce house. Ken put up a tarp tent type thing and technically, the bouncer is fine in the rain, but still, uncool. We got the cake and food last night. I will make goody bags tonight. I will have to get up early tomorrow to be ready.
Last night was actually a night where no dogs, kids or cats woke me up. There was no covers stolen. There were no rude awakenings concerning needing to pee or to get a drink. It was pleasant. Of course, I may have been in a Xanax coma. My stress last night got me to the point of thinking I was having a heart attack, so I took a pill. Yay sleep!
CRAP! I forgot my earrings today. I feel naked. When my hardware is missing I feel like I have a couple of screws loose.
Ok, whole day got crazy. It seems that a few fires are set and I am the only fire fighter within a 50 mile radius. LOL! Not a big deal, more funny than anything. It just means that my day is flying by.
And on a great note! I won!! KROQ has been giving out tickets to this paley fest which is the museum of television history that has these nights each year where they feature a night for one show. So they have the creator, actors, writers, etc that all come and talk about the show, answer questions, and they often show episodes that have not aired yet. So the night was Glee. Well, I am a self professed Gleek and I am damn proud of it. The question as what super different show did the creator also do, which I knew the answer instantly. I called, and I was shocked when it rang and they answered and I got to tell them it was Nip/Tuck. YAY! So I was one of 5 winners. The night is March 13th, which works out wonderfully since it is a Saturday night so I am going to hit up my folks to watch the boys that night. I am so freaking excited I can hardly contain it! WOO HOO!
It also is always good when my man Kevin Smith is on the radio, which he was only a few minutes ago. WOO HOO!!
Friday, February 26, 2010
Thursday, February 25, 2010
deeper than normal
2-25-10
Good morning world!
I am feeling a smidge out of sorts right now. Not bad, just kind of thoughtful and deep in my head. I got an email from an old friend of mine (it was sent to a lot of her Facebook peeps) asking for donations towards the marathon she was doing in honor of her son, Griffin, who passed away 5 years ago on January 4th. He would have been 12 this year, and she was asking for $12.
I used to work with Griffin’s parents back at Earthlink. Super lovely people and always nice. Of course, through the magic of Facebook, I re-connected with them and learned about what happened to their first born son. I was directed to their Caring Bridge site, where Monique, his mommy, had journaled the last 18 months of his life. I had read them before, and from time to time, I read them. I felt the need to re-read it a bit this morning after her email. I am just so impressed with her strength and spirit during all of this. She lost her son, her mother and had a baby all in 15 months. That is a whole mess of emotion. Yet she still does marathons for the cause to find the cure to childhood cancer.
It is one of those things where I don’t know how any mom can go on after the loss of their baby. I know more women than I would hope that have had to go through this horrible experience. All of them are amazing women and have always shown such poise and strength. I guess today, I just wanted to feel that inspiration of knowing strong women who really in the face of sadness, they have stood tall.
Don’t worry, nothing is wrong with my boys or anyone in my life. I don’t feel depressed or anything, I just feel almost like perhaps I should do something for someone else. Not that I have time, but I wonder if I could volunteer at the hospital or something and work with the maternity ward. Everyone has a cause in their blood, and recently I have been thinking that mine is 100% something to do with mommyhood.
This came to me in an interesting idea for a writing piece I have yet to write. I had noted how, even though work annoys the shit out of me at times, in the last 3 years I have felt so much better about being here. I have spent 9 years at this company, and not always in the best way. In the beginning, I always felt so, well, outcast. I brought a lot of that on myself. I identified myself with being the youngest in the department. I liked being one of the only white folks. I liked that I had an entirely different outlook on life than most of my colleagues. I wore combat boots and dresses. I was in so many ways, the Ally Sheedy in the Breakfast Club, but it was the Ghetto version. I always had one person that seemed to “get” me. Sadly, each of these people ended up being let go. I was really close with this woman, Kitty, when I first started. She got let go in a mass of terminations my first year. I was close with Hope for a couple years, yet sadly, she also was fired. In fact, her termination is what led me to take off 6 months under the “doctor’s orders’ while I was pregnant with Dax. I came back, and was still not feeling it. I ended up befriending more people though this time. Sure, I won’t point out that my dear Tammy was laid off (seriously, don’t be friends with me here, I am a curse!), but more specifically, I no longer identified with the rebels in the department. I had at one point connected with the other girl here, Bertha, who was my age. That was fine until she left the company not long before I came back after my hiatus. My newest friends here, though, all seem to have something in common. They are all moms. It is amazing that there are people that for years annoyed the shit out of me, yet the minute momness sunk in, I could talk to them about anything. Sure, their ebonics and sometimes incredibly ignorant views are frustrating, but I can always go back to the common ground. I finally found my niche.
Ok, enough with the random deep thoughts with Gena.
Bobby’s birthday was good. It was chaotic yesterday. From work being so hectic I couldn’t write anything, to getting home and being on the go, I was beat when I finally got to bed.
Ken called me right before I left work to tell me that his folks wanted to schedule a quick video chat to say Happy Birthday to Bobby, but that we needed to do it by 3:30 since his mom would be leaving for singing pretty early. Ok, no problem. We had plans on meeting Ken at Toys R Us for Bobby’s free balloon and crown at 5, so we could easily fit in the call. I also needed to stop by Target before Toys R Us, but we should have plenty of time.
Ken called me when I got home to tell me that he had meant to bring Bobby to the science class with him. I pointed out that they were probably doing birthday stuff at daycare, so it was fine. Ken asked if after the video chat if we could come to the class since the instructor brought a bunch of cool bugs for Bobby to see. Ok, so that put a little bit of a kink in the plans. I ended up getting the kids at 3, doing the video chat (which sucked because Dax didn’t want to be on camera, and really, both of them just wanted to play with the balloons we had filled Bobby’s room with). We then left to go to the bug class.
The class was fun. They were making stick bugs, both out of sticks and pipe cleaners, and then edible ones out of pretzels. The boys had fun doing all of this. They also liked looking at all of the bugs and did really good being quiet.
Then Dax did this thing he does from time to time where he gets this odd forced smile on his face. I ask him what is wrong and he will say, “Just nofing” and shrug, clearly trying to stay brave about something. I offered him a hug and he quickly took me up on the offer. He held on so tight. He never told me what happened, and he never actually cried, but clearly something had spooked him. I hate feeling so helpless in those situations. Luckily he came out of it in about 10 minutes, so not too bad!
After the class, we went to Toys R Us and Bobby really liked them saying Happy Birthday to him over the PA. We looked at toys and just wandered around a bit. We then headed home. Ken stopped and got he and I chicken bowls and I made sandwiches (Bobby’s request) for dinner. After dinner, we sang to Bobby and had him blow out a candle on a cupcake and let the boys play for a half an hour in the balloon room.
Seriously, the balloon room was a bigger hit than I expected. They loved that. I guess I know what we are doing for Dax’s birthday! Placing the balloons, though, was a different story. Poor Ken had to sneak in their over the course of a few hours since Bobby kept waking up. He said he finished around 1 am. Bobby woke up at 2, shuffled into our room and very calmly said that there were a bunch of balloons in his room. He was up off and on through the night, which was uncool for Ken.
As if taking care of a very excited kid all night isn’t enough exhaustion, Luna decided she needed to be annoying. The last few nights she has been getting up at about 2, and then proceeds to whine and scratch at her crate door until one of us lets her out to pee/drink. The problem is, I think that she now knows she can do this and that she will get to go out, so she has been doing it every night. We really need to not give in to this. Part of crate training is that they can handle the crate for the over night. Her puppy bladder has handled it just fine up until this week, so now I think she is just getting spoiled.
Speaking of crate training, Lycos is a sneaky little bitch! LOL! Recently, we noticed Lycos had gained some weight. This is very unlike her, and both Ken and I chalked it up to everything from maybe she just looks bigger compared to Luna’s puppyness or even that she just hides a lot more in order to keep away from Luna. Plus, she is 10 now, and we had assumed her slow to get up in the mornings was from being a stiff old dog. She had been being so good we even let her sleep in her basket instead of her crate each night. All seemed good.
This was of course until Ken caught her in the puppy chow.
Ken found her munching away in the bucket of Luna food. She had clearly been sneaking out of her basket, using our misplaced trust to her advantage. She would then proceed to gorge herself on the yummy that is fatty puppy chow, go back to bed in the basket, a very fat dog. It was like Thanksgiving meals every night for her, and it was taking its toll. Silly dog. Lycos is now back in Bobby’s room, where she has always seemed to be happy, and she is in her crate for now.
I have a lot of work the next couple days. We are going to the land of Costco to get provisions for the party on Saturday. Luckily is isn’t a big trip, but Costco is always an adventure. Note to other parents, if you want your kid to be completely content and good the whole trip? Get them a smoothie. My boys love that crap and they will sit and suck on it until the end. Be prepared for a bathroom stop at the end, but totally worth it.
I also now have dog prints on my freshly cleaned kitchen floor. Damn you rain. Luckily, they come up easy enough. I also have a smidge bit more cleaning. I cleaned the bathroom and maybe I can convince Ken to do the flooring on that tonight. Plus, I moved some stuff to the shed for Ken yesterday before I had to leave. There are a couple boxes of wires that need to be stored, and we need to clear off our desks a bit, and then we are set. Of course, I will need to clean the boys’ rooms again Saturday morning along with my decorating efforts, but that is minor. This is all coming together!!
I am still liking my new hair. The cut is surprisingly forgiving. This morning, I didn’t get as good as a blow drying job done because it was just too humid in the bathroom, but even with my hair not perfectly straight, the messy just seems to work just fine with the style. Maria was so impressed with it, she asked where I had it done and she may go to the college herself. LOL! Although, that does add to my feeling that it is a Mexican cut.
There is something wrong with my foot. There is a spot on my left foot that feels sprained. It seems perfectly reasonable for it to be some kind of Wii related injury. Hell, it could just be some random tripping over a toy. I noticed it gets really stiff and sore when I am just sitting around so when I get up, my whole foot dies. Then when I walk a bit, it relaxes. It isn’t swollen, nor is it bruised looking. My first fear was a blood clot, but based on the symptoms I read, that is not the case. It is annoying, though.
I am worried that poor Dax is a little old man before his time. His leg that he broke seems to bother him when it is cold out. Now, he could just be getting nasty growing pains since it is near the growth plate. He also only complains when he is tired or if we have been walking a while, and even then, he doesn’t limp or swell up or anything. I am bummed if this is a knee injury that would effectively end any kind of athletic skills later. I think we need to call his doc to see about a follow up to make sure it is still healed correctly.
Luna played with a balloon last night and I was impressed that not only did she not pop it, she managed to pick it up twice in her mouth without it popping. Crazy dog.
After spending 2 full days of crazy work, I have been so lazy this morning.
My new look that I seem to be gravitating towards is a combo rock star/hippie. I am loving long flowy skirts and comfy jeans along with my converse or sandals. Then I have my rock star hair and darker makeup to add a bit of edge. It is a strange combo, but at least I can say it is all my own!
I am looking forward to next week when everything settles down. I have been Wii free since our trip because I have had no time. I have been either cleaning or running errands. I would like to work out, but right now, I know that I need to concentrate on the tasks at hand for this weekend and then I can do some other stuff. I figure, based on my calculations, the next big thing to “do” after this weekend isn’t until really Easter. I love doing Easter baskets, so those are always fun. With my folks being out of town on Easter, it does mean that we will have a very mellow just the four of us morning, and since we don’t do church or anything like that, it is likely it will be a pretty blasé holiday. It is also the weekend of our anniversary, but I don’t know that we will do anything that weekend. Perhaps the weekend before or after we will hit up my folks to have them stay the night (with of course the guilt trip that they were gone for a week and missed out on seeing them) at their house and Ken and I can find a little local hotel that has a hot tub in the room (I don’t know why this is so appealing, but we did it before and I loved it) and chill for a night. I had other plans, but they fell through sort of, so I am not going to go crazy on it. But either way, there are no plans in March, which rocks! Maybe it is a perfect time to get to work on the Spring Cleaning projects we have. Especially since it gives us 4 weekends to really work. Woo Hoo!
Good morning world!
I am feeling a smidge out of sorts right now. Not bad, just kind of thoughtful and deep in my head. I got an email from an old friend of mine (it was sent to a lot of her Facebook peeps) asking for donations towards the marathon she was doing in honor of her son, Griffin, who passed away 5 years ago on January 4th. He would have been 12 this year, and she was asking for $12.
I used to work with Griffin’s parents back at Earthlink. Super lovely people and always nice. Of course, through the magic of Facebook, I re-connected with them and learned about what happened to their first born son. I was directed to their Caring Bridge site, where Monique, his mommy, had journaled the last 18 months of his life. I had read them before, and from time to time, I read them. I felt the need to re-read it a bit this morning after her email. I am just so impressed with her strength and spirit during all of this. She lost her son, her mother and had a baby all in 15 months. That is a whole mess of emotion. Yet she still does marathons for the cause to find the cure to childhood cancer.
It is one of those things where I don’t know how any mom can go on after the loss of their baby. I know more women than I would hope that have had to go through this horrible experience. All of them are amazing women and have always shown such poise and strength. I guess today, I just wanted to feel that inspiration of knowing strong women who really in the face of sadness, they have stood tall.
Don’t worry, nothing is wrong with my boys or anyone in my life. I don’t feel depressed or anything, I just feel almost like perhaps I should do something for someone else. Not that I have time, but I wonder if I could volunteer at the hospital or something and work with the maternity ward. Everyone has a cause in their blood, and recently I have been thinking that mine is 100% something to do with mommyhood.
This came to me in an interesting idea for a writing piece I have yet to write. I had noted how, even though work annoys the shit out of me at times, in the last 3 years I have felt so much better about being here. I have spent 9 years at this company, and not always in the best way. In the beginning, I always felt so, well, outcast. I brought a lot of that on myself. I identified myself with being the youngest in the department. I liked being one of the only white folks. I liked that I had an entirely different outlook on life than most of my colleagues. I wore combat boots and dresses. I was in so many ways, the Ally Sheedy in the Breakfast Club, but it was the Ghetto version. I always had one person that seemed to “get” me. Sadly, each of these people ended up being let go. I was really close with this woman, Kitty, when I first started. She got let go in a mass of terminations my first year. I was close with Hope for a couple years, yet sadly, she also was fired. In fact, her termination is what led me to take off 6 months under the “doctor’s orders’ while I was pregnant with Dax. I came back, and was still not feeling it. I ended up befriending more people though this time. Sure, I won’t point out that my dear Tammy was laid off (seriously, don’t be friends with me here, I am a curse!), but more specifically, I no longer identified with the rebels in the department. I had at one point connected with the other girl here, Bertha, who was my age. That was fine until she left the company not long before I came back after my hiatus. My newest friends here, though, all seem to have something in common. They are all moms. It is amazing that there are people that for years annoyed the shit out of me, yet the minute momness sunk in, I could talk to them about anything. Sure, their ebonics and sometimes incredibly ignorant views are frustrating, but I can always go back to the common ground. I finally found my niche.
Ok, enough with the random deep thoughts with Gena.
Bobby’s birthday was good. It was chaotic yesterday. From work being so hectic I couldn’t write anything, to getting home and being on the go, I was beat when I finally got to bed.
Ken called me right before I left work to tell me that his folks wanted to schedule a quick video chat to say Happy Birthday to Bobby, but that we needed to do it by 3:30 since his mom would be leaving for singing pretty early. Ok, no problem. We had plans on meeting Ken at Toys R Us for Bobby’s free balloon and crown at 5, so we could easily fit in the call. I also needed to stop by Target before Toys R Us, but we should have plenty of time.
Ken called me when I got home to tell me that he had meant to bring Bobby to the science class with him. I pointed out that they were probably doing birthday stuff at daycare, so it was fine. Ken asked if after the video chat if we could come to the class since the instructor brought a bunch of cool bugs for Bobby to see. Ok, so that put a little bit of a kink in the plans. I ended up getting the kids at 3, doing the video chat (which sucked because Dax didn’t want to be on camera, and really, both of them just wanted to play with the balloons we had filled Bobby’s room with). We then left to go to the bug class.
The class was fun. They were making stick bugs, both out of sticks and pipe cleaners, and then edible ones out of pretzels. The boys had fun doing all of this. They also liked looking at all of the bugs and did really good being quiet.
Then Dax did this thing he does from time to time where he gets this odd forced smile on his face. I ask him what is wrong and he will say, “Just nofing” and shrug, clearly trying to stay brave about something. I offered him a hug and he quickly took me up on the offer. He held on so tight. He never told me what happened, and he never actually cried, but clearly something had spooked him. I hate feeling so helpless in those situations. Luckily he came out of it in about 10 minutes, so not too bad!
After the class, we went to Toys R Us and Bobby really liked them saying Happy Birthday to him over the PA. We looked at toys and just wandered around a bit. We then headed home. Ken stopped and got he and I chicken bowls and I made sandwiches (Bobby’s request) for dinner. After dinner, we sang to Bobby and had him blow out a candle on a cupcake and let the boys play for a half an hour in the balloon room.
Seriously, the balloon room was a bigger hit than I expected. They loved that. I guess I know what we are doing for Dax’s birthday! Placing the balloons, though, was a different story. Poor Ken had to sneak in their over the course of a few hours since Bobby kept waking up. He said he finished around 1 am. Bobby woke up at 2, shuffled into our room and very calmly said that there were a bunch of balloons in his room. He was up off and on through the night, which was uncool for Ken.
As if taking care of a very excited kid all night isn’t enough exhaustion, Luna decided she needed to be annoying. The last few nights she has been getting up at about 2, and then proceeds to whine and scratch at her crate door until one of us lets her out to pee/drink. The problem is, I think that she now knows she can do this and that she will get to go out, so she has been doing it every night. We really need to not give in to this. Part of crate training is that they can handle the crate for the over night. Her puppy bladder has handled it just fine up until this week, so now I think she is just getting spoiled.
Speaking of crate training, Lycos is a sneaky little bitch! LOL! Recently, we noticed Lycos had gained some weight. This is very unlike her, and both Ken and I chalked it up to everything from maybe she just looks bigger compared to Luna’s puppyness or even that she just hides a lot more in order to keep away from Luna. Plus, she is 10 now, and we had assumed her slow to get up in the mornings was from being a stiff old dog. She had been being so good we even let her sleep in her basket instead of her crate each night. All seemed good.
This was of course until Ken caught her in the puppy chow.
Ken found her munching away in the bucket of Luna food. She had clearly been sneaking out of her basket, using our misplaced trust to her advantage. She would then proceed to gorge herself on the yummy that is fatty puppy chow, go back to bed in the basket, a very fat dog. It was like Thanksgiving meals every night for her, and it was taking its toll. Silly dog. Lycos is now back in Bobby’s room, where she has always seemed to be happy, and she is in her crate for now.
I have a lot of work the next couple days. We are going to the land of Costco to get provisions for the party on Saturday. Luckily is isn’t a big trip, but Costco is always an adventure. Note to other parents, if you want your kid to be completely content and good the whole trip? Get them a smoothie. My boys love that crap and they will sit and suck on it until the end. Be prepared for a bathroom stop at the end, but totally worth it.
I also now have dog prints on my freshly cleaned kitchen floor. Damn you rain. Luckily, they come up easy enough. I also have a smidge bit more cleaning. I cleaned the bathroom and maybe I can convince Ken to do the flooring on that tonight. Plus, I moved some stuff to the shed for Ken yesterday before I had to leave. There are a couple boxes of wires that need to be stored, and we need to clear off our desks a bit, and then we are set. Of course, I will need to clean the boys’ rooms again Saturday morning along with my decorating efforts, but that is minor. This is all coming together!!
I am still liking my new hair. The cut is surprisingly forgiving. This morning, I didn’t get as good as a blow drying job done because it was just too humid in the bathroom, but even with my hair not perfectly straight, the messy just seems to work just fine with the style. Maria was so impressed with it, she asked where I had it done and she may go to the college herself. LOL! Although, that does add to my feeling that it is a Mexican cut.
There is something wrong with my foot. There is a spot on my left foot that feels sprained. It seems perfectly reasonable for it to be some kind of Wii related injury. Hell, it could just be some random tripping over a toy. I noticed it gets really stiff and sore when I am just sitting around so when I get up, my whole foot dies. Then when I walk a bit, it relaxes. It isn’t swollen, nor is it bruised looking. My first fear was a blood clot, but based on the symptoms I read, that is not the case. It is annoying, though.
I am worried that poor Dax is a little old man before his time. His leg that he broke seems to bother him when it is cold out. Now, he could just be getting nasty growing pains since it is near the growth plate. He also only complains when he is tired or if we have been walking a while, and even then, he doesn’t limp or swell up or anything. I am bummed if this is a knee injury that would effectively end any kind of athletic skills later. I think we need to call his doc to see about a follow up to make sure it is still healed correctly.
Luna played with a balloon last night and I was impressed that not only did she not pop it, she managed to pick it up twice in her mouth without it popping. Crazy dog.
After spending 2 full days of crazy work, I have been so lazy this morning.
My new look that I seem to be gravitating towards is a combo rock star/hippie. I am loving long flowy skirts and comfy jeans along with my converse or sandals. Then I have my rock star hair and darker makeup to add a bit of edge. It is a strange combo, but at least I can say it is all my own!
I am looking forward to next week when everything settles down. I have been Wii free since our trip because I have had no time. I have been either cleaning or running errands. I would like to work out, but right now, I know that I need to concentrate on the tasks at hand for this weekend and then I can do some other stuff. I figure, based on my calculations, the next big thing to “do” after this weekend isn’t until really Easter. I love doing Easter baskets, so those are always fun. With my folks being out of town on Easter, it does mean that we will have a very mellow just the four of us morning, and since we don’t do church or anything like that, it is likely it will be a pretty blasé holiday. It is also the weekend of our anniversary, but I don’t know that we will do anything that weekend. Perhaps the weekend before or after we will hit up my folks to have them stay the night (with of course the guilt trip that they were gone for a week and missed out on seeing them) at their house and Ken and I can find a little local hotel that has a hot tub in the room (I don’t know why this is so appealing, but we did it before and I loved it) and chill for a night. I had other plans, but they fell through sort of, so I am not going to go crazy on it. But either way, there are no plans in March, which rocks! Maybe it is a perfect time to get to work on the Spring Cleaning projects we have. Especially since it gives us 4 weekends to really work. Woo Hoo!
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Rock Star!
2-23-10
Based on how long yesterday was, it should be at least Thursday by now.
My morning started ok with a short work period and I got home around 7. I was amazed when I got there. Both the boys were sound asleep, as was Ken. The cats and dogs were quite thrilled to see me and all greeted me with gobs of enthusiasm. Seriously, when they do that, I feel so incredibly loved.
Ken got up when I got there and said that we needed to get the boys moving if we were to leave by 8. Apparently, the house tends to be very slow in the morning so an hour was barely enough time to get ready if there was no help given to the youngest residents. I opted to go ahead and assist my probably cranky young ones.
They were both excited to see me and I got them dressed with actually minimal effort on my part and they stayed mostly cheery. Dax was a little upset about having to go to Maria’s when Bobby got to stay, but I explained to him that the doctor’s office was no fun. I had no idea how correct this statement was.
We got to our appt late. It is normally at 8, but lately they have scheduled it later, so we figured we had time. What we had forgotten was that normally we also take the other kid so we don’t have to wait for Maria’s to open. It wasn’t a big deal as the place was empty.
Bobby had a vision test. I guess he is old enough to do some more advanced testing. He did the one where there are a bunch of “E”’s that he had to explain what direction they faced. I think he did pretty well. It didn’t help that while I was covering his one eye, I poked it pretty good.
Our doc came in and went over gobs of stuff. Bobby had to draw a circle, triangle, plus sign, and a square. He had to sing the alphabet and count to 10. He had to identify colors and stand on one foot. He tried to skip, but having never done that before, it was a little awkward. She said his knowledge had already surpassed the 5 year old milestones (which means, damn, Dax is doing phenomenal), and will learn a lot more stuff this year in kindergarten. She did note his slightly slurred speech. I told her about the testing we had done and she had him talk a bit. It was determined that it wasn’t that he had a problem, but more that he just had learned some sounds wrong on certain words. His “th” came out as a “f” sound for words like three. Yet when he says “thank you”, it is super clear. She was quite encouraged about this. So she told us we just need to work on that a bit more. He also should work with a ball point pen some. This was my observation, since when he tried to write his name and draw, it was hard to make it work like a crayon. I also need to talk to Maria about having her have him only write the name Bobby instead of Robert. It confused him at the doctor’s office.
He was perfectly healthy and she was just in awe that he was already 5. She was there the day he was born, so it is one of those crazy milestones. She is a cool doctor and I am glad she knows us all so well. I actually really like her whole team, too.
She went through his chart and at first thought he had to have shots. I was pretty convinced that last time we gave him gobs of shots so that he was clear until he was 6. The whole point being that this way he was ready to enter school. Luckily, I was right. Unfortunately, though, his age did require some blood work. He had to do cholesterol, and some other little things. Nothing serious, but it did mean 3 tubes of blood.
Giving a kid a shot is not easy nor is it fun for anyone. Now, add to this mix a kid who is terrified of needles after having knocked one out of his arm last time, and even managing to bend said needle. Then, add to this equation the fact that the kid took and hour to just do the nasal spray form of the flu shot. I can tell you that taking blood from said kid was so bad, I think they should have just sedated him.
We had 4 of us holding him down. Even with all that, the kid could still kick and scream with the best of them. In his tension, he kept pushing the needle out of his arm, which meant repeated stabs. Ken held his arm down, but his pressure just to keep him from moving could have been the tourniquet. But that kid just wouldn’t let it happen. We tried several needles and several passes at it. Nothing distracted him and nothing worked. He was miserable. The jabs even made Ken a little woozy since as a fellow needle hater, he knew the pain Bobby was going through. I was shocked that I wasn’t crying. I just knew how much I just wanted it to work so that my baby wouldn’t have to keep screaming. It was heartbreaking, but at the same time I was slightly more task oriented on this one.
After a good 40 minutes of pure torture, they gave up. Instead, they decided to farm us out to the local LabCorp to have them give it a whirl. They stressed that we should not try it that day. I didn’t think the warning was necessary since I knew that kids didn’t need to go through that much hell in one day.
We didn’t leave the doc until well after 10. It was insane. He looked beat. I had brought all of the best distractions for the possibility of shots, yet none of them worked, but getting in that car made him finally relax. We asked him if he wanted some breakfast, so we stopped by BK and got him some grub.
Since it was pretty close to my appt time for my hair, we took Ken home, picked up Bobby’s backpack and headed to the hair college. I filled his backpack with some new stuff including some toy from Toy Story (not one of the main characters, but I figured it would work), a fishing game (that ended up failing) and a giant Star Wars book. I also grabbed things like Optimus Prime and another book he liked. Bobby didn’t eat buy maybe a few bites of his breakfast. He said he wasn’t hungry. I now wish I had grabbed some snacks.
The lady who said she could work on my hair was supposed to be there at 11. We waited and waited and it was now 11:45 when I decided to throw in the towel. We started to walk out when the lady at the front asked if I wanted someone else to do it. I agreed since at this point, I had invested all this time already, might as well see it through. Bobby was actually quite excited that we were going to do my hair and not leave. He was in rare form the whole time.
Before I sat down for the hair cut, I had a call at the college. I was surprised, but it turned out to be the lady who was going to do my hair. She was apologizing profusely, explaining to me that she had to take her sister to the hospital. She was super nice, and I was impressed she called. I wasn’t mad at all. These things happen.
The lady who worked on my hair was named Jackie. Her instructor was kind of in charge of the place while I was there. I adored the instructor. Jackie was nice and a perfectionist, which when you think about it, when someone is doing something new to your hair, this is what you want.
We did the cut first. I had explained shoulder length hair with long layers in the back, keep the long bangs. The cut isn’t as short as I had planned, but I am actually kind of glad. It is less heavy now, and it has a good fullness. Also, when I go shorter in a couple months, they told me it was really easy to mostly leave the slightly grown out layers by that point, and just shorten the back part. Awesome!
Now the problem is, my hair was fried. I knew this. For years, I used the same hair color and my hair was happy with me. Once I ran out of my brand, and I started experimenting with things, I turned it into a rat’s nest. It was too dark, uneven and just wrong. So one of the things we needed to do first was to even it all out. This meant covering the grays and making sure the tones were all correct. This process took some time to apply and I had to then sit for 45 minutes while it soaked in. Mind you, we had been there since 11, and it was now going on 1 o’clock. We still had not even started the highlighting process.
My Bobby was amazing. He checked everything out, played with his toys, watched some video on my iTouch and was charming on every level. The other ladies there were so impressed with him. You could see his patience was wearing and he was exhausted. At one point, he was skipping around and he fell. It wasn’t a bad fall, but the embarrassment crying was swift. He ran to me and buried his head in my lap, all the while my head being covered in tin foil. I stroked his head and he almost fell asleep standing with his head in my lap. Poor kid. It was now 3:15. I texted Ken to tell him not only did he need to retrieve Dax, but if he and Dax could come and rescue Bobby.
My hair, in order to add the red parts, needed to have said parts bleached first. It was an interesting process. They put the bleaching agents on the panels of hair and had it sit. Then, she would go back to the parts bleached, rinse it with a spray bottle and then apply the red dye and recover with more foil. I am shocked I couldn’t hear aliens with how much foil I had on my head.
Ken rescued my Bobby boy after he spent 5 hours there. He was truly amazing. Seriously, I can’t stress how amazing he was. He was patient, well behaved and a total sweetheart.
Ken took both the boys to McDonald’s to let them run and I was going to meet them there after. I never made it.
The red part took a while. We had to keep adding some and I got to sit in the hair helmet thing a few times. I ended up chatting with one of the other students who explained to me why the box hair color sucks. They add some kind of metallic components in it, which is why it only takes like 20 minutes to do the color. But the metallic crap also is why it fades faster and causes oodles of problems when you try to do things like highlights or anything different. She pointed out that if I just went to a beauty supply store and bought the color supplies, it would cost me the same and it doesn’t have the crap in it. Plus, I have more colors to choose from. And I could mix them! This is my new plan for any at home care I do.
Jackie ended up even blow drying my hair. Normally that costs extra, but I am sure that as a student, she had just spent 7 hours on my hair and she wasn’t about to let it go out the door wet. She wanted to see what she had accomplished. She and her instructor was quite thrilled, as was the whole place. I like it a lot. I didn’t like how she blow dried it (it was a little Mexican for my taste), but once it started to settle, it looked awesome. And all of this cost me $103. Not bad!! I gave her a $25 tip since she spent so much time and it looks great. I dried it this morning myself and even though it isn’t as flippy, it looks more like what I would do to my hair, which is cool. I feel all rock star! I will be curious how it looks when I don’t blow dry it. I will have some things to play with.
I am pretty sure I will go back to this place. They were all so very nice and patient. I was impressed, really. Plus, they keep the colors I use on file so that next time they don’t have to spend time matching. They know my history. In a couple months when I go shorter, it will probably only cost me the $7.50 cut charge, which rocks. It is one of those places I would think would be perfect for a kids hair cut, too, based on how cheap it is.
When I got home, I was exhausted. My neck hurt from all the leaning back and to the side for long periods of time. Plus, just sitting in a salon chair for that long isn’t exactly great for one’s back or ass. And it was pretty comfy! Ken got me a couple of burgers from McDonalds, which was greatly appreciated since I had not eaten since 10:30 that morning. After we got the kids to bed, I was able to crawl into my own bed at 9. I am pretty sure I passed right out.
At 2 am, though, one of my kids needed me. Luna was whiny so I thought I would just get her some water. She drank some quickly in front of her crate, but then barreled over the water bowl (spilling it in the process) and bolted to the back door. I guess she had to pee. Holy crap, she had to pee. She sat there for like a minute! She then had more water. Then she pooed. Then more water. It took me 10 minutes to get her back in. Damn dog.
This morning, I had desperate kitties and Luna was once again itching to go out. At least the boys and husband slept ok.
I was supposed to do reports this morning, but of course, they didn’t run correctly. That means I have to wait for them to re-run, which might not happen until later today. I hate that since then I can’t do anything on them until then. Not a huge deal, but I do like to get this stuff done.
I now can’t really take any days off for a little bit. Not a big deal since I don’t have any plans. My next anything is next month for a dentist appt, but that is in the afternoon. I think I also have a doc appt, but once again, I made that for the afternoon. Either way, I need to make a point of accruing some of my time over the next couple months. I don’t have plans, but I want to be prepared in case.
Captain EO is back at Disneyland. I wonder if the boys would want to see that. We were planning on stopping by Disneyland on Sunday on our way back from Grammie’s.
Today, I have more work to do at home. I need to do the once over to keep my original progress clean, and then I am planning on working on the bathroom. The one shelf is my fault as it becomes a dumping ground for rejected outfits, and mostly bras. LOL! So I am going to clean all of that off completely, putting stuff where it belongs. Hell, I may just remove it if possible since that may allow us to finally do the flooring in there. The tiling Ken did in the entry way looked harder than what we need to do in the bathroom, so perhaps if I get it all done this afternoon, he can work on the flooring one of the evenings this week. I am telling you, this work is inspiring and I hope that maybe this summer once it is looking really good I will be able to have some BBQ’s and parties at my house. YAY!
I didn’t know if I mentioned this before, but my brother, Doug, is coming to the party. I am very excited about this. We are getting to know one another and I love that he wants to be a part of my life and of the boys’. Why this is so monumental is that our dad will be there, too. Doug has not spoken to dad in many years. I don’t know the full extent as to why Doug had the falling out. I have suspicion based on just talking to both of them, but either way, I am so proud of Doug for doing this. I did tell my dad to behave. He was joking around asking if he could tease him on things like a job or anything like that, and I told him not to dare. My dad will be good to a point, but either way, I am hoping that it is a good first step to a re-newed relationship between them. Doug seems pretty happy these days, which I know has a lot to do with is fiancé, Elizabeth (who is also coming!). I also like to think that he really is loving the idea that he is now an uncle. Who knows, maybe my boys are actually ambassadors of peace and they didn’t even know it! They are my own little George Clooney and Brad Pitt, making steps with their cuteness to bring people together. Awesome!
The more I look at my hair, the more I like it. It is super weird to have it seem so much more thin. It isn’t thin, so much as it just isn’t as heavy. I was told it made me look younger, which is always a good thing on the eve of a birthday for my kid. He may be 5, but maybe I can look young enough that people wonder if I was once a teenager in trouble. LOL!
My week, although is going to be crazy busy, I think will all be worth it come the weekend. I am getting jazzed about the party (still hoping for no rain!!) and looking forward to Sunday to see Grammie and have Don Jose’s. YUM!
The bouncer people said that it works fine in the rain. Maybe I just need to let the kids play in it anyway. LOL!
As a random side note, looking in a mirror for 8 hours is not good for one’s self esteem. You have a lot of time to see all of your flaws, especially when you are not exactly looking your best. I feel a little better this morning, but it was rough.
I was told not to wash my hair much for a while. I am using conditioner since it is a little angry at me. I am looking forward to it feeling a little softer soon. It isn’t gross or anything. Actually, it feels pretty good, but I much prefer the soft.
Work got chaotic. Reports didn’t run, people are in panic mode. It is amazing how quickly things can fall apart.
CRAP! I need to make cupcakes tonight. I have gobs of cake mix, I just don’t know about frosting. I suppose I could make some, but that might be more trouble than it is worth when I can just jet over to the store to pick up some. I only have to make a dozen for Bobby’s daycare party tomorrow.
I think tomorrow we will also take Bobby to Toys R Us so he can get his balloon and crown.
Ok, question. If someone in your office changed their hair pretty drastically (hmm..is this a personal story? LOL!), do you mention it? And if you mention it, do you only mention it if you like it? Like I wonder about the folks who saw me but didn’t mention my new hair. Not saying I am stressing (I have already decided I like it so I am ok with bad words about it), I am more curious. There is no way everyone will like my new hair. My parents, for instance, will undoubtedly criticize it. Of course, I can cut them slack. They created me, so to some degree, crazy dark hair is not what they wanted. Like I worry Ken doesn’t like it. He said he did, but he seemed hesitant. I like the criticism since it allows me to consider it and maybe change it for next time. Or I can ignore it completely. LOL! I just like to know. Maybe someone came up with something I had not considered, you know?
Apparently all my problem customers have a bee in their bonnet this morning and all have decided to be stupid. I am not happy about it.
Based on how long yesterday was, it should be at least Thursday by now.
My morning started ok with a short work period and I got home around 7. I was amazed when I got there. Both the boys were sound asleep, as was Ken. The cats and dogs were quite thrilled to see me and all greeted me with gobs of enthusiasm. Seriously, when they do that, I feel so incredibly loved.
Ken got up when I got there and said that we needed to get the boys moving if we were to leave by 8. Apparently, the house tends to be very slow in the morning so an hour was barely enough time to get ready if there was no help given to the youngest residents. I opted to go ahead and assist my probably cranky young ones.
They were both excited to see me and I got them dressed with actually minimal effort on my part and they stayed mostly cheery. Dax was a little upset about having to go to Maria’s when Bobby got to stay, but I explained to him that the doctor’s office was no fun. I had no idea how correct this statement was.
We got to our appt late. It is normally at 8, but lately they have scheduled it later, so we figured we had time. What we had forgotten was that normally we also take the other kid so we don’t have to wait for Maria’s to open. It wasn’t a big deal as the place was empty.
Bobby had a vision test. I guess he is old enough to do some more advanced testing. He did the one where there are a bunch of “E”’s that he had to explain what direction they faced. I think he did pretty well. It didn’t help that while I was covering his one eye, I poked it pretty good.
Our doc came in and went over gobs of stuff. Bobby had to draw a circle, triangle, plus sign, and a square. He had to sing the alphabet and count to 10. He had to identify colors and stand on one foot. He tried to skip, but having never done that before, it was a little awkward. She said his knowledge had already surpassed the 5 year old milestones (which means, damn, Dax is doing phenomenal), and will learn a lot more stuff this year in kindergarten. She did note his slightly slurred speech. I told her about the testing we had done and she had him talk a bit. It was determined that it wasn’t that he had a problem, but more that he just had learned some sounds wrong on certain words. His “th” came out as a “f” sound for words like three. Yet when he says “thank you”, it is super clear. She was quite encouraged about this. So she told us we just need to work on that a bit more. He also should work with a ball point pen some. This was my observation, since when he tried to write his name and draw, it was hard to make it work like a crayon. I also need to talk to Maria about having her have him only write the name Bobby instead of Robert. It confused him at the doctor’s office.
He was perfectly healthy and she was just in awe that he was already 5. She was there the day he was born, so it is one of those crazy milestones. She is a cool doctor and I am glad she knows us all so well. I actually really like her whole team, too.
She went through his chart and at first thought he had to have shots. I was pretty convinced that last time we gave him gobs of shots so that he was clear until he was 6. The whole point being that this way he was ready to enter school. Luckily, I was right. Unfortunately, though, his age did require some blood work. He had to do cholesterol, and some other little things. Nothing serious, but it did mean 3 tubes of blood.
Giving a kid a shot is not easy nor is it fun for anyone. Now, add to this mix a kid who is terrified of needles after having knocked one out of his arm last time, and even managing to bend said needle. Then, add to this equation the fact that the kid took and hour to just do the nasal spray form of the flu shot. I can tell you that taking blood from said kid was so bad, I think they should have just sedated him.
We had 4 of us holding him down. Even with all that, the kid could still kick and scream with the best of them. In his tension, he kept pushing the needle out of his arm, which meant repeated stabs. Ken held his arm down, but his pressure just to keep him from moving could have been the tourniquet. But that kid just wouldn’t let it happen. We tried several needles and several passes at it. Nothing distracted him and nothing worked. He was miserable. The jabs even made Ken a little woozy since as a fellow needle hater, he knew the pain Bobby was going through. I was shocked that I wasn’t crying. I just knew how much I just wanted it to work so that my baby wouldn’t have to keep screaming. It was heartbreaking, but at the same time I was slightly more task oriented on this one.
After a good 40 minutes of pure torture, they gave up. Instead, they decided to farm us out to the local LabCorp to have them give it a whirl. They stressed that we should not try it that day. I didn’t think the warning was necessary since I knew that kids didn’t need to go through that much hell in one day.
We didn’t leave the doc until well after 10. It was insane. He looked beat. I had brought all of the best distractions for the possibility of shots, yet none of them worked, but getting in that car made him finally relax. We asked him if he wanted some breakfast, so we stopped by BK and got him some grub.
Since it was pretty close to my appt time for my hair, we took Ken home, picked up Bobby’s backpack and headed to the hair college. I filled his backpack with some new stuff including some toy from Toy Story (not one of the main characters, but I figured it would work), a fishing game (that ended up failing) and a giant Star Wars book. I also grabbed things like Optimus Prime and another book he liked. Bobby didn’t eat buy maybe a few bites of his breakfast. He said he wasn’t hungry. I now wish I had grabbed some snacks.
The lady who said she could work on my hair was supposed to be there at 11. We waited and waited and it was now 11:45 when I decided to throw in the towel. We started to walk out when the lady at the front asked if I wanted someone else to do it. I agreed since at this point, I had invested all this time already, might as well see it through. Bobby was actually quite excited that we were going to do my hair and not leave. He was in rare form the whole time.
Before I sat down for the hair cut, I had a call at the college. I was surprised, but it turned out to be the lady who was going to do my hair. She was apologizing profusely, explaining to me that she had to take her sister to the hospital. She was super nice, and I was impressed she called. I wasn’t mad at all. These things happen.
The lady who worked on my hair was named Jackie. Her instructor was kind of in charge of the place while I was there. I adored the instructor. Jackie was nice and a perfectionist, which when you think about it, when someone is doing something new to your hair, this is what you want.
We did the cut first. I had explained shoulder length hair with long layers in the back, keep the long bangs. The cut isn’t as short as I had planned, but I am actually kind of glad. It is less heavy now, and it has a good fullness. Also, when I go shorter in a couple months, they told me it was really easy to mostly leave the slightly grown out layers by that point, and just shorten the back part. Awesome!
Now the problem is, my hair was fried. I knew this. For years, I used the same hair color and my hair was happy with me. Once I ran out of my brand, and I started experimenting with things, I turned it into a rat’s nest. It was too dark, uneven and just wrong. So one of the things we needed to do first was to even it all out. This meant covering the grays and making sure the tones were all correct. This process took some time to apply and I had to then sit for 45 minutes while it soaked in. Mind you, we had been there since 11, and it was now going on 1 o’clock. We still had not even started the highlighting process.
My Bobby was amazing. He checked everything out, played with his toys, watched some video on my iTouch and was charming on every level. The other ladies there were so impressed with him. You could see his patience was wearing and he was exhausted. At one point, he was skipping around and he fell. It wasn’t a bad fall, but the embarrassment crying was swift. He ran to me and buried his head in my lap, all the while my head being covered in tin foil. I stroked his head and he almost fell asleep standing with his head in my lap. Poor kid. It was now 3:15. I texted Ken to tell him not only did he need to retrieve Dax, but if he and Dax could come and rescue Bobby.
My hair, in order to add the red parts, needed to have said parts bleached first. It was an interesting process. They put the bleaching agents on the panels of hair and had it sit. Then, she would go back to the parts bleached, rinse it with a spray bottle and then apply the red dye and recover with more foil. I am shocked I couldn’t hear aliens with how much foil I had on my head.
Ken rescued my Bobby boy after he spent 5 hours there. He was truly amazing. Seriously, I can’t stress how amazing he was. He was patient, well behaved and a total sweetheart.
Ken took both the boys to McDonald’s to let them run and I was going to meet them there after. I never made it.
The red part took a while. We had to keep adding some and I got to sit in the hair helmet thing a few times. I ended up chatting with one of the other students who explained to me why the box hair color sucks. They add some kind of metallic components in it, which is why it only takes like 20 minutes to do the color. But the metallic crap also is why it fades faster and causes oodles of problems when you try to do things like highlights or anything different. She pointed out that if I just went to a beauty supply store and bought the color supplies, it would cost me the same and it doesn’t have the crap in it. Plus, I have more colors to choose from. And I could mix them! This is my new plan for any at home care I do.
Jackie ended up even blow drying my hair. Normally that costs extra, but I am sure that as a student, she had just spent 7 hours on my hair and she wasn’t about to let it go out the door wet. She wanted to see what she had accomplished. She and her instructor was quite thrilled, as was the whole place. I like it a lot. I didn’t like how she blow dried it (it was a little Mexican for my taste), but once it started to settle, it looked awesome. And all of this cost me $103. Not bad!! I gave her a $25 tip since she spent so much time and it looks great. I dried it this morning myself and even though it isn’t as flippy, it looks more like what I would do to my hair, which is cool. I feel all rock star! I will be curious how it looks when I don’t blow dry it. I will have some things to play with.
I am pretty sure I will go back to this place. They were all so very nice and patient. I was impressed, really. Plus, they keep the colors I use on file so that next time they don’t have to spend time matching. They know my history. In a couple months when I go shorter, it will probably only cost me the $7.50 cut charge, which rocks. It is one of those places I would think would be perfect for a kids hair cut, too, based on how cheap it is.
When I got home, I was exhausted. My neck hurt from all the leaning back and to the side for long periods of time. Plus, just sitting in a salon chair for that long isn’t exactly great for one’s back or ass. And it was pretty comfy! Ken got me a couple of burgers from McDonalds, which was greatly appreciated since I had not eaten since 10:30 that morning. After we got the kids to bed, I was able to crawl into my own bed at 9. I am pretty sure I passed right out.
At 2 am, though, one of my kids needed me. Luna was whiny so I thought I would just get her some water. She drank some quickly in front of her crate, but then barreled over the water bowl (spilling it in the process) and bolted to the back door. I guess she had to pee. Holy crap, she had to pee. She sat there for like a minute! She then had more water. Then she pooed. Then more water. It took me 10 minutes to get her back in. Damn dog.
This morning, I had desperate kitties and Luna was once again itching to go out. At least the boys and husband slept ok.
I was supposed to do reports this morning, but of course, they didn’t run correctly. That means I have to wait for them to re-run, which might not happen until later today. I hate that since then I can’t do anything on them until then. Not a huge deal, but I do like to get this stuff done.
I now can’t really take any days off for a little bit. Not a big deal since I don’t have any plans. My next anything is next month for a dentist appt, but that is in the afternoon. I think I also have a doc appt, but once again, I made that for the afternoon. Either way, I need to make a point of accruing some of my time over the next couple months. I don’t have plans, but I want to be prepared in case.
Captain EO is back at Disneyland. I wonder if the boys would want to see that. We were planning on stopping by Disneyland on Sunday on our way back from Grammie’s.
Today, I have more work to do at home. I need to do the once over to keep my original progress clean, and then I am planning on working on the bathroom. The one shelf is my fault as it becomes a dumping ground for rejected outfits, and mostly bras. LOL! So I am going to clean all of that off completely, putting stuff where it belongs. Hell, I may just remove it if possible since that may allow us to finally do the flooring in there. The tiling Ken did in the entry way looked harder than what we need to do in the bathroom, so perhaps if I get it all done this afternoon, he can work on the flooring one of the evenings this week. I am telling you, this work is inspiring and I hope that maybe this summer once it is looking really good I will be able to have some BBQ’s and parties at my house. YAY!
I didn’t know if I mentioned this before, but my brother, Doug, is coming to the party. I am very excited about this. We are getting to know one another and I love that he wants to be a part of my life and of the boys’. Why this is so monumental is that our dad will be there, too. Doug has not spoken to dad in many years. I don’t know the full extent as to why Doug had the falling out. I have suspicion based on just talking to both of them, but either way, I am so proud of Doug for doing this. I did tell my dad to behave. He was joking around asking if he could tease him on things like a job or anything like that, and I told him not to dare. My dad will be good to a point, but either way, I am hoping that it is a good first step to a re-newed relationship between them. Doug seems pretty happy these days, which I know has a lot to do with is fiancé, Elizabeth (who is also coming!). I also like to think that he really is loving the idea that he is now an uncle. Who knows, maybe my boys are actually ambassadors of peace and they didn’t even know it! They are my own little George Clooney and Brad Pitt, making steps with their cuteness to bring people together. Awesome!
The more I look at my hair, the more I like it. It is super weird to have it seem so much more thin. It isn’t thin, so much as it just isn’t as heavy. I was told it made me look younger, which is always a good thing on the eve of a birthday for my kid. He may be 5, but maybe I can look young enough that people wonder if I was once a teenager in trouble. LOL!
My week, although is going to be crazy busy, I think will all be worth it come the weekend. I am getting jazzed about the party (still hoping for no rain!!) and looking forward to Sunday to see Grammie and have Don Jose’s. YUM!
The bouncer people said that it works fine in the rain. Maybe I just need to let the kids play in it anyway. LOL!
As a random side note, looking in a mirror for 8 hours is not good for one’s self esteem. You have a lot of time to see all of your flaws, especially when you are not exactly looking your best. I feel a little better this morning, but it was rough.
I was told not to wash my hair much for a while. I am using conditioner since it is a little angry at me. I am looking forward to it feeling a little softer soon. It isn’t gross or anything. Actually, it feels pretty good, but I much prefer the soft.
Work got chaotic. Reports didn’t run, people are in panic mode. It is amazing how quickly things can fall apart.
CRAP! I need to make cupcakes tonight. I have gobs of cake mix, I just don’t know about frosting. I suppose I could make some, but that might be more trouble than it is worth when I can just jet over to the store to pick up some. I only have to make a dozen for Bobby’s daycare party tomorrow.
I think tomorrow we will also take Bobby to Toys R Us so he can get his balloon and crown.
Ok, question. If someone in your office changed their hair pretty drastically (hmm..is this a personal story? LOL!), do you mention it? And if you mention it, do you only mention it if you like it? Like I wonder about the folks who saw me but didn’t mention my new hair. Not saying I am stressing (I have already decided I like it so I am ok with bad words about it), I am more curious. There is no way everyone will like my new hair. My parents, for instance, will undoubtedly criticize it. Of course, I can cut them slack. They created me, so to some degree, crazy dark hair is not what they wanted. Like I worry Ken doesn’t like it. He said he did, but he seemed hesitant. I like the criticism since it allows me to consider it and maybe change it for next time. Or I can ignore it completely. LOL! I just like to know. Maybe someone came up with something I had not considered, you know?
Apparently all my problem customers have a bee in their bonnet this morning and all have decided to be stupid. I am not happy about it.
Monday, February 22, 2010
quickie
2-22-10
I am at work, even though it is only for a short time. Bobby’s doctor’s appt is this morning, so I am only at work to make sure everything was in order this morning before I go with Bobby and Ken. I am crossing my fingers that he has no shots. After the doc we are heading to breakfast and then at 11, I have an appt with the local beauty school to have my hair done! YAY! It will be about $100, which isn’t bad. I went in for a consultation on Saturday, and they all seemed more than confident to make it happen, but they did say there was a lot of work. The lady who is doing my hair loved my research and photos and description, and seemed jazzed to do it. I liked her, too. She seemed like one of my people. LOL! So Bobby will hang with me while I get it done. Should be fun!
My weekend was awesome in terms of how freaking productive it was. Saturday morning, we got all the supplies for the party this Saturday. We got goody bags, a piñata and other items. Thursday night we do the Costco run to get food and cake.
Saturday afternoon, I worked on the house. I scrubbed my kitchen, even doing the floor Cinderelly style. It looks great! We got lots of laundry worked on, and then I looked up to see when Planet 51 was playing at the cheap movies. We took the boys to an afternoon showing and then out for ice cream. It was cool!
Sunday we had bowling and then Ken had a birthday party to do. The boys and I returned a tree trimmer to my folks and then while they “napped” I worked some more on the house. I reorganized all of Ken’s Lego into a better arrangement. I also took out the final shelf in the entry way, leaving it completely empty. YAY!!!!! Ken got home and fixed and finished the tiling in the entry way, so it looks really good! We have more work on it in general, but the section we didn’t do requires moving a lot more stuff, and frankly, I wasn’t having it yesterday.
After that, we removed the old table that held the cat’s food and water and replaced it with a shelf and cleaned thoroughly the area and made it look so much nicer. No more clutter over there again! The kitchen as a whole looks great now. We swept the living room and moved Lycos’s crate back into Bobby’s room. The boys and I cleaned their rooms and all the laundry in our house is done and put away. Then, I worked on the back yard. I cleaned up a lot of the driveway, tossing a lot of stuff, and sweeping up the sand Lycos has kicked out of her sandbox. The driveway is so open now, the boys were riding their scooters, which they loved. We have more work on the yard since we need to throw out all the old toys back there and we have a bag of wood chips to put over the muddy areas. Plus, we need to do a few more minor things, but we needed trash can space and from all the cleaning we did this weekend, we ran out of room. LOL!
Of course, the worst part of all of this is, it still has rain in the forecast for Saturday. I am quite upset about this. Of course, it could change. Hell, it was supposed to rain this weekend and it barely did. The rain is coming Wednesday, but that is fine with me. I just really hope the storm doesn’t come until Sunday.
We reserved a bounce house for Saturday, we have a Star Wars game we got at Party City and the Darth Vader piñata. Plus, we got supplies to make tiny light sabers for the goody bags.
I still have to scrub the bathroom this week and Ken has to take a printer to the shed and put a couple of boxes in the closet, but it is coming together quite nicely. I don’t think our house has looked this nice in 10 years. Specifically, I think the last time I was this thorough was actually for our wedding. LOL! At this rate, I even think our bedroom will be clean. I was concerned it would end up being the dumping ground for a few things, including the dogs. Although at this point, since the people coming our mostly our friends, I am going to just let the dogs be outside with us. If the daycare kids end up showing up (no RSVPs!!!! GRRR!!!) then I may need to put them away. I was going to even lock up the cats, but 2 of them will lock themselves up, if Monarch gets out, he will come back, and Ittles will walk outside and then collapse. She doesn’t like to be out.
At this point, I have confirmed 5 kids. Sabrina will be there. My boys, and also Alyssa’s kids, Logan and Peyton. Peyton, though, is only 15 months or so. She probably won’t be running as much. I have a pretty good crowd, though. My folks will be there. Stephanie, Brandy, Alyssa, Chris, Doug and Elizabeth. Andy and Scott have said there is an outside chance they will show. I don’t expect it, but it would be fun. The good news is, even if Bobby’s little friends from daycare don’t show, he will have fun. He doesn’t care since he is only 5!
My email at work isn’t working, so I am slightly annoyed at this. I can’t send my boss a note saying I am leaving. I think I am heading out at about 7.
Another cool thing about it being my friends coming is that it is more relaxed. We can have some drinks, have a laugh and really have a good time.
Between having funky dreams about dying on Saturday night and last night not being able to settle down, I am so tired. Last night was mostly just me going over all of the things I still need to do before Saturday. I know it will be fine, even if we end up being in the house due to rain. Ken pointed out that the kids could even play the Wii and they would all be happy. Luckily I also have the piñata and the other game along with cake, and since I only put 90 minutes of party, if daycare kids show, they might not stay as long anyway. My friends can stay as long as they want. LOL! Isn’t that funny? Although Ken pointed out that really, the 90 minutes is just so I don’t have to stress about entertaining for too long, plus, it gives people an out if they are bored. But the people coming so far, I would be more than happy for them to stay longer.
Being this tired, and feeling a smidge icky aside from that will really help when I walk over to the only other person in the office to tell him I am leaving because I am sick. Of course, he may question me when I have my hair different tomorrow, but I can point out my appt was in the afternoon and I felt a little better. I am running with it. Maybe I need to just say Bobby has an appt. Honestly, he doesn’t give a crap either way. He knows I bust my ass on stuff and rock, so it is all good.
I know Ken didn’t think I should get home before 8. But I think I may leave earlier so I don’t have to deal with the boss. I might stop by the Super K since they are open 24 hours, and maybe I can look for pants for the boys while I kill time.
I am at work, even though it is only for a short time. Bobby’s doctor’s appt is this morning, so I am only at work to make sure everything was in order this morning before I go with Bobby and Ken. I am crossing my fingers that he has no shots. After the doc we are heading to breakfast and then at 11, I have an appt with the local beauty school to have my hair done! YAY! It will be about $100, which isn’t bad. I went in for a consultation on Saturday, and they all seemed more than confident to make it happen, but they did say there was a lot of work. The lady who is doing my hair loved my research and photos and description, and seemed jazzed to do it. I liked her, too. She seemed like one of my people. LOL! So Bobby will hang with me while I get it done. Should be fun!
My weekend was awesome in terms of how freaking productive it was. Saturday morning, we got all the supplies for the party this Saturday. We got goody bags, a piñata and other items. Thursday night we do the Costco run to get food and cake.
Saturday afternoon, I worked on the house. I scrubbed my kitchen, even doing the floor Cinderelly style. It looks great! We got lots of laundry worked on, and then I looked up to see when Planet 51 was playing at the cheap movies. We took the boys to an afternoon showing and then out for ice cream. It was cool!
Sunday we had bowling and then Ken had a birthday party to do. The boys and I returned a tree trimmer to my folks and then while they “napped” I worked some more on the house. I reorganized all of Ken’s Lego into a better arrangement. I also took out the final shelf in the entry way, leaving it completely empty. YAY!!!!! Ken got home and fixed and finished the tiling in the entry way, so it looks really good! We have more work on it in general, but the section we didn’t do requires moving a lot more stuff, and frankly, I wasn’t having it yesterday.
After that, we removed the old table that held the cat’s food and water and replaced it with a shelf and cleaned thoroughly the area and made it look so much nicer. No more clutter over there again! The kitchen as a whole looks great now. We swept the living room and moved Lycos’s crate back into Bobby’s room. The boys and I cleaned their rooms and all the laundry in our house is done and put away. Then, I worked on the back yard. I cleaned up a lot of the driveway, tossing a lot of stuff, and sweeping up the sand Lycos has kicked out of her sandbox. The driveway is so open now, the boys were riding their scooters, which they loved. We have more work on the yard since we need to throw out all the old toys back there and we have a bag of wood chips to put over the muddy areas. Plus, we need to do a few more minor things, but we needed trash can space and from all the cleaning we did this weekend, we ran out of room. LOL!
Of course, the worst part of all of this is, it still has rain in the forecast for Saturday. I am quite upset about this. Of course, it could change. Hell, it was supposed to rain this weekend and it barely did. The rain is coming Wednesday, but that is fine with me. I just really hope the storm doesn’t come until Sunday.
We reserved a bounce house for Saturday, we have a Star Wars game we got at Party City and the Darth Vader piñata. Plus, we got supplies to make tiny light sabers for the goody bags.
I still have to scrub the bathroom this week and Ken has to take a printer to the shed and put a couple of boxes in the closet, but it is coming together quite nicely. I don’t think our house has looked this nice in 10 years. Specifically, I think the last time I was this thorough was actually for our wedding. LOL! At this rate, I even think our bedroom will be clean. I was concerned it would end up being the dumping ground for a few things, including the dogs. Although at this point, since the people coming our mostly our friends, I am going to just let the dogs be outside with us. If the daycare kids end up showing up (no RSVPs!!!! GRRR!!!) then I may need to put them away. I was going to even lock up the cats, but 2 of them will lock themselves up, if Monarch gets out, he will come back, and Ittles will walk outside and then collapse. She doesn’t like to be out.
At this point, I have confirmed 5 kids. Sabrina will be there. My boys, and also Alyssa’s kids, Logan and Peyton. Peyton, though, is only 15 months or so. She probably won’t be running as much. I have a pretty good crowd, though. My folks will be there. Stephanie, Brandy, Alyssa, Chris, Doug and Elizabeth. Andy and Scott have said there is an outside chance they will show. I don’t expect it, but it would be fun. The good news is, even if Bobby’s little friends from daycare don’t show, he will have fun. He doesn’t care since he is only 5!
My email at work isn’t working, so I am slightly annoyed at this. I can’t send my boss a note saying I am leaving. I think I am heading out at about 7.
Another cool thing about it being my friends coming is that it is more relaxed. We can have some drinks, have a laugh and really have a good time.
Between having funky dreams about dying on Saturday night and last night not being able to settle down, I am so tired. Last night was mostly just me going over all of the things I still need to do before Saturday. I know it will be fine, even if we end up being in the house due to rain. Ken pointed out that the kids could even play the Wii and they would all be happy. Luckily I also have the piñata and the other game along with cake, and since I only put 90 minutes of party, if daycare kids show, they might not stay as long anyway. My friends can stay as long as they want. LOL! Isn’t that funny? Although Ken pointed out that really, the 90 minutes is just so I don’t have to stress about entertaining for too long, plus, it gives people an out if they are bored. But the people coming so far, I would be more than happy for them to stay longer.
Being this tired, and feeling a smidge icky aside from that will really help when I walk over to the only other person in the office to tell him I am leaving because I am sick. Of course, he may question me when I have my hair different tomorrow, but I can point out my appt was in the afternoon and I felt a little better. I am running with it. Maybe I need to just say Bobby has an appt. Honestly, he doesn’t give a crap either way. He knows I bust my ass on stuff and rock, so it is all good.
I know Ken didn’t think I should get home before 8. But I think I may leave earlier so I don’t have to deal with the boss. I might stop by the Super K since they are open 24 hours, and maybe I can look for pants for the boys while I kill time.
Friday, February 19, 2010
Super Groovy
2-19-10
It doesn’t seem to be a good morning so far. I got up to Luna whining. I then went into the bathroom to take my shower only to be delayed for some time with a crazy bloody nose. Like blood for days. It was all over me. I had to take my shower with something in my nose. I know, being in hot water and steam probably didn’t help, but I needed to shower to get ready, so I did it quick. It seems to have subsided for now, but I had never had the sensation of blood down my throat before, and it was not pleasant.
As if those things were not bad enough, I banged into the kids’ chairs. Of course, this was just par for the course after last night I managed to step on a piece of Lego barefoot, smash my finger into the window sill, and then almost cut it open with a knife (it would have, but luckily I was only using a butter knife, so I was only badly bruised). Seriously, I need to look out for falling pianos today.
I think that these injuries are all trade offs for the fantastic purse I found last night at Target. I am loving the Converse One Star line they have. They have given me a wonderful scarf, a couple of hats, and my wonderful sparkly black shoes. Last night, they did it again with the coolest purse I have ever laid my eyes on. It is black, kind of hobo style with gobs of little zippers and extra pouches. It is my rock star purse, and I am telling you, I am desperately in love. It was way pricier than I like to spend. And normally, this is something I would wait for sales or clearance, or even another pass at it to see if it still called out to me. But I don’t often have love at first sight like this, and I couldn’t pass it up for fear that it would be gone. I almost want to leave it out on my desk at work to show it off.
Bobby enjoyed the hell out of movie day with Daddy. The only real problem was he was a bit grouchy from lack of any down time. Either that or since he has been on his best behavior the last 3 days because he knew the movie was on the line if he did not, he didn’t have any new incentive to be good.
I really like our neighbors, but our next door neighbor, Mike, can be a pain in the ass. He is this older man who has lived alone for longer than I know. Over the last 11 years, we have learned a lot about him because he is the typical chatty, nosy neighbor. Perfect neighbor to watch the house when you are gone and to find out neighborhood gossip, but if you want to get into your house quickly and he is out front, best to pretend to be on the phone so he doesn’t stop you. Yesterday, he was standing on our porch when I pulled up, Ken clearly being held hostage by the chatting. Ken was pulling weeds and making himself busy, clearly looking for the opportunity to bail. The problem was, Mike was standing on the porch steps, so he was blocking freedom. I walked up, asked where Bobby was, and thankfully, he was safe inside. Mike talked and talked for a good 15 minutes, when suddenly he moved a bit so Ken was able to bound up onto the porch. The good man that he is, he also threw me a rope with the sentence, “Hey, babe, I wanted to show you that thing before we leave.” YAY! Mike headed off, and we were free!! Turned out, poor Ken had been out there for a good 20 minutes before I arrived. Yie.
Ken is teaching Bobby how to cross the street safely. He had Bobby take Dax to daycare yesterday. He watched, of course, but he was to look both ways and really make sure not to jump out into traffic. When we picked up Dax, Ken had Bobby go get him. I was a little freaked, despite the street we live on being incredibly quiet traffic wise. But they did it good, and it was super cute to watch Bobby escort his little brother home.
Ken and I had been joking about how some of the critters in our house are hopelessly devoted to me. Monarch was circling me when I got home, and when we went outside to attend to a crying Bobby, Luna not only ran up to me, she promptly curled up on my feet and proceeded to lick them. She was actually kissing my feet. Once back inside, I told Ken that at least Ittles loved him more. He said he wasn’t so sure, and I said that although I know Ittles loves me, she would totally choose Ken over me. She must have heard me and assumed I was unsure of her love. Seriously, this cat was at my feet the rest of the night, rubbing up against my legs, sitting on my lap, all kinds of affection. She NEVER does this with me. I guess my status of coolest mom in the world stands at least in the eyes of my kids and fur kids alike.
It is probably good no one sits back in my little corner since I have been dancing to Beastie Boys. LOL!
They removed Tammy’s old monitor, now, so her desk is just a desk. I just cleaned up some of it, moved things into a more uniform setting. It is now my desk as far as I am concerned, so I think I need to claim it. Not saying I don’t want my Tammy back, but for now, I think if I make this desk look used, they won’t put anyone else, or anything else, back here with me. Maybe I need to go get some big ole plants to put back there so that I can make it look nice. I have my little bamboo shoot now at my desk. It is one of those plants that is next to impossible to kill off.
I am on a Twitter Friday. Since Stephanie gave up Facebook for Lent, she has taken to the land of Twitter. Being without Facebook is hard. I know. So I am trying to Tweet more as to give her some amusement. Plus, it is a pretty popular forum for funny, so I might as well embrace it. She suggested more tweeting for today, so I am going to try to Tweet at least once an hour. Hopefully it won’t be uber lame stuff, but it might be fun either way. It also is helpful that the net is still not blocked, so I have been able to go directly to the site as opposed to doing them via my phone. Although, once I leave work, I will need to do that.
Dude, it is supposed to rain all weekend. That does make certain activities out of the question.
CRAP!!!!!!! I just looked at the 10 day forecast and it looks like it is supposed to rain on Bobby’s party day!!!!!! CRAP!!!!!!!! Ok, don’t panic. Weather conditions change. I will need to monitor it. If it rains, though, I need to make sure I have things to do. It may mean the party is inside. Not a problem, but it means that my house needs to be more than clean, it needs to be uber clean. CRAP!!!!!! Ok, don’t panic. Breathe. Maybe I can do some kind of craft with the kids. Like they can make their own hats or something. That would work! I could set up the living room to do that. I can close off the cats and dogs into our bedroom. I can do this!!!! Breathe!!!! CRAP!!!!!!!! On the plus side, if it rains, I don’t need to spend money on the bounce house. Of course, I do need to spend that money on crafts. LOL!
I think I had a dream that someone asked me if I was getting a new tattoo, and I think I got one. Hmm..What was that dream? Part of me wants to get a cute little tattoo on my wrist. Like a bracelet. Maybe made of little stars. It is probably good that Ken is my husband since I wouldn’t be shocked if I was more covered in ink without him.
I feel self conscious today. I wore my wonderful, soft, periwinkle sweater today. This isn’t a problem, except I normally wear a cami under it since it is over sized. Now, it falls off of one or both shoulders, which isn’t a problem if I am out and about, but at work, I am not sure flashing bra is cool. I have tucked a tiny portion under my strap in order to keep it up and not look bad. I also am wearing lighter colored jeans, which I never do. Another feeling that it is wrong. Luckily I have my wonderful sparkly shoes today. Maybe I need to carry my rock star purse with me when I leave my desk just to have the awesome accessory. LOL!
I think I may do my hair cut first, then go back and do color later. Not that I don’t want the whole new look at once, but I am thinking of expense. I mentioned to Ken as we passed one of the beauty schools that I was going to go see if they could do my hair like I wanted, and said they may be able to save me a few bucks. He then asks me how much and I said maybe they could do it all for like $50 or $75, and he looked shocked. He says, “that is cheap?” LOL! I pointed out the entire cut and color at most places is going to be well over $100. I think I need to ease him into this transformation.
I am feeling so good right now! I feel all perky and groovy. I feel a little icky from the gum I was chewing, but other than that, I feel on top of the world. I wonder what that is about! Well, I am rocking my Erasure this morning, so perhaps that has something to do with it. I also have my rock star purse. LOL!!
I love it when random things pop into my head. Yesterday Bobby had some Gatorade and all of the sudden the old 80’s commercial for them came into my head. Just now, I had this strange memory of Ken giving me some new kind of perfume. I realize now it was part of a dream last night, but why in the world did that memory come into my head at this exact moment? I wasn’t putting on perfume or smelling anything. So odd. I think my brain is possessed.
I have to admit, it is really cool that my company seems to be getting more tech savvy. Just now, we got an email about a new phone system and the training we got an email on training sign ups. Normally, we email them back and they put us on the list. This time, there was a web site to go to that was all automated. It rocked!
Even though I am thinking I would like to get my hair at least cut this weekend, I think I will wait since I have so much work to do on the house. Besides, I wasn’t suppose to do my hair until the spring. Of course, when I get my mind set on something specific, it is hard to sway me or to get me to wait. I am very impatient.
Interesting memories from today’s Erasure selection. Even though they make me a little sad, it is not like a depressing sad. If anything, they actually make me smile.
It doesn’t seem to be a good morning so far. I got up to Luna whining. I then went into the bathroom to take my shower only to be delayed for some time with a crazy bloody nose. Like blood for days. It was all over me. I had to take my shower with something in my nose. I know, being in hot water and steam probably didn’t help, but I needed to shower to get ready, so I did it quick. It seems to have subsided for now, but I had never had the sensation of blood down my throat before, and it was not pleasant.
As if those things were not bad enough, I banged into the kids’ chairs. Of course, this was just par for the course after last night I managed to step on a piece of Lego barefoot, smash my finger into the window sill, and then almost cut it open with a knife (it would have, but luckily I was only using a butter knife, so I was only badly bruised). Seriously, I need to look out for falling pianos today.
I think that these injuries are all trade offs for the fantastic purse I found last night at Target. I am loving the Converse One Star line they have. They have given me a wonderful scarf, a couple of hats, and my wonderful sparkly black shoes. Last night, they did it again with the coolest purse I have ever laid my eyes on. It is black, kind of hobo style with gobs of little zippers and extra pouches. It is my rock star purse, and I am telling you, I am desperately in love. It was way pricier than I like to spend. And normally, this is something I would wait for sales or clearance, or even another pass at it to see if it still called out to me. But I don’t often have love at first sight like this, and I couldn’t pass it up for fear that it would be gone. I almost want to leave it out on my desk at work to show it off.
Bobby enjoyed the hell out of movie day with Daddy. The only real problem was he was a bit grouchy from lack of any down time. Either that or since he has been on his best behavior the last 3 days because he knew the movie was on the line if he did not, he didn’t have any new incentive to be good.
I really like our neighbors, but our next door neighbor, Mike, can be a pain in the ass. He is this older man who has lived alone for longer than I know. Over the last 11 years, we have learned a lot about him because he is the typical chatty, nosy neighbor. Perfect neighbor to watch the house when you are gone and to find out neighborhood gossip, but if you want to get into your house quickly and he is out front, best to pretend to be on the phone so he doesn’t stop you. Yesterday, he was standing on our porch when I pulled up, Ken clearly being held hostage by the chatting. Ken was pulling weeds and making himself busy, clearly looking for the opportunity to bail. The problem was, Mike was standing on the porch steps, so he was blocking freedom. I walked up, asked where Bobby was, and thankfully, he was safe inside. Mike talked and talked for a good 15 minutes, when suddenly he moved a bit so Ken was able to bound up onto the porch. The good man that he is, he also threw me a rope with the sentence, “Hey, babe, I wanted to show you that thing before we leave.” YAY! Mike headed off, and we were free!! Turned out, poor Ken had been out there for a good 20 minutes before I arrived. Yie.
Ken is teaching Bobby how to cross the street safely. He had Bobby take Dax to daycare yesterday. He watched, of course, but he was to look both ways and really make sure not to jump out into traffic. When we picked up Dax, Ken had Bobby go get him. I was a little freaked, despite the street we live on being incredibly quiet traffic wise. But they did it good, and it was super cute to watch Bobby escort his little brother home.
Ken and I had been joking about how some of the critters in our house are hopelessly devoted to me. Monarch was circling me when I got home, and when we went outside to attend to a crying Bobby, Luna not only ran up to me, she promptly curled up on my feet and proceeded to lick them. She was actually kissing my feet. Once back inside, I told Ken that at least Ittles loved him more. He said he wasn’t so sure, and I said that although I know Ittles loves me, she would totally choose Ken over me. She must have heard me and assumed I was unsure of her love. Seriously, this cat was at my feet the rest of the night, rubbing up against my legs, sitting on my lap, all kinds of affection. She NEVER does this with me. I guess my status of coolest mom in the world stands at least in the eyes of my kids and fur kids alike.
It is probably good no one sits back in my little corner since I have been dancing to Beastie Boys. LOL!
They removed Tammy’s old monitor, now, so her desk is just a desk. I just cleaned up some of it, moved things into a more uniform setting. It is now my desk as far as I am concerned, so I think I need to claim it. Not saying I don’t want my Tammy back, but for now, I think if I make this desk look used, they won’t put anyone else, or anything else, back here with me. Maybe I need to go get some big ole plants to put back there so that I can make it look nice. I have my little bamboo shoot now at my desk. It is one of those plants that is next to impossible to kill off.
I am on a Twitter Friday. Since Stephanie gave up Facebook for Lent, she has taken to the land of Twitter. Being without Facebook is hard. I know. So I am trying to Tweet more as to give her some amusement. Plus, it is a pretty popular forum for funny, so I might as well embrace it. She suggested more tweeting for today, so I am going to try to Tweet at least once an hour. Hopefully it won’t be uber lame stuff, but it might be fun either way. It also is helpful that the net is still not blocked, so I have been able to go directly to the site as opposed to doing them via my phone. Although, once I leave work, I will need to do that.
Dude, it is supposed to rain all weekend. That does make certain activities out of the question.
CRAP!!!!!!! I just looked at the 10 day forecast and it looks like it is supposed to rain on Bobby’s party day!!!!!! CRAP!!!!!!!! Ok, don’t panic. Weather conditions change. I will need to monitor it. If it rains, though, I need to make sure I have things to do. It may mean the party is inside. Not a problem, but it means that my house needs to be more than clean, it needs to be uber clean. CRAP!!!!!! Ok, don’t panic. Breathe. Maybe I can do some kind of craft with the kids. Like they can make their own hats or something. That would work! I could set up the living room to do that. I can close off the cats and dogs into our bedroom. I can do this!!!! Breathe!!!! CRAP!!!!!!!! On the plus side, if it rains, I don’t need to spend money on the bounce house. Of course, I do need to spend that money on crafts. LOL!
I think I had a dream that someone asked me if I was getting a new tattoo, and I think I got one. Hmm..What was that dream? Part of me wants to get a cute little tattoo on my wrist. Like a bracelet. Maybe made of little stars. It is probably good that Ken is my husband since I wouldn’t be shocked if I was more covered in ink without him.
I feel self conscious today. I wore my wonderful, soft, periwinkle sweater today. This isn’t a problem, except I normally wear a cami under it since it is over sized. Now, it falls off of one or both shoulders, which isn’t a problem if I am out and about, but at work, I am not sure flashing bra is cool. I have tucked a tiny portion under my strap in order to keep it up and not look bad. I also am wearing lighter colored jeans, which I never do. Another feeling that it is wrong. Luckily I have my wonderful sparkly shoes today. Maybe I need to carry my rock star purse with me when I leave my desk just to have the awesome accessory. LOL!
I think I may do my hair cut first, then go back and do color later. Not that I don’t want the whole new look at once, but I am thinking of expense. I mentioned to Ken as we passed one of the beauty schools that I was going to go see if they could do my hair like I wanted, and said they may be able to save me a few bucks. He then asks me how much and I said maybe they could do it all for like $50 or $75, and he looked shocked. He says, “that is cheap?” LOL! I pointed out the entire cut and color at most places is going to be well over $100. I think I need to ease him into this transformation.
I am feeling so good right now! I feel all perky and groovy. I feel a little icky from the gum I was chewing, but other than that, I feel on top of the world. I wonder what that is about! Well, I am rocking my Erasure this morning, so perhaps that has something to do with it. I also have my rock star purse. LOL!!
I love it when random things pop into my head. Yesterday Bobby had some Gatorade and all of the sudden the old 80’s commercial for them came into my head. Just now, I had this strange memory of Ken giving me some new kind of perfume. I realize now it was part of a dream last night, but why in the world did that memory come into my head at this exact moment? I wasn’t putting on perfume or smelling anything. So odd. I think my brain is possessed.
I have to admit, it is really cool that my company seems to be getting more tech savvy. Just now, we got an email about a new phone system and the training we got an email on training sign ups. Normally, we email them back and they put us on the list. This time, there was a web site to go to that was all automated. It rocked!
Even though I am thinking I would like to get my hair at least cut this weekend, I think I will wait since I have so much work to do on the house. Besides, I wasn’t suppose to do my hair until the spring. Of course, when I get my mind set on something specific, it is hard to sway me or to get me to wait. I am very impatient.
Interesting memories from today’s Erasure selection. Even though they make me a little sad, it is not like a depressing sad. If anything, they actually make me smile.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
feeling much better
2-18-10
My exhaustion is getting tiring.
Yesterday I flaked on my exercise because of exactly how wiped out I felt. Based on how Dax had been feeling, I assume I have been fighting a similar cold. I have felt hot even though Ken said I was clammy. I did end up relaxing (gasp!) and watched one of the Celebrity Sex Rehab shows, which is one of my guilty pleasures. It felt good to not stress.
It was just Dax and I since Ken had Bobby at his science class. Dax and I played some Toy Story on the Wii and he then went outside to play while I made dinner. It was super pleasant.
Bobby sounded so excited about his science class experience. He got to make this paper crab and brought home “ocean water” which was just blue Gatorade. LOL! I think that Ken may need to take him to every class. It will be a fun outing, plus, it gets him used to some more class time. It also lets Dax and I have some one on one time.
I gave up on many of my Facebook games. After having no net for a few days last week, and then going on vacation where I wasn’t on the net much for 3 days, I think the initial withdrawals subsided and I found myself feeling like they are just too much work. I will still maintain the one game, Farmville, only because it still has some fun for me. Of course, while I was dinking around last night while Ken and the boys were video chatting with Grandma and Grandpa, I wandered into Yoville and ended up being able to chat with Holly. We had a lot of fun, going from house to house, sitting in the living rooms, going to the diner, all the while chatting. It was pretty funny. We can all go to virtual dinner! LOL!! I may have to check in on that from time to time. Either that, or at least clean my houses up so we have a nice place to visit at.
I had funky dreams last night that included a Glee sequence complete with the head teacher (who let me sit on his lap and sang to me!). It also had a part in which Ken and I were leaving a pawn shop that also rented cars and we came across the Dread Pirate Roberts driving a station wagon. When we looked at him, he shrugged with this, “look, I have to get around somehow” look. LOL!
Of course, I think my hair is now a little scared about my cut. This morning it looks fab and it may be trying to tell me to not chop it all off. I won’t be fooled since it also seemed to be a bitch to comb out this morning. The one thing I will miss from having longer hair is that right now I can tie my hair up into a bun without using a hair tie. That to me is pretty damn cool. Even so, I am jonzing to go get my new style!
I am a little nervous about Bobby’s party. None of his daycare friends have RSVPed! Of course, I know that many people don’t have manners and they don’t RSVP when asked, so I will prep for them being there. I also need to get the bounce house!! I don’t know how far in advance we need to reserve one. The good news is it doesn’t need to be a specific theme. It would be cool if I could find Star Wars, but not crucial. This weekend I am going shopping for the goody bags and other decorations. I don’t need to do Costco until next week on Thursday. So far I have my folks coming, Brandy, Alyssa and her family, and Chris. I need to invite Grammie, but since we are going out to her place the next day, I don’t think she would come, but it is nice to invite. I made the Facebook event, which cracked me up that I was able to do that. And not to say that I don’t want any of those people to come, I just really really really really really really hope that at least one kid from daycare shows. I know how much it would mean to Bobby.
My net at work has been temporarily unblocked. We used to only get 30 minutes of time on specific sites like Facebook and Twitter, but even when it was open, there were still lots of sites off limits. Recently, though, they were upgrading our servers in order to accommodate some new features we are going to be using. I have even heard rumor that we would be using some form of Gmail for our work mail, which could be interesting. We are soon to get an internal chatting program, complete with web cams, which means no more bad hair days for me! I am not going to get used to having full access again, and I have mostly resisted the urge to go wild. This morning, however, I did go on Twitter twice, and I posted a little piece on Kevin Smith on both my Facebook page and my secondary blog page. Will I get in trouble for this? Possibly. Of course, I only took all of 5 minutes and my understanding is that for the most part no one cares as long as you don’t abuse the net too much. But rules change a lot around here, so let’s hope I didn’t piss off the wrong person.
Jenni has suggested I hit up one of the beauty schools for my cut and color. This might be an excellent idea since it will cost me gobs less. I of course worry they will fuck it up, but really, I don’t think they put people out on the floor who can’t handle it. I think one of my errands this weekend will be to go check out some places to see about pricing and how long it will all take. I know of two local beauty schools, so I will check with them, too.
I love it that my boss called in to say he was running late and wouldn’t be in until 9. Mind you, this man often doesn’t roll in until 9, so I am not sure how he feels that this is the time to call in.
I need a new ball for one of my earrings. I also need a new earring. One of them is smaller than the others. Of course, only I notice these things. These earrings have been in longer than I can remember which is a long time. I wonder if it would feel odd to not have them anymore. Not that I want to get rid of them. They are so who I am!
It worries me when I feel this chipper. Like who is going to piss me off?
You know, I actually printed out the application for next season’s Biggest Loser. No joke. Ralph mentioned on the show biz beat that they were casting for this next season. So I figured I would check it out. It is a year’s commitment, with only a $250K payout if I win. Of course, I don’t even know that I would be chosen. Either way, I could not support my family if I wasn’t working for a year. It would be cool to have that kind of help to lose weight. Plus, I am so freaking competitive, I might actually do pretty damn well. Then again, they might force me to eat some kind of veggies, so that might be bad. LOL! Either way, I think it would be fun, but I don’t think I am in a position to try since if I made it, I don’t know that I could do it.
One of the questions the application asks, though, is what do your friends say your best qualities are and what are your worst. I don’t actually know the answer to these. Sure, I know things they like and dislike, but the worst and best? Not sure. So speak up folks, so maybe I can fill it out just for the hell of it.
My exhaustion is getting tiring.
Yesterday I flaked on my exercise because of exactly how wiped out I felt. Based on how Dax had been feeling, I assume I have been fighting a similar cold. I have felt hot even though Ken said I was clammy. I did end up relaxing (gasp!) and watched one of the Celebrity Sex Rehab shows, which is one of my guilty pleasures. It felt good to not stress.
It was just Dax and I since Ken had Bobby at his science class. Dax and I played some Toy Story on the Wii and he then went outside to play while I made dinner. It was super pleasant.
Bobby sounded so excited about his science class experience. He got to make this paper crab and brought home “ocean water” which was just blue Gatorade. LOL! I think that Ken may need to take him to every class. It will be a fun outing, plus, it gets him used to some more class time. It also lets Dax and I have some one on one time.
I gave up on many of my Facebook games. After having no net for a few days last week, and then going on vacation where I wasn’t on the net much for 3 days, I think the initial withdrawals subsided and I found myself feeling like they are just too much work. I will still maintain the one game, Farmville, only because it still has some fun for me. Of course, while I was dinking around last night while Ken and the boys were video chatting with Grandma and Grandpa, I wandered into Yoville and ended up being able to chat with Holly. We had a lot of fun, going from house to house, sitting in the living rooms, going to the diner, all the while chatting. It was pretty funny. We can all go to virtual dinner! LOL!! I may have to check in on that from time to time. Either that, or at least clean my houses up so we have a nice place to visit at.
I had funky dreams last night that included a Glee sequence complete with the head teacher (who let me sit on his lap and sang to me!). It also had a part in which Ken and I were leaving a pawn shop that also rented cars and we came across the Dread Pirate Roberts driving a station wagon. When we looked at him, he shrugged with this, “look, I have to get around somehow” look. LOL!
Of course, I think my hair is now a little scared about my cut. This morning it looks fab and it may be trying to tell me to not chop it all off. I won’t be fooled since it also seemed to be a bitch to comb out this morning. The one thing I will miss from having longer hair is that right now I can tie my hair up into a bun without using a hair tie. That to me is pretty damn cool. Even so, I am jonzing to go get my new style!
I am a little nervous about Bobby’s party. None of his daycare friends have RSVPed! Of course, I know that many people don’t have manners and they don’t RSVP when asked, so I will prep for them being there. I also need to get the bounce house!! I don’t know how far in advance we need to reserve one. The good news is it doesn’t need to be a specific theme. It would be cool if I could find Star Wars, but not crucial. This weekend I am going shopping for the goody bags and other decorations. I don’t need to do Costco until next week on Thursday. So far I have my folks coming, Brandy, Alyssa and her family, and Chris. I need to invite Grammie, but since we are going out to her place the next day, I don’t think she would come, but it is nice to invite. I made the Facebook event, which cracked me up that I was able to do that. And not to say that I don’t want any of those people to come, I just really really really really really really hope that at least one kid from daycare shows. I know how much it would mean to Bobby.
My net at work has been temporarily unblocked. We used to only get 30 minutes of time on specific sites like Facebook and Twitter, but even when it was open, there were still lots of sites off limits. Recently, though, they were upgrading our servers in order to accommodate some new features we are going to be using. I have even heard rumor that we would be using some form of Gmail for our work mail, which could be interesting. We are soon to get an internal chatting program, complete with web cams, which means no more bad hair days for me! I am not going to get used to having full access again, and I have mostly resisted the urge to go wild. This morning, however, I did go on Twitter twice, and I posted a little piece on Kevin Smith on both my Facebook page and my secondary blog page. Will I get in trouble for this? Possibly. Of course, I only took all of 5 minutes and my understanding is that for the most part no one cares as long as you don’t abuse the net too much. But rules change a lot around here, so let’s hope I didn’t piss off the wrong person.
Jenni has suggested I hit up one of the beauty schools for my cut and color. This might be an excellent idea since it will cost me gobs less. I of course worry they will fuck it up, but really, I don’t think they put people out on the floor who can’t handle it. I think one of my errands this weekend will be to go check out some places to see about pricing and how long it will all take. I know of two local beauty schools, so I will check with them, too.
I love it that my boss called in to say he was running late and wouldn’t be in until 9. Mind you, this man often doesn’t roll in until 9, so I am not sure how he feels that this is the time to call in.
I need a new ball for one of my earrings. I also need a new earring. One of them is smaller than the others. Of course, only I notice these things. These earrings have been in longer than I can remember which is a long time. I wonder if it would feel odd to not have them anymore. Not that I want to get rid of them. They are so who I am!
It worries me when I feel this chipper. Like who is going to piss me off?
You know, I actually printed out the application for next season’s Biggest Loser. No joke. Ralph mentioned on the show biz beat that they were casting for this next season. So I figured I would check it out. It is a year’s commitment, with only a $250K payout if I win. Of course, I don’t even know that I would be chosen. Either way, I could not support my family if I wasn’t working for a year. It would be cool to have that kind of help to lose weight. Plus, I am so freaking competitive, I might actually do pretty damn well. Then again, they might force me to eat some kind of veggies, so that might be bad. LOL! Either way, I think it would be fun, but I don’t think I am in a position to try since if I made it, I don’t know that I could do it.
One of the questions the application asks, though, is what do your friends say your best qualities are and what are your worst. I don’t actually know the answer to these. Sure, I know things they like and dislike, but the worst and best? Not sure. So speak up folks, so maybe I can fill it out just for the hell of it.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
fog
2-17-10
It might be nothing. It might be the recent hair coloring adventures I have had. It may be a rare side effect possible with Effexor users. I don’t know what is causing it, but I have noticed a significant increase in the amount of hair I am losing. When I take my shower, and I run my hands through my hair to squeeze out the water and conditioner, I find myself with a handful of hair. I would say when I do it, there are about a dozen strands. Maybe my hair caught wind of the colors I have chosen and they are evacuating.
I have a busy day ahead of me as I have a huge account issue to work on. I am not exactly looking forward to it, but it needs to be done. I am hoping to get it done quickly.
I am also so incredibly exhausted I can hardly think. I honestly am shocked I made it to work as I wonder if I perhaps was driving while asleep. I went to bed before 9, but I am still beat. I am wondering if I have the cold Dax has.
Poor Dax. I was messing around with JibJab yesterday and made a couple of silly videos with the boys and Ken and I. The one of Ken and I is us ice skating. Dax is skiing. Bobby is eaten by a B movie monster. Bobby laughed when I showed him, Dax and my dad. Dax, however, got very quiet. He wandered out of the room, hands in his pockets and just seemed off. My dad asked him what was wrong and he said, “Just noffing” but it wasn’t convincing. I called him over to me, where he buried his head in my neck and burst into tears. Poor kid actually found the image of Bobby being eaten by a monster to be horrifying. What a rotten mom I am! It took him most of our visit to calm down. He was basically just draping himself on me. He finally cheered up when my dad got him some Apple Juice. He had felt a little warm. My mom noticed that, too, and he just looked exhausted. Ken said he was like that in the morning. He went to bed pretty quickly, so I hope that he gets some sleep to get over this.
I had a very emotional night last night. It started with the wonderful Valentine’s Day card my brother, Doug sent me. It was so very sweet!! I was also excited when I found out he send a card to my folks! YAY! He also sent them to the boys and Matt. All kinds of good.
Then, I made the mistake of watching the Olympics with Ken. Damn you, Olympics and all the advertisers that make special commercials for them. I watched a P&G commercial that had me tearing up. Then I watched a Visa one that I actually gasped and about freaked out. I had tissue on the ready all evening.
My internet seems to be unblocked due to some recent upgrades they are working on. I have been good and have not messed around on there too much in case it is some kind of elaborate trap. I somehow doubt it, but one can never be too sure.
I have woken up considerably since this morning. I think that some good old fashioned thinking did the trick. When I really have to do honest to goodness work, it tends to inspire me.
Ken may be taking Bobby with him to his science class this afternoon. We had found a bug lady (yes, you read that correct) while we were at a home show visiting with Dani a few months back. She goes from school to school, showing kids different bugs and things like that. So Ken hired her for another class at one of his schools. He thought that Bobby would enjoy it, so it will just be Dax and I this afternoon. I want to find something fun for us to do. Although, we may just go to Target together.
Bobby also may be going with Ken tomorrow to see Avatar again. Ken doesn’t have classes tomorrow since the spoiled community of Manhattan Beach actually has a Ski Week. He thought it would be good to go see the movie again (I don’t understand the appeal), and since Bobby really liked it, he would take him along. I like the father son bonding.
I get to have my own day of fun with Bobby on Monday since he has a doctor’s appt that morning. I think I will be calling out sick and maybe spending the day with him. I think that Ken is coming with us to the appt, but I also think he may have a class. Of course, Bobby may elect to go to class with Ken, at which point I have to decide if I want to just go home and have me time or go back to work. Hmmm…
It might be nothing. It might be the recent hair coloring adventures I have had. It may be a rare side effect possible with Effexor users. I don’t know what is causing it, but I have noticed a significant increase in the amount of hair I am losing. When I take my shower, and I run my hands through my hair to squeeze out the water and conditioner, I find myself with a handful of hair. I would say when I do it, there are about a dozen strands. Maybe my hair caught wind of the colors I have chosen and they are evacuating.
I have a busy day ahead of me as I have a huge account issue to work on. I am not exactly looking forward to it, but it needs to be done. I am hoping to get it done quickly.
I am also so incredibly exhausted I can hardly think. I honestly am shocked I made it to work as I wonder if I perhaps was driving while asleep. I went to bed before 9, but I am still beat. I am wondering if I have the cold Dax has.
Poor Dax. I was messing around with JibJab yesterday and made a couple of silly videos with the boys and Ken and I. The one of Ken and I is us ice skating. Dax is skiing. Bobby is eaten by a B movie monster. Bobby laughed when I showed him, Dax and my dad. Dax, however, got very quiet. He wandered out of the room, hands in his pockets and just seemed off. My dad asked him what was wrong and he said, “Just noffing” but it wasn’t convincing. I called him over to me, where he buried his head in my neck and burst into tears. Poor kid actually found the image of Bobby being eaten by a monster to be horrifying. What a rotten mom I am! It took him most of our visit to calm down. He was basically just draping himself on me. He finally cheered up when my dad got him some Apple Juice. He had felt a little warm. My mom noticed that, too, and he just looked exhausted. Ken said he was like that in the morning. He went to bed pretty quickly, so I hope that he gets some sleep to get over this.
I had a very emotional night last night. It started with the wonderful Valentine’s Day card my brother, Doug sent me. It was so very sweet!! I was also excited when I found out he send a card to my folks! YAY! He also sent them to the boys and Matt. All kinds of good.
Then, I made the mistake of watching the Olympics with Ken. Damn you, Olympics and all the advertisers that make special commercials for them. I watched a P&G commercial that had me tearing up. Then I watched a Visa one that I actually gasped and about freaked out. I had tissue on the ready all evening.
My internet seems to be unblocked due to some recent upgrades they are working on. I have been good and have not messed around on there too much in case it is some kind of elaborate trap. I somehow doubt it, but one can never be too sure.
I have woken up considerably since this morning. I think that some good old fashioned thinking did the trick. When I really have to do honest to goodness work, it tends to inspire me.
Ken may be taking Bobby with him to his science class this afternoon. We had found a bug lady (yes, you read that correct) while we were at a home show visiting with Dani a few months back. She goes from school to school, showing kids different bugs and things like that. So Ken hired her for another class at one of his schools. He thought that Bobby would enjoy it, so it will just be Dax and I this afternoon. I want to find something fun for us to do. Although, we may just go to Target together.
Bobby also may be going with Ken tomorrow to see Avatar again. Ken doesn’t have classes tomorrow since the spoiled community of Manhattan Beach actually has a Ski Week. He thought it would be good to go see the movie again (I don’t understand the appeal), and since Bobby really liked it, he would take him along. I like the father son bonding.
I get to have my own day of fun with Bobby on Monday since he has a doctor’s appt that morning. I think I will be calling out sick and maybe spending the day with him. I think that Ken is coming with us to the appt, but I also think he may have a class. Of course, Bobby may elect to go to class with Ken, at which point I have to decide if I want to just go home and have me time or go back to work. Hmmm…
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
My vacation
2-16-10
Of course, when you go on vacation, you need a vacation to recover. I am quite tired this morning. I slept pretty well, considering how little I feel like I slept this weekend, but more on that in a minute.
We got up to the compound around 1 in the morning Friday. Yes, it was late, and yes, I was beat, but overall, the trip was pretty good. Bobby slept a lot, and Dax was zoned, but I was pretty proud at how prepped I was. I had snacks, drinks, and everything to keep them happy. I even managed to pack the car, and aside from me putting stuff on the wrong side, I did an excellent job! Yay me!
Luna did quite well on her first really long car trip. I was impressed. There were a couple of puppy moments, but overall, she and Lycos just slept. It was great!
The good news was all of us crashed out hard. We slept in a smidge, and everyone was bright eyed and bushy tailed Friday morning. It was just Grandma and Grandpa, so it was nice to have the minor crowd at first.
I introduced Luna to Johnny and Shorty, and in a scene that reminded me of Love Potion #9, I watched my poor wussy puppy run for her life as the two resident dogs chased her around the house. I did not expect this, and was not really prepared. I had Bobby with me, and I was in this long skirt and sandals. I had to run after them, hoping Bobby would not freak out at me bailing on him. I found Luna under Grandma’s car, and it had scared the shit out of her, literally. She came out when I got there and promptly hid under my skirt. It was really cute. Shorty was not a threat. She is just as her name indicates, a little dog, and Lycos doesn’t like her in the least bit. Lycos chased her off pretty quickly, and proceeded to yell at her the rest of the weekend. Johnny, on the other hand, is a big dopey Boxer. He has very little teeth left and is really a sweetheart. After the initial meeting, Luna and Johnny ended up being the best of friends. They played and played the whole weekend. It was super cute.
Luna did have some house training issues on the first day. She peed and pooed in the house, which was bad. But after that, she seemed much better. She had no issues running around the property and never wandered off. She was having some listening issues, and she kept stealing random things in the house to chew on. She also would get up to eat food on the counters. But there were enough of us around that she was scolded quickly.
During the day on Friday we didn’t do much. We went to the grocery store for supplies and played at the house. It was a little rainy out, so we mostly stayed inside. It was probably good, though, since it was the first day.
Jenni came up Friday night and we got to visit for a couple hours while everyone watched a movie in the other room. It was awesome! Uncle Andy showed up and Aunt Lyn got home from work so we now had a full house.
The funniest thing of Friday, though, had to be the fact that we were unfortunately right in our prediction. Ken’s cousin, Sandy, has problems. She has two little kids, one who is 3 months older than Dax and one who is 15 months old. Both are cute kids. Sandy is married to this guy who is a sweetheart, but is really just a big kid (that we also suspect has some kind of Autism). Anyhoo, they are now separated, with Liam (the 3 year old) living with his dad, and Sandy barely able to handle her daughter, Libby. She has left both kids with her mom and dad on more than one occasion for long periods of time. This is bad since both of them are not in the best health to begin with, and then they have to take care of two little kids? The prediction was that since we were coming up, she would find out, and she would try to make arrangements for the kids to all play together since they could then bond. Of course, this would then end up being something where she would drop off the kids, and bail, leaving us in charge of her children. My other prediction was that it would turn into Mammoth all over again and I would be left watching all the kids while everyone else had fun.
These all came true.
They came up on Saturday and luckily the kids all had a blast. They played on the deck and with 4 kids, 3 dogs (Shorty was not out there) and mass chaos, there were no problems at all. No joke. No collisions, no crying, no injuries for a few hours. It was awesome! I loved watching them have so much fun.
Now, I wasn’t by myself the whole time. Grandma was out there for a little bit, and Liam and Libby’s grandparents were there, Grandpa George watching the kids with me, and Grandma Ann watching Libby, sometimes inside, sometimes out. But it was a situation where everyone else was in the library playing Wii. Ken came out a few times to see if I needed anything, but what I really needed was for people to engage. I loved that everyone was having so much fun with the Wii (more on that later), but what I really wanted was to stop having this happen. I don’t go on vacation to be the baby sitter. And it is one thing with my own kids. Really, they are old enough that I almost don’t have to watch them like I used to. They are on their own and really handle themselves fine. But I wasn’t just helping them with everything. I was also watching a puppy. Luna had to be watched. Lycos did, too, since she was so grouchy. Then, I was kind of watching Liam, and at a couple points, Libby, too. The occasional pop ins to see if I needed something only enforced the idea that yes, I needed to be out there, but I don’t want to be catered to. I want the family who doesn’t see the boys much to come out and spend time with these kids, and I want people to not assume that I have to do everything. I hate that, and to be honest, I am pretty sure that is one of the things that has caused me to be on meds.
I talked to Ken about this that night, and he I think finally understood what I was talking about. He has the tendency to disappear when we are at the compound and it was one thing when it was just he and I, but now he is partially responsible for 4 lifeforms that we brought with us. I explained it to him calmer than normal (Thank you Effexor) and it seemed to sink in.
Sunday was 1000% better.
Ken talked to the family and they all agreed that they all needed to step up more. It wasn’t my job to not be included and only handle the kid’s table. And they all didn’t just go through the motions. There were games played. Adventure walks taken. Cakes decorated. It was what Grandma’s house needed to be, with everyone not just “watching the kids”, but enjoying the kids. Plus, it allowed me to play with the grownups. I got to partake in the Wii tournament we seemed to be in the middle of. I went to bed Sunday night (aside from Dax issues), much happier about the dynamic.
We brought up our Wii. Andy had wanted to see the Fit, and Ken and I wanted to make sure we did our exercises on vacation. Plus, that thing is quite small, so it isn’t a big deal to bring it along!
We showed everyone the Fit activities, and they loved it. Plus, we played just the sports disc at first which had tennis in which 4 of us could play at once. So we ended up cycling out, taking turns being part of teams and playing a damn lot of tennis. It was so much fun! By Sunday, we had also discovered that there was multi player options on the Fit, allowing us to compete against one another on some of the activities including the Ski Jump and Slalom. It seemed appropriate since it was the winter Olympics. LOL! It was a great activity for all of us, including the boys who not only like watching, but they played, too. Dax not as much, but he just liked watching the games. Andy also had gotten them a new game. Toy Story, which is a replica of the ride at Disney’s California Adventure. So you can shoot pies at targets and stuff like that, which they both really enjoyed. Wii was the center of the weekend, but it was one of the most interactive we had been as a family in a long time. Plus, we all worked out so much, we are all still sore today!
Sunday morning was also Christmas Morning! Since we had not gone up for Christmas, there were presents for us and the kids. So the boys got to open up their stuff and it gave them some fun things to do on that day. It was really cool!
On Saturday, we also went on a shopping trip. Andy, Ken and the boys and I went into town to get Libby a present. We had gotten one for Liam, but forgot to pick the one up for Libby. We hit up their K-Mart, which never fails to have wonderful sales. The K-Mart here sucks beans, but for some reason, I always find wonderful, cheap stuff at this K-Mart. I got a sweatshirt that has headphones and an attachment that are a part of it so I can listen to my iPod on the sweatshirt. Plus, it is super cute. We didn’t find everything we needed, so we headed over to Target, which is a half an hour away. We picked up lunch and ate on the way. At Target, we got way more then planned, including a bunch of the little stuffed animals that Dax loves. We also met up with Scotty there. We didn’t get back to the house till 2ish, but it was a wonderful outing.
As for the lack of sleep, a lot of it was due to poor Dax. On Saturday night, he just couldn’t get comfortable. On Sunday night, it was worse. He had gotten a little cold while there, which got him all stuffy. Plus, after consuming like 3 bananas that day, he was all backed up. Sunday night, I was so tired, yet this kid kept getting up. It sucked. I know he was just uncomfortable, but I just wanted sleep. He finally fell asleep, but he was still up at what seemed like the crack of dawn Monday. When he told me he had to poop, I knew it was a good thing and that the apple juice (AKA liquid draino for kids) had kicked in. Yay! He and I ended up getting up, letting poor Ken and Bobby catch up on some Z’s.
The trip home started a little rough with Bobby asking questions that were the equivalent of, “Are we there yet?” He was also concerned that Uncle Andy was no longer behind us, since Andy was following us out on his way home. We kept explaining to Bobby that Andy was going to drive up beside us before he got off on his exit, but Bobby was not convinced.
Dax also decided he was hungry and thirsty every 15 seconds. He did not feel we understood and he repeated himself 1000 times.
Luckily, we got to Flag City pretty quickly and we fed both of them and got a movie started up. Everyone was happy again and Dax even managed to nap for a while. The drive was pretty good, and even though there was a smidge of traffic, it wasn’t bad. Plus, there are some times when you feel like you will never get to the destination. This trip was the opposite. I was always shocked when we passed landmarks since it felt like we had not been driving for very long.
We got home around 5, and the boys and dogs were able to go outside and play for a while before it got too dark. This allowed Ken and I to go through the luggage, order a pizza and get things in order for bedtime. I was so glad the house was clean when we left. It meant that I felt no stress about the clutter of the bags. In fact, I was able to put away a lot of the stuff already, and even start the laundry. Woo!
I would say it was a good trip. Sure, there were a few issues here and there, but I didn’t feel like I never want to go back. LOL! I enjoyed the visiting time, and the boys were sad to leave which means they were having a blast. This was good in my eyes.
Luna is too smart for her own good, too. She figured out how to open doors. Yie!
Poor Lycos was so stiff from all the fun, she was limping a bit. She turned 10 over the weekend, so my poor birthday dog was really showing her age. However, she proved the old adage wrong by learning a new trick. I was playing with her and a beach ball and when I threw it to her, she would jump up and either bop it with her nose or arms and would “toss” it back to me. It was awesome! We did it several times, and she seemed to love it. I know what I need to invest in!
I took probably 300 pictures while I was there. I am hoping to have time to work on those tonight.
Interesting proposal for me came up at dinner. I guess Grandpa, Andy and maybe Holly are going to Ohio in June to visit a distant cousin of Grandpa’s. She is on Facebook and we are friends with her. Nice lady. Well, since there was a lot of Brenan history comes from Ohio, they are planning on going and doing some cemetery hopping. They will be looking for graves and getting names to work on the genealogy. Ken pointed out that not only would I love the trip (dude, cemetery hopping!), I would take gobs of photos, and would be able to document things better than most. Ken said that Grandma would either come down to LA, or he and the kids could go up and they would hang with the kids while I was gone. It would certainly be an interesting trip, so I will be curious if this actually happens. I know that I would have fun. I don’t know that there are any downsides to this trip aside from just being away from the kids and Ken for a few days. So stay tuned as I find out more details over these next couple months.
Now I just have to concentrate on Bobby’s birthday. I need to send out a couple more invites and look at bounce houses this evening with Ken. I figure I have a week and change to get it together, so I am hoping it works out.
After some net searching and opinions from my peeps, I think I have come up with my new hair style. I have found a cut that I have liked in several different pictures, and a color that even though is a little wild and bold, I figure I am still young and I need to just go for it. The cut is about shoulder length, maybe a smidge shorter. The color is a super red with dark brown streaks. It is pretty funky. I wish I could see what the color would look like with the cut since the cut the color shot is from shows a very short, choppy look, whereas mine is a little more rounded and wavy. But I think it should still be ok. Plus, it was pointed out that this color would be easy enough to cover up if it sucked. I could have it dyed dark brown all over and it would just leave red high lights instead of it being the primary. I will have to print out the pictures and find a good place to go. I think that even though Fantastic Sam’s has not done me wrong, I may go to an actual salon that does more color stuff. Brandy said it wouldn’t be too much based on the place she used to go to, so I now just have to decide on when I will do it. I was going to wait for spring, but with this darker color, I don’t see that I need to wait. We shall see. Either way, I am a combo of excited and nervous about the change.
It is always disappointing when someone you were close to turns out to be horrid. I have gone back and forth with this one person for years, even kidding myself that perhaps despite how we have changed through the years that we would be friends forever. He has hurt me on more than one occasion in his actions and words, but I really in truly wanted to believe that it was always something that we could work through. Instead, after hearing what he did over the weekend to his own mother and other members of his family, I find that I really cannot forgive him. Although the mean things were not directed anywhere near me, and in reality, this will pass with all the parties involved, I worry that at some point it will be an attitude and action that will hit me direct. I refuse to let that even be an option. He will always be a part of my past and I know that I would not be who I am today had I not had him in my life. I am sad that the person I knew and loved is essentially gone forever, and now it is a different person with the same name. Such a shame, really. I hope he is happy in life.
I have been swamped all day, which is cool. It means that my day flew by. I even have a meeting at 1 so my afternoon will go quickly. Then it is off to do my workout and to take the boys over to see their other grandparents. Woo hoo!
Of course, when you go on vacation, you need a vacation to recover. I am quite tired this morning. I slept pretty well, considering how little I feel like I slept this weekend, but more on that in a minute.
We got up to the compound around 1 in the morning Friday. Yes, it was late, and yes, I was beat, but overall, the trip was pretty good. Bobby slept a lot, and Dax was zoned, but I was pretty proud at how prepped I was. I had snacks, drinks, and everything to keep them happy. I even managed to pack the car, and aside from me putting stuff on the wrong side, I did an excellent job! Yay me!
Luna did quite well on her first really long car trip. I was impressed. There were a couple of puppy moments, but overall, she and Lycos just slept. It was great!
The good news was all of us crashed out hard. We slept in a smidge, and everyone was bright eyed and bushy tailed Friday morning. It was just Grandma and Grandpa, so it was nice to have the minor crowd at first.
I introduced Luna to Johnny and Shorty, and in a scene that reminded me of Love Potion #9, I watched my poor wussy puppy run for her life as the two resident dogs chased her around the house. I did not expect this, and was not really prepared. I had Bobby with me, and I was in this long skirt and sandals. I had to run after them, hoping Bobby would not freak out at me bailing on him. I found Luna under Grandma’s car, and it had scared the shit out of her, literally. She came out when I got there and promptly hid under my skirt. It was really cute. Shorty was not a threat. She is just as her name indicates, a little dog, and Lycos doesn’t like her in the least bit. Lycos chased her off pretty quickly, and proceeded to yell at her the rest of the weekend. Johnny, on the other hand, is a big dopey Boxer. He has very little teeth left and is really a sweetheart. After the initial meeting, Luna and Johnny ended up being the best of friends. They played and played the whole weekend. It was super cute.
Luna did have some house training issues on the first day. She peed and pooed in the house, which was bad. But after that, she seemed much better. She had no issues running around the property and never wandered off. She was having some listening issues, and she kept stealing random things in the house to chew on. She also would get up to eat food on the counters. But there were enough of us around that she was scolded quickly.
During the day on Friday we didn’t do much. We went to the grocery store for supplies and played at the house. It was a little rainy out, so we mostly stayed inside. It was probably good, though, since it was the first day.
Jenni came up Friday night and we got to visit for a couple hours while everyone watched a movie in the other room. It was awesome! Uncle Andy showed up and Aunt Lyn got home from work so we now had a full house.
The funniest thing of Friday, though, had to be the fact that we were unfortunately right in our prediction. Ken’s cousin, Sandy, has problems. She has two little kids, one who is 3 months older than Dax and one who is 15 months old. Both are cute kids. Sandy is married to this guy who is a sweetheart, but is really just a big kid (that we also suspect has some kind of Autism). Anyhoo, they are now separated, with Liam (the 3 year old) living with his dad, and Sandy barely able to handle her daughter, Libby. She has left both kids with her mom and dad on more than one occasion for long periods of time. This is bad since both of them are not in the best health to begin with, and then they have to take care of two little kids? The prediction was that since we were coming up, she would find out, and she would try to make arrangements for the kids to all play together since they could then bond. Of course, this would then end up being something where she would drop off the kids, and bail, leaving us in charge of her children. My other prediction was that it would turn into Mammoth all over again and I would be left watching all the kids while everyone else had fun.
These all came true.
They came up on Saturday and luckily the kids all had a blast. They played on the deck and with 4 kids, 3 dogs (Shorty was not out there) and mass chaos, there were no problems at all. No joke. No collisions, no crying, no injuries for a few hours. It was awesome! I loved watching them have so much fun.
Now, I wasn’t by myself the whole time. Grandma was out there for a little bit, and Liam and Libby’s grandparents were there, Grandpa George watching the kids with me, and Grandma Ann watching Libby, sometimes inside, sometimes out. But it was a situation where everyone else was in the library playing Wii. Ken came out a few times to see if I needed anything, but what I really needed was for people to engage. I loved that everyone was having so much fun with the Wii (more on that later), but what I really wanted was to stop having this happen. I don’t go on vacation to be the baby sitter. And it is one thing with my own kids. Really, they are old enough that I almost don’t have to watch them like I used to. They are on their own and really handle themselves fine. But I wasn’t just helping them with everything. I was also watching a puppy. Luna had to be watched. Lycos did, too, since she was so grouchy. Then, I was kind of watching Liam, and at a couple points, Libby, too. The occasional pop ins to see if I needed something only enforced the idea that yes, I needed to be out there, but I don’t want to be catered to. I want the family who doesn’t see the boys much to come out and spend time with these kids, and I want people to not assume that I have to do everything. I hate that, and to be honest, I am pretty sure that is one of the things that has caused me to be on meds.
I talked to Ken about this that night, and he I think finally understood what I was talking about. He has the tendency to disappear when we are at the compound and it was one thing when it was just he and I, but now he is partially responsible for 4 lifeforms that we brought with us. I explained it to him calmer than normal (Thank you Effexor) and it seemed to sink in.
Sunday was 1000% better.
Ken talked to the family and they all agreed that they all needed to step up more. It wasn’t my job to not be included and only handle the kid’s table. And they all didn’t just go through the motions. There were games played. Adventure walks taken. Cakes decorated. It was what Grandma’s house needed to be, with everyone not just “watching the kids”, but enjoying the kids. Plus, it allowed me to play with the grownups. I got to partake in the Wii tournament we seemed to be in the middle of. I went to bed Sunday night (aside from Dax issues), much happier about the dynamic.
We brought up our Wii. Andy had wanted to see the Fit, and Ken and I wanted to make sure we did our exercises on vacation. Plus, that thing is quite small, so it isn’t a big deal to bring it along!
We showed everyone the Fit activities, and they loved it. Plus, we played just the sports disc at first which had tennis in which 4 of us could play at once. So we ended up cycling out, taking turns being part of teams and playing a damn lot of tennis. It was so much fun! By Sunday, we had also discovered that there was multi player options on the Fit, allowing us to compete against one another on some of the activities including the Ski Jump and Slalom. It seemed appropriate since it was the winter Olympics. LOL! It was a great activity for all of us, including the boys who not only like watching, but they played, too. Dax not as much, but he just liked watching the games. Andy also had gotten them a new game. Toy Story, which is a replica of the ride at Disney’s California Adventure. So you can shoot pies at targets and stuff like that, which they both really enjoyed. Wii was the center of the weekend, but it was one of the most interactive we had been as a family in a long time. Plus, we all worked out so much, we are all still sore today!
Sunday morning was also Christmas Morning! Since we had not gone up for Christmas, there were presents for us and the kids. So the boys got to open up their stuff and it gave them some fun things to do on that day. It was really cool!
On Saturday, we also went on a shopping trip. Andy, Ken and the boys and I went into town to get Libby a present. We had gotten one for Liam, but forgot to pick the one up for Libby. We hit up their K-Mart, which never fails to have wonderful sales. The K-Mart here sucks beans, but for some reason, I always find wonderful, cheap stuff at this K-Mart. I got a sweatshirt that has headphones and an attachment that are a part of it so I can listen to my iPod on the sweatshirt. Plus, it is super cute. We didn’t find everything we needed, so we headed over to Target, which is a half an hour away. We picked up lunch and ate on the way. At Target, we got way more then planned, including a bunch of the little stuffed animals that Dax loves. We also met up with Scotty there. We didn’t get back to the house till 2ish, but it was a wonderful outing.
As for the lack of sleep, a lot of it was due to poor Dax. On Saturday night, he just couldn’t get comfortable. On Sunday night, it was worse. He had gotten a little cold while there, which got him all stuffy. Plus, after consuming like 3 bananas that day, he was all backed up. Sunday night, I was so tired, yet this kid kept getting up. It sucked. I know he was just uncomfortable, but I just wanted sleep. He finally fell asleep, but he was still up at what seemed like the crack of dawn Monday. When he told me he had to poop, I knew it was a good thing and that the apple juice (AKA liquid draino for kids) had kicked in. Yay! He and I ended up getting up, letting poor Ken and Bobby catch up on some Z’s.
The trip home started a little rough with Bobby asking questions that were the equivalent of, “Are we there yet?” He was also concerned that Uncle Andy was no longer behind us, since Andy was following us out on his way home. We kept explaining to Bobby that Andy was going to drive up beside us before he got off on his exit, but Bobby was not convinced.
Dax also decided he was hungry and thirsty every 15 seconds. He did not feel we understood and he repeated himself 1000 times.
Luckily, we got to Flag City pretty quickly and we fed both of them and got a movie started up. Everyone was happy again and Dax even managed to nap for a while. The drive was pretty good, and even though there was a smidge of traffic, it wasn’t bad. Plus, there are some times when you feel like you will never get to the destination. This trip was the opposite. I was always shocked when we passed landmarks since it felt like we had not been driving for very long.
We got home around 5, and the boys and dogs were able to go outside and play for a while before it got too dark. This allowed Ken and I to go through the luggage, order a pizza and get things in order for bedtime. I was so glad the house was clean when we left. It meant that I felt no stress about the clutter of the bags. In fact, I was able to put away a lot of the stuff already, and even start the laundry. Woo!
I would say it was a good trip. Sure, there were a few issues here and there, but I didn’t feel like I never want to go back. LOL! I enjoyed the visiting time, and the boys were sad to leave which means they were having a blast. This was good in my eyes.
Luna is too smart for her own good, too. She figured out how to open doors. Yie!
Poor Lycos was so stiff from all the fun, she was limping a bit. She turned 10 over the weekend, so my poor birthday dog was really showing her age. However, she proved the old adage wrong by learning a new trick. I was playing with her and a beach ball and when I threw it to her, she would jump up and either bop it with her nose or arms and would “toss” it back to me. It was awesome! We did it several times, and she seemed to love it. I know what I need to invest in!
I took probably 300 pictures while I was there. I am hoping to have time to work on those tonight.
Interesting proposal for me came up at dinner. I guess Grandpa, Andy and maybe Holly are going to Ohio in June to visit a distant cousin of Grandpa’s. She is on Facebook and we are friends with her. Nice lady. Well, since there was a lot of Brenan history comes from Ohio, they are planning on going and doing some cemetery hopping. They will be looking for graves and getting names to work on the genealogy. Ken pointed out that not only would I love the trip (dude, cemetery hopping!), I would take gobs of photos, and would be able to document things better than most. Ken said that Grandma would either come down to LA, or he and the kids could go up and they would hang with the kids while I was gone. It would certainly be an interesting trip, so I will be curious if this actually happens. I know that I would have fun. I don’t know that there are any downsides to this trip aside from just being away from the kids and Ken for a few days. So stay tuned as I find out more details over these next couple months.
Now I just have to concentrate on Bobby’s birthday. I need to send out a couple more invites and look at bounce houses this evening with Ken. I figure I have a week and change to get it together, so I am hoping it works out.
After some net searching and opinions from my peeps, I think I have come up with my new hair style. I have found a cut that I have liked in several different pictures, and a color that even though is a little wild and bold, I figure I am still young and I need to just go for it. The cut is about shoulder length, maybe a smidge shorter. The color is a super red with dark brown streaks. It is pretty funky. I wish I could see what the color would look like with the cut since the cut the color shot is from shows a very short, choppy look, whereas mine is a little more rounded and wavy. But I think it should still be ok. Plus, it was pointed out that this color would be easy enough to cover up if it sucked. I could have it dyed dark brown all over and it would just leave red high lights instead of it being the primary. I will have to print out the pictures and find a good place to go. I think that even though Fantastic Sam’s has not done me wrong, I may go to an actual salon that does more color stuff. Brandy said it wouldn’t be too much based on the place she used to go to, so I now just have to decide on when I will do it. I was going to wait for spring, but with this darker color, I don’t see that I need to wait. We shall see. Either way, I am a combo of excited and nervous about the change.
It is always disappointing when someone you were close to turns out to be horrid. I have gone back and forth with this one person for years, even kidding myself that perhaps despite how we have changed through the years that we would be friends forever. He has hurt me on more than one occasion in his actions and words, but I really in truly wanted to believe that it was always something that we could work through. Instead, after hearing what he did over the weekend to his own mother and other members of his family, I find that I really cannot forgive him. Although the mean things were not directed anywhere near me, and in reality, this will pass with all the parties involved, I worry that at some point it will be an attitude and action that will hit me direct. I refuse to let that even be an option. He will always be a part of my past and I know that I would not be who I am today had I not had him in my life. I am sad that the person I knew and loved is essentially gone forever, and now it is a different person with the same name. Such a shame, really. I hope he is happy in life.
I have been swamped all day, which is cool. It means that my day flew by. I even have a meeting at 1 so my afternoon will go quickly. Then it is off to do my workout and to take the boys over to see their other grandparents. Woo hoo!
Thursday, February 11, 2010
yesterday's piddly blog
2-10-10
So much for being able to leave early tomorrow. The boss scheduled a meeting for 1:15 tomorrow afternoon. What really sucks is these kind of meetings always end up only being 15 minutes long, if that. So I end up having to stay for the rest of the day just for that. Lame. In reality, I don’t have too much to do when I get home tomorrow. I need to load the car, and just get the house finished up. Ken won’t get home until after 4, so really, I have about an hour and a half to get everything loaded, prepped, get the kids, and then be ready to go. I am considering going home early today instead to finish up some of the minor things like cleaning the boys’ rooms and house. It I left today at noon, I would get an extra couple of hours for everything. This includes washing the dogs!
Bad morning so far. My footstool just broke. It is a cheap little thing I have had for years and I am sure my kicking it a million times wore it down. It still seems to work a little bit, but it isn’t too steady anymore. Lame!!
Of course, I could bail even earlier, but I am not sure I need to do that. Then again, I didn’t say I needed to. I just would love to go home and get it all ready to go so that my stress levels go down. The earlier I leave, the easier it is to do so. I like to leave before the boss gets in. I have errands to run, too. Like getting my pills, getting litter. Hmm…maybe I should.
So much for being able to leave early tomorrow. The boss scheduled a meeting for 1:15 tomorrow afternoon. What really sucks is these kind of meetings always end up only being 15 minutes long, if that. So I end up having to stay for the rest of the day just for that. Lame. In reality, I don’t have too much to do when I get home tomorrow. I need to load the car, and just get the house finished up. Ken won’t get home until after 4, so really, I have about an hour and a half to get everything loaded, prepped, get the kids, and then be ready to go. I am considering going home early today instead to finish up some of the minor things like cleaning the boys’ rooms and house. It I left today at noon, I would get an extra couple of hours for everything. This includes washing the dogs!
Bad morning so far. My footstool just broke. It is a cheap little thing I have had for years and I am sure my kicking it a million times wore it down. It still seems to work a little bit, but it isn’t too steady anymore. Lame!!
Of course, I could bail even earlier, but I am not sure I need to do that. Then again, I didn’t say I needed to. I just would love to go home and get it all ready to go so that my stress levels go down. The earlier I leave, the easier it is to do so. I like to leave before the boss gets in. I have errands to run, too. Like getting my pills, getting litter. Hmm…maybe I should.
going to the compound
2-11-10
Yesterday was busy!!
I managed to clean the house from top to bottom. All laundry done, including the dogs’ bedding. I cleaned the heck out of our bedroom, and each of the boys’ bedrooms. I got the living room cleaned, including putting out the boxes of old toys and sweeping up what looked like a small cat’s worth of shedding. I cleaned the kitchen and even had every dish done and put away, nothing left in the dishwasher. I bathed the dogs and did 43 minutes of working out. By the time it was relaxing time, I was so sore I could hardly move. But I did finish the packing, aside from all of the little things like bathroom stuff and the Wii that Ken will do this morning. I can’t leave early today as I have a meeting at 1:15, so I am glad yesterday happened.
I think that in the hour and a half I have to get everything done this afternoon, I should be fine. I need to load the car, which shouldn’t be too bad since I mostly condensed everything. I am hoping that Ken can text me on his way home to tell me his ETA, and when he pulls up, he basically just has to park his car, lock the front door of the house and get in the van.
We have one pit stop at my parent’s house since I forgot Dax’s sweatshirt at their house on Tuesday. Sure, I could have gone and got it last night, but I was not in a position to do so when they called, so they just suggested we swing by on the way out of town. Should be ok, really.
We won’t get in to the Compound until late. Probably after midnight. Hopefully there isn’t too much traffic. It is a Thursday night before a 3 day weekend, so there is the potential for some, but I think tomorrow will be a heavier travel day for most. Monday is going to be crazy, but I think we will end up leaving early enough it should not be too bad. Plus, if we leave early, we can kind of take our time, even stopping somewhere for lunch that has a playground that we can let the boys run a bit.
I get nervous when there is a meeting in the department. Since it is scheduled, it might not be as bad. But since there was so much turmoil an crazy last year whenever there were meetings, I still freak out. Like I worry someone is getting fired or laid off and this departmental meeting is just letting us know that. I worry we are all in some kind of trouble. Since I was gone yesterday, for all I know I was supposed to be let go yesterday!! Anxiety for days. I should have brought my Xanax!
Ok, well, that seemed positive. I just talked to the boss since he just came in and he didn’t seem upset or guarded as he normally does on bad news days. In fact, he seemed very happy and chatty. Of course, I could be reading it all wrong, but I feel a little better. I hate this stress. I know I bring it on myself. I mean, I have no reason to believe I would be on the chopping block. My name, according to my pretty reliable sources, has never come up as someone they wanted to terminate, but it still is something I can’t get too cocky about. It probably doesn’t help that I have a bunch of other stuff on my mind today. I have a trip in a few hours, I have a birthday party in a couple weeks. I have another birthday coming up soon after that. I have an anniversary. Once again, none of this should be this stressful. Perhaps that is why I needed the drugs. Because truthfully, even though I am super stressed right now, I don’t feel nearly as bad as I used to when I had this much on my plate. I feel chipper and even though there is a smidge of anxiety revolving my afternoon meeting, I don’t feel the tightness in my chest that I used to feel. I am not picking at my fingers, and I don’t have a headache. Yay!
I got home yesterday from work and the boys had not yet gone to Maria’s. I opted to take both of them with me when we went on the couple of errands I needed to do. I needed Luna food, Sparky food, and cat litter along with a quick stop by the pharmacy to get my meds. It was probably a mistake to take them. They were both so wound up with me being home they couldn’t contain themselves. Since PetSmart didn’t open till 9, I worked on some of the house while they sat and ate breakfast and watched Spongebob. Not only did a good bit of cereal get on the floor, they thought it was a good idea to stomp on each cherrio, delighted at the tiny explosions each ring made. Yeah, cause I needed more to clean.
At PetSmart they were mostly good, until the end. Neither of them was listening to me and I finally had it. I told them they could not go with me to the store and that I would be taking them to Maria’s now. The tears and screams probably could be heard outside the car. Bobby kept pleading, “Mom, can we have one more chance?” I told them if they were silent from PetSmart to Ralphs’s, they could go in with me. I was shocked at how quiet they were. They earned the 8 minute trip to the pharmacy.
When I picked them up, we had to run by the Dollar Tree since I needed to get some candy for Valentines to take to daycare. I love that they had these little ziplock bags with hearts on them. It made the whole thing so much easier. Plus, for $6, I was able to make 24 little bags of goodness. There are only 12 kids, and I suppose I could have been cheap and made one baggie per kid from both my kids, but I thought that was cheating.
I have been keeping so busy this morning, slamming through my accounts, being a master harasser. I think it has kept me from stressing too much about this afternoon. On the plus side, meetings tend to kill a whole lot of time and it means that I will get out of here all the sooner.
Yesterday was busy!!
I managed to clean the house from top to bottom. All laundry done, including the dogs’ bedding. I cleaned the heck out of our bedroom, and each of the boys’ bedrooms. I got the living room cleaned, including putting out the boxes of old toys and sweeping up what looked like a small cat’s worth of shedding. I cleaned the kitchen and even had every dish done and put away, nothing left in the dishwasher. I bathed the dogs and did 43 minutes of working out. By the time it was relaxing time, I was so sore I could hardly move. But I did finish the packing, aside from all of the little things like bathroom stuff and the Wii that Ken will do this morning. I can’t leave early today as I have a meeting at 1:15, so I am glad yesterday happened.
I think that in the hour and a half I have to get everything done this afternoon, I should be fine. I need to load the car, which shouldn’t be too bad since I mostly condensed everything. I am hoping that Ken can text me on his way home to tell me his ETA, and when he pulls up, he basically just has to park his car, lock the front door of the house and get in the van.
We have one pit stop at my parent’s house since I forgot Dax’s sweatshirt at their house on Tuesday. Sure, I could have gone and got it last night, but I was not in a position to do so when they called, so they just suggested we swing by on the way out of town. Should be ok, really.
We won’t get in to the Compound until late. Probably after midnight. Hopefully there isn’t too much traffic. It is a Thursday night before a 3 day weekend, so there is the potential for some, but I think tomorrow will be a heavier travel day for most. Monday is going to be crazy, but I think we will end up leaving early enough it should not be too bad. Plus, if we leave early, we can kind of take our time, even stopping somewhere for lunch that has a playground that we can let the boys run a bit.
I get nervous when there is a meeting in the department. Since it is scheduled, it might not be as bad. But since there was so much turmoil an crazy last year whenever there were meetings, I still freak out. Like I worry someone is getting fired or laid off and this departmental meeting is just letting us know that. I worry we are all in some kind of trouble. Since I was gone yesterday, for all I know I was supposed to be let go yesterday!! Anxiety for days. I should have brought my Xanax!
Ok, well, that seemed positive. I just talked to the boss since he just came in and he didn’t seem upset or guarded as he normally does on bad news days. In fact, he seemed very happy and chatty. Of course, I could be reading it all wrong, but I feel a little better. I hate this stress. I know I bring it on myself. I mean, I have no reason to believe I would be on the chopping block. My name, according to my pretty reliable sources, has never come up as someone they wanted to terminate, but it still is something I can’t get too cocky about. It probably doesn’t help that I have a bunch of other stuff on my mind today. I have a trip in a few hours, I have a birthday party in a couple weeks. I have another birthday coming up soon after that. I have an anniversary. Once again, none of this should be this stressful. Perhaps that is why I needed the drugs. Because truthfully, even though I am super stressed right now, I don’t feel nearly as bad as I used to when I had this much on my plate. I feel chipper and even though there is a smidge of anxiety revolving my afternoon meeting, I don’t feel the tightness in my chest that I used to feel. I am not picking at my fingers, and I don’t have a headache. Yay!
I got home yesterday from work and the boys had not yet gone to Maria’s. I opted to take both of them with me when we went on the couple of errands I needed to do. I needed Luna food, Sparky food, and cat litter along with a quick stop by the pharmacy to get my meds. It was probably a mistake to take them. They were both so wound up with me being home they couldn’t contain themselves. Since PetSmart didn’t open till 9, I worked on some of the house while they sat and ate breakfast and watched Spongebob. Not only did a good bit of cereal get on the floor, they thought it was a good idea to stomp on each cherrio, delighted at the tiny explosions each ring made. Yeah, cause I needed more to clean.
At PetSmart they were mostly good, until the end. Neither of them was listening to me and I finally had it. I told them they could not go with me to the store and that I would be taking them to Maria’s now. The tears and screams probably could be heard outside the car. Bobby kept pleading, “Mom, can we have one more chance?” I told them if they were silent from PetSmart to Ralphs’s, they could go in with me. I was shocked at how quiet they were. They earned the 8 minute trip to the pharmacy.
When I picked them up, we had to run by the Dollar Tree since I needed to get some candy for Valentines to take to daycare. I love that they had these little ziplock bags with hearts on them. It made the whole thing so much easier. Plus, for $6, I was able to make 24 little bags of goodness. There are only 12 kids, and I suppose I could have been cheap and made one baggie per kid from both my kids, but I thought that was cheating.
I have been keeping so busy this morning, slamming through my accounts, being a master harasser. I think it has kept me from stressing too much about this afternoon. On the plus side, meetings tend to kill a whole lot of time and it means that I will get out of here all the sooner.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Net!
2-9-10
The net is back up!!!! YAY!! I was pleasantly surprised this morning when I was able to log into Facebook. With all of my games behind and photos to upload, I have a lot of work to do tonight. I did a very small amount this morning. I knew that if I got too involved I would forget to go to work. I just have comfort in knowing it is back up and running.
Yesterday was pretty basic. When I got home I did my workout, which was awesome. I bested several scores and I was pleased with the results. After that, I retrieved the boys while Ken did his workout. Bobby hung out with Ken, alternating between cheering him on and laughing when he lost. I worked on packing and Dax played out back.
I noticed Dax using the tiniest piece of chalk ever, so I broke out a whole new box of chalk for him. I went outside with him and he and I drew aliens and cats and dogs. I then drew a house with balloons coming out of it, to which he yelled, “Up Movie!!!” He then requested I draw Carl and Russell, which let me tell you isn’t easy for someone who has a hard time with stick figures.
Ken decided to walk up and check on the phone status, so the four of us went and took the dogs. It is always good to A) get some extra exercise, and B) work with Luna on walking. She does quite well, as long as she doesn’t see Lycos. She gets overly excited when she sees her. But even so, she was so much better on her skills.
Ken, Dax and Lycos hung out for a while longer watching, so Bobby, Luna and I headed home since I needed to start dinner and Bobby wanted to do his exercises. He loves doing the Wii Fit stuff, so since he is technically doing exercise when he does it, I have no problem with him doing those things.
During dinner, we all watched Who Framed Roger Rabbit since the boys had never seen it and wanted to know who Roger was when we went on his ride at Disneyland. It had been a while since we had seen it and I was impressed at how well it stood up after all these years. Bobby was a little scared at the scenes with the Dip. I don’t blame him. They were quite freaky.
Since we had no net still, and Ken wasn’t feeling 100%, we went to bed kind of early. We watched an episode of Better Off Ted (by the way, people, this is a show that needs to be watched. It is fantastic!) before I crashed out. Ken was not feeling well because he had done his doctor appointment that morning, which includes things like blood work which he hates. So he psyches himself up to have it done, and then they tell him he will need to wait until today. Poor guy. I am sure that is what contributed.
I hate that we always seem to bring so damn much stuff with us when we go up North. Between 2 grownups, 2 kids and now 2 dogs, it takes quite a bit of crap. So all morning, I have been going over in my head how it is that I can condense it as much as possible. In the past few years, I have gotten my own clothing and shoes down to fit into the same bag that Ken uses. As a girl, I am quite proud of this accomplishment. I am also thrilled that we now own two pretty good sized duffel bags (they look like you could fit a slightly chopped up human in them). One is for Ken and I, the other for the boys. But it isn’t clothing, or even toiletries that seem to take up the most room. Hell, that is only 3 bags. Even dog stuff, aside from the crate we have to take this time, is only one grocery bag. But it is other stuff. Like the Wii. We are bringing that with us since everyone would like to see the Fit. Plus, it means I can do some exercise up there. Then there are computers. Only 2 laptops, but it is still one more bag. We also have a box of Christmas presents. Sigh. Even with our mini van, we have a packed car.
So if someone shows you a picture of their kid or niece or something, is it rude to show them pics of yours? I ask because I resisted the urge just now when a coworker showed me pictures of her niece singing. Mind you, video was super cute and I was glad she showed me. She pointed out that her niece was only 3. So of course, the overly competitive side of me kicks in and I want to point out that sure, this kid may know Small World, mine knows a good chunk of American Pie at 3. But I decided that it was rude to one up someone. This woman never shows off pictures and it seemed like I would be taking her thunder if I whipped out pics of my gorgeous boys. Plus, let’s face it, she would look at my kids and see just how inferior her niece is to them. LOL! I know, I am horrible.
Ken took Dax with him for moral support this morning for his blood test. The boys are both very good at that sort of thing. They will hold your hand while they check things. When I was getting my blood pressure checked when I got my Effexor, Dax held my hand. When Ken got the flue shot, Bobby held his hand. It is all very cute.
The net is back up!!!! YAY!! I was pleasantly surprised this morning when I was able to log into Facebook. With all of my games behind and photos to upload, I have a lot of work to do tonight. I did a very small amount this morning. I knew that if I got too involved I would forget to go to work. I just have comfort in knowing it is back up and running.
Yesterday was pretty basic. When I got home I did my workout, which was awesome. I bested several scores and I was pleased with the results. After that, I retrieved the boys while Ken did his workout. Bobby hung out with Ken, alternating between cheering him on and laughing when he lost. I worked on packing and Dax played out back.
I noticed Dax using the tiniest piece of chalk ever, so I broke out a whole new box of chalk for him. I went outside with him and he and I drew aliens and cats and dogs. I then drew a house with balloons coming out of it, to which he yelled, “Up Movie!!!” He then requested I draw Carl and Russell, which let me tell you isn’t easy for someone who has a hard time with stick figures.
Ken decided to walk up and check on the phone status, so the four of us went and took the dogs. It is always good to A) get some extra exercise, and B) work with Luna on walking. She does quite well, as long as she doesn’t see Lycos. She gets overly excited when she sees her. But even so, she was so much better on her skills.
Ken, Dax and Lycos hung out for a while longer watching, so Bobby, Luna and I headed home since I needed to start dinner and Bobby wanted to do his exercises. He loves doing the Wii Fit stuff, so since he is technically doing exercise when he does it, I have no problem with him doing those things.
During dinner, we all watched Who Framed Roger Rabbit since the boys had never seen it and wanted to know who Roger was when we went on his ride at Disneyland. It had been a while since we had seen it and I was impressed at how well it stood up after all these years. Bobby was a little scared at the scenes with the Dip. I don’t blame him. They were quite freaky.
Since we had no net still, and Ken wasn’t feeling 100%, we went to bed kind of early. We watched an episode of Better Off Ted (by the way, people, this is a show that needs to be watched. It is fantastic!) before I crashed out. Ken was not feeling well because he had done his doctor appointment that morning, which includes things like blood work which he hates. So he psyches himself up to have it done, and then they tell him he will need to wait until today. Poor guy. I am sure that is what contributed.
I hate that we always seem to bring so damn much stuff with us when we go up North. Between 2 grownups, 2 kids and now 2 dogs, it takes quite a bit of crap. So all morning, I have been going over in my head how it is that I can condense it as much as possible. In the past few years, I have gotten my own clothing and shoes down to fit into the same bag that Ken uses. As a girl, I am quite proud of this accomplishment. I am also thrilled that we now own two pretty good sized duffel bags (they look like you could fit a slightly chopped up human in them). One is for Ken and I, the other for the boys. But it isn’t clothing, or even toiletries that seem to take up the most room. Hell, that is only 3 bags. Even dog stuff, aside from the crate we have to take this time, is only one grocery bag. But it is other stuff. Like the Wii. We are bringing that with us since everyone would like to see the Fit. Plus, it means I can do some exercise up there. Then there are computers. Only 2 laptops, but it is still one more bag. We also have a box of Christmas presents. Sigh. Even with our mini van, we have a packed car.
So if someone shows you a picture of their kid or niece or something, is it rude to show them pics of yours? I ask because I resisted the urge just now when a coworker showed me pictures of her niece singing. Mind you, video was super cute and I was glad she showed me. She pointed out that her niece was only 3. So of course, the overly competitive side of me kicks in and I want to point out that sure, this kid may know Small World, mine knows a good chunk of American Pie at 3. But I decided that it was rude to one up someone. This woman never shows off pictures and it seemed like I would be taking her thunder if I whipped out pics of my gorgeous boys. Plus, let’s face it, she would look at my kids and see just how inferior her niece is to them. LOL! I know, I am horrible.
Ken took Dax with him for moral support this morning for his blood test. The boys are both very good at that sort of thing. They will hold your hand while they check things. When I was getting my blood pressure checked when I got my Effexor, Dax held my hand. When Ken got the flue shot, Bobby held his hand. It is all very cute.
Monday, February 8, 2010
no net
2-8-10
I have been without the internet for 2 full days. It has driven me nuts. The storm on Friday night apparently seems to have taken out our neighborhood’s phone lines, which means our DSL is out and has been since Saturday morning. We may not have phone service until later today. It isn’t fun having no access to email or Facebook or even simple news sites.
Other than the lack of the technology, the weekend was pretty good. Friday night we took the boys to my folks where even though Bobby was a little sad, they both seemed to do pretty well. Ken and I stopped by Target before getting home to eat our yummy chips and salsa and to watch Zombieland and the Hangover. Both were great and it was a nice relaxing evening.
I woke up kind of earlier than I needed to, but I figured I could go play on the net while Ken slept. This is when I discovered the lack of connection. I ended up getting dressed instead and we assessed the leaks and other damage from the rain. Our backyard was a swamp. We had a couple of new leaks, meaning a new roof was something in our near future.
I headed to my parents’ house to get the boys. I assumed that I would end up dinking around over there for a bit, but the kids were kind of ushered out quickly. Not that they were bad or anything, but I am sure it is nice to have some peace and quiet.
When we got home, they watched Ken play some of the Star Wars Wii while I read through a magazine and worked on things like laundry. Saturday turned out to not be as rainy as they said, so the boys got on their boots and we all went out back. They stomped in the puddles and leaves and had a good ole time.
At around 12:30, the boys went down for a nap. Clearly between puddle jumping and the adventure of staying at my parents’ house, they were beat since they ended up sleeping till 4:30! We had to wake them up! In order to get out the last bit of their energy, we took them to McDonald’s. They played there for a while, but it was clear they were both still exhausted. They were slightly cranky and out of sorts. We didn’t stay too long.
When we got home, Ken walked up to where the AT&T guys were in order to check on our phone status. They were originally not going to come out until Tuesday since apparently you need to have multiple complaints from neighbors in order to make it high priority. A good chunk of our neighbors are cell phone free. So Ken walked from house to house, while on the line with AT&T, having each neighbor register their phone number in order to escalate the service call. This meant they came out that same day. It wasn’t good news when he got back. The problem was underground and at the soonest, it would not be up until some time Sunday. And that didn’t even seem likely.
Sunday was bowling day. Matt was in a feisty mood and was picking fights right out of the gate. It was funny, the day before Ken had asked me if my stress from bowling had lessened since Freddie left. Although Freddie didn’t help matters, he was never the source of tension. Matt is a constant point for me to get annoyed. I don’t like when he and Ken fight, I don’t like it when he picks on the boys. I don’t like it when he argues with me on stuff he has no clue on. Yesterday he started picking a fight about the Super Bowl. He announces randomly that there was no Coke or Pepsi ads for this year’s Super Bowl. I told him that it was only Pepsi that had decided to not do ads. He then went off. For the record, we saw at least two Coke ads. At one point, he was criticizing Bobby’s bowling. What the fuck? I pulled Bobby aside and told him to never listen to what Matt says, and he laughed, so I was glad that Bobby wasn’t too scarred.
The bowling had me pretty cranky for the day. I was just feeling out of sorts. I don’t know why. Perhaps lack of internet was putting me in withdrawals.
The plan was to go to Disneyland during the Super Bowl. It ended up not being nearly as empty as hoped. It also wasn’t overcast as we had expected. It was actually beautiful out. Even so, we had a good time and went on a handful of rides. The boys had never been in Sleeping Beauty’s castle, nor had they been on Mr. Toad before. They liked both!
We left the park around 6. It has been quite enjoyable to only go there for a couple hours at a time. The boys have not complained nearly as much as I would expect. But it seems that as long as we tell them only one more ride they are mentally prepared for it. Last night, though, Bobby in particular was more pissy than normal. He grouched quite a bit from the train all the way to the car. He was also freaking out in the car because as he put it, Dax was being “weird”. Dax’s weird was him singing to himself and bebopping around. Yes, it would not surprise me if Dax was doing it partially to piss off his big brother, but really, he was being quiet about it and therefore not breaking any rules, so we couldn’t very well yell at him. Thank goodness we stopped and got dinner since kids with food in their mouths are way less pissy.
We got home and they both crashed out hard when they went to bed. This was good since we were then able to watch the Super Bowl commercials without interruption. I certainly didn’t want to stay up too late. I was about to crash out, too.
This morning I still didn’t have the net and I felt so annoyed since had I known, I would have slept for another 25 minutes since that is the time normally spent online.
I am looking forward to Spring time even more now. Sure, I get to get a new hair style, but also, we are going to give new meaning to Spring Cleaning. There was some talk of putting some of the Lego stuff into storage. Of course, a lot depends on pricing. I just looked up those Pods, and man, they are expensive. It would be cheaper to just get one of those small ones! Once some of the bulk stuff that isn’t being used currently for the business is in storage, the garage can be utilized again, maybe even for some of the daily Lego Ken has in the entry way. We also have some sheds to clean out, which might even possibly empty one of them so I can use it for the bikes and other equipment for the kids. Bobby has expressed interest in throwing out many of the old beat up toys in the yard, so that will also happen. He already threw out a bunch, and thanks to Luna, a handful of other items have been trashed for us. We also have gobs of crap in the attic that will be gone through and put out for a yard sale. It will be a busy few months I figure.
Ken just talked to some of the AT&T guys and it turns out of course that the temp line they put in doesn’t actually cover our block. It figures. Either way, the soonest we will get phone is tonight, maybe. My noon net time today will be very jam packed.
I have been without the internet for 2 full days. It has driven me nuts. The storm on Friday night apparently seems to have taken out our neighborhood’s phone lines, which means our DSL is out and has been since Saturday morning. We may not have phone service until later today. It isn’t fun having no access to email or Facebook or even simple news sites.
Other than the lack of the technology, the weekend was pretty good. Friday night we took the boys to my folks where even though Bobby was a little sad, they both seemed to do pretty well. Ken and I stopped by Target before getting home to eat our yummy chips and salsa and to watch Zombieland and the Hangover. Both were great and it was a nice relaxing evening.
I woke up kind of earlier than I needed to, but I figured I could go play on the net while Ken slept. This is when I discovered the lack of connection. I ended up getting dressed instead and we assessed the leaks and other damage from the rain. Our backyard was a swamp. We had a couple of new leaks, meaning a new roof was something in our near future.
I headed to my parents’ house to get the boys. I assumed that I would end up dinking around over there for a bit, but the kids were kind of ushered out quickly. Not that they were bad or anything, but I am sure it is nice to have some peace and quiet.
When we got home, they watched Ken play some of the Star Wars Wii while I read through a magazine and worked on things like laundry. Saturday turned out to not be as rainy as they said, so the boys got on their boots and we all went out back. They stomped in the puddles and leaves and had a good ole time.
At around 12:30, the boys went down for a nap. Clearly between puddle jumping and the adventure of staying at my parents’ house, they were beat since they ended up sleeping till 4:30! We had to wake them up! In order to get out the last bit of their energy, we took them to McDonald’s. They played there for a while, but it was clear they were both still exhausted. They were slightly cranky and out of sorts. We didn’t stay too long.
When we got home, Ken walked up to where the AT&T guys were in order to check on our phone status. They were originally not going to come out until Tuesday since apparently you need to have multiple complaints from neighbors in order to make it high priority. A good chunk of our neighbors are cell phone free. So Ken walked from house to house, while on the line with AT&T, having each neighbor register their phone number in order to escalate the service call. This meant they came out that same day. It wasn’t good news when he got back. The problem was underground and at the soonest, it would not be up until some time Sunday. And that didn’t even seem likely.
Sunday was bowling day. Matt was in a feisty mood and was picking fights right out of the gate. It was funny, the day before Ken had asked me if my stress from bowling had lessened since Freddie left. Although Freddie didn’t help matters, he was never the source of tension. Matt is a constant point for me to get annoyed. I don’t like when he and Ken fight, I don’t like it when he picks on the boys. I don’t like it when he argues with me on stuff he has no clue on. Yesterday he started picking a fight about the Super Bowl. He announces randomly that there was no Coke or Pepsi ads for this year’s Super Bowl. I told him that it was only Pepsi that had decided to not do ads. He then went off. For the record, we saw at least two Coke ads. At one point, he was criticizing Bobby’s bowling. What the fuck? I pulled Bobby aside and told him to never listen to what Matt says, and he laughed, so I was glad that Bobby wasn’t too scarred.
The bowling had me pretty cranky for the day. I was just feeling out of sorts. I don’t know why. Perhaps lack of internet was putting me in withdrawals.
The plan was to go to Disneyland during the Super Bowl. It ended up not being nearly as empty as hoped. It also wasn’t overcast as we had expected. It was actually beautiful out. Even so, we had a good time and went on a handful of rides. The boys had never been in Sleeping Beauty’s castle, nor had they been on Mr. Toad before. They liked both!
We left the park around 6. It has been quite enjoyable to only go there for a couple hours at a time. The boys have not complained nearly as much as I would expect. But it seems that as long as we tell them only one more ride they are mentally prepared for it. Last night, though, Bobby in particular was more pissy than normal. He grouched quite a bit from the train all the way to the car. He was also freaking out in the car because as he put it, Dax was being “weird”. Dax’s weird was him singing to himself and bebopping around. Yes, it would not surprise me if Dax was doing it partially to piss off his big brother, but really, he was being quiet about it and therefore not breaking any rules, so we couldn’t very well yell at him. Thank goodness we stopped and got dinner since kids with food in their mouths are way less pissy.
We got home and they both crashed out hard when they went to bed. This was good since we were then able to watch the Super Bowl commercials without interruption. I certainly didn’t want to stay up too late. I was about to crash out, too.
This morning I still didn’t have the net and I felt so annoyed since had I known, I would have slept for another 25 minutes since that is the time normally spent online.
I am looking forward to Spring time even more now. Sure, I get to get a new hair style, but also, we are going to give new meaning to Spring Cleaning. There was some talk of putting some of the Lego stuff into storage. Of course, a lot depends on pricing. I just looked up those Pods, and man, they are expensive. It would be cheaper to just get one of those small ones! Once some of the bulk stuff that isn’t being used currently for the business is in storage, the garage can be utilized again, maybe even for some of the daily Lego Ken has in the entry way. We also have some sheds to clean out, which might even possibly empty one of them so I can use it for the bikes and other equipment for the kids. Bobby has expressed interest in throwing out many of the old beat up toys in the yard, so that will also happen. He already threw out a bunch, and thanks to Luna, a handful of other items have been trashed for us. We also have gobs of crap in the attic that will be gone through and put out for a yard sale. It will be a busy few months I figure.
Ken just talked to some of the AT&T guys and it turns out of course that the temp line they put in doesn’t actually cover our block. It figures. Either way, the soonest we will get phone is tonight, maybe. My noon net time today will be very jam packed.
Friday, February 5, 2010
what a great night
2-5-10
What a fantastic evening!!
Brandy got to my house a little before 6. She was able to meet Luna and chat with the boys a bit. Poor Bobby burst into tears not long after she walked in. At first I thought that he had hurt himself based on how he was holding his hand, but after I finally was able to get him to tell me what was up, turned out he was just sad I was leaving and I think he thought I was just going to walk out without saying goodbye. He calmed down and I distracted him by promising that Ken would play Lego Star Wars with them. This was very happy making for both, although I did hear later that Ken had to deal with their melt down when game time was over. Sorry, babe!
We found the place quite easily. It looked like some kind of little convenience store. We checked in at the counter and the lady directed us next door to wait since we were so early. Next door was a cute little book store that had some very wonderful books. We browsed there for 20 minutes and then headed back.
Clearly, we should have stayed at the actual place. Turned out the 7-11 looking place was not was it looked like on first glance. They had wacky products for sale including bottles marked with labels indicating they were lost languages. There was Viking odorant. There was various facial hair you could purchase, including handlebar mustaches. There was dodo chow. Yes, this place rocked.
There were probably 30 people total, maybe a few more once we all went to the back room, which was a much larger room than you would have imagined for how small the front store was. The 4 writers were there, live and in person. I instantly felt star struck. I of course recognized Joel Stein instantly. One of the other authors, Neal Pollack looked familiar to me and I realized that on the back of his book, Alternadad, there was a picture of him. I was only a few feet from these people, and I felt giddy.
The evening started and the 4 writers sat down and the moderator started us off. It was very casual and light, which was very nice. The questions posed were along the lines of asking for things like what their favorite piece was or how do you find ideas for stories and how to do you pitch stories to editors. The authors knew each other and there was some joking around. They were able to prompt each other on different anecdotes that they thought their colleague should tell. They were all quite funny.
Although I was most thrilled to see Joel, Neal actually impressed me a lot more than I expected. He was matter of fact in why he writes certain articles and books and I didn’t feel like he was bullshitting us. Really, none of them seemed like they were just blowing smoke. It was as if we were at some dinner party and these were guests that were just talking about their lives.
The ultimate question would be, did I get anything out of this? Yes, I did. It was nice to hear that even though I think of these people as successful and well off in their chosen field, they really are not. It is tough, even for seasoned writers, to make a good living. Neal has multiple books to his name, yet he is still writing copy for Nickelodeon just to pay some bills. Joel whores himself out to anything, and he is ok with it since the money means a good life for his wife and kid. There is obviously writing for cash, and there is writing for passion. If you are able to combine the two occasionally, you are lucky, but mostly writing is a job. And a tough job to be financially stable. Newspapers are dying out, magazines may not have too much longer, at least not in their current format. Books are great, but you have to have a truly remarkable lucky break to get something popular. Blogs are great, especially for reaching large audiences, if you have the right subject matter. It all comes down to the fact that whether or not I am any good really doesn’t necessarily mean I will be successful.
Brandy and I talked about it on the way home and Ken and I talked about it a bit last night. If I really want to have any audience, I will need to do a few things. I need to pin down one topic matter and stick to that. I need an editor. I need to self promote. Although it is agreed that mommy blogs are an oversaturated market, I might use that as practice until I fund something that is better. I am thinking at this point, perhaps doing a weekly or even bi-weekly blog that is 100% mom talk, but not as much free writing as I do now. I would come up with a specific topic, whether that be birthday planning or maybe preschool shopping, and the blog would be a certain amount of words, and edited correctly so that it is free of typos and poor grammar. Then, I would post it under a new blog page, and email it out to the masses. See if I can get some readers, and really see what I am capable of. Perhaps that will give me not only ideas on how to proceed for real, but also just give me some more practice.
What it comes down to is, I don’t expect to make gobs of cash on this. I love to write, and occasionally I actually do a piece I am proud of. I like it when people read my stuff, and give me any kind of feedback. If I happen to make a buck or two here and there, that is gravy. Who knows, maybe by all of this will give me some kind of wonderful book topic and I will compile that at some point. Maybe nothing will happen and I will only end up entertaining friends and family with what I write. The seminar didn’t inspire me to quit my job in order to pursue a career in journalism. It did inspire me to hone my skills and to really challenge myself to be a better writer, and not just one of the masses who thinks just because they can type must mean they are the next best selling author.
I still worry I am not that good. I worry I am barely average. I still write, though, because it is my release, whether it is giving an opinion on a news story or recapping my evening. I will never stop, but I am hoping to be better.
My night should be good this evening. I have to admit, I will probably miss my kids a bit simply because last night I didn’t see them much and tonight they will be spending the night at my parents’ house, but I am looking forward to date night. The Hangover and Zombieland are both due in my mailbox this afternoon. Ken is picking up the chips and salsa and we are set. When I get home today, I have to gather the bedding, clothing and friends for this evening’s festivities. I also have to get all this stuff into my car with it raining. Not the best thing. It may be time that the boys each have their own little suitcase. Luckily, I have tons of various bags that I can use for now.
What a fantastic evening!!
Brandy got to my house a little before 6. She was able to meet Luna and chat with the boys a bit. Poor Bobby burst into tears not long after she walked in. At first I thought that he had hurt himself based on how he was holding his hand, but after I finally was able to get him to tell me what was up, turned out he was just sad I was leaving and I think he thought I was just going to walk out without saying goodbye. He calmed down and I distracted him by promising that Ken would play Lego Star Wars with them. This was very happy making for both, although I did hear later that Ken had to deal with their melt down when game time was over. Sorry, babe!
We found the place quite easily. It looked like some kind of little convenience store. We checked in at the counter and the lady directed us next door to wait since we were so early. Next door was a cute little book store that had some very wonderful books. We browsed there for 20 minutes and then headed back.
Clearly, we should have stayed at the actual place. Turned out the 7-11 looking place was not was it looked like on first glance. They had wacky products for sale including bottles marked with labels indicating they were lost languages. There was Viking odorant. There was various facial hair you could purchase, including handlebar mustaches. There was dodo chow. Yes, this place rocked.
There were probably 30 people total, maybe a few more once we all went to the back room, which was a much larger room than you would have imagined for how small the front store was. The 4 writers were there, live and in person. I instantly felt star struck. I of course recognized Joel Stein instantly. One of the other authors, Neal Pollack looked familiar to me and I realized that on the back of his book, Alternadad, there was a picture of him. I was only a few feet from these people, and I felt giddy.
The evening started and the 4 writers sat down and the moderator started us off. It was very casual and light, which was very nice. The questions posed were along the lines of asking for things like what their favorite piece was or how do you find ideas for stories and how to do you pitch stories to editors. The authors knew each other and there was some joking around. They were able to prompt each other on different anecdotes that they thought their colleague should tell. They were all quite funny.
Although I was most thrilled to see Joel, Neal actually impressed me a lot more than I expected. He was matter of fact in why he writes certain articles and books and I didn’t feel like he was bullshitting us. Really, none of them seemed like they were just blowing smoke. It was as if we were at some dinner party and these were guests that were just talking about their lives.
The ultimate question would be, did I get anything out of this? Yes, I did. It was nice to hear that even though I think of these people as successful and well off in their chosen field, they really are not. It is tough, even for seasoned writers, to make a good living. Neal has multiple books to his name, yet he is still writing copy for Nickelodeon just to pay some bills. Joel whores himself out to anything, and he is ok with it since the money means a good life for his wife and kid. There is obviously writing for cash, and there is writing for passion. If you are able to combine the two occasionally, you are lucky, but mostly writing is a job. And a tough job to be financially stable. Newspapers are dying out, magazines may not have too much longer, at least not in their current format. Books are great, but you have to have a truly remarkable lucky break to get something popular. Blogs are great, especially for reaching large audiences, if you have the right subject matter. It all comes down to the fact that whether or not I am any good really doesn’t necessarily mean I will be successful.
Brandy and I talked about it on the way home and Ken and I talked about it a bit last night. If I really want to have any audience, I will need to do a few things. I need to pin down one topic matter and stick to that. I need an editor. I need to self promote. Although it is agreed that mommy blogs are an oversaturated market, I might use that as practice until I fund something that is better. I am thinking at this point, perhaps doing a weekly or even bi-weekly blog that is 100% mom talk, but not as much free writing as I do now. I would come up with a specific topic, whether that be birthday planning or maybe preschool shopping, and the blog would be a certain amount of words, and edited correctly so that it is free of typos and poor grammar. Then, I would post it under a new blog page, and email it out to the masses. See if I can get some readers, and really see what I am capable of. Perhaps that will give me not only ideas on how to proceed for real, but also just give me some more practice.
What it comes down to is, I don’t expect to make gobs of cash on this. I love to write, and occasionally I actually do a piece I am proud of. I like it when people read my stuff, and give me any kind of feedback. If I happen to make a buck or two here and there, that is gravy. Who knows, maybe by all of this will give me some kind of wonderful book topic and I will compile that at some point. Maybe nothing will happen and I will only end up entertaining friends and family with what I write. The seminar didn’t inspire me to quit my job in order to pursue a career in journalism. It did inspire me to hone my skills and to really challenge myself to be a better writer, and not just one of the masses who thinks just because they can type must mean they are the next best selling author.
I still worry I am not that good. I worry I am barely average. I still write, though, because it is my release, whether it is giving an opinion on a news story or recapping my evening. I will never stop, but I am hoping to be better.
My night should be good this evening. I have to admit, I will probably miss my kids a bit simply because last night I didn’t see them much and tonight they will be spending the night at my parents’ house, but I am looking forward to date night. The Hangover and Zombieland are both due in my mailbox this afternoon. Ken is picking up the chips and salsa and we are set. When I get home today, I have to gather the bedding, clothing and friends for this evening’s festivities. I also have to get all this stuff into my car with it raining. Not the best thing. It may be time that the boys each have their own little suitcase. Luckily, I have tons of various bags that I can use for now.
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