Better

2-28-14

I’m alive!

Talk about down for the count. Sheesh! I knew I was coming down with something, but when the alarm yelled at me on Wednesday morning, I didn’t realize how much energy it had taken. I kind of expected to stay home Wednesday. I knew that sleeping for a handful of extra hours would clear this right up and I would be bright eyed and bushy tailed come Wednesday night.

I was wrong.

I got up yesterday morning with intentions of going to work. That being said, sleep eluded me all night. I don’t know what was the deal. I was in this half sleep much of the night, stuck in a strange dream like state in which I know I kept trying to find spots on the pillow in which I would no longer be downloading data. I know this sounds odd, but it was one of the things keeping me up all night, which was frustrating to say the least.

I go to work, barely, and I found myself nauseous and in the bathroom much of the time I was here. Thankfully I didn’t throw up. I have had next to nothing in my stomach since Wednesday morning since nothing sounds good and I felt ill from the gut full of snot. Tasty right?

Thankfully yesterday afternoon I perked up. Ken forced me to eat some ramen and this gave me some much needed energy. He also stopped by the school on the way to his class and had the school tell the boys to walk home without me. I gotta say, it was super cute watching the boys walking home. I saw them from the door and it was cool to see them looking so grownup.

Last night I also managed to sleep well and this morning I am munching on cereal which is quite nummy. We went to Costco last night which also resulted in a jar of unsalted cashews which is sitting on my desk ready for snack time later today. Yay! I don’t want anything super heavy, so these little foods today are helping me.

Tonight I am supposed to go out with Sarah and Alyssa for our monthly dinner that we are trying to do. I am so glad I am not dying anymore. It sounds like Sarah needs us a lot tonight for some support and I am happy to be there for that.

I spent 2 days scrubbed free of makeup. It felt so naked, yet I can tell it made a difference on my face this morning. I might need to start doing weekends free of makeup.

My boss is out today, which is like a mini gift for me. I know I slam him a lot, and really, he isn’t a bad guy or a bad boss. I just don’t like making small talk with the guy and he is one of those friendly folks who doesn’t think outside the box much and I mostly hate that in people. Today it will be nice to get back into routine and not worry about him. 

birthday magic

2-24-14

I can’t believe my sweet darling child is 9.

That being said, it was pretty clear this weekend that my kid is going to be a gaming geek. His Minecraft party was fantastic and truly I should have made it for longer. At least I know for next time. I know his buddies would love to come back (their moms seemed just as thrilled) and we will have to allow for a longer play session.

I spent all Saturday morning prepping for the party. I baked brownies, I scrubbed the house, I got the place looking fab. I even showed the boys their new bathroom chore, having each of them work on a bathroom for me. Sure, it was still work for me, but it was their first time learning and no time like the present to show them so that each upcoming Saturday I have less chores for me.

I applied the icing to the cake and I gotta say, I rocked the shit out of that thing. I made this whole cake, icing and all, and it really looked like a creeper. I was so freaking proud. I stored it in the microwave so that no tiny ninja cat would sample its green goodness. I pulled it out at like 2:30 and had it on the counter. I thought I would be a nice mom and unload the dishwasher for the boys so they didn’t have to do it later.

It really is a wonder I mange at all in life.

In the process of putting away a bowl, a casserole dish fell from the top shelf onto the stack of giant glass bowls. This resulted in a broken bowl. No, wait, let me paint a picture. This bowl practically produced a mushroom cloud because only a nuclear bomb caused more damage. This bowl exploded, shooting out a million tiny shards of glass all over me, the kitchen, and sadly, my cake masterpiece. Fuck.

Yeah, that would ruin anyone.

Thankfully Bobby didn’t mind one bit. He was just thrilled to have the gaming. Thank goodness for the brownies! I was able to use the creeper cake for blowing out candles. That almost made it worse for me since I swear the cake didn’t look bad unless you really started to inspect it. The glass was almost blending like some pretty sugar on top. It was something you serve your enemy.

The kids barely noticed that there were grownups there. When their respective guardians showed up to retrieve them, there wasn’t even acknowledgement that they had arrived. This is good since there was a good chunk of time spent with my folks in the kitchen discussing pot.

I showed them the letter that Stephanie and I had gotten on our previous week’s adventure. I wondered what they would say, but they actually seemed pretty interested. It was a really cool, albeit surreal, conversation. At one point, my mom was tasting the remaining oil I had from Chris. This isn’t your standard birthday party small talk. And this is also why I am glad I have my parents as the people who brought me into this world.

Yesterday took us out to Riverside for Don Jose’s and Grammie celebrating. We probably could have stayed longer, especially since the drive time alone makes it feel like you should spend at least a good chunk of time at the actual destination.

It was hot out there and the boys expressed interest in the pool. I told them they could go in the pool in their underwear and just go home commando. They liked this and spent a good chunk of time splashing around in the pool. It was great fun for them and we all just sat around watching them. It was a good afternoon.

I was able to spend time chillin on the couch in the afternoon while reading a book. It was really the best way to spend a Sunday.

Sadly this morning the alarm did not go off. It is always a wonder when I still wake up on those kind of mornings. I did get up around the time I am walking out the door, but since I get ready pretty quickly, it wasn’t too bad. I feel a little out of it this morning because of the late start, though. I think Luna could sense my crazy since she actually came out of the bedroom and stayed at my side during some of my more frantic moments. She is such a wonderful pup.

I think my body is fighting this cold that Ken had. It does not want to deal with it. I am proud of my body, but I only need it to last through tomorrow since it is report day. If I can at least be functional doing all the excel, then I don’t mind collapsing after. I suppose I need to be ok for tomorrow night, too, since we have someone coming to look at Eydie, so we shall see. 

Chatty Bobby

2-21-14

Yay Friday!

I am happy to report that there are at least two confirmed guests for tomorrow, which in itself is good. Bobby assures me Grayson is coming, too, so hopefully that happens. Ken has the computers set up and tonight I make cake and brownies. I need to go out to get some supplies, so I will most likely pick up the boys from school and head over to get that done. I am making them do some cleaning since I will be busy. Ken is still sick, but he seemed to sleep better last night which made me super happy.

Bobby was quite upset yesterday morning. Ken told them that they could just go to the cafeteria for lunch since he wasn’t up to making lunch for them. Dax, as expected, was thrilled. Bobby, however, broke down sobbing. He was terrified of going in there. He didn’t know how to make it happen. They have lunch cards for the occasional snack or meal there. We pack lunch for all days, but this is in case they want something that is being served or maybe something else. We put money on it and everything. Dax has used it, but Bobby has not. He tends to freak on some things, and I understand. My kids suffer from the same thing I would have flipped about not only as a child, but as a grownup. They are better than they could be, and mostly they get over it, but it is tough to deal with as a parent at times. I know Ken gets frustrated, but he is not someone who has ever been shy in any way. I am planning on having Bobby and Dax both start doing more things on their own. I may take them to say a McDonalds and have them go and order their own food. I am thinking of having them do a handful of other things that may seem scary. I will be there, but they will do it on their own. It will be good for them.

Sadly, that wasn’t the only Bobby issue. Ironically, the kid terrified of the lunch line is quite the socialite. He has been warned that he gets too chatty with friends in class. They have a ledger where they get “money” for things like turning in homework and other things. They also have to pay rent on their desk and they will get dinged $5 for talking. Bobby paid out like $100 this last week. They bring home the ledger once a week for us to sign it. Mr. Chin sent home a note indicating that he was extra chatty this week. I am sure this is due to the upcoming birthday, but still. Not cool, kid. I took away Bobby’s computer last night and I also wrote back a note saying that he will need to bring home his ledger nightly so that I can see how chatty he is every day. I told Bobby if he talks too much, computer is taken away, which seems to be a huge deal.

I read Vampire Academy yesterday. Turns out it is 6 books so I found book 2 and I will read that today. It isn’t fab or anything, but it is intriguing enough that I enjoyed it. I find it funny that perhaps they would better with a bit more, well, fifty shades action. Yeah, turns out anything this cheesy requires a lot more sex and I feel like I need to find me some more cheesy chick smut.

It looks to be a pretty boring day, so I think it is time to start reading. 

I didn't even mention the stinky skunk!

2-20-14

There was no sleep in Brenanville last night.

Ken headed out to his soccer game and Lily must have felt as if it was her responsibility to alert me to it from the point of him leaving all the way until he got home. I had been all excited to get some sleep, but not so much when she did her barking and whining in the crate. I tried to pee her, but she would have none of it. I had even made a point of walking her last night and got her a rawhide treat for her crate. Sadly it didn’t help.

Poor Ken has caught a nasty cold which kept him up much of the night. Of course, we both had finally fallen asleep at like midnight when a loud beeping from outside woke us up. Apparently Time Warner felt the need to have their truck out doing god only knows what at that house. Whenever the backed the truck up, the loud warning sound echoed through the house. It was awful.

I really considered calling out. I thought that I could totally stay in bed until the boys needed to get to school. I could then take them so Ken wouldn’t have to worry about it so he could get some rest. As we see, these were all just thoughts because here I am, sitting at my desk wishing for an extended vacation.

Ken got most of the laptops up and running for the LAN party on Saturday. They are all on the dining room table, ready for a bunch of boys to play Minecraft for 3 hours. I picked up a small square cake pan last night so I can make a Creeper head cake and I also got brownie mix to use with the cookie cutters. It should be pretty low key. I hope to have it all pretty much ready to go Friday night since Ken is reffing one game on Saturday. Really, this is going to be the easiest party to host EVER!

I was sad yesterday when I realized that the copy of Labor Day I found was only the first chapter. What makes it worse is that it is good so far and I can’t seem to find a full copy. I will keep searching, but in the meantime, I found a copy of Vampire Academy, which was on this list of books to read before the movie comes out. I figured I would give it a go. Worst case scenario I don’t finish it.

I have decided, and I will need to pick a date like now, that for my 40^th birthday next year I will have a large party. I would like to have a theme, but Ken thinks that will limit my turnout. I still think theme, though, just not one that is outrageous. So who’s in?

Bouncing off the Walls

2-19-14

I made up for sitting on the couch on Monday evening.

You know how you will go to clean something up and you go and put something away from that clean up and note the place where the item goes is messy so you start to clean that only to get to another area that also needs work and next thing you know, you have chain cleaned? Yeah, that is what I was doing yesterday. It was kind of fun, actually since I noted that I got a lot done. I managed to organize the pantry a bit along with going through some of the junk drawer. I also got some dishes done.

I rode my bike to pick up the boys and took their scooters. They were thrilled. Sadly, on the way home Dax hit a crack and flew over the handlebars. I honestly thought the injuries would be worse. He hit hard.

Removing the bike from the yard was a bitch due to the quantity of crap on the side of the house waiting for garage space. I also noted the amount of destruction caused by two pups. While Bobby worked on homework, Ken, Dax and I worked on the yard, getting it all cleaned up. We also got some laundry done along with some other general cleaning items.

I have decided the boys will have a new weekend chore. They get to clean the bathrooms! YAY! It isn’t hard. It is mostly just wiping down surfaces of mostly cat fur and then a quick toilet clean. I had to do it as a kid and it won’t be too hard. Plus, it frees me up a bit.

Ken spent the day at Eydie kicking ass and taking names. He put up all the panels in the living room and disassembled the storage bins. There is some more painting that needs to be done but of course the washer we replaced has gone missing. I am guessing a cat took it as a trophy from the table.

I downloaded another book this morning. I thought I would read Labor Day since the movie looks pretty interesting. I will get to that hopefully most of the day. I have a handful of work things that need to be tended to. I was quite busy yesterday, mostly with testing new functions before they were released into production. I have a feeling there will be more of that today.

Lily is getting more used to her gentle lead collar. I determined that I will need to pick up a new leash since I only seem to have one regular leash and the other two are retractable. I am guessing Dollar Tree has something that will work until I find something cooler. LOL! I spent some quality time playing with my pups yesterday. They truly are awesome. Trixie was quite perturbed at my attention being focused on someone other than her, so I made sure to have some kitty time, too.

Today while the boys work on homework I may need to pull some garage boxes. I am getting quite the pile for Savers and I may as well add to it so I can take as much as possible. I put on some shoes this morning that I decided are super cute but the fact that they are a half a size too small just isn’t worth it anymore. I will be putting those in the batch.

I feel so freaking energized this morning. It is strange. I like it, but it is still odd. 

Nope

2-18-14

Answering it will not serve any purpose.

I have read her email several times and each time I find something else that is offensive. It screams passive-aggressive and even though I know there are many things I could try and give my side, I thought about it and decided; I am not looking to fix this so explaining why she is wrong doesn’t do any good. To have her be at a gathering of mutual friends and to be able to function is good enough for me and I am glad to be rid of such a toxic person.

I had more time than I wanted to really think about it. I was on the couch all afternoon with a strained back muscle that I must have gotten at work when I was crawling around under my desk at one point to plug something in. I was in a lot of pain much of the day at work and by the time I got home I realized just how much my back was angry with me. Ken had me sit down and rest, which meant a lot of Olympics watching. LOL! We also cleared out the Tivo of Cougar Town and I gotta say it is strange to be caught up on shows we watch together. It is also funny how few shows we watch these days. 

The good news is my back is less upset today. The bad news is I think it is my work chair that is causing it. It may be time to do something about that.

Bobby only has one confirmed guest to his party. I worry that no one will come. I need to have him ask his buddies. I know Nathan can’t make it now, but there were others he invited. Hopefully a couple show, which will make him happy.

Elephant

2-17-14

Awkward!

I am pretty sure I did just as much exercise as some of the kids at the school. Sure, they ran around the track we set up for 20 minutes, but I jumped up and down, cheered, and was all around a crazy mom keeping these kids motivated to keep going for 40.

When I showed up to volunteer for the Jog-A-Thon, Dr. Smart instantly told the ladies in charge that Mrs. Brenan should be one of the people misting the kids with the spray bottles since it was a job that needed to be done by someone energetic. I didn’t disappoint. LOL!

I had a blast. I loved how many of the kids that I now know. I loved seeing them all happy and it was super gratifying when a few of the kids would ask me how many laps they had done and when I told them to get a certain amount for me, they busted their ass to do it. I am sorry I had to leave when I did (especially since I was unable to get my TB test at I had hoped for) since I would have liked to stay for the 5^th and 6^th graders, too. Next year!

Since I had a good chunk of Friday to myself, I took advantage of the free time by hitting up Target. Honestly, I tend to prefer to shop with people, but it was nice to be able to take my time in certain areas of the store without feeling bad about boring anyone I might be with.

For Valentine’s dinner, my three handsome Valentines and I went out to dinner. The plan had been to go to Olive Garden. I happen to have a gift card for there and thought this was a perfect time to hit them up. Sadly, I was not the only person with this idea. Who knew that Olive Garden was the destination for so many couples! LOL! No worries, really, since TGIFridays is next door so we went there instead. It was most likely better food, and Bobby tried ribs for the first time and enjoyed the heck out of them. I call that a win!

Saturday was adventure day with Stephanie! We set out for our appointments with a doctor to get the magic letter indicating we could legally purchase marijuana. I am so glad we opted for the doctor we went to instead of some creepy place in Venice. The doctor’s office was really nice, and I adored her. She was super nice and helpful and we bonded over homework issues with our respective kids. Stephanie was able to bond with her on similar things along with their medical knowledge. I was actually pretty excited at the idea of using this to calm some anxiety attacks instead of using something like Xanax. I had no idea that there were strains you can use that give you more of the relaxing effect and less of the high. It truly is a shame our country doesn’t understand how great legalizing this would be.

After a nice lunch, we hit up a dispensary that employed a friend of Stephanie’s. It confirmed what Ken and I had thought about other places we have seen that clearly look like they run a business, but look all secretive. Those places most likely are also dispensaries. This one took us forever to find despite being next to it. Then again, not being able to find it made for even more fun.

I was super impressed with how nice the facility was. I don’t really know what I expected, but I guess it seemed liked this candy shop that had special candy. In other ways, it felt like we were in the adult section of a local video store because of the blacked out windows and whatnot. It was super strange, and I felt so out of my element, yet felt comfortable at the same time. They seemed like super nice people.

Saturday night allowed for a tv binge. Ken and I caught up on HIMYM and I was pretty drained after all of that. I also was still recovering from the deep discussions Ken and I had from my morning outings. Ken was a bit jealous of my getting the certificate without him and on top of that was frustrated from a day of failed Eydie workings. When I had returned home, there was definite tension that was resolved, but it still was a tough afternoon. So add to that the final handful of episodes of a beloved sitcom that happened to be tear jerkers, I was ready for bed!

Yesterday should have been spent working, but we ended up going to see the Lego movie again. It wasn’t a bad thing. None of us were very energized about anything. I did set up the boys with a math game website, and Bobby enjoyed it so much I don’t think he played Minecraft all day, which is saying something.

We got an invite to go out to dinner with some friends since Greg was in town. It was at PF Changs, so really any excuse is good enough for me! I also decided the boys are invited from here on out and they came along. I didn’t visit with Greg or Aaron, sadly, but did get to chit chat with Chris and Kathy. I was thrilled to be able to talk with them. Kathy seemed pretty amused by Dax, which made me all kinds of mama proud. 

Actually, the boys were incredibly well behaved and I was pretty pleased with them. Of course, there was the vegan elephant in the room, but it went fine enough with no eye contact made. Since she decided to make it so I don’t exist, I didn’t exist. It was fine, really, and if anything, it was a good way to determine that I don’t have to worry about her in social situations. I was particularly impressed that Bobby didn’t say anything during dinner but waited for the way home to ask if she and I were still not speaking. He was very sweet about it and it was actually kind of nice to explain to him how not all friendships last.

We got home late enough that I contemplated calling out sick this morning. I was so freaking comfy in bed and I just wanted to stay there all day. LOL! Oh well, it is ok. I am here now and I will manage just fine.  

Party Planning

2-13-14

It’s my Friday!

Yeah, I am a little jazzed to have tomorrow off. I have the school jog a thon to help out with and then I will run over to the doctor’s office to get my TB test. I need to get cleared so I can go on Dax’s field trip in March. He is going to the Natural History Museum, which is awesome! I am excited to go, and Dax lit up when I said I was going with them.

We determined yesterday that Steve is actually big enough to lose a person. I was in the bedroom putting away laundry when Ken got home. He didn’t know I was there and didn’t hear me and ended up walking up to the school with the assumption that I had already left. I didn’t know this and wandered the house looking for him without any luck. I finally texted him and found out what had happened. He was trying to surprise me by going up to meet me.

I went a little nuts on all my customers yesterday. I emailed like crazy. I feel a little bad since at least one of them emailed me back pointing out that they can’t leave their house to go to the shop due to all the snow. I looked them up and realized they were in the midst of the South Carolina snow storm. Oops. Sometimes living in Los Angeles makes you lose weather perspective. Stupid fucking 80 degrees tomorrow. Sheesh!

Last night I was lazy and didn’t read to the boys. Ken normally reads Harry Potter for like a half an hour, but he was at soccer. So I told them that they could read a book to each other and when they were done, to turn off the light and go to bed. It was rather charming to hear them read to one another and I was proud of how they didn’t dink around afterwards and went to bed. I may make this a once a week thing since it gives them reading practice and it promotes brother bonding.

I need to really get the downstairs ready for party time. Bobby invited 5 people from school to play Minecraft for his birthday. I want to set it up for optimal geek time along with a snack table. I wonder if parents will be cool with just dropping off their kids. I will make sure to have some wine at the ready if they want to stay and chat. I am getting better at the mom chats. I found myself talking with parents at the school. One sought us out yesterday. Of course, he was talking WoW, which means we must stink of geek. LOL!

I am a bad wife. I didn’t get Ken anything for tomorrow. I thought of a handful of things but most seemed lame and the ones that were ok were pricey. I will have to make it up to him and do something cool soon. I suck.

cuteness

2-12-14

Eydie is looking so naked!

I stopped by on the way home since Ken was there working. The backyard debris pile is gone, which is so odd. There is a new pile, mostly things we are tossing that came from the garage. The guy will hopefully get that stuff this week. Really, we need to pull some more things from the garage before he comes since there is still some crap in there. That being said, you can see an end which is all kinds of good. Perhaps we will rent a truck on Sunday to get the last load of keep so that all we have left is trash. Hell, I can load while Ken works on panels. I can load a truck and break things. YAY!

The last two evenings aside from some standard chores have been rather lazy. We have been catching up on How I Met Your Mother since it all comes to an end next month and I have to see the finale on the same night it airs. I am not worried about spoilers, but it is one of those shows I feel I owe the courtesy of being there when it takes its last breath.

Yesterday was spent on Ancestry.com. I went ahead and signed up for a 2 week test period and played around a bit. I found some things, but honestly, I find the site to be poorly laid out and the searching tools are not idiot friendly, which is what I kind of assumed was the point of using this site say compared to just searching the net. Oh well. It isn’t a huge deal, but it is one of those things that kept me occupied for a while, which made for a quick day.

I have to say I am a little disappointed that Mr. Chin isn’t using Valentine’s Day as a good way for the kids to practice writing. He didn’t want the kids to address each card. I know it may be a pain in the ass to pass them all out, but seriously, it is just another cool way to have them write things for practice and it is fun! I am only frustrated I am sure because we went to the trouble of making cute Valentines and Bobby already wrote out names on a handful with names he could remember the spelling on. Oh well. I guess we will just send those along with him signing the rest.

Ok, just found the newspaper listing when my folks got their marriage license. Yay!

Ice Skating is Awesome!

2-10-14

The full body sore is something I haven’t dealt with in a while.

It was an exhausting weekend. I am glad that I only work 4 days this week, although I would really have liked to have today be my extra day off. I still have too much to do and never enough time.

We went and saw the Lego Movie on Friday. It was really quite good. I know Ken and the boys enjoyed it, and Ken was enthralled with several inside Lego jokes that I think he might have been the only one in the theatre that got them. It was pretty awesome. I am guessing it is one that we will watch a lot on video. Then again, the boys don’t watch as many shows anymore, so it is hard to say.

Saturday took us to Eydie where we worked on painting and panels. We picked out new panels that hide the nails better. It will won’t be as bright as the white would have been, but it will make the living room very warm and nice.

I painted the rest of the green in the front. I also painted some of the back bedroom, specifically the window frames. It is all coming along. Debris pick up starts today, which will be good for getting the rest of the crap out of the back.

We were there much of the day. We wrapped up and then got home to clean up for skate night!

When I put on the ice skates I wondered what would happen. Would I stand up and promptly fall over? Or would some form of muscle memory kick in? I was happy when I was able to walk over to the ice entrance with no issues. I was even happier when I stepped on the ice and didn’t break my neck. In fact, I felt surprisingly comfortable. I did baby steps at first, but after only a little while I was able to cruise around pretty well. I am glad I got my ice legs so quickly since the boys would need both Ken and I.

I will tell you, when you are skating and you have to hold up a 60 pound kid from falling, all the while not falling yourself, you feel pretty dang powerful. I was shocked at how many times we didn’t fall.

Both the boys had a couple of falls that resulted in tears. I didn’t blame them one bit. It is a bit scary to fall out there, and dude, it hurts! That being said, they didn’t quit. They stuck it out and both of them were skating pretty well by the end of the night.

I was so expecting them to want to bail within the first hour. I was shocked at how quick 2 hours flew by, and how much even I was enjoying every minute. We have all agreed that we really need to go back. It was so dang much fun. It is no wonder we went every Friday night back in high school.

It was quite the turnout, too. It was packed! And it was just Adams families!

We called it a night around 8:15, which was really only about 15 minutes before the night was “over” at skating. It sounded like they were extending it a bit, so had we not had somewhere else to go we might have stayed longer. But we had a soccer dinner still ahead of us.

We got to the restaurant just as people were finishing up. This wasn’t a bad thing. Jerry was very cool and was just glad we were able to make it at all. We ordered some food and ended up being Jerry, his fiancé Susan, Denise and Jimmy’s entertainment. Ken and I told stories and Bobby even got in on it. It was a fun table and we had a blast. Poor Dax was wiped out tired, but he still was charming on every level. Susan was impressed with the boys and I was glad to get to know her a bit more. Denise and Jimmy are Brenan kindred spirits and totally appreciated our stories on our level. I am so glad we went!

We got home at like 10:30 and were beat. Dax didn’t even bother waiting for us. He crawled into bed and was almost asleep before I even was able to come in and kiss him goodnight. The household, however, was not happy with our coma like states. Lily in particular was quite whiny all night and the cats couldn’t figure out how to cuddle with me. It was as if they were so desperate to be close to me they forgot how to cat.

We slept in. I don’t say that lightly. We all know when I “sleep in” it means like 7. I was in bed until almost 10. No joke. I hurt. My hip was sore from skating making some sleeping uncomfortable. However, when I would pass out, I was in a nice deep sleep. It was awesome.

We should have gone to Eydie, but instead took care of some things at Steve. Mount Laundry was rearing its ugly head again and there were several things I needed to tend to. One of the more important things was actually a Petsmart run. We specifically needed to pick up some cat repellent. The cats have for some reason decided that the 5 cat boxes that we have, all cleaned daily and in a nice private catio are not enough. So they have taken to crapping in random places. We have decided to combat this with one of those cat sprays that is supposed to keep them out of certain areas. Sarah has been using one on Riley so I opted to get that.

The pups got to come along and I am always impressed with how well behaved my dogs are compared to other dogs in the store. Luna was phenomenal and Lily charmed everyone with her puppy bounce.

I did not care for the hard sell. This dog trained approached us and asked me if I wanted a “free” puppy starter kit. Yeah…turns out the so called free puppy pack was $20. Lying asshole. He then proceeded to criticize our leash. He was such a sales rep, and not a dog trainer. I was not impressed. I just emailed PetSmart and bitched them out. It certainly made me realize why we go to PetCo more often.

I managed to put together the rest of the Valentine baggies and this morning I printed out the Valentines they will fill out this afternoon. I feel like such a cheapskate on these goodie bags. There is very little candy and one pencil and the Valentines are ones I printed out. Mind you I am going to glue them on construction paper and make them a bit nicer, but the reason I chose these is that no one sells Minecraft ones so I thought it would be cool for them to have ones they like. I also have to keep telling myself that this is supposed to be a token gift, not something huge. Captain Overkill rears its ugly head and tsks at me in a very disapproving way.

We got Lily her very own gentle lead collar. It is a smidge big for her face still, but we managed to use it last night. She really did not know what to do with it. Towards the end of the walk she was better about it. Luna took some time with it in the beginning, so I know it will just take some getting used to. It will be good for her to use it early in life so that when she is older it is just something she knows is part of life.

When I get home from work I am hoping to have the boys work on those Valentines while I work on chores. We got a lot done, but I still have that laundry to tackle. I wonder if people with kids have ever considered getting multiple laundry machines.

I brought my gym clothing to work. I plan on walking today. I may go slow at first but dammit I am going to do it! I have Parenthood to catch up on so hopefully I can do that this week. I need to look at it also as just a nice time to get away from the boring that is my desk. LOL!

Mystery Readers

2-7-14

Hello!

I was pleasantly surprised that the board meeting last night was non offensive. I was rather upbeat when we got there. I am guessing that a lot of that was due to the two cups of coffee I had consumed an hour or so before hand. I also was really excited at the rain that made the world smell all kinds of wonderful. Granted, I did have to talk with this old kook that truly should be tossed out into puppy lake, but in the grand scheme of things, he is rather harmless.

I was starting to assume that I would need to either relist the stroller ads on Craigslist or just find a place to donate the old strollers. Yesterday I ended up getting emails for both the double stroller and the backpack ones. I am meeting the one interested party this afternoon at Target. He wants to pay with a Target gift card and has said that he would go inside with us to prove it has money on it, which works nicely since my soccer crazed son has already put a hole in his semi new shoes and I suppose as a good parent I should remedy that. The other person sent me an email and it looks as though I will meet up with them sometime tomorrow. Yay!

Yesterday my blog seemed a hint dark and I do admit I was feeling low. Not sure if my mom reads this (if so, Hi Mom!) or just has that mother/daughter Unagi. She sent me an email yesterday which truly was wonderful. She just wanted to let me know how much she loved me, which sometimes is all a person needs to hear when they feel a little blue.

We have tickets to see the Lego movie this evening. We were going to see it no matter what, but Ken pointed out that what with his clientele he really needed to see if before he saw any of his students next week. I don’t mind since from what I have seen of other Lego productions, this should be pretty awesome. I am a little concerned since we are seeing it late. Dax and I will most likely be the ones who will suffer in terms of feeling tired, but the comedy aspect of the movie should counter most of that.

I was a rebel. The boys have their jog-a-thon next Friday and I didn’t donate any money. We were supposed to get “sponsors” for our kids. It was one of those, get a couple bucks from people who supported your kid in their jogging efforts since all the students have 20 minutes to go as many laps as possible. Sure, I could have harassed folks for this money, but I opted to just sign the release form so they could run and didn’t turn in any money. I shouldn’t have to feel obligated to participate in every single fundraiser.

I asked the boys if there was any special valentines they wanted to get for anyone. Dax indicated a couple of girls, but it wasn’t romantic, even in the 2^nd grade sense. I still maintain this one girl, Jadzia, has a crush on him, but I really don’t know. I only see her after school and there is just something cute about it. Bobby is in the buddy phase of life and he has his little gang of guys. The only girl who constantly says hello to him, and to me on her way out, is his friend Izzy.

I have a picture up of Olivia Wilde at my desk and my boss actually asked me if she was Selena Gomez. I was surprisingly offended.

When I went to pick up the boys yesterday, I drove since the sky was threatening to open up at any time. I took the pups and we hung out in the car waiting. Lily was rather insistent that she was a very good lap dog. She would crawl over on to me and snuggle up like a little kid on my shoulder. This was sweet and all, until Luna felt that she should be given the same privilege. Let’s just say a 50 pound dog is NOT a lap dog.

Tomorrow morning we go work at Eydie. Hopefully we can get some good progress in. I think we will hit up Lowe’s on the way so we can choose the panel boards for the living room. We don’t have our skating event until 6:30, so we can work until probably about 5 since we will need to get back and cleaned up. Plus, the first 20 kids at the place get free hot chocolate. Not that I won’t get hot chocolate for the boys even if it wasn’t free, but I have already programmed the boys to know that free things are always better.

I found out that the skating rink is actually shutting down so that it is only Adams students and their families. That should be way awesome! I am really excited about this, despite being a bit terrified at how injured I will most likely end up. I may need to pad my butt.

Super Short

2-6-14

Sick and monthly.

It hit me yesterday as my nose was like a faucet and I felt achy. I not only am dealing with the chick deal, but now I seem to have been hit with a small cold. By the time I got home yesterday, I was exhausted and ready for bed. Of course, I still had to deal with homework, making dinner, working on some light dog training and other normal household things. Luckily I was able to fall asleep pretty quickly, and hard, after Ken went to soccer. So much so that Bobby at some point came into our room and placed his blanket on the bed for Ken to fix. He most likely said something to me, but I either didn’t hear while in my coma or I talked to him while asleep, which apparently happens a lot with me.

I really don’t want to go to the board meeting tonight. I know I don’t need to. Hell, if there ever was a time I didn’t need to be somewhere, it would be tonight. I have no checks needing cut, and even if I did, I can send Ken with the checkbook and they can handle it. We will see how I feel later. I know I am lame if I don’t go being that I should, but dammit, they got a whole day from me on Saturday.

Of course, there is the fact that I could walk to the meeting in the rain, which sounds strangely appealing. It may be the only thing that sways my vote.

Then again, listening to the rain while at Steve is even better.

I have been feeling really down about myself lately. The chant from the voices is getting harder to ignore. I have mostly kept all this internal, hoping that my strong voices can fight the demons, but I worry at times I am losing. I need to really buckle down and be good to me. I am considering the idea of postponing homework by 45 minutes. If I let the kids chill for a bit when we get home, and then I can go on a walk. This may allow for less fight with the work and it allows me to unwind. It is an interesting plan. I am always wanting to get the homework done quickly so we don’t have to deal with it, but it might not be as awful to “deal with” if everyone is in a different presence of mind.

Twitchy

4-5-14

Yay reading!

Yesterday’s work day was glorious since it allowed me to read most of The Book Thief. There is a certain amusement that I was stealing time to read a book about a girl stealing books. It truly is a well written book, and such an amazing narrative. I love the angle. Of course, it also jolts you again into just how awful the human race has been to one another in certain times. This specifically is during Nazi Germany, and I am telling you, it is almost as if my brain makes it out to be some kind of fake time, like a Hunger Games just so that you can try and distance yourself from the horrendous outcome of all of the lives during that period in history.

Ken got me a new vacuum! YAY! He picked it up at Costco, which was perfect since it was similar to ones we were looking at getting, and it meant I didn’t have to wait for it to ship from Amazon. When I got home, we broke it in by giving the family room a thorough cleaning. It was amazing how much cat hair it pulled up. It needed to be done for multiple reasons, but most importantly we were laying down boric acid in order to combat the very real flea problem. Hopefully this will help and our critters can get some relief.

I was feeling ambitious and excited since Ken went to Costco, which presented me with multiple items to work with for dinner. Of course, we laugh since the main reason he went, which was to pick up chicken, was forgotten. LOL! This just meant I ended up making a lasagna instead of a chicken based dish. It was nummy. There is something to be said about an oven that actually cooks evenly.

I got Lily to sit on command multiple times last night. I am so excited! She did so well! I was also amused when I had to scold her when she got into the recycling in the kitchen and Luna seemed to run to her defense. She came up to me, all very concerned and it was as if she was apologizing for having not kept an eye on her. It was pretty funny, really. I spent some quality time bonding with both pups, making sure that Lily knows we don’t just go through the motions.

I have determined why I was feeling so off on Monday. Turned out I was starting a couple days early. What is really nice this month is that it seems to be straight forward. The last few months seemed to have false starts and random bleeding. This time there is no mistaking everything. The only thing is that it seems to have completely exhausted me. Today I am less so, but yesterday I was a blob. Of course, sitting in front of a computer reading a book for 8 hours may make anyone seem kind of zoned.

So now I get to have a similar day. The boss is back, but I am pretty sure it will be slow aside from a couple of customers I have to get back to. I am so uninspired sometimes with work. I need a project. I would write more, but quite honestly my left hand has been uber twitchy these past couple weeks and typing isn’t as easy. Especially when I really get going. It is almost like a dog wagging its tail. I think it gets excited and can’t contain itself. I am starting to wonder if I need to cut out caffeine maybe for a week to see if that helps. I need to do something.  

tile

2-4-14

Yawn.

I kicked some ass on the house yesterday. I managed to get all of the family room picked up and ready for boric acid. Sadly, our vacuum sucks, or well, blows? Either way, it is a crappy vacuum. It may be due to some belt issues, but quite honestly I am ready to chuck it and order new. I found one on Consumer Reports and Amazon that had high marks for pet hair in particular. It isn’t too expensive, either. I mean, sure, I would love a Dyson just to say I have a Dyson. Yeah, I am a bit of a whore when it comes to a British accent.

Now if only I can find a better tile cleaner. I mopped with the same one I use for the wood floors but it just doesn’t look great. Plus, after a round of dishes done by the boys and dirty kid and dog feet, it was already a mess again. Sigh.

The boss is out again today. I have found a copy of The Book Thief in PDF form so I will be reading that this morning.

I worked on making life a little more routine yesterday. It certainly made for less stress overall. Bobby is still trying to come to terms with not having nearly as much time on his computer as he might on a Saturday. If I could teach that kid how to program I would feel less upset about him being on there all the time. His current fascination isn’t even just playing Minecraft. He just watches videos of people playing Minecraft. Sheesh, can we say dull?

Ken was talking about going to Costco today for me. I am always a bit jealous when he goes, but in reality, there is no reason for me to go. I guess that stereotypical shopping thing sometimes kicks into gear.

I am very excited for the 15^th! Stephanie’s birthday is Sunday, but we are “celebrating” on Saturday by going down and getting our medicinal marijuana cards. Hee! Yeah, traditional we are not, but it will be a fun day. It should be an interesting experience all around.  I almost feel like we need to go get a tattoo after or something else that is slightly random.

This Saturday is Skate Night! YAY! The boys will get to learn how to skate at the same place I first took the ice. I will of course attempt to skate, even though I don’t predict good things. It has been a REALLY long time. Either way, I will actually just enjoy them out on the ice, playing around. I know Dax will do great. I actually think Bobby will do well, too. He has really good balance and I think that since you don’t have to go fast, he will do just fine. I like the idea of being able to go all paparazzi on them. After we are done there, we get to go over to the Region 15 Volunteer Appreciation Dinner, so it seems like a huge win of an evening. Especially since we will end up spending all day at Eydie working our asses off.

Lily actually sat twice on command. I know she is still young and has a long way to go, but she is smart. I can see it. I have high hopes for my pups!

Football and garages

2-3-14

The garage is certainly cleaner.

Friday’s plan of renting a truck went off without a hitch. I spent a few hours throwing things in boxes and then tossing it in the back of the UHaul. It was hard work, but I enjoyed it since I could see results. Plus, I had my Podcasts to listen to, so it made the time go by in a good way.

I would have liked to bring over the storage bins but I couldn’t figure out how to disassemble them without breaking them. At this point we have about one more truck load of things to bring, and we should be able to do the bins at that time and hopefully Ken can help. That load will include things like the back yard chairs and picnic bench. I also didn’t get a handful of other things in the garage. Yesterday when we went over there I managed to go through more and even toss a lot of items. Really, we are down to mostly garbage now.

I am glad I took Friday off. I knew I would be out a smidge later on Thursday night what with me being able to go to dinner with Sarah and Alyssa, but it was just one of those wonderful feelings that I could sleep in AND get a shit ton of stuff done.

What is really sad when you think about it is that Ken and I were in bed BEFORE the boys that night. I had taken them over to my folks for the night. Ken and I went to dinner but were home and in bed by 7:30. I am glad we were simply because we had the soccer powwow all day Saturday, but it was still funny.

Saturday afternoon could have been more productive, but it ended up being me sitting on the couch watching 4 episodes of Being Human. Aaron was over and he and Ken played some new Star Wars game for a few hours. The boys played Minecraft, so the critters and I were left to chill. I could have gone out I suppose, but it was kind of nice catching up on the season of my show.

We actually watched most of the Super Bowl. I really do not like football. It tends to be so freaking dull. Although there were some fun plays yesterday, clearly it was not a game designed to convert a hockey fan. I wasn’t even impressed with the commercials. There were some that were good. One in particular made me think of Dax:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGr9t5Wfrv0

The news of the death of Philip Seymour Hoffman really hit me hard. I have always loved his acting, but for some reason it was harder for me to deal with than other similar style news.

I have a week of cleanup ahead of me. I really need to clean the house in addition to going through boxes. Luckily the week looks pretty quiet aside from a board meeting on Thursday night. I am hoping that I can do some serious chores this afternoon and then maybe come Tuesday I can go all crazy on tossing things in the garage. I swear, my days are never easy. LOL!

We did manage to sell the Mario Brothers game. I knew that would go easy. I now need to just get rid of Xevious. I also put up my strollers. I was shocked at the lack of interest, but I am going to give it a little longer and then I am just putting them out in the Bermuda Triangle and let someone take them.

We made one metal collector’s day on Friday. When we were unloading the UHaul, Ken ended up tossing much of what I had packed. There was tons of things that one guy ended up taking. We even let him go through the trash can, which was nice since it emptied it so we could put more trash in.

The pups are enjoying each other’s company more and more, which is awesome. They tag teamed on killing a box yesterday so I picked up some rawhide treats yesterday so that they had something to chew on instead of trash. Lily has taken to sitting on the rocking chair on the back porch, which I would gladly take a picture of, but the second she knows you are moving, she gets all excited and subsequently jumps down. Oh well.

We booked our rooms for Vegas. I was hoping Sarah would housesit, but she was a little nervous about it. No worries. Hopefully I can find either someone to just come check on the dogs or maybe Katie can stay. We told the boys and they were pretty jazzed about going. We will drive out on a Friday afternoon and come home Sunday afternoon. We will most likely be able to do all the family stuff on Sunday, but Saturday night will let us do some things too.

My arms hurt. I know a lot of this is from all the work on Friday, and then yesterday. Ken put in the new window at Eydie. I helped! I held it in place. Yay! I think that might be why I hurt.