It's my Thursday, but it Doesn't Feel Like it

I'm working away, tidying up loose ends and getting things ready for my two week departure. It feels like a Wednesday, just like any other. I keep waiting for the thrill of "work is over" to hit me, but it hasn't. Maybe I'll feel it when I awaken Friday morning.

I'm nibbling on too many treats. I'm going to be working my butt off come year's beginning. I guess that's the price you pay for all the goodies at Christmas time.

Weekend Statistics

The weekend got off to a great start. The girls and I enjoyed a quiet, snowy Saturday (the picture to the right is picturesque and visually similar to what we saw, but this is not in Utah). I attempted to shovel, but the snow fell as fast as I shoveled. Fun! When hubby came home, we ate too much and watched movies again. Sunday, I got the girls up (in plenty of time) got everyone dressed and headed out for church. Before hitting the very snowy, slushy, icy highway, I stopped at the post office and shipped my best friend's Christmas gift.

As I traveled the highway I thought after only a few minutes, I need to get off of here. I even called my mother to tell her that I may not make it. Well, first instincts weren't enough. I kept going, trying to make it to church. I got all the way into Salt Lake when, all of a sudden, I felt the wheel give and I went into a spin. The next thing I knew, we were careening across the highway. We slammed into the concrete guard wall and finally stopped. The babe was completely freaking out, while I (surprisingly) remained ultra calm. I called my mother to tell her what happened. Then, I called the police to notify them of the accident. Finally, I called the insurance company to report the crash. An hour later, highway patrol was guiding me off the highway to have me fill out a report. Hubby had arrived by then and I began to feel the stress of the event hit me and then leave almost as fast. Thank God for his ability to do that for me.

When we got home, he took good care of me. The girls seemed fine and, after breakfast, had a nice long nap. I wrapped a few Christmas gifts while they slept. The babe has become very inquisitive about our newly locked closet in the spare bedroom. She keeps wondering how gifts are magically coming out with me, all wrapped and ready for Christmas. I should tell her I have an elf living under the bed and see what she says to that!

So, I became one of the weekend stats.They talked about all the crashes that occurred, due to this weekend's big storm. There were approximately 221 in Salt Lake County alone. Dang it! Way to be a statistic!

Getting lost, Shopping on Thursday and Leftovers

I did as I said and went to Bath and Body works for my mother-in-law last night. Before that, however, I spent the evening driving around aimlessly...looking for my daughter. Here's the background:

I take my daughter and her little friend across the street to school most mornings, and her mother picks them up. I say "most" because sometimes children are ill or what have you and don't attend school. I should also say that mother-across-the-street and I have different ideas about education; I think it is most important and unless you are incredibly ill, your butt should be in school. She feels that if you have a slight headache, didn't get enough sleep or just plain don't want to go, you shouldn't have to. That being said, we aren't surprised when we get a phone call that Babe's little friend "isn't going to school this morning".

The other issue I have is that mother-across-the-street calls some afternoons with the most ridiculous excuses as to why she can't pick up the girls. One day, she actually called to say she couldn't find her purse. I didn't actually talk to her that day, but my cell phone had her name displayed when I got out of the shower. The Babe was home, but I called back anyway as a courtesy:

"Hey, mother-across-the-street. I saw that you called. I wasn't near my phone and just saw your number here."

"Oh, yeah. It's okay now. Never mind."

"Is everything alright?"

"Yeah, I was just going to ask you if you could pick up the girls because I couldn't find my purse but, I found it." SMDH...

Anyway, yesterday she calls my cell five minutes before I'm supposed to leave the office. She says that she's taking her daughter to the eye doctor and wonders if she should take the Babe with her, or drop her off at her daughter's grandmother's house. She's taking her son there as well. I tell her it doesn't matter to me, whatever is easiest for her; however, if she takes her to grandma's house, I'll need directions because I've never been there before. Sure, she says. She proceeds to give me the house number than says,

"It's really easy to get there. You can just map quest it."

What the hell?! I'm getting ready to leave work and am in the process of shutting everything down. Can't she just say..."Go here, take a right when you get to this street, take a left." Is that so hard?! This was a case where technology was not on my side. I think even texting me directions would have been too difficult. Yeesh! So, I prevent the computer from shutting down and enter all the stuff into MapQuest. My girlfriend was at my desk at the time, so I was trying to talk to her and get the directions squared away, while my boss asked me about things too. Yep. I left work late.

Don't you know I drove to the daycare, picked up Indy, headed over to the area where grandma lives and got lost? I drove past her house at least once, but the street sign was missing. I'm very good with directions, so when a half-hour had passed and I still couldn't find her, I was pissed. I called mother-across-the-street at about the time I made another pass on the street with no street sign. Just as I was telling her I couldn't find it and could she guide me, I looked up and there it was; right on the street with not street sign. Nice. Now, we're fifteen minutes before gymnastics starts.

Grandma was very gracious and at least has some sense. She was going to get my number from the babe and call me herself, just as the babe was telling her she had gymnastics class. Once in her house, we exchanged information. This will not happen again.

So, I've got the babe and we head for home. She changes and grabs a snack, while I put away all my crap. Hubby calls and says he wants to go with us and is just down the street. I get the girls in the car and we wait in the driveway for him. Once he arrives, it's off to gymnastics class, then to Sam's Club to pick up the Babe's prescription of Flovent. While we wait, we meander around and eat samples. We now know that Indy digs beef jerky (she'd never had it before today). We also sampled seafood salad and Chex mix. The "poppers" guy was cooking, so we didn't get any of those. Prescription filled, we placed money in the Salvation Army tin and went to get gas. Um, $1.39 a gallon? Not since before my oldest child was born (eight years ago).

Off to the mall and madness. Shoppers were still everywhere, but not nearly as bad as they were on Saturday. The Bath and Body works was smattered with folks and happy sales people pounced on me when I walked through the door. I had to give it to the second gal who approached me. She worked there latest sales for everything they were worth. Normally, I don't give in but, it's freaking Bath and Body works! I spent $36.00 on $68.00 worth of stuff! Mother-in-law (and I) should be very, very happy.

Hubby had come in with me and I thought he was going to make some purchases too, then he opted to leave while I shopped. When I came out of the store, he was gone. I looked inside the closest stores and couldn't find him or Indy. Then, I slowly walked down the hall to the other end of the mall, peeping in stores to see if I could find them. I called his cell phone and considered having him paged. Finally, I sat at the bench outside of the store and hoped he would find me. Ten minutes later, my phone rings displaying a number I don't recognize.

"Hey, where are you?"

Ugh! I was so hot! Why not just tell me where you're going instead of disappearing into the mall of madness? We get to the car and argue/discuss it a bit. The conversation disappeared after that.

The rest of the evening was spent talking to the babe while she ate her Ramen noodles and I ate my leftovers (which were just as good the second time around). Hubby ironed and got things ready for work. When I got into bed, I read a magazine while he ate cereal and read a newspaper ad. We didn't say much, but by this time, I was well over it. When I turned off the light to sleep, he turned on his computer. I woke up around 11:oopm to gunfire (coming from his computer, of course). He was still up watching trailers. What the hell? Go to sleep, man!

The next time I woke up, it was to him groping me in his sleep. I guess arguments don't kill the fire...just the conversation. Happy Friday!

My Little Man has No Neck

Hubby has been working away from his regular work-site in an office setting for the past week. It's been "a learning experience" he says, but he also complains of boredom. I understand, honey. Anyway, he wore business casual the first day, his uniform that last two days, and business today and by business I mean he pulled out a dress-shirt and tie (yummy). The pants, unimportant. The shirt? An eggplant, long sleeve button-up with a starch-pressed collar. He pulled out the tie he wanted to wear last night. I had to help him tie it to prep for today (he's not a regular tie wearer, as you may have guessed). A half-Windsor knot, anyone?

We agreed to have lunch together today and I truly believe he was more excited about it than I was. It was so cute! He called to see where I was five minutes before our designated meet time. I was just around the corner, at this point. I scooped him up and we headed for a restaurant we hadn't tried before. When we got there, he took off his leather jacket and I saw him in all his splendor. I got one handsome man living with me, dang it! He doesn't accept compliments well because he doesn't really believe people when they tell him how awesome he is (silly man). He gave me a pitiful thank you, when I told him how dashing he looked then preceded to tell me that he was having wardrobe trouble this morning and that I was lucky to see him looking as decent as he was. It seems he hasn't worn the shirt for a while (no surprise here). When he got finished working out at the gym this morning, showered, then tried to dress in the business duds, he couldn't button the top button of his shirt.

"I was pretty much strangling myself," he said.

He ended up asking for help from one of his coworkers who had to perform the daring task. It's lucky that button didn't pop off and take out an eye! Despite all the trouble, I'm still reeling over how good he looked. He looks even better in a suit (another rare event).

Lunch was lovely at this quaint Chinese restaurant. Orange chicken with steamed brown rice, and egg roll and seafood chowder. I definitely had leftovers and will probably sup on those this evening for dinner. I really don't want to cook. The kids can have hot dogs (I'm such a concerned mother...wink, wink). We talked about work, current events and our own lives. It was the nicest lunch we've had in a long time. I told him he was my favorite person to dine with...

"Accept for your boyfriends, right?"

Snicker, snicker. Hubby's got jokes. He corrected himself and called them boy-toys. Still a negative, hubby.

Tonight's gymnastics night and I still need to go to the store and buy Bath and Body Works stuff for my mother in law (they don't have one where she lives). That should be an adventure. When we went to the mall on Saturday and entered that store, I quickly grabbed the Babe's hand and headed back out. The lines stretched all the way back to the entrance. Too nuts for me! Tonight should be a bit better, right? We'll see.

It's time to wrap all those presents I've been stashing away in my room since October. That's the plan for Saturday. I'll have to do Hubby's only, since he likes wrapping the children's gifts together. It's a race against time! How many presents can I wrap during their nap time? The babe sleeps an hour max, these days. Too bad I can't send her outside to play (see our forecast for the weekend).

Is there a way to extend weekends?!

They seem to be getting shorter and shorter. This weekend seemed to blink out of existence! What will happen when I get my Christmas time off? Will that be gone in a millisecond, too? Hubby was home and we decided to have family time, rather than go to the adult party we were invited to. It was so worth it! We ate (too much), played and watched lots of holiday movies, and a few we hadn't seen because of kid/home/work responsibilities. We talked about how good things are and how open we've become with each other. He mentions things in terms of "when we were apart" which always sends a shudder down my spine. Was it just a month and a half ago?

A Christmas favorite was in the player last night; Home Alone. Still a classic and a first-time watch for my two-year old who kept telling me about the "owies" the burglars had. It was pretty cute. The other night, we watched Toy Story (another first for Indy). Now, she keeps asking about "the cowboy" and "the toys". I wonder if she's of the belief that her toys come to life, now? I used to think that was the case before the movie ever came out.

I'm playing the Sims again. Ugh! That game is the devil! I'm better at stopping and saving, but I'm still playing it a lot more than I should. I try to find time when the kids and hubby aren't around so that I'm not accused of using family time for "game" time. (I used to fuss at hubby about being on the computer when I wanted to spend time with him.) I can't have him accusing me of doing the same. Anyway, I played this weekend and will probably play during the Christmas break when the kids are sleeping. It's so addictive! My neighbor said she was addicted to the PC version. I can't imagine ever getting off the computer if I had it. There are so many upgrades!

It's baking season and all I've baked are packaged cookies from my daughter's fundraiser this year. Where are the cakes? Where are the pies? I've got to get cracking! Oh, and there's still a small treasury of Halloween candy (so sad). Hubby purchased packages upon packages of Ghiradelli and now I'm afraid I'm going to grow to the size of a small barge! What's a girl to do?

Still Fighting...

I didn't sleep well at all last night. The night before, I felt like things were finally improving. I don't know if our being out and about in the cold last night set me back or what. All I know is that I started work an hour later and my head is killing me from coughing so much. I don't know if I can deal with another week of this, but I also don't want to go to the doctor just for codeine cough medicine. I'm switching up the drugs to see if it makes a difference. We'll see.

The weekend looks pretty promising. Hubby is off for the next few days, so I'm happy he'll be around. The other day, he did what he says he'll never do again (he ends up doing it almost every year); he climbed up on the roof and hung up Christmas lights. They are lovely! Blue icicle lights from the roof this year, white and blue lights on our trees, a fiber optic tree outside next to our garage and a Charlie Brown/Snoopy door ornament. He did good this year. I'll post pictures when I can.

Our newest dog got a new toy last night. We could hear her growling and playing with it for hours. I hope it lasts. Hubby says we should have bought two or three more like it, since she seems to chew up everything we buy her (ropes, tires, squeakies, etc...). So far, there are lots of teeth marks and I haven't found any little bits all over the floor.

Only two more weeks of work after today. Woohoo! Hope my cold is gone by Christmas.

Recovering Cough Addict

Yep! That's me in a nutshell. In my Monday school essay of, "How Did You Spend Your Thanksgiving," I would begin with, "First, I took a dose of Vicks Formula 44." The cold crept in on Tuesday and I got to work, only to find that one of my coworkers had one too...well, truthfully, his looked more like a sinus infection. Anyway, he was miserable and on Zicam while I was miserable and on nothing. By Tuesday night, the Vicks was in full effect and I was in sedation-land. I spent Wednesday fussing at my kids for getting on my nerves and getting into everything. Truth be told, I have much more fun with nothing to do than they do. I did make the waffles and despite my sickness, they were terrific!

Thursday, hubby was home and helped with kid management a bit before he went to the gym. When he came back, it was pretty much time to go and I was feeling crappy. The meal was divine (as was expected): Turkey, cornbread dressing, sweet potatoes, squash, brown rice, macaroni and cheese, turkey gravy, collard greens and apple tarts with caramel for dessert. Yum! My girlfriend and her hubby made their appearance. She seemed very happy with the spread (I hope it wasn't an act). :)

We cleaned up (hubby on wash and it was beautiful), then settled in for a movie. Hubby was ready to go a lot earlier than I expected (but, to be fair, my sister was acting extra "special" and he could only take so much). We left at around seven and went to bed almost immediately. Friday, I found things for the girls to do, which gave me time to rest. Saturday, it was more of the same. I knew my vacation was coming to a close and felt bad that I'd spent most of it hacking and regurgitating through most of it. I wonder if my coworker was in the same boat? Guess I'll find out later today.

Tomorrow begins the interviews. We will be bringing someone in who will supervise us. It's weird to me because I've worked for my boss for nearly eight years. Now, someone else will be hired to supervise and guess who'll most likely train him/her? I'm not sure how I feel about that. Truth be told, I could have applied for the position...but I did not want to give up my telecommuting option. That's been too good and I can't stop now. I'm praying that whomever we hire is a kindred spirit and will work out for us...all of us. My sick coworker thinks that they'll be moving my boss into some sort of non-managerial spot. I wonder if this is true? Hubby says that if this does happen, he hopes it's somewhere that's needed a not a position that they'll phase out in months because of "management changes". That would be very sad.