Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Happy Rant Year

So Christmas was fun for the kids this year. My youngest was so excited for Santa to visit, she understands the concept and had no problem opening presents and waiting her turn. The older kids I think liked what they got. Although their angle seemed to be interest in the big ticket items like x-box games or in my oldest daughter's case a brand new sewing machine.

No one commented on the fact that there were no gifts for my husband or myself this year. Something that I said over and over wasn't a big deal but really it was. No matter how many times I cheerfully said that the bathroom working again was our gift this year, in my head I wasn't buying it.

It stinks to not have any real surprises during a holiday that you love so much. I'm not dwelling on it but I just need to say this, MAJOR SUCKAGE.

There were no notable bad gifts. I think for the first time ever. Well, I take that back. My youngest got an electronic piggy bank from my Brother-In-Law. He told me it was to save money for her red convertible. Then he proceeded to stick a fist full of pennies into it.

In other news, our new tenants are complainers. I guess I'm not surprised. Hearing about how cold it gets in the winter in a drafty 100 year old house is one thing, but actually living in said drafty old house is an entirely different thing. It's not like we are having a heat party upstairs. It's cold everywhere in the house and unless I crank the heat up to 80+ degrees (which won't be happening), it is never ever going to reach that toasty warmy goodness that they had in their apartment building. NevAH.

Heck, it's only December. We've got three more months of it before it turns around. Yeah, so that's not fun.

I think this is the year that my parent officially drive me OVER THE EDGE. It's very hard to sit through a lovely Christmas turkey dinner and listen to how my mother is so depressed because her house won't sell and she's having nightmares. So my dad booked them for the summer vacation reunion up in New Hampshire, so she would have something to look forward to. Then when you mention said vacation, to be happy about it, you get shot down because really it's nothing exciting.

While your brother, who is also depressed, because he hates where he lives. Apparently when he went to wish others a Merry Christmas, everyone he talked to was unhappy about it. I know, this is ridiculous, but not when you base your life on how each and every person you meet treats you.

I believe the worst part of the whole thing was listening to my brother say how when he sees the woman who lives downstairs, in the parking lot, she stops him and asks him (and I quote) "Where the hell are you going?".

To which my dad then proceeds to suggest to my brother, that he attempt to look out into the parking lot and check for this woman before he leaves. That way if he sees her, he can avoid her completely.

At this point, I have to jump in and say, "Why don't you just keep on walking and ignore her completely because WHO FUCKING CARES."

Alright, I left out the profanity but this situation is one of many I firmly believe that my brother makes up so that my parents can fret over it and give him advice that he is a) never going to take, b) is not helping him learn to deal with difficult people (which btw, make up almost entirely the population of where he lives) and c) is unrealistic.

Needless to say, I'm thankful that the next visit from them won't be until February for my birthday.

In other, other news, that whole work deal is still out there on the horizon. Pass me the xanax, will ya?

Friday, December 25, 2009

Merry Christmas!

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Counting Up To Twelve


One band playing ...


Two five gallon buckets of painting ...


Three pictures I took here, the gutted bathtub area, they all showed a bit of crack.


Four pieces installed and an amazing job done by my man.


Five times I tried to get my youngest to sit on Santa's lap. No deal.


Six different pictures of her in her snowsuit, zero smiles.


For the past seven days I have taken a picture of the countdown. I had hoped to put it up every day but never got around to it. I stopped at four.


Eight boxes of home made goodies. Office gifts, enjoyed by all.


Nine projects hung up on our bulletin strip, made by my preschooler and displayed proudly by Santa himself.


Ten Christmas's ago, my boy, made that Christmas tree picture for me. It's so simple and so elegant. This is the shelf right above my kitchen sink.


Eleven ornaments and Nick-knacks make up this ball. It's so pretty.


Twelve little houses under my tree this year. Not alot of presents for others this year but no one seems to mind with the economy and all. My youngest is o' so excited for Santa to arrive.

I am too.

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Sunday Stealing: The Holiday MeMe

1. What is your favorite holiday show/animated show? Olive The Other Reindeer.

2. What holiday character do you think you're most like? The Heat Miser. I am really a heat miser this year.

3. What holiday character does your spouse think you're most like? He's still sleeping so I have no idea. Probably Santa because I like to give everyone ... something.

4. Favorite Christmas/holiday song? The Twelve Pains of Christmas, it cracks me up every time I hear it.

5. Most hated Christmas/holiday song? The really old holiday music. I don't hate it, I just think its so slow you could fall asleep listening to it.

6. If you have an all holiday music radio station when do you start listening to it? Yesterday. Usually the day I bake cookies and then Christmas Day I'll have it on. I try not to over do it.

7. If you have an all holiday music radio station do you love it or hate it? Love it. More than likely.

8. Have you ever wrapped yourself as a Christmas present? Um. No.

9. Who is Rudolf The Red Nosed Reindeer's father? I googled this and there are two answers, Donner or someone in a reindeer village. Go figure.

10. Do you drive your neighborhood or one near you at night to look at other people's holiday decorations? I sure do. I pack up the kids, get some hot cocoa the night before Christmas Eve and we check them out. It's a favorite family tradition.

11. When you see a heavily decorated house do you think, 'oh that's lovely'? Or do you think, 'oh criminy, that looks like Christmas threw up all over their lawn'? A little bit of both, I think.

12. Are you counting the days to Christmas with excited anticipation or dread? Excitement. It's my favorite time of year but about FAMILY and not gifts.

13. When was the last time you had your photo taken with Santa? Did you sit on his lap? I can't even remember but I probably did sit on his lap.

14. Do you make a Christmas list for your spouse or significant other or do you rely on them to pick your gift(s) without a clue from you? I help him out but he doesn't need it.

15. When do you put up your tree? The weekend after Thanksgiving.

16. Real or fake? I have the ability to do either. This year fake. I promised my older kids next year we'll get a real tree. That's what they like.

17. When do you take your tree down? The weekend after Christmas and always before New Year's.

18. Do you shop the day after Christmas sales? What do you shop for? I do, usually because we are out spending gift cards (teenagers!). I'm not sure what I usually get, it just depends on what is out there.

19. Is your work/office having a holiday party this year? Will you attend? For several years I planned the holiday party, but due to budget constraints, the office people (a total of five) went out to to a local watering hole and ate bar food. Kinda sucky (~waves to boss~).

20. Do you have your New Year's Eve Plans set yet? I do. We will be home with a house full of kids, if I have any say about it. :-)

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

File This Under "O.K."

I got this email from an acquaintance yesterday. Years ago, when our girls were in Kindergarten together, we saw each other frequently. This went on until about 4th grade, when her daughter decided she had outgrown mine.

In spite of our girls no longer socializing in the same circles (for the record, my girl was heartbroken, as her girl went on to become Mrs. Overachievercheerleaderpopulargirl) we would still get together a couple times a year over coffee or sometimes lunch.

Here's her email to me ... word for word ...

"Mig, I am embarrassed to say I can't find your address. I know it is on Something street, and I know I just received a card from you whose envelope I "recycled" - knowing that of course I had your address. Well, here I am not able to find the scraps of paper I call my address book. Why oh why don't i put everything on my computer... I resist and resist. Maybe this will be the year.

Anyway, could you send me your street address :-).

Hope all is well. "

The funny thing about this is, I haven't even mailed out my Christmas Cards yet.

Monday, December 14, 2009

When You Least Expect It

I had a rough week last week. Granted, mixed in there was some good stuff. But overall, rough for me.

I've got money issues. The potential of something huge with work and hounds snapping at my heels.

I've got back issues. I'm a strong girl. Sitting in my chair, I lean down to my work bag and put my Daytimer in it(it was in the way on my teeny tiny desk). When I felt a stabbing pain in the lower part of my back. STABBING! It finally receded but has been tweak several times due to groceries and the preschooler, which enough already. I'm still dealing with twisting my foot with the whole "jeep" incident.

To be fair, I was able to rest (and nap), wrap gifts and write out Christmas cards this weekend and in general (no cleaning for a change) get other stuff done, fun stuff, which I think is what the season is about.

So this morning, when my back still hurt and I had to reset my alarm rather than head off to bootcamp, and I lay between thinking and obsessing about the things that are going on in my life, I figured it might be a rough morning.

Sure enough, I was greeted with dog business in the kitchen. This has become a regular occurrence and frankly, I am hatin' it. I realize she's a little old dog, with all sorts of plumbing issues and she does look sad, laying in her bed and then her little face will get concerned when I swear and carry on as I clean it up. My son has taken over the responsibility of the dog and will take her outside each time. Carrying her up each time because her back is weak and she can't climb the 13 stairs to our house. He insists he takes her out and that she does "everything". It's a dog mystery, that's what it is.

Anyway, I get that cleaned up, run downstairs to start the car and come back in, try to warm up in my chilly kitchen. I check on my oldest and she is up and getting read. These days I rarely have to wake her, it's very nice for a change. For many years, she was more like my son, who cannot get up in the early morning save his BEHIND. I practically have to pour cold water over him to get him going (either that or threaten no video games that afternoon.)

It's not long before we are heading to the High School, god bless seat warmers on butt burn. I will admit that it took this long to register because before we left, my girl said that she had forgotten to ask me last night to print something for her. But then when she went to save it, in our "shared" directory, she couldn't get it to work.

Granted she had said it to me as we were going down the stairs. And who can thinking when they are trying not to fall. right? Right. She said essentially nothing else as we made it to the traffic light, so I made eye contact and asked her when the project was due. She said today. I make my turn and head down to the High School when I pitch a possible solution of taking her back home, her saving the file again, my printing it, us all leaving together and then dropping her off at school late.

After getting to the turn and asking it all over a second time, I got a tentative okay. Which was enough for me (And my apologies to the car waiting on me to take a left, when in the end I turned right.) to go for it.

Course having her home and the added task o f running up and down stairs (our printer is in the basement office and we live on the second floor, KILL ME) to get her project printed out. But it gone done. (with much stress on my part, let's just say.)

We left about ten minutes late, which isn't the end of the world. Extra hands took care of some details that fall to me. I made two lunches out of crumbs today, honest. My boy's drop off went smoothly, no thanks to the black ice. I must admit, I slid but was able to get the jeep straight pretty quickly, I think that made it a short heart attack instead of a long one.

Finally we are back at the High School. There is some discussion as to whether I should walk her in. This involves taking out the preschooler in and out of the car seat (this exercise has tweaked out my back TWICE so far). I knew all along I'd bring her in anyway.

I want that tardy EXCUSED Ma'am.

What got me was how extremely GRATEFUL my girl was that I would do that for her. This was a project after all and it's more than just her ass on the line. I know that for a while this morning, she was sweating the whole thing out. It was for her FRENCH class. She loves French.

Since we aren't normally late (it's either she's going or not) I had no idea what to do. A nice man (teacher, vice principal, I wasn't sure) directed us to the second door down from the main office. But then we were directed from a shout in the main office to come in there. Finally the Principal realizing what was going on, nicely explained to me that she gets 3 excused absences by having me come in and yes, its the second door down.

Excellent.

So, we head to the second door, and a small hobbit like woman is there. My girl signs herself in, there is a notation of the excused and she gets a pass.

We walk back to the main lobby.

My girl turns to me, smiles, and says thanks Mom. THEN hugs me tight.

Hugs. me. tight. My girl. Hugging. me. In the lobby of her school.

And suddenly it becomes the best day ever.

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Sunday Stealing: The 6 Ws MeMe

Who...

Is easy to love? My pre-schooler. She is bursting with sweetness. I hug and kiss her all the time.

Do you just wanna smack? People talking on cell phones, while driving, in front of me. I have zero tolerance for it.

Do you trust? Without hesitation, my family and my best friend.

Do you talk to when you're alone? Myself. Yes, I might be crazy.

What...

Dangerous things do you do while driving? Looking at people's houses. I don't know why I care, but I find myself looking and then practically drive off the road.

Are you allergic to? Allergens in the air.

Is Satan's last name? Bank of America.

Is the freakiest thing in your house?... My ugly troll. I think.

When...

Is it time to turn over a new leaf? When you've hit rock bottom, I guess.

Will you be all that you can be? Working on that.

Is enough enough? When I get pissed.

Do you go to the dark side? I try not to go there.

Where...

Are your pants? On my legs.

Is your last will and testament? Stuffed in the file cabinet, unsigned.

Is your junk food stash? My closet. Don't laugh, but if you had teenagers, you'd be doing the same thing.

Is Carmen Sandiego? China probably.

Why...

Was the Lone Ranger alone? Nope. He had Tonto.

Was The Scarlet Letter scarlet? Purple is such a pretty color.

Are musicians sexy and plumbers not? Music good, plumbing issues bad.

Are there no seat belts on school buses? I'd like to know that answer myself, it makes zero sense.

Would you...

Swim the English Channel for a doughnut and coffee? If not that, what? A million bucks and even then maybe not.

Forgive someone who deliberately hurt you? Yes, because I'm nice like that.

Rather believe a lie if it hurt you less than the truth? I don't like to be lied to, the truth is always better.

You still be alive if you were sucked out of an airplane window? Thanks for putting in writing one of my worst fears.

Friday, December 11, 2009

Yo!

I am SO glad it's Friday.

What a damn long week its been.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Heart Attack City

While I can safely say that my blog issue with my boss is long behind us now (three years and counting to be exact), every once in a while I get a reminder that he did read it and that he does know a few things about me from it. Things that I don't share with anyone in the office.

For example, EBF. (Ex-bestfriend) He will ask if that whole "matter with my friend" sorted itself out.

I lie and say yes.

Another example is when we were talking about a local blogger and how they had their profile "blocked", he pointed out that my profile is blocked also.

I might have squirmed a little in the realization that he did indeed read blog #2. (it wasn't until Pleading that I thought to block my profile)

I also might have said a silent prayer, at that time, that I didn't continue blogging there.

The latest was his arrival this morning. He said hello, appeared to be in a really good mood and then said this to me ...

And I quote ....

"I hope you don't get mad ... but last night ... I was on the computer ...."

That statement alone sent my heart racing. But this time I was thinking, HOLY CRAP I'M IN TROUBLE AGAIN.

He might have noticed how large my eyes got, but I said nothing.

"I ordered you a subscription to People Magazine." "I know you were saying you haven't gotten it in a long time and that you don't have the extra money for it, so I thought I'd do that, then I tried to print out the card and it wouldn't work, so the long and the short of it is it will arrive in 2-4 weeks."

My reply? "Thank you, that was really nice. I do really like People Magazine."

And I left it at that.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

I'm Alive

Hey There!

I'm back, or more like I should say I'm around. There was whirlwind of activity involving our rental unit becoming vacant and the need to get it rented in only one month plus renovate it, in the two weeks it was actually empty.

All that is done now. Whew! (I have some pictures which I will get put up soon).

Now I'm in the thick of decorating for Christmas, going through my list, figuring out what we can squeeze out of the budget, thinking of sending some Christmas Cards out, figuring out what I am going to be baking and wrapping gifts.

That stuff is in progress. Whew! (I have no pictures of this but just assume I'm a chicken with no head and you get it)

Still lots of uncertainty at work, which is hard.

Family life, is also hard. The road of having two teenagers is FILLED with minefields. While I'm navigating the whole thing, I find myself longing for the days when a freeze pop would make it better.

For now, I'm going to head out to work, but I'll be back in a bit.