And Back to Reality

NOOOOO!

Back to work and back to the grind.  I went to bed feeling icky and I woke up this morning feeling horribly dizzy and it lasted most of the morning.  Now it is evening and I am draining and have a sore and swollen throat.  Not again, not now!  I can't afford this!  I would like to go more than a month with out being sick thankyouverymuch!

My boss let us all know this morning that we need to do 40 hours this week too so it will be another week of late nights so I don't have to work on Friday.  We are hosting a party on Friday and I can't afford to work that day.  Andy, the sweetheart, has said he will do most of the cleaning during the week so we only have to do little things on Friday.  That will be nice.  However, this week like last, is a holiday week so I don't actually get paid overtime for my extra hours because technically they aren't extra unless its over 40, but I do bank the holiday time, so between last week and this and my normal vacation time accrued per paycheck, I will finally have over a week of time banked.  Now hopefully this stupid cold will be mild so I don't have to use any of that right now.  I want it for an actual vacation for once dangit!  I hate having to use all my PTO for being sick, it sucks.  I came home and slept the evening away instead of getting anything done and am now heading to bed, hopefully being rested will help me in the morning.

Anyway, so real life slammed back in place like a runaway truck hitting a wall.  Thank goodness we are almost done with all this work and can hopefully not do any over time next week and be back to our normal schedules the following week.  Now wouldn't that be wonderful?  At least my dreams aren't dead.  :)

My apologies for my whininess.

Christmas

Andy and I have been running behind this season, we didn't get anything wrapped until Christmas Eve and Andy even went out and did some last minute shopping Christmas Eve.  I let him open his knives which he loves!  I have to say they are wonderful.  I'm a bit intimidated by them and insisted we keep one set of the old ones, but I let him throw out the one set we both hated.  He enjoyed that.  I did cut up an onion with one of the new knives and it was amazing, it was almost like the onion wasn't there.  We may throw out that other set sooner than later.  We packed up all our stuff and all the presents, let the very excited little dog out and headed over to my sister's running a little late.  Lily was so funny!  She started whining relentlessly and pacing in the back seat as soon as we got off the freeway and she could hardly contain herself by the time we turned onto their street!  As soon as we let her out she ran to the door and announced our arrival.  She loves going over there!

I love that our family gets together for Christmas Eve.  We put together a big meal and we all sit down and enjoy it together and eat far too much, it's wonderful! I love how well out family gets along too.  We are a step family that joined together like it was always that way.  After dinner we held a birthday party for Becca, can't believe she's three!  and then the kids and adults not spending the night opened their gifts.  After everyone left and the rug rat was asleep, we cleaned up and my mom, my sister and Andy and I sat down to play games.  It was tons of fun, I haven't played games with my mom in a while, it was great.  While we played my dad listened to music and watched a movie and Kenton put together Santa presents.  After my mom and dad went to bed, Stacie, Andy and I stayed up a while longer and played Boggle.  I love that game and it has been a favorite of mine and my sister's and we have gotten Andy hooked too.  Stacie and I have never fully played by the rules with Boggle and when Andy first started playing it with us, he insisted we play by the rules.  We have finally broken him of that and convinced him that our way is much more fun.  If you want to know details, well you'll just have to play it with us one day.

Andy and I slept on a couch mattress on the floor and decided that that was not a good idea after sitting in folding chairs for as long as we did playing games, neither of us slept well.  Not that we slept long, by 6:00 I was awake and excited hehe.  Stacie and Kenton were awake a short while later and then mom and dad heard us and got up too.  Kenton had to go in and wake up the only actual kid in the house, how funny is that?  Becca grumbled about getting up until daddy told her Santa had been here, then she was excited and we all sat down to watch her play with her new stuff and open all our presents.  It was wonderful.  One of Andy's favorite movies is A Christmas Story, you know the one with the kid that begs for a BB gun and is told he'll shoot his eye out?  On a whim, I bought Andy a Daisy Red Ryder BB gun and he loves it!  I got a new camera and some books and Andy got a Green Lantern hat, although we have to take it back, it's too small.  My husband has a huge noggin! 

After breakfast we packed up and headed over to Andy's parents after a quick stop at our house.  We had to drop Lily off (Andy's parent's dog, Sadie, likes to try to eat her so we don't take her over there) and Andy grabbed his knives as he was in charge of doing brunch.  Poor Mitch is going thru chemo and when we got there he was really upset.  The treatments have caused mouth and throat sores and he can't eat or drink without being in pain.  It's horrible.  I wish I could take it all away.  Between Andy and his brother Mikey, they finally got some meds in him and we was able to do a little better after that.  The boys got brunch put together and we all sat down to eat, it was all really delicious.  We all exchanged and opened gifts after that.  Andy's dad made a brief appearance and then vanished back into his room.  Andy's brother Mikey and his wife and his grandma and her hunney and his son, and of course his parents and brother Mitch and us were all there.  Sometimes after we opened presents, I succumbed and fell asleep in the middle of it all.  Andy snagged my new camera and got a picture the silly man.

Overall, it was a wonderful Christmas and a wonderful weekend.

Oh and since I didn't have to work Thursday or Friday after all, we went out Thursday and had a lovely afternoon just the two of us.  We saw the new True Grit, and I must say it was awesome.  If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend you do so.

Getting Excited

Working hard, working overtime, can't wait to go back to my normal schedule.  I was being totally bummed and depressed because my boss was telling us all we were going to need to work today and possibly Christmas eve.  It really got to me on Monday, but Tuesday she said if we all work till 9:00 on Wednesday we wouldn't have to work the holiday and could have our four day weekend.  YAY!

Due to stress and work and exhaustion, I was late getting ready for Christmas.  We just got our tree up this past Sunday and I haven't even wrapped anything that I just barely bought last Friday.  Andy know two of his presents which sucks and then I was dumb and ordered his big present without having it shipped to my sister's.  Well he got home first and because the delivery guy didn't put it where i was expecting him too, Andy discovered it.  I didn't get to see his reaction, but he called me and I could hear in his voice what I was hoping to see.  I got him a set of quality chef knives and he loves them!  He can't open the box til tomorrow but he is so excited about them, he hates the knives we have and it's going to be excited to see him excited about cooking again!  We're getting out nice kitchen one small piece at a time.  We have good quality pans, both stainless and non-stick, and a decent stove and now we have good knives.  Now we just need to save the money for new cabinets and floors LOL.  I still have a couple presents that he has no clue about that he'll be super excited over, so all is not lost (or found out).  I have no clue what he's gotten me at all.

I am finally being able to relax and get into the holiday spirit and am getting excited about Christmas.  I'm terrible, every year I get so excited I almost always make myself sick, I have the darnedest time getting to sleep and I still, even at 32 years old, wake up around 6 or so in the morning too excited to sleep anymore.  I love it!  We always spend the night with my family too.  We used to do it at my mom's but then we just got to be too many and started doing it at my sister's.  As families have grown not so many spend the night anymore, but we all get together Christmas eve for a good meal and good conversation.  This year my littlest niece will be three and is understanding more and more about Santa and presents and we are excited to see her face come Christmas morning.  It's going to be fun.  I'll have to be quick about wrapping presents tomorrow so we can get over to Stacie's early!

So Needed That

I went out Christmas shopping last night with my sister, it's something we do every year together and I always look forward to it.  We have a sit down dinner somewhere and then head out.  We always have so much fun talking and laughing and teasing and its great!  I got almost everything I wanted to get too.  I've gotten so bad at last minute shopping the last few years, but I'm not the only one hehe.  We lost track of time, couldn't believe how late it was when Andy finally called to see when we were heading home.  I wore the wrong shoes and ended up hurting quite bad by the end of the night, but I was in such a good mood and had so much fun that it was totally worth it.  It was just what I needed after all that has been going on.

We have a tons of December birthdays in my family (and among my friends) and we all signed up for a free meal at a really yummy restaurant called Tucanos and so we all got together today for our meal to celebrate together.  I had a great time, and Andy came despite still not feeling very well.  He's had a nasty cold for most of the week.  We came home and both of us promptly fell asleep, it was kinda funny.  I got the budget done once we got up, we got our tree set up but not decorated (I know, Christmas is just days away, but I want it up damnit!) and now we are relaxing. 

It's been such a great weekend and just what I needed.

What would like in your bowl of life today?

You have several lovely options, stress mixed in, stress on the side, stress Ale Carte, or just stress all around?

You know the old saying, "The straw that broke the camel's back."?  Ya, well my camel can no longer be seen under the stack.  Work, work , and more work. Mandatory overtime kinda work.  Now I know there are people out there that work tens and twelves and put in massive amounts of overtime every week, but I'm just not one of these people.  I work my 40 and that's that.  I like it that way.  I sometimes think I wouldn't mind four tens instead of five eights, but I have been told that that will never happen so, whatever.  But we are now in the throws of our busy season and work is piling up and fast.  I don't like overtime until I see the check.  I'm tired!  I don't get enough sleep as it is and now I am finding it hard to go to bed at a decent hour because I keep wanting the same amount of time at home every night that I am used to.  I know, it's dumb, but I sit down and start doing things that I normally have plenty of time to do and the next thing I know it's midnight or one and I'm screwed.  So lack of sleep plus pressure and stress are not making for happy days.   Also, Andy does not have enough work yet for overtime and we only have one car so that has created a difficulty as well.  I thought I would be able to just simply do all my overtime from home, but someone had a cow over that and so I have to put in a set number of extra hours at the office.  Denise has been wonderful and has been giving Andy a ride home tho and so that part actually worked out.  Thank you Denise! 

The check will be worth it.  The check will be worth it. The check will be worth it.

Mitchell had yet another seizure (two total) and was then put on anti-seizure meds.  They finally decided that the chemo meds are causing them.  Well, the anti-seizure meds are affecting his brain.  He is more irritable and ornery than he has been and then he got irrational.  He started making threats towards others and himself and had to be taken back to the hospital.  They gave him some stuff to calm him down, kept him overnight, and then sent him home.  We are all on edge and stressed, and very worried about the whole situation.  I wish I could take it all away.  Everyone also has very short fuses and arguments are getting more common.  It sucks.

So I was doing really, really well with my eating habits and was losing weight and everything, I was very proud of myself even tho it was going slow.  Well....I keep catching myself stress eating.  Everything.  If it's in front of me or within my reach, I want it.  I went to bed last night with severe heartburn, worse than I have had in a while, and it didn't phase me.  I can't stop.  It sucks.  I am now scared about weighing myself again too.  Hopefully I can get back to it after the holidays.  Ah crap!  The holidays!.....oh well, it's no time of year to be worrying about a diet....right?.....right?  *sigh*

I am a World of Warcraft player.  Horde player, of course. For The Horde!  I am addicted.  I love the game.  They released the new expansion this week!  Yay!  Wait....I'm on overtime.....GAH!  Ya...so this sucks.  I have managed to get two levels tho....*yawn*...like I said, I'm addicted.  Mount Hyjal is awesome and I am liking how lore rich the new content is even tho I usually don't pay too much attention to lore.  My husband and I are leveling two toons together and we finished Hyjal last night.  Can't wait to get to the rest of the new stuff and I love that we can fly in the old world now, and Org looks awesome! I don't think I'm going to get any play time in tonight tho, considering how tired I am, how late I got home, and the fact that I am sitting here blogging instead....ahem....good thing Andy has other toons he wants to level as well....

Anyway, sorry for the geek out moment....back to stuff the rest of you can understand and know what I'm talking about.

So how can two people, just two of us, no kids, get our house so messy so fast?  Anyone want to come help clean?  It's mostly clutter, promise? Ya, didn't think so.  Oh well.  I need to get on the ball with it all tho and get the house picked up.  I want to get a real Christmas Tree this year and need to make a spot for it and we are hosting a party and I need the place clean for that.  I'll have to fit it in with everything else somehow.  Wish it would magically clean itself.  Oh and I need to get the dog to the groomer on Saturday.

Guess I should stop rambling and be done.

Oh I have to tell you something funny, last night as I was getting ready for bed I was going thru my normal routine and wasn't really thinking about anything I was doing until I hear the chuckle from across the bed.  I stop and quickly think about what I could have done to cause my husband to giggle at me.  Plenty apparently.  I have bad allergies so I was making all kinds of horrid noises trying to clear out my nose and sinuses and I'm hurting so I'm sure quite a few grunts escaped me as I was adjusting and trying to get comfortable and then after all that, I farted.  Ya, I guess I can't blame him.  I shrugged, burped, rolled over and went to sleep. LOL

Sushi

So we have been on a sushi kick if you hadn't noticed.....anyway, we decided to go to sushi yet again last night.  We called Kristie and Patrick to see if they wanted to go and we all headed off for Kobe Sushi.  I have been trying to get Andy to go back, but he has been reluctant since trying the Hellfire Challenge.  Kobe is my favorite of all the places we've been.  It was fun too because Kristie is a sushi virgin practically so we got to introduce her to several kinds.  It was all delicious.  There were several people there trying the challenge and one of them succeeded while we were there.  Andy decided he really does want to try again since he knows how he went wrong the first time (he didn't pace himself) but at a later time.  The head chef and owner, Alex, remembered us and after we were done eating he came over to our table and talked sushi with us and then he brought out a bottle of wine that you could tell was his personal bottle and not one that is sold.  He gave us each a shot and toasted us for being sushi people and coming back.  He is such a fun guy to talk to and I thought that was wonderful what he did.  He told us about his fish and his Kobe beef and that he imports most of it three times a week straight from Japan.  He doesn't like the local stuff, it isn't good enough he says.  LOL  He also showed us his Kobe beef certificate that is proof that his is authentic and the good stuff rather than the local Kobe "style" beef which I hear isn't near the same.  One of these days I want to try Kobe beef, but it is so stinking expensive it would have to be a very special occasion. I wish I had asked for a picture of us schmoozing with the owner. 
We went back to Kristie and Patrick's house and hung out for a while and had some drinks. 

Today I worked for several hours to make up time and try to stay caught up and Andy went to Mikey's to help him with computer issues and then we both have just been playing wow and being bums all evening.  It's been nice.

Dew Me

I woke up today, knowing I hadn't gotten enough sleep.  I dragged thru the morning and pretty much fell asleep in the passenger seat on the way to work.  I got to work and found my cubicle gift wrapped and decorated for my birthday.  I had to break thru the wrapping paper to get inside.  Inside, I found mana from heaven in the form of a six pack of 16oz diet Mountain Dew.  There was also a bag of goodies that I shared with everyone.  It was awesome.  I had lost enough sleep that a dew didn't do it for me today really, but  the one I had, along with some pain stuff, did help with the headache I woke up with.  Nolana also brought in ice cream and soda for floats for everyone. Other than finding out about more underlying drama and playing catch up from yesterday, over all it was an okay day.

I think I'll take a nap when I get home tho if I can ignore the twin calls of wow and my book.

A birthday and A Funeral

Yesterday was my birthday.  It was also the day picked for Wayne's funeral.  The day before I had gotten very depressed.  Depressed over losing Wayne and going to yet another funeral.  Depressed that a funeral was how I was to celebrate my birthday this year.  Depressed over stress and drama at work.  It was hard.  Andy then found out he had to go in yesterday morning for a mandatory meeting and then I was worried about getting down to where we needed to be on time.  We needed to be to my sister's by 10:00 since we were riding with her.  I slept in after Andy left and then got up and showered.  I got a couple phone calls wishing me happy birthday and that was nice.  Andy managed to make it home in time and we headed out.

I always enjoy spending time with my sister and her family and riding down with them was a good mood lifter.  Sometimes you just can't stay sad around my little niece, she is so adorable.  When we got down there we were immediately surrounded by family.  I love that.  I come from a very large family and as I've gotten older I've realized we are almost unique in that, even with so many people, so many lifestyles and personalities, we all have a strong sense of family and we all get along wonderfully.  My Aunt Karen and Uncle Allen surprised me and gave me the neatest little present, a little stone turtle with the back carved out and a tiny carved turtle inside it.  It was so wonderfully thoughtful of them.  They took care of me for the first six months or so of my life while my mom recovered from a stroke and I have been considered one of theirs ever since, I don't mind.  The morgue made Wayne up really well and he was dressed in a button shirt and jeans which was totally him.  He really looked like was just taking a nap.  The graveside service was nice and lots of people told memories and experiences with Wayne.  I realised that the podium was on top of my grandparents grave stone and found that odd.  I really miss my grandma, she was such a wonderful lady.  Andy pointed out that I had never taken him up there before and so that was the first time he had been introduced to her, I started crying all over again.  I say it a lot, but I really wish he could have met her.  I showed him my great grandparent's and my cousin's stones as well.  My cousin Debby pointed out that two cousins as well as Wayne all died November 24 different years.  Crazy.

We all went to Wayne's, now Danean's, house after for a luncheon and more visiting and it turned out really nice.  My mom gave me a very lovely card for my birthday once we got there.  I feel so bad that Danean has lost two brothers and her dad in the last two years and that it is all left on her shoulders.  I'm glad Wayne got everything taken care of for her before he left us tho.

It was great to be surrounded by family but I really think we all need to plan a day and all get together for some other occasion that is not a funeral or the reunion.  Over-all tho it was a good day, despite the circumstances.  Later in the evening Andy took me to dinner and we had an enjoyable meal together.  I think I heard from almost everyone either in person, by a phone call, or by facebook and that helped in lifting my spirits.

I went to bed way too late and am paying for it today.