Because The Computer Is Laughing At Me....

I am getting what I have come to know as "The Circle Of Life" across my computer screen...and when that happens at work there is literally nothing I can do since we have become a "paperless" company...wanna know the true irony of that?  It was my idea...  I was the one that went into the offices of the people that make the decisions and stated that we were drowning in our own paper fecal waste and it was a travesty and we needed to end this now...  that was 9 years ago.. 9 years ago when the computer went down at work I caught up on filing and helped other people do projects that required a certain amount of paper and paperwork.... now...nothing... eerything stops when the circle of life starts turning and doesnt stop...and thanks to the situation at the ports we are not bringing in any products so we can not bill any products so we can not collect money on any products so who is supposed to pay the IT to go fix these machines?  Circle of Life...

I know there are worse things going on in the world today so I refuse to say that the last nearly two weeks has been devastating but you know what...  to us in our situtation in our shoes it certainly felt devastating... our music hard drive fell to a harsh death on a tile floor and the data can not be recovered... the new car suffered at the wrath of an unrelenting pothole that required a completely new tire... the car i drove to work instead had maintance required lights a go-go...  so i basically SHAT 900 bucks what with planned and unplanned doctor visits and car shite.  Wonderful.  Our tax refund is already on its way and we cant help but redefine its parameters.  The jump it will give our savings account is very much welcome.  Everytime i look at the now much lower balance due to inclimate weather i throw up in my mouth a little...everytime.

Just now i went and checked to make sure...yep..still vomit worthy.

But hey, not a lot of people can say "I had a problem and I handled it right away," right? Right. 

But it would be nice if Thing 1 had told us right away she thought she broke her wrists so we could get her into her dr right away and that xrays could have been taken right away...instead of drawing this out for 10 days...  a blue cast on the left arm later and we are half way to healing.  Seeing your kid in a cast is not something I recommend, for the record. 

The house is as "together" as its going to be for right now.  Not that money is the issue, i decided when it comes to the house, screw it and write the checks...no its the discombobulation that comes with having the house upside down.  I dont like that. The kids arent fans and neither is the mister.  So we are waiting on further house To Do Lists.

I have mentioned before we do not do Valentines Day and with Thing 1 getting older is more and more apparent that she notices this trend.  We decided that we are going to make Valentines Day family day.  So now, there will be a bad ass home cooked meal and baked goodies of the red heart persuasion and maybe a stuffed animal and stickers for the kiddies.  Thing 1 likes the stuff...she likes the ambiance of the hearts and cupids.  And although she understands after explaination that her dad and I dont need one day a year to show our love and appreciation, doesnt mean that there arent some cute things to be had during that one time a year.

Chugging along with my Goodreads and my cross stitch..  So glad my cousin lit that fire for me again.  Hers are those dirty double entenďras kinds of cross stitching whereas mine are slightly more tame, but its a nice break from crochet which I also am still doing.  I blame the tablet for the poor grammar due entirely to the fact that I am not used to this tiny keyboard yet.  I have been eye balling a slightly larger and much more capabel tablet as of late, but seein as how devastating our week was and the end of last year I will probably wait on that for awhile later.

Choni has some great ideas to expand his production business and might start focusing on his you tube channel.  The stadium just picked him up for another year and with the weather we are experiencing here right now it is a wonder why I cant just up and go to a ball game tomorrow!  Seriously, I now the East is buried in snow, but its equally unnatural to be out on a beautifully sunny day and theres no baseball to speak of...none... zero.  Its sad. I hate it.  Im sure we'll find ways to fill our time, though.

Anyhoo, thats all from this end.  With all the Choni storyboarding his new project there hasnt been much Dream Casting talk lately which is a little sad when I think about it, but when I think about his project he is working on I love it.  He is so excited about it and the excitement is so contagious that even though we had a shitty week I still dont really feel that bad.

I wonder though if what I do feel is residual... or maybe thats not the right word.  Maybe obligatory...because when bad shit happens we are groomed to feel shitty about it... but you know what?  I am really tired of feeling shitty.  I am.  I wanted to cry and get mad over Thing 1s arm(s)...but in the same breathe I was thinking how tired I am of feeling shitty...so heres to not feeling shitty and just getting over stuff that you have zero control over and rolling with the punches ever so slightly more than before.  Work is crazy insane and my time is getting more and more eaten up life things...  and again... I notice,, but Im not upset.

But I am a litte and I have to ask myself am I upset out of obligation or am i truly upset about it?  Sometimes it feels like if I dont get upset about not blogging, does that make me flakey to be so flippant about something I started and am not finishing?  But there is no FINISH, there is just END.  One day I will end this when I feel like, when it is time to move on...and the reason i do it is because I have a voice that is hard to be heard when I am in an office 9 hours a day and on the road an hour and a half a day and with my kids three hours and then dedicating the remaining hour to my sweet darling mr. Other half...  I tried writing for myself again, but it hurts my hands SOmuch more than actually typing things out...and my brain has an issue with typing things and not sending them into the void... so one day i will get over all my crazy and do something else.. 

And if any of that made sense, you might want to see a psychiatrist...  not that I would know anything about that...

Happy Thursday and have a pleasant tomorrow...

"Broken" Home For The Holidays...

I feel like our house had a major surgery... piece by piece, scar by scar, laughter begetting more laughter... we are becoming WHOLE again...

Christmas was good to us, in the sense that we had one...

However, my 2014 would not be complete without a sickness for my planned vacation...

Oh ye gods!  Thank you!

I call bullshit... every time we have tried to plan time together for any length of time I get something wrong with me...  Sick, ill, call it what you will... it sucks.  I did get through the entire SERIES of How I Met Your Mother...  Ithankyou...

It was, in fact, legen-wait-for-it...DARY!

I have been yelled at for years about not watching the show, and now I can tell you all to suck it cause I watched it, it was wonderful, and now we're moving on to other things...because not only does it now remind me of the great flood/renovation of 2014, it reminds me of how I was sick on Christmas, AGAIN...

You know, sometimes, change is a really good thing folks.

We had our company christmas party and might I say, it was great.  I was just great to sit in the front Lobby, phones off... but ringing that initial ring that takes them to voicemail in such a way that you would swear it was Howie chiming in... "That could be an order!", he would say if he were here...  and he was...

We had a great weekend considering... we had a nice night Friday the 19th, Saturday was nice, Sunday was Christmas with Gma and it was lovely... Then I woke up Monday to the ever dreaded sore throat/swollen glands... I felt feverish and chilled... I went down drastically in a matter of hours and had to go home.  Tuesday, stayed home and went to the dr.  Got two doses of anti-viral in me and went to work Wednesday for our ever appreciated and fantastic half day for Christmas Eve, went home and we had a Turkey dinner!  Our first ever Turkey Dinner for our family on Christmas Eve when it was JUST US FOUR!  Actually, come to think of it, it was our first ever dinner on Christmas Eve with just me n Choni.  It's always been Christmas Eve at the In Laws, Christmas Day at my Ma's...  Funny... talk about breaking free from tradition, that was holding strong 14 years!  Hah!

Anyhoo, woke up Christmas Day after the neighbors decided to party ALL NIGHT...  and into some of the morning... Until I picked up my handy phone with the handy list of contacts...one in particular being our County Sheriffs... Yeah!  I'm THAT CHICK! SO WHAT!!  I'm ALL FOR parties man, and I know Christmas Eve is a biggie for some people... BUT REALLY?!?  3AM!!!  And I don't mean the song!  I shut that fucker down@!@#%#$@%$#@

Christmas Day I woke up sicker...  I stayed on the couch while the kids ripped open their second batch of gifts, I saw awe and wonderment in what was probably the "smallest" Christmas ever and I felt great afterwards (emotionally).  We got up our things together and made the trek to Noni's for third Christmas and had another great time, more yummy food stuffs and we even got to take some home :)  My sis and bro in law and their (combined) 4 childrens were there, a houseful of kids.  What my Ma always wanted!  As the day went on, I was feeling less awesome.

I woke up Friday to the ickiest of ickinesses and I called my dr's office.  Told them how I was feeling and what was new and was gone and they called me in a Rx.  I then proceeded to have a couch bound Christmas break/ New Year's.  I STILL don't feel 100%.

I feel like I need to sleep a few more days.  I over do it the second I feel well.  That's a big problem for me.  But I can't help it, I feel like such a slug when I'm sick!!  I hate that feeling... that there are things to do and I'm not doing them.

But here we are, new year, new gear.  I am thinking that I am much more accepting already of the new year than ever.  I wanted to be done with 2014 so badly.  Generally there is a time frame that I go through where things need to be gotten used...  Happy to report, writing out that 2015 comes much more naturally than any year ever!  2015...FLOWS LIKE A RIVER FROM MY PENS!!  Wonderful...  I had a busy busy busy super busy Monday and today was much more doable... I had much more coffee too, so I'm sure that had NOTHING to do with it!  hehe...

Well, it's that time kids...gotta warsh out my mug and make the trip to the loo before my long trip home...  I need to write a note to myself to tell you about the great Purge... no not that mediocre movie...  we did our own purging during the great renovation and it felt great!  Loved it!

Spoke Too Soon Too Much Too Fast...Or How We Came To Realize That We Had No Idea What We Were Doing With A House......

Something about our little part of California that most people don't realize is that its got green yards and evergreens PLANTED INTO MAN MADE YARDS AND GARDENS.... it's a fuckin desert...

  Its like Peter Pan Syndrome for our region... Southern California is a man that doesn't want to realize or accept the fact that its getting old so it buys a Ferrari by way of planting and over watering grass in a desert climate that needs succulents and desert indigenous landscaping. 

If that even makes any sense.

Our house was previously owned by geniuses...rocket scientists disguised as homeowners...  And of course, the bank we bought our house from couldn't wait to get this thing off their hands either...then comes us...apartment dwelling for so long we forgot what it was like to be in a house...  one reared by a father ringing the bell of Work Smart Not Hard all day long and the other with no Mr Fix It in their life at all...We had no idea that the backyard was graded too high...that the dog run was put in wrong...that everything about it would kick us in the ass one day...

And it did...HARD...

 

Three weeks before Christmas, in a tiny Who House, we are forced to take 400 sq feet of belongings and shove them into the remaining 800 sq feet of house that did not receive rain damage.  I can see how a renovation can tear and strain relationships...  ours is doing just fine because my husband is amazing...  our family has been wonderful as far as my mother offering sanity via venting and ranting and my mother in law still having rooms set up for us to stay the night.  Thing 2 has been wonderful as well due entirely to her ability to sleep comfortably in the pack n play as long as her trusty boppy lay beneath her and her build a bear Hello Kitty is by her side... 

Still...  there is an amount of guilt...there is the thought that I could have single handedly prevented this in so many (albeit unforeseen) ways... because someone always knows more or knows better or can do better than me... than us...  and that's fine... but still.  I'm not going to ridiculously pretend like its not actually passing through my mind every other minute.  Coworkers and friends are to our rescue as well and I feel like the chunk out of our savings is not as big as it SHOULD be due to us not being covered for this particular instance under our homeowners insurance...lame.

Living room camping on our pull out couch is what we have been doing... Monday(today) our dry wall gets put back on and hopefully our vanities will get put back on and we can take showers here again...  I am a lot calmer than I was,yet still not completely calm... fantastically we are still a family and still together and still breathing so that's nice....  

My hubby stepped up amazingly fantastically superbly and dug a huge nasty "French drain" in the side of the house and started leveling it out.  Then CoWorker Husband #1 came over and checked out our house and the temporary drainage ditch. Yes we need a permanent one, but the temp one will hold just fine until then.

No we're "There"... over there, by all those people investing into their houses...that's us.  That's our spot in life right now... at the same time as trying to be US we have to be "homeowners" too...  it's a tough juggle when you buy what you can afford.  It was either this or stay apartment dwellers for quite a while longer, and LORD KNOWS where we'd be if we did.  I actually don't want to think about it..  Because as clean and easy and glorious as that sounds, that's not us...Not anymore...it's universes, galaxies away from us. You never go forward by going backward, I truly believe that... so I'm going to apply that same logic to this right here...

Meanwhile:

EVERYTHING ELSE IS FUCKIN AWESOME!!!!

I mean that... work...wow, we just got a great update at work about how well we're doing... We were sailing in yachts, then we had to downgrade to dingys, then we were drowning... in scuba gear with oxygen at 1% and boom, we were back in dingys,  And there we've stayed because of the recession... Fine...  But now, now we're profiting again in ways that make us have numbers in line for our 1st quarter already and I can't tell you how exciting that is, especially when we have a nay sayer walking around like a god and everything out of their mouth is "Peril!" "Plight!" and I can't take it anymore...so the op's manager sent out a little email from his corner of the universe and it made my day...  Little things keep happening that make things great and I'm so happy... but isn't true...when one facet of your life is picking up steam another falls fantastically to pieces...  Amazing how true that really is.  Anyhoo, that's all from this end...  hopefully.  I just want to go home tonight and have walls.  I never realized how accustomed to our little lifestyle I was until I woke up one day and it was gone... 

Moles and Trolls...

Work work work...

Oh what it is to be with a man with a strong work ethic.

Something my Ex Step Monster never appreciated.

My Ex Monster in Law (Bitchie Valens) decided that he would call in sick when it suited him or when he was too hung over to go in, or if in rarer occasion was STILL drunk from the previous night's escapades...  always a good time finding out which one.  Yet, HE never got the SHIT from the ESM that Choni did for working on days that we had family functions... I mean, really?  Which is the lesser of  the two evils?  I didn't mind lending him out to the retail world because I knew I got him every other day of the year...  everyday is family day, the holidays just make it more special in our house.  But really, EVERYDAY should be family...but anyways, that's neither here nor there.

That being said:  He still has a strong work ethic.  Our house is very kept and our lives are well oiled machines because of our co-working.  He works hard on our kids and to make sure everyone is taken care of...so do I... we are just as much an in-love couple as coworkers in the company of the household.  Fantastic... it took Choni a while to realize that he had a passion and had a dream and he wanted to make sure he knew what that was before saddling himself with another job.  We were somewhere and someone asked him what he did.  Without pause he said he was a videographer.  Just so matter of factly that I think it dawned on him then that he IS a videographer.  That is his profession, his passion, obsession...  Since then, everything he looks for in an off season job requires him to be behind a camera.  He did a wedding and it was beautiful.  He KILLED it... they all cried when they saw the video he put together and he even got a bonus at the end... yay him.  THEN he gets on line and trolls for more jobs and finds one filming a 3 day national sporting event...ON Thanksgiving, but that's what Pyrex is for.  Leftovers.  No, he will not physically be with us, but he is doing this for us as much as himself... maybe a few percent less actually.  It's very important for my hubby to LOVE what he does.  He's a very emotional person.  I accept that as one of the things I love about him as much as something we work around.  But that's love...that's marriage.  I want to work around it.  I am fantastic at it, nobody can work that emotional thread like I can, because I am his wife.  I know him better than anyone including his own mother.. including himself at times.  And that's why when I saw we could afford for him not work, I chose to discuss with him staying home with the bebes, than run him out of the house for some soul sucking fakakta job.

I honestly can't wait for him to come home and tell me all about it!  Actually, that's not what's going to happen.  The even starts tomorrow (Thanksgiving) and goes on til Saturday.  On top of that, it starts at 5am the first day, 6am the second day and 7am the third day (an hour drive to get there, so he's gotta get up at 430 on the first day and an hour later each proceeding day) and lasts about 12 hours or so.  He'll have intermittent breaks and they pay for food.  I won't really be hearing about it until Sunday morning more like... but that's ok.  The wedding went swimmingly, this will also go great and hopefully his boss has some more off season jobs to include him in to keep him AND the sports relevant in the off season!  It's a very exciting time for us to be in our particular job positions right now.  They are bringing commuter trains to our area, when that is finished, it will open his job opportunities even more!  Very exciting time...  Hopefully he'll be able to shoot a few extras to bring home and show us his work.  If this event does well, maybe he'll get some kind of automatic flag put on his name for call backs, kind of like it is at the stadium for him now. Seeing someone you love doing something they love for a living is priceless....

**Knock, Knock...***

Oh, HI!  Fancy seeing you here... Like there's anybody there...

I seriously want to learn how to post something thought provoking enough to make people leave comments...  but until then.. you get this:

I am busy as hell at work... My entire dynamic has changed. For the better really, but there are things I am unable to make room for in my day and it's just so much different than before that the new reality is this:  I have time for Facebook throughout the day, but really just to keep up with other people not so much to comment. I found myself about to comment the other day and all that happened was that I was about to send a paragraph into the void...and I told myself when the Facebook posts get to be about a paragraph, that's when I should really choose to blog... fine..  I don't really care about making sure I get on and comment on Facebook these days... It mostly just turns into more like a tweet... small short concise post with a pic attached.  Usually it's an IG with a sentence that I auto post to FB and Twitter...  GAWD that just sounds boring writing that...

The catch up game will take a while so I don't know which is better... one long giant post or a few over the next few days??  I'm going to try the latter and see what happens... again, not like anyone reads this god forsaken thing...

I have decided to change the name of the blog if you have noticed...if not, no matter.

When I got our new phones in Spring I got an unbelievable deal that included 2 7" Samsung Galaxy Tab 3's... I seriously didn't even know what I would do with these things, but they quite literally GAVE them to me...so I thought, hey... party, bonus.  I took them home and Choni was reticent about them at first... 6 months later he wouldn't know what do without it!  I bought cases on Amazon that came with bluetooth keyboards.  Great investment, might I add!  The charging chord to the keyboards fits the galaxy, so I basically always have the charger for it... doesn't sound important to some I bet, but it's SO important when you're lugging stuff for people.

When these things fell in our laps, I had been contemplating a laptop purchase...but wasn't sure...then I read an article about 10 Top Dying Techs.  On that list were laptops.  Simply stating that with desktop PCs doing incredible things that you pretty much would want to NOT do on a subway and tablets coming with expandable memory and keyboards...why?!?  So I thought, yeah why?!?  My mission then became to use the SHIT out of my tablet...and I do.  I game on it, I'm addicted to Hey Day.. shut up.  I have a few little life regenerating games to fill in the 1 minutes holes of down time I have throughout the day and that's about it... Thing 2 still requires I sit with her while she plays, but she doesn't want me to play with her because she doesn't want me touching her stuff...so I will sit there and video her playing and play a game and show her video and pictures of her set ups... it's all about presentation for her right now.. "See what I did?!?"  Yep, that's her in a nutshell...

My big idea is to use the tablet for those few minutes between when I brush my teeth at night and then choni goes to brush his teeth and I sit there waiting for him to be done...in those moments I can do one of two things: 1) sum up my moments and thoughts of the day Doogie Howser style on my tablet or 2) map out something a little more interesting to say when I have more time...Either way, that's my new personal goal...writing with pen and paper still hurts even with the wrist support and typing this now in my Icelandic office (don't get me wrong if it's hot in here my nose bleeds end of story), I have finger-less gloves on and wrist supports but I'm covered...I'm A-OK.

I got really busy over the summer...in my head... I was over thinking the idea behind the blog, whether anybody cares and whether it's worth it, and whether I have time and my new tasks at work...my tasks at home... making sure I'm "present" all the time... getting called out about being on my phone when I was like "I'm only on MY phone... when YOU are on YOURS..."  some eye opening developments in my relationships with people that are not Choni...

Summer went by slow...  No softball I think did that.  I had a break to myself that I spent sick...again...and I got this WEIRD skin thing that itched like a spider bite and scarred like one too.  I think it was a brown recluse bite because those tend to turn into cellulitis if not caught ASAP.  It's fine now.  My TMJ something something disorder is in cahoots with my neck and shoulder tension and makes my teeth hurt.  I had my extensive dental work done and hopefully that's the end of that...I don't think it is.  I'm lucky to have any teeth with my family history.  Allergies are still in full swing... All of that compacted toghether equals me being in some form of pain everyday at some point in the day..  If I am busy with enough things I don't notice so that's nice.  My plantar fasciitis is somewhat more under control than in the two years I've had it so that's good...  $40 insoles later and a new pair of shoes and some exercises later...  But it's better than what it was at the beginning...it's not completely gone away and I'm supposed to go in for a cortisone shot the foot to calm down the muscle next month.. Can you guess how exciting I find that?  Can you?!?

I joined GoodReads and have been reading up a storm thanks to 1 minute intervals in the day and lunches and waiting for things... I put forth a challenge for myself.. I am almost done :)

I have been using the HELL out of Coconut Oil for all of it's benefits, I am very into at home remedy mostly because I already have all that stuff at home most of the time.  Because of the DRY ASS winters, I have switched to a Cleansing Conditioner because I am prone to dry scalp in winter more so than any other time of year.  Last year was HELL on my hair because I cut my hair OFF and as much as I loved the cut I jacked up my pH balance on my head and then even with a pseudo winter we had...I itched...and itched...and itched. No amount of OTC head stuffs worked.  So I suffered.  Then it got warmer and it stopped.  Now it's cooler and it's starting...not as badly as last year, but it was this time of year I cut my hair OFF...and it's growing back at lightning speed.  This time next year I'll be like "What short hair?"    I think I'll stop there because this is just rambling now and who cares?

I'll start the smaller blogs with more to say in the next few days.  Mister is working an off season job but I'll get into that later!

If a flea bites a tree in the woods, does it itch?

L'Chaim...

Things go along and chug on the train of life... c'est la vie...  things happen you see from a mile away... Some happen in the blink of an eye and leave you wondering... "Why didn't I see that?" "Could I have seen that?" "Could I have prevented that?"  "WHY WHY WHY???"

The owner/founder of the company I have dedicated twelve years of my working life to passed away at his home on Thursday night.  He was not, what I feel, your typical owner type.  Howie was so personable, and put on a face that made him seem less approachable than he actually was.  You got close enough you figured it out, he was a pussy cat...   A total Teddy Bear to the nth power and was exremely generous... Our human nature leaves a little to be seen with generosity and of course always leaves us wanting more, but not in Howie's case.  He gave...and gave.  Keeping the doors open to our company when he didn't need it and saw it floundering he pumped it full of life again and got it going...someone tried to take us down and he pulled us back up.  Howie did that... his right hand man did that... we didn't have to be here still and he made it possible for me/us to come into work when they weren't sure that there would be a work to come to...

When I bought my first car 100% by myself I was working here... and when I bought it, I went into his office when he wasn't busy and thanked him.  I gave him credit where credit was due.  They didn't have to hire me, he didn't have to let them keep me and he certainly didn't have to let me take on the roll in the company that I was given.  I was a "go-fer", a "gal friday" but being that I had my hands in everything and I am still to this day shocked at the meetings and discussions I took part in...  I remember him congratulating me on my engagement, my marriage, my first child, my new house, my second child...and most recently, just a couple of weeks ago, I parked a new car in his parking lot and he was there when I drove up.  I got a big smile, pat on the back "Good girl" from him and it was lovely...  it was a great feeling.  An intoxicating sense of belonging is what he brought to the table for me and I love it...and I will always love it and I will be here to make sure that I do right by him because he let me be here doing my job for this long... why not longer?  At every christmas party, he made a speech... he handed little envelopes of "Thank you" gifts and each person was called up by name and given a hand shake/hug by The Big Man and every year he'd look at me and be shocked by my tenure and we'd joke "another year girl" and I'd say "and another year next year if you'll have me" wakka wakka...  and now he's gone... I know his health was failing him, that was no secret, but I had a different scenario in mind.  I thought one day the CFO would come in discretely to my office and mention his health and a possible ICU stay and then a few days later we would get the news...but there was nothing. He was in here on Tuesday and didn't come in Wednesday or Thursday..Friday morning we had a company wide meeting (never a good sign) and I was told to turn off the phone system (NEVER a good sign) and I knew it, I knew it before the CFO even spoke his first words....

Goodbye Poppy Howie I will never forget you, I will always miss you, and as long as there is a company to work for I'll be here at my desk because that's where I belong...  Mazel tov....

Mulligan...

Generally, I don't find myself being one to use golf terms... but... 

Last weekend, NOT the best weekend.  Not that anyone died, or went bankrupt, or anything... maybe something INSIDE them died, and maybe someone went EMOTIONALLY bankrupt...  again...  NOT the best weekend.  

And even though the disturbing and upsetting events didn't necessarily happen to ME or Choni, they affected (infected) our family unit just the same. ... Because we care dammit!

Choni's got some upsetting news about his friend...that made him blah.

We went for a visit with my mother-in-law on saturday and basically dropped Thing 1 off with her to spend the night...and then Sunday was a blah day... the kind of day where you have a list of things to do...and there's 5 day things to do...and all 5 of those things don't go either A)The way they were supposed to B)The way you atleast hoped they would C)Didn't go at ALL.

Bummer...

But it wasn't my list it was my mom's, but I was there as one thing after another did NOT get checked off on a day that was already sucking for her.  

Bummer...

Big.Fat.Bummer.

So, Monday, we awoke, getting ready for the first after the time change, which also leaves everyone in a state of blah.  The morning became dark again.  That does not help my family of four get jazzed for the mornings...  We were late getting up and getting out of the house... the next day we were less late...the next day we were on time, this morning, we were early.  Yay us.  It only took us 4 days to get this down...

But Monday when we got up, and the maddening tornado of "Move! I'm late!" started...and in between the lines we knew... we knew our weekend pretty much sucked... it did... it sucked... I wanted a do-over... I think we deserve it. The way things have been on a bit of an upswing for us and we've doing our due diligence as good adults and grown ups and members of society...  we deserve a good weekend... a weekend full of good, positive, awesome vibes... 

Not to put the pressure on , but we will get what we want!!  Ha-haaa!

The plans for this weekend are starting to come together into something that one way or another, we will get things checked off our list, kids will be happy and we will go to sleep exhausted and fulfilled...one way or another.

That being said: a little catch up-

Thing 1 does not require a parent/teacher conference for the spring (as usual) and I am happy about that!  Thing 2 is talking her gibberish that gets more understandable each day.  She says SO many things, yet it is total gibberish... A few words are clear as day.  You can tell she wants to learn the words so badly and wants to communicate... One day, just like her sister, she'll be three years old, and Daddy and I will be on the cusp of a nervous breakdown from people telling us "She should be talking by now, my *insert toddler relative here* is just talking up a clear, concise, articulate storm of diction!" and then BOOM!  Fully blown conversations will erupt over night.  We're not worried, it's fine.

Thing 1 goes to an after school program and when she gets there, she is assigned a "teacher" and a "class room".  It's held at her school, so there's no transporting needed and she's already in a place she is familiar.  The staff is brought it in just for the after school program and if something happens with your child, these people will pull aside to talk to you.  That's never happened to me yet, and I always see the staff talking to the parents and telling them that their kid got a warning, or is on a second warning, or that they have had enough warnings that they will be considering dropping them from the program... always negative... never positive.  When I walked up to the room to get her the other day, a woman in a blue shirt rushed out the door to meet me and asked if I was Thing 1's mom... 

ME:  Uhm... yeah?

Miss B: OH Great! I'm Miss Brandy!  I just LOVE having her in my class.  She's a good reader.  I mean, she reads VERY well..?  **because it was almost a question...

ME:  Yes, she really does. She reads all the time.  I've read to her since she was very little and I read a lot, so she sees me do it and wants to be like Mommy, you know.

Miss B:  She puts inflection and voices into the reading out loud that we do in class, it just amazes me.  I just love her, she's so sweet!

ME: Yes, she really is.

Miss B: Well, it was GREAT to meet you finally!  I hear so many good things from her about her mom and dad and little sister!

ME: **Trying NOT to hide the shock and awe* Good to meet you, too, thanks!

See what I mean?  Things trod along just fine, and then a weekend of extreme less than mediocrity comes and bites us in the ass...and this after I spent a FULL week in bed with some such YUCKINESS i care NOT to ever repeat in my life and then another week of getting over that while trying to function at work and catch up...this week is REALLY the catch up week... 

I got my lens in the mail and all my fun purchases I made with the tax return...not able to enjoy it at all for about a week due to illness...it's like someone getting something you can't have, but you know you can in a few days or a week, but you STILL can't have it right now and that just sucks... First world problems right?  I know... sad but true... My new lens rocks!!  It's a Tamron, my lil cuz says it's the Civic of lenses... sweetness.  And I hate to admit how much of a different it really makes.  Cause it does...and I hate that because it makes something so expensive so necessary.

Daddy is looking at lighting and backgrounds systems that we can both use.  Funny how this is never how we intended to end up...a still and video photographer living under one roof**smiley face**

Ok, well that's enough from this end...  I just felt like we had SUCH A BLAH WEEKEND!!  MULLIGAN!!!!!

How The Universe Can Piss You Off And Then Show You How Lucky You Are In One Fell Swoop...

I got to work today and it was going to be a great day... I didn't wear my watch today and I wore it yesterday and yesterday was a great day.  I thought to myself, stupidly, "Today's gonna suck cause I didn't wear my watch..."...

...I get a call from a co worker that just so happened to be later than usual this morning, the LAST person to get in the parking lot until people started lunch hours around 11am...

CW: Hey you probably know this already but your RR Tire is FLAT...

ME: What?!?  What do you mean FLAT?!?!

CW: OH! Sorry, I mean, F-L-A-T...  Hanging off the rim, no bueno flat.  You might want to come down here.

ME: (looking at the piles and piles of work on my desk and NOW worrying about my car resting on the rim and the fact that I just bought new tires 6 months ago and the CFO is leaving and I'm doing checks today instead of tomorrow and he's leaving in 30 minutes...29 minutes...28 minutes and oh my god OH MY GOD!!)  Uhm, yeah, I can't... I'll be down soon...

I powered through two days worth of work in 2 hours this morning so the CFO could leave early and be out tomorrow, which is generally the day I run the vendor checks.  I got it DONE... BOOM!!!

I ask my co-worker if she could watch the phones for a sec while I mosey on down to my car...

It was totally fucked off, and I wanted to cry, and vomit, and hug my Purple People Eater all at once...  I go into the warehouse, I have a friend out there.  It's DEAD out there today (actually NOT a good thing but good for ME at the time)... Ask mi amigo if he can help me out a second... "Of course!" Take him to my car and show him the tire, we get the jack and the tire iron out of the car, I was initially going to take the tire off the car, leave it jacked, go with SOMEONE and get the tire fixed and bring the tire back to put on the car...  I didn't have a donut on my car.  My car didn't come with one...and My father in law got me one that was used and it went bad real fast and it never got replaced. 

Mi Amigo finds a donut spare in my trunk...??????

...The last time something happened to my tires and I didn't handle it 100% myself, we were staying with my in-laws...  I was working, Choni was working and there was only Thing 1...  I took Choni's car, he took his dad's car, and Felipe kept MY car...he had Fridays off and wasn't working anyways... He put that there.  He put that donut spare there for me, cause he knew I wouldn't do it and he knew his son wouldn't do it and he knew I would need it...he knew WE would need it... He put that there for me.. a present to be had a later date, lest we knew he wouldn't be able to linger and help with these little chores any longer...

....

...

..
.

I couldn't even handle that.  I completely broke down at work...

I got my shit together, I took and "early" lunch to get my car business handled cause Amigo checked my spare, it was low.  He took it over to the RV place behind us and had it blown up some so I could go 2 miles to the tire chain in town where I got my tires... same chain, different store.  A patch job later, and I'm good to go.  AFTER the dude at the counter told me that hey would be replacing the tire cause there were razor blades wedged into it and it would cost me 10 bucks because I already had a warranty on the tires... this would replace the warranty with a new warranty on the new tire and there is a disposal fee...so I say, 10. 

I decided to venture and I went to JBox for breakfast... like I used to when me n Choni was in college n stuffs...

It was kinda nice... ish...  spent most of the time doing a play by play on my morning with Choni, JJ, and eating my sausage croissant combo...  NOT really how I wanted to spend my lunch hour but I got in a walk so I guess it sort of washes out...riiiight?!?  Right!  Okay... I get back to the place, just as I was about to make a dent in my book that I am neglecting because I'm all grown up 'n shit I get called up to take care of my business...  No charge, just a patch.. Jesus-pleasus...  I got my final paperwork and got the HELL outta there...

Came back to work to find out some stupid shit popped off while I was gone, but no biggie, it's all fine.  Also, found out a guy isn't here, that is detrimental to be getting a certain spreadsheet done in 45 minutes instead of 4-5hours...  and no one knew he'd be gone starting YESTERDAY and will be back Monday...  Uhm.. okay...

The Piles on my desk that I got rid of this morning were replaced with new piles.. but I couldn't get mad... cause how lucky I am really.

I am lucky, cause I work for a place that let me up and leave and take care of personal business in the middle of the damn morning...

I work for a place with cool people that help out a chick who is SWAMPED and doesn't have TIME to change the tire (let alone the will)... 

I didn't have to pay for a new tire, or a deductible on a new tire...

That shit went sideways AFTER I parked at work and NOT while I had my family in the car...

...And I had a Father In Law who, even now, is STILL watching over us...

And it's because of all that, I just ate my spaghetti lunch for "dinner" cause I am also going to get our taxed done after work and I won't be home in time to sit down to dinner with my hunnies... but I get to have some later, so there's that...

...And speaking of cake, anybody else come home to a freshly baked cake yesterday? Hands? Anyone?  No?? Just me?... Ok then...

♪Oh The Weather Outside Is Weather...♪

I have been crafting up a storm and the man has been baking cookies fresh for Thing 1's lunches... peanut butter oatmeal. Yum!  Cookies make the house warm and it smells like the holidays already!  Generally I am ALL about making room for Thanksgiving so it doesn't feel like the redheaded stepchild of the holiday season, but this year man, it just seems like we need the OOMPH into Christmas.  Luckily for me, I have never had decorations for Thanksgiving and the stores decided to lump Halloween and Thanksgiving together this year.  Amazingly enough, I now have Thanksgiving décor due to the storewide "fall" clearances that did the lumping together! Haha!

 Ma and her man are doing well...we like him.  He might be around for Thanksgiving... hope so... he's fun.  It's going to be a small Thanksgiving this year, much like Christmas.  I'm just glad I finished shopping already.  I get to sit back and enjoy now.  Generally, what we do is take the Friday after Thanksgiving to decorate like so many people I'm sure do.  This year, I'm jumping the gun...and get this...at the request of Choners...he is usually VERY adamant about giving Turkey Day it's due.  Well, this year, he wants his cake and he's going to eat it too... Next Monday, whether the big one goes to day care or not, we are doing our Christmas décor.  It's something to pass the time and we might have Knott's plans on Saturday... but until that is certain I don't want to make any plans in stone.  So I say, the general idea will be to get out the Christmas awesomeness for Monday... and if Thing 1 goes, she will come home to a winter wonderland in the house :)  Also, I am planning on lights outside this year! Shhh, don't tell Mister... 

This weekend is family weekend, we're gonna see a lot of his family :)  I say his family, but they're really OUR family...It's funny, I just wanted to specify WHICH side of the family, mine or his...  I could say The Brown side...  But really, that doesn't help... us Irish have been known to have the fever.  So both sides are relatively brown.. hehehe...

Tuesday is Christmas pictures... I have been saying, I want to make more image heavy posts, but I haven't yet.  I think because I don't plan them THAT far ahead... so it's hard to do.  Also, I love my camera.  I love it SO much I'm afraid to leave the house with it...  I know.. shut up...  I got a filter for it to protect the lens so perhaps I would feel better about letting it bang around my back pack...  wrapped in a scarf...  and maybe a sweater.

Next years tax return already has a portion dedicated to my new lens.  My cousin Ace is in "the business" and he helped me out HUGE on shopping around for my next lens purchase... And the more Choni is working on his film project the more I think he will probably want to use the Nikon for projects...  A new lens wouldn't hurt!  Ace said that my camera body and specs are great, I should be getting great results when I put the new lens on ...next year...

I am LOVING the weather...cold. I love cold.  Snuggles, soup, hot cocoa, coffee NOT for my morning commute... aaaahhhh... Blankets on the couches... I LOVE blankets...  kid snuggles...  and when the decorations go up...the soft warm glow of the tree...  oh yeah... that's the stuff....

Today is my last work day of November and I start my staycation... Thing 1 asked if I had any time off that overlapped HER time off...so I made some... cause sometimes, you just have to.  I hope this allergy/cold thing goes away... Maybe with a little help from my friends Alka Seltzer and Nyquil... 

Too bad there's not a way to make people leave comments... I want comments...

Two Ships In The Night...

That's us right now...

The job is going so well... even when the equipment doesn't work right, he still likes it cause he's got a good group of guys to work with this year.  His "work girlfriend" isn't around as much, she's only doing her gig part time-ish and his buddy the bat boy is leaving this month... so it's new people all around!!  Which is actually good.  And I'm so glad it's good.  Last year had me worried... that he wouldn't want to go back...  I don't care about the money. Not really... It's nice... don't get me wrong.  But we don't NEED it.  I like to think that takes the pressure off his job.  It truly makes it Sport.

My coworker has been in and out of work and where our department was 5 people when I came into it, then 4...now 3...and temporarily we are at two...barely at two... we are nose and mouth out of water with two...

I know I've said it before, but I'm not the kind of person that NEEDS all this EXTRA time to myself.  First of all, I don't have ANY friends near me.  They are all out of state or county at least...  My little buddies are Thing 1 and Thing 2...  Sometimes Kid Sister comes with me too...  but mostly it's the Things... And Choni... He's my bestie fo shizzle and I miss him so much when he's gone. 

I have plenty of things to keep me busy, but it's always prevalent why I am doing those things is because I have spare time because he's not there...so it's a reminder upon a reminder that I am alone...  And it's only May...  It's good because it makes me appreciate him even MORE than I already do...and I do...  I do so much that I'm thinking of skipping Mother's Day completely this year and doing two Father's Days.

Between work at work and work at home I have been so busy I haven't done much of the "me" things that I need to do... I even forgot to brush my teeth this morning.  That is unacceptable since I have a checkup at the dentist on Tuesday and I brush three times a day...especially when I'm at work.  I usually get in two teeth brushings on the weekends... depending on how the day unfolds...maybe one if I'm lucky...  but I'm into my routine.

Routine is helpful.  I am quite certain I would have to be medicated if I didn't do things in a certain order.  Take the laundry for instance.  I had to do kid laundry...but I can't do the kid laundry until the beds are made so I can have a place to put the laundry and fold it and move it from bed to closet or bed to drawer.  So, first the beds had to be made.  And I can't walk from bed to closet or bed to drawer if the floor's covered in toys.  So basically I created a monster when I made the kids clean their room (Thing 2 basically took blocks in and out of the block bag to help) just so I could do a couple of loads of laundry.  Then, that took all night and then it was bath time and then it was bed time and no laundry was done.  I'm not saying it makes sense.  I'm saying that I couldn't even consider laundry if those things weren't done in that order.  Now, tonight, I will go home...and start the process again.  Except this time, there's no softball practice to make the night shorter.  I know there will be laundry! 

This is early season gibberish... All of this goes away when I find my swing of things... But usually the swing of things doesn't happen until softball is over!  Opening Day is tomorrow and then, before we know it... it's over!  I can't believe how fast it goes!  Which is why I try and do my part and take as much pictures and video as my SD card holds!

I do have things to keep my brain busy, there are always craft projects.  Which reminds me, I have a mother's day project to finish...and that shits coming up fast!!  I like to keep atleast a few projects rolling at once because I might not be in a mood to crochet when I get home.  I might want to make something out of homemade playdough... or I might want to embroider something... or one of my cross stitching projects...or work on Marysu's baby book... I don't always end up with the time to do these things, but when I have a moment to myself and feel the need, I have a plethora to keep my occupied... I still miss my Choni though... 

But life's a trade off isn't it?  Our cars are in great shape (one window doesn't roll down in the civic but hey it's 10 years old what did I expect?)  We got a new fridge c/o SCE's low income energy assist program...  we have fabulous neighbors.  School's almost out!  I might get to see more of Kid Sister this summer... The kids are incredibly great right now... Harley is doing well with school, she is doing all kinds of big girl, big sister, almost 8 year old things.  And the thinks that she thinks are amazing.  I love her amazing brain... Marysu... a guaranteed good time for everyone as long as she is fed. Great sleeper, two two hour naps a day is amazing!  She's such a hammsammich and always laughs and smiles... Unless she's hungry... That kid...she's gonna eat us out of house and home!  I'm just glad I have an eater on our hands!  Harley is doing pretty well with her eating habits.  Which reminds me, I need to go to the store tonight! haha!  Pancake and Sausage breakfast for pre-Opening Day Festivities will be feeding us tomorrow, so that's a good thing!  I don't have to worry about that atleast!  Well, I'm going to wrap it up.  My rice noodle soup has devoured all the water in the bowl and is ready for consumption.  I also have an ice cold Dr. Pepper with my name on it! 

No, literally, I had to write my name on it because these bastards will totally take it from me....

Type, Type... Erase... Type... Erase...

Trying not to be the Billionth person to talk about it...

That's my response to Boston so far...

To sit at my desk and see madness down a street I have walked... down a corner I have turned...  driven down... albeit in the back seat but still...  And be utterly helpless...  To sit here and try to find the words... the collective, coherent thought to take that in and not go completely mad...  We are not an old country, but for our immediate purposes, Boston is our version of an ancient city...

Excuse me while I go in the Way Back Machine to that fateful Tuesday Morning in 2001 when I saw something else happen in a spot I have walked in, sat down on a bench and looked up at those immense buildings and have a feeling I was in the presence of greatness and world power... apparently I wasn't the only person that knew that...

I feel the same way about Boston...I felt the same way yesterday...  Of course there is the "Why? What the FUCK IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE?!?!"  Ok, someone is making a point...  but really?  That's how you make your point?  Fuckin pussies...  sorry.. but they are...  I can't stomach acts of violence.  I REALLY CAN"T STOMACH FACELESS ACTS OF VIOLENCE!!!  MAKE YOURSELF KNOWN YOU COWARDS!!  So we can catch you and bring you the justice you deserve.  Actually, we don't Constitutionally ALLOW the kind of justice these people would truly deserve, but anyways... I believe in Capitol Punishment, so sue me.  I'll never commit a crime that would deem me deserved as such, so I don't care if they euthanize people.  I REALLY REALLY don't.

A question I brought to myself: do I tell Thing 1?  We don't watch the news per se.  We don't sit and watch it together as a family... I watch it...  I choose to.  It's MY choice.  I know my children should grow up to be learned adults...but I'm choosing not to start it now.  If Harley comes home from school and asks me about something her teacher brought up we will talk about it...but I'm not going to sit her down and tell her about everything that happens and then attempt to possibly counter that with something good so that she doesn't give up hope in humans so early.  I would literally spend ALL day talking to her if that were the case. 

Meh... super miffed.. super sad... and super effing miffed...

I had nothing fresh or knew to think I was so stunned...appalled.  So I dug down into my 'serves.

September 11th, I didn't know what to do.  I didn't know if the country would feel a sense of comraderie that would bring us all to not go to school, to not work.  I just dared to go on my day and see what everyone else thought.  I didn't feel like, as a Californian, I should feel a sense of entitlement that allowed that horror to affect me directly, not sure yet if would in anyway, just that sight of those awesome buildings falling...  I got my other sock on, put on my shoes and drove to school...  I wasn't the only College student unsure.  Doors had signs on them of class cancellations... I made it INTO my class and my professor was explaining how she was going home and she bade us do the same...so I walked out with everyone else.  And I remembering seeing a Marine Reservist shaking his head...he just got done with his requirements and he pretty much knew then...he'd be going over somewhere...
I saw my husband by my car... He was writing me a note (no cell phones) and he grabbed the paper off my windshield and ran up and hugged me and we talked a minute... all of our classes were cancelled... did I still go to work?  did I still dare to pretend nothing happened??  Even the radio was rife with discussion...  I went home... waited for work to begin.  He came with me to my house for a bit and went on to work himself.  He said it was DEAD at his video store.  Mine wasn't DEAD.  But my manager, Stina, was on board with keeping a low profile that night and we turned all the TV's at my store and sat on the counter and watched...  The patrons didn't mind.  There were 5...all night. And one I will never forget.  Not ever.

A homely woman comes in after there is already a man with his son in the Sci-Fi section mulling over which Alien movie to rent... there are so many choices!

Woman is unhappy...  She grunts upon her entry and exasperates at the wall O' Tv's...  Uhm... Okaaaay....

I look at Stina, she is sitting on the counter watching... I follow my manager's lead and only get up when someone approaches attempting some miniscule amount of professionalism, but they don't care about that... they are all glued to the news.

I am helping man and son with their rental and woman comes up, Stina jumps off the counter and helps her.  She leans over towards Stina...  reading her Manager status on her glorious Employee Badge... 

"Oh, so I guess putting this on was your idea?"  Woman says.

Stina:  "Uh yea...  your total is..."

Woman: "Ugh, hopefully these are good enough to replace what's on... I can't believe SURVIVOR ISN'T ON TONIGHT BECAUSE OF THIS!!" (waving her hands at the TV's)

Stina:  "Your movies are due back ____....And I suggest that you go home and hug your kids because obvoiously there are WORSE THINGS GOING ON THAN MISSING SURVIVOR!!  Have a nice day." 

Stina... my hero that night... I will never forget that...  Not ever...

My immediate response to yesterday; I gave my kids a giant hug and we stayed in and hung out until bedtime... then I did my laundry and I relished in the things I was able to do because you just never know when you won't be able to do them again... 

Twelve Minutes 'Til The Bell Rings...

Some of my best ideas come out of me at the last minutes of the day... let's see if this is a testament to as much, shall we?

Probably not, probably going to be gobble-di-gook...but hey...what is to be expected from someone in my predicament?

I have been locked in a Bio Hazard called "Home" for about 5 days...and man is it good to be out. 

I came back to work to a mole hill, but it's gone now.  All gone...bye bye...

I sit and I wonder just how much "better" Choni feels now that he is on day 5 of Flu Watch 2013...

He hasn't been sick like this in about 5 years I would say.  He used to get the Flu shots every year and he would get deathly ill right after.  Call it what you want, it's the truth...He was that 1%.  Trust and believe I kindly requested he STOP getting the damned things and just let himself get sick like a normal person.  Well, he didn't sick after that...and life was good.  Thing 1 must have the immune system of Bubble Boy because she just can't seem to shake the sick.  She has gotten sick every year since she started school which the statistcs say is normal and American as Apple Pie...Thanks though... But no thanks just the same...

The worst thing in the whole world is when your kids get sick.  You can put bandaids on a scraped knee and a pricked finger, you can pull out frikkin splinters, you can even put salves on burns, but you just can't get them better from the flu... It sucks and it's belittling as a parent.  I took her to the Pediatrician and he said she was teetering between viral and bacterial infection...so wait and see...  $30 bucks to get "wait and see"... Oh great...so we did... I got a presription just in case the worst hit over the weekend, but after being sick ALL week...her whole vacation from school down the tubes...she was better.  It's a miracle!! Not so fast ya'll.... Then HE gets it....

I stayed home from work on Wednesday, went in for two hours on Thursday and went in from 8 to 2 on Friday all so I wouldn't drown in a mountain of paperwork and phone calls today...and I'm glad I was able too...Thanks Ma :)  I didn't really see him Thursday, Friday or Saturday... except for a trip to the Urgent Care Saturday morning and then the CVS for medication of awesome sorts...  Sunday afternoon, much to my surprise, he emerged :)  Shaved, showered, and less death-like hue to the skin!!  Yay!!! 

I have done more laundry and dishes and meal preparation than I probably have in a year...  We haven't had a whole weekend to ourselves in a long time and it's been even longer since I have had such domestic duties thrust upon me... Weird to sit there and have to wonder how many pairs of jeans and how many towels you can fit in your own washer...because that's how long it's been since you've done serious laundry...  Funny to sit there and wonder what setting to wash the dishes on again cause it's been so long since you've had to do more than just load the thing up with dishes...  Funny....

But not really all that funny... There was a time I knew all these things.  A very different space and time when we both had jobs and Harley was the only Thing and we dropped her off for the night at Gma and Gpa's... It's "funny" how different your life gets...and not even because you "wanted" it to... but because it HAD to be different.  It was forced to be different...and pretty soon you wonder... How did I do this before??  And the answer is simple... You didn't...  I didn't have to clean a house and juggle a baby... I didn't have to figure that part out myself....  A crash course wasn't necessarily what I had in mind but I am now glad that I had it, and I'm glad it's over.  I'm glad I got reminded I'm the Mom I'm the Wife I'm part of the equation...I'm not just here to keep the lights on and keep the water running...  I'm sorry that everyone was sick... but now I'm thinking it all happened for a reason... We all got something out of it...  If you want a silver lining of course...maybe I want one, because maybe I NEED one... Maybe I NEED one after seeing my poor girl lethargic on the couch for a week, after seeing the piles of paperwork on my desk, after seeing how much Choni does and how much he could use a break no matter what form it came in.... 

And now it's all over and I can go back to the most annoying thing being that Amazon just shipped my camera and I won't have it until next week...  damn Amazon...

Prepare To Be Bombarded...

I told myself I would do this more often...and then I told myself I would keep a little journal (of which I have many rolling on) of blogs I could start... then I told myself that if I don't get to write it on the actual blog I'm safe because I will have the little journal...

And now the little notepad that I keep in my desk at work is half full, the journal I keep in my bag is a few pages full and I can probably sit here and do post after post...but I will just sit here until my lunch is over and save the rest for later.  I have time :) 

Here I sit, typing over a hot bowl of soup that could easily feed two but who cares.  Work has picked up immensely in just a week.  I mean that with the depths of my being... I even used the word immensely.  I work in the accounting department where customer set up is part of my duties (of which I have many) and I maintain the customer accounts (of which there are many).  Basically, I do a lot of stuff.  Usually that stuff doesn't necessarily come with a time frame attached, just when I can get to it I do.  That works for me most of the time and with Chinese New Year and our factories in China being down for two weeks I was thinking I would have time to do a lot of the little odd job maintanance.  Not so much lately.  Apparently we started this new product program that everyone is going absolutely ape shit over and that's so fantastic!  Because I am busier than a one armed paper hanger!  I didn't think I would love it this much, but I really love it!  I love being busy at work! 

And it's the busy at work that is why I am bombarding my blog with posts all at once.  Sometimes at the end of the day there is a half hour window where I have nothing to do and it has been expressed to me that the reason I am here at the end of the day is to answer the phones.  That being taken into consideration, I have no one here to work WITH if I were to do work anyway.  Thus utilizing that 30 minutes for myself by checking my bank account, balancing my checkbook, pay some bills if I didn't already and maybe even send myself a recipe or two or a crochet pattern or two...  or maybe blog if I feel like it. 

Not lately!  And that is why.  I still do not have internet at home.  I can't do it with my current company that has my TV service cause they don't DO that and I am thinking I want to go the route of FiOS like everyone else in the world.  I hate Verizon though so I don't know what we're gonna do...probably suck it up and do it.  Oh well...not the first time I made a special concession in the name of a monopoly...

But not until Spartacus is over... when Spartacus is over and we have watched all of our DVR's episodes we will be doing the switch...I'm still wondering if I should go back to having a home phone.  I'm just thinking that cell phones are still not a perfect science and with the two Littles at home I'm thinking it might be nice to have something to fall back on...and comes with Unlimited service in the U.S. :) 

..I just burned my tongue...

Free Bagels and a Retirement Plan later...

We're really real grown ups now!!

Well, atleast that's how it feels.

I always thought that we were already grown ups but two children and a house does not a grown up make.

It takes a lot more than that and I like to think that my family embodies what it takes to be contributing members of society, and now we are contributing members of the global economy :)  And I have proven, to myself...once again...what a small fuckin world it really is dammit...

I could blog about the "I didn't know you knew them!!" that I run into every day...but I'll take it one at a time.

This time, I found out that my exstepmonster's old boss runs a financial advisory branch that my exstepmoster's brother has a branch manager position at another office of, and not only do they know HIM, they started the branch of another company that the exstepmonster got the job at that moved us from one county to another...and I KNEW I knew these people...the name... names are a funny thing with me... I can retain a person's name if I have heard it a few times, but I have to have heard it a few times.. Other than that, what am I?  Psychic?  It bothered me so much that I checked with Ma and YUP... I was right... I knew that name for a reason!!

I really like the guy my company set us up with...he's my age so I feel like he really has our best interest at heart.  And what he did for my coworker and her existing portfolio?  I've been around a broker's office long enough to know some things...and I knew that I didn't want to get into the market during the recession...and we didn't have the money to do it before.  It basically would have been a glorified savings account and I can do that shit on my own man.  I'm doing pretty well for us on my own so far and that's with one of us working part time 5 months of the year. 

I am really excited to talk to the guy once Choners gets his business off and running.  Brokerman said he'd help Choni with the small business management and making sure he takes the right deductions out of his business and starts himself a self employed 401k...  It's an exciting time for us right now... It's the "What happens after you get the stuff you were working for" time. 

I mean, you chunk up your life, if you so choose, into things you were looking forward to...to go so simply into it as , when you're dating it's all about getting together and going out and having sex (i'm just being honest people)... Once you're dating awhile and serious, it's generally about getting married and getting your first place if you already don't live together...then kids or your first house...whichever goal is closer is generally the one you go for...New cars if you need them, if you don't, maybe fixing up the cars you have and/or paying them off...  Well, we have a house, two paid off cars, two kids (final inning)...now what? 

Now I am taking the time to look into the things that I think sometimes people rush into.

Retirement planning, college funds for the kids, beneficiaries, perhaps start a will/trust, life insurance, helping Choni start his business... and if there's any time or money left...a new lens for my Nikon!  Are you surprised? 

It's amazing how different the things are that my previous self and my now self are thinking about...mostly because I attained all of those goals already.  And all of it for the better!

Don't get me wrong, I still have goals and dreams that need attaining... but until someone perfects the time machine...I'll just stick to what's in front of us...

The One Where We Think We Are On The Travel Channel ...

It’s usually around the 3^rd try (which is NOT always the charm) of trying to scan something into my system that I decide a break is in order.  How does that go?  Insanity by definition is the act of attempting the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result?  Something like that…and who wants to be defined as insane?

Not I said the fly.

I’m not really sure what I intend to mention here…

Maybe just some fact mentioning…

I got a new laptop.  We are still without full internet access: a) I am boycotting major providers because the only ones available to me are fascists… b) the cost…  I was hoping I would be inspired to do any type of intriguing posts on the laptop and post it later at work.  Well, I am now probably going to shitcan that idea ever-so-temporarily.  We are currently in the throes of getting back to our daily Daddy’s-not-working lives.  I do less shopping for recreation.  And usually it will take until right before Christmas for us to start doing very different things when I get home from work.  As it is with the wee one, things are slightly different.  I get home and I get the kids. 

The objective of the night: 9pm bedtime.

Not too farfetched.  It gives us 1 hour of Mom/Dad time before optimum parent bedtime is achieved.  We have a high success rate.  Success rate tends to be higher when we don’t go anywhere.  I realize that sounds bloody lame, and boring, and unexciting, and the opposite of awesome.  But we are super savers and tend to get off on watching our bank accounts climb J and climb J 

I must say, we do have quite a “rest of the year” planned considering that fact…

And not to mention what we already did…  Had the baby…that’s A… we had a great week when the Ninas came out.  Then there was my trip to my cousins with the kids…drove the van.  No flying.  Then there was the ever present big birthday bash for Thing 1.  We still have a wedding up north to attend, and more up north family fun in December to ring in a 50^th wedding anniversary.  And we are totally going to these events because family is #1 J We have already planned Spring Break in the Emerald City because the Ninas are bomb… and Harley has been asking to go back there.  She wants to show her sister her favorite town (other than her own of course)…  It’s been two years since Choners has been up there and he wants to go so it seemed fortuitous that the baseball season does not start at home this year, but away…for the first time in what will be 6 seasons… 6 seasons man… whoa... I can’t believe he’s been doing this gig that long… J  So we are happy campers!  The wee one…she will be unfazed… well, maybe not entirely.  She might be slightly fazed by the 18 hr car ride.  18 hrs with a 14 month old.  Yeah, we live on the EDGE!

What was my point?  Oh yeah, super savers!!!  The mode is on…NOW.

Generally I park myself with the kiddos when I get home because I miss them sooo much!  And daddy has his manly things to attend to…trash taking out, dish doing, dinner cooking, laundry folding… things of that sort.  And I would do all these things, but he just about THROWS them at me... How do I argue with that?  Hehehe…

"How To" tip of the day: 

if someone is hovering and you want them to go away...  Share the last diaper changing experience you had...  you can thank me later.