Another Excursion

Feeling kind of like I have the holiday blues today. No reason too, I have the best in-laws ever who cook and take care of all the holiday meal plans for every holiday - including birthdays! All I have to do is show up. But I was in a funk, so after work (my 12 hour shift from 1am to 1pm) I went for a walk.

Porter's Pond is beautiful all year round, and today was a gorgeous 50 degree day. Perfect for a walk and a little photography. These are my favorites of the nearly 100 pictures I took. You gotta love digital. I don't even worry about how many pictures I take, I just point and click.

I hope the holidays were great for you all!

Ouch

You know how you get a paper cut under your fingernail?

*cringe*

I KNOW!!!

And then you SMACK the tip of your finger on a hard metal surface and bust it open, bruise it just enough to bring tears to your eyes and swear words right out your mouth? "SONOFA..." yeah.

Hurts like a mother trucker doesn't it? I've been nursing just such a wound all week. To add insult to injury, its my pointer finger. On my right hand. It's NEVER going to heal.

Its been a tremendously long week. Many late nights, many early mornings, and a ton of overtime. Today is my only day off until Sunday. I'm not sure how I ended up with so much overtime, but I did. I don't mind, really, we all need to pitch in and help, but it just turned out to be one of those weeks on top of the overtime. How much overtime you ask? 8 hours on my day off yesterday - which tagged onto my "long" work week - 2 hours planned on Friday morning (1:00 am I go to work, am I crazy?) and I work a 6 hour shift on my day off this Saturday. Really, 16 hours isn't that much, but it is for me.

Alright, enough of that.

Thanksgiving is just around the corner and I have plenty to be thankful for:
My Honey, Bubba, and Miss I.
Understanding, forgiveness, love and acceptance.
Moms & dads, grandparents, aunts and uncles.
Safety, warmth, shelter, food and more of everything than I need.
Good friends, the kinds that meet me where I am, the kinds that are there when I need them.
Being blessed with different kinds of friends for different kinds of seasons in my life.
Basic freedoms, basic rights.

A happy Thanksgiving to you all.

Awkward

Overheard in the car on the way home from dropping Bubba off at school "Mama, I want a friend." Not the first time I have heard this from her in the past couple weeks.

I think she has been seeing Bubba with his friends at school, and we have had one of them over after school a few times (the girl friend!!) and she feels left out or she realizes that there is more to life than just family, school and gym class. I remember when Bubba was her age and how awkward it was for me to reach out to other parents to get the kids together. How do I do it, what do I say, do I really want TWO kids running around my house? What are the rules? Selfish I know, but still.

On the other hand, I know from experience that its really nice to have a second kid running around, they keep the first one busy. But, if I had someone over, it would force me to clean up the house. That means work for me. See how easy it is for me to talk myself out of it!

How hard would it be to invite someone to McDonald's after gym class? Or to leave a note for one of the moms at pre-school? I guess I am afraid of rejection. I am also afraid of not having something to talk to the parent about. I am not so good at conversation. Really, I'm not. I'm more of a watcher than a talker.

So, I am going to buy her some friends! I am going to take cookies or cupcakes to gym class for her birthday - which is tomorrow (good suggestion by My Honey) - since I suck and can't take anything to pre-school tomorrow because I work. (It just occurred to me that I could send something to pre-school too. DUH.)

In other news, I have fallen off the workout wagon HARD. Actually, I guess that would be soft. I am all soft and need to get back on it. I went on Saturday and did a really whimpy "cardio" workout and then a weight circuit. I am planning on heading in again today to do a real cardio workout (that means sweat) and see how I feel about weights after that. I figured if I did it before Miss I's gym class it would work out pretty good, my gym is just a few blocks from her class. But then I am all sweaty if someone actually does want to go out for lunch. See, there I go talking myself out of it again. :)

Nearly always

It nearly always tries to snow on or near my birthday. It doesn't always make it to town, but sometimes the far-away mountains get a little snow.

It's always one of my birthday wishes to see snow on or near my birthday, and this year didn't let me down. It's been trying to snow all day (in town) with minor success. So I built a fire and me and the kids are just kicking back and relaxing - sort of, is Sponge Bob or Timmy Turner really that relaxing? Not for me, but the fire is therefore I can deal with the obnoxious cartoons.

Unfortunately, Bubba has been home sick from school the past two days. Sore throat and fever. Dang flu bugs. I do hope he is better tomorrow.

We're going out to dinner with the fam-damily tomorrow night to celebrate all 4 of the November birthdays (me, my mother AND father in-law and Miss I) then I get to go out, for my birthday, with one of my work girls.... it should be a lot of fun! I wish Mission Ridge was open and they had music on Saturday, that would be perfect, but we'll find something to do, somewhere to go.

It's weird, I always felt left out of birthday stuff in my household of origin, everyone else had March birthdays. Now I'm on the total opposite side of that and My Honey is the odd-man-out. Poor thing.

More

Maybe because I totall felt like crap today, I wanted to see more fall pictures. Thankfully I was able to cut out of work early (I know, rough life, take 18 days off and then go home sick, pathetic!)

Enjoy the pictures.

Real

I went on a creative excursion this afternoon.
It was a very nice day, a tad chilly - you know, 40's - but beautiful anyway.
Here are my treasures.