Wednesday, March 31, 2010

The mall and a haircut

Remember few weeks ago when I took the kids to the mall to search for co-ax cable? How impressed I was with Miss I that she sat so patiently while we ate ice cream? Well, a week or so later I took Bubba and myself to get haircuts at Super Cuts or somewhere like that. Miss I tagged along and I worried how she would do. She did super! She is growing into this patient, caring little lady :) While we were sitting in our chairs she came over to me and says in her very cute 4-year old voice "Mama, how you doing? You need anyfing?" (!) After the shock wore off, and the question registered I told her I was fine. "Okay, I go check on Bubba." So she did! Same thing, she sets her little hand on his arm and says "Bubba, how you doing? You need anyfing?" A-damn-dorable. I loved it. Its fun to watch them grow in to these little persons you had no idea were in there!

As for Bubba, he's maturing too. I had a dentist appointment a couple weeks ago and dropped him off at grandmas while I went. Everything seemed fine at her house, the car was there, so I let him hop out of the car and go in by himself (he is eight, you know). I got across town to the dentist and checked my phone to find a couple missed calls and voice mails from grandmas house. Hmmmm. I checked the first message and its Bubba "Hi, Mom, this is your son, Bubba. Um, there's no one home at Grandmas house. I checked all over and can't seem to find them. So call me when you get this message. Okay.... bye."

I immediately go into crisis mode - "Where is grandma? Why was the car there? I should have walked him in. What about my tooth? She must be in the back yard. He must be freaking out! I'm here, I will go in and re-schedule. Call Bubba." So I call and he breaks down. "Mom, (sob) I looked everywhere, shes not here. (sob) I called Aunt A, (sob) she is on her way over. (sob) Can you come and get me? (sob)" He walked through the house and yard with me on the phone, I told the dentist office I had a babysitter crisis and they told me they were running 30 minutes behind which was just enough time to go get him.

So, with Bubba still on the phone I head back across town to pick him up. As I get a few blocks down the road he tells me grandma is pulling up in a friends car and everything is alright. Whew! What a smart kid though. At 8 he had the wherewithal to remember my cell phone number, call and leave a message. Then he thought of a backup plan, called Auntie to see if she could come rescue him. Again, pulling her number from his memory. I was totally impressed! It made my day that he was able to think on his feet like that.

Those are my totally proud parent moments from the past month.

Monday, March 29, 2010

Not me!

Oy! I think I am sick.
Sore throat - like razor blades slicing through it when I swallow
Plugged up ears - like wet cotton balls stuffed in them
Mildly stuffy nose - just enough to annoy me
A bit achy -
Oh yeah and the cough from hell - starts somewhere near the bottom of my sternum and feels like I am coughing up the razors that are slicing through my throat. Nice, dry hacking cough (maybe I should have been a smoker, something to blame the cough on)
Oh shit! The sneezes hurt like hell too.

Would a day of rest make me well. That is the question.
Would going in make others sick? Should be considered too.

Bummer deal. Helluva week to call out sick. Several people are already out for spring break. Oh well, I can't let that decide weather I go in or not.

Otherwise, a perfect weekend! LK and Boy-cousin came to town. Girl-cousin visited every day, since her parents were out of town, so we had a house full Friday, Saturday & Sunday! My Mom and Auntie Aunt even brought over dinner on Sunday which was a very nice treat. Thanks girls!

Friday afternoon we just let them play and play and play. Saturday morning Bubba had soccer practice so we all headed to the school. The little kids and Girl-cousin played on the toys while Bubba did practice. Later we took them all to see How To Tame A Dragon (in 3D). Cute show :) They all liked it. Sunday we lazed around until the weather improved and then we went on a letterbox adventure.

Unfortunately, the letterbox was gone, but each of the kids started their own book of stamps and drawings. The idea is great, it's basically a scavenger hunt to find a weather-proof box with a stamp in it. You stamp that stamp in your book and put your personal stamp in the book in the box. Apparently at one time there were 4 of them around town. I have my doubts weather they are still there or not based on our first adventure. BUT we did make the most of the adventure part and told the kids ahead of time that there might not be a treasure box at the end, but they could pick out their own treasure from the park around us. It all worked out.

LK and Boy-Cousin took off in the late afternoon, Mom, Auntie-Aunt and Girl-cousin left after dinner and we all crashed. I was starting to feel puny and had to work at 3am so it wasn't hard to talk me into bedtime!

So, I wonder if 7-9 hours of sleep will help me feel better or not?
Gonna go find out.

Update: I called out sick. I feel like a whimp. But I can't do it.

Friday, March 26, 2010

Lil Miss I


I needed a new swim cap....
Miss I picked out this one. I put it back, but not before I took a picture of her :)
This will be a perfect show-to-your-fiance picture!

Home sweet home

Bellingham was a whirlwind trip. Got up early Wed, went for a swim, got the kids off to school, got a massage, left town for Bellingham by 1030. The drive was beautiful! Quiet, except for whatever I wanted to hear and yummy ...

Everything is in bloom on the west side of the state, once I reached Monroe the smells were so delicious that I left my window down, until I hit the stinky-shit-smelling-slough (peeeeyew!) The weather was in the mid 70's which was so nice. BUT, I didn't have the courage to get off the highway and find me something to take a picture or 10 of. And, mostly, I'm alright with that. I did spend a couple hours shopping at the outlet mall, found jammies for the kids and LOTS of other stuff I could have bought, but I restrained myself!

I met up with one of my co-workers in the hotel lobby for free cheese & wine (yeah FREE WINE) then we headed to the bar for happy hour, I mean dinner. We retreated to my room for some chat-time and then met the rest of our group in the bar for more beer. Unfortunately, I had one too many and paid the price yesterday. UGH!

The training,"Emotional Survival," was really good (despite a hangover). I don't quite know how to describe it. The presenter, Dr. Gilmartin, had a lot of good things to say about being in public safety and keeping some regular things in your life (workouts, sports, outside interests, church) to keep you balanced. Quite a bit to chew on, I definitely needed to hear it. And then onto home. I got home around 8:30 last night and crashed around 9. Whew!

Today my niece is here and LK is on her way! So we are going to have a full house! I can't wait. Guess I better get back to cleaning :)

Friday, March 19, 2010

Day off

It's my day off. Yeah, you read that right. My DAY off. (For which I am thankful, some of my co-workers are working both their days off.) I worked some overtime yesterday, and go in for my regularly scheduled stuff this weekend, and I get to go out of town for a training next week!

I am scheduled off on Wednesday since the training is on Thursday (my day off) so I'm leaving after my massage and driving all by myself to the northern part of the state for a one day class. I can't wait. 5 or 6 hours in the car, all by myself, me and my music. It's been awhile. THEN I get to stay in a hotel all by myself, eat out all alone (if I choose, there's a couple others from work going too..) and then drive home all alone Thursday, with me and my music. I am really looking forward to the alone time. I am going to take my camera and see what I see on the way, things are in bloom up there. It may turn out to be an 8 hour trip, who knows?

So what have I done today? Got up for a swim with my girl JP, got the kids off to school. Met up with my girl DW for a quick coffee, then off to the school to help in Bubba's class. His teacher had me piece a quilt today. I don't do quilts. It takes too much precision. My only saving grace is that the kids made the quilt blocks out of paper, so they weren't perfect either. Anyway, I did it even though I thought it would be horrible. It didn't turn out too bad. Then I finished up some other little stuff for her. I spend a LOT of time putting stuff through the laminater so I named it Sally. Me and Sally spent some more quality time together today. Me and the copier haven't gotten to know each other very well yet, maybe next year it will get a name too. Susie perhaps?

After I picked up Miss I we took My Honey out to lunch and then came home and did some yard work. Everything is budding and starting to grow so last year's deadness needed to be cut back. I think I did a right-fine job on the lilac bushes. I cut the peonies and roses WAY back, they seem to grow no matter what! And left the forsythia for My Honey. Speaking of the forsythia, I cut a few branches earlier in the week and brought them inside to force the blooms. Right now I have a couple vases with pretty yellow forsythia growing!

And speaking of yellow. My picture is almost done! The guy doing the framing called me yesterday to see which side was up. YAY! I've been itching to put it up, hopefully I will get it this weekend. I have just the place for it. When he looked at it he suggested white on white for the mat and a simple frame, black I think. I can't wait to see how it turns out.

In a few minutes its time to get Bubba from schoo then a snack, change for gym class and pack for grandmas. My Honey and I both work early tomorrow so she's keeping them overnight. Way to go grandma! After they're dropped off its out to an adult dinner with My Honey. Little Mexico, here we come! Chips, salsa and a margarita! mmmmm

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Luck o' the Irish to me


Ain't I cute? That was part of my St. Pat's Day get-up courtesy of one of my co-workers.

I've got a couple cute stories. One about the mall, one about an emergency gone right. Remind me I will tell you later.

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Spring (Ahead) Cleaning

Bored. Sometimes I just get bored so I change something. Today, I changed the living room. I like it. I asked My Honey what he thought and he gave me the ideas so I implemented them. I must say, it turned out nice.

There is this one corner where I have wanted to put the TV for a long time, alas, there is no cable there. Since we rely heavily on Sponge Bob as a babysitter, it was not an option to move the TV there. Until today. Enter My Honey. Since it was his idea, he went under the house and ran the cable and voila! I have cable in the unreachable corner of the living room. I love it! So many more options now.

As we get closer to re-doing this room, it changes my ideas a little to have that corner available now. And that's what I did most of the day. Cleaned and re-arranged furniture.

Finally, around 2 I showered and the kids and I went to the mall to get some co-ax cable for the TV project. While we were there I also bought the kids sandals (love Ross) and me a green t-shirt (turns out I am cool enough for Zumiez) for work on Wednesday - Remember, it's St. Patricks Day folks. Of course, the kids wanted to ride the (rip-off) rides and get ice cream. So, me being the sometimes impatient, mean Mom I am, I made them choose one or the other. Serves me right! Bubba chose ice cream and Miss I chose a ride. I must say Miss I was very patient while we ate ice cream, only asked once or twice for a bite and then was perfectly happy with two rides on those silly machines. What a trooper!

Unfortunately, Radio Shack didn't have the right length of co-ax so we had to go to Fred Meyer. Unfortunately, Fred Meyer also sells Wii games. I'm still thinking I want Guitar Hero, but then again, there's Dance Dance Revolution ...

I don't think I mentioned Guitar Hero did I? About a month ago one of my girls, JP, invited me over after work for wine and Guitar Hero. She schooled me! I suck! Hugely! Very bad! I nearly went and bought it that day so I could practice because I was so bad. So. Bad. My new Metallica shirt didn't even help! Anyway, I have coveted the game for nearly a month now ... I might have to play a little Wii somethin'-somthin' tonite to get my fix.

P.S. SET YOUR CLOCKS ahead TONITE !!

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Ho Hum

The dog has been getting sick in the back yard for the past two weeks (?) maybe longer. I made an appointment and took her to the vet today. The Doc was great, he checked her out tip to tail, cleaned out those yucky glands and took some blood. She did really good and came back with a *really* clean bill of health and great teeth for a 14 year old mutt. I guess it is the treats from her "grandparents" across the street.

I was a little worried because I had Miss I with me and I wasn't sure how the whole deal was going to work out. I was thinking worst case scenario, cancer or some kind of thing that was going to require me to make a decision about treatment or euthanizing her. (The dog, not Miss I) I knew what we would do, but how would I explain it to the kids? Thankfully we didn't have to deal with that. Someday we will, but I am glad it wasn't today.

It's my weekend, nothing much planned. Vet, grocery shopping, massage and pick up Bubba from school today, hopefully yoga tonight. Preschool, help in Bubba's class tomorrow morning and that's about it for tomorrow. My Honey has to work on Saturday for a few hours and then is going to golf if the weather holds - actually, if the weather improves, it was in the 60's and now we are back down to the 40's. And I have an overtime shift on Sunday.

Now, it's off to my massage! Ahhhh, it's much needed.