9/28/12

How glad are we that it's the weekend??? SO GLAD! Next week will be busy right through the weekend. I said at the beginning of this month that I wanted to get to Maine the weekend of the 6th because my husband is busy with games anyway and there are a few birds I need to kill, and if Hayley gets this new job, our schedules will be even less flexible for a bit, so this will be it to get Bella up there to visit with my parents and grandmother, unless I want to take her alone. I guess we will see how she does next weekend before I make decisions on any solitary trips with her. Shannon's birthday is coming up and she and Desaraye need some Jenn time. Did I mention how glad I am that it is the weekend??? Gosh I need some days off. I kind of wish I took some sort of non-death related vacation before starting my new job. I do get holidays and school vacations off, so that'll be a welcome break. I'm hoping to get into some kind of routine/habit of getting to Maine every 4-6 weeks or so. It'll be easier to commit to that once soccer season is over and my husband can go with me. I have a lot of catching up to do with family and so many many many friends from church and school, I doubt we will ever get bored! I also want to go skiing this winter at good old Hermon Mountain. My cold is better. I really need a back and neck massage, though. I hope my husband is feeling super lovey dovey.

9/26/12

I'm not even ashamed to admit that I'm already in my pajamas. I was up pretty much every hour last night...grrrrrrrr...totally dragging butt at 3:30 pm. Tomorrow is my long day but it should be fairly easy. Journey concert on Saturday!!!! Big smiles. And I will be enjoying the show at the Dunk (INSIDE) while some of my Maine friends will (unfortunately) be seeing the show on the cold waterfront of Bangor.

9/25/12

I'm just finishing up my first cold of the year. I really thought it was my allergies at first but it got worse and then Mitch and Bella got it. Hayley has it now. It was fast and furious which is how I prefer to get sick, if I have to get sick. Right now, my nose is feeling better. I just have a headache tonight but I think that has more to do with my period than the cold. I'm watching The New Girl. I really like this show. Zooey Deschanel is awesome! I also love Weeds. The weekend went by way too fast.

9/22/12

This weekend is going by too fast! I of course, woke up at 6 am. So much for sleeping in. I was super stuffy and had to just move around to loosen things up so I got up, made coffee, spent the morning cuddling with Bella. I took my shower, went to the grocery store and Dollar Tree with Hayley. Back home to relax, listening to One Republic on Pandora, blogging, knitting, relaxing. Date night tonight with my husband. Next Saturday is the Journey concert in Providence.

9/19/12

Weird day. Worked from home and now my work is done. I fell asleep early last night (9:30) and pretty much slept right through. Slowly catching up on all the lost sleep I've had for the last month and a half. Now, I'm going to make a run to the grocery store and come up with something yummy and healthy for dinner/dessert. Also going to get some lunch stuff for me for the rest of the week. I feel ready for the weekend! Also going to try a Dr. Oz drink with each meal...1 cup of grapefruit juice with 2T of apple cider vinegar. I also drink a cup of 100% purple grape juice every morning to ward off the stomach bug! If someone in my home comes down with a stomach bug, I will increase it to 3 times a day until the threat passes. Lots of great literature on this particular old wives' tale. I rarely get a stomach bug anyway but when I do, it is typically a food borne illness, but now that I'm working with kids again, time to be proactive on the germ front. Plus I don't want to bring anything nasty home to our little princess. Well that's my exciting update. I'm going to read, relax, cook and knit for the rest of the afternoon and gear up for my busy day (tomorrow). Also counting down until my first school holiday.

9/17/12

What a long day!!! My first "real" day at my new job! Loving the work...came home to tan and then off to North Kingstown to drop off paperwork and work a couple hours at my other job. Home again to pick up Hayley and Bella and make a run to the grocery store. Finally home, relaxing in bed, knitting and drinking tea, and going to soon listen to some Pandora. Zach just popped in for a minute. He and friends are headed to the beach and I could tell he'd been crying a bit. One of his friends killed himself. Not one of his best friends, but still someone he knew quite well. I guess he'd moved and Zach said he'd keep in touch and he really hasn't, so he's feeling a little guilty. Zach and I had a talk about a month ago in which I mentioned that after high school graduation, friends will die occasionally. Kids are on their own for the first time and make some stupid choices and Mom and Dad aren't right there to keep an eye on things. And the older you get, the more mates you lose. He was still in "invincible" mode when we had that talk and kind of brushed me off. Tonight, things have changed a bit for him. All a part of growing up, I know, but it's still hard seeing your man-child sad. Other than being tired, I had a great weekend. Watched Weeds for two days straight on Netflix. Can't wait for Friday again for another enjoyable weekend! And now, it is 7:37 and I'm going to retire for the evening.

9/16/12

I didn't do much of anything yesterday and I loved every minute of it! I had a Weeds marathon and I worked on my knitting and that was about it. This morning though, I've already cleaned the shower. Dishes are done. Kitchen is getting cleaned. Drinking my first cup of coffee. Once the fumes thin out if the bathroom a little, I will go back in and clean the sink and toilet, sweep and mop the floor. A clean and orderly bathroom will help me get off to work on the right foot. I don't have to be to work till 9. Yahoo! We had a fun night Friday night. Dinner at El Tapatio. My favorite. I think I had the best strawberry pina colada ever! Home to watch a couple of episodes of Sons of Anarchy. So today, I'm just cleaning. More relaxing. Gearing up for another busy week. Some tanning later this afternoon.

9/14/12

I am blogging on my laptop and not my iPad. It has it's advantages, like for instance, Blogger seems to work better on my laptop instead of my iPad. However, there are a few disadvantages, such as: I've maybe used my laptop to blog maybe maybe MAYBE 5 times in two years, so things are a bit unfamiliar. Also, my iPad has auto-correct and auto-fill-in and automatically capitalizes words after you end a sentence, and also automatically does the correct punctuation. While my iPad is convenient for just about everything under the sun, I do need to use my MacBook more for work now, so I need to get back in the habit of turning it on. Things are finally coming together after an incredibly stressful month and a half or so. Things went from perfect to chaos the moment I opened my eyes on my birthday. The only good thing about August were the big paychecks...and me applying for and getting the greatest job ever! How awesome is it that it is the weekend? It is date night tonight too, but oh my gosh, I have been up since 4 this morning, and I'm not feeling motivated to look for anything to wear. I'm playing with the idea of going tanning, but again, no motivation. El Tapatio sounds good tonight for dinner and maybe a margarita. I am sleeping IN tomorrow. I can't even begin to describe how happy that makes me right now! Going to see Journey again on the 29th at the Dunkin Donuts Center in Providence. Floor seats! :) Janice and I went last August at the Comcast Center and we decided we wanted to go again.

Happy Anniversary

My husband is full of surprises! I wish I was as good at gift giving as I am at gift receiving!! Awesome concert tickets for me and a friend! Floor seats even! And the Dooney & Bourke Smith bag I've been coveting! In chestnut. It's perfect. Hand written love notes on mirrors. A sweet card and a bouquet of flowers. And to think I was going to buy him sneakers and take him underwear shopping! :) I truly do have the most amazingly wonderful man ever.

9/11/12

My new job has gotten off to a great start! I'm really enjoying meeting everyone. It feels so wonderful to have a smile on my face. It is also super great to have my husband home. So that's pretty much it in a nutshell. I'm busy but I'm happy. God is fabulous. And next week I get two paychecks! ;)

9/9/12

I had a great weekend!!! We watched some movies...Wanderlust, The Lorax, and Salmon Fishing on the Yemen. I didn't actually sleep in like I envisioned, but I still got in some restful relaxation. Hayley and I went through my clothes. I dropped a big bag off to the drop box. Next weekend, we will go through it again so I can sort my jeans into three piles...keep, donate or alter. I also need to pick up more hangers as my husband continues to lift mine. I have to say, I'm feeling better already. De-cluttering really cuts down on additional unwanted stress. If the humidity drops and stays dropped, I'm hoping to get some painting done around here to perk things up. I also need to clean the shower next weekend. I'm so excited for my new job to start tomorrow!! I got my nails done! I've taken a long break from doing them, but I was in the mood for it yesterday. I went back to my old place. It was nice to see familiar faces. Lily is literally due to have her baby next week! I'm also tentatively planning a quick one day run up to see my father October 6th. I'm not sure when he's going to be in his new place. It'll probably be an up Saturday, leave early Sunday morning kind of thing, maybe take him to dinner and find out what his plans are. It'll be good to get away for a night and maybe I can just rent a small car. I hate putting miles on my own. We'll see what my husband thinks about all that, as he will have to hold down the fort till my return. I'm really enjoying my knitting project. I'm also excited to start my next one. I've learned to cable knit. Go me. I am also enjoying 1Q84. I'm happy that the light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter! Probably a few more weeks till I can take a deep breath, but it's coming!

9/6/12

I had a rough night last night. Thankfully my husband was on hand to take my mind off of all my anxiety-ridden thoughts. I'm a little tired this morning but I'm feeling more clear headed I guess. I can't control how other people react to things. I need to learn to let A LOT of stuff go. I'm going to control what I can, and that is MY behavior. I'm also going to take each moment as it comes and try not to worry too far in advance and as long as my priorities are set, the stumbling blocks people are trying to throw in my way are only stumbling blocks if I let them be just that. This has been a long journey and there's finally a light at the end of a long dark dreary tunnel. I choose happiness. I choose positivity, creativity, humility. I choose to be gracious and kind to those who've shown me graciousness and kindness. The others will just get my prayers. And this is a minute by minute struggle at times for me because what I'd like to give is a punch in the face, a whole hand of middle fingers, and my ass to kiss as I'm strutting off into the sunset and it is ONLY God's power working on me that is preventing that behavior. Anybody who knows me, knows I'm not gracious and kind when people hurt, threaten, or manipulate me, my husband or my children. Forgiveness does not come easy for me. And I promise you, praying for people I do not like can only be an act of God.

Better

Feeling better finally! Headache seemed to go away on its own. Or maybe it was the second cup of coffee. My tanning salon is finally back to normal operating hours again. All is right with the world. I'm wearing jeans today! I get bored when I have to wear the same clothes...shorts, tank tops and flip flops...all day,every day. So I bought some really cool Sharpie brand colored fine point pens that don't bleed for our master calendar. Kayla picked up the calendar at work. I have the next three weeks sketched out and I'm listening to some Pandora. I also feel better now after some communication with my husband. Preseason always throws us for a loop and that gets September off on the wrong foot. Typically, once we get adjusted and back on track, the season's over anyway. Some years are harder than others. The first year was the worst for me, but this one has seemingly taken the silver medal. Anyway, tonight we're having chicken taco salad, then I'm off to do an overnight.

9/4/12

I'm not feeling so great today. Headache. I did take a hot shower and got myself ready. Sometimes just making that effort helps. I usually end up feeling worse if I just stay in pajamas and in bed all day, not that I didn't want to.I'm going to attempt to go through my closet today and make some outfits that will get me through the next few weeks and so I can take stock of the staples I have and what I need. My sweater/cardigan collection is in excellent standing and I think I will be thanking myself once the cooler weather hits, as I will be in my car a lot again and there are few things worse than driving in a coat. Maybe standing in a long checkout line at Christmas in an overly heated mall might make the top of my list...being stuck in wet jeans is somewhere in the mix too! Sand in my sneakers. I could go on. It's a very muggy 75 out there right now. I don't want to do anything actually. I'd like to sleep. I would have liked to have gotten to sleep last night at a reasonable hour and maybe have stayed asleep past 7 this morning.

Happy Labor Day

I don't quite understand this particular holiday...seems to me that the people this holiday was created for all have to work today, while the rest of us eat, drink and think back on all of the summertime adventures and gear up for the start of school and shop all the summer clearance sales. I'm making mini chicken pot pies for dinner tonight. Homemade chicken salad for lunch. I cooked up all the chicken and reserved a portion for my chicken salad. A little mayo, chopped onion, celery amd nuts, with cranberries mixed in, on a low carb wrap. Super yummy. We are also having our low cal-low fat pumpkin chocolate chip muffins. No fire tonight. So sad about that. Mitch, Zach and Kayla won't be home till after 10:30. This will be another 57 hour work week. This is like week 3 or 4 of those types of hours. Next week, I start my new job! So excited to begin a new journey! Next week will be like 64 hours between the two!

Happy Happy September

Lazy is the word of the day for me. I haven't been sleeping the greatest for the last few weeks, and when I get a day to sleep in, my brain doesn't let me! I'm hoping for some good cool nights for sleeping and I'm also looking forward to the time change. The only good thing about the spring time change is that it means those endless summer night's are coming! But I love love love the fall time change. I love the extra hour of sleep, I love the early darkness. Why? Because it's dark at 5 and you're still doing stuff...in the summer, it's after 8 before darkness falls and I'm ready for bed...hard not to feel sloth like, so in the fall, by the time 9 rolls around, it's been dark for awhile and I feel zero guilt going to bed early. Anyway, today I'm feeling lazy. It's already 11. I did make breakfast for everyone. And braved the grocery store for coffee and tampons. That should be enough info on the kind of morning I'm having. Yesterday, I did something I haven't done in awhile...got an actual book from the library!!! My kindle is loaded. I have probably a hundred actual owned books in my home that I've yet to read, so I don't have an urgent need to get to the library often, but I was there yesterday and a book that I've been wanting to purchase on my kindle was available, so I picked it up. Haruki Murakami's 1Q84. Super excited to waste the next three days reading this and being LAZY!