Sorry, NaBloPoMo!

I missed a day, actually 2. So I won't actually get to complete NaBloPoMo this year. Darn. Actually, I'm not that sad. I think my posts have been pretty boring this month.

Why'd I miss those two days? Well, Tuesday I was going to post before work, during work, and after work, but something always prevented me. Not enough time before, really shouldn't do that at work and then after work I didn't get home until late and then went straight to bed. Yesterday I didn't post because I didn't post Tuesday and knew I'd already messed it up.

So here I am today, posting. It's Thanksgiving today and even though this month has had it's ups and downs, we still have much to be thankful for. In no particular order.

• Doug's dad came home on Tuesday and we'll get to spend Thanksgiving with him after all.
• Lots of family and friends to spend the holiday with. Doug went out last night after work and caught up with Aaron & Ronnie and we may have visits with other friends and out of town family this weekend, we hope.
• Our 2 crazy kitties. They may be pains sometimes, but we love them! They keep us entertained and make us smile.
• Doug's very understanding job during this difficult time with his dad.
• My very understanding job.
• Our siblings, this year we've come to realize how important those relationships truly are.
• Our parents, who love us and care for us and want to help us.
• Doug's new lawn mower, which he won't use until Spring, but we're thankful to have one that will now run all the time.
• A warm home, this time last year we'd just gotten our furnace replaced and I'm still thankful that my uncle and aunt did that for us (they also did the air conditioner over the summer!)
• Good food to eat. I'm learning that to become a better cook, I actually have to cook more often. :)
• Good books to read and movies & TV to watch. It sounds silly, but sometimes you just need that little distraction from all the rest of the crazy world.
• Speaking of crazy world, our troops who are fighting for our freedom and protecting our country and their families who have to celebrate Thanksgiving without them.
• A change in our government, whether you voted for him or not, at least it's something different and something new to look forward to.
• My husband's miserly ways...:) No really, it's a good thing!
• Cozy new mattresses.
• Warm blankets.
• Phone calls and visits with my girlfriends.
• Sweet baby, Hazel.
• Our niece & nephews.
• The 3 dinners we get to attend today! I'm very thankful for this, even if I will be complaining about how much food I ate by then end of the day.
• So many other things that I can't even begin to mention!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Whine, whine, whine...

I'm tired and just want to go sit and watch TV for the rest of the night, but I shouldn't. Not yet. I really should go clean up the kitchen. I should unload the dishwasher, make my coffee and probably lunches for tomorrow. But I'm *so sleepy!*

Almost Missed This One...

We had a busy day. Cleaned the house. Made dinner and had Doug's brother and his family over. Watched a movie with the niece and nephew. Now I'm tired and ready for bed! Good night!

Grocery Shopping...Bad Idea!

The next time I try to go grocery shopping on a Saturday night, somebody smack me, okay? That's got to be less painful than Wal-Mart at 5:30. YUCK! Not only was it super busy, but everything was gone and picked over. We're having that problem more and more often there and I'd just like to know when exactly they do stock their shelves??? Apparently it's not when I'm getting ready to shop.

Oh well, at least I'm home now. I wasn't going to shop until tomorrow, but then we decided to have some company tomorrow night for dinner. So now I can concentrate on cleaning the house and cooking tomorrow. Doug is going to go visit his dad in the afternoon. There's a Chiefs game to watch.

That being said, Wal-Mart pretty much wore me out. I think it is time to put on my jammies and go watch some TV. Everything else can wait until tomorrow.

Finally Friday!

Friday's here again! Except this week Friday is my Thursday, because I have to work tomorrow. Oh well.

Tonight, I get to go see my sister perform in the Northwest Dance Company. I'm pretty excited about that. I love watching her dance. It makes me so proud of her.

I don't have a clue about what else is going on for the weekend. I'm working Saturday, as I mentioned above and Doug is going to work Saturday and Sunday. So probably not much of anything, it sounds like. I'll have to come up with something more exciting to post about, that's for sure.

The Adventures of Hopalong BJ

Poor BJ...last night he decided to jump to the top of our computer armoire. He does this often and usually gets in trouble for it. I know, I know, cats like high places, but I was afraid he was going to get hurt. And guess what? He did. When he jumped down last night, he fell the wrong way on his front paw, I can only imagine. So now he's been hopping around holding his poor little paw up. It doesn't appear to be swollen or anything and aside from the limp he doesn't seem to be in any pain, so we're just going to wait and see if he's feeling okay in a day or two. Seriously though, he can't be feeling too bad, because look where I caught him again this morning!

He's showing off his hurt paw here. Poor baby.

Not Much to Say

I guess I said it all yesterday. Man, that was a long post!

We're going to see Doug's dad tomorrow. I wish I had more information, but I just don't. Please just continue to pray for him.

The Much Anticipated, Weekend Recap!

Alright, here it is, finally!

Let's see, we left bright and early on Friday morning. Angela picked me up at 5:50 a.m. We had my stuff loaded into her car and our coffee in hand and were driving down my driveway by 5:59. We headed to Desire's, but knew that she was not going to be ready, Angela told her 6:30. We were right, she wasn't ready when we got there, but managed to get ready and we had all her stuff loaded by 6:30. We stopped for a quick breakfast at McDonald's and got on the highway. We stopped early on in our trip at a Convention & Visitor's Bureau in Iowa. There, we got directions for an "easier" route. (Yeah, easier, maybe, definitely LONGER!) So we headed out with our new directions. Probably a bad idea, to ever change routes like that, but it worked out okay for us. We made it to our destination.

We made many pit stops and were debating where to stop for lunch. Finally we saw signs in Waterloo for Subway. That sounded pretty good, and we headed for the exit. Well, we couldn't find a Subway. McDonald's, BK, Arby's, Wendy's, all kinds of stuff, but no Subway. So we settled for Quizno's. Normally, I like Quizno's, but we really had our hearts set on Subway and so it just wasn't the same. :(

After that we were more than halfway to our destination, Madison, WI. Our ride was really uneventful. We were all pretty excited, so the book I brought to read and the crossword puzzles Desire brought to do pretty much stayed in our bags. We made it to Madison just after 4, I think. Checked into our hotel, where the locals seemed to think we were crazy for complaining about the cold. Seriously, Madison and St. Joe have similar weather, but they are definitely more cold tolerant than we are.

As soon as we got into our room, Carmen called. I told her we were there and she came to pick us up. First we went back to her house to visit with Josh and to meet Hazel!

Misty & Hazel

Angela & Hazel

Desire & Hazel

After we got our baby fix, we headed to State Street. We had dinner at Noodle's & Co. A place where Carmen took me when I visited a couple years ago. It did not disappoint. I think there is one in KC, and I'm really going to have to be on the lookout for it. Then we walked around and shopped. We went into a few really neat stores and we all bought a couple of trinkety things. It was fun. By 9, everything on State Street was closed so we decided to go have some dessert and warm up. Carmen took us to Bluephies and it was sooo good! Desire and Angela had some kind of fruit crisp desserts and Carmen & I split cookie dough egg rolls and butterfinger wontons. YUM!

After that we decided to pick up some drinks and head back to our hotel. We played this girls' night in question game that Desire picked up and then headed to the bar next door to our hotel. Carmen stayed for a little bit, but she had to head home to Josh & Hazel. We missed her, but we had a good time there. In Wisconsin the bars don't close until 2 or 2:30. Here they close at 1:30. That extra hour really wore us out. We got back to our room and ready for bed. Angela was out and soon as her head hit the pillow and Desire & I soon discovered that she can snore louder than either of our husbands! ;)

None of us got much sleep that night and even though we didn't meet Carmen until 10, we were still so exhausted! Not too exhausted to shop though. Carmen took us to 2 of her favorite malls and we also had a nice lunch, but I can't remember where. I had a super yummy grilled cheese and some french onion soup though.

Here we are at the mall, with a Wisconsin Cow.

We shopped till we dropped (literally!) and then picked up some Subway (finally!) and went back to Carmen's to watch a movie. I'm pretty sure that if we had had pillows the three of us would have been asleep in no time. I know we were in bed as soon as we got back to the hotel.

We left our hotel about 7:30 Sunday morning and then had breakfast with Carmen, Josh & Hazel at IHOP. We had to cram in every last bit of baby hugging and kissing as we could!

Saying Goodbye. :(

We were on the road by 9 and fortunately decided to go with our original route and that cut about an hour from our travel time. Of course we didn't stop nearly as much and we all really just wanted to be home. It was a much quieter trip, that's for sure. We all had a good time though and meeting Hazel was definitely the highlight. Thanks again to Carmen for showing us such a fun weekend! Thanks to Josh and all the rest of our husbands for giving up their wives for a weekend of baby lust! :)

I Lied...

I won't be posting my recap tonight. Doug's off work and we're going to spend the evening together. We didn't get much time last night. Maybe a recap in the morning.

I'm Home

And I'm exhausted. Recap tomorrow.

We're Here!

The drive wasn't bad. The baby is the most adorable thing in the world. I'll be home tomorrow.

On Our Way

In less than 30 minutes, Angela will be here to pick me up. I have one more thing to pack and then I will be ready. Have a great weekend, everyone!

So Much To Do

I leave tomorrow morning at 6 a.m. I've got a ton of stuff to do this evening just to get ready.

• Pack-very important! I have already made a list though.
• Pick up the house a little bit. Doug's going to be busy this weekend too, so I don't want to come home to a total mess on Sunday night.
• Finish those last 2 loads of laundry. It's just bedding, but it'll be nice having it out of the way.
• Make dinner. No explanation necessary.
  
• Get the coffee ready for tomorrow morning. There is no way I can make decent coffee first thing in the morning.
  
• Take a shower. So I can have a few more minutes to sleep tomorrow.
  
• Try to go to bed at a decent hour. I'll probably be too excited to sleep.

I will definitely be posting in the morning, but I just realized that I may miss my Saturday post and thus disqualify myself for NaBloPoMo. :( Maybe I can use Carmen's computer or something to post really quickly. Don't expect much from me in the morning since I probably won't have much time, but I'll at least say goodbye real quick. :) I'll post Sunday to let you know I made it home safely, but you probably won't get a recap until Monday evening.

Wacky Wednesday

Apparently having the library closed on a Tuesday does weird things to people. For one thing, it makes them very impatient. Seriously, if I had to hear one more time "Well, did you enjoy your day off??" or "I came yesterday, but you were closed..." I was going to scream! Oh yeah, it was lots of fun. I took the cats to the vet and did laundry. Woohoo! And another thing, if my back is turned to you, please don't stand behind me and think I can see you and know that you wanted to print or your password expired. Please, come around to the front of the desk and ask me politely and I will be happy to resolve your issues. Also, if I'm on the phone when you walk in, don't drum your fingers on the desk or grunt at me indicating that you would like to use the computer. I'm on the phone, with another patron, who I happened to be helping before you walked in the door. When I am finished I will turn to you with a smile and happily give you your password, even though I'd like to throw it at you! Oh, and the hormonal teenagers in the afternoon were pretty much the last straw!

Most days I really enjoy my job. I love working with the kids and helping people find a great new book to read, but there are some days...*sigh* Notice that most of my issues come from the internet/computer portion of my job. Yeah, that's not a coincidence. Computers are frustrating for everyone at some point or another. It just sucks that I am dealing with those frustrations pretty much daily. It certainly can make for some long days and let me just reitterate that this is not a daily occurance. Most days I'm happy to help and these slight annoyances don't bother me so much. But when you have, I don't know, 50 annoyances in one day, they don't seem so slight anymore. *UGGHHH!!!*

Alright, alright. I'm done and I feel better. Thanks for letting me get this out.

I'm meeting Angela and Desire in a little bit. We're going shopping for road trip snacks! :)

Doug went to the hospital this morning to see his dad before the biopsy. He said he looked and seemed like he was feeling a lot better, so that's good. Hopefully we'll get the biopsy results soon.

Slightly More Motivated

We took the kitties to the vet this morning. They weren't sick, just needed their vaccinations and a check up. Both are in good health, although Tess is about 2 pounds over-weight. Since we feed them from one dish and separate dishes just wouldn't work, we're probably going to have to exercise her more. She used to really love chasing the laser light, but the battery died and we haven't gotten around to replacing it. Surprisingly, Tess has already gotten over being in the carrier and seeing the vet (even though she bit me this morning), but BJ is still hiding. Oh well, he'll come out when he's ready.

Other than that, I haven't done much else today. I made chicken & biscuits for lunch, but I really need to get the house picked up. And it probably wouldn't hurt to start packing. Angela, Desire & I are leaving Friday morning at 7 and driving to Madison, WI to visit Carmen, Josh, & Hazel.

Doug's dad is now at KU Medical Center. He's been there since Friday night. He was diagnosed with lung cancer and they are going to do the biopsy tomorrow. So far, the plan is to have him transferred back up to the VA hospital in Leavenworth, hopefully on Thursday. Doug's going to go down tomorrow morning before the surgery to see him. We'll know more about his condition afterwards. Thank you for all the thoughts and prayers you are sending him. We really appreciate it.

I Have No Motivation Tonight

Seriously, none. I have a dishwasher full of clean dishes to unload, laundry that could be done, or any number of things, but I don't want to do it. Not one little bit of it. Maybe it's because I'm thinking I'll have all day tomorrow to do it on my odd day off. Although, I already have 2 appointments for that day. Or maybe I'm just exhausted from this past weekend. Now I have to go pick up the cat carrier that my brother was supposed to bring over earlier this evening. So this is the end of this blog. More tomorrow, I hope.

Perfect Pancakes

I made perfect pancakes this morning. I used the griddle plates for my countertop grill and it worked so much better! Usually I make them in my frying pan on the stove and they get all burnt and gross. I can't believe I've had this option for about a year now and this was the first time I used it.

No new information about Doug's dad. We're going to go visit him today. I'll keep you posted.

Change of Plans

My evening didn't go quite as planned last night. Doug ended up coming home from work early. It's a long story and I know Doug's not real comfortable with talking about it. So all I'll say is that his dad is sick. Really sick. We could use as many thoughts and prayers for our family that you can spare right now.

Unplanned Evening

I find myself with no plans this evening. I had originally thought I was going to my mom's to work on some crafts, but that kind of fell through. So now I'm home with a whole evening ahead of me. What to do? What to do??

Right now I'm boiling water for mac & cheese. I should probably have something else with my dinner, but I'm not sure what. At least a veggie, right? Maybe some broccoli...yum!

As for the rest of the evening, well, I could clean the house, or watch a movie, or read a book, or...the list could go on and on. Which means I'll probably spend the evening flipping channels trying to find something decent on TV on a Friday night. Let's hope I manage to do something a little more substantial. :)

At least it is finally the weekend! One week from now I'll be in Wisconsin holding the newest addition to Carmen & Josh's family. I can't wait!!!

I'm Ready

I wish every evening I could remind myself that just a few minutes of prep will save me tons of time in the morning. Tonight when I came home from work I:

• did the dishes
• got the coffee ready for tomorrow
• made our lunches
  
• put in a load of laundry
• folded a load of laundry
• set my clothes out for the morning

I did all of this in about 40 minutes or so and now I can relax, play on the internet and watch a little TV before going to bed. And I'll sleep soundly knowing that I don't have to rush around in the morning.

Oh Thursdays...

The one nice thing about Doug being on 2nd shift and me not going into work until noon on Tuesdays and Thursdays is these nice mornings together. We get to sleep late or run errands or go out to breakfast. This morning it was breakfast. Doug took me to Betty's Cafe in the south end for biscuits 'n gravy, pancakes, eggs, bacon, and hashbrowns. YUM! I may never need to eat again...

Short Post

I was pretty happy with the election results, but I'm not so sure about Doug. That's okay. I love that we can agree to disagree and we have freedom of choice. I stayed up too late watching election coverage and listening to the president elect speak. So I'm a little short on steam this morning. I better find some energy soon. I've got to go work today and then I'm babysitting my nephews this evening. By then I'll really be worn out!

Go Vote!

Doug & I voted this morning. Now so should you!!!

Up Early

This morning I woke up at 5:30 and was wide awake. Thanks, daylight savings time. I let myself lay there for awhile. I had an hour and a half before my alarm was supposed to go off. Then I noticed that hubby was snoring. Not really loudly, but it was starting to get on my nerves since I was trying to get back to sleep. So I got him rolled over to his side, but by that point I was really *AWAKE* I ended up getting up at 6:30 and going ahead and starting my day. So that's why you're getting this extra early entry. Of course this would be the morning that I actually did get all my clothes and my lunch ready the night before. Oh well.

Dinner was good at mom & dad's last night, although we were all probably rushing too much. They'd been gone on a motorcycle ride most of the day and Doug & I were headed to the movies with Jay & Angela (who we last minute invited over for dinner, sorry my mac & cheese sucked!). We saw Zack & Miri. (I won't type the rest of the title because it will be tripping CIPA filters all over the place.) Anyway, the movie was hilarious! And for the first time we noticed we were exactly the same age as the characters. There was a scene where they were attending their high school reunion and of course we knew every song on that part of the soundtrack! It was a fun movie and if you enjoy that kind of humor (it's a View Askew production) then you should see it.

Let's see what else did we do yesterday... Oh yeah, we watched football. I don't even try to watch anything else on Sundays. That's why it is the best day for laundry. :) No, really I don't mind watching the Chiefs so much. The rest of it though and then the ESPN highlights...ugghhh...No thanks!

That was pretty much it for Sunday and here we are back at Monday again. Storytime today at work and I really hope I have a few more kids attend. If you have any preschoolers and nothing to do at 10 or 1:30, come by and see me. It'll be fun! This evening will probably bring more laundry and cooking something for dinner. Not sure what yet. Fun times.

Weenie Roast

Last night was the Weenie Roast at Doug's dad's house. Everyone had a good time. Our nephew learned how to roast marshmallows and between him and his sister making them for me, I probably ate about 12! I also learned that it is almost impossible to blow out a flaming marshmallow when your mouth is full of hot dog. :)

We were the last ones to leave last night, which was fitting because Doug had been there since about 2 in the afternoon helping get stuff ready. So it was a really long night. Good thing we had that extra hour.

Now I'm still pretty sleepy and I kind of have a headache, probably from staying up too late and all that smoke. We're going to my parents' later this afternoon for dinner and my dad just called to request that I make macaroni & cheese. So I guess I'm headed to the store.

These posts are not going as well as I'd like. I'll try to have more to say later. I probably should have done this after I drank my coffee!

Day 1

This was going to be a long post, but I'm running out of time here. I have to leave in about 40 minutes for work today and I'm not even close to being ready. :( I'd have had plenty of time if the pumpkin gooey cakes I baked last night didn't get so messy when I cut them this morning. We're going to a weenie roast at Doug's dad's house tonight and they just sounded good. I'm afraid it's not going to work very well though because they are truly gooey. Just like the name says. They are so good though!

So today is going to be a busy day. Doug is planning to head over early and help his dad set up and I'll go over there after work. Then maybe we might go to a movie or something late tonight. Our weekends go so fast anymore. I guess that's what happens when you have opposite work schedules. At least this weekend is daylight savings time. Don't forget to fall back.