Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Sam

So I am 95% done with the paperwork project.  (I know the suspense was killin’ ya.)  Just a few binders to go through and all will be well.

I wish I was like those professional Bloggers who can produce stuff every day.  I am sorry but my life is not quite that exciting.  We have our moments but for the most part are just chugging right along.  I took Sam grocery shopping last night and that was just funny.  She wants to be older and I want her to stay my little girl.  I think she is winning.  Sam wanted to buy some gum with her money at Kroger.  So in the checkout she gets her money ready.  She suddenly remembers that she needs .50 cents for something at school so she will get change from a buck.  I gave her my extra key tag for the Kroger plus program so she is now all set.  The cashier tells her $1.37 for the two packs of gum.  She starts to hand him three dollars and then goes, “Hey I will get more than .50 cents back.”  

Damn.  She grew up.  

Sunday, January 23, 2011

So I decided to tackle the paperwork monster.  I got all cocky when I started to pay bills.  Now I am attacking the files that Chris had in multiple places.  I emptied all the baskets and drawers.  They are all now folded into the filing system that Chris put in place when we put in the office.  I am not quite done but I am tired of date arranging papers.   (A giant tub sounds good right now.)

GRRR.  I just found another folder with the word “File” on the tab.

This is a much larger job than I thought but it is well worth it.  This moves 90% of the information back to the office where it belongs.  There needs to be a couple of binders upstairs but no more “basket to no ware.”   Chris is the most organized person I know.  She makes great sense of chaotic information.  She tried to make it easy for me, the pile maker, to put stuff away.  All the extra storage locations resulted in quite a mess.  I think it is easier for me to come around to her system, then her to try and accommodate me. 

Since I am easily distracted, (obviously) I need to dive back in.  (I am multi-tasking and doing laundry at the same time so distractions come easily.)

Friday, January 21, 2011

Bullet - Dodged!

Ok, so it’s not as severe as Chris dodging incoming rocket attacks, but annoying none the less.  Samantha’s school was closed for a water main break today.  I got a text on Chris’s phone (I need that magic text site) this morning that informed me of the pending disaster to my day.  As soon as I realized I would have to take another school forced day of leave, the phone rings.  I thought it was the school system calling to inform me of the closure.  It was our other babysitter’s mom!  She told me she could watch Sam since school was closed.   Oh happy day!  Sam had a great time with her and helped out around the house a bit.  She brushed the dog and helped make a cake.  When I picked Sam up they both seemed happy and had fun today.  Jason was mad.  Life is so unfair when you’re a fifth grader.  Sam got to stay home how come he couldn’t?  Life is just that way I told him. 

The water main break is not surprising.  It was 10 degrees and hit a high today of 15.  I am hoping this cold spell only lasts a few days.

Whew, that was a close one!

Neat stuff

The Detroit Tigers have a Traveling Caravan visiting different places to promote their event on Saturday and to answer questions.  So we got to listen to the coach, owner, a couple of players and the sports announcers answer questions concerning the upcoming season, trades, etc.  I was pretty impressed that I was able to stay awake for the whole thing.  The only thing more boring than a baseball game is listening to people talk about it.  They were nice though and took time to come and see us.  For that I am appreciative.  In the photo are the panel of folks that came out.  (Sorry about the photo - camera phone.)


After the Tigers left our boss took the opportunity to present awards.  I was presented with a step increase.  (Small raise for the non-government employees)  It was nice to be recognized for the work I do.

It was a nice ego boost and then I went home for the great equalizer – the kids.  I had quite the time trying to explain to Jason that two cursive paragraphs were not considered “excessive” homework.  He did not believe me. 

Jason 1 – Ego 0.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Sleep eludes me

So it would seem that sleeping with someone for a little over a decade affects your sleep when that person is not around.  It is 11:00pm and my alarm will annoy me promptly at 5 am and here I am typing since I can’t sleep.

Today went better than expected.  I got Jason’s hair cut, dinner for all of us and made it to the Pack Meeting with time to spare.  And this morning I got Sam signed up for gymnastics.  I freak about time, which is the opposite of Chris.  She is never worried about time and is late most of the time.  I needed to get Jason’s hair cut as he was disappearing under a mop of hair.  I was afraid I couldn’t get it all done and I would hear complaints about being hungry at the Pack Meeting.  Luckily the barber is right next to Little Caesars!  Ta Da! Problem solved!

Not much new here.  Work, home, dinner, argue about lunches, shower, bed.  I did fix the wall that was damaged in an excited Christmas collision.  Looks pretty good.  I am going to see if Chris can find it when she gets home.
Have fun.  I am going to attempt sleep again.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Brownie Meeting

Sorry I haven’t been more on top of this.  Life seems to just keep moving on despite my best efforts to slow it down a bit.

So I got to help Samantha with her Brownie meeting.  She was chosen to do the Dance “try its”.  I think extra folks showed up to see me try and teach dance.  Chris found a game for Sam to use that is designed for girls to invent their own dance.  This works great with 4 or 5 girls at a sleep over.  14 Brownies at an elementary school gym were not going to make it.  I had adjusted the rules a little and Sam and I tried it out at home.  We thought we were all set.  Nope.  The game still took too long so I adjusted on the fly and just handed out some stuff and then they got to dance and act silly.  I think they had fun.  Samantha said it was fun and she enjoyed her meeting.  That is all I could possibly ask for.  What a difference Cub Scouts and Brownies are!  These girls sat quietly and wrote letters to pen pals.  If I tried to get my scouts to do that you would have a bunch of letters with tanks blowing up army guys, blood, planes bombing the enemy and very few words.  Neat meeting to see...once.

I found out that my snow blower works.  First time I fired it up this year.  I forgot to test it in the fall when I put away the lawn mower.  I really hope they have school tomorrow.  I have a lot of work to do.  Getting the kids out the door these past couple of days taught me to appreciate just how worth it the money we spend on the morning sitter is!  If we have a snow day I will end up further behind.  

Friday, January 7, 2011

Stuff

So New Years Eve ended up being pretty comical.  10 seconds after midnight my daughter asks me if she can go to bed now.  I wasn’t the one keeping her awake in the first place but hey, who am I to argue?

The new sitter is working out well.  The kids love having Sarah W. babysit and get bummed when she has to return to school.  So Sarah R. had some pretty big shoes to fill.  I think she is filling them out just fine.  Of course it’s only been a couple of days.  We will see how quickly my two can make her run for the hills.

Monday I went to empty the dishwasher and they were clean-ish.  I looked again and noticed the bottom of the dishwasher filled with water.  It decided not to drain anymore.  My sad little dishwasher died.  I change poopy diapers, wipe bugger encrusted noses, wipe up baby vomit, clean dog messes of every kind and just keep chugging along.  I draw the line at dishes.  I hate washing dishes.  I hate, hate, hate washing dishes.  So I went on craigslist and typed dishwasher and, bam!  I found a dishwasher.  Nice lady who used it more to hold wet dishes since it was just the two of them.  Sam had an appointment on Thursday so I swung out and picked it up.  Works like a charm.  

It is the little victories I hold on to.