Holiday Cheer and Old Friends

I'm a little slow this morning...too much holiday cheer at my husband's neighborhood Christmas party. The neighborhood my husband grew up in was extremely tight; all the kids played together and all the moms had cocktails before the dads came home from work. One of the families still lives in the neighborhood and they host a holiday party every year. What I find fascinating about this party is the ability for these old friends to come together and just pick up right where they left off last year. There is always good food, good drinks, and funny growing up stories. Just when I think I've heard all the old neighborhood hijinx stories someone pulls out another one. My sweet daughter said throwing leaves in the chiminea was the best part of the party, not Santa coming and giving her a present but throwing leaves in the fire.

I've got to get my act together...got to make cookies for Santa!

(Finished Narnia books...back to blogging.)

Vacation Notice....

Not blogging....reading Narnia books....be back after the holidays....much to tell.

Okay...one thing. Last Saturday, my husband put a new faucet in our bathroom. He spent three days trying to get the new faucet to stop leaking. Not three entire days, but enough time that his lower back is killing him. He doesn't think his back hurts from the faucet install, he thinks he has either a kidney infection or pancreatic cancer ( just kidding about the cancer.) He doesn't have any other symptoms of a kidney infection except an aching back...he won't go to the doctor. I can't live with the bitching...I'm making him an appointment with the chiropractor!

Grouchy, Grouchy, Grouchy

Today is the first day of Christmas break for my sweet girl and she woke up this morning with a cold. She is in the foulest mood...it makes we want to lock myself in the office and ignore her. She wanted to go the Science Place today, but I told her no way. Normally I wouldn't keep her in because of a cold but WOW with the mood she is in today, there is a huge meltdown potential at anytime - she is like a time bomb waiting to go off (she has already had a few mini meltdowns - one over a broken crayon.) I'm going to hunker down, it's going to be a looooong afternoon.

Kitty Cat

In addition to world peace, a healthy family, and all my debt to be gone, for Christmas I would like a little kitty revolving door to be installed at my house. We have an acquired cat (definition-a cat you did not pick out but was hoisted on you by an owner who could no longer care for it) that goes in and out and in and out, about 20 times a day. Each time she come in she checks the food bowl to see if anything had changed in the two minutes since she's been out. I'm not sure how to break her of this habit; if we ignore her going out pleas she paces around and meows up a storm, when she wants to come in she paws at the door and that makes a noise similar to nails on a chalk board. Before you say, "Listen dummy, install a dog door," I have to let you know, we have no appropriate door to put in a dog door. The cat is driving me crazy.

Elf Shelf

The week before Christmas, at my sweet daughters school the PTA sets up a little shop called The Elf Shelf. It's not a fund raiser but an opportunity for kids to shop for little presents for their family. My sweet girl has shopped every year but she just buys a little present for herself, never for anybody else. For the last five years, her teachers have tried to talk her into buying a present for her mom or dad but she never does...I don't think she "got it." This year was different.

On Monday she came home with her Elf Shelf list and had marked a few items she had picked out for her mom and dad on her own (according to her teacher.) Tuesday was shopping day, she bought a Mom necklace for me, a small ratchet set for her dad, and a pink ring for herself (smart girl, she knows you have to get a little something for yourself.) I asked her if she wanted to wrap the gifts and put them under the tree. She said no...she was too excited to give out her gifts. So this year was a break through year! Yeah! Next year I think we'll work on the suprise factor.

No Thank You but Thank You For Asking....

With the holidays right around the corner, we have been receiving a few packages in the mail (mostly Amazon...in case you care.) Today in the mailbox was a package from my brother in law addressed to my husband. (This is my husband's sister's husband so really my husband's brother in law..does that make sense?) I called my husband at work to see if he was expecting something from the brother in law, perhaps a present for his wife (the brother in law is a fabulous photographer.) My husband said no and to go ahead a open it....it was a book, with a post it note to my husband that said the brother in law had finished reading the book and thought of my husband, particularly in the first chapter. The book is something about having a thirsty soul and quenching your soul's thirst with JESUS! I guess the my brother and sister in law think we have thirsty Jesus empty souls...which I'm sure we do since neither one of us is religious at all however that's nobodies business but ours! I would NEVER think of sending an unsolicited book of my thoughts on God, Jesus, and religion to the brother and sister in law and if I did I'm sure it would permanently damage our relationship.

I never discuss religion or politics; for one, I'm in Texas and I know my liberal thoughts and ideas are not appreciated by everyone. I have several other very good reasons I'm not religious but they are nobodies business but mine and I don't discuss them freely. If someone really wants to press the issue, I will talk but not without letting them know what I'm about to say and they can't get all pissy with me because they don't like or agree with what I have to say; I've learned my lesson too many times if I don't preface all conversations. For example, not too long ago, I was talking to the above sister in law and I said something about how I thought gay marriage was okay. She didn't get upset or anything just really quite and then said, "Really? You don't think it cheapens your marriage?" I replied, "Nope, don't care...and I don't see how it could cheapen my marriage. It has nothing to do with me and if the gay folks want to get married more power to them." The sister in law didn't call for weeks and weeks and when she did call the tone of the call was very cold. Needless to say, the subject has never been brought up again. Just a few weeks ago I told her a good friend of both of ours broke up with his long time boyfriend. I was going on and on about how sad it was because they were a great couple with a cute dog. She was like, oh well. This is just the gay issue, I can't imagine if I had a heavy discussion with her about religion or politics. (Although my mother in law says to so her, "Well, honey...he's your president.")

So anyway...my hide is chapped. I don't hold a grudge or stay mad at people but this really makes me mad! I don't want to confront the brother or sister in law about it because they will totally take it the wrong way and I will have to live with the punishment for a loooong time. I'm just going to have to get over it.

When You Give a Mommy a Present....

My nephew lives out of town so I really need to get his Christmas presents wrapped and sent. This afternoon, I pulled out all of the wrapping paper, tape and bows and went to work. As a sat on the living room floor I realized how dirty it was (that's one thing I didn't do this weekend) so I pulled out the vacuum cleaner, as long as I had the vacuum out I might as well vacuum the kitchen and in front the the cat litter box. When I was done I saw my husband had run the dishwasher before he left to work so I emptied and filled it back up. I also saw that he stashed two loads of clean laundry behind the sofa so I folded it up and put it away. Then I needed to start dinner, help my sweet girl with her homework, get my sweet girl in the tub, clear up a work question and the list goes on and on.....needless to say my nephews presents didn't get wrapped....I am blogging instead. The whole afternoon and evening has been like a When You Give a Mouse a Cookie book except I think my title would be When You Give a Mommy a Present.

Much Accomplished!

It's amazing what I can get done when I don't have the third job of "Student." This weekend I decorated the Christmas tree and mantle, went to work (got to order more stuff), cleaned out the garden, planned dinners for the next two weeks, bought groceries, scrubbed down bathrooms and sent out Christmas cards! Even with all the work I still managed to take a few naps and go to the park with my daughter so we could feed the ducks.

(I did everything except remember to publish this post...which I'm doing two days late.)

What do you do?

When I'm not at school or being a Mom, I work as an assistant buyer for a small boutique catalog. For the most part, it is a fun job but right now it is HELL getting stuff in so we can pack and ship it in time for the holidays.

Buying stuff (and it is stuff, none of it is necessary for everyday living) for a catalog is a crap shoot. We have only been around for a 18 months so we can't really analyze what or how much stuff buy.

For instance, a cute pink travel clock, I think it's cute, head buyer thinks it's cute, and call center manager thinks it's cute but does the public think it's cute. If the public thinks it's cute, how many of the public think it's cute? If we send out 100,000 catalogs, how many cute pink travel clocks should I buy? 12, 20, 48, or 96? If I buy 48 it could be a dog and then we are stuck with it until a warehouse sale; if it's a hot seller then how fast can I get more it to fulfill the backorder? Is this stuff in the country or is it on a container on the way from China? (Sorry to say, but that's where most of the stuff comes from.) If I under buy, then the call center manager comes into my office and hollers, "When are we getting more of the stuff in." If I over buy then the book keeper come into my office and says, "Why did you buy all of this stuff? Now were are stuck with it." I actually lose sleep over whether I've over or under bought.

So there you go, that's what else I do in addition to being Mom, wife and student.

Grades

I have been tardy in posting...work has been crazy! (That is a whole other post.) Grades are out....an A in American Public Schools, a B- in educational psychology, an A in the life sucking philosophy class, and an A- in Earthquakes and Volcanoes. I'm a little distressed about the B-; In my current college career I have NEVER had a B-.

I just got my term paper back from the life sucking philosophy class-shockingly I received a 100 and a very good written on my paper. I called my mom to share in my celebration (she was instrumental in the editing of my paper) and she said, "See...it wasn't so bad after all." I have to admit, the class wasn't so bad, however I would have enjoyed it more if I hadn't stressed so much about the ambiguous content of a philosophy class.

Fantastic Friday!

I am free...free...free...free from the foul Friday Philosophy class- I made it through and my brain did not explode! Friday is once again a good day!

Tommorrow morning is my last final! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! I am doing the happy dance-my last Saturday morning class!

Yesterday was my sweet daughters ARD (Admission, Review, Dismissal) committee meeting and normally I would be a emotional wreck afterwards but this time I was not. Her speech and resource teachers have been working really hard so she has actually moved up an entire grade level in her reading from mid 2nd grade to mid 3rd grade. After the winter break she will "graduate" to the upper elementary resource teacher and be with kids more own age. Yeah! Her resource teacher knew I was having serious anxiety about my sweet girl moving on to Jr. High (it's 2 years away but I'm still incredibly anxious) and she invited the transition specialist to our meeting-some of my anxieties were relieved. I know other parents have a terrible time with ARD's but I can truly say I've always had a great experience. My daughter's teachers are always looking out for her-I know they want the best for her and they push to get her the most they can get out of the school district. I just love them!

Well, it's been 3 1/2 months since I've had a Friday night cocktail- I think I'm going celebrate and have to have two!