Thank God...

They're back. Safe and sound. I'm no longer going crazy. I'm so happy. Have you ever been as close to someone as is physically possible and still felt the need to be closer? No matter how entwined you might be, it's not close enough? That's how I felt Saturday night. We couldn't be close enough. I'll have more to write later. Busy week. I'm taking Wednesday through Friday off with Jillian. Hopefully I can catch up with everyone.

Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder...

Okay, the saying is true, sort of. I already knew I was extremely fond of Brian, but this has been the longest week of my entire life. I'm not sure how I'm going to survive one more night. But I will and I must. You see, last Saturday Jordan and Brian left for the airport at 4:00 am. Their destination: Disney World. Here's the story. Last year Riley and Darby went to Disney World (for the second time) with their grandma. When they returned they had a lot to talk about and told Jordan all sorts of fabulous tales of their adventure. Which of course, made him want to go. Desperately.

Well, it just so happens that Brian's brother and his family and Brian's parents have been making plans for the last couple of years to spend a couple of weeks in Disney World around Halloween this year. I suggested he try and get in on that trip. Neither of them have ever been. It would be perfect. When I made this suggestion I was very pregnant and knew that I would not want to take an almost one year old baby. It would be miserable. I also knew I wouldn't be able to leave her for a week. Which is true. I had been to Disney World. Riley and Darby have been. It was Jordan and Brian's turn.

And they are there now. And I didn't want to write anything because I'm a scaredy cat and home alone with a baby and the sweetest pit bull that ever graced the Earth. Who, by the way, I'm certain would be able to tear off precious and much needed body parts should someone try and harm either me or the baby. Just FYI. I figured it would take someone more than a night to plan my murder, so I decided to post what has been happening this week.

Saturday and Sunday were miserable. The moment they left I realized that 7 nights was a long time. I was so upset. I had made plans the entire week before of all the things I was or wasn't going to do. Like watch chic flicks and not cook dinner. I did watch Shop Girl (Claire Danes) and I haven't made much in the way of dinner, but it's not all it's cracked up to be. Brian did call on Sunday evening which lifted my spirits.

Monday and Tuesday were like most others, but Jillian was going to my mom's instead of Brian's mom's. She cried everytime I left and when I picked her up she would run over to me, whining, as if to say 'did you see that? Did you? She was hitting me before you arrived'. Yes, my one year old has a very sophisticated whine. I arrived home late on Tuesday to a message from Brian. I'm okay with this. He called I heard his voice. I'm good. Okay, after my dinner of a baked potato, which I made in the microwave, I was starting to feel a little down about missing the phone call. When he called back. All better. Plus, we're over the hump. It's night number 4.

Wednesday and Thursday weren't too bad. I'm a little better because the days are starting to lessen. Only a couple more left. I have a story for Wednesday, but I'll write that in the other post. It was definitely a moment of break down (both figuratively and literally). But, don't worry. Everything worked out.

Brian and I have agreed we will never, ever, take seperate vacations again. Ever. It's too much time apart. I'm having withdrawals. I want him back safe and sound. One more night. I've spent the entire week counting down his return. I can handle a couple of days, but a week is too much. I do know they are having a great time, and I'm happy about that. I'll also be happy when they come home.

I don't have much to write because what I really want to write about I'm putting off. For reasons of security. Kidding. But not really. Anyway, I have another song dedication. Get excited!!! This song goes out to Marguerite, and not only because the title sounds similar to her name. Mainly the part where he blows out his flip flop and steps on a pop top, cutting his heel. Because I just imagine Marguerite vacationing on a beautiful island somewhere and hurting herself. But she would of course come back and cleverly let us know about it in her blog. Though she hasn't spilled the beans about getting locked in her room. Hmmm...Margaritaville is definitely her song.

I Thought It Was Funny...

But why was I the only one who laughed?

I'm at the fire department, on Darby's field trip and the firemen are demonstrating what gear they need to put on when they're called out to a fire. It's a lot, about 60 lbs worth. When the fireman has everything on he explains what certain devices are used for and whatnot. After he's finished the kids get ready to go down and look at the fire trucks when one of the firemen says that the kids, "should all touch Dave's equipment before you leave".

Why was no else chuckling?

WTF Wednesday

Well, I've know for quite awhile now that we were moving our office space. Again. I had made the plans to pack my boxes at the very, very last minute. I was prepared. I have until Thursday night. So this morning I went with Darby's class on a field trip to the fire station. It was pretty fun. I was in charge of three of the students including Darby. We were heading out to get on the bus when one of the little boys was trying to get his jacket on over his head. He was taking quite a bit of time doing this. Finally, the other little boy in our group yells, "Tristin, hurry up! Good God!" I think that must have motivated him. We were on our way.

The field trip ended around 11 and I headed into work. I stopped off at the cafeteria because I needed some water and Iwas starving. I'm going to be bad and buy a bag of chips. The original Lays chips. Plain and salty. For some reason I have been craving those lately. While filling my glass with water my friend comes in. "Well, nice of you to show up. Guess what? We're moving today! They told this morning!"

What???!!!!

This sucks. Oh well. I started packing and I actually don't have very much. At all. I am one of the last people up here, but it's kind of nice. So, I'll continue working away until they FORCE me to move down to the 2nd floor. Next time advance warning would be nice.

Tuesday Meme

From Lass:

Two Names You Go By:
1. Mom
2. Jolynn/JoJo (but only Brian calls me that and sometimes my friend Amanda)

Two Things You Are Wearing Right Now:
1. Matching bra and panties
2. Tiffany necklace

Two Things You Would Want/HAVE in a Relationship:
1. Love
2. Excitement

Two of Your Favorite Things to do:
1. Plan parties
2. Spend time doing nothing

Two Things You Want Very Badly At The Moment:
1. A new car!
2. Hmm, I’ll have to go with breast enhancement.

Two pets you had/have:
1. Chloe
2. Beagle Bailey, but we try and not bring him up. Bad memories.

Two people who will fill this out:
1. Maybe Serendipity
2. Maybe Queen?

Two things you did last night:
1. Watched Heroes
2. Fixed dinner, helped kids with homework, cleaned the kitchen, put the kids to bed.

Two things you ate today:
1. Coffee
2. Dove chocolate

Two people you Last Talked To:
1. Brian
2. Brian’s parents

Two Things You’re doing tomorrow:
1. Working
2. Going on a field trip to the fire department. Woo hoo!

Two longest car rides:
1. Boise to Oklahoma
2. Boise to Las Vegas, baby

Two Favorite Holidays:
1. Halloween!
2. Christmas, of course

Two favorite Alcoholic beverages:
1. Beer
2. Flavored vodka and some kind of diet soda

Two Favorite Cities: (I’m changing this to cities I want to visit)
1. Seattle (I’ve been there, but I was pretty young)
2. New York

Monday Catch Up

Okay, I have been a slacker in my comments response. Even if you don't read them, I like to respond. In case you do. And some warrant a response. So here we go:

Karen: Pink Cadillac is a perfect song for you! But. Now I am destined to find a song to dedicate to you. I haven't come across one yet, but it's coming.

Everyone who commented on my girls' night: My friend and I have found a solution to our boys being called out on girls' night problem. We are going to have a girls' night with just us. The two who didn't call our boys. We decided we'll go back to Elliot's, hang out, have too much to drink, and split a cab home. Now that sounds like fun!

Everyone who commented on my good kids: Thank you! It's nice to hear or read rather, that your doing a good job. I can only hope!

Marguerite: You are hilarious! I wish we did work in front of a live studio audience. Though, I'm not sure if anyone else would think it was funny. Sometimes we're just weird. On second thought maybe I should try and pitch the idea! Someone did throw fake poop at me on Friday afternoon. Now that's funny!

Monique and Kris: It isn't so great working in such close quarters, not only does it make everyone a little insane, we also have to watch what we say. That's not easy.

Jay: I'm glad the ice cream social cheered you up. I will be sure to have a scoop or two for you.

I feel so much better now! Okay, now on to new stuff. This weekend was very successful. The only things I managed to accomplish were winning two games of spider solitaire and laundry. It was quite blissful. I watched Seabiscuit, which I've been wanting to see but never had a chance. So good. And Failure to Launch. Cute, but dumb. I used to love romantic comedies. I'm not sure what's happened to me. I'm blaming it on the fact that Brian and I went through an indie flicks stage. We started watching these gosh darn smart movies and now I'm forever ruined of my all time favorite no brainers. Aw well.

Slow News Day

I don't have much going on, which I suppose is good, but I plan to write a little something anyway.

This weekend will consist of me, Jillian and the dog. The dog stays outside so basically, it's Jillan and me. We plan to do nothing but watch movies and hang out. Jillian has no idea about this plan yet.

When the kids return I am having our Halloween Party. Next week is the last time I'll have them all together before Halloween so this is the only time to do it. With that I'm incorporating Chloe's (the dog's) birthday because I forgot about it. Oops. Brian just mentioned this today. He thought I was just putting it off, which might be the case sometimes, but not this time.

I'm also planning a Halloween party for work. We're going to have an ice cream social. Really the only reason for the celebration is because I bought ice cream toppings for a birthday party that were never used. I would hate for them to go to waste, so may as well have a party.

I feel like totatl crap today. I thought I was going to puke, but luckily for me and my cube mates, that has passed. And no it's not morning sickness. And yes, I'm positive. Hmph!

My friend and I have discovered just how little privacy we have here in our workspace. We were having a very secret, very private conversation about how my hubcap fell off my car and I didn't want to tell Brian because he'll be irritated about it. It was all very hush-hush. Her advice to me was to play dumb. When he asks about the missing hubcap (and yes he will ask) just tell him you have no idea what happened. Great plan! Except. While we were discussing all of this Brian walked by and heard our conversation! I'm so glad he didn't take it the wrong way. He thought it was funny and gave me a hard time about it. And still is today. A little. Needless to say, our convo's are going to be much quieter. Much.

Anyway, I may have something more tomorrow. If not have a great weekend.

I’m back from my three day weekend alive and well. (The three days was because the kids were out of school last week, I don’t get Columbus Day off, though I definitely believe I should.) It actually turned out great. I didn’t have a lot planned but I felt like I accomplished a lot of little clean up projects I’ve been meaning to get to. And, of course, I was able to watch Oprah, which is always a treat.

The show was “Moms Who Can’t Say No”. And I now feel relieved. Because I am not that mom, nor is Brian that parent, and our kids are not spoiled brats. I may have some slight issues with spoiling the baby, but I try to be firm with her when it comes to telling her no and sticking with it. I try. But at times I’m definitely inclined to give in to her little gap-tooth smile that I simply adore.

And our kids are nothing like the kids they had on the show. They rarely “expect” presents for no reason or treats when we go places or to be rewarded when they’re being good. They’re good because they know if they aren’t there are consequences.

Watching this episode made me realize just how much we’ve been doing it right. The kids on the show would throw tantrums and call their parents horrible names when they didn’t get their way. When our kids ask about something and we tell them no, their exact response is “okay”. No arguments, no crying. Just “okay”. They may try again later or in a different manner, but they never get upset. Except the baby who tends to scream at the top of her lungs when you try and pry something out of her hands or tell her no. But she is only 11 months old. She too will learn. I hope.

Our kids are so appreciative. When we do special things for them or get them treats, they say “it’s the best day of our lives”. They thank us and tell us how excited they are. One Saturday I took them to McDonald’s for breakfast, to Jordan’s school’s yard sale, to play laser tag and to lunch. They thought the day was perfect. They said they had never had so much fun. Of course, they were trying to figure out why I was being so nice. They finally concluded it must be “because they haven’t made any friends yet”. Whatever!

Just this weekend we rented them three movies to watch as a family and two video games for them to conquer over the long weekend. Once again, it was the best day of their lives when they saw what we had brought home.

I just hope they always stay this sweet.

My Night Out On the Town

I know. I know. I've kept you in suspense far too long. I apologize. But honestly not much happened. There were no strippers, though three out of four of us wanted to stop by the strip club. I guess it only takes one, as was quite apparent the entire night. There weren't boys lining up to by me drinks. Okay that has never happened, but let's just say I've had better nights. And there was no puking at the end of the girls night out. Thank God! So what are you left with?

Well...We started with dinner at Red Robin. Unfortunately, I was so sick. I literally couldn't breathe and nothing sounded good. I settled on Chicken Tortilla soup, which is probably fabulous if I could have tasted it, and a house salad. I barely ate, mostly because I couldn't enjoy it at all. I also ordered a banana daquiri, which was yummy and split some kind of Bailey's shake with my friend Tammy. Both good, but a little skimpy on the alcohol part.

We decided to head over to a little sports bar called Elliot's. Keep in mind we stayed in Nampa, which is very small and they have exactly three bars and a couple of strip clubs. That's it. Most people drive to Boise to hang out downtown and act cool. We aren't cool enough. So we stayed in Nampa. We get to Elliot's and there are several guys hanging around watching football. We walk in and everyone is staring at us. At this point I want to leave but I suck it up because Tammy insists that have great White Russians, which I was told I was having. And they were yummy by the way. Very yummy.

The night is still young at this point. We're having fun. We're drinking, talking, some old guy at the bar is buying us drinks. It's the perfect girls' night. Until one of us, not me, decides we should leave and go to the other bar in Nampa to dance. Totally not my thing, but I'm not opposed simply because I don't want to dance. I think we have a good thing going on here. We can hear each other, the bar isn't crowded or smokey and hello! there's an old guy at the end of the bar buying us pretty darn good drinks. But the girl had called her boyfriend so we have to go.

Uh, what? Hold your horses. Who calls their boyfriend on girls' night? Doesn't that kind of defeat the concept? Uh yeah. And did I mention the old guy at the end of the bar. The one paying for our drinks. I look like total crap. I have been blowing my nose all freaking night. There is no way I'm going to convince someone to buy me a drink. I feel like hell.

But we go. And she convinces the other girls to call their husbands, which they do. And it turns out the husbands were kind of pissed about being called out to a girls night. So when they arrived they were in bad moods and there was all sorts of drama. This all is completely shocking because she used to not be like this. Besides the fact she was complaining about this boyfriend most of the night saying how being with him wasn't like when she was married and when she was married she and her husband were so considerate of each other. So much so that they're now divorced. I think that should tell you something. If you aren't married anymore, it's probably a good sign that you didn't have a very good marriage. Anyhow, I'm over it.

We eventually went home and I was glad. Especially since Brian was waiting up for me and he wasn't causing me any heartache. And he gave me hugs and kisses even though I was doused with the smell of cigarettes. Which he absolutely hates. We went up to bed and I was finally able to pass out. And the next morning Brian woke up, made coffee, put out my birth control and an Advil. It was very sweet. I, obviously, had nothing to complain about in the boyfriend department the night before. Some girls. I guess we all have to be a little weird every once in awhile. Next girls night is going to be a no boys allowed. It's going to be a new rule.