Every Day Stuff

Well, the birthday party was a success. I think. It was a little unstructured. I was going to plan games, but I couldn't think of any games for 11 year old boys that weren't lame. Seriously, they are not going to want to do a cake walk or treasure hunt. So, they did a lot of running around and driving Brian crazy. But, it was fun. And 11 year olds are funny. They tell these stories that they find absolutely hilarious, and they aren't, but the way they tell them makes them funny. It's cute.

This Friday Brian and I are going to see The Blue Man Group. I'm excited to go out and do something. We rarely do that kind of thing anymore. Because of baby. Any time we go out it's for lunch or during the day. The weekends and evenings are reserved for our very picky baby who has serious problems when left with anyone other than her grandparents. Who watch her every day. Who need a break from the cutie pie during the evenings and on the weekends. One time we left her with my mom and she was literally traumatized for the entire weekend. She wouldn't let us leave her side. She was acting so peculiar. It was awful. So, we get a break and she'll stay with the grandparents she's entirely too attached to.

Well, I thought it was going to be just us for Super Bowl, but I think we're actually going to invite people over. That makes me happy. I love having parties. I don't know why. It's fun! However, we won't be drinking so much wine this time around. At least, I don't think we will.

Have a great week!

Two January B-days Down, One To Go

Riley's birthday is January 19th, Brian's is the 20th and Brian's mom is the 21st. The order we celebrated was Brian's mom's on the 19th, Brian's on the 20th and Riley's on the 26th. We like to mix it up at our house, but boy do we have fun.


Brian and I decided Saturday morning we were going to throw his mom a party. Well, actually, Jillian decided. We were all laying in bed and Brian and I were trying to think of something great to get his mom for her birthday. We decided to ask Jillian what she thought. "Jillian, what would grandma want for her birthday?" Jillian replied, "a party." It makes sense. Who doesn't want a party? So, a party we planned. I called Brian's sisters- in-law before noon and it was done. Luckily, Brian's family is completely on board for spur of the moment, wine parties. Everyone brought a bottle of wine, some people brought two, and we had a little wine tasting party.


On average, everyone drank the equivalent of a bottle of wine. Let's just say we had a good time.


The next day Brian got to open his great gifts. He received a bread machine and a Home Depot gift card. So, let's explain the bread machine, shall we? For Christmas, the lady who cleans our house twice a month left us a loaf of homemade bread, which was obviously from a bread machine because you can just tell. Brian was so excited. I was at first, but it had raisins in it, not a big raisin fan. Anyway, he was so excited about this bread and when I told him it was from a bread machine I thought he was going to die. He said something to the effect of, "why don't we have a bread machine? We need one! See, this is the kind of thing you need to get me for Christmas!" Now, keep in mind that I bought him an HD DVD player. That's right, I got him this cool, guy gift and he tells me I should get him a bread machine. Well, I didn't. I gave him the HD DVD player. But, I thought he deserved a bread machine, and bought it for his birthday.

I don't know how to make bread. It was a disaster. I'll try again another time. For now, I'm keeping busy with the birthday planning and gift buying, which we still haven't finished. Hopefully, Riley's birthday is successful.

So, Giants are going to the Super Bowl. I was really hoping Green Bay would be playing, but they aren't. Riley likes Eli Manning. I could take him or leave him. I will, however, be cheering for the Giants. I've grown tired of the Patriots since like, the first game. I'll have a mini Super Bowl party for Riley. He wants chips and sandwiches and chili would be okay too.

Um, Heath Ledger died. Very weird. Only because he was 28 and Brian was just talking about he was going to be the Joker in the new Batman movie. I didn't particularly like him all that much and I really didn't like the movie Knight Tales.

I was tagged by Lou Lou and should be working on that assignment, but my brain hurts from work, so I can't do it just yet. Not a lot has been going on this week. In fact nothing new has gone on in my little world. I'm sure the rest of the world has had plenty going on, but right now, I'm trying to do this work thing. Making new friends, taking on new projects, having a great attitude. You know, things like that. A bad attitude gets you no where. You can ask one of the guys who USED to work here. People like a good attitude. I can't tell you why.

Oh yes, I know something. We've decided to join Netflix, which has been fun so far. We are currently watching Heroes. It is so good. I love it! Jillian even watches part of it, but she thinks everyone dies, so maybe she shouldn't watch. She's weird though. Her favorite movies are Disney movies and I honestly believe it's because there is so much tragedy and sadness. She likes that kind of thing. It's weird.

I think I smell sauerkraut right now. I hate sauerkraut. I need to go.

Jolynn on Being Green, A Pug Named Corky, and Growing Old Gracefully

I watched an episode of Oprah the other night on "How to Be Green". I thought I would get all of these great ideas on how I can do my part to save the environment. It turns out I already do a pretty good job. Recycling was the big thing. And we do that. A while back I read an article about how horrible water bottles are and I discontinued use of those. I haven't bought a pack of water bottles in months. One of the silly suggestions they made was to use one less napkin a day. I actually tried, but I don't have a clue if I'm succeeding. So, to offset my napkin use, I decided I would use my re-usable coffee filter instead of using the paper filters. Look at me. I'm so green!

I know you are all curious about what ever happened to the Pug, Corky, that belonged to my brother. Last time I wrote about the cute little puppy I was sharing custody of him with my sister. Um, yeah, that didn't work out. Because neither of us are small dog people, apparently. My sister and I made the joint decision to let him stay with my brother's step-daughter, who absolutely adored my brother and loved the dog. Basically, we let the dog go home. Our big concern is that the evil ex-wife would get her old, wrinkly hands on the dog, but the daughter no longer lives at home. So, it made sense.

Besides, the poor dog that had absolutely no rules with my brother had to put up with way too many rules when he was with my sister and me. "Stay off the furniture. No sleeping on the bed. No eating people food. You can't have fleas." That type of thing. I'm sure his current home is not as restricted.

And now on to how to grow old gracefully. Right! Like I know. Got to the Nuetrogena website if you want to know something like. Goof balls.

I Think I Need Coffee-holics Anonymous

I had no idea how great my addiction to coffee was until this morning. I mean, I knew I needed the stuff to function, but I had no idea how awfully I functioned without it.

I woke up this morning and remembered I forgot to set the coffee to brew automatically. So I dragged my ass out of bed, went downstairs, where it wasn't as frigid as it usually is, and made the coffee. I went back upstairs and proceeded with my usual routine.

I went back downstairs, cleaned up a little, put some dishes in the dishwasher, got the kid's cereal ready for them, turned on the iron and went upstairs. Did some more hair drying and make up application. I was a little grouchy with Brian, forgot to do something downstairs, went back down, came back up. On the way back up I was wondering to myself why in the hell I was so agitated. It felt like I was beginning PMS week, but I'm not. I was literally thinking that I did not want to feel this way I was so annoyed.

So, then I got the kids up and went downstairs to iron my pants. While I was ironing I noticed several drops of coffee on the leg of my pants. I almost freaked out. I was so pissed, because they were stained and I couldn't believe I had coffee stains on my khaki pants and now I'm going to have to buy new f-ing pants and this must be the worse day of my life, when it hit me. I didn't have any coffee yet.

I finished ironing and poured myself a cup of coffee and it was pure pleasure. I can't tell you how much better I feel.

In The Stars?

Years ago a friend of mine bought me some Tarot cards and a book for beginners. I used to use them ALL the time. They've been sitting in a closet the past 3 or 4 years (not the same closet, because we've moved during that time, but a closet). I brought them out today, just for fun. Because I've been thinking about my job lately and how it doesn't make me utterly happy to work there. And I just go and do my work. I'm like a zombie and nothing seems to be changing. So I asked the cards if I should pursue other opportunities and here's what they answered:

I did a three card spread which shows the past/basis of the matter, near future, and outcome.

Past/Basis of the Matter: I pulled the Knight of Pentacles and looked up Focus and Career. Focus is on travel, promotion, and real estate, but my heart will be on life and love. Career says, business may have been slow in the past, but things are going to take an upward swing and improve greatly.

Near Future: I pulled the Four of Swords and again looked up Focus and Career. Focus is on activity with emphasis on printed materials as well as money matters, self promotion and starting or renewing a business of your own. Career says that my work environment will be very unpleasant due to tension you can cut with a knife. This sounds promising.

Outcome: I pulled The Star. Focus is on faith, the future and what could be. Under Career it says I will be unhappy with the status of my work and will want things to change or improve.

Okay, this is all a little weird. I don't put my entire faith in Tarot cards by any means and in the past it's all been done for fun, but I think it might be a sign. I just don't know of what exactly. I will keep you informed.

Disclaimer: I don't hate my job or the people I work for or with. I've just been uneasy. And I have a lot of work left to do in my position that I want to accomplish. Every now and then I just go through a thing. I don't know how to explain it. Maybe because I'm over 30 and I just want to be sure I'm doing the right thing. I don't know.

Also, in the book, I found an old note Brian wrote to me a long time ago. And it's sweet. He's not home right now and it makes me miss him. Gosh!