Hodge Podge

So the visit is over. In hind sight it went pretty well. They drive me crazy, but honestly they were on their best behavior. C loved every minutes of it and S had a great time too.

In other news, my interview went well. They did tell us it takes almost a year to get hired though. I am keeping my fingers crossed. One funny thing: They said they'd send notice in the mail of the next step. If you get a thin letter - it is rejection, if you get a thick one - it is on to the next step. It is like waiting for a college acceptance. :P)

It is rainy today. I enjoy the rain on occasion. This is one of them. It is so peaceful here this afternoon. Quiet, rainy, chilly, just me and the dog.

I am mad at Walmart. I don't think I am going to shop their for a while. The story: C has been saving his money for a new bike. He knows which one he wants and we've been there a few times to buy it, but it is never on the rack. The internet says they have seven or eight but when we get there, nothing. So we ordered it from the internet to be shipped to the store, only to be told that the bike will not be here until the middle of October. Seems like an awfully long time for something they could have dragged out of the back room. I suppose sometimes, you just get what you pay for.

Today C and I are going over to toys R us. He has a few dollars left over from his B-day that are burning a huge hole in his pocket. We make this trip a few times a year and it is always entertaining to see what he picks out. S said something about joining us and then taking us out to dinner. I hope that works out; it sounds like a nice time.

In the mail today I got a huge envelope from S's old office mate D. She sent me tons and tons of coupons for restaurants in our town and different food items. I thought that was so sweet.

And there is the what is on my mind. Not a whole lot, but a little bit of everything.

Emotional Distress?

I've got a good one. It is certainly a complaint, but I have to share this one ... I have to acknowledge that it isn't me.

Today we took L & D to this thrift store that they like in our area. We trekked out there and were looking around. I told S and them that I would be in the toy section looking for stuffed animals for the dog. Maggie love, love, loves animals and is always after C's. So I pick out a few and I could tell that S was a little miffed. We have different lines of thinking on this point. He thinks you shouldn't give a dog a certain type of toy that a kid has because then they can't distinguish ones they can and cannot have. I feel that Maggie is in a league of her own and it is better just to give her what makes her happy, then maybe she'll leave C's stuffed animals alone. Regardless the total cost for three of them was two bucks.

My point: L told me while we were in the store that she just couldn't watch me buy these thing because she put too much emotional attachment on the cute little guys. Kind of an off comment, but I suppose if you think they're cute .... Nope, still screwy. I ignored her and just kept browsing. So we get home and I am giving the toys to Maggie and L begins to tell S her theory about emotional attachment and basically said it makes her cry! She told me this a few more times too. Then S complains about his theory and everyone seems to be having a debate about Stuffed Fucking Animals!

Whatever, I gave them to the dog and she loves them.

If a Tree Falls in the Woods ...

If, I complain but no one is around to hear it, does it still count as a complaint? Fuck ... I already know the answer to that.

The in-laws are here. They are on their best behavior. I am so trying to be on mine. My mommy sent me a card that sings and has shoes on it. I feel a little better.

No Ambition

I have no ambition this morning. Although I did make my bed, put the sheets from C's room and the guest room in the washer and manage to have three cups of coffee. Now C is at school and I'm wondering where to start. I suppose at the front door. Clean up the shoes first then on to the dusting. But really? Do I have too? I'd rather go get my nails done for tomorrow. LOL - oh the strife of a house wife :D

Just Because?

I got flowers last night, roses, very nice, very wonderful flowers. And we all know the reason why. However the official remark from my dear hubby "Just Because". I love my life.

Shoppers World

I tell you, I have been shopping till I drop and have found nothing for my interview. Everything is either too warm, too frumpy, too trendy, or just plain ugly. I officially give up. I have plenty of nice dresses in the back of my closet to wear. Besides all this shopping still costs me money, because I find other things. By things I mean SHOES. However, today I did change it up and bought a sweater. It is really nice, gray, short sleeve with a belted waist. It matches the shoes I bought yesterday :D

What A TUDE!

Yesterday S got home early. C and I picked him up at the airport around four instead of the planned nine thirty. I was pretty happy about it and so was C. When we got home S suggested that he'd change up (Still in work clothes) and then head out to eat. I mentioned that I could stand to go to Costco, since his parents are coming we'll need more food. He was like "Yeah sure sounds good." But then when we actaully got home I could see that he was so tired. I started to ask him what time he got up and he said four in the morning, with the time difference that was two! We went back and forth a few times weather to go or not and eventually we agreed just to run to Costco and then make dinner at home. I said a few times, "I'll just go tomorrow", but S, I don't think, didn't want to disappoint us.

Anyway we get to Costco and about half way through S looses his resolve and gets crabby. Then he starts saying it is me, and we get all pissy with each other. This drives me crazy. I know it was very, very crowded in there. I understand he'd been up since before the crack of dawn. I get it; you're gone, you feel bad, you want to be there with your family; but geez must you be so damn crabby?

When we got home I made up dinner and we had a fairly nice meal. Afterwords I told S I needed twenty minutes to myself and some chocolate. I didn't want to bicker over stupid crap just because he was tired and I was getting short tempered. So, the boys went outside and set up a fire and I had a fudge pop and played a quick game of scrabble. I was feeling much better when I went out to meet the boys.

When I got out there they were playing baseball. S told me to hold the dog because she always chases the balls and eats them. So Maggie and I stayed up on the top deck. Once S said "all right C lets start the fire" and got the ball over by the fence. I let Maggie go and she ran down to the yard. S started yelling loudly at her and I shouted over him "what is wrong?" He started complaining that the dog eats the balls and I said "I waited until you were done before I let her go down there." But apparently there was more than one ball. He was so pissed off. I didn't want to fight over a freaking plastic baseball so I went inside and sat at the table.

C came in behind me and gave me hug. He said "I'll go argue for you". Which totally made me cry! Great now my kid thinks we argue so much he has to finish for me. I just said "no, please don't, I am fine, lets start that fire". But he didn't really follow my lead. C went outside and told S "you hurt mommy's feelings". This absolutely made S so extremely mad. He stormed inside and started yelling at me and then saying he wasn't yelling. I said three or four time, "I cannot tell by your tone" but he just turned it right around by saying "then it is both of us." Because as we all know men can never be wrong!

In the end I just ignored it. We went outside and started the fire. After an hour C asked to go to bed and S brought him in. I stayed outside. Eventually I had to start talking to my husband again and let it all go. I am after all Marry Fucking Poppins!'

But he better be careful; soon I won't want him to come home early. I was fine last night, but for some reason thought about all of this last night while I was sleeping, waking up with a major attitude this morning. Now he has his wiffle ball league today; which is fine, I want him to be able to have fun on his own, but how can he apologize to me while wooing me with flowers and gifts if he isn't here.

Pep-Talk

The in-laws will be here Wednesday. I am placing the duct tape over my mouth now, just to be safe. We will have a pleasant visit. I will not get agitated over opinions I don’t share. I will not be put out because I disagree. I will not focus on the negative. I positively will disassociate myself with any friction. Icky attitudes will not be contagious; I’ll wear the duct tape and a surgical mask if needed. General disgruntled persons with hypocritical tendencies and a better-than-thou aura will not rub off on me. Remember Jamie, they are caring, loving, and mean well. They love you. They love your family. They do not mean to be overbearing and obnoxious. They don’t mean to exhaust your mental capacity to the size of a pea.

Things To Do: (before they arrive)

• Clean up guest room – change sheets, dust, put extra hangers in closet
• Change light bulbs out in bathroom & Clean the lights and fan
• Clean the air vent in the hallway (might need to buy Swiffer Duster refills)
• Organize the down stairs toys
• Dust the computer room
• Get oil changed in S’s car
• Buy Duct Tape

Total Tube Immersion

Days is awesome this week - LOL. Brady put Vivian in the coffin she poisoned for Maggie - LOL. Sammy shot EJ and only her son knows the truth - LOL. Oh the things I miss when I travel. I love love love trashy TV. Speaking of which I hear the premiere of Always Sunny is on tonight. Life is good in TV world.

Now I must spend the eve programming my new DVR. Third one from Verizon. I suppose it doesn't matter where they come from they all suck. The newest dude told me it was because our high def TV on vivid messes up the IR from the remote and I need to put the cable box under the TV. Right - so I don't know how to use an F'in remote? Yeah - I've got like 30 years experience. There is no new technology there. And my TV doesn't have a vivid feature.

Speaking of Verizon, this is week four and we haven't gotten a bill yet. Also we are still getting all the extra free preview channels. I have a sinking feeling that that is going to backfire. I better get my butt in gear and call them.

After I catch up on yesterday's episode of DAYS.

Restless Slumber

Two nights in a row I have had horrible nightmares. (Actually it has been in the morning) Very terrible things. Each dream revolved around something bad happening to C. They are devestating and so bothersome. What if dreams are a warning, what if they are ways of putting little things together that work as clues? What if I am just that horrible of a mom that I am thinking those things when I sleep?

Not too much time to dwell, I suppose. Today is Monday, so C has a half day and then after that a dentist appointment. Once S gets home from Work I will be hightailing in to NJ for the wake and funeral. Busy day ahead.

Life, On Hold or LIfe, Moving On?

I heard the sad news on Friday night. My Grandfather has passed away. The wake is Monday and funeral Tuesday in New Jersey. No one seems to be heaving crying with no reprieve were all just sad. He was very ill and in care of hospice, and you cannot have hospice care (24 hour nurses & no cures, just pain management) unless you have a prognosis of less than seven month to live. So as a whole I think the family (certainly me) feels sadness and a sense relief for him.

Which is why life just kept going. We heard the news when we were on the way to the movies and when we pulled into the parking lot S asked "Should we be having fun?" I said something about us not going to a party, it is just a movie, and we went in. We watched Salt, which I really liked. My mind wondered back to my grandfather quite a bit, but only to happy memories. The movie stopped a few times during the show, the theater was having technical difficulties. In the end we had about 30 minutes of "breaks" which equated to two free movie tickets on the way out.

On Saturday we had a yard sale. We'd had one last month and still had some left over items. Plus on Friday afternoon before I picked S up from the airport I cleaned out the laundry room. We're getting our cable re-wired and were asked to empty the closet down there. After I pulled out boxes and boxes of junk (that we never unpacked the last time we moved!) I was determined not to shove it back into the storage closet, so I stuck it in the living room and asked S if he minded if we had the sale. We sold a ton of stuff, including our sofa and some old chairs that were in our shed. We filled our yard and driveway and when it was all said in done we headed over to the goodwill to donate our leftovers. The 'leftovers' all fit in the back of S's SUV. We had so little left. In fact we set up for 8:00 and didn't even have a slow moment until after 2:00.

Today Cooper and I are just going to hang out and relax. It is drizzling a little bit and it should make for an easy day for us, but S will still have Wiffle Ball league this afternoon. I may head out to the mall to try to find an outfit to wear to the funeral. Nothing I have seems appropriate. But at the same time, black is black; and I have plenty of that.

Tomorrow after S gets home from work I think I will be heading to Jersey. My little guy and hubby are going to stay here in VA. It took us a few hours to figure out that detail but we think that is what is best for our family. We just feel that C is too young, bottom line. There are tons of factors we could fret over, like is it okay that S won't be there, and what if we leave C with the Neighbors, Could S take a later flight to Denver or fly out of NJ if we needed, but in the end the bottom line is that C is too young. S had a real fondness for my grandfather and over the winter when we all swarmed the Garden State because we thought grandpa would make it through the weekend he was there, he was there when Grandpa could still remember, still talk, still smile. So S is going to call his boss today and see if he can shorten his hours over the next few days and make sure they book his flight to Denver for Thursday not sooner so that he can keep care of C and I can go represent our little family, saying goodbye to Grandpa.

It's What We Signed Up For

S called last night with the news: He will officially be traveling at least once a month and most likely two times a month. Hmmm: Well: Currently he "officially" travels once a quarter which has really worked out to be once a month, so now that they are saying one to two times will it be more? He already travels that much. Odd that he was worried to tell me. I mean lets be realistic here, the man is gone a lot. He travels so much we always have a balance on his government credit card. As we get reimbursements I just turn around and send it to the card. But it never covers the balance because by the time he gets the money from one trip he is already on another.

Last night a friend called as I was talking to her I mentioned that S wouldn't be back until tomorrow and we had a busy weekend ahead of us. She responded "you're so lucky, oh wait you guys get along" She meant that she'd like it if her husband was away this much. That made me pretty upset. I didn't really notice that was the reason until later, but it was. It made me think of M & S. M is our cousin. He is in the process of getting divorced from S at her request. One of the reasons according to M's mom (I heard it second hand) was that he traveled a lot and S missed him but then after awhile she started to like the time alone more than the time together and things started to fall apart. Not that this would happen here, but I still found it upsetting.

Love It! Hate It!

I have a love hate relationship with Craigslist. For example; Today I sold a large bag of old C clothes for 15.00, Love It! However the lady that bought them was really strange. I mean, she seemed nice enough but for some reason assumed I would just be home waiting for her.

C and I went out to dinner and apparently we missed her by just a few minutes. We were gone an hour and when we got home she was here. In an effort to just get her on her way as quick as possible I ran inside grabbed the bag and ran out to her car. She handed me the money and said she'd been waiting an hour. It was weird, why didn't she call first, or email me back with a time. I had no idea she was coming today. Not only that she had told me earlier she lived about an hour away in DC. So why wouldn't she call before she left? If she had, we would have been home.

Anyway after she drove away C and I got the puppy ready for her walk and left again. On our walk I just kept thinking I should have offered her a discount for waiting so long. After all that same bag of clothes I had listed at my yard sale for only 7.00. I feel a little guilty over that. Once we got home though I started to think more about the time and figured it really was her fault not mine and that I shouldn't feel guilty. My add said 15.00 Firm, unfortunately my email says "I am home most of the day" and I suppose she could think I was waiting for her. I could keep picking this apart, seriously I put way too much thought into things sometimes. All this put aside, in that hour, she left NINE messages on my machine. The first five or six were only two to three minutes apart!

Aren't We Funny

I spent the better part of the day researching information regarding a becoming a real estate agent. I actaully enjoyed looking up all the ins and out and even contacted one of my aunts who is an agent for information. I have three or four scribbled pages of notes and contacts. I chose a school and filled out the enrollment papers. I even wrote out a check. Tonight I was going to talk to S about it when he called and just double check the class dates with him. I have a few to choose from. So that is my idea, I can work part time or less off commission and work towards becoming a broker. Once that happens (2 years) I can run my own business. I like the plan. I should say ... I liked the plan. Until that is I logged on to the computer this afternoon and found an email from the government job I was hoping for, asking me for an interview. YEAH!!! I was just about to give up on them. Actually I gave up on them. This morning. Funny how that works ey? So I think I will sign up for the real estate class for December. If something ever comes of the interview than I may cancel the idea, but if not, I have a back up plan ;)

Just a Thought

I have been saying all summer that I'd be going back to work this fall. Well; it isn't as easy as I had anticipated. For the last month I have been sending out resumes with little to no response. What I really want is to work for the government, but that doesn't seem to have gone anywhere. So, I've opted to switch gears. I am looking into a few options such as being a real estate agent, working in retail, or a as substitute teacher. [Although, randomly you need character reference letters, one from your last employer and one from another supervisor. (that is so stupid; my former supervisor owns a company,and although we parted on good terms and she is nice, she has NO time for that - getting one would take months) ]

The most interesting option is real estate agent. But I am not sure there are jobs out there for that either. Just a thought. I'd have to go to a certification class and take a state test for an agent, but it looks fairly do-able. We'll see.

The Kids Are Back In Town

As the title says; the kids are back in town :) and they are here, well, at least one of them. And I gotta say, it is SOOOOOOOOOOO nice to have C playing with someone. Although I think I got the short end of the stick ... as I am stuck in the computer room while C and his friend are playing games downstairs on our NEW couch!

We've had quite the day and it is only 4:00. This morning we all slept in and then went to a few yard sales. I got a few small things including a 5.00 MP3 player, as my shuffle is nutty after getting a surge from the lighting that one time. Anyway, then we went over to Uhaul and rented a truck. For a grand total of 30.00 we rented the truck and picked up our new sofa. The furniture store wanted to charge us 85.00. It was really easy and uneventful. S went to pick up the sofa and C and I went home and made room for it. We got the same one only slightly bigger and brown instead of off-white. And it looks so nice and pretty.

After the sofa switch we dropped off the rental and went out to Subway for lunch and then to Sully Historic Park, where we hiked around the grounds of General Lee's uncles house, who also happened to be the first governor of Virgina. It was pretty neat and fun. The weather is absolutely wonderful today so it was a great hike. We went on one path that wasn't actually a hiking path that brought us to a field with electrical lines (that was pretty funny) but the next path took us all around the grounds and perfectly ended where we parked.

Next we headed over to Walmart to pick up some supplies for the house and dinner. Now were just hanging out and enjoying the day. I love it. I can't believe we don't have anything planned for today - that is just so unusual.

Feeling Better

I am feeling better after four or five days of a killer cold. Now my family is sniffling and coughing, but I think they have a different strain than I because they seem to be functioning well, if that is at all possible, after all I am no doctor; I just play one on TV.

In other news: I went to Khol's the other night and did a little bit of school clothes shopping for C. To my surprise he grew 6.5" this summer! Sadly that means the hand-me-downs I was saving for him are almost all too small. I figured I head over to the store to see what they had. I was happy to see that for the most part they were cheap, especially since I asked him what he wanted and he said " A red shirt, green pants, comfy pants, and cool stuff." Well, I got him 10 shirts, 1 pair of jeans, 4 pairs of running / track pants, and a coat for 160.00. In the end he asked me to return a few shirt he said were "too babyish", so the bill ended up being only 135.00.

One funny part: C was actually out golf ball hunting with S when I got back from the store, so I set up all the clothes on our bed and when C got home I asked him to go up there and check them out, pick out the ones he wants to keep. He was pretty excited at that prospect and went running up the stairs, then C yelled "MOM SKINNY JEANS!!!! HOW DID YOU KNOW!!! I LOVE THEM!!!!!!!" He was peeling off his shorts and T shirt by the time I made it up stairs so he could try on his new clothes.

So, it is Labor Day weekend. I am looking forward to just hanging out with my family. We were going to go camping, but we opted to stay home and relax. We've been so; go, go, go that we've hardly spent anytime just being at home. This weekend there is a ton of community stuff going on here in Herndon that seems fun. On Monday they have a Bruce Springsteen tribute night, where all these bands only play Bruce songs for 5 hours. I can't wait!