Christmas Spirit?

So, for those of you not obsessively counting, it is just 11 days until Stu gets home for good! I can't WAIT to have him back and have our lives go back to a more busy version of our "normal". I miss everything we used to do together including just watching movies or talking over dinner about our days (and now that mine are infinitely more busy, I miss the conversation even more).

You would not believe how depressing it is to get out Christmas stuff all alone in a cold and empty house. Pathetic, huh? Marcia and Deven went grocery shopping yesterday and stopped by the house (which I'm still not living in, bastard delivery guys) to pick up Kaden while I was hauling out Christmas stuff. I set up the tree with Kaden and he thought it was awesome but once he was gone I started unwrapping ornaments and decor and I just couldn't bring myself to decorate the tree or hang lights by myself. So I decided we'll wait for Daddy to get home and then we'll all decorate the tree together. My Mom gets here the day before Stu, too, so I can decorate a tree with my Mommy for the first time in like 6 or 7 years too!

Work is going better now. I finally understand my job and I have been given some fairly complex and time-consuming projects for the next month so it is nice to feel like I'm actually there to do something and not just to kill time. The weekend went nice and slow too, which was nice after feeling like I'd just lived through the longest week of my life. Kaden likes me again on the weekends, which is nice because he's been mad at me after I get home from work and I think it's because he feels abandoned. Today at least I got a chance to love on him some and say goodbye before I left, so that might help.

Anyway, I am just truckin' along now. Hoping the next 11 days go by super fast and then I can play with my Mommy and hubby and feel more Christmasy. :)

New Job.

I know. I KNOW. I have been a huge blog slacker lately and I sure have heard about it. Lol. The problem is, at Marcia's, the "kids" computer is upstairs and Kaden is generally getting into one thing or another either up there with me, or downstairs without me (infinitely worse) that I really don't have much time to get on and spend any time on there.

So now I have a job again. :) Which means I do have some down time and you can probably expect more blogs again. Hehe. It's gone well so far. This is only my second day and I am just stumbling through all the new processes and freaking acronyms I need to know to actually do my job. I was given a list with "common acronyms" that was two columns and 8 pages long! Are you freaking kidding me? Is there any really good reason we can't just call it "No Child Left Behind" instead of "NCLB"?? A good reason? No? Ok, just checking. I'm calling it "No Child Left Behind". :)

I love love love my boss so far and the other woman I will be working closely with. I am the sole support for my boss who supports the whole state, so she is gone ALL the time (this week is only IN the office about 6 total hours), but my not-boss brought me hot chocolate today! What a doll! At first I was thinking that working in the same office as my painfully quiet office pal was going to wear on me, but she is friendly enough and the quiet is actually a nice change from the constant noise that I'm used to with a two-year-old. I have done more reading (work-related) in the past two days than I have for pleasure in the past month and all without someone asking me for a sippy cup of milk or to change their diaper. I'm telling you, being a working mom has its benefits. :)

But it has been hard to be away from my Kaden. I've almost cried when I had to leave both mornings now and when I get home there is just not enough time left of the day to really spend quality time with him. Meals have to be made, showers taken, etc. I felt very rushed last night and I really just wanted to sleep. So we will see how it goes.

I can't WAIT for Stu to get home! Just two weeks and two days until he gets back finally and it couldn't come any sooner! I miss him so much and I miss our little uncomplicated simple life. I know it will be a bit more complicated and busy with working and going to school in addition to normal life, but I can't wait to have my best friend back.

Ok, more to do so I will go for now. I'll really try to be more diligent about blogging. :)

Black Friday.

So this was my first real experience with Black Friday (other than picking up a few needed items once or twice) and I did it alone with a two-year-old! Heh.

First let me start off by saying what an angel baby Kaden was. (Mommy and all of our line neighbors thank you for being such a good boy!) We headed off to RC Willey to get a reclining couch and recliner living room set (doorbuster, only 9 available... I got the last one). We rushed off without breakfast and I grabbed two Nutri-grain bars and a sippy cup of milk on the way out the door. The store was so cramped (they opened at 8 and I got there at 8:07) that cars were parallel parked out almost to the street and J105 radio station was there and even Larry Gebert from Channel 7! (I got a terribly blurry pic that I'll post momentarily).

Where's Larry? :)

So instead of following everyone else's lead and rushing the store like a madwoman, I approached the nearest stock boy and asked if they still had any of the doorbuster microfiber reclining sofa sets left. He said, "Let's go check. We have to hurry." and he proceeded to RUN to the living room section (Run.) while I bounced along after him with my too-heavy parka-clad kid on my hip. We got there and he pushed an idling man out of the way to grab the last ticket and announced, "We got it!" Me: "Yay. Er... thanks." After he gets me all set up (yes, we want it treated and delivered), he points me to the checkout line. Holy. Shit.


The checkout "line" went all the way around the entire outer perimeter of the store and almost doubled back on its self at the front. This may not be news to those who often brave Black Friday sales, but this was a first for me. Feeling Kaden's weight on my hip and staring at the unmoving line, I first pondered crying, then just leaving. But it was a REALLY good deal. So I waited. And waited. And waited. And about half-way through the waiting process, the lady standing behind me said, "Ok, you just have to go get a stroller from the front of the store. Your arms are starting to hurt ME. I'll hold your spot in line." We laughed and I agreed. With shaking arms, I towed Kaden and my starving, pregnant, fatigued self over to the strollers and loaded him up.

I stole a balloon for my kid. It turned out to be a great idea.

Here's the coolest part. The strollers are shaped like little cars, so Kaden spent a good 20 minutes examining the wheels, headlights, steering wheel and seat before he was ready for the next activity. I kept ahead of him by thinking of fun things to look at, talk about, and play with (thank God for that little pad of paper and pencil I keep in my purse and the lady with the candy who came around twice). Sparing you the boring details, we sat in line for over an hour and a half before we made it to the checkout. The guy there took care of it in minutes and then brightened my day by asking, "And did you want the DVD player and the movie Up for 10 dollars more?" Me, stunned: "Is that an option?" "Yeah, if you spend over $499 you get this DVD player and the new Pixar movie "Up" for 10 bucks." Me: "Right on! Of course I want them." It should be noted that I JUST looked at the movie two days ago but it retails for $21.99 and because I hadn't actually seen it yet, I didn't want to risk it being crappy for 22 bucks.

Kaden, "I want to go home."

We decided after that line we'd better head home, but Walmart had a few more deals I wanted to look at. I got there and basically everything was gone that I wanted of the doorbuster deals, so we decided to call it a day and went home for a snack. I was only a few bites into my snack, though, when I discovered Home Depot's washer and dryer sales. By golly we need those! So I packed Kaden back up and we spent another hour looking at washers and dryers and finally picking one out for several hundred bucks less than I intended to spend. Good news. :)

Kaden, bless his heart, fell asleep as soon as he got back in the car and stayed asleep after we got home so I took him upstairs and tucked him in. Now I plan to have a bit more apple cider and read the paper while my monkey finishes his nap.

How did everyone else do today?

My Great Day.

If there was ever a day to blog, it is this day. First of all, my day started off totally stressful. Kaden and Cocoa (the dog that lives here) do NOT get alone by any stretch of the imagination. So my morning was spent trying to keep them both quiet, and away from each other (Kaden pisses Cocoa off and then Cocoa bites Kaden... little fucker). As soon as possible I took Kaden off to the park. The bummer started when I got a call in the early morning from BSU offering me THE job I had wanted all along. Unfortunately I'd already accepted another offer from the prison (but let's face it, who really wants to work at a prison?) so I told her as much before hanging up and feeling let down.

I talked to Stu while we were at the park and that helped some, but I'd already decided not to go to school this coming semester because working until 5 every day and then going to school until 9 every day, all while being pregnant and trying to fit in family time didn't seem like it was going to work out very well.

But then, low and behold I get another call from the BSU lady begging me to take the job and pointing out all the ways and reasons I can still refuse the other job (the major points being that I haven't actually started there yet, so I don't really have any loyalty to them, and that, uh, it's a prison...). So I called the prison back and gently let them know that I would not be taking the job.

But here's the best part. The job with BSU has the added benefit of deferred tuition which means that I will get to take classes for 5 bucks a credit (or 15 bucks a class... instead of the several hundred I have been paying thus far), plus I will work on campus where as a perk I can take class when I need to (if I need to take class from 11-1 every day, I can) so that I can actually finish my degree in the nearer future instead of some distant time that I can't even glimpse yet.

As if this wasn't more settling news all by its self, I also got a call back from a lady we applied for a rental house with, that I expected to be turned down for because we offered to pay $75 less per month than they were asking (which was a completely fair price for the size of the house, we just couldn't afford it). Instead she said the owner accepted the offer and that "it's all yours!" I will post pics of the house and backyard (which was the selling point for me). But it is a 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath house with a "bonus room" that is the size of the master bedroom, walk-in closet, and master bathroom combined. It's freaking huge. I am so excited we got it because we were about to settle for a TINY 3 bedroom 2 bath on a teensy piece of land for 25 bucks less than what we're going to be paying for this monstrosity. I can't wait!

To top off my super day, I am going on a date with Melissa to see New Moon (FINALLY)! What a day, eh? :)

My New Prius!

So, I don't know what's with my blogging funk. It's not necessarily that I don't have the time to blog anymore (it may be truer than before, but surely I could find ample time). I just have kind of been feeling less than stellar. Maybe it's that I still feel totally out of my element and that's a hard way to continually function day in and day out. It could be that I miss my husband like crazy and it makes me tired just thinking of how much that really is. But in all honesty, it is probably just hormones. I'm up then down, then exhausted then full of energy (just ask Marcia and Deven... two nights ago I laid down on the couch for 3 minutes and passed out asleep dead to the world, today I made dinner then cleaned it up and did the dishes, switched the laundry and then was bouncing in my seat trying to think of more to get done). I am sure once I settle into a better routine (uh, like with a JOB!) that I will come back around to having something clever or witty to say.... but sadly, that day is not today.

On a more positive note, and the reason for opening this window (instead of climbing right into bed after I put Kaden down for the night) is that I bought a car today! There were a few things that were monumental about it. First, the car cost twice what my first "new" car cost, and I thought THAT was a lot! Haha. And second, I wrote a check for the full amount and drove away with it as MY car. I will be mailed the title and it will be all mine. It took me all 5 years to pay off my last car and I'd never even had a chance to see the title to it because by the time I paid the last payment, we were on our way to Abu Dhabi and they mailed it to my Aunt. Sighhhh. So THIS car really feels like mine. Plus, it is a hybrid (and '07 Toyota Prius for those without Facebook, hehe), so I can drive around feeling like I'm "doing my part" in the green effort (when really I just want to pay for gas much less often).

Anyway, that's about all I'm good for these days and I apologize for that. Maybe when I have my own computer and can dedicate more time to staring at an empty screen (or when Daddy is home again and I can pawn getting up with Kaden off on someone else) I will produce my typical, longer blogs. For now, I am going to go start a new book Marcia gave me about having sex with cannibals (which I really hope is NOT what it's about, but I'll let you know) and then I need to get to bed straight away because the Monk will be up early no matter what time I finally turn in.

In Case You Haven't Heard...

Here is Kaden with his Papa for Walmart's poster advertising photos with Santa.

For those who have been living under a rock (i.e those without text/Facebook, hehe), I found out today that I am pregnant with baby number two! Yep, that whole week of trying really paid off! :) Stu and I are excited, and of course nervous, as I am sure anyone who is going to add a whole new family member to their family would be. I can't wait to begin this new journey of our lives.

One Happy Mommy. :)

Happy 46th Anniversary Mimi and Papa!

Today we all relaxed and lounged around all day before Deven and Papa took Kaden to the "Wee" (playground) for a little while and then we headed out to dinner.

Douglas treated us all to a dinner at El Gallo Giro (the best Mexican food in the Treasure Valley) to celebrate Mimi and Papa's 46th Anniversary, which is actually tomorrow.

It was so good as usual and we all had such a good time laughing and hanging out. It's really too bad they are all leaving tomorrow because it has been so much fun the whole time they've been here. Hopefully we will just get opportunities to visit more often from now on.

Here are a few pics from the night that I took with my cell phone, so the quality isn't very good. Enjoy!

Kaden having the "cake" that Mimi and Papa got for their Anniversary.

Douglas and Mimi

Mimi and Papa. Happy Anniversary!

Marcia and Deven.