Wishful thinking for Monday

Here's to a week without wacky people.

Cheers to a great first week of June.

On that note - how in the world is

it JUNE already??

Crazy is the word of the day

And because my day wasn't crazy enough...I found this note slipped under the doormat at my front door. The handwritten part is my response. And I taped it to my front door just in case the cowardly neighbor returns.

Heatwave, power outages, and patience

Last Thursday started out as an OK kind of day. I was "working" from home and Kevin took the day off to spend some time with the kids. I sent him to the grocery store for our weekly groceries and he was planning to take the girls to see the new Katy Perry movie.

By early afternoon it was hotter than Hades outside (again) and I was feeling the need for a break from "the job" and the endless frustration that goes along with it. I decided I'd join the husband and kids at the movies and spend the evening finishing my work.

Ah...the best laid plans...

Just before we went into the movie theater my sister called and said they were driving in a terrible storm on their way home. I looked outside and sure enough it was dark stormy skies and a lot of rain. A bit later before the movie started, my sister texted me and said they had no power and there was a lot of serious storm damage around town.

At this point all I could think was "great, we probably have a few trees down in our yard"..since our yard is full of evil, old oak trees that have a tendency to come crashing down in bad weather.

Fast forward to 5 pm as we attempted to drive home from the mall. What should have been a 10 minute drive turned into 45 minutes as we navigated closed roads all over the area. When we finally arrived home we were happy to discover our trees and house had survived (our neighbors weren't so lucky - one had a tree go through his roof into his living room).

But, we had no power.
And it was 100 degrees in the shade with 1000% humidity.
This was going to get ugly.

I quickly packed up the kids and some stuff for an unplanned overnight at my parents' house. My sister did the same with her kids. We left the husbands out our houses to take care of the animals. When I left my house at 8 pm Thursday night it was 72 degrees inside the house.

The forecast for Friday was a high of 100 with a heat index of 105.

The power company said the electricity "might" be restored by Saturday night.
Or Monday.
Or you know when they got around to it.

Oh, and I should mention that my sister's sister-in-law was getting married Saturday. Outside. In a park that was closed Friday due to storm damage. And my sister (a hair stylist) was supposed to have the entire bridal party at her house Saturday for hair and makeup. Her house that had no electricity.

Friday was not a fun day.
My patience exited stage right at about 2 p.m. Friday afternoon.

After another fast food meal (Taco Bell...ugh) Friday night, the kids and I headed home to pack up everything we'd need for the wedding. I tried to keep my mood in check, but I really just wanted to scream at someone.

As I drove down my street I saw the most amazing sight - power company trucks! I had hope that maybe, just maybe we would be "next" for power restoration. And then it happened...just as I was about to leave for another "sleepover" at my parents' house, the lights came on. The air conditioner started to hum. And by 6 am Saturday morning the house was "cool" again.

I think the one thing that made this power outage so unbearable was the heatwave. If we had lost power and it was only 85 degrees outside, it would have been OK.

As it is, we were only without power for about 36 hours (even though it seemed MUCH longer). I know that's not the worst case scenario. I'd prefer to avoid "worst case scenario" if at all possible.

A few things I learned from two days with no power (and no control over the situation):

1. Losing electricity in the middle of a heatwave really, really sucks.
2. Even if you keep all windows closed, when it's 105 degrees outside, your house will quickly heat up to 82 degrees inside.
3. An 82 degree house is still cooler than a 105 in the shade day outside.
4. The electric company will never give you a straight answer. They will read off the prepared cue cards and tell you that's all the information they have. Yelling at them might make you feel better, but that's all it does.
5. It's difficult to resist the urge to stop every power company truck you see and beg them to turn the power on.
6. I never thought I'd be so happy to see Toledo Edison trucks in my life. Seeing five lined up on my street nearly caused me to do a happy dance in my driveway.
7. Being part of a "neighborhood" Facebook group is great - we were able to give continuous reports on Friday - every time someone saw a power truck they'd post about it. And when the power started to slowly come back ... we posted about it. Start a neighborhood Facebook group.
8. Throwing out food sucks.
9. Having the foresight to save most of the "new" groceries by taking them to my mom's house does not suck.
10. When a power outage strikes, apparently everyone goes to McDonald's. We waited in line for 20 minutes Thursday night just to get the kids dinner. Crazy.

Here's to no more power outages for the rest of the year.


(I should mention that my sister's power was back on by Friday night. And the bridal party arrived at 9 am Saturday and the wedding went off without a(nother) hitch.)

Frustration Friday

[insert very loud sigh here]

So, it's Friday.
And I'm frustrated.

Granted, I've been frustrated for months (years?...haha)...but this week, it's really been bad. I can feel my temper bubbling up, right under the surface and quite frankly, I want to throw something and have a mini tantrum. And really, that's not what 39 year old women do.

So, I'll blog instead.

I'm frustrated about my "job" .. for more reason than I care to go into right now. Suffice it to say, it has nothing to do with the people (unlike when I worked for the Polyester Troll). It's just a frustrating situation and I'm not sure what to do about it.

And as if today wasn't trying enough ... our refrigerator decided to die. It was on "life support" all week, while I attributed to the "not ice cold" milk to the summer like temps outside (yeah, I was trying to be an optimist)...I had to face the not-so-cold-hard-facts this morning when the "frozen" pancakes were actually thawed out.

$800 later...we have a nice, new fridge in the kitchen.
Thank goodness for 12 months no interest is all I can say.

This has been one of those weeks for certain. What I want right now is: a pedicure, an iced Venti Skinny Caramel Macchiatto from Starbucks, the third book in the "Fifty Shades" trilogy, and some chocolate. Is that too much to ask?

Oh, and while we're on the subject of "Fifty Shades of Grey"...holy hell people. [this would be the point in the post where I talk about sex and things like that].

I've been hearing about this books for months and I finally read devoured the first two books this week. Let me put it this way - if you read the "Twilight" series you will see a bazillion similarities between that series and Fifty Shades (because, after all, it started out as Twilight fanfiction) but with a lot more sex and stuff like that. Just think of it this way: Human Edward + Human Bella + some seriously kinky shenanigans and you have "Fifty Shades of Grey."

I will admit, the writing isn't the strongest writing I've seen ... but there were many, many times in the first two books when the dialogue between the main characters made me smile or laugh out loud. I won't give too much away about the rest of it, except to say ... yeah, there's a LOT of sex in this book. And it's not "vanilla" sex either - when you hear it described as "mommy porn"...yeah that just about sums it up. But, it's not just all about sex either - there really IS a story here.

And as much as I'd like to lock myself away and read for the entire weekend, I can't. Tomorrow is Olivia's First Communion and I'm going to be ridiculously busy. Fifty Shades will just have to wait, along with that pedicure and venti iced coffee.

Whew!

See what happens when I neglect my blog?

The entire background design disappears and no one tells me.

What the heck?

Lucky for me (and the blog) I was able to fix it.

So yeah...where in the world have I been?

Busy. Very, very busy.

I started my new job on Monday and the whole week flew by in a blur of meetings and Skype calls and one road trip to Lima.

I am, in a word, exhausted. And mildly overwhelmed.

And...I think I really like this job. (I'm cautiously optimistic!)

So....that's that.

I'll blog more later...but I have a TON of laundry to do, and my house is a disaster and I really have no idea how to balance this full-time gig with the full-time mommy thing and keeping my house in order and cooking dinner and not losing my mind. But I'm sure I'll figure it out soon.

I'd like about 5 more hours in a day, thankyouverymuch

No really, I would.

I need more hours in a day.

I need my days to be about 29 hours.
Give or take an hour or two.

I have found that I don't have enough time to get things done.

Case in point - my laundry from last week is still sitting in a pile on my hope chest in my bedroom. My laundry from this week? It is in the laundry basket in the laundry room.

Yes, I realize that this is horrid housekeeping and I make no excuses. Other than, I run out of time every single day. I feel accomplished when I get Olivia's and Emma's laundry hung up and folded for the week. (And on the weeks I don't 'accomplish' that, it all goes back in the wash. With that week's "new" dirty clothes.)

Oh my gosh.
I'm totally airing my dirty laundry.
Right here.
On my blog.

Oh crap.

So there you have it.
I suck at laundry.
I'm a horrible housekeeper apparently.
It appears that my kids are lucky to have clean clothes every week.

While I'm confessing, I might as well address dinner.
I made pancakes for dinner on Monday.
And then on Tuesday we had take out.
And on Thursday we had Little Caesar's 'hot and ready' pizza.
Because I didn't want to cook.

Wow.
Apparently I also suck at the whole 'cooking for my family' thing too.

I realize I had SO MUCH MORE time to do everything I needed to do (laundry, cooking, washing the hardwood floors, watering my flowers) when I wasn't working. And it's not like The Job is a full-time gig either. I'm only at the office 24 (very long, tedious, horrid) hours every week.

That gives me two days a week when I DO have time to get stuff done.
But it seems there is always MORE to get done.
More laundry.
More cooking.
More paying the bills
More Swiffering dog hair off the hardwood floors. (Every. Single. Day.)

And quite frankly, I'm tired.
Very tired.*
And no, I don't want to fold laundry at 8 o'clock at night.

I used to have the whole bill paying thing on a schedule.
I have been a bit forgetful lately.
I've had to pay some bills online at the last minute because I FORGOT to mail them in time.
Don't even get me started on this blog.
Dear blog, I am so sorry for neglecting you. For an entire week.

Holy crow.

I am a train wreck.
I'm unorganized.
I'm stressed.
I've got more gray hair than ever before.
My day planner needs a day planner.

I think I need to relax.
Breathe.
Calm down.
And realize that I am NOT supermom.
Nor will I ever be supermom.
Sometimes the laundry won't get folded. And we will have breakfast for dinner.
And I might even skip a day of Swiffering. Maybe.
I can't do it all.

But, Olivia told me today that I'm "the best mom ever" and well, that's good enough for me.
Laundry be damned.


*And no, I am not asking for sympathy here. I'm merely venting. On my blog. That's it. Nothing more. Nothing less.

Overload?

I was thinking about my online presence yesterday.

I remember way back when (in 1995 actually, right after I graduated from college), I had just ONE e-mail address. And that's it. No Facebook, no Twitter, no blogs.

The internet was just a wee little thing....no one really knew what to do with it.

Fast forward to 2009....

I currently have FOUR e-mail addresses. Yes, four. And one more that is only for a 'job' I'll mention later.

I write three blogs: this one, that one, and that one.

I was recently asked to be the blog manager for a friend's blog (this is where the 5th e-mail comes into play).

I am on Facebook.
More often than I should be probably.

I live on Twitter. (Well actually on Tweetdeck...)
I have 226 followers and follow 405 people.
Not high numbers by any stretch of the imagination...but it keeps me busy.
(And yes, at least 200 of the people I follow are Disney-related....go figure).

I have about 600 bookmarks - (more than 100 of those bookmarks are Disney-related - blogs, web sites, travel planning, etc).

I read news online.
I bank online.
I chat online.

Oh yes, I'm on Google chat and I have a Google wave (and I'm not sure what to do with that!).

And to add to this madness, I also am a proud (and addicted) Blackberry owner -- and I'm always checking e-mail, tweets and Facebook.
My mom said to me yesterday, "Does your phone beep like that all the time?"
Um, yes it does Mom, yes it does.

Why I don't participate in the madness that is Black Friday (Alternate title: Why I let my husband do the shopping today)

I refuse to go out shopping on Black Friday. The last time I went out on BF was about 7 or 8 years ago and for some reason I ended up at the mall. That was NOT a good place to be. Too many people. Waaay too many people! And it was on that day that I decided to NEVER again shop on BF.

However, each year my husband wakes up at 3 a.m. on the morning of Black Friday and heads out into the crazy crowds to hunt down bargains. And, every year, I stay in bed.

This year was no different. Kevin left at 3:15 a.m. and went to Walmart as his first stop.

[He actually plans this out. Last night we sat at the kitchen table, surrounded by BF ads, figuring out what else we needed for Christmas and the girls' birthdays (which are both in January....yeah, great planning, I know). Kevin had a list and had figured out exactly how much cash he needed to take (for the 1st time ever, we have paid all cash this year!) and then he plans the order of his stops.]

What follows is a recap of his adventure...I am not sure if I got the timeline correct, but it's amusing nonetheless.

First stop - Walmart: Apparently the stores were open at midnight but no one could actually purchase anything until 5 a.m. This boggles my mind, because I cannot understand WHY anyone would want to spend 5 hours hanging out at Walmart. But apparently people did - the stores were packed. Kevin said he went in and found what he wanted to buy ... but it was only 3:30 a.m. and he had other places to go. And he didn't want to wait for another 90 minutes to buy the items. So, he did what any resourceful BF shopper would do -- he HID all the items in a dresser drawer in the furniture department and left. Uh-huh. That's right. I said he hid everything in a dresser. And left the store.

Next stop - JCPenney: Kevin has one reason, and one reason ONLY, to go to JCP on BF. To get me the annual free Disney snow globe. I have been collecting them since 2001 (when he surprised me with the first one) and so every year that's a "required" stop. This year was no different - I got my snow globe!

Next stop - Disney Store (I think): The entire store was 20% ... so Kevin found many good deals!

Next I think he headed to Elder-Beerman (nothing exciting there), and then to Target.

Target stop #1: The trip to Target was only for one thing....a Leapster game for Olivia. The games are normally $25 and they were on sale for $15. So, Kevin heads to Target, finds the LAST Disney Princess Leapster game....and realizes it's nearly 5 a.m. and he has to get back to Walmart ASAP. So....he HIDES the game in the stationary department and LEAVES Target, heading back to Walmart.

Walmart stop #2: This time, Kevin has to park at a car dealership on Central Avenue (three buildings down the road from Walmart). So, he RUNS to Walmart and surprisingly enough, all of the hidden treasures are still in their "places". [Amazing, I know.]. He said when he got in line the guy in front of him said he had been at Walmart since midnight - but had brought doughnuts and coffee so he was doing OK. That. Is. Crazy.

After Walmart, he heads back to Target for stop #2: By now, the lines are wrapped around the store, and Kevin is thinking it's probably going to be a 2-hour wait just to buy ONE video game. So ... he heads to the little Target cafe and asks if he can checkout there. Surprisingly, the clerk says 'yes' ... and with that, Kevin manages to avoid a very long wait in line. Amazing.

He made it home by 8 a.m. and now, all of our Christmas shopping is DONE! The best part? We still have some money left. That is always a good thing.

This is, by far, the best BF story Kevin has had in all the years we've been together. I told him "Honey, you have some MAD shopping skills!"

But it's still not enough to get me out of bed at 3 a.m. to witness any of it in person. And really, with a husband this talented, I don't think I ever need to shop on Black Friday. EVER.