Freaking YAY!

I talked to my BFF Jim today and he had some wonderful, wonderful news. He finally got a job that he starts on February 9th. Whooohoooo!!! Poor kid hasn't worked since May (thank you economy!) and now he's scored a great job with good benefits. Hopefully sometime this summer we'll be able to get together here at the old homestead and we can sit on my deck drinking and watching all the hot boys down at the pool. It's going to be a fabu summer!

Michael Dorsey (Tootsie): "I don't believe in Hell. I believe in UNEMPLOYMENT, but not Hell."

It's my life...and it's a little crazy...

I haven't posted in so long and I'm sorry about that. What's been going on with me? Well, mostly just work. I'm still working 1st, 2nd and 3rd shifts, usually during the same week. Blake has been sick with a double ear infection starting last Friday. I would talk to the doctor about his ear infection frequency but when we tried to make an appointment for the poor little guy on Monday they said they took him out of their system because we have a bill that was sent to collections for $387. Said they can't see him until it's paid. Well this was news to me. Seems like an awful high bill for people that have had health insurance since before they had children. Anyway, I would have argued with them (Adam was actually the one on the phone with them trying to make the appointment) but I lacked the desire. Plus I had already taken Blake to the clinic the day before so he was getting treated with anti-biotics and such, the appointment was just a recommended follow-up. Anyway, somewhere near the bottom of my to-do list is number 437. Call the pediatrician's office to get a copy of said $387 bill. Bitches.

Emily's doing great. We have a conference with her teacher next week so I'm anxious to see how she's doing in school. I took her for a hair cut on Monday and while I was telling the girl what I wanted done to her hair the girl noticed a small chunk on hair on top that was only about 3 inches long.

"What happened here?"
"I dunno." Says Emily.
I say, "Well, who knows. She's been trying to do her own beauty maintenance lately. She's already gone at her unibrow with my razor and shaved off the top of an eyebrow. She also shaved a leg. It's possible she tried to cut her own hair too."

The girl looked at me in total shock like she didn't know whether to call child services or just laugh hysterically. Sometimes I feel the same way.

This week Adam sold our Hyundai and bought a mini van. I've had the Hyundai since 1996 when I bought it brand new off the lot. I was not quite 22 years old and it was my first "new" car. I'll miss it but it's time to go bigger. We have another car that is our "main" car used to haul the kids around and such but it's a smallish 4 door car as well. Adam will use the van for work and now he'll have a bigger car to haul the kiddies in, so that will be good.

Yesterday I got back into the gym and walked a half mile and biked for a mile. I wanted to walk a mile also but I think after my 24-hour flu bug and gym hiatus, my body just wasn't that into me.

Otherwise everything on my end is going pretty good. I've been trying to link to the right some other blogs I've been lurking on so if you have the time, try to check them out. You may find something you like as well!

Well, it's off to bed for me to catch about 3 hours of sleep before I go in to work tonight. I'm working 3rd shift tonight and tomorrow night then Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I'm working 1st shift, 2nd shift then 3rd shift. Then guess what? I'm off Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. You have no idea how flipping excited I am. Adam and I are going to try to get out to see Don Rickles on Sunday night. I can't wait!

stoked.

OK, so week 2 of Operation Get The Warren's Under Financial Control is going well. In fact, as an added surprise, Adam got a raise in his unemployment benefits. He's getting an additional $46 every 2 weeks, which is an extra 20 bucks in each of our pockets. I managed to stick to our budget this week and neither Adam nor I have been using our debit cards for spending. We've only used the cash I gave each of us on Friday. I was bad on Saturday when I got groceries I went a little over budget, probably about $15 total because I spent $130 on groceries instead of $125 and I spent about $10 at the dollar store, mostly on hand soap, which we wont get into. I even made the cashier ring up two separate bills at Wal-Mart paying for my own crap separate--make-up remover, hair dye, eyeliner brush and make-up sponges. Emily earned cash which was paid for from the tooth fairy and out of our own pockets. So all and all it's going well. Oh, and I will be putting $10 in our xmas fund again, but first I have to straighten some things out at the bank. Turns out after I made our car payment on Friday, the automated system at the bank went ahead and paid it again, for added measure. If they don't fix that then I could be a little screwed. This has happened to us before though and they've just posted the funds back to our account with no problems. Hopefully that will be the case again.

In other news I am totally captivated by the new president and his wife. I love all the photo montages that the national news sites have been featuring. I told Adam I think I have some sort of crush on Obama. Not in a "I wanna hump the President" kind of way, although if given the chance I'd totally do it just to say I did. Just to be like, "Yeah. I did him. I did the President." I would bet that despite the ruined dress and bad press, Monica Lewinsky is still riding on a bit of a cloud. Anyway, I'm really taken by this picture.



It gives a little sneak peak into the backstage of everything that happened that Tuesday and what must have been a total whirlwind of a day. And do you even sleep after a day like that? I mean, your body must totally crash. And poor Mrs. Obama's feet! Can you imagine the pedicure our girl Michelle must have been screaming for the next day??

In my opinion they just really look like they're mad about each other based on the way they are looking at each other in the different pictures I see. Obviously this could all be smoke and mirrors and perhaps they call each other names you would only call your neighbor who lets his dog crap on your front steps, but to me this looks to be the real thing. Not the fake thing like The Clinton's are trying to pass off like spam or imitation crab. They don't even look at each other. Ever notice that. If they are in each other's company and smiling it is because someone else is making them laugh. I imagine their house to actually be like two houses in one. Bill lives in one side, Hillary in the other and never the two shall meet. Why don't they just divorce? Show us you're really like the American people and do what 50% off all other marriages have already done. End it. Put yourselves out of misery. It's gotta be like holding in a fart for hours for them two every time they're in public. Bill. Hillary. Let it go before you explode.

Done. And done.

Ok. I did it. I put $10 in our Christmas Club account. By the time we can access the funds on October 1st we should have $10.12 with interest. Yay! Sure hope we don't need that ten bucks! Hehe. No! I WILL put ten bucks in every week. I will. I will. I will.

...well, now this is happening...

When I made a certain gift to give to my dad for christmas, I couldn't wait to blog about it. Then guess what? I forgot! So let me give you a little background...

The first xmas after I had Emily I put a bunch of pictures of her in one of those multiple opening frames and gave it to my dad for xmas. After I had Blake he wanted one for him too but I just kinda forgot. When my sister and I went xmas shopping the day after T.Giving I found an awesome black wood frame with multiple openings at a killer price at Kohl's so I bought it for dad with the intention of putting Blake pictures in it. Then, the onery little elf that resides in my head found out my plan. He thought it would be funny to put pictures of Adam in the frame. Not just in the frame, but in all 16 openings of the frame. I decided I would take cheesy pictures of Adam, like the kind you would find already in a frame when you buy it. We did it on Christmas Eve and I decided a Christmas theme to them would be fun. The best part of this is that until the last couple years, Adam and my dad have had a sort of Archie Bunker/Meathead type relationship so the thought of dad having 16 pictures of Adam hanging in his house was hilarious to think about. Since I had to work 2nd shift the night of Christmas eve, I took the pictures, which I printed in black and white, with me to work and put them in while I worked. I put the "real" pictures of the kids behind them so when all the fun ended, I could do the big reveal easily.

Let's just say I'm glad our office has one-way glass so no one could see me doing it because I was cracking up the whole time. My sister, BIL and Adam were the only ones who knew I was doing it so I took it with me to our family dinner on Christmas day so everyone could see it and my dad's reaction. We weren't sure how he was going to react. I for sure thought he wasn't going to realize it was all Adam in there at first but then would react like, "Aw, Jesus Christ! Why the hell would you think I'd want a bunch of pictures of THIS guy!" How he actually reacted was even better. He cracked up! Like laughed like I haven't seen him do in a really long time. Here's his reaction:




Here's the finished product as well as what it looked like with the kids pictures in it. From the look on dad's face, you'd think he actually liked the Adam version better:





And here are a few of my favorite pictures I took. Like I said, they have a Christmas theme. You may notice Adam's eyes are a little bloodshot. He'd been up for like 2 days and I woke him up from a much deserved nap to take the pictures. What a trooper!







On a slightly unrelated note, here is a picture of my sister holding a gift she got from our cousin, who is a dental hygentist at a place that does mostly dentures. That's right, it's a denture with the teeth painted red and green. She drilled a hole in it and strung it with floss for hanging on the Christmas tree. My sister got one and so did Adam and I. I got the upper, Adam got the lower denture. I thought it was so awesome, mine is hanging from my rearview mirror. They are actual dentures returned from actual people that have been sterilized. I hope someone sees mine in my car and thinks it was left to me in a will by grandpa.

"Do you have a goal? Ya gotta have a goal."

It's not too late to put in my order of New Year's resolutions, right? I figure as long as they're still made within the month of January, then there's no late fees. At least that's what the little procrastination devil inside my head is telling me, and frankly I'm akin to believe him. So, here they are, my New Year's resolutions for 2009...break out the horn section...

1. Lose some weight. I think my ultimate goal is about 35 pounds this year. Will that put me in that size 2 couture dress for the 2010 Oscar's next year? No, not even close, but it will prove that I can do it. I also hope that once I get on a roll loosing weight, that the ball will just keep rolling.

2. Workout more. Adam and I were doing super working out while Blake was in preschool but I've missed the last two times so now I'm naughty. Spank me. No really. I've been bad. OK, all kidding aside, I'm working on a workout goal, but I'm not sure what I want it to be yet. I know I want to combine some sort of cardio with some strengthening. Ultimately I think I'd like to walk a mile and bike a half a mile and then lift some weights. If I can do that 2x's a week, building up to 3x's a week, I'll be a happy camper. First though, butt to the gym!

3. OK, every year January rolls around and I say, "OK, this is the year I'm going to put money in our Christmas Club every week and I'm going to save up one month's worth of bills by the time Adam gets laid off in the winter." Then every year Adam gets laid off, Christmas is 4 weeks away and our checking account balance says "3.13." This year though, I WILL do it. I have to make a point to start it now. The sooner I start, the less I have to save back every week. Geez, even $10 a week would be something and it wouldn't be a huge amount of money that would be missed every week. I've missed out on putting money away for the last 2 Fridays, but no more. Starting this week, at least $10 will be put away for next winter.

4. Get better organized. Get rid of clutter. When we first moved in to the apartment, I felt very organized. I felt like the apartment wasn't cluttered and it made me want to do the dishes, put the dirty clothes in the basket instead of on the floor and just generally be neater. I've noticed in the last several weeks as I've gotten busier working full-time instead of part-time, Adam's gotten busier plowing snow, and with the holidays in general, the house is in a general upheaval and I'm messier because of it. Dishes I bring to the living room sit there, I'll take off my clothes next to the bed and not even bother to toss them 3 feet into the clothes basket, mail piles up here and there with no real place to go. I hate it. I want to quit it. I'm going to be realistic about it though. Am I looking for a squeaky clean house? Heck no, I have kids. I think there is a line of messiness though, and we've definitely crossed it.

5. Back onto the money thing, I want to be able to stick to a budget. I make budgets all the time, in fact I love doing it but I can't stick to one to save my life. Just once, even for a week, I'd like to follow a budget. I've got a whole year to do it...just once.

So these are my hopes for 2009. Extra bonus points to the person that can tell me what movie the quote is from that I used in the title of this post.

Just Let Me Live!

I survived. I survived the funk of 2009. Last Wednesday one of our neighbor's kids was pretty sick with the flu. High fever, vomiting, the works. The next night Adam and Emily were sick. Adam didn't vomit but Emily did. She was better by early Friday afternoon and then in the middle of the night on Friday it was Blake's turn. I was working Friday and Saturday nights but Adam called me at about 3:45am Saturday morning and said it was Blake's turn. By the time I got home Saturday morning at 7:30 Blake was fine and running all over the house. Adam and I doused the house in Lysol and kept our fingers crossed. Late Sunday afternoon I had a bad feeling. My stomach started to hurt a little and I just knew it was going to be my turn. Sure enough, just before 1am it started. By 6am I thought I was going to pass out and die. I really did. I had gotten rid of every ounce of liquid in my body yet the Toilet Gods still demanded more. I was supposed to work 1st shift on Monday, from 8:30 to 5 but I had Adam call my supervisor around 6:15 to let her know I might be dead by then.

Adam was super awesome the whole night I was sick. He cleaned up messes too gruesome to mention and didn't complain even once. He brought me towels and anti-nausea meds. He cut open the little packets of Immodium that required a lot more strength than I could summon. He made me a cup of hot tea at 5am. Around 6:30, when the worst of it was over and all we wanted to do was sleep we gave each other nicknames. Mine was Squirt, his was Superman. They lasted until we passed out about 3.7 minutes later.

A few hours later I woke up and felt somewhat better. While I still had to run to the bathroom to hold down the toilet RIGHT NOW, my stomach wasn't as bad. I was very tired but there was a light at the end of the tunnel. I was going to live. I grabbed Emily's new Fisher Price portable DVD player, my unopened season 4 of The Office and settled in bed for the day. I was only able to watch about an episode and a half between naps. Finally I felt a lot better by that night and was pretty much a human again by yesterday. I even worked out yesterday morning, though I definitely didn't give it 100%. Maybe like 62%. And I only rode the stationary bike for about 45 minutes because the thought of being upright on a treadmill made me woozy.

So anyway, here I am. Alive. Back to work again tonight. wooo.