Eye-YI-YI

Is that how you spell that?????

I am completely out of the loop, too tired to think, much less write, so please bear with me.

Quick catch up: Overtime, strep throat (me last week), more overtime, Murray sick (last week), Craig misses work and volunteer activities due to Murray being sick, I work overtime on the weekend, all is well. So we think. Murray gets sick again yesterday, I'm still working my tail off so Craig can't work, now Craig is sick and I feel like a lot of dirt has hit the fan. There are a hundred other things that I am praying for and worrying about, but it's hard to get out of the box when all I can do is run, take care of sicklings, including me; run, run, work, work, and never mind anything to do with our home chores. Honestly, "Little Miss Picky" has done a complete one-eighty - I can't keep up and if you come to our house, well, so be it if it's a huge mess.

Now that I have THAT off my chest, I will tell you that I am quite happy. I love, love, love my job - although it's bad timing for me to be working so much - but some things I can do at home (said things I'm doing now, but have taken a break to post). I'm still hoping that this will turn into something permanant. GPIM is just that fantastic. I love what we do, who we do it for, and even the everyday "drudgery".

That said, I'm off to see if DH needs more ibufrofen, water or cough drops. After that, I will check Murray's temp, give myself another dose of antibiotics and ibuprofen, finish a bit more work and FINALLY, hit the hay. Tomorrow begins our billing cycle, so the more I accomplish at home, the less stressed I will be in the morning (one can dream, but still, I love it).

Please, keep reading. I promise to post more when I can. Thanks for your loyalty.
God Bless you this Easter/Passover,
Marie

Compromise,Compromise, Compromise

Our new neighbor (Iwas unaware we had one) just knocked on the door to complain about the dogs. He was polite, but said that the barking was keeping him awake.
Me: "I'm so very sorry. What time do you sleep?"
Him: "About 12am to 10am."
Me: "Well we don't let them out after 9pm unless it's urgent, but now that it's spring, they like to be outside during the day."
Him: "If you could keep them from barking until at least 10:ooam, I would appreciate it."
Me: "We can do that, but they will have to go out in the morning to use the bathroom, but we'll let them right back in."
Him: "I like dogs, and I've heard you are very nice people, and I hate to complain, but I'm a very light sleeper."
Me: "Again, I am very sorry and will work with you as much as we can. I appreciate you telling us in person."

I have no problem letting the man sleep, and I appreciate the way he approached the situation. However, now the dogs won't be able to be out during the day because Craig and I are both at work by the time our neighbor gets up. I feel bad - for the man and the dogs. Maybe we'll have to get a bark collar, although I don't believe in shock treatment. Sigh. Just wait until the dog who lives across the street starts running aroun the neighborhood and barking.

I'm off to go shopping. When DH is away, Mama will play!
Special prayers to SATF - YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE!

Career Crisis

Question: Do you apply for your dream job, or do you let it go and look for a position that would require less time away from your family?

God and Craig will help me come to a conclusion. It's the typical mom/career/wife conundrum.

Scary Spiders

Thanks to those of you who responded to my last post - I appreciated your comments! Even yours, Brad. :)

What a weekend! Murray had a fever on Thursday and Friday, which finally broke on Friday night. With the big Gopher/Sioux rivalry, I didn't see much of Craig. Murray and I and Maggie went to the St. Patrick's Day parade yesterday; we watched it from the balcony of my temporary office building. Murray loved it, but I don't think Mags was all that impressed.

This morning at 3:30am, Murray felt he should get out of bed and sleep with us. We don't let him do that unless he's sick, so since he was feeling better, we let him cry it out. I got up an hour later to check on him. He wasn't in his bed, so I panicked until I found him passed out on the dining room floor. It was so funny and with Rudy was nearby, not taking his eyes off Murray - no doubt doing his security duty - we let him stay there until morning.

Tomorrow is my first day flying solo at work. Lacy will be back in May, so until then, I'm on my own. She is an amazing person - she created tutorials complete with screen shots for everything I need to know as far as running reports, the daily deposit, etc. I have loved working beside her these last weeks, and wish her the best as she and her husband prepare to bring their first child into the world.

Last night was the first time I've been out of the house on my own in a very long time. Craig took Murray to the Fink's to watch the game and I went to play bingo with Craig's Mom and Dad. While we didn't bingo, it was a fun evening out.

The events of the weekend are not in the order I'd prefer, but I'm too lazy to change it. For some odd reason, Blogger doesn't have a cut and paste option, so my thoughts are typed as I write them, not necessarily sequentially.

I can't sign off without the following anecdote frome today: This afternoon, I asked Murray if he wanted to help me water the plants. As I filled up my watering can, a spider the size of a silver dollar tried to climb out. I panicked and ran to the other side of the kitchen while yelling for Craig to come and help get rid of the thing. He told me to get over it and continued folding the laundry. Realizing I was on my own, I decided to suck it up and turn the whole episode into a science lesson for Murray. I set the watering can (full of water) on the floor and Murray and I waited for the spider to climb out, at which point I had planned to dispose of it with the nearest heavy object (sorry P.E.T.A.). Before I could pounce though, the spider poked his huge and hairy head out of the can and Murray ran screaming and crying for cover. The sight of the spider again, in combination with Murray tearing out of the room like a frighented rabbit, sent me scrambling for cover too. Craig just shook his head at both of us, calmly disposed of the spider, called us both fruitcakes, and went on with the day. I still have the heebie-jeebies.

With that, I'm off to bed, hopefully not to have nightmares about spiders.

Open Forum

My site stats are way down lately, and I've narrowed down the reasons why to three:

1. I'm not posting enough
2. I'm posting too much
3. I'm just not that interesting

I recall that this happened about a year ago and wondered where everyone was. I think it's probably due mostly to reason number three, but I don't feel a bit bad about that. Blogging is my attempt to hone my writing skills, as well as vent, brag, question, connect and report. If I'm boring, oh well. Despite these sentiments, in an effort to encourage comments and readership, I have a new idea that I think will help my conquest. I am asking you to send me topic ideas for discussion. These can range from parenting to vacation spots to politics to rodents. Any idea is welcome. I don't care, I just want to make this blog a bit more fun and well, interesting! I will research anything you throw my way, so whatever it is you'd like to discuss, shoot me an email, pose a question or thought in my comment section, or find me on facebook.

The dogs are at the groomer at the moment and should be finished soon. I'm very excited to have them clean and most of all, less hairy. Plus, they both absolutely love to be groomed. They prance around like show dogs when I pick them up. Just my luck, it has to be raining today.

Don't forget to watch for the latest contest that I mentioned several weeks ago - I'm waiting until I reach 20,000 hits to my page.

With that, let's discuss!

How Do You Spell Alan Wrench?

It never ceases to amaze me what one can accomplish before 8 am. Murray actually slept until 6:15 today, God bless him. After brewing the first pot of coffee, I managed to cook a bacon and eggs breakfast while simultaneously cleaning the junk drawer. Here is a sample of what was in said drawer:

86 screws of all sizes (yes, I counted)

1 deck of playing cards still in the wrapper

1 partial deck of playing cards

4 alan wrenches and one tool with eight sizes of alan wrenches (funny that we can never find them when we need them)

14 dead batteries

2 rechargeable batteries (but we can't find the charger)

Several paper clips

$2.94 in change which went to the Operation Rice Bowl

1 remote control for the AC

1 disposable camera that needs to be processed - from the looks of it, it's from 1992

Several (broken) child safety devices

4 cough drops

1 putty knife which came in handy when I had to scrape the sticky cough drops from the bottom of the drawer

2 bottles of glitter

1 package of Pez

1 electronic poker game

2 players club cards to various casinos

1 hotel room key

1 cell phone that fell in the lake and doesn't work (why are we saving it?)

2 rolls of electrical tape


And a TON of other miscellaneous items.

The problem is that I don't know what to do with the random things that I couldn't part with. Some things were moved to another junk drawer (dumb, I know), others were filed under trash, and some were put back in my new "junk drawer organizer" for which I was relentlessly teased.

Did you know that I have a problem with cell phones getting wet? This morning when I was yanked out of bed by Murray, I grabbed my phone on the night stand only to discover that my water glass had leaked all over the phone. It's currently in white rice and I"m hoping it will be restored. Too bad the phone I found in the junk pile had the same diagnosis.

Tomorrow I plan to clean out my purse, which will probably be a much more challenging task than the junk drawer. Wish me luck.

Week End Exhaustion

It's hard to believe that it's Friday again. The week flew by at break-neck speed. I'm so tired tonight that all I want to do is crawl under the covers and sleep until 5:00am tomorrow when Murray wakes up (yes, he's still waking up with the roosters). I remember feeling exhausted on Friday nights after a long week of work. So much for my twenties (although I'm still in my twenties for another 3 months) when all I wanted to do on Friday evenings is party. Now I just want to be with my family and go to bed early which makes me very happy. Growing up isn't so bad after all.

I don't have a lot to report, but felt like I should blog anyway. Work is good - Lacy still hasn't had her baby so I'm still training with her which is great - but busy. Of course, if you know me, you know that I don't like to be bored on the job. I think on my feet and love to be juggling several balls in the air, so to speak.

I'm very excited for Mags. Her last day at her old job was today and on Monday she will report to her law firm as a professional paralegal. There is a going-away party for her tomorrow night and while I'll never make it to the bar at 9pm, I hope to join the group for dinner. I'm just so darn proud of her!

The weekend looks to be quiet, which I am grateful for. Even though tomorrow is my day to wake up with Murray (I bargained with Craig), if I go to sleep early I will be fine. Besides, we're learning that early morning with Murray gives us extra time to play with him and even get some laundry/housework done. Essentially, we give up at our attempts to make him sleep until at least 6am. Some kids are just early risers for the first few years and we just have to deal!

Craig and Murray should be home soon, so I'm signing off for now. God bless and peace, prayers to our cousin, Tena May.
M

He's Home!

I'm thrilled to report that Craig is home. I am so lucky to have married my soul-mate (even if he is very busy). Don't get me wrong, Murray and I do fine on our own, but I feel complete when he is with us (that's not to say that we don't need time apart; everyone does). The house still isn't perfect, but with a bit of help yesterday we at least have a semblance - though small - of order.

It looks to be a quiet week which I am grateful for. My temp job gets better every day as I become more knowledgeable; thus more confident. Lacy, who I will be filling in for while she is on maternity leave is a patient and intelligent teacher. I'm afraid of how I will perform when she is away, though I know that I can think on my feet and this is a vital quality in any position. Plus, she has a binder of tutorials for the tough stuff, and I have almost filled an entire legal pad with notes and instructions.

Wish me luck,
M