A day of remembrance May 28, 2007

Leave it to small town America to make sure that Memorial Day is not merely about a day off work or that special sale down at the mall. Driving home last night, we passed a cemetary that had a war memorial out front and was literally lined with American flags. Not the little ones they put out along the road at parade time come 4th of July. Full-sized ones, on 6 or 8 foot poles. There had to be a hundred of them. It was beautiful and tear-inducing. Both of my grandfathers, my father, three uncles, my brother, and my father-in-law have all fought for our country on foreign soil, in different wars across the generations. None of them were among the fallen we honor today, which we are thankful for. Having them in our family, though, makes us more aware of the sacrifice others have made for us, for our country.

So, even though we’ll be cooking out in the back yard today, and trying to relax after the yard work we have planned to do, we will take time to remember, and to be thankful.

Been busy May 25, 2007

I don’t have a lot of time to do any catching up at the moment, either, but I’ll get there, probably next week.

Yesterday was our 11th wedding anniversary. We’ve been together 13 years now. In the greater scheme of things, that’s not a very long time, I know, but it’s not too shabby, either. No, we didn’t do anything to celebrate, and didn’t exchange gifts, either. We have to go way, way up north (as in a good 8-9 hours north) this weekend for my baby brother’s wedding, so we’ll need the “fundage” for that. We had been going to stay in a hotel on Saturday night, but we’ve changed our plans, which means no pool, but saves $60. We’re still going to the cottage as planned to sleep tonight, then getting up early in the morning to get ready and drive the rest of the way, but we’ll return to the cottage after dinner at the reception instead of staying up there. It will be late by the time we get back to the cottage, but we don’t care (it will be late when we get there tonight). It will put us closer to home, which is where we’re going to return on Sunday rather than Monday. No point staying up there longer than we need to, when we aren’t really “vaca-ing.” Then we’ll be home all day Monday to do what we’d like – which, depending on the weather, will include finally planting my impatiens. It’s been too hot to do that yet. It’s been a miserable couple of nights here. Way too hot for sleeping. Ah, well.

Anyway, outside of that, not a whole lot going on. Oh, yeah – my mom volunteered me to make the card holder for the wedding – yesterday morning. I found out because my brother called me about it while I was at work. Niiiice. Of course I couldn’t tell him no. I asked her when she thought I was going to have time to work on it, as we’re leaving today after work. *rolls eyes* Some things just never change. So, I shopped last night for a birdcage, and today I need to hit the craft store to supplement the things I scrounged out of my craft room, so I can decorate it… sometime before the wedding tomorrow!

Gotta scoot. Hope you have a nice weekend.

Treasure trove May 17, 2007

When we got home this afternoon, there were two great big boxes blocking our entry into the house. My Aunt is cleaning out stuff, and decided to send some things my way. I could barely get the boxes inside. One weighed 45 pounds, and the other 35! When I opened them, it was like opening a Russian doll – more boxes inside of each one. I can’t even begin to describe (or list) everything she sent. Lots of stuff from Japan – two yukatas, sushi platters, rice bowls, tea cups, a sake set, chopsticks, wall decorations, hand painted fans, origami art, stationery sets – the list goes on. Also some serving pieces that are more English in style, a cool acrylic patio serving set, a Dansk wine carafe, a teak platter, and some other odds and ends, along with a pile of books, including the first 4 Harry Potters in hardcover. Now Princess can pass her paperback set on to Peanut, and keep the “new” set. Oh – and I can’t forget the purple disco ball earrings, lol. Anyway, it was very much like Christmas morning around here. Literally every surface was covered with stuff from the boxes – the coffetable, the couch, the chairs, my desk… took me a while to pack it all back up. I’m not sure where I’m going to put all of it, but I definitely want to display/use what I can. I’m so happy to have it – much of it brings back very good memories. Can’t wait to show it all to hubby, though I don’t think I’ll do that tonight, because it will take too long!

On another note, I’ve been listening to a cd tonight that I haven’t listened to in a while, but that I just love. It’s the soundtrack to Some Mother’s Son, composed by Bill Whelan of Riverdance fame. It is mostly instrumental, but there is this really haunting piece called “The Seabird” on it. I’m not sure who does the vocals (though I could look her up, I’m sure, just feeling too lazy at the moment), but it is absolutely gorgeous.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes May 17, 2007

At my job, we’ve always had 15 staff. My boss and I in the office. Our maintenance man, and three people for each floor shift, as well as three dietary staff, with two people working on the floor each shift and two people in the kitchen each day. My boss has been struggling to try to find a way to stay within the payroll budget that the new owner gave her. It comes to this. We’ll be operating with 13 staff now. They will only have one 1st shift caregiver. It will be up to the maintenance man and I to cover the 2nd caregiver spot on the floor, as well as some office stuff in my case, and all of the maintenance stuff in his case. I’m not entirely sure how that is going to work, or how many hours I’m going to lose, because I’m not working weekends (we schedule on a rotating 4 days on, 2 days off basis). Actually, it will end up being triple duty, because boss said that we would also fill in in the kitchen when there was a need, which is something I’ve already been doing this week. We need the money, and can’t afford day care, so I have to just keep plugging away, no matter how tired I get, and just be thankful that I have a job at all – and yes, I’m going to just keep telling myself that.

As for hubby, he’s changing jobs as well – but not to the one he’s been interviewing for. *sigh* Typical of his workplace, he went through a couple rounds of interviews with 6 different people for this particular job, only to find out yesterday that one of the owners of the company decided at the 11th hour to not hire anyone. The VP and boss of the position he was trying to get panicked, because hubby had been frank about looking elsewhere for work if he didn’t get that job, and convinced the higher-up powers that be to offer him the position of someone who is leaving shortly (someone hubby trained, no less). It is only $1k more a year than what he is making now, with no potential to make any more, unlike the job he was interviewing for, which would have been a whopping $15k more a year 18 months from now, with potential to make much more. They knew it didn’t compare, but didn’t want him to immediately jump ship. Both of them felt awful – they had planned to hire hubby. He was their guy. Good to know that they like him so well, but gee, I just can’t stop looking at the financial difference. We’d really been hoping we could reach a place where we’d be able to get ahead a little, and that just ain’t happening, at least not any time in the forseeable future.

Hubby and I had some huge fights last night. He told the man who would have been his boss that I was mad at him (hubby), which pissed me off. Mad at the situation, yes. Mad at hubby? No. Not really. It wasn’t like it was his fault he didn’t get the job. (technically, he had the job – until it was uncreated!) I was a little ticked at him because he said that he wouldn’t need to look for a different job right away, since he’d be getting that little bit more money, but by the time I got home, reality set in. Even if he were to go get a new job, it is very unlikely he’d find something that would pay significantly more than what he’s making at the moment. I’ve been looking at job sites for months, and know that to be the case. So there isn’t any point in him jumping ship at the moment. I know that. Just makes me more frustrated with the idiots that own his company.

Anyway, at least he gets a change in job, a token raise. I guess that’s better than nothing – and I should just be thankful that 1) he has a job, and 2) he’s willing to work in the first place. Could be worse. And yes – I’m going to keep telling myself that, too.

How I spent my Mother’s Day May 13, 2007

doing yard work! It needed to be done, and I was happy to work on it. Didn’t get nearly as much done as I hoped, but still… it’s progress!

I picked up twigs in the front yard so hubby could use his new mower when he got home from church, weeded the flower beds along the front of the house, pruned some bushes, raked leaves in the back yard, and ’tilled up the plot I’m going to plant my vegetable garden in.

The girls woke me up this morning to wish me happy, and we snuggled a little while before starting to work. Hubby came home bearing gifts – the tools I used to prune the bushes, and a cookbook put together by the ladies of his church, all things I greatly appreciated.

Hubby and I worked outside until almost 4:30, then decided we were too tired to do anything else. I fixed a late lunch/early dinner of sloppy joes, and we watched Zoom with the kids. I got him to watch The Holiday with me tonight. I liked it just as much this time as the first time, and he said he’d watch it again in a heartbeat, which is a good thing. He was teasing me about getting soft, watching a film such as that and liking it – a movie with no spies, no explosions, car chases or shoot-outs. He told me, “See, there are good things in mushy movies!”

Anyway, I can feel all of my muscles, but in a good way. I’m hoping I sleep well tonight, what with all of the being out in the fresh air and sunshine today. I’d really like to stay home from work tomorrow – just because I want a break from the place, not for any good reason, so in I’ll go – gotta earn that paycheck! Maybe after Princess is done with school for the summer, I’ll take a couple of days off. That would be nice.

Hope that if you’re a mom, you had a lovely day today, too.

*sings* “Long ago, and oh, so far away…” May 12, 2007

All right – maybe not so long ago (I’m only talking last week) – but definitely far away!

We spent last weekend on a whirlwind trip to Phoenix, with my mother-in-law, so that we could attend eldest daughter’s wedding. (Worth noting – today is her 19th birthday…)

Friday after picking Princess up from school, we headed straight to the airport. (An aside, for those of you who might enjoy a Peanut anecdote – on the way to the airport, I got this goofy song from a commercial stuck in my head. “Big bucking chicken.” Have you seen that one? It wasn’t on very long. Anyway, I told hubby, and we started singing it together. From behind us, Peanut pipes up with, “enough with the big f–king chicken!” Hubby and I were cracking up, while stern faced mil in the very back of the van said, “Perhaps that is why the commercial wasn’t on very long…”) The kids had never been on a plane before, and none of the rest of us had flown in years (the last time I was on a plane was the day before 9/11 – it’s been longer for hubby and mil). All of these new security things are just a pain in the rear – the no liquids thing and the having to be there 2 full hours before our flight being the biggest irritants. Nothing like hurry up and wait!! Especially with two restless kids in tow.

Our plane left a little late. We boarded on time, but sat on the runway for a while; not sure why. Princess chose that time to get upset and worried about being on a plane, and was crying. Fortunately, the minute we started to taxi, she decided it was really cool, and spent the rest of the time we had daylight watching out the window. Peanut also really enjoyed the flight. To quote her, “this is totally cool!” We did have an in-flight movie, The Holiday starring Jude Law, Kate Winslet, Jack Black and Cameron Diaz. I didn’t get to see all of it, because I was sharing headphones with the girls, but what I did see of it, I really enjoyed. Actually, I’ve never been much into “chick flicks” but I liked that one so much, I bought a (used) copy of it the day after we got home!

By the time we got to Phoenix, we were 40 minutes late, as we’d also had to detour around some bad weather. The older kids, including our then soon-to-be son-in-law, met us at the airport. They wanted to take us out to dinner, but we couldn’t find anything open between the airport and our hotel, at least not anything that we saw from the expressway, so we ended up having Del Taco in our hotel room, and visiting with them until midnight Phoenix time, also known as 3am our time. We were all so exhausted, lol.

The next day was the wedding. We didn’t have to be at the wedding place until late afternoon, and knew we only needed a couple of hours to get ready, so after a wonderful full breakfast at the hotel (not your typical free continental breakfast – there was hot food, including delicious “make your own” belgian waffles! Yum!), we decided to take a drive. Our rental car was this sweet Suzuki crossover – and it was a very dark PURPLE!! It was quite comfy. The rental car people had given us an Arizona Drive Guide. We looked it all over, and decided just to do the loop around. We didn’t have enough time to do any serious sight-seeing, just wanted to see what we could see, and not be cooped up in the hotel all day.

We took 51 N to 101 W, down around to 10 E, to the 202 until it ended, then down Power Rd. to 60 W, back to 101, and eventually back to 51 and the hotel, with a stop for lunch at a place called Gallagher’s (because being Cinco de Mayo, Carlos O’Brien’s was packed!). It was a nice drive, looped us around the greater metro area – among others – Peoria, Tempe, Mesa, Scottsdale. Everyone enjoyed the mountain views, and the unique (to us) architecture. The vast expanse of the Valley, and all of the cacti!! Peanut especially loved the cacti. She’s a funny kid. Oh – I must say, we all decided that the highways are the most beautiful we’ve seen in any of the large metro areas we’ve ever been in. They were all landscaped, but the overpasses and walls were what really caught our attention. It was an adventure in itself watching to see what pattern would be worked into the walls, or the rocks on the ground. There was so much artwork to see, I can’t even begin to describe it. Different Native American and Southwest themes – just one of those “you have to see it” things. Absolutely gorgeous. We liked what we saw so much that we’re planning to go back in a couple of years, when we could actually take some time there. Before we left, I didn’t think I would like it there. I was pretty much taken with the place, too. Hubby said he could live there. I told him to keep two things in mind: 1) we weren’t there at the hottest time of the year, and 2) the lack of easily accessible beaches. ‘Round here, we’re surrounded by water, and that would be hard to give up. So, we decided instead that we would just “winter” there, lol. Do they call people like that “snowbirds” there? I’m imagining they probably have less polite names for them.

So, anyway… on to the wedding. I did the girls’ hair before we left for the Satisfied Frog, and we put them in their dresses when we got there. The dresses were red, long and beaded – very beautiful, and of course, they both looked adorable, with piles of curls on top of their heads. Princess was the junior bridesmaid, and also helped the minister by holding one of her bibles (the ceremony was bi-lingual, and had several additions to it that I’m told were Mexican traditions, such as both sets of parents standing up with the bride for the entire ceremony, and also the parents giving them blessings). Peanut was the flower girl, and did a lovely job. The bride looked very beautiful, of course, though I found her hair and make-up to be distracting. I realize it is the style, but still… I didn’t dig loads of black/dark gray eye make-up on the bride (literally, aside from the thick black eyeliner, she had on dark gray eyeshadow nearly to her eyebrows!), and I wished that her bangs didn’t cover half of her face. She was wearing a gorgeous wedding dress – Peanut said she looked like a cupcake when she crouched down, which I suppose she did, in a way. The dress had a heart shaped beaded strapless top, and the skirt was really full, and – I can’t describe it in any way to do it justice. It had layers of little puffs of soft gauzy fabric, each puff secured by a tiny bunch of “pearls,” all the way down to the end of the train. Oh, yes… the groom was as handsome as always, though shorn of the beautiful long curls he had the last time we saw him.

We had had some concerns before we went to the wedding itself. We were worried about the venue (google lists it as a biker bar!), we were worried about the ex and how she’d behave, and we were also worried about how the girls and the mil would behave. It turned out that we didn’t have a thing to worry about. The venue was lovely. (We’d have liked to have more time to explore the surrounding town, as well.) They were married outdoors, on a large Spanish-style patio, with a fountain in the middle of it. Actually, the ceremony took place on a little bridge overlooking a tiny pond. The trees were all done up with white, twinkly lights, and it was just lovely. The ex – well, we couldn’t get over how genuinely friendly both she and her husband were, after so many years of acrimonious behavior. God granted us a huge favor there, no denying it. The kids were very well behaved, even though the ceremony didn’t start until their bedtime (it was only 6pm in AZ), and because the kids were well behaved, the mil was as well. She even bought me a souvenier – a lovely set of blank cards, with pictures of desert blooms on them.

They had the reception in a tent right next to where the wedding was held. Everything was done up very nicely – and dinner was absolutely delish. They had fajitas – the beef and chicken cooked over mesquite on open grills right there during the wedding. Made everyone really hungry! Oh – and I had the BEST margaritas I’ve ever had. Two of them. If we’d stayed longer, I might have had another. We left well before the party was over, but everyone was getting tired. It was going on 1am our time. Princess was ready to go, but cried because she didn’t want to leave her big sis. Peanut is equally attached to her big brother, but isn’t as emotional about stuff. Anyway, the bride very nicely went out on the patio to sit with Princess for a while, then had the coordinator do the cake cutting earlier than planned so we could have cake before we left. Peanut managed to insinuate herself into that. She got right up there with them – and the bride and groom gave her the first bite of cake, before they shared with each other. Little twerp! After that, we said our good-byes and headed back to the hotel. It was, really, a bittersweet kind of moment for us all.

We had time to enjoy the nice breakfast at the hotel before leaving for the airport the next morning, serenaded all the way by Peanut singing her “good-bye, cactus” song. Got the car turned in and on the plane with no problems. The flight home was much better – being during the day, it seemed shorter, even though it ended up being longer (again, due to bad weather, we had to make a detour, and it added nearly an hour to the flight!). We all enjoyed watching out the window – the girls took turns in the window seat. And you know darn well that hubby and I both enjoyed the in-flight movie. It was…. CASINO ROYALE!!! *GRINS*

Another Peanut anecdote from when we were landing. The plane touched down. She had her hands up, pretending to steer (must have seen it on a movie, the way she was holding her hands). I asked her what she was doing. “Driving the plane.” She started moving her hands all willy-nilly. I told her not to drive too crazy, or the plane would crash. She looked at me, patted my arm and said, “I can handle this, dear” then went back to “driving.” LOL!

We didn’t get home until way after the kids’ bedtime. They didn’t really want to settle down, but I don’t think it took five minutes for them to crash. We were all pretty tired. It actually took a couple of days for us to feel like we were back on track.

So there you have it. The long and short of it. I’m sure there is more I could tell, but I’ve rambled on quite long enough as it is.

Bits of a dream May 11, 2007

I had a dream before I woke up this morning. I was pretty hazy before I got out of bed, and by the time I did, most of it had slipped away. Guess I really do need to go back to keeping pen and paper by the bed.

Anyway, this one starred Samuel L. Jackson, Jennifer Hudson, and another actor I don’t remember now. Nor do I remember much about it, which is too bad! It had to do with an evil corportation, and a really deep mine shaft, which we all (hubby, me, the actors, and Peanut) went down in it, to see how deep it was, and what was at the bottom. It seemed to go on forever – and before we got to the bottom, the scene changed, and we were all sitting around in an office conference room, watching a movie together (that the actors all starred in), and I dozed off before the end, woke up while the credits were rolling. I told them I had missed what happened to them, and they all laughed. Then, someone ran in to tell us that the big boss was calling a meeting in the building across the street, and we’d better hurry to get there. We all looked at each other and took off. We still had little one with us – she was in this really dressy dress and a wool dress coat. She kept running ahead of us, which was worrisome when we got out on the street (it was like a NYC scene). Right before I woke up, she ran face first into a pile of snow. There was much more to the dream. I know that we were all working to bring this boss/corporation down – were “wired” before we went to the meeting. *shrug* Just can’t remember anything else. Ah, well!

Note to self May 8, 2007

Write about your weekend HERE!!!

One day at a time May 2, 2007

quite literally, that’s how I’m working right now. I don’t know what tomorrow brings at all anymore when it comes to work. New owner told my boss I could stay provided I would work on the floor as a caregiver, not that I even particularly want to do that job – but I can’t work the scheduled hours for that, nor can I work on weekends (and outside of the office, everything else there is scheduled on a rotating four on, two off basis). Yesterday, I worked on the floor, kinda sorta. Did caregivers’ tasks, as well as some office work. I am expecting I’ll be doing the same today. And honestly – I was exhausted when I got home yesterday. I don’t think I can keep that up.

Anyway, new owner called me in to a meeting yesterday, but it got interrupted part way through, so I have no idea if he was really done talking to me or not. The only thing we talked about was grocery orders and the budget he’s going to put in place for that. Um…. last I checked, doing the grocery order and shopping every week WASN’T part of a caregiver’s responsibilities. So what I’m gathering is that he still expects me to do part of the work for the job position he eliminated as “useless”, while I’m doing the job I’m being paid to do now. That’s not fair to any of us. I know, life isn’t fair, but I can’t keep it up, and the other caregivers will get resentful after a while when they’re having to do more work because I have to take a break to do, say, the grocery stuff (which, because he’s putting us on a budget that is a full $1600 *less* per month than the budget I had to work with under the previous owner – that’s more than a weeks’ worth of groceries costs – AND I have to purchase housekeeping supplies such as laundry detergent and pine scrub out of that same budget – anyway, it means I’m going to have to be doing some running around to different stores each week to try to make purchases, because there is no way I can keep within that budget ordering solely from our food supplier, and that will take me away from my “new duties” even more).

All I can do is hold out for as long as I can – we need the money.