For the love of Pete, don't mess with my piles!

I have never been the perfect filer but I can generally find things in my intricate system of piles. Sometimes it may take awhile but eventually I can lay my hands on whatever it was that I needed—until now. Gman and I spent at least 5 hours, yes that is F-I-V-E hours last night looking for PDQ’s Friday folder, journal, a book, half a dozen checks, an envelope of pictures and 4 one dollar bills. No dice.

Thursday two weeks ago (way back in March) was PDQ’s last day of school until today for Spring Break. I thought I would save us all the grief of coming back from Ohio and spending the evening trying to finish up homework, sign stuff, read stuff, etc. So I pulled everything out of the folder, sorted it into piles and started writing check, yearbook, field trip, and pictures. While I had the checkbook out I dug up Boobah’s pictures that were long overdue, read all the detailed instructions, wrote a check including my $10 penalty for missing the return date and put them in an envelope to return. Then I scrounged for $4 in cash to attach to a form that needed to go back for a “love note” in the yearbook. Then we pulled out the homework for PDQ to take to my parents house for the week. Finally we made her do her poetry journal and my Dad read her the book in a bag story. We were totally cooking with gas—it was Friday, a week and a half before the stuff was due and I had everything taken care of, or so I thought.

I know that I put things aside so that we could eat. I would swear on a stack of Bibles that later that evening I gave the Friday Folder filled with stuff back to PDQ and asked her to put it in her backpack by the door. A few times last week I thought about that envelope of pictures for Boobah but didn’t think much of it, it had waited this long, what was a few weeks more. Between the time I did all the signing and paying my mother was there, in my house picking up after me. Then, to add to the probability that I’ll never find anything Miss Betty came and cleaned up after us some more. Usually I manage to get through both with my piles unscathed. Finally at 11 last night I gave up. I wrote a pathetic note to PDQ’s teacher confessing my inability to keep track of stuff. Then I tried to go to sleep and all I could do was think about what the heck happened to all that stuff. I can picture it, I just can’t FIND it.

What I've accomplished today

• The alarm went off, twice, finally I turned it off instead of hitting snooze, fumbled for the phone and called my boss to tell her I wasn't coming in today.
• Helped G-man get the girls ready and out the door.
• Took a bath, trying to steam the gunk out of my head.
• Cancelled my dinner plans with 3 women from an e-group that I've been part of for nearly 7 years! (boo hoo)
• Updated a project plan, 3 different times and had the server barf on me every time I tried to save it. I e-mailed the guy in charge of it and he reminded me it really hates VPN.
• Compiled a bunch of stuff for a meeting tomorrow and sent it out
• Made lunch for G-man and nuked my own Lean Cuisine.
• Played spy, taking pictures from our bathroom window of G-man constructing the swing set that Santa brought.
• Made the appropriate grimaces when he came in to show me the finger that he hit really, really hard with a hammer. It is pretty gruesome.
• Took large doses of ibuprofen to try and get the pain in my head to recede.
• Took a shower thinking that if I were cleaner I'd feel better (no dice).
• Read a large part of Wild Fire by Nelson DeMille. I usually read mindless crap but DeMille does a great job of making the potentially cataclysmic seem possible and makes you want to read all about it. I keep having to remind myself its fiction.
• Defrosted something for dinner
• Sat outside, its 78 degrees!?, and kept G-man company
• Read lots and lots and lots of blog posts

Doesn't that sound thrilling? Okay, off to blow my nose...

The Sunday Curse

I don't know what the deal is but I feel like we have a black cloud hanging over our house on Sundays. They are never the relaxing, recharge for the week ahead days that I imagine in my head. As often as not G-man and I end up disagreeing about something and spend the day in our separate corners. The kids sense something is wrong and either act up or are clingy. The crappy day then leads to no sleep Sunday night making Monday no treat either.

Its just been in the last few weeks that the pattern has become so clear to me. I have no idea how to fix it. A few weeks ago we played hooky from church, I had visions of a relaxing Sunday together as a family with nothing to do, no pressure to accomplish anything other than to relax. Maybe that is pressure in and of itself?

I feel crappy today over things that were said yesterday. I don't know how things got there, let alone how to make it better. It is frustrating beyond belief.

Anybody out there in the blogosphere have a similar pattern? Advice for breaking out of it?

Mission Accomplished

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The only time its okay to blow a stranger

So we had a serious ice, sleet, snow storm yesterday. School as cancelled, G-man had a code yellow day and my boss told us not to come in unless we absolutely had to. My first thought--snow day! We could all spend the day at home together, wouldn't it be great. Yeah, in what alternative universe were my dreams coming from? I had a ton of work to do, several conference calls that I needed to do to keep things moving. I set the girls up with a new puzzle, some new books and the Disney Channel while G-man used the snow blower on our sidewalk and driveway.

After he ran out for coffee G-man decided to help the neighbors--our new neighbors. We've only been in the house since last July. He plowed through most of the sidewalk and driveways where people hadn't had a chance to shovel yet. The neighbor across the street wanted to know the rental fee, G-man told him a beer. They laughed, G-man came home to keep an eye on the girls so I could do my conference call.

We had big plans for a dinner at the dining room table, with china, crystal, and wine. I went out into the muck to get things from the grocery store. It was a zoo, the snow was piled in places but mostly it was a big icy mess. I watched a woman in a minivan spend a lot of time trying to get out of her parking place and praying I wasn't next! When I got home G-man told me that we were invited to the neighbors for beers and snacks. Cool, appetizers to go with dinner! I threw together a token snack to take along. We got Boobah to take a much needed nap and we headed out for our first visit to the neighbor's house. It was fun, we spent 2.5 hours talking, laughing, eating dip and drinking. Ellie had the 9 y.o. son wrapped around her little finger, she was literally leading him around the house. By the time we made it home it was nearly time for the girls to go to bed. We ended up with frozen pizza an a piece of our Valentine's cake. Not so good for future MILF-i-tude but good for the soul.

Happy Valentine's Day to you, cha cha cha

In addition to Valentine's Day we have a SNOW DAY! I can't figure out which excites me more. I have work to do but its a whole lot more palatable when I can do it in my PJ pants here at home. I started the moring off with a conference call staff meeting followed by a quick lesson in the finer points of using the snow blower. I comptemplated going into the office until I turned on the TV and found the weather woman standing on the corner near my house beside ice and snow covered roads and very little traffic. G-man found out early that they would be opening at noon, as he was putting on his shoes to leave they called to say not to bother. We are all tucked safely at home, what a great mid-week treat (we'll see if I feel the same way at the end of the day).






I haven't slept well all week so I spent the time productively--making cards and mastering my Christmas present from G-man, a Cricut machine. I also made picture frames for my Mom and sister who are coming to visit this weekend and spiffy boxes of conversation hearts for the girls' teachers. Yesterday afternoon we made cupcakes in cool heart shaped foil pans for Abby's V-Day party today (or now I guess tomorrow).

Tonight we will pull out the stops, finally using the new dining room table. Jimmy the wonder painter has been here this week so it acutally has color on the walls as well! China, real glasses, candles--I am sure the girls will love it! Off to find a great recipe for shrimp and chocolate icing for the cake.

Back to the grind

I came back to work on Wednesday. By the time I had convinced the girls to get dressed, taken a shower, debated on which pants would hurt the least to button, and gave everyone the appropriate bags, coats and hats I had worked up a sweat. I knew it would be the most difficult part of my day!

I got to work, it was really good to see people again, all in all they are a great bunch of people. I went to a meeting, then our division had our holiday lunch, I spent most of both fidgeting. There is one teeny, tiny stitch that sits right where my pants hit, I felt like my 5 y.o. who is always ready to burst out of her chair to do anything at a nanosecond notice. Thank goodness no one asked me any hard questions or anything I really had to think about, while I thought I was quite witty, my ability to actually make sense of things was pretty limited Probably should have ended the day early and gone home to bed. I did go home a bit early but we'd plan Let's Dish night awhile back and it was the first chance to see my IRL friends in about a month. It was fun but exhausting and bless them all for pitching in to help me finish up--did I mention I am waaaaaaaay slower than normal?

Yesterday was a bit better, I actually went to meetings, spoke in complete sentences and had an executive tell me something was a really good idea-whew! I found a velveteen skirt with an elastic wasit band that might look a bit too Christmas party like but at least I don't act like I have ants in my pants. Last night though I couldn't bear the thought of doing much of anything, we had a quick supper, I laid in bed and finished the scarf that G-man made so much fun of, read to the girls and watched mindless TV.

Today is Friday, finally. Same skirt, we have interviews today so I didn't think the sweatpants would fly. Miss Betty the cleaning goddess is coming today. I'd love to see her face when she finds out that G-man destroyed the great pit of nothingness beside our dresser and replaced it with the rocking chair. Can't wait to see what new hiding place she finds in giving our house a facade of order!