Back From the Wilds...

Not the usual Wilds, but a close second.

We had a wonderful time - good food, good conversation. Just the two of us. We headed out of here immediately after work on Thursday. Got to our destination, unloaded, and then hit the store to stock up on supplies. Back to get organized and had dinner. Watched a movie.

Friday I slept in a bit. That Man got up and did some cabin maintenance. It was raining, so we made an awesome breakfast and curled up on the couch to watch a movie. I wrote and took a nap. Finally, the weather broke. We had a fire in front of the river.

Saturday we slept in, drank coffee, and ran to the store because we'd changed our minds about dinner. Our friend who owns the cabin came up and took us out on his boat. That was cool.

We cooked more awesome food and thought about going up the hill to the brewery, but once the band started we knew that wasn't happening.

There was a very pregnant cat hanging out in an old boat. I gave her some chicken, but she wouldn't let me pet her.

The toilet in the cabin flushes with hot water. That is the weirdest and funniest thing in the world to me.

I didn't get a lot of writing done, but I figured out what is wrong with my work in progress, which is ginormous.

Got home to a houseful of our kids - K4 is hosting a Dungeons and Dragons game. K1, K3 & A, S, and a friend of K4's. We did what we needed to do with unloading and laundry and have been hanging out in our room ever since we got home. Whatever. I don't really mind. We ordered pizza for dinner and I finished our taxes, paid bills, and took care of my writing chapter newsletter. Definitely productive.

And that is all... Now I write.

Behave!

Oy! Tuesday!

I lost the weekend! Well. I didn't, but I didn't post or even get on my computer until late Sunday night... That's fine, but not so good for the writing. Though I did get a couple of words on the page Sunday night.

Saturday -
Gun class was awesome! It was super casual, super informative, and I loved it. We had class time - mostly safety stuff and information, but not in a typical kind of classroom way. Then we got range time. Loved it. We had to start out with their firearms and then could switch to something else, or our own guns if we had them. I don't have one, so I switched to a little revolver, which I loved. I found that by having to pull the hammer back, it slowed me down and reminded me of what I needed to do to shoot correctly. I didn't do too bad as far as target shooting. The downfall was that it was very dark in there and my eyes suck and you have to hold a revolver differently than a regular handgun, so that threw me a little. Also, I had to reload twice as much as everyone else, so many times I was the last one done. My instructor had to turn his flashlight on for me to reload because I couldn't see. And I was a lot more nervous than I thought I'd be. It was cool though. There were five of us and each had their own instructor on the range, so the one on one was awesome. I kind of wish we would have been able to be outside because of the lighting (it was so windy and cold), but it was still great. There were three people from my graduating class there - one was the instructor, one a student like me, and another instructor. We didn't really get to talk much, but we did get a picture together at the end. After we had our range time, we then cleaned the firearms - not like totally take apart and clean, but basic cleaning, which was something I wanted to learn. Definitely recommend the class.

Had the little boys Saturday night. They are so cute. Little B is so smiley and happy and he watches his brother constantly. By the end of the night though, Little B was flushed and felt super warm. He was still smiling and pleasant, but it was clear he was starting to not feel well. Big B spent the night. He was so thrilled to be here. We let him choose movies and grabbed his favorite dinner and snacks. He karate-chopped and imaginary-wrestled his way through the evening, and asked to go to bed not long before his parents got here to pick up Little B. And he sacked out immediately. It was a good night.

Sunday -
Mostly relaxing, but we did some cleaning. Did laundry. Made a nice roast chicken dinner. Did taxes. Oy. Almost done. K4 needs to pay some local taxes, but hers are done. I just need to file our Federal. The local and state are done. I didn't realize how much stress taxes were causing me, but typically I have ours done early February, so...

Still dealing with stocks. I got a letter from the place I sent in for value that told me they aren't the holder. But the jerks didn't send back the documents (documents that cost the estate money). How rude! I don't know what to do now... I talked to them on the phone and they confirmed they were the place I needed to contact! What a bunch of crap!

Monday -
I felt like absolute and utter crap all day. My old boss gave me some day medicine and it helped for a while. By the time I got home, though, I was in awful shape. I just wanted to sleep and my nose was running, my head hurt, my whole body hurt.

Though when I woke this morning, I had no more nose running/sneezing, but still the aches. Allergies? I don't know. I don't usually have allergies, but it's entirely possible.

What else?

I sent in my full manuscript to start on edits for the book coming out in July. I've also done my cover art form! So exciting!

That Man and I are going away this weekend! The animals and house are set with more than competent care. We are 50-75% packed. We have our regular Wednesday night thing tomorrow, but will have to pack our clothes when we get home. Then...we're out of here. No Internet. Not a great phone signal. Just That Man and I in the wilderness. SO looking forward to it! And I should get copious amounts of writing done!

So... You might not hear from me again until Sunday...

Behave!

Feel Good Friday... Oh Dear...

It has been an amazingly long week. I haven't had the brain-power to post. In fact, I've barely been on my computer. Yeah... It was that long.

Let's do the list:

1. One of my favorite girls in customer service had her last day today. She and her fiance (who worked across the street at the store) are moving to New York. Both of them are awesome and it's sad!
Also, one of the guys from my team also had his last day today. He's moving to a management position at the store. He'll be great at it, but we're going to miss him. He's been our voice of reason and our reasonable voice... It's a definite loss to our team, but a great win for him.
But we did manage to poach a most perfect person from the customer service team. I'm so happy she's joining our team, even though she's still questioning her decision. She's going to be great though! I've wanted her to join our team since all of this chaos started and I even talked to the big bosses about it.
It is what is it... Same old, same old...

2. Going out after work with the work family, and a few of the old work family. Super awesome! We had a great time and there were lots of hugs and laughter. Miss my old work peeps. Okay with the changes, but not. I'm going to miss my girl! We all got out of there pretty early, well, most of us... I'm not really sure what happened to those we left behind. Ha!

3. Productive conversations with the kid.

4. Gun class in the am. So excited. I'm going to sleep here in a few so I can be there on time and do all of the stuff I need to do before then.

5. Barely writing this week. Which is not a good thing, but at least I got some words on the page. That's a win, especially when balanced by the rest.

6. The "Two of Us" trip coming up real soon. So excited! No Internet. No good phone signal. No pets, but pets and house being handled... It's good stuff and I cannot wait!

That's all I've got. I'm scattered and trying to do too many things at once like usual.

Behave!

Feel Good Friday...On Sunday...

I want more weekend. I need more weekend!

Let's do the list before I start crying about how tired and sore I am and how I wish I had off tomorrow... (ha!)

1. Friday's absolutely beautiful weather. It definitely lightened the mood. We ended our week with a fire in the backyard, some pizza & calzone, and a few beers. That was super, super nice and so needed.

2. Saturday's stone laying. Though it started off rough with That Man getting a flat tire while he was picking up landscaping timbers. I had to go and rescue him. But then we went and picked up the first load of stone and got it laid in my shelter. Got the timbers in and pretty much crashed. We ordered Chinese food for dinner, which was amazing and were in bed early.

3. More stone laying today. Went for another load and got maybe 3/4 of the way through the whole project. It's going to be nice not having to squish in the mud when I get in and out of the Jeep. It will also be nice not to bounce and shake as I'm pulling in. That's still going to happen until we finish it off, but it'll be much better now.

4. We signed up for a Jeep event in May. It's an event to support fallen police officers and the first so many people get to drive their Jeep around the race track. I think I might have been the 2nd person to sign up. Ha! I got the alert that registration was open and immediately signed up. Made our hotel reservation, too. A guy from work and his wife are going down, too, so we might change our hotel so we're all at the same one. Or we might find an airbnb or something. I'm so looking forward to this. I've been looking forward to it since I first found out about it.

5. I also signed up for a Women on Target gun training course. Looking forward to that, too. It's being run by a woman I graduated from high school with, so that will be cool. I know I have a bunch of people who will help me learn, but this way I will know a little more than I already do and feel more confident. I've wanted to take this course for a few years now.

6. Stuff getting done. We would have worked outside a lot longer today, but it's not quite warm enough, plus we need to renew our composting facility pass. That's getting done this week. The rest is the normal stuff that must be done - grocery shopping, laundry, blah blah blah.

7. Dinner is almost ready. Butter Chicken. We found a fantastic spice blend to use for it and it just gets better and better every time we make it. We were going to make something else for dinner and have this later in the week, but I couldn't wait. It's one of my absolute favorites. So... definitely not Irish food for us today.

8. After dinner, it's writing. I didn't get anything done yesterday because my eyelids hurt after the stone. I have already taken care of a bunch of my writing chapter stuff and emails, but I'm also in a class right now and I need to catch up on that. It just started today, so I'm not behind or anything, but emails are flying and I haven't read any of them yet.

9. Today is St. Patrick's Day. We're not Irish. Even though everyone is Irish on St. Patty's Day. Ha! We missed the Bloody Mary's and the Irish Coffee brunches today, though we thought about going. We were busy laying stone and doing stuff.

10. Dinner was fantastic. And also, my lunch will be as well! Dishes are 90% done. Laundry is 95% done. It's still early. So I will get my writing done. This week coming up looks more like the previous weeks. It's going to be crazy at work. As it has been. As it will be.

That is all!

Behave!

March...the Middle...

Now we have longer daylight, which is awesome! The temperatures are also better right now, so that's a plus. Tomorrow it's supposed to be 70*! The top might just go down on the Jeep... just saying...

It's been a long week, with some major and unexpected changes... Changes we'll deal with, have no control over, and will figure out, but a major upheaval nonetheless.

The day job is still insane! I'm in quicksand, but I'm not the only one. There's just no keeping up these days. I'm working the overtime, but there's only so much one can do. And there's only so much a brain can handle working the overtime. Thank Goodness tomorrow is Friday!

I did my cover art form for my next release! So excited! I hope to have that to share with you soon! Also, in reading through the book for the art form, I realized what the work in progress needs, so that's super exciting.

Also super exciting is that we registered for the Back the Blue Jeep Event in Dover! I'm so excited. It's an awesome cause that's near and dear to me. AND we registered to drive the Jeep around the speedway track! AWESOME!

That Man and I are also heading out just the two of us soon. So looking forward to that! We need the break so badly! Just the two of us, hanging out, making awesome food, relaxing...

My brain is broken, but I am doing the writing. At least that's something productive right now!

That's all...

Behave!

I Want My Hour Back!!

While I love it just now getting dark, and I love the sun in the morning (luckily I found my sunglasses for when the sun is in my eyes during my drive.), I'm tired. I know this too shall pass. At least the tiredness from the schedule rearrange. The regular tiredness isn't going anywhere, I'm sure.

My jaw and shoulders are all locked up right now! Stress, I think. The day job is still absolutely nuts! Or I hope it's not the sickness everyone in the office now has and K4 now has.

The weekend was pretty good. The memorial service was just as you expect a memorial service to be... We had some food and got to talk to our friend. Then a mad dash to our next event, though we arrived earlier than we figured. No problem. We stopped and grabbed a beer and a snack.

We had a good time. Didn't win squat, but whatever! The company was awesome. The food was pretty danged good. (Always love me some lobster tail)

Sunday was a little bit sleeping in. Not enough to account for the loss of an hour, in fact, I was up earlier than I normally would be for a Sunday. I did take a morning nap though. We headed out to K2's to see Baby C, who is not a baby anymore. She's four now! Wow! She's a crack up. She sat with me and giggled over nail art. Then Baby I sat with me and looked at pictures on my phone all sideways and stuff. He's such a love. Baby A is so cute. She's the cutest chunk and her smile will melt your heart!

Back home to prep for the week. Ugh! This week is a pretty much same old same old week.

That is all...

Behave!

Feel Good Friday

Yay! Friday!

Only made it into work a half hour early this morning. I was up in time. That Man was going to drop me off, but then we changed our minds, so I messed around during the time I would have been at work. Returned a jar of queso to the grocery store. It was already opened when we purchased it and we didn't realize until we actually wanted to use it. Gross. Walked around the grocery store for a while - looking at stuff. Not like I'm not at the store three or four times a week anyway... ha!

Finally made it into work and, I did get a little farther ahead, but I'm still super behind. Got a major issue that's been hanging over my head for at least two weeks taken care of and the end result was far better than I expected, so there's that. My cube looks like the lost and found though (so many boxes), so that's another thing that has to be addressed.

Let's hit the list though:

1. Dinner at the Greek restaurant with That Man. So. So. Good. We brought K4 back some tiramisu. (That was also amazing!) (Her plans fell through so she stayed home, but declined going to dinner with us since she had a late lunch)

2. Getting writing done this week, even though I could have easily not.

3. For once in my life, I am fully prepared for the birthday party on Sunday. I am not, however, prepared for what I'm wearing tomorrow... Well, I kind of am, but I'm not sure...

4. Even though we have to go to a memorial service, I get to see people I haven't seen in a while and hang out with That Man during the drive. (Gah! I sound like an old lady! lol)

5. Accountant stuff done and sent and received. Some of the stuff I need for the stock transfer has been printed, so that's a step. Still stressing, but feeling better about everything.

6. Confirmed tomorrow evening's plans with my sister. Looking forward to it so much!

7. My kid knowing she can talk to me about anything and everything and her asking questions she knows I'll give honest answers to. In the grand scheme of things, that makes me feel like I did at least some things right as her parent.

And that is all for now. I have the most massive sinus headache!

Behave!

Thursday... Oy Vay...

Tomorrow is Friday! Thank goodness! 

Yesterday, I ended up working 11.5 hours! I had no idea! It's so awesome, because with the amount of extra hours I've worked, I don't have to take an official sick day for Monday. In fact, if I only work my regular 8 tomorrow, I'm still sitting on a half an hour of overtime. I'll take that, though I'll be there at least 45 minutes early tomorrow. Maybe. I'm tired. I might not even try to get there early... We'll see...(though I'm still so very far behind, so...)

I wrote tonight. I did well. That's a good thing and a must for keeping me sane through this crazy work stuff. And crazy is a lame descriptor... It's beyond crazy. 

Estate stuff is making me further insane. There is so much. Cashing in stocks is a huge freaking pain in the neck and requires so much freaking stuff and things! And repetitive stuff.. Also... estate taxes... I have a file folder to scan and send to the accountant tomorrow... After I already scanned and sent a crap ton of stuff... I'll have to take a day off soon to get the stock stuff done. That pains me. We're coming down to the end of it... I hope. We have to do some unclaimed money thing through the state, too, so that might hold up stuff a bit, depending on how long that takes. It's frustrating and ridiculous, but it is what it is...

Looking forward to the weekend though! 

Friday night (YAY! TOMORROW!) - K4 has plans, so it's just That Man and I. We just made plans for dinner and the evening! 

Saturday - We have a memorial service for a friend's dad and then a banquet-thing that is a ton of fun. Lots and lots of driving there. But the end result will be a blast! And I get to see most of the siblings! Whoot!

Sunday - We have a birthday thing. And the regular Sunday things... 

No sleeping in either day... 

We'll stop there... If I go too much past early Sunday, I'll be distressed about the work week, so... 

That is all...

Behave!

Wednesday... What?

I haven't written a word all week so far and that's super awful...

Okay, scratch that. I had to take a break to do some other stuff and I managed a couple of hundred words before I came back here. So that's something... I guess. I'm still two days down though.

It's been a crazy week so far...

Monday - No work for me. I woke feeling completely and utterly awful. We had a delay due to the snow, which really wasn't an issue since the main roads were just wet, but I went back to bed, setting my alarm to get up to go in. When my alarm went off, I knew there wasn't a chance I was making it. I slept pretty much all day. When I wasn't sleeping, I was watching dumb tv in bed and worrying about the rumbling in my stomach. Which went on all day. Never turned on my computer. Never checked my emails. Never did a lot of things...

That Man got home and made an easy-on-the-stomach dinner, and I was able to kind of eat. To bed early.

Tuesday - Back to work. Early, too. So far behind and only made worse by not being there Monday. I expected that. Not the major amount of phone calls we dealt with. Home to a leftover dinner and a super early bedtime. A little messaging with K2 before that. I slept for about ten hours straight.

Today - Overtime this morning with That Man taking me to work since it's super cold and the Jeep heat still sucks. Plus, him dropping me off is a good way for me to get there when I want to. Crazy day with new hires and an epic crapton of phone calls. My case load hit a maximum it's never been to before. I also closed more cases than I ever have before. Brain draining. And I'm still swimming in the mud.

That Man picked me up. We stopped for a quick bite before our normal Wednesday stuff. Then we realized our normal Wednesday stuff wasn't actually happening tonight (as we pulled up). So we hiked to the grocery store for supplies.

Back home to work the day job stuff for another hour and a half or so. (Finally figured out what the problem was) Ugh. Sometimes I'm not as smart as I think I am... Ha! But what I had to get done is now done. Which is epic. Checked my case load before I logged off and it's even more ugly than it was when I left. Whatever. I can only do what I can do...

Talked to K1 on the phone for a while. Did some laundry, too. Took care of some household administration stuff.

I managed to get about 75% of the stuff hanging over my head done. The 25% not done is eating at me, but I know that no good will come of me trying to take care of it all tonight. I'm exhausted - both physically and mentally. Tomorrow is another day.

It's later than I wanted it to be.

Bed is calling. Tomorrow is another early work day.

Behave!

Trail Ride Sunday...

We took the Jeep on a trail ride today. Just That Man and I.

We headed out a little earlier than planned because we were both starving. A quick stop for breakfast and water, and then we hit the road. We knew we were going to run into snow, but we didn't expect to be pushing snow with the bumper of the Jeep. We did pretty well though. Made it almost to the top of the mountain before we figured we'd pushed our luck long enough. Turned around and headed back through the snow and wagon trails.

It was a lot of fun, though a little stressful at times when the snow would push us towards the cliff-side. It was good to get away for a few hours. There's no cell service on the trail, so no worries about people calling or texting. (Though that wold have been an issue if we had problems or got stuck) We'll be heading out again once the snow melts. I want mud on my Jeep!

And I would love to find a sweet little cabin along that trail! That's years away though, but it would be so cool!

Just as we got cell service again, we learned that K3's car was overheating and he needed help. We headed that way, though he already had help on the way. We got there to find that the problem was already in hand, though as the car came to full temperature, it started leaking again. Worn-through hose. We left the guys to handle it and came home. I took a nap.

K4 was supposed to have her DnD crew here tonight for gaming and game planning. That didn't happen thanks to the snow, so we pared down our taco feast for the three of us. I felt bad for her because she's been planning this for a week or more.

I have to say... Mrs. Renfro's salsa is the bomb! That Man said we are never buying any other kind of salsa again. So freaking good! The only disappointment was that the queso I bought yesterday had been previously opened and the top layer was all dark and hard. That's going back to the store asap... and I was so looking forward to queso and chips!

It started snowing shortly after. And it's still snowing! Yay! I guess we'll see about work. The schools are all delaying. My kids work closed already. K4 is on spring break, so no worries there. That Man will drive her car tomorrow since it's four-wheel drive and his is not.

So... I'm going to get busy on the writing now...

Behave!

Saturday Stuff...

Another storm is in the forecast! Tomorrow afternoon through Monday. I say... bring it! And I hope it's bad enough that we get to work from home on Monday. I really hope that!

Writing meeting today was awesome! It felt so good to be back "home" at our library. And it's been a really long time since I've left a meeting and felt jazzed to get home and write! That's super huge! And super exciting!

So, my working from home today never happened. I couldn't get logged into the system no matter what I tried. I tried every single thing I could think of. Texted my boss and didn't hear back. Frustrating. Like really frustrating! I really need to get this off of my plate! Hopefully it'll be resolved soon.

K4 and I went shopping. Didn't find anything either of us went for. Grocery store. (It's always so much more expensive when she shops with me! LOL)

Back home to where That Man was working on the Jeep. There wasn't much heat coming out in there, but he seems to have at least made progress it me not freezing to death. Nice!

Homemade macaroni and cheese for dinner. I'm stuffed. Now it's off to writing.

That Man and I changed our plans for tomorrow thanks to the forecast. Now we're breakfasting and heading out to destinations unknown. We'll figure it out when we get there! I'm so very looking forward to it! So it will be an early bedtime here!

Behave!

Feel Good Friday! and March 1st!

Oh hi, Friday... It's about time you got here. This week felt like six or more weeks! I kid you not! And... Now it's freaking March!!

What a week! We lost five more people at the day job. One was the new lady, who decided this wasn't the job for her. Okay. Fine. Don't stay if you're not happy and committed and don't waste our time in training if you don't plan on staying. I liked her a lot though. Then, one of the managers at the store left for greener pastures. One of the guys in my department is perfect for the job and they offered him the job today. Awesome for him! It'll be sad to see him go though, he is a great guy and fit perfectly with us, but it's an perfect move and I'm so happy for him. Then, one of the customer service ladies was offered another job (not with us) and took it. Then, one of the other customer service ladies put in her two weeks, along with her fiance who worked in the store. We've known they were leaving for months and now is the time for them and that's fine and good. It's kind of crazy. Well, not kind of. Very crazy. But it is what it is. I'm not going anywhere at this point. I still love my job, my company, my customers, my reps, and the people I work with... all three of them... ha! They bought us lunch today and we're allowed to work overtime. In fact, I'm allowed to work from home tomorrow to get some critical stuff done. So that's a bonus. Like I said, it is what it is... these cycles happen.

Anyway... Let's get to the feel good part...

1. Friday! Easy dinner. Talking to friends on the phone. Not having to buy my own Friday lunch today. My kid being home from college for the next week. Being in sweat pants. Laughing with That Man.

2. Writing meeting tomorrow! But first! Breakfast with my ladies! Yay!

3. Snow in the forecast overnight! I don't think it will affect much for my meeting. It's similar to what we had overnight last night. Work was delayed today, but I went in at my normal overtime time. I know some people won't make it to the meeting because of the snow and that's sad, but I'm happy to be back in our former location!

Though it's sleeting now. So who knows what will actually happen overnight.

4. Getting to do my day job work tomorrow at home. It's a super important and I'm happy to get it off of my plate. In fact, it's a must that I get it taken care of tomorrow! Things are so crazy busy at the day job that it's actually a relief to get the go ahead to work from home. Plus, I'll get paid.

5. Plans with That Man for Sunday. Though with the impending snow, we might be out of luck. I hope not, but if we are, then we'll figure something else out. Either way, we're doing something alone together.

6. Snow in the forecast for Sunday!! Ha! I hope so! I know so many of you all are against more snow, but I am not! If we close, I get to work from home, so that's a bonus, too. A better bonus than losing a day's pay.

7. The kid being home from college for break. She's got plans. We have plans together. It'll be good. She's so busy these days, I don't get to talk to her much during the week. She's busy when I'm not. I'm busy when she's not. I miss the kid.

8. Seeing my boys last night. They came for dinner. We were hoping to get more leftovers gone, but sadly, we ended up making more leftovers. South Bay Chowder repurposed from loaded potato soup. So good, but not as good as usual! It was nice to see my little guys and my big people, except I started feeling like crap halfway through the visit and didn't think I should hold Little B anymore.

9. Despite the crazy week, getting the words on the page! I'm over halfway in getting this book done! Whoot!

And... That is all I have...

Behave!