December Thirtieth

Tomorrow is New Years Eve already… a whole week since Christmas Eve already… This week was much faster than last week… Maybe cause we were waiting for Santa last week…

If you strolled through the slideshows below you saw that we had a very nice Christmas… The boys got more than enough and even got into the giving spirit this year… Son1 got hubby a hand held tool and me a Nora Roberts Book… and then from him and girlfriend got me and hubby gift cards for the movies and Red Robin… he said we had to go just for us and son2 would babysit son3… son2 didn’t know this but he said ok… or hubby and I can go when they are in school… a date just for us, we won’t know how to act… and then son1 got gifts for son2: a hard drive for his Xbox and all his old comic books… and for son3: a build a bear/dog with storm trooper outfit… son2 bought son3 a Wimpy Kid book at the school book fair with his lunch money and a whole box of toys that he cleaned out from his room… son3 made cards for everyone and then some… son1 also got gifts for hubby and I from son2 and son3… a movie for hubby and a Castle book for me…

I survived Christmas Eve at work… We were way busy but I opened boxes all day… a week later and I am still trying to wade through all the boxes finding all the shoes everyone wanted for Christmas that they can now buy with their gift cards… Once home we had a wonderful ham dinner that hubby made… then we drove around our neighborhood looking at Christmas lights… the boys opened their Christmas Eve present which was Despicable Me, but they watched the bonus disc that came with it… put the boys in bed so Santa could come… from 10:30-midnight I watched Mrs. Miracle, very cute… Santa came and I was finally asleep by 1am… and I had been up since 4:30am, my regular time to get ready for work but I didn’t work til 10am…

Christmas morning we leisurely got up, the boys never wake up early for Christmas, we usually have to wake them… we showered, hubby made orange rolls and hot chocolate, son1 came home and girlfriend came over and we opened presents from 10:30-1:30pm… the rest of the day we ate, played with our gifts, ate some more, watched movies and I was asleep early…

This week we have had a lot of rain… son3 was wearing hubby’s rain boots so he could go outside to see the Christmas lights in the rain… It was very windy too and now very cold… in the 40’s today… Hubby has taken down all the yard decorations and lights outside… only the ones on the house left to take down and then everything inside including the tree…

 

I’ve been hustling at work this week… opening boxes, stocking and doing markdowns… we are still tore up and slowly getting the floor back together… next week is supposed to be the slowest shopping week of the year… of course we don’t have many hours either… but hopefully we can get cleaned up and the floor stocked…

Hubby had an interview today… He didn’t remember exactly applying for the position as it was for a bar and grill at the airport and he has no restaurant experience… but I was excited they called and it was practice for interviewing as it’s been 13 years since his last interview… being it was at the airport he had to pay to park and they didn’t validate, how rude, $6… and they had already hired someone so if he didn’t hear from them she passed her drug and background check… it’s ok though as he didn’t want it as he can’t see himself working at a food place, waiting tables… it was for a supervisor position but still having to fill in where needed… Hubby also had to wait for an hour for the interview, as his appointment was at 9am, but the interviewer had a work emergency and then a conference call… so he was finally interviewed at 10am and it only took about fifteen minutes…

I went through all the goodies from our Christmas basket from Rhode Island… I just finished having one of the toffee squares… haven’t used anything yet, but we will…

Now we are done with dinner, hubby made egg mcmuffins with ham… we are watching Knight and Day… pretty good, funny, lots of action… I like Cameron Diaz…

After hubby got back from his interview he took the boys to Target to use their gift cards they got for Christmas from friends and family… son2 bought some Halo megablox and son3 got Dragon Universe megablox… and they both still have money left on their gift cards…

Son1 is now finished with his part time job as of last Sunday and now has a three day weekend from his full time job… he was acting supervisor this week and put in overtime every day…

Gonna finish the movie and go to sleep… I barely make it past 8pm lately… hope I make it to midnight tomorrow night for the happy new year..

Happy Journaling…

Hubby's View of Christmas Slideshow

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Christmas Slideshow

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December Twenty Third

What a fast day… and it does not feel like Christmas Eve will be tomorrow… at least not until 6pm when I get off work tomorrow… today I got to work at 6am and had to do the weekly shoe count… today was women’s… of course the hand held was not working for me… we opened at 7am… I finally finished at 9: 30am… went to lunch… and then opened boxes… which seemed more like an hour instead of three… I think I have finally arrived at the part of the mountain of boxes that was for black friday… so I’m not as caught up as I wanted to be by Christmas…

Got home, had something to eat and played frontierville on facebook all evening…

Son2 was finishing up his gift for his party and still needed to shower and was waiting for his laundry in the dryer… so he was an hour late getting to his party… another half hour before hubby goes to pick him up…

Here is the card he made in 3-D form from the video game Fallout…

The inside: he made a pocket for the money to go in…

Hubby finished son1’s girlfriend’s gifts from us… a very pink reindeer ornament, a pinecone ornament and a Hello Kitty candy… they are wrapped… but tomorrow I’m thinking son2 still has to help son1 finish wrapping… son1 should be done and on his way home from his last night at his part time job until he decides to maybe go back in the summer…

Hubby made pumpkin pies today… and son3 and I finished making our cards for each other, hubby and son1 and son2… we used lots of stickers… tomorrow I have to put the ham in before I go to work… and hubby and son3 are making cookies… for Santa…

Son1 just finished reading the Christmas story from the Children’s Bible to hubby and I…

And tomorrow we have to put out the stockings, write a note for Santa, put the family presents under the tree, the boys have a Christmas eve present to open, have ham for dinner and sleep…… so Santa can come…

Hubby is getting ready to pick up son2, son3 is off to watch Stuart Little 3 and I’m heading to jammies and finish Criminal Minds since I fell asleep last night and missed it…

Happy Journaling…

December Twenty Second

With all the rain we have been having, we have been having ants in the house… mainly the bathrooms… and the pet food… yesterday morning I awoke to a ton of ants in my bathroom and in Holly’s food… I was almost late to work by taking the time to divert their trails…

At work we were very messy on the sales floor but the stockroom was clean as they had hidden the messes for the visit… I spent the first four and a half hours stocking… went to lunch… wanted to continue stocking but we were busy with Christmas shoppers by then so spent the last three hours opening boxes… we waited and waited but the visitors never came… once home I got a message from the supervisor that they had cancelled…

Last night we took the boys to look at Christmas lights…

This is a house in our neighborhood that out does himself each year…

Lighted houses were few in our neighborhood so we went to the next town over where we know of a whole neighborhood that lights up… There was a line of cars when we got there…

This house had the lights timed to the music…

A robot Santa dancing like the Santas on Santa Clause 2…

There were many nativity scenes…

And a leg lamp from The Christmas Story; “you’ll shoot your eye out”…

When we got home, there was a huge box on the porch… Inside was a huge basket filled with lots of goodies all the way from Rhode Island… A wonderful Christmas surprise…

Even though I was very tired and looking forward to sleeping since I was off today… I stayed up til past eleven watching The Holiday… I love this movie… So cute…

Today hubby made cranberry orange pancakes for breakfast… very yummy… Son3 found many uses for the box from the gift basket today…  a shield for fighting the bad guys…

A foot rest while playing his video games…

And a table for making his Christmas cards… We didn’t finish our cards yet… I got grumpy… son2 wasn’t making cards but he got grumpy trying to figure out what to make his friend for the gift exchange tomorrow… he decided to give money and was going to use it to make an origami of some sort… but was not having the patience… hubby and I were trying to help him get ideas of what to make so I didn’t get the cards done that I am giving to the boys and hubby… then son2’s grumpiness passed off on to me… and then I realized it was past five and we were all hungry and I hadn’t figured out dinner yet… so hubby made breakfast for dinner again… he had gone to the grocery store today and we were going to make Chinese food but we will save that for New Year’s Eve instead… For Christmas Eve I am making a ham with all the fixings…

A couple of weeks ago hubby painted and sanded son3’s fort… I’d been meaning to share the picture… hubby is almost done making son1’s girlfriend some Christmas ornaments: pine cone and reindeer… guess he gave up on the origami too…

I did vacuum the house today and cleaned both bathrooms… washed all the rugs and towels… I have been putting a load in the wash every day after work to keep up on it since today and Christmas day are my days off this week…

I was a bit grumpy too this afternoon cause I think it is bugging me that I have to work 10-6 on Christmas Eve or actually that I have to work at all… the other two associates on my team that only got nine hours have today through Christmas Eve off… and the two seasonal associates on the sales side also have Christmas Eve off… The rest of us are working… I think everyone should have to work if only for three hours or so… just to be fair… and I know son1 has been working non stop for the last couple of months but now he has four days off from his full time job and I think tomorrow is his last day at his part time job… and the boys are off from school… and unfortunately hubby is off… why am I always working… oh yeah, I’m the Mom……..

This evening has gone fast… It’s already 8:30… Time to get ready for bed… and watch Criminal Minds from last week… Finishing up my hot chocolate… wonder what else we have in the form of chocolate…….

Happy Journaling…

December Twentieth

Only one more day til I get a day off… however tomorrow we have a visit just for shoes… hope they aren’t having any high expectations for their visit… cause we are a mess… missing displays, signing… tons of mismates… stocking needing to be done… lots of boxes still to open… maybe they will roll up their sleeves and lend a hand… HA… NOT… Today I scanned for missing shoe displays, stocked the sale tables, men’s work boots, women’s fashion boots, boy’s shoes, went to lunch, opened boxes… my back hurts…

Hubby is wearing his 24hr blood pressure check cuff today… he picked it up from Kaiser this morning and takes it back tomorrow… it goes off every twenty minutes… they say when he sleeps it only goes off every hour… we’ll see if it wakes him up tonight… he, son2 and son3 are watching Superman/Shazam cartoons… I’m making boneless chicken with onions, refried beans, cheese rice and corn for dinner… Son1 is off Christmas shopping for girlfriend… this may be his last week at part time job but he is not quitting just yet but taking a leave of absence in case they need him back within the next six months… they just have too many associates right now and son1 was getting burned out working both jobs… his newest plan for the fireman training is to go to city college to take the EMT class… can you just take one class in college… I’m thinking no… the advice given him was to take the class to help get in the training program quicker… his last resort is to join the military for fireman training… son2’s going to be doing his fireman training by time son1 sticks to a plan and that’s after son2 graduates high school and waits on the waiting list…

I need to clean the house… I come home from work, sit on the laptop, make dinner, watch TV and fall asleep… and it gets dark so early and it’s cold… just want to be comfy cozy… it’s still raining… supposed to rain til Christmas… 2011 will be here soon… resolutions to be made… lots of house cleaning then… find a job for hubby… maybe a new job for me if I become a supervisor… a whole new year full of new possibilities and adventures…

Dinner is almost ready and we are deciding which Christmas movie to watch… Polar Express probably…

Happy Journaling…

December Nineteenth

It’s raining! Been raining for three days… I love it! We had a big downpour about an hour ago… right after hubby got back from dropping son2 at his friend’s house… and son2 was going to walk… he and his friends finally exchanged names for their gift exchange on Thursday… now they just have to decide where to have it, who’s house…

I am so tired today… only two more days and a day off… I had to set the ad today, put up graphics, change out a sale table, and then I wanted to stock but ran out of time as it was time for lunch… after lunch opening boxes… tomorrow gotta change more sale tables, stock the work boots and open boxes…

I had planned to write an entry as soon as I got home but checked email, checked facebook but did not play frontierville yet… washed two loads of laundry… checked on hubby and son2 wrapping presents… ate lunch… now I have to get the bills ready for the mail tomorrow and hubby is making breakfast for dinner… son3 picked Home Alone 2 to watch tonight… heard from hubby that son1 said Tuesday is his last day at his part time job, but not sure if it is this Tuesday or next…

Hubby is calling everyone to eat… and I have been talking with son2 and hubby and not writing the entry… was going to save it and type more after dinner but will probably fall asleep on the couch again like last night…

Happy Journaling…

December Eighteenth

Three days down, three more to go… I didn’t think very carefully when I switched Tuesday off and went to work today… I’m working six days in a row… Oh well… just working 6-2 and opening boxes… which they need to bring the boxes faster… I am still way behind and only six days til Christmas… and someone is bringing up boxes from the wrong side of the box mountain as I am opening sandals… There are a whole lotta winter shoes/boots to get to the floor before we start on sandals…

I do work all day on Christmas Eve… 10-6… not sure what is up with that… plus the fact that I have 37hrs next week and the other two associates on my schedule only have 9hrs each… plus I get paid for Christmas Day so I’ll have 44hrs for the week… How rude…

Watching Bones reruns with hubby… he made a bundt cake yesterday by adding pudding mix to the cake mix… something he discovered when researching all his cookie cake recipes… it’s yummy… I have been eating since I got home today… had a chili dog…  a creme soda… hubby made baked potato wedges with lots of seasoning… tomato soup with cornbread for dinner… it was yummy… hubby had split pea soup… the boys were still full of hot dogs from earlier… hubby just brought me hot chocolate too… I’ll work it off at work tomorrow…

Come January First I’m back on losing weight… I want to get back to the 30lbs lost from the up and down I’ve been doing… and then lose another 11lbs… just cause it will be 2011…

Son1’s girlfriend was over last night… she and son1 were playing a card game… is it wrong that she changes into her pjs/loungewear when she comes over… I don’t even put on my pjs til I go to my room… Son1 was telling us that his dad is getting engaged for Christmas and going to New York to meet her family… son1 is not happy about it… I think not happy more about not seeing his dad for Christmas…

Son2 needs to catch up some sleep or something… he is so grumpy already on vacation… growling and snapping… he and his friends are still trying to get organized to pick names for gift exchange get together on the eve of Christmas eve…

Son3 is just too excited waiting for Christmas…

Just waiting for a couple more online orders to come in the mail and then wrapping will be done… Hubby wants to make cookies with the boys this week… and we want to drive through the neighborhood looking at Christmas lights one night, maybe Tuesday… On Wednesday I want to make cards for each other, son3’s idea… And read the Christmas Story out of the Children’s Bible…

I’m almost done with my Nora Robert’s book so think I will go read while hubby figures out if we are going to watch anything Christmasy… Son2 and son3 are off on their video games…

Happy Journaling…

December Sixteenth

Son3 has no homework, well, except study for his spelling test… Yay!! and tomorrow is the last day of school!! Son2 got out at noon today with finals… so he has been playing son1’s XBox all afternoon… Son3 is watching all his PBS shows, Electric Company is on now… Hubby worked on the Saturn, cleaned out very old papers in his room and shredded today… and I’m sure looked for jobs… I am making chicken, stuffing, broccoli and corn bread for dinner… Son1 is off Christmas shopping with girlfriend and texting son2 his ideas… he is getting son3 a build a bear/dog with Star Wars theme… I got to work this morning and we waited in the parking lot for an hour as the person opening forgot they were opening… we had to do our weekly count… the sales floor is looking ok but the stockroom is a disaster… so I cleaned it a bit, put shoes away, went to lunch and opened boxes… it was a fast day…

I was disappointed in my two days off as I was in a bit of a funk… I’m sure it’s the weather… I need sun… I have been taking my vitamin D although I did not yesterday… however I wanted to have a comfy day of reading and watching movies but I did not allow myself… but then how did I allow myself to sit on facebook all day playing FrontierVille… hmmmmmm…. mostly I have a bad habit of waiting for something… right now I am waiting for Christmas to come and hubby to get a job… I always do this… when I should be doing something while I am waiting… We are supposed to have rain from now til Christmas… I wouldn’t mind a BIG storm with lightening… we’ll see if we at least get rain… was foggy this morning a bit… and then when I left work one side of the sky was completely black but when I got home, all blue skies… with a couple of fluffy clouds… and cold….

Last night we watched the new Cats and Dogs… had split pea soup with ham and cornbread that I made yesterday… hubby and I watched The Defenders from last week… now we have to watch Criminal Minds and the Defenders from last night… tonight is just The Big Bang Theory and William Shatner’s show… Son1 came home from second job last night and had son2 hold the flashlight so he could put the part in the jeep… just took a few minutes to replace the pulley… he did say though that part time job is now going to let him go after the holidays as they are way over staffed… plus his full time job has been complaining about the part time job interfering with him staying for overtime as they have been very busy and this is their slow time…

Yesterday I did do some computer file maintenance and laundry which I think the dryer has a load still… and I really want to get back in a blog reading schedule of some sort… I have over 211 blogs I follow so yesterday I went through them to eliminate those that haven’t updated in a year or those that I was polite and followed as they follow me or commented… I only got rid of twenty… still too many… I need to make it manageable so I can visit all my favorites again…

I’m back… was talking with hubby… dinner is ready… the boys are grumpy… and bickering… need to feed them… watching Santa Clause 2 with Tim Allen…

Happy Journaling…

December Fifteenth

I switched my days off so I was off yesterday and today… so hubby didn’t have to get up early and take me to work… son1’s part for the Jeep came yesterday so tomorrow evening when he is off work, he can put it in… I was wanting the day off as I got to have two days off in a row and I got to have an hour all to myself while hubby was at his doctor appointment… I’ve been so tired with the winter weather, being dark all the time and all the working… of course now I have to work the next five days in a row…

Hubby got his refill on his blood pressure medication… of course when he went yesterday his blood pressure was high as he has white coat syndrome in that it is only high at the doctor office… when he takes it at home it is fine… he has even taken in his blood pressure device to show the RN that is works fine… but of course she doesn’t believe in white coat syndrome… so on Monday he has to wear a blood pressure device to check his blood pressure continuously for twenty four hours…

Son3 is off on a field trip today to see the new Narnia movie… he was all excited, even brought some of his own money so he could get popcorn and a soda… they have been talking about the Nutcracker at school this week so he brought The Nutcracker book and an actual nutcracker with a Nutcracker on it… and in doing so got a free homework pass… he wanted to use it last night but his homework was too easy… so I talked him into saving it for tonight so he could have a whole free day on field trip day plus it is early day… besides I have a feeling spelling homework tonight will be writing sentences… and he is getting the new Cats and Dogs from Netflix today… So he’s having a good day…

Son2 is counting the days til vacation… just two more days and they are half days for him as he has finals… he and his friends are exchanging names this week for their annual eve before Christmas eve get together… he has decided on a gift of $10 but instead of a gift card he is going to use the money/paper itself to make an origami piece of some design… he and hubby have been making/researching, as they haven’t finished anything for me to share, Christmas origami ornaments… I told hubby to make something for son1’s girlfriend and he has a pink pinecone ornament he made for her… when she comes over she stands in front of the tree and says how she just loves our tree….

Son1 is getting burned out working two jobs, spending time with the girlfriend and friends and still having time for himself to play his games and do his errands… he did tell his part time job that he would stay on after the holidays but just one or two days a week… they tell him what a good worker he is and his sales are really good… he still wants to train to be a fireman and hubby said son1 mentioned joining I think the Army to get his fireman training that way… but don’t know for sure til he actually commits to one of his plans…

Just me and hubby home today… last day before the boys are off for three weeks… Christmas lights are on and Christmas music playing… hubby keeps finding one more Christmas decoration to put up or ornament for the tree… he has been fighting with his lights burning out fuses outside… and we lost the female reindeer, only her butt lights up now… partly from the rain and partly from how many lines in each outlet… so he keeps rerouting and he wants to reroute so certain ones can still be on in the rain without everything being on that can’t get wet… keeps him busy in between job hunting… although he really needs to find a job just to get out of the house… he’s talking out loud more than ever… and the dog and cat aren’t always near by to answer…

Yesterday I spent the whole day on the laptop… cleaning up files, playing on facebook and don’t know what all that didn’t seem like it should have taken all day… I did take a break and put away laundry and watch Criminal Minds since I fell asleep the night before… Last night we watched Rules of Engagement, Mike and Molly, Hawaii Five O, and CSI… Just had a quiet day reflecting… lately my head hits the pillow and I am out only to open my eyes it seems a minute later and it is time to get up… I think hubby is wrapping some toys up that son2 cleaned out over the summer for son3 that we hadn’t given him yet… I did tease the boys and say I was going to wrap up things from their rooms that they hadn’t played with in a while… I need to get the laundry started, put some split pea soup on the stove and pay some bills…

Happy Journaling…

December Eleventh

Today was a nice quiet day… Didn’t get much done… although I’m tired… even got to sleep in… Getting ready to have some chicken soup I made with corn bread… and watching Shrek Forever After…

I straightened up the house a bit… laundry… and put up some Christmas decorations inside… need to take more pictures outside as hubby added a bit more… the tree is almost done being decorated… one more box of ornaments, the skirt and the angel… hubby raked all the leaves up in the front yard… tomorrow need to read a book and work on the mission report with son3 after work…

Today son2 played XBox all day… and son3 played Playstation 2 all day… son1 worked his full time job today and didn’t find the part for his jeep so had to order it online… he is using one of our cars for work til the part comes… hubby has a doctor appointment on Tuesday for usual blood pressure check so he will have to get up very early to take me to work so he can use the van since son1 will have the car… now girlfriend has picked him up and they are off to have dinner with friends…

Dinner is ready… off to watch Shrek…

Happy Journaling…

December Tenth

Waiting for the turkey burgers to finish cooking… also having curly fries… a hot dog too if you are still hungry… some beans and chips… son3 finished off the lasagna as he didn’t want a turkey burger…

We have Big Bang Theory, William Shatner, F Troop, Smallville and Supernatural to watch tonight… and if hubby and I can stay awake we have CSI too… Shrek Forever After comes from Netflix tomorrow…

Son1 is replacing the starter in girlfriend’s car… he didn’t have to go into his part time job tonight… and he needs to replace some ball bearings for a pulley in his Jeep…

Son2 is playing XBox…

Son3 is eating dinner and watching Simpsons… he wanted to go to a friend’s party tonight but we had to say no as he didn’t get an invitation but kind of invited himself, plus it was a sleepover but he was only going for the evening as the actual bday party part is tomorrow and he doesn’t have a gift… plus this was a friend that he had an altercation with last month that they ended up in the principal’s office…

he’s moved on now from being mad and is climbing up and down ladders while hubby is putting Christmas ornaments on the tree… hubby broke two ornaments today while decorating the tree… I put ornaments on the tree on Wednesday…

I have been busy at work this week, not with customers but getting all the shoes ready for them… I got in over 20,000 steps today… 10,000 of them were by lunch, 17,000 of them before we walked to pick up son3…

I have lots to do tomorrow on my day off… clearing off the kitchen table and island, mission project with son3, putting away all the laundry I did this week, mailing out the birthday/anniversary cards for the month, to start the list……

Dinner is ready……

Happy Journaling…