Time For Me Thursday

Can I just say how much I have been looking forward to this day? I mean, seriously - it is a day that I get to spend time on me! The question is, what are my plans for myself for today? I will share that with you, since you so nicely asked, or since you're still reading, whichever may be the case.

I have some things that I need to get done. I need to do some massive laundry tackling today, I need to get the house in order while the kids are at school, I need to unload some non-perishable foods that are still in the van from our grocery trip the other night when I was too tired to bring them in when we got back home. (It was a long day, believe me!) and all of those things are good and well, but not really "time for me". So in addition to all of those other things, I am going to finally get my bedroom in order too!

I have to admit, there are not many huge things to do in this room, just a lot of small things, like clear off the dresser, clear off the chest of drawers, give my Hubby the use of his nightstand again, move some things out of our room, break down a card table that has been living in our bedroom for who knows how long, clear off my chair in there and the shelves I have next to them.

This doesn't sound like "time for me"? Well, you are right, but this is a means to an end. That end being my "time for me" plan, which is to kick back in the chair and enjoy the freshly decluttered room, maybe even make myself some (instant) cappuccino and drink that while I blog or surf the net or whatever. Maybe Hubby and I would even be able to relax and enjoy a game of Backgammon while we're at it. Or Rummy. We always used to play Rummy after the kids went to bed, but before we turned in for the night ourselves. And lately, we started doing that again here and there. We enjoy it and it is some special time just for us. Kind of like a mini-date for us in our own house.

So that is my "Time For Me Thursday". You should take time for yourself too! What are YOU going to do for YOURSELF today?

Relax and enjoy the skin you're in

It has been stressful for me the last month or so. You can certainly tell that by Wednesday's post which makes today's post seem all the more important to me. You see, I"m a day late for Thursday but wanted to do it anyhow, which means it's my day to do something for myself, encouraged by Katie. In addition to that, Rachel Anne's points for today are also for doing something for myself so that makes it doubly easy to get something in for today.

I have had a lot going on today so my plan for today is to steal away some "me" time by locking myself in the bathroom, filling the tub up with nice hot water, throwing in some bath fizzies and just relaxing. Oh my gosh, does that ever sound wonderful?! Plus, with my ankle, I'm supposed to stay off of it as much as possible and showering pretty much guarantees standing on my foot.

Plus, do y'all have any idea how long it's been since I've been able to just kick back and enjoy a nice long soak? Bliss, I tell ya. Pure and utter bliss. And there's a lock on the door. So that means kidlets and Hubby will just have to fend for themselves the whole time.

I'm linking this up to Katie's "Time For Me Thursday" post and Rachel Anne's "Home Sanctuary" post for today.

Points for today:50 points!
Points for February: 430 points!

Time For Me Thursday

Thursdays are the days that Katie had deemed as a day to blog about some time that we spend on ourselves. As a parent, a spouse, an employee or whatever, it's hard to find time to really do something for yourself. You spend so much time focusing on your kids, your mate, or your job, that you don't often stop and take time just for yourself. Katie's designation of Thursday to blog about this is also my reminder of my need to take this time for myself.

I consider blogging to be something that I do for myself. It's my time to get my thoughts out of my head and into written form. It's also a place to share the things that I am working on around the house or with the kids or whatever, that the people in my regular, everyday life are really not interested in hearing about. And who knows? Maybe you all don't really want to read about it either, but it's still there. :)

I have not had much chance to knit recently, so I am contemplating that as an option of something to do today. Maybe a little bit of knitting and some Grey's Anatomy on the agenda for tonight. Sounds like a date with myself to me! :) That is my plan for this evening. Knitting and Grey's, pure bliss!

Time For Me Thursday

Hmm, trying to figure out what I want to write about. I did a few things for me today. The first was going shopping first thing this morning. I was actually waiting in Hubby's van outside the Target store near my house for about 10 minutes before they even opened their doors for the day. I was super stressed out by 8:30 in the morning, if that says anything. Hence the text to my best friend, Chris, "Arrrrggggghhhhh, so frustrated I just want to scream" at like 8am. So Hubby sent me out for some "me" time. I checked out the Christmas clearance at Target and spend a whopping $9.63 on TWO bags of ornaments. Some were big and some were small, and I don't know exactly how many I bought. They are the ones that you buy individually though. And I saved $81.00 on them too. Gotta love 90% off clearance sales. And I only got ornaments that I truly loved.

Hubby, Punky and I went out for lunch today. They let me join them on their usual Daddy/Daughter Thursday lunch date. Punky wanted McDonalds but we gave her a myriad of other options and she finally chose Red Robin. Though to be honest, even Red Robin is getting to be on the "oh no, please not that again!" list. But we went and got to sit in the section of one of our preferred servers, Casey.

She is really nice and fun and knows our kids. She and I have even hung out together away from her work. (As I said, it's starting to become a "please not there again" place - it shows when the people who serve you know you so well that you hang out with them too.) Anyhow, Casey even made Punky a strawberry shake that we didn't order - just to be nice. And we were invited to her son's 6th birthday party on Sunday at a laser tag place. It'd be something that Hubby, Natty and JoNo would enjoy - not so much Punky, Boo and I - although we'd likely go along, we just wouldn't play. Casey and her son, BayBay, share a birthday, which is actually on Monday. I think it'd be fun to go to the party. My kids have never met BayBay although I have. I think Punky and JoNo would get along well with him.

After lunch, we went out and did something that I've been wanting to do for almost a week now. But before I get to that part, I have to tell you a story first.

At the beginning of 2010, we had two vehicles, a 2000 Hyundai Elantra (mini) wagon and a 2001 Dodge Grand Caravan. We got the Elantra back in 2005, back when we were a family of four and I got pregnant with Punky just months after that. The Elantra seats five so all was good and well with that. Hubby also had a Honda which seated five. Then we got pregnant with and had Boo - and we needed to take both cars everywhere we went as a family. But thankfully, the Honda died in 2008 and we got the Grand Caravan, which seated seven and was just perfect.

Okay, fast forward to October of 2010 and just after I started the new job. I was driving the Grand Caravan and another driver rand a red light and hit my van, totaling it and turning Punky into an intense backseat driver. We got a new van the first part of November, just before Hubby and I took our 10th anniversary vacation. So then we had the 2000 Hyundai Elantra wagon and the 2003 Dodge Caravan.

Then in December, I was hit again by another driver who failed to yield. This time it was in the Elantra wagon. The car that hit me? A Cadillac. My door has been crunched in since then, and I can't open it from the outside and actually, I often have to open the back door before I can open the driver's door. This has been done by reaching across the seat from the passenger side to be able to reach both. So, the process looked something like this:

1. Unlock passenger door
   
2. Crawl in
   
3. Reach across to unlock the driver's door (thereby unlocking all the doors)
   
4. Reach into the back seat and open the back door
   
5. Open the driver's door
   
6. Crawl out
   
7. Close passenger door
   
8. Go around car and close back door
   
9. Get in driver's door
   
10. Close door
    

All of that just to get INTO my car.Okay, it was inconvenient, And on some of the -0* mornings, it was downright uncomfortable. And yes, I complained about it sometimes to Hubby. But for the most part, I was still grateful. The car still ran and I loved it. It got incredible gas mileage that I had never realized nor appreciated until I was commuting 120 miles each day.

So I was commuting my 120 miles each day with my crunched in door until late December. One morning as I was on my way home after having to stay half an hour late for work, I noticed that my battery seemed to be having a trouble keeping a charge. My head and dash lights would dim then come back to regular power. This happened a few times, then about 22 miles from work and 38 miles from home on a stretch of highway that isn't heavily traveled, I heard a pop followed by a hissing sound under the hood and then noticed steam starting to billow out from under the hood. It had happened once before last summer and back then something had casued my coolant to shoot out of the overflow hose onto the warm engine and so I had put more coolant in it to be able to drive it home until the thermostat could be looked at. It was looked at and fixed and running well. So when it happened again, i knew what it probably was. I pulled over, go out, checked the coolant reservoir and sure enough, it was empty but there was coolant on everything else under then sun hood. So I called Hubby, left him a message so he would know I was going to be late getting home, then called my father-in-law (from here on out referred to as FIL). Mind you, it was 6:55 a.m. at this point. I woke him up and told him what had happened. He offered to call a tow truck and to come get me. I told him that I didn't need a tow truck, I just needed some 50/50, explaining what it was and where to buy it. So, he got up, got ready to go, stopped at a gas station, bought the coolant and drove out to where I was. I had my knitting with me so I sat and knitted until he got there.

When he arrived, I refilled the reservoir and headed into the next town, eight miles away. By the time I got there, my car was overheating again, but the reservoir was full. We decided that since the car had made it those eight miles before overheating, that I would drive into the next town (another eight miles away) and then stop to let it cool down before going another six miles to get to the edge of the city we live in. Then to take periodic breaks driving it the remaining 14 miles to the service station that we use.

So off we went, with FIL following behind me. I made it almost a full mile before the car overheated again. I pulled into a stranger's rural driveway and via cell phone, FIL and I decided to go back to the town we had just left and to call the tow truck after all. So we did. It took AAA thirty minutes to find a tow truck and then another hour for it to get to us (by then it was 9:40 a.m.) The guy loaded up the Elantra wagon and took it to the service station we use.

The next day, I found out that it was going to cost nearly $7,000 to fix the wagon. Antifreeze and oil were mixing due to a broken gasket, the thermostat wasn't working properly and I had some sort of electrical issue as well, which is what had caused my dome light/horn/radio/cigarette lighter, etc. to not work either. We only paid $6,000 for it back in 2005 when it had 26,000 miles on it, so there was no way we were going to spend $7,000 to fix it now. The decision was made to start looking for a new car.

I looked at a number of sites, checked dealerships, etc. then found a car that I really wanted. It was a 2001 Hyundai Elantra sedan with similar mileage to my Elantra wagon and it was just as fuel efficient as my wagon too.

After lunch today, we went to the dealership and took it for a test drive. We did notice a few things that I wanted them to fix as part of the purchase agreement, and let them know about them. We then called Hubby's parents and they came down and took it for a test drive. We all discussed it and then put in an offer on the car that was $750 under the asking price, and the dealership accepted it! So now I have a new (to me) Hyundai Elantra sedan. And it's purty too!  See?

 

Time For Me Thursday

Today I did a couple of things that were for "me" that I'd really like to share with you all, after all, that's what Time For Me Thursday is all about right?

First off, if you have been following along, you will know that I have a number of house projects all going on at the same time and amazingly to me my house (*not including my bedroom, bathroom or closet) looks great! Sure, it could use some minor picking up - as could probably anyone's house with many small kids running around, but for the most part, it is looking pretty darned spiffy right now. Including the playroom - even though I still need to do a major toy sort and such in there. And the laundry / laundry room and basement have been coming along quite well also! It's awesome!

But getting that stuff to that point with Hubby was not the things that I did for *me* today. What I did for me also benefited my kids. After Punky got done with preschool today, I took her out to McDonalds for an ice cream cone. I have these coupons for free items from McDonalds (from Valentine's Day) and I just thought that she could use a little bit of a treat. She'd had a good day at school and I just wanted to share that special time with her. (Plus, it gave me a chance to get out and about for a little bit!)

The second thing was really the same as the first thing, only a different child. I took NattyNu out for an ice cream this evening after supper. I had to run to the pharmacy to pick up JoNo's breathing treatment solution boxes (one for home, one for school) and I stopped by my mother-in-law's house on the way over there. But anyhow, before I left the house, NattyNu asked if he could go with me, because he wanted to get some ice cream too since Punky had her ice cream still when we got home from preschool so it wasn't a secret that she got some this afternoon. I had told him earlier in the day that he could get an ice cream after supper so this was a good time to go get one for him.

So anyhow, NattyNu was with me when I got the prescription and then we headed towards the McDonalds by our house. When we got to our usual turn to go home, I didn't get into the turn lane since I was going to McDonalds and not directly home. Apparently NattyNu had forgotten about the ice cream (but let me assure you, had I tried to go home, he would most definitely have remembered!) and he asked me what I was doing. I told him we were going to go get ice cream and he was excited about it all over again.

The whole time we were gone (probably about an hour or so) we had a wonderful chance to talk and for him to just let everything out - things that are going on at school both good and bad. And it was a chance for me to just listen and be there with him and for him. I think that lately I have been very high-stress and haven't given him this much needed time. But the truth is, I need it too. I need this time to connect with my kids and I am actually very grateful that I got some alone time with these two kids today. I had alone time with JoNo yesterday (at the hospital, but once he was starting to do better, we had time to talk and spend together, etc. too)

While we were out, I picked up a cone for JoNo as well. But when we got home, he was already asleep for the night, so I handed the cone to Hubby instead. He LOVES soft serve ice cream! But he really really dislikes cones. So he at the top half of the ice cream and I ate the cone half. It was kind of funny and reminds me of the anecdote about the old couple sharing a meal at a fast food place. That story is kinda gross but it's really sweet too (in a way).

I still have not had a chance to really talk to Hubby about the issues I mentioned earlier today, but I plan to do that as soon as I finish typing this up. Then we will be heading back downstairs for some more fun and exciting time with laundry! Wooo Hooo! Yee haw! (Okay, I did not really just say that!) :)

Time For Me Thursday

Well, today was a really interesting day for me, as a co-worker called into work yesterday while I was still there (she works the overnight shift - 11pm to 7am) and one of the second shift guys said that he could stay until 1am. Another co-worker offered to work 1am to 5am, and then I had agreed to come in and work 5am to 5pm. Just two hours more than my usual Thursday shift.

But...we had Chinese food yesterday while we were working - and it didn't sit well with me. To the extent that I ended up in the hospital overnight due to dehydration and some serious arrhythmia going on. So, since I didn't get out of the hospital until like 5:30 or 6:00 in the morning, I didn't go to work. While I was at the hospital, I had a shot of something to help me with the nausea and vomitting - and it also happened to be a sedative as well. Which does not work out well for me in the first place. I rarely take medications, so any medicine has a super strong effect on me. And this sedative was no different.

I guess my breathing was all wonky - I'd drop to around 5 respirations per minute and stay there for quite some time (don't know - as I don't remember it myself - just what Hubby told me) and my heart was doing weird things too. So, anyhow...I'm guessing that you are wondering what I did for ME today, right?

Well, I'll tell ya. I slept in until 1pm. Then once I was awake, I stayed in bed, on the computer, and eventually watched a movie too. I began to feel much better, so I ended up being able to keep up my commitment for playing cards tonight. And that was GREAT! I had my best night since I started playing. I had our team high point total of 9 points! And you can only get to an odd number by one way - skunking the opponent. And I did. I skunked the one person that my team captain (aka my manager at work) wanted me to win against the most. It was great! And I also won (with nearly a skunk) against the one other person that he also wanted me to win against. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. It was nice - really nice.

And - I took part in Katie's assignment today - "to go to your desk and sort through the papers that may be lying there. Recycle what you don't need and file what you do." I did that and my desk is nice and neat, again where it has been recently. I haven't been home much and admittedly, I have tossed papers there with the intent of dealing with them later - and well, thanks to Katie, later happened to be today!

Time For Me Thursday

Well, my thing for tonight was joining in on a Cribbage tournament. That was a lot of fun! My manager, B, has played on this league for twelve years now. His team needed a sub for tonight and possibly a long-term sub to replace another teammate. I had never played Cribbage in a league, but it was easy to understand. All the standard rules of the game apply. A team is made up of five members. A play plays against each member of the opposite team once. If you win, you get two points. You get three points for a skunk and no points if you lose. Out of five games, I won two, so I had four points. They also keep track of pegged scores, and I had something like 567 points there, which averages out to about 113 points per game. There are 121 points in game, so really not bad at all. The team I was playing on was ranked second going in to the games tonight, and if my manager’s calculations are correct, we will be number two next week. I have even been invited back to play next week! Yay!

The other thing that was really cool about tonight was that my first game was against a very well-known reporter for our local newspaper. She’s kind of a celebrity in my book. She also beat the heck out of me in our game against each other. Afterwards, we were chatting while waiting for the players to my right to finish their game so that I could move on to the next game, and she mentioned that she was a writer. I was like, “I know! I really enjoy your writing. I have to admit that I’m a fan.” I was totally trying to be cool about it but I was nervous too. And she was awesome about it. She said, “oh! Well, you should have told me that before we started playing. I’d have let you win.” Haha! I love it!

But honestly, I really like her writing style. She has a very human-interest approach to her writing. Well, really that is what most of her articles are, but she just has a certain tone that I really enjoy reading. To be honest, she’s quite inspiring to me as a writer. If she has a piece in the paper, 95% of the time, I will read it.

I also worked today. That was fine. We have a new guy and today was his first day. My assistant manager, King J, as he likes to be called (LOL!) was the one who was supposed to be training this new guy on the register, but I was the one who ended up doing a lot of the register training. It was cool though. Manager B said that it was cool, and that I did okay. He said that he trusts me enough to train someone else – training is the job of the manager and assistant managers. Plus, did I mention that I have only been there for a month now? Well, a month and a week. That is not a lot of time. But he thinks I am good enough to train another employee and I’m cool with that. It’s a real pat on the back.

I worked today and I still have another seven days to work before I get a day off. That kinda stinks, but eh..after that, it is four day work weeks, three day weekends. Set schedule. Easy rollin’. Plus, my hours will be really close to Hubby’s hours so it will work out really well that way also.

I think I had mentioned that Hubby was talking about homeschooling the kiddos beginning this fall. Anyhow, I had made a call about it yesterday, requesting information and it came today, so my next step will be to read through it and see what all the requirements are and such stuff. I don’t know how we would work out homeschooling the kids when I have to work during the day and so does Mike. I mean, we could easily have someone watch them during the day and school in the evening and on the weekends, but I’m not sure that MIL (my mother-in-law) would be supportive of that. In fact, I know that she wouldn’t be supportive of it. But at this point, I’m not sure what we are thinking for next year. And who knows, maybe I will end up working third shifts again or something like that (which I might add – work out beautifully for our family – apart from the fact that I, well, I like to sleep with my husband at nighttime, ya know?) But anyhow, it’s a ways off and we’ll just have to see what happens between now and then.

I also went shopping for a laptop case for my new laptop tonight. First off, laptop cases are EXPENSIVE! But I did find a really cute, simple, brown and pink case for myself. It even came with three other cases – an accessory case (supposed to be for the power cord but could totally be for make-up and such related items), a camera case, and a flash drive case (which can hold either two flash drives, two SD cards or a combination of the two.) It is very cool and the bag could totally double as a purse. This is a bag that I would definitely carry all the time – with or without my laptop in it. I really like it. I’ll have to take a picture of the bag and upload it to share with you all. It even has some nice storage pockets inside of it and slotted pockets for credit cards and such.

I had hoped to find one for Hubby, but all the laptop cases at the store where I went were pretty feminine. Hubby’s favorite color is pink but I don’t know that I’m really all about him carrying around a pink and brown laptop purse. Ya know? It just doesn’t seem comfortable to me. I am going to go back out tomorrow and see if I can find him a more masculine or at least a basic laptop case. Not a purse, and no flowers or girly colors. I have in mind for him a messenger style bag in black. I love messenger bags myself, and almost held out for one instead of my laptop purse, but I decided that this purse was just too perfect to pass over, so I got it.

But anyhow, it’s late. Really really late for me. I’m usually in bed by around ten o’clock or so, and it’s already after eleven at night. Morning is going to come real early tomorrow. Well, technically, it always comes early, but tomorrow, it will be particularly early, so I am going to end this for now and will post it early tomorrow morning when I get online. Right now I am working on my laptop in a word document. Goodnight all! Hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

Time For Me Thursday

The week is almost over and all is well in the household. Although, I have to admit that I had a bit of a scare at work yesterday. I think it scared my manager, B, more than it scared me. Mainly because I'm somewhat used to it happening.

You see, yesterday while I was at work, I had a more severe case of arrhythmia. One moment I was standing by the cash register, talking...the next I was at the back of our work area, gasping for breath. I have had heart problems from the time I was really little. When I was an infant/small child, I was told that I had a heart murmur. In later childhood, I was told that I had outgrown it. Then when I was starting my adolescent years, I started to have problems with heart palpitations and skipped beats, among other things.

I was monitored about every six to twelve months for this and the pediatric cardiologist that I saw said that my problems were not severe enough to do anything about. She said that it was just an annoying inconvenience that I would have to deal with. So I have for about 15 years now.

Yesterday though, it was really kind of scary. I don't remember much of yesterday. Much of the memories are clouded and jumbled. I couldn't tell a person in which order the events happened, but what I do remember about it was that I had the arrhythmia episode, then I was standing back by the cigarettes, holding my chest and trying to catch my breath. My head was spinning and B was standing near me, asking me repeatedly if I was okay, if I needed anything, if I wanted him to call an ambulance.

I know at some point, I ended up in his office, in his big desk chair, with my feet propped up on the shelving unit. He was typing an email about having an employee transferred over from another store. There was something about score cards (our company's discount program) and at one point, I know I was back up front, leaning on the counter, trying to convince myself and everyone else that I was okay. B was patting my back. It was so comforting. It was really nice.

I don't remember coming home, although Hubby had dropped me off at work, so I'm sure he picked me up as well. But the second to next thing I remember is waking up at one o'clock this afternoon.

In retrospect, maybe I should have allowed B to have me taken in to the hospital, but I didn't. I don't much like doctor visits. I used to love them when I was a kid, but as an adult, meh, not so much. If I can avoid a doctor/hospital visit, I'm all about that.

Hubby's paycheck came today - a day before he is supposed to be paid - and two days before he normally gets paid. His payday is a Friday, but the checks usually get mailed on Friday, so he gets it on Saturday. The last couple of times though, he's gotten his Friday paycheck on Thursday. I'm not complaining, let me assure you! I like it quite a bit.

So, we ended up buying some groceries today, as well as some much needed pants for Boy A. Poor Boy A - he gets clothing as a (late) birthday present. But he is the child that doesn't get hand-me-downs, so the new clothing that he does get, often ends up being tied to a holiday, like his birthday or Christmas.

But I found him three pairs of nice looking, new cargo pants at Wal*Mart today. I have a real love/hate relationship with that store, but today its more on the love side of it. They had the pants that I needed, at a price I was willing to pay. Gotta love that. Somehow, somewhere, Boy A ended up needing a Husky waist in jeans. So that's what I found. Size 10 Husky. Fabulous! :)

And tonight for dinner, I made one of our favorite dishes...barbecued chicken and pineapple (on skewers). It's so much fun! Something about skewers makes mealtime so much fun, so I use those on days that the kids and I need a bit of perk.

Boy B was extra helpful today. When we got home, I had some dishes to do (I don't think I ate dinner yesterday, but the rest of the family did - and there were leftover dishes from that still around the kitchen, plus various dishes here and there throughout the house) so I got started on that right away. Boy B just came right up and volunteered to give me a hand.

He cracks me up. Where Boy A is 9 and wears a 10 Husky in jeans, Boy B is skinny. His waist only varies a tiny bit from that of his 3 year old sister and 2 year old brother. So, he wears a size 6 or 7 in jeans, because they have to be long enough, but today, he wasn't wearing a belt, so once he took off his shirt to help me with dishes (somehow, the kids all get wet when they help dishes, so they have learned to remove their shirts beforehand), you could see that his pants were sagging. There was probably a good two inches worth of underwear visible. It was so funny! I mentioned it to Hubby, saying that Boy B could be in high school the way that he was dressed at that point, based on the kids I see come in on school days.

It was a totally unfair generalized comment about a particular age group, but I see high school kids on a daily basis, and most of the kids that I see where exactly that. Pants that are sagging in such a way that I can see 2-6 inches of their underwear or boxers. I don't get it. I can't imagine that it would be comfortable, but maybe it is. Maybe it's an acquired taste for comfort, I don't know. Nor do I want to find out. And I think my kids will thank me for that.

All in all, we had a good, fun, and productive day today, even with me sleeping in until one o'clock. Craziness!

And tomorrow, when I get off of work at 11am, I will have the next five and a half days off from work and I will be working on things around the house in a major way. We have a lot going on and I seem to be adding more to the list without realizing it. I have high hopes and aspirations for the coming week. We'll have to see how it all goes.

Oh - and in case you didn't catch it...the thing I did for myself today was sleeping in. I needed it in a major way (and I'm not sure that it could have been avoided even if I had wanted.)