What I Accomplished Today

I've been lacking in the posts lately, and for that I apologize. Mostly to myself, since I'm going to flip back through this blog one day and wonder what was going on for so many weeks. I've been busy, but mostly tired, so I have a lot of catching up to do.

I had a burst of energy this week (Week 35) and on Saturday I got a lot of stuff done. Well, a lot of stuff for me, being just short of 9 months pregnant.

Bassinet is put together and in the bedroom
High chair put together
Baby Einstein Musical Jumper assembled
Kitchen cleaned up (more to do on that though)
Two loads of laundry
A trip to Hobby Lobby
Outdoor flowers watered, one bed weeded and maintained

I think it's time to take a bath, relax and do some reading.

I Love Text Messages

Me: I just heard Loverboy - Turn Me Loose. It's OK. You can be jealous.

The Husband: No time for jealousy when you're working for the weekend.


Pure awesome.

Life As I Know It

Life as I know it may be over. My iPhone appears to be dead. It locked up on me after lunch, and I can't get it to turn back on.

You may wonder, and I'll go ahead and answer for you. Yes, I am just that pathetic. And dramatic.

Can I get someone to queue up the choir? “Amaaaazzzzing grace…how sweet the sound…”

That's A Fine How Do You Do!

Wednesday night I'm lying in bed trying to fall asleep. I'm lying on my back, with my hands behind my head trying to unwind and drift off into a relaxed, deep sleep. It's just me and Nico. He's curled up on his blanket at the foot of the bed.

Suddenly a cat jumps up on the bed inches away from my head causing me to jump a little bit. It startled me, but it's only Sasha. She then walks across my neck and chest in slow motion to get to the other side of the bed. She might only be seven or eight pounds, but seven or eight pounds of pressure stepping on your neck doesn't exactly feel great. She goes all the way to the edge of the bed, looking out, curled in a ball. She stays for a couple of seconds, then comes back to my side, walks on my neck and chest again, then gets on the night stand.

A short period of time goes by, and I figure I better look to see what she's doing. I turn my head, and there she is sitting up all nice and tall just looking at me. That must have been what she wanted, because within another few seconds (long enough for me to turn my head straight and close my eyes), she comes walking back over me. This time slow enough so her butt is in my face. I can't help it, I start laughing out loud at this point. My laughter scares her, and she has a little jolt in her movement. She walks all the way over to the edge of the bed, lays down the exact same way and stays there until the Husband comes to bed.

OK, I get it. You're here. Your presence is known! Geesh, weirdo.

Is It OK To Laugh?

My sister-in-law and I made the trek to Lansing today in the snow. Bridesmaid duties. It probably wasn't the best day for this, but it was one of the only free weekends she had for the next month. The roads going there were pretty good. The right lane was clear and dry for the most part. By the time we went home, it was another story.

The roads were now wet, and getting slushy. Most people were taking it easy and driving with caution. Most people. There are always people on the roads who are driving like there's a fire, and just being stupid in poor conditions. One vehicle in particular was this honking, beast of a truck. Probably about as big as you can get. He goes speeding by in the left lane like we're standing still.

About fifteen minutes later, we drive past a truck who has slid off the road all the way across the median, and is now facing the opposite way, going with traffic in the other direction. The guy is just sitting in his truck. He could probably drive himself right out heading in the opposite direction, because it looks like he stopped on the side of the road. Then it dawns on me - that's the truck that went speeding past us moments before! Sister-in-law agrees, that is the guy.

I ask my sister-in-law, "Is it OK for me to laugh? Cuz I want to." She told me it was OK because the guy wasn't hurt. I agree, that wouldn't be funny at all, or would it have been funny if this guy took out anyone else with him. So I snickered just for a second. Hey buddy, you're going the wrong way.

Remember folks, when the weather is bad, to quote Pineapple Express, "Safety first. Then teamwork."

Be careful out there.

Bad Kitteh

As I was plugging away at work today, I heard my phone go off indicating that I got a text message.  I checked the phone.  It was a message from the Husband.  It said, "Nico bit me."  I started cracking up, then I pointed out to him in a text message back that no one likes a tattle tale.

Thankful For

Last weekend was Thanksgiving. It was pretty ho hum for me this year. By Wednesday night, the night before Thanksgiving, I could tell I was getting sick. I didn't feel good. Just blah. Something. The last few weeks have been hard on me emotionally, and I think it caught up to me.

I woke up on Thanksgiving with a sore throat. Just as I suspected, sickness was setting in. Again. I thought I'd snap out of it once I got up and moving around. The Husband and I headed out to my parents' house outside of Lansing for our first Thanksgiving meal of the day at 1:00 p.m. I started to feel better once I was at there and catching up with my family. So we ate, and I stuffed myself on my mom's awesome cooking, and we had to leave at 2:30 to go to Macomb to my mother-in-law's house for another Thanksgiving celebration. After spending more time in the car than at my parents' house, we arrived. I was feeling like crap again. Nothing a few glasses of wine couldn't cure though. I was able to hit the hay around 10:00, and totally stuffed up, unable to sleep.

We finally got back home to our own house on Friday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. By then I was sick. I mean blowing multiple tissues full of snot out at a time, and have more to go (I'm picturing the clown who pulls handkerchief after handkerchief out of his pocket. Yeah, my snot was like that. Never ending.). Sinus headache, body aches, and drowsiness. So the remainder of my Friday and all of my Saturday were spent lying on the couch. One of my favorite weekends of the year was ruined. Saturday was gorgeous too. We really should have gotten our Christmas decorations for outside put up, but we didn't. Now I don't know if we'll even get to it at all this season, because since Sunday on, it's been snowing pretty good. And that pesky day job I have, seems to get away as well.

Onto the day job...about four weeks ago now I interviewed for another job. I was looking for a promotion since I was unable to get one here. I ended up getting the job offer and accepting. Ever since accepting, something just didn't feel right about it. I had a pit in my stomach about leaving my current job. Yeah, the money...we're talking in the next two years about working my way into a five-digit raise. The office is rigid though. Firm on the rules and anal. For someone like me, who commutes an hour into work, I like a little leeway when I need it, and especially when the kids come, I'm going to want that flexibility. None to be had there. So is the extra money worth anything if I can't even be with my family? And they were cold. In the interview, when we were going over the offer, when I had questions. Every time. They weren't exactly a welcoming committee, if you know what I mean.

I have some connections, so I called the person that used to have the job. She found it hard to have one positive thing to say about the place. Ut oh. Then again, it could be a personality issue on her part. Who knows.

In the meantime, I have told my boss that I got an offer to leave. She said she was sad to see my go, and wondered had I gotten a promotion here, had I even been looking elsewhere? I was honest and told her "No, I wouldn't have been looking if they had promoted me here". Truth be told, this is a pretty cush place to work. It's flexible, my boss is totally family oriented and believes in "family first", and most important, I'm in my comfort zone, but I need a raise.

I ran into the director here before Thanksgiving and we had a nice little chat. He told me that I needed to be careful at my new job, that the management there was awful, and that they can't keep their staff around because of it. He said that I would've been perfect for my boss's job when she moves up, that's its too bad I'm leaving, blah, blah.

That was the final thing that pushed me. I hadn't been feeling good about this change from the start, but that just confirmed it. The following day I marched into his office and asked him to do something to get me to stay. That in turn resulted in my boss submitting paperwork to HR immediately for me to be promoted (I just have to hope the HR committee agrees to it, because they have final say). ALSO, are you ready for this? There was talk about letting me work out of a Grand Rapids office when the weather is bad. Supposedly they are working on this for me now.

Pretty cool, huh? So I guess everything has worked out for me. On paper at least. Only time will tell. Big sigh of relief.

I don't say this often, if at all, but "thanks". He knows I'm talking to Him.

Say What?

If the temperature hits 70-degrees today, it will mark the first time EVER that Grand Rapids has managed to have 4-days in a row in the month of November with highs at or above 70-degrees! It's looking pretty likely that it will happen. Get out and enjoy it if you can, because this is pretty unseasonable in Michigan for sure.

So in honor of this fabulous weather, and the crummy weather that is to come, I'm going to have a little competition.

Cast your vote in the comments section of this post for which day Grand Rapids will get their first official snowfall. The first official snowfall means snow in accumulation of 1-inch or more as reported by Wood TV 8.

The winner will get a prize!

**EDIT**
The prize will be awarded based on the Price Is Right rules. The closest guess to the actual snowfall date without going over, is the winner. Good luck!

An Update for You

Well, I haven't posted a real entry in a while. I should probably do that. Nothing too terribly exciting has been happening. My sister got engaged a couple of weeks ago, I guess that is pretty exciting. Weddings always are. With me though, not much is exciting.

I applied for a new job today. It'd be wonderful to even get an interview, because this job would be quite the promotion for me. I can't imagine the candidate pool I'm going to be competing against. A raise or promotion would be nice though. I haven't seen one in four years come December. And you wonder why I have a piss poor attitude at work! It's such a great feeling going in for annual evaluations and being told how great I'm doing, but sorry, no raise. Are you kidding me? That's like Santa Claus telling some little kid, "Johnny, I know you've worked real hard all year long at being a good boy. You know it. I know it. Everyone knows it. However, you're not getting any presents this year. Here's a lump of coal. Suck on that, chump!"

I told myself that I have to at least try for this job. Even if I don't get an interview, I gave it an honest shot. That's the best I can do, because quite frankly, mama is getting tired of coal for Christmas.

The Debate

For entertainment purposes only, but oh so funny...is the Penguin a Republican???

My Lucky Day

Today after work when I arrived to my car, I saw a dollar bill neatly folded in half tucked under my driver side front tire, like someone was leaving note for me. I picked it up cautiously, in case it was a poop dollar (story to follow). It was not. The dollar was as clean as a bill could be that was left on the ground, and a crisp new one at that.

Someone from work saw me pick it up to which I said "must be my lucky day!". Hey, I'll take a dollar after taking it up the rear with my investments as of late. It's always fun to find money.
***
Now, onto the game of Poop Dollar. Yes, evidently this game truly exists. I found out about it from my college roommate's boyfriend's friends (did you follow that?). This is how you play as explained to me:
-Someone goes poop.
-Then that said person uses a dollar bill to, ahem, wipe on one side.
-Take dollar bill, crumple it a little, and put it poop side down on a somewhat busy sidewalk outside of a bar.
-Sit inside the bar with your friends near the window, and watch how many people stop to pick the dollar up, then realize it has poop on it and drop it back on the ground.
-Laugh at their reaction.
-Bet on how many people will pick the dollar up, and believe it or not, some people will walk away with it.

I shit you not (pun intended), a group of college guys played this game on more than one occasion. So you've been warned, pick money up that is found on the ground with caution, because you never know when a group of college kids are watching through a window and laughing at you.
***
Come to think of it, maybe that's what someone did with all of our investment portfolios...shit all over them, and now they're watching us try to salvage our remaining dollars, while having a good laugh at our expense?
***
Good thing the government gave AIG an $85B bailout loan...cuz those executives deserved a much needed break from driving their own company into the ground. Spending $23,000 in spa treatments is a necessary business expense. Ask anyone.

Little Time Left

Do you think I’m packed for my trip to Cabo? Uhm, no. When do I leave you ask? Tomorrow at 6:00 a.m., but don’t worry, I have the list.

I make a list of items to take every time I take more than an overnight trip. The list comes in handy for a procrastinator such as myself. It reminds me to pack things that at the last minute I could potentially forget, like a koozie cup for my beer by the pool, or bobby pins to keep the back of my hair off my neck while sunbathing. You know, the things I don’t use on a daily basis, but will come in handy while traveling (although if I were MacGuyver, keeping bobby pins on hand at all times could turn out to be incredibly useful - something to ponder).

The list also reminds me to pack clean underwear and to take my passport. Those two seem like no brainers, but not much would be worse than driving all the way to the airport in Detroit, and not having a passport, because I packed in a rush and forgot, or packing a pair of jeans, two swimsuits, a cover-up, five tank tops/shirts, two dresses, a shrug, a pair of white pants, two pair of capris, a sweatshirt, a pair of shorts, a lightweight bathrobe, a loofa, iPod, magazines, book, three pair of shoes, enough sunscreen to cover a football team, and going “Oh shit! I forgot to pack underwear!”. Nothing screams vacation like wearing swimsuit bottoms for a week straight. Hence, the list.

So I’ll be back soon with photos and maybe a story or two. The Husband and I got a new High Def video camera, so maybe I’ll even post a video clip. Oooh, aaaah.

Chao, amigos!

Happy Birthday, Dd

No, that's not a typo. My dad starting signing off on e-mails a good year or two ago as Dd. I guess by leaving the "a" out, the IT folks at work would never put together that he's sending out personal e-mails to his family. Very sneaky, that Dd. So when that signature came around, it just kind of stuck. If you know my family at all, we have too many inside jokes and code to ever list, and they never really go away. The Husband said it took about a year for him to finally catch on to them all. My Dad also has some sort of saying to pretty much go with anything. One example of that is when I'd come home from college and go out with my high school friends all night, I'd roll out of bed looking like death warmed over the following day. He'd say, "Whoa, you look like you were shot at and missed; shit at and hit." Touche. Or his clever farming (I grew up in the sticks for those who don't know) analogy for a hangover, "Plow all night, drag all day, Ker." I knew that one all too well. Or the ever popular Sunday night quote of "Back in the harness tomorrow". That gave "the grind" a whole new twist. Apparently at his place of employment they are called "Al-isms".

So last Sunday we celebrated my Dad's birthday. Five-eight and looking great. The whole fam got together at my parents' house. We grilled some burgers and brats, had some potato salad and my mom's famous turtle cake with ice cream. Good stuff.

We all got my dad a new set of golf clubs which he really liked. I know he'll get some use out of them. So then we all hit some golf balls in the backyard. My parents have a giant backyard, which is perfect for that. We got some cornhole in as well. The girls finished off the day with some hula hooping. Yeah, we sure know how to throw a party.

Aunt Nese blowing raspberries on Anders's stomach. He loved it.

Family photo #1.

Family photo #2.

Mom working it with some hula hoop action.

Oh Little Gnome

I saw this video on youtube months and months ago. I heard the original song on the radio today, which reminded me of this brilliant piece.

It's sure to bring a laugh, or your money back guaranteed.

The misheard lyrics to Pearl Jam's Evenflow...

Boogers and Bags

My mom told me this story last Friday after she babysat my nephew, Anders.

He was down for his nap. I guess he only slept for about an hour, and my mom wanted to drag it out longer. When he woke up he started calling for her. He was yelling "Grandma" a couple of times, so my mom went and peeked inside the cracked door to see what he was doing, hoping maybe he'd go back to sleep. She said he was standing up, stacking all the toys in a corner of the crib (clearly awake). She walked away, and tried to see if in a few more minutes he'd lay back down. Nope. He kept calling for her. So she felt guilty and went to get him. She went in and said, "Who is it? Whose calling for me?". Then she says, "What have you been doing?".

He replies, "Tasting boogers." Totally like it was a normal thing for someone to do when killing time.

This is what your kids learn at day care. LOL.

*****

Last night I got another Victoria's Secret catalog to browse through. I get these things several times a week, I swear. No wonder the prices are so high, they have to make up for all those printing and mailing costs.

As I thumb through, I'm convinced that I've become, or am becoming an "old married woman". No longer will I spend a great deal of time looking at the lingerie, picking out cutesy, little matching sets of bras and panties. If they fit, and they're clean seems to be only criteria I adhere to these days. I've moved onto the $2.99 clearance, lace undies from Old Navy, and I've gotta be honest, I love them.

But anyway, I love the clothes from Victoria's Secret. They have some really chic stuff. I've noticed that they have started pairing handbags with the outfits recently. And that got my mind to wander. I need a new purse. Last March I remember seeing a Jessica Simpson handbag in the catalog that I fell in love with. When I hopped online to order it from VS, it was, unfortunately for me, sold out. So I scoured the Internet in hopes of finding it elsewhere, and had a really hard time. I pretty much gave up. My mind kept telling me there was no reason to spend $100 on a purse anyway.

This morning I was thinking about the catalog again, and with handbags on my mind when I arrived at work, I jumped online to a new favorite shopping stop of mine, endless.com (thank you, Keri). I started with the Clearance/Sale section, because hey, who doesn't love saving a few bucks? With intentions of finding the Guess tote I saw the night before, I stumbled across the Jessica Simpson bag I had wanted for 45% off. I ordered it right away.

Then I logged back on after lunch, and it's gone already. Very popular item. Good thing I moved fast. I can't wait to check this thing out. They can hardly keep them in stock anywhere! And at almost half price, I was patting myself on the back. The Husband thinks I'm total geek for buying a Jessica Simpson bag. He was happy about me being a smart shopper, but laughing at the product. Hmph, what's he know anyway?

Word of the Day

I decided to google (yes, it's a verb) "Word of the day" today, just to add a little spice to my blog. It is:

mephitic (muh-FIT-ik); adjective
1. Offensive to the smell; as in, mephitic odors
2. Poisonous; noxious

I wish I could say I was making that up, but that's what came up. No lie. I'm instantly reminded of last weekend. I will leave it at that.
***
I can't seem to get rid of the stomach ache I've had since going up north either. Every time I eat, this awful pain comes out of nowhere, and I feel like garbage. I hope one of you girls didn't impregnate me after I went to bed. . .that might put a damper on that daily meth habit I seem to have going for me.

New Coworker

Some of you may or may not recall that recently I was ranting about work and promotions. Well, someone in my office retired at the end of June. The office here was so gracious as to never internally post the position (which would've been a promotion for me), so I missed the opportunity to apply. I was definitely bent out of shape about that one. I'll leave it at that.

The new person started this week. As her boss was taking her around and introducing her, I was friendly and said "Welcome aboard!" and all the other cliche crap people say when you start a new job. What I really meant to say was:

Intellectual Conversations

Tonight we had bean tostadas with homemade salsa for dinner. Yum, yum. We sat in front of the TV to watch a rerun of House while eating.


At the end of the show, the production company commercial came on. It's a little cartoon clip with a voice over that says "That's some bad hat, Harry."



I say: Whoa, that guy has boobs.
Him: Huh? (Not paying attention)
Me: The commercial, did you see that? The guy had boobs. Weird. Rewind it. (Yeah, I'm that strange that I wanted to see it twice)
Him: Is he fat?
Me: Just rewind it.
He does and we both watch.
Me: See? That's so weird. I wonder why? They are all saggy. The guy is skinny.
Him: Gross. They are like old lady boobs.
Me: How do you know what old lady boobs look like? (I'm smiling at this point)
Him: From comics and stuff. You know, like bowling pins, the joke...
Me: Ooooh yeah, comics. Uh huh. Haha.
Him: Go clean up the leftover beans.
Me: I'm going to put them in your sock drawer. (I can't help but laugh at this point)
No response from him.

I'll say I won that battle. Oh yes, the conversations at my house are deep.

I'm Here

I haven't posted in a while. Nothing exciting has been going on. Just doing yard work, and so much of it! I need a weekend to just rest and enjoy summer. Ya know, hit the beach, throw back some brewskis, maybe actually do laundry sometime this month...good thing I have over 30-pair of undies. Yes, that's right, the material I have to talk about is so lack there of that I've resorted to the undie reference. Inquiring minds were dying to know, ya know.

Dance class is going well. I've got two sessions under my belt. It's me and the blue hairs. I think I'm the youngest one there by a good 15 years, but the majority of them could be my grandmothers. That's OK though. They are really nice and inviting, and have been doing it for years, so a lot of them are really good! I'm hanging though. My moves are rusty, but it'll come back to me. The class is a combination of both tap and jazz. Thankfully the majority of the class focuses on tap, I'm not all that into the jazz, but the important part is that I'm having fun. I should have a couple of routines down by the end of my ten weeks.

I can't believe the fourth of July is the following weekend. Where is the time going? It was just Memorial Day. However, I've got a couple of sweet things planned in the upcoming month. One being the Snoop Dog concert at Common Ground in Lansing. I never thought I'd get a chance to go see 'ol Snoop-a-loop, but hey, never say never, right? I'm going with Juniper, she's got free tickets. VIP tickets no less. I better start practicing my moves. I can't imagine the crazy kids these days are still doing the running man or cabbage patch.

And a couple of days after the concert, I head up to Cadillac for our annual "Girls Weekend". We're throwing golf into the mix this year. The Pines (a townie bar in Downtown Caddy) AND golf? This trip has shenanigans written all over it. Oooh I can't wait. Waahaahahaha (that's my evil laugh). The last time I went golfing, I fell out of the cart when my partner in crime took a turn too fast, and I ended up doing cartwheels on the green in celebration of GETTING par. Just to paint a picture of how serious I actually take this. All of the other golfers on the course are going to love me. I just know it.

I've also got a couple of weddings coming up in July and August. We got invited to a wedding out in Portland, OR, but I don't think we'll make that one. The airfare is just too darn expensive. I've always wanted to visit and hit up Seattle and Vancouver, but it's not likely to happen this year. I've got plans of going on a trip over Labor Day weekend...or maybe that's wishful thinking too.

So stay tuned. I'll have stories, pictures and updates coming.

Tappa Tappa Tappa

After a few years of wanting to take adult tap dance classes, I finally signed up! When I lived downtown, I had called the Rapid City Dance Factory about classes, but it sounded like one of those things where they just throw you into the mix with a bunch of people who have been doing it for who knows how long, and you have to learn from where they are at. That really intimidated me. I didn't want to be in a class where the rest of the students found themselves telling the instructor "Kerri's bad dancing makes our feet sad!". To quote Ralph Wiggum from The Simpsons.

So I'd thought about it here and there, but never really did anything. Then I accidentally found a beginner tap/jazz class through one of the local Parks and Rec programs here in town. I waited until the last day to sign up, but I did it! Ten weeks of tap class!

To let you know where my interest in tap dance came from, I present the pictures below.

This is me as a Dandy Lion. The first year I did tap, the recital theme was "Enchanted Garden". I came across the program not to long ago. All of the different tap classes that ranged from beginner to advanced level all had costumes to do with an enchanted garden. Some were bees, some were dragonflies, some were fairies, etc. My mom actually wrapped this costume up and gave it to me for Christmas this year, shoes and all. I guess she's trying to get rid of junk in the house. Fair enough.

My dad carried this picture in his wallet until I had senior portraits taken when I was 17. I'd also like to add that my dad still carries a picture of my mom and him from their senior prom around to this day. So he's not exactly on top of updating pictures. Haha.

Year two I was in the soldier group. I imagine they had a cute little name for us, but I can't remember it anymore. I believe the recital theme that year was along the lines of "All the King's Men", or ladies. Or something.

And that was my short lived tap dance career. Until now. Let's hope it goes well...