Beautiful Tuesday

Dear Mother Nature -

Thank you so much for the lovely weather today. I cannot believe it is 63 degrees!!  I've got the windows OPEN - fresh air in.. old stale air out!

Walked the dog.. and he has been playing outside all day, chasing those damn elusive Jersey squirrels. One day he will catch one... a very old and fat one .. but he'll get 'em.

Right now, it's time for his afternoon siesta

Everyone, meet Finn. Finn, meet the Internet.

 

 

 

I feel like a grown-up now

Paul and I have finally purchased our very own bedroom set. As in, no hand me downs (nothing wrong with that at all). It was a large expense but something we needed. We have had OPF (other people's furniture) for years and things have finally crapped out/fallen apart. Our bedframe broke (get your minds out of the gutter people) when one of our teenage daughters dove onto it, thus collapsing one of the sides, unable to be repaired.


I am waiting for the delivery truck now.


I am just nervous about the amount of the purchase. For some folks, not too much money but we've got a college bound student (woot!) and well, times are pretty tight right now since I am unemployed. The majority of my time is spent doing the three C's - cleaning, cooking, and chauffeuring. I'm busy with a lot of volunteer work but that's not helping to pay the bills. Luckily, eBay and a couple cleaning gigs have been available.

How funny - I've always thought I've been suited for this:

But, I've got this instead:

Well, at least I will be a cleaning diva!

Buncos, Boards, and Benedict - Oh My!

Had all my rowdy girlfriends over on Friday night for Buncos. So much fun!

My favorite part of Buncos is making food. Since the ladies were coming to my home, it gave me the opportunity to make yummy foods that no one really like to eat here. Thank goodness for Pinterest!

::Pssst - look me up on Pinterest::

Pinterest is my absolute favorite website. Where else can I find delicious recipes, housetold tips, fashion and jewelry galore, AND hot guys - all neatly categorized in one place???

ANYwho

I have a ton of boards on Pinterest, broken up into neat little categories like:

Amazing Appetizers
Heavenly Drinks
Everything Harry Potter
Everything Doctor Who
Kate Snark (my personal favorite!)

But, the most popular one lately?

Everything Benedict

"But why?" - do you ask

Here's why...

::BOOM:: Benedict Cumberbatch - meet everyone. Everyone, fall immediately in love with Benedict.

You're most welcome.

Do you know if you google "Benedict Cumberbatch", it comes back with roughly 92,000,000 results? ::rowr::

As you can easily see, Pinterest allows me to, well, sort of wander through different boards, like shopping at the mall. The mall with really hot guys...

WHICH leads me to another favorite board: Sweet Dreams - go on and browse. I'll wait...


You're welcome!

Yeah yeah... I know..

It's been forever..

Christmas, New Years, the Olympics.. blah blah..


Back on track.

MUST read - my lovely friend Liz from This Full House has a very touching post up about providing breakfast to kids in need. Do you know that 1 in 5 kids go to school hungry?

Completely unacceptable.

Watch her video (and grab some dang tissues) and then watch the video with the Team USA athletes.


::smooches:: Love ya Liz!

I'm a winner!!!

So - about ten days ago, I entered a contest over on this awesome blog ::waving - Hi Liz!:: hoping I would win. My girls are BIG readers and T.A. Barron's books are right up their alley. We are all big readers. I used to have to take their books away from them because they would stay up way past their bedtime, reading in bed!

Imagine my surprise when I got a congratulatory email from Liz, telling me I won the contest!! YAY!!!

So - guess what was at my door when I got home today?? An entire box of lovely books!! Hello beautiful!!

Thank you again Liz and T.A. Barron for the big, beautiful, box of books!!

Xmas Jammies

You KNOW you want to sing along...



Love them.
(h/t to Young Conservatives for the link)

I don't want ANY of these for Christmas!!

Whilst browsing my Facebook feed, since I am home and unemployed, I found this gem: What NOT to F'ing buy my kids this holiday.

It definitely made me laugh out loud. I remember those days, now, fondly. I have two teenage girls so my house was awash in Barbies (usually naked in a box with the other poor naked Barbies), mountains of My Little Pony - both toys and ponies. I am still not allowed to give away the ponies - here's the proof:

You should see the amount of Legos and blocks we still have around the house. At least I can say we still have them around for when my young nephews visit.

What were YOUR kids big requests this year? Mine asked for Beats (no way), a cat (HECK no), and all kinds of assorted clothing, boots, music, and gift cards.

Never thought I'd say this but I kinda miss buying toys. My babies are growing up.

Health and the Holidays

Well, what happened to my week? Poof!

I've been so insanely busy and have somehow managed to catch a cold. Ugh. It could be worse. I do remember having pneumonia before & during Christmas about three years ago - what a disaster. My Mom had called me, not feeling well at all. With her cancer and all her other health issues in mind, I rushed her to the ER where she spent an long time before finally being diagnosed with pneumonia & was admitted for several days. Of course, I stayed with her and, once she was placed in a room, I went back down to the ER for myself and ended up being diagnosed with the same thing!!! Lasted about ten days and it was horrible. I think Christmas dinner was leftovers - my poor family!!

Lately, I've been dealing with my (not) stepdad's health issues. [sidenote - he was my mother's significant other for twenty + years. He could be my stepdad if they had ever married.] His own children do not live close but they do check on him. I live ten minutes from him and I go over to clean occasionally. He's definitely reverted back to batchelor style living. My mother would be horrified at the amount of stuff and papers all over the place. He had a tendency towards hoarding so I try to ditch the junk as much as I can. He's a good guy, was always good to Mom but he's starting to really age and it makes me sad.

:::wiping eyes:::

Ok - enough heavy stuff for now... Time to walk away from the blog... 

Relaxing Sunday Snowmageddon!!

A little wacky here in NJ - it was out first official snowfall today! We got about 5 inches dumped down on us. Not that much snow but it did come down quite quickly, causing a mess on the roadways.

Olivia and her friends were in and out of the house - playing in the snow, making a mess. I got to run the dryer several times (thank goodness for dryers!), make popcorn, and hot chocolate. Paul shoveled the walkway and I cooked dinner, even grilling a steak in the snow flurries. It was awesome :)

The highlight of the evening - watching The Little Mermaid with the teenagers. Can you say fantastic? Made me reminisce about the times when they were younger. We would set up all the blankets and pillows on the floor, with all the stuffed animals, snacks, drinks, and fire up the VHS player. Ahhh - the good old days.. back when the girls looked like this..

My babies!! Now, they are so old and grouchy.. dang teenagers...

20 days 'til Christmas...

(also titled as All I Want for Christmas is a Job)

Unemployed. Between assignments. Unworking. Jobless.


It really sucks.


I left my job on July 19th to care for my mother. She had cancer and I think we both knew that the end was approaching. I was missing so much work in order to take her to appointments, cleaning her place, food shopping, cooking.. it was just too much to handle. Paul and I discussed it and he was 100% behind my decision to leave my full time job (office manager for a small business in town) in order to take care of my mom.

She died August 22nd.

Not shocking but still devastating. I miss her every day. (this will be another post.. sometime..)

Fast forward to December - still no income coming in from me.

There are a few positives to not working - I am home when my teens are done with school. That's a big bonus. By the time Paul and I would get home, there would have been multiple arguments (yay for sisterly love!), chores never completed, homework not EVEN started most times.. just your average disaster. Every. Damn. Day.

(Take a few minutes to check out Bill Cosby's comedy routine - The Same Thing Happens Every Night. This is my life.)

I was home to take care of Paul when he completely blew out his back. He was out of work for 8+ weeks.. He could barely even walk never mind sit or stand. Driving was completely out of the question. Thankfully, he has slowly been able to feel better. He's not 100% but he's leaps and bounds better than he was in September.

We had several college visits planned for September, October, and November for the 17 yr old. Again, I was home and available to drive her to those visits. I didn't have to worry about missing work. Paul was unable to attend those visits and was home with the 13 yr old, who took excellent care of him.

I have been trying to really keep our expenses as low as possible. I will have to go back to work very soon. There is not enough cushion to keep me home. I don't necessarily NEED to stay home but, heck, it's pretty nice to be able to food shop early in the morning and to get laundry done while no one is home. Dinner - everyone is happy now that I am preparing dinner every night.. too bad tonight's meal will be leftovers. Ha.

I've started eBaying. Clothes, books, collectible dolls, whatever I can unload, I'm trying to get it out the door. Heck, it's a start. If it isn't nailed down, I'm gonna sell & ship it outta here!

Well, off to do my mommy duties and finish making the beds. I feel like my life has turned 360 degrees since I originally started this blog 11 years ago. I was a SAHM, home taking care of my girls, cooking, and cleaning.

It never ends.