Saturday, December 20, 2008

Picture 1: Jesse after we got home from the small group Christmas party on Wednesday night. I have no idea why that particular expression got captured - he had been laughing and squealing just seconds before.

Pictures 2 & 3: Jesse vs Mr. Kitty. They had been playing together. And Kitty had been hanging out in the green bin in Jesse’s hand. Then things took a turn when Jesse dumped the cat out of the bin and tried to cover him with it.

Picture 4: Beau made truffles for the Christmas party. He put some of the still melted chocolate into a bowl for Jesse, who devoured it. This is yesterday, the leftovers.

Today we have the annual family gathering with my Dad’s family. I’ll be sure to take the camera to get more cute Jesse shots.

Friday, December 19, 2008

I went for a haircut this morning. The plan was a mere trim - I have a slightly longer than chin length bob. What I walked out with is a chin length bob with the back stacked a bit so that it’s nice and short on the neck. Me likey. And what was really nice is that my hairdresser complimented my color and advised me to keep it. She was impressed that I did it myself for pennies compared to what she would charge me.

My new camera arrived the other day. Me likey. However, there is going to be a short learning period for the macro setting, which is essential for taking pictures of my jewelry pieces. I’m OK with that, though. I think my photography is actually going to improve with a better camera. However, I am having a hard time installing the software right now, which is frustrating.

We’ve decided to reconfigure the living/dining area. We no longer have a table in the dining area (it’s a long story, but the table we were using in the kitchen is broken so we moved the dining room table into the kitchen). This means we have an unused, empty space kind of going to waste. So what we’re going to do is make that a play area for Jesse. Since it’s an area full of stuff that we are giving away, going to sell, need to store, or throw away, we have some work to do to make it Jesse friendly. Beau figures it might become the school area later, too.

I’m looking forward to Christmas. I think Jesse is going to love opening presents.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

If Jesus Had a Blog ...

I especially love the comment from Liz2.

The White Elephant party was fun last night. The folks in my parents’ small group are great and our group blended with them quite well. We took home a t-shirt that was given out at church sometime this year in size small - this will be regifted at some point - and a lovely handmade scarf that matches my barn coat quite nicely so I’m keeping that one. I almost came away with cute elf slippers that light up, but they got stolen from me by the single dude who plans to give them to his girlfriend. Whatever. The funniest gift was the coconut monkey. I can’t even explain it - just know that it is awesome.

Beau brought Jesse dressed for bed in his Christmas red jammies. He charmed the whole group, of course. The amazing thing was when I asked if he was ready for night-night, he said, “Night-night, OK,” and headed for the stairs. OK, then. So we put him to bed (in the pack-n-play to minimize room destruction) and while he chattered for about 20-30 minutes, he stayed pretty quiet until he fell asleep.

In the busy, I’ve been surprised by pretty consistent sales in my shop this month. It’s been a nice reward for very little work and I’m happy to be clearing out some older inventory. I’m planning to move my shop to a more professional username with Etsy in January and I also want to rework my branding a bit before ordering new business cards and product tags. And I have a couple of other jewelry orders to complete and get out this weekend (Barb, I haven’t forgotten your lanyard!).

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Thanks to Granny, who corrected me on my misspelling of the post title so lovingly.

1. Is it really necessary to blow leaves right outside my window during the middle of a work day? The noise is deafening and annoying.

2. I stumbled upon Glenn Beck on the radio yesterday morning on the way in to work. I was running late since I cooked a plethora of food and on a lark decided to hunt the AM dial. I was most happy to discover that he’s now on live on The Big Talker 1580, which is the AM sister station to the new WHFS, which is not at all like the old WHFS.

Now the dilemma is which crappy station I want to listen to in the morning when at the office - I listen to Laura Ingraham usually from 9-noon. The station she’s on locally is awful and often I sit with static or silence as the signal gets lost. Turns out the same thing happens with Glenn’s new local station, as I discovered this morning. At least I’m still an Insider with Glenn and can download his show to listen anytime of the day that I choose. I may end up sticking with that.

3. I’m really tired today. And we have a Christmas party tonight. I’m really looking forward to the party, so I’m hoping I get a serious boost of energy later in the day or it may be a struggle to even fake having a good time.

4. I’m excited to have a nice long weekend next week. I’m taking Christmas Eve off and the President was kind enough to give fed employees the day after Christmas off, too. I need the break, although those days will be busy in their own way.

5. I think my new camera is to arrive today. We got a call from UPS to notify of a delivery today that will require a signature. That’s the only package I’m expecting that would require an autograph. I’m excited!

6. So Jesse broke the lightbulb in the lamp in his room this morning. He has a fascination with lamps - loves turning the light on and off. I have a hanging ceiling lamp that I want to put into his room, but we need hooks. Looks like we’ll need to do it sooner rather than later.

He ended up with a minor cut on the back of one hand. Beau fixed him up with Neosporin and a Band-Aid. Jesse’s intrigued with his boo-boos. He got a scrape on his leg coming up the front steps to the door outside on Sunday. I doctored him with Neosporin and a couple Band-Aids then, too, and told him his boo-boo would feel better soon. The rest of the day he would touch the spot and say “boo-boo” with immense pride. Funny boy. Oh, and he said a phrase last night, a first. But for the life of me, I cannot remember what it was. And, he peed in his potty yesterday for the first time, too.

7. One other thing ... my travel is booked for next month. We ended up with a reasonable flight back on the 16th - we get back in the mid-afternoon. So hopefully we’ll beat most of the Inaugural crowd coming into town that weekend.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

You know you threw a good luncheon at the office when all of the bosses came to you to say it was great. I especially liked that the Chief, who worked at HQ for a while, came to tell me that our party was far better than anything he went to at HQ.

And The Director made an appearance. It was like old times, almost.

Mom, your ham rolls are a huge hit and you may get a couple cookbook sales as a result.

Beau and Jesse came for the festivities and Jesse charmed just about everyone. He was actually very well behaved and ate a pretty good lunch followed up by a whole piece of pumpkin pie that was fed to him by KN. And then she fed him about 1/3 of a chocolate cupcake, too. Poor Beau has probably had a very active afternoon. Or Jesse crashed and took a really good nap. Or both.

All I know is that I’m weary. I was up at 5am to start the actual cooking part of the food prep. I’m ready to go home and crash.

One thing that needs doing tonight - our White Elephant gifts need to be wrapped for tomorrow night’s party.

Monday, December 15, 2008

Via Beau’s Sis via email.

For those who care, the latest appointment news is posted now.

This week seems to kick Christmas into High Gear.

Today: I need to finish prepping the food for the Christmas lunch at my office tomorrow. Since I’m the lead planner, this means that I did all of the shopping and most of the cooking. I’m totally OK with that and I’m happy that I can actually do the cooking needed now that my pregnancy has normalized somewhat.

On the menu are ham rolls (I can’t post this recipe because it’s published in my mother’s cookbook), cheesy hash brown potatoes, and hot Alpine chicken salad (if you’re interested, I’ll post a recipe later), and BBQ meatballs (using this BBQ sauce recipe, which I made on Saturday).

Tomorrow: The Christmas lunch at my office.

Wednesday: We’re doing a joint small group White Elephant party with my parent’s small group. Should be a fun time. Each couple has been asked to bring a savory and a sweet. I’m making more meatballs (see above) and Beau is making truffles. His truffles are to die for.

Thursday and Friday are clear, however…

Saturday: We have the family Christmas gathering with my Dad’s side of the family. This year it’s at my parent’s home and the meal theme is traditional British. This means roast beef and the trimmings, including Yorkshire pudding, which I love. We’re making potatoes and sticky toffee pudding. I’ve never made sticky toffee pudding, so I’m looking forward to the challenge.

Sunday will be a normal Sunday except that we’ll go to church that morning since we’ll be partying with family the night before.

And I have a hard believing that Christmas is really just next week. Crazy!

1. I have my next prenatal appointment around lunchtime. I’ll post to TG later with the report. No ultrasound today - just the normal check up that includes listening to the heartbeat, which is pretty cool.

2. The weekend was generally good and busy. At this moment I cannot remember what we did on Saturday, although we opted not to go to church since Jesse’s congestion and cough seemed to relapse a bit. Speaking of that…

3. Jesse scared the crap out of us on Friday night. We were watching a movie (Out of Time with Denzel - 2 stars out of 5) when all of a sudden we heard this weird coughing in the monitor. It wasn’t like normal coughing, so Beau and I took off to head upstairs. Beau got there first, of course, and when I got there I saw Beau holding Jesse over his arm and sort of patting his back. My thought had been that Jesse coughed hard enough to make himself puke, so I expected to see (and smell) vomit, but there was none.

“What position was he in when you got here?” I asked. Beau said he was on his hands and knees and making choking sounds. Dear Lord, help us. It seemed that Jesse was still mostly asleep - when the coughing stopped, he just leaned into Beau’s chest.

Then the debate began about what happened and whether or not to cover him back up when we put him back into bed. Since I was still dealing with my cough, too, I hypothesized that phlegm probably collected in his throat and caused him to choke a bit and then the coughing and because he’s still learning how to cough he didn’t know how to take the deep enough breaths he needed to really clear things out. I have woken up with a choking feeling and coughing jags in the middle of the night. Turns out he did fine the rest of the night, poor little guy.

4. Anyway, back to Saturday ... I still can’t remember what we did during the day. I know that Beau went to the store for me to pick up the last things I need for prepping the food for the Christmas lunch at my office tomorrow. I think I worked on business stuff while he was gone. I do remember that Beau and I played a marathon game of Scrabble in the evening rather than watching TV or a movie. I was losing for most of the game and then I got a Z and snagged the lower right corner Triple Word Score with ZEAL - 69 points - to take the lead and win the game.

5. Sunday morning was Beau’s morning for parking lot duty at church, so Jesse and I headed out to Walmart to pick up some things we needed. And it helped me to keep him occupied without having to expend a lot of energy chasing him and yelling No every 30 seconds. He does great in the shopping cart, so that’s a blessing. We got home and he went down for his nap shortly after. I then went to work on some jewelry custom orders that had backed up and managed to get them all done. Then I decided that the necklace I made to match a bracelet and earrings I had given to a friend for her birthday would be interesting bridesmaid jewelry, so I started taking pictures for the listing in my shop. Unfortunately, my camera seems to be dying. So when Beau got home we discussed it and my early Christmas present from him is a new camera - I ordered it online yesterday. What stinks is that I have some new jewelry pieces that I was hoping to list in my shop today but with no camera, that isn’t possible. So I’ll have to wait until the new camera arrives.

6. While watching the Survivor finale (I <3 the winner), Beau and I wrapped most of the Christmas presents. I especially wanted to get the ones for his sister and family wrapped to get those into the mail today. And I have a box that needs to go to my sister, too. What stinks is that I discovered that I had no tissue, which seems odd, because I know I had a ton last Christmas. And bows, too.

And I think that’s enough for this morning.

Friday, December 12, 2008

Today was supposed to be a work at home day. But I needed to run to BJs to pick up the food ingredients I need to prep for our office Christmas party next Tuesday. Since I’m the head planner, that means the bulk of the food prep falls to me - most chip in money rather than sign up to bring something.

Since the BJs is near my folks house and I needed to take some of our good china to Mom for a tea she’s hosting this weekend, I planned to do that on the way to the store. And there’s a Michaels near the BJs as well and I needed to take care of something there, too. So the plan? Kill 3 birds on one trip. And take Jesse with me so that Beau gets to enjoy the peace and quiet of the empty house for a couple-few hours. Besides, Jesse’s easy to entertain when out of the house.

The plan went slightly awry when we left about 30 minutes later than I wanted…

(click the link for the rest of the story)

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Item 1: It all started with bad traffic. Then I got reprimanded for my tardiness and told it was bringing down morale. Wha?

ME: Whose morale?

My Boss: Ok, in reality it’s Useless One who is bringing down morale. But the Chiefs think that there’s a morale problem and want all problems fixed.

ME: Then why are you trying to put that on me?

*crickets*

The truth is that morale for the deputies may be down, but you’d be hard pressed to prove it. They aren’t in the office enough to know how they’re feeling. That they have to sit back there with Useless One being useless and complaining all the time may explain it. I don’t see how my showing up late is even noticed by any of them since they can’t see the front area at all. I freely admit to a tardy problem, but I put in a full 8 hour work day and get my stuff and other’s work done (pointed glance in Useless One’s direction), so why care if I walk in 15 minutes late?

And as for the admins go, we’re all good with each other these days with the exception of Useless One, who is a burr in all of our sides.

Grrr.

Item 2: Useless One has let the medical claims stack up for the past two months. So Amazing One and I have been working to clear them out. I just did two batches of lab claims and then I learn that we can only send one batch a week to the contractor who adjusts them to Medicare rates. So the first batch I finished will go this week and the second batch will go out next week. Then Amazing One and I split the huge stack of claims and it will be another 2-3 weeks before those can even go out.

I’m getting hounded by providers to know when they’ll get paid. At this point I have no idea what to tell them because I have no idea how long it will take me to get them paid when they come back from the contractor.

Grrr.

Item 3: Amazing One and I talked about our travel to Phoenix next month and we agreed that we are going to try to get out of there on Thursday night instead of the authorized Friday travel day. Our excuse for leaving early? The One’s Coronation Weekend - we are not excited about flying home with the Worshippers.

Grrr.

Item 4: So today is supposed to be the day that the A-Chief shadows me to learn about how we disburse money. However, he is not here because The Marshal took him with him on some field trip. No word on when they expect to return. In the meantime, I have work that needs doing but if I’m going to show him my job, he needs to be here to see it so I’m stalled indefinitely.

Grrr.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

I’m grateful to work on the first floor of the courthouse. I hate to think how swelteringly hot it must be on the upper floors.

I have begged the building people to adjust the temp in my office for weeks with no action taken. I begged my boss to call on my behalf yesterday and no one came. He called again this morning and still no one has shown up.

It’s overwhelmingly hot in my office. I’m just sitting at my desk and I’m sweating. That it is in the mid-60s today outside just makes it worse because we don’t need the heat to even be on today. That I’m pregnant and overheated generally makes it more frustrating.

Gah!

[UPDATE 3:30pm]: We called again this afternoon and still no one came to change the temperature. My boss just walked down there to bring someone back. Turns out he brought back the building contractor’s manager. So it looks like relief is in sight! Finally.

[UPDATE 2, 4:30pm]: Ah, blessed cool. The maintenance dude said he set it for 68-70 degrees. Was that going to be too cold? Heck no, man! I can always put on a sweater. At least now I’ll have the option of a sweater.

Tuesday, December 09, 2008

I find that Facebook is sort of a surreal thing. I always knew I had an eclectic circle of friends from the many locations we lived, my college days, my Young Life days, and my blog world. It’s hilarious to look at the people in my Friends list on Facebook and see my best friend from junior high and her younger brother along with folks from my current church along with folks I knew in college along with folks I worked with when on staff with Young Life along with longtime family friends.

I was just friended by the oldest son of my former pastor. He’s now 21 years old - they moved to Georgia back in 2002 so my memories of him are as a youngster. I’ve known him since he was a toddler. Weird and cool, all at once.

It’s been fun to reconnect with folks I had lost touch with for various reasons over the years - college friends and Young Life peeps especially.

Monday, December 08, 2008

I think I liked the first CoN movie better than Prince Caspian. That’s not to say that I didn’t enjoy Prince Caspian, I did. I think I just wished there was more Aslan. I liked the kids grown up a bit more. That Lucy is still precious.

3.5 stars out of 5.