Now I am sick

Dog and son are back to normal. I wish I was. My nose started running when I went back to work Thursday and now I have a full blown cold. Scratchy throat, congestion, coughing...lovely.

As I am typing I am thinking that I will be lysolling this keyboard when I get done typing.

I am going to miss my neice's birthday party& Kate going to homecoming tonight--I will have to trust Doug to get the pictures for me. Looks like I will be watching tv and lying on the couch all day. Really I need to try to finish up this week's laundry. Since it had been raining for the last few days I was unable to catch up for fear of water in the basement.

My friend, Scott, is coming to see us tomorrow afternoon. He lives in New Jersey now and is coming home for his 20th class reunion. I hope I feel better before he gets here.

Sick day #3

These pics didn't go in the order I wanted them too, but I have already spent 15 minutes on this and I am done. The first picture is of our 3 year old yellow lab Lily, after a night spent itching and pacing. She apparently had some type of allergic reaction to something in the yard or house last night. Notice how swollen her jowls and eyes are. Poor thing. The second picture is how she looks normally. Doug took off work to come and get her and take her to the vet to see what is going on.

I am at home again with Zach again. It seems he still isn't over what ever bug he has. 3 days is a long time to be out. I will go get his homework after lunch today. I really want to start disinfecting everything, but don't want to do it too soon--I don't want to have to do it twice. I've gotten sheets washed in our room and Kate's the last few days. I haven't seemed to be able to work those in to the chores for a while. It's nice to be able to get those done. Just think in 23 days I will be able to wash those when I want.

Homecoming bonfire is tonight. Kate and her friend are going over there this evening. I don't remember a bonfire when I was in high school. Don't know if we even had one or if it was just that I didn't go.

I did it!

I put in my notice yesterday. I gave them until the end of the month. If I could I would be done today, but I can't do that to them. I am patiently (who am I kidding--I am anything but patient) counting down the days until I am home again. I have 24 days to go. I sat down Sunday night and wrote out my schedule of things I must get done on a daily basis. You know the important things like showering and getting dressed. Ha. I will save those things for Saturday mornings. That's when I will allow myself to run around doing inside chores in my nightgown until lunch. That will get that out of my system. I also made a list of additional things I would like to accomplish--hopefully before Christmas. These are things that need done to the house or around the house to ease my stress during the holidays. Cleaning out closets and what not. I know, not many people worry about clean closets during the holidays, but I am not like that.

I have 2 other projects that I want to be working on during the holiday season too and they are fun projects. My BFF and I are going to be doing a favorite ornament mini scrapbook--we both love ornaments and it is time to document that. Also I am going to attempt a scrapbook that starts at Thanksgiving and goes through New Years. At first I thought it would be a daily book, but now it just may be every few days. I'm still on the fence about how to do it. If I do it everyday it would be around 38 pages plus a title page and a letter at the end. I will be looking for coordinating Christmas paper/embellishment sets to get for both projects along with stuff for Christmas cards. It would be nice to get those done ahead of time too. Well, for now those are my plans. Throw in Christmas shopping, I'd like to do a little baking this year, decorating the house and trying to coordinate a progressive dinner party with our Sunday school class.

Zach is home sick today. He came home yesterday with a stomach ache. Yesterday afternoon he had a slight fever (100.5) and I am keeping him home today. He is complaining now of a sore throat. He woke up with a nightmare last night and crept into bed with me at 4:00 AM. Don't tell him but it was kind of nice. I'll be lucky if I don't get sick--He was coughing a lot. But I will take one for the "mom" team.

Off to do a little laundry--I will be lysoling everything in sight later when he is feeling better, so I better get some of my regular chores done now.

Quote of the week

“You’ll never leave where you are until you decide where you’d rather be”

I've been struggling with working and staying home. It doesn't help that I'm not fond of my job. I've been thinking about this for over a month and last night I decided that I had made a decision--I'm not going to work. For right now. Even though my kids are growing up--a freshman and a 6th grader and don't really "need" me at home...they still like me here. And if the job was something I was in love with I wouldn't be leaving it, but I sit there and think about all the stuff I could be doing at home. I am not "me" there.

I worked the whole time before Doug and I got married up until Kate was 4 and Zach was a little over a year old. Then I stayed home with them for 6 years. And although it didn't seem like it at the time it was the best time of my life. I volunteered at school libraries and helped teachers, was in the PTO and had other moms in my life to have fun with and share stories. 4 years ago I decided it was time for me to go back to work and I went back to the credit union. I wanted to work part time and although technically I was only working 4 1/2 days a week--I was working over 36 hours a week and it was just too much--because also at that time Doug changed jobs within ADM and began travelling. His first trip was to Amsterdam for 15 days. The work thing and taking care of the whole household even if was only for 15 days took its toll on me. We have always shared the housework and kidwork evenly and I just couldn't/didn't want to do it all by myself and work too. Last November our church secretary became sick and was no longer able to work--at the time I thought my prayers for a better part time job had been answered. It was 3 hours a day--from 9:00 to noon--the perfect thing--or so I thought. Little did I realize that I wouldn't really fit into that job either. I was fighting a losing battle--I thought because my kids were older that I needed to work--that I should work. I know now that just isn't in the cards for me. I am 39 and at this point in my life I only want to be doing something I adore. I don't want to go through the motions just to say I have a job. Luckily, Doug's job allows me the freedom to not work if I don't want to. I will be happier. Much happier even if there are days when I will be bored and weeks that money will be tight. I'm hoping my moods will improve because I am not forcing myself to do something I don't really want to do--just felt obligated to do. It was like trying to sticking a square peg into a round hole. It just doesn't work.

I've felt like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders once I made the decision. I slept better than I had in weeks. Now I just have to get through the resignation letter and telling the congregation...

I was reading blogs on Monday and came across the quote above. I believe that things happen for a reason. That quote gave me the courage to do something that will not be easy. It won't be easy telling my friends and fellow church goers that I won't be their secretary any more. It won't be easy telling the minister that I can't work for him. It won't be easy to continue to be on the committees and teams I am on, but you know what? Life isn't easy. I will do it. I will get through it. And I will be happier. Who knows, maybe there is someone out there who needs that part time job more than I do and this will be their prayer answered. God has something in store for me--I just don't know it yet.

It's been a day!

Whew! Let's see...broke off a tooth this weekend had to go into the dentist this morning at 8 am to have them tell me I need a crown. Scheduled that for October 13 and November 3. Went to work at 9--had hair cut at 12:30 and did not schedule another one (proud of me Dawn?) I told her I did not have a calendar I would have to call--am not going to. At 1:30 I went to church to help out with a funeral dinner and left there at 3:45 to go pick up Zach from basketball practice. Now I am trying to decide if I am going to go to the grocery store this evening while Doug works the concession stand at the varsity volleyball game. Apparently the chorus gets the profits from this---what? chorus? Who knew--and since Kate's in chorus. Better him than me. I might as well cram one more thing into this day. Then tomorrow I can just sit back and relax. Yeah right!

I have decided that the old folks who work funeral dinners only do it to socialize. The other person who was my age and I were working while the rest of them sat around and talked about everyone. They kept asking me who people were at the dinner---I DON'T KNOW! I have no idea I did not grow up in this town. UGH!! And the church kitchen is not organized--what so ever--it took every bit of my will power not to start cleaning out drawers and rearranging stuff. The only reason I didn't is because I knew that when I go back to help the next time it will all be messed up again. Better not waste my energy.

Doug's mom is out of the hospital and doing better. She had a visiting nurse come today to change the bandages where they took the tubes out. I don't know how well Doug's dad would have handled that. I did laundry for him over the weekend. I washed and dried and folded his tshirts and socks and made Doug fold his dad's underwear--too creepy for me--even though they were boxers. (Shudder). I kept thinking to myself that that would be part of my weekly chores in some years--taking care of him. They told us Darlene could have decades, but...you never know right? I might be doing both of their laundry.

Fall is finally here. It was so cool yesterday we closed some of the windows we have had open most of the summer. I've been wearing 3/4 sleeve sweaters the last few days--I have been longingly looking at my sweaters for a month or so now--it's good to get to wear them. Now, if I could just get it in gear and get my fall stuff out. Doug's old ADM group is coming over for a porch party this weekend--I really should do it before then. Hmmm....

Two days until...

I'm 39. Oh my. The big 4-0 is right around the corner. It used to bother me a lot to think of myself as older--ok--middle aged, but lately I'm fine. There are a lot of good things that happened this year. I'm living in my dream home. My husband and I have been married 16 years and he is still my best friend. My daughter is a freshman in high school. My son is in 6th grade. We am healthy & happy almost all of the time. I have hobbies I love. Both sets of our parents are doing well. We have good brothers and sisters and inlaws. We have 4 neices and 4 nephews. Our children are doing well in school and are well mannered (in spite of us). Ha. We have good friends--really good friends that help us out whenever we need it and listen whenever we need it. We love God. We can't ask for more than that.

My baby girl is growing up.

On Sunday Doug and I cleaned out the unfinished attic space. Since we moved in we have been cramming stuff in there that we don't know what to do with, want to put in a rummage sale, or just need to get out of the way. Well, it was a pit. We dragged almost everything out and threw a lot of it away. The mice had been into Kate's old easy bake oven and ate a mix for that and also clean the ears off of some Indian corn that was on one of my fall wreaths. Time to get some traps set up there. UGH!

In the middle of all the cleaning I decided to have Kate get all of her "toys" out of her room. We went through Polly Pocket, Barbies, My Scene dolls, Littlest Pet Shop, We three friends, Strawberry shortcake dolls, Groovy girls, etc. The only thing we didn't do is Bitty Baby and her Amerian girl dolls. I will save that for another day. It was hard to pack up all her stuff and put it away, because I know she is growing up and not a little girl anymore. She hasn't been one for a while now, but I was in denial. We through out 3 garbage bags of stuff and multiple boxes. The garbage man probably loved us. But I kept all of the above things as keepsakes. One day when my grandkids come over I want them to play with toys that their parents played with. I know...I'm weird. I have the room to store them, so I will.

It did my organizing self good to go through everything and find bins and containers for it all. It's another thing crossed off of my big to do list that I want to get done before summer is over. I have 18 or so days left to get it all done. I still need to go through our junk closet down here, unpack the last box in my closet, get my pictures off the computer and cameras developed, clean out the computer cabinet, put some pictures in a wall mounted jewelry "box" Doug bought me for Christmas and go through the kids' keepsakes and purge. (I do this every few years to thin stuff out to make room for more stuff.) Not a bad list, but I better get on it.