Home

People say you can't go home again and they are very thankful for that.  I am not one of those people.  I also don't have a very "normal" home that I go home too...  Most people don't have the types of family get togethers that my family does (and probably couldn't handle the weirdness of my family) and that's okay.  They have their families and I have mine and I am very thankful for the one I do have.

This past week was Christmas and when some people think of Christmas, a classical Normal Rockwell painting or a classic Christmas special may describe their family.  Neither one of those could describe my family - mine could almost best be described with the movie National Lampoons Christmas Vacation (although there was no S.W.A.T. team or cat being electrocuted).  Christmas morning consisted of my parents and I running around making sure things were in the oven that needed to be, things were in the cooler, cookies were arranged, bowls filled with chips, dishes washed to make room for new ones in the sink or because all of the spatulas were in the soapy water and one was needed; all while trying to keep the dog from eating things, each trying to get a shower and get dressed before everyone else was supposed to arrive by one pm.  Now I don't know about your family gatherings but for mine, when we say one pm, my parents and I were already here and knew that the first group would arrive between 1:15-1:30, the next between 1:30-1:45 and the last by 2 pm (this is pretty much what happened).

Now my family when we say "everyone," it includes my parents, my older sister (and her new husband and her 8 year old boy and 3.5 year old boy), me, my brother (and his girlfriend) and my youngest brother (and his wife and their 3.5 year old boy) and the dog.  When everyone arrived, we had to all eat, find food that the three little boys would eat (while telling them yes, they had to eat and no, they couldn't just dive into the presents under the tree), keep the dog from helping himself to food off the table or anyone's plates when they weren't looking.

After everyone ate, a "normal" family would peacefully gather in the living room and calmly open gifts - or I'm at least assuming that's what occurs since that's not what happens in my family...  We gathered in the living room and my brothers and parents started to juggle because mom found some great juggling balls while she was Christmas shopping and then one of the 3.5 year old boys decided to juggle too by throwing stuffed snowballs in the air which then resulted in my siblings and I having a snowball fight in the living room (the youngest turned 30 this past year).  When we were having trouble breathing from laughing, the snowballs were cleaned up and the juggling balls were put away (one is still lost...) and mom decided that she wanted a photo of her kids in front of the Christmas tree - one of those posed photos of the kids sitting in front of the tree (once again, the youngest is 30 and is subsequently the one who is 6 foot 5 inches and ended up in my lap and me leaning on my older sister who is 5 foot 3 inches and pregnant and the other brother behind all of us and he's leaning against the couch).  The photos are hilarious but those make for some of the best memories.

Since the little boys could hardly stand it anymore, we let them become mini tornadoes as they tore into their gifts.  After the wrapping paper storm subsided, they began to entertain themselves as the adults began the first annual white elephant gift exchange.  We had agreed on the predetermined amount of $13.64 and then found out the rest of how the exchange was going to work.  Mom had sent out a message that morning with instructions of when we got there, we were to take a sticky note with a number on it (she had them pre-written out 2-12), place it on our gift and put it in a box.  We then took turns rolling a pair of dice to tell us what gift to take (as we were rolling, we had the opportunity to "steal" if we rolled the same number of a gift already selected or roll again - neadless to say, some sibling rivalry and cutthroat-ness ensued).  After everyone had a gift (this took some time because of the cutthroat-ness), we then had to draw what could only be described as sinister fortune cookie slips telling us who to trade gifts with.  Some of the trades included: "trade with a boy," "trade with someone who is left handed" (me), "trade for one with a bow," "trade with someone on Santa's naughy list" (also me), etc.  We then got to open the gifts - some of the things included; a battery operated salt/pepper grinder; a gigantic flask; lottery tickets; a selfie stick; a "things to ponder in the bathroom" book; etc.  We have decided this tradition will continue.  Like I said, my family is weird...

Many other things took place that day that I'm not going to put on here (mostly because it's late and I've already had to write all of this twice because my iPad decided to delete my first post as I was finishing it so this is take two).

On Saturday, I spent the afternoon catching up with a childhood friend and then on Sunday, one of my brothers came over and he, my parents and I had a Wii tournament (more cutthroat-ness ensued).  After he left, my parents and I had a nice long talk in the living room.  We talked about a lot of different things including some of the things I've been dealing with at work and in life in general.  I'm not writing about this just because they read my blog (which they do) but because even though I'm sure they felt like they were just lecturing, I really was listening and taking it all in (and even was trying, at points, to not get overly emotional because who wants to be the 35 year old having a melt down in their parent's living room?).

After our talk, I have already make one of my resolutions for 2016 - that is to be more kind; to others and to myself.  Being kind to myself includes: not beating myself up for mistakes (realize they are mistakes and not catastrophes and I can learn from/move on from them; know things don't have to be perfect (and that includes my apartment and things I see when I look in the mirror); cutting myself slack and realizing that even I need to take breaks and "me" days (I'm not a super hero no matter if I want to be one or not).

Well, my dear readers, I am going to bring this to a close (for the second time) for this evening and want to leave you with a big thank you (even if just my parents and my grandma are the ones reading) for joining me along my quest and where ever that may lead.  And thank you for letting me come home again (even though we are really weird).  =)

Blessings

I have survived my first week at home and there has only been one major catastrophe...  I was supposed to have dinner with my youngest brother, his wife and son Monday night and I received a call from my brother right before I started to get ready saying they needed to cancel because they were taking their son to the ER.  He had decided to jump off the couch and landed headfirst on the coffee table and he split his eyebrow open.  After several hours and eleven outer stitches (and an unknown number of stitches to repair the inner layers), they got to take him home.  I got to have dinner with them the following night and I helped watch him during the week and he didn't seem phased by the head wound at all - his energy levels were the same and he still climbed/jumped off of stuff even though he kept telling everyone that he was going to be more careful.  It definitely could have ended up being way worse so we are blessed that it wasn't...

Another adventure that we had was we put up my parent's Christmas tree.  Mom, Dad and I started to decorate it while my nephew was napping but we didn't finish before he woke up so of course he wanted to help.  He is three and a half and his decorating style consisted of finding one branch that "worked" for him (mostly meaning that he could reach it and hang an ornament from it) and then hang multiple ornaments from that one branch.  He also didn't want to make it easy for himself - he enjoyed having to stand on his toes in order to hang his ornaments on the tree.  It really is a Christmas miracle that the tree didn't come tumbling down with him "helping."  Oh well...  It's all about family and the memories this time of year...

Because I was traveling for work and then had to travel on three different airplanes to get here (after getting only a few hours of sleep), I have, of course, come down with some sort of bug that just doesn't want to let go.  I have tried a couple different medications and think I may have found a combination that is making me start to feel at least some better.  I have almost completely lost my voice and there are times that I am only able to squeak words out (which of course my Dad thinks is hilarious).  Singing in church today was interesting.  I am normally a soprano but today I was singing everything an octave lower and Dad and I were joking that I was singing bass down with him - I figured it would be better than squeaking though singing the hymns.  Hopefully I will have my soprano singing voice back by Christmas Eve since we will be attending the midnight Christmas service (actually it's the 11 o'clock service that ends at midnight) and I adore singing the soprano part of all of the traditional Christmas hymns.  We'll see if another Christmas miracle will be headed my way or not.

I am hoping that with being sick now, I will have it done and out of the way for the season.  This is approximately the time of year in which I usually get sick and lose my voice but last year it is also about the time I was sick multiple times with massive ear infections, sore throat, coughing up all sorts of wonderfully colored junk so I'm hoping what I have currently is not a precursor to that "fun."  I got my flu shot and am sick with whatever wonderful germs I have been blessed with so I'm definitely hoping that this will be it for this season.  I know that only time will tell but with working for as many years as I have with SO many different children, I figure I should be able to be exposed to the plague and not catch it (NOT that I want to be exposed to the plague...).

I know that there are a great many other things that I could be dealing with right now health wise so I guess I should be grateful that this cold or whatever I'm fighting off is all I'm facing.  I learned this past week that one of the daughters of my landlords just discovered that she has breast cancer so she will be dealing with that.  I saw the news via the church's email and I emailed my landlords right away for more details.  She wrote back with what they are looking into treatment wise (surgery, chemotherapy and possibly more) and that she (my landlady) will be flying cross country to be with their daughter after the first of the year.  She is currently helping out with watching my doggies and even though she is dealing with this news from her daughter, she took the time to tell me that my doggies are being the perfect little gentleman for her.  I was touched by that and am definitely blessed that she and her husband have rented their apartment to me - it has been a blessing from the start and continues to be one with all the help they have offered me and my doggies throughout the years I've lived there so far.

Well my dear readers, I am going to bring this to a close for this evening so I can get some sleep and let the medication that I took just a little bit ago fight these germs off so I can be better for all of the family fun and frivolity this week may have in store (knowing my family, anything could happen!).  I wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas and a joyous holiday season!  Thank you for joining me yet again!  =)

What time is it? What day is it? Where am I?

What time is it?  What day is it?  Where am I?

These have been some very real questions I have ask myself in the last 36 hours or so...  I was out of town all last week for work, flew back Friday night, had to go into work to complete my travel paperwork (at about 10:30 pm), and then flew out yesterday morning bright and early to head home for the holidays.  After flying all day yesterday and on three different planes, I have no idea what time it is...  The three hour time difference doesn't necessarily help with my confusion but I'll figure it out in another day or so.  One of the neat things about being in and out of my little airport over the last week is the same person helped me through security when I left for work and when I left again yesterday and she commented on my personal "style" stating that she wished she was brave enough to be as cool as I am.  That made me smile.  =)

I was joking last night with my brother and sister-in-law that when I have to head back after the holidays, I'm going to have to get back to my apartment via Canada and Japan or something because I was able to make it to my work training and back and then here without any travel issues.  I did have to walk briskly through one airport since I flew into one branch and flew out of another branch of the airport and only had about 30 minutes from when I got off the plane and the next one was boarding.  Luckily this happens to be an airport I fly through often when I travel so I know it well.  I was able to make it with about five minutes to spare so I felt pretty good about that.

Since I didn't really know what time it was today, it was nice that my parent's dog let me sleep in and be a little bit lazy this morning.  I did have to get up and moving at some point to run to the store to pick up some medication.  Because I have been on six different flights in a week and the weather has been crazy, I woke up this morning with a lot of sinus pressure (feeling as if I got punched in one eye and a sore ear), I figured I should pick up some sinus pressure/pain medication.  I ran to the store, came back to their house to take some of the medication and then took their dog for a walk.  My parents are currently visiting their parents out of state so I'm house sitting for them for a couple of days.  What's nice about it is, by the time they're back, I will be completely adjusted to the time change and will have had an opportunity to help out with one of my nephews.  While I was out buying medicine, I also bought what he and are going to need to make playdough when he's here on Tuesday - it will probably be an adventure but hopefully a fun one (yes, I'm going to let the 3 1/2 year old help make the playdough).  =)

Thinking about it, I did have an adventure with travel this last week...  I arrived where I was attending training and I asked the person at the car rental place how to find where I was staying.  Her response of "oh, that's easy..." before she proceeded to give me directions gave me a sense of security that I trusted.  I ended up in the wrong area, called the hotel where they gave me the wrong directions, called the hotel again, they gave me different directions, I got on base where I couldn't find the hotel and ended up cornering two guys who were talking in a parking lot to see if they could help me.  Luckily, they were able to direct me where I was going and I was able to get checked into the hotel.  Now, this was not a "normal" hotel where all the rooms are in one building; no, they had like five buildings to this hotel and it took me a bit to find the one I was staying in.  After it was all said and done, I found my room, I looked across the street and I was never more thankful to see a restaurant in my life - there was a Subway right across from the building I was staying in and the neon light was calling to me like a beacon.  After I found the training center the next day, I realized that from the airport to the hotel should have taken me about 15 minutes (maybe a little longer with traffic) and it took me, in the dark, just about 2.5 hours....  Maybe because of that stress, the travel gods took pity on me.....

The training I attended for work this past week was an absolutely fascinating one.  Before I left, I had a couple of co-workers tell me that I was going to be bored with the course but I went into it with an open mind and I'm glad I did.  I have taken a few other courses from the facilitator of the course so it was nice going into it with that level of comfortability.  The course was designed to give information to new managers information that will assist them in finding their way as a manager (I have been a manager for about two years now).  I was able to learn a lot of new information and was able to pass along some of my findings (some positives and negatives I've learned in the last two years) to the other people in the course.  I was very glad to have had the opportunity to attend even though I was fighting going a little with being right before my vacation.  I will be interested to see how this new information assists me going back into work after the first of the year.

Well, my dear readers, I'm going to bring this to a close for the evening; I need to get ready to feed the dog and scrounge something up for dinner (luckily Mom left some things for me in the freezer before they went on their quick trip).  Have a wonderful evening and thanks for joining me again!  =)

One bite at a time...

You know how people talk about their plate overflowing?  I have decided that my plate this past week has been so overflowing that I am trying to tackle an entire buffet by myself and it's a daunting task.  I'm reminded of the saying, "how do you eat an elephant... you start with the first bite."  Even though it sounds silly, it also makes some sense.

This past week at work, I needed to attempt to cram a month's worth of work into a single week and I'm sure I forgot more than one something.  Why did I have to cram so much work into one week?  I have an out of town training that I will be attending this week and then once the training is complete, I will be back in town for less than 8 hours before heading on an extended vacation.  In that span of 8 hours, I have to go into work in order to file all of my travel receipts and fill out my documentation.  I'm hoping to be in and out of the building in less than an hour but we'll see what happens...  I have to keep reminding myself, one bite at a time.....

Because the travel is so tight between my two trips, I ended up packing both suitcases today and I'm kicking myself for waiting until the last minute.  I thought it was going to be a simple process to throw things into the two different suitcases but it ended up taking WAY LONGER than anticipated and it took up most of my afternoon/evening.  Part of the difficulty end up coming from having to pack one suitcase with items that will be business/training appropriate and the other suitcase with clothes I can wear around family and be a bum in (and also nice clothes to wear to church).  Because the packing took so long, I wasn't able to accomplish everything I wanted to around my apartment but at this point, I'm just out of time.  I'll have a few hours in the morning to finish up any last minute dishes and minor cleaning but that's about it.

I am trying to remain positive about attending this training (even though it makes me nervous because I don't know where I'm going) and I'm sure I'll learn something.  I have always considered myself to be a life-long learner and look at attending trainings as the opportunity to learn something new.  I've had two trainings with the instructor before and I really like her so that's at least a plus to the training location that I'm nervous about.  My plan is to arrive at the airport tomorrow, find my hotel/check in, and then find the training location and time that drive.  I am not one that likes to be late so however long it takes me to arrive tomorrow, I'll add like 15 minutes into my drive for the unexpected.  Fingers crossed for me!

While I was packing today, I started to think about how moments can have an impact on your life as a whole.  Twelve years ago today, I said "I do" and thought it would be forever.  If you've been following me for any amount of time, you know that didn't last and that seven years ago, all that changed.  When my ex decided that he didn't want to be married anymore and he had me served with divorce papers out of the blue, I wasn't sure which direction my life was going to take.  In my more sane moments, I see that I have become a completely different person in these last seven years and don't know who I would be if we would have stayed together.  Even though I have moments now with questioning myself, I know it would be way worse if I was the same me I was back then.  (If that makes any sense...)

Well, my dear readers, as I continue to ponder things, I should probably bring this to a close, go throw my carry on bag together so I can head to bed before too much longer.  If you're doing any traveling, I hope you have safe travels and that you get to where you're supposed to when you're supposed to be there.  I hope you join me again next week!  =)