I have to tell you I am SO excited about Christmas this year!! And it feels really good to be so excited about Christmas. As you know, if you are a blog follower, I always have a theme for Christmas. Last year, it was Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas because Christmas last year was little. I was more focused on the recent death of my uncle, and honestly, much more on getting his estate taken care of, amidst hearing through the grapevine that some people didn't think I was smart enough to take care of it. I had to laugh because eventhough it was a big deal, first of all, Uncle Junior was smarter than a lot of people gave him credit for and though there were still times in the last year, I wanted to climb on up to Heaven and kick him right off of his cloud, he did set things up pretty foolproof for me. Second, the things I needed to get done for the estate was seriously nothing compared to the normal day-in, day-out of my job. None of the naysayers were anyone directly involved with the will. In fact, I have a great deal of respect for my Uncle Kenny and my mom. If every family was able to agree on things as easily as they did, wills and estates wouldn't be scary. Anyway, THAT is in the past and this is a new, wonderful, glorious Christmastime.
As badly as part of me wants to be sad because it is Robert's last Christmas at home, I am bursting with pride at the young man he has become. I am so pleased with how sentimental he is about the farm and how he really "gets it" the treasure he has been given. The most exciting thing that has happened this week is they framed in what had been a huge hole to the outside. Robert was thrilled because a lot of it, he framed in himself. He is learning lessons to last him a lifetime and he is learning them from his dad. The farm in all of it's memories for me, just added even another chapter as a legacy for the family.
So, bring on December!!! I have plans and I am just thrilled to death by all of them. First off, I started today with the traditional Black Friday shopping. I decided since I didn't have my partner in crime this year, because he had to work, I better play it low-key. There was nothing out there that I needed to do the "stand in line or you won't get it" anyway nothing of any big importance so I decided to keep it simple and head to Effingham and Mattoon. I hit JC Penney at 6:00 and was basically in an empty store except for tons of employees. It was eerie. I got everything I went for though. I headed to Menard's and back into normal craziness. I did find a good parking spot and only had to wait about 10 minutes on a cart. I found everything there except two things they were out of, the beard kits, which the guys could have both used and the 13 piece picture frame set. One of the things Robert has requested is a "home" wall. I have random family pictures with the word HOME in big block letters in my entryway. This kit would have made it easier but I actually picked most of mine up at the Dollar Tree so it was no biggie. Anyway, that was still a pretty easy trip, then I headed to Mattoon. Went to Big Lots, Petsmart, Home Depot, Walmart and the headed to Charleston for the sole purpose of hitting Starbucks. A Skinny Peppermint Mocha was my reward for my trip....oh it was good too!
This evening when Robert gets home, we will head back to Effingham to Menards, I want a new tree and they have what I want but I didn't want to fight the crowds this morning with a huge honkin' tree. Andrew closes, so we will go in time to be ready to eat when he gets off work.
About the rest of my Christmas season.....Decorating today and tomorrow as well as making some of my homemade presents. Sunday, the guys are gonna help me do the outside decs. Tuesday I get to see my friend Patty, and go meet her newest grandbaby, Amity. Wednesday, I am helping with AWANA, this is exciting because since we gave up the high school post, there really wasn't much need for me being there. I helped with the Cubbies, the 3 and 4 year olds, a couple of weeks ago and their director asked if I wanted to help corral them for the Christmas program practice. It is really fun and a HUGE change from High Schoolers. I miss my high schoolers but knew I couldn't keep up with the amount of studying for their lessons this year and didn't want to short change them for selfish reasons. Friday December 6th is our company Christmas party as well as mine and Andrew's 22nd Wedding anniversary. It's a neat year this year because we got married, or eloped, on Friday. So, I am expecting we will find someplace special for dinner that night. The 7th, I am getting together with two of my BFF's from high school, don't know where yet, but the important thing is we are getting together. The 8th we are going to a Christmas open house in Greenup. One of my favorite houses, as well as one of my favorite people is hosting it. The 13th and 14th we are having a couples overnighter with my sister and BIL. We are heading to St. Louis. Nila and I went last year and there were somethings that we thought would be neat to take the hubbys. The 15th is our church Christmas caroling and party, the 18th will be the AWANA Christmas program, and the 22nd will be the Church program. The 23rd will be my last day of work and then.....wait for it.....I am on VACATION for the REST of the YEAR!!!! Yep, really, really gonna get away from work for a while. I don't have anything planned but I am really looking forward to the time to not think about work for a while. Sis and Richard will be here on the 24th for the night and then we will spend Christmas at Mom's. Just all seems pretty darn near perfect.
Because of all of this I have chosen this year's Christmas song......always been one of my favorites but this year it is just gonna fit.
May you have a very MERRY CHRISTMAS...hopefully I will be better about blogging this month that I have the last couple.
Enjoy.....
Friday, November 29, 2013
Saturday, November 9, 2013
Catching up (again, and again.....)
Someone mentioned yesterday that it had been a while since I have updated my blog. Well, yes, it has. I can't seem to keep up with anything anymore. Last Thursday, I decided I was going to break down and hire someone to clean my house. Then I thought, Robert is moving out in a couple more months, and then surely Andrew and I won't be as messy. Then I thought, all Robert does here now is sleep and occasionally eat, it's not him....THEN, I thought, it is because Andrew and Robert are neither one here much at all. This probably doesn't make sense except for the fact that in our "normal" (yes, whatever that is supposed to be) lives, a lot of times after dinner, Andrew and I would visit while we put the dishes in the dishwasher, put dinner away, did a load of laundry, cleaned the puppy area, etc. It didn't seem like we were doing anything because we were together and now, doing it all by myself just feels like an endless amount of work. So, moral of the story, once we get the farm done, I think we can cope again. I'm looking forward to it.
Things never seem to slow down at work either. I never dreamed there would come a day when someone else was doing more of the "day-in, day-out" work with LIHEAP more than I was, but it has come. I am so very, very, thankful for Sheila King, the assistant LIHEAP coordinator. I don't want to say she is "my" assistant because heck, I think we are to the point where, as far as LIHEAP is concerned, I am helping her. It seems there seems to be so many other issues, between the PIPP part of our program, money issues, IT issues, etc. that if it weren't for Sheila, I would never be home either. And mentioning the IT issues....
Two weeks ago, we had a bad, bad, virus in the office. It attacked one computer and then went on to get the file server that all 25 of us share. It has been a long two weeks, as problems from that arose again the beginning of this week. This virus attacked actual files, documents that we HAVE to have and were no longer being able to open. Thankfully, we have a good support team in SDS computers and after many hours on Monday evening and Tuesday, we were back up. In the meantime, we have decided to start hosting our own email again. Something which, with me being responsible for it, I am scared to death, but also know after the recent attack, is necessary.
Then to top off everything at work, we have our first monitoring of the year on the 19th and 20th. I am scared to death......seriously, I KNOW everything I will be fine, but as I said earlier, I have stepped away from the day-in, day-out parts and eventhough I have complete faith in Sheila, in the back of my mind, I have that, "Have I forgotten to share something important with her". It is what it is though and we will get through it. I hated it that the dates were what they are. The 20th is the anniversary of my dad passing away, and as much as I hate myself for it, it is there, staring me in the face from the beginning of the day all the way through to the end.....one of those days that my life changed, forever. I had a client tell me the other day that his life was ruined because his dad died when he was 7. I had to bite my tongue so hard it almost bled. Nobody can ruin your life but you. It is up to you what it is going to be, yes, there may be some that have a harder time getting from point A to point B than others but people, that is what life is about. Let God take control, listen, stop trying to figure out, "Why me" and try to figure out "Why not me" and then make it happen.
Anyway, I know my own life will be a little better once we get through the 20th, this year, for more reasons than one. Today is also a trying day though. A year ago today, my uncle passed away. Talk about an emotional journey. I have had every emotion in the book the last year over him. From being thankful for the way he took care of how he wanted his things taken care of.....and the way he did it made it easier for me in the long run,,,,all the way to wanting to get to Heaven so I could kick him off his cloud for some of the other things he left me with (not to mention what Mom and Robert had to take care of in the line of livestock, pets, etc.). Bottom line though, we used to banter and fuss but we loved each other very much and I miss him, a lot..
So, we are to today. Thursday, we took in the NCHS pops concert, always awesome though I will probably watch Robert's senior year Pops Concert video sometime today as it is my all time favorite...I might be a little biased but oh well.
Last night Andrew and I went to his Goodwill annual banquet, it was quite emotional, but great. So many lives touched. I am so happy that right now, we are in the same line of work, just different aspects of it.
Today I am dragging, two nights past my bedtime and knowing Monday is there to be my Saturday is keeping me from running this morning (though I have every intention of taking time out to go to the Veteran's day ceremony uptown--it's IMPORTANT to remember our freedom isn't free!). Taking the dogs to the groomers this afternoon so just kinda relaxing this morning. Andrew is at the farm, Robert is at work and will go to the farm at noon when he gets off and I am going up this evening to take them supper. I will take some pictures and update his blog for him, he has big news....floors!! It is a big deal as I think it made it real for him that he is actually going to have a house in a matter of a few months.
I am so very proud of him. When he got his job, his GOOD job, that pays better than every job I had except this one....and I worked several years before making the equivalent of what he started out at; I told him he needed to start paying his car insurance and of course, for the work being done on the house. Because of his past wrecks, car insurance on his own would have been unreal, so we kept him on ours for now. I made him payment books for both the insurance and the house, we figured he would probably pay $300 for an apartment, so that is what he is paying us on his house. He is almost a whole paycheck ahead already on payments. He is responsible enough for the house he inherited and that in itself is wonderful to me. He and his dad is doing all the work themselves and though it's slow, I know from just having the work done on our house this summer, he is saving thousands. The way things are going right now, I expect for him to have his renovations completely paid for in 3-4 years--then it's his, scot free.
Anyway, I'm going to close for now, have another browser open and talking to my other son, Adam, who I am so proud of also.
Happy Saturday!
Mindy
Things never seem to slow down at work either. I never dreamed there would come a day when someone else was doing more of the "day-in, day-out" work with LIHEAP more than I was, but it has come. I am so very, very, thankful for Sheila King, the assistant LIHEAP coordinator. I don't want to say she is "my" assistant because heck, I think we are to the point where, as far as LIHEAP is concerned, I am helping her. It seems there seems to be so many other issues, between the PIPP part of our program, money issues, IT issues, etc. that if it weren't for Sheila, I would never be home either. And mentioning the IT issues....
Two weeks ago, we had a bad, bad, virus in the office. It attacked one computer and then went on to get the file server that all 25 of us share. It has been a long two weeks, as problems from that arose again the beginning of this week. This virus attacked actual files, documents that we HAVE to have and were no longer being able to open. Thankfully, we have a good support team in SDS computers and after many hours on Monday evening and Tuesday, we were back up. In the meantime, we have decided to start hosting our own email again. Something which, with me being responsible for it, I am scared to death, but also know after the recent attack, is necessary.
Then to top off everything at work, we have our first monitoring of the year on the 19th and 20th. I am scared to death......seriously, I KNOW everything I will be fine, but as I said earlier, I have stepped away from the day-in, day-out parts and eventhough I have complete faith in Sheila, in the back of my mind, I have that, "Have I forgotten to share something important with her". It is what it is though and we will get through it. I hated it that the dates were what they are. The 20th is the anniversary of my dad passing away, and as much as I hate myself for it, it is there, staring me in the face from the beginning of the day all the way through to the end.....one of those days that my life changed, forever. I had a client tell me the other day that his life was ruined because his dad died when he was 7. I had to bite my tongue so hard it almost bled. Nobody can ruin your life but you. It is up to you what it is going to be, yes, there may be some that have a harder time getting from point A to point B than others but people, that is what life is about. Let God take control, listen, stop trying to figure out, "Why me" and try to figure out "Why not me" and then make it happen.
Anyway, I know my own life will be a little better once we get through the 20th, this year, for more reasons than one. Today is also a trying day though. A year ago today, my uncle passed away. Talk about an emotional journey. I have had every emotion in the book the last year over him. From being thankful for the way he took care of how he wanted his things taken care of.....and the way he did it made it easier for me in the long run,,,,all the way to wanting to get to Heaven so I could kick him off his cloud for some of the other things he left me with (not to mention what Mom and Robert had to take care of in the line of livestock, pets, etc.). Bottom line though, we used to banter and fuss but we loved each other very much and I miss him, a lot..
So, we are to today. Thursday, we took in the NCHS pops concert, always awesome though I will probably watch Robert's senior year Pops Concert video sometime today as it is my all time favorite...I might be a little biased but oh well.
Last night Andrew and I went to his Goodwill annual banquet, it was quite emotional, but great. So many lives touched. I am so happy that right now, we are in the same line of work, just different aspects of it.
Today I am dragging, two nights past my bedtime and knowing Monday is there to be my Saturday is keeping me from running this morning (though I have every intention of taking time out to go to the Veteran's day ceremony uptown--it's IMPORTANT to remember our freedom isn't free!). Taking the dogs to the groomers this afternoon so just kinda relaxing this morning. Andrew is at the farm, Robert is at work and will go to the farm at noon when he gets off and I am going up this evening to take them supper. I will take some pictures and update his blog for him, he has big news....floors!! It is a big deal as I think it made it real for him that he is actually going to have a house in a matter of a few months.
I am so very proud of him. When he got his job, his GOOD job, that pays better than every job I had except this one....and I worked several years before making the equivalent of what he started out at; I told him he needed to start paying his car insurance and of course, for the work being done on the house. Because of his past wrecks, car insurance on his own would have been unreal, so we kept him on ours for now. I made him payment books for both the insurance and the house, we figured he would probably pay $300 for an apartment, so that is what he is paying us on his house. He is almost a whole paycheck ahead already on payments. He is responsible enough for the house he inherited and that in itself is wonderful to me. He and his dad is doing all the work themselves and though it's slow, I know from just having the work done on our house this summer, he is saving thousands. The way things are going right now, I expect for him to have his renovations completely paid for in 3-4 years--then it's his, scot free.
Anyway, I'm going to close for now, have another browser open and talking to my other son, Adam, who I am so proud of also.
Happy Saturday!
Mindy
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