workin for the weekend

It's been a wild 24 hours for me and my days are just getting started. Since last Monday I have been counting down the days to tomorrow so that I could kick back and relax and enjoy the weekend. From last Monday to today, I have put at least 4 1/2 hours in the car driving, going from one end of this town to the other and in a circle and coming around again. Minutes as I was walking out the door to meet up with B and the kids to see Toy Story 2 on Ice - I heard one of my PM's talking about the "situation". I knew it wasn't good and like a bad girl, I sat outside her office and listened to the problem. It's the New York site that I hold dear to my heart. Major, Huge New, Wednesday launch of new stuff and everyone who has worked on this site doesn't want to deal with it, despises it, and has crawled away from it and we are not going to make the deadline this coming week. She has started calling other contractors to come in over the weekend to help get this launch finished. I walk out the door, push the button to get the down elevator and just wait. I end up going back into her office and tell her that if she can get me out at least by 6:30 I'll help. She sends me home, but I have to find a babysitter for I'm now working on Sunday.

I rush home to meet up with B, refresh my make-up and get back into the car and go right back downtown, about 8 blocks from where I work and catch Toy Story. (*Personal Note to dad...I'm sorry I was a brat and whined that we sat in the high up seats and never got to sit near the ice as kids. Those low seats suck. I'm sorry. I'll never ask for it again). We sat like 8 rows from the ice and because they are not the stadium seats, the incline wasn't there and so I had every 6 foot father there in the first 8 rows blocking my view. We had fun. Home by 11:00 and by then, after staying up late last night - sleep had kicked in and I was yawning before the first yawn was finished.

Then back up at 6:00am this morning for a Pink Bubble Brunch. Once again - at the other end of town. I went and got Julie and then we drove over to her mom's house who drove us to the brunch. This is my 1st Christmas Brunch in the 2 years I've been doing this. It's a lot of fun. Consultants bring hostesses that have had parties and their name is put in a for drawing of $1000. If the hosts name is called, she splits the $1,000 with her consultant. Then there are few extra give aways for us consultants. For the past 3 months for certain accomplishments, I have been submitting my name into categories. Attendance to Wednesday nights, sales, reorders, orders from the company, open houses, facials, stuff like that. I think total I submitted 14 tickets, but I know that another consultant submitted 45 so I knew my odds were not that great. My National Director drew 8 tickets then started calling names. The first lady went up and then my National looked at the 2nd name and said "I know this gal" and called my name. I just looked at her. She didn't say my name. Julie nudge me and said "go - you won". So I went and stood with the other lady and then she called another gal that I knew that was sitting at my table and then a few others. We all got to draw envelopes and all I could think was "what will I do with the cash?" I know in the past that this was usually an extra $100. We opened them and found out they were gift certificates to local merchants. I received a free Italian Dinner for two and the girl next to me received a month free of tanning. I was pretty tickled that I won. Not the $100 - but hey, I have a free dinner waiting now. :)

We wrapped up the brunch and then it was back home to pick up the kids and off to see Santa. Santa talked to the kids for 3 minutes, popped the bulb of a picture, took my credit card of $25.00 and it wasoff doing other things. Visited 2 more customers today and I only have 1 more delivery next week and I'm done. DONE.

I took the kids to McDonald's so I could read the latest Pink Bubble Magazine that came in the mail and then we came home. Tidied up the house for the babysitter and now I sit here typing. phew. Then there is tomorrow - work, Monday - late night work, Tuesday - late night work and Wednesday - anything lose end that needs fixing for launch that afternoon. I have decided that I'm taking Thursday or Friday off. Would like Friday so I get a 3 day weekend. Would like Thursday so I can just catch my breath.

I know all this is boring - but to top it off.. I'm in pain with my shoulder. From that stupid bus accident I'm now in pain more then ever and it's getting worse by the second. I can't think what it will be like for the next 4 days with sitting for hours and hours with the pain in the shoulder. I'm going to have to buy a heating pad. There's no ifs ands or buts on that. Now to catch up my blog reading..

swearing

I was reading Trish's comments about her son not liking swear words. My kids are the same way. Turn the channels if they hear "ass" and the look of wide eyes on me "ohhhhh they said a bad word". Last night we recieved from Net Flix "Christmas Vacation". It was funny watching the kids crack up every time Chevy Chase was getting ready to do something stoopid. I think what cracked me up the most was the statement Clark said near the end that all I heard in my house were 2 open jaws dropping to the floor, tounges hanging out with the wide eye look -

Hey! If any of you are looking for any last-minute gift ideas for me, I have one. I'd like Frank Shirley, my boss, right here tonight. I want him brought from his happy holiday slumber over there on Melody Lane with all the other rich people and I want him brought right here, with a big ribbon on his head, and I want to look him straight in the eye and I want to tell him what a cheap, lying, no-good, rotten, four-flushing, low-life, snake-licking, dirt-eating, inbred, overstuffed, ignorant, blood-sucking, dog-kissing, brainless, dickless, hopeless, heartless, fat-ass, bug-eyed, stiff-legged, spotty-lipped, worm-headed sack of monkey shit he is! Hallelujah! Holy shit! Where's the Tylenol?

And I only see 2 bad words, 1 used twice! Is it me? My dad talked like this all the time!

the whole truth, nothing but the truth

Yes - after 3 hours of sleep - I have decided to tell B I was paid. I know it sound devious and all.. but he won't get it all, or know it all. He hords his money from me (see future Christmas present from him to me) and I know I have to do it to him to keep up with him. I'm keeping $200 of the huge paycheck (he will get more of it) and putting it away for some MK supplies and I'm going to plop down some webspace next week. So I'll be getting a new site within 2 weeks. I'm waiting on my new bank card from the bank and so I've been pulled in on the purse strings by my own bank.. I was stupid to forget to get a new bank card when it expired and I ran out of checks so I've got cash but no way to pull the money out. Of course, in the city of Denver - we picked a Credit Union that only has one building. No branches, no nothing - and it's 30 miles from the house. It sucks. :)

In the meantime - I'm going to learn PHP, skins and a few other web coolies. I'm setting up space for my journal and I'll get a another domain for my family so they can post photos for the family. I could just see letting everyone in my journal world access to my sister's photos and all these strangers commenting on her stuff.. she would pretty much freak out (ahhh freak out!). Now to name my space - I have 2 domain names picked out.. which one shall it be????

I'm so going to be hating it in the morning (less then 4 hours away) when I have to get up and go to work.

My real dilema? Do I tell my husband that another HUGE paycheck from when I did contract work came in? Part of me wants to spend it for Christmas stuff. Part of me feels I have to give hime some (see.. not all of it) to get our bills back on track. I know what is right but I'm not ready to be the good kid right now. :)

writing mood

I'm in the chatty catty mood today. I was reading Robyn's and Promo guy’s posts about learning about Santa. WHAT? There isn't a Santa? Well crap. There's a first... "Blogger Finds Out St. Nick Not Real Through Online Journals". It could happen. I found out the same time Robyn did. I was 8. Walking home from school and a kid neighbor was telling me how she saw her parents putting the presents under the tree. I fought it. I called her a liar and she was wrong and said her dad looked like Santa (he didn't but it was easy to confuse the two in the dark right?) and ran to my mom hoping she would go tell that girl how wrong she was. My mother’s face. The quietness of the room. The sickness in my stomach when I found out he wasn't real.

But I guess I should have known... just that Christmas earlier, I was at home alone while mom was next door having tea with the lady, we got a phone call and I answered it and it was some lady from a store telling me to tell my mom that the "Barbie Hair Station" was out of stock, but the "Cher doll" was still in and would be in replacement. Those were my Christmas gifts I asked for Santa! Cher was my back-up gift if Barbie Hair Station wasn't ready by the elves yet! I can't even remember the lame excuse she gave me but I know she covered it up well... but I remember that conversation with the lady. She never once considered it might be a present for me.

With the heartbreaking moment of understanding there is no Santa - and I couldn't tell my sister, she was/still is 3 years younger then me.. I said ok and went off to play. I came back seconds later and asked does that mean the Easter bunny and the tooth-fairy? How bummed I was to find out no more free cash for fallen teeth. The delight was when it came to Easter, my mom was very sick and my dad was at work - I got to do my sister's candy for her and I made it real hard for her to find her stuff but so easy to find mine! (I still had to pretend he showed up for me)

J is 8 and D is 7 - it is now a matter of time before we tell them the truth. B says he was 10 before he found out. Dang.. putz was good at keeping the wool over his eyes.

Onesome- Faith: Are you faithful in keeping your New Year's Resolutions? Not always - but there is always next year. :) I'm going to try to be a better person and hold myself accountable for my things in 2003. If I say I'm going to do it.. I better do it.

Twosome- Hope: ...and what are your hopes for the New Year? Financially - I hope B and I do better. Spirtually - I have room to grow and I welcome it. Physcially - tons of room to go down in size. :) Hope that the kids are well, our families and just a better year then what we have had in the past few.

Threesome- and Charity: Do you support any causes or charities? Any special projects this time of year? Does Me, Myself and I count? I try to give to the Mary Kay Ash Charitable Foundation; to help support the issues she held to her heart: finding a cure for women's cancers and putting an end to violence against women.

How about you? Play along and post your answers in your own space, then leave a comment here so we can find you!

pop-up boxes

I think my husband either hates me or has caught onto my 'blogging'. He installed an anti pop-up box application on our computer at home and now when I click to read my own comments, or post comments on other journals - the pop-up's just don't pop-up. I have to hit control click and that sucks. But then.. I love him too.. he re-programs my cell phone every once in awhile with the welcome messages.. it used to say "Kick Some Butt - Do Sales!" and once it said "You Can Do It!" for a month it said "Viva La$ Vega$" and now it says "Have a Coke and a Smile!" He took it one step further last night and programed the memory numbers to where it used to say "Home" it now says "Handsome&Kids" and "B Cell" is now "Studmuffin Cell". He knows when to make me giggle. I think this turned into a Reason for Love.

The Blues Brothers - Correction Officer: One Timex digital watch, broken. One unused prophylactic. One soiled.

HE GOT THE JOB!!! He starts work on Wednesday as a Correction Officer.

rockin

When the good gets going, it goes and goes. I think I'm wrapping up Holiday Sales today. I visited my last customer last night and did another $100 day. I did some of those shrink wrap gift baskets and she went ape over it and bought 2 and then stocking stuffers for her friends at work. Nice thing? They were all wrapped and she didn't have to do it. That's so cool. I think I might ride the bus to work a few days before Christmas and carry a basket with me and see what happens.

I think it's ironic that the days I want to work, and put in the hours, there is nothing for me to do (hence once again - new layout.. I need my space so I skin my site like crazy) then the days I have things going on (this whole week) they get the crunch going and need me over-time. Not a biggy. My "baby" website is getting ready for some new releases, and a deadline crunch of next Wednesday has been put upon us. My baby site is the job contract that got me in here so it's awesome that I'm slowly turning into the lead on this project. Everyone else who worked on it was in on the site long before I was and they just want to be rid of it and have nothing to do with it, so I've been slowly taking it over. Next Monday and Tuesday they said we will be doing over time and roughly working till 10 pm both nights. Nice cash for after Christmas. For me - its the push of the deadline that gets me going. My PM is nervous we won't make it. I have no doubt that we will make it - with Christmas lights to top it!

So my list of things going on this week has now been added to next Monday and Tuesday and now the kids want to see Santa this weekend along with about 4 orders that I wasn't able to make last night.. I'm thinking next weekend will be my weekend of rest and relaxation.

The countdown begins for B now. He took his final test today and now the call that says it's official that he's a Correction Officer is out there waiting to be answered. He's a tad over-weight but I'm thinking that with him getting back into Corrections, this will be his push to become a police officer and the weight will start going off. I'm already drinking more water (about choked on it last night) and with nice weather - at lunch I'm going to start walking the 16 Street Mall.

Speaking of choking - have you ever choked? I have never before, and even when I thought my sister was choking me at a young age of 12, I realized last night that it was no where near that. My friend squeezed some lemon juice into my water to sweeten it up and I don't know what happend, but on one of my sips, it went down wrong and next thing you know, I can't breath out my nose, I'm coughing and I'm not breathing. I couldn't talk. I just sat there trying to gasp for air and none was getting in. Nothing was in my throat, but I think it had something to do with the lemon. It scared us both. I think I'll stop accusing my sister of the choking thing - because I could breath on that one.

I'm God and you're not

Major vent. My mother-in-law. {insert huge, pissed off sigh here}. I swear when I get my own space, I'll have to go to Moveable Type for categories blogging and I'll have one section just for her. Then everyone can have a laugh and send me pitty cards for dealing with a woman like her. I do like her. It's in her "moments" that I really could just throw her into a brick wall and be done with her. I'm sure she runs back to her family telling all my mean little things and how rebellious I am to her and she makes me look like the bad guy - I know she does. She does it about her family to me. Where to begin? 1996? No. Too far back. Save those when I need a laugh. This past weekend.

1) She e-mails B on Friday that she is having a Christmas Party for some friends of her from work and her husband (3rd husband) has invited some people from his work and not everyone is showing up - all the extra food, blah blah blah... can we show up too? Ahhh we are afterthoughts. It has made me think over the past few days how many other parties she has had that we were not invited to. I doubt many, if any at all. You have to know her - this isn't her thing. She's now upset that B can't get off from work in time to go to the party and upset that I'm doing "that pink thing" all day Saturday, never mind that her other son flat told her out that he wasn't coming. It's ok if he doesn't go but we have to go?

2) The kids and I arrive around 7pm. No one is there. But slowly people show up. At the end there are about 8 couples. B shows up at 8 and she's mad he's not dressed up. He just got off work lady! I guess the topper was - they ended up being all her co-workers and they talked all work. Never talked to B, me, or my father-in-law and went into this little group thing. Turned into a major bitch session of how un-happy they are at work and dogged everyone that didn't show up for the get together.

3) Finally B and I had enough of the complaints and decided to head home. J asked if she could spend the night and I said that if 'putz' was ok with it, I was. Putz said that she was going to church in the morning and I said I would be up already; I'll bring church clothes and meet them there. She agrees and says good-bye to D. He gets this face on him and B and I caught it quickly and we told Putz that D wanted to spend the night too. She then said "well ok". I knew then that she had no intent taking D for the night. I'm so glad that B said something and at the same time I should have said that's ok, he'll come home with us.

4) I drop off church clothes the next morning, tell her I'll pick them up at 12 (even though I have an Open House at that time) and she says she would take the kids for the day and I'm to pick them up later in the evening. Ok, fine with me, to me all is fine and dandy. I find out later she was miffed that I didn't go to church. She expected me to go to church with her. Hello? God? I will not go to her church or be a part of her religion; I'll lose my religion before I go to hers.

Ugh. This is where it gets tricky and since B will not talk to her about it - it's a stand off right now. I go to pick up the kids around 6pm and they are earthly quiet. Usually at her place, lots of noise and things going on and a fight to stay ensues. Not that night. They got their stuff together and ran out the door like I have never seen before. I knew right there and then something was up. We get to the car and I asked if all is ok, J says no. Putz got mad at them in a store and told D that if he ever asked to spend the night again it would be no. WHAT?! You're telling YOUR GRANDSON that he can NEVER spend the night again but your GRANDDAUGHTER CAN?? What the FUCK? Yeah.. that was the rage of my emotions at the time. I should have got back out of the car and confronted her on the spot. Well why didn't ya? Reasons - and I'm sure for all the wrong reasons. I wanted to make sure the comment was a tease and not an out right statement. You know - if you don't behave now, you'll never come to the house again. My mom and I do it all the time to them. "Behave or no more Grandma's". Did Putz say the same thing in a different way and come across a total different way? Or is she still telling us after 8 years that she doesn't want a grandson and only a grand-daughter and doesn't have the time to bother with him? Yes - I was told for the first 3 years we were married and trying to have a baby she didn't want a boy. "I've raised my fill of boys; by golly you better have a girl". When I had D a year later she told me what a shame, J wouldn't have a sister to play with. Putz has a sister she can't stand to be with longer then a day and all I hear about is the fights they had as kids, but it's a shame my daughter doesn't have a sister?

By this time though. I just want to go home. I'll talk to B, he will deal with his mother, not me. I have to deal with my mom on issues he can't handle, he will deal with his. In the meantime, all sleep-overs have suspended, even J won't be able to. Damn right unfair to say J can and D can't. The kids by this time are in fear that they will be grounded. Daddy had warned them to behave themselves the night before and so this to them is major trouble. I had to reassure them that I have to hear both sides. If D did do something wrong to have this comment said, then he owes Putz an apology. Otherwise if she's in the wrong - well fat chance of hearing an apology come from her. She's God right hand woman. She can do no wrong. (yes - this is one of our communities’ future minister leaders)

I told B later that night and he agreed with me, no sleep-overs but I don't think he will ask her what happened. I think it's more "feel this one out". B will never get into a heated battle with her because she will turn it back on him and say what a bad kid he was and how no one loves her and blah blah blah. She's not worth the fight. But she has put a cramp in my Christmas, because she will want us to go over Christmas day.

And with my regards to the comments on God. I totally believe in him. But I really think if he's going to "call on someone" to do his 'work', I think he meant the person next to her, and not her and he missed the aimed target for his calling.

Is it Sunday?

Julie emailed me earlier today asking me what my schedule was like this week. I sat back and thought about it and though I'm happy it's a busy one, I don't think I'll get rest till Sunday. Tomorrow I'm off delivering orders to 7 customers. I don't think I've ever delivered that much in one day. I also got another customer. I have to share her with her cousin who also does the pink biz, but you know.. I don't mind. So tomorrow she is one of those 7 I'm delivering to. Yes.. work is in there somewhere and it's picking up so I don't know how I'm going to do it all.

Back to my list -

Monday (today) - tree up. Ended up having to go to the store for tinsel for the tree. We didn't finish till 9:30 and already emotions are running high. B and I were at each other from the minute the first light bulb went up. Gotta love him.
Tuesday - 7 deliveries - 5 at night.
Wednesday - Pink Wednesday and it's a photo shoot and I volunteered to help.
Thursday - Must See TV (yeah - some relaxing but I'm not crazy about Scrubs so it's shower time for the kids).
Friday - Toy Story on Ice with the family
Saturday - Pink bubble biz brunch / possible birthday party
Sunday - not getting up all day

I know staying up late will not be in the scope of things so I need to head off to bed soon. I have a major mother-in-law rage to throw but I'm keeping my cool until I hear her side of the story. I'm going with my gut feeling though - and if what I feel what happened with the kids spending the night with her Saturday night is true... she has lost me and D as a part of her family. I wish I could pull J from her too but I don't think it could/would happen. But D wouldn't care. He's known for a long time that she never favored him. Anyway - won't go into details on that till I hear 'putz' side of the events of the weekend.

• Work! Yeah!


• $100 day!


• 1 New Customer


• Christmas Tree goes up tonight


• Visit with Annette and Mary Ann tomorrow while out doing order deliveries


• Having some mon-ay (as oddtodd.com says it) for Christmas for B and the kids