Friends?

Over a year and a half ago, I said goodbye to a friend. I was actually rude enough to say that "I divorced her." I evaluated our friendship and made a conscious decision to pull away and not pursue contact with her.

You see, this friendship for me was very destructive. I never knew what to expect or what was expected. I cried so often even though I considered her one of my best friends. And honestly, it's been one of the hardest things I've ever done. I have a very difficult time not giving someone another chance.

The reason I bring it up tonight, is the fact that in the past week, I've received an IM request from her and a calendar from her and her husband's business (with a handwritten address so I know she purposely sent it.) It makes me ache. I know she is still wondering what happened. I attempted to explain it to her originally but her response was...well...I'll not get into it here.

I've prayed about it a lot and over the last 12 months, the answer has always come back that I made the right decision, but this time the ache is stronger. I miss her. I want to know what she's up to, how her kids are, how the business is going... But I just know. I know where we'll end up. Apologies will be said. Get-togethers will be planned. And then, the hurt will start again...

Lord, if this is what you want from me...please help me be strong. Clear my thoughts and bring my current friends closer so I'm wrapped in their loving friendship. Amen.

It's 12:22 a.m. and...

I shouldn't be awake. I've stayed up too late already 2 nights of the last 4 and if I stay up much later tonight, I'll be shot for our travelling tomorrow. But right now? From my perspective? I'd feel better staying up than going to bed. You see...I'm on a roll. I came home tonight with the goal of regaining control of my house. It was only emphasized when I couldn't get through my 2 car garage without stepping over something and bumping into something. So now, it's 9 hours later and here's the progress I've made:

1) I have a 4 foot path through the garage and everything that was in the way is sorted and put away. I had to stop there because I came across some bags I didn't recognize and I know D uses the garage to store Christmas presents. Sure didn't want to ruin any surprises!!! :-)

2) My family room has been EMPTIED. The floor is clear. The bags and boxes for Goodwill are in the van, the box of "Return to Chippewa" items is sitting by the door, the cat, dog, and rabbit food has been re-stacked in the closet and Sarah vacuumed the floor.

3) The kids rooms are clean and vacuumed.

4) The laundry is folded.

5) We ate leftovers for supper...which means the fridge is clean.

6) I can walk around my bed...pretty much. :-)

7) And, there's hope for the kitchen. The "prep-mess" from Rangerettes has been sorted and put away. The dishes are clean. The odds and ends put away. I only have a small stack of papers, the gift-wrapping supplies, and some broken toys sitting on my counter.

Re-reading the list, it didn't sound like the rooms were that bad...but I know that if it takes *me* 8 hours to clean it? It was really bad! I'm feeling SO much better and I know I will be even happier if I finish the laundry and clean my room. That just leaves the office for Sunday when we get hom from travelling and then we're ready for another week.

My mom sent me an email today about love not being shown through fancy cookies, perfectly decorated homes, and gourmet meals at Christmas...that it's shown by set aside "plans" and hugs and time spent on your family. Well, let me telling you...I must have been "loving my family" a LOT in the past 3 weeks because it sure showed it. So tonight I "loved my family" by teaching them how to clean. hehehehe

Anyway, I'm a bit slap-happy since I'm so tired. Let's see...to catch you up to date on life around here...

This weekend will be our 3rd trip to Chippewa in the past 4 weeks. We spent Thanksgiving there, my b-day here and Celebration Sunday here, and last weekend there for Jingle Bell Run. Now this weekend is D's extended family Christmas. Next weekend is his mom's bday and my family Christmas. The following weekend is the Andrew/Stone families Christmas at Jellystone. And then it's a weekend in Minnesota for my extended family Christmas. So, 6 of 7 weekends in a row at least 3 hours from home. Who's going to tell my children there's no money left for gifts since our family wants us to travel so much?!?!? Aye aye aye...but I keep saying "It's CHRISTMAS! Of course we'll come!!" <*sigh*>

Other than the travel...please say some prayers for us. S starts a work-up with a rheumatologist on Tuesday. They want to get to the bottom of her achy joints and persistant rashes. Her doctor says it isn't presenting like a "typical" arthritis or autoimmune disease but wants to do more testing. Since my days at the Foundation and the stories I've heard...I don't think doctors know what "typical" looks like. Anyway...let's pray she's just having abnormal growing pains and a couple ibuprofen will do the trick!

I better get back to that laundry. Oh won't it feel wonderful to wake up to a clean house in the morning?!? WEEHOOOO!

5:21 A.M...

So, it is 5:21am and I've been up for nearly 2 hours. I'm turning into my father's daughter. I don't know why I'm up...just am. So rather than get mad at it, I'm getting productive.

I have this habit of cleaning by piling everything that's on the floor in a room into a basket. Then I vacuum and dust and say, "Wow, doesn't it look wonderful?!" Well you and I both know that returning to "the basket" is NOT fun. And when I look around my house? I have accumulated several of them.

Therefore, this morning I'm tackling "the office basket". You know what I'm finding...a mixture of papers that either need filing or recycling, but there's enough of both that I can't just throw them in the recycling bin and I can't just stick them into the front of my filing cabinet. I actually have to piece through the whole basket one little note at a time. UG!

OK, I won't get anything done if I complain about it. Here I go! :-)

My list...

Responding to a challenge put out by a friend, I'm going to begin my "list". Honestly, I haven't thought about it much, so I'm certain I'll be editting this post several times!

Things I want to do in my lifetime (in no particular order)

* eat at the American Girl Cafe in Chicago
* lie on the beach in Jamaica
* visit Belen in Spain
* pay off my house
* have my daughters be glad they're turning out just like me :-)
* resolve a certain issue that appears to have no resolution
*
*

Things I've already accomplished:

* married my best friend
* had two amazing kids
* graduated from college...twice
* bought a house...and then another one
*
*

I guess that's all for now. Funny thing, had you asked me this question 10 1/2 years ago, I would have had different answers for you. Guess a person's goals change now and then...don't they?!?

Played hookie...

It was definitely a Monday today. We woke up late, had an off morning, got to school and turned around and came home. Yep, ya heard me right. I did drop one of my daughters off at school, but the other one I told to stay in the car and we were going home to start over.

So, we drove home. I fed her an eggs and toast breakfast, gave her an ibuprofen and a Claritin, and tucked her into bed. An hour later she woke up a changed girl. We climbed back into the car, returned to school, and went on with our day. EXCEPT...I didn't go into work.

I'm feeling guilty for that right now. I should have called. I could have gone in for an hour, but it would have cost me nearly as much money as I would have made to drive across town for an hour and turn around and come home. So, I stayed home.

After seeing C's creations and having my dad cut my boards for my cat post, I had a productive sewing day. I ran to Wally World and bought two tshirts and material to make dresses for my girls. I only got the short sleeved dress done today, but it needs some modifications...I overestimated the size of my eldest daughter so I'll have to trim some off of it before she can wear it. After I finished that project, I almost finished the cat's new tower. Hey...I should show you...just a second...

All I have left is the rope on the last piece of tube and to figure out something to cover the support. The girls are thinking that Fasa needs some sort of ladder, but he's already been to the top twice...I think he can manage. :-)

The bottom part houses his litter box. As we started to design this, we decided that it would be nice if we didn't have to see his box in the corner, so we planned it large enough to put his box inside. I'm very pleased with how it turned out. It ended up costing more than I had hoped, but I guess I'm ok with that. I hadn't anticipated buying material for the box, but I just couldn't find anything in my stock pile that I liked. (If my mother could read this, she'd be rolling her eyes right now!!! - - I have quite the stockpile of material!)

Anyway, I'll have D dig out more rope for me tomorrow and this project will be complete. YAY!

Oops...it's after 10. I promised my body I would put it to sleep early, so TTFN!

Excitement of the night...

We have many happy smiles around here tonight! S had her 4th volleyball game tonight and they won 3 of 3 games. The kicker though was that she was the last one up to serve and she served the winning score. This is REALLY cool since it was her very first overhand serve to make it across the net. Her and her team were jumping up and down so much, it's a good thing the other team didn't return the ball because they would have missed it! :-) It was very fun to watch.

The other wow of the day was the fact that D took an AR test on the Nancy Drew book and got all 6 points. YAY!! That means she listened, understood, and remembered the entire book. We might get through 3rd grade yet!!

OMG!! There's another excitement of today...I finally finished my scan projects at work. Now, this is kind of a dull yay, but a relief none the less. You see, we are a paperless office. That means that every piece of paper that comes into our office gets scanned into the computer and then recycled. It's very cool to not have to add "filing" to my list of things to do. The bad thing? The person that used to handle all of our internal office paperwork never scanned a thing since 2003. Four years of invoices, payroll records, and the like all piled into boxes that were handed over to me a couple of months ago. I've been sorting, organizing and scanning ever since and today, I sent the last stack through the scanner. It was a killer stack because I had saved it until last. It was our credit card bills with all the attached receipts. ICK! I had to lay them out separately, 3 at a time, on the scanner and inch through the pile. But, finally, they're done. WEEHOOO!

Poor Big D didn't have any excitement. His thrill was to take our sick dog to the vet just to be told they didn't know what was wrong. We get to feed her hamburger and rice for the next several days to see if it solves her problem otherwise, we'll be heading right back there.

OK, well, I promised S a chapter of her book tonight so I'd better get going. Adios!

An evolving Sunday tradition...

Again this afternoon, we cozied in for the game. We've never really done this before, but D takes the couch and the cat and I get the loveseat. He reads the paper and I nap and lounge. FOR THREE HOURS STRAIGHT!!! Ahhhh...although today had many interruptions, I sure hope this trend sticks because I'm lovin' it. Only thing...what happens after football season...should I be taping these games so we can continue through the spring and summer?!?

On that thought, I have to chow down supper, take M home and get to a meeting in the next 45 minutes. I'd better run and gather the kids. Have a great week!