Catching up...again

We've been super busy the last month +, there really has been NO TIME for blogging. But we're in a lull now with sports and activities (for us - I'm sure many people would still think our schedule is insane), so I thought I'd spend the time catching everyone up.

1. We finished up basketball for the girls yesterday with our final tournament
2. We finished wrestling for the boys last weekend with two trips to State Championship Wrestling
3. We celebrated Valentines and did a couple of projects.
4. and we celebrated my birthday this week :P

We also have a had a few other odds and ends over the last month.

• Mr S FINALLY finished his heavy traveling for work. He was gone most of January and February on various projects and conferences. I'm SO glad to have him back. It's really tough to not have him here. While he was gone, I did a few fun things with the kids (at least when the boys were around - they stayed with their mom a lot when Mr S is gone).

We did Movie Night a few times...

We also had "make your own pizzas" dinner...

(bad picture, but the only one I have all of them in)

• Jr. Ms S now has contacts! She's going up so fast into such a pretty young lady.

So cute :)

• We've only had two storms this winter that warranted pulling out the snow blower. Its been such a WEIRD winter and now we're starting off a pretty violent spring (1st ever recorded tornado in NE in February). One of Mr S's trips required him to come home in a bad blizzard. I was upset that he drove all night and pushed it to get home in bad weather, but he was right in that if he hadn't, the interstate would have shut down on him and he would have been stuck.

(You notice how ALL of these are taken inside - it was ICY!)

The snow ended early this day and Mr S's grandfather came up and cleared our road with his tractor so we could get out and go for dinner at Fernando's - unfortunately...the road was still too snowy (and icy) that we couldn't make it back up the hill. We ended up walking (which I guess is good for us since we had a HUGE YUMMY dinner to burn off)

• My sister's job: Sadly, my sister's old company was morons and decided to lay her off (stupid!). The good thing is that my company is AWESOME and she has now been hired in another department there. So, although we're quite separated, we still are close enough to have lunch every once in a while, she has much better benefits, and now she has a reasonable schedule that allows her to actually do stuff in the daylight hours.

What have you been up to the last month?

What a week...

Well, last weekend didn't start off as nice as the one before. I thought it was going to be a good Friday night; Mr S had chili already going for dinner - so yummy on a cold raining day and HP7-P1 (Harry Potter 7 - Part 1 for you non-Pott-heads) was on sale at the store - so we were going to have movie night.

So, I walked out of the store and one of my tires was COMPLETELY flat. Like - don't drive on it unless you want to wreck your car dummy. I swear it wasn't like that when I left work (grrr..). So I had grocceries piled in on top of my spare, as well as all the other crap in my trunk (seriously - how much gas mileage do you think I lose carrying around a huge box of City of Omaha Planning Dept envelopes?). Plus it was pouring rain and stupid me had forgotten a jacket in the morning. Mr S was sweet though, he offered to come down and rescue me, or find me a place that was still open to get it fixed (since it was after 5). We found a Sears close to where I was and I slowly drove there. When I got there, the techs of course say ALL of my tires need replacing. Ugh - there goes $500 I didn't plan on spending this weekend. Anyway, they were very quick and by 6:30 I was on the road home. sadly I could tell a HUGE difference in the way my car reacted to the wet road from before. At least I got it fixed.

I finally made it home and Mr S was sweet and unpacked grocceries for me so I could change and eat. We started HP7-P1, but we were all too tired to stay up and finish it :(

No April Fools Joke ....10 updates for 7 weeks

Where has time gone? We’ve been so busy and moving at the speed of light most of the time around here. I’ve also had a hard time deciding to write because after mine and Mr. S’s fight before Valentines Day – I was supposed to make a promise to no longer put “everything” out there, I’m not allowed to write posts that will make me or anyone else depressed. It really upset me because I feel like this is MY sounding board and his family should stay out of it. Anyway, I’ve cooled off now so I’ll catch everyone up on the last MONTH. Bare with me on this….

1) Jr Ms S’s LEGO League participated in the Nebraska State competition. They were one of only 5 teams that were invited from Iowa. (If you remember, Jr Mr S’s team went to state in Iowa and got 2nd place) It was a very, very cool thing for the kids. It was held at the Air and Space Museum and both hangers were PACKED with kids and their robots. The atmosphere was almost like being at a Monster Truck Rally (not that I’ve ever been to one – but it’s what I would imagine it to be like). They had a DJ going and Time Warner Cable used the big screens so that they could see themselves competing. The announcers and almost all of the volunteers for the RoboExpo made it a really special event for the kids. And it was LOUD…oh my gosh it was LOUD, but in a good way – lots of cheering and screaming for the kids. Her team didn’t end up getting a trophy, but they ranked at 16th out of 60 teams which their coach said was very good for a first year team with 4th-7th graders against mostly Jr High teams that have done this before. It was a great day for them. We’re always so wrapped up in sports that it was great to see an intellectual thing get the same recognition and excitement as a sporting event. They did a wonderful job and I’d love to go back again if we can.

2) Mr S and I were able to make up our Valentines date after the RoboExpo. We dropped the girls off at my sister’s and went to dinner. It was a quick dinner, but it was nice to spend some time together. And I think our marriage is hopefully improving – I think with wrestling over, my quitting the second job (YAY – I QUIT!!), making compromises on my main job and trying to invest more time in the kids and Mr S has helped. I hope so…

3) Jr Ms S’s team got first place in their last basketball tournament - so that was bitter-sweet for them. In addition to that she had her BEST game ever – I don’t know what got into her, but she was HOT that day. And I’m the biggest retard mom and didn’t pull out my camera until the very last game. She had already played quite a bit of the first three so she only played a few minutes of the last one. The other team REALLY wanted to beat us and the fans were SO loud. But we beat them and this is what it sounded like…

(Geez – my ears hurt SO BAD after the last two days)

Awesome, huh?

4) The boys had a few wrestling tournaments to finish of the season (no surprise huh?). In fact, one weekend they had TWO tournaments because Mr S is so obsessed. They’ve done pretty well at them – mostly getting first places. JrMrS only got 5th place at districts though – so we didn’t make it to state. I feel bad for him but I am SO HAPPY for me. Now we’re done until next fall - - THANK GOD!!! (see, I can be positive about wrestling) Now if only he doesn’t OBSESS over baseball (it’s already starting – I can see it – but this sport is a little better because it doesn’t smell like armpits – or worse, I get a tan, and at least you know after about 1.5 hours or 5 innings, you’re going home).

5) We had fun at the school carnival - well, maybe I didn't - I had to work with the balloon clown (I HATE clowns!!!)

6) In addition to participating in Lego League this year, the kids also did chess club again. This was the first time we tried out a tournament though - it was really tough! The girls tried their best though and ended up about in the middle of their brackets.

7) I’ve decided that life ends after 30. This year has been SO rough and going into 31 doesn’t look to hot either. I have never had such bad health and been SO overweight. It’s sickening. To fix the odd “lady” problems I was having, we ended up having to change my birth control pill and it’s some crappy pill that makes my hormones think I’m pregnant (whoo-hoo – cause I loved the emotional roller coasters of that…grrr). On top of that its been one continuous cold after another – yuck!

8) So I turned 31 and Jr Mr and Ms S turned 11. Yay another year and another year closer to them being teenagers (I’m totally being sarcastic – really)

Whoops - forgot to buy candles, but the two candles I did have worked :)

So in total - all the March birthdays added up to 222 years!

yes - she's fake blowing out the candles since I wasn't fast enough with the trigger

9) The girls performed in the Drill Team show at their school. It was such a great program for them and so sweet of the high school girls to take the time and foster this in them – especially since we’re so far away from club cheerleading (I SO wish there was a place close – LMS would LOVE it). I was SO surprised when my tom-boy girl JrMsS decided to do it. She was so cute.

10) We had some weather excitement (and unfortunately some damage) a couple weeks ago. I was racing home from work to get home to leave for parent teacher conferences when a thunderstorm warning hit our area. I could see the clouds getting dark and moving fast in front of me (I’m such a dork I had the whole Twister soundtrack playing in my head – you know the really ominous one right before the tornado hits) Right as I was coming around a curve on the interstate the front hit and I was pushed by the wind! Scary! When I got to town it was only sprinkling so I thought I’d be able to out run the storm – um – no. I got stopped at the third light in town (how crazy does that sound?) and it started sounding like someone was CHUCKING rocks at my car. Then all the clouds opened up and it hailed HARD. I pulled over under a gas station canopy to try to prevent damage to my car and called Mr S. I was listening to the news on the radio but was worried about a tornado as bad as it was. He wasn’t even watching the tv for me – I was freaking out – I didn’t know if I should make a run for a safe place or what when…the tornado sirens went off..here I am under a gas station canopy – probably the worst place I could be other than on the road itself. So Mr S calls me back and says “Well it’s a tornado, but it’s right on top of you, so if you’re fine, just come home”. Um, SERIOUSLY!!! Eh, it’s a tornado, but just drive home – I can’t even see the freaking road in front of me it’s pouring so hard! Grr… So once it did stop I came home. Right before I got off the highway to go down our road Mr S calls and asks if I’d left yet because now it’s getting bad at the house (oh – now you’re worried?). I got home fine and pulled into the garage. By the time I’d changed clothes it was sunny out and the girls were playing in the hail trying to find the biggest ones. We had some vehicle damage, a hole in our siding and some damage to our gutters, but nothing claim-wise at least. Mr S’s stupid ex wasn’t so lucky, her house looks like someone shot it up with a machine gun – sad, but SUPER funny. Too bad she’s such a b!tch and got on the news talking about how the boys “thought they were going to DIE!” Really? If they thought they were going to die, how come they didn’t say anything about it the next day? Stupid…The worst of the damage happened at LMS’s teacher’s farm (they had cows out, damage to their old farm house, and worst of all the grain bin FULL of corn was picked up and thrown 1/2 mile down the road!)

I felt so bad, she pulled us aside and asked if she could do our conference ASAP so she could get home – no way was I making her stick around – I told her to give me the papers and go – if there was a problem I should have heard WAY SOONER than this (we see each other almost every weekend at kid stuff since she has kids the same ages as ours)

So there are 10 updates for the last 7 weeks. I promise not to go so long anymore… I love blogging and I’ve hated being gone.

Unknowns

I hate the unknown. I hate change. I hate not having control of my situation. All of these things put me in a really bad mood and make me REALLY edgy. Unfortunately Mr. S and the kids have had to bear the brunt of my edgy-ness (okay, lets call it what it is...my bitchy-ness). Stress also ups the short temper/lack of patience, etc and I'm UNDER A LOT of stress rightn now. I know it's not right and I know they really shouldn't have to deal with me being this way and I REALLY do try, but it's just too much right now.

My biggest unkown is my job. My co-worker left on Friday and this week has been a real-stresser worrying about what I don't know and how I'm going to handle problems with web sites and databases, etc. I know more than anything I just doubt myself and once I'm in the middle of it - I'll do fine - that's usually the way it ends up, but it's just the stress and the change that I can deal with right now. I'm also working on a project that has been a real "cluster" from the beginning. I'm suppossed to lead this Navigator Program for the public, but it's not even designed yet. The project HAD to launch Friday partly because they want some pilot participants, but also because there is a recall election for the mayor this week and he wants to make it look like he's doing a bunch of good things for the city (he sucks - kick him out please - I'd vote him out, but I don't live there). So now I have 14 people signed up and have no clue what I'm suppossed to do with them. Nothing has been designed. I guess we'll all figure it out together. I know this will all work out, again, it's just the "unknown".

I'm also having a weird health problem. This my be too much TMI, but I've been bleeding/spotting for the last couple of weeks. I went to my Dr's Nurse Practitioner a week and half ago, but because nothing was happening at the time, she couldn't tell me anything. So yesterday I started bleeding really heavy and had blood clotting (sorry, I know this is gross but it's freaking me out). I went into urgent care, they took some blood and urine to rule out infections, stds, pregnancy and it's none of that (I knew it wasn't the middle one, whatever). The dr thinks it's either a hormone thing and I need to change my birth control (sucks - this is the ONLY kind that's worked for me without side effects) or I have an ovarian cyst (since I have some pain on my left side). He said to make an appt with my regular dr ASAP so she can rule it out. So of course I came home and googled cysts which most of them are absolutely fine, they go away in a few months/weeks, even if you have to have surgery it's not that bad, but still - it's an unknown - I don't know what the heck is wrong with me and I hate it. Guess I'll make an appt tomorrow and see what she says.

Do unknowns and change bother you?

Bullets for Friday

I have WAY too much to catch up on - so for now, I'll just bullet the last week and a half:

• Sorry I haven't been around lately - our stupid router took a dive last week and we didn't figure it all out for a few days (and after MULTIPLE calls with our stupid service provider). Bought a new one yesterday and it's SO great to be back into cyber-world. So we're back and after another round of calls to the service provider and arguing with them about the data transfer - we were being charged for the data transfer twice of what we were getting. Butt holes! After Mr. S fought with them over the phone - we now have TWICE as much data transfer - yay us!
• Okay, so let's start with the good news - I got a pretty nice raise this week. It's nice to know that management sees how hard I work and is willing to recognize it with this.
• At work tonight I picked up my last two paychecks (kept forgetting to get them - they were only $13 each) and attached to my "Christmas" one was an envelope with a $20 bonus. Yeah, it's not much, but I NEVER would have expected a bonus there - again, so nice to know that management recognizes hard/quality work and rewards it (yes, even $20 is a reward).
• For the first time EVER I got all of my Christmas decorations down before New Years - it was so nice to "ourge" the house of the clutter.
• That's all I got for good - so on to so-so: We didn't really celebrate New Years which really disappoints me. I LOVE New Years. Of all the dorky, Hallmark holidays (Valentines, Halloween, etc), New Years is my favorite. We stayed in and Mr. S went to bed at 11 pm even though he promised to stay up. He promised to give me a New Years kiss when I came to bed, but he couldn't even roll over to do that for me. Really disappointing.
• I don't know, it's probably just me, but things between us seem to be back in the blah zone - why do marriages have to be like this? All I want is a LITTLE attention rather than treating me like his stupid chew toy - sorry, I don't know how else to decribe it. It's like if I give up the effort (or am SO stressed out I can hardly breathe) - he doesn't pick up the slack - why?
• So the bad - My co-worker quit this week. We were already at super capacity with work and now I have to cover BOTH of our jobs. We're looking for a replacement, but I'm stressing so bad that it'll be like trying to replace my last job - it took 4 months! I can't go 4 months without help...
• This probably should have been in my so-so list but, since she's leaving, my boss is going to push for more training/education for me so I can be a better designer/web developer. This is great except - when the hell am I suppossed to do it!!!??? Since I'll be working like 70+hours a week for a while and with all of my family/kids/part-time job responsibilities, I DON'T have the time! I know it will work out - I just don't know how.
• So, I'm so stressed out that I kind of bit back at one of the PM's at work - probably my BIGGEST supporter. He's very different from others - if you make a good impression he's your biggest advocate/supporters, but if you come off on the wrong foot or are unprofessional, then he's gonna boot you so far you won't know what happened to your career. I've been continuing to "support" him ever since the new girl started - she screwed up with him and you only get one chance. He asked me to do something the other day when I was SO overwhelmed and for the FIRST time I said no. I think it upset him. So I decided to try to search out the perfect person to support him. Yesterday I spent an HOUR going over some project initiation sheets with her so she could help him. I told her to pre-fill them in and then he'd mark them up. So today she called me down so we could both go to his office. What did this idiot do? She brings OLD forms - I have never actually seen him "boot" people and I was SO surprised the rumors were true - I couldn't believe how fast this admin got booted out the door and then he spent another 45 minutes going on about how incompetent she is. Wow! How am I ever going to be able to move on with all of these incompetent people not being able to help me out?
• My crappy ex is bugging me again. He sent me some stupid Facebook message about wanting to talk in person (wait..I thought Facebook was a place for communicating). Why would I want to talk to him in person? I can't stand seeing him across the rotunda at court, why would I want any conversation with him? Then he has the gall to tell me he has different priorities now than when he was 27. Really - took him 10+ years longer than EVERYONE else on this planet to figure out he should have priorities? And why should I "trust" him now? He needs to get the hell out of mine and the girls' lives. And, he didn't even ask to see the girls - it was all about HIM and how HE needed to be able to support himself. Ugh! On top of that, my crappy-ass lawyer BARELY got our court date rescheduled today when I HAD TO call and remind him. There's another dumb-ass I need to get out of my life.

I guess that's it for now. I'll have more tomorrow...
What do you do when you feel so hopeless?

A Snowflake Update

I've been trying to avoid anymore negative posts. Things in many ways have improved, especially on the health side - other things are not so good...I guess such is life - you get the good and the bad. As the book I'm currently reading states "it's all about what you focus on though" (RAPT). So for an update..

To start with the good...I'm feeling MUCH better. I'm still coughing some and part of my herniated rib is still...herniated..but so much better now. The long Thanksgiving weekend (and my muscle relaxers prescribed by the urgent care doctor) aided so much in that. I really appreciate that my husband finally saw that I needed the time and my sister was such a big help with my obligation to get the house decorated for Christmas for the kids.

I think that mine and Mr. S's marriage is more on track again. We needed focus (again...focus on that which is most important to your life), we NEED date nights and I think we're getting there - we're going to take the time to focus on each other and close out the "bad" or "stressful" that consumes us. I think that for the last few weeks we've both been much more happy with where we're at together and that's a good thing.

Also good...the girls and I got to spend the weekend together and had a lot of fun together. Mr. S and the boys were all deer hunting this weekend, so we spent Saturday shopping and going to lunch. I was SUPPOSED to be Christmas shopping, but I think I spent more money on buying the girls new clothes and LMS's fish. So, needless to say..I'm WAY behind on Christmas shopping. Sunday we spent most of the day watching movies and catching up on Glee together. Such a nice relaxing weekend. Now I need to find Mr. S something else to hunt so we get more "girls" weekends and less wrestling matches :)

Speaking of LMS's fish - we had a death in the family...Taylor Fish..our beta from Mr. S's cousin's wedding in June died. LMS was SO distraught last Sunday, but by Monday she was ready to flush him with the promise of a new fish this weekend. We've welcomed two new members to the family, Goldie and Firey, a couple of large fan tail goldfish. So, a happy/sad story.

For the bad..hmm..where to start...

I'm tired...

I’m tired of being sick. I’m tired of coughing…I’m tired of my chest hurting…I’m tired of being a sick , whiney baby. The meds haven’t done anything – so it seems. I rested all weekend and called into my 2nd job to give myself recuperating time (also got a HUGE guilt trip by the dumb hostess when I checked in on Sat. – yeah – really don’t feel bad about not coming in and coughing all over the customers – stupid lady). I’m worried about this week – probably can’t call in again – but the running around and smoky kitchen probably isn’t going to improve my situation…

I’m tired of working my 2nd job. I was starting to think about quitting and then I started getting stupid lawyer bills again. Hopefully I can reduce my days after the first of the year (all depends on my stupid ex I guess though)….

What a difference a day makes

Friday was my day from Hell.  All week I'd been "slow" (not really that I didn't have anything to do - just not at the hurricane pace I'm used to), Friday had a ton of deadlines though. My biggest one was this 6-in thick Construction Quality and Assurance document that has to be filed with Iowa DNR on Monday AM. So between racing to get that ready and needing to go to work at my second job - I was under a lot of pressure. Ultimately, I didn't get my final files until after 3 (I had wanted to leave at 2:30) and still had to finish printing, assembling and burning electronic versions. Around 4 I couldn't decide if I was calling in to second job or not, but no matter what I was working late (my other option was to go in Saturday or Sunday to finish - but in my mind - that was NOT an option) also, my job at Large Engineering firm comes WAY before my second job - if I lost my main one for not completing it (not that it would happen, but..) - second job is NOT going to pay the bills. I finished at 5:35 and was getting nagged by the shuttle drivers to get my butt downstairs or I'd have to walk to my car - not really something I wanted to do with all of the crap I had to carry for the conference today. I made it home, changed and got to my second job by 6:30...of course we were swamped and I think all the waitresses were mad at me.  Whatever....When I got home after 9:30 (over 14 hour day) finally - I was tired, stressed, not feeling good (I've been sick/had allergies or something since Wed night) and I was kind of annoyed with Mr. S (not going to spell it all out here - he was (is) in the doghouse). Anyway...bad day.

Saturday didn't start off very well, I was still tired, sick and stressed out and Mr S started nagging me about getting my car in (it's had a check engine light on all week). We got it dropped off, he made breakfast casserole, we all cleaned house and then went to JrMrS's last football game of the season. I got a call from the dealership about my car while we were watching the older kids play their game - I had a stupid evap warning (basically because Mr S put gas in my car and then didn't screw the cap on tight - the engine didn't like that it didn't have the "pressure"). Luckily it was an easy fix and they didn't even charge me for the time/labor! I have dropped LOTS of money with them - so they're nice and give me breaks every once in a while (nice thing about living in a small town). Anyway, that relieved a TON of stress and I was able to enjoy the game (except for my throat killing me). JrMrS's team won the game and then I was finally able to get some pictures up close in his uniform.

Just a few thoughts...

Kind of a mixed bag today...
Yesterday was a pretty relaxing day. MrS really wanted to watch the 7/8th graders play football, so we went early to watch them kick Mo Valley's butt :) Unfourtunately MrS's ex is a COMPLETE dusche and wouldn't let the boys come early (and when JrMrS did get there - she just dropped him off - she lives like 4 blocks from the school!  Why wouldn't she just let us bring him!! grr...). JrMrS's team did pretty well, but only won 6 to 0 (still beat 'em though!). We came home, I cooked enchiladas (I'm not being stuck up or anything, but I make THE BEST on the planet) and then settled in for some movie watching.  We watched How to Train your Dragon with the girls and then watched Kick Ass - I was very surprised by how violent that movie was.  I expected some violence like other super-hero movies, but not bloody violence (seriously - you saw what human looked like blown up in a microwave - gross). Minus the bad movie and the stupidness of MrS's ex - it was a good day.

JrMrS is #35

Where to start?

Hi...I'm a bad, bad blogger. How did SO much time get away from me?  A lot has happened-yet it just has seemed to day-to-day for us I guess-we live at a CRAZY pace. So, to catch up, here's some high-level bullet points...
1) JrMsS has been playing volleyball this fall. It's been fun to watch her, this being her first year I think she did really well (especially this week).  Today was the playoff tournament. They did really, really well.  However because Stupid Mo Valley cheats ALL THE TIME, we were eliminated pretty quickly.  Oh well.  I'm excited that she's looking forward to playing next year and LMS will be old enough to play too. Tuesday is the start of Basketball...

My week in Wyoming

I NEVER pictured myself going to Wyoming (of course I thought the same thing about Nebraska and Iowa and look at me now).  Not that it's a bad place (in fact it's beautiful!), I just never really saw myself going there for anything.  In late June we found out that we won a project for the National Guard.  I and a co-worker were going to plan a training conference for them in Laramie, WY.  It was a scramble for 6 weeks.  We had almost no time to get it all planned and do everything else we needed to.  Remember my post about a bad review?  That was for this project.  Somehow she and I pulled it all off and on the 15th we headed for Laramie to pull off the conference.  What a week.  I worked almost 90 HOURS!!! It was a LOT of work, but we had a lot of fun too.

Snapshot

It's been a slow couple of weeks for the Snowflakes - at least in our definition of slow.  The hardest thing for me has been the lack of kids around the house.  The girls left on Thursday and yes we had the boys, but it's still not the same.  On top of that, work has been INSANE!!!
A week ago Friday, Mr. S's mom informed us that her father passed away - almost three weeks to the day after her mom. We took her to dinner that night - I feel so bad because I don't think it's sunk in yet - she's been so busy between her parents and now it's all over.  I just don't know what I would do without mine even though we are separated by so many miles!
Monday was the begining of football season - Jr.Mr.S is having fun working out with his new team - too bad it's SO hot. 
Wednesday I got stuck working super late at the restuarant and then Thursday my boss there asked if I could come in for a while since someone called in sick.  Ugh - I totally should have said no - I was a walking zombie for some reason.
Like I said, on Thursday I was pretty much a walking zombie, on top of forgetting all parental duties since I did not have any around last week.  About 4 pm a mom of one of LMS's friends texted me that she had to do an unthinkable thing - go home and tell her daughter that LMS and her were not in the same class this year.  Hmm...how did she know that?...Oh crap!  I forgot it was school registration day!!!  I raced out of work and got to the school in record time (35 minutes!!).  When I sat down with the school secretary to get the girl's paperwork she double checked I was only there for the girls - I said yes, but would take anything for the boys if I needed to.  She was very adament that she knew their mom had been in earlier that day.  When we got to the part where she asked about pre-paying for school lunches, she started acting all weird.  She asked if someone else was responsible for paying the girl's lunches and then mentioned that she was "TOLD" the boy's dad was responsible for theirs.  She acted all scared to ask me.  I paid and confirmed the story she was told but she just kept apologizing and explaining she was just a "messenger"  What the hell did the boys mom say/do to upset her that bad?!!I felt so sorry for her.  School secretaries are the nicest women and this one was all fearful of my reaction - sad that apparently the EX had to be such a BITCH to her.
Friday was another long stressful day, Mr. S and I finished it out with him meeting me at the restaurant for dinner when I was done.
Satuday the "big" event was picking up our beef - woo-hoo!! I also worked at the resaurant and then since Mr.S didn't want to watch anything good when I gt home and finished showering and eating dinner - I ended up working my other job from about 9 to 11:15 pm!
We had a pretty good day today, we went to brunch in Omaha, went to the mall and got Mr. S, Jr.Mr.S and I some stuff, went to Walgreens (they have really cheap wine), and then went groccery shopping.  Brunch was nice - I think we have a new place to pick from - Mr. S really loves his breakfast places. 
So that's pretty much our last week - just lots of work and a HUGE LACK of kids stuff - I'm not functioning well.  Can I admit that I don't know how to act without my girls?  It's just too weird to not have those two little butts around all the time and has made me think a lot more about Mr. S's idea for the complete custody.  I can't go back to them being gone and dealing with stupid's aftermath when they do get home. Ugh.
They'll be home Tuesday and I can't wait to hold them and sqeeze them and never let go. :)

What constitutes a bad week (and a half)?

It may not have been the worst week and a half ever in my life, but when you look back at all that you’ve been through, it just adds up.

Let’s start with July 7th (a week and a half ago). Mr. S’s grandmother passed away after battling cancer for only about 3 months. It came on hard and fast and although she’s in a better place and no longer in pain, it’s still hard for Mr. S’s mom and family. He’s been pretty estranged from that side of the family for years, so the memorial last Saturday was the first time a lot of his family had met LMS (the boys were at a wrestling camp and Jr.Ms.S was at her swimming district meet – Mr. S thought it was more important for them to do that). From the stories I heard about her, she will be a very missed woman. And now today we found out that Mr.S’s grandfather isn’t doing very well now – I guess after 65+ years – you really can’t do without the other.

(grandparents are in the center sitting down)

On July 8th, I took flowers and card to my sister for her birthday. As I was walking into the office building I missed one TINY little stair right before the door (how did I make it up the freaking 20 large ones before that?) and fell hitting my knees SUPER hard, the flowers went FLYING, and I had to walk into the building with blood running down my knees. Ugh, at least HOPEFULLY no one saw me do it – what a klutz I am. The bad thing is that my knees are STILL bruised and now I’m suffering a lot of pain in one when I stand too long (hopefully I didn’t tear something in my knee like someone suggested). (by the way sissy - sorry I didn't do a birthday blog post - I'm so bad and behind - I'm sorry).

Happy Birthday Sissy!!

Last Sunday Mr. S and I fought about PB sandwiches - yeah - that was the stupidest fight of the century.

Quick Update

Sorry I've been MIA for the past couple of months.  I'm really looking forward to life slowing down soon - at least for a little while.  Here's our week:

1) We had two swim meets this week. JrMsS is doing a lot better.  We've also found a way to "bribe" her to do better.  When she was hungry before one of her heats, Mr. S told her she could have a cheeseburger if she came in 3rd or better.  That kid got out there and swam the most perfect breast stroke I've ever seen and got 2nd place!  Her coach was laughing SO HARD when she did that (she knew about our deal with her and of course she was SUPER proud of her too).  It's amazing what a cheeseburger can motivate.

2) Speaking of cheeseburgers, do you know how many cheeseburgers and tacos it takes to feed all of my kids at swim meets?  12 cheeseburgers and 18 tacos!! (Seriously we don't eat fast food this often on a normal basis)

3) If you haven't already read my other post, I had my first solo project this week.  It's the first new project our section has gotten since I started and my boss let me go loose on it.  The bad this was I only had about a day to design the website and then I had MAJOR problems with the hosting company.  It all worked out in the end, but I was SO emotionally spent and SO exhausted Wednesday - instead of going to the other job, I called in, picked up chinese and the girls, opened a bottle of wine and had movie night.  I was A LOT better then next day.

4) Speaking of the other job, I did go in last night for a whole whooping THREE tables.  Ugh - at least they all tipped pretty well and I was home by 7 pm.

5) Thursday night after the swim meet we went over to Mr. S's aunts house and celebrated his grandfather's birthday with cake, ice cream and fireworks.  We had a lot of fun Aunt R and happy birthday grandpa!

6) Since it had been such a long week, we had a super late night Thursday night and I didn't see the point of driving all the way into work when so many people would be out or leaving super early, I decided not to go into work.  We slept in (the kids were kind of freaking out being out of the norm and all), I worked remotely on my couch, I even took a nap yesterday afternoon.  It was a good day.

7) Yesterday was my Nana's birthday, I wish I would have been more on the ball and sent you something other than just an amazon card like usual, but hopefully you find something you really want.  I hope you had a really wonderful day!

8) Speaking of work, I won another department award.  I don't know for what yet, but I got an email yesterday asking me which prize I wanted: Movie tickets, Round of Golf, Omaha Steaks, or money to Large Engineering Company store.  Hmm....so hard to choose....

9) I guess I haven't updated you on our newest future trip to the ER device Mr. S has put up.  For SOME reason, he has it in his head that the kids need a climbing rope for building muscles.  He picked up rope and a 2x4 on Saturday and wanted to put it at the top of our garage!  Ugh! I talked him out of destroying the siding and facia, as well as the danger of the kids climbing that high over the concrete and ended up talking him into a lower spot under the deck.  Of course as soon as Jr.Mr.S got here Sunday, he just HAD to eventually make it to the top, so Mr. S is CONVINCED we need a higher one.  Now he has another one tied to a beam inside the garage, but I know it's only going to be days and I'll have to fight him off destroying the house again.  Either that or the kids will continue to use it as a rope swing like they do behind his back and as they launch themselves from the side of the house down to the patio, we'll have an ER visit.  Seriously?  How long is a climbing rope going to be a "fun" thing before they completely ignore it?  TS2 is already asking for a tire to be attached so they can swing instead.  Guess we'll see who's right...we all know it's going to be me, right?

That's our week pretty much - just another BUSY, work-filled, running all over Iowa week.  At least we have the long weekend ahead.

Happy 4th of July!!

Bad Review

Since this is an anonymous blog (at least to the people that don’t know us in person) I normally would not just call out a bad company by name. This company was SO BAD - I’m going to break my rule…

Dear MyDomain.com,

YOU SUCK!!! I had my very first solo project start on Monday with a new government client. You made me look VERY incompetent and that REALLY pisses me off. Yes you had the best deal for monthly web hosting (until I found out my normal host will prorate your yearly subscription if you cancel early - ugh) and your domain name purchases were “reasonable”, but you were SO NOT WORTH the hassle and stress I went through this week, paying for a full year (which I found out I don’t have to now) and just writing off the extra money myself would have been SO MUCH BETTER!

When my client emailed me on Tuesday about being blocked completely from the site, my whole week went into upheaval. Why couldn’t they view my site you ask? Because for some reason this branch of the federal government completely blocks porn and those that host it (yeah I’m talking about you SEC – learn from this branch please). I tried ALL NIGHT Tuesday to make it right for my client through you. You have a ridiculous way for setting up the hosting, why the heck does it take 40 million steps to finally get to the point of being able to push the page?

On Wednesday I was EXHAUSTED and emotionally spent. I called you first that morning and tried to get “customer support”. You “claimed” I loaded my pages and content to the wrong folder and “helped” me transfer them to the correct one. However you hung up before I could see my site go live. By mid-morning the site still said it was Under Construction and my client informed me it would basically take an act of God to get permission to the site anyway. I called your “customer support” back and got pretty much the second worst tech ever (the first was your earlier tech that didn’t stay on the phone to make sure it was right for me). I explained my problem, asked for the transfer to another hosting company and an explanation of why my page was not up (I AM an experienced web designer – I know when they’re not working). He refused stating it takes 60 days (no it doesn’t – it’s only 30 with a new domain, but CAN be pushed through when needed – I’ve gotten hosting companies to do it before). Then he told me it could take UP TO 24 hours for my site to be live on the internet. WHAT!?!? I asked to speak to a supervisor and he refused saying no one else would tell me any differently. I don’t know what kind of INTERNET company you’re running, but in my world – everything is instant, just like the INTERNET. The “face” of your company was rude and incompetent. Yes, he may not have deserved me yelling at him (which my cube mates LOVED – I got all kinds of IMs about how I should rake them some more), but your service and your customer service SUCKS!

And how can you send me a support email on FRIDAY in response to my asking for help on TUESDAY and say it’s resolved?! MY SITE IS STILL NOT UP!!!!!

Thank God my client was understanding and we were able to change the domain name (since you think you have some kind of ownership of it – and it’s better now too I might add). When I went to my normal hosting company and they informed me that monthly billing was allowed (sort of), I had the account set up, domain purchased, hosting started and my site loaded all in 5 minutes. Did you hear me MyDomain.com – FIVE MINUTES!!! You wasted HOURS of MY time and my clients MONEY!!  Ans now my client can see the site they purchased and paid for, unlike yours.

So, MyDomain.com, since you have a bad hosting company and even worse customer service, I’m calling you out for the world to know. And guess what? They’ll be able to find out about this within MINUTES of my posting, because that’s the way the REAL internet works.

MOST Disgruntled,

Snowflake

A Quick 10...

What a week...here's the high-level events that have taken place:

1. Swim team is going strong now.  I think Jr.Ms.S really loves it.  The only bad side I see is that it's SO much like wrestling meets!  Ugh!  At least we're out enjoying the nice weather, I guess, and if you sit close enough - you can get cooler from the water every once in a while.

2.What a nice, relaxing day we had on Sunday.  Because of the rainy weather we got out of going to baseball games.  We just took it easy all day, napped, watched movies - totally unlike our normal schedule.  It was great.

3. Speaking of baseball, Jr.Mr.S's team got 1st place in the tournament last weekend and 3rd in the tournament this week.  His season is over now (YAY!) - great job guys!

4. LMS had her last softball game this week (double YAY!).  She did so great even with the lack of practices and short season.  I'm looking forward to next year when they'll play more serious games and hopefully they give them more instruction.  On Wednesday night she had THREE great hits and played outfield very well.

I'm warning you - don't read if you're not ready for the rollercoaster...

If I had one word to describe the last week (and the week to come), it would be CHAOS - pure chaos. It’s been SO busy and pulled a MILLION different directions this last week. To sum it all up is just going to require a brain dump. Stop reading if not interested…

Last Saturday, Mr. S’s cousin got married (Congratulations B & J!!!) and Mr. S and I co-hosted the wedding. They had a really beautiful wedding and for as many people as they were expecting (over 400), they pulled off a really nice reception. The only thing that kind of sucked was that Mr. S and I didn’t get to spend a whole lot of time together at our first wedding as a married couple and getting him to come out of the bar (that was his job) to dance with me was a chore. My job was cutting cake. I’m a horrible cake cutter and trying to dismantle a four tier cake and grooms cake and portion them out to 400 people just didn’t work out very well (sorry Aunt R). Once the cake was all gone – I got to try wine slushies – wait – wine slushy doesn’t exist – trust me. After the cake was all gone, I decided to go to the bar and hang out with Mr. S since he wasn’t going to come out (the man was serious about his job). I found a couple of frozen bottles of wine in the fridge, so we pulled them out to unthaw. Well, the WINE wasn’t frozen, the juice was and since I’m a sucker for slushy drinks, I started pouring it for myself. Note to all of you: WINE DOES NOT FREEZE!! Basically I drank a bottle of alcohol (yeah ‘cause I couldn't stop with the first half a bottle and once I got down to the juice melting, I switched to the other). Bad, bad choice. Anyway, it was a late night and after helping clean up, Mr. S, the girls and I didn’t get home until about 1 am (I'm old - staying up until 11 is a CraZy night).

Sunday was a “recovery” day. Although at least I didn’t have a wine hang-over (those are much worse to recover from – at least in my experience). Geez.. Mr. S tried out his new MONSTER of a grill. I spoiled him last week by buying him a grill that is about as big a grill as I’ve ever seen. It has a cook top, a gas grill, a charcoal grill, AND a smoker. Tell me I don’t love my husband. He was like a kid last week trying to figure out his inaugural meal on it, he settled on grilled potato salad and some kind of fancy strip steaks (sorry I forgot the name – the recipe is on the Williams Sonoma website though).

Work, work, and more work...

...this has been my life for the last two weeks. 
I started the new job at my main job and I love it, but it's just been more than I thought.  Of course a lot of that may be due to a major report we had to get out and litigation support for one of my old projects.  We got the report out last week, started working on the litigation support and then the Board announced this week that a hearing would be set for the information we found in our audit that the railroad wasn't reporting.  So this week has been full of running around preparing for the hearing and at one point I thought I'd have to be in Washington DC for the hearing this coming Wednesday.  Late Friday, after I had already put in a ton of hours and effort into the presentation and everything else, the fire drill was called off and all of my hard work into this presentation and research was for naught.  That and now I don't have to travel (which is nice in most ways, but it would have been a really great experience for me).  So, I pushed everything else on my plate for this fire drill and now I have to play catch up again. Grr...

It's been a VERY interesting weekend

The Snowflakes have had a very interesting weekend.  I'm not sure if I can describe it as bad or good...maybe you can be my judge.
Saturday started off with LMS going into the garage to take out trash and finding out that our (maybe) one-year old cat had a baby (only one kitten).  Actually, it was " Mommy, mommy, Peanut had a BABY!" Big excitement ensued around our house - all the kids congregated to the garage for the morning.

However, new life always follows the end of another (or vis a versa).  Saturday morning we also found out that Mr. S's grandmother has stage 4 lung cancer.  We don't know all the details yet, but we know she doesn't have long and that's really sad.

Stream of consciousness

I’ve never bought into this stream of consciousness writing before. I always thought my blogs needed to be well thought out and more than anything make sense to everything – these sort of blogs don’t always make sense since you don’t have the context.
On Monday, I took “live” notes in a meeting for a bunch of company big-wigs for a project worth about $200 million to our company over the next ten years. While I was typing, one of the attendees mentioned that I was capturing their stream of consciousness and it dawned on me that I do this all the time. In meetings, I just write everything – when I start my blogs I have this rough idea and then I always go back and clean it up. Why? Isn’t this my sounding board? My release so I don’t burst into a big messy Snowflake in the middle of my kitchen? So here we go…my first shot at stream of consciousness blogging…
Work has been INSANE the last week. I’ve had so many huge deadlines this week and I’m just BARELY keeping my head above the surface. I moved desks on Friday afternoon/Monday morning and I know that if I didn’t, this week would have been insanely MORE busy – most people don’t know where I am right now. The bad thing about moving is that none of my stuff is in the right place and when I walk to my desk, I walk down the wrong rows of cubes before I remember where I’m at. It’s not that I’ve moved to a different building , or even another floor – I’m on the same floor as before, just on the other end, and it’s not like I’ve never been to this end – I would go over there almost daily, so weird…

On top of my regular job consuming my time, I got a second job this week that I start on Sunday. I’m working at a small restaurant/bar in town a few days a week so I can pay the stupid lawyer bills. I have no hope that my ex will follow through with his obligations. Mr. S has been so moody since I got the second job. I don’t really know why, maybe because I’ve been so insanely busy that he hasn’t gotten his “attention” or maybe I’m reading him wrong since I’m too busy and I’ve been sick all week.

Ugh, I hate being sick. Why didn’t I buy my allergy pills earlier so it didn’t move to my sinuses? I wish I had a spigot on my ears to release the pressure.

I have avoided being a coach for any of our children’s sports up until now. I’m LMS’s soccer coach and the worst thing is that all her little friends are on my team. I never thought 6/7 year olds were like this - they’re like little high school girls all boy crazy and unfocused, ugh. I know my daughter is probably acting out because that’s always the way that coaches’ children seem to act, but I have two girls on my team that will NOT listen and they just fool around and hang on each other every second. It’s so annoying and the worst part is that their parents attend the practices and don’t do anything when I get after their daughters. So frustrating… I do have a few REALLY good players on my team, including LMS when she pays attention.

Okay, so that’s all I have tonight. I have to work tonight :(