Less than a week until Christmas!

Less than a week to go until Christmas and I've got a HUGE headache. Ryleigh is on her worst behavior... I even tried warning her (being the mean mom I am) that Santa was watching and wouldn't bring her any toys if he saw that she was whining and not listening and all she'd get was socks and underwear. She cried a little, but she didn't care enough to change her behavior. I can just imagine her reaction when she opens up her presents on Christmas Day if I don't decide to just cancel the presents... "SEE, I TOLD YOU I'd get toys!"

I'm gonna be getting the last of the presents for her tonight if the price is right at the store...if not, I'm ordering online tonight or tomorrow while I still have the chance to get it here before Christmas. I had to wait for this paycheck to do my Christmas shopping because I bought a van too damn close to Christmas and used up all my savings on it (which, in fact, is what the savings was for...but I was starting to think I wouldn't find anything decent anytime soon and would maybe use some of the money for Christmas)

I am nowhere near ready for Christmas...I mean, sure, we've got cookies baked, we've got a tree up, and I've got most of the presents bought or ordered...but we have no stockings up, my kid is driving me crazy! (I remember being on my best behavior the week or two before Christmas even if I was a terror the rest of the year), my brothers are driving me crazy (because they keep picking fights with my kid and making her cry and SCREECH!!!), and...actually, people in general are driving me crazy particularly the ones I spend a lot of time around and the ones that blame me for no cabs being out here when their flight wasn't listed on the flight load sheet. I think I need to start taking my vit. D supplements again...the weather HAS been nicer than a normal December in MN, but I still haven't been out enough to get enough sunlight (and I'm a wuss, so the little bit I am out, I'm too covered to get enough sunlight...even though it's warmer/less snowy than usual, it's still cold).

Wow...so it's been almost 2 months since my last post...what have I been up to in that time that kept me from posting? Nothing really. I just either had nothing to say or really didn't feel like posting anything.

Halloween was fun...if you consider trying to pound plastic stakes into hard ground to decorate the yard, ending up with a finger that's still sore off and on (some kind of arthritis maybe? Who knows...), and having a kid end up bleeding because she tripped when the hem of her costume frayed (she was actually willing to go back out after getting cleaned up and bandaged, but when she fell again before getting to the sidewalk, she was done).

Lots of boring stuff and work took place.

Thanksgiving was nearly a week long when everything was said and done. Had dinner with one side of my family the weekend before Thanksgiving and the other side on the actual day of Thanksgiving. Then, on the 28th of November, I bought myself a van! I had been saving up for and looking for a good deal on one since about June. It's a '99 Mercury Villager (Estate edition). It's pretty sweet. Two-tone maroon and gold exterior, grey-ish interior (leather seats! Brrrrr!), heated side mirrors, sun roof, luggage rack, trailer hitch mount (just have to find balls with the right size/shape adapter before I could actually tow anything). It's got a few things that needed/need/could use work. It needs a new motor and arm for the rear wiper, the display for the radio doesn't work (not really a big deal...although somehow it was working today on the way into work while I was freezing my rear end off), and I had to have a hose replaced in it right away because it had a hole and was leaking coolant which smoked and smelled nasty when the engine heated up. This is the first vehicle that's really MINE! My name is on the title, it's on my own car insurance, and I can add whatever "silly" stuff to it I want (like seat covers if I can find ones I like that I can afford, steering wheel cover, various organizers, etc). Very excited...and hopefully it won't need too many repairs too soon. Kind of bad timing to get it (even though I had been saving up particularly for it, I could've used some of that money for Christmas presents), but I just couldn't pass up the deal I was getting on it. Will just have to be a little more careful of how many/how expensive the gifts I get for everyone are.

My Van (the one pic I took of it before the ground was covered with icky, COLD, white stuff [SNOW])

I'm not dead yet

Okay, so it's been a while since my last post...but in my defense, I'm sick. Some annoying little bug has been working it's way through the household and I've been even more tired and cranky than usual. And before that it was insanely busy at work. And somewhere in between there, I was spending WAY too much time playing computer games with every spare moment I had.

Honestly, I really don't have much to say at the moment. My head is too muddled with mucous for my brain to function properly. Oh, I do have a funny quote from my youngest brother as we were taking the dog to the house in town...the dog was sitting on his lap, sticking his nose out the window that was open just far enough for him to get his nose out, and my brothers goes, "Don't jump out, you'll die! Dogs don't have 9 lives like cats, I think they only have 2!" (Bolded for emphasis because that's the part that really killed me.) Okay, maybe it's just me, but I thought that was HILARIOUS. It was probably insane of me to take 2 sick kids and a dog into town when I was sick myself...but it seemed like a good idea at the time. It all went alright for the most part until Ryleigh moved the dog's water bowl and my brother tripped over it. That was a mess...but at least it was just water. Oh, and the dog ate half of one of Ryleigh's pizza slices after I told her to eat it or put it up before she went to play because the dog could get it where it was. She cried, but I warned her that would happen...so I'm not sure why she was so surprised.

I'm picking up an extra 8.5 hour shift at work on Wednesday, so this next paycheck is going to be a fairly decent one (but then again the one for the 2nd part of the month is always bigger than the one for the first part of the month...it's kind of a pain). I slept a lot today (and so did Ryleigh), so hopefully we'll both be feeling better before I have to go into work Wednesday morning and she has to spend the day with Great-Grandma.

I guess that's all I've got right now. My brain is feeling kind of crispy-fried, so I think I'll stop here and maybe write some more tomorrow or Wednesday. I feel kind of bad writing when I have nothing interesting going on... Oh well, that's life I guess.

This place is trying to kill me

Woke up today shortly before 10 am after a restless night of Ryleigh waking up to go potty a few times including one where she got to thinking it was time to stay up because the sun was just starting to peek over the horizon. It took a while to get her back to sleep after that...she wanted to watch a movie, but I knew she wouldn't go back to sleep with a movie on. Anyway, I checked my phone as soon as I woke up. I had received a text message earlier that morning asking if I could come in to work at 11... Well, shit...I still needed to take a shower, that wouldn't leave me much time...and what about Ryleigh? I texted back "I can, but I'd have to have Ryleigh with me until my mom got done at 1." You know, thinking maybe that'd get me out of going in early. But of course, it doesn't work that way. "That's fine." So I take a SUPER fast shower, get myself and Ryleigh dressed, pack up my computer, try to find her a couple things to do while I'm busy, and rush out the door.

We got there a few minutes late, but I made sure it was known that I was on my way. I got Ryleigh and myself settled in. She colored for a few minutes and then she got tired of that, so I set her up with some Disney Junior games on my computer. Thankfully, there was only one plane to deal with while I had her here...but of course, she chose the exact moment I got busy after the plane landed to announce she had to pee! So I try to explain to her that she has very bad timing, I need to work now, and she needs to try to hold it for a few minutes while mommy helps the "nice" people, and I hope like hell that she doesn't have an accident before I'm able to take her to the bathroom. Luckily, she made it alright (although she wouldn't hold still for even a second while she was waiting) and didn't have an accident. Then, we walked around the airport a little bit because she was full of energy and didn't want to sit still anymore, and she tried to drag Grandmama away from her work (yeah, my mom works at the airport too). Finally, Grandmama got done and took Ryleigh home to get ready to go swimming at the hotel for Great-Grandpa's birthday today. Whew! The next plane isn't due in until 1:30. I can rest and maybe eat my lunch now, right?

WRONG! The plane comes in early, and I get the people all cleared out maybe 10-15 minutes before the next plane comes in (late) and hour later. And now I have no cabs for this flight! And I still have no cabs when the flight has landed! SHIT!!! Then, Delta starts bringing me luggage after luggage for the next hour. One delivery every 5-15 minutes...I still don't have cabs for people how am I going to get these out too? And then the 3:00 comes in and I've still got all this luggage that I can't send out until I make sure I have enough cabs for the people that need them. And then American starts bringing me a bunch of luggage with another delivery found every 10 minutes. I finally got it all called on and I'm working on getting out the stuff that is either going to hotels or going to owners I've been able to speak with. I think I may have missed someone calling back about one of the luggage deliveries I left a message about while I was taking some other luggage out to a cab. I just heard a last ring as I walked back in and that was it.

So it is now almost 4, the next plane is due in at 4:30, I still don't have all this luggage out, I've still got people waiting for a shuttle, I've been here since a little after 11, and I haven't had a chance to eat my lunch yet (I also didn't have a chance to eat breakfast). At this rate, I don't think I'm going to be able to eat today. Maybe after the 5:00 flight I'll have more luck, then next one after that isn't supposed to be until 7... Between the stress and the lack of food, I don't know if I'll live past 30 if I stay at this job. Yeesh!

Proof that I am WAY too easily amused...or maybe just immature...or somewhat insane

1. I have to work really hard not to laugh when people go to the wrong baggage claim and miss their luggage going around (seriously, there's only 2 airlines and 2 baggage claims in the WHOLE airport...it shouldn't be that hard to figure out where your luggage should be).

2. I find a screw laying on the ground and have to fight the urge to offer it to someone by asking them if they "wanna screw?" (I seriously wouldn't do that though because I am terrified of talking to people.) It makes me giggle like a crazy person.

3. The last flight of the day ALWAYS using like a million cabs even if there's not even 10 people on it. This always surprises me anyway. And I laugh like a nervous idiot as I call dispatch to send me another cab, and another cab...and better make it 2-3 more cabs this time...oh, and one more. Wait, add another one to the list. Okay, now we're done. No, wait. One more....make that 2 more. Oh, and I just got luggage to deliver, so you better send another one on top of that. (Then again, at this point, it might just be my "night weirdness" setting in because this usually occurs around or after 11 pm.)

4. I TOTALLY just sent a cab driver out with 4 luggage deliveries going to 3 different hotels and a residence. That is AWESOME! Good thing he was driving a minivan. I came in to finish my paperwork laughing like a maniac. I don't know why I found it so funny though because more deliveries means more money for the driver and having them all in a small area means less driving around to get that money....but it's hilarious anyway.

Is this long enough to be considered a blog post? Probably not, but I think I'm gonna stop now and publish it before I mention that the dents on my bottle of water are HILARIOUS. Because at this point of the night, I'm tired/wired enough to think they are. Thank god I get to go home soon-ish. It's harder to make a fool of myself when the dial-up at grandma's won't cooperate with me even trying to get here to write a post.

Something?

Alright, I have nothing today. I was up WAY later than I should've been writing up a REALLY long something that I will probably never actually post. So now I'm tired and my daughter's newest toy almost outsmarted me when I was trying to put it together for her and I'm at work.

Oh, and the car I have to drive to work hates me and keeps dying pretty much anytime I have to come to a stop unless I keep one foot on the brake and the other just a little bit on the gas...which I really don't like doing because I KNOW you're only supposed to use one foot alternating between them so you don't hit them both at the same time and end up ramming the car in front of you instead of just stopping (or something like that). Unfortunately, it's the only way to keep the car running when it's stopped or slowing towards a stop. I need a different car. Luckily, I've finally got enough saved up where I can maybe start looking for a car (or a van...I would actually prefer a van, but a used van tends to cost more than a used car).

Okay, I left this one alone hoping maybe I'd have something more to say in a little while. No luck. But here's a crappy picture (of...myself? I guess) that I drew in Paint...because I was bored. Please don't ask me to do it again...Paint is a pain to work with. I think next time, I'll just draw on a piece of paper and scan it or take a picture of the picture.

I am (slightly) awesome

I was going to write a post about way back when I was pregnant with my daughter because I really should write that awesome/awful time down somewhere so I don't forget it. In fact, I had trouble falling asleep last night thinking to myself "I should post about this and it should be worded this way" and then going through the entire progression of the important points I want to put down at least 3 times and got caught going over a few parts several more times than that. (And this right here is why I shouldn't write stuff in the middle of the night because I "think" too much and things just get weird.)

Anyway, I'm not going to write about that (right now anyway) because I want to say I am awesome and have more running stamina than my close to 9 year old brother even though I sit on my butt most of the day (especially at work). I'm not really sure though if I should look as it as awesome that I can play tag longer than my little brother or really sad that I can actually play tag longer than my little brother. I swear at that age, I could've run around for at least an hour playing tag. By the way, I totally started the game of tag. I took him and my daughter to the playground today and they were both very excited. I was feeling a little self-conscious about just sitting on the swings and watching them walk around (the small group of LARPers or old weapon enthusiasts or what ever they were that just got done and were hanging around by their vehicles chatting didn't help). So I went up to my daughter, tapped her on the shoulder, and said, "You're it!" Except she's 2.5 and doesn't really know anything about tag yet, so she just looked at me like I was crazy. So then I quietly walked up behind my brother, poked him in the shoulder, said "You're it!", and took off running. So we run around a bit dodging trees, me in the lead, him trying to tag me, and Ryleigh trying her hardest to keep up with us. As I'm going around another tree, I look back to see how close my brother is to catching me, and I see him laying on the hill behind the tree, clutching his side, and saying he can't run anymore. At this point, I'm mostly out of breath, but I could still run a little more. So I automatically declared that I won tag. And he didn't care because he couldn't run anymore anyway.

I haven't run that much in YEARS, so I had a little trouble walking back home. I wanted so badly to take a nap right on the sidewalk. But honestly, I feel great now. I want to go back out and play some more tag. Anyone want to go with me? Because my brother won't. He's a sore loser and wants to play his video games...and that's just sad. He's not quite even 9, he should be running around outside. I'll admit I like some video games and computer games myself, but I know when I was his age, I spent more time on my bike and at the playground and playing with the neighbor girl that I was friends with (I was a strange kid though and probably scared that poor girl so many times while I still lived there...like the time I convinced her I was a witch and could make her bike tip over [with her riding it] without even touching it...I'd guess it was more likely she was tipping over because she was fairly new to riding and I was making her nervous, but my little kid mind was sure I was doing it). I wonder what that girl is up to now. I haven't seen her since I stopped visiting my awful father (that would be at least another whole post there if I actually felt like writing about that) when I was about 13, and I didn't see her much before that after mom moved us away from there. I kind of miss having IRL friends that live in the same neighborhood as me.