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])

Still here...

Alright to begin with, I've just got to say something. Thank you to whatever higher power(s) gave someone the idea to create 5 Hour Energy!! I don't know what I'd do without it. Seriously...I don't know how well I'd be staying awake at the moment if it weren't for that little energy shot. Ryleigh did NOT want to sleep last night. She'd fall asleep for a few minutes here and there, but for the most part, she would just crawl all over me and ask me to start the movie again (she was watching The Fox and the Hound...it plays by itself a few times, but after that you need to hit play to start it up again). I did not restart it, but she kept asking anyway. I finally got annoyed, closed the laptop, and told her I had to work in the morning and if she asked me to start the movie one more time, I'd swat her butt. Well, she didn't ask me to start the movie again, but she didn't sleep any better either...which means I got VERY little sleep myself. When I left, I told her she NEEDED to go to sleep, so at least one of us could get some decent sleep. She wasn't happy about that, but she stayed in bed (how soon after I left she was up waking everyone else up, I don't know...but she was still in bed when I left).

I know I've been slacking on this blog lately. In my defense, I've been insanely busy and insanely tired....and insanely lacking decent internet. Seriously...I was going insane. I even wrote out a check for almost $300 (which was around half of my biggest paycheck so far) to get the good internet back because they sent another bill even though mom had already given them a $300 check. They're REALLY slow on cashing checks... (So we won't have an internet bill for a few months now. lol) I was 3 weeks behind on my shows (because I can only watch them online...we don't get the right channel) and finally got caught up on Sunday. The airport blocking streaming and downloading (and a whole lot of other stuff) and my grandparents having only dial-up and having the good internet at home disconnected because the bill was "forgotten" for a few months is killer to me. An internet connection shouldn't matter to me so much, but some of my best friends...and pretty much the only ones I get a chance to talk to regularly...are online. And like I already said, it's my only way to watch my shows.

Here's hoping I make it though today... I am SO not a morning person. lol

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!

Too tired to come up with a good title

Whoever thought it was a good idea for the person working Friday night to also work Saturday morning (all day Saturday actually, but it's the morning part that's hardest) should be shot! Well...not really, but I am very annoyed with them. With a half hour drive home and a half hour drive back to work, I end up not getting nearly enough time to sleep...even less time if Ryleigh fights going to bed when I get home. Yesterday was a fucking headache and a half with all the PEOPLE coming in for whatever the hell was/is going on at/with the Mayo Clinic. Friday nights, we usually don't have a shuttle, but the shuttle driver was nice enough to keep bringing his big 29 passenger bus (the usual shuttle carries 9) for the 3-4 flights after the shuttle was supposed to be done here because there were just that many PEOPLE! And thank god for that...I don't know what I would've done if he wasn't here. Even with that 29 passenger bus nearly full...I was still loading 8-10 cabs off of each flight! That's like an insane amount of people/cabs here! On an average day, the cab drivers usually get pretty lucky if we even load 6 of them per flight...especially on a Friday! Fridays and Saturdays usually have a lot of people being picked up, so we'll usually have a lot of loading 0-3 cabs per flight. I just hope today isn't like that again or I may go (more) insane...

The only small positive to yesterday was when someone forgot their laptop in the hustle and bustle of trying to get out of here after on of the flights (yeah, I know that doesn't sound like much of a positive but hear me out). Someone found it and brought it to me very concerned that it be kept somewhere safe so the owner could get it back when he/she came looking for it. That by itself was AWESOME because so often people will just ignore stuff lying around that isn't theirs and don't care about anyone but themselves. But even better was just as I was cleaning up to get out of here. A guy came in looking for his laptop that he accidentally left and thanks to that other guy, I was able to give this guy his laptop back. It was great!

On a completely unrelated note, I seriously LOVE Med City's fax number. It's a palindrome. So I push the numbers: doot, doot, doot, zero, and then back through the first 3 numbers in reverse. It's so much fun to punch in a number like that. (I like palindromes, okay? I thought it was awesome that my birthday this year was a palindrome in day-month-year orientation too. 11-02-2011, 11022011...hehehe. Don't judge me, I'm not completely insane...just a little weird.) I like numbers and math and am pretty good with both...which is apparently very strange for the high school I went to or so I've heard anyway.

Also, sorry I haven't posted in a while (as if anyone comes looking for new posts without me pointing them out anyway), but I've been on dial-up and there hasn't been much going on anyway. And I just didn't feel like posting for a few days there....I didn't really feel much like doing anything, and I used up all the energy I did have to play with Ryleigh, so I had none left to think of something to write about here.

A 2.5 year old's imagination

While my youngest brother had his flag football practice/game (or "foobaday" as Ryleigh calls it, she LOVES going to Christian's foobaday because it means she gets to play over at the school), Ryleigh and I went to play at the playground. She climbed right up onto the area of the play equipment with the steering wheel and said she was driving the ship! I quickly jumped on before the ship left (by her demand) and asked where we were going. We were going to visit Mickey Mouse! I decided to play along because...well, I had nothing better to do and I know playing pretend all by yourself gets boring really fast. The visit to Mickey's house was really quick (we didn't even get off the ship, she just pointed off to the side to "Mickey") and then we were off again. She wanted me to go down the slide after that (while she was still driving the "ship"), so I said I'd fall off the boat if I did that! She said I wouldn't. I went down the slide and pretended I was in the water. I "swam" back to the "ladder" and JUMPED back onto the ship. She got a real kick out of that so we started taking turns "falling off the ship," swimming back, and jumping onto the ladder. She went down one of the other slides so I yelled "WATCH OUT FOR THE SHARK!!" She asked me "Where, where?!?" When I pointed it out. she said "Oh." grabbed the steering wheel and announced she was driving away from the shark.

Eventually, she got bored of that game, so we "swam" over to the bigger playground and she climbed on everything. She wanted me to play with her some more, so I pretended to be a monster and I'd poke her shoes through the holes in the platforms and try to catch her at the bottom of the slides (I always "just missed" though) and then would chase her to the stairs or ladder. If I got too close, she would SCREEEEECH for me to go away because I was a scary monster. (Of course, she told everyone at the playground that I was her "muddah" [I would really prefer mommy, mama, or mom...but everyone always tells her to "go ask your mother!" so I'm now "muddah"] in between times. Silly little turd. Finally, it was time for Christian to be done with football and I had to try to talk her away from the playground. "You can come back and play again on Christian's next football day!" didn't work. "Let's go or I won't take you to the playground next time!" did. Honestly, I love seeing how much fun she has at the playground, but I hate having to try to get her away from it when it's time to go. It's like pulling teeth.

Next "foobaday" is Thursday. Wonder what kind of game she'll come up with then. Maybe she'll find a little friend to play with then. There was a group of little girls of varying ages there today, but they were all playing together already so Ryleigh just made me play. Should be interesting either way.