Another Wasted Weekend

Boo. Another wasted weekend. I feel like a skipping record. I know, I know, I always complain about not having plans or not going on vacation or anything but I am sorry.
I'm completely drained.
I feel like I can't concentrate on anything.
I need a break.
I need to get away.
I've been told to take a day off of work. I really can't do that. If I were to just stay home one day, every little thing that needs to be done around here would pick at me and I wouldn't relax anyway.
I want a day to absolutely relax.
No worries.
I don't want to have to worry about the baby.
I don't want to have to worry about my husband, K.
I don't want to worry about what I need to fix for dinner or what laundry needs to be done or that I need to vacuum so bebe' can crawl on the floor.
Do not get me started on my flooring. I need new carpet and linoleum (or something) on my first floor very bad. It sickens me. We also need a fence. We really need a fence considering what happened with Oreo last month. But hey, no one else around here seems to care and I can't do it all myself. I think that my husband thinks I can and/or will. Well, I can't.
I am slowly losing it.
I'm tired.
I'm exhausted.
I'm serious, my life is just on repeat. It's work 5 days, hustle home, go to the grocery store when I have time, have lunch with momma on Wednesdays, Danielle on Fridays and the weekends are just blah. Things should get done but they don't. I don't mean your basic household chores; I'm talking about the above things like getting new flooring, or going to a movie but no. So what do I do? I entertain my baby for about 12 hours a day because Lord knows she hardly naps :) Then, I go on facebook (which is my only connection to other people it seems like) and end up posting new pictures, writing to people and that's it. Oh and there's no time for any stuff like crochet or knitting because even when I do have time, I feel guilty and feel the need to vacuum or something.
I was supposed to go to Kentucky in May but had to cancel. I was supposed to go to the Basket Farm in May but it was cancelled. I was going to go to Indianapolis to visit a friend and that had to be moved because of another commitment. Grrrr! Now my cousin wants to know when I can go to Kentucky but I don't even know if I'm up to going! It almost seems like too much of a hassle. Also, my mom has mentioned going to Chicago in November for overnight. I don't think I can do it. I can't leave bebe'. I'd worry too much and wouldn't enjoy myself and to all of you saying take her with me..um, no.
I have also been beating myself up a lot lately because I let a lot of what some stay-at-home moms say to me, get under my skin. I take things way too personal. I know that. It just doesn't help hearing things that just make my blood boil. I'm sorry that I can't afford to stay at home and play all day and go to the gym and eat dinner out with friends every night and do all kinds of fun stuff - it's not that I don't have the money, I do but I can't blow my money like a lot of people do. I don't want to have my home foreclosed on ever, I don't want to rely on parents or others for money, I don't have credit card debt, and I don't ever want to have any. I don't live a life of leisure. I have a home to contribute to and my parents paid good money for my education (or lack there of but that's beside the point..) and I would feel something awful by sitting at home and wasting it. I know, I'm going to get called out by all the stay-at-home moms. Believe me, it's not all of you. In fact, it's only a couple. The fact remains that there are a lot of times that I feel very inferior because I work. I'm the first to admit that I'm jealous. Oh heck yeah I am. However, I love my baby more than I could love anything I thought I could. She is very happy and rarely cries. I'm very fortunate in that respect but it's just not an option for me to stay home. I guess what I'm saying, is that in an effort to keep my mind healthy, I am going to lay low from facebook and the like. I just thought I was able to handle the comments and such about "oh, you're not staying home with the baby?" and the like and I can't. I love my job. I love the people I work with - they're the reason I love my job. The science-y stuff is cool too. I guess I had to get it out.
To those of you who read this or "follow" me, please trust in me that it's not you.
I apologize for the worried, and whining tone this particular blog took. I promise my next one will be more fun! I really just needed to get it off of my chest.
Take care....

Warm Weather Weekend

Lots done this weekend. I went to Plymouth's Art in the Park on Saturday morning with my mom. Found some cute altered jackets for bebe'. Scored some awesome jewelry for myself.

I was then lucky enough to attend a graduation party for my dear old friend Caroline. I've known Caroline since she moved into our school district in I think 4th grade. So a really, really long time. She graduated from EMU and had a luau themed open house. I rarely get to see Caroline so this made my summer. I also got to see her brother Jason who I was also friends with in high school (he being a couple of years older...class of '94).

Jason and I with Alex and Emily...Emily is as fascinated with Jason's hat as I am that he no longer has his "Ponch from CHiPs hair" LOL

and his wife Stephanie who I have become really good friends with.

This is Stephanie and I with Emily and Alex - she's pretty much awesome

Caroline has a 10 year old son, DeCarlos; Jason and Stephanie have a son Griffen, daughter Mackenzie and 19 month old Alex. It's a real treat when I get to see them so that was the highlight of my weekend. Also, Jason makes bad-ass cakes and did a fantastic job on the cakes he made for his sister's graduation (see above).

Caroline, myself, Emily and Stephanie..I'm hoping Stephanie's shot came out better...

BIG EMILY NEWS: Bebe' has started crawling. Yay! She is so funny. She crawls all over now and loves to go after everyone's feet. She is also fascinated by feet at the moment, particularly those wearing flip-flops (and if you make them flip or flop, she loves it). Her favorite feet however are my dad's grotesque Fred Flintstone feet. Anyway, she is crawling all over. It's super-cute and she's really working up her appetite and then she gets super tired at night. It's so sweet. Unfortunately, this also makes me, mommy, very sad because I don't want her to get bigger anymore. I'm scared that I won't be able to handle her and I'm afraid of what the future holds for her. I will worry about that more later.

One more bright spot for the upcoming week - Drew & Mike are BACK!! Reunited tomorrow morning at 6am and I am extremely thrilled. I discovered them about 6 or 7 years ago and can't go a morning without them. I always feel "off" if I miss them - I even stream it when I'm out of town and in a different time zone. This is exciting and I hope they do well...I'm sure they will.

Randomlings

I'm a little restless today and felt the need to post (as uninteresting as this may be). I did have a lot of fun making new Face-In-Holes last night. You can check them out here.
Also, I suppose I better watch what I say on Facebook as it seems I'm being "tattled" on. Some people seem to think I'm really "down" lately. Well, maybe I am but I write what I feel at that particular moment. That doesn't necessarily mean I'm really down. I am, but not that bad.
In other news, I am enjoying the latest books I'm reading. Right now I am reading Pillars of the Earth. I'm listening to Maeve Binchy's Heart and Soul on my iPod and really enjoying it. I owe a big thanks to Danielle and my mom for loaning me so many audio books. Danielle by sharing her DVDs and mom for checking them out at the library for me.
Until next time....

Long Weekend

Fourth of July weekend went off fairly well. I was very fortunate to have the day off of work (considering they used Friday as the "observed" 4th) and we used that day to have bebe's 9 month portraits taken. My mom and husband both joined Emily and I at JCPenney portrait studio. Little Miss Smiley as documented on my facebook page decided to sit on the backgrounds and just stare at the photographer. No smiles, no crying..just staring. She cracked a few smiles finally (thankfully, she had 3 outfit changes!). On the third outfit, bebe' wailed. She was not having it. We tried sitting her on a small couch in the photo and that was the end of that. The wonderful people of Briarwood's JCPenney Portrait Studio were kind enough to tell us that if we wanted to leave and feed her or whatever, they would be happy to squeeze her back in and try again in her last outfit. Out in the mall, bebe' quieted down and chugged a bottle. We ran into my co-worker Eric and his family, chatted with them, Eric managed to sneak a smile out of her so we were like "let's go! She's on!" Bebe' was like a pro the second time around. We got a lot of great shots and again, the people were so nice for allowing us to sneak back in and save our sitting without charging us an extra sitting fee or anything (I get free ones anyway for being in their portrait club). Plus, I had a coupon for a free 10 x 13..holla!

My mom and I went to JoAnn's later that day and I bought a bouquet of fake flowers that were really very pretty - I meant to take a picture. My momma took me to the cemetary so I could put the flowers with Granny. I hadn't left her anything yet. I felt silly doing it. Not silly at Granny, but silly for me. I'm still very angry that she's not here. I'm not angry at her but I'm angry because I don't think it should have happened. I miss Granny.
My mom and dad had their usual 4th of July cookout celebrating eating and my dad's birthday (go figure, the foreigner was born on America's bday) more than America's Independance but I digress. Granny was always a sweetie, but in the later years, she became really angry about cameras. REALLY angry. She would actually yell at us, well, snap at us if she so much as saw a camera in the vicinity. I had to explain to her when my baby shower was coming up that there would be cameras but no one would take her picture. She was so concerned about people taking her picture and she would talk about my mom and aunts and cousins by saying "everytime I turn around they've gotta stick that in my face." Truth is, once we knew it bothered her, we did everything to avoid that but she would still get mad. My cousin had a birthday party in the fall right after Emily was born. People were taking pictures of my cousin (it was her birthday), and/or the baby and Granny was all the way across the banquet room and had a fit! It was sad. I don't know why she got that way. Up until about 4 or 5 years ago, I have TONS of pictures of Granny and she was fine in them. Anyway, it was odd being able to take pictures at the cookout this year. I think Granny would have been alright. My mom and I had a good way of convincing her (truthfully) that we wouldn't take her picture. She probably would have been ok with it because of Emily. That is one thing I am thankful for. She did come to the hospital to see Emily after she was born and held her and let me take pictures of her doing so (she called me Sharon the whole time - something she never did before or after that day); she also came to my house a couple of weeks after we came home and we got a picture of our 4 generations: Granny, Momma, Myself and Emily.

If You Act Now...

One more sad note for the week. We salute you Billy Mays. May you rest in peace. I hope there is a lot of OxiClean in heaven (although I imagine it wouldn't be needed) as well as Orange Glo, and Hercules Hooks. Rest well friend. We all really digged you.

On a Lighter Note...

After a pretty rough week, one thing did manage to get a smile out of me (other than Emily of course...). I got an e-mail from TVonDVD.com; a website which I had signed up to be notified when certain shows were released on DVD. It is quite rare when I get these so when I do get one, I look and don't delete it as spam as I normally would with something like this. THIS is what I found in my inbox:

YAY!!! September can't get here quick enough!

What a Week!

Wow. Where to begin? This week has been some kind of crazy that's for sure.

First of all, many of you may have heard over on facebook that our dog Oreo ran off on Tuesday afternoon. He was let out of the house to go do his bizness but got away from my MIL before she could get him on his tether. She thought he would come home (as he had when he ran off with Theodore before) but he had not returned by the time Kurin arrived home. I arrived home to find my husband frantically looking for the dog who had by then been gone 4 hours. We searched, and searched. My BFF came to help and my parents as well. No luck. Everyone kept saying, "he'll turn up" etc. I immediately updated my facebook status with all of his info (because I know there's a bunch of us that still live in the area I live in), reported him lost to the humane society as well as to the internet site through which he is microchipped.
The following morning, I was at work and I was a total hot mess. I faxed my LOST poster (no, not the Sawyer & Hurley LOST...) to all of the local vets, clinics and shelters and called and filed an official report with the Humane Society of Huron Valley who were completely awesome. My supervisor recommended I go home to start passing out fliers because lord knows my head was not at work. I met my mom and aunt for lunch like I usually do on Wednesdays and followed my mom back to her office. She was kind enough to make me a few copies of the flier to post up in my area.
I headed home, still very upset (keep in mind, that I'm the one that's always crazy emotional but I had to be the "strong" one this time as Kurin was incredibly upset about this, not that I wasn't but he was devastated and had to attend training and was unable to leave). I pulled into our driveway and I literally did a double take. Here I was, preparing to take Theodore out on a jaunt hoping to attract Oreo back, when there sat Oreo. He was just sitting there next to the side door that we go in and out of. He was seriously looking at me like he was saying "lady, it's hot out here, could you open the damn door so I can come in?" I could not believe it. I was so happy. I was screaming and jumping and he was absolutely fine. No dirt, no injuries, nothing. BFF says he just wanted to go camping. So, I say an extra little thank you to all of my friends who really said some kind things to us during that hard 24 hours. Thankfully it was only 24 hours but I hope it never happens again....

Of course the other hard part about this week is the passing of Michael Jackson yesterday at the age of 50. I just can't believe it. This was "our" music icon. My generation's Elvis. He was the King of Pop no matter what kind of inappropriate things he may or may not have done, no matter how strange his appearance became, he remains probably the greatest entertainer I will have ever known. The music! The album "Thriller" was my first regular album (regular meaning not Sesame Street or Disney). I had the vinyl, then the tape and it was also one of the first CDs I purchased (when I joined Columbia House like everyone else did). That album is still one of my favorites. Can anyone forget the video to "Thriller"? I remember watching it when it debuted. I also remember watching it and being scared out of my mind when MJ turned into a werewolf. His big yellow contact lenses freaked me out!

I would also make my dad play the tape on the way home from Granny's every day when he'd pick me up after work and I would get so scared at the end when Vincent Price would talk. But I love, love, loved it! I also always enjoyed watching old footage of the Jackson 5 with a little Michael singing and dancing. He was so cute!
This will definitely be one of the more tragic deaths I'll probably ever remember. My parents remember where they were when Elvis died; I'll remember where I was when Michael died.