Sunday, January 20, 2013

Sunday Funday

I made it through the crazy week, just barely...But the weekend has consisted of just what I needed. Friday night the girls arrived and we ordered take out and played just dance 4 for quite a long time. Saturday I slept really late, then woke up and we all watched Pitch Perfect. GREAT movie. I think that one is one we will need to purchase for future viewing pleasure. Then we played Just Dance 4 again. I showered, went to Target for some household staples, then got to go visit my favorite esthetician Candi at Elizabeth Grady. After my appointment I picked up Brianna and headed home to meet Stef and Matt (Izzy was at a sleepover for one of her friends). The four of us headed to another birthday party where we hung out until Brianna got far too tired and started acting nasty. When we got home, the girls went to bed, then Matt and I watched a movie (Stolen) - ok....Today we woke up earlier than yesterday but it was a happy wake up, then we had breakfast (ham and cheese omelets), and Matt and I did homework. I am taking a break from homework, the girls are playing, and Matt is still doing homework. Pretty soon we are going to have pizza and wings and watch football and more football. Go Patriots!!

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Wahhhhh

Hell week was supposed to be over yesterday...but unfortunately Thursday didn't get that memo.
I am officially in BED, yes, it is 5:51 and I am in BED. And I don't plan on moving from here until tomorrow morning.

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Yep, just about ready to lose it.

Today is apparently one of those days I should just stay in bed and skip altogether.
I woke up with best intentions. I have a lot to do today...went and disposed of the Christmas Tree at the transfer stations, dropped off the recycling, and was headed to the bookstore to pick up my $178 book. I seem to encounter every driver over 70 who has completely forgotten how driving works (i.e. using blinkers, looking before changing lanes, hitting the gas pedal when the light turns green,and it goes on and on...) I made it to the bookstore, then headed to work. I arrive at work only to find this:





Not sure what exactly this is, but it looks like hot chocolate to me.
But whatever it is, I am extremely pissed off that it has ruined my daughter's girl scout cookie order form that she took a lot of time to make pretty and explain why she is selling cookies.
I emailed my manager to find out who to complain to, but the damage is already done. Now my daughter has to use this for another month. I am BULLSHIT.


So anyway. I worked for another 15 minutes then I went to kick the shit out of ZUMBA.
Did a 1.5 hr zumba with toning class to get some frustration out....Fun times.

After Zumba I went home for a much needed shower, packed Brianna's bag for her girl scout sleepover, went to Jordan's furniture to pick up my order, then picked up Brianna. We went to dinner, went home to have her finish getting ready for her sleepover, then I dropped her off.

I finally got to sit down for a minute when I got to my pal Laurie's birthday party! Had some fun, watched some football, had a drink and some food, and met some very nice people. I headed out at 10:30 and made it home about 20 min ago. I am going to finish watching this football and crawl in to bed...I will have to pick my child up tomorrow morning at 7am, then I will HAVE to do work until football starts....




Thursday, January 10, 2013

It's almost the weekend, can I make it??

I started my new class last night, Quantitative Analysis. The one good thing about this class is that I took another class with this same professor and I know his style, I like his style, and he remembers me. The bad thing about this class is that it is Quantitative Analysis...blech. Luckily the first class was review of statistics, which I actually understood last time I took it, so I was ahead of the game. He also didn't give us any homework last night, so I am thankful for that. Unfortunately I still have to go buy the $178 book though to do my reading. 

Today I worked all day long and then some...went to the chiropractor for my bi-weekly adjustment (ahhhhh) and went back to work. When I had more than enough of work, I called it quits and went over to zumba with Ana. Ana was the first to introduce me to zumba almost two years ago. She has so much energy and I love her class! Tonight was a great class. Now to make up for working out for an hour, my man and I are eating pizza and wings!! And topping it off with a glass of COKE. Real coke, the good stuff. Not diet coke. Full sugar, yummy, delicious coke. Yum

Tomorrow brings another day of work, but tomorrow night is Athena's bingo night at Jillian's in Manchester! Going with my friend and Athena's rep Kerriclaire, hopefully I win something good!

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

This is my space, this is your space....

Today started out great. The munchkin cooperated getting dressed, brushing her hair and teeth, and we even left the house 5 minutes early, but the day went downhill quickly. I won't bore you with the details, but it was just a busy and stressful day at work. What got me through the day was my plan to go to 5:30 Zumba toning class! I left work ready to go dance out my frustrations, but unfortunately that didn't go as planned. I don't usually go to this class because I usually  have my daughter Tuesday nights, so I didn't know how popular this class was. I didn't know which classroom we were in, so I wandered around the maze looking for a familiar face. When I finally found the classroom, there were already 6 women there. It doubled in minutes. I had chosen my spot on the left rear side. I wanted to stay out of the way and have my own space. A woman came over, and stood far too close to me. So I moved over. So she moved over. So I moved up to the front row. Then the woman's friend came in and moved in close to me in the front. Really? Haven't these people ever heard of this is your dance space, this is my dance space? So annoying. So...the class begins and I cannot see the instructor from my angle. I attempted what I could and finished the first song. Then the second song involved kicking, but since I had people far too close to me, that wasn't happening. I tried sticking it out a bit more, but my mood just deteriorated. My frustration release was just making me more frustrated. So when the song ended I told the instructor I was sorry, but I was out of there. I sent her a message after I left explaining why so that she didn't take it personally, but I was just not in the mood for that. Ugh...so I came home and made chicken salad instead. Ha!!

Here are some good blog posts on proper etiquette, kinda along the same lines of how I am feeling! ;0

http://verandaview.blogspot.com/2012/08/exercise-etiquette.ht

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/410716-zumba-rant.

 http://food-sweat-and-beers.com/2011/10/04/group-fitness-etiquette/

These people are practicing for the Rockettes apparently...If I can touch you, then you are far too close to me!!
See how much room these people have...this is proper space.....


Monday, January 7, 2013

Monday Monday

I stayed up far too late last night, but it was mainly because at 11pm last night I realized the MonsterHit Bounce Back coupon I got from Jordan's Furniture was expiring at midnight!! When we bought our new mattress and bed last summer it was during the Monster Hit promotion, meaning if a Red Sox player hit the tiny baseball in Fenway Park we got our furniture for free, if not then we got a portion of money back in a coupon we could use later. Well, since the Red Sox pretty much sucked last season, we had no chance of winning, BUT we got a coupon back for $273.60! Well the thought of losing that money really annoyed me, so I went on line to see if I could place an order before midnight and have the coupon honored. I ordered a bunch of accessories for the bed, put in the coupon code, and waited....I got a call this aftenoon from Dave in the sleep lab, he processed my order and it would be available for pick up tomorrow!! I am so happy I didn't lose the money! Thanks to Jordan's Furniture for providing great customer service once again! I can't wait to go this summer to check out the next addition to our furniture collection!

http://www.jordans.com/

Sunday, January 6, 2013

Sunday Funday

After completing two hours of work yesterday, I did nothing but watch mindless tv and play internet games :).

I did make dinner for the family: chicken and cheese quesadillas, and ground turkey tacos. I did try a little experiment with the tacos. Whenever we have tacos there is this mad rush to eat as many tacos as possible to see who can get the last bit of meat from the pan. It is just bedlam. So last night I decided to give each little girl (Brianna and Stefanie) 1/2 of a cup of taco meat, Isabelle got 1 cup,  I took 3/4 of a cup, and Matt got the rest (about 2 cups). Each person got their own bowl of taco meat in front of them, leaving nothing in the pan. I did not mention to anyone how many tacos they could have (there were both hard and soft taco shells), and I waited to see what would happen.

Brianna ate all of hers using 2 soft tacos and 1 hard taco. Stefanie ate all of hers using 2 soft tacos. Isabelle ate only half of hers using 2 soft tacos. I ate all of mine using 2 soft tacos and 1 hard taco. Matt ate only half of his using 2 hard tacos. So now there is actually LEFTOVER taco meat in the fridge.

Experiment was a success!

I have to mention as well that I made only 3 full quesadillas and gave a quarter to each little one, 3/4 to Isabelle, 3/4  to myself, and a whole one to Matt.  Stefanie ended up taking another quarter from Matt.

Last night consisted of football all night long, although Matt said he wanted to watch a movie instead. He said he was going to "get bored with football really quick" hahaha...something strange about this picture when I am the one who wants to watch football and the man is bored with it...

Before heading to bed last night I got everything in the crockpot for breakfast this morning....
I made this. The girls have been asking me for weeks to make this again....the recipe is here....

http://www.allkindsofyumm.com/2011/10/crock-pot-breakfast-casserole.html

Today I worked 2 hours, and now it is time for football! I am hoping that Indianapolis makes this Ray Lewis' last game!!


Saturday, January 5, 2013

A few of my favorite things

I thought this morning, before I get back to work, I would post a few of my favorite things (singing like I am in the Sound of Music)....just for some happy thoughts :)








Friday, January 4, 2013

This week hasn't gotten any easier!

I am trying my hardest to stay positive, but this is reee-dick-youuu-luss.
My munchkin actually woke up without a fight this morning, we got ready, and were out the door on time. Everything was going just great until she decided she wanted to take her purse to school. I said no, but I gave her two other options. She could bring the purse into daycare and leave it there for when she gets back afterschool, or she could bring it and just leave it in the truck. She was not happy with either of these options, so drop off turned into a nightmare.

I left her there pouting and extremely mad at me, but what can I do.

So then....

I get to work and everything is going pretty well.
I go up to my Weight Watchers @ work program to get weighed in for the first time since December 14 and find that throughout the holidays and all that fun stuff, I only gained 0.2 lb. YAY! I was expecting it to be much worse.

I go back to my desk and find that the school has called me...Brianna was leaving the gymnasium and she ran into the metal door frame that separates the double doors. She has an extremely large goose egg on her forehead, a very bad headache, and the nurse thinks I need to take her to the doctor.

More stress that I just cannot take this week!! So I leave in a hurry, very upset, to go pick her up. When I arrive the nurse explains to me that she has been checking Brianna's symptoms and she doesn't seem to be concussed, which is good. I take my child's hand and we leave. When we arrive home I call the doctor. After discussing Brianna's situation and symptoms with the doctor, we decide that I don't need to bring her in, but to continue monitoring her symptoms and make sure she stays good.

Great. So I put the child in bed with an ice pack, some tylenol, and some water and she takes a rest.
I head downstairs to log on and do some work before I have to drive the 40 minutes back up to Concord to go to a long scheduled doctor's appointment with my urologist.

I was told by my doctor's office that I had an xray appointment at 3:30 and when done I should come right over (15 min early) to my 4pm doctor appointment. So that is exactly what I did. I registered from 3:35-3:45, then waited in the waiting room until they brought me in for a "sample" and to the exam room. Once in the exam room, the nurse takes my weight and blood pressure, then proceeds to tell me that the doctor is running behind but only by about 15 minutes......45 minutes later the doctor comes in.....for five minutes to tell me that my xrays are good, my sample was good and I have no reason to have to schedule any future appointments unless my kidney stones return.

It should be perfectly acceptable for me to tell my insurance they don't have to pay since the dr wasted an hour of my time...right?? So frustrating.

After that I head back to my office to shut down my computer, answer a couple of questions, send a few emails, and listen to some voicemails.

Then I drive forty minutes back home. My munchkin is still in bed, Matt is sitting on the couch, and the girls are on their way over....

I have the pleasure of logging back on to work for two more hours.

This is how severely messed up my day has been.

I am NOW finally done working, and I am exhausted. The girls are in bed, so Matt and I are going to watch a movie called Rampart....no clue what this is about, but hopefully it is good.







I am thinking positive thoughts that tomorrow HAS to be a better day..... right??!! :)

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Global Green USA Green School Makeover Competition Presented by Pureology

This is a great contest!!

It's a "green makeover" for your child's school.

From the Pureology website http://www.pureology.com/ :

ENTER JANUARY 1 - MARCH 31

WHY GREEN SCHOOLS?

When a school goes green, children benefit—as well as the environment! Green schools lead to:
Improved student performance. When children learn in classrooms with natural daylight, improved sound quality and non-toxic building materials such as non-VOC carpets and paints, test scores can improve as much as 20%. Attendance also improves!
More funds for student resources. When green upgrades are made to a school, water and energy costs can be reduced by as much as 40%. These savings can be channeled back into resources that directly benefit students, such as textbooks, computers and other essentials.
Reduced carbon footprint. Greening a school significantly reduces carbon dioxide emissions that cause global warming.

GREENER SCHOOLS = A BRIGHTER FUTURE

Every child deserves a learning environment that’s safe, comfortable and free of harmful toxins. Unfortunately, many schools across the country lack the funds to carry out much-needed repairs and renovations—subjecting children to outdated facilities with improper ventilation, poor lighting and inefficient energy usage. Global Green USA is working to address this situation and ensure that every child has the opportunity to learn in a healthy, green school.
You can help by nominating a school in your area for a Green School Makeover—read on to learn more, and find out how you can green your school!

So basically, you nominate your child's school and the winner's school receives a makeover resulting in improved facilities, happier kids, and most likely improved performance from these happier kids. It also teaches the children social responsibility and it teaches them to be greener for the long-term. It will also save the town a lot of money! You'll be a hero! Go check out the website for more info: http://www.pureology.com/greenschools




Really?!?!



I have had just about all I can take today. Today started with Brianna giving me attitude about getting up and getting dressed. Then some douchebag pulled out of dunkin donuts without looking and nearly took off my front end, then has the nerve to shake her finger at me for being too close....um hello?! Really?! Her license plate read JGRDN24 so she thinks she is a racecar driver anyway in her supercool Pontiac Grand Prix. You know I will remember that license plate.

So then I get to work...and it begins. I open my email to a coworker complaining about a case that I closed that was "hers" and why did I do that? I politely explained that I had to test the database that was created to complete these cases and since this was the oldest one out there that was the one that was processed. I received another nasty email back which I didn't respond to, but made note of considering I had a meeting with my manager in less than 20 minutes.

On top of that, I asked this same person about a query I had assigned to them on December 10. Now, let me bring you up to speed.....I assigned this on December 10 with the expectation that I needed it completed no later than December 28. On December 21 I asked for a status update and I was told that it hadn't even been started yet. So, I bit my tongue and asked someone else to start on it Christmas Eve and try to get as much as they can done that week. I even worked on it for 3 hours the following day in addition to my other work. Then last Friday I was told she would be working on it from home for at least two hours that night, but she was also going to work on it as much as she could during the day on Friday. So this morning, in preparation for my meeting with my manager, I asked for a status update and was told that all the information was in the spreadsheet. So I open the spreadsheet and see there are only about 99 complete, with 368 left to be researched. So, I am even more confused....I respond by saying, oh there are only 99 entries in there so it doesn't look complete....and I am told "well I have done all I can and I have other projects I have to work on before I come back to that."

So apparently I am missing something because on Monday, first thing AM, in response to people not helping me when I ask for help, we had a meeting to prioritize all of the items I am expecting people to do and this was one of the items. So, nothing else takes priority over these items, and yet I am being told that there are "other projects" that need to be done first.

This really did send me over the edge. I calmly walked to my meeting with my manager with every intention on explaining the situation in a professional manner, but that didn't exactly go as planned. Considering her first question was "after our meeting on Monday, are you finally getting the help you need?" I immediately lost it. Like LOST IT. Crying, bad words, and hysterics. Embarrassing. After sobbing for about ten minutes, I was able to explain what happened and why I am so frustrated. By the time the meeting was over, I was calm again, but my day just continued to suck all day.

Now, what you have to understand is I work in the tax department, so this is the busiest time of the year for me. I have managed to process everything on my own with minimal help for the past 3 years, but this year I asked for help because help was supposedly available....so I should be less stressed than I was last year....but apparently asking for help just makes things worse.

I really just want to become a meter maid....have you ever seen parking wars? Those meter maids are always so happy, they don't have to "take their work home with them", they are always smiling, they get to walk around town all day....seriously I would love that! How do I get that job? hahahaha

After work I picked up the kid again, hoping she would be in a better mood than she was this  morning, and guess what?! She wasn't. Awesome. So she gave me attitude about doing homework, and how she wants to put things in her backpack, and that she doesn't want to get into her pajamas....really?!

I give up.

Today can eat a fat one.

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

What a busy day!

What a busy day!
Back to work today, it took me forever to get my ass out of bed, but I made it to work on time.
Worked all day long, a busy day as usual (happy tax season!) then I had to go pick up the munchkin for girl scouts. We grabbed a quick dinner at Wendy's (which was disgusting by the way) and made it to girl scouts for 6:30. I decided to head to the mall while she was in with her fellow brownies. I grabbed myself a pumpkin spice latte (surprised Starbucks at the mall still has it!!!) and promptly spilled it all over my pants. Awesome. I sat and relaxed and drank my coffee til it was time to go pick the munchkin up. We arrived home at about 8:30, I put the kid to bed, and I attempted to get the coffee out of my pants....to no avail. :( Clothes are now in the dryer and I am attempting a second stain removal attempt on the pants (this time, dawn dish detergent). I will have to do another load of laundry in the am....I am off to bed. Peace out!

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Happy New Year 2013!

Happy New Year 2013!
I made it past midnight, and then some last night. Had a great time with my friends and rang in the new year dancing, playing games, and with a couple of cocktails. We made it home close to 3am, went right to sleep and didn't wake up until 11am.  I made breakfast (bacon, scrambled eggs, and toast) then after eating I fell asleep on the couch again. After sleeping until 4pm on the couch....hahaha we are now getting chinese food from Pacific Fusion and watching movies (right now Coming to America!!).
Hope everyone else had a wonderful day!