If We Were Having Coffee… 12/10/16

I am ecstatic that we were able to find time to get together on this busy Saturday just 15 days from Christmas. With so much activity it is nice to just slow down and sit and have a chat over coffee.

We finally got our Christmas tree up today and it is beautiful. It has helped to put me in the Christmas spirit. Our younger cat, Charlie, loves the tree and keeps climbing it. She can get to the top, batting ornaments and chewing pine cones all the way. Every time I walk in the room, several ornaments are laying on the floor, victims of her playfulness. Luckily we have carpeting so they don’t break.

I also got out and fought the crowds and did some Christmas shopping today. I made good progress on my list and I should finish tomorrow. In the middle of the hustle and bustle, a woman – a complete stranger – asked me and my mom for help with an idea for her boyfriend’s gift. She explained that she is getting him Chiefs tickets and she wanted to put them in a box and make the inside of the box like a football field. She just needed some encouragement that she had a good idea, she was so nice but was doubting herself. We talked to her for several minutes and gave her some tips. The crowded stores are often filled with rudeness so it was inspiring to have a positive interaction with someone on a personal level.

Last weekend I got a new phone! I have a Samsung Galaxy s7. I gave my old Galaxy s5 to my daughter. I love the s7! I always forget how amazing the battery life is in new phones. A fully charged battery can last close to two days. I am enjoying the new, updated system. I still need to get it synced to the bluetooth in my car.

Catch me up on your week. What would you tell me if we were having coffee?

Thanks to Part Time Monster for hosting Weekend Coffee Share. Join in by creating your own coffee share post with the tag #weekendcoffeeshare and/or add your link to the linkup here.

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If We Were Having Coffee… 11/26/16

If we were having coffee on this fine evening, we would talk about our holidays. We are on day 3 of turkey day leftovers. I have eaten an obscene amount of calories from stuffing and corn casserole. I may have gained several pounds from the banana pudding alone (but it was so worth it). How about you? Did you have a quiet, peaceful family dinner or were there political arguments? Did everyone behave or was there drama? Ours was very low-key.

Did you brave the stores yesterday to do Black Friday shopping? Or did you shop online? I didn’t do any Black Friday shopping this year. Every year I tell myself that I will start my Christmas shopping earlier and it usually doesn’t happen.

We had a busy day with Girl Scouts today. We had an event at the local horse stable this morning. This afternoon, my older daughter started working on her silver award. She is doing a visitation program at a local nursing home. It made the day go quickly and I was sad to realize that tomorrow is Sunday – the last day of the holiday break.

Does anyone else have a middle schooler that is obsessed with making slime? This is all the rage of our local junior high school. They make it out of glue and borax and then add some variety with shaving cream, lotion, glitter, beads, etc. I have bought so much glue. My daughter has a tote bag in which she carries all of the containers of slime.

I think my younger daughter has ringworm. I have no idea where she got it. She has one spot that has evolved over the last couple of days and now totally looks like a ring. She has several other itchy spots that are tiny. We can’t tell yet if these will be nothing or if they are also ringworm. Much like lice, it is making me paranoid every time I have the tiniest itch.

Catch me up. What else would you tell me if we were having coffee?

Thanks to Part Time Monster for hosting Weekend Coffee Share. Join in by creating your own coffee share post with the tag #weekendcoffeeshare and/or add your link to the linkup here.

Weekend Rewind 12/20/15

Weekend Rewind is  my weekly casual post to chat and catch up. No prompts, no rules – anything goes.

Let’s get random…

I haven’t posted in two weeks. I’m sorry that I missed Weekend Rewind last week. I actually did start the post last Sunday night and then a power surge knocked out our internet. So I tried but was foiled by an act of God. So I spent the evening watching a marathon of Impractical Jokers. Then I thought I could finish the post the next morning. But the next morning was Monday and work was very busy. Monday turned into Tuesday and I just gave up.

Things have been more hectic as we get closer to Christmas. Amazingly, I did finish my shopping. I started at brick and mortar stores and finished up online. Amazon is magic, a modern-day wizard that can conjure up my every wish and desire. All gifts have arrived and my only remaining task is wrapping.

I had a glorious day off last week for my younger daughter’s school holiday program. I look forward to this every December. This year, the second graders were rock-and-roll-snowmen. The other grades were pirates, kids in pajamas and hip-hop reindeer. It was an adorable program with lots of energetic songs and choreography. I also got to attend her classroom party that day, gaining a new appreciation for anyone who teaches young children for a living without becoming an alcoholic.

Last night we took the kids out driving around town to look at Christmas lights. We have a local house that does an over-the-top display that draws a lot of visitors. He has a ton of lights and unique inflatables. He even comes out and greets the cars dressed as Santa and gives the kids candy canes. We also saw several houses with the Light Shower display – the thing that just projects lights onto your house. It is simplistic genius and I think we may have to look into getting one next year.

Last night was a clear night so we were actually able to see the stars (which we haven’t been able to do much lately). I was able to easily spot my favorite constellation, Orion.

My girls are having a music battle on their electronic devices. One is playing Adele and the other is playing Florida Georgia Line.

I feel like the only person in the US that hasn’t seen the new Star Wars movie.

I only have four workdays left in 2015… two this week and two next week. Bliss.

Have a great week, everyone and Happy Holidays!

 

 

 

Weekend Rewind 11/8/15

It’s Sunday! That means it is time once again for Weekend Rewind, my weekly chat post – no rules, no prompts, anything goes.

Let’s get random…

It is a bright, sunny afternoon. Sunshine has been in short supply here lately so we are enjoying the rays. We watched the Rams/Vikings game (so we did a lot of yelling at the TV) after having a relaxing morning.

I did a little shopping yesterday with my girls. My older daughter needed a medium-weight jacket, she gets cold at school and now that the weather is a bit cooler she wanted something a little heavier. She is definitely a basic girl, she likes gray and muted colors (nothing bright) and is picky about the fabric and fit. We tried a few places with no luck and then happened to go to Sam’s (for other things) and found the perfect jacket. My younger daughter, on the other hand, loves brightly colored clothes. She found some leggings that were quite loud – bold, colorful prints – and fell in love with them. Those girls are so different in so many ways.

Speaking of Sam’s, my kids LOVE that store. They get so excited every time we go there because of the food samples. They go from kiosk to kiosk and eat. It’s actually pretty great because then I don’t have to buy them lunch. Ha ha.

We also watched Inside Out yesterday. Finally. What an awesome movie. It made me cry, of course, in true Disney fashion. It must have had an impact on my younger daughter because she came to me today in tears, out of the blue, and said that she said mean things about me (and her dad and sister) in her head when she was mad. Apparently this upset her and she felt the need to confess. So I normalized it and we even talked about the character Anger in the movie. We talked about “inside” thoughts and also how to express those thoughts in a constructive way. Deep thoughts for a Sunday afternoon.

My kids are also starting Christmas lists. It can’t almost be that time already, can it?!

How are my NaBloPoMo friends doing? I have posted every day so far but I have been pushing midnight a couple of times and I’ve also had a couple of “fluff” posts (in which I did zero writing). And how are my NaNoWriMo friends doing?

Have a great upcoming week, everyone!

Casual Fridays 8/7/15

Happy Sunday! That means it is time for the latest installment of Casual Fridays (Sunday edition), my weekly chat post – no structure, no rules, no prompts, anything goes.  And please also check out Casual Fridays over at Helen’s blog, Good Woman.

Let’s get random…

It’s Sunday afternoon and I’m just getting around to Casual Fridays. But, in my defense, it has been a busy weekend. It’s the last weekend before school starts.

I actually had a pretty good week at work. Things are starting to settle in. On Wednesday, I went out to the suburban office – which is where I worked before I lost my job four years ago. It was so nice to be back there and to see all of my old coworkers. I will be going out there one day a week and I will be at my normal downtown office four days a week.

We had a girl scout recruitment event Wednesday at the pool. My girls were happy to get to swim since we haven’t been to the pool much since swim lessons ended. We may be adding some new girls to the troop which is always… interesting. The pool time was unfortunately cut short by a storm. This has been the rainiest summer ever.

Yesterday was spent shopping for back-to-school shoes and clothes. It is also tax-free weekend in my state so the stores were packed. Shoe shopping turned out to be far easier, we only had to go to one store. We were even able to find acceptable shoes for my picky sixth-grader. Clothes shopping was more strenuous as both of my girls are hard to fit. But after schlepping from store to store for hours, we were able to get enough jeans, leggings and tops to start the school year. It was a long day and I came home and had to recharge my social batteries.

To reward myself yesterday, I got a new purse. And I absolutely adore it.

Today we organized and labelled school supplies. Everything is sorted and ready to go to school on Tuesday for open house.  My sixth grader is so nervous about switching classes this year. There have been tears. We wrote out her schedule today  for A and B days and put it in her binder. We will find all of her classrooms on Tuesday and reassure her again. Growing up is so hard (on everyone). I’m really proud of her, by the way. Her favorite part of shopping day was not the clothes but wandering around Barnes and Noble browsing the books.

It was sunny this morning and my husband put our dog outside on the zipline. I was laying in bed and all of a sudden I heard rain on the roof. I looked out the window and it was sunny and pouring down rain! Even on our nice days we get rain. My daughter ran out to get Rusty, who was barking and not too happy about getting wet. Strangely, the little cloudburst only lasted a few minutes.

Have a great rest of the weekend and upcoming week, everyone!

Shoes

Day 7: Give and Take

Today’s prompt: Write a post based on the contrast of two things – whether people, objects, emotions, places or something else. Today’s twist: Write your post in the form of a dialogue.

 

“Darling! Over here!”

Who was that? Were they talking to me? I looked at my husband to see if he had heard it too. He just kept walking through the mall, pulling my hand. I stopped and turned toward the voice.

And there she was. The most beautiful pair of black strappy three-inch heels that I had ever seen.

“Yes, you! Hello darling! Come over here.”

I took a step back toward the store window, pulling my poor husband along with me. A confused look crossed his face.

“You look like a sophisticated woman who could use a pair of heels. I bet you have a dress in your closet that would be perfect for me.”

I cocked my head. She was right. I did.

“Don’t listen to her. I know a runner when I see one. Come check me out.”

I turned my head toward the second voice to see a pair of running shoes. I definitely needed a new pair of running shoes. Mine were falling apart.

“Don’t be silly. Look at those legs. Add a short skirt and me and my three inches and she will look amazing.”

“And how do you think her legs got that way? She’s a runner. I can make her run farther and faster and therefore make her legs look even better.”

“Whatever. You will just get all sweaty and stinky.”

“And you are just going to make her feet hurt. I bet she couldn’t get through one evening wearing you.”

“Darling, what about Mr. Tall, Dark and Handsome there next to you? I bet he would love to see you in a sexy dress and high heels. That would make for a fun evening, am I right?”

“Please. I can see that he put a ring on it so she obviously doesn’t need your help in that department. And besides, this is about her. Not him. I can make her feel better by contributing to her health and fitness.”

“Fitness, schmitness. She wants to look hot and I can help her with that. I can make her look so good all of her friends will be jealous.”

“Nothing will make her friends more jealous than losing weight or getting toned. Swimsuit season is right around the corner…”

“Um… sweetheart?” I felt a tug on my hand. My husband was giving me an odd look. Oh, yeah. He’s still here.

I turned back to the window and put my hand up, showing him my palm. “Shhhhhhh. The shoes.”

He rolled his eyes. “Okaaaaaaay. Well, when you’re done, I’ll be at the electronics store.”