Funny feelings

So for the spin cycle this week we are supposed to intro our favorite post. I don't know that this is my favorite one but I still feel like this sometimes and I'm sure everyone else does too...so here you go...a previous spin for a new spin!

So as I was laying in bed trying to figure out what to write about in conjunction with this weeks spin from Jen over at Sprites Keeper when I heard a knocking sound and my dog growling. So my heart started to race a little bit. And the sound just kept happening. Then I heard the wind rustling the trees. And then my mind started to wander. It went to the place where I rolled over in bed and saw an intruder standing in my living room. I scrambled to get out of bed and push my dresser and bed against the door happy that I had my cell phone so I could call 911. The intruder goes into the kitchen and grabs a knife and is trying to open the door with the knife. Why? Who knows! But then reality sets in and I realize my imagination is a funny thing. I go let my dog out and what a shock...there are people hammering on my neighbors shed. Maybe I should be a fiction writer! Except the only material I would get would be about 5 pages. Not much more.It's funny how your mind can turn a mole hill into a mountain.
Working at a bank, we are supposed to "practice" what we would do in case of a robbery. I don't think the bank would appreciate me wetting my pants once a month just to practice what I would do. We all have scenarios in our mind what we would do in case of a fire, or in case our kids or family members are in serious trouble but my mind always takes me to a place where they are always rescued but the scenarios are outrageous. Nothing like, oh Leo fell off his bike and broke his arm. They were when he was a baby and the house was on fire and I had to run through the burning hallway and then jump out of the window with him hoping he would safely make it from a 7ish foot drop. I guess maybe our minds are helping us because if we can survive that we can survive the little things.

Friend or Foe

Isn't life funny? I think it is. Just thinking about growing up with an extremely annoying older brother who was 3 years older than me. I couldn't stand him and him me. We fought constantly and our parents yelled at us to stop yelling at each other constantly! I think the funniest (and moment I will never forget) moment was when my brother and I were arguing with each other in the backseat. I'm sure the argument went something like this...

Me: He's touching me

Brock: I'm not touching her, I just have my finger right by her face.

Me: Mom, tell him to quit...he's touching me...wah wah wah.

And then the most ridiculous thing happened that shut us the heck up. My mom slammed on the breaks and dropped the F-bomb. Now, my mother is a woman of peace. She does not cuss, and is usually the pretty calm one. When this happened we just shut right up because the ish was about to hit the fan. I don't really remember what happened after that. If we got in trouble when we got home or if we just quietly skirted to our rooms to make sure that D-Day wouldn't happen that day.

But this is where it gets funny...my brother and I are very close now. Not close where we talk to each other daily or anything like that but the big stuff that matters we actually talk about. Have normal conversations. I watch his kid and he can watch mine. I'm going to be in his wedding next summer as a bridesmaid (obviously for his fiancee and not him) but still. He has respect enough in me that he wants me in it. And he of course was in my wedding. Funny how a few (10-15) years ago we hated each others guts but when something goes down he will be one of the first I call or email. It's nice to have him and his family close by so if I want to see him I can. Or if I have something to give him I can swing by. It's just nice that we don't have to have our mom screaming at us to get along. Maybe we should be thanking her for not pushing us together but letting us come together. Whatever way...he is definitely my friend!

My family (Brock, dad, mom, me and little man Mothers Day 2007)

If you want to hear other people talk about their friends head over to Sprite's Keeper www.spriteskeeper.com/my_weblog/2009/07/spin-cycle-friendship-friendship-just-the-perfect-blendship.html

I've got baby fever

But I can definitely hold out on my baby-making mindset. My boss just had a baby and we are friends in real life so I actually get to see him and play with him. Well, at least when she lets me! And I just found out today great news that one of my dear cousins is going to have a baby. So that will give me a good year with boss baby and then another year with new family baby! You know since I like to steal babies it's all good! :) Well only for a few hours because then my two year old gets all jealous and decides to dogpile his cousin to get all the attention. Probably wouldn't work for a small child. That will set me up perfectly for the great baby-making plan of 2011. No people...I'm not crazy. Just well organized. I have to be! I figured, if I get prego around February of 2011 I would have said baby around November. This works out perfectly because in my line of work as a banker we are considered "retail" even though we don't sell jack diddly. So, of course November and December are not times that we are really allowed to take vacation. So no holidays to play with family! SO, if I had baby in November then I could save my sick time, plus use 2 weeks of vacation from 2011 and stay on leave until the end of the year plus if I really wanted to I could use 2 weeks of vacation from the next year to extend my leave even further! That would be totally awesome! Ok, you can now call me a dork or even creepy and I don't care! I'm just hoping I can hold out that long! :)

On a side note...I did see my boss today and her cute, sweet baby boy. I held him and cuddled him. Then I smelled my hand (not on purpose...I'm not that creepy!) and the first thought that popped in my head was, oh my gosh, my son is going to be just like a pet, smell the new baby smell on me and think, where the hell has she been holding other kids. That is so not cool! Ok, yeah, now you can really call me a dork!

Small child...might harm

Anyone that has ever been not living under a rock has heard the phrase terrible twos. You always think that this will be something that you can handle. And I'm sure people do. Obviously that is how little kids grow up. My child has now entered the phase of his terrible twos. But they aren't every day all day things. And I think that is what is killing me. If I had a child that was terrible all the time then I would not find it so alarming when he just comes up and kicks me in the spine while I am watching TV. Or when I try to punish him by sitting him in the corner and whatever is closest to his grubby little paws comes dangerously close to giving me a black eye, broken nose, broken face, etc. And I definitely wouldn't mind if I had a small child that would just sit quietly and play with his toys, or color or watch a movie for longer than ten minutes. Right now I am listening to peace and quiet and I am more than a little worried because he is not sleeping so I am wondering what he is doing. (Obviously not too worried if I am still blogging! )

The thing that kills me though is that he is the perfect angel 70% of the time and the other 30% is what drives me bonkers and makes me want to drop-kick the little runt! He tells me when he is getting in trouble...I be nice...only to not be nice in the upcoming 5 minutes. I know he is just trying to get out of trouble for the time being, but that cute little, innocent face just stares at me and I can't keep him in trouble for too long. Also, as a 2-year-old there is only so much discipline or bargaining you can do. I can tell him he won't get to go to storytime if he misbehaves, but if he is misbehaving the only thing I want to do is get him out of the house because he almost always behaves in public. I know that is not the right way to look at things but if he's out of the house he will behave and he won't be grating on my last nerve.

What do you people think? Are 2-year-olds honestly responsible for their behavior? Do you think you can reason with them? If so, does anyone have any extra room for a little munchkin for the rest of the summer? :)

Can you be one way without the other

So, lately the hubby has been on a cleaning tear. And not like, oh hon, we need to clean out the garage, or pick up our mess. He just decides he wants to clean and then gets pissy because I'm sitting on my lazy behind watching tv. Well I understand why he gets mad but I am not always in a cleaning mood. On the other hand, I like a clean kitchen. I'm not talking Stepford, with counters clean and shiny trash always empty, etc. I'm talking no dirty dishes left out, etc. I'm trying really hard to keep it clean. So tonight I told hubby, 2 choices: Give the monster a bath or clean up the kitchen. We both got off early so dinner was done and finished eating by 6:30. He chose neither. I got to give the bath and cook and clean up the kitchen. Very frustrating. Especially when I worked just as long today and have to work just as long tomorrow. Just help out a little even when you're not in the mood. We all do a little give and take! :)

an answer for everything

So, this week has been crazy busy. I have worked 4 open to closes and have to go in for 2 hours today to cover a couple of lunches. I'm annoyed, but ok with it. Next week I am working an open to close and then one day I have a meeting in the morning so I am working 7:30am-8:15pm. Again, I'm ok with it because for 2 of those hours I won't be doing anything but pretending to listen to people talk about stuff i don't care about. The thing that does annoy me is when a customer asked me what my hours were on Monday and I told him 10-3 he made the comment about only working a 5 hour day. I just responded that was how the schedule worked out, but what I really wanted to shout was to stop being such an a-hole and look at the rest of my week. But I didn't. Because customers are always right. *snort*

Monday already?

Oh sweet weekend? Where did you go? Oh yeah, you reared your ugly head and told me to have a really lousy weekend because apparently I needed the added stress that is manager going and having her baby a week early. Right in the middle of a play that I was thourougly enjoying!

Yep, you heard it here! I was at music theater and during intermission I was getting on my phone to check out Olive Gardens menu since I would be dining there later that evening when I saw I had 4 text messages. All from said boss. She told me I jinxed her because the night before I asked her how she was doing and she responded saying G2 was doing as he was supposed to. Little did we know fate would intervene and Nolan Gillen was born yesterday. My second half of Kiss Me Kate was ruined because my head was running over possible schedule scenarios trying to replace her in our schedule. I did still end up going to the Olive Garden to eat dinner with some girls I graduated college with and my life is going infinitely better than theirs (knock on wood.) One of them, her dad just died last week and the other one told us she got a divorce (or that her husband divorced her). You could tell the pain was still there. Those stories are a different post in themselves though. So, I left dinner refreshed yet pained by my friends pain. I ran home, got my son and skedaddled up to the hospital to meet the little bundle of joy. He has a head full of dark hair (funny because his brother probably din't have that much hair until he was almost 2! And he is blonde!) She is dark headed and her husband is blonde so they now have one of each! Anywho...then after the hospital we stopped by the grocery store to pick up Band-Aids and Benadryl because my 2-year old is covered in mosquito bites. I actually made him wear a coat in 97 degree heat because he wouldn't quit scratching them. Poor little thing. And then my husband made me completely paranoid because on the bottle of Benadryl it says not to give to 2-5 year olds without talking to your dr. and I told him my mom said it was ok but then I had to google it because I'm crazy like that. Then I stayed up until almost 11 trying to find the best possible scenarios for the week!

Then this morning I woke up and said mosquito bites were no better and I had a text already telling me that someone was calling in. Fabulosity! Happy monday! I hope everyone elses weekend was great! And I also hope everyone has a great week!

Am I weird or am I normal

So, this weeks spin cycle topic is about routines. I don't feel like I have that much of a routine to get my day started because my times that I go into work are different most days. But one routine that I follow is how I make dinner. If I get off work early enough that I am home by 5 or 5:30 I pretty much have a routine. I will start the meat (either preparing it or actually cooking it) and then E-O and I will sit down and watch a little Dora on Noggin at 6. Then about 6:15 I will usually start preparing the rest of the meal so that way it will be ready when the hubby gets home from work around 6:40-7 (depending on how busy his day is). I feel that way, when he walks in the door we are ready to sit down and eat. And depending on what I made I will try and have the kitchen cleaned up as much as possible so after dinner I can just sit on my butt. I just feel like sitting down to eat dinner together is an important thing I want to share with the monster. Even if most days we will sit in front of the TV because he can't really discuss with me what he did that day! If you want to see other peoples routines and quirks check out Sprites Keeper at http://www.spriteskeeper.com/

Friday...already?

I am thankful it is Friday but then it puts me in panic mode. One week from today my boss will be leaving us for (at least) 10 weeks to go and have a stinking baby! :) That puts me in charge of two branches. And I feel like EVERY.SINGLE.DAY. there are situations I find myself in that I have no idea what the heck I'm doing. And the last time she went on maternity leave and left someone else in charge other mangers thought she asked too many questions and has not been promoted. So that makes me feel even more anxious to see how I will do. I feel like I have a lot of people in other departments that I can rely on to help me transition into "manager" mode. But I also think that the staff that is surrounding me doesn't really treat me like a superior and I don't want to have to make them understand that. I was told that I could write employees up for offages, insubordination, etc. but I really don't want to do that. And I have to do reviews for a few employees while she is away. Yikes! So if I come back and rag on here about what a crappy mood I'm in for the next 10 weeks you will understand! :) Hope everyone else has a great weekend! Mine will be pretty busy with work and music theater!

Scary nights

Leo in his big boy bed

So Monday night we got my monkey a new "big boy" bed. And he was so excited! And we put the baby gate in the hallway so he couldn't escape. First night went off without a hitch. He didn't get up all night long. He slept in his bed and he was so proud of himself. Second night...not so well. I put him to bed about 8:45 and I went to sleep around 10. What felt like hours later I heard Leo screaming his hed off. The hubby went and got him (I don't know if he had still been awake or if the screaming woke him up). It turned out it was only midnight but felt much later! Anyways...I laid in bed for a little bit and he just kept crying. I finally went into his room to see what was up. I still don't know what was wrong with him but even after we brought him into our room (which normally calms him down quickly) he continued to cry. I even fell back asleep and woke up not much later to him laying down with his eyes closed crying. I don't know if he was having like a night terror or what, but he was pretty much asleep. I tried to rub his back and he went all exorcist on me telling me to stop. So weird. So we will try again with the big boy bed tonight and hopefully it goes much better. If anyone has suggestions or ideas as to what might have been causing that, let me know, cause I was more than just a little freaked out!

My little fireworks junky

So this weeks spin is supposed to be about kids. Well, since most of my blogs are about my little monster anyways I figured I would just write about what he's been obsessed with lately. And that would be....drumroll please...FIREWORKS!

We see the 50 thousand fireworks tents lined up and down the streets and he sees the blue ones and the red ones and the green ones and they all have FIREWORKS inside of them. He is crazy about them. And at night when we are sitting in doing something very classy (like watching tv) and he hears the fireworks he lowers his voice to a whisper and says in awe "fireworks!" And then finally on Monday I told him that if he was good that mommy and daddy would take him to the big tents to get some fireworks for him and he just looked at me with the biggest smile on his face and said "What!!!!!" Too cute.

I guess my hope is that he is not terrified once we get down to the nitty gritty of the fireworks. The loud pops, the screeching, annoying ones. I hope he love, love loves them as much as he is excited to see everything related to them. So I hope everyone elses 4th of July is just as fabulous as I hope ours will be! ANd if you want to see other peoples spins about kids check them out at Sprites Keeper www.spriteskeeper.com/my_weblog/2009/07/spin-cycle-playing-devils-advokid.html

So, I'm a nerd

I have been reading like a fiend. I have read 5 books in 9 days. And it has been pretty relaxing! I read the first two books in the Kay Hooper trilogy about pyschic "cops". And then I read a trilogy that I had read before by Nora Roberts. Those were about women having to come together to find keys to unlock the souls of demigoddesses. Again, great books (I would hope so since this would be my 3rd time to read them!). And finally, I am keeping with the theme and started to read (again) the Sleeping Beauty trilogy by Anne Rice. It's of an erotic nature and I've found that it might not be the best to read them on my lunch break because, well you know! :) So, after probably a good 6 months without reading a book I have read a bunch in a short amount of time. If anyone has any suggestions of good books to read let me know! I think I would like to re-read the Harry Potter books, but if someone has a better suggestion then I will take that!