*Phew*

This last week+ has been a whirlwind! Jason's production of Aladdin started last week Thursday and lasted through Sunday 11/18--5 shows total. It was a superb show and Jas did a great job. Cait and I really enjoyed it! The same weekend, Jason's aunt, sister-in-law, and niece stayed with us Friday and Saturday. Monday was the first evening in a long time that Jason didn't have rehearsal. It will sure be nice to have him home most evenings. Tuesday afternoon Jason's friend Jonah came and stayed with us until Wednesday, and Wednesday afternoon my brother and his family arrived. Crit worked on my pantry/closet (I forgot to take before and after pictures...darn!) and got it pretty much done. We're going to add a couple of shelves to make good use of the space, but the important part is done...our heat can no longer escape up the old stairway. Yay! Thursday we all piled in (except for Jason) and went to Waupaca for the day. It was a nice day and great to see everyone! I think all totalled we had 41 for Thanksgiving dinner. Talk about a full house. It was a lot of fun, and the food was superb, as usual. :o) And, sticking to my Weight Watchers program, I didn't stuff myself until my pants burst. What a novel idea huh? I was pretty comfortable after dinner for once! The drive home was not so nice. Not bad--we were all just really tired and it seemed like a looooonnnnnng ride. We all crashed within minutes of getting back to our house. Friday Crit and Brandy went shopping for a bit and then left around noon. After they left I got a cleaning bug...I pulled out the couches and swept/mopped underneath. Moved the dining room table and chairs and scrubbed the floor. I did a lot of laundry too. It was so nice to have a few days off from work. Saturday seemed like Sunday, but, BONUS, it was only Saturday and I had another day off! Today I did more laundry and started loading up my new pantry and moving stuff into the kitchen from the basement that didn't fit before. I sorted and organized in the basement too...we're getting there! I have just a few things left to go through before we can move stuff out and start our major cleaning/painting job down here to make it a little more homey. Shortly I'll be off to get Cait, and then we'll have dinner and lounge around until bedtime, which I'm sure will come pretty early tonight.

Have a great Sunday night!

When I am Bored...

I take self portraits! :o) AND, I figured out how to add the profile picture...YAY for me! On Tuesday, my day off, I styled my hair with a little flip. I knew I needed new pics to post here, something other than my wedding photo from over a year ago, so I whipped out my camera and started shooting! This is just one of the many pictures I took of myself. And no, I'm not that tan...I used the scene effects in the Kodak program. This one is called "forest". Not sure why...in the forest I think of shade, but maybe it's supposed to be the sun showing through the trees...ahhhh...sounds nice, doesn't it? Too bad I was actually in my dining room! Hee hee...

A Day Off

I took the day off today. I felt I needed a little breather, and today was a good day for it. I have weekends off, but I still "work" around the house, etc. Sometimes we need a day just to be alone and, well, be alone. :o) I did accomplish quite a bit though, too. I did several loads of laundry, mostly blankets and comforters. I've been storing our extra blankets in our basement since we moved so I washed all of them today and will be putting them away in Cait's closet. She so graciously (or not) gave up the top shelf in her closet for our extra blankets. My bro is coming the day after Thanksgiving to build my "pantry", where I can then store the extras. I'll definitely have to do some before and after pics of that project. You'll be surprised! So I did laundry, organized a little bit in the basement (I have a long way to go), washed dishes, watched the Today Show, watched the news-twice. I found a new way to style my hair, ran to Wal-Mart and the mall, and took my cat to the vet. After that I met my girlfriend Lori and her two kids and her niece at Applebee's for dinner. Lori's little guy is just 3 weeks old. He's a peanut, that's for sure. He fit pretty good in my arms...hmmmm? ;o) I had Applebee's Confetti Chicken. Wasn't too impressed. I'm on this little plan called Weight Watchers (for the umpteenth time, but this time I AM GOING TO DO IT! I have alterior motives for this weight loss i.e. 3 sentences ago) so thought that would do me good. It was okay, but I'd have much preferred a nice salad or quesadillas or a burger or chicken strips. Now I'm off to the couch to watch Dancing With the Stars and The Biggest Loser. It's my Tuesday night thing. Jason and Cait are both gone every Tuesday evening, so that's what I do.

Ahhhhh...

Sunday. My favorite day. Well,usually. Today's not so bad. I didn't sleep in, even though we had an "extra hour". I still don't understand why we throw our natural clocks out of whack for an extra hour. I think I blogged about this a while back, and Brandy gave me the reason for the bad deal. Apparently it has something to do with saving energy? I don't know. But I don't really like it, except that it's a little easier to get out of bed in the a.m. when it's light outside. But it's no fun coming home from work in the dark. Oh well. It's temporary, right? Let's see...what else? I'm in the midst of cleaning today. I've already dusted, swept, and mopped. I'm doing laundry inbetween and I just changed the cat's litter box and swept the basement. I'm waiting for Jason to get out of the shower so I can clean the bathroom, then I'll be pretty much done except for a few odds and ends. I might take advantage of the nice day and clean my car one last time before winter. I hope to spend a nice evening with the family. Starting tomorrow Jason has rehearsal every day (including weekends) until the show, which starts the 15th. So, two full weeks of little husband time. It's worth it though--he enjoys what he's doing and I really enjoy watching the shows. Cait has a friend over for the afternoon so I'm sure they'll keep busy doing girl stuff. :o) Other than that not a whole lot going on. After the first week Jason's job is going well. He really likes it, except for the 1 hour drive each way. I hope he can adjust to that soon so it's not so hard on him. Last Monday was my 7 year "anniversary" at my job. Wowsa. I haven't decided if that's good or bad. Good, because I'm gainfully employed, but bad because I don't want to be stuck in a rut there. I don't really have anywhere to move there anymore besides sideways (hopefully not down!). We'll see. I've been contemplating going back to school, but that is put on hold until Jason has some security at a job. A lot could change between now and when I could enroll in August...

Anyways, Happy Sunday! Enjoy your day.

Halloween Fun

We had an every day Halloween...I came home from work and sent Cait off with a friend. Then I loaded up the candy bucket and waited! I was excited this year, thinking we'd have a few more trick-or-treaters than we have in the past, being that we moved. We did, we had all of 23 (including Cait + friend). It was fun though. Cait was her favorite football player-Brian Urlacher of the Chicago Bears. I think her Great Gramps and Great Uncles would be proud. Her friend was the enemy-Brett Favre. We carved our pumpkins on Monday night. I'm glad I took pictures of them that night, as Tuesday was very warm and they kind of wilted. Cait did three of them. My favorite is her "Starry Night". I tried to be fancy and carve the word "Boo" but it didn't turn out the greatest. We didn't use any patterns or anything and I think they turned out pretty well.

P.S. I still can't figure out how to post a picture, write a story, post another picture, write another story, etc., so all the pics are at the top and my story(ies) are at the bottom. I'll have to work on that...