Out of It, But Still Proud

I don't know where I've been, or why I have been completely unable to put a post together, but I keep trying and failing. However, I do want to share something that happened to me today.
Mr. Hobbitfeet came in with the mail and told me he thought we got our first Christmas card of the year.
I looked at the return address and saw that it was from Lynda, my friend from COT. I was excited because her cards are always interesting, like the time she photoshopped herself into a picture with the princes of England, or the year she wrote a really long and fake newsletter.
I was not prepared for what was inside though. It was a birth announcement with the news that she gave birth to an Emmy, complete with a picture of her Emmy wrapped in a pink blanket with a duck and a bear.
Mr. H. was baffled. He thought she actually had a baby. Once I explained it he was still a little confused, but we'll forgive him.

Congratulations, Lynda! For winning an Emmy for your show, Fresh From Julianne's Garden - A Legacy In Bronze. Who knew you'd go from documenting every step of updating a web page every week so your boss could understand what it was you did to winning an Emmy in four short years!

Puttin a little Cali in my Chuck

My friend J. is coming to visit me from San Francisco this week, and I am very excited. So excited that I am even willing to drive to St. Louis to pick her up (I offered, she didn't ask). I haven't seen J. since the summer of 2005, and I don't get to talk to her too often because I am on parent time in the Central time zone and she's on non-parent time in the Pacific time zone. That makes things nearly impossible.
In addition to loving J. because she's fun and easy to talk to, I love having people at my house. I love being hostess, serving food and making sure everyone has fun. I think that's what I miss most about living in Chicago. Picking up and moving down here was a really great move for us career-wise, but it was pretty much social suicide. We left all of our friends behind, and don't really connect with the people in our town. I know it's my fault.
Yesterday Mr. H. and I went to Home Depot, and I refused to go down an aisle that had what I needed because the mom of one of Boy's good friends was there and I didn't feel like talking to her. I suck. There isn't anything wrong with her, she's just VERY friendly and I am not, and I didn't want to have to talk about our kids and what good friends they are for the next 15 minutes. I just wanted my Crazy Glue and a new screen for my front door. There is a reason people's first impression of me is "What a bitch!" I have a lot of walls that take awhile to breakdown.
But I get crazy excited to see people who have already knocked down my walls, and that's how I feel about J. coming. I've already told Mr. H. that I'm getting drunk at least twice. At any rate I'll be less crabby for the next few days.

P.S. That's a picture of J. from my wedding. Mother Nature loves me because she gave me such a pretty sky on my wedding day!

Confidential to Anna in Madison

A)You clearly deserved it, and I'm not at all sorry.
B) If you'd really been keeping up you'd know that 1)Boy was at his Grandma's for a week, 2) Hadn't finished Book 5 or 6, and 3) I am the fastest reader in the house so I get to read EVERYTHING first.
C)Boy wants to see the Peace Trees so we're coming to visit.

25!

Approximately 25 years ago (we're not sure of the exact date), the preschool teachers at St. Bede the Venerable Elementary School decided to have a crazy hat day. I showed up in one of my mom's standards made out of paper plates, and a little blonde girl showed up in her dad's fishing hat with candy taped all over it. After the judging was over, the little blonde girl shared her Smarties with me and said "Hi, my name is Chris, wanna be my friend?" and since I love Smarties I said yes and a life long friendship was born. Here we are pics of us from our preschool class picture (also, on the right, is my cousin Kelly who was also in the class).

and here we are at my 7th birthday party:

I like the group shot because Chris chose to look at herself rather than the camera (still does!), also why is there a Burger King employee in the picture?

Through our dorkiest phases of life- like New Kids on the Block and The New Leave it to Beaver:

grammar School Graduation and High school Graduation:

All the way to the present day we've been friends. Even though there have bumps along the way, we've been friends more or less since we were our kids' age.

So, Thanks Chris for 25 years of friendship, and sorry our fat butts can't fit in a recliner together anymore!

My Super Sweet Vacation Day!

I am taking a vacation day tomorrow. Guess why? Well to clean of course. Just me and my giant economy size soap!!! You see, two weeks ago my house was immaculate. You could perform surgery in my bathroom. But two weeks build-up and Mr. Hobbitfeet worked on Saturday so I entertained children and did everything but clean. The problem is we're having company this weekend. And Mr. H. has to work five hours of overtime. It seems to me that his work only ever makes him work overtime when we have stuff to do.

Anyhow the crap keeps piling up, so I am using my precious vacation hours to get it done.

Busy Weekend

We were in Chicago this weekend for my cousin Erin's wedding. Fun was had by all. See my sister's blog for more. Then on Sunday, Mr. Hobbitfeet, the kids, and I got together with a group of friends that we hadn't seen in awhile to play games. In the end though we mostly talked, and only played one game, Pit. Personally I suck at Pit, I am not aggressive enough or something. As usual, I was too busy, and didn't take too many pictures. But here is one of Lynda and Elaine's son Devin.

Saturday at Work

I am on lunch at work on Saturday. Saturday work stinks, however, I don't have sick time since I am only part-time so I need to make-up the hours I missed on Wednesday and Thursday when I was sick. I don't like being here on Saturdays, the offices are dead. I know there are patients and nurses etc. downstairs, but it is dark and lonely (and therefore creepy) here on the second floor.
The other day it was in the fifties and I saw a kid walking down the street in just jeans and a t-shirt. Not nearly warm enough for that. It did remind me, though, of when I was 12 or 13 and I'd walk down to my best friend's house in nothing but my "Esleep" pajamas. I loved my Esleep pajamas. I had 3 or 4 pairs. They were shorts and this baseball jersey type top. I think they came from JC Penny's.
Pretty much all I wore when I was that age was my school uniform or my Esleep Pajamas, unless I went somewhere other to the Maher's (which was at the end of my block) or to the Hunt's which was across the street, which didn't happen often; we were lazy. There were times we even went to Walgreen's in them (my friend Chris had them too, but I'm not sure about Lauren.) I have a picture somewhere of me and my precious pjs making one of those embroidery thread, friendship bracelets that were big in the early 90's. I'll post it if I ever find it.