Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Weekly Updates

Rob

Monday was just school for the boys, and work for me.  I sometimes think people act like they hate Mondays just to have a good way to ignore the mundane nature of them.  They even sound the same "Mundane : Monday"... Interesting.  I really don't remember there being anything remotely interesting on Monday.  Actually, Tuesday was not any better.  I think the most interesting part of Tuesday was that McGuire told me he was getting a Saturday detention for being late to school too much.  I left a... heated ... yeah, that works, a heated message with the Jr. High Principal.  I sort of felt bad about it right away, I let my temper get the better of me, I just meant to ask him what I am supposed to do?


On Wednesday, Archer had a nice little atomic meltdown in the morning, for no good reason.  I try to get him dropped off at a friend's house so that I can get to work early on Wednesdays, but his little freak-out meant I saved almost an entire 30 seconds, and it embarrassed me in front of his friend's mother.  I was leaving work early that day anyway, to see my doctor in the afternoon.  Traffic was lighter than expected (a Massachusetts first!) and I was relaxing in the parking lot when the Jr. High Principal called my cell.  I apologized for my rude and vulgar voice mail a few times, and we came to the fact that there isn't really any concession that can be made, but that McGuire needs to be responsible for his own wake-up time.  Really helpful.  Doctor appointment was good, I have such a major crush on her, so I really don't mind going in.  She finally is starting to understand that my sleeping 5 hours a night is just what I do.  She is worried about everything I have on my plate, but I explained to her that I am dealing with it all as best as I can. So am I stressed out and sometimes overwhelmed?  You bet.  Is it bad wiring, or a chemical problem in my brain? Nope, just life...
After that, I met up with the family at The Whiz for D&D: two totally full tables, with 2 of the regulars not showing up.   I was able to play again - having other people DM Encounters is really working out well, and my pixie was as annoying as ever.  We had a new guy show up to play, father of 4, knew his way around a RPG, but not super knowledgeable on the new edition.  He was a fast learner, and didn't mind getting playing tips from a 14 year old.  He was very impressed with Archer's mastery of the game, which makes me pretty proud.  I don't consider the rules too complicated, but part of that is probably due to having two very smart kids.  If we had more physical space, I could easily see a third table as a most-week option, but there just isn't the room.


Thursday was McGuire's Winter concert.  I still don't have a real working camera, and Allison forgot to bring hers, but it was a good concert.  McGuire finally got a hair cut.  It was just too much to take care of, so he is mostly buzzed now - luckily he has a really good shaped head, so he looks really good with the short haircut.  He had to leave the concert right after McGuire's sets were over, because he had gotten a lot of homework that day, and wasn't done with it.  After the kids were in bed, I was finally able to finish the story of Assassin's Creed Brotherhood (so, so good).

Friday I had a dentist appointment in the morning.  Thankfully, Archer cooperated with me so that he caught the bus, which let me get to my appointment on time.  No cavities!  I really wish I had always taken as good care of my teeth as I do now, but oh well.
Work was fine, and after work I went out to dinner with my friend Jen, who was in MA for business.  We went to an Irish restaurant near my work, since it was on her way home.  It was pretty good, but I swear I had 20 pounds of mashed potatoes with my dish.  We left around 8, so I got home in time to get the kids into bed and play Gears of War 3 with my on-line friends.  I had to end earlier than usual, so I could bring McGuire to detention in the morning.

Saturday was pretty lame.  Drop off McGuire for his punishment.  He and I were joking about getting there late, just for the irony, but they spelled out that being 10 minutes late would result in a 3 day school vacation... I mean out-of- school suspension.  I went back home, did some cleaning , took a little nap with Archer, then picked McGuire back up, and we all cleaned the house together, getting ready for Mary-Ellen to visit.  At the end of the day, I brought the garbage outside, and realized no one had checked the mail, so I went down to the mailbox and got the mail.  One totally shocking piece of mail was from the court system - I was expecting a new court date that we could have to miss.  Instead, it was a sheet that looks like a judge went over our case file and signed off on the divorce.  Allison and are officially divorced!

Sunday we woke up early enough to do some last-minute cleaning before Mel and Bediaco arrived.  They came over, and we went to "lunch" - not realizing that Puffins only serves breakfast on weekends.  It was a good, tasty breakfast anyway, so no problem, really.  We played Carcassone on the 360 (easier to let the console do the scoring), but when we finished, the kids scattered to the wind, so we didn't wind up playing a second game with the actual cards.  The rest of the day was pretty tame: watched some football, didn't even go onto the computer.



Kurt

I did a makeup test for a short film that I am creating. It's for HOUSEofCACH. HoC is a jewelry company that I work for. We are making a promotional video. A story about a relationship between a man that keeps turning into a goat and a model who keeps changing her jewelry. It is being filmed in a beat up house from the 1950s.


I've been trying to finish off as many projects as I can before I move. I've been ordering a lot of things online which I've never done before.  Metal spikes and studs, animal teeth, bodysuits. It's been very fun!  I finally had a place to wear my new mask....goth night at club hell.

Last night I went to the ZINC SALON Christmas party. We ate at ZINC restaurant in new haven and then went to a cigar bar where everyone was smoking cigars and cigarettes. It was hard to breath at first but u KINDA got used to it. My clothes REEKED the next day. It was funny to think about how that was the way it was in bars at one time. It's much more pleasant to me in the current state

This week I have two people coming to look at paintings for sale at my house. I sold one today!!  So my goal for this week is to clean the house ;). Oh. And make a replica of Marcel the Shell. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VF9-sEbqDvU&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Carrie

This week has been full of activity.  Hailey's first band concert was good.  Her grade has only been playing for two months but did really well.  She likes her saxophone very much. I had extra kids over everyday this week.  From 2 to 4 extras!!  Good kids though.  Made cookies everyday.  And got our real tree today :-).  Making cookie trays with Mom tonight. My friends took me out to celebrate my birthday, and I'm moderately decent at darts!!  It's flown by.


This week it's finish Christmas preparations.  Trent and Kayla both have parties I'm bringing baked goods in for.  I'm really in the holiday spirit!!!!!  I've been thinking back over the year and realizing how much I have to be grateful for, more and more everyday.  I'm thinking of ways to pass my good fortune along, and I don't mean moneywise!!!  I'm open to suggestions if you all have any!!!  I need a service project!!  Merry Christmas!!!!!!!!

Kim

Can I just say that I feel like Wonder Woman?  Christmas shopping-check.  ALL wrapping-check.  Shipping-check.  Teacher gifts(three kids at three school-a lot of them)-check.  Neighbor gifts-check.  Gingerbread houses-check.  Band concert-check. Laundry-check.  Dog healthy and groomed-check.  Bout with stomach virus-check.  Packed and planned and executed biggest surprise to date-CHECK.


Dave and I decided to spend the first week of Christmas break and his week off doing something fun.  That took on many faces as we looked at planning it last weekend.  Finally, on Monday we committed to a week in sunny Florida.  We are enjoying Disney World and planning a trip to Cocoa Beach and Universal later this week.  We booked this trip Monday and got everything ready without the kids knowing about it.  Until we arrived at the airport's long-term parking, they thought we were doing something in Denver.  It was an epic surprise.


Holy cow.  A trip always takes a ton of work to be prepared but this last-minute, right-before-Christmas thing, as a surprise...wow.  I'm very impressed with myself.  And with Dave.  He nearly finished his "construction" project on his own and had to work like crazy at work to be able to leave Saturday.  We did it.  It was totally worth it to be able to surprise those kiddos.  Jake will always remember this trip.  He's really wanted to come here for a LONG time.  Ben and Rachel will always remember the surprise.



I've said it before, but it's worth repeating.  Jake is a much nicer teenager than I was in my family.  He's not perfect, in fact he drives me crazy all the time, but he is sooo much happier to be with his family than I was at his age.  I have pictures of me at 14 or 15 at Disney World on a family trip with a scowl on my face in every picture.  Attitude to spare.  Yikes.  Jake kind of likes us.  Not all of us all the time, but he knows how to make us all laugh and he can be found laughing more than scowling in our pictures...

I'm glad we could be spontaneous and throw together a great trip like this!  We are so blessed.  Here's to great family memories--limited scowls, please...

2 comments:

Lori said...

you are one dedicated lady!

Car rie said...

Kim, wow, very superhero like!! I'm about to havea holiday meltdown and you went to disney, take me with you next time!!
:-) Kurt, love the hairy face!! She didn't get talked out of making the video?? Exciting!!! Rob, need alarm clocks!?? Does Mcguire have an ipod, we can get him an alarmclock dock. He must take after me a little, first Saturday school!!! Hahaha