Parade

This morning we went to Mr. Incredible's new office. I hadn't seen it yet. It is really nice, the rooms are much bigger than I'd been picturing. It is going to work out well for him.

Anyway, we went there because there was a Memorial Day parade through the town square on which his office is located. We thought about watching from the window, but when we saw all the excitement down on the square we went down too. Violet had never been to a town parade. She really enjoyed it.

We were home in the afternoon. I didn't get a thing done. Just like a holiday is supposed to be!

Almost Summertime!

The trip went fine. It was business. The presentations were well received. We had a lot of people talk to us at the trade show. The bed was comfy in the hotel room. It wasn't a great trip. But it was work.

Yesterday we went to a family reunion/birthday party. It was quite fun. We saw our nephew, he's 21. He was trying to get into the Coast Guard. He wasn't accepted due to a vision problem. But in the meantime he got a great job that he likes, he's able to save money, and he's going back to college at least part-time in the fall. That was his goal all along, to get a degree in engineering. He's so much happier and optimistic than when we saw him in January. He's such a good kid, I am so glad things are going his way.

I am vowing to get my life together. Not let work push me around as much. Get organized and relaxed. Live again. You guys have to stay on me. Step one is to stop using my personal computer for work. I have a work computer. I don't like it. But if I don't work on my personal computer, I'll control my work hours a lot more. Here's the plan:

Tomorrow is Memorial Day. My first paid holiday in 12 years. I'm not working.

Tuesday, I'll finish up some stuff for work and start moving all my files into one spot.

Wednesday through Friday I am taking vacation days, my first paid vacation days in 12 years! We are going to Springfield, IL to see the Lincoln sites. I'm not taking any computer with (but I'll borrow Mr. Incredible's to check personal e-mail).

Saturday/Sunday: I'll start getting the desk cleared off where I can keep my work computer set up and transfer files and notes to the work computer (which I should have been doing all along). Then no more work on my easy to access, I'm on all the time personal computer. I'll have to make a conscious effort to "go to work" and that should stop me from this practically on-call 24-7 nonsense I've let myself get into.

I know, I should have done it years ago. But when I was paid hourly and could get overtime, the more I worked the better. Now I'm salary. No more overtime. I'm supposed to be able to work shorter weeks all summer to make up for the extra hours I put in all winter/spring. We'll see. I think this is a huge step for me towards taking back my life.

In other news, I still haven't read most of your blogs yet, but as they are in my reader on my easy to access, I'm on all the time computer, I expect that will change within the next week!

We've had a rainy, stormy long weekend so far. It looks like that is changing too and we are in for sunny skies tomorrow. We are getting up early and going to Mr. I's new office (which I still haven't seen) to watch the town parade from his windows. I am looking forward to it!

Catch up with you soon

I'm leaving in 2 hours for an out of state business trip. I'll be back Wednesday night. I've spent this past week glued to my computer working. I miss my ability to get overtime pay. Stupid salary.

Needless to say I didn't work out at all. The "last week" of school was a complete bust. We didn't have any school work planned but I would have liked to do fun stuff with Violet. We did have 3 Girl Scout related outings, which were fun. But just Mama-Violet stuff, you know?

I'm hoping to have my work caught up enough to take Memorial Day weekend off. But May 31st is another huge deadline for my department. If everyone else has to work on that Saturday, I should too. It will help my relations with my immediate coworkers immensely. The big wigs (outside our department) will be off. But honestly, it is the ones you work with day in and day out with that matter for a peaceful existence. We'll see, it is a week away.

Hope everyone has a good week. I'm so far behind in all your blogs, but they are all saved in my Google Reader. When I get a chance I can't wait to catch up with you all!

Saturday Roundup

I started out this week exercising everyday, but fell off at the end of the week. I have so much I have to do for work, I'm not sure if I'm going to exercise tomorrow morning or go straight into working.

We are pretty much done with school for the year. And Girl Scouts will finish up this week. I'm so glad to be coming to a break for both.

I am totally blank on anything else to report. I didn't sleep well last night and was up early and at the office all day, so I'm a bit brain dead. I'll post more when I can think straight.

Hope everyone had a good week!

What I did on Mother's Day

Ah, Mother's Day. Our holiday. I think we should get a few of these a year, or maybe even a Mother's Month.

Today I have been finishing up projects I haven't had time to get to lately. I finished reading a book for my online class. It was the last book for this year.



I didn't care for it as much as some of the other books we've read in class. I think I just couldn't connect with the protagonist. I am looking forward to discussing the book and hearing what the others thought of it.

I helped Violet make her first pot holder. Remember the pot holder looms? And how the loops pop up off the little pegs all the time? They still do. But I think it looks pretty good.



We also finished up two greyhound legwarmers.



"Legwarmers for greyhounds? What?" I hear you asking. Well, you know they are a very fashionable dog. No, of course not. A lady I work with devotes all her spare time to an organization that rescues and rehabs injured racing greyhounds. Many of the dogs they get in have broken legs. When the casts come off, sometimes the doggies still have a metal plate on their leg for support. That metal can get pretty chilly in the winter. When we were talking with her one day we got the idea of having the Girl Scout Juliettes knit some leg warmers for the dogs. We didn't get them done in time for this winter, but it will get cold again, and unfortunately there will be dogs who will need them. The drawstrings are for their people to be able to better secure the leg warmers in place. One nice thing about them is that they can be any color at all, and each dog only wears one at a time so there's no color coordination needed.

I also finished the hat I'm making for my cousin. I'm still working on her matching scarf. I'm over halfway done with the scarf. Just in time to send it to her in Southern Mississippi for when the temperatures start hitting triple digits. So I don't have the best timing.



Gosh, I didn't do much else. I did some planning for the last 2 Girl Scout get togethers and found more supplies we'll need. I exercised this morning. Quick weekly round up: I managed to exercise 4 times last week. Not bad.

I'll tell you what I didn't do today: work! I was at my desk (in my office which is a hour's drive away) by 7:30 yesterday morning. I did everything I needed to so I could take the full day off today. That's two Sundays in a row. I'm getting to like this.

I also did no cleaning or cooking today. And now? I'm off to read a book of my choosing (a Donald E. Westlake from the Dortmunder series).

Hope you all had wonderful Mother's Days too!

Got my hair cut

I had her blow dry and style it too. Whadda think?




Of course, I'll never get it to look like this again. I like it. Bouncy and ready for spring! I needed a pick me up today. This helped.

p.s. sorry about the glare from the window behind me. I wasn't going to bother moving my computer even though it is a laptop. I guess I could have closed the curtains. :grin:

Sunday Roundup

What a week! I didn't even get to do my "Saturday Roundup." Well, the recap wasn't very good anyway. I only exercised 3 days. I worked way too much. I stressed even more.

This week should be better. I started out by working out this morning. Tomorrow is the deadline I've been working towards. I have most of the work done, but need to meet with my boss (by phone) in the morning to wrap things up.

It is a Girl Scout-erific week coming up. Tomorrow afternoon the girls are coming to our house for Carnival Day. The older girls have planned a bunch of carnival style games for the younger girls to play. The older girls will finish their Games for Life IP. Tuesday is American Girl club, a spin off of Girl Scouts. And Friday, Violet is going to the public gardens with the other Cadette family. They should do a lot of the Plants IP there, and I'll help them finish it later.

We have 3 weeks of school left. 2 weeks of Girl Scouts left (I've decided to take June and July off from planning GS, anyone else is free to come up with plans, I won't be). So we are quickly wrapping things up. Of course, there's a lot going on in May before everything is done.

Did I mention, I can't believe it is May!

I am not working today, so I've been busily cleaning the house before the families come over tomorrow for GS. I just took a break to read out loud with Violet, I can't believe I almost fell asleep while reading. I had no idea I was that tired. Guess that is the life of a mom, isn't it? Nap whenever you can because you are never really rested!