Clumps

I would title this "Chapters" but clumps seem a little more appropriate.  Just some little "clumps" of things going on... nothing huge enough to warrant as a chapter HAHA!

• Today was a busy day... met Jessica and Katie at Java Jungle and boy was that a GREAT idea.  The place was an effing madhouse.  $13 to get in, $18 for lunch and left with a few extra wrinkles than I came with.  Never. Again.   Its a great place, but on a holiday week... no no no way.
  
  
  
  
• After Mother's Hell-Date, I had to run to a client's house to drop off some pictures.  And the boys were being so good that I decided we'd swing by the Natural History Museum for a stroll through the Dinosaur exhibits.  The boys LOVED this and even though we'd visited earlier this year, they seemed to approach everything as if it were something new.  I love that!
  
  
• While in A2, I decided to splurge on myself a tad bit.  Which isn't something I do often (unless it pertains to camera equipment).  Earlier this month my mom sent me some birthday money and I'd been telling myself it'd be more responsible to use that towards bills or whatnot. However, I decided to forgo re-doing my highlights (and plan to have my whole hair color darkened) and just went my old route of $3 box color.  I love it.  And it left me money to pick up a few goodies for myself. I tried to be cost efficient in choosing my splurges.  Happy birthday to me (thanks, Mom!).

>>>El cheap hair dye.  Does the job for $3/box.  Yippee!

>>>A black Northface (I actually bought the Salathe but am returning it and purchased the Khumbu instead).  Ryan said I needed to get rid of 3 jackets if I brought another one in the house.  Easy peasy! (did I forget to mention I'm a jacket hoarder???).  I tossed out my oooold Columbia ski jacket that is PURRRRPLE, a tan Old Navy pea coat and a grey wool coat I got in uhm.. high school?  Seeeerrrriously.  Oh and BONUS for Ryan... I also threw in a Gap jean jacket that's too small.  

>>>Slippers to keep my feet warm on the faaarrreeeezing slate tile and dining room floor.  Our mudroom is SO not insulated and literally the temp drops like 15* (or something) when you walk into the mudroom.  It makes the dining room/kitchen SO cold.  That's probably the next project we need to tackle... insulating that room or putting a door on the mudroom.  I'm sure we lose a lot of heat/$$ because of that.  

>>>A Fiskars circle punch.  There have been SO many projects/scrapbook things I've needed various punch sizes for.  I'm going to slowly build up my collection.  So, punch #1 is a 2" Round n' Round. 

• For the past week we've been limited to 1 vehicle.  Ryan took the van into Dodge last Thursday to have some weird grinding/rattling noise looked at and it ended up costing us $460 to fix.  (add that to the $400 tires we just bought a few weeks ago and Merry Christmas Barczaks!!)  UGH.  Well... then turns out (how embarrassing) we were uhm... broke. (hence my plan to use my b-day money to pay bills).  Soooo... we left the van at Dodge and figured we'd save up or somehow come up with the money.  Luckily, Ryan got a bonus this month so YAY the van is paid for and now home.  Never thought I'd be happy to see that POS.  HAHA!
  
  
• Earlier this week I talked to Dot (my parenting angel... serious.).  I haven't met with her since the end of the summer when we completed our parenting class.  We'd had a discussion about some issues I feel I have (and that she agrees), and she wanted to either send me to a psychiatrist or if I felt comfortable with her to do some anger management counseling.  Yes.  Anger management (is Adam Sandler popping into your mind right now?).  She wanted to dig deeper into my childhood/history and help me get control of my often "fly off the handle" emotional rages.  However, with school starting and me beginning my Master's classes I just never got around to following up with her.  Anyhow, I called her a week or so ago to finally schedule a time to meet with her.  I actually feel I've been doing okay with things, but I know that that doesn't mean I'm "better" or "okay."  I still have issues with things and I still have behaviors I need to find a way to eliminate and replace with better actions/reactions.  Dot told me she was proud that I was acknowledging these things and that I was seeking help to be a better mom and example for the boys.  I'd felt stupid for calling her in the first place because things have been good (or morseo... "I" have been good), but I liked her reassurance.
  
  I also mentioned to her the Manic Monday Madness that happened around here and she applauded me for my reaction to it (staying calm, making Porter clean up the mess, not losing my cool and yelling or saying mean things to the boys).  She reassured me that by not losing my cool I didn't let that anger overcome me... I didn't let myself STAY angry at the situation but instead dealt with it in a calm way.  Did I forget to include that I haven't been taking my Happy Mommy Pills lately?  Since the week the flu swept through here I'd either forgotten to take my meds or had puked them up.  So far I feel like I'm doing okay... I actually feel a lot calmer lately than usual and I'm not sure what's up with that.  Things might end up different once I get back to work and pile on all that chaos, but we'll see.  I feel good that I feel capable of being rational and calm without medication right now.
  
  
• I'm not sure if this has anything to do with my quitting the Happy Mommy Pills but OMG I've been so effing emotional lately about the dumbest things.  Mostly TV shows or anything having to do with parenting.  I've been watching Teen Mom, 16 and Pregnant and I Used to be Fat and I kid you not, I cry at least once in each episode I watch.  Some I end up bawling.  And then tonight I read Janie Mac's letters to Lyla and Jilli and I ended up all choked up and teary.  WTH!
  
  
• Christmas break is almost over and I cannot believe tomorrow (errr... today) is the LAST DAY of 2010!  Where is time going?  I wish I could freeze the clock a bit.  I'm now down to my "normal" weekend (Fri off, then Sat and Sun)... then its back to work!  I feel like I haven't worked in ages since I missed a few days of work during the last week before break.  It'll be nice to get back into the groove of things and uh, get a paycheck!

Well, that's about it for now.  I still have a few blog posts to catch up on:  Christmas Day and my Christmas projects.... I'll get around to that this weekend.  Promise.