Posts Tagged ‘friendships’

Happy Thanksgiving

Thursday, November 24th, 2011

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!!

I hope you’re all having a fantastic day!  We’ve got the turkey in the oven here, the cranberry dressing chilling in the fridge, rolls rising on the stove, and all the rest of what we’ll need sitting out and waiting for the time when we’ll start putting it all together.  We’ve got somewhere around 5 or 6 people on the way over sometime in the afternoon to share dinner with us.  It’s an “Orphan Party!”  All our local friends who have family too far away to go visit for the holiday were invited over to spend the day.  There’s going to be card games and lots of food and it’s going to be a fantastic day!  I’ve got hot cider simmering in the crock pot and cheese and crackers for munching between now and dinner.

I’m excited!  It’ll make up in a big way for Monday and Tuesday of this week — I had to work through a migraine on Monday and  the remnants of that headache on Tuesday.  Not sure what it was that set off my headache, but it HURT, even though I took a ton of meds for it.  And I couldn’t go home because there was just SO much to get done!  And even more to get done on Tuesday.  It was Not Fun.  So when we finished everything late Tuesday, I asked if it was really going to be necessary for me to work on Wednesday, and since my boss said “no,” I stayed home yesterday — slept in, went to the chiropractor’s, picked up a few things from the store, made a cheesecake, and started getting ready for today.  It would have been nasty to work yesterday and then have to do all of that today instead.  So I’m really thankful for the day off yesterday.  :)

And I’m thankful for the free turkey our friend got from work that she gave to us to use for the meal today.

I’m thankful for my wonderful husband who compliments me so well — I make a mess putting the turkey together and he cleans up the mess!

I’m thankful for all our friends who are going to come over today.

I’m thankful for the job options that I’ve been given, even though they’re giving me headaches.

And I’m thankful for all of you!  I love you!!

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

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And that’s it for October

Monday, October 31st, 2011

Oy, a week gone already?

Okay, since last week, my back has gotten a lot better.  Of course, Justin’s back has been killing him in a completely different way, but he’s been sitting on the  heat pack.  We’ll go back to the chiropractor’s office again tomorrow.

Work has been nuts, but it’s only going to get worse as we go through November.  And more on that later, probably.

I did not, however, work on Friday because we had a party here that evening and Justin and I spent the day getting ready.  I’ll do some pictures at the end.  A bunch of geeks we know get together every month or so to play card games.  We switch between who hosts, but it was our turn this time, and it was a whole lotta fun!  I cut a ton of bats out and hung them from the ceiling.  Justin wanted to dress up as Count van Count from Sesame Street, so I dressed up as Countess von Backwards (I’m not making her up) complete with the purple skin and all.  Can I say?  That was a lot more trouble than it was worth.

Anyway, we had Indiana Jones and a cowgirl, a Valkyrie and a dead Norse warrior, a couple renaissance girls, a hippie, an Arabian prince, and a guy who said he was Jimmy Buffett but who just decided last minute to come to the party.  And we had lots of food, played Gloom, roasted marshmallows and told stories over the fire, and had, all in all, a really fantastic time.

Meaning, after all that, on Saturday Justin and I were completely zonked and didn’t get out of pajamas all day.  We showered and put on clean pajamas.  I spent the whole day reading a library book that was due.  And that was it.  We didn’t even get around to cleaning until after church on Sunday.  And then we had friends over again on Sunday (sort of a recurring event) and we played a game of Munchkin with them.

So much of last week was spent getting ready for the party.  I spent a lot of time cutting out bats and getting the house ready.  It was definitely worth it because a lot of people, even kids trick-or-treating tonight, commented on how great the house looks.  But it’s a relief to not be working on that today.

Anyway, stepping back to talk about work for just a minute, we’ve got six or seven projects in the works for November, so it’s going to be crazy busy.  And add to that, a job offer was dropped on my lap today and if I say “yes” the guy offering it would want me to start transitioning over to it as soon as possible — like next week.  It’s an other department at work and it *sounds* really exciting, but I haven’t decided yet.  And the guy offering it asked me to not talk about it, but I think he meant not talk about it AT WORK and I’m pretty darn sure none of my coworkers read this.  (And if they do, they haven’t said anything yet, and I don’t expect them to start now.)  I have to let him know by the end of the week, so you’ll all know as soon as I decide, too.

And now pictures from the party!

Justin as Count van Count from Sesame Street

The Count and Countess -- SO MUCH PURPLE

A view of the dining room decorations

A creepy sofa table vignette

The skull seemed like a necessary element

Ghosts hung out by the dining room light

Bats hung out in the entryway and hall

There were mice along the floorboards

Our late-Norseman

Friends enjoying a game of Gloom

More of our friends

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October!

Wednesday, October 5th, 2011

October hit on Saturday and it was like the weather looked around, blinked, and then went ‘Oh!  Riiiiiiight.  OCTOBER.  Sorta, kinda fall-like, right?  Riiiiiiiiight.”  And overnight lows started dipping into the 50s and 60s and the daytime highs dropped from 90 somethings to the low 80s.  The skies cleared up, the afternoon showers disappeared, and the sky turned such a brilliant color of blue that I can’t help but look at it every time I go outside.  Especially since the sun hasn’t been burning my retinas now every time I step outside.

Of course, this means that when I was outside on Saturday, the temperature was so wonderful I didn’t even think to put on sunscreen and got a toasting across my face.  And it also means that I’m driving to work in the dark, wearing a sweater or jacket in from the car, and then carrying that sweater out to the car over my arm when I leave work in the warmth of the afternoon.

It’s wonderful!  Granted, I miss the north.  I miss the colors of the leaves and the fact that you’ve all been wearing sweaters and enjoying this kind of cool weather for about a month by now.  I finally went and got soup at the store yesterday because it’s finally getting cool enough that I can really enjoy hot soup.  And people made fun of my arm warmers because they’re jealous.  Obviously.  I mean, my arm warmers are pink! And fluffy!  And, most importantly, keep my arms warm!

I’ve been opening the window on my side of the bedroom when I go to bed to let in the cool air at night.  It gets warm again during the day, but at night, that cool breeze is delightful.  Unfortunately, my allergies have been acting up since the weather changed, but hopefully it’ll pass soon.  Or, you know, I’ll refill my very expensive allergy pills.  But I’d rather not.

The change of the weather also means that we’re heading into a very busy couple months.  October started out with Family Day at my workplace.  It’s great for families with children who can go play on the moon walk rides and be entertained by the midway games and have the patience to stand in line for a burlap bag and slide down a big slide.  Justin and I stood in line for the Ferris wheel for more than an hour (toasting my face), got some cotton candy, and then went to eat at a local Mexican restaurant.

This coming Saturday we’re helping at the Habitat for Humanity building project doing yardwork.  The Saturday after that is book club, and since it’s the 1-year anniversary of the club, we’ll probably be hosting a movie party at our house.  The week of the 16th is the local Seafood and Arts festival.  And the Friday after that, the last Friday of the month, we’re having a game night party at our house with a bunch of our local geeky friends.

And that’s just October!   November and December are going to be even more busy, I’m sure.  But I don’t mind that much, so far.  I’m looking forward to spending time with my friends and enjoying this fantastically cool weather.  I hope you’re all doing the same!

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Highlights from my weekend

Tuesday, September 20th, 2011

I didn’t work on Friday! So I got up early-ish and went outside to do yardwork. We got an email from our landlady saying that the Property Owner’s Association (POA) had contacted her to say that the front yard was a patch of weeds. So I weeded it up and now it looks great.

I also mowed the back yard until I found the BIG SPIDER that had moved from where it was previously living near the trash bins to up in between two bushes along the side of the property. At that point I decided that Justin could do the weed whacking and I quickly cleaned up everything and went inside to shower. Where I tried not to imaging large spiders crawling up the shower curtain and failed.

And then had to read a book for Book Club and forgot to call Erica. :(

We didn’t go to Game Night because Justin wasn’t feeling well.

We did go to Book Club on Saturday where we once again disappointed our friend Elizabeth, the leader of the club, by not enjoying one of her favorite books. And we were the only ones who showed up. So when they told us they had double-booked the room, we introduced her to a burger at Five Guys and then invited her back to our house where we watched the new Star Trek movie and an episode of Sherlock and basically hung out chatting until it was almost 10:30 and she needed to head home.

And then she came over after church the following afternoon to watch the second episode of Sherlock with our friend Julie. Our friend Becky eventually made it over as well and we all ate pie and chatted for a while until it was time to decide whether they were going to stay for dinner or head home and do their jogging for the day – they went home. Elizabeth, however, fell asleep on the couch. She woke up around 9 and we fed her and made sure she was awake before sending her home.

Earlier in the afternoon on Sunday, Justin decided that since I’d done so much work on the yard while he wasn’t feeling well on Friday, he would tidy up the house for me.  And that made him the best husband ever because I could focus on paying the bills and then hang out with my friends in a clean house.

Monday, which I know is past the weekend, but I didn’t get around to posting this yet, was a fairly easy day at work and then we started up our running again in the evening, making for a tired and cold Kylene for the rest of the evening with very little cogitating power.  One of these days I’ll figure out why I drop so fast after exercising.

And today was another pretty easy day — I’m just waiting for the shoe to drop at work.  I know it’s coming.  I just don’t know when.

And I finally went to the Christmas site and put up my votes.  Justin will, hopefully, vote on that tomorrow and we can get that moving again.

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Rain, rain, rain

Thursday, August 25th, 2011

Potential landfall for Irene is shifting further and further north and east of us here.  If she keeps on turning, we might not even get much rain.  That actually would be a shame because we could use the water.

On the other hand, Justin is helping the church move the equipment from the high school to a storage shed near the movie theatre on Friday and that would be miserable to do in the rain.  The school, where we have been meeting in the auditorium, was struck by lightning the week before last, I think it was, and it knocked out their fire alarm system.  The school worked out an evacuation plan so the kids are safe during classroom hours, but extracurricular activies and other people who rent the building are out of luck.  So we’ve moved to the movie theatre down the street.  All our kids ministry and music equipment is stored at the school, though, so the church has to move it out and down the street, but during hours when the school will let us in do to that.  So, Friday afternoon, hopefully, is when that’ll happen.

And the on Sunday, after church because Justin is on rotation to run the computer and projector and I’m on schedule for singing, we’re helping a couple of our friends move from Beaufort to Bluffton.  It kind of works out well that we can’t help in the morning because they have a cat that sheds like a maniac.  With any luck, they’ll be at the place in Bluffton by the time we get out to help and the cat will be safely tucked away somewhere and we’ll be able to help without dying from allergies.  But, again, it would be miserable to do that in the rain.

In other news, I hurt my knee a little bit running.  I landed on it wrong and hyperextended it just a little bit, probably.  It’s been hurting on the calf-side behind my knee.  But ice and Advil and rest and a really annoying knee brace and it’s doing much better already.  We took a rest day yesterday instead of our regular running schedule and it was GOOD.

Honestly, the rest day was only partially because of my knee and also because we’ve both been having  a heck of a week and we both just needed time to do absolutely nothing.  It’s been really crazy and we’re both feeling the strain.  So we ate leftovers for dinner, I folded the laundry that Justin washed during the day, and then I sat downstairs watching TV while he played computer games with friends online.  I finished off the bottle of wine, which really only meant I had a glass and a half, but it made me giggle.  And then we had ice cream cake that we found at the grocery store on Tuesday.  It was perfectly relaxing and wonderful and NEEDED.

Today we’re back at it, plugging away.  It’s going to get better eventually.  We just have to slog through a couple more week of this, hopefully, and then we’ll be out.

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