Friday, October 31, 2008
Spent a couple days in Frankenmuth Michigan for work... rented a car... nice to not worry about whether the car was safe to make it there and back or not... total miles driven... 700

The rental had a jack for my Ipod... so I was able to listen to a book there and back... Irish author Marian Keyes... fun mindless story...

Patient and his family was great...weather was gloomy, cold and wet... first hotel room smelled sour and mildewy... yuck... second hotel room was much nicer... slept well...

Today I will go to Lauren's Halloween Parade at school... Yeah!!! Then trick or treating tonight... Lauren returns after about and hour and helps hand out candy... will have to put Bella in the kitchen... she gets too over zealous in her greetings... pizza and watching The Nightmare Before Christmas after... Emma's choice...

Oh... Emma made High Honor Roll!!! 5 A's... 1 B+ in advanced math which counts as another A... and a B in gym... Yeah!!
Friday, October 24, 2008
Pet peeve... people in big SUV's who are in a huge hurry to get someplace important... "move it, I have a mani/pedi in 10 minutes!"... they feel compelled to weave in and out of traffic... coming right up on your butt... darting around you... only to end up RIGHT in front of you at the red light they beat you to. Bravo!
Fun morning... it was VIP day at Emma's Middle School... parents get to shadow the kids through their classes for an abbreviated day (half day for teacher institute day)... Talk other parents... Watch the wacky 6th graders...

Tomorrow Lauren and I will be making her Rubik's Cube costume... truly inspired... costing me about $5 to put together... a far cry from the costume Lauren wanted to buy at $45 all in... and she likes the idea of the cube... bonus!!!

Tonight is Family Game night at church... but the kids have actually said they want to stay home and play games, watch a movie and have Meijer pizza (another frugal idea)... we'll see... they could change their minds a couple times before this evening :)

Going to try and vote early next Wednesday when I get back from a 2.5 day work trip to Michigan... found the Naperville voting location and hours... will be nice to have this chapter finished... but I have no illusions that it will be "over" by any means...
Monday, October 20, 2008
Have not really felt like I have anything worthwhile to say lately...

Have been having a really hard time liking all aspects of my job... the long distance travel... the hotel overnights... having a car that really is not in a healthy place to safely do 300 miles to/from a patient is stressful... the isolation of not having an office of co-workers to interact with has been harder than I ever would have imagined... conversely... I love being home most mornings to get the kids on the bus... I am so blessed to be here most afternoons when they get home to see them and help them with homework... it's quite a Catch 22... times are hard... jobs are iffy... and my scope of nursing experience has taken me in a certain direction... to a certain salary... I am praying really hard to appreciate and thank the universe for where I have arrived and where I am going... but again... harder than I thought it would be.

Was a really nice day yesterday, despite having a full blown cold... A good friend and her husband were up from Florida... Kate and James... the girls and I went to church with them... I think they really enjoyed the service, the energy and how comfortable it feels at Community Christian... saying they wished they had a church like ours to go to... made a nice lunch and the girls colored with James while we caught up... and then the kids entertained us with charades... Lauren has a interesting style... funnily enough... Emma got her clues 9 times out of 10! They are more alike and closer than they want to admit... James was downsized and they might be relocating to Kansas... they would be closer then... and say they would be up for holidays more... yeah!

Here is a nice picture of Lauren from a trip to the pumpkin farm with their dad... Kate had mentioned how much Emma looks like me... here Lauren looks just like her fathere when he was a little boy...