The Holidays Are Here

Yay! Thanksgiving is over and Christmas is here. The month before Christmas is just lovely; I love all the excitement. Lights, music, church, shopping... the weather does not seem to be cooperating, though. It is absolutely beautiful here, if a little chilly. I want to see rain and even snow, but that does not seem to be the case this year.

Anyway, we put up the Christmas tree yesterday and one ornament is broken already. I have a plan set up to replace all of my glass ornaments with plastic ones over the next couple of years, but the tree may be bare by the end of the month. Hopefully Target has lots of ornaments on clearance after the holidays...

I have started shopping already. I have almost half my shopping done and I have not even left my house. I love online shopping!I will go out to get stocking stuffers and maybe a couple of gifts for people, but online is the way to go.

Peanut is calling for breakfast and then we are going to put a couple of strands of lights on the house. Then, I hope, if my diabolical plan can be carried out, I am going to tile the shower.

Too Ambitious?

So I am trying for a promotion at work, and it is making Daddy a little unhappy. Currently I have a great schedule; 12 hour days, but only 3 or 4 per week, so I have lots of days off with Peanut. Most important to Daddy, I have all Holidays off. I have to admit, it is an awesome schedule, but I am not a sworn officer and I really want to be. If I were an officer I would work four days a week every week (2 eights and 2 twelves), I would work any holiday that was on my regular schedule and I may have to work graveyard shifts; but I would be an officer instead of an assistant. If I were an officer I would get to work with other people throughout the institution instead of by myself in a little room for 12 hours a day. I would get to go to Use of Force and Pepper Spray training and learn cool new things and I would get to work with the kids instead of with their parents.

But Daddy doesn't like it. He will not hold me back, of course, but I do not want him to be unhappy with me. What do I do? I want this, but I think the happiness of my marriage is much more important. Do I back out and just stay where I am, or do I go for it and risk Daddy's feelings?

Your opinion, please.

Our New Baby

Check this out! Now I really do have a zoo in my house. Yesterday I got a new puppy. He was on his way to the pound; can you imagine! He is a long hair Chihuahua and he is 10 weeks old. He was named Boca at work yesterday, but Daddy did not like that name, so we have been trying different things. I think his name is Edward now. It's Edward or Scrappy or Dinky Doo. What do you think?

Spaghetti

Peanuts love spaghetti... and a bath after dinner.

A Good Day

Wow! Today has been great!

The concert was awesome last night; unfortunately they said no cameras, and I am too afraid to break the rules, so I do not have any cool pictures; you will just have to check out their website, or better yet, go to a concert. Daddy reminded me that this was actually the seventh time we have seen these guys, and I think last night was the best show I have ever seen. The music is fabulous (but I have a particular love for classical music, especially paired with rock music), and the light show is worth seeing all by itself. There are no words; it's just great.

Anyway, today was my birthday pot luck at work, and everyone had a great time. It was a pretty laid back day, and all the kids were mellow. I love those kinds of days because the staff is all happy, and if you add food to the mix it is hardly like being a work at all... except for the part about being locked down with 52 juvenile criminals. Awesome. My good friends made today special and one of them gave me a gift of tons of new scrap booking stuff. I was in heaven all day just thinking about the pages I am going to create this evening.

After work I stopped off at Target and got Peanut some new puzzle toys so we can practice shapes and colors. He knows a few colors, but I think he should have a better grasp on them, so we will be playing with colors and shapes for a while. Fun and learning together; I love it!

The new kitty, Jake, has adopted Daddy as his official bodyguard and has been sitting on his neck for the last two nights. Daddy says the cat is annoying, but I think they are cute little buddies.

That's about it...I am off to be creative with all my new toys!

An Evening Out

Tonight Daddy and I are going to see Trans-Siberian Orchestra in Sacramento. I have lost count, but I think this will be the fifth time we see them. We missed last year because they always do the same Christmas show and we had decided that we did not want to spend the money to see it again. Then we were sad that we did not go. It is a Christmas tradition now for us, although the season is starting a little early this year. Usually TSO does not come to Sacramento until December; I guess next week we will have to put up the Christmas Tree...

I will let you know how the evening went; I am so excited and have been looking forward to this for weeks!

Busy, Busy

Wow! I have not even looked at my blog in a week! That is crazy. It has been so crazy that all I can do is finish all of my work and tasks and then fall into bed; and even that is not restful, as I have been so stressed out that I have been having nightmares for the last few nights. Last night was not too bad, but I dreamed I was in Paris all by myself and I had to climb to the top of the Eiffel Tower for something. The night before I dreamed that several people were chopping me up and cutting me with knives. Pretty scary. I think I need a vacation.

I am applying for a new position in my department, and I just turned in my background packet. I am sure there is nothing more stressful than filling out one of those. I had to get transcripts from everywhere, email everyone I know and ask them to be references, get several papers notarized, and spend hours filling out papers with my entire life history. Fun. I hope it is worth it.

I have been working a ton of overtime at work so I can get the money together to finish our bathroom and continue to pay the bills. Besides that, the bathroom has been a nightmare in itself and we are having tile trouble. The walls in the shower are a little crooked, so we are going to have to do something about that before we can start tiling, etc, etc. Aside from that I have a kid to raise and a house to keep.

My little brother thinks that now that he has a part time job he can eat more than before and not do any chores, and he is all pissy when I ask him to help out. So what am I going to do with him? I would like to kick him out and tell him to find his own way, but I am not that kind of person, so I will just let him continue to live here and try to remind him nicely that he is not paying for anything, so it would be nice to have some help around the house. What would you do in this situation?

Daddy is good, but I am feeling neglected lately. I do not want to go into my married life here, but gee. He has never really been romantic or anything, but sometimes I need him to really want me by him. Not just sit next to him while he watches TV, but really want to spend time with me. I know, I know, men don't care about that stuff. So what do I do about that? Nothing?

Still no baby on the way; I do not want to give up, but really... I give up.

We recently acquired another cat, so now we have a dog, two cats and four fish. This place is a zoo.

My Peanut is growing and growing; he is such a good boy and truly, he is what gets me through each day. He is learning so fast and I love to talk with him and play with him. Aren't kids fabulous?

"I'll Get it, Mama"

Although I adore my cell phone for the email and texting forms of communication, I detest talking on the phone. I think I have said before that I prefer almost any form of communication to talking on the telephone. I think it is impersonal, and it is just really annoying to hold it up to the side of your face for the duration of the conversation. I try to keep phone talk very short on my cell, and I never answer my house phone. Ever. I think the combination of phone dislike and having to spend at least half my work day on the phone talking to the parents of juveniles and various law enforcement makes me detest it even more. The only person I really do not mind talking to on the phone is Daddy, but I love to talk to him anytime, so that doesn't count.

That said, Peanut obviously does not get his communication gene from me. He LOVES the phone and will answer it at every opportunity. As soon as he hears it ringing, he abandons whatever he is doing and runs to the kitchen saying "I'll get it, Mama!" Which is fine with me, especially if it is telemarketer. This morning the phone rang and Peanut promptly began telling whoever was on the other end what he had been doing so far today. Then I heard "I give you kisses," and he started making some kissing sounds. I figured it was either a relative or some creep, but I had better take the phone from him either way. It was grandma, and Peanut was quite upset I had taken the phone away. I gave it back to him and he climbed up on the couch and resumed his conversation. Too funny. Hopefully he will outgrow his love for the phone, as he also loves the cell phone and I won't be supplying him with one of those anytime soon.

Let's Pretend...

That dinosaurs are taking over the airport and having lunch together at the picnic bench and then stomping down the runway calling each other cute. My baby is developing his imagination, and it is quite interesting to listen to what his little mind comes up with. He has been playing pretend for a few days now, and each day the stories get more and more complicated. He started out with his dinosaurs, people, cars and blocks just talking to each other and then flinging themselves through space (across the living room) when they are finished playing. Tonight Peanut pulled me into his room as soon as I got home from work and I sat next to him and listened to him play. His dinosaurs walked around the Little People Airport eating and talking to each other. One dinosaur would say "Hello, friend," and another dinosaur would say "you are cute!"
How fun.
I majored in psychology in college, and although I have a decent understanding of the human mind I find it so amazing to actually watch it in action. Especially when it is my Little Peanut doing the playing. I will probably never get over how wonderful it is to watch him grow.