Made My Day

I opened the door this morning to take Chip to school and noticed a Fed Ex envelope peeking out from under my front door mat.  I hadn't noticed it yesterday.  I picked it up and saw the return address was one of my work office locations that I have been supporting recently. 

I opened it, expecting it to be a signed document or some paperwork for one of the agreements.

I opened it....well actually Chip opened it.
Inside was a card.  With my name on it.

Inside was a Thank You card and American Express Gift Card from the new Head Honcho Big Boss.

Blew me away.

Made me grin.

Made me want to work harder.

Made me want to cry a little bit.

What probably seemed like a small gesture to him had a giant impact on me.  The email thank you he sent me last week was thanks enough, but taking the time to hand write and send me a thank you note, well that will not be forgotten.  And the American Express card...I am going to do something nice for myself with that!

I bet his momma is so proud of him. 

Made my day!

Now, get out there and make someone's day!

It's The Weekend!!!

It is Friday and the weekend ahead is looking full and fun!  On the agenda...

*  Make Valentine's Box for Chip.  We are going for an ATM Bank Machine.  There is spray paint involved so it should be fun!  Pictures to follow!

*  Chip needs to address his Valentines for his classmates.

*  Wrap Ms. Coleman's Valentine's gift.

*  Valentine's Shopping for my boys.

*  Cross Country Centerpiece Sample - I am making the centerpieces for the Cross Country Trivia Night Fundraiser and need to make a sample to take to the meeting on Sunday afternoon.

*  Mail a box to a special someone special who is having surgery.

*  Basketball Game and Baseball Practice

We will also have the regular stuff like homework (BOOOOOO!!!) but when I see a few creative days ahead of me it is always a good thing.

Chip is totally hooked on cooking.  He hears me pull a pan out in the kitchen and he comes running in....can I help?  In fact, he wants to make Valentine's Dinner for the family.  On the menu, homemade Chicken nuggets and a Chocolate Trifle.  The trifle idea is one he made up in his own head.....uh oh.  May have to steer him to a recipe but we shall see!

Hope your weekend is giving you something to look forward to!

Chip's First Guest Post

My sweet boy grabbed my computer Tuesday night and was typing away.  I asked him what he was doing and he said "Writing my first blog".  Awww....melts a blogger momma's heart.  With one or two small edits, here is Chip's entry:

PING PONG TABLE A.K.A. THE DINING TABLE

For Christmas I got a ping pong net that extends over your table and ever since my family has played constantly. Seriously we challenge each other 24/7 all the time. Its truly chaos. My brother screams at his paddle and yelling “you have to be &*%$* kidding me excessively.

(Parental Note inserted here:  I don't know what kind of cuss words Chip is implying are going on in our dining room, but I assure you they are not that bad.  However, it is true that Harry is high energy and does scream at his paddle excessively.)

My dad on the other hand is calm but smacks the heck out of the ball at 100 miles per hour at your face. Also he’s a Bragger after destroying you 11-00

(Parental Note inserted here: Dad takes exception to the notion that he is a Bragger.)

Next my mom is calm and our games are about 1 hour at least caused by extremely good volleying skills. I swear we might set the new record.

(Parental Note inserted here:  I need to find out what the official Guinness Book of World Records is for volleying between mother and son on a dining room table, because we might actually be able to break it. "Extremely good volleying skills", let's jot that down for my resume!)

I know I am blogging this Ping Ponging to death, but it is what is up at our house!  Hope your day is going great!

Ten Random Tidbits

This will be a speed round today...I don't even think I have ten things rattling around in the old brain today, but lets give it a go!

1.  I am hooked on Greek yogurt.  It is delicious.

2.  Beth is planning to disconnect her phone land line.  I do not like this.  I have been dialing that number almost daily for 11 years.  Sometimes, more than once a day.  We have lots of things to discuss.  I am also frequently known to dial her cell phone, but only if she doesn't answer her home phone.  This change will be hard for me, but I will comply.  However, I am going to call her ten times a day until the line is clipped just because I can. I will miss that number.

3.  Harry has been struggling to beat me in ping pong.  Really struggling.  He is trying to use mad skills his dad is teaching him and I just stand there like a moron with my paddle in my hand.  He beats himself every time.  Seriously getting frustrated for him and for me.  I mean seriously, hit it over the net to me enough times and I will finally screw up.  You don't have to go all kamikaze and try and smash it to death.  FINALLY, last night he won a game.  I was so happy for him.

4.   No problem so far with cutting back on my computer time.  I haven't missed it.

5.  I was doing some sweet dance moves in the car on the way to school this morning to Chip's dance tunes.  I had a slamming arm move that made me totally feel like a Solid Gold Dancer!  Who remembers the Solid Gold Dancers?  Anyway, Chip looks at me and you can tell he is praying for someone to kidnap him.  I told him when I got in the school parking lot I was going to roll down my window so I could do the sweet move with both arms.  His face went immediately to a panic state.  "Please Mom, NO!  Just go home."  Love you, sweet boy, see you after school!    

6.  Work is busy.

7.  I was helping Chip with a homework project yesterday.  He had to create an award to give to the author of his book.  He decided on "The Most Action Packed" book award.  I was helping him cut out stars with my new cricut machine.  He typed up his summary and award words, played around with Word Art to make them look fancy and then printed them.  I cut them out and glued them on for him.  He picks up the finished product and says "Good job, Mom.  You do good work."  I think I may have over-helped. 

8.  Are y'all watching "The Voice"?  I like that show. 

9.  Bob is having knee replacement surgery on February 21st.  Mark you calendars so you can send up a little prayer for him.  The three primary tools in his surgery...a bone saw, a mallet and a drill.  Can you say "OW".

10.  Bama is still kickin'.  Chip dropped him a little bit a couple weeks ago when he was cleaning his cage.  He kind of went into hiding for a few days and didn't eat.  I was worried.  Turns out he is fine.  Last night he made a leaping cricket snag off of his rock.  It was spectacular.  Lizards are fun to watch.  So are crickets...although I think crickets are really just cockroaches with bent back legs.  In fact, I pretty sure they are really closely related.  Ewww.

Cutting Back

I have spent the last few minutes deleting all the Bookmarks to the Blogs I read for pleasure.   These are blogs that I check in on a couple of times a day, early in the morning, while I am waiting on an email or watching TV.  They are all decorating; parenting; surviving life blogs.  Most of them highly entertaining and funny.  I probably have twenty or so that I follow regularly.  The thing is...I don't know any of the people who write them.  I feel like I do, but I don't.  I don't know what their real lives are like.  You can be anyone you want in cyberspace. And mostly these folks are pretty darn awesome.

This morning during our little bible study the subject of social networking came up and how it impacts people.  Social networking includes things like Facebook, Twitter and blogs and stuff.  I walked away with a fresh realization that people mostly just post the good stuff happening in their lives.  The stuff that is fun, the things that they are celebrating like...husband brought them flowers, just ran a marathon, child just did this that and the other awesome thing, going on a fabulous vacation.  Now, don't get me wrong.  I love hearing about those awesome things people are sharing.  It makes me feel connected to them to know what is happening in their life.  And make no mistake about it, I am the first to raise my hand and say that I do it too.

If you read my blog, and I assume you do if you are here reading this, then you know that I post the highlights, the funny stuff, the good times of our lives.  I have occasionally talked about some sad stuff, but not the really hard stuff.  The stuff that sits deep inside your heart or head that worries you over and over and all the time.   I do talk with my closest friends about some of the hard stuff...and you know what I have found.  We ALL have it.  The more you talk to people about the hard stuff, the more you look them in the eye and see them nodding in agreement.  We all have insecurities, we all beat ourselves up over things that we wish we had or hadn't said to our kids or our husbands, changes we want to make in ourselves, relationships that are difficult, goals not achieved, all those things that weigh on a person.  We humans are so much more alike than we are different.  I find so much comfort in that, don't you?

But back to the social networking stuff.  The bottom line is that if you keep reading just the good stuff, then it starts to feel like no one else has hard stuff.  No one but you.  Then you start to think that something might be wrong with your own little piece of the world.  And who knows, maybe there is something wrong but reading about other peoples lives isn't going to fix it.  In fact, I will wager to say that it probably makes it worse.  You can't compare your life to anyone else's life.  It serves no purpose.

So, I am going to do myself a favor and unplug from those strangers lives for a while or maybe forever.  Cut back a bit.  See how it feels.

I am however going to keep blogging because I love it.  And, I am going to keep blogging about my family's highlights, funny stuff and great news coming out of our house because I want to celebrate those things.  My kids read this blog every now and again and I want to preserve some of their childhood here.  Maybe in twenty years they can look back at my stories with their own kids and share a few laughs.  Nothing would bring me greater joy.  Big smile on my face as I imagine Harry sharing the blog about him farting and burping at the same time...or Chip reading his kids the story about meeting his childhood hero Rey Mysterio for the first time.  I think my blog also gives them a piece of me.  A piece of my heart.  I love that.

But I am going to drop off the other blogs I read as well as Facebook.  It is going to free up some time in my day as a bonus.   Now, I am probably going to keep looking at Pinterest because there are some really terrific ideas out there people!

I will let you know how my little experiment goes.

More to come on the weekend happenings around here!

Happy Monday!

Job Satisfaction

For the last several weeks I have been working on getting a subcontract issued for work.  Now, this is what I do on the daily so that may not seem like a big deal.  This subcontract however had every hard and difficult circumstance associated it with it that you can imagine.  As an added complication, I have a new big boss.  You know a big boss would be my boss' boss.  New head honcho.  Someone new who knows nothing about me.  Someone who has probably already questioned why they keep some chick on part time who works from home.  Someone I really would like to impress, so he can leave me to doing my thing and continue this great gig I have working from home.  

The subcontract value required his signature.  That meant he had to review and approve my work before I could issue the agreement.  That also means, I have been in daily correspondence with him over the last several weeks trying to work through all of these complicated issues.   That means I had to show up big time, know my stuff, get my ducks in a row and do my job really, really well. 

Today, at 6:50 p.m. I FINALLY issued the subcontract.  

It was a long and difficult birth and I am not sure how pretty the baby is, but it is done and I am thrilled.  

As an additional bonus, the big boss sent me an email thanking me for my efforts and told me that I had done a great job on a difficult procurement.   

Ahhhh.

Sometimes, there is just nothing better than hearing "Job Well Done".  Especially when you have worked hard.   Job satisfaction.  It is a good thing. 

Tonight I am celebrating with a nice glass of wine.  Or two.  Great way to wrap up a busy week. 

I hope your week was productive and you have a great sense of accomplishment heading into the weekend.   I know that I do! 

The Joker

This morning I woke up with a raging headache.  That does not happen very often.  I think it is supposed to rain a little later today, so I don't know if it is related to weather, allergies, slept wrong....who knows.  I took some Aleve, threw on my walking clothes, grabbed my hat to cover my crazy hair and hit the road at 5:30 a.m. to walk with Martha.   Not very far into our walk my hat felt like it was squeezing my head like a vise.  It hurt.  Come on Aleve, do your thing!  I ended up taking off my hat and carrying it in my hand.

For those of you who know me well, you know that my hair on a humid morning can only mean one thing....big fat giant mess.   Without my hat to tamper it down, my hair grows by the minute on mornings like this. A big fuzzy, curling disaster.

Here is a recap of my conversation with Chip this morning on the way to school:

Chip:  Mom, I hope your headache goes away and you feel better.
Me:   Oh, thank you sweetheart. I do too.  I was just sitting here thinking that I hope my hair doesn't scare any small children while I am dropping you off this morning.
Chip (with a smile):  It might.  I think if you spray paint your hair green you would look exactly like The Joker.

I just cracked up.

For those of you who don't watch Superhero movies, The Joker is one of the villains from Batman?

Isn't he precious?  His hair is lovely, is it not?  Unfortunately, my son is not that far off.  A little can of green hair paint and you would be hard pressed to tell my hair from the Jokers.  Scaring small children it seems is definitely in the realm of possibility.

I am so thankful that I didn't have any eyeliner or lipstick on this morning because this image could be a little closer to reality than I can even stand.

Chip went on to thoughtfully help me pull together a Halloween costume for next year.  He said "You can borrow Ms. Martha's purple pants and get a purple shirt, green hair paint and some lipstick and you have a great costume". 

I need to call for a haircut appointment immediately.

Here's to a wonderful Thursday and I have high hopes that your hair is behaving better than mine is today!!!