Well, it's kind of over.

We've still got 2 Christmas parties to go to.  One this weekend and one next.  I'm very glad that some of the family parties are after Christmas, because there's just too much to do before Christmas and during the actual holiday week.  It's exhausting.  We had a nice one but, of course, several of us got sick, as usual.   The gifts were a hit, overall, I think.

This new game, Tsuro, was a hit.

Our granddog Remus, visited for Christmas.

I got to play one of my favorites, Concept.  

We made ourselves a bunch of treats for Christmas eve, including this fruit tray and dip to go with it.   

 My oldest son really loved the hoodie I got him.  It may be too heavy to wear in Mississippi, but I guess we'll see.  It might be good for early mornings, walking the dog.   With the rest of the presents, I just basically bought what they asked for, but they were pleased.   I didn't get any studying done for my course and I started back to that yesterday.  Time to get back into the pattern of work, studying, housework and trying to lose weight. 

We got several more board games and the ones we've played so far, we like.

It was a good Christmas.

Celebrating!

Oldest son and only daughter-in-law (so far) are here and we're celebrating.  The only cloud over the event is that 2 of us are sick.  Both oldest son and I have colds.  I'm off to the store this morning to get some Robitussin and cough drops.  I don't know why this ALWAYS has to happen.  When we were together in October, at least 3 of us had colds.  It's frustrating.  Anyway, despite that, we're having a good time.   We gave them the first gift the first night they arrived, it was cloaks for everyone.  I bought the fabric and my daughter made them.  They are made of polar fleece and go to the floor and have hoods, so they are great for keeping them warm.  It's also fun to think about what it would be like if they all wore them someplace and just walked in a line or something.  It would be hilarious.  It's a funny sight, seeing all 4 of my young adults in floor-length hooded cloaks, but they're warm and they love them.  :-) 

Then last night, we opened the board games that we bought this year.  So far, we've played 2, Cover Your Kingdom and another one that has a dragon on it ... maybe I'll think of that later.  We had a good time playing, but I was kind of tired from being sick and working, so hopefully, over the weekend, I'll feel better, my son will feel better, no one else will get sick and we'll have some fun.  We have an anniversary party to go to this afternoon and youngest is working today.  The work and the partying are going to be relentless for the next few days but we'll manage to have fun despite it, I'm sure. 

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

We got the tree and other decorations up last night!  Mostly I sat and looked through boxes of ornaments while the kids decided where they went on the tree and arranged it all very carefully.  It turned out beautiful.  I had a little bit of an emotional time of it, because I opened a box that had all my mom's old ornaments in it, so there were a few tears, but mostly it was good. 

I think I forgot to blog last week about youngest son getting a job!  He had an interview Wednesday at Hobby Lobby and started Thursday.  He has since worked 2 days.   He doesn't hate it, so that's a good sign.  And, best of all, he (we) gets a Hobby Lobby discount!! Also, oldest son and his wife will be here in 9 days!!  Christmas time is a-coming!  I got about 75% of my shopping done yesterday online and just have to make a couple of little store trips, so this year, I have not yet turned into the Grinch.   We'll see next week when I have to do my co-worker's job again for 2 days.  I'm not ruling it out.

Feeling Blessed.

I had a good Thanksgiving weekend, despite having to work on Friday.  I got a lot of studying done on my course I'm taking, a lot of things done around the house and made and ate a good bit of yummy food.  My stuffing came out really great this year.  Yesterday, for Thanksgiving at my brother and his new wife's home, we had soup and my potato soup was really good too.  I'm a very hit and miss kind of cook, so I consider this a victory.  I had some really great conversations with people I love, played some games and sang some karaoke.  Great weekend.

It's 4 a.m. and I'm getting ready for work.  Thankfully my good mood is still with me.  I'm usually pretty grouchy on my early mornings.






Also, my Christmas cactus thinks it's a Thanksgiving cactus.

Made it.

I made it through my week, 40+ hours of working for my co-worker and trying to do my job as well.  There was some crying, some whining and some throwing up - I was seriously stressed, but I survived it.  The time does pass, thank goodness.  I haven't got my report yet on how I did.  My co-worker will come back Monday and probably will let me know what I did wrong.  Oh well, whatever.  I did my very, very best.   I have no doubt of that.

One interesting thing that happened as this paper fell out of the fax machine and stood up on end for several minutes - long enough for me to go around the desk, get my phone out of my purse and take a couple of pictures.

Onto next week.  Another one of our team has put in their resignation, so I don't know what the future may hold.

Getting ready for the crunch week.

We've got snow and pretty fall leaves at the same time right now.  

Next week, my co-worker is going to be out for the whole week and I have to cover for her. After that, it should settle down to once a week, but it depends on how she feels. I hope it's not a horrible treatment for her. She's been through enough. I'll be fine as long as I can keep my anxiety in check. This job has taught me what an anxious person I am. Whew. I feel like I need to get back to working at home. I don't know if that's the right course or not, but I've been out there, stretching myself and getting way out of my comfort zone and now I want to get back in it. I found out yesterday that my hospital (I'm VERY disappointed in them for this.) is going to transition all of their transcription to Voice Recognition software and make all of their transcriptionists take coding training or become secretaries. I've already started studying inpatient medical coding, so I have a little bit of a head start, I guess. It doesn't change anything for me. For the last few months my plan has been to study coding, hopefully pass the coding exam, become a certified coder and get out of this job. The only change is that now, the job as I know it is going to disappear? I guess. I don't know what it will look like.




Meanwhile, I'm trying to deal with anxiety, which I do by playing the Sims 4, Words With Friends, exercise (mostly just at PT) and binge-watching Mike and Molly. It's fine. I've adopted Kelsey Impicciche's slogan (from Buzzfeed's Sims 4 100 Baby Challenge on Youtube)

What's been going on?

We've moved to post wedding mode and I don't know about anyone else here, but my thoughts are turning towards Thanksgiving and Christmas.  I'm actually excited about the holidays this year.   My daughter and I went last weekend and hit a fantastic sale at JoAnn fabrics on polar fleece and my daughter is going to be making some of the gifts this year.   It feels good to have something started in that area.  I have some other Christmas ideas too, so that's part of it.

Give a high five to Mr. Miller, our stray-turned-permanent resident.  He's so cute.  

I've been working a lot.  My co-worker, bless her heart, has been having a very difficult time so I've been doing her job.  I hate it, but I'll do it for her.   I guess.  It's kind of killing me.  I feel like the child in the edge of the pool, quietly drowning with nobody noticing, but I'm trying to keep my head above water and hang in there and hold the fort.  (All the metaphors or analogies, or whatever).  Anyway, I should have a decent-sized nest egg for Christmas and hopefully, post-Christmas home improvements.  :-)  My husband says he'll do 1 major home project once a year and a new year is coming!  I have a lot of plans.  Now we need to (again) renegotiate just how big a "major" home project is.   This year, he only replaced the upper boards on the back deck.  There is some question in my mind if that is "major", but not in his.  He says it is.  (It only took 2 days and cost not a lot, so I'm saying it doesn't count!). 

I did get the day off on Tuesday, went with my daughter to her migraine doctor appointment (still no changes in the migraines, despite all the things we've tried.  :-(    )   and got some cupcakes, as is our tradition.  These are all gluten-free and amazing.   Chocolate, carrot, lemon, and chocolate-strawberry.  

Last night was a fun night for all of us in 3 separate areas.  I met a friend and went to a fantastic Micah Tyler, David Crowder, Mercy Me concert, my husband went to guys night at a local barbeque restaurant and the young people had some friends over for a day/night of hiking in the beautiful fall woods, eating chili, making smores and playing video games.  I don't know about everyone else, but I had a fantastic time.  Those artists really, really bring their A-game to their concerts.  I feel uplifted and on a high even though I ingested no substances and I am exhausted from all the working (8 hours) and then walking and stair climbing and concert dancing.  It's a very, very good tired.  

Today I'm watching Youtube with plans to play the Sims later and maybe take a nap. 

The Wedding.

My brother's wedding was such a wonderful time!  The groom was handsome, the bride was beautiful, her/their grandchildren made the cutest ring bearer and flower girl.  :-)   We had such a great time and she is such a fabulous addition to our family.  The song I had to sing went well, even though I had a cold.  Actually 3 of the members of my family in attendance had colds and the other 3 will probably have it next week because my youngest 2 kids went and babysat their 4 young cousins last weekend and picked up some virus.  We didn't let it ruin our time.  We took cold medicine and carried around hand sanitizer and celebrated big!

Today, though, after church, I'm going to lie about doing nothing and get some rest.  Tomorrow I have to be at work at 6:00 a.m. and it's an hour and 10 minute drive.  So that's great.

The wonderful whirlwind weekend of celebrating and having my son and daughter-in-law here is over and now we're prepping to get back into real life starting tomorrow.  It's kind of a let down, but I have concert tickets for a couple of weeks from now, so I'll start looking forward to that.  And Christmas, which is just around the corner!!