Happy Holidays
I cannot believe that it is already December. It seems like it was just Samhain. My how this year has flown by.
It was just our little family for Thanksgiving. Doug was down in South Carolina with his sister this year. I had picked up a huge bird at Wegmans when they were $0.49/lb. We're just finishing up the meat we cut off of it on Thanksgiving and I'll boil down the carcass tomorrow to get the rest of the meat off and make some broth for freezing. Chris and Haley made the pumpkin pies which were delicious. I found a bar cookie recipe to make with the leftover sweet potatoes and I may try that tomorrow to clean out the remainder of the leftovers.
We put up the tree and inside decorations last Friday. I'm still working on getting it all set up. I rearranged the entire living room after I deep cleaned it - gosh those dust bunnies breed fast. I wanted the tree up for a while with just lights and garland to see how the kittens behave with it. They haven't been too bad. The tree is still pulled out quite a bit from the wall so we can walk behind it and thereby making it too close to one of the chairs. The kittens love to play around the chair, one hides in the seat and the other waits below on the floor. The first one to pop their head over the edge starts the attack and then they go rolling under the tree in an energetic kitty romp and pounce game. Chris did find the long hair kitty actually in the tree one day. They were playing their game with the chair and long hair (Douger - named after gradpa Doug as both can stink you out of a room, she has terrible kitty farts, and both have a ton of hair coming out of their ears), just dove into the middle of the tree. Her little kitty fanny was promptly spanked and she hasn't done it again. The only other thing that the kittens have bothered are the old starlight mints that had been packed away in a candy dish by mistake last year. I threw them away but somehow they keep reappearing. They make wonderful hockey pucks and give the kittens minty fresh breath. Waffle the ferret also loves them and I'm thinking she got into them before I threw them away and has a stash hidden somewhere that the kittens have found.
We went to the tree lighting downtown on Friday. This is one of our yearly holiday rituals. We decided to forgo watching the show prior to the lighting as it is the same every year - Tawn Marie's "original" work, which is nothing more thant The Nutcracker. Then the Open Hand Puppet Theater has their ghastly snow princess puppet make it's way around the ice rink to the tree and light it. They need to put on a new show as this one is getting rather old. I'd rather sing holiday songs or listen to a band, anything but that terrible show. So we opted to walk around looking at all of the lights in the little parks when we stumbled on the Art Mart. It was a display of local artists. We found a few paintings we liked, one of the tree lighting, but well outside the realms of our budget. We opted to buy a couple of bars of handmade soap to put in our stockings as Chris really likes handmade soap. I find it a little too drying and sometimes the scents bother my skin. The lights on the tree were beautiful this year - rich jewel tones. I saw a bit in the paper on them, they're some new type of light. I've seen them on some of our neighbors evergreen trees and just loved them.
Chris and I went out shopping on Black Friday after I got out of work. I had seen an ad for The Christmas Tree shops and there was a 20% of coupon which was good even on their sale items. They had a few gifts that I wanted to pick up for the kids. Then we headed to Walmart. I was surprised that it wasn't that busy. I guess all of the crazies had gone by the time we got there. We had gone there specifically for the $8 jeans that Haley likes and a special on the Hot Wheel cars that Dan still plays with. We found a few $2 movies for stocking stuffers and I stumbled on some very nice Tinkerbell fleece sleep pants for $4. I found a pair for Chris as well but was unable to find anything in Daniel's size. I've had sleepwear on lay-a-way for Haley since the beginning of October, but have been unable to find anything for Dan. Most of what I'm finding is that crappy rayon material that pills and turns to mush when you wash and dry it. We were in and out of Walmart rather quickly and I still had time to kill before I could go back to work to pick up my paycheck (wouldn't want to make them available to the night shift while we're there and I've given up on getting them to get my direct deposit to go through), so we stopped in at Tim Hortons for a cup of coffee and a bite to eat. That was the first and will be the last time I ever go there. Their coffee is terrible as are their baked goods. After I got my check and banked it, we headed to Target to check out an item Dan had been requesting. Target was much worse than Walmart had been, but then an hour or more had passed and the frenzied holiday shoppers had started to appear. There weren't any shopping carts to be had in Target. We waited around the front of the store to grab one when someone was leaving, but there were plenty of others waiting to do the same, so Chris went back outside to grab one. When he came back in the store with the cart, this young woman came running over to him and tried to grab the cart away from him. We asked her what she was trying to do and she said she wanted the cart. We told her to go outside and get one for herself, we didn't go outside to get this one for her. Unreal. People get so crazy this time of year. We did find really nice pajamas and a robe for Dan in Target as well as a Hanna Montana nutcracker for Haley and a Marine for Dan. Both of the kids began collecting nutcrackers years ago and now they've suddenly become popular. We get them each a new one every Yule and now have quite the collection. We popped into Best Buy for 2 Nintendo DS games and a CD Chris had requested for Christmas that is only available there - would have been nice for him to tell me that before I had hit 3 stores on Wednesday looking for the thing. By that time we had had our fill of holiday shopping and the crazy people, so we headed home. I'm almost all done with the shopping. I need to see if I can get a silver Tinkerbell charm for Haley's charm bracelet; we need to find the army toys Daniel has been requesting and then I just need another gift for Chris and some stocking stuffers.
I haven't had any more issues with M at work, but then I haven't seen her in weeks. I do believe that I'm working with her tonight, so we'll see if she continues to pull her crap. I had told R that if her harrassment continued, I was leaving. I don't have to put up with it and there are plenty of other jobs in this field out there. R and Mich don't want me to leave as we work well together and they're finally glad to have someone who actually works and doesn't sit on their ass the entire shift. R confronted M when she began bad mouthing me again. M denied disliking me or having any issues with me. She claims that I've been mad and had an attitude towards her ever since I was told to float to the 2nd floor on election night. R told M that my leaving the floor quietly did not constitue my being mad, I had just done what I was instructed to do. R confronted her on several other issues regarding me as well and M claims she just loves me and doesn't know where all of this animosity started (add a big BS here). On a high note, management there is loving me right now. Several of the residents personal items have come up missing lately. The other shifts claim the items were put away properly but if they had put them away they should be in their proper location. 2 of the missing items were an upper denture and a hearing aid. If we misplace them, the company has to purchase new ones for the resident and that is costly. Management was not happy about the missing items so they came to me to find them knowing that I'm good at locating lost objects. I found the hearing aid on the floor under the resident's bed. I found the dentures wrapped in a tissue in the resident's waste paper basket. Allegedly both rooms had been throughly searched by staff.
School, finances, my weight, messy house, etc, have all contributed to my having a lot of stress lately and my anxiety attacks have reappeared. Having been on the urinary floor and seeing how excessive stress leads to Crohn's Disease - quite the nasty disease that no body wants, I had a long meditation with the Powers and told them in no uncertain terms that I would no longer deal with the anxiety attacks and I need to get these things that stress me out under control. My tarot shadow work book suddenly appeared out of nowhere the next day, so I knew it was time to get back to doing shadow work to correct the problems. My journaling lately has been in notebooks and I have over 10 pages written on just the Star of Discovery so far. I still have more work to do with it. I haven't had any anxiety attacks since I started the shadow work and will continue to work with it each day.
I need to get back on a weight loss program. I've put back all the weight I had lost plus an extra 3 pounds. I also need to start exercising at least 30 min each day.
Well, I had better get back to decorating so that I can get the boxes out of the kitchen.
It was just our little family for Thanksgiving. Doug was down in South Carolina with his sister this year. I had picked up a huge bird at Wegmans when they were $0.49/lb. We're just finishing up the meat we cut off of it on Thanksgiving and I'll boil down the carcass tomorrow to get the rest of the meat off and make some broth for freezing. Chris and Haley made the pumpkin pies which were delicious. I found a bar cookie recipe to make with the leftover sweet potatoes and I may try that tomorrow to clean out the remainder of the leftovers.
We put up the tree and inside decorations last Friday. I'm still working on getting it all set up. I rearranged the entire living room after I deep cleaned it - gosh those dust bunnies breed fast. I wanted the tree up for a while with just lights and garland to see how the kittens behave with it. They haven't been too bad. The tree is still pulled out quite a bit from the wall so we can walk behind it and thereby making it too close to one of the chairs. The kittens love to play around the chair, one hides in the seat and the other waits below on the floor. The first one to pop their head over the edge starts the attack and then they go rolling under the tree in an energetic kitty romp and pounce game. Chris did find the long hair kitty actually in the tree one day. They were playing their game with the chair and long hair (Douger - named after gradpa Doug as both can stink you out of a room, she has terrible kitty farts, and both have a ton of hair coming out of their ears), just dove into the middle of the tree. Her little kitty fanny was promptly spanked and she hasn't done it again. The only other thing that the kittens have bothered are the old starlight mints that had been packed away in a candy dish by mistake last year. I threw them away but somehow they keep reappearing. They make wonderful hockey pucks and give the kittens minty fresh breath. Waffle the ferret also loves them and I'm thinking she got into them before I threw them away and has a stash hidden somewhere that the kittens have found.
We went to the tree lighting downtown on Friday. This is one of our yearly holiday rituals. We decided to forgo watching the show prior to the lighting as it is the same every year - Tawn Marie's "original" work, which is nothing more thant The Nutcracker. Then the Open Hand Puppet Theater has their ghastly snow princess puppet make it's way around the ice rink to the tree and light it. They need to put on a new show as this one is getting rather old. I'd rather sing holiday songs or listen to a band, anything but that terrible show. So we opted to walk around looking at all of the lights in the little parks when we stumbled on the Art Mart. It was a display of local artists. We found a few paintings we liked, one of the tree lighting, but well outside the realms of our budget. We opted to buy a couple of bars of handmade soap to put in our stockings as Chris really likes handmade soap. I find it a little too drying and sometimes the scents bother my skin. The lights on the tree were beautiful this year - rich jewel tones. I saw a bit in the paper on them, they're some new type of light. I've seen them on some of our neighbors evergreen trees and just loved them.
Chris and I went out shopping on Black Friday after I got out of work. I had seen an ad for The Christmas Tree shops and there was a 20% of coupon which was good even on their sale items. They had a few gifts that I wanted to pick up for the kids. Then we headed to Walmart. I was surprised that it wasn't that busy. I guess all of the crazies had gone by the time we got there. We had gone there specifically for the $8 jeans that Haley likes and a special on the Hot Wheel cars that Dan still plays with. We found a few $2 movies for stocking stuffers and I stumbled on some very nice Tinkerbell fleece sleep pants for $4. I found a pair for Chris as well but was unable to find anything in Daniel's size. I've had sleepwear on lay-a-way for Haley since the beginning of October, but have been unable to find anything for Dan. Most of what I'm finding is that crappy rayon material that pills and turns to mush when you wash and dry it. We were in and out of Walmart rather quickly and I still had time to kill before I could go back to work to pick up my paycheck (wouldn't want to make them available to the night shift while we're there and I've given up on getting them to get my direct deposit to go through), so we stopped in at Tim Hortons for a cup of coffee and a bite to eat. That was the first and will be the last time I ever go there. Their coffee is terrible as are their baked goods. After I got my check and banked it, we headed to Target to check out an item Dan had been requesting. Target was much worse than Walmart had been, but then an hour or more had passed and the frenzied holiday shoppers had started to appear. There weren't any shopping carts to be had in Target. We waited around the front of the store to grab one when someone was leaving, but there were plenty of others waiting to do the same, so Chris went back outside to grab one. When he came back in the store with the cart, this young woman came running over to him and tried to grab the cart away from him. We asked her what she was trying to do and she said she wanted the cart. We told her to go outside and get one for herself, we didn't go outside to get this one for her. Unreal. People get so crazy this time of year. We did find really nice pajamas and a robe for Dan in Target as well as a Hanna Montana nutcracker for Haley and a Marine for Dan. Both of the kids began collecting nutcrackers years ago and now they've suddenly become popular. We get them each a new one every Yule and now have quite the collection. We popped into Best Buy for 2 Nintendo DS games and a CD Chris had requested for Christmas that is only available there - would have been nice for him to tell me that before I had hit 3 stores on Wednesday looking for the thing. By that time we had had our fill of holiday shopping and the crazy people, so we headed home. I'm almost all done with the shopping. I need to see if I can get a silver Tinkerbell charm for Haley's charm bracelet; we need to find the army toys Daniel has been requesting and then I just need another gift for Chris and some stocking stuffers.
I haven't had any more issues with M at work, but then I haven't seen her in weeks. I do believe that I'm working with her tonight, so we'll see if she continues to pull her crap. I had told R that if her harrassment continued, I was leaving. I don't have to put up with it and there are plenty of other jobs in this field out there. R and Mich don't want me to leave as we work well together and they're finally glad to have someone who actually works and doesn't sit on their ass the entire shift. R confronted M when she began bad mouthing me again. M denied disliking me or having any issues with me. She claims that I've been mad and had an attitude towards her ever since I was told to float to the 2nd floor on election night. R told M that my leaving the floor quietly did not constitue my being mad, I had just done what I was instructed to do. R confronted her on several other issues regarding me as well and M claims she just loves me and doesn't know where all of this animosity started (add a big BS here). On a high note, management there is loving me right now. Several of the residents personal items have come up missing lately. The other shifts claim the items were put away properly but if they had put them away they should be in their proper location. 2 of the missing items were an upper denture and a hearing aid. If we misplace them, the company has to purchase new ones for the resident and that is costly. Management was not happy about the missing items so they came to me to find them knowing that I'm good at locating lost objects. I found the hearing aid on the floor under the resident's bed. I found the dentures wrapped in a tissue in the resident's waste paper basket. Allegedly both rooms had been throughly searched by staff.
School, finances, my weight, messy house, etc, have all contributed to my having a lot of stress lately and my anxiety attacks have reappeared. Having been on the urinary floor and seeing how excessive stress leads to Crohn's Disease - quite the nasty disease that no body wants, I had a long meditation with the Powers and told them in no uncertain terms that I would no longer deal with the anxiety attacks and I need to get these things that stress me out under control. My tarot shadow work book suddenly appeared out of nowhere the next day, so I knew it was time to get back to doing shadow work to correct the problems. My journaling lately has been in notebooks and I have over 10 pages written on just the Star of Discovery so far. I still have more work to do with it. I haven't had any anxiety attacks since I started the shadow work and will continue to work with it each day.
I need to get back on a weight loss program. I've put back all the weight I had lost plus an extra 3 pounds. I also need to start exercising at least 30 min each day.
Well, I had better get back to decorating so that I can get the boxes out of the kitchen.