Busy Monday, October 24

Today's 'To-Do' List

• Blog
• Get dinner in Crockpot (which required a run to the grocery store then I realized I didn't have to make that run as I didn't need the bbq sauce until tonight oops)
• Menu
• Grocery Shopping
• Lunch with Peter
• Eye Exam & New Work Glasses & New home glasses
• B-12 Shot
• Coffee with a friend who just got back in town

Menu

• BBQ Ribs, Baked Potatoes, Corn
• Crock Pot Chicken Tangier
• Beef Tacos
• Eat Out - I tried and I tried to figure out this day but I couldn't figure out what I wanted to put into the crockpot. We are going to be extremely pressed for time Thursday so this is the best fit.
• Pizza
• Pork Chops, Peas, Mashed Potatoes
• Chicken bites and fries (cleaning out the freezer)

This Week's 'To-Do' List

• Tue- 4-H Marksmanship Meeting 
• Wednesday - Free?
• Thursday
• Meeting with Gloria. This will be an extremely emotional one where Brielle will be going over the assault in her own words and I need to be there for this one. While she's had many meetings over the past year about this I am just now being brought in as they finish up what counseling the can give her for now. 
• Band Concert
• Chorus Concert
• 4-H Homemaker's Club is suppose to be this day but it falls in with the concerts so we won't be able to make it this month. 
• Friday 
• Orchestra Concert
• Teenager Halloween Party at Bill's House
• Saturday
• Brielle - Volunteering at Humane Society
• Teen Party at the Library
• Adult Birthday Party - Brielle is on babysitting duty this evening. 
• Sunday - Free?
• Brielle - Volunteer at Humane Society

Last Week

So a lot of times folks are probably thinking, "Why are you burnt out and why are you tired that wasn't a big list?" And they would be right most of the time it isn't a big list a lot of what happens I do to myself. I'm starting this on Wednesday but I figured I'd kind of touch base day to day as I can to just actually say what happens through my week instead of the very often, "I forget" or just hitting the highlights.

Warning very long read.

Monday:
Got woke up quickly as I wasn't used to school being back in session and forgot Brielle has to be drove into school on Monday's for Beta Club so I quickly got dressed and got her down to the school.
Did some dishes, worked on block and menu and coupons for the shopping trip. Friend of mine has been doing some awesome buys at Meijer so I met her with her fiance and kids (2 yrs & 7 wks) down at Meijer at 11 am. We went up and down aisles and they had local coupons which basically made bread, milk, toothpaste and a roll of paper towels free. I got what I needed and used my coupon and spent about $25 for this week's groceries though admittedly I didn't buy any meat or eggs and I bought my milk the day before when my husband and I went on Sunday to get the free items.
At noon I was rushing a goodbye and running out the door because my husband was waiting for me at Wendy's and it was lunch hour traffic which means nothing was moving. I eventually get there and we sit down and talk and eat for about half an hour before he had to get back to work. At that point I head home and unload the groceries and then I got a phone call from work about lost paperwork and they were hoping I knew where it was so for about half an hour I tried to talk through different locations it could have been put and offered to go into work. They said they would keep looking and might call me in depending on what the guys out in the field said. So I hem and hawed for about 10 minutes not sure what to do because I wasn't sure if I was going to get called into work. About that time I got a phone call from my friend Johanna (the friend mentioned above) and the doctor's office called and wanted her oldest daughter in right away. See her daughter had a really infected thumb where it got slammed in a door this past weekend and I had mentioned calling the nursing station since they hadn't planned to get her in until tomorrow. Well an appointment was open and they called her in but my friend can't drive she doesn't have a license or a car and in this town that makes it extremely hard to get around so I went and picked up Johanna because she asked me to take her. So I sat at the doctor's office with the baby while Johanna took her oldest back to be looked at. She got a prescription and the doctor said it would be about $30 which she didn't have on her so she planned to get the prescription on Tuesday. I told her to call up the pharmacy and find out when it would be done and we would drive out to her fiance's work to get the credit card. Well on the drive to her fiance's work she finds out that it should be done very soon and that the prescription there at Meijer is free because they have a list of free drugs they offer. So we turn around and head back to Meijer. Of course her 2 year old falls asleep and the baby gets hungry when we get there so we sat in the car I told her just take the time to nurse there was no reason to have a hungry baby which I'm glad I did because it took longer than they said for the prescription and we let  the 2 year old (Nora) rest so she wouldn't be tyrannical. After about 20 minutes in the car Evelynn (the baby) seemed sated and so we woke Nora and I grabbed a Zhu Zhu pet out of the back of the car I had in items I've been driving around with trying to get sold from the garage sale. We decided to waste time and get our free items again and then went over to get the prescription but it still wasn't done so there for a good 20 minutes we sat there and I let Nora out of the cart to play with the Zhu Zhu pet on the ground. Eventually we got the prescription so I could take everyone home. I called Brielle up to ask her to butter bread for the grilled cheese since it had gotten so late. I got home and made grilled cheese and Peter made strange tomato soup I've never seen a soup seperate like that before but he was trying to help so I wasn't complaining.
I ate quickly and then dug out my instrument from my closet where it sadly has been stashed since music classes had ended last Spring. We watched a show and then about 6:30 I headed out for my 7 o'clock class which lasted until 8. I got home around 8:30 and then just relaxed and watched a few shows with the husband before bed.
That was Monday.

Tuesday:
I went back to work on this day as per my normal schedule. I got very sick though around 12 o'clock and for several hours I was near tears and thought about leaving but I pushed through.
After work I was talking to Johanna about coupons and needing dog food and she had me swing by and she gave me some dog food to try out to see if Blacky will eat it before spending too much on stuff we don't know about. It was while I was talking to her that she noticed only one of my eyes were getting dark aka I lost a lense to my safety glasses. 
It was then back home where I got to lay down for about 10 minutes. 
Peter (my husband), took off early I thought I was going to need help juggling things but turned out I didn't need any so we both went to the Parent Teacher Conference for Katherine. It was the best conference we've ever had with her all A's and one B. I was so proud. We went home and had Crock Pot Chicken & Rice. It was alright though they had me use instant rice in the recipe so it had a very odd texture as everything was overcooked.
The girls' friend could not go to the Anime meeting that night so I didn't have to worry about picking him up thankfully. We left out around 5:30 and dropped the kids off at the Library to go to the Anime Club and Peter and I went to Starbucks to have coffee and just sit and talk for an hour while the kids were at their club.
Went home and just got ready for bed and watched some shows while the kids finished up homework and got off to bed themselves. 

Wednesday:

So on this day I went to work as per normal but I started this blog this morning.
I was informed that they want me full time again but I shooed off the idea quickly. I don't think mentally I could handle it.
About 12 o'clock I got really sick after lunch and stayed that way until 2:30 when I left. I also picked up my voucher from work to set up an eye exam and get a new set of safety glasses for work.
I went to Meijers and got my free items and thought about buying more but talked myself out of it until I can get some better coupons together.
I got home about 3:40 and the kids started walking in the door around 3:45. By 4 o'clock I was trying to get us out the door when a friend knocks on the door as he was out for a walk today and saw we were home so I chatted for a few minutes but was quick to get him on his way. 4:15 we were on the way to the Library for the girls to decorate pumpkins. I wandered around and looked at cookbooks. One of the ladies I know from 4-H who's daughter is really good friends with my girls showed up so we talked a bit while the kids were finishing up. I was hurried to get on our way though by 5:15 because I knew I needed to still make dinner and the kids still needed to work on homework. I got home and started working on dinner and had it done about 6 o'clock at which time I contacted my husband to see where he was at. Apparently stuff went down at work and he is stuck there. He got home sometime after the debate started and was telling me as he was leaving for lunch they called him back which means he worked about 13 hours with no real break. Poor dear. :( I hate it for him. I did realize as I was flipping through channels that Hulu has stopped showing CW shows I had forgotten about that so we need to see if the CW app has backdated episodes of Flash and Arrow so we can catch up.
The debate was... well I went through two glasses of wine and a plate of cheese to keep my sanity during it. I think my IQ was dropping. Next drinking day will be November 8th as we watch the votes come in. 

Thursday:
Got up Thursday morning and had to scrounge around for money for my daughter so she could buy a ticket to a dance Friday. Again another thing that wasn't on our schedule because I have been bad about not reading the newsletters the last two weeks. I also sleepy wrote her a check for lunches as I was informed by a phone call which was cut off that a child was out of money. I wish they would time those recordings better or repeat them for people who have answering machines that pick up. I then proceeded to pass back out in bed until Peter made me get up at 7:15.
I then had to make dinner in the crockpot which meant washing the crockpot because my daughter didn't start the dishwasher as per normal. Thankfully I use crockpot liners so it's an easy cleanup. Making a pork roast. It's the last of our pork so I really need to be watching for sales so I can stock back up. 
Ended up working late again and then going straight down to the High School to pick up Brielle because I had to get her down to her doctor's appointment with the Ears, Nose and Throat doctor about her tonsils. Her tonsils are very large and they suggest taking them out but because she wasn't getting sick a lot there isn't a big hurry the doctor said that after age 12 the pain of having them taken out goes up a lot so she would be out for 2 weeks we are are electing to wait until the summer and then look back at the surgery.
We went back home and had dinner and was able to watch a TV show before I had to run off to my Adult Orchestra Class from 7-8pm.
After class I picked up Johanna since this was her last day of maternity leave and we left the kids with her fiance and went and grabbed coffee and then walked around Meijer. I ended up getting home at 11:30 pm. 
Friday:
Woke up and got the family out as per normal to a point. I was more awake this time. I woke up before every alarm since I have one at 6 to go wake up the kids and then I lay back down these days. I do wait a bit before I wake up the kids to see what they do with their alarm. Of course they slap it off  and go back to bed until I go in there which I'm very tired of they are more than old enough to take care of this themselves. I then go back to bed for about 15-20 minutes when the next alarm goes off to wake up my husband which because I woke up before the first alarm he wanted to sleep through his alarm because he didn't realize it was his time to get up. I then lay back down until about 7:10 when I roll myself out of bed and say bye to the kids as they walk out the door and bye to my husband. This is typically of every school day morning these days. I just don't have the energy and the drive any more to get up at 6 and stay up.
Worked on couponing for a trip to Meijer later to stock up on pet food. We are making the switch to soft food for our dog because he's a senior and missing enough teeth at this point and I've been noticing he's been having a harder time using the bathroom when he goes out. These days we have to put down puppy pads too because of his age he just doesn't hold it as long as he used to. He's our forever puppy though. 
I went to work though didn't feel very motivated about it and again sick after lunch didn't help. Doctor still hasn't gotten back to me. 
I got off early so when I got home it was only about 1:45 so I proceeded to cut a tree that sprung up this spring and decided to quickly grow into our chain fence. I got it down to a stump at least. I then proceeded to start pulling crabgrass from my flower beds which was up to my knees since I rarely get time to weed things like I should. Brielle took over when she got home from school so I could mow the front lawn. The back yard will have to wait until there is more free time. Other than when I can have the kids help me I'm the only one that works on the yard pretty much. Peter might mow once a year.
At 5 o'clock I had to be down at the school as a school dance was letting out so I needed to pick up Katherine. A friend was with her that needed a ride home from the dance so I drove them home first and then came home where Peter had the pizza's cooked. We watched a show and then he went off to play cards for the evening.
I went through some more coupon stuff and got things ready and bribed the kids to go out with me with promises of Starbucks after. While we were there we ran into Johanna with her fiance and kids. Her 2 year old was acting up a bit so even though we were checked out I took her daughter with us to put things in the car so Johanna could try and check out in peace. We brought her daughter back and then went shoe shopping since Meijer had a 2 day sale running for buy one pair get a pair for $1.
I ended up spending $91.40 in total for everything pictured that includes the shoes after all the coupons and discounts were applied. There's like 52 things of soft dog food. Hard dog food and cat food. 2 things of cat litter. two loaves of bread, 4 bags of cheese, 16 cans of soup, etc etc. I paid a bit more than I meant to because I also picked up some leggings but didn't organize my stuff quite right to use another $5 off coupon. I'll probably be back in tomorrow because they have windshield wipers on sale and I need some because I want to get the car ready for the winter.
Saturday:
We slept in so had just an early lunch and I started some laundry and got the kids to do the dishes and Brielle to do her chores for the pets. After that Peter and I drove Brielle down to the Humane Society to volunteer. She was there from 11:40 am-5 pm. 
After dropping off Brielle, Peter and I went to Meijer to pick up some more cheap items while the coupons were still good for bread, oral care and cheese and in the process I picked up a couple shirts and a cover since it's getting cold finally and we got a couple items for Christmas presents. We got a pretzel to share then headed home to put on the windshield wipers we also purchased. Turns out we bought the wrong clip type for my car so we had to go back to Meijer and do a return and get the correct ones. We decided to put those on out in the parking lot.
I ended up feeling sick again so when we got home I went to bed until about 4 and then got up to help with picking up the house and making dinner. We got Brielle home and then ate.
At 6 o'clock guests started showing up to play cards. At midnight Peter drove one of the guests home and the other guest stayed until 1 am. 

Sunday:
I got up about 8 the rest of the house was asleep. I just generally can't sleep in well unless I wake up and then make myself go back to sleep. So spent the morning sipping coffee going over the coupons and new ad for Meijer.
We finally got out the door about 11 o'clock and at 11:30 arrived at a local farm that had carnival rides setup. Peter's work had rented the entire farm. They had free food, live music, a petting zoo, other games and rides. We normally stay longer but I wasn't feeling up to it this year and Brielle was feeling sick after eating so we only stayed a couple hours. The girls did get some rides in though but we didn't go over to the petting zoo or anything this year. It's sad when your kids start growing up. 
We left there about 2 o'clock and then went over to Meijer because there was a really good coupon for bacon that I printed out several copies for that morning and I needed coffee and bottled water before the Monday shopping trip. We ended up getting all that plus a big thing of peanuts because we decided we wanted to make some chocolate dipped peanuts but we didn't get to it last night. 
When we got home I took a nap I was really tired so I rested on the couch for about an hour and got up about 4 o'clock. At which point the family tried to help me gather my sewing stuff but many things have ended up missing in the last few months of shuffling things around and while I hate to spend to replace them they are pretty important items like my sewing machine standard foot. Frustrated I gave up for a little bit and Peter went out to Subway to pick up dinner.
We ate in the livingroom at the table I had set up for my sewing machine and we watched a couple episodes of Agents of Shield from Hulu together.
At that point we sent the kids off to shower, get ready for school and such though I think they spent the majority of the time on the computer we need to shut off the wireless on school nights.
I got my sewing machine set up instead with my walking foot since I at least found that one and loaded up Mechwarrior Online (a video game) on my computer to play with Peter. So between matches I was jumping over to the sewing machine to sew a few stitches and then back to my PC to play matches. Talk about split attention but I need to get this blanket done but I like playing games with Peter.
About 10 o'clock we call it a night and say goodnight to the folks online and I start unplugging the sewing machine so no one trips over cords in the morning. I got about halfway through machine quilting this blanket together. I'm just stitching in the ditch or with me the 'near ditch'.
Peter and I went to the room to watch an episode of Da Vinci and then went to bed about 11:30. Though I didn't get to sleep until about 12 o'clock I had to get up a few times and then a few times more all night. It was a rough sleep.
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If you just read through all that I applaud your endurance!  
At least I picked an easy week. This week is going to be heck with all the appointments. I will have to work hard on keeping my head on my shoulders.