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Wedding Woes
missJeanLouise
member
Tuesday ;)
Hi everybody! It is Tuesday morning here.
I hope you and your loved ones are happy and healthy in the last week of 2016. I can't wait to hear all the holiday stories.
Needless to say, I made it! My flight could not have been better and it feels so good to be with DH again. We are still staying in the hotel until our things can be delivered. They have been in the port for about a week so it should be any day now. We bought a bed frame and mattress for the guest room from ikea last night and it will be delivered on the 28th so, worst case scenario, we will move into our apartment then. Speaking of the apartment, DH did a fantastic job. I am so impressed. 3 bedrooms, an office, floor to ceiling windows, allllllll the closets. Now just to get furniture. :P
I haven't really done too much since I have been here. We have dinner with some of DH's coworkers who are staying at the same hotel almost every night. They are wonderful and hilarious, a Frenchman and an Aussie. My most exciting day (and definitely a top 10 day of my life) was spent with a friend of the Frenchman who was visiting. She and I toured the Emirates Palace and had a cappuccino with gold flakes. Then we walked to a beach on the corniche, it was lovely but we decided to go jet skiing so we went back to the hotel to get passes to the beach next to the hotel. It was my first time jet skiing and it was SO MUCH FUN! Seriously one of my favorite activities.
I am meeting the landlords today to do our walk through, hopefully our stuff is released soon because DH invited everyone over for a NYE party! Lol.
eta: customs was way easier/ less stressful than going through Canada.
I hope you and your loved ones are happy and healthy in the last week of 2016. I can't wait to hear all the holiday stories.
Needless to say, I made it! My flight could not have been better and it feels so good to be with DH again. We are still staying in the hotel until our things can be delivered. They have been in the port for about a week so it should be any day now. We bought a bed frame and mattress for the guest room from ikea last night and it will be delivered on the 28th so, worst case scenario, we will move into our apartment then. Speaking of the apartment, DH did a fantastic job. I am so impressed. 3 bedrooms, an office, floor to ceiling windows, allllllll the closets. Now just to get furniture. :P
I haven't really done too much since I have been here. We have dinner with some of DH's coworkers who are staying at the same hotel almost every night. They are wonderful and hilarious, a Frenchman and an Aussie. My most exciting day (and definitely a top 10 day of my life) was spent with a friend of the Frenchman who was visiting. She and I toured the Emirates Palace and had a cappuccino with gold flakes. Then we walked to a beach on the corniche, it was lovely but we decided to go jet skiing so we went back to the hotel to get passes to the beach next to the hotel. It was my first time jet skiing and it was SO MUCH FUN! Seriously one of my favorite activities.
I am meeting the landlords today to do our walk through, hopefully our stuff is released soon because DH invited everyone over for a NYE party! Lol.
eta: customs was way easier/ less stressful than going through Canada.
Re: Tuesday ;)
I don't have a holiday story. All we did was work. Today my gear fit said I walked a mere 28,892 steps today. Such a slacker since I did over 31,000 on the 24th.
According to DH's fancy scale I'm down just over 9 lbs since Nov 25. Not I'm not trying to lose weight at this point, but all the hiking from work, all the walking around at work and not eating mindlessly throughout the day has me dropping. I'm hoping to level off. I don't think I need to drop any more, plus I don't have the time to buy more clothes.
@missJeanLouise, I am so jealous! That sounds amazing. Have fun!
I actually got a jump on my New Year's resolutions and re-signed up for Weight Watchers online last night. I gave myself until after the holidays, and we're close enough. I used them between DD and DS and had good results, and aside from the whole blah-blah eat better/be more active (which I should be doing, regardless), I also want to drop at least a size before we go shopping for dresses for my brother's wedding. It's been a good reality check, because I forgot how many points one freaking packet of instant oatmeal costs.
Christmas was great. DS loves the drums. Wooz loves being a martyr about how "loud" the drums are. (But suggest that maybe she not sit three feet away, and no one is ever fair to her, LOL.) DH was a little bummed because Wooz has to stand on tippy toes on her new bike, and he measured her meticulously and gave all her measurements to the guy at the bike store. At the rate she's going, I told him not to sweat it, it will be fine in a couple of months.
Other than that, we saw my brother, which was great. DH and I took the kids to see Moana on Friday and loved it. They're home today working on assembling the trampoline. And I am at the office, boo.
My mom gave me all of her living will etc. paperwork when we were there on Christmas. Which, I get why, but it kind of put a damper on things for a minute.
The mom from the sponsor family sent me a really nice text on Christmas morning.
I took a week of break to just be lazy and relax, and now I need to spend the 2nd week actually getting to some of the things on my to-do list.
Today I read about someone who leaves the tree decorated and just puts it in a closet to be pulled out each year. Man, I wish I had a spare closet to do that with. That would be so awesome.
@missJeanLouise, I'm glad to hear things are going so well in your new move to foreign lands.
@lyndausvi, glad to hear your new job is going well...albeit super busy!!!
@Heffalump, good luck with Weight Watchers. Sounds like you had a great Christmas. That was nice the mom from the sponsor family sent a text on Christmas morning. I know you and your neighbors made it a nicer Christmas for them.
As for me, I primarily enjoyed having 4 days off. Though there were a lot of annoyances. For example, I went grocery shopping on Christmas Eve and, when I got home, realized they had not put one of my bags in the cart! Luckily, it wasn't anything important for the weekend, but still. That was $10 down the drain.
For Christmas, I made my fiesta breakfast casserole. Having leftovers at work this morning. Yummers! My H made a ham for dinner. It came out delicious! A certain kitty girl and puppy girl loved their tidbits of ham treats. After the ham, they were stalking us every time we went in the kitchen, lol.
My H was really sick all day yesterday
. He was a bit better this morning.
And we had to put the A/C back for the last two days. Crazy!
My oldest spent Christmas Eve with us and went to his dad's around 11:30 Christmas day. He wanted to see his little brother's first Christmas. We cooked dinner at my mom's and it was so nice having double ovens.
H spent almost all day yesterday on his new PS4. He was playing online with Oldest. I had a splitting headache all day to the point that I couldn't even attempt to crochet.
Congrats! This popped up in my FB feed over the long weekend, if you are interested:
I need to go grocery shopping. Attempted last night, but a lot of the shelves were empty, so I have to go back today. My parents gave me a check for xmas, so I might hit up the store for more base layers and ski socks. How exciting right? Tonight I'm working at the club. We are already mostly sold out.
Rest of the week includes off on the mountain tomorrow, but working the club. Thursday, Friday and Saturday working both. Sunday working on the mountain, not sure about the club. Monday only the mountain and TUESDAY. TUESDAY Jan 3rd you ask? We are BOTH completely off.
Can't wait. DH and I barely see each other these days. Like 2 ships passing in the night. I'm up and out before he wakes up. If I'm not working the club, I'm in bed before he comes home. Even working at the club it's we barely see each other. We get home and I pass out.
Random: So I've been seeing a bunch of celebs at work. Yesterday the Altman brothers from Million Dollar Listing LA were there. If you've ever seen the show they seen to making transactions at random places. Talking loud, pacing, making hand jesters, etc. Well yesterday one of them was making a business transaction in the corner of the restaurant much like you see in the show, only a little less dramatic. So I guess that part of the show isn't far from the truth (most of the reality shows are actually somewhat scripted for drama).
Christmas cruise was awesome - we got back yesterday. Getting home was delayed a bit - typically ship docks early morning and you depart after breakfast. The port was closed until about 11:30 yesterday morning due to heavy fog, so we didn't end up getting off the ship until 2ish, and didn't manage to get a shuttle to our car until around 3/3:15. The port was insane because all of the passengers for the next cruise were already there/waiting to board. RCCL handled it well, but the parking/shuttle company sucked balls. (pickup location not labelled, shuttles not labelled, poor crowd control, etc.)
We had a great time with the excursions - everyone's favorite was the dolphin encounter. I signed us up for the first session of the day, which meant being up and on the pier before sunrise. We (DK, Wolverine, and I) ended up being the only party doing our particular package, so it ended up being a private tour and we ended up getting a lot more time with the dolphins. (Typically the group is ~10-12 people, so each person gets 3-4 minutes of individual interaction time. We had the full ~45 minute session to ourselves.) The other very cool thing was that we got to go in with 2 dolphins - a mother and baby. They were just starting to train the baby, and told us we were the first group that got to interact with her. We got to pet her, and each of us got to try doing one behavior with her - she was really playful, so it made the experience that much cooler.
We also got to swim with the stingrays, go snorkeling, spend some time on the beach, go ice skating, ride water slides, try surfing, watch shows, eat great food, and Santa visited the ship - all while we relaxed and enjoyed ourselves -so huge win. I would definitely do it again.
Morning, WW!
I've loved reading about everyone's holidays. Heffa- sounds like you and I are on the same wavelength. I didn't sign up for Weight Watchers, but as of tomorrow I'm starting a 3 day detox I found in Cooking Light. I like it because it isn't like "drink this magic water and you'll lose 35 lbs in 3 days" lol. All it's designed to do is jumpstart your metabolism and start healthy habits. It lays out all meals and snacks for all 3 days. They even make it easy by putting a grocery list in the beginning. I'm going to the store after work to stock up.
Well I got my Christmas miracle! DH called me Friday afternoon to let me know that he was on his way home from Cincy. Apparently he'd thought he'd surprise me at first and then decided against it, which was a good call on his part. He might've gotten himself shot knocking on the door at 11:30 pm.
It was a wonderful weekend. We got caught up on some much needed BCBC and just really enjoyed every second we had together. Saturday, we went out and ran some errands. I just love it when we get to do "normal" stuff together. It's so rare. We also went to visit his dad (who has Alzheimer's, for those who don't know). He has declined severely. He's still able to walk and move around, but he's almost totally unresponsive to people talking to him. I felt so bad for DH. It was really heartbreaking to see.
Saturday night I made dinner and wrapped gifts and then DH and I watched Scrooged and a couple of episodes of 30 for 30.
Sunday morning my mom and brother came over. We had sausage balls and dump cake and mimosas and then exchanged gifts. It was a lot of fun. Mom, DH and I went and saw my grandparents for a bit after that. My brother has been sick and didn't want to risk giving it to them. My grandma is doing some better, but she's down to 84 lbs. She didn't get out of bed to see us. She looked so tiny laying there in that big old bed. Thankfully, my granddad has finally agreed to getting home health to help him take care of her. Mom is going to call some places this week.
DH left after that and I spent the rest of my time off watching TV and staying in my PJ's. It was glorious.
Have you done Alaska? We booked a cruise when Wooz was little, but then I got KU with DS on the first try (not to be TMI, just that we figured it would take longer than it did) and I was laid off and there were rumors about DS's team being folded (which they were, although he hopped to a new team right away--but we didn't know that at the time) so LSS we made the tough decision to cancel. Over the long weekend, we were talking about resurrecting that plan, so I was curious whether you have been.
Also, random: a) DH got me Stitch Fix for Christmas (squee!), so b) I have been doing a Pinterest board for my stylist, per their recommendations, and c) after talking about dropping a dress size for the wedding this summer, I got sucked into browsing dresses at Nordstrom. I want this dress, and I am having a tough time justifying $468 plus tax. Sigh.
I've barely been on here in the last couple of weeks because work has been crazy busy! I finally got the last of the holiday baskets handed out to clients las week. FI had taken the day off, so he actually wound up driving so I could just jump out, run in, have a very quick chat with the client or reception desk person, and then dart off to the next without worrying about parking. I was in the office until almost 9 PM on Wednesday making sure that all my ducks were in a row for re-signing each client for 2017, because...
The thing I have been dreading for months finally happened. As of last Thursday, my hotel is officially sold and under new management. So far it's not as bad as we had all been fearing. Still no warm fuzzies for the new company, but they seem to at least be respectful of how we have been doing things instead of coming in like bulls in a china shop. They are going to change just about everything we have for internal policies and procedures, but I guess they have been less aggro about it than expected. Still highly concerned that will change as things go forward--they are a very "straighten up and fall in line" sort of company, whereas the old management was much more about giving employees autonomy to take care of things our way as long as we were successful at it. Oh well. We will see. There is the potential to earn an extra 3 days a year of PTO for participating in some sort of team-building committee thing for a couple of hours a month, so that could be a significant upside.
So holidays...I got off early on Friday, which was unexpected. With the new company on board I figured they would keep us busy until 5, but I got my work wrapped up by 2 and by then I was the last one in the office. Christmas Eve FI and I exchanged the presents we had gotten for each other. We are both "open on Christmas day" people, but it seems silly to transport everything down to my parents' just so we could unwrap it a day later. He liked what I got him, and I liked my presents, so win!
Then we drove a couple of hours down to my parents' place, stopping by FFIL's house on the way past. He has some mild-ish senility problems that make it hard for him to deal with anything outside his very rigid schedule of daily events, but he was surprisingly happy to see us and thrilled about his present: a large framed print of a photo FI took. Reached my parents' place, talked a while, watched a movie, and went to bed.
Christmas day we opened presents and ate tons of food. It was sort of a loose, informal multi-course setup where we had a different thing every hour or so all afternoon. The biggest win was some spicy shrimp that I absolutely must get the recipe for. It poured rain all day, which is completely bizarre for December in Minnesota. The car almost hydroplaned on the drive home!
Yesterday we went shopping for a new stove, since our current one is broken in no fewer than four distinct ways. The glass in the door cracked recently and that was the last straw. On the bright side, our favorite appliance store has some great deals right now, and it will be great to have full functionality back that has been missing for years. But ugg...we didn't particularly want to spend another chunk of money between Christmas and our European trip.
@lyndausvi: so glad you and your H will have some time together shortly! That schedule sounds grueling; you are a stronger woman than I am!
@charlotte989875: congrats on the godmother thing! And it sounds like you are off to a great start already!
*Barbie*: glad you had fun on your cruise! It sounds like a blast! FI and I have been talking about a "destination holiday," and we will probably do one one of these years.
@thefanciestbeckler: so very glad to hear your H was able to make it home for Christmas after all!
And I can't believe I forgot to mention my dad. This was the first time I had gotten to see him since his accident, and he was doing quite a bit better than I would have expected. He has a huge cast on his arm and a pretty nasty limp, plus he gets completely worn out by about 9 PM, but overall he is much stronger and healthier. My mom had sent a few pictures throughout the weeks, and they showed him looking particularly frail and old (he's only 67!). Thankfully in person he was just a tired, sore version of his regular self. It was great to see him, and it made me feel a lot better about the situation.
I looked it up, and now speaking of going down the rabbit hole, I am seriously eyeing this for Wooz:
I wish they gave the guided reading level. They give Lexile (710), which Scholastic converts from anywhere from a J to a Q. She's an N, so I think I'm going for it.
If you are, I'm right there with you. I bumped on those, too. I would definitely go with a nice strappy sandal, personally.
The upcoming Alaska trips look like they are The Radiance OTS on: http://www.royalcaribbean.com/findacruise/ships/class/ship/home.do?shipClassCode=RD&shipCode=RD&br=R
DK and I did a trip on the Serenade OTS which was in the same class - it was a nice ship.
I am at work today and not loving it. What I wouldn't give for 5 consecutive days off of work that involve nothing but a pile of books and wine....
Good Morning/Afternoon WW!
I started today fasting for my glucose test. I felt fine at the end of it, not even hungry, so I'm hoping that means good things for me and baby!
Christmas was so nice and relaxing. Christmas Eve was our fast paced day. We got up and I made us a nice breakfast of bacon and French toast made with Pepperidge Farms French toast bread. Yum! Then we baked a few batches of cookies. I'm not sure what happened with the Butter Cookies, but while they ended up tasting fine and delicious, we were having a heck of a time getting them to stick to the cookie sheet out of the cookie gun. So that was just an annoyance. We then showered and headed off to Church. We had our old pastor, who performed our wedding, so it was nice to have him back for a mass. After Church we headed back home, packed up some of the cookies and went over to my cousin's house. Her house is always lots of fun and it was great to see family. This was the first time I had seen most family since my pregnancy was announced, so every one was oohing and aahing over the prospect of a baby soon!
Christmas Day was our lazy day. We are enjoying it while we can! I was up early because I didn't sleep well. So I got our breakfast started, which were chocolate puff pastries for H and cinnamon roll puff pastries for me. They were delish! Then it was gift exchanging time. H got me one of the Willow Tree figures with the pregnant woman and "the dude" as he later told his mom when she had called. H got a new belt and an electronic gadget thing-y. After that we just settled in for some cuddling and TV watching. We went up for a nap around 2, where I was able to catch up on my missed sleep at night. Then we headed down to make dinner. We had bacon wrapped filet and cheddar bacon mashed potatoes. I had bought dinner rolls and totally forgot to serve them! But dinner was outstanding and we gave ourselves a pat on the back for it!
Yesterday was some shopping for me and H studied most of the day for his last cert test today. I'm hoping he's taking it right now. He texted me 15 minutes after it was supposed to start to say the test center was having issues. I haven't heard from him in an hour, so hopefully he was able to start it. Now I just wait until I get he tells me the result!
I'm so glad that WW seems to have had great times this weekend! I only have 3 days to work and am off on Friday. I will probably be seeing the new Star Ways film with my brother, nephew and my parents tonight. Can't wait!
We marathoned season 2 of Man in the High Castle yesterday, so today is groceries, start workouts again, fitting in appointments I can do during the school year. DH is taking these 2 weeks off as well. Our main project for this break is to frame the quilt we were given for our wedding. It's hanging at the moment, but we have a paper frame around it, to see if we liked it. Not sure if we do, but we don't want to repaint the entire wall, so it's getting a frame.
Last week and this week are 3-day work weeks with 4-day weekends for me.
That's how it should be. ALWAYS. It's not right that over 70% of our days are work days (for those of us who work f/t).
I know it has only been two weeks of this awesomeness. But I don't know how I can go back to a 5-day work week.
At least with kids out of school, my drive to work is substantially easier and more pleasant. Alas, my drive home is always the same nightmare.