Tuesday, November 06, 2012

Aaaaand he's back!

Poor Tom!  He's back home already.   I was in the middle of reading the kids a bedtime story when he called and said he was almost home.   Seems the county decided to pull them after getting reports of workers getting food and urine thrown at them.   None of the workers that were there know what incident they are talking about.   They said most people were appreciative that they were there although there were a few bad apples.   I guess Tom's crew went to the NJ/Penn border and waited for the first crew to meet up with them.   It's all the information I have since I was asleep before he walked in the door and all we had time to say today was Good Morning, Try to have a good day and I love you.   I'm sure I'll hear more tonight when he gets home.  

Today is the rare occasion where I have the house totally to myself.   All the school kids are at school, Luke is housesitting for Pat and Alex who are due home tomorrow, Val is in Buffalo at a meeting for work and won't be back until this evening, and Drew, Allison and Meghan won't be moving back in from my parents' house until tomorrow.   So until noon when I have to go pick up Carrie from school....I am allllllll alone!   I am enjoying the silence at the moment.  It may start to drive me batty though soon.   What I really want to do is take a nap and get rid of this headache that's starting before it gets too big.  BUT this place is falling down around me and needs some TLC.   But first.....coffee!  

Can I just say......I am so glad that today is election day!   I am so sick of my phone ringing off the hook with  election related calls.   I was on the verge of burying the house phone in the backyard yesterday!  

A few of us have had some fun taking the Love Language Assessments .   It's the premise that people feel/show love in 5 different ways, some types are more fulfilling/stronger then others.  You take the assessment test of 20 or 30 questions and it lets you know which type you speak the best.  They are...
Words of Affirmation
Quality Time
Receiving Gifts
Acts of Service
Physical Touch
I wasn't surprised by mine....Physical Touch was the run away leader with 11pts, then Quality Time (7) and Acts of Service (6).  Words of Affirmation got 4pts and Receiving Gifts got 2.     Although I think I show love differently. In my mind how I show love would be Physical Touch, Acts of Service and then gifts.  Eileen was also strong in Physical Touch while Olivia was strong in Gifts.   I thought Olivia's would be Acts of Service, although it was her second strongest one.   Then again this is the girl who used ALL my Christmas wrapping paper to make people presents every day when she was 4yo.   Not only that what I'm viewing as acts of service (cleaning and helping)  could be seen as a gift too.    Can you take a guess as to which one I'm pretty sure is Tom's least strongest language?   Yep, Touch.   I know it and have for a long time......he'd rather use his actions or words.   It took a long time for me to figure it out and a lot of hurt feelings.  Even now I have to remind myself that it's just not on his radar to hug me out of the blue and to really appreciate it when he does.   Or to go ask him for one when I need it!   For him I think Acts of Service would be his highest with Words being second.  (he hasn't done the assessment...just my opinion)   Maybe I'll see if he's interested in taking the quiz tonight.  

Well this isn't getting anything done.   My bathrooms are screaming at me and the kitchen is threatening to relocate to the livingroom if things don't improve in there.   What I really want to do is go in my room, find some yarn and start crocheting my soon to be born grandson's shower gift!!! Hmmm what can I get done in the 45mins before I have to leave? 

Monday, November 05, 2012

He's on his way

Tom got the call that he was leaving for NYC at 5 this morning just before I went out the door to work the dome yesterday.   It was SO hard to leave.  He had so much to do and I wasn't going to be there to help him.   I told him that I'd go shopping for food for him after I got home but he decided to go after dropping Val off at work.   He also found someone else to take his oncall for him since he didn't want to be going into work at 2am and having to be there again at 5.   He knows he'll be getting very little sleep this week and sleep is important to him.   Now that everything is all said and done I REALLY wish I'd just said forgetaboutit and stayed home like I wanted.   Tom was in bed by the time I got home.    Darn you late workers who left early and made it so we had to stay the whole time!!!!  I guess it's really my fault for thinking how things would/should go ahead of time and being disappointed that it didn't go as planned.   My new plan was to get up with Tom this morning but somehow he managed to get out of bed without waking me.    I didn't even get to say good-bye to him!  :o(    It's time like these that I wish he had texting abilities (county won't allow them to use it on their work phones).   I miss him already.  It's going to be a loooong week.

Eileen and Olivia did a pretty fine job of holding down the fort while I was gone.   They gave Sean and Danielle baths, cut Danielle's (and Olivia's) bangs, and were having tuna fish on crackers for dinner when I walked in the door.   Then I had to walk back out the door to pick up Val from work and Carrie from my BIL's house.   And wouldn't you know it but I went through a red light on the way home!   I don't know how  or why I did since I drive through there a bazillion times a day.    All I know is that I heard Val very calmly say...a red light and realized...oh yeah that's what I'm looking at.  I was already half way through the intersection when I slammed on my brakes.   Luckily it was when it was and there wasn't any trafffic around. And that the police were going in the opposite direction with their lights flashing a minute before that.   I was very glad to pull into the driveway, grab the kids and hop into bed!

Ahh it's getting light outside and I see a dusting of snow!  BRRRR!   I am not ready for this but I guess I'll have to be since there's a Nor'easter coming up the coast this week. (poor Tom and  NYC!)   I haven't heard what it's suppose to be bringing us yet so maybe we'll luck out.   Tom not so much though.  Last I knew he was going to be in the Coney Island/Brooklyn area.   I just looked on a map from Fri and they say those areas will be without power until the 11th!   I hope that's an overestimate and that this new storm doesn't undo what the repair crews have already done.  

Hmmm why does it take me so long to write here?    It's been over 3hrs since I started.  Just color me distracted.   The kids have now gone to school except Carrie who says she has a really bad headache......again.   At noon I'm taking Val to the thruway exit to meet some coworkers.  They are headed to Buffalo until tomorrow evening, so a little break from driving for me.  Of course I still have to go into the city since we're out of milk and I have to exchange Eileen's knee pads for volleyball.   We bought the more expensive ladies' version since they seemed thicker but they're too tight for her.   No one on the team wanted to trade her so back to the store they go.   And of course I don't have a receipt so we'll see how that goes.   I'll probably end up taking the less expensive ones for the price I paid for the original ones.  Oh well.

Guess I'm getting off here and getting something done.   I was thinking it would be nice if I could have our bedroom straightened up for Tom when he comes home from NYC.    Now if only I could figure out a way to make the work I've done in my head count....it would be done already three times over.    


Saturday, November 03, 2012

Head Spinning

   


That's how things seem to be around here lately.   My calendar for November is filled to bursting with things being added on daily.   Carrie needs to be picked up daily from school, Eileen made the middle school volleyball team so there are practices to be picked up from after school and games to attend.   Val's still working with me driving and at times Liz grabs a ride with her when it works out.   I'm working concessions at the Syracuse University Dome for our church fundraiser a few times a week which makes all of the above even more mind boggling.   Carrie still isn't feeling 100% so has had a few extra doctor appts thrown in there.    My parents are due back from there trip today sometime so add in Drew, Allison and Meghan starting to move back in.  Hopefully Meghan adjusts quickly.   It'll be nice to have her here again, I've missed her.  

We made it through Sandy well although at first it seemed like we were in for a fun time.   The winds really started here about 1ish on Monday afternoon.   Tom and I had gone away for the night Sunday night to an area casino.  (room was comped)  Work called him a few times on Monday and finally asked him to come in at 11pm and run the overnight shift, so we cut our time out short so he could get home and take a nap.   We walked in the door just before 3.   I noticed we were out of drinking water so ran to the church conference center to fill up our jugs.  The lights went on and off quickly while I was there.  We unloaded the car of water and I started barking orders to the kids that had just gotten off the bus.  Less then 15mins later our power was out and not coming back.   GRRRR!   I wasn't ready!   Luckily it came back on some time between 6 and 6:30.     We worked like gangbusters to whip this place in shape and get everything ready.   Wouldn't you know it...the power stayed on for the remainder of the storm.   Fine by me but you know if we hadn't done a thing it would've been off for days!

Tom got really excited on Tuesday when it was announced that his shop was sending a crew down to NYC to help out.   Unfortunately they asked the person who was already on call if he wanted to go and he did.   I was on the verge of crying when I found out Tom wouldn't have the opportunity.  If only he could've gone down and seen the huge city sewers. He's such a geek!  lol   On Friday it was mentioned that they might switch out the crew this week so MAYBE Tom will get a chance to go...we're hoping at least.    Although it would be perfectly ok if the city didn't need them too, meaning things were greatly improved for the residents.

We had fun on Wednesday.  Unfortunately I don't have any pictures since it was getting too dark outside and my phone doesn't have a flash (wish I'd thought of that when I bought the thing!  oh well, live and learn). One of the best costumes I saw was a store bought inflatable Stay Puft Marshmallow man.   The best of all belonged to my own kids....Drew, Allison and Meghan...the cast of Monsters, Inc.!   Allison made the costumes and she did an awesome job!  



Here's a better one of Meghan's Boo costume




There didn't seem to be as many houses with lights on in the village this year.  It made it hard to snitch candy from the kids since they could actually count how much they had. ;o)   Oh well, I shouldn't be eating it anyways.   And for the little kids the amount they got was just enough.   Sean told me today that he has 15 pieces of candy left.

With all this craziness going on I have my eye on the 18th.   Tom and I are going back out to the casino in then since I was comped a room in November also.   We really had a nice relaxing time last time.  It didn't hurt that we came out a bit ahead so that everything (hotel, lunch, dinner, and playing) only cost us $9 plus gas money, so about $25 total.    Hopefully we'll be just as lucky this time too.  

Oh rats!  I forgot I wanted to get Alex's baby shower invitation done and mailed this weekend!!!   We're  having it December 1st at my sister's house.  Guess I'll need to stop at the store before I pick up Val from work tomorrow night.  Now to go figure out how she's getting TO work since I'll already be at the dome when she has to be there.    

See ya!