In a Funk

I'm in a huge funk...I haven't felt like blogging lately or doing a whole heck of a lot of things. I spent the weekend with my family (minus the hour that we took Deqlan to minute clinic for a double ear infection) and today went to lunch with my Aunt & Uncle and two cousins. I get a night out Saturday night and I'm so looking forward to it! It will help clear my head & answer some questions.

I hope everyone is doing well...I'll be back soon :-)

Select Baseball

We got the e-mail we've been waiting for for over 2 weeks yesterday! Deqlan was selected to the Select Baseball Team for his age group. I am so proud of how hard he worked over the three days of tryouts and in advance of tryouts. He has his first official practice on Sunday where we will hopefully get the practice and game schedule. Deqlan has a bowling tournament coming up in a month that we've already paid for so hopefully we won't have any conflicts.

Yesterday was a good day. I got to spend time with my family and friends and that's all that matters. I bought the boys some chocolate to have at the bowling center and they never even asked for it. They were so hyped up on sugar from their class parties yesterday so I think they were sick of candy (I know crazy)!

We've felt so lucky the last few weeks because CJ has been pain free. He's currently in bed sleeping off his first migraine in a month. He hates he's missing work but he had to take all of his medicine so he can't drive. Hopefully this passes fast and he is back to normal later this afternoon.

Today is going to be another crazy day. Deqlan has early release so he gets out of school an hour after Hayden does. And I'm getting my hair done this morning. So I will be doing quite a bit of driving today. My aunts flew in yesterday and I'm hoping to get to see them today after I get the boys from school. We are going to have 14 people for our spaghetti dinner tomorrow night at my mom's. It'll be good to meet my cousin's new wife and spend time with a good portion of the family!

Today's high is in the 60's and they are calling for snow tomorrow night! What in the world is up with that...and of course they won't cancel practice Sunday. Thankfully my mom is going to keep Hayden while we are at the ball field Sunday since it's going to be so cold and CJ has to work. Both boys are starting to get colds (again). I need to get to the store at some point today and get them some vitamins. This is the same cold we've been passing around since Halloween. I hope everyone has a great weekend! I'll be MIA while I spend time with the family!!

Changes

My hair dresser (who is also my BFF) was supposed to do my hair today but when she went to pick up the color last night the beauty supply store had closed early! So now we are doing it first thing tomorrow morning. Oh I cannot wait! I am hoping to have a completely different hairstyle. We always end up doing the same thing and it is time for a change!!

My aunts are flying in today from New Hampshire. I cannot wait to spend some time with them. Another aunt will be here next week! I love it when they are here! We are having a big family spaghetti dinner at my parents Saturday night. My mom makes the best homemade spaghetti sauce the ENTIRE family loves it. Yesterday one of CJ's aunts & uncles were in town for a couple of hours dropping a car off so we went to lunch with them. We don't get to see them very often. It was nice for them to finally meet Hayden!

Not much going on around here. I need to get the boys up and ready for school so we make it out the door on time. Have a great day!

Wow

I had a "friend" tell me yesterday that the reason CJ and I are no longer invited to the parties that they throw is because we use CJ's illness as an excuse to not doing anything. In the past year I can count on one hand how many times CJ and I were able to go out with friends. TWICE. I'm sorry that my husband has a chronic illness that prevents him from being able to go out. He was in so much pain for 5 months that I could not leave him at home with the kids to go out myself. The kids always ended up at my parents and after awhile I got tired of asking my parents to raise my kids. They are mine and CJ's responsibility and that means we aren't always going to be able to go out. Yes it sucks but really? Basically it boiled down to the fact that because CJ's illness doesn't have the word CANCER in it, it must not be serious and we are blowing it out of proportion. I hope they remember that whenever this disease puts CJ in a wheelchair or kills him, because that's what will happen at some point down the road. I am glad we don't consider them friends anymore. How dare they say we are blowing things out of proportion. I will say that since our three days at Duke in January, CJ is feeling the best he has since November 2011. He takes his daily medication at night and occasionally needs to take excedrin for a migraine, but that is it, no painkillers or anything else! Obviously we still have it on hand and keep it with us at all times but he hasn't needed them!!

I have started making my shopping list for my Reno trip. Yep I don't leave til the middle of May but I want to start buying things now so it's not all at once. There are quite a few makeup items I need to get and some clothes (I need some shorts to take). My mom and I will be sharing a suitcase again so I am limited in how much I can actually bring with me. I will have a carry-on bag for both of us to use as well. We will be bringing our toothbrushes and change of clothes with us after last year's luggage issue (our entire group of 7 had no luggage-it was sent to Vegas).

I have over 70 followers now :-) Thanks to all of my new followers from the Better Life Bags giveaway!! I am thinking of hosting a giveaway when I hit 100 followers but we shall see.

Well I need to go find the boys some lunch we have to be at the ball field in a couple of hours for Deqlan's last day of tryouts (hopefully we will know this week if he made the team)!

Playing Hooky!

I'm letting Hayden stay home today. After late nights both Wednesday & Thursday he needs a low-key day. I thought about letting Deqlan stay home but he has early release next Friday and a 4 day week the week after that. Plus I will probably let him stay home on early release day since we have family in town.

I have some homework that I need to get done today so not having to run all over the place will help. I did want to go to Moe's and get some queso and run to Target to buy a couple of movies for CJ for Valentine's but the weather will need to clear up a bit for me to do that. I hope everyone in the northeast stays safe this weekend with the impending blizzard. The majority of my family is in NH & MA so they are looking forward to a few snow days :-)

My Carolina Hurricanes won again last night (in overtime). Finally putting them over 500 for the first time this season. They are starting to play as a team and I'm looking forward to the rest of the season. Hopefully we'll have some hockey to watch when we go to Reno. Speaking of Reno, all that is left to do is book the hotel rooms which we will do tomorrow afternoon. We will be staying at the it was way cheaper than where the rest of our group is staying and way nicer. Indoor pool & whirlpool spa plus a really nice spa. Since I don't gamble I need other things to spend my money on. This hotel is also connected to the convention center that we are bowling at so we don't need to rent a car. If we want to go downtown the hotel offers a shuttle. There is a drugstore or grocery store near the hotel that we can walk to if we want snacks or need anything. The hotel itself has a ton of restaurant options and there are also some chain restaurants around the hotel. If we stay downtown we are limited to the restaurants in the hotels and well we ate at the same two places the entire week we were there last year. I don't want to eat there again!

Have a great weekend!

Circus

We went to the Circus last night. Longest three hours of my life. The boys enjoyed it but I felt it was entirely too long. In any event it was a good family outing (even though we didn't get home until 10:45). I'm sure the boys will be wonderful to be around today :-( If I didn't have so much to get done this morning I would let Hayden stay home and rest.

This morning I need to drop the boys off at school and then run to Target to pick up some hamburger meat for dinner tonight and I want to try to find a tinted moisturizer or BB cream that I like. Then I need to go ahead and put dinner together so I can put that in the oven when I get home from lunch with a friend this afternoon. That way dinner is ready to take to the bowling center tonight. I also need to shower & get ready before I pick Hayden up. Yep I'm being extremely lazy this morning and just throwing on some sweats to run the boys to school. And hopefully I will have time to clean up the kitchen as well. I swear the first day of CJ's work schedule always means playing catch-up around the house. I've been asking CJ for two weeks to put away the Christmas ornaments (they are off the tree just sitting in a chair in the living room) and guess where they still are. I'm loosing my patience with him. The arrangement when I went back to school was that he would help out around the house. He only helps when I start yelling. He wonders why I'm always in a bad mood. I feel like a maid 99.9% of the time with those boys (all 3 of them!) I am hoping to get out of the house soon for a girls night. CJ's schedule makes it difficult but I will find a way.

I need to go get Deqlan's lunch made and make sure the boys bookbags are ready to go. We had a birthday party to go to Sunday so I didn't get his lunches made for the week like I normally do. Have a great day everyone!! Also, I'm looking for someone to do a new blog layout for me. Any suggestions? I can't spend a ton of money but I'm ready for a change ;-)

Better Life Bag Giveaway & Update!

The lovely Brin is giving away two shop credits to Better Life Bags!! Go enter!!!!

If you have not heard of Better Life Bags you have probably been living under a rock. If you don't know the story you can check that out here! Once you check that out and want to buy a bag head over here! Now here is the best part. You might have looked at those bags and thought that you can't afford one right now. Well you are in luck! Myself along with 28 lovely ladies have teamed up to give TWO lucky people some shop credit to Better Life Bags. That's right TWO people. ONE of you will get a $50 Shop Credit and ONE of you will win a $100 Shop Credit. The $100 Shop Credit requires more effort so that is why that price is more. More work, more payoff! I could not have put this all together without the help of Allie. Thank YOU times a million. Your PicMonkey stills are much appreciated. Now get to entering!

I want one of those bags for myself!!! I haven't updated in a few days. Not much has been going on. CJ has been working insane hours because of the Super Bowl which has not been making me happy or helping our situation at all. I never see him and when I do he is always in a horrible mood because he's tired from work. To an extent I understand that but he needs to leave work at work. Tonight we are going to the Circus with his mom. I'm sure the boys will enjoy it but I am not looking forward to it at all. I don't do clowns. Add in the fact that she chose a school night to get tickets for means the boys will have two late nights in a row since we are at the bowling center tomorrow night.

I've spent the last three days researching information for Reno this year. Flights into Reno were crazy expensive and so we were looking into flying into San Francisco and then driving to Reno. Thankfully yesterday afternoon Southwest dropped the price of a Thursday flight from RDU to Reno from $335 to $163. Now flights home didn't drop but we went ahead and booked our tickets to take advantage of the cheap price out there. We normally book our tickets at the beginning of January but everything has been so expensive. Today I need to call the hotel we want to stay at and see if they are offering a discounted rate for bowlers (I think they are but I don't have the postcard they sent anymore). We are not staying at the same hotel as the rest of our group because this hotel is cheaper and nicer with an indoor pool and hot tub. I'm not huge into gambling so I want other amenities in my hotel. The rest of our group is big into gambling (so is my mom but as long as she has slot machines she'll be happy). I'm glad the main portion of planning our trip is done. Now I just need to get childcare lined up for the boys for the 5 days I'm gone since CJ has to work all 5 days I'm gone (which has never happened before). I'm hoping my mother-in-law can help like she usually does. If she can't do all 5 of the days I'm sure my dad can help with some.

CJ is off today which means he is on carpool duty. We have to pick Deqlan up early so he can get his homework done before we go to the circus. We have to leave the house at 4:30 to meet CJ's mom at 5 so we can get dinner before. I need to get some homework done today and finish up some laundry. I need to take it somewhat easy today since I'll have some walking to do tonight and I'm feeling a little sore from physical therapy yesterday. We added some squats into my routine to help build up the muscle. I go back to the doctor in 3 1/2 weeks and the goal is to be cleared that day to start bowling again. I love my physical therapist she is willing to push me (not too far) to get me to my goal!

I hope everyone has a great day! And don't forget to enter the giveaway!!!!

February already?

I seriously cannot believe that today is February 1st. That means CJ's birthday is in a month and Deqlan's is in two. I hate this week usually because it is a busy week for CJ at work which means I hardly see him. Like he probably won't be home for dinner tonight and he left the house at 4am...Have I mentioned lately that I hate his job???

I was supposed to go meet with a therapist today but the bank account is telling me otherwise...$110 for the first visit is just not in the budget this week unfortunately. Maybe once we get my financial aid refund and do our taxes (assuming I ever get my W2 since my old job mailed it-but they never changed my address from 3 years ago!) I can go. I was so happy to have finally made an appointment with someone and now I have to cancel...grrr...I just don't want to leave us short on money this week!

I need to go to Target after I take the boys to school and get some stuff for dinner tonight & Sunday night. I think Sunday we are just going to do wings. Even though we probably won't watch the Super Bowl (again this is assuming CJ will be home for dinner, which he has already informed me is not likely) I won't be too upset if he's not home Sunday night since he is usually at the bowling center on Sunday nights. But for Super Bowl Sunday the league bowls in the afternoon so they don't miss the game.

I need to take a test for my Personal Finance class today. I would really like to get my butt in gear and try to get ahead in both of my classes. Maybe I can make that happen this weekend. Tomorrow the boys have bowling in the morning and that is all we have planned for the day. Sunday we have a birthday party to go to in the morning but then when we get home I'll have laundry to do and lunches to make and all the fun stuff that I do on Sundays.

I haven't worn jeans in 5 weeks!!! I've been wearing sweats and yoga pants. I still keep saying my knee is too swollen to wear jeans but I think the swelling has finally gone down enough where I could wear jeans. Maybe I will try on Sunday so I look somewhat presentable at the party. I did my hair and makeup last night for the first time in 5 weeks too, and I had 3 different people ask me how much weight I had lost because my face looked so much thinner. Felt good!!!!

My financial aid refund should go out in the mail on Valentines...That money needs to hurry up and get here! Found out yesterday that two of my aunts are coming to visit the weekend of Valentines. I haven't seen them since this summer so I am so looking forward to their visit! I love having family here. May and June of this past year I saw at least one of my dad's siblings every week and none of them live locally to us. My grandfather had a stroke at the beginning of May so all of my aunts and uncles rotated with my dad to help out. My grandfather is doing much better now :-) He spent almost two months in the hospital/rehab center. Mom and I started looking at flights for our trip to Reno in May...It is so expensive! We have never had to spend this much money for airline tickets for our Nationals trip (and this is my 3rd time going to Reno). Right now we are looking at almost $700 round trip a person. We both have $100 vouchers from Southwest because last year none of our luggage (our entire group of 7) made the plane from Phoenix to Reno-it went to Vegas. It wouldn't have been that big of a deal but the people working at the airport that night could have cared less. It was like pulling teeth to get them to help us fill out the information needed to get our bags sent to us the next morning. I bought a new carry-on bag that has a check-point friendly laptop section so I will be carrying a change of clothes with me on the plane this year. Nothing like sleeping in jeans with no toothbrush when you wake up in the morning!

This has been one random post :-) I hope everyone has a great Friday!!!