{Thursday}
The last time I posted was on Thursday evening (Thanksgiving). I was just about to have pie at my dad's. Shortly after pie, Dodger, Dancer and I all had to take off to head out to my aunt/uncle's place for our Thanksgiving/Birthday get-together. My mom brought her famous cheese soup and there were a few finger foods. There was no regular meal. My mom got on Dancer about wearing one of her ball-caps and even got my aunt and grandmother in on the attack. Dancer finally just left the room after my mom started in on the "after all of the things I've ever done for you and you can't just take it off for me" speech. Dodger did say something after my aunt came in the room. Dodger said Dancer is just a true fan (she was wearing her favorite football team's cap). Stupid thing is, is that my step-dad was wearing a ball-cap, too.
We all ended up playing some games. We talked about plans for Christmas. We hashed out times and what to do about gifts. My grandma ended up whipping out envelopes for all of us with a $50 bill and a note in each one. She wanted us all to spend the $50 on ourselves to get something we really want. We are then to wrap up what we bought and bring it (or a picture of it) covertly on Christmas day. I guess we're going to play a guess-who-bought-this game. We all go home with what we bought but it's just supposed to be a fun way to share what we bought and another way to get to know our family members... or how well do we know our family members.
After games, discussion, cake and ice cream, most of us hung out in the living room and watched a few of them battle it out on the Wii. Some of them bowled, played golf and tennis. Dodger left to head home right about then. We usually drive separately since we like staying longer than he does. I ended up looking through the Black Friday ads for something good to spend my $50 on. I never had any intentions on getting up early and going shopping the next day BUT I found some deals that were just too good to pass up. I have never done the early bird shopping on Black Friday.
Dancer and I had a really good talk on the way home. We talked more about how her granny treats her and about how I went through it. Dancer explained that my step-dad sometimes gets in on the goading sometimes, too. I explained that my mom's actions had nothing to do with her. That my mom tries to control everything and and everyone around her because she's not happy with herself. I told Dancer that her self-worth is not determined by how others treat her but by how she treats herself. I told her that she did the right thing by walking out of the room earlier. Dancer said she can't always do that in every situation. I explained that then she had the choice to either say something about how she's being treated or just laugh it off and let it go.
I let her know that I knew just how tough it is to not let that stuff get to her. She's extremely lucky that she didn't grow up everyday in that situation with my mom. It took me years to move past it and find ways to deal with it in a positive way. I guarantee you that my food addiction was all because of the way I felt about myself because I never measured up in my grandparent's and mom's eyes. I still don't but I no longer escape into food to deal with it. That was another thing we talked about... positive ways to cope. Dancer talked about how she tries to calm down. We brainstormed some positive ways to deal with things instead of ways that only end up hurting ourselves.
Dancer also mentioned some things that Dodger does when they get into it with each other. Things that hurt her and bring her to the point of tears. She said that she tries not to cry because Dodger has made her feel bad for crying. I said it's okay to cry. It's better to cry and get it out then to hold it in and harbor the negative feelings. She said she feels weak when she cries. I think this is because my Dodger has called her a baby when she's cried before. I did let her know that it was okay to talk to her dad about how things he does make her feel but to do it when they aren't in the middle of an argument. I did talk to him about the things that she told me. I made sure that he was aware of how things were hurting her. He seemed to understand and take it to heart. I've been on him for years about the way he responds to Dancer and the way he talks to her when he's frustrated with her. He's not always the best example of adult behavior in these situations. He has gotten much better but there's always room for improvement.
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{Friday}
Like I mentioned, I never had any intentions of getting up and doing the Black Friday shopping but I found some great deals that couldn't be passed up. I had set my alarm for 7am but ended up waking up on my own just before 6. My brain got up and wouldn't be quiet so I ended up just getting up and getting ready. I got Dodger up at 6:30. He agreed to get up and go with me to help with the stuff and because his truck has a tailgate (mine doesn't). The deals I found were at Staples. They had a corner computer desk for $49.99 (this is what Dodger's $50 paid for), a student desk for $29.99 (my gift to Dancer), and office chairs for $39.99 (one for Dancer and one for us). We needed all of them!
Dancer has been using an old student school desk and circa 1980's office chair which crunched her up and was being to hurt her back. Dodger and I had two desks side by side and two book shelves holding our computer things plus our chair had broken off of it's base and wheels early this year and we have been using the chair part stuffed into our little recliner since then. Such a cluttered up set-up and it wasn't good on our back's either.
So Dodger and I got to Staples just after 7. They weren't too crowded. We got someone to help us get a flat-bed hand truck and get us loaded up with what we went there for. We also found an early bird special on a 100 pack of CD-R's for $4.98. Super price, we couldn't pass that up so we grabbed them, too. Once we got all of that stuff unloaded at home, he ran me down to Walgreens to get the 12.1 mega-pixel digital camera that I saw in their sale ad. It's was $69.99. Yeah, it was more than my $50 but there as never any rule that what we bought had to be only $50.
When we got back, Dodger and I started in on putting everything together. We put the corner desk together first. We barely had the space but we managed. Once it was put together then we moved the computer off of the old desk(s) and onto it. We shoved the 2 desks and 2 shelves into the kitchen and got the living room moved into place. We got our chair put together and then we started on Dancer's student desk. By this time, Dancer had woke up and come out to see what we were doing. She was super pleased to see the changes. Dodger and I got her desk half-way put together before he stopped to help Dancer get her room moved around. I continued putting it together while they were moving stuff. They got her computer moved over to the new desk and then put her chair together in her room.
I started to get the three desks and her old chair wiped down and taken out to Dodger's truck. I got the rest of the cardboard thrown out the back door and all of the packing bagged up. Once Dodger and I got the truck bed loaded up (3 desks and a chair) we ran them down to the little thrift shop down the road and helped unload them. Poor lady was there by herself running the place so Dodger and I took them all into the room where she wanted them. Once we got back, Dodger only having about 4 hours of sleep and heading to a friend's later to play poker, took a nap in my room. I started to unload the shelves of computer stuff and started going through everything. I spent the rest of my afternoon and evening sorting and decluttering and packing up the big boxes that the chairs came in with stuff to take down to the thrift store on Saturday. I double stacked (and attached to each other with screws) the shelves and now Dancer has a nice tall shelving unit in her room and I have one in mine. I was up till about 2 working. I think Dodger got home from his poker night around 3. I faintly remember him giving me a kiss on the cheek as I was sleeping.
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{Saturday}
I was up around 10 or so. I hurt SO bad when I woke up BUT I made myself get out of bed because I didn't know what time the thrift store closed and I didn't want those 2 huge boxes sitting in our living room all weekend. I called them after I got up and found out that they didn't close until about 3, so I had enough time to pack some more stuff into one of the boxes that was only half full before loading them into my truck bed and taking them down there. There was a little bit of space left in the last box but I couldn't find anything to shove in there. Sure there is more stuff in my house to take down there but I need to go through and sort more things first.
I did all of the laundry (except mine) in the house. I took up most of the day. 2 loads of Dodger's clothes, 2 loads of Dancer's clothes, a load of rags, a load of towels, a load of blankets, and a load of bath rugs (I did this one last because I use bleach on these). I did more cleaning and organizing. My dad was supposed to come by and pick up a bag of towels and wash rags and some records that I want to keep at his place for safe-keeping. He never did show and didn't call either. I ended up calling him in the evening to find out what the heck was going on. It wasn't like him but I think he was just wiped from a long day at work.
I really wanted to get the stacks of papers sorted and put in the file cabinets but my energy had started to drop around 6. I definitely wasn't going full-steam anymore but I forced myself to get up and do laundry and fold clothes. I also decided to make some old, worn out, PJ pants into hankies so that we don't have to use tissue any more. I had the serger going the rest of the night zipping up hankies. I still need to thread the serger ends back through a bit and clip them but the pants are now upcycled to something new. I changed the black thread to white at the end of the night so that I could make a few more on Sunday out an old worn out shirt of DH's. The white thread will look better with the color of the shirt.
Dancer asked what I was making. I explained and I also mentioned that I was also thinking about making some pee-pee wipes so that we would be using less toilet paper, too. You should have seen the look on her face. She already thinks I'm slightly crazy but she'd swear to you that I had gone over the deep end with that one. The look on her face was priceless. I ended up bursting out laughing later on about it. Dodger asked why I was laughing out-of-the-blue and I explained the look that she gave me.... like I was f'n crazy... pee-pee wipes?... you want me to do what? It's hilarious thinking about it now.
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So it's Sunday morning now. I went to bed around 2:30 this morning. I was up by 9:30. Another day where my brain was up and my body followed suit. I am so sore again. I didn't have the most restful sleep because of being so sore. I have my laundry going now and I'm catching up on my blogging here. Dancer has Nutcracker practice this afternoon.
There is more work to be done around here. I think I may hit the paper sorting and filing today. Dad is supposed to stop some time by today to pick up the stuff. Dodger needs to sort through his computer games and get rid of the old ones that he doesn't play anymore. I'll get those put in cases and put in another load to take down to the thrift store tomorrow.
I need to get my bedroom cleaned again. Many of the cast-off's from the last two days have ended up at the end of my bed on the floor and on the foot of my bed. I'd like to get my featherbed fluffed and my sheets washed, too. I've got more sewing to do, too.
The washing machine has finished so it's time to deal with my laundry and to wash up some dishes.
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