The holidays are mostly over... time to play a little catch-up around here.
Friday, Christmas Day, I woke up early and then woke Dancer up to come out and open her presents. She didn't get much but I know she wanted everything she got. She got a Lakers jersey, a Dodgers jersey and a huge stuffed white tiger. We also got her a Snuggie which was one of those after-thought gifts just to get her something extra under the tree. She already got her computer desk and chair the day after Thanksgiving. Dodger and I didn't get each other anything. There was no money for that.
Dancer and I headed out early to the grandparents house so we could stop by my dad's on the way there to pick up her Wii remotes she left there the night before. We didn't even end up using the Wii at all this day.
We had brunch/lunch just around noon at my grandparents. Dodger was a little late getting out there. We were getting ready to eat as he arrived. After we ate, we did the few gifts for the "kids" and grandparents and then did our $50 gifts that we bought for ourselves with the money grandma gave us at Christmas. That was enjoyable and I almost guessed everyone right. If I hadn't second-guessed myself when it came to my step-dad's gift, I would have gotten everyone right. We also played this hilariously funny game called '4 on the couch'.
For dinner we had this build-a-mountain thing that my aunt Jodi had seen done somewhere else. I'll have to get the "recipe" from her and post it.
The rest of the evening we played games. A few board games, a few card games, and Guestures. It was an evening with few family issues, which was nice. The old-folks were ready for bed by 10, so all of us had left for home by 10:30.
I was feeling good today until Dodger got home from shopping and just started bitching about stuff. It wasn't even important stuff. Talk about letting it sour my mood. I probably would have been fine if he had stopped when I asked him to but he won't.
By the time I went to dinner I was feeling better. But when I got there I got stuck in the muddy/rocky driveway. I was frustrated with the situation and instead of my mom being positive and saying it was no big deal, she harped on it. That set my mood for the rest of the evening. Nothing like having your mom be a bitch at Christmas time. Sometimes I really want to tell her to f-off. I want to tell her that we are moving in a few years and she can finally be rid of the daughter and granddaughter that don't live up to her standards.
I'm also really sore from my weights workouts from yesterday and today. I feel like I'm getting sick but I can't tell if my aches are from illness or exercise. The rainy weather is also giving me a bad headache that I can't get rid of.
Dodger was also in a pissy, weird mood tonight. I'm sure it's from a mixture of things... from having her normal routine interrupted, being tired, getting annoyed with her cousin, being annoyed that she has to dress-up for my mom and can't just be accepted for wearing what she wants.
This happens to be one of those days that I'm glad is almost over. I hope tomorrow is better.
Blogging now since I'm not sure I'll have time later.
I slept till nearly noon today. I had a few days of less than ideal sleep to get caught up on. I got up and did half of the dishes in the sink and I did a lower body toning routine that's free on exercisetv.tv after Dodger left to go find a few more low-cost gifts and stocking stuffers for Dancer. My upper body is sore from yesterday and I'm feeling weak from the lower body workout already. I still feel tired but I'm hoping that eating will help me recharge.
I did end up doing a walking workout last night before bed. I threw in the 3-mile WATP workout and went to town without weights and mostly modified arms since I had already done the upper body workout earlier in the day.
Dancer should be out shopping with my dad, uncle and cousin right now. Dad is taking her shopping for her to get a few gifts for us. We don't need her to get us stuff but Dancer loves giving gifts. There are definitely less gifts under the tree this year and all the way around but this season isn't about the gifts anyway. It's about the renewing of the spirit and the rebirth of the Sun/Son. ;)
This evening we are headed to my step-dad's family thing. It's not our favorite place to go. His family are just big bumps on a log and the little grand-kid is a spoiled rotten thing of a kid. He's really manipulative. It's his mom's fault because she still treats him as if he's a baby. He's half-way through Kindergarten and his mom still feeds him. I just try to ignore him when he's acting that way. I see right through him and so does my side of the family... Dodger, Dancer, mom and step-dad. We don't play into his game. I go because I do it for my step-dad. He and I get along better than my mom and I do.
I still need to do a walking workout or two and I need to eat. I'll need to wrap up a few gifts when Dodger gets home and then we'll both be needing to get ready to head out for the evening. Maybe I'll have a chance to blog again later to post what tomorrow is going to bring. Maybe I'll have a chance tomorrow, who knows. I don't know if my grandparents have WiFi or not. I can always blog throughout the day and then send it after I get home.
Happy Holidays to everyone who reads here. I hope yours brings you blessings and that you continue to look forward and learn from the past.
Tues. Dancer had asked the night before if I would take the two of them ice skating. Her cousin has never been ice skating and Dancer had yet to go this season. So I checked online to see what the skate times were before going to bed Mon. night.
I set my alarm for 9:30 to get up and shower before needing to wake the girls up. The website said that the skate time was from 12-1 for $2 plus skate rental. I made them breakfast while they got cleaned up and we got to the rink just before noon.
We had to mess around with the skates a few times to get them to feel comfortable and fit right. That took up skate time. Then I heard some mom's talking about what time the session ended. I was expecting 1 pm but since they charged me $4 each plus skates I figured it must be longer. So I went back up to the counter and asked. The dude said that they no longer have the 12-1 skate for $2 and that the session is now from 11-1. I was like, well you need to tell the people upstairs to change your website because I just paid full price for them to skate for an hour. He was like, well we take care of that. He could tell I was mad and should have done the right thing and refunded the extra that I paid since it was their fault but he didn't. I think I'm going to call and talk to someone upstairs about it.
At some point my uncle did call me to apologize for Mon. night. My dad called to see if I would take my uncle grocery shopping since they had hardly any food in the house. I guess my uncle had lost his only key to his car in his drunken stupor the night before so he couldn't go pick up his car. I told him that I was tired of running around and didn't really want to. If my uncle's DD had decided she wanted to go back out to my dad's then I would have gone grocery shopping for them before I took her back out but she wanted to stay with us another night.
At some point in the evening I decided to go grocery shopping for them anyway. I have some extra money wrapped up on my food stamp card, so I went shopping and then around 10 pm I ran the stuff over to my dad at work so he could take it home.
My uncle Pat also called. I was able to talk to him about the junk going on with my uncle Steve and his drinking. I needed to talk to someone who was closer to it but not as close as my dad. I tried to talk about healing and freedom but he only *got it* a bit. My dad doesn't get it at all. It was nice just to be able to talk about it. I needed to get all that had happened over the past two days off of my chest. I'm just sad that my uncle is still enslaved to the addiction after all these years. He was sober for 17 years but went back to the addiction after his marriage fell apart. It's going on 5 years now and he's had moments of slowing down but has never stopped drinking.
Today we didn't go anywhere. My dad took my uncle out to his car to see if they could take out something on the steering column and go have a key made. They ended up calling a locksmith who wasted a bunch of time. I guess he didn't end up having the right sized blank and never called to tell them. Then they had to call a tow to come get the car and tow it to a place to have a key made. I was assuming that after the car was running that my uncle would come pick up his DD but I end up getting a call from him after he got back home to my dad's.
I did try an upper body weight lifting routine that is free on exercisetv.tv. They have a lot of great free full-length exercise routines on there. I can tell my arms are going to be really sore tomorrow. I should have walked but didn't make time to do it earlier.
I had decided, after talking to my dad, that it would be ok for Dancer to stay over tonight. He talked to my uncle to lay down some ground rules. He knows I'm hesitant to leave her with him after Mon. night's incident. Dad is taking her shopping tomorrow, so it's easier to have her spend the night there instead of coming in here to get her in the morning. So since my uncle went home instead of seeing if he should come pick up the girls, I had to drive them out there. We didn't rush it. I still had to finish Dancer's laundry so she would have her dressy clothes for Christmas Eve dinner with my step-dad's family. My dad and step-dad's mom live in the same little town, so I'm picking Dancer up on the way there tomorrow evening. So, we got everything packed up and headed out there around 6. We were almost there when I started hearing this really loud noise. I was like, no way, I DON'T HAVE A FLAT TIRE! Ugh. I had to drive on the rim a little way to get to the gas station at the edge of town. I tried to call my uncle but he didn't answer. Then I tried to call my dad because I wasn't sure if we still had his hydraulic jack from working on my breaks. So I ended up calling Dodger to tell him I needed help.
He had to get the jack loaded up and drive the 25 min. there. By that time my uncle had called me because he was wondering when I was bringing the girls out. Turns out he was on the phone when I called. I asked him to come down and get the girls because they were bored. So he did that. After a bit he came back down to check on me. By that time Dodger had gotten there, so he helped handle the jack while Dodger changed the tire. All of this in the nasty cold rain.
On the way back home I noticed some shiny crap strewn across the road near where I first noticed the issue with my tire. It's possible whatever that was caused my flat. Actually it's more than a flat, it tore up my tire. I still had to go to the grocery store to pick up some items I'm supposed to bring on Christmas Day... garbanzo beans and sliced olive. We're making something. I don't know what it is. I was also going to pick up a movie from the Redbox since I had a free code from an online survey place. The didn't have the movie we wanted to I picked up "Year One" instead. When I got home I saw that Dodger had picked up a pizza and bread sticks on his way home. So we ate and watched the movie. The movie was mediocre. I don't recommend it.
I totaled up my calories. Ugh. Pizza night is never good. I'll spare you the details. I just have a lot of exercise to do from now till next Monday's weigh in. I'm going for a no gain on Monday. We'll see. If it's a gain, it will be understandable.
We then watched Planes, Trains and Automobiles. It's one of Dodger's favorite movies. I picked it up from the library yesterday.
It's after midnight now. I'm thinking it's not a good idea to do a walking video now but maybe I'll just throw the 1 or 2 mile walk in. I've got to burn off some of that pizza I ate earlier.
