Weekended

Another busy weekend...

Friday - found out I have a new job.  Holy shit.  I am excited/nervous about it.  I have been enjoying my nice little quiet corner, doing my job and coming home, and not thinking about it in between.  I am not looking forward to having to be on call, or travelling, or having to log in at night.  I have been working on my work/life balance, and I am afraid of what this will do to that. 
But on the other hand, I have been getting increasingly frustrated and bored with the job I am doing now, so I guess I need a change.  Here's hoping I do well, and that the people around me are patient and understanding.

Friday was the gift exchange and lunch out at work- Sahla Thai- YUMMERS!  Gifts were nice and fun, thanks everyone.

Friday night was the social get-together.  Not allowed to call it a Christmas party.  Food was ok, lots of shrimp.  Company was better.  Hung out with Dawn R., Dawn C., Teresa, Michelle and Kevin, Terressa, Jolene, Judy, Lynnie, Jamie and his wife, Nicole, and lots of others.  Drank lots and had fun.  Thanks to Joel K for the cigar and prop.  If you see the pictures, you know what I mean.

Had to get up early on Saturday to drive down to Leamington for Geoff's grandma's 90th birthday party.  The kids went to my mom and dad's and Dawn came with us.  It was a good drive, we made great time.  The party, in and of itself, was fine.  Grandma Hyatt seemed to have a good time, she was surrounded by her friends and family.  I got to see and meet some people that I have either not seen in years, or never met before.  How Geoff and his sisters keep all these people straight, I have no idea.  I can barely remember my immediate family, let alone all their great aunts and uncles and such.   But it is always nice to catch up with the people that I DO know.

Geoff's mother was upset with us, however, and I feel badly about that.  She assumed that we were bringing the kids to the party, and we assumed she knew that we weren't.  I don't rightly understand why it was so important to her that they were there. She sees them more now then she probably ever has, and Grandma Hyatt certainly didn't seem bothered by the fact that they weren't.  Maybe it was to prove a point, I don't know.  Either way, she was upset- upset enough to push the point past our normal, "safe" ground, and get into an almost- almost- confrontational place. 

Let me be clear- I love my mother-in-law.  She is a wonderful person.  We have never had any of the drama that you might expect with that kind of relationship.  She has always made me feel welcome, and we have always been able to chat and visit, even without Geoff as a buffer.  I feel very comfortable with her and my father-in-law both.  They are great people. 

That being said, I think I can only rememer one time that I have ever had anything close to an arguement with her.  That doesn't mean that she hasn't done things to irritate me- of course she has.  Everyone in my life has irritated me at one time or another.  Why should she be any different?  But most of the time, I just bitch about it to Geoff, and it's over. :)  Easy-peasy. 

That's what made the conversations and the overall interaction with her this weekend extra-special weird.  I just got a sense of alot of tension, and unhappiness.  I am sure some of it was carry over stress from having to deal with her mother- that is a relationship with lots of unresolved issues.  But some of it was me and Geoff and our decision to leave the kids at home.  While I stand by that decision, I am sorry it bothered her.  So, if you are reading this, my apologies if I made a stressful day any harder.  And I am sorry I called you a jerk and told you to shut up when we were leaving. :)  I know you know I was joking. 

Anyway- we finished the party and went to visit Geoff's Uncle Larry.  He has breathing issues and has been in the hospital for 8 days.  He looked much better than I expected, but was still uncomfortable, so we didn't stay long- about 45 minutes or so.  It probably would have been shorter, but we all talked to Aunt Nadine on the phone and that added a lot of time to the visit.  :)  They are sweet people, and are probably the ones, out of all Geoff's aunts and uncles, that seem the most like family to me.  All of the aunts and uncles are nice, but Aunt Nadine and Uncle Larry are the best.  Put it this way, I have zero problem calling them Aunt and Uncle. <3

After that visit, we made our way home.  Geoff's dad gave us craptastic directions, so it took us about an hour and 20 minutes longer to get home that it would have normally taken.  By the time we hit Burlington, I was getting really worried about falling asleep at the wheel so I traded off with Geoff and crashed out til we hit home.  I did discover that I probably need glasses for driving at night, and Dawn and I sang our hearts out to Supernatural and Glee songs.  It was great.

Today, I picked up the kids from Grammie and Papa who they had terrorized over night.  Sawyer came straight home, but Bastian wanted to see the Count, so he and I went for a drive up and down Clifton Hill, then picked up lunch for everyone.  We came home, and started to clean the house.  I asked Geoff to help, and he did, but he wasn't happy about it.  I hate having tension in the house, but I knew asking him about why he was so angry that I wanted to clean would just start a fight, so I stayed zipped about it.  He eventually got over it, and everything went back to normal.  I got the cleaning done, and started decorating for the holidays.  The kids' rooms each got a mini tree set up- pink for Sawyer and blue for Sebastian.  Sawyer lost her shit over it, she was so excited.  Hers is still lit, right  beside her bed as she is sleeping.

We acutally got Sawyer to pee in the potty today.  It's the second time.  I am trying not to pressure her about it, so that she can figure out on her own what she wants to do, in her own good time.  But it will be nice when she is finally trained. 

We had chinese for dinner.  Yummy. 

So, now it is time for bed.  Tomorrow is another busy day- work, with just me and Joel.  Val is off til January, so it is going to be crazy.  It is a horrible time for it to be just the two of us, but it is a reality.  I am also supposed to be learning this new job, and I don't know how that is supposed to go.  And tomorrow night is Sebastian's Christmas concert at school.  Prepare for the waterworks, folks.  I always cry when kids sing.

Geoff is yelling at me, because it is so late.  He's right, I can barely keep my eyes open. 

Rosie N. Grey
The N stands for "night, night."  Yeah, I used it before, so what???