Pink Flamingo on Toast

I'm loving that I have the next week off. I really need to catch up on laundry. It's been piling up. I'm hoping to do a little bit between Animal Crossing: City Folks breaks. Yes..I'm addicted and yes if you have that game you should email me so we can exchange friend codes. Ok..time to fold some laundry so I can get back to my game....

I have a wonderful life. I'm blessed with a good husband and a good job. We have a roof over our heads and can pay the bills. Today sucked though...Jerry has some stomach bug so he was out of commission all day. That meant no yummy turkey cooking all day because it would have been just for me and I'm sure the smell would have made him sicker. We headed over to the nursing home around 10ish and found out that MIL had ripped off her toe nail and it was bleeding. All I could think of is, "Oh great...she really needs this foot so she better take care of it". She also had a huge red patch on her shin which the nurse said was cellulites and that they would have to call the doctor about that. So that on top of her stomach flu. Fun eh? I don't know how much more she or we can take. We opened presents with her and then headed to a common area to open presents with Melissa (Jerry's sister), Dennis (Her husband) and Ashley (Dennis' daughter). Not really ...

We just went out and bought 70 things for people. Sure, the most of them are inexpensive things but yet we still had to put them on the conveyor belt at the check out. The best news is that we are about 98% done with our shopping. Thursday I go and pick up a wheelchair accessible van for us to use over the weekend to get Jerry's mom around to various things. (i.e. dr. appt, shopping and a Christmas in GA) Friday, I am going on a field trip with my students to see " The Tale of Despereaux ". If you haven't read the book, you should. It's cute and a fun little read. The kids are excited about the movie although it's not captioned so....I'm not really sure how that is going to work *shrug* You can tell it's the week before break at school. The kids are hyper and the teachers look like they are definitely ready for a break!

So I guess I need to jump into this holiday spirit sooner rather than later. Tomorrow starts what is going to be a whirlwind couple of weeks. It all starts with the need to go find something cute to wear for Jerry's company Holiday Party. It's at the University Club so I want to look nice. That means running around tomorrow and trying to find something. Wheeee? We also need to start our Christmas shopping as it's sneaking up on us. We need to wrangle in around 55-ish $2 gifts for one side of the family and about 8-ish for the other side. My family is easy..they are all getting the same thing. (Can't say as some of them might read this). Then we just have Jerry's sister and her family (total 3) and my Mom and Dad (they are easy though!) Oof..I'm overwhelmed just thinking about all this. I was talking to my mom earlier about how the material things are bringing me down this year and I would just be happy with seeing people. She laughed and said "...

I don't know if it's age or just the past six months of family crisis that makes me just want to walk up to people and shake them saying "It doesn't matter what you "get" people, just hug them, let them know you care!" This time of year is hard for me anyway. Being in Florida while my family is in Michigan and Texas always kind of bums me out. Last year was great because Mom and Dad came down for Thanksgiving. We shared a nice holiday together with Jerry's parents. This year will be doubly difficult as it's the first for Jerry without his Dad. I don't know if that's sunk in yet for him. I think he's too busy trying to keep his mom's spirits up. My dad is having another procedure today to clean out the cancer in his bladder. I really wish I was there. It's outpatient but still....he's my dad! Mom said he has been busy all week putting up decorations for Christmas. I remember growing up and the house was covered ...

Leave it to me to get one heck of a nasty cold during a very long weekend. It's been gross. I feel like a bit snot ball. I took the day off today because I didn't think I could interpret between my running nose, sneezing spells and wiping my eyes. It was a good thing I stayed home too. I slept until 2pm. That's right...2 freakin' P. M. I'm feeling fairly well considering my head feels like a 20lb bowling ball. *Checks to see if she has 3 holes in the back of her head and the word Homer inscribed anywhere on her head* Talked to Mom today. They have lots of snow. I miss how lovely it looks but don't miss scraping my car off. Dad had a doctor's appointment today and they said he has "low grade bladder cancer". Not really sure what that means but from what Mom says is that it's very treatable. He goes in Saturday for another procedure to clean out the tumors and then will start a "wash" every week. Its tough being so far ...