Carmella's Hang Out

First, Kade and I got our Thursday job back!! For weeks, our employers forgot to leave the door open or the key so we could clean. Then, after that, they got sick and then fell on hard times money wise. It was just better to leave the cleaning to themselves rather than pay us to do it. Things are better now for them, so they asked us to come back to every other week cleaning. Perfect timing, with Christmas shopping being well underway here in our house! We have cleaned once since going back, and I found that the weight loss seems to have helped me in being able to clean better. Not meaning that I am better at cleaning now, but more that I am not in as much pain while doing it. This is just another blessing I am finding!! If all goes the way it is suppose to, we should have one more time there before Christmas.

Saturday, the first of December, we had our Students and a neighbor family over for a Christmas Caroling party around our neighborhood. Mum, Kade, and I made a bunch of goodies for it, and we got three dozen donuts from my work which meant we had more than enough food that night. And it was all so yummy!! I was disappointed because none of the people I invited came….and all but one did not even reply to my invitation! It was a blast though. Being that all but my family, the one homeschooling neighbor family, and one of our student’s fiancé, were from Sri Lanka and China, the cold got to the majority of the group faster than we had planned. The singing had to be cut short, but they all said they liked it a lot and asked when we could do it again. It turned out that they had another party to go to later on in the evening, and had to leave after some visiting over hot cocoa and snacks.

The next day we went to a reception for one of my cousins. He and his wife were married last month in North Carolina, and asked family and friends to come celebrate the union that day. The bride, of course, was beautiful in her dress, and it was so cool to see my cousin in his new role as husband! He looked unmistakably happy, and I am so excited for him.

It was also great to see so much of our extended family! Grandpa’s health being what it is, a big family gathering Christmas day will not take place this year. That is very possibly that last time we will see any of them before next year. Kade and I worked very hard and got all of our cousin and family gifts all ready and together for that day. We got some strange looks, with some even saying they had yet to start shopping let alone have the gifts ready! That was fun. What was even better, was my Grandmother saying she did not even know who Kade and I were when we walked in! How awesome is that? I wondered why she did not smile or have any look of recognition on her face when I waved to her! lol. When she came and sat next to me for a bit, she said that the weight loss had really changed the two of us. She was also so sweet in remembering that my last allergy attack came from Walnuts, and she asked about the test results and if I had been to the ER since then. When I let her know that the walnut attack was my last, and that the results came back with walnuts being the only positive for now, she got up and grabbed a bag of shelled nuts and gave them to Mum! She sat back down next to me, patted my hand and said, “You can have hickory nuts then!” I love my Grandma! She is such a cool lady! I feel so bad that I forgot the magnet I got for her! A few weeks ago, while I was out with Kade at the mall, I found a magnet that says “Great Buddy. Smart Lady. Grandma” It was not until we were half way there that I realized I had left it behind. I didn’t want it to be a Christmas gift, and instead a just because gift for her. Grandpa was in a bit better condition that day that I had expected. He knew who my Dad was, and I was glad for that. It is never easy to see how much he is failing, but I was thankful that I got to say hi to him again.

Monday was just a strange day at work! Really insane! I got there at 6 for the start of my shift. The sun had not even begun to spread any light on our world, when two people came in asking for the use of our phone. Turns out, they had just had a car crash out front of our store and needed to call the police. The lady in the front car had a pretty banged up arm and was in need of an ice bag. The weather had not seemed too bad out side when I got in, but we were all told that not only was it very cold out, but the roads were also icy. As the two drivers sat waiting in the lobby, those of us behind the counter were talking about it all when we saw a car begin to spin in the middle of the road! It slammed into another small car, and both vehicles turned into our parking lot. After another call to the police, this time from a cell phone outside, our lobby was occupied by four car wreck victims of two different crashes! In the next hour, we watched one of our regulars mow down our electric enter sign, smashing the hood of her little SUV all up, another woman veer across two lanes and right into our mail box before just driving off, and a van run aground, either because of ice or just trying to avoid a crash. Thats right! No less than four actual accidents, and at least one strange driving behaviour! By the time Mum was back out on the roads that afternoon to take David to work and pick me up from mine, there was no ice around at all! It was strange!

Tuesday was pretty much a day. Not much to report there. Went to work. Bout all I can remember from that day! lol. Sorry if there was something I was spose to! Oh…wait. Yeah. There was one more thing. Kade and I were asked to help a neighbor out for a bit. She looked at it as asking us to do a job, but what it really came down to was playing for an hour and a half or more with her little one year old while her mother rested!! The little guy is a cutie and her mother is a sweet lady, even if we can’t understand each other half the time due to the language barrier! {She is from Brazil, though her English is getting better and better all the time. I would say we do pretty well}

Wednesday was a very cool day!! Lately, since I have to go out anyway {My boss has been giving me every Wednesday off, probably just cause we already have enough people on that day, so I use it was my shot day} I have done a bunch of errands and what not for that day. I pick up prescriptions, go visiting, do shopping, and what have you. This time, I had a big list and one of the last items on my list had me very excited! Thankfully, I was not disappointed!! I left around 12:30 and picked up some photos at WalMart. I then went to get my shots and pick up next month’s inhaler across the street. A quick trip to the Army Navy store proved to provide me with three Christmas gifts! I really like that store! From there, it was on to the mall to get even more Christmas shopping done and have the car there for when David got off work. I have been to that mall many times since David started working there, but when I actually went in with the idea of looking at things to buy, rather than just to look at, I found just how little there is there that I can afford! I was excited though, to find a gift for Sarah Hope!!! YAY!! David drove the car home, but parked it out front of the house instead of in the spot so that I could take over driving and be on the road again. That was what I had been looking forward to all day long! I went to see my PT crew!!! My heat tech knew that I would be in sometime this week, but my therapist didn’t!! {A and I still keep in touch and I last week I asked when they would be in. She told me that both she and H were gone on vacation starting the 7th, and said ’see ya next week’.} I had not seen H since my last day of PT back in March! So much has changed for me since then and I was excited to share it all with her, see her again, and thank her again so much for all that she did for me. I also had some Christmas gifts for the two of them, and it was fun to see them open them up. My fear was that my physical therapist would not remember who I was, or almost worse….not see any difference from March. That was why I went to get the photos first! I had that February photo printed so that I could show her my before. As it turned out, I didn’t really even need it, since she DID see the difference! She did not recognize me right away, and said that was due to the change that had taken place since last I was there! She gushed over my progress, told me how proud she was of me, and seemed truly happy to see me again. I stayed in the office a lot longer than I thought I would be able to, and left with a request from both of my ‘crew’ to come visit again sometime!! When I got out of the office I found that the sun had gone down and dark had descended on everything, but I took off to yet another mall for one last quick stop! That one didn’t take long, yet was fun none the less! I had another gift to drop off and that is always fun! heh. Plus, I like visiting the theatre and our friend there!

I worked the next two days, which brings me to today. Work was pretty good, being fun for the most part. Some hiccups along the way, but we laughed a lot still!

Mum, Kade, and the kids came to pick me up and we went to Meijer then on to pick up David. {I got even MORE of my Christmas shopping done at Meijer!!} On the way home from getting David, Sam let out a high pitched scream then began to cry. Through tears he was finally able to get out that he had picked up a rubber snow globe earlier and while playing with it there in the car he burst it into his face! The snow, glitter and whatever liquid filled it {it smelled really bad and may have been some kind of alcohol} went right into his eyes and all over his face. Worried for his eyes, we cut our day short and just went home after that, Sammy having to keep his eyes closed the entire drive back!! The rest shall have to be done tomorrow morning! I get to send out some of my Christmas packages!! yippee!!

I am sure there is much more I could type about, but I have taken up so much time already….I think I shall save anything else for a later entry. Hoping that tomorrow will hold more good events and news, as I have BOTH days of this weekend off!! YAY. The plans are working themselves out in my head. We shall see how much of them actually come to be.

LATER!!

“Count your blessings name them one by one”