Sunday, December 5, 2004 - Quite A Weekend To Cover

Wow, this weekend has been busy. I haven't had a moment to get online and post.

Friday night was Ironwolf's company holiday party. I always look at these affairs with a bit of dread. Oh, boy, let's go to another party where I meet the same people again and still can't remember any of their names! *laugh*

Really, it's not all that bad. I remembered 3 or 4 people! Not including Ironwolf's former boss (oops). Nice dinner, good company at our table (though no one that I knew before). And it's always a lot easier to socialize after you've gotten a couple drinks in you. I made Ironwolf dance a little, joined in the Electric Slide as I always do, and tried to bite my tongue during the company awards ceremony (instead of making fun of it like last year).

Nearly every woman was dressed in black (as was I). Damn, I have to get me a baby blue dress or something so that I can stand out at one of these parties. Wait.. I'd rather not stand out.

I got a good chuckle about a dress that one young woman was wearing. It was very low cut, and as I was taking to her my eyes kept straying to her chest... There was just no avoiding it! Ironwolf tells me that she dresses like that all the time at work too. Well, I guess, if you've got it, flaunt it, but...

Saturday: good day, quiet, except for an ill-advised trip to the grocery store. I brought both boys, because they wanted to shop with Mommy, and they misbehaved, and the store was surprisingly crowded, and I couldn't find what I wanted. Grrr... oh, well.

My mother called me and informed me that she and my father would be coming to my place on Sunday evening. Yay! I miss my folks so much since they moved several months ago. I knew that my father and my bro-in-law were coming out because my sister and her son are moving down to South Carolina with them. But I was surprised that my mom was joining us too. She was supposed to have started a new job on Monday, but the place rescinded the offer (very upsetting) but since then she has found another position which will start up the next week. So bonus for me though!

I went out scrapbooking that night with one Creative Memories-associated group that has a monthly crop. Usually I go with my sis-in-law, but she was off at her hubby's holiday party. But I still had a couple friends there to chat with (of course, I've gone to crops where I don't know anyone - that doesn't bother me). There was also two people there that have also been to China recently (go figure, in a room of 25 ladies), so we swapped stories. I got a lot done too, so it made me a happy ShadowAngel.

Sunday: Went to church early because I keep missing Thursday night choir rehearsal (because of Ironwolf's schedule) and needed some rehearsal time. Stayed late at church for the same reason. Next Sunday is the annual big music Sunday in Advent, and there is a pile of music I'm not totally comfortable with yet. Also, the choir director would be flogging me with a wet noodle if I didn't show up for some of these rehearsals.

I spent the entire afternoon cleaning up for my parents' visit. I also called up my brother and my other sister to invite them over. My sister wasn't free, but my brother's wife said they would come, so I spent some extra time going through toys to assemble a collection of toys appropriate for their 2-year-old to play with (and removing the small-parts toys that he might be inclined to eat [strangely, Zipper has no interest in mouthing toys anymore, and I don't really need to worry about him choking on small parts {doesn't mean I'm not wary though}]).

My parents arrive and a couple minutes later my sis-in-law calls my mother to tell us that their son is throwing a fit so they decided not to come. What the heck! That's just the lamest excuse. My kids have tantrums too. So what. I put them in their coats, toss them into their car seats, buckle them up, and go. Big fat hairy deal. It's just another excuse. If they didn't want to come all they had to tell me was that they couldn't make it - I would have understood.

Anyway, we were so happy to see them, and they were so happy to see us! The boys just swarmed over their grandparents. I kept their visit a surprise, and they were so excited! We spent some time visiting, talking, and playing, and then we all went to a nice Chinese restaurant (which was, as usual, empty - a shame because it's a great place). It was a lot of fun. Unfortunately my parents had to leave at the end of dinner, but they had a long drive back to my sister's house, and they had been up since 1 AM driving from South Carolina. My mom cried. I know they miss us too.

It will be a couple months before we get to see them again, so I was very grateful that they were able to make some time for us - I know that they have a very busy schedule on this trip, and I was prepared to accept that we would not get to see them this time. Thankfully things worked out!