Tax Day!

It's deadline day for W-2s. I am still waiting on a couple of them, which makes me cranky. The earned income credit is very good to us, and propane isn't getting any cheaper this year.
Off to a short day at school, Then errands and Job 2. Tomorrow night I actually took off so we can take Thing 3 to meet G'ma D for her b'day weekend. In the next two weeks I have two evenings and a Sunday free to do something with my family. I have to be anal about scheduling and planning. Hate that, because I suck at it.
Off to get ready for school.

Holy frostbite, Batman!

Windchills -42 f. Yowch. Actual temp -15. If you can make a beeline from the house door to the car door and avoid the wind, it's only really insanely cold. Surprisingly enough, both Job 1 and 2 were busier today than Monday before the cold settled back in. Not much moved yesterday, but it doesn't take too long before born and bred Minnesotans develop an in-your-face attitude about the cold. I met a friend in her seventies at the door of the store across the street form Job 1. "I was only coming across the street," she stated, "my car is warm." explaining her lack of coat or mittens. Maybe it's just senility.
Filed Thing 1's very first tax return. The little bugger is quite excited about the prospect of her first refund. Now it's late and I'm shot. Nite!

A day off?

Thing 4 has a virus that prevents me from going to school today, as iPastor has two night shifts in a row, so he can't watch him. This leaves me with a whole day at home. I will not be poking my head any further out the door than necessary, now that our January thaw is over, and another Alberta clipper has brought back the cold with a vengeance. I have cookies in the over, hot chocolate ready to go for when the school bus comes home, and I am ready to relax until tomorrow, when the two-job days start again.

Ready, Set, Monday

Another week and we're off and running. I work my normal schedule at Job 1 (MWFSS), and I've picked up some shifts at Job 2 to fill in for a quitter. All day school on Tuesday, one class only on Thursday. Haircuts for mom and Thing 2, then Thing 2's high school registration. That will be two of my very own Things in high school. No. Way. They are not that old yet. Neither am I...

Inter-waitress ranting

We were crazy busy at Job 2 last night. We had a regular Saturday crowd and a short staff. Instead of the normal camaraderie, however, everyone was testy and short-tempered. As the evening wore on, I noticed one of the other waitresses in the workstation with her cell phone. She was texting away, having an argument with her fiancee. I thought it was a bit silly, but made no mention as my kids frequently call me about dumb stuff at work, so who am I to judge. Today at Job 1, we got about halfway into lunch when my partner started arguing via text with her brother. She was in tears most of her shift. Is it contagious or what?
***
I may or may not have told the bathroom story here. It may have been on the incarnation of Sauce for the Goose that is lost to the ether. You may have heard it before. I don't care, I'm telling it again (I have a point). As a mom of 4, bathroom privacy is fleeting. Having a defective doorlatch doesn't help matters any. I am frequently barged in upon for lunch money requests, phone calls, bill conferences, or just a friendly chat while I am in the tub or trying to peacefully perform any manner of bodily functions. One day, the whole fam damily was off somewhere and I had he house to myself. I headed for the bathroom, and actually had the conscious thought of "Hey, I get the bathroom all to myself for a change." As I sat there, a little paw came under the door, pushed it open, and in sauntered the cat. I get no respect. Anyway, I told you that, because it made this just that much more funny to me.

Dancing girls!

So here's the promised video. I cleaned off the camera Sunday when grandma visited, so I thought I had an empty memory card. The kids filled it with junk, tho, so I didn't get the whole thing. She can buy a pro video for her memories, but this gives her mom something to see! Enjoy.

Sneakin' around

Tonight was slow at work, so I finished early and swung through town to grab a jug of milk and pick up a few things. As I tried to remember what we needed, I ran into iPastor. He actually had a list and everything. So we spent a couple hours and most of his paycheck with no kids in tow. Weird kinda date, but these days I'll take what I can get.

Last dance

Last nite as I pulled into town, I noticed orange cones in the intersection. That means one thing hereabouts: busted water main. They got it back up and running by bedtime, but I had to flush with distilled water, and it made me cranky. Our water here is unmetered. When we first moved to town we paid a flat rate of $19/month. Then TPTB decided we need a new sewer plant, and started hiking our bills. We now pay $68/month. for that much, the dang water better work. Oh well, at least it's not my heat bill. The first tank of propane this year lasted 48 days. At $675, that was $14/day. The next tank was $840. Lets hope we get at least 60 days out of that one...
Tonite was the last performance for JV danceline, so I took a video. I was trying to work on it but I am too tired to monkey with relearning iMovie tonite, so I'll get it posted later. Maybe Sunday. Friday and Saturday are two-job days, but I'm bucking for Sunday off. See ya on the other side!

Where's my worm?

Methinks my body may be reverting to the early bird schedule. Not such a bad thing, once I get used to popping awake at 4:30 am. The butt crack of dawn, indeed.
Yesterday I rolled out about 5:45, all prepared to hit the road by 6:15. Strategic before-bed planning is imperative, as I can stumble into my clothes and have coffee before my body even realizes it is upright. The effort was well-rewarded yesterday, though, as I drove out into a crystal clear pre-dawn, with a startlingly blue full moon reflecting on new snowfall. We didn't get much here, just enough to dust everything and clean it up. My fellow commuters from the south fared less well; I heard tales of commutes the same distance as mine that took two hours. The Metro news reported lots of accidents as well. Come spring we'll miss the moisture, but I haven't missed the ditch (or rather, I have consistently missed the ditch. You decide.)
I hadn't planned on waking so early this morning, but my brain dictated otherwise, and the beagle reinforced it with an early morning visit for some long-overdue attention. I was up and had the dishes done (that I wasn't here to use, how does that work?) and the laundry running before I roused the kids from their beds a few minutes early out of sheer spite. No-one missed the bus today, and the mood was definitely improved. May have to try that again tomorrow. I've even kept the laundry going while I did my online homework and checked the mail. Now I am having a little goof-off time before I get ready for work. The kids have an early out today, and no-one has work or practice. I foresee a pleasant evening at home. I'll let you know when the other boot drops.

Jiggity Jig

One more dreadfully long day today. I enjoy my classes, just not the layout. I've been making good use of my break time, though, searching job sites and working on my online class. Too pooped for any real content here, though. TTFN.

Observation...

...when outlining chapter notes, it's best not to mix them up with Yertle the Turtle, even though the four-year-old wants to read it one more time.

Brrrr

It is old news around here that the temperature is FREAKIN' COLD! By the time we get used to it, it warms up, if only slightly. Dinner today at job 1 was decent, as people came out who were sick of being housebound. Sometimes we hearty Minnesotans do something just to spite the weather. The sun shone today, too. That makes a big difference.
Saturday was a different story; nothing was moving that didn't have to. We had planned to go to Marshall to watch the las JV Dance performance, as Alex is on danceline. The idea was to meet up with the G'mas on their weekly foray to Marshall, but that wasn't coming off as planned, and in the end, I couldn't justify spending the gas money and the $25 to get the family in the door, to risk a trip in dangerously cold weather. I picked up a shift at Job 2, then we had an impromptu birthday party for Thing 3 with her neighborhood friends, a pot of chili and a funfetti cake, per the Birthday Girl's request.
The cold weather has been opportune for my activity of choice, which is reading like a madwoman. This is a lit-heavy semester, so there's a lot to be done. The Austen has breezed by; Hemmingway not so much. Textbooks, even when they contain good information, are written to put me to sleep, so I have to do those in very small doses. The latter has proven to be an awesome sleep-aid, so I'm off.

Happy Birthday Thing 3

Here we find Thing 3 early last month, as she discovered that Saint Niklaus had traveled all the way from Germany to leave goodies in her shoe. Ew.

My goodness, has it been 10 whole years since nearly 10 pounds of baby arrived on a winter afternoon? Ten years of chirpy little sunshine, always a song, always trying to be like her sisters, now trying to be a big sister to her little buddy. Wow. I sought long and hard for just the right picture or pictures to post, and learned that I really have to get going with the scanner (or find some serious bribeworthy incentive to get iPastor on it.) Anyway, Happy Birthday to you, baby girl.

This could be a long semester

I just got the official email about our new time/room for the early bird Ed. course I mentioned before. The instructor said it was a pleasure "facilitating our learning" on Tuesday. Oh dear. 15 more weeks of educational theory-speak. Strength...

Studious

So I've spent most of the past couple days reading Pride and Prejudice. A very engaging read, once one adapts the rhythm of the archaic language. I'm thinking this class may be as much fun as the Tennessee Williams.
This morning was relatively quiet and completely free of misfit cats. I got to be the hero for letting the kids sleep in and dropping them off on my way to school. Fun. Tonite is Job 2, now with Karaoke goodness. I'm trying to shake a nagging headache, so we'll see how the evening pans out.

Heckuva way to wake up

Got the kids off on the bus and curled back up in bed to wait for Thing 4 to wake up. As we were dozing peacefully, I had just heard him starting to chirp when we were jolted out of bed by a blood-curdling scream. I hadn't heard a thud or crash, but my heart was pounding as I bolted out into the hallway to investigate. I found him sitting calmly on the stairs. "The kitties were scared," he said. I reported back to iPastor that all was well, if weird. "Cats don't make that noise." he said, and I was in agreement. It sounded like a woman screamed in my hallway. I think Thing 4 may have startled and yelped a bit as well, but I couldn't think of any other explanation. Oddly enough, the cats have never been that loud before, though they frequently tussle. I chalked it up to the younger one approaching heat, until iPastor called up from downstairs, "Well, here's the problem." as he found Fuzznut staring down a black and white stray in the living room. The doors were all closed, but we have some issues with the closers not working properly, so the newcomer may have taken advantage of a gap between the kids trucking out to the bus stop. iPastor got kitty shooed out, and we got our two little ladies calmed down. As he was breaking up the fight, the cat was moaning and yowling as they do, but I also distinctly heard it say "Meow." It sounded just like a person. Weird. Now Fuzz is kneading my lap and threatening to jump on the keyboard to put a stop to my blatant neglect of her needs, so I'd better get busy paying attention to her. Worse things to do on a January morning than love on a warm fuzzy cat.

One down...

...15 to go.
Tuesdays just got longer. The 8:00 am class is moving to 7:15 to accommodate some history majors who have a conflict with one of their other required courses. That puts me on the road at 6:15 to have plenty of wiggle room for coffee stops, pee breaks, etc. Getting out of the house early is a small blessing. I seem to get hung up when we're all trying to leave at the same time. I can be up and out before they get started. I spent my very long break getting my online Alcohol awareness class straightened out, passwords and the like, as it is through Lake Superior College. Then I spent some time online and found an online Brit Lit survey that the department head will accept as a substitution, if I switch to the 3 credit Brit authors course, and out of the 1 credit Tennessee Williams course. I'm a little sad about that, and If I had extra $$ I'd keep 'em both 'cuz it looks to be really interesting, but unfortunately they meet at the same time. I opted for the Austen/Bronte course over retaking the Shakespeare. I actually did quite well in the Shakespeare course, and had I competed the stupid paper my grade would have been good. This way, since I have to cough up the money anyway, I get more bang for my buck. I spoke with my Ed dept. head, and with a trip to the registration office it looks like I will be DONE the first week of May. Hallelujah.
I am hoping to use that long break to do my reading and course work. My fees also pay for health services, and there's a fitness center and a pool I may take to using. We'll see how it goes. I got roped into a NTSO officer's meeting. Love to be of help, but need to avoid the distractions.
Got home to the bosom of my family and frozen pizza. College life, indeed...

Here we go again...

I start back to school tomorrow. An ed class, two lit classes, and an alcohol awareness class I have to have for the Ed program. What. Ever. Tuesdays will suck. Class from 8 am until 8 pm. No class from 11:30 until a night class at 5. Yuck. Should be plenty of time to get my homework done. Thursdays I'll only have one class, and it's a one credit author's course, so I'll be done the 15th of Feb. Now I need to get to bed so I can get on the road in the morning. Nite!

Winding up...

Wrapping the weekend. Getting ready to launch into another week. Just made plans for a friend to come to dinner. Trying to get some humanity into our routine. Now I am sleepy and a bath sounds lovely. TA!

Saturday slackin'

On the way home from Job #1 I got sucked into "This American Life" on the radio. Great stories this week. So I'm flopped with a comfy blanket and a coke enjoying them. Feel free to join me.