Happy Winter Solstice!!

It was ugly sweater day at work today.  I wore a holiday sweatshirt that I inherited from my grandmother that I don't particularly care for-it is just a little busy.  It got compliments.  There was a faculty meeting that the para-educators were invited to that turned out to be a holiday party.  It was actually a lot of fun.  There were some silly games and prizes and lots of food.  I have some pretty grandiose ideas for a Christmas outfit for next year if I decide to stay.  How many different holidays from different cultures are in December??

After dinner my daughter and I did some grocery and Christmas shopping before the storm predicted for tomorrow.  We had fun.  It was a pretty good day.  My happy for today could also be considered a sad.  On the way home from shopping we stopped at Dairy Queen for some ice cream  (because 20 degrees Fahrenheit isn't cold enough?).  When the lady on the other side of the ordering speaker asked if we wanted anything else my daughter just said something like: just for you to have a happy holiday season.  The employee thanked her, sounding happy, and had us pull up to the window.  When we got there 2 people were at the window and they explained that this was the first time anyone had wished ANY of the employees a happy holiday yet this season.  It was really nice to have been part of that, also kind of sad for the employees.  They gave us free extra toppings on out sundaes. 

Sunset

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Wednesday, December 20th

This has been and will continue to be a long week at work.  The students feel that there shouldn't be any real school work this week.  I was a little surprised to learn that very little school work will happen on Friday because of the holiday.  They are looking forward to the break and holidays.  On a normal day most don't want to be there, before a break things get more crazy.  That said, I still like my job.

We are learning about the body systems in Science.  I don't know them as well as I thought.  Or at least not as in depth as I need to know.  I will be watching videos before sleep tonight on the circulatory system and nervous system and others if I don't fall asleep in the first 5 minutes.  😴

Something odd happened tonight.  As I was preparing for bed I realized that I didn't have my cell phone.  I had been sitting downstairs watching TV and having dinner and doing school work for 3 or 4 hours and I hadn't missed my phone.  I did have my laptop and that is media, but I was connected to my phone with the old job.  It is important to me to have my phone with me at school, but I am under no obligation to check it during the day.  It generally stays in my pocket and only sometimes comes out for break or lunch.  I've used it for pictures as well, but it is not the chain it used to be. 

No phone, so I missed a call from a friend in Texas for my birthday.  She left a singing message for me.  I will call her back Friday for her birthday.  Hearing from friends from afar is my happy for today. 

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It's My Birthday.

Since toady is my birthday I decided to try a different route to get home.  Figuring that it wouldn't take too much extra time I took a right and headed for the back roads instead of  left toward the highway.  The GPS rerouted and all seemed to be well.  Then the road became dirt.  There was a sign that said 'Pavement Ends' even.  I saw a nice farm with random foul in the street.  The GPS didn't suggest I turn around.  Soon the road sort of ended.  Just a pile of dirt and snow the plow left from the snow last week.  So I turned around and went back to the highway.  It was a nice little adventure for my birthday.  Other daytime highlights include a present of earrings from a a coworker, some texts and bunches of birthday wishes on Facebook and a nice conversation with my son in Texas.  🎔

At home I finished watching The Force Awakens and then we headed to the theater to watch Star Wars: The Last Jedi.  We all enjoyed it.  My daughter was pretty much at the edge of her seat the majority of the movie.  For whatever reason, I don't tend to become as emotionally invested in movies as many other people do.  This is not to say that I didn't laugh and cry at the appropriate times, just that I rarely enter into a movie as deeply as others.  When I try to figure why I can't quite put a finger on it.  I want to blame it on being in Hollywood for a while and seeing some behind the scenes sort of stuff, or at least talking about it, and that some of the magic was lost for me.  However, even as a kid I'm not sure I really attached myself to one character, book, show to the extent that others did.  I remember a bunch of friends crushing on Michael Jackson and Donny Osmond and I chose one of them just to seem more normal but I just didn't get it.  I was probably 6 or 7 though.  Eventually I did get it to an extent.  I loved The Donny and Marie Show.  I'm not sure how much I crushed for Donny or if it was wanting to sing like Marie!  Enough rambling. 

After the movie we went out for ice cream and met Gideon with his other grandparents who had been watching him while we were at the movie.  We had a nice visit and end to my birthday.  All in all a good day and it was a happy birthday.

Sunrise

 Farm fowl

🕯 🕯 🕯 🕯 🕯 🕯 🕯 🕯 🕯 🕯 🕯 🕯 🕯 🕯 🕯 🕯 🕯 🕯 🕯 🕯 🕯 🕯 🕯 🕯 🕯 🕯 🕯 🕯 🕯 🕯 🕯 🕯 🕯 🕯 🕯 🕯 🕯 🕯 🕯 🕯 🕯 🕯 🕯 🕯 🕯 🕯 🕯 🕯 🕯 🕯 🕯 🕯 🕯 

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The 18th of December--just the happy

My house/cat sitting adventure has come to an end.  After work today I went and picked up my things and visited for a bit before heading home.  Tonight I received Gideon snuggles while we watched the 1st half of Star Wars: The Force Awakens.  Tomorrow we plan to go to the theater to see the newest Star Wars movie so there is some memory refreshing happening tonight.  I figure we will watch the other half tomorrow afternoon.  Since I am falling asleep sitting here it must be time for me to go up to my own comfy bed.  Gideon snuggles are today's happy. 

😴

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December 17th-just a happy

Most of today was spent relaxing or preparing for tomorrow.  In the evening I picked up Gideon at his other grandparent's place and met his parents to go to an outdoor holiday candlelight walk.  When we met, we decided not to go.  My cough is pretty bad and Gideon didn't mind not going so we went shopping instead.  Just hanging out with the family is my happy for today.  Hearing Gideon tell jokes, hugs and smiles are all good things.  😇

Trying something different with my hair for the holiday.  

The red hair ties have little jingle bells on them.

🔔Bells help me get into the spirit of things.🔔

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The 16th of December

Greetings!  It was a Saturday morning and I slept in followed by letting this cold have its way with me for a while.  In the early afternoon I started doing things to get ready for work and the cold seemed to fade into the background for a while.  It was a nice reprieve but as the day wore on it started to return, mostly the cough.  Tomorrow maybe there will be more improvement. 

This retail job has me looking for particular items in a store.  There are certain things that for one reason or another I have a difficult time remembering where they are kept.  This week whenever I ran across one of those items and would think to myself that I really should try to remember its location, things were different.  This time I began that thought and ended it with the realization that I don't need to commit that to memory.  There are things that it is nice to know where they are in the store, that bread crumbs are merchandised in some stores with the pasta and others somewhere else can be useful.  Knowing where the cheapest milk is can be useful too.  But knowing the first 6 digits of certain companies UPC is something I hope I don't take to my grave.  😂  So this week with each different store I feel like I have been saying goodbye-a good goodbye.

On the way back to where I am staying I stopped off at home and got to see Gideon and his dad for a few minutes.  I think Gideon was very much in a 'spend time with dad' mode today.  He got to see Santa today and learned about Snap Circuits at a Boy Scout thing.  The Snap Circuits look much nicer than the cardboard breadboard I taught my son circuits with.  He has asked for them for Christmas.  I look forward to learning them with him.  I'm not sure if he will get any for Christmas, but I will be surprised if he doesn't get some eventually.  Getting to see Gideon is my happy for today.  That and that I think I am starting to finally get into the Christmas season a bit.  🎅



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Friday the 15th

Last night we arrived a little late to Celtic Sojourn because of traffic.  It was a great show.  The theater was beautiful.  There were songs and music, dancing and stories.  Very well put together.  The late night made for a tired work day today.   School was shortened due to a power outage, add that to Friday and the upcoming holiday made things kind of off today.  I am very happy the weekend is here.

When going to my retail job today a new thing kept coming into my mind... well, this it the last time I will be in this store looking for this item for this job.  I have 2 jobs due tomorrow and one that I will work on Sunday and Monday then that is it.  I am looking forward to leaving my para-educator job and going home instead of off to another job.  It is quite possible that finances will prove that I need a second job, but I think I will have a few weeks.  Maybe enough to downsize myself out of the big storage unit.  

This came across my Facebook feed today.  Language warning.  Much of this resonates with the 7th grader in me.  Not all of it, but a bunch.  Next week I will be 53.  Working as a 7th grade para-educator, that insecure 7th grader in me that never completely left but that I thought I had graduated from, seems to want to resurface.  My goal is to use this to help me empathize with these kids that are close to 2 generations removed from me. 

My happy for today is what I stated earlier, the weekend is here.  This cold I have been fighting is not responding as well to the medicine I have been taking and I need a break.  Sleeping in will be a good thing.  I'll get the other work I need to do done and try to recover the rest of the weekend.  Yes, sleep will be good.

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