My perfect jammies day

I just wanted to describe the most awesome day I just had with my wonderful husband. I told him the other day that I wanted nothing more than a day where we hung out in our jammies, took naps, ate junk food, and layed around on the couch together. And that's just what I got. Twelve glorious hours of doing absolutely nothing (he watched football and rubbed my head while I napped all afternoon). He got up only to let the dog out and go potty. He ate nothing but cookies until I made him dinner in the late afternoon. The man knows how to treat a woman! :)

That's all. It was a very good day. And I'm very lucky to have him.

A new year ahead

I can't believe it's been almost 2 weeks since I last wrote! I don't know if anyone is really reading this (besides my dad) but if so, sorry for the delay! I have no excuse other than laziness.

I'm a wreck this week. School at NCC starts next Wednesday. I'm absolutely dreading it, but I know I need to go in and make the most of the 10 weeks that lie ahead. I keep trying to tell myself that it's ONLY 10 weeks and it won't be that bad, but deep down, I know otherwise. This sucks. There's a small part of me that wants to go in and do a great job, but the rest of me wants nothing more than to write to the dept chair and say, "See ya!" BUT...I've signed my life away, so I guess I have to go back. Ten weeks. Thirty class days. Seventy teaching hours. Forty-two hundred teaching minutes. Tick. Tick. Tick.

On to happier topics: Christmas! We got a ton of cards from friends and family all over the place, which was really nice! Lots of nice gifts, lots of funny munny. I bought myself a helmet case for the scooter (it matches--these are hard to find in my Daring Plum color!) and tomorrow, I'm going to buy a new vacuum. NEVER thought I'd be excited about that! :) I have 2 boxes to send to Japan--the one for Kumiko is HUGE but it'll be worth every penny. I'm so overdue with both boxes, but they should make the recipients really happy! That's what counts.

My mom is so much better--she's been driving for a few weeks now (despite not getting the doctor's approval until TODAY!). She bought her new remungous SUV on eBay and is now riding in the lap of luxury. This, until the settlement for her accident comes through, then she'll switch to an even nicer ride. At least she's happy...and still home for another 4-6 weeks before going back to work. I guess my 10 weeks of teaching is better than going back to a permanent job after 3+ months off (and having no end in sight). I have an end. This is good.

So that's it for my ramblings. I'm off to enjoy my last days of freedom. Happy New Year to you all! May 2008 bring us all great things (and babies...many babies...).

A cold and the cold

Holy crap! I caught a horrible head cold this week--today was the worst of it (so far). I'm not sure from where I caught it, but Paul was fighting something early on in the week, though his never did get as bad as mine. I woke up at 2:30am this morning, unable to sleep because of a scratchy sore throat. That is THE WORST!! The sore throat is definitely getting better though. After trying everything today to get rid of it (hot drinks, cold drinks, tortellini soup, and cough drops), I ended up with nothing more than a burnt tongue, along with the still-scratchy throat. Tonight's a bit better but since I can't breathe through my nose, my throat will be dry by morning.

Ok, that was probably a lot more than anyone needed to know!

Other than that, life is ok. I'm officially done teaching for the next few weeks, which is a nice feeling! I still have to grade the final exams from this past Monday night, but that shouldn't take too long (it's just getting the motivation to actually do that...that's the hard part).

We have my dad's Christmas party this coming Sunday. Kate's been sick, as is Robert, so Sunday should be a whole lot of fun. :) As long as there's a bit of "the recipe" (I've watched a few too many episodes of The Walton's this past week!), we should be ok. I did manage to get all my gifts ready though! That's HUGE.

Thanks to everyone who sent wishes for my birthday last week! I got a ton of cards, calls, and emails, which really made my day! It was otherwise very uneventful--I had to work all afternoon, then come home to an empty house as Paul was bowling that night. But it was still a nice day.

Enjoy the upcoming holidays!! And, for heaven's sake, STAY WARM! I hope everyone downstate now has power!!

Power naps

This past weekend was so nice! Paul and I spent Friday night through Sunday downtown Chicago, enjoying the sites, having fun with friends, relaxing...it was perfect! We took the train down in the late afternoon and checked in at the hotel (where we had 2 full-sized bathrooms in our room--we don't have that many in our house!!), then went that night to see Phantom of the Opera, which both of us have seen before but not in a long time. It was so good! I had the brilliant idea to walk back to the Hilton from the Cadillac Palace Theater, which would have been a better idea had we been wearing walking shoes. I ended up with HUGE blisteres on the bottom of my feet (just below my toes, and on my heels).

The next morning, we had breakfast at the hotel (which was deee-lish!) and went for a short walk around town. We ended up at a store on Randolph called Pastoral Artisan (or something like that), which was a wine shop and deli. We bought a bottle of wine, a baguette, some cheese, prochuitto, stuffed red peppers, and olives, and hauled it back to the hotel (via the bus) to enjoy. It was so nice! The afternoon was spent NAPPING! At least for me it was--Paul watched movies on TV and rubbed my head. That night, we went out with some friends of mine who live downtown and we don't get to see much anymore. It was my first time in Dave & Busters. I lived up to all the talk about my latent Skee-ball addiction, which I've managed to keep at bay for many years. That was all shot to hell Saturday night. I long for my own Skee-ball machine!

Sunday, we had breakfast, then packed up and headed to the train station. Given the bad storm that hit Saturday afternoon and evening, taking the train was a great decision (even if it originally was to avoid the $40/night parking at the hotel). Overall, a very relaxing weekend!

I have 4 weeks and a day left of my Christmas "vacation" before starting back to school. Sadly, I'm dreading going back. It shouldn't be as stressful next term as it was this past one, but I'm still not looking forward to it. I love teaching, but being there (at NCC) is no longer fun. I still have one Monday night class to go (at WCC), but I'm not sure if I'll have enough students to have a class there next semester. I do enjoy teaching there and hope to continue!

I wish everyone a very happy holiday season! Congrats to Lisa & Mike on baby-chan Cassia, and to Kim & Jim on their upcoming wedding!!