Invasion of the house snatchers

We have had a very busy weekend so far. Actually I need to back up and explain my whole week because it will make what I pulled off today much more impressive.

O.K. so I have volunteered to teach a Natural Family Planning (NFP) class at my church. Because of this, the Big Human and I have to go through the process of getting our marriage convalidated with the Church which means getting his first marriage annulled (not as difficult a process as we imagined since it was not done in the Church), getting married again in front of a priest (which can be a very small affair or a very large affair. we haven't decided but we are pretty sure it is going to be a very small affair. we haven't even decided if we are going to have the Small Humans there or not.) and me finishing up the process of converting. It seems like a lot of work just to teach a class but this is a Very Important Class and the Diocese would have a big problem if I were to teach it while being in a marriage that was not valid in the eyes of the Church. I believe very much in natural forms of family planning and I think that is important to spread the word. So this week, I started my training class so that I can be certified to teach. So I was doing that after work some this week. Which took up some of my time.

**TMI alert**

I also started my period on Thursday night which meant that the cramps from hell started. This was a particularly painful cycle which meant that I did not sleep most of Thursday night. Friday morning, I was feeling o.k. but since I had not slept and I knew that the cramps would start back up, I stayed home. I slept for a couple of hours and then woke up with some of the most painful cramps I have ever felt. My Big Human was out of town for the day on business and I couldn't get my mom on the phone. Finally she called me back around 3 PM and I was bawling into the phone about how much pain I was in. She came to help me out and and finally started feeling better around 5 PM.

Now I had scheduled Thursday night and Friday afternoon as my time to get ready for the Halloween party we were hosting this weekend at our house. That obviously did not happen because I was in so much pain so I had to rush around and do it last night and this morning but it went off without a hitch. We had six school friends show up and they all had a blast and ate way too much candy and then we sent them home! But since the oldest small boy human is "too big" to participate, he has two friends over tonight for a sleepover. So right now my room has been taken over by three teenage boys because one of them brought over their XBOX and they are playing some game and eating pizza. I'm giving them until midnight and then they need to hit the racks. We have a busy day tomorrow as well because it is my mother-in-law's birthday and we are hosting some of the siblings and cousins to have cake and ice cream in the afternoon. I haven't quite figured out how we are going to fit an extra 12-15 people in this house but they'll go somewhere right?

Small Bites

So far today I have:

• Cleaned the small boy humans' room and put their bikes in their proper spots
• Scrubbed both toilets and bathroom floors
• Listed seven pieces of clothing for sale on eBay
• Started on the small girl humans' room

I still have a lot that I want to accomplish before I go to bed tonight. I just need to remind myself that I can do one thing at a time and slowly chip away at my list.

It's just a few things

I've got big plans for the weekend. They all involve some form of cleaning. These are the things I plan to accomplish before work on Monday:

• Clean, organize and declutter small humans' rooms
• Put the bikes back in their proper places
• Shampoo the carpet
• Deep clean the bathrooms (someone, I'm not pointing fingers, has developed an aiming problem recently. subsequently both bathrooms now smell like portapotties.)
• Organize and declutter our bedroom
• Dig out my KitchenAid mixer that has been waiting patiently in the storage shed
• Clean out my closet and put some things for sale on eBay

Now the question becomes have I placed the bar too high and will I feel like a failure if I don't accomplish all of these things this weekend? I don't think that the list is too daunting although I will definitely have to fight the urge to stay in the bed the whole weekend. We are having a Halloween party for the small humans and their friends next weekend and things need to be in their proper spots so we can handle having extra humans roaming around. If anybody sees me on their blogs this weekend, come back here and leave a comment telling me to get my rear in gear!

$2.99

My big human got gasoline yesterday for $2.99/gallon. No, it wasn't a special promo. That was the price at the pump. Crazy, huh? Now that was not here in our town but it was about an hour away which means hopefully it will get that cheap here soon.

Here's my issue with the price for gasoline dropping. Can someone explain to me how all of a sudden, the economy tanks and now gas is cheaper? I am sure there is a basic economic reason that I am forgetting or overlooking but it seems suspicious to me. I don't want to get all conspiracy theory but c'mon. How can the gas prices be dropping so dramatically?

I am reading a new book, Protecting the Gift by Gavin De Becker. Anyone who has kids, plans to have kids or works with kids needs to read this book. It's not new to print but I just bought it yesterday and I can't put it down. He wrote another book that I will probably get after I am done with this one called The Gift of Fear. It looks really good also.

I can't believe I missed Michelle Obama on The Daily Show last night. I will need to find it online tonight and watch it. I'm getting a little tired of the campaigns and debates and political ads and bad-mouthing. I feel as though everyone has already made up their minds. So can we just go ahead and vote and get it over with? Please?

Wow, ADD much?

I didn't spend much time on the internet this weekend since my small humans were home and we were busy doing nothing and everything. So it was nice to log on tonight and find comments from my web friend, I Hope So, on some of my blogs! My dearest I Hope So, I must say that it is nice to get comments from you and even though we are technically only friends in cyberspace which feels totally wierd to me but I justify it because we know a lot of the same people and I'm sure we'll meet IRL(ugh did I just type that?) one day, it still feels like you are a real friend. Which I guess is how some people can meet their soulmate online or through one of those websites or whatever. I guess I shouldn't be so judgemental.

Anyways, I digress. I have a couple of topics to accomplish. First, my birthday trip to NYC. So here we are in Times Square shortly after our arrival.

There are more pics on my facebook so you can go there to see them all. We had such a wonderful trip. The most enjoyable part of the trip was just being with each other. It has been such a long time since we were able to have those long meandering conversations that don't have noticable starts or stops and we can have long pauses for thoughts. The past couple of years when we are all together, it is usually centered around events and involve our husbands and children. We had a great hotel room in Times Square. We went down to the West Village and went to Magnolia Bakery which was featured in SATC and then we went to Perry St. and found the front of Carrie's apartment. We rode on the Staten Island Ferry and went to Zabar's. We went to dinner at Lips which I highly recommend if you are ever in NYC for a special event like a birthday or bachelorette party. Those queens are hilarious! It was a short trip but just what we needed to reconnect.

O.K. on to the second topic. Politics. I am enjoying this election season immensely because it has opened up a new realm in my relationship with my big human and also our oldest small human. He's 13 and taking an advanced civics class this fall and his teacher is really pushing them to think and examine and grow and learn. They are reading the Audacity of Hope (which I haven't read yet but it's on my list) and my formerly staunch republican child has admitted that if he were able to vote in this election, he would be voting for Obama. Which makes me want to do cartwheels but I am trying to remain impassive and not push my ideals on him because I would rather that he grow and reach his own conclusions on issues. I am also deeply enjoying discussing politics and the current financial crisis with my big human. Over dinner tonight, my big human pointed out how difficult it is to be a catholic with regard to the respect for life issue and the two main political parties. If you are a catholic and a democrat, then you agree with no death penalty but disagree with the right to choose. If you are a catholic and a republican, then you agree with the right to life but disagree with the death penalty. I love having thought-provoking conversations with my big human rather than the typical kids/money/who needs to do the dishes discussions.

O.K. third topic and this one will be short. Whenever I see Tina Fey on SNL, I wish that McCain/Palin would win so that I could watch the comedy every week. But then I come to my senses when I read news stories such as the one I found on late Friday morning/Friday afternoon that announced that Palin didn't know that her campaign had made the decision to leave Michigan until Friday morning. Ummmm, can she not read google news like the rest of us? Instead of reading every magazine and newspaper?

With moments to spare

I started having a bit of a panic attack this week. The local NPR stations kept announcing that next Monday is the last day to register to vote. I sent in my forms to update my registration at the beginning of the month and I had not received my new voter card yet. I had to get a new one because my name changed last year. Anyways, I was starting to panic that I would not be able to vote next month. But when I arrived home last night, there it was, sitting in my mailbox. My ability to make a difference. Hopefully.