Christmas is coming, thankfully

I love Christmas. I always have but this year, I'm really looking forward to it. Not because of the gifts, not because I'll get to see the majority of my family, not even all the time I'll get off of work (well, maybe that's some of it). Christmas to me is a joyful time (not to sound all Hallmarky) for me.

People are generally in a better mood (and I hate people). They come together more for this holiday than any others. A lot more people get into the decorations. It might even have to do with the religious aspect of it because of my religious background but I don't really celebrate it that way. Either way, it's just a feeling I get. A feeling of happiness and togetherness. It doesn't hurt that my wife does a lot more baking at this time of the year so I get to come home from a rough day at work and the house smells wonderful.

It's been a rough couple of months for me as my best friend has ceased pretty much all communication with me and won't really tell me why. With most anyone, I could have just walked away and said whatever but she has a lot of her own personal issues and I worry about her. I should be able to step away because half my thoughts go to well she hasn't cared about me at all in that time. Hasn't asked how I was doing, what's going on, ect. It should be easy, but I can't just walk away. She's had a crap life and I just can't put me abandoning her on top of all that. So I jump back and forth between missing her and being angry at her. It's been a rollercoaster of a last couple of months.

Work has been a little rough as well, not only the usual BS that I have to deal with on a daily basis but work was where we met and got to know each other, so it's a daily reminder that she's gone. Although these days, I appreciate going into work a little more because it keeps my mind a lot more occupied to where I don't think about her nearly as much.

So with my rollercoaster of emotions for a little bit now, I'm looking forward to the joyous time of the year. For those that don't know, I have Christmas songs on my playlists that I listen to all the time. They always put me in a good mood when they come on, even in the middle of July. Now when they pop up, I can really use the cheering up and now that we are in November, it just reminds me how close we are. It's also the time of the year that people release new Christmas albums and I go through new releases every weekend so I'm even hearing an album here or there.

To be honest, because I listen to Christmas music all year round, in small doses, I rarely just play all Christmas music. I can see myself listening to my Christmas playlist a lot more this year. I've actually thought about playing it on my way home from work a few times already but I didn't. I didn't break the seal yet. We'll see if I last until after Thanksgiving.

A Week in the Life of Me

Not too much going on so this may be a quick post, it may not, once I get typing, you never know.

We watched the season finale of the Mandalorian yesterday and it was pretty awesome. I hope Disney does just as well with their other Star Wars shows they plan on putting out. I don't want to spoil it but the ending of the finale was so cool, and was such a good ending. I can't wait to see what the next season entails.

We're in the middle of the final season of Homeland. They finally put it on Hulu with the rest of the seasons. We may even finish that this weekend. Other than that, a lot of the other stuff we watch is on winter hiatus. None of my sports teams are even on for another week, Christmas day at that.

At work, we finished a 5S project that we've spent the last month working on. I got volunteered for the the project, I think, because we were doing the battery/chemical storage room and the majority of the chemicals in that room are mine. We got all kinds of compliments about how great it looked now. We'll see how long it stays that way. 

I'm officially a 5S Champion now.

We we're supposed to meet every day for half an hour and work on the room and there was originally supposed to be 4 of us but the team member from one department quit right away. Another department's guy would show up every day, 10 to 15 minutes late and than leave right at the end of the half an hour. Me and another guy would be there almost an hour a day working on it. On Friday, the day of recognition, where they brought in management to see what we did, the late guy was there before me and I'm always early. Pissed me off but I didn't say anything, I just look like the asshole if I do.

I guess where I work is changing their logo so now I'm going to have a lot of clothes that are outdated. That's alright, because other than a couple of hoodies, everything with their logo on it I wear to work anyways. I've accumulated quite a few things with their logo in the 6 1/2 years I've been there. The basic shirt is the logo on the front top left and the core values on the back. I have 5 gray ones and 3 black ones of that. I have a red volunteer shirt, a green company picnic one and 2 black breast cancer ones. I also have 2 hoodies that I love, because they fit great and are so comfortable. I wear one back and forth to work in the winter and the other I wear around the house (I have it on now). All that doesn't include the keychain, backpack and multiple hats. The nicest thing about having all those is I didn't pay anything for them, they were all given to me so I can't complain about that. Next week is the last week before Christmas so I'm curious if they'll give us something else. The last 3 years were the hoodies and last year was a hat. With the way this year has gone though it wouldn't surprise me if we didn't get anything but they did go around asking everyone their shirt size awhile back so we'll see.

As busy as we are this year, we didn't get our usual 2 weeks off at Christmas but I had enough time saved up to take the last week off so after the 3 days this week, I'll be done until the first week of January. I have no plans but it'll be nice not having to go to work.

Not sure what I'm going to watch with all that time off but I'm sure we can find something.

Santa came to work on Friday.

So far the plan is we are still getting together for Christmas. We didn't get together for Thanksgiving with all the Covid outbreaks but it's been relatively quite lately. I was even worried about going on Thanksgiving just because a ton of people at work were coming down with it and I didn't want to bring it in to everyone. Of course it didn't end up mattering since the majority of my family have gotten it. Nobody in my household or my mom's household has but a lot of the extended family has.

December 14th (2020)

My wife sent this photo of her and the cat. Kitty doesn't usually allow us to hold her for very long anymore.

December 15th (2012)

This is my oldest daughter holding Kitty back in 2012, I would say she's probably the reason Kitty doesn't like to be held but I don't really remember her ever liking it.

December 16th (2011)

This was taken back in 2011, my youngest son was into Lego's big time and they had a Lego thingy outside Chicago and we took him up there. He absolutely loved it. He wasn't even into Star Wars when I made him take this but he is now so it worked out.

December 18th (2009)

My wife (back then my girlfriend) sent this to me. We started dating long distance so this is what we did. We were young(er) and in love, we were probably nauseating to most.

December 18th (2019)

I snapped this in a meeting last year, it's how much my work paid out in workers comp claims. Notice the biggest number in the orange, oops. That's from when I burned myself with Sulfuric acid. Nothing like getting called out in a meeting you're sitting in.

December 20th (2019)

Me and Santa at work last year. I think he grew this year. I looked a little "special" in this photo.

I'll probably post again next week since I have time off so I'll talk to you all then.

Thanksgiving

First off, Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.

It's a weird holiday this year with the pandemic going on. A week ago we were planning on getting together at my mom's like we usually do but since then, my brother, aunt and uncle and my grandmother have all had positive tests for Covid. So we are all in our own homes today. My wife is still preparing a Thanksgiving feast for us so I'll still get the food but I won't get the time with the family and that's what I really love about the holidays. Just the hanging out and talking. I hope this gets better in the next month or so just so we can still have Christmas together.

My wife made all the sides yesterday so we could deliver food for some family yesterday. We took Cowboy (Damn) beans, Green Bean Casserole, Noodles and Sweet Potatoes to my grandmother, aunt and uncle, and my mom and dad. I put damn in there because that's what my wife calls them, damn beans. Mainly because after the first time she made them, my family now asks her every holiday to make them.

She's making a chicken today, no turkey because by the time we realized we would need one, they were hard to find. At least small enough for the 3 of us. She's making us mashed potatoes, stuffing and a pie for dessert. Plus the stuff listed in the previous paragraph that she made yesterday.

If you think we are over reacting by not getting together, I live in Elkhart county. Google it, we are very high in cases. We are the RV manufacturing capital and most of us have been back to work for awhile. I went and got tested yesterday after work. I'm not expecting a positive but I figured it doesn't hurt to get tested since a ton of people have had it so I've definitely been exposed. It'll be my 3rd Covid test but the other 2 were before a surgery, not because of exposure or symptoms.

It's really bad here and to be honest, it doesn't seem like anybody is doing anything about it. I don't know what they can do or not do, I'm not going to get into all that. All I know, is that it doesn't feel like they are doing enough.

I guess for Thanksgiving, I'm giving up thanks that I have been Covid free so far and that even though I work in a factory with a 150 or so people, that I pretty much stay to myself and work by myself. I'm thankful that my son hasn't had it because even though we kept him out of school and he's doing virtual learning, he does have a job at Dairy Queen so he works a few days a week. I think he's pretty good at keeping his mask on at work thought. Same goes for my daughters, both have jobs in the public and have been Covid free. Both have been tested multiple times because of exposure and they've all came back negative. I'm also extremely thankful that my wife pretty much stays home all the time. When she does go anywhere, she doesn't go in anywhere and is just picking up stuff they bring out to the car. While I do believe she is healthy enough to fight off Covid, I don't want to take the chance with all her other medical issues.

I'm also thankful that the family members I care about haven't gotten it or have had somewhat mild cases when they have. A few still have it so hopefully they don't get any worse. I'm definitely concerned about my grandmother having it but so far she's just been tired and is having sinus issues.

I'm extremely thankful for my wife. She didn't have to go through all the trouble of making this dinner for us. She knows Trevor and I would eat a frozen pizza if we needed to, we're not picky. I love the fact that she did, for us. I really love that she wanted to take my family all kinds of food yesterday as well. She really would do anything for anybody. You know she's a strong woman to put up with me on top of all her medical issues. She'll pay for the time in the kitchen and she knew that before she did it. I'm guessing a trip to the chiropractor will be in order for tomorrow.

Hope everyone had a safe and happy Thanksgiving.

Weekly round-up

On Monday this week, the realtor let us into the house just so we could measure windows and stuff like that. We took the kids with us so they could check it out, they've only been by it, never in it. I think they are both pretty excited about it, probably get more excited after we paint since my son's room is a lime green and my daughter's room has a fish mural on her wall. They were running around the rooms excited, none of us really wanted to leave. It sucks that the house is sitting there empty and we can't move in until we close.

On Tuesday, we met with an insurance agent because we have to have home owners insurance in place before we close. We went ahead and met with him to get quotes on car insurance as well to see if it was worth it to switch those over since you get a discount for having multiple policy's. He told us about this little blue thingy they hook up to your car and it monitors stuff like how fast you're going, how close you're following other cars, and you're mileage. If you don't break any of the "rules" then you get a 10% discount on your policy.

• Speed - as long as you don't go over 80 mph, you're good. So as long as I don't travel, I'm good, because I tend to set my cruise over 80 mph. I'll be good around town though.
• Driving to close - It apparently monitors your speed decrease or in other words, if you have to slam on your brakes. I don't really agree with this one, just because I slam on the brakes doesn't mean I was following too closely. What if something runs out in front of my car or someone pulls out in front of me, how are those my fault?
• Mileage - I believe he said as long as I don't break 12,000 miles a year, which would be a piece of cake since I only use it to work and back for the most part. I bet I average less than 15 miles a day and my car generally sits all weekend because if we do go somewhere, we take Cheri's.

I'm not real impressed with them at the moment considering it's now Sunday and I'm still waiting on the quote for the cars. Tuesday will be a week. I'm not sure if it will be cheaper anyways since we are currently with Geico but we'll see.

On Thursday, we went up to the hospital to visit a family member, hung out with them for about an hour then headed home. Cheri annoyed me on the way home, I was driving on a back road but we were coming up to an intersection with a main road so the lane broke into 4 lanes and there was a bunch of people sitting at the light. Cheri glances up from playing games on her phone to see all the brake lights and freaked out like I wasn't going to stop at all. She screeched my name and grabbed the handle on the door. I told her she either needs to keep her head down or up, no raising it up and freaking out over nothing. No side-seat driving.

On Saturday, we cleaned out the kids room and packed what we could. We ended up with 8 kitchen bags of trash and 5 bags for Goodwill and a box of books for the library. It sounds like their rooms were filthy but they keep them clean for the most part. A lot more clean than I ever did as a kid, you could never see my floor. This was all stuff in the closets and clothes they didn't wear anymore. I loaded up the car with the stuff for Goodwill and dropped my son off at his friends house for the evening and went to the local Goodwill drop off. While I was unloading the stuff I noticed my back tire was low so I headed over to the Martin's gas station because they had free air. Nope, not anymore, now they want $.75 for freaking air, there ain't no way I'm paying that so I went over to my moms and used my stepdad's air compressor, afterwards I decided to Google and see if anybody had free air anymore and the only place listed was Casey's Food Mart, which of course, was right across the street from Martin's where I was. Guess I should have Googled earlier.

It's usually a tradition that the grandparents take the grandkids to cut down their Christmas Tree but they had to cancel because of the aforementioned family member in the hospital so she's been helping out a bunch with that side of the family. So today, my brother and I decided we would surprise her and we took all the kids out, picked out a tree, cut it down and delivered it to her house. My stepdad was there so we set it up in the stand and he trimmed up the bottom so all she has to do is decorate it. Which she is going to do sometime this week and have the grandkids over to help.

That's a fairly busy week for us, most of the time we don't do much. I just want this month to fly by so we can get into our house. It's currently 63 degrees here (average this time of the year is mid 30's and snow) so I'm expecting by the time we can actually move, it will be below zero because that's how my luck is.

Mother's Day

In case you hadn't heard, it's Mother's Day. I've posted about my mother on Mother's Days in the past but that was in 2011 when this blog just started.

We are still doing the same tradition (shocker) of going over to my brothers house and grilling steaks for the mothers and burgers, brats and dogs for the rest of us. I've actually been a little closer to my mom the last year or so because my kids get off the bus at her house so when I get off at work, I just go over there and hang out with her (when she's home) until both kids get home. So we've talked a lot more than in the past, plus I get to complain about work with her because I work where she retired from so she knows who I'm talking about. She's been actively involved with our trying to purchase a home as well as always helping out when we need it. Whether that be keeping the kids so we can go to appointments or even buying my daughter a new bat for softball. So things haven't changed, nor do I expect them to when it comes to my relationship with my mother. I love her and she loves me, that's all anyone can ask for. It's all anyone should need is to know that at least one person will always love them.

My mom, myself and my grandmother.

The 2nd mother in my life would be my wife. She may not get to "mother" her kids much anymore since they are grown and have their own lives but she is a great mother to my 2. She treats them as her own and does anything for them. She has gone above and beyond being just a "step" mother, she is the one raising them and is always there for them. She may have not of birthed them, but she's more of a mother than anyone else.

So to both of the Mother's in my life, happy Mother's Day. You are both loved and appreciated more and more everyday.

Jelly Beans

I should be blogging more.  I have stuff to say, about a big change in my life but I can’t until it has officially began so maybe the fact that I can’t really say anything is the reason I haven’t felt like blogging at all.  I have other things to talk about and I should talk about them but when I have this huge change over my head, that I want to talk about, and I can’t, it kind of takes the air out of everything else.  As of late, the whole change has been frustrating because I thought it would have happened already and it hasn’t but I guess you’ll have to wait until it happens before you get to read about it.  So let’s blog about something else.

Get it?  Segway into something different?  Never mind.

What the hell is up with freaking Jelly Beans?  It’s coming towards spring, and Easter is right around the corner, and this time of the year, I get to buy Jelly Beans.  I love Jelly Beans.  So while we were at Wally World (Walmart) the other day, I saw the Easter stuff out and thought to myself, Jelly Beans.  So I hit the Easter aisle in the grocery section with my mouth watering for Jelly Beans, original, Brach’s Jelly Beans (except the black ones, no one likes those).

Here’s what I see.

What the Sam Hell is going on, where the hell are the regular Jelly Beans?  I JUST WANT REGULAR JELLY BEANS, DAMN IT!!!!

Then Cheri told me maybe they were up in the holiday section up front.  So I calmed down and we headed up front.  After seeing more of the above, I finally see it.  There is a light shining on it from above, then it goes darker, then lighter.  Stupid Walmart and their energy efficient lighting.  I walk over to the Jelly Beans, I think I might have started to drool a little bit.  Then I saw it.

AWWWW!  ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?  SPECKLED?  WHAT THE HELL IS SPECKLED JELLY BEANS?  I JUST WANT SOME DAMN JELLY BEANS I screamed (in my head, because I’m not the usual PJ and slipper wearing Walmartian.)

They seriously had no Classic Jelly Beans, none.  I didn’t even see a place for them.  My heart is breaking, I had to go home and stick to my candy hearts I bought on sale after Valentines day.  Stupid Walmart.

I’M TRYING TO DAMN IT!!!!

Post Valentine’s

Did everyone get what they wanted for Valentine’s day?  Did you all spend a small fortune on your significant other?  Did you tell your significant other (SO) you love them?

In case you haven’t noticed, I’m not a fan of Valentine’s day.  I’m one of those “made up holiday for card and candy manufacturers” type of people.  I know you all think I’m the depressed type who doesn’t believe in love or I’m just a cheap bastard who doesn’t want to spend money on my wife.  Truth of the matter is, I believe you shouldn’t “need” a day to tell your SO that you love them.  You shouldn’t need a day to bring your SO a box of chocolates or flowers.  Maybe it’s because I’m broke, but I sure as hell don’t see dropping a fortune on something expensive to “show your love.”  You want to buy your SO a brand new car?  Won’t she be more surprised if you did in the middle of the week in April, or a weekend in July?  Why do you need a certain day of the year to show your SO that you love her?

My wife and I pick up a bag of chocolates for each other (or ourselves) all the time.  We tell each other we love each other throughout the day, including when we wake up and go to sleep.  It’s usually the first and the last thing we say to each other every day.  When I’m not at work, we spend almost every hour together.  Why do I need a day to make sure I tell her on February 14th?

Don’t get me wrong, I buy the kids a little something every year.  I’m not that much of a scrooge to take away their Valentine’s day.  But for the record, I do tell them every night before bed that I love them as well.  They will be 12 and 10 this year, and I still tuck them in bed every night with a hug and a kiss and of course, an I love you.

So you people can go on spending a fortune on your SO, I’ll take all the I love you’s I get throughout every day.  To put 2 things on the record, my wife feels the same way about the holiday and she told me she loves me twice during the hour or so that I was typing out this post.  I don’t need nice things to know I have the love of a great woman.