12/15 - 12/21/08

Monday

Gracie's first day back to school since the surgery. We have an ice storm the night before. I tell her I'm going to drive her to school, her first day back and all and she starts to cry. She wants to take the bus.

I make a final attempt to find a 4XL woman's coat at Burlington Coat Factory. And I found one!!! All the stores at the mall go to 3XL. That's it. The store outside the mall had a 5XL and the sales woman tries to convince me to buy it. That would suck, getting the next size bigger as a Christmas present. I would be really pissed if that happened to me.

Tuesday

I have lunch with the girls from high school. We laugh our way thru burgers at Wild Fire in Oak Brook. I'm blessed to still talked to such great people. Care and I drive home just as the next snow storm starts to hit. I'm 3 minutes late getting the kids off the bus. Thankfully I have several favors and I called one in on the neighbor up the street.

Wednesday


I brought the kids their presents. Every year we get 2 childrens names from the Chicago Suntimes. I'm thinking I'm ahead of the game getting the gift down there on Wednesday until I'm getting ready to leave and get the address from the letter and discover the gifts are due TODAY!!! UGH! I start thinking OMG what if I waited until tomorrow or worse Friday! Don't ask me why I think this way. Fortunately I get down there by 10 a.m. I love, LOVE delivering to the school! Last year, we delivered to children in a very poor neighborhood. I didn't feel safe. I was in the heart of the west side of Chicago. I've never seen a drug deal before but if I wasn't mistaken there was one happening on the corner as we left the school. Well, this year we were south of the city, near the lake. It was a poor neighborhood but nothing like last year. I have to say, every time I deliver the presents I get a gift bigger and better than anything that could be wrapped. I'm met with warm smiles, HUGE hugs and a thank you that is big enough to last a life time. I was smiling that feel good smile the rest of the day

Thursday

Busy, busy, busy ....

The kids have their Christmas program in the morning. The grandma's arrive around 9:00 and we leave at 9:15. We end up waiting in the car because the school thought it was a good idea to have senior citizens and mothers with small children waiting outside. We were let in the school 5 minutes before the program. Once inside, I find the grandma's a seat and then stake my spot in the back for the best video taping.

After the amazing performance ;) I blow lots of kisses to the kids and then the grams and I go for some breakfast. We eat and talk and laugh until 12:00! Yikes, I had to be back to the school at 12:15 so I can volunteer for Gracie's class.

12:20, I arrive to help the children make ornaments for Christmas. The teacher is worried the ice/snow storm predicted is going to cancel school tomorrow, so we make 2 kinds ornaments today. I love helping in Gracie's class. All the girls come and give me a big hug when I get there and when I leave I'm met by a choir of "Thank you Gracie's mom!" Gracie's mom. Zak's mom. There are times I still can't believe it. I'm a mom.

It's my mom's birthday so the family heads over to my mom's house for dinner. On the way there I pick up a Bakers Square Candy Cane Pie. If you like pepperminty stuff then you will love this pie! It has chocolate in it too! mmmmmmm :) We are home by 8:30 and the kids are in bed by 9.

Friday

I wake up at 5:30. Scott's coming back in the house. Work is cancelled thanks to the 2 inches of ice that has now covered the outside surfaces. I go on-line to check if school is closed, it isn't. And then check my email. I find a message from the tri-club president. Literally a chill runs down my spine and I feel panic. I stepped aside from representing the club but hadn't announced it to everyone yet. Part of me didn't want to. Part of me wanted to hang on to it as long as I could. Well, then why step aside you ask, well, honestly it was time for a change. The club was growing and we needed a new face. I had been doing it for 3 years now. I've grown to think of these people as family. When I write or say I love them, I really do. They deserved a change. Well, Danny was indirectly telling them before I could. So, did the best I could and put together a short email explaining things and sent it off to cyberspace. Then went downstairs and bawled on Scott's shoulder for about 10 minutes. I'm still a part of the club but I just let my "tri-mate kids" go. SI is going to do a great job.


Thankfully I had Zak's class party to go to and help with. I love helping in his class. Completely different than Gracie's. I get one hug. Ok, 2 hugs. One from Zak, one from the little girl who rides the bus with the kids. These children love to play LOUD! That's fine with me. Children should play loud. When I left I was met with the choir of thank you "Mrs. Erickson" :) Wait, I think they said "Merry Christmas Mrs. Erickson!"


Saturday


Kids had soccer! Oh yeah. This is a blast to watch. 14 children all trying to kick the ball at once. For 40 minutes. Yup, it's good. Unfortunately our team lost. It's funny tho. They are at an age where the care for all of, oooo, let's say 5 minutes. Then it's time to get a juice box and treats. Then go home and play in the snow. I ran home from the game. Almost 4 miles. I didn't do a straight shot home. Saw a friend that I worked with while I was running. It gave a me nice boost to see someone.



Went to Costco in the afternoon. Let me just say that even tho they have food handouts at Costco, I was starving by the time we finished paying for our stuff. I think I inhaled a Costco hot dog and some coca cola. Mmm, that sounds good right now, some Coca Cola.


Later Saturday night I went shopping with Patty. I always tease her that she's keeping the economy going. She always tells me she only spends when I'm with her. Hmmm. We stopped at Best Buy to price compare TV's. I'm almost certain we will be buying one from Costco.



Sunday



I guess I should start this in Saturday. Dennis writes me - are you going if the weather is crappy? Meaning am I running Sunday morning if it's wicked cold like the weather forecast is predicting? Yup I tell him. What he doesn't know or remember is it was just about a year ago I said I would go run with him and SI but didn't show because of the weather. I regretted it. Honestly, it's stuck with me for a whole year. There was no way I wasn't going to show. Even if I ran by myself I was ok with that.



I'm at the run spot 10 minutes early. The Forest Ranger kicks me out of the parking lot so he can finish plowing. I park at the enterence and who pulls up, SI. Oh, yeah! I will be able to right the wrong from last year. Dennis arrives and we go park about a mile up the street. The Forest Ranger was very diligent in removing that snow.

Here's a pic of us just before we got started. I would say don't I look scary but I'm standing with 2 men wearing masks! Oh, I normally have a face shield like SI but couldn't find it this morning. I hate that!

It was -2. Doug's words are going thru my head. There is no such thing as bad weather only bad gear. Honestly he's right. Once you get moving you warm up. The frost on my face and Dennis's eyelashes are proof of that. :) We went 4 miles. Luckily we got lost twice, nothing like trying to run a route backwards in blowing snow. If we didn't get lost we would have run less miles! It was all good. It was tough. I have a lot of work ahead of me. But it was all good. :)

Nice lashes Bubba :)

My upper lip was burning after the run. It's fine now :)