the calm before the storm

Today I woke up when Waylon was leaving to go to work and decided that no matter how bad I felt, I was going to get some stuff done around the house. It is a mess and it's depressing me to be here in this state. So I got up and puttered around the house for a bit - checking my email and all other online stuff, taking Rowf out to potty, etc - then went to Dunkin Donuts to get me some breakfast. We were out of milk here so cereal was out of the running. I was feeling a bit queezy before leaving to DD's for breakfast but after I got home and ate my sesame bagel w/ chive cream cheese (mmmmm!!! My FAVORITE!!) I was feeling quite good! I decided that while I was feeling this good I would tackle our bedroom and get as much done as quickly as possible before the nausea set in. Thus my title "the calm before the storm" - hoping this calm stays for a while before the next storm of nausea hits.

It was a little overwhelming to start with b/c our clothes (clean and dirty) were strewn about the entire room and I literally had to pick things up and smell them to decide if they needed to be washed or just put up. I know, that's disgusting and such bad house keeping. Unfortunately, my husband and I both have the bad habit of not putting our clothes up after we wear them or after they are washed. Well, I got everything put up or put in a laundry bin and I even vaccumed!! My mom would be proud of that! I never vaccuum. I hate it. So does Rowf. He saw me wheel it out of the closet it stays in and off he ran to hide. He's such a brave dog...

after that, I decided I had to get my fake nails off. I've kept up my nails for quite a few months and have enjoyed having the acrylic nails and having my hands always look nice, but the excitement of that has gone away. I desperately have been wanting them off as they have gotten too long and for some reason they just suddenly annoyed the heck out of me! So I sat down in the bathroom with the trash between my legs and a fingernail clipper and began the painful process of taking them off. Ouch!! It hurt REALLY bad! I got them all off though and my hands are grateful for it! Typing is so much easier and faster! Although my nails now look horrible and scratched and weak, they will grow and soon I won't even be able to tell. Either way, it's a relief to have them off. :)

Now I have to decide which room to clean next. I'm still not feeling nauseaus so I want to continue cleaning until I absolutely cannot do it anymore. I think I'll do the kitchen first because for some reason, if the kitchen is messy, the whole house feels messy. Plus, it's easy, I just put everything into the dish washer!! After that I'll probably clean the living room then my office. This saturday I'm having my Mary Kay Holiday Open House. I sent out invitation post cards to it this past weekend and am hoping my customers will be calling to set up shopping appointments. What I'm doing is basically opening my house as a Mary Kay store and letting all my customers come during their own scheduled shopping appointment and have hassle free Christmas shopping. I'll have all the newest products on display for everyone to see and try and I offer free gift wrapping and delivery. They also get to use any Christmas bucks they earned from previous purchases (they earn 1 for every $10 they spend with me throughout the year). Some women have like 40 Christmas bucks!! I hope they come so they can spend it! I'm also a little worried that no one will come. Since it is the Saturday after Thanksgiving and the weekend of black Friday I have a feeling they will all be shopping elsewhere. I may have to pick a different weekend to do this next year. We'll see how it goes. This is part of the reason why I HAVE to get my house cleaned too.

Last night I got completely caught up with Heroes and I even watched an episode of Chuck. I think I'll have to get the first season on DVD of Chuck and watch that, it's very funny and cute. I have to really be careful because I get so addicted to television shows. I would rather sit and watch several episodes of a TV show than a movie. I think TV shows are getting better than the movies being produced these days. The plots are more interesting, the characters are better, the acting is great. In fact, I was thinking after seeing the movie Twilight, they should have made it a TV series instead of a movie. I know they probably make WAY more money as a movie, but the TV series would have been better, more involved and would have been able to include every aspect of the book in it. I would have really enjoyed the series. They could even make it a miniseries for each book and not have to run it for an entire season. They could also market it so that you had to buy it or something or rent only and not show it on TV so they could make more money. I don't know, it just seemed like they could have done more with it. I guess I'm just biased to TV shows. I love them! Right now, the shows I make sure to keep up with are Grey's Anatomy, the Office and now Heroes since I've watched all episodes online. I missed the beginning of Prison Break so I'm going to have to wait for it to come out on DVD to watch it b/c their website only has the 3 most recent episdoes available for viewing so I can't watch it from the beginning. That's my other favorite show that I've watched in the past.

I did get some bad news today. On Sunday, Waylon's car broke down on the way to a shooting range so he had it towed to a nearby shop and they looked at it yesterday and called him today. The problem is a blown head gasket which apparently will cost anywhere from $800-$1000. We don't have this kind of money laying around obviously so I don't know what we're going to do. He is going to be using my car this week since I'm out of school and next week he will have to take me to work first then go to his work. Thankfully they just changed his hours to where he goes in at 9 so he will be able to take me to work first and make it to his work in time. He also gets off work before me so he will be able to pick me up when I'm done with school. I know lots of people survive with only one vehicle and we can do it for a while at least, it's just hard after you've gotten used to having two cars and being able to go do whatever with your car and not having to think about it. Now we will have to plan everything out for the use of our car. So far financially we've been getting by just fine, God has been making our money stretch in ways I didn't know it could. We haven't gone without anything we have needed and have had things above and beyond what we need. I know he will get us through this also. Waylon's car isn't worth the $1000 it would take to repair it but we also don't have any extra money sitting around right now. We would have to save up just to get another $1600 car which is what Waylon paid for the car he has now. I know something will work out, we just have to pray and look for God to open a door or provide for us like He always does.

Well, I better get back to housekeeping before I get to feeling sick again. Thanks for reading and I hope all are having a great week of pre-thanksgiving planning!

love,
Steph