The Plan vs. The Actual

The Plan:  This week my family came up for Thanksgiving.  The plan was that they would drive to Logan on Monday morning, spend the afternoon there while I finished up some stuff on campus, and then carpool with me back to our apartment in Layton.  In Layton, where Erik would be waiting for us,  we would have hot chocolate from our Cocoa Latte (best invention EVER) and bond.  My family would spend the night with us and the next day we would sleep in during the morning, go shopping in the afternoon, and go see my cheerleaders' first performance in the evening.  It was going to be magical.

What Actually Happened:  Monday morning I woke up to clear blue skies, and worried I would be too warm in my super cute new grey boots.  Monday evening I was trapped in Logan by a hideous blizzard.  I was so grumpy, not only about the change in plans, but about not being able to get back to Layton to be with Erik.  I figured we could just push the plans back a day, and still go through the plan like we'd hoped.  No such luck.  Wednesday morning the storm let up long enough for me to make it through the canyon and back home (alone) and sit and worry about Erik driving home from the airport during the forecasted worst  part of the blizzard.  The weather was so bad my cheerleaders' basketball game was even canceled.
In order to entertain myself I put up our Christmas decorations.  I've been going back and forth for a few weeks about whether or not to buy a Christmas tree.  Erik's mom gives him a Christmas ornament every year, so he has a ton of cute ornaments (who knew there were so many variations of Santa playing sports?) and I really wanted to display them.  We don't have a ton of room (or money) so it probably didn't make a ton of sense, but I caved and bought little tree at Target.  Erik was such a good sport about decorating it so early, and now we have our first Christmas tree up in our living room.

 

Today we're heading down to Logan for Thanksgiving as soon as Erik gets off work.  Things didn't go according to plan, but they worked themselves out pretty good in the end.  Come visit us.  And send us a Christmas card.  

Saturday Night Blogging

This past week Erik has been working the 3pm to 1am shift at Enterprise.  This was also the week I decided to read the Silence of the Lambs.  Bad combination.  As a result I've been falling asleep on the couch every night with every light in the apartment on and moving to the bed after Erik gets home.  Also I'll only shower when Erik is here or it is still light outside.  It's a hugely pathetic, but I can't help it if I'm borderline afraid of the dark and my book had a scary shower murder.
On the plus side, Erik working until the middle of the night has meant he's been around during the day more than usual.  This week at work the parents were invited to come watch the kids dance and tumble, and Erik came and watched two of my preschool tumbling classes (one little girl asked if he was my dad).  It was fun to have him there, even though the kids were SO wild because all their moms were watching.  We've been practicing for Parent Day for several weeks now, but watching our performance, you wouldn't guess it. The lowest point was when one student insisted the only skill he could show was his "spiderman-super-jump-roll", closely followed by one boy pounding another student with a giant foam french fry when I was working with another student. Oh dear. 

With all this time to myself in the evenings, I've had lots of time to think about the important issue of Christmas decorations.  Christmas time makes me wish I were more crafty, and I've been wasting spending time checking out cute decorations I'd like to make (translation: cute decorations I'd like someone else to make for me that I will then take credit for for the next several years).  Here are a few of my favorites:

  

Someday I will have a big beautiful house that I will fill with elegant and classy Christmas decorations, but this year Erik is going to have to deal with my construction paper chains and  cardboard ginger bread houses.  I'm not sure he's as concerned as I am about the issue of our decorations as I am though.  A few weeks ago we had this exchange:

Me: Erik, you know how I'm a little bit crazy about Christmas, right?

Erik: Understatement of the decade

What a week.  We're hanging in there though.  Come visit us!

Highs and Lows

It's been quite a week!  Here's a quick summary of the week's highs and lows:

High:  It's finally Christmas time! I love Halloween, and I love Christmas, but I don't actually care much for Thanksgiving.  There's no presents, there's no small children dressed up like lobsters or pea pods, and who has ever heard of Thanksgiving carols? So for the past fourteen years or so I've just kind of transitioned from Halloween to Christmas.  I've always had the support of craft stores and malls, as soon as the last trick-or-treater is gone they're pulling out the the Christmas trees, but this year, for the first time, I've got the radio on my side too.  On my way to Logan this week I've been enjoying Christmas carols despite the fifty degree weather .

Low: Erik started at the airport this week.  I think he's enjoying the change, but I'm hating the weird hours.  Today he worked from 5:00 am until 3:00 pm, but when he gets home we're on such different sleep schedules that I don't feel like we're getting quality time together. Plus I have to teach Sunday school by myself tomorrow. Sad day.

High: Five words: Fall-Behind-Daylight-Savings-Night.  This might be a sign of my premature aging, but I can't think of anything more awesome than automatically gaining an hour of sleep?  LOVE IT. 

Low: For whatever reason, I have been having such bad dreams lately.  They range from the classic "I'm back in high school and can't find my classroom for a big test" to "there's a murderer at my family reunion and no one will believe me".  It's no fun.  By the end of last week I was SO sleepy.  Hopefully this weekend I'll get some good rest and be all ready for next week.

High:  Cheerleading has been way fun.  My girls are all really cute and they work hard and do a good job.  It's a nice change to be working with 14-17 year olds as opposed to the 3-5 year olds I'm used to.

Biggest Low:  My little Subaru is sick.  We noticed smoke coming up from the hood of the car and a light on the dashboard wouldn't turn off, so on Friday I took it to the shop.  Ultimately we all decided that the radiator was gunked up and would have to be replaced.  Turns out radiators aren't free.  After spending 3 1/2 hours at the dealership, I was just getting ready to drive off in a loaner from the dealership when the guy who was helping me realized I wasn't 21 and took the car back.  Eventually I ended up getting a car from Enterprise, and we'll pick up my car on Monday. 

Well that's all, folks.  Cross your fingers that my car will be all better and stay healthy.  Come visit us.