This is a fun time of year! There are so many reasons and opportunities to get together with people. Here’s a review of my week. (I also have to cover the pager at work this week so every event has been fraught with tension as I wondered if I’d have to abandon the event to rush home and work).

Saturday a week ago started with the rehearsal for the children’s Christmas show. I run the sound system. Saturday the sound system was not being nice to me. The afternoon ended up free and beautiful, instead of the snow storm being predicted. That gave me time to make snowball cookies for Monday night

Sunday was church and then an extra long choir rehearsal as we went through the adult Christmas performance. Someone else has to run the sound system for that!

Monday night was the Circle meeting with women from church. This was our Christmas dinner so it was all fun fellowship.

Tuesday I had plans but I ended up rebelling and staying home.

Wednesday was the children’s Christmas performance so I was there early to help set up and do the rehearsal. The performance went really well and the sound system behaved!

Thursday was open so we watched Terminator Salvation. I liked the movie. I wasn’t a huge fan of Christian Bale’s John Connor, but the characters of Kyle Reese and Marcus Wright were great!

Friday was dinner with friends. This was long overdue, we just don’t spend enough time with this couple. We had a great time and did a lot of talking. It was very late (or very early, depending on your perspective) when we finally came home.

Today I’m making more snowball cookies and we have a party with friends tonight. We won’t be staying quite as late because the adult Christmas performance is tomorrow night. Maybe Anthony can party several days in a row and stay out late with no consequences, but I can’t do it

Tomorrow will be busy. Church in the morning. A meeting and choir rehearsal in the afternoon. Then the choir performance tomorrow night.

A coworker is generously covering the pager tomorrow night so I don’t have to worry about it during the Cantata. Then Monday someone else takes over the pager. Of course, I don’t really have much planned next week.

One week from today we’ll have around 16 people here for Christmas! With my mom and aunt coming early to do all the cooking. I am so excited!

I love my new Maple Leaf theme, so I’ll be back to it soon. But I switched to the Beach Holiday theme for the next week in recognition of our very cool vacation in Hawaii. I might even get in a blog entry or two from the lanai (cooler than just an old deck or porch) of the condo we’re staying in.

On the home front I am happy to report that the PMS is going away. I’m not a danger to nearby irritants now.

I have had to wash sheets multiple times this week as Ray has decided to pee on every bed, more than once. It has been such a joy to have those added todos this week while I had so much spare time between working and getting ready for the trip. There’s nothing like a week long vacation hanging over the head to bring some things into sharp relief. We are looking to have Ray out of the house before the end of the day and he won’t be coming back.

Out today because we aren’t going to leave this fun for our nice house and cat-sitter. And not coming back because it’s been 2 months and he’s persistent in this peeing – I’ve found it in a few other places over the past 3 weeks. A friend thinks he may be destined to be an outside cat which is fine, but we aren’t in a position to have an outside cat and we did tell the shelter we’d keep him as an inside cat so they need to be in on the issues.

Enough about that – the good news on the pet front is that my very good friend is getting a new Great Dane!!! We love our big dogs, or we love our dogs big. Anyway – I love when she has a big dog because I get to go over there and play with and love on them. Chandler will be a nice addition, even if I don’t get to meet him until after my vacation.

That’s it for now – off to finish my day of work and get packed. Aloha!

As someone commented on SparkPeople – Life is what happens while we’re making plans.

Early in May we both signed up for the MSBike even in October. His plan was to ride 100 miles on Saturday and another 40 or 50 on Sunday. I figured I would try 40 on Saturday and see what I felt like on Sunday.

We got out for a ride in early June and it went pretty well. If we had kept to a real training schedule we would be in great shape for the MS ride. But training takes time and we kept running out of that.

I was still on track to do 40 miles on Saturday and then see if I did 35 or 20 on Sunday. After our last ride where DH called for a pick up at 50 miles I convinced him not to do the 100 miles for the MS Ride. He talked about the 80 mile but then was considering the 40 mile with me.

This week was very rushed but this morning between meetings and other stuff I did manage to lay out our clothes, bike clothes, shoes, helmets, towels, sleeping bags, etc… so we could pack this afternoon.

Work has been hectic all week with a review coming next week, but I thought we would be in good shape by today. Then they started pulling in last minute stuff that has to be done before Monday morning. Next thing I know I’m on the phone until 7:30 pm with more planned for Saturday morning.

I finally took a few minutes to talk to DH about the options and we decided it just made more sense for him to go on down to Greenville tonight and be ready for the bike ride tomorrow. I will stay here and do my work.

I’m kind of sad that I won’t be doing the ride after preparing for it and telling so many people about it. But it also solves some problems with other things that had to be covered this weekend. Now I can do those things and have some time to myself. For example – we needed to mow the yard, because we need to mow again this coming Thurs or Fri before traveling for 9 days. We have a friend staying the house, but she won’t be mowing our yard. Plus, my nephew called to chat for about 30 minutes Friday and I wouldn’t have been here for that. And the substitute to run the sound system at church is ill and shouldn’t be worrying about the sound system this weekend.

As my new favorite quote says “What should have happened did” so no regrets, just noticing how the best laid plans don’t always work out.

On the up side, I haven’t been for a run in a week and I was able to get out Saturday morning and enjoy being back on the road.

I promised photos but we got busy and it took all week to finish the project. He finally got out there Wednesday morning (9 days after we started) and finished cutting the pieces to fit in the holes. It looks very nice.

Half the photos are on his iPhone so I don’t have them yet, but these give you a good idea of the progress. The main thing I don’t have a picture of is the boys smiling (not!) while carrying the pavers to the back patio.

One thing we didn’t get was a picture of the area before we started. But I believe he has a picture of it before we removed all the grass.

Then the pavers on the patio.

First day’s progress – we dug the trench for the foundation of the wall, cleared all the grass and leveled the area for the sand and pavers, got the wall put in and started putting down sand and pavers.

Then we had to get the dirt moved so it wouldn’t kill the grass in the yard. A friend had a place for us to dump it so it got shoveled into the truck and then out of the truck. We’re tired of moving dirt.

A few days later he finished laying all the pavers with holes where he needed to cut some to size/shape.

Of course we had curious cats watching most of this every time we were outside.

Finally – help from a circular saw with a diamond blade and he had it all done.

No more scraggly bushes, straw, or trimming around the area. We like it!

A three day weekend is a great thing. And given that all my weekends seem to be booked lately, this was no exception.

I got up Saturday and drove off to the business park to run in my 6K. I did pretty well, coming in at about 41 minutes. Then I came home to find the rest of the folks in the house just getting up.

I doled out some assignments which resulted in nephew #2 mowing the yard while hubby edged and trimmed. Nephew #1 worked hard at … eating breakfast.

Then, I headed off to a baby shower at the Duke Mansion. Hubby took both nephews to Home Depot and had them help load some paver stones into the truck. Then, he dropped them off at a friends which means he had to unload the truck alone (not good planning) and drive some friends down to the hospital for visitation.

I got back from the shower and DH got back from the hospital in time to go to our friends’ for dinner. Yummy food and great company. Home in time for showers and bed.

Sunday started with church. Then lunch, change clothes, grocery shopping, and back over to my friend’s house to whip up a dish for the cul-de-sac party that night. DH spent most of the afternoon at the hospital again. Off to choir practice and prayer meeting, then back to eat the dregs left from the cul-de-sac party. Home in time for showers and bed.

Monday – need to catch up on laundry – the boys didn’t bring that many changes of clothes and with the mowing, etc, they’ve gone through most of it. While the boys were sleeping in, DH and I ran to Lowe’s to get sand and paver stones – seems we’re serious about the little yard project. Since the stones from Saturday are in my spot in the garage, we better get this done fast – I am paying a lot for that garage and I want my car in it!

He and I and a very nice assistant at Lowe’s got lots of paver stones loaded into the truck. Then we came home and started preparing the ground around the a/c units. The boys finally got up (after much prodding) so we assigned them the duty of emptying the stones out of the truck. That was a joyful task!

Then I ran off for more tools and lunch. Somehow after lunch the boys disappeared so DH and I kept working. I finally had to quit, make sure the boys had packed and cleaned their room, showered (finally), put the 3rd load in to wash, and drove the 1.5 hours to get the boys home. Hung around for a birthday party that was really burnt hamburgers and a very cool birthday cake. Then drove back home to find DH had made phenomenal progress while I was gone. We’re over 1/2 way there with this little project. Good thing we only do one of these every few years.

I’ll post pictures (before, during, and after) in another day or two. Today, I’ve finished 2 more loads of laundry, put clean sheets on the bed for Mom who comes home tonight, and soon I need to work through this stack of receipts on my desk.