The Party's Over

Back to work for me already! Wow, I blogged on the last day of school for Pal, and now he is going back to school on Tuesday. 7th grade. Holy crap.

Summer has been good, at times I was a little bored staying home but cured myself of that quickly by making lots (and lots) of plans for us to get out of the house. Therefore, I never got any projects done at home before returning to work this past Monday! There's the rub.

With Summer dwindling down and Fall on the horizon, we will once again walk as a family in the Alzheimer's Walk in Boston. Our team seems to change every year, with last year's team being our largest. My cousins walked with us, because their Mom who is my Mom's sister, also has Alzheimer's. Aunt M is in the stage that my Mom was in when we started to realize she couldn't stay alone at all. We started looking at nursing homes and assisted living facilities, but my cousins and Uncle are not quite there yet.



The walk is on Sunday, September 25. Please keep us all in your thoughts and prayers. I miss my Mom so much sometimes it hurts. Other times, I feel like I lost her a looooong time ago. That's what sucks about Alzheimer's - it robs you of your loved ones long before they're gone.

Update on my health and weight loss - I am down 47 pounds! Still going at it, slowly but surely. Summer was harder, but now that I am back at work and on a schedule, I hope to continue in that direction. It was nice to go "back-to-work" shopping for myself and realize what size jeans I can fit into again!!

We are going camping in the pop-up for Labor Day weekend with 3 other families. We've done this a few times now and it is always a good time. I can't wait. Pal turns 12 next week - I can't believe it. He is getting to that age where it's hard to buy gifts for him, because he doesn't want toys anymore, but what he wants for electronics cost a fortune! He ended up asking most people for money so he can buy what he wants. Happy Birthday to my precious little man. He'll be a big man before I blink.

Enjoy the rest of the Summer and bring on the Fall!
-G

Back to the Grind

No more limbo. Now I'm doing the cha-cha right back into my 9-month position. As I said in my last post, I know that I am lucky to have a job. But right now I am freaking out a little bit about Pal going to Middle School. I am definitely more nervous about it than he is...and I am SO not ready to get back into the world of homework, packing lunches and bedtimes. I felt like a kid again on Monday morning when I had to return to work. Sunday night I was sad that my Summer was officially over. Poor me, I know, but it's hard to go back after 12 weeks of having the time to get everything done. Now it's crunch time again!

Back to the grind!

- G

Limbo

I am scheduled to go back to work in 2 weeks. Ugh.

That is, if I am returning to my regular job. You see, Pal is starting Middle School on August 31, and will be home in the afternoons by 2:00. I am apprehensive to leave him home for 2 hours before one of us gets home. My FIL will be home, but he tends to stay downstairs and there isn't any real supervision going on there. So, I requested to move into one of our 6-month part-time positions at work, which would allow me to be home by 1:30 and still keep my benefits. Unfortunately, NOTHING has been done about moving me into this position. It would take a few other people moving around in their positions (which they WANT to do) and moving me into one of their jobs. This is not rocket science, people!! I am waiting in limbo here, and would love to hear the news that I have more than 2 weeks left of my time off!!! (That's the real reason I want to know!).

Anyway, that's my life - in limbo for now.

I'll keep y'all posted on the job status. 9 months or 6, I have a job and am luckier than some.

- G

Marathon Start

I feel like I have been running a marathon since I last blogged. (Okay, stop laughing NOW!). The last post was all about our Summer activities. Since then I have gone back to work, Pal has gone back to school, and it is now October. I didn't even have ONE post in September! I will catch you up as best I can:

Pal was at Cub Scout Camp during the week of my last post. He didn't really like it this year because they decided that the Webelos II scouts would go to an offsite Boy Scout camp instead of staying in camp with all of the others. So they would pile onto a bus for a 45-minute ride to the other camp every day. Then on the last day they brought them back into the camp with all of the other kids and it was (to quote Pal) "awkward". Plus this was the first year that I had to be back to work and couldn't go as the "Den Escort". I like to think he missed his Mom. =)

Back to work came early for me this year. Myself and 2 others got a promotion and this brought on a ton of new responsibilities, (it was a whole other job on top of our regular jobs), and boy were we in shell shock. I have never had so much work to do in such a short period of time before. I was EXHAUSTED at the end of each day! I would rather be busy than bored, but at this point I could have used enough time to take a bathroom break!! Especially since I was looking around and it didn't seem like the other 2 had as much work to do as I did. Thankfully they noticed, too, and everyone pitched in to help me when I needed it. When I got home every night it took all I had to keep my eyes open!

Pal started school before Labor Day. He seems to like his new teacher and isn't getting loaded down with homework, yet. This teacher likes them to get as much done IN school so they don't have to take it home. I love that theory, but I worry about next year when he goes to middle school and has to manage his work himself. This is not his strong point! He is also doing Karate twice a week and has decided to keep learning trombone in the school band this year. On top of all of that he has CCD and Cub Scouts, so we are always going somewhere.

In the same week that Pal went back to school, he turned 10! We had a "Lego Store" party with 3 of his buddies, with pizza and cupcakes after. Then we had a family party at the house, which was small this year. And that was just fine with me!! Here is a pic of the Lego Party:

Toward the end of September, one of my cousins from Arizona came to New England with his wife for a short vacation. I'll call them the "Carbs". This is one of my "long lost" cousins that our family never really knew until I made contact with one of them about 10 years ago through email. It was so great to see both of them, and this was her first time to the east coast. She just fell in love with it, and we all got along so nicely. Here are a couple of pictures from their visit: My sisters C & P, with myself and RCarbs


The Four R's
RCarbs, my Dad, my Brother and my Nephew)


My Dad and RCarbs (they kinda look alike, don't ya think??!)


Mr. & Mrs. Carbs and Dad

My family once again did the Alzheimer's Memory Walk as the team "Memory Keepers". Here is a picture of the whole team:

Now we are headed into Columbus Day weekend - at long last! It is also Hubby's 39th B-day next week! He will be spending the following weekend camping with the Cub Scouts (did I mention that he took over their den this year?) Look at how cute he is in uniform:I will be thoroughly enjoying some time to myself (in other words, the house will get cleaned and stay clean for longer than 10 minutes!!!). I have made some plans to hang out with the ladies and I am SO looking forward to it.

Mom's disease is progressing, and she now needs assistance with eating. She looks pretty good though and doesn't seem to be in too much pain. Here is a recent picture of her with 2 of my nieces:


I've caught you up on my life since August (not 100%, there isn't enough blogisphere out there to chronicle ALL of it!!!!). Pretty soon it will be the holidays and we will be saying, "Where did 2009 GO?"!!!

Have a great long weekend!
- G