Lance's Birthday Weekend part 2

So Saturday turned out to be frustrating for Dan. He made Breakfast, washed dishes, dealt with a dishwasher not washing and a garbage disposal that broke.  He and Lance did finally get to do some stuff like fixing the figs that Lance accidentally broke on Friday. I pretty much got off easy as I got to read almost all day.

(Have I mentioned how much I love my Kindle?)

Lance had been asking for a fire in the stove as it was a bit cold in the Dragon's Den. But of course by the time he mentioned it to me, it was pretty late in the evening. We don't like to leave a fire going when we aren't downstairs. It's a safety thing. But I figured that if Lance was sleeping down there we would be OK. So I asked Dan to make a fire.  Well I don't know if he got busy and forgot, but he was doing some other stuff and taking forever to do what I wanted. So I decided I would just do it myself.

But I was lazy about it. that's where things went WRONG.

I always burn our junk mail. It has so many pre-approved and we want you to applies, that it just seems safer to burn it. So I grabbed a hefty stack of it and just tossed it into the stove. Then I threw some twigs and leaves on that, and then tossed in a couple of tiny logs.  I lit a fire stick and stuck it in. Things went well for the first 5 minutes and then i noticed that the Stove was smoking. and it was flowing out into the family room.

Soon it was really bad and nothing I did made it stop. Dan came running downstairs and grabbed a bowl to put water in and threw it in the stove. We opened the window and doors and tried to air  the place out. I was really bad and I think it's time to check the upstairs smoke detectors since none went off.

We finally closed up because it was freaking cold. The smoke was gone, but the smell was in the house to stay. Dan ranted and raved about the chimney guy and how he must have broke something when he cleaned it.

So we went to bed about midnight and about 12:35 am our doorbell rings. I thought maybe someone had seen the heavy smoke and was checking on us, but no. It was some guy who claimed he got kicked out of his house and was asking us for $20.00.  Dan told him we don't carry cash and closed the door. I was worried and wondered if we should call the police. But we didn't.

The next day I was downstairs and it was cold. I started thinking about the fire and wondered if maybe it was my fault for just tossing the mail in the stove. So I told Dan I was going to try again and this time I grabbed some more mail, but this time I crumpled each piece up. I then tossed in some more twigs and such and started it with a fire starter stick. Dang thing burned perfectly. GRRRR. Lesson learned.

Afterward we played Munchkin and the other boys came over. It was a good weekend.

Lance's Birthday Weekend

So Lance wheedled got, a 3 day Birthday Weekend. Birthday weekends with Dan and Denise are big with Lorie's boys. A chance to get one on one attention and basically to do anything they want. Since Lance is a master manipulator, he has been able to get himself a 3 day birthday weekend for the last couple of years. Since of course he gets one, the other two must have 3 days as well.

Birthday weekends are rarely held near the birthday. Since a 3 day weekend requires planning, they are usually held on a weekend where one of us has a day off.  But this year Dan took Friday off work on purpose so Lance can get his weekend.

We went out on Thursday night and watched Lance and Jared at their Karate Class. They are doing so good. I was so proud. But I did notice that having us there did cause them to lose focus a couple of times. Lance can do the splits which I thought was just amazing. Jared is still working on that. But he can do cartwheels which was awesome.  After Karate Class we took the whole Koford-Robb-Platt Family out to dinner. It was on the pricey side but totally worth it.

On Friday I went off to work and Dan and Lance hung out. They got all the Figures together and went off to Mind Games. They played some strategy games there. Lance won 1 game and lost the other, but learned some good strategy and had a GREAT time. 

Today is Saturday and it snowed last night. So I think we will probably be hanging out at home today. Lance wants to play Munchkin Bites, so I think that's what we will do.  Dan stayed up late last night, and we (Lance and I) had to attack him to wake him up. Then to add insult to injury, we made him make us Breakfast.  right now he and Dan are watching Greatest Tank Battles.

I'll update more as we go, but so far it's been a pretty good weekend.

Losing my enthusiasm

What is it about the older I get the less excited I am about the holidays?  Like most things in my life these days, I get a little excited about the holiday coming and then when it's time to really get excited, I have decided it's no big deal and I don't really want to care.

Case in point, my last post about Halloween. I buy decorations every year to do up the inside of my home. This year, the only stuff that got shown off what the new stuff I bought. Which by the way did not all get set out.

Now Thanksgiving is upon us. but I have no desire to be excited over it. Because of the health problems this year I am already out of time off from work.  This means I have to work the day after TG.  This is not so bad as it is a dead as a door nail around here. (where did the term dead as a door nail come from anyway? I am under the impression that it was dead to begin with.... hum.)

I will bring in my lap top and watch movies, or read or do whatever. But I would rather be at home, in bed, or cleaning.  This year we will not be having a TG at my house on Thursday. Usually we have a small gathering on Thursday and then the Big family gathering on Saturday. But this year I have decided to forgo the Thursday get together and just do the Saturday.  This has taken a bit of the stress off me as I like to control everything and do more than needed to entertain family and friends.

Dan was just as excited at this decision and so we have decided that this year we are just going to hang at home and be bums! This has put a little spark of excitement in me as I love nothing more than having a do nothing, be nothing lazy butt.  

I have also started the Christmas Shopping. This used to be my most favorite thing to do. I love to shop for other people. But now it's a chore. Which is so sad to me. Once again health issues have caused me to not want to do anything that involves physical movement. I am doing almost all of my shopping on the Internet this year. It just seems so much easier. The thought of walking through a store just makes my head hurt. And Wrapping. Damn I am not looking forward to wrapping. I don't know why.   I used to love that too. But now, I am beginning to loath it.  I think if I could get away with it, I would just shove them all into grocery bags and hand them out that way.  I am thinking that I just need to find some sweet boy scout, or girl scout, or young person doing a service project and pay them to wrap all my stuff.  But then they would probably want way more than I would want to pay.

I wish I knew why the things I used to love and enjoy have now become a bore and a chore. I wish I could understand why it has become easier to just not do anything than to work up the enthusiasm to just do it.

Not so much Halloween this year

Halloween is usually my favorite time of year. I love to decorate because the only other holiday that seriously goes all out is Christmas.  So I am always finding tons of Halloween and Christmas decorations.  I even went out and bought a blow up Halloween cat who's head lights up and moves.

But, for some reason I just couldn't find the energy to put up the decorations.I just wasn't into it. I have found I am not the only one. At work my team usually decorates a lot and gets into the spirit. Not this year. Since Brandy left, we didn't want to do anything. We were kinda lame. lol

I did pull out my few desk decorations that I keep there in my drawer, but we did nothing out of the ordinary. We usually have a pot luck of some sort, but this year we opted to just order out and get sandwiches. We did have a dress up contest, of which 5 people participated. It was funny since Jill sent me a text to say that if I dressed up I could possibly win a Gift Card. So I slapped my old Zombie make-up on and won $5.00. 

We did have a few work trick or treaters. Of course I remembered the make up and forgot the candy. But I had some play dough and fuzzy pompom's in my desk from last year and that covered the treating. At home I bought so much candy I was giving out 2 to 3 pieces per kid. Since I didn't go all out decorating my house this year, half the kids skipped my house.  Stef and Andy came over and Stef sat outside with me for a while. It was fun to have the kids come walking up to get candy.

I ended the candy give away at about 9. I guess the nice thing about not decorating is that I don't have to take any of it down.

They put the Hot in Hot Springs

So Dan and I went to Lava Hot Springs Idaho.  We left Friday afternoon after I worked a 1/2 day. I don't know why I always think that I can work a 1/2 day and then leave for a trip. I ALWAYS regret it. But I got out of work only 20 minutes later than I had planned. However we didn't leave our house until almost 1:30, which was way later than I wanted.

We hopped on the road with our car full of junk. I mean FULL. OF. JUNK.   I don't know why I do this, but whenever we go on a road trip I want to take everything but the kitchen sink. I bought so much soda, and water, and such. We didn't drink 1/2 of it. we did eat a bit of the snacks, but that was mostly me.

Still we stopped for McDonald's on the way out of West Valley and then we were on our way.

We started listening to a Book on MP3 called The Search by Nora Roberts.   It is easily one of my favorite of her books. She's such a funny write. Dan really got into it and we've decided to listen on the way up.

We had to make a stop at one of the rest stops as I drank way too much soda. But we were almost there. When we drove through Malad the Power Ball was at 145 Million dollars. What I could do with that....

We made it and checked into our little hotel. It was obvious that it was a house before becoming a hotel.  The room I chose was at the back and on the 2nd floor.  Dan tried to talk me in to getting a first floor room and if we stay there again we will.  but it was cute and homey. The bed was heavenly but I couldn't sleep on it very well. However Dan the mover stayed on his side of the bed and for the first time in a very  long time I didn't wake up with an elbow in my face.

The town is very small. It's bigger than you think, but compared to us it's a dot on a map. The main street is full of B&B's and hotels plus a few shops and food places. Friday night we had dinner at the Riverside Inn. We wanted steak and that was the best place.  The T-Bone steak was to DIE FOR!  It was $30.00 per plate, but we both think it was worth the money. However at that price I don't know if we would eat there again. We did also have a bath in our room. The tub was made for two people and the water is the mineral water from the springs. It was nice and fun, but got too hot and we didn't stay in the tub for long.

Next morning was Saturday and we had breakfast at the Chuck wagon. It was really good, well priced and a lot of it. Dan just couldn't finish his breakfast. It was that big. The locals are so friendly too. Just so very helpful and nice. We walked to the pools and to the restaurants, however I made Dan drive to the store for a hairbrush. Who travels w/out a brush?  The Boe's do. The market was just like a small Harmon's. Very cozy and reasonably priced.  We bought a few things, but nothing really native to the area.  What is it about buying the same damn junk you see every day that suddenly make this crap special when it's bought from somewhere you haven't been to?  I really should have done what the little boy at the springs did, and captured some of the hot springs water in a bottle. That would have been special.

Saturday morning I went for my first real massage. I've had back rubs before, but never a tried and true strip yourself down massage. since I was only paying for 30 minutes the lady there did my back, shoulders and neck.  It was lovely. I think I fell in love with her. I was jelly by the time she was done.

We soaked in the hot springs. They have about 4 or 5 bigger soaking pools and two smaller jetted ones. Depending upon where you were depended upon the temperature. We couldn't stay in the hottest pool for too long. It was just too hot.  We finally settled in the last pool that is just above the river. It was the coolest and was like little Bear's porridge. Just Right. We read our Kindles and relaxed. I am a more seasoned reader and had no problems holding my kindle and reading while soaking. Dan preferred to have something to put his kindle on. I don't know that this worked really well for him, but he did get some reading done.

We went back to the hotel after a couple of hours of soaking, and ended up doing our tour of the town. We went to the market for the hairbrush, parked on the street to walk the shops, found a stray dog that wasn't really a stray, found his owner, bought stuff we didn't need, and had lunch at the deli and Ice Cream parlor.

It was a good time. we went back to our room and I took a nap. sort of. by the time Dan got the lap top up and running to watch a movie I was almost wide awake. About 8 I talked Dan into going back to the Hot Springs. It was a lot more crowded than it was during the day. wow!

We talked to one of the ladies who works there and she said that it was mellow that night because of the Halloween parties. That just boggles the mind.  We didn't eat dinner before we went and after Dan didn't want to go anywhere. He wasn't feeling so well. I don't think he drank enough water. They tell you to stay hydrated because the hot water really makes you dry. by the time I got my gumption up to go out to get something to eat it was after 10 pm and everything was closed except the two bars. I wasn't up to Bar hopping so to speak so I ate Cheetos, Mandarin oranges, and apples and had some diet Pepsi. The next morning Dan and I were anxious to get home. I had thought we'd check out at about 11:00 but go over to the springs for some more soak. However Dan really wanted to head out. So we went back to the Chuck wagon for breakfast. Wasn't as impressed on Sunday as I was on Saturday. While our waitress wasn't rude, it was obvious that she was busy and didn't have time to be overly friendly. It's a seat yourself kind of place, but they were busy so we ended up sitting right by the door. BIG MISTAKE. it took almost 30 minutes to get our food. It was good, so I didn't complain much.

We left on our way home when suddenly we both needed to use the restroom. fortunately there were plenty of places to stop. By the time we made it home we were almost 1/2 way through the book on MP3 and I was pooped out. I went right to bed. slept for a couple of hours and then Dan got me some food.

It was such a good and fun weekend.
I so want to do it again and again. Only we won't stay the night. It's too expensive.