What a weekend… and it’s not over yet.
The stockings are hung by the chimney with care…
Yesterday (Friday) was my last day to work for Ellis County. It was a great job. I enjoyed it and I’m thankful for everyone who helped me along the way. Another opportunity came available and I was surprised that I was offered a job with Dallas County Community College District.
I’ll be working in their admin building downtown helping keep their course catalog updated online.
It’s a step up pay wise as well as benefit wise it would appear.
I’ll start the new position Wednesday, Dec. 5.
As part of wrapping up things with the county, I turned my laptop in and set it up for my boss. Not a big deal, but we ended up checking on some phone calls and complaints later than I expected so we got back to the office later than normal and I still had to finish a couple things with the computers before leaving.
Not a big deal in and of itself but apparently I didn’t hear/understand or forgot that Laurie wanted to head to Dallas at 4 p.m. DOH! She txt’d me around 4:20 asking when I’d be home. Thinking we weren’t leaving till 5 I told her I’d be home by then and then discovered through the next couple messages that that was going to mess up our schedule.
DOH!
I hate doing things like that. I hate running late, especially when someone is counting on me – and I do it far too often. I need to add that to my list of things to improve this year and next.
Anyways, I made it home by 5 and we left to join Jen and Jed for dinner at Chuy’s. I haven’t been there in a couple years, and had only been to the one in Austin, so it was a nice change of pace.
After a great dinner and catch-up with our newly engaged friends we stopped by Laurie’s parents to visit and play with our niece and nephew a while. Did I mention that Brooklyn is a dancin fool? We enjoyed some time with them and Laurie’s parents and then visited Bob, Vickie, Tami and Laurie’s brother Brian. I think we interrupted their viewing of American Gangster but they didn’t seem to mind. Keep Bob in your prayers – he’s going through chemo right now and will have his third treatment right before Christmas – the day of the Turner/Medlin Christmas party.
We wrapped up our visit their and then drove to Brian’s house in Forney to pick up some of Laurie’s last remaining things at his house. We picked up her loveseat/chair and also got a “new” (used) Christmas tree. It’s a lot bigger and fuller than the Charlie Brown tree I bought in college. We set that tree up the day after Thanksgiving and realized very soon into it that we would need something bigger – we just figured we would wait until after Christmas to get something different.
Presley (Queen Sheba) enjoying the return of her favorite chair
With the chair and “new tree” in tow we headed home. After finding the perfect spot for the chair, we decided to go ahead and put the new tree up rather than store it until next year.
So we took all the ornaments off the Charlie Brown tree, pulled the lights off, disassembled it and went to work on the new tree.
The Blundell Charlie Brown Christmas tree
The tree snapped together a lot easier – 3 pieces vs. 30 or 40. But it took a while to re-shape the limbs and branches. After the tree was together we noticed the base for the tree wasn’t the sturdiest base around. The tree seemed to have a lean to it and it wasn’t easy to correct without the tree falling over. I got all the lights put on it before it fell for the 2nd or 3rd time. “Wonderful!” I thought. We’ve gone from a Charlie Brown tree to a drunk tree that can’t stand up right on it’s own.
Presley eyes all the ornaments that are waiting for their new home
With the tree swaying in the slightest air from the heater, we decided to postpone putting the ornaments on the tree in hopes of finding a better base in the morning. Laurie pulled out the vacuum and I went to vacuum all the artificial pine needles that had fallen on the floor and quickly realized our vacuum was clogged up again. That’s one thing I’ve come to “really enjoy” since we’ve moved into our new house. With new carpet and a dog running around there’s lots and lots of fuzz the vacuum tries to pick up everytime we vacuum. And so far, we haven’t had much luck vacuuming for more than 5 or 10 minutes before it’s clogged up and nothings going into the bag.
I stopped and tried to unclog the vacuum before Laurie came in and reminded me it was a hopeless cause. I finally gave in and we headed to bed around 2 a.m.
All that – and Saturday’s still to come…
