An Update on Life 2006
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: What's Been Happening
More than can be said in a single Christmas Letter can be said on a blog. So, here is what has been happening on a monthly basic since I last updated the main web-page:

March 2006 – Spring Break and the trip to Arkansas. Yes, we actually did it. We rented a four bedroom, two bath houseboat for a week. It rained most of the time we were there which caused the lake to steadily increase in depth. It increased over five feet in five days. Matt made a marker after the first night we were set adrift after successfully beaching ourselves. It was never over 68 degrees, but still the children got to spend a great deal of time outdoors, which is something they normally don’t do in Kansas for some reason. The mountainous country was filled with pine trees and rocks and nature in general. It was like I was back in Northern California for a brief bit, but without the humidity. It was peaceful and relaxing. I got to use the rooftop Jacuzzi and enjoyed looking at the stars every night. The water was crystal clear and fabulous. We are looking forward to coming back to Lake Ouachita in the summer time in a year or so, so that we may actually get to go swimming or participate in other water sports. We were practically the only ones on the lake. It was sooooooooo worth it.

April 2006 – Work dominated my life pretty much in April. I was giving six lectures on the Projects and Grants module at the Clerical In-Service training April 14th and it took a lot of preparation and planning. After the successful lectures, I had many one on one training sessions and budgeting meeting with grant managers. The countdown to year end had really begun and everyone was rushing around trying to get things done before school ended in a month. I also had to say goodbye to a dear co-worker who retired. Lu and I came to be very close over the last two years and it pained me to see her retire and leave us. I was happy for her all at the same time though, since it was truly time for her to leave the district. So much had changed that her working conditions just couldn’t be tolerated any longer. She moved to Texas with her husband and I miss her greatly. We keep in touch via email.

May, June, and July 2006 - The children began their six week stay with us. They took two rounds of swimming classes as the Wellington Pool and went to CJ’s every work day. Matt and I pulled a lot of overtime during these months – again- and didn’t really do anything spectacular of note…just lived.

August and September 2006 – Joey and Kailee moved in with us, supposedly for three weeks. They ended up staying six weeks, rent and utility free, eating our food, and paying not one cent for anything they used, which believe me, they used everything. I am talking about a load if not two of laundry every day so much so that Matt and I couldn’t do our own laundry. The phone rang off the fucking hook day and night without regard for the day or time. The other thing that happened day and night was their fighting. They bickered over the smallest thing and were disrespectful to each other, boardering on downright mean. Neither of us could take it since we actually have a loving relationship and don't fight like they do. We really don't fight at all. It was a big ball of tension all the time. Kailee is particularly moody and bitchy at certain times, and made us all uncomfortable - even Joey. Their crap was left lying around everywhere, even inappropriate stuff not meant to be seen by the children. Matt was upset about the lack of courtesy with regards to some of the basics of housekeeping we requested – like putting the toilet seat down, or refilling the toilet paper when it was finished, turning off lights and the TV when they weren’t in use, and putting the phone back on the correct chargers, or on the chargers at all. We purposely gave them their own portable phone upstairs, but they took the downstairs phones upstairs on numerous occasions and left the phones off the charges so much that at one point, both had dead batteries. I was furious when I saw the phone bills and electric/water bills. The utility bill was $200 more than it normally was and the phone bill more than $70 over the usual – for two months straight. The lack of respect and gratitude was appalling. After they moved out, I had to tell Matt to go make Joey come back and clean the bathtub he soiled. It took three weeks for him to come back and do it, and he only did because I told Matt that Joey either cleaned the tub or our friendship was through…finito, done with. So, just in the utility and phone bills, they cost up around $425. I don’t even want to think about the extra food, toilet paper, soap, laundry detergent, et al. We are never EVER allowing anyone to move in with us, unless they are REAL family.

October 2006 – We went to Dallas, Texas for a mini-vacation October 13 – 15th. We ate at the Hard Rock Cafe - Dallas and Trinity Hall Irish Pub and Restaurant on October 13th, seeing really cool musical artifacts at HRC and listening to fun Irish folk music at the Hall. Matt had the best prime rib he’s ever eaten in his life at TH, and we all indulged in the cheesecake. I enjoyed a nice Lambic Framboise which I hadn’t had since moving to Kansas. I loved every ounce of it. Matt was surprised that the one bottle I ordered cost $8.95. I absolutely love Belgian beer, and the Lambic variety most of all. Saturday, we went to the Mexican Heritage Festival and watched Dance Azteca and listened to Mexican music – mariachi variety mostly. For dinner, we went to the Medieval Times Dinner and Tournament - Dallas Castle. Our Knight was the Green Knight – the Bad Guy. It was fun. We took a picture in costume which I am planning on scanning and putting online with the rest of the pictures. We came home from Dallas with souvenirs from HRC and MT and many good memories. The children particular enjoyed swimming in the pool at Embassy Suites.

Matt also got promoted in October and we had a party for him on October 20th. He had invited a great deal of people who of course didn’t show up. We had about 10 guests total of the 40 that he thought may arrive. So, I put out the spread of food, which we are still nibbling on some. I’ve been relatively depressed ever since. Even through my birthday.

Halloween at work was fun. I dressed as Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty and nobody knew who I was. That pissed me off. I am sorry, but I had a killer costume and they didn’t even recognized the most evil Disney villain of all time?! *sigh* Whatever.