Independence day

Yesterday, I thought I was going to be stuck in an office all day. Instead, I was stuck in a marketing meeting in the conference room. I heard my name being paged for a call, but missed it, so when we had our break, I went upstairs to get my message from Marilyn in teleservice. After she gave me my message, she said the Lynn, the receptionist needed to see me. So, I went over to Lynn's desk, and as I approached, she pulled out a wrapped bouquet of flowers. "I didn't know it was your birthday," she said. "It isn't," I replied, rather confused.

Some days, that doesn't take much to do.




I unwrapped it, and found a bouquet of mini roses, with a card attached.




You see, yesterday was the one year anniversary of my divorce. I had totally forgotten about it, but in the past, I had joked that instead of the fourth of July, I considered the twenty-second of November as Independence Day. It's been a year of huge changes: Olivia and I moved two time zones, and twelve hundred miles; I went back to work after being out of the work force for nearly seven years; we moved twice while here...once out of my parents' house to our own apartment, and then to our own house with Donnie; I got engaged to the most wonderful man in the world, who not only accepts the idiosyncrasies that make me me, but loves me because of them, It has not been easy sometimes, especially when it was just Olivia and I living on our own, but I would not trade it for anything.

Repeat ad nauseum

Last week, I had my annual review. And again, last week, I told the powers that be that I only want to work a maximum of three days a week. I got my schedule yesterday, and it has finally sunk in. Previously, I was usually doing five days a week. It just got to be too much for Olivia, my mom, and me. This will be a lot better.

So, I was looking over the directions on my Cable/Twist/Bobble coat, and I saw a curious thing that I hadn't noticed in my zeal to get it done. There was this line that I don't remember seeing before.....

"Mark for buttons on left side, and work corresponding buttonholes on right side."

Buttons....hmmm....

Olivia's tree

The other night we went to Walmart and while wandering through the Christmas aisles, we happened upon this little tree. I thought it would be perfect for Olivia's room, and she agreed. We found just the right ornaments, and a star for the top, and we set it up today. She absolutlely loves it, and had a blast decorating it. We had some extra ornaments, so we strung them on some crochet cotton and swagged it across her window.

I kept looking at her tree, wondering why it looked kind of familiar to me. Then it hit me...what it reminded me of. But, she loves it, and it's nice that she's of the age where she can really get excited about the holidays.

Birthday party

Olivia went to a birthday party for one of her little preschool friends. It was held at the local kids' indoor playground, so it was great. It has lots of toys, and a huge space to run around, so you don't have to worry about a pile of kids bouncing off the walls at your house. There was even had a Transformers cake. With sparklers. That was a big hit with the kids.

After the party, we went out and picked up some Christmas lights for the front of the house, and had lunch out. All the excitement required a nap. Mostly for me, but Olivia was easily convinced. I even worked a few more rows of my Cable/Bobble/Twist coat. I'm nearly done all of the main body pieces, only I'm not sure how I did the shaping at the top of the left side. I was all smart and changed the "bind off xxx stitches at the beginning of every second row" shaping to a wrap and turn shaping, so that I could do the three needle bind-off at the shoulders. I'm really going to have to pay attention when I do that. As in, not work on the shoulder shaping and watch ER at the same time.

Halloween

Halloween went off without a hitch. I was one of the parent helpers at Olivia's preschool that day, and I was a little worried about helping to wrangle 15 over-excited four year olds. But, the party went well, and everyone had a great time. I finished the final touches on Olivia's witch costume the evening before, so we were able to get ready at a leisurely pace. We went out Trick or Treating right after school, and she got a ton of candy.

Olivia got a bigger kick out of seeing all the costumes, and had to race to the door when the doorbell rang. She didn't have much time to sit down between visits, since we got probably over one hundred kids at our house.