2 Days to Paradise!

Its Wednesday January 24th, and this time Friday I'll be on the plane headed away from the forecasted 10 degrees of Boston and towards sunny, warm Punta Cana... airbourne, shoes off, reading a book, or bugging Dan by getting a crossword answer by looking over his shoulder and not being able to hold back and let him figure it out himself.

I can't believe the time has already come for this vacation. Seems to be a theme with me lately, time flying.... which makes a little more justified in my mind that I haven't gotten to these things before leaving for vacation:

• Losing weight! (I was doing so well at the gym before/during the Christmas Season... then January came along and life has thrown every curve ball imaginable in-- and it just hasn't happened. Thankfully I did do a lot of work at the house in Scituate so at least I wasn't sitting home on butt all month!
• Finding my favorite Ralph Lauren Bathing Suit & 90% of my flip flops! As usual, at least one bin of my stuff is missing somewhere in the attic or cellar of my Mom's house! I've been there twice now to no avail. If Dad finds them this week, great. If not, I've decided I'm over it. I have 2 pairs of flip flops, white sandals and black heels... that's going to have to do. Didn't I promise Dan I'd pack less this year? Good way to do that. (p.s. Can't wait to be able to move that stuff to Scituate and not have to worry about it getting "lost")
• Securing myself a new job. Yes, that is right... no job, at least officially. George and I have had at least 4 or 5 meetings scheduled, all of which had to be post poned because of other things he had to do... then we were supposed to meet this morning (after I reminded him I leave Friday for vacation)-- and he went home sick. I alread told Paul that we haven't finalized anything.... and whether or not I can come back after vacation. He basically gave me the ok. We still have more CBeds work going on and plenty of money in the budget to pay me, so it won't be a problem (especially since the final approval Paul is waiting on is from Nancy and George). Still, it would be nice to have it all wrapped up before I go... Highly unlikely at this point.

More Layouts

In what little time I've had for scrapbooking, this is what I've come up with :)

The start of Jeff's Album:

A layout about my apartment... love this picture, and I'm glad I took it before I got rid of the sofa (which was a hand-me-down from Grammy and Bubba):

A layout centering on Dan's new guitar. Title: Loving You and the Music You Play!

One good thing

A good end to a crumby week.......... got called into George's office this morning (which caused me a bit of panic, I won't lie because he nevers asks me to come over as soon as you can before 9:00)....

And the good news is.............. {drum roll please}.........

I got a BONUS! $1,000 smackers :) Thank you very much.

I was shocked, never saw that one coming. I know how rare it was for me to receive the bonuses I got when I worked for Theresa (and appreciated them greatly) so once I left that position I expected that would most definitely be the end of it.

I guess when a project has a timeline to complete a roll-out with the year and it actually happens-- that's worth some cash at MGH! :)

A great way to end what's been a lousy, tiring week! Bring on the weekend.

One Bad Day

January 18, 2007..... overall, One Bad Day.

2:26am--- Dan's phone rings. Matt has the stomach bug that Krissy has just been released from the hospital after having. Krissy can't help because she can't afford to get it back (and she still feels really sick). Dan gets dressed and heads over there.

2:30am- I go into the bathroom.... welcome period! lovely.

4:00am- I finally fall back to sleep... waking up is going to be fun

6:00am- Yep, I overslept.. but at least I'm up and going now....

7:31am- Stuck on the train between Wollaston and North Quincy (for about 20 minutes I think at this point). The train in front of us has broken down, and they can't seem to fix it.... Finally they bring in a train to tow it. Hello delays!

11:00am- Return Dan's phone call... He's got Matt at the house in Scituate and in bed. As I talk to him, he's driving to Shaw's to get soup and Ginger Ale with his Dad's ashes in the front seat because he finally had a minute to get them from the funeral home. What a morning!! Meanwhile the poor guy hasn't sleep more than 45 minutes since 2:26am!

4:30pm- I finally manage to pull myself away from work and just manage to miss a Braintree train....

5:30pm- After waiting for the train and gettin squished in when one finally came, I finally got to Braintree.... picked up plain grilled chicken, rice and gatorade for Krissy and headed through the snow/slush and traffic to Whitman.

6:00pm- Krissy and I watched "You, Me and Dupree" On Demand. Cute movie.

8:30pm- the boys come home and we watch The Office and Scrubs! Hysterical! Finally some fun and laughs in the day :)

9:45pm- Come home and get the mail. Dan gets a Mass Card for his Dad. I get a Thank You card from my grandmother about helping out with everything for the services for Bub. Holding back tears, I come in.... change into pj's, sooo tired. Phone rings, its Mom. Uncle Jack is in intensive care at South Shore Hospital... they might want to move him to MGH. Call Susan.

10:00pm- Susan calls me back. He's got CDiff and the infection's pretty bad. They're worried about his bowel puncturing if they move him. White blood cell count low.... but nothing to be done until the morning... except worry.

10:05pm- I say good night to Dan from across the room to comply with his 1-day quarantine, afraid that if either one of us is going to get this, we'll pass it to the other.... so he stayed on the couch... perfect end to this lousy day!

A few more pictures

All pictures as of Saturday 1/13/07

Livingroom/Dining Room Progress

Area where the computer was...

TV (with tv stand still in place, more pictures of that to come)

Matt's room (aka the dumping ground for all of the bins)


Dan's Room... no man's land... not emptied or clean....

Bill's room. Carpet stripped, window treatment down... walls clearly not washed ;)

A good afternoon

Add it up....

Your boss tells you to go home early (1:30p)
Catch the train and finish a good mystery novel on the way home
Clean livingroom, take down Christmas decorations (been wanting to do that for 2 weeks!!!)
4 loads of laundry (also waiting way too long)
a new Scrapbooks Etc. Magazine waiting for me in the mail
a Reece's cup sundae with mint chocolate chip ice cream (big splurge, but mmmm)
Catching up on Grey's Anatomy & Desperative Housewives
a great afternoon.
perfect.

Some "BEFORE" pictures... to compare later

Some pictures of the house as we're juuust starting to clean it:

Entryway:

TV & shelving unit:

Livingroom and Dining Room:
Sitting area of Livingroom:
Desk area in Livingroom: Dining Room and Hutch:

So much junk, so much dirt (on top of dirt, on top of dust, on top of dirt!)! But we're making progress!

One week& one day later...

Seeing that I posted last Tuesday just astounds me! That feels like a year ago to me.

I went to the gym after work then home. Dan wasn't feeling well and didn't want to "contaminate" our dinner, so I cooked then started scrapbooking. I came out around 7:30p to get my camera and see Dan on the phone.... I knew something was wrong, but wasn't sure what. His face totally fell and it was a look I'd never seen before. I asked 'what'... think that's all I got out.
"Well, my Dad's dead," is what he said! I started crying immediately... asking what happened.... I felt like it was some cruel joke... but I knew it was true... I asked what happened and Dan's first instincts were 'he drank himself to death.' I figured he knew this to be true, and I was just stunned.... he'd been doing so well. We'd all just seen him at Christmas. How could this be happening?

But there was no time to think. Matt had found him on his bedroom floor and was alone at the house in Scituate to we put on some warm clothes and headed out as fast as we could! In the car we talked a little... I asked if he knew he was drinking, and Dan said he suspected he was Christmas Eve (I didn't)..... but that Matt hadn't said anything about alcohol and that he shouldn't have jumped to that conclusion. Matt found him face down on the floor by his bed, some blood, some vomit... but really no idea when it happened, or even what happened.

We got to the house in record time, thankful that Matt wasn't alone... I can't really remember who was there because much of it is a blur, but the first thing I heard getting out of the car was David Dauphinee crying and crying, and DJ right beside him... Cheri was there, Ray and Lillian, Chris, Becky, Gen and John, Larry and Leslie and Ilene (Bill's friend from AA).

Ilene was the one who called Matt. She was worried that he hadn't called her back in over 3 days. He does that sometimes, but he always calls back. She went to the house earlier that day and the door was unlocked and the chimney was without smoke. Both are very out of the norm for Bill and she got worried.... As the stories went around it seems like David was the last to talk to him, Friday afternoon. Dan was at the house Saturday (12/30) in the morning before picking up Ray and Ben for their Christmas outting. His Dad's bedroom door was closed and the radio was on. He figured he was sleeping, watched tv for a few and picked up the boys. When he left, he forgot to lock the door.... and where Ilene found the door unlocked, it doesn't seem like Bill came or went since then.

It was an awful night... Freezing cold, everyone standing around the yard, crying, talking, telling stories.... waiting while the policeman blocked the door for the state medical examiner to come and confirm the death and that nothing was suspicious (it wasn't).

I left only for a bit to pick up Krissy and bring her over...

We stayed there til just about midnight. Long, agonizing night... just trying to get our heads around the idea of it.

Not wanting to go home after, Dan and I went to Matt and Krissy's and just sat and talked for another hour or so....

What a horrible day. So shocking, so unexpected. So young.

Happy New Year!

Dan and I rang in the New Year at the Canoe Club again this year. I never liked New Year's Even until I started doing this and now I just Love it! And hey, any excuse to buy a new dress is just fine with me.

Unfortunately my camera wasn't cooperating but I did get a few shots....

(Dan HATES this picture, but hey, its the only one I've got so I'm going with it):

The one of Marilyn and I is a little cuter:

A fun time was had by all... line dancing led by Paul had all of us girls up and moving (oh and Mr. P and Allen too! LOL)..... Jamie spent half of the night declaring his crush on me to be official (very amusing, he's a sweetie).... Dan and I danced to more slow songs that I think we've ever danced to in one night. Love that!!!

I did have a bit of an unexpected breakdown after midnight.... Dan saw it coming and brought me outside where I cried my head off for way too long. Just thinking about this being a new year and that Bub won't have been here for any of it, just set me off. Dan was wonderful as usual, reminding me how sick Bub was and that he didn't want to be sick anymore, which I know and which gets me through most days. Sometimes its just tougher than others. After quite a few hugs and kisses I was feeling better... a little make up and I didn't look quite as hideous as I should have ;)

We stayed til 3:00am!!! Yikes! Since when do we stay up that late! But we were having a great time.

Monday- January 1= a day of rest and relaxation

Dan found out that my Christmas present had finally arrived, so he went to his Mom's to pick it up, and brought back Dunkin Donuts for breakfast! mmmm!!

He got me the first 2 seasons of Scrubs on DVD! Yaaaay! We started watching Season 1 in the morning. So many hysterical shows, a bunch we had never seen.

Around 2p I finally got motivated to start my laundry- and start Scrapbooking. I am doing the Winter Scrapfest on LM which has me very motivated. I finished 5 Layouts - 3 for Jeff's MGH stay album! I'm glad I'm back in the groove! Starting fresh :)