A Dillon christmas....

So Dad came to visit for 10 days. In on the 20th, out on the 30th. What do we do for 10 days?? I figured he'd want to rest. He did just move himself, you know. After he left at Thanksgiving he flew home and made a mad dash to move 17 years worth of stuff in three weeks to a new house. That included doing last minute repairs to his current house for the new owners (part of the contract...)

You know, nothing in our house is normal... and that includes Christmas. Well, the actual holiday was normal. Christmas Eve, Grandma C's house. Christmas Day, mother-in-law's family's place.... I figured after the actual holidays we'd be lazy, go out to eat, go see movies... that kind of stuff.

Nope.

Now there's been a big debate as to who's idea this was - mine or dad's. I say it was dad's. The man just can't sit still. But to put it in a nutshell - Wednesday through Saturday (he left Sunday morning) we went full throttle home make over, all day, every day.

I'm not kidding.

We tiled the hallway and redid the powder room (which is right off the hallway) which included taking down the wallpaper (hideous!!) , taking out the old sink and vanity, light fixture and toilet, painting the room and installing a tile floor, new: moulding, pedestal sink, mirror, light fixture, toilet and hardware. I still have to paint the hallway and put up new moulding before I'm done. To be "officially" done I have to get a new runner and pretty things for the walls. (I only had a mirror and a table in the hallway before.)

Yep - that's how we spent our Christmas..... I need a vacation from my vacation...

Oh, and we were supposed to tile the kitchen while dad was here too but we ran out of time. The good news is we already bought the tile for the kitchen so now it's just a matter of finding the time to do it...

I'm a terrible DIYer - I always forget to take "before" pics. The vinyl flooring in the hallway and kitchen is the same though - 1980's brown, orange and cream shit... original to the house. Now you know why I had to tile over it. It HAD to go.... The previous owners thought it would be just fine to put up wallpaper of their liking and not mess with the floor.

The wallpaper in the bathroom was a.... well, think pastel Monet impressionistic crap (with the brown, orange and cream vinyl floor....) hung terribly to where I'd sit on the crapper and peel the paper at the seems. (I figured that'd get me a remodel faster... hey, it worked!!)

The wallpaper in the hallway was a light silvery, cream, something... I don't know - something yucky. Also hung terribly. (Note to y'all out there. If you can't hang paper correctly, PAINT!!!) Again, with the brown, orange and cream vinyl floor.

SO.... that's how we spend Christmas.... Any takers on coming to visit next year???

true love

when do you know it's true love?

when he sends you flowers every day?

when he gets you that special "something" you've always wanted?

when you finish each other's sentences?

when he can read what's on your mind?

when he can tell you've had a bad day? when he knows what to do when you've had that bad day?

when you feel secure in his arms, knowing everything will always be fine, so long as you're together?

when, no matter what, you know he'd walk through thick and thin, to do whatever is necessary for you and your relationship?

I know when. When you're sitting on the toilet, in your worst possible moment, crying in pain and he's right there beside you, telling you it's going to be ok, while simultaneously running you a sitz bath so you can make as smooth a transition as possible from toilet to bath. And in the end you know he'll still love you and not think less of you even during one of the most grossest moments you can possibly imagine.

If that's not true love I don't know what is....

Update

Well, I'm home and everything went well. For those of you that I didn't tell, I had surgery on parts that "shall not be named". We'll just leave it at that. I'm on good drugs and trying to mend as fast as possible. Sitting is not comfy so lying is the choice position. Apparently David could only best describe me in the recovery room as "feisty". (he's never been around me when I've had surgery before...) I really wanted to leave - that part I DO remember!!!

David's trying to win the "best home nurse ever" award. He's doing a great job too! He's so cute - always asking if there's anything he can get me, anything I want. I'm getting drinks, food - he's even drawing bathes for me! The medicine makes me dizzy sometimes so he's holding my hand and making sure I'm ok getting off the sofa... you name it, he's on it!

I imagine it's pretty hard to play nurse when you've never been in any type of similar situation to know what is needed/ wanted. And as some of you may know - sometimes it's really hard to tell someone what you want/ need when you feel like shit. Saturday was hard as all day I was nauseated and not feeling so hot. When you're already in that state it's hard to coach someone as to what to do - just the tiniest bit of talking made me want to throw up. But he was good - he was patient and waited on me hand and foot. I didn't get any wet washcloths to forehead or neck - but that's because he didn't know and I was too sick to tell him.
Next time - I'll make a note to tell him for next time.

All the animals know something isn't kosher so they're all over me trying to be helpful in a not-so-helpful way. Generally my days are spent me lying on the sofa with Ries and Jax joining me with Liam and Nikki on the floor beside me. I'd post pictures but that's part of the problem.

The last day I was at work our network went SO screwy that my computer wouldn't even work when I popped it out of my dockking station (ditto with the boss too). Needless to say we aren't too happy with the IT guy. And don't go taking up for the IT guy... trust me. this is not the first time, or the second, or the third.... Right now I'm blogging from the home computer.... and all my pics are on my work computer, etc.... anyway I'm sure you can picture me on the sofa wrapped up in a Clemson fleece blanket looking all pathetic, with a cat curled up behind my knees and one curled up in in front of my chest (or at my feet, depending on his mood).

The local friends have been great! I've gotten spaghetti with homemade meatballs (Thanks SP!!!), drunken chocolate dipped strawberries (injected with liqueur - she said they were ok for me to eat - she should know, she's a physcians asst.) and flowers from the gals at the office - " hope everything came out in the end." - what a bunch of jokesters...

Now as soon as I can start t0 ween myself off some of these drugs I have to do my fiscal 2009 bugdet for work. Can't wait until my boss sees when I try turning that in!! No tellin' what I'm going to try and slip by!! (at least when he says "no" I can always blame it on the drugs!!! : )

I'm still stayin' home tomorrow and Wednesday. Good thing too since we have a good bit of snow outside. I hope I didn't write anything too embarrassing in this entry and I hope it makes sense. I think I almost nodded off to sleep 2 or 3 times while writting this. Oh well. once I'm off the meds I can go back and read this and laugh. I hope....

possible break

I had to have a little bit-o-out-patient surgery today. No big deal but I will be out of commission for about a week. I may or may not get a chance to blog while I recoup. I just wanted to give you a heads up that 1) you might not hear from me for a while OR 2) if you do it might be spiced wwith some drug-induced nonsense. Well, you may or may not be able to tell that apart from my regular nonsense.

See, maybe I just shouldn't have told you and you might not have ever been able to tell the difference.....

OMG!!!

We have been interviewing potential candidates for a to-be-open position at my company for the past two days. That means I've had to wear a suit for the past two days. That means to make my ass look smooth/ keep my ass warm I've been wearing tights.

CONTROL TOP tights.

WHO IN THE HELL INVENTED THESE???

It's a love/ hate relationship to be sure.

I can hardly breathe.
I sure as hell won't be going the bathroom for the next two weeks. (Nothing can digest when you're wearing these, you know.)

But man my ass and thighs look good!!!

Damn these things.

long, long 2 weeks....

Sorry for the delay folks. I've been on a business trip in Orlando. Now, before you start with the sarcastic comments about me being in Florida let me tell you that I was outside, relaxing, in daylight for a total of 60 minutes. That's right, a whole hour. And in all honesty it was dusk.

The rest of the time I was working.... with a full on-set case of viral bronchitis. Except all week I didn't know it was bronchitis... I just knew that I felt like shit, my head felt like it was filled with wet cement, my nose was dripping stuff that wasn't clear (I'll spare you the details) and I was constantly hacking up a lung and phlegm. yum. all the while giving presentations, working our booth and, yes, shaking hands and talking to clients.

I had pockets full of kleenex (there goes your trademark down the drain), hand sanitizer and halls all the while hyped up on sudefed and advil (it's all I had). We were at a resort and they didn't have a great selection of drugs at the little store in the lobby. and me being me, was too cheap to pay for a cab to find the closest drug store and buy "real" drugs. Which turned out to be a good call anyway because I'm on Mucinex DM now and it's not doing me much good anyway - which is what the doctor told me to keep doing 'cuz as we all know - antibiotics don't do anything for viruses.

So, I worked 2 weeks straight (worked through the weekend due to the FL thing) so I'm looking forward to this weekend. I think we're decorating the tree tonight. Hopefully I won't hack all over it. If I do I'll be sure to spray it down with Lysol when we're done. ; )