Thursday, November 24, 2011

How an Auction Gone Crazy (For Me) Leads to an Embarrassing Moment

Last week the preschool my daughter attends held a charity auction.  All the parents donated a couple items, and some businesses from around town donated as well.  I went there not expecting to purchase anything, maybe a toy or two if there were any that I might want as gifts.  I left there $84 poorer.

I am almost ashamed to put that number down.  I was shocked when it all tallied up.  See, I hadn't kept track as I bid and won item after item.  I got a few good deals, like an electric breast pump (no, not pregnant, just for the future) and a haircut for $20.  The only thing I truly regret is the gift certificate for our bakery.  It is a $20 value and I paid...$20.  At least I didn't lose money.  But in my defense, I though I was bidding $17.50.  I think the auctioneer was cheating.  Ok, not.  There were just a lot of "paddles" in the air.

So I was surprised when I looked at the back of the business card for the hair salon, that it had an appointment time for the next week penciled in.  I though 'Perfect.  I don't even have to make one.'  So today I trucked my kids over to my friend's house and then headed over to the salon.

On the way, I'm pep talking myself about being confident.  Talking confidently with the hair dresser, and saying what I want without it sounding like I'm a little mouse hiding in a corner.  Confidence, confidence, confidence.  And as I'm driving I have a vague thought, like "what if that appointment was actually someone else's and they lost the card, or something like that."  But I proceed anyways because better to find out than just run away, just in case.

I get there, and someone else is arriving at the same time as me.  That is a slight blip to my confidence, since I can be so intimidated by people.  We are walking up at the same time, when I see the closed sign in the window.

Blip number two.  I stop, and then ask if that sign is for the salon.  The other lady, who I actually recognized as another mom from the preschool but I don't know her at all so can't even claim acquaintanceship, said that she must have forgotten to flip it.

Blip number three comes once we're inside.  The hair stylist is still working on someone's hair.  She says to the woman who came in with me, "you must be my 2:15."  To which she replies yes.  At this point  I feel like melting into the floor, because I quickly realized that we can't both be the 2:15 appointment.

As it turned out, the preschool mom was one who helped out at the auction and she had stapled the business card to the gift certificate, but had accidentally stapled the one with her appointment time on it.  Oops.  So now I have my very own appointment for the coming Monday at 6.

I hate these kind of instances.  And I really shouldn't, because it isn't that big of a deal.  To me it feels like everyone must be thinking of how stupid I am, for assuming it was my appointment.  I should have called.  And yes, I totally should have called.  In fact, I actually thought of calling just to confirm.  But I didn't.  The reason?  Because I'm scared of talking to people.  I just feel awkward.  But a little awkwardness on the phone would have been a lot less awkward than standing there with three other people listening in.

So the moral today is to pick up the phone and just call the people already!

Monday, November 21, 2011

Yes, This Post Counts as a Distraction

There are so many distractions in this world, it's enough to drive me to distraction.  Wow, that was lamer written out than in my head!  Haha.  But seriously, that is all I am about today, distraction.  Maybe I am just more susceptible to distraction than every other person out there, but it just seems hard to get away from.

There's my iPhone.  Wonderful thing that it is.  It's handy for phoning and texting.  Also handy for Facebook and Solitaire and Civilization and stupid, mindless games that have no point but I play anyways.  That's the problem, it's handy.  I can take it all over the house with me.  I can stop for a quick sit down in the kitchen and bam, spend half an hour moving cards around.  Wow.

There's books.  Some people, like my hubs, aren't readers and so they don't have trouble resisting the temptation to open a book and read and read and read.  I am kind of jealous of them.  Because I am a reader, and I sure have a hard time resisting that temptation.  In fact, I usually don't resist, I just give in and read and read and read and, well you get the picture.  I remember when I was a teenager and I shared a room with my sister, and I would read in our hallway by the light of the bathroom light so she could get some sleep.

There's the computer.  Since I have my iPhone, this isn't quite as big a distraction, but it definitely can be.  I can check my e-mail and then zoom around, maybe shopping, maybe just window shopping (yep, definitely window) and sometimes the stuff I'm looking at is 'good' stuff, stuff that I might need to know or use eventually, but really, I should be doing something else at that moment.

But, here's some points for me.  The TV isn't really a distraction for me!  Hurray!  We don't have any kind of cable or satellite so that's mostly the reason for that.  If we did have some kind of channels, I know that I would watch "just one show" and end up watching four.  I'm just that person.  

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Getting Snowhere

Here is my front yard.

And just so you know, at the bottom is my weed patch, I mean vegetable garden

I like the look of snow.  Winter is here now.  I wouldn't mind winter if it weren't for the having-to-bundle-up factor.  Snow is so pretty, and can be fun.  It's the before and after math that isn't fun, namely wet boots, mitts, coats, pants, etc, etc.

Snow and winter mean changes.  Simple changes like not wearing flip-flops (so sad!!!!) and start wearing a warmer jacket, and bigger changes, like putting cellophane around all the windows in your house to eliminate drafts (speaking of which...).  Another change is that I pretty much have stopped walking with the girls to Abby's preschool, and drive the ONE SINGLE block there.  I admit, I do feel ridiculous.

But my strollers wheels are not made for this!  I really need to think about these things more before I buy something I suppose.  Anyways.  It's just nicer to drive, though it takes almost as much time when you factor in the time it takes to do up and undo car seat buckles.  Though if we don't warm up the truck, then I don't really think it's that worth it since it is just as cold.

One big bump that has come as a result of the snow is that dear Abby (hahaha) refuses to wear her snowpants.  When this snow first came, last Thursday, she was excited to go outside and build a snowman (which would have been pretty impossible since it is not sticky-together snow, just fluff).  I got the snowpants on, but right after that it was like something clicked in her brain and she whipped those things off as fast as she could go.

She practically spits on you if you mention them.  This could be a loooooooooong winter.  I could deal with her never playing in the snow, fine.  But her class goes outside two out of three days!  I can send the pants with her, but I don't know if she would put them on, even for someone who wasn't Mama.  I guess we'll find out.

Thursday, November 10, 2011

The After-Party

So I'm finally doing a recap of my adventure into hosting a surprise party, almost a week later.  Ah well, I'm sure that you guys will all forgive me, since I just know that you were waiting at your computers for my post to publish.  Hahahaha.  I can dream ;-)

Well, he was actually surprised.  And the fact that he didn't know there was a party for him until he walked in the door surprised me.  And this was despite the fact that he walked in 45 minutes before the party started to pick something up!  He still didn't know.  Gotta love a man's brain, so focused on one thing he missed realizing what was going on before his eyes.

So, one thing I learned, or rather realized anew, was my horrible lack of judgment regarding, well anything like estimating the amount of food needed.  We had TONS of leftovers.  And I mean TONS.  Granted, though, that there were a few couples who didn't make it, so if they would have come, we would have had slightly less than a ton.  And I had way too much punch.  Almost everyone had coffee or tea.  So instead of a punch bowl, I really needed a second coffee machine.

Seating.  I didn't truly think of seating until the day before.  But since we had a few less people than planned, I actually had enough chairs without having to borrow.  (Though my dear friend did bring some over just in case, without even asking! Yay for friends!)

I think that everyone had a good time.  This is what they have told me, and they've always been honest with me (as far as I know...) so I believe them.  I worry that I could have done more, like party games or something!  Do something hostess like.  I can make food, and place it in a convenient place for people to reach it, but I am such a social dud (it seems to me) that I don't want them to be bored.  'We ate food, now what?'

But that's me just over-analyzing.  I love our friends and I know they love me and my family.  And that was what the party was about, showing my hubs that we love him.

Thursday, November 3, 2011

A Happy Birthday to my Hubby!

Today is my hubby's 30th birthday.  Hurray!! Happy Birthday Hun!  (I just said that for the sake of saying it publicly.  He doesn't read my blog.)

I have a desire to make birthdays in our family a special time, maybe starting some traditions that carry on through the years, but I have yet to reach anything close to my ideal picture.  Last year definitely didn't turn out like I thought it would, as I shared with you.  But this year I have a plan.  This year I am throwing a surprise dessert party.  With people invited.

Yes, I have chosen to host my first, more-than-just-best-friends party this Saturday.  And a surprise to boot.  I'm nothing if not ambitious (actually I am quite a few things more than ambitious, but I won't get into that now!).

Since the party is Saturday night, I am not doing anything huge today.  I am making a cake for him to have, and supper will be...well actually supper isn't super special since we didn't get our pay-cheque until yesterday so I haven't been able to replenish our meat supply.  But the cake he requested is a Lemon Chiffon cake.  I have never made one before.  Things that I haven't made before sometimes go very, very wrong.  So I'm crossing my fingers and praying that it turns out.

I have been busy cleaning the house and baking all the desserts this week.  I had a nice plan where I would make one dessert a day this week, but that flopped since yesterday I had a really bad headache, so I didn't get any baking, or any cleaning at all done.  So now I'm bunching up a little the last couple days.

I am a little nervous about having all these people in my house.  We've had Biblestudies here, but this is different.  The only purpose is to come socialize and eat our food.  I don't want everyone to be bored!  I don't want them to hate my food!  What if there are large amounts of awkward silence?!  Oh goodness.  I think I'm just going to not think about it.

I love the idea of hospitality, but am definitely a little more socially awkward than not.  So this is a big leap for me.  But Mark loves being social.  So I knew that he would so appreciate having all his friends with him.