So its over...

At least for the week anyways.

Thanks to a wonderfully busy day I managed to get a ton of work done because the shop was too busy for the boss to have time to come and yell at me.

I sit here just two days away from the accountants coming in and I look at the things that I still have left to get done. As hard as I have worked on getting it all done. There is little chance that I will make it in time. Sadly enough.

The worst part of it is that I find myself really not caring either. I gave it my all and did far more than anyone would have expected me to accomplish. That being said I can sit there and be proud of myself. I worked senselessly for two full weeks, three full eight hour saturdays. I know I gave it everything that I had.

And if thats not good enough well in the immortal words of Rhett Butler "Frankly my dear I dont give a damn."

To be completely honest I dont know that it will be enough for the accountant that I had a run in with two weeks ago. She seemed pretty adamant about the fact that if I couldnt bring it back from the dead that she would be informing the boss that I needed to go.

And thats alright with me.

Why you may ask?

I have a job interview on Monday morning. A gentleman contacted me yesterday afternoon after having seen my resume online. It is full time, the position involves me using all of my admin/clerical/accounting skills and it is right beside Scotts work. Well just a block away. Which means that I will be able to see him at lunch sometimes, and certainly ride home with him at night.

All thats left is the money. Thats the only thing I need to know about this job before I can jump at it. That and if they will hire me.

I am pretty sure since it was they who contacted me, not the other way around that I stand a pretty good chance at getting in so long as I dont do anything ridiculous in the interview.

So wish me luck :)

Tomorrow is going to be another pretty day, warm and sunny. Which is good because my dear daughter is competing in BandFest 2010 and she is desperate to wear a skirt. Its going to be a long afternoon, we need to leave around 3 to be there on time and then we probably wont be getting home until 830 that night.

Oh well. She is deserving of the praise. She has worked hard this year and has started taking it more seriously. She realizes now that in order to add another medal to her lot she needs to work her tail off. I do hope that they win something.

Anyways off to do some other writing and play some bowling with the neighbour :)

~Allison

Another Week....

...Has come and gone.

While I am seriously glad that this week is over I am not looking forward to tomorrow. Tomorrow is another 8 hour stint with the guy that drives me batty. This week it has been all about the one thing that I HAVENT done right. In other words for all the things I have done right, the small miracles that I have performed, he says nothing, but for the one or two things that I have messed up, and it could be as simple i didnt call and hound people to see if they recieved a fax, he blows a gasket. I mean yes I understand that out of the two faxes that I didnt call and confirm, that we lost five hundred dollars. I get that, its a pain in my ass. No doubt about it. But for crying out loud, how many OTHERS did I get right under the same circumstance? 10? 20? At least.

So anyways today they are redoing inventory. Top to bottom store, shop and storage. Im not sure how this is going to help, however it is going to make more work for me to get done. Oh well what can I do. He wants it perfect. We will get it pretty dammed close. Perfect requires us to tear out every code in the computer at the moment and reenter them all from scratch again.

He wont do that.

So a recount it is. And me to reenter it all. Fun. I swear. Really.

Pray for me.


~Allison

If They Only Knew...

So my daughter and her best friend have been at it again today. And for a while now I thought we had stopped the nonsense that seemed to have plagued their relationship from the beginning.

Well maybe not entirely the beginning. But at least the second month of it. See they became fast friends in September of this year. And they have spent a whole lot of time together, both at school and before and after. Almost every single day. Sometimes they have a chance to see each other on the weekends as well.

They have had sleepovers, play dates, study sessions and bitch fests. Yes these kids know how to bitch and complain. I swear I dont remember ever having been so petty when I was a kid. Maybe I was just to a different degree than the kids of today. Or maybe it was because I didnt have that many friends to begin with so I didnt end up in the petty bickering. I dont know to be honest.

I remember I spent my fair share of time in the main office of my grade school after getting into it with one or another of my classmates. Generally it was because they had made a particularly nasty comment about me or had taken something of mine.

You see I was always the outcast. The girl no one would ever admit to liking, the one that always got the brunt of the bullying. Some of the people I knew back then have come to me in recent years and apologized for the things they had said and done. Me? What can I say? I forgave them. What else is there to do? We were kids and we knew nothing back then. As an adult, with kids of my own, I can understand that now.

Back then? It stung like a thousand bees.

But I digress. My daughter and her friend seem to have this on again and off again relationship that is enough to make you seasick with the way it goes. Most of it stems from the fact that one of them is having a bad day and tosses some attitude at the other and the next thing you know it snowballs from there. Then you end up where they are right now. One or both pissed off and the other hurt.

And no matter how many times I keep telling them that when they grow up that its not going to matter in the long run, the silly things that they are arguing about anyways, it will not stop them from bickering. They will get over it I am sure. They usually do but I am telling you I wish like hell I could make them both listen to me. Well I mean and actually hear what I am saying.

"Wisdom comes not from hearing about it but from doing it."

Im not sure who said that or even if thats the right quote, but the shoe sure fits here.


~Allison

Is It Just Me...

...Or has the week flown by?

Seriously, yesterday was Monday no? Just kidding I know today is Thursday. But part of me is glad that the week has sailed by at a good clip. In some regards anyways. I mean it means that the weekend is one step closer. Which is a good thing. I mean there might not be any rest this weekend as I have to work Saturday and Sunday is AJ's Bandfest competition but then normalcy can set in a bit well at least for a week. AJ's birthday is on the 18th so normalcy wont return in full until AFTER the March break but thats ok. One step closer to spring and the warmth of summer....

How many more days until cottage season Dad?

~Allison

Update: Dawning of a New Era...

Alright I have been doing my best to get started on the job hunting thing. I mean I have been trolling the sites where I have found my jobs in the past. I have picked up and gone through the job papers. Sent out a bunch of resumes and the like.

But truth be told my heart is not in it. See here is my problem. I dont WANT to quit. I hate the boss. Thats it really. Other than that everything is manageable. Gosh I wish he would just stop being an jerk! Honestly is it really that hard to speak to others with respect?

I am a BOOKKEEPER. No where in that does it say office administrator. Or problem solver. However i am completely capable of doing such things. And the best part is I dont mind doing them so long as they dont interfere with the things that I have to get done. Things in my job description have to come first, then I can help you with the things that are in your job description. No problem.

Three things I dont like;
1) If you have something outside of my job description that you need me to do, ASK me, dont tell me to do it. I dont mind helping out when I can but Im supposed to do my job and you are supposed to do yours.
2) If I do something for you once that is outside of my job description do not assume that I am going to be the one responsible for it from now on. You need to do your job and I need to do mine, otherwise your job would be my job and you would be out of work.
3) If you have something out side of my job description that you need me to do, please find out if I have time to complete my tasks as well as yours. If I dont do not make your job a priority above mine. I get paid for mine you get paid for yours.

*Groan* I wish that things would be different. I dont want to quit my job.

~Allison

A New Day Is Dawning...

I came to a sudden and brutal reality today. I need a new job.

Okay okay. I know I should have figured this out a long time ago and truth be told I think I came to this conclusion at Christmas time. But the fact of the matter remains I didnt want to admit it to myself or anyone else. I mean I might have spoken the words but the sad reality of it is is that I didnt WANT to need a new job. I love the job itself. It is a challenging and engaging job. The pay is good for what I do and the hours work around the girls.

But after another trying week and weekend, and another one beginning, I have realized that there is precious little I can do to change the situation there no matter what I do or how hard I try and make it right.

So now it is up to me to walk away from the situation and find or make a new horizon for myself. I know I can do it. I just need the courage to make the jump.

Sleep first though.

More in the morning.

~Allison

I AM CANADIAN!!!!

An excerpt from a letter to my Dad, I cant put it any better a second time around...

I was standing in Yonge and Dundas square when the puck dropped (actually we were crossing the street, diagonally of course, watching it on the giant screen). I had to go downtown yesterday to drop off my entry in the Toronto Stars short story contest (deadline was midnight), so I met up with a writer friend down there for book shopping at the worlds biggest bookstore and a late lunch.

Then I spent most of the rest of the game travelling to some family to visit for coffee as they are headed into the hospital this morning, all the while getting updates from scott and the kids who of course were glued to the TV. Ended up staying for dinner, and watching The Kid bring it home! And yes I was sitting there screaming at the TV the whole heart stopping time. When we won I had scott and the kids on the phone and all I heard was this high pitched squealing and then silence (guess they stopped to catch their breath) and out of the silence AJ, with all the wisdom of a child says "Wait, did we win?"

That to me speaks volumes for what the games should be about. Someone won, cheer now, figure out who it was later. We have had a spectacular run as Canadians. The five of us have lived in our Olympic sweaters over the last 17 days, in fact Im wearing mine right now. Truth be told, last night when scott and I went grocery shopping after the kids went to bed we wore our sweaters without our jackets just to show our pride. It was thankfully warm enough to do it if you had a warmer sweater type thing on underneath! In the last 17 days we have shifted bedtimes to allow for the games, not much but enough for the kids to see SOME of what we did. Sadly they missed the big show last night, however, Scott and I decided that we would be buying the DVD box set of the Olympics. Just because it was so spectacular.

As a family who focuses more on the arts than sports, that speaks volumes about what the games made us feel. And yes all 14 times we rose to our feel, when they played our national anthem. And we sang in our living room and didnt care who heard us. It is a spirit I pray lives on in everyone for a while longer. Never have I felt so much as a Canadian as I have in these last few days. So many people with those red mittens (yes me and the girls all have ours!) waving at each other for no other reason but just to say Hi! I am a canadian!

We saw the torch make its way down Hurontario (yep we were there!), we saw the culdron be lit, watched almost all of our athletes shine and watched the culdron go out. As far as I am concerened we were a part of history.

I AM CANADIAN!!!!

~Allison

So it is Friday...

Well for the most part I think I have survived the week in decent shape. I mean I started the week with a mountain of work ahead of me ... and now I sit at the end of the week dang near the top of the mountain.

All I have left from my giant list of things to do is my writing. Which some of it is enough to make anyone think twice about getting there in time. I have about 12k worth of writing to do. And I have three days in which to do it.

I have one short flash to write, which I sadly have no clue what to write about. And then 11 chapters to write on Pieces of You.

I should be able to make it. I mean I am the one who wrote 110k in the month of november. And I did it with a smile on my face. I think I can write a measly 12k in three days. Thats only 4k a day, pretty much my average for this past november. My best day was 10k in november, had two of those sort of days in the first week.

So it can be done :)

Lets get it going. *dons on cape*

~Allison

Still Standing...

So here I stand with just a few days to go in the week. How am I shaping up heading into the weekend? Pretty dammed good actually. I have finished most of my inventory all of the website, the short story is cleaned up and ready to go.

What I have left to do for the week:
~Finish inventory (8 pages to go)
~do some school work
~Write the last 11 scenes of my novel.
~write a flash fiction for Friday

Yes I realize the last thing on the list has not been there all week. However, it is something that I said I would do every week this year. I dont intend to let myself go on this.

Here is the game plan for the rest of the week until Sunday night.
~Finish inventory this morning, take it to work this afternoon and get it off my dammed coffee table... its orange folder annoys me just looking at it.
~spend the rest of the day working on school work
~Tomorrow morning, write my flash fiction
~rest of tomorrow and all of the weekend, write the 11 scenes of my novel.

I think I can do it. 12k words, 8 pages of inventory and a bunch of math problems. No problem for the much loved hero.

*sigh*

Time to don on my spandex pajamas and cape.


~Allison

Exhausted...

That is where I sit now. My body is begging for its bed. My eyes drooping. But I still stand tall and will keep rolling today at all costs.

I have in the past two days managed to get two of the projects done on my list of things to do. I finished and brought live the new site. Click here to have a gander at it.

And I have redone the short that I needed to for the short story contest. Took a story that sat at 631 words to 1931 words. Flushed it out nicely I think.

After getting the site live last night I was up until 130 this morning rewriting the short. Which is why I am so out of it this morning. As it is thought I am going to have to take a trip downtown and hand deliver the story to The Star. I would have to mail it tonight and pray that it made it there by Friday. Not a chance I am going to put that much faith in our postal system. So one way or another I'm trekking downtown one day on the weekend.

I want to go back to sleep, but there is still far too much to do.

What I have left on my list of things to do is:

~Finish the inventory, which I did start on Monday, but it got pushed aside while I did some other things.
~Get some school work done. God I feel so guilty for not having done anything in two and a half weeks.
~Write like the wind to finish the book I am writing. (11 scenes left to go)

So there you have it folks. The miracle worker still has what it takes. Just need to put my back into it and get it done.


~Allison

OMG... Can we say INSANE WEEK?

Yes folks we are nuts. Well no allow me to correct that. I am nuts. Completely and utterly.

This is what I have on tap for the week:
~Get the inventory done by hand
~Rework the short story "The Stew" for contest and edit.
~Get some homework done, i have not been doing it for two weeks. Bad me.
~Finish writing Pieces Of You. I have 11 scenes left to write.
~Build a website, get hosting for it and get it live.

Plus housework and working two jobs.

Sometimes I think my life thinks I am a miracle worker, and in some cases I am. I have been known to work miracles in the past but this is a huge thing. Not sure I can do it ... if I do it will mean i have to focus and I seem to have none since last Thursday.

Going to have to find some and fast. House work done for the most part already today. Two kids are off to school.

Now should I start off with the small stuff or tackle the big thing first? Ill flip a coin and get to it.

~Allison

Thank God Its Friday

Another week is in the books, and I cant help but wonder where in the hell all the days went. This week flew by, which in some ways I am thankful for it. The kids still dont seem to be their perky cheerful selves, Ky is now sick with something, Hope is still whinier than usual, and Aj seems to have gotten herself a head cold to boot. Oh well weekend equals rest time for them so Hopefully we will have them patched up by the time Monday rolls around.

Now onto the other things I have been coping with as of late. We all know that I have a boss from hell. Well I have been trying to get year end wrapped up for the last couple of months. The process really should not take this long however the fact of the matter is is that it is hard to get any decent amount of my work done there. I mean I am constantly having to correct the other peoples mistakes. Which apparently is my job (my boss and I had a discussion about this late last year. I tried to show him how not to make a mistake I was always having to correct and his response was, "my job is to make money and your job is to fix my mistakes." A real charmer huh?) And I am constantly waiting on people to get their stuff done. I am constantly having to look for invoices that disappear. And all this is just so I can do MY job. Then I have the added bonus of having my dear boss bring me all sorts of things that are NOT in the job description of the bookkeeper. Which of course have to take priority over what I SHOULD be doing. As he says he doesnt have time to. Apparently I do. So that being said, because I am running short on time, having to super-multitask etc I am making errors, things are being forgotten, or are getting overlooked.

Which brings me to yesterday. Accountant came in to do year end. I was all happy because I thought we were in pretty good shape. Turns out everything is a goddammed mess. According to her. For four out of the 10.5 hours I was there yesterday she was saying “Oh my god” over and over again. With comments like “I cant work like this” spliced in. And when I try to explain things to her she is sitting there like “Don’t blame everyone else.”

Problem is I am not “blaming” anyone. I am stating a problem, and wanting a way to solve it.

See my boss isn’t the type who likes change. Generally speaking, his way is always better than the rest of ours. Even if his isn’t working out, or isn’t an ethically acceptable method. Yes newsflash, my boss isn’t all that ethical sometimes. If he can screw someone he will.

So yes bringing him a new way of doing something isn’t going to go over well if it goes over at all. Even if he accepts the idea, he will not bother to change what he is doing, he will just expect you to fix his mistakes for him.

See the vicious circle here? I do. AND I WANT OUT!

*sigh*

The unfortunate fact of the mater here is that I CANT leave for a number of reasons. Sound responsible, respectable reasons. Good money, flexible schedule and most of all stability.

So stuck I am for the next three years at least until my kids are old enough to be on their own for a few hours until Scott and I can get home from work.

*BIG sigh*

It will get better. Someday. I promise me.

At least after tomorrows hell shift I get the happy thoughts of going out with a couple of friends of mine for dinner and then a NaNo Winter Reunion for some bowling.

Then home to my hubby and kids for the rest of the night. Wish me luck tomorrow folks. Im going to need it.



~Allison

Writing seems...

To have its days. I love to write, create and sink myself into a world of my own creating. IT is a wonderful feeling. Like a warm snuggly blanket on a cold winters day.

And to tell the truth I have written far more in the last month and a half than I have in any year previously. Most of it has been in my blog here, but a lot of it has been dedicated to finishing up the novels I have on the go. Which is surprising as I dont normally work on them until the early fall or late summer.

But lately the act of putting my thoughts on my screen is like trying to make my kids do what I want them to do when they are supposed to do it. In other words hard as hell.

Not that I dont love my kids and my words, but man some days I think it would be easier if I knew how to make em work the way I wanted them to. Not that my kids are horrible little monsters, they arent, they are kids all the same though. Same with the words I write. When I get into a groove they flow like water and usually make a decent amount of sense.

*sigh*

I want to be able to consistently put words on a page and them to make sense, but somedays it still feels like I am not writing but rather giving birth to yet another stubborn kid :)

~Allison

Monday Monday.... Cant Trust That Day...

And yes. I realize that. Before any of you even say a word I know that it is no longer Monday. That it is in fact Tuesday. I realized that about half way through typing the second Monday in the title.

However, it feels entirely too much like a Monday this morning. So therefore I shall leave it as is because in spirit after a long weekend a Tuesday tends to feel like a Monday.

So, a friend of mine came to me this morning with a link to a contest being put on by the Toronto Star. Short stories, under 2500 words. Firsts prize is $5,000 and the tuition fee for the Humber College Correspondence Writers program. Second is $2000 and Third is $1000.

Now I could write 2.5K worth of wordage in an afternoon, but i am also seeing that the contest deadline is on the 28th. I need to be able to edit the dammed thing as well. So that being said I have a bunch of shorts that I think are decently plotted if they were tweeked just a little bit. And cleaned otherwise.

So that being said I am off to take a look at the one I think is most appealing to me at the moment and then run from there.

~Allison

And its Over...

Just about as fast as it began this wonderful weekend of mine is done. So much for a long weekend. Seemed more like a blip on a screen than a full on three day weekend.

So what ever became of my Saturday date? It went well. Dinner was nice, ate far too much but that is the whole point of spoiling yourself! Scot was totally thrown for a loop. He said at one point the words "shit she got me again" went tumbling through his mind when our beloved babysitters came barreling up the stairs telling him to get out. HA! We didnt end up seeing a movie because he didnt want to see any of the ones I did and I didnt really feel like seeing Avatar after all. Not to mention the fact that it was sold out. So we ended up walking around Walmart for a bit ended up getting ourselves a few new things that we wanted rather than needed without our kids underfoot, which was nice for a change.

Then we had a romantic walk home in the falling snow. It was nice we went to Timmies and grabbed coffee and took the long road home. Only problem is was I was wearing dress shoes and it was a touch cold, but totally worth it!

Yesterday it was back at it again after lazing about in bed opening our Valentines day bags. We all made our own out of decorated paper bags. It was nice. Daddy made some for his girls, and I had some cool recordable ones I had found. And of course the kids had ones for each other and for us. I got the TV series Castle Season One on dvd and a bag of Hersheys kisses, the caramel kind.

After that I ended up taking Hope to the doctors because she still wasnt doing much better. Good thing I did because it ends up poor kid had an ear infection. My poor Hope. Either way she is now on the mend as we have some antibiotics in her now and shes looking mucho better.

Last night our neighbour decided that she was going to kick Scott and I out for a coffee for Valentines day so what do we do? Go Geocaching of course! Timmies, donuts, maps & flashlights in hand we headed out around 815 last night to try and find three caches --- in the dark!

Lucky for us between the clues and some good thinking we were able to find all three that we were after last night :) Two hours and change later we came in the door laughing our heads off and flying high with exhilaration at having found not one but three of them in the dark!

They were all really a trip to find to tell the truth. The first one we found we had almost given up looking for. My flashlight just happened to catch it the right way and reflected the light. Tiny little thing about the size of a golf ball. Score 1/1. The second one we found again by chance. One of the clues had been "Big Tree" and I had been looking at a couple of big trees when Scott yells over hey check this one out. Next thing you know I am reaching my hand up INSIDE the dammed tree. Well my heart skipped a beat when my hand hit on something that MOVED. It was the cache attached to a retractable cord. Ingenious I tell you! The last one for the night was just as tricky as we knew we were looking for a stump in a small woods. the path through the woods is well lit. But off the path, well its anyones guess. Again my Eagle eyed hubby located a couple of possibilities. Sure enough one of them was it. Another nice mounting job there too.

Today was Family Day. So what did we do? We went Geocaching again, with the kids of course. Took off at around 130 and didnt walk back through the door until around 5. Long walk I tell you but we had fun. Went after five caches and found two of them. Either way the kids had fun hiking around our area. The fresh air did us all some good and the exercise couldnt be beat.

We ate dinner watching a movie and then it was back to the grind stone for all of us. Back into weekday schedules and routines. Thankfully enough we get a somewhat normal week this week. I am pretty sure no one is going to be home sick. At least I hope not.

Other than that this weekend I didnt do much of the writing that I had hoped to get done. I mean I did get some long long long blog posts in but other than that I cant say as I even really wanted to write. Just wasnt in the mood, and writing when not in the mood does not work out too well. So instead I read.

Not that I did too much of that ut I did read some more than i normally would have. I was doing some research actually. On smut.

Go ahead, laugh. But seriously SMUT SELLS. Its one of the biggest sectors in the publishing industry. Romance is I mean. I call it smut because well, after reading half a books worth I can help but wonder how in the hell these characters could think of sex all day! HONESTLY!

*sigh*

So yes I might just try my hand at some smut in the near future in an effort to break into the industry just a bit. Will have to see. Either way the smut books I recently acquired are mildly amusing.

I guess I should go and return to writing what I actually should be writing. What say you? A chapter of fantasy and a chapter of suspense before bed? Sounds good to my ears too!

~Allison

Saturday...

So I went out last night to get rid of the cabin fever I was feeling. It was AWFUL! The farthest I made it yesterday was to the end of the driveway. Then my neighbor called and invited me out for coffee. I jumped at the chance just to get out of the house. Not that I dont love my kids but yesterday I felt a little trapped. I didn't even get to walk the kids to school or home because Hope spent the day sleeping.

Anyways went to grab coffee and then did some retail therapy. I needed some pots for a bunch of plants the kids gave me for my birthday. See they were three plants in a small pot shaped like a pumpkin. It was very cute. And the best part of it was I havent killed any of plants yet. Which is huge with me and indoor plants. I seem to kill most things indoors or my cats eat them. Either way. My cats haven't eaten them and I havent killed them, but they were out growing the pot. So it was either transplant them into bigger pots or watch them suffocate themselves. So aside from three new pots I bought a small ivy plant for each of the two big pots. And then I bought a small african violet for the small pot. The whole set up looks really nice on my fireplace, where my cats dont go, and the sun light streams in from the big back window.

So while repotting my plants, I sat and watched the opening ceremonies for the olympic winter games. And what a show that was. A sight to behold for sure. It even better knowing that I too had been a part of history. We had been lucky enough to have been trying to cross the street when the torch came along. We were a mere car lane away from it. So to see the that flame still burning miles from where we saw it. It was magnificent. And the performers! WOW! the sets, the music, the last performance speech (not the blooming politicians and CEOs)it was all so much. I stood for my national anthem, i cheered for my team, I clapped for the performers and I had tears in my eyes.

The best was sharing it with people who matter to me. The kids, Scott and my friends and family. It was so wonderful sitting here last night with everyone.

And onto today.

It started off slow this morning. Lazy Saturday morning in bed with my kids. It has been nice having not to rush off somewhere, not to have to worry about getting people off to places. Except for Scott. He is the SLOWEST human being on the face of the planet when it comes to getting up and getting moving.

He wanted to go out today to get a gift for me for Valentines day, which is fine, but what he doesnt know is that we have a reservation for 6:15 tonight at Canyon Creek Chophouse for dinner. He also does not know that the babysitters, our beloved Nortons, will be here at 5!

He just left a half an hour ago. It was 2pm. I dont know this whole surprising him thing is for the birds. He is SOOO hard to surprise sometimes.

On a completely different note he is also completely horrible at gift buying. I mean he does it and does a good job at what he does buy, but he hates shopping and is always and forever asking me what I want him to buy me, which of course defeats the purpose of surprising me. Its not like I am complaining, I always get what I would like to have, but I love surprises and he just doesnt get it that that is the best part of it. At least to me it is.

Ah well. Why am I sitting here whining about it when he does more than most men do. That and I actually have someone who loves me. That is what matters in the end. And I know that. I just would love one surprise. Just one.

Anyways I should get back to writing here, as I do have a lot of that to do before the sitters get here, and I would like to have something on paper (screen) before I leave tonight as once we get dinner done we are going out to see a movie. Wonder what movie we will see. I want to see Book of Eli, or Edge of Darkness or maybe that other one -- god I cant think of the name of it now! Extraordinary Measures, thats it! Or maybe we might just be like everyone else and go see Avatar.

Who knows? But I know we shall have a lot of fun doing it. So there :D

~Allison

I CAN HAZ FRIDAY!

Oh my gawd! I am so happy its friday! AND its a long weekend friday which makes it entirely that much better!

The only damper is my poor dear Hope has succumbed to the bug that has been plaguing her since Wednesday afternoon and is now snuggled in her bed with her LuLu Bear. Poor kid.

So needless to say plans for anything today are shot. No work for me, but that means Im in for a bit tomorrow morning. Maybe. I might not bother. Have to see how I feel in the morning. Im allowed to be run down too and this week has been hell on earth for me.

Well no there has been worse weeks for sure. But in recent years I think this is one of the worst sick weeks. The only other one that comes to mind is the time when I had two of them with strep and one with scarlet fever. Yes you heard me correct. I said scarlet fever.

No its obviously not a dead disease because one of my children clearly had it.

Any ways that was one hell of a fun week too. Spent the majority of it sitting snuggled on the couch with the kids watching CSI Miami.

I think some CSI is in order for today as well.

That is so long as I dont kill Ms. Attitude. That was one thing I didnt miss when AJ was sick. But as it would seem shes stock piled the TUDE and is now giving it out left right and center. GRRR!

Thank god they leave for school in about 15 minutes.

Either way. I am home today and will make sure that I get lots of writing done :) And maybe some school work which has sadly been neglected all week. Oh! And I have to get a concept idea out for a friend of mines website on the weekend at some point so I suppose I should do that as well.

Lots to do! Catch yall later!

Oh and for those who are looking for my Flash Fiction Friday post you can now find it and all of my other flash fiction here


~Allison

Four Days Down, One To Go

So I am still standing after another day done at break-neck speed. The good news is that I made up for the lost time I lost earlier this week at work. Bad news is my poor Hope ended up having to come home at lunch. She slept and slept all afternoon and seemed fine after that.

For those of you keeping count, thats AJ home for three days, and Hope home for half a day.

All I have to say is that when it rains in my life, it doesn't just rain it bloody pours. I was lucky yesterday as I called in the heavy cavalry to help with the kids. My beloved husband, also known as Mom's Back-Up, took a sick day to help keep things running smoothly and on time yesterday so that I could get things back on track at work. He was my hero of the day.

Thankfully enough I sent both young ladies off to school this morning. So that means as long as I dont get a phone call at some point today from the school telling me to come get one of them, then we can assume the worst is over and life will go back to its normal brand of chaos.

I never realized just how important routine is to me until the last few days. It is not just the kids that need the structure; its me as well. Without the structure of a routine I dont seem to get a dammed thing done around here. If I am stuck running here and there rather than sticking to my schedule I end up getting behind on things and then I feel like I cant get caught up. The flip side of that is if I try to keep up with the schedule while running here and there I go just about nutty trying. Its just not possible and I just end up wearing myself down.

So that being said I am behind all over the place with my writing, I have not done a stitch of school work all week. And the house work is decent, although it too is a bit behind.

So thankfully it will be friday soon and I will have a three day weekend to recoup the loss of energy as Monday is Family Day and I am starting to think that a PJ Day is needed for the five of us.

Maybe we might squeeze in a hike through the parks in there. Have to wait and see how the rest of the weekend plays itself out.

Ok, off to get some other work done now, writing, school, house work. It never stops.


~Allison

Halfway Point

So its Wednesday. It is snowing out for once. I am tired.

AJ is doing much better after another wild day yesterday. She went to school after being off all day on Monday because of a stomach ache. But that didnt last long. She called me about an hour into the day and said her chest was burning.

So after a good sized AJ/Mom showdown on the phone (she didnt want to come home, tried to play it off like she just wanted to let me know and that she was going to be alright.) I went to get her.

Once we got home the burning feeling got worse. I figured it was the cold outside irritating it so i sent her to her room, where it is warm. Well that didnt go over well and she ended up working herself into a frenzy that made everything worse.

Long story short she has minor tonsillitis and a minor chest infection. So she is off again today.

This however is not the case for me. I am headed out the door to go to work all day to make up for the two days I have missed. My beloved husband is playing nursemaid today, poor guy. NOT! He has it easy to be truthful. She at least can rest easy today and we know what we have to do for her. Yesterday was hell on wheels for me and there was no such a thing as rest.

*SIGH*

I guess I should really be getting my gear packed to head to work now.

Off I go...

going now...

Really...

*poof*


~Allison

No Rest for The Wicked...

...Or me either Im afraid. Despite my clear lack of proper rest the night before I did not get to bed until 1am this morning and then i some how found myself awake at 6 this morning. No I didnt have to be drill sgt mom or anything of that sort. Just woke up early. Managed to get myself back to sleep again for another hour, but now I am even more tired than I started out.

I should have just stayed awake.

Now I am stuck feeling groggy and sleepy and well just plain yucky. The yucky is due to other reasons, also the same reasons i was woken up this morning. We wont go into that though.

Either way, I am going to have to find a way to make it through the day without missing a beat.

I have writing to do. Yes I gave in yesterday and started a fantasy novel. I am going to write it in blog format. I am going to try and get the first couple of parts up and running soon, but it will be by invite only. So if you are interested in reading a WIP Fantasy, not to mention my first attempt at such let me know.

Either way. Im going to spend the day writing. Not in the mood to study. But then again I might just end up doing that. Who knows. Alls I know is that I have to go to two jobs today and some how keep myself vertical and mentally sound through it all.

Wish me luck.

~Allison

Ever Have Those Moments When...

Sometimes there is too much and then at the same time not enough?

I am having one of those moments today. I mean I have a lot of things to get done around the house, things that I want to get done, things I have to get done and things I should get working on. Not to mention the fact that I actually have some uninterrupted time to get them done as AJ is home sick today.

The problem? I just cant seem to bring myself to work on any of it. I mean I have books that need to be finished, but I find myself thinking not of the books that need to get done but rather on starting yet another to work on.

And then there is the things I want to get done, like cataloging my massive book collection on GoodReads.com but that isnt a priority at all.

And then there is my math homework I should be getting done. And currently that book is sitting on the fireplace staring at me in a way that only a text book can.

What may you ask am I actually doing with all this spare time I have? Abso-farking-lutely nothing at all. I mean I am fiddling around with this game or that game online. And I am watching a video on youtube here or there. Oh! And I am checking my email at every chance I can for fear I miss that "important" one.

I have cleaned the kitchen, done the dishes, made dinner, did a load of laundry and made reservations for Canyon Creek Chophouse, where I am taking my beloved Scott on Saturday night for Valentines Day. Oh and I have been running up and down the stairs to check on AJ every now and then, and have gotten both Hope and Ky off to school. I will be picking them up shortly.

But other than that. I fail.

Hmmmm... at least I have written another blog entry today! Yay~

~Allison

On Getting Older...

I spent all of last week preparing for a surprise birthday party for our beloved Uncle Ralph. See my Aunt Barb had to fly out last week to tend to her elderly mother who had taken a bad fall and was now in the hospital.

My Uncle does everything in the world for the kids, me and Scott, and there wasnt a chance in hell that I was going to let his birthday pass by without the pomp and circumstance that it deserved. Usually Aunt Barb has it covered, but with her in NS, there was only me and Grams left to make sure that things didnt get over looked.

Well it was a day late due to some unforeseen problems, but there were a few things that had happened over the last few days that gave me pause and made me think just a bit.

None of us is getting any younger. My Uncle is now in his early sixties, Aunt isnt much far behind, Grams is a whopping 90 years old on her next birthday -- me? Im 30 this year.

Which brings me to the grim reminder, that life is bloody short. Some of us may be lucky like my grams and live a good long and healthy life. And let me tell you folks, she isnt slowing down. Well lets be honest here, physically shes slowing down, but she still goes and does. She doesnt just sit there on her hiney and do nothing all day. She goes for walks, visits people and fiddles on her little computer.

But not everyone is blessed like her. She is special, no doubt about that. But who really knows when it comes to the rest of us?

Look at my Aunt Barbs mother, she was up until a year or so ago was a bright vibrant eighty something year old. And this weekend she passed away.

Life is too short my friends. Hang onto the moments that you have now. Dont let them go for anything. Dont miss even one. Take a hold of the life that you have embrace it. Love it.

But most of all.... LIVE IT.

~Allison

Relaxed...

I spent the evening last night doing nothing at all. I mean I sat here talking with friends, watching television and reading things on the internet. Oh and I had a kick butt game of crazy eights with Hope! It was great.

Sure I didnt finish the second chapter of math for school. Truth be told I wasnt planning on starting that big giant book until next week, so Im not behind in school.

I only wrote about 500 and something words yesterday, but truth be told I wrote enough the day before to cover me for it. So Im not behind there either.

Today however is going to be a different story all together. I have a very large list of things to do, and a very short amount of time to get it done.

Things to do:
~Bake 1 9"x13" cake
~Do a small amount of grocery shopping for tomorrows birthday party.
~get out party decorations for other people to decorate the house tomorrow morning
~get dinner ready for tomorrow morning so that I might pop it in the slow cooker
~tidy the house
~write a flash friday
~do some math homework
~work in the afternoon
~go update the file on quick books at work after dropping kids off with Daddy in the evening.
~come home and ice the cake
~sleep

Then tomorrow I have to go in first thing in the morning and go finish up year end. Fun. I have to finish this all up as fast as possible, as tomorrow is my uncles surprise birthday party and I cant be late. Considering its at my house.

Ha! Off I go!

~Allison

Victory is Mine!

I finally finished the novel I started writing about half way through NaNoWriMo 2009. NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month. The most chaotic by the seat of your pants writing marathon you will find. The premis: Write a 50,000 word novel in a month. Me? I wrote 110,014 words last year. 101,633 words the year before and 86k & 51k the two years before that. I love the month of November, mostly for the people I have met and become great friends with, but partly because of the fact that it is the only month in which i get to let my creative side run my life.

And when I say run my life I mean run my life. The only thing that takes precedents over NaNo is my dear hubby's birthday which happens to fall near the end of the month. Poor guy. I honestly feel sorry for him because it is ridiculous month for him. He's got to be the one to make up for all my slacking. HA! Im not that bad but there are times when i look up from my writing and wonder how in the hell my house got messy. Either way it is a good month for me.

This year however I have taken a different approach to my writing. Generally I am not writing at this time of the year. I usually write in the fall, September to December. Normally I am working on finishing prior novels (Note: I have 8 novels started to date. Five of which are now complete first drafts) and then in November I have to start another novel, or two as the last three years have proven. So here is what my stack of writing looks like:

Sacrifice Of Innocence (1st Draft Done)
Dragon Twins (NaNo06 1st Draft Done)
Pieces Of You (NaNo07 1st Draft 2/3 Done)
An Insomniacs Dream (NaNo07 1st Draft 2/3 Done)
The Widow Maker (NaNo08 1st Draft Done)
Under The Raptors Eye (NaNo08 1st Draft 1/3 Done)
Only The Willing (NaNo09 1st Draft Done)
Venomous Hearts (NaNo09 1st Draft Done)

Then I also have another plot worked out for a 9th book called The Perfect Bite, but I have yet to pen a word on that one. Which is alright of course because I can work on that one come November :)

Either way I have 80,000 to 100,000 words left to write on the books I have already started. So that should keep me busy for a few months anyways :) I am working on finishing up Pieces Of You now that I have finished Venomous Hearts. Then onto the mess of An Insomniacs Dream. (Its in pieces still from almost three years ago! I havent touched it since NaNo07 ended. Not in good shape)

My goal is to have all the started novels completed by the end of May or there abouts. I can do it. Ive just been lazy other years and this year that is not going to fly what so ever. Writing is going to become a priority for me.

Everyday a word begs to be written and this year I am going to answer.

~Allison

Drill Sgt Mom is in the house! Take Two (Day Two)

I am tired. Or at least I was yesterday. After about five hours sleep and a full day of things to do I was beat. I was still going to get up at 6 this morning, just to prove a point. But truth be told they were good yesterday, not really too much attitude at all. I mean AJ was not impressed with me yesterday morning but after she made a comment about -- well let me show you how the conversation went;

Her: You are picking on me!
Me: Im not picking on you. You are the only one still throwing attitude at me.
Her: Well I just dont like being woken up at 6 in the morning
Me: Well I dont like disobedient and disrespectful children, so I guess we are even.
Her: *silence*

After that there was no problems. Truth be told they didnt hold onto their attitude at all. They were fine when I went to go see them at lunch time and after school they were on the ball and did what they had to do.

I wasnt in the mood to be mean. They learned their lesson. So I decided to write them a letter instead of waking them up. I tacked it to my bedroom door, and told Dad to let them know when they woke up that there was a message from Drill Sgt Mom.

The message read;

I am going to let you off early this time so long as you get yourselves moving. If you pull this again it will be there days and I will not be letting you off early.

Sincerely,

Drill Sgt Mom

Needless to say they got the point and were downstairs long before i was. I think I am going to leave that letter there on my door for now. As a reminder of DMWM :)
(Dont mess with Mom)

Me on the other hand despite being insanely tired I got a lot of things done yesterday. I wrote my usual quota and did a whole unit from back to front in school. Now I can get into this massive text book that got delivered earlier this week. Its about an inch and something thick and weighs a ton. I have to go through the whole thing. There must be something like 3000 or 4000 thousand math problems in it.

Oh! And I started working on a christmas gift the other day. I am going to write up the pattern for it. It is a checkerboard for one of my nephews. I thought I had made all of the blocks I needed but only ended up making half as many! HA! And I am supposed to be the accountant and I cant even figure out how many black and red squares are on a checkerboard. (For the record there are 32 red and 32 black).

Either way I sewed up the blocks I had already made and it is looking totally fabulous! I am hoping I will be done by the end of the week.

As for work. I went to my evening job last night. Was a wash. I am just not sure. I mean I am trying to get the appointments, but no one is biting. As for the bike shop. Welll I have to work this friday, which is not something I am looking forward to. I mean I am in the sense that I will get more money for it, but, who wants to be stuck with my boss after hours on a friday night when he wants to go out. Not me. But it has to be done.

The good news there is that I am almost done year end and the worst will soon be over. He doenst think that I am. Not sure what he thinks I am doing there, but he seems to think that I have this insurmountable pile of things to do, and that there isnt a chance in hell of my getting it done by the time out C.A. comes in on the 10th.

God the man has no faith in me what so ever. Thats half the problem of working there. But I do so love a challenge and my boss definitely classifies as that.

Ah well I have blathered on enough for one day. Time to stop hiding from the cat litter which needs to be changed today. *gag*

~Allison

Drill Sgt Mom is in the house! Take Two (Day One)

Clearly the kids thought I was kidding the last time we went through all of this. They were still acting like fools yesterday morning. Took a million and one years to get down and then fooled around at the breakfast table. It was a quarter past eight when I finally gave up and told them if they wanted they could be late for school, and that I wasnt warning them again.

They got to school after second bell. Which means that classes start in about five minutes.

You would have thought that after school they might have changed their attitudes just a bit. Nope. They continued then too. Just continuing to fool around instead of doing what they were supposed to. I didnt even bother to get angry. Didnt bother to yell. I just gave them all the rope to hang themselves with.

They were up bright and early this morning. Six in the morning comes early for foolish children. Every single chore that had not been done the day before, all the mess they left all over the house. Every last thing was done this morning before breakfast.

At least they didnt have the guts to tell me that they were too hungry to do their chores. Or how unfair I was being. They pulled that last time. I told them clearly they could wait, as it didnt seem to matter the day before when they wanted to fool around instead of getting up and getting moving.

Mind you the attitude of my beloved eldest still raged. She decided that I was picking on her. I told her that she was the one still throwing attitude at me. Not her sisters. She said she was doing that because she didnt like getting up at 6 in the morning to do chores. I simply replied, And I dont like disrespectful and disobedient children who dont follow the rules of the house.

She didnt have an answer to that.

They are just getting to their breakfasts now. Still a bit more left to get to. It is recycling and garbage day so there is still that to go out the door. The dishes are being done this morning for me. As the rule with chores is if you dont do them right the first time, you have to redo them. So every chore in house from yesterday is getting redone.

Its pushing quarter to eight. This ought to be interesting.

Oh and if they are mad at me this morning, I wonder what they are going to think of me tomorrow morning when they are back up at six?

Did I fail to mention that the last time I did this they were warned that if they pulled this stunt again that it would be two days that they had to get up early and do chores?

Bet you they dont remember that. I do.

~Allison

Where do the weekends go?

It seems to me that the weeks get longer and the weekends shorter. There never seems to be enough time to just sit and relax, aside from all the running around that also must be done. It seems to me that the weekends are merely there to tease us and taunt us with a rest period worthy of that which we accomplish during the week.

I always find myself racing through the week praying for the weekend to hurry up and get here so that I may sit back and relax. Sit and watch a movie or play some video games, without having to rush off somewhere.

And some weekends I get just that. Other weekends, I am racing off to face the world with some other agenda in mind. Not that I mind visiting with friends and family. They are the things that help keep my hold on reality. Aside from that which i get from my kids and dear hubby.

But at the end of it all, no matter how much fun I had and the relaxation I got from spending time with those who matter to me, I cant help but wonder when I will have some time to rest. Just rest. Not have to worry about this that or the other thing.

I know the answer. It is the answer that has been passed down from generation to generation.

You can rest when you are dead.

While this may be true, Id rather much be alive when i finally get some rest. To enjoy it. You know.



~Allison

Little Miracles...

Here I sit on the last day of the month. And I am taking stock of what is left for me to accomplish. And truth be told there is still a lot left undone.

I have left to do before tomorrow:
~6000 words (after this blog is done)
~2 chapters of reading, note taking and the end of unit exam
~I didnt get any of the christmas gifts done that I had wanted to get crackin on.

But a friend of mine reminded me of what i did get done.

~wrote 25,000 + words.
~made three pairs of leg warmers
~finished three units
~had two birthdays
~had a giant birthday party with all the trimmings
~went to two other childrens birthday parties
~had a three day weekend trade show
~wrote 4 pieces of flash fiction
~taught my friend how to crochet (even though she lives in England)
~patched up two sick children
~got sick myself and got well again
~maintained my blog through everything

It sometimes takes someone from the outside who looks in on you every once in a while who sees your life and knows your heart to give you a good shake and remind you that you have done far more than most people could have accomplished. To remind you that you are human after all and therefore are not perfect and not infallible.

I reached for the stars and did not fail. I touched more stars than I missed. And at the end of it all I came out victorious. So what that I did not write as many words this month as I said i would, I can always write 1215 a day to make it up next month. I may be half a unit behind but look how fast I caught up after I got sick, it wont take me long to get back on track. And as for christmas gifts? Well I do have time so not to worry there :)

At the end of it all I am proud of me, and what i have done. So I will bid you all adieu and see you next month for yet another wild ride :)

~Allison

Friday Night And Im Feeling Alright !

There is something to be said about a quiet Friday night at home with family and friends. This friday was no exception to the rule. IT was a hell of a good time. Imagine what it would be like if you were young once again. Now, remember how to play hide and seek? Ok now do that as an adult with three kids. Thats what my Scott, and my friends Monica and TJ did tonight with the kids. And let me tell you. Try hiding as a full grown almost 6 foot adult. There aint many natural spots left for you to hide. You figure out a way to make the spot larger or more accessible and pray that whichever child is seeking doesnt look to hard at your hiding spot. In the end it boils down to a night of good clean fun.

The only "casualty" of the evening was poor Daddy who once more found himself at the mercy of his children. I honestly cant understand how he manages to get himself into these situations. I mean he was supposed to be tucking them into bed for the night and somehow he managed to find himself plastered to the floor of the hallway with his young daughters sitting, jumping and laying on him. I just dont understand how it always seems to happen to him.

Oh but I did get the legwarmers done today as I said I would. Now all I really have left to do by the end of the weekend is read two chapters, write the notes for and the end of unit test for school and I need to write about 8k more this weekend, not only to finish off the second of my NaNo09 novels but also to meet my goal of 31k for the month.

It might seem like a lot now, but I WILL get there. Promise :) I have yet to give up on something so close I can taste!

Either way it is no longer Friday night but rather Saturday morning and I am in desparate need of some sleep... I get to see Vix later once I wake up so I need lots and lots of rest!

Nite!





~Allison

Its FRIDAY!!!

And where am I in the list of things to do?

WELLLL...

I left off the night only 5722 words behind my count, I still need a pair of legwarmers and I barely read a thing for school.

Not bad for a days work. Not great either but not too bad. I mean I did write over 3000 words yesterday all together. Which for me is nothing short of a miracle. I never write in January and here I am busting it to finish the novels I have started.

I can do it. It is within my reach. I have a load of time on Sunday to get finished what i need to do, alls I have to do is get the legwarmers done tonight, and some of the schoolwork. If I can make myself stay up a little later I might be able to squeeze in some more writing.

Tomorrow is the day I get to start my great big adventure in grammar and punctuation! I am very excited. It is a day that is two months in the making. Ever since the end of NaNo I have been waiting to find a decent day to get together with my good pal Vix as she is a freelance writer (check out her and regular columns on Suite101.com here) to do a major over haul with my writing.

I NEED HELP FOLKS!!

Oh that works on so many levels it aint funny. Anyways I need to get meself back on track here at the house. So many things are going on, bosses dropping off pay, a smoking survey thing I must go to this morning (the last one today so that means I get paid.), I have a birthday gift to pick up for AJs best buddy, I have school work to read, writing to write, and then there is work and tonight is piano. Mind you the last bit could end up cancelled due to damm cold weather. It is currently -14c out there and thats not counting the wind.

Man! I wish Mother Nature would just get over this whole cold thing. Its not going to be a proper WINTER this year and she just needs to cut out pretending that it is.

Come on Willy! Come on Phill! Noooooo Shadows!!!

~Allison

Where I Stand...

Where do I stand now that the week is half over?

Well let me see. I have managed to catch back up from last week for school and have put myself on target for this week. I have finished one pair leg warmers. And I am about 7735 behind in my word count now.

Better off than I was before thats for sure. I have moved a few mountains in a couple of days. The hardest part for me is getting that writing in. I have no motivation to write. I feel like I wont have enough time to finish this MS before the months end like I promised myself that I would. But in reality that isnt the case at all.

I have ten measly scenes left to write. Average per scene is 1-1.5K worth of wordage. Two of those scenes have already been started. One of which is half way done. That being said its not really as bleak as my pathetic mind makes it out to be.

But here I sulk. Well semi-sulking.

Oh wait. Maybe I should let you guys into another thing that happened earlier this week. That might give you an idea of why I am walking a bit wounded.

See I have joined this called Scribophile and it is a site where writers go to give honest critiques of each others works. Which is something I need. As I want to not only write novels but I want to write GOOD novels. Ones that people enjoy reading.

So imagine the sting I felt when someone read the second chapter in my first novel and stopped half way through because of all the grammatical errors in it. OUCH! I know I suck grammatically and it is something that I am actively working on through reading grammar books and working with a kick-butt friend of mine (starting this weekend -- YAY VIX TWO MORE SLEEPS!!) but to have someone actually stop half way through the chapter and say -- Im not reading anymore of this because your grammar stinks, well truth be told folks it did a little more than stung.

But I am starting to get a thick skin about the stinging part of writing. A lot better than when I started out a bunch of years ago. Years ago I would have said the person who made the comment about stopping halfway through was a bloody idiot and didnt have a clue what she was talking about. Now I know better, and realize that while her comment came off a bit harsh there is a lot of truth to what she is saying.

I know that there are going to be people who love my work and people who dont. I know that there are plenty of things I have to work on in order to become a GOOD writer, technically speaking. So I take the comments in as much as I can and use what I have to to make my writing better. Im not an egotist and dont think my work is perfect because I know it aint. I write because I have stories to tell and I want to tell the world all about them.

I will get there one day. Someday. No telling when it is going to happen, but I will get there. And you faithful readers will be there, along for the ride :)

~Allison

On Being A Parent...

It is funny, I am late with this blog. I know I have already heard about it from a faithful follower of mine. (Bless Ya Tweets!) But I have a half way decent reason as to why I am late. I was writing a letter (aka short novel) to my Dad.

I love writing to him. I get a chance to let him into the world of the girls and the things we all get into. It is a blast for me really. Most people get to see the girls often and that doesnt leave much to talk about when it comes to them. So its a treat to tell someone about the girls. Yes I love talking about the kids.

But anyways I digress. The letter I wrote made me think about what it is to be a parent and just how life seems to come around full circle.

Do you remember ever thinking "I cant believe that my Mom wants me to do this!" or "What do mean my clothes look like a mess?" or something along those lines? I know I sure do. And my parents took the same line of thinking with me that most parents do. You dont have to understand why now, but you certainly will when you are older.

Well guess what? I am older now and have kids of my own. And guess what.

I UNDERSTAND NOW!

Its funny, when writing to my Dad I remembered an episode I had with a certain hot-pink hat (yes hot pink, I grew up in the 80's what else can I say?). Now let me tell you folks this thing looked HIDEOUS at least to my young mind. Mind you the hot pink-ness still doesnt sit right with me but then again it was the 80's and we know all about the Neon colours from back then :)

All my classmates used to poke fun at me. Laugh because my hat, complete with ear flaps, did not look like theirs. So I didnt wear it.

It was a very cold winter that year. I got sick more than once. I should have listened but I didnt.

And you know what I wished for today? That god-awful pink hat.

~Allison

Lets Get 'Er Done!

Ok yes I know that was a TOTAL cliche but at the same time that is the mood that I am in. I wont sit here and tell you otherwise. I wont even pretend.

I woke up a few minutes late this morning, and found myself even more hell bound and determined to get myself back on track. I mean come on! I am the woman who can keep a house of five running, keep all social obligations, work two jobs, and STILL manage to write 110k worth of words in a mere 30 days.

I CAN DO THIS!

Here is where I stand as far a being behind in the ranks.

~I am 8011 words behind in my daily word count goals.
~I am three chapters & one test behind in my studies.
~I also need two pairs of leg warmers done by the weekend.

Plus I have to work two jobs and run the house.

I CAN DO THIS. THIS should be easy. I hope.

Now if I could just get my kids to get their butts on track with their chores. They are getting slightly better though, but still loosing points. Ahh well that will change.

Off to start another day...

~Allison

Disappointed....

I am seriously disappointed in myself at the moment. And I know you all are going to think that I am insane for even thinking that I have failed, but I have to tell you I am no where near close to where I want to be for the month. Although I have come far in both my writing and my school, I am falling short.

It started last week. I was doing alright up until that point. Well sort of. I mean I am behind in my writing but that would have been manageable had last week not went down as it did.

Now I find myself a week behind in my schooling and a week behind in my writing. And I am in need of two pairs of leg warmers before the weekend.

*sigh*

I know I did so much else. That the feats that I have accomplished this month far outweigh the things i didnt get to get done, but that is not the point. I made a set of goals and I am falling behind.

So the rest of this week I am going to have to bust a hump to get it all done. At the end of the day I know that I tried. That I have done the best that I could with the time I had and that is all I can ask of myself but I cant help but feel disappointed in myself.

Well off to it I go. Not giving up without a fight!

~Allison

And We're Off...

It is a bright and early rainy foggy morning. And its a monday. Not that I want it to be a monday but I dont exactly get a choice in the matter.

*sigh*

I am honestly shocked as to how well yesterday went off. Yes I know it took a bunch of people to make it happen but the fact of the matter is even with all the childrens around there wasnt anything major to clean up.

Thanks to many hands it only too about ten minutes with all the hands to clean up. Even the huge pile of balloons got popped and disappeared -- thank god because I hate dealing with them things for months after a party.

Anyways I have a ton of things to get through today, although I managed to make my life as easy as possible. I have an assembly at the school to attend at 9:40. I have a paid survey to be at at 11:30 or earlier.

And then I have to go to both jobs. Plus catch up on my school work, and write of course. I am taking the week off baking due to the fact that I am utterly whipped and desparately need a bit of a break. This month has been hell.

Ahh well. Best get at then!


~Allison

I survived!

There wasnt any question about it I knew I was completely nuts to even attempt this party. Let alone after having been sick as heck for almost a week. But I have to say it was shaping up pretty good before the party started. The only thing I was truly worried about was if A) We were going to have enough room for the amount of kids who were coming over, B) Was anyone going to get hurt and C) If there was going to be any massive fights break out. Luckily for me... aside from one injury to one of our beloved babysitters, we didnt have any injuries, nothing major in the fight department and due to a few no shows we had sufficient amount of room for the amount of children we had. (We ended up with 12 kids under the age of 10 total, and our four babysitters.)

We were lucky though. Most people arent as lucky as we are. We have four very awesome and wonderful babysitters who have proven themselves completely invaluable time after time. I know I would have been so stressed if they had not been able to make it. I honestly dont know if I would have been able to pull it off as stress free as I did with out them. Yes I repeated myself and said the same thing in two different ways, but I have no words that can accurately describe what these four mean to me and the girls who love them so much.

The Cake itself was a wonder, and I have to give myself two pats on the back for bringing my brain child out of my head and onto a plate. It is most certainly one of the most, if the most, elaborate cake I have made to date. And folks believe me when I say I tend to go a bit nuts on my cakes when kids are involved. But this one I think took the cake. Pun intended.

It took 4 cakes, two 9x9" cakes and 2 9x13" cakes, all made from scratch, dyed pink, 6 tubs of icing, dyed to make those colours, 2 packages of candy belts and a whopping two hours to decorate. But the look on their faces when I walked around the corner made it all worth while.

Every moment I dragged myself through in the last two days... heck even the back ache I am tending to as I write this. The prep time to get it all ready in time, the groggy just-getting-over-a-cold feeling that I pushed back and the headache I woke up with this morning. All of it was worth it to see them happy as they were.


Dad provided a lot of the entertainment for the day and I must say he did a bang up job!

And I know for fact that although he was beaten pretty badly by a pack of rabid girl children, he was more than happy with the way things turned out too.



~Allison

Insanity and Hilarity Ensues

So It begins. We are sitting t minus three hours before the big bad birthday bash begins. And Im not dressed (in PJ's), rooms not decorated, and cake is not iced.

*sigh*

I still got lots of time :)

It is going to be an interesting day to say the least. I have a confirmed 19 kids in the house. That means. There are going to be 16 children under the age of majority inside this tiny house of mine that do not bear any blood resemblance to me what so ever.

I have gotten some good craft projects to work on. And I have loads of junk food. Going to order pizza soon.

Oh what fun, 19 kids hopped up on Junk food and Sugar.

Fun.

If I survive Ill post later.

~Allison

A Dawn of A New Day...

Well I am proud of the idea I have come up with with regards to the girls and their chores. The Contract was put into place last night post piano. It is something that I hope will inspire the kids to do their chores to earn the bonus' that they want.

The Deal:
1 chore completed when asked, in a timely manner & completed properly = 5 minutes of video game time on the weekend.

1 chore left incomplete, not completed when asked or if it takes more than a reasonable amount of time to complete = 5 minutes lost of video game time.

Also bad behavior (ie lying, stealing and poor attitude) will also result in a loss of 5 minutes for each infraction.

Any negative time left at the end of the week will result in an extra chore to be done around the house to make up that time.

Any video game time can be split between the computer and the Wii to be redeemed on the weekend.

We have a log book to keep track of their time so that there is no confusion.

So far we have one young lady who does not want to get her butt moving. Otherwise the other two have jumped at the chance to get their time :)

Heres hoping this works. I get very tired of telling them to get this done and that done. It causes a strain on our time together, which during the week isnt that much. Ahhh well. It should work. At least for now.

In other news. Our friends birthday party was cancelled today due to her little sister being sick. Poor thing. But I on the other hand am feeling mucho better and should be running out the door shortly to get the party supplies and then i have to come home and bake some cakes.

No I didnt get to that yesterday, too much running around to do and me with very little energy.

Oh well today is a new day and I got time to burn. So here I go!

Catch yall later :)

~Allison

Thank God Its Friday

Not that I am entirely sure why I am so happy about this development as I seem to have a totally nonstop. I have a good friend of my (mines?) daughters birthday on Saturday and then we are having a GIANT SUPER-SIZED pulling out all the stops birthday party for Hope and Kylie on Sunday here at the house.

*sigh*

I have a lot of baking to do. I figure to make the cake I want I need about two 9x9" cakes and two 9x13" cakes. Yes I said pulling out the stops. I am going to build a three tier cake for them and decorate it up to look like three presents stacked on top of one another. Complete with edible ribbons and decorations galore. I am soooo looking forward to this.

(yes I will post pictures)


Yesterday rocked Hopes world. I did everything I could, sniffling and slugging along to make sure that I still managed to give her the birthday that she wanted. And somehow despite all the problems that arose she was still happy as a lark by the end of the day.

The boss at my day job left for a business trip yesterday. Hes gone for the rest of the weekend. Thankfully I dont need to see him today. Hes really a trying human being. His drug and alcohol habits im sure are lending themselve to making his attitude towards his staff worse.

Yesterday I found out that he likes to talk about me behind my back. Not that I didnt know that before hand. Anyways heres the situation:

I was informed that our logo on our store invoices had disappeared. Now I know I didnt touch it but clearly someone else had. The implication that I had screwed something up was clear. So when I couldnt find a copy of our old logo I used a copy of our new logo and rolled with that. I didnt think that it looked any worse than the one before it had, if anything I thought the page looked cleaner.

Apparently he didnt agree with me. But when he asked about it. I said I didnt have the old logo, no clue where it was and that the new logo was the best I could do at the moment.

Nothing more was said about the issue.

Now get this. HE has the balls to bitch to another one of my coworkers about the fact that hes "tired of dealing with Allison" and could my co-worker fix it. I was in the process of using my noodle and putting it back together.

Then the co-worker had the audacity to turn around and start nit-picking about how the columns were precisely lined up. Telling me what I was doing was not something he couldnt have done himself. I said to him Well then why didnt you do it yourself then? Hes like well I was going to today.

Needless to say I wouldnt have bothered wasting my time fixing it if I had of known that was how I was going to be treated. I would have just left it.

Oh well. Its friday and the weekend is here. I will enjoy every moment I have to sit and do nothing.

YEAH RIGHT.

Ill enjoy it alright but the sitting and doing nothing part is totally not in my vocabulary.

~Allison

My Huggy-Bear

Its your birthday today. You are 7 years old now my Teddy Bear. Gone are the days when you were just a little baby in my arms. Even then you were the sort of baby that never caused me no trouble. Always had a smile for me.

To this day it is your hugs, the unconditional and whole body enveloping kind, that make my day just that much more bearable. Yes I said it. I love your hugs, even the ones I dont get because I am running around like a chicken with my head cut off. But thats being a Mom for you, if I could I would sit there all day snuggling with you but I will take the moments when I can.

I have loved the chance to watch you grow into a wonderful little lady. The smile that you were born with may now be missing a few teeth but it is just as warm as the day you were born. It is the thing that keeps me going at work when the going gets tough. All I have to do is look on my desk and see your face smiling up at me and I know Im going to get through the day.

I am so proud of the things you are doing, the stories you read to me, the drawings you make for me.

Dont stop smiling kiddo.

Happy Birthday Dear Hope, Happy Birthday.

~Allison