Monday, monday.

An interesting weekend - got a whole day of C-time yesterday, which was incredibly cool, especially since he's had to work the last few saturdays.

Spent saturday messing around with the sewing machine - didn't do too badly, either. With a little practice I should be able to make some fun stuff - as obsessed with the beauty of quilting as I've always been, I've never used my machine for making practical things, and it's a lot more fun than I always thought it was. Admittedly I still have to learn to sew in a straight line, but I find it a lot like a 3-D sudoku puzzle - things have to go in the right places, and working out how it all goes together is absorbing and relaxing all at once.

If anyone has any ideas for places to find easy-ish projects, I'd love to hear about them...

I've not actually managed to do anything useful this weekend at all - which was very nice, but now I have to do it all after work this week. Yuck.

We're also having trouble getting Iz to settle down at night - she had a "bad dream" two weeks ago, and now every night she's scared to go to sleep in case she has the same dream. Something to do with being chased by as gorilla is the best we can get out of her. I'm thinking with all the huge impending change in her life, we should go fairly easy on her (she ends up laying in our bed and falling asleep most nights - we move her when we want to go to bed) but I'm sort of at a loss when it comes to actually getting to the bottom of this, rather than letting her do that every night for the foreseeable future. I guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Who's afraid of the big, bad dentist?

I made Iz an appointment at the dentist for a few weeks from now - part of the school's drive to make sure kids have teeth when they enter kindergarten, apparently. She has to have a form filled out by a dentist, stating that he's inspected her teeth and she's either OK or undergoing a treatment program for any problems.

I can see the good side of this - kids get their dental needs adressed at an early age, good habits, all that stuff. Part of me, however, wonders how much those dentists paid the Maryland State lawmakers to put this into practice. Iz has already lost two teeth, with one more loose, and her new ones are growing in with no problems. She's never had any tooth pain, and some dentist is going to be able to hold this stupid form over my head and demand that she has an expensive treatment program - who knows whether she really needs it or not?

I've asked around, and picked the most trustworthy dentist I can find. Problem is, since I was a kid, I've not trusted any dentist. Ever since the orthodontist I saw when I was 11 made me insane with fear every time I saw him, I've not been exactly in love with the profession. In fact, I'm scared silly of dentists. Now I'm trying really really hard not to transmit my fear to Iz, who doesn't seem incredibly happy about the idea anyway. We'll get through it, and hopefully it's not traumatic for anyone.

Other things that have happened since I last blogged - not much really. We went on the huge "school supplies" shop yesterday. Iz was excited, and C and I were at each others throats before we got to the end of the first aisle. I say that whne the list says you need 8 large glue sticks, you buy the 8 large glue sticks (even if thay are $2 each). C says that 12 regular glue sticks ($3 total) amount to the same thing and nobody will care - whoa! Culture difference!

If it's specific on the list, then I say we should buy what's specifically stated on the list. I guess part of this is the way I was brought up - follow the instructions to the letter, especially when it comes to school requirements - how else would my school have been able to get my parents to buy uniform that was insanely expensive?

Chris thinks a list is more of a guideline. In fact, if something's not on the list and he likes the look of it, in the cart it goes. If something's close to being on the list, and much cheaper than the item on the list - in the cart it goes. If something on the list isn't in stock and there's a close-ish alternative? You guessed it - into the cart.

It drove me insane! In the end we compromised - I let him by with the glue sticks, but everything else is the same as on the list. Except the tissues - they didn't specify a size for the tissue box, so we improvised. Scary.

Blissful, wonderful sleep.

I slept from 5pm last night until I had to get up for work at 5.30 this morning. It was wonderful. I felt so horrible yesterday that once I was finished with work, I came straight home and went straight to bed. You know those times when all you can think about is closing your eyes and going to sleep, because you feel so icky that everything else just aches? This was one of those times. I seem better today though, which is good - can't afford any time off work.

Been messing around with the idea of some new, easy to complete (and therefore quick) sewing projects. Actually got the material to make an organizer for the back car seat for Iz, and then left the ribbon I wanted to use as trim at the store. So whenever I get back to the store, Iz will get an organiser for all the junk she keeps in the car - the fabric's already cut and waiting for me to start. Also trying to figure out how to make a smallish wallet/ coin purse type thing. Just something big enough for a few credit cards, my drivers license and some cash, but small enough to throw into my pocket. If anything ever comes of it, I'll post pictures. If anyone has any advice, please feel free to share!

Back on track

This weekend seems to have ironed out all the weird curves I was thrown in the last week. Got the car, paid for the car (somehow!) and then went out to dinner yesterday as a belated birthday present.

Got some really cool shoes for my birthday. Usually I'm not someone to go all gushy over shoes, but these shoes rock - I needed a new pair so C took me out after we ate to run around shoe shops. I obliged by picking a pair in the first shop we went into, and not testing his promise that he would remain patient until I had found the perfect pair.

I've also got (wait for it) $20 birthday money. That is, money all for me that I'm not spending on bills or groceries or soccer uniform for a certain five-year-old or any other stuff. I'm now desperately trying to figure out how I'm going to spend it, but I'm sure it's going to end up being books. Yay! Is it only me who gets an absolute thrill out of getting the best and most books for the smallest amount of money possible? Christmas must have been a record - I managed 8 new books, all of which I had really wanted to read, for $50 including shipping. Oh, and a free exercise DVD, which is gathering dust where I placed it when it fell out of the box six months ago. It looks all creepy and motivational and stuff.

Good thing I held off

I was going to post this morning, but decided against it as it would have basically just been one long whine. Now I'm glad I waited - The garage has said they'll work with us on a payment system if the car repairs are too much for our fragile budget. Also, they went over to our house and managed to drive the car back to their shop, so that we woudn't have to pay for towing - how cool is that?

Another incredibly cool thing. My boss, who is probably the nicest boss in the world, and who has been picking me up every morning for work and driving me home, went into the garage at lunchtime and put some money towards getting my car fixed as my birthday present. Did I mention that my boss is one of the nicest people in the world? He is a great guy - we get along really well.

So, really, life is pretty darn good. I'm home from work, and it's my birthday tomorrow, which means C is going to take me out to dinner - totally unexpected, since I figured with the car problems and having to buy him an air ticket this week we'd be eating Ramen noodles by now, but he says he'll swing it some way or another. See? Things are looking up!

...And it's still not over.

At this moment - way after I wanted to crawl into bed (yes, I know it's 8.30), C is out trying to find the part for my car. A friend I work with is helping him, and until a few minutes ago, his kids were over here - he's just taken them home.

C is getting frustrated - he called me from the road because he couldn't find the auto parts store. I'm about at my wits end because although I'd like my car fixed, it doesn't have to happen tonight, and we're both missing about 10 hours of sleep right now.

Argghhh! Why has every single little thing gone wrong today?

It never rains....

but my life does turn into an insane drama (with some unintentional comedy).

I got in the car to pick C up last night, went to the gas station, and grabbed enough gas to get me to the airport and back - there is nowhere convenient near BWI to get gas. So I'm pulling out of the gas station when my car makes that squealy belt sound, but in a really urgent kind of way. Cue much smoke, steam and drama. There goes that belt that I thought sounded funny for the last couple of weeks. Yes, I know, it's my fault.

So I haul it back home with no power steering (no power anything) and stick around for long enough to check that nothing's going to explode (an exploratory look under the hood and three minutes). I bundle Iz into the truck and set out for the airport, grabbing more gas on the way. Yes, I managed to spend $35 on gas before I even got out of my hometown last night. We make it to the airport, and find that C's flight is over an hour late getting in - later than it was when we had left the house. I find a bookstore, buy a book and spend 45 minutes on the floor of the arrivals hall reading it to Iz. Finally C's plane gets in, and I spend a few mintues animatedly explaining to him why we're all sqeezing into the front of his truck. By this time it's 10pm and we haven't even left the airport yet.

Well, we made it home last night, and C got up at 4am to take Iz to daycare (thank goodness for wonderful sisters-in-law who get up really early) and then came home to drive me to work - so I showed up an hour early. Luckily enough, one of the guys i work wit hhas offered to take a look at the car at lunchtime, so if it's just the belt that's the problem I might not have to pay to get it towed to a shop and worked on there. Good thing too - C is wonderful, and good at many things, but cars are not one of those things.

So I've now managed 6 hours sleep over the last two nights combined. I'm exhausted, which is making me emotional. Now I'm sitting here at work desperately hoping that it is indeed just the belt. Spare money just isn't really happening right now. We already spent the money we had put aside to go out for my birthday on a flight from Florida, now we're digging into savings, and that's not a really deep reserve. At least we have a savings account - we only opened it at Christmas, so the picture in general is definately looking up, if you don't look at too many of the details...