Where to Begin...

Wow. That's the only word to describe my week. I hadn't planned on being away from blogging for so long, but life seems to throw us curveballs and roadblocks.

Last Tuesday, I had Cheyenne home with the flu. She spent the day throwing up while I tried to get everything ready for my employee Christmas party at the bar that evening. Still needing to do Christmas shopping, I figured I'd go after the party and do the blogtalk radio roundtable with some of my fellow bloggers. Wasn't meant to be.

In the midst of the party, my mother-in-law calls to say that Cheyenne is VERY sick and wanted Mommy. We leave the party and take her home. The story we got was exaggerated, but Cheyenne was still sick, so I stayed home to deal with it. Christmas shopping slated for Wednesday, December 23, if Cheyenne is feeling better. I had to work in the evening, so I had to make it a whirlwind trip if I could.

Wednesday morning brought a new set of snags. Cheyenne woke up feeling fine, so she was going to school. Time to shop? Nope. I had caught a touch of what she had and spent the day eating Imodium and Pepto in order to go to work that evening. While in the middle of this, I get news that my stepfather's sister had passed away that morning. Now I have to schedule a trip to the funeral home in all of this as she was a great lady, and I only felt it proper to pay my respects.

I go to work that evening with all intentions of shopping after work. Wal-Mart's open 24 hours, so I'm safe. The dining room of the bar closes at 9 p.m., so I should be home by midnight, right? Nope. We get customers in just under the wire, so I didn't get out of work until after 11 p.m. Now, the fun begins.

I was amazed at how many people had their VERY young children out at that hour of the night. If I didn't have to be there, I wouldn't have been. I left there at 2:30 a.m. and arrived home at about 3:00 a.m. Christmas Eve.

After unloading the car, I immediately started wrapping gifts. At about 5:00 a.m., I decided it was time to get some sleep as the snowmen on the paper had started talking to me. Back up at 9 a.m. to wrap some more before going to work on Christmas Eve for a few hours. Also on tap was the job of doing the readings at Midnight Mass. I didn't know how I was going to pull this off.

After work on Christmas Eve, I came home and did some more wrapping before catching about an hour's worth of sleep. I got back up, got ready for church, and headed out in a terrible wind storm that had kicked up. The forecast was for freezing rain on Christmas. Yippee.

Mass ended, and a friend of mine who was there held up a "10" scorecard to let me know I did well. I drove home and sat on the road waiting to turn left into my driveway. Two cars were coming down the two-lane road, so I waited....and waited....and waited... It was after about 15 seconds that I realized there were no cars; I was hallucinating. Time to go to bed after making sure all the presents were under the tree.

Christmas morning brought the usual flurry of gift-opening. Thank Heaven the kids slept late enough that we were actually close to dinnertime at the in-laws by the time they opened and shortly played with their gifts. I didn't have to make breakfast.

We did the dinner thing at the in-laws, and everything went fine. Clean up the table, and time to open gifts. By the time we were done, I had started falling asleep on the couch. The husband wakes me up and offers to take me home to sleep. That lasted just a few hours. Now my sleep debt is starting to amass.

I woke up to the family coming in from Grandma and Pap's house. I noticed just how cold it had gotten. That's because the power had gone out in the middle of the wind and now ice storm we were in.

The rest of Christmas Day was spent firing up the generator to power the furnace and keeping the kids occupied until bedtime. The power company was saying that they hoped to have power restored by 4 p.m. on December 26. I had to be at work at 5 p.m. that day. Psychotic from lack of sleep, I started throwing clothes into a bag to go to a hotel. I couldn't handle anymore. The husband convinced me to just go to bed and go to sleep.

About 11 p.m. on Christmas night, I was awakened to the sound of everything powering back up. The answering machine beep, the microwave beep, t.v.'s that had been left on.... AAARRRGGGHHH!!! The next thing I hear after falling asleep once again is the husband cursing and pounding on the computer desk. Evidently, our five-year-old computer was too slow for him.

The day after Christmas was just soooo much fun. The cherubs and I headed to Best Buy to get Daddy a new computer. He gets a faster computer, I get peace. OMG!!! We grabbed and left. It was a nightmare. A stop at Wal-Mart to pick up his diabetes meds, and home again home again....NOT!!!

I drive up to the office to meet him because he had also asked me to pick up a new office chair for him. On my way up the private road, I slide off the road and into a ditch. Now I'm starting to panic because I had to work Saturday night, and I feared being late. I know it's my cousin's bar, but I don't expect special treatment.

The hubby and father-in-law bring the backhoe to get me out. I go home, crash for half an hour, and up to go to work. I never knew that lack of sleep would enhance my bitchiness. I got off work, took a co-worker home because her car was down, and went home to sleep. Nope. Gotta set up hubby's new computer because he didn't feel like reading the instructions to do it himself. It was 2 a.m. when I fell into bed.

I got up early so as to pick up my co-worker and give her a ride to work. I get there yesterday, and I hit the floor running trying to do my job, do dishes, and help get the Steeler-game buffet ready.

During the next eight hours, I did a myriad of jobs around the bar. From about 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., I had NO help doing anything because the waitress on duty decided to sit her fat ass at the bar and shoot the breeze with the bartender. Yes, I've talked to my cousin about this. Still waiting on results.

I got home, and my mother calls to let me know what the arrangements are for the funeral. Viewing today (Monday) and burial tomorrow. Now, we have about eight inches of global warming on the roads. Looks like I'm not going to make it. My thoughts and prayers are there, but I don't think it's going to pan out.

So there you have it. I know it was a long post, but definitely not as long as the week I just finished. I pray that next year is going to be better.