Christmas 2007 (11/22/07-12/26/07)

From this:

To this:

in a couple of hours.

When are we going to take down Christmas?

I don't care, maybe we can tackle it on Sat.

Sounds good. pause.............

How about if you go and get a couple of totes and we'll fill 2 totes each night until the weekend and then we'll just have the tree to worry about?

Sam sighed and with a "sure dear" made off for the basement. He brought up 2 empty totes. I started taking down the real Christmassy things and left the snowmen on the shelves. As I finished filling the first tote and started on the second he took it and brought it down stairs to be stored. When he came back up he brought 2 more totes. And so it went. About 45 min later and even the snowman carefully wrapped and tucked away, we were both looking at the tree. I finally said "let's just take it down and be done with it all tonight." He was good with that. We had the darnest time getting the tree apart and stuffed into the stoarage bag. When they say "fits all 7.5 ft trees" they aren't necessarily lying, they just don't tell you how hard you have to work to make that happen. We probably could have won the top prize on Funniest Home Videos, but it is done. Christmas is packed up for another year. Sam even labeled and organized the totes in the storage shelves. He is amazing.

We'll still be busy on Sat though. You probably noticed how bare the shelves are? I'll get my everyday stuff put back up.

In the middle of all the Christmas festivities I still kept up with my Ebay obsession. I don't buy, I was just surfing and wishing and hoping. I decided on a wim to check out a product I had purchased a couple of years ago and wanted again but just never had the extra $30. Wouldn't you know it was on Ebay!! NIB no less. That's "New In Box" for those non-Ebayers. It was listed at $.99. I have bought stuff before but always as a "Buy it Now". I had never actually bid on anything. I read up on how to do it and I submitted my bid. 14 hours later I was a WINNER!! That $30 product was mine for $14.95. $9.00 for the product and $5.95 for shipping. Wow...that was fun, let's try it again. So I did and won again. This time I got the body wash that I like for about a third of the retail price. (and that included the shipping) Boy this could be very addicting. I've even started keeping my bank account web page on a split screen when I surf Ebay to remind me that I can only window shop.

Stop trying to diagnose me

"You are always sleeping. I think you need to take more Iron" (If he thinks I'm cranky now, I would be way worse if I started taking iron supplements and got all "bound up".)

This was a conversation a few days ago. Since that time it has come up a couple of more times. The truth of the matter is, I AM always TIRED but I'm not always sleeping. That is actually the problem, I don't get enough sleep.

We got into a discussion of how much I sleep and how much he sleeps and what we do in between sleeping. His job is more physically demanding so he should be more tired. Ummmmm......No. All I do is sit in an office all day, how tiring can that be? Ummmm....don't make me kick your ass right here.

I am exhausted. I do talk about sleeping alot. Wanting to. Needing to. Planning to. Dreaming of. Maybe it seems to him like I am actually sleeping with all this talk of sleep but I can assure you (and him) that I am awake.

I am awake right now.
I was awake at 5am.
I was awake at 2am to let the dog out.
I was awake at midnight letting the cat in.
I'll be awake at 2pm working on spreadsheets when I really want to nap.
I will be awake at 5pm driving home and fighting with idiot drivers in the snowy streets.
I'll be awake at 7pm when I am in JCPenney, the Mall, Walmart and Lowes finishing up Xmas shopping.
I'll be awake at 10pm when I am putting away a "handful of groceries".
I'll be awake at midnight when I am wrapping the remaining gifts. He'll be awake too, tapping his fingers on the bedpost wondering when I'll be giving up and finally coming to bed.
We'll fall asleep around 1:30 just in time for me to be woken up by Shelby for her nightly pee/poop romp. (he never hears her scratching at the door)
I'll drop back into bed around 2am and wake up at 5am. My body can't seem to differentiate between the week and the weekend. Well it can in that I wake up alot easier on the weekend.
I'll fall back asleep around 7:30am then wake up again around 9ish at which time he will be awake too.
I'll be sluggish. I'll be laying around. I'll be begging for 5 more min in the sack. In my defense my bed is awesome.
I'll get in the shower around 10am and I'll be fine for a few hours but then the yawning will start. I'll mention that I'm tired. I'll say that I need a nap. My mind will incessantly think about sleep. Once it gets dark I'm doubly tired.

I can see why he thinks I sleep all the time. I do TALK about sleep alot which probably gives the impression that I am actually sleeping when I'm really just WANTING to sleep.

It gets dark so early now that I have a hard time staying awake after 6pm. (pathetic I know). I probably have SAD (seasonal affective disorder).

He says he is worried about me. Wants me to go to a Dr. I assured him there is nothing wrong with me that isn't wrong with millions of other people.
1) lack of sunshine
2) stress at work
3) holiday stress
4) pets keeping me up half the night
5) trying to get everything done everyday

It's a common affliction and I really think that the main thing that will help is SLEEP. Sleep when I need it not when it fits others timelines. Sometimes I need an afternoon nap. I may say that I only need 15 min but if I am snoring and am in the REM stage of sleep, it's ok to let me sleep another 6 hours. I have never once gotten mad because I asked to be woken up at a certain time and then wasn't woken at that time. The only time I ever get upset about not getting woke up at a certain time is if I have to be at work. Other than that it can be assumed that it is ok to just let this sleeping dog sleep.

Gorging and Purging

I think I need a high colonic or a coffee enema or maybe I should just shove my fingers down my throat. OMG.....I have eaten sooo much in the last few days. It's just plain wrong.

We had 2 gatherings for work yesterday. Yup, I did say 2. One at lunch then another for dinner around 5. Celebrating holidays and taking some much needed downtime before we head into the storm of tax season was wonderful but my waistline is really exploding. I have another gathering on Sat and again on Sun and again on Mon and last but not least let's not forget about the festivities of the actual Xmas day. Since I will not be able to forgo all the eats that will be placed before me on those days I will be fasting/starving for today and tomorrow.

(last years lot)

On a more positive note, I wrapped all the gifts that I have purchased so far. This is a huge feat for me. Usually I am wrapping the gifts for any given gathering on the morning of that gathering. Most of my gifts are not wrapped more than about 2 hours. I'm used to that but definitely like the feeling of being ahead of the game even if it is only by a little bit. I still have shopping to do. Hopefully that will be done Saturday morning. I am holding out for the door buster deals at JCPenney.

Why am I touting JCPenney??

They have been fabuloso this year. On Sat I bought $278 worth of items and only paid $114 for them. Then on a Sun I ordered 3 items that would have totalled $170 and I only paid $99 and that included the taxes. Shipping was free too! Woot! Then on top of that I placed the order around 6:30pm on Sunday and I received an email at 9pm saying the order had been shipped. It was on the Fed Ex truck on Tuesday. That is just phenomenal!! And now the gifts are neatly bagged and wrapped under the tree.

Life is good. If only I could reduce this waistline.