The novel I never meant to write

I swear the Universe is against my blog

Every time I sit down to write, or think about writing, or have a spare moment, something happens to cause me to not write

And then everything I wanted to write about seems obsolete and it just doesn't really matter anymore

And it's so far in the past that, really, I can't remember all of the details and I know I'll have a hard time making it interesting

And we just moved the majority of my stuff from Mama Smurf's house to my apartment, which means I have more stuff to go through

Which means that is where my evenings will be spent when I'm not doing homework and cooking dinner and washing dishes

By the way? Hubby and I are on a roll with dishes now

I wash the night dishes after he leaves for work, and he washes the morning dishes after he eats breakfast

And on the nights when we have time, we wash dinner dishes together

I'm liking this new system

I may have more dishes to wash than he does the majority of the time, but not as many as there were before, so it's not as overwhelming

(except for yesterday/last night when I washed about 7 different rounds of dishes...bleh)

Now we just need to stick with the system and I'll be happy as a peach

(because, really, "i'll be happy as a clam"? clam's aren't happy...they're sea food, they're gross. peaches are delicious, and therefore happy)

I was going to tell you this story about how me and three of my sisters went to work late one night to find my sister's phone

And no matter where we looked we couldn't find it

So we all stood as still as stone in a different spot in the store and listened while I dialed her number

And kept rotating until we had covered all of the spots

And we still couldn't find it

So we decided to check the back office where my sister, brother, and cousin work

And it ended up being back there the whole time

It was a funny night

And I know it seems like I just told you that story, but you see I was going to tell details and probably exaggerate a lot and make it more entertaining

But that was so last week

And that is the only story I remember that I was going to tell you

I'm awesome, I know

So, I think instead I'm going to tell you about my awesome V-Day and then look at my phone and see if I have any pictures that I NEED to share

So, I ended up having the day off with the way the week worked and everyone else's schedule

But that happened to be the night Mama Smurf wanted to move everything out

So the first half of my day was filled with filling bags and Hubby's car with stuff so I could get a jump start on moving things over

I knew Hubby had made plans for the evening, so I thought if I moved stuff over before, then there wouldn't be as much and I wouldn't feel as guilty if we were a little bit late

Plus Mama Smurf asked me to clean out the rest of my closet, so I had to get that done

I woke him up about 30 minutes early, thinking we could get a jump start and then maybe we wouldn't even be late to the moving party at all

But silly me, it was V-Day and that meant he wanted to snuggle with me and take his time

Which I am totally okay with, I was just feeling a little pressure to get done whatever he had in mind and get over to Mama Smurf's house

He finally got up to get ready, and I kept working on trying to finish his V-Day gifts

Because I'm a slacker and even though I had everything way before V-Day I kept putting it off until the night before, but then I got bit by the cleaning bug so I was up until midnight cleaning instead

And by that point I wasn't feeling very romantic or cute, so I figured I should wait until the next day to finish

Not thinking it would take as long as it took to move things over to our apartment, of course

Anyway, there's one gift that I knew wouldn't be done in time (and still isn't, actually...I should get on that) but the rest I worked really hard to finish

Except I was also in the middle of something else, so it look longer than it should have

ANYWAY

Point of the story, I finished one of them before we left and gave it to him

This:

Isn't that awesome??

I found the idea on the internet, and I knew he loved the candy, so I thought it would be cute and clever

And I was right, he pretty much loved it

I told him I wanted him to open the rest later, so we left and went to dinner instead

BAJIO'S!!

I tell you, this boy knows me very well

After Bajio's he took me to Blickenstaff's

This is where I was colored impressed

He had remembered that the last time we went (ages ago) there were a bunch of things I wanted but I didn't buy any of them

So he told me I could buy anything I wanted

I almost fell on the floor because, while that is nice, it is also hard for me to pick just one thing in a store like that

And what do you know, he ended up buying me two new games because I couldn't decide on one

These two:

I'm so excited to crack them open and play :)

Then he took me to Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory

At this point I was swooning and would have given him anything he asked for

Even my first born son

Hehehehe...do you see what I did there?

Anyway...

He got me 6 chocolate covered strawberries, and some other nummy chocolate goodness like mint truffles and mint covered oreos

Again, he knows me VERY well

And then

(no, we're not done yet)

He took me to Color Me Mine

This is what we made

(mine is the green/yellow/orange one...his is the chocolate one)

Pretty much he spoiled me, and pretty much we had a great day, and pretty much it was awesome

Then we came back and helped the guys unload the trucks that were full of my stuff

And our house turned into a maze again

*sigh*

One day...

After they left I gave Hubby his other two items

This

and

This

And let me just say he loved them

The bacon shirt reaction was probably my favorite

He laughed and laughed and laughed

It was awesome

He got me roses on Saturday, which were beautiful

He asked for all red, but the lady was just closing up, so I'm guessing she didn't really hear him

But that's okay, they are beautiful (well, were, they died very quickly after receiving them...unlike last years, which actually lasted awhile)

He also left me little notes by my computer with heart shaped chocolate all week

Like so

And then on the last day

I got that and 

Sticky notes with reasons why he loved me stuck all around one of my monitors

Like so

It was probably one of the cutest, sweetest things ever

Anyway...

All in all it was a nice day/week

He took the night off of work too, so even though he still had to stay up late to keep his schedule on track, it wasn't as late as normal, which I am always a big fan of

****

I'm sitting here writing this post with 4 different rice bags scattered around my body

I'm back in the greenhouses again for a few weeks while our greenhouse manager has her baby, and then once she's back full time and her life settles down I'll go back up to the store

But my body is not really used to this anymore, and today was a rough day

She had an appointment to see if she was close to delivering, and then we were going to get some more planting done

Little did I know my day was about to change drastically...

Her due date is sometime next week, and she was planning on working up until she had the baby, so I was expecting to not have to be in charge for a few more days

And that's when I had a huge, ginormous, and very soft rug pulled out from under me

Her blood pressure was dangerously high and it concerned the doctors so they wanted her to have the baby

That day

Really probably before that from how bad it sounded, but obviously that wasn't going to happen

Anyway, she came and told me what was going on, went to tell my brother and cousin (her boss...and...half boss? co-worker? i'm not sure exactly what the primo is to her) and then left to go to the hospital

My plan was to go to the back and finish planting baskets and water and then help at the store until it was time to go home

I always have these great plans, but they always end up being more difficult than I plan

Our planting book where all of the numbers are kept and we keep record of everything was in her office

And I couldn't find my key

My sister had gotten rid of her copy, my brother didn't have one, and the door refused to let me card it

Rude

I had seen the key just a week or so ago, and I thought I remembered putting it in one of my keepsake boxes to keep it safe

But when I couldn't find it in there, I knew I was up a creek without a paddle

My last option was Mama Smurf's house, maybe I had grabbed it to put it one of my keepsake boxes, but had gotten distracted and hadn't actually done it

Because that never happens

Psh

I called Mama Smurf and was telling her my dilemma, and she brought up a box, wondering if it was in there

I thought she was referring to my boxes that I was thinking of

And I already knew they weren't in there

Still, I went to her house to look because really, it wouldn't hurt anything to just check

After searching and searching and searching I decided I wasn't going to find it there

And then I saw a box

I almost didn't look in it, I didn't think there would be anything in there because I didn't remember putting it in there

And lo and behold, it was

All of this very long drawn out nonsensical jibber jabber took about an hour

By the time I got back to work it was almost lunch time

All I really had to work on that day was baskets though, and I didn't think we had all of the plant material for all of them, so I didn't think I would be back there very long so I just decided to forgo lunch until the baskets were done

That was a very bad idea, my friends

(i didn't end up eating lunch that day...poor spaghetti felt so neglected...)

Turns out we did have all of the plant material

Turns out I was able to plant all of the baskets

Well, almost all but that's a different story and this tale is already ridiculous

While I was planting the baskets and I was about 3/4 of the way done, FedEx showed up

And told me he had 18 boxes for me

...

I wanted to just curl up in a ball right there and quit

And this guy is ALWAYS ornery with me and kind of expected me to go out and help him, so I did

While I was finishing up a couple came looking for me

By name

Now, most people don't know me by name around here unless they're a family friend or something

I'm not an official manager, I don't oversee a specific area of the business, I always defer people to my siblings because I'm good at that and because I'm not very confident in a lot of things that go on here

So when people come asking for me by name, it always makes my guard come up a little

They were bringing in baskets for us to pot up

(we offer that every spring...people bring in their pots/baskets, tell us what they want in them [or that they don't care] and we pot them up and keep them in our greenhouses until about Mother's Day and they come pick them up)

That is not something I've ever done

I've helped, but it's always been either Mr Boss Man or the new Boss Lady of the greenhouse that has overseen that and been in charge

Mr Boss Man doesn't work here anymore, and Boss Lady was in the hospital getting ready to have a baby

So they kind of expected me to do it

And they wanted it done yesterday so they could be big and beautiful by the time May came around

I reassured them that we were just barely starting our own baskets and they were the first people that had brought any in, so they would be just fine

Plus, we don't even have the majority of our plant material in yet

It's just starting to come

So they're way safe

But that, compounded with the 18 boxes, compounded with the fact that I JUST WANTED TO FINISH THE BASKETS, compounded with the fact that I still had to water, and I was the only one back there?

Made for a very long and stressful day

My feet hurt (water boots = bad comfort), my shoulders hurt, my head hurt, my back hurt, and Boss Lady wasn't going to be back for another two weeks and that meant all. of. the. responsibility. was. on. my. shoulders.

*sigh*

It's going to be a long two weeks

Hence the 4 different rice bags scattered all over my body

I didn't get off work until 6:30 that night...so I had worked a 10 1/2 hour day

And I hadn't even done everything I needed to

Turns out I couldn't water because the pipe was exploding with water

And I didn't even unbox (yes, unbox...just go with it) all of the 18 ridiculous boxes before I left

I opened them to make sure they could breathe, and I unboxed all that I could fit on the tables and left it at that

Needless to say I stopped and got pizza for dinner on the way home

I'm not trying to be too grouchy about it, it's just the fact that it all. happened. within. the. same. day.

Boss Lady having her baby, 18 boxes coming in, watering to do that couldn't be done, first special order that was on my shoulders, and the next week (aka this week) was (aka is) a huge seeding week

I honestly don't know how she survives

I think it's probably she likes doing it

I am just doing it because I'm the only one that can and has the know how

I was offered the job at one point and turned it down because I didn't want that stress and I was done working in the cold/heat and dirt

So they gave it to Boss Lady instead

And she is SUCH a better fit for it, I'll tell you that much right now

She has just enough obsessive compulsiveness to make it work, but not too much to have it be a hindrance

I have SO much obsessive compulsiveness in certain areas (and those areas happen to pertain to that world) that it just wouldn't be good

For most things anyway

I could keep it really clean, but that would be a hourly chore with all of the dust and dirt and everything else that is flying around the air every second of every day

And Boss Lady is a really clean, organized person anyway so she's got that covered

Well, I think I've bored you sufficiently with work stories

I'm sure your eyes glazed over about 1/4 of the way into this post

Or you fell asleep

Or you just scrolled to the end so you could say you made it to the end

And that's okay

Just send me some chocolate and I'll forgive you

I have one more story and then I'll let you go

But this one is quick, and it's funny, and I feel like this needs to be ended on a funny note, so here we go

I have a niece that is called Sami by most of the family

She's...4? 5? Somewhere around there

I have 2 sisters that got married...2 years ago? I think? Maybe this will be the 3rd year? Something like that

Tiff (one of the above mentioned sisters) was with Sami the other day and this is the conversation that ensued (to the best of my memory, anyway):

Sami: You and Cory didn't wait very long to have a baby

(what she doesn't know is my sister has been trying for a long time to have a baby and has had 2 unsuccessful pregnancies [one of them turning into a molar pregnancy], so this pregnancy is pretty big)

Tiff: I know, we just want to start having kids

Sami: When are Aaron and Amanda going to have kids?

(that was weird writing out his actual name on here...)

Tiff: When they're ready, I guess

Sami: They're taking FOREVER!!

Tiff: Well, they did just get married Sami

Sami: I know but they're taking FOREVER!! And you and Cory were really fast (or something to that extent)

Lol

So now three (almost) months is too long, but 2-3 years is too fast

I love how the minds of children work, it's so entertaining

One more, with a picture, then I promise I'll be done

Hubby was making us some hot chocolate a few weeks ago and pulled out the marshmallows to put in the cups

This is where he put them

I told him I didn't think I would be able to drink that much hot chocolate

And if I did I would be REALLY sick for a VERY long time and gain 500 pounds

Not the best idea in my mind

He very graciously moved them to my cup

After sticking his tongue out at me, of course

We are such kids

I'm off to work

Any chocolate you can spare I will gladly accept

Just send it to the greenhouses, I'm sure I'll get it

If not, at least someone will and as long as they're not allergic to chocolate I'm sure they'll be very grateful

Just not as grateful as me, I'm sure