10.02.2012

Life Lately

Hey there!

Remember me???

Yeah... I kinda fell off the face of Blogland for awhile... it's been crazy, busy, stressful and chaotic around these here parts lately.

Here's what I've been up to the last few weeks:

I dyed my hair red...

Although the 1st time we put box color on it, well, it only took at my roots and various patches around my hair. We put other stuff on it but it still wasn't great, but acceptable to go to work with the next day and then I had to go to my family's hairstylist to get it fixed. I was going for brown with reddish tones to it but yeah... it's a tad too red for my liking. Oh well, it'll fade.

I went to my 10 year high school reunion. Just typing that makes me feel old. My graduating class had like 54 in it, 12 showed up, most with spouses or dates. That's not too bad... it was definitely interesting as we started out with half a room, that filled up with people eating dinner and then a Soul band started playing and we got pushed out to the lobby so we could hear each other. Some people were amusing, showing up to compete for most successful only to learn that most of us are pretty down to earth with regular ol' jobs, married and have young kids. One guy in my class is a millionaire already, being the co-founder of a health and fitness company and does motivational speaking for USANA and has been on Dr. Phil. Another guy was nominated for an Emmy for journalism broadcasting. We have quite a handful of successful people in our class actually... one guy I spoke with though seemed a bit sadden that he was still a bachelor with no kids and felt like he was in the minority.

I saw one of my favorite bands - Static-X - live for the 4th time, at a smaller bar downtown here. It was so small that I was literally within arms reach of the bassist the entire time they were on stage and was within 10-20ft of frontman Wayne Static the entire time too. The band geared up right next to us too - we were sectioned off by their equipment boxes. It was AWESOME to be THAT CLOSE to one of my favorite bands. I also caught the drumstick at the end - while having my hand out to fist bump Wayne as he walked past on his way off the stage the drumstick landed right in my reach and I caught it with my other hand. Some dude and his gf were grabbing onto it and pulling though so I pulled my fist away from Wayne just as he was about to walk by so I'd have both hands on it - they weren't taking it from me. Hubby got decked in the mouth by the chick that was rockin' out next to me the whole time though. The next morning my photo of the band gearing up next to us got retweeted by the band on Twitter, as did hubby's tweet about how he was bleeding, sore and now deaf after going to the show, lol... so cool! I've always seen them before at the House of Blues in Chicago so this was quite a different experience seeing them in a smaller venue and being able to be that close to them. I was right down front and the crowd, being older, didn't get too out of control so I was able to rock out without having to worry about getting crushed by people or having moshers thrown into me (a mosh pit broke out a few times but security got it under control quickly). I'll definitely be seeing more bands there in the future if it means I can be that close to them!

We went to the nearby apple orchard for the 1st time this season. It was fun - we let Jay lead the way in the wire fence maze... yeah, don't recommend that! He'd get to a dead end and come halfway back only to stop and pick up rocks and dirt and mulch, lol... We got his annual measurement there though - he's grown half a foot since last year according to the chart.

Photo: Growth vine at Edward's Apple Orchard, 1 year apart - looks like he grew half a foot!

Jay has started throwing tantrums left and right now too - welcome to the terrible 2s! Last week we were watching The Office instead of his shows on Sprout, so he threw a tantrum the entire 30 minutes it was on - thrashing and rolling around on the floor, kicking and throwing his toys, screaming, crying... the works! The second it was over and we put Sprout back on he was completely fine and smiley again. That stinker!

Hubby got a seasonal job with Best Buy Mobile! We were on our way out to the apple orchard when he got a call about an interview so we turned the car around, he ran in to change and Jay napped in the car while I waited for him during his interview. It went really well as they hired him on the spot and he starts orientation this weekend. It's only seasonal for now, but we'll see how it goes, maybe they'll keep him on after the holidays!

And that's pretty much the excitement we've had around here, aside from the stress of my father-in-law still living with us and basically trashing the house as he goes as he doesn't pick up after himself (we're sooooo tired and fed up with it - I'm about ready to move back in with my parents until he's gone, cept I really don't want to rock Jay's world anymore than it already has been. I don't really know what to do anymore, I'm on the verge of losing it).