nice weekend

So thankfully, after my crappy day on Thursday, I had a fantastic weekend. Very busy, but it was a lot of fun. And we had literally NO plans. I had been invited to a cookie party on Sunday, but I decided with being sick and exhausted, that it wasn't a good idea to overdo it.

Saturday, as we were getting Celia ready for gymnastics, I was trying to get her to let me brush her hair and put it in pig-tails to keep it out of her face. She was not having any of it though, and she completely refused. I told her that if she wants to keep taking gymnastics, that it might be a good idea to cut her hair shorter so it's not in her face, since she won't let me put it up. She was so excited about that idea. I asked her if she was sure that she wanted it short, and she said "mommy, it will grow back!". Smart kid. So after her class, we went to the mall for Xmas shopping, to get her new boots/hat/scarf/mittens, and to see Santa. Since Santa was late, we decided to just get her hair cut anyways. Since it was a shorter cut, we went to Bubbles (which is the salon I usually go to) which was in the mall. Much better than the cartoon place as far as quality of hair cut goes. At the cartoon place they're all about speed, not style. So she got a really great hair cut (for a whopping $25), and was all set to see Santa. Her pics turned out way too cute too. She's really becoming such a big girl. After we did that, we did a little shopping and grabbed lunch. By 1, the mall was mobbed, so we left and went home. Spent the afternoon watching TV (and I took a nap), and went to my favorite Mexican place for dinner. YUM!! Then Nathan and I sat and watched a movie ("Little Miss Sunshine"), which was great! I really enjoyed it. It was nice to watch a movie that we both could watch (not a chick flick).

Yesterday was cleaning day. I went grocery shopping (early, before it got busy), then came back and we started on the office. 2 hours later, we can walk in, we got rid of a bunch of boxes, and things are getting more organized. This is so exciting to me! The last month and a half, I've had to close the door so the cleaning lady wouldn't go in there (it was really impossible to walk in there without tripping). And yesterday, I vacuumed it! I still can't see my desk, but I can live with that for now. That's a project for next weekend. Maybe. Then we hit the kitchen, and worked on the piles on the island. It was basically covered with piles of papers, and random things. Getting better, but still have some work to do before my cookie baking extravaganza on Saturday. I've got 2 friends coming Saturday (both worked at the same place I do, in a different group. One still does, the other now lives in PA right near Wilmington, Delaware, and we've been getting together every year for the last 5 years to bake cookies together. Usually margaritas are involved, and we end up baking like 15 different types of cookies. YUM!

So that was my weekend. My favorite part was dinner last night. I made beef-barley soup. Using my favorite barley/lima bean soup mix and some beef ribs. It turned out SO well! I've never seen Celia eat anything the way she ate that soup. It made me really happy.

Another interesting thing was a phone conversation I had with my mom last night. I was telling her about my job changes that may be happening. I said something like "I just wish that this had happened 6 months ago". I'd have been so much better off if I had time first. Instead of having it happen as I'm getting ready to start thinking about being on leave for 3 months. She laughed at me, and said that I was crazy! That if this had happened 6 months ago, that I would have snapped and said "fuck this, I quit!!". And sadly, she's right. That was just as I was going through IVF. I was not in a great place to be dealing with any major changes at that point. I probably would have walked out of the meeting the other day after saying just those words. I was really amazed at how in tune she was with how I was really doing then. How hard it really was to make it through the cycles leading up to and during IVF. It made me want to reach through the phone and give her a huge hug. She really is the best.