Skinny's Birthday!!!!

This weekend was a fast one.... Friday was Skinny's birthday and I had the day off..... I started the day off by going to the dentists, which I thought was to just get my teeth sealed for my upcoming surgery but once I got there, i found out differently. I guess my dentist found a crack and a deep pit in one of my molars, so he needed to sand it and fill out. This way I wouldn't run the risk of getting cavities during my recovery in the next couple of months. It was strange to have half of my face numb... it's been a long time since I had any major work like that done. But I guess I should get used to it.... since I see a lot of pain killers and numbness in my future. After I left the dentist, I headed to my 2nd favorite place in the world, the salon. It was for a haircut, color and wax. I needed a new look, I like to change up my hair every few months, but with A.B. wedding in December, I had to keep my hair normal for pictures. So now that it is in the past, it was time to change. So I went a ton lighter....light browns, and dark blond..... It's a fun hair do... and it will be easier to keep going lighter into the spring and summer. Now that I had my new do... I stopped by the eye place to pick up my new glasses and I was all set to see Skinny for our lunch date.... I think he was little surprised to see me... He said he liked my hair and everything.. but you can never tell with guys. It turned out to be a great day for me... even though it was his birthday.
Saturday we did a usual routine... of AA meeting, but then it was to my FAVORITE place in the world... the mall. We were shopping for Skinny's birthday presents..... even though we were only getting him stuff I still had fun... He ended up with some cool jeans and a new pair for brown shoes. I have to say that he is starting to get a little more professional with his dress..... less cargo khakis and more "adult" dress. Maybe by next year he will even be wearing dress pants to work every day but Fridays. After the mall we had planned to go to dinner with Skinny's parents but the weather got bad and they decided not to come.... which for us was nice... since it meant time alone... with each other... for the afternoon. We looked forward to watching the snow fall and seeing a few videos... I was going to make dinner and it was great. the only down fall was the couple of hours that our water pressure was off. During the afternoon, someone ran into one of the fire hydrants, flooding the street.... but the city was able to fix it quickly... before the real storm started. Which was a good thing, since the office lost power and so did Rands and The Beau. They actually lost power at like 9 pm and didn't get it back till late afternoon of Sunday. I made the mistake of going out to get another movie and some groceries....it started to ice.... I mean like rain/ice, then ice pellets then ice chunks. Once that went on for a few hours.... it snowed... thank goodness we were home for the night. Sunday was another lazy day till later in the afternoon when we headed to the parentals for dinner. It was a great meal.... The mother made roast and potatoes..... with green beans.... one of Skinny's favorite meals.... then we had awesome cake. I got it from one of the little bakeries in town... it was really rich and chocolaty.... but great. It was one of those cakes that you can only eat a little piece at a time.
To change the subject a little Skinny got his 48 hour furloughs... I can't wait to the weekends now... even though I liked them before. It will really feel like we are together a lot more.... now that I will pick him up on Friday nights and he won't have to be back till Sunday night... plus we have Family therapy on Wednesday nights. We work 8 hours a day so it will just been Monday, Tuesday, Thursday nights that we will be apart. Even time he gets more time away from the Fort, it means we are closer to him coming home permanently. I just keep thinking positive and not letting the little things bother me.

Joy-Joy dinners

As I have said in the past my best girl friend is Joy-Joy. We have been friends since we were in grade school, I remember the first day of fourth grade, when we decided to be friends during a game of tether ball.... we have been friends ever since. There were tons of birthday parties, slumber parties and late night phone sessions. Even when we got into junior high and high school and went into different activities, we still did stuff on the weekends, or saw each other in classes. You would think that we would have lost touch once we went away to different colleges...... yes there were a couple of years that we only talked a couple of times but once Joy- Joy got to her senior year and I had moved to AZ. She even came down to visit me for a few days then we lost touch for about a year... till I decided to moved back to Iowa about 8 1/2 years ago. I found out that she was still in town and living with one of our other friends. i immediately called her and we started hanging out again. First it was just afternoons at the pool or nights at the clubs even couple of months. But then we got the idea to go to dinner on a random Thursday night.... and it just stuck...... soon we were going to dinner about every couple of weeks. It was a way for us to catch up on each other and gossip about whatever. Last year about this time.... my schedule changed so it was similar to Joy-Joy... so we could pick any night to go to dinner.... then in early fall she got a promotion and switch her schedule so it was totally opposite mine.... so it made dinners harder, but we still try to get them in every couple of weeks. I still can't beleive after 25 years we are still going strong as friends. I know there are not very many people who can say that.
Which brings me to tonight..... we are going to dinner.... now in the past we have gone to our "norm'... which is Carlos O'Kelleys but we are always trying new places. So tonight it will be Granite City.... they have the best salads there..... I can't wait till 5 pm rolls around.... to talk to Joy-Joy but also get some great food.

Nothing Exciting....except!!!!!!

So last week was not really all that exciting... well other then I found out my sister is having a girl. Which is really cool...since I love to shop. It just give me one more reason to go to the mall or online and find stuff. I can't wait till she gets older and I can take her shopping for stuff that her mother won't buy her. But there is a down side to all of this... since I will also have a nephew and will need to treat them both the same. Alright not exactly the same, but when I buy for one, I will need to get stuff for the other. I'm sure I will figure it out.
Our Valentine's celebration over the weekend went well.... we went out for a nice dinner, even got dressed up nice. It was been since before Skinny went to the Fort since we did that alone. I forgot how nice it is to sit and have a nice dinner together, not having to cook it myself. Don't get me wrong I don't mind cooking, it's just that having someone else do it, is a treat too. It just seems weird since we have put so much effort into Valentine's Day in past years, that this year rolled right by and it was nothing really special. Granted the situation played a lot into it... but still it was just like any other day for us.
The job is actually going good right now.... we have lost a few people... but it is still better than it was in the past. Plus in the coming weeks, I moving to a later schedule..... it will only changed by an hour.... but I'm looking forward to that extra hour of sleep. it should be nice. Speaking about the job... it just boogles my mind how people can not like it and want to move somewhere else. I guess maybe I haven't been in the position long enough or I just look at the bright side of things.... still I can't believe all the complaining I hear day after day. I guess we will see what the future brings.
Speaking of future.... it looks like Skinny really might be over half done with his time in the Fort, he has a meeting with his counselor tomorrow, and I have a feeling we will be moving to 48 hour hours, and maybe even moving to the next phase. I'm looking forward to see what Skinny finds out. But since we are starting to see the end of the tunnel, we have seriously started talking about marriage again. We might even be engaged by my birthday and that's less than 2 months away.... we are going to see how the next couple of weeks go...
Like I have said in the past.... you never know I just might be posting Exciting news sooner... rather than later.

Happy Valentine's Day!

So it is the day for lovers,couples and who ever believes in that little Cupid guy. ... but me and my guy are stuck apart due to the Fort and work...... at least I will get to see him tonight for a little while. I know it is not the best situation since it is family therapy night, but at least we get to see each other. We are planning a big celebration this weekend.... alright... it's not so big... but going to dinner and getting a romantic movie is big plans for us, for the time being. I even got some new candles and a cute nightgown to wear ..... it should be a little special. Now I'm just hoping that Skinny remembered to send me flowers. He usually does, but you never know.... It's actually kind of funny how he says... just like most guys.... "this is such a Girl's holiday" or " this holiday was made up by the card companies to make money"...... Still I get something special every year from him. The first Valentine's day Skinny went all out, we had just started official dating a couple of months before, so it was out first holiday together. I had just given him keys to my apartment and he had the day off. He spent the day getting my place ready...so when I got home, the first thing i saw was a long stemmed red rose, sitting outside my front door. Then once I walked in, he had lit a bunch of candles in the living room and had more roses with chocolates. There was a trail on candles going back to the bedroom, where Skinny was waiting with more flowers, a huge teddy bear and a diamond necklace. He definitely went over the top the first time around and set the bar pretty high for himself. Last year he took it down a notch, he sent me a dozen roses to work, then we met downtown and gave me another 1/2 dozen of roses, with little figurines.... it was this whole ice skating theme. Then he took me too a nice place to eat. So we will see what happens today.
On a different front... I'm really excited to find out what Rands and the beau are having.... baby-wise. I was excited to find out what A.B. was having... but I WAY- excited about Rands' baby. I'm not sure why I am... since they are both my siblings.... I think maybe it has something to do with her being my sister.... and I want to totally spoil this baby.... I have even started thinking about places I can shop. Which is not good for my shopping habit. I guess we will see what happens, once I find out.

Super Sunday!

So it has been a year since my life changed or should I say since Skinny and my life changed. It was 1 year ago today that I was sitting outside the courthouse waiting for Skinny to be released from Jail to wait for his court date for his 3rd OWI. I have to say I feel a heck of a lot better than I did a year ago. But i was dreading this day for a while now... or should I say I was dreading Superbowl Sunday... I didn't know what was going to happen or if we would even make it to yesterday. But we did... and it was actually a pretty nice day. We hang out most of the day in the apartment and then headed over to Rands for snacks and the game. I wanted to make sure that there was as little temptation as possible. Since Rands is pregnant I knew there would be no alcohol in the house. The subject of drinking didn't even come up really. Other than a quick chat about how Skinny is half way thru with his time at the Fort, nothing else was really said. It made me feel like we really have made progress in the last year. I know there was a time I thought he would never stop drinking, but now there is real hope at the end of the tunnel. We made it thru the agonizing period of 8 months of waiting for him to be sentenced, then the 1 month of Skinny not being able to leave the Fort. We lasted thru the 8 hour furlough, the 12 then 24 hours furloughs. To make it to the 36's...where it makes it really feel like we are not apart a lot. Still looking at how far we have come, we still have so much more to go..... I mean we really don't know when he will be coming home for sure, or what parole will entail. But I guess we have made it to this point... so it should be all down hill.. right?
I'd like to think that we are getting back on track... but we will see. The real test will be a year from now.... when Skinny is home and has to really make the decision where to watch the Superbowl and to drink pop or beer. Only the future will tell.... too bad I don't have a crystal ball.