Holiday Hustle!

Ok, I have 5 Christmas dinners to go to. Count them. 5. Today I'm going to Indiana to my dad's house. Tomorrow we are going to Todd's Aunt's house for his family's Christmas. Then on Christmas, Todd works, so I'm going over to his mom's house because his Aunt on his stepdad's side is going to be over. Then on the 26th, I'm going to Batavia to have my family's Christmas. Then I have a wedding on Saturday. Then on the 2nd, we're going up to Woodstock to his Gram's for Christmas there. This is slightly insane. And it's snowing out right now, so that's going to make travelling awesome. I can't wait until we get a new house and everyone can come to US!

Yesterday I had the craziest day. Everything was going wrong. All I had to do was get my Christmas cards out and ship a couple packages to brides. So, one quick trip to the post office, right? Wrong. I got up, decided to get the envelopes for the cards so I could stuff them. Where are the envelopes? In Todd's car. He's at work. 45 min trip to Oak Lawn for envelopes? No, I'll just go pick some up. He also had the stamps. Oh well, lets just hope the price for stamps doesnt change for a while. So, then I go to make the CD's for the brides for their packages. Everything else was ready, I just had to make their CD's and print up album layout forms. Oh! Look at that, I'm out of CD's. And my printer is acting up. Awesome. I finally get my printer to work, I print up my stuff and get everything ready. I get Ava ready, myself ready and I go outside to start my car. Where's my car? Oh! Under all that ice and snow, I think I see some blue. So, I start my car and let it run for about 45 min. I go back inside pack everything up, get Boo and I some lunch and bring everything out to the car. (By everything I mean my laptop so I can make the CD's in the car while I'm driving, all the stuff for both packages, all the cards waiting to be stuffed into envelopes and the address labels all printed up waiting to be stuck onto envelopes.) I get to my car and, surprise, surprise, my car is STILL covered in snow and ice. So, I try using my scraper thingy to get it all off. It's like two layers of ice. Scratch that, it's an ice oreo. Two layers of ice with a layer of snow in between. Yea, I haven't used my car in a couple days. My scraper isn't working. The bottom layer of ice is NOT coming off of my car. And oops! My scraper broke on the ice. Isn't this supposed to work the other way around? There is still ice on my side windows and on my windshield wipers. Not to mention the ice and snow on the hood, roof and trunk. Whatever, I have no time. The post office closes at 4:30 and it's 3 already. So much for an early start. I go back in, get Ava, get her safely in the car. As soon as I close her door, my feet are suddenly up above my head and my hip hits the icy pavement real hard. Perfect. I recover, and get in the car. I go to KMart because it's right there. I figure I can get envelopes and CD's all right there and then the post office is a block away. KMart has CD's. No 5x7 greeting card envelopes. Not during Christmas. That would be silly. So, I go to Jewel. No envelopes. I go to Walgreens. No envelopes. I'm near tears at this point. I waited too long on these cards, but I worked hard on them, they are going out if I have to run down a postal truck. I go all the way to Matteson to OfficeMax. They didn't have 5x7 ones, but they had 6x8 ones with the peel off sticky flap. Works for me! I don't feel like licking 50 envelopes! So I get back in the car and drive to the post office. By now it's 4:15. I have 15 minutes and I'm 25 min away from my post office and I still have to stuff. I'm going to cry. Wait! Park Forest has a post office right here! And they close at 6pm!! I pull in, park turn on Christmas music for Ava, start the first CD and start stuffing. I finish the cards by 4:25. The last truck pulls up around 4:30 and I still need stamps. So, we run in, get the stamps, stick them on all the envelopes and pass them off to the mail lady as soon as the truck pulls up. Awesome. Then I get two boxes and some bubble wrap and go back out to the car to put together the packages. I pack the first box while I wait for the second CD to write. After that is done, I pack the second box, and we go back into the post office. I have to pay $40 for them to be express, but whatever. As long as they have them by Christmas. Procrastination isn't cheap. So they're out and they're guaranteed by Christmas Eve. Hooray!!

This whole time, I should mention, Ava was a complete angel. She was SO good, I can't even tell you. She was my saving grace for the day. If she hadn't been so good, I think I would've broken down. When we went in to drop off the cards, she had told me she had to go potty. There was no where for her to go. So, I asked her if she could hold it. (Dangerous!!) She happily ran around the post office and held it. For an hour until we finally got home. She was so good!!

Oh, by the way. That fall I took outside my car? Yea, I'm paying for it. It hurt all day yesterday (it aggrivated my SPD and took my level 4 pain to a nice 8), and today, it's about a 10. I can barely walk it hurts so bad. I really hope this goes away by this wedding on Saturday. My last wedding for 5 months... c'mon!