Out, damned tree

That's my mission for today. Getting the tree down and all the holiday crap put away.

I hate that part. I hate getting it all out, I hate putting it all away. The middle part isn't so bad, I like looking at it all and remembering where I got certain things. But other than that, the whole decoration thing is just wasted time in my life that I'll never get back.

Just call me Ebeneezer.

I have gotten more sleep in the past two nights than I've probably gotten in the last month. Obviously, my body and mind are in shutdown mode because I need a serious recharge. I'm not sure if it was all the pre-Christmas partying or the family drama or even this week's stress but I have fallen asleep on our couch for the past two nights at 8 PM. That, my friends, is pathetic. And seriously I could take a nap right this second, however Joey has already invoked his nap privileges so that won't be happening.

The husband has been sick. I think this is only the second time in 12 years that he hasn't gone in to work because he's been too sick. The poor guy gets these horrible, persistent sinus infections that come and go. He'd been fighting one off for about a week when he decided on Thursday to go into our crawlspace to see where the lovely little mice were coming in. I guess between the dust, mold, and insulation it probably pushed the infection right over the edge and by Friday he was feverish and had a swollen face. Then he found out that he has a rash all over him due to dehydration and overusage of antibiotics due to said sinus infections. The poor guy can't win.

So he's been languishing in the Man Cave while I've been running around. Yesterday was the first basketball practice for Monkey Man at the YMCA. I had pretty high hopes and it seems like maybe we got the softest team they could put him on. As in the coach was teaching the kids to dribble while all the other teams were doing drills and such. It's probably a good thing Joey didn't go to the practice because he would've jumped right out of his skin.

After that, it was off to the hospital to see the baby and check on everyone. I ran up there Friday after work but barely had time to stay since I had to pick Monkey Man up from school and get dinner somewhere for us to eat. Since Mousestravaganza 2008, most of our pantry is bare and I am bringing minimal food in the house until we can get rid of the little darlings. So there wasn't much time to dawdle since I had to pick up Monkey Man by 6 PM.

Finley is adorable. Long fingers, long toes, and bright sparkly eyes. And hair, Lord does that girl have some hair. Although there is apparently a red-headed baby in the nursery that has so much hair that the nurses are already doing a bad comb-over on that kid. Yikes.

So I took Monkey Man up to see her yesterday. He is convinced that she like him best because he is her cousin and he tickles her feet. Hey, whatever works. He was pretty proud of himself and totally in love with Finley, which will bode well until she is old enough to start getting into his shit and henceforth will result in "Moooooom, Finley's bugging me!" I can't wait for that. There is roughly the same age difference between Monkey Man and Finley as there is between me and my nephew Steve (Finley's dad). And I remember distinctly making that same cry as we were driving in the car and he was grabbing at whatever I had that he wanted. Good times.

After that it was on to the Big Mall to buy Monkey Man some shoes. This is something I look forward to about as much as paying bills or having a tooth extracted. We have this great shoe store in town that has the biggest selection of kids' shoes around - but to get that selection, you pretty much sign your soul away the minute you walk in the door. It's typically a great mix of snooty West Enders with their kids decked out in Lilly Pulitzer and riding in $600 strollers, the East Enders with their 10,000 kids wearing Baby Phat, and then your South Siders whose kids are wearing camouflage and blaze orange since they've been hunting with Daddy all morning and just finished tying a six-point buck to the front of Daddy's 1986 Bronco.

So you sign in on a yellow legal pad and then brace yourself to wait it out. And maybe I'm just a total hardass, but I cannot bear when people let their kids run amok in the stores. It's all I can do to grit my teeth and pick a few shoes out for Monkey Man to try out. And heaven help me if they actually have a video blaring away since Monkey Man then acts like he has never actually seen this magical invention called a television so it's all I can do to tear his attention away long enough to actually try shoes on.

We ended up with three pairs of shoes - 1 pair of sneakers, 1 pair of Merrells, and 1 pair of insulated boots that are kind of more like work boots than snow boots. Every time we've gotten the kid some snow boots he ends up not being able to get them on and whines about how they hurt his feet. So this time I got him something that he will probably be able to use long into the springtime, especially to go out poking around in the backyard with Joey and the dog. The three of them can find more icky shit to get into than any creatures I've ever seen.

So after a day of running around yesterday, this morning I was happy to go get my waffle on and make a quick Kroger stop and Target too and make it home. I've been researching stuff to do in Vegas when we're there in February and emailing everything to Yvonne. And dreading taking that damn tree down. And I think that'll do me for today.