Mother’s Day and a Birthday

I didn’t get flowers from Jerry Lee but he did end up texting me and wishing me a Happy Mother’s Day. I simply replied, “Thanks!” What else is there to say?

I started off Mother’s Day with mimosas and a breakfast casserole that I made with much love and my very own two hands. Picasso loves a good breakfast casserole and it saved my mom from having to make biscuits and gravy.

My baby girl, Nate the Great, and my granddog all came up around 1 pm. Lennox is the sweetest dog (aside from Milo, of course) and he loves me so much. He gets so excited every time he sees me because he knows Gigi spoils him. The dog ended up licking and biting my ears enough that it dislodged my earring, which I didn’t realize until Monday at work. It wouldn’t have been a big deal but these were my 1/2 carat diamond earrings which I paid over $700 for a couple of years ago. I was not looking forward to replacing those.

We spent a lot of time out on the new deck. We hadn’t told anyone else it was being built so everyone was surprised when they saw it.

We grilled out- steaks, baked potatoes, and grilled corn with a Caesar salad. The only hitch was my grill ran out of propane sometime after I fired it up and started the baked potatoes. Fortunately we had a charcoal grill and my brother prefers grilling on charcoal. I figured I had already done enough and it was Mother’s Day so I should be relaxing while someone else cooked.

We ended up with a party of 8- me, my mom, Picasso, Rock Star, Nate the Great, my brother, Queen Bee, and my nephew.

It was a lovely day. My daughter brought me the cutest bouquet of flowers and a neck massager and my niece brought me flowers and sugar free Reese’s cups. The food turned out great and it was nice spending time out on the deck and with family.

Monday was my mom’s birthday. We took her to a Japanese steakhouse for her birthday. We were once again a group of eight but instead of Rock Star and Nate the Great we added my sister-in-law and Queen Bee’s live in boyfriend. I’m going to call him Cutie Pie because I just adore him.

Remember that missing diamond earring? Before we left to go to the restaurant I searched the couch. My daughter was doing some scraping on me the day before. I was laying face down on the couch and Lennox was sitting on my head, licking my nose, my mouth, my ears. I figured I would start there before checking the deck and the area below the deck. Fortunately for me the earring was sitting right on top of the leather cushion. I still need to replace the back but I’ve got the important part.

Today we welcomed our new teammate to the team. We are now an all female BSA crew. And I have officially been moved over to EDDs. All my remaining alerts were reassigned. All but 2 of my cases were reassigned. I finished one today and will finish the last one tomorrow.

I also went back to my oral surgeon who numbed me up, cut my gum open where the screw is in my mouth, apparently scraped some bone away, put a cap on the screw using the world’s smallest socket wrench, and then stitched me up and sent me on my way.

I’m tough. I went back to work and went to my DAR meeting later on this evening.

That’s it for my update.

See ya later, gator!

What? No Flowers?

Mother’s Day is here and yet again Jerry Lee sent me no flowers to recognize my outstanding contributions as the mother of his children. I’ve gotta say, with all the chit chatting we’ve been doing I’m a little surprised and yes, a wee bit hurt, that he didn’t send me flowers this year.

OK, I’m joking about the hurt part but I was partially expecting him to do something after all of his talking and being so proud of me and so happy for me.

Ah yes… our last conversation. The day after he said my name again he sent me a meme about Johnny Cash, Bob Hope, and Steve Jobs. The punchline is now we have no cash, no hope, no jobs. Don’t let Kevin Bacon die!

We talked about our mutual love of bacon and he asked if I was in the office today or at home. We talked about what I wore to work and about olives and muffulettas and how they came to be in New Orleans. He mentioned that I was just out there having a blast. Good for you! he told me.

I didn’t tell him all of my newfound activities were because of the last doofus I dated. I simply told him I was trying and I went down a list of things I had done- got my nose pierced, joined a bunch of MeetUp groups, got some more tattoos, got 2 cats, drove down the Pacific Coast Highway, went to Texas, going to Hawaii.

In the end he tells me that he’s very happy for me. Truly. I am blossoming. He lists all of these things I’ve done, says its truly wonderful and ends with, “And you kept the big boobs!”

Wonder how his wife feels about that…

Random Musings… And More Pictures

I tried my hand at stained glass last night. My pieces were not perfectly straight and I had a hell of a time with the soldering iron. The instructor re-did most of my tape job. But in the end I had a perfectly respectful looking stained glass succulent.

I mean, come on! Other than the obvious size difference, can you even tell which one was done by a professional and which one was done by a novice? I think not.

Tonight I poured myself a glass of wine and enjoyed sitting out on our brand new deck. It even has pretty solar lights to enjoy when it gets dark.

I have a very busy day tomorrow. My botox appointment is over an hour away from my house at 9 am. Then I’m heading over to Jill and Margaret’s and we’re going to go to the 1st annual Foodie Fest. It’s a big event at one of the river walks with food trucks, music, and games. There are over 30 people signed up to go! Of course, we’ll see how many actually show up.

The festival lasts from 12-5 but Jill and I are taking off around 3:15 because we are going to an acupuncture circle. We’ll be outside with 8 other people in zero gravity chairs while this very qualified person that we know puts needles into our bodies. I’m not sure what it’s supposed to unlock but I’m all for it. It can’t hurt. And yes, I have had acupuncture before.

I did get an increase in my medication. I’m now at 30 mg. 40 mg is as high as I can go on this particular medication so let’s hope it holds. Of course, if it doesn’t I’m sure she’ll just switch medications.

I’m going to another Edgar Allan Poe speakeasy next Sunday. KT texted to tell me about it. It’s in Muncie so my daughter and her fiance are also going.

Rock Star is coming up on Mother’s Day. It should be interesting because my son is still mad at me. He feels I didn’t have his back. He hasn’t hugged me in probably 2 weeks unless I make the first move. Maybe he will recognize Mother’s Day. Maybe he won’t. Either way I get to see my granddog and I’m super excited about that.

There are changes at work. I finally got my raise for this year. And my boss had no sooner asked me if I would like to start learning how to do Enhanced Due Diligence reports (EDDs) than I got put on them full time! She called me as I was on my way to an appointment to let me know that my co-worker who was moving to Hawaii couldn’t be retained. The bank has around 11 states that they don’t have set up to work through and Hawaii is one of them so we can’t keep him anymore. He just moved up/over to doing EDDs in November when another co-worker abruptly resigned. Now I am apparently doing them full time.

I think it is a step in the right direction because I didn’t really know anything about them and what I was told was that the big plan was to have 2 senior specialists with one over the BSA alerts side of it and the other over the EDD side of it. It would be very difficult to be in charge of the EDDs without knowing anything about them.

The bad thing is during my one on one I was told they can’t create a second senior specialist position until we are fully staffed and remain fully staffed for a few months. With my co-worker leaving we are down a person once again and we will need to start a search for a new person. And then we will need to be fully staffed for a few months before we can promote me. Assuming I am the one who gets the job.

Also, I am supposed to start my CAMS (Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist) certification training in August. It’s going to put a damper on my social life while I study but there is a pay raise involved so I can table the socializing until I pass this exam.

I’ve got my tickets for Utah for the end of this month. I’m excited to see friends and I’m excited to see this young man get married. I’m just sorry the trip is so short. Rock Star and Nate the Great will be out there considerably longer.

Also in the works is our trip to Hawaii. My niece is definitely joining us so it will be me, Rock Star, Queen Bee, and my mom all going. We’re going to spend part of the time on O’ahu and part of it on Maui. I’m getting excited. I will be sure to share pictures with you while I’m there.

Oh! How could I forget? I got the most gorgeous tattoo almost 2 weeks ago. I’m up to 9 now.

This is all three of them on my upper back/shoulder blade area.

I think that’s all of the random stuff I can think of. I’m going to do a separate post about Jerry Lee. Things have died down since the support was sent on the 30th. I keep thinking maybe he’ll send me flowers for Mother’s Day but so far that hasn’t happened. I’ll be sure to let y’all know if it does. I’m not holding my breathe.

I need to go shower and get to bed. I have to get up around 7 am tomorrow so I can be out the door no later than 7:45. I’ve been staying up too late anyway and I managed to finish an entire bottle of wine- blueberry Moscato. Delicious. As they say, corks are for quitters! I’ve got a very busy day ahead of me.

Another Week In Pictures, Day #7

We came across this when we were in New Orleans. The only reason I know what this is is because of the movie, “Now You See Me”. Mark Ruffalo’s character explains how lovers will place a padlock on a bridge and throw away the key to symbolize their unbreakable love.

I like to call this the wall of lies.

Another Week In Pictures, Day 6

The day I became a mom.

Me and Shelby Lynne.

And the day I became a mom of 2.

Me and Nicholas Todd.

Another Week In Pictures, Day 5

This is my positive support pickle. He’s positive. And he supports me.

Another Week In Pictures, Day 4

Enjoying a beautiful day and a gorgeous view.

Another Week In Pictures, Day 3

Just a cat lying in the bathtub. Move along. Nothing to see.

And yes, Noël does the same. I just didn’t get a picture of it.

Another Week In Pictures, Day 2

Join me as I burn things. Things like 2 plus years worth of divorce files.

Join me as I cut up t-shirts that once meant the world to me and now don’t mean shit. No, better yet they represent lies. I burned his fucking lies.

There goes my New Hampshire shirt. It was long sleeved and light weight. It was perfect. Unfortunately it had to go. As did the Flume Gorge sweatshirt. Even my Made In 69 t-shirt was put on the burn pile.

As you know a lot more got burned but I didn’t take a picture of everything. Hope you enjoyed these though.

Another Week In Pictures, Day 1

I figure the last one went over well so I may as well try it again. This time it might not always be just one picture. Sometimes it might be a series. Today though it’s just the cutest Easter “bunny” you’ll ever see.