Out with Autumn & in with Xmas

I have my Blackberry’s ringtone set to a Mozart melody. I heard Mozart while sleeping. It was only 3:30am. As much as I love his compositions, I woke knowing ths couldn’t possibly be good. Unfortunately, I missed the call but after gathering myself, I went downstairs to return work’s call. Suddenly, I found myself in the middle of a challenging issue for the next 1.25 hours. I headed back to bed at 4:45am. I didn’t wake again until 7:30am. After starting some coffee I checked the status of the work issue. Still going on. But perhaps what was worse, they now had my boss involved. He and I briefly discussed our options via IM chat. But before we could take further action the problem was resolved. Yeah! I went about the remainder of my morning like most others. I exercised, walked Ykraps, and then returned to sip and enjoy morning coffee. It wasn’t much longer before Mindy and the kids were up. Jacob was still convalescing from his illness so he had a natural pardon from church. Seeing this, Bella tried talking/crying her way out of going along. However, Mindy would have none of it. Her tears fell upon deaf ears. In jest, I uttered a few words about the trouble with church for kids. Why does it have to be painful? It should be extreme enjoyment. Perhaps if they taught them meditation skills… ? I dressed and departed for a run around 9:30am. It was again chilly but not nearly as cold as Saturday. My run went well. And just as I often do whilerunning, I contemplated my to-do list leading up to TG holiday. The tasks were many, including finishing up yard winterization, final raking/mowing, putting up holiday lighting, and making piecrusts. I realized there was little chance of getting all of that done today. However, I took solace in knowing that I’d be off work for seven straight days after Tuesday. I’d certainly find the time and weather to get it all done then. Mindy & Bella were just leaving for church when I returned from my run. After church, Mindy would run Bella to a b-day party in Grove City. Mindy would then detour by Ashley’s in an attempt to pick-up Olivia for a Sunday afternoon visit. While they were gone, I’d make the pie dough and possibly hang some lights. I figured I’d leave the raking until possibly Wednesday. Things went almost as planned. I made pie crust while Mindy & Bella were at church. I made enough for four pies. I stowed all of them in the fridge. I was asked to make a chocolate pie for TG dinner at Gloria’s, plus, I plan to make a pumpkin and chocolate pie for the Wright TG dinner on Sunday. Mindy & Bella returned around 12:30pm. They weren’t home too long before it was time to leave for the b-day party. During that time, Mindy took down some of the Fall décor in preparation for the Xmas stuff. Somewhat lazily, I watched NFL football through the early afternoon. Around 2pm I decided to get busy with Xmas lights. I knew I wouldn’t hang them all. So, I focused my attention on the new net sets exclusively for the shrubs. This was the first time I’ve ever used net lighting. I was anxious to see how well it worked. I stretched out the two colored sets and hooked them together. It was more than difficult to get them spread out. Not sure if they’re all like that or if the sets I bought were cheap. At any rate, I finally got it done after a little swearing . Swearing always works. :) I repeated the process with the two white light net sets. Since I have two layers of shrubs, I planned to place the colored sets on the larger, rear shrubs, and the white sets on the front layer. By design, these would be the only colored lights I would use. After confirming that all of them worked, I took them outside and strung them over the shrubs. The shrubs have gotten so large over the years they didn’t come close to covering them completely, but then again, I only had to be concerned with the side in view. I was able to spread them in such a manner that the exposed side looked completely covered. Again, I repeated the process for the front row, only in white. It was still daylight so I could only get a rough idea how it looked. It looked OK to my eye. Mindy phoned to let me know that she and Bella were on their way home. She also said she stopped by Ashley’s, but she and Olivia weren’t home. Stephen was, however, and told her they were at Kelly’s. Mindy called Kelly’s and made arrangements to pick Olivia up from there. She’d most likely be bringing Lil’ Rocky home too. I was OK with that. I kept a loose eye on the Viking game through the afternoon. They got a couple lucky breaks and found themselves ahead 14-0 only 1.5 minutes into the game. They held on to win 30-12. SKOL! Mindy & the kids got home a little after 4pm. We had a beef roast cooking all day in the crock pot. I was looking forward to eating it. It smelt terrific. Rocky was full of energy. Olivia seemed a little tired but still was a joy. Rocky, Jacob and I went outdoors and tossed the football for a while. Jacob roughed Rocky up pretty good but he took everything he could dish out. He’s got a certain toughness at 5 that’s a bit uncommon. Before dinner, all the kids were sitting around the kitchen table when all of the sudden Olivia started making faces at the others. She had all of us in stitches. I got a couple of pics. Dinner went well. It was very good. The neighbor’s kids, Jake & Makayla, were over playing as well. The house, as they say, was rockin’! Olivia was insistent that we watch Shrek III. All the kids agreed. After the movie, I took Olivia and Rocky home. I dropped Olivia first, taking I-270 around to the Grove City exit. That was a quick trip. From there, I headed north on Rt 62 to Briggs Rd where I headed west to Kelly’s place on St Matthews. Lindsey met Rocky and I out front. She was anything but pleasant – just like her mother. I remember feeling a little sad for Rocky. He had such a good time at our house with Mindy & all the other kids. At home he seems to lack the love and interaction little kids need. I was back home after being gone 45 minutes. It was 8:15pm. Mindy already had our kids bathed and in bed. I went up for the tuck. Jacob was already sleep. Mindy & I tuned into Sunday night football – Colts vs. Chargers. I popped corn. Bella smelt it and eventually joined us downstairs for some. Mindy retucked her 30 minutes later. We headed to bed around 10pm.