I've come to the conclusion that

...I'm DEFINTELY too damn old for this shit. It's a week later now and my body still hasnt adjusted to being on my feet for 6-8 hours on a given day. I hurt so bad coming out of work and Lord I could just fall over getting out of the truck when hubby gets me home. Then there are the bruises that started showing up...Im pretty sure they're ladder inflicted though. Top things all off my body's behaving much like a child in their first year of school. Any parent reading this will understand what I mean. For those that are kid-challenged let me explain. A child spends all his or her time with you the first 4 years of their life. The only germs they really come into contact with are mom, dad's and the immediate family's. Once the child goes to school for the first time, they are exposed to germs they havent been exposed to before. When this happens what happens to the kid? They get sick. I've been out of the workforce for 4+ years..... Yeah, that's right, I've come down sick as a dog. Sniffles, sneezes and aches (on top of the aches of using muscles that havent been used in years) like you wouldnt believe. At one point I was sure I had the flu.

Friday I had a doctor's appointment. Not because I was ill but because I'd set it 2 weeks prior. You'd think that somehow I knew this was coming but that isnt the case. I'd originally set it to get one last check-up in before the move, refill my meds and possibly get a flu shot *IF* I was well enough to get one at the time (damn Cigna nurses have been nagging me for months to get one). Well the day before I was due in I came down with the yucks. After a quick look over (temp 97.6F, and 5 pounds heavier than the last time I'd been in *sigh*) they determined that I simply had another sinus infection (thanks to the up and down temps) and placed me on a decongestant and antibiotic. The nurse was a trifle worried about my bp (130/70) because the top number was higher than I normally have but once I explained I was back on the workforce AND in the Toy dept she understood why. I'll need to keep an eye out for that just to be on the safe side.

Saturday was absolutely unreal. There were 3-4 of us in the department and we couldnt keep up with all the customers. It was so busy that the department manager finally told me to just quit cleaning the department and help him keep up with all the reshops. Every 30-45 minutes that poor guy was bringing a cart or two back to our area for us to reshop. By the time 11pm showed up, we'd only *JUST* caught up with the reshops. I asked management on Sunday how well the store did on Saturday and we'd done over $700,000...no wonder we had trouble keeping up. On Sunday we were lucky enough to have 5 of us in the department until 10pm. Unfortunately, we STILL had trouble keeping up. We resorted to keeping up with the reshops and cleaning as best as we could. Customers were still arriving in the department by 11pm. Management was wanting a perfect department because the night crew had too much stock to put up to have to deal with cleaning the department. I doubt they got it. Two of the people we had left at 10pm and of the three of us left only one was a full-timer with any real experience in the department. I stayed until 1130pm and the full-timer was scheduled with the other newbie (newer than me and I dont think English was exactly his primary language..) until midnight. Management was anticipating a $600,000+ day...I wonder if we made it. Over a million in a weekend...not too shabby.

Today was my day off. I was hoping to get some sleep in for the day and try to get rid of some of this cold but it wasnt to be. Hubby had a goodbye brunch to go to (1130am) and he'd also scheduled the lady from the moving company to come in and find out what was needed for our move (she was scheduled for 1230pm). He panicked on Sunday and left a message for her to reschedule because of his luncheon. I asked him where lunch was supposed to be and when he told me where...I told him to call her back and let her know to come on in, I'd stay home and meet with her (the lunch was at a restaurant I am definitely NOT fond of). She arrived at precisely 1230pm and we went through the house discussing what her company would be responsible for packing and what was going on the truck and what we were transporting. It was a really quick meeting. I think I'll have hubby call tomorrow and make sure all of us are on the same page. She'll be sending her report to the moving company and then they send an estimate to the company that's paying for all this. Then they will be getting with us.

I spent the remainder of the afternoon and evening doing the laundry and packing my girls (the porcelain dolls) up. I figured I'd get them out of the way first knowing how time consuming it can be to wrap them up properly. Each limb got bubblewrapped then the whole piece was wrapped again. Hubby had brough home some nice sturdy boxes the other night and plenty of the "poppy-paper" so I could get them packed. I got 3 boxes done at 4 dolls a piece. I have 4 more dolls to do but around 830pm I gave up because I was too tired to do anymore. We had supper and shortly thereafter my NYBro called so I talked to him for about an hour or so. Then I tried to get in here and actually started the blog but around midnight or so my PaSis called with some good news and she wanted to celebrate. She knew I was the only one of her friends awake at this hour so I got to hear it all first....plus she wanted to thank me for the package that showed up on her doorstep. I'd sent her 6 handpainted decorations...3 little snowflakes and 3 teddy bears (1 pink to represent her, a darkish blue for the older son and a baby blue one for the littlest son). As I told her, I wanted her to have something from me that wasnt tied to that problem child (husband)that's been giving her hell lately.

Got a note from mom n daddy earlier in the week and their package arrived. For them I'd painted a mini nativity scene (The Holy Family, a sheep, and 2 Wisemen..dont ask me why they only gave me 2 Wisemen and opted for the sheep...wasnt my idea) and a basset hound for her to leave up all year. Knowing mom the Nativity will be up year round anyhow. The package to my SCSis arrived too. In hers I'd packed a small stuffed monkey for her and 3 snowflakes. For her hubby I'd painted 3 cardinals (he's a Cards fan). They have blue and white winter gear on but I hear from her that he's likely to leave them up all year like he did with the cardinal Christmas ornament she'd bought him the other year.

I think that's about it. I grabbed the idea of the sitemeter from Chicago's site as I liked the idea (thanks Chicago!) of being able to see who's reading the entries. Not that it really matters to me but I just want to see where my general audience is coming in from. I see one on there already that I wasnt expecting to see at all (at least Im pretty sure it's who I think it is...I could be wrong). Canada, I just want you to know you're more than welcome here and can leave a comment when you feel ready to talk.

Well I better scoot. The alarm is going to go off in a few short hours as hubby has his exit interview at 7am today. I'll probably get most of my sleep after he leaves. He'll be going out with his buddy after the "long walk" for breakfast and some time together. They wont be seeing each other much after this as his buddy managed to snag a transfer and will be staying in state.

*HUGS* to all