Was my last post really in September? My goodness. How time does fly! The fall has come and gone. Now winter is here with all its fury. It is really cold. I mean, it's tongue-stuck-on-a-flagpole-tears-freezing-in-your-lashes kind of cold. I think the temperature is 1 degree Fahrenheit right now. Yes...that is the temperature. I'm sure those living in warmer climates (oh, think Hawaii, Thailand, Mexico, Vietnam, etc) can't even begin to fathom how cold that really is. Well, my poor cousin who is studying in MN and is from Vietnam is probably wondering why she chose to study here of all places. Poor girl. That's why I'm going to buy her some snow pants. How else will she enjoy winter activities such as snow tubing, sledding, skiing, shoveling, getting the car stuck in the snow??
We survived the recent snowstorm that dumped double-digit inches of snow on us over the weekend. It was a wonderful excuse to stay bundled up inside and I'm very thankful that Mark didn't even ask me to help clear the drive. He did it all. Thanks Mark! Keira can't understand why we don't want to go outside and play in the snow with her. Perhaps the frigid temps don't mean much to her little heat-generating body, but I'm pretty sure the cold makes my bones really brittle. I truly believe the cold seeps into the core of my bones.
For those of you who may not know. I took a nice severance package from the Big Blue and have been living off of a 6-month severance (7 months with my accumulated vacation time I never used) and trying to keep busy with the mundane activities of staying at home. It was a blast the first few weeks when I enjoyed staying in my PJs and not having a schedule. But, I'm now going absolutely batty. There are only so many day-time TV shows I can watch, so many books I can read, so many times I can clean the house, so much laundry I can do...Perhaps if all my friends were not working and we had unlimited funds it'd be a different story, but that is not the case. I have one other friend that is in the same boat, but we have a difficult time figuring out what to do with this much time on our hands. Plus, it's much harder to do when we have to worry about warming up our cars, having emergency kits on-hand, etc. Don't get me wrong. I somehow manage to stay very busy throughout the day, but by the end of any given day, I don't really know what it is that I've done and am bewildered at how I've wasted away the day.
Some, namely my husband, have told me to relax and do things to enjoy my time at home. That's the problem - staying at home. Here's how it works. I go to sit down with a cup of hot chocolate and a book. I get about 20 minutes into my book when I realize my hot chocolate is no longer hot. So, I head to the microwave to heat it up. Since that'll take at least 30 seconds I start looking around. Then I notice the counters need to be wiped. As I wipe the counters I come across the bills that haven't been paid. But, before I can pay the bills I realize I should check my balance in my account so I have to pull out the computer. By then the microwave has been incessantly beeping at me to let me know my beverage is ready. By the time I realize this it's cold again so I add another 30 seconds, go back to balance my checkbook, only to realize I forgot to start the laundry b/c I could be multi-tasking for goodness sake...Anyway without going on any further, I think you can see how the day escapes me.
So...after the turn of the New Year, i.e. January 1, I will be diligently searching for a job. If you know of any company, large or small, looking for a motivated, achievement-based product or marketing manager, please send them my way! Save me from myself!!
On another note...we are having fun as a family. We went to Texas to hang with the Favre-side of the family for Thanksgiving. Keira had a blast with her 4 female cousins. We had time to see ice sculptures (yes, we've already noted the irony of a bunch of Minnesotans going inside a freezing arena to look at ice sculptures) and even see the latest Harry Potter movie thanks to Grandma Margaret's generosity in watching the children to allow us the time to unwind and enjoy a good flick. Thanks Grandma Margaret! We also took Keira to Curious George Live and Disney on Ice. All of us enjoyed the latter the most. Disney does it again!
That's all the mundane info I have for now. I'll try to be better about blogging and providing updates. I never really know who's interested in reading about my life, but maybe I'll come across something interesting to blog about as I continue my life of leisure. Photos forthcoming!
