Sunday, December 7, 2008

Oral Boards, Meals and Movies

Nature's cruel joke... This is the snow we woke up to on Thursday morning.


And then we had SNOW! Honest to goodness snow fell Thursday night and we had 7.5" by sundown Friday. I got a couple of pictures of that too but this one was the only one that wasn't fuzzy. It's so dark but it was only 4:30 in the afternoon.


A while back, I applied for a volunteer position that requires quite a lengthy process to become 'hire-able'. I applied in October, passed the integrity interview in November, and have oral boards this week. I'm a little nervous because I have no idea what to expect. I would really like to do this work for the agency but I have to remember that I have no training and no direct education in the field, so if they turn me down, it is not the end of the world.

We have company coming on Saturday; family from Denver coming to drop off Christmas presents for the kids and spend some time with us. We haven't seen them for over a year, so I am really looking forward to it.

In preparation, I tried to give myself several options for lunch/dinner. Our meals for the week look something like this.

  • Chicken enchiladas
  • Taco casserole
  • Spaghetti with 'pink' sauce
  • Bacon and swiss quiche
  • Orange chicken (didn't have this last week)
  • Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole
  • Chicken fried steak
  • Hamburgers
  • Frozen Pizza

I need to do some prep for this weeks meals tomorrow while I clean the house. I already browned ground beef for the spaghetti and I need to cook and shred chicken. I suppose I could also make the quiches and freeze them if I was feeling inclined.

We watched some movies this past week and I have a movie recommendation. We watched August Rush and it is a great movie. There were parts of it when my heart nearly melted, although I managed to keep dry eyes throughout the whole thing. It is family friendly and the music is beautiful.

We also watched Iron Man last week. I really liked it. When it came in from Netflix, I didn't want to see it. I was in and out of the living room while the hubby was watching it and got hooked.

The Family Man, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Wanted, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Stargate Continuum are all good movies. Some better than others, but this is some of what we've watched over the past couple of weeks. I recorded The Librarian: Curse of the Judas Chalice because I couldn't sit down to watch it - the commercial breaks were excruciating. I've also watched a ton of Christmas video's like Scrooged, Christmas Vacation, It's a Wonderful Life and A Christmas Story.

Ahhhh, the joys of procrastination....

Mother In Law From Hell

My mother-in-law is a piece of work. Oh, yeah. I forgot to say that I have two of them. The one that's giving me fits right now...? We'll call her MIL-1. The one I've mentioned previously will now be MIL-2.

MIL-1 has been out of the picture for several years. We have seen her only four times since Lindsay was born and I was okay with that. The last time we saw her, or spoke to her, was a year and a half ago when I arranged for her to get a ride from Denver to Fort Collins to see Rob graduate. After all, every mother wants to see her son graduate from college, right? Of course she did.

We keep in touch with MIL-1's family and keep tabs on her well-being as best we can, but the family had lost contact with her and no one knew where she was staying or working, no one had a cell phone number for her. The only information we had came from a chance meeting with one of MIL-1's friends who said that she was fine and living with friends.

On Thanksgiving, Jake got a text message from a Denver number saying, "Happy Thanksgiving, Love Mom." He didn't know what to make of it so he gave me his phone, asking who it might be. I said it was probably a wrong number and sent a text message back saying as much. The reply was, "This isn't Rob's phone?" Oh, crap. I called the number and had a one minute conversation with her, enough to find out she was working and living with a friend. She said she'd call me back but I haven't heard anything since, even after several calls and messages.

Today I sent a text message asking her to let us know how she was doing. She responded saying she was fine. I wasn't looking for the easy answer, I want to know her circumstances and sent another text saying as much. Nothing. I called right after that. Nothing.

I've been cursed with two mother-in-laws, neither of them are worth much. Some people might say that I'm blessed. If that's you, you are welcome to them. I'll let both MIL's know they've been traded as soon as you let me know your address so I can send them to you.