God Bless'em

I know I have been out of touch lately and I apologize. Life just got away from me!

Today I attend the funeral for my Uncle Skip. He is my dad's brother and was 76. He was always the life of the party and actually died on the 4th of July of a heart attack at the 75th Birthday party for his wife, my Aunt Natalie. This was a surprise to us all and he will be greatly missed.

At a funeral it is always nice to have some humor. It is even better when it comes from the 79 year old Priest, Wally's, homely. He made jokes and told stories. He then started telling us about his life. He was talking about watching a fellow priest die while he was anointing him and how he just continued with the service because he thought the man could hear him in the afterlife. He then proceeded to tell us how his aunt died while he was having a conversation with her and how she just looked like she was sleeping. There were several other stories just like this. My brother and I, along with the other guests, were trying not to laugh too loud because we were all wondering why he was telling all of us these stories at a funeral. It did not seem appropriate which made it funny.

After the funeral we went to a luncheon for my Uncle. Somehow we got stuck at the table with Wally but he did not disappoint. His first joke was how he was 79 and still single. This was funny until my mother says "oh, that is too bad, we will have to fix you up" and she was not joking! Then came my brother talking to the priest and he says the word "hell" in his conversation, very funny and so Jon! Then Wally said how priest's either retire from old age (have to retire at 75) or because of death by fire from the candles at the services. He then proceeded to tell us how the oldest priest at his church died when his robe caught on fire during a service and he burned to death!! I was astonished and he followed that story with how the youngest priest in his church died when he visited a friend's cabin and it caught on fire, "but don't worry, they think he asphyxiated before he burned to death"!!!!!

So needless to say the funeral was not all serious which is just want Uncle Skip would have wanted. In the word's of my Irish relative's, Uncle Skip, God Bless'em.

Have you had any funny experiences at a funeral or other serious event??

True Love Never Dies

I have an odd habit of checking the obituaries just about every day. You would be surprised at how many of my past clients I have found in there. I usually skip reading the people who were over 70 unless it is fairly long. Then I like to check out what they did in their life and how many children they had. I always read the obituaries of the young people. I am just too curios or morbid to pass them up. I have even been known to get tears in my eyes when reading the obituaries.

Today was one of those days. I was reading them and noticed that two of the people had the same last name. I read about the woman who died on April 2nd at age 92, then I notice her husband who died on April 6th at age 93. He only last 4 days without his true love. I assume he must have died of a broken heart.

I then go around telling my colleagues about this today and how sweat of a story it is. I then tell them how this morning my true love came up to me and showed me his retirement statement showing almost $38,000 in his one account. I quickly reminded him that really it is only $18,000 because if I leave him I get half! Now that is True Love!!

His response "it is so weird being married to a divorce attorney!"

What are some of your odd habits, behaviors or secret indulgences??

Who Needs Borders

If you are like me you enjoying going to Border's, grabbing a hot beverage, and then heading over to the magazine section to peruse the magazines for free! I love picking up a large pile of the magazines I am to cheap to buy or subscribe too. I then head to a comfy chair and settle in for some free travel, beauty, home and Hollywood news! I use News lightly.

However, I have just discovered a great perk of working on people's estates after they die, receiving their magazine subscriptions! I know it sounds really horrible to be excited about receiving the dead guy's magazines but its the truth! So around the same time for the past 4 months I have enjoyed Sunset Magazine, Vanity Fair, and Backpacker. If you have not discovered Sunset Magazine, it is really great. In case you are wondering, I did contact the magazine's to cancel the subscriptions but so far that request has yet to be processed, thank goodness! So you don't think I am totally pathetic, I do bring the magazines back to the office for other clients to read while they are in the waiting area. You know, keep the circle of life going!

I am interested to hear what you little perks you enjoy from your job!

Tipsy

My husband travels for work about once every other month for a week at a time. He returned home from Iceland a week ago. When he travels I treat myself to something at the spa for surviving on my own with a two year old and working. Usually it's for whatever I happen to have a coupon for and that's how I decide. This past trip I had a coupon for a free 1/2 hour facial and it could be upgraded to an hour for $25. So, of course, I upgraded. This service normally runs $65 for the hour treatment.

I am so looking forward to relaxing for the hour and possibly falling asleep. As the facial begins I relax. Then my mind begins to wonder and lands on the thought of "what do I tip?" I have to admit, I alway stress about the tip at a salon. So my stress this time is, do I pay on the discount price of $25 or on the usual price of $65. Throughout the one hour facial, which I still enjoyed very much, I am debating in my head about what to tip. I also wonder do you always tip 20% or somewhere around 15%?? I usually go with 20% or somewhere close unless of course the experience sucked.

This time I settled on tipping around $10. I still could not decide if I tip on the $65 because that would be almost as much as I paid to get the facial which make the coupon pointless.

Am I the only one who lives like this, freaking out about a tip during a relaxing spa day?? What is the proper tip? I look forward to de-stressing again when Nate travels 3 times in April!

At The Expense of Others

I am sitting here watching the Olympics and waiting for rice to finish in the kitchen. The rice is not for me but for our dog. He has had the runs for several days now and the vet says to keep him on a bland diet. So instead of heading to bed, I am waiting for the dog's breakfast for tomorrow to finish.

I have been racking my brain for a post idea when today I received two separate phone calls with excellent material. Although these are not my stories, they have excellent entertainment value.

First comes from Nathan who is in Iceland this week. He had a five hour flight and on the plane ride they showed one of his favorite TV shows, Burn Notice. I say "oh that is great you love that show" to which he responds, "yeah the show was good but the episode they showed was "to be continued", and there was no other shows during the flight"! Super Bummer!! He will only have to spend the next week wondering what happened and only hope on the flight home they will show the follow up episode. Highly unlikely since he is flying Icelandic air.

The second story involves a friends parents. They have for over 34 years kept all of their finances completely separate. He pays his 1/2 of things and she pays her 1/2 of things. I understand every couple has their own way of handling their finances and hopefully it works for them. I am an all for one, one for all mentality so this following story I just had to laugh.

My friend calls her dad to tell him that she will not be continuing the New York Times Sunday delivery service after the gift subscription expires. Her dad is disappointed as he really enjoys getting the Sunday Edition. He tells her "well don't cancel it just yet, let me talk to your mother. I know she too enjoys getting the paper. I will see if she is willing to chip in $15 per month for her half of the monthly subscription. If she is then I will pay my $15 and we will keep the subscription. If she is not willing to pay her half then we will cancel the subscription." My friend and I got a good laugh out of this one since her dad could not even fathom the idea of paying $30 a month, which he definitely can afford, to continue getting the paper he really enjoys and sharing it with his wife. Stories like this come from my friend at least once a month. It usually involves him taking my friend, his daughter, to dinner and then splitting the bill. Mind you this man is a retired high school guidance counselor!

This final story comes directly from my life. Thiis week when I was talking with a woman around my mother's age. We were talking about the movie, When in Rome. She says how much she loves Josh Duhamel especially from General Hospital. I then comment on how good looking he is and that he is married to Fergie. Her eyes get wide and in disbelief she says "What, he is married to the Dutchess!!" It took me a minute to figure out who she was referring too and then I just broke out into laughter and had to explain, no Fergie from the Black Eyed Peas!

Some day I will be having some 30 something laughing at me, what goes around comes around!

Budget Crunch

It only took a matter of about 3 minutes before I realized, we need a budget. With the holidays over but the fun of buying still running through our blood, the bank account took a hit. Now don't worry here, we are not talking like we are totally broke or need to live like refugees ( as my brother would say because we do not have an ice maker in our refrigerator), but we do need to live within our paychecks and not dip into our savings. So we have devised the all empowering budget!

Now this is not our first attempt at such measures. The other attempts have miserably failed within hours! We are now 2 days into it and so far so good. I am not sure how long it will last but if we want to have a second kid we need to be able to afford childcare and this will give us some insight.

I, of course, like to daydream about not being on a budget and having endless pots of gold at the end of my rainbow. This is why I play the lottery and , like my college roommate, get angry when I loose! If money were not an issue, I would be traveling the world at every opportunity.

If money were no object, what would you do or buy?

Glorious Nap Time

I am sitting here listening to Charlotte talk her way into a long deep sleep for nap time. I anticipate the sound of her snoring to give the all clear for relaxation mode. I am not sure how many of you out there are like me, and I hope there are a few, but I frantically try to get everything done before she falls asleep so I can then sit and relax without feeling guilty. For instance, as she is chatting I am racing around the house washing all of the dishes, separating all of the laundry, dusting the furniture and folding the laundry all before she falls asleep. It is a very fast race to the finish but if I can get it all done just before she falls asleep I figure I just added another 20 minutes onto my relaxation time.

Another thing about nap time which I am hoping does not render me a bad mom is I really look forward to it!! I know we are to be loving spending every minute with our children, which I do, but I also like my 2 hours of silence. I don't think much would get done in the house without a nap time. A toddler really does take all of your attention. I look at my watch around 11 and think, 1 more hour until I can start getting something done.

I am interested to hear if anyone else feels this way and if so, what do you like to do during nap time??