Day One Hundred and Three.

    I got up later than I had originally wanted to this morning but I still got a lot done! When I got out of bed my stomach was bothering me a little bit so instead of immediately making coffee I laid on the couch for almost half an hour. Then I got a call from someone at work and it kind of jump started my day. I ended up making coffee and feeling better. It took me until it was time to go to work to vacuum the house, gather all the trash, and put another load of laundry in. I also took the blanket I had thrown in the laundry out of the dyer....of course it wasn't completely dry so I laid it on the bed upstairs to dry while I was at work. My dog was in a very active mood today so I also tried to squeeze in as much play time as I could!
    Once I got to work my supervisor grabbed me and asked me if it was a good time to do my performance review....gulp. I was actually really glad that we were finally going to get it over with after waiting so long. At any rate, I'm very happy to say I had a great performance review! My supervisor seemed really pleased with my performance and growth in the last six years. In my profession I am ultimately doing everything I can do for the patient's and if they have good outcomes then I'm happy. However, I can't deny the fact that it makes me feel very pleased to know that my supervisor notices the effort I put into work every single day. I must say that with this review I am energized to get the new year started right....positive feedback can be such a motivating tool! I told him that I would like to pick up some additional responsibility if he needed me to.
    Work ended up being a weird night....it wasn't extremely busy but what I had to do took a lot of time. Once I got out of work I came home and rewarded myself with some wine:) Tomorrow is New Year's Eve and I insisted that I wasn't going to be traveling anywhere to celebrate. Instead I told everyone I would really like to celebrate with that if they wanted to see me they could come to my house. I just feel so overwhelmed and stressed after the Holiday's. Most people I know had some time off but I didn't really....so I had to do traveling in between working. Anyway, with that being said it sounds like it is going to be really low key. In fact I think it's just going to be my boyfriend, my twin sister and her husband. This is totally fine and I think we will have a great time:)
    I'm really proud with how I've handled my OCD the past few weeks. In fact, my hands look really good for it being so cold. It's interesting because a statement my boyfriend made three weeks ago is still repeating in my head and has been very key for my mental progression. He was basically commenting on the fact that I count how many times I wash my hands and he said that after the third time I'm really not washing anything else off. I guess it was a really good thing for him to say to me because I totally agree. I wash my hands so much more than the regular person and I have to keep reminding myself that I'm not washing any germs off after a certain point....it's just a ritual. A ritual that makes me feel comfortable for a couple of minutes until my obsessive thoughts turn to something else. Alright, enough for now.

Day One Hundred and Two.

    I had a hard time getting out of bed this morning, it just felt really good not having to get up at any one particular time. Once I got up I had a cup of coffee and spoke with my boyfriend on the phone for a while. I really wanted to vacuum but I realized that I really didn't have time to do it today so instead, I hurried in the shower then folded laundry from the day before. After I was done that I emptied the dishwasher and made myself some lunch. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention I put my "fall" blanket in the laundry before my shower so I could get that cleaned. I had to get ready for work earlier than usual today because I decided instead of making a special trip out for paper towels I would just pick them up on the way to work.
    I was just getting ready to leave my house around 2:30pm when I went in the spare room and noticed my dog had left me a mess! I have no idea when she must have done it but I was pretty upset. The biggest reason is that I hate leaving when I'm angry with her, she's lucky I had two paper towels left to clean the mess up with. That ended up wasting a good ten minutes so I was actually a bit late for work because of the trip to the food store first. Work went by faster tonight than it did yesterday, I guess because it was slightly busier. I was really glad when I was done that I went to the food store before work because the weather had turned bad during the evening. There was a mix of wet snow when I drove home....I'm not sure what it's supposed to do overnight.
    We ended up getting Panera at work tonight and of course I got my turkey power salad. I'm slightly mad at myself for eating out two nights this weekend, but really I just had a salad for dinner, so I can't feel that bad. Once I got home I put the few things I got at the food store away and then called my Mom. It had been since Christmas that we last spoke so I just wanted to check in with her. My plan for tomorrow is to vacuum the house so I don't have to do it on Tuesday! So I'm really going to have to try very hard once the New Year is over to start watching my weight again. My sister and I are going to Florida to visit my Mother at the end of next month so that is going to be my motivation. My hands were looking really good when I got back on Friday but unfortunately due to working this weekend they have definitely going downhill. I can do better. Until next time!

Day One Hundred and One.

    I woke up early today because I fell asleep last night a lot earlier than I usually would. It actually worked out pretty nice because my boyfriend and I ended up watching the movie we both fell asleep during last night, today. We actually ended up watching two movies this morning. When we first got out of bed I threw some laundry in while he made us breakfast. I think it was the first day that we ever ate breakfast while watching TV! We really didn't have a whole lot of time to do anything else, in fact when the movies were over I had to hurry up and get in the shower. I ended up leaving the house a bit of a mess....I didn't have time to even clean the breakfast dishes!
    I was a little nervous about going to work today because I had left it so angry on Thursday. I was scared that I would still have a lot of pent up anger but honestly once I got there I felt fine. Sometimes I get really worried that I'm going to suddenly hate my job, but so far I've been very lucky that even on my worst days I still get a certain level of enjoyment out of it. Tonight wasn't that busy of a day but there was enough to do that it wasn't dragging. We ordered out at work tonight which was partially instigated by me and then I felt slightly guilty afterwards, but honestly I know I'm going to try to eat better the rest of this week, so I thought maybe splurging tonight wouldn't be that big of a deal.
    Once I got home I spoke with my boyfriend on the phone for a little bit then washed the dishes in the kitchen. Afterwards I started the dryer and then had a few cookies:) I am going to try to get to bed early tonight because there's a handful of things I need to do in the morning. I really want to vacuum the house and I'm almost out of paper towels, so I'll have to go to the store. I went to Target last Monday night but I didn't get paper towels because they weren't on sale. I don't know if I'm going to have time to vacuum tomorrow or if I'll have to do it Monday. I also need to do some laundry which I have been putting off, specifically the blanket I used this fall and I got a few Christmas presents which need washing too. I am also going to insist that I get back into reading my book which I haven't had time to pick up in weeks! Alright, that's it for now!

Day One Hundred.

    Yesterday was a really nice day! I felt so much better when I woke up and refreshed after not having much sleep the night before. I got up and spent the morning with my Father, twin sister and Brother in Law. We had a really nice, lazy morning! My Father ended up leaving around 12pm and my boyfriend arrived around 1pm with bagels from the city! At that point I still hadn't decided if we were going to come back home yesterday or wait until this morning. We ended up spending almost two hours relaxing in the living room chatting about the past few days.
    My boyfriend wanted to work on putting a new car radio in this vehicle and my Brother in Law wanted to work in his garage, so the guys went out to do that. Meanwhile my twin sister and I decided to watch a movie. We watched a movie call "Pirate Radio", which was pretty decent. I couldn't believe how fast the day went because by the time that was done it was already 6pm. At that point I thought going home would be a better idea than waiting to go home this morning because I have to work at 3pm today. We ate dinner at my sisters house then we headed home and arrived back here around 10pm.
    I'm glad that we decided to come home yesterday because it gave me ample opportunity to get unpacked last night so I could take it easy this morning. I am proud of the fact I didn't rush to put a load of laundry in last night. I simply reminded myself that the next three days I will be alone, working evenings and will have plenty of time to do laundry. Last night I just curled up with my boyfriend and dog and watched another Christmas movie. This time we watched "Santa Clause: The Movie"....this is another movie that my boyfriend said he grew up watching which I had never seen. Unfortunately I fell asleep about a quarter of the way in! It's funny because I think last night was one of the first and only times I've fallen asleep before my boyfriend. I swear it's all the driving....it really tires me out! Alright, until later!

Day Ninety Nine.

    I'm so exhausted right now:( I got up at 5:20am this morning to get to work on time from my sister's house. I am actually pretty surprised that even with the stop to get gas I still got to work with time to spare! I was very frustrated when I got there when I realize that because of a schedule mix up they had an extra person. Now this was a bad mix up because about six of us working had been denied the day off.... including me. It wouldn't have been so bad if they had sent someone home but they didn't even do that. I'm not sure why on a slow day they wouldn't want to make someone leave, but we all stayed.
    By the time I got back to my sister's house it was around 5pm. I thought that my Father was going to be leaving tonight but I guess during the day he changed his mind and will be leaving tomorrow morning. I was glad because I wanted to spend more time with him. Of course the first thing I did was shower when I got back here; It felt nice:) After that my Brother in Law and I took a trip to the hardware store and then to grab some beer. By the time we got home it was already 8pm.... so we ate left overs for dinner. I was really looking forward to watching a movie afterwards, which we did, but honestly I slept during most of it.
    All in all it wasn't a bad day. I was also not feeling so depressed so that was a good thing! I spoke with my boyfriend on the way home and we had a nice conversation....he is meeting me here tomorrow. I was also glad to hear from my second to oldest sister. We had spoken the day before and she could tell I was down so she just wanted to make sure I was feeling better today. It was so sweet of her and we also had a good phone conversation. I forgot to tell her on the phone how much I sympathize with her commute to work everyday. ... she drives an hour each way. I did it for one day and I'm beat! I am not doing bad with my OCD while being here but it was hard after work today because I couldn't wait to get home and shower. Alright bed time:)

Day Ninety Eight.

    Today ended up being a very nice day with a few of my family members. I had to get my house organized a bit before I left which took a few hours. I was also feeling a little down. ...I can't 100% pin point why I was so depressed though. I think it has a lot to do with the fact this was the first year on Christmas in which I wasn't going to see my Mother. Also, like usual my boyfriend and I weren't celebrating together. Anyway, once I got the house together I took a shower, folded laundry from the day before, then packed and got on the road around 2:30pm.
    The other reason I had a slow start today was because my head was pounding. I'm very worried that I'm getting a cold so I took Airborne right away. I also took ibuprofen as well and about half way to my sister's house I started feeling better. My Father had gotten here before me so it was him, my twin sister and her husband....as well as my oldest sisters husband who joined us for dinner. My oldest sister is in Florida with my mother and my brother in law is Jewish so we thought it would be nice to invite him. It was a very quite evening with a lot of food. This morning when I wasn't myself I almost didn't come but I am very glad I did. My sister and her husband made lasagna as well as roasted turkey for dinner. Everything was wonderful.
    It is an early night for me because I have to go to work in the morning. I am going to get ready here then head right there. Afterwards I'm just going to go back to my sister's house because I have FrIday off....It all sounds exhausting! Also my hands are all cut up because I've been so rushed and stressed this week. I hope I get to work okay tomorrow then try to relax tomorrow night. Talk later!

Day Ninety Seven.

    When I woke up yesterday morning I felt so tired I couldn't believe it. I was up way too late the night before and have been so busy lately that I've had a complete lack of sleep. The day at work wasn't busy in the morning at all but slowly got more so as the afternoon went on. By the end of the day I was surprised at just how much was going on. I sure hope that it slowed down for the evening shift people. Once work was over I called my boyfriend to see if he had gotten out of work early, which he had, and I asked him if he could go to the store to pick up what we needed for dinner. See, yesterday happened to be one of the few times I didn't finish everything before I left work so I had to go home and do some research therefore, I thought if my boyfriend went to the store it would save me some time.
    When I got home I wiped off my shoes then quickly got right into the shower. I couldn't believe it but I was done my shower and finished folding laundry from the day before when my boyfriend arrived. I thought he would be here sooner so it ended up being perfect timing. The night went by so fast after that....we hurried up to make dinner because we wanted to go to Church at 8pm. I made this crab dip stuffed chicken which my Mother used to make me that I have always loved. We also had broccoli with cheese sauce and loaded mashed potatoes. We had to eat pretty fast and couldn't clean up after dinner to get to Church on time. It was a really nice Sermon and I was feeling very guilty that it had been so long since I'd been to Church. I'm very glad I went.
    When we got home I cleaned up the kitchen then put a Christmas movie in which we could watch while we opened presents. I got a lot of nice things from my boyfriend which included: a box of chocolate caramels, frog slippers, a glass frog for the mantle, a new North Face black fleece, a pumpkin candle, a bracelet, a necklace, assorted kitchen utensils in my stocking and some other assorted candy. I also got a very ugly frog clock which he wasn't sure if I would like or not. I hated it....haha....he said he could sell it back on Ebay or we could hang it in the laundry room....very ugly! Everything was really thoughtful but I did ask him if he could return the necklace he bought me. I really didn't think it was necessary to give me two jewelry items when I thought he should be saving up for something I would really much rather have. In fact, I was surprised I got jewelry at all. He told me that the necklace was a package deal type thing with the bracelet and it really didn't cost that much extra. I feel bad because I sound ungrateful but I have tons of necklaces and I usually only wear two of them, so I thought it was a superfluous item that wasn't necessary. I do really like the bracelet and will definitely wear that.
    It was embarrassing because I got that anxious awkward feeling when I opened the necklace that I get sometimes when I feel I'm getting too much stuff that I don't need or want. I hope I didn't hurt his feelings too much. After we opened presents we finished watching the movie and both proceeded to fall asleep on the couch. Today he is going to his parent's house and I am going to go to my sisters house. Merry Christmas everyone:)

Day Ninety Six.

    Today was a very long day and I am fearful that I am catching a cold....I just don't feel right. I did take an Airborne tonight to try to fight it off. I just finished wrapping all my boyfriend's presents as well as the other few I still had to do for various other people. Work today was extremely busy for it being a Holiday week. I am hoping that it starts to slow down soon! When I got out of work I went directly to the mall to do my last minute shopping. It was a zoo....tons of traffic and people! After the mall I went to Target. I was pretty disappointed in my trip because nothing that I usually buy was on sale:( I ended up getting home right around 7pm which I thought was great timing.
    I felt bad that I had left my dog alone for so long but I'm really glad I went right out shopping when I did. A coworker of mine talked me into going right after work. I can't imagine what time I would have gotten home if I had went home to shower first! I am pretty sure I would still be wrapping.
    This post won't be very much longer. It's very late and I should be in bed! I feel like I should be grateful that I have Christmas Day off, but I'm feeling a little down that I have to go back to work on Thursday. It's just making the rest of this week seem pretty busy. My plan is to drive to my sisters house on Christmas Day, then sleep over and just drive right to work Thursday morning. Then I'm going to go back to my sisters house after work is over. I'm also a little down that my boyfriend and I are just going to be spending Christmas Eve together, then I won't see him again until Friday. I am really looking forward to the time when we get to spend all our Holiday's together. He's one of the most important people in my life and I get sad when I don't get to share special days with him.
    The bright side of the past weekend has been that my hands don't look too bad. I've really been too busy with shopping, wrapping and running around to overly obsess about things that need to be done around the house. Today after I got back from the mall I took a shower and folded laundry from yesterday. Then I started thinking that I only had one more day to do laundry before I'd be gone for a few days so I thought I better throw another load in tonight. I'm glad I did because this will definitely ease my anxiety a little bit. Until next time:)

Day Ninety Five.

    Yesterday ended up being a really long but awesome day. We got up at a decent hour then got ready so we could get an early start to the city. We ended up leaving my house around 10am and we had to drop my dog off at my sisters house. We ended up visiting with her and her husband for about an hour. It was nice because we got coffee and lunch while we were there! We ran into a little bit of traffic to the city but arrived around 2:30pm. My boyfriend's Mother was pretty busy getting last minute party preparations together so I helped her out and chatted with her as well.
    Once the first guest arrived the party seemed to go by pretty fast. So one of the big events of the party was that my boyfriend's Mother organized a Nativity Play. We all had to pick a name out of a bowl as to what character we would play then, she even had costumes we had to change into. So I first picked "Mary", but I didn't completely open the piece of paper so I threw it back in. I really was a little nervous about wearing the costume and acting in this play in front of strangers so I picked another one which was the Director. Ah....something I could handle! I am glad I didn't pick Mary because the girl who did pick her was perfect for the role:) The play ended up being a lot of fun. There were two characters which no one had picked so I also played the role of "Anna", but her only costume was a hat and a face mask. You know these small time productions, sometimes the director has to do multiple roles! The whole thing probably took about half an hour and it was recorded.
    Prior to doing the play we had eaten dinner then after the play we started playing poker. I'm so annoyed with myself for forgetting to bring quarters because I have a whole bunch of them here and that's what they use to play with. Playing poker was really a whole lot of fun. My sisters and I used to play with my Father all the time when we were growing up and it reminded me of that. I didn't do so well....but that didn't upset me too much. My boyfriend's Mother did such a good job with the party. She made all the food which included mozzarella stuffed chicken, rice pilaf, green beans, sausage and peppers, pastitsio, strawberry salad, and I know there's one more thing I'm forgetting but I can't think of it now. I tried to do a good job of not overly hand washing during the entire party. I actually got really nervous on my way to the city because I remembered half way there that I had forgotten to bring a bar of soap with me. My boyfriend calmed me down by telling me that his Mother would have soap, which she did, and I was fine.
    I can't even begin to say how horrible I felt this morning. I don't remember the last time I had a hang over like this one. We started the night drinking beer but then switched to gin and tonics halfway through. I guess I over indulged:( I tried to eat when I got up but I couldn't and felt so nauseous that I had to go back to bed. When I got up I really didn't do anything besides sit on the couch and visit with his parent's for the rest of the afternoon. We left around 5:30pm and I was finally feeling a lot better. We stopped on the way home to get my dog at my sisters house and arrived at home a little bit after 8pm. It was a nice weekend, but of course went by too fast! I'm glad I was able to organize everything I had brought back with me and put a load of laundry in tonight. I have to run to the mall tomorrow night after work for the last time before exchanging presents with my boyfriend. Alright, until next time.

Day Ninety Four.

    This blog is really late and I still don't have time to really write, so I'm just going to save the full entry for later tonight. Yesterday was really busy and fun!

Day Ninety Three.

    I got a good nights sleep last night so when I woke up I thought I felt ready for my day. When I got to work I realized that someone had called in so I had to move from where I was working to a more difficult, intense spot. Actually it happens to be one of my favorite places to work, but I wasn't really mentally geared up to work there today. It was a very busy, stressful day. It was so busy that I was still at work until 4:30pm so it pretty much meant I really didn't think I'd be ready in time to go to my boyfriends parent's place in the city tonight. I don't know if I mentioned that we are going to his parent's place this weekend because his Mother is hosting a secret Santa party.
    When I got out of work I stopped at the bank then went right home and tried to get into the shower as soon as possible. Right when I was getting in the shower my boyfriend actually said he was already on his way. After my shower he showed up and we discussed how much I had to do and we both decided going to his parent's place tonight was not the best idea. It actually took me until 11:30pm to finish getting everything I had to do, done! I still had to cut the fudge I had made yesterday, clean up the kitchen, and wrap all the presents we are bringing his parent's. I can't believe how fast the night went by, but we are planning on leaving early tomorrow morning to head to his parent's place.
    I'm really grateful that my boyfriend wasn't upset we weren't going tonight because I was really in the need of a night at home. I feel like this Christmas season has gone by so fast and I haven't had much time to enjoy my Christmas tree. While I wrapped we actually watched "It's a Wonderful Life", which is one of my favorite seasonal favorites. So, I'm slightly embarrassed by the state of my hands:( I think the stress of this week has definitely increased the frequency of my hand washing and it certainly shows. I hate having to feel embarrassed when my hands get really bad being around people who don't usually see me. I feel like the people who see me everyday are used to it, but I know since I don't see my boyfriend's parents that much they will definitely notice. It's not like they will say anything but it still makes me feel slightly uncomfortable if they look at them. Oh well, they really are very non-judgmental people and I know I shouldn't worry. Okay, until next time!

Day Ninety Two.

    I will start today's blog with a photo of the gingerbread houses my sisters and I made this last weekend. A loyal reader suggested that it would be nice if I posted a picture since I was mentioning it! My gingerbread house is the one in the back left....the "A Frame" one. To the left of mine is my second to oldest sisters and to the very right of mine is my oldest sisters house. The absolutely stunning one all the way to the right is my twin sisters. I actually really like the way they all came out....I think the way we decorated them pretty much mimics our personalities.
    I woke up this morning very early to the sound of my dog throwing up so I had to quickly get out of bed to make sure to clean it up. I hate to sound disgusting but if I don't clean it up soon enough she starts to eat it back up....eww! Anyway, I went back to bed because it was only about 5:15am and got to work on time this morning. It was another hectic day at work which went by pretty fast and I though it was also very productive. Once I got out of work, which was actually on time today, I headed right to the store to get the things I needed to make dessert for the next few days celebrations. I also stopped in at Hallmark and I am very proud of the fact that I picked up Christmas presents for both of my good friends at work with whom I exchange gifts with....I am glad I decided to go!
    As soon as I saw the Bethlehem DPW work trucks on my street when I came home I knew there was trouble. I went in my house and immediately turned the water on and nothing happened:( I went back outside to get the rest of my things and asked one of the workers how long the water would be off for and he said two hours! I guess there was a water main break on the street across from my house. I almost instantly started to cry because I really had a lot to do tonight. I texted my boyfriend and then he called me back to try to calm me down. In a lot of ways I kind of wish he hadn't of called me because instead of making me feel better he was just making me feel worse. He kept going on about what a non-issue it really was and that all the things I was going to do tonight really didn't have to be done, so he wasn't sure why I was stressing. I tried to explain to him that I had promised people that I would make desserts and that it's important to me to uphold my promises. The water ended up coming back on around 6:30pm but it really put me about an hour and a half behind on everything I wanted to do. Once the water came back on I put a load of laundry in, took a shower, and then folded laundry from the day before. Finally at that point I was able to start baking.
    I feel like the most frustrating part of the whole situation really was the fact that my boyfriend was acting as if I don't suffer from severe hand washing OCD. Some times I wonder if he even takes my condition seriously or if he thinks it's just something I dream up. I feel like not having water really is the worst nightmare for someone with my particular type of OCD and he should be lucky I didn't go into a full blown panic attack. There are times when it would be okay for me not to have water but right when I get home from work is not one of those times. Ugh, anyway I forgot to mention another thing that was bothering me last night which was the fact that my Mother told me on the phone she had fallen right before she went to Florida. She didn't tell me or my sisters because she didn't want us to be worried about her. I feel so terrible because this last year it's just been one thing after another for her. She was in a pretty good mood and said she was doing a lot better so hopefully this doesn't keep her sore too long. Alright I guess that's it for now!

Day Ninety One.

    I had a horrible night sleep last night so my first day back to work after five days off was incredibly difficult. It happened to be a very busy day on top of no sleep too. It's always so amazing to me how you can have time off of work but it never seems like enough. Last night I thought I was more than ready to get back in the grind, but at 7am this morning I was not feeling ready at all. I didn't get out of work until around 4pm and the traffic was horrible. It always amazes me how noticeable the Holiday traffic starts showing a week before Christmas.
    Unfortunately the big plans for tonight was that my boyfriend and I were going to go to the mall to do leftover Christmas shopping for his family. When I got home I knew I didn't have much time to piddle around so I got the sheets off of my bed and threw them in the laundry. I had been meaning to upgrade my bed blanket to my goose down comforter and I thought this week was a perfect week to do it. I really wanted to have clean sheets for the occasion so I put my spare set on. My boyfriend showed up to my house around 6:30pm and I was ready to get going. It was very busy at the mall and I am very upset to say that I didn't find half of what I needed. I really am running out of time and I'm horribly disappointed that I'm going to have to go back to the mall when all I want to do is stay home and watch Christmas movies. We ended up grabbing dinner at the mall which was good because we didn't have time to make anything since it was after 10:30pm when we got home.
    I'm really not exaggerating about how little time I have left to go shopping. We are supposed to be heading to my boyfriends parents house Friday night and I don't even have a gift for his Brother yet....or his girlfriend. Tomorrow night I had planned to do my baking for the work Christmas party Friday and to bring to his parents house this weekend. I'm not sure when that will leave me to go back to the mall. Oh yeah, have I mentioned how I don't even have all of his presents yet? The only person I'm mad at is myself. I should have been a better planner and the other two times I went to the mall I should have been looking ahead. I just feel like such a failure. I guess my hands don't look that bad today really. I hardly had time to wash them because I wasn't home for most of the day. I guess that is the only positive thing about this blog tonight! I really need to start cheering up because this is usually my favorite time of year and I need to realize that I can try to do better with the presents next year and just do my best this year to be done. Alright, until next time.

Day Ninety.

    Today marks the third month of my blog! I slept pretty good last night and woke up pretty late. I was very surprised to find out that it was snowing and I wasn't happy because I knew I would have to shovel. Unfortunately, I had to shovel earlier than I wanted to because I needed paper towels. It took me a while to shovel the front, the back for my dog, and my car. Once I was shoveled out, even though I was only going a short way to the store, it took a while. The roads were not cleared off at all and the visibility was terrible. There really weren't that many cars on the road which did make it a little easier. I really should have grabbed paper towels last night when I was at the food store but I had completely forgotten I was out!
    Once I got home I put laundry in and took a shower. It felt like I was in the shower for a really long time because I was so cold, I just couldn't get out. I had a lot of things I wanted to get done so obviously I did get out of the shower. The first thing I needed to do was pay my bills and balance my checkbook. That took me a while because I've been doing a lot of purchases for Christmas, but I got it done. Then it was time to shovel again:(
    It took me another hour to finish all the shoveling, we probably got another 4 inches of snow today at least. I'm really glad that I got it done tonight when the snow finally stopped because all I could think about was having to get up at 6am tomorrow and do it then. I started this day off with my hands in pretty good shape but because of all the work I did with my hands they are extremely dry now. I did a lot of pre-washing of the clothes I put in the laundry, mainly because one of my boyfriends favorite pants had gotten really dirty after he was fixing my car yesterday. I wanted to try really hard to get all the stains out. I have one more load of laundry to fold before bed. The other thing I spent a while doing today was organizing all of my Christmas presents I brought home from this last weekend. I also squeezed some last minute online shopping in as well. Alright, that's it for now!

Day Eighty Nine.

    When we woke up yesterday morning it was "Mock Christmas Day". It ended up being pretty much a perfect day with my family and boyfriend. The first thing we did was open our Christmas presents to each other. I'm going to definitely take a moment here to say that the presents I got from my family were so sweet and thoughtful. I loved every present that I received! In all sincerity the company was the best part of the morning....it was very special! After we opened presents we decided to all go to the skating rink together because it's been a really long time since we've all been on the ice with each other.
    When we were young we were always ice skating together but since we have become adults it's been a while. Honestly, I can't believe how long it has taken us to get together and go ice skating because to me it felt wonderful. I was also pretty proud of myself because with my sisters help I was able to try a jump I had been too fearful to try in many years. I knew that with their help I would be confident enough to try the jump and I landed it successfully! All of my sisters went to the ice rink as well as my boyfriend and my oldest sisters husband. I was so impressed with how well my boyfriend skated and he seemed to have a really good time.
    Once skating was over I was absolutely freezing and could not wait to get in the shower. I took a nice, long shower and was actually pretty relieved to find out that instead of us going out to dinner we were just going to order some pizza in. I usually really enjoy going out to dinner but we had a lot of things we wanted to do together and we knew going out would take too much time. My second to oldest sister and I went out to pick the pizza up and we looked at a lot of Christmas lights on the way. It was actually one of the only times the entire weekend I was able to actually talk to her and we had a great conversation. It actually reminded me a lot of the "old days". When I was in college, after I turned 21, I decided to spend the summers with her. I made the decision because I felt as though my Mother would not give me any freedom if I lived at home and I needed to grow up on my own a little bit. At the time I felt really bad that I was leaving my twin sister but I knew that moving away would be the best thing I could do for myself. Obviously, we spent a lot of time together and driving around where we used to definitely gave me a very nostalgic feeling. I don't think I will ever be able to completely repay my sister for everything she did for me during that time....I just hope that she knows how much I appreciate it.
    After dinner was done my sisters and I worked on these mini gingerbread houses which my twin had bought us all. It was actually a lot of fun! We also played a few board games with the significant others and had a lot of laughs. When I'm around my sisters I tend to get so silly and goofy; I don't know how they can stand it! Once it had gotten to be almost 11pm we decided to throw Aladdin in for old times sake and then go to bed. It's impossible to write in this simple little blog just how important it was to me to get to spend the weekend with my sisters. I feel like the older I get the more I cherish the time I spend with my family because now I know how fast life goes by.
    I was very glad when I woke up this morning that I had a decent nights sleep! When I got out of bed we pretty much had to pack everything up and leave. I will definitely say that the drive home was terrible. First of all the weather leaving my sisters house was horrible....it was so snowy that we were driving at 35mph for the first hour. After that was over we heard a very strange noise which my boyfriend thought was just snow under the tires, but when we stoped at a rest area we realized it was part of the car! Apparently there is plastic underneath the car which protects the engine which had some how, after time, become loose and was scrapping against the road. My poor boyfriend, with no gloves on whatsoever, spent almost 45 minutes in the freezing cold trying to unbolt it from the bottom of my car. He even had to buy a $30 crappy tool set from the rest area to get it loose. Of course he did manage to get if off and threw it in a bag in the trunk. We both decided on the way home that at the age of 30 years old we definitely need to get warm winter gear. That was only phase one of the trip!
    I had promised him that I would drop him off at his mechanics to pick up his one car with four wheel drive, which needed to be returned to the dealership for a warrenty issue. Once I dropped him off there I followed him to the dealership, then dropped him off at his work where he could pick up his main car, then drove to the food store to pick up dinner. I got to the food store at almost 6pm. A car ride which should have taken two and a half hours ended up taking almost six! I felt really bad for my poor dog....it's a good thing she was so exhausted or she really would have had a hard time dealing with the whole thing. Once I got home from the food store, my boyfriend was working on shoveling snow which my plow guy doesn't do, so I started unloading the car. We decided to make chicken parmesan for dinner, then watch a Christmas movie.
    It took every bone in my body not to start a load of laundry once we got home or start un-packing all of my Christmas presents. I simply told myself to walk away from it so that I could enjoy time with my boyfriend while I could. Also, I kept telling myself that I have the whole day tomorrow off to do all that, which isn't interfering with anything! I was actually really good....once dinner was completely cleaned up I poured myself a glass of wine then we watched a movie together. It was an absolutely wonderful ending to a perfect weekend! I must say that I tried really hard not to obsess too much this weekend and I did better than even I could have expected. There were many times which I felt like I had to wash but just being around my family members, who weren't obsessively washing, helped. I rationalized that the first 25 years of my life I had no problems with obsessively washing my hands and it helped me get through the anxiety of not washing. Once I got home obviously the first thing I did was wash my hands, but maybe this weekend was a slow step towards progression! Alright, I really have written enough for one night:)
   

Day Eighty Eighty.

    I spent most of the day today in the car and not able to write my blog from last night:( I'm sorry I will write a nice blog summarizing the last two days tonight! You have no idea how hard it is to blog every single day until you try it:)

Day Eighty Seven.

    Yesterday ended up being a really nice day with my family. Once I got up and showered we checked out of the hotel and got on the road at a pretty decent time. We got to my sisters house a little after 2pm and arrived to a delicious spread of cheeses and snacks! It was really nice catching up with everyone....my sister pretty much spent the whole day making dinner and we all kept her company. I was also re-united with my dog because my oldest sister had picked her up for me Friday night so we could spent the night in the hotel. I was trying to relax and enjoy myself and I think I did a good job of it....I certainly wasn't being overly obsessive about washing my hands! The dinner that my second to oldest sister made was absolutely fantastic. She made Beef wellington with butternut squash and cranberries, potatoes, and garlic spinach. I ate so much of it all!
    After dinner all my sisters helped to clean up the dinner mess....which was actually really terrible! I'm pretty sure that all of the dishes in the house were dirty. The clean up actually went pretty fast with all hands on deck! This was followed by playing darts for a while and then slowly everyone started going to bed. My intention was to go to sleep early because I didn't get that much sleep from the night before, but I was actually up pretty late. The last two people up was my second to oldest sister and I....we were watching "White Christmas". I've probably watched that movie about 100 times!
    The plan was to get up today and open presents since we decided to make it "Mock Christmas Day" then all go ice skating. I'm so glad that we're all going to be here for another night because if it was only one night it would definitely not be enough time. So far I've been having a really great time, it's also nice having my boyfriend here as well:) We have a lot that we still need to accomplish....like the traditional fudge making! Also this year we are going to make mini gingerbread houses:) Until next time!
   

Day Eighty Six.

    Last night was my boyfriends work Christmas party which ended up being a great time! The best part was that we spent the night at the hotel associated with the venue so neither one of us had to drive. I had my usual hotel anxiety, so the first thing I did when I got there was to check the sheets for any strange creepy crawlers. The sheets looked fine and it was a really nice clean, room so I felt really comfortable there.
    My goal for the day was to be done with everything and pick my boyfriend up from his job at 5:30pm but, I actually didn't get there until almost 6pm. This ended up being okay and we still had time to check in and freshen up before we literally walked one minute to get to the banquet hall. We didn't even have to go outside! I had a very busy morning which started off with putting laundry in, then a shower, followed by going to the mall to get my hair cut. I had a few more gifts to get afterward which took forever because the mall was so busy. I didn't get home until almost 3:30pm. I rushed around to wrap the last minute presents then had to start packing.
    Getting everything together was a hassle but I  am pretty proud of how I got it all done. I did my best to not let my OCD slow me down too much. My dog was so upset that I was ignoring her the whole time but I promised I would play with her a lot this weekend. Until later:)

Day Eighty Five.

    Well I just finished all the present wrapping I could do with the supplies I have left. I did a pretty good job! I actually feel like this year I don't have as many wrap-able presents as usual. I hope I have enough presents! I am just so excited that I'm going to be spending a whole weekend with my family that I can barely contain myself. So I got up about half an hour later than I wanted to this morning, but still got to the mall at around 12pm. Ugh, I didn't find exactly what I was looking for, but I managed to pick up a few other items while I was out. I tried to be as quick as possible, but I didn't get home until almost 2pm. I can't believe how many people are out Christmas shopping already....I thought it was only my family silly enough to do Christmas 10 days ahead of usual!
    When I first woke up this morning I hurried in the shower so I could go shopping and not worry about that afterwards. It's so hard to shower in the morning because it is so cold out and the temperature in my house is set at my day shift schedule....meaning that it's cold during the day and is scheduled to start warming up in the early evening. Once I was in the shower I was fine....but getting out was hard! I folded the laundry from yesterday when I got out of the shower then got ready to go out. After I was done shopping I decided it would be a good idea to put the trash out because the weather man was saying it was going to be frigid tonight, so I figured I should get that done....which I did!
    Work tonight wasn't bad....it was very busy at the beginning but then slow down a lot. It was funny because for one of the first times ever, the other staff members kept saying how odd it was that it was a bit slow. So, I am slightly nervous about the fact that I haven't had my performance review yet....in fact no one has said a thing to me about it. I was hoping to get it over with before Christmas! I guess what I'm worried about is the fact that I'm off for the next five days, but I am reminding myself that I'm on day shift for a week and a half after, so I hope they can schedule the review sometime in that time period.
    My boyfriends work Christmas party is tomorrow night and I hope I'm ready! I think the dress I'm going to wear is okay....it's a little black dress that I've had for about three years and have only worn once. I have a appointment at 1pm tomorrow afternoon to get my hair done so the plan is to get up, put a load of laundry in, and then hop in the shower. That way when I get my hair done the shower is going to be finished and I can just finish packing for the weekend. I am going to drive to my boyfriends office to pick him up and then hopefully get to the site where the party is going to be early enough to check in....we are staying over! We are going to go to my sisters right after we check out Saturday morning. Alright, I guess that is plenty of rambling for tonight!

Day Eighty Four.

    What a day! I ended up taking it pretty easy this morning because I felt the next few days are going to be crazy. When I woke up I took my time drinking my coffee and then balanced my check book. That seemed to take a really long time because with the Holiday and my cocktail party there were a lot more transactions than usual. I'm glad I got it done though! It was seriously almost 1pm when I was finally done that so I decided to eat lunch, then put a load of laundry in, and hop in the shower. I hadn't done laundry yesterday so it seemed odd today when I got out of the shower that I didn't have to do any folding....but nice!
    I walked into quite a mess at work today....it was so busy! The Wednesday clinical meeting went late and I didn't get to where I was working until after 4pm and I seemed to be running behind all evening. I guess the positive side of this was that the night went by really fast. I was able to get coffee and eat dinner though. Oh yeah and while I was on break I gave my boyfriend a quick call. I guess he had no heat in the car on his way into work today....ugh. I had forgotten that the other "new" used car he bought a few weeks ago is in the shop right now. He said that his mechanic is going to put a rush on that one so the one he's been driving this week can go in the shop. I tell you as soon as one car gets out of that mechanics of his the other one goes in! I'm not sure if his mechanic has any idea what he's doing.
    I was thinking I would wrap presents when I got home from work tonight, but the ones I bought this last weekend haven't come in yet, so I figured I'd wait until they do. Now I'm getting worried they won't make it here before this weekend! I started feeling guilty that I wasn't doing anything productive tonight so I decided to write out my Christmas cards. That's actually a huge thing to have out of the way because I didn't think I would be getting them in the mail before next week. I will have to pick up some more stamps but I am looking at getting them in the mail by Friday! I gathered all the trash tonight as well, in preparation for Thursday trash day. Oh yeah, I also forgot to say that I had to wipe my shoes off after work. This week I'm working in the one particular spot that always makes me wipe them. Alright, until next time!
   

Day Eighty Three.

    I had a bit of a meltdown today after I was finished shopping and I had to call my second to oldest sister to vent. I feel bad because she was having her own issues but I pretty much dominated the conversation. I am lucky that I have sisters I can call when I feel like I really need to talk to someone! It seems that depending what the issues is usually determines which sister I call. The reason I needed to vent was because I was frustrated because my boyfriend was going to be late again because of his unreliable car needing to be seen at the shop. After our conversation I felt a lot better and when my boyfriend did show up I was glad that my mood was 100% better....I'm sure he was glad too!
    Today was an incredibly busy day off which started with me having to go to a training class for work. I am really glad that I didn't back out of going because I learned a lot and I know it will help my performance at work. Prior to going my twin sister had texted saying she wouldn't be able to come shopping with me because of the weather....it was pretty snowy this morning. I was a little disappointed, of course, and it changed the flow of my day a little bit because I thought I wouldn't have much time after work to get ready for shopping. With the extra time I was able to come home and shovel off the back deck and start my Mother's car. Clearing off the back deck was annoying because my dog has apparently been going to the bathroom back there so it was a bit of a mess!
    Once I was done with the deck I ate lunch, hopped in the shower then folded the laundry from the day before. Before I even went out to go shopping I was dreading it, but I was pretty confident I would find what I needed. I did find a few things I needed, but not everything. I think I have a hard time deciding what to get when I'm shopping alone, that's why I wish I had a companion. After the mall I had to go to Target....I ran out of soap:( I was shocked to find out that when I got there they didn't have any of my go to soap for the bathroom....I think because it's still price cut at $3.99. Instead of the usual SoafSoap I got a bottle of the generic Target brand and I will see how that works out for me. They did have the kind I use for the kitchen and that was price cut as well so I got more of those than I usually do, in case I don't like the generic. Everything I bought at Target was on sale but I still can't believe how expensive the bill ended up being. I am trying to tell myself that I shouldn't be too upset because I did get a few Christmas presents, but still!
    I don't have to much to do tomorrow morning before work so hopefully I will have a more relaxing morning than yesterday. I really need to start working on my Christmas cards! If I could get them in the mail by the end of this week it would be great. I really don't have that many to send so it doesn't take forever, but it's still a bit of a project. I would absolutely love it if I actually had time to read some of my book tomorrow morning:) Alright, that's it for now!

Day Eighty Two.

    Today is the first day in my life I was ever late paying a bill. It was on my mind that I really needed to check when my electricity bill was due because I knew it was around this time of the month, but it has always been due around the 11th. Ugh, apparently it was due yesterday. I realized this right when I walked into work and there was a nagging feeling that I better check it on my phone. I'm glad I did because with my phone I was able to pay the bill right then....I hope they don't call the creditors:( I felt like I hadn't slept in to late today, but I guess it was later than it should have been because I was very tight with time this morning before work. When I got up I did my usual routine of making coffee and checking my email. Then I decided to call my twin sister to see if she was going to come visit me tomorrow and go Christmas shopping with me. I guess it ended up being a 45 minute conversation so by the time it was over it was 12:45pm....oops.
    After we spoke I rushed around to get the one cleaning thing I wanted to get done today which was the downstairs toilet. I did end up cleaning that, putting a load of laundry in and then taking a shower. After the shower I folded the laundry from the day before and barely had enough time to eat lunch before I went to work. On my way into work I tried to call my boyfriend because he had called me when I was in the shower but he didn't answer. It was then, during the drive in, when I had a serious self conversation with myself about my OCD. I mean, I really started to get stressed about the fact that sometimes I think the reason I'm always so worked up and running late is because of the OCD. I really can't believe it could be all the obsessive compulsive disorders fault though. Although maybe a lot of it is. I can't really go to work when I work evenings until everything I had planned on doing is complete. This can be totally irrational when I have the entire next day off to do things. I guess my biggest fear is that I'm going to completely get lazy with myself....like if I let one thing go I'm going to let everything go. Well the negative consequence today was the fact that I never got to speak with my boyfriend on the phone. If I wasn't so busy with my rituals maybe I would have been able to answer when he called.
    Tonight at work went by at a pretty slow pace and it was nearly impossible to get into anything really productive for some reason. Like usual, at about 10pm it started to get really busy and it was then that I felt really needed. I had to stay until around 11:30pm to finish with a last minute panicked phone call which I think ended pretty well. I am definitely looking forward to my day off tomorrow, but I do have to go into work for about an hour or so. There is a bit of a training session that I don't want to miss which, of course, happens to be on my day off....ugh. I figure I will just go in at 11am, come home and shower, then be ready to go shopping with my sister. Alright, until next time:)

Day Eighty One.

    This morning was very busy. I got up at a decent time and took a few minutes to enjoy my coffee in front of the Christmas tree before I started doing what I had planned. The biggest thing I wanted to get done was to clean the floors. Today was the first day I used my Swiffer WetJet to clean the hardwood floors. It said you can use it on finished hardwood floors and I thought doing the entire house would be too large of a job to just do it all by hand....which is what I usually do, but not all at once. It worked pretty well....the floors look nice and they aren't overly slippery. It certainly saved me a lot of time but it still took a while. After that I did a lot more organizing and put the kitchen table back in its appropriate spot. I ended up moving a lot of things around in the kitchen and I really like the way it turned out. It all looks so much more neat and clean!
    Once I was done all of that I took the trash, started a load of laundry and then finally got in the shower. After my shower I unloaded the dishwasher and had lunch. One of the worst parts of evening week is how tired I get even before I go to work. I did get a second wind once I got to work and that was a good thing because it sure was a busy evening! There were certain times which I wasn't getting anything done at all because I kept getting distracted....ugh, annoying!
    When I got home from work tonight I did some more online shopping for Christmas presents and I sure hope everything I bought gets here on time. If this was a normal Christmas schedule I would be way ahead as far as presents are concerned! I can't forget that I also have to wrap the presents before next weekend as well. I must say that I am really looking so forward to the coming weekend with my sisters. We usually have the whole Thanksgiving weekend together and because this year was just one day and my twin wasn't there, I am missing them terribly.  It's just so easy being around my family and with my Mom in Florida I am definitely feeling like I need to be around the people I love the most. The last thing I want to talk about tonight are my hands. I was in a seat tonight which makes me really prone to washing them a lot and it shows. There are a lot of situations coming up this December in which I really don't want to have embarrassing, red, swollen hands for and I need to try to be more strict with myself about monitoring how much I wash. Well, that's it. I'll let you know how I do tomorrow with the hand washing!

Day Eighty.

    When I woke up today I was glad that I had done so much cleaning up last night because it made this morning pretty easy. When my boyfriend and I got out of bed we decided to finish watching the movie we had started last night which was "Scrooged". I guess my boyfriend has seen this movie a lot and he was pretty surprised to hear I had never seen it. We started it last night, but didn't make it very far until we fell asleep. It was actually a really nice, cozy morning watching the movie while drinking our coffee. After it was over we decided to have a whole bunch of the leftovers from the night before for lunch. I don't think I've ever eaten so much before work as I did today. In fact I was stuffed until almost 9pm tonight!
    It was hard for me not to do a lot more cleaning this morning but I told myself that I would have the next three days, while not at work, to myself, which would be a better time to do all the rest of the cleaning. Unfortunately, when I got home from work tonight I didn't feel much like cleaning so I didn't. I just made myself some dinner and watched a bit of TV. I hope to get to sleep early tonight so I can get up early tomorrow morning and finish the rest of the post party cleaning. I guess the biggest thing I want to do is wash the floors downstairs, because I wasn't a stickler about having the guests take their shoes off. I thought it would be really annoying to make everyone remove their shoes. If I can get the floors cleaned as well as the downstairs bathroom before work I'll be in good shape!
    Today at work started out at a really nice pace and I was working with a good crew, but the last two hours got terribly busy. It's so hard sometimes when it gets busy towards the end of the shift because you're just so tired that it makes the night really rough. Well anyway, I guess that's all I have for tonight.

Day Seventy Nine.

    Of course this blog entry is a day late....last night was my Christmas cocktail party! I will say I am pretty proud with how it turned out. I was so exhausted at the end of the night though....I spent pretty much all day yesterday in preparation. I got up early because I had to get the pork out of the crock pot and shred it, so that is what I did first thing. It ended up taking me almost an hour....there was so much fat and I didn't want to lose too much of the good meat so I was being really meticulous about the whole thing. Once that was done I put the meat in the refrigerator, unloaded the dishwasher and called my Mother to get her crab dip recipe. Then I went out to run some errands. I grabbed some coffee, drove to my dogs vet to pick up flea stuff, stopped at the YMCA to get the ice rink schedule, put my pay check in the bank, and then finished the trip with a last visit to the food store.
    When I got home it was 2pm and I was really starting to get nervous about whether or not I'd get everything done. The first thing I wanted to do was finish cleaning the spare room which had just got sheet rocked. I vacuumed the entire room, organized the closet and then used floor cleaner to get the dust off the floor which the vacuum couldn't handle. I am so excited that the room is back together....it looks great and once I was done I put hangers in the closet-so now it can officially be used again! I had almost forgotten that before the party I wanted to clean the shower door in the downstairs bathroom as well as the toilet for the guests. The shower downstairs has only been used a couple of times the last few months, but the door still was dirty. It's so hard to clean the door to because it's all glass and there are two sliding parts to it....so it's really difficult to get in all the crevices. Once I was done all that I took a shower and folded the laundry from the day before.
    At this point in time it was about 4pm and I was starting to get really nervous about the party. I was also getting scared that people would cancel because the weather channel was really building up a snow storm that would be starting right around 5pm. It was right around 4:30pm when my boyfriend showed up and I started to make the macaroni and cheese. The rest of what happened is pretty much a blur....my boyfriend was getting the cooler ready and I was running around doing a lot of last minute rearranging. He also cut all the cheeses which was really nice, while I set up the chips, pretzels, candy, nuts, and dips. The first guest arrived right around 6:30pm and they seemed to think everything looked great. Everyone, except my one single friend, I had invited showed up, and as far as my boyfriend goes the two couples he invited showed up but the one older couple cancelled because of the weather. It was a really nice time but short, everyone left around 10pm. It gave me enough time to get most of everything cleaned up before midnight. It was actually pretty funny because the weather really didn't amount to anything, when I woke up this morning there was a dusting on the ground.
    I only had a couple of drinks during the party myself, because I knew I had to work today, plus I didn't want to be buzzed while I had so much cleaning up to do. All in all I'm very glad we had the party and it seemed like everyone had a good time. One of my friends brought me a house warming/party present which was a nice Christmas tray and a wine stopper-which I desperately needed! Everyone brought something for me which was super nice, I got wine, a couple of desserts, this amazing blue cheese brie dip, and a growler of Sierra Nevada Celebration ale right from a tap! Well, that's it for now!

Day Seventy Eight.

    I should apologize to my loyal readers because this is the second time in one week which I have been a day late completing my entry. In my defense it has been an unusually busy week. When I had time to write my blog last night I fell asleep on the couch until 4am....then I was going to do it quick but the internet was down again! Ugh, so I had my boyfriend look at it before he left....apparently he fixed it. So I must have jinxed myself at work yesterday because I was training and I kept saying I hoped we would have a day which would be conducive to learning. Well, we sure did....it was probably one of the most hands on days I've ever had in that specific department. Both me and my trainee couldn't really take any more once the day was over. Due to the fact the day was so involved I really felt I couldn't wait to shower, plus I really felt I needed to wash everything on me including my jacket.
    Once I got home I put everything I could find that I hadn't washed this week and threw it in the laundry, then took a shower. I was trying to hurry up the process because I thought that my boyfriend was going to try to get out on time so that we could go to the food store fairly early. I was rushing around and got the laundry folded from the day before in record speed! Unfortunately he didn't show up to my house until almost 6:30pm. We spent almost half an hour going over our grocery list and then settled on a local eatery for dinner. The shopping trip was the worst....we ended up going to two food stores to get everything we needed and didn't get home until 10pm. We decided for the main dish for the party we would copy my sisters always great idea of making pulled pork. The first food store didn't have a cut of meat large enough for everyone so we had to go somewhere else to get another piece. We spent almost an hour and a half with the preparations last night then threw the meat in the crockpot for the overnight.
    My boyfriend went to bed a little before midnight and I stayed up to clean the dishes and enjoy a glass of wine! I thought I would watch a Christmas movie but I only made it through a little bit of one before I fell asleep. I won't lie I'm definitely getting pretty anxious about my party, but at least we are in the home stretch. I feel like I've just been rushing around all this week, but I am trying to remind myself that I'm evenings all next week and I will have plenty of down time. I ended up wiping my shoes off after work yesterday....maybe I can do better with that this weekend at work. Alright, until later!
   

Day Seventy Seven.

    I was late to work this morning because I had a really hard time getting out of bed. I'm not sure why I was so tired, I just was. I think that being busy every night after work this week has taken a toll on me physically....in fact when I woke up this morning I was worried I might be coming down with a cold. As soon as I got out of work I had an Airborne and have been feeling fine this evening....so fingers crossed I'm not getting sick. There were a lot of annoying issues going on today at work which made it a fairly frustrating day. I keep telling myself that I only have one day before my day off so I should be able to make it until then.
    I really had a few errands which I wanted to run after work today but once the day was over I had no interest in doing them. I decided I would do them after work tomorrow instead. Once I got home I quickly changed out of my work clothes, washed my shoes off, and got right to vacuuming the room which just got new sheet rock. Unfortunately the job is a little more complicated than just vacuuming because there's a lot of dust on the floor, which really will need to be scrubbed off. There are also things in there I have no idea what to do with so I spoke with my boyfriend and he said he would help me with the clean up tomorrow night. By that I mean tools I've never seen before and I don't know if they are his or mine. I vacuumed the rest of the house while I had the vacuum out and that took up a lot of my evening. After I was done doing that I hopped in the shower then folded the load of laundry I did yesterday. It seems like I've done so much laundry this week but it is really just me trying to get everything cleaned up from Thanksgiving. The load today was the sheets from the spare bed room.
    I have a very busy day ahead of me tomorrow....work and lots of chores afterwards. My boyfriend said he would go to the food store with me to get all the last items we need for the party. Ideally I don't want to have to go out on Friday except if I feel I have time to go to the skating rink. I forgot to say when I was talking about work that there was an incident with a possible case of those bugs I don't speak about today. I am pretty proud of how I handled myself throughout the day. Although, that is why I made sure to change my clothes before I started walking all around my house! I also checked my shoes before I got into my car....just in case. I have been washing my hands like crazy because I've been doing all sort of rearranging for my Christmas decorations, but I have been putting more cream on them than usual. The last bit of news is that I have my Christmas all set up....unless I decide to change things I rushed to put up! Alright, until next time:)

Day Seventy Six.

    I was pretty disappointed today when I found out that I didn't get the day after Christmas off at work. They were able to give two people the day off, they had six submissions and my name was picked fourth out of the lottery. It's super frustrating because it cuts Christmas short yet another year, but what am I going to do? I signed up for this when I decided to choose a career in the health field, but it really doesn't get any easier. After I found out about not getting the day off my mood went downhill for the rest of the day. It wasn't that busy at work today and despite the bad news, I was training someone which was nice because it felt like it went by pretty fast. I had to stop at the food store after work today to pick up dinner and I also stopped at the bank, with all of that going on I didn't get home until almost 5pm.
    I knew my boyfriend was coming over tonight but I hadn't heard a word about when he would get out, so I just went about my normal business. I wiped the bottom of my shoes off, put away the groceries, took the recycling and started another load of laundry. Right when I was getting out of the shower the doorbell rang and I got pretty nervous because I wasn't expecting anyone. Finally it dawned on me that my boyfriend had given his coworker his copy of my key to stop by and finish the sheet rocking job he had started in the fall. So when I looked out the window I wasn't surprised to see it was my boyfriend, his coworker has to come over one more day to finish so he still has my key. I managed to get the laundry folded from yesterday while we chatted and caught up on the days events. We made garlic marinated chicken caesar salad for dinner, which turned out really great and wasn't that much work. Also right before dinner my boyfriend finally got my internet working which is great news:)
    We ended up getting all of the decorations on the Christmas tree tonight so I only have the other decorating to do. I can't believe how long it has taken me to get this Christmas all set up, I usually do it in one night! I think this year I have so many other items on my mantle piece that I might have to take some of them down to accommodate all of the Christmas things. It's amazing how much you acquire over the years. Also this year I felt really bad because I was pulling out ornaments which I didn't even recognize....I just hope they were presents from last year which I didn't have much time to get to know! I am saving the finally vacuuming of the living room for tomorrow when I get out of work because I know that the final sheet rocking will leave a lot of dust in the spare room. I figure instead of doing it twice, I'll just do it all once tomorrow. I think that while I'm at it I might as well vacuum the whole house for the final time before the Christmas cocktail party.
    I'm getting very anxious about the cocktail party. I'm excited for everyone to come to my house but at the same time I'm starting to panic. I'm fearful about everything like, is my house big enough? Will I have enough food? Is the house going to look clean enough? Am I going to have enough to drink? All I really hope for is that everyone who comes has a good time. I should say a few things about my hands....they hurt:( I've just been busy getting Christmas together so I have been washing them a lot, plus where I am working lends itself to doing a lot of hand washing. I have actually been really good about putting hand cream on them when I know I will have a few minutes in between washing. It was embarrassing at work today because as I was walking around I happened to look down at my hands and they were bright red. I can only imagine what people were thinking. Sigh, alright that's it for now.

Day Seventy Five

    I just wrote the entire days blog and the shitty phone app for Blogger once again burned me by not automatically saving my work. I am too frustrated to do this again so I'll finish tomorrow! I really didn't want to go to work yesterday morning, but I did and the day was better than I thought it would be. I also got a project done which I had been meaning to get completed so that works! While at work I got a text message from my sister saying my parents would be stopping by and I was glad because I knew this would be the last I would see them before my Mom leaves for Florida. I had no idea when they were arriving so when I got home I just did some cleaning instead of my shower.
    In fact the cleaning got pretty intense and I spent a really long amount of time cleaning a gross blob of I don't know what off the bottom of my shoe. Then when I went to go to the computer I found out my internet was down and that is why I am forced to blog on my phone. My boyfriend is coming over later tonight so hopefully that will solve that issue. Once my parents arrived it was a really nice visit and after they left I took my shower. I then folded laundry from the day before and decided it would be best to eat dinner before I tackled the lights on the Christmas tree. I had the left overs from Saturday night....chicken parmesean. It was terrific! It took me a long time to put the lights on the tree and I'm still not perfectly satisfied....but I think the ornaments will help. My dog was a mess the whole time and kept hiding upstairs. She was really scared when I pulled the vacuum out!
    For some reason my Christmas setup becomes a major source of OCD for me....I guess because I want it to look perfect. This year especially because I am having the cocktail party. Tonight we are going to get the rest of Christmas up which is really the fun part so I'm looking forward to that:) Until later!
 

Day Seventy Four.

    I can't believe how much we actually got done today! I'm really excited to say that we got the Christmas tree up. It's not decorated yet, but at least it's up. I tend to be really OCD about the tree lights....so I think it is going to be a good idea to put them on the tree tomorrow night when my boyfriend isn't here. That way when he comes over on Tuesday night we can go ahead and finish decorating it. It was nice to get up earlier today and get right out. We went to the store to get a few items for our cocktail party then we decided it would be a good idea to just get the tree while we were out. It was a fun outing which we ended by getting some lunch afterwards.
    I had a whole bunch of inside work I wanted to get done today so my boyfriend took care of the outside lights while I did my things. I ended up folding laundry, putting another load in, emptying the dishwasher, cleaning up a few left over things from the Holiday, and getting the house ready for the tree. The other thing I also did was spend a lot of time dusting the downstairs bathroom. It's something I've been wanting to do for a while now but never seem to have the time. Once my boyfriend was done outside, which looked great by the way, we got the tree up. My boyfriend was so sweet because while I was finishing up my shower he made us pizza for dinner. It was still fairly early when we were done which was nice because we were able to watch a Christmas movie together, this one was called "Holiday Affair". Neither one of us were huge fans of the movie, but it didn't matter....it's just fun watching Christmas movies together.
    I feel slightly anxious about going back to work tomorrow because I'm working in an area I haven't been in for over a month. Also, with the cocktail party coming up this Friday I have a lot I need to get done here after work. I should add that my sisters and I are celebrating Christmas the weekend of the 14th and 15th this year so that puts added pressure on getting presents earlier than usual. I really have to realize I'm not going to have a lot of down time the next few weeks. I don't really mind that so much, but I am looking forward to a few quiet nights reading my book in front of the tree. Alright, well that's it for now.

Day Seventy Three.

    Today was a very good day. It felt so great to sleep in with no real agenda. With that being said we ended up sleeping in pretty long. When we got up I made my boyfriend a plate of the last amount of Thanksgiving leftovers. After we ate we actually ended up going to the living room and watching four episodes of "Doogie Howser, MD". It was probably about four weeks ago when we were watching "Howard and Kumar Go To White Castle" that we started talking about Neil Patrick Harris and his show. We thought it might be neat to watch it because I don't remember really watching it as a kid. I have to say I absolutely loved it....I really like Neil Patrick Harris and the show is very endearing!
    I can't say that the day got any more productive....we did take a shower and I took the laundry I had in the dryer out, but didn't fold it yet. Neither one of us really wanted to make dinner, the only thing we wanted to do was watch Christmas movies. We decided to get food from this Italian restaurant down the street which we have been wanting to go to. The food ended up being amazing:) While we ate we watched a movie called "Christmas in July", which was a very cute movie. I had a few glasses of wine tonight and it made me incredibly sleepy. This is one of those days that I really feel slightly guilty that I didn't do more, but I did work all week including the Holiday so I think it's okay that I took a bit of a day off.
    We have a lot to do tomorrow, the biggest of which is getting the Christmas tree so we can get it decorated before my cocktail party next Friday. My boyfriend is also going to put the Christmas lights up outside because it's going to be a pretty warm day. So on Thanksgiving Day my second to oldest sister was asking me if I wash my hands a certain number of times and I was trying to answer her but there was a lot going on. I thought I'd elaborate on the explanation a little bit here. Depending what I do is what determines how I count my hand washing. For example, if I throw something in the trash cane I go back to the sink and wash four times however if I pick something up off of the floor I wash my hands seven times. When I go to the bathroom I usually wash them somewhere between seven to nine times depending on how dirty I felt it went....haha. Also in the shower I have a very strict regimen unless I'm at someone else's house when I do the abbreviated one. I feel that something easy I can try to do to ease up on the soap usage in the shower is try to use my abbreviated version daily at home. I'm pretty sure that the main reason I wash so much at home is because of work. I usually get home and feel incredibly dirty after work. Alright, I guess more will come later:)

Day Seventy Two.

    I got great sleep last night....it probably had some thing to do with the fact I was exhausted and I had most of my family sleeping underneath me....which is always comforting. When I got up, even though I wasn't ready for work, I was ready. I just couldn't wait to go and get the day over with so I could have the weekend off. It ended up not being that busy of a day for anyone, but I was still busy up until I had to leave. I got home to my sister just leaving, but I was glad I got to see her for a little bit more. My parents ended up staying for a few more hours. It was actually really nice spending the evening with them because I was in much more of a relaxed mood and we had a nice time together. They ate a lot of the left overs from the night before, then they hit the road.
    After they left I had just enough time to tidy some things up, then get in the shower. I tried not to be overly obsessive about cleaning and there actually wasn't that much to do. I did wipe all of the tables down, clean the floor in the kitchen and the bathroom a little bit. I also was able to throw a load of laundry in before my shower. I had no idea what time exactly my boyfriend was going to be arriving so I just went about my normal schedule and when I got out of the shower he had just gotten to my house! We decided to go to this new restaurant/pub near where I used to live in college. It was filled with hipsters, beatniks, and yuppies....oh my! Haha....the menu was very bizarre, I think my second to oldest sister would have really liked it though. Everything had one ingredient I didn't like in it....like pine nuts and radicchio. The beer, on the other hand, was absolutely amazing. I had a New England Sea Hag IPA and my boyfriend got a flute of four different varieties, all good! After that we went to the bar I used to go to in college for one then back to our usual spot.
    The best part of the night was after we got home when my boyfriend and I listened to music and danced in the kitchen until 5am. It's absolutely amazing how much fun I have with him, I really think he's my perfect match. I forgot to say when we were at our local watering hole we met a really cool older guy whom we talked to the entire time we were there. He was filled with all these wonderful experiences....he actually reminded me of my Mother a little bit. A great day! Well, that's it until later!

Day Seventy One.

    Well today was Thanksgiving and it certainly didn't slow down things at work. The first hour wasn't bad at all, but then it was busy for the rest of the day. I actually felt pretty good today because I got a decent nights sleep last night, so I was ready for the challenge. All in all it wasn't a bad day and the crew made it pretty decent. The two people I was working the closest with actually have tomorrow off, so that made me a bit jealous, but at least I don't work the coming weekend.
    Once work was over I was finally getting excited about seeing my whole family and when I got home the turkey was only about two hours away from being done! I said hello for a few minutes then went right upstairs to take a shower and get it out of the way. After that was over it was finally time to relax a little bit. It took me a while to get the table and the breakfast bar area cleared off so that I could get all the place settings out. I can't believe how much one acquires in such a short amount of time, it's just crazy. I just kept moving things into various areas of my house and in a bit of a hurry. I hope I can find it all again, but it might be good motivation to finally find a home for some of these things. They are just some random items which I have no idea what to do with....for instance my scrap booking items. Ugh, I need more storage space! Dinner ended up being excellent and I definitely ate way too much. Then after dinner we had three pies....banana cream which my oldest sister made, my pecan pie, and my twin sister made us a sweet potato pie. All the pies were good....yes, even mine, and my other sister made up some whipped cream!
    The worst part about Thanksgiving dinner if you ask me is the mess. My Mother said she had been cleaning up the kitchen all day long, but no matter what you do the mess afterwards is terrible. Now, I know that my sisters would have washed the dishes, but because it was my house and I didn't contribute to making any of the food, I decided to do them. It wasn't that horrible, but my hands were pretty sore going into it and now they are really sore. I've actually been putting cream on my hands throughout the entire day today due to the fact that the weather has been so cold lately. I got to speak with my boyfriend on the phone a couple of times today and it sounds like he had a great dinner. I'm glad that he is getting a few days off because he certainly deserves it more than most people right now. He still says he'll be back here tomorrow night so I hope that is the case. I am missing him terribly and am looking forward to spending some more time with him this weekend. Well I guess that's all for tonight:)

Day Seventy.

    I can't believe that yesterday was day sixty nine and I didn't comment about how funny that sounds:) Anyway, it's actually hard to believe that it's day seventy of this blog! I am currently making my award winning pecan pie....that's a little joke. Anyone of my family members would love to tell you that "award winning" and "pecan pie" are not the words they would use when describing my last years baking project. It wasn't until after Thanksgiving was over that we realized my downfall was the fact I forgot to put eggs in the mixture....opps. My poor Father ate an entire piece of that pie to make sure I didn't feel bad. I just took the pie out of the oven and at first it was looking great, but then half of it did this strange rising thing....ugh, I'll never get it. When I got out of work today my Mother was already at my house. My two older sisters and their significant others will be coming tomorrow, as well as my Father. I'm excited to see everyone; it is just pretty annoying that I have to work! I hope that I won't be too anxious about having a full house and I can try to enjoy having my family around a little bit.
    I am so happy right now because I finally handed my performance review in at work! Of course when I mentioned this to my Mother she made a comment about how now is the time to really worry. Ugh, I don't know why I bother to speak to her about anything that has to do with work. Anyway, when I got home I tried to hurry up and get in the shower so that I could start doing everything that I had to do. I did talk to my Mom a bit and I put a load of laundry in before I got in the shower. Ultimately, I really hope I can get it folded tonight so I don't have to worry about it tomorrow when my family is here. Once I was out of the shower I took the time to take my Halloween decorations down from around the house....since tomorrow is Thanksgiving:) I was also watching a movie with my Mom at the same time....it ended up being a pretty nice evening.
    My boyfriend showed up around 8pm and he picked up dinner for us, then he moved my Mother's car into my garage. He got up early today to make sure everything was out of the way for it. He didn't stay too long tonight which I was upset about but he does have about a three hour drive to his Brother's house. He wasn't worried about the lingering weather because he finally picked up his Ford Escape from his mechanic today, unfortunately he was having engine temperature issues on the way here. All of which he kept quiet from my Mom. It's was cute that he felt the need not to tell her because he knew how it would upset her to here about that. Eliminating or toning down potentially horrific stories has always been something my sisters and I have done around my Mom. It's pretty much because she can't really handle certain situations without completely panicking about them. Even when she doesn't panic at first about them the storm comes later....those are usually the worst. It's really unfortunate because she has a lot of good life experiences but her reactions to some things can be enough to scare you away from ever talking to her about them. Alright, with that being said I'm out for now:)
   

Day Sixty Nine.

    I need to get some sleep tonight because I definitely didn't last night again. I think I just have so much going on this week that it's keeping me up. I thought that my Father and Mother were both coming tomorrow night but as it turns out because of the inclimate weather my Dad won't be able to make it until Thanksgiving Day. Mom said she would try to get here early. I was late getting to work today because of the snow.  It's not that it was so bad but the short cut I usually take was blocked off by the police for some reason. I had to go the long way around and it took me forever. Work wasn't too bad today....I might be jinxing myself but it could be the pre-Holiday slow down.
    After work I reluctantly went to the food store to pick up meat for dinner and a few other items for Thanksgiving.  Even though it was snowy it was actually not terrible because its really not as cold as it had been this weekend. Once I got home and the groceries put away I went through the mail and took the recycling outside-burr. It was already almost 5:30pm by that point so I got in the shower and was folding laundry when my boyfriend arrived. I was so glad to see him but a bit distracted because by that point I hadn't heard a word from my Mom or Dad about their plans. I ended up calling my Mom, which kind of annoyed me at first because all she was concerned with was whether or not she'd be able to put her car in my garage when she arrived. She wants to keep her car here while she is in Florida, which is fine with me, but I certainly haven't really done any garage prepping work. I tried to be patient with her so I just told her that I was slightly stressed out and to bare with me. I got her off the phone because dinner was ready and then while we were eating she called two more times....I didn't call her back. All she wanted to tell me was what my Dad had already emailed me!

    I was a little anxious at work today because as I was walking around a corner I ended up looking down and found a trail of blood on the floor. It was so gross....I tried to tell people around me to avoid stepping in it and some lady told the appropriate people who were going to clean it up. I have no idea where it came from....I mean I do work in a hospital but in the main corridor, for someone to have been bleeding that much is pretty disturbing. This happened around 11am and I tried to keep it out of my mind. It did stay, in the back of my mind, throughout the morning, at the food store and even when I got home. The first thing I did was take my pants off and change into the pair of pajamas I had worn the night before so I didn't feel as though I was contaminating my whole house. Well, I guess for the most part I think over all I did pretty well since I didn't feel the need to obsessively wash the floor. I think it's just because of how wet the ground is....I figured anything that was on my shoes must have been wiped off by the time I got home. Alright, well that's it for now!

Day Sixty Eight.

    It was so hard getting out of bed this morning. I was so tired due to the fact that I  [/452had such a difficult time getting to sleep, it really took me forever. It's really challenging trying to get to sleep before 11pm when your average bedtime is 2am. These evening weeks to day weeks aren't getting any easier that's for sure. Once I got up and moving I felt okay and was ready to go to work. It wasn't a bad day at work, I was just tired. I was also slightly frustrated because one of the things I have to get done by the end of the month wasn't available today so I have to put it off until later this week. It's a bit of a quality assurance test for us and I was just going to do it today to get it over with....now I have to wait!
    When I got out of work today I ended up coming right home and doing a little bit of exercising. I did not get on the elliptical machine but I did do some ab workouts on the floor because I have been feeling very flabby lately. I did them upstairs in my bedroom on the carpet and realized that it was probably time to vacuum up there. After I vacuumed I put a load of laundry in and took a nice, hot shower....it felt so nice after being so cold all day. By the way did I mention how cold it is?! Before I got in the shower I had to fight the urge not to empty the vacuum out. I realized that it's probably been way over due but it was a project I knew would take a ton of time and I didn't really want to get into it tonight. I'm pretty proud of the fact that I was able to just let it go!
    Once I was done my shower I finally folded the laundry I had done yesterday and then got to work on my performance review. After reading what I had written last week I realized I didn't really like much of what I had said so I ended up re-doing a lot of it. It's so hard for me to evaluate myself because I think I have a tendency to be a really hard critic which isn't necessary the best thing to do on these reviews. I think you need to really build yourself up and prove your worth....it's hard to do what when half of the time I come home from work I feel like I could have done a lot better. I think that's just my obsessive nature though. My one therapist used to say that I would make even bagging groceries a stressful job! Oh well, she's probably right! I don't think I'll be able to hand my review in tomorrow, but Wednesday will be the day! My boyfriend is going to come over tomorrow so maybe I'll review it one more time before he gets here and then call it quits. I think tomorrow is going to be taco night! In other exciting news apparently he finally got his hair cut! Okay, well that's all for now!

Day Sixty Seven.

    I felt surprisingly not hung over when I woke up this morning which was a good thing! My boyfriend and I are contributing it to the fact that our usual bar tender wasn't working last night so our drinks weren't as strong as normal. My boyfriend's parents ended up stopping by after we woke up only for a few minutes to get their car which my boyfriend had borrowed while he didn't have one. It was really nice to see them even though it wasn't a very long visit. I really didn't do too much today, in fact, after they left my boyfriend and I ended up relaxing on the couch for almost two hours even though we had to go to Target. It was almost 5pm when we decided to get ourselves together and go on our errand.
    It was a very successful trip to Target and I got a lot of the things I will need when my family comes for Thanksgiving. It was an expensive trip because I bought the new microwave. This trip I had to get paper towels and toilet paper, but I am proud because I still had a good amount of soap leftover at home. I did end up getting three bottles though....just because I was there. So by the time we were done shopping neither one of us wanted to cook so we ended up picking up some Chinese food! It took me a long time to get everything put away when we got home and my boyfriend ended up eating his soup while he waited for me. Once I was done we started watching this movie which ended up being horrible, it was called "The Internship".
    I am getting anxious for tomorrow at work because I felt like I was just at work and I have a lot to do this week. I can't believe that the Holiday week is coming up and I work five days in a row! Having to work Holidays is definitely one of the worst parts of working in my field. I thought I did a good job tonight after we got back from Target getting things put away and not obsessing too much about every little detail. I knew my boyfriend really wanted to eat dinner so I tried to speed the process up. I am going to take a shower tonight and finally get the laundry from last night in the dryer. Even though I know I'm going to want to clean the house up tomorrow after work I am really going to focus 100% on getting my performance review finished. I think I'm going to be much more relaxed once that's finished, so that is my top priority. Alright I will let you know how it goes tomorrow!

Day Sixty Six.

    I was very happy when I woke up yesterday because true to his word my boyfriend crawled into my bed around 11am. I didn't go to bed until really late the night before so I was still sleeping. We spent a really long time chatting and catching up on what happened the previous week so we didn't get out of bed until early afternoon:) We couldn't really decide what we wanted to do during the day, but finally settled on going to Target, seeing a movie and then going out to get drinks. Unfortunately, we weren't really in a huge rush so the Target trip didn't end up happening. We did make it to the movies, we saw "Captain Phillips"....which was alright. It certainly wasn't the greatest movie I've ever seen, I thought the main character was lacking the likable factor so you never really were 100% on his side. After the movie we went to dinner and got drinks, so of course we were out to late.
    Yesterday ended up being a really nice Saturday; it was just so nice taking it easy and not rushing around. I didn't really get into any chores either which made for a nice break. The only thing I ended up doing was putting a load of laundry in prior to my shower....which I will have to finish today. We are definitely going to go to Target today because I have to get a new microwave before Thanksgiving and it's going to be nice with my boyfriends help lifting it.
    I'm starting to get a little anxious about all the things I have to do at work this week....the biggest being my performance review. I have to hand it in before Thanksgiving or I will be stressing about it the whole day. I am going to have my boyfriend read it today and tell me what he thinks I need to change, then I can put the finishing touches on it tomorrow night since I'll be by myself. My boyfriend is going to his Brother's house for Thanksgiving so I will not get to spend the day with him, but I have to work anyway. My family, with the exception of my twin sister, are going to come here to my house for the day so that I won't be alone. I'm really going to have to let my guard down and go with the flow or I'm going to get really anxious with a house full of people. More about that later!