i did get a call this morning, but it was for a special ed class and i don't do special ed. for once, that was it - no other calls. which actually is just fine. there's a number of things i've been meaning to get to but have been too busy to do during the week, and, of course, most the places are closed on weekends. and with some of the other stuff, well, i've been too dang tired when i get home to sit at yet another desk for very long. granted, i do get up while at the school, but usually the kids are kept very busy by the teacher's plans, so i can sit and watch and only have to wander the room occasionally. even when i was just writing at home, i almost always took a break in the evening after a full day at the computer. there's only so much sitting at any desk a person can take before they just need to be doing something else.

as it happens, saxy has the day off too, so we went to run a few errands together and have brunch together. alone. meaning no kids. we actually don't get much alone time these days. i work during the week now and usually when one of us is off the other is working. on weekends, the kids are home too. so when we get a chance to just spend time together, we like to take advantage of it, even if it is just running errands. i count myself very lucky with my husband. he's never lost interest in me, even though i've gotten bigger since we married. we like being together, watching tv, going out, whatever. i love him muchly and know he loves me muchly too. we had a tough time despite that love for the first 3 years, it's nice to see sticking it out is paying off, and it's nice to still be as close as we are.

anyway, first stop was froggy's school. we had given her $10 about 2 weeks ago for her lunches. that same friday, she came and told us she owed money. we gave her another $10, but knew we better check into what's going on. no way a kid on a reduced payment should go through $10 in 5 days. i don't know if she misunderstood or something, but the entire $20 made it to her lunch account and she has just over $16 left. so she's covered for awhile. the manager of the cafeteria gave me a website where i can register and keep an eye on the kids accounts. no more of this, "i have no money to eat!" whine. and we can even pay through the site, so no more wondering if the money made it to where it needs to be either.

then we went to my son's school to drop off a couple of christmas cards. i also checked to see if they had any sub openings for tomorrow but they only have something half day and i can't do half day. once the car is gone, it is gone until the driver brings it back. if i'm home tomorrow and hubby's not, there's no way for me to do a half day or get home from a half day.

we had brunch, then looked in the local old navy store - picked up a couple of scarves for cheap (mine was under $4!). then it was time for us to head home so i could start plowing through the at home things i needed to get done.

first i registered for that mealpay site and put all the kids in my profile. no one needs money, though taz and jewel may need something added mid-january. then i started the phone calls. i called kaiser to extend my "visitor" status. until we resolve the whole insurance thing, i'll have to extend that for all of us every 3 months. this way we can all still get meds, be seen by doctors, get emergency care taken care of, and so on. fortunately, letting my visitor status expire wasn't a problem and they were able to take care of it right away.

then i tried to call social security to find out the details of reporting my income. the phone service at my local office would put me through the usual stuff, then exit me from the system and hang up on me without letting me get in contact with a real person. i even tried dialing an operator on the system. no go. the national number is apparently overwhelmed today and i would get a "we're experiencing a high volume of calls right now. please try back again later. good-bye." message and then get hung up on. i decided maybe it was lunch and wait till about 2 to try to call. when i did, i got pretty much the same thing. so i hunted up the regional office and tried calling them. success! i know know who and where to send my pay stubs.

i also finally started filing the pile of receipts and other important documents i tend to keep. the stack had gotten quite high, actually. i need to also go through my pile of writing related "to file" stuff, but that's even higher than the other stack and i'm not quite sure i want to tackle it today. maybe next week when i've had a few days off. (seriously, this stack is like 3 or 4" deep!) the same goes for the much needed clean up of my desk.

and my last task before going back to revising one of my novel chapters: the first batch of christmas cards are about ready to go out in the mail.

you know, a nap is sounding real good right now.

i'm such a wimp. lol