My "Day Off"

It was my "day off" work today. Did you notice that I put "day off" in quotation marks? That's because my days off work feel like major "squeeze in everything you couldn't get done while you were working" days. Which just means more work, but just a different kind. I work three days a week, Wednesday through Friday. But because of a retired payroll person, I worked Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday last week. With this odd schedule, I happened to be off 4 working days in a row. This meant a lot of calls at home today because it is so CRAZY at work. These were my calls:
--"Can you respond to the custodian's e-mail. She was upset because she wasn't invited to (payroll coordinator)'s retirement luncheon?" Me--"Sure...I guess because she's not an employee and not a volunteer, but a vendor...she wasn't in the e-mail groups that I sent it out to. I'll add her to the volunteer group and make sure this doesn't happen again." Sent nice, but groveling e-mail to custodian.
--Voice mail of a call I missed--"The Creative Memories consultant is here to meet you about the set up of the room for the Fundraiser Crop (we are holding it all day Saturday). Are you coming in?" Me--Shoot!! That was today??? Sent another groveling e-mail thanking them for taking care of it.
--"How is the food planning going for the Fundraiser Crop?" Me--Gave her the update but agreed I should send out a follow-up e-mail asking employees and volunteers for more food donations (snacks, desserts, and someone to donate sub sandwiches for lunch. This fundraiser crop landed on my shoulders when we lost our Special Events Coordinator. We are working to replace her with a Director of Development, but haven't posted that job yet.

After some of those calls, I decided to read my work e-mail to take care of any outstanding issues...including responding to interested applicants for the payrolll position. So basically, I put in about an hour's worth of work today.

Besides work, these are my other accomplishments today on my "day off":
--Went to the 8:00am mass. Great way to start my day!
--Went to the band shop to pick up some new band book Abby needs. It wasn't open yet. Went later mid day...they were out of it. Was told they had them at the other location.
--Helped Becky drop off her car at the shop, which happened to be near the alternate band shop location, so I picked up the book on the way home.
--Went to purchase my "dry goods" and other groceries which are cheaper there than the grocery store. Cereal, pop-tarts, granola bars, frozen pizzas,Velveeta Cheese (for a meal I wanted to make tonight). I also got jeans for Ben (he's outgrown all the others), tennis shoes for Mary (her new school shoes are ALREADY SHOT!!), a Ripstik for Ben (fancy skateboard to be a Christmas gift from my mom), soda, and hair gel.
--Went to the grocery store for chicken and sourcream to round up tonight's Chicken and Rice meal that the whole family loves! Also got some bananas, a card for my nephew who is earning his Eagle badge Thursday night, and some deli meat, cheese and Pane bread for another meal this week (panini sandwiches).
--Ran to Walgreens to get the poster board I should have gotten at Target but forgot! Sam needs it for a Saint project in Religion.
--Sent an e-mail out to the family asking them if they wanted to pitch in on a season pass to Six Flags for my nephew who is earning his Eagle. They all agreed so I went online to purchase the pass, printed it out and put it in the card after signing everyone's name to it.
--Ate lunch with Ted.
--Typed up the lyrics and chords to songs that my friend is having me play (guitar) and sing at her renewal of vows mass in her home on Wednesday night. I practiced the songs because I knew I wouldn't have time tomorrow night because I'm taking out my neice for her 16th birthday.
--Carpool friend called and she said she would take home the kids today (Thank God! Normally my day to take home)
--Read and responded to personal e-mails.
--Cooked dinner
--And while I was cooking...got the following calls: 1) Can you sub tomorrow night for the walleyball game? Me--No...Ted has to drive Boy Scouts and that will run late so I need to be home to put the little ones in bed. 2)Called my carpool for Boy Scouts to tell her we will drive tomorrow night because Ted has to be at the meeting anyway since he is planning the Northern Tier trip and needs to talk to the boys.
3)Got call from friend (vow renewal one) who's son also needs a ride to scouts tomorrow. Can she drop him off around 5:30pm so we can bring him? Husband will stop by after work to pick him up and take him home after the meeting. Me--Sure...no problem.
--After dinner, Ted and Sam bring up the dusty, underused treadmill so we can use it for Sam's fitness plan which is a requirement for Eagle. After this, Ted runs off to Men's Group. The house was so crazy and loud, he couldn't wait to get out.
--I help Sam with his big Saint project. He has to finish tonight because tomorrow night he won't have time because of Scouts. This includes helping him with facts about Padre Pio because he needs to do an oral report and must know his saint well. This also included rounding up stick glue (no small feat!)
--I drag Sam through the fitness test which he needs to do get a baseline performance so he can measure his results biweekly to track his progress. This fitness test involved running a mile on the treadmill, sit ups, push ups and measuring parts of his stinky, sweaty body afterward. He moaned and complained the whole time. THIS IS YOUR EAGLE BADGE, NOT MINE!!! We (me dragging him the process) devised a fitness plan for the next 12 weeks, where he will have to record his almost daily fitness activities (GOD HELP US ALL).
--I then round up the little kids to get them ready for bed and sit outside their door to brush their teeth.
--Wrote this blog while sitting outside their door.

Does this sound like a "day off" to you? I didn't think so. This rundown of my day gives you a great idea of what is going on in my life right now! It's a crazy life, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. As much as this may sound like complaining...I'm very happy...even if it is a bit overwhelming at times.

Maybe tomorrow I can have some fun before heading back to the other roller coaster ride called "work"?