It’s just been one of those weeks…

So you may have noticed that I've been MIA a lot recently. It has been absolutely crazy around here…

Last Friday: First houseguest in our new home. Exciting, but the room we planned to use as a guest room was also the room, while moving in, we threw everything we didn't know where to put. Needless to say a lot of clean up, overhaul, bed set-up, decorating, etc. had to happen first. Luckily, this guest was a long-time friend (up for the next item) and quite forgiving!

Saturday: 20^th High School reunion. Fairly relaxed and informal, yet I realized how few true friends I actually had in my class. I participated in a lot of musical activities outside of school (youth orchestra, etc.) and that'’s where I made most of my closest friends. In my high school, most of my friends were either seniors when I was a freshman, or juniors when I was a senior. But I digress. It was great to see the people I was closest with, and interesting to see how my classmates had changed. The evening affair was followed by a family picnic the next day, which proved most fun however.

Sunday: Impromptu dinner party. Following the picnic, I invited our houseguest, plus a few friends back to the house. We'’ve had 1 or 2 people over to dinner in our new house, but never 5 adults and 2 babies before. I do feel it went fairly well, but a few "notes to self"” are in order:

• Move hors'dourves to dining table or living room. It’s hard to prepare while guests are surrounding your cooking counter.
• Enjoy the outdoors.– It was a great night, but we were all crowded around our little dining table, when we have a patio and picnic tables outside.
• Do NOT check your phone messages during a gathering (more on this later)
• 7 adults, 3 children, the oven on while cooking a veggie dish, summer heat, and a Mike'’s Hard Lemonade or two, make it a little warm in the kitchen! (or at least the chef!)
  

It was super, however, to see these folks, and allow our houseguest some extra time with family and friends.

Sunday/Monday: We realize we have not seen Bailey, one of our two Maine Coon cats, since Friday night. I call the animal hospital, MrMaple canvases our property and the neighborhood, but no kitty yet. We're hoping he's found a girl and they're shacked up in some boathouse down by the lake.

Monday/Tuesday: This is the phone message I listened to Sunday during our dinner party. Our daycare provider decided to change her schedule. She used to only be open Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, but now she'’s switching her Tuesdays to Wednesdays to accommodate some changes in her son's special needs programming. While I completely respect and understand her decision, it has been a nightmare trying to reorganize our lives. I used to work Wednesdays from home, so I could spend more time with Minimaple. Switching this day to Tuesdays means asking up to 8 colleagues to rearrange weekly meetings; also sifting through up to a year of other committee events and personal appointments, and moving them to adjacent dates, plus also arranging for MrMaple or my Mom to take time off from work to watch Minimaple on the Tuesdays I have required events at work. While I'’m sure it will all work out, the hardest part was the asking. I feel already like my co-workers have been quite accommodating with my schedule, so asking them to flex even more made my ol' Catholic guilt resurface.

Wednesday: Minimaple and I spent the day canvassing the local animal hospitals, pet food stores, humane societies and local gathering places with fliers about our missing kitty Bailey. All told, we posted 20 fliers, over a span of 25 miles, within 5 hours. We have gotten at least two leads already, though!

Thursday: After a week of trying to find it, I realize, that I need to replace my ATM card. There were no customer service reps available at the bank, so the receptionist tried to assist me. 35 minutes and 6 incorrectly completed forms later, my account should be linked to the other ATM card I have at the bank (our old wedding account.) I've yet to see if this will actually work. Also, I suddenly realized that I scheduled vacation time for Friday-Tuesday. MrMaple and I don't have any plans, but I need the downtime. That being said,– the day was a rush of trying to get my work, my office, my LIFE, in order. I worked straight through lunch, and up until 5:55 (I don't think I even visited the restroom) and didn't get a third of the work done I wanted to. C'est la vie! AND - it's our wedding anniversary, too!

So now you know why I haven'’t been blogging. And you know MUCH more that you probably wanted to. But just jotting this down has been tremendously therapeutic, so thank you. And let's hope next week is quieter.

Updated: Why does the spell checker change my punctuation to accented A's?