Pick a drawer... any drawer or a closet for that matter

So I'm somewhat embarrassed to admit this but I shall anyways since I am so proud of my hard work and accomplishment this evening. My house was overrun with papers. With junk mailers, shit I've kept for some unknown reason. In true packrat fashion, close to my roots, I have saved every piece of shit that has been mailed, given or handed to me and packed it all in drawers, closets and more drawers. Every single drawer I could find in the common areas of my house that were not dedicated to silverware or utensils had become a "junk drawer". Coffee table, end tables, desk drawers and 4 kitchen drawers all included for a massive total of 10, not including one closet.

The other night I mentioned to hubby in, I believe after we had crawled into bed, that we needed a shredder, a good one. One that cross cut and did not fit on top of a trash can. A couple days later he told me he had gotten one of my Christmas presents through his work and that it had come in that day. I quickly mentioned that I had already given him 3 of his Christmas presents in the form of shirts I found big time on sale at Belk that he could wear to work. Without too much twisting of the arm he went out to the car and came in with a box revealing the beautiful little black and stainless steel shredder that I had in passing requested. (oh he does listen after all). Since then I have been shredding and shredding. We also went out today and purchased a pretty filing cabinet and 4 bins, one to go under the bed for Ashy's artwork, one for her cards (I always save have and will continue to save these), one for markers and one for playdoh so they can all be neatly put away in the closet. This evening I have cleaned out 11 drawers and demolished the contents of a closet that hubby cleaned out this morning and everything with the exception of a small stack has been filed. I have more to do in the form a storage room that is built into our garage but I am thrilled to pieces with the fruit of my labors in the form of a more organized less cluttered life with only 1 "junk drawer" left to speak of. Ahhh, it's embarrassing but oh it feels so good. I leave you with that as I go to sit on the couch and feel good knowing what is NO LONGER hiding in all those drawers! Wait, now I'm so pumped up I'm off to the kitchen to reorganize the food closet. Here's to a shredder, a pretty filing cabinet and beautiful plastic containers to store goodies away neatly and massively organized!

So it's been a while. I've been keeping up with you all though, despite my own blogging absence. Life is happening, as it always does. I'm in full Christmas spirit mode now. Enjoying the Christmas tree and the lights and the beauty of it all. Loving to hear the screams (even though they are much too loud and attention getting) that come from my daughter's mouth at every glimpse of Christmas. The lights and trees in the stores, the pictures and hangings of Santa Claus and snowmen. It's a wonder and amazement that never ceases. I love it.

Apparently though, the Trooper that I passed going 67 in a 55 failed to have the Christmas spirit as I was issued my 1st fast driver award in my 11 years of driving. Now don't go thinking that I had cried my way out of other tickets because the last time I was pulled over for speeding was 7 or 8 years ago. I have a 5 over rule that I follow pretty closely. Well on Wednesday morning I was headed down to work and Ashley wanted, needed, was asking for a cracker. So I turned around just ever so slightly to hand it back to her. As I did so, I paid not a lick of attention to just how fast I was going. When I turned completely forward again... there he was... and I looked down and saw the glorious 67 that I was traveling. Of course, I stepped on the brakes and began to say a silent prayer or maybe it was a "shit" or a "damnit" but at any rate he whipped himself around in the wide open country and flipped on his lights. I wish now that I was going to tell you I turned down a side road, went on a roaring chase, but there was no where to go, I'm too scared of breaking the rules and I'm just not that smooth so I sucked it up and pulled over well before he even got to me. No point of driving further full well knowing my fate. He pulled up behind me, took forever to get out, came to the car, introduced himself (my how nice of you Trooper Pittman), told me how fast I was going (well duh), I gave him my license and registration, he asked me if I was wearing my contacts, I answered "yes sir" (of course I am d.a... I'm so blind you'd never had had the chance to pull us over cause I'd a hit a tree or a person a while back down the road for not being able to see). He took my info back to his car, spent another forever back there, came back with my fast driver award, told me when my court date was and asked if I had any questions. My answer was, of course, "no sir" but in the back of my mind I was asking "was that really necessary?". This sounds bad of me to say but I'm just not that worried about it. It does stink that both of hubby's old tickets just hit their 3 year mark and fell off his record and therefore our insurance so me having a new ticket will cause our insurance to go up another 3 years (if I'm convicted) but here's where I sound like a nanny nanny boo boo. I work for an attorney's office. One that has an attorney who handles "criminal" matters (woo hoo I'm a criminal now) which means I don't have to "hire" an attorney... I was able to walk in the back door of work, straight to his office and tell him "hot off the press" that I needed his help. My court date is January 28. Wish me luck. He's going to try to handle it that day in court and have it reduced and ask the Judge to throw the costs out. Now THAT would be grand. If not, I'll just have to pay the costs of $150.00 but at least he will/should be able to have it reduced to improper equipment - which does not count against your driving record. Well BahHumbugg to you too Mr. Officer.

Funny thing of it all is Ashley says to me "Wha ya doin' Mommy" when I pulled over on the side of the road. "Mommy got pulled over" she tilted her head to the side in that cute cute way and said "oh, got pull over, Mommy" me: "yes baby, I got pulled over". Then she recognized the uniform similar to the one from the other night when I locked my keys in my car and after he left the window she said "Mr. Office pull you over, Mommy?" Chuckle chuckle. I should not be in not such a bad mood over this, but I just am... what can ya do?

I know I may have mentioned before that I am a bit of a ditz from time to time. Rather gullible and naive and innocent of the sort...

I order Ashley the V.Smile game system for Christmas. She's a bit young for it just yet but I didn't want to buy her "more junk" so I ordered it the other night off Walmart.com. The item came two days later. Joy you can count on Wal-mart thick through thin. When I opened the box I noticed the tape that sealed the game box was rolled back and therefore the game was already "open". Figured it wasn't a big deal, took it home, opened it that night and noticed that the microphone was not in the box. I didn't open or unwrap any of the other contents because I was scared if I did that they wouldn't let me return it seeing as video games are to be returned "unopened" and all. Called Wal-mart the next morning. They apologized, gave me options of returning to the store, returning via mail exchange. I choose to try to take it back to the store. Luckily they had another one there so I got that one instead. Got it back to the office and NO MICROPHONE. I was peeved. So I called V.Tech - the manufacturer and after a few quick questions the lady (from India) began to chuckle and told me that the microphone could be located inside the unit itself as it is stored in the compartment. Ha ha... joke it on me. I had bitched, gripped, whined and all but worried myself to death that they were going to think I stole the microphone and then was returning it and then... WALA... it is stored inside the unit compartment (which you can't see through the tissue paper and plastic they pack it in). So I'm a ditsy d.a. that has returned an item to Wal-mart because part of it is missing that probably was never really missing at all. I thought of calling the store to advise them of this but was advised by a co-worker to "let it die" that they would really think I was an idiot then.

I tell you what - this also just called to mind of a ditsy Wal-mart story. I have also absently mindedly "stolen" curtain ties that I didn't see hidden beneath my mums (flowers) in the basket last year. I saw them in the bottom of the cart when I took the mums out to put them in the car and threw them in the back seat real quick. I didn't know why to do... I was going to be late for work and had to get back. The whole way back to work I worried that I was being followed that someone knew that I had "shoplifted" without meaning to. I felt guilty, I felt awful, I felt ashamed so I took them back to the store and told the friendly old greeter man that I had gotten them "yesterday, and when I got home I didn't see them on my receipt so I just want to pay for them". He laughed. But I did (all $4 worth)... and I felt better for it.

Hubby is at work now and will be at work from 11a-2p and then 5p-10p tomorrow. Hopefully I can wrap up this weekend with getting a picture for our Christmas cards and get the house straighted up just a tad more. Until next time I'll leave you with this little beauty...