Saturday was Will’s birthday!  Yay! He turned 27 (am so robbing the cradle)!  I wanted to have a big hullabaloo (as big a hullabaloo as the two of us could do by ourselves anyway) because it really has to suck having a birthday in the same week as Christmas.  I wanted his birthday to be its own special day.  But the snow, it was bad and I was unable to get to the store to get the ingredients I needed to make a cake or cookies so his official birthday meal was frozen Red Barron thin and crispy pepperoni pizza (which is our favorite of all frozen pizzas).  He unwrapped his two gifts, a t-shirt and a game for his Nintendo DS, and then spent the evening playing WoW without having to listen to any complaints from me (his third birthday present and probably his favorite).  Happy Birthday Will!  I would write something schmoopy here but it would just embarrass him.  So, um, maybe tomorrow.

Today I spent CLEANING the apartment.  I’m talking Danny Tanner style cleaning our apartment.  And rearranging the furniture in our bedroom a little bit.  I really like the way everything turned out even if it did take a really long time to get it all done.  It took all of the Across the Universe soundtrack to do the bathroom!  I will take pictures after the in-law invasion ends and I can put everything where it will actually live.  I think the changes make our apartment even more homey and inviting.

Today is also the first day that I have actually had any sort of friendly feelings toward the snow.  The result of my CLEANING was having a great many loads of recycling and trash that needed to be taken out.  Rather than take them out as the bins filled up, I just started piling everything outside of our front door so that I could make trips without having to spend a bunch of time dealing with cold weather layers.  When I was ready to make the trek to the recycling center and dumpster I borrowed these really old boots of Will’s so that I could tuck the legs of my jeans into them and save them from getting soaked.  Obviously the foot size was way too big and I felt a little bit like a kid playing dress up in a parent’s shoes but clomping back and forth out in the snow was so much fun!  The snow had frozen so the top half of it was a layer of easily breakable ice with the bottom still being mostly powder.  When I would take a step the snow would break under my foot and then fall off to the side in big chunks.  The longer I was outside, the harder it was to not see what kind of a sled the futon box would be.  It took all of my self control to not take a few running steps and then fling myself onto the snow to see how far I would slide.  I might have done it if I weren’t afraid of cars or sliding farther than I wanted to.  Still though, clomping around in my too-big boots was really fun and I kind of hated to come back inside.

It’s a good thing I did come in and finish cleaning though because it looks like the in-law invasion will officially start tomorrow.  Will got a call earlier from his Dad saying that they would probably drive up from southern Oregon in the morning.  Of course, this could change in the morning, so we’ll see.  It depends on the weather and people’s moods.  Can you believe that Christmas is on Thursday and we still have NO DEFINITE PLAN for the holiday?  We still do not know how many people are coming or if we will actually have the big family day actually ON Christmas or what.  I kind of admire people who can live like this because this whole “I don’t know” and “just wait to see what everyone else wants to do” stuff is giving me an ulcer.  Me no likey having no control at all.

I am glad that Will is going to get to spend time with his Dad though.  And I am glad that his Dad brought B even if she is bringing her dog.  I will tell you how I feel about this after this visit is over and all of the in-laws have gone home.  To do so beforehand would just be inviting all sorts of trouble.

No matter what, for right now, my apartment is clean! And organized! and I love it! Woo!