Surprise

Wow has it been a crazy week! Alan is out of town this week so I thought I would just pick up the house a little and maybe make some cards but that didn't happen. I took Monday night and just zoned out all night, Tuesday I picked up a little and figured I would just finish Wednesday after work and then start on some cards. Well that didn't work at all. My brother called me Wednesday afternoon with a surprise! He's coming up this weekend with his girlfriend AND the kids. Now I love to see my family (especially since most of their cars don't travel north)but this last minute thing is killing me. It wouldn't be so bad except that the allergies this year are horrible and my head hurts so bad by the time I get home from work that I can't even see straight. I can't tell my brother no because I've been asking for him to come up with the kids all summer but more than three days notice would have been nice. So I took the day off today to find the bedrooms they are going to be sleeping in and clean the rest of the house. Not my first choice of things to do on a Friday off of work and it would have been nice not to do this alone but travel is part of Alan's job and without his job I wouldn't have this house to clean. So I guess I will just suck it up and do the best I can. Craig knows I haven't been feeling well and he is family after all so whatever condition the house is in will be fine.

Now all I have to do is talk him out of going downtown. He wants to take the kids downtown because they've never seen Chicago and the last time his girlfriend was here she was in High School. He wants to see things downtown like the Mag Mile and the Navy Pier but then he also would like the kids to take the train. I tried to explain to him that those two things don't work hand in hand. If we take the train there is a lot of walking involved (too much if you ask me). If we drive, we have to take separate vehicles, pay to park and pay for anything the kids want to do or eat. Now my brother does not have a lot of money now that he is supporting his out of work girlfriend and paying child support. That being said I don't know what to do with them. I don't want to go downtown and Alan has already said that if we go, he's not going. I wouldn't mind if they just drove downtown and looked around but he said the kids kind of have their hearts set on a train ride. I just don't know what to do. I guess I will figure it out before tomorrow morning.

On a different note...I'm stil unsure about the scrap store. I really haven't talked to the owner, just my friend Cheryl (the manager). I guess that will have to wait until this weekend is over. I will let you know how it goes!