Sensational Saturday & Sleepy Sunday

When I left ShopNBC's warehouse at 3AM Saturday morning, having finished my 3 days of late shift training, I was excited because I wouldn't have to be back to work until 3:30PM Monday.

I went home and had a bite to eat, watched some TV and went to bed about 4:45AM. I slept until noon. I was a little discouraged because I had the entire weekend off and had slept the first half of the first day away.

After I work up I discovered that my wife and Brandi, James' fiance, were busy in the kitchen baking and decorating sugar cookies for Easter. My back was hurting a bit so I rested in the living room recliner for a while staying out of the cookie maker's way.

A phone call from my son, Michael, helped me remember that we had invited our entire family over for dinner. It wouldn't be anything fancy. We planned on grilling burgers and brats and having baked beans and chips as well.

As I looked around the living room I quickly realized that it needed some quick cleaning in order to make our family's visit a pleasant one. I took down the card table filled with the our tax paperwork and medical records, emptied the chair filled with various items that belonged in other places in the house, and vacuumed the rug and furniture . Unfortunately I didn't get this done completely before Michael & Heather arrived. But nonetheless it was done and everyone would be able to gather in the living room and be comfortable during their visit.

Once my sister in law arrived the entire famly spent the rest of the day hanging out and visiting with each other. On TV we watched the VH1 countdown of the top 100 pop music 1 hit wonders songs of the 80's. It was something that both Heather and I really wanted to see. Everyone else just kinda got taken along for the ride. We also watched some the NCAA Men's basketball Final Four game between Michigan State and UCONN.

When it came dinner time James was the grill master and he did an awesome job. We had a nice meal together and nearly everyone had piece of the cake that I made but wasn't very proud of. It was a chocolate cake with whipped white icing. It looked awful but it tasted pretty good.

That was my Saturday. It was the first time in a while that all the family was here at the same time. I can't tell you how much I LOVE when that happens. I am so full of joy and happiness after a family get together it makes me want to break into song...but I won't.

Today, Sunday, I woke up early. I had planned on going to church to sing the song "What a Wonderful World" with my old man puppet, Sherman as the morning's children's sermon. I was excited about it because I had created a Powerpoint slide show to use as a background enhancement as Sherman sang.

However, when I got up my back was really really hurting me. I tried to walk it off at first and even tried relaxing in the living room recliner to ease the pain. When it didn't get any better I realized I needed to go back to bed, take a muscle relaxer, and lay on the heating pad. That's what I did.

Once I took the muscle relaxer I wasn't good for much of anything the rest of the day. I spent it either in the bedroom sleeping and or lying flat on the heating pad, or in the living room watching TV trying to stay awake. Those pills just knock me out. I didn't go to church in the morning and I didn't even go to the deacons meeting at night.

By about 8PM I was feeling a lot better. I was groggy and still had some back pain but I was better. I was able to take a hot shower which helped relax the muscles even more. I was also able to sit at the computer long enough to write this post. But I still feel like this was a lost Sunday.

So that was my weekend off. I don't have to be to work until 3:30 tomorrow so I'll be able to get some things done in the morning when I get up. Nevertheless I do regret having to spend the day in "la la land" because of the pain medication I needed to help my back. I'm going to start exercising to try and strengthen thoes lower back muscles so I won't have so much trouble in the future. I need to start exercising anyway to lose some weight. So how was your weekend?