It's cool...

Okay, I'm trying really REALLY hard to remind myself of this.  It's difficult for me not to stress about stuff but I'm trying really really hard to stay chill and just remind myself...it's cool...

Next week, my whole work team will be in town for a big meeting.  For some reason, I felt the need to offer to have dinner at our house on Monday night.  And I offered to cook...there will be 15 people. 

Actually, I'm quite excited about having everyone over and "showing off" our place.  I feel like we have a good space, cute house, and I finally printed some pictures to fill in the picture frames all over our mantle.  I've also gotten some super cute "Fall" holiday decor.  (I'll provide pics, I've adopted some tips from pinterest!)  And I love having people over.  And I love to cook.  No biggie, this will be easy.

It wasn't until I started really thinking about the logistics that I got a little panicked about actually "cooking" dinner for that many people.  That many work people (friends are a different story - I could totally pull this off if there was no 'executive' pressure!)  I don't have that many plates.  I don't have that many chairs.  Cooking wouldn't be a big deal if I was going to be home all day, but I have to actually go to this team meeting...then the dinner is at my house immediately afterwards.  I won't have time to do anything beforehand.  Plus, we're doing this instead of going to a nice restaurant.  The team is going to be looking for a nice and swanky spread.

My boss finally convinced me to bring in a caterer (so excited...the menu is far superior to the lasagna(s), salad and anti-pasta platter I was going to make) which took care of the logistics.  We're using Serendipity Catering and so far, they've been awesome.  I'm super pumped about using them - I'll let you know how the food is.

Now all the hubs and I have to do is clean.  No biggie, right?

...

We have a mouse in the house.  We realized we had a little critter visiting us when we got back from Bloomington early last month, but we hadn't seen any evidence of him in a while.  We set out a ton of traps and hadn't gotten anything...so we just figured it was a fluke, one time thing and moved on.

Well I'll be damned - our furry little friend made an appearance earlier this week.  He's ballsy too...jumped right out from behind the TV while I was watching Dancing with the Stars and didn't even seem to care that there was a German Shepherd close by.  Ran right past me, jumped over 3 mouse traps and ran into the kitchen.

I freaked out.  But it's cool.  The landlord knows.  He set out more traps.  I'm sure we'll catch him...it's just annoying feeling like I have to sanitize the house every single day since I'm a scared to death of disgusting mouse germs (you can catch e-coli and salmonella from them!!). 

This is what he looks like.  It's annoying - because the thing is actually kinda cute...but it's still gross.  Marc has affectionately named him "Mickey".  Mickey is also nice and plump...he's clearly well-fed from eating all the peanut butter off of the traps we lay out.  Have I mentioned he's also a mouse-genius?  Capable of removing peanut butter from a trap without getting caught?  Annoying...

...

Last night our dishwasher broke.  It's cool.  The landlord knows and he came by today to take a look.  If it can't be repaired, it's a custom order dishwasher which means we won't have a new one for at least a week.  I know these things happen.  It's totally cool.

So on Monday, when the entire executive team is at my little house drinking wine and eating food, I'll just warn them that they may see a mouse and politely ask them to hand-wash all their dishes.  It's totally cool.  I'm not going to stress about this.

(okay - this post is slightly dramatic and I realize that.  In all honesty, the mouse thing is not that big of a deal.  Neither is the dishwasher - I can hand-wash stuff.  And this makes me even more thankful that dinner is being catered since they're bringing in all their own china.  I more just wanted to provide a light-hearted updated on what I'm dealing with and share the struggle I'm currently facing.  I would normally be freaking out and stressing about all this stuff, but I'm just letting it roll...it's all really a-OK!)

Now I'm just looking forward to the weekend when I can pick up my bale of hay and pumpkins to provide the finishing touches on my front porch Fall-scape =)  And Marc comes home tonight.  And the Yellow Jackets are 5-0.  I'm pumped!

Happy Friday!