5 years

Today marks 5 years since my mom passed away. I remember finding out the terrible news all too well. On the night of the 22nd, my younger daughter had gone sliding across the kitchen floor and fell flat on her nose. We took her to the urgent care, because we were pretty sure that her nose was broken. When we got back from there, I thought about calling my mom to let her know, but it was kind of late, so I figured I would wait until the next day to call. Sadly, I never got the chance.

Some time around 2:30 or 3:00 am, we were woken up by the doorbell being rung repeatedly along with a constant, loud banging on the front door. Pete got up and looked out the window and said "it's the police!". Our first thought was that our security system had gone off and we somehow missed it. So, he went downstairs and answered the door. Within seconds, he was back upstairs telling me that it was my SIL and her father (who is a cop and was on duty at the time) at the door and that something was wrong with my mom. For some reason, the ringer on our bedroom phone had been turned off, so repeated attempts to call us that night had failed, so they came to our house.

I walked to the bottom of the stairs, where they stood, just inside the door. My SIL said that my mom was at the hospital, and asked if I wanted to know what happened then, or wait til we got there. I said I wanted to know. She proceeded to tell me that my mom had had a massive heart attack...and she didn't make it. I remember shaking my head and saying "No, this isn't supposed to happen right now". There I was 6 months pregnant, and she was only 45 years old!

Trin's dad insisted that I ride to the hospital in the cruiser. That drive, which was actually probably less than 10 minutes, seemed to take an eternity. I sat in the front seat, shaking and trying not to throw up, as the lights on the side of the road were a complete blur to me.

Apparently, my mom had gone upstairs to bed around 10pm, and my dad had fallen asleep in the living room watching tv. He woke up and went up to bed around 1:00 am, and had found her lifeless, lips turning blue. He immediately called 911, and they tried to revive her, and continued to do so even after arriving at the hospital, but it was simply too late. I still feel bad to this day, that I did not just call her that previous night. Even if I had woken her up, I would have been able to hear her voice one last time, and tell her I love her one last time.

I am 29 years old, and there are still times when I need my mommy! She was always the person I would call whenever I was feeling happy or sad or overwhelmed. I talked to her every day. That time was extremely difficult for me, because I was devastated, and I couldn't call her and talk to her about it.

I am currently going through a very trying and stressful time in my life, and I would love to have my mom around to comfort me and hug me. I miss her SO very much!!!

Shopping anyone?

Something happened to my iphone yesterday. I'm not sure what, but I couldn't use it. It kept telling me that I had no service and that it was activating. So I stopped into Best Buy, where I got it, to see if they could figure out what the problem was and fix it for me. Of course, they couldn't. They told me I'd have to go to an AT&T store. So I found out where one was and went.

The guy there thought it was the SIM card and replaced it. Unfortunately, that was not the problem. At that point the phone was saying that it needed a repair and I was sent on my way to the Apple store. The guy there never did tell me what the problem with the phone was, but he ended up issuing me a new one. The only problem with that, is now I have to re-enter all of my contact information (hopefully I can remember everyone's numbers, or at least get them to tell me again), and I will also have to re-download all the apps I already had on my phone.

On a positive note, I got me some awesome deals today while I was out and about. I stopped in Old Navy and they were having a huge sale. 50% off of clearance items! I walked out of there with 2 bags full of stuff for $17.24! I got my daughters each a shirt, and a total of 5 pairs of pants that ended up being .48 cents a piece! Got my son a pair of pj pants for $3.49, and myself jeans for $5.49, gray cords for $1.49, and a pair of black tights for $2.24. Nice!

Of course I couldn't stop there, I then went to the JC Penney outlet store and picked up a couple new pairs of scrubs (tops and bottoms) for under $22. Not bad, if I do say so myself!

Bed baths and beyond!

Today in nursing lab, we got tested on sterile gloving and focused on patient perineal care. We have anatomically correct mannequins on which to learn. We worked in groups (because there are only 4 mannequins) and gave the "patients" bed baths. We had to ungown them, bathe them (focusing on peri care), and change the bedding all while they were laying in the beds.

This wasn't just any bath though. Our "patients" had vomit on the front of their gowns, and had also wet and soiled their beds. And, when we turned them on their sides in bed, they leaked mucus from their trache sites. Mmmmm!

I cannot WAIT til I get to go to the nursing home during clinicals and do all this on real live people! (read sarcasm here!)

Anyway, we will all be tested in our long lab next week on what we learned today. That should be great. I was nervous today just being tested on putting on and taking off sterile gloves properly! Fortunately, I did it perfectly the first time, so yay me! Wish me luck for next week!

Pondering

I just ate a bowl of raisin bran sweetened with a packet of splenda with fiber. I wonder what the outcome of that will be...so to speak.

Kid quote

My daughter was eating a banana and started talking about how they are filled with protein. So I asked her with a smirk "Do bananas have a lot of protein?" Her response: "Mommy, I'm eleven. I don't know everything."

Well, that's news to me! I thought eleven year olds indeed know everything, or at least think they do!

4 year old logic

I had the following conversation with my 4 year old son on our way home this afternoon:

Him: I want a pet. I want to get a Cat and name him Butthead.

Me: Baby, we can't have a cat because then mommy would sneeze all the time.

Him: Well, don't smell it.

Mmm...cereal!

I usually start my day with a bowl of cereal. My cereal of choice lately has been Special K Red Berries (well, ok, the Great Value brand "Strawberry Awake"). It is very delicous!


So, while walking around Giant Eagle the other day, I saw that they had Special K cereals on sale, so I picked up a couple of boxes. (Btw, I don't think G.E. even sells generic cereals. If they did, I didn't see any.) I grabbed the Chocolatey Delight, because I'm a major chocoholic!

I must say, I am not a fan of this cereal. It basically has zero flavor. I am very disappointed. I figured there was no way I could go wrong with chocolate cereal, but I was very wrong. I don't know if it has "diet" chocolate in it or what, but it just wasn't good. Maybe my kids will eat it.

I also got a box of the Cinnamon Pecan.

This one is MUCH better. I had a bowl of this for breakfast today, and it was quite delectable.

Now I need to decide which flavor to try next!

Sweetness!

I love my little guy SO much! He is rotten as can be, but also the sweetest boy ever! I was dropping him off at pre-school this afternoon for the first day back after Christmas break, and as the teacher opened the door and welcomed the kids into the classroom, he walked toward the door and stopped, turned around, and (unprompted) gave me the "I love you" sign.

It was sooo cute and so freakin' sweet! He's definitely got me wrapped around those cute little fingers of his. :)

While I'm on the subject of sweet...I saw an ad for this in my Women's Health magazine today:

Splenda with fiber! Looks interesting. I'll have to give it a try for sure.

A little nervous, a little excited!

I am feeling so many emotions in regards to going back to school. I took classes Fall quarter, but they were all online. One week from tomorrow, I will be starting nursing school. My classes will, for the most part, all be on campus. I will be going to school year-round for nearly 2 and a half years.

I'll be honest, I am nervous about going back to school! I'm worried about how I will do, if I'll make friends easily, if I'll somehow screw something up, what the eff I'm going to do with my kids over the summer while I am in school, and many other things. I am excited, however, to get this all started and over with. I want to be done with school NOW, and the longer I put it off, the longer it will be until I can finally graduate and start my career. As it is, I'll already be 31 when I get my RN. (Not that that is old, but when I think about how long I could have been doing this already if I had gone to college right out of high school...)

I'm sure it will all work out and the next 2.5 years will fly (I hope!), but I am just a bit anxious!

Time for a change...

It has been a while since I have changed my hair, and the color was starting to grow out. Fortunately, the difference between the color and my natural hair color was not drastic. However, I saw some pictures of myself that my aunt took in November and I could definitely see my roots in them. I've been wanting to highlight my hair again for a while now, and when I saw those pictures, I decided it was time. So, I bought a do-it-yourself highlighting kit and got to work today.

It was the kind where you have to put on this plastic bonnet and then poke holes in the cap and pull strips of you hair through. They are supposed to be pretty fool proof. Well, when I was done, it kind of ended up looking like I basically colored the top layer of my hair blonde and left the bottom the same. I guess it doesn't look too bad. I'll have to get used to seeing myself with blonde hair again, because it has been over a year since I last was. I'm not sure if I will leave it this way for a while, or make a call to Trinity's mom and see if she can do something else to it.

Anyway, here's a picture for your visual enjoyment...

Greeeat!

I got a call from my grandma this morning saying that my grandfather fell this morning and that he was being taken to the ER. Hopefully everything is ok.

Oops!

Somehow when I chose a new template, I lost everything on my sidebar, including all of the blogs I linked to. Now I just have to remember how to do all of that stuff again...

Merry Christmas!

This has been a very odd Christmas this year. It hasn't even felt like Christmas to me. I haven't been in a very "Christmasy" mood this year for starters. Yesterday I was super sick. I couldn't hold down anything...I had both ends going if you know what I mean. Not good times. Not at all!! So, because of my illness, we didn't make it to the candle light service at church that we usually go to on Christmas eve. I spent the entire day (that I wasn't in the bathroom) in bed. I only got up long enough to open presents with the kids, which has become our tradition.

After that, I went right back to bed. While I was laying there, I got a call from G where we decided since not only I was sick, but other people in the family as well, we would postpone our normal family Christmas day gathering to this coming Saturday. So, we started feeling a little bad that on Christmas, our kids wouldn't have anything special to do, so I looked online and made a phone call and found out that the Oglebay festival of lights was indeed going on today, so I booked a hotel room in Wheeling and we gathered our things and headed out. We drove through the light festival and came back to the hotel where I took the kids to the pool to swim while I relaxed in the hot tub. :)

Now we are sitting in the room enjoying some pizza and watching Spongebob. It hasn't been a terrible day...I am feeling SO much better than yesterday, though still not great...but it just doesn't feel like Christmas.

I'm still alive

So, it has been an incredibly long time since I have posted on here. I got involved with myspace and facebook and, most recently, twitter. So this is just one more thing for me to keep up with. But, I figured I would give a quick update in case there is anyone still out there that still ever checks in here. (Which I pretty much doubt, but it's cool).

I recently finished up with Fall quarter for school and in January, I am starting nursing school. I am very nervous and excited. I just want to get it over with and I hope to make lots of new and incredible friends on this journey in my life.

My kids keep growing and growing. My oldest daughter is 11 and in the sixth grade (how is that even possible?!). My middle daughter is 8...soon to be 9...and in 3rd grade. My baby boy is 4 and is in pre-school!

Not sure how often I will update here, but I just wanted to see if I still could...

Wow!

I've really neglected this blog lately, huh? I'm not sure if anyone even checks in here anymore. Most likely not. So here are some of the things that have happened since I last posted:

* My son turned 3! Now if we could just get him to go in the potty ALL the time, we'd be completely out of the "baby" stage.

* School has let out for the summer. The girls have been fighting a lot since they are together so much. I usually have until around 4:00 pm before I have to deal with their fighting, but not during the summer. No, now I get it all. day. long.

* My oldest turned 10!! Seriously? Am I old enough to have a child that is double digits?

* My oldest also went to camp for the first time this summer. She was gone last Monday through Friday. She had a great time.

*My son is sick right now. I took him to the Dr. yesterday after 4 days of fevers and vomiting and coughing and crankiness. She didn't do a throat culture, but looked at his throat and said it looked like strep. She started him on an antibiotic. Fun, fun!

*Tomorrow, Trin and I are taking all our kids to get their pictures taken for their great grandparents. That should be fun.

*We had the family over for a cookout on Sunday for Father's Day. I attepted to get a picture of the 5 kids together on the couch. I had a hard time getting them all to cooperate. Can't wait to try it tomorrow at the portrait studio. :-)



I'm sure there is probably more, but that pretty much sums it up, I guess. At least I posted something, right?

So busy!

Man things right now have been pretty busy. It seems we've got things going on just about every day of the week.

Monday nights, my oldest has Soccer practice. Wednesdays are my younger daughter's practice, and the girls have children's choir practice at church. I am also involved in the adult choir, and we practice on Wednesdays too. Every other week guru and I are on the praise team/band (I sing, he plays bass) so we practice Thursday nights the weeks we are on. Saturday are soccer games for both girls, and Sunday is church, then youth band practice, and more soccer games!

Shoo! The 21st of this month is going to be a mad, crazy day. The girls both have soccer games in the morning, my grandparents are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary (which Trinity and I are planning) then, the girls have their father-daughter dance that night! So, we are going to be so exhausted when that weekend is over, that we will be ready for another weekend to relax. But, I guess that's just they way life goes, huh?

Buh-Bye, Haley!

I can't say I'm unhappy she got the boot tonight! In fact, I think she should have gone home a long time ago. I've said before that I think she does have a good voice, and is nice to look at, but I think her voice is more theatrical. She would do well on Broadway....or modeling.

Of course, Phil has been in the bottom three for several weeks now, and I have a feeling he will go home next week. And, to be honest, I will be perfectly fine with that. Just leave Blake Lewis in there, and I'll be happy!

This is why Ohio SUCKS!!

Today it is a beautiful, sunny, breezy, 80 degree day. Tomorrow, the high is 47 degrees with rain/snow showers tomorrow night! Seriously?!!!!

Happy Birthday, Mom!

So, today, my mom would have turned 49. I'm really missing her today. I am thinking I will buy some flowers and take them to her gravesite.

It really gets to me sometimes that she never got to meet my son. I was 6 months pregnant with him when she died. She was so excited for another grandbaby! She was planning a welcome home baby party for him at her house for after he was born. (Btw, thanks again Trin, for stepping up and doing that for me in her absence!) She talked about it all the time and when we would go shopping, she would look for things, and get ideas for what kind of stuff I wanted for the baby.

We had just been out shopping 2 days before she passed, and she was feeling great! Very upbeat and happy. She was often depressed because of her health problems and loss of eyesight, but she was always happy when she was around her grandkids.

So, I am just feeling rather emotional today. Missing my one and only mommy. I can't even imagine how my grandparents are feeling today...missing their one and only baby!

Parenting....

~Trying to dress an active little one is like trying to thread a sewing machine while it's running.

~There are only two things a child will share willingly communicable diseases and their mother's age.

~Cleaning your house while your kids are at home is like trying to shovel the driveway during a snowstorm.

~Kids really brighten a household; they never turn off any lights.

~An alarm clock is a device for waking people up who don't have small kids.

~Shouting to make your kids to obey is like using the horn to steer your car, and you get about the same results!

~Any child can tell you that the sole purpose of a middle name is so he can tell when he's really in trouble.

Funny!

Sheesh!

I really have no clue as to why I can't switch to the new blogger thing. I guess I have to be invited or something? Whatever. I'm still trying to decide if I'm even going to bother keeping this blog up or not. No one ever reads it anyway, or at least no one ever comments. I guess that could be a good thing, in that I could use this as a personal journal, but I still wouldn't be able to put anything I want on here, because I know that there is a possibility that it could be read. So, I'm still undecided. I may just continue to use it on occassion as I have been, but there really isn't much purpose in it. We'll see, I guess.

Club Libby Lu's

I took my daughters to Libby Lu's today to get "make-overs" for my middle daughter's birthday. They had a ton of fun! Here are a couple of pictures for ya:

Is this week over yet?

So shool for the girls was canceled both yesterday and today due to the frigid temperatures. I suppose it is just as well since they, along with my son, are sick right now. At least they won't have work for the last 2 days to make up. However, if they do not cancel school tomorrow, they will most likely stay home again. They have all been very tired and cranky today. They have been running low grade fevers, coughing, stuffy noses, body aches, the whole nine yards.

My oldest has made herself a comfy place to watch movies:


My middle daughter has been like this for most of the day:


And my son is finally asleep for the night (I hope!):


You can tell just by looking at them that they are miserable! Poor kiddos. I hope they feel much better tomorrow!

Few and Far Between

I know that is how my posts have been recently. I haven't really felt too much like blogging here lately.

Guru and I got sitters for our kiddos Friday night and went out with some of his co-workers. We had a blast and stayed out all night! I haven't done that in SO long! We got home around 5:30 am. I took a shower and went to bed just to get back up again at 8:00 to go help coach my daughter's cheerleading squad. After that, I came home and went back to sleep for a couple of hours.

Saturday afternoon, I got back up and went to my oldest daughter's basketball game. I hadn't eaten anything yet because of sleeping, so I was starving! We ended up eating an early dinner at Fazoli's. It was pretty good. We came home and I started watching a movie, but it wasn't extremely interesting to me, so I ended up falling asleep before it was over.

Sunday, guru and I were both on PT, so we were at church for both services, then we went to lunch the family for my dad's birthday. After lunch we came home and got ready to have Alex and his family over for dinner. They came over and we ate pizza and wings and hung out for a while. We rewatched some of the last A.I. and laughed at the suckiness. Good times.

That's about it. Not too much interesting stuff going on around here, hence, the few and far between.

Minivan Review

First of all, I love minivans. I always have, for some reason. When I was in elementary school, my parents got their first minivan, and I was so excited about it! I love the extra room to spread our family out and seperate the children, if need be! It's great!

I am currently driving my second minivan. My first one was a dark purple 1998 Plymouth Grand Voyager. (Similar to this one):

It was nice. It had a roomy interior, dual sliding doors, plenty of leg room in the back seats and a decent amount of space to climb into the 3rd row seats.

Our current minivan, is a 2004 Ford Freestar. Like this one, only ours is tan.

It looks nice on the outside. And even ok on the inside. However, while still having the dual sliding doors (which are nice) they are very heavy and sometimes difficult to open and close, especially for the kids. I really wish my van had the power sliding door feature!

The back seats sit very low to the floor, so if you're taller than, say, 4 and a half feet tall, it's not very comfortable! The third row seat is nice in that it folds into the floor for added room for moving larger things. But, again, it's very low to the floor, and is the same width as the middle (2 seater) seat, but has 3 seatbelts. The middle seatbelt comes down from the ceiling of the van, so if it is in use, it is kind of annoying going down the middle of the back window.

There is also a very small space in which to climb through to get into the back past the middle seat. Our 9 year old is almost too big to get back there easily.

The middle row is a bench seat (it would probably make it easier if they were bucket seats so you could go between them, but, alas, they aren't.)

Our van did score well in crash tests, so, at least that's good! But all in all, I can't wait to trade her in. I know right now, with all the negative equity, we wouldn't be able to get anything nicer. But our next one is going to be WAY better!!

Almost Time!

I'm so excited that there is less than a week left before the premiere of this year's American Idol!



I have been hooked on this show since the first season! I called Kelly as the winner the first year when she sang Respect.

Clay totally got hosed and should have been season 2's winner!

I did NOT like Fantasia at all! I hated the whole "yeah, yeah" she put at the end of practically all of her songs! Super annoying!

Carrie was a good choice for season 4. Definately her over Bo! I couldn't stand his nasty messed-up-from-smoking teeth! Yuck!

Last year, of course, there was Taylor Hicks. He wasn't my first choice for the winner (Chris Daughtry was!), but he was good. I found him extremely annoying at first with his quirky movements when he sang. He just looked like he needed to take a dump or something, and really uncomfortable. But, he stopped doing that so much, and grew on me a bit.

I always love watching the auditions. I like hearing the people that can sing really well, and laughing at the reactions of the judges to those who are tone deaf, but think they're awesome! So, Tuesday night is the 2 hour Premiere! Is anyone else going to be watching this with me?

Procedure Done

Ok, first off, I have tried switching over to the new blogger, but it keeps telling me it can't switch me. I'll have to let guru figure it out.

So, yesterday was the day I had my upper endoscopy done. I was pretty nervous before hand. I wasn't sure what to expect. I had never been put under anesthesia before, so I didn't know how I would react to it. I was mostly nervous about knowing what was going on during the procedure. Everything I read said that I wouldn't be completely out, so I could cooperate with the doctor, but would not remember anything after it was over.

Well, they gave me pain meds through an I.V. and also some med. to make me sleepy (and forget after). I think I slept through most of it, but I do remember being aware a couple of times of something in my throat and gagging! NO FUN! But, it did go by really quickly, and when I was done, I woke up pretty fast. I was very tired for the rest of the day though. I took a 3 hour nap when I got home. It was kind of nice.

It turns out I have a hiatal hernia. They also took a biopsy or two of some red spots they found in my esophogus. The Doc didn't seem to be too concerned about them, just that I may need to take some antibiotics. I'm not sure what is going to be done about the hernia condition. She didn't mention anything about needing sugery for it or anything. At least yet.

So that was my day yesterday. How about you?

Delurk yourselves!

Ok, so apparently, it did not work when I attempted to update to the new blogger thing. Guru was supposed to help me fix it, but we both keep forgetting about it when he's home. So, if I decide to keep this blog going, I will get it changed soon.

Anyway, I read on another blog today, that this is National Delurking week.



Since, I check my statcounter on occassion, I know that I still have people who check out my blog regularly. However, I haven't been getting comments. So, if you stop by this week (or ever) PLEASE leave me a comment. Even if it's just to say "HI", to let me know you were here.

I did it!

I took down all the Christmas decorations yesterday. I was right in that the living room looks so bare without the tree in there. We will have to do some rearranging of the couches to make it look a little better.

My younger daughter has cheerleading practice tonight from 6-7, which I have to be there for of course, since I'm helping coach her squad. Then immediately following that, guru and I both have to be at praise team practice from 7-9. Should be a tiring evening.

Upward games start this coming Saturday. My younger daughter and I have to be there at 9:00 a.m. every Saturday for the next couple of months to cheer. My older daughter is playing basketball, and her game times will vary from week to week. This week she plays at 4:00 p.m. So, this should be a fun season, going to and from the church at different times every Saturday.

And obviously, on Sunday, guru and I are both on PT, so we will have to have all the kids up and ready and be at the church from 8:30 a.m. to around 12:30 p.m. So, looks like we've got a busy weekend ahead of us.

2007 Is Here!

We hosted a New Year's Eve party at our new place this year! It is definately nice to be able to have the extra space again so we are not stepping on one another or tripping over something every time we turn around.

G and Trin and their boys came, my dad, and two of my single mom friends with their daughters. We had some yummy meatball subs, a cheeseball and crackers, frito scoops with my friend's homemade chili-cheese dip, and tons of other snacks! We played catch phrase, scattergories, and some cards (hand and foot....great game).

It was a good time, but you could tell we are all getting old because by 11:00 p.m., everyone was yawning and trying to stay awake. Meanwhile, all the kids were still running wild with sugar highs.

At midnight, we paused our game of cards and grabbed our glasses of sparkling grape juice and headed down to the family room to watch the ball drop in Times Square. Then, we promptly headed back upstairs to finish our game and everyone headed home.

Yesterday was a pretty laid back, lazy day. Guru had the day off and we sat at home and pretty much did nothing all day. It was great! I really should have taken down my Christmas tree and decorations yesterday, but I really didn't feel like it! I don't want to take them down. The living room is going to look so bare and simple without the decorations.

Today, I am watching my friend's daughter. I may start watching her every Tuesday, as she is in need of someone to keep her on that day every week. She recently withdrew her from a private school, because she was having trouble keeping up with the fast pace. They are living in probably THE worst school district around, so she is homeschooling her for at least the rest of this year, or until she can move to a better district. So, I would be helping her with her schooling on Tuesdays as well. Fortunately, it is all done online, so that will help.

Anyway, that's how we brought in the new year. How about you?

Christmas

We had a good Christmas. Gathered with family, ate way too much, opened presents, played cards. Good times!

Since guru got a nice bonus this year, we were able to get some things we need for our new place. We got the girls their bunk beds, so now they don't have to share a queen bed anymore (now that bed belongs to our son). They were really excited to finally get them. We have been talking about getting them bunk beds for a long time now.

We also got some new couches for our extra living room:




Probably after the beginning of the year, we will be shopping for a new computer desk and new t.v. armoire for our bedroom (right now, we're using rubbermaid tubs since our old rickety one got thrown out)...classy!

If we have enough left after those purchases, we may look into getting an HDTV. We'll see. I really want one. More than guru does. So, I guess we should leave him some of his bonus money to buy something he really wants. *Sigh*

How was your Christmas?

What's up?

Well, today, I finally got the last of our things out of our old apartment. It has been a slow process. I have a few more things I need to get put away here at the new place still though. That will be done by the end of the week (hopefully). Next step will be shopping for the furniture we need. Our problem there is finding time to do that, since guru has been having to work super late every night lately. If he doesn't have any obligations at church, he has to stay at work late. I am hoping that we will be able to go out this Saturday and do some shopping.

We are planning a New Year's Eve party here at our new place. I'll probably make up some yummy "balls of meat" and some other snacks and ask everyone to bring their favorite games. We did this a couple of years ago when we were still in our house, and it was a good time. Hopefully it will be just as fun this year.

Other than that, I am officially all done with my Christmas shopping and wrapping (well, guru still needs to get his dad's gift, and I suppose I'll wrap that for him). I even got some gifts wrapped up and mailed to my young cousins in Virginia, since they won't be able to make it in for Christmas.

So, that's what's new with me. Oh, and I also switched over my blogger to the new blogger thingy. At least I think it worked. I'm not completely sure. We shall see!

Good Weekend!

Friday night, the kids and I went over to my dad's to help him put up his Christmas tree. Our family Christmas gathering is always at his house, so he HAS to have a tree. Then, I helped him wrap some Christmas presents. This is a nice change for him. My mom used to do all of the shopping and wrapping and since she passed away he has just given us money for Christmas. Even the kids. So, at least he took the time to go shopping and pick out gifts himself this year.

Saturday afternoon, we picked up G and Trin's oldest boy and took him with our kids to my grandparents' church where they were having a children's Christmas party. We dropped them off and headed out to guru's work holiday party.

The party was fun! It started out at Dave and Buster's for drinks and appetizers and a corporate challenge. Then we headed off to Stoney River for a brief presentation on how the company is doing by the big boss, and more appetizers and more drinks and then dinner. The menu was awesome! I got a coffee cured filet (no, it didn't taste like coffee) topped with crab cakes and guru got prime rib, both with a huge side of yummy garlic mashed potatoes. We also got started with a salad (guru did not partake of that option) and then, of course, dessert was very delectable as well.

After the dinner was over, a lot of people went home, but some of us stayed and hung around the bar area and chatted. I have met a few of guru's coworkers before, but it was nice to be able to meet (almost) everyone in his office and their spouses or significant others and put faces with names I hear so much about.

Sunday, guru and I got up and got ready for church all by ourselves since G and Trin kept the kiddos overnight and dropped them off at our church for us on their way to theirs. After church, we took home the daughter of a friend of mine who's brother is in the hospital (my friend's brother, not the daughter). We took the kids to the McDonalds playplace to eat lunch and burn off some energy. We ended up staying there for a couple of hours. Then we came home and my friend came and got her daughter.

After they left, we headed over to Alex's house for homemade pizza and to put together a gingerbread house. (Is it still standing, Alex?) The kids had fun drawing on the doors and windows in icing and sticking on all the candies. His wife and I had a difficult time getting the thing to stay up. It kept collapsing.

Overall a good weekend! We definately need more like it!

Doctor Appointment

I went to the Doctor's this morning for my overall health check-up with my new family Dr. I had a complete physical done earlier in the year with blood work and everything, But since I have issues with a couple of things, like my terrible acid reflux, he wanted to see me to go over everything.

So, since I can't even miss one day of my Prilosec or I will be suffering from extreme reflux by evening, he wants me to go in for an endoscopy. That, of course, was not a surprise to me. I figured he would want me to. And while I do want to find out what the problem is and fix it if possible, I just cringe at the thought! The Dr's office is scheduling it and will call me to let me know when and where.

He also mentioned that my blood work from earlier in the year (that I was told everything came back normal on) showed that my white blood count was a bit low. He said it could have been because I was sick at the time or something incorrect in the lab, but he wanted to take more blood and test it again. So, I got more blood drawn today. Hopefully it will come back normal. I tend to worry about things like this.

On another note, one of my friends told me they thought I should use one of my Christmas picture "outtakes" as my card photo:



Yes, my son is licking his sister's face. He was pretending he was a puppy! It would be pretty funny and a pretty accurate portrayal of my kids, but I think I'll go with the first choice. :)

Second Attempt

I tried again last week to get a good picture of the kids for our Christmas card. I took about 40 pictures, but got only a few worth using. Here are the 3 finalists...





One of these will be on our card. What do you think?

Another Year Older

Well, my birthday was yesterday. I woke up to breakfast in bed of waffles and cinnamon rolls and apple juice. Then, I got presents! First was this cute little purse from Old Navy:



I had made a list a couple of weeks ago per guru's request of a few things that I would like. The purse was one of them. As a bonus, I also got a matching checkbook/wallet that my oldest daughter picked out. My younger daughter picked me out a nice basket of "goodies" made up of lotions and shower gel and things of that sort. So cute!

Then, my dad took the girls overnight. Then we took the boy to my grandmas and headed up to the Polaris area. Guru had some gift certificates for the movie theatre up there that we needed to use. First we stopped for dinner then went to a movie. Then it was back to pick up the boy. On the way home, we stopped and checked out the Picktown Lights.

All in all, it was a good day. After church today, we met my dad and my grandparents for lunch and came home. My son and I got a good nap this afternoon too! (Even though, I should have been moving boxes around and unpacking! Oh, well!)

New Bed?

Last night, I was sitting here blogging and looked over and saw that my sleepy son had found a comfy spot to go to sleep:



Then, just now, I looked over and saw this:


Who needs a big boy bed when you have a trampoline?

Scatterbrained!

Yep, that's me! Yesterday, I missed dental appointments for my younger daughter and myself. It was just for a regular cleaning, but it totally slipped my mind! I even had it written down in my planner AND on my calendar on the fridge. I guess it doesn't really do any good to keep a planner if you don't look at it! So, I had to reschedule, and they didn't have 2 appointments on the same day and same time anytime soon, so I had to schedule my daughter for one day and me for the next! What a pain!

Then, tonight, I completely forgot that I was supposed to take my younger daughter to cheerleading practice. Have I mentioned that I'm the assistant coach of her squad?! Sheesh! After a phone call reminder that I was supposed to be there, we made it there, with 15 minutes to spare. Seriously, where is my freaking brain? I am so annoyed with myself for all of my forgetfulness!

Ok, moving on... I got the pictures of our tree put on the computer now, so in case you're interested, here it is:



I don't know if our ceilings are higher in the new apartment, or if I just notice it more because the room the tree is in is so much bigger, but the tree looks so short and small! I think this gives me a good excuse...er...reason to go out after Christmas and try to find a taller, bigger tree at a discount for next year, right? And maybe some more ornaments too (looking back at the picture on here, it looks kind of bare, so a bigger tree would look even more bare).

And our stockings hung by the chimney (fireplace) with care:



So, now, if I can just get all of these boxes unpacked and everything put away, I'll be doing good.

Moved

Well, for the most part at least. We still have a few things at the other place that we need to move over. I've been taking my time this week by moving over one van load a day. Just today, I got all of the boxes we've brought in so far put up. Then, I went back over and brought another load over so there are now more boxes sitting in my living room. More for me to do tomorrow.

We still don't have our internet hooked up. There was a problem with our phone line and we had to have the phone company come out and fix that today, so now we have our phone set up, only 5 days late! We are currently borrowing a neighbors unsecured network, which is how I am able to post this now.

I did manage to get my christmas tree up this weekend. I took some pics, but I can't post them until our computer is hooked up (using the laptop right now). But, that's what I've been doing this week. I still have a lot more to do before I can finally settle in completely. We also need some new furniture for our added living room, a new computer desk, a new t.v. armoire for our bedroom (our old one didn't survive the move) and a bunk bed for the girls. My goal is to be done by Christmas! Here's to hoping guru's year end bonus is a nice one! We shall see.

Chaos!

Our home is in complete chaos right now! We are moving in 2 days and I have been packing like crazy! This is what our table looks like (and has been this way for the past week!):



The storage room is all in boxes too:



Last night, I packed up the girls' room. There was a pencil box left on their dresser, and this morning I went down to find this:



I packed up my son's room last week. That was pretty much a waste of time because, today, it looks like this:



Actually, it looks worse than it really is. Once I get all of his toys packed back into the toy box, it won't be near as bad. That is the downfall of trying to pack with kids in the house. They just go right behind me and unpack things. This happens with cleaning too. I hate spending my time cleaning a room just to walk out for 2 minutes, then turn around and go back in the room I just cleaned and find it in disarray! That just frustrates me to no end.

Anyway, it is supposed to be snowing Friday so that should make for an interesting move. Hopefully we will get it all done quickly and I can get my Christmas tree up this weekend!

Out of hand?

No pun intended. (Ok, maybe a little.) Has this whole thing with Clay Aiken and Kelly Ripa gone a bit extreme? I see Kelly's point, but is she blowing it a bit out of proportion? I also think that the whole thing with Rosie O'Donnell thinking that Kelly's remark (about not knowing where Clay's hand has been) was homophobic is just absurd! I don't think it had anything at all to do with that. I believe that it was truly just about germs. Your thoughts?

Stupid Acid Reflux!

Good grief! I miss one day of my Prilosec and by bed time, I am feeling the pain! Something is not right with me. This is not normal! I have a Doctor's appointment in a couple of weeks with my new family Doc. to assess my overall health. I'll definately be bringing this up. I have brought it up in the past. My previous Dr. said that it should definately be checked into if the problem doesn't go away.

It has been going on for years now. It seems to have only gotten worse with each baby I have had. I fear I will soon have to have an endoscopy to figure out what is causing my problems. Just the thought of having a camera shoved down my throat to view my stomach makes me sqirm! Ugh!

That is the main reason I am even up at this hour blogging. I cannot lay down. I can literally feel the acid sitting in my esophagus. It is horrible! It's bad enough when I am sitting up, let alone if I attempt to lay down. Anyway, I guess I will go give a try to sleeping propped up on pillows. I did that a lot when I was pregnant.

Thanksgiving

Our Thanksgiving was a good one. I made a corn casserole, green bean casserole, and my friend's recipe for sweet potato casserole. The sweet potatoes turned out awesome, if I do say so myself! I think I'm going to have to make that again for Christmas!

Two of my dad's sisters and their familes weren't able to make it to town this week, so we only had 22 people there (including two very cute little babies). However, they are both supposed to be coming into town next week, so we should get to see them then.

Tomorrow, neither guru nor myself have any responsibilities at church, so we may or may not sleep in. Maybe we'll make it to one of the services. Too bad this day "off" didn't come next Sunday, since we can start moving next Friday and will probably be busy with that all weekend. But, since we both need to be there next week, we'll have to take a break from moving Sunday morning.

Anyway, I'm still keeping myself busy getting ready for this move. I am anxious to get moved and settled. Usually, I get my Christmas tree and all the decorations out the day after Thanksgiving, but this year I have to wait. I'm getting ansy!

I also realize, it has been quite a while since I've posted any pictures on here. So, I will try to do that sometime soon. That is if anyone cares to see. I don't know if anyone even visits here anymore other than guru, but that's ok. I still visit all my reads. Well, enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Upward!

Well, it's Upward time again! Last night was meet the coach night. Practices start next week. I know last year I said that I was not going to coach again this year. Well, I kept my promise...almost. (Check out the last sentence in that post!)

I waited it out, even though they were announcing over and over how much they needed coaches. I decided that I would wait one more week, and if they were still in need of coaches, I would volunteer. I waited the week and by then, all the head coach positions had been filled.

However, I agreed to help my friend (Alex's wife) as her assistant coach. At least I won't be coaching alone again like I did the past two years!

Other than that, I will be attempting a new recipe for Thanksgiving. I usually make the sweet potatoes, so this year, I've decided to make it interesting! I'm getting a recipe from my friend A for her mom's sweet potato casserole that is apparently awesome! I hope I can do it justice. I'm also making a corn casserole and green bean casserole. Now I'm hungry! Just two more days!!!

OSU vs. Michigan

'Nuff said!

GO BUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bummed!

My oldest daughter came in earlier and told me she looked in the window of the new townhouse we are supposed to be moving to and that the new carpet they laid in there is gray! WHAT?! The rest of the apartment has a tan color scheme. There are a few different color schemes they use here and usually gray carpet goes with a darker countertop and tile.

I am kind of bummin' right now cause to me, gray and tan don't really go together. The walls in all the apartments are tan. All of our furniture and our bedding go with tan and clash with gray. I know they just replaced the carpet, so at least it is brand new. I don't know if I should call and see if they would be willing to switch it out for tan, or just let it go and deal with it.

I don't know how the carpet is going to look with the tan tiles and countertops in there. I don't want to seem too demanding to the people who work in the office, especially since my brother works here and they know that I'm his sister! What would you do?

Shopping

I met up with my good friend Sweetiepie on Saturday for lunch and some shopping. We had a wonderful lunch at Spageddies and then hit the stores! We shopped at Toys R Us, Big Lots (shut up, name brands @ closeout prices), Bed Bath & Beyond, Michaels, Old Navy, EB Games, and Marshalls.

After a full afternoon of shopping, we found ourselves hungry again around 7:30 p.m., so we headed to CiCi's for a cheap pizza buffet dinner. Mmm, Italian food twice in one day! Good thing I remembered my Prilosec that morning!

After dinner, we headed back to her house and hung out for about an hour filling in her hubby on all we did and all the great deals we found. It was a fun day! I'm definately looking forward to doing it again soon!!

Making a Move

We are preparing to move to a bigger townhouse here in our complex. We have been on a waiting list for quite a while now, and they finally have one available for us. We are able to move December 1st. I am excited that we should be all moved and settled in by Christmas!

I've been doing a lot of work around here the last few days trying to get everything clean and organized. I've made some excellent progress but there is still a lot to do! Most of the work has been the laundry/storage/play room. But it's pretty much ready to go now! I'm sure I will be throwing a ton of stuff out. When we moved from our house into here, I threw away many huge trash bags and boxes of stuff. I expect I'll be doing the same thing this time, only maybe not to the same extent.

I am really excited about having more cabinet space in the kitchen and a pantry. Not to mention we'll be able to fit more than one person in the kitchen at a time comfortably! We'll also be getting an extra bedroom and full bathroom in the new place. Yea!

Elections

Tomorrow is election day! And I couldn't be happier! I am so sick of seeing all of the "trash talk" commercials on t.v. and hearing them on the radio. And if I get one more freaking recorded phone call from a Senator or Laura Bush, I'm likely to reach through the phone and punch them in their recorded throat!!!! (In Jesus' name, of course!) :)

Trick or Treat

Well, we ended up going trick or treating in the rain. We headed over to Alex's house and his wife and I took the kids out with umbrellas. We only circled around to one end of the street and back the other side to their house. After that, we decided to go inside for a while since it was raining pretty good by that time.

A little while later, the rain had stopped...just in time for guru and Alex to take their turn out with the kids. When they got back, we had fun raiding their candy and discussing which candy bars are the best (Snickers is totally the best, Alex! Gotta have nuts in the candy bar!), and how Milky Ways are the retarded cousin of Snickers. Good times.


(Yummy goodness in all sizes!)

Stupid Rain!

What the dealio with all this rain? It's October, not April! We are supposed to go trick or treating tonight. The kids are determined to go, even in the rain! There is no rain date for trick or treat here, so I guess we could just go and take umbrellas. It's not like we'll melt or anything. Plus, if the rain deters a lot of people from going out, then hey, more candy for me...er...my kids.

I don't know. I would hate for their cute little costumes to go to waste! It starts in less than an hour, so I need to think of something quick-like.

Stitches

This morning, after guru had left for work and the girls were already at the bus stop, I was in my kitchen making a sippy cup for my son when my front door opens. Hmm...wonder who forgot something, I thought. It was my middle daughter saying that my oldest had fallen at the bus stop and was bleeding.

So, I slip on some shoes and run out of the door in my shorts and t-shirt, hair not yet brushed, in 40 degree weather to find out what happened. I see my daugher walking toward me down the sidewalk, crying and holding her face with one hand and her mangled glasses in the other.

I take her inside and clean up all the shed blood and find out she was playing balance beam on the curb and her foot slipped. She had her hands in the pockets of her coat and she couldn't get them out in time to catch herself before faceplanting into the concrete. Her glasses dug into the side of her face leaving a nice slash next to her left eye.

It looked pretty bad, I could see several layers under her skin, and the cut was gaping. I figured she may need a stitch or two for it. So, I called around and the Children's urgent care didn't open until 3 pm. I wasn't about to head downtown and wait 8 hours in the Children's hospital ER, so I found an urgent care close to home and took her in.

Sure enough, she ended up with 7 stitches in her pretty little face! She was not happy about that at all! She screamed and squirmed when they gave her the shots to numb her face. I had to hold her arms down while the nurse held her head still. Once the numbing was taken care of, she was all good.

I continued to hold her hands and watch as the Doctor stitched her up. I actually remained very cool through the whole thing. I'm impressed with myself. How is it that I can handle all the blood and watch a Dr. put stitches in my baby's face, but I can't handle throw-up? I don't know.

Anyway, I would post before and after pictures, but I took them with my new camera phone, and we don't have the proper equipment to transfer pictures from phone to computer.

Lazy Day

Well, the family and I took a trip to the hospital last night to visit trin and G's new little man! He is so cute and looks so much like his big brother!

Today, my son and I just hung out at home all day. We even took a nap together this afternoon. That was nice! Tonight the kids and I are just gonna veg out and watch t.v. Guru is working late and I'm not sure when exactly he will get home. He works almost an hour away and he is still at work, so the kids will be in bed when he gets here. Pretty lazy and uneventful day here today.

I was hoping to take my kiddos to a Fall festival tomorrow night. We went last year and it was fun. There's free food and free candy, so it's all good! I am supposed to be singing with our church's worship choir this Sunday and our usual Wednesday practice got pushed to tomorrow, so if we go, it will only be for about an hour before we have to leave for the church for my practice. Boo!

Updates

I almost forgot to post about the double date Saturday night. It went pretty well. However, there is not going to be a second date. My friend just can't get past the fact that she had absolutely zero attraction to him. And I don't blame her. The guy seemed nice enough, but I really don't think their personalities match either. She's really outgoing and bubbly and he's kind of withdrawn. He has 2 parrots that are like his kids (and he likes to talk about them a lot) and she is not a bird person in the slightest. So she has already communicated with him that she is not interested in going out again, and he responded well.

Moving on...

I ended up having A's kids all day yesterday. So there were 5 kids 6 and under in my house all day long. Then when my girls got home from school, I had 7 kids 9 and under. Dinner time was fun. :) It really wasn't bad though. All the kids did really well. They played nicely and watched some cartoons and the youngest one is the only one I was actually able to get down for a nap.

Around 8:00 pm, I took A's kids up to visit their new baby brother. He's so cute! He looks exactly like 3/4 of her other kids. Her oldest daughter is the oddball...she looks more like her mommy while all the others look like their dad.

He weighed in at 8lbs 1oz and 19 inches long. I got to hold him and watch them give him his first bath in the nursery and smell his little newborn head! Almost makes me want to have another one.....almost!

Sometime today, I'll get to go back to the hospital and see my new nephew. And while I'm there, I'll stop back in and see A and her new baby.

Baby Day!

Well, today is the day! My brother and SIL are going to be meeting their newest addition. I'm really excited for them!

On top of that, my friend A is headed to the hospital right now as well. She was already scheduled to be induced today at 10 am, assuming the Dr. thought she was ready when she went in this morning for her last appointment. (She was due on the 19th!) When she went in this morning she found out she is at 3 cm's. So she just dropped off her 4 other kids here and is on her way to the hospital. She is super excited, because usually, it takes her forever to get to 4 cm's and then it goes really fast. So, she is hoping that with a little help from the pitocin, she'll be meeting baby #5 very shortly.

Well, that leaves me with 5 kids ranging from age 6 down to 17 months. We'll be fine though, they are good kids. Right now, they are all playing very quietly. The 2 oldest ones are watching Doodlebops and the others are playing Mr. Potato Head!

I may be taking them to another friend of A's for the afternoon, or possibly keeping them here. I don't know for sure yet. It depends on if the other friend is still willing to help out. If not, I'll take the kids up later today to meet their new little brother.

Wish me luck today, I should be pretty busy!

Saturday

This afternoon, I am taking my girls to a birthday party at friends 2B made. That should be really fun for them. I wish they had places like this when I was a kid. Basically all we had was Chuck E. Cheese or the skating rink. But that's a different story.

After that, guru and I are going out on a double date with a single mom friend of mine. She met a guy on eHarmony and I told her that the first time she meets him shoudn't be by herself. Anyway, she's having mixed feelings about this guy as it is. She says he has a great personality and they seem to have a lot in common and with just talking to him, she would definately be interested in him. But looking at his pictures, she is not attracted to him at all. He's a bit overweight with below average looks. She feels like God my be trying to teach her to not be so superficial.

There are a few other things that concern her about the guy too, like his job and his ex-wife. But she's going to give it a try. At least after meeting him in person, she should have a better idea if she thinks it is even worth pursuing further. She'll be able to say that she just didn't feel a connection with him in person....or possibly the other way around. Who knows.

I'll make sure to report how the date goes!

Kinda Bummed

We were supposed to be going to the Pumpkin Show tonight. Weather.com is showing a 100% chance of rain tonight starting at 7pm (which is about when we'd get there). That really puts a damper on our plans (no pun intended).

I guess we still have through Saturday to go if we really want to. The only thing is that if we don't go tonight, we will miss the parade of bands. The parade usually consists of a bunch of high school bands from across Ohio, but tonight they are welcoming The Best Damn Band In The Land! So we would have to miss that!

I guess that's not such a huge deal to guru though, since he gets to go see them at "the shoe" on Saturday!

Update

Well, I went back to the Dr. yesterday. He didn't end up doing another strep test. But, he did give me a stronger antibiotic. He said if I keep having problems with this, I may have to go see an ENT Dr. and talk about getting my tonsils out! I'm 26 years old! Isn't this something they usually do to kids? My oldest daughter had hers out when she was 6.

I have never been put under anesthesia for anything before. I really don't want to have to have them removed, but if it will keep me from getting strep throat so often, I may just have to do it!

Anyway, my friend A got sent home, no baby yet! Right now she is scheduled to be induced next Monday if she hasn't had the baby by then. That would actually make it convienient for me though if she waits until Monday, cause then I could make one trip to the hospital on Tuesday to see her and my new nephew!

I think it's back!

I think I have strep throat AGAIN! GRRR! My throat started feeling kind of icky on Friday. It didn't really hurt too bad, but it kinda felt like I may be starting to lose my voice or something.

Throughout the day, however, it really started to hurt. Yesterday and today were very bad. I was supposed to be on my church's praise team this morning, and ended up not even being able to go to church at all. (Same thing last time I had this a couple of weeks ago, I missed being on PT. Maybe God is trying to tell me something??)

Anyway, I will be calling the Dr. tomorrow to try to get in. I will have to endure another strep test, but if that's what I've got again, at least I'll know and can get on some meds to get rid of it. This time I want it to stay far, FAR away!

On another note, my friend A called a little while ago and said that she is in labor! This is baby #5 for her. Please pray for a quick and easy labor for her and a healthy baby!!

4 Day Weekends

My daughters have two 4 day weekends in a row. They have early dismissal today from school and are off tomorrow and Friday. Same thing next week.

Tomorrow is Fair day and I am not sure why they are off this Friday. Next Thursday is parent-teacher conferences and next Friday is Cota day. So, they are excited to have short weeks and long weekends two weeks in a row. I am going to have to come up with some fun activities for us to do while they're off to (hopfully) avoid them fighting the whole time.

Looks like I will have to take a trip to Michaels and pick up some crafts for them to make for Christmas presents!

Small Group

A couple of weeks ago, while on our retreat, my small group decided we needed to start meeting regularly again. Over the summer, our schedules were just too busy to coordinate get-togethers. So, now that school is back in and our lives are getting back into routines, we started scheduling time again.

Most of the small groups at our church meet once a week. We are not quite able to pull that off yet, so we are attempting every other Monday night. Last night was the kick off. We met at Panera and ate dinner together and just chatted away and laughed and had a good time. When Panera closed at 9:00, we weren't ready to call it a night just yet, so we walked next door to TGI Friday's and sat around giggling some more for another hour.

Next time we meet, we will be discussing what Bible study we want to start on next. We took this first week just to get together and have a good time before we started in on a study. I always have such a good time with these ladies. They are so laid back and fun to be around.

I really hope we are able to keep up with meeting like this. It is so refreshing to me to be able to be around other adults like that, since my days generally consist of hanging out with a 2 year old. (Not that I am complaining! He's the bestest 2 year old around and I love being home with him!)

The thing is, my group wants to start planning get aways more often too. More than the once a year we go to Beth Moore. They are talking about an actual get away next summer where we go somewhere for like 4-5 days! I would LOVE that, but I just don't think it is doable for me. I mean, we didn't even go on a family vacation this year (not even a weekend trip) because we couldn't afford to. So, I don't think I can swing a girls trip in there just for me before even doing a family vacation. That doesn't seem fair.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens. I may just have to stick to our annual conference get away for now.

Two Lunches

Today, my daughters' school is having their annual fall cookout. This is a day where parents can come eat lunch with their kids (actually, we can do that anyday) and they are, well, cooking out. They are having hot dogs and such.

Well, neither of my girls wanted hot dogs, but rather wanted me to bring them food. My oldest eats from 11:00-11:45. She wants me to bring her Wendy's. So, I will be stopping off to pick her up some lunch and then heading to the school to try to find a parking spot in the tiny parking lot, then finding my daughter to eat lunch with her.

Then, I have to go back out and pick up Arby's for my younger daughter and go back, find another parking spot, and find my younger daughter for her lunch starting at 12:30. All the while, I will be lugging around my 2 year old as well.

The note that was sent home said that if it rains, they will have the cookout tomorrow instead. I hope it doesn't get rained out today because I did not send any lunch or lunch money with the girls today. If it is, they will be able to "charge" their lunch and I can pay it later, so no big deal.

**UPDATE**
I called the school and it has been postponed until tomorrow due to the weather. I guess they will get their fast food lunches tomorrow!

Better

While I am still not 100%, I am feeling much, much better today! I am still very tired, but that could just be cause I haven't really done much for the past week. I need to get out and move around a little, maybe that will wake me up some.

I was able to get some fall decorations up yesterday. I need to find my door hangy thing so I can hang my wreath on the front door. I always end up losing them and buying new ones. Fortunately they are really cheap! I will probably pick one up today because I don't feel like rummaging through the millions of boxes in the basement looking for the one from last year. It is probably in with the Christmas stuff, which happens to be burried right now.

So, to sum up, I'm feeling better and now I'm off to run some errands and do some shopping! Have a good day!

Yep, It's Strep!

I woke up feeling even worse yesterday morning. I decided I should probably go into the Doctor. I was running a fever of 102.4 at the Doc's office. He did a strep test (yuck, I hate those! Those long q-tip looking things they scrape your throat with...ew). He came back in the exam room and said that it was strep.

He prescribed me an antibiotic. I spent the entire afternoon sleeping. Last night was terrible. I woke up soaked in sweat, but couldn't take the covers off because I would freeze! I hate not being able to get comfortable.

Tylenol hasn't seemed to be cutting it for me either. I take it and I'm still in terrible pain and running a fever. Guru picked me up some Ibuprofin. I took some of that a little while ago, and for the first time in the past couple of days, I'm not in incredible pain. Thank God for that! Well, I'm off to rest some more. Hopefully I will be feeling much better tomorrow!

Ow!

I have come down with something overnight. Yesterday I was fine. Right before bed, I noticed my throat starting to hurt a little bit. I had a difficult time getting comfortable last night, and tossed and turned all night. All the while, my throat started hurting more and more.

This morning, it was terrible! I took a couple of Tylenol and it started feeling a bit better. Now that the meds have worn off, not only is my sore throat back worse than this morning, but it's accompanied by body aches. My neck, shoulders, and arms feel so sore! I think I have a fever, too!

I hate being sick. I take vitamins every day! I think I'm going to be upping my vitamin C for a little while. It seems I end up getting strep throat at least once a year! I really, really hope that this isn't strep!

Time for some more Tylenol! OW!

Analogies and Metaphors

Every year, English teachers from across the country can submit their collections of actual analogies and metaphors found in high school essays. These excerpts are published each year to the amusement of teachers across the country. Here are last year's winners.....

1. Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently compressed by a Thigh Master.


2. His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.


3. He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.


4. She grew on him like she was a colony of E. Coli, and he was room-temperature Canadian beef.


5. She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.


6. Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.


7. He was as tall as a six-foot, three-inch tree.


8. The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife's infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM machine.


9. The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't.


10. McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty bag filled with vegetable soup.


11. From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you're on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on at 7:00 p.m. instead of 7:30.


12. Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze.


13. The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease.


14. Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m. at a speed of 35 mph.


15. They lived in a typical suburban neighborhood with picket fences that resembled Nancy Kerrigan's teeth.


16. John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.


17. He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant, and she was the East River.


18. Even in his last years, Granddad had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long, it had rusted shut.


19. Shots rang out, as shots are wont to do.


20. The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work.


21. The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while.


22. He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame, maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.


23. The ballerina rose gracefully en Pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.


24. It was an American tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with power tools.


25. He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.

Fun Time Away

Well we were a bit later getting out of town than we expected to. But not too late. We got to our hotel and checked in around 4:45. We headed up to our room and decided that we really didn't have time to go eat at a restaurant before getting over to the Civic Center by 6:00, when the doors opened. So we ended up just ordering room service.

We were within walking distance from where we needed to go. Right across the street from our hotel was a mall. We actually ended up just walking through the mall to get to the conference (since it was raining). We ended up sitting in the upper level, but we had a great view and we weren't surrounded by too many people, so it was actually more comfortable than being down on the floor. We decided to come back and sit in the same seats on Saturday too.

Beth was great as usual. She is so animated when she speaks that she just draws you in to what she is saying and is quite funny as well. Travis Cottrell and his praise team were awesome too. No Mandisa this time though. :(

After the conference was over around noon on Saturday, we (the 5 of us from our small group plus one of the ladies' sister) headed out to get some lunch at an Italian place called Gratzi. It was very yummy. Then we dropped our things off in our hotel room and hit the mall. We spent several hours just walking around and shopping! It was so much fun, even though I only purchased a couple of things. After shopping, we headed back to our hotel to decide what we wanted to do for dinner. We heard as we were walking back in the hotel that there was a manager's reception for all guests every night from 5:30 to 7:30. It was already about 7:00 but we went down to check it out.

They have different hors d'oeuvres every night. That night they had a spinach dip (very good, and not e coli infested) with chips and these little slices of bread with cream cheese and salmon on them. Apparently they had little sandwiches before we got down there too, but they were gone. They also had free cocktails and soft drinks. All free for guests! After that, we headed back to the room and snacked on wheat thins, and dark chocolate kit kats and called it dinner. We also played a game called Dirty Minds that one of the ladies bought at the mall. Very funny game! We also did facials and scrubbed our feet and did our nails. One of the ladies in the group sells Arbonne, so we got to use the goods.

Sunday we slept in and went down to a free breakfast. They had a bar set up with scrambled eggs, hash browns, French toast, biscuits, sausage gravy, and grits. They also had an entire bar of different kinds of fruits. They had cereals, any kind of juice you could want, soft drinks, tea, and coffee. AND a cook to order omelet bar. They had all the fresh ingredients out and you could just tell the lady what you wanted in it and she made it right there in front of you. She also served freshly made pancakes, and bacon and sausage. We were all completely stuffed!!

We requested a late check out for 1:00. After our breakfast settled, 3 of us headed down to check out the hot tub for a while. We got down there and the hot tub was WAY too hot. We joked that the jets weren't' even on, it was just boiling. We couldn't even get in it. We were able to get in the heated pool though.

After hanging out, chatting in the pool for a while, we headed back up to the room to get showers and packed up. We headed out at 1:00. We ended up stopping for an early dinner/late lunch at Red Lobster. After that it was on home to our families! (Me to my poor sick baby!)

It was such a fun weekend hanging out with the girls. Lots of fun and laughter. It is so great to have such a wonderful group of friends. I feel so comfortable with all of them and feel like I can tell them anything, and truly be myself with them and they don't judge me. And, they all feel the same way. We are going to try to start meeting again regularly. It is difficult for us to try to meet every week, so we have it on the calendar to meet 2 Monday evenings in October.

Weekend Getaway

Well, in about 30 minutes, I should be on my way out of town. As I mentioned yesterday, I am headed to a Beth Moore Conference. It is always a spiritually uplifting time of praise and worship. I am looking forward to it.

I am also looking forward to the R & R I plan on getting. It will be a nice change of pace for me to be able to go and only be responsible for myself....That is always nice!

So, wish me safe travel and a good time! I should be back home sometime on Sunday. Let's just hope the place isn't in total disarray when I return.

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen Things I'm looking forward to... The new season of Grey's Anatomy. Starts tonight! Yea! Going to a Beth Moore conference this weekend. I love her. My small group is staying an extra night just to relax! Shopping! Swimming at the hotel. Relaxing in the hot tub. Slumber party with my girlfriends. (Will there be pillow fights in our underwear? I don't know!) More shopping!! Chatting and catching up with my small group ladies. Not being responsible for anyone but myself for 2 days! No poopie diapers! Did I mention shopping? Getting back home to hug my babies! Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

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Thanks, A.W.F.I.

I saw your post the other day about my hair. Thank you. I have been trying to comment on your blog as well, but it doesn't go through. Perhaps for the same reason you can't comment here??

I got an honest response from Oz on Sunday too (about my hair). He said he didn't like it in my pictures on here. But, he said in person, he liked it. I think maybe the pictures make it look more drastic than it really is. I don't know.

Finally Friday!

I went to Trin's mom and got my hair cut today. Not drastically. Just a little off the ends to help it lay flatter when I straighten it. It has been flipping up at the ends, even when I use the flat iron, from the way it was cut last time. It will probably still flip up some because I didn't want her to chop all my hair off, but it should help. I also asked for a few chunky blonde highlights on top. She came back out with two bowls of color. She said, "I mixed up some blonde and some red for ya."

I generally trust her with my hair and let her do what she thinks will look good. So, I said "go for it". Here is the finished product.





What do you think?

Sleepy Days!

It has been rainy here for the past couple of days. I get so sleepy when it rains! Why is that? Is it just me? I have such a hard time getting out of bed on mornings that it's raining. Ok, I have a hard time getting out of bed any morning, but rainy mornings are worse!

I never seem to be able to completely wake up on rainy days. I just feel so groggy and tired all day. Can't seem to get my butt movin'.

I know the rain is good, we need rain. But, I am SO looking forward to some dryer, cooler (yet sunny), Fall days!


Rain, rain go away!!

More Long Days

Yesterday morning, I got a call from my grandma. She said she was in the E.R. She woke up with chest pains, shortness of breath, and tightening in her throat. She has apparently been experiencing some chest pains lately and was already scheduled for a stress test next Monday. So, when whe woke up like that yesterday, she thought she should go get it checked out.

They ran some tests and told her that things looked pretty good, but they wanted to keep her overnight for observations. They said that if the bloodwork they did later in the day came back ok too, that she may be able to go home even that evening.

However, not too long later, the nurse came back in and said that the Cardiologist wanted to do a heart cath. to be safe since the tightness in her throat wasn't going away. I was in the room with her when they told her that, and I got an uneasy feeling because of what happened to my grandfather just last year.

It also worries me that if something were to happen to her before my grandfather...I don't know what we'd do. He is not capable of taking care of himself full time. He has the beginning stages of alzheimer's and has tons of meds he has to take everyday and he relies on her to give them to him. (I had to sort out all of them for him last night, fun!) If she were to go before him, I honestly wouldn't expect him to make it another year.

Anyway, my friend A watched my son for me this morning so I could go sit with my grandfather while my grandma was having the procedure. (Thanks, A!) Everything turned out good. There were no complications and they didn't find anything concerning. No blockages or anything. Praise God! They think it may be a problem with her stomach. She'll be having that checked into further.

So, she was able to come home this afternoon! She wanted to stop and eat lunch at their favorite place. So I picked up my son then we ate and I took them both home.

Man, I could definately live without this added stress! But, I'm just glad she's alright!

In case you were wondering: Besides the whole memory loss thing (which has been building for years) my grandfather is doing SO much better. He had a difficult year and we almost lost him more than once. He was using a walker and was on oxygen for a while as well. Now, by looking at him, you'd never be able to tell. He's just made a wonderful recovery! No more walker (just his old cane that he's used for years) and no more oxygen tank.

I LOVE The Fall!

This is my absolute favorite time of the year!! The weather is perfect. I just love being able to open up all the windows and let the fresh air flow through the house. It's just so relaxing! All Summer and all Winter are spent closed up inside because of the heat or the cold. You can't have the windows open when it's 100 degrees or 30 degrees outside. Spring is nice, but usually rainy and yucky outside. But Autumn is the best! It is usually the time of year when I am the least depressed.

There are just so many fun things to do in the Fall. Like going apple picking and going to the pumpkin patch. Dressing up for Halloween and getting all kinds of candy (thank goodness I have kids to do that for me). I love going to the pumpkin show every year. Harvest festivals at different churches, hay rides, bonfires. Not to mention the colorful trees. I love it!

Autumn, the best season of them all, seems to go by the quickest. Is it because it's such a great time and I'm having so much fun that it just seems to slip by? Or could it be that usually October is about all the Fall we get? Usually, here in good ole' Ohio, it stays pretty warm through to the end of September. This year, so far has been a nice change, we're acutally experiencing some not so hot weather here right now. Then by November, it starts getting really cold out.

And that is when my depression usually kicks in full force! I'm pretty sure I suffer from SAD. It's dark when I get up in the mornings and dark again by 6:00 p.m. It just feels like the days pass by so fast. I hate it when it's all snowy and slushy and slippery on the roads. Trying to lug kids and groceries and whatever else through snow and ice is never fun.

If it were up to me, we would have October weather from September 1st through December 23rd. Then we could have a nice white christmas and it could be cold through the rest of the year. Just no more snow!

Oh well, at least I just got my Effexor dosage upped! Maybe it'll be fully kicked in by the time stupid winter comes!

Inconsiderate Neighbors

As you know, we live in an apartment. That means that our "yard" is shared with lots of other people. Well, we recently got some new neighbors right next door. They have a dog. A big dog. There is a rule in our community that if you have a dog, you must pick up after it when it does it's business. Great rule! Excellent rule! I LOVE that rule! The new neighbors, however, don't seem to care about said rule.

I have seen the lady out walking around with her dog on several occasions. Did she have a plastic bag or a pooper-scooper with her? NOOOO! And, since they are right next door that means that a lot of this dog's "business" is pretty much right outside our back door. Right where our kids play! Can you guess what's next? Yep, my kids end up stepping in it!

The girls were out back on Saturday playing and some of their friends from down the street came down to play and between the 5 kids out there, there were at least 3 different times that one or another of them stepped in dog poo!!

I mean, SERIOUSLY PEOPLE, clean up after your freaking dogs!!!! It's one thing if you have your own yard and you don't clean up after your dog, but when you have to share a yard with other people and you know that lots of kids frequently play in the grass...that's a WHOLE other story! It's just plain rude and inconsiderate to not pick it up immediately!

On top of that, we had some more new neighbors move into the building behind us. They rent a garage that is in front of our building. They have Harley's. Loud Harley's. Sounds like huge trucks that have had their mufflers fall off Harley's! When do these neighbors like to ride their loud bikes? After 10:00 p.m. Every. Single. Night!!!

They don't just start 'em up and leave either. Oh, no! They turn them on, rev them up, and let them "warm up" for about 20 minutes before they leave. So we have to sit here and listen to them for that time every night. It's even worse now that we've turned off our air conditioner and opened the windows. Of course we close our son's windows at night, but even with them closed, the bikes are extremely loud (and practically right under his windows!)

Are you kidding me? Do you have absolutely NO consideration for other people? Are you so self obsorbed that you don't give a flying freak that people may be trying to sleep at that time. Have you not noticed all the children that live in this community that may, I don't know, have to get up for school in the morning and that you might just be interrupting their sleep?

COME ON PEOPLE! GET YOUR HEADS OUT OF YOUR REARS! OPEN YOUR EYES! YOU'RE DRIVING ME NUTS!!!!!