Bailey's Leaf

Well lookie here.

2012-02-10T13:40:00.001-05:00

My husband's one and only goal for his vacation this week was to find a replacement boat trailer. After having been shown some pretty busted up pieces of crub, one requiring a full weld to a middle support and one place having acknowledged that they under quoted him $400-500. for a new trailer price over the phone (and only telling him that after driving a half hour out), he found a lovely place that's a jog down the road and now is a lovely owner of a new boat trailer.

Hallelujah!

If you look in the side mirror, you'll see the big ole smile on his face. Either that or he was laughing at my Japanese tourist tendencies with the camera.

We worked together to raise the boat back up off the lawn and onto the trailer. She's only a 14' aluminum row boat, but I was a little concerned there for a minute. We got it pulled up and locked in place, then my husband decided that he needed to give her a bath. Grant you, it was about 25 F out and he reports that the sponge was freezing to the boat, but it's all shiny, up on wheels and again covered with a huge tarp. He's not a man who requires big and wonderfully overdone things. He tells people that this is his one and only boat. It's low maintenance. If the motor runs out of juice, we can easily paddle back to shore. It fits in the backyard. I can drop it in and pull it back out. She's a good little boat she is.

And yes, she is sea worthy.

Hooray!

For those of you that don't know of the boat trailer story, feel free to go here. I know that I had two more days of posts on the boat trailer heist right after that. Oh, and to confirm to everyone including the spooty thieves who drove off with our 1976 trailer, we now have locks. Never had to have them before. Hubs bought the boat and trailer when he was 16. He had it for 22 years at that point.

Someone that we know and love is gonna . . .

2012-02-08T22:30:00.002-05:00

. . . have a baby and I can't out them because they haven't announced it themselves. You know who you are and we are sooooo happy for you!

Eeeeeeeee!!!

Tales from the Trenches: How am I going to know when the cherries are ready?

2012-02-07T09:27:00.000-05:00

Aunt Donna had a love for cherries. She shared that love with K-. I would get weekly calls. "Amy, the cherries aren't ready yet." "Aimmmmmmmm-eeeee! The cherries are ready! Bring K- over and I have some for her."

Aunt Donna taught K- how to spit cherry seeds. Now, it sounds and is a disgusting habit, but I figured if that was what they were going to do, I'd at least spot them so that they didn't hit pedestrians with flying cherry pits/seeds. "Hold on. Hold on. Okay-- now!" They would sit on her bench, spit them from the 7th floor balcony and you would hear the little 'ting' when they hit.

On Sunday, I was walking through the produce section with K-. Tears suddenly started running down my face. "K-, how are we going to know when the cherries are ready?"

A low level kind of day.

2012-02-05T15:24:00.000-05:00

K- woke up this morning not feeling terribly well. As the morning wore on, I found that it was a combo of everything just dumping into one stressful heap. We opted to stay at home and just be.

We decided to do our Valentines. We almost always do Valentines during a snowstorm, but we're kind of free of those this year, so we had to embrace what we had. K- had a "your day to choose" day on clothing and she was particularly surprised when she found that her kindergarten shirt from school still fits. Kindergarten was two years ago.

While she was making her Valentines, I went to work at spiffing up the wooden Valentine decoration I've had for probably 10 years. The lower hearts had faded to white. I pulled off the bow, re-painted the hearts and glued the bow back on. It's not my greatest paint job, but it looks so much better.

K- finished up her to and from, stamped the construction paper hearts with some Valentine stamps she had and I glued them onto these felt hearts I bought on clearance last year. Voila. Valentine crafting is done. I'll put her Valentine treat bags together next Monday night. I went to the local bread store and bought a couple of boxes of Ding Dongs to put in her bags. We'll stick a nice Aunt Donna Valentine heart sticker on each one (she bought her a whole book) and pack them away in the bags and ready them to go.

The day brought K- to the point of wanting a nap. Fine. I'd like to take one, too. "Mom, can you tuck me in?" Absolutely.

In other news, I think I mentioned the loss of the big front tooth. Here's the gap.

I was pleased to see a woodpecker at the suet feeder one day.

We'll be hitting the grocery when everyone is partying for the Super Bowl. I really don't care about men running around in overly tight pants, chasing after a funny shaped leather ball. No one we know has had a party in several years, so we'll press on as usual. All is good.

Anything interesting going on in your neck o' the woods? Tell me. I'd like to know!

It upsets me that I can't fulfill her final wishes.

2012-02-04T19:36:00.000-05:00

My aunt had no will, but stated to many what her final wishes were. Because she had no will, I, who she wanted to handle all of the material possessions and final arrangements, cannot do that. Within minutes of her death being called in the field by the EMT's, I was asked for the keys and her wallet. I was also told that I didn't have to stay and I could go ahead and leave. The EMT's looked at me as I explained, "Um, I was here when she died. I'm sure that I'm not supposed to leave quite yet." :EMT shaking head: They wanted to start ransacking the joint before she had even lost warmth.

Who is they? That would be Bill and his wife.

He kept asking, "Amy, where is the box?" He wanted a silver box that were to contain Aunt Donna's final papers.

I don't have the box.

He's called friends. They've called me and said that they were asked, "Where's the box?"

The box questions have ended. Frankly, I think that in the ransacking of the apartment, he found the cash stashes that he was looking for. All of the blank check books are gone. I have concern about that, but handled the things at the bank as Aunt Donna instructed me to.

It is one steaming pile of poo. It's not how Aunt Donna wanted things handled. She wanted my sister and I to handle everything and wanted her brother to have nothing and yet because she failed to state her wishes legally, he will take and take.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not here with my hand out. I care nothing about physical possessions. He can have at it with the medical equipment, used lift chair and the Golden Girls couch. What bothers me is that I know that Aunt Donna wanted these things to be handled not just as thrift possessions, but as the life possessions that she had amassed and as such, she wanted good things to happen to them/with them.

She would give anything she had to anyone.

She would share anything she had with anyone.

We knew that that's what she wanted done. Instead, I come in to a bedroom that was ransacked for cash. I get occasional calls about the missing bilfold she had.

The woman had very little and yet what she had is being amassed in a pile of gambling driven greed.

"Oh, I know that she wanted to have trusts put up for all the kids and that WILL be done." What kind of idiot do you think I am?

I was with her at the very end. I was present for her last breath. I called 911-- twice. I relayed info from her, then about her. I, despite her size, still tried to roll her over to do CPR. I dragged furniture and dead mobility scooters out of the way with the EMTs. I watched them try to revive her. I went down 7 floors to let the additional engine company come in to help lift her lifeless body. I was there when her time of death was called in the field. I was questioned by the EMT's. I was questioned by the police. I didn't panic. I wasn't hysterical. I did what I had to do. It's with that that I can walk away and know that though not in death, but in life I did all I could do for her. I rest knowing that the promise that I made to my grandmother while she was on her deathbed was that I would take care of Aunt Donna. Within 10 minutes of being told that, her labored breathing had slowed and she went home to be with the Lord. I carried out my promise and know that I made two women as happy as I could.

With this, that's all that matters. God's will, as I had prayed it, was done. Aunt Donna felt no pain. She was not suffering. Her heart stopped and she just stopped being. It was peaceful and it was like she just fell asleep. I could have asked for nothing else for her.

Now we're left to grieve. I haven't been able to do that before today. I've been on auto pilot. K-, on the other hand, has moments where she just crumbles and cries. You see, K- and Aunt Donna had been two peas in their own pod from the time K- was 4 days old. The two went toodling on Aunt Donna's scooter, then when old enough, they would run races in the parking lot. Aunt Donna would be on her scooter and K- would be on foot. K- finally got big enough and fast enough that Aunt Donna, scooter full throttle, would have to cheat and sneak in between cars. All the ladies in the building know her and she would hang and sometimes try to help them with their puzzles. She was the mail retriever. Aunt Donna had taken her for so many years that finally she was old enough to go the 7 floors down, get the mail and come back up. Aunt Donna would scooter over with sidewalk chalk and cherry tomatoes for K-. She'd sometimes scooter over while I was at work and leave a bag of Aunt Donna offerings on the door.

Life just isn't going to be the same without the old girl.

And the gate opened and she walked right in.

2012-02-02T23:35:00.000-05:00

Her body is whole. She is free of pain. This evening, skipping a long and very sorted story which involves me, 911 and my aunt's lack of breathing, she went home. She went home to be with her Lord and Savior.

I'm okay. Certainly wasn't something that I signed up for, but the Lord put me where I was supposed to be.

The weirdness of the hug.

2012-02-02T12:32:00.001-05:00

My parents separated when I was 6. In fact, that summer that I was to turn 7, we lived at my aunt's house. We lived in the basement (which was finished) and her family lived in the general living quarters of the house. It was a bustling place, since we had three kids in our family, 5 in hers, their friends, my mom, aunt and uncle. To this day, my cousins and my sister and I are still rather close. At that time, there was Bill (bio dad) living in our house all by himself.

Nice. Send the wife and kids packing.

We moved back in at the end of that summer. I'll never forget that my mom told me on my birthday that we'd be going to "1171" which was the address that I knew and loved. Bill moved out and to a home of his own and we could go back to life as usual.

He wasn't home a ton. He worked and he bowled a lot. He was never really involved with us.

I remember the fighting. Oh, there was intense fighting. I think that I've blogged about it before, but there was one particular fight that is forever etched into my memory. We lived on 3 acres, fighting had escalated and my sister and I went to hide out in the barn. I don't know what made me, but I went up to the house, found my brother Billy crying and crying in the window, walked over hunks of broken glass while in bare feet, got him and took him down the barn with us. It was just not a pleasant environment at that point. When we heard we'd be going to Aunt Carol's with mom, I think we were all relieved. Mom didn't want us to grow up that way.

Bill never wanted anything to do with us. I don't recall seeing him that summer. He took my brother to spend the night once, but there weren't calls or even to stop in. My aunt's house was all of two miles down the main road. It's not like we moved states away.

When Bill moved out, I remember spending the night at his place once. He did get married not long after the divorce was final. I remember spending the night after his remarriage once. We'd get cards dropped in the mailbox signed "Bill and Rose." We never got calls. He didn't care. I think that he did make a showing at my first holy communion, but in the back of my memory, I remember him slipping in and out of a side door.

Bill took us to the bar one evening for a visit. Yup. Good times. I know I've mentioned this one before, too. I thought mom was going to blow her stack. Frankly, I don't blame her.

Bill went off to Oregon with Rose. He went off to get away from his responsibility to pay child support. He wanted my mom to "buy him out." I think that the price was something like $5000. total. Mom said no.

So times had come, he and Rose had sent a Christmas package to LeAnne and neglected to include Billy or me. A card would have been grand, but I do remember at least that Rose made LeAnne an afghan. I remember that he called to speak with LeAnne. I refused to speak to him. He didn't call to speak with me. I was an after thought. Just something that was there. "Well, I might as well talk to her, I suppose," was the thought that I figured that he had.

My extraneous self and my brother decided that if he didn't want us, we didn't want him. We did go through adoption proceedings and were legally adopted with a legal name change in May, 1989. Billy was 11 (nearly 12) and I was 15.

Over the years, Bill turned up at Billy's house. He really wanted a relationship with him after he found that my nephew was born. He longed for my brother to change his name to the "family name" as to keep the name on.

Um, no.

I've run into him with my sister's weddings, occasions at her house, bits with Aunt Donna and Grandma. All were cordial. After Grandma died and he showed up in tears, (Aunt Donna called to say that it was the end and they chose to go to bed instead, which was their choice, but then they were shocked that she was gone. Go figure.) I gave him a polite hug and told him that I was sorry.

Yesterday was just flat weird. It was like he wanted to perform for an audience. He seemed to have resurfaced after years because now I'm able to take care of myself and I require nothing from him. No, it doesn't work that way. Parenting doesn't work that way. It irritates me. He wants to make this seemingly large gesture and it is all for show. Sure, I'm polite. I wouldn't tolerate disrespect from K- towards him or Rose, but in the end, they are almost no different than a stranger off the street. What a horrible attitude to have about someone who is half of your biological make-up.

:shake of the head:

I realized today that my whole dad experience has been rather weird. I mean, underneath I knew that, but I had a biological father who wasn't present and a step father who made up for that. That relationship was still weirdish because of how he grew up. (He was one of 8 and didn't grow up in a very touchy-feely or close household.) I was adopted at 15 1/2 and still to this day refer to my father by adoption by his first name. I mean it as no disrespect, but my brother does the same thing. When I refer to him in title, he is my father. When I refer to Bill he as what he is-- Bill.

Family trees are weird and sometimes burled and disjointed. I don't know. It just is what it is.

A list! Things you didn't want to know about the last few days.

2012-02-01T12:00:00.000-05:00

1. I'm new at blogging from the Kindle and their auto-correct is hilarious. Yes, I know that there is an empty 10, but I couldn't figure out how to get the Kindle to scroll down the rest of the way. I can tell you what it was, though. Our crocus' seem to be confused. The warm weather has made them peek their heads above the soil.

2. I always have the habit of checking the public bathroom when I open the store. After the weekend, I can sometimes find some lovelies in there. At Christmas, I found that someone flushed an air freshened. It was those little gel balls and someone emptied it into the toilet. I have no idea what possessed them to do that. Monday, I came in to find a "gift" on the floor. Wow,that started my day off grrrreat!

3. I'm eating a cold lunch because my coworker has to heat each thing individually and it literally takes 10 minutes for her to do it. Think I'm kidding, just ask Nicole!

4. I have a coworker who needs to seriously retire.

5. My bio dad felt the need to hug me today in front of a roomful of strangers and to loudly announce that he loves me. I told him that I loved him just to make the awkwardness stop.

6. It was warm enough outside yesterday to lie on the sidewalk and enjoy the warmth.

7. The windows were open at the house all day yesterday.

8. Since this post is several days in the making, so my aunt's update comes here. The breast lumpectomy was done today. It was successful, they believe that they got everything and the lymph nodes that were removed appear to test fine at this moment.

9. The smell of my grandfather's cherry tobacco pipe enveloped me at one point. I felt Poppy's presence and boy did I need that. That was yesterday and I was a bit fatigued from all of the stuff with my aunt.

10.

Because there is a Polar Pop out there with my name on it.

2012-01-31T09:22:00.000-05:00

First, Aunt Donna's procedure went well. They were able to remove her tumor by doing a colonoscopy and doing it that way. They couldn't do it at the initial colonoscopy because they needed to get some tools to perform the procedure that they didn't have. We're glad that it was basically as minimally invasive as possible. Aunt Donna had herself all thinking that parts of colon or intestine were being removed and that rehab would be necessary.

Thankfully, not so. Her procedure (wasn't full on surgery) was supposed to be at 7:30 AM so I arrived at 6:25 AM to find her no where around. She had been rolled down at 5:50 AM, so I had to hunt down the colonoscopy room and hang out there.

Bill was fine and I'm thankful for the word search app on the Kindle. It took the awkwardness of the situation away.

Tomorrow, she'll be having the lumpectomy on her breast done. I believe that to be true since it actually came out of a physicians mouth. Lord only knows what time I'll need to be up and out for that. I'm good with it. Don't think I'm not. I wouldn't consider not being there for her, but caffeine-- oh it shall be my friend.

With that, it is supposed to be a freakishly warm 60 degree day. Pardon me as I go crack a few windows open. I long for fresh air.

Keep the prayers coming. Thanks so much!

Aunt Donna's surgery tomorrow!

2012-01-30T17:06:00.000-05:00

Bless the ole girl. They told her that she would have surgery tomorrow @7:30 AM and she didn't ask important questions like how long, where will I be after or anything. She's just excited to get this finally done. As for me, I'll be enjoying an akward wait time with her brother, my biological father who I disowned at 15, was adopted and had a legal name change. It's not about me and I'm hoping that we can continue being cordial as we've managed for the last many years.

Prayers, please!

More fodder for the blog.

2012-01-30T09:33:00.001-05:00

A speedy post.

1. Aunt Donna is going in for her lung biopsy this AM. I'll let you know what I know, but currently I have nothing. I can tell you that her roommate had given the nurses a run for their money and at 93, she tried to break the wrist of one, a finger of the other and that sent Aunt Donna into the hall yelling for help. The cavalry came running and they were able to free their co-workers, to which they all decided that Aunt Donna needed a private room. Too much drama.

2. We are attending a lovely church with services and classes for the little ones. Why is it that one lady insists on bringing her grandson with her on the Sunday a month she has him? Apparently, his parents came along this week with two others in tow. We had an adult class with three children 4 and under, being liquored up with coffee (regular) by their grandmother. They were ripping the tree apart (they seasonally decorate a tree in there), so the one lady just directed the ripping into switching the theme. They were flying around with large candy canes in hand and smacking things. It is hard to pay attention when kids are running like crazy in a class that they don't belong in.

3. Remember the dinosaur guy from Mrs. Doubtfire? I think that he is alive and well at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. :snore: K- liked him and got a lot out of it. I had to walk away before I fell asleep standing up.

4. Why do people have to ask questions involving swear words to interpreters that are conducting a program FOR CHILDREN? I mean, is it necessary to ask what will happen if the animal gets pi$s#d off? Really?

5. My husband thinks that I need to become a recluse out in some remote place in Montana. There are days I just don't like the public a ton. I told him that my lack of grace prevents me from being too far from a doctor.

Must go get ready for work. That's all the time I have.

Later!

A heaping helping of frustration.

2012-01-27T17:54:00.002-05:00

This is my aunt's 8th day in the hospital. During that time, we've been given highs, lows and in-betweens.

She was told Monday that her tumor that was found was cancerous.

She was told Tuesday or Wednesday that it was precancerous.

She was told Tuesday that she had a spot on her lung and one in her right breast. Nothing to worry about. Probably calcium deposit in the breast and perhaps asbestos in the lung.

She was sent down for a mammogram on Wednesday and the tech told her that it looked suspicious and like it was cancer. Oh, the term was changed from spot to mass.

They decided that they had to have a biopsy of it. Aunt Donna said that they could do it when they do her surgery to remove the rectal tumor. They came Thursday afternoon and did it in her room.

Today she was told that she has three additional "lumps" that they have found, one place being her pancreas.

Today she was told that the "spot" on her lung needed to be biopsied and they will be doing that tomorrow.

Cancer, no cancer, cancer, no cancer, cancer . . .

She is looking towards surgery possibly Wednesday. She's wanting them to remove what they can remove and have radiation or chemotherapy. She's repeated that several times. By what she said that the doctor has said, it doesn't look like any of those three are truly the options that they are looking at.

Frankly, I do think that my aunt is full of cancer. They could carve and chop her up like a pumpkin, but at this point, I don't know that it would make a huge difference.

Each phone call gives a different answer. She says that once she hangs the phone up, the doctors come in and tell her something else.

What is worse is how I currently feel about what would be good news that she gave me. You see, my biological father (her brother), came to her the other day and said that he is now a Christian. While I think that it is grand that he is saved, I admit questioning his motives. As a Christian, I feel horrible about this. I talked to Mom about it, who was married to the man and could confirm or deny my feelings. My mom's bit, "Well, I hope that we're both wrong." Apparently, he had done this once with her. You see, my aunt is a very devote Christian. To tell her that you are a Christian as well gets her singing praises to the Lord the way that any good Baptist would. Sadly, we live in a fallen world. As such, some people aren't quite as pure and full of integrity with their announcements of such devotion to our Lord and Savior. My thoughts, and I hate that I go there with it, is that he has told her that so that he can "get in good with her" before she dies. I suspect that he believes that if he speaks to her in her love language, that he'll be the recipient of all her earthly goods when she passes.

Aunt Donna is an old woman with not a whole lotta much.

My sister frustrates me with her continual complaining to Aunt Donna about things that she and her children don't have. Of course, this prompts Aunt Donna to be the fixer (middle child) and do what she can for my sister, even if it would be her last cent. My aunt has been trying to contact my sister from the hospital. My sister has phones that she said need to be replaced. Now, she's known this for a while. My aunt has finally gotten so frustrated that she sent me out today to spend $60.00 on new phones for my sister. It gripes me to no end that the wanting doesn't seem to cease.

My mom phoned my aunt and prayed with her. Mom said that Aunt Donna pleaded to God for healing. Miracles do and can happen. Who am I to stand in the way of her pleading?

I'm frustrated because this isn't my first time at the rodeo. I walked my grandmother (Mom's mom) through colon cancer. My aunt (Mom's sister) was prayed for and with through brain cancer. My grandmother (Aunt Donna's mom) was prayed for and with regarding her small cell lymphoma. This rodeo looks like a duck. It's walking like a duck. I fear that it is a big, massed out duck.

This one I can't fix, even if I am a middle child.

The Tooth Fairy needs you! Foreign coin ID, please.

2012-01-26T13:36:00.004-05:00

Our tooth fairy is an international traveler. As such, she leaves K- foreign coin when she flies by for a tooth pick-up. These coins were earned by the tooth fairy with a little help from a friend's mom that works at a zoo. The zoo's fountain gets filled with coins and some of it is foreign. Since I try to help the tooth fairy out from time to time, I've been put to task to identify the country of origin of these coins before the tooth fairy distributes them to K- for her lost teeth.

HELP!

1. Says something to the effect of Confederatio Helvetica.-- SWITZERLAND!
2. Looks potentially Russian.
3. and 5. Looks potentially Russian.
4. Says Deutschland on it. -- GERMANY!

She's gotten a Euro, money from Turkey and pence from Scotland. With the snaggle toothy front tooth that is twisting and just dangling there (I've encouraged her to pull it, but nope), she'll be enjoying some money from Panama. I also have money from the Bahamas.

Lend a hand to the tooth fairy, will you? Thanks!

Aunt Donna update: She had a mammogram which labeled the spot on her breast as a "mass" and it needs biopsied. Though she was originally denied surgery for the rectal tumor, she now is cleared by the cardiologist. (Calcium deposits on her heart.) She has a spot on her lung, but goodness knows what that is. Honestly, it sounds as if she has the small cell lymphoma that my grandma had and it has cropped up in several places. I know that they said that the colon bit is precancerous, but other things have cropped up and it doesn't seem like dots are connecting to me. Her request is that we pray God's will for her life. She is a Christian and said that she is good with whatever God's will has for her. Bless her calcium deposited heart.

ETA: The dangling tooth de-dangled while I was out visiting with my aunt. K- was so thrilled that she gave me a call to let me know.

Hubs is 40 today!

2012-01-25T09:18:00.000-05:00

Happy birthday, Hubs! You took my ribbing in stride when I handed you a card that said, "Someone special is turning 80!" You've never been huge on having a giant party in your honor. You'd rather go and do something with your people than to hob-nob with folks over cake and dairy. You are a great husband and a wonderful dabby. (No, it's not a typo.)

Here's to hoping that you have a wonderful day!

For whatever it is worth, this is post 2 for the day. Each one deserved its own bit!

Aunt Donna and better news.

2012-01-25T08:44:00.000-05:00

First, Aunt Donna's test results stunned her doctors and the nursing staff on the ward that she is on.

Her test results came back as PREcancerous. The doctor who did the colonoscopy came up to her himself to announce the results. The nurses were so stunned that they bought her balloons. Her primary care doctor was shocked.

The power of prayer is a good thing.

Her primary care doctor told her that she will be able to go through surgery. He anticipates that she'll be okay with it.

Now, onward to other news. Her scan came back showing a spot on her right breast and one in her lung. The primary care physician is keeping those on watch, as he thinks that the spot on her breast may be a calcium deposit (Grandma Gum had that) and that the spot on her lung may be asbestos? That sounds concerning to me, but her doctor, who makes no bones about letting her know if he is concerned, is okay to sit and watch.

Her roommate is dreadful, but my aunt is taking it in stride.

The nurses absolutely love her and she makes them laugh. It's a good thing to be a blessing.

So, we're praying. We're being thankful. We're being cautious. Thanks for praying. Keep up the good work!

C

2012-01-23T09:26:00.000-05:00

Though some of the inside pieces of this are subject to change, my aunt is currently in the hospital and as of this morning, with no family present, was given cancer as a diagnosis.

How my heart breaks for her.

She went into the hospital on Friday, knowing that blood counts were down and whatnot. Her doctor had ordered a colonoscopy and an endoscopy. The colonoscopy was performed this AM and gave details of a large tumor present, as well as polyps. She had no idea when the test was going to be today, but called at 6:30 AM to say that, "Her chariot had arrived."

Currently, she is handling the news okay. I think that she might be in disbelief. I know that she hasn't been heeding the signs that her body has given to her. Still, I don't know for how long. Grandma had been sick for some time and after she died last December, Aunt Donna went into a deep depression. She seemed to snap out of it personality wise, but she seemed to still be lagging.

Yuck. Cancer sucks.

"Wolf," cried the meteorologist.

2012-01-21T11:15:00.000-05:00

Once again, the meteorologists were saying, "4-6 " of snow." What we got in a combined snowfall over two days was probably 4".

Me thinks that the predictions were a hair off.

Here's the thing, we sit in a weird spot. We're not in the snow belt, but in a band where we can get clobbered by snow. We get clobbered when storms come up from the south. In fact, I really only heed the snowstorm hysteria when the words, "Panhandle hook" are uttered or something to the effect that the weather system will not be coming from the west. When it comes from the west, it is a crap shoot. When it comes from the south, it is generally dead-on. People were rushing to the grocery over this one and honestly, I steered far away. We had enough and we weren't going to starve. Besides, even if it was 4-6 actual inches, that's really no big deal anyhow.

The roads got a little crappy, but I've certainly driven in worse. The first year I was driving, I had to drive home in a blizzard from the grocery store that I worked at. My car was a 1979 Camaro that was rear-wheel drive and was sporting a very heavy drivers side door that decided that on that very night, it didn't want to latch. I was stuck driving home in snow that I had never driven in while holding onto the door for dear life. I made it and my dad taught me how to flip the interior latch with my hand. Still, way worse than current driving conditions.

So I sit, a little disappointed by the measurement of current precipitation that we've managed to accumulate. :( I need feet of snow right now. A good 18" or better snowfall is what I really long for. Since the weather can't decide what it wants to do and is supposed to be sailing back up to 44 melting degrees F on Monday, we'll just have to enjoy what we have.

Until the snow melts . . .

A snowstorm at rush hour.

2012-01-19T19:50:00.000-05:00

A good name for the next in the Magic Tree House series?

In Ohio, you know that an occasional snowstorm comes. We drove out to meet up with Hubs for a segment to be taped of him and K-. Yes, my people will be TV stars. At any rate, we were in the snow belt. Alrighty then. Snow is coming down, coming down and coming down some more. The taping lasted for an hour. Hubs sounded wonderful and K- did a bang up job. Truly, I was proud of both of them. We hopped in the cars and headed on the way home. Since gas was a good 10 cents cheaper out in the 'ville where most things moo or neigh, we opted to get my half tank need replenished there.

Then came the roads. Sweet Pete, you'd think that there wasn't a plow in sight. There was one-- right ahead of us. Visibility wasn't so bad most of the time, but the roads were rather dreadful. Once we reached just up the road from our house, it was like an unplowed parking lot. For those of you who haven't had the pleasure, just know it isn't fun. Also know that pushing a cart through parking lot sludge ranks as much worse.

So do the stains that you get all the way up the backs of your legs.

At any rate, we made it. It took K- and I a half hour to get out to our taping destination and an hour to get back. When the mileage approximation billboards (what do you call those things?) say that it will take 32 minutes to go 7 miles on a highway that is 60 MPH plus, you know that it's gonna be a little ugly. Still, we have driven through worse. Last year, there was a snowstorm that closed down a section of the highway and by the true Grace of God did Hubs and K- get to skinny around it and track through the back roads before they got trapped. Some people were stuck for 8 hours or better.

It takes us to tonight. We are all home. K- and I have taken our baths. We'll be playing a game or two. We'll eagerly await the segment which will air "between 10-11 PM" and be extremely thankful that tomorrow she has no school. (Records day.) How could we not allow her to stay up? That would be mean.

Hubs is downstairs working out. He'll be at it for another few hours. In the meantime, all those weights clanging around is making me hungry. Drat. Perhaps some popcorn. That's healthier than the cookies that I know that I shouldn't be eating.

Be safe! Be well!

The women's large handbag: What the heck do you carry in that thing?

2012-01-18T08:34:00.003-05:00

I will admit from the very beginning that I carry a small purse. Prior to the Epi Pen event, I carried what I lovingly referred to as a wallet on a string.

I have customers who come in with the overly largesque woman's bag. For years, it has made me wonder what the heck is in there. Once, we had a lady in with a huge bag. She flopped it on the counter and proceeded to dig and dig and dig. I couldn't help but to tease her and say, "It's just like Mary Poppins! I wonder if you'll be pulling a hat stand out of your bag!" She chuckled but my co-worker did not. In fact, she gave me a good whisker lickin's about it later. Apparently, the bag was a Dolce and Gabbana bag that was probably $2500. or more. I'm sorry that I'm not so cool to know these things. :insert sarcastic tone: The lady thought it was funny and that is all that mattered.

Really, though. What is in those things? I see women without children (or toddling or younger children) carrying them. Mostly, I see really young college age girls then it shoots to women in their mid-50's. My co-worker, 41 and without children, carries one. She carries a coloring book and crayons (for herself), a drink at any given moment, some extra tights, her make-up, purses inside of her purse. The size of her bag is something that I feel that I could crawl inside of, sprawl out and take a comfy nap on lunch.

Would you like to know my theories of what is contained in the other mystery bags? Allow me to share those with you:

1. The keys to all the cities in Ohio and maybe all the houses.
2. It secretly pops out into an emergency shelter.
3. It contains an additional toilet.
4. And a make-up mirror.
5. And nearly all of the high end make-up available at the various counters at Macy's.
6. Since it is just barely under the size of regulation carry-on, I think it is packed to go at a moments notice.
7. For some far off place that you may be visiting.
8. For weeks.
9. An entire shoe rack.
10. An ER and! a staff nurse.
11. Enough snacks for a large elementary. Meaning all of the kids. (Ours is 500 + kids, so that is my estimation.)
12. A Smart Car. I mean, you can put those things anywhere, can't you?
13. The kitchen sink.
14. And a crock-pot. Well, because it has it's own generator system, right?
15. To make meals and have them on the go.
16. Hot.
17. On the soccer field.
18. Or on safari.
19. And you have the kitchen sink with you to be able to clean the dishes!
20. And the bag packed at a moments notice right?
21. For a family of four.
22. And a dog.
23. And the cat.
24. And the goldfish, too.

Seriously, what do y'all carry in those things? If you don't have a baby or a toddler (Janeen, I know you have a pantry in yours), what is in your bag? It is a true mystery to me. Here's what I generally have in my bag. (Change of bag, nearly same structure, but now with Epi.) Okay, my second layer is Purell, a bottle with Advil and Excedrin Migraine and a bottle of Zantac with chewable Benadryl to use for the bee sting that isn't possible right now.

Clue me in. I swear, people reach into the bag and I do expect a hat stand, house plants, a hat, a mirror and a tape measure to come out.

A why for the day:
Why is it that the battery has to die in the smoke detector in the middle of the night? Ours chirps from the moment that it decides that there is not enough juice and every 15 seconds thereafter (no kidding) until you want to beat it with a broom. Instead, you poke your husband to go get it, because he's tall enough to reach it.

ETA: Thanks, Susan! I typed this when I was tired and didn't realize that it sounded as if I was blogging about plus sized women and their purses. Oops! Thanks for the head's up!

Tales from the Trenches: I think it's because I'm a middle child.

2012-01-17T00:00:00.000-05:00

LeAnne- 1970
Amy- 1973
Billy- 1977
"Dump"- 1984

See, I'm a middle child. I've spent my life trying to make sure that everything is good and right and equal.

Life is not always good and you can't always make it that way for others.

Life isn't always right and you can't always make it that way for others.

Life isn't always equal and as much as you try, sometimes it doesn't always work out that way, either.

It doesn't mean that you can't still try.

My crubbies from yesterdays post I think stems from all of that. We try our darnedest to teach K- that, "It's not all about you." That's not always what happens, but it's a work in progress. Still, she's good at being thoughtful of those around her. She's just not always happy when she doesn't win the prize (like the other night.)

K- is intolerant of any injustice. We're not talking the, "His piece is bigger than mine," but more chewable topics of people being mistreated, general inequalities of childhood and empathy.

K- tries to make things right. She, too, is a middle child. I term her as the "only-but-not" child. I think that fighting for truth, justice and the American way (Corey Feldman in the Lost Boys comes to mind) is just something that she gets from the combo of being a middle and being raised by a middle.

As a middle, I don't like conflict. I do everything that I can to fix or make people happy so that I don't have to deal with unhappiness. I've gone places I shouldn't, I've made decisions that I shouldn't have and rescued my brother out of stupid messes that I shouldn't have been there ripping him out of only because I'm his sister and a middle kid.

This middle kid stuff is some exhausting work.

So, I'm sorry for my crabbiness, but I'm blaming it on middle child syndrome.

First, middle or last? What's your take on birth placement and personalities?

Adventures of dealing with the public.

2012-01-16T09:18:00.000-05:00

Hubs decided that for his upcoming birthday, he wanted to go to the Carnegie Science Center. Tornado Alley was playing for one last day and he wanted to see it again. We got up and out early, made the hour and 45 minute trek east and were at the science center not long after opening. We were able to go up, enjoy Roboworld and all was well. K- wanted to go to the Buhl Digital Dome to watch the Mr. Roger's Neighborhood star show. (The other thing coming up was some Lady Gaga thing, so I was glad that she chose Mr. Rogers.)

People had a baby that was crying in there and didn't take them out.

We went out of there and after having been nearly run over by these boys who were, no doubt, taking their energy out by running up and down the ramps as fast as they could, we decided to get a bite to eat.

The boys and their big person showed up behind us.

K- opted to get their grilled cheese sandwich with milk and a mixed fruit cup. The dad yelled to the one boy that, "They don't have grilled cheese." I don't know if he was thinking that the kid wouldn't eat the sandwich, fruit or want the milk. He listed off all of the crappy kid foods that were available and the kid landed on chicken nuggets. They sat across the room and ate. I realized as I sat there that the other kids had giant platters of a variety of fried foods, giant cups of Icees in front of them and ice cream cones.

Are we the only parents who don't feed our kid fried food?

I mean, sure, she'll have the occasional (rare) pack o' fries, but that is definitely an exception and not a rule. Grant you, a grilled cheese sandwich isn't the best thing in the world (they had white bread), but I was thinking it was better than nuggets made from a variety of leftover materials that you don't want to intake.

After that, we decided to go up to their science kitchen. They had a program on Fruit Flambe. We were the second people in line, everyone went in orderly and were kind. In the kitchen, they have 2 rows of little stools set up front for the kids, and larger stools in the back for the adults. There were parents who parked themselves on the tiny stools and there were kids who didn't have a place up front to sit. It certainly didn't occur to them that they should probably give their seats to the kids because, well, THEY ARE LITTLE STOOLS. After the show, the science staff gives out samples of what they made. Now, we don't stand in line because we think that it is important for the kids to get it. It's that poor kid in me. Make sure that those who should have enough, yes? You would be stunned by how many parents edged their way in and were standing in front of other kids. The kids in the kitchen were well behaved and great. The program was for the kids, yet the parents were clamoring. I don't get it.

Of course, K- had the experience of being edged out of using something a few times. It happens. Parents are fine with it. We just chose something else do to.

We were building a Lincoln Log house on the earthquake table and there was a kid bound and determined to work with it right then. Mom grabbed him up, explained that we were doing it as a family that we would be done in a minute. Bless her. We quickly finished up and away we went.

We went to see the movie, I tripped up the steps that I had warned K- about, 2" of popcorn flew through the air and I wore a bunch of it in my hair. That's a real nice look. But, the 6 minute preview that they had was violent and showing someone repeatedly hanging someones covered head out of the airplane door and shooting them. There were little kids in there. It greatly disturbed K-. All through the movie, Hubs reported (on the way home), that a kid kicked the back of his seat the entire time. Kid was sitting in the parent's lap. You'd think that the parent would quiet the legs.

What the funniest thing at the science center was that K- and Hubs went down below to shoot foam rockets from the air tables. There was a family that had been down there doing that for quite some time before they got there. K- patiently stood behind and waited for about 10 minutes. There was a little girl and a mom who stood behind her. The boys were running around, holding onto these foamy rockets and not actually doing anything with them, but they wouldn't share. The parents, looking a bit whipped, were sitting behind and just letting them run. Okay, I get that. "Work together," Hubs said that the mom yelled. So the one kid yells up to me (I was up above trying to get a photo of Hubs and K-), ""I lost the top to my rocket. It's up there. Can you give it to me." "You know, I'd be happy to. My daughter has been standing and waiting to use the rockets for about 10 minutes. It would be grand if someone share a rocket with her for just a minute. Share a rocket with her and I'll toss this part down to you." They did and K- shot it once and passed it on to the girl behind her. I didn't get my photo, but I shouldn't have to withhold toy parts just to get kids to share.

We went to IKEA, got a little displaced, but stopped by the record store for Hubs. I took out a bank loan, went to Coldstone Creamery (where the guy decided to twirl and flip the ice cream into a cup, did K-'s successfully but mine landed partially on his hand, he plunked it into the cup and still served it to me-ewwww, but I didn't say anything because I didn't want to make a scene) we decided to sit in the car to eat it. A guy comes out of the record store, walks past my car, nails my side mirror with his elbow and keeps on walking. Now, if that was me (I'm too short), someone would have gotten out and probably beat me to a pulp. Accidents happen but, "Hey, I'm sorry." Rrrr.

The PA turnpike is rather dark. We're talking black. I get it that it is dark. I get it that it may make people uncomfortable with how dark it is, but that is absolutely no reason to ride your bright lights all the way. I couldn't ditch the people and there was no place to pull over, so I ended up having to drive home with my mirrors fanned out. I wasn't doing it to be obnoxious, I just couldn't see otherwise.

Oh, and yield means that you need to yield to the people on the e-way. They don't yield to you. Just sayin'.

Despite my list of complaints, we really did have a lovely time. K- was chosen as a volunteer during the kitchen show. She tried the rock climbing wall, but it wasn't very easy and she had to bail. We were able to enjoy many lovely things. We got a good parking space, albeit tiny because Pittsburgh has the tiniest parking spots known to man, and despite that, people are respectful and don't wonk your car with their doors. The ice cream was good, and my germaphobia hopes that I don't contract some major illness from eating it. We were all so tired from the day that we slept like rocks.

That is a good thing.

Speaking of the public, today is a bank day and it brings out the most interesting people to the gallery. More stories to share later, I'm sure.

Have a great day!

I'm proud of my brother.

2012-01-13T00:00:00.001-05:00

Today, I dropped my brother off at divorce court. It truly has been a long time coming. They each suffered from addiction and were rather toxic together. He said that while S- was trying to get the court to say that he was liable for the school loans that amassed, the judge said that he is not. After court, he went to the bathroom as he said that he, "Wasn't interested in standing around and talking to the woman that he just divorced."

He was supposed to phone me from the court house to come and get him. I never heard from him. Mom called, said that S- called and said that he didn't have a phone and needed a ride. I went down, sat near the courthouse, he wasn't there and then I pulled out the section of my brain that thinks like my brother and realized that he was walking. I went the way that I knew he would go and in about 10 minutes, I found him. I pulled up and all he could do was smile. "How'd you know to find me here?" "I thought like you." He finished up smoking his cigarette and I proceeded to drive him back to work. On the way, we drove past his girlfriend's house. He grew concerned when he saw that her sister was there. Later, I found out why. Long story short, through what I understand was a series of poor decisions, she ended up driving her new car into a ditch and totaling it. Knowing the circumstances that happened, my brother opted to remove himself from the situation, as last time this type of thing happened, he landed in jail and was released with Lindsay Lohan jail jewelry. (No, he didn't demand Chanel stickers for it, either.) For the record, the charges have since been dropped and the protection order removed, but not before my brother sat in jail for 8 days.

He stopped by the house on the way to shacking up at my parents only to have her sock him in the jaw.

Good times.

He phoned me tonight. I think he wanted to let me know that he is okay. I talked to him a bit today on the drives that we made. I told him that I'm proud of him for removing himself from the situation that he was in. He said that he didn't want to go back to jail. He said that he's trying to do good things in his life. I told him that he needed to stop being Sisyphus. (The whole rolling the rock forever thing and having nothing new happen.)

There's this. I was talking to my friend, Kay, this AM. I was telling her about my brother, divorce court, his girlfriend wanting to be there and about how he didn't think it was such a hot idea. I told her, "Kay, I wish the girl no ill will, but we seriously need to pray her away." I found out what happened tonight and my mom said to me, "We need to pray her away." I laughed and said that I told Kay that exact same thing. Right before my mom called, I phoned Kay. "Kay, when I talked to you this morning about praying my brother's girlfriend away, did you pray?" "Well, I did." "Kay, he left her and I don't know what type of direct line you are running at your house, but you are good." She laughed and said, "Well, I prayed about it, but not that hard!"

I know that my brother does and continues to do stupid, stupid things. He's my brother and I still love him with every pore of my being. I will help him. I will not enable him. Today, I was transportation, some words (not so gentle) and a cheerleader. To God, I am grateful for giving me the opportunities to help my brother out to make good decisions in a positive direction.

Today ends and my brother is safe. :with tears: It's all I can ask for.

Weird things that make me scratch my head.

2012-01-12T08:05:00.001-05:00

1. Hubs is at a conference in Columbus today. He had to go about a half hour north to then turn around to go south. I feel very Willy Wonka everytime he has to do this. You have to go forward to go back, right?

2. Inventory is done-- for me. Regardless to how many signs we have up on the doors and sandwich boards in the parking lots, posted on the internet in a few places and have had it posted on our counters for weeks, we still have crappy acting people all ticked because we are closed. "But I came allllll the way from - - - (which isn't that far down the road) . . . " I hate it when people do that. They aren't even nice about it, either.

3. Why the math program that K-'s school district has adopted is so completely dumb. Instead of teaching kids to add 84 + 11 in a traditional way, they decide to give them a Hundred Chart. Don't you think that it would be more advantageous to just teach them properly from the beginning? I have K- adding things up in a traditional way, but so that she knows how to use the Hundred Chart, I have her double check her work. Let's face it, they won't have the stupid chart with them for the rest of forever and it is dumb to teach them how to use a crutch from the very beginning. We're working with basic math facts here which, halfway through the second grade, the kids should know. It is the same concept of K-'s teacher last year not allowing them to count on their fingers. You only have so many fingers! This math program is for the birds. Rrrr.

4. I wore no make-up during inventory this week, yet it seems like my face is breaking out more. Hmmm.

5. Because I believe that subconsciously, I was concerned that we wouldn't wake up in time to send Hubs off for his conference, I didn't really sleep. The last I looked at the clock was at about 3 AM, then we were up at 5:15 AM to get him moving. Caffeine, take me away!

6. My mom called me yesterday to see if I could take my brother to court today. "What for?" "His divorce." I went on to tell my mother that my brother hasn't contacted me in a sweet forever and the only time that I hear from him is when he needs something. "That's why he wasn't going to call you. He owns it. He said that exactly." She called him and he called me back, quite thankful for the ride (he is without license until March,) and I got on him about it. I am taking and dropping him off. I don't believe that I need to be there to witness the profanity that will be my soon-to-be ex sister-in-law. I pray (quite literally) that Billy will hold it together, be respectful and behave as such. The divorce is a long-coming thing that is truly something that needs to happen for both of them. Finalization will be a doozy, though. Look at it this way, it isn't like they have material property to divvy up. They have the two kids, who seem to be settled in the homes that they are in. As for the rest of it, well, drugs are a very bad thing. Amazing how you can lose everything with addiction. My brother is clean and has sworn that he will never drink and drive again, but I'm not so convinced about my SIL's status. I pray good things for her life.

7. I was able to pass the two Britax Regent car seat boosters on to my cousin. She also needed to borrow my butterfly cake pans and those caused her to leave a message on my machine, "No need for pepper spray. If anyone comes after me, I'll just beat them with a cake pan!" They are Nordicware (butterfly pan was on clearance at Target for 5.00 and the muffin pan was a gift), and heavy as all get out. I called later to see if she had to use the "cake pan defense system." ;) Seriously though, I'm thrilled that we had a good home to pass the car seat boosters down to. Turns out that they didn't have next car seat to move I- into, so the hand-me-down seats were something that they truly needed. They were big and K-, at the ripe age of 8, had officially aged out of them (according to Ohio law), and they were taking up enormous amounts of space in the basement. I did warn Jenny that I didn't clean them, but we aren't about letting K- have a buffet in the back seat anyhow. Other than a few crumbs and some miscellaneous bits in the side stretchy junk pockets, the car seats are truly fine to put directly into use. Hooray! I even found where I put the anchors and tethers for the one car seat (they didn't work in Hubs' Tercel), and found that I had tied the directions to the bag, too. Double hooray!

Shuffling onward to what the day holds. Have a wonderful day!

Tales from the Trenches: Inventory-sminventory.

2012-01-10T18:34:00.002-05:00

It's like A Christmas Story all over again.

Meatloaf,
Double beatloaf,
I hate meatloaf.

Only in my case it is:

Inventory,
Sminventory,
I hate inventory.

We're a mom and pop.

We inventory by hand.

Everything.

One person reads.

One person writes.

Each. and. every. thing.

We touch it.

We read it.

We dot it.

We log it.

It is mind-numbing.

On a completely different story, my neighbor called to tell me that he made spaghetti squash for us. He made an Alfredo half and a spaghetti sauce half. I should be embarrassed to say that I just ate an entire half of a spaghetti squash. I called to tell him how good it was and he said, "You ate all that?!" Well, I ate and it was good and I was watching Dirty Jobs and before I knew it, I hit the bottom of the bowl.

I'm wondering how half a squash is going to settle in my digestive tract.

On another good news front (not my potential digestive distress, but a wonderful neighbor-made meal), K- reported that, "GOOD NEWS, MOM! I CAN RUN AGAIN!" Her foot is feeling a-okay, and that is great news. "See, K-! You did what Dr. P- told you to do and you are all better again!" I was glad to hear it.

So, I'm off. I've drawn a bath, my people will be home soon and I have some math to tutor K- through. Apparently, she reports that it is rather tough.

Have a wonderful evening!

Lovely weekendish things.

2012-01-09T21:00:00.000-05:00

I've been a busy girl, leaving me with little time to blog.

1. Friday was the first day of the book pass for 100 Book Challenge. I had five kids that earned books that were able to come down. From now through the end of the year, I will be doing the early Friday morning gig. It was nice to have the break, but I'm glad to share in the successes of the kids at school.

2. K- had her 8 year check on Friday. I was glad that we had that appointment already, as when she got off the bus, she was limping. Turns out that she was playing with the kids on the playground, ended up tripping over a ball that inadvertently rolled her way and she cranked hard on her ankle. She was in a lot of pain and it was confirmed that she did not break it. However, it was one of those, "Go home and keep it up with ice." Advil, which isn't often used, was administered. I tell you, if we hadn't had the appointment, I would have probably ended up in the ER. We were able to discuss K-'s growth which is, "On her same curve." She is 4' 4" and no doubt will be passing me up very soon. Stomach aches were discussed and while it is, "Probably a part of her personality," since we discussed her anxieties about school and whatnot, if they continue, it was suggested that we keep a food journal. She is healthy and that is a great thing.

3. Hubs' exhibit at work had been featured in two papers (he was interviewed for them) and a Cleveland station had come out to interview him. He passed them on to his boss (he was wishing that he knew about the interview since he hadn't shaved and said that he would have worn nicer clothes), so he panicked and had K- and I come out to volunteer for 4 hours on Saturday. We had 110 people while we were there, which was a good group, but Hubs was afraid that he would have 500 people with only him and a volunteer.

4. We're learning more and more about the Methodist church each week we attend. This week, they explained how they observe Epiphany. I never knew what it was, but now I know.

5. I made a rockin' pot of ham and bean soup for dinner for Sunday and K- made a lovely batch of cornbread. Yum!

6. Even though it was only 38 F, Hubs washed the cars. The road salt was beyond horrible. It was sunny, so at least that part cooperated.

7. K- and I were able to enjoy the first two episodes of Little House on the Prairie's Season 1. (Hubs bought it for me for Christmas.)

We had a fantastic weekend. We hope that you did, too!

The little things.

2012-01-05T15:47:00.000-05:00

K- is currently outside with E-, playing in the bits of melting snow that we have. The back yard is still fully blanketed, but won't be for much longer. Tomorrow it is to be 45 F+ and that means a whole lotta notta snow. That will make K- very sad.

Yesterday, K- brought home a pile of papers that made me cry and scoop her up and spin her around in the kitchen.

My back didn't even beg to differ.

You see, K- was bombing reading tests before school let out for break. When she got one D, we knew that she had strep that re-ran, had the antibiotics that wreaked havoc with her digestive system (still isn't quite back yet) and the kids start winding up for break. The second time was not okay, then topped off by a D paper that week, K- could just color herself grounded 'cause it wasn't pretty. She admitted that she was rushing, her teacher was frustrated by it and I was just flat mad. To get D's because you don't understand the material would be one thing, but to get them because you aren't taking time is unacceptable.

All of the grounding taught K- that she might want to slow down.

And the poem that I wrote for her.

So, the papers came home in a giant stack. We found out that on the last day of school before break, her teacher gave the children two major tests, sandwiched between a book giveaway, the Polar Express and hot chocolate and K-'s birthday.

Can we all say, "Wow!"

I'm amazed that any child was able to keep up with that.

The test results are as follows: Math- 15/15!, Unit Skills Test- 28/28, Spelling test (from the Friday of the week prior)- 15/15 +2 and the Reading test (taken on the same day as the spelling test)- 82% B-. The math curriculum that the elementaries in the school district are forced to use gives the kids only 2 tests per grading period. The tests are 50% of their grade. They have a reading and spelling test each week. Those, we have some extra padding for. It's that whole math test that gets me all tweaked. Given that K- was having some issues understanding the materials, I took every worksheet from that particular unit and made a practice test for home. It had an obnoxious 48 questions, but I covered everything. She took the test twice, and each time I had her go back and correct her mistakes.

That test at home made all the difference and was well worth the hour and a half that it took me to write it.

The reading was on a story that was rather difficult. The reading subject was "The Life of Trees," and it spewed out so much misinformation that Hubs' head was spinning nearly off his body. I told him to teach her the wrong stuff and then to re-program. The test is largely multiple choice and if he corrected all that was wrong, she would get an F for sure.

We've re-instituted game time in the evenings. After dinner, K- does a 10 minute tidy on her room. She does whatever she can in 10 minutes, knowing that the next day she can do more. After baths are done (and given that homework is complete), we get to play a game all together. The last few nights have been Star Wars Trivial Pursuit. Believe it or not, she is reading the cards pretty well! Of course, I know nothing other than Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia. (Well, and that if K- was a boy, she would have most likely been an Ian Anakin.)

For today, the grades are good. We'll see what tomorrow brings, but K- is a pretty good student. If she can only slow down and worry about just herself, we'll be in business!

Smiles in my day:
- K- and E- enjoying the snow!

Have a great day!

The day for panhandlers.

2012-01-04T00:00:00.000-05:00

I work kind of in the hood. The neighbor works for the local phone company and they term it a "2-man area." It's fine during the day, but I wouldn't want to take a long walk in the dark there.

Panhandlers stand at the lights on the expressway off-ramps with stories of whoa. Now, I know it sounds unfeeling that I state it that way, but they are a network of liars who work for some guy, panhandle money, give him a cut and cruise away making far more money than Hubs and I do together in one year with two Bachelor degrees added in for fun. (I'm truly serious about the amount that they make and the story that I give. It's a well-known fact in that area.) In the land of the homeless, those that are truly homeless know where to secure services. I state this having volunteered at a homeless shelter and having worked directly with the women (Hubs the men) that were homeless in the area at the time. These men (and occasionally women) stand out and put their hands out for money that was hard-earned by the folks, kids and occasionally parents who put their kids through the university that sits within a block of the ramps that they panhandle at. It drives me crazy that people would rather sit on a ramp giving some fake sob story about their hardships rather than take a job. I know that jobs are hard to find. I understand that, but when I had the dopey guy in that I had today, it makes me angry.

First, we had a gentleman stop in with a shovel in hand. Now, he had apparently come in the week before soliciting for money (no shovel because of no snow) and a coworker listened to him and gave him a dollar.

That's a no-no.

He came back today with the shovel. I admire that he was willing to offer services for payment. Still, we can't encourage that and believe me, he would bring friends.

So 10 minutes after he scoodled off, this dude comes in. I knew he looked familiar. "Yeah, I have the minivan out there and I just went to the gas station and they couldn't help me, but I'm almost on E, rolled in on fumes and I know that you don't know me from Adam, but . . . "

"No, I don't."

"But, do you have $10. or $15. for me to make it to Beechwood?"

"No."

"You don't, well, um . . . "

"No. I don't and we are a dry land. They don't over there, either."

He got back into his mid-1980's Astrovan that most assuredly would not have made it to the east side of Cleveland on $10.00 worth of gas if it could make it at all. Here's the bit. He's run this exact same spiel with us before.

And with our co-worker who works at a record store a handful of miles away.

The exact same story.

He was the same one panhandling customers in our parking lot.

Really?

Can anyone say, "Addiction problem?"

In a way, I feel heartless, but I know the game that he's playing. Frankly, the other guy is too, but at least he isn't quite so stupid about it. The shovel was a nice touch.

Tales from the Trenches: As seen on TV goodies.

2012-01-03T00:00:00.000-05:00

Let's first consider the Forever Lazy.

Have people considered that they are:
1. Encouraging yet more people to go out into public with their pajamas on? I mean, how hard is it to just wear a pair of pants AND! shoes while you are out?
2. Wear them to a tail gating party? Um, yep. People sure will be talking then.
3. You have little trap doors so that you can do your business? Nice . . .
4. The Huffington Post made me laugh.
5. Do the people who are wearing them realize that they look like Booh Bah?
6. Fleece is plastic. Correct me if I'm wrong, and I may be, but I don't believe that fleece breathes.
7. Don't forget that you get a free pair of fleece footies to go with AKA HOSPITAL SOCKS! Sounds like a great deal! :S

Let's move on, shall we? Another favorite is the Hot Booties. What are Hot Booties? They are linseed filled slippers that you heat in the microwave. Let's truly think about this a minute. You take these things, heat them in the microwave, wear them on your feet to make them warm (even suggesting you sleep in them), then after you've gotten foot funk all over them because your feet sweated to the high heaven, go ahead, put them back into their little baggie and microwave them again! I realize that they are lavender scented, but truly, all I can think of is that your microwave is gonna be stinkin' of some major foot odor. Ewwww!

We have the Ahh Bra. They claim that all sorts of sizes of women can wear these. I have a friend who wears a DD and I tease her that she is the only person that I know that could have cleavage in a turtleneck. The Ahh Bra would not work for Kim. I just don't see it happening.

What about the My BFF- My Best Fish Friend. Go ahead. Read all you want and I'll sum it up with one product name-- Sea Monkeys. Sea Monkeys cost a lot less, too.

One of my co-workers said that her mom bought her the Salon Express nail decorating kit last year. She said that the nail polish dried before she could get it on her nails. Could you imagine trying to stamp a French manicure onto your nails? I mean, you are doing it rather blindly so good luck getting it to line up.

There is also the Insta-Hang. I have many things hung in my house on push pins. The "angled pen design" doesn't convince me that it will hold "the big stuff." Could you imagine a big, fat mirror on the wall with glorified push pins? Yes, I can't either. I'm display staff at an art gallery and can't imagine using this thing effectively with the stuff I have to hang. Give me my drill, please.

Shoot! I almost forgot about Pajama Jeans! They "fit every figure perfectly!" Really? They hug your every bit and I don't suspect that they are hiding anything. They look "great with sandals or sneakers! You'll wear them everyday!" They are also a fashion sensation. Well, thank God for that.

The Wuggle Pets are on deck at our house to do. My mother bought them for K- and an additional crafting kit. I'll have to report back on our success. I didn't even know that they were a "As Seen On TV offer." I think that she bought them at CVS, where she scores a host of other fine products.

Santa brought K- the Bedazzler. (You can find them at Michael's.) The child loves herself some rhinestones. How could Santa go wrong with that?

The Slumber Pillow made me giggle. "Soft fur on your head area, where you are going to lay." Um, I'm going to lay somewhere else? You can curl up with a good book or go onto the plane with a square stuck to your hand. Now, that's a good look! My husband's response would be, "Now that's the woman I married!"

Sift and Toss is the one that makes Hubs shake his head. He is the litter scooper in our house and I know as well as he does that all litter doesn't come out into giant hunks like that and this would miss about 1/2 of what it is supposed to take away.

K- wants the Touch and Brush. She thinks that it would be a great thing to own. It's "easy and fun for the entire family." Fun? Well, thank goodness that someone made toothpaste dispensing fun!

Can I tell you how much the thought of the Potty Patch completely grosses me out? "At the end of the day, just pour out the liquid." Ewwwwww!

A French Toast Stick Maker? Can't people just make it in a pan and use a knife?

I do have the Ronco Food Dehydrator. I bought it when I still lived at home. You know what? It works like a dream.

My brother laid the Bug Zapper down on my hand. It hurt and it left a huge welt on my knuckle. Don't use it on humans.

I have Aqua Globes. They work well, when you don't stab them in too hard and snap the stem off.

What about you? I haven't done an As Seen on TV bit for a while. I know that Rachael is a fan of the Sham-wow. Anything else?

A post for the New Year.

2012-01-01T17:44:00.001-05:00

After church, we raced home to get the Christmas decorations taken down from outside. High winds and the possibility of inches of snow moved us at a quick pace, as we aren't that thrilled to have to chisel lights from the gutters or to have the lit critters freeze into the ground. Not fun.

As Hubs pulls the tree apart, I hear the swish of the collapsed branches hit the box.

The smell of pork and sauerkraut hangs heavy in the air. Interestingly enough, no one in the house eats sauerkraut, but I make it each year with the pork in a crock-pot because it makes me think of my grandma.

K- is lying on our bed, watching a movie on Nick.

We had a pretty laid back night last night. We aren't drinkers. We aren't party people. K- had a jammie day, I enjoyed playing with my Christmas gift and later we watched the movie, Happiness is a Warm Blanket. K- has a blanket that she has hauled around since she could walk. I named it Linus a long time ago and laugh at the fact that they both have blue blankets and both sucked their right thumbs. K-'s is more tucked away than out these days and the thumb only plunks in her mouth on a sneak attack while she's sleeping.

The furniture will soon be moved back to the traditional positions. The floor will be swept and the couch cushions will be freed of the major glitter they have collected in the de-Christmasing of the house.

Smudge will be happy that she'll be free to roam the house unmonitored. She has a thing for the Christmas tree, has eaten lights, climbed the middle and caused other damage that leaves her living in the basement when we aren't at home during Christmastime.

Sure, we have "resolutions." The turn of the new year will do that to people. We've both obligated ourselves (and as a partner system) to read the whole bible this year. I think that I've tracked down a nice version on the Kindle that goes chronologically, as opposed to just from one book to the other. I believe that it will make more sense to me and not have me dropping off of my signed obligation to God and the church.

I'd like to lose weight, but know that a "diet" just isn't the way for me. I'm glad that with the broken foot and limitations that followed that I didn't gain weight, but I'll tell you that I didn't lose any either. Now that I've passed the caution release point of the new year, I'll be able to do my walking on the tread mill in the mornings before work. I do miss walking K- back and forth to school, but even if they weren't in a swing space, I couldn't have done it until now anyhow. The heal time on the broken foot is 4 months (hooray for the fact that I'm there!), but caution still plays for 8-12 months afterwards. I'm not going to go all crazy about it. I've declined ice skating and K- will have to roller skate on her own, but I can't see why I can't snowshoe. That will be a nice bit of exercise, too.

About the diet, I'm not really a big eater of funky food, but find that the rush of the holidays left me to do a drive thru run from time to time. Though I get foods that are, in theory, not so horrible, they are still instant yucks and aren't that fantastic. I would like to lose weight, and Hubs would like to, too. I'd be thrilled to drop 15-20 pounds, but it's not going to happen overnight. That's okay. A goal isn't a bad thing to have.

I need to institute meal planning again. It's just the way to go.

So, there you have it. Hubs' Boca Burgers and sweet potato just dinged in the counter top convection oven. K- and I will be having the pork with "no sauerkraut, please" and the new year begins.

May it smell better than my house currently does.

2012

2011-12-31T19:44:00.001-05:00

Color me cautious and other bits of whatnot.

2011-12-29T09:34:00.000-05:00

I've still been scanning the computer like a mad woman, because the wound is still a little raw from all of the uglies that I had to extract from my computer's interiors. Funny thing is that Avast popped up a virus update report today and had a survey for me to fill out. Gee, what do you think I did? Well golly, I told them exactly how much I loved their software not blocking potentially harmful things that nearly disabled our whole system. (I was nice and didn't swear, I promise.) I'm wondering what their response will be.

I still say that Ad-aware is my hero.

Onward! We're spending day with family today. My husband's sister and her family are in town, so we're going to go to an indoor exhibit that Hubs helped to put together, we'll cruise past his "home base" for work, then toodle on back to my in-law's. Then, we'll cruise on down the road to K-'s sib's house, hang with them for a while and go back to my MIL's for dinner. It's good for K- to be able to spend time with both hunks of family, as she doesn't get to see them often at all.

Tomorrow, we have a play date with friends and lunch, followed by a run past my cousin's house to drop K-'s little kid kitchen off (she is happy to donate it to E-, who will be one very soon), then onward to my sister's house for a tea party to make up for the cancellation of K-'s original family cake and ice cream fest.

Between both, my house will get a cleaning, not that it is really that out of sorts other than some gifts in weird places, as we haven't been her this week to mess it up. The bathroom, as always, needs a bit of love.

We're being an old couple and we're locking ourselves in for the weekend. They'll be lots of fat pants worn (AKA elastic waistband yoga or jogging pants) with games and movies and delicious something-or-anothers for eating. Hubs' only request when he found that we weren't otherwise obligated was, "Can we just stay home?" Absolutely!

So here's to hoping that all of you have a wonderful weekend and a grand new year!

The computer ate a worm.

2011-12-28T08:27:00.000-05:00

I've been out trying to save my computer. It ate a worm. And some virus'. And some other funky stuff.

Thank goodness we pay for virus protection that proved to be rather ineffective.

The worm was trouncing through the operating system and Hubs reported the other day that the volume control on the monitor came on itself and was operating by itself and that we have several drives that no longer worked.

Not good.

I've spent the last few days running the Microsoft Safety Scan, the Avast protection that we buy but reported "no immediate threats found" and reinstalling Ad-aware and running that. Hours and hours of scanning has proved that Ad-aware (hooray!) picked, pulled and saved our illin' computer. Hubs was able to uninstall and reinstall one of the drives that went out and he will be on the hunt for the others.

Y'all, it got ugly. We were walking the line of losing all. I still have the 11,000 photos on the computer from the reclaim this fall. (Deleting printer program to install a new one also took the photo program with it and left my photos hanging in some mysterious cloud in my computer.)

I can tell you that one day when we grow up and buy a new computer (no time soon at all), we'll be buying a Mac. This virus, trojan and infectation crap with the computer is the pits.

On a sunshiny note, we had a grand Christmas, went to a lovely service and even landed at home at 5 PM to have more than enough time to decompress and spend time with each other.

Now if you'll pardon me, after holiday retail awaits. People want their stuff. They want it half price. Surprisingly, some still expect it gift wrapped.

I don't think so.

Have a great, worm-free day!

A wonderful day!

2011-12-25T00:00:00.001-05:00

To each and everyone,

A very Merry Christmas!

Love,

The Bailey's Leaf Family

Operation Christmas Child: Our shoe box made it to Georgia!

2011-12-22T09:26:00.000-05:00

Our Samaritan's Purse shoe box went to Georgia. Now, I did a bit of checking to make certain that I could share with K- exactly where it went. It did not go to the State of Georgia, but rather it went to the Country of Georgia. Last year, our box went to Iraq.

I always pass my box over to the one lady at work who takes it to church to put in their donation pile. She laughs because she knows that we pack every nook and cranny full. If there is any type of void in the box, I try to fill it. "You put so much in the box!" "I do that so that they can share with their family!" Who knows if every child in the family scores a shoe box? At least this way, the child who receives it can share, because there is more than enough.

I love that we can find out where the boxes went off to. What about you? If you sent a box, did you find out where your box got off to?

The Force was with her.

2011-12-21T07:56:00.002-05:00

Yoda. Who would think? I found a Yoda peep-esque pop at the store the other day. As a treat for K-, I bought it and included it in her lunch with a note that said that she was to, "Eat it at Grandma's house." Lunchtime got the better of her, as well as her being a glutton for punishment, and she ate the whole thing. "Mom, it was just so delicious, I just couldn't stop."

Okay then.

After lunch, they had their class party. Why yes, with my child's history, you know where this is going. Apparently, she had pepperoni pizza where she actually ate the pepperonis. She never does that. She had a few bites of pizza, then a brownie followed up by a trip to the nurse.

She made it, but the nurse said that she nearly took her out.

I got the call at work. "Is this Amy? Amy L-?" "Yes." "This is the Health Aide at -- Elementary." "Oh, no." "K- is in my office and got sick." "She just had pizza." "Yes." :understanding tone as we had dealt with this in the past: "I think it is her reflux, but let me talk to her please." K- agreed that she thought it was reflux, but it freaked her out enough to say, "Mom, can you please come get me?"

How could I say no?

I left my co-workers stranded and hauled off to get my kid. I stood at the secretary's check out desk with tears in my eyes. "You know it's her birthday." The clerical assistant was so sad. We moved her birthday celebration to tomorrow night. We wanted to err on the side of caution. It's just not worth a slice of cake by potentially taking out the whole family with the stomach bug.

We hung out. I taught K- how to weave on her loom. Hubs built a Star Wars Lego ship (some Naboo thing) with K-. She played with Squinkies and we watched Christmas Vacation together. (Yes, some questionable bits, but K- knows what is right and wrong and knows that it isn't a wholesome movie. She wanted to watch it.) Hubs brought Little Debbie Christmas tree cakes home and we sang happy birthday to her with an "8" candle in one. (Not that we didn't have cake that we could have used. Dad brought those home special.)

It was a laid back night and it wasn't so bad. It was the first quiet birthday she's ever had. Frankly, it was kind of nice being able to just focus on her and not everyone else. A blessing in disguise, really.

She's back to her regularly scheduled programming. It's a good day.

Eight is great!

2011-12-20T08:54:00.001-05:00

To my girl who loves to do lickety letters with the mixing bowls (minus raw egg, of course!) Baby girl, today you are 8. You wanna know what? Eight IS great! You've been so excited about your birthday that you've reminded your teacher an exhaustive number of times. You went down with your classmate (both with the same birthday) on Thursday to try to cash in on your "Today is my birthday" ribbon and pencil. (Mr. B- giggled, hugged you and told you to come back!) We had your girl party on Saturday-- your first one! You had snow on both Saturday and today and secretly, you think that is a special gift that God sent to just you. Don't worry. I won't tell anyone. ;)

You've become more independent, more of a problem solver and quite a worker if you want to be. I laugh because you kind of freaked a couple of cashiers out the other day when you told them, "I like your store!" I think that holiday fatigue had the best of them at that point. They didn't know what to say!

We hope that you have a wonderful day and a wonderful year of 8. We can't wait to see what 8 brings!

Happy birthday, K-!

Love,

Mom (and Dad, too!)

Can we have a Christmas without a check list?

2011-12-18T20:24:00.000-05:00

Is it possible? Can we have a Christmas season without checking things off of the ever-growing list of things? Probably not.

Baking.

Shopping.

Shopping again for the ones that crop up.

Christmas cards.

Holiday parties.

Donations.

School functions.

Birthday parties. (For those of us with holiday babies.)

Cleaning.

Miscellaneous medical appointments. (For those of us who have a bee sting that won't go away.)

Wrapping.

Trimming the tree and decorating the house.

Church.

Church. Should it be on a checklist? Uh, no. Just like we should give the first fruits monetarily, we shouldn't give church/God our leftovers, either. I think about last week. We're still extremely new to the church that we are attending, though falling in quite nicely. They had a church Christmas dinner. A few in our Sunday School class brought it up to us, but in the end, we just didn't go. I still don't know quite enough people (I know, I know-- that is a way to get to know people) and I was eyeball deep in cookie dough. I felt guilty, as I felt that I chose checking things off my list over spending time of fellowship with the members of the new church. Actually, "feeling" that I was choosing was more so "choosing" cookie dough and baking over them. Had I known earlier than just that morning, we'd be in a different boat.

Still, I sit here on a quiet Sunday thinking about what I'm going to cook in the pressure cooker. (Chicken.) There is a hum of the computer. K- is in her bedroom taking a "Mommy Math Practice Test" and Hubs is downstairs working on putting things together for our bird feeding area outside.

My baking is done.

My shopping list is complete.

The surprise pop-up's of gift needs are handled.

Christmas cards were mailed the day after Thanksgiving.

Holiday parties have been attended or are planned. In fact, I had to step away from writing this to assemble the craft kits for K-'s party. Eeek!

Donations have been given, but there's room for more should the need arise.

School functions have been attended or attended to.

Birthday parties. (For those of us with holiday babies.) One was yesterday and one will be Tuesday. There will be one on Wednesday for school. That girl can't say that we didn't properly recognize her holiday season birthday!

Cleaning. Well, that runs on the rinse and repeat, but it's done-- for now.

Miscellaneous medical appointments. (For those of us who have a bee sting that won't go away.) I'm thankful for doctors who you can get in to see right away, most of the time.

Wrapping. Just a few minor incidentals left.

Trimming the tree and decorating the house. Day after Thanksgiving thankyouverymuch.

Church. Each week and Christmas falling on a Sunday isn't even enough to scare us away.

I want this week to be check list free. I don't see that it can completely happen, but I've done everything that I can to ensure a fairly low-stress check list of a week. It's not how it always goes.

We can always hope.

Have a great day!

Teachers need to remember that we have a life outside of the PTA.

2011-12-16T00:00:00.001-05:00

Today was a fine example of, "Hey, I'm happy to volunteer, but please recall that I have to scrub my toilet, too."

K-'s teacher, lovely woman she is, has now decided that she wants to show The Polar Express next week. She needs a crock-pot of hot chocolate on and a copy of the movie provided. She needs no volunteers, though. Alrighty then. Please never mind that we have the class party the day before and I can't ask these moms to provide anything else. I'll be swinging the stuff and I assume that the crock-pot will be returned to me at the end of winter break.

I had a teacher whose class earned a pizza party back in October tell me today that her kids have been asking about it. "Oh, when were you looking to have that?" "Tomorrow." Really?! "Is that possible?" "Barely, but I can make it happen." I showed her that I had juice boxes set aside, a bag of chips and I need to purchase more, plates and napkins. She wanted the pizza delivered. That would be seven additional dollars, so I'll just order from up the street and pick it up myself. I need to go help to do said party, which leaves me at school in the early AM to help with snowgrams (for my friend Kay that had surgery) and then come back mid afternoon.

The oil needs changed in my truck.

The sheets need changed on the beds.

My bathroom needs cleaned.

My daughter's "girl party" is Saturday and I was planning on basically not leaving the house tomorrow in hopes of getting things done, but now I can't.

ARGH!

I love the PTA. I love helping. I had a handful of teachers tell me independent of each other of how they appreciate what I do. That is wonderful. I'm happy to help out. Just please, for the love of the cleanliness of my toilet and home in general, remember that I do not have a time card and I do not get paid for my position. I'm just a volunteer!

Holiday Retail Potpourri

2011-12-15T00:00:00.000-05:00

My day involved the following:

1. No one was there to help me open. I was thinking that I was going to be a one man band. Turns out, my co-worker was late. All was well.
2. A woman bought and wanted wrapped a flower that is taller than me. I'm 5'1". The head of the flower was wrapped by a co-worker (as round as our Tercel tire) and the stalk was dealt with by me. I ended up floofing some tissue with the leaves, put some ribbons on it and did the best I could.
3. The perfume assault band of old ladies came in. It gave me an instant headache and though it was 35 F out, I had to turn the air on with it blowing directly at the desk to hopefully blow it away. Customers looked at me weird and I decided to just tell them. "I'm so sorry. I suffer from wretched perfume sensitivity and I have a horrible headache right now." My customer apologized and said that it wasn't her. The next lady in line said that she has the same problem as me. Geeze people!
4. I was told by another co-worker that there was a lady that was sitting down in another room, I needed to take care of her purchases and bring the items to her. I did that and found a very disabled woman sitting in a chair with one of those seat walkers in front of her. She was very lovely, we got her purchase handled and then the challenge was how to get her back out. I told her that I would walk ahead of her to clear the path. She ended up taking out doorway merchandise (she felt so bad), we got that picked up, then her husband couldn't get her and her trappings all underhand. I took her purse and her oxygen. She toodled behind me as I cleared the way and opened doors. We got her down the stairs, then I had her hang onto my back as I lead her between cars. We got her to the van in one piece. Whew. I thought we were seriously going to lose her.
5. We had a return from something purchased nearly 2 months ago because they decided that "it smells like chemicals." I sent them to our gallery director.
6. A co-worker (office staff) was sent home because, with the blessing of her doctor, she came to work with shingles. Still, one of the owners has a supressed immune system and, well, there is the rest of us.
7. Someone had my shingle co-worker blocked in and didn't hear the pages to move her car. I ended up accidentally tracking her down by kidding with her friend about the car being paged, she went, moved her car but was given a hard time by another co-worker. I apologized profusely and did an extra foofy job on her gift wrap. She said that she noticed and I told her that I just felt so bad.
8. I can't handle hearing that steel drum band Christmas CD one more time. I think that the other co-workers are going to fling it. We have one co-worker who insists on playing it and playing it and playing it because we have three for sale. She put it on while the #7 was lady at the counter. The co-worker at the counter with me was going to begin to plead with the music CD player to please not and I told her to just let it go. "It's not worth the energy." All #7 could do was to laugh and agree.
9. Self-service caused a customer to reach way high to get something that she shouldn't, knocked down a $35.00 Christmas figure which bounced off the carpet and her friend quickly scooped it up and went to put it back on the shelf. "Ma'am, may I please have that. I need to check it. I'm sure that the drop broke it." I looked at it and sure enough, the nose busted clean off of its face. I told them that. "Truly, if there is anything I can help you with, please let me know. I'm happy to get it for you." Apparently, they ducked back out. No apology. No offer to pay for the breakage. Nothing. Lovely.
10. Of course, we deal with people's inability to just back out of the parking lot. E-r-e-r. (That is the sound of them toggling between reverse and drive.) It's a tiny lot, people. JUST BACK OUT! Thank you.

Smiles in my day:
- The betamethasone that Dr. A-, allergist extraordinaire, prescribed seems to have lightened my redness with just one application. Let's hope it continues to work.
- It's Wednesday and that means that the second part of my "work week" starts tomorrow. I can switch focus and, here's a thought, sit.
- K-'s teacher called this evening and had a lovely chat with me.

Have a wonderful day!

From the allergist's office.

2011-12-14T00:00:00.000-05:00

Today I went back to have a nice, long visit with Dr. A-. It seems as though my bee sting from October 23, 2011 flared up when I smacked my shin on the step, it was healing and I itched it, causing the bee sting area to get big, red and welted.

Y'all, it wasn't so pretty.

On Monday morning, I called the allergist's office to see if he had any available appointments. He didn't have any, but they said that they would call if he added some to his schedule. I told her that I would go ahead and make an appointment with Dr. W-, my family doctor. An hour later, I got a call that there were free appointments and would I like to have one.

Yes, please.

I had to leave work for an hour and a half, but the time was more than well worth it. Here's the scoop:

Dr. A- said that he was "stunned by the negative bee tests given [my] family history" and my reaction to the yellow jacket sting. I said that I was rather surprised myself and it was a two-sided coin. On one hand, I was relieved to have it come back negative. On the other hand, I told him that I feared that it made me look like a fool.

He assured me that wasn't he case.

He went on to tell me that though I tested negative, he's having me come back in 6 months for a retest on the bee venom (skin only) and to continue with the remainder of the skin testing for general allergies. Then, I was told the most interesting piece of information.

He's not convinced that I'm not allergic to bees.

Seems as though there is 3% of the bee allergic population that tests negative. Though he has never had such a case in his office, he said that he certainly would not discount it. Family history (Grandpa died as a result of bee stings) and my reaction are enough to keep me hauling the Epi. He said that I should have one, especially if I go down south. "Do you go golfing?" "No, but we camp." "Do you camp in cabins or in a camper?" "No, we tent camp." "Oh! Hearty people!" He asked where we go and I told him Hocking Hills and Ohiopyle were a few places, and those aren't particularly close to hospitals. He reviewed my concerns, discussed my welted and discolored leg and has given me a delightful prescription for a cream to apply "one week on and one week off" as it can cause skin atrophy.

"I like my skin. I'd rather not have atrophy." He smirked.

He discussed that when I shave my legs, I want to make sure to use the cream 12 hours later. "Dr. A-, it is the winter and women don't shave their legs much in the winter." "I didn't really know that." "Just take a poll. Others will agree." He couldn't help but to laugh.

So, the wind-up is this. I have this cream. I'll use it as directed. If the cream doesn't make the bee irritation bit go away, I'll need to go to Dr. W- and have him perform a "punch biopsy" to remove the core of the scar that I have. Perhaps that is something in there that is causing an irritation and the punch biopsy would possibly take care of it. Hey, it could be worse.

What is truly delightful is that Dr. A- is extremely thorough. He takes his time with you. He was with me for about a half hour. He didn't think that I was a nut case and completely understood my concerns. Hooray for scoring yet another wonderful doctor!

On a somewhat related note, I took my cream prescription to the local grocery up the street. I was able to speak with the pharmacist at length about my need to fire my pharmacy, my desire to switch over to them and how things will be filled through their pharmacy. I explained what happened with the Lipitor and he explained that insurance companies will possibly not be honoring the name brand version anymore. Generics have to be the same active ingredient as their name brand counterpart, but their filler components can be different. I explained my concern about switching to generic from name branded Lipitor and he understood. He told me that I would need to have the prescription written "dispense as written" and all would be well with the insurance companies. He was a wonderful young man who really took his time with me. I did find out that they only carry Allegra D OTC, so I'll have to have the prescription for that transferred over to another Giant Eagle, or just bite it and leave it there. Argh.

Hooray for good medical people! What a wonderful thing to be thankful for!

Have a great day!

Tales from the Trenches: So sad.

2011-12-13T00:00:00.000-05:00

I read this article online. It is so very sad that a young man strayed off the trail and fell to his death. This is an absolutely beautiful park. We've vacationed at Hocking Hills several times. I can absolutely tell you that the area is well posted with this sign:

I remember what it was like to be in college and thinking that I was invincible. Our prayers to this family. What an incredible loss.

Please keep this family in your prayers.

". . . And a cartridge in a pear tree."

2011-12-12T00:00:00.001-05:00

"Babe, it's partridge."

"Mom, it's cartridge. Like DS!"

So I sit here on Sunday night, tuckered out and somewhat accomplished. Laundry is twirling and swooshing in machines, the kitchen counters have been found, cookies are mounded and awaiting tomorrow evenings divvying up, we've eaten, we've played and we've accomplished much.

Friday was dough day. I was able to make up all the cookie doughs that I needed for cookie baking this year. What did I make? Well, let me make you a list:

Cherry Thumbprints
Oatmeal Craisin Cinnamon Chip
Lemon Chip
Peanut Butter
Ginger Kisses
Chocolate Chippety Chunk
Red Hot Sugar Cookies
Butter Crisp
Triple Chocolate Fudge Bars

Being in the rather chilly environment that we're in, I kept the doughs in the back of my car, as it was too much to fit in the fridge. It was freezing out there and I had to leave the dough out for a while to make it pliable enough to even work with. If it's cold, embrace it. What else can you do?

K- and Hubs got onto cleaning K-'s play area in the basement. We were trying to encourage her to donate items, but the child is rather sentimental about everything-- major awards, rocks from the driveway, paper dots she's punched from homework . . . I remembered that Goodyear was having a Toys for Tots toy drive at the blimp hangar a bit down the road. I told her that we would make the trek to the hangar and that she could donate her new items that she never played with to the Marines that were there. That put a spring in her step, especially after I explained to her that her donations may be the only things a child receives for Christmas this year. The hangar closed at 6 PM, but I left more than enough time for travel and any type of line. I had travel time right. What I didn't have right was the time the line would take. Last year we went, and we drove right on in. This year the wait was an hour and 45 minutes.

No kidding.

Hubs wanted to bag on the trip, but I was determined to allow K- donate the toys that she gathered-- tonight. I figured that her step to thinking of others would lose steam and possibly have her reconsider her donations. We waited, listed to K- read, listened to the radio and finally, it was our time to go in. I had K- keep the donations in the back seat with her and she was able to pass them onto the Marine through her window. When we left, she asked, "Mom, did I do the right thing?" "Yes, baby. You did." "You know at first, it was hard. I didn't want to give that doll away. I put more things into the bag and it became easier." She had received two dolls from my aunt last year that were very similar. She had opened one, but one she never got to. Over the years, she had amassed so many craft kits that she just didn't get to all of them. K- didn't complain about the line we sat in, but occasionally I'd hear her in the back seat say, "Dude! Pay attention and move up!" Gee, where does her back seat driverism come from?

The unexpected hours that we logged away from the house completely put me behind on the remainder of the baking. I left the thumbprints for last, because K- told me about how her thumb was the perfect size for holes. By the time we ate the pizza that we picked up (dinner on the fly because of the line), we bathed and only had enough time to have her help me with two sheets of thumbprints before she went to bed. She was good with it, though.

We did Lowe's this weekend. She built her coal car and next week will be the third part to her three part train. We'll be taking her friend, Rebecca, along with us. Rebecca doesn't get to go to K-'s girl birthday party because of a family Christmas celebration that came up, but we were more than happy to party with her early. K- and Rebecca went to preschool together and Rebecca's mom, Kay, is one of my best friends. Kay would have done the same thing for K-.

:yawn:

Hubs' Christmas party was Saturday night. Talk about a snoozer. I was able to check out the miniature golf course that Hubs and his coworkers have been crafting this past year. That was cool. The rest of it was rather lame. There was dinner, which was a lovely turkey and ham, but the rest was boxed sides and the most disgusting stuffing I've ever eaten in my entire life. They had a dinner mystery theater theme to the evening. After dinner, Hubs scooted me out so that I could jet back home to retrieve K- from the sitter. He said that he knew that I was hitting my limit of actors milling around and yelling at us while we ate. He said that the evening got no better.

Church this morning was absolutely delightful. Pastor Karen did a visualization with us about love. It brings shivers to me just thinking about it. One of the teachers at K-'s school busted down out of the choir and tracked us down to fill me in a bit more on Sunday School. (I left her a note in her mailbox at school pleading for some guidance.) We cruised on down, had 17 in Sunday School and our topic today was what gift we would give Christ for his birthday. It is a current issue class, which is right up our alley, but we were feeling a little wonky about it. Today, we had different people recognize us, make us feel at home and even Pastor Karen caught us at the top of the steps and said, "The L- family!" She double checked on K-'s name pronunciation (often mispronounced, misspelled, never remembered and just generally butchered in a number of other ways that I may not have listed) to which Hubs replied, "You are one of the few people to get it right!" (It's not a weird name, just a really old name that isn't very popular in the states.) I can't tell you how much it warmed my heart to have people really reaching out to us today. I had been struggling this last week. I just hadn't felt at home with the grove of Sunday School and this past week made a complete turn. Even Mrs. McC-, the one who dashed down from choir, told me at school this week that she looked to see if we were there at the choir cantata last week. (I had the tea and explained that is why we didn't get to go.) Hubs and I are feeling more and more at home at this new church. It really warms my heart to be able to say that.

Now if you'll pardon me, I do believe that I have an evening of slumber and some cartridges in a pear tree to dream about.

Have a wonderful day!

Toy and donation drive whoas.

2011-12-08T13:55:00.001-05:00

Today ends our school Civic Drive. The Civic Drive was for collecting "new or lightly used toys for children in need." Allow me to inform all of you that most of what was donated, which was very little, was used. We're talking extremely used. There is a Doodle Bear, all doodled, not laundered and without the doodly pens. The doodles? Not so artful or purposeful. Scribbles, really. There is a stuffed Mickey Mouse that has met his fate with some type of cream colored latex house paint on several areas of his body. There is a little bitty oven with stickers on it. Barbie accessories with marker on them and missing parts. We received all of three new things, at least in the batch that I saw. (Not all have been collected yet, as I know what K- donated hadn't made it to the PTA room yet.)

Let me decode for the reading public-- "lightly used" doesn't mean whipped to no end. "Lightly used" is the polite way for saying, "Basically new and out of the box." Please consider who will be receiving this toy. K- and I had a discussion about it. I told her that the toys that are donated may very well be the only item that the child receives for Christmas and I certainly would hate to think that if we were in the same situation, my child's only Christmas gift would be something that Goodwill wouldn't consider selling.

She gasped. As well she should.

I have to consider the other side, too. Perhaps all of you recall the story of K- and the used Christmas exchange book. Maybe the kids were donating just something of theirs so that their name could be put in the drawing to win a skate ticket pack. Perhaps the parents had nothing to do with it. So often, parents know very little about what their children are doing at school. (I have teachers who would back me up on that statement.)

We're looking towards doing our annual canned food drive in March. Last year, we had to toss nearly 80 expired items. One item dated back to 1999. On the collection notice that we send, we will be specifying that any expired items will not be counted toward the class total and we will be discarding them.

Who would seriously want to eat a boxed meal item dating back 11 years? Well, it could have been longer. The expiration was back in 1999. Goodness knows when the item was actually purchased!

Again, I think of the recipients. For about a year, Hubs and I volunteered at the local homeless shelter. We directly saw who received items/meals and interacted with them on a regular basis. In fact, I ate with the ladies every Monday night. (To earn their trust, I learned that declining a meal that I thought I shouldn't take from them was them viewing me as looking down upon them and thinking that they were icky, as opposed to my trying to conserve food for others.) I've worked at the church food pantry. I've picked up from the church food pantry for my brother on numerous occasions. I've been in the thick of who receives such donations. I couldn't ever hand potentially inedible items off to them-- ever. Not to anyone.

I hate that times that drives come up, people feel the need to donate the unwanted. Isn't it when donating to church, it is to be the first fruits that you set aside for God? Well, let's look at donations to the public in the same way. Let us give them our first fruits and not the leftover table scraps that have been in the fridge for a week.

Giant Eagle Pharmacy-- You are fired.

2011-12-07T00:00:00.000-05:00

I'm done. I e-mailed them tonight on their 2000 character max customer contact page. I'll follow-up with their response.

I'm officially firing your pharmacy. In the last month and a half, I've either received partial rx that I've had to come back for remaining or tonight, a long term rx that I've been on and have only filled through you was switched to generic w/a higher co-pay. Rx #62----9 was a partial fill with 10 pills, having me come back in 2 days for the remainder. Less than a month later, my daughter's antibiotic (rx 62----8) was confirmed to be filled 3x by rx tech by phone. "We just need to mix it when you get here." When I arrived, we found that the rx was only 1/2 filled, requiring me to come back the day after Thanksgiving for the remainder. When I was irritated and I admit that while I didn't scream or yell, the staff did completely get that I was irritated, I was told by the young man behind the counter, "Well, Ma'am, it IS flu season." Yes it is. You need to be more prepared and order more. A little more kindness would have been appreciated, but I admit that I was ticked, so I wasn't the happiest either. I also admit that the tech was shocked by my suggestion to give 1/2 copay for 1/2 meds. Of course, that doesn't happen. Fast forward to today. I re-filled my monthly rx (rx 62----3), went to pick it up to find that what had always been name brand had been switched (company policy perhaps) to generic and the co-pay was actually $20. and not $10. as it was with name brand. Since I had a Lipitor copay voucher, the tech said, "Well, it is filled generic, if you want, I can have it filled name brand but it'll be 10 minutes." Why would the filling of a 2 1/2 year old + rx be now switched to generic when last month it was name brand, as every other month? I chose to wait the 10 additional minutes for the rx that I should have had.

With this, I'm transferring my rx to a different pharmacy and officially fire you. Perhaps when you put customers out and require add'l trips, you could accommodate them for inability to deliver goods. That would be good customer service.

They've irritated me for the very last time. I shouldn't have to continue to go back and forth for remainder of meds undelivered. I should also have my rx filled as it was filled and if it is to change to generic, I should be given the option, not just be something chosen for me.

Thoughts? Pharmacy irritations? Are you a pharmacist or a tech that would love to chew me out? Go for it. Be polite, though.

Tales from the Trenches: How does that stuff get in there?

2011-12-06T09:27:00.000-05:00

My computer is flashing that I have some root kit with possible malware and RRRR! I just spent the last hour and a half running a boot time scan and deleting the win32:julkpoly bit from my computer's interiors. Avast!, you suck right now.

I'm so tired.

2011-12-04T21:18:00.001-05:00

I had the Ladies Christmas Tea today. I would show you photos, but I forgot to take them. I do know plenty of others did, so that'll probably make up for it. I just got too wrapped up in hosting the shin dig to take photos of the shin dig. Final word is that everyone liked it better at our house vs. the church and they would like an invite for next year.

We finished painting in the kitchen. We have a border, chair rail and photos to hang, but I'm not to highly pressed to do that right at this very second. We'll do the back splash in the new year. I also want to paint the table legs and bits of the chairs that are green and need to be chocolate cherry. Rome wasn't built in a day or year and a half, you know.

Hubs and K- kicked in major on helping with the tea party prep. They even freed the refrigerator from the confines of years of memories. We have a freezer door of magnets, K-'s Honor Roll and report card bits are on the side of the fridge, but it is otherwise empty.

Amazing.

I scrubbed and cleaned parts of the bathroom that needed some extra tending. I wiped upper parts of walls and gave a good spring cleaning on an otherwise wintry date.

Speaking of, I have some windows open and it is December 4. It's 8:54 PM. It says that it is 48 F out, but seriously our home is nice and toasty. Fresh air, fresh air!

I have to comment that in the midst of writing this, I got distracted, then watched some TV and fell asleep sitting up on the bed at 7:45 PM. I had been up until about 1:30 AM doing things, probably until about 2 AM because I just didn't fall right to sleep and was back up at 6:15 AM with K- snuggling in on the end of the couch, wanting to turn the TV on. (Not 'til 7 AM, thankyouverymuch.)

I end this post by being thankful to Hubs and K- for digging in and working all together as a family on hauling, painting, organizing, doing and preparing our home for a month of festivities. My sister was the people hauler, bringing Aunt Donna in tow. It was a particularly important day for Aunt Donna, as today was the one year anniversary of my Grandmother's death. She really needed not to be hanging at home on her own. The ladies all brought desserts to share, loved the chicken corn chowder, rolls and salad bar that I provided. LeAnne got in there and was a food flinger with me.

All went well. Now if you'll pardon me, I need to have a date with my pillow.

Smiles in my weekend:
- The kitchen. I'm not embarrassed of it anymore! The ladies loved the colors, too.
- I think that I've decided that our bathroom will be a nice sea aqua slightly greenish color. Now, to find the right chip.
- When Hubs ran clear away from today's tea party, he went to a music resale store and found me another copy of Ben Folds and WASO Live in Perth. I loaned my copy to a friend's husband. They are separated now, she knows nothing about the DVD, he never returned it and I loved it. I will never loan him anything ever again.

Have a great day!

Something that just made me smile.

2011-12-03T19:42:00.000-05:00

My husband is in the living room doing Just Dance Kids with K-. The funniest thing is that right now I heard him say, "Oh! I won!"

Hubs and K- have had a great Happy Daddy Day together. This weekend, we're winding down Hubs' vacation. It wasn't really a vacation, as he was busy slaving away in the house. He and K- played Star Wars, video games and watched movies. They went to Santa Shop and Winter Wonderland together, while I did the PTA mama thing. Hub took K- to Lowe's so that she could build the caboose of the three part train.

How lucky I am that I have such an involved husband and father. Something I'm more grateful for than most people know.

Because the tonsils are still gigantic.

2011-12-02T00:00:00.001-05:00

Last night, K- started complaining about a stomach ache that she had all day. Now, that is where the strep started. I had her open wide and by the light of the little LED, her tonsils were waving back at me.

Boy those suckers are huge.

This AM, I made a call to my favorite pediatric gate keeper, Toni, to find out if we could store a golden ticket to see Dr. P-. 3:40 PM was our time to go before the wizard.

Word is this. Yes, her tonsils are rather large. That is typical for this age. Completely normal, actually. She tossed a NEGATIVE! strep in office. Can we raise our hands all Baptist like and belt out an AMEN?! Dr. P- is still sending out the cultures to positive that we don't have errant germies running the joint. She said that she is getting better, but completely understood my concern.

Now onward to the next appointment. It seems as though K- has developed a bit of a toothache in the last day. A toothache for K- is not a good thing, as the last one resulted in a root canal. (Eeek!) I called Dr. Rick, Lindsay (the gate keeper of dental health) got us an appointment for tomorrow, but was able to bump us up because of a cancellation. Now, I'm going to have to leave the house at the butt crack of just barely dawn to get to the dentist who is 25 miles one way. We love Dr. Rick, he is fantastic and knowing K-'s birth history, he said he will always fit her in for a toothache at anytime. Gotta love that! I don't even mind the mileage that I log to get to him. He is beyond well worth it.

With that, I have a bath call, call, calling my name. Yes, I know that it is only 6:04 PM, but I just feel it necessary. A bath for me is renewing. I can get so much more accomplished after one. It is my evening caffeine.

Smiles in my day:
- The negative strep test!
- Unbashed cards arrived!
- I hit the Scholastic Book Sale with my friend Kay and we bought a ton of books for the library, a book giveaway and for gifts. I was able to get Magic Tree House books and a Jesus Calling devotional book for K- from my aunt, and some other gifts. Because Kay and I combined our orders, she had a coupon for $25.00 off $100.00, so the books that were basically half off (not all but almost) ended up being even cheaper. Hooray!
- Doctors who could give me appointments without waiting for days.
- My husband has worked so hard on our kitchen. He's been doing dances with caulk. The man loves caulk. The kitchen? It looks lovely. Yes, I will post pictures when it is done, but don't expect them before next week.

Have a great weekend!

ETA: We made our round trip tour to the Wizard of Dentistry and Dr. Rick pronounces K-'s teeth as okay. He said to watch them, let him know if anything is awry, but that this just may be a case like a similar time I took her-- she gets a bacteria and occasionally, it pockets under her tooth/teeth. K- was delivered to school 18 minutes late. Considering that we left at 7:15 AM, made the half hour drive, saw the dentist and hauled back the 1/2 hour + at that point, being only 18 minutes late to school wasn't so bad. She was thrilled that she made it in time for gym. Bless her heart.

I've decided that I need a name tag that says, "Mama Amy, Health Management Director." Wow.

Tales from the Trenches: Hairy toes, stolen dogs and sketchy people.

2011-11-29T19:45:00.000-05:00

Hairy toes: Remember this post? In 42 degree weather, we had a flip flop clad man with TUFTS OF HAIR about the top of his toes. YARG!

Stolen dogs: A customer who was waiting for her friend to finish shopping decided to tell our security guard how the dogs in her car were stolen from a variety of places and how the one dog is always right there and won't let the other dogs be with her. Um, my heart bleeds purple peanut butter for you.

Sketchy people: Friend of the dog stealer was flying through like you would a convenience store for bread and milk. She was plunking things on the counter like they were a Black Friday limited time sale, but making comments about how expensive they were. I was certain that I was either 1. getting a bad check, 2. getting counterfeit money or 3. getting a stolen credit card. She paid cash and bless her, all of it marked correct. I was stunned.

Sketchy people #2: We had a presumably homeless man (I work in a bad neighborhood anyhow) proceed to question the security guard on what time we close, what items we sell, what fire arm that he has . . . you know-- inappropriate questions to ask. We're all on high alert and now I have the security guard's phone number in my phone. I also added the owner's cell to my phone. He was very kind in coming to grab me up to give me the low down on what was going on.

I swear, I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried.

Smiles in my day:
- Nothing more has been mentioned about my crappy Wednesday. Water under the gallery bridge. Hoorah!
- Hubs is painting the cabinet doors for the kitchen. Rachael, you won't need to rescue me. I will be buying Hubs a "thank you for saving me" prize. Me thinks a gift certificate to his favorite resale music store is in order. Dude is on vacation this week and has been slaving away.
- K- went to see the Nutcracker at the local theater. She loved it!
- My final box to mail out was sent this morning. All cards and parcels have been sent for the holiday season. Hooray!!!
- New Storage Wars tonight! Now if I can just stay awake for it!

Have a great day!

I'm alive!

2011-11-28T09:07:00.000-05:00

More importantly, so is my kid. Second tour of duty on strep with the kids z-pack is working-- I think.

Thanksgiving was low key, as we stayed home and enjoyed a quiet day together. I ran to my family dinner, but because I was in charge of rolls, no one else had them and we couldn't have that carb absent from the table.

My sister and I did Black Friday shopping, which started Thursday night at 11:30 PM. We went to the wealthier section of town, didn't witness smack-downs, macing, pepper spraying or fighting. I did find that people would whip around the corner and come full force down the aisle at me (aisle chicken) and I didn't budge. I was a lot shorter than them, but really-- y'all can hold onto your fanny panties and be polite. We hit 10 stores in 8 1/2 hours out and we were toast by the time we returned. We got everything but an external hard drive, which I'm not convinced that Office Max had anyhow.

I worked on decorating the tree after I awoke from my brief slumber and Hubs and K- worked on the outside lights. We had dinner, I fell asleep sitting up on the couch and all was well.

Saturday, we took my niece and nephew to Bass Pro Shops for the day. It was about a 2 hour drive, but they went, they had fun and we were able to lavish a bit of Christmas on them that they haven't had probably ever. We dropped them off with their bags of loot, came home, worked on the tree some more and fell asleep sitting up on the couch again.

Sunday took us to church, we came home, K- and I baked a pumpkin pie, I worked on the tree, we went to the in-law's for dessert (rescheduled from the Thanksgiving strep quarantine), came home, worked on the tree some more, worked on finding the rest of the house and displaying the rest of Christmas because as I told Hubs, "If it isn't up tonight, it isn't going up," K- went to bed, I watched and watched American Pickers until I felt like I was full of rust in my veins and was climbing into honey holes along with them and went to bed.

That brings me to today. I work. Wednesday left me with kind of a crappy sense of funk and I'm hoping not to have that bit of retail replay. People can be so blasted crabby at the holidays.

I shall shove off, pack my lunch and put my heart into the right place. Of course, a can of coke with some pretty caffeine won't hurt matters much, either.

Have a great day!

The Pediatric Phone Line Lottery

2011-11-23T08:10:00.004-05:00

Will I win? I mean, my child finished her antibiotic on Monday night and now has the return of a sore throat, the stomach is still rotten and is now running a low-grade fever. Can we say SCORE?!

She's cried because she'll be missing their Thanksgiving celebration and her awards assembly today along with potentially missing Thanksgiving with the family.

I feel so bad for her.

:(

ETA: It is strep. She ran another positive on rapid strep at the office. Children's version of z-pack sent her into 45 minutes of vomiting. Was on the Children's Hospital nurse's line on hold for 20+ minutes, but had a lovely and very apologetic nurse. Had a crap day at work and that translated to my getting on the people at Big Bird Rx for giving me half a prescription-- again. Snot-nosed (not literally, just in attitude) guy behind the counter said, "Well, it IS flu season." "Yes, so BUY MORE!" I didn't swear and I didn't scream, but I did let them know that having me come back-- again-- is just not working for me. I'm sure that they all talked about me when I left. It just didn't help that they confirmed twice to Hubs and once to me by phone that they had the script there and all was good. Yes, their customer service line number will be getting a phone call. I mean, it is delightful to pay full co-pay for half of the goods. I proposed otherwise and the lady thought I was a raving lunatic. Hey, they are giving me half of what they owe me. Why not give them half of what I owe them? Oh, but it doesn't work that way.

I'm too tired to bake pumpkin pies. I think I might collapse. I've been up since 4:15 AM and I'm beat. It'll be the first time that I've never had pumpkin pie on T-Day for breakfast. Maybe I can force myself. :shakes head in tirednesss:

So tired. :yawn:

Tales from the Trenches: This is something I HAVEN'T hung on a tree.

2011-11-22T00:00:00.000-05:00

My friend Cj sent me a link to a Christmas craft. Now, I've hung some goofy things in trees. I've made things from milkweed fluff, spices, nuts and dried corn. I've used things like topiary frames as tree toppers that clearly shouldn't go into trees.

Can't imagine how you would answer, "So, how did you make this?"

Mmmm. No thank you. Once a month contact is good enough. Don't want that hangin' all over my tree. Call me picky if you want.

Yikes.

Smiles in my day:
- I had a $5.00 coupon on a $50.00 toy purchase for Target. I purchased said toy (an Our Generation wardrobe for K-'s American Girl doll). I took it back today (three times through customer service thankyouverymuch) was able to repurchase the wardrobe and get a doll outfit and I could use the coupon. Hooray for me, right? Well, they gave me a $5.00 gift card. "Another one?" The CS lady said yes. So, I went on, picked out another outfit (they said that they were on sale for 10.99 so SCORE!), went to purchase it and it came up as 13.49. Hmmm. Back to CS. (One of the three times.) Apparently, the sale from last week wasn't pulled, they honored it and I got both outfits for 4.00 (including tax) as opposed to 13.49 each. It was a lot of CS trips, but it was worth it! Between sales, coupons and the surprise gift card, I saved 25.00 between all three things. The list price on the wardrobe was 54.99. Even with the outfits, I didn't break $50.00. Now, the birthday gift is done. :)!

Have a great day!

I feel like I've run a printing service these past few days.

2011-11-21T00:00:00.000-05:00

The Christmas cards from Shutterfly arrived. They are delightful! They have been stuffed into envelopes, personally hand addressed, posted and are awaiting their Wednesday drop. What all went into making that happen?

I spent last weekend designing the card.

The first box came in and were wonderful. The second packet of 15 came in looking like it had been wrangled by the postal machines. Shutterfly is sending me a replacement set and apologized profusely.

With the Christmas cards, I send K-'s birthday invites.

She's having two parties this year. She's having one girl party at the house with the lovely number of 8 girls. We'll be having a second party on the evening of her birthday that is just family cake and ice cream. She'll have school the next day, so it's not like we can party like it is 1999.

Her invites are never print, cut and roll. I printed the card. We found shimmery purple and silver polka dotted backer stock, a sticker had to be put on front and some plastic flare needed attached. Since I didn't see those making it through the postal system, we hand delivered them. With what I hoped but knew wouldn't be a simple fly-by delivery, there was much jumping, singing and dancing with friends as we delivered. I still made it home in time to make dinner.

The second batch was made with a change of date and minus the flare. I had to assemble and stuff those in.

I needed to make invitations for the Ladies Christmas Tea that K- and I will be hosting at our home. Those were a simple cut and drop in, but I needed to find clip art, which was actually a full page border that I had to cut and paste, then track down a classy font I liked, figure out wording and so on and so forth. I knocked those out. Then, I pestered my sister for names and/or phone numbers since she couldn't give me addresses for her guests. (I love the White Pages online!)

Speaking of hunting addresses down, I spent time online doing that and when that failed, I tracked down my cousin to give me her brother's address.

Since my weekends are hopelessly full from now through Christmas, I was able to bang out the favors I wanted to do for K-. I made a CD to go with the theme of her party, designed, printed and assembled a CD cover, burned CD's, stuffed them, found that the glue I used wasn't adhering, did a double layer of glue, found that wasn't adhering and finally went to clear Alene's and gave them a good press in a phone book overnight. You'd be glad to know that the third gluing is holding. I divied up the hair doodles (we're Tangled themed and hair doodles seemed appropriate), had to attach those to the long note pad I bought, stuffed those into the neato make up case with a pencil, stickers and a button and we're done. She's having a taco bar and she'll be going through some of her back stocked craft kits to see what we can do with 8 girls. I found a Flynn Rider wanted poster, printed it and a few sheets of frying pans. I'll cut those out and we'll have them pin the frying pan on Flynn for a game. (So not taking credit. Go to http://www.pluckymomo.com/ for more details.)

Finally, I wanted to give a thank you to those who donated to K-'s elementary school Walkathon. I had taken a photo of her as she was doing the walk, so I flipped that through Picasa, did a quick thank you on the photo and printed those off for the people who needed them.

And I still have ink left.

Today, we tackled the grocery. We got all of the Thanksgiving necessities, dropped a load o' cash at the grocery (meat was on sale, too) and came home and unloaded it all.

K- wanted to play with E-, the neighbor, and her mom and grandma were out raking the last of the red oak leaves that just won't go away. Since grandma was raking what was technically our yard (but they are our leaves!), I went out to help.

Now, I'm tired. The start of the work week is tomorrow and it will only get busier and busier each day. Wednesday, we should be slammed.

Chicken is baking away and I must go start some wheat pilaf and steam some broccoli. Pardon me. The smell is making me mighty hungry!

Have a great day!

Allergies and the Honor Roll

2011-11-18T00:00:00.000-05:00

First off, I was at the Allergist's office for the hour and a half that they promised, with a bonus trip to the lab for IgE and Bee Venom RAST blood testing. (Decoding here would be great, Janeen. I know the IgE thing, but need more info on RAST.) Skin testing came up with nothing, but the doctor was concerned about the reaction I had with the bee sting, made sure I had an Epi, gave me more information on that and a disk to view about it. He was a rather lovely gentleman. That office was very busy. Allergies are a big business!

They had TV. Hooray! It was on allergy shots. Boo.

I went straight from my appointment to the school (with a mid-stop at Wendy's. Thank goodness, as Kay and I didn't get to eat anything after that.) We had the book fair today. I sold books from 2:30-6:30 PM and I'm beat.

I did have a conference with K-'s teacher. She has three A's and two B's. She's on Honor Roll! Her reading is where she needs to be (as the teacher informed me that due to the MAZE scale that they have, they can confirm whether the kids are being worked with at home. They don't doubt that we work with K-.) An interesting thing that came about from the conference was that Mrs. B- told K- to stop using Touch Math. I talked to Mrs. B- about it last week and told her that now that they are using Touch Math, K- seems to have forgotten her math facts. She said that she raises her hand all the time now and has shot so far ahead, just by her telling her to stop using it. Mrs. B- told me that if I ever see anything that comes up like that, to let her know. A major improvement happened with her work by simply talking to the teacher in the hall.

Mr. B-, the principal, told me that K- was "Caught being good" and that she is to come down to the Principal's office tomorrow to get a prize. Her teacher turned her in for being so thoughtful and helpful. :)!!! They'll take her photo with the other children that were caught being good this month and their pictures will be posted on a bulletin board in the hall all year. HOORAY!

I'm beat, but today was a good day.

Have a great night. Smiles are above.

Hello, Allergy doctor.

2011-11-17T08:05:00.000-05:00

How are you this fine day? You say that you want to give me pokes to my arms and to see what bubbles up in reaction? :pushing sleeves up: Okay.

Today is the day that I find out what I'm allergic to and more importantly, get down to the details of the bee thing.

I don't like being poked.

I don't plan on watching.

I wonder if they have TV.

Public irritations.

2011-11-16T08:25:00.000-05:00

Dear General Public,

When I put the air freshener in the public bathroom at work last week (bought out of my own pocket), never did I think that it would be emptied and flushed within a week. Really? I'm thinking that the little beads were flushed since I've found the evidence no where else. Is it sad that we've had to shove another in its place behind the toilet so that we don't have to smell the funk that emits, and yet, be assured that someone won't make the dumb decision again to flush them?

When I took my daughter to the shoe department at Target last night for a quick run at some holiday shoes, I had to explain to her why there were funky shoes left under her bench and no one around that seemed to have needed them. "Babe, they left their shoes behind and put on new from here. They decided that they needed a change of shoes and thought that Target should provide that to them." She was mortified. She wanted to tell the "worker" that was in the other aisle, but the damage had been done and no one was around that would have qualified for that type of shoe. Thanks for giving me yet another opportunity to teach my child that people look at things, decide that they want them and take them. Truly, the boat trailer being taken off the back of my truck while my husband was floating on a boat at the lake really didn't drive that lesson home quite enough.

As we were straightening the store, Julia found that someone decided that they had to have a $3.00 badge holder. They took the tags off and tucked them in under merchandise. Did someone steal it out of need or out of the wondering if they could get away with it? All I could say was that it wasn't putting real good energy out there for them in regard to job security.

When there is an area of a store blocked off, that would mean that customers probably shouldn't go there, right? Yes, well, I guess that the block makes it more intriguing and people feel that they have the right to go there. I had some mirrors and different items on the floor and on a display case yesterday. We have a rolling library cart and I had it blocking the area that I was working in. I went to get something, came back and found two ladies walking through my mess. "Oh ladies! I'm so sorry. I had this blocked off as it is kind of dangerous back here. Is there anything that I can get for you?" "No, we were just looking." "I'm so sorry. I blocked this area off, as the items tend to grab peoples feet while they walk by. I'm so sorry that I didn't put a note on the cart." I put a note on the cart and as I was working, I had someone rolling the cart and saying at the same time, "Do you mind if I come back here?" (It was a smallish area, probably 5' x 5' at that point." "Yes, actually. Let me move these things on the floor. I have this area blocked off so that I can keep customers safe. I have a note on the cart, because I don't want anyone to fall." "OH!" :thunks to the forehead: Really? Julia battled the same problem the other day.

When we have an opening, we have a cup count. How many people had food and drink and felt the need to leave the empty cups in a display?

When people shop and leave a pile of wrapped packages visible in the back window of their car, they are begging people to break into their vehicle. STOP DOING THAT!

Folks, please stop crop dusting. I mean, really. I get that sometimes y'all might have something sneak out, but the front room stunk so bad the other day that I had to open up the door to be able to breathe. What was going on up there was air deposited by force. There are outdoor gardens. Please oh please, take that air to the great outdoors where it isn't going to linger.

I know it is difficult, but if you just put your car between the painted lines, there would be more room for the rest of us. Just sayin'.

Why yes, thank you for considering my safety when nearly backing over me in the parking lot. It's not like I was sneaking in behind you. I was there before you were.

I'm not normally this crabby. People had bugged me and I needed to let this list go.

Smiles in my day:
- K-, having a rotten stomach ache compliments of antibiotics and strep, thanked me for calling the doctor to see if there was anything we can do and said, "Mom, I'm just going to have to get used to it." Sadly, for now, that's the way it will be. I'm thinking that knowing that she's just going to have to sweat this one out means that she isn't going to obsess about it quite as much. It has fallen into the category of it-is-what-it-is.
- Hubs came home early from work because he wasn't feeling well. K- wanted to buy him a "sick prize." (He buys them for us, as I have a singing apple that he purchased for me in July.) She decided that he must have the Operation R2D2. (No, we didn't pay nearly that for it.) Sadly, he took AAA instead of AA and we have to play it tonight instead.
- My MIL had dinner for me when I picked K- up.

Have a great day!

Tales from the Trenches: Alligator ankles

2011-11-15T08:45:00.000-05:00

My love and I were sitting on the couch the other evening, watching TV. I saw him look over kind of weird. He reached down real slow and with one finger, rubbed on my ankle bone. He sat back up, grabbed the bottle of hand lotion he hand nearby, got a squirt, then very gently rubbed some on said ankle bone with one very delicate finger.

"Well, can you at least check my other?"

"That one's fine. The other one is rather dry."

It seems like a weird thing, but there was my husband, armed with lotion and taking care of my calloused ankle bone needs. It made me giggle and after nearly 15 years, I know that he still pays attention, even to little things.

Smiles in my day:
- I was able to talk to my brother. He phoned, told me that he's wearing (what I refer to as) a Lindsay Lohan bracelet and has a GPS strapped to his back. He's thankful to be out, spent 8 days, "Reading more of the bible than I have in 27 years."
- The neighbor made soup and had me run over (between horrible storms) to grab some to put in K-'s lunch today.
- Having K- eat a piece of bread right after taking her antibiotic seems to be helping her stomach ache.
- I stood for 8 hours straight yesterday and my foot didn't hurt at all. That, my friends, is a miracle itself.

Have a great day!

A big pile of many things.

2011-11-14T00:00:00.001-05:00

Accomplished, that is.

This weekend, despite the illness that had overtaken K-'s throat, was quite busy for Hubs and me. We worked in the yard, cleaning through some of the plants, Hubs worked on clearing the shed out, ditching unneeded stuff (mainly Pergo remnants from last year) and reset everything. I got the mums planted, trimmed up the ivy that was overtaking one of the basement windows, trimmed up the old mums and the attack rose bush, was finally able to take down the last tomato plant, drained the rain barrel and stowed that away, trimmed the peonies down to the ground, helped Hubs haul leaves for pick-up and helped to get the outside furniture picked up for winter storage. Whew.

:side note: K- is feeling back to her ole self. I should have probably put that first.

I had a goal to have the Christmas card done this weekend. I had an incident with our photo program about 2 months ago, where I had (what turned out to be 10,993 photos) photos in limbo that I could not find. You see, we replaced our Kodak Easy Share printer (don't buy one, they are horrible) with a lovely Epson Work Force 630 (I could kiss it and tell it how nice it is to me). When I removed the Kodak printer out of the computer, it decided to take all of Kodak off and took my Easy Share camera software with it. That is the software that I use with the Nikon and I had years of photos (many on disk, but not since last Christmas!) that I just could not find after the program decided to take hostages with it.

I was hating on Kodak Easy Share anyhow, but that really ticked me off.

Back to the subject at hand, right? Well, I decided that if I re-installed the Kodak Easy Share camera software, perhaps God would smile on me and put the photos back in their proper creature home.

God is good. He did smile. My photos are back. :deep sigh of relief:

It took quite a while to re-install and to import the photos back into the program. Since the program has had an update or 10 since I originally had it, I fumbled with the workings. After hours, and I mean hours, of work, I was able to get all the photos off the Nikon, combine photos that I pulled, burn a disk and download them to Shutterfly. Because I failed to read the fine print, I designed a card that didn't qualify for my free 50 cards, so I had to readjust. I went ahead and designed a few cards last night, but decided that I would order the cards this AM, when I had a fresh brain. (We skipped church because of K-'s strep.) What card did Hubs and I decide on?

The merry moments collage Christmas card! You can also get it with green blocks instead of black.

I'm thrilled. Since what I chose was a flat stationery card, I could give a quick run-down on the back of the card and include one more photo of our family. It negates the need for the holiday Christmas letter.

:side note: Yes, Aunt Patti, I know your fondness of the letter. I tell you, I got quite a whisker lickin' for the letter last year as I had three women at a family dinner tell me about how depressing my letter was. It wasn't my aim to list depressing things and have people all funky about them. My aim was that though crappy crap happened, we were all taken care of, everyone is well and all is good. Besides, Grandma was dying and I wasn't as chipper as I usually am. Still, I had people give me a very hard time. Sheesh.

Now that I have Aunt Patti's note all handled (hi, Aunt Patti!!!), I shall share with you the dealie-do of the day. I purchased 65 cards. Of those 65 cards, I had 50 + shipping provided to me for free from Shutterfly for blogging about their Holiday card selection. I had no problem doing that, of course. Then, when I received K-'s school photos, there was a $20.00 code for Shutterfly included in there. On the remaining 15 cards, I was able to apply the 40% discount sale that they are currently running and the $20.00 credit, which left me a balance of $7.05 for a little over $200.00. Hubs was impressed. His second question was, "Do people really spend that much for their cards?" "Yes, there are some. I'm not one of them." My sister told me that I was her hero. God bless her.

I'm now left with a bathroom to clean and laundry to fold and! to put away. Hubs has been quite the man today and in Mike Holmes style, he pulled the entire dryer and lines out, cleaned them all and put everything back together. The dryer is running so much faster now. It really needed a good clean-out and Hubs spent a few hours doing an awesome job. Now he's tidying the basement. What a man!

Dinner is in the crock pot and if you'll excuse me, I have a date with a toilet bowl brush.

Have a wonderful day!

If it walks like a duck and looks like a duck . . .

2011-11-12T10:45:00.000-05:00

. . . it is probably the duck that you think that it is.

Yesterday, K- woke up complaining of a sore throat. She looked fine otherwise. She said that she had a belly ache, but if I kept the child home everytime she said that her stomach hurt, she'd never go to school. I gave her a dose of Advil, sent her off and called the pediatrician for an appointment later on that day. Normally, I wouldn't call for a sore throat, but I knew that she had been accidentally exposed to strep on Monday. The mom reported that the rapid strep came back fine on her son, even though she insisted that strep was the problem. She was sent home with nothing, thinking that he was fine, she sent him to school on Monday, the doctor's office was closed on Tuesday, then she found out Wednesday that his culture came back positive. She kept him home, did the 24 hour hold on antibiotics, then farmed him back off. In the meantime, children have been falling ill in their class and all over the school.

Yesterday, K- was one of them.

I was wheeling down the hall, distributing shirts out to the classes, when my dear sweet child was on her way down the hall. "What's up, Babe?" "Mom, I'm going to the nurse." "You don't feel any better?" "No."

She went down, the nurse gave her a once over, asked me, "Are her tonsils usually that big?" "I don't know, I've never looked at them before." (I should be embarrassed to say that, but I don't know what I'm looking at.) She handed me a flashlight and without knowledge of what I was looking at at all, I could see. "Whoa."

Of course, yesterday was a day that I could not leave. I had to finish distributing t-shirts, had to finish directories and pass those out and I had a pizza party for 45 K-2 kids. I gave Hubs a heads up before work telling him the spot I was in.

God bless him. He came the 35 minutes in to grab her up and take her home so that I could press on with what I had to do. It was National Metal Day on VH1 anyhow, so it wasn't like it took much coaxing.

I had a 3:50 PM appointment and we went together as a family. K-'s pediatrician didn't have any appointments left, so we saw the other doctor in the practice. Before K- even opened her mouth, she said, "She smells like strep." She explained that while there was a lot of viral funk going around, she would lay money down on the fact that K- had strep.

Her rapidly rapid strep came back positive.

I cruised by Big Bird to pick up the prescription. Of course, I was the only person in line. "Oh, we just received the fax. Give us 15 minutes." I decided to do some shopping (their ploy, I'm sure) and by the time I got back, it was like the entire NE Ohio population was in line. I waited and waited and then! K-'s prescription needed mixed calling for me to wait some more. Hooray!!!

I got the Rx in her and she kept it down, even though she had a vomiting session to rival just about any other she's ever had. (Advil is what put her over the edge.) Later, she opted for 1 spoonful of Advil, which she successfully kept down, she slept through the night and I woke up to, "Mom? Um, I think I need to stay in bed all day and watch TV, but I can swallow now and my throat doesn't even hurt!"

Thank God for modern day antibiotics. It also doesn't hurt that they were free.

Be healthy!

The week that keeps on keepin' on.

2011-11-10T17:04:00.000-05:00

Magnet available from Quotable Cards.

This has been my week. I'll tell you, I didn't let go, so there were some areas that I felt dragged through.  Allow me to let you in on some of the things I've accomplished:

1. Joe and I finished 3 major displays involving 4 trees. I decorated the trees and he did two of the three display areas surrounding the trees. One, I must admit, was more like a double display area. Bless him. He rocked it.
2. I've become quote proficient in climbing the ladder sideways.  (Foot on the rungs long wise and not short wise.) I tried to avoid it, but it was just unavoidable. There is a certain point where I'm kind of a control freak with the trees (must get the top right!) and I just can't hand it off, as it is a dance. I can't see if something is going to work out until I go and live with it up in the ceiling.
3. Yes, my foot hurt. Yesterday was my third day of pulling nearly 12 hour days on a still bum foot and I assure you, the swelling in my foot confirmed that yesterday was the last day of the long haul.
4. I picked up and have now bundled probably 75% of the 202 shirts needed to distribute throughout the school for Walkathon prizes. I requested orange shirts with blue printing. (Our district school color is orange.) I assure you, they are orange. Hunting orange. Whoooo-boy, we'll see the kids. Sheesh!
5. Kay, wonder of wonders, has started working on getting the directories distributed for me.  She was able to put room numbers on all of the PTA membership cards that I have, so now I can staple and bind. Yipee!
6. Report cards come home tomorrow! K- is excited and I hope that math grade is excitable in a good way.
7. My brother is still federally housed, received my card, has been calling the house to talk to me but since it is a collect call (on my caller ID as "A call from Texas" even when we live in Ohio), I can't accept it. We were victims of phone slamming this past summer and we changed the account to where we can't get charges like that again. When he calls mom, he'll find out that I'm not ignoring him.
8. We have another part of our family going through some tough times and that has been of big discussion this week.
9. ISSUE 2 FAILED! Hooray! We only knew of two people voting for it. I'm glad that my husband will continue making his smallish pay with the retirement and insurance benefits, that we pay into, will remain intact.
10. Our school levy failed by just less than 1 percent. Really? There was a fire levy that failed near where Hubs works. Yet another one I can't get. That one I have a harder time understanding. Not everyone has a kid, but everyone needs the ability to phone the police or fire at a moments notice. I don't understand voting down a fire/EMS/police levy. Let's face it, if your house is burning down, who are you going to call? Even if you vote it down, you'll expect them to show up and do their best work for you.
11. I have a pizza party tomorrow for 45 kids. I have the same thing next week.
12. I worked until 9 each night and there was one night that I actually fell asleep sitting up on the couch. :so tired:
13. It's supposed to snow some tonight. It's not going to be a high stickage situation. It'll be mixed precipitation, but wow. SNOW! I embrace it. Truly, no use in fighting it around here.
14. I'm scheduled for allergy testing this following week. I had to dump my Allegra D in preparation. The choking and gagging that I'm doing in the AM only confirms that the Allegra D is a very good and necessary thing for me. I'm hoping that the allergist can figure out which items I'm allergic to and perhaps we can use a more targeted therapy for them.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Busy week = bloggy break.

2011-11-07T08:50:00.000-05:00

I had a busy weekend, one that was more busy with home stuff than outside stuff. That's good. For the first time since ye ole snapping o' the metatarsal, all laundry is brought up to speed, folded and! put away. Navigating the steps with laundry was not something so easy for me to do up until this point, a day of going through K-'s drawers for items grown out of and making space for new things, hauling laundry up and down landed me with a rather sore foot at the end of the night. No, I don't think it is what Dr. W- meant by "don't do anything crazy," but at least I accomplished good things for the pain that I endured. A good thing is that now I can stand on the front of my feet (like I'm standing in heels.) I showed Hubs. He asked that I not do that again. I think that the loud crack is still too loud in his head.

I've assembled 290 PTA directories for our school. The assembly alone took me probably 7 hours, but that part is done. I now have to staple membership cards to the front of each book and sort according to classrooms. The classrooms I have to look up, so that will take an awesome amount of time, as well. All told, so far this membership gig has taken probably 60 hours in in-put and directory creation. I easily have another 3 hours to go in just membership card stapling and piling for distribution. The lady who handed this job off to me never made mention of all that. Argh.

Yesterday, I did grocery shopping with many coupons. I'm not an extreme shopper and they wouldn't at all be impressed with my spending vs. saving, but I did save $35.00 in coupons and yes, it is for things that we need. A lot of baking things were on sale and I had coupons. We needed cereal and granola bars. I bought toothpaste and other basics. It took a lot of time, though. Thank goodness K- brought her DS with her. She sat in the cart and played while I shopped.

This week, I have the final decorating push before the Holiday Open House. I'll be working longacious hours.

Sometime this week, 200 shirts will be ready for me to sort and distribute at school.

Friday, I have a pizza party for 45 kids.

K- has decided to grow her bangs out. That leaves me trying to figure out how to pin her thick bangs out of her face everyday so that she looks nice and not like a shaggy dog. I think I'll get it figured out. This morning, a touch of hair spray had to be used. She was none too pleased with that, but I told her that girls aren't having bangs so much in the 3rd grade anyhow, so it is perfect that she's decided to grow them out now. Once they get far enough along, I'll take her for a real hair cut (it'll be her first not done by me) to blend those puppies in. I'm not thinking that is until late spring, though.

:deep breath:

Oh, and did I fail to mention that my brother has managed to pull a stint at our local federal housing? What does that mean? What that means is that he got tossed in jail. It's a big mess of yucky detail, but I can say from the bottom of my heart that though I know that he's made bad decisions, he could have left and didn't, I believe that he was falsely accused and that he's in the big house for sheer stupidity. :glove smack: I love my brother with all my heart, but until he starts making better decisions for himself and removes himself from toxic situations, we can't do anything to save him until he comes to that conclusion on his own. In the meantime, we pray.

I shuttle onward. I've borrowed a big ole stapler that I have to drop off at school while on my way to work. The PTA directory is going to kill me before my brothers dumb decisions do.

Have a great week!

Darned that VH1

2011-11-05T10:30:00.001-04:00

I've loved Rush since I was in college. I dated a guy who liked them very much and we listened to them a lot. Imagine my surprise last night when Hubs, knowing my affection for Rush, said, "Hey! Rush is on VH1 tonight. Do you want to watch it?"

We proceeded to watch it for hours.

I told him that I knew that I had Rush on something (cassette or CD), but I couldn't remember what. (Though I knew I had Roll the Bones, since I had just listened to it a few weeks ago.) "Well, I own them. I used to own more, but those were the tapes I loaned you in college that ended up all over your car." I told him that the one guy I dated listened to them and that's where it all started. "When you broke up, did you return them?" "He never gave me any of them." "Well then, he's a smart guy."

Hubs never did get over the fact that one of the tapes he loaned me, Faith No More- Epic, fell out of my car when it was really cold and literally shattered in the driveway. I don't know that we've ever replaced it by CD. (And no, I didn't mistakenly call it a tape. CDs came out in mass production when I was in college.)

It brings us to another point of discussion that Hubs and I had. He is a CD hoarder. He's organized about it, but dude had our bed specially built (waited 6 months for it) so that he could fit the rolling containers of CDs he has under the bed.

No, I'm not kidding.

He has them carefully arranged by genre, I believe, and padded with pool noodles to keep them from flapping against the side of the box when pulling in and out. Each is pristinely cleaned, housed and loved.

Then there is me.

I have stacks of CDs. I have them in the studio, the living room, the truck and the bedroom. I listen to a bunch of different stuff (excluding country), but mainly alternative. Hubs, as part of a birthday gift, took CDs and put them in a lovely binder for me and has them in my RAV. I have a few CD cases in there, but most of everything is in the binder.

They are not pristinely cleaned.

They are not carefully housed.

They are loved, but on different levels of love depending upon my mood.

My CD hygiene has never been in line with Hubs and I think that he would probably claim that is one of the bigger pet peeves about me.

What I do know is that Rush is now playing on the stereo in the living room. Where was the CD? In the Little House on the Prairie episode binder that Hubs gave me last year for Christmas, just where he put it.

I know I have the case somewhere here . . .

Today's theme is miscellaneous bits of life and stuff.

2011-11-04T00:00:00.000-04:00

1. I dislike Old Navy. I ordered things online, again, and for the second time I found that their sizing is just not in line with what my child is. Today, I took the things back to exchange, found that the online regular items are now the store clearance items and I ended up having to spend $11.00 more to get the same number of rather like items. Argh.
2. I have left a message with the referral department of the doctor's office. I'm wondering if Dr. W- can refer me on to a lovely allergist who can figure out this pesky bee thing and to see what generalized "seasonal" allergies I have. This year, I have been on Allegra D since June. It's kind of a forever thing, I think. I sure would like to know what I'm allergic to and if we can, I'd like to try to work that allergyness out of my system. Words of advice, Janeen?
3. K- got her health project done. She had to do a Family Fire Safety Plan and she did a great job. They had two weeks to do the project and K- really threw herself into it.
4. Grades close tomorrow and I'm holding my breath on that math grade. :turning blue from lack of oxygen:
5. I picked my rings up today from the jeweler and whoever worked on them this time to retip the prongs did a better job than anyone ever has. Truly, I don't recall anyone having tipped all of the tips before. I only recall them having given attention to the center stone. My, oh my are they clean!
6. I left a note on someones window today about a low tire. I hope that they were able to get their tire aired back up. I would hope that if someone saw the same problem with my car, they'd leave me a note. My car would have thrown an idiot light at me, but I think that this van was pre-tire pressure idiot light. Still, I hope that they are safe.
7. My friend called crying to tell me that her niece had stopped breathing 4 times today and that she had prayed and prayed but could I pray, too? So there I stood in Old Navy while the child was trying on shirts and belting out a prayer for Rachel, Kay and her family. Turns out that Rachel is holding her breath and passing out. (I did that when I was three. Rachel is 8 or 9, but she has Rett's Syndrome.) She had a seizure and fell flat on her face, if I have the facts right.
8. Don, our neighbor, had a great report today from his orthopedic surgeon. He can ditch the coumadin, walk with the cane, drive himself to the store and get back to some light volunteer work at the church. Don had his hip replaced three weeks ago and has truly done fantastic.
9. I'm tired. It's amazing how I'm as tired as I was when I broke my foot initially. Having gotten out of the boot, but being very careful with walking, driving and everyday tasks takes a toll. I forgot my mid-afternoon 2 Advil snack and I felt it. (I've only been back to that since I have been de-booted. In boot, I hadn't taken Advil for quite a while.) I have to remember that the foot won't be fully healed for another 7 weeks and it is going to take time. It's just surprising quite how tiring that healing process is.

It's time for bed. I have a long day tomorrow. 'Night!

Smiles in my day:
- K- and her excitement over her project.
- K- was up and ready well before scatter time in the AM. This last week has been difficult to get up and out. Time change is Sunday. I'm sure that won't help matters at all. :(

Have a great day!

Samaritan's Purse: Operation Christmas Child

2011-11-03T00:00:00.001-04:00

It's that time of year again! Operation Christmas Child boxes will be collected from November 14-21. We choose to do the Follow Your Box donation, so that way we can see where our box went to. Last year, our box was sent to Iraq.

Need to know drop off locations? Click here.

Need to know what to pack and what not to pack in your box? Why lookie here:

What is in our box? We have a set of marbles and a book on how to play them, a mini bowling set, buildable animals, a slinky, a whoopie cushion (every culture has to think it is funny!), a tic-tac-toe wood board game, a reusable steel water bottle filled with hard candy and suckers, toothpaste, deodorant, floss, a tooth brush, stickers, a paddle ball game, a bar of Ivory soap, a pan flute, a kazoo, a rainbow pencil, a wood peg jumping game, pencils, pens, a highlighter, glue sticks, a pair of scissors (blunt end), a wood ruler, cap erasers, a pencil sharpener, a box of crayons, a box of markers, a box of colored pencils and a set of watercolors. I still have a tiny space that I can put a compressed wash cloth into. (The pop-up kind that you buy at the store.) All of this fits into a plastic latch standard shoe-sized box. Sometimes I do trim the packaging a little to make it work. I also work hard at engineering everything into the box so that our kid gets the maximum amount for the space they have. I like the idea of the plastic latch lid box. I've always done those and I look at it this way, it is an extra gift that they can reuse forever.

We do our box for boys age 10-14, because that is the area where the donations are the lowest.

We love doing a shoe box!

Have a great day!

Conversations with Joe.

2011-11-02T00:00:00.000-04:00

Joe is a co-worker. He is the co-worker that is going to bail me out of ceiling and other way high decorating this next week. I've worked with Joe for years and always enjoy his company. I can talk to Joe about anything and he usually bellows out his signature laugh that can easily be heard from the next gallery. A few gems from the last few weeks that have made me laugh:

While trying to center the top of the pink tree I was decorating, I yelled, "Hey, Joe! I need your help. I need you to tell me whether this is straight."

"Me? Straight?"

Well, of course, I laughed and told him that I don't even think about these things I say until after I say them. Joe is anything but straight.

When speaking about a friend saying that an individual that we both know, "Has a partner," I told Joe that I was stunned that they thought that. 7 years in art school and almost 14 years of being a gallery rep just didn't add up in my mind that could be possible. I talked more and more about it and all Joe could say was, "My people don't do motocross." Alright then.

He makes dinner and takes cell phone photos of his food.

He laughs when we're listening to folks read things out loud to each other and I very quietly whisper in his ear, "Hooked on Phonics worked for me!"

He was trying to show me exercises today (that I can't do because of the foot) and didn't even mind my climbing on his back to see if he could hold me. Never mind that we were on camera while we did this. Don't worry, no one was in the store besides Julia, who I'm sure thought we lost our noodles.

I'm laughing because at least when we're pulling the long freakin' hours next week with Christmas display, he'll be there to laugh with and make fun of me. Believe it or not, I'm almost kind of excited to get the displays done with Joe. I promise that it won't be boring. It just can't be when he's wearing his lime green frames.

My husband pulled me in a wagon and my aunt still wants to buy me diabetic orthopedic shoes.

2011-10-30T23:53:00.002-04:00

Thursday was trick or treat at my parents house. I sent K- and Hubs off to go treating with my sister and her clan. I stayed back, my niece and I talked about funny things, but I still felt left out. T- and I went trick or treating by car to the neighbor's house.

"Vern, I broke my foot or I would have trick or treated with the family. :while holding out a trick or treat bag: May I still have my Cracker Jacks?"

He smirked and said certainly. Plunk and in fell my yearly box o' Cracker Jack goodness.

Friday was my daughter's Halloween parade for school. I would have walked the parade route, but Dr. W- would hunt me down and beat me with the Aircast that he just sprung me from. Instead, I hung back at the room and got everything ready for the kids.

Saturday was our trick or treat. My sister and her entourage arrived for dinner, then we went off to trick or treat together. LeAnne and her partner brought their flat bed wagon. (The sides need replaced and M- hasn't gotten to it yet. He works and is kind of busy.) I was going to have them leave it back, but Hubs said that he would haul it. It only took me hoofing it what would be the equivalent of around an entire city block to have to park and ride. I was outfitted with the red light saber so that people didn't hit us, and Hubs dragged me for the remaining blocks. God bless the man. I'm just not the 97 pounds I was when we married.

My aunt has insisted on my having new shoes. She insisted on springing for those for me. (Not necessary, BTW.) Since I was dodging the Dr. Comfort catalog in hopes for a wonderful pair of Saucony, Hubs, K- and I went on down to DSW and found these. Street shoes didn't satisfy Aunt Donna. She's decided that the diabetic hikers that she wants to buy me are these. :insert big frowny face: I love my aunt and that is why I boldly told her, "I will never wear those." Don't get me wrong, I don't mean to hurt her feelings, but it seems insane to purchase expensive boots for me that will never ever ever ever ever (get that?) be worn ever. (Just in case you didn't get the first 4 evers.) The Saucony's were only $47.50 with tax (I had a coupon.) I thought I got out for cheap and that she would be thrilled. As we talked, I mentioned that Hubs just bought me new LL Bean hiking boots at the end of the summer and even Aquasealed them. I explained that hiking boots are all Hubs wears for work and that he takes hiking boots very seriously. He won't buy cheap for himself and didn't buy cheap hiking boots for me. She seemed to be a bit more satisfied and almost relieved when she found that I had a new pair of hikers waiting in the wings. She did make me promise that I would still peruse the fine offerings of specially crafted diabetic orthopedics in the catalog that she sent me home with.

Her heart is in the right place.

Out of the boot and Epi-fied.

2011-10-28T17:34:00.001-04:00

The good news-- my foot is healing and while it is not fully healed, I'm out of the Aircast boot. Dr. W- said that if we didn't get me out of it, I would end up with mobility issues, particularly with my ankle. He told me that things are healing, look great, I have good muscle support (or something like that) and to ditch the boot and get into a good supportive shoe :insert pointing at my tennis shoe: and NO FLIP FLOPS. Um, it's about 46 F now and it was 30 this AM when I walked K- to the bus stop. Don't worry. I will not be wearing flip-flops. I'm supposed to take it easy and "don't do anything crazy" and I'll ride it out and be okay. I asked if he needed a follow-up and he said, "Not unless you do something dumb." :insert Dr. smirk: Okay then.

I gave him the bee sting story. "Oh yes. Well, then, you need epinephrine." He explained to me IGG's and IGE's (I'm needing to research) and how now each reaction will only get worse. I'm to take a dose of Benadryl and a dose of Zantac when I get stung. Give it 15 minutes and if I end up worse/major . . . , I must do the EpiPen. I also have extreme reading to do with that. I did talk to the pharmacist who said that the instructions are very detailed and that if I had any questions whatsoever, to give her a call and she will go through it step by step with me. (I may need back-up EpiPen knowledge here, Janeen.) I do know that the little tiny purse that I own isn't going to cut it anymore and now I'll need to graduate to the bigger one that I have from long ago and far away. Hooray! I found it!!! It needs a good polishing and some mink oil and it will be good to go.

A side story, but related-- my lovely aunt wanted me to go and get my feet fit for some specially made diabetic shoes so that she knew that I had excellent shoes to wear. Now, as much as I appreciate her thoughtfulness, I find nothing attractive about the shoes she wanted me to purchase and asked if she was insisting, may I please just buy another pair of Saucony? She said that was fine, she just wanted me to have good shoes. I have good shoes. My shoes weren't worn during the two months of casting because I didn't want to kill one and have one. Bless her heart.

So, I'm very carefully limping my way along. I've now been slowed considerably, as I am back to building up the muscles in the lower portion of my leg. I'm also cautious, as I don't want to re-break the metatarsal, as it is a very easy thing to do.

So I'm bootless and Epi-ful. Have a great weekend!

A 50% poverty rate.

2011-10-27T14:32:00.001-04:00

My daughter attends our local public school. She gets an education that is fantastic and I would never in a million years consider switching her to another place. The school she attends has a 50% poverty rate. I've known this for quite some time now, but that 50% poverty rate statistic smacked me squarely in the face this week and I can't take a child out of my mind.

While cruising around to gather the last of the t-shirt sizes needed for our walkathon prizes, I had to flip a few shirt tags because the two notices sent home went ignored. There was one child, in a sling and an obviously too small shirt, that I needed to check.

He was in the 4th grade and wearing a size 7 shirt. He is well into a 10/12, if not borderline on a 14/16 for length. I took a deep breath. He's gotten to the age where I'm sure that kids notice. I hope with everything in my heart that he is not made fun of for it.

I was speaking with a couple of PTA board members about it. The one suggested that I speak to the guidance counselor to make certain that he has a winter coat.

Mrs. W- stopped me today and T- does not have one.

:deep breath and with tears:

We'll be making certain that he's got a bag of clothes going home and that he will have a warm coat for winter. Still, I sit in my warm house, typing on my pieced-together computer with an operable phone, beds, clothes, water, food, a child that really should consider herself as wanting for nothing (she doesn't have everything in the world, I promise, but materially she has more than some) and then there is T-.

Belt out a prayer for him, eh? Word has it that kiddo has a kind of tough life. He's on my mind and in my prayers. He has truly tugged at my heart all week long.

Goodbye old friend.

2011-10-26T08:23:00.002-04:00

A girl and her borrowed dog.

K- called me at work yesterday. Her voice sounded shaky and sad. "What's up, babe?" "Mom, Mike has to put Brandy to sleep. She's going to die." The child cried and cried, and I cried with her. My coworker heard me talking to her and I upset her so much that she ended up crying. Brandy had been suffering from congestive heart failure and had gotten to a point yesterday that Mike knew he needed to have her put to sleep. I told K- to take my camera (please don't drop Mommy's good camera) and to see if it was okay with Mike if she takes a few pictures. She did and Hubs took a picture of her with Brandy. 10 minutes after K- called, Hubs called to give me the scoop. "You have to buy Mike something." Shoot. What do you buy a mourning guy when his dog dies? I found him a 6-pack of NE Ohio micro-brewed beer-- Thirsty Dog! (Had to go with a dog themed gift.) Mike called later and cried and cried. Oh, my how my heart broke for him. We'll all be sad not to have Brandy hanging out in the shade and romping through the front yard with K-. So sad. :(

Tales from the Trenches: The great travels of an Aircast boot.

2011-10-25T00:00:00.000-04:00

It's gotten packed in mud.

It's been water-logged from a lovely walk through a puddle that I didn't see in the dark.

It's been over inflated.

And under inflated.

The people at work say that I can't sneak down the steps since I THUNK, THUNK, THUNK down them instead.

My people have bruises. I accidentally walked on K-'s knee, I clocked Hubs in the knee cap (hard) when I flipped while sleeping and I've clocked him in the knee a few times on the couch while we were watching TV.

My people have literally gotten underfoot. Hubs reports having toes rolled over with the Aircast like having them crammed into a vice. I'm guessing that it doesn't feel good.

I've walked in poop twice now. That calls for assistance in cleaning. Hubs got it once and my sister got it once.

I have to pull myself far closer to the steering wheel than I should be (please no lectures about the air bags-- I'm short and it is something I'm too close to anyhow) so that I can depress the gas pedal without it being a full body experience.

I'm out of the season where it smells like little kid foot. It's cool enough now.

Speaking of, it has vent holes and sweet Pete when the cold wind blows through the holes. Ventilation it has. A bit more than I realized. Eeek, it can get chilly!

I've learned the perfect way to make a 2 minute rain boot cover from a gallery bag, a pair of scissors and two tabs of packaging tape. It's waterproof from up top, but not down below.

The kids at school (nearly all 500 of them) have stopped asking when I'm getting the boot off. I think that they've given up. I've been casted the entire school year so far.

I think that the teachers have given up, too.

Either the straps are stretching or I'm suffering from atrophy. Or both. The straps pull a lot tighter than they used to. I have no swelling, so that's also something else to consider.

The seasonals at work don't notice that my foot is broken until I tell them. Since the jeans cover the Aircast and my tennis shoes are the same color, most people don't notice.

Joe threatened me today when he saw a ladder in my work area. Yes, I had to climb up once (a tall step ladder) because Steve was there to hang my Christmas tree up for me. I've been working off of two step stools (big area for my feet). All I could think of was Dr. W- coming in (since he knows where I work) and busting me for being on a ladder.

I forgot to loosen the straps last night and woke up with my foot feeling rather vice-crunched. "Need. to. move. please," said my cramped toes.

I may have mentioned this, but I cannot run in the Aircast. Well, I suppose that I could if I really put my mind to it, but if Dr. W- doesn't want me walking decent distances, I'm thinking that running is out of the question, too.

It's fully unrelated, but I'm presently fighting a battle with a cold sore. I'm hoping to win.

With that, I have a PTA directory hanging over my head. Must get typing.

Have a great day!

The Happy 3rd Blogoversary of "Am I beginning to develop my grandfather's allergy to bees?"

2011-10-23T11:23:00.001-04:00

Happy 3rd blogoversary to this little chunk of the internet. It is on this day that I sit with a box of children's Benadryl rapidmelts next to me (store brand, thankyouverymuch) to see if I'm going to have anymore reaction to this yellow jacket sting I got yesterday.

You see, yesterday was pretty simple. We went to my sister's house to enjoy a nice fall day, go to the pumpkin patch and hang out as a family and carve pumpkins. As the kids were carving pumpkins, I was sitting on a little chair. I had just hauled my aircast boot into a mini pile o' dog poo, and my sister was going to tend to the removal of said substance. In the meantime, my boot was all undone and I was sitting watching and giving carving advice.

Then, I felt something on my leg. I gave my pant leg a quick brush and felt pain. Hmmm. That can't be right. I'm thinking something is in there. I decided to give the pant leg a big roll up, figuring that if I pushed it up, I would make matters worse. My niece gasped when she saw what was going on.

There was a yellow jacket trying to fly away, but it was completely attached to my leg by the stinger. It flapped and flapped and I thought, "Crap. What do I do?" The kids were sitting there. I didn't want them stung, so I gave it a quick swipe with my hand, then grabbed a hold of the aircast boot along the sides and stomped it to death with my healing broken foot.

Mark, my sister's partner, looked and dashed for mud. He tried pack it on. Where I thought the sting was wasn't where it was actually at. Then, we started packing the mud where it needed to go, but it wouldn't stick. LeAnne and Mark went to the house hunting for a straw to "suck the poison out," but they could only find a crazy straw. :) They came out with baking soda paste, which worked for a few minutes, until Lily, the Pond House Dog, decided to be all loving and distressed at my pain that she took my baking soda paste along with her on her backside.

My leg started getting splotchy and the darned sting hurt worse than I remember a sting hurting ever. About 45 minutes after the sting, K- and I started off for home.

Then my mouth started feeling funny.

My throat wasn't swelling. My tongue wasn't swelling, the area below my lower lip was swelling. I decided to stop by the drug store to get Benadryl. I hate the stuff, as it makes me feel like an ogreous zombie, but it was a must. I couldn't tell if I should stop by the fire station or take a run to the ER. It kind of freaked me out. I took the Benadryl in the parking lot and hoofed it to the neighbors when we got home. (The neighbor's partner is a nurse.) While he wasn't home, Mr. D- was and told me he could see swelling in my lower face. He made me call him to verify that Hubs arrived home.

Eeek.

The Benadryl kicked in and in an hour and a half, the fuzzy, swelling feeling went away.

Then, it came back. I took another Benadryl, as I could have technically taken 4, but decided that 2 initially were good. Very soon thereafter, it made me feel so tired. I made Hubs promise that he would wake me up a few times to see if I needed to take more. Thankfully, I didn't.

Today, my leg still hurts. (I'm not normally a complainer about such dumb things.) It also itches and there is an area of redness. It isn't swollen or hot, so that is good. Still, I have a family history.

My paternal grandfather developed an allergy to bee stings in his 40's. Sometime in his late 60's was when he passed away. He was attacked by a nest full of bees, he was diabetic, admitted to the hospital and the stubborn mule he was, he signed himself out. He wasn't there long enough for the time needed to heal and died as a result. I also have a maternal 1st cousin with an allergy to bee stings. Her allergy developed in her teens. I believe that there is enough there to catch Dr. W- on Friday and make it a double-it-up appointment for the foot. Hubs thinks that the bee unloaded everything he had on me, but certainly understands my concerns, particularly given family history.

So the 3rd blogoversary? That one must be the Benadryl anniversary.

If I haven't said it enough, thanks to all of you for stopping in and reading the drivel that I put out. It's nice to have you here.

:)

Have a great day!

Celebrating the holidays with Shutterfly.

2011-10-22T00:00:00.000-04:00

Last weekend, we made a trek to Amish Country. It is a favorite place of ours and several of our Christmas card photos were taken there. My first choice was to return to the produce stand. I know that it sounds a little cheesy, but it was a great place to take our photo. They have mums, pumpkins, bales of hay and I flipped and twirled everything to be just right. Hubs secured our then camera to a telescope tripod with a rubber band, hit the timer and voila! A Christmas card photo was born.

Side note-- you'd be glad to know that we've grown up, gotten a new camera and an actual tripod that attaches to the bottom without the use of stationery supplies.

My hopes to take the photo at the produce stand were dashed when they were still quite full with produce and people. Drat. No worries, my husband told me, we'll look around to see what we can find. In the end, our photo was taken at a gazebo behind the yummy chocolate factory. The leaves were changing and the wind was gusting in a way that would make Chicago jealous. I'm trying to delete from my mind that my hair is flying, but no bother, Hubs was pleased with his progress.

I have shuffled through what archives I can find after having my photo program deleted from the computer while I was deleting only our printer and I've made a run through some Christmas cards on the Shutterfly website.

My husband would tell you that me, the cards and the photos can be quite a thorn in the side of my dear family members. Imagine his joy when I found these delightful options in Shutterfly's 2011 Holiday Card selection:

This one might be our favorite! We can ditch the holiday letter and just roll it on into this one.

I loved the idea of the monogram, even though our family monogram doesn't exactly match.

We are, aren't we?

Absolutely.

And then, we might roll with this one. So many to choose from!

I think that this one is it. I like the variety of sizes. I'll be able to tell the story of our year in photos and I do believe that I recall this one being available in black, too.

Of course, I could always choose from the flat photo 4 x 8" cards selection. We have always sent the flat photo cards. Of course, they have 5 x 7", as well. Just lookie what I found!

I'm so excited that they have reusable shopping bags in their photo gift selection. This is $14.99 and folds up pretty small.

I considered getting an ornament for my in-law's last year, and this may be the year. Shutterfly has either a ceramic or pewter ornament available.

I like the idea of rolling over after the year is through and doing a photo thank you card. I did these for K- last year with her combo thank you birthday/Christmas cards. Geeze, Louise does it take a long time for that child to write out her thank you's! These cards would make that agony so much more cheery.

See? Can't help but smile, right? It's a card, so the cute will be on the front and the "do you know how many hours we spent on these" writing will be on the inside.

They even have gift tags!

And address labels!

I've gotten cards from Shutterfly in the past. I loved them. I used a different online card printing service one year and I received my 60 photo Christmas cards shoved into an over sized envelope. Needless to say, the corners to most of the 60 cards were all munched and crunched and so were many of the envelopes. I had decided right then and there that I would go with someone else and Shutterfly was the service I used. Printing was quick, prices were great (you can find sales on their website all the time, too) and they sent my items in a box. I realize that might seem weird to some, but it is the little things to me that keep me and my family coming back.

Are you a blogger? Want a chance at 25 free cards this holiday season? Register here. Not a blogger? Never fear, Shutterfly offered me three promotion codes to offer to readers. I already spoke to two readers about Shutterfly and they are on their way. I have one more Shutterfly 25 free cards code to pass out to the first commenter who asks me for it in the comments and tells me what type of card you are interested in using the code for.

Now go forth to Shutterfly and shop for something beautiful!

I was compensated by Shutterfly for blogging about their 2011 Holiday Card Selection.

Winterization of the vehicle has begun!

2011-10-21T00:00:00.003-04:00

A few years ago, I did a WFMW about girly winterization. I'll give a list of my recent accomplishments and my to-do list.

√ Wash and wax the RAV. Done! I won a wash and wax from the local Toyota dealership when I went to have my oil changed in June. I had previously scheduled it for July, but K- got sick with that nasty respiratory crud I had and was running 104.2. I was going to have it done in August, but we had the chipped windshield, the belt scrapping of the paint, the repaint and the time to allow the paint to cure. The day I dropped the car off for the repaint was the day I was going in for the start of the foot episode. (I tell you, I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried.) Fast forward through all that crub and to today. There was a kind gentleman who for two hours, kindly washed and waxed my entire vehicle. Y'all, that is no easy task. I now can put a check mark on the list there, though.
√ He also swept the car and wiped over the inside!
√ My car hasn't been a mama mobile since we came back from vacation and Hubs gave it a good detailing for me. I went through and picked up a few pieces of garbage from the back, but you'd be proud that it seriously wasn't dirty!
√ Refilled Purell dispenser in my driver's side door.
√ Wiped windows inside and out. Again, nice gentle guy did that for me! :)!!
√ Storm blankets are returned to the vehicle.

Things to do:
1. Tire rotation. Scheduled for tomorrow.
2. Storm food and add few bottles of water.
3. Check windshield washer fluid and put an extra bottle in the back.
4. Make sure that I have a book to read in the console. You just never know around here.
5. Make sure K- has a book in the back.
6. A flashlight would be excellent!
7. Track down the snow scraper and bring it out to be in view. Snow is around the corner. My 5th metatarsal tells me so!

I can't think of anything else right now. Right now, it is 45 degrees F and raining. It is chilly willie puddin' pie and warmness is not in our future, I'm sure.

Do you see anything I missed? Shoot me a comment! I'd rather know!

Smiles in my day:
- My awesome free car wash and wax!
- My Pampered Chef order arrived! Now I have a simple slicer, a mix and chop and a toaster oven sized stone baker. (I had birthday money.) I'm so excited!
- Dr. W-'s office phoned today to tell me that he has called the orders in to have an x-ray done on my foot before my appointment on Friday. This way, we can actually discuss my progress rather than just guess about it. I like being able to meet with Dr. W- so that I can get the full scoop from him, rather than a relayed message from the nurse. Cross your fingers and toes people. I'm hoping that this thing is healing.
- Having a removable cast that can be flared out in front of the heat vent at night to dry. Twice this week, my aircast boot has taken on water. It got damp and a little muddy at soccer, despite my gorgeous purple plastic boot bag. (Compliments of work.) Last night, I had kind of a rinse and repeat, except I walked in a puddle that I didn't see. The top of my foot was dry, but the bottom was soaked. Yuck. I'm glad that I can dry it out so it doesn't smell like a dead critter strapped to my foot. Ewwwww!

Have a wonderful weekend!

What if there was a big cat roaming through your 'hood?

2011-10-20T08:02:00.003-04:00

The exotic animals that were let loose was probably about an hour and a half south of my house. By other reading that I've done, Ohio seems to be a bit lax on the exotic animal owners. It's several times a year that we have some type of incident. Last year, a handler was mauled to death by a bear that he worked with daily.

My thoughts? Probably not popular with everyone, but I understand why they handled it the way that they did. Do I wish that they could trap and hand deliver the animals to a place like The Wilds? Absolutely. The Wilds is a gorgeous place and they aren't that far from where the exotic animals were released from. Click here for map. (For reference-- Zanesville is where this happened and Cumberland is where The Wilds is.)

My husband said that they talked about this at work. He agreed with what they did and so does Jack Hanna. The animals were released, it was dark, the cages were disabled so that they couldn't be used again, tranquilizers would work for a short time, but couldn't guarantee that they would have enough time to keep the animal down so that they could find them before they awoke. The man didn't leave a note, so they don't know if this is what he considered a last act of kindness or one final stick-it-to-'em. (Our thoughts are for the latter.)

Sadly, many animals died. They shouldn't have. If only the owner would have surrendered them.

Thoughts? I know that I'm opening up a can of worms, so please know that I appreciate every comment. I don't mind if you don't agree. I don't mind if you leave me a longity leggity comment. Just keep it family friendly and constructive, please.

ETA: This article was on Yahoo this evening. There is also this petition to outlaw exotics in Ohio.

Tales from the Trenches: A letter to the dog lady and one to smoking man.

2011-10-18T08:15:00.001-04:00

Dear Dog Lady,

I know that each morning you see me, you must grit your teeth in anger. I know that you find my protecting the children at the bus stop from your ferociously barking dog annoying. I know that you tell me that as Spot, the medium-sized German Shepherd that barks his fool head off that, "He's really gentle and would hurt no one." Pardon me for not being convinced.

One of the first days of school, you decided to walk Spot through the crowd of 6+ children. I was dumbfounded. "He's fine," you said, as the look on my face suggested otherwise. "I'd really rather not," I said softly while I was horrified to think that I might have to throw myself in front of these children to avoid a good ole fashioned mauling.

Fast forward to a day last week. You were walking Spot, approaching our bus stop corner and not stopping. I stepped ahead of the spot about 5 feet and said, "Ma'am, would you mind not walking your dog through the crowd of waiting children at the bus stop?" "He's harmless," you say, while Spot has his ferocious people bark on. You continue to advance toward me and I continued, "No, Ma'am, please. You don't understand. I would really rather you NOT walk your dog through the bus stop of children. Please consider walking him on the sidewalk on the other side of the street." "Well, there are things planted there and he may pee on them and kill them." Really? You are concerned about burning plants up at the end of the season with dog urine, rather than a concerned parent with children ranging from 2nd - 5th grade. "Well, really, we'd rather you not."

Yesterday, you were approaching the stop. I very politely gave a look your way, moved down a bit and blocked the sidewalk. You took my not-so-subtle hint, turned around and went the other way.

Good girl!

Please understand that I'm just protecting these kids at the bus stop. I have been bitten by otherwise "very gentle dogs" and my bites required medical treatment. I was bit in the hand and chest by a Great Dane. I was also bit in the leg by the same owner's Doberman. My niece had a "very gentle dog" snap one night while she was sleeping with her and my brother came in to find the dog chewing on my niece's head as if it were a chew toy. I had a cousin who had his face chewed by a dog that had gone hungry. I have big dog issues. I love them if I know them, but I don't know your dog and don't care to.

Sincerely,

The Over Protective Bus Stop Mom

- - - - - - - - -

Dear Smoking Man,

I really don't quite know what possessed you to smoke while standing on the white line outlining the boundaries of the soccer field this weekend. I understand that it was raining and that you brought your very large EZ-Up tent to keep your family dry. That was kind of you. What was not kind of you was to smoke right where the children were playing soccer. I know that you can't be surprised by children paying soccer. You've paid your play cost to have your child involved.

The children are out exercising. While I understand that it isn't my place to tell you where to smoke, one would think that common sense would kick in and perhaps you wouldn't do it ON THE FREAKIN' FIELD!

There are asthmatic children. While my child is not one of those, she is smoke sensitive. What do I mean by that? Well, she ends up with a hefty case of croup or bronchitis every time she is exposed to more than a puff of smoke. I had the discussion with my family that we would not be able to attend family functions if they continue to smoke in the house and around my child. If they can move out to keep my child safe, you can use your noodle and move your heiny under the tree, up the hill and away from the children, to keep their lungs safe.

Dude, where is your brain?

Sincerely,

The Smoke-Free Mom

Smiles in my day:
- That my daughter had a teacher that phones. I'm not quite used to that. She is an open book. You can literally talk to her about anything with your child and she truly wants to help. As I was walking down the hall the other day, she grabbed me up to discuss my child's math test. K- failed. K- didn't fail because she didn't know the material. K- failed because she rushed. K- had an A- an interim and I had asked Mrs. B where this 55 % put her. I told her that the way I figured (with tests being 50 % of her grade and this being the first one), she was now sitting at a low C - D. It turns out that K- is sitting with a D. :insert exploding bomb sound here: She called to tell me that she hadn't realized quite the percentage impact that made on the kids grades, and that she had 5 other children bomb the test, too. She will be re-testing that test in a few weeks. I explained to her that I didn't bring up the percentage to her as a want to retest (though I'm thankful), but with at least 25% of the class in K-'s same boat, I could see her point of concern. (Imagine 28.5% of your 2nd grade class now failing one subject all because of one test.) As Mrs. B said to me, they are working with a completely new math program and it is taking some getting used to. Still, I laugh that she calls my house, doesn't even say who it is (thank God for caller ID) and just launches on in talking. I told her that K- is under 2 weeks of restriction to make sure that the impact of rushing is firmly planted in her noggin. She is under screen restriction, except with First in Math, is to double check her work, slow down and concentrate and her handwriting is to be neater. When she doesn't rush, these things aren't an issue. I told her that we would re-evaluate on October 28 and see how she is doing then. She appreciated us taking this seriously and I told her that I don't think it will be a problem for K- again.

Have a great day!

By George, I think we've got it.

2011-10-16T13:06:00.000-04:00

As many of you know, we've left our home church and have been church shopping. Apparently, we are a try just a few churches and settle in kind of people. We tried the Episcopalian church with the neighbors. We tried the Southern Baptist church with friends. Now, we cruised on to the Methodist church at the suggestion of K-'s school librarian.

We think we've found a church home.

Now, my good friend Rachael said all along that she thought that the UMC would be a good fit for us. The people were warm. Everyone was themselves. They took us in, talked our ears off, the sermon was related to real life and so was Sunday School.

We left with the biggest sigh of relief.

I can't recall at what point I made the comment that being in that church service brought tears to my eyes, but Hubs agreed.

We went downstairs to retrieve K- from her services and I laughed at her teacher. "K- just blended right on in and we didn't even know that she hadn't been here prior to us taking attendance." It was then that I told them that she is a churched kid. We talked about having left our church home, being "church homeless," which was certainly a 4 year consideration of prayer and discussion, and now we are here.

We love that we are amongst people full of flaws and that is okay. I love that they grabbed us up, K- was blended right on in with a 4-child family from school (at one point, I had no idea where she had gone), and people were glad that we were there.

:deep breath:

It's a good thing.

Big Boy Cable: The TV Report

2011-10-13T20:16:00.001-04:00

My child is off today with a bout of the yucky stomach virus, I should be using my time wisely in a domestic fashion, but I'll be continuing my breather break to share with you what we have found. These are in no particular order.

1. Chopped- I love this show. I love that they give them goofy things like herbal cough drops, ramen noodles, chocolate nibs and pre-made waffles that they have to make into something fantastic.

2. Sweet Genius- Tried it once. Can't do it again. It is Chopped on crack. With a bad announcer. And a old concept.

3. Long Island Medium- Not my thing. Tried it once.

4. Sister Wives- Not my thing. Tried it twice.

5. Flipped Out- Loved this show, but the drama made me scratch my head from time to time.

6. House Hunters- It can be okay. I've watched it from time to time.

7. Extreme Couponing- I appreciate the stories where people help family or people in the community, but to have an extreme stock pile of things that -- HELLO PEOPLE, DEODORANT AND SHAMPOO DOES EXPIRE!-- they have and touch and tell it that it is all pretty like makes me so sad. I'm glad that they've gotten such good deals, but really what's with all of the hot sauce and Yokisaba noodles? Most of the things gotten are so extremely unhealthy it is awful. Shelves of chips? Those suckers don't have a long shelf life at all. To me, it is mostly glorifying gluttony.

8. Toddlers & Tiaras- Perhaps I don't understand the extreme craziness of all of this because up north, we all don't do this. We don't do the massive amounts of pageants and crap like that. I mean, I'm sure that there is something, but the south corners the market on dressing their children up in dresses (on this show) that cost more than my entire catered wedding did, are sporting hair with hair pieces looking like they've rocked it right out of the 60's, fake lashes, fake tans, flippers and hoochie outfits that as an adult I would never consider. There was one mom who had her child's hair bleached. Really?

9. American Pickers- We love Mike and Frank and their want to pay what is fair. They aren't out there to steal people's items away from them for a song. They'll give fair prices and even bump those up if the people give them a low-ball price. We love the stories that go along with.

10. Pawn Stars- We love the entire show. It's amazing to see what people have squirreled away. It is like Antiques Roadshow where you love to see the very valuable items, but chuckle a bit when there is something that comes down the pike that is fake. It is so hilarious to see how when people know that their item isn't worth what they thought, yet they still want what they thought it was worth. "Um, no."

11. Storage Wars- A new love for us. I turned Hubs onto this one last night. Now, grant you, I'd like to bean the guy (Dave) who belts out his bit in a Tourette's like repeat. (We mean no offense to anyone with Tourette's, as we love someone in our family with it.) Barry is my absolute favorite. Darrell? He seems like a whiner that stomps away in a huff. Jarrod and Brandi? I think that they'll work it out okay. Jarrod just needs to pull up his big boy britches and act as such.

12. Storm Chasers- Of course. We aren't a fan of the rework of the show, though. Team Dominator, Team TIV and Team TWISTEX? Really? Just ditch the "team" part. The music? We miss the music that you've had for YEARS! We aren't a fan of the new narrator, either. We're thinking that Storm Chasers is declining and isn't going to be around much longer.

13. Mythbusters- This is a toss up. Sometimes, it is really good. Sometimes, it just sucks. Adam is still my favorite, as Jamie seems a bit constipated. The duct tape show is still my favorite so far.

14. Dirty Jobs- We used to love it, but now we hate it. I don't know that we'll watch it again. They reworked it and the "Dirty Mindbenders?" Too much of the show is sucked up with banter and less is in the dirtiness part.

15. Bridezillas- Train. Wreck. Do people actually act that way? I've watched it a few times and all I can say is, "Jerry Springer!"

16. Say Yes to the Dress- I don't mind this one. My years as a bridal consultant doing this very thing makes me appreciate what these folks are going through. Believe me. This show is no lie.

17. Top Chef, Desserts- I don't mind it, but I like Chopped better. I watched it a time or two and that was enough.

18. Iron Chef- I don't seek it out, but I'm good with watching/listening to it.

19. American Handyman- (or something to that effect) Mike Holmes, we plead to you-- please stop doing this show and go back to Holmes on Homes or Holmes Inspection!

20. VH1- I love the 80's- Oh. my. goodness. I loved it! Hubs had me sit down and watch it. I'm such a child of the 80's that it is disgusting.

21. 19 and counting- I'm okay with it. It's not something that I seek out, but it is on in the AM when I drop K- off to the bus stop and come back to eat my cereal.

What is your take on big boy cable? We've come to the conclusion that we are very happy that we don't pay for it and that when it does go away, we will miss certain things. Still, we won't miss quite enough to increase the subscription.

In final post news, we're so sad. Mike, our neighbor, just let us know this evening that his pit bull Brandy has been given 2 weeks - 2 months to live. Brandy has been a bit of a fixture, waiting for me to come home when Mike is out toodling in the yard. She loves K- (through supervised visits, of course) and I've taken care of her more times than I can count over the 12 years that he has had her. Mike will not do well when Brandy is no longer here and it's safe to say that we will be in the same boat with him. K- and I went over this evening to give her a good ole fashioned scratch on the nose. Our hearts are sad. We'll miss having Brandy around, lounging in the shade of the purple plum and forever leaving dead strips of grass behind from her peeing all over our front yard. She'll be missed.

Bulk shopping by phone.

2011-10-12T22:23:00.000-04:00

My husband phones me on my cell and says, "I'm at Sam's Club. Do you need anything?"

"Cheese sticks and lunch meat."

"Do you need anything else?"

:insert non-pregnant pause:

"I can't think of anything."

"If you do, give me a call back."

Suddenly, the thought comes to my mind. I call Hubs and say, "Give me a call when you get to the feminine products aisle."

:ring, ring:

"I'm in the feminine products aisle."

"Good! Do they have Tampax Pearl?"

"Yes."

I go on to continue with the remainder of the make, model and serial number.

"Yep. They have it. They actually have both."

"I have Always," he says.

"Thin?"

"Ultra thin."

"Wings?"

"I have wings."

"I'm not a big fan of wings, but I can do it. How much?"

He told me and I can't recall, but I think it was $13.00 or so for 60.

"Don't worry about it. I can get those elsewhere."

"Oh, wait! I have Always Maxi! They are $7.48."

"Thick?"

"I think!"

"Uh, no. I don't need to feel diapered."

:insert husband laugh:

My husband walked away with two 96 count boxes of tampons for me. What a man. Considering that I'm 38 and still have a ways to go with this, I'm thinking that 192 tampons should last me for a while.

"Do we need Purell?" he asked.

"I think so."

"Ooo! Go on down to the vitamins and look for K-'s vitamins."

"Gummy, gummy, gummy, gummy . . . "

"Nope. No gummy. She would have to take two and that doesn't save money. Just look for the average chewable."

"Ahh! Flintstone?"

"Yes! How much?"

It was $13+ and I wasn't willing to pay that much.

"Forget that. I'll get them somewhere else. Can you check Calcium with D for me?"

"I have a bottle of 300 for $12.00."

"Well, I just bought a bottle of 60 for $3.99, so that is good."

"Wait! I just found a bottle! It's a bigger bottle! It's 600 for $7.48!"

"Sounds great!"

"What about prenatal vitamins?" (Again, not pregnant, but I do take prenatals as they have the extra vitamins I need to balance the blood clotting disorders.)

"Centrum, but no prenatal."

"No. Forget it. Need the extra vitamins. I'm good."

"I'm glad that I called back," said Hubs probably relieved that our marathon phone shopping session in the H&BA aisle of Sam's was done.

What a sport.

Smiles in my day:
- Getting Hubs hooked on Storage Wars.
- Catching the last 15 minutes of Along Came Polly with Hubs.

Have a great day!

PTA should have a time clock and employment benefits.

2011-10-11T21:06:00.001-04:00

Vacation.

Over time.

Sick pay.

Shoot, a time card would be nice. (Our school is working on that with KeepnTrack. They are still setting it up.)

At any rate, I have not fallen off the face of our dirt and water covered orb. I had the walkathon that we did this past Friday. Of course, I couldn't actually walk (against doctor's orders) and realized today that I won't be able to trick or treat (but Hubs is determined to find something to haul me around and has threatened a wheel chair. I said I'd rather a wagon.) That's beside the point. I've spent the better part of the last two weeks organizing and attempting to get things approved. Then, Kay (the wonder friend and fellow PTA board member) stayed with me to help count, account and deposit the $10,500. that we earned from our walkathon venture.

Saturday was the pioneer festival. Though K- and I got caught in a traffic jam, on a Saturday and in podunk, we arrived and did our volunteer duties. (Yes, there are pictures, but thanks to the fact that I erased the Kodak printer from our computer, it took the camera software with it that I use for my Nikon, put my pictures somewhere in my box (I'm hoping) and I need to go through reinstall, which I don't have time for), but rest assured, K- and I were dressed all pioneer-- well except for the Tevas, Birkenstock t-strap and the aircast cam boot.

Sunday took us to our friend's church again, which is fine. It's small enough to where people know us, know our names and my daughter enjoys it. We'll be back again this week, as Hubs isn't going to be able to attend with us. We had made the pact to go to the next church on our list together.

After church, we made a quick run through the local Walmart (yes, I see you cringing Rachael, but I was desperate) and bought a roasted chicken and a few items that I needed for a chicken pot pie. I didn't have time to cook the bird, so I ran with a rotisserie, steamed the veggies while I picked the chick, rolled the shell out of the package (don't cringe, it does the trick just fine) and then made my gravy with the chick leftovers. I was able to assemble the pie, roll on to soccer and have enough time to cook the assembled yumminess before Hubs got home. Well, it always takes a little longer to bake than I actually think, but it all worked out fine. We ate that pie on Sunday and Monday.

Monday morning, I had a PTA board meeting before school. Monday evening, I went and cut glass for a window project that someone had. I was paid a handsome sum for my time (Christmas money!) and went on home to work on some fundraiser bits before bed.

My day today began with a splitting eye headache, the room parent PTA tea and some inaccurate information rolling forth from my mouth since my head felt like someone was standing and twisting a knife into my optical loveliness. It only took two Advil, two Tylenol and a can of Coke to kill it. The breakfast was lovely. I mean, how could you turn down little custard puffs of loveliness for breakfast? Delicious!

It brings me to tonight. Mom just called to report that she did come to my house, she picked tomatoes and picked tomatoes and picked tomatoes and she is certain that she didn't even put a dent into the tomato-ism that I still have going on. Right at the time that the tomatoes and pears were ready to can, I busted my foot and to stand for the hours required to can, I just can't do it this year. She found parsley and was in love. She said that she would have pulled tomato plants out, but there were far too many tomatoes still on to toss. Believe me, I understand what she means. She took two bags and one bowl full home. I invited her to come back. She said that she's good. I may be going to work next week with boxes of free tomatoes.

Now if you'll pardon me, I must go make reward certificates for the winners of our major awards for the fundraiser. A PTA board member never sleeps. Well, at least we may sleep, but not as much as most.

Have a great day!

Rip roarin' through the 'hood.

2011-10-07T00:00:00.002-04:00

I live in a very small neighborhood that is one block long with a dead end. We all have ranch homes. The wires hang a little low. Even the trash trucks graze them weekly.

Today I heard a box truck. Any time I hear a box truck, I look to see how many houses have had the telephone lines ripped off.

Today it was two and nearly mine.

I texted the neighbor who works for AT&T. They don't own the poles and can do nothing. Ohio Edison owns them and the neighbor down the street who retired from OE has already pleaded for an additional pole to be added and they said no. He said that the city would have to make that call.

Today, I called the city. I told them that at least every other month, a box truck/delivery truck comes down our road, rips at least one phone line down and keeps on going. I told them that I hauled off after the guy this AM, on broken foot no less (yes, I'm regretting it) and asked if he really didn't know that he had just ripped lines off as he drove down the road.

He hadn't. Really? How could you not hear the thwack! as you are smacking the lines?

So, I had a visit from the Public Works guy from the city. "We've measured it and there is only a 1 foot drop from this pole to the pole down there." (The poles are three yards apart and further apart than standards dictate.) "Even 1 foot will make a difference at least for the garbage trucks," I said. Then neighbors started coming out and telling him the same story I had. Multiple lines. Multiple times. Regular basis.

The city guy is trying to see what he can do. "You guys need to put the tallest mast on your house that you can.

Really, city guy? You have to hire an electrician to come out and to do that. You also have to pull permits because the city will fine you. Just put in the extra pole please, and we should be good.

Rrrr.

Smiles in my day:
- Meeting with Mr. B-, the principal, to get the fine details of the walkathon ironed out for tomorrow. The weather is to be gorgeous, the trail is dry and I have my truck loaded down with 624 bottles of water. We'll have a great day! (No, I'm not walking. I'll be manning the water station.)
- K- had a great substitute today! She was a wonderful lady!
- K- being excited about earning her 100 BC bracelet. It's just a little silicone bracelet, but she was proud of it. It's a lot of hard work for that thing!
- LL Bean has 15 % off through Columbus Day for their card holders. I noticed that K-'s current snow boots are coming apart. I'll return those to Bean and get the new pair for just a handful of dollars. I love a company that stands by their guarantee!

Have a great weekend!

The "All About Me" bag.

2011-10-06T00:00:00.003-04:00

When I called to check in with K- on Tuesday afternoon, my mother-in-law said that she was in the basement gathering items for her "All About Me" bag that she was to take to school the very next day. When K- arrived home, I saw that she had placed a wooden butterfly that she had painted for her grandma, a ball and a deck of Old Maid cards. Here at home, she scurried around to find an assortment of items to include. Items placed in the paper lunch sack are, but possibly not completely, limited to the following:

1. A Star Wars DS game box. She wanted to take the game, but I vetoed that. I told her the box was well more than enough.
2. The movie, Tangled.
3. A Toy Story book.
4. The "Kitties in the basket" matryoshka.
5. A handful of Barbie stickers.
6. A rock from the back yard.
7. Frog and rainbow erasers.
8. The letter she received from Buddy, her Elf a Shelf, last Christmas Eve.
9. A picture of her friend, D-, who she will probably date someday.
10. A lenticular postcard of the Statue of Liberty. As you flick it, her hips sway back and forth.
11. A signed, computer-generated certificate from the adoptive unit of the county that we adopted her from, congratulating her on forever becoming a part of our family.
12. Her adoption photo that had to be retaken because of faulty film. Never mind that the tied the dress sash over her upper arm and it looks like she is trapped. Didn't notice that until after the photos were all cut and half handed out. Oh well. It's a good story.

The adoption certificate brought up a good conversation. "So K-, what are you going to share with the class about adoption?"

"That it's good."

"Well, that's a good thing, but what if they ask you about when you came to be with us? They might wonder. You know, you didn't live in my stomach."

"I know that. But the lady who's stomach I did live in-- what about her?"

"Doll, I can tell you this. We never met her. She knew that she couldn't take care of you, so she left you at the hospital with all of the doctors and nurses because she knew you would be safe there. That's how we got the call and were able to come pick you up. We're very thankful for her decision to do what was right and to make sure you were well taken care of."

She grabbed me up and hugged me. This morning, she woke up and told me that she was going to share with the class that the best thing in her bag was her adoption and that she loved her mom and dad the best.

God bless that little kid.

Smiles in my day:
- The Russian Festival is on my list for the end of the day. My friend, C-, and I are going to go. "So, C-, do you want to go be Russian?" She stopped dead in her tracks, a smile from ear to ear and then I heard, "ABSOLUTELY!" We've gone together in the past and had a really nice time. To go, you must be patient. Generally, C-, stands in the food line as I go to hit up the matryoshka table for K-. We meet back up, bet our pierogie on and live the rest of the evening in a cholesterol induced coma. More delicious than I can explain. Yum. Actually, y.u.m. :sigh:
- K- so excited that she has a pioneer outfit to wear this weekend. Last year, we helped Hubs with his pioneer festival. We have a gold panning game we help Hubs do, and last year K- had to wear her school uniform. This year she'll go as Laura Ingalls. (The child has the braidable hair for it.) I'm sure Hubs will bring my yardages of fabric home for me to wear. Last year, I was so confused by the amount of fabric, that I had to go have my neighbor help me. "Michelle, can you help me get dressed?" All she could do was laugh. My cam boot won't be of period dress, but they'll just have to ignore it.

Have a great day!

My broken foot came with no owner's manual.

2011-10-04T21:19:00.000-04:00

After mulling over the Thursday x-ray results, I decided to go pay a visit to Dr. W- to get some details sorted out. Do you know what you do when you start to compile a list of questions? You research on the internet and add to that list.

Dr. W- came in, pulled up a chair and knew we were in for a lovely chat.

"Is my foot actually healing?"

"No."

"Um, okay."

:insert look of concern, confusion and oh crap:

He went on to tell me that x-rays, which are behind the times in giving information, aren't indicating healing, but that isn't to say that there isn't healing on a subcellular level that would be picked up on a different type of scan such as an MRI. He assured me that everything is where it is supposed to be (with visuals and sound effects!) and that I'll have another x-ray on Oct 28, at which point he'll make a determination whether bone growth stimulation needs to be done. No surgery is needed, no pins, no screws and it is just a time thing.

While patting on my unattractive medical gray duck bill aircast boot, "Not that I'm pressing, because I'll be in it for as long as I need, but any time frame?"

"No."

I told him that I read about how it can be a rather slow healing process.

:insert shaking head in agreement:

"Very slow."

He told me that walking on it is fine. I did my two weeks off and walking on it (in the aircast) is actually good for cell growth. He told me not to go all crazy with stuff, but to do what I need to do. When I told him that a coworker wanted to basically strap me down to a stool and not let me up, he said, "Oh, God, no!" I told him that I don't sit very well and people were giving me crap for being up. I also told him that he would be happy to know that though I've been busy trying to coordinate a walkathon for 600ish people, that I won't be walking. "As well you shouldn't be," said my doctor who seems to be understanding my ADD tendencies more and more each visit. His parting words were, "I know when you were in here last time, you were talking about concerns with ladders."

:insert disapproving face:

"Um, yes."

:add in the doctor chuckle:

For some reason, I don't think he trusts me.

Wendy's Wonderful Kids: One frosty at a time.

2011-10-02T13:31:00.000-04:00

Most of you probably know how blessed we consider ourselves with having the gift of our daughter, K-, a child adopted from the county Department of Family and Children Services. K- started out as a foster only child, moved to foster to adopt, adoptive status and was adopted on her very first birthday, December 20, 2004.

Every year now, we purchase the Frosty coupon books for our Halloween trick or treat givies because,

"90 cents of every $1.00 booklet sold between 9/16/11 and 10/31/11 will be donated to support programs like Wendy's Wonderful Kids, a signature program of the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption. . . . You are [also] supporting Wendy's cause of helping foster care children find loving, permanent homes. "

It's something that we love to support. Adoption? It's where our heart is at.

Agony of the foot: The update.

2011-09-30T00:00:00.000-04:00

I saw Dr. W today. He and I had a fine discussion about my foot, the fact that the swelling and bruising have subsided nicely and the need to ditch the cast. I talked with him about my job as display staff at a gallery, my need to do pretty intensive display here very shortly and his thoughts about me, my foot and a ladder.

:insert disapproving face:

I told him that my concern was that I am up and down stairs, up and down ladders and quite literally hanging from the ceiling and that standing on a ladder has me rocking right on the part of my foot that I broke.

:insert squinty face:

"Could I break this again?"

With no hesitation whatsoever, "Absolutely." I asked if there was anything that I could put in my shoe to keep my foot from rolling and with a shake of his head and without hesitation in his voice, "No."

The bone breaks easily. It needs a good 6-8 weeks to properly mend. I was farmed off to the fine folks at radiology. After the radiologist took my x-rays, she offered to take me back up to the office in a wheelchair.

"So, it is still broken, huh?"

:insert funky look:

"I know that you couldn't tell me if it was."

"Really, it isn't a problem for me to wheel you up there."

Mmm, hmm.

Dr. W said that the office would phone. Phone they did. "Alignment is still good, but nothing significant has changed. Stay in the boot. The doctor wants to see you back in 4 weeks."

October 28th it is. I'm not disappointed. I'm one who would rather do what we need to do and do it right the first time. When Dr. W was talking, "Well, it is either the boot or orthopedics," I stopped and said, "Really? Orthopedics?" He chuckled and told me that it was far down his list. Very far. Good. Let's keep it that way. Until October 28th or later, we're still bootin'.

Smiles in my day:
- Having an in-depth discussion with Dr. W about the blood clotting disorders, how the MTHFR that I test for is really not anything that effects anything other than making sure that the cholesterol is tended to and kick in a baby aspirin if I want. I told him that I've been doing that, along with a prenatal vitamin for the extra vitamin requirements. He was pleased and I'm glad that we got to discuss it in full and be done with it.
- Having a good talk with K-'s teacher today and a lot of updates on testing that was done.

I've had a pretty intense past few weeks. Gosh, I'm tired. Perhaps the stress will lift soon.

Have a great day!

Church homeless.

2011-09-29T00:53:00.001-04:00

For the second time in our married life, we have left our church home. In both instances, it was a matter in the making over several years.

The first was in support of our pastor. Our church had dwindled down to 30, people were being all judgmental, up in everyone else's business and when the final straw came, we left along with another couple and the pastor and his wife.

We searched a few churches and after a month and a half, we settled on the church that had been our home for the past 7+ years.

Our pastor at this last church retired 4 1/2 years ago. He is a wonderful man with a kind soul and an ability to tie the bible and current life issues altogether.

We wish he had never retired.

Our current pastor kind of hit us off guard from the beginning. There were things that we didn't agree with, but rolled with the changes anyhow because we figured that everything would mesh a bit eventually.

They never did.

Recently, there has been a lot of rush to judgment going on and instead of embracing members in times of challenge and strife, there are members beating them down. Why wouldn't they want to reach out to them? One of the "them?" She is one of our extremely good friends. What has happened to her was the straw the broke the camels back.

We are at a place that we don't like to be, yet look forward to the opportunity to explore. Neighbors had us visit their Episcopalian church with them a few weeks ago. The church is beautiful and the people are absolutely wonderful. The church service is conducted in a very Catholic manner and while that is certainly not a bad thing, I've grown up Baptist (since the age of 7) and Hubs has been going to the Baptist church with me since we were engaged. We've both been out of it for so long. It was a culture shock of sorts.

K- and I will be hanging at another Baptist church with friends of ours for the next few weeks. They are a small, tight-knit but welcoming congregation that we met at a cook-out this summer. Their pastor is very down to earth. At least we know that these next few weeks, K- and I won't be the only ones bringing a bible to church with us.

In the weeks that follow, we're going to be visiting the Methodist church up the street. They have fantastic children's programming and a Sunday school specifically on CURRENT SOCIAL ISSUES! Hubs was even excited about that! We've been to the church for kids events and are excited to see what a Sunday holds.

We'll be checking out some non-denominational churches. One thing we know is that we aren't in a rush to settle in. We want to find the perfect church home were all of us can feel at ease again. Still, the idea of being church homeless is one that brings me much anxiety. It brings Hubs excitement to see homes that will be a better fit for us and K-.

Pray for us, will you?

Tales from the Trenches: Ideas one might consider when functioning in public.

2011-09-27T08:26:00.002-04:00

1. When you have a cramp in your foot and you decide to take your shoe off in an art gallery, you may want to avoid re-enacting the scene from Planes, Trains and Automobiles where John Candy announces that, "The dogs are really barking tonight." Don't worry. After she stopped waving her shoe around in the air, I asked that she put it back on because it is unsafe to walk through the gallery without shoes on. There could be glass or pins or, God forbid, a bare foot walking around.

2. It's always fun when someone has insisted on being all self-service, drop an art made piece and either display it back on the shelves making us look like we're selling inferior merchandise or, my personal favorite, hiding it. It's like our version of Where's Waldo?

3. When your child has a "po*o*py diaper" and you announce it through the store (though the scent is announcement enough), you might want to consider the carry in-carry out rule that several state parks have. Changing said diaper in a small, one seater, equal to your home 1/2 bath if you live in an old house 1/2 bath, is fine. When leaving said biohazard in the trash, it stinks up the whole joint. We're not talking just the bathroom, but it makes the WHOLE joint smell bad.

4. When you keep asking a chick with a broken foot to come back and get things out of a case for you, they may get a little irritated on the 10th trip because you had no ability to make up your mind and even then, you announced that you'd be back next month and we won't be surprised to see that very same pair of earrings come back.

5. Mind your children. Really. When you buy them something and they rip it from the package, could you hand me the package pieces to throw away. Littering a Goldie Locks path (ETA: Hansel and Gretel) out the door with bits of plastic and paper isn't something necessary. We're pretty close to the parking lot. I don't think you'll have a problem finding how to get back in again.

6. Don't be offended by being asked if you want a gift receipt. I know you think that the flaming pink flamingo earrings are a perfect fit for everyone, but not everyone will embrace them. I know it is a shock, but people do return things. They might even return the perfect gifts that you've given. Shocking, I know.

7. I know that I've said this before, but when you wear enough perfume to choke a clydsedale, you may want to consider toning it down a bit. When we still smell your perfume in the gallery two hours after you have left, that is going beyond having a personal scent. Consider a few things. First, perfume does have a shelf date. It can go bad. Believe me. Secondly, there are people who like to breathe. I'm just saying. Breathing is good.

8. If the toilet paper is low and you notice it, I realize that it isn't your job to tell me. However, there are occasions that we check in the morning, we are well stocked and bless the people and their many bathrooming needs. Just let us know if we need to do some tending. Again, a sensitive matter that people don't like to do and I'm not mad about it (or anything else listed here-- irritated, maybe), but think of your fellow shoppers. There's no next door stall to knock on to see if they can spare a square. Bummer, dude.

9. Step away from your phone.

10. Buckeyes are not chestnuts. Pick all you want but NO, you cannot eat them. I understand critters eat them, but don't. eat. the. buckeyes.

11. I'm happy to throw your cup away. You needn't display it on the shelf with the other art. No, really. You may be famous one day, but until then, no one is considering purchasing your used beverage cup.

12. We know that we write slips by hand and that our credit card system is analog and goes slower than the Pony Express. However, as charming as you may find that it isn't, I can't do anything about it. We aren't going computerized. Think of it as small business charm. Besides, if you asked to have a $1.50 ornament wrapped at Target, they would think that you are crazy. We may think that it is crazy to wrap the $1.50 ornament, but at least we'll do it. See? A nice trade, eh?

13. I know that it is particularly difficult, but do your best to park between the lines. They are yellow and bright and you don't need to double park your car in the front lot that holds all of 10 cars. If you feel the need to double park your car, you can park it on the street where no one can park next to it.

14. If you are an artist with an appointment to show your items, don't just show up any ole day and think that it is okay. Art school 101 tells you that you need to 1. make an appointment and not just drop by and that 2. keep said appointment. Not everyone who was going to meet with you is on schedule or available for your drop-in time.

15. If you are an artist who crafts things specifically for children, don't be offended by my asking about the tiny little buttons that you have on your items or lead standards for your pieces. You are embellishing commercially made items with tiny buttons with no okay for lead. Telling me that the buttons are antique and that that you assume that "since you bought the things in the store that they must be okay," isn't good enough. They sell things chalked full of lead or cadmium all the time. I stopped selling my items because of CPSIA guidelines. Though I talked to manufacturers about lack of lead and so forth, I couldn't be positive that the store hadn't sold me old lead-laden stock. To avoid being sued, I stopped selling my work all together. Keep in mind that I bring up the tiny little buttons on your items as a choking hazard because it isn't good to hand things off to babies that they may chew off, no matter how well they are sewn on. (Follow the toilet paper tube rule.) I know that your small child is probably not an eater and mine wasn't either, but there are plenty of them out there. There are also standards. That is why I'm not dogging on your work, I'm just not trying to kill a kid with it.

The end.

Look! A break and I didn't even expect it.

2011-09-24T16:41:00.000-04:00

Truly, I didn't anticipate taking a blog break, but that is how it is working out. I've been busy with the close of the membership drive. Since I'm the Membership Chair, I get the delightful job of compiling said information into book format and passing cards and directories out to PTA members. I have the Walk-a-thon fundraiser coming up on the 7th and am still feeling low on the communication totem pole with the principal, who is a very, very busy man. 100 Book Challenge got rolling and now I'm updating. I have a conference to go to the evening of October 5th for our PTA district.

No. I'm not even the president.

I have the appointment to check in on my foot on Thursday and I came to realize that on my last appointment, I've neglected to share some fairly vital information with my doctor regarding the whole story of Bailey, my hospitalization and the blood clotting disorders (homozygous for MTHFR and PAI-Type 1.) There are new studies that have been done on the blood clotting disorders and information that I don't know. I'll take him a copy of the genetic testing that was done and perhaps we can have a bit of a brief sit-down about it. Tears will be shed on my part and I know that he'll feel bad that he inadvertently tossed a freight train at me the last I was there. I've had discussions with myself numbering more than I could approximate on about how to get all of the information out there, have it be concise enough without sounding like I'm blathering on, but still be coherent and intelligent. He is a great guy and when he finds out that his bedside manner fell short that day, he will feel like a total heel. My point is not to make him feel bad, I just need to know the updated information and how that has a bearing on my physical health. Still, I've chewed and gnawed on the conversation nearly all month.

I love my doctor. Truly. He is a great guy. That has made my thoughts of the conversation even harder.

I'm busy with tons of stuff, still cruising on a foot that I'm thinking needs to remain booted for a little while longer while carrying a rather heavy mental load.

I'll be checking in. Don't worry. I didn't forget about you!

We wait all year for this.

2011-09-21T00:00:00.000-04:00

Sean Casey and me standing with TIV2 at the Carnegie Science Center in March, 2011. We went for a talk that Sean was giving on his IMAX movie, Tornado Alley. Props to Hubs for taking a picture of me that doesn't make me look drunk or high.

I know, I know. We're science geeky people. Storm Chasers starts on Sept 25 and we are so excited. I have it Sharpie-d to the calendar. You see, normally we don't have "big boy" cable, so we always have to wait until February to watch it when we purchase the season on DVD. This year, we get to watch it, then purchase it. The local cable company has somehow hooked us up with an extension to our cable that we aren't paying for, it doesn't include premium channels, but we do have about 50 additional channels and Discovery is in that freebie lot. We've noticed that a lot of times, we are still bummed that we can find nothing to watch and are quite happy that we aren't being charged for the extra, but we will enjoy the few sunshiny extras that we can get while we have it. Let's hope that it holds out through October 16. Hubs and I love having our 10 PM Sunday night TV date!

Tales from the Trenches: When Aircast boots attack.

2011-09-20T00:00:00.002-04:00

My poor husband. I didn't sleep well last night, flipped over, awoke half-flip and in time to see my aircast boot nail him squarely in the knee.

Talk about a rude awakening.

Poor guy. When you sleep with someone who has to wear a boot, you need to put up some fluffy wall of defense. Don't worry. He only moaned for a short while.

Smiles in my day:
- Though not what I signed up for, K- woke me up at 4 AM to "count her dollars" that the tooth fairy left for her. She counted them in full voice. No whispers. Let me repeat the time. 4 AM. I'm glad that she was so excited to finally get that first tooth out of the way.
- Scented candles at work when nothing else smells pleasant. The building smelled funky when I got in, then people in general smelled gross. Thank goodness for scentedness!

Have a great day!

At 7 3/4.

2011-09-19T00:00:00.005-04:00

HOORAY! K- lost her very first tooth-- finally!

Her tooth fairy box. It is tucked just under the one corner of her pillow. She wanted to make it easy on the fairy after all.

I think that I bought the tooth fairy box for K- back when she was 4. We've been waiting. And waiting. And waiting. And waiting some more. Wednesday came and she called me on my cell phone while I was at work. She was absolutely squealing with delight.

She was eating a piece of corn and it finally loosened her tooth.

Now we've been waiting. And waiting. The tooth has been a source of entertainment. We nicknamed it "Mr. Wiggles." She could do "witch tooth" (AKA closing her lips and leaving that one to hang out) and do to the "draw bridge" (AKA drop the tooth flat out.) Every now and then, it would be a little agitated and bleed slightly. What did I do to remedy the situation?

I bought corn for dinner and made her keep gnawing on it.

Hubs buttered it up and they were having lovely conversation as Hubs ate his dinner late because he had been tending to the lawn before the rain that is due tomorrow. "Mom! I have a hole! I don't know where it went! I think I swallowed it!" We talked about that being a possibility and that it was okay if it happened. Certainly the tooth fairy would completely get it. She called my in-law's to let them know and I found her tooth sitting on the Toys R Us ad that she had been reading. We did have a tooth to put in the box after all!

What is the tooth fairy leaving behind? Well, I had gotten a $5.00 for the first tooth. I have a dollar for each one thereafter. MIL decided to sweeten the pot because K- has had to wait for so long and she slipped me another $5.00. (She insisted.) I'll tell K- that she has two $5.'s because the tooth fairy felt bad because of her long wait. I will let her know that the haul for a typical tooth is not that large at all. However, we'll be doing the transcontinental tooth fairy. I have foreign coins and odd American currency (gold dollar, SBAnthony dollar, a $2.00 bill) and she'll get one of those to collect and learn about each time the fairy turns up.

We have another loose tooth. I expect that one to pop out within the week. Aunt Kristin was right. She said that when the first one comes out, K- would be dropping teeth out like no tomorrow.

I'm so excited for her!

Smiles in my weekend:
- K- losing her tooth!
- Rare butterflies for our state nectaring at our plants. There is one that Hubs needs to go to work to identify. Another is not a state butterfly at all. One is a tortoise shell that Hubs has only seen one other time ever. He said that I officially have a better selection of butterflies than they do on the 250 acre prairie that he has at work. :)
- Going to my neighbor's church today for a Homecoming Celebration. Bless their hearts. They were so happy to have us there. We were Episcopal for the day and we were the only ones who came with bibles. It struck my Baptist heart as a little odd and I'm sure that we struck them as equally as odd. They were lovely people and Hubs commented on people smiling and really open and making us feel welcome.

Have a wonderful week!

Crutch-free

2011-09-17T11:09:00.000-04:00

When I had my bedazzled purple cast cut off, the doctor who put me into the cam boot said that I could technically walk on my foot. Dr. W- told me limited weight bearing for two weeks. I opted to stay with the original instructions. Thursday, was my first day out, crutch-free.

It is grand.

Grant you, I walk as if I am a victim of a displaced stick, but it's all good. I have to keep a tennis shoe on, though. The height of the cam boot vs. a flat foot is quite different. I have to walk on my toes if unshoed on the left.

My crutches are still in the truck if I need them. I'm looking forward to going to the grocery today. I hadn't gone before, as I didn't care to go in a motorized shopping scooter.

I go back on the 29th to see what progress I've made and if I'm shoe-ready. I dare not walk anywhere without my boot. I even sleep with it on. Better to be safe than sorry, even if when I take it off, it smells like little kid foot. Eeeeewwwwww!

Smiles in my days:
- Busy, busy. We had an open house Thursday evening where we were able to go to our child's class and get the full run-down of what they do with their day. It helped to explain a lot of things and clarification is always good. I could tell that the teacher was nervous, as she apologized the next day for things that she had missed. I told her how much I appreciated it. She needed an atagirl. You know, sometimes it's a lot easier to get in front of the little people that their parents. If you do something goofy in front of the kids, they'll laugh, you'll laugh and all is done. Parents take things way too seriously.
- Mike, the wonder neighbor, is back from his quick trip to Myrtle Beach. Some old guy ran a stop sign and hit him with his car, though. Mike rolled over the hood and landed on the other side. The man saw that he appeared unhurt and he WAVED AND DROVE AWAY. I told Mike that I'm sure that he'd rather it be him than his girlfriend, Ruth. Wow.
- We caught our last monarch yesterday. The tally sheets will be mailed on Monday. The butterflies will begin arriving in Mexico in about mid-November. We'll see if any of ours made it. Of course, we're really pulling for PMA 912. I mean, I busted my foot for that butterfly and all! I'll keep you guys up to date on whether any of our butterflies make it.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Pumped Up Kicks: What is your interpretation?

2011-09-14T20:36:00.000-04:00

This song plays on the station at work all. the. time. It's kind of catchy and I never knew what it was about until Joe, the jewelry display god, brought it up to me. A customer was walking through, singing it very off-tune and Joe asked me later, "You do know what that song is about, don't you?"

"Why, no I don't."

He went on to tell me that it was about a kid who went to school and shot up his peers. Yikes.

Several of us at work have discussed it. My basic thought is that if you can take a fairly liberal minded bunch of artists and college students and offend them with a song, somethings got to be a little off.

I looked up some lyric interpretatons online.

What are your thoughts? Me? I have a love for alternative music. This one makes me shake my head, though.

Smiles in my day:
- Finally, K- has a very "wiggly tooth."

Have a great day!

Please stop texting while you are driving.

2011-09-13T21:41:00.000-04:00

To the offenders,

I have seen two young women driving along, both hands holding their phone while steering with their forearms, texting. The speed is up and down. There is swerving involved. May I put this in perspective of how incredibly NOT OKAY this is?

I have a child. A precious and wonderful child that we adopted. We lost our daughter, Bailey in pregnancy. To lose one child was horrible. You aren't paying attention to the road. You are reading messages. You are answering idiotic things that you needn't be concerned about while you are driving. Please keep my child in mind as you are being irresponsible.

I have a husband. My husband drives about a half hour to work. We've been married nearly 15 years, together for almost 18. I'll do the math for you. Hubs and I have been together since I was 20. He and my daughter are my all and everything.

I have family. My Uncle Billy died when he was 34. He was driving up one side of a hill, when someone decided to pass a semi on the other side. The two met up somewhere around the top of the hill. Instead of swerving away from each other, they ended up swerving into each other. My uncle died 4 days later, after having a perforated colon and developing peritonitis. I was in high school and devastated. My uncle didn't die as a result of texting while driving, but the other driver did and equally stupid thing.

I have friends. I have friends who have lost siblings and children, parents and friends. I have a friend whose sister was murdered. I have another friend whose daughter drowned. I have a friend who had both parents die within 15 months of each other. They have experienced loss far more than anyone should.

When you text and drive, you aren't paying full attention to the road. When you aren't paying full attention to the road, you can't be fully aware of small things that can turn into big things if not recognized.

Let me be blunt. You are driving a very heavy thing down a road while playing with a screen and you could kill my people or someone else's family.

Put your phone down. Pay attention to driving. Deal with your messages when you stop.

Thank you,

Amy at Bailey's Leaf

The Anniversary: We'll Never Forget.

2011-09-11T00:00:00.002-04:00

I've just spent the better part of my evening watching specials on 9/11. I've watched multiple programs showing the second plane hitting the south tower, the collapse, the panic and how not only did the skyline of NYC change, but so did the skyline of our lives.

At the time, I was unemployed. I was still drawing unemployment, as the galleries that I had worked for closed in early summer. I had worked for them as far into the closing as I could, then I was out to find a job. I had found one, at the place that I currently work, but was due to start September 17, 2001.

I was home, going stir crazy and cleaning my home to the point of being able to eat off my floor. I flicked the news on, as I generally did when I ate breakfast, and I saw the NYC skyline with smoke. I heard Katie Couric's voice. At that point, it was assumed that the building was struck on accident. I had been talking to my mother-in-law on the phone.

Then the second plane came.

It was no accident.

Then the Pentagon.

Then Shanksville.

I watched news over the next week to the point where I was in panic attacks. I couldn't sleep without seeing planes falling from the sky. I had to turn the TV off altogether.

I remember when everything happened, the sky became silent. It seems like a dumb thing to say, as everyone knew that. Here, we are three blocks from a small airport, and depending upon the weather, in the circling pattern of a more major airport.

If planes kept hitting buildings, what was next?

I recall going to Drug Mart up the street to fill up bottles of water. It seemed like a dumb thing to do, but someone somewhere (the news or by instruction from someone parental) told me to go stock up on water. Our water supply would certainly be compromised.

When I turned the TV back on, there were erector set piles of buildings with trapped people. There were messages left behind for their families. There were people on planes talking to family as their plane barreled into the south tower.

I felt sorry for us. I knew that there were people who lost friends and family. I knew that there were emergency service personnel that went in to do what they signed up to do and never came out. I knew that there were people -- a lot of them -- that helped each other get out of the towers. These people, as the whole nation, but these people more so would be permanently damaged. They saw things and experienced situations that no one could even guess. Though they were able to triumph over a building that would soon be a grave for many, images are permanently seared into their brains. What they went through during their exit breaks my heart.

There was such a loss of innocence on that day. No longer would we allow planes to simply fly overhead. If a plane made a weird noise or was flying lower than what I suspect would be cruising altitude, we instantly became suspect.

I felt sorry for the children, born and unborn, that miss the opportunity to know these great people.

I feel bad that we are no longer able to live a life with trust for everyone. To travel by air used to be a quick way to go. Because there were people who decided to use air craft as missiles, we must tack at least an hour and a half to our airport wait time. I don't mention this to solicit a "feel sorry for us" response. I simply state this because this is another confirmation that we've lost innocence. Someone can't be absent minded and forget anything behind in an airport. To do so will bring bomb dogs out and federal charges. We now must remove our shoes, because if 9/11 wasn't scary enough, someone decided that they were going to try to take a plane down with explosives in his shoes.

My grandmother had been visiting my sister and was stranded at her house, about 3 hours away from Shanksville. Cousins who had just married the week previous were on their honeymoon and were stranded out somewhere near Grand Cayman. Neither one could get back home.

I remember driving down Mayfield Road near Cleveland, and there were firefighters standing in the middle of the road with boots. They were going car to car collecting donations for the victims of 9/11.

Previous to 9/11, I felt safe. Hubs and I were planning a family, but that day everything for us stopped. Why would we want to add children to a world that we didn't even feel safe to live in? Here I was beginning a new job and we needed to purchase a car for me to get there. We had shared a car for a year and a half, but since I lost my job that was just down the road from where Hubs worked, the option of driving to work together was no longer there. Did we feel safe enough to spend that money?

Fast forward to today. When we visited NYC this past fall, we were returning from Battery Park where we had gotten off of the Statue of Liberty ferry. Our cab, no surprise, was flying down the road on the way back to our hotel so that we could change and go to Times Square to see Mary Poppins. Suddenly, my sister-in-law asked the cab driver, "Is that Ground Zero?"

"Yes."

There was chain link fence up and heavy equipment. Never in a million years would I have picked that place out to be Ground Zero. It looked like a construction site and not like a place where thousands of people lost their life. Maybe it was because there was nothing that marked the importance of the site to people who didn't know.

I felt so dumb not to know.

We were speeding by, but I was determined to take something of the site with me. I wanted to have something for my daughter. When she started asking questions, I could show her something of our trip to help fill in the gaps.

I'm so sorry that I have to explain terrorism to her.

I'm so sorry that I have to explain the loss of life to her.

I'm so sorry that I have to tell her how many people raced into the building to save people, didn't come out.

I'm so sorry that I have to tell her that Aunt Kristin and Uncle Tom lost a friend that day.

I'm so sorry that I have to tell her that we had a war with people over this, the big bad guy who was a head of the bad people who did this is now gone, but more bad people are still out there. Bad people who then killed more people in war.

We'll never forget. We shouldn't. We can't. Not one shred of it or any of the lives that were taken or affected.