Winnie's Litter

Book Review: God Gave Us Two by Lisa Tawn Bergren

2012-01-28T20:04:00.004-06:00

Please go rank my review here!

Blogging For Books
God Gave Us Two by Lisa Tawn Bergren

4.5/5 stars

A Sweet little book for the Expectant Sibling

Often young children have many concerns when a new sibling is expected in the household. God Gave Us Two tries to answer many of the concerns that small children have when a new baby is expected. Momma and Papa polar bears handled Little Cub’s questions wisely with sensible answers that explain that children are a gift from God and now the family will have two gifts. The story follows Little Cub as she discovers Momma’s lap is getting smaller and the day she spends with her grandparents when Momma and Papa go the hospital to have the baby. There is even a little plot twist at the end when Momma and Papa come home with a baby sister AND a baby brother prompting Little Cub to declare, “God gave us three.” Sorry to give away the twist!

I liked the book overall. It is well written and contains a “hook” that I think young children often need to grasp the overall lesson. The illustrations are lovely and detailed with many cute animals playing in the arctic snow. The overall quality is really good. I did not give this book a full 5 star rating for a few minor reasons. The book is rather wordy and a preschool or younger aged child would easily loose track of the plot. My eight year old son confirmed this idea as well when he declared it ‘said too much” by adding lots of detail. I also think the book may be geared more toward girls than it being gender neutral. Little Cub is a girl so everything references being a “big sister”. I also believe that the illustrations are a little feminine with many bows and ribbons illuminated in the text, not to mention Little Cub’s toys are all adorned with bows. I also wonder if a child might get the idea they will have both a baby brother and baby sister if the book is taken to heart. These are all really minor critiques and I would certainly add this to my children’s library if a baby was expected in my house.

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review and it in no way colors my opinion of this material.

Review: Cricut Cake Mini

2012-01-24T21:58:00.007-06:00

No, I didn't suddenly fall into cool review swag. (though I wish I would) I purchased the Cricut Cake Mini with my own funds. You can get a reasonable deal on them on Amazon, strangely new is cheaper than the used? Go figure that one. I'd been wanting one of these literally for years when I happened upon them being demonstrated on QVC in the middle of the night. I sat enthralled wondering if I should call in and get the easy pay option or not. My inner tightwad kicked in because at the time the thing was quite spendy. A few years later and a "mini" version have put this in a price level that is manageable for the novice cake decorator.

I can say I've been reading the reviews on the the regular Cricut Cake and then the mini for quite a while. It appears there are two camps for this, Love it or Hate it. After playing with mine and pushing a lot of buttons I think I'm in the 4 out of 5 star range. Many of the reviews I'd previously read had a whole host of tips that I followed so I had pretty good results right out of the box. If I hadn't researched so much I don't think I would have been as pleased with the results, as there is a definite learning curve when working with the machine. I found that allowing the fondant to dry out some and freezing got the best results with the cleanest cuts. I am not inspired with the detail when dialing down the size on intricate patterns. This could still be some of the learning curve part as I have not tried to use gum paste in the machine and that could have a different result than the softer fondant. The set I purchased only came with one cutting mat which slows things down significantly when you must allow for things to dry out and freeze. I purchased two more mats today to save that problem.

Of course when one gets a new cake making toy, one must make a cake!

Here I used the background fill and the detailed Fleur di Lei in a 3 inch cut. The yellow cut became distorted as I removed it from the mat because it had thawed and the fondant was too soft.

This is an example of the lettering that comes on the cake basics cartridge with the kit. A pretty standard block lettering. (Ignore the mess around "DO" I made a mess trying to pipe) This little 6 inch cake was a good practice for a giant four tier I plan to do next week for the Cub Scout Blue and Gold Banquet. This is basically what the top tier is going to look like though I have been tinkering the design in the last few days. I may have totally changed my mind by next week when I start working on it.

The one drawback to any "caking" project is the utter disaster it leaves the kitchen in. Believe it or not I had been putting dishes into the dishwasher and my new fancy cake machine was already cleaned and put away when I thought to take this picture. Don't take on cake decorating without a dishwasher.

She can clean a trashed kitchen in under an hour.

The messiest baker in the world.

Winnie

Wrestling Tournament Pictures

2012-01-23T11:26:00.005-06:00

A few pics from the recent tournament. I can't say these are the best shots ever taken. I was filming with my phone in one hand in hopes of putting a winning match on YouTube (he lost this match) and snapping one handed without really aiming.
In this pic you can see the other kid was getting an advantage. The first minute or so of the match I could hear Hubby yelling to the ref "Watch the choking!" It's pretty apparent Sonny Boy was getting a little strangled here. Unfortunately the ref never made a call on it.

Honestly can't tell you what's happening here (Sonny Boy on left) but you can see his face which is a lot more than in many of the pictures that were taken.

The results. Sonny Boy is #2. The kid that beat him is #1 and the same one that is in the previous pictures. Love the fact that #3 had already put on his snow boots to leave.

Her words carry wait that can put a chronic insomniac to sleep.

She's the most interesting woman on the web.

Winnie

Rambling thoughts in a Muddled Mind

2012-01-21T22:26:00.002-06:00

Please forgive this if it rambles, has horribly bad grammar or punctuation (I probably already give English majors shudders anyway) or odd misspelling or two makes it past spell check. My head is pounding, but if I go to bed I'll just lie there anyway and replay what I'm writing so hey might as well ramble on the blog.

Today started REALLY early as we went to another wrestling tournament for Sonny Boy. This one was thankfully much closer so it didn't require rising before cock crow. Sonny Boy's first opponent was a fierce little guy who scored lots of points. We believe a few calls in Sonny Boy's favor were missed, but it really didn't matter as the kid beat him but not by a pin. The next two opponents Sonny Boy dominated, however he didn't get the easy pins as he had in last week's tournament. Sonny Boy placed second in his age/weight division so it was a good day. This week has been wrestling intense in the household. In combination with Sonny Boy's twice a week practice with the club, Hubby has been reinforcing the coaches directions and correcting some moves. Last night I volunteered to be the wrestling dummy. The size difference between Hubby and Sonny Boy makes it difficult for him to get a feel of what the moves should be like and honestly there isn't much size difference between Sonny Boy and I anymore. I was quite surprised as Sonny Boy knocked me on my kiester quickly. He also managed to anger a muscle in my lower back near my hip that has made just about any position uncomfortable. I will not be his wrestling dummy anymore. I also happened upon a documentary on Netflix called Takedowns & Falls that follows the season of a PA wrestling team. I watched if first and decided that even though parts might be a little dicey for a kid (some swearing, and general teenage boy monkey business) it was Ok for him to see after a big conversation about how some of the kids didn't make the best decisions for themselves or the team. If your into wrestling at all you'll probably like it. I know it sounds like we are suddenly eating and breathing wrestling, but the sessions with Hubby honestly last like 30 minutes.

I also managed to make it the grocery. Big woop, but I needed a major haul. Get this Salmon was CHEAPER than catfish. Never in my life....

Tonight I watched another move on Netflix that probably has a wider range of appeal. Mao's Last Dancer. It's one of those movies you've never heard of that is really good. I'm not gonna tell you much about it, but if you like even the tiniest bit of ballet you'll like it and if you don't like ballet the dance parts are really not long drawn out parts of the story.

I got a new toy! I finally broke down and purchased a Cricut cake mini. I've been eyeballing one of these machines for ages and the price and the fact they now make it in a smaller version made it somewhat affordable. I've played with it some and so far it seems cool. I haven't done any big projects yet, just putzed around with it to see what all the buttons do. Just in time as I'm going to do a BIG four tier cake for the cub scout Blue & Gold banquet. I might be kicking myself when I'm up to my elbows in buttercream the day before, we'll see.

Tomorrow Hubby plans on taking the boys ice fishing. He wants me to come along so he he can put up more tip-ups, your only allowed so many per licensed fisher. I really don't want to go shiver on the ice. Even though I have boots rated to -30 my feet are never warm when out on the ice. Beside having the house to myself to play with my new cake toy sounds fantastic.

Igor is trucking along. He's having a spell on jealousy that is driving us all bats. We can barely have a conversation with Sonny Boy without him interjecting himself into the conversation or being a general nuisance. Honestly I think he's a little bored. Like Sonny Boy it would have been ideal if we could have started him in Kindergarten at Christmas.

Well I'm rambling down. I'll have to save the tale of four hours of medical/dental phone calls for another day this week, you won't believe it and you won't believe I didn't curse at some hapless soul on the other end of the line either.

She bowls overhand (that's why her last score was 51)
The most interesting woman in the world
Winnie

Help the World!

2012-01-19T14:45:00.002-06:00

Volunteer a little would you? You don't have to let Cub Scout stuff take over your kitchen table, most likely you don't have do much of anything except lend your name and a couple of hours of your time now and then. This isn't the first time I've railed about the lack of volunteers but it really gets my goat. My son's cub scout pack has roughly 50 boys in it. On average 4-5 people do the work. Not unusual by any stretch, most things are like this. What yanks my chain is that we have been begging at every meeting for someone (anyone) to step up and be the scoutmaster and of course we have no takers. Now to my knowledge I've never actually SEEN the scoutmaster DO anything. He even admits all he does is put on his shirt and show up at pack meetings once a month and hand out the handy dandy awards I spent three days preparing (see above picture) No one wants to do it. If I step up and do it my position will be empty and honestly my position is way more work. I don't get it.

Here is my challenge to you. If your child is in an organization - church, scouts, little league or whatever your poison may be, you owe it some amount of your TIME to keep things running. The next time somebody stands up at a meeting and says "we need a volunteer for XYZ" try it. If XYZ is beyond your current capabilities speak with person after and say "I can't do XYZ, but I'd like to help somehow. Do you have a job that takes X number of hours a week I can help out with?" I can assure you that you will not be turned down. You may think that because you work it gets you out of volunteering and that's hogwash. The stay-at-home-moms I know are happy to take on the time consuming tasks (such as sorting cub scout awards) if only somebody else will take on the task of filling a committee chair or spend two hours a month balancing the checkbook. Really your kids are doing the activity too.

Mother, Mommy, Mom, Momma

2012-01-17T09:37:00.002-06:00

I make no secret of the fact that I'm a transplanted southerner. I was bred, born, and raised in the Arkansas Delta region. Not an area most people go to on vacation and an area most people flee as soon as they turn 18. Sadly it's an area in decline and that area of the U.S. will soon forever be changed from the one I grew up in. Generally I don't really mourn southern "isms". I do miss certain foods. REAL bbq is hard to come by in Wisconsin, decent catfish is as well. I haven't had green tomato relish in years and years and there is something to be said for the unwritten rule that nothing is scheduled on Wednesday nights or Sundays (though that is fading fast as well)

Perhaps the thing I miss most is Momma. No, not my actual Momma, though it would be nice if she were closer. I miss the fact that people have Mommas. Down south the woman that gave birth to you (or adopted you) is your Momma. Not mother, not Mom. Occasionally a young child may call her Mommy, but that usually morphs to Momma by age five or six. Momma is used in conversations by 45 year old men " I called Momma yesterday and she told me that Sissy is going to have another baby." Momma is used by children to address their mother " Momma, may I have a cookie please?" I used the term Momma freely, like my peers until I went to college and it was pointed out to me. I became self conscience of it and started saying things like "my Mom". Hubby, who was raised just about as far north as you can get has probably never uttered "Momma" in his life.

I mourn this. My children don't call me Momma. I am Mommy or Mom. I refer to myself as Momma but it doesn't really catch on. I guess that part of my southerness is gone along with the fact my children will pronounce "fire" and not "far" and will change flats on a "tire" and not "tar". I have taught them some useful southern phrases of which I am proud. Fixin' to, and ya'll are common in their vocabulary so at least I'm doing a few thing right.

A Busy Weekend for Sonny Boy

2012-01-15T23:35:00.003-06:00

It was a big weekend for Sonny Boy. When I look back at it I'm amazed by how much stuff got crammed into two days and we didn't really go bonkers.

Saturday began early, if not necessarily bright, to get Sonny Boy off to his very first wrestling tournament. Hubby had done all the sign up stuff, registered him and then realized the tournament was at just over an hour drive away, not to bad when you don't have to arrive at 7:30 A.M. UG. Anyway we rolled out of bed and I managed to get myself dressed despite a raging headache I was in denial about. Grabbed a giant mug of coffee and out the door we went. About 15 minutes before we arrived I could no longer deny the headache and took some of my migraine meds in the hopes of salvaging the day. We get to the high school where the tournament was being held and Hubby and Sonny Boy went in to weigh in and make their presence known. I crawled in the back of the van, rolled out my emergency sleeping bag and told Igor to not press any buttons. Hubby wasn't too long and he took the worlds most potholed road (trust me every bump is felt when you are on an unpadded van floor) and we went to a local restaurant he'd heard about for breakfast. Luckily by now the meds were starting to kick in and I became human. Yay for the makers of Relpax who saved the day. We went back to the high school and figured out the ins and outs cause we are all new to this. Did I mention that all of Sonny Boy's wrestling coaches were involved with the middle school kids and were not available? Yeah, flying by the seat of our pants. Anyhow we figure out the program, get Sonny Boy where he needed to be and Lo and Behold he won 2nd place!

Pretty good for a kid in his very first wrestling tournament. The kid that won while not older or bigger had a few years of experience under his belt and Sonny Boy gave him a run for his money before he got pinned. Sonny boy did pin the other two boys he wrestled quite easily, but like him they were still very green wrestlers. I don't have any pictures of the actual match as I was too busy running the camcorder. Watching the tape it was apparent Sonny Boy was having a blast while wrestling the first kid (the one that beat him) as he is smiling ear to ear. I now have fliers to print up and take care of the registration for him at three more tournaments in the next few weeks.

Sunday dawned and we slept in. I had told Sonny Boy that we needed to work on his Cub Scout stuff and we have be neglectful of getting the requirements done. One of the requirements is that he build "something useful". Since one of the electives is also to put up a birdhouse and I found a birdhouse kit at Wal-Mart, there ya go.

Turned out pretty cute. However the screws that hold it together won't counter sink at all, they simply strip. Oh well, what can one expect for $8.00? We also sat down and went through several of the requirements in his handbook as well. Probably not the most ideal way to tackle the stuff in the handbook, but one must do as one must do.

The boys then put on their snow gear and spent HOURS outside playing in the snow. It was grand. Even though there is salt tracked in and wet mittens drying on the kitchen radiator it is so nice to send them out and they find something to do for more than 10 minutes that doesn't lead to injury or fisticuffs. I know I'll be complaining in March, but for now BRING ON THE SNOW!!

Finally, Snow.

2012-01-12T16:00:00.002-06:00

Today is the first real snowfall of the season. We are only predicted to get 3-6 inches total. It's been snowing since about noon and we have about half an inch. The boys are excited and are out playing in the barely grass covering snow. I hope they wear themselves flat out. Igor is grounded from TV and Wii today due to some nasty behavior at Sonny Boy's wrestling practice last night, so it's been a pretty long day and will be a long evening.

Hubby is out of town for work, he left Tuesday morning and was due home by now. I called him Tuesday night and told him the forcasted snow totals and advised him to reschedule his flight home and he said he'd see. I called him yesterday afternoon and asked him about getting a flight out. He had ended up goofing around all day in the Houston TX area and it was too late to catch the last flight out to Dallas. "I'll just take my scheduled flight out, it's not a big storm." Famous last words. He flew to Dallas this a.m. sent me a message at noon that his flight out of Dallas was cancelled and the next flight he could get on was at 5:00 something. As of a couple of hours ago that flight was listed as "Delayed". I told him he needed to go reserve a hotel room so he isn't sleeping on the airport floor tonight and he has poo poo'ed that idea as well. I guess we'll see how that plays out. The thing that gets me is he's pulled this same stunt before but driving. Last winter he thought he could outrun the same snow storm that collapsed the metro dome in Minneapolis. He ended up just barely getting a motel room in western WI after 10 hours of white knuckled driving and not making any real distance. I don't know why he so totally dismisses the idea of working around the snow. Yes, I will totally agree things are handled much better here in the north in terms of snow clean up and it's not near as paralyzing as 3 inches of snow in Arkansas. It does however make the roads slick and difficult to drive, the airport runs a standard delay and frankly it's just wiser to avoid the roads if you can until the plows have a chance to run and catch up. I suppose it's a man thing. Not macho to watch the weather or something. I just got a text his flight is delayed 1.5 hours. Hope he likes Dallas Fort Worth airport.

I think it quite funny though, we still have several more hours of snow yet. The plows have not run down our street, yet the guy across the street is out running his snow blower, and a neighbor two doors down came shoveling down the sidewalk - she stopped at my property. This isn't one of those giant storms where shoveling in the middle of it is going to save you a lot of backache in the end. I guess people are just excited. I'll likely get out the snow thrower around 8:00 or so tonight. Hopefully the plows will have already made one pass and I can get the snow berm too.

The first snow of the year is fun though. It's so quiet. Traffic on our street drops to hardly anything. Only the distant sounds of kids playing on the sledding hill and my own screeching on the lawn.

Book Review - The Dirty Parts of the Bible - A novel

2012-01-10T18:11:00.002-06:00

The Dirty Parts of the Bible – A Novel
Sam Torode

A Good Fun Read that Leaves You Thinking

The story’s hero is Tobias, a 19 year old who has finished school and is living with his parents in the midst of depression era Michigan. Tobias’s preacher father is injured in an unlikely accident and sends his son on a quest back to their former home in Texas. I won’t give away the story, but Tobias’s adventures on the road clashing with his strict religious upbringing, and meeting his long lost relatives and exposure to their form of Christianity is eye opening for the young man.

Mr. Torode has written an excellent novel that poses many questions that conflict with traditional Christian teachings, yet he has handled the material in a way that is sensitive to Christian teachings. I wouldn’t call The Dirty Parts of the Bible a Christian novel – language in sections would make grandma’s ears fall off – but there is certainly an underlying Christian / higher power component to the story without it being shoved in your face.

Memory Lane

2012-01-09T10:58:00.002-06:00

Although you'll find our house a mess,

Come and sit down and converse.

It doesn't always looks like this,

Some days it's even worse.

I was thinking of this little poem the other night. It was on a little plaque my grandmother had hanging beside her kitchen sink for as long as I can remember. In the hours (catch that? HOURS) just before sleep odd things pop into my head. Wonder what happened to that thing? My mother doesn't have it up and she's now living in my grandmother's old house. I would imagine it got tossed, as I can concretely remember a large chip out of the border. I suppose these little plaques and samplers were the vinyl lettering of yesteryear.

What odd little item can you remember from your grandmother's home? Do you recall some little poem or saying she had cross stitched on the wall? Is there some common little thing that always reminds you of your grandma?

Bored

2012-01-07T21:27:00.002-06:00

Yeah go figure. It's not like I don't have anything to do. I just don't want to do what's available. I feel like the kids, I want somebody to come up with something fun for me. That's usually when I tell the kids to do a chore, so I got up and started a load of laundry. Hey at least I'm being semi productive.

Hubby is watching a football game and I have no interest in that. I've surfed the Internet, reading random blogs a lot today. I've looked a cake website wishing I had the gumption to even attempt some of the masterpieces. I went and had my hair cut and colored - it needed it badly. Strange this feeling, it's really quite rare.

I have reading material, a book from the library that looks entertaining but I just don't feel like it.

Can you say winter blahs?

Thinking I may go start Downtown Abbey on the bedroom T.V. I've seen it before but they are starting a new season of it tomorrow night on PBS and honestly I don't remember a whole lot about the plot or characters. I just remember liking it a whole lot. If you have Netflix I recommend watching it.

Well, that's it for random thoughts. What is your go to when you normal time fillers don't make you happy and the idea of tackling a chore is less than appealing?

Death of a Friend

2012-01-06T17:10:00.000-06:00

Last week a close friend died. I had known him for several years and we were molded as one. He had traveled with me to Ukraine to adopt my youngest son, he was there through up and downs in my weight and made my rear end look really good. My friend was my favorite pair of jeans. Now I’m on a mission to find a replacement friend, however I find that jeans are no longer made of the tough 100% cotton of their forefathers, they now have percentages of spandex and some mystery elastic blended into the fabric. I admit I have a few pair of these not quite denim jeans but they aren’t the same. I pour my blubber into them in the morning but by mid-day the crotch is hanging, there are pouches on my knees and I’m pulling them up every five minutes. These pseudo-jeans never look quite right in texture and unlike jeans of old that just got better with age they look worse.

A long internet search revealed that there are a few places to purchase 100% cotton jeans, but the styles lack much to be desired, most resembling something my 92 year old grandmother wears or caters to the horseback riding crowd. In desperation I ordered a pair of the “riding jean” in hopes that even if they are a little more fit for a game of barrel pick-up they’ll hug my curves in the same way my old friend did. Alas these jeans were of the super high waist variety and that feature was accentuated by the fact I’m only 5’1”. They were returned.

Mourning the loss of REAL jeans I went ahead and purchased a couple of pair of fake jeans and move on, still hoping to find some 100% cotton jeans. Good fortune smiled on me. I was in the Salvation Army store with my Mother-in-law when she came to visit for Thanksgiving. I was poking around at the knick-knacks on the top of the jean shelf and happened to see a pair of jeans the same brand as my close friend. I investigated further and found they were 100% cotton AND they were in my size, even with a short leg length! Needless to say I snatched them up, I didn’t care what the price was going to be, though they were marked at $5. I went to pay and discovered they were having some sort of clearance and I got them for $3.
I can’t say these jeans are my new friend yet. They are a little snug in the hips, they aren’t the same heavy weight denim and they have that fake whiskering on the legs. I do wear them though and think I will have to look at the Salvation Army jeans more often.

Attention!!

2012-01-06T10:42:00.002-06:00

Announcing my "new" blog!

Not a real "new" blog, just an overhaul. Why you may ask? Life is moving along and the direction of my blog has gone from being an "adoption blog" to more of a real life blog. Honestly the adoption part of my life is not all of who I am. It's certainly a big part of me, but life no longer centers around the fact that one of my children is adopted. Like everyone else it's just a small piece of the puzzle.

Probably the biggest change you'll notice is the picture on the top. Yeah, really that is my dining room table and all it's mess. Honestly that's what it looks like most of the time. Litter. So that's what I'm going to write about - the litter of my life. The good stuff (the corner of my Kindle is in there somewhere) and the bad (there's some bills in there too).

You also likely noticed the little blurb under the flower picture over there. Yeah, I'm going to try and get some goodies too. That means from time to time I hope to review some products. I already review some books I get for free and I'll continue that as well. Honestly I don't expect a huge influx of stuff to come through the front door. In the meantime I'll continue on as I already do with a little writing about life, with a book review thrown in from time to time. I'll also start reviewing some stuff I purchase occasionally to get a little practice and hopefully to get some attention from the people who decide where to send the swag. Dear reader rest assured I will give my honest opinion on stuff. If I say I like something, I like it. If I say it's garbage, you can rest assured that's my opinion as well. The only thing that might change my opinion of a product would be that I suddenly found a flaw such as durability issues in something I previously liked or found a new use for a product I previously hated.

I may yet do some design changes to the blog as well. Honestly I'm not over thrilled with the way it currently looks. The bad part is I am all thumbs with that kind of stuff so you may well visit and see some crazy looking stuff. If you do, know that I am likely trying to fix it and it will look different a day or so.

I do hope to offer some of the swag back to you as well. I don't have the space or inclination to keep a ton of books or other items I don't have a real use for. Stay tuned and there just may be a give away soon as well!

Please don't run away because I am commercializing some. I'm still the same old Winnie, doing the same old things. Hopefully soon I'll be the same old Winnie with some new stuff mixed in!

I'm under construction!

2012-01-05T13:13:00.001-06:00

Decided to make some changes to the blog. Please excuse any crazy stuff they may or may not appear in the next few days.

Blogging for Books The Inconvenient Marriage of Charlotte Beck

2012-01-04T16:40:00.000-06:00

My mother taught me “Say nothing at all if you can’t say something nice”. I hate to disappoint mom, but I don’t have much nice to say about The Inconvenient Marriage of Charlotte Beck. This is typical formulaic pulp romance novel that anyone that has read more than a dozen books has come across more than 6 times. I guess that mush must sell, since writers keep writing it and somebody must be buying it.

I only recommend this book if you are a twelve year old girl who hasn’t read the same old story of boy meets girl, boy and girl hate each other, boy and girl realize they really do love each other, boy/girl get married live happily ever after. The premise of every romantic comedy every made.

Ms. Y’Barbo does do a reasonable job of giving readers a feel for the era and the writing is well done. I found the book a total bore and pushed myself to finish it since it had such an obvious plot.

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review and it in no way colors my opinion of this material.

Happy New Year!!

2012-01-02T15:36:00.002-06:00

Well the new year is under way, I hope it's incredibly dull. Really, I don't want exciting. I just want to trudge along in a normal middle America life for a while.

The old year wrapped up with us taking a trip to the in-laws for Christmas. It was nice, but I think we stayed a few days too long. The kids were over tired and we had junk from one end to the other of Grandma's house. It was good to be home.

We are totally lacking snow this year. We've had a couple of dustings but nothing that even covers the grass good. I am now wondering why I spend so much money and energy looking for good snow boots for the boys. Though I know if I hadn't we'd have been digging out from an 8 inch snowfall daily.

Nothing really new to report. Like I've said before chaos is interesting. Daily drudgery is not, and you can tell the tales of your own laundry.

Take care readers. I haven't been much in the mood to post, but I am still alive and we are all doing well. If I get really energetic might put up a Christmas picture or two sometime before spring.

I don't think it's supposed to be so funny...

2011-12-13T23:47:00.002-06:00

Tonight was Sonny Boy's Christmas program at the school. It was a program that involved the 1st and 2nd grades from his school. You know me, the one that will have "heck I'll do it" carved on her tombstone offered to video the program and got prime seats. I didn't think it would be so entertaining.

I taped the show and only really saw two big gaffs. One was a kid tripping over his feet and falling as the 2nd grade was doing a little dance thing. The other was a girl overheating (and nerves too I suppose) fainting.

When we got home however to burn a DVD for the music teacher, BOY HOWDY! did the funny things become visible. Things we, including me who was aiming the camera, missed. By far the funniest was a kid that was parked on stage next to the narrator. "Bill" has CP and doesn't walk so good, therefore Bill was exempt from leaving the stage with the rest of the second graders while the 1st grade sang. Program moves along we get to a section where the narrator is reading and Bill is right beside him, no way to crop him out of the shot and he's sqirming around and we see him raise his left arm, sniff his pit, and then wave in front of his face like he smelled bad. Later in the program we see him reach over to feel the velvet dress of a girl standing beside him and then later feel on her knee. Before you go nuts and think I'm picking on the disabled kid, I'm not. The kid is totally there mentally and it would have been equally funny if another kid would have done the same. Other things missed and picked up when re-watching the video (and editing Bill's sweaty armpit scene completely out because it was going to school tomorrow) was Sonny Boy putting hand on his dancing partners rear end, some very dramatic singers and realizing that 6,7 & 8 yo generally have no rythym.

I realize though as I was dragging out the camcorder it's been ages since we used the thing and really need to use it more. I quit using so much because I couldn't really enjoy what ever was happening cause I was behind the dang camera. Made me realize I've got to use it every now and then.

Gosh it's late, Goodnight.

Happy Holidays....

2011-12-07T12:46:00.008-06:00

The TMJ headaches are giving me a breather the last couple of days. THAT I am thankful for particularly since I woke up on Sunday morning curled in a ball and telling Hubby he should really just go get his shotgun. I think if I was a dog he would have. I survived through the miracle of modern drugs and some help from Hubby - he actually had to pick me up out of the bathtub and put some PJ's on me. It was bad. I did live however to make it to the second appointment with the new TMJ doc. He evaluated me and said "yes you do have TMJ disorder" WOW, no shit Sherlock, I told you that. The then marshaled me into another room to present me with what it would cost for treatment. After I saw the figure I knew then why they moved me away from the other patients. OMG!! Anyway they told me it would be 6-10 weeks before we knew if insurance would pay or not. There is NO WAY I can go that long without some treatment so I told them I would pay out of pocket and pray that the insurance pays at least some portion of the horrendous bill. I may make that medical tax deduction after all this year. Yeah (sarcasm font)

Thanksgiving went well. I cooked and had a nice meal on the table. I put the whole turkey on the table to take the "Norman Rockwell" shot before shuttling back into the kitchen for carving, and then back into the oven. The turkey wasn't done, and then when we declared it done it was overdone. That's the last time I try to cook a turkey without an oven bag.

We went to the local Christmas parade. It was cooold. We happened to sit in front of the house that was hosting Santa and Mrs. Claus on their porch. I took the picture with my camera phone and frankly it just stinks. Igor was super excited to talk to Santa and has made me promise to take him to see him at his "house" that is set up in the town square this weekend.

Yesterday in my quest to get chores done while I'm upright I decided a photography session was in order for the Christmas cards. If you get one, it will be adorned with the above picture. The following are some of the reject shots. I thought they were funny and thought you might get a giggle too. Boy am I glad I didn't have to pay to have film developed to see these.

Not too bad if it was in focus, Sonny Boy would smile better and Igor's tonsils were not visible.

All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth! (and a flattering picture)

Bad photographer or fast kid? I'm not sure.

My next career will not be photographing children!

Blogging for Books - A Sound Among the Trees

2011-12-06T12:54:00.001-06:00

Blogging for Books Review
A Sound Among The Trees
by Susan Meissner

Please take a moment and go rank my review. I might get goodies if you do! If your interested you can always sign up for the Blogging for Books program as well. Typically not my genre of reading, but it's always good to expand your horizons right?

Honestly this book took me by surprise. I expected yet another stale tale of romantic love gone bad and then good again. In fact the novel Ms. Meissner wrote is a gripping story that points out how people hang onto wrongs well past their due date and forget to live in the present. The story has predictable parts and could use some more character development and fleshing out of the setting in general but the writing flowed easily along and didn’t involve characters that were not part of the general plot. The first few chapters were slow moving, but after getting past those and into the meat of the book I happily read along until the end.
I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review

Still Living...

2011-12-02T10:11:00.002-06:00

barely.

The TMJ issues are getting out of hand. I'm horizontal more than vertical, and the vertical days are spent trying to catch up and get ahead for the inevitable horizontal days. I went to the new TMJ doc and I'm going to try his treatment. Of course that takes a series of appointments and a new appliance so it might be several weeks more. I go back next week for a big exam and I'm going to ask for some drugs to get me through. Doctors are so stingy with those. I need to find me one of those Hollywood docs who will prescribe whatever I want.

Thanksgiving went well. Igor's bug lasted about 48 hours, and while he ran some pretty high fever and felt rotten he wasn't too bad.

I'm buggy from a headache now, and have a list of chores as long as my arm I've got to get done. With the general chaos of Christmas going and battling the TMJ I likely won't be posting much in the next few weeks.

Fun Holiday

2011-11-23T14:30:00.001-06:00

Somebody really should invent a sarcasm font. Read below if you haven't already.

Igor has the flu.

Twas the day before Thanksgiving...

2011-11-23T13:05:00.002-06:00

and I'm winding down on the cleaning frenzy. The house hasn't been this clean in months - at least not all at once. My mother-in-law and grandmother-in-law will be here this afternoon to spend Thanksgiving with us. The funny part is I'm not even doing the crazy cleaning like I used to when she'd visit, just hitting the high points and making sure things aren't gross.

Igor has been battling a chest cold for the last week. I picked him up from preschool last Wed and he was getting horse. This morphed into a hacky cough by morning and I kept him home on Thursday and Friday. This weekend the cough developed into a chesty nasty cough but he has never ran fever or acted as if he felt bad. Today he went back to preschool and when we got home he curled up in the recliner with a blanket and I asked if he felt bad, he told me his tooth hurt (more on that later). I was on the phone with my mother and chatted with her a few more minutes and when I got off the phone discovered he was zonked out in the recliner. I hope this isn't a symptom of the bug he has but just being tired and overstimulated at preschool. I felt his head and it was warm, but he's also wadded up in a big blanket so it's hard to tell. I'm letting him nap for now, if he seems feverish when he wakes up I'll take him to the walk in clinic before the holiday weekend. Now he just woke up, by gently rolling himself out of the chair and still tells me his tooth hurts. Hope we aren't making a run to the MD this afternoon.

Igor snuck a new tooth in. Last week I was helping him brush his teeth and discovered he has a new permanent tooth that is growing in behind his baby teeth on the bottom. It doesn't take a degree in dentristry to see things aren't quite right so I have a consulation set up with an orthodontist for the middle of December. The lower tooth is loose which might result in a visit from the toothfairy soon for him.

The toothfairy is fickle though as last night Sonny Boy popped his second front tooth and put it under his pillow. Tooth fairy forgot him. Darn tooth fairy. Sonny Boy is excited and plans to sing "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth" for the duration of the holiday season.

Well gotta run. Igor is running some fever so off to the walk-in and see in we can stop this before the holiday.

Is it Two Timing?

2011-11-16T10:22:00.003-06:00

I've been seeing the same TMJ disorder specialist for a few years now. Initially I had great results from her treatment. The splint she made was a god send, and I went from barely being able to open my mouth to put a fork full of food in it, to a somewhat normal range. The clicking, locking, and all that jazz quit.

However with the correction of those little problems I had an increase in facial pain. I've blogged here before how I seem to have a constant headache at times. Most days I wake up feeling like somebody went three rounds on my face, I'd swear they did, if I had some bruising. Needless to say that coupled with my "not a morning person" personality makes me a screaming banshee most mornings. I don't like being a screaming banshee.

So today after about two solid weeks of waking up and my first stop is a bottle of ibuprofen, even before I pee I decided I had to do something. I had noticed there was a dentist that has TMJ treatment on his door, next door to my regular dentist. I called and made an appointment. I'm just going to go in for an initial consultation to see if he would do anything differently. The unfortunate part is that TMJ treatment isn't covered by insurance so we'll see.

Honestly I don't think I'm doing more than getting a second opinion, which is what any wise person does. However, I'm doing so as I don't seem to get any other treatment options from my regular TMJ doc than "you can go to physical therapy" well yeah, but lady I have two small children, one who isn't even in school full time, a husband who has the most inconsistent work schedule known to mankind, and frankly it's time consuming and expensive to go three times a week to have them put ultrasound on face and rub my neck and cheeks (though I admit it feels great and does help to an extent)

In other news I'm trying to get the gumption up for the holidays. Thanksgiving is around the corner and I haven't given one thought to the menu. Hubby's mother and grandmother are coming for visit which will be fun. The kids can't tell me anything they want Santa to bring other than Legos and video games which at this point I'm utterly tired of spending money on those. The one thing Igor has said he wanted is one of those power wheels drive cars and that's not gonna happen for too many reasons to list. When I told him that I didn't think Santa could get that in his sleigh I was promptly corrected by Sonny Boy who reminded me that Santa brought that giant race track a few years ago. Yeah, but what Sonny Boy doesn't know is that Santa was crying at 1:00 am Christmas morning because said track was an expensive piece of junk that wouldn't go together properly. Ahh Christmas memories, now I know why my mother was so glad all the Santa ruse died.

Hubby did text me earlier this morning and asked if I wanted to meet him half-way to his work to eat lunch. That was nice, till he said "make sure to bring my wallet" ha ha

I debate on if I should even say anything, but hey it's my blog. There is a blogger, I read regularly. The lady is in the process of adopting two young children from Russia - quite an expensive process - and has had fundraisers and the like and has not been the least bit shy asking for items to put in online auction, or please donate to the chip-in etc. Fine, whatever, I understand it's expensive. What's got my goat is that this week she announced that she and her husband are going to go on a cruise. REALLY?!? Your asking people for money, or stuff, etc to raise money and your going on a vacation that is fairly expensive, announcing it and then try to justify why your doing it. I just don't get some people. I wonder how much her donations drop off now?

What's your opinion of this?

So, I must run and put on some make-up, brush my teeth and gather up hubby's wallet and Igor from preschool.

Ciao

Updated Look in a Dumpy Mom Town

2011-11-08T14:28:00.002-06:00

I've recently splurged and got a few new clothes. Nothing fancy, nothing paticularly dressy, certainly nothing designer. Definitely an upgrade from my typical jean and Arkansas sweatshirt look. Today, had some shopping to do so I donned my new duds and a little cloche hat I picked up at Tar-shay and pulled out what I lovely refer to as my "Ukraine" boots (you might see me in them in some of the adoption trip photos at the bottom, not sure) and went shopping. I hit all the fancy places in town. Kohl's to buy a new belt for Hubby, the only day a 15% off coupon and a $10 merchandise coupon converged. Menards to buy some speciality light bulbs for the house -seems like all the odd ones went out all at once. And of course no shopping trip is complete until significant time is spent in Wally World. In all places I drew glances like I was wearing a cheese head.

I know wearing a hat - beyond one to keep warm - is a bit rare. I'm all for bucking trends though, and think we should all start wearing hats like we belong to the English royal family. Hat's are great, cover bad hair days, bad hair cuts, dirty hair, frame your face or let you hide it. I'm not proposing we all sport that ugly Dr. Suess looking creation from the royal wedding, but certainly a little fedora, or pill box can be quite attractive.

Did you catch the remark "let you hide it" well right now I'm not exactly putting my right cheek forward. I had a few zaps with a laser the other day to get some sun-spots removed. The laser makes the spots even darker and then they start flaking off. It's not a horrible looking in process, in fact it's not near as bad as I expected, but honestly having flaking, dark brown spots on my face isn't exactly attractive. I do think it's helped, under the flaking I see that the spots are lighter. I'll probably have to do another round of zapping but it's not so bad since it works. The spots were getting darker and wouldn't cover with regular make-up anymore so I needed to do something. The moral of this story is, wear your sunscreen girls. Or if you have a time machine back it up and put on the sunscreen.

The Whirlwind of Life

2011-11-02T16:46:00.002-05:00

Just a bit of typical American family whirlwind lately. Highlights include but are not limited to:

Roughly 17 hours in the van over a three day period.

I got a new pair of jeans, a couple of sweaters and sore feet in the Mall of America.

I got some cool lanterns to go on the front porch at Christmas from IKEA.

We saw my Sister-In-Law's new house.

Spent an hour on the side of lake Mil Lacs in MN because that was the first place Hubby's computer would connect and he had emergency work to do.

Trick-or-Treated in some nasty weather. Sonny Boy was Darth Vader, Igor was Spiderman, I was cold.

The cold Hubby brought home from Canada has now morphed into a sinus infection that I am trying to tough out without the use of antibiotics since I have now become allergic to a couple of different famlies, don't want to agravate things more in case I've got to have those wonder drugs.

I'm watching a marathon session of Mad Men on Netflix. Something like the first four seasons are on there and I've never watched it. I'm about halfway thru 50 or so episodes.

I washed and dryed a red and green crayon in a load jeans, some minor laundry god intervened when I liberally sprayed Shout! on almost every square inch of denim in the load and the worst of what looked like a drive by perpetrated by paintball shooting Christmas elves washed out. Did I mention that new pair of jeans was in that load of laundry as well?

I'm planning on sewing all the pockets shut on the boy's pants.

The upside to having a sinus infection is that I now sleep with my mouth wide open. Makes me feel like I had rodents living in my mouth when I wake up until I brush my teeth, however I'm not waking in pain with the TMJ. Maybe I'll start sleeping with a nose clip that swimmers use?

I hear the boys duking it out in the lawn, gotta go intervene and start supper and go to scouts.

Yay

I am now a published author!

2011-10-30T11:25:00.001-05:00

Well kind of.

Does internet publishing count?

Go here, to read my stuff.

Time Marches On...

2011-10-23T21:05:00.002-05:00

If you could peek into my house right now you'd probably get the giggles. The kids are in bed after spending most of the day in the yard playing with the neighbor's granddaughter. I'm on my knees with the laptop on a rubbermaid bin typing on the blog. Hubby is talking to himself - or to phone to time the presentation he is giving in New Jersey in a couple of days. Hubby's voice is going from talking for the last 30 minutes about things that make my eyes glaze over and because he came home from Canada with a nasty cold which he promptly shared with me. We are both hyped up on cold medicine. I really could just move the computer downstairs and sit on chair, but that would require unplugging the computer, and since the battery has bit the dust I would have to re-boot and honestly I don't have the patience for that right now. Hubby is sitting at the desk and we are stuffed in the only room in the house that does not have a radiator. Smart huh?

I survived the sing-along. Lost my voice by the end and broke into a flop sweat during but nobody was covering their ears so that was a success!

The lawn has been mowed for likely the final time of the year. Just waiting on the leaves to fall - the rest of town is bare, but we live up on a hill and are "blessed" to have leaves well into November most years which stinks cause we've been known to get snow before they all get picked up.

Pee Wee football season finally ended. The team only had one win out of 6-7 games. Disappointing but Sonny Boy has learned much about football. His outstanding hitting at the beginning of the season waned as he learned it hurt some to put a shoulder into somebody. However I think he has some good there. A few weeks of calm and wrestling will start up. One perk is that one of the football coaches will be a wrestling coach as well, so he'll be known and not just another kid in what tends to be a pretty large group. This week is blissfully free of scheduled stuff, no scouts, no practices, no doctor appointments. Sonny Boy is out of school Thurs and Fri, but Igor still has preschool. Toying around with some plans but nothing has really been set yet.

I guess I should put something insightful here, but the cold medicine is not allowing. I do think I'm going to curl up in bed and turn on Mad Men. If you have Netflix on demand it's there like 52 episodes of it's glory. Can't decide if Don Draper is a sexist pig, or just sexy.

So Bored, Yet so Busy

2011-10-20T12:40:00.002-05:00

" 'Splain Lucy" you say. Well quite frankly I'm bored out of my mind. Yes I always have a To Do list a mile and half long. Of course some of it is just pure procrastination. Facebook must be checked for the 20th time today instead of mopping the kitchen floor. But it's not just that, even when busy with most my chores I'm pre-occupied with about 10,000 other things. Some as mundane as mopping the kitchen floor, to world events. I suppose it's the product of not having a very stimulating conversation for days on end. This week Hubby is in Cananda, roaming is a whopping $3 a minute on his phone so he has it off. I've chatted here and there with other adults at school pick-ups, and concerning scout stuff, but haven't really had a conversation with anybody since Saturday. The life of a SAHM mom I guess.

I do think I'm starting a good base of friends in cub scouts. Who knew I'd like it more than Sonny Boy? Since I am officially "advancement coordinator" for the pack, I'm getting to know the other moms and leaders as well. It's nice, though if your a woman (I'm guessing most of you are?) you understand that hanging out friendships don't develop overnight, or even over months.

The so busy part is just normal life. Taking kids here and there, groceries, errands, chores. Certainly enough to keep me busy - but also mind numbing.

The outdoor pack meeting has been rescheduled to be indoors tonight. Thank goodness, I wasn't really looking forward to hanging out in a pic-nic pavillion in 40 degree damp weather with howling winds. That doesn't get me out of the public song leading though - dang. It does squash the flag retirement that was planned, which is a bummer as the leader organizing that had even found a bugler to play taps.

I suppose I should enjoy the relative peace of life now. Something is sure to surface that makes it a nightmare soon enough.

Me and My Big Mouth

2011-10-15T20:29:00.002-05:00

This is what will be carved on my tombstone:

Aw, heck, I'll do it.

Because that will likely be my famous last words. I'm such a sucker, always volunteering for this or that. This time got myself pretty tied up. Guess, you'll never guess what I'm doing on Thursday night....no, not streaking at the local football game, THAT I wouldn't be as nervous about, maybe colder, but not nervous. I am, ahem, going to lead the songs at the cub scout pack meeting. Ha Ha Ha, yeah there is a reason I type on a blog and not try out for America's Got Talent. I cannot sing. I cannot even kind of sing. Remember when I was trying to teach Sonny Boy "America". Hubby told me to stop and find a video.

The pack meeting this month is taking place at the local boy scout camp where there will be a bonfire. Ultimately the bonfire will be used for a flag retirement ceremony so I will start the boys out with some rowdy jumping around songs and settle them down with some slower more sedate things ending with "God Bless America". Hopefully this will lead into the flag retirement ceremony that one of the groups of older boys is going to do. In order to lead songs I figure the kids (and the adults too) might need lyrics to some of the songs so I've been typing them up to make a little half sheet flyer. I'm also going to be telling "ghost" stories. Basically I'm going to be the stand-up act for the night. Unlike Hubby, who has a terrible fear of public speaking (but he's conquering it) I'm not that worried about the actual speaking part, though I know my thick southern accent will be called out. I'm more worried about the singing aspect, the other scout adults told me they will get up and sing along with me (they better) so I'm certainly going to hold them to it. I suppose I won't die, but I sure wish I had a half decent singing voice, not even good, just decent.

Sonny Boy's game was played this morning. Cripes we were up before daylight. To add insult to injury the beautiful fall weather we've been having has ended and it's now pretty crisp and the wind has howled the last two days. Igor and I sat in the van until it was time for the game to start and then I sat in a sleeping bag the entire game when normally I pace the sidelines so I can see the action. You wanna know even worse, we played the other team from our town that is the same division 30 miles away from home. The coach for the other team actually lives down the street and that team practices in the park behind our house. Couldn't we have all just pitched in a dollar to have the refs drive here? I would have. We lost, however Sonny Boy had a good game. A fumble recovery was the highlight. He would have had a sack, but he face masked the kid and got called on it so not really a sack. Sonny Boy was also the cause of turnover by pressuring the quarterback hard which led to an interception for our team. Despite all of his heroic efforts on defense the offense was hampered and they outscored us. The team's record is pretty dismal with only one win this season. We have another game next week, and where I'd like to see the kids win and move on in the playoffs, I'm kind of hoping for it to just end. The coach was quoted to me by Hubby "We have good hitters but they are slow, we have fast kids but they can't hit, if we could get a combination we'd have it made" and that about sums up our football team. Yeah, that's a lot of talk about football.

There's my brain dump for the evening. I'd really like to crawl in bed and watch TV but Sonny Boy is in it watching a movie I've been promising to let him watch for a while. Gonna haul the laptop to the printer and print some stuff off.

Later Dudes

Looking for Some Cheese....

2011-10-14T10:34:00.002-05:00

to go with my ~~wine~~ whine. Yes I'm going to speak more whinese today, because I can and daily life is utterly mind blowing dull and terribly busy at the same time.

My face hurts, and has hurt almost constant for a week solid now. I've taken an arsenal of meds, and every home remedy in the book. I've even resorted to eating a lot of soft stuff. Really it's making my days miserable and it makes me feel even worse when Sonny Boy complains that I always feel bad - yes I do son, I so want to be pain free for a while too.

The oven died. Normally this might be an occasion to do a little dance and get out of cooking for a few nights. However Hubby is the ultimate tightwad and won't let me just call a repairman. Last night he took it apart and discovered the igniter was literally broken in half. Honestly not a big repair, but finding a part and getting it back together before he leaves for week on Sunday morning is gonna be a witch if it even gets done.

Sonny Boy's football game is at 8:00 A.M. tomorrow at a field that is half an hour away and the coach wants them there 30 min early to warm-up etc. I'll have to be leaving the house at a time when I get out of bed on a weekday. Who the hell thought up this schedule? It's PEE WEE FOOTBALL, can't we do this at like 10:00 or something? Evidently the people that put this together are morning people.

Did you happen see that foreshadowing of Hubby's leaving AGAIN for a business trip? Yeah, this time a week in Montreal where he will be wined and dined. While I eat chicken nuggets, likely warmed in the microwave and then ran through the blender if this jaw doesn't start getting better.

House chores are piling up, and quite frankly I just don't have the heart to care.

Here it is October and I haven't been to the gym since May. I reasoned that I get excercise doing yardwork but that doesn't cover the membership fees. I'd cancel it, but I'm pretty sure I'll have bad cabin fever come Feb or March and then I'd have to cough up the joining fee again. I need to do the math.

Yeah, so a whole post of nothing but bitching. Lovely eh?

Adventures and Other Stuff

2011-10-12T12:41:00.006-05:00

The kids and I came home from somewhere the other day and this little guy was on the tree in the yard. It's a squirrel looking over a branch down at me. Notice his tail? I have better pictures of him on my phone, but what a pain to get them off. This was after I'd snapped a few with my phone and came back out with the real camera and found him up the tree.

Sunday the boys and I went to a tiny section of a bigger state park. We'd never been there before so I thought it would be worth the adventure. At the park is the "highest peak in xxx county" a whopping 1233 ft! Well of course you must put a fire tower on that and this a view from the top.

There was a lady painting at the little pond. I thought she seemed quite idyllic.

Sonny Boy was hoping to spot some birds for his Cub Scout Bird List he's doing and elective on. I made Igor pull off his horrible hat so I could see his face and got mussed up hair and that goofy grin.

We went hiking down some cross country ski trails while there. I admit some of them would be BRUTAL on skis, they were steep on feet, but at least not overly long.

On the way home I remembered that a local tourist trap has these old electric trains that run in the fall. Originally they ran spoked out all the way from Milwaukee around the turn of the century and were decommissioned in the 30's. This little town managed to hang on to them and a few miles of track. The charge an arm and a leg for a 7 mile ride, but the kids enjoyed it as one had never been on a real train before and the other has no memory of his overnight train ride.

Hubby is rounding the corner with his illness but is still quite weak and tires very quickly. Still no official word on what he actually has/had, whatever it was hit him like a ton of bricks.

In the meantime I'm running a little crazy trying to bully him into drinking and such like he should, keep the kids running and catch up on housework I'd let slide. I read a quote the other day attributed to Phyllis Diller and thought I should stitch it on a pillow or something. " Doing housework while the kids are still growing is like shoveling the walk while it's still snowing." More true words have never been spoken. However if you don't do some of the housework while there growing the state come and takes the kids away! Off to do the shoveling!

When it Rains, it Pours...

2011-10-10T18:10:00.002-05:00

and I'm not talking about the weather, that's been just gorgeous. Hubby came home from his hunting trip sick. Not just the sniffles, but wishing he would die sick. I'm thankful for his buddy that had gone along with him as he ended up doing the entire 13 hour trip drive home by himself while Hubby laid in the back of the van wishing a quick end to his misery. Hubby came in about 10:30 last night running fever and running for the bathroom. I drove the buddy home across town and he unloaded his gear and I came back home to find Hubby in a hot bath up to his ears shivering. I dragged out towels, PJ's and comfied up the guest room for him. The guest room has a half bath in it, our bedroom doesn't. I got him out of the tub and into warm, PJ's and he downed a bottle of gatorade and was wanting more so I ran to the convienence store and bought a pack and he downed another and glass of lemonade as well. Hubby declared himself feeling a little better and crawled in bed and so did I.

I wake up this morning to a RAGING migraine. The worst one I've had in months. I didn't even go to the coffee pot, just my stash of Relpax. I managed to get the boys bowls of cereal poured and somehow not die. I looked in on Hubby to make sure he was breathing and that was about all I could manage. In my housecoat still it was time to take Sonny Boy to school, as I stepped out the door my neighbor was taking her granddaughter and I yelled across the yard if she would mind giving Sonny Boy a lift. No problem she said, and Sonny Boy got off to school. I sat Igor down in front of PBS kids and told him "Momma is sick, Daddy is sick, stay out of trouble. If you need something come get me I'm in my bed." I then went upstairs and suffered until I could take a second dose a Relpax (I rarely need two doses) came down checked on Igor who was happily wasting away in front of the TV, took my drugs and went back to bed. I woke up two hours later to Igor chattering away in his room playing with blocks. I was starting to feel human, not good, just human. I came down, drank some coffee, ate some toast, fed Igor lunch and checked on Hubby who had made no improvement. I dress, go the grocery and buy just enough food to get us by for today (the cupboard was bare of course) come home and bully Hubby into drinking more gatorade. He's still in bad shape, and I declare he's going to the doctor. Hubby is so weak he can hardly walk so I put him in a wheelchair and wheel him up to doctor's office. The bad part is that the doctor appointment was at the same time that Sonny Boy's school let out. I called his scout leader and asked her to snag Sonny Boy and she brought him by the doctor's office and I met them out front. We wait around the doctor's office for a while, then the lab and it's a likely diagnosis that Hubby has a case of food poisoning. While I'm sorry he's sick, I'm glad it's not contagious.

So now it's about bedtime, Hubby has some anti-nausea stuff and orders not to eat solids for a few days and drink as much liquid as he can stand. I'm still not 100% and looking forward to tucking the kids into bed.

Tomorrow holds promises of lots of laundry, more grocery shopping, football practice and maybe enough time to sit down and post pictures and tales of the boy's and I adventures to a local state park.

Wooo, busy day

2011-10-06T19:28:00.002-05:00

I knew today was gonna be a kicker so I got the kids settled into bed early last night. I was developing a whiz banger of a headache so I took some benedryl (yeah, that actually helps - or at least knocks me out cold) and then didn't fall asleep till like midnight. Great I needed to get up at 5:30 am so I could shower and have a cup of coffee before I got the kids up - I'm much less crabby after a cup of joe. The alarm went off and I banged at it a couple of times before I realize that I can't keep doing this. Crawled downstairs started the coffee pot and then went in got in the shower. When I cam out of the shower Igor was up asking me of some article of clothing was OK to wear. It's not even DAYLIGHT out, you gotta go back to bed kid, so I tucked him back into bed, I knew he wouldn't go back to sleep but you play what cards you have, ya know. Came down, drank a cup of coffee and then went and got the already awake Igor up and helped him pick out clothes and dragged Sonny Boy out of bed and found him decent clothes, fed them, blow dried my hair, loaded them up and dropped Sonny Boy off at before school care a good hour before school started and drove to Milwaukee. Traffic in Milwaukee was brutal taking me 20 minutes to go about five miles, but I got to the doctor appt on time. Did the Orthopedic doc who looked at Igor's feet, the intern? looked at his back for scoliosis (common with connective tissue things) we discussed the connective tissue thing and it's lack of name. Agreed the SMO's needed some work and scheduled an appointment for 6 months out. Then Igor and I traipsed across the skywalk to the lab and had a blood draw for genetic testing. Strangely that went way better than I ever could have expected, not even a whimper out of the kid. He was nervous but did better than I've seen MANY adults do. Drove partway across town - traffic much better now and was two hours early for the orthotic appointment. Hey there's a Target a block from the orthtist office, we'll roam around in there. NOT. Igor decided he was not under any circumstances going to ride in the cart, and I WAS NOT under any circumstances letting him not ride in the cart. We went back to the car. Igor huffed and puffed for 20 min and then decided he could go back in and ride in the cart. We go in, he rides and then sees a book he wants. "I want a book" was his chant for quite a while till I got fed up and we went and sat in the car again. I called the orthotic office to see if we could squeeze in early, no such luck. I drove to the orthotic office and we sat in the parking lot for 30 min or so while Igor acted quite the toot. He soon got over his snit and became interested in watching the digital clock in the car when I told him we could go in at 1055. We go in and see the orthotist lady who looks over the SMO's and says it's gonna take her a while to work on them, if we want to go somewhere for a bit. We go to Sonic which in actually in the parking lot and ate. MMMM Sonic - you can take a southern girl away from the south, but you can't replace that Sonic burger and that's the only Sonic I know about. We go back to the orthotic place and hang out another half hour or more and then the lady fits the new orthotics on Igor's feet an makes sure they work with the new little hiking boots I bought him. We drive home. Igor sleeps the entire ride home.

When we get home I declare Mom nap time, Igor plays in his room and I get to sleep for an hour or so before we pick up Sonny Boy from school. Pick up Sonny Boy, stop at playground to burn some steam out of both kids and some buddies from school show up and the parents and I chit-chat. The weather is just gorgeous so it's hard to drag inside. Drag the kids home, Sonny Boy starts homework and I water some grass seed I had sown yesterday. I then drag out the lawnmower and mow until it runs out of gas (didn't really finish the yard, will tomorrow) and then drag out the leaf blower to clear the driveway and sidewalk. Call the kids in, feed them a turkey sandwich for supper. Put Igor in the tub and clean the upstairs bathroom while he bathes and then Sonny Boy bathes. Put Igor to bed. Now I'm typing the very rambling post to explain why somedays I'm so stinkin' tired.

In the very near future Sonny Boy will go to bed (less than 15 mins) I will bathe and crawl in bed to find something on tube to fall asleep to.

Tomorrow I have to finish mowing the lawn, and spread the two cubic yards of mulch I had delivered yesterday along with 2001 other piddly thing that if they don't get done the machinery of life in Winnie's household will grind to a halt.

Then try reading this all in one breath and you get a feeling of what my life felt like today. Ha.

Why most women don't hunt.

2011-10-04T10:46:00.002-05:00

As I write this Hubby is scuttling around the house gathering the last bits of gear for a duck hunting trip in North Dakota. When this trip was planned I raised hell, because hey I want to go somewhere fun to! That led to the compromise of the trip I took earlier this spring with my mother to the horse farm. But it still annoys me.

If you have a hunting/fishing spouse you soon discover that the seasons are not spring, summer, fall, and winter. It's more like, deer, duck, ice fishing, regular fishing, turkey etc etc. The only thing that keeps Hubby from doing it more is that we live in a pretty populated area of the state and there are TONS of people in every available spot to hunt or fish. What I envy though is not the gathering of gear or even the large amounts of money spent on the newest gadget or license it's the absolute ability to declare "I'm going deer hunting this weekend" and never give a second thought to arranging care for the kids, shuttling to & fro, doing the laundry so there is clean underwear to pack and the like. It's assumed that all that is taken care of - and it is.

Maybe that's my fault, but I don't think I'm alone in my sentiments as I've heard other hunting widows complain. Even when you can plan to run away it seems like more work than it's worth, doing laundry up so you only come home to small mountain and not Mt. Everest. Laying out the kid's schedules, stocking the fridge (while Hubby cooks he's expensive if he goes to the grocery store) and getting the 200 things done you'd normally do in the time your gone done. Just once I'd like to declare "I'm leaving this weekend" pack a bag and walk out the door leaving a mountain of laundry knowing it will a) be the same when I return or the even better b) washed, folded and put away.

I think it's the ability to just go that drives me the most nuts. Not that he goes, but that he just assumes I'll take care of things, and when I go it begins a logistics nightmare.

I've Had It!!

2011-10-03T11:24:00.002-05:00

I've about had it, I'm at my wit's end. The TMJ issues are driving me nuts. Daily I wake up feeling like someone punched me in my face. IF I'm lucky I take a couple of ibuprofen and walk around slowly for an hour or three and start feeling somewhat human. Today is a not so lucky day the face pain is bad and it's crawling up my head and trying to feed a migraine. Once that migraine starts (which is pretty evident it's going to) I take my expensive pills that put me down like a horse tranquilizer. They get rid of the pain - thank God, but I feel as if I'm walking around in jello, and quite frankly make me useless.

Insurance can't agree that it's dental or medical - though if my knee hurt like this they'd cover it. I see a dentist who specializes in it and wear the nightgaurd splint like I'm supposed to, take the meds I'm given which those things do help, however flares happen and when they do I'm a couple of weeks or more of misery. I've tried acupuncture, chiropractors, reg MD's , pain MD's, neurologist and massage. The TMJ doc I see prescribes physical therapy which does help some, but getting there is a nightmare with kids issues and Hubby's unpredictable schedule. Not to mention the expense.

Googling on the internet shows a nightmare of treatments available all with mixed results, all with expensive price tags, all insurance considers experimental. Evidently no one with any pull at an insurance company has ever had TMJ issues before.

Sorry, nothing but venting. So if you see me looking like I'm drugged, I probably am. If I looked pissed off figure I'm sitting there in pain. I'm off to feed the little guy and find him a long lived cartoon to watch.

Ode to the Quiet House

2011-09-30T09:06:00.002-05:00

Well, not really, I'm not poetic and you don't want to read that drivel. I'm surprised you read the nonsense I put forth here.

It's Friday morning, Sonny Boy is off at school for the day and Igor is in preschool for the morning. Hubby has gone off to work. I should be doing about 1.5 million things including but not limited to the gym, taking a shower, cleaning up the mess that masquerades as my home. However I'm not. I'm sitting here at the dining room table looking out the window watching the trees thrash around in some pretty strong winds and being glad they are not really dropping leaves yet. I'm enjoying the quiet with only the clicking of the keyboard and the hum of the laptop fan. IT'S SOOO NICE.

Before I had children I would always have the T.V. on, or a radio going, something just to make noise. Now I crave quiet like I crave chocolate and it's harder to get. It always seems that one child or another is either talking to me, at me, or asking a question. If they are not doing that the TV is running or a video game is going or the kids are just simply playing and making noise. Quiet in my life has become such a commodity that I often stay up late into the night after everyone goes to bed just to have a little of it.

I suppose the actual physical need for silence stems from being an only child in a single parent household. Wasn't much noise there - though I can remember my mother telling me to turn down the radio a few hundred times when I was a teenager. But overall I suppose we were two quiet people. Hubby, while a natural talker with a loud voice that carries doesn't talk non-stop and we often have lots of time of just sitting together not saying anything ( I guess that means we've been married a long time)

Wisdom tells me to savor the time with the kids while they are young, I know Igor talking a blue streak will end - Sonny Boy eventually quit and he did it too. I know light saber battles, crashing cars into lego towers, and 98275402875 questions a day from Igor will end. I will try to live now and not let it get on my nerves, but I will seek the quiet and I will try to store it up in order for it to last until the next time it happens.

Cub Scout Wolf Elective 11a

2011-09-26T10:01:00.002-05:00

I don't really remember actually sitting down and learning the words to America (aka "My Country tis of thee") somehow in someway the first verse sunk it's self into my lexicon of songs without study, the first verse of the National Anthem as well - though I do remember learning subsequent verses. I'm sure I could sing from America from memory by third grade easily as it was done daily after the Pledge of Allegiance.

Sunday was one of those days we were cooped in the house without much to do. Hubby was working on his honey-do list and the boys were climbing the walls. Sonny Boy, needs a prod to take action on things occasionally such as earning awards for Cub Scouts, he likes getting the awards but wants them just to magically happen. Anyway I decided it was a good day to tackle Wolf Elective 11a - Learn the first and last verse of America. Honestly I didn't know the last verse either, but it's a short verse similar in vein to the first. We got on Youtube and I found a video with the lyrics overlaid on majestic shots of American scenery. The video sang ALL the verses but I soon learned just where to advance to to skip the middle verses. We watched the video OVER and OVER and OVER and OVER and OVER. Sonny Boy soon started getting the song down but would still stumble and trip over lines. Worse is that he would chant it, something like have an antique English rap artist in the house. I kept instructing him to SING the song as that would make it easier to learn. We struggled, but I was proud of him for sticking with it and he finally got down with only a couple of prompts and I signed the book. This morning he could still get through it stumbling as did I on the second verse - hey I hadn't even had a cup of coffee yet.

Now what concerns me most is that while working on learning the song Sonny Boy said he'd never even heard the song, they don't sing it at school, it's not taught. I get that maybe the middle and last verses could be somewhat controversial - the song is practically a hymn - but the first verse I can't see be offensive to anyone's religion, and frankly it's a whole lot easier to sing than the Star Spangled Banner. Do we not teach even a modicum of patriotism anymore to kids? I get that some people are opposed to pledging allegiance to the flag (though what that flag represents gives the right to be opposed) I get that people don't want prayer forced upon their kids if that is not what they believe, public school is for the masses, and church is for your religion. That being said I think it's time that a few patriotic themes are taught in school. I shouldn't have to sit down and beat AMERICA into my son's brain when it's a song that anybody over the age of 25 doesn't remember even learning, that it just sunk into their brains through osmosis.

Another worrisome thing I learned is that my son has NO musical ability. I don't just mean unable to sing - I can't do that, and most kids I know can't really carry a tune well, tending to shout. I do think Sonny Boy is lacking more than most though as along with the inability to carry a tune he also has no concept of rhythm in song, speeding up and slowing down at random. He's said for a couple of years now that he does not like his music class and when asked why he tells us it's because his teacher sings in soprano and well being a kid I don't guess he realizes he can take it down an octave. I'm thinking it's a lack of being able to sing along with the other kids. I'm not sure, I may make a point of hunting down the music teacher when parent teacher conferences come along and get her take. I've always know the kid lacked rhythm, but I didn't realize it was such a severe case.

Next Cub Scout elective to tackle 11b - The Star Spangled Banner. Yeah, I'm a sucker for punishment, but even if he chants it at least he won't be embarressed by Jay Leno.

Sometimes....

2011-09-20T22:06:00.002-05:00

I almost want to coach Sonny Boys teams, then I remember I'd have to deal with their parents over inflated egos and change my mind.

As shared previously Sonny Boy is playing tackle football in the county league this fall. He's not a star but holding his own. He'd have more and better plays if the coach would just put him on the defensive line and keep him there. Sonny Boy is an aggressive tackler but lacks speed to catch anybody once they really get running. The kid is not going to be a track star. The boys have played two games now and the first game Sonny Boy played on the line and had three tackles and his hand in a few more gang tackles. The team lost by one touchdown. The second game Sonny Boy was moved off the line and was playing somewhere in the safety position ( it's 9 boy football so the positions aren't all the same). Sonny Boy had one tackle and a block that saved a touchdown run by the great little quarterback. The team won by one point which was a miracle as they were down three touchdowns in the first quarter. Sonny Boy didn't have the best of games personally and I think the coach realized as now he's back on the line again tonight for a scrimmage practice against the first team they played and he had way more tackles and was in o the play much more. Sonny Boy's personality is a good fit for football, he loves the tackling and hitting aspect of the game and it's saving poor little Igor from being his tackling dummy constantly. The good news is that he likes it enough he's drifting away from baseball (yay!) which I'm hoping we can leave by the wayside as it eats into summer so much and I'd much rather drag the camper around.

A cool thing is there is a local guy that takes sports pictures with an ultra high grade camera (his nephew is on the team) and puts them up on the Internet to purchase. The pictures are great and many look like Sports Illustrated shots. Hubby and I plan on purchasing a few and making Sonny Boy a scrapbook of the season. I'm glad he comes to the games as he gets pictures that are WAY better than I could ever get. One of the parents was speculating that he has a 4K camera set-up and I'm sure that's not far from the mark. Makes my little point and shoot look silly. I'd give the link, but sadly all kinds of identifying information is easily picked out on that website and I try to keep such information on the QT here on the blog so I can keep it public. However if you know me on FB or in real life let me know and I'll give you the link. There are so many pictures per game it's like watching in stop motion animation at times.

I do think Sonny Boy will try wrestling again this winter and possibly do a tournament or two and see how that goes. He did it on a little trial basis last winter and had a lot of fun. He didn't do any tournaments but showed some promise even against kids larger than he. Wrestling was fun to watch as it was obvious he was having a blast the entire time with a big grin plastered across his face constantly.

I feel bad for Igor as he won't get to do too many sports. Doctors have pretty much limited him to swimming. I'm going to look into what age the swimming leagues start and see about getting him some real swim lessons. Right now he's right on the cusp of real swimming without having an actual lesson so he might do quite well with it. I just hope he can see well enough without his glasses to see the blue line on the bottom of the pool.

Even with all the sports talk I don't really have big sports ambitions for either kid. Grant it a scholarship to Podunk U would be great considering the cost of a college degree, but I do think being involved in a sport is good for a kid, not just the physical aspects but the whole thing of learning to win and lose graciously and play fair.

Other than football life has been pretty calm, or as calm as it can be with all the running around we do. I can't imagine what it will be like when Igor's activities are thrown into the fray. Sonny Boy usually has one sport and Cub Scouts going at most times and then we'll end up doubling the Scouts and throwing another sport in there. Oye. That's why I'm excited when Sonny Boy proclaims he doesn't want to play baseball in spring.

School is going well for both boys. Sonny Boy is getting good reports from his teacher and his test and the like are coming home with good marks. Homework is tough, he's had enough of focusing at school and getting him to pay attention for the 10 or 15 homework problems he has plus a little reading is difficult. If I stand over him and keep him on task he can finish the work in a reasonable amount of time, if I don't it takes him forever. I try to balance my getting after him to stay on task with letting him linger and do it as his own pace as I figure he's got to learn to do it independently without mom hovering over him constantly. Igor is getting good reports from his preschool teacher. She remarks what a good kid he is. I personally think she just can't believe that he comes from the same household that produced Sonny Boy whom she taught for two years. Sonny Boy was a handful. Today Igor was assessed for physical therapy at the public school. I'm pretty sure they are going to drop him from that all together as the only thing he couldn't really do was throw a tennis ball accurately and catch it. The catching I'm pretty sure is do to his vision issues. Throwing is more from lack of practice. That's fine though as I feel he's pretty typical kid now and I don't see anything amiss in his development academically. I do feel he is a little immature emotionally but not severely so.

Hubby and I are trucking along. Hubby is enjoying his job and is thinking of taking on some speaking stuff at conventions. Pretty amazing for him as that's a huge step for him - speaking in public. I'm proud of him for pushing himself to do something that I know gives him more just butterflies.

Well I'm so busy being Mom I can't turn around. Shuttling kids, housework, volunteer work - both Cub Scouts and at the school and just the junk of everyday life has me hopping.

Life is Good

Random Rants, Because REALLY?!?

2011-09-16T14:28:00.002-05:00

It's possibly I'm just grouchier than normal, I don't know but a few things are really getting under my skin lately.

Snack at school. Yeah, it seems pretty innocent but is it really necessary to feed kids two hours after their breakfast and one hour before their lunch. Has anybody not noticed that the average rear end in this country has expanded greatly in the last 15 years. Don't you think teaching kids that they need to eat every hour on the hour contributes to this? I also don't like the way it is done in Sonny Boy's classroom. You see I am a sucker volunteer and I am now a teacher's helper for one hour a week while Sonny Boy's teacher teaches math. My job is to hover around the back of the classroom, and redirect the daydreaming kids, make sure they have their books out, following directions, have the right page etc. All this is going on while the kids are nibbling on crackers, fruit snacks, granola bars, juice boxes, and assorted matter of "snack foods" - not one REAL piece of fruit did I see. The kids are trying to drag stuff out of their lift top desk while working hard not to dump a water bottle or baggie of crackers all over. How they really expect 2nd graders to pay attention to a math lesson while trying to see what goodie Cindy across the room has brought with her is beyond me. Honestly, I can't imagine what a mess it makes as I had to help one kid mop up a water spill off of his desk. REALLY, it's not necessary to feed them in the a.m. I know this does not make me popular with Sonny Boy who wants to carry his own snack that I oppose. He has breakfast, he has lunch, he has an after school snack and a dinner that I hope we all get to sit down to. I fix him a plate he must eat all of (a reasonable serving) then he can go back for seconds on whatever is there or have some yogurt or whatever treat is going around the house. Constant eating is not good. Now before everyone gets themselves in a tizzy, I understand that their are kids who have some REAL MEDICAL REASON to eat a snack and of course those children should have something, however I'm sure they are few and far between and the 27 kids in my son's class are not likely to suffer from such medical condition.

Even more worrisome is this problem coming up in kindergarten with Igor. He's such a poor eater at most meals, snacks are VERY small and very limited with him. 10 goldfish crackers is enough to keep him from eating a decent lunch. Hopefully things will change in his food behaviors in the next year as I see a battle coming on concerning him and a snack in kindergarten.

To continue on my ranting tirade.....

FACEBOOK. I like FB, it's fun. But really it's not your place to impose your religious views or political views, rant about your children's father/mother, or other people. If that's what you want to do start a blog, it's free, look in the right hand corner of this page. In the last few weeks I've seen a person rant about the "corporate establishment" the very same one that earns him a comfortable paycheck weekly, another has blasted "Christian" young women for their immodest dress (really I'm sure somebody thinks the fact she wears make-up, cuts her hair, and wears pants is immodest too). I've seen another rant about having to pay child support - really their YOUR children, take care of them. Several post terrible remarks about exes they have children with - honestly you shouldn't talk about your children's mother/father like that on a public forum even if they are total buttheads.

Things I do think are OK to post. Good news, new jobs, new babies, new house, new car, heck even a new pair of shoes if your excited about them. Maybe no so good news, Aunt Jane passed away the funeral is Tues at 4:00, I lost my job, I'm now looking. Funny things your kids do or say, kids' accomplishments. The Aww Geez I'm tired of life, stuff everybody else deals with too, like having to mop the kitchen floor two hours after you just mopped because kid spilled juice. Really people THINK before you post.

What I'd like to hear from you dear readers, should I put snarky comments up when people are ranting about something that probably should not be on FB? To the person complaining about child support say "well you had 'em, you pay for 'em" the one proclaiming that people dress immodestly quote bible verse that it is obvious they don't follow. What do you do? So far I've stayed out of the discussion/fray and kept to myself but oooo how my fingers itch to type out a snarky remark.

Really?

2011-09-08T16:22:00.002-05:00

If this running around to activity after activity, and forcing homework down a tired 2nd grader's throat is what I'm up against for the next 12 years or so I'm going to call it quits.

SOOOOO tired.

Egads, has School Started yet?

2011-08-29T19:06:00.002-05:00

I see several online friends and my southern network have all started back to school. We still have a couple of weeks to go but I have already purchased the back to school supplies weeks ago. You see I'm one of those moms who can't wait for school to start.

Someone I was chatting with was telling me the other day that when his child started kindergarten last year his wife told him the moms were in two camps. One camp was crying, their baby was starting kindergarten, the other half was saying "bye" and planning a get together at a local bar (the bar does breakfast too) I'm in the latter camp.

While I do wax nostaligic that the boys are growing up, I'll be glad to see the backside of summer vacation. The fighting, the bickering, the constant motion, the constant mess and chaos. Yeah, can't say I'll miss it over much.

Emma the dog is back with us. She's been with us about a week now and will be going home this week. The boys - Hubby included have had a good time with her. She's a good dog in general. The only gripe I have about her is her sloppy drinking habits. She'll fill her mouth up at the water bowl and dribble it all over the kitchen leaving the floor a constant mess. Yuck. Other than sneaking onto our beds occasionally she's really a very good dog. Hubby has had fun teaching her hunting skills and the kids have been throwing balls non stop. I think Emma has run more in the last week than in the last year.

Currently Hubby and I are in the process of painting the garage. The house we had done by contractors but we are cheap and decided to to do the garagw ourselves (not so tall) I've been scraping for a couple of days and have the bulk done. Hubby replaced some rotten siding we are close to throwing the paint on which should go quickly. Hubby and the neighbor tell me I'm over picky with the scraping, but my opinion is I'm only gonna do this once, not again in a year or two.

Well off to tuck the little one into bed, the big one will follow shortly and I'll enjoy a little peace before bed.

Sonny Boy Tackles

2011-08-23T21:12:00.001-05:00

Yeah, the coach is in the way, but at least the phone was turned in the right direction!

Sonny Boy is the kid in the reddish T-shirt doubling as a temporary practice jersey.

Random Pictures From the Summer

2011-08-22T14:16:00.018-05:00

With Summer coming to a close I thought I might drown you with images of the summer. It's been busy!

Sonny Boy enjoyed his second season of baseball and says he wants to play again next year.

In June we had some wind damage that knocked over our partially rotten fence and made that tree in the background horizontal. We also had a large elm split and that had to be removed as well.

Sonny Boy's legs finally got long enough to reach the foot pegs on the motorcycle so he got his first ride from Dad. Without tags or insurance it doesn't come out of storage much.

A trip to Six Flags in early July netted a long fun day.

Yeah, I know the big Ol' tennis shoes don't look good with capri pants but hey I was going for comfort over fashion here.

Igor rode tons of rides and this was his favorite...

though it doesn't look like it here!

He was game a few more times with his brother later though!

The camping trip with one of the cousins to Flambeau River, Wisconsin

The very recent camping trip to Razorback Lake, WI (you know the Arkie in me loved that!)

A BIG storm moving away from Razorback Lake, if you look REALLY close the speck behind the reads almost against the dark shoreline is Sonny Boy and I in a canoe. Thankfully we were never in this storm, but I believe it did some damage further east.

Eating ice cream on the beach!

Sonny Boy in pursuit of crayfish (or crawdads as southern people say)

Conked out after a hard day of play in the camper

Early mornining fog on Razorback Lake, it got kinda nippy at night.

Summer has been good. Really busy but all good things come to an end. Registered Sonny Boy for 2nd grade today, first football practice is tonight, and the nights have that chill that says summer is drawing to a close. Alas the real craziness starts with a ball practice or Cub scout thing almost every night of the week. I think something has got to give.

Three hours is too Long

2011-08-05T15:48:00.006-05:00

I will leave in aproximately three hours to pick up Hubby from the airport. He has been gone to training for work for the last four weeks. In those four weeks I have taken two camping trips, spent countless hours hearing "Mom, Watch this!" as a 4 yo bobs under water at the local pool. Worried over painters ripping me off, - not my stuff, just not doing the work well. I've mowed the lawn a few times, started trying to revive my contractor trampled flower beds, taken the kids to the dentist, had Igor's glasses adjusted and repaired twice, made countless stressful trips to the grocery, baked a birthday cake, paid bills. You get the picture - kept the house running and the kids entertained. Not by a long shot am I claiming to have done even one of these items perfectly. Nor am I claiming that any or all of these things are things I wouldn't normally do if Hubby were coming home on a nightly basis.

But you know what gets my goat? Know what really pisses me off? I'm the bad guy. No matter what I do, no matter what I cook, no matter how many hours I spend sunbaked and chlorine caked at the edge of the pool I'm still the bad guy. I'm the one who asks " Did you wash your hands? Who peed on the toilet seat?" or issues the following edicts " No more TV, video games or DS. No we cannot go to the pool today because I told you ten times to do XYZ before you did it." Today I had a child EXPLODE because I told him to put on a clean shirt so we could leave the house to run ONE errand. The kid didn't even know what the errand was, we could have been going to the toy store for all he knew, but he had to turn off the damn TV. That's when the TV suddenly got turned off for him for a week. Hubby will come home and the kids will all be happy to see him and suddenly find their halos for a few days. Hubby will be loathe to be mean since he's been gone for a month and I'll still be the witch of a mother that hands out the chores and the punishments and makes the kids go to bed on time.

Really, I get that single parents do this crap day in and day out and I give them all the kudos in the world. Don't get me wrong, it's hard. But I tell you this Hubby traveling for weeks on end crap is like being a single parent without any of the perks. If your single at least you might have the luxury of being child free every other weekend to revive, you don't have to compromise on what color to paint the house ( I did ) or scheme and plan the family vacation with anybody else in mind.

Honest to God as I sit here at this computer THE MINUTE Hubby climbs in the van I am no longer on duty. I refuse to do any kid crap for a full 48 hours. If the kids beat the crap out of each other, fine, if they play in street that's good too. I refuse to be the witch, I refuse to tell them to go to bed, I refuse to say " Quit running in the house" Because I'm not mean, I'm not the witch, and Hubby can put on his big boy pants and make sure the little brats behave.

I can't even have a margarita cause I gotta drive to the dang airport - this is torture!

P.S. Just got a text, they are de-boarding his plane so only God knows when he's gonna get home.

The little Swimmer

2011-08-02T20:51:00.001-05:00

He's come a long way from the toddler who was so terrified of a bath that the first one I gave him traumatized both of us.

I apologize for the bad quality, I'm just learning how to do this stuff!

Blogging for Books - Plain Wisdom

2011-08-01T18:48:00.005-05:00

Previously I have reviewed books for a program called "Blogging for Books". This post is a continuation of that program and my second review. Please go to this LINK and vote for my review. It can win me prizes! On to the Review.

PLAIN WISDOM
Cindy Woodsmall & Miriam Flaud

First I would like to say this isn’t my typical genre of book to read. I don’t normally read anything very spiritual or even that much non-fiction so I am not familiar with the typical format on this kind of book so it’s possible that I am way off on my review of this book. Honestly I read the book a while back and have had a hard time really forming an opinion of the book.

Plain Wisdom is a sweet little book with each chapter having a section written by Mrs. Woodsmall and Mrs. Flaud that details how God worked in their everyday lives guided by certain principals in the Bible. In general I found the book to be well written, but it lacked continuity throughout the chapters and I felt as if I was reading a string of stories that were only slightly related to the previous chapters. I expected a book that would chronicle the differences in Mrs. Woodsmall’s modern Christian life in contrast with Mrs. Flaud’s Amish beliefs. Instead I found a book that showed that no matter how far apart Christian practices are, there are still the same guiding principals underneath all the artifice given in differing denominations.

Overall I found the book only mediocre.

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review and it in no way colors my opinion of this material.

Pictures

2011-07-23T00:22:00.005-05:00

Sonny Boy had a birthday too. His main present was a trip to Six Flags, but of course mom made him a cake. Not top quality but that was my first time trying that technique. Anybody have a guess as to who the figure on the cake is? It says " May the Birthday Force be With You" The kid is REALLY into Star Wars lately.

Of course you can't go camping without roasting marshmallows.

This is my new toy. Not some monster travel rig for around the country but will get us around the state and be drier and more comfortable than a tent. Cooler and warmer if we ever end up at a sight with electric.

pictures in horrible order, but I promise more to come the next time I sit down and get something up on the 'net.

I wanted to post some video, but that will have to wait. I'm too tired to fool with the computer and find my self excited I got these off of the phone.

Nope, havent dropped yet...

2011-07-22T23:33:00.002-05:00

...but the days are getting long.

Hubby has hit the middle of his marathon training session on the east coast and I'm at the tail end of single parent for a month status. Yay.

Busy and bored all at once.

The camper finally finished. The kids and I took it for a trial run to a nearby state park last week for a couple of days before the big heat wave hit. Everything went well except for backing it into the spot and a nice guy at the next campsite took pity on me and parked the trailer for me. I did run into a spot of trouble with the tongue jack which broke on me as I was trying to hitch up at home. I did some jerry-rigging and carried some jack stands along, and used the jack out of my mini-van to get the trailer set up and leveled. A little more hassle than it normally would have been but it worked. I tell you having a camper is like sleeping at the Ritz compared to tent camping. I was even able to take something resembling a shower AND scrub the kids before bed and that was without water hookups. It rocks. The only downside I see to the whole thing is that I can almost see the gas gauge on the van drop as we go down the road.

I finally joined the new "smart phone revolution" and got a droid phone. It's cool. My favorite Ap so far is one called "Out of Milk" which keeps a grocery list and a to-do list for you. The best part of the grocery list is that it will automatically enter the item by scanning the barcode. There may be a way to share this list with hubby, we'll figure out our synching techniques with calendars and the like when he gets home.

I have cool pictures and video, but of course got to figure that out. Honestly even this post is alot for me. By the time the kids are in bed I'm wiped and stringing two sentences together is harder than algebra for a third grader.

Kids are doing well. Sonny Boy is a little stressed and believes I'm picking on him and is overly sensitive. Igor is being being defiant and testing boundries and often gets "counted down" into compliance. Makes the days long. The kids aren't really being bad, just kids. I just don't have a break and simple errands like the grocery store turn stressful as I go through as fast as possible, missing half the stuff I planned on buying and therefore requiring two or three trips a week and upping that stress factor again. You see the snowball effect happening here?

Baseball season has officially ended and football will start in a few weeks. The football league called me and moved Sonny Boy up a level as he was on the border for size and they needed space in the smaller group. I hope the kids aren't too much bigger than him, he's a little bruiser though so he probably won't notice. Baseball season didn't go too well. The team did win a few games but I think he needed a more focused coaching crew. Three of the coaches were city cops with rotating schedules so often one or more were not there for games or practices. I also think they didn't practice enough for the boys to really get the hang of the game. Some of the teams we played looked like much more experienced players than they really were. Sonny Boy declares next year he wants to play "minors" which require a try-out. I worry about this as Sonny Boy's batting skills are probably above average, his throwing and fielding skills stink. We'll see, that's in the spring, I hope he changes his mind by then. Baseball is taken WAY too seriously here and they are nursing a little league world series team along making national airtime on ESPN last year and won some big tourney that puts them on the same route again this year. Good for the kids, but I'm not really ready for that much seriousness in kid's sports, especially when my child is not the most athlectically gifted.

The painters are supposed to start on the house on Monday. I'm really stressed about this as my neighbor had a horrible experience with the last painters he hired. Of course I did not hire the same people but I don't want that slap-dash job done on my house. To add to the stress of that I have a camping trip planned with my MIL and nephew (and the kids of course) next week so I won't be here to supervise and pick at what they are doing. I know the check will not be written until I'm satisfied the job is done correctly. We did decide on a color scheme and painted a section on the street side of the house. I've had many good comments on it so I think it will look nice. It be good to leave the blue and yellow french provencial colors behind for something a little more soothing. Basically a couple hues of tan with some reddish brown accents here and there. From all I've read a little more historically accurate than the pastels that now grace the house. I'm not one of those historically accurate crazy people, but do think houses tend to look best in the color scheme that was prevalent at the time they were built. (at least on the exterior, we all agree avocado and orange shag carpet must go far far away)

Well that's about all. I'm going to play with the phone for a minute while I'm still upright and add some pics. Of course they are gonna be in crazy order and in the previous post but hey you get to see them.

Igor JUST has a funny shaped head!! Thank God.

2011-06-29T13:10:00.003-05:00

Yeah, I know not the most flattering title to put on a blog post, but it's the best answer and quickest thing to read.

The craniofacial doctor called just about 20 minutes ago and confirmed that Igor's CT scan results were normal, he just has an unusual shaped head "like mine" he said, referring to himself. I didn't notice he had an odd head, but I guess if your a craniofacial doc you know if your head is "normal" or not. The eye doctor also pronounced that Igor does NOT have the eye bulging thing either so we have pretty much ruled out any craniostynosis diagnosis. Woo, I don't have to tell you what a relief it is to get that news.

The ruling out of the craniostynosis also puts the genetic doc's best guess at a syndrome at odds as well since that is a major marker of the his preferred guess. We still haven't done the genetic testing yet. It was not approved by our insurance as they deemed it "experimental" I contacted the genetic counselor lady and she had the doc call the insurance company who then agreed to do some of the test (probably the cheaper part) I just got that news yesterday afternoon. However with the skull issues not being a factor I don't know if the genetic doc will want to run testing in the same strain. We'll see, I have craniofacial and opthamology sending their reports on to genetics. I'm certainly not going to drive up to Milwaukee for a blood draw right away when it appears things may have changed.

Makes my mind SO much lighter. I feel like a HUGE weight has been lifted and the summer no longer has this horrible dangling nightmare hanging over it. I'm prepared for a genetic diagnosis, just not a major skull remodel surgery.

Speaking of remodel.... the camper is making headway. We have now finally sealed the leaks (we think) put the floor down and have installed a bulkhead wall that divides out some pass through storage. We cut the vinyl floor last night but could not put it in due to the fact we had to put some patching compound on a transition area to level it out and that had to dry. We also found some mildew growing under the vinyl in another area (wasn't wet, wasn't soft, old leak we are guessing that had been fixed) so that got scrubbed with some bleach water and needed to dry out. We are down to putting the furniture stuff back in and system checking everything. Just in time for Hubby to leave on his long training trip. Guess I'll take it on it's maiden camping voyage alone - that should be interesting. Here's hoping the van can tow it!

Well I suppose that's it for now. I just wanted to give an update and thank you for the prayers.

Nerves

2011-06-24T10:53:00.002-05:00

By this time next week we'll have some sort of idea on Igor's skull issues. The waiting is the hard part, I want action. Why I can't just barge on up to Children's and put him in the machine to be scanned, have the doc look at this eyes and be done. Then I could plan. I'm a big planner. I'm not one to have every minute of the day scheduled but I do like to know roughly what's going to happen. Igor and I are alike in that matter (though he likes things timed to the nano-second) For this weekend I'm trying to not to worry and think about it. This blog post is gonna be my last worry session until we have some real news. I REFUSE TO GOOGLE!!! However my mind keeps drifting back to brain injury and while they may not be technically doing anything to his brain it is too close for comfort. I've delt with brain injuries, my mother had a stroke, and while she survived and is doing well she's not the same person I grew up with. That's my biggest fear is to have my little Igor handed back to me and not be the sweet little kid who's kisses have a daily theme.

A good distraction this week has been Emma. Emma is a friend's dark chocolate lab that has stayed with us this week. She's a good dog and likely the most calm labrador I've ever been around that wasn't 102 years old. Emma has been great with the kids, putting up with all their crazy antics with aplomb. I will say Emma comes from a household with three kids though - two of them roughly Sonny Boy's and Igor's ages so kids are old hat to her. Sonny Boy and her have really bonded and she's been sleeping in his room (and bed) every night. Gonna take me a week and a gallon of Fabreze to remove the dog smell from there - she's not dirty just doggy. Emma goes home this evening.

Work on the camper continues at full bore. We are having a hard time finding the source of the water infiltration. We fix one issue, spray down with the water hose and then find another. Ug, we've used a lot of sealant that doesn't come off your hands with anything short of a sandblaster. We have all the supports for the flooring in, insulation cut and are ready to lay the floor but just keep finding water leaks. My hopes for dragging it around Northern Wisconsin for a few weeks in late summer are slipping away.

We have finally picked out a color scheme for the house. I did paint up one window on the street side and have had compliements on it. I guess I should post a picture, but you know me and putting pictures up. I've taken the heat gun and removed paint from some of the detail work here and there. 120 years of paint build-up can kill a lot of tiny details in woodwork. I still have one section to do. I didn't really expect painters to take the time to get things as cleanly done as I have done them, much less strip to bare wood, they'll just get the loose paint.

Our new neighbors will move in this weekend. They closed on the house last week and spent last weekend pulling up old carpet and cleaning. We went over and met them and they seem like a nice young couple. No children, much to Sonny Boy's disappointment as he wanted some playmates close by. Sounds like they have big plans for the house which is nice to hear as it needs some work and a little love. They got a good deal on it, I like the lot much more than our own and wish the house would have been available when we were house shopping. I hear they are going to paint which makes me happy as there has been an epidemic of vinyl siding lately with even our next door neighbor pondering it (it would RUIN his house) so I've been trying to gently talk him out of it.

Well I suppose I need to get off the computer and do some chores. The kitchen and laundry are my never ending battles around here, but I suppose they are for everyone. Maybe I'll bake some cookies for the new neighbors?

Well at least...

2011-06-22T11:26:00.002-05:00

Well at least we managed a scheduling miracle. Today the CT scan scheduler lady and I managed to schedule Igor's CT scan on the same day as the eye doctor appointment next week. It will be a long day hanging out in Milwaukee as there is a little bit of time between appointments, however at least it won't require driving back into town for another 15 minute appointment. Going to call the lady at the genetic clinic who is supposed to be fighting the insurance for me and see if we can get the blood draw for the genetic work-up while we are there as well then it will be three birds with one car trip.

Thankful Hubby can work from home that day and leave Sonny Boy here to hang out with his Dad (i.e. watch a lot of TV and play too much Wii) but it will beat wrangling two kids all day in a boring place. Not to mention Sonny Boy is much harder to deal with when bored.

That's about it.

Worrisome Times

2011-06-16T22:59:00.004-05:00

I'm beginning to hate Children's hospital. It seems my interactions with that place lately have not brought good news. Every appointment brings hope that I'll be looked like some over paranoid mother and sent home. Unfortunately that hasn't happened in a long while.

This year Igor has seen orthopedics for the broken leg and to get SMO's, Opthamology for continued monitoring of vision, Cardiology which diagnosed a heart condition, Genetics which has diagnosed a connective tissue disorder with only a good guess as to the actual name - waiting on expensive genetic testing we are still waiting insurance approval on. Cranio-facial who did say there was no cleft palate (a tiny bit of good news) but there is definite craniostenosis - the sutures in the skull closing too soon - which could be putting pressure on his brain. This is forcing another trip back to Opthamology to rule out some sort of eye ball bulging (there is a fancy name for it but my brain is fried from trying to keep my head together today) if the eye-ball bulging is there he will definitely need surgery and I'll be getting a phone call in the next day or two to schedule a CT scan to see how extensive the cranio-stenosis is and see what that brings. Yay (that's supposed to be in the sarcasm font that should be existent on blogger) Send up some prayers that Igor's funny shaped head is simply funny shaped. I want an MD to say we've over reacted.

This comes on the tail end of finding out that my high school boyfriend of six years passed away on Saturday afternoon. I meandered back and forth for a day or two if I should load up the kids and drive down to Arkansas for the funeral. In the end I decided against it. It's a sad situation as it seemed he drank himself to an early grave at age 39. A wasted life. My mother attended the memorial tonight and said it was sad. Perhaps the only good thing to say is that he never had children who would have lived through the hell of an alcoholic father and the loss of him young. My mother said that somehow his family had come to the conclusion that I had been killed in an accident up here in WI and thought I'd been dead for several years. Must have been quite shocking when I friended his sister on Facebook a few months ago. Like Mark Twain said "The rumours of my death are greatly exaggerated".

Thankfully the overly stressful events of the week haven't sent my body into a tailspin. Mornings have been rough with a couple of nights bad sleep. My allergies are flaring up something horrible but eye drops and Claritin are helping to keep them in check. I've had other friends in the area complain about allergies lately too, seem to be rougher than normal this year.

We have cancelled our plans to take Sonny Boy to NYC and DC while Hubby was out east. The plane tickets are outrageous and couple that with the upcoming medical expenses and complications (which we hope we are just being too careful with) we don't want to buy non-refundable tickets. Hubby's corporate headquarters are in New Jersey so they'll be other trips to the east coast to piggy back on at another time.

In response to not taking the NYC trip we've promised Sonny Boy a long camping trip. I finally conned Hubby into letting me get a camper. The camper wasn't too old but had rotten floors but was otherwise beautiful. Hubby agreed to let me get the camper as it was cheap due to the floor issue and is working on getting the floor repaired. I'm excited to get it up and running, Hubby is charged with getting it operational by the time he leaves for his training stint. He fusses about it, but I know he really kind of likes the challenge of the project as all the house projects we've had this year have been given to contractors. Igor is excited about the camper too and keeps asking questions about where we'll all sleep and can we do XYZ and when we go camping and the like. Sonny Boy is pretty blase as he proclaims he wants some huge giant motorcoach fit for a rock star.

So there's my worries on a platter. Maybe I can sleep tonight, I don't know. Maybe I should just go take a benedryl or two and kill two birds with one stone - sleep and allergies. Looks like my summer just got interesting in a way I did not intend.

Window #1 or Window #2

2011-06-15T16:45:00.002-05:00

You see we are painting and can't decide on a color scheme. The joy of a 120 y.o. victorian, gaudy colors and elaborate details are the norm. We've driven around town and taken pictures of the houses we like. We stopped one person in their yard and asked and was rudely told "no" we couldn't get the name of their paint colors. I've checked out books from the library and purchased from the internet. We have EIGHT quarts of paint of different hues and have layered them on the side window in a variety of contrast. Hubby doesn't like my scheme, I'm not wild about his. Neither is either one of over thrilled with our own scheme so the debate rages on.

I'm threatening to take our two favorite pallettes and paint them on two different windows on the street side of the house and mark the windows 1 and 2 and place a sign that says 'VOTE" with a magic marker attached to the sign. I mentioned this to a friend who regularly drives by my house (most everybody in this side of town drives by my house often) thought this was a grand idea. After reading all the books and staring at our patchwork mess I'm beginning to think going with the masses seems to be the easiest, we do live in a democratic society and honestly the neighbors and the passer-bys will see the paint more than we will.

Kiddo Update

2011-06-06T21:51:00.003-05:00

As the school year draws to a close I suppose it's time to give a big update on the kid's progress through life.

Sonny Boy is doing well. Finishes 1st grade this year and has done superb. Grades couldn't be better, he has a good grasp of reading now and math skills that will soon surpass his mother's. If you ask him he will tell you he didn't learn anything new this year, that it was all stuff he learned in kindergarten, but I just think he doesn't really realize the material is progressing. He certainly wasn't learning addition and subtraction and writing little paragraphs in kindergarten. Behavior wise he's done well at school despite the ADHD. Sonny Boy's teacher says she does have to get him back on track occasionally and he does end up losing some recess time occasionally to finish his work, not because he's having a hard time with the work, just a hard time focusing. He has had to sit out a little at recess for playing too rough at times but it hasn't been anything the teacher has felt the need to let me know about and we've been in contact via e-mail several times for numerous things. A good school year, I hope 2nd grade goes as smoothly. Baseball season is in full swing. Sonny Boy is playing machine pitch and is doing well. I would say he's in the middle of the pack for skill level and he has a good understanding of the game and where the play is. He does have some wild throws occasionally but he's still getting the hang. Summer looks to be busy with VBS, scout camp, vacation, swim lessons, baseball and of course swimming as much as he can con Mom into taking him to the pool. We went the other day after school and it was like most of his 1st grade class had convened and he had a good time.

Igor is moving along quite well also. Pre-school finished up a couple of weeks ago and he's making good progress. He can identify all his letters, count reasonably well, all colors, shapes and sing several songs etc. Doing well considering he missed several weeks due to the broken leg. Next year Igor will attend preschool three mornings a week as he misses the cutoff for kindergarten by 10 days. Really I don't see this as a problem because I don't think he's ready for kindergarten, he's a little emotionally immature. Igor is now wearing SMO's full time. They seem to help his balance and stability. We will go back to the orthopedic doc in September to evaluate their effectiveness but I imagine they will be a long term addition to his wardrobe. A week ago Hubby and I took Igor to see a genetic specialist at Children's Hospital and the doc - a nice British chap - declared that Igor certainly has a connective tissue disorder. He's not totally sure of which one as there are lots. The one he did mention doesn't quite fit Igor (I think) so we are waiting on insurance approval to get expensive genetic testing done. In the meantime we will take him to see a cranio-facial specialist to see if there is anything that needs to be done with his extremely high-arched pallate as anybody with two brain cells can see that is going to be an orthodontic nightmare in a few years. Igor is going through a defiant stage and testing his boundaries lately which is getting old. He's always been a very compliant child so this is new ground with him, not new ground for us though - we've been there and done that with Sonny Boy. Patience and consistency is our mantra lately.

We grown up kiddos are getting by too. Hubby is busy with work, but it's going well. He works from home a couple of days a week now which is nice as it save a ton of money on gas. I am getting to hate the ring of his cell phone though because it does seem to ring at unfortunate times but that's the nature of the beast. I've been busy shuffling the kids to and fro, house and garden work (though the roofers have MANGLED my flowerbed) and just generally maintaining us in a somewhat clean and orderly fashion. Nothing exciting, everything exhausting. That could be a blog post title.

God Helps Those Who Help Themselves

2011-05-27T10:51:00.001-05:00

Ever hear the story about the guy who's house was flooding? Before the flood the police came and told him to evacuate and he tells them "God will save me" The water rises up to his front porch and a guy in canoe comes by to help and he answers "God will save me". The water rises to the second story window a guy in a bass boat comes by and again the man replies "God will save me" Soon the guy is on the roof and an army helicopter lowers him a basket and again he replies "God will save me" Soon the guy wakes up in heaven and asks God "Why didn't you save me" God answers " I sent the police, two boats and a helicopter, what else did you want".

These are things I don't understand. I offer help, resources and research to help people. I'm talking on both small things and big here, and a wide array of circumstances. I do as much as I can to help under the conditions and put the rest in their hands as there is nothing else I can do and the person in need doesn't get in the boat, get in the helicopter basket and take the final step. I feel like the rescuers in the above story. I am frustrated to see my efforts go to waste and I wonder if I should stop.

Two particular instances right now really anger me, I don't want to air family dirty laundry in public, but suffice it to say I've done all I can do. It saddens me that the lifeline I am throwing isn't good enough, isn't enough money, or out right rejected before it's even tried.I don't have allusions of grandeur, that I'm the rescuer that God sends. I don't feel myself pushed by God to do these things, I'm simply trying to help, to be a good person, to be a good family member, and know that I did the right thing when many do not.

Stormy Weather brings Too Many Things to Do

2011-05-25T19:39:00.003-05:00

Wow, the last few days have been extreme. I think today is the first time in several days I've sat down for more than a few minutes at a time.

Sunday dawned a pretty day. Hubby declared he was going to put new sewer vent pipes up through the roof as the old ones which were cast are ugly. He was busy with that project most of the afternoon, he picked a bad day for attic work as it was near 90 degrees. I moved some hostas around the flower beds and did some general gardening work, the flower beds are a little shaggy from lack of love last summer. The kids played and got in trouble for turning the water hose on themselves and making a mess but the day was good.

After supper we got both muddy boys bathed and Igor tucked into bed. About 10 minutes later the thunderstorm the 90 degree weather fore shadowed along with the weatherman started blowing in. Sonny Boy was proclaiming " Wow, look how hard it's raining!" as Hubby and I gathered our wits and looked out the big bay window in the dining room we saw the wind BLASTING and heard a loud SNAP and the power started flickering. I declared "basement" and ran up the stairs to get Igor and snatched him from the bed grabbing his glasses as I grabbed him, ran down the stairs and down the basement stairs meeting up with Sonny Boy and Hubby who had managed to find a couple of flashlights along the way. We hung out in the basement about 5 minutes looking out the best you can from the little windows and could see the worst was over. We came out to find a tree across the power lines a few houses down, a large limb of one of our trees down, several bricks from the remaining chimney that had somehow missed our vehicles by only inches and two sections of picket fence blown down. The police soon came and blocked off our street until the power company could get there. We let the kids gawk out the windows for a while and then put them to bed reassuring them that "yes, you can sleep when there is no electricity". Hubby and I then sat on the porch and yelled at the idiots who were going under the police tape to try and electrocute themselves. We did this until the traffic slowed and figured we could let the idiots have it to themselves and went to bed ourselves and heard the power company show up around 12:30 am and get our lights on sometime around 2:00 am.

Monday we arose and got Sonny Boy off to school. Hubby called in to work to tell them we had storm damage and he'd be working from the "north office" for the day. I went out and looked around the yard. Along with the large tree limb we had a bed sheet in the middle of the street and a lawnmower blade in our yard. I found the glass ball from our bent over lightening rod that had slid off the rod and somehow landed in the street gutter without breaking. Soon the morning rain quit, Hubby revved up the chainsaw and we cleaned up the big limb and Igor and I picked up 4 wheelbarrows full of small dead sticks that had blown from the trees. While out picking up the sticks our neighbor came over and got me and showed me a huge split in an elm tree in our yard (the split was only visible from his yard) I went in and called the power company as it threatened the power lines. The power company showed up fairly quickly and evaluated it. Later in the afternoon the neighbor flagged down a power company employee who was driving by and showed him the split which had grown very dangerous in the last few hours. The power company had the city come and block off the road again and Hubby and I perched on the front porch waiting with baited breath every time the wind gusted. The tree trimmers soon showed up and had two bucket trucks working the tree down to an almost stump leaving all the trimmings in our lawn just before dark.

Tuesday arrives and we take Sonny Boy to school and Igor into Children's for an eval by the genetic clinic (more on that later when we have some test results) and got home in the afternoon to fire up the chainsaw again and clean up the mess the tree trimmers left. Our neighbor came over and helped with that mess. The tree trimmers left a quite large topped off tree still that had a large leaning branch. Hubby monkeyed up the tree with a rope and tied it off, neighbor and I pulling on it as he climbed a ladder and cut to keep the limb from hitting neighbor's house. While pulling I lost my footing and landed on my rear on the concrete edge of a flower bed. OUCH, I thought I might have broken something for a short time, thankfully only got a good bruise on my keister.

Even with all of that yard clean up drama we couldn't help but think "man are we lucky" when we got up on Monday morning and saw pictures of Joplin, MO and other midwestern towns that are getting creamed daily with twisters.

Today things have gotten somewhat back to normal. The city came and got the huge pile of limb debris off the curb. We still have a large tree trunk standing in the yard that's got to be dropped. Hubby will have to rent a bigger chainsaw for that as it would just laugh at his little machine. I managed to finally make a dent in the massive pile of laundry only to be felled by a migraine this afternoon.

Things are back to normal.

Busy Spring and FINALLY some pictures.

2011-05-21T19:18:00.012-05:00

I'm not the best at getting pictures up in the blog. I get really aggravated with blogger and my inability to move pictures around and edit things so the pictures make sense with the text, therefore when I have a post with pictures I have to have a rough outline of what I'm writing about in my head, and face it I don't think that far ahead when putting up a blog post.

The last informative post on our lives I mentioned Igor went to a petting farm with his preschool. He LOVED it. The weather left a lot to be desired but he seemed to be able to tamp down his innate fear of animals and petted most everything with a little coaxing.

Here's my little cowboy riding a pony. He thought he was really an equestrian after this. Of course this makes horse crazy momma's heart proud!

Here he is petting a week old calf. They were SOO cute and I couldn't believe how tolerant they were of the kids.

Last weekend mom and I met up at Meramec Farm it was a nice little get away. Hubby stayed home with the kids and I had a few days without shouting "knock it off" even once. Nice.

At the farm was this cat. When I arrived he greeted me and bent over and petted him. Nice enough cat. The cat the proceeded to follow me as I went on a little stroll down the gravel road, kinda odd for a cat. When I got back to the cabin he sat at the screen door and meowed loudly to be let in. No, I wasn't going to do that, then he jumped up into the living room window and peered in at me. I guess I was rather boring because he soon jumped down. A little bit later I looked out in the cabin lawn and he's out there and was bringing me a half dead mouse. Later that night he took up residence on the hood of my car and woke me at day light by jumping to the bedroom window ledge. He hung out on the rail fences around the cabin most of the day and would bat himself into the screen porch often. The cat was a stalker, never met a cat like that before. I later found out his name is Charlie.

A huge sycamore tree graced the lawn of the cabin. This picture doesn't really give an idea of it's scope. It's only half leafed out. If you don't know sycamore leaves are often bigger than dinner plates.

Of course if you go to a horse farm you must ride. Mom and I rode a couple of days. This was on the second day. I'm on the white horse who thought she had to be in the lead on everything so I spent most of the ride slowing her down. Mom's horse just trudged along like it was a wind-up animal.

A lovely view from the cabin. It was so peaceful there. I do wish the weather would have cooperated a little as it was cool and somewhat rainy. I had planned to canoe a little as well but the water was too high and fast for that adventure.

Baseball is in full swing now. Today Sonny Boy got to play catcher for a little bit. Looking at this picture, I don't think he caught the ball.

Of course he batted as well. I can't remember if he hit this or not, but it's a good shot. Sonny Boy did catch a pop fly while playing first base. I wish I'd had the camera out for that as the look on his face was just priceless. I played over-excited momma when he caught that ball, I'm pretty sure everybody knew which kid was mine at that point. Ha

We are also in full construction mode on the house. The roofers began on Monday (they got held up by some rain) Our house looks pretty rough at the current moment, a big dumpster in the yard, the roof two different colors plus a couple of tarps. Several of the siding boards have been pulled off of the side of the house in preparation for blowing insulation into the walls. The new tube skylight has been installed and it's so great we've ordered another in hopes that it gets here before the roofers are done. The thing is amazing. I highly recommend getting one or 10 of these in your house. The areas of new roof look so much better. The house had been shingled in an old fashioned reddish color asphalt shingle which was so ratty, just the color made it look bad. The new shingles make the house look so much more cared for. The old girl is getting her make-up on.

Well it's late, Igor is getting himself ready for bed and I have a reading stack that currently daunts even me (trying to get some of that blogging for books stuff done).

The American Dream

2011-05-12T10:59:00.000-05:00

Three years ago a, Kelly, blogging friend that had done extensive humanitarian work in the town Igor was living in - had even met Igor before me - adopted two older boys from the local orphanage. A paperwork Snafu prevented her from adopting another boy named Viktor who aged out of the orphanage system and became ineligible for adoption due to U.S. immigration laws. Kelly worked magic and brought Viktor to the U.S. a few months later on a student Visa to become part of her family. Viktor, to say the least has thrived in his new family. He is an honor student and has won a prestigious scholarship. The scholarship however was small and nowhere near enough to cover his college expenses. Kelly is supporting him, paying for his room and board, insurance and any other expenses he has as a single mom with two younger boys as well. However Viktor needs help to pay college expenses and stay in school or he will lose his student visa and be forced back to Ukraine to an existence too horrible to think about.

Viktor needs your help. Project Green House Effect has started a Hope Scholarship Fund and Viktor is the first recipient. You can go to the link and learn more about Viktor and make a tax deductible donation to the fund. Your donation will be used for his college expenses, books, tuition, and all those mystery fees that go along with a university education. No amount is too small and certainly no amount too large to help this kid who has already come so far. Viktor is the embodiment of the American Dream, pulled himself up by his boot straps and is working hard to be a productive member of society, your $10, $25 or $100 donation can be the little bit of lifeline he needs to live the American Dream.

Make Viktor a Victor over his circumstances.

Ranking the Review

2011-05-10T14:06:00.002-05:00

I know some of you are being so kind as to rank my review, Thank you. I think there is some sort of glitch in how they do their system and it is not explained well when you rank. After you enter your e-mail and rank the review you will need to go to your e-mail account and open the e-mail from the publisher and click on the link to verify that you are not just entering everybody and your momma's address. It appears they've had problems in the past of people running up their own scores. Nice huh, especially considering it's a Christian book pulisher. So if you've ranked my review and not gone to your e-mail and clicked their link please do. If you haven't ranked my review please do, I have no access to the e-mail address nor do I know who ranked if you don't tell me. They say they don't spam, but be sure to click the box that says you do not want e-mails from them if you do not.

If everybody that has already ranked the review goes back and makes it official it will help my ranking by quite a bit.

Thanks

Blogging for Books

2011-05-09T12:30:00.006-05:00

Hey I'll admit it I'm kind of a slut for reading material. Put it in my hands and I'll read it, doesn't matter the quality or quantity. When I came across this program from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group it was a good chance to try my hand at book reviewing and get a free book or two in the process. I figure I read so much anyhow might get some sort of little prize in it for me as well. This is where I need your help dear reader please rate my review. The better my ranking the more likely I am to win some sort of prize. I don't care what kind of prize, the whole idea of getting a prize is cool because frankly I never win squat unless you count the time I won a whopping $30 playing slots in Vegas and promptly cashed out. You can do it right from my blog with the handy dandy tool below. Kinda neat (and I'm surprised I figured out how to put it on here)

So here is my debut as a book reviewer:

The Corruptible by Mark Mynheir

The Corruptible is standard detective novel fare. The hero Ray Quinn, a tough ex-cop is hired by a shady character to solve a simple case of corporate theft. Detective Quinn soon meets complications that lead to a tangled web of motive, alibi, and deceit that must be cunningly managed to bring the perpetrators to justice. While the hero is puzzling out the case and chasing bad guys he is also struggling with chronic pain and an increasing dependence on Jim Beam. Ray’s humanity is evident in the fact that despite his tough guy persona he’s helping a troubled young man with dyslexia pass the police exam and learn to love a large collection of John Wayne movies.

The writing over all was decent; the plot moved along and kept the pages turning. The writing did seem a little forced at times and I half expected to see “ It was a dark and stormy night” as the first line of the next chapter. The author did manage to avoid this cliché, if not others when he dressed Ray’s sidekick in a suit and fedora in steamy central Florida. I also found Ray’s access to police records, reports and crime scenes somewhat extraordinary and unbelievable regardless to the mention that he had been given a “consultant status” at the police department because of past incidents that had happened previous in the novel series.

If you’re up for a bit of light beach reading The Corruptible is certainly worth a few hours of your time.

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review and it in no way colors my opinion of this material.

Spring Where Art Thou?

2011-05-06T14:00:00.003-05:00

Spring might finally be sticking her head out a little but I'm not overly sure. Today seems like spring, it's a little warmer, the maple trees have tiny little leaves on them and that ucky stuff some botany obsessed person would call a flower. I don't think she has fully committed to coming and joining us yet. Only yesterday I was shivering in a brisk breeze standing around with people who were still donning winter hats and gloves. She is a fickle little priss.

We will soon start the major end of the house work next week and things are starting to shape up. The contractor had a large dumpster delivered and parked in the front driveway yesterday, he showed up this morning early to supervise the delivery of the shingles and tells us he plans to start middle of next week. That start date means Hubby will be busy cutting wholes in the ceiling and installing the inside parts of the tube skylight we are installing in the hallway upstairs and putting in a vent fan in the bathroom so it can be ducted outside as well. Next week will be loud.

This morning I attended Igor's IEP meeting for next year. All is well, they will re-evaluate him in the fall to make sure he's still progressing as he should but if there are no changes and he still tests appropriately he'll only be seen once a month or so by the physical therapist and the early childhood special ed teacher. Basically they will just be doing checks to make sure he doesn't fall behind as he's testing right in the normal range for everything which of course is wonderful news. I'll fight to keep them on consult for a while though as I think we might have some more school issues faced as he gets older and I suspect many of those issues will arise with his poor vision.

Next week I'll be driving south to meet up with my mother and possibly my uncle for a little get-away at the cabins Hubby and I went to last year. This is my "hunting trip" as Hubby has a duck hunting trip planned in the fall. I hope the weather cooperates as the trip will be kind of a bummer if weather isn't at least tolerable.

Yesterday was the annual petting farm trip of the pre-school. Igor had tons of fun. I was very impressed as he participated in all the activities petting different animals and even kind of milking a real cow. This is coming from a kid who acts fearful of the mildest of dogs and cats. Hopefully he's starting to overcome these fears.

I'm in the process of wheedling Hubby into letting me get a dog and/or a camper trailer. I found a program with a breeder of a poodle cross that would allow me to get the dog for only basic cost associated with any dog. The breeder would then take the dog and breed her a few times and keep her with the pups when born for a few weeks. After the dog has had a few litters of puppies the dog would be fixed and turned over to me. Hubby isn't wild about the idea. My other scheme is to buy a small camper. I like camping but I can't really go without another adult along as the boys are really getting too old to go into the ladies room with me and that makes a shower in campground (for me) impossible. I'd also feel safer with a little bit more between me and some nutcase than a piece of nylon tent. Campers can be had for pretty cheap, there are some really nice ones if you have a big enough vehicle to tow it with, however towing with a mini-van limits the options considerably but there are things out there, just talking Hubby into the idea is difficult.

Sonny Boy's baseball games start this weekend. Yay (can you hear the sarcasm) I'm really hoping he decides he doesn't like baseball that much and doesn't want to play next year. Honestly I didn't realize the time commitment involved as they take things a little too seriously here. Oh well, live and learn.

That's all there is for now, must get back to doing a few chores and quit slacking off so much.

Downed by ants

2011-05-02T21:22:00.002-05:00

Friday afternoon I was putzing around in the yard with Igor tagging along. We were picking up all the little sticks that our trees had found the need to rid themselves of since fall. We were unloading the wagon out in the overgrown area of the park ( a perk of living in the corner is that we all use it as a big compost pile) and I found an ant hill. These were not the little tiny ants but the big honking black ones. Perfect for Sonny Boy's ant farm. I send Igor in to get Sonny Boy and the ant farm and soon I'm trying to figure out how to get more ants in than escape. Those boogers were fast. I sat out on the lawn for a little and when I got up my back was kind stiff. No big deal I thought as did a little abnormal walk into the house. When I got in it was worse but my first thought was I'd been hunched over, I need to lie down flat. I laid down on the kitchen floor and was there a few mins. The pain was getting worse and I had tears rolling down my cheeks. I tried getting up but that just wasn't going to happen. Thank God Hubby was home working in his little office upstairs. I called for him and he quite literally picked me up and I hobbled to the couch. The kids bored with all this decided to go finish picking up sticks and Hubby went back to work while I laid flat on back on the couch. I was sitting there, no TV on or anything and I could hear the TV humming that it was "on" but no show was playing (the kid's had been playing Wii) so I decide to get up, turn off the TV and put my glasses on the side table. TV shut off accomplished I bent ever so slightly to put my glasses on the table and BAM it was like I was being stabbed. I managed go get onto the couch again but this time it was really bad. I sat there for a while and determined this is BAD, way BAD, my back has never hurt like this before. I called the walk-in clinic to check hours and Hubby picked me up off the couch and into the clinic I go. Doctor came in and examined me, had a good laugh that I threw my back out picking up ants, gave me two shots, a handful of prescriptions and told me "no laundry, no lifting, no twisting" . I came home and was promptly out cold on the couch to wake up just in time to have hubby make it to the pharmacy to pick-up the prescriptions before they closed. Two days pass in a druggy haze - really I don't think I was awake more than three hours on Saturday. Today I'm upright again with no real pain in my back just some lingering soreness. The diagnosis was "Acute muscle strain" which doesn't even start to explain how horrible this was. So yeah, I was downed by ants.

It's a good thing I'm back upright today - not only because Hubby had to go to work today but because Igor had to go pick up his SMO's. What a LOOOONG appointment. He was excited because that now meant he could wear his new tennis shoes with sports balls on them that light up. I was thrilled we could throw out his little boots he had literally worn a whole in the toe of riding the little scooter in the driveway. Igor was happy to rid himself of them too because he happily tossed them in the garbage at the orthotist office. We also got rid of the offending scooter by giving it to a neighbor for her grandson to play on when he visits.

Well, I guess that's all folks, that's about all my healing back can handle in this chair.

Strange things that pop into my head

2011-04-29T10:54:00.002-05:00

Last night I locked myself into the bathroom to take care of basic girl maintenance issues. You know the kind, shave here, pluck there, clip toenails etc. I had strange flashback in time and made me start wondering "What ever happened to..."

To tell this story I must give you a little background though. When I was in college I worked the automotive department at the local Wal-Mart. Late one evening like 9:30 or 10:00 as I was finishing up my jobs for the night a couple of girls in their late teens/early twenties stopped me and asked a question. Nothing new, I was asked where things were like 2345 times a night. However this one was odd, the girls asked me where they could find a facial hair bleaching kit. Well I worked in AUTOMOTIVE, I knew exactly where the turtle wax was and I was really good at figuring out which car battery or oil filter you needed, but the only thing I knew about the cosmetic department was where it was. Of course I told them to look there as we stood near the tire display. The conversation continued that they had already looked there and there were no bleaching kits. Being girl talk I advised that they had waxing kits there (not turtle wax) but they didn't want to do that as the one girl, who really did need to do something with that mustache, was going to get married the next morning, and she didn't want to risk her upper lip being red. Well it was late and a small town with nothing else open so I wished her luck and went on.

Last night that popped into my head and I got to wondering if the bride to be walked down the aisle with fuzz on her upper lip. Then I wondered "Who in their right mind doesn't realize they should do something about their "she-stache" further out than the night before her wedding" Really? I'm sure Kate Middleton polished, buffed, shaved, waxed and whatever other treatment that could be dreamed of before her big shin-dig today. Heck even I made sure my woolly eyebrows were tame a week or so before my rather humble nuptials. See strange things pop into my head.

Last night I started reading a book about 8:30 or so. It wasn't a thick book but it engrossed me and I finished the last page at 3:00 am this morning. The book was "Never Let Me Go" by Kazuo Ishiguro. Definitely worth the read, I hope your able to put it down and sleep.

Since I finished the book just as the royal wedding coverage was starting I flipped it on (I wanted to see it but hadn't really planned to get up that early for it) and became engrossed in the amount of crazy hats the wedding guests were wearing. Really, I LOVE HATS, I wish we Americans would take them up a little bit but some of those creations were un-real! I'm sure the designers got their ideas from Dr. Suess books.

I watched the wedding hoopla till around 7:00 am and decided I should really try to sleep a little so I crawled in the guest bed downstairs and managed to get about an hour of sleep before the kids and hubby were up and making racket. Yeah I'm running on one hour of sleep today, wonder how I'm gonna be holding up at 3pm?

The dishwasher died yesterday as well. Yay (in a very sarcastic tone) Hubby took it apart and looked at and determined it needed a new keypad, easily fixed but the part is $150 and the gasket around the door leaks some. So now we are weighing the benefits of spending $150 on a machine that works well but leaks a little (I'm talking like two tablespoons of water a load) or just going and buying a new machine. In the meantime I'm back to hand washing dishes and that sucks.

Happy day

A Funny Story to Share

2011-04-25T23:04:00.002-05:00

A post on a forum I'm a part of reminded me of a story that at the time was like a horribly gone wrong sit-com. Now it's family lore and laughed at from time to time.

A few months before Hubby and I married we made a quick trip to northern Minnesota from Arkansas as Hubby was a groomsman in his cousin's wedding. We were living together and had a black lab mix dog that was roughly 9 months old (the original Winnie). Being quite broke we didn't have the cash to put the dog in a kennel and didn't really have someone to leave her with for the long weekend, so we loaded her up in the car. Now Winnie was a good dog but had one nasty habit of getting car sick. We knew this and had called the vet and gotten some tranquilizers to settle her down and hopefully prevent having a hyper lab-like pup bouncing around in the backseat of a Chrysler LeBaron for 19 hours. The trip up was pretty un-eventful. The dog behaved well and hid her milk-bones at every pottie break. She wasn't too interested in food but we took that as a good sign she wouldn't puke in the car. We get up north for the wedding festivities and Winnie hung out in Grandma's garage with occasional forays of freedom into the yard to do her business and get a little attention. The night before we left for home Hubby in all of his wisdom brought home some bones from his father's house putting the chewy pup in ecstasy all night in the garage. The next morning we arose early, drugged the dog, and loaded up. Somewhere around the 12 hour mark we decide to stop and eat at a Country Kitchen. When we stopped the dog was whining and pacing around but the area around the restaurant was just a big muddy pit so we figured we'd eat and then go find her a place to run for bit before hitting the road again. We go in and eat and we come out we see this rather large dog in the back window well where the convertible top of the car would normally fold down into and we knew something was up. It was very clear when we opened the doors. OMG (that really wasn't what we said) there was runny dog poo on every seat, under the seats, on the floorboards. EVERYWHERE. The dog had some serious bowel issues happening. We let her out into the mud, cause, hey mud is nice compared to this and watched the poor animal retch and squirt while we tried to figure out what to do. Mind you we are still a good 9 hours or more from home and both of us had to be at work first thing in the morning.

Luckily there was a Wal-Mart 1/2 mile down the road or so. Hubby walked and purchased rags, paper towels, carpet cleaner, garbage bags and some ugly old rugs that were on clearance we could sit on because our seats would be wet. We proceeded to scrub out the car in the back of the Country Kitchen with the occasional gag on our part. It was awful. I've cleaned up horrible poop messes by the kids and to this day nothing tops the doggie diarrhea in that car. We get the car somewhat to a minimal health hazard and climb in to sit our rears on ugly clearance rack rugs to get home. We managed to get home sometime in the middle of the night and fall into bed.

Needless to say morning came too early and I had to drive the poop-mobile to work the next morning for my 45 min commute. Pleasant. The windows stayed down all day at work as I watched the miasma escape from my office window. When I arrived home Hubby removed the bucket seats and we scrubbed and cleaned some more. Luckily it was spring so the windows were down often during the day and the odor finally dissipated somewhere three to four weeks later though it still had a tinge on the hottest days.

The moral of the story. When you dog is dancing to get out of a car let them out to do their business regardless to the mud situation. Mud is only dirt. Shit is shit.

We are SO gonna win parents of the year award...

2011-04-25T13:46:00.002-05:00

We are SO gonna win parents of the year award. Ha Ha, not likely. No we haven't done anything to scar our children for life like kill a rabbit and tell them it was the Easter Bunny or completely just forget about Easter Bunny hoopla. We did sleep through it however. Yeah I know, not one picture of smiling chocolate covered faces or running through the yard hunting eggs. Nothing. Saturday night I was assembling the baskets and determined they were rather anemic so I ran to Walgreens and just barely made it in five minutes before closing. Grabbing a few items of basket junk I streaked home and finished filling the baskets with enough sugar to put the kids into a diabetic coma. We were awakened by excited kids at some ungodly hour annoucing that the Easter Bunny had come, we proclaimed that was great and rolled over. Fifteen minutes later hopped up on sugar Sonny Boy comes in and declares that the Easter Bunny had left eggs on the roofing material in the yard. Hubby groggily tells them they could go get them, I rolled over. We hear the kids scrambling into clothes (hey at least the didn't go out in pajamas) and run to the yard to grab the loot. A little while later they were back in the upstairs hallway opening eggs and counting jelly beans. Somewhere about this time I managed to haul my carcase out of bed and see the damage. Sonny Boy had managed to consume somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 pounds of sugar, Igor about 5 pounds. I declare a moratorium on sugar consumption and stagger to the kitchen to come up with the least sweet thing I could think of for breakfast. Hubby soon staggers down after me and we begin the nightmare of getting ready for church.

After the craziness that ensues when trying to get all four of us out the door decently dressed and on time we pile in the van and make the corner of the lot. Littered in the front yard we see some opened eggs and a note that very clearly said "Igor" on it that had identified which basket belonged to whom. Now I KNOW that the Easter Bunny had only hidden eggs in the side yard which is fenced in so I can imagine the mayhem that was ensuing while we snoozed and the kids egg hunted in the lawn. I'm sure the neighbors were wondering where the hell we were.

Even with our unnoticed absence Easter went well. We managed to get to church and I cooked a ham for supper. We have a lot of ham now. The ham was a part of a 1/2 pig we purchased after Christmas and we figured we should make use of it instead of letting it sit in the freezer until doomsday. So if your in the mood for a ham sandwich come on over, we are stocked well in that department for several weeks.

Sonny Boy is on Spring Break this week, I'm on jury duty. Luckily I didn't have to go in today, I'll know about tomorrow this evening. I wrangled both kids to the optical shop today and got Igor some new glasses on order. His current ones have taken quite a beating lately and they were el cheapo's from Zenni. Igor's Rx is so strong which equals thick, that he has rather sharp edges and he has at least three fresh cuts (they are small) from his glasses. The new ones will be much thinner and I think will stay up on his nose better as they have a different bridge AND cable temples that wrap around his ear as well. Thank Goodness for vision insurance, the glasses without insurance would have been $500 +, with insurance the total came to $209. Still not cheap but a whole lot better. While at the optical shop I made an appointment for myself for next week to be evaluated for Lasik. Honestly I'm scared snotless by the whole idea but I think they'll give me a valium or something for the procedure. I know I have to be at least somewhat awake but I don't really want to be thinking clearly. I'd love to lose my glasses. We'll see how that goes. Our insurance pays a good chunk of the surgery and since we've spent so much money on medical this year might as well push it and see if we'll meet the percentage for an income tax write off.

Hope your easter was good. This is the part I'd post a sweet picture of the boys with their baskets dressed in their precious Easter clothes. But now you know it's not simple laziness of not posting the pictures.

Long Time, No Post

2011-04-22T13:21:00.002-05:00

Things are going pretty well here at the Litter's nest. When things run smoothly I don't really have much to post about because frankly craziness is funny and laundry is not. So today I post just because I'm feeling guilty.

Since moving back to the original nest in Wisconsin Hubby and I have decided we must do some much needed work to the old house since property values have crashed so much we will be living here for quite a while now. In the fall we had a flexible roofing material put on the porch roof (it's a flat roof and was leaking) and installed a new high efficiency boiler and hot water heater so we could remove the chimneys when we re-roof. Currently I have a pallet of OSB in the yard and I'm waiting on the contractor to finish a job before he comes and opens up our roof down to the rafters to remove the chimneys, insulate the walls, re-sheath (there is no solid sheathing up there, just 2 layers of asphalt over the original cedar shakes), new shingles, install a bathroom vent and a tubular skylight. When that mess is over we plan on giving the old girl a new coat of paint. We plan on changing the color and exactly what color to paint has been a big topic of conversation. The most helpful thing I've found on line is Sherwin Williams Color Visualizer Tool which is pretty cool. This thing lets you upload a picture and "paint" the house or room different colors to see how they look. I haven't done any of the interior stuff but it works pretty well with the exterior. Of course your not getting the perfect nuances of the color on your computer screen but it gives the general idea. I'll most likely buy a few quarts of paint and patchwork on the house before I go whole hog but at least I'll have the field narrowed down a bit. We also have the power company lined up to top out a couple of trees and get them out of the power lines so Hubby can play with his chainsaw and drop them the rest of the way. Removing one will open up the front of the house a bit and allow us some room to re-do some landscaping. The other two will be to hopefully allow some grass to grow and be down when we ever get the money to build a new garage in a few years. Ah, big plans.

Sonny Boy is now in full force Rookie League baseball. Here that means machine pitch. He's only had a couple of practices so far and both have been so cold I hid in the van. The weather is just miserable for April.

School is out next week for spring break. What a late spring break! I suppose they are tying it into Easter and that falls late this year. We had hoped to travel a little, visit family and such but I got a summons for jury duty for that week. Yuck. I could have had it deferred once but was worried it would crop up when Hubby was scheduled for one of his long haul training trips and I would really be up a creek for child care. Currently the plan is IF I have to go in Hubby will work from home and let the kids watch entirely too much TV. I understand it's a real pain here as there isn't much parking near the courthouse. The court did send a pass for my dashboard so I could park in the meters but I don't really want to advertise I'm going to be away from my vehicle for hours in that neighborhood. I hope I don't have to sit on some long drawn out case.

Today is a holiday from school for Sonny Boy and it was supposed to be for Hubby. I don't think Hubby's customer's quite got that memo though as he's off working with one today. Hubby did have his first emergency "run to hold a customer's hand" the other day after a customer from Brazil had issues in Chicago. I hope that doesn't happen too much.

Well I suppose that's about it. I've let the kids veg in front of the TV too much today. The weather stinks so there is no throwing them outside and I'm not in the mood to listen to their craziness. I've promised them a trip to the movies to go see the 3:00 showing of Rio. Hope it's worth the $6 a head to get in, not to mention the $20 of popcorn.

rattle,rattle,rattle...

2011-03-31T16:14:00.002-05:00

That's the sound the last few brain cells I have left are making. Hubby has been a work trip the last two weeks. He arrives home tomorrow night, I might make it. Why rattle rattle? Igor's constant chatter. The. Kid. Talks. Non. Stop. All. Day. Long. Even Sonny Boy who can talk the ears off of an elephant declares it too much. It's bad when the eldest can't wait for the little one's bedtime and your both watching the clock. Happily Hubby learned his lesson teaching kids to tell time with the first one so I sneak Igor into bed 10 or 15 minutes early. I wasn't so lucky with Sonny Boy at that age. You see Hubby taught Sonny Boy to tell time, or at least read the numbers on a digital clock. If you tried to put him to bed at 7:59 that wasn't going to fly and all hell would break loose. The weekend was miserably long. Saturday we spent at the little cake competition. I didn't get squat. The cakes that won were nice so I don't feel like was cheated or anything. I do have to wonder at their pick of judges though - the traffic girl on the local tv news probably doesn't know the difference between buttercream and fondant, so I would have like to seen judges that might have been a little more schooled on the difficulty of technique. I'll post a pic, but not in this post since blogger hates me adding pictures and putting them in the text where they actually make sense. Sunday was even longer. I just wasn't up for the fight of getting the kids dressed presentably and off to church, cripes I had done it alone for 6 days of the week already and needed a break. Igor was in pajamas until 2:00 pm. Pajamas or not didn't stop the craziness and Igor was trying some break-neck stunt urged on by his brother somehow managed to hit the living room floor face first, cutting his eyebrow on his glasses and bending the glasses to a shape no longer recognizable. Thankfully Wally world's optical shop was open and bent the glasses back into a decent shape, they are still wonky but I've got to get off of my rear soon and get some new ones for him as he has a slightly different Rx. After reading the kids the riot act the rest of the day it finally sunk in to them that Momma wasn't playing around any more and we better straighten up. This week hasn't been too bad, though I'm surely tired of bearing the brunt of the family weight and have declared that Saturday will be my day off. Igor went back to the ortho on Tuesday and they declared him offically healed. He still is a little gimpy but it's simply lack of strength, muscle atrophies quickly when not used. Igor will go again next week to be fitted for SMO's I imagine they'll be similar to the link, though I hope more customized than those, I just couldn't find a good picture. The SMO's should help with his balance which always seems iffy and honestly his ankles look like they should be painful when walking, though he never complains. The hope that the SMO's will help strengthen his ankles and help everything to grow into alignment. I suppose I should scratch up some supper. Though I am thinking of a night out - maybe Chinese?

Family Vacation

2011-03-22T20:45:00.014-05:00

Well we went on a Family Vacation, a semi-big one that involved planes, buses, and rental cars, thankfully no trains. Hubby had been scheduled for a while to go down to Melbourne FL for some training, I had declined to go due to school and I really didn't think the weather would be that great there. Old man winter though had been mean to me and a couple of weeks ago I decided to go. Due to my ill timing we could not get tickets on Hubby's flights so I ended up with Hubby on the flights right after mine on the way down and just after his on the way up. We took the kids. Not really a good idea, read more about that here. However it was some good memories for the kids. We did spend a day out on the beach and the only pictures taken are on my phone and I'm not technologically gifted enough to get them off. Despite the boys and I being coated liberally in SPF 50 several times during the day, I got NO sun at all, Sonny Boy turned brown as a little indian, and Igor turned pink.

Since Blogger won't let me re-arrange the pictures these are a little out of the order I would prefer. Our last day is first, the next to the last day is second.

Before we headed out we went to Merritt Island National Wildlife refuge. Hubby and the boys on the nature boardwalk.

We saw some manatees, but they don't photograph so well, I like this one that was in the airport as she's fancier.

Lots of birds. This is a blue heron (I think)

We saw quite a few alligators as well. We saw several bigger than this one, but he posed the nicest for the camera.

On Thursday we went to JFK space center....

and the kids met astronaut John Blaha

I have to admit I didn't really know who he was other than an astronut until I just googled him to give you a link. Wow, what an impressive resume. I knew astronauts were accomplished people but that man has some extreme brain power in his head.

the kids also met this astronaut -likely just some random shmuck in a costume but they liked him.

Rode a moon buggy

and waited on big brother while he was sent in the ride with a friendly Canadian family. Kids had to be 44" tall to ride. Igor measured up at 42". I had been told this was the coolest thing at Kennedy and I wanted Sonny Boy to be able to do it. I didn't quite know what to do so we went to a briefing thing that told all about the current space missions, Igor was less than impressed with that, Sonny Boy was bored but behaved. Anyway while ignoring Igor's whining the idea came to me to find a family with a bunch of kids and ask if Sonny Boy could ride with them. Yes, I sent my child into a building with complete strangers the say "eh" at the end of every sentence, but what do you do? They were very nice though and took Sonny Boy right in with them while Igor and I waited at the exit. Sonny boy came out thrilled and agreed it was the best thing at Kennedy. Too bad Mom didn't get to ride.

At Kennedy there is the visitor center where all the above stuff is and then you get on buses to move around in the secured areas. The took us to an observation platform that was as close as the public could get to the launch pads (about a mile) I'm impressed my camera took such a good picture, of course it's as zoomed in as it gets and I had steadied it on a railing. The space shuttle is on the pad, if you look close you can see the white and brown tips of the solid rocket boosters. The "orbiter" or as you and I call it the shuttle is behind a sheild to protect it until 24 hours before lift-off. This will be the next to the last space shuttle mission before the space shuttles are retired and we rely on the Russians to get us to the International Space Station for a while.

I can't tell you what I think of Kennedy. If your into space stuff like Sonny Boy it's likely the coolest place in the world. I thought it was neat and educational, probably would have slowed down a little and looked at few things more closely without the kids but it won't be on my to do list again anytime in the near future.

We landed late on Friday evening. Igor had fell asleep on the plane, and refused to wake up and walk off. Sonny Boy and I were loaded with luggage and I was trying to figure out a way to haul him down the aisle, we had a stroller waiting in the jetway. Since we were the last ones on the plane the flight attendant picked up Igor and got him to the stroller which was great. Off we went, Sonny Boy pushing Igor in the cheap little umbrella I had picked up for travel. Igor was still so out out it he was sitting straight up with his mouth open out cold being pushed through the Milwaukee airport. It was quite a sight.

Sunday afternoon we made a return trip to the airport and dropped off Hubby for a two week stint in Dallas. Yay.

This week I'm busy making a wedding cake. No, haven't been commisioned, I'm entering it in a local cake decorating contest. I about have the first tier done. I keep looking at it trying to decide if I should pull the fondant off and try again. I'm using styrofoam cake dummies. (it's allowed) However fondant ain't cheap, and my inner tightwad is screaming at me, but I know I can do better so I'm having a hard time making the call. I don't even know what the prize is for the contest, likely just my name in the paper but it's a pride thing ya know?

Anyhow back to reality. Florida was nice, sunny, warm couldn't have asked for nicer weather. As I type I hear rain and wind beating at the windows, it's about 34 F. Think I might go back to FL, will you keep the kids?

Announcement of New Blog

2011-03-10T15:34:00.001-06:00

You might be asking why do you need another blog? Well to be frank this one is just a simple glimpse into "the Litter's" daily life. Nothing overly personal and nothing controversial or really thought inducing. I hope to make the new blog a little different, a little bit of thought to chew on after you leave, a little more substance, possibly a few giggles. This doesn't mean that the litter won't make appearances now and then, heck without those three I don't have much happening in my life, they are my job, my entertainment, my stress and my life. I'll still keep up with happenings over here but the new one will have a bit of a different tone to it.

http://musingsonmotherhoodandotherramblings.blogspot.com/

The Real Houswife of (un-named county)

2011-03-05T18:42:00.004-06:00

Well no news is good news lately. I see from the date of the last post I've been a little remiss in updating but for the most part boredom and mayhem rule the days. I can't imagine Bravo showing up anytime soon and offering to follow me around and tape. Most days I don't have on make-up, somedays it's noon before I comb my hair, and I haven't been in a screaming match with anybody but my husband or kids since high school. Yeah not much real about those Housewives.

I have a horrible case of cabin fever a.k.a. spending too much time with my children. Igor and I have been stuck at the hip (almost literally) since he broke his leg. The weather is in that season that should be called MUD and too cold to do anything but too warm for snow. Mud season also coops up Sonny Boy when he's home as well. Yuck. The boys have been watching too much T.V., too much Wii. Literally their speech is leaning toward the yelling side at all points even when sitting inches from each other or me and having a simple conversations. My ears crave quiet, so much so that the few times I get to go in the vehicle alone I don't turn on the radio. My own speech has degraded to orders yelled through the house as EVERY sentence begins " MOM..." usually yelled from another room. I need a vacation. I need a wife.

The gym thing is working out well. It's certainly a stress reliever to go move around a little on the machines and have few thoughts other than "I can do three more.." I did get a little more than aggravated the other day as I was watching Oprah and Gayle go camping while doing the elliptical machine and it made me wonder how in hell she made a cazillion dollars. Really camping isn't rocket science but to watching her and her buddy set up a pop-up made me wonder. My other sport at the gym is people watching. It's quite interesting seeing the assortment of people there. Surprisingly there is a large percentage of senior citizens moving around which is good for them. Hope I'm out working the treadmills at 70. I did finish my workout the other day just as the water aerobic class ended. I'll try to be aware of that from now on as I had to wait in line for the showers with all the little old ladies. I was hoping a side effect of exercise would be dropping a few pounds, HA I've gained a pound. Darling Hubby was diplomatic about it when I was complaining stating " it's muscle, your gaining muscle" even though I gained a giant bag of peanut M&M's on the kitchen counter as well.

Igor started back to preschool two weeks ago. He's getting around well on the walking cast now and that's been a great boon to both of our mobility. He slid right back into preschool with no problems at all. Igor's really glad to be back as he'd really had enough of Mom too. Tuesday we go back to the orthopedic doctor and most likely the cast will be removed. If not they'll have to replace it as the the little monkey has picked all the lining out as far down and his little fingers will reach.

Sonny Boy has been a little bit of a pill lately too. Grounded more than not. I don't know if my tolerance is down or if he's more wound up. Everything seems to be a case of frenetic activity for no apparent reason.

I do have hope that Mud season will soon morph into Spring though. I can see the very tips of the daffodils breaking through the soil in the flower bed by the back door. I have several projects planned for the yard this year, the least of which is to take pictures of the bulb beds when in bloom so I can add to them in the fall. I planted around 50 daffodil last fall but it was just kind of a random wandering through the yard and planting. The guy that lived here before us planted TONS of tulips, the flower beds were just gorgeous the first couple of springs we were here, but squirrels and time have done their damage and only a few meager tulips have bloomed the last few years. I expect few to none this year. I suppose it wouldn't kill me to plant a few tulip bulbs, however they are fairly expensive only to get a year or two of good blooms out of them. I like to spend money on things that will bloom year after year. I've also got to get some grass planted in some bare spots. The list is long and my enthusiasm runs low after a few weeks.

I suppose that's all for now, stay tuned for another exciting episode.

Another Day, Another Cast

2011-02-15T22:33:00.002-06:00

Today we went back to the ortho doctor. Igor's red cast was removed and he was x-rayed. The doc said that the pins could be removed which had been the plan so that was good news. Igor was fine through the cast removal, actually giggling because the cast would vibrate as the the cutter went through it and it tickled him. He was a little concerned to see the pins sticking out of his leg (as was I) but other than a little aprehension was fine up until the time of the actual pin removal. Prevously I had asked how painful this procedure would be, as honestly I couldn't imagine pulling metal wires out bone to be anything but pretty painful. The doctor had said it's painful but not night-marish so I had prepared by giving Igor a dose of heavy pain meds before we left for the doctor. I think it helped, he was nervous, but I think the drugs helped him relax and recover quicker from the pin removal. I stayed right in his face rattling nonsense to distract him. He did cry and let everybody know that "That HURTS" but all in all did really well and settled down quickly for the actual recasting procedure. This time Igor has a green cast and wants me to paint yellow on it so it can be a "Green Bay Packer" cast. I must start looking for some yellow duct tape as I don't think most paint will stick to that fiberglass. The good news is that Igor can now bear weight on the leg and has little velcro sandal. Yay!!! In the house his mobility wasn't too much of a problem, he really just crawled wherever he wanted to go with the exception of the last four days. Igor had taken up hopping on his good foot and was getting quite good getting around that way. The problem you ask? Well we live in a 120 year old house, a child constantly jumping around on one foot rattling everything is enough to drive even the most calm person insane. The cast walking isn't up to speed yet and I don't expect it to be for several days as he's lost so much muscle. His little leg looked pretty withered. However he seems to be a pretty resiliant kid and I imagine it won't be long before I'm telling to quit running. The plan is to be in this cast for three more weeks and then he'll be fitted for some sort of boot size ankle/foot brace to help with his pronation. I don't know if he'll be fitted for that immediately or if some time will be give to build a little muscle before fitting the braces.

We have now officially hit the out of pocket expense for the year with our insurance for the year and it's only mid-February. I guess if your gonna hit it, much better to do it now instead of November.

All the togetherness with Igor and being house bound has driven me to the brink. After much thinking I determined that I would join the big gym here in town. It's a nice place with pool, all the exercise equipent you could ever want, an variety of classes, basketball courts, racketball court (not that I'll be playing ball) and most importantly a daycare that Igor can hang out in for a couple of hours while I excercise. I have to pay a little extra for the daycare but it's pretty minimal and I conserve it and go when Hubby is home sometimes. The excercise will be good for me. I've gained ALL the weight and then some I lost when we were in Ukraine and frankly I huff and puff doing some of the simplest stuff now. It's time, I'm edging closer to the big 4-0 and after that momma always said it was 'patch, patch, patch.

Sonny Boy is doing well. Hubby snuck in the school yesterday early to deliver cupcakes I had baked for the class Valentine's party (every realize you can't carry a 35 lb kid and a tray of cupcakes all at once?) and spoke with Sonny Boy's teacher. Sonny Boy had been having to finish work at a later time, sometimes missing recess and we were concerned. Mrs. D said things are getting better in the last couple of weeks and she thinks it was just a matter of him learning to use his time better. Easier said than done for a kid with ADHD but we are getting better reports.

Tonight Sonny Boy's cub scout den toured the local radio station that is part of the high school. The teacher that gave the tour let the boys record themselves in the production studio. He pretended that they were a new band and asked the name of their band, Sonny Boy leaned over to kid at the mic and whispered, the kid replied "Sausage" tour guide then went on with usual DJ banter and asked about "Sausage's" newest single and what it was called "Awesome Sausage" then Sonny Boy without a moments hesitation started singing the song " Awesome Sausage" now in case you don't know, this is totally made up 7 year old boy silliness. I must have been beet red because I didn't know if I should be proud that my kid had NO FEAR of talking into that microphone and singing a tuneless version of "Awesome Sausage" or embarressed because it was such a tuneless version of anything. Anyway it was quite funny and I'm sure "Awesome Sausage" will be loaded term for many years to come.

I may be speaking a little soon but we are having warm-up and it's giving everyone spring fever. The snow drifts are shrinking and I am no longer taking my life into my hands backing out of the driveway because I can't see for the snow berms. I know it will be cold again, and we'll likely be shoveling again, but springs in on the way, I can even see the beginning of little buds on some of the trees!

Well it's late and of course the kids have no mercy on me in the morning.

Fess Up!

2011-02-12T10:53:00.002-06:00

Ok, I write all this drivel and never have any comments. I know "the Litter's" events are pretty standard family fare. We really are quite the average boring family but I'd really like some comments so I can see who's reading!

I'll allow anonymous comments but leave me a clue to who you are if you don't link me back to your blog or if you don't have a blog.

The little map in the corner shows me who most of my visitors are and from that I can deduce who most of you are. Mrs M.M. and Miss M.G. I believe are a couple of my log-ins, my mother-in-law, maybe Ms. KLB in Nebraska? If that's not you tell me who you are!

However the most curious person following the blog along lives in Ecuador. I don't have a clue who that is. Would you leave me a message? Mostly curious if we have a connection somehow or if you just like to read my rambling. If you don't write English (like you use a translate for the blog) write it in Spanish, I can use translate too.

SNOW! and other adventures

2011-02-05T18:01:00.013-06:00

On Tuesday afternoon we received an e-mail stating that school would be cancelled on Wed due to the weather. Sure it was snowing on Tuesday, but no big deal for Wisconsin, we had gotten 2-3 inches during the day. Blizzard warnings were to go into effect at 3 pm and I think mother nature was watching her clock as that is when the winds started picking up. At 11:00 pm I could not see my neighbor's house across the street. We woke up to around 2 FEET of snow. The official tally in our town was 17 inches, however that only started from midnight Wed and it was impossible to measure accurately due to drifting. Some drifts were well over 5 feet.

This was our driveway on Wed morning. Yes that is a full size mini-van buried over the hood.

You can see here the snow did some strange vortex effects around the van & house and the pavement was bare.

Sonny Boy had a hard time getting down the back door stairs before we shoveled. He got stuck in a drift 2-3 times and gave up and went inside. The rest of the day was spent cleaning up by Hubby and I.

That's me pushing the snow blower (yes there really is one in the picture) through the driveway snow berm.

A different angle of the same motion. You see there is still several inches of snow on the ground where I had been already, it took two passes to get it cleared to the pavement.

It probably took Hubby and I a good 2-3 hours to clear our driveway and sidewalks - a thirty minute job with snow blower in a moderate 4-6 inch snow. We then went over and helped out a couple of neighbors who don't have blowers and I drove/pushed the snow blower a couple of blocks down to a friend's whose husband was out of town and her car was completely snowed over. In total the snow blower ran about 6 hours on Wed. School was still dismissed Thursday as rumour had tell it that there was still 8 ft drifts in the high school parking lot. Today I drove to town and still saw some clean up going here and there. Things are a real mess. Even though it IS Wisconsin and we are well equipped for snow, 2 feet in an 8 hour period is quite the rare event.

Last week Sonny Boy had Friday off for Teacher Work Day or something similar. Igor stayed home with Hubby and we went to Discovery World in Milwaukee. It's pretty cool, but a little pricey. I'm glad I didn't take Igor along for the extra admission price. This is Sonny Boy running the "nuclear reactor" I couldn't help but think of Homer Simpson.

At Discovery World Sonny Boy also lay on a bed of nails. Pretty cool. My apologies to the girl running the exhibit, I'm lazy and don't feel like cropping the picture. I'm sure she wouldn't be thrilled with that picture of herself.

Back View of the dress cake I made to play around. I'm thinking of entering a local cake decorating contest in March and thought I'd give this one a whirl.

It has some rough edges but I don't think it's too bad for a first try at this form, and I was doing it on the fly and cheap so I didn't use some of the same materials I would have for the contest cake.

Igor officially got a big boy bed. This was his first night sleeping in it. He is one proud kid! He had previously been sleeping in a crib with one side removed. He pretty much filled it end to end. We are still in the process of moving clothes from dresser to the drawers under the bed and figuring out what to do with the old furniture. Still some decorating and arranging to do in his room but it has decidedly lost the nursery feel it had.

Life Settles...

2011-01-31T12:37:00.002-06:00

at least a little. We haven't had the crazy amount of running that had been happening the last few weeks. There are certainly things still on the calendar but not to the extreme that it has been. Now I can start catching up on house projects. My first project is to get Igor's bedroom in order. I was browsing around on Craig's List and found him a new captain's bed. Currently it's on the front porch in need of a mattress and space clearing in his bedroom to put it. I wasn't really intending to purchase a bed that day but when looking at Craig's List you gotta jump when you see what you want.

Igor is doing very well with his cast. The doctor visit last week showed a remarkable improvement in the alignment of the bone and a couple of evil looking pins that will be removed in a couple of weeks (I'm not looking forward to that adventure, Igor is happily ignorant) The new short cast has made life easier for all. He can now crawl around the house and he is easier to carry and can fit in a grocery cart. Still several more weeks of cast yet to go.

I've been battling a nasty chest cold. Last week on Thursday was the worst and I felt as if I was hit by a truck. Darling hubby worked from home and I crawled in bed for the day. The cold is still lingering but I'm functional.

Sonny Boy got his report card. He is doing very well in most aspects of school, academically great. He did get dinged on things like completing work on time, socializing and those kind of things. EVERYONE of his low marks were easily attributable to ADHD. I can't imagine what they would if he were not medicated. I don't know if he's just goosing around more than he should or if he's really not in control of his actions. It's so hard to know when your not right there to judge for yourself. It might be time to adjust his meds. I will say he's come a long way though, while he's still quite a handful off his meds, he does try to listen and generally isn't the out of control pre-schooler he once was.

Hubby is busy with work. His boss declared Friday 'work from home day' since gas prices started climbing. That's nice because even though he stuffs himself in the office room he's around and can keep an eye on Igor while I run to the store, or pick up Sonny Boy from school and he's around for lunch or the quick odd question that crops up during the day. The downside is that he will be gone for a long stint of training in March. I'm not thrilled with that. He's going to the "big D" and quite frankly I've been there, done that and don't care to do it again. Although I will say March there is more like late May here and we'll still be getting snow.

Hubby has declared himself the "bringer of huge snows" this winter. He was stuck in the giant snowstorm that collapsed the Metro dome in Minneapolis, he was in Arkansas for a recent ice/snow event that shortened his training by a day, and a huge snow storm is expected in the next two days here where we live. He is NOT responsible however for the mess that has occurred on the east coast. While he was on the east coast in October he has not been back since, though I'm guessing he must have left some of his "snowfall dust" behind when I watch NYC digging out.

Well speaking of snowstorms I better make my way to the grocery. While I don't expect to be totally snowed in I don't really want to have to get out in it if I can help it.

All's well

2011-01-19T22:25:00.002-06:00

Yesterday was a marathon of stress. Igor's surgery wasn't scheduled till 3:00 pm, but we were scheduled to arrive at 1:30. We spent the morning getting a bath (as I guessed we wouldn't have a nifty waterproof cast anymore) and preparing to spend the night at the hospital since the doc had approved it with insurance and wasn't real sure how in depth the procedure would have to go to do things.

We showed up a little early and the sugery center staff was glad as the doc was running early and they rushed us on through. Yay, can't imagine why we needed to be there so stinking long before anyway. They gave Igor some goofy juice and he was off without a care in the world. 45 minutes later the doc plopped down next to me in the waiting room (I hadn't seen him come in, I was reading) told me he did fine. They did insert a couple of small pins but things went well. Come back and see him in his office in a week. A little while later I was called back to the recovery room and the nurse was just putting his glasses back on. He was calm, collected and a little loopy but not freaked out or scared which was my biggest worry. We hung out in there a little then we were moved to another place for observation for a bit. Since the surgery wasn't as involved as it could have been the doc gave clearance for Igor to leave. Igor was mad about this as he really wanted to spend the night! Well I guess it wasn't a horrible experience for him since he wanted to stay. Either way we were back home and on the couch by 6:30.

The good news is he has a much shorter cast, below the knee. The bad news of course no weight can be put on it AND it's not waterproof like the giant purple one. Bathing won't be as easy now but I've got some ideas, I just don't think I can stand the idea of sponge baths for 6 weeks.

Today my stress overload kicked in and I've not been worth shooting, had a migraine, have a giant zit break-out on my face and have been a knot on a log. Hopefully tomorrow I will be more productive. Igor however has been good, a little sore but not too bad and I've had to enforce couch sitting today as he wanted to be scooting around on the floor. I didn't think that was a good idea just yet as I figured 24-48 hours should be given before he's moving around.

As you know I have no pictures, I'll get pics up of his new Razorback Red short cast up soon.

Mi Vida Loca

2011-01-16T13:32:00.003-06:00

Well last week's waiting is over and another's has begun. I realize now I should have entittled last week's post "Running".

My new Kindle came in. It's great! It's logged a lot of time and miles already.

The heated floor mat for the kitchen came in. It's ugly, as expected but Oh so nice when lingering in the same spot to cook or clean.

Went to Igor's second opinion ortho appointment. Not the best news, the doc wasn't thrilled with the alignment and taking into consideration Igor's pronation problems to begin with he thought it needed surgery. Yay (again do you hear the sarcasm?) the doc wanted to do the surgery on Friday, however with Hubby out of town I declared it impossible so we scheduled it for Tuesday. At least 6 more weeks in a cast, thrilling. The impending surgery also required that Igor get a pre-op clearance from his pediatrician. Pediatrician thought Igor's heart murmur -that has always been there- should be further looked into. With some schedule juggling I managed to get Igor into the cardiologist at children's on Friday morning. The cardiologist took a listen and decided he needed an ultrasound thingy. Turns out he has a Bicuspid Aortic Valve. Not an issue at this time but will need monitoring, long term stuff on that is not great news but hopefully we won't be dealing with any of it for many years.

Both kids went to the dentist and I'm thanking the medical bill gods that no issues were discovered there. Igor's X-rays do foretell a fortune to be spent on orthodontics though.

A quiet weekend here, before the storm so to speak. Hubby is currently rounding up all his ice fishing stuff and taking Sonny Boy. I lobbied for him to take Igor along, but couldn't convince him that a peg leg pre-schooler would be fun. So Igor and I are here, not likely to go anywhere unless there is little choice (like the house is on fire) doing mountains of laundry and hoping my fairy godmother of cleaning will show up for a few hours.

Waiting....

2011-01-09T14:47:00.002-06:00

Waiting on Hubby to come home from a training trip. He just left today, it will be a long week.

Waiting on my new Kindle to get here. Finally just ordered the thing. Merry Christmas to me. Happy about it too as the library shelves are quite picked over in winter.

Waiting on my new heated floor mat to come in. Where the bulk of the kitchen standing occurs is crazily cold on the floor. I put a thermometer there and while counter height was 68 it was 45 on the floor. I've insulated the floor from underneath in the basement and searched for cracks etc. The only conculusion we have drawn is that this corner is as far away from the radiator as you can be, on an exterior wall and covered by cabinets that of course we keep closed so when you stand there that chilled air seeps out and onto your feet. I found an industrial rubber warehouse mat that is heated. It won't be pretty but it's so miserable to cook due to cold feet I don't really care. I really don't think I should have to cook in snow boots in an otherwise comfortably heated house. I hope it works.

Waiting on a second opinion on Igor's leg. We are going to go see a pediatric orthopedist from Children's hospital on Tuesday.

Waiting on Dentist, both boys go on Thursday. I'm worried as Sonny Boy is now 7 1/2 and hasn't lost even one baby tooth. I wonder what is going on behind the scenes. Between Igor's crazy high arched palette and Sonny Boy not getting adult teeth I fear the dental bills we might be facing soon.

Otherwise life is crazy busy. Appointments, Cub Scouts, school, wrestling, Igor's impaired mobility (which unfortunately keeps him from preschool) and the usual business of life are moving along. January's calendar is rather full and sure to fill in some more.

Lots of pictures

2011-01-04T12:42:00.010-06:00

I've been told I don't post enough pictures and that I gab and get wordy a lot. Well this is my lots of pictures post.

This is today, just before the doctor appointment. I was hoping we'd loose that really big cast in favor of a smaller one, however it wasn't to be. Also note the Razorback jersey - a requirement today since the Hogs are in the Sugar bowl tonight. Woo Pig.

This is the X-ray taken today of Igors foot. I don't think you need a medical degree to see the break. The doc swears it will heal fine due his young age. I'm a little skeptical and have some feelers out about what others in the medical field think. If you happen to have a little knowledge in this area leave a comment.

The church did an original production based from the Chronicles of Narnia. I thought the woman looked like the Snow Maiden so I had the kids pose with her. Her mean charachter explains her lack of smile.

This is Hubby cooking our Christmas dinner. We decided to eat some steaks we had purchased at a discount warehouse food place. Mistake. Horrible. Wish we'd eaten chicken nuggets.

Christmas morning Chaos ensues.....

After Christmas we went north to visit the in-laws. A highlight of the trip was a day spent ice fishing in Father-in-Law's fish house. Igor caught a little perch. He was thrilled, can't you tell?

Sonny Boy caught a little Northern Pike. He's squeezing it a little hard here.

We'd had a trip to a ski hill planned to go inner tubing, however mother nature let her rip and dumped several inches of snow on the area thwarting our plans. Even with the snow it was pretty warm (for northern MN) and everyone went out and played in the snow except Igor.

The adults were busy making a huge snowman after seeing a 13 foot tall one in the paper. This one didn't reach those porportions but he was rather tall - over 5 feet.

The whole snowballed crew minus the little ones who were either bored or lame.

The holidays were nice and included some adventures but things are settling back down. On for the long haul of winter.

Purple

2010-12-20T22:56:00.002-06:00

Purple. That is the color of the cast that now encases Igor's leg from his little toes up almost to his hip. So let me back up the story a little bit.

Sunday afternoon the boys were out playing in the yard and periodically begging to go the big sledding hill in the park behind our house. Hubby had taken his car seat out to fix the heated seat element and we were working on it in the kitchen floor. Hubby suggested I be a hero and take the boys over to the hill, I stated I didn't think it was the greatest idea as most of the snow had been worn off and it was too fast. Hubby gets the bun warmer going in his car (let me tell you leather seats in WI without a bun warmer are not fun) puts on his boots and takes the boys to the hill for a couple of runs. I sit down at the computer to surf around and hear Hubby outside yelling my name with a desperate sound of fear and freaking out. I run to the back door he's yelling at me to grab the keys and is cradling a crying Igor. I scatter around putting on shoes, hunting keys, purse and coat and run out the door (later at the ER I wondered if I'd left it standing wide open) poor Hubby is so flustered he's not quite sure what to do with Igor, we've all been so trained with carseats and all he's got all the doors open on the van and I think was planning on riding in the way back with him with all the seats folded. Anyhow I tell him just to get in the passenger seat, run around slam the side doors and pull out. In the meantime Sonny Boy has gotten in his seat and strapped himself in. We go the ER which is only about 3 minutes away while Hubby gives a brief description of what happened. I asked " Are you sure it's broke?" his reply was "Look at it!" Igor's boot had come off in the accident so he was sock-footed on the injured leg. Let's just say it was an amazing feat that I didn't puke right there in the van while I was driving.

The rest of the story progresses how you might figure, ER, lots of meds, an x-ray, set the bone, a splint and an appointment today with an orthopedist. Igor picked out purple, Hubby declares it's Vikings Purple.

To tell a tale second hand Igor had already done one run down the hill and was on his second run. Hubby had held on to the sled as there were quite a few kids on the hill and he waited on them to clear out. When the did he let go - Igor says he pushed!- well there was a kid on a snowboard who cut into his path and then fell down and it sounds like Igor t-boned him in the midsection. Sonny Boy cried "Awesome!" and Hubby went running down the hill. Hubby stopped and asked Igor if he was hurt or scared and Igor replied "scared" and checked on the other kid who was already getting up. It was then that Hubby turns around to see Igor trying to put his boot back on a foot that was flopping at un-natural angles. He then scooped up Igor and started running for the house. Sonny Boy figuring out things were indeed not awesome slid down the hill on his rear (we only have one sled) picked up the sled and caught up to his Dad. A long narrative but Hubby declares all this happened in like 25 seconds.

Igor did as well as you could expect a freaked out four year old with a compound fracture of the leg to do. He was more scared than in actual pain and who could blame him as it must have been a slow afternoon in the ER since he garnered a good share of nurses and techs, was hooked up to heart monitors, oxygen, and an IV. He remembers none of it thanks to drugs and we've quietly agreed to not talk about any of the goings on at the ER. After they set the fracture and splinted it Igor settled quickly and it was just a matter of waiting on all the drugs to diffuse so I sent Hubby and Sonny Boy home to get out of their boots, eat, and gather some PJ's for Igor to change into to go home. An hour later he was on the couch watching cartoons. Today they simply took off the splint and casted his leg. The break is through both bones right above the ankle but the ortho said with little kids they had to cast up past the knee.

The biggest quandry is what to do with him in the car? I'm open for ideas.

Pictures to follow, they gave me a CD of the X-rays but I managed to loose them between the Dr's office and the house. My hunch is they are in the van, but it was already snowing tonight by the time I realized it so they will wait.

...and may all your Christmas's be purple.

Waiting to Chill.

2010-12-09T13:30:00.002-06:00

Just a few lines while I wait on the sugar cookie dough to chill and have the burny smell of bleach in my nostrils.

Why you may ask bleach? Well I've had a little visitor of the rodent variety take up residence in my kitchen so before I felt comfortable to cook I thought the kitchen needed a good disinfecting. So I wiped down everything with bleach water and still have it brewing in the sink as I plan a second round of wiping down before I roll out the cookie dough and just didn't want to drain it away. In hindsight I probably have too much bleach in the water, but better safe than sorry.

I did set a trap the first day I saw evidence of the little disease spreader, however it was an old trap and he was sneaky. I just fed him a dab of peanut butter that night. The next day however I purchased myself FOUR traps for whopping $1.98 and set them up last night after supper, turned off the kitchen lights and told the kids to stay out of there. The little booger was smart because even after the kids were in bed, and I was reading in the living room he still didn't spring a trap. Later though, as soon as I turned off the bedroom TV and rolled over to sleep I heard the trap spring. I came downstairs to find my nemesis had met his demise. Good riddance. I hope he was the only one. It does seem we only get one or two mice at a time for some reason here, no plagues like we did when I was a kid living in the Arkansas cotton fields. I'll keep the traps out for a few days or so just to make sure though.

Christmas has crept up too quickly this year. I do think I have finished the shopping though. My list has gotten shorter in the last year or two since Hubby's family has decided to stop the exchange of gifts in lieu of a get-together similar to last year's Dells trip. So with the exception of my mother we only have the kids and each other to buy for. Last year Hubby and I didn't even buy for each other due to the craziness of our life. This year we are because it just seemed wrong not to buy each other at least a little something.

So far the plan is to be home for Christmas and leave the day after for the in-laws. I'll likely spend Christmas day baking my niece a birthday cake since her birthday is the day after Christmas. I've been wanting to make a girly cake. Mom will stay south as it's a pretty certain thing she will loose her job the first of the year. Mom works at the city hall in the little town I grew up in and a new mayor was elected in November. The rumour mill has it that he is going to replace all city workers. Mom's job is not political in the least, and a normal mayoral turnover generally wouldn't effect her job. There is bad blood with the new mayor and the city council and it sounds as if he's half crazy as he thinks he's going to have an inaugural parade. The town doesn't even have a Christmas parade, so my guess is it's gonna be one crazy guy riding around town in the back of a pick-up with another vehicle behind. Good luck with that one Mr. Mayor. However she has to wait it out to be fired so she can draw unemployment. Yay, her prospects in this economy don't look good and she's hoping to move up here to be near us. It may prove to be an interesting new year.

Anyway if I don't get around to posting again, here's wishing you and yours a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

UG, Holidays

2010-11-24T09:03:00.002-06:00

Well I'm sitting here the day before Thanksgiving really wishing it was just an ordinary Thursday. I have a turkey in the fridge thawing but that is as far as I've gotten with meal planning or prep. Hubby says cook a turkey and do the rest simple, I wish it was. I just can't say "Here's the turkey" without at least some cranberry sauce and deviled eggs, and pumpkin pie. Which that there makes it a huge meal with just two adults and two kids. We decided not to travel for Thanksgiving which is good since a storm is supposed to blow in right through where the majority of our driving would be.

So Thanksgiving will be simple. Hubby had planned with his friend to smoke a couple of turkeys on the big smoker on Friday (we would just do the meal on Sat) however with the huge temperature drop the last few days he has decided against that saying he'll never get the smoker hot enough when it's only 20 degrees outside. So with two days to go Hubby has not called friend who is probably thawing his turkey as we speak. I don't exactly know the plans since the whole idea was for the couple to come over and play cards and hang out while the birds cooked. I don't mind if they still come over of course but it would be nice to have an idea of what kind of groceries to go get, clean the house and the like.

All is well however, I can't complain except about piddling stuff. In an effort to improve my mood and since it is Thanksgiving some things I'm thankful for in random order.

My kids - though they drive me to the brink a lot of days
My Home - not that mold filled, tiny little rent house we lived in last Thanksgiving
My Husband - He's a good guy
Family - who can be counted on in a pinch - though I wish were a little closer to babysit occasionally
Too much to eat
The fact the tornado quiet literally skipped over our town on Monday

I do want to say a goodbye to our neighbor Mr. Elmer. He passed away on Monday morning. Two weeks ago he was out blowing leaves and fell hitting his head hard on the driveway. A neighbor found him upright and talking clinging to the steps. Mr. Elmer's family was called and he was taken to the hospital where he was life flighted into a bigger hospital in Milwaukee with bleeding on the brain. He got better for a few days but then started getting fluid on the brain again. Knowing Mr. Elmer short of dropping dead immediately I'm sure he was happy to go. He was getting on in years, wasn't getting around so good (probably had no business blowing his leaves) and had told us as much. He was a good neighbor and will be missed on our little block.

Nothing.

2010-11-16T20:28:00.002-06:00

I'm just writing something out of pure meaness. Life in Winnie's immediate litter has been blessedly busy and quiet. Sonny Boy is quite involved with Cub Scouts and got his "bobcat" badge tonight along with Hiking belt loop and pin. Due to Hubby's crazy work I was trapped in a teacher conference and didn't get to see the honors bestowed. Sonny Boy's teacher had nothing but praise for him. Mrs. D said he's reading several levels above where he is expected to be and is a "model student". Great news and nice to hear. If you'd asked me a few years ago how I thought Sonny Boy would do in school I'd have told you that he'd be in the principal's office at least once a week!

Igor is trucking along being his normal self. Not much gets him out of kilter except being tired. Unfortunately that's every afternoon since he's in the too-big-to-take-a-nap-but-still-kind-of-needs-one stage. I'll be glad when that's grown out of, it makes doing anything after 5:00 a crap shoot of attitude from the little guy. He did pull the funniest stunt last week. Igor and I were grocery shopping and we ran into his pre-school teacher. He wouldn't even look at Mrs. V much less speak to her and then acted like a little toot the rest of the way through the store which is SO not like him - he loves the grocery store. Even when he's being a toot he's still not bad (nothing on Sonny Boy) so it's easy to ignore and other people just see a pouty lip and hear toddler-ese mumbling.

I took the boys to have pictures taken today. Cripes I've raised some hams. Some of them were quite funny, too bad they were so expensive or I'd have purchased them.

The winter around the corner funk is creeping in. I really do dread all the Christmas preparations. I'd love to come home and find that elves came in and put the tree up and decorated. I know that ain't gonna happen though, I can barely get hubby to drag the boxes up from the basement and I'm pretty sure in the 15 years I've known him he's hung exactly two ornaments on the tree. This year I'm inclined to agree to the humbug. I hope it leaves by Thanksgiving.

Well that's my writing to mean update.

NYC was nice

2010-11-03T08:40:00.003-05:00

But I wouldn't want to live there. I honestly don't get big city living like that, but it was fun and one of the few places I would really like to go back to and explore some more. Two days was not nearly enough time to cram in all the "must see it's" and I walked so much my bum knee is still awful two days later. Gonna have to get something done soon about that I'm afraid.

Here's Hubby in Times Square, the cliche tourist photograph I suppose. There is one of me as well but basically the same with me and different signs. Times Square was cool but so jammed packed full of people. I didn't really see the big draw to it other than it was central to most of the the transit.

Hubby at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. That is King Henry VIII armour from when he got old and fat. Henry was a pretty big man as you can tell that probably would have fit Hubby who would have towered over most men of that era. I thought the armour was cool as I've been reading lots of Henry and his wives books lately. In fact had brought one along for plane reading. The Met is HUGE, I thought we could dart in for a couple of hours and run through it quickly, you know not read all the cards, just take in the big stuff. Not hardly. Three hours later we may have ran (almost literally) through only about half. The stuff I really wanted to see - the costume gallery wasn't on display and was closed. That was a bummer.

A rare picture of me. I couldn't resist reclining on a Swarvoski studded couch with a crystal curtain behind it. Just a little glam. Truth was my feet hurt something terrible. We ended up walking NYC in our dressier clothes on Friday as that was our theatre night and we wouldn't be able to change. We went to see Wicked. It was fun and we both enjoyed the show. I will say the tickets were a little pricey but no more than I really expected. I wish we'd had better seats as we were like two rows from the ceiling but the good seats were over $200 each. If your not into trends - I'm not but I tell you the entire female population of NYC wears a scarf. The fashion must have. Not such a trend here in the midwest. Maybe it's because we are forced to wear a scarf to keep from getting frostbite on our neck six months of the year?

I'll definitely go back to NYC sometime. So many things I'd like to explore more, we didn't get into SOHO, or Greenwich village really, or the fancy shops on Madison Ave (like I could buy something there!) I'd love to see more of The Met as it was neat and the Museum of Natural History sounds intriguing. I will say I never felt intimidated in NYC. I was worried the world of subways, buses, taxis and large crowds would be a little scary to a girl that grew up in a town without a stoplight. It wasn't. It was easy to move around, all I needed was a map and the gumption to get on the subway (while a little dirty not that scary) and I could land just about anywhere.

The boys had fun with Grandma. She took them to every activity I had given her info for. That wasn't really my intention, I just thought she might want something to do with them that was local instead of staring at the walls and watching them bounce around.

Since being home I've been exhausted. I cleaned up the yard from the windstorm last week and blew leaves. I've ripped the zipper out of Sonny Boy's winter coat and intend to replace it today. Went to Sam's Club and stocked up on some stuff, and of course all the other baloney of life. I'm tired. I'm gonna run, have an appointment with PT in 13 min and the roofers should be here soon to start on the porch roof.

Busy, Busy, Busy

Happy Halloween!

2010-11-01T10:11:00.003-05:00

Oh my what a busy weekend. The kids Grandma and Great Grandma came and handled Halloween festivities. I flew to NYC to be with Hubby and tour around. Today my knee is sore, I'd REALLY like a nice long nap and the yard is knee deep in leaves. Fun was had by all and we have WAY too much candy around the house now.

I'll write more about the NYC trip soon. I'm thinking I might try sneak a doze on the couch while Igor watches PBS kids.

Jack of all Trades

2010-10-20T18:39:00.012-05:00

Master of None

The beautiful fall weather we've been having here inspired me to plan a camping trip. I had one last picture of a maple tree, in all it's wonderful yellow glory, to load and blogger disabled picture upload for two hours. If I was really good I'd come back and add the picture, but face I'm not gonna.

Well about Tuesday last week I got the bug bad. Went and purchased a HUGE tent since our former one had really taken it's last camping trip, and started locating our camping gear which was pretty scattered due to the move. I checked out Wisconsin's DNR site and decided that Wyalusing State Park was going to be our destination. I know all this is a little crazy with two young kids and no adults, what can I say, the thought of spending the weekend in the house without a whole lot to do, had me going a little nuts. Things were a little crazy at times (mostly in the morning, which isn't out of the norm) but for the most part things went swimmingly smooth. The only real issue I had, was an inability to shower -which I REALLY wanted- after hiking and huddling up to a smoky campfire. There were decent shower houses there, and they were open, however I didn't have anywhere to stash the boys while I soaped up, that offered me any privacy. So I went a few days longer than I would have preferred without a shower.

Wyalusing State Park had a lot to do and lots of that was hiking. We hiked, not serious hard, difficult trails but certainly long. We arrived on Friday (Sonny Boy was sick, wink, wink) and set up camp in what was probably the prettiest camp site I've ever had that overlooked the Wisconsin River. We then went on a couple of short jumps to overlooks and a small cave that was only a hundred yard hike from the parking lot.

Igor and Sonny Boy near Treasure Cave

Overlook of the joining of the Wisconsin and Mississippi River
This is also the best I looked all weekend, it went downhill from here!

Sonny Boy is pointing out Wal-Mart, honestly could see it but it was a 20 min drive.

Freight Train Crossing the Wisconsin River

The color in this part of the state wasn't so good. I think we were a little late, but most of the trees seemed to be oak which just turn brown.

Big Sand Cave - this and Little Sand Cave were on the same trail about a mile and half. Ended up piggy backing Igor out the last quarter mile or so. I was exhausted.

This was Picture Rock Cave, about a half mile, done on Sunday morning.

Near Pictured Rock Cave was an eroded sandstone formation with tons of little mice running around in it. Strangle how less disgusting they are when they are out in the woods and not in your basement.

Other wildlife worth mentioning was a bald eagle that was hunting near our campsite the day we arrived and an early morning spotting of a coyote crossing the road on the park's edge. Oddly we saw no deer or waterfowl. Both might have been noteably absent due to hunting seasons. Both mornings we awoke to guns blazing in the valley and the sporting goods guy at the local Wal-Mart said there was an early deer season due to CWD (Chronic Wasting Disease) in the area though I really doubt all that shooting was at deer.

Other activities that have been keeping the kids busy....ever wonder why they say T.V. rots your brain?

This was the cake I made for Mom's visit last week. I think it turned out well but I wish I could have gotten the icing smoother. The flowers were made of gumpaste. I had intended to make them a deep dark red but got this purple instead!

Thinking maybe it would pay me to take a small engine repair course lately. Before Hubby left on his long trip I asked him to look over the leaf blower as it had been acting funny, he did and pronounced it fine. Today it wasn't so fine. I've been on the phone with him tons getting a crash course in engine repair and now I have the blower taken apart to a level I'm not comfortable with and loads of leaves falling as we speak. I. Am. Not. Amused. I will try to tackle it again tomorrow.

Tomorrow morning might prove chilly as the heating contractor came this morning and started installing our new boiler. Not a quick job and gee were they LOUD, not the guys, just their working and pounding. My house also smells terrible from the glue used on the new PVC vents that go out the side my house instead of up the chimney. New fangled high efficency stuff you know. We are also putting in a high efficency hot water heater that is somehow attached to the boiler. I'm not well versed in all this stuff but hopefully it will cut our heating bills down which can be pretty tough in a 120 year old house. My biggest complaint is that the new vents look pretty ugly - might have to do some creative landscaping there, unfortunatly it's on the high side of the house and whatever I plant would need to be about 3 feet tall and tolerate dense shade.

That's all for now, off to tuck in Sonny Boy and wash off the gasoline/oil smell from the leaf blower.

Trudging along...

2010-10-12T20:58:00.002-05:00

There's not a whole lot to report right now which honestly is a good thing. All the drama of the last year seems to be put to rest (may it stay in it's grave). We have settled into a new blah normal that is wonderfully BORING.

Sonny Boy is off to school every morning. He's doing quite well but we fear he is bored out of his mind. The homework he brings home is not even remotely challenging for him and he tells us the stuff in class is the same way. Teacher conferences should be coming up soon and I'll discuss with the teacher to at least get him some more challenging reading material. Sonny Boy's math skills are going to soon surpass my own - which sadly are about a third grade level, yes I know Ms. Allen my high school math teacher's ears are burning (she's not dead so she can't spin in her grave) Sonny Boy is enjoying his stint with Cub Scouts. I'm not enjoying Cub Scouts so much, I did not realize the time commitment involved. Ugh. I think kids tend to be overscheduled most of the time now days so we try to be pretty minimal around here. It's hard though when scouts take up one evening a week and then Sonny Boy wants to do wrestiling through the Rec program that starts up in a month or so that will run two evenings a week. That's a lot of time watching 6 and 7 year old boys bounce around.

Igor is doing well and being Igor. He's developed a hilarous gesture of of slapping his forehead in disgust when you tease him. It's quite comical to see the little guy do it so of course we come up with anything we can to elicit this response from him. " Igor your shirt is on backwards" when it is obviously not - that kind of thing. He knows he's funny. A regular Yakov Smirnoff (you younger ones start googling)

Hubby left Sunday for a long sting on the east coast for work training. YUCK, yuck, and double yuck. I'll be single parenting for several weeks now. All the work with none of the fun of dating or being able to ship the kids to the spouse every other weekend. Hubby did send me a lovely picture of his feet in hotel slippers with a view of the football game on the TV between them. Jerk.

Me, I'm trudging along. My mother and a family friend just left this morning after a long weekend stay. It was fun having them around. I do not think I will encourage my mother to drive up anymore. She managed to miss an interstate exchange and was nearly two hours away before she realized it and stopped to asked directions and call me. Then she proceeded to get back on the interstate that she had just gotten off of and go even further away. When I spoke to her I told her to call me when she got to a neighboring town and I would come meet her as there are some tricky detours getting into town due to road construction. When she finally called an hour later she was even further away than the first call. AAAAAK. Anyway by now she finally bought a map (why she was traveling without one I have no idea) so I told her to call me when she reached X. I left the house going toward X and figured I'd be in X about the same time she was. Of course mom didn't call me when she reached X and we passed each other somewhere along the way. I finally had her stop in a bar parking lot and I turned around and went and found her. Well the next morning I sent Hubby to Wal-Mart and guess what mom got for her birthday a couple of weeks late? A GPS. Worrisome. Unfortunately the family friend wasn't much help on the drive as she's in her late 80's and can't see to well currently.

I'm pleased to report I've been headache free for a week now!! You don't know how much better that makes me feel. I went to my TMJ doc last week and she adjustement my mouth gaurd, wrote me a scrip for some medicine and physical therapy. The physical therapy really gets started good tomorrow but I've already been in for the inital evaluation. Mostly the change is due to having a mouth gaurd that is properly fitted and drugs that relieve some of the nightmarish clenching I do at night.

That's it for now, wonderfully busy, sane, boring, and no drama. Yay!

Either Busy or Misery

2010-09-16T17:00:00.007-05:00

Busy or Misery you may ask? Well that's been my life the last couple of weeks. Either I've been slammed with errands, chores, projects or the regular flotsom of life or I've been knocked down unable to function with migraines. Fun huh? The migraines are being triggered by my TMJ issues. I have an appointment with the TMJ doctor first week of October, I couldn't get in any earlier. The mouthgaurd I'm supposed to wear at night is all out of whack so I haven't been wearing that, couple with stress and the miserable teeth grinding I do all day and muscle spasms that are typical of TMJ flares and I have the trifecta of misery. I do have lots of drugs but honestly sometimes the drugs woozy feeling make me feel worse than the actual pain. Yuck, I'm just not enjoying life a whole lot right now.

Therefore when I do feel at least partially human I have so much to do to keep from falling to far behind on everything and at least feel like I'm enjoying life a little. Needless to say I'm busy.

Sonny Boy participated in the NFL Punt, Pass and Kick event this last weekend. He won his age division (there were only two kids in it) I think his punt went like 4 feet. He's thrilled though and will move up to sectional competion in the next few weeks. He's excited and has been in the yard kicking around a little.

Igor had a birthday as well this last weekend. My little one is now 4. He had a good time, no huge party but he was excited to have presents and a cake.

Last week was the week of cakes. I mentioned I may do a baby shower cake for a freind and I did, unfortunately it happened to fall on the same day as Igor's birthday. The baby shower cake took a lot of time and revisions (mostly mental revisions) and by the time I got around to making Igor's cake I was rather caked out.

Yes those are tea light candles, I forgot to buy regular candles. I'm not too thrilled with this cake at all. I was super tired of dealing with frosting and the cake kept tearing on me. I used a cake mix from Aldi and the last time I made a cake that tore like that the mix was an Aldi brand too. I won't buy anymore Aldi cake mix. It also didn't really taste all that great either.

The baby shower cake turned out well though. I battled making that topper out of fondant and then rice krispie treats and then gave up and made it out of construction paper. The other decorations are all edible gum paste. The bottom tier was chocolate with caramel filling, the top was marble yellow/chocolate with caramel filling, both were covered in buttercream and homemade marshmallow fondant. The cake matched the invitations and paper goods that they used at the shower and recieved rave reviews for taste and appearance. It's far from perfect but I'm pretty proud of it. The girl whose shower it was said several people asked if I had business cards. I don't but maybe I should print some up? I'm tempted to practice some more before I go out and sell, however materials can be costly and frankly we are sick of cake.

Well that's about all for now.

Really?

2010-08-31T23:50:00.000-05:00

I put that way embarrassing picture of myself up and nobody comments?

Just call me " Domestic Goddess"

2010-08-30T12:50:00.003-05:00

Martha Stewart ain't got nothin' on me (unless you count millions of dollars and a staff to make you look really good) I've been the domestic goddess the last few days. After loosing yet another article of clothing to grease spatters when I cook, I though investing in an apron might make sense. Well I looked around and my supernatural tendency to be cheap kicked in. $15 dollars for an apron! Shoot I can sew that, so I did for $14.95 and a lot of stress because I was tired and the instructions didn't make a whole lot of sense at 11:00 pm.
This is the result. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha Did you get that I think it looks hilarious! Actually the apron came out well, no huge sewing disasters associated with it, it looks like it's supposed to. Ha ha ha ha ha ha but it looks like I should be sporting a bonnet and a long skirt. Watch out that picture would count as porn 120 years ago you can see my elbows and my ankles! The fabric is actually pretty modern but at a distance tends to look like calico. Igor told me I looked pretty - I knew I loved that kid!- Sonny Boy just told me I looked "old fashioned" Hubby hasn't seen it yet but I'm guessing he'll have a big time poking fun at me . Yes unfortunately that's typically what I look like when hanging around the house, no make up and hair pulled back out of my face with a headband when it's too short for a pony tail. You know, a REAL HOUSEWIFE look.

I'm still caking around. I made this creation the other day, more to try out a recipe for cake than actual decorating.

It's a dense chocolate cake with chocolate ganache filling covered in marshmallow fondant. Taste pretty good and surprisingly not that sweet, it's got more of a dark chocolate vibe going. I didn't spend a very long time decorating it and it's not a very tall cake. It did taste good though, however we are already tired of it and there's still a fair amount left four days later. I guess I'll end up throwing it out.

I did hit up a girl I know that's pregnant and told her I'd do her baby shower cake for free since a) I need to practice and I'm sick of eating cake b) she knows or is related to half the town and hopefully it will turn out well enough to get a bit of word of mouth going. I guess I'm sort of in business now, We'll see. If I was smart I'd bake a nice one and take it down to the farmer's market and hand out cards, however w/o having a commercial kitchen and an inspection by the health department I don't want to draw too much attention to myself.

That's about it I suppose. Sonny Boy starts school on Wed, Yay! Igor will start after labor day, three afternoons a week at the public school for speech therapy etc and two mornings a week at the private preschool that I had already signed him up for before the school district told me what they were doing. It's going to be a lot of shuttling again this year but all the schools are just a couple of blocks from home and there is enough shopping here in town that I can get all the errands done while the kids are in school.

I kept expecting Pinky Tuscadero

2010-08-23T14:12:00.007-05:00

You know the Happy Days episode where Fonzie and Pinky are in the Demo Derby? Awe yeah, the staple of county fairs in the midwest. We took the kids to the county fair on Sunday afternoon and attended the "Crash-up Derby" while there. Let me tell you that's a cross section of society you don't see very often. What I would like to point out to you is the people standing on the far side the arena with only orange construction fencing between them and car knocking into them. Doesn't seem too safe does it? Well it wasn't, unfortunately a car rammed into a crowd and injured a fireman and one of the flagmen working. I can't understand why they were not behind something sturdier and while the people standing behind that orange fence seemed to be actual drivers there were children in that crowd as well. Just pure DUMB. Sonny Boy loved the thing and was disappointed when we left, but it was late, it was hot, we were out of money and I had a headache going and the loud engines and smell of untainted exhaust was more than I could handle. We did other things at the fair as well. Igor is now proclaiming he wants to be a farmer when he grows up, so goodness there's no better place for a want to be farmer to learn the difference between a sheep, goat, pig, cow, and horse. However he still calls most large creatures in pastures horses when he'd be better off to guess cow here in "America's Dairlyand". I do think he might be a little horse obsessed (due to his mother's good influences I must say!) but I hope he can see the difference.

I think this is a sweet picture, he wasn't real sure about sitting next to that goat though.

OOOO was he proud to be on that tractor!

Of course we rode some rides as well, Igor rode this one all alone.

The kids were enchanted with this little guy, he was remote controlled and pedalled around the children's area talking to the kids. Took Sonny Boy hours of pondering, is a robot? It's not a mascot because no one could fit in that costume. Finally he figured out it was remote controlled and somebody must have been in a nearby building running him. He was close, but the guy running him was only about 15 feet away and blended in with the crowd and looked as if he was on the phone.

Sonny boy saved one of his rides for the "big" rides. Hubby doesn't do well with rides, I don't do too well with spinning rides but can handle tamer ones. This one is pretty fun and does give the impression of flying a little.

Things are settling here. Kids are bored and we are all wanting school to hurry up and start. The weather here has been beautiful, however the mosquitoes are just horrible and I hate having bug spray on me and or the kids. It's a necessary evil sometimes though.

Glad to be back though, it's so nice to have the space, a dishwasher, laundry that is not in dank dark smelly basement, normal (mostly) neighbors, and a clean little town to be in. What a difference your surrounding make on your outlook on life.

Mulligan!

2010-08-17T22:36:00.002-05:00

Isn't that the term they use in golf when you get a do-over? That's what I need today, is that possible? Anybody? Cripes, I'm on the third margarita and just now able to put things in order.

I suppose you could say the nightmare started yesterday. I woke up with another elephant killer headache. I have migraines fairly often but they do seem to come in cycles, unfortunately I seem to be in one of those cycles right now. FUN. I pretty much left the kids to their own devices you know TV, Wii, DS for hours. Hubby and I had planned to go the DMV to get our car tags and driver licenses done, however at one I texted him to say that was impossible he might as well put a day's work in. However in typical Hubby job fashion he got tangled up and was way later than an average day which figures when I needed him home the most. Anyhow the kids didn't die and I didn't end up in ER (with our short break in insurance would have been a disaster) so the day was a success but a total wipe for me actually DOING anything. I honestly was in my PJ's all day.

Needless to say today was rather booked with errands, school needed to be registered for (that's another raving post) I had to go take some mortgage papers to the bank we are refinancing with, library books due, and of course the never ending need of groceries. I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BETTER. Let's just say the evening ended with Sonny Boy going to bed having eaten a peanut butter and jelly for the second time today (it was the fastest thing I could fix and he was lucky I didn't send him to bed hungry!) at 6:00 pm, he'll tell you it was 5:00 but it was really like 5:50. If there was an act of defiance, obnoxiousness, or general being a pain in the ass he hit it today. I hope tomorrow is better. I can't wait for school to start.

Today's rough go really worries me though as Hubby now has dates for his marathon length schooling in New Jersey. My sanity lies in being able to hand over the baton of craziness when Hubby comes through the door after work, and I won't have that for 5 weeks. In days past I would have loaded up and taken extended trips down south to visit my mother and friends, maybe north to visit the in-laws, but with Sonny Boy now in first grade it's not really an option. I'll muddle through but it's going to be a long month - gee that's how long I was in Ukraine! I do see that I'll have to schedule a sitter for at least once a week to keep my sanity, the problem lies in just what do I do when I have the sitter? I'm not really a shopper beyond groceries and necessities, so do I go sit on park bench, hang out in the library with the old people (we don't seem to have homeless here, I think that's just in large cities) or go sit in a bar, Goodness knows there are plenty of them here.

In other wonders of the world, have you discovered Pandora Radio? Google it. It's a pretty neat thing, you can enter an artist you like and it will do a mix of that artist and all artist that are in a similar vein. Maybe it's old news, I do come to things a little late sometimes.

Anyhow I'm feeling the margaritas now and I'm hitting backspace a lot to correct the type-o's so I guess I should finish this and my drink.

...But here in the real world, it's not that easy at all....

Busy, Busy, Busy

2010-08-11T23:17:00.007-05:00

As you can imagine we've been on the extreme end of busy the last couple of weeks, unpacking, taking care of this and that. You know all the craziness that comes along with moving. Last week Hubby was away for work orientation and I decided to tackle the office. Well the office was the last vestige of needing a coat of paint REALLY bad. Probably should have done it while the house was on the market, but at the rate things were going I don't think a coat of paint in one small room would have made much difference in the long run. So while Hubby was gone I dragged the young 'uns down to the hardware store and purchased a gallon of paint for the walls thinking I had some leftover trim paint in the basement. One thing led to another before I got to work and when I started painting the trim I thought the paint seemed a little thick but it was still going on pretty well until I got to the closet door and then disaster struck and suddenly it was like somebody put sand in my paint bucket. Too late to do anything about it that night I gave it up and started prepping the window (the one behind the desk) and discover that I could easily attach the weights to sash so it would work properly. This is good news as previously we have used everything from a book to a beer bottle to hold that window open as it provides good cross ventilation upstairs. I take a gander make a list and hit the hardware store early in the a.m. to purchase new paint and the rope and other little things for the window. Three trips to the store and 9 hours later - there was some kid tending in there as well of course - I finally get the window reassembled. A day behind on the office "remodel" (using the term loosely here) The next morning I awoke with a migraine that would have knocked down a bull elephant. Thankfully I had good drugs and the kids were more than happy to vegetate on TV and video games most of the day, needless to say no painting was done. Friday I got back to work and made progress but if you've ever tried to paint in a small room full of stuff with two kids tearing around the house you can imagine the level of progress made. So much for getting it done before Hubby got home. Anyways I worked on it all day Saturday and spent most of the day Sunday unpacking as well. Still not totally complete and lacks some touches but that's typical in most of the house now. I'm just chipping away at small things a little at a time.

BEFORE

AFTER

I'm here to tell you that bookcase is groaning. The mover guy said "Geez, ya'll have lots of books" I thought he was just exaggerating because that white bookcase wasn't really full at the rent house, had lots of junk stuffed in it. What I didn't realize was he was counting all of Hubby's airplane training manuals that had been in boxes stuffed in a closet I didn't ever go into. I am officially out of bookcase space now as Hubby needs the manuals accessible now.

Now that I'm back in my old territory I attended the Tuesday night meeting of the civic group I'd been a part of for several years now. I received a warm welcome and added the roster up to meet state mandated requirements so hey they were even happier. The group is hosting a get-together for local business people next week and we are expected to bring food. A list was passed around but I hadn't a clue then it dawned on me I should debut my cake skills if I want to put a little money in my pocket. I don't plan on doing it for a living but if I could buy a new pair of shoes now and then might be worth my while. Oh dear I better come up with something and practice it, especially after my last cake wreck.

This was my creation. They are cupcakes, don't tell anyone but the cupcakes on the back are not decorated, I ran out of frosting and didn't want to make another batch for 6 cupcakes not to mention the color would have never matched. One of the reasons I wanted to practice and getting an idea of how to place the cupcakes in the basket etc. I think it turned out pretty good and I'm pretty proud of this one. Ignore the giant skewers sticking out the basket - that is so I can cover it with a tea towel, I have an issue with uncovered food. So now my kitchen looks like a bomb went off in it, and there is a bowl of blue stuff soaking in the sink that might make someone wonder if I cooked a smurf. The good news is I HAVE A DISHWASHER!!! and a kid who thinks it's quite great to load it. I doubt that will last too long though.

Hubby's new job

2010-08-02T19:58:00.003-05:00

Well ya know the old saying "Careful what you wish for?" I think I'm learning it. Hubby had his first official day on the job today. He called me after the day to tell me all about it. He says that everyone is super nice and he was issued lots of nifty new gadgets like a laptop (no more fighting over this one) and a Blackberry without a manual. Hubby while handy with most things is not always up to date on the latest and greatest of tech geek gadgets has no idea how to use the Blackberry - neither do I for that matter, our cell phones are just barely a notch up from a tin can and string. Tonight I rest assured that he's googling how to work his new phone and is not out painting the town in NYC and the surrounding boroughs. It all sounds great until he starts relaying the information that he will be sent to massive amounts of training. Not exactly news, however the first round will be in a few weeks and will last three weeks. NOT FUN. However that's not the worst, the second round will be in November and will last FIVE WEEKS. The five weeks does not include a break at all. UG. This training does not include a shorter little trip and short jaunts he will take in the nearby area to meet his customers. I figure in essence I will for all intensive purposes be a single parent without the respite of sending the kids to their father every other weekend and navigating the dating scene. I may really have to get a job in order to have some adult company. Thankfully we are back on my turf and I at least know a few people here.

Speaking of knowing people.... I went to Wal-Mart on Saturday and could hardly shop for bumping into people I knew. I saw at least 5 people I know and of course I looked like something the cat dragged in. Don't get me wrong, NOBODY has ever called me a fashionista or anything but I was really scraping the bottom of the barrel with my appearance. So my first excursion back into hometown society I looked like a bag lady. I bet the gossip at the dinner table sounded something like this :

Mrs. X - I saw Winnie at Wal-Mart today, they moved back into their old house. Hubby got a job back up here.

Mr X - mmm huh, Really, how are they doing with all moving ( I imagine this in an off handed way while he's forking supper into his mouth and trying to watch the Brewer game)

Mrs. X - Winnie said they are doing fine, but I don't know she looked pretty rough, I'm not even sure she had combed her hair and her clothes looked like she had been working in the yard.

I'll have to make sure my public appearances are a little more groomed from here on out. Back in Kornfield there was never danger of actually seeing anyone and if you did, well you looked better than them anyway.

If your a long time blog follower you'll remember my house stalker from last summer well as I was writing the above paragraphs he went by on his bicycle and nearly turned his head completely backwards on his body checking out the house. If I see him down in the park I'm gonna just frankly stop him and ask him what the hell his issue is.

Kids are doing good. Bored and mad that I haven't taken them to the city pool which is right behind our house. Quite frankly I'm just a tightwad and don't want to pay $7 bucks per to swim for a two hour stretch. Maybe if the weather and my sanity holds I'll take them to the lake tomorrow. Igor is settling now, and while still a little nervous about having his own room isn't really scared anymore. Funny is that he asks me every night when I tuck him in " Will you check on me when you go to bed?" I always assure him that I do, mainly to make sure he's not about to roll out of the bed. The next morning he tells me that " Momma you didn't check on me." I'm not quite sure what he expects me to do, wake him up and say " I'm checking on you" too funny.

The unpacking is mostly done with the exception of the office which has a large bookcase to fill with books, a file cabinet to load, a gun cabinet to load and walls I want to paint before I do all that. I'm pondering what color I want to go with in there and need to make up my mind as it's really a disaster and stacked with boxes. I hope I don't have an urgent need for any of the papers in the file cabinet, a particular book or a gun!

Well I'm winded I guess, I can always tell the post I put up when Hubby isn't around as they get long and babbling.

LUCY! We're HOME!

2010-07-30T19:28:00.001-05:00

Well the truck pulled up at 8:00 am on Thursday morning and pulled away at 12:30 pm having spewed forth it's contents into every room, basement, garage and nook and corner of our house. The last day and a half has seen Hubby and I emptying boxes and putting things away. It's certainly an easier task when everything already has a home and just needs to land there as opposed to finding a place like with a new house. It was wonderful pulling in the driveway Wed night as the first three people we see were people we know well - two neighbors and another person who lives in the neighborhood who was walking home from work. I wouldn't say we are totally unpacked yet, not even close but we have a good dent in the work now. Right now Hubby is putting up a shelf in the linen closet which makes it into his own personal walk-in closet. Lucky him, though I will say he's been battling lack of closet space for years, though it hasn't been much of an issue because his work wardrobe was jeans and polo shirts. The new job will require a little more proffesional attire, and trying to jam dress shirts into his tiny little closet wouldn't have worked.

The kids are adapting well. Igor had a couple of nightmares last night which we expected, new room, no brother etc. We hit the floor running at his calls though and he settled back to bed easily enough, some of it was likely overtired as well since we've been on a hectic schedule with the move. Sonny Boy hasn't flinched and has been a video bum because we've let him. MUCH easier to get things done if he's occupied and only one child (Igor) is following you around asking questions at 100 mph.

Probably the worst problem we have encountered is a smelly dryer. Our dryer was simply in storage in the moldy basement and we moved it back and it stinks up the laundry room. I soaked some towels in some strong bleach water and threw them in pretty wet to tumble. I don't know if worked or just burned the bleach smell into my nose. I hope it's not a permanent condition.

Well I must really get back to work before Hubby rebels, honestly I just want to take my shoes off and land on the couch and veg in front of the T.V. but I've got to keep the momentum going or I'll stop completly.

It's good to be home.

A post of pure boredom

2010-07-26T17:53:00.002-05:00

Well the movers came today and boxed EVERYTHING except the TV and computer that would fit in a box. I think they would have put the kids in a box if they'd gotten in the way. Happily the boys were very well behaved while they worked. I did let them have unlimited access to TV and the DS so they were entertained with brain candy. However it's now 6:00 pm and that's pretty much all any of us have done today and we are bored. Tomorrow the movers will load everything on the truck and pull out, I imagine I'll have the afternoon to clean and make sure we don't leave the rent house in a huge mess. I am not going to kill myself over it though, it was quite dirty when we moved in and pretty much if I leave it as is it will be cleaner.

Right now we are waiting on hubby to get home and unload his giant toolbox that he normally keeps at work so the movers can take it with our stuff tomorrow. Once Hubby gets home we will go out and get some supper. We are in for a few days of eating out or scratching up food that does not require heating up. Fun. Tomorrow night we will stay at a hotel and drive north on Wed.

So far so good with the move. I tell ya if ya gotta move and there is anyway to afford movers to pack and haul for you do it. I don't care if you gotta sell a child or something, it's worth it. Three guys got here at 9:30 and packed the entire house and garage by 2:30. Granted we don't have a hutch full of china and lots of little nick-nacks but they did in one day what it would have taken me at least a week to do. Unreal. Now we'll see how well everything makes it there and I suspect things aren't packed together like I would have done it, but hey I really don't care right now.

Well that's the update. Exciting huh?

Just Can't Wait...

2010-07-21T22:03:00.002-05:00

To get back Home. Isn't that a line in a song? I'll be moving very soon so the lapse between posts might be longer than normal. I won't be seeing this beautiful farm near the WI house though as there is construction on that highway into town and we will end up taking another route.

The movers will be here next week and we are supposed to be unloaded into the WI house by next weekend. I love the whole idea of movers. I'm still sitting here in a house that's as together as it ever has been and will simply just pick-up the junk before they get here so it doesn't get moved or boxed oddly. The only real prep I've done for the move is take down curtains and wash or air them on the line. This is the high life. ha ha I'll pay for it on the back end though as Hubby will be out of town two days after the truck unloads, hardly enough time to get things together but I'll manage. The rough part will come later as the new job starts putting him through many training schools. Good for Hubby, long weeks for me. The good part is I'll be somewhere that I know people, go to a church where I know what to expect and any work I do around the house will be for me instead of a landlord.

Well I guess that's the latest.

Agravation

2010-07-17T10:10:00.002-05:00

To say I'm aggravated is understating it a bit. Early last week Hubby asked HR at his new job to see if there was anything we needed to get in motion for the move, estimates, forms - whatever. He still didn't have an official start date but we knew it was coming soon and wanted to be pro-active with the move. The HR guy said don't worry, we should be able to get you moved in a week, but I'll call S and have her give you a call etc etc. Well S called Hubby several times last week but never left a message. Hubby not know who the call was from didn't call it back. Well finally on Friday he was available to answer the phone and S says it will be difficult to get us moved by the end of the month! AAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGG In fact they are booking things a month out. double AAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGG. We have given notice to our landlord and she has people moving in this dump the 15th of Aug. I don't know, I'm hoping that husband's new company will do some rear chewing on Monday and get things in gear. I guess we'll see. What makes things more difficult is that Hubby's first week is an orientation in New Jersey! I really don't want to do all the moving alone, even though I'll have muscle with the movers I would like to have Hubby's help with the unpacking phase and I half expect to find minor issues with the house when we get there due to the fact it's sat empty for a year.

So this weekend Hubby has promised to help me empty the basement and go through the boxes down there. Why? Because we had a framed poster that the boys had broken the glass on sitting on the basement floor, Hubby went to un-frame it and throw the old frame and discovered that it had wicked up moisture and grown mold all over it. Now I'm worried that stuff that's in there has done the same. We have most things up on pallets down there and that should protect them but I don't want the movers picking up a box, the bottom falling out, and finding a box full of linens wet and moldy and having to make decisions to toss, try to clean ,on the fly and having a huge pile of "to clean" when we are still looking for our forks.

Today though Hubby is taking Sonny Boy out for his birthday. On the agenda is the Hubble Movie at the I-Max (Sonny boy still wants to be an astronaut) and the Magic House. I don't expect them back till late afternoon at the earliest. Igor and I are going to hang out, go pick a few groceries and maybe do some chores. I hope Igor is helpful with the chores but highly doubt it. He's at the age where he wants to help but really just gets in the way most of the time. I wish he'd take a nice long nap but of course that's really dreaming.

Well better do some chores

I can FINALLY say

2010-07-14T22:29:00.002-05:00

what the big secret is. I know I've been hemming and hawing about it for a while, some of you know what I've been alluding to, but Hubby has not allowed me to make announcements until today. WE ARE MOVING BACK TO WISCONSIN!!!!!! Hubby has been chasing a job for quite a while now, and the process has been agonizingly slow, as with any big company I suppose but we've been gnashing our teeth (quite literally) waiting on this to happen. Hubby accepted the job a couple of weeks ago now but just now got a start date and the go ahead from them to turn in his resignation at his current job.

This possibility of this job is what made us keep the house and suffer through several months of payments and not working too hard at renting it. Might have been a disaster for us but things worked out. Now we just have to move. Luckily Hubby's new job is paying generous moving expenses with REAL MOVERS. I've never had that before, they'll even come pack!! I'll feel like the Queen of England and just point to where things go.

There are still a few details to work out with the move. We don't have a specific date yet, but we expect that by the end of the week. I'm starting to make lists of things to take care of, address changes, school records, medical, dental etc. However I'm not too stressed as I know about where I'm going, what's there, who my doctor will be, (though I'm gonna get a new dentist) and all that jazz. May have a few blips with Igor's IEP and pre-school since he should have been registered in spring but hey I know people. he he

I'm so glad to get out of this dump. Unbelievably the landlord has already rented this little house to a family with 4 kids we are cramped with 2 here. I'm only hoping maybe they are a little older and don't need quite the running space that my two do. Today is miserable heat wise. Both window units are blowing full blast and it might be 80 degrees in the living room. Thankfully I can close up the bedrooms to cool it off in there when I go to bed.

Well that's the BIG news. I'll write more when I know more.

2010-07-14T15:49:00.001-05:00

WE ARE MOVING HOME!!!! MORE LATER WHEN I SETTLE IN FOR THE NIGHT!

Cruel, Cruel, Summer.....

2010-07-13T22:21:00.002-05:00

If your my age a certain Bananarama song will pop into your head, if not look it up! I really had to look up the lyrics to see what it was about because I could only remember the lines " Cruel, Cruel Summer, leaving me here on my own..." of course I don't know the rest that's when humming kicks in.

The summer has been cruel. I loathing the miserable heat and tomorrow is supposed to be even hotter. The air conditioning is barely adequate here. The boys go out to play and come back in within 10 minutes little sweaty heads having stripped down to their shorts, leaving their shirts somewhere out in the lawn. I don't know how Hubby is managing at work working in that big metal building must be akin to being in an overly large oven. He says he's used to it but I can't imagine adjusting to that heat. Yes, I suppose I've gotten soft, being a native Arkansans I wouldn't even call it hot till we hit 90 and scoffed at people that were miserable if it was anything under 100 but I suppose 5 years in Wisconsin and dreamy summers that rarely made me turn on the a/c spoiled me. Yes winters are long and miserable, but I can always put on more clothes, turn up the heat or otherwise adjust my temperature when it's 10 degrees. I can only be so naked at 100 and I'm there already.

Thankfully to combat the heat a co-worker of Hubby's has offered the use of his pool to use during the week. They live out in a cornfield and it's one of those places you have to look for, I'm pretty sure it won't show up on a GPS. They have a nice above ground pool. The only problem with the pool is it's depth, right at 4 ft, which is the same height as Sonny Boy. Sonny Boy can just barely get his face above water if he stands on his tippy toes and tilts his head back. Igor I put little arm floaties on him and off he goes, but Sonny Boy can almost swim and wants to dive under etc so the floaties are not cool to him so it's a constant watch to make sure neither kid is drowning. Not too relaxing as my idea of pool time is getting in to cool off occasionally and lazing by the side with one eye open enough to keep the kids from drowning. Beggars can't be choosers though so we go for while a couple of times a week.

The other cruel of summer has been this waiting game we are playing. It's wracking on our nerves and has us on edge. I can't reveal the news yet but things look good for a big reveal at the end of the week. The stress in manifesting it's self in some strange physical symptoms that make us worry and then realize what's happening.

I did get a wild hair last Friday and took the boys to the St. Louis Zoo. It was fun, but in an effort to not look too dumpy I wore some flat sandals. BIG mistake. My left foot has not been happy since. I have since gone to the fancy store across the street aka Dollar General and purchased some arch support insoles for my sneakers and have been trying to be good about wearing them while around the house - I prefer bare feet. Doesn't really seem to be helping and I have a hunch it has something to do with my cranky knee that is also making it's self known. Momma always said after 35 it's "Patch, Patch, Patch" and I'm beginning to think she's right.

Well I guess I'll sign off. This has got be one of the most boring blogs on the web lately.