still wondering what I am doing

गेट ओं विथ आईटी already

2010-07-16T17:08:00.001-06:00

As you can see, it's been since the beginning of April since I bothered to write in here.

Let's just say I'm on hiatus or some spiritual backpacking trip in the highlands of Scotland until maybe, say, October?

Sure?

Sure.

क्नोच्क ओं वूड

2010-04-03T08:01:00.003-06:00

The title really says "Knock on wood" so don't go thinking that I've gotten smart or knowledgable in another language that involves wingdings.

I've been kicking around a cold for the past four weeks that really ended two weeks ago, but this morning I am coughing up a lung like nobodies business.

But on another note, and the theme/subject of this post, is that my children have really reached a milestone in the past month or so of being quite loving and sweet... the majority of the time.
We have really come to a point as a family where we all have a great time with one another. Granted, we have all gotten along with one another, but this magnitude of the getting along has expanded. It started, I think, after I was away on a business trip for an entire week. The longest I had been away from the kids ever. And who knows, maybe, they really did miss me.
Little B is seriously growing like a weed and she is all cuddles and smiles and kisses and loves. She asked me last night while we were watching a movie, "Mom, can I come cuddle with you?" Like who would say no to that?
I am the one that wakes them up in the mornings now that the husband works earlier and I get to see their sweet baby-ness that lingers as they wake up. And B always asks me to carry her downstairs, which won't be something I can do for much longer, ha ha.
While they eat breakfast, I dry my hair on the kitchen heater vent (it's a curly-haired thing) and they tell me about random things. S tells us about her dreams which I think is the best. I love that she knows what a dream is and how to retell it. B is still at the I-think-I-had-a-dream-but-I'm-making-this-all-up stage.
S told us one about her uncle producing remote controlled horses from his magic coat and then her asking her dad where her uncle was and he told her he was in Wyoming, but no, he was standing next to him. So it's funny to hear, because I know she's not making this stuff up. B's dreams are about "ice cream, dogs and trampolines" ha ha!
I'm reading the "Happiness Project" book and it's giving me some goals and insight and I like that. It's a good reminder to work on being happy during good times to give yourself some power to help with happiness when hit with a bad or tragic time.
I'm also seeing a new therapist who I really like, so that is also helping me look at things in a different light and set some goals and help me get through extra anxious times. I've felt myself trying to drop into a low the past few days and I've been self-talking and writing to myself a lot and pushing myself to step back and look at things from a different perspective and that helps. Not always, but it helps in a different way.
Well, I figured I'd write this morning since I was to bed early last night as was up earlier this morning and I need to do the breakfast thing, work out with the husband and then off to Costco to brave the madness that is easter weekend. It is conference weekend too though, so I'm hoping if I go during the first session that it'll be less crazy. hahahahaha!

Yikes

2010-03-18T17:27:00.003-06:00

This is going to come across as a pure whine, but....

I would really like to know when a mom ever gets a break?
I have come to grips with this fact, and have accepted this is the fact.

But when is a mom not doing something that doesn't involve cleaning, cooking, helping with homework, helping kids bathe, doing dog things, making lunches, doing laundry, making bake-sale items, helping kids do presentations at school without flipping out, cleaning - and not even the deep-cleaning stuff that would actually get things clean, it's the clean-up before the clean and it's aggravating. And in the moments when a mom is physically doing these things, she is also planning on how to attack all of the other things on her to do list.
Sigh.

It's one of those days where I've just spent the last few days doing all of this, and while the husband goes off to some business meeting at evening, instead of me trying to get some groceries on an off moment, I forgot it is free skate night for the elementary school. So in the next little while, after I've done the dishes, made dinner, fed the dogs, coddled the old dog to please go potty outside, crated the dogs, and showered girls....I will be taking the girls to skate night.

That will be sheer pleasure for my congested head and sick for two weeks trying to shake this coughing body.
yay!

I Swear!

2010-03-03T19:36:00.003-07:00

The only time I go to write anything online, ie: leave comments on blogs, is the only time the husband comes in the room to look over my shoulder.

Seriously?

I'm really not in here all that often and the battery on the laptop just up and died, so I have nowhere to hide.

How does the battery take full charges, give hours of enjoyment and then the next day just die?

I suppose that is how I feel some days too, so I can't really complain.

Oh wait, yes. I. Can.

Working on it

2010-03-01T14:49:00.002-07:00

So I broke down and called someone to come in and clean my house.

I've had enough meltdowns every damn weekend over the state of the house and just trying to catch up on simple things like cleaning the bathroom counter. I do not want to spend my days off work just scrambling to get the house in order. And I don't want to wish my children older so they can clean up their things...they are still my babies and I'm soaking it all in. (In case anyone wonders, they do clean up their things, but there are days where it is loads easier for me to swoop it up in one handful and put it away properly and then my OCD doesn't have to take a hit and a fit)

I think this will save many years of mine and my family's life and sanity.

And then I can get back to more me time.
Running, hiking, reading, singing, biking, camping, dog-walking, ginning, painting, kid-smooching... here I come!

and?

2010-02-07T08:40:00.002-07:00

I love that I don't ever post on here anymore.
Who has the time?

But I get spammer comments. How sweet it is.

Jingle bells, Santa smells?

2009-11-29T14:51:00.003-07:00

Someone had better tell the neighbor girl that that rendition of the song will get her nothing but a whole load of giggles from me.

I've got a whole load of busy-ness on my hands and laundry from Vegas to wash and photos to upload.

Anyone willing to make bets on how long it takes me to post any photos?

I'm sorry, but who gave you permission to grow up?

2009-10-14T18:13:00.002-06:00

Monday, in honor of Colombus Day.

2009-10-12T09:46:00.004-06:00

Hot coffee, a snuggly blanket and Matt Lauer (on television, of course)..is there anything better?

Oh sure there is. But not today.

I'm at home feeling crappy and I will be doing the 'ol switcheroo of summer to fall/winter clothes as the weather turned on a dime and it is cold cold cold.

It rains, it pours, we get stuck inside and yell

2009-10-04T18:55:00.003-06:00

So, the family and I have spent this entire day inside with one another. Sure, I love these people like crazy, but did someone say crazy?
Holy crap I'm ready to take a shot of something strong and go to bed already.
Someone pointing out all of my shortcomings within a 48 hour period has really gotten on my nerves and I fear myself saying something worse than what I've already spewed.
Going to bed seems to be the best option.
Because when I am asleep, what comes out of my mouth does not count.

I am not talking about a floating vessel

2009-09-28T17:15:00.004-06:00

So it's taken me a few days to even type this one out.
We only had our sweet cat Canoe for six short months. Six months of watching him grow, making friends with the neighbors' four cats and their bunny, losing five collars, growing legs that would just walk right over our dogs, playing with the dogs like down and out tumbling and roughhousing, even Sherman grew attached to him, sleeping in the neighbor's bunny cage with the bunny, killing five birds in one week, nibbling elbows while we slept, sleeping in contorted ways, talking all the time.
Canoe got hit by a car Wednesday night, and it really wasn't at all like getting hit, it was like getting run over and having the teenage girl in the bronco slam on her brakes, skid four feet and drag parts of my kitty's body apart from him.
It was horrible.
We had to rush him to an animal ER and watch him SUFFER without parts of his body and the whole suffering part just killed me. I bawled. and then bawled some more and then was literally ill for 24 hours afterward. I think I was able to shield most of the damage from the girls. I flew like a wild banshee to get a towel to hold him together with and they didn't go back to the room until we said goodbye and he was covered so they wouldn't have to witness the carnage.
I can not get the image out of my head. And it still hurts.
S is asking for another cat already and I am not ready. It absolutely breaks my heart to watch animals suffer.
People, ie: teenagers, PLEASE SLOW DOWN. For the love of Canoe, please slow down when driving a car. There are children in residential neighborhoods and you may not be lucky enough to be spared by only killing my cat. You may actually hit a child.
There is nowhere THAT DAMN IMPORTANT for you to be driving to.

R.I.P. Canoe. I honestly think you were put on this earth to show someone that has previously had the cops called on her for speeding at least two times, that she could hit a child and she wouldn't be able to live with that.

My dog eats crayons

2009-09-23T17:00:00.003-06:00

I sayeth to him:

"If you would like to have a poo in the house go to blame on someone else, it would be most helpful to not have it multicolored with crayon."

And I follow that last one up with....

2009-09-13T15:53:00.004-06:00

I really love my husband.

I don't say that enough.

I can sure bitch and moan about people I work with and annoying driving habits of everyone, but myself, on the road. But I don't nearly spend enough time saying how much I love things.

The husband can surely get on my nerves at times, especially when I am lethally hungry, but for the majority of the time, I just watch him, doing what he does, and I. Love. Him.

I love my girls too. They keep doing the horrible growing up thing, but I continue to love them. I get adorable photos where I can catch them still looking like my babies, but I don't admit that to them, because if they knew that I could still catch them, then they'd make sure I didn't catch another one again.

My spunky B wanted (yes, wanted) to go on the scary carnie ferris-wheel last night and wanted to ride with her dad, and she was not scared for one second. S and I, on the otherhand, talked each other into riding together and held each other as close as one can hug one another on a rocking ferris-wheel without rocking it unnecessarily. We squealed together and when the ride stopped and then took us backwards S said "I don't know why I got on this thing!" and we both giggled nervously. B kept asking the husband if S was okay behind us and would even turn around to check on us. S and I barely moved. The mere thought of turning around made our stomachs hurt. Once we got off, we realized it was all good. We didn't die. The carnival ride held up to our wild ride. We are that much stronger now. A hurdle that we jumped with ease.

We got home far too late last night and we feel like we have a slight hangover, even though there was no booze involved. So we've been lounging around, playing with toys, doing laundry, watching really bad part two of the ongoing saga of the little orphan Annie. Oh, it's horrible. It's a good thing we only borrowed it from the library or we may have had to demand our money back.

It's been a breezy, overcast day with a few sprinkles and I adore weather like this. Too bad we feel like we've been beat, or we may be out on bikes or hiking. But, ah, one needs to lay around like a slug every once in a while, right?

Who's an ass?

2009-09-09T18:16:00.001-06:00

Who, you ask?

Wait. You didn't ask.

In case anyone doesn't have one of their own or would like to know...

I know a real ass.

Bikes and School

2009-08-23T17:50:00.003-06:00

We spent a good portion of the day in Salt Lake today to catch the professional leg of the 90 minute race for the Tour of Utah. It was really fun.
Photos do no justice of standing on the side of the road and just the sounds of the tires on pavement and the sound the wheels make as the riders whip past you.

The first day of school is tomorrow and my baby starts Kindergarten..someone pass the tissues now.

I'm actually pretty proud of this summer as we've subjected the girls to a lot of different things which, hopefully, made a few happy memories for their brains to hold on to...when they are teenagers and hate the world.

Who keeps tabs? or, Mama don't take my Google Reader away.

2009-08-19T17:14:00.002-06:00

I swear, I can go months being able to access certain websites at work and then, ka-pow!, out of nowhere, I get blocked.

I used to be able to see bossy, and all my fellow blogspotter fiends, but then I got the "personal storage" blah blah is restricted by your blah blah and boo. sigh.

Well, then I got smarter than these genius IT freaks at my job and just set everyone up on Google Reader. This worked grand, with the exception of not being able to see the photos along with the stories. It was fun to imagine what some people may have had posted along with the daily story and then come home to actually see what they had up there was far different, and always better, than what my mind had conjured up.

Today, I log in to my gmail and hit the Reader tab and viola!, the moment of getting blocked.
BASTARDS
Internet blocking Nazi BASTARDS

They also blocked this messed-up site for adult content, ha! Geez, I wondered how long it would take to get them to figure that one out.

It was fun while it lasted, but I am really pissed about them taking my reader away.

Random bits of sunshine.

2009-08-11T16:47:00.004-06:00

You would think that between the many motherly, and working duties I have, I would have enough time to update this thing.

Alas, I do not.

Damn you, sunshine, for slowly creeping out of my life for the next five months...leaving me to drive to work and back again in the dark cold of winter.

Damn you, good summer books, for sucking up any extra time I have and making me lounge around, snuggling up to the warm bodies of my children while they do extracurricular television watching, preparing their brains for the return of school in two short weeks.

I guess a damn you was a little harsh in that situation. You books are only encouraging me to lounge around. It also gives me a little time to myself to indulge in your fantasies while sitting around the swimming pool during the 4 weeks of lessons we've managed to fit in this year.

We had a cold front roll through Utah over the weekend (the warmth is back thank you) and it made me deliriously happy to feel a chill on my arms, to put on a hoodie, to wear jeans. But I also enjoy walking out of my freezing chilled office in the afternoon and feeling the warmth hit me and envelope me while I walk to my car...just enough of a walk that I enjoy the warmth and it takes the goosebumps I sported for the entire day away.

It is now time for a bit more reading before I feed the girls and haul them off for the last few days of swim lessons. I'm so proud, they're both like fishes.
Cute. Sassy. Multi-colored-swim-suited-fishes.

The husband has encouraged me to dig into the weight lifting exercise that I'm craving and I'm taking a one on one class with a cross fit trainer tomorrow.
Maybe I'll tune you in to the most sore of sore muscles the day after.
That is, if I can walk to the computer.

Two weeks?

2009-07-25T15:16:00.003-06:00

It's been awhile since I've posted anything. Here.

Facebook manages to suck up an immense part of my time...dirty bastard that it is.

We took the girls to go see fireworks at Liberty park with their auntie and uncle last night and wow. Wow. Wow. WOW.
I have never seen me so many gangsta's in my existence on this earth.

There was one point where we were walking the four blocks or so to get there and we had some young ho's behind us talking up some "An she sai, 'I wuz on hiz bed bafor' and I sayz "oh ya, bit? I been on hiz bed SO many time before, she a fuuggin' ho ya'"
So we then purposely slowed down so their little ho's would pass us, and we caught up with them pretty quick as the three of them were stopped out on a cross street, primping in a parked car's windows and I have never laughed internally that hard. Even the lady walking in front of us turned and laughed like we were. It was so worth it. Even if we waited forever for the show to start and to only last 13 minutes.

I'm trying to remind myself that this particular fireworks show is not worth it to do it again any time soon. Like anytime in the next 15 years.

Well, I did one manic cleaning out of the cookbook/phonebook/storealltheothershit cabinet and now I must go figure out what I'm going to do with all the stuff that is on the floor surrounding the cabinet. Like, the trash. We have a babysitter coming because the husband and I have not had a date in forever and we want to eat sushi, by ourselves and go see an adult movie, Harry Potter, by ourselves and just enjoy the company of each other because I need reminding sometimes of how much I love this man I married without having to clench my teeth while my beautiful children tease, fight, howl, scream and whine in the background.

Seriously?

2009-07-10T21:04:00.002-06:00

I am feeling this huge wave of jealousy. It is horrible and consuming.

I should be happy with what I have. Happy happy happy. I know that things may look good on the outside to other people, when inside they may just be shit. I want to believe this, but I'm not sure if it's really true. Just my psychoanalysis to make myself feel remotely better.

There has just been one friend of mine that I somehow let what goes on in their life get to me. I tend to compare and I need to STOP. We now lead two very different lives and we turned in those opposite directions a long time ago.

A long time ago.

How does one get over being jealous? And I would have to not talk it down and call it something else, because when all is said and done, it is pure jealousy.

Sucky, shitty jealousy.

Of what, exactly? I'm not completely sure.

I'll have to get back to you on that one.

Like growing Josh Brolin in a petri dish

2009-07-01T18:02:00.003-06:00

Don't ask what I originally had said, but isn't it funny what some people "hear" when other people "say" something entirely different?

During Father's day dinner, my sister thought my mom had called my father a pimp. Sorry folks, but my mom had actually called him a vampire.
In the most loving way you could call your spouse a vampire, of course.

Can't talk. Reading.

2009-06-24T17:02:00.004-06:00

I swear, I'm alive.

I've just been reading reading reading. And when I'm not sleeping, I'm reading.

I sure as hell am not sleeping much either.

The impending birthdays of my children have got me a little sappy sad as of late though.

I found an old photo of the two of them that's almost five years old and boy did it get me in sap-mom-mode.

I brought it to work to make life that much more unbearable.

They are also spending two nights this week over at my parents and that has got me just terrified.

Not that my parents can't handle two sweet girls, it's just that they won't be right here with me. Within arms reach.

Crazy how some times they can drive you completely bonkers and you tell them you can't wait to repeat their behavior on them when they are teenagers and then you want them super small babies, cuddly again. Like now.

No-Slip drawers

2009-06-12T16:57:00.003-06:00

For some INSANE reason, the reason being I must have been high on glue when I signed up for these, I subscribed to Martha Stewart's "Daily Organizing Tip". (stupid)

And there have been plenty of times where I wanted to post her daily tip and say WHAT? YOU ORGANIZE WHAT? and why in the hell would I ever, if I ever even found the extra time, do this?

Today's tip came to me in an email titled, No-slip Drawers, and I thought,
"Is this a common problem with people, are people's drawers slipping"
(like, duh, falling off because they have no bum?)
No, no. Nothing practical like that because hello I have an almost five-year old who has a serious case of crack and could use something miraculous not including rainbow suspenders. Because I am slightly still in fear of some janitor at the court house who would find my missing badge and coming swangerling down the hall saying "Is CARRIE here? I found her baaadgeeee" all the while sporting some fabulous rainbow suspenders.
Ew
Ew
Eeeeew

So today, folks, we have this handy organizing tip.

June
12
FRIDAY

No-Slip Drawers
This artists' drawing-board liner has a slightly rubbery surface that keeps sharp implements stationary and wipes clean easily.
TODAY'S ORGANIZING TIP
Plus, This Week's Tips

This is for those of you who have enough room in your kitchen drawers that when you yank that sucker open to stab an intruder, you don't have to dig through random other kitchen utensils and you can grab whatever suffices for that moment in time.

Oy, just the sight of that gets my OCD shuddering because think of when they moved just a millimeter and they needed to be straightened and heaven forbid someone not line them up in their correct height order.
In fact, the third knife from the left is cockeyed to the right and making me twitch.

When is enough, enough?

2009-06-11T17:29:00.006-06:00

Today, I came home to this.

Someone either forgot to shut the dogs in the bathroom this morning, or they have somehow figured out how to open closed doors. I really hope they haven't grown opposable thumbs.

We've also had a lot of this.

We live in Utah so this is very unusual for us. Sure we get rain here and there in the spring, early spring. But we are mere days away from the first day of summer and I almost forgot where I live and thought I may be vacationing up with my brother and sis, but no, sure enough, no dream, I'm still in Utah, bailing water out of my window wells.

In all honesty, I had to come in the computer room before I maimed the dog. Sherman.
SHERMAN!!

In Bloom

2009-05-31T14:16:00.004-06:00

Bossy's post reminded me that, oh yeah, I have some of those.

They took a while to come into bloom this year and they always keep us guessing when indeed they will strike.

When we first bought our home, there were about 12 or so antique peony bushes that were the owner's grandmother's or something like that. But they were old, large and in the contract of selling the house, the deal was that they got to take all of the bushes with them. The husband and I did not care one little bit about this. (because we did not appreciate they full beauty of them when not in bloom, something we would fight tooth and nail to keep now) But luck be a lady these owners were just about as quick getting on top of things like we are, and they were in the middle of digging a few of the huge plants out when the husband came to rip out carpet on the day they were supposed to be out. So they took about six of those buggers and left us with the rest and they got so large and carniverous, that we've had to split and transplant them. We've even burnt and killed a few in the process of trying to exterminate some morning glory from hell and they come back from the dead to give us a beautiful two weeks (maybe) of their beautiful blooms.

As I've been cutting these and taking them to the neighbor's I think to myself, I would love to send a bundle of these up to my sister in Washington. So Kerry, the vase in the front room is specifically for you.

Snapping

2009-05-27T21:15:00.002-06:00

I swear. Tonight is the lose it and snap sort of night.

My alarm goes off in less than 8 hours and I had to come downstairs to leave the nightly drama of little sassy S.

She has so much backtalk in her it is sickening.

And just between stupid facebook sucking me in and being beyond tired, making dinner late, children sassing the second I pick them up, the dog rolling in something horrid smelling, the cat bawling, the dogs barking, the perfect husband who never says or does anything wrong, returning overdue library books, bathing children AND the shitty smelling dog, and then fighting over the thousand rats nests that somehow wove themselves in long hair during S's shower and she screams at me when I try and help her do it an easier way and the cat on the shelves knocking a bunch of toys off and more dog barking and children sassing putting clean and immediately filling the dishwasher with dirties to run overnight and oy vey I still need to make lunches for tomorrow.

I'm ready to SNAP.

snapsnapsnapsnapsnap

I took a third of a muscle relaxer last night as my jaw is killing me and I honestly think it kicked in around 7:00 am... I was at my desk, makeshift sleeping. Left hand propping my head up in a believably awake position, right hand on the mouse, so as I sleep-jerked it would make the motions look that much more realistic.

So, apparently, if I want to wake up in the morning, I will not be able to take a muscle relaxer tonight.

Damn the luck.

Please. Stop. The Singing.

2009-05-25T08:46:00.003-06:00

Rock of Ages

Who ever heard of it? Not I.

It's a day off from work, and where else would I be other than watching the Today show in hopes of a glimpse of Mattie-boy-Lauer.

And it's a day off from work, so hello, of course, he is not on today.

So I'm wandering around online, finding old, old boyfriends on facebook and on comes some horrific bit from Rock of Ages.

Even the dogs howled in desperation for their superior hearing had failed them during the Journey song.

Don't. Stop. Believing. OOH OOH OHOOOHAAAAAHAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!! (frantic, loud, barking)

That hurts. (the husband, who is working in the other room just said "Wow. They are horrible") (They are killing some of his favorite butt-rock songs, I can imagine this is twice the pain for him)

And it goes on and on and on and on.

Tell me about it.

Baby it's hot inside

2009-05-18T17:26:00.003-06:00

Dear Husband,

I would like to thank you for getting our sweet daughter's fed and ready for school this morning. Monday mornings are really hard...especially when the night before ends with gin and limeade before bed and your wife hitting the snooze button for 50 minutes in the morning.

Believe me, I had a rough morning...ie: the above comment.

Today hit 90+ degrees, which is quite toasty.

Before you left the house, you did many things. Packed your lunch, made sure the girls had their lunches in their bags, teeth brushed, dogs contained in the bathroom. I am proud of you and I probably don't tell you nearly enough how proud of you I really am. It is hard to get kids out of the house in the morning. It is hard to get oneself out of the house in the morning.

You only forgot two things this morning.

The cat was still outside.

That's okay, there was the water bucket with the remaining waterballoons left over from yesterday's escapades for him to drink.

You did not turn one of the five ceiling fans on.

The upstairs was only 84 warm degrees and the air conditioner should be able to handle three straight hours of running non-stop.

I think that due to the sheer warmness of the Monday evening, we will have to go out and get dinner somewhere as I am too sleepy to do much of anything else.

Love, Carrie.

P.S. I am starving, so please come home soon.

xoxo

Rainy weekend

2009-05-02T08:21:00.003-06:00

So I haven't updated or posted photos in a while... Amber, hint hint....and the last four, out of five weekends have been rainy. At least that is what the weather dorks have told me.

We went camping over S's Spring break and it was beautiful. The first day we went out hiking, we forgot about, uhm yeah, the sun and it's effect on skin, so three of us got a little burnt, but not too bad. It's hard to remember that when it's only 65, it is still sunny and you can get burnt. (duhhh)

Sherman has been on a roll lately too. The woman we adopted our dogs from did mention that dacshunds will eat and eat and eat, and she was not joking. Sherman got into the basement a few months ago and chewed through a hung up target bag, pulled out a bag of marshmallows (strawberry ones no less) and ate all but about nine, large marshmallows. They he proceeded to blow up. He didn't explode, but we were waiting.

He also knocked off an entire heaping bowl of catfood that we prepared for the cat over the camping adventure, consumed it, and then we drove for 5 hours in the car. When we reached said camping spot, he drank a bowl of water like it was going out of style and we literally watched his stomach expand to the point of popping. I took him out for a potty break and he threw up. Ewwww. He does moan, like he is miserable, when he does this and I just giggle. I can't help myself.
Some animals never learn.

ahhhh, finally!

2009-04-18T11:53:00.001-06:00

The weekend is finally upon us, Hooray!

We've done soccer, some laundry and I've already fit in a run.

It's warm, sunny and downright beautiful.

Weekends could not be any better for the soul.

grrrrr....job....grrrrr

2009-04-15T19:21:00.006-06:00

I just deleted it....because, yeah, well, it's public....duh.

I'VE HAD IT. DONE.

The moments that make sense.

2009-04-12T20:37:00.004-06:00

There is nothing better than the sound of your own children squealing and laughing.

They were outside early in the day before we set out for our Easter adventure, and the husband was spraying down the patio as we have some crazy dog that still thinks it is appropriate to defecate there....even though there is NO SNOW...and the girls were just squealing and laughing just with the thought that they might get sprayed. Which they didn't. I had gone into the house moments earlier and just the sound of their laughter, wafting into the house brought a smile on my face and in my heart that has stayed close with me throughout the day.

Thank goodness, as thoughts of divorce could have taken over the sweet-children thoughts quite easily if only given the chance.

Scooper

2009-04-01T18:16:00.004-06:00

I just received an email that someone was offering to scoop poop for two dogs for $8 dollars a week.

DO YOU KNOW HOW TEMPTING THAT IS?

I won't splurge for a maid. But someone to scoop poop?

Bring it on!

P.S.
To all of you living outside the state of Utah....feel blessed that a large bottle of Bombay Sapphire Gin roughly costs you $28.
In Utah it robs us of $40+

Here's a small shout-out to CS to bringing me back $150 dollars worth of booze from Vegas....
My sanity thanks you.

Taxes are FUN

2009-03-29T18:49:00.003-06:00

The husband and I have been procrastinating in a bad way about starting our taxes this year.
We usually start them early enough that we know how much we are going to owe so it's not a two-week scramble to come up with an arseload of money.
Well, the above-mentioned husband has been doing a lot of freelance work as of late (yay!) and kept himself busy most of this Sunday holed up in the computer room. Since it decided to snow a good five inches this morning, and the thought of going out there was not even a thought, I took the only computer not hogged by a seven-year old or the husband and sat at the kitchen table and knocked them out.
Just entering our information into the new program we were using (ie: cheaper than turbotax) made me anxious and sweaty.
The numbers went down, the numbers went up, the numbers went up and down and then stayed at a somewhat decent amount owing. again. ooooowwwwiiiinnnnggggg.

Bastards.

I.R.S. government BASTARDS

The people I work with that have owed in years past were able to get themselves a refund this year, so I had a small, tiny amount of glorious hope that was quickly dashed as I updated each page.

At least it's not the higher amounts we've owed before.

We did get ourselves another cat. It was too lonely and quiet in the house without a talking cat. And boy is this new boy a talker. And a loud purrer..that is not a word. PURRER. ha

Canoe. That is his name. He came with the name Dino and we had to put our foot down on that one. I'm sorry, but we are not part of the Flintstone's and Dino was a dinosaur so the name could be fitting.

It did not fit the raccoon-marked Lemur that we adopted that has the longest, gangly legs and tail I've even seen on a cat.

If you've ever seen "That Darn Cat", Haley Mills' guy friend's name was Canoe. Nickname at least.

It took us a week to decide on the name, and we still go through the names that we were trying to get down to...Dewey, Georgie-Boy, Scout, Langston, George Washington ha.

The husband said since there is not a Desperate Housewives on, then he is going upstairs for a soak in the tub.
That means I will start on my bottle of wine earlier than normal.

Chloe-Bug

2009-03-14T17:23:00.003-06:00

So we got the kitty blood test results this morning.

Not good at all.

The husband and I had to make a hard decision that left us crying most all morning, and on and off throughout the day.

S cried and cried and B doesn't understand it at all.

I went with my poor kitty girl and held her to me and rocked her and looked into her sweet green eyes and told her I was sorry and cried like a baby when they gave her to heaven.

Leaving with an empty cat carrier left me bawling in my car before I could compose myself in order to drive home.

She slept at my feet the entire night and I was aware of her even though she weighed hardly a thing at all.

Even though she's been gone for 5 & 1/2 hours, the house just does not feel right.

$191.60

2009-03-12T17:50:00.004-06:00

I just got back from the vet, with the cat.

The cat, who normally follows me down the stairs in the morning, meowing *talking* to get some treats. Talking all morning. Nudging and talking. Drinking water out of a cup on the bathroom counter.

Yesterday she did not follow me down stairs. She didn't leave the bedroom until who knows when. When we got home she was on the floor next to her cat perch curled up in the bovine position. She let the dogs lick her ears and poke their wet noses on her head without hissing a fit. Very unlike the cat.

I took her upstairs and put her on my bed. She has not left our bedroom since.

Obviously something is wrong with her.

So, the softy that I am, made an appointment for her for today as I didn't want her suffering. (softy)

The prodded and poked her, took blood and gave a shot. They gave me some bland food for animals suffering stomach upsets and charged me one hundred ninety one dollars and sixty cents.

All I get from this is a call tomorrow to find out the results of the blood test(s), the hope that my cat will be just fine even though she is eleven years old and weighs 6 pounds, and the delightful smell of cat urine that is stuck in my nostrils because I've changed all of my clothing and scrubbed like a doctor pre-surgery up to my elbows. The urine that they needed for an analysis that I was hoping they would offer to hand-squeeze out of the towel she urinated on the drive to their office.

Man, I'm STARVING.

...she is still hanging on to this?

2009-03-06T18:48:00.003-07:00

Seriously?

I am still bitching about Fridays?

I should have blogged last Friday when I was in a good mood. (for once)

We are attempting to do our taxes this weekend.

Won't that be a good time.

Little thumb sucker pushed me to the I-will-make-good-on-my-idle-threats moment yesterday.
She has been trying, just a little, to stop the thumb sucking. ONLY because she wants to go to Chuck-E-Cheese with her cousins next month. We have told her that we would take her there as soon as she stopped sucking her thumb. We didn't necessarily tell her that she wouldn't be able to go with her cousins, but she is assuming that is the trick, so we must play along....
But, she has started this hair twirling and sucking bit. I really don't want her to trade one bad habit for another substantially gross habit, so the husband and I have been telling her that if her hair keeps going in her mouth, then we would have to chop it off.

(No! No! I will stop sucking my hair! I want big hair) (yeah yeah)

She has twirled effing dreadlocks into her hair. Top that with some sucking and she has these strands of squirrel hair that are stuck in wacky-dried positions. Gross.

I know. I know. Some people could care LESS if their kid does gross things.
I AM NOT ONE OF THESE LAID BACK INDIVIDUALS.
I tend to be a little high-strung

So, after B ran away from the house as she was walking home after the school pickup last night, I went to go herd her home about ten minutes later....and when I find her she is bawling....just turned on the water-works because she knew she was supposed to be at home. Not running amuck through the neighborhood in the 30 degree weather without a coat on. (What kind of mother am I?) She also has hair in her mouth. Blubbering, telling me something unintelligible because there is HAIR IN HER MOUTH.

So, instead of going home after dropping S off at dance, we went to the hair cutting place and got her hair chopped off.
It's adorable. Absolutely adorable. It makes her look like my baby and a big girl all at the same time. Don't ask me how that works, it just does.

The lady cutting her hair asks her at the end.

Do you like your haircut?

No.

Do you like getting your haircut?

No.

Somber as a statue.

I got my caterpillers waxed while she started on B and the ladies sitting around her cooed about how sweet and quiet she was.
Oh. If those people could take a 30 minute trip to Ikea with this kid and a pencil, they would see the devil-child in action.

The long blonde curls on the floor were a little sad and I had to hold myself back THREE times from bending over and snatching up a handful. Like, where would I put them? In her "I was bad and got my hair chopped off book"?
I guess I shouldn't say bad, it's more like strong-willed to the point of making a mother scream.

Love the kid. Love her. Can't wait for a little cooperation. Can't wait for her to tell me the truth when she is eating treats and not "Crackers, mom. I'm eating crackers."

Odd

2009-02-20T18:45:00.003-07:00

Fridays should rock. Fridays should have a person in that mode where they are a little light-spirited and feeling the urge to sing Barry Manilow songs.
Fridays lately, suck. SUCK SUCK SUCK
I get in a total, suck-arse-pissy-sassy mood and have to control myself as to keep myself from getting fired.
This mood usually only extends to the work day, and once I am home, I am fine. Happy to pick up my girls, talk about their day's adventures, walk the dogs, make dinner, fine.
The thing that sortof sucks is that I can't really voice out my reasoning(s) behind this mood as too many closely related people read this at times.
Just to give you a glance into how mildly sassy I can get, I IM'd a link to my boss today asking him if he has been reading the book How to Lose Friends and Alienate People.
He and I went from having a semi-quasi-okay relationship, and lately, he is just annoying. I flat out told him he drives me crazy. He has the moods of a woman, and when guys have those moods, well, it pisses me off, because I'm the only one allowed to be moody dammit.

I'm kidding, of course. There are a few, select, others who are allowed these moods.

I told him I was sick of the whispering, sick of the favoritism, sick of it all. And if I didn't have to be so damn thankful to have this job then I would be telling someone to SUCKit. Okay, I didn't say the suckit thing, but I did say the rest.

Sigh.

B is in the computer room replaying over and over some Ramones song.
Thank goodness it's a good song.
I had to stop her from dragging the speakers out of the room....she said she wanted to dance in the front room. I had to tell her that the speaker cords don't go that far.

She has become a working friend of iTunes. Didn't someone lock that computer? Oh, I guess she has figured out if she can fanagle her way onto the iMac before it locks, she can get into the music and still man the vinyl while it is password protected.......hmmmmmm, smart little stinker.

My posts aren't supposed to be a plain old rant, but I had to say goodbye to the food poisoning. Gawd, that was awful.

We are getting a second chance at another beautiful weekend, so we will not be splurging and eating out anywhere.
What are the odds that we hadn't eaten out anywhere for quite some time, and we go to stupid Carl's Jr, hankering for a cheeseburger and then get violently ill?

You show me an odd and I'll show you an oddity.

Down with the sickos

2009-02-15T17:00:00.004-07:00

Three out of four of us have food poisoning. Hooray!
What else could one ask for on a beautiful, sunny, winters day when we could be out snowshoeing and enjoying some fresh air?

The husband and I worked out together yesterday via Jillian and he stumbled up to the kitchen to get something and complained about his calves hurting. I reminded him that we did Jillian yesterday... S says "I hope you didn't get sick from doing Jillian"
Husband "Oh, I didn't get sick from exercising but I hope I didn't get sick from doing Jillian"
I laughed, I thought it was funny. He thought I was being naughty.....me? naughty? never.

Well, I've extended myself by writing and I keep typing words like dick and dope because I must be weak.

Great!

2009-02-01T12:45:00.004-07:00

I guess when the computer was reinstalled, iPhoto did not get reinstalled?

That's great.

It's also great that I had no idea how bad the husband's job really is.

Great. Nice. Neat.

He let a few things leak this weekend that have me feeling the ultimate pit of unsettlement in my gut.

Where is iPhoto so I can upload photos of headless my little pony's?

Find me a dirty boy

2009-01-26T19:10:00.003-07:00

I really don't have much to say.

I've been ridiculously busy.

At work, at home, busy in my head most of the day...useless thoughts...When will I lose my job? Does B have any clean pajamas? Are the dogs snacking out of the cat pan? What's for dinner? What is on tv? What the HELL? Who can I find on facebook? Why won't Amber update her private blog already? Why can't I drink booze everydamnday and NOT gain weight? WHY? Where did my cursor go? Oh yeah, what about that job thing?

I swear. The husband's job sucks, who know how much longer I may have a job...Good times. GOOD TIMES.

Good economy. Good lord.

And that's it.

I'm thinking a lot of people out there are stuck in the same rut as myself.

One of those ball things with hair on it?

2009-01-12T18:42:00.004-07:00

The husband and I just had a conversation about getting something to pull B's bangs back with....he is on his way home.

And he honestly says "One of those ball things with hairs on it"

What, in gawd's name is that supposed to be? I tried, desperately, to envision it, and came up with nothing. Nothing that should be put in anyone's hair on purpose.

Hairs?

And then he suggests a barrette with a Koosh on it.

Good hell, we don't need to add anymore chaos to the hair that's already going on up there.

B wants to grow her bangs out. I said:

Do you want it long, like S's?

No. I want it big, like S's.

You mean, long hair.

No. Big hair.

huuuhhhmmmm.

Do we have a future prom queen on our hands? Because we most certainly have a present day drama queen.

The girls were eating Fat Boys in a bowl last night because due to the size of said FB's, they can't seem to eat more than three bites before they fall on the floor for the dogs to consume.
Well, S managed to inhale a piece of chocolate and I whacked her on the back and she survived.

Not seconds later, B reaches over, picks up the piece of chocolate that was just lodged in S's throat, and eats it.

One call, that's all.

2009-01-09T07:55:00.004-07:00

I've been at work for the past hour and have had one call.

I'm sure I'm only jinxing myself by making it known in written form.

I turned older yesterday and it was actually a really nice day. Bought myself some stuff, received some stuff, ate some stuff....tamales and ice cream. Yummmm.

My internet barriers are down at work, so I'm entertaining myself by going on facebook and checking out and , the two I can't see at work. I can read them via google reader, but cannot see the photos that go along with them.

Well, the bosses are arriving and my oatmeal is cold, so it's time to look the part of working for awhile.

edited to add that my links didn't work. WTH? I guess I'll have to work on that. Later.

You guys are going to kill yourselves

2009-01-02T11:56:00.002-07:00

Words of Wisdom from a seven year old while her mom and dad attempt to dance to the "Expert" level on Dance Dance Revolution.

Yes, we suck. But, DAMN, we are breaking a sweat and laughing HARD.

Yawn

2008-12-28T08:59:00.003-07:00

I've slept in the past how many mornings now.....

How am I ever going to get up for work tomorrow?

The husband has the entire next week off with the girls and all I'm asking is for him to get his $$$ camera out with its new $$$ lens and take some photos of our kids.

Tune in to see what happens.

The lake effect

2008-12-14T11:18:00.004-07:00

When we get snow storms that blow directly from west to east of the Great Salt Lake, we get a lot of snow.....
It's been snowing all morning, and not little fluffs of snow either, big, fat flakes that made their way down the backs of a couple of girls who braved the outdoors a few hours ago.

The husband and I are waiting for it to stop before we even bother with the shoveling part.

And S told me that she wants to be a veterinarian when she grows up, which would be helpful now since Sherman is yelping whenever we move him like he is in deathly pain. Poor little guy.

Whoops

2008-12-07T16:55:00.004-07:00

So I guess when the tag says "Dry Clean Only"

They really mean dry clean only. Sorry Mr. Chenille blanket.

The dogs love this blanket, which sits on the couch in the front room, where they also love to set their butts to bark like wild heathens at anything that walks past the window.

I had to shake it out in the backyard after it came out of the dryer, plugged up the lint catcher, and it seriously looked like it was snowing.

Oh well, at least it is now clean.

Might as well face it....

2008-12-01T19:15:00.003-07:00

I'm addicted to M&M's.

I also lost a long-winded rant, hosted by me, about how M&M's are not spelled with an ampersand... & ... but they are M 'n M's... I ranted and raved I was right, dammit, SO right.

And then I went to the store and found out that I was SO wrong.

Damn.

I hate it when I am wrong.

Give me one weiner, give me two

2008-11-22T18:41:00.003-07:00

Yes,

The EX hater of all dogs got herself another dog. His name is Sherman. He's in on the husband's lap right now with Charkie. They are adorable together except for the disturbing humping that Charkie is subjecting the poor fella to..... hopefully that will stop. Soon.

The shed is now done-enough-for-winter minus one door, which is in the garage and just needs to be hung. Not bad.
Not bad at all.

Seriously, I've been busy

2008-11-20T20:24:00.002-07:00

I am such a drag lately. All of these fun-loving people doing Nablapopog-somethinglikethat and I'm not doing a thing.

I've been working hard at trying not to flip out every night after the sun descends and it's only 5:30, and trying not to snap at the kids for absolutely destroying the house with their toys and crafts and coats and shoes and socks and crayons and empty candy wrappers and the list goes on. It's like a landfill of things that will never, ever decompose and not nearly enough Zoloft to combat the mess.

I can say that the four-year old stage is taking me perilously close to the edge of insanity though.

B is killing me. Absolutely, menacingly, deliriously killing me. Slow and pain-like.

She is in to everything, her ears are on constant plugged mode, she is so naughty, and as sweet and loving as she is for about 5% of the time is not making up for the other 95% = hellish time.

I know five years is no cake walk, but I do remember it being a teensy bit better than four. Like being somewhat rational maybe 10% of the time.

The weather is beautiful in Utah. So very unlike November. I have walked at lunch every day this week and have just reveled in the sights and smells of an actual, real fall. Most of the time we go from ultra-wicked-hot, to one week of 70-60 degree weather and then BAM, it is full-fledged winter with snow, ice and freezing. I mean, my kids got warm in their fleecy halloween costumes this year. B was stripping off her top half of her cat costume. It reminded me of the first year we took S out. It was TWELVE degrees. Hideous!

The husband had received some unsettling news yesterday at work that has us worried. We are okay, but it's the type of news that hits too close and shows you how vunerable we are and how quickly we can be turned upside down. Okay, let me rephrase that. I am okay. I am not sure about the husband. He was upset about it last night. And it's kind of one of those things you just really don't want to talk about in the hopes that maybe the conversation won't have to come up again.

Time will tell.

The shed has a roof and is fully shingled. That husband and I make a good team, we really do, and it makes me smile to know this as a fact and how much fun we have had (along with the pains) in our home projects these past 10 years in this house.

He is making Gin and Tonics and he asked if there was tonic downstairs and I said yes. And then I said "I only want a splash of tonic" He repeated that in a utter disbelief sort of way. "Oh yes" I forgot to say "I want the remainder to be Club Soda"

I am watching those extra calories you know.

fancy myself, doing yardwork

2008-11-09T09:21:00.003-07:00

Not much updating going on around here.

Just a lot of shed building, which, in turn, leads to me handling the fall yardwork.
It's honestly not too bad considering I let the husband purchase a Toro leaf blower. BUT, not only does it blow, but the lovely contraption also sucks. (and mulches)

So last week, I blew and sucked and mulched all the leaves in the backyard and yesterday I did it in the front yard. The kids and one neighbor kid were out there while I blew and they thoroughly enjoyed it. I blew leaves and them and they rolled around on the ground, yelled at me (the sucker's loud) to blow them in their faces, had me bury them in blown leaves. I laughed so hard, they were so funny.

And then I helped the husband lift 8 foot pieces of sheathing onto the roof of the shed and we actually got about 1/3 of the roof done in the dark. Woo-hoo!

We are aiming for the remaining of the wood to be on the roof, the drip edging installed and the tar paper/felting be nailed on by noon, so I had better get my butt and my coffee outside since we were being generous to the neighbors and thought we wouldn't start our noise until nine o'clock on this lovely sunday morning.

This is how we decorate in Utah

2008-10-29T17:54:00.008-06:00

I love that my kids are so excited for Halloween.

We've had school programs

We've decorated the house

We've decorated the car

We've even decorated some random co-workers' desk

All in all, it's been a beautiful autumn

Just look at those lovely yellow leaves

Reality really does bite. And what is this word, Brink?

2008-10-28T19:16:00.004-06:00

Do you ever feel like you are at the brink of going mad?

If one more thing gets added to your list of things to do for the day, week, month, year... you might just snap?

I have delightfully reached this milestone and thought I would share my joy and happiness with you while I am being interrupted by the husband who has yet, again, remarkably made it home late for the umpteenth time for the past five years.

Just when I am ready to just explode, S tells me that she needs a white, 3-ring binder for school all the while the girls are bouncing up and down, jabbering while I'm trying to eat dinner and the husband is teasing S who melts down because he took 2 inches of licorice from her mouth that she was dangling over his plate.

What I really want to do is go upstairs, give myself 20 minutes of heavy, heavy weight lifting, enough to bust out in pouring sweat, take a quick shower with Aveda calming shower gel, get into bed after dosing myself with some Unisom-like drug, a glass of wine and read until I pass out.

What I'm going to do in all reality is go play some princess game with the kids, get mocked, smacked, slobbered on by the dog, and annoyed to high hell and then finally get to bed, late, after the dishes are done, bags are packed, clothes are picked out for school tommorw and all the other millions of things I need to get done.

How square is your shed?

2008-10-25T11:40:00.002-06:00

I am again, hiding, in the computer room.

This time it is hiding from the husband.

We started the base of a shed last weekend, because we are having abnormally wonderful Utah weather, and we don't want to spend $4,000 for someone to come build a shed for us.

So instead, we are spending less money for us to possibly rip each other's throats out in arguments about the need for the floor to be absolutely, perfectly, I will take this floor apart until I get it right, square.

He has honestly, taken the floor apart, at least four times now.

I am the type of person where I'm like, hey, if it's a half an inch off, we can put some shims in there since it is the only thing off at this point. Nail that plywood in and let's be DONE with the base already.

S just came in here and said shit. What?
She thinks she's being funny lately by throwing a damn or hell or shit in her sentences.....and seeing if she can get away with it without a parent noticing.

Yeah, I noticed. Thanks for playing, we'll see you later after you've spent some time in your room.

We stopped at Petsmart after soccer to get a toothbrush for the dogs heinous breath and all the foster animals were coming in..... oh my... There was a grey and white, adult male cat, by the name of Dwight. I immediately fell in love with his bright blue eyes and his little card that said he was a lap cat. I desperately want to go back and get him.

That'll put the shed-building-husband in a fantastic mood.

The barf chronicles

2008-10-13T11:57:00.004-06:00

I have to admit, I am not sad to be home today. Not sad to not be sitting at my desk trying desperately to act like I am working when I would, most definitely, be sleeping.

B has a tummy issue.

She is curled up on the couch with the estatic-to-have-a-warm-bum-to-sleep-with, dog, watching various cartoons.

I had a hard enough time sleeping without the barfing child last night, so when she woke up around two-ish this morning, I said goodbye to my attempts at sleeping.

I have found that I can sleep through many things lately....the dog, whimpering and scratching from the inside of S's room, the husband, getting up in the middle of the night to shut windows, let said dog out, and also him going outside in the pouring rain to put an extension tube on the downspout. Yep, I sleep through all of that. But, the second I hear one of my children, it is mommy radar on extreme sensitive mode.

B was sick that once, and I assumed it was from her voracious eating throughout the day, and she was sweet enough to talk me into letting her into our bed. A four-year old in a queen-sized bed with two adults is really not the best recipe for sleep. I swear, when I thought she was asleep, she would stretch an arm out and rest it on my chin. And the husband was sweet enough to let her share my half of the bed. Not that he was getting any sleep either, but at least he wasn't giving up any of his space.
We spent about an hour of doing the bed sheet share a pillow tango and she was whisked off to her own bed.

She came back in a while later, not sure how later, but I had just finally fallen off to sleep and was dreaming about forgetting to bring something to work.. ? Or maybe it was something about my refrigerator...yeah, dreams, highly overrated.
There was some complaining about an ear hurting, husband finds tylenol, administers tylenol, tylenol immediately comes back up, the mother groggily remembers there is some sort of ear drop remedy somewhere...gets kid back in bed, drops in the ear gunk, actually finds ear gunk whilst half asleep, mumbles something like she will stay home with sweet B, sets alarm for the husband and falls back in bed.

So, here I am. B is saying her tummy hurts right now, and I'm trying, to get her to eat some Saltines. She will not eat the Saltines, she wants nuts.

I have to go to work tomorrow and the next day for some continuing education classes to keep my insurance license up to date. Yawn.
BIG YAWN.
Thank goodness there will be some fun people going with me so I can pass notes and giggle to keep amused and possibly stay awake.

The husband gets to try the dance practice shuffle tomorrow night, so tune in to see how it goes.

Sunday, bloody Sunday

2008-10-12T14:28:00.006-06:00

So, soccer was cancelled (give me a yay!) and it snowed.
So I'm going to post some photos.

We'll start with two weekends ago, when it was warmer than normal and we took some photos up Bountiful canyon. We had little cooperation, but were able to get some good photos.

The dog cooperated pretty well, especially when we figured out that we can put him on a picnic table, and he can't get off.

And then, today, it snowed.

Soccer, and the story of trying to get out of going.

2008-10-10T17:30:00.003-06:00

Please, someone tell our rain to get here before 9:00 am tomorrow.

It's been cold , 48 degrees for our high, and we are supposed to get snow by tomorrow night.

That means that it will be delightfully freezing tomorrow morning for someones soccer game and I do not want to go.

I want to stay snuggled, in my new bamboo sheets and super-soft comforter, in bed and slowly make my way out of it, make coffee, sit around and snuggle with kids and a smelly dog.

It rained and was about 50 when S had her game last Saturday. That was not fun either. Her team played so good though. But the thought of going tomorrow just makes me cringe, and I may just feel a cold coming on.

I'd better not jinx myself, it is that season.

Let the weekend, and my newly purchased case of wine, begin!

Lazy Sunday

2008-09-28T10:23:00.003-06:00

Look at me, posting a photo. ha ha

I could post more, but it looks like the only current thing on iPhoto are the photos I just uploaded from my camera. After we copied everything off the old computer, everything else is saved on the external hard drive or copied to DVD's. Oh well. I certainly don't have that sort of time on my hands.

This was S's first day of school. B had been back in school for a few weeks at this point.

BUT. Better late than never, right?

I really had to come on here to clear my memory card since we are going up into the mountains and might have some good photo ops.

Completely baffled

2008-09-25T20:10:00.002-06:00

I did the take the kids to dance fiasco tonight, and I must say, I'm getting better at it.

I take the first one a little before 4:30, she puts her adorable ballet slippers on, she lets me leave after a smoochy four-year old kiss, I go back to the car where the seven-year old waits, we do her homework...lots of math this year so far, she reads, I read, I send her in about 4:50.

I rush home like a mad-woman, already have work-out clothes on the DVD is on and waiting, I do 25 minutes of Jilliankickingmyass, rush back, pick up B. Depending on how motivated I have been, I either sit with her in the car and look through books together, or we go to Arby's and get 5 for $5.95. I actually cut a pork loin and put it in marinade the other night and I did a fantastic juggling job of grilling kabobs and showering children at the same time.

Damn. Sometimes I am good.

The real reason I am on here tonight is because of the baffling mess of the presidential election. The husband tuned me in to a Katie Couric interview with Caribou Barbie (as my uncle pleasantly referred to her as earlier today) Palin so we watched it on youtube via the AppleTV. We then looked for Letterman's lack of interview last night and I am just amazed. Baffled, disturbed, horribly scared of what might happen if those two people get elected to office. Auuurrrrggghhh.

I have been in ongoing debates at work, and it either seems that people are just not voting, voting for McCain because he's a Republican, and I live in one of the reddest states in the country, so it is discouraging trying to talk to people who don't want to even listen. I'm not sure if it's a religion thing. OKAY! It IS a religion thing, and I just do not get it. I guess I never will. I am a complete 180 from my parent's that sometimes if I didn't look like my father, I would wonder where the hell I actually came from.

My boss forewarned a co-worker on his way in to work this afternoon, to watch out for me, because I was on one.

So I left him a message on his dry-erase board in his office. ha ha

I am very much looking forward to the debate tomorrow night. I should get off my duff and reply to my Obama emails and set-up a debate watching party in my area.

Gin, Tonic and fresh salsa anyone?

Punishment

2008-09-16T19:53:00.002-06:00

I am a complete glutton for punishment.

I sit here, somewhat hiding, in the computer room while my darling children cry and fight and howl and disembowel the sofa of its cushions and I think to myself why. Why do I even bother?

Why do i set myself up for something that is just going to piss me off?

I signed them up for dance classes tonight, and the way the times are set up, I'm going to spend my Tuesdays and Thursdays just shuffling kids to dance lessons. Ugh.

And then are completely rotten right now. They are tired, tired, and mad at me for not looking for the television remotes. Instead, I go out and find the cushions off the sofa and they cry when I said I'm done looking.

So S is spewing her normal tiredness crap at me and I'm sick of it all.

The husband is going to be late.

I'm off to get their princess meltdowns to bed before I scream.

Sweetness

2008-09-12T20:20:00.003-06:00

A wonderful man, being my husband, came home tonight with my *fixed* shirt from Banana Republic and I look in the bag for my shirt, and there is a new iPod. 120G...yay!

My old, 20G crapped out on me a few months ago and I oh so miss it. Especially at work when I'm desperately trying to tune the people out around me. I had it for over three years, and we tried to fix it...new battery...but couldn't even get it to turn on. You could just hear the harddrive kick up and turn over and over and not ever turn all the way on. So it would finally die and give you a said iPod icon and/or a folder. Poor thing.

The husband went to get me one the other night, with a big fat hint from me, and he came home saying they had already sold out of them (just announced that day) but got himself a touch. Damn, that thing is cool. So I was a little bummed out for a few days. But now I wait patiently for 3,500 songs to sync on my "Number 2". That is what I named it. ha.

I may even put some episodes of Gossip Girl and the Sarah Silverman Show on there....when it gets slow at work. :)

And, of course, some photos of the fam. As soon as the husband shows me where the correct cord is on this new Mac, I will upload some new photos since my memory card is full of dogs and beach-butt-crack shots.

the day after....

2008-09-09T19:33:00.003-06:00

After my muscle-relaxed-induced sleep last night, I hit the snooze button a mere five times this morning.

ie: waking up 45 minutes late = one late mofo.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Question for the day:

How long is too long to deal with a nagging, throwyoudownonthefloorwhileyoutrynottothrowupandyoureyesrunnethoverandyougetblotchy, cough?

A: Six weeks?
B: Ten?
C: For Hell's sake lady, get your ass to the doctor already?

(And if you choose option C, then I need an idea of just HOW to get in to see the doctor when he is booked three weeks out.)

Thanks for playing!

Beat me with an ugly stick

2008-09-08T21:28:00.004-06:00

Yes, I know. I think somewhere in the past little while I have said I would post photos.

I haven't done it yet.

HA HA

I have nothing better than a muscle-relaxer-induced night ahead of me, so I'm going to bed. I can't upload photos in my condition.

Death by Potato

2008-09-02T18:18:00.004-06:00

I was trying to put myself to sleep last night while writing an entry in my head.

That seems to sum up how hilarious I am if I can put my own self to sleep by doing this.

In other news. I found the object of death that was in my garage. I hadn't mentioned it before, because, hey, I had such more important things to talk about, like my expertise parenting skills.

Remember this? It seems a few weeks ago that this smell had somehow creeped back into my life. I was careful to turn the A/C and any vent-air-blowing off in my car before I pulled into the garage and would shuffle everyone madly into the house before the smell had a chance to permeate into my nose hairs.

We would rush out into the garage and exclaim how deathly it smelled, and "what died out here? It has to be a rodent."

I managed to get a few wild hairs this weekend and organized and cleaned up the girls' bedrooms AND cleaned out my car. While I was dragging the vacuum cleaner to the passenger side of my car...the stronger smelling death side of the car, I found a bag of potatoes. A bag of potatoes that apparently died. I knew they could horrify me when they sprouted eyes and ears and shit, but to actually die? Oh yes, they died. They died right next to the empty hamster cage no less. It was fitting to see that the same smell could eminate from the same area. Hamster/Potato...they are about the same size and color. And who knew they could produce the same smell?

I cleaned it all up, while holding back the acid burn in my throat and gagging. Oy, it was nasty.

Homework is done, my kids are playing nicely so it's time for a walk.

And then I get to go on another computer that has firefox installed so I can try and be tricky with some shortcuts that Safari utterly SUCKS at.

Doing a bang-up job

2008-08-28T19:41:00.002-06:00

School is back in session. New pencils have been purchased from an extravagant splurge at the Hello Kitty Store. The non-grubby clothes have resurfaced for the wearing. There is homework to be done.

We went to back-to-school-night on Tuesday.

Sat around, listened to PTA people spew their PTA-stuff, went to S's classroom, met her teacher, got a run-down of what they are doing blah blah, please sign up and volunteer..I need two volunteer's a day. (WHA?) Yeah, I'll get back to you on that one.

I did sign up to volunteer for home projects I can do to help the teacher out and the Halloween party, so don't count me out as a complete slacker.

I gazed up on the wall at what looked like a little project the kid's had done in class with thumb-prints (awwww) that were made into faces. Happy, Sad and Angry faces.

S's went a little something like this:

Happy Thumb Print: I am happy when my sister shares with me.
Sad Thumb Print: I am sad when my mom yells at me.
Angry Thumb Print: I really don't know or remember what this one said, but I'm quite certain it didn't reference me.

Good hell.
I did a quick glance at the other kids' thumbprints and saw no mention of their mom's.

AURGH!

So it is now known to, at least S's teacher and whatever other parent's that check out the penmanship of their child's peers (like me) at how great of a job I am doing and the lasting effects I have on my kid. Geez.

She does have fantastic penmanship. I am so proud.

Why?

2008-08-25T20:41:00.002-06:00

Why is it that I absolutely, try as hard as I might, can not open the Macaroni and Cheese blue box by pushing in the side (where is says PUSH) so I can pull back the top?

I can't.

Boy, it frustrates the shit out of me.

I must have weak fingers.

Excuse me

2008-08-15T20:43:00.001-06:00

while I drool a little.

New, fast computers are so much fun.

Especially when you get two, so there is no hogging.

I got nothin'

2008-08-13T19:46:00.002-06:00

Nothing at all. No luck in the non-thumb-suckage, no luck in getting a good night's sleep, no motivation, no fitting non-snuglike in my pants, nada.

I left work at one today for a good nap. My room felt like it was about 90 degrees and the dog snuggled his warm arse right up next to me to nudge the heat up just a few more degrees.

I have an annoying cough, and just felt like crap today and came home and slept like the dead for a few hours, with the exception of the few coughing attacks I had that jarred me awake.

Picked up the kids and took them to swim lessons. They loved it and are doing a great job at trying to be friends with the water. B was dunking her entire head and pushing herself off the side and kicking her legs. S was doing the same, and she is the one that took the longest to make friends with said water. The first kid always seems to have more of a disadvantage in learning some new things. When you have an older sibling to look up to, you sure do a lot of things a lot sooner than the first.

The days are noticablly getting shorter, which bums me out, I have really enjoyed our summer. We've only have a few days in the 100's, unlike last year when we had an entire summer of record breaking high temps. This is much better and bearable. Public school starts in two weeks and S is going to school with B this week as our babysitter is gone. She loves it. Asked if she could go there for school instead. I said we need to try 2nd grade out in public school and see if she is challenged, and go from there.

Affording two private school tuitions would suck a lot of $$ from our budget. Our budget needs to pay for two, new Mac's that are on their way.

Smurf it all

2008-08-07T18:28:00.002-06:00

There seems to be a pattern here.

A television-watching pattern.

Okay. Okay. It's the only way that I can get 23 minutes of peace and quiet and less "Moom, look at ________ " (Insert anything there. anything )

Tonight's menu: Smurfs. Just in case you didn't remember, if you listen closely, you just might hear Gargamel's rage.

I never realized how often they replace an adjective with "Smurf".

That's a Smurfingly Smurf storm Smurfing our way!
Oh Smurf is me!
There are times, Clumsy, when you Smurf my patience.

Okay, I made that first one up, but sometimes, I swear...I just swear.

Smurfette is currently wearing rose-colored glasses and is seeing Gargamel as someone handsome and lovely and I think he looks a lot like Bruce Campbell. A cartoon Bruce Campbell. Ha!

Well, enough of the play by play of my cartoon life.

Work is boring and I have zero motivation. None whatsoever. I've been sitting, listening to the Twilight series audio books and what I read and enjoyed last year or so is now annoying the hell out of me and my listening to it.
Either it's the realization that the main character whines and complains NON-STOP or the fact that the reader of said stories is also annoying as hell and I do not enjoy her rendition of the books.
I was so bugged this morning that I did some fast forwarding. "Whine. Click. Whine. Click."
I IM'd a friend and asked her when Edward came back in the second book because I'm sick and tired of all the wo is me.

I just finished The Tea Rose by Jennifer Donnelly and really enjoyed it. Went to the library to find book two as it is a trilogy. Yeah, right. No such luck there.

I will be biding my time at work tomorrow, ordering a few reads from Amazon. That is one of the only places I can go online without being blocked.

Took the kids to the dentist Monday and the thumb sucker's JAW is being repositioned due to the thumb sucking.

SIGH

Her teeth aren't doing anything, but her jaw, of all things, is. Help me.
I really need an intervention involving her and her thumb. I don't want it to involve taking away her blanket or shaving her head...since the blanket and her hair immediately send the thumb into her mouth.

Give me three months

2008-08-02T20:58:00.003-06:00

and I'll give you three birthday's. And that is only within my four-peopled family. The extended family is nuts in the summer.

Four years ago today, I gave birth to my baby B. She had a full head of highlighted blonde hair that honestly looked like she had a wig. She had full eyebrows and thick eyelashes. She came into the world with eyes open, looking serenely at the doctor who made it for the last push. B.K.L.M. Yes, her mother is still the nut who delivers two middle names.

She has had a full two days of family parties, sleepovers, hours at the waterpark, not enough sleep, lots of wild fun, dinner, cake, ice-cream cones and a new scooter and bike. (amongst other various toys galore)

She is my joy and I am sad to see her grow up. I like to watch her sleep when I check in on her before I hit the sack. She has this pouty look to her and I think it's because her lips are frozen in *I just took my thumb out of my mouth* mode.

She is so determined and can be such a pest, but at the same time does the cutest things and has the cutest ways.

She calls herself Baby Cat and if she's awake and alert when I say good morning to her, she will always do a little *meow* for me and give me kisses.

Four.

Happy Birthday, Baby Cat. Stay as spunky as you are now, for someday you are destined to use that personality in your everyday life.

Another dose of Doo

2008-07-30T16:58:00.002-06:00

Scooby Doo remains king in my house.

We are getting ready to go pick up some doo-decor for someones upcoming fourth birthday. And how better to get in the mood than an episode of "Krazy Kook from Outer Space" from Season one? Circa 1969.

I loved this stuff as a kid and am so grateful to Mr. Apple TV and his ability to give me the option of buying all sorts of old Television shows online to store on the computer to play over and over for hours on end.

I went and saw Mr. Attorney this afternoon, registered my car and put a check in the bank. The husband joked with me, "You deposited it? You're not going to let it sit for months attached to the calendar?"

That is normally what happens to our checks. There are some mortgage escrow returns and birthday checks, the stimulus check and dentist appointment reminders. They stay up there until we make a trip to the actual bank.

Let me preface this with "I most certainly did not win the lottery, but I didn't feel comfortable with a check like that just hanging around my kitchen in hopes of getting lost or better yet, thrown away. (just like the title to the 4-Runner)

Oy, the Doo is done and we are leaving.

How come a ghost from outer space keeps ham and chicken around?

2008-07-22T17:00:00.002-06:00

Wouldn't we all like to know the answer to that question?

Another question I, personally, would like to know is "What is the deal with bangs?"

All of a sudden, at work, it has become quite the rage.
Now believe me when I say, that these are people who are just catching on to bangs when they were made cool in the 70's. That is how far behind the city is that my work is located in.

Don't be jealous now.

People who have no style, none I tell you, have decided to get some bangs introduced into their daily hairstyle of doing nothing to their hair.

They then proceed to talk about it. "I was told by my super-hot sister in law that she thought my bangs were cute and she got them too" what was not mentioned was "I didn't get my grays covered or my mustache waxed, but gol durn it, I got me some bangs"

Then another girl got them and she said later that she cried when she first looked in the mirror. I'm not sure if the crying was due to the bang introdcution or the sheer wrongness of the red color that was attached to her hair folicles.

Keep in mind, I am no hair genius. No no. I am a curly-haired freak who is just one hair gel bottle away from a wicked fro, so there is not much change-up in my daily hair routine.
I also think that some people look perfectly delightful with bangs, so don't get me wrong by any means. There are just some people who should not be talking about style. NOT when these people are still wearing dresses/muu-muu's from the 80's.

I turned around to a co-worker and asked her how she thought I would look with bangs. Oh boy, just the look on her face and my fit of giggles summed it up into a big, fat NO. Oh hell no.

Well, my children have most likely spent the past eight hours watching Scooby Doo with the babysitter and seem a little strung out. So I must try and do some wearing out. It's either that or scream at them to stop jumping on the couch, and my lips would much rather be wrapped around the rim of a cold drink, so we'll go outside for a while.

And where could my futon mattress be?

2008-07-18T17:52:00.003-06:00

Oh yes, it is still in the bed of the truck.

Let's hope no wasps have taken up residence on/in/around it.

Someone received a very thin envelope from the IRS in the mail today....in the form of a fabulous stimulus check.

I have been stimulated.

Both girls are tired and bundled up in blankets on the couch, lounging into the beginning of the weekend.

I had all intentions of going upstairs to work out, so far, I have not felt that urge.
Ugh, I need some damn motivation.

And what better motivation do I have than the fact that I'm going to be on a waterfront lake in a few short days, most likely in a bikini, to motivate my ass upstairs? Well, there is no better motivation than that and yet, I still sit on this couch.

What's for breakfast?

2008-07-13T10:12:00.003-06:00

Oh my.... It's after ten am, and S and I have just rambled out of bed. Oy.

That's what going to the drive in will do to you....especially when a kid's cartoon ends at 11:30 and deposits you at home at midnight. zzzzzzzz

B is still asleep and somehow the husband got up at 7:30 to go for a long bike ride.

Firefox is messed up on the computer due to some *children* who mess on the computer too often....so Safari and all it's non-greatness will not let me use control options to optimize my blogging session with italics and the like. For shame.

S is standing next to me, correcting my bad typing skills, (sorry, bad keyboard that I'm not used to) and asking why I don't type her name out on this thing. So after a brief explanation, she says that's okay, because when you type her name out, spell-check never recognizes it anyway and puts a red squiggly line underneath it. And she doesn't like that. So we typed all our names out, and both the children get the red squigglys.

Poor kids.

It's Sunday. Time to finish up the laundry and put the futon mattress away from the bed of the truck and all the pillows and blankets.

Finally, the moment, uh, stimulus check, I've been waiting for

2008-07-03T16:37:00.003-06:00

Ah, it's a long weekend, it's hot, still, and I'm home a little early from work.
The children are tired, but happy and we've dragged all the toys, bathing suits and extra clothes from the babysitter's into the house.
I've picked up the mail and what? What could this envelope be?
It is labeled from the IRS, but it is a very thick envelope.

Oy!

I'm thinking there is not going to be a check in here.

I open it, scan it very briefly.....very very briefly, shove it back where it came from and head upstairs to put something less hot and work-like on for the reading of this.
Hell, if I were smart, I'd put some Gin on Ice before I read this.

We could have received our stimulus check starting May 19th and have yet to see or hear word about a thing. So now with this thick ol envelope, my hopes are dashed, I'm thinking *AUDIT* and I'm scared.

With my shorts and tank-top on I read the letter...Dear R and C blah blah, enclosed is blah blah and please read the next page to see what we need from you blah blah and if you don't send what we need, we will either determine if you owe us, more, or if we need to minimize your return (uh, what return thank you).

So I read the second, long page, and at the end it says that WE DID NOT SIGN OUR RETURN and we NEED TO SIGN THE RETURN in order for them to send us a check (within 6-8 weeks of whenever the hell they decide whatnot) because I'm not sure if it says they will even send a check.

Yeah.

Here is what gets me:
Number 1:
We filed electronically via TurboTax in April. This has never been an issue before...the electronic signing of said tax return.

Number 2:
They were sure quick as hell to CASH THE LARGE SUM ON THE CHECK(S) WE MAILED THEM without our SIGNATURE accompanying our return. That sure didn't pose a problem to them.

Annoyance.

I guess I was already to the point that IF I saw a mysterious stimulus check get mailed to us, I would figure, hooray, a bonus to us and let's pay off the couch. And if not, then, screw them.

Well, bring on the long weekend. We did neighborhood fireworks last night and stayed out too late, we're doing the drive-in tonight...perfect weather for that kind of thing. Parade (maybe) tomorrow and evening fireworks and hopefully a trip to Banana Republic to check out their summer sale.

Whaa?

2008-07-01T18:14:00.002-06:00

Wait a second...

Two weeks ago I didn't go running in the AM hours because it was 38 degrees?

Friends, it is exactly 100 degrees right now.

Steamy.

I have a kid and a dog snuggled up next to me with a blanket.

Oh yeah baby, one hundred.

Never enough time

2008-06-25T20:36:00.003-06:00

Remember the days when people would take their film out of their cameras and get actual prints made?
Some crafty people even print out their digital photos.
Even craftier, some people upload photos to their computers and/or photobucketish sites and post photos on the internet.
Wow.

I want you to imagine someone who takes their camera everywhere with them, as long as this person has her purse, and takes photos of all sorts of things: delicious looking cheeseburgers that a fellow employee is getting ready to eat, children (her own children usually), dogs, cats, potato bugs, chicken pox, people with silly outfits/hair-do's, other employees doing random acts of crazies (giving her the finger whilst taking birthday decorations down) and videos of her children doing cute dancing and employees killing wasps. I have been known to get crazy and take photos of illegally jacked up redneck trucks, while driving, and the first gas station I saw with the gas over the $4.00 mark.

BUT. This is where it ends. I take the camera, and show people my weekend meanderings and wanderings and "Could this truck possiblybe jacked up any higher". And then sometimes I even upload the photos once there are too many on there and not much to erase.

But, I'm sorry. You will have to imagine the rest of what I have described, because as soon as I possibly find any extra time in my life, I will spend that time getting a few more minutes of sleep, and not posting photos.

Maybe in the winter when I have nothing better to do.

Right?

Happy Birthday Peanut

2008-06-17T20:20:00.002-06:00

Seven years ago, I gave birth, at the un-godly hour of 2:40 am, to a beautiful, 5 1b 15 ounce, baby girl named S.

Now what kind of crazy parent names their child S? Better yet, her full name is S.A.R.M. That's right, folks. Two middle names. Poor kid.

She is the light of my life. She has sparkling blue eyes, beautiful soft highlighted hair and is spunky as spunk.

After her little sister was born, she asked me one day, "Mom. Did my baby sister come out of yours gina?" all I could say was a simple "Yes"
She said, "That makes me FREAK OUT!" and left the room. And I thought, that makes me freak out a little too....and giggled to myself like crazy.

I love you little one. Don't grow up too fast.

Who is this person?

2008-06-13T10:27:00.002-06:00

Why does Rachael Ray talk like she is seconds away from crying?

AND WHERE IS MY DAMN TELEVISION REMOTE?

I must program the TV to go to sleep after Matt Lauer is done for the day.

And nothing says vacation day like being ill with some sort of stomach bug.

Is it a stay at home day, mom?

2008-06-12T08:45:00.004-06:00

Why yes, my sweet little girls, it is a stay at home day. (Give me a hooray!)

We have no babysitter for two days, so since last week's Moab adventure was cut off completely, I took two days off to watch my babies. The older one does not find the love that I feel in calling her my baby. Mooooom, I'm not a baby!

We have lots and lots of things we need to accomplish. Returning things to stores, picking more things up from said stores, picking up a half yard of dirt and flowers, finding the husband a father's day gift (yikes), clean the house, do laundry.

And it is almost nine o'clock and one child just got up and neither of them have even had breakfast.

I was going to go for a walk/run before the husband left for work, but when he got in the shower I asked what the temperature was outside and he said Thirty Eight. Thirty Eight? Are you joking? It is June 12th for heaven's sake. Needless to say, I stayed in bed and he kissed me at 7:15 as he was leaving.

It has been an unseasonably cool spring so far and I love it. I really do. It's been a little bizzare though. We can go from having the AC on during the day and it will drop so cold as a front blows in that the heater needs to be kicked on by the early evening. Take yesterday and today for example. Highs in the low 60's...yesterday it got up to 63 for about an hour and dropped and stayed in the 50's....today should be in the mid 60's...but by Saturday and Sunday, we should be almost 90.

Just in time for a family reunion on Saturday and family over here on Sunday for Father's day....so I guess I should find something for my dad and father-in-law too. Ak! Hopefully I can get the in-laws to stay with the girls one day to save me a day in babysitter money. ha.

Not much going on. Just a long list of things I need to do. But I plan on enjoying my kids and taking it easy. In fact, it is time to get a refill on my coffee. So I am out of here.

What a week

2008-06-05T18:33:00.002-06:00

What a difference one week can make.

Last week I enjoyed two blissful hours of watching Lost and drinking Gin.

This week, I have two poxed people and one, totally bored and strung out of her mind, three year old who had been cooped up in the house with the two sickos.

I made the husband send her to the babysitters today just so she can possibly be worn out enough to sleep tonight.

At eight o'clock last night she was running and jumping off the stairs, butt naked and roaring like a tiger. She then proceeded to do a tiger dance, a tickle-monster dance, and then the inevitable, pee and poo dance. There is nothing like the pee and poo dance. It was spectacular and deserved some sort of recognition.
I did laugh hysterically due to the sheer toddler-esce-ness of it all. Buddha belly and rotund naked butt, running around the house.

We are not going to Moab. Boo. No vacations this weekend. Boo.
S cried at the dinner table when we told her tonight that we are not going. Poor kid. She wanted to know why. Like it wasn't obvious.

This is after the husband let her take a four hour nap...which she woke up from at 5:30.
This always makes for easy bedtime routines.

I like to shake my fist in the air at that one.

Well, not much else going on....asked my boss today for a Mac. And we both laughed. He said he wanted one too. Haa haa haaa Haaaaaa

Right. I have the bottom of the line Dell that has no DVD-R. It is sad when your surf-the-web-only apple laptop is nicer than what you have at work. Not to mention the other computers at home. Oh well.

I'm off to digest dinner a little bit more so I can go have a 20 minute training session with my friend, Jillian, who is getting me some muscles and makes me sore.

Didn't we do this in the 70's?

2008-06-02T16:21:00.002-06:00

Guess who has the pox now?

Guess! Guess!

Well, since there are only two other people in the household who have not had the pox before, one who is 37 years of late and the other 7 years, well then, I suppose it would be them. (I am stretching the true a little here, the husband, who kindly reminded me, will not be 37 until next month, and S will be 7 in 15 days)

Exactly 20 days of incubation have busted out the dreaded blistery chicken pox in one husband and one daughter. How delightful. How superbly wonderful that we are supposed to leave on a little get-away-vacation in three short days. I'm not sure if this will be happening.

The husband stayed home, as we were getting our patio truly poured today, and then I got all ill at work...the shakes, all signs pointing to food poisoning, dizzy, cramps. pale, hot/cold...sent a frantic email stating I was leaving the workplace, and drove the 12 miles home with my hand over my mouth hoping I would not actually barf in my car and chanting in my head "only 12 miles, only 12 miles".
I made it home just in time and spent a few hours on the couch, having a gurgling conversation with my stomach and reading/watching bad day time television.

Now the children are home with the neighbor kid that the mom still wants her to get the pox. Welcome to that place. They are playing Mario Kart.

Happy First Day of Summer Vacation everyone!

You talk, you fight, you win, you lose!

2008-05-30T21:23:00.004-06:00

I have been utterly disenchanted with my children today.

I feel like the shit-hole of a mom too. Especially when the husband points out that me saying that they are really

driving me to drink/get a second job

bugging me is a (not) really great thing to say in front of said children.

He and I have not spoken in the past hour and a half.

We rarely fight. We really don't fight. We agree to disagree.

I say "We are not rewarding bad behavior with treats and Scooby-Doo-Watching" and he will turn around and say it's okay after I say no. This is a source of anger with me. I don't appreciate trying to keep control of the kids. Disciplining per se. Especially when someone is undermining everything you say.

I don't really know how to explain things, but they are not in a good place. My kids are spoiled. Rottenly spoiled, and I'm not quite sure how to try and tread backwards in trying to reverse the damage already done.
We go out for dinner tonight, and the kids think that if they behave and eat their dinner that this automatically means that they are in deservance of a treat or a toy.

Let me say, without screaming, "Are you kidding me?"
(And believe me when I say they did not behave)

When did doing what is expected of you turn into a demand for something in return?

I do not know how it happened. I'm am most certain it is my fault. I will take blame. But I MUST MUST MUST find some way of reversing this behavior.

Heaven help us all as the weekend has just begun.

It didn't help that there was a father, sans mother, who was out with FOUR children, including an infant in a carseat, and the older kids (all under the age of eight) were so well-behaved it made me want to lose my cheeseburger.

All the while my almost seven-year old was under the table picking up other peoples' trash. Yes, we do not have enough of our own trash, we need to bring more home.

Now it's been two hours since the husband and I have said anything to each other...and the last words were at high decibals (from me) and angry.

I think it's time for bed.

Pot pie? Who's got a pot pie?

2008-05-29T19:19:00.007-06:00

I was supposed to help the husband with the moving of lawn furniture, but he has disappeared with the dog.

I had to say that I made and devoured this last night, and I have to say Thank you to Mrs. Beanpaste and her chickenpotpie. You should say that in one word.

The husband and I even split it up equally for lunch leftovers. mmmmmm

Not normally would you see the word leftover and the word husband in the same sentence, so it was truly blogworthy to note this.

Well, that's about it folks. The children are plumb tuckered out and borderline nasty, so I must go stop a Scooby-Doo fest and put them to bed before the Season Finale of Lost makes a grand premiere on my television.

Remembering the bricks

2008-05-26T09:16:00.004-06:00

The dear husband is outside, in the pouring rain, removing the old bricks from our old garden-turned-playground. It's a little sad to see the morphing of what once was to what will be. Sad to see the hours of back-breaking, brick placing labor and the bricks that broke the leaf springs on the truck, get pried out of their resting place for the last nine years. Only to be replaced with grass.

In other news, the pox are all scabbed over and B is ready to go back to school. Hooray! There are only 4 days left of school for both girls. Yikes! That means, in three short months, S will be going into 2nd grade and B will be in year two of "preschool". That means, that in three weeks, S will be SEVEN and and two months later, B will be FOUR. How did this happen? How did my babies get to be so old? How did they get to be so sassy and argumentative? How can they be so sweet and yet so mean at the same time? Sad. I find myself pausing at their beds when I check on them before I hit the sack, and just look at their sweet little faces while they sleep. Their long eyelashes, their sweet, soft cheeks, their pouty lips, so sweet and angelic. It's a good vision to go to sleep on. In the mornings I smooch them up until they have to say "Moooom! Stop!"

The husband and I snatched some leftover sod from across the street last night. In the dark of the night, with the wheelbarrow in tow, we barreled across the street and got ourselves six rolls of sod. Bwaahaaahaaa.

Well, the husband has come back inside so I'm going to warm up the wafflemaker again and bust him out some breakfast.

I see nothing wrong with it

2008-05-22T17:34:00.002-06:00

My glorious, wacked-out like myself, neighbor has been watching B for the past two days in hopes that my kid passes on the pox to her kids.

I love that I'm not the only one who is not counting on vaccines to determine if my kid gets into school with a government-issued fully vaccinated form.

It's been a hectic week.

I am officially the Marketing (director) (my little addition to the title) person at work. I also have no idea what to do, where to start, what buttons to push.

Delightful.

I am really looking forward to a long, memorial-day, weekend.

It will be involving lots of Gin, Wine and Beer. Maybe just a small amount of food too.

We've got Spots

2008-05-18T10:07:00.003-06:00

My dearest three-year old, Baby-Cat-B, has the chicken pox.

What started out with two, tiny blistery bumps on her neck, have now appeared on every part of her little bhudda-bellied body.

She is perfectly fine, otherwise. She currently has a bathing suit on, and is ready for some pool action because of our hotter than normal temperatures.

S is paranoid that she shouldn't get too close to her as she will get them too. Sorry to break it to you child, but you have already been exposed before we knew this was happening, so we'll see what happens. S was exposed when she was younger and never actually "got" them. The husband has never had them either so she may be his little clone.

I'll have to say that I'm one of those wacky vaccine-freaked moms that doesn't get all the recommended vaccinations for her children. So flog me now.
But, hell, I'm not worried. I've had them. And I may even have a younger sister who can watch little B for a few days this week if the need arises.

I don't want you in the tree

2008-05-16T20:00:00.002-06:00

Oh, the three year old that says "Mom, I want you to put me up in that big tree"...how can one deny the sweet, sticky three year old, with a ring-pop on her finger, who is very graceful and would most certainly not fall out of the tree?

Just the ring pop on her finger makes me not want to put her in the tree.

In my last rambling, I was (again) complaining about my adventures in babysitting, ahem, the supervising of ones employees. Isn't it amazing what the difference a few days can make?

Can't really speak of it in-depth quite yet as everything is not completely set in stone....but let's just say that if those crazed employees think that *I* am a bitch....well, they are about to be wickedly shocked, unbeknownst to them.

BWWWWAAAAHHHHAAAAHAAAAAAA

ahem. I will not gloat. I will not laugh. I will not sneer. I will not be ultra-excited for my new, enclosed cubicle.

Not yet.

Please, someone make them move

2008-05-13T19:22:00.002-06:00

I have been at the computer for, honestly, four minutes. The only thing I have heard in the past four minutes is the never-ending wail of someone crying. The girls are outside playing kickball with their dad (god only knows what they are really doing) and first S, comes in the house howling, goes outside still crying...it stops momentarily, and then B is crying.

Seriously, I can only imagine the neighbors, slamming their windows that face our backyard, in pure agony of another night with the M family playing outside with all that sisterly love. The really really wonderful thing is that our closest neighbor also happens to be a case worker for the DCFS (Division of Child and Family Services), so I have to watch my screaming mouth for fear of retribution.

Work is annoying. Once I deal with one annoying employee, then there is another, and then another and I get so excited to deal with all the hormones and insecurity and complaints and UGH. Make it stop. If I am really making your life so tough, then find another damn job! Just because I expect you to come to work (if you can do that) and actually WORK, I know, it IS terribly bitchy of me to even think that you should do that whilst clocked in and getting paid.

Sigh.

I try so hard not to come home and hit the bottle during the week, and then have to deal with complete morons all day when I could be at home babysitting my own children for god's sake. They at least give me some love throughout the day after they say they hate me for making them sit and read and do their homework. At work you just get hated and backstabbed and complained about behind your back. For being so mean

I LOVE those employees.

Me! Me! Pick me!

2008-05-06T16:06:00.001-06:00

Who can guess who is sick in *my* house again?

I don't want everyone rushing to post a guess now.

That would make me all warm inside to think that someone CARES.

The fish is still frozen

2008-05-01T18:25:00.001-06:00

Now what the hell am I supposed to make for dinner?

Home again, home again, Jiggety jag

2008-04-28T08:52:00.003-06:00

kiss all the girls and make them gag.

That was my family's version of that rhyme.

I am at home, with a sick B. She is snotty, coughy and still sleeping...and it's almost nine o'clock. She was up at various hours of the night, along with myself, coughing coughing. Poor baby. Or as she likes to call herself "Baby Cat" or the newest pet name "Scooby-a-Doo". It's adorable.

Donde Esta? Matt Lauer?
That is the good thing about staying home. I get to sit on the new couch, with a cup o coffee and my laptap, and the best thing of all? Matt Lauer. Meow.
That is why nothing ever got done around my house when I stayed at home. Mr. Lauer was at my beck and call for a good three hours in the morning, and I couldn't get anything accomplished with *that* around.

It is supposed to be in the high 70's today, so there will be some good, quality-cuddling-on-a-blanket in the sun, time that will happen between B and I.
The girls and I had some of that yesterday afternoon and we shared carrots with the dog. He also loves Dilly of a dip on his carrots. Just like me.

Well, there really isn't much going on. I did LOADS, honestly, loads of laundry all weekend. And it really started on Thursday night. Sheesh. Last week's camping at Moab adventure really set me up for being so far behind. 544-9566 - Rebecca. I am taking phone messages. Ha. So anyone can give her a call if they would like. If you can be the sleuth that I know most of you are, you can figure out the area code and ring ol Rebecca up.

It is now time for another cup of coffee. It's very tasty when you get to enjoy it without anyone, with the exception of Rebbeca, bothering you.

Control yourself

2008-04-17T20:20:00.003-06:00

There are no other bloggers who have the interest of "Calling animal control on stray dogs"
What the hell?
I can't be the only one. Come on people.

Op, gotta run. The husband wants to return the large, one side of the garage consuming, cardboard and bubble wrap mess we have, back to the furniture store where it came from.

Tell me... Who doesn't find that totally attractive in a man?

By-the-way, the beta blockers for my heart issues have turned me into one, sassy mo-fo. I've got confidence coming out of various orifices.

I'm not sure if my bosses are going to like the new, sassier than before, me.

BWAAAHAAAHAAAAAA

20 minutes of kicking your ass

2008-04-10T17:37:00.002-06:00

Today I am sore.

Last night I was tracking an amazon order which tried to politely tell me that the DVD I had ordered had been delivered....and since I hadn't gone out to the mailbox in two days, I got the husband to do it for me. And lo and behold, there was my Jillian Michaels 30 day Shred DVD. Glistening, in very difficult to remove, plastic casing.

I did the 20 minute, level one, workout and honestly, it *was* 20 minutes of kicking your ass.
It was great.
I don't think I can do it again tonight. I had all intentions of doing it, but after my walk at lunch and the screaming pain in my quads, I think I'll have to pass.

My dinner that I put in the crockpot this morning has also reached the point of no return. The chicken is shriveled and dry and looks very unappetizing. That really bites, because now what? I guess I should find out when the husband is planning on coming home. I may just make waffles since B is hooked on them, and little does she know that I make the ones out of whole-wheat...Bwaahaahaaaa. I'll get some fiber in these people, one way or another.

Tuesday Blahs

2008-04-08T19:04:00.003-06:00

The results of the before-mentioned Holter monitor came back as "normal". In other words, I do not have any arrythmias. I do have a very fast resting heart rate though, and I started some beta-blockers to see if that can curb the pounding of the heart and the sympathetic nerve issues.

I honestly feel like some druggie.
I take my anxiety stuff and a beta blocker in the am hours, followed up by a schlew of vitamins...magnesium, zinc, c, b, cod liver oil and flaxseed oil. In the evening before bed, it's acidophilus, calcium, more flaxseed and a bit of a muscle relaxer so I can sleep without my jaw in the locked position.

Does that sound normal?

Okay, okay, I have realized that I am far from being normal, and that's okay. But lately, with all the extra meds, it makes me wary.

My newest girl at work lost her baby at 8 and 1/2 weeks and had a D & C today. I feel utterly sad for her. This is her second loss. How horrible.

I ordered her a nice flower arrangement and hope she is okay.

I got a little ornery near the end of my work-day, and it filtered into my evening and I just feel down I guess. Listened to Radiohead, the Bends, and I was just sad. Still am. Don't know why. I think I need some extra sleep tonight since I tried last night and that did not happen.

My little B looked so stinking cute today. Had on a long sleeved yellow shirt with a coralish pink shirt with a bird on it over that. And darling new shoes and a sparkle in her eye. I took some photos when I got home. We'll see when I actually download them off my camera...GEE.

Let's see....

2008-04-01T18:34:00.003-06:00

Not really much to post about, other than the thumb-sucker has yet, another cold.

Shocking. I know.

Obviously our attempts to stop the suckage are not working too well.

I did finally get over myself and went to the doctor concerning my heart palpitations and bouncy manuvers and got set up with a 24 hour Holter Monitor. I did that yesterday and took back the device this afternoon.

I should get some feedback in a few days. I'm really trying to rule out any issues due to my previous bouts with heart problems. Things that were burnt out of my heart via ablation, tissue, is what they call it. ha. There is always a chance that said tissue can grow back. Wouldn't *that* be a treat!

Well, it is time to walk the dog. More like, jog with the dog. Who knew that a daschund would be a running companion? With those short little weiner-dog legs and all.

It's a hoot, especially him in his sweater...since it's cold, and he shivers.

Take me to the specialist

2008-03-25T20:32:00.004-06:00

Yes, uhm, the hater of all dogs has got herself a dog.

GASP

A dog you say?

What the hell is wrong with this picture?

Oh wait. There is no picture.

Not yet.

That would mean I would have to upload all of my photos since December 24th.
And I do not have the time nor the energy to do such a thing.
And I do not want to walk two rooms to the kitchen to retrieve my camera.

L.A.Z.Y.

(The Specialist won't hurt me,
She's not like the nuns.
She's got a lot of pain pills,
I think I'll take some yellow ones.)

What to sample next?

2008-03-17T19:11:00.002-06:00

My thumb sucker...aka the sampler of bathroom stall doors, is turning into a holy terror.

I told a friend of mine about her licking the window at REI on Saturday and got peals of laughter in response.

I can laugh too, the child is a riot...but she is killing me! She is sick again! and again and again, and spent time in the naughty corner during dinner and just ripped off two, luscious sprigs from my favorite plant! The husband is sending her to the naughty corner....

Oh my hell.

Grant me the sanity to survive this child.

She told me from the back seat of the car on the way home from school that her mouth tasted yucky.
I asked her if it was because she just had chocolate and then some goldfish?

She politely informed me that the reason her mouth tasted yucky was because her new shoe tasted yucky, and apparently, when you get new shoes, you also need to put them in your mouth to sample their lovely flavor.

Bret Michaels...WTF?

2008-03-11T20:19:00.004-06:00

Due to the fact that I get free television watching at home...the husband and I have come across part II of the Bret Michaels search for slut-love.

OMG, this is the WORST show I have EVER SEEN. Would you be so proud of your daughter, on TV, vying to be the biggest slut-whore on the face of the planet? For *Bret Michaels* of all people.

How old and washed up is this person? (very)

I'm watching it again in my hotel room. It's entirely stupidity at its finest.

At least when I am home, someone in the 'hood fastforwards through the commercials which are at least TOLERABLE compared to this stupid show.

I spent the day in a conference room, with lots of treats and drinks and lunch and a superb dinner with an open bar and two gin and tonic's in my belly.
And I was depressed by the tour of the facilities of the insurance building I spent the day at. No fighting for parking, no ugly stepchildren in the corner packed in their cubicles like sardines. (Stinky sardines in the 95* temperature during the summer with a broken airconditioner)

Oh no! This building has an on-site gym, with a POOL, and a basketball court, an optical center where you get FREE eye exams and eyeglasses every two years, an on-site health/nurse facility, a salon, a dry cleaning service, a place to drop off your CAR for an oil change, a tire change and a car wash if you get these done, a cafeteria...that seats appx 600 people, ice machines, LOADS of microwaves that didn't come from a pawn shop, newspaper vending machines with the New York Times and other various papers to choose from, actual conference rooms with functional TABLES, they get fresh AIR pumped into the building every SIX minutes...What else? My hell, just when you think they couldn't show you more, there was yet another floor to show, no fights for parking spaces...people who spoke so highly of their place of employment.

SIGH

It was depressing.

When we got to the bar, someone asked me how I liked the tour. I said "If you are trying to recruite me, you are doing a fabulous job."

They thought that was HILARIOUS.
If they only knew.

Well, I actually get to sleep in a little tomorrow before I trek back to the airport, so I've packed my 5 beers in my luggage..wrapped in socks and one handtowel that I, uhm, aquired from the hotel...hopefully they don't miss it...because I didn't have to pack a lot of clothes, and heaven forbid I break a beer.
I used to do this all the time...bring back a 12 pack of beer from Chicago, when I was traveling a lot, and there was never an issue...but this was before 2001....so we'll see what happens.
I've had two gin and tonics, so I'm not needing anything else tonight. Just something to relax me to sleep so I don't hear the "I think there is a rodent in my room" noise that I heard last night.

I get to go back to work on Thursday. I am not excited. I have not missed my department at ALL.

I've missed a few people...my oatmeal run in the morning person, and that's about it. My home premium-chicken-strip.

My stupid attorney called the husband on Monday night too, and confused the crap out of him, since he talks a load of shit all the time, and the phone in my room SUCKS, since you can't hear me, even though I am YELLING. So I guess we'll talk about it tomorrow.

Until next time.
Adios

By the way, did I happen to mention that we purchased a 4-Runner? Well, we did. And my typing sucks completely, so I'm out.

Happy Birthday, from Wisconsin

2008-03-10T20:19:00.003-06:00

That is what my sorry-ass texted my brother earlier. It's a classic family-that-I'm-from way to say Happy Birthday since I'm a slacker that couldn't SEND you a birthday card, but could remember to TEXT you in-between connecting flights to Wisconsin....
yaaaahhhhhhh

I am currently sitting on a King-Sized bed in the very freaking cold state of Wisconsin. It's COLD dammit.

I spent the majority of my day in an airplane and/or in an airport. So I went out to dinner and got a chimichanga at some off-the-wall restaurant, and it was amazing, with a somewhat co-worker of mine, and then went to get some beer.

I walked around in awe at the *refrigerated* beer selection (which in Utah, you do not get) so I was like a kid in a candy store...then I get back to my room and realize I have purchased 6 beers that require a bottle opener to open.

Most of our luggage does have a bottle opener since we have, many times, come across this predicament, but alas, my luggage does not have one. I, amazed myself, by wrenching a lid off a bottle by using the door jam thingee to the bathroom and popped one off. (Without damaging anything in the process) Yay for me!

So between the lovely time change and flying to a different time zone change, I am screwed up. More than usual. My body feels like it is only 7:25.... and in the state I am in tonight, it is currently 9:25. THAT SUCKS!

I have to get up at the buttcrack of dawn tomorrow to go to a conference..fit in breakfast...getting dressed..opening my eyes...when it will feel like so many hours, two to be exact, before my body wants to get up.

I am certain that the beer and the muscle relaxer and the hot shower I just took will make it extra easy to get up in the morning.

Well, it is about time to dry my hair (so I can sleep in a little bit later) and try to ease into a sleep that will most likely be interrupted by slamming doors, mysterious loud arguments in the middle of the night in the hallways, and, of course, the upstairs neighbors' toilets flushing throughout the night. Oh yes, can't forget about the loud heater turning on which lets you remember that it is still in the room with you.

I miss my kids and the husband.

I miss my debit card that I forgot to grab from the ATM when I got cash yesterday.

Can I give her back?

2008-03-03T17:17:00.002-07:00

Can one get a refund on their child? I know I KNOW. I can hear the gasps and grumbling, but I have been having some real issues with one 6 year old.

She has been so ultimately sassy and just plain HORRIBLE the past few days..mainly, the past three, that I am at my wits end.

She was awful all weekend. Even the husband was frustrated and upset with her. And it takes a lot to ruffle his feathers when it comes to his little girls.

Then I go to pick her up after school today. Which I do not do often, mind you, so I reminded her over and over that I would be picking her up, where to be..blahblahblabblaaaaa....and I wait. 5 minutes pass.....10 minutes pass....14 minutes pass and a car comes into the otherwise empty drop off/pick up area, and who else is in her car, but the very 6 year old I am waiting, somewhat frazzled, for.

AUUUURRRRRGGGGGHHHHH

I was calm. Bless my heart, I was calm. I explained to her that I was waiting for her and WHY did she decide to get in someone elses car? WHY, pray tell, did you get in someone elses car when you KNEW I WOULD BE THERE?
So we come home and I send her upstairs to potty it up and wash her hands while I call the husband and close myself in the laundry room.
So instead of us going out to the library to spend some mother/daughter time together....we go pick up the little sister and go to the health food store when the 6 year old proceeds to squish empty gel capsules when I tell her repeatedly to PUT THEM BACK in my best shush-scream..and then she antagonizes the 3 year old by squeezing her arms, making her fall, running around the very small aisles....all in a matter of us being in the store for less than 60 seconds.
SIGH. SIGH....sigh
So, I sit the 6 year old on a small stool and say "Don't move your butt from this seat until we are ready to go"
We have been dealing with her having fear issues at night and turning all her damn lights on and I was going to look through a quick homeopathic book to see what something said about this. I open the page to the index and I hear a CRASH.....and see a bottle fall off the shelf...and two workers come around the corner...and I'm thinking, oh she drops a bottle and how did it make that sound? Well, they pull the damn FIRE EXTIUNGUISHER from the side of the 6 year old and ask her if she is okay. I go over and ask her if she was messing with it to make it fall and they want to make sure she didn't get hit by it and if she's okay. She says she okay and she didn't do anything.
Riiiight
So I grab both girls' hands at this point and throw us in line, utterly PISSED by this point. Buy my acidophilus and leave.
I guess she pushed her head up against it and it fell off the hook. My hell. I swear.

So I sent her straight to her room to do homework and reading and the husband and I are having a very serious discussion with her tonight.

Let me tell you that most of our *serious* discussions end up with her covering her ears and yelling at us.

We are doomed.

Well, it is time to make dinner. I am starving, absolutely famished.
Last week at work was horrendous due to my sicko, call in sick sick sicko, worked a big, whopping 3 hours total last week.
I've had it with her. No more Mrs. nice boss from me. The stick falls here.

I also have to fly to Wisconsin for business next week for a whirlwind trip that involves one whole day of a conference.
Yay.