I feel bad

Every Sunday I get an email telling me of all the poor souls that still visit my dead blog. For those of you that still pop in, should I resume blogging? Honestly it's a pain in the ass, but at the same time I do like to read back over my entries and see what was going on in my life. I don't have a diary, so maybe I should start this madness again?

Thoughts? Shoot me a comment and let me know if you miss this silly fodder?

In the mean time here are some pictures of the natives.

Oh and I've joined Facebook, Al and I were talking about it condescendingly and now I realize it's kinda fun.....

First up: Little Miss Hilton Head Island



And her tree huggin' older sister:



On Hilton Head we stayed in this wicked smashing villa, that I'm certain was way state of the art in 1978, however by 2008 standards it lacked just a smidge. One really sweet thing was Madge left her glasses there in 1978, and since we were the first people to rent the villa since Madge stayed there in 1978, I happened upon them. Well I had to look at the world through 1978 colored glasses, and let's just say it looked fabulous! Here's a picture of me sporting my new glasses showcasing some of the stunning decor.



Go on say it, "I look hot". You so wish you had those glasses, I KNOW IT!

My poor sweet child.

I've added up the out of pocket expenses for January through today, not including prescriptions. Between both girls we have spent over $1,100 dollars. Guess you know where our "stimulus" check went. Between co-pays, x-rays, nebulizer, orthopedic shoes, etc, we are completely tapped out.

R has had since January, a sinus infection, ear infection, walking pneumonia, broken foot, throwing up, mystery fever, three failed hearing tests, constant water in the ear drum that does not respond to medication, allergies, the list goes on and on. Last Friday introduce Strep Throat. Yes, one more to add to this poor child's ever growing list. So off to the doctor we go, test comes back positive. A day on amoxicillin and she felt much better. Only missed one day of school. (bringing our total for Kindergarten to 9 days)

Friday morning she woke up fine, ate breakfast fine, took her medicine fine, went upstairs to brush her teeth and get dressed, all fine. Sometime between getting dressed and coming downstairs (oh 60 seconds) she broke out in a horrible rash.

That makes 10 days out of school.

Took her to the pediatrician. She has had a reaction to her amoxicillin. So add to our list, allergic to penicillins.

Poor sweet girl is now on zithromax (we took that for the pneumonia, so we know we're not allergic), and she was itching so bad last night, no one slept, and I had to call the pediatrician again this morning.

We'll be picking up our prescription for oral steroids today........

Here are some pictures of this horrible rash. She is amazingly taking this rather well, I know I would not be so happy if it were me.

I had to wait

and make certain that my hair wasn't going to fall out...y'know that whole 48 hour strand test that no one ever does....well we're on day 4, so I'm thinking I'm safe.

It all started pretty innocently. I took my Mom to Ulta on Friday to buy new makeup for her birthday. On a side note her birthday isn't until the 13th, but we both agreed, "why delay beauty?", so Ulta it was a few weeks early.

I picked up some notions, Mom picked up some mineral make up and then the girls and I ate lunch at Salsarita's, a delightful restaurant. Of course in walking to Salsarita's I noticed a Great Clips..and I always try to get my hair cut at really fancy places, so I just couldn't resist Great Clips, the fanciest of the fancy.

Annabelle cut my hair, she's about 90. Luckily I only needed a basic trim, so 2 inches later I was on my way. Back up to just below my chin, looked good, but of course I noticed my roots as she was trimming and I decided to hit CVS to pick up a box of Feria.

I had Frick and Frack in tow and off to CVS we go. I threw caution to the wind and decided, I'm going to get dark brown, not medium brown. See I don't dye my hair because I want fun colors, I want my color, only without the gray (is that a line in a commercial?). Whenever I color my hair in about 8-12 weeks it seems to turn sort of orangy...I was not born with orange hair...it's dark brown. I thought that by purchasing dark brown color, I was staying true to my roots (God, I am so freakin' funny...."roots").

So we get home and it's about 1:30, the Suit is coming home at 4:00. I set Frick and Frack up in front of Enchanted for the second time of the week, and I hit my bathroom for a date with Feria. 25 minutes later......I shower.....I notice that the hair in my hands is VERY thick....I decide that must just be a fluke. I dry my hair, it is freakin' Gothic black, we're talking give me a lip ring some red lipstick and I'm a shoo in for a job at the local used record store! OMG...WTF....this is "dark brown"? No, this is BLACK!

So, I decide to wash it like ten times. Nothing, still gothic Black. I decide to wash it with baking soda (now I'm insane...). Nothing, still gothic black..and dry and brittle.

Do I stop here? Hell no.

Off to Rite Aid we go...because you know I can't risk that the $8.00 an hour clerk at CVS will recognize me from an hour ago......

I buy Oops I effed up my hair color remover and of course I get extra strength because extra strength must be better.....on a side note, who buys "regular", other than tampons, when is regular better? Really EXTRA is always BETTER!

So this product says, "returns your hair to the color before you got all stupid and picked that God awful color". I thought, this is good. Let's give it a go. This stuff smells like crap. Like those terrible Rave perms my Mom used to torture me with in elementary (yes, you read that right...6 years old and permed!) school. It has to sit for an hour...YUCK! So I waited and watched me some Oprah, not knowing that my next 72 hours could land me on Oprah.

So I wait the hour, rinse it out forever, and look...not the orange of before, but actually a nice brown. Almost MY BROWN. Almost. THIS IS WHERE I SHOULD HAVE STOPPED, PUT DOWN THE HAIR COLOR, WALKED AWAY. I actually thought that hair color purchases should be like Sudafed, you have to sign in a little book and then ding, "no I'm sorry ma'am you've met your quota for Feria this week, you'll have to wait a week". I can't leave well enough alone though, while I was at Rite Aid I had purchased "medium brown" assuming I'd just do the same old same old and be fine, or not.

The Suit came home, liked the hair cut and barely noticed the color.

I slept on it...and then in the morning decided I had a date with Medium Brown. If your counting we've colored, uncolored, and we're coloring again. 12 hours.

I do the unusual..25 minutes, blah, blah, blah.. wash dry....GOTHIC BLACK. AGAIN. OMG.. WTF????

So I drag Frick and Frack out and this time we go back to CVS (that lady can't be working today, right? wrong). So I hit the hair color aisle and buy this
this is old school, we sold it at Brooks back in the 80s when I was a checker. It's tried and true, right? The fact that is said, "YOU MUST COLOR YOUR HAIR AFTER USING THIS BATTERY ACID" should have been a warning....to me it said, "Pick up another box of hair color while you're at it, what's another ten bucks idiot". The clerk proceeded to tell my kids "you're beautiful, you don't have to color your hair like, Mommy". Jerk.

So I did this one Saturday around noon. It took an hour and in one hour I was a platinum blond. I was Madonna. I was Paris Hilton. I was so hot. I was freaking out and had not told anyone of my shenanigans over the last 16 hours. I was screwed. So I proceeded to prepare my mandatory hair color, at this point I can't remember the color...the chemicals are getting the best of me. I colored my hair and it was kinda red, kinda orange, kinda Belinda Carlisle in the Circle in the Sand video. Now in high school I wanted that hair color...not so much now. I had to call Tina to get a second opinion. I was blurry from all the colors...I really needed an objective viewer.

She said, "LEAVE IT ALONE IT'S FINE, NOT PERFECT, BUT FINE, DON'T TOUCH IT". OK...sure.....I went out that night with the girls. Everyone agreed, just leave it, except for Gretchen. Gretchen was all I needed. She gave the courage to open another box of color. So in the wee hours of Sunday morning I hit Walgreen's and bought me some Ash Brown...apparently the ash is the key.

I am now....back to normal! My hair is completely fried...very unhappy with me, but it's brown!

If you're counting:

Cut
Color
Uncolor
Color
Uncolor
Color
Color

Just a few processes......I'm so lucky I still have hair...so lucky.

Superhuman

So what did you do today?

I ran to Walgreens at 8 AM.

I colored my hair for the sixth time in three days

Sixth time was the charm and I'm finally back to brown

I took a shower

I made 14 hairbows

I made and painted a princess crown hairbow holder

I parented two kids solo all day

I vacuumed the living room, kitchen, dining room, and den

I steam cleaned the linoleum and the hardwood floors

I had to give the ^*(&(*^(^*(& dog a bath because she decided to get covered in red clay

I did 12 loads of laundry and put away all but the Suit's

I made chicken broccoli ziti and brought it to the Suit's work so we could all have dinner as a family on his "break"

I showered again with the kids and gave myself a much needed hot oil treatment to my soon to be buzzed ala Britney hair

I "worked" for six hours (read logged in and walked by whilst doing the above and "moved" the mouse)

I put together the God forsaken basket for the stupid PTA to auction!





I'm so exhausted! Seriously..I'm going to crash and burn. I'll explain the "hair" another day...it's such a saga....oh my, monumental.

Bye bye pneumonia!

Visits to the doctor this week: 3
Co-pays: $150.00
Prescriptions: $50.00
X-Ray: $150.00
Nebulizer: $200.00

C finally kicking pneumonia and being healthy again.....Priceless.

35

So I really didn’t think that 35 was going to be such a great birthday. R was sent home from school on Thursday with a fever, and woke up Friday feeling equally as crappy. I kinda thought that set the tone for the day. C was also sick, so to say I didn’t have high hopes would be an understatement.

Wow was I wrong. I spent the morning sewing Easter dresses for the girls and their American Girl dolls. The girls were really good, just playing nicely in between doses of meds. My Mom stopped by and brought me iced coffee and we sat and chatted at the kitchen table, which was nice just to relax. It was rainy and gross, so I really didn’t mind staying in. I was shocked when the flower van pulled up and Chris and Carol sent me the cutest arrangement of hydrangeas and Gerber daisies. That was so unexpected and awesome!

The Suit came home with tulips and daffodils and Chinese food, and we all just hung in and R read us some books (I’m so proud of her learning to read!) and I was asleep by 9. Sounds lame, but it was truly a perfect day. EVERYONE remembered my birthday, by cards, phone calls, or emails, which felt fabulous. I was relaxed and felt really loved. Truly a great day. J

This morning the girls woke up sick still, so I decided that a trip to the doctor was in order. I’m glad we went. They both have walking pneumonia. R has a sinus infection on top of pneumonia. C has a double ear infection on top of pneumonia. Sweet girls, no wonder they feel so terrible. Considering what they have, they have truly been remarkable. They are both on antibiotics and R is out of school until at least Tuesday. We go to the doctor on Wednesday for a re-check, so hopefully their little lungs will have cleared.

So thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes, if I didn’t reply or call you back, I apologize, I’ve had my hands full with the girls, but hopefully they are on the road to recovery…and then my 35-ness will truly hit me!

Ouch...hematoma!

From the title you're probably thinking, "oh one of the girls fell", I would have thought that too, but no, it's me. I have inherited a nasty genetic trait from my maternal grandmother and my father. That trait: sleep walking.

I'm a champion sleeper, I love to sleep, I'm really, really good at it, when I stay in my bed. My mother's suggestion tonight (and she was serious), "maybe you should sew some bells on your pajamas so when you wake up at night and start walking around the bells will wake you up?" Call me Fluffy the cat, can you imagine...me jingling down the hall?

I have a few funny sleep stories. In the summer between senior year of high school and freshman year of college, I was really stressed out (read: sleep walking like a maniac). I woke up every morning for a week with furniture all over the place (in addition to being fast asleep I also develop superhuman strength). I'd move my bed, bureau, all kinds of stuff. One time my Mom found me in the kitchen sorting laundry in the kitchen sink. I'm also kinda a belligerent sleep walker, if you approach me I get defiant and angry, and deny that I'm sleeping. "I am sorting my laundry, I PREFER to sort it in the sink!"

At UMASS in my Junior year I woke up with three firefighters in my room. Seems that we were having a fire alarm in the middle of the night and I slept through the whole thing. Normally you could be fined, but since I was obviously very much in my bed asleep when they came into my room I escaped a fine.

So you get the picture.......

So last night (I was not drinking) I got up in the middle of the night to pee (this I remember). Well I guess I fell asleep while on the potty. I woke up as my arm was getting tangled in the blind on the window above the bathtub, and I felt my shin on fire. It would appear that I stood up from the potty, walked towards the bathtub (three paces), stepped into a metal basket holding the kids bath toys, it flipped up and hit my knee, and I tripped, as I tripped I smashed my right shin into the edge of the bathtub, and as I did this I reached my left arm out to break my fall, which went through the blind and hit the window, where I became tangled, and then turned, hit the back of my head on the wall, and ended up falling completely into the bathtub.

Funny, huh? It gets better. I'm not a wimp with pain, I had 2 c-sections with Advil only during recovery. I was bleary eyed and hauled myself out of the tub and sat on the edge, looked at my shin (and saw a frightening indentation of the edge of the tub), and called, "Andy I need some help". So he came running and I felt like I was going to vomit and the pain in my shin was absolutely breathtakingly horrible.

I looked at my shin and felt worse, I wanted to get to bed because I felt like I would be less apt to vomit. Well I knew things weren't broken because I could put weight on my shin, but the burning pain was overwhelming. We walked towards the bedroom and as Andy went behind me so I could go through the doorway the pain overwhelmed me and I FAINTED! Yes, I fainted, smashed my head on the door frame and came too laying half in the bathroom half in the bedroom.

I. WAS. NOT. DRINKING.

So Andy was ready to load up to the hospital, but I knew I wasn't broken, and I knew I'd fainted because of the pain. So I made it to bed and today I've been sitting on my ass all day looking at my injuries. Let's list them, shall we?

1. Obvious shin damage that kills and I can walk, but do better with a shuffle.
2. A bump on the side my head, thankfully beneath my hair so not obvious, but painful.
3. Bruise on my knee
4. Pain on the back of my arm from hitting the window.
5. Another bump on the back of my head from the initial smash.

All this because I sleep walk.

I have to go now...those bells aren't sounding quite so silly now.........gotta break out the Singer.

Advanced Maternal Age.

In a few short weeks, I will be labeled "advanced maternal age". Not really a huge deal considering that my baby making days are over, however it's a label I don't necessarily want. It's funny the girls of the high school gang have always marveled in the notion that WE have in fact not aged at all since high school, in fact, WE believe that we have improved tremendously since high school. We talk about how WE don't look our age, how we look young, how we feel young, how you'd never guess that we're 34.

Guess that gloating would eventually come back to get me.

So in the last few weeks I've been noting some startling discoveries, seemingly overnight. See I never used to wear make up, now if I don't OMG, I'm really scary, even to myself! The other thing I've noted, when I put my eye shadow on the skin of my eyelids seems to stay in the "shadowed" position, and then it ever so slowly, creeps back to it's natural position. I can now see that gravity will be taking hold and that skin will soon not be sagging to the side, but downward.

Also, I have wrinkles around my eyes. Now I've lost 50 pounds in the last year, so I've decided to attribute that to weight loss, however, again...just appeared in the last 3 weeks, weight has been gone for a few months.....

So I officially look 34, soon to be 35, and really I'm not liking it one bit. I don't look so young in my minivan anymore. I fit right in at PTA meetings, I don't look like the teen mom.....

Ugh.....


Here are some pictures for Alison.....I think I started to age in these....

In other unrelated news, I'm officially crazy again....cookie bouquets for Valentine's Day! I'll post pictures when they are done....such a glutton for punishment!

And two months and a few days later, I decide to blog again.
Holidays--fine, over
New Year--fine, over
January--cold, over

That sums it up.

We finally had another visitor here in the Southland. Alison flew up from Florida. It was awesome to see her, we just hung out, ate way too much, and got to see 27 Dresses. I enjoyed 27 Dresses, a lot, good flick, go see it. Even The Suit enjoyed it, so not entirely a chick flick.

Most of you know, R broke her foot at gymnastics in the middle of January. I'd love to say she was doing a triple back handspring on the beam, but in truth, she was just walking into the gym and tripped on a beam that was on the floor. No glory there. She was in a cast for 2 weeks, is not in a goofy shoe for two weeks, then she'll follow up with two weeks of limited activity in a regular sneaker. She is doing remarkably well.

C started swim team and so far so good, she likes it.

We re-did our living room. Painted, new bookshelves/entertainment unit, new curtains, I love it. We got lots of stuff at Ikea in Atlanta, my new favorite store. If only Atlanta wasn't 2 hours away, I'd be there daily...such a great place.

So that is it, "see" you in April..or maybe sooner, maybe I'll post some pictures from our visit.....but then again, don't count on that.

I love

This pictureReally captures her.

Meet....

Biscuit. She's half bassett hound half beagle (???). The bassett hound part is a definate.

Yes, we're crazy. We've had her a week, so far, so good. She's 9 weeks old.

Pretty cute, huh? The kids aren't half bad either.

I figure

That since I'm getting really good at changing my blog template, that maybe I should actually do a substantive post, instead of just having people check out my template. "Hey nice template", now that is a pick up line.

The big holiday is tomorrow....Frick and Frack are most excited. Frick is heading out as none other than Dorothy (why can I only type that while singing in my best Wiggles voice?), Frack will be making her debut as a super hero. She has chosen to be Super Girl. I must admit I like her costume best, only because I made the cape, and pieced the rest together and sewed, way better than this one.

I finally got my house clean today, it's been a pigsty since everyone as been sick, I am thoroughly enjoying the smell of bleach! Not much else is going on, things are quiet, which is FINE with me, quiet is much better than sick, I'll take quiet any day!

Sweep, sweep, sweep......

Pretty cool! Now I can get some sleep, because right now I'm officially exhausted!

Yeah, Sox!!!!!

One for the team.

=======================>

Press play.

It's just like being at the game. Ha, ha.

Bragadocious

If you're not in the mood for a braggy post...move on..because this one will be the epitome of brag, brag, brag.

R had her assembly yesterday for being chosen Terrific Kid in her class. She and one other girl from her class were chosen. They chose two kids from each class every nine weeks. It's based on citizenship, respect, caring, etc. I was so proud of her, she was so excited, and we promptly displayed our new bumper sticker with pride. Here she is with her teacher and the other Terrific Kid.

The other awesome thing was we had R's parent teacher conference today, and I really wasn't sure what to expect academically. We speak with Mrs. B a lot since I volunteer about R's social behavior, etc, but Mrs. B did not say much about academics. I'll admit, we watch the Leapfrog DVD's, and I read to the girls, but as far as "homeschooling" teaching, etc., we're pretty lax.

We were told that R is in the top reading group and is ahead in math and all other areas of academics. She said we should continue to read to her and encourage, but that she's gifted. Wooohooo! She did say that R has a tendency to be a bit bossy with the other kids (no...R?), and that Mrs. B is channeling that into being a leader, not the boss, I guess R is responding to that quite well and she feels it is not a problem. She also said that behavior could be from a bit of boredom with the academics. WOW.

So that felt so good to hear, I know everyone thinks their child is the smartest, but honestly I'm a realist, I hated school, did just enough to get by, going into this conference I told myself "someone has to be in the middle, someone has to be average, don't be upset if R is in that group".

So it was a good couple of days.

Of course C woke up with diarrhea today...because we wouldn't want to have a full 24 hours without someone sick in this house. WTF?

Two weeks tomorrow

Yep, that will be how long it has been since people were well in my house. We've have fevers (Including me), diarrhea, vomiting, more fevers, four missed days of school, 4 missed "well check" doctor's appointments for Frick and Frack to get routine vaccinations, 2 days of missed work...endless refilling of the humidifier....endless doses of meds....endless boxes of tissues....and laundry....and soiled bed linens.....the list goes on and on.

This sucks. Poor C is taking the brunt of it this time, she missed school both days this week, yesterday she was fever free (first time in 6 days), although she still didn't look quite "right" I figured her being unmedicated and fever free was great...I figured she'd be able to go to school today. Nope 3:47 AM, threw up in our room, luckily The Suit sprung into action and managed to grab a box of almost empty tissues and the kid hurled in that....change the nightgown, check temp, burning up..off to lay in bed with Her Sickness. She looked so sad and said "Mommy, I'm not going to school tomorrow, am I?" "No, C, I don't think so" "Mommy I miss my friends"...and she proceeded to cry herself to sleep.

Breaks. My. Heart.

Today with a new day the dawn brought R on the potty with an explosion and puking in a bucket all at the same time. Multi talented kid. Another missed day of school, we haven't even had 1 full quarter yet!

Speaking of the first quarter. I got awesome news. R has been chosen "Terrific Kid" along with another little girl from her class. They choose two kids from each class every quarter, so out of 24 kids, she's one of two. I'm so proud of her, they select kids that are constantly out sick...no just kidding, they chose kids that demonstrate good citizenship, thoughtfulness, etc. I will be the proud owner of a minivan with a "My kid is a Terrific Kid at .....Elementary". And even though I've always thought those things were lame, now that I know what goes into getting such a sticker, I'm going to display it proudly!

Such a soccer mom.....really, it's scary. Say a little prayer for C that she shakes this bug, she normally is my fast healer, she's just so sad....I hate seeing her so beaten down and sick, I want my sparkly brown eyed little girl back!

More catalogue fodder for your Thursday pleasure.

Oh how I love catalogues!

I think these two items are suspiciously similar:



Just sayin'.......

That party...

So you know that party that we had to sell that crap to go to? Today was the big day. R was sent home sick from school yesterday with a fever....guess who missed the big party today?

Yep, R.

Karma sure is a bitch.

Photographer.

So a few weeks ago, I saw a post on Craigslist about a professional photographer looking for models ages 3-13 to expand her personal portfolio. Well I emailed pictures of Frick and Frack and she said she'd like to do a session with them. In exchange for using our images for her portfolio and advertising we get two 8 x 10 pictures.

Frack loved the whole scene, she was quite the model, it was pretty funny. Frick....not so much, she just was nervous, which I would be too, so this is not her scene. I feel like a stage mom, but Frack really is good at this modeling thing.

Here is the photographer's blog, she's got Frack on the header, and there is an entry with a few of their pictures. Why do I see myself ordering way more than the two free 8 x 10's?

http://www.kholubek.blogspot.com/

Wow.

So like, who are they?

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 7 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?