My Single Mom Life

I know posting about barf and then going out to eat a greasy blue cheese burger, all in the same post, was kind of nasty, but that's just how my brain was working at the time.
Sorry if I grossed anyone out.

Anyway, the teens loved their hot wings.
They were totally surprised and like OMG! Mom I love you!, and then we sat down and watched The Golden Compass while they ate.

I liked the move, a little long in some parts, but good none the less.
It also was an opportunity to discuss with the teens why so many people were pissed about the movie when it came out.
Mark brought it up when the movie ended, and he asked; "Why were people trying to get others to boycott that?"
I explained to him that it was because A) the book's author is an atheist, and B) because the things contained in the movie have an anti-religion, anti-government message.
The magisterium represents both the government and the church.
They were trying to keep people from learning about the other worlds and other people who lived in those worlds, by controlling the people by limiting the information that gets out, as well as controlling the people themselves.
Telling them what to do for their own good kind of thing.
The college was about free thought, the ability to freely learn, and pass on what they learned, about the other worlds and people, the "dust", so the people could think for themselves and not be controlled.

Mark had one of those "a-ha" moments, and then he laughed.
"So basically, the people who were attempting to get this movie boycotted, were attempting to control the free passage of thought and information, because the messages that may be learned are not what they feel is for the good of the people. How ironic."
I love that kid.

We also have another movie to watch tonight.
I'm going to introduce the teens to Patrick Bateman.
For those who don't know, he's the main character in American Psycho.
While it is very violent, it is also comical.
It has a very dry sense of humor flowing throughout the film.
The business card scene is perhaps the most well known, and most brought up at any meeting where people may be handing out cards.
Last summer was one of those times when I sat around a large table and one man started handing out his cards, then another, then myself, and then everyone with a card.
We all ooh and ahhed at the thickness of the card stocks, the luster, the fonts.
Someone even mentioned how they suddenly felt like they were Patrick Bateman, and then a couple of giggles followed by those of us who know the film.
There's always someone who has no idea, and then someone else explains it.
It's a really great scene in a really great movie.

Posted by Kat at 8:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I woke up around 3am to a wicked pain in my stomach and an urgent need to urinate.
So I'm sitting there peeing, and all of a sudden I got that hot wash over me.
You know what I'm talking about.
All of a sudden you feel super hot, you know you're gonna hurl at any second, so I grabbed the trash can and out it flew.
And it just kept on coming for the next 10 minutes.
I couldn't move from my seated position to throw up in the toilet, it was just coming that quickly.
When it finally stopped, I was exhausted, dripping with sweat, and feeling like I was going to pass out.
I cleaned myself up and made my way back to bed.
When i woke up this morning, I was perfectly fine.
It was as though I hadn't been sick over night at all, and as a matter of fact, I actually felt a 100 times better.
I have no idea what brought on the hurl or why, but I do feel much better than I have in several days.

My friend and I just got back from running a few errands and having lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings.
I had the most tasty blue cheese burger and some onion rings, and then I picked up 24 hot wings for the teens to eat for dinner tonight.
I have some fries here that I can cook up to go with them, and they'll be happy.

Posted by Kat at 2:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

I was asked to review a site, Pinch the Penny.com, that says it can help you with money saving ideas that could help you save hundreds of dollars each month.
Considering the state of our nations economy right now, a site like this could be very beneficial to most of us, if not all of us.

They have a 6-point savings plan mapped out.
Those 6 points are, credit cards, home phone, auto insurance, cell phone, internet access and coupons.
They also have a price comparison search engine, broken down by various shopping categories, or you can just search for your needed item, and find the best possible deals.

I tested the search engine by looking for an item I do need, a new HDTV antenna.
It broke down the price comparisons by each style of item, and then showed how many different prices are available for that item at the different stores.
For this review, I chose the very first antenna on the list, and it compared the 3 best deals from 3 different stores.
Two of the stores had the same price, one was slightly more expensive, but it also showed me the stores ratings based on other shoppers.
The price comparison search engine does exactly what it says it will, and works very quickly.

Each of their 6-point savings plans is broken down on the front page with their own subsections. You can click on the box for the area you'd like to find ways to save money in, and see how much money per year you could end up saving.
Each of those sections is very thorough, each service provider is rated according to quality and pricing, it's glance-easy to see which service provider could help you save the most money.

They also have a weekly deals page for internet specials, and on sale page to find price reductions and sales, and a printable coupon section along with an on line store coupons page.
There's also a way to find on line stores that are offering free shipping.

The site is well laid out, easy to navigate, and easy on the eyes.
No harsh colors or animated cursors.
There's a lot of information provided to help you save money.
I found some great prices on the things I have on my list of need to get items, and when the time comes to buy that new antenna, I will definitely be checking for the best possible prices.

I think Pinch the Penny.com is a great site for anyone looking to find more ways to save their families some money, especially now.

Posted by Kat at 11:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tonight's Law and Order SVU was outstanding.
The episode is titled Authority, and stars Robin Williams.

Williams has won an Academy award, 6 Golden Globes, 2 SAGs, and a Grammy.

On tonights SVU, Williams plays Merrit Rook, an engineer who poses as a police officer to get managers at a fast food chain to detain and strip search young female employees, as well as other criminal acts perpetrated by phone.
He serves as his own lawyer and is found not guilty, which leads to publicity and followers from his anti-authority message.
No sheep.

Williams plays the role of Rook so very real, it's creepy.
He's a true psychopath.
He can impersonate people, he's very intelligent, and highly manipulative.
When he takes Detective Olivia Benson, things get even more intense.
Williams is a phenomenal actor.
No matter what type of role he plays, comedic, dramatic, or full on psycho, he plays it with incredible conviction.
This character was so believable, so frightening and pathological, I was on the edge of my seat the entire time.
This was an incredible episode, Law and Order SVU never disappoints me with it's story lines and guest appearances.
It just keeps getting better and better.

Posted by Kat at 10:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

All went as well as could be expected at the docs this morning.
My shoulder is still tore up, keep it still and rested, come back next Wednesday.
Paid out the wazoo for the appointment today, and I paid half of next weeks bill in advance.
Or what me and the finance manger hope is half.

Then I came home, ate, answered a couple of emails, and decided to catch up on the sleep I didn't get last night.
I was awake almost the entire night, so me and little Shahiro kitty, napped on the couch the entire day.
We got up about 20 minutes before the boys came home.
It was nice to just sleep, no disturbances, no noise, just me, the awesome couch, a blanket and a kitty.

Posted by Kat at 3:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

That proposed "I believe" plate I told you about a few days ago, has been rejected by the Florida senate.

A license plate that would become the first in the nation to prominently feature a religious symbol was not included in a package of legislation creating new license plates after a vote in the Senate.

Opponents of the plate said approval - whose proposed design included a Christian cross, a stained-glass window and the words "I Believe" - would have almost certainly faced a court challenge.

The bill's Senate sponsor said Monday, however, that the chamber's rejection of the plate could also generate a lawsuit. Florida already has over 100 different license plates and by allowing the designs the state has created a "public forum," said Sen. Ronda Storms, R-Valrico.

Great, now Rhonda is gonna sue over it.

Posted by Kat at 8:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

The above kitty is Nova, she's 9 years old, and she's becoming incontinent.
It is not a bladder infection, she's just losing control of her bladder.

Yesterday, she was sleeping on my bed just as she is in this picture, and when I entered the room to grab my clothes for the laundry basket to do today, I reached out to pet her.
She got so excited that I was going to pet her, that she piddled a bit on my bed.
Lucky for me I had replaced my mattress pad with that new allergy relief padded one, which is also waterproof.
I bought it because I'm allergic to dust mites, the padding and waterproof layer was just a major bonus.
So I took the sheets and the pad off the bed immediately, and threw them in the washer while the pee was still wet.
I added the laundry soap and a 1/4 cup of Urine Gone, (love this stuff!) and when it hit the rinse cycle, some Febreze mixed with the fabric softener.
They came out very clean, no sign or smell of any kitty pee.
The trick with cat pee is getting it while it's still wet.
If I hadn't noticed that she had peed, it would have dried in and the smell would have been near impossible to get out.

But what I'm really trying to talk about is how she's incontinent.
Has anyone ever had a pet with a piddle problem?
Do they make Depends for pets?

Posted by Kat at 7:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

You all know by now how much I love jewelry, and I have become quite the collector of some mighty fine pieces if I do say so.
I found a site that has the best prices on not only diamond rings and wedding & engagement rings, but also on some amazingly gorgeous sapphire rings and ruby rings and emerald rings too.

They also have tons of information so you can make an educated decision about what kind of gemstone or jewelry piece you are buying.
They want to make sure that if you are planning on buying wedding & anniversary rings or eternity rings for your special someone, that you know exactly what kind of stone you are buying. It's cut, clarity and color, as well as the metals used for it's setting.

Over the past few years, I've gotten quite good at knowing what I'm buying thanks to all the education available on jewelry sites.
I buy for myself, and I don't like buying junk, so I research and read what the sites have to say about the quality of their products.
I have several huge boxes of jewelry filled with rings and earrings, pendants, and necklaces.
Some given to me by my mother, some by ex-loves, but mostly from myself.
Hey, I figure if no one else is going to shower me with some sparklies, I might as well do it for myself.
I never spend crazy amounts on any one piece, but when I do make a large purchase, I know with certainty that it's of the best quality.
I know that when I decide to hand down any of my pieces to my sons to give to their fiances' or wives, that it is a good looking piece as well as a good quality piece.
So when I find a site like Sparkle and Dazzle that goes above and beyond to educate the consumer as well as offer the best prices, that I want to share it with you.
I know quite a few of my readers like the sparklies as well, so I share.
This is my fave ring they have.
I love the color, the cut and the setting.
Who cares if it says it's an anniversary ring, I can still get it for myself someday if I want to.

Posted by Kat at 5:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I took Sunday off from blogging to do absolutely nothing but rest my back and shoulder.
I had over done things in a big way all week even though I knew not to, and I paid dearly for it.
Then as I was sitting here at my desk yesterday reading through my blog feed reads, I came across ProBlogger's how to be more positive post.

And I felt guilty.
Just as I always do when I complain about the pain I'm in, here on my blog.
I don't like complaining, really I don't, but it's a daily part of my life and trying to be positive all the time, well, that just ain't happening.
The pain gets me down, I can't help it.
I know a lot of people think that those of us in chronic pain are lying about it, or it's all in our heads.
It's not, and as mean as it may be, sometimes, I wish those people who tell me that it's in my head, would get hurt and be in pain so that they finally know what this is like.
Constant chronic pain is depressing as well as painful.
There are days I don't even want to get out of bed, because between the pain and the bad feelings over it, I just want to curl up and die.
And just reading through the comments on that post, well, sorry, but it brought me even further down feeling than I was already, so I just didn't blog.
If you don't have anything nice to say, shut the hell up right?
And I'm sure I've lost readers over it, but that happens and not much I can do.
I wish my daily life wasn't like this, I wish I didn't get down about the pain and loss of "life", but I have, and try as I might to think like little Miss Pollyanna all the time, sometimes the thoughts just don't go away.
Plus, I believe in being honest with my readers.
If I have to lie and say every thing is just fucking awesome just to keep readers, then I am doing a major disservice to any of my readers.
Nobody likes a liar, even if it is to try and be more positive 'sounding'.

So anyway, I laid around and watched movies, napped, and just tried to feel better.
I watched Cloverfield a couple of times, and Alien Nation, and then packaged them back up to send back to Netflix this morning.

My neighbor and I just got back from Walgreen's and Publix, with both our scripts and food for our heathens.
I'm hoping that I snap outta this funk and soon, I don't like it when I'm like this very much either.

Posted by Kat at 4:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

I was doing a bit of cleaning around the house again today, dusting stuff off mostly, when I took a good look at all the pictures on the wall.
No two frames are the same.
Not sure why I did that, I think I only bought a new frame as I got a new picture, and I just bought whatever frame was on sale or something.

I know that one day I went to Michael's with my sister, and they had a huge shelf full of clearance items, most of them picture frames, and no two alike.
But they had so many sizes and they were all super cheap, like $1-$2 each, so I bought about 10 of them.
But now that I'm looking at all my pictures, I'm not so sure I like the whole mix-match look anymore.
Now that we've been talking about painting the walls here with some different colors, maybe some custom picture framing would look good too.
All one color and style of frame.
Of course the color of the frames will depend on which color I choose for the walls.
I know there's a green , a light purple, and a sorta light copper/light gold color.
Not so sure I could handle that bright, I'm not a bright color liking person, but maybe it would warm this room up, make it softer, which would make it actually appear darker and warmer.

Posted by Kat at 7:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

X-Play created an Xbox Live orientation video for all you live player n00bs out there.
Not knowing how things work on Xbox Live can be a bit scary at first, but thanks to this most awesome video explaining things, you'll be playing live and fitting right in!

Click continue reading to see the NSFW but hysterically funny video.

Posted by Kat at 4:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I am determined to get the converter box to work correctly, to pick up all the channels, and I refuse to subscribe to cable and be totally ass raped by Comcast and Verizon Fios on the price, so I'm always messing with it and thinking of ways to make it work better.

Today's idea was to go outside and see if the rooftop antenna is still hooked up the the wires.
It's not.
I can't climb the roof nor can the teens, so there goes that idea.
And if I do find someone to climb up there and hook the wires back up, I run the risk of the whole antenna coming down in a hurricane or just really strong storm winds.
That's why the wires aren't hooked up now that I recall.
It was during the third year we lived here, and a hurricane was passing through, nothing major happened to us or the house, but the winds pulled the antenna down off the roof.
Berry, my then boyfriend, went out there after the storm was over and put the antenna back up, but the wires must have been unhooked and he just didn't notice it or something.

The second issue with getting someone up there to fix it is this.

That is a wasp nest, and there are literally a dozen of them along side the side of the house where the antenna roof access is.
I apologize for the major picture blur, but I refused to get any closer.
There were at least 20 of them flying around when I went out there.
The little buggers are living inside the AC holder as well as on the kitchen window and the phone box.
They are every where on that side of the house.
Next time I go shopping, I need to buy like 5 cans of killer, and just go nuts spraying them all down and hopefully killing them all.

The antenna I currently have is obviously not powerful enough to pull in the digital signals, so sometime between now and February 2009 when all the analog broadcasting stops, I need to buy a new antenna.
I cannot figure out which indoor hdtv antennas would work best.
It definitely needs to be indoors so I can move it if need be, and be away from the weather, easy access and all of that.
Anyone have any experience with picking out the best possible one?
I need help!
I don't want to have to spend more than $100 though, so if anyone out there knows about this kind of stuff, chime in and tell me what would work the absolute best.

Posted by Kat at 12:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I just got word that a friend is pregnant, this means I'll be going shopping for baby gifts at some point in the next couple of months.
I love baby stuff.
I love babies.
buying baby stuff and holding new babies, makes me want a new baby.
But I don't really want one, I just like the idea of having baby.

Plus I know that my body just can't do it again, so that totally helps me get over the want a baby moods that come and go every time I see a baby or get to spend time with my nieces.
I love the way babies look, all smooshed and poofy-skinned, how they smell, and how absolutely adorable they are when they are sleeping.
Then I remember that they grow up, and turn into teens eventually, and these have been some of the hardest years of being a mother.
I love my sons, I really do, but with each passing year, this job gets harder and harder.
And it IS a job.

It's all on me to raise them right, teach them stuff they can't learn at school, try and make them see the good men they can become.
It's tricky sometimes.
I would never trade these years of raising them by myself, no way, but oh how I long for the days when they just cooed and stared up at you with their huge baby eyes, and had that awesome new baby smell on their heads.
They were super cute babies, and now here they are, almost men.
It's kind of frightening to think how quickly these years have gone by.

Posted by Kat at 10:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Hey Shell, guess what we're watching?

That's right, we're watching the oogly boogly!
Cloverfield is a wicked fun movie, I know other people got sick watching it because of the camera movement, but it made it feel real to me.
The movie is about the monster, but it's also a love story.
Rob loves Beth so much, he's willing to and does, risk his life to be with the woman he loves.
Here's our man Rob, new job in Japan, probably hooked himself up with and got some decent life insurance quotes, life was looking good for Rob.
Well all except for that whole Beth bringing another guy to his going away party.
Then all hell breaks loose.
The scary little spider baby monsters that when they bite you, cause you to blow up in a very explosive and painful death later on.
I think the little spider monsters are more terrifying than the big monster personally.
They move faster, they can climb walls and ceilings, and they grab on to you and rip your flesh off.

We're at the scene in the subway tunnels, when the baby monsters attack.
I'm gonna watch because it's just an awesomely scary scene.
I expect Sebastian to start screaming and try to latch onto me in a few seconds.
He's not a fan of the oogly booglies either.

Posted by Kat at 8:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I've been getting better at being able to tie my own shoes, shave my legs, and all that stuff since the surgery, but there are still some days that I have issues.
There are some days that my body just does not want to cooperate, and today is one of those days.
I was digging around in my jewelry box, just bored and looking at my stuff, and I found a gold anklet that my mom or someone in my family had given me, so I tried to put it on after polishing it up first.

Um, nope, not happening today.
My hips are just tight today, not wanting to allow me to bend over at all.
Like I can reach to about mid-calf, but no further.
It's kinda frustrating.

Posted by Kat at 1:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

A few weeks ago, I ordered a couple of advertising pens from the local forums. The money helps pay for the servers and site upgrades, stuff like that.
They should be here tomorrow according to the email I got just a bit ago.
They weren't much at all, like $2 each, but they are nice grip style pens, the kind I like so it's all good, and I only ordered 3.
I know, here I am stressing about money, but that's right now, 3 and a half weeks ago, $6 was do-able.

And speaking of friends, I'm wanting so much to support one of my good friends right now.
She was in a stupid accident, her fault, she's in some serious trouble, but other people are being complete jerks about it, gossiping and stuff.
I hate that.
She made a mistake, she knows she did, it doesn't need to be rubbed in her face right this minute.
It can wait a few days to give her the lectures, but I'm pretty damn sure she's going to already have learned her lesson.
Anyway, I wish it had never happened, and hope that she's ok.

Posted by Kat at 3:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There are currently two religious issues taking place here in Florida this week that I'm in shock over.

The first is the Evolution Academic Freedom Act.

Plant City Senator Ronda Storms introduced the Evolution Academic Freedom Act, which permits teachers to challenge the theory of evolution in science classes.
This comes months after a state panel voted to require teaching evolution in Florida. Storms says her law would protect teachers who want to offer other theories for mankind's existence besides evolution.
Tampa Senator Arthenia Joyner argued the law opens public school classrooms to debate on creationism, intelligent design and God's role in mankind's existence. Joyner said that debate belongs in church and at home, not in Floridas public schools.
The bill passed 21-17 and now goes to the House. That chamber is considering a version of the bill that would not just permit, but require teachers to present "critical analysis" of the theory of evolution.
The Senate rejected that version of the bill.

A theory is based on empirical scientific evidence.
That makes evolution a theory, we have scientific evidence to back up the claim of evolution.
ID or creationism is not and can not, by definition, be a theory.
There is absolutely no empirical scientific evidence to back up ID or creationism.
All they have is the bible as the basis for their idea.
It's not a theory, it's an idea.

This whole thing just irritates me because just this past October, teachers in the state of Florida, were finally allowed to actually say the word evolution in classrooms.

Current standards do not use the word evolution -- long a controversial word in education -- but do require teaching evolutionary concepts in public schools.

The second issue is a new license plate up for legislation.
Florida has more than 100 specialty plates that drivers can have, but we now would be the first state in the nation to explicitly promote a specific religion.

The Florida Legislature is considering a specialty plate with a design that includes a Christian cross, a stained-glass window and the words "I Believe."
Rep. Edward Bullard, the plate's sponsor, said people who "believe in their college or university" or "believe in their football team" already have license plates they can buy. The new design is a chance for others to put a tag on their cars with "something they believe in," he said.
If the plate is approved, Florida would become the first state to have a license plate featuring a religious symbol that's not part of a college logo. Approval would almost certainly face a court challenge.
The problem with the state manufacturing the plate is that it "sends a message that Florida is essentially a Christian state" and, second, gives the "appearance that the state is endorsing a particular religious preference,' said Howard Simon, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida.

All of Florida's specialty plates cost the drivers extra fees to have, and that money goes to a cause the plates endorse.
Luckily, we have a few legislators who realize that the plates clearly violate the separation of church and state.

The group asking for the "I Believe" plate, the Orlando-based nonprofit Faith in Teaching Inc., supports faith-based school activities. The plate would cost drivers an extra $25 annual fee.

If this passes, I hope that other religious groups step up and raise the signatures and the $60 thousand needed, to get their plates up for legislation as well.
Just picture it.
Plates with images of Mohamed, Buddha, Dionysius, Rah, a wiccan symbol etc.
There are 19 major religions, 40 different organized religions, plus the more than 270 different religious groups, and the 34,000 unique Christian groups.
Or how about a big giant scarlet 'A' for the atheists?

Wouldn't that be awesome?
Everyone could drive around with their religion and the words "I believe" on their license plates, for everyone to see.
We could all be driving along honking our horns at the other faiths we find complete and utter bullshit.
We think people have road rage now?!
Just wait till we can all drive around with our "I believe" plates with our distinct religion plastered on it, and know exactly who we disagree with, and more importantly, who we hate for being of a different faith.

Posted by Kat at 12:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I mentioned earlier today about the teens needing a new crt monitor, and tonight their Aunty Heather called.
Her and her husband have a Dell monitor they no longer use because they both have laptops now, so she's going to box it up and ship it down to us.
Thank Heather!
You have no idea the awesomeness of doing that for them, for me.
Now I can focus on saving for just a new vac, and not a new vac and a new monitor.
One stress down, one to go.
Ok, not just one to go, like lots to go, but I'll get a grip on it all eventually.

My neighbor this evening, after helping teach her how to email the pics from her cell phone to her email account, and then teaching her how to attach pictures to emails to send them to others, gave me a huge box of bulk cable that the Verizon Fios guy left behind, said he didn't need it.
It's not cable cable, it's ethernet cable.
Yeusss!
I can never have too much of that around.
Kali has chewed through one, I accidentally vacuumed a hole in one, and I stapled through another one.
And then there's the one that got fried during the great lightning strike of January '08.
That strike took out an ethernet cord, an ethernet port, a telephone answering machine, and 1 router.
So yeah, having extra ethernet cable around is awesome.
Ya never know when I'll ruin another one.

Posted by Kat at 12:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Do cats know if one of their fellow kitties is sick or something?
Shahiro keeps meowing, running back and forth between all of us, and then Kali.
Kali's nose is wet, she's not acting strange, she's eating, she appears to be fine.
But Shahiro's behavior is concerning me, I don't know what to make of it, and neither do the teens.
They keep asking me what's wrong with her and why she keeps going to Kali.

Does anyone out there know if cats can tell if something is wrong?
Is Shahiro trying to tell us that something is wrong with Kali?
I'm worried, I know Kali is old, I know I don't have much time left with her, but I'm not ready yet.
This is so frustrating, Shahiro is making all these weird meows and running back and forth, rubbing all over us, licking Kali, then running back to us and getting in our faces meowing.

Posted by Kat at 10:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

That's right, pretty soon June 1st will be upon us Floridians, the start of hurricane season.
It's also Sebastian's birthday.
He gets such a kick out of the fact his day is the day the people in this state start to panic.

I myself don't panic, but it's the day I start my 'cane supply stocking.
Every trip to the grocery store, I buy at least 5 cans of spaghettios, a gallon of bottle water, and some non-perishable dry snack foods like those cheese and cracker packs, beef jerky sticks etc.
We hardly ever get hit with a hurricane (knock on wood) here on the suncoast, but I always make sure that if we do, I have plenty of food and water on hand for the teens and I.
We never use it during season because we never get hit, but at the end of season, we have so much food and snack foods to eat, I end up sending it to school for the teachers to hand out as snacks.

The only thing I don't have but wish I did, are some exterior shutters.
It would be nice to have shutters that could be opened during off season to let in light and air, but when a hurricane is coming, be able to go out and close them and secure them with a big padlock or something.
i don't ever have anything on my windows to stop debris from coming crashing in.
I did have some plywood one year, but I was taking it down one day and getting ready to store it in the shed when the phone rang.
I came in the house to answer it, and when I came back out, all my plywood was gone.
Yes, people steal plywood here because it's so expensive to buy for your windows, and when panic sets in, it's hard to get because stores like Home Depot and Lowe's run out.

I'll figure something out for this years storm season.

Posted by Kat at 8:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I have been sick and in pain, and stressed out, and just feeling miserable.
When I get like that, I don't want to talk or play, or do anything but lay in my bed and hope for sleep.
On top of my shoulder and back issues, (the trigger point injections never did work) I ended up with some sort of stomach bug and a cold of some sort.
Talk about miserable!
Apparently a few kids in Mark's class at school were sick with something, he got coughed and sneezed on, and I probably ate something bad or caught a virus of some sort, which worked better than any colon cleanse on the market.
I probably dropped 10 pounds in the last 2 days with all my trips to the bathroom to vomit out both ends.

Not fun I tell ya.
So I was just in a bad place dealing with that, the shoulder pain, and stress from having to once again purchase things I don't really want to.
Sure I can use my Roomba, but that requires running it nearly every day, and having to stop it, empty it, and restart it to get the rug really clean.
I like it, it does work really great, but I used my big vac for fast cleanups if someone was coming over or something.
And the whole pc monitor issue has me kinda pissed off.
I know I have to buy them another crt monitor, but I don't want to.
I just got them the new tower at xmas, the monitor they have is less than 2 years old, I think, and now it has to be replaced.
I'm just not up for it financially right now.
I have so many doctors appointments and medical crap to pay for, that trying to come up with money for another monitor and vac is just making me crazy and mad.
I just got paid, and it's going to be fully spent come Tuesday morning when I see the doc.
That sucks.

I'm stressed way out man.
Like way, way, way out.
It's all too much for me to deal with, but I'm trying.
I have my little meltdowns and then I get back to work, because if I do want to find the money to somehow to pay for all this stuff, I have to just keep going.
No just laying in bed and wishing it would all go away.
But I needed that day to just lay in bed and be miserable.
I really didn't mean to worry you Mom and Dad and Shell, I just really wasn't feeling well, and I think vomiting over the phone would have been just plain rude.
I know, saying don't call me was rude too, but really, I just couldn't handle talking to anyone.
My head hurt, my nose was stuffed up with a combination of snot and hurl, my stomach, back, and shoulder were killing me, I kept getting some serious leg cramps, and the stress, had turned me into someone who would have verbally ripped your heads off if I had to speak to you.
I apologize for making you worry.
I'm still not feeling all that great, but at least the vomiting from both ends has stopped.
Now if this migraine and other pains would just go away, I'd feel a whole lot better.

Posted by Kat at 4:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I really need to get out of here, I need a vacation from like everything.
No kids, no work, no doctors appointments, nada.
Just me in some Hilton Head rentals all my by myself with no phone or net, no nothing really.
I just want to go away and sleep and rest, and think, to be alone.
I need a wicked break from life man.
It's starting to get to me.
No, I don't want to talk about it on the phone either, so please, don't call thinking you can help, you can't.
I just need some rest.

Posted by Kat at 3:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

I was hit by a truck, like I may have an imprint of a Chevy grilles pattern on my ass and lower back.
I slept terrible, I feel terrible, I look terrible.
I didn't do squat, so this must be catch up with the pain day from all the cleaning the other day.
Blargh!
And due to the pain and inability to move much, I'm way cranky.
Yes, I dare someone to look at me even slightly wrong today, it will be the last time they see anything while their blackened eyeball heals.
Kidding.
I won't actually hit anyone, I can barely move.
Hitting someone would cause me more pain and thanks, but no.

And I'm in a wicked foul mood anyway.
Two appliances are screwed, so yay for having to spend more money on crap.
My vac died, it's no longer sucking anything at all, and when I opened it up, there's like a major wire thing completely melted and apart from the other end of it's wire thing.
And the teens pc monitor is taking a major dumpuss.
The screen controls keep popping up and changing the settings on it's own. The menu keys are screwed up or something.
I've looked it up and yup, it's the sign of it dying.
Great.

Posted by Kat at 10:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I've spent the whole day being lazy.
I did so much cleaning yesterday, that my body was like aww hell no bitch, lay your ass down on the couch and take it easy today.
So I listened to my body, and laid down all day.

What I do while laying down?
I watched stupid tv shows and then a stupid movie.
We watched Aliens vs. Predator - Requiem, and man, it was stupid.
It was bloody which I like, but gah, just a dumb plot line.
And did the director really need to have the alien eat the brand new in the maternity ward babies?
Huh?
Huh?!
I mean she sucked out the in-labor mamas babies and injected her own hatch lings in their wombs, was it really necessary to show us a room full of newborns and then mama alien walking in to feed?
My own mama instincts were like oh no! Not the babes! You bastards!
pfft.
After that, I kinds lost interest in the rest of the movie, dozed off every few minutes, and then watched the lame-o ending.
Stu-pid.

Posted by Kat at 5:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I have 2 alarms, 2, and they are both set for 5:45am.
You know where this is going don't you?

I must have dreamed I woke up and got the teens up, because when I rolled over at 7:54, and decided to get up for the day, I came out to the living room and saw that the bar was still on the door.
I ran to Mark's room where he was still fast asleep, I screamed in a total panic, "Wake up OMG! I don't know what happened! OMG!"
Mark gets up, asks what time it is, I tell him it's almost 8am, and he's like "Fuck. By the time we get there mom it will be after 8, I won't get in. They'll send us home for being tardy, especially me, new view program? Yeah. What happened?"

I told him I didn't know, but I know I set both alarms, I do it every night at 10pm, I must have just rolled over and shut them off and went back to sleep.
He was like it's ok mom, I can do my work at home, but Sebastian, he's screwed.
Yeah, I know.
Fuuuuuck!

I hate it when this happens.
I've done this at least 3 times now this year, and I can't explain why I do it.
I just have no idea why my brain doesn't register the difference between the dream and reality when the alarms go off.
Like wtf am I dreaming about that would cause me to think I got the kids up?
Dammit.

Posted by Kat at 8:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)

Joana tagged me for this meme, and I usually don't do these, but my brain is like duh-ur, so I figured why not?

Here's how you play: Once you've been tagged you have to write a blog with 10 weird, random facts, habits, or goals about yourself- at the end choose 5 people to be tagged. Don't forget to leave them a comment saying (You're It!) and to go read your blog. You cannot tag the person that tagged you

1. Not really a weirdo fact, but I very rarely trust any one. I slowly allow people to enter my life and I watch them, listen to them, pay close attention to facts and details they let out. If anything seems amiss, I drop them like a bad habit. I have issues.

2. I despise social networking "games". You know, like pirates, werewolf, love, hug or kiss? Don't write on my fun wall. I'm not reading it.

3. I'm like a living breathing musical encyclopedia/lyric freak. I can pretty much name that tune in 5 notes or less on just about any song as long as it's not country or rap.

4. I never want to become one of the crazy blue-haired snow birds that visit here. I'll end myself first.

5. I absolutely despise people who start a religious discussion with me, then proceed to get overly emotional when they can't back up anything they believe in other than to throw the word "faith", make personal attacks, and tell me that I'm dammed and dooming my children.
Shut the fuck up.

6. I have no idea what else to say.

7. Most of my friends are guys. I get along better with men than women.

8. Women don't appreciate that I'm friends with their guy. Trust me, I don't want him.

9. I don't like imposing on people, probably why I don't do memes often.

10. I have no idea what I'm going to do with the rest of my life.

Ok, and now because the rules say I have to tag 5 people, I will, but they don't have to do it if they don't want to.
Holly, Tina, Jenn, Belle and Christine.

Posted by Kat at 11:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

The detective pulled the kid and several others aside at once, all who had been suspected of having drugs with them today.
He had ended up passing it off to his girlfriend to hold earlier in the morning, but after being pulled aside and questioned, he told Sebastian he wasn't going to bring anything to school again.
He told Sebastian he had too much to lose with only a month of school left for the year.
He has no idea how or why he got pulled aside, he wasn't alone when the detectives did it, so it looked like a random type of search, which is what we wanted.

I'm glad it's over, Sebastian is glad it's over.
He said that he never wanted the kid to get in trouble, he just didn't know how else to get out of having to take it.
So at least the kid was spoken to, realized he had an awful lot to lose, and hopefully will not bring anything to school again.
Sebastian came home extremely relieved.
Like a major weight had been taken off his shoulders.
He was happy and in a good mood when he came in the door, and we sat and talked about it.
I think he was relieved the kid didn't have it on him, he really didn't want the kid in trouble, and so when they saw each other in the last class of the day, they were able to talk and be "cool" with each other.
All Sebastian wants is to get through school without any problems, doesn't want to make enemies, but also doesn't want to have to do things just to fit in and be accepted.

Posted by Kat at 5:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

While waiting to find out what happens today, I'm trying to keep myself busy.
Actually, it's not that hard.
I saw a single cockroach last night, and so the deep clean has begun.
I know how it got in, that mini fridge I borrowed.
They had kept it in what is basically a storage room, used it only for sodas and beers, but the cat and dog food was stored right next to it in open bags.
In Florida, you cannot have open food anything.
Everything has to be in plastic containers or kept in the fridge.

So I've started in the kitchen where the roach was seen.
I've done all the dishes, and am just taking a small break so I don't over do things.
I'm wearing my sling so I don't mess with my arm and cause more pain too.
Next up, I'm taking everything out of the cupboards and washing all the shelves down with a water/bleach mixture.
That's not only the food cupboards, but also the ones below that hold all the pots and pans.
Then I'm going to wash down all the counter tops, wash the cupboard doors, the stove top and front, the baseboards, and bleach the sink.
Then I'll head into the bathroom and bleach the hell outta that room too.
Then I'll sweep, vac, and then mop all the floors with bleach too.
It has to be done.
If you see a single roach, it means there are hundreds more just not brave enough to come out when the lights are on.
Once every thing is clean, I'll get some roach bait/traps, and the house will be free and clear within a week.
You have to take charge of a roach situation as soon as you see one.
If you don't, they breed like crazy and it gets beyond normal cleaning and you have to call in pest control.

In between, I'm also messing with the position of the antenna so the converter box works better.
I've almost got it.
Almost.
I still can't get those 2 local channels, but I'm working on it.

Posted by Kat at 10:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I have received only 1 negative comment on the situation with Sebastian, I just got it.

A guy who used the name "no way", but has a valid email address, Gregory Rice, said this;

No fucking way was this a good idea. The kid/s already applied to
college. How long until he graduates, less than a month? But now, he
can take another year of high school, get put on probation, and you say
serves him right, like he was really trying to harm anybody. He was
probably just joking around with Sebastian anyways. Now he/s gonna get
fucked like nobody/s business. I can/t believe you decided to fuck up
someone/s life because of a plant. You/re all a bunch of dick wads.
fuck you.

It wasn't a joke. This kid has been trying to get my son to smoke all fucking year.
He would pull him into the construction hallways, light up, and try to get my son to smoke it.
He had tried sliding a joint in one of his books one day, invited him to his house to smoke, offered to walk home with him and smoke.
You don't know the situation, you don't know how serious the situation was.
Believe me, we agonized over what to do with this, it wasn't an easy decision at all.
But my son and I had a choice, turn this kid in, or risk my own son getting caught with it and expelled.
I nipped that problem in the bud, sorry if you don't approve, but if this kid valued his future for going to college, he shouldn't have persisted with his attempts to push on my son.

I know it's just a plant, I don't care if people smoke weed, I really don't.
Most of my friends do, I used to, the last time I took a hit was December 2005.
But it was my choice, an adult choice.
I don't think pot should be illegal at all.
We bust pot growers and sellers, users, and we throw them in jail over "a plant', when there are far bigger dangers in this world the ATF could be cracking down on, but it's not for kids.
If adults want to toke away, I have no problem with that, but I do have a problem with some asshat pushing drugs onto my kids.
They are kids, they can't make that kinda decision that has serious legal consequences if they get caught.
To teens, it's all fun and games, they don't realize just how fucked they'd be if they got caught with it.
Expulsion from school is just the tip of the iceberg.

And ya know what, if this was a joke like you say, the kid won't have any thing on him when they get the dogs, he won't be in any trouble if he has nothing.
They have the dogs at the school today, they are taking them room to room just like they do every year for the whole 4/20 holiday, and they let the dogs walk amongst the students.
If this kid has it, the dogs will bark, if he doesn't, he's free and in the clear.
The only thing the cops know is that this kid might be holding.

I'm not the one who fucked up this kid's future, he is if he's holding a bag of weed today.
I'm not the one who chose to push on a freshman all year, try to force him to smoke all year.
I'm not the one who said I'm giving you a bag of weed and a pipe to smoke it out of, and I'm putting it in your back pack.
I'm not the one who may be holding that bag of weed today, and neither will my son.

If this kid has it, he will be caught.
He will have made the choice today to bring it to school with him.
He made his choices when he kept trying to push it, insisting, telling my son what he was going to do.
If he has it on him, he made that decision himself.
If the dogs find it, then it's all on him.
He should have thought about his future before pushing all year.

Posted by Kat at 8:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (10)

Now I wait and see what happens.

I felt like a horrible mother sending him in to school to face this today, but keeping him home would have resulted in suspicion, and just delay the "package being delivered".
He knows to call me if something goes wrong, so I'm hoping I don't get that call.
The detective said they will do what it takes to handle this, so keep your fingers crossed for Sebastian today.

Posted by Kat at 7:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So um, yeah, I caved and bought the cake when I went shopping.
I couldn't help myself.
I haven't eaten any of it yet, but I want to, just a bite.
Argh.
I have issues man.
If I had a lot of spare money, my impulses would win out all the time.
I would eat cake when I wanted to, I would buy tvs and luxury watches, and jewelry, lots and lots of jewelry.
I'd buy what I wanted when I wanted it.
I mean, I even told myself not to buy the cake.
That I didn't need the cake, but no, I bought it anyway because as soon as I saw it, I wanted so bad.
I'm weak.
Weak I tell ya!
It's probably a good thing I'm broke as hell all the time.

Posted by Kat at 8:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Sebastian saw me looking at the other kid actor site I posted about so he once again got the bug and started looking around for other sites.
He found myartistsplace.com, and liked it, and he wanted me to check it out.

He's a bit older than most of the kids they work with, but it still looks like a good place for young kids and teens to start out.
They have all kinds of resources for kids to train in acting, modeling, dancing and singing. They work in just about every field of entertainment.
They even offer screen testing, which Sebastian is like begging and pleading with me to do.
He says I have a camera, let's film something mom!
He knows it's only for kids in California, but he wants to do it anyway.
He wants to just send them one, and maybe they'll hook him up with someone here.
myartistsplace.com offers a printable screen test, so he wants to print it out and film it, and send it in.
They look like they have everything a kid could need, talent producers who've worked with the best.
Maybe I'll just let Sebastian film the screen test anyway, just for fun.

Posted by Kat at 8:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

For the first time since November, the roads were clear and easy, and Publix was not full of crazy old blue hairs ramming me with shopping carts.
It was lovely I tell you!
Just absolutely lovely!
The aisles were a breeze to walk through, no one was anywhere near my ass with a cart, no old ladies stealing my bread outta my cart, no snatching a can of spaghettios outta Sebastian's hands, no clogged lines at the deli, no long lines at checkout.
It was beautiful.
I almost shed a tear.
Nothing but year round locals as far as the eye could see, and NONE of the senior variety.

But there was an incident which almost made me go mom crazy.
We were in the cookie and snack aisle, and this 10 year old girl (looked to be that age) asked her mom for a package of Pepperidge Farm Milano cookies.
The mother snapped back, "How much will you work out if I let you have a cookie?!"
Yes, she did stress the 'a', as in a single cookie.

The girl pleaded back, "I will workout for 2 hours mom, please! I just want one cookie mom, please!?"
The mother looked at her and said she didn't believe her, and asked her again how much she would workout for the cookie because it's all fat, nothing good can come of a cookie, and she will not let her have a single solitary one if the daughter was not going to work it off.
The daughter said, "Fine mom, I'll workout for 3 hours. I'll do laps around the neighborhood, I'll do laps in the pool, and do 100 sit-ups. Please mom, I really just want one cookie. Please. I swear mom, I'll workout till you tell me I can stop, please mom!"

The mother said no, final answer, was not going to allow her daughter to become "fat".
I thought the girl was going to cry.
She put her head down, said please one more time, and the mother gave her the look of death.
It was only then that the girl dropped it, but I swear she looked like she was going to cry.

Now, I'm not one to get in other people's business with their kids at the store, but this girl was about 10 years old, was nothing but skin and bones, and the mother was the same.
I could see her breast bone through her shirt type of skinny.
I have no idea if the girl is a sports player or is studying to become an actress or something like that, but clearly this mother was imposing her weight issues onto her daughter who was way too skinny anyway.
The both of them looked like little skeletons walking through the store.
Everything they had in their cart was labeled organic, soy milk, fruits, veggies, no meat or cheese, no cereals, and no breads.
Nothing but ultra healthy, and all this girl wanted was a single cookie.
I felt bad, really bad.
I said to Sebastian after they left the aisle that the mother clearly has issues with food and she's pushing her eating disorder onto her daughter.
Its gonna blow up in her face someday.
Either the girl becomes seriously anorexic and dies, or becomes a bullemic and starts binging and purging as a way to get a cookie, or she goes the total opposite and becomes food obsessed and becomes an overeater and puts on 200 pounds.
But it really just made me angry.
I wanted to say something ya know?
Like what the freaking hell woman, your daughter is wasting away right in front of your super skinny eyeballs, let her have a freaking cookie every now and then. It won't kill her, but starving her and denying her, and forcing extreme workouts on her just might.
This girl was really just a twig. I could see every bone in her arms, her legs, her neck and back.
It's truly disgusting when you can see the ribcage on both the front and back.
I felt like opening up the package of Chips Ahoy cookies (buy 1 get 1 free!) and just handing one to her, tell her to eat it, enjoy it, and not to worry about it.

I never tell the boys what they can or can't eat.
I don't push my emotional over eating issues on them.
I buy a lot of healthy foods, I make well balanced meals, but I also buy snacks like cookies.
They usually just eat 2 or 3, and that's all they want.
Those 2 packages of cookies will last a month or longer.
Mark isn't big on sweets anyway, he's more of a meat and potatoes kinda kid, hot wings, chicken, steak, stuff like that.
Sebastian knows his limits too, they know when to stop eating on their own, and I do not ever discuss my food problems with them.
I know I have issues, I always have had issues with food, but those belong to me and it's not right for a parent to push our issues, especially with food, onto our kids.
Anyway, it just made me mad.

Then we came home, we put everything away, and Sebastian started playing Rock Band.
Now I don't know who did it, but when the game started it sounded like we had a Bose home theater system hooked up in here.
It was like super loud, OMG loud, and everyone was scrambling trying to find the remote to turn the tv down.
I love the game and the music in it, but holy crap that was loud!
The boys were of course, laughing at me freaking out trying to find the remote or the right button on the front of the tv to turn it down, but dammit man, there's good loud and then just holy hell I think the tv is gonna explode loud.

Posted by Kat at 2:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I slept like total crap.
That trigger point injection has NOT kicked in yet people.
It should have kicked in by now and it hasn't.
Every movement with my left arm is like being stabbed.
Argh!

Anyway, I'm up this early because my friend called about going shopping.
We're going to go do it this morning after we stop and pay her car insurance.
The payment she made online the other day didn't go through for some reason, so they called and told her that, and when she checked her bank balance, sure enough, it didn't go through.
Their office is open this morning at 9am, so we're going to run there and pay really quick, then hit up the store.
I love that most businesses are open on Sundays here.
Missed paying the cable bill?
No worries, just drive all the way the hell out to the end of Fruitville road and the intersection of I-75, and pay it.
You may even get to watch a funeral at the cemetery across the street while you're at it.

I totally miss how easy it was to pay bills in Maine.
You just walked into whatever grocery store was your fave, go to the customer service desk, and you could pay your phone, cable, water, get money orders, stamps, mail packages, rent movies, all kinds of stuff.
They don't do that down here and man, was that a shock when I got here.
I actually went to the CS desk at Publix that first month I was in my own apartment, and asked to pay my phone bill.
They looked at me like I was crazy.
When I explained how it works up north, they said if they did that here, they'd never do anything else at the desk. They said it was bad now with having to just sell money orders and sell and give Western Union payments, never mind do actual bill payments.
Um, they barely do that.
They will sell money orders, but they don't cash them.
They will cash paychecks, but it has to be from a company in their "book".
It's weird.
It makes me very happy that I get paid through Paypal for everything I do because when I was working outside the home, getting my checks cashed without having a bank account was a nightmare.
If the place I worked wasn't in the book, they would refuse to cash it, and if I persisted, they would call my place of employment to make sure it existed.
Um, who hasn't heard of Pier 1 Imports or Ruby Tuesday's?
Then not one, but two store managers, would have to approve the check and add it to the book.

But whatever, I'm rambling now when I should be getting my ass in gear.
I tend to ramble upon waking.
Gotta run, time is slipping away faster than I think my body can move to get ready.
Ack!

Posted by Kat at 8:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

So I didn't make it to the store, she never felt better, and neither did I.
No big deal, I'll attempt it again tomorrow.
But anyway, after I wrote that last post about the cake, I started thinking how I don't really need the cake.

I mean, I have this undying craving for it, but I certainly don't need it.
I feel like I should be wearing some maternity clothes with all the weight I put back on over the last month.
I lost about 10 pounds when I was working out every day on my elliptical, then I kept injuring myself, and told not to do anything strenuous, so I put that weight back on and then some I'm afraid.
Afraid because I haven't actually looked at the scale, and I'm afraid to look at the scale.

But I can tell I have, I just know the spots on my body that weight appears in first, and yuppers, there is some extra poofiness for my lack of being able to work out and eating things I don't need but need.
Being unable to do things tends to get me down and I'm one of those emotional eaters, so when I felt down, I felt like I needed a boost, so I ate what made me feel good.
Good ol' fattening, high caloric intake, thick, rich, oh so bad for me comfort foods.
Like princess cake, which I will try like hell not to buy when I go to Publix tomorrow.
I will go, I have to.
We have other family food needs aside from my emotional cravings.

Posted by Kat at 8:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I have to go grocery shopping, and so does my neighbor, but the both of us are feeling the effects of today's weather.
It's sunny out, but the wind is in high gear, and it's going to rain.
So my back is twitchy, and her fibromyalgia is flared up.
As soon as she feels like she can move a bit better, we're gonna go to Publix and get what we both need.
You know, the basics and the necessities like chocolate.
I am absolutely craving some serious chocolate.
Maybe a piece of Princess cake from the bakery. I am just so so needing some thick, super rich gooey chocolate.
I know the name of it evokes visions of pink and flowery frosting, white cake, but no, Publix's princess cake is 3 layers of dark chocolate cake, a layer of chocolate mousse, a layer of chocolate fudge, and then more cake covered in a layer of chocolate ganache, sprinkled with powdered sugar, and the corners have 4 little triangles of white chocolate.
It's so so tasty and totally fills up the need for chocolate cravings.

So while we're waiting, we're watching Joe Dirt on 44.
I'm that bored.
The movie is funny, but I have a different taste in humor, so while some of it cracks me up, most of it just doesn't tickle me the way it does others.
Like the teens.
They laugh their asses off through the whole movie.
Christopher Walken is by far the funniest moments in the movie, to me anyway.

Well, I guess I'll go take care of the laundry in the dryer while I wait.
Later days.

Posted by Kat at 12:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

And I'm watching Coyote Ugly on broadcast tv, and I've never actually watched the whole thing through until now that is.
Anyway, the girls are in the bathroom at the bar and I was just totally grossed out and reminded of the bathrooms at some of the clubs I've been too in Tampa recently.

The Orpheum in Ybor City is by far, the nastiest women's room ever.
I get so grossed out every time I have to pee.
I just wish they would like, remodel the bathroom, put doors on the stalls, replace the sink and counter top, and both of the bathroom vanities.
The ones they have now are falling apart, have gum stuck to them, stickers, posters, stuff written on them in markers.
And don't even get me started on the actual toilets.

I have to do the purse strap around the neck squat and hover.
All you ladies know what I'm talking about, and I have to have a friend stand there with her back to me as my "door", so other women know someone is peeing.
The bathrooms there seriously make me consider wearing some Depends just so I don't have to deal with the grossness of the bathrooms.
Gack.

Posted by Kat at 9:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

The company I work for is holding a treasure hunt for it's bloggers involving jewelry.
I love jewelry!
hahah!
If I can find all of the treasure clues, maybe I will be lucky enough to win some diamond earrings or a diamond ring, or something else equally magnificent.
The contest is being sponsored by jewelelegance.com.
Take a look around that site, way awesome nice stuff.

So to qualify to even get the first clue, I have to write this post and then let them know.
Then they'll give me a password on Monday to the first clue, and off I'll go trying to track down all of the clues.
I'm super excited about this.
I love who I work for, they make blogging fun and interesting, and they have awesome fun contests like this all of the time.
Let the hunt begin!

Posted by Kat at 4:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Sebastian and I talked at lentgh this afternoon over this whole thing, and I gave him the options.
He gave me the name.
I'll be making the call early Monday morning so they can catch this kid however they have to without involving Sebastian at all.

He's still very worried, but he knows something had to be done.
And being the super awesome kid he is, he's even concerned for this kid's future.
He said to me, "Mom, he's a senior. He's applied to colleges, got accepted I think he said, this will ruin his life."
I told him that our turning him is not the thing that is ruining his life, it's the choices that he's made, not ours, that have determined what his future holds for him.
This kid chose to push drugs on to others, he chose to smoke them, he chose to try and force another student to take possession of them, that's all on him, not us.

I hope that all this goes off without any major problems. I'll be worried sick all day Monday and every day after that, but I know it's the right thing to do, and Sebastian knows it is too.

Posted by Kat at 4:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)

I have awesome kids you know.
They come to me with everything, that open door policy I drilled into them as soon as they could speak and understand, has paid off.
They tell me everything about what goes on at school, girls, their bodies.
Very open and trusting relationship.
I consider myself very lucky.

But then stuff like this comes up, and I feel like I have a fractional ownership in exactly what my responsibilities are towards the school.
Do I tell them and risk my kid getting beat up?
Do I tell him to do something else just to save his own neck?

Here's the situation.
All year long, Sebastian has been bothered by another student who wants him to smoke pot.
The whole year, this kid has asked him to smoke during lunch, hang and smoke after school, buy some, take a hit, just try it.
The whole damn year.
And Sebastian is an incredibly awesome kid, he has come up with some kind of excuse the whole year, as to why he can't smoke.
He's hungry, doesn't want to miss lunch, has to get home after school, his mom needs him to do chores and homework, doesn't want to get caught, doesn't want to smoke but hey man, it's cool if you do, not my bag man but have at it.

Sunday is 4-20.
That's the international pot smoking holiday, for those of you unaware.

So this drug pushing kid has been planning how to get Sebastian to smoke, and seeing as Monday is the day after the biggie holiday, he plans on giving Sebastian a bag of weed and something to smoke it out of during 7th period, the last class of the day.
He plans on just putting it in Sebastian's back pack if Sebastian won't willingly take it.
Which he won't.
He's said no about 200 times this year, he doesn't want it.

But here's where we have a major dilemma.
Does Sebastian turn this kid in, he won't tell me the kid's name because he knows I'll make the call, or does he take it and get off school campus asap, just to save his own ass?
He's terrified that if he turns this kid in, he'll get beat up.
The kid and his "friends", are not nice people. They live in the ghetto portion of our city, they are always in trouble at school for one thing or another, and Sebastian wants no part of any beating that could come his way as a result of ratting this kid out.
Or, does he just let it get in his back pack, get off school grounds without being busted by the school po-po himself, and I flush it down the toilet?

I called the school anyway.
I spoke to the school officer, I gave him no information at all.
Not my name, not Sebastian's, nothing that could identify my son as the rat.
I explained what's happened all year and this kid's plan to slip it in the back pack during 7th period.
The officer was very understanding, he understood my need for anonymity, and Sebastian's.
He said there are two and only two things we can do.
I can try to get the name out of Sebastian this weekend, and because the school is already planning on having a "pot problem" on Monday, the day after the pot holiday, they (the school po-po) can simply walk the halls with their dogs and sort of casually and accidentally, come upon the kid holding the weed.
Or, Sebastian upon receiving the weed, when the bell rings to let class out, go straight to the office, ask for an officer, and turn the weed over to them.
They will not punish him if he turns it in, I was promised that they would do nothing to Sebastian if he turns it in.
The officer said that students find drugs all the time and they turn them in.
They are only asked where it was found, and then they are let go with a word of thanks for being honest.
He said if Sebastian walks off campus knowing it's on him, if it's found out later that he held it, he will then face trouble, suspension or expulsion is likely.

I asked the officer 3 times for his word, that if my kid turns this in, he will not be asked to rat out the kid, and he will not face punishment.
My kid doesn't want it, has said no in every possible way all year, and the big day is now coming and he's absolutely terrified.
Could I keep him home Monday?
Yes, but the kid has said he will give it to him whenever he returns to school.
One way or another, Sebastian is getting this bag of weed.
This kid is intent on giving Sebastian pot no matter what.

I am going to try talking to Sebastian all weekend, try to assure him that he will be safe, and I will leave the decision to him. I can't force him to rat this kid out knowing how much he fears this other student who is by the way, a senior.
The only reason they are in this class together is because it's an elective in computer and digital design, the field Sebastian is interested in, and a lot of seniors take it for the extra graduating credit.
I will leave it up to him but I will make him understand he can't leave campus with it, he'll be in major trouble if it's found out later he had it on school grounds, he either has to tell the kid's name, or turn it over when the bell rings.

It sucks people.
It truly sucks that Sebastian has been under this kind of pressure all year, but I am so so proud of him for coming home and telling me everything all year.
He's honest with me, he tells me what's going on, his thoughts, his fears, and he asks me for my help.
I knew he was under this kind of stress, and I did attribute some of the big fight he and I had to this situation, and I always make time for him when he wants to discuss it, and we do.
He usually drops it after a few minutes, says it's so hard to deal with, not sure what to do, but I also know he has many other stressors.
Being a freshman isn't that easy, the work is harder, there's far more students than middle school, puberty, everything, and it all builds up.
I'm trying here, I really am, but even with all the back and forth the teens and I go through, I am so greatful they come to me with this stuff.
I am lucky beyond words that they trust me to talk about this kind of stuff.
I can't even imagine going through this and not being able to talk openly with your parents for fear of being punished for even "associating with those kinds of people".
He's doing his very best to survive public high school, and I'm doing the very best I can, to help them survive.
I wish this was easier for all of of us, but it makes my heart swell when they come to me with this kind of stuff.
I'm doing something right here, I know I am.
Being a single mom is tough work, but times like this lets me know I'm doing ok.
My kids trust me to talk about anything, even super bad ass stuff like this.

Posted by Kat at 10:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

I was fortunate enough to receive some pearl earrings from a site that specializes in nothing but the finest freshwater pearls, exotic natural pearls, saltwater Akoya, and my favorite, south sea and Tahitian.

I received a stunning pair of black Tahitain pearl stud earrings.
They are black with that beautiful "peacock" over tone which gives them sort of a greenish hue, but they change in different lighting, looking very dark or very bright, almost silver-ish.
They are just so beautiful, I love them!
Just look at these!

I got them from Pearl Paradise, and I couldn't be more pleased with them, and you all know how much I love jewelry, so getting these was like wow.
All of the pearl jewelry they have is very affordable, the only problem you'd have is selecting what you want.
They own their own pearl farm, so they are able to control the quality and the pricing of the world's finest pearls, and believe me, these are some quality pearl earrings.
I am so lucky and greatful to have gotten them, and I can't thank Pearl Paradise enough.
But I tried.
I made this silly little video, yes, this is where I show off my uber dorkness, but I just wanted to show them and everyone else how much I love my new earrings.

Thank you Pearl Paradise!

Posted by Kat at 9:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

The really fascinating part of mineral makeup is that it doesn't sweat off.
See, I tried to make myself look halfway decent today even tough I was in a bit of pain, and so I put my face on as they say.
I had no idea the doc was going to do trigger point injections, so I figured I'd be ok.

Anyway, the muscle being torn, it hurts like a mofo, and when he stuck that first needle directly into it, I began to sweat on my face and around my hairline.
The pain causes this reaction to just happen, nothing I can do about it, a stabbing pointy thing in my sore back, boom!
Pain sweats.

I figured the makeup was like liquid foundation, it would run or smear when I got a chance to wipe the sweat away, but it didn't.
The only thing that came off when I tissued my face was the sweat.
I looked in the mirror once I got back in the car and was totally surprised to still see a flawless finish.
Amazing.
If I wasn't already sold on mineral makeup, that would be the selling point for me.
It gets so hot here in the summer that as soon s you step out of your nice air conditioned house, you're just dripping and need another shower.
I've spent every summer since I moved here, 11 years this June, not wearing any makeup in the summer due to the sweat issue.
I'm totally hooked and sold on the stuff now.

Posted by Kat at 9:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

The teens wanted tacos for dinner tonight, but not normal tacos.
See, they only like the meat, cheese, and salsa.
That's not a taco in my opinion, that's meat, cheese and salsa.
They never want tomatoes or lettuce, nope, just meat, cheese, and salsa.
I've eaten "dinner" and I'm still hungry.

I have to take a walk up to the corner store to get some stuff I forgot while I was out today, dork-o move #1, and dork-o move #2 is the silly video I just made.
I'll be posting it later, and I'm probably the only one who will think it's even remotely funny, but I do crack myself up with just the stupidest stuff ever.
Cat hair by Kali.
Hahaha

Posted by Kat at 7:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Have you ever looked at your kid and thought they should be on tv or in movies?
They just have a unique look, smart, funny, or talented?
Have they ever told you they want to be an actor?
Well Gonnabe is a networking center, not a talent agency, that allows kids and their parents to work with professionals, develop their skills, gain contacts, audition, and gain exposure so they can sign with talent agents and managers.

Gonnabe has produced Kids Unlimited and Say What, in 2007, and has signed on with G4tv, and their shows will be appearing in over 61 million homes every Saturday morning.

They are based out of Emeryville California, and every kid who makes it through Gonnabe's training, will at the very least be an extra in a show or a full role, as they continue to work and train throughout their careers.
It's not for everyone, but it can be just the right launchpad for the right kid if their dream is to star on tv or be in movies.
They train, they teach, they offer networking to all the biggies, to help your child achieve their dream of being a star.

When Sebastian was little, he had the cutest little face and bright white blond hair, and he wanted to be on tv, play the part of a Power Ranger, or do voices in cartoons.
We didn't live anywhere where he could have gotten that kind of opportunity, but if we had, I totally would have signed him up for something like this if he had insisted on it.
He's changed his mind about his choice of careers over the years, cop, fireman, astronaut, teacher, scientist, and right now, he has a dream of being a guy who makes and designs video games and CGI animation.
But every now and then he'll see a movie with something really cool in it, and he'll say he wants to be an actor again.
I'm all for what ever he chooses to do, and maybe someday after he seriously narrows down his choices, he'll do one of those things he dreams of.

He would have made an adorable kid actor though.
I'm slightly biased, but what mommy isn't?

Posted by Kat at 3:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We have no idea how it happened, but it's definitely torn.
I have to keep it in a across my chest position as much as possible, he gave me a sling to wear to help but understands that I am a mom who has mom things to do. He said I definitely have to wear it over night though.
He then gave me a script for something stronger to help with the pain, and those Flector patches.
It's basically a NSAID, anti-inflammatory, that you wear on the skin and it helps with the inflammation.
I also got 2 trigger point injections directly into that muscle, which can take 2-3 days to start working.
That freaking hurt. hahaha
Nothing like a needle going right into the very spot the pain is in, and having a medication that burns upon entry, when you're already in pain.
W00t! Know you're alive man!

Then my friend who drove me there, took me to Walgreen's to get my script filled, and then we went to lunch.
I had the most awesome cheeseburger I've had in awhile, and then we came home and I helped her pay her car insurance online now that her computer is back up and running.
They had to come and fix her lines, and I cleaned out her pc with compressed air.
Man, it was filthy in there. Filled with gobs of thick black dust.
No wonder it was over heating and shutting itself off.

I'm home now and have stuff to catch up on.
My shoulder is still burning from that stuff he injected, and he was totally cool about the whole co-pay thing.
I told them yesterday I was broke, and so when he said he had to give me those injections, I told him I couldn't afford them.
He said it's ok, you can pay for it next time, which is next week.
I should have money by then. I hope. hahaha
he also gave me some spray on Biofreeze, which I also have to pay for next week.
At least he's cool about the whole money thing.
Other doctors would have laughed at me and said suffer woman.
No pay, no relief.
Yay for a cool doc!

Posted by Kat at 1:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Torn.jpg, originally uploaded by onecattykat.

I tore the muscle. that would explain the pain eh?

Posted by Kat at 10:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

My mother always had a mother's ring as I recall growing up.
I loved that ring, all those colors like a little rainbow circling her finger.
It didn't have our names, just our birthstones, but I would love to have a ring like the one above someday.
Just two stones, August and June, peridot and pearl, with the teens names on it.
In either white gold or silver, titanium is good too, but no gold, I don't look good in gold jewelry at all.

With mother's day approaching, I get all wishy washy and start looking at stuff like this because I love being a mom, I love my sons, and I always wanted a ring like my mothers.
They actually have one similar to the one my mom had, but I think I really like this one the best out of all of them.
It's sleek, it's simple, it's stackable, a very simple yet elegant design.
But then again, I like this one too.
I love trillion cut stones, and I could do all three of our birthstones, mine in the middle, the boys on either side of me.
So it would be peridot, aquamarine, and pearl or alexandrite, which is the modern birthstone for June, but the traditional stone is pearl. But I can see how a pearl may look awkward with the other two gemstones, so the modern stone would be ok.
That site has so many different mothers day rings and styles, you will have to check it out if you're planning on getting your mother or spouse a ring for mother's day. *hint hint*

Posted by Kat at 8:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I've already started cooking dinner.
I know it's early, but I am starving and have been craving BBQ'd chicken legs for days now.
Yeah, the pan is way messy, I load the BBQ sauce on thick, let it caramelize and burn into the pan and get all thick, but it's super yummy that way.

I'm going to make some broccoli and cheese sauce to go with it.
Yummy.
I wish it was done already, I'm just dying to eat chicken like right freaking now!

Posted by Kat at 3:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's not like I had gone to the doc for a skin lightening procedure, it was for shoulder pain, but it cost me $183 for that last appointment with my pain doc.
That was for 6 x-rays and the 2 injections, and I guess they over charged me.

I was going to call the doc's office at 1pm when they came back from lunch to ask what my co-pay for my follow up visit tomorrow was going to cost because frankly, I'm broke from that appointment and having to pay a $100 co-pay for the CT scan at the private radiology place.
between paying all my regular monthly bills, grocery shopping, and those, I'm broker than broke right now.

But anyway, Sue the receptionist just called to remind me of my appointment tomorrow, and I asked what I was going to have to pay because I think I have $10 left, and she said there was a note on my chart for tomorrow that said "do not charge".
So yay!

Posted by Kat at 12:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you do a search on my site for Verizon, you'll see how many times I've had issues with their service.
It ain't pretty.

Ok, once again, Verizon requires a CC to auto-bill for DSL every month, and every month without fail, their auto-billing thing does not work. It has never worked in all the years I have had DSL with them.
So every month, I have to call them and update the CC numbers, they bill, no problem.
But it just doesn't work the way it's supposed to.
They tell me I can go to their site and update it myself or make a one time payment.
No, I can't.
See, my account with them has been screwed since day 1 of service and no one knows why.
When I go to the site, no matter what I click on, it says "This tool is unavailable on your account."
Not just unavailable, but strictly unavailable to my account.

So anyway, I had already made 2 calls to them so far this month, they didn't bill like they were supposed to, again, so I called the first time, called again just to make sure it had been billed, and I was assured it had been.
But no, it hadn't been.
So I get this email from them that said the CC validation didn't work, call us or be shut off in 10 days.
That was on the 10th.
I called them as soon as I got the email, updated the CC info again, and again, they assured me it had been billed.

But it either hasn't been billed, or someone got a little over zealous and suspended my service on Monday the 14th at 7:40pm.
I called, they see they made a mistake and suspended wrongly, so they un-suspended my account, and assured me I'd be back on in 2 hours.
Nope, didn't happen.
I ended up being stuck behind a "walled garden", Verizon's suspended message when you try to go on the net.
My modem was on, I could connect, but they were blocking every single website with their silly little garden.

So I called and called and called.
They handed me bullshit line after line about how the problem was on my end with my phone line, and the local phone repair kept saying it wasn't.
DSL kept saying it was.
Finally, I spoke to a guy named John who (amazingly, I didn't end up with an outsourced employee this time) said that when they suspended my service wrongly, someone at the central office screwed up the wires to my account, and it was going to take a repair tech at least 24 hours to figure it out and fix it.
I told him not to bullshit me, I had already been lied to by 7 different non-English speaking tech support people, and if I got lied to one more fucking time, I was going to call 8 on your side and they could get to the bottom of this bullshit, because honestly, after 8 fucking years of having to call every single month because their auto-bill feature doesn't fucking work, I'm going to fucking kill someone for a problem that is clearly not my fault.

He said he could see looking at my records that I call every month, and the history of problems with my account, and he was so so sorry.
Sorry doesn't cut it, fix it, I said.
He said he'd personally over see it, he was a level 3 tech.
What that means I don't know, but from now on, I'm going to call, when I have to which will be every month knowing my Verizon history, and just demand to speak to a level 3 tech.
Fuck that outsourced bullshit with shutting my modem down, turn it on, clear my cache, and oops, we're sorry, looks like it's on our end.

I actually don't know if my bill is paid or not, but I updated my CC info again for the 4th time now, and my net is back on.
I'm happy it's back, I have a lot of work to do, but god damn, I'm so fucking sick of Verizon's bullshit.
If I had any other choice for phone and net besides Comcast cable and Verizon where I live, I would have left Verizon years ago.
Brighthouse is not available here, there is no other option for me, so I'm stuck, have been stuck, with shitty fucking service for like 8 years.
It's fucking bullshit, I'm over it.

Posted by Kat at 9:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Verizon must.jpg, originally uploaded by onecattykat.

Verizon broke my net. they have no idea why its broke other than a wire is crossed or fried. they keep telling me that they are working on it yet have no clue how long it will take. i fucking hate them.

Posted by Kat at 11:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

No Net.jpg, originally uploaded by onecattykat.

My net is down. no word on when it will be back. verizon strikes again.

Posted by Kat at 9:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I'm sick.
I've come down with a cold or something.
When I came home from the CT scan, I ate 2 slices of pizza while I posted, and then I just felt wicked tired, so I laid down on the couch.
And I woke up just as Oprah was coming on.
At 4pm.
I never even heard the boys come home, my throat feels swollen and sore, my nose is stuffed up, and I'm coughing up a lung.
Great.
When the hell did I catch this crap?

I swear, if there's a germ or virus out there anywhere, I'll catch it and be feeling like crud within hours.

Posted by Kat at 5:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I just got back from my CT scan for my shoulder, where we did the cervical portion first.
Not bad, lay down, head in a padded sorta vice grip contraption, 3 minutes, done.
W00t!
Then we did the thoracic which required me to have my knees bent up and my arms above my head.

"Please raise your arms above your head and grab each wrist with your other hand, and hold that."
Are you serious?
"Yes. We need your arms above your head so we can get a good look at the thoracic portion of your spine."
But the whole reason I'm here is because my left shoulder is going through this really horrific pain thing, and if I put that arm above my head, it's gonna be really bad.
"I'm so sorry, but we have to. We'll make it quick. Promise."

Really quick my ass.
The cervical portion was over in 3 minutes.
The thoracic was done in 10 minutes.
10 minutes of pure fucking hell with the muscles in my shoulder spasming and twitching, and burning and throbbing, and yes I'm whining again.
I really hate whining, I'm sick of hearing myself whine, but god fucking dammit, the whole reason I had the CT was because it hurts, and holding it above my head for 10 fucking minutes was pure torture.
It's killing me again now.
The pain had started to subside a little bit, it wasn't burning quite as much, and now it's on fucking fire again.
Bastards.

And they made me take out all my jewelry.
Do you have any idea how ridiculous it is to make me take out all my titanium piercings, when my whole spine is filled with titanium?
Do you?
I tried explaining how difficult it is getting some of them out, and that when they do the scan, they are going to see a whole hell of a lot of titanium anyway, so what is the point?
I do love their faces though when I tell them the length of the fusion.
They get this WTF look on their faces, and they ask how it happened of course.
Everyone always assumes that I was in a really bad car wreck or something, and that is the reason I had to have the fusion.
When I explain that it was because of scoliosis, they say they've never seen one that long ever, they usually see the mid thoracic or the lumbar, but not from the top of the shoulder blades to the coccyx.
After explaining it all, they then understand why I'm in pain and they apologize for causing me more pain.

It's all ok, I just want the pain to stop.
I just want all these weird aches and pains that just happen, to stop happening.
I am so ultra careful all the time.
I don't lift anything above 5 pounds, I don't go crazy and over do things, I'm like a little old lady, I walk super careful, I make the teens clear things out of my way, I make them pick up practically everything that ends up on the floor, and yet these stupid aches and pains still keep happening and I'm fucking over it.

I will try not to whine about this again this week.
I can't make any promises that I won't whine, but I'll try.
The doc will have my scans in time for my next appointment on Thursday, and hopefully it's nothing wicked serious.

Ok, off to catch up on like everything.
Later days.

Posted by Kat at 11:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I am so excited that Desperate Housewives is back on!
I don't watch a lot of shows religiously, but the ones that I do, keep me involved.
DH is one of those shows.
Anyway, while clicking around on Twitter, I noticed that Holly had a new post up about one of her fave shows not being on tonight, and how she used to be a huge fan of DH, but she said, between all the super skinny women who look like they've taken too many doses of the very best diet pills, and all the cheating men, she thinks it's gone over the top.
I'm not crazy about how anorexic looking the women are, but the cheating, the drama, the crazy, is what I do love about the show.
All the super over the top plot lines, the absolute hilarity of Gabby, Bree being so neat and proper, Susan being somewhat of an idiot, Edie being the town whore, and Lynette being probably the most normal character on the show, makes me stay tuned and want to know what happens next.
Tonights episode is cracking me up.
Man, I love this show!

Posted by Kat at 9:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It was just as I had thought, the landman was out of town for the weekend with his family, his voice mail box was full, but as soon as he got back he called me to see what I needed.
I told him about the death of the fridge for the second time in 2 weeks, and he said ok, I'll call you right back.
He then called and said clean out the old broken 1, he was on his way over.
Ta-da!
New fridge!

Sebastian got straight to placing all our magnets back on it, and had some fun with their placement.
Silly teenage boy.
It's cooling slowly, it had been tipped on it's side to bring it in the house, so all the compressor stuff has to settle down again in order to truly start being cold, but it's getting there.

The landman and his family had been up at his parents house in the northern part of the state, and his son was with him when he brought the new fridge over.
He hadn't even unpacked all his luggage and stuff yet, so when placing the old fridge in his van, he kept telling his son to move his clubs.
Now either the boy just didn't hear him, or wasn't paying attention, but he started getting pissed as he was holding the end of the fridge up and trying to slide it in and his Callaway irons were still in the way.
Finally he just yelled, "Move the damn clubs now!"
That kid practically jumped and hauled the bag over the seat as fast as he could.
His eyes were huge, he let out this little squeak of a sorry, and the fridge finally went in.
The landman then turns to me and says, "I swear, kids don't hear anything unless you yell at them or are trying to give them money or video games."
I nodded in agreement, teens, they suck sometimes.

Seeing as how my lone package of burger was frozen in the mini-fridges itty bitty freezer, and because of the broken fridge, there was nothing to cook for dinner, so with the money sis brought over for the teens, they ordered us a bunch of $4 pizzas and wings from Dominos.
The teens had ordered 20 hot wings and 20 BBQ wings, but after the driver had left and we started to dig in, we noticed that they were ALL hot wings.
I can't eat hot wings unless I feel like being ill all night, so I called them back, explained, and they brought us the 20 BBQ wings.
I offered to give them back the other 20 hot, but they didn't want them, so all in all, we ended up with 60 wings and 3 pizzas for $40.
Not bad.
Off to catch up now before I go and put all the food in the new fridge, and i have laundry to dry still.
Later days!

Posted by Kat at 6:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

My landman still has not called me back yet, he's probably out of town for the weekend with his family, so I won't make a pest of myself.
Yet.
Luckily my neighbor had a mini-fridge that they loaned me.
It's not a real fridge and freezer of course, but at least our food is cold for now.

If I have to stick with this mini-fridge for long, I won't need any weight loss pills to keep my diet in check, the thing can't hold much food at all.
You see that itty bitty freezer space?
Yeah, it can hold 1 pound of ground beef and some English muffins.
W00t!

Man, it's a good thing I have a good sense of humor about this kind of stuff or else I'd be really really ticked off right now.
But I'll make the best of it, I always do.

Posted by Kat at 1:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

My friend Mindy is having a contest for their (her and her husband) shopping site, Regalo Boutique.
You can read all the contest rules here, but basically they are looking for someone to design a new header for their site, advertising their new Summer Sale.

They will be accepting submissions until May 30th, and then all the headers will be posted and voted on.
Everyone who submits a header, will get an incense box filled with yummy smelling incense.
Everyone who submits a design, will also get a link back from Mindy's site, and the top 3 chosen will receive a prize.
What are those prizes?
* First Prize will be a choice of item(s) totaling up to $50.00
* Second Prize will be a choice of item(s) totaling up to $35.00
* Third Prize will be a choice of item(s) totaling up to $20.00

Regalo Boutique has some amazingly beautiful items for your home, fun and interesting trinkets, bath and body, candles, items for pets, great looking outdoor items for decorating like teak furniture side tables which hold up exceptionally well in weather, and so many, many gorgeous things for your home, you have to stop by and check it out.

I totally suck at designing things, so I'll just help spread the word about the contest.
I know I have some seriously talented readers, so hop on over, check out the rules and what they are looking for, and get busy making them a new header to win yourself some great prizes!

Posted by Kat at 10:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Last weekend, we watched the movie Mannequin using the unlimited movie watching on Netflix.
The kids all like watching the movies I watched back then.
It was 1987, and the movie was a hit.

One of the funniest scenes in the boys opinion, is when Hollywood, played by Meshach Taylor, drives Switcher to the competing department store, and whips out his personalized car covers which is purple and pink polka dots, with his name stylized on the sides of it, and then runs squealing like a girly girl into the store.
The teens absolutely loved that character, thought he was just the funniest in the whole movie.

Personally, I liked James Spader's role as a weaselly little corporate spy and ass kisser.
He just played it so well.
And who can forget Kim Cattrall?
She still looks that beautiful today.
She hasn't aged a bit.

If you have Netflix, have you been taking advantage of all that unlimited movie watching?
I know I have.
I watch at least 6 movies per week through the mail and returns, and probably another dozen during the month on my pc.
It's quite a value, and I totally love that I can watch all kinds of movies right here.

Posted by Kat at 9:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The fridge is on the fritz again.
I tried calling the landman and it went to his voice mailbox which is full, so now I have to hope he calls me back and can either fix it or replace it.
Luckily I didn't buy a ton of food yesterday, just basics.
The freezer is holding steady at about 30 degrees, but if it gets any warmer, I'll lose the gallon of milk I bought.
The fridge is at like 60 so yeah, I had to put the milk in the freezer for now.

My shoulder is still wicked sore, so I'm not doing too much today, just trying to take it easy on myself.

Th teens are being good, being quiet and helpful.
Not much else going on right now.
Later days.

Posted by Kat at 12:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I got Sebastian to help me get a picture of my back, because the doc and nurse said there was some discoloration happening back there.
So here's what you're seeing. It is clickable for bigger.

Looking at my back, (it is labeled correctly, that tat in the far upper right, is on my right arm) you would think the part where the biggest swelling is, on the right, would be the painful area.
It's not.
That is swelling from all of the muscles that run across the spine from each shoulder blade, being tightened and pulled because the left shoulder muscle is severely constricted.
That whole area is slightly discolored, yesterday it was a whole lot worse looking, black and blue across my entire shoulder blades on both sides.

That weird indent right in the middle, that is from I was still at the hospital, and an orderly had taken me down again for what was supposed to only be one xray.
I ended up going down, and back up 6 times in a 3 hour span, because no one recorded that it had already been done.
On the sixth and final one, the xray tech jammed the board directly under me instead of under the inch thick xray pad I was laying on, and one of the sharp corners ripped open the stitches in that spot.
When one of my surgical team, Doc. C., came in after I was brought back up, I was crying, told him what happened, and he had me sit up so he could take a look.
It was ripped wide open and bleeding, and he had to go get suture kit to close it back up.
Very painful.
So now I have a weird little indent for the rest of my life, smack dab in the middle of the scar.
It's like a deformed innie belly button on my back.
I've named it Paidin.

You can see the top of the scar, which starts right at the very top of the shoulder blades at T-3.
That's the third thoracic vertebrae.
The scar runs all the way down into my ass crack, and stops at S-1.
That represents the very last Sacral vertebrae right before the coccyx or tail bone, as most people know it.
This is what my back looked like about 4 weeks after coming home and most of the stitches had been taken out.
You can see how long the fusion is, and even though the pic doesn't show my ass crack, trust me that scar line is in there.

I have my CT scheduled for Monday morning at 9:30am, and I am hoping that the pain will be greatly diminished by then.
I know I'll probably end up in another 6-8 weeks of physical therapy, and possibly massage therapy again too, which I loathe, but as I've said before, it's not that it doesn't feel good afterwards, it's that I am not comfortable being mostly naked and having someone rub their giant hands all over my back and glutes.
I just don't like it.
I think I should be allowed to have my shirt on during it. haha

Anyway, I just wanted to show you my back.
It's been awhile since I've posted any pics of it, and now while I'm wide awake again all night, it seemed like as good a time as any.
My left shoulder is still on fire, I can hardly move it or press it against anything.
Let me tell ya, even squatting to pee, is a nightmare.
When you sit or squat, you use every muscle in your back to do so, and it's pulling on the injured area something fierce man.
Every time I have to pee, I cover my mouth and try to quiet the screams of hell.
Just keep your fingers and toes crossed for me, that on Monday they say it's just a torn muscle and not something worse like actually being caught on a pedicule screw or that a nerve is pinched off on a screw.
Either of those scenarios may mean having my back opened up to repair the damage.
A torn muscle will heal on it's own, it will just take some time.
Having it opened back up will be a world of hurt I'm afraid to even think about.

And now I suppose I'll attempt some sleep.
It's very late, and I am tired, I am just fearful of pressing my back down on the bed because it hurts.
Oh, and when you get out of bed every morning, you use every muscle in your back too.
It hurts like being branded with a cattle iron because I've been asleep, the pain meds have definitely worn off over night, and so yeah, burning, stabbing, terrifying pain.

Posted by Kat at 4:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Pic #116.jpg, originally uploaded by onecattykat.

Just testing layouts with flickr.

Posted by Kat at 12:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Pic #127.jpg, originally uploaded by onecattykat.

Nova asleep on my hand with her eyes open. it creeps me out man.

Posted by Kat at 12:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Pic #128.jpg
Originally uploaded by onecattykat

Posted by Kat at 11:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Yup, that's what the front page of one of those gossip rags in the store checkout aisle said.
I can't recall which one, because they all had a picture of her on their covers today, and they all said the same thing.
Britney may be headed back to drug rehab again.

I don't watch the show "How I met Your Mother", because CBS is just one of those weird channels that just never tunes in right in my house even with the converter box, but I'll save that rant for another post.
But anyway, from everything I have been reading on line about her guest appearances, she did a really great job, people were hopeful that she was finally turning around, and now today, 3 different gossip rags saying she's relapsing and may be going back in.

I know she's an adult, and I know her parents have stepped in, but when are they going to Baker act her?
She needs to be locked up for awhile in a mental health and wellness center, and she needs to be treated for a lot longer than her last two stays.
It's obvious she has some sort of mental illness, in one of the pictures on one of the gossip rags, she was seen ripping out her hair extensions.
She was also back to using every single gas station and fast food restaurant bathroom, surrounded by her security guards and fans taking pictures.

I just want to see the day when she's not on the cover of mags or rags for doing crazy stupid things, but back to being Britney, queen of pop, dancing, singing, outrageous videos, and not looking like she's so strung out.

Posted by Kat at 10:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I was just sent a password reminder from Stumble Upon.
I didn't request it.
Luckily for me, SU sends the actual account holder the password reminder, and not the hacker who actually wants the access.
It might be a good idea to go and change your SU passwords people.
As soon as I got that email, that's what I did.
________________________

Now onto the spammers.
My blog is a do follow blog, I like that my readers and faithful commenter's can get some link love back from the search engines when they leave me comments.
It's the nice thing to do.

What I don't like is when a blogger who does not actually read my blog, leaves a one liner comment, and a link to their site in the url field to a particular category of their blog they want the do follow love on.

Now what's funny is, that I have one blogger who has been doing this for several months, and the really amusing part is the comment rules on their own site.

Comments on this blog are made DOFOLLOW and are moderated. Spam will not be tolerated and the following will be cause for removal:

* using a "Keyword" name or just wanting a backlink
* posting for commercial links
* urls to commercial blogs listed as your site address
* posting url's in your comment

Look, if you don't allow it on your blog, why the hell are you doing it on mine?
I edit out all of your links, haven't you caught on to that yet?
I delete anything after the .com when you post a long url to a category or post you want promoted.
If you leave a link to a new blog you just started, I delete the entire url.
I've had it with your policy of it's not allowed on your blog but you'll do it on mine.

You know damn well who you are too Miss Tackle it Tuesday.
You're not a faithful reader or commenter, you do it strictly for the links.
I'm not on any of your blogrolls, I'm not on your RSS feed reader, and you're not on mine, but you seem to think it's totally ok to take advantage of my do follow.
From now on, any url you leave, even if it is just to your homepage, it will be deleted.

My do follow kindness is for my faithful readers, friends, people who have been reading my blog for years, don't judge me, actually know me, share their lives with me and vice versa, talk daily in emails, laugh out loud with each other on forums, care about each other and our families.
I don't read your blog, you don't read mine.
You read the very first post at the top, leave a one liner like "oh, feel better", and then use the url field to link up whatever it is you're trying to promote.
I'm not here for you to take advantage of when you don't actually read my blog on a daily or even weekly basis.
You and I have absolutely no blogging interaction with, and haven't had any for months, like October 2007.
Yeah, that's when I quit blogging for that company and quit posting on those forums.
You're not a member of any of the other forums I'm part of, we don't communicate with each other, and your blatant attempts to take advantage of my do follow, is grating on my last nerve.
Any and all links you place in the url field or comment field, will be stripped out.
I'm done with you.

Posted by Kat at 5:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Rachel from the BakedBlog, left me a comment, and seeing as how she's a new reader and commenter, I decided to go check out her blog.
I've now added it to my feed because she's funny, she cooks yummy looking foods, and she's got kids who do things when she turns her back for a second.
Don't all kids manage to make the biggest messes ever when your back is turned for just a second?
I swear, they have magic mess making abilities, or else their imaginary friends are helping them.
Maybe they could get a talent management company to come hire these kids to make messes for movies and other stuff.
It's a gift, a pure talent, to be able to do this kind of crap so quickly.

I posted this on her blog, she wants to know what kinds of messes other moms have had to clean up, but I thought I'd share it here too.
But you do have to go check her blog out, it rocks.

My story isn't so much a mess, but a waste of money, and humiliation.
I had gone shopping at Sam's club, buy everything in bulk to save money. I was still a single mom then too, so I needed to save as many pennies as I could.
I bought huge boxes of cereal, snacks, ginormous boxes of tampons and pantyliners, and like 50 rolls of toilet paper.
I was proud of my money saving skills man.

I had taken all the newly bought in bulk bathroom items upstairs along with my oldest son who is 16 now, but was just 3 then, and we set to "helping" mommy put away all the items of shampoo, soap, tampons, toilet paper, and pantyliners.

Then the phone rang, so I walked to my bedroom right across the hall to answer it.
It wasn't a cordless phone, but I was trying to keep my eye on him.
He put the huge package of toilet paper in the closet, the same with the box of tampons and soap. He placed the shampoo bottle on the side of the tub, so I turned my back for just 1 split second to hang up the phone.

When I walked back to the bathroom, I almost threw a tantrum myself.
I cried, I know I did.
That huge box of 500 pantyliners that only cost me $3, were now all IN the toilet and he had flushed it.
It had started to overflow and he backed up giggling like clogging the toilet with mommies vagina cloths was the most hysterical thing ever done.
Till he saw my face and the tears.
Then he started crying, said he was "sowwy mwommy, *sniffle sniffle*"

I grabbed as many pantyliners out of the toilet as I could get, threw them in the tub, tried to reach in the hole and pull out the clogged ones, all while crying as loud as my son was.

Then I grabbed a few towels to clean up the water on the floor, and plunged the toilet to try and dislodge the ones that had gone beyond my reach, but to no avail.
I had to shut off the water and call maintenance to come help me.

When I explained to the crew as they arrived and I showed them to the bathroom, they looked in the tub at some 400 water logged pantyliners, and explained how I tried to plunge the other 100 back out but may have made it worse, they started to snicker, then giggle, then it was all out laughter.
Both my son and I were still crying, but they were laughing at the idea of my kid trying to flush 500 pantyliners down the toilet.

It was humiliating, but they used a toilet snake, a super strong air compressor plunger, and the other 100 came out and they tossed them in the tub.
I apologized, red in the face, I mean, just what did those guys think?
This woman must bleed like a slaughtered pig during her period, just look at all these pantyliners, just look at the giant box of 500 tampax tampons in the closet.
I was dying of embarrassment, and they were laughing.

The next day, one crew guy came back over and said he had something just perfect for me.
He led me upstairs to the bathroom, and installed a toilet lid lock that could only be opened by an adult squeezing on two buttons at the same time.
He said just in case my son ever felt like flushing his blankie down, this was definitely going to stop him.
I thanked him, he was still laughing, and I finally just blurted out;
"I don't have heavy periods! I wanted to save money buying in bulk! The tampax and pantyliners would have lasted me a whole year! I was just trying to save money! I swear I don't bleed like a chicken with my head cut off!"

That's when he busted out in the loudest laugh ever, and I was even more embarrassed than I was the day before.

Posted by Kat at 3:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Sometimes I get off the wall comments on posts that don't even have to do with my views on religion, but someone comes along, figures out I'm an atheist, and then says something really stupid like this.

"You're anti-God! you're anti-American! Get out of the US if you don't love the God this country was founded on you godless immoral heathen! We who love our God and savior don't want you here!!"

Ok Laura, calm the fuck down.
Being an atheist in no way makes me anti-American.
It simply means I don't believe in your God.
This country was founded by people searching for religious freedom, the freedom to believe in whatever God or Gods they wanted to.
They were being oppressed, so they left an started a new country where they recognized that all people had the right to choose what they believed in.
Yes, most of them believed in the Christian God, but when they wrote the constitution and the 1st amendment, they made sure that each person would have the right to exercise their rights to believe or not believe.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.
That doesn't say that we the people, all have to believe in the same God, it means free exercise to believe what we want.

We have all the 1st amendment to protect us from religious persecution by our government, not be forced to believe in any God by our government.

If I was anti-American, I'd probably post a lot more about how much I hate the government and our current president, how the war in Iraq is unjust, or whatever.
But I don't.
I follow politics, I vote.
I believe one vote equals one voice.
I know that it's a privilege to have the right to vote, so I vote in every local, state, and federal election.
I don't waste that right given to me.
I don't snub my nose at the 1st amendment, I applaud it, because it gives me and you, the right to believe whatever we want to believe, and to not be persecuted for those beliefs by an oppressive government.

Laura, your comment has not, nor will it be published.
It was not on topic to the post you left it on, so I junked it.
Sorry.
But if you'd like to have a rational discussion about being an American, and what the 1st amendment means, feel free to email me. There's a handy dandy button at the top of the sidebar just for things like this.
But if you send me an email full of hate, telling me to get out of this country I was born in and that I have respect for, call me names, be ignorant and disrespectful, I will not reply, but delete it.
I'll be respectful to you if you are to me.
And I respect your right to believe in your God, and even your right to say hateful things, but I don't have to reply to them.
Those are my rights.

Posted by Kat at 12:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

And the people in serious pain.
I've been up all night, here it is almost 5:30am, and I'm up watching tv.
Roseanne repeats, infomercials for yoga dvds and other exercise programs, religion, news programs etc etc.

It's late at night when you're bored and you can't sleep, that you start watching all these infomercials and think how awesome they all are.
Cooking gadgets, weight training gloves, health supplements, money making programs and on and on.
It all looks good when you can't sleep.
It's all a must have item when you can't sleep.

Here I am in absolute agony, watching an infomercial for a super fun workout program that targets the upper body, lower body and legs, and the core, with every single move you do because the creator developed 11 elite moves that you can learn in dvd 1, and there's bonuses!
Yes!
There's 5 extra dvds that you can have right now if you just call in the next 17 minutes!
I'm watching going wow, it does look fun, it does look like it's easy, it does look like it would help me lose weight and work my core, and then I turn my body and wince in terrible pain, covering my mouth to muffle the screams of pain so as not to wake the teens.
Yes, of course I could do this program! /sarcasm>

I'll be waking the teens up in about 15 minutes for school, and maybe after they leave I'll be so exhausted that I'll sleep for maybe an hour or 2.
Later days.

Posted by Kat at 5:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Belle posted how she's been having trouble staying motivated and on track with her eating, and how a friend recommended some really good diet pills that worked, so Belle is going to try some.

I'm supposed to be her workout support buddy, and I haven't been doing that lately.
I've been so wrapped up in my own life stuff, that I have not been visiting her blog as often as I should be doing, and being supportive.
I will now make more of a conscious effort to go and read, leave supportive comments and share ideas.

Just like her, I have the same issues with food.
I am an emotional eater, I know this, and I try to fight the cravings off when I get sad or depressed, but I usually crack at least a little.
I'm not completely against diet pills, I have taken them in the past and they worked, but as soon as I stopped, I put the weight back on.
If the ones she takes works for her, I'll ask her what they are and maybe give them a try.
I am not doing as great as I hoped I'd be doing by now.
My total weight loss has only been 8 pounds, I want to lose more, much more, but I also want to make sure what I take is safe and actually works.

Posted by Kat at 2:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I haven't worked out on my elliptical since Friday morning, and now that my shoulder is tore up, the doc told me absolutely no physical exertion until we find out what I did to it.

I have to call first thing in the morning and schedule a CT scan at a private facility, not the hospital.
It's not pre-authorized, so I have no idea if my Medicare will cover it, what my co-pay will be, nada.
Then if it's a bad tear, I have no idea what kind of treatment will be done.
I'll probably end up in PT and massage therapy again.
I hate massage therapy, but I'll do it if he says so.

I swear, I did absolutely nothing to cause this.
Monday night I was fine other than swollen feet from walking so much, Tuesday all day, same swollen feet thing, and then by Tuesday night at bedtime, I had a dull ache in my shoulder, but nothing intolerable.
By Wednesday morning, it was on fire.
It hurt and ached and burned all day, and to go with it, a migraine.
Last night was simply agony.
I couldn't sleep, laying on my mattress even with the new pad, was hell.
By this morning, moving my arm in any way sent spasms and burning, stabbing pain, through the whole area.
Getting up from laying down, even keeping my arm close to my body, was hell.
I was in tears waking the boys up for school this morning, and they were so worried, but I made them go anyway.
The doc didn't even call me back until 2:20pm, and told me to come in at 3, so te boys had just come home as I was leaving.

The doc gave me two injections for the pain, one before we did the xrays which was supposed to be a super strong muscle relaxer and make taking the xrays easier.
That was Toradol.
It didn't help.
I had to raise my left arm outstretched to the side, and it was hell.
I did it though, I cried the whole time during the xrays. Extended arm to the side, raised above my head, across my chest, as far back as possible.
He was looking to see if I damaged a rod or screw, or fractured a bone in that area.
There was no sign of that that he could see, so he gave me the script to get a CT scan to see if the muscle is torn.

Then he gave me an injection of Decadron which is used to treat severe inflammation among other ailments.
Decadron is a corticosteroid. It works by decreasing or preventing tissues from responding to inflammation. It also modifies the body's response to certain immune stimulation.
He said it should take effect in about 24 hours, and last for about 2 weeks.
I've had this one before about 2 months ago, in my iliac joints, and it helped some, but not great.
He offered to give me an injection of some other pain medicine directly into the shoulder, but I think I would have passed out had he done that.
He barely touched the area and I almost collapsed to the floor from pain.
I was standing there shaking as he tried to examine it, he said I have some discoloration in the shoulder, like a bruise, and he kept touching it to see if he could feel anything.
I was crying, shaking, and every touch made me cry out a bit.
He kept apologizing but said he had to do it.

I should be used to pain by now, but man, whatever I did to myself this time is a doozy.
I've done this before, but it's always been my right shoulder, and not this bad.
Back in February, the massage therapist worked my shoulders, and my left one hurt about 3 hours after I got home.
That pain went away, but again, it was nothing like I have right now.
The new pain med he gave me isn't covered by Humana without pre-authorization, so Walgreen's didn't fill it.
They faxed my doc an authorization form, but by the time they did that, his office was already closed for the day, so hopefully in the morning, he'll fill it out and fax it back.
For now I am doubled up on my regular Lortabs and the new stronger dose of Zanaflex, which isn't doing much at all right now.
I am hoping that by morning, things will be even slightly improved in my shoulder.

I have so much to do too, so this really sucks.
I'll probably end up sleeping in a half-seated position tonight, because flat on my back or even laying on my side is just too much.

Posted by Kat at 11:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

After 6 xrays and some painful poking, the general idea is that I either ripped a muscle or it's hooked on a screw.
The burning pain sensation is right near the spine, so it's possible to have torn it or hooked it on a pedicule screw.

I have to go have a CT scan done to check which.
I got two shots in my ass, neither of which touched this pain, and a different muscle relaxer and a higher dose of pain medication, which isn't touching this either.
I'm just gonna lay down and try to relax it.
This is unreal pain.
I'd rather give birth to quads, and be in labor for 48 hours, than have this for even 5 more minutes.

Posted by Kat at 5:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I put a call in to my doctor because my shoulder is blown out again.
It is even worse than last time.
Sitting down causes shooting pain.
Standing from sitting, causes shooting pain.
Laying down causes pain.
Getting up from laying down, pain.

This is beyond bad. On the pain scale, 1-10, I'm at a 12.
I can barely move my left arm and when I do, it's excruciating.
I'm at the point where I'm ready to just go to the ER, I can't take it.
I've put on Ben Gay, Capsacin, lidocaine patches, and my regular meds, and nothing is helping at all.
I'm sitting here in tears.
He needs to call me back or I'm just going to go.

Posted by Kat at 10:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

We went out shopping today for some needed items, myself, the teens, and my neighbor.
We went to Target because we both hate Walmart so much, and I got some good deals.

Both teens needed new sneakers again, Mark needed needed new t-shirts, and Sebastian needed new boxers.
I picked up a new mattress cover for my bed because my old one was just wrecked, and I have a terrible allergy to dust mites.
I got a wicked thick and quilted mattress pad for just $32.99 for a full size bed.
It has a layer underneath to prevent allergens like dust mites from passing through.
I put it on my bed and it was so soft, I can't wait to sleep on it.
My last one was really thin, it was only a protective layer against dust mites, this has the added thickness and comfort.

Then we swung into Popeye's on the way home, and when we got to her house so the teens could help her carry her stuff in, her oxygen concentrator had arrived. She has a heart condition and sleep apnea, so she's on oxygen all the time.
She was carrying these huge tanks of oxygen with her everywhere she went, but now she has a small portable one that can be taken anywhere and isn't so heavy.

Then the teens and I came home, put everything away, and ate that crappy chicken while watching some movies.
I can't wait to go to bed though.
I blew out my shoulder again.
It's so painful right now, and I didn't even do anything to it.
It just starts hurting every couple of months.

Posted by Kat at 10:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I had never eaten at Popeye's Chicken before, but everyone kept telling me how awesome it is, so today after doing a little shopping, we stopped and picked some up.

I honestly don't think I've ever tasted worse chicken in my entire life.
It was greasy, and had a nasty flavor to it that I can't even describe.
And the mashed potatoes and gravy.
Barf.
What the hell did they put in the gravy?
It was so gross.
I know they pride themselves on Cajun flavor, but I've had Cajun chicken before, and this stuff is just disgusting.

I do have to say though that their customer service was excellent.
They were quick, they didn't make any mistakes with our order, the staff was pleasant and courteous, and even offered us large cups of ice cold water because it was so hot out.

So the food sucks but the service was great.
Can't win 'em all.

Posted by Kat at 9:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

I went back to sleep on the couch after the teens left for school, and at about 8:30am, the school nurse called.
Sebastian has a fever, a headache, and is complaining or sore limbs, can he come home?
I said of course he can, and waited for him to come back.
He walked in looking like death warmed over, I gave him 2 Tylenol, a huge glass of cold water, and sent him back to bed.
He's still sleeping.
Poor kiddo.
I just hope whatever he has is not contagious, I don't want to be sick again, I catch everything.
If Mark comes home feeling like that too, I'll probably catch whatever it is.

Posted by Kat at 11:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I was asked if I would review a site for Personal loans, and provide my honest feedback, and after really looking at the site and the pages they want looked at, here's my thoughts.

The site looks good and functions very well in both FireFox and IE.
Navigation is easy, there is a site navigate link at the bottom, which shows every single page of the site.
The colors work very well, nothing glaring, no flash, no scrolling marquees to distract the reader.
Now for the content.

One of the first things I noticed was that you can contact them to ask any questions you have, how the loans work, and whether or not a loan for you is possible.
A lot of loan places and websites say that they guarantee that every applicant will get a loan, so people apply, and they do indeed get approved, but are hit with extremely high interest rates they may not be able to afford.
Finding out ahead of time with no obligation to take the loan at a high interest rate, is fantastic in my opinion.
So many people get in over their heads and then it's too late.

Choice Personal Loans wants you to be educated and credit smart, so they offer a ton of links to information on loans, fixing your credit report, and how it's important to get a copy of your credit report before applying for a loan among many other things.
They want you to be smart, know what you are doing, how to fix things, and do the right thing for your family and finances.

The section on bad credit loans is just as informative. It's a short and to the point page, but again, they recommend getting a copy of your credit report first, tell you how to borrow and for how long, personal loan tips, and a link on personal loans for getting rid of bad credit.
The links to the educational material is all over this site, and there is absolutely no obligation if they offer you a loan and rates that are just not right for you.

They also offer no obligation debt consolidation loans too.
They can help you combine all your debts into one payment with the possibility of a lower rate of interest, and those rates are once again up front with no obligation.
They also offer a debt consolidation program with qualified counselors who can help you manage your debt and finances, so you don't get into more debt problems.
There's more related reading links on this page as well, they really do want you to know what is going on at all times and how to manage your debts, good and bad, and even offer some early warning signs of debt trouble.
I read through that section and saw signs that I have done in the past, and came close to making again in the last few years.
I would tell friends to check out Choice Personal Loans just for the information in the links they offer.
It's excellent reading material for everyone, not just those in debt.

I'm someone who has debt and credit issues, my credit report is littered with old debts and ID theft debts, and so being able to read this information, talk to someone about a bad credit loan with no obligation to take it, is something I personally find extremely valuable.
I love how they are upfront and honest with you to the point of telling you that if you have excessive debt, taking out a loan could be a financial disaster.
They are in the loan business, and they are telling you that this may not be for you, but if you want to know, they'll be honest and tell you what type of loan and rates you would qualify for, with no obligation, and even tell you that this may not be right for you, but they can offer you help and advice to manage your debts and start healing your finances.

My opinion of the Choice Personal Loans website is that is extremely informative, honest, and a great place to start looking for information if you are thinking about taking out a loan no matter what your credit history is like.
I think that anyone could get a lot of value out of reading through all of the links they provide.
The credit help info section is just chock full of links to reading material about loans and credit, and I know I'll be bookmarking it and reading all of those links.
I want and need to get a better handle on my money and credit report, and it doesn't hurt to find out where I stand.

Posted by Kat at 10:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I told you yesterday that when we came home, my feet were swollen and tore up from walking all day in my new sandals.
They still are.

I've had them elevated all day on my computer foot stool, I've soaked them in the tub full of freezing water for 20 minutes at a time, several times today, and they are still swollen.
I'd try some epsom salt, but I have open sores from the sandals tearing at my skin while I walked, and I'm afraid it will burn.
On both feet in the exact same spots, the inside of my feet towards the middle, two small gashes, and on a few of my toes, ripped open.
It is excruciatingly painful.
My pain meds are not touching this pain.
It feels like both of my feet are giant balloons filled with concrete.
They are heavy when I walk, and touching the floor, even walking on the soft and fluffy carpet, feels like I'm walking on broken glass.

And no, my feet are not dirty, that's a tan from the design on my every day wear sandals.

Posted by Kat at 7:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

My Macro Monday is a day late this week, but I was gone all day yesterday, and then so tired last night.
But better a day late than not at all.

Fruit Loops.

Posted by Kat at 12:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

We went down to Marina Jacks and did a tour of all of the art pieces that border the park.
First, we walked around the diversity panels, because they are all done in photoshop, that's what part of this class is currently studying.
The students weren't even remotely interested, and it was hot out.
Like way hot.
They all just wanted to sit down.
Then we went and looked at the statues.
These are the art pieces I have talked about before, costing the city millions of dollars, but the class we were in is art and digital design, not local politics, so I kept it to myself.
Here's a pic of one of the pieces, it's called Andy.
It's by far one of the more interesting pieces there.

After that, we ate at O'Leary's, and then hopped back on the bus to the Hollywood 20 for the film fest films for the schools to see.
They were really great shorts, I liked them all, but my faves were Dear Lemon Lima, One Rat Short, and Snakebite.
Snakebite was so adorably cute, a great and classic little kid story.
Dear Lemon Lima was weird but funny and poignant.
One Rat Short was a love story for rats with a not so happy ending, but done brilliantly.
Fabulous animation in it, and a good story with no talking at all, just visuals.
I wasn't crazy about Gandhi at bat, I just didn't find it all that humorous.

We were shown a commercial before the shorts started, and this one was just so wrong on so many levels.
You know I'm all about kids not starting to smoke, but this commercial for the tobacco free Florida you care contest, is slightly offensive.
I just don't think the part about sounding like a transformer, was necessary.
There are people out there who have to use that little machine to talk for reasons other than throat cancer, and so yeah, wrong, but funny all at the same time.
Instead of taking it seriously, the students laughed out loud.

Then we hopped the bus back to school, and man, teens these days, wow.
I think at times they forgot there was another adult on the bus besides the teacher, and I was sitting back there with them, and they just talked the way they always do.
Sex, prison sex, drugs, more sex.
I was like whoa.
The girls don't look like teenage girls, they look like 20 somethings, and the boys all look like teenage boys.
The girls were by far the worst talkers if you catch my drift.

I was so glad to get home.
All that walking around the park in new sandals?
Not a good idea at all.
I have blisters and torn skin, and now my feet are all swollen.
But all in all it was a good and interesting day.

Posted by Kat at 7:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Ha!
Wow, I haven't been up and ready to go at this hour in like forever.
Sebastian and I will be at the film festival all day with the school.
I hope it's fun and I that have some interesting stories to tell when I get back.

Later days!

Posted by Kat at 6:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've now straightened my hair about 15 or so times since getting the flat iron, and it gets easier and easier each time I use it.
It took me 30 minutes that first time, because I had never done it before and have a ton of hair.
Tonight, 15 minutes and done baby.
I figured out the perfect system for doing my hair.
I pull all my hair up and over the top of my head, and only take a small section starting with the underneath hairs, and hold the rest of it to that one side with a scrunchee.
I straighten that section, then let loose another small section.
This works so much better and makes it even faster.
I had to do this tonight because I won't have time in the morning.
We are leaving at 7am for the field trip, and there are 3 of us that need to take showers.
So I'll just plop my hair up in a bun, take my shower, and my hair will still be straight and look good after brushing it out once after the shower.

The freezer is now freezing again.
I guess it just needed to be cleaned out and reset.
It happens every once in awhile, and I should have just done that instead of panic, but I hate it when it happens and I always think the worst.

Posted by Kat at 10:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

We pulled it out from the wall, we dusted off all the coils, we plugged it back in.
Please let that be all it needed.

Posted by Kat at 2:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Laundry - started.
Dishes
Vac the rugs
Wash, dry, and straighten hair
Get clothes and shoes ready for tomorrow
Get money from ATM
Figure out what the hell is wrong with the fridge/freezer. (please just let it be needing a reset)

When I woke up this morning and went to get my morning diet Pepsi, I noticed it wasn't as cold as it should be.
I checked the freezer and a loaf of bread I have in there, wasn't frozen anymore.
Ut-oh.
So I turned the whole thing off, waited to a count of 60, and turned it back on.
It's done this before and just needed a reset, so maybe that's all I'll need to do this time too.
Keeping my fingers crossed anyway.

Posted by Kat at 11:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

About a month ago, I told you I would be receiving a free sample of a new antioxidant to try out from a company called Biotivia.

It came just a few days after I made that post, and I've been taking it every day since.
Well, almost everyday which explains a few things with my energy levels.

I've been taking a product called BioQuench, it's a super antioxidant which quenches those free radicals which may cause illnesses, and which can cause oxidative stress.

BioQuench contains Trans-resveratrol 75%, which is a great product on it's own and contains no synthetic or genetically-engineered compounds.
But, it also has apple skin extract, Goji berry extract, pomegranate, mangosteen, grape seed extract, and alpha lipoic acid.
When all of these ingredients are combined together, they provide amazing super antioxidant support and radical scavenging abilities, to help your body fight off toxins from pollution, smoking, and other harmful substances which can make you sick.

I started taking it every day beginning the day I got it, and in about a week I noticed a change in my energy levels.
I definitely had more of it and I started sleeping better.
More energy means I'm doing more and therefore getting tired and sleeping through the night.
On days I forgot to take it, I noticed a lull in energy, a feeling of just being really tired.
Yesterday was one of those days, so that may explain what was wrong with me yesterday.
I woke up this morning and it was like a light bulb ah-ha moment, oh yeah, i didn't take my BioQuench yesterday, d'oh!

I'd have to say for me, it's made an improvement in how I feel and how I look.
My skin has been looking better, and so has my hair and nails.
Maybe getting rid of all those toxic free radicals is where it's at in looking good and feeling good.

Posted by Kat at 10:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I don't know what's wrong with me today.
I woke up this morning with a general feeling of blah.
That blah has stayed with me throughout the entire day.
I have not been able to shake it or determine why.
It's like absolute boredom combined with being the most tired I've ever felt, yet 3 attempts at sleeping throughout the day failed.
I just laid there staring into my pitch black room.

Due to this boredom, I agreed to watch a movie I said I wouldn't.
Alvin and the Chipmunks.
Yup.
I watched yet another CGI animated rip off of a classic cartoon.
FYI, the chipmunks never, not once, not ever, rapped during the height of their cartoon fame.
I know 'we gots to update things for the times yo', but for god fucking sakes Hollywood, just leave the classics the fuck alone.

The teens have been surprisingly well behaved today.
I think they can tell I'm just sort of out of it.
They haven't fought a single time the entire day.
Maybe they're the ones not feeling well.
Hrm.

Oh, would someone hand the generation behind me a dictionary, and highlight the words slut and whore?
K? Thanks.
See, I'm sick and tired of people calling everyone a whore, as in "man, she fucks everyone, she's such a whore".
See, that there is called a slut.
If she's fucking everyone, she's a slut.
If she's fucking everyone and getting paid for it, then you can call her a whore.

And another thing, why do people always have to come along and ruin a good hypothetical what if conversation, with facts and figures?
Yes, let's just zap the fun out of the whole thing.
You're so mature, you're the awesome. /sarcasm>

Posted by Kat at 8:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

There's been a lot of buzz around the film The Business of Being Born lately, and after checking out the trailer, I decided to watch it last night on Netflix.
It's available to watch instantly, and I have to say it was a really fascinating film shedding a lot of light on the business of bringing babies into the world, and the history of childbirth is this country is scary.
They used to tie laboring women to beds for days at a time! *shock*

So many women in this country are opting for cesarean sections, scheduling their deliveries.
It's major surgery though, and more and more women are being pushed into this by their OB/GYNs because it's perfect for the doctors.
The doctors have total control over the birth, they can do it in as little as 20 minutes, and be back out playing golf with their buddies.

Giving birth isn't this terrifying experience doctors make it out to be. Yes it hurts, but the film asks the question, "Should most births be viewed as a natural life process, or should every delivery be treated as a potentially catastrophic medical emergency?"
I had both my sons in the hospital, given pitocin and an epidural, they were vaginal births, but flat on your back with your legs in the air isn't how the female body is naturally designed to go through labor.
You lay there on your back squirming, your back and pelvis is pressed down into the bed, and it basically compresses the birth canal making it more difficult than it needs to be for the natural birth process.

Watch the trailer, rent the movie, or if you have Netflix, you can watch it at any time with their unlimited instant viewing they offer all members.

Posted by Kat at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

We went to Bealls, and I did ok.
They are having a huge 30%- 70% off sale, and I got a couple colors I don't generally wear, but I figure at least from now on, I'll have some "Sarasota PTA soccer mom" clothes for those times when I have to look the part.

2 pairs of really light cotton capri pants, 1 pair in natural, 1 pair in black. 40% off.
1 pair of light "cammo green" surfer shorts, with a pretty little pattern on the pockets. 40% off.
1 brown t-shirt material, very lightweight, dressy-front shirt. 30% off.
1 black cotton t-shirt. 30% off.
1 pair new black leather sandals with a slight heel. 30% off.
My sister Jo bought me the sandals and the natural color capri pants as a late birthday present, but all of the items together still came out to less than $100.

Then when I got home, the handbag I ordered from Amazon was here.
I had ordered a Vitalio Vera satchel handbag, for $39.95.
I needed a new purse, and I had spent days looking at handbags in stores and on line, when I finally found this one.
I loved the way it looked, so I bought it.

A bag in a bag. Odd. I don't think I've ever bought a purse that comes in it's own cloth bag before. Told y'all I'm not in to fashion stuff. Maybe all "good" bags come in their own bags.
Do they? hahaha

The shoulder straps have an 8" inch drop, and the front closure with that little accent hang-down, is magnetic closure.

It has one main zipper that opens to a center zippered pocket, then 2 side open areas, and 1 side zippered pocket.

Then on the back, there is another small zippered pocket for change or a cell phone, or keys.

It's a very sturdy bag, but very soft. It's not real leather, but it looks and feels like it is.
There's a ton of room in it for all my junk, I like it.

Posted by Kat at 3:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I very rarely eat out at restaurants, we do get take out, but eating "in restaurant" is different.
Anyway, we went to The Olive Garden for lunch, it was me, the teens, my friend and her son.
The food was excellent, but I ate way too much.
I just love their bread sticks and alfredo sauce, omg yum.

I hadn't been up their in quite awhile, so a lot of things have changed in that plaza.
There's a ton of new stores for clothing, diners, a mailing type store, another craft place, and just a whole bunch of stuff that wasn't there the last time I really had a chance to look at everything.
They must have added on to the strip mall too, because there were noticeable changes in the end of the building structure, and one of them appears to have a completely different column style in front of it than all the others. They didn't look like cement, they looked more like fiberglass columns, they were a different shape, different color.
It doesn't look bad, just doesn't "fit" with every other storefront there now.

Tomorrow, Jo and I and the teens, will be going out for lunch somewhere, then we're dropping the teens back off here with her laptop so they can play Wow, while her and I go do some shopping.
She needs some new shoes, and I need some sort of school field trip appropriate clothing.
I can wear my standard black, but I think t-shirts and shorts won't be ok, so I'm off to find and purchase an outfit I'll wear once.
I'm not much into fashion, I could care less "what's in", and I have no desire to look like or fit in, with every Sarasota PTA soccer mom.

I can't believe how bloated I still am from lunch though.
When you don't eat out often, your body, ok my body, just isn't used to that kind of rich food, and I end up feeling sluggish and bloated for hours afterward.
4 Tums later, and I still feel like I'm bulging at the seams.

Posted by Kat at 7:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

I have to go take a shower, we're going out to lunch today with a friend of mine and her son, but I just have to get this off my chest.

There's a very bitter and angry woman in my life, more like on the outer circle of it, kind of hard to explain but I'll try.
My sister Jo and I were both adopted into one family.
We are not blood sisters, but we are 'family'.
Jo knows her blood sisters, Janice and Mary.
Janice is a free spirit, kind and fun, a loner of sorts, but she's a great person and she's happy, and she helped me out with something pretty serious I needed awhile ago, and I thank her so much for gathering all that information for me.

Mary, is an angry, bitter, and alone woman, who thrives on putting other people down.
She is painfully cruel to both Jo and Janice, she even takes a few jabs at me.
But I know her kind, so I don't let it affect me.
She says hurtful things, she judges based on what she expects and wants other people to be, not on who they are.
She doesn't love her family with all their awesomeness and faults, she judges, she picks away, she is vicious.
She is alone because of this, she claims to enjoy being away from those of us who "disappoint" her because we are 'beneath her', yet she constantly emails and calls to try and get in touch so she can send countless more hate-filled words.

I only wish she could shut her mouth and open her eyes long enough to see what she's missing out on by being such a bitch.
The beautiful and super smart nieces, the cool nephews, and the most awesome sisters that I could ever ask for.
Jo may not be my blood, but we were raised together and are more sisters than Mary could ever hope to be.
I may not be financially well off, I may smoke and swear, I may be pierced, but I'm a good person.
Jo is a good person, and she's an amazing mother to my most awesome nieces.
Mary doesn't deserve to be in any of our lives if she continues with this hateful judging of her own flesh and blood, she doesn't deserve the family she has and doesn't truly know.

I consider myself lucky every single day, that Jo is in my life, that Susan and Skye are in my life, that I have a family who loves me regardless of my faults.
I love them right back, that's family.

Posted by Kat at 11:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Lately when I have the tv on in the morning, I have noticed that more talk shows are starting to talk about the disease mesothelioma.
I know I've heard about it before and even posted about it, but it's starting to get really noticed.

Is it because the older generations who worked in those places with asbestos for all those years, are starting to come down with the disease and needing treatment?
Are the numbers that high that it's almost become epidemic like?
It's scary to think what future diseases we will have because of chemicals or building materials that we use now, that we think are safe, and maybe they will turn out to be not as safe as we think.

Posted by Kat at 10:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

After last night and today, it's kind of nice to be home alone.
I'm just sitting here watching America's Next Top Model, all the commercials for every pizza franchise in the greater Tampa Bay area, mortgage lenders and trying to take care of all the billing issues due to my PayPal card being being canceled and reissued.

I have called Verizon DSL twice now, given them the new card twice, and each time they tell me that it's in there correctly, but so far, they still have not billed me for my DSL.
I was able to fix my Netflix account, and they billed like it was supposed to today, so I have no idea why Verizon still isn't going through.
I still need to fix it for the monthly billing on PSU for the xbox, so I'm off to try and do that ow, hopefully it won't involve a call to Microsoft.

Posted by Kat at 8:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Someone will probably read this all wrong and think I'm being a bitch, a selfish mom, or just not loving and understanding my kids enough, but I will try to explain this so that doesn't happen.

Sebastian has been having quite a few anger issues lately, I am working on it with him, I try to talk to him about what is bothering him, and that seems to only make him angrier.
Sunday night, he and a kid in the neighborhood he plays with, got into a fight.
They called each other quite a few choice names, took swings at each other, and then came home.
This other boy's mother and I decided to keep them away from each other for a few days, let them each have a cooling off period.
The fight was stupid.
They were both playing night tag, it was dark outside, a typical game of tag, but anyway, it was dark, and Sebastian tripped over a rock twisted his foot and called time out.
The other kid called him a pussy.
He called the kid a douchebag.
Names back and forth, then someone threw the first punch, neither of them remember who swung first.
Anyway, it was over, they were both being kept away from each, chill out.

Last night, Sebastian and I took a walk to the store, and he rehashes the story the whole way there and most of the way back.
I say most of the way back because of what happened next.
I told him on the way back to drop it, it was over, let it go, he and his friend will be back to being friends again in a few days. They have been off/on fighting like this since they met.
When they are good, they are great together, when they get pissed, they could kill one another.
It's a love-hate relationship with them.
Sebastian didn't stop talking about it, just kept repeating it.
I told him one last time to drop it, it was done, he can call his friend and they can make up like they always do.

Sebastian lost it on me.
He starts yelling that I don't care about anything that interests him, that I don't pay any attention to him at all, I never get involved in any of his school stuff, that I don't care about him.
I start telling him that I do, that I know everything that makes him happy, all his classes at school, his grades, his fave color, his fave food, his fave video games, that I do as much with him and school as I can, I'm going on that field trip to chaperon because he asked me to go.
I do everything I can to make sure that both him and Mark are happy, no, I don't care about PSU or Dragonwars, or some of the really confusing for old people video games, but I bought them because I *know* it makes them happy.

He keeps yelling all the way home that I don't care about him, continues it inside the house.
Mark starts getting angry at him and tells him that if I didn't care about them, they wouldn't have any of this stuff to play, none of the games, no new stuff, no subs or pizza and hot wings, no Chinese food, no nothing that they ask for all the time. He tells Sebastian how good they have it, that they could be like the kid next door who is abused and ignored, who doesn't have anything at all, his parents don't talk to him, they yell at him to clean the house, walk the dog, do the dishes, that he doesn't have any new clothes or shoes when he needs them, he wears the same clothes for days in a row.

Sebastian is still yelling, pissed off, tells Mark to shut up.
I am trying to talk to him, find out what he's really angry about because I know it can't really be about me not caring.
I spend so much time with him. I take daily walks with him and we just talk about whatever he wants to talk about. I will sit in his room and watch him play his video game and talk about it even though I still don't understand it, because it makes him happy to have me there.
I get on the xbox headset and talk to his friends when he asks me to, I try to be as involved as I can, I try to understand the video games, I try to understand the homework from school and help him, but it's so not like when I went to school, but I still try. I look stuff up on the net if I don't get it to try and help.
I am always here, always listening, always paying attention.
I spend far more time with him than Mark to be honest.

We never did get to the root of it last night, we both ended up crying, he said he was sorry for being mean, he didn't mean to call me a bad mom and say that I didn't care about him or love him.
We hugged, we cuddled on the couch on and watched a movie together, we spent some more time with his video game that I still don't get.
I thought it was over.

Then this afternoon around lunchtime, he started in again, out of the blue.
We had just been sitting here watching a tv show, laughing, and then he snapped at me again that I don't care about him.
I begged him to tell me what this is really about, he has to know I love him and care about him.
I bust my ass to make sure they are both happy and have everything they need and some of what they want.
I do my best every single day.

He tells me that I don't love him as much as Mark, that I only do things with him to make him be quiet, that I never talk to him.
I asked him, do we not talk every single day on our walks?
We talk about school, games, food, fun, his friends, movies, whatever he wants to talk about.
He tells me that no, not that, that I don't talk to him about my stuff.
I'm like what? What kind of stuff?
He says work, what you do, what you like and and stuff like that.
I always tell them about work, how much of it, when I get paid on such and such a day, we can do something they want to do, what kind of assignments I have, I even ask them for help sometimes.

He tells me that I don't talk to him about it as much as I do with Mark.
I explained to him that that's because Mark is always out here playing the xbox in the room where my pc is, and that Sebastian is always in his room on his pc, or outside playing with friends, but that no matter who is the room, I am usually always talking about something.
Something on tv, a movie, my work, my friends on line, silly text messages that come in from friends.
He says that I should do that more with him.
I tried to explain that if he was in this room more, he'd hear all those things and could just jump on into the conversation, and truth be told, Mark is mostly ignoring me.
He gives me the yup, the uh-huhs, and the reallys? like he's paying attention, but I know he's playing his game, not really listening to me.
He says he wouldn't ignore me like Mark does, he'd listen.
I tried to hug him and tell him that it's ok, it's boring for kids, I don't expect them to really be paying attention, I just talk out loud as I'm typing sometimes.

He pushed me away, and told me it wasn't boring, that he wants to know things about me, what I like to do, my friends, things that make me happy.
He's crying about it again, and I tried to console him and tell him that he and his brother are what makes me happy, that they are my reason for getting up every day, to keep going.
I love them, I work as much as I can, for them, I buy all those games because it makes them happy, and if they are happy, then so am I.
He says that's a lie, that I'm a liar, that if I could change my life to not be a mom I would.
I'm all dude, no I love you guys more than my own life. I really do try to do everything I can to make them happy, it makes me happy when they are.

And then just like that, it's over again.
The tears are gone, he's changing the subject, says he's hungry and walks away to the kitchen.
I tried to see if he was really ok, and told me to just stop it for now, he didn't want to talk anymore.
I said ok, asked for a hug, and he gave me a big giant hug, squeezing me tightly.

I have absolutely no idea what's really going on with him. I can't get him to open up about why he feels this way, why he thinks I don't love him and Mark, why he thinks I'm lying.
I would die for them, I would give up everything for them, I would do anything for them.
It's hurtful to hear those things from him and I'm trying so hard to find out where and why this all started, but I can't get anywhere with him. Just when he starts to open, he shuts down again.
If either of them should feel slighted, it should be Mark.
I spend far more time with Sebastian, I talk to him a lot more, so why Sebastian feels this way, I don't know.
I'm trying though.
I'm really trying to figure this out and help him with whatever this is about, but it is hurtful to me when he says those things, and I know that sounds so selfish for me to be feeling like that, but I love him, I love both of them, more than I do myself, I know them so well, everything about them, so yeah, it kinda hurts.
They have an appointment for their physicals in 2 weeks, and I'm going to talk to the doctor about it, the mood swings, the yelling, I don't know what else to do, I don't know how to help him if he's not talking back to me or not telling me everything.
I just have to keep trying, for the both of us.

Posted by Kat at 3:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

I was cleaning out my purse this morning, and in one of the front pockets I found a few gift cards that belonged to the teens.
They always ask me to hold their cards until we go to those particular stores.
One was for Best Buy, and had mostly been spent except for about $11.00, and the other was for Old Navy for $25.
Not been spent at all.
Oooops!
It was Sebastian's, he got it for xmas from his big, and I kept telling him we'd go, but I hate that store so I never go there and totally forgot about the gift card.

So when I found it, I was like hey bud, look what I found, wanna shop online?
He was like 'geez mom, it's April, you just found it?'
But he picked out a couple t-shirts, I paid the difference and shipping seeing as it's totally my fault, and now he has 2 t-shirts on the way.

I think I get the bad mom award for the day.

Posted by Kat at 11:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I went out to find a little snack to munch on, and once again, I found Shahiro sleeping in the cabinets.
She knows how to paw at the cabinet knobs till she can get her head in there to jump in.
She finds the weirdest places to sleep.
She goes in the kitchen cabinets, on top of the tv, on top of the book shelves in the living room, on top of the toy shelves in Mark's room, and in just about every window that has a sill.
She also loves to sleep on top of the computer monitor in Sebastian's room.
She's a strange cat.

Posted by Kat at 11:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

My pretty Kali baby is 10 years old today.
Born on April Fools day, and been the best pet anyone could ever ask for.
I gave her a can of special cat food today, I sang to her, and she meowed back to me in her squeaky little 'mew' of a voice.
I love this cat, I don't know what I would do without her.
She's just the awesomest.

Posted by Kat at 9:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Lucky for me when I started my jewelry making biz, I only needed less than $100 in business funding to get started, but other companies need a lot more.
And it has always baffled me why some companies sorta brag about how much venture capital they got.
I don't understand it, maybe they think it will make more people want to invest or sign up with them or something, I don't know.
I just know that reading a press release about a company that got "another $10 million in venture capital start-up funding", doesn't make me feel secure, it makes me feel like they won't make it without always having a back up source of funding.
I mean, I'm glad there are places out there where you can get money to start up your business, but I don't like it when companies brag about how much they got.

And I do hope to get back to my jewelry making soon. I even have new supplies that I just recently bought, and some new design ideas.
I just need to get my shoulder taken care of, and then it's a go.

Posted by Kat at 4:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The contact lenses I ordered really late on Friday night, arrived in todays mail.
I love new lenses. They feel sooo good.
And yes, they are colored lenses.
Did you really think my eyes were naturally that green? *wink*

My eyes are really green on their own, but the colored ones just enhance them and make that green even brighter.
They also change in certain lighting.
Indoors, they look more hazel, outdoors in bright sunlight, they are really, super duper green.
I've been wearing them for years, love them!
And now my vision is clear and comfortable again.

Posted by Kat at 3:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm up an attempting to get moving so I can get to the docs this morning.
I slept terrible, probably because of the off and on napping I did all day long, but I just laid there, rolling back and forth staring at the clock.

The teens are doing ok so far on spring break.
I say just ok, because there have been a few minutes there that I just wanted to wring their necks for being obnoxious turd nuggets.
Spring break.
It's only Tuesday.
If you're the praying kind, you may want to say a prayer for their safety, or better yet, pray that they learn to knock it off.

And it's April Fools day.
Oh great.
A day full of stupid internet pranks, WoW on the console, Virgle, Custom Time, etc etc etc.
I don't do April Fools.
It's a non-holiday to me.
You don't get the day off, it doesn't have it's own candy or presents, so it's not really a holiday.
It's a made up day for people to act stupid and try and pull one over on the people they love.
Here's an idea, don't do it on April 1st, pick a random day out of the year and do your prank then.
And when they say what the hell man?!
You can yell April Fools!
Now that would be funny.
But today, we're all expecting it.
On like June 11th, I may laugh and say oh you got me, but today, I'm watching you.
I'm expecting it and if the teens do anything really stupid, they may die.

Posted by Kat at 7:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)