My Single Mom Life

George and Lois took vows to love, honor, and cherish one another, till death parts them.
They have had their share of ups and downs, lived through some hard times and some amazing times too.
They had their own son and still had more love to share.
They took in child after child who needed a home, needed to be loved.
And love each and every one of them they did.
They adopted two daughters, they would have adopted them all, their love was big enough to love every child who passed through their doors.

All of their children are grown up and have children of their own now, some natural born, some adopted love born.
But Ninny and Pop Pop love each of those grandchildren as much as their own.
Each child is their family, even friends of their grown-up kids are welcome through those doors.
They are Mom and Dad to everyone who comes to their home.
They remember every birthday, every crowning achievement, they never miss a chance to send a note filled with love, hope, and encouragement.

Things aren't always so easy now, it's tough times for everyone, but you'll never hear them complain.
Ninny always says that you make due with what you have, and then stretch it out some more.
Pop Pop gives great big bear hugs, a wink and a smile, and tells you it will all be ok.
They are stubborn and set in their ways, if you refuse to take their money for shoveling the cold Maine snow, Mom will make you a couple loaves of homemade bread and your favorite muffins to take home.
They send their love for you in so many ways.

Forty-nine years ago today, George and Lois began a life filled with love.
They still love each other as much today as they did all those years ago.
They have a life filled with memories and love, and they continue to share it with everyone.
If only all of us could be so lucky to find that special person to share all of that love with.
They belong to one another and they respect one another.
They love, they honor, and they cherish, every single moment, of every single day.

Happy 49th anniversary Mom and Dad.
I'm sorry we couldn't be there this year, but next year, next year is the big half of a century, and one way or another, we'll be there to celebrate it with you.
You are loved and missed and respected, far more than I ever told you.
Whenever I think I can't keep going, there you are, showing me that I can, encouraging me to keep doing and keep living, and keep loving.
It's that love that keeps me going.
I couldn't keep doing it without your love for me, and seeing the love you have for each other, continues to give me hope, year after year after year.

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

The kid next door is spending the night tonight, so we've been playing video games, popping some music on his iPod shuffle, and the pizza he ordered because his dad gave him like $50, just arrived, so we're starting to watch Bubba Ho-Tep now.
It's a funny movie, it has it's moments of scare too.
The kid doesn't like really scary movies, so a combo of funny and scary is the name of the game.
We've pulled the blinds and curtains to block out the headlights of the passing cars that speed up and down the street all night, and a good time will be had by all or else.
I swear, if any of them start fighting tonight, they will all die a slow painful death.

Just kidding, I won't really kill them, maybe just make them do a bunch of chores tomorrow as punishment.

Posted by Kat at 10:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So my neighbor and I both had to go to Amscot today, it's not far from our house at all, and she had a quarter of a tank of gas left.
It should have been more than enough to get to us there and back to our street to get gas.

As we're coming back down US41, we swing that left at the huge intersection of 41 and Stickney, the van starts sputtering, dying, it's running out of gas.
Crap.
We manage to make it through the intersection and about another 150 ft or so, when it's just dead, not going to move another inch.
So her son gets out and starts pushing the van, he's 12 years old, he's small, you would think that someone would stop and help push the van to the gas station right?
But noooo, no one stops to help.
I tell her to let me out, that if I get out and just start pushing, we'll actually get a few guys to help us.
She doesn't think it will work, I bet her $5 it will, and I get out and put my hands on the car.
All of a sudden, da-da-da da dadum! I'll be your hero today ma'am! 3 guys are suddenly offering to help push us.
A guy on a bike, a guy parked his Bronco in a lot, and another guy who's walking, are all helping push the van to the gas station, about 30 more feet from where we were.
They were pushing that thing so hard and so fast, I had to stop. I couldn't keep up with them, and it's a good thing I did because her son dropped his Swiss Army knife out of one of his pockets as they were all pushing and running the van down the street.

We get the van to the gas station, her son is now putting the gas in and had gone in to pay for the gas and get us all something to drink, it was so hot out, and I put my hand in front of her, palm up, and said "$5 bucks please!"
We both started laughing, but it's amazing that nobody stopped to help a kid push a car, but as son as they see a woman, big strong men come out to help.
Female in distress! Help! Help! *laughs*
I didn't make her pay me the $5, it was just a funny thing, but it is pretty sad that no one helped the kid, but they'll help a woman.

Posted by Kat at 4:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The teens have been watching all the Rocky movies these past few weeks, we are on Rocky V right now, and we have Rocky Balboa on our queue for our next Netflix shipment.
Sebastian is the one who wanted to watch these, he asked for the first one, then when it was done, he asked me to add all of the rest of them to our queue until he's seen them all.

But as we've been watching them, I have been feeling older and older.
I was 6 years old when the first one came out in 1976, it's hard to believe these movies have been around for 32 years now.
And Sebastian, well he's hooked on these movies.
He just loves them all so far, he keeps asking me if the fights were real, what happened to some of the other people in the movies that Rocky fought, like where are they now and stuff like that.
I figured after he saw the first 3, that would be enough for him, but nope, he has to see them all.
I'm glad there's only one more though.
I do like the Rocky series, but after seeing them so many times over the course of my life, I've kind of had enough of them.
Just one more to go I keep telling myself, just one more to go.

Posted by Kat at 7:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I woke with a start this morning, this feeling of something wrong had come over me.
I laid there trying to think of what it was that was wrong, and then it hit me.
I mailed out the child support interrogatories weeks ago, to his lawyer's address, but I had this gut feeling they never made it there.

I took a chance on my gut feeling, and called his attorney's office to ask if the documents had made it there.
When he told me he never got them, a slight panic attack over came me.
The hearing is this Thursday, the 31st, I don't have time to mail them again, and also don't have enough money to get them overnighted to his office.
So I asked him if I could email him the documents, I don't want to postpone the hearing, it's already been pushed back 3 or 4 times, so would he accept an email from me with an attached zip file.
Thankfully, he said yes, and I emailed him the zipped folder with all of my documents in it.
All he'll need to do is open the zipped folder and print them out.

It would have totally sucked if come Thursday, I was held in contempt for not sending the documents, but I know I did.
It cost me $13.00 to have all of those pages printed out at the Pak Mail down by my grocery store, and then another $2.75 to mail them to him because of how heavy the envelope was.
There were 27 pages of printed out documents, it was a heavy envelope.
I should have gotten delivery confirmation, but I didn't.
But he has them now, and hopefully he has everything he asked for.
I told him in the email, that if he needs anything else to contact me, I have no problem making sure he has all the documents that he needs.

I really hope this thing goes well, and we can just get this over with.
The ex has been making slightly larger child support payments for July, and I am thankful for that.
Instead of $21.00, he made 2 payments for $36.84, and 2 payments for $37.10.
It's a good start anyway, it's been $147.00 this month, compared to the $84.00 a month that we have been getting.
What I'd really like is $50.00 per week, $200 per month, the teens just keep growing and they need shoes and clothes, plus all the back to school supplies.
I have to get Sebastian to an orthodontist to see about braces, that's not covered under their Amerigroup insurance, so I need to find an orthodontist who will allow me to make monthly payments, like really low monthly payments.
If I was able to get and count on timely monthly CS payments of $50, I would be able to make the payment plan for $200 per month until the braces are paid off, which would be years, but at least his teeth would be straightened out.
The lowest orthodontist place in the area has payment plans at $199 per month, so yeah, it would be doable at $50 per week CS payments.

Anyway, I'm rambling now, so many things going on in my head, still not feeling very well, so that's my post for the day I guess.

Posted by Kat at 2:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Back on December 6th 2007, I posted about the Check N' Go class action lawsuit, and because I used them for a payday loan advance, that made me part of the suit.
Check n' go was sued because the interest on the loan exceeded the maximum amount allowed under Florida law.
The amount I paid in interest was $530.00

Because I had not been feeling well all weekend and most of today, I just now checked the mailbox, and in it was an envelope about the class lawsuit.
Each claimant will be receiving almost 40% of their excess interest fees, so my check is for $211.05.
And in the envelope with all of the important legal stuff, was my check.
Yay!

I went to the class action lawsuit website to check on any other important news or whatever, and saw that they are no longer accepting any more claimants, and also saw that they mailed the checks out on July 25th.
The total of the settlement was $10,275,000, so based on that number and my pro rata settlement check, it appears Check n' Go screwed over a ton of people in the state of Florida with their loan sharking interest rates.

Posted by Kat at 8:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

The teens are still sleeping and I wish I was.
Yes, I know it's late in the day, but I got absolutely no sleep last night at all, I'm just not feeling well.
Maybe if I liked coffee and had one of those capresso machines, I could wake up and get some energy flowing because I have things I'm supposed to do today.
I just can't though.
All I want to do is sleep.
I need sleep.
I just feel completely drained.

Posted by Kat at 11:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

I've mentioned on here before about the local Tampa crew and their parties, that's the only reason I'm mentioning it here again instead of on my other blog.

The local Tampa people love to play flip cup and beer pong, they have their own custom beer pong tables that they've made, it's an amusing thing to watch.
I myself never partake of either game, but I do enjoy watching people mess up and therefore get completely obliterated while playing.

Well it seems that playing beer pong may be bad for your health.
There are at least 2 unconfirmed reports floating around on the internet, about beer pong being responsible for an increase in herpes, the virus that causes mouth cold sores.

I say unconfirmed because when I did a Google news search and a CDC website search, it showed zero (0) results for these stories that are finding their way around college blogs and forums.
I have a feeling someone at a college got a case of herpes/cold sores and because they didn't want to appear as being careless, they blamed it on playing beer pong.
It's amusing to me how quickly these stories go around the internet with absolutely no credible source links to back up the claims, yet everyone believes the stories.
Until it's confirmed by an actual report on the CDC site, it's still a safe and funny game for my Tampa friends to partake of at parties.

Posted by Kat at 12:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I decided to start going through Sebastian's clothes first today.
I had to dig through all of the clean clothes piled up on top of his dresser first, then I could get into the drawers.
We ended up with 2 big garbage bags of clothes that no longer fit him, and all of them are still in good shape, so I'll be donating all of those to the Goodwill.

But as I was going through his clothes, I found out where all of my missing company logo shirts had gone to.
He swiped them.
Over the last few years, I've gotten quite a bit of free t-shirts from various blogging companies, a few forums I'm a member of, and a whole bunch of t-shirts with movie and band logos on them.

Every time I did the laundry and *know* I had washed, dried, and folded those shirts, and placed them in my pile on top of the dryer until I would go to put them away, they vanished.
I was never really sure where they went, but I would always see him wearing one of them every so often during the school week, but he would always say he was just borrowing it for the day, he wouldn't take it again once he put it in the laundry basket.
But I never did get them back.
All totaled, I found 17 of my shirts in his dresser drawers.

When I looked at him after adding another one of my shirts to the pile I was taking back, he just smiled and got a little red in the cheeks, then threw his arms around me and said I was his homie.

Posted by Kat at 9:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

With a month left to go before school starts, it's time for me to go through all of the teens clothes and shoes they currently have, and figure out what fits, what's still in good shape, what doesn't fit but is still in good shape that can be dropped off at the Goodwill, and to figure out what exactly they will need to start school.

I have this tall standing wine rack that I got from Publix a few years ago, they were getting rid of it, it was a display rack, so I took it and instead of using it for wine, I've been using it for shoes.
It makes an awesome shoe rack, see?

It's a bit messy right now, it's covered with old jackets that are too small and need to be donated to Goodwill as well, there's some shoes on there in great shape that no longer fit, we can donate those too, and there are about 8 pairs of shoes on the floor under and around it, that the teens have just dropped on the floor instead of putting on the shoe rack.
*eyeroll*
So I need to have the teens go through all of those shoes and jackets, try them all on and find out what fits or doesn't, then bag up everything that doesn't and donate it all.

There's a pair of boys soccer cleats on that rack that Sebastian wore maybe 3 or 4 times for a summer soccer program 2 years ago, and they are in incredible shape, they are practically brand new, and if someone wants them, they can have them.
I'd be happy to send them to a mom whose kid is doing soccer and needs some cleats.
They are Nike Versatract, US size 7.
You can click for a bigger picture to see just how good of shape they are in.

They retail for about $25-$30, and they are really like brand new so if anyone is interested in them, contact me.
First come, first get.

Posted by Kat at 1:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Mark will be turning 17 on August 15th.
It's so hard for me to believe because I remember like it was yesterday bringing him home from the hospital after giving birth, how small he was, I remember every little detail of him over the last 17 years.
My baby boy is almost a man, well, he's already man-sized, standing at 6foot 2inches tall, broad shoulders, a deep and booming voice that confuses people when he answers the phone. *laughs*
He's a great kid young man, despite the fighting with his brother, despite the rolling eyes he gives me, he's just an awesome human being.
Smart, caring, compassionate, a free-thinker.
He's way cool in my most humble mom opinion.

Anyway, (stop recalling his kid cuteness before I make myself cry) his birthday is coming up and all he wants is money.
That's typical of most teenagers, they want cash so they can go and buy their own things, so he doesn't have to politely say thank you for that sweater that a great aunt spent 2 months knitting for him, so he doesn't have to hurry up and make a list of things he might want, and also so that not one single person has to pay the full price of a video game he wants.
He said if everyone gives him like $20 bucks, then he can add it all up and get a couple of games, or just one game and put some money away for something else he wants, or to go to the movies or whatever.
I'm cool with him just wanting cash, it works for me so that I don't have to go hunting for that game he wants at busy back-to-school shopping time with hundreds of frantic mothers and screaming kids yelling they don't want to try that on, or hoping that it gets shipped in time for his actual birthday.
Cash works, cash is good.

But I do know that we'll be going to the movies that day.
It's on a Friday, and it's also opening day for Star Wars: The Clone Wars, the first ever animated Star Wars film from LucasFilm. (click that link to watch the trailer)
He doesn't read my blog too often, so I think I can safely say what I'm planning to do.
I'm going to go to Buy.Com and and see if they have one of the Star Wars: The Clone Wars Visual Guide books as part of their 10% off the price of Amazon books promotion they are running, and if they do, I'm going to order it within the next two weeks, and give that to him on the morning of his birthday.
Sort of a hint kind of gift. *wink*

I'll give him a card with cash in it too, just like he asked for, and then I'll go hop in the shower, get dressed, and then tell both of the teens to take showers too, tell 'em we will be going out for dinner like we always do on their birthdays, so they need to be cleaned up and ready to go when Aunt Jo gets here after work.

Then I'll have to make up a reason to leave the house at a little before noon, tell the cabbie over the phone to take us to the mall but not say anything when he actually picks us up, and then take both of them to the theater for a matinée showing of Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
I know he wants to see it, he's a huge Star Wars fan, and he's been talking about this new animated movie for several months now.
He has a good-sized collection of Star Wars action figures, and even though he no longer plays with them like he used to do when he was younger, he still keeps them in really great shape, all tucked away in a box nice and neat, and he has never opened that collector's edition Boba Fett I got him about 4-5 years ago for another one of his birthdays.

I kinda want to see it too, I have always liked the Star Wars films myself, and I'm really curious as to why the MPAA gave it a PG-13 rating for sci-fi action violence throughout, brief language and momentary smoking.
When did they start giving movie ratings based on smoking!?
Over the last few years, I've really taken issue with a few of the MPAA's ratings of some films.
I just don't agree with some of them, and what good do they really do anyway if you go to see a really dark, really violent, rated 'R' movie late at night, and there are parents who bring really small children, like kids under the age of 7, and babies(!), and these kids are scared, crying, and throwing a fit because what they are seeing is terrifying them, and the parents, instead of getting their kids and leaving, tells the kids to shut up because they are watching the movie?!
Babysitters people, babysitters.
And if you can't afford a sitter, then don't go to the movies until you can afford one.
Not only is it cruel to subject your children to images and sounds that will give them nightmares for the next 2 months, but it's not fair to every other person in that theater who specifically waited for a late showing so they could avoid screaming and crying children who are totally ruining their movie going experience that they paid a lot of money to go see.

Posted by Kat at 7:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

I have Sebastian usually, go with me on my daily walks, and it's been getting hotter and hotter out every single day, even in the evening when it's slightly cooler, it's still suffocatingly hot outside.
So last night when we went on our walk, I was dressed for it, shorts, light-weight cotton t-shirt, ankle socks, my jogging shoes, had my hair up, and I had a little hand towel with me to wipe away the sweat.

We were about 3 quarters of the way done and Sebastian blurts out that I'm a sweaty, drippy mess. That my hair is stringy and wet, my skin is just "oozing" sweat, I look like I've been in a sauna for an hour.
I was like well thanks bonehead, I appreciate the loving compliment. *eyeroll*
If I had a treadmill, I wouldn't need to go outside for long walks, I could stay inside where the AC is, and be nice and cool while I work out.
I have started using my elliptical again every other day since it started getting hotter, and I'm not using the hand things to go back and forth because of my shoulder, so I'm just resting them on the main hand grip panel area, so I'm not moving my shoulder around as much.

But I would love having a treadmill though, I've always wanted one.
I'll have to check on freecycle again and see if anyone has one.
Every time I see one on there, it's already been snatched up, like someone claims them as soon as they get posted by others.
Maybe if I had one, Sebastian wouldn't be calling me a sweaty mess.

Posted by Kat at 3:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Source

State lawmakers decided against the tax break, saying the state couldn't afford it.

Finding clothes you like is the easy part, but paying for them is getting a little tougher. The week-long sales tax holiday won't be giving shoppers a break this year.

"The state of Florida gets almost all of its money from sales taxes. Sales tax revenues are down, down, down. As a consequence, we can't afford to pay our bills. And so this little holiday amounts to a significant amount of money, and this year frankly, the state of Florida just couldn't afford it," says Representative Keith Fitzgerald.

The sales tax holiday simply suspended paying state sales tax on any back to school items like clothes, shoes, backpacks, and all school supplies, under $50 each, to make back-to-school shopping a little easier on Sunshine State parents.
The state has decided to suspend the sales tax holiday this year because the state needs the money.
Well if the state didn't spend our tax revenue dollars on stupid crap, they wouldn't have to do this to parents who struggle to get their kids ready to go back to school.

This news is definitely sucky.
I have two teenagers who go back to school in about a month, and I have a lot of clothes, shoes, and a ton of supplies to buy for each of them.
It was always hard doing the back to school shopping anyway, it costs a lot to get kids ready to go back, and now it's going to hurt Florida parents even more.
Right smack in our wallets.
Ouch.

I know I'll be doing some major price comparisons before going to any stores.
I'll be going through sales flyers looking for the best and lowest prices, checking out all of the sales and comparing each store against one another for the best possible prices.
Two kids in high school with huge lists of expensive items, not to mention the new shoes and clothes they both need as they have both grown a lot over the summer, is going to be very hard.
I'll probably be going store to store, buying items at each store that has the best prices.

Hang in there Florida parents, let's hope the teachers won't ask for any big-time expensive items this year.

Posted by Kat at 12:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Mark didn't mow the lawn yesterday because it started to rain a little bit, so he had to wait until this evening to do it.
And then the rip/pull cord on the mower broke.

We had to borrow the neighbors lawn mower in order to finish our front yard.
So can the rip cord things be replaced, or do I have to buy another mower again?
The mower itself is still in good condition, the cord just broke, and it's now inside the cord storage area thing, I can't pull it out to tie the two ends back together, or even if it can be tied back together.
Do they make cord repair kits?
Is it it even called a lawn mower rip cord repair/replacement kit?
Help!!!!

Posted by Kat at 11:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I was contacted by a rep from Renuzit, to receive a free Renuzit Tri-Scents home air freshener, and give my thoughts on it.
I received it through the mail on Saturday, and when I opened the box up, all of this crinkly little streamer stuff came flying out of the box, and landed all over my kitchen counter and carpet.
I managed to scoop it all up and put most of it back in the box.
It had come flying out like one of those fake peanut cans with the spring snake in it. *laughs*

It also came packaged with an insert that tells you how to set it up, the available scents, and some money saving coupons on other Renuzit products.

It came with the Seaside Breezes set of fragrances, and was very easy to put together.
The 3 little containers of scent oil come stuck together so you're not trying to snap each one in by itself, and they just snap right into the electric scent warmer.
It has a slider on the side so you can decide the strength of fragrance that comes out, I have mine set on the lowest one and find that it's just the right amount coming out.
I have it plugged in in my room because the cat's litter boxes are in my bathroom, and even though they are cleaned daily, with 3 cats, there is always a bit of au-naturale kitty fragrance in my room. (hint-kitty pee or poop)
The Tri-Scent does a really nice job of helping to make the scent of cat much less noticeable.

I really like this product, the scents are not overwhelming unless you turn it way up, which I made the mistake of doing the first time I plugged it in.
I didn't realize it was set on high, and when I went back to my room an hour later, I was bowled over by how strong it was.
Other people may find the highest setting is just perfect in a very large open room where the scent needs to try and fill up a large space.

The way the Tr-Scents work is to change through the 3 different fragrances it comes with, Relaxing Waves, Beach Breezes, and Ocean Oasis, every 45 minutes.
So every 45 minutes the scent that comes out is uniquely different, but matches the other two scents, and gives you a nice change in how your room smells.
I find this changing of scent really nice while I'm sleeping at night.

I would buy this product again, and will probably buy the refill kits for it.
I will only use it in my bedroom and will have to unplug it when my sister comes over because she is allergic to very strong perfume type scents.
Air fresheners really bother her allergies, and give her like an instant migraine when she walks into a house with any type of air freshener in them.
I had a few air fresheners plugged in 2 years ago when I went in for my surgery, and when I came home they were gone completely from my house.
My sister had unplugged them and threw them away. *laughs*
I should have unplugged them before leaving, I knew they bothered her, but it slipped my mind with everything I had going on.
Now I know to unplug and turn off any air fresheners before she comes over.
It's part of the reason I ask her to give me a warning phone call.
I don't want to bother her allergies.

Posted by Kat at 2:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Thank you all so much for your concern and words of advice, there's a lot of strong opinions out there! *laugh*

This morning, the swelling in his hand has gone way, way down, it's almost back to normal looking, and he can now flex and fist his hand up, and it's not giving him as much pain.
He says it's still a little bit sore, but not feeling anything at all like it was 24-48 hours ago.

We kept it bandaged up snuggly in the ace bandage, kept using ice on it every 3-4 hours, and giving him Tylenol for the pain.
Someone had suggested giving him Advil for the inflammation, but as my sister and I have learned, Mark is very allergic to it, or it just doesn't agree with him.
He had slept over her house one night and ended up with a headache.
She only keeps Advil on hand because Tylenol upsets her stomach, so she gave him two Advil caplets.
Within 30 minutes, Mark was violently puking, and his headache actually got much much worse.
Since then we have figured out that it's not just name brand Advil, it's all NSAIDs, store brand, Aleve, any of them cause him to puke, so the only thing he can take is Tylenol for pain, and use ice to calm any swelling down.

So he's doing much, much better, we just needed to wait and see how it was going to do, swelling up or going down.
He says his hand actually feels well enough for him to mow the lawn later this evening.
He's been putting off mowing the lawn for like 2 weeks now, it's about knee high, so yeah he said he's going to try and mow it tonight.
He says he feels well enough to try, so I'm going to let him.

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

I am still searching for a new and really good/powerful HDTV antenna for our house because of the switch to all digital broadcasting that's coming in February 2009.
The antenna I have isn't strong enough to pull in the digital signals through the concrete walls of our duplex.
I search all the different on line shopping sites, and I'm constantly checking out Buy.com to see if they ever have one on sale as part of their weekly deals.
So far, no such luck, but I'm going to keep checking because this is something I really need to have because we don't have cable, I refuse to pay for cable, so yeah, I need to get a good one before February.

So as I was checking out their weekly sale looking to see if they had one, I spotted something I would like to have.
Some Panasonic noise canceling headphones.

I love my little earbuds, but I can still hear everything even when my mp3 player is cranked all the way up, so some new headphones that would cancel out, block out all the noise, would be really awesome.
I'm so tired of listening to the blip blip blip of the video games, the bickering back and forth, the conversations that take place in game, it's all just getting on my last nerve.
There's something like just 3 weeks left until the end of summer vacation, and I know I'll make it through, but the noise.
Oh the noise!
I just want to be able to stop hearing it all, and 3 weeks just seems like such a long time when you're already feeling slightly crazy from all of the various game playing sounds.

They have them for a really good price too, like an awesome price. They have knocked off $125 of the price, and are selling them for just $75.
That's an awesome deal, but I really need to save as much money as I can for the new antenna and other things we need.

Posted by Kat at 12:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Mark says it hurts, but he doesn't want to go to the hospital to have it looked at yet.
He wants to wait another day or two, see if the swelling and pain goes down, if it doesn't, then he'll go.
He's nearly an adult, I am trying to respect his wishes to govern his own body here, but it's hard.
My mom instincts are saying to get it looked at just to make sure it's not broken, and another part of me is saying he's an adult, he can make this decision for himself but if he waits too long to make a decision, I'll step in.

What would you do?
You are the parent, yes, but your child is 17 years old, an adult who generally makes decent decisions about his life, has never been in trouble with the law, is doing his best with his education, and has made a final decision on his life plans, what he wants to do with his life.
Would you intervene and tell him nope, momma is going to take you to the hospital because momma knows best, or would you let him make this decision for his own health, how he feels about it?

Posted by Kat at 2:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

I am going to end up taking Mark to the ER after all.
His hand is swollen up again, he says it hurts quite a bit more tonight, he can barely make a closed fist without wincing, and forget about flexing his fingers all the way out.
I know it's kind of hard to see in this picture, it's not black and blue anyway, just puffy and swollen, but the flash was whiting it out, no flash was too dark, synchro flash still whited it out, so I just used flash and pulled back as far as I could, and took the pic in the bathroom because it has the best light.
But you can tell that his left hand is 'bigger' than his right.

So for now I've wrapped it in an ace bandage, and am having him ice it, rest, ice it and rest for a little bit now.
I feel awful, he's such a good kid, he didn't tell me it was hurting really badly until I woke up just a little bit ago.
I was so tired after coming home from the musical, that I had a little bit to eat and then laid down on the couch.
My intent was just to take a little rest, watch a little tv, but I dozed off within minutes of falling asleep around 8pm-ish, and woke up around 11:40-:45pm.
He said he came out while I was laying down but saw that I was asleep, so he didn't want to bother me.
Ugh.
So I gave him a few Tylenol and then wrapped it up and now he's sitting on the couch with an ice pack on it.
I'll need to get him to the ER tomorrow, uh-er today, and get it looked at.
He says he doesn't know what a broken bone feels like because he's never broken anything, but he imagines this is what it feels like.
I asked him how bad it hurts using the pain scale, 1 it doesn't hurt at all, to 10 being OMFG it hurts so bad I'd rather be poked in the eyeball with a hot needle than to feel like this anymore, and he said it's about an 8, so yeah, he's in some pain.

I do think (and hope) that they have learned their lesson about fighting with each other.
For like forever now, since they were little kids first starting to be annoyed with each other, that one of these days their fights were going to end up with one or both of them getting really hurt.
That day has finally come.

Posted by Kat at 12:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I woke the teens up just a bit ago, Mark has plans to go out with his Big, George, for lunch today, and we have plans this weekend that they need to be healthy for.

I checked Sebastian's noggin, and it looks much better this morning.
Still a little puffy, still a little black and blue, but otherwise he's good.
He says it doesn't hurt anymore.

I took the duct tape and popsicle sticks off of Mark's fingers, and the swelling has mostly gone down, he can move them, a bit better, so it looks like a sprain is all he did.
I'm going to let him go with George and see how he does.
It's his left hand that he hurt, he's left handed, so we'll see how he fares with eating with utensils today, if he's in a lot of pain when he gets home or not.

I am utterly exhausted.
I barely slept because I was so worried about Sebastian's head.
I was afraid to let him sleep straight through, fear of a concussion.
This picture was taken this morning, and trust me, last night, this looked so so much worse.
It was this HUGE black and blue puffy ball on his forehead.

Being a mother is so dang stressful sometimes.
They have fought almost every day this summer, they are bored, there are no "summer" jobs down here.
It's the reverse seasons here.
Up north in the summer, kids are out of school, people take vacations, teens can get jobs.
Down here in the summer, no one vacations here because it's too hot.
People vacation here during the winter when teens are in school, so yeah, they are at home and at each other's throats day in and day out, but this is the first time they have come to hard blows.

You know, when they grow up and move out, I'm going to start looking for a new home in another state, like go look for some Wilmington real estate, or Wyoming, or Virginia, find myself a nice little cozy 1 bed/1 bath cottage size place, and then not tell them where I moved to, and if they find me, ooops!
Sorry sons of mine, but my house is too small for you to live with me.
Dang.

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

Here it is 2 o'clock in the morning, and all 3 of us are still awake and probably will be for quite awhile.
See, at midnight, the boys were in the room playing the Xbox and Sebastian wanted to play a game by himself for a few minutes, and Mark didn't want him to, he wanted to both play at the same time on Halo 3.
Neither one of them would give up on what they wanted, and pretty soon the verbal assaults turned into physical assaults.

Sebastian slapped Mark, Mark slapped Sebastian, Sebastian punched Mark, and then Mark punched Sebastian in the head.
Hard.

Sebastian has a huge knot and a nasty bruise on his head, and Mark possibly has at the minimum, a swollen sprained index finger, and at the worst, a fractured or badly broken index finger.
When he nailed Sebastian in the head, he hit him so hard he busted up his own damn finger.
I had Sebastian hold a bag of ice on his head, and Mark held a bag of ice on his hand.
Sebastian has a really bad banging headache, and Mark's finger is now duct taped to a couple of popsicle sticks until morning, and he's in a bit of pain.
I've given the both of them a couple of Tylenol, and keeping them awake for a little bit to make sure Sebastian doesn't have a concussion.
In the morning, I'll be checking to see if Mark can move his fingers any better than he can right now, and if not, we'll be making a trip to the ER for the head knot and the busted up finger.

They're officially grounded from all the internet and gaming activities.
I've killed the internet connection to their room, removed the controllers, and have no idea when I'll be giving any of it back.
I simply cannot believe they got into a fight so bad that they caused bodily injury to each other.
I had almost made it through the teen years without them hurting each other badly.
I now know what Aunt Sherry dealt with when her twin sons Donnie and Jimmy would beat the crap outta each other constantly, and she spent most of their teenage years sitting in the ER while the doctors put on casts, put in stitches, and reset dislocated shoulders.

I'm so frigging angry I could kill them, but I'm exhausted.
I'll let you all know if anything really is broken.
Gah!

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

The other day when Sebastian and I went grocery shopping, I finally bought a new plunger.
Yes, a new plunger after 10 years of living in this house.
The plunger we had seemed to not be working anymore, the rubber plungy part was old, stiff, and starting to crack a bit, so I bought a new one for just $2.99.

We did need a new one, not just because the old one was broken, but because that morning when I took my shower, I noticed the tub was not draining as normal while I showered, and even after getting dressed, it still wasn't drained.
I came back from the store and it had finally gone down, but I ran the water because I knew it was clogged and I didn't want to hear either one of the teens complaining that it was clogged.
"Mom! The tub is clogged up! What am I supposed to do?!"
*eyeroll*

So I ran the water to about ankle deep and started plunging away with the new cheap-o plunger.
It had a really tight seal, like really tight, I had a hard time breaking the suction from the tub a couple of times, but once I got a few reps of plunging done, the water drained out of the tub like it had been blasted with some sort of air tools pipe cleaning thingamabobber.
I was shocked.
The water in the tub has never gone down that fast in all the years we've lived here.

Then just now as I was washing my hands at the bathroom sink after peeing, I noticed how slow the sink drain was not draining, and decided to try out the super cheap plunger on the sink drain which has been the bane of my existence since living in this duplex.
Drain-o, Liquid Plumr, special stuff you sprinkle in the drain at night and it eats away the gook, all of it has gone down those pipes, and all of them would work for a few days, so I tried the new plunger.
7 plunges with a sink halfway full, and then I watched.

It went down in a flash!
Yay!
I don't know what kind of magic powers this $2.99 plunger was made out of, but I'll be damned if it isn't the best little plunger in all the world!
I will take care of it, I will keep it clean and in a safe spot, I will love it and call it Dave.
Dave the cheap plunger is my new bestest friend appliance in all of my house.

Posted by Kat at 11:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I don't know what exactly happened or when exactly it happened, but the AC unit was leaking really bad into the house.
Like all over the carpet.
The rug was just saturated with water under the unit and under the elliptical, and moving out across the rest of the living room.

So anyway, I am trying to fix it, tilt it back so it can drain out like it's supposed to, I'm doing everything I can think of to try and fix it, and I've got towels all over the rug trying to soak up the water.
It was is a huge mess.
I finally ask the teens to help me, I can't be on the inside of the house, and outside, trying to get it to sit just right in the space it goes, plus, I'm not supposed to be doing heavy lifting or moving of anything.
The whole freaking time, Mark is just arguing with me, do this, why don't you do this, why do I have to help you with this?
Um, gee son, because you're like 6 foot 2, strong, and because I freaking said for you to help me!

We finally get it fixed and he's still being all pissy.
I don't know what crawled up his teenage butthole today, but it needs to crawl back out or it's going to find my foot implanted up in there too.

Posted by Kat at 7:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Mindy came to pick me up this morning for my doctor's appointment, and her daughter Katie started telling me about the car that was stuck in the ditch.
I know this happens all the time on my street, but usually I see the people do it and then attempt to get it out of the ditch.

So we rode back down the way they came so I could see the car.
The people must have had a party last night and one of their guests drove head first into the ditch, and the car is still there.
Hopefully no one got hurt, or they might end up needing some type of Chicago personal injury lawyers or something to go after the city.

The ditches on my street are really deep, about 4 feet deep, because the city comes along and digs them deeper every summer so the rain doesn't get backed up and flood the street.
I've seen tons of cars end up in the ditches over the last 10 years living here.
I've seen drunks swerve and end up in them and then try to get them back out before the cops show up.
I once had one of the elementary school lunch ladies end up in the one right in front of my house after she took out my mailbox with her car.
She was plastered at 4 in the afternoon!
She was trying to get her car out, spinning her wheels, it's not like you can just back up and get your car out, it actually has to be towed out.
She was crying, trying to push her car, I offered to call a tow truck for her and she said no because they'd call the cops on her.
I had to tell her it was too late, the cops had already been called.
She started yelling at me, and I was all hold on lady, it wasn't me, it was my cranky ass neighbor, and she was just screaming and freaking out.

The cops did show up and arrested her because she was hammered, and I look over and my neighbor Bill, he's dead now, is standing in his doorway, shorts on, no shirt, chest all covered in scars from his multiple heart surgeries, with this big smile on his face and a moon pie in his hand.
That guy was never happy unless someone else was miserable.

Posted by Kat at 3:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I was ordered, ordered to make cheesy burgers for dinner tonight.
I haven't made these in like a year I think, but when Sebastian and I went shopping yesterday, he ordered me to make them for dinner tonight.
So I figured I'd share the recipe with all of you.
They aren't cheeseburgers, they are cheesy burgers, kinda like sloppy joes, but with cheese instead of sauce.
It's probably the easiest meal I've ever made, and they love it so for about 10 minutes of "work", dinner is done.

1 lb. hamburger
1/2 a large onion diced
1 cup Velveeta cheese

Cook burger and diced onions with salt and pepper to taste and when all the way cooked through, add 1 cup Velveeta cheese and stir until well melted.
Slap on buns and enjoy.

Posted by Kat at 4:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

It's been such a boring summer here so far.
The teens and I have done absolutey nothing of any fun at all.
I wanted to take them to a park or something, maybe go on over for a little Orlando vacations style weekend or something.
Hit up the theme parks, play, just have fun like we used to do.

But no, here we are at home all summer doing nothing but playing video games and watching movies.
The teens aren't complaining, they love playing video games.
It's me, I wanted to be able to do some fun stuff with them.
Blah.
It's been raining all day and I think it's having a negative affect on my moods.
I'm just feeling super down today.

Posted by Kat at 3:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm watching the ABC Primetime show about teens with Tourettes syndrome, and my heart is just breaking.
Watching what these families go through every single day is just exhausting, I can't even imagine what they deal with.

This one girl, Devon, has been home-schooled most of her life, and they decide to send her to public school.
The stress of it all sends her body into ticks that cause her to hurt herself.
This really is just breaking my heart.
I cannot imagine having a child with this syndrome, and then make them go to public school.
She's 11 years old, that makes her in middle school, and man, what a horrible age that is to begin with, kids are so cruel to each other at this age and grade.
There are some kids who are nice to her, but you know there are kids who are snickering behind her back, some probably even to her face.
I don't know if I could send my child to public school with this syndrome.
I know how cruel kids are, this would send those mean kids into over drive with their torture of the kids who are different.

Posted by Kat at 10:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Sebastian and I went to do the grocery shopping late this afternoon before the rains kicked in.
About an hour after we got back, it started and hasn't stopped yet.
I was quite happy to see that some prices have dropped on some foods though.
Bread has dropped .40cents in a week, we got some good deals on ground beef this week at just $1.99 per pound, bananas were on sale too.
I hope the food prices continue to drop, having to buy groceries every week is becoming super expensive.

While we were going up and down every aisle, Sebastian found a gold chain on the floor.
The stamp on it said 18k, and it was a very nice chain, about 20inches in length, a necklace.
It looked like the clasp broke, and it was very light feeling,so whoever lost it probably didn't even know it fell off.
He took it up to the service desk and turned it in, they thanked him and took it in the cash office in case someone comes looking for it.
Then we called a cab and had to wait bout 40 minutes for it to get there.
The driver they sent for us never showed up, so Sam had to send a totally different cab to get us.
I bought 2 more cloth grocery bags again, so now we have 4 of them.
It is amazing how much they can hold too.
You can fit the equivalent of the contents of 3 of the plastic shopping bags in each one, and they aren't heavy either.
They have a fold down hard bottom, so the weight of the food inside gets balanced out evenly.

I rented the Tin Man miniseries from Netflix, so we're watching disc 1 right now.
It's pretty good so far, I rented it because it got some decent reviews.
It was a 4 part miniseries on the Sci-Fi channel.
I'll post my thoughts about it after we watch the whole thing.

Posted by Kat at 6:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm sure you've all seen the commercial for the new Magic Jack internet phone jack that gives you free calls right?
Don't be so quick to jump on it as a the bargain you've been looking for.

BoingBoing has pointed out a very interesting EULA agreement for the Magic Jack you might want to read very carefully before you buy this product.
It's actually a very evil agreement, and if any of you have already purchased this or were thinking about it, you need to get rid of it ASAP.

"You also understand and agree that use of the magicJack device and Software will include advertisements and that these advertisements are necessary for the magicJack device to work ... Our computers may analyze the phone numbers you call in order to improve the relevance of the ads."
...
"Any claims, legal proceeding or litigation arising in connection with the magicJack device or Software will be resolved by binding arbitration.... in Palm Beach, Florida."

I know the economy sucks, and everyone is looking for ways to save money on bills and all the other household items, but magicJack is NOT the way to go.
There should be some way that the telecommunications people can force scam companies like this to make it so that when consumers get to the point of sale on stuff like this, that it should have to go through some kind of authorize.net procedure so that the EULA pops up and the consumer has to read it all the way through and agree to the terms before they can enter their credit card.
The magicJack site doesn't make it easy for people to see the ToS or the Eula, you have to Google to find out where on the site it even is.

Posted by Kat at 8:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

My cutie-pie niece Skye is here for the day, and we are having some fun despite the heavy rains that are coming down, and despite my extreme tiredness.
She's coloring and and playing, and we're watching a couple movies she brought with her.

That cute little stuffed American eagle, is the one I won from MomLogic.com.
The Fedex man showed up on Friday, and that was inside.
I didn't even know I won it till then.

Ok, off to have some fun and mail some Skye drawings to Nanny and Pop Pop!
Later days!

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

I really wish I could plan and force sleep to happen when I want it to.
Like have some sort of futures broker that I could bargain with, plead, beg, and whine to, when I absolutely have to get some sleep.

This is one of those nights.
Wait, it's not actually Saturday night anymore, it's officially Sunday early morning, and I need to get some sleep and be awake at 8am so that my sister can come over, pick up Sebastian, drop off and leave Skye with Mark and I for the day, and then head to work where Sebastian will play with his friend Matthew, and she'll work till about 3:30pm.

But what am I doing?
Why, I'm wide freaking awake!
I have tried 3-4 times to fall asleep and it's just not happening.
I need to be rested and awake in just under 6 hours now, and I know it's not going to come naturally or make my day easy.

Last night was the same.
I laid awake until almost 5am, then slept until about 9am, and have just been fighting to go back to sleep since.
Today is going to suck.
It's going to be a very long and very tiring day.

Posted by Kat at 2:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Mark turns 17 this coming August 15th, it's so hard to believe my first baby boy is almost a fully grown up man.
He's 6 foot 2 inches tall, built like a linebacker, and just a really super awesome young man.
I'm so proud of the person he has become.
He's kind and caring, compassionate, generous, respectful, all the things moms want their sons to grow up to be, I really couldn't be more pleased with who he has become.

I've started looking around for the perfect gift to get him, to let him know how special he is to me, something he can have and use for a long time.
I don't want to just get him another video game, or give him money so he can buy another video game or just blow it on crap like most teenagers do.
So I got to thinking I'd like to get him a watch, a really nice one, not some cheap thing either, a really nice timepiece he can have and wear, and then hand down to his son someday.

So I went on a search for watches finding many sites with many nice ones, and one of my Google searches took me to a link for an AP Royal Oak watch.
I really like the way they all look, but my word, I'd have to win the lotto to ever afford one.
One of the watches I found had a buy it now price of $121,500.00.
!!!
I was all no freaking way could a watch ever cost that much, I know some do, but I just thought that price was far too much money for that particular watch, so I went to the watchmaker's website and I was right.
That watch brand new is only $25,500, and that ebay seller is seriously marking up the price.
It is a limited edition, but if the real site has it for a much lower price, then anyone who buys that watch at over 100 grand, is stupid.

I can't afford an AP watch, but I will find him a really nice one that I can afford.
I think he deserves something nice so I'm going to keep looking.
I know what I can afford to spend isn't really a lot compared to most people, but if anyone finds a really nice looking watch for about $150 or maybe a bit more if it's a really nice one, please let me know ok?
Thanks.

Posted by Kat at 7:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I love watching the antiques roadshow on PBS.
Today's episode, they were talking about old beer bottles and beer cans, and how much they are worth.
They even had a lady who saved a bunch of wine bottles like from being part of some wine of the month club, and she thought they were worth a lot of money.
They were indeed old wine bottles, but they weren't worth anything at all.
She was a bit disappointed, but at least she knows she can throw them away now, they guy told her they'd never be worth anything.

But this show always gets me thinking about all of the things the boys hold onto and they hope it will be worth something someday.
Mark has, saved away in a box and airtight plastic bag in my closet, the entire baseball card collection of the very first season of the Power Rangers.
He has every single card in the series, even the holographic special ones which were pretty hard to find.
He's convinced that this collection will be worth a lot of money someday, and I honestly don't know.
They are all in really good shape, he never played with them, just collected them and organized them by number.
Maybe they will be worth something someday, I have no idea, but I'll keep holding onto them for him and maybe someday they will be.
I'm sure most kids got their cards and played with them, mothers probably tossed them out when they found them on the bedroom floors, or they got ripped up and stuff, so it's hard to say just how many full sets are still out there.

Posted by Kat at 1:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Here are just two of the pictures I mentioned in the post below.
Look how tiny my boys were!
Sebastian had turned 4 on June 1st, and Mark would be turning 6 in August.
These were taken in June 1997, just a few weeks after we moved here, and I cannot believe how small they were.

They both look the same, same faces, but my how they've grown!
Mark is over 6feet, Sebastian is at 6feet, and Mark will be turning 17 in about a month, on the 15th of August.
They used to be so tiny, pulling them around on that inner tube was so easy because they were so light.
There's no way I could pull even one of them now.

Posted by Kat at 3:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

My sister had been digging around sorting through some boxes in her closet, and found some pictures of the teens and I from when we first moved here.
It was June 1997, and my gosh, they were so tiny!
I'm going to scan them and upload a few to show you.
In one of them, I am pulling them through the water on a small inner tube, and you can clearly see one of the scoliosis humps on my back.
That hit me kinda hard how visible it was.

Posted by Kat at 2:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The teens need to leave my mp3 player alone!
Both the boys have their own mp3 players, but they like mine, or is it the music I have on mine?
Nah, can't be that because I put all the same mp3's on their players as well.
I have a Sandisk Sansaclip mp3 player, it's only a 1gig, but it's an incredible little player, very easy to use.
While I was browsing around Buy.com's weekly items they for sale, I noticed they have an 8gb Sandisk Sansa mp3 player for just $20 more than mine cost!
That's an incredible bargain!

The Sandisk players are so so easy to use, you just connect it to your pc through the USB cord it comes with, and add your music by drop and drag, or copy files to the location.
To charge it, just leave it hooked up, it charges through the USB, so no having to buy batteries for it.
The menu controls are easy to use, it has a really bright screen so you can read it in any light, and the volume controls are easy to manage too.
The 8gb has video and picture capability unlike the 1 gig, so you can store your pictures on it, even videos, and watch them at a decent playback rate.
It can play mpeg, AVI, DAT and quicktime, ASF, WMV and VOB formats too.
Pretty much any format your video is in, it will play it.
Heck, my pc can't even play all those formats unless I convert them first.
It also has an FM tuner/recorder and a voice recorder in case you want to record some notes for yourself.

This is a really good deal at just $59.99, and if the teens didn't already have mp3 players, I'd snag a couple of these up for them and put them away for Christmas.

Posted by Kat at 1:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Right about now I could use one of those walk in tub things where you sit down and the door keeps the water in, but you're not like laying in the tub because I actually can't.
Yeah.
Shopping with Sebastian seems to be getting harder, or is it more annoying?
I think it's becoming more annoying.
He questions every little thing I purchase, has to know what it's for and why.

Today's annoying all through the whole store question was, why was I buying those cloth shopping bags.
Well dear have to know everything son, all the plastic bags are gunking up the planet, and because they are only .99cents.
I figure if I buy 2 bags every time I go to the store, by the end of summer I'll have more than enough to use no matter how much shopping I have to do.
I hate the colors they come in, brown and this bright green color, but they'll do.

I'm just so tired now because it was so hot out, and the store didn't even feel cool inside and I'm sure the AC was on, but man, it was just sticky in there.
Oh, and the prices on everything just seem to be getting higher and higher.
I swear to you, just last week, on Thursday when I went shopping, Scott 4 roll pack of toilet paper was $2.99.
Today it was $3.55, an increase of .56cents in just one week.
Totinos frozen pizzas that used to be 4 for $4, are now 4 for $7.00.
I didn't buy any this week, I usually buy a couple because the teens can cook them for themselves on nights when I just can't move, but at that price, nope.
I bought the cheapest lunch meat that was on sale, and some Peter Pan peanut butter that was buy 1, get 1 free, and a jar of jelly, and 2 loaves of bread.
They will learn to love pb&j if it kills me.
And I'm really upset that they've been advertising this ice cream like a gazillion times a day, and when I went to buy it they didn't have any.
I know I don't need it, trying to lose weight and all, but it sounds so so tasty.
I guess I should be happy they didn't have any.
My ass certainly doesn't need it.

Posted by Kat at 8:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

During the summer, I can't seem to keep track of the days.
We don't have to get up at a set time to be anywhere, so all of the days just sorta blur.
I realized about an hour ago it was Thursday, I honestly thought it was Friday for some reason.

Anyway, the teens slept in a bit later today, and I haven't done much of anything myself except for another load of laundry, and a wash of the dishes.
I've cleaned practically every room of the house so far this week.
I'm keeping track of my new doctor-approved diet plan on my personal about me blog, and cleaning and staying busy is one of the side effects of the Zylene.

In a little while, Sebastian and I are going to head on out to Publix to pick up some food and other household products we need.
I've been on a cleaning spree so I need some more cleaning supplies.
We definitely need some milk, more lunch meats, bread, tp, cat food etc etc.
I'm going through twice as much food as normal because of them being home.
I don't mind them sleeping late at all, because the longer they sleep, the less food they are eating. hee hee
So I need to go hop in the shower and fix my humidity frazzled hair, and then we can go.
I need to double check my shopping list too, see if I have any coupons I can use, and then off we'll go.

Posted by Kat at 4:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm attempting to finish up the child support interrogations, I mean, interrogatories, for the child support hearing which has been bumped until July 31st.
I have to provide all of my personal finance records from 2005-2008, and I'm doing ok.
I have my debit card records which I copied from the Amscot site, they don't do paper bank statements because it's not a savings or checking account.
It's just a card. I deposit money into it so I don't have to carry cash, it's a pre-paid debit card.
So anyway, I copied all of those, I have my tax paperwork from the taxes I filed for 2007, the only year out of the 3 that I've been able to file taxes for so far.
SSDI isn't taxable income, so you don't file taxes on it, and last year was the only year that I earned an income and got 1099's for paid blogging.

Then I got to document question 7, and I'm like what? a business? It's not a business it's a blog, a diary, an online journal and I get paid to insert random contextual links for a couple of bucks each.
They want a copy of how many hits/visits I've had in the last year.
For what possible reason?
To see how many people read my blog?
What does that tell them?
I don't get paid per visit, or per hit, I don't get paid per click.
I get paid a couple of bucks to insert a link into a post.
That's it, but hey, they want it, I took a screen shot for them and will print it out and mail it to them so they can try and say I'm getting paid per hit.
I swear, his attorney is grasping at straws here.
I've been 100% honest about every single penny I've made.
I report it to all the proper authorities every month, it's well documented, so why he wants to see how many people visit my site is just ridiculous.

All I did was ask for my child support to be increased.
It's been at the set minimum wage since 1994, at $21.00 per week.
In the last 14 and a half years, I have not asked for it to be modified.
I have not ever asked him to help buy the school supplies every year, or the shoes they grow out of every 3 months, or the clothes they constantly need.
I have not ever asked him to help pay for all the school field trips over the years, the before and after school child care that they needed when they were younger.
I've never asked him to help pay for the cost of summer child care every summer when they were younger.
I've never asked him for a single thing until now, and his lawyer is treating me like I'm asking for the skin off of his back.

Whenever I've discussed the amount of child support the teens get with other custodial parents, they nearly faint.
The majority of them receive no less than $400 per month in child support.
When they figure out that the teens get $84.00 per month, they simply can't believe it.
I want a reasonable amount.
I want an amount that is fair to take care of the teens since he's never had to pay for anything they've needed over the last 14 and a half years, even though it was court ordered that both of us pay 50% of all of their needs.
I've never asked him, and he's certainly never offered or just sent money and said hey, here's some money to help buy their school supplies and clothes, shoes, or whatever they need.
I don't think I'm asking too much to have it increased after all of these years, and it's absolutely disgusting that they are asking me for all of these documents.
He is the non-custodial parent, it's his income that needs to be looked at and determined if an increase is possible.

It's even more disgusting that they are asking what I might inherit when my parents die.
I can tell you it won't be anything of any substantial value.
My parents are retired, my father is disabled, my mom's health isn't the greatest either, and they struggle to make ends meet every month just like I do.
I know why that's being asked.
During our marriage, my parents always welcomed him into their home, my mother always keeps the home nice and clean, she always made him feel like part of the family, and it looks as though they have money, but that's only because my mother takes impeccable care of what they do have.
Everything is in good shape, things are treasured and taken pride in, but they've had the same furniture for like 20 years now, same with everything else in their home.
What does he think?
That when my parents die I'll inherit the house and what little they do have?
Does he think my parents can take care of my children and I?
They can't, they have trouble paying their own bills, they sit in their house during the winter wearing layers of clothes and covered in blankets because the cost of heating oil is more than they can afford, so they keep the thermostat set around 60, just to conserve what they can afford to put in the barrel.
These questions are sick, and I'm absolutely disgusted that his scumbag attorney would even go there.

Posted by Kat at 11:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

I've been watching this whole Christie Brinkley child custody and divorce case, and feeling absolutely terrible for Brinkley, but mostly for the children involved.
Both Brinkley and Peter Cook, her ex-husband and the father of their youngest child, need some serious therapy.
Not only that, they both need to shut the hell up.

Why Brinkley really wanted this all to be public was so that people would be on her side once they heard and read all about their horrible marriage, how he slept with young women who were barely adults, his internet porn addiction, etc etc.
We all do feel bad for her, it sounds like she was married to a pretty terrible guy, but what about the kids?

The majority of divorced couples badmouth their ex-spouse, I have done it right here on this blog, my ex-husband has done it, still does it, he forgets I have friends who live up there and are mutual friends with some of his friends.
Most parents do this kind of stuff, and yeah, I feel badly about the things I have said on this blog, but they were my honest feelings about how he treats our sons, and the facts.
He really has fathered six kids with the last one being named Sixx like some kind of sperm donor award for being able to knock out that many kids by the time he turned 37.
We have both said things that we shouldn't have that have harmed our children.

But when you are a celebrity as famous as Brinkley, you really need to learn when to shut up and keep things behind closed courtroom doors.
Every single detail about their marriage, the affairs, the porn addiction, is now permanent public record.
Her children will be able to access the details for eternity.
Every nasty comment they made about each other, the pictures of the women he slept with, every single dirty detail is out there forever, and it will have a permanent effect on those kids.
All the days of their lives, someone they meet in school or college, or at a future job, will figure out who they are and be able to look up that information on line, and it will be discussed.
They will never be able to escape the details of the divorce and custody battle.
The things both of them have said will have an effect on those kids forever.

Her husband did have a porn problem and affairs that were part of the reason their marriage collapsed, but those details were marital problems, not parenting problems.
Brinkley has said many times that Cook was a good father to his younger children.
He didn't really get along well with Brinkley's oldest child, daughter Alexa Ray Joel, but that he was a good parent to the younger ones.
But all of this mudslinging about the porn and affairs, has tainted his children's view of him as their father.
If everyone around these kids is saying that porn is disgusting, is a dirty gross thing, that is how they will view him, as a disgusting old pervert who has sex with girls just a few years older than them.
They will think of those statements when they do get visitation with their father.
It would be in the best interest of the children, in my opinion, if both Brinkley and Cook would agree to close the details of the court cases to the public.
Ask the judge through their lawyers, to seal the courtroom from any more news and gossip reporters, no more of the dirty details needs to come out.
It's bad enough that so much of the information is out there already.

Posted by Kat at 4:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I spent a good portion of today and this evening, laying on the couch sniffling and coughing, and the teens made due for themselves letting me just get some rest.
Then they asked if I had a few bucks, could they go to the corner store and grab some snacks and some sodas.
I said sure, handed them my paypal card, and off they went.

When they came back, they slipped my card back in my wallet, and the receipt on the table of death, and then handed me a Klondike bar.
I didn't ask for it, they just thought the smooth ice cream might make my sore and scratchy throat feel better.
And they were right.
It felt awesome letting the smooth vanilla ice cream just slide down and cool off my throat.
It actually made the headache I've had all day feel better too.

My teens rule.
They know how to cheer me up and make me feel better without me having to ask.

Posted by Kat at 11:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

The teens go back to school on August 18th, so between now and then, I have to get everything in order.
Health physicals need to be done, eye exams, hearing tests etc.
Things like vision and hearing can be genetic, so it's important to get the teens tested every year for those problems.
Sebastian already wears glasses, so it's time for him to get another exam and a new prescription if it's needed.
Mark will need to be checked to see if his vision is still 20/20.

He has vision like a hawk.
He can read street signs several blocks away, people crossing the street on foot at night in dark clothes, great, great eyesight.
I hope it stays that way for him.
Both Sebastian and I have to wear vision correctors, Sebastian with his glasses, and me in my contacts.
Sebastian would like contacts, but he's very afraid of putting anything near or in his eyes still.
It takes awhile to work up the nerve to do it yourself that first time, and even the first few times.

I need to have their spines checked out too.
Their primary doctor can do the scoliosis exam as part of the physical, and I know how to check it as well.
You should always have your child stand facing you, not away from you, and have them bend forward like they are going to touch their toes.
From the front view, not only can you see if there is a rib hump, but any shoulder unevenness as well, because their fingertips will not be level if there is a curve.

I need to get them measured for correct shoe and clothing sizes, and then wait for the school to wait until the last possible minute to tell us what supplies they will need.
There is nothing more annoying than getting that list the first week of school.
The tax free shopping week is already over by then, so now everything we have to buy is at full price with no tax break discounts.

I usually do buy all the basics during that week though.
Pens, pencils, binders, folders, reams of paper, and the backpacks etc.
It's the specialty items that we never know about until later, and those are usually the most expensive and the ones we could really use the tax break on.
I really wish Sarasota County would force these teachers to have their lists ready for the tax free shopping week.
It's not fair that we have to wait to buy the $50 calculators and other expensive items that first week of school after just spending a ton of money on everything else.
And if we don't get the items they request that week, the kids lose points.
How fair is that?!

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

I went and dug through my archives, and nope, I haven't posted about the situation with the kids in the neighborhood, so I'll do that now.

A few weeks ago I got a call from my neighbor, she's the mother of the boy who about a year and a half ago, maybe longer, who had been doing all that lying/truth telling about his father abusing him.
The real truth has never been discovered, but what the kid discovered, is that lying to get people in trouble works in his favor, it makes things go his way for awhile.

During this phone call, she starts going off about how Sebastian is older than all the other kids in the hood, that her son and another little boy aged 12 or so, have been friends since the 2nd grade, and Sebastian just sorta moved himself into their little circle of friends and how violent he is when they play.
She said that her son told her that Sebastian punched this other kid in the side of the head so hard that his head split open and he had to go get stitches.
I said hold on a minute, this kid had to get stitches and this is the first I'm hearing about it?!
Why didn't his mother call me or come to my house, if my kid gets hurt by another, damn first thing I'm doing, any reasonable parent does, is notify the parents of the offending child that something happened.
She starts yelling even louder that this really did happen, her son said so, the parents of ALL the other kids don't want Sebastian around, etc etc.
I found that to be rather odd because one of the other kids in this little group had just been at our house that morning inviting Sebastian over to play.
So I went next door, this lying kid has a hard time lying face to face, he gets red, looks down and to the left.
Left lying, right remember, it's a cop trick to know when people are lying about stuff.

I get over there and start asking more questions, telling her what really happened that day, that it was another child who actually hit this kid in the head, but it wasn't hard, it was actually a finger flick, no skin ripped open, no being rushed to the ER, no stitches.
Her son wasn't even there that day, he was off at a swimming party with a different friend.
I looked right at the boy and asked him who told him this.
He starts stuttering, uh uh, that's what I was told, I don't know if it's true or not, they told me it was.
Who is they? Who are the parents who don't want Sebastian around? And exactly how many stitches did this require, and why did this mother not come to my door and yell at me for this?
A pissed off parent usually goes straight to the other parent and bitches them out for serious bodily injuries.

He keeps stuttering, looking left, has no direct answers, his mom is now yelling at me for interrogating her perfect son.
I said to her, "How many times has he lied and gotten you and your husband in trouble for child abuse? How many times does he lie about all kinds of stuff? You are constantly telling me that he lies about even the simplest things, yet you're going to take his word for this without speaking to the boy who supposedly got hurt or his mother? If your son and he have been friends all these years, you should have his phone number, call her right now and ask about the stitches. I demand to know how many stitches, I want to see the injury, and I want this kid to tell me Sebastian did it."

Her son starts stuttering even more, says he hasn't seen any stitches, he now thinks the other kids in the hood may have been lying.
She now starts saying oh, if there's no injury, then there's no reason to call this kid's mother.
I started yelling at this point.
"I'm sick and tired of the lying! I'm sick and tired of him lying about Sebastian all the time! So here's what's going to happen. Sebastian is no longer allowed to play with your son or any of the other lying brats in the hood. Period. That way, if someone does get hurt, no one can blame him because he won't be anywhere near any of them. They can find the real culprit of the bullshit, which is the known liar, and they can deal with him and his mother. I'm sick of this shit."

She yells at me for calling her son a liar, and I said you call him that yourself every single day, so don't start saying he's Mr. Fucking Innocent right now. Not going to happen.
She apologizes, makes him apologize to me, and asks if her son and Sebastian can still be friends.
I said "That's up to Sebastian, I can't make him be friends with someone who lied about him causing injury to another child, making people afraid of him, making the other kids in the hood not want to be around him. Why would he want to be friends with someone who lies about him all the time?"

She makes her son come outside and apologize, Sebastian doesn't care, goes back in our house.
I said "See what happens when you lie? You lose a good friend, someone who actually liked hanging out with you. Too bad. maybe one of these days you'll learn not to lie and make up bullshit stories."
He started crying, apologized to me again, I came inside too.

This morning, she calls me up and goes through this huge story about her husband being mad about the fireworks mess in the driveway her son made, he's not home right now, so could Sebastian go out and clean it up? She'll pay him to do it, $10.
I said he's sleeping and it's up to him when he wakes up.
I'm not going to make him save her son's ass even if Sebastian wanted the $10.
That kid is a lying, scheming, pain in my ass.
If her husband gets pissed off about the mess, he can yell at his own son who made the mess.
Not our doing, not our mess, not our problem.

Posted by Kat at 2:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Mark had to mow our lawn yesterday afternoon, (Saturday) and it wasn't super hot out, but it was up there.
During the summer months I make him go slowly, take a lot of breaks, and make sure he comes in every 10 minutes or so and gets a lot of water to drink to keep himself hydrated.

It's turning out to be another summer of really high temps, so do you know what to do if your kid(s) get heat exhaustion or heatstroke?
For heat exhaustion, look for these warning signs and symptoms;
severe thirst
muscle weakness
nausea, sometimes vomiting
fast, shallow breathing
irritability
headache
increased sweating
cool, clammy skin
elevation of body temperature to less than 104 Fahrenheit

If it's heatstroke, the following signs and symptoms;
severe, throbbing headache
weakness, dizziness, or confusion
difficulty breathing
decreased responsiveness or loss of consciousness
may not be sweating
flushed, hot, dry skin
elevation of body temperature to 104 Fahrenheit

Here's how you need to treat both;
1. Bring the child indoors or into the shade immediately.
2. Undress the child.
3. Have the child lie down; elevate feet slightly.
4. If the child is alert, place in cool (not cold) bathwater, or sponge-bathe the child repeatedly. If outside, spray the child with mist from a garden hose.
5. If the child is alert, give frequent sips of cool, clear fluids (clear juices or sports drinks are best).
6. If the child is vomiting, turn his or her body to the side to prevent choking.
7. Monitor the child's temperature.

You need to teach your kids to drink plenty of fluids, water, juices or sports drinks like Gatorade, even if they aren't thirsty. If they are outside, they need to be drinking to stay hydrated.
Teach them that the best times to be outside playing are in the morning hours before noon, and then after 6pm.
Teach them to come inside immediately if they feel really tired or super hot (overheated).

During the summer rainy season, Mark ends up having the mow the lawn twice a week, and I try like mad to get him to do it in the evening hours, but sometimes he won't.
Today when he came in to take a break and get a drink, he looked so overheated, I was very worried and made him lay down and take small sips of water, not chug it, doing that can cause you to throw up if it is heat exhaustion or heatstroke, and I aimed the fan at his head and got him a cool cloth.
I made him take a break for 20 minutes, then drink more, and then he went to finish.
he only had one more row to do, and when he came back in, I made him take a shower to cool down even more.

Be careful with your kids this summer, the heat can hit them rather quickly and can make them feel terrible or get very sick.

Posted by Kat at 1:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Today when my sister Jo brought Mark back home, she picked us all up in her new car, and we went to grab lunch at McDonald's and let the girls play in the indoor play-place.
She traded in her Chrysler Town n' Country Minivan for a new Mazda5.
It's better on gas mileage, and it has enough seats, as many as the minivan did, so that we can all go out together and not be cramped in a tiny little car.
It's really nice, have you seen these?
They look very small from the outside, but the inside is just as big as her van was.
It's kinda crazy how that is, but I swear it's the same amount of room on the inside.

They completely remodeled the McDonald's on Bee Ridge road.
It's been done very nice, and it's much cleaner than the old one they had at this location, and oh so much better with the indoor AC.
I rarely get to see the girls, so it's always nice to spend even just a couple of hours with them and watch them laughing and having fun.

Susan on the slide.

Skye climbing up the tunnel stairs.

Then we went over to Big Lots to see if they had any good and sturdy bunk beds for the girls.
They didn't, but they did have a really nice glider/rocker office chair, that I want.
Most chairs have lumbar support, that bulge in the back cushion at the bottom which is good for most people but not me.
This chair doesn't have that, it curves in at the bottom.
It was so comfortable, and only $159.00, so I might have to go back there this week and pick one up.
It was beige suede microfiber too, very soft, and the color matches my sofa and love seat.

They also had a ton of other stuff, I've only ever been to a Big Lots once before and it was just disgusting inside, so it was nice to see this one was neat and clean, organized, and the staff was busy helping people and cleaning things up.
They even had an electronics department, and if you don't know what a Big Lots is, it's basically an outlet store of items from all kinds of stores that either didn't sell the items or the package was damaged during shipment to it's original store, so some of the electronics boxes looked a little banged up.
I saw printers, cameras, desktop pcs, laptops, something that looked like a used cisco router because the box was so banged up, but we were in a hurry so I really couldn't check it out more, ethernet cables, headphones, mp3 players, so so much stuff, and it was all way under price from most electronics stores, like way cheap.
When I go back for the chair, I'm going to make sure I have just a little bit more time to at least look around the electronics department.
I won't buy anything, I don't need any computer stuff right now, but I want to look and see what they have in case I ever do need another part so I can go there first before going to a specialty store and spending too much money.

Posted by Kat at 4:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

* Finish answering the interrogatory questions.
* Sort paypal payments by employer, copy/paste to text file.
* Email the above documents and 2007 1099 forms, to be printed.
* Scan Sebastian's settlement trust papers, and email the jpegs to the Maine DA by 9am Monday, 7/7/08.

Posted by Kat at 4:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

It is so far, a nice quiet day here.
Mark will be going to my sister's house for the night, Sebastian will be staying with me, and I'll have to figure out what the heck to cook he and I for dinner.

I have the most awesome recipe for sweet n' sour chicken poured over rice, but every time I make it, the boys refuse to eat the rice.
It's because I am probably the only person alive who can screw up instant rice.
I love rice, and I know the boys do like it, they eat it elsewhere, so I know it's the way I personally cook it.
So maybe if I had one of those rice cookers, I wouldn't mess it up so bad.
Lucky for me, Buy.com has one on sale this week as part of their weekly deals.

They have a Fujitronic 10-cup electric rice cooker, for just $26.99
The regular price is $54.99, so that's a huge $28 dollar savings.

It comes in either a flower or turtle pattern, and is a multi-function use pot. It can make perfect rice, porridge, or soup. Has an automatic keep warm function, a non-stick inner pot for easy cleaning, and helps make even terrible rice cookers like me, be able to cook perfect rice every single time.
At the sale price, it is definitely something I can afford to pick up, and then maybe the teens will eat my most awesome sweet n' sour chicken with rice dish.

Posted by Kat at 1:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

First, I just want to give a screaming loud shout of thanks to Christine for installing MT version 4.12 for me over on my new blog.
It still doesn't have a name yet, but battles were never won in just a few short hours!

I swear, getting a whole new blog and an upgraded CMS, is like buying tons and tons of discount furniture and trying to cram it all into a tiny little house.
You just had to have it because the price was so dang good, but now it's going to take a few days to fit it all in the house the right way.
Version 4.12 is not like the version of MT this blog uses.
This one is still using 3.35, and I'm completely used to it, it's like a perfect fitting glove.
4.12 does things a whole lot different, and it's going to take me a few days, or a few weeks, to get the hang of just what it is they've done with everything.
For the life of me, I cannot switch up the sidebars.
I messed with it for like 2 hours I think, and got nowhere.
Oh well.
I will have plenty of time tomorrow to learn things.

Sebastian decided to go home with my sister tonight because Matthew has invited him back over to play again tomorrow, and it's just easier for Jo to take him home with her, than it is to try and pick him up really early in the morning again.
He will be home tomorrow night though.

Mark and I went and did the shopping, ate dinner, and watched a bit of tv, and now he's playing his video games again.
It's all good, he earned that play time tonight.
He picked up, carried, and put away all the heavy stuff from shopping, and then he changed out the litter boxes, took out the trash and recycles without me asking him to do any of it, so yeah, play on young man, play on!

Ok, I really need to go catch up on some work and stuff, and then maybe try and learn some more new stuff.
Later days!

Posted by Kat at 10:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Back on the 26th of June, I told you about one of the office girls at my pain doctors office, and how she's just been melting off the weight.
After doc and I finished going over the results of yesterday's MRI, I asked him about the diet aide that she's been taking because I am just so incredibly impressed with how much weight she has lost.
At my appointment Tuesday, Lacey was the one who brought me back, did my vitals etc, and I really got a chance to ask her what she's been using to lose the weight and how it makes her feel.
I'm sure that many of you older women remember the days of ephedra, and the shakiness and that weird feeling you got in your stomach after taking it right?
It worked killer for losing weight, but it made you shaky and paranoid, and by the 8 or 9th hour after taking it, you'd get this feeling in your stomach that was never a good feeling.
It was sort of a hunger feeling, but more of a sick feeling.

Anyway, she's been taking a product called Zylene 1.1, and he sells it right there in the office.
Lacey has lost 59 pounds since February 3rd, and another office girl, Faiay, (pronounced Fy-aa) has only been taking it for the last 3 months, has lost 22 pounds.
I talked to the both of them again today, and they have both said the same things, no shakes, excellent appetite control, and major energy.
They take 2 capsules in the morning, and it last them all day long, and they have no trouble falling asleep at night.

Doc and I talked about it, I asked him if it was safe for me, he said yes, but he did some tests on me to just have a record of this, and to make sure I was healthy enough to start a weight loss plan.
He weighed me, took my blood pressure, and we already had the results of the blood work they did just a week ago, and so he went over everything and he said it looks good for me to start these if I wanted to.
When I had just seen him on Tuesday and asked about taking a diet aide, he said to hold off on it for now because of the neck issue, but today he said I was ok to go because if I am going to need the surgery, they will probably tell me I have to lose weight first anyway, just like they did 2 years ago with my back surgery.
I asked about any possible interactions with my current pain medications, and he said these will not interact badly at all with my pain meds, and if I have to have the surgery, losing weight is a good thing, and the surgery will probably be months off anyway.

So I bought a bottle of the Zylene and I am going to start them tomorrow.
He told me the bottle says it's safe to take up to a max of 4 per day, but he recommends absolutely no more than 3 per day, but to start off only taking one with breakfast for the first few days, to drink a lot of water, and then if I start feeling like I need a second pill, to take it either mid-day or early afternoon.
He said to never take them past 3pm or else I may have trouble falling asleep at night.
I already have that problem.
I had major insomnia last night, I didn't fall asleep until 6am, and then I got up with Sebastian at 7:30am, and then just stayed awake. I wasn't tired anymore anyway.
I'm very excited to start and try these out, I have medical permission and full medical supervision, so I feel good about doing this.

Annnnnd!
I bought my hosting this morning and set up the name servers this afternoon.
So as soon as I get a blogging CMS installed, katjcooper.com will be the new home of all of my medical posts, and whatever other personal "just me" stuff can go.
This blog is my life as a single mom, my parenting issues, that's what it once was anyway, and when all my medical stuff started, it just sort of took over.
I'm very happy that the two will be separated, they need to be.
Later days!

Posted by Kat at 3:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

That is the titanium bar tongue ring I wear.
It's missing the other ball at the end.
Guess where it is?

See, I had to have that MRI today, and they make you take off all of your jewelry, so it requires me taking out all my piercings as well.
When I got home I put them all back in, and I must not have tightened it enough, and during dinner, it must have come even looser.

I decided to have a little snack a few minutes ago, and I took the first bite and felt this scraping feeling against the roof of my mouth.
I immediately panicked and thought I chipped a tooth and it had scraped the roof of my mouth, so I ran to the bathroom to take a look.
No chipped teeth, so I stuck out my tongue and that's when I saw it.
My tongue piercing was missing the top ball.

Now, it didn't fall out on the floor or into what I was eating, I definitely would have noticed it falling out of my mouth, so the only obvious place that tiny titanium ball went is down the old pipes.
Yup, I swallowed it.

I came out of the bathroom and told the teens, and they both got this look of horror on their faces.
Ha!
I've had this tongue ring since 1999, so 9 years, and in these past 9 years, I have never had an issue with it.
I've never accidentally bitten on it while eating, and I certainly have never swallowed one of the balls.
There's a first time for everything they say!

I do have others so I just replaced it, not really a big deal, but I thought it was quite funny.

Posted by Kat at 12:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I first saw this video on my sister's blog, and it moved me to tears then, and it still does every single time I watch it.
It's Stacey Westfall, and her championship ride at the 2006 American Quarter Horse finals, with her horse Roxy, aka, Whizards baby Doll.

No bridle. No saddle. No reins. No traditional equestrian clothing.
Just her and her horse.
What makes this video so awe inspiring, is that Roxy does everything with just voice commands and subtle hand gestures from Stacey.
Stacey dedicated her run to her father who passed away just 24 days before, and you would have to be a very cold-hearted person to not shed a tear while watching this.
As soon as the announcer chokes up while announcing her, I choke up, and then it's nothing but tears for the entire video.
It is really beautiful and moving.

Posted by Kat at 10:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I was getting ready to head out right after dinner to do a little grocery shopping and to stop at Walgreen's for a few things, and to see if they had any lipovox so I could check out the ingredients after one the girls on the local forums posted about taking it and it's helping her lose weight, and just as I grabbed my purse, it started down-pouring.
It figures.
I'll just have to try again tomorrow after I get home from the doctors.

Sebastian will be gone all day tomorrow, he's going to work with my sister so he can spend the day with his friend Matthew again.
Matthew is the brother of the boy Greg, that my sister takes care of.
Sebastian and Matthew get along so well, they both like the same video games, the Sims, and Cary (Matthew and Greg's mom) takes them to the mall and let's them go to the movies and stuff.
The two boys always have such a good time together, so I never say no when Matthew asks if he can go over.
It's up to Cary and my sister, but they hardly ever say no.
I'm just glad that Sebastian has a really good friend he can go do things with this summer.
Things in the neighborhood haven't been so good over the last few weeks.
I can't remember if I posted about that yet or not, but I'll check my archives and if not, I'll post about that later.

Mark is going with his Big George tomorrow at 11am, so when I get back and he gets back, I'll take him to the store with me.
I have to have someone go with me because I can't lift the bags of cat litter and cat food, etc.
And then we'll just cab it back and he can carry all the heavy stuff in, and help me put it away.
Mark isn't a fan of grocery shopping, but he has no choice tomorrow.
Heh.

I wanted to also tell you all to go check out my sister's blog.
It's called Jo's Mojo, and even though she doesn't post often, she does post some pretty cool stuff.
She's getting better at blogging each time she posts. (she'll get the blogging bug, everyone does )
You just have to go see what her and my niece Susan are doing!
It's a little project for a plant nursery so she can make a few bucks when the neighborhood she lives in has this HUGE community yard sale, and as a way to do fun and crafty things with the girls.
Go check it out, she took some awesome pictures of their progress step by step.
Most of the pictures are clickable for bigger so you can really see the stuff.
Check out the mean faced tree!
My niece Susan just loves to do stuff like that, she loves to be helpful, and she is just too darn cute in some of those pictures!

Posted by Kat at 7:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I went and had another MRI today, it was on just my scapula and the area around it.
The new open and seated MRI machines are awesome, but these rods do not like hard and flat surfaces at all.
They had me seated, and then they tipped the whole chair up and then back, so I was completely flat on my back with my knees up in the air, and my feet dangling.
As soon as it tipped back, I was like uh, this is not good.
The tech asked me what was wrong and so I told her that the rods are being pressed down into the hard back and it's hurting really badly, but I'll try it.
A test they told me was only going to be 15 minutes, was really an hour to an hour and a half long.
I lasted in that position for about 20 minutes, and then I was pressing that buzzer like mad.
The rods and my left iliac screw were seriously freaking out.
It was beyond painful.
I made her get me out of it immediately, it was that painful.
So, then we had to try it a different way.
I was now sitting normally, but she strapped this thing around me so my arms couldn't move at all, and it ended up cutting off the circulation in my arms from my elbows down.
By the time the test was over, my hands were all pins and needles.
And there is something seriously wrong with their air conditioning compressor, because that room felt like it was 120 degrees.
The tech was sweating, I was sweating, and she just kept saying sorry, I don't know what's wrong.
Kinda sucked.
Let's hope I'm done with any more tests for awhile ok?

Oh, and I will be starting a new blog soon.
I want to get all these medical and health posts off of here.
I need to look into doing that today.
Later days!

Posted by Kat at 3:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Oops! I got caught up reading emails and forums, and then I looked at the clock.
Ack!
I need to get in the shower and get going!
I'll post when I get home.
Later days!

Posted by Kat at 11:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

My first surgery was extremely hard on the boys.
Sebastian didn't handle it well at all, Mark did ok, but if we ever talk about that time, they both get a little shaky and start tearing up.

I had to talk to them about the possibility of a neck surgery, it won't be anything like my spine fusion at all, it's a one day thing, and out of the hospital in 2-3 days, shorter recovery time, much much shorter recovery time.
They got very upset, I knew they would, but it was something that we had to talk about, they need to be prepared in case it happens.

I told them about all the help that we would have this time, Mindy said she would definitely help take care of them, my sister as well, it would be much easier this time.
They told me all of the fears they have about it, the what ifs, and I can totally understand that because I have those what if thoughts myself.
They told me that I have to tell them everything, every visit with a doctor must be explained to them when I come home, no details are to be left out.
They said knowing every detail helps them deal with it much better.
I hope so.

After our talk, they were ok, they said that they will be ok as long as they have people to lean on, people to talk to and just listen if they need to talk.
I assured them that they would have all of us around to help, we'd be here for them and it would all be ok.
They are scared and I so totally understand that, I'm scared myself.
I really don't want another surgery but if that's what I have to do, then that's what I have to do.
We will keep talking about it, they insist on knowing everything, so I'm hopeful that they will be able to handle this a bit better than the last time.

It's so hard.
I'm all they have, they are all I have, and things like this are very scary for all of us.
I know I'm rambling right now, I'm flooded with all kinds of emotions and thoughts and have been since my appointment today.
It's just not what I wanted to hear and I'm hoping upon hope that Doc R is wrong.
I want Doc M to say nope, it's not that bad, we don't have to do anything drastic, and the waiting until the 15th is just going to be so hard.
I will try not to talk about it much, I know people get sick of it all, I am sick of it all, so I will try like crazy to not talk about it, but when I get overwhelmed with emotions like right now, I'm probably going to bust out rambly posts like this one.

Posted by Kat at 1:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

I saw this over at Five Dollar Shake a few days or so ago, and kept meaning to do it.
Well, I'm going to do it now.

Entertainment Weekly came up with a list of the top 100 movies of the last 25 years. Bold the movies that you've watched and put asterisks next to the ones you liked.

1. Pulp Fiction (1994)**
2. The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001-03)**
3. Titanic (1997)**
4. Blue Velvet (1986)**
5. Toy Story (1995)**
6. Saving Private Ryan (1998)**
7. Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)
8. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)**
9. Die Hard (1988)**
10. Moulin Rouge (2001)**
11. This Is Spinal Tap (1984)**
12. The Matrix (1999)**
13. GoodFellas (1990)**
14. Crumb (1995)
15. Edward Scissorhands (1990)**
16. Boogie Nights (1997)**
17. Jerry Maguire (1996)**
18. Do the Right Thing (1989)
19. Casino Royale (2006)**
20. The Lion King (1994)**

The other 80 are below the cut.

21. Schindler's List (1993)**
22. Rushmore
23. Memento (2001)**
24. A Room With a View (1986)
25. Shrek (2001)**
26. Hoop Dreams (1994)
27. Aliens (1986)**
28. Wings of Desire
29. The Bourne Supremacy (2004)**
30. When Harry Met Sally (1989)**
31. Brokeback Mountain (2005)
32. Fight Club (1999)**
33. The Breakfast Club (1985)**
34. Fargo (1996)**
35. The Incredibles (2004)**
36. Spider-Man 2 (2004)**
37. Pretty Woman (1990)**
38. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)**
39. The Sixth Sense (1999)**
40. Speed (1994)**
41. Dazed and Confused (1993)
42. Clueless (1995)**
43. Gladiator (2000)**
44. The Player (1992)
45. Rain Man (1988)**
46. Children of Men (2006)**
47. Men in Black (1997)**
48. Scarface (1983)**
49. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
50. The Piano (1993)**
51. There Will Be Blood (2007)
52. The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad
53. The Truman Show (1998)**
54. Fatal Attraction (1987)**
55. Risky Business (1983)****
56. The Lives of Others (2006)
57. There's Something About Mary (1998)**
58. Ghostbusters (1984)**
59. L.A. Confidential(1997)**
60. Scream (1996)**
61. Beverly Hills Cop (1984)**
62. Sex, lies and videotape (1989)**
63. Big (1988)**
64. No Country For Old Men (2007) **
65. Dirty Dancing (1987)**
66. Natural Born Killers (1994)**
67. Donnie Brasco (1997)**
68. Witness (1985)**
69. All About My Mother (1999)
70. Broadcast News (1987)**
71. Unforgiven (1992)**
72. Thelma & Louise (1991)**
73. Office Space (1999)**
74. Drugstore Cowboy (1989)**
75. Out of Africa (1985)**
76. The Departed (2006)**
77. Sid and Nancy (1986)**
78. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)**
79. Waiting for Guffman (1996)
80. Michael Clayton (2007)
81. Moonstruck (1987)**
82. Lost in Translation (2003)**
83. Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn (1987)**
84. Sideways (2004)
85. The 40 Year-Old Virgin (2005)
86. Y Tu Mamá TambiÃn (2002)
87. Swingers (1996)
88. Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997)
89. Breaking the Waves (1996)
90. Napoleon Dynamite (2004)
91. Back to the Future (1985)**
92. Menace II Society (1993)**
93. Ed Wood (1994)**
94. Full Metal Jacket (1987)**
95. In the Mood for Love (2001)
96. Far From Heaven (2002)
97. Glory (1989)**
98. The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)**
99. The Blair Witch Project (1999)**
100. South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut (1999)**

Posted by Kat at 9:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I went and saw my pain doc today, and I hope he is wrong, I'll know for sure when I see my surgeon on the 15th, but he thinks this is the cause of all of my pain.

Click for bigger.

This is a slice cross scan of my neck.
My vertebrae from C2 -C4, are fused together and compressing on my spinal cord.
That's not a good thing.
He thinks it will require surgery to fix, and Doc M will be the one who decides all that.
The compression is actually called stenosis, and what it is is seriously crushing my spinal cord.
I know it's kind of hard to see, but my spinal cord is being squished pretty bad.
Doc R thinks this explains why I have so much pain in my neck, shoulder, and pretty much my whole left side.

I really don't want to have another surgery, but if it comes to that, I'll have no choice.
The stenosis is at such a level that ignoring this could mean some really bad things, and I'm not even going to get into all of that.
I can't let my mind go there.
I've been dealing with this since I got home today at 1pm, and I did my crying and screaming, and now I've moved on to the let's deal with this part.
I have to go in for an MRI of my left scapula tomorrow, back to Doc R's on Thursday, and then to my surgeon Doc M on the 15th.

So that's my update for now, I need to go make dinner for the teens, and then find something else to do.
I'm not going to dwell on this bad news, Doc R could be wrong, so I'm not going to think about it until I really have to.

Posted by Kat at 5:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

I just went outside to put some mail in the box to go out, and noticed that the city had come by finally, and mowed the ditches.
As soon as I got to the mailbox, I smelled it.
Something is dead in the ditch but I can't see it because of all of the grass clippings in it now.
It's foul though, rank, something is surely most dead, and as the sun heats up the ground today, it's only going to get more foul smelling.
Ugh.
I am not going to go digging through there though to try and bag up whatever is dead under there.
No way.
I know if I wait long enough, the city will come back around and scoop out the ditches to make sure the rain doesn't flood out during the rainy season, but in the mean time, it's going to smell really bad out there.

And why is it that when I'm waiting on a payment that is usually in at 9am on the first of every month, is not in now?
It figures.
It's because I need it that it's not there.

Posted by Kat at 11:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I don't know why I do that some months, maybe I'm hopeful that the first words of the first day of the month, will somehow make me have a great financial month.
Even though I don't believe in superstitions like that.
Heh.

Anyway, I should be asleep right now, I have a follow-up doc appointment in the morning, and here I am, wide awake again.
I didn't sleep at all during the day today, I just laid on the couch attempting to get some rest and not upset my stomach any further.
I haven't eaten a single thing all day.
I'm afraid if I do, it will come back up.
Or come shooting out.
TMI I know, but I hate being sick like that, I have food phobias because of past stomach bugs.
Sebastian does think it was the subs, specifically the Parmesan cheese that were put on all of them.
He said his stomach was a little upset today, not like mine, but he kept burping and tasting the cheese.

I'm really hoping that everything that is supposed to come through for me tomorrow, does.
I have a lot of stuff to take care of, and so yeah, I need those payments to come through first thing in the morning.

I guess I should go and try to sleep, I have a lot to do tomorrow and the rest of the week.
Later days.

Posted by Kat at 1:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)