My Single Mom Life

I stole this from Jenn.

1.What did you do in 2009 that you'd never done before?
I found my bio-siblings while watching the Today show, and the very next day, I was on the Today show!

2.Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I never make new years resolutions. I take life one day at a time, I enjoy each day to the fullest, and I do what needs to be done on a daily basis.

3.Did anyone close to you give birth?
No.

4.Did anyone close to you die?
No.

5.What countries did you visit?
None.

6.What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?
I'd like to find a peace within myself. I know that all of the stress, the insomnia that I suffer from, is because I am not ok with how things are in my life. I need to find those things and make peace with them so that I can rest. They say being able to forgive will help find peace in your life.
I know that I need to forgive a few people, but I'm just not there yet, I'm not ready to forgive anyone for the wrongs done.

7.What date from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
September 22, 2009.
That is the day that I found out that I had bio-siblings and I got to meet them the very next day.

8.What was your biggest achievement of the year?
I really don't know.

9.What was your biggest failure?
Sorry, but some things are really private.

10.Did you suffer illness or injury?
I'm always suffering from illness or injury...LoL

11.What was the best thing you bought?
The HP mini netbook for Sebastian to use in his digital design class.

12.Whose behavior merited celebration?
Mark. He was dealt a wicked blow but came through it really well.

13.Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Keeping this private as well.

14.Where did most of your money go?
Bills, doctors, medicine. As usual.

15.What events did you get really, really, really excited about?
Going to New York and meeting my bo-siblings. It has been a life changing experience for me.

16.What song will always remind you of 2009?
I have no idea. I don't listen to the radio, so no clue what songs of 2009 were the big hits.

17.Compared to this time last year, are you:
i.happier or sadder? Happier.
ii.thinner or fatter? Thinner
iii.richer or poorer? Definitely poorer. hahaha

18.What do you wish you'd done more of?
Sleep more and more work.

19.What do you wish you'd done less of?
Being stressed out.

20.How will you be spending Christmas?
I spent it at home with the teens.

21.Who did you spend the most time on the phone with?
I hate talking on the phone, but I would say my sister Jo, and then various friends.

22.Did you fall in love in 2009?
Nope.

23. How many one-night stands?
None.

24. What was your favorite TV program?
Fringe and True Blood.

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
No, not really.

26. What was the best book you read?
No clue. I read so many books that I can't remember which ones were good and which ones were not.

27. What was your greatest musical discovery or rediscovery?
Nothing.

28. What did you want and get?
I got my broken tooth fixed after 14 long years of looking like a redneck bottle opener. hahaha!

29. What did you want and not get?
Nothing.

30. What were your favorite films of this year?
The Midnight Meat Train and Avatar. Avatar was freaking spectacular!! The Dark Knight, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

31.What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I turned 39 and had cake with the teens.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
If the spine fusion surgery to correct my head placement had been able to be done.
It's hard living like this, but the risk of death was far too great, so we canceled the surgery.
Being fixed would have made my year much better.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2009?
Black, black, and more black....hahahahaha

34. What kept you sane?
All of the music on my mp3 player.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most/least?
No one really. But I still totally love Keanu.

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
The health care issue. I'm still very worried how it's all going to turn out. Also, the bank and big company's bailout. Freaking bastards.

37. Whom did you miss?
My parents, my best friend Shell, and I really miss my new-found bio-siblings, especially my sister Joanne. Only getting to spend 1 hour with them was simply not enough. We live so far apart, but at least we have the internet to stay in touch.

38. Who was the best new person you met?
I didn't really meet anyone super new to me, but getting to meet my bio-sister Joanne again after knowing her back in high school, was really pretty freaking awesome.
I think about the moment that Meredith Vieira asked Joanne about another lost sibling, and when she said my name, Claire Marie, I get all teary eyed. That moment will be in my head for the rest of my life. Hearing her say my name changed my life forever.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009:
Take every minute of every day to enjoy your life, love those around you, and tell the ones you love, that you love them. Life is too short to not spread the love around.

40. Do you have any lost feelings of others.
I do, but I don't want to talk about them.

41.Quote a song that sums up your year:
The Pot by TOOL.
"Who are you to wave your finger?
So full of it
Eye balls deep in muddy waters
Fuckin hypocrite"

I have some serious pent up anger issues with people who act like they do no wrong yet they have no problem pointing their dirty fingers around me. LoL

Posted by Kat at 5:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

For the last 24 hours, it has been cold and just generally yucky around here.
It was in the low to mid 30s which usually doesn't happen for the last few years, but it was super cold last night, and it will be super cold for the rest of the week too.
I really hate it when it gets cold like this, nobody wants to go out and do anything, everyone is dressed like we live in Alaska.
Seriously, I saw someone in a big thick winter coat, a scarf, and gloves.
It was cold enough to wear a winter coat, but it isn't cold enough to dress all of that on.
The weather really hurts me when it gets cold, the titanium screws get frozen, then they make me feel like I'm frozen, freezing to death from the inside out.
When it gets cold like that, I wish that I could just pack up all of the stuff we need, and then go on to find someplace warm to stay in the cold has gone away.
Rent a motor home, get the insurance and a motorhome warranty, and start driving to the lower portions of this state like Miami maybe, or even further south.
A motor home would be cool because we could all fit in it, our kitties too, pack up whatever food we have in the house, all of our sodas and stuff, and just start driving south to get to warmer weather near the equator.
Someday I will do the things that I talk about, going to the mountains, motor home, just go wherever it takes up.

Posted by Kat at 11:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

The teens and I were sitting here waiting for my sister to arrive so that we could all go see Avatar, when I saw one of the teen thugs who live across the street and have tried to break in my house before, walking toward my front door with a big, long, pointy thing, like a knife, to come break my door again.
Yes, the night they came in before, they thought the door was locked and they pried the door knob latch panel open, away from the door jam.
I know this because the next day the door wouldn't shut and when I looked at it, it had been pulled away so I had to screw it back into the door jam.
Anyway, I saw him coming so I ran to the window and opened the blinds up even more, he saw me and ran back across the street to his house.
I grabbed the phone and called the cops.

My sister showed up, I explained the cops were on the way to talk to me, so I couldn't go to the movies.
Plus, I'm not going to leave my house for 3-4 hours (they are going to Best Buy after the movie) and just leave it here for them to really break in and steal something this time.
So the teens are gone and I'm sitting here with the house all locked up tight, blinds open, and if one of those two thugs come back, they may get hit with a 2x4 before I ever even dial 911.
Rotten fuckers.
I swear, they ever try to get in my house again, one of them is going to end up fucking seriously hurt.

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

Merry Christmas everyone!
I woke up this morning covered in itchy red hives, welts, and with parts of my face swollen, not exactly a pleasant way to wake up on Christmas day.
I'm thinking that I must have used a towel or something yesterday that still had some of the Bounce Dryer Bar residue still on it.

None of the stuff that I ordered for the teens for Christmas, or any of the other things that were supposed to come, have been delivered yet.
Not a single thing has come, total suck, but I still have a small bit of hope that something shows up, Jade said on Twitter that the USPS had dropped off a package a few hours ago, so maybe they will deliver something to us as well today.
The teens are not upset that their stuff hasn't come yet, they know that I ordered stuff, and they know that this time of year is the busiest time for shipping things, so they know that eventually their presents will show up.
The teens have gone to my sister's house for the night, they will be back tomorrow, and that is when we are going to celebrate.
I'm going to cook the turkey and all the rest of the food tomorrow, and hope that the mailman, UPS, and whatever other delivery methods our stuff was being shipped by, actually arrive tomorrow.
But if they don't show until Monday or Tuesday, that's ok too.
I know that they will all eventually get here.

I have been on Twitter wishing people a Merry Christmas, chatting with a few people, and I saw a tweet that made me laugh, so I said so, and then I got a few replies that just show, once again, that most believers still don't know the real history of Christmas.
I received one tweet that said that atheists are hypocrites drafting on the coat tails of religion, because we celebrate Christmas.
It's amazing that we get called hypocrites when it's believers who really don't have the slightest clue about the real history of today, of Christmas, and actually took it from us, non-believers, the pagans.
I've posted about it before when a reader of my blog spent nearly 2 weeks sending me emails calling me a hypocrite, telling me that I had no right to celebrate Christmas.
I wrote out the real history of Christmas in that post and also sent it to that person, and then never heard from him again, which is good because after 2 weeks of being insulted, I really didn't want to hear from him again.
But the real story of the holiday that everyone celebrates but for many different reasons is below.

Christians celebrate Christmas on this day because there is no evidence to actually support the day that Jesus was born, so that day was picked.
More evidence points to Jesus being born in the spring, or even possibly September, the time when the census' were actually held.
The Pagan holiday, the feast of the Son of Isis, was celebrated on December 25.
Partying, feasting, and gift giving, were traditions of this event.
We also had the Romans who called their winter holiday Saturnalia, honoring Saturn, the God of Agriculture.
This was celebrated many years before the birth of Christ.
In ancient Rome, they had people who went around costumed and singing, and dancing.
They were called the Mummers.
The tradition of caroling came from this.
The pagans of northern Europe celebrated their own winter solstice, known as Yule.
Yule was symbolic of the pagan Sun God, Mithras, being born, and was observed on the shortest day of the year.
As the Sun God grew and matured, the days became longer and warmer.
It was customary to light a candle to encourage Mithras, and the sun, to reappear next year.
What day is that?
December 25th.
In 350, Pope Julius I, declared that Christ's birth would be celebrated on December 25.
It was done so it would be as painless as possible for pagan Romans who were the majority at the time, to convert to Christianity.
They accepted this because it meant that their feasts and traditions would not be taken away from them.
The earliest recorded history of a tree being used in a Christian celebration was in 1521, in Germany.
The tree is the one symbol that unites almost all the northern European winter solstices.
Live evergreen trees were often brought into homes during the harsh winters as a reminder to inhabitants that soon their crops would grow again.
The Druids used the tree as a religious symbol, holding their sacred ceremonies, while surrounding and worshiping huge trees.
The life story of Jesus matches the exact same life stories of several other sun gods, most notably, Horus.
They are almost identical.
Horus and Jesus were both "born" on December 25th, they were teaching at age 12, they were crucified, they were buried and rose from the dead in 3 days.

If you ( general you) know anything about the sun gods, then you would know they all have the exact same origins in mythology.
They all follow the zodiac.
The bible is full of astrological symbolism based on the sun, the stars, the setting of the sun etc.
Dec 22nd through the early morning hours of Dec 25th, the sun sits still (always setting in the exact same location) directly beneath 3 stars in the northern sky. They are the longest, darkest days.
Those stars as known as the, da ta da! 3 kings!
On Dec 25th, the sun comes out of winter solstice and begins rising again shedding more light.
The birth of the sun, or as the bible says, the birth of the son.

There are so many identical things about Jesus and Horus, as well as 3 other sun gods like Mithras for example, plus all the astrological stuff in the bible, that it has been drawn, that each age has it's own version of the sun god.
We are in the zodiac age of Pisces, this is known in the bible as the age of Christ.
We will be entering the age of Aquarius on the zodiac time line soon.
Jesus said he would be with us till the end of his age, which is mistranslated in the bible as the word 'time''.
People believe, because of this mistranslation, that when Jesus said that, it meant the end of the world, of all time.
It simply meant the end of his age, his age in the zodiac time line.

So there you have it.
There was no evidence to support the real day that Jesus was born, the Romans took the holiday of the pagans, winter solstice, and gave it to everyone, calling it Christmas, and telling everyone that December 25th would be the day that everyone celebrates the birth of Jesus.
I'm not a hypocrite, I celebrate Christmas, gift giving, the traditions of both St. Nick and the pagan winter solstice.
I really wish that a before people start calling me a hypocrite and telling me that I have no right to celebrate Christmas because I don't believe in Jesus, would actually take the time to understand the real history of this day.
It doesn't belong to just Christians, it belongs to everyone, we are all free to celebrate this day for whatever reasons we choose.

I want to wish all of my readers, no matter what they believe, no matter why they believe it, a very merry Christmas.
I hope that you are having a good time with friends, family, and loved ones.

Posted by Kat at 2:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

I remember when the teens were little boys and all of the cartoons and shows they just loved to watch.
I swear we would watch the same movie a dozen or more times in a 24 hour period.
The Little Mermaid, The Fox and the Hound, and the Power Rangers.
Oh, sorry, my bad.
Sebastian told me to get it right, (he's reading over my shoulder) it's The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.
Duh Mom. *eyeroll*
They knew every line and every single song in The Little Mermaid and The Fox and the Hound, they knew every single line of the Power Rangers too.
How could they not know every line, song, and dance?
They watched them a million times over the course of their childhoods.
We didn't have DVD players when the teens were little, all of our movies were on VHS, so once the movie stopped, the screams to rewind would begin.
They would do this little butt-squiggle-fidget-dance on the living room carpet until the movie got done rewinding and I pressed play again, then there would be a few claps of applause and then silence while staring at the opening scenes of the movie.
They absolutely loved all of their movies, they had so many of them, still have most of them too.
I have so many kids movies on VHS still, all kinds of Disney movies, tv show episodes, cartoons, all kinds of kid movies.

I remember when the local grocery store in Maine had The Land Before Time movie on sale really cheap, for like $3.99 if you bought some other stuff with it.
I think you had to buy 2 boxes of cereal and a gallon of milk, and then you could get the movie for just $3.99, and I remember the promotion was only for 1 month, and every single time we went grocery shopping with my mom, Mark would beg for the movie.
He knew exactly what end cap the movie was on too, and he would get so excited when we got closer to that end cap aisle.
He would start doing the butt-squiggle-fidget-dance in the cart seat as we went up and down every single aisle and he'd get a glimpse of it, then down an aisle, glimpse, up an aisle, until we were at it and then he'd get this huge grin on his face, he just had to see the box for the movie, hold it in his hands.
He had absolutely no idea what the movie was about, but he saw those dinosaurs and just knew he had to see it, had to or his little 4 year old life would be over.
My mom and I had talked about getting it for him, that she wanted to do it, so I made Mark put it back on the shelf and I told him I would buy it next week, that mommy didn't need any more cereal and milk right now, we had 3 boxes and a gallon of milk at home already, and his little face just got all sad on me in an instant.
His lower lip pouted out, his big brown eyes looked down at the box one last time, and he sadly placed it back on the shelf.
My mom was right behind us and she put it in her cart, hiding it behind the boxes of cereal and gallon of milk in her cart.
The entire ride home to my apartment, Mark talked about the dinosaur movie at the store, he didn't know what it was about, he didn't know the names of the characters, but he just knew he was going to love that movie so so much, and next week mommy was going to buy it he told my mom.
I carried all of my groceries into my apartment while my mom stayed in the car with him, she told me to slip it into one of my bags and so I did.
I grabbed the last bag and unhooked him from his cart seat, he hugged "Ninny" good-bye, and we went into our house.
I put all of the groceries away with his help, he would take one item at a time out of the bags and hand them to me.
I made sure that the movie was going to be in the last bag to empty, and when we got to it, I waited for his surprised response.
He pulled out 2 boxes of spaghetti pasta, a package of sliced cheese, a box of rice, a can of soup, and then he reached in the bag and grabbed the box.
At first he thought it was another box of Rice-a-Roni until he got a really good look at it.
He almost handed it to me and then pulled his arm back staring at the box with wide-eyed awe, and then he screamed, "Mommy! The dinosaurs! The dinosaurs movie! It was in the bag! You said next time! Mommmmmmy! The dinosaurs!!!!"
I told him that Ninny bought him the dinosaurs movie because he was such a good boy helping with the shopping, and she loved him very much.
I swear he had tears of joy in those big brown 4 year old eyes.
He asked if he could watch it, I told him we had to put the rest of the food away, go potty, make some lunch, and then we could watch it together.
He did everything as quickly as he could, he helped put the rest of the food away, he helped make his sandwich for lunch and carried his plate to his little table in the living room, and I put the movie in and pressed play.
He and I sat there watching The Land Before time together and eating our lunch, not a sound came out of his mouth the entire 1 hour and 9 minutes that the movie played.
He didn't take his eyes off of the tv screen that whole time either.
When it was all over, he said that he loved Littlefoot and all of his friends, this time tears were in his eyes, and he asked to watch it again.
I re-wound the movie and while it was rewinding we cleaned up our lunch plates, and then when I pressed play, he came to the couch and curled up with me to watch it.
This time he did talk through the movie, getting all excited when it started, crying when Littlefoot and his mom got separated, happy when Littlefoot made new friends, yelling at the T-Rex when it was chasing Littlefoot and friends, he really did love that movie as much as he knew he would from just seeing the box in the grocery store.

When little brother Sebastian grew up a little bit more and they could watch movies and tv shows together, they both loved the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.
Mark wanted to be the green ranger, Sebastian the red, they had all of the action figures and played with them non-stop.
They had sweatshirts, t-shirts, books, playing cards, little kid-sized chairs, all with the Power Rangers theme, and they loved every single one of those things.
Sebastian would cry if he spilled some juice on one of his fave Power Ranger t-shirts, Mark wouldn't be able to go to bed until he made sure that each and every action figure was safe and sound safely laid out in order of loved the most across the top of his dresser.
They still have almost every single one of those action figures too.
About a month ago, an advertiser sent us one of the new Power Ranger RPM Racing Performance Cycles with an action figure, it's the racing performance wolf cycle, the black ranger, and man, Sebastian just loves that thing.

When the UPS man knocked on the door, Sebastian got excited, he didn't even know what was in the box, he just gets excited when any kind of box or package shows up.
I opened the box up and made him stand back a few feet not letting him even get a peek inside, I read the accompanying letter, and then smiled at him before handing him the package.
Even though he's 16 years old now, his face lit up and his eyes grew huge, just like when he was a little kid getting a new Power Ranger action figure for the first time.
He went and dug out all of their old Power Ranger action figures and began playing with them all just like when he was little.

It makes me smile when I hear them playing with the toys, they are grown up, growing up, pretty soon they will be totally grown up and leaving my home, so seeing and hearing them play with their action figures, makes me think I get to keep my little boys for just a little bit longer.
Sebastian was in the room playing with those action figures tonight, I could hear him from out here at my desk, and it just made me smile and remember all of the movies and shows, all of the cute little things they did when they were little kids.

Posted by Kat at 12:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

At 1am I decided to make some chocolate chip cookies, and Mark thought it would be a great and fun idea to add a Hershey's Kiss to each one just like we did with the Peanut Butter Blossom cookies I made last night.
My cookies, both times now, have come out perfect.
I used to always burn cookies, no matter what I did, greased cookie sheet, un-greased, cooking spray, lower temp in the oven, whatever, I would always, always, always burn the bottoms of my cookies at least a little bit.
About a week ago, I found a recipe for some different types of cookies, and the directions said to use parchment paper to line the cookie sheet with.
I've only ever used parchment when working at the Italian bakery when making the pizza and calzone, but never when baking cookies, and they never did either, and they would make hundreds of cookies every single week.
Because I wanted to make those cookies, I bought a roll of parchment but haven't made those cookies yet.
Last night and tonight, I decided to try the parchment paper when making the cookies to see if it would really help in me not burning another batch or 2 of cookies like I always do.
It totally did!
4 batches of cookies and not a single 1 got burnt!
Maybe parchment is the secret baking tool that I just never used the right way for all of my cookie baking sessions.
I swear it really made all the difference, if I had baked them straight on the cookie sheet, they all would have been burnt or very close to burnt.
All 4 batches of cookies have come out absolutely perfect, soft baked, chewy, nice and golden brown with not a single spot of dark crispy cookie.
I'm definitely going to keep parchment on hand from now on and use it every single time that I am baking any cookies.
I can't believe that it has taken me this many years and dozens and dozens of burnt cookies to figure this out.
D'oh!

Posted by Kat at 3:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Last night around 9pm, I started cooking a pot roast in the crock pot with whole baby carrots, thick sliced onions, and whole baby potatoes, and let it cook on low all night long.
I used 1 packet of McCormick Savory Pot roast seasoning with it to give it a little bit of a flavor boost, as well as make a really nice gravy right in with it.
Mark loves to have gravy with his meat and potatoes, so using the seasoning packet meant I didn't have to cook up any extra gravy to go with it, they could just spoon out some of the very tasty gravy and pour as much of it as they wanted over their pot roast and baby potatoes.

The whole house smelled absolutely delicious all night and all day long, it was just fabulous smelling in here.
Sebastian woke up first and wanted to know right away if he could eat some of it at 10am, I said "Sure, that's why I cooked it all night long!"
I decided to cook it all night long and then keep it on warm all day long, so that whenever the teens were hungry, they could just go grab a bowl, scoop out some of the sliced up and so moist it was falling apart pot roast, potatoes, baby carrots, and onions, and eat it as they felt like all day long.
The teens ate some for breakfast around 10-11am, then they ate some more of it around 2pm, and then they went out with my sister and nieces for dinner at Chick-fil-A around 4-4:30pm, and then they ate some more of the pot roast around 8pm.
They actually finished off the entire crock pot of pot roast in one day, but that's totally fine with me.
I made enough of it to last for 3 meals, they ate it in 3 meals, it just happened to be 3 meals in 1 day instead of having to store the leftovers in the fridge and reheat it as they got hungry.
They aren't big on having to reheat leftovers, so having a full and warm crock pot of food that they could just eat from all day as they wanted to, was perfect.
I did eat some of it myself, they didn't eat it all by themselves, I had 2 helpings, 1 for breakfast and 1 for a late lunch.

Having the crock pot of warm and very tasty food to eat all day long was really just perfect.
It was a bit chilly out all day long, it's about 50 degrees right now, and will be going down to around 43 degrees overnight, so the teens totally loved being able to eat a hot meal 3 times today, they really just loved it, so they asked me to do this more often.
I'm thinking this isn't a bad idea, I can cook a huge pot of food overnight, and the teens can just serve themselves and eat whenever they get hungry the entire next day.
This is really an ideal thing for me to do, it will save me a ton of time in the kitchen, and it will save me money because I won't be having to feed them 3 different meals each and every day, they are totally happy eating the same meal 3 times in 1 day as long as it's great tasting, and they just loved the pot roast.
Cooking whole meals in the crock pot is really inexpensive, too, considering just how many meals you can get out of just 1 pot, so I'm going to hunt down all kinds of great tasting and inexpensive crock pot recipes, and do this as many times as I can all winter long.
I really enjoyed doing this because I wasn't in the kitchen all day cooking, cleaning pots and pans, doing all of the regular dishes, and trying to plan out what the next meal was going to be.
Mark is home full time now that he's graduated and not in school any longer, and Sebastian is out on Christmas break until January 4th, so I have 2 still growing and hungry teenage boys to feed for the next 2 weeks, so yeah, inexpensive and easy meals are definitely the way for me to go.

The other happy bellies around here are the kitty cats.
I wanted to update how our kitties are doing on The Good Life Recipe cat food that I have been feeding them since March of this year, so about 10 months now. (I had been feeding it to them for 5 months when I first posted about it in July)
As I said back in July, The Good Life Recipe has really made an improvement in all of the cats health and coats.
But since posting about it, the cats have gotten even better if that's possible.
None of them are gacking (puking) anymore, their poo doesn't stink as bad anymore, and so changing and cleaning the litter boxes isn't a horrible chore like it used to be.
Nova's coat has become so much softer, it's like rubbing your hands on silk, and her attitude is much better too.
She used to be nicknamed 'cranky old lady' because she was always miserable and "talking" to us all cranky if we touched her.
If you pet her before this dietary change, she would meow all cranky, she'd snipe at your hands, now she purrs very loud, she rubs her head all over your hands, and she 'talks' nicer too.
If you don't have a cat that talks, you are probably thinking that I'm nuts, but seriously, she talks when you pet her or say her name, and she used to be super cranky talking to you, but now she's super nice, so I'm extremely pleased with how this food has helped her.

Kali has also gotten so much better.
Her coat is so full and so soft, she has like a lions mane going on and it's gorgeous, I'm going to have to get a picture of her, her coat and mane is simply incredible looking.
Her health has also gotten much better.
She hasn't gacked in ages, she's not as lethargic as she used to be, and she's become even more playful which is so nice to see because she's 12 years old now, getting up there in age, and she was tired and sleeping all of the time, and now she has much more energy, she's not having as much trouble jumping up on the couch anymore, she's just doing really fantastic.

Both Shahiro and Carmine are doing great too, their coats are super soft and fluffy, they aren't gacking anymore, they are super playful all of the time and not sleeping constantly.
I love seeing the cats have a lot of energy and playing with each other and us, not having always tired cats is a good thing, they are much happier, and when our pets are happier, so are we.
Pets bring so much joy into the lives of their owners, and I really believe that the change to The Good Life Recipe cat food 10 months ago is what made all the difference in our cat's health, coats, and happiness.

The price is still really good too, it's still just $4.99 per bag, but thanks to the economy, the bags have gotten smaller just like they have for almost every single other product out there if you've been doing the grocery shopping and noticed.
The packages of pretty much everything, have gotten smaller, and the prices have stayed the same.
I'm hoping that once the economy picks back up, (if it ever does) that companies start giving us more product for the price again.
They started taking the product away little by little, ounce by ounce, keeping the packages and the prices the same, so if you weren't paying attention to the quantity you were getting, you may have not even noticed.
But I did.
The cat food used to be $4.99 for a 7 pound bag, then it went down to a 3.5 pound bag for the same price, and it's now a 2.7 pound bag for the same $4.99 price.
Not exactly fair to the consumer, in my opinion, but as I said, I hope that when and if the economy improves, companies will start giving us more bang for our buck again.
Until then, I will continue to buy the cat food with as many coupons as I can get and use.
They currently don't have any coupons in stock to give away on their site, but I did sign up for updates when they get a new supply of them in, and I still have some coupons left in my coupon binder, and my mom just sent me a new envelope of coupons the other day that I need to sort through and hope that there are a few more for this cat food in it.
If the company is going to give me less cat food for the same price, I'm going to try and save as much money on it as I possibly can.

Posted by Kat at 10:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I was very fortunate to receive an Acu-Life Thera Pod soothing 2-in-1 therapy heating and cooling pad for my review.
I received it free of charge in exchange for my honest opinion of the product.

The Acu-Life Thera Pod provides both moist heat and cold therapy to help facilitate healing of sore and tired muscles, aches and sprains, and even migraines.
For moist heat therapy, you remove the cold pack from the Thera Pod and place it in the freezer, and place the Thera Pod on a microwave safe plate, microwave for just 1 minute, and then you place it directly on the area that needs the moist heat.
It stays in place because it comes with an adjustable velcro strap.
So you can wear it on your lower back, arm, leg, shoulder, (like in the picture) knees, ankles, anywhere that you need to use moist heat or cold therapy.
For cold therapy, you insert the cold pack and wear it where you need to.
Moist heat helps with stiffness and flexibility, and cold therapy helps with inflammation and swelling.

All 3 of us have used the Acu-Life Thera Pod since getting it.
Sebastian has used the cold pack for his migraines, and both Mark and I have used it for our sore lower backs.
It really works well too.
Both Mark and I absolutely love the moist heat therapy, just nuke it and wear it until it cools off, and by the time it has cooled off, our lower backs no longer hurt as bad, and we both had improved flexibility, we were able to bend over and stand up straight without the usual discomfort.
The other night when it was a bit chilly out and I was really hurting from the cold weather, I nuked it for 1 minute, strapped it around my lower back, and laid on the couch and watched a movie for 2 hours.
When the movie was over, my pain was drastically lessened and I was able to get off the couch without the stiffness that I usually have trying to get up off of the couch.

I've tried to use heating pads while lying on the couch before, but if you roll over or change position, the heating pad would move and I would have to readjust it over and over again.
With the Acu-Life Thera Pod, because it's strapped to my lower back, I was able to lay on the couch, change position as I needed to, roll over, and it moves with me, so it's perfect for laying down and soothing and relaxing my sore lower back.
I almost wish it was full back size, like big enough to strap around my entire back, because then it just might help with the freezing cold and stiffness from the titanium rods.
But wearing it on my lower back and laying on the couch with a blanket over me, it did help warm me up a bit on the inside, and it did help with the stiffness and pain in my lower back.

I really like the Acu-Life Thera Pod, it works very well, it can do both moist heat and cold therapy, and both are needed in soothing and relaxing sore and stiff muscles.
I'm very glad that I was given this product to try and review, I would have never known about it had I not been asked to give it a try.

Cross posted to KatScan, my personal health blog.

Posted by Kat at 7:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Actress Brittany Murphy died early Sunday morning of what the coroner is calling natural causes right now, until an autopsy is done.

Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter said they will conduct an autopsy Monday to try to determine what killed the actress, and said her death appeared to be from natural causes. He said the reported illness could have contributed to her death, but it will be weeks before a final determination is made.

If a 32 year old can die of natural causes, then someone my age, almost 40, can die of natural causes too.
I have underlying health problem as well, I take a lot of medications, I keep getting my medications switched on me while we still try to find one that works well, but it's things like this that make me worry about my health and my life.
I'm always looking at getting a term life insurance quote, yet I still haven't gotten life insurance.
I know that I should, I know that I need to have it, but I keep not doing it.
Two things always stop me from doing it, money to pay the monthly insurance premium, and the totally irrational fear that if I do it, it will cause me to die sooner.
I know that it's totally irrational, but it's still a very real fear that I have.

So many people have died in the last few weeks, families have lost children to drowning, a mother lost her husband, 4 year old son, and a 17 month old baby this past week, only she and her step-daughter survived the fire, a blogging friend tweeted this morning that a family friend found her husband dead in the bathroom, it's just not been a good few weeks for people.
All of this has made me feel, first of all, very sad for these families, I can't even imagine, but second, even more strongly that I should get life insurance, I don't want to leave my sons and family burdened with having to pay for my funeral, which I don't want anyway, I want to be cremated and just leave it at that, but still, cremation costs money that none of my family can really afford if I were to die soon.
I don't know, I just feel very sad right now, sad for all of the losses that people have suffered.

Posted by Kat at 3:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's been rather chilly here all day and night now, the high today was 62, and the low is going to be somewhere between 42 and 47.
I love the cold, I really do, but my body doesn't.
I love the cold we're having right now because it makes it feel much more like Christmas, but my body is hating it.
I had to go out today and fill up another script of my pain meds because I just wasn't able to deal with the pain from the frozen rods attached to my spine.
That's the one thing that I absolutely cannot stand about the spine fusion, the freezing feeling of the rods when it gets cold or rains, it's truly an unreal feeling, people without the rods have absolutely no idea what it's like, and every person who has the rods, tells me the same thing, they freeze when it gets cold or rains.

When Sebastian and I went for our nightly walk, it was around 47 degrees, a bit on the chilly side for Florida, so we wore our new hoodies that we got from Joanne.
They are wicked nice, warm, and incredibly soft, we love them and they are perfect for the chilly weather here.
It rarely ever gets super freezing cold here, but there are times that does get chilly enough to turn on our portable electric heater to just keep it at a nice warm temperature in here.
Not so hot we're sweating, but not so cold that we have to bundle up.
The boys are more used to the weather here than I am, they were little when we moved here, so their bodies adjusted to the weather much more than me.
My body still isn't totally used to it, plus ever since my surgeries, my internal thermometer is like broken, I'm always about 10-15 degrees hotter than everyone else.
It could be 70 degrees, and to me, it will feel like it's 80-85 degrees, so when it's really super hot out in the summer, I'm sweating to death, that's why I have both the ac on and a box fan sitting about 4 feet from me blowing on me constantly when I'm sitting here at my desk.

I love my little portable heater, it does a really good job keeping us warm enough during the winter, but if I had my own house and it had a fireplace in it like most of the bigger homes here in Sarasota do, I would probably convert it to an electric fireplace to save on the cost and the mess of using real wood in a fireplace.
They make and sell a electric fireplace insert that plugs in, it looks like real wood burning, it feels like a real wood burning fireplace too.
I've been in a friend's house that has one and they love it because they don't have to buy any wood for it, and the cost of running it is about 3¢s per hour to just have the look of flame, and about 8¢s per hour to have the heat turned on.
It uses a standard electrical outlet, and provides 4700 BTUs/hr of heat, and provides supplemental heat for up to 400 sq ft, that's enough to heat up my entire house that I live in right now.
I love the look of fireplaces but hate having to chop up wood and clean up the ash and soot after the fire burns out.
Tomorrow night's low is going to be around 43, it's going to be wonderfully chilly out and if the boys ask me to turn on the heat, I will, but we usually don't have to use heat until around February.
Just check out this video that I found about electric fireplace inserts, it looks so easy to install and use, I would love to have one if I could, it would make the house look and feel so nice.

Once I started to feel a little better, I started to do some cooking and baking.
I have a pot roast cooking in the slow cooker, I'm going to let it cook on low all night long, it will be absolutely perfect to eat tomorrow, the meat will just be so moist and tender, and the carrots, onions, and baby potatoes will be perfect too.
I just got done making some peanut butter blossom cookies with Hershey's kisses on them.
They came out perfect, and tomorrow I may make some chocolate chip cookies, I love baking cookies around the holidays, they make the house smell awesome, and everyone loves to eat them.

Posted by Kat at 11:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

So far I am having one of the best Christmases that I have had in a long time, I got my broken tooth of 14 years fixed, I have received a ton of Christmas cards from friends and family, and today I got a box in the mail from Joanne, my bio-sister.
In the box were 3 huge thick and cuddly black hoodies from her and her fiance Jamie, for the teens and I.
She also sent me a photo album full of pictures of my bio-family.
I think that's the best Christmas present ever, not the pictures, but having found my bio-siblings.
I am in constant contact with Joanne, almost daily, it's been really awesome getting to know her again as sisters, not as classmates in school.
We get along so incredible, we never end an email or text, or call, without saying I love you, and we do.
Flipping through the album, I sat here crying looking at all of the pictures, these are the siblings I didn't know that I had, that I never thought I would ever have or find.
She included a picture of my bio-mom, and as I sat here looking at it, at her, some of those old feelings of anger came back up, of being abandoned at the hospital by her when I was born, but without her, I wouldn't have my bio-siblings.
All of us kids know that she wasn't well, that she had some major problems, but without her, we wouldn't be here, and we wouldn't have each other.
I am just so happy right now, to have my bio-sister in my life after all of these years, it's just such an incredible feeling.

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

It's the time of year when people on Medicare start getting bombarded with mailers, emails, phone calls, and everyone sees the commercials for the Medicare supplement plans, because now is the one time per year when you can change your plan, and every company wants you to switch to their plan.
I don't have a supplement plan, I only have a part D drug plan, and that's because all of the plans available in my area cost way too much and the co-pays actually get more expensive with some of them.
There is one that I would switch to if it was available in my area, Blue Advantage, but I can't get it here.
If I lived in Tampa I could, but not here in Sarasota, so I won't be switching to any of the other plans because I don't like having to pay $50 when I walk into the ER, that's totally ridiculous to have to pay before you can be seen in an ER in my opinion.
The other plans just don't have as much to offer me, the plans would cost a bigger monthly payment, and right now I only pay $6.30 per month for my part D plan which is good enough for me.
I just wish all of the mailings, emails, and phone calls would stop.
They're starting to drive me crazy.

Posted by Kat at 7:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

There were only 4 entries for the gift card giveaway.
Either people don't like saving money on food or they don't like getting free money to save on food, but there were 4 entries and instead of using random.org just to get 1 number, I asked Sebastian to pick a number between 1 and 4.
He chose number 2.
Entry number 2 belongs to Bluepaintred!

Shannon, I will be emailing you for your mailing address and you will have 48 hours to respond or I have to pick another winner.
Congrats!

Posted by Kat at 1:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

The netbook that I ordered for Sebastian to use at school and for his digital design projects came today!
It wasn't supposed to be here until Friday, but FedEx really kicked some major butt getting it here.
Just yesterday the 15th, it was in Anchorage Alaska, and FedEx somehow got it from there to Memphis Tennessee, and then to Tampa, and to Sarasota between 3:30pm yesterday and today at 5:21am.
That is freaking outstanding delivery time!

It's an HP Mini 110, it has 1 GB DDR2 RAM, a 160GB Hard Drive, comes with WinXP, about a 7 hour battery life, a bunch of games were installed which Sebastian just loved checking out, it all a ton of programs and features to it, it's a pretty great little netbook.
I spent some time checking it out, it's going to be really handy to have around when Sebastian isn't using for school.
I figure it will be prefect for those days when I'm not feeling well or in a lot of pain and just not able to do anything but lay on the couch, that I'll be able to use it and get my work done from the couch.
It comes setup for wireless, so I set up the wireless network connection, it searched for all available signals in the area, ours showed up in the list first, but I saw 5 of my neighbors connections in the list.
They were all secure which is nice to see, nobody can steal their wi-fi signals, but I set it all up and Sebastian then checked it out from every room of the house...hahaha

Posted by Kat at 9:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I just ordered the video game the teens wanted for xmas, Cally of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, I got some money in sooner than expected, so I ordered it now before I got stuck having to order with 1 or 2 day expensive shipping.
I also bought the kitties a present, a food feeder, because it's been a total pain in the butt having to constantly add food to their bowl.
It matches the waterer that I have already, so I know that it's a good quality product to have.

The money order from Mom and dad came in today's mail, so I don't have to watch for the mail for that, but I still have other things coming to watch for, so tomorrow while I'm getting my tooth fixed, Mark will have to be the lookout.

I think I'm going to try and go to bed early, see if my body and brain will let me sleep or if it's going to be another night of insomnia.
Later days.

Posted by Kat at 10:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Are you a blogger who grocery shops at Safeway?
You do?!
Great!
Are you a blogger who lives near a Safeway but has never shopped there?
You are?!
Great!
Why?
Because I am giving away a $50 gift card to use at Safeway food stores!

There are no Safeway stores anywhere near me, so instead of passing up the offer of the $50 gift card, I asked if I could host a giveaway for it on my blog, they said yes, so you get to have to the $50 gift card to help you pay for your family's holiday meal!
And speaking of those holiday meals, Safeway has many priced-to-please recipes for appetizers and other great tasting meals, recipes for edible gifts, some kid-friendly recipes, and recipes for leftovers to help stretch your budget.
They even have some decorating tips and a Gingerbread Man game for the kids!

If you're already a shopper of Safeway or have never tried their store before, check out their weekly specials, and you can also sign up for email savings to get coupons, recipe ideas, and the weekly sales sent right to you!

This is going to be a really super fast contest so that the winner receives the gift card in time to use it for their holiday food shopping needs.
You have from now until 11:59pm on Wednesday December 16th to enter, and I'll draw the winner on Thursday the 17th about mid-morning time.

Rules:
The giveaway is open to United States AND Canada, excluding Alaska and Hawaii. (Sorry Alaska and Hawaii!) *sad*
This giveaway is open bloggers ONLY.
Only 1 entry per person/family/household.
Only 1 person per IP address can enter the giveaway and complete the required entry.
No entering on behalf of others, using extra identities or others identities, no automated program entries, etc.
I can check and verify IP addresses and email addresses. *wink*
If you are caught cheating, you will be banned from this giveaway and any future giveaways on my blogs.
This giveaway is only open to those ages 18+ only.
All entries must be received by 11:59 pm Eastern Time on Wednesday December 16th, 2009.
I will pick the winner randomly using random.org on Thursday December 17th, and email the winner, they will have 48 hours to claim their prize.
If I do not get a reply within 48 hours, I will pick a new winner using random.org again.

How to enter:
This is mandatory, if this one entry is not done, you will not qualify for the giveaway.
For a chance to win, leave me a comment telling me how you save money on groceries, and what is the most amount of money you have ever saved in just one shopping trip!

Once the winning blogger has received their $50 gift card to Safeway and used it, they need to post to their blog within 5 days of using the card, and say that they won the $50 gift card, (You must disclose that you won the gift card to keep the FCC happy!) then tell us what you bought with it, how much money you saved on your shopping trip, and what your experience shopping at Safeway was like.
This is required of the winning blogger, and why this contest is only open to bloggers.

The winners information will only be used for this giveaway so the advertiser can send you the $50 gift card.
Your information will not be sold or given to any person or company in accordance with my privacy policy.

Good luck and happy shopping!

Posted by Kat at 6:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Yes, yes we did.

Yesterday when Sebastian and I went grocery shopping, we called for a taxi cab like we had planned on doing, we bought a wicked lot of groceries so we needed a ride home.
Well, the taxi cab's phone rang busy every single time that I called it.
For 20 minutes.
It usually goes to voice mail if they are busy, you leave your name and number, they call you right back and schedule you for a pick-up, so I have no idea why it kept ringing busy, but we had all of that food to get home, meats, milk, and other perishables, so we did what we had to do, the food had already been sitting in the cart in the heat for 20 minutes.
Sebastian and I did what we had to do, we walked home with the grocery cart full of groceries.
Now there's a Publix grocery cart sitting in my laundry room, I didn't want to leave it outside and have it get stolen or have the neighbors look at me funny because come on, having a grocery cart sitting in your driveway is as white trash as having an old rusted out car sitting up on cinder blocks.

All of the way home, people were looking at us like we were total white trash walking the mile long way home.
Yes, we live about 1 mile from the store and we walked home with a grocery cart, it's total white trash! Hahahaha!
At least we got all of the food home before it got ruined, I was seriously worried about the milk spoiling, it was about 80 degrees yesterday and so walking the food home, I was really worried that things would start to spoil, and then there ya go, wasted food and money.
I hate wasting food because it's wasted money.
I always store-up leftovers and when the teens tell me they are hungry, I hand them the Rubbermaid of leftovers and tell them how long to reheat it in the microwave.
I make them finish off the last quarter cup of milk in the gallon, the last slices of bread even if they are the crusted loaf ends, I don't waste any food if it can be helped, so walking the grocery cart home as fast as we could so nothing spoiled was super important to me.
Sure we looked totally silly and totally white trash, but I couldn't reach the cab company so yup, I did what I had to do.

Now I'm just sitting here waiting on the mail man again today.
I'm waiting on 3 things to be delivered this week, the money order from Mom and Dad, the netbook is supposed to be delivered by FedEx by Friday, and a review product is also supposed to be here sometime near the end of this week, so it's a full week of stalking the mailman and other delivery people.
It kind of sucks to have to just sit here with the blinds open and waiting, I have other things that I can be doing, but I don't want stuff to get stolen, and this is the time of year when things get stolen by desperate and ignorant people.

Posted by Kat at 1:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Once again I've been up all night with insomnia, and then when Sebastian woke up on time because we had planned to go do the big grocery shopping this morning, I had started to doze off right here in my chair.
I hate it when that happens.
I'm so tired from being awake all night long with insomnia, fighting to go to sleep, being unable to sleep so I give up and play on the internet all night.
I end up either goofing off online all night doing totally stupid stuff, or like last night, I was actually checking out all of the various e-tailers looking to see who had the best deals on the video games that the teens want for Christmas, hoping that there will be a good sale when I get paid this week, and also hoping for free and super fast shipping on those video games.
I do not want to have to go into a brick and mortar store to get those games, but because I am doing the Christmas shopping so late, I just may end up having to go to a physical store.

Buy.com does have the best price for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and they do have it with free shipping, but according to their holiday ordering deadlines, if I don't get it ordered by Wednesday the 16th at noon, if I still want to order it and get it by Christmas eve, I will have to pay for 1st or 2nd day air which would cost a lot more money than I want or have to spend, so I may end up having to go to a physical store.
As of right now, the price for 2nd day air is only $4.50 more than the standard of $4.40, but that may change the closer we get to the holiday and shipping schedules get tighter or busier, or maybe that's just their really awesome super low price for 2nd day air all of the time?
Wow, I just looked, and 1 day next day air is only $6.00 more!
I know that other e-tailers charge way more than that for 1st and 2nd day air, a whole lot more.
I don't know and I'm really trying to not stress out over being able to order their games on time without having to pay crazy shipping fees, but that's just how I am, my OCD will drive me absolutely crazy every single day until I can actually place the order.
I just hope that I will be able to get it regardless of being able to order it or have to buy it in store.
I know that it's a popular game, so all I want is to definitely be able to get it.

Ok, off to do the grocery shopping now that it stopped raining and the sun actually came out, and then when we get back home, I need to decorate for Christmas.
I've been putting it off all week, and I promised Sebastian that we would definitely get it done this weekend.
Shopping and decorating on no sleep, should be totally awesome.
Not!

Posted by Kat at 9:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

My Twittascope (I'm actually supposed to post this to my Twitter, but it's way too long, and I don't like giving apps my login info for my account) for Sunday December 13, 2009 says;

Pisces
(Feb 19 - Mar 20)
You might feel as if someone is ready to pounce on you if you say too much about your plans today.
Perhaps you are so passionate about what you want to do that you stir up unnecessary resistance when others hear your ideas.
Remember that your current need to extend your boundaries and explore new possibilities is not necessarily shared by everyone else.
Exercise a bit of discretion now and don't reveal everything you're thinking.

My Yahoo horoscope says;
You're a sweetheart, plain and simple: compassionate, tender and you see the best in everyone. That said, you're also not in the mood for anything less than 100 percent of a loved one's attention.
Oh, and if they just so happen to be on the other side of the state, country or planet?
That won't matter -- not at the moment.
Oh, be demanding.
When was the last time anyone could ever say you were?

And when you click on the horoscope icon on the yahoo horoscope, it takes you to a new page with a daily overview page which says;
No one will see you unless you step into the light.
It feels good out there.
And;
You're feeling a little passive right now, despite your positive energy.
It's just one of those days when it's easier to help people make mistakes than it is to correct them or try to guide them.

I don't believe in horoscopes, I find them to be for entertainment purposes only, I mean, here's 3 different things for my sign but all for the same day, so how can a horoscope be even slightly accurate?
I do love all of the cute little symbols and pictures for my sign though.
I found all of these adorable ones when looking for just 1 picture to include in my post, but I thought that all of them were just so totally cute or just really pretty, that I had to include them all.

Posted by Kat at 5:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I was on Facebook this morning and saw this ad.
It says Scholarships for moms, but this is the picture they had with it.

Does that look like a mom to you? LoL
The totally wrong picture with it just cracked me up so much that I had to screen cap it.
Hee hee

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

I'm sitting here with the door open waiting for the mail man because my Mom and Dad sent out a money order this past Tuesday, and it should be here any day now.
I have to sit here and stalk the mail man because of what happened this past Monday night.
I Twittered it, but forgot to blog it.

Around 8:15-20pm on Monday night, Sebastian and I went for a walk to the corner store, Mark stayed home doing his nightly raiding in WoW, so off we went closing the door but leaving it unlocked like we always do when someone is staying home.
When we got back just 10 minutes later, Sebastian and I both noticed that the screen door and main door were open, not just a little open either, but open plenty wide enough that a person could walk through it without having to turn sideways or anything.
Carmine was out and sitting in the driveway, and Kali, Nova, and Shahiro were all sitting in the doorway but looked like they were just about to walk out when we arrived.

I immediately started calling for Mark, was he outside?
Inside?
Where was he and why were the doors open?
Mark was in the house and that's when he said that just about 2 minutes before Sebastian and I got back, he had been sitting in the other room playing WoW when he heard the front door open, so to be funny and scare Sebastian and I, he yelled "Who the fuck is there?! I have a gun!"
He told us that when neither I or Sebastian replied, he yelled out for me, "Mom?!"
He got no reply again, but that's when he heard the screen door scrape on the door step, he came out of the room, didn't see anyone, saw the doors opened, and started to look around the house in case someone was inside and just not answering him, and that's when we walked up.
Someone had broken into my house, and yes, even though we left the door unlocked, it is still a break in if the home owners didn't invite the person to come in.
My cats almost got out, if anything had happened to them, the teens would have been so upset, I would have been so upset, and those kitties were most certainly thinking about going out that door too.
Whoever it was that had opened the door and come in, left as soon as they heard Mark, but we were coming down the sidewalk, so this person whoever it was, was on foot and either ran into the back yard to hide, or ran back across the street to their house.

Yup, I said their house.
I truly believe that it was one of the two teenagers who live across the street.
They moved in about 4-5 months ago with their family, and one day I caught them looking in the windows of the duplex directly to my left.
They were looking in every single window around the house, I watched them go to every window, whispering to each other, and then they went to the guy's back door, and that's when I yelled that I was calling the police.
They couldn't see me, I was inside my house, but I know they heard me because they both yelled "Shit!" and hauled ass back across the street.
I totally believe that the person who tried to come in my house on Monday was one of these two teens with a breaking and entering problem.
I didn't call the cops on Monday night, I can't prove it was them, plus my friends had shown up in a big black SUV, and when I explained to them what happened, both of my guy friends started talking really loudly about beating some ass.
We could see someone peering through the mini-blinds of that house across the street, so yeah, I'm positive that it was one of those teen thugs.

The mail came today at a little bit past 12 noon, he had a Medicare statement, a note from my doctor about what my co-pay will be in January, (new year, new co-pays) and a box with an item for me to review inside of it, but no letter with a money order from Mom and Dad.
I will be watching for the mail again on Monday, Tuesday, and Mark will have to watch for it on Wednesday as I have a dentist appointment, (Squee!) and so we will just have to stalk the mail man every day until it arrives.
When other relatives let me know that they will be sending money down for the teens for Christmas, I will have to do the same thing.
If those thugs are willing to break into my home and try to steal stuff, they are probably willing to steal my mail too.
It's sucky people like that who make me want to get a gun.
Off and on for a few years now, I have wanted to get a gun for home protection, but then I change my mind, and now I'm changing my mind again.
Jerks.

Posted by Kat at 12:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Tonight the teens and I watched the movie "Up" by Disney and Pixar.
Well, Friday night, it's now officially Saturday morning.
Once again I've been up all night, spending the entire time crying off and on, just beyond tired and stressed out, and frustrated, and angry, and all kinds of emotions all just slamming into me all night long.
It's not just one reason for this, it's many different reasons and it would all take far too long to explain so I'll just talk about the movie ok?
Ok.

The movie was really good, it was happy and cute, funny and sad, and just a truly wonderful love and friendship story.
I absolutely loved the character of Russell, I thought that kid was just downright adorable!
I wanted so much to just reach out and hug that little guy, his heart was just so open even though it was hurt and broken because his dad wasn't around any longer.
Russell just wanted so much to get it right, to earn that last Wilderness Explorer badge, the Assisting The Elderly Badge, because then maybe his dad would pay attention to him again.
Go camping again, go eat ice cream cones and count the red and blue cars while sitting on the curb, Russell just wanted so much to get those boring things (he called them boring) back.

At the same time that this cute little adventure story is going on with Russell and Carl going up and away in the balloon, we have another story, a love story that happened and is the reason for the whole house going up in balloons.
Carl and Ellie, their love, their life together, ups, downs, happiness, and extreme sadness, but through it all they remained together and on their own adventures together.

Love, friendship, adventure, belonging.
I loved every smile, every laugh, every single tear that this movie made me feel.

It's on sale right now and if I have enough money left over after getting the teens their gifts for Christmas, I might just get this for myself, I enjoyed it that much that I can totally see myself watching it on rainy Saturday afternoons while I lay on the couch with a blanket, a cat, and a few tears sliding down my cheeks.

I know I did a terrible job telling you about this movie, but this post wasn't a movie review, it was just me talking about how my Friday night was, how I'm feeling now at 5am Saturday, just a weird random post filled with all my feelings, mostly sadness.
There are several reasons that I should be happy, but I keep finding myself just totally overcome with sadness every so often these last few days.
I just keep welling up with tears, they start to fall and then I feel the reason that I started crying, it's supposed to be the other way around, feel then cry.
I think this movie just made me feel put on hold, it reminded me that I'm on hold, and I can't get off of hold.
I know that I'm not making a whole lot of sense, I'm exhausted and frustrated with things, and I just want to, actually, I have absolutely no idea what I want other than an intense need for a cigarette right now and I don't have any. hahahaha!

Posted by Kat at 5:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I am really starting to think that it's the paint at the high school that is causing Sebastian to keep getting migraines.
Starting the last week of November, Sebastian started a new class that he takes on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
He needs to take and pass this class to earn the required English credit for graduation.
This class is the 2nd period of the day, and every time he has this class, he ends up getting a headache that ends up turning into a migraine at some point during the day or night.
He had the class Monday, had a headache for the rest of the day, and then had the explosive migraine that night at 1am.
He had that class again today, the class starts at 8:45am, and within an hour, he had a headache.

I wasn't home for most of the day, I had my doc appointment, but he sent me this email when he got to his digital design class at 11:45am.

Hey when I get home do we have any Tylenol or Advil something like that.
I got another migraine so I want to get something when I get home.

I asked him a few hours ago, after giving the medicine a chance to work, questions about that particular classroom.
Questions like, was it recently painted, does the teacher wear perfume, do any girls in class wear perfume, do any of the guys wear cologne, can he smell anything harsh like paint or a chemical?
He said his teacher says that perfumes are bad for people so she doesn't ever wear any, he does not sit near any of the girls or guys in the class because he likes to sit near the back of the room away from people because it gives him a little bit of privacy so he can concentrate better, and he said that the class always has a slight smell of paint.
Aha!
He doesn't get headaches every day, only on the days he has this class, the class is at the same time every day, and the room always smells a little bit like paint.
Smells can trigger headaches and migraines, I know this because I get perfume/scent headaches, and certain perfumes and scents cause me to have an instant migraines.
The scents that cause me to have an instant and excruciating migraine are cinnamon and vanilla.
I love cinnamon rolls, I love the taste of them, but I cannot inhale the smell of them too deeply or this food that I love to eat will give me a blinding migraine from breakfast time straight on through the entire day.
At this time of year at Publix, they sell these stupid and absolutely horrid cinnamon brooms and they place them at both store entrances and at various locations throughout the store.
I can go from the dairy aisle and take a left into the deli section and get ambushed by the scent of those brooms and have an instant migraine that makes the rest of my grocery shopping an absolute nightmare.
The vanilla perfume that causes the instant migraine is Vanilla Fields by Coty.
I know that perfume as soon as I get even the slightest whiff of it.
I first started getting migraines from it when I worked at Pier 1 Imports.
There were 3 (three!) girls who worked there that wore it, and a whole hell of a lot of it.
Ugh.
It would suck when all 3 of them worked on the same day, I would beg the manager to let me work in the stockroom all day because if I had to be on the sales floor with those 3 girls, I would be be curled up in 1 of the papasan chairs and crying by the end of the day.

Strong scents, perfumes, spices, and chemical scents, can causes headaches for almost anybody, but for people who are susceptible to migraines, those scents can turn a regular easy-to-kill with Tylenol headache, into a migraine that just makes you want to chop your own head off.
I really believe that it is the slight smell of paint in that 1 classroom that is causing Sebastian's migraines.
Last year he was getting migraines almost every single day.
Last year the school was being built, there was a ton of construction and painting going on every single day, so he was getting headaches and migraines almost every single day.
Sebastian has to take this class 3 days a week, he has to get this credit in order to graduate, and there is no other teacher in his grade level teaching this class, so he has to be in this classroom 3 days a week.
The school has the most absurd rules about stuff like Tylenol if I wanted to try and help him stave off the impending migraine, too.
No student can have or use any Tylenol or other OTC medication at or on any part of the school property, or face suspension with their zero tolerance policy concerning drugs.
Even if a student has a prescription and a letter from a doctor, they cannot have their pain medicine at school.
We went through this last year when he had to take a migraine medicine every 6 hours, they refused to let him take it at school, they wouldn't even dispense it to him in the school nurses office, it was this huge hassle and that's when I asked them about Tylenol and other OTC meds.
They had the same response, no medications, zero tolerance, but if I wanted to, I could appeal it at the school board, they would investigate the students need for the medication, I would have to give my written consent for them to contact the doctor and find out how much the medication was really needed to be taken.
It was basically a do or die kind of thing, like, was Sebastian's head going to explode if he couldn't take the medication at exactly every 6 hours?
Would he survive if he took 1 dose before he left home in the morning, and then didn't take the next dose until he got home?
He would survive?
Thank you doctor.
Sorry Ms. Cooper, Sebastian will not die if he can't take it at school, so our original decision holds, he will not be taking his medication at school, thank you, and now shut the fuck up.
There were quite a few days last year when I had him stick 2 Tylenol in his pocket before he left home, and I told him how to take them if he started getting a headache.
I told him that when the bell rang and everyone was changing classes in the hallway, to reach into his pocket, grasp the pills in his hand and when he got near a water fountain, start coughing really hard, cover his mouth with his hand so he doesn't spread the germies, pop the Tylenol into his mouth, and then get a drink at the fountain and keep on going to his next class.
If he continues to get these migraines every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, we may just have to start doing the cough and swallow trick again.
It's absolutely pathetic that we have to do that, that any student has to do that.
I know that Mindy's son Jeff had to do that when he injured his foot and was wearing 1 of those boots, they wouldn't let him take his prescription pain meds either, so Mindy did the same as us, cough and swallow.
I hate that we have to break the rules, and I know that if he gets caught doing the cough and swallow he will be suspended for a minimum of 1 week, but knowing that he is getting horrible migraines makes me feel like I have no choice but to break the rules.

His migraine was barely starting to fade away at 9pm, but he finally felt like it was easing up enough to where he could try to sleep, so he went to bed around 9:45pm, and I went and checked on him around 10:15pm, and he was asleep, so I'm hoping that the migraine goes away completely, that he won't wake up screaming later on tonight.
I'm not tired at all, so I'll keep checking on him all night until I do feel like going to bed.
Migraines are truly the suck, both for the person who suffers from them, and for the people caring for the sufferers.
I really hate seeing him hurting so much, I hate seeing the pale and pained face, I hate hearing him cry in a barely audible whisper because even crying normally makes it hurt even more.
I wish there was a safe medication that he only needed to take once a day every day, and it would make it so that migraines never happened at all, and if they did, that it would quickly disappear.
That would be awesome, but so far the only meds sort of like that have terrible side effects, and I refuse to make him end up having chronic diarrhea, chronic dry mouth, heart palpitations, urinary problems, or any of the other multitude of side effects from those medications.
Looks like it will be the ol' cough and swallow trick 3 days a week.

Posted by Kat at 10:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Around 1 am, Sebastian woke up screaming from an explosive migraine.
Mark was awake and playing a video game, I was out here playing around online, and we both heard him screaming, so the both of us ran in there to see what was wrong.
I turned on the light and ran to his bedside and asked what was wrong while brushing his hair out of his eyes.
He was crying and clutching his head, all he could say was "migraine, help me", so I had Mark grab a t-shirt for Sebastian and help him put it on while I ran out to the kitchen to turn on the water and let it get a little colder, and then I came to my desk where I keep my meds and I got out a Hydrocodone, and went back to the kitchen to fill his cup with cold water.
Hydrocodone is basically Vicodin, and Sebastian's doctor has put him on that before so I know it's ok to give it to him.
I had him swallow down the pill and then lay on the couch to try and relax.
I sat next him and rubbed his forehead and temples gently while having him slowly inhale deeply through his nose, and exhale deeply through his mouth.
These things, the breathing and massaging of the head while waiting for the pain pill to kick in, help migraine sufferers relax while waiting for the med to kick in.
If they don't calm down, the migraine can get much worse, especially with Sebastian.
He goes into panic mode and starts breathing really fast and hard, and then he starts crying, and then the migraine gets even bigger, so doing the breathing and massaging for about 10 minutes while waiting for the med to kick in, works extremely well in preventing the exploding migraine from getting any worse.

I suffer from migraines myself, I get about 1 or 2 per month, but I have gotten the exploding migraines in my sleep before, it's very painful, so painful that it feels like you've just been shot in the head at point blank range, like the gun was touching your head when it was fired.
It's not a migraine that comes on slowly, it just explodes in your head, all of a sudden, you have a migraine, BANG! there it is, an explosive migraine that drops you to your knees.
I feel so bad that he gets migraines so often, but at least it's not like last year where he was having 1 just about every other day, he's now only getting them about once per week.

I finally made up my mind and did it.
I bought the netbook tonight.
I won't be needing to buy any laptop memory for the netbook, it has a 160GB hard drive, and 1GB DDR2 system memory already, so that should be plenty for what Sebastian is needing it for for school.
YaY!

Posted by Kat at 3:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Ack!
In just 9 days Sebastian will be on Christmas vacation, or winter break as they are now calling it so as not to offend anyone.
I really wish people would get off of that battle, there are bigger things to argue about than what to say to people, either Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays, it's no big deal.
I say Merry Christmas and I'm an atheist.
Oh my! The horrors!...LoL

I will be doing the shopping for the teens Christmas gifts next week.
I know, so late, but I am waiting for a few things to go on sale.
I'm so glad the boys are older, they know and understand the financial situation, so they don't ask for a million things anymore, and they also don't ask for super expensive things anymore.
I remember when they were little, every single commercial for a toy, they wanted that toy, they had to have it.
Little kids are just naturally greedy.
They don't mean to be, they just get that way at Christmas, they get excited because they believe in Santa Claus and want everything that they can get or think Santa will bring them.
Now that they are older and know Santa is not real and know that it's me, mommy, who buys all of the gifts, they know that they cannot ask for everything they see, but they do ask for just 1 big item that they would like to have.
They both want Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 for the Xbox 360, and they also want something for the World of Warcraft game.
Something about a character transfer I think, I don't know, I don't pay any attention to that game at all, it bores me to be honest, I cannot understand why people get so addicted to playing it.
All I want is some more memory for my new pc to make it really fly and also be able to handle my Sims3 game way better.
It can handle it right now, but with 4GB of memory, it will be spectacular!

Posted by Kat at 9:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

When Sebastian and I took our nightly walk around the neighborhood last night, we could smell a wood fire burning and coming from up the street, so we walked that way to see where and what it was.
The new people (5 months new people) were sitting outside in their nicely done yard and had 1 of these kinds of outdoor fireplaces going.

It didn't have that dome cover, theirs appeared to be just a mesh screen type cover, I picked the 1 that I posted when I went searching for them online, found that awesome looking celestial cover, and then went to see how much they were.
The price isn't too bad, it's well out of my price range of course, (that is until I win the Powerball baby!!) but I just think that it looks really nice in a nicely done up yard.
If I had a really nice yard, maybe even fenced in, a lanai perhaps, maybe with a swimming pool too, I would totally have an outdoor fireplace or pit.

The people up the street just looked so totally relaxed and happy sitting outside enjoying the fall air and talking to each other around the fire.
A few weeks ago when Mark was spending the night with his friend Jeff, Sebastian and I went and hung out with some friends of mine who have a fire pit.
They got it going really good and it was so nice to just sit there on their wooden swing with the super comfy cushions, and chat by the fireside.
I sat with my friend Jen who is a couple months pregnant, and so swinging felt really good to the both of us.
We both got into a nice rhythm going back and forth, and talking about babies and weddings and stuff while the guys sat and talked sports and video games.
Sebastian was telling the guys all kinds of ways to get stuff in WoW, that game is still totally over my head, I know absolutely nothing about it, so once anyone gets talking about it, I just tune it out completely. haha
Jen and Rusty are getting married in February, so they are starting to plan things out, just a really simple wedding at the beach with a justice of the peace.
I've often thought about becoming an ordained secular humanist clergy-type person so I can marry my atheist friends and stuff.
I'd also be able to do things like baby namings, funerals, commitment ceremonies, affirmation of love ceremonies, invocations, renewal of marriage ceremonies, and holiday ceremonies.
All I would need to do this would be to get a Notary Public license, and then bada-bing bada-boom!
I could marry atheists and other secular individuals, or just couples who don't want the traditional religious ceremony done at their wedding.
I think it would be like a pretty cool little side job to have, and if gays ever get the right to be married in Florida, I could marry them and do those weddings too.
I think it's a pretty cool idea and so did Rusty and Jen, they asked me if I could possibly become a notary by February, so I said that I would look into it.
They don't want the traditional vows done at their wedding, they want to write their own vows, they want a peaceful and friendly ceremony, so I'm looking into it.
Pretty cool huh?
Me, an ordained clergy-type person. Ha ha haha!

Posted by Kat at 6:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I was so very fortunate to receive a Disney Christmas tree animated/musical/light-up Christmas decoration for review and to keep from Collectibles Today.
I am seriously grateful for the opportunity to get this tree and be able to add this to my home's Christmas decorating items.
This will be a treasured and cherished decoration for many years to come.

Each and every gorgeous level, and each and every single one of over 50 Disney characters that are on it, are all hand painted with incredibly fine detail.
There are so many characters from most of the Disney movies on this tree.
It has quite a few of the princesses and their princes, Belle and Beast, Sleeping Beauty and Prince Phillip, Ariel and Prince Eric, Pocahontas and John Smith, Cinderella and Prince Charming, Snow White and her prince too!

There's Donald Duck and Daisy, Minnie and Mickey, Peter Pan, the 101 Dalmatians, the 7 Dwarfs, Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Piglet, Simba, Bambi, Pinocchio, Tinkerbelle and so so many others on all 4 levels, it's just incredible how many of the beloved Disney characters are on this tree!

There's motion on all 4 levels too!
There is the train run by Mickey Mouse on the bottom and second level, the princesses and princes are dancing around on the third level, and on the fourth level, it's Mickey Mouse at the reins of the sleigh as 'Santa' with Pluto as the lead reindeer circling just above Cinderella's castle.

The whole tree lights up with 20 bright LED lights, and it also plays a medley of Christmas carols.
I haven't heard all of the songs as I haven't started decorating the house for Christmas yet, (Sebastian is so bugging me to do it now! He's been bugging since Thanksgiving day!...LoL) and I have only taken it out of the box to look at it a few times since getting it on November 10th.
The box the tree came in is pretty damn nifty too.
It has a perfectly sculpted styrofoam insert (top and bottom) to protect the tree all year long when not in use so the tree doesn't get damaged at all during storage.
I know, I am totally impressed by a box. Ha!
This tree is hand-numbered, mine is B4419, and has a matching certificate of authenticity as an original from Hawthorne Village.

I've shown the tree to my sister and any of my friends who have stopped over for a visit, and they all just love it, I've gotten a gazillion compliments on it!
My pictures and the video I made DO NOT do it any justice at all!
I am not quite sure where I'm going to place it for this Christmas, I am thinking about putting it dead center of my coffee table as it doesn't have to be plugged into the AC adapter to run, it can run on batteries.
It has 2 settings, you can run it with lights, movement and music, or turn the switch the other way, and it will just light up and move.
After 1 hour of continuously running, it will automatically shut off, that's a great feature because with the music off, I can totally see myself just letting it sit on the coffee table lit up and moving all day and night once I get the house decorated for the holiday like I do with our little Christmas tree.
I made a video to show it to you so you can see it lit up and moving with both music and without, and I admit that the video quality is not very good, I'll redo it tomorrow, but I just wanted to show you all how awesome it is.
I need to redo the video and pictures during the day as the lighting in my house is very low at night, I do not use really bright bulbs, I like very soft light, but soft light sucks for trying to get a good picture or make a video.
And yup, I probably sound like a total idiot gushing over the tree, but I was just so excited...hahaha!
This Disney Christmas tree is really perfect for me and my house as I am a HUGE Disney fan and have a massive collection of Disney toys from happy meals, I have a Snow White Evil Queen coffee cup and an Ursula coffee cup, an Ursula doll from the Great Villains Collection, and an awesome snow globe of all of the villains too.
I told Sebastian that after he gets home tomorrow, we will get out all of the decorations and decorate the house for Christmas this weekend, I know it will make him totally happy, he just loves Christmas and all of the trimmings.
This tree is going to look so good on my coffee table, I just love it, so thank you Collectibles Today, thank you so much!

This review is a result of a feedback campaign by Collectibles Today.
I was asked to give an honest opinion about the product I received.
Good reviews are not incentivized and poor reviews will not be censored for the opinion of the product. **

Posted by Kat at 12:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Holy crap, it's December 2nd already?
I'm not ready for Christmas yet! No!! Not yet!!!
I'm not actually panicked about it, the teens know that they are each getting one gift with a value of just $80 bucks or less, and then all kinds of stocking stuffers from me.

They know that I cannot afford to go crazy shopping for Christmas even if stuff is on sale.
The teens are really easy to shop for though, they either want Xbox 360 games like Assassin's Creed II or Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, or they want a couple of characters moved around in their WoW account.

Doing stuff in Wow is just as expensive as an in-hand video game purchase, and I will be leaving it up to them to decide exactly what they want, but they have to stay within the price range of $80 each.
That's just all that I can afford to do this year, things have been super tight with having to replace the AC twice just since February, and then having to pay a lot of out of pocket for Mark's doctor visits and meds, and transportation to and from both of our appointments, pay a lot of cash out of pocket for some of my meds not covered by my insurance, things are what they are.
But I know that I'm not the only family that is struggling this year to try and provide a half-way decent Christmas for our kids, everybody is feeling the pinch of the economy.
The teens are really great about it though, they know what's what and they are ok with it, plus they know that they will get cash from relatives so they can go buy what they want to buy themselves.
You ask them what they want from a relative for Christmas because that relative asked, both of the teens say cash. haha
They just like money, hey, who doesn't right?
They like to get cash because they then can spend it on what they want or save it for awhile.
Last year, they both managed to save the majority of the money they got all of the way into spring, I was impressed by their ability to not go crazy and spend it.
But when they do want to buy something like a video game, they hand over their money to me and I purchase it from Buy.com or wherever with my debit card.
That works out really well because I don't have to go over to teh video game store where they are just looking at everything and can't make up their minds.
Shopping online makes them have to make a decision with no dilly-dallying at all, it's definitely my preferred way to shop.

Posted by Kat at 12:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I had the opportunity recently to try out a product that says that it inhibits invaders from entering into host cells, and may help you and your family with a flu cure.

I wasn't sick with a cold, but both of the teens were sniffling, sneezing and coughing during the week of November 12th.
I started giving the both of them some of the Respiratory Guard lozenges to help combat their illness, and even though it wasn't the flu which needed a flu cure, the Respiratory Guard lozenges did help fight off some of the symptoms they were complaining of, like sore throats and sniffles, and I think it helped getting rid of the ickies a lot faster too.
In my opinion, they do work to help combat the sickies and ickies of the cold, and if any of us are going to get the flu this season, the Respiratory Guard lozenges are probably going to help get rid of that a lot faster too.
The teens only complained of and had symptoms for about 3 days while I was giving them the lozenges, so yeah, that is a lot faster than I can remember them being sick like that last year.

There's only 1 problem with the lozenges though.
Both of the teens said that they taste like fruity ass.
Now I don't know what fruity ass tastes like, but I did taste 1 myself to see why the teens quickly chewed them up and then downed a full glass of water or soda to get rid of the after taste.
I totally agree with the teens assessment of the lozenges.
They do have an aftertaste that just isn't pleasant, but seriously, what type of medicine has a good taste or after taste?
Not too many, so if you just take a big drink after chewing them up, the after taste is gone in seconds.
So in conclusion, they may have a bitter after taste, but they work as they are intended to work, they help fight off symptoms and help you feel better faster.

This review is a result of a feedback campaign by Respiratory Guard. The recipients were asked to give their honest opinion about the product they received. Good reviews were not incentivized and poor reviews will not be censored for their opinion of the product. **

Posted by Kat at 3:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

When I got home from the ER tonight, Mark told me that he's ok with it all now, he's ok with the spine issues that he has.
He said that he woke up today and it was like a switch got flipped on, and he's decided that he's not going to let it ruin his life or stop him from doing something to help others.
He knows that he can't be a police officer, but he still wants to work with people, for people, to help people in some way in the civilian service industry.
He's talking doing crime scene investigations, dispatcher work, managing people, or maybe even getting some fire service training for some work.

He knows he can't physically be a fireman, but he can do administrative work, dispatching, he can get a masters in public safety administration too, he has a lot of options so he's open to checking out many different things now rather than his previous attitude of giving up on everything including his own life.

He said he wants to get his drivers license now where before he didn't even want to do that, and he also said that he wants to get a part time job of some sort while he takes some classes at MCC, which is now calling itself State College of Florida.
He was on the site today looking at what kind of classes they offer in public safety, he said he found some classes that are interesting to him, so he would like my help filling out his school applications and the financial aide forms as well.
He's finally at the point of acceptance with all of this, and I am soo happy to hear him say that!
It was so hard watching him be depressed and angry, it was hell getting into arguments with him over him lashing out at Sebastian and I, to hear him say he's ready to move forward is just so awesome I can't even tell you!
Tomorrow, I'm going to do the best I can to help him fill out applications for everything that he needs at MCC, get the info on the driving class so he can get his license, and everything else too.
This is such good news!
Yay!! (*applause*)

Sims3 fire picture from Carl's Sims3 Guide.

Posted by Kat at 2:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

I thought the spider bite issue was resolving itself, I thought I was healing from it.
I was wrong.
By this morning, both of my legs had swollen up like balloons again, they were red, itchy, and then I started getting hives on the upper part of my body.
I had huge red hives on my torso and arms, and my entire body was itching like crazy, so I went to the ER this evening after several doses of Benadryl did absolutely nothing at all to help me.
I just got home at like 10:30pm after spending 4 and a half hours in the very busy ER.
The doctor looked at my body and was like wow, that's pretty bad, let's see what we can do to fix this, so he hooked me up to an IV and started pumping Prednisone, which is a steroid, into me along with some dilaudid for the pain I was in from scratching myself silly all day long.
I had scratched a couple of moles on my shoulders pretty much off, they were open and bleeding so the nurse had to clean them up and put bandaids on them, and then she lectured me about making moles bleed.
I know that you shouldn't pick moles and make them bleed, but when I was scratching, I didn't even know that I had moles in those spots, I was just scratching where it itched.
I had also scratched a bit too hard on my legs so there were some wounds to clean up there too.
I'm home now and have my scripts for more prednisone and for dilaudid already filled by one of the Walgreens that stay open late.
I still have huge red hives all over my upper body and my legs are still swollen and red, but the doc said that should start to clear up within 24 hours of taking the steroid.
He couldn't figure out what kind of spider bit me, but he did confirm the spider bite is what caused this to happen.
I'm just happy to be home and I'll be happy when the swelling goes away, that's what's so painful, the swelling in my legs, it makes it so that I can't even walk well, I'm like limping on both sides.
It's a sight to see for sure. haha
I can't wait to get some decent sleep tonight, I'm so tired from all of the hours of scratching myself to death.

Posted by Kat at 11:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)