September 1, 2010
Spammers and learning something new.
In blogging and site news, I have had to shut down comments on all previous entries, including the last two that I just wrote a single day ago, due to being flooded by some nasty and evil spammers.
All comments get moderated anyway, nothing gets published unless I say it does, but I am getting pounded by spammers!
Every hour, I get approximately 20-30 spam comments from the same exact spammer(s) all posting the same exact list of spam URLs, to the exact same nasty websites.
They think they are oh so clever though, they say things like the following at the beginning of their huge lists of URLs in the hopes that I will mistake it as a real comment and not mark it as spam and block their IP address;
"Congrats on your new home!" (what?)
"I hope that I can have one someday too!" (er?)
"Sorry for my silence these past days, my computer was broken." (I hope you get the blue-screen of death, for reals!)
"In related news, the Wayans brothers want to cast Tiger woods in their next movie but they can't decide if the title should be White Chicks 11 or 12 ?" (ha-ha! OK, that IS kinda funny, but it's still spam!)
"Oh man, I'm so not your friend anymore!" (Good! Now go away and leave my blog alone!!)
"Deeply entrenched lurker here ;)" (Great, thanks for letting me know, IP is now blocked!)
And oh so many more stupid and off topic comments like them.
_________________
Sebastian and I took a walk to the corner store a bit ago, and when we go for walks, he always tells me about his day or a story from his life from another day.
Tonight he told me about one of the times that he went to the horse farm with my sister Jo to ride the horses and help out around the farm for a day.
The horse farm they go to lets you ride a horse for awhile for free if you help out around the farm first.
Muck out the stalls, feed the chickens, geese, horses, and pigs, all of that kind of stuff, and then you can pick a horse that you like to ride, and go out riding the beautiful trails for a couple of hours.
One Saturday when they went, one of the people who works at the farm asked him to go to the stalls and get the horse tack, that's all that she said to him, so he started to walk off toward the stalls and then stopped.
He walked over to Aunt Jo, and asked her, "Aunt Jo, what is horse tack?"
She told him to go and just grab everything that you need to ride the horse.
He went to the stalls and grabbed a bridle, bits, a harness, a saddle, saddle pads, stirrups, reins, crops, and a martingale.
He carried it all back out to the area where they were getting the horses ready for a day of riding, and brought it to the woman who had told him to go get it.
He started helping her put it all on the horse he was going to be riding that day, Maximilian, and he just had to know exactly what it was, so he asked her, "Which one of these things that I brought, is the horse tack?"
She laughed a little bit, and then she said to him, "It's all horse tack. We call all of the stuff that you use for riding a horse, 'tack'. It's so much simpler to say 'get the tack', then it is to say 'get the bridle, bits, a harness, a saddle, saddle pads, stirrups, reins, crops, and a martingale', isn't it?"
He agreed and said yes, and he also felt a little bit embarrassed by asking, but he really didn't know.
And neither did I until he told me the story tonight.
When we came home from the store, I wanted to see if he was pulling my leg, so I typed into Google, what is horse tack, and this is the definition that I found;
"Tack is a term used to describe any of the various equipment and accessories worn by horses in the course of their use as domesticated animals. Saddles, stirrups, bridles, halters, reins, bits, harnesses, martingales, and breastplates are all forms of horse tack. Equipping a horse is often referred to as tacking up."
I learned something new on my walk tonight.
I like learning new things.
I also like having those walks with my sons, whichever one decides to walk to the corner store and back with me, because it gives me a chance to have some one-on-one alone time with them.
I get to talk with just them, no one else around to interrupt or make them uncomfortable, they open up and tell me things when it's just the two of us.
The boys and I have always had a pretty good open communication line between us, but I would say that the older they got, the harder it was to talk with them about some things.
Both of them are going through some things, some of those things I won't be discussing on my blogs, but I do talk about them with my counselor when I go and see her (once a month) because those things have a lot to do with the current situations in my house and with my family.
Earlier tonight, all three of us sat down and talked about the family issues that have had me really upset for several days now, some that I did blog about.
There were a lot of questions, a lot of denial, a lot of yelling, a lot of crying, a lot of confusion, and a lot more of me learning what people think and say about me.
There's a very deep hatred for me because I packed up my sons and moved here to Florida in 1997, instead of just staying in Maine.
But I will have to talk more about that stuff in another post because this one is now well over 1,000 words, and I know, super long posts like this don't get read all of the way through, people skim long posts, or just don't even bother reading long posts at all.
And that's OK.
I blog it because I need to, because I need to talk it out, get it out, so it doesn't build up in me and cause an emotional explosion.
So that's all for now, more to follow, most definitely.
Comments temporarily disabled.
August 31, 2010
When you have insomnia, you're never really asleep, you're never really awake.
I have insomnia again, surprise, surprise!
I rarely if ever sleep anymore, and on the very rare nights that I do manage to fall asleep, it's usually very, very late, like around 4:30am-5:30am, and by then, Carmine the indoor-outdoor stray we've adopted, starts to literally smack me in the face with his paw, and then start meowing very loudly directly into my face for me to get up, because that's when he wants to go out.
Now.
I try to ignore it as long as I can, but I can't, so I get up, let him out, pee, and then I'm wide awake again.
Tonight is one of those nights where I can't sleep, so if he wants out tonight, at least he won't have to paw my face off to go out, one meow should do just fine.
Having chronic insomnia makes you feel odd, out of place, not right with the world in any way at all.
It is actually extremely depressing.
When you don't get hardly any sleep for days and days on end, when the depression from not sleeping starts to creep in, the thoughts also start to creep in.
One of the things Mark and I talked about was suicide.
We talked about Rachel, and we talked about how I'm too much of a coward to do it to myself.
And it's true, I am a coward.
He did ask me though, that if I were ever going to do it, why would I do it, would be it because of the never-ending pain, the never-ending medications, just what would it say on the note if I did do it and left a note.
It didn't take me very long to think about it at all, I know what my note would say.
It would say exactly the following:
No matter what I do, no matter how hard I try or have tried, no matter what good I do or good I have done, it will NEVER be enough for people. It will just never, ever be enough. They will always find faults with me, look right past all of the kindness and good that I do and have done, they will always point of my faults in detail, they will never let them go, they will never see me as anyone but a screw-up. I could win the Powerball lottery, like $300 million, I could give every single one of my family members $10 million each, I could donate millions to charity, I could do so many good deeds with it, and someone somewhere, WILL say that I am not being genuinely generous, that I am simply doing it to make people think that I'm a good person, that I'm just trying to buy love and respect, but you can bet your ass they would all still keep the money, keep it to "teach me a lesson."
I'm sorry, I really am just having such a super hard time tonight, the pain that I am feeling is burning me to my core, I haven't stopped crying in several hours now, so I apologize for being such a downer this evening.
I really do because I love all of you, my faithful readers who have been with me for years, read and listen to me, relate to me, and without this blog and all of you, I can't say that I would have made it this long, so thank you, all of you, for being with me on this roller coaster that is my life.
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You know what I want?
Afterr wasting many hours browsing the internet tonight, I found that I want one of those unlocked phones so I can go with any company, and I'd probably stick with my same company, but I'm like dying to try to get and have one of those "crackberry" phones that everyone talks about.
People brag about how it's like the absolute best phone ever, it's addictive, and I suppose that's why they have nicknamed it the "crackberry". 
I do love my current phone, it works awesome, but someday I would really like to have one of the latest and greatest cell phones like everyone else has just so that I can say yeah, I have a crackberry too.
You gotta be somebody just like everybody else.
Continue Reading �
August 31, 2010
Rainy, hard, educational days.
While Sebastian was at school today, Mark and I had a very long talk about a lot of things.
It started out with how he was feeling about some stuff, some issues that he didn't quite know how to bring up to me.
I told him the same thing that I have always told my sons, "No matter what you say to me, I promise I will not get mad at you, ever, I may hurt, but I won't get mad, and I PROMISE that I will NEVER stop loving you."
So he told me some things about how some people who have been in my life just a little bit longer than my sons have, just some of my extended family, really feel about me.
I am hated actually, and I can understand why, I really can.
I'm one of the only ones in my extended family who has never forgiven my ex-husband for the things that took place during all of the short years we were together.
He's a changed man you see, yet I have not forgiven him like they all have.
He's never asked for it, he's never apologized, so how can I forgive someone who has never apologized or asked to be forgiven?
I have not forgotten or forgiven him for the things that he's done to me or to my sons, he hurt my sons terribly, and I love them more than my own life.
The conversation with Mark went on for hours, things that I am being accused of doing, still, but now by them, people who live in Maine, thousands of miles away, people who never see me or speak to me unless I pay for us to fly up there.
I just love being accused of doing all kinds of drugs, not just the drugs that my doctor prescribes to me on a monthly basis, but hardcore street drugs, like cocaine, and heroin.
Did you all know that I was shooting up?
Between my toes so that there's no visible track marks on my arms or body?
Did you know that?
Did you know that they sit and talk about how I need to go in for some very serious opiate detox very soon?
I'm not to be trusted with money, ever, I'm a thief, a liar, a strung-out junkie and a horrible mother.
Did you know those things?!?
Yes, these are the things that I am told that I am and am doing, they are told to my sons who spend day after day with me, they would know if I was doing those things, they would see me doing those things, yet, at the very same time I am all of those things, I am expected to come up with enough money to fly the three of us up north to Maine every single year so that the teens can visit all of their family.
I am a disabled and single mother living on a very limited income, yet I'm supposed to somehow come up with ALL of the money to fly us all up there every year before the older relatives die ya know?
Does anyone, has anyone, EVER offered to help me buy the plane tickets for us to get up there?!
Hell no!
Have any of them ever come here to visit us?
Hell no!
It's expensive dammit!
And oh forbid that I say that I can't afford it one year, I am guilted so bad for it, but um, hello?!
Did y'all miss the part about me being a single and disabled parent living on a very, very limited income?!
I do the absolute very best that I can every single day of my life.
I pay the bills, I buy the food, I work as much and as hard as I can, I take damn good care of my sons, they have turned out really amazingly well, and believe me, it was not because anyone helped me, I did it all by myself.
People who sit in judgment of me, saying all of those horrible things, hating on me, yet my sons have turned out incredible, and that is because of me, so if I am so freaking bad, how did they turn out so damn good huh?
HUH?!?!?
I would really, absolutely, sooo TOTALLY LOVE for that Freaky Friday kind of stuff to be true.
I would love for all of the people who sit in judgment of me, to spend just 24-48 hours in my body, in my life, do what I do every single day of my life, live it.
Hell, spend a week inside my body, swap souls with me, live my life, and then at the end of it, I can guarantee that they will be BEGGING to go back to their own bodies and lives, and then maybe they will shut up and leave me and mine alone.
What's that saying?
"Before you accuse, criticize, and abuse- walk a mile in my shoes".
August 26, 2010
What a rainy, crazy, and crappy week it has been.
It has been raining off and on all week long, and when it rains, I am a totally useless lump of flesh on the couch.
I haven't been able to do much of anything at all, I've been in far too much pain to do anything, and I have been sick on top of it, so yeah, just miserable.
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On Tuesday morning, I received a text message from Moe, the guy who owns the corner store, a really great guy, who was letting me know that Rachel, the girl who worked there and was a friend to me, had killed herself sometime around 2am Tuesday morning.
She left her purse, cell phone, all of her things at the store around midnight, said that she was going home, but something snapped I guess, and she ended up hanging herself in the little wooded area right behind the corner store.
I've walked up to the corner store and back a few times now, and there is now a cross, flowers, and 4 large candles placed there for her.
This afternoon when I was on my way to the pharmacy and grocery store, I stopped and lit all 4 of the candles for her. The rain had put them all out.
I said a few words for her as I lit them, I said that I hoped that she finally was at peace now, that whatever it was that drove her to that, hopefully, she was at peace now. I also said that if I had known she was thinking of doing that, that I would have gladly talked to her, that I would have been a friend to listen, and a shoulder to cry on, that I would have tried to help her.
I know all too well that feeling of hopelessness, of feeling like there's no way out of the current and horrible situation that drives you to think of suicide, and that if she had only talked to someone, maybe it didn't have to end that way.
I know that's what happened for me.
In 2001 when I had to stop working, when I got the wicked bad news about my back, I felt so lost and hopeless, like a total failure as a mother, I couldn't work anymore, how was I going to provide for my boys, what was I going to do, how the hell was I going to get out of this super mess?!?
My landlord, of all people, just happened to knock on my door on one of the days that I was crying uncontrollably and thinking of ending it all, he asked what was wrong, and it all just came spilling out of me like a flood.
He came in to my home and talked to me for hours, he gave me so many reasons to not kill myself, he saved my life that day, and I have never thought of suicide again, and the very few times that it has slipped back into my head, the words he said to me that morning come back.
If only someone had been there for Rachel, if only someone had asked her what was wrong, maybe it wouldn't have ended this way.
If I had known she was thinking of suicide, if I had only known that she was feeling so lost and hopeless, I know that I would have talked to her, I would have repeated the same words my landlord said to me, maybe it would have made a difference, maybe it would have helped, or maybe it wouldn't have, there's really no way to know now.
All I can do now is hope that she's finally at peace, that whatever it was that brought her to hang herself, was finally over for her.
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In other news, Sebastian started school again on Monday, they didn't have him registered for any classes yet, none, so he had to sit and wait for almost 3 hours while they figured out why he didn't get signed up for any of the classes he had registered for, then register him for them again, and print his schedule.
Ugh.
Then on Wednesday, the teens had to go and give their depositions in the "iced tea mugging", so he missed a day of school for that and the vice principal is demanding he bring in proof that he was doing depositions, she wants the actual subpoena, not a copy, and uh, sorry, he needs those for the courts, so she's getting a photocopy of it, like it, lump it, or suck it.
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This morning started out really good.
The sun finally poked back out, and I got an email from Lori at A Cowboy's Wife, letting me know that I had won the giveaway she had on her blog for an awesome pair of Langston's cowboy boots!
I have been given the promo code to go to the site and pick out my pair and order them, yay!
These are the ones that I really like, so I'm pretty sure that they are the ones that I'm going to get.
________________________
The sun came out, I won a great giveaway, and I got paid a day early so I was able to go and pick up my meds, pay a bill to keep the lights on, and get some groceries for the house.
Hopefully things just keep getting better from here on out!
July 15, 2010
I hate my belly pudge.
I have lost a lot of weight over this last year, I am doing really good in the weight loss department I must say.
My starting weight last year at this time was 196 pounds, yeah, I was really heavy.
But over the last year, I have lost a good amount of weight, I am now down to 158 pounds, a 38 pound loss over the course of a year is really pretty good, and I've managed to keep it all off too.
But the one thing that I hate and can't seem to get rid of, is my belly pudge.
Because I can't do sit-ups or crunches, I seem to be stuck with this pudgy belly, so I have been reading a lot of fat burner reviews to see if maybe a product like that would help me melt away some of the pudge.
I really can't stand it, every time I look in the mirror, I hate seeing my fat belly.
I so wish that I could do some sit-ups, crunches, side bends, something, anything that would help me lose my belly.
Has anyone had any success with a fat burner?
If so, did it help you lose any weight, help shape you up a bit better?
I would really love to get rid of this belly, it's the one body flaw that I have that I cannot stand.
July 7, 2010
Oh! There it is!
For the last couple of weeks I have been in a total funk.
I have had absolutely no motivation to do anything at all, I have been mildly depressed and I hate to admit it, but I have to, talking about it helps, says my doctor.
I have been feeling this way ever since Sebastian told me that he had a decision to make about whether to live up in Maine for a year, or come back here and finish his education.
Every time that we talked on the phone, I have been totally supportive, telling him that no matter what he decided, I would stand behind his decision 100% even though it was ripping my heart out to even think about him not coming back home to stay.
I've done hardly anything at all, my house clearly showed what was going on with me mentally, it was a mess.
I haven't been sleeping, and I have barely eaten anything at all in weeks.
With me, the very best natural diet supplements is the thought of not having either or both of my sons with me for whatever reasons, be it an accident, going away to college, or moving away to live with the other side of the family for a year.
It was killing me inside, I ate probably once every two to three days, and you couldn't really call it eating, it was more like nibbling on a single slice of deli ham at one am or whatever.
I have been laying around on the couch most days just mindlessly watching the tv, or sitting here in my chair and mindlessly surfing the internet.
I had lost all motivation to do anything at all.
My home and work have both been suffering because of it, and I just couldn't shake it.
Then around 1:15-1:30pm this afternoon, my Mom called and then I called her right back because I have free long distance, and I talked to Sebastian for about 45 minutes.
Sebastian is spending the night with my parents to help them out around the house and go grocery shopping with my Mom in the morning because she has a hurt knee and a broken vertebrae, so she needs some help and he's great at grocery shopping, he always goes with me and he's really great at helping.
Sebastian said that he'd be home on the 18th, and I asked if he had made a decision yet because if he chose there, then we needed to hurry and try to get a child custody court date, transfer his school records etc.
He told me, "No Mom, I'm coming home on the 18th for good. I'm going to finish my school and then go to SCF for the required classes, and then try to go to Full Sail for my computer and digital art classes that I want to do for my career."
I was Soooooo happy to hear him say that!
To hear him make his education a priority, that makes me so so SO proud of him!
I feel sad that Great-Gram and Aunt Heather will be sad and miss him terribly, but his education is the #1 priority right now, when he finishes, he can go back if he chooses too.
Gah!!!! I miss him but I'm so happy that he's going to be coming home!
Yay!
Yeuuuusss!!
After I got off the phone with him, it's like my mojo came back!
Mark and I went and did the grocery shopping, and then tonight, I finally cleaned the floors like I have been saying I was going to for oh, about two weeks now.
I vacuumed the rug, and I mopped the totally sucky terrazzo flooring in the kitchen, hallway, and bathroom.
I hate the terrazzo flooring, it is so hard to get clean.
You can mop it repeatedly and it still looks filthy, it's just the way the floor is, it's this yucky stone type stuff, and nobody knows how to get it to look clean.
I've talked to people who clean for a living, and nobody knows how to get it to look good.
You can mop it over and over, your mop will wring totally clear, no more dirt is coming off of the floor or wringing out of the mop, the floor is clean, but you look at the just mopped floor, and it still looks totally gross.
Ugh.
Then I did almost all of the dishes, I have just the silverware and cups left to do, I folded all of the laundry in the drier, and I even cleaned the kitchen counters.
Hearing that my baby boy is coming home and he's going to stay home, totally brought me out of my funk.
I got my motivation back.
Sebastian is coming home on the 18th.
To stay.
July 1, 2010
Overwhelming emptiness.
It has been very, very quiet around here, both on my blog and here at home.
I never realized just how much Sebastian and I interacted with each other until he was gone.
Mark and I are very much alike, we go and do our thing and we stay doing our thing, we only interact with each other at meal times and if we're watching a movie or going to the store or something.
Other than that, it's very quiet here.
I am out here at my desk mindlessly surfing the internet or playing with my Sims 3, and Mark is in the other room playing his video games.
I have been a complete wreck without him here, knowing what I know about what's going on up there and the decision that he has to make, and so I have been under a ton of stress.
What used to be my "hives of unknown origin", has now officially been labeled as "stress hives".
When I get stressed, I break out in hives all over every single inch of my body.
We know, the doctor and I, that the hives are from stress because I make a very strict point of not going near any of my triggers, and making sure that none of them come in to the house.
There are never, and never will be, any peaches or strawberries in the house.
Those are my food triggers, and I don't use any of my other triggers either, one of which is the Bounce dryer bar, and thanks to that experience, I am allergic to all fabric softener sheets, so I can only use the Purex 3-in-1 laundry sheets, and I really hope that I never become allergic to those.
After doing some journal writing, writing out the dates that I broke out in hives and what I ate and did, what my mood was, what was going on in my life on those days, my doctor figured out that they are 100% stress related.
At least I know now so that I can attempt to keep my stress under control, but that's not really working right now, not with this situation.
So because of the massive amounts of stress that I have been under, I have been broken out in hives almost every single day, all day and all night long for the last 4 or 5 days.
The Benadryl is not working, but I'm taking it anyway in the hopes that it will eventually kick in and start working.
I also wasn't getting much sleep at all, so I had to pick up some sleep aids when Mark and I were at the store the other day, and so I have been getting about 5 hours of sleep per night now.
That's better than nothing, definitely better than not getting any sleep at all like what was happening, so I'm at least feeling a little better.
I don't know, I am just dealing with it all the very best that I can, just trying to be patient and at least I know that he will be home on July 18th.
That's when his return ticket is for, and I know that at least I will see him when he comes home that day, and then from there, I don't know what will be happening, but at least I will get to see him and hug him again.
I just miss him so very much, I know that I'll probably hug him and not let go until he tells me I'm squishing him or something. hahaha
June 28, 2010
Keeping myself busy.
I want to thank you all for your words of support and encouragement, it really means a lot to me, and I am sorry if I am unable to personally respond to each and every one of your comments, there are just far too many of them.
Do not get me wrong, I LOVE all of your comments, they really do mean so much, it is awesome to know that I have so much support from so many people during all of this.
I got tired of crying and decided to do something to keep myself busy, so I went and looked up how to make my own ringtones for my cell phone because A) I could not find any on the Virgin Mobile site that I liked, and B) they are just too expensive when you start adding them up.
I found a great site to make ringtones that really works awesome, so if you want to make your own for your cell phone, just go to this site.
It is fast, easy, and there are no harmful things on the site or when you download your newly made ringtone.
Then I needed a way to get them to my phone.
I don't have the USB cable or a micro SD card to use to store and transfer them from my pc to my phone.
They are on sale this week for really good prices, so maybe when I get paid this week after I pay some stuff, I'll pick those up so that I can transfer whole songs to the phone so that I can listen to music on it using the media player it comes with.
But I did find a way to do it.
I needed to download and install Opera Mini 5, and I tried upgrading Opera Mini 4.2, but it wouldn't do it, so I deleted 4.2 and then tried to install 5 for like 2 hours but I kept getting the message "Access Denied" when I went to the site www.m.opera.com, m.opera.com, I even tried the link for Virgin Mobile phones specifically, opera.mini.com/virgin, no matter how I tried it, I was denied.
So I did a search on Google and found that I needed to type in to my phones default web browser, mini.opera.com, and it will download.
The file size on mini.opera.com is like 1kb bigger than the others, so maybe that's why it works, who knows.
Then once you get Opera Mini 5, you need to make your ringtone, then if you have gmail, attach the ringtone file to an email and email it to a yahoo mail account, so if you don't have one of those, get one, they are free.
Then open up Opera on your phone, go to your yahoo email account, click on the email with the ringtone, (hopefully you labled it by putting something in the subject line) then click on the attachment, then click on the box shaped icon that appears, and then in the lower left of your Opera browser, you will see that it says "save".
Click that and it will download the ringtone to your phone, to the ringtones folder.
It will not be labeled the title you gave your ringtone, but instead, it will just say "securedownload" as the ringtone filename, but it's there and it will work.
I have now made two ringtones and emailed them to my phone.
I am way happy that I figured it out, I supposes that sometimes it helps to have OCD, it makes me complete every single thing that I start no matter how frustrating it was to keep seeing that "Access Denied" message.
June 24, 2010
Get an Amazon Kindle for just $189.00!
Amazon has put the Kindle on sale for just $189.00!
The Kindle was priced at $259.00, and it is now just $189.00, that's a savings of $70!
PLUS!!!
Amazon is offering FREE Two-Day Shipping
I normally do not put up posts like this, an 'OMG you should totally buy this' kind of post, but this is a really great price for a really great product.
Everyone that I know who owns a Kindle, absolutely loves it and raves about it.
I know a couple of people who bought a Kindle and they are major book readers, they can read two to three books per week, and almost every single time I talk to the both of them and ask what they are doing, they tell me, reading a great new book!
Both of them have said that they really don't know how they used to carry around all of the books that they would take with them everywhere now that they have a Kindle.
The difference in weight has made an impact in how they walk, and their posture has improved, they are standing up straighter, because they aren't lugging around a giant bag with two or three books in it everywhere they go anymore.
One friend said that the very first day that she had her Kindle in her bag and she wasn't carrying the usual two books that she used to carry with her every single day everywhere that she went, she kept marveling at how light her bag was now, and that's when she realized just how much extra weight she had been carrying around every single day for as long as she could remember due to her love of books.
She had a huge bag too, it was big enough to carry all of her normal purse stuff and had room for at least three hardcover books, which she preferred over paperbacks because paperbacks tend to get ripped up she said.
Once she got used to carrying just the Kindle with her, she downsized her bag and is now using a normal sized purse for the first time in years because the Kindle is so small and lightweight, and she's very happy with it, loves it, and she said the Kindle is the coolest thing that she's bought for herself in years.
I would love to get a Kindle for myself, but I have some bills to pay off by mid-August, (responsibilities first!) but if the price stays this low, (or maybe it will get even lower!) I just might have to buy myself one for Christmas.
I checked the coverage map to see how the 3G signal is in my area, and it's good, so I know I wouldn't have any problems downloading the books in the 60 seconds they say it takes.
I can't believe that the Kindle is so small, yet it can hold 1,500 books at a time, and there are now over 600,000 book titles available to download and read.
And for those of us who don't have a Kindle yet and can't get one for awhile, but we'd still like to try out the technology, we can download the free Kindle app for our pc, and they even have an iPhone Kindle app for free download too.
I think I'm going to download the free Kindle app for my computer to give it a try, and I'll be able to download books to it and read them, so why not right?
While it's downloading, I'm going to go look for a few books that I have been wanting to read for awhile....
June 19, 2010
So close, but yet so far...
I posted about my friend Mindy and her family's situation a few days ago, and you can read about her situation in her own words here, and she's posted an update tonight.
We have been searching for a new place for almost a week and a half.
When I am not working or packing up the house, we are driving all over to look at the next dwelling. We have spoken with many potential prospects which have all fallen short of obtaining the keys because of one problem.
We do not have the full funds.
Every single one of the houses that we have looked at require security,first and last months rent.
We are close but still fall short.
In the state of Florida, if you are a month-to-month renter, either party, owner or renter, only has to give 15-30 days notice to vacate, and that is what happened.
Mindy, her husband Chris, son Jeff, and young daughter Katie, only have until June 30th to move out or face eviction proceedings which would end up on their credit and make finding a new home to rent even more difficult, as pretty much every single property owner down here runs credit checks before allowing new tenants to move in.
Having an eviction on your credit can ruin your chances of being able to rent a new home to live in even if the eviction was never carried out completely to the end in court.
Mindy and her family have been there for me so so many times over the last five, almost six years.
Because of my back and disability, Mindy and her husband have helped me with so many things from driving me to the hospital for my surgery, grocery shopping, installing a new AC for me, twice, cooking meals for us after my surgeries, cleaning my home after my surgeries, they've driven me to countless doctor appointments and multiple trips to the pharmacy, they've driven me to the hospital ER several times when I was extremely sick, they have done so many things to help me and my family, and they have never asked for a single thing in return from me, not ever.
They have never asked anyone for anything, they have never asked anyone for help, they are always the people helping other people who need help, and they need help this time.
Posting about their situation and asking my readers to donate just $1.00 to help them afford the required first, last, and security deposit on a new rental home, is the only way that I can help them.
Even with all that they are going through, all of the stress they are dealing with because of having to find a new home to rent and move out of that home and into the new home in just 11 days, Mindy is driving over to my house at 4:30am to drive me and Sebastian all of the way to Tampa to the airport to send Sebastian to Maine for a month to get to know his father for the first time in his life, meet all of his half-siblings, and also visit with the rest of his family (Great-Gram, Aunt Heather, Ninny and Pop-Pop) and my friend Shell and her family as well.
It always blows my mind how willing Mindy and her family are to help others.
They never say no to helping someone else in need, whenever I have needed help with anything, there they are, no hesitation, they just help.
Posting about their situation and asking my readers for help is the only way that I can think of to repay them for all of their help and kindness, because they would never accept any kind of payment for all of the help they have given me.
So please, can you donate just $1.00 to help them be able to afford the required first, last, and security deposit on a new home to rent and be able to move in just 11 days?
To help spread the word, you can copy and paste this into your Twitter and that way even more people will read my post and possibly help them reach their goal.
Can you spare just $1.00 to help a blogger & her family not be homeless in 11 days? Thank you!! http://tinyurl.com/2duwdrv
Thank you.
June 18, 2010
Amega Amwand product review.
I apologize in advance for the length of this post, but this is a very serious product review of a medical device that claims it can completely relieve pain, "remind the body to heal itself", and strengthen the body's immunity, and many, many other medical claims
About two months ago, I was contacted by a woman named Cheryl who said she had an amazing product that would help me, help me with my back pain, blood pressure, all kinds of things, and she would love it if I would try it out and review it on my blogs.
I agreed to test it out and I have been using it as she told me to ever since receiving it in the mail.
It's called the Amega Amwand, and it claims to use "zero point energy" to help the body heal itself.
I HATE giving these people a link, but I feel that I need to so that people WILL NOT fall for this scam, I need to warn people that this thing is a total scam and costs hundreds of dollars ($304.00) to buy, and all it is is the body of a ball point pen minus the ink and ink chamber.
It is one solid piece of metal shaped like a pen, it looks exactly like the image above.
You can pretty much tell that this thing is a scam by the url of the website where they sell it.
The url to purchase this thing has the words "CASHRICHES" in it!
Another of their sites is just one big page all about positioning yourself to get in on this amazing money making scheme!
Cheryl told me that in order to get the most benefits from it, to use it properly, all that I needed to do was to simply "wave" the Amwand over my body, the areas that are in pain, in a clockwise circular motion for 30 minutes, 5 times per day.
"It's vital" she said.
She even told me to "wand" my son Mark with it as well because he is having bad back pain too.
Mark laughed at the idea, but he let me use it on him for the entire two months that I've had it and have been testing it out.
Below are the claims that this "wand" can supposedly do to help people.
Usage of AmWand Can:* Discharge blockages in the body
* Clear distortions in our bio energetic field
* Facilitate the body in healing
* Energize food and drink increasing potency of the minerals & vitamins within them
* Use it on our pets and plants to supplement any energy deficiencies that they have
* Balance and energize imbalances your body may be experiencing
* Help to remove aches, pains and other discomforts
* Lift the face...tightens the skin
* Energize our environment in which we liveAmega AmWand Benefits Can:
* Help the body obtain homeostasis condition
* Help the body's bio-energetic field to source Zero Point Energy
* Relieve aches and pain
* Neutralize harmful elements (energetically) from the liquid we drink, & food we eat
* Energize the skin providing a "face lift" with noticeable improvement
* Energize creams and oils for better absorption of nutrients
* Facilitate and strengthen the flow of energy in our body
* Stimulate bodily functions and strengthens immunity
* Help the body to look and feel youngerYou also can have quicker and stronger nail and hair growth, and a greater resistance to tooth decay that is visibly seen. The lifting of the face with noticeable improvement has also brought forth an additional and extremely high interest.
When water is treated with the Zero Point Energy Wand and then used in conjunction with any supplements, they can be absorbed much more quickly and efficiently, and effectively by the body's cells.
I have used the Amega Amwand every single day, five times per day for 30 minutes each session as I was told to do.
I even "wanded" my water with it as I was told to do.
I am here to tell you that the Amega Amwand did absolutely nothing at all for me.
It did not relieve any aches, pains, or other discomforts, it has not helped reduce my blood pressure, and I saw no noticeable improvement in my hair, nails, or face.
It has not helped me to look or feel younger.
It has not helped or strengthened my immunity, as a matter of fact, I've been really sick several times during the last 2 months, and it did not help me get better faster, or at all.
It did not do a single thing that it claims it can do.
The Amega Amwand is a total scam and I feel the need to tell people the truth before they fall for this scam and waste hundreds of dollars on it.
Every day, millions of people live in pain and are desperate to be free from that pain, and would take any kind of supplement or other types of self care items to try and relieve that pain.
If you live with chronic pain or know someone who lives with chronic pain, then you know how desperate you can feel to get any kind of relief, and there are very unscrupulous people and companies out there who know that desperation and are ready and poised to take full advantage of those people who live in pain.
There are thousands of products on the market already that make thousands of claims that their product can help you be free from pain, and people buy them because they are so desperate.
This product, the Amega Amwand, is one of those products that claims so many amazing things that it can do for you, but it does absolutely nothing.
NOTHING.
The existence of zero point energy is not controversial although the ability to harness it is.
No device claimed to operate using zero point energy has been demonstrated to operate as claimed. No plausible description of a device drawing useful power from a source of zero point energy has been given. Thus, current claims to zero point energy-based power generation systems currently have the status of pseudoscience.
That means that this Amega Amwand is a total scam.
It is pseudoscience, fake, not what it claims to be.
Amega Global makes all kinds of products that claim to use zero point energy to help the body heal itself.
They make the Amwand for $304.00, the AmPendant in silver for $394.00, another AmPendant in Rose Gold for $404.00, and another AmPendant in bronze for $409.00.
They also make "food" that ranges in price from $52.00 up to $270.00.
They make all kinds of other products that claim to use this zero point energy, and they are selling them to people that are desperate to be free from pain, there are testimonials out there that claim this thing really works, but I can tell you after testing it on both myself and Mark for almost two full months, that it DOES NOT work.
I really feel the need to warn people about this new self care, help the body heal itself, scam.
I do not want to see anyone at all fall for this, and that's why I have used the name of it, Amega Amwand, as many times as possible so that it will get indexed in Google and other search engines, and be in the search results for it so that people will find this post (cross posted to KatScan as well) and learn that it is a total scam.
I feel very strongly the need to warn people so that they do not fall for this scam and waste hundreds of dollars on any of these Amega Global products that will do absolutely nothing for them except remove hundreds of dollars from their bank accounts.
Please, if you or someone that you know suffers from chronic pain and have either been told about the Amega Amwand, or they read about it, and are thinking of buying the Amega Amwand, please, direct them to this post.
I would not ever lie to my readers, this product, the Amega Amwand, is a total scam, it does not work as it claims to.
I tried and tested the product 5 times per day for 30 minutes each time, for two months, and saw no noticeable improvement in pain relief or energy, or any signs of looking and feeling younger either.
The Amega Amwand is a total scam.
Back when I first received the Amega Amwand, I brought it with me to one of my pain management appointments so that I could get my doctor's opinion of it.
I took out the box and explained to him what the distributor Cheryl was selling to people at a cost of $304.00 and a promise that it could heal people's ailments and completely relieve pain.
He read the little pamphlet, looked at the wand very closely, and then he asked me if I had actually paid for this thing.
I told him no, of course not, and explained to him how I received it and what my plan to review it was.
He told me, and I quote,
"Kat, you have to use your websites to tell people about this. This is probably the single biggest medical scam that I've seen in the last five years, and believe me, I've seen a lot of them. If you have your blogs (he looked kinda confused on what a blog really is) and the power to reach as many people as possible, you absolutely must tell people the truth. And Kat, the truth is that this thing is 100% garbage. It is a lie packaged and sold to desperate people, people who are so desperate to be free from pain that they will do just about anything they can to get relief. You have the ability to help people not waste their time and their money. Use the power you have to do something good. If you just spare even one person from wasting their money and their time, then you've done something great. Thank you for bringing this to my attention, I am going to go to the website and then email this to as many of my colleagues as I can, they need to know about this too and try to stop their patients from getting scammed if any of their patients happen to mention it or ask their doctors if they've heard of being healed by zero point energy."
When I got back home and was going back over the pamphlet and stuff that came in the box with the wand, I found the certificate of authenticity, and one thing that I noticed on this "Certificate of Authenticity" that comes in the beautifully padded and silk lined box, is the ultra fine print typed so freaking small that I had to get my jewelry making magnifying glass out in order to be able to read it.
On the very, very bottom of the back of the certificate of authenticity, it reads in super tiny fine print exactly as follows:
DISCLAIMER: These statements have not been evaluated by The Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease or physical condition.
These lying scammers know full well that this freaking magical "Amega Amwand" absolutely cannot treat, cure, or heal any ailment of physical condition.
They know that it cannot relieve pain, the number one claim that they use in their selling techniques!
The FDA won't approve this damn thing because they know that it's a total fraud, and these scammers admit, right there in super fine print, that this thing cannot do any of the things that they claim that it can!!
I will be updating this post on both of my blogs with new information or links to other articles about the Amega Amwand and what a total fraud it is, as I find or come across them.
If I find other reviews, I will link them, if I find video reviews, I will link to them as well, and when I see my doctor on Tuesday at 11am, I will be updating him about my "progress" after using it for two months.
**EDIT**
Added links on 6/22/2010
Here is a link to a Youtube video and a post about the Amega Amwand scam.
I am not a hamster, Boob product: Amega Amwand.
Amega Amwand: Medical Scam, at the blog I Am Not A Hamster.
Amega Amwand Is a Scam at Blahvert.
The comments on this post at a money making blog are quite interesting, especially one by someone named Chadi.
FTC disclosure;
I was not compensated in any way for this post.
I received the Amega Amwand for free to test it and review it, and I have to send it back.
It is not mine to keep.
There is absolutely no free product to keep, or compensation received for reviewing this product.
The opinions expressed here are my own, but some of the wording has been taken directly from the Amega Global websites where they either sell the product or hype the product to get people to become distributors of these products.
June 12, 2010
A blogger friend in emergency need of help.
I've spoken about my friend Mindy here many, many times, about how her and her family are just really great people, any time that I've needed help, a ride, or to be taken to the hospital, there they are, ready and willing to help me.
Well now Mindy and her family need my help, your help, our help.
Her post explains in detail what is happening, but if they don't get some help, Mindy and her family, husband Chris, son Jeff, and daughter Katie, they will be homeless.
Things have not been good recently around here.
Chris and I just recently found out that our landlords must sell the house that we have been renting since October of 2008. It wouldn't be such a big deal because normally tenants are allowed to stay until the house does sell.
Not in this case.
They have asked us to leave by the end of this month.
They are in the midst of a foreclosure and are wanting to sell asap and the easiest way to do that is get rid of the occupants so that it will be a smoother transaction for all parties involved.
Except of course, US.We may have first months rent but nothing more. We have been looking and most renters now are required to pay security deposit, first and last months rent up front. That is a lot of money to come up with in just a few weeks. A goal that we will not be able to make on our own.
Our parents are all retired. They receive their social security and are budgeted to that alone. They are willing to help as much as they can but the reality is, it will not be enough. My biggest fear is that if we do not come up with enough funds that we need, we will be homeless.
Mindy has always been there for me, they never ask anyone for help, they are always the ones helping others, but this time, they really need help.
If you can help, please, please, please, go to Mindy's blog and click on the PayPal donate button and give whatever you can.
And please, spread the word, link to her post on your blogs, Twitter, Facebook, wherever.
Mindy and her family need our help, I am begging for help for them.
They are really great people, so kind, loving, and generous, always helping everyone else.
May 18, 2010
My gift to myself in 2010 will be...
This EdgeStar Portable Countertop dishwasher.
I've once again been awake all night long, insomnia, it's just 1 of the things that I have to deal with, but I sometimes feel like I'm going crazy because of it.
I actually caught myself talking to myself in great detail late last night over the dishes.
So, I was up all night, and every time I walked into the kitchen to get a drink or something to snack on to help me get through the super long night time hours of total quiet in the house, I saw the sink.
Both sides of my kitchen sink are once again full of dishes.
Cups, silverware, bowls.
We use paper plates because I hate doing the dishes, so we use paper plates for all meals that need to be plated, but that still leaves all of the cups, silverware, and bowls, that need to be washed by hand.
I'm sick of doing the dishes.
I do the damn dishes every single day, and there are always more.
It seems like I just get them all done, and there's already more piled up in the sink again.
So in between all of my trips to get drinks, use the bathroom, and yell at myself about the dishes, I decided that this year I'm getting myself a dishwasher at some point during the remainder of 2010.
I need one of these portable countertop dishwashers because our kitchen is really small and there's really no room for 1 of the bigger models on wheels to be moved in and out of the kitchen, so I started hunting online around 2 or 3am and doing comparison shopping, and I found this 1 on Buy.com, and even though it's not on sale, it's regular price is totally doable.
At some point this year.
$268.00 which includes the shipping price, is really totally doable.
I could just put all of the cups, silverware, and bowls, into it and run it instead of me standing at the sink for 20-30 minutes and ending up with my back hurting from leaning over the sink washing them all by hand.
The teens do their part, they do the dishes when I ask, but after all of these years of washing the dishes by hand, I just can't take it anymore!!
I do not want to have to keep washing dishes by hand, ever again!
I will have this dishwasher before the end of the year, I will.
It will be mine and I will never wash a dish by hand again!
May 17, 2010
Blog Advertising Store AKA Paying Post is a scam.
Jenn at Blogging Girl is asking bloggers to help spread the word about what a bunch of scammers Blog Advertising Store AKA Paying Post are.
You can read Jenn's post for all of the details, but basically, Blog Advertising Store AKA Paying Post, get bloggers to do work and then they don't pay for it.
Basically, Blog Advertising Store AKA Paying Post are a bunch of scammers.
To quote some of Jenn's post,
Well over a year ago I signed up for Blog Advertising Store, though at that time they were calling themselves Paying Post. Between then and this past February I have written $109.00 worth of opportunities. I followed the instructions on each opportunity, included the required links, wrote relevant, high quality content, and submitted each opportunity on time. Every opportunity that I did was approved, and as of April 2010 I was eligible to receive payment, as my balance had rolled over $100 (that is Blog Advertising Store's / Paying Post's minimum payout amount).Only...I didn't receive a payment in April. I didn't receive one in May, either, despite Blog Advertising Store's / Paying Post's dashboard stating that I would be paid $109 on May 1st, 2010.
I have been a bit wary completing posts for your company, as in the past I have read some unsavory things about your business practices and the handling of payouts. Please ease my anxieties and compensate me with the money I am rightfully owed. Again, the balance due is $109.00, and my PayPal account is x@jenn.nu.
I forwarded the May 11th email to them on May 12th, May 13th, May 14th, May 15th, May 16th, and May 17th.
Seriously, y'all need to go read Jenn's post about how Blog Advertising Store AKA Paying Post are scammers, and help spread the word.
If you are a blogger who is working for them, you may want to seriously reconsider that, and if you have a blogging friend who said they were thinking about signing up to work for them, send them the link to Jenn's post.
Blog Advertising Store AKA Paying Post are scammers, plain and simple.
DO NOT work for them.
Blog about this, post about this to Twitter, (to make it simple, you can use this to Twitter it; Blog Advertising Store AKA Paying Post is a scam! http://bit.ly/basppscam #paidblogging #scam) and post it to Facebook, everywhere.
Blog Advertising Store AKA Paying Post are scammers and they need to pay bloggers for the work completed.
They need to pay Jenn the $109.00 she rightfully earned and was approved to be paid.
They are being totally unprofessional by blocking her emails, banning her ip address, and refusing to acknowledge that they owe her this money.
Blog Advertising Store AKA Paying Post are scammers and they need to pay Jenn and all of the bloggers who work for them, the money they have earned.
Continue Reading �
May 13, 2010
Here in my car, where the image breaks down .
I've been up all night again, insomnia is just sooo much fun, I totally recommend that everyone try it at least once. /sarcasm>
The only good thing about having insomnia is that I'm wide awake when Sebastian gets up for school, I'm not all tired and wanting to go back to bed after waking him up, which makes him feel lonely and stuff.
It gives the 2 of us some mommy/Sebastian time even if it is only about 35-45 minutes, it's really nice to spend the time with him and talking about whatever is on his mind.
I promised him a few days ago that I would go through all of the emails that he's sent me from school, from his digital design class, save all of the pictures, art, that he's made, and then post my favorite ones to my blog to show everyone.
I'm going to try and do that today, no guarantees that I will get that post done because I've got a wicked lot to do, but I will try.
But here's one of my faves that he made this year, and the painting that he did in the 4th grade that I still have framed and hanging in my dining room.
Both of these are clickable for bigger.
I LOVE that painting!
To think, if I hadn't gone to school that afternoon to pick him up, it would have ended up in the trash.
The teacher was throwing away all of the stuff that the students hadn't taken home, and he didn't bring it home because he didn't think that I would like it.
I loved it the second that I saw it, it's huge too, poster size, so I brought it home and put it in an awesome frame, and it's been hanging in my dining room ever since.
Anyway, he's off to school and not too happy about it.
He and I had to do some homework last night for one of his classes, I can't even recall the name of it, some theory of living, or economics of living, something something of living, and we had to get together a list of all a person's expenses when they first move out on their own.
They had to be realistic about it, base it on their life and what they think they will be earning, how much they will be able to afford for everything, and so we had to make lists of apartments that he could afford, how much his utilities would be, and get a list of car insurance companies, pick the kind of car he wants to be able to drive, figure out how much his car payments will be, and then figure out how much his insurance might be, and which company to go with, all kinds of stuff.
We worked on it for quite awhile, like 2 and half hours, just making the lists, budgeting, it drove him absolutely nuts, and that's when he said he wasn't moving out until he graduated college and had a really, really god job and could afford everything, because looking at how much everything was going to cost, was just way too much so he was gonna stay with me.
Maybe even forever. Hahaha
I think we did a really good job on his homework, I can't wait to find out what grade he (we) got.
We worked hard on it looking everything up, having to figure out the price of utilities and everything based on apartment size, amount of water used, all that stuff, all the stuff I do every month when I budget the bills, and so he should get a good grade, I based a lot of it on what we actually use.
The only stuff I was guessing at was car payments and insurance costs because I don't have either of those.
Continue Reading �
May 13, 2010
Went better than expected.
The meeting with the truancy officer and the social worker that is.
Before they got here, I vac'd the rugs like I said I was going to, and I straightened out all of the stuff on my coffee table, the place-mats, magazines, some candles, and I also placed my camera on top of the small picture printer that I have, it prints 4x6 pictures, it's about the same size as one of these epson tm-t88iv receipt printers, so it just looked like my camera was docked on it's printer/charging station.
I checked it's positioning before they got here by setting it up and having it on the self-timer to snap a picture every 5 seconds.
Then I checked the pictures to see if I had it positioned perfectly to video capture both my sofa and love seat no matter where they sat.
It did.
I had the blinds open so that I could see when they pulled in, and once they did, I pressed the button to start recording the entire meeting, and then I answered the door and invited them to sit down.
The social worker sat on the love seat near me, and the truancy officer sat on the sofa.
The social worker started off by asking me how she could help me, and I was totally confused by this, I had absolutely no idea why there was even a social worker involved, why she was in my house.
The truancy worker I could sorta see, although like I said, a little late in the year to be talking to me about truancy issues with just 15 days left of school for the year.
So I asked her why she was here, why was she asking me how she could help me, I totally didn't understand why she was here.
She said that they know that I'm a disabled parent, struggling, and so they wanted to know if I would like help getting back and forth to the Senior Friendship Center so that I could have some social interaction, not be so alone, take advantage of the services that they offer, get meals on wheels, that kind of thing, ad I asked her, quite offended I might add, "Just how old do you think I am?!"
She said, "Well you're disabled and receiving SSDI, and so you're in your mid-to-late 50s, and we think that..."
I stopped her and said really offended now, "50's?! You think JUST because I'm disabled and receiving SSDI, that I must be in my 50s?! Do I LOOK like I'm in my 50s?! Seriously?! Seriously. Enough, just stop. Now."
I asked her if there was any other reason that she was here, told her that I do not need any services that the Senior Friendship Center has to offer, what other reason is she here.
She said that she's a social worker and because of Sebastian's truancy, that obviously, there are problems at home, perhaps there's not enough food to eat, that the bills are struggling to be paid, that there are organizations which can help me cover the cost of my medications, bring meals on wheels, and free counseling services for the family so that we can deal with our family issues, and also, most importantly, free counseling for me, because being a disabled and single parent can be extremely difficult and stressful, and so rather than take out my issues on my sons and jeopardizing Sebastian's education, I could talk to someone about it, all free of course.
Mark was sitting on the arm of the sofa near the door end of it, and he had started to laugh, he could see the look on my face, he knew that I was about to lose it.
I told her that I did not need any of those services, that my sons did not need any of those services, we did not need counseling, meals on wheels, that I have insurance to pay for my medications, it's always a struggle to pay the bills but they do get paid every month, and that Sebastian's truancy issues are mostly due to the school seriously messing up his record, and just since Monday, the vice principal has found 47 instances of where he was marked absent incorrectly, and she was still working on it, so no, no, I did not want or need any of the services that she was offering.
She sat there, mouth sort of agape, and then turned to Mark and asked him if he felt that he needed or wanted counseling to deal with our family issues, and did he feel "safe" living at home with me.
Mark started laughing, loudly, and then he said to her, "Seriously?!"
Man, he's so my kid. haha
He told her, "No, I do not need or want any counseling, and yes, I feel very safe living at home with my disabled and single mother who has been raising me and my brother by herself for the last 17 years. She does struggle from time to time, like EVERYBODY DOES, but the lights, phone, water, and internet are all on, there's plenty of food in the fridge, we have clean clothes, and she takes really good care of us. And by the way, for your records, seeing as you're writing things down. She's 40, just turned 40 in March."
She then said that she had nothing else to discuss with me, she guessed, so she asked the truancy worker to talk to me about what he needed to.
He started in about Sebastian's absences, and I asked him if the school had notified him of those 47 instances of where he was marked absent incorrectly and still looking at all of the rest of the dates.
He said that he hadn't, so I said well maybe you should catch up on what page we're on, and then you can come back and talk to me about it.
He said that even though things are being found, Sebastian still needs to not miss a single day for the rest of the year, and I said that I knew that, anything else?
He said no, he guessed not, and so I said, well then, thanks for coming by, and he said to me that I really should take advantage of the services being offered by the social worker, that it sounds like I have some issues that need to be dealt with.
I told him that of course it sounds like I have issues.
The school said that he was absent 80 out of the 156 days passed in the school year, they threatened him with expulsion, people, including him, had called me a liar when I told them that those numbers were absolutely incorrect, and the school has now found that 47 of those absences were incorrect, about all of the trouble we've had in trying to get the school to allow Sebastian to take his medication for his migraines, and that right now, there's a social worker sitting in my house telling me that I'm a mid-50s-aged woman who is depressed, disabled, and a single mother, who needs counseling because I'm taking my problems out on my sons, and a truancy officer with incorrect information about my son's absences from school. Wouldn't HE be upset if this was happening to him in his living room?!?
He said yes, he could totally see my point, sorry for not having updated information, sorry to have insulted me, she apologized for insulting me, and then they said that they would be leaving now.
I said good, thank you, Sebastian will be there for the remainder of the year, migraine or not, and if he does have one, the nurse will be excusing him for home for the rest of the day, a legal and valid excuse that will NOT be held against him, I have the principals word on that, thanks for coming, good-bye, and I escorted them out the door.
Mark busted out laughing before I even finished closing the door.
It did go better than expected, but seriously?!
I mean, come on!
That was just absolutely, just wow.
May 12, 2010
Dear advertisers and potential advertisers,
I have updated my contact page with new and important information regarding my contact information, since learning of fraudulent activity taking place with another blogger who also does product reviews on her blog.
Emily at Busy Mom, and her blog, were used to obtain free products from a popular baby store and website.
Emily was able to track down the person(s) responsible for this thanks to the baby store and some of her friends, but this story has shown us all the lengths that people will go to to try and get something for free by any means necessary, including fraud and impersonation.
My contact page has been updated to inform everyone of the ways that I can be contacted, and how I would contact you.
I, Kat Cooper, am the ONLY person who writes on My Single Mom Life and KatScan.
I will ONLY ever contact you, or reply to you, from the email address mysinglemomlife-AT-gmail.com
If you should ever receive any type of advertising request, product request, or a PayPal invoice, from ANY OTHER email address, it is NOT me.
If you should receive any of those types of emails, or any email, from someone claiming to be me, or someone claiming to work for/with me, please forward the email to me at
mysinglemomlife-AT-gmail.com so that I may investigate and prosecute the impersonation and fraud attempt.
Thank you.
May 11, 2010
Irony.
I just got spammed by a gaming website, they left a spam comment here, and so I went to their site to try and contact them about it.
I know, futile, but I always like to give it a try.
I clicked on the link to their contact form and saw this.
Contact form
We`re working on a contact form right now as we got tons of spam before.
Please be patient.
I couldn't have thought to make that up if I was paid to. Hahahahahaha!
I love irony.
May 11, 2010
Growing old before my own eyes.
I didn't blog on Monday, I was tired, and not just tired, but exhausted tired.
I'm not sleeping well again, insomnia, restless sleep when I do sleep, gray hairs are sprouting up every single time that I look, and I'm finally starting to look as old as my body feels.
I actually sat here on Monday afternoon reading up on sybervision wrinkle cream reviews.
I read about 7 reviews on that page, I read a bunch on another page, I read about products on their own actual websites, just tons and tons of reading about wrinkle creams because I am not enjoying all these new wrinkles around my eyes and the ones on my forehead.
I must have stared at my face for an hour or so in the bathroom in the early morning hours yesterday, from every angle, scrunching and un-scrunching my face, thinking how much I've physically aged in the last few months.
I'm not liking it.
I spent close to an hour on the phone with the vice principal this morning, didn't really get that far but some of the absences were looked at and investigated, and found to have been marked wrong, incorrectly, just as I had stated they were over and over.
Just knowing that I felt better, but there is still so much they have to fix in these last 17 or so days of school left for the year.
I still don't have answer what I'm supposed to do when he has a severe migraine attack, they are still trying to figure out what to do.
I told them to hurry up, there's not too many days of school left, and if gets one soon, there needs to be an answer.
They said they know and are trying to figure that out.
May 8, 2010
Playing a mean game of catch-up!
As I've said, my life has been in a state of 'what the hell' for about a week and a half now, give or take a few days, probably give rather than take.
I have so much to do, so much to take care of, and I need to be very careful as I have some health issues that could be affected by too much stress, and I need to watch what I eat, and I know that I definitely won't need to take any fat burners because I've barely been eating anything at all during this whole mess of stuff going on in my life, but I do need to eat, and eat a little better.
I'm trying here and that's all that I can do at the moment.
I had a a missing friend/suicide scare, and I'm dealing with Mark's ever progressing genetic spine deformities which may be getting resolved, because Mark's friend Jeff's Grandparents are very close personal friends with Congressman Vern Buchanan, and they've personally spoken with him regarding the situation with Mark, Medicaid, the doctors, all of the problems, and he asked for my phone number, they gave it to him, and he's going to call me directly and speak with me about it and what I need to have happen to help my son.
Not getting my hopes up, but taking a deep breath. *inhale/exhale deeply*
And then all of the school crap with Sebastian, which will be resolved on Monday, hopefully.
As I said, I called and spoke to the vice principal, she threatened Sebastian with expulsion, me with court for failure to provide him an education, and she said that she was going to call me back, but she did not call me back.
That was on Thursday morning when we spoke, 11:34am to be exact, so when I didn't get a call back, I emailed her later on that night at 5:26pm.
I figured that she'd get my email on Friday morning, and either email me back or call me back.
She did neither, so I decided to step it up a bit and I emailed her again, and this time, I CC'd the principal and the superintendent.
I included the principal, because I'm pretty damn sure that the vice principal cannot decide completely on her own to expel a student and take a parent to court.
I'm pretty sure that the principal has to be involved in the decision, and even though I know that the principal already hates me because of all of the problems that we had with Mark being able to graduate with his class last year, I'm feeling pretty positive that she has absolutely no idea what's going on in regards to Sebastian and this threat of expulsion.
And I included the superintendent because of the way that the truancy worker spoke to me, she's his boss, they both work out of the school board building up at The Landings, she really needed to be made aware of how the truancy worker speaks with parents, and also, she needed to be made aware of what was happening with the vice principal and the threats made against Sebastian and myself.
I sent off that very detailed email last night, Friday, May 7, 2010 at 11:43 PM, and I explained every single thing that I know about Sebastian's absences, about the teacher who kept marking him as absent/skipping a class he was no longer even registered in since December, about the dates that we were in Maine where the principal herself had verbally told me in a call that I made to her a week before we left, that she would personally excuse those dates as long as I sent in a detailed letter explaining when we were leaving, returning, and the reason for our trip, which I wrote that same night that I had called and spoke with her and Sebastian took it in the very next day and personally handed it to her, and I wrote out in great detail, the situation with the zero tolerance policy and Sebastian's migraine medications, and everything that I had done to try and get the school to allow him to take his medications at school and was denied every single time.
I wrote out in great detail what happens when Sebastian suffers from 1 of his severe migraine attacks, what happens when he takes his medications on schedule, and what happens to him if he doesn't.
I ended my email by repeating the vice principal's words to me, "If Sebastian misses even 1 more day this year, he will be expelled immediately and you will be taken to court for failure to make sure that your child gets an education", and again, I asked for someone, now 1 of the 3 of them, to tell me exactly what I am supposed to do if Sebastian gets a severe migraine attack on 1 of the last days of school because of the threat of expulsion.
The vice principal couldn't be bothered to call me back on Thursday, and she couldn't be bothered to answer my first email that I sent on Thursday at 5:26pm, but she is obviously very upset about the email that I sent on Friday night to her, the principal, and the superintendent, because at 7:02am today, she finally replied to me, to the email to the 3 of them, with this very upset and almost threatening sounding statement,
"This information regarding my involvement is not entirely accurate! I will make contact on Monday.
Please be aware that all mail sent to and from Sarasota County Schools is subject to the public records law of Florida."
She sent that reply to all of us, and I sent back the following reply to all,
"I am fully aware that all emails sent to and from Sarasota County Schools are subject to the public records law of Florida.
When I did not receive a call back, as promised by you, I felt that I needed to get in contact with you again, and include others, as this is a very important issue that needs to be addressed immediately as school ends on June 4, 2010, and if he suffers another severe migraine attack, I need to know what I am supposed to do."
I'm not afraid of the public records law of Florida, but obviously she is.
I'm going to make sure that on Monday, I have a way to record or document the entire conversation when she calls, and I'm going to let her know that I'm recording or documenting it.
I can put the phone on speaker, and I'm a hella fast typer, I'll just type out everything she says to me word for word so that she can't say that she never said something.
I mean, she's trying to say that her involvement in this is "not entirely accurate!", but what she doesn't know is that as soon as she threatened Sebastian with expulsion the 1st time, I began typing out everything that she said after that, I knew that I needed to document what she saying, so I did.
I had my email open and I just began composing a new email, and when the call was over, I emailed it to myself.
What I posted, is exactly what she said because I had copied it from the email that I composed while on the phone with her.
I don't type in shorthand, but I can type 80 to 95 words per minute, and maybe some of you have guessed that at the sometimes long entries that I type. (like this one, sorry)
I just get going sometimes and just keep going, plus, I've worked in a customer service position for Georgia Power and Gas, (yup, GP&G customer service is located in Sarasota, Florida) where we had to be able to type 35 wpm minimum in order to even get hired for the job.
I filled out the application and was taken over to a computer to take the typing test where several others were also taking it.
Each person was given just 2 tries to meet the 35 wpm minimum.
I heard a few people start cussing, someone slam their chair and and then storm out, and then I sat down to take my test.
We had a piece of paper with about 3 paragraphs of something typed on it, (can't recall after all these years) and we had to type out the entire thing as fast as we could with a minimum of 4 typos and spelling mistakes.
I got myself into a good seating position, got my hands and arms comfy, (knuckles cracked) and I clicked the start button.
I typed out the 3 paragraphs in just under 1.5 minutes, only 2 spelling mistakes, and my speed was clocked at 84 wpm.
I was hired on the spot, so yeah, typing what someone is saying word for word, is something I can easily do and will always do if I feel that I may need to have proof of something said at a later date.
"Not entirely accurate!"
Yeah, that ain't gonna fly with me.
You said it, you meant it, now deal with the consequences of what you so courageously yelled at me.
May 8, 2010
Despite all the bad, there were some moments of good.
I've had quite a really bad time for the last week, week and a half, I still have 2 posts in draft that honestly, I don't even know if I'm going to publish now.
They are things that I wanted to say, but after some thought, I'm just not so sure now that I want to say them anymore.
Anyway.
I am always entering contests on a lot of my friends blogs that I read, and I won a few of those contests sometime last week.
First, Jenn, aka Five Dollar Shake, had a contest to win a t-shirt from Crazy Dog t-shirts.
I won, and then chose a shirt that, well, just really does suit me.
I think you'll agree. *wink*
I received the shirt and absolutely love it, so thank you Jenn and Crazy Dog T-shirts!
Click here to follow Crazy Dog T-shirts on Twitter, and click here to follow Five Dollar Shake on Twitter.
Then Jenn at In My Bag, had a giveaway for a Tungsten ring from Tungsten Rings Online, valued at $120, and I won that too!
I chose this Womens Tungsten 6mm Dome Wedding Ring, yeah yeah, wedding ring, blah blah, I just like the way that ring looks.
It's very clean, simple, and it's both catch and scratch resistant, meaning it will never snag on a sweater or any kind of fabric, and it will never get scratched during all of the sometimes really crazy things that I do with my hands.
It also comes with a Lifetime Warranty which is fantastic because of all of the sometimes really crazy things that I do with my hands. Hahahaha!
Thank you to both Jenn and Tungsten Rings Online so much for this giveaway, and once I get the ring, I will happily post a pic and a review of it!
Click here to follow Jenn on Twitter.
Tungsten Rings Online does not have a Twitter account, yet.
Sebastian was surfing around the net on their computer one day last week, and he found a contest to win some pull up bars like this one, the contest is now closed, but because you had to be 18 to enter it, he asked me and I entered on his behalf.
He's hoping that my good luck at winning contests will rub off and he'll win it, he really wants to start building up his upper body strength after what happened.
April 23, 2010
Doing my monthly backups.
Once a month, I backup all of the files for both of my blogs using both my computer and an online backup service, just in case one or the other fails to save all of my files, or fails to save all of my files correctly.
I have been using a free version of one of them on the site at that link, for probably about 2-3 years now, I really can't remember how long, but it works good.
I'm almost done with the backups, then I can reboot, and then I can get busy doing all of the work that I need to get done.
I also renewed my domain name tonight.
It was due on April 25th, but I paid it a few days early because I didn't want to forget.
It sucks when you forget to do it.
April 11, 2010
Johnson's Buddies Easy-Grip sudzing bar.
I have so many things to blog about our trip to Maine to visit all of our family and a few of my friends, and I'll slowly be posting all of the stories now that my internet is back on and working correctly, but I just have to tell you this one thing!
It's probably a totally silly thing to most people, but it's something that I love so I want to tell you about it. haha ha!
At my Mom and Dad's house, they have this soap in the bathroom, it's called Johnson's Buddies Easy-Grip Sudzing Bar, and it's about $1 per bar.
It's made for small kids and toddlers to help teach them good hygiene practices by helping them wash their hands with a bar soap that won't slip out of their hands.
The soap comes in a non-slip pouch, you get it wet, and then lather up, and it will not slip out of your hands.
The soap also comes in a fun and bright color to attract kids, and it also comes in a great scent, yummy watermelon.
And when I say a great scent, I mean it, the smell of this soap is fantastic, intoxicating, and addicting.
I have taken a couple showers with it since coming home with a few bars that mom bought for me after I kept coming out of her bathroom smelling my hands and raving about it.
"Mmmm, Mom, I loooove that soap, what is it called, I want it, it smells sooo good!"
This is what the soap looks like.
The soap is allergy tested so I won't get any hives from using it, and the non-slip pouch is really perfect for me because sometimes my finger joints get really stiff, and so trying to pick up and hold onto a bar of soap can be rather difficult.
This is also why my Mom and Dad use it, they both have gripping issues due to arthritis, so the Johnson's Buddies soap is really perfect for people who may have that disease, or a neurological problem that causes them to have trouble holding onto things.
The non-slip pouch is also great for taking showers, if it can't slip out of your hands, you won't be dropping it in the shower and having to bend down to try and pick it up, and then keep losing your grip on it, which is another reason I really like it.
I can't bend down in the shower to pick up a bar of soap because I don't bend so well, so this bar is really awesome in the shower for people with arthritis, neurological gripping issues, or people who can't move so well any more.
I can totally see this bar being used by more than just kids and toddlers, I can see seniors, people who use a shower chair, people who have mobility issues, all kinds of people for all kinds of reasons, the non-slip grip is really perfect for a lot of people, not just kids.
As I said above, the Johnson's Buddies Easy-grip sudzing bar is only about $1 per bar at most stores, and can be found in the baby goods aisle, and it can also be bought online.
I went and looked, and found out that Buy.com sells it, (they really are becoming more than just an electronics e-tailer!) and they are temporarily out of stock on the single bars right now, but I'm hoping that they will get more in stock, and also start carrying and put on sale the 24-packs of it too.
A 24-pack is only about $25-$27, and because of that price, the shipping is usually free.
Most regular bar soaps average around $3 per bar, and that's just a normal bar of soap, not a no-slip one, so to get a full size bar of soap that won't slip out of your hands at the sink or in the shower, is allergy tested, and smells absolutely incredible, for about $1 per bar, you can't beat it.
I know this post probably sounded kinda silly to most of you, but I just had to share because I love it so much!
Continue Reading �
April 11, 2010
Back home and back online!
Yay! My internet is fixed!
Actually, it got fixed on Friday in the late afternoon after I plugged in the new router on Thursday, ran the setup program, and it wouldn't connect to the net at all.
At least before I got the new router hooked up, I was able to connect, I just couldn't do a whole lot because of the serious lag that was happening.
I spent many, many hours Thursday afternoon and evening attempting to fix it on my own, it really should have just been plug 'n play, it was supposed to be plug 'n play, but it wasn't, and I'm stubborn and like to fix things myself, so I didn't call Verizon tech support until about midday Friday when I finally just gave up, admitted defeat, and called for backup.
The tech support guy and I spent awhile with him talking me through things and when none of them worked, he asked if he could do that whole remote desktop and assistance thing, and see if he could figure the problem out himself, so I let Todd have access and after about 3 and a 1/2 hours, my computer was working a lot faster, and my Fios internet was working again and at the speed that it's supposed to be working at.
Apparently, when the install tech came to hook up the Fios and I was his last install of the day, he wanted to just get it done and go home on time, so he called another install tech who worked in the area and had finished his last install, to come over and help him, and they forgot a crucial step in the Fios internet installation.
They were supposed to change the settings on the Verizon end, not anything on my computer, and switch the speed setting from DSL speed, to Fios speed.
They had left me at download speeds of 15mbps, and upload speeds of 10mbps, when they were supposed to switch me to Fios download speeds of up to 30mbps, and upload speeds of 35mbps, and they also forgot to actually do the setup program.
What they did instead was just plug in the router and then bypass a few steps that should have been done, are supposed to be done, basically, they just made the router work so that I could get on the internet.
The speeds I had after they got done, while they were faster than the DSL that I had, they were nowhere near what they should have been with Fios.
They certainly were not the speeds that I've been paying for either.
My internet is so damn fast now, holy crap, this is how fast I should have been since they installed it in July.
Geeeeeeez,
Then Todd the tech support guy, with my permission, tweaked a bunch of things on my computer.
He told me what he was doing every single step pf the way in case I ever wanted to change things back or had an issue with anything, and when he got done, man, my computer has been flying ever since.
And then because the install techs didn't actually do it the way it was supposed to be done and I've been paying for a service that I really wasn't getting, Todd talked to a supervisor and explained it all to him.
The supervisor then got on the line with me and said how sorry he was that I've been paying for Fios speeds since July, for the last 10 months, and that he was going to give me a credit on my bills for the next few months because of it.
He said he couldn't give me an exact number right now because it had to be calculated, but I'll see that credit amount starting on my next bill.
They need to figure out how much the Fios internet speed is worth every month, then figure out how much the loss of that speed is worth, and then come up with an amount that they can live with losing every month, and one that will make me a happy customer all at the same time.
Hey, I'm really just happy to be able to actually send an email in under 5 minutes, getting some money knocked off of my bill is a totally awesome bonus. ha ha ha
April 7, 2010
Internet is broked.
I am trying to post this by cell phone so forgive me for how short it is and any spelling errors and typos if I make them ok? Thanks!
When we got back home around 2ish am Monday morning, my net worked for a little while, and then it just stopped working like it's supposed to, which is fast.
I have Fios but it's not and I quote Verizon, "Lightening fast speeds!"
Nope, it's now wicked way slower than the dial-up at my Mom and Dad's house.
It's taking up to 10 freaking minutes just to send a wicked way short email.
It sucks.
Verizon is sending me a new router, should be here tomorrow, they think the router is broken.
If after plugging it all in and hooking up the computer, if it's still crawling slower than dial-up, they told me to call them back and they will send out a repair tech.
Please keep your fingers crossed for me that it's just a broken router and not trouble with the lines that they have to come and repair.
March 7, 2010
Debating if I need it or not.
There are a couple of things that didn't come with my new cell phone, a Kyocera X-tc, that I'm debating on whether or not I really need or want, and would need to pick up at some point.
One of them is a micro SDHC card for storage, as the phone only as 70mb of storage space available, and so if I wanted to store more pictures or music, I would need to get one.
The other is a must have if I want to be able to play music on my phone, listen to it through my earbuds, is a micro USB data cable like this one in the picture below.
I was hoping that Buy.com would have one on sale, but all they have is the one that I linked up there, but I don't want that one because it comes with a house charger that I already have as it came with the phone, and a car charger which I don't need because I don't have a car.
I'm really debating on getting those items.
Like, do I really need my phone to be able to double as an mp3 player?
I have an mp3 player, so I don't really need my phone to be one.
While having a ton of pics on my phone is nice because then I can show them to everyone, it's not like I really need the micro card for storage because I can upload all of my pics to the Virgin Mobile 'My Pix' account page, and they also automatically get uploaded to my Facebook page too.
I guess it just depends on how much stuff I want to carry with me when going on long distance trips like our trip to Maine.
Do I want to carry my phone and charger, and my mp3 player and it's USB charger, or do I just want to carry my phone and charger?
It's too late for this trip to get the micros USB data cable, but I'll have to think about it for my next long distance trip.
February 27, 2010
Window shopping and dinner out.
I was really hoping to be able to find a desktop gaming pc on sale at Buy.com a little sooner, but it hasn't turned out that way.
Did I mention in the post that we are wanting a gaming pc?
I didn't?
Well yeah, seeing as the teens really only use the computer for playing WoW and other video games, Sebastian does all of his digital design stuff on the mini-netbook, they use the desktop to play WoW and do a few other things, but mostly gaming.
Buy.com does have a couple of refurbished desktops on sale this week, an HP, and a Dell, but they really aren't built for what we are needing, so we're going to do a look in-store later this afternoon and see what we can find, check out prices, and then I'll probably come back to Buy.com and see if they have a good gaming pc in stock to get.
They do have some other great stuff on sale though, like a Kingston 4GB microSDHC Card, for just $12 bucks with free shipping, which I could use either in my camera or in my cell phone.
I did buy myself a new cell phone today, I bought a Kyocera X-tc, I bought it for my birthday present to myself on Monday.
It was totally on sale too, just $59 down from $129, so yeah, I got a really great deal on a birthday present for myself.
They also have the hard rubberized cases for the X-tc, I want the purple one, but it's currently not in stock in that color, so I'll add it to my wish list to get later on.
Those are only $6.55 including the shipping, so yeah, I'll add that for a later date purchase.
What?
How old will I be turning?
40.
Yuh.
The big 4-0.
I feel like I'm 80 today, the cold and rain are kicking my butt, but after we get done doing some window shopping for the pc and go out to eat with sis and Susan, I'm going to come home, take a long hot shower, and bundle up under some warm blankets for the rest of the day and night, maybe curl up on the couch with my blankets and use the netbook from there for awhile.
Ok, this soon-to-be 40 year old needs to go get myself ready to go, hair brushed, teeth, clean clothes, ha ha.
Later days!
February 23, 2010
I still don't want it.
Internet fame that is.
I started blogging as a way to let my friends and family back home in Maine know how we were doing without having to spend a lot of time on the phone or pay the long distance charges, to get all caught up every week.
Blogging just fit perfectly with my intentions.
I'm totally happy with the level of blogging "success" that I have, I don't want to be any more than what I am.
I don't want or need to be in the best web directories, or go away on sponsored trips and blogging conventions for all kinds of products.
I just don't want it.
Never wanted it.
I've had people, other bloggers, ask me why I don't ever attend the big blogging things every year, the one for female bloggers, the one for paid blogging, the blog world conferences, the bliss and the chicks conferences, and my answer is always the same.
Simply not interested.
I am totally beyond thrilled happy for my blogging friends who have achieved their piece of internet fame, and go to all kinds of different get-togethers all year long for tons of different products and company sponsored trips, like beyond happy for them.
It's just not for me, I am not into that much social interaction with a ton of people doing a ton of different things, all crammed into one very fast weekend that would make my head spin right off my shoulders.
Does it make me less of a blogger because I don't go to or want to go to those things?
I don't know and I don't really care much, to tell ya the truth.
I am really quite content right here in my little corner of cyberspace just blogging like I've been doing since '97.
I don't have to buy a new wardrobe to impress anyone, I don't have to get my hair and nails done, I don't have to have business cards or a press kit to hand out either.
I get to just sit back and relax as best I can, just sit back and watch all of the drama unfold, and there is always drama at at least one of those things every year.
Totally happy right where I am.
February 22, 2010
Verizon nickel and dimes it's customers.
I got this bill emailed to me on Friday night, and I started going over every single inch of it like I always do, and I was like, mouth agape at how they nickel and dime their customers.
Just take a look at all of those things, (it pops up for biggie size) just look at it.
.34cents for federal excise tax, negative -.32cents for state tax, $1.86 for local communications services tax, $8.26 for state communications services tax, $6.58 for another local communications services tax, etc etc.
They get as much money as they can out of every single one of their customers.
I do wonder why they even put the negatives on there though.
State tax is negative -.32cents, sales tax is negative -.02cents.
Why even put those on the bill?
It just frustrates me, my OCD kind of goes nuts when I see things like that, it just annoys me to no end.
It's a negative charge, so why put it on the bill of charges that need to be paid?
I would also like to know how they got their late payment charges figured out.
I was late paying the bill last month by like 2 days, so they charged me $7.00 in late payment charges.
Is that like a percentage of the total bill?
Or is that what they charge everyone who pays their bill late, like a standard late fee?
I go over every single bill from them because a few months ago, I found some charges on the bill that were definitely not mine.
It was so obvious that it wasn't mine because the telephone number that the calls were made from, dialed from, are not mine.
It was an 813 area code, which is Tampa.
The calls were dialed from a Tampa number and all of the calls that were made were going to Tampa, so how did they get on my bill?
The customer service rep had nothing to say other than "I don't know how that happened, let me get a supervisor."
The supervisor wasn't even sure how they got on my bill, but she removed them all, 37 charges in total, so yeah, I check my bill with a fine tooth comb before paying it every single month.
I refuse to pay charges that don't belong to me.
February 22, 2010
Before I plan our trip to Maine.
I'll be getting a decent sized refund from the IRS this year, and once I have it, I'll start planning our trip to Maine to visit the family, all of them.
I have a totally enormous family to try and visit, so we may have to take a full 2 weeks in order to visit with everyone.
It's going to be hard trying to fit everyone in, but I'll figure it out when the time comes.
But one of the things that I want to do is to get the teens a better pc.
The one they have is ok, but ever since it had to be repaired over a year ago, it just hasn't run quite the same, it doesn't run well at all is what I mean.
It's constantly lagging on the simplest of things, it takes forever for stuff to load and start up, so yeah, I want to get them a better pc.
They really have earned it, the teens do so much to help me, they do a ton of things to help out around here, they never go out with friends or anything, every once in awhile they do, but they really have earned it by being here and doing so much.
So I'll be looking to see what Buy.com has on sale for the next few weeks while I wait on my refund to be direct deposited.
They don't have any desktop computers on sale this week, and that is what I want to get them, not a laptop, so I'll keep looking every week to see if one gets added.
They do, however, have a ton of stuff on sale this week like a SanDisk Sansa Clip 1GB MP3 Player for $14.99, it's the one that I have and absolutely love it!
They also have a VIZIO 19" Widescreen LCD HDTV, refurbished, for just $149.99, a savings of $80.00!
My tv out here is good, it works just fine, nothing at all wrong with it, but Mark has a Vizio LCD HDTV in his room, the game room, that he got from sis for his graduation present, and it's truly an awesome looking tv.
I am totally jealous of how incredible the tv in there looks on video games and movies.
If I could physically stand being in the room for longer than 20 minutes, I would totally watch all of my shows and movies in there.
Anyway, before I plan our trip to Maine and buy the tickets, I need to pay a few bills like the rent for March, pay back 2 loans, and buy a lot of cat food and litter so that whoever comes to feed them while we're gone, won't have to worry about the cats running out of food.
I don't plan on being gone for very long, a max of 2 weeks, so yeah, someone will need to come by either every day, or every other day, and feed the cats and clean the litter boxes out.
I have 2 pet feeders, one for food, one for water, they look exactly like this but in pink, but the way the cats eat if there's a lot of food in the feeder, (especially Carmine) they will eat it until it's gone.
They don't stop eating, so if I fill the food feeder dish, all of the cats will chow down until they are totally bloated and ready to burst.
I don't understand how they can just eat and eat, do you think that animals do that, eat whatever is in front of them until it's gone, because they fear being without food?
I think that may be part of it, afraid that the food will run out and they will starve or something.
Anyway, I have a lot of things to do before I can go to bed again.
I posted about what happened on Thursday and the whole weekend on KatScan.
February 18, 2010
First Communion coming up.
My friend Nic is Catholic, she knows that I am an atheist, and we both respect each others views on the topic of religion, so much so, that Nic has asked me to help her pick out Communion cards for her daughter Leonna's First communion.
When we went grocery shopping the other night, this is one of the things that we talked about as we shopped.
She asked for my help because I am always on the internet and my computer works.
Her computer is totally messed up, one of these days when she has an afternoon off, I'm going to go over and do a fresh install of WinXp, and clean up her entire pc, it really is a mess, but anyway...
Leonna's communion is coming up within the next few months, I think she said it was going to be in May, (or was it June?) so she has plenty of time to find just the right Communion invitations and Communion thank you cards, and then get them ordered and shipped to her in plenty of time to get them all sent out to her family and friends.
I started looking at different card websites tonight to try and help her find just the right ones, and the best site that I found with the nicest selection of invitations was Storkie.com.
Their prices per card with the personalized customizations already included in the price per card, was by far better than any of the other sites that I looked at, and I looked at close to a dozen of them before going back to Storkie again because of the selection and pricing.
Their site was also the easiest to navigate.
Nic said that she didn't mind if she could only get gender neutral cards, but Storkie does them all kinds of ways, by gender, gender neutral, photo cards, magnetic cards, they even do customized napkins and cookies which I thought was pretty cool.
I've only been to a few communions for friends before, so I never really knew just how much went into the planning and finding of just the right kinds of invitations and party favors before tonight.
There are so many things that can be done for the event, and it is a pretty big deal in the kid's life, so getting things done up right is really pretty important.
Anyway, I really liked the cards that can be personalized with pictures and your own text as well.
I think a style like this is way better than a generic card with pre-printed generic writing on it.
They also have the matching thank you cards to go with each particular design too, so the one that I just posted above, has a matching thank you card to send out to family and friends after the communion party is over.
I've bookmarked Storkie so that I can show it to her when she has some time to come by this weekend to start picking out what she wants.
I've also picked out some of my favorite ones so that I can show her what I like, what I think would be perfect for Leonna.
I like the black and white, simple, crisp, and clean, but I also know what colors Leonna likes, so I'm going to go through and find a few styles in colors close to what she likes to show to Nic as well as the black and white from above, and hopefully she will be able to find just the right ones so she can get busy ordering them in time for the communion.
February 12, 2010
Winner of the bouquet is....
There were 19 entries in the win a Vibrant Rose and Peruvian Lily Bouquet with vase, delivered right to their house by 1-800-flowers.com contest,
And the winner is, by asking Mark to pick a number between 1 and 19, is.....
Congratulations Kate!
I'll be emailing you in a few minutes and need you to email me back with your home address so that the flowers can be delivered straight to your door!
Many thanks again to 1-800-flowers.com for allowing me to take part in this promotion and giveaway.
I received my Lotsa Love Bouquet yesterday, it is absolutely gorgeous! I love it!
Thanks so much!
Kate sent me a picture of the gorgeous bouquet of Vibrant Rose and Peruvian Lily Bouquet with vase, and so I thought that I would show it to you.
It really is gorgeous!
Thanks for sending me the picture Kate, and I am SOoooo glad to hear that you are enjoying them!
February 9, 2010
Totally yucky day.
Woke up this morning to really heavy winds, so bad that the trash cans had to be chased down and caught, and Carmine couldn't wait to come back in.
Then the rain started and hasn't stopped.
It's let up a little, but it's been windy and rainy all day, and will be cold for the rest of the week.
I hate it when the weather gets like this, cold, windy, rainy, it just makes my body ache so bad, feel terrible.
I end up tired and with absolutely no motivation at all to do anything other than lay on the couch.
I'm really tired of laying on the couch lately.
And wasn't Cyber Monday back during Thanksgiving?
I got an email earlier today saying that I could still get great prices on all the hottest items for the holidays.
Total weirdness.
February 8, 2010
Win a gorgeous bouquet of flowers from 1-800 Flowers!
1-800-flowers.com and I are running a giveaway for 1 lucky reader to receive a gorgeous bouquet of flowers for Valentine's Day, and also letting you know about their FREE weekday shipping, and specials on all kinds of beautiful flowers and bouquets!
1-800-Flowers is having super specials this week!
They are offering free shipping on their Valentine's Day collection, and they are also having specials on their stunning roses collection for Valentine's Day too!
1-800-Flowers also has a fan page on Facebook where they host flower giveaways for their fans every week, and special fan-only discounts all of the time, so become a fan on Facebook for discounts and their weekly giveaways!
Now, onto the giveaway here!
1 lucky reader will win a Vibrant Rose and Peruvian Lily Bouquet with vase, delivered right to their house by 1-800-flowers.com!
The bouquet includes 6 striking hot pink roses, and ten gorgeous hot pink Peruvian lilies, picked at the peak of perfection from select floral farms, and arranged in a classic glass vase.
Rules:
The giveaway is open to United States ONLY, (including Alaska and Hawaii) but availability of the bouquet is limited in those two states.
This giveaway is open to all, not just bloggers, but rules must be followed.
Only 1 entry per person/family/household.
Only 1 person per IP address can enter the giveaway and complete the required entry and extra entries.
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 Thursday February 11th, 2010..
I will pick the winner randomly using random.org on Friday February 12th, 2010, email the winner, and they will have just 24 hours to claim their prize.
If I do not get a reply within 24 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 your chance to win, please go to 1-800-flowers.com and find any arrangement or bouquet of flowers that you like, and leave me the link to it in the comments, telling me why you like it and would want to have it.
That's it!
Good luck! And don't forget to become fan on Facebook
In accordance with my disclosure and privacy policy;
I am receiving Lotsa Love Bouquet in exchange for hosting the giveaway and providing information on 1-800-flowers.com
February 8, 2010
For faster, easier control while gaming, and school, Mom.
Sebastian found a mouse that he wants, and now Mark wants it after seeing it, too, to be able to do everything much faster while playing their pc video games like WoW.
They want a Kensington SlimBlade Trackball.
This trackball has a lot of features that can be used to control much more than just navigational like clicking the cursor and scrolling, and it can be all be done with a few spins of the trackball, and a few clicks of some buttons that my trackball doesn't have.
The multi-function ball navigates through music, videos, pictures, and documents, using media and document mode.
It can also control cursor and scrolling, volume control, play/pause, stop, and next; zoom in/out, and pan, all with the ball, all of it right at your fingertips.
The teens both said that this would make playing WoW much easier, they could be faster at stuff in game, and then Sebastian said it would also come in very handy for his digital stuff that he does for school.
Got me.
What didn't get me was the price of it.
Some online e-tailers have it for as much as $199.99.
Ouch.
I found it slightly cheaper at one for $149.99, and then Buy.com, which has become one of my most favorite places to shop, has it for just $129.99 all of the time.
This week, they have it on sale for just $75.99 and free shipping.
*sigh*
I would love to get it for them this week, especially since it's priced so low, but I can't do it this week.
I just got done paying an outrageous electric bill for their once every 3 years security deposit updates, and my website/domain hosting is due next week, so this will have to wait for awhile, like maybe for an upcoming birthday, or maybe when I get my income taxes back, (after I file them of course) or maybe for an upcoming holiday or something like that.
At $129.99 all of the time, that's not too too bad for a price, and can be do-able if I plan for it far enough in advance.
January 28, 2010
I am so proud of Sebastian.
I haven't been feeling very well at all since last Thursday, I have an intestinal thing, that's all anyone really needs to know as I'm sure if you've ever had some sort of intestinal thing, you know all too well what I'm dealing with.
Anyway, Sebastian is doing so well in his digital design class and in his technology class, that a teacher has helped him prepare for something greater than where he's at right now.
There is a special high school here in town called Suncoast Polytechnical High School, that specializes in technology based programs.
You can read a bit more about them at that link, but their mission is as follows;
The mission of Suncoast Polytechnical High School is
to provide a highly personalized educational experience where students master a rigorous career and technology driven curriculum within a thematic, analytical, and interactive teaching and learning environment.Vision
It is the Vision of Suncoast Polytechnical High School to be recognized for providing a world-class technical education.
Not only do the students have to adhere to some very strict classes and rules to stay in the school or be dropped back to their regular district high school, but the parents also have to do certain things to help their student stay at SPHS.
Parents have to volunteer 15 hours per year in the booster program or in the classroom, they have to check their students work every single week and sign-off on it, they have to be able to provide a computer and high speed internet connection, and they have to make sure their student attends every single day.
Any mistakes in following the rules by either the student or parent, results in the student being dropped back to their regular district high school.
Part of the admission process is to write an entrance essay explaining why they want to attend SPHS, and tonight Sebastian had me read his entrance essay.
I was absolutely blown away by how amazingly articulate he has become, what he stated as his career goals, and some of the reasons why he wants to work in the technology field, what he excels at, what he wants to excel at, and what his future employment plans are after attending SPHS and post-secondary school.
He also stated that he wants to improve his life, to not have to struggle to make ends meet like his mother has for so many years.
He explained in his essay about me and my work ethics before my body quit on me, the surgeries which completely changed my life and theirs, and how during the last surgery, I died twice on the table, had my lung collapse, and ended up in a medical coma for 4 days.
He explained that almost losing the only parent that has ever been there for him, that has worked so hard to provide for him and his brother, and still tries to provide the best that I can for my children, but struggles every day to make ends meet, to give them everything that they need, that he wants to be the absolute best that he can be at a career that he absolutely loves to do, so that once he's made it and providing well for himself, that he will be able to take care of me when I'm older and on my own.
He said,
"My mom has always been there for me, she provided not only my needs, but also provided me with all of the love, support, and encouragement, that has enabled me to have the courage to follow my dream career. I could not do any of this without her, even with all of her own physical limitations and problems, she has never once told me that I couldn't do anything that I wanted to do. My mom has always told me that if I want it, go get it, fight for it, be the absolute best that you can be, and that you will have the career of your dreams, the life of your dreams, and be able to stand up and be equal to any other person applying for those dream technology New York jobs where I want to live and work. Once I make it there, once I make my dream job come true through attending SPHS and any further education that I want to pursue, I want to be able to give back to the woman who has stood by me my entire life, loved me, supported me, and encouraged me to reach for this and to never let it go. If you allow me to attend SPHS, I will work hard for you, I will give you my all, and my mother will be here for the parents portion of enrollment, and then you will see where I learned to go after my dreams.
Thank you for your consideration in allowing me to attend SPHS for the 2011- 2012 school year. "
The giveaway for the book Bubble Gum and Hula Hoops will close at midnight tonight, Thursday the 28th, and the 5 winners will be drawn.
So far, only 5 people have entered, so if no one else enters, all 5 of them will automatically win a copy of it.
So if you'd like a chance to win a copy, you have until midnight tonight to get your entries in.
January 19, 2010
I think it's broken.
My thermometer that is.
I tried to take my temperature this weekend when I was sick, but it wasn't registering correctly.
I know that I had a fever, but the thermometer said that I was barely breathing.
It said my temp was only 94.3!
So yeah, I think I need a new one and Buy.com has a Q3 ThermoHAWK 220 Infrared Thermometer on sale for just $19.99 with free shipping too!
I'm not sure that you can use it on people, but it's touchless so you aren't spreading germs, so that makes me think that you can use it on people.
You just point it at the object or person's head, press the button, and it tells you the temperature instantly with a 1 second response time.
That's pretty damn fast!
Our current thermometer takes about 1 minute or so, so yeah, having an accurate temp in about 1 second is pretty awesome.
It has an accuracy reading of +/-2.5% and a measurement range of -33C-100C.
It's small enough to fit in a pocket or purse, or my stuffed first aid kit box.
I'm really pretty positive that our thermometer is broken and I really should have bought a new one quite a long time ago.
I think my thermometer is about 8 or 9 years old, so yeah, it's definitely time to get a new one.
It lasted a good long time though, so I really can't complain about it being broken now.
January 19, 2010
Tired of getting sick so easy.
Remember how I said that I felt like I was coming down with something?
Well I did come down with something, I've been sick for the last 4 days or so.
Blah.
And on top of being sick, I got a few pimples.
What the hell?
I haven't had any pimples in years, but now I have some, so while I'm still searching for the best acne treatment for the teens, I'm now searching for one for myself too.
I haven't been able to sleep much at all, so yeah, it really sucks when I get sick because all I want to do is sleep, try to get some rest, and my body just won't cooperate.
I've had less than 6 hours of sleep for the last few days, I just lay in my bed and toss and turn all damn night.
My brain is in a fog, my hands are all shaky, I just feel like total crap.
I really hope that I can get some sleep tonight, I need it bad.
January 14, 2010
Off to the movies in a few hours!
Tonight Mindy and I are going to see the movie Extraordinary Measures all of the way up in Tampa.
It starts it's nationwide theater release on January 22nd, so we are going to see an advanced screening of it tonight, then come home and blog about our thoughts on the movie.
I'm really excited to go see it, it looks like a good tear-jerker of a movie, and I like seeing movies like this especially when they are based on true stories, and I don't mind a good cry because of a movie or tv show every now and then, but I will be prepared for sitting in the movie theater this time.
I'm bringing a pillow with me to sit on so I hopefully don't end up with the same kind of horrible pain that I was in when we went and saw Avatar.
This time, I am going to do whatever I need to do to try and make sure that I don't end up in too much pain from sitting all of that time.
I'm going to take my pain meds and use some of the joint pain treatment things that I have to try and relax my muscles and stuff before we go, and use the pillow to sit on while we're there.
I'm going to take a nice, long, hot shower, rub on some of the pain gel stuff that I have, take a muscle relaxer, and use my wearable heating pad for the ride up to Tampa.
Hopefully, this will keep some of the pain away so that I can enjoy the movie.
I'll let you all know how the movie is when we get back.
It starts at 7:30, so I don't expect to be home until around 11:30pm or midnight.
January 9, 2010
Girls' night out in Tampa this Thursday!
This Thursday night, the 14th, Mindy and I will be having a girls' night out in Tampa, to go see the movie Extraordinary Measures.
Synopsis
"Extraordinary Measures" is inspired by the true story of John Crowley, a man who defied conventional wisdom and great odds, and risked his family's future to pursue a cure for his children's life threatening disease. From his working class roots, John Crowley (Brendan Fraser) has finally begun to taste success in corporate America. Supported by his beautiful wife Aileen (Keri Russell) and their three children, John is on the fast track. But just as his career is taking off, Crowley walks away from it all when his two youngest children, Megan and Patrick, are diagnosed with a fatal disease. With Aileen by his side, harnessing all of his skill and determination, Crowley teams up with a brilliant, but unappreciated and unconventional scientist, Dr. Robert Stonehill. (Harrison Ford) Together they form a bio-tech company focused on developing a life-saving drug. One driven to prove himself and his theories, the other by a chance to save his children, this unlikely alliance eventually develops into mutual respect as they battle the medical and business establishments in a fight against the system - and time.
I know, not your typical girls' night out, no partying at a nightclub until dawn, but it's a night away from home and family, no kids to tend to, no cooking, no cleaning or dishes, but a night out to see a what looks to be a good movie, with a friend.
Now when I went and saw Avatar 2 weeks ago, I loved it, it was a fantastic movie, but sitting through the movie was very difficult on me.
I may have wide hips and a bit of a belly, but I have a very bony ass.
And not just my bony ass, but I also have two 4 inch titanium screws in my hips, and the titanium rods from my spine fusions that go all of the way down to the bottom of my tail bone.
Even though the theater chairs are very well cushioned, having a bony ass and that titanium in my tail bone, made sitting for almost 3 hours, extremely difficult.
Not even at the halfway mark, I could feel my tail bone in my butt, I could feel the titanium in my butt, and I kept trying to shift side to side to make it a little more comfortable.
When I'm sitting here at my desk, I do have a great office chair, it's very cushioned, but I have to have a pillow on it to help, and I still can feel my tail bone and the titanium after a few hours.
What am I getting at here?
Well, when I go see the movie this Thursday night, I'm going to have to bring a pillow with me to sit on, but I would honestly pay $20 for a movie ticket if there was at least 1 specialized movie theater.
What kind of special theater?
Well, one with good and comfy, home style seating.
Maybe some super plush but contemporary sofas, some big and squishy recliners, super long and soft sofas, furniture like people have at home.
I would totally pay $20 per movie ticket to be able to either kick all of the way back with my legs and feet up in a super soft recliner, or lay down on a big and soft sofa.
I would totally love it.
Heck, a big movie theater could makeover just 1 of the many theater rooms they already have, into the special theater room, and play the top movie release of the week, maybe change out the movie in that 1 theater every day or something, but charge $20 a ticket and see if people would buy tickets.
I know that I would, my sons would love it too, so I would pay for them to be in the theater with me on a big sofa or in recliners.
Those of you who have a home theater in your house, you know that it's awesome.
You have all of the benefits of surround sound, a really great and big HDTV, but with the total comfort of home.
I think a special theater would be really cool and totally work, and so if a theater made-over 1 theater room to have the super comfort of home, would you pay more for a ticket to be in there?
January 7, 2010
Bubble Gum and Hula Hoops review and 5 book giveaway!
I received a free copy of the manuscript for Bubble Gum and Hula Hoops: The Origins of Objects In Our Everyday Lives, about a month ago to read and review here on my blog.
It's a really fascinating and funny look at why certain things got invented, and why they were named what they were.
Take the bra for an example, a lot of people believe that it was invented and named after someone named brassiere, not true.
It's kind of a long story, but all the way back in 2500bc in Minoan Crete, they were using pieces of fabric strapped around the chest to support the bosoms, it probably resembled a sports bra of today because it was wrapped so tightly.
Corsets had been around since the 16th century, but it was in 1893 when American socialite Mary Jacobs was dressing for an evening event when she got really upset about her whalebone corset.
She took 2 hankies tied together with ribbon, and used them to keep her breasts looking the way she wanted them too under her tight party dress.
She was so pleased with it, that she patented the design and began selling them as "Caresse Crosby" bras but with very limited success.
Eventually she sold the design rights to the Warner Brothers Corset Company, and they went on to make a huge fortune from Mary's idea.
By the 1920's, they were in wide circulation, and now today, we have a huge assortment of over the shoulder boulder holders that flatten, tighten, plump, support, volumize, and of course, push up!
There are a ton of very interesting stories in this book about all kinds of products like the breathalyzer, the condom, toothpaste, cigarettes, bubble wrap, paper clips, bar codes, the camera, lipstick, the airbag, the GPS, parking meters, aluminum foil, canned food and carbonated drinks.
There so many things in this book that I'm sure you've heard a story about how they were made and it's probably wrong, so this book tells how and why things were made and why they were named what they were.
It was a really fun book to read, I learned a lot and laughed a lot along the way, so I want to share the learning and laughs with 5 lucky readers.
Do you want to win a copy of Bubble Gum and Hula Hoops for yourself?
Or maybe you know someone who enjoys learning about why things were invented?
If so, all you have to do is follow the rules below.
Here's how!
Rules:
The giveaway is open to United States, (including Alaska and Hawaii) and Canada!
This giveaway is open to all, not just bloggers, but rules must be followed.
Only 1 entry per person/family/household.
Only 1 person per IP address can enter the giveaway and complete the required entry and extra entries.
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 Thursday January 28, 2010.
I will pick the 5 winners randomly using random.org on Friday January 29th, 2010, email the winners, and 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:
The required entry:
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 what you would have named any current product/invention, and why you would have named it that.
For extra entries:
The following are all for 1 additional entry each, and you must leave a separate comment for each 1 that you do.
If you bundle entries in 1 comment, the comment will be deleted and disqualified.
1.
Post a new comment telling me what you would like to see invented.
2.
Blog about this on your blog, and leave a separate comment with the url to your post.
The post must remain on your blog for the duration of the contest.
3.
Post about this giveaway with a link back to this post on Twitter, and then leave a comment on this post with the link to your Twitter post about this contest.
You can use this link in your Twitter post to tweet and tell others about this giveaway! http://tinyurl.com/yb4zlw3
5.
Post about this on Facebook and give me the link to your Facebook profile so I can verify it!
That's it!
***There are 5 books in total, they will be shipped directly to the winners from the publisher, so you will need to leave me a valid email address when you enter, and if you win, I will contact you for your mailing address which will only be given to the publisher, and only for the purpose of sending you the book.
None of your information posted like full name, email address, or mailing address which you have given for contest entries, will ever be given or sold to any person or company, it will only be used for the purpose of contacting you, if you win, to send you the book.***
Good luck!!
January 5, 2010
Good memories.
I was going to post a book review and giveaway for 5 lucky readers to get 1 copy of the book each, but not tonight.
My Aunt Lorraine has passed away after a very long battle with cancer, so I just don't feel like I should post a fun giveaway tonight.
Aunt Lorraine is my Mom's sister, and my Mom is very upset this evening, which is perfectly ok for her to be sad and upset, grieving for the loss of her sister.
I remember Aunt Lorraine as being a really wonderful woman, a fun aunt who used to let us stay up late and watch scary movies while we laid in sleeping bags on the living room floor.
She was just a happy and fun person from what I recall of my memories and trips to Pennsylvania for family vacations.
She always found the most unusual but beautiful dolls to give to us girls when we were little.
I remember that she gave my sister Jo and I these dolls that said the night time prayer, "Now I lay me down to sleep."
Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep;
Should I die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take.
I'm pretty sure that it was my Aunt Lorraine who also got me the Mattel Sunshine Family dolls and their Surrey Cycle too.
I remember at some point later on, someone got me the craft/pottery wheel for the Sunshine Family, which is discussed here as other girls remember these dolls too.
The Sunshine Family lived sort of the "hippie" lifestyle.
They wore sandals, rode a bike, made their own clothes and threw their own pottery, farmed organic produce.
You could say these dolls were living in the times, they were made in the early 1970's when people were living in communes and growing their own food, making their own clothes, and making crafts and pottery too.
I loved those dolls, I remember sitting there using the tiny little pottery wheel and making little bowls and pots and pans for them to use to cook with.
Aunt Lorraine just had this gift for finding me the most beautiful, unique, and fun to play with dolls.
I'm sad that she's gone, I'm sad to know that my Mom is sad and hurting, but at the same time, I'm relieved that Aunt Lorraine is no longer in any pain from the cancer that she had.
I'm happy to know that she had gone to Texas to be with her daughter, Toni, in the end, that she was with her grandsons and family.
I have very good memories of her and that is what is making it a little bit easier to deal with the news of her passing.
January 1, 2010
Happy 2010!
In just 9 days, I will have been blogging in some capacity for 13 years.
I can't believe that I've been doing this for that long, but I'm not complaining at all, no way.
I love everything about blogging, mostly the ability to connect with people.
I've made friends from around the world because of it, that's really pretty awesome.
I've seen a lot of bloggers come and go, I've seen people give up their blogs entirely to use Facebook or Twitter, and I've seen the greatness of the community of people who blog to raise money for charities and fellow blogging friends.
It's really been an awesome experience that I don't plan on ending anytime soon.
________________________
We're not doing too much of anything today, the teens are still sleeping after staying up to watch the ball drop and then a movie after that.
I'll be going grocery shopping at some point, doing the laundry at some point after that, and then I need to sweep and mop the kitchen and bathroom floor tiles as they are quite a mess.
I have no idea what got spilled on the kitchen floor, but it's a sticky mess that is making me a bit more irritated every time I have to go in there.
*stick stick stick*
Yuck.
What movie did we watch?
We watched Inglorious Basterds and it was pretty damn good.
For a fun fantasy film, it was really pretty good.
Anyway, not too much going on here right now, just me awake and waiting for the day to move a little faster.
December 31, 2009
2009, A meme.
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
December 25, 2009
Merry Christmas 2009!
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.
December 17, 2009
$50 Safeway gift card winner!
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!
December 16, 2009
Our new netbook is here!
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
December 14, 2009
Safeway food store $50 gift card giveaway!
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!
December 13, 2009
Shopping, decorating, and no sleep.
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!
December 13, 2009
My horriblescopes for Decmber 13th.
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.
December 12, 2009
Scholarships for moms?
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
December 12, 2009
Stalking the mail man from now till Christmas.
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.
December 8, 2009
Explosive migraines and shopping.
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!
December 7, 2009
Only 9 days till Christmas vacation?!
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!
November 16, 2009
Brain freeze. Or is it thawing into mush?
I have been having difficulty all weekend, actually for many days now, trying to think straight, to work, to blog, to do much of anything, and every single time I sit down to do something, I end up stopping.
I'm not exactly sure of the reason, it's probably several factors.
I'm once again, adjusting to a new med, one that I am having difficulty with, and I have a crap ton of stress, I'm trying to re-adjust to my antidepressant, and I'm just treading water around here.
Mark and I are not ok.
It's rough here, I would love to go into more detail on that, but not right now.
I really think that's the bulk of my problem, I was talking to my sister about it last night, and I was in tears trying to explain to her what's going on, and as angry as I am at him, how can I blame him for what he's dealing with and feeling?
I gave this problem to him, inadvertently, not even knowing that I was going to do give it to him, but I did, so how in the hell can I blame him for how he's feeling?!
I can blame him for how he's behaving, but I too behaved this way when I was faced with the news.
Of course when I got it, I was out on my own, my kids were young, I couldn't really snap at anyone because I had no one to snap at.
Hell, I still don't have anyone to yell at for all of this, my bio-parents are dead.
But I'm right here, I'm his bio-parent, I gave him this crap through the handed-down DNA, so I'm right here to yell at and treat like garbage.
He needs counseling, we need counseling, all of us, as a family, because this isn't just affecting Mark and I, it's affecting his little brother Sebastian too.
Just yesterday as Sebastian and I walked to the store together, we talked as we always do, and he said to me that he will never leave us, that he will get a good education and career so that he can take care of us because we can't survive on our own once Mark starts to get worse, waiting for 15-20 years, Mark will only get worse, so Sebastian isn't going to leave, he's going to provide for us, take care of us physically, and he's scared, scared of the things that Mark has said.
I too am scared of the things Mark has said, that's why he needs counseling, we all do.
It's hurting all of us.
All of this stuff is probably why my brain is like in shut down mode, can't do what I need to do, I'm struggling.
November 15, 2009
New pc and other things.
I haven't done much at all this weekend, actually, in several days.
When my computer died last Monday, I pretty much fell out of everything.
All of my stuff is on that computer, digital pics, documents, all kinds of stuff that I can't get back until I can get it retrieved and transferred to this new pc.
My new pc, thanks to a friend, came on Friday morning, delivered by FedEx at like 10:30am, and since then, I have been getting it set up just right and to my liking.
It wasn't on sale, but Buy.com always has computers at super great prices so my friend bought me an early Christmas gift because she knows that the computer is how I make a living, she knows how important it is to me to have a computer that works and works well.
It's an Acer Veriton, almost exactly like the one I had before, and it came with free shipping like they have on most of their products, and they do like rush shipping even on their free stuff.
She ordered it on Tuesday night, and it was here Friday morning.
That's really awesome customer service.
It came with Windows Vista, which I did not like, no, not at all, it asked me like a gazillion times if I really wanted to do the task that I clicked on.
Um, if I didn't really want to do it, I wouldn't have clicked on it!
I was very happy to see that it came with downgrade discs to go back to WinXp, so after like 4 hours of trying and hating Vista, I downgraded to Winxp.
I had saved all of my bookmarks and usernames/passwords for Firefox to my usb, not all of my work docs, but at least I have all of my sites that I needed.
I have it all set up, it's working great, and I was even able to install my Sims 3 on it and be able to play that for a few hours last night when I just had no motivation to do anything else.
I don't know what it is, I just didn't feel like doing anything at all all weekend.
I still don't, but I have stuff to do so I'm doing it.
November 7, 2009
Starting to come around and other things.
Sorry that my posting has been a bit sporadic, often late at night and not every day, and I also want to apologize for not responding to every single comment like I usually do.
I haven't been able to do that for quite some time now and it really bothers me that I can't.
I really enjoy interacting with my readers, with all of you, and by responding to your comments, it also lets you know that I have read them and am reading your advice, ideas, suggestions, etc.
I appreciate every single comment, so not being able to reply to them all bothers me.
I am also running a bit behind on responding to your direct emails, I promise you that I will get to them, it just may take me awhile as I am answering the most important ones first, some are time sensitive, so yeah, it's taking me a bit to get to all of them.
I am dealing with, or at least trying to, deal with, life issues at home.
Mark is slowly starting to talk to me about how he's doing and feeling regarding the issues with his spine.
Just a week ago, he said that he couldn't talk to me about it.
In that email that he sent to me and his Aunt Jo, he said;
I cant even start to talk to you about how I feel. My mind is so upset I cant even get a grip on it.
Everything Ive wanted is now gone. Im scared. Im mad. I'm confuesed. Giving up seems to be the only thing that seems right to me.
I dont think me or you can handle this. Emotionally or physically we cant. Im sorry if I ever messed up. Or upsetted you.
We've also been talking about his career, well, trying to talk about it.
He keeps telling me that all he has ever wanted to be since he was just a very small kid, is a cop, so being told that he can't, knowing that he won't be able to pass the physical exam or do any of the physical training at the police academy due to pain and physical limitations, has him extremely upset.
I tried talking to him about other law enforcement careers, things that he could do that wouldn't require strenuous physical activity or a hard physical training course and exam, but he just doesn't want to hear it right now, it's NOT what he wanted, he wanted to be a cop, not a CSI, not a dispatcher, not an investigator or clerk, he wants to be a cop, period, so talking about anything else, no, he absolutely does NOT want to hear it.
I am going to back off talking to him about it for awhile, I am going to just give him some more time to think about things and try to deal with them on his own time, he needs more time to try and come to grips with all of this.
It's hard, he's 18, the last few years all he's done is think and plan out his police officer goals, what he needed to do to get there, college, criminal law classes at college, apply at the police academy, get references for it so it would look good on his application to have letters of reference saying what a good and upstanding young man he is, to get a police background check and attach his perfect and clean record to his application, all of the things that he would need to do to apply and be accepted, he had it all planned out and in a notebook, he was checking each step off as he went, and now in that notebook, there's a giant question mark with about a gazillion circles scribbled around it in pen.
This all just makes me so sad and angry.
Angry at the doctor, angry at Medicaid, just really angry and more determined to fight for him to get the surgeries that he needs so that he can do something in law enforcement, maybe even still be a cop, but that will only happen if he can get the surgery now, not in 15-20 years, but now, then heal up, get some exercise and physical training in at a gym, build up his strength and stamina and then apply like he wanted to, prove to them that he can physically do the job.
It's what he wants and I am going to try like mad to help him get it.
November 5, 2009
Helping to find a cheap but good canister.
My friend Nic has her own house cleaning business, and she has 2 clients per day, she used to have more than that but the economy has caused people to cut back on services like housekeepers, and they are doing it themselves now.
Due to losing a few clients and because she only uses her own equipment to clean people's houses, so if a vacuum cleaner breaks for instance, it's her own, and not a $500 Dyson that the homeowner owns, she tends to go through vacuums rather quickly.
Running a vac in your own home once a day every day is a lot of wear and tear, so having to run a vac in 2 houses per day 5 days per week, is just asking for the vac to break with the first year/year and a half.
Nic prefers to use canister vacs, they are easier for her to maneuver around people's homes, the longer handled neck makes it easier to get under low tables and furniture, and she's now needing a new canister vac, she said it's on it's last leg, almost 2 years old, and it's starting to have some issues, so it's time to find a new but cheap canister vac.
She doesn't have much time to go shopping in regular stores, and her internet isn't hooked up at her new apartment yet, so she asked me if I could try to find her a new one, preferably one that is on sale, and stay as far under $100 as is possible.
So I am looking on Buy.com for her today, and I found 3 name brand canister vacs all under $100, and 2 of them with free shipping too.
I found a Bissell for just $59.80 with free shipping, a Panasonic for $84.63 including the shipping charges, and an Electrolux for $77.59 with free shipping.
I've used both Bissell and Electrolux vacs before and really liked them, never tried a Panasonic vacuum before so I have no clue how that one would work at all.
Because she goes through them so quickly, needs to spend as little money as possible, and the lower the price the better she said, I am going to have to pick the Bissell.
That's just my opinion though, I have bookmarked all 3 of them for her so when she stops by after work today I can show them all to her and she can then order the ones that she wants.
I am kinda jealous of her getting to run her own business, I used to have my own house cleaning biz when I still lived in Maine, and I loved it.
I really miss being able to work so physically hard like that, and feeling a great sense of accomplishment at the end of the day.
Right now I'd be totally happy if I could get all of my dishes done.
I had been cleaning my house all morning, but I sat down to take a break and now I don't want to get back up and finish. ha ha
November 1, 2009
Taking it one day at a time.
I apologize for the lack of updates again, we're all just trying to wrap our heads around the medical news for Mark, and trying to plan our next step, our course of action.
I have a lot of phone calls to make tomorrow, thank goodness for the free long distance included with the Fios, I have a feeling that I'll be making calls all over the state tomorrow and over the next few days and weeks.
I also have a feeling that I will definitely be buying Sebastian a netbook like I posted about a few weeks ago, because not only will he be needing it for school, but I think Mark will also be needing plenty of his own computer time to take some online classes like I've also posted about.
Buy.com has another one on sale this week, it's an ASUS Eee PC Seashell Netbook, for $389.95 with free shipping, but if you buy that one, Buy.com will send you a free $25 Prepaid Visa Card just for buying it.
It's a really nice looking netbook, it has tons of features, it's only 1-inch thick and only weighs 2.4 pounds, that's super small and lightweight!
It has 170gb of Hybrid storage, not really sure what "hybrid storage" means, but 170gb is a lot of storage room!
It has wireless connectivity with built-in 802.11n (draft 2.4GHz n) and Bluetooth V2.1, and 6 hours of unplugged use time, that's pretty decent too.
It also has a 10.1 inch back-lit LED display, for 1024x600 resolution which is perfect for viewing most things, and it also has 2 USB ports for hooking up to the things he would need in his digital design class, and a built in webcam in case he ever needed to use that in one of his classes.
I know he mentioned something about video chats with the rep from the tech school, like they chat with the rep once a week either in person or by cam on the teachers laptop.
It really has a lot of other features too, I'll have to show him this one and see what he thinks of it or if he likes the other one better.
Personally I like this one better, it has far more features to it including 10gb of free online storage for the first 18 months, a 1-year warranty, and a "flawless display" warranty for the first 30 days so if the buyer notices even just 1 itty bitty pixel damaged, ASUS will replace the entire panel at no cost to the buyer.
So yeah, I really think this will be the one that I would like to get him unless he insists on the other one.
We all need to have our own computers for all of the things that we all do and are going to need to do.
I work on mine, this is how I make money to pay rent, bills, doctors, and prescriptions for not just myself anymore, but for Mark now too.
His last appointment cost me $120 because Medicaid refused to cover it, they said that the ortho did not get pre-approval for the appointment to give us the results of his MRI.
Sebastian needs a netbook for his digital design classes, and having the netbook for him will allow Mark to use the desktop to take online classes because we may need to enroll him in some type of college courses if we want to continue him receiving Medicaid.
Because he's 18 now and no longer a student, his Medicaid is set to expire soon, it expires within 6 months of the 18th birthday or within 6 months of being out of school.
He's been out of school since May, and turned 18 on August 15th.
I have to call Medicaid tomorrow about all of this plus ask them about his referral to the neurosurgeon, to physical therapy, and also ask them if he can go see a spine specialist at All Children's hospital in St. Pete.
There's a spine specialist there who my sister knows about, the boy she takes care of sees him and will be having his scoliosis surgery very soon, I can't remember if she said in 6 weeks or in 6 months, we talked about so many medical things, but that specialist is taking new patients and sees young people up to the age of 21.
My sister is going to call that specialist tomorrow and ask him if he can see Mark for a consult appointment, get his opinion, and she said that she'll help me pay for the consult appointment if Medicaid won't.
There's so many things that they won't pay for, and I remember my own hell trying to get surgery after I had to quit working and my insurance from work and Cobra ran out and I had to go on Medicaid before I got approved for SSDI and Medicare.
It was a long battle with Medicaid, they didn't want to pay for anything at all, their answer to my spine problem was if the doctors were sure that not having spine fusion was going to cause me to become paralyzed and lose my left leg all of the way to the pelvis, Medicaid would pay for the leg removal and a wheelchair, but they did not want to pay for spine fusion surgery.
I fought with them for 4 years to get the surgery and had to take my case all of the way to the governor in order to force Medicaid to approve the surgery.
I am totally prepared to fight like that again if they start refusing care for Mark, if they don't want to pay for any of his treatments and/or surgeries too.
I will fight like crazy to get him the best help that I can.
October 24, 2009
He needs his own.
Today, I taught Mark how to shave his face for the first time in his life.
He finally had enough facial hair to shave off, and he wanted it gone so he asked me to teach him, not do it for him, but teach him how.
I didn't have any men's razors in the house, so he had to use one of my Venus razors, but he learned how and got the job done.
Now I'm needing to get him his own razor, so I'm wondering what kind is the best kind to get, standard blade razors, or an electronic one.
I was hoping to see if Buy.com had one on sale, they usually have a wide variety of items on their weekly sales, but no men's razors this week.
With a blade razor, you always have to replace it, buy new ones when the blades go dull, which over the course of a year, can add up to be well over $100.
So if you buy an electronic one, make the initial investment, it definitely pays for itself over the course of several years because you're not always having to replace it.
I found a Norelco Cool Skin Moisturizing Shaving System Rechargeable Cordless Razor, a Norelco Arcitec Rechargeable Cordless razor, and a different Norelco Moisturizing Shaving System Rechargeable Cordless razor for a lot less than the other 2 razors.
The first 2 razors were well over $100, but the last one was just $85.48 including the shipping charge, so price wise, that's the better deal, but I still don't know which is better to get, a bladed razor or an electric one.
So my dear male readers, which do you prefer, disposable blade razors, or the electric razors?
Which works best and is the best to have for a young man just beginning to shave?
October 23, 2009
Online may be the way to go for now.
It's looking more and more like the best thing that Mark could do for him and his future, would be to get an online degree in some of the courses that he's interested in.
I know that there are some colleges, I even think a few of the local state colleges, offer courses in criminal justice and law like he wants to get into, and then he could take a few other courses to get a degree in something else too, something to fall back on in case he ends up not being able to do what he wants to do.
Maybe go for an online business degree plus the criminal justice, and then he'd have some extra skills and education even if he can do law enforcement if things turn out well for him medically.
Today was just a rough day for him on this subject.
He got 3 college fliers in the mail today, and as soon as he saw them, he looked upset.
He asked me to just stop giving these to him when they come in the mail, to just put them in the trash, it's upsetting him to see them when his life and future career is currently in limbo due to his spine problems.
I hate seeing him upset like this, I hate seeing him look and feel discouraged, and I keep trying to tell him that this whole thing isn't written in stone, that he's young, that maybe his spine issues aren't as grim as it looks right now, that we can get a second opinion, we can take him to my surgeon and see what he says, that maybe this can all be fixed pretty easily.
But for now, he can take some courses at a fully accredited online college, do it from home, from the comfort of our own home on his own time, take breaks when he needs to lay down and rest his back, but still be able to get an education that will help him in whatever career he ends up in in the future so that he can support himself and have a good life.
After we talk, he seems a bit more upbeat and seems to be encouraged, but I honestly think that he just smiles and says all of that to make me feel better.
I really think that he's completely bummed out about the whole thing, so he just tells me that he will consider online education and degrees in other career paths to comfort me.
I think he's really feeling like his spine issues are going to prevent him from living his dream job and the thought of not being able to do it, the thought of having to use a fall-back degree for a different career, is just killing him inside.
I wish I knew what to do or say to make him really feel better, but I know that he's watched what has happened to me and just has no hope at all for himself.
October 20, 2009
Febreze Home Collections Flameless Luminary review.
When I went shopping late this afternoon, I picked up the few items that I had forgotten to get on Saturday when we went.
But while we were there, I bought* one of the new Febreze Home Collections Flameless Luminary starter kits
I had a coupon for $4 off a starter kit, and I like the Febreze line of products, the Pet Odor Eliminator fabric refresher works especially well for those times one of the cats has had an accident.
But the new Febreze Home Collections Flameless Luminary in Green Tea scent, is really fantastic!
It's really easy to use, and so beautiful too!
When you first get the starter kit, you have to open up the battery compartment, pull off the red tab, (tab is there to prevent battery drainage during shipment and sitting on the store shelf) make sure that the batteries are in correctly, turn the switch to on, then open one of the luminary scent shade packages, unfold it, and place it on the stand.
The flameless light will not flicker until the scent shade is correctly in place.
That's it, all there is to it!
The luminary automatically shuts itself off after 4 hours too, to conserve the batteries and the scent.
By simply removing and replacing the scented shade, you can turn it back on.
I don't like to drink green tea, but the scented shade smells really pretty, it's not too strong or overpowering, but it fills the room with a light but definitely noticeable scent of green tea with just a hint of citrus.
The shades come in a variety of scents too, like Pomegranate Mango
Febreze also makes several other products for their new Home Collection, like scented reed diffusers, soy blend candles, and room spray, in seasonal scents as well, like Pumpkin Harvest, and Autumn Spice & Crisp.
I really like the flameless luminary, it just looks so pretty, and I feel safe using it because it's not a real candle, no flame, so I don't have to worry about accidentally knocking it over and causing a fire.
I love the look of candles, but I always make sure to not leave them unattended, so these new flameless luminaries are perfect.
The look of a beautiful flickering scented candle without the worry.
If you haven't tried these yet and like scented candles, you should pick one of these up.
The $4 coupon for the starter kit that I used was found in a coupon mailer, so make sure to check your Sunday paper's coupon fliers, and Febreze is offering a trade in of your old and used shades.
If you mail them 6 used Flameless Luminary shades, they will send you a coupon for a free Flameless Luminary two-pack refill.
The starter kits come with 2 shades, and 2-count refill packs can be purchased in stores, but if you buy the refill packs at Amazon, you get a 3-count refill pack.
Each refill pack comes with 3 pouches with 1 shade in each pouch
It smells so good in here right now, I just love good smelling scented candles, so these flameless luminaries are just perfect!
Continue Reading �
October 18, 2009
Considering a mini.
Sebastian is doing really well in his digital design class at school, he's getting better and better at it every day it seems.
He sends me some of his projects by email while he's in class, and I reply back what I think of them.
The other day, he sent me a picture he was working on as he went, so I got to see each step of how he designs something, it was really pretty cool.
Anyway, he really wants to go to college for digital design and video game design, and he's one of 5 students being given the opportunity to be 'looked at' by a technical design school in Tampa.
At the end of every week, the students and the teacher pick the student's best project from the whole week, and they email it to the design school contact, who then sends back his opinions and critiques of each student's work.
Sebastian has been getting some really good feedback from both his teacher and the teacher at the design school, and each year a couple of scholarships are awarded to 2 students from the digital design class, so when he becomes a senior and graduates, he just might get 1 of those scholarships.
He's really excited about this whole thing, he talks about it every day practically, so I am definitely encouraging him to keep doing his best work when we talk about it and when he sends emails home from class with his projects attached.
One of the things he's also been talking about is having another computer, perhaps a netbook like this Samsung Netbook which is on sale this week for $319.95 with free shipping, but no, I can't get that one, or get one this week, but we have been talking about getting him one to bring back and forth to school.
Even though most netbooks don't have cd-rom drives from which to install the graphics programs that he uses, external disk drives are available to add on separately, and his teacher has a program that can upload the graphics programs by either USB or an SD slot.
I'm really thinking of getting him a netbook for Christmas.
He really wants one, he could really use one so that he can do his projects at school and at home.
Another reason to get him a netbook so that he can work on his projects at home, is so he wouldn't be having to take up too much computer time of the one that the teens share now.
Mark loves to play WoW on it, and he's really great at sharing the computer, he either goes and plays a video games or watches a movie while Sebastian is working on a project, having a netbook would allow the both of them to be on a computer at the same time, and Sebastian would be able to work on his stuff for as long as he wanted without feeling guilty about how much time he spends.
Right now even though the teens both share the pc time really great, Sebastian said he always feels guilty if he spends a lot of time on it when he knows that Mark wants to hop on and play.
So yeah, I'm really seriousy thinking that I'm going to buy him a netbook for Christmas.
Yeah, that would mean that I would need to get Mark something of similar value, or something that he really wants in the same price range, but it should be do-able. (keeps fingers crossed I'm not jinxing myself)
Below the cut is one of the projects that he did last week that he really likes.
I asked him to pick out which one he wanted me to put up, and he chose this one.
Continue Reading �
October 7, 2009
Might be doing a talk show!
Our story is still being talked about, people want to hear more, know more, so many shows and magazines wanting to interview us, it's like wow.
We are in this weeks issue of In Touch Weekly magazine, it's dated October 12, 2009, we are on pages 74-75.
This is the cover if you want to flip through the magazine while in the checkout line. ha ha
I actually went up to 7eleven and bought the issue so I could have it as a memento.
I was told that we're going to be in this week's People magazine, it comes out on Friday, and when that issue of People comes out, I'll buy that one too.
My friend Christie is the one who told me about In Touch Weekly, she posted it to the forums we chat on, she said that it made her grandma who is in hospice care now, smile the biggest smile, that our story is touching people.
It must be, other shows want us to come on their shows.
The one that I think we've all agreed to do is the Tyra Banks show, we just have to work out 1 small scheduling conflict.
I've sent the Twitter contact for her show a message asking him to call me so we can work the schedule out.
Yes, the scheduling conflict is my fault.
They want to fly us out to NYC on Tuesday morning, do the show taping on Wednesday morning, and fly home Wednesday night, but I can't do that because I have my monthly pain doc appointment on Tuesday at 11am.
I cannot cancel or reschedule that appointment, it is set by the laws, you can only see your pain doc once per month, once every 30 days, so yeah, I cannot reschedule it, and I definitely cannot cancel it or I won't be able to even get on a plane, I'll be in too much pain to get out of bed even.
So yeah, I hope that the Tyra show can reschedule us, like I can fly out on Wednesday morning, but not Tuesday morning.
I am hoping that they will reschedule us, my brothers and sister want to do her show, so I don't want to be the one who messes it up and we can't do it, so keep your fingers crossed that they will reschedule us.
I am still in a state of shock over all of this, so much publicity, it's kind of nuts really, but I understand why people want more of our story.
Life is pretty depressing right now for everyone because of the economy, so people want happy stories, feel good, heart warming stories, and ours really is a pretty damn amazing story.
It's really incredible still how it all came together and I'm sooo glad that it did.
Joanne and I keep texting each other back and forth, talking to each other on the phone, and I've been in touch by email with Randy and Gary's families, so yeah, getting to see them again in NYC will be awesome if the schedule can be worked out.
Mark said he will go this time too, the first one was just so rushed, it all happened so fast, but with the Tyra show, we are getting enough notice that we can make plans to have someone come feed the cats and get the mail for us.
I am so hoping the schedule can be worked out, I really want to see Joanne, Randy, and Gary again.
I just want to get to know them, far too much time has passed in our lives, we need some time to really talk to each other and get to know one another, so if we can work out the schedule and if they put us all in the same hotel, we can spend the first night we all fly in, just hanging out and talking to each other and our families.
I will keep you posted if we can work this out, and also tell you what day the show would air too!!
October 5, 2009
W00t! Cash back!
I LOVE my PayPal debit card!
One of the best things that I ever did was sign up to get the PayPal debit card.
I have been a PayPal user since practically the beginning of my using the internet.
I've had the PayPal debit card for a little over 2 years now I think, and it has been a true lifesaver for me several times.
There have been quite a few times that I've been at the doctor's office or the pharmacy, for example, and I expected my bill to be a certain amount but found out that it would be more than what I had expected and budgeted, so I called PayPal from my cell phone and was able to get my balance and discovered that I had been paid early from work, or had gotten a deposit/donation, and was able to pay my bill right on the spot without the embarrassment of not having enough to pay the bill.
My doctor's office will work with people who are a bit short, but the pharmacy won't, so being able to check my balance and pay the bill with my PayPal debit card is truly awesome.
It helped me just this past month when I had to get another new AC for the house.
That was another situation where I was able to check my balance from my cell phone while on the go, heard how much my balance was, and was able to go straight to Home Depot to buy another one.
I'm pretty sure that purchase right there is why I got this email from them just this morning. ha ha
Because I use the debit card, I get cash back for all of my purchases.
This may not seem like a lot of money to get excited about, but every single penny is counted and appreciated by me, this is free money in my opinion, so I totally love it when PayPal gives me cash back every month just for spending my own money!
Dear Kat,
Congratulations!
You've received a cash back reward of $8.19 USD after using your PayPal Debit Card.
Your cash back reward has been deposited in your PayPal account and is based on your monthly eligible transactions.
Thanks,
PayPal
October 5, 2009
Sickness, movies, and mice.
Sebastian and I spent the entire day feeling like crap even with some Nyquil to take.
We both spent the entire day sleeping off and on, and now that I took naps all day long, I can't sleep.
I've been up watching tv and surfing the net all night long.
I found a bunch of free online auctions to look at to pass the time.
It's amazing to me how much some stuff is worth, like old toys.
I wish I had hung on to more of my old dolls and toys, some of them would be worth a ton of money now like my Tuesday Taylor doll that I had.
I think she was like less than $10 back when she first came out, now she's selling for about $100.00
Damn.
I watched a bunch of horror movies, some I had seen like Children of the Corn
It wasn't too bad, but it's not something that I would watch again unless someone paid me.
Death Tunnel that is, not Children of the Corn, I love that movie.
"Outlander! Outlander! We have your woman! Outlander!"
Malachai was one of my fave characters in that movie, so perfectly cast in my opinion.
Carmine is our kitty that goes in and out of the house.
He was the stray kitten we found last December.
Yes, I said that we were only going to keep him for a little while, try to find his owners or give him away, but we fell in love with him, he's such a good kitty, so well behaved and loving, we couldn't part with him.
Anyway, he goes in and out all of the time to do his business outside, play around, whatever it is that he does out there, and then he always comes back.
When he came back in tonight, he brought us a gift.
A mouse.
A big fat field mouse.
He came running in the house with it in his teeth, and then dropped him at my feet, looked up at me, meowed loudly, and then rubbed all over my legs.
He brought me dinner I think.
We of course picked up the mouse with tissue and threw it away outside, but he brought it to us as a treat or a thank you, not really sure, but it was meant as a gift, so I rewarded him with lots of love, pets, cuddles, and kisses which he absolutely loved.
I also gave him a piece of cheese which he gobbled up quickly and then joined me on the couch.
It's now just a few minutes past 4am and I'm wide awake.
I still feel like crap, but I'm wide awake.
October 2, 2009
It's the 8th Annual Blogger Boobiethon!
It's that time of year again folks!
It's time for the 8th Annual Blogger Boobiethon!
In the past 7 years, we (bloggers from everywhere!) have raised over $50,000 for breast cancer research.
You can learn all about this event and it's history here, but basically, bloggers from all over the world and internet, join together to raise money for breast cancer research by getting people to donate to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure charity which helps to fund research for a breast cancer cure.
We also raise money to help a fellow blogger in need, bloggers helping bloggers.
Please read that page to learn all about this part of the boobiethon, it's been something that we've done every year since the whole start of this, and is actually the entire reason that the boobiethon exists.
Last year I was the recipient of this part of the boobiethon after my spine fusion in September 2008, and I am still, and always will be, eternally grateful for all of the help, donations, encouragement, and support my fellow bloggers, readers, and supporters of the boobiethon, gave to me during that time and continue to give to me.
This year's recipient of the bloggers helping bloggers portion is Joan, aka, DaGoddess.
Donating to the boobiethon is really very, very easy.
Simply click the button up above or this link right here, and choose who you want to give money to, Komen or Joan, akaDaGoddess, and then follow the super simple instructions on that page so that the organizers of the boobiethon can add your donation to the total, and send you a confirmation email thanking you for your support.
This is now the 2nd year since the thon started that I have not been able to volunteer my time doing photo editing for health reasons.
Last year I had just had spine fusion surgery, and this year I am still dealing with some of the problems that are the result of that surgery, and my recent life-changing experience of discovering my bio-siblings and getting to meet them on the Today show in New York.
I feel terrible that I am unable to donate my time, it's something that I absolutely love doing every year, but because I can't volunteer my time, I am going to make sure that I post about the thon at least once every day until it ends, post updates about it on my Twitter stream, post on forums, and wherever else I can post about it to help spread the word and raise money for the cure.
Breast cancer effects all of us in some way at least once in our lives.
I know friends who have fought the battle with it, some won, some lost, I have had scares in my own family, and currently I have a friend whose Grandmother is losing the battle.
We need to find the cure.
Together we can help find that cure by raising money to fund research so that someday everyone who gets breast cancer can win the battle.
The 8th Annual Blogger Boobiethon began at midnight on October 1st and will run until midnight on October 7th.
In 2008, we raised $9,300.00.
So far on just this 2nd day of the boobiethon, (as of the time of this post) we have raised $2,705.00.
Let's beat last year's total!!
Donate, send in your picture, (mine will be sent in soon!) blog about it, tweet about it, put a button on your blog, do one thing from that list, (do several from that list!) and help us raise more money than we did last year!!
September 30, 2009
My life changed watching the Today show, part 3.
Ok, sorry this part took so long, I just really needed a few days to rest my tired and sore body.
When we were in the lobby talking to each other, Katie came up and told us that the crowd outside wanted to meet us, see us, so we were all escorted outside to the area where all of the people stand to watch the Today show.
People started clapping for us and taking our pictures, we all stood together and people took our picture, that was kind of weird, we're not celebs, just a bunch of people who found each other, but we did it anyway.
This is how we posed for about 100 people to take our picture.
It was really cool to see the whole thing how the fans of the show do from the outside too.
After doing that, Katie said that the limos would come and pick us up and take us back to their hotel (Joanne, Gary, and Randy's) so that we could all have breakfast together and talk for about an hour before they had to leave for the airport to go home.
So we all went to the Hilton and had breakfast together and talked for about an hour.
It was so great to be able to just sit down and talk to each other and Gary's adoptive Mom and Joanne's fiance too.
This is where Joanne and I learned that we have a ton in common aside from looking a lot alike.
Both of us have pink cell phones that had charms that fell off, her charms were a sterling silver 'J', mine a sterling silver 'K', and she had an animal, can't recall what she said it was now, but my animal charm was a cat.
We both swear like sailors, smoke, and one of our fave foods is cinnamon rolls.
We were both bummed out that they didn't have any for breakfast...LoL
Both of us were married for 4 years and divorced, and both of us have bad backs.
Joanne has never had hers treated because she hasn't had any insurance, but she said her back has been in pain for the last 20 years.
I hated to hear that, but relieved at the same time, the bad back stuff really is genetic.
Sitting there looking at her and Gary, Randy was at another table eating with his fiance and her kids, I could see so much of myself, of my kids.
For the last few years Sebastian has been saying that he doesn't have my nose or the Cooper nose, but he definitely has Gary's nose.
So weird to finally say hey, that's where you got that feature.
The hour just flew by, eating, talking, I could have sat there all day talking with them, learning all about them.
We made sure to get each others info, phone, cell phone, addresses, so that we could all stay in touch and figure out the holidays.
It was such a fast hour, they had to go get their stuff and check out, they had to be at the airport at 11:30 to fly back home, but Joanne made sure to show me a printout of our bio-mom's health issues.
Quite a few of my health problems were on it and some other stuff, she said she will make sure that I get copies of all of the medical records that she has.
I hated to see them go, I just found them, I didn't want them to leave.
After they left, Sebastian and I had about 5-6 hours before we had to leave for the airport to go home, so we wandered around Times Square that whole time.
We went in like every store that we liked, the M&M store, Hershey's, the Toys R Us, Sebastian wanted a slice of real New York pizza so we made sure to get some, it was awesome.
Sebastian loved the Toys R Us store the most, it was wicked cool, 3 stories of just tons of toys and cool stuff like this T-Rex from Jurassic Park.
It actually moved and roared, way cool.
We hung out in Times Square for hours just walking around and people watching, there is so much there to look at, it was just an awesome afternoon hanging out with Sebastian, everywhere we went though, we kept saying how much Mark would have loved it if he had come.
We missed him so much, we bought him a Star Wars toy in Toys R Us while we were in there.
Around 4:50, the limo SUV came to pick us up and take us to the JFK airport to come home.
The flight home was nice, Jet Blue is an awesome airline man, tvs in every seat so you don't get bored flying.
Sebastian loved that, something to do to pass the time that won't make you motion sick. ha ha
We got back to Tampa airport and our limo driver was already waiting for us, so we grabbed our 1 suitcase and rode home.
Mark was up and trying to clean the house for us, the kitties all came running and mewing for us, it was good to be home but sad too.
I had just met my bio-siblings and only got to spend about an hour with them.
I came home to find like 1,200 emails, some from my new extended family members who were all so happy for us, reading each of them made me cry.
This is so hard, I just found them, it's still such a shock to me, I'm still in shock over the whole thing, I don't know when that feeling is going to go away, if it ever does.
I keep thinking if I hadn't watched the Today show on Tuesday, I would have never heard Joanne say my name, Claire Marie.
It feels like a dream, like did she really say it, and I know that she did, but wow, so huge, it's all so huge.
Joanne and I keep texting back and forth, and I plan on writing Gary a letter, he's not online but his mom is, and she has emailed me, and several of his aunts too, so there's a way to get in touch with him.
I also have Randy's info so that I can stay in touch with him too.
It still feels like a dream, I never thought I'd ever find any blood relatives, I never knew my birth parents names, I had nothing at all to go on except for my birth name, so finding out that I had 2 bio-brothers and that Joanne from back in high school really IS my sister, is totally freaking amazing.
I can't even explain how this feels, all of the emotions that keep coming up, it's so hard to put into words, I just keep saying wow.
How do you even begin to put it into words?
I have blood siblings now, I have this huge extended family now, the empty places are finally filled up, it's impossible to explain how this feels.
I'm just so grateful though, grateful that they went on the Today show, grateful that Joanne said my name, grateful that the Today show flew us out there, words cannot explain how I feel.
I'm overwhelmed and overflowing.
I don't even know what else to say really, I'd be happy to answer any questions people have, I'm sure that I've left something out of the whole thing, so if anyone has any questions, feel free to post them in the comments and I'll do my best to answer them in another post.
And thank you all so much for the amazing show of love and support, it's really so awesome, thank you.
*Edited to add*
I need to say a HUGE thank you to the Today show and all of the staff there, especially Katie, Lexi, and Kari, the 3 of them went like above and beyond to make this happen.
Katie was the intern who took my frantic phone call at 8:20am on Tuesday the 22nd of September.
I made about 10 phone calls that morning right after watching the segment to every single phone number that I could find on the Today website and the MSNBC website, I started dialing at like 8:12am, within seconds of the segment ending.
All of those calls went unanswered, so I had to call 411 to try and get a good number.
The first one, someone answered and told me that I had to call back at 9:30am when the offices open, the lady wouldn't even listen to me and then she hung up.
Katie is the one who answered my second call to the second number.
The poor girl must have thought a lunatic was calling, I was screaming "Don't fucking hang up! Do not tell me to call back at 9:30! I am the missing sister, Claire Marie, from the last segment! Please!!! Patch me through to somebody, anybody who can get them a message before they leave the studio, I saw, I'm here, give them my name and number please!"
Katie took all of my info and said she'd call right back, Lexi is the one who made all of the travel plans and contacts to the local NBC affiliate in Tampa, and Kari is the one who interviewed me by phone for the local film crew and talked to me again when we landed at JFK and were on our way to the hotel.
These 3 women are amazing, they really worked hard and fast to get me and Sebastian to New York, to get the hotel, transportation, everything set up for us, so a big huge oh my god you're awesome thank you goes out to the 3 of them, they are simply the best ever.
I also need to say a BIG HUGE THANK YOU to NBC Universal for doing the segments, theirs and then mine, paying for all of us to be in New York, everything that they did to get us together, they rock.
And a BIG HUGE THANK YOU to Matt, Meredith, Al and Ann, they are all so incredibly polite and kind, welcoming and warming.
I wasn't expecting that, I wasn't expecting them to be so nice, they are reporters but they are celebs in their own right, so I was kind of prepared to not feel so 'welcomed', ya know what I mean?
Everyone at the NBC Today show studio, every single person from the reporters, the interns, the camera crew, the hair and makeup ladies, everyone was just so awesome and nice, they made me feel welcomed and not so nervous, they really are genuinely nice people.
Matt Lauer even signed autographs and talked to the kids, Randy's soon to be step-kids, Gary's Mom, and talked with Sebastian a bit more before we all went outside.
I totally forgot that I had this pic on my cell phone of him signing for the kids.
Whatever notions anyone has of the reporters on the Today show, if you maybe thought they were snobby or something, they are not, they really are very nice people, just incredibly kind and nice.
It made being there feel not so nervous.
All in all, this was a totally awesome experience.
Going to New York, meeting my bio-siblings, being on the Today show, it was all just so cool, I loved every minute of my time there and wish it could have been longer, it was just such a great experience to be a part of.
September 30, 2009
Slowly getting some back.
I'm almost back to full strength now, I just really needed a few days to rest, my body was just totally drained.
Everything happened so fast last week, it was just go go go, and my body cannot go go go without coming to a crashing halt sooner or later, and it hit me a couple of days ago.
Things are still happening, lots of phone calls and emails from places wanting to do follow-up stories with all of us, this apparently was such a feel-good story in this depressing economic time, that people are wanting more of it.
I have a ton of emails to reply to and quite a few messages on voice mail to reply to as well.
It's still all so overwhelming, I keep finding myself saying 'wow'.
But I am slowly getting it back, I have just been laying on the couch for the last few days just trying to let my back and body get rested so that I can get back up and do everything that I need to do.
I have a mountain of dishes and laundry to take care of, and eventually I'd like to clean the bathroom and vac the rugs, my house looks like a tornado hit it.
I also need to get in the bathroom and fix the shower faucets thingamajiggy because Mark keeps knocking the hand held shower head down and he's not putting it back right, so once you turn the water on, the shower head pops down and whacks you in the back or head.
It hurts when you get whacked with it, so I need to go in there and un-twist it and figure out what way it fits the holder correctly.
Anyway, I'm getting back to good so I'll be hopping on and off the net while I get some house stuff done.
Later days.
September 26, 2009
Tired and overwhelmed.
I am still trying to get caught up on sleep, emails, phone calls, everything, it's still so overwhelming.
There are so many links to this story out there on the internet, pretty soon it's going to need it's own web site directory to keep track of them all.
There's simply no way for me to respond to every single email or comment, so please don't be upset or offended if I do not reply to your comment, I just can't get to them all.
I am still getting emails and calls from other tv shows and magazines who want to do follow up interviews, it's really crazy.
The best part of this all though is the new extended family getting in touch with me.
I've gotten several emails from the adoptive families of my siblings, it's just too cool.
The teens are handling this really well, they are extremely happy for me to have found them, and they cannot wait to get to meet everyone too.
A major plus for me is that Joanne has some of our parents medical records and shared a quick printout with me while I was there in NYC, some of my medical issues are on that printout.
My high blood pressure and back problems, there were a bunch of other things on it too and once I am able to sit down and really go over it, I'll have a better handle on the medical history of our bio-mother and my own health issues.
For the first time in my life, I'll know more about my health history.
That's really incredible.
Some of my siblings do have back problems too, so it's not just me and Mark, it really is a genetic condition handed down from our parents.
That sucks but it's nice to know about it.
I've gotten several emails from my new extended family members, so I really need to try and reply to them all, so again, if I can't reply to your comment, I do hope that you understand, I just have way too many to reply to.
Thanks for the understanding, love and support from all of you!
September 25, 2009
Kitties, pictures, and belonging.
I have 112 more emails/comments to answer, I am working through them as best that I can, but it's going to take me awhile, I apologize.
I had said that Mark stayed home, he wanted to be here to take care of the cats, and his other reasons, and he watched the segment Wednesday morning.
He said that as soon as it was my part, when I started talking, all of the kitties came running into the living room to try and find me.
All of the 4 cats get really upset when I'm not home, and they get really upset when I go away and don't come back for a long time, like gone overnight, so when they heard my voice through the tv, they came running to greet me, they thought I came back.
Mark said that they were really confused when they didn't see me in the living room but I was still talking.
That's when Nova saw me on the tv.
She ran to it, stood on her back legs, and tried to touch me through the screen.
Then Kali realized that I was "in the box", she got up on the tv stand and started pawing at the tv and meowing loudly.
Then Shahiro did the same on the other side of the tv stand.
Mark said Carmine was freaking out, he was running all over the room, up on the couches, jumping up on the coffee table, running to the tv and meowing, pawing at it, all of the kitties were crying he said, confused and upset, they could hear me and see me, but couldn't get to me.
That made me feel bad, just thinking of my kitties all crying and confused like that.
When we got home around midnight, they all came running to see me, meowing, rubbing all over me, following me as I unpacked, mewing like crazy, and pretty much wherever I went, they were all right with me.
When I finally laid down to get some sleep around 8am, Kali, Shahiro and Carmine all laid on the couch with me, and Nova laid on the back of the couch within reaching distance so I could pet her every few minutes till I passed out.
From left to right, here's Gary, me, and Randy.
From left to right, Joanne, Randy, Gary, and me.
It's really just so cool to have people who look like me.
I can totally see my face in theirs, their faces in mine, and features of both of my sons match all 4 of us.
It's really an amazing feeling, I can't even really describe how this feels.
I may have been able to hold back the tears on the show, but I keep looking at these pictures and crying.
It was really so awesome meeting them, I can't wait to get in touch and stay in touch, figure out holidays, all of it, this is what I've been searching for my whole life, where I belonged.
I think all adoptees have that feeling, where do we belong, do we look like someone, is there anyone out there that is a part of me.
I have that now.
I finally have that feeling of belonging, fitting, looking like someone, that empty feeling from knowing that you were adopted, from knowing that out there somewhere may be someone who is like you but you have never found them, is finally filled up.
It's all so overwhelming, I'm like exploding on the inside, all of the years that I just never thought I would find anyone, I had pretty much given up on it, and now all I want to do is see them again, talk to them, any kind of communication with them to get to know them better, to start making up for the lost time.
The size of my family just exploded, I have all of these people in the families of my siblings who are so thrilled for all of us, they can't wait to meet me, and I can't even tell you how that feels, it's so hard to explain.
And none of what I feel about this, about finding my siblings and being welcomed into their families, can ever take away from what I feel about my adoptive family.
I love my Mom and Dad so much, they raised me, took care of me, loved me like I was their own birth child, they never made me feel like I didn't belong, I belong with them too, this is a different kind of feeling, this is the empty spaces being filled, all of those empty places where there were no answers, those places are finally filled and I don't want my family to think that they aren't my family anymore, they will always be my family, they are my family.
My family just got a lot bigger is all.
September 20, 2009
Technology and internet is a beautiful thing.
I love the internet and computers, I really do.
I think that it's been like the only thing that's kept me sane these last 10+ years.
I'm like trapped in my house, so being able to get on the internet and talk to people and be able to laugh and cry, to just be with people instead of the 4 walls, chat on forums, chat with friends on Twitter, to be able to work and make some money, and also be able to shop for just the right gift for someone for their birthday or Christmas, is really just so awesome.
I used to be able to spend hours shopping in a brick and mortar store for just the right gifts, but since all of the medical crap stopped me, being able to shop and look for that special thing, is just so awesome to me.
I think a lot of people take the internet for granted, we're all so used to having it, computers are practically in every single home, most people don't realize just how truly amazing it is.
You can make travel plans, buy plane tickets, order pizza and all kinds of other food, you can play games, watch videos, listen to music, get an education, find old friends and stay in touch with everyone through email for free which is way cheaper than calling by landline or cell, heck, most people don't even have landline phones anymore.
Anyway, I do like 95% of all of my shopping online, the only stuff that I can't buy online is my groceries, and that's only because it's not available in my area yet.
Starting next month, I will begin my holiday shopping, finding the things that the teens would like for Christmas and doing a lot of comparison shopping to find the stuff on sale to make sure that I get the absolute best prices out of all of the online retailers.
For a long time now though, I've been finding the best prices at Buy.com, they are consistently lower priced on every single item I've needed, even if it's just $5bucks lower, it's still a lot cheaper because almost every single item has free shipping too.
I take shipping prices into the calculation when doing all of the comparison shopping, and they really are lower in the long run.
I've noticed that some e-tailers are selling their products at super low prices, but then they get you on the shipping and handling charges, charging what the product would normally cost + a few bucks extra, so in the long run, you're paying exactly what you would have paid for the product + shipping costs anyway.
That's not much of a sale.
I'm not really sure what they want this year, maybe some more video games for their Xbox360, maybe that Batman: Arkham Asylum, that game loos A-maz-Zing! They also have a ton of other great Xbox360 games for some really great prices, and I know that there's been a price drop on the system and most games too, so I'll probably get them games and then some clothes, or whatever they tell me that they'd like to have.
I gotta start asking them what they want to have.
They aren't little kids anymore, I don't have to be sneaky and ask them to write a letter to Santa. ha ha haha
September 19, 2009
Ahoy me mateys!
Arrr, today, September 19th, is International Talk Like a Pirate Day!
E'eryone is supposed t' spend the whole day talkin' like a pirate and spendin' the day doin' all kinds o' pirate acti'ities.
Thar be e'ents takin' place all o'er the world today.
I know thar is a Pirates for Parkinsons Walk that happens today, tis' 50 walks, 1,000 people, all o'er the world, t' raise awareness and money t' help find a cure for Parkinsons disease.
Thar be many other e'ents happenin' today too, maybe one near you, so if you have nothin' much t' do today, why not find an International Talk Like a Pirate Day e'ent, and go have some fun and be a part o' an e'ent that could help a lot o' people.
Ahoy mateys, argh! Tis' Talk Like a Pirate Day 2009, argh!
September 8, 2009
The construction workers must die.
Today has just been 1 of those kinds of days, and the city is to blame for it
The city is still doing the sidewalk construction and they are finally at my driveway to do it when they screwed stuff up big time.
I was sitting here this morning trying to do some work and reading up on some diet pill reviews because I'm still too fat in my opinion and need something that works, when all of a sudden, the internet wouldn't work anymore.
The city workers were out there digging up the dirt they put there last week so that they can plot out the sidewalk areas, when the dummies hit the telephone wires that are in the ground, with the backhoe.
My whole driveway is completely blocked off, no cars can get in or out at all, they have it all blocked off with cones and barricades for the night.
But anyway, when the internet and phone stopped working, I had to use my cell phone to call Verizon, at this point I didn't know the construction workers had hit the lines.
I called Verizon and they had me do all kinds of things to try and restore the connection, and nothing worked, and then the customer service guy asked me if there was any construction going on.
I told him yes, and he said that was the problem and he'd send a service tech out today.
After he told me that, I went outside and tried to talk to the workers and the Spanish worker told me in wicked bad broken English that "it no big deal you no phone, they fix after we finish digging", and he was laughing about it like it wasn't a big deal at all.
When the Verizon tech came out, I told him what happened and what the worker had said, and he got mad and went over to yell at them.
He had to run all new lines, re-bury them, and he had to find a worker who spoke English to tell them to not cement those wires in, that Verizon had marked out the lines, they have to not be cemented in.
He found a guy, a supervisor, and he explained everything to him and then came back over and fixed all of my stuff.
It was about 5 hours today where I had no internet and no phone.
It really sucked because I had a ton of work to do and couldn't do any of it.
I am very glad though that Verizon came straight out and fixed it, that's probably the best service from them that I've had in the 10.5 years that I've had them as my phone and internet providers.
When my net finally came back on, there was just so much going on, mistakes, questions, I had a ton of emails to answer, things were just nuts.
And now here it is almost 9pm, and I've barely gotten any of my stuff done.
Grr, I could have really used those 5 hours to get stuff done.
Hopefully the workers won't hit the phone lines again tomorrow when they come back to pour the cement in my driveway that cannot be driven or walked over for the next 3 days.
That really blows.
September 4, 2009
Class action suit against the school.
In today's mail, both the teens got letters from a lawyer group about a class action lawsuit.
I hadn't heard or read anything about it, usually you see ads for class actions on tv, in commercials, I'm constantly seeing class actions for mesothelioma and all kinds of other stuff like Heparin and stuff, but this is a class action suit against the Sarasota County school district and the Princeton Review.
Last year ALL of the students of ALL of the county's high schools had to go onto the Princeton Review website and enter in all of their personal information in order to take practice SATs and other tests.
What kind of personal information?
ALL of it.
Name, address, date of birth, phone number and social security number.
If a student didn't have their SS# on hand, the school filled it in for them.
Well a girl who graduated this year with Mark, went to the Princeton Review website and found all of her information posted publicly.
And then she found every single other student's information posted as well.
Thousands of teenagers SS#'s were posted to the website along with all of the information needed to commit identity theft if someone was going to do that.
The girl and her family hired a lawyer who has now started a class action suit.
If your kids got a letter in the mail, it means that their information was publicly posted to the website, they are automatically part of the class.
Both my sons got letters.
ALL of their information was posted, anyone could have taken it and tried to commit identity theft with it, along with thousands of other students in this county.
This is so unbelievable to me.
I have protected the teens SS#s like a rabid guard dog because my ex-mother in law stole my information and destroyed my credit, I didn't want it to happen to the teens, but thanks to the county school board and the Princeton Review, it may have happened anyway.
I'm still reading through the 5 page letter, all about the class suit, what will happen if it goes forward, if they win, if they lose, settle, whatever.
I'm just so flabbergasted about it.
No one knows exactly how long all of that information was posted publicly, but it was all there for anyone to look at and take any information that they wanted to take and thousands of teenagers credit could be completely ruined.
August 30, 2009
Suuurrre, NOW I find it cheaper.
Do you know how many of these automatic RF switches I've bought over the years at $20 or more?
Man, too many.
And here Buy.com has them on sale for just $3.49 with free shipping as they do with like 99% of their items.
Unreal man.
We've had so many different games systems and VCRs, and DVD players, and when having 2 tv sets needing these switches, I've probably bought about 7 of them in the last 10 years.
We had a Sega Genesis, a Nintendo64, a Sega Dreamcast, a PS2, and now the Xbox360, so we've had to have these switches to be able to hook everything up to the tv but through the VCR or DVD player without having to constantly get up and manually switch the cable cords, but every time we switched out a game system or bought a new VCR or DVD player, something always ended up happening to the RF switch when hooking or unhooking it.
Something would always end up snapping off either end of it, or a cat would have chewed through it*, so I had to keep buying these switches in order to keep making sure that everything ran smoothly with no hassles, cuz let me tell ya, having to switch between a game system and a VCR so the teens could watch a VCR movie when they were little, was exhausting.
They'd go from playing Sonic the Hedgehog to wanting to watch the Little Mermaid, to wanting to play Star Wars Battlefront 2.
So needless to say, we went through a lot of these switches with each new game system that I bought them.
I have sworn, no, vowed, that the Xbox360 will the absolute last game system that I ever buy them.
If they want another system, they can get jobs and buy it themselves.
Continue Reading �
August 27, 2009
All this rain sucks.
I twittered earlier today about the rain sucking the life outta me, but for a couple of reasons.
First, the rain makes all of my joints ache and the titanium freeze up which causes me to be all stiff as a board, and second, because the septic system has been having issues all day.
It's been heavy raining off and on all day and night, and because the city has dug up all of the ditches to install new drainage pipes and a sidewalk that they haven't finished yet, the rain has nowhere to go except into my lawn, seeping into my lawn and putting a ton of pressure on the drain field for the septic system and tank.
In other words, our toilet refuses to flush properly.
I've been trying all day to get it to flush correctly, plunging it every few hours, keeping towels around the base of the toilet in case it overflows so that I don't have a huge flooding mess to clean up later.
I'm so glad that no one in the house is sick, no one has the flu, no one has a stomach bug, and no one has food poisoning which would cause the same type of bowel issues as phentermine side effects would.
Ya know, things like diarrhea, nausea or vomiting.
I'm thrilled that everyone's bowels are just fine and the toilet water that I'm plunging is just clean water.
I'm so wiped out, so tired, but I cannot sleep tonight.
I am wide awake, it's my body that is physically tired, my brain is wired, but I also need to stay awake so that no one flushes the toilet in the middle of the night and causing a huge flood in the house.
It would totally suck to have to wake up and start cleaning up gallons of water like we've had to do in the past.
I absolutely hate it when the toilets overflow because the septic system is under pressure, it totally sucks.
Cleaning up water for hours with towels, putting them through the spin cycle, then the dryer, then laying them down to sop up more water, so yeah, I have to stay awake tonight to make sure that doesn't happen again.
August 27, 2009
Thursday 13 #7
I haven't done a Thursday 13 in a good long while, so I thought I'd start doing them again, and I'm going to pick up right where I left off with the numbering.
The last time I did it was on January 26th, 2006
My Thursday 13 for today is a list of things that I would like to get accomplished around the house and other things, by no later than Sunday night.
1. Do all of the dishes, yes, all, this includes the silverware and the never ending (it seems) dirty cups on the counter that appear to be multiplying like rabbits.
2. Clean the entire kitchen, wash all of the cupboard doors down, counter tops, and the kitchen window sill.
3. Clean the bathroom, thoroughly.
4. Dust all of the pictures hanging in every room.
5. Dust and polish all of the side tables and coffee table, tv stand, tv, computer tower, my desk and all of the shelves.
6. Clean the AC filter and wipe down the AC.
7. Take out all trash and recyclables from kitchen and bathroom trash cans.
8. Clean the mirror and all the windows in the living room.
9. Wash down all of the interior doors, knobs, light switches, and front door, inside and out.
10. Put away all my clothes piled on my bed, and dust and polish my dresser, shelves, and bureau mirror.
11. Sweep and mop all the terrazzo flooring.
12. Dust, sweep, clean up the game room/Mark's bedroom.
13. Vacuum the living room and dining room carpeting.
If I can get all of this cleaning done by Sunday night, I will feel so much better.
This is all stuff I'm sure other people can complete in 1 day or in even just a few hours, but it takes me a long time because I usually end up in pain after just doing the dishes.
I'm not going to push myself so that I end up in too much pain and totally useless for a couple of days, so I'll just do it all nice and slow, but it will get done.
I want my house to be clean so that when I start digging through everything to get rid of stuff for my eventual yard sale, I won't have to deal with a huge mess everywhere.
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August 23, 2009
Are you in Farmtown too?
I've read on quite a few blogs lately, (5 in just the last 2 days) how they (the bloggers) aren't really sure if they are going to keep their blogs running anymore, that they don't even feel like blogging anymore, because they spend so much time on other sites like message forums and Facebook.
Personally I don't see the big thrill of Facebook, I guess that I just don't "get it".
I don't play any of the games, I don't install any of the applications, I very rarely reply to messages, I probably log in about once a week and see all of these people who've responded to my Twitter posts that are being cross posted automatically to Facebook, and most of my FB contacts also have Twitter, yet instead of replying to me on Twitter, they reply on FB because that's where they are all of the time.
They are on there playing games like Farmtown (I think that's what it's called) and Mafia Wars, all kinds of things, and they keep recruiting me to join their 'whatever game it is that they need people to join', and then I don't, and then they get upset.
I've been blogging since 1997, it's like a part of me now, I'm just so used to it being a part of my daily routine, and I'm always reading up on the latest free seo tools to use to increase readership, and joining all the various social networks so that I can link to my blog to get more readers, post about any contests that I'm running, alert people of other blogger's contests or great posts that I've read, and stuff like that.
I logged into FB just now, and I've got a Farmtown gifts request, and I don't even play the game or use the application, whatever it is, yet people keep sending this stuff to me all of the time.
I just don't get it.
What I like about FB is that it allows me to find and connect with old friends from a long time ago.
I found one of my best friends from high school on there just a few weeks ago, and it was amazing to catch up with him and see where his life took him.
That's what I use FB for, but I cannot sit there and play all of those games or install all of those apps and stuff.
It's just a total waste of time to me, it accomplishes nothing, in my opinion.
I understand boredom and playing video games, but none of the FB apps and games do anything for me, I get no thrill from them, I prefer to interact with people through their blogs, read up on their lives and goings on.
I'll be sad if the 5 people who said they may stop blogging to do FB all of the time actually do stop blogging, but eh, whatever makes them happy, I just hope they don't ask me to join their farm and stuff, I don't like to play those games at all, they bore me.
August 22, 2009
When the lights go down in the city.
Ooooh! I found a Dorcy LED Rechargeable Spotlight on sale for just $14.99!
During hurricane season, (June 1st to November 31st) the possibility of losing power happens every time there is a hurricane or even just a thunderstorm, so I am always well stocked on batteries, flashlights and candles, lighters, etc, so that when the power goes out we can see, so we don't have to sit here in the dark until the lights come back on.
Every summer I buy at least 1 new flashlight and at least 2 packages of batteries for it and the other flashlights that I already have.
But a spotlight?!
Oh man that would be awesome to have!
Those are so bright, you can see everything with one of those.
$14.99 is a great price for it too, they are usually $30-$40 for one of them, so saving about $15 is really awesome.
If we had a spotlight, that could be the main light source, and then each of us could have our own flashlight to take to our bedrooms at night, to go to the bathroom, and to go look outside to see if there's any damage to the house, or anything that we need to pick up so it doesn't get thrown through a window, ours or a neighbors'.
I might just have to pick that up when I get paid this week.
I can definitely use it.
August 22, 2009
Passed out and stayed out.
After not sleeping for 3 days in a row and having to walk to and from the high school on Friday, I laid down to take a nap around 1pm, stayed asleep until around 6:30pm, was awake long enough to make the teens dome dinner, and then I went back to sleep and didn't wake up again until 11am this morning.
Guess my body just really needed it.
Oh, we got out of the 3-hour long orientation and tour because by the time I got to the school, I was in like a wicked lot of pain, there was no way that I could stay there for the whole 3 hours and walk around the whole building, so they gave Sebastian his schedule and let us leave.
Reader Steve L., contacted me about the HP inkjet cartridges, he can use all 3 of them for his printers, so good deal. I will mail all 3 of them out to him on Monday morning.
I'm so glad that someone could use them, they were just sitting here taking up space not being used.
Today is just a nice and quiet day, not too much going on, so I'm probably just going to chill out, maybe play some Sims3 or something, don't know.
Later days.
August 21, 2009
Need HP ink cartridges?
I have 3 packages of HP injket cartridges to sell, they are the wrong sizes for my HP A524 photosmart printer
I didn't get the digital camera/printer bundle, only the printer with model number A524, which takes a different cartridge, HP 110 Tri-Color Inkjet Cartridge
I have 2 of the HP 45 Black Inkjet Print Cartridge (51645A)
I will sell them for just $18 each, price includes shipping.
Packages still factory sealed.
I have 1 HP No. 78 Tri-Color Inkjet Print Cartridge (C6578DN)
I will also sell this one for just $18, price includes shipping.
This package is opened, I opened it because I did not know at the time what cartridge my photo printer took, but the ink has never been used, the 'pull strip' on the cartridge is still intact, only the box was opened to see if it would fit.
(I physically sized it)
If interested, leave a comment below with a valid email address, and I will contact you.
I will only ship within the US, cannot mail to Alaska or Hawaaii, sorry.
Thanks!
August 20, 2009
No tax-free shopping days in Florida this year.
Sebastian goes back to school on Monday the 24th, and I won't have his supply list until this Friday the 21st, but I won't have the money to get any of the "special" supplies that are asked for or required by some of the teachers, until I get paid next week, or if I get some child support this week or next Monday or Tuesday.
That is an issue/gripe/thing that I have, but I'll save it for another post.
Anyway, like I said in the post below, I have all of the basics, pens, pencils, notebooks, folders, spiral bound notebooks, loose leaf paper, colored pencils, markers, graphing paper, erasers, etc etc, because I went and did all of the supply shopping last year, and so did a friend.
A friend of mine whose son was going to be a freshman, had gone to some store, I can't remember the name of it, and she bought her son all of the supplies he needed, but the store was having a wicked major sale on back-to-school supplies.
If you bought 1, you got 1 free.
On everything.
If you bought 1 notebook, you got 1 free.
If you bought 1- 12 count pack of pencils, you got 1- 12 count pack of pencils free.
Etc etc etc.
She got her son 1 of everything that he needed, and so she gave me, for the teens, all of the extra free supplies that she got.
I'm really glad that she did too, because now I already have all of that stuff so I won't need to buy anything except for the special teacher-required items, and with no tax-free school shopping this year, money is tight for everyone in the state.
Some stores are having really good sales because of the no tax-free shopping days and sales are down 8% this year and expected to drop another 4%, so stores are scrambling to get people in the door with their own back to school sales on supplies and clothing.
Sebastian doesn't need much, he has some new sneakers already, some new shirts, some new shorts, but I want to get him at least 2 more pairs of shorts, and like 3-4 more shirts, and he needs a new backpack.
He'll be starting school on Monday, so he'll have to use his old backpack until I get paid and can buy him a new one.
I found 1 on sale at Buy.com that I really like, and it's from a luggage maker, Samsonite, so it should hopefully, last him this year and next.
Kids are so rough on their backpacks, I don't get that.
I can buy and use the same exact purse every single day for years at a time, and not get it filthy or have it end up with holes in it, but a kid can take a brand new backpack and have it disgusting and full of holes in the first 5 months of school.
It's a Samsonite Urbanite Laptop Backpack, on sale for $29.99 down from $39.99 with free shipping, and I know it says it's a laptop bag, and even though he doesn't have a laptop, the fact that it's made for laptops and by Samsonite, tells me that it's a strong and sturdy bag and should last him a good long time.
I hope.
August 18, 2009
Coming back around.
I've been down and out of it for so long now, depressed, off in my own world inside of my head, angry, upset, scared, and feeling incredibly alone, an isolation that was destroying me from the inside out.
My sons had to grow up too fast over these 3+ years, they had to take care of me and each other after the surgeries, and because of that plus my depression, they missed out on a lot, lost some of their childhoods, and for that, I will always be sorry.
Most of what happened in our lives was beyond any of our control, the surgeries had to be done, but when I started to get depressed, I tried to deal with it on my own and that was a mistake.
I knew deep down that I couldn't, but I didn't want to admit that I needed help, I thought it would pass, because in the past when I started feeling bad, it always did pass on it's own without help.
That was a mistake I made this time, and now that I asked for and got help, I see very clearly that it was a mistake.
Now that I am starting to come out of the depression and come back around to being my old self, I am seeing very clearly mistakes that I made and other things, and I am taking back control of my life.
Last night was an eye opener around here, I'm not going to talk about what happened, but it showed me just how out of control things were, and so now I'm taking back control, I'm going to take back my life and my home and family, and not allow things to get to the point that they had gotten to ever again.
I also need to get back on track with my work, because of everything that has been going on, I lost focus and drive, and I am not ok with that, I am not ok with how I've handled myself concerning work over the last 5+ months or so, so I'm taking that back too.
I almost feel like I need business plan consultants to help me get back on track, to help me schedule my time better, but I think I can do it on my own, I was doing it very well before the depression started, so I should be able to pick this up and do what needs to be done every single day again, get my organization back, schedule my time better again.
I feel really good today after having a massive breakthrough last night.
There are still some things that will not be fixed for a long time, I still have some anger to deal with, but I'm working on it and I know that in time things will be ok again, things will be back to how they were before I lost myself.
I found myself again last night, I missed being that person, and so did my sons.
My breakthrough last night lifted all of us back up, it was a huge sigh of relief being let out last night, and so yeah, I know that we are all going to be ok again.
I'm coming back around, and it feels really good to be back.
August 16, 2009
A long and trying day.
Today was Mark's 18th birthday and I hadn't slept on Friday night, insomnia, again, so I was up and doing things in the very early morning hours.
Just doing some general clean up of the house, trying to get myself organized and ready for the day.
The teens had plans for dinner for Mark's birthday, so Mark insisted that we go grocery shopping before they leave for dinner so that I didn't have to carry, lift, and put it all away on my own, so I called and asked Mindy if she could help me out with a ride, she said yes, (thank you! Again!) and off Mark, Mindy and I went to do the shopping.
Sebastian decided to stay here this time (he usually does the shopping with me) and wait for my friend Jon to call/show up with their fixed computer.
Did I post about what happened to their computer?
It's one of the reasons we canceled/postponed our trip to Maine.
For several weeks, both of the teens had been complaining about some major lag when playing WoW, and even some lag when using the internet.
I did all the cleaning, deleting of stupid crap files, defragging, etc etc, and yet it still lagged.
I asked on the local forums what people thought could be causing the issue, and Jon replied that it was probably a blown video card, and if I wanted, he could get a brand new one, better than the one I had put in there a year ago, for way cheap and he'd install it for a wicked good and low price.
It was parts, labor, and a long drive from Orlando to Sarasota for less than the cost of the new video card had I gone and bought it myself.
I price checked video cards after his initial post on the forums about it being a blown card, and the same one he put in for me brand new, was priced at $199 and up at all of the tech stores in our area, so yeah, I got a helluva deal on the card and someone installing it for me.
He came here last Saturday, worked on it a bit, and then said he needed to take it home to fix it really good, so I said cool, he took it home, did the work, and brought it back early this evening.
When he got here, he must have wondered what was up, I looked a total mess.
I was sweating from running the vac on the rugs, doing some dishes, cooking Mark's hot wings for his birthday fave food like I do every year, and crying.
The birthday dinner plans that were made fell through.
Mark was upset but said he half expected it to happen, and Sebastian kind of lost it, so there was a lot of shouting, crying, and a lot of talking about all of the events of the last month.
It was not a good scene here, and then Jon knocked on the door while I was cleaning to try and de-stress myself while I bawled my eyes out some more.
I cannot fix what has happened, I can't make it better, and so I had to let the teens say what they needed to say, let their stress out, and Mark said something that made me feel better but horribly sad at the same time.
I'm not going to post it here, I'm just done trying to make it right when no matter how hard I try, no matter how much I show, it will never be enough, nothing will ever be the right thing or be good enough.
Every family has a black sheep, and I'm wearing the name tag.
After the computer was all hooked up and the teens were calmed down and ok, I finished making what I consider to be the best batch of super hot wings I think I've ever made for him.
1 bag of wing parts, 1 cookie sheet, 3 coats of cayenne pepper, twice baked, and then soaked in a 12 ounce bottle of the hottest sauce he picked out at the store today.
The wings were cooked so perfectly and the meat was falling off the bones, and Mark said it was the most awesome blend of hot and sweet I had ever cooked for him.
I got a thumbs up as he ate his wings and then went back for a bigger serving of seconds.
He eats his wings straight up, no ranch or blue cheese dipping sauce, just more hot sauce if he thinks he needs it, but this time he didn't add more sauce, he said they rocked as they were.
When he finished eating and I was cleaning up and putting the small amount of leftovers away, he gave me a hug and thanked me for the wings and for being a good mom to him all of these years even through some mistakes that I've made here and there along the way.
I know that it's gonna be ok around here.
After everything else was done and I finally sat down to chill out for the night, I realized that the furnace filters, I mean AC filter, was dirty again. It was so hot in here, you would have thought that I did have a furnace on with the heat cranked up to 99!
I know it was partly hot because I baked the wings in the regular oven, but as soon as the AC filter gets dirty, it stops pumping the cold air out as strong, and you notice the difference almost immediately, so I cleaned it out and it cooled off in here fairly quick.
I need to measure the washable filter that it comes with, and then I want to try and find a slightly thicker HEPA filter to put in it.
This house is so dusty, even more so with the sidewalk construction going on, that the filter gets wicked dirty wicked fast, and so I think getting a thicker, better filter might help cut down on the dusting issue a little bit.
I have to dust off the tv, tv stand, and coffee tables just about every other day, and I have to dust everything about every 4 days, that's how bad the dust gets in here.
Crazy dusty! ha ha
I just saw the clock.
It's finally not Saturday anymore.
Here's to hoping that Sunday is a better day for all of us ok?
I mean it, even if your day was rockin', I hope that today is even better.
August 14, 2009
Smelly Washer giveaway winner!
I was supposed to draw the winner for the Smelly Washer product yesterday, but I was sick and hadn't slept in days.
I apologize to all of the entrants for that, I am really very sorry.
So without further ado, the winner chosen by random.org is.......
The comment was.....
And it belongs to Faith!
I will email Faith and she will have 48 hours to email me her mailing address.
If I do not get a reply from her after that time, I will choose another winner using random.org again.
Thanks to everyone who entered, and even if you didn't win, you can buy the product and get 10% off using the promo code "singlemom" (minus the quotes) in the box clearly marked promotion code.
The promo code is only good until August 31st, so make sure you use the code to get the discount if you want to buy the product at a better price.
August 5, 2009
STILL cannot access any of my biling features.
So Verizon was here on July 21st to install the Fios internet, and when the guy was totally finished hooking it all up, he asked me if I knew my username and password to login to my Verizon account, ya know, so I could check on my bill, pay my bill, that kind of stuff.
I told him that I did know them, but that it was pointless because for oh, the entire length of time that I have lived here, it is now 10.5 years at this address and phone number, I have NEVER been able to access any part of my bill online, I have had billing issues with them not auto-billing every month like they are supposed to do, and I've never, ever, even gotten a paper bill.
Ever.
Seriously, if you do a search on my blog for Verizon, you will find post after post after post about me and the billing issues with Verizon.
The guy assured me that will never be an issue anymore, as a matter of fact, he swore to me that all of the billing issues were fixed.
He asked me what my browser of choice is, I told him Firefox, so he set my Internet Explorer home page to go directly to my Verizon account start page, but ya know, because it was a brand new Fios account, there wouldn't be any information available for at least 1 week, but after that, he told me to wait just 1 week, and then he swore that I would be able to view my bill, pay my bill, that all of the last 10.5 years of billing nightmares would be over.
Really?
Do you really believe that?
Yeah, me either.
You can make this biggie to see it.
It was installed on the 21st, today is the 5th, I waited a good and fair amount of time before I tried it, and see?
It says the EXACT same thing that it has said for the the last 10.5 years, "this tool is currently unavailable."
I have never, ever, ever, been able to see my bill for my internet services, ever.
I can access my phone bill no problem, but internet?
Nope, not once in 10.5 years.
Every single month I pick a day, usually between the 1st and the 7th day of the month, and I call the Verizon internet billing department, and I have to explain the entire thing, I cannot see or pay my bill online, I do not get a paper bill, never have, I don't know how much my bill is, I do not know when it is due, and no matter how many times we set up auto billing, it never auto bills, so please, dearest customer service person whom I am trying so desperately to NOT scream at, could you please tell me how much my bill is and allow me to make a payment over the phone using my debit card today?
The completely confused and frustrated customer service person takes a look at my account and sees that I have been making this same exact phone call every single month for the last 10.5 years, and they start apologizing like crazy, they tell me how much, and they let me make a payment, and then they transfer me over to the technical department who swears up and down, black and blue, on my boy scouts honor ma'am, this will be the very last time that you will ever have to do this, we will fix your Verizon internet account online so that you can see and pay your bill online, and set up auto billing.
They promised me that once I switched to Fios, it would be an all new account so there wouldn't be the same problems that I've had in the past.
As you can see, I'm still having the same, exact, problem.
It has never, ever, been fixed.
After all of these years, I don't even get mad anymore, this is just freaking comical now.
I'll call them in a few days, ask what day my monthly billing date will be, and then ask them if I'll be able to make payments over the phone.
There's really nothing that I can do about it, nothing.
I've given up trying to see my bill online or get a paper bill delivered, it's just never going to happen.
I've accepted it.
Om.
August 5, 2009
Smelly Washer review and giveaway!
I was recently given the opportunity to try out a product called Smelly Washer.
You're probably thinking, smelly washer?!
Why would you want to make your washing machine smelly?
Or maybe you're not.
Smelly Washer is actually a really simple to use product that removes any bad smells from your washing machine like that moldy mildew smell, odor, or fungus, or any stinky washing machine smell that your top or front loading machine may have.
It's a washing machine cleaner that is so simple to use and they guarantee that it will remove the bad odors from your washing machine.
How does it work?
All you do to remove the bad smells from your washing machine is to add 1 level cap full of the Smelly Washer product to your washing machine in it's hottest setting and let it agitate for just 2 minutes.
Then, stop the washing machine and let it sit overnight.
In the morning, let it finish the cycle, that's it, the bad odors are gone.
If you add 1 teaspoon once per month in a "soak" cycle, it will keep your washing machine fresh all of the time.
You can even use it to remove any mildew or other bad smells from towels or clothes.
Throw your stinky towels in the washer, add 1 level cap full of Smelly Washer, let it agitate for 2 minutes, stop the machine and let them soak for 2 hours, then add your detergent and finish the cycle.
The bad smells will be gone from your towels and clothes.
I had a good week and a half to try this out and it really does work.
It's a hot Florida summer, so the teens are taking showers, throwing their wet towels in the laundry basket, and I'm finding them days later all moldy smelling.
OMG!!! P-U!!!!
Smelly Washer really did get rid of the bad smells, and I'm giving a bottle of it away to 1 lucky reader, and I'm also authorized to offer 10% off if anyone wants to order it.
If you decide to order, just use the promo code "singlemom" (minus the quotes of course) in the box clearly marked promotion code.
The promo code is only good until August 31st, so make sure you use it before you lose it!
Now, do you want to try and win a full size bottle of Smelly Washer?!?!?
Here's how!
Rules:
The giveaway is only open to United States excluding Alaska and Hawaii. (Sorry Alaska and Hawaii!) *sad*
This giveaway is open to all, not just bloggers, but rules must be followed.
Only 1 entry per person/family/household.
Only 1 person per IP address can enter the giveaway and complete the required entry and extra entries.
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 August 12, 2009.
I will pick the winner randomly using random.org on Thursday August 13th, and email the winner and 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:
The required entry:
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 what the absolute worst smelling thing is that you have ever had to wash.
This could be dirty laundry, or it could be that casserole dish you found in the way back of the fridge with something in it that you totally forgot about for 6 months.
I want to know the worst smelling thing you've ever had to wash!
For extra entries:
The following are all for 1 additional entry each, and you must leave a separate comment for each 1 that you do.
If you bundle entries in 1 comment, the comment will be deleted and disqualified.
1.
Post a new comment telling me how you got rid of the offending odor.
2.
Blog about this on your blog, link back to this post, and leave a separate comment with the url to your post.
The post must remain on your blog for the duration of the contest, 1 week.
Link to Smelly Washer's website in your post.
The url is http://www.smellywasher.com/
3.
Post about this giveaway with a link back to this post on Twitter, and then leave a comment on this post with the link to your Twitter post about this contest.
You can Twitter the following if you want to;
Kat is giving away a full size bottle of Smelly Washer! Come enter!! http://bit.ly/D5eXN
That's it!
Good luck!!
July 30, 2009
I won a contest too!
Back on July 6th, I entered a giveaway at She Scribes to win an Only Hearts Club doll.
There were 139 entries and I only entered just once, that was it.
These are the super cute dolls, totally adorable, posable, and more real type of dolls, no unrealistic body figures, just real looking little girls that each come with their own pets.
I really love these dolls, they are just real dolls, no big boobs, no crazy body figures, just honest to good looking dolls that look like real pre-tween girls.
I had been talking about getting these dolls for my nieces for a long time, the dolls are just super cute, and I think that my nieces would love them, so it was such an awesome surprise to get the email saying that I won!
I went to Buy.com to see if they sold the dolls, and they do!!!
They may not be on sale right now, but they are not so expensive that I can't buy 3 of them one at a time for my nieces and their step-sister Kayla. I would never buy 1 child a doll and not give all 3 of the girls a doll too.
So even though my sister and I are on the outs, I am still going to go through with my plan to get the girls their own doll, and I'm already one up now, so whichever doll I get, I'll pick the other 2 that I don't have.
Have you ever seen these dolls?!?
They are just too cute!!
Check them out!
Kimberly of She Scribes told me to pick out 3 dolls in order of preference because there is no guarantee that I will get the one that I want first, so I had to pick 3.
So in order of preference, I chose Olivia Hope, Anna Sophia, and Lily Rose.
I don't know if the dolls will come in those exact outfits, but it really doesn't matter, I'm just excited that I won one so that I can now start buying the other 2 dolls so all 3 of my nieces can have one just like I've been wanting to do for months and months now.
So even though a lot of bad has been happening for me lately, something good has risen from it all and makes me feel better.
I can't wait to get whichever doll they send me so I can start buying the other 2 dolls for Susan, Skye, and Kayla.
I miss them like crazy, they are my girls, but if I can't see them, at least I can mail them a box full of cute dolls filled with my love for them.
So thank you Kimberly of She Scribes, you've made me very happy today, winning this is so much appreciated, I can't even express it, so really, just a huge thank you.
July 30, 2009
The winner of the Jessie Steele vintage apron giveaway is....
The winner of the Jessie Steele Vintage Apron in the pattern of Summer Lemons giveaway as chosen by random.org is comment #14!
And that comment belongs to...
Becca of Becca's Buzz!
Congrats Becca! I hope that you will enjoy your new apron!
I have already emailed her and she will have 48 hours to reply to my email with her shipping address or else I will draw a new winner.
I want to say a very special thanks to Single Edition and Jessie Steele for sponsoring this giveaway.
I had a ton of fun doing it, I learned some great recipes and tasty ideas from my entrants, and I look forward to having many more giveaways in the future.
Continue Reading �
July 22, 2009
No sleep, sleep, and OCD.
I couldn't sleep on Monday night, and I didn't even get a nap in on Tuesday afternoon because Verizon was here installing the Fios internet.
The guy was here for about 3 hours or so, he had to run some new lines into my house because the lines that were there on the outside of the house, had all been cut by someone.
That's really weird, who would cut the lines every so many feet?
Anyway, by the time he left, I had a massive migraine and was dead exhausted, but I still had to make dinner for the teens before I could get some sleep.
So I made dinner and tried wicked hard to stay awake, but the tiredness was totally winning out.
I went and laid on the couch and set the alarm to wake me up in 2 hours, I just needed to take a quick nap so that I could get back up and do the rest of what I needed to do.
So I slept for 2 hours starting at 7:30pm, woke up at 9:30pm, and then I went and did all of the dishes that I needed to do from dinner, and I picked up the rest of the mess that got made by the Fios guy.
I had to put my coffee table back where it's supposed to be, I had to fix my monitor again, he moved it, ugh, he moved it from it's perfect spot and position, and it took me nearly 20 minutes to set it right again.
OCD is a terrible thing man, it's just very disruptive to my peace and well being to have my things moved around and things got dropped on the floor under my desk, and so yeah, it was kind of hard for me to have him here for 3 hours touching my stuff, moving things, dropping things.
Once I got everything picked up and back in place, finished the dishes, I was ok again, I could relax for the rest of the night.
I went to bed around 2am, which is actually very early for me, I usually don't go to sleep until 5 or 6am, and I slept until around 11am, which is very late for me, I actually got some sleep for a change which was nice.
The teens went to the store and picked up subs for dinner, some eggs so I can finally make the cake that Sebastian has been asking me to make for like a week now, and I talked on the phone to a friend who is dealing with the same stuff I have been dealing with.
Chronic pain, depression, medication and being accused of being a drug addict.
She has been dealing with it for 20 years, her family won't even speak to her, and when they do, it's negative, it's not understanding, it's misinformed about chronic pain and medication to treat that pain.
It was very helpful to talk to her because it helped me see that I am not the only one dealing with this kind of thing, and that no matter how hard it is, no matter how much it hurts to have people think that, that we know the truth, our doctors know the truth, and someday, or maybe even never, other people will learn the truth, they will get educated on chronic pain and medication. They will learn that the meds don't get us "high" or "stoned", that it's impossible for us to get messed up on them due to tolerance after years and years of being on the medication, that we sign contracts with our pain management doctors and if we break those contracts by doing any illegal drugs, that we will be kicked out of their office and blacklisted to all other pain doctors in the state that we live in.
Those contracts will be broken if we do any illegal drugs, and they will know if we do any illegal drugs because they urine test us every single month when we go in for our regular every 30 day appointment.
Our doctors can even call us up for random drug testing if they want to.
They can call us and tell us that we need to be at their office at a certain time that day, and we have to take a urine drug test, and if we test positive for any drugs other than what they prescribe us, that's it, the contract is broken, we get kicked out and blacklisted.
I have passed every single drug test, regular monthly testing and random call-up testing, for as long as I have been seeing pain management doctors, which is now 5+ years.
Someday, I hope, the people who think that I'm doing illegal drugs, will realize that I'm not, that they will get educated about chronic pain and the medication.
Until that day comes though, there is nothing that I can do except to cut the negativity out of my life, keep doing what my doctors tell me to do, and to keep trying to live my life the best way that I can for me and my sons.
Later days.
July 21, 2009
Jessie Steele Vintage Apron giveaway!
Thanks to Single Edition and Jessie Steele, I have a new item to giveaway to 1 lucky reader!
Jessie Steele sells vintage inspired aprons that are beautiful as well as functional.
From their site;
Jessie Steele's vintage-inspired, hostess and kitchen aprons prove true the old adage that beauty and style are timeless. Influenced by the romantic visions of a bygone era, and designed in vibrant colors, flirty patterns and figure flattering shapes, these fine quality, retro-chic cooking aprons make the perfect fashion accessory in or out of the kitchen.
I have 1 gorgeous apron to giveaway to just 1 lucky reader.
The design is called "Summer Lemons", and it is a really flirty and fun print, and it's perfect to wear during the summer months to help keep you clean while cooking or baking in the kitchen all summer, or even while having a BBQ in the back yard.
Heirloom quality Designer Hostess Apron constructed from a fine Linen/Cotton Blend. Ties at neck and waist for easy adjusting. Contrast Bias-trimmed at edges. Button details on the chest and pocket. An absorbent terry towel attached at the hip adds extra utility in the kitchen. Appropriate for not just cooking, but for any occasion!
I received 2 of these aprons, 1 for me to keep, and 1 for me to giveaway to 1 of you!
When I opened the package for my apron, I instantly fell in love with the print!
It is just too cute!
And I love that it comes with a detachable terry cloth towel buttoned on the left hand side, so that I have a towel right by my side to wipe my hands on while cooking.
I hate having to look for a dishtowel, or trying to remember where I sat it down last as I'm busily preparing dinner.
The apron will fit most any size, you can tie it any way you like so that it will fit you comfortably!
Rules:
The giveaway is only open to United States bloggers, excluding Alaska and Hawaii. (Sorry Alaska and Hawaii!) *sad*
This giveaway is only open to people who have blogs, this is a blogger only giveaway.
Only 1 entry per person/family/household.
Only 1 person per IP address can enter the giveaway and complete the required entry and extra entries.
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 Tuesday July 28th, 2009.
I will pick the winner randomly using random.org on Wednesday July 29th, and email the winner and 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:
The required entry:
For a chance to win, leave me a comment telling me what your best food dish is, what is the #1 food item that you love to make, cook, or bake, the #1 thing your family and friends ask you to make!
For extra entries:
The following are all for 1 additional entry each, and you must leave a separate comment for each 1 that you do.
If you bundle entries in 1 comment, the comment will be disqualified and deleted.
1.
Post a new comment giving me the recipe for the best food dish that you make!
2.
Blog about this on your blog, link back to this post, and leave a separate comment with the url to your post.
The post must remain on your blog for the duration of the contest, 1 week.
Link to Jessie Steele's website in your post.
The url is http://www.jessiesteele.com
3.
Post about this giveaway with a link back to this post on Twitter, and then leave a comment on this post with the link to your Twitter post about this contest.
You can Twitter the following if you want to;
Kat is giving away a vintage inspired Jessie Steele Apron! http://bit.ly/4hgjM
July 6, 2009
Monday morning can't sleep time.
It was a typical weekend around here despite it being a holiday.
While we value the freedoms that we have and thank the brave men and women who have fought and died to secure our independence, actually going out and celebrating the holiday is not something that we generally do.
I hate crowds, I hate the traffic to and from the fireworks, and all the smoke and different bbq smells get to me, so the teens and I stayed home and just watched movies and played video games and stuff like that.
I also wasn't feeling all that well, really super tired but unable to sleep, like right now, and I was having issues with my medication, so it was just for the best that we stayed home anyway.
Besides, several of our neighbors had plenty of illegal fireworks that they were lighting off and nearly setting everything in the hood on fire with.
One went off so close to the roof of our house, that our entire house shook, pictures fell off the wall, the cats freaked out, and I thought I was going to have a heart attack.
It was so loud and with everything shaking, I had no clue what the hell they lit off, but wow.
The teens went out to see what it was and who was doing it, turns out it was the drunk lady 2 duplexes down, with a driveway full of drunks, and they were lighting off these huge mortars and stuff.
Mark yelled at them to aim them the other way or he was calling the cops (all fireworks except sparklers and small stuff are illegal, those mortars they had are most definitely on the cannot have list) because that last one landed on our roof.
It didn't really, but him yelling at them was enough for them to start aiming in a different direction the rest of the night, they clearly didn't want to get caught with all of the fireworks that they had, it's a huge fine if you get caught, and so no more of our pictures fell and the cats were able to stop freaking out so badly.
It's very early in the morning and I can't sleep, so I've been browsing all over the internet, can't wait until the Fios gets installed and it gets faster, that's gonna be awesome.
I checked in on all of the forums I like to read and play on, posted to a few, caught up on 2 days worth of blog feeds, and then got bored, so I'm doing the laundry right now because Mark said that George is supposed to call in the morning and take the teens to the movies, so they need clean clothes, it had to be done anyway, and then after I move it over to the dryer, I think I'll go play Sims3 for awhile.
If you have not yet tried the new Purex 3-in-1 laundry sheets, you really need to.
I swear, they make doing laundry so much easier, just 1 product, no measuring, no extra products to buy to soften the clothes, it does it all, and it works just as good if not better than all of the other liquid laundry detergents that I have ever tried. You can get a coupon to try it out if you click that link so you can try it even cheaper, I am very impressed with it, that's why I keep telling people about it. I love how easy it is, how great the clothes smell, and how soft they are when they come out of the dryer, and if you have scent allergies, or sensitive skin, they even make a hypoallergenic version of it.
Those of you who are Sims addicts like me, do you find yourself playing for like crazy amounts of time without realizing it?
Like, I'll sit down at say, 1pm, and before I know it, it's about 7 or 8pm and the teens are staring at me to feed them or they begin asking me when dinner is gonna be.
Oooops!
And I hate that I get so wrapped up in the game, and then I have to do stuff, like answer the phone, or make dinner, or go to the bathroom. I think if I got even more into the game, I'd end up buying some of those adult-sized disposable diapers so I wouldn't even have to get up to pee.
I'd still have to get up and feed the teens and answer the phone, but at least 1 of the issues would be taken care of. haha
June 21, 2009
For the Puppy Monster.
June 13, 2009
Distracting myself.
I figured that I needed to distract myself for a little while, to just stop thinking about everything for awhile because it's done nothing but send me further into depression, so I decided to go and see what Buy.com has on sale this week.
The mix of items is always unique, from computers to video games, to jewelry and all kinds of other stuff, they have a wide selection to choose from every week.
I found a heck of a deal on an HP Pavillion Notebook, it's just $569 down from $1,200, and free shipping.
I absolutely love that almost every single item they sell has free shipping.
Anyway, I saw the notebook and thought of Mark.
He's probably going to need a laptop for college, and while I don't have the money right now, I know that Buy.com is always putting laptops on sale, so I'm sure that when I do have the money, they will have a nice one that we can get for him.
This is a very powerful notebook, it has;
Microprocessor AMD Turion X2 RM-72 Dual-Core Mobile Processor
Microprocessor Cache 2.10 GHz
Memory 4096MB
Memory Max 8192MB
ATI Radeon HD 3200 Graphics RS780M
Video Memory Up to 1918MB
Hard Drive 400GB (5400RPM)
Multimedia Drive SuperMulti 8X DVDR/RW with Double Layer Support
and so much more.
The customer reviews are excellent too, 5 out of 5 stars for a refurbished notebook, that says something about how good this notebook is in my opinion.
We're just waiting for the woman from SCTI to get in touch with us about his classes, she said that they don't start until the end of June or the beginning of July, so she will probably be calling in the next few weeks, and then we'll have to get him all set up with what he needs, he'll do the 2 classes at SCTI, and then go to MCC in the fall for their criminal justice courses.
June 5, 2009
I don't think I could do it.
I have insomnia again, so I have been browsing around the internet and I decided to just go through google images and look at stuff.
I googled all kinds of things, monsters, various kinds of surgical procedures, hairstyles, flowers, shoes, cars, and then I googled hotels and came across the Stratosphere hotel.
I really do not think that I could ever stay at this hotel.
Ever.
It is 113 stories high.
It is 1,149 feet high, and is the tallest building in the west!
I love roller coasters and thrill rides, but at the top of this hotel, they have rides, extreme rides.
There's the 866 foot high X-Scream teeter-totter, the Big Shot, and Insanity, the Ride.
At the top of the hotel.
Ack!
I really do love roller coasters and thrill rides, but I am not a fan of heights, really big heights, so a roller coaster or ride at the top of this hotel would absolutely make me puke, I just don't think I could do it.
I would try it, maybe.
haha
No really, if I could, I would go to Vegas, I would go all of the way up there, I would buy my ticket, I would get on, and then I would have to keep my eyes closed the entire time.
I know that if I opened them and realized that I was at almost 900 feet off the ground, that I would be in an absolute panic and that would make me puke.
Maybe. haha
No, I could probably do it, I'm sure that I could do it, I really do love roller coasters and fast speeds, and roller coasters go by so fast, that the ride would be over so quickly that I wouldn't even have time to realize how far off the ground I was.
I would definitely do it if I could.
Yeah, I would definitely do it.
June 2, 2009
Sims 3 is almost here!!
I bought my copy of the Sims 3, the collector's edition, back in December, and I should have it in my hands in a day or two.
But if you're a simmer and haven't bought your copy yet, Buy.com has the regular version on sale this week for just $44.95.
You can get the Sims 3 and play in a totally open world.
No more being stuck in your house or having to wait for loading screens while your Sims go from one place to another, you can now walk out the front door, go across the street and get into an argument with your neighbor for being messy.
You can totally customize every bit of the game from the Sims appearance, to their personalities, giving each of them up to 5 different personality traits that will make every Sim you create a totally unique individual.
I am totally looking forward to getting it, installing it, and giving that open world a try.
I also want to test how the Sims can die or be killed.
I know that's a bit sadistic, but when you create a Sim that turns out to be a total butthead, you have to get rid of them before they destroy your whole family or life plan.
I bought the collector's edition because it comes with a special down-loadable sports car, the official Prima guide book, some Sims 3 music, and a USB drive shaped like the plumbob.
I cannot wait for it to get here!
It's going to be so much fun!
W00t!
June 1, 2009
Rubbermaid giveaway winner!
I've drawn the winner for the 20 piece Rubbermaid storage contest, and the winner is!
That comment number belongs to:
The winner is Chickie!
Congrats Chickie!!
If you can please email me your mailing address, I will send it to the Rubbermaid contact, and they will ship ot out to you immediately!
May 31, 2009
What kind of ruler are you?
While we were sitting all that time waiting for graduation to start, my sister was showing Sebastian and I all of the stuff her Apple Ipod Touch can do.
Then she realized it had wifi in the arena, so there must be some really good cell towers around the Robarts arena neighborhood, because Sebastian went online, watched a few videos on youtube, and some other stuff.
But she had this wicked cool game on there, it's an app called Pocket God, and it is absolutely hysterical!
You are god and you are in total control of all these little islander people, and you get to kill them in a ton of totally funny ways.
Lightening, sharks, volcano explosion, and turning your ipod will make them fall off the island, and so many other funny things.
We were all just sitting there laughing our asses off over all the things you can do to the Oggs.
Check out the video below.
May 27, 2009
Expensive hobbies.
I don't watch a lot of sports, occasionally I'll watch some football, I do enjoy hockey, I check out a few games on tv every now and then, but I have never understood golf at all.
Whenever it's been on and I've stopped clicking through the channels just to check it out for a few minutes, I am amazed at teh self control of the audience.
They are all quiet, they don't make any noise at all until the golfer sinks his ball.
Then they just clap politely.
From playing some mini-golf a few times in my life, I do know that it's a hard game to play, you have to have good concentration, good hand and eye coordination, and I do know that you have to try and sink your ball in as few strokes as possible.
I've never known anyone who was totally into the sport, but I think if I had a husband or boyfriend who was totally into it and spent a ton of money on golf training aids, ($7600???) I'd be pretty dang annoyed.
I know that everyone has their "thing", the hobby that they just love to do and the cost is way down on the list of concerns to them when it comes to doing their hobby, but I just can't see spending thousands on that hobby, unless of course you have a ton of money anyway and spending it on your hobby is not going to affect the family food budget.
I am a huge movie lover, I love to watch movies and I buy the movies that I totally love.
But I don't spend a lot on them, I try to find them on sale, I'll even buy them second hand, I get them at yard sales, and I've found some great deals on movies at stores that were going out of business.
Do you have a hobby that costs a lot to do?
Does your spouse/partner have an issue with how much you spend on your hobby?
Does it affect your relationship because of it?
May 27, 2009
Carmine sleeping on pile of clothes. his fave spot.
May 27, 2009
Just testing flickr from cell. it doesnt always work for me.
May 25, 2009
A new leaf for single moms.
The fabulous Alaina of Ms. Single Mama, has worked with a jewelry designer on Etsy to create a gorgeous necklace for all the single mamas out there, to wear and not feel so alone.
The artist is Tres Joli, and they have done an incredible job on this beautiful piece of jewelry.
Quoting Alaina about the necklace;
"This necklace represents the growth, passion, love and strength every single mother carries for herself and her children.Inspired by my readers and their input I worked with an Etsy designer to create this custom necklace. The larger leaf represents the single mother - finding herself again, the open leaf is ready for a new beginning. The second smaller leaf represents her child or children."
I know she won't mind me showing it off, so here it is, our new necklace.
It is absolutely beautiful and I cannot wait to wear mine and take it with me while I'm in the hospital.
It will be a beautiful reminder that I am not alone, which has been one of the fears that I have been dealing with the last few weeks.
Thank you Alaina for the beautiful design, and for everything else too. *wink*
May 24, 2009
Lost the whole damn thing.
I was in the middle of writing a post up when the whole internet went down.
It didn't just go down, we like had a power flicker, my power strip shut itself off, and so when everything came back on and the net came back up, I had lost everything that I was doing at the time, which included a post that was like 1 sentence away from being finished.
UGH.
May 24, 2009
No child support payments on the holidays.
My ex paid the child support this week, he paid it on Thursday, but it must have been after 5pm or something, because they did not deposit it to my card on Friday, and because it's a weekend, a holiday weekend too, they will not be depositing it until Tuesday or Wednesday.
I really could have used that money this weekend, there's stuff we gotta do, like mail out George and Amy's tickets to Mark's graduation because Mark and George won't be seeing each other before the 30th, and I'm out of stamps and Sebastian used up all of the change in the family change pig, and a couple other things that we needed to do like price some dress shoes for Mark, see if we can't find some halfway decent and reasonably priced thank you cards, and the teens wanted to do something else that I can't recall right now.
Oh well, at least he paid right?
May 24, 2009
Catching up on my sleep.
I had been awake for about 3 and a half days with only about 5 hours of sleep during that whole time, so I finally went to sleep on Friday night around 12:30am, and slept through until 10am on Saturday morning.
I stayed awake for a couple of hours, long enough to make the teens some lunch and then start watching some old, but fun and cheesy movies, on a new station that we have here with the digital tv thing.
We have a station called This, and all it does is show old movies, classic tv shows like The Outer Limits, The Patty Duke Show, and Mister Ed, in the early morning hours, and the childrens' shows like The Country Mouse and the City Mouse Adventures, The Busy World of Richard Scarry, and Wimzie's House, until around noon, and then they show all of the old movies for the rest of the day.
It's a pretty decent station, so my plan was to try and catch up on some more rest by laying on the couch and watch Poltergeist II and Poltergeist III
Well that didn't quite happen.
I fell asleep about 1 quarter of the way through Poltergeist 2, and woke up just as Once Bitten was ending.
By the time I had woken up, the teens had already made themselves some dinner.
They decided to just let me sleep because they knew how long I had been awake, and there was plenty of easy things for them to cook for themselves in the NuWave.
They didn't make a mess or any noise, so it all worked out ok.
Around 9pm, we decided to take a walk to the store to get some more food, we were out of lunch meats and needed some more milk for breakfast.
I'm still not totally caught up on my sleep, I feel like I need at least one more really good nights sleep, and then I'll be ok.
During my wide awake for 3 days and my sleep on Friday and Saturday, it seems that all of the blogs that I follow decided to do a lot of updating.
A whole lot of updating.
It's either going to take me a very long time to catch on on all of those, or I'll end up marking them all as read because of how long it would take me to read through them all.
But while I was doing a quick scan of my feeds to see if there was anything that I should definitely read first before marking them all as read, I did notice that one of the female bloggers that I read, had a post all about shoes.
I saw a wicked lot of pictures of wicked cool looking women's shoes.
High heels, low heels, flats, chunks, flip flops, oh so many cool looking shoes that I will probably never be able to wear again.
I've been stuck wearing flip flops for quite a few years now, and it's starting to get very depressing.
I miss wearing heels so much, and chunks too.
I still have 3 pairs of my fave shoes just in case I can ever wear them again, but it's not looking too much like I will.
*sigh*
May 22, 2009
Insomnia! Leave me hangin' on all ni-ight! oh-oh-oh, damn insomniaaaa!!!
So uh, yeah, I've been up all night with insomnia again.
I did finally get some sleep yesterday afternoon, I was able to sleep for about 3 hours, and then I just woke up, and was totally ready to go again.
It's now a little after 4pm, and while I'm tired, I cannot sleep.
I had so many things that I wanted to do today, I have all this work that I wanted to do, I wanted to get it all done, but did I do it?
No-o-o-o!
I spent like the entire day just answering emails.
The whole day, answering emails.
That is not what I wanted to do today, but that's what I did.
I kept saying to myself,
"Self, as soon as you get done with this email, you need to get crackin' on all of that work that you need to get done or it's never going to get done."
And I would even answer myself,
"Self, I KNOW that I have work to do, but these emails, these are important, they must be answered. These people took their time to email me, the least I can do is take the time to email them back. As soon as I get done with this one, I will get started on the work that I need to do."
But then as soon as I replied to that email, I got another one that my insomnia deep-fried brain told me was just as equally important as the previous 7 emails.
So no, I did not get a single thing done today that I meant to do.
But I do feel like I accomplished a lot though.
It usually takes me like 2-3 days to answer emails, and I did them all today, so that in itself is a huge accomplishment.
All of the stuff that I needed and wanted to get done today is all work I can do on my computer, which is a good thing because my arthritis is flared up today big time.
My right knee is HUGE, it's all swollen and sore from the arthritis, I have been limping around all day long every single time that I needed to get up and pee or get a drink.
Owie wowie, painful.
I am really hoping that I will still be able to get at least some of what I want to get done, done, but I don't know for sure if I will be able to.
Dustin and Stacey are supposed to come over tonight for dinner and a movie, and then when they leave, whatever time that ends up being, I hope that I'm going to be somewhat coherent enough to get some work done.
I have a couple of product reviews that I need to write up, not telling you what they are for yet, you'll have to come back to find out, but I can tell you that none of them will be weight loss pill reviews because I haven't been allowed to take any weight loss pills since the beginning of September.
Ok, I need to get off of here for just a little bit.
I need to pee again, (damn blood pressure meds make me pee like a racehorse on lasix), get another drink, (that could be contributing to the pee thing too, hrm....) and call Dustin to find out what time they are coming and ask about what they want to eat for dinner, and also fold the last load of laundry in the dryer.
Ok, really gotta go now.
Later days!
May 21, 2009
Toofs, food, and freebies.
Last night my sister and my girls (my nieces) came over for a little while, and my sister had called me on the way to tell me to have my camera ready for when they got there.
She said that Susan had a surprise for me, so I made sure the camera had freshly charged batteries, and we all went outside to wait.
Just about 5 minutes later, they pulled under the carport and they all unbuckled, sis told Susan to get out and to "Go smile for Aunty Kat!"
So Susan got out of her big girl seat and out of the car, and as she made her way to me, she was giggling all of the way.
When she got close to me, she stopped, and sis had motioned for me to be ready, and then Susan smiled a huge smile.
This is what she had to show me!
She lost her front tooth! Her first big girl lost tooth!
She was so excited about it, and then told me that mommy gave her $1 for putting it under her pillow last night. (Sis is also an atheist, and we both have raised and our raising our kids without made-up stuff, if you don't believe in 1 fairy tale, you don't believe in any of them)
Sis and the girls also stopped at McDonald's to surprise us with dinner, and the teens were totally happy with that, even though they also wanted what I was going to make for dinner.
When I went grocery shopping the other day, and Mark and I got to the meat department, Publix had packages of huge turkey legs on sale for just $1.99 per pound, so I bought 2 packages with 3 legs in each package, and my plan was to cook them up in the NuWave for dinner.
Well sis brought McDonald's, so I left the turkey legs in the refrigerator and planned on cooking them tonight, Thursday.
They were perfectly fine, as a matter of fact, they were still frozen solid.
My sister and the girls left around 6:45pm, and almost an hour later, Mark asked if I was going to cook them up.
I told him that I could, but they could handle being in the fridge for 1 night and that I would cook them Thursday night.
He gave me the ol' puppy dog, please mom, I'm gonna starve to death if you don't cook those look, and he really didn't have a huge meal like he usually gets when he goes to McDonald's with George or whoever, so I agreed to cook them up.
The NuWave comes with 2 racks, a 6inch that flips over to become a 1inch, and then a 4inch rack, so I grabbed the 4inch rack, and placed all 6 legs on it.
They were packed on a bit tightly, but they all fit in there.
I set the power level to high, and pushed the timer button...
Because they were still frozen pretty darn solid, I set the cooking time for 30 minutes per side, for a total of 1 hour of cooking time.
I didn't even think of wrapping the bony end of the legs in aluminum foil like I normally do when cooking a whole turkey in the oven, I don't know why I didn't, you can use aluminum foil in the NuWave.
As a matter of fact, you can use any type of utensil, foil, parchment paper, or cooking pan in it as long as it fits.
If it fits inside the dome, you can use it in the NuWave.
But I forgot to cover the bony ends of the legs, so of course the skin and meat pulled back, but they still came out so freaking good!
Look at that gorgeous golden brown color!
I didn't eat any, and neither did Sebastian, but Mark took 1 and we will reheat the remaining 5 for tonight, and I will also make the mashed potatoes and gravy that is supposed to go with it.
I took a tiny piece of meat off of Mark's so that I could see how it came out, and it was super awesomely good.
The meat was cooked to perfections, and totally tender and juicy.
I swear, the NuWave is actually making me be a better cook...hahaha
One of the benefits of cooking with the NuWave aside from how quickly and perfectly it cooks everything, is the fact that it drains off the fat.
The infomercial makes a claim that I didn't believe, I know, infomercials are all hard to believe, and I fell hook, line, and sinker, for the NuWave. (But the NuWave really does do what the infomercial claims as far as cooking goes!)
But they claim that if you cook with your NuWave at least 3 times per week, that because it cooks and drains all of the extra fat, greases, and oils out of the food, that you will lose weight and lower your cholesterol.
I've now had the NuWave for 4 months as of today, I received it on February 21st, and I have monthly doctor's appointments where they put me through the wringer and test for everything under the sun.
I'm always being weighed, measured, and tested for all kinds of things, so anyway, because I have only been cooking in the NuWave, and have not used the regular oven even once since getting it, my cholesterol has lowered, and I have lost 12lbs.
I think if I could get my hands on the most perfect and best diet pills for me and my body type, and continue to use the NuWave for every single meal, I bet that I could lose even more weight.
I was shocked when my doc told me that I had lost 12lbs.
She weighs me every single month, and sometimes she tells me if I'm up or down, but she usually holds out for a significant change before saying anything.
12lbs is pretty dang significant in my opinion.
W00t!
And I've been up all night again, insomnia, again.
So I made myself useful while I was up.
I went through the fridge and took out all of the food that was in there in its original packaging, not sealed up good, and was going to spoil if I didn't get them packed up correctly, and so I packed everything up nicely with a whole bunch of my new Rubbermaid storage containers.
I put the deli ham, cherry tomatoes, salsa, the sliced cheese, the block of extra sharp cheddar cheese, the leftover salad from Tuesday night, the tortilla chips, the Werther's caramel and chocolate candies, the leftover sour cream, everything that needed to be sealed up and stored better, into the new Rubbermaid storage containers.
Doing this had an added benefit.
The fridge now looks all nice and organized.
If you're new here or haven't heard about it yet, in the post directly below this one, you can enter to win your very own 20piece set of Rubbermaid storage containers.
Entering and getting extra entries is really easy, so if you would like your own set of Rubbermaid containers, go read the how to enter rules and enter.
And now I think I'm finally tired enough to go to sleep.
If you do enter, I will verify your entries when I wake up and send you a notice that you've been entered.
Please do make sure that you do the required entry or I'll have to disqualify you.
I am only saying this because I've now had 3 people fail to do that 1 thing, and it has disqualified them.
I was even really nice about it and emailed them letting them know that they needed to come back and do that 1 thing.
Oh well.
Good luck and later days!!
May 19, 2009
Rubbermaid giveaway!
I'm having another giveaway here on my blog, and while it's not a piece of Wilmington NC real estate, it is something with 20 pieces!
Back in January, I won a 20 piece set of Rubbermaid's Easy Find Lids storage containers, and when I got them, I posted about them here on my blog.
It was a 20 piece set, 18 regular pieces, and 2 Produce Savers containers.
They are so great!
They are all stack-able, and because the lids all fit together, you can't ever lose a lid, the big lids fit all of the big containers, the small lids fit all of the small containers.
The lids all snap together, and then the lids snap to the bottom of the containers, I haven't lost or misplaced a single container or lid yet because of this, it's an awesome set!
I use the Produce Savers to store fresh fruit and veggies so they don't go bad.
The design of the Produce Savers does a fantastic job keeping everything nice and fresh.
I use all of the various sizes of the Easy Find Lids containers for snacks like potato chips, candies, salsa and other dips, because let's face it, the packages most of those foods come in, are not really made to keep the food fresh once you've opened them up.
I also use them for any leftovers that we may have, (Ha! With 2 teen boys, leftovers are only a dream! They may get leftover and placed in a storage container for about 2 hours before 1 of the teens polishes it off!) and they are microwavable and dishwasher safe, (I don't have a dishwasher, but it says they are dishwasher safe) and they are pretty stain resistant.
So far, not a single container has a stain in it.
I love my set so much, I use them for everything all of the time, and when Rubbermaid contacted me about another set and hosting a giveaway, I said heck yeah!
This is a different 20 piece set than the 1 I won in January.
This is exactly what is in the set that I am giving away!
The winner will get 2 Produce Savers in various sizes, 3 of the Easy Find Lids containers in various sizes, 3 Lock-Its in various sizes, and 2 of their Premier containers.
This is the exact set that 1 lucky winner will receive!
The prize:
Rubbermaid has offered up 1 of these awesome 20 piece sets to 1 lucky winner!
Rules:
The giveaway is only open to United States bloggers, excluding Alaska and Hawaii. (Sorry Alaska and Hawaii!) *sad*
This giveaway is only open to people who have blogs, this is a blogger only giveaway.
Only 1 entry per person/family/household.
Only 1 person per IP address can enter the giveaway and complete the required entry and extra entries.
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 Sunday May 31st 2009.
I will pick the winner randomly using random.org on Monday June 1st, and email the winner and 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:
The required entry:
For a chance to win, leave me a comment telling me what you use your storage containers for the most often.
Do you use them for food only?
Or the kids crayons?
Or arts and crafts supplies?
Tell me how and what you use storage containers for the most!
For extra entries:
The following are all for 1 additional entry each, and you must leave a separate comment for each 1 that you do.
If you bundle entries in 1 comment, the comment will be disqualified and deleted.
1.
Blog about this on your blog and leave a comment with the url to your post.
The post must remain on your blog for the duration of the contest.
2.
Post about this giveaway with a link back to this post on Twitter, and then leave a comment on this post with the link to your Twitter post about this contest.
You can Twitter the following if you want to;
Kat is giving away a Rubbermaid 20piece set! Go enter for a chance to win! http://bit.ly/XkVO4
4.
Follow Rubbermaid on Twitter.
5.
Follow RubbermaidTwo on Twitter.
So there ya go, that is the prize, and it is an awesome prize, and what you need to do to enter, and what you can do for extra entries.
Please follow the rules, and good luck!!
May 17, 2009
A little over 1 month to go.
The last few days have been absolutely horrendous for me.
We're beginning the rainy season, and so my titanium rods just do not like the rainy weather at all.
I have been in incredible pain from my tail bone all the way up.
Yesterday was absolutely miserable, and today when it rained again, I just felt like screaming.
I couldn't get comfortable in bed, on the couch, in my chair here, anywhere.
And I couldn't eat either.
Being in that much pain makes me not want to eat, so taking any of my diet pils or something like nuphedra wasn't needed at all this weekend.
The smell of food seemed to upset my stomach, so I've barely eaten anything since late Thursday afternoon/evening.
In yesterday's mail, I got a letter from Cindy, my surgeon's nurse.
The letter stated all of my pre-surgery dates, and the date of surgery.
I'll be having my pre-op testing and meeting with the anesthesiologist on June 10th at 9:30am, and then I have to go back to my primary care on the 17th, and get surgical clearance from her again even though I already got clearance from her, they want some more blood work done from her, and something else.
My surgery will be on June 29th, and I need to be at the hospital at 6:30am with surgery beginning at 7:30am.
It's all scheduled and happening, so I need to start prepping myself physically and mentally for this.
I have just a little over a month to go before I go in, so I need to get myself ready.
I have no idea how long it will be after the surgery before I can come home, and then how long it will be before I am able to get back up and blogging full time again.
Mentally, I am not ready for this one, spine fusion number 3.
My brain is having a really hard time accepting that I'll be in the halo brace for anywhere from 3-6 months, and the possibility of a trach tube.
And I'm afraid that this surgery will cause even more hair loss.
I lost a lot of hair after the last surgery in September, it's very thin these days, and so knowing that they will be shaving off a lot of hair underneath up to the middle of my skull, and also shaving off some spots in 4 places at the crown so they can attach the halo brace with screws, has me a bit worried that I'm going to lose a lot more hair, have it just fall out.
Maybe I should just shave my head before I go in, that would make it a lot easier on the surgeon I know, and it would also make trying to care for my hair much easier after surgery, I have no idea what trying to brush my hair with that brace on will be like.
Naturally curly and long hair gets tangled very easily, so that brace might just make it even more of a pain in the butt.
It's something to think about anyway.
Oh, if I owe you an email, I'm trying to work on it.
It's still raining here off and on, and I'm hurting pretty bad from just sitting here typing this post out, so I think I need to lay down for a bit again.
Later days.
May 13, 2009
Free chocolate Fridays!
Every Friday from now through September 25th, the Mars candy company, is giving away 500,000 coupons for a free candy bar!
All you have to do is go to the Mars Real Chocolate Relief Act every Friday at 9am, enter your birth date, then email address, and then complete the registration form within 5 minutes, and they will snail mail you a coupon for a free candy bar within the standard 4-6 weeks.
The legal notice:
Offer valid from 9:00:00 AM ET to 11:59:59 PM ET on the Friday only of each week beginning 5/8/09 and ending 9/25/09 ("Offer Period"). Offer fulfilled as a coupon ("Coupon") redeemable for consumer's choice of one (1) single-sized package of any M&M'S® Brand, MILKY WAY® Brand, SNICKERS® Brand, 3 MUSKETEERS® Brand, TWIX® Brand and DOVE® Brand product (together, "Participating Products"). Offer good while supplies last. In order to claim your Coupon, you must submit your complete and correct name, address and email address ("Registration Information") within five (5) minutes of receiving the on-screen message requesting your Registration Information. Failure to submit your Registration Information within five (5) minutes will result in your Coupon being forfeited. Limit: 250,000 Coupons per Friday during the Offer Period. (They raised the limit from 250,000 to 5000,000 after the 1st Friday resulted in the site being bogged down by millions of visitors) Allow approximately 6 weeks for delivery of Coupon, which will be sent by US mail to the address provided as part of the Registration Information. Limit: one (1) Coupon per email address per Friday and four (4) Coupons per household during the Offer Period.
It really is easy too, I got through last Friday, and all you have to do is go to the site at 9am on Fridays, enter your birth date, and then email address, and then fill out the registration form with your mailing address, and then they will send you a confirmation email letting you know that you got in, and they will be snail mailing you a coupon within 4-6 weeks.
Yum!
I love chocolate!
May 11, 2009
Single and happy.
I've been wanting to write about this particular subject for some time now, but things in my life just kept coming up, and so posting it would have just felt like the wrong time.
It still does feel like the wrong time, but enough procrastination.
I'm part of this huge community of bloggers, all bloggers, and then we get broken down into groupings, and my particular grouping is the single mom bloggers.
But I don't seem to really fit with most of them either.
Almost every single mom blogger I know is either currently dating, looking for a date, dating multiple people, using online dating services, living with a boyfriend, looking for a boyfriend, just looking for mr. right.
And I'm not.
I'm not dating or looking for anyone to date.
I haven't been looking for that for a very long time, and guess what?
I'm happy.
I'm happy being by myself, I don't feel like I need someone to complete me, to fix my broken and single life.
I don't need any diamond rings, I don't need a piece of paper, I'm really quite happy being single.
I've been raising my sons on my own for 15+ years now, and we're all doing ok.
We've had our share of hard times and bad times, the teens have wanted me to be with someone so that I could be happy, but I always have told them that I am happy.
I enjoy being single, I can come and go as I please, I sleep on whatever side of the bed I want, I don't worry about having to please someone else, I don't worry about breaking up or doing something that would cause someone to break up with me, I am just truly happy being single.
There are other people out there who are happy being single too, not feeling like we need to be partnered up like society tells us that we need to, and there's a website that's just for those happy single people, Single Edition.
It's not a dating website, it's just a site for happy singles.
There's articles on travel and leisure for singles, expert advice, tech and gadgets, shopping, money and careers, and single living.
It's a really good site set up for truly happy singles.
There's life beyond dating, living life on your own terms, you are not defined by whether or not you have a partner, you are defined by who you are, as an individual.
Who said that we have to be with someone?
Who decided that we have to be a couple, that the only way to true happiness is by being partnered up with someone else?
You can have a truly happy and meaningful life being single and living life on your own terms.
May 11, 2009
Thought about it for 2 seconds.
Like many other bloggers, I've thought about calling it quits, shutting down my blogs, quitting working online, just getting off of here and not coming back.
Every blogger who quits has their reasons, but the most stated reason is that other bloggers had finally gotten to them, and they just couldn't deal with it anymore.
Lately I've been under some fire, some pressure, from various people, other bloggers, because of how and what I post here on my blog, and how I do my job on a forum.
I've read the criticisms about my blog, and while I don't agree with everything that has been said, I do agree with some of it.
I know that I post TMI (too much information) sometimes, I know that I post things that other people would never post about, but I also have my own fine line that I never cross.
Believe me, I've come very close to posting certain things about myself and my life, and then I realized that I was at my own line and decided to not cross it.
What my line is isn't important, but I do have one.
I've been upset for the last 24 hours or so because of some things that are being said by another blogger who knows absolutely nothing at all about me, doesn't even interact with me on those forums, but she's got a bee in her breeches that she has me all figured out.
She seems damn proud of herself at the moment too, she is under the impression that I am committing Munchhausen by internet, committing emotional fraud, always looking for attention, and that I'm always on that forum saying "Look at me! Look at me!" because I post a lot.
I wrote about this yesterday, because like I said, it is bothering me, but not for the reasons people may be thinking it is.
I'm not upset because gosh darn it, she's got me all figured out, that I'm always wanting attention and dying for people to notice me, that I've put myself in a position of authority because I want or like the attention, no, I'm upset because that's what she thinks, and that's not what the facts are.
I didn't put myself in a position of authority, I can not put the name "moderator" under my own name on those forums, the owners of said forum put that there after asking me to do that job.
It is my job to interact in the threads where people are asking questions, where people want an answer to a question.
It is my job to be there on those forums and respond to people.
Does anyone think it's easy being the only person on a forum with the mod title under their name?
Does anyone have any idea how hard it can be?
I have to deal with all of the questions, all of the problems, and I have to try and get answers to those problems, try to get answers to those problems day after day, week after week, and sometimes the answers I'm given are the wrong ones, and sometimes the answers I post are the wrong ones, and I try like hell to correct the wrong answers when I can, when I've learned the right answers.
I have to deal with angry people, upset people, people who think they should get their problem dealt with before everyone else, people who complain, and so on.
But yay, now she knows, now she knows that I'm committing emotional fraud, that I'm a sad, pathetic, wannabe center of attention, and now she feels sorry for me because now it saddens her, and now she'll be more thoughtful, suspicious even, and more understanding in the future when she sees me post in every thread.
And now she'll probably delete that post too.
I know that by posting this I stand to get some flack, some more heat, may have more people angry with me, but I'm tired of people making assumptions about me, tired of people saying untruths about me.
Instead of thinking I inserted myself, why don't they just ask the owners who asked me to do the job, if they did ask me to do it.
May 7, 2009
Food, gack, and email.
I can once again put my search for the absolute best weight loss pill on hold for a little while, especially after today.
I spent the entire day, from like 2am until about 4pm, just gacking up my entire insides.
It wasn't fun at all.
When I finally stopped puking, I felt like I was going to die.
After hours and hours of puking, your body is just worn the heck out man.
No clue what brought it on, but I'm glad it stopped.
The teens just got back from going to Publix to pick up some Totino's pizzas, there's simply no way that I can cook or eat.
Yuck.
If I owe you an email, I'll be getting to it after I take care of some must-do stuff that I have been unable to do for a few days because I didn't have everything I needed to do it, but now that I do, that's my priority, and then I'll take care of all the emails.
Later days!
May 5, 2009
Purex Complete 3-in-1 laundry care review!
A few weeks ago, I saw a thing to sign up to become a product tester for Purex, the laundry detergent, so I signed up.
I never heard anything else about it, so I assumed that I didn't get in.
Today, the FedEx guy knocked on the door and handed me an envelope that said "TOP SECRET", so I opened it up and was blown away by the incredible smell.
I read the letter, and it said, "Congratulations! You are 1 of just 200 people in the whole country who get to try a great new product from Purex to simplify and revolutionize laundry care! You're a Purex Insider!"
See, here's my cute little badge.
So what is this new product that will simplify and revolutionize laundry care?
It's called Purex Complete 3-in-1, and what it is, is 1 single sheet that is laundry detergent, fabric softener, and static control, all rolled into 1 easy step.
This is the basics of it,
I admit, I was so totally skeptical.
1 single sheet could clean, soften, and keep everything static free?
"Yeah right!" I thought.
But I gave it a try.
I took the load of dirty towels from the teens taking showers, some of their shorts, and their smelly t-shirts, and started to fill the washer and dropped 1 sheet into it first.
This is what the sheets look like;
The blue part of the sheet is the laundry detergent and some fabric softener, and the green stripe is heat activated by your dryer, and is also fabric softener and static control.
After you run your clothes through the washer, you move them and the sheet, into the dryer, and that's it, no cup of detergent, no cup of fabric softener, and no static control stuff either, just 1 easy step.
After the dryer stopped, I opened the door and was once again blown away by the incredible smell of the Purex, it really smells great!
I reached in and grabbed a towel, and it was sooo soft!
It wasn't sticking to anything else, and it was just incredibly soft, smelled so good, and was really clean.
I was very impressed, but wanted to try it again, so I did another load of clothes! LoL
The second load came out just as great as the first, clean, soft, no static, and smelled fabulous!
Why didn't someone think of this sooner!?!?
This really does simplify and revolutionize the entire laundry process down to 1 easy step, just 1 sheet does it all, and it does it really, really well.
I absolutely LOVE it!
I have a coupon to get a starter kit absolutely free, and I also got to share it with 3 friends after completing a short questionnaire, and so those ladies will be getting their starter kit free coupons in the mail very soon too.
I can't wait to go get the kit at the store, may have to wait a little bit, they aren't on sale until sometime this month!
May 1, 2009
Tired, really, really tired.
I don't know what's come over me the last few days, but I could just sleep and sleep.
I have no appetite at all, and when I do eat, everything tastes weird, like bitter and spoiled.
I'm eating the same foods the teens are, and they say their food tastes just fine, but to me, it all tastes bad and I'm not sure why.
I'm just exhausted, and all I've been doing is sleeping and laying down, and I just haven't felt like blogging much, and there really hasn't been much to say anyway.
Meh.
Sebastian is off with my sister tonight, she'll bring him home sometime tomorrow afternoon.
Mark is in the other room playing WoW of course, and the kitties are all sleeping in various locations.
We've been watching some movies in the downtime, like last night, we watched The Wrestler
It was a really interesting movie, a good human story.
I felt so bad for the character, wrestling was all he knew, all a lot of them knew, they still lived in their glory days of giving people a good show.
Rourke was incredibly good in it, he was believable right from the start, this was his role to play, he was the wrestler.
The supporting cast was excellent too, Marisa Tomei, wow, probably the most gritty and realistic role I've ever seen her do, was also very believable, I know a few strippers, and so yeah, an excellent portrayal of their lives.
When the screen faded to black, we all sat here in silence, and slowly each one of us said wow, tragic, but how he wanted it to go.
Tonight we watched The Burrowers
When a family goes missing, the hostile Indians are immediately blamed and hunted down, but it's not Indians doing the kidnapping and killing at all, but almost vampire like creatures that live underground, and have the ability to paralyze their victims, then bury them alive so they can come back and eat their rotting organs later.
Another group of Indians, the Ute, know how to destroy the creatures, but an over zealous military leader played by Doug Hutchison, kills the last Ute Indian who knows how to make an antidote for the poison, and our main character has figured things out and can save the lives of other settlers with that Indians help, but it's too late.
This was a straight to DVD release, but worth checking out, just like a lot of straight to DVD releases are.
Most people don't give those films a chance, but The Burrowers is one of those movies you should definitely check out.
They only had a budget of $7million, but it's a very good looking film with some major players in it like Clancy Brown, whom I've loved ever since Highlander
The scenery is gorgeous, the colors are muted but fabulous looking, and the acting, terrific.
A funny happened while we were watching The Burrowers, a couple of our cats, Nova and Shahiro, kept hearing the noises the creatures made as they were stalking their prey, and they did the same thing they do when I put the cat video on.
They start trying to climb up on the tv stand and tv set, to catch them.
It was amusing to me to watch them do that, trying to catch the creatures in the movie.
April 29, 2009
Blood drippings and cat water.
Yesterday, Mark* donated blood during a blood drive at school.
It was his first time donating blood, so he was really excited and nervous about doing it.
He said it wasn't bad, didn't hurt, although the pin prick to the finger to test his iron levels and get his blood type, didn't feel quite so good.
He had a much older nurse, and she just "sorta jabbed it and then squeezed the crap outta the middle finger", he said.
They had a hard time getting his vein to pop up, so they had to tighten the tourniquet and make him squeeze the ball a bit longer than usual, but they eventually got their pint of blood.
Then they gave him 2 16oz Gatorade's, a Rice Krispie square, a chocolate chip cookie, and a bag of hot fries.
They also gave him a t-shirt and his blood type card.
He's O negative and RH positive.
I knew he was RH positive because I'm RH negative, and he's my first born, so I had to get a shot in my ass to prevent RH disease at 28 weeks and 34 weeks, and another shot right after he was born, like immediately after he popped out.
So there I am on the birthing table, legs spread, getting my episiotomy stitched up by the doctor, and a nurse is jamming a needle into my ass.
The epidural had long worn off, so this was not a pleasant experience.
All of the students who had donated blood, were allowed to be dismissed early, so a lot of the seniors signed and lined up to donate. haha
He got home before I left for my appointment with the cardiac doc, and he was looking a bit pale, so I took him with me.
But now that the blood bank knows that he's O negative, he'll be getting phone calls every few months asking him to donate like I do.
And even though he's a match for my blood type, he can't ever donate to me if I ever end up needing blood during one of my surgeries because he's RH positive, it's non-compatible.
Oh well, I'll just have to self donate again if they tell me I need to.
1 pint a week for 4 weeks, it's rough I tell ya.
Your body just recovers from losing that much blood, and you gotta do it again.
They gave me this huge list of foods to eat to boost my iron and protein back up, I swear, I never ate so much peanut butter and broccoli in my life.
Not at the same time of course, that would be gross.
_______________________
I also wanted to say thanks to Joy for sending the cat water dispenser for my kitties.
It is so perfect for us.
With 4 cats, we were constantly having to wash the water bowl and fill it, sometimes twice every day, and it was this huge mixing bowl that I no longer used, but man, those cats can drink.
So this water dispenser is perfect, it allows just the right amount of water into the bowl, and it keeps the rest of the water free of hair and any other gunk that used to get in the big water bowl.
So thank you very much Joy, it is most appreciated!
And yes, that is cat food on the floor.
Carmine likes to scoop the food out of the bowl with his paw, and then eat them off of the floor.
Weirdo kitty.
Continue Reading �
April 29, 2009
Permission, not humiliation.
I totally understand how other people see that post, I knew there would be people who did not agree with the post, or that I'm so open with my sons and tell them all of the things that I do.
I made a joke in the post about hoping that my sons don't find that post, but for the last 7+ years now, I haven't posted anything about them without their express permission.
On the walk to the barber shop where they were laughing about it, I said I am so blogging this, and they both said go ahead.
I asked them twice more if it was really ok to blog it, and they again said "go ahead, it's funny, post it up mom", so I did.
They both read the post today and laughed, so I am really ok with other people feeling the way they do, but if my teenage sons tell me that I can post something, that I have their permission, then I do.
Every single post that I write about them, is done with their permission.
I write up the posts, save them in draft, and wait till they come home, read them to them, and they give me the yay or nay.
Hasn't anyone noticed how late in the day, or the next day, that things get posted?
I'm not angry or upset by anything that anyone thinks about the post, I knew there would be people who didn't like it, thought it to be humiliating, whatever, but again, it's all done with their (my sons) permission.
Every post about them is either approved or disapproved by them, and I respect their decisions.
As for teaching them about trimming things up, my oldest son came to me, told me he was having an issue, said that his brother was too.
I asked him what the issue was, and he told me.
He then called his brother into the living room and asked him if he wanted to talk to mom about it, he said yes, so we talked about it.
I also remembered a post on the local area forums where the male members had started a thread about that very subject, my sons and I sat here and read the thread, read what the guys had to say about it and the advice some of the guys gave the other guys about how to deal with it, and the clippers were what they advised.
My sons asked if we had any clippers and if we did, could I explain how to use them so they didn't get cut.
I didn't have any clippers so we went out and bought 2 sets, 1 for each because sharing clippers for such an area is gross.
I posted this information in the extended entry of that post.
And as for the words I used to speak of their private areas, that is what they call it, every single term I used in the post and in the extended entry, are words that my sons have used to describe it, so I posted them.
If those words offend anyone, don't read them.
I'm not going to apologize for speaking the truth about living with, raising, and having very honest discussions with 2 teenagers who are almost adults now.
These aren't little kids, these are 1 who is almost 18, and the other is set to turn 16 in 1 month, I'm not having these talks with 10 year olds, I'm having these talks with 2 very mature young adults.
I'm not crossing the line of parent and friend, I'm being the parents, both mom and dad, having to do what dads would and should do, and because I am, my sons don't do drugs, they don't drink, and neither of them has had any kind of sex.
I'm extremely lucky that I have an incredible relationship with my sons, they come to me about everything, they are open and honest with me, and I in return with them.
There aren't too many parents out there who have such open relationships with their kids, most of them don't even have a clue what their kids are doing and who they are doing it with.
Because of how open and honest I've always been with them, I know everything that goes on in their lives.
Back when my youngest son, Sebastian, was in the 6th grade and rode the bus to and from school, he saw a lot of behavior that would make the parents of those kids have heart attacks.
I mean, here's some kids in middle school between the ages of 11/12 and 14/15, who are riding the bus to and from middle school, and having sex in the back seats, girls giving blow jobs to boys.
My son came home and told me that a girl gave one boy a bj, and then another, and then another.
On the bus, a moving bus, with an adult driver who either ignored it or pretended to not see it.
And then she asked him if he wanted 1 too.
My son declined her offer because of the talks we've had.
Maybe the parents of those boys and that girl should have had some talks too.
My oldest son sat next to a girl all year this year, who told of her sexual exploits on a daily basis, in class, and the things that she allowed the boys and men to do to her.
She didn't have a steady boyfriend, she was basically passed around by the men in her life and used sexually, but she said that they all loved her, they told her they loved her, so she saw absolutely nothing wrong with them inserting beer bottles in her vagina and anus.
Yes, a call was made to the school guidance counselor about seeing if anyone can help that girl who is so obviously being sexually abused.
The world is a much different place than it was when I was growing up, teens just weren't so openly doing and discussing these things with other kids on the bus, in school, and in class, but it's a whole new ballgame folks, totally new.
Kids are having all kinds of sex at school, in empty classrooms, in bathrooms, in the closed off hallways where repairs are being done, and they don't care who sees it or who knows about it.
But I'll tell ya, their parents must not know, if they did, they'd be doing something about it.
At least I would hope they would be doing something about it.
It's a frightening world out there now, I almost don't want to ask my sons how their day at school was because of what they come home and tell me.
I get sick to my stomach over hearing about what goes on, how sexually aggressive some of these kids are, and I feel nauseous when I hear about oral sex taking place in the bathrooms, right in the stalls, but it's happening, if you think it's not happening at your kid's school, I got a surprise for ya.
And this isn't happening at a bad school in a bad neighborhood that's just full of poor kids and the stereotypical kids that might be doing these things, nope, the school my sons go to is one of the better high schools in the city.
It's the school where most of the wealthy people from the city have their kids go, this is not the high school in the ghetto, and it's not the massive high school downtown where they have metal detectors installed and a cop in every hallway.
This is a 5-star rated high school in a very nice neighborhood, it's the school that gets most of the funding, the football team is in the top 3 of the state, the band is the number 1 band in the state who have won a ton of awards, this school has money, and so do the majority of it's students.
And there's exactly 1 school cop.
These things are happening, the students are having sex and oral sex at school, all over the school, and most of the teens (my sons) friends have either had sex or oral sex.
Most of their friends drink and do drugs or have tried them.
One of their friends caught gonorrhea from the girl who has offered oral sex to Sebastian twice.
One of their friends lives with his grandparents because his father is long gone from his life, his mother is a junkie in jail for the next 3 years, and this kid comes and goes as he pleases, smokes pot, and is verbally abusive to his grandparents on a daily basis.
Mark's best friend since first grade switched schools at the beginning of this year, he goes to the school in the ghetto because they have a massive tv/movie department, and the school administrators promised him and his parents that he'd get the best education in this department and move on to the tech college where he'd be ahead of the other students.
In November, he dropped out of that department, started failing all of his classes, started drinking and smoking pot, has been caught having sex at school, and punched his father in the face after an argument over grades, moved out, and then dropped out of high school in February.
At age 17.
My sons get up at 5:45am every morning, shower, go to school, and come home.
They argue with each other non-stop, but they are home every night, they don't want to go hang out with any of their friends or other kids from school, they don't want to go to any of the parties because of the things they have heard happen at these parties, they don't drink, they don't do any drugs, they don't smoke, and neither of them have had any type of sex.
Mark's Big, George, is always asking him if he has a girlfriend or a girl he likes, and Mark always tells him no because most of the girls at school are sluts.
Sebastian has no interest in any of them either, for the same reason.
So people may totally disagree with how I'm parenting my sons, they think I've crossed the line, that I tell them too much, and that's fine with me, everyone has a right to their opinions.
I was told that the post was, let me quote it so I get it right, the post was "TMI personal information about your sons personal anatomy to be shared with the Internet. If any of their friends and god forbid girls got a hold of this information they would be humiliated. They would learn that not only do your boys have hairy sweaty balls, their "mommy" is telling them how to deal with it, oh and how to trim their hair ball area as well."
The humiliation? I asked my sons if I could post about it, they said yes.
I typed up the post, put it in draft, read the whole thing to them later and asked if it was ok to post, did they want it changed, did they want anything deleted, they both said "no, it's good, post it."
The friends? They and their friends talk about this same stuff and many other subjects that would make most parent's ears bleed, or they'd die from the shock of hearing what their kids are really doing in school.
The girls? Did you read what I wrote about the girls at their school? Neither of the teens want anything to do with any of the girls because of how sexually aggressive and sexually disgusting they are.
The pubic hair and sweaty balls? They came to me and asked for my help. I helped them because I'm the parent, that's what I'm supposed to do.
I'm not angry or upset about what other people have to say about the post or any other post that I've written or will write.
I didn't take anything anyone said as mean spirited, not at all, I actually laughed because everyone just thinks I'm writing all of these personal stories unbeknown to my sons, when half of the posts I write about them, they're the ones who told me to write them up, and the other half are only posted if I have their permission.
I'm really not going to apologize, and this post is not an apology, it's an explanation, making it very clear how the posts get to be posted here, and if the posts here offend you, if any of the words offend you, make you feel squeamish or uncomfortable, that's on you.
I have nothing to do with how you feel, but I'm glad that you're feeling something.
thursday thirteen
