September 19, 2009

Parking, pictures, teens & shopping.

I've been up all night with insomnia again, and I was super bored around 2-3-ish am, so I went outside to see if anything was up in my hood.
One of my neighbors in the duplex to my left, had a party last night, and it looks like he was a good host and didn't let anyone drive home drunk.
The driveway is full of cars, about 6 cars can fit in a straight line from door to street, and 1 of his guests couldn't fit his Mustang in the driveway, so he had to park it in the street.
With all of the sidewalk construction, he took a risk parking there, somebody might have hit it because there are still barricades and tractors, and piles of dirt and sewer drain piping everywhere.
Well he didn't want his wicked nice and shiny blue Mustang getting hit, so he made use of the construction barricades, this guy was clearly thinking with his beer brain.
This is 1 smart guy.
Uh-huh.

Yup, he put those barricades to work letting people know to not hit his pretty blue Mustang...

Till the police came by at 7:45am and wrote him a ticket for parking in a construction zone and tampering with city equipment. ha ha haha
Man, he's gonna flip when he wakes up and comes outside to sees the ticket.
The cop let me take the pics by the way, and I asked him what the fine was for the things he violated, and he told me the total ticket is $1,200.00
Ouch!
I hope the party was worth it dude. ha ha hahaha

Later on today, like this afternoon, I need to go to the grocery store and grab some more food.
I always forget like 1 or 2 crucial food items when I do the food shopping, even if I have a list and the items are on the list, somehow a couple of things always get skipped over or forgotten.
For example, I bought the super yummy Bubba burgers that we love, and forgot the buns.
Sure I could just make the burgers without the buns and use bread, but then every time I even think of doing that, I start thinking about Eddie Murphy's welfare burgers (WARNING foul language, but hey, it's Eddie Murphy...LoL) and then I am laughing so hard while making them, that I can hardly breathe or speak while trying to tell 1 of the teens to go to the corner store for burger buns.
"We got McDonalds, and you ain't got none, cuz you mommas' on welfare". LMAO!

I forgot some other stuff too, and we need more lunch meat, soda, more bread, (for mommas' big, greasy, green pepper welfare burgers HA!) and some other stuff, it's on the list that I wrote out earlier this morning after the drunk car protection and the cop thing.

Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you why I wasn't blogging all of that much the last few days.
I'm having this weird random body part swelling issue.
It's probably water retention, I do take a water pill everyday for my high blood pressure, so water retention might be why, but the pills usually work good so, maybe, maybe not.
Anyway, all day on Wednesday, my feet and ankles were swollen up, on Thursday, my knees were swollen up wicked bad, it like actually hurt really, really bad to try and walk, and sitting down and standing up, like having to pee and then leave the bathroom, was so freaking painful I wanted to cry!
Then all day yesterday, my hands and face were swollen.
My face wasn't too bad, I didn't look like a Campbell's soup kid, but my hands, holy crap!
My hands were swollen up so bad, like sausages in a microwave about to explode!
They were swollen and painful, they were like all tingly, so typing was out of the question.
I just laid on the couch most of the whole day until the swelling went down enough to at least use the mouse.
Once they got to that point, I was at least able to check into the forums and stuff.

It is very unusual for my face and hands to swell up like that though, my knees and feet I'm used to, they do that every few months or so, it is water weight in those areas, but the only time my hands and face ever swell up is when I've either eaten peaches or drank a juice with peach juice mixed in, or breathed in peach fuzz.
I am allergic to peaches (in case you didn't guess..haha), like really bad allergic to them, and swelling up is what happens as the allergy attack, it's like my warning sign to get some Benadryl in me, (I use the children's liquid, it works faster than the adult pills) and if I don't get some, I will have trouble breathing in about 45 minutes or so.
I usually get it and everything is ok, and last night I did take some allergy pills, I didn't have any Benadryl, and it did work, just not as fast.
The point is though, that my face and hands have never been that bad, they have never swollen up to that big and tight before.
I was really worried that the skin on my fingers was going to either crack or rip open, it was scary man.
I also have no idea what caused it, there are no peaches in the house, no peach products unless 1 of the teens brought it in, but they know what happens to me, they wouldn't do that on purpose, and I have not had anything out of the ordinary food wise, and to my knowledge, nothing where it could have been mixed in like a juice or food product.
It's very odd, I'm just going to have to be careful for awhile I think.

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September 15, 2009

I hope he's not claustrophobic.

The ortho just called about 15 minutes ago to let me know that medicaid has approved the MRI series that Mark needs to have done.
They are doing a series of 3 all in 1 day, it will take about 2, to 2 and a half hours, and it's this coming Monday the 21st at 12:50pm, and then we'll go in on Thursday the 24th for the follow-up visit where they tell us the results.

Now that he's 18, the docs are calling and wanting to speak directly to him, not me, not his mom, they want to speak to the legal adult age Mark now.
It's kinda crazy, my baby is 18, people need to speak to him because of the legal stuff.
He's all telling them "Uh, speak to my mom, I have no idea what you just said".
That made me laugh, and then I spoke to the nurse to schedule his appointments for next week.
Mark says he's not claustrophobic, but he's never been inside of an MRI machine before, I don't think he's ever been in something that size before, and the noises that machine makes, the noise alone can make somebody feel like the machine is gonna fall apart on top of you while you're in it.
I've had a ton of MRIs and I'm still not used to the noises it makes, it's freaky, that big spinning noise followed by the big banging noise, it really is enough to freak you out.

In about a half hour or so, Mark and I are going to walk to Publix and do the grocery shopping, and then cab it back.
I waited all day to go because of how hot it is outside, the later in the day we go, the less the sun is shining down directly on us as we walk, it's starting to set, so it's not so bad walking at this time of day.
We'll go and get it over with, then come home and chill out for the rest of the night.

But things are rolling along with Mark's doc now, we're going to start taking care of this stuff ASAP, I'm so happy about that, it gives me hope that he won't have to wait for years for treatment like I had to do.

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September 5, 2009

I did not sign up to detect the weather.

When I woke up yesterday, I had that feeling in my whole body.
The feeling that bad weather is coming, rain, a storm, whatever, something bad was coming, and I was right.
It's raining again, started sprinkling around 5pm or so, but I felt it all day and night yesterday, all day today.
When it gets like that, when I get like this, I can't hardly move, I don't want to do anything but lay on the couch, I don't want to do anything, not even eat.
I don't need any weight loss supplements or diet tricks when the weather is bad, the pain keeps me from eating.
It hurts to get up and try to cook anything, so I just don't even bother eating.
So basically all I've done all weekend is lay on the couch and watch movies.
I watched Across the Universe again, I just really love that movie.
I watched Wall-E 3 or 4 times, I just really love that movie too.
Wall-E is just so dang cute and it has a terrific story too.
Right now I'm watching Mr. Brooks.
I've never seen it before, heard it was ok, and I'll pretty much watch anything once.
If I get to feeling better, like I can move a bit better, I may go and make a cake.
I just really feel like cake, chocolate cake with chocolate frosting.
Yum.
I hope I get to feeling better, I really want cake.

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August 30, 2009

Too hot to move.

It was too hot to go anywhere today like I wanted to do, so it will all have to wait until tomorrow.
The temp was about 90degrees, but the heat index was way up there.
It's going to be like that all week too.
Temps in the 90's with a chance of rain every single day.
We are officially in the rainy season.

I wanted to go and do the grocery shopping today, get it all over with, but it was just way too hot to go out there.
Heck, it's hot just sitting in the house with the AC on and a box fan aimed right at me from less than 4 feet away.
I'll do everything that I wanted to do today, tomorrow after I get done taking Mark to the doctor's office.
Mark has an appointment at 1:30pm with the doctor to look at his back, it's been bothering him for quite a long time now, and I am horribly worried that some of what I have has passed onto him, so I'm taking him to get checked out.
After that, we'll go the pharmacy to get 2 of my scripts filled and if the doc gives him anything, and then we'll do the shopping.
We'll just do everything in one trip so we don't waste time or have to be out in the heat for too long.

Ok, time for dinner.
Later days!

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August 23, 2009

No touch the chicken!

A little while ago, I received a product called Gloveables.
They are household cleaning gloves that are fun and stylish, instead of boring and ugly.
They don't really make doing the housework more fun, but they do add a bit of color and some fashion while being totally functional.

I don't like wearing cleaning gloves to wash the dishes, my hands get all hot and sweaty inside of them, and I don't like that sweaty feeling on my hands, but I did find a great use for them.
Whenever I am making any kind of chicken dish where my hands have to touch the raw chicken, I put on the gloves, that way my hands never have to touch the chicken skin, it's gross, imo.
I especially like wearing them when making chicken legs with Shake n' Bake.
I put on the gloves, throw in the chicken legs, shake 'em up, and then when I reach in the bag to take out the now coated legs, I don't get that coating all over my hands and under my finger nails.

See?
No coating on my hands or under my nails.

After coating all of the chicken legs, I wash my hands/gloves off with antibacterial hand-soap, and let them dry, and then put them away in the drawer until the next time I need to make chicken.

The Gloveables are super cute, they come in all kinds of designs and patterns, but they also make matching aprons and tote bags too, and the prices are pretty reasonable, so if you still like to look fashionable while doing the cooking and cleaning, Gloveables would be perfect for you.

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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.

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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 �

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July 23, 2009

The Goodlife Recipe pet food product review.

I had been buying the cats a fairly expensive brand of cat food for indoor older cats because Kali is now 12 and wasn't doing so well.
She started gacking (throwing up) up her food all of the time, her nose was always dry, she was lethargic and just not herself.
I took her to the vet and they told me to put her on a better cat food that had better ingredients for indoor cats.
I was buying a cat food that cost $16.99 for a 7lb bag of cat food, and with 4 cats, I was buying 2 bags per month.
She started doing better on this food, but she still didn't seem to have much energy, and her fur still wasn't as shiny and as soft as I knew it could be.

About 5 months ago, I saw a new cat food on the shelves at Publix, so I picked up the bag and a bag of the cat food that I was buying so I could compare ingredients.
The ingredients were almost exactly the same, it had the same concentration of each ingredient, and it actually had some good and wholesome ingredients that the other brand didn't have like whole grain brown rice, real vegetables, and garden greens.
The only other significant difference?
The price.
This new cat food is only $4.99 for a 7lb bag, a savings of $12.00.

Since I have been buying and feeding all 4 of the cats this new cat food, The Goodlife Recipe indoor cat formula for cats, (it is available for dogs too) all 4 of the cats are doing exceptionally well.
Kali is thriving, she no longer gacks up any of her food, her nose is always wet, she has more energy, and her fur is soft and shiny again.

Nova used to always have very coarse fur, even on the other pricier cat food, her fur was dried out, coarse, and she had dandruff.
It was really kind of gross petting her.
Now Nova's fur is soft, shiny, and beautiful, she has no more dandruff at all, and she also no longer wants to eat grass as much.
It used to be when we opened the door, she would stand there and meow until we got her some grass from the yard, she needed to eat fresh green grass to help with her digestion, not anymore, the Goodlife Recipe cat food has all of the fresh greens and vegetables she needs to be able to properly digest her food and not have any stomach upset at all.

Shahiro and Carmine are also doing very well on the Goodlife Recipe cat food.
They are happy, have soft and shiny fur, and have more energy to run around and play.
All 4 of the cats seem to be in better moods too, they are wanting to cuddle and be pet more.
I don't know if that has anything to do with the food, but it's something that I have noticed over the last few months since switching them all to the Goodlife Recipe food.

The Goodlife Recipe indoor cat food is just really a terrific cat food in my opinion, and the price really makes a heckuva difference too.
When you have to buy 2 7lb bags a month, paying a lot for pet food, especially in these tough economic times, you start questioning whether or not you can keep your beloved pets around.
Now that I'm only spending about $10.00 per month instead of $34.00 per month, I know that I can afford to keep my precious kitties with us.
So if you're struggling to keep food in your pets bowl during these hard financial times, check out The Goodlife Recipe pet foods.
They have all of the best ingredients to keep your pets healthy and happy for a fraction of the cost.
Just make sure that if you do switch your pets over, switch them over slowly by mixing the new food in with their old a small amount at a time and gradually increasing the percentage of new food to old until it's all new food in their bowl.
Switching them to a new food without doing it gradually, can make them very sick.
If you want to try out The Goodlife Recipe pet food, you can even print a coupon to get a dollar off, and considering it's already very cheap, saving an extra dollar will make you and your wallet happy.

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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

4.
Follow me on Twitter.

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July 19, 2009

Cleaning, cooking, and a toothache.

I've spent all afternoon cleaning the house, getting things picked up, doing all of the dishes and laundry, and I just started to cook the dinner.
The whole kitchen is clean, I scrubbed it top to bottom after doing all of the dishes, and the only thing I have left to do in there is sweep and mop the floor.
I'm going to do that after dinner and after washing all of the dinner dishes.

Even though I had already cleaned the bathroom last night, Sebastian decided that it needed to be cleaned again, so he went in and scrubbed the bathroom top to bottom, he even cleaned the tub!
The teens never clean the tub.
Ever.
So that was wicked nice of him to do, because I really hate cleaning the tub.
Mark is going to mow the lawn tomorrow, but today he cleaned up his room, picked everything up off of the floor so that I can just go in and sweep and then mop it later on when I do the rest of the floors.
The only room that I have left to do is the living room.
I need to pick everything up, dust everything off, polish the coffee tables, they haven't been cleaned really good in a long time and it shows, so I definitely need to do those.
I also need to Windex the tv screen, my computer monitor, and the teens tv and monitor, and the bathroom mirror.
I just want to get the whole house clean, it hasn't been really cleaned in a long time due to how I was feeling, having a dirty house really didn't bother me too much, I wasn't caring about it to be honest.
I spent most of my time either laying in bed, laying on the couch, or surfing blindly around the internet. I just wasn't giving a crap about much of anything.
Maybe the antidepressants are starting to work after just 5 days, because I feel like taking care of the house again, so maybe they are working.
___________________________

Tomorrow, I need to call around and see if I can find a dentist or an oral surgeon to take care of my tooth, and hopefully my cheap health insurance will cover it.
I think that medicare will cover part of it, and then maybe Humana will cover part of it too.
I know that Humana covers some things for me other than just prescriptions, so I should just call them and ask if dental is covered, and if they know of an oral surgeon who can work with me and my non-moving head.
If my insurance won't cover it, then I'll need to find one who can yank it for cheap because it's really starting to hurt pretty bad. It's loose now, too, instead of just having a hole in it, it's now also loose, so eating is interesting.
When I chew on anything, even trying to chew on the left side of my mouth, the tooth wiggles, and it's painful.
Gah.
Must get it out.
Soon.
____________________________________

I have a whole cut-up chicken cooking in the NuWave right now, it's almost done!
I baked them for 30 minutes, they were cooked all of the way through, and I just poured some super yummy Sweet Baby Ray's bbq sauce over each piece, and the twice baked potatoes are almost done too.
I made a super yummy Sunday night dinner for us, and then after dinner, I'll finish the cleaning that I started.
We've had a really good day here, nice, quiet, happy.

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July 17, 2009

No more games.

I hate having to block people from reading my blogs, but I am being left with no choice.
These blogs are my outlet, my place to write out my life and my feelings, what's going on with me and the teens.
People may not like what I have to say, but this is my life, how I feel, it's my therapy in a way.
My words should not be twisted around and tried to mean something that I didn't say.
What I write is what I have said, it's what I mean.

I had to block someone today that I never wanted to, I wanted them to be able to read and see me, to try and understand, but it's being taken and twisted around to be something that I never said.
That's not ok.
Lots of things are not ok, hurting my sons because they are mad at me is not ok.
Be mad at me but don't hurt them to get back at me, that just hurts them and makes them feel like pawns in the middle.

The boys have read every post I've written, they have read every email received and sent, they have read for themselves the words between myself and others, and they know what was said.
In the game, they were told the tickets were canceled, they weren't going.
In an email to me, it said the same thing, the tickets are canceled, not going.
Then another email to me saying the tickets are not canceled and they can go.
Then in the game again saying that I canceled the trip, that it was me who said that they couldn't go, that it was my decision to not let them go.
They both sat here and were so angry.
They read every single post and email, they know what was said, I don't lie to them, and I don't hide things from them, they know the truth.
They have read every single email, they even helped me write what I replied back, they wanted me to say no, that they wouldn't go with the person, they don't trust them to not take it away again if they get mad again.

I got an email last night, it said;
The tickets are cancelled, and I am done.

Then when I emailed back saying fine, I'll get them there on my own, and I posted to my blog my plans to get the boys there in August, I got another email that said;
The tickets are not canceled and I will take them. Because I love them both, and because I can't bear to leave them here and go up there, not because you are now trying to do whatever you need to do to make me take them.

I am not doing anything that I can to make the person take them, they said they canceled the tickets, that they were done, so I am doing whatever I can to take the boys there myself, they are the one flip-flopping on this and on the boys, and it's not ok.
You can't give them something huge like a trip to visit their grandparents, then yank it away in the video game and in an email to me, and then give it back, and then hop on the video game and lie and say to them that the trip was never canceled, that I'm the one who said they couldn't go, that's not ok, that hurts them.
They are hurt and they do not trust that if they say ok, they will go with the person to Maine, that if the person gets mad again, that the tickets will be yanked away again, they don't think they can trust the person, and I don't blame them.

That's why I'm going to do it, I'm going to get them there on my own, they cannot go through the flip-flopping again, it hurts too much and they have already been through enough.
So I blocked the person from reading my blogs, I had to, my words were being twisted around, taken the wrong way, and tried to use against me.
It's kind of funny to me, all of my readers have read these posts and they all read it the same way, it's obvious by reading the comments, but one person read the posts, and took them an entirely different way, the way they wanted to take them.
The posts are very clear, you don't need a decoder ring to try and decipher them, you don't need a group of Mesothelioma lawyers to try and figure out the legalese because there isn't any, it's all very clear cut, what I said is what I said.
I'm not that confusing, I'm not writing anything super complicated, it is what it is, it's really simple to understand, so in order to avoid any more confusion or misunderstandings, I blocked them from reading my blogs.
I can't keep having my words twisted around to mean something they don't, it's hurting too many other people and that's not right or fair.

---

June 22, 2009

A cut, a scratch, and a nip.

Sebastian and I went and got his hair cut at the corner barber shop this afternoon, he said it was just far too hot for long hair, so off it came.
We got his ears lowered, the barber knew exactly what we meant when we asked for that.
He looks much better, although I think his hair looks awesome when it's long.
It's a beautiful blond color, shiny, smooth, wish it was my hair.
He said that it feels much better, he'll grow it out again now for a year like he always does, and then we'll cut it off again next summer.

Then we went out to Publix to get some more food, the teens are eating a lot again, and we found the mouse that Carmine the kitty loves to play with, way up high on a store shelf.
I had to buy another one because he tore the last one of these Scratch Rattle and Roll Scratcher Mice to shreds.
He clawed and chewed at it non-stop until he got the 2 hidden bags of catnip out, and then proceeded to rip all of the stuffing out.
Every time I tried to throw it out, he sat at the garbage can and meowed until I got it back out, so now he has a new 1.
He's currently curled up in a ball laying right next to it with a paw on it, like he's hugging it.
When I put the new 1 on the floor and took the old 1 away, he looked at me like 'hey! wait just a minute, that's my mouse!', but then he saw the new 1, smelled it, realized there were 2 new bags of nip stuffed inside, and immediately began licking and chewing at the sisal back to get at it.
The other cats love the mouse too, but he really loves it.
He will chew on it and lick at it, until he gets the bags of nip, rips them open, eats his fill, and then he lets the other kitties chow down on some nip too.
One the last mouse, he also chewed the tail until he ripped through the fabric, bit through the plastic ball, and got whatever was inside of that out.
I have no idea what made the tail rattle, we never found the insides, just the demolished plastic ball that held whatever it was.
I think he may have eaten the tail ball contents.

Tonight while eating dinner, we watched Nothing But the Truth.
This was a most excellent film.
Reporter Rachel Armstrong gets a tip that a woman is a CIA operative, she writes a story, the paper she works at prints it.
The government now wants to know her source.
She refuses, and normally, this would be protected, the right to not reveal her source, but due to a 1982 law, the Intelligence Identities Protection Act, if Rachel does not reveal her source, she faces jail time.
She chooses not to reveal her source which sets things in motion for her and the person whose identity she revealed.
It is only at the very end of the film that we learn who her source is, and wow, I was so not expecting that.
You should definitely add this 1 to your Netflix queue, it's really good.

Ok, I'm gonna goof off and play Sims for awhile.
Later days.

---

June 18, 2009

Can't stop sleeping awake.

Another night of insomnia just passed, the sun is coming up, another blinding sunny and hot day.
A perfect day to stay inside and try to get some rest later on.
Just take a small nap, I should probably try for more than a few hours, but then I won't be able to try and sleep tonight.

But it was a good thing I was wide awake again, my friend Dustin called around 2am, his friend had called him, a bit too inebriated to drive home, so Dustin took a cab over to the bar to pick him and his car up because his friend didn't want to leave his car in the bar parking lot all night, and then Dustin was gonna drive home and bring his friend his car in the morning.
Problem!
The car is a 2007 Nissan Altima, it has that whole push button key fob power start stuff, so when Dustin drove his friend home and dropped him off, his friend took the key fob in the house.
The car will run without the key in the ignition, but the key fob/key has to be within 6 feet of the car or else it drops to idle and you end up only being able to drive a bit further before it stops.

Yup, you guessed it!
When he dropped his friend off at home, his friend had the key fob/key in his pocket, so Dustin was only able to drive about 2.5 miles before the car dropped to idle and he needed a place to go quickly.
His friend lives over here near us, so Dustin called and apologized like crazy for waking me if he did, but he knows I don't sleep hardly ever, so I told him if he can get the car here to come here, I'd turn the porch light on.
He was able to make it here, so I let him crash on the couch for the night, but we stayed up just talking about life and stuff all night.
He called his friend before he went to sleep and told him what was going on and that his friend would need to get here in the morning, and he did.
He must live super close by, because he called Dustin around 6:15, said he was on the way, and just 10 minutes later he was here, and he had walked.
Sebastian was awake all night with us, Mark had gone to sleep around 10pm or so, he said he was just really tired after that whole thunderstorm fright we had last night.

Around 5am, I made some cinnamon rolls for all of us in the NuWave Oven, it was my first time making them in it, but they came out perfect because I figured out how to cook them exactly the right way.
You use your two 8-inch round cake pans, spray some Pam onto both so the rolls don't stick, and in one of the pans, place all of the rolls top side down.
You know it's top side because they put all of the extra cinnamon on the top side.
Place the cake pan in the middle on top of your 4-inch rack, and put the power head dome on.
Press the cooking power button once for high power, (350 degrees), then press the cooking time button, then the # 4, then press start.
When the 4 minutes has ended, remove the dome, and then take your other 8-inch cake pan that you got ready, and place it open side on top, and then flip the pans over dumping the rolls from the bottom pan to the top pan, and now the tops of the cinnamon rolls are right side up.
Place this pan in the middle of the 4-inch cooking rack, put the power head dome on, press cooking power once for high power, then cooking time once, then the #4, and press start.

They came out soooo good!
They actually came out better than they normally do in the regular oven.
Dustin was really surprised just how well it cooks and now bakes, he's more amazed with it every time he sees it or tastes the food I cook with it.
A few of the times he's come over to just say hello, I've just gotten done making something, and I always offer my guests some of what we have, and he loves my cooking, and the NuWave is seriously making me an even better cook, and now I'm learning to bake in it.
I will have to check the recipe books to see if we can make brownies in it.

Ok, I am going to try and lay down, get a short nap in today, no longer than 3 hours.
Anything longer than that if I fall asleep, and I won't be able to fall asleep again for another full sleep cycle.
later days!

Continue Reading �

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June 16, 2009

My boring but money saving day.

Summers are quite boring around here, we really don't do a whole heckuva lot, so there really hasn't been anything much to post about.
The teens sleep half or most of the day, and then are awake most of the night and play video games.
I don't sleep much anyway, so this sleeping pattern gives us our family time.
We sometimes end up putting a movie in the dvd player at midnight or later, and stay up late watching movies and talking, and then if I do fall asleep, I get to have some really nice quiet me time until they wake up after noon or later.
I really don't mind them sleeping during the day or so late, it's very boring around here and it's off season, there are no jobs for teenagers here during the summer months.
It's way too hot to go outside, the temps are in the low 90's, but the heat index is over 100, there is really nothing at all for teenagers to do around here, and I can't take them to the beach or anything, so they might as well stay up late having fun and then sleep half the day away.
_____________________

This morning, I went to my pain docs and got my meds refilled, told them about everything that was going on, they noted it all down, gave me my scripts and I left.
My friend Dustin had taken me, so from there we went to the pharmacy, got them filled, and then he brought me home.
Then around 3:30pm or so, Sebastian and I grabbed the list and headed out to do the grocery shopping at Publix.
They are having a great sale this week, a lot of buy 1 get 1's, so we stocked up on a lot of stuff.
They finally had some ground beef for less than $3.49 per pound, they had it at just $2.99 per pound, and I have several recipes that I need it for over the next few weeks. So I picked up 3 pounds, and Sebastian wants my awesome enchiladas tomorrow night, so yay for beef on sale! LoL
I had my coupon from the Purex Insiders for the Purex 3-in-1, and Publix finally got the refill packages in instead of only having just the starter kits, so I picked up 2 of the refill kits in the Spring Oasis scent.
It just smells really nice and I love cuddling up with my baby blanket* right after it comes out of the dryer. It's so soft and smells so good.

The Glade fabric and air odor eliminator was on sale for buy 1 get 1, and I had coupon for $1 off, so instead of paying $3.99 each, I got 2 for just $2.99. W00t!
They had so many things on buy 1 get 1, chips, cookies, brownie mixes, cereal, all kinds of stuff, and no, I didn't buy all of that junk food, but I could not refuse the buy 1 get 1 on Pillsbury chocolate extreme brownie mix!

I did really good on saving money this time, I had a lot of coupons and Publix was having a terrific sale, so my savings were awesome!
My total bill before coupons, specials, and in-store savings = $270.66
My total coupons, specials and in-store savings = $113.25
Total bill after coupons, specials and in-store savings = $157.41!!!
Woo hoo!
W00t!!
I LOVE saving that much money!

That was my totally thrilling and awesomely exciting, but money saving day. ha ha
I told ya our summers are really boring.
Ok, gotta go do some dishes, wash out my Rubbermaid containers because I need them to put all the new food in.
Later days!

Continue Reading �

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June 1, 2009

Happy 16th birthday Sebastian!

Today my second baby boy turned 16.
Sebastian has grown up so fast, they both have, but he's just as tall as Mark is, maybe an inch shorter, so he's about 6 feet tall.
Yikes!
He got Guitar Hero Metallica for his birthday, he's been playing it non-stop since buying it yesterday, and it is a wicked fun game, I even played it with him for awhile last night.

We just ordered pizza from his fave place for lunch, that should be here soon.
We're just going to take it easy for the day, chill, eat pizza, play video games, have some cake later on.

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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!

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May 31, 2009

Once again, my back has kept me from enjoying life.

Right now my sister and the teens are out having dinner at a Japanese steak house to celebrate Mark's graduation and Sebastian's birthday tomorrow, and I'm at home because I'm in far too much pain to go do anything.
Yesterday's graduation sitting in really bad chairs did a number on me, and I can hardly move today.
*sigh*
I really hate this, I hope someday to be better, to not be in so much pain after doing something enjoyable.
All I can do is hope that it gets better for me someday.

Over the next few weeks, I am going to look around and see if I can find some really good discount faucets so I can replace the broken one in the bathroom.
It's really starting to get on my nerves now, and if it's bugging me now, it's going to annoy the crap outta me when I get home from surgery.
I need to find a cheap faucet, replace it, and be done with it all.
Ok, back to the couch I go.
Later dayse.

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May 29, 2009

This could be a very long night.

Thursday night, (it's now very early Friday morning) the teens Aunt Heather (ex-sis-in-law, but she'll always be my little sis) sent Sebastian $50 for his birthday by way of PayPal.
When my friends Dustin and Stacey came by for a visit, Sebastian asked Dustin if he would take him to McDonald's, and Dustin said yes.
Sebastian bought Mark a Quarter Pounder with cheese, some fries, and a vanilla shake.
He bought himself a Big Mac, fries, a chocolate shake, and a chicken snack wrap.
It was about 9pm I'd say.

About 2 hours later, he said he wasn't feeling well and rushed to the bathroom.
A half hour after that, he rushed back to the bathroom.
This repeated about every hour or so until he went to bed.

When he finally said he was tired and went to bed, I thought he may be feeling a bit better.
Wrong!
An hour after he fell asleep, I hear this, "MOM! MOM! HELP!"
I rushed in there and he was ripping off his t-shirt and telling me that he was sweating, dizzy, nauseous, his stomach hurt, and his body felt weird.
If it's food poisoning, the worst thing you can do is give something that will stop the diars.
You want the bad food to get out of the body, and if you stop the diars, the bad stuff will stay in, and you or your little patient, will be sick longer.
So I got him up, gave him a glass of cold water to sip on and to swallow 2 Tylenol, and I got the shower to the right temperature so he could cool his body down.
After his shower, he said he felt a bit better, and went back to bed.
Then he got up, said it was just way too hot in his room, and now he's laying out here on the couch because it's cold out here with the AC.

While he was in the shower, I hear the other one yell, "MOM! It's hot!"
So I go in Mark's room, he's got the fan blasting at him, but he's laying there covered up in his comforter.
I said it's no wonder you're hot, you have a down comforter on.
He said he had to have something over his body, so I went and got him a top sheet, spread it out over him, and took his comforter and folded it up in a chair.
I asked him if the sheet was ok, he said yes, and now he's back to sleep.

I really hope that Sebastian falls asleep and stays asleep, I need to get some sleep too.
I have to get up at 9am and wake Mark so he can take a shower and head out to his graduation rehearsal at 11:30am.
I also hope that whatever it is that has him feeling like crap, passes very quickly.
We have a very busy weekend ahead of us.
Mark's graduation on Saturday, graduation party Saturday night, a combination graduation and birthday lunch at Oriental Buffet on Sunday, and then Sebastian's birthday on Monday.
This is very busy for us, our lives are very calm and boring most of the time.
It would totally suck if he's sick on his birthday, he has terrible luck on the actual day every single year.
It's rained on his birthday every single year since moving here to Florida 12 years ago.
It either rains right at the hour of his party, or it rains all day long.
His birthday is on the day that hurricane season starts, June 1st.
He has always had something interfere with his day, and it would suck if he's sick, so I'm hoping it's a case of bad food, (yes, I'm actually hoping it's food poisoning) because it will work itself out in 24-48 hours, and then he can have fun on his birthday for once.
So far the weather report is looking good for Monday, only a 20% chance of rain.

---

May 24, 2009

Stouffer's Easy Express Skillet Chicken Alfredo product review.

When we went shopping the other day, after making my way through the store getting the cheese, milk, cereal, bread, shampoo, body soap, the acne skin treatment for the teens, and some more ground beef, I made my way over to the frozen food section because I had brought with me a coupon for the new Stouffer's Easy Express Skillet meals.
The coupon was for $1.50 off, so I figured I would at least check out their price.
Publix had them on sale for buy 1 get 1 free, and the price was only $2.99, so with my coupon, that would make it $1.49 for 2 packages.
That's a heckuva deal, so I picked out 2 bags of the Chicken Alfredo flavor, and I cooked them up Friday night for dinner for just the 3 of us because Dustin and Stacey were unable to make it due to an emergency with his grandmother.

Anyway, I do a lot of cooking in my electric skillett year round for a few reasons.
It doesn't heat up the house, it can cook a pretty good amount of food, and it uses less electricity than the regular oven does.
I don't like using a frying pan on a burner on the regular oven, because it heats up the kitchen even though it's just a single burner, and the heat isn't distributed evenly over the pan.
Electric skillets distribute the heat evenly, are also very easy to clean too.

As for the Stouffer's Easy Express Skillet meals, the Chicken Alfredo flavor at least, was very tasty.
It had huge penne pasta, large chunks of white meat chicken, a lot of thick and creamy alfredo sauce, peas, broccoli, and carrots.

I cooked up both packages because it says right on the package that it's meant for just 2 servings, and there are 3 of us, so I dumped both packages in the skillet, (I did read the directions, that's what it said to do) and then started reading the directions again to see how much water I was supposed to add like almost every other packaged meal like this says to do, and it didn't tell me to add any water.
It didn't tell me to add anything as a matter of fact, it was so simple!
Open the package, pour contents into skillet, cook on medium-high heat with the cover on for 8 minutes stirring occasionally, and serve.
That was it, just that easy to do.
After 8 minutes, it was totally done, so I served it up by dividing the contents of the skillet between the 3 of us, giving the teens more because they can eat more than I can, and they gobbled it right up.
I'm not even sure if they actually chewed any of it.
When Mark finished, he asked if there were any leftovers, I told him no, and he was all bummed out and told me that he really liked that one, that it was better then the other chicken alfredo one that I usually buy.
Sebastian said the same thing.
I enjoyed it a lot too, the sauce was creamy and smooth, and the pasta mixed with the veggies was a good mix, so the whole meal had a very nice flavor and texture.
I would buy these again for sure, especially if Publix keeps them at a good price, even more so if I come across more coupons.

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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, and then Once Bitten, and then wake up and make dinner.
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*

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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!!

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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

3.
Follow me on Twitter.

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!!

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May 18, 2009

Kellogg's Eggo Bakeshop Twists Strawberry.

When I did the grocery shopping on Friday, I had a $1.00 coupon for the Kellogg's Eggo Bakeshop Twists, Publix only had the 4 count package, they were $2.79, but with my coupon, I only paid $1.79.
I rarely ever buy stuff like this unless I have a good coupon discount, so I felt that $1.00 off was good enough to be able to try these out.
Personally, $2.79 for 4 of these is so not worth it in my opinion.
I can only imagine how much the 12 count package costs.
Ack!
They are not that big at all as you can see, that is a standard 9 inch paper plate, and 2 of them fit in the center of the plate with plenty of room to spare.

They are made for the microwave and heat up in just 25 seconds.
The directions say to then let them sit for about 2 minutes before eating.
You can view the nutritional information per serving here.
Not exactly good for you, that's an awful lot of sodium, calories, fat, and cholesterol, for just 1 of these pastries, but they are kind of tasty.

Mark refused to try them, and Sebastian tried 1 and didn't like them at all, he ate half of 1 and then gave the rest to me.
I liked them, they weren't bad at all, not great, but good enough to satisfy a sweet craving.
At the price per package and the count per package, it's not a good deal in my opinion.
If I didn't have a coupon, I certainly would not have bought them, nor will I buy them again without a good coupon.
The count, price, and nutritional information, is simply not a good value or a healthy breakfast choice for families on a budget.
The taste is not that spectacular either, the Publix bakery makes something like this that has a much better taste and costs less than these do for far more, so if I wanted to buy another breakfast pastry, I would go to the bakery before I would buy these again.

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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 15, 2009

Not quite on target.

Mark and I went shopping this afternoon because Sebastian wasn't feeling well, and I've noticed something about who goes shopping with me and how much I spend.
If Sebastian goes, I stay on target, to my list, and don't overspend.
If Mark goes with me, I end up buying things not on my list, and spend more than I had planned too.
So guess how I did today?
If you guessed that I spent more, you'd be correct.

My total bill before coupons was $231.94
Total is coupons and in store special savings - $49.15
Total after coupons and savings applied = $182.79

I try to use as many coupons as I can, and take advantage of as many in store special savings as I can, because I only get $349.00 per month in food stamps, and with 2 growing young men in the house, that food money goes very quickly.
I try to avoid buying junk food items when I can, and I try to cook as many meals as I can without buying easy microwave foods because they cost more.
Sometimes.
Publix always has a lot of easy foods on sale for super cheap, and I usually always have coupons to match those items, so sometimes I do end up buying easy foods.

But anyway, whenever Mark goes with me he distracts me, he stands in front of me while I'm trying to look at and compare the costs of items on the shelves.
He's always talking to me about something totally unrelated to shopping while I'm trying to shop.
I ended up buying about 15 items not on my list today.
Ugh.
But, they were on sale, so I can't complain too much about it.
It would have been nicer had I had matching coupons for those items, but oh well.
What did I buy that wasn't on my list?
Chips, dip, beef jerky, some Oreo cookie things, Fun Stix I think they are called, more soda, another pound of lunch meat, some bread from the bakery, canned soup, about 5-6cans, and some canned spaghettios.

Speaking of spaghettios, next month begins the hurricane supply shopping.
I need to stock up on the canned foods that can be eaten without heating them up, and stuff like that.
I'm actually worried about hurricane season this year, not because they have predicted any yet, but because I'm having another spine fusion in June, and with the kind of luck that I have, this year will be the year that we get hit with a hurricane here in Sarasota, and I'll be in a bad state recovering from surgery, in the halo brace, possibly the trach tube, and we'll get smacked with a big one.
Sarasota is weird, in the 12 years we've lived here, this area hasn't been hit with a single hurricane, it's like we live in the outer banks twilight zone of storm free zones.
The most we've ever gotten here is a small bit of wind and rain, just enough wind to blow some trash cans around, maybe take out a really old tree, but nothing major.
But like I said, because of the kind of luck that I have, this will be the year that Sarasota gets nailed, and I'll be completely useless to deal with it, I'll have to rely on other people to help us pack up stuff and evacuate.
So far, the tropics look good, there's nothing at all out there, so let's hope it stays that way all through hurricane season which is June 1st to November 30th.

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May 15, 2009

Sorry, no can do.

I have to go grocery shopping, we have like nothing in the house, and I got our food stamps today, and I'm a wee bit irritated.
My old neighbor called me this morning and had the nerve to ask me to sell her some of my food stamps for .50cents on the dollar.
She knows that I'm broke, and that I have a doctor's appointment and prescriptions to pay for on Monday afternoon, so she thought she would be generous, and offer to buy some of them off me for half their value, like she's some sort of cash drawer and wanted to help me.
It's totally insulting, not helpful, and why on earth she would think that I would do that or be ok with doing that is beyond me.
I asked her why she would think I would do that, if I did that, we'd have less food money, and she was all "Well, other friends of mine who get food stamps but need cash often sell me their food stamps for .50cents on the dollar because then they have cash."
I said yeah, cash would be nice, but then I'd have less food money, a lot less, and I'll find another way to come up with the money I need before Monday afternoon, I always find a way, if I have to, I'll sell something else, like dvds or something that we don't watch anymore.
I'm having a rough time of things right now, I owe out more money than I have, and I'm trying to work so that my next pay is big enough to cover everything that I need to pay for, but I've also been sick, been depressed, and just all around feeling like crap, but I will find a way to do what needs to be done without having to sell off food stamps.
I really can't believe that she thought I'd do that.
No wait, I can.

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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.

I absolutely love this idea!
A free candy bar?
Free chocolate?!
Yay!

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!

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May 11, 2009

Smell and get stung.

The teens just left for the store, I needed them to go pick up something for dinner for us and some cat food for the kitties, and that's when I noticed what the landlord had been doing all day next door.
He planted some new flowers, a bush looking thing, and some nice perennials in front of the empty duplex.
I guess he's getting closer to finishing up next door, so maybe I'll be getting some new neighbors soon.

I used to have some bushes in front of my side, but all they did was attract bees, hornets, and wasps, and Sebastian is like deathly allergic, so we yanked them all out and haven't had anything planted there for about 6 years now.
I would love to have some beautiful flowers out there, but I can't risk him getting stung because of how quickly his allergy reacts to the stings.
His throat closes up, his eyes swell and close up, and we have to rush him to the ER.
I keep a supply of benadryl in the house, and we have to wait for 2 more bad stings before his pediatrician will give him an epi pen for it, but we try to avoid getting stung.

I just hope whoever he rents the place to will turn out to be nice this time.
And clean.
I'm tired of having mean, dirty weird people living next door to me.

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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!

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May 3, 2009

I need to live in a bubble.

I went to the cardiac doc on Tuesday morning, picked up some food and came home.
Over the next few days, I started feeling super tired, like no matter how much sleep I got, it wasn't enough.
Then I woke up yesterday morning feeling like I had been hit by a truck..
Coughing, sneezing, sore throat, headache, body aches, stomach upset and all.
I have no appetite at all, and who the hell needs appetite suppressants when everything you eat tastes bad and then makes a rapid exit 30 minutes later anyway?

Sebastian had spent Friday night with sis, and when she brought him home yesterday afternoon, they stopped here first, picked up my debit card, and then went to Publix for me so that we'd have some food in the house for the teens to eat, and pick up everything else we needed too.
Cat food, toilet paper, lunch meats, bread, milk, cereal, and some cold medicine for me.
Sis picked up some Contac cold and flu, and it seems to be working ok for the cold part, but my stomach is still not happy.
I tried to eat last night, nope, not trying that again for a few more days, not a good experience at all.

The absolute worst places that one can go when you have a lowered immune system is the grocery store or a doctor's office.
Everybody is sick at a doc's office, and sick people go shopping for food and sick supplies.
I need to just live in a bubble with my own self contained oxygen system or something.
I'm so sick of getting sick, but germs are like unavoidable at the only 2 places I ever go these days.
The only places I ever go anymore are the docs and the grocery store, and I catch whatever other people have.
I am so glad though that Publix started putting out those containers of alcohol wipes at the cart entrances.
I grab like 4 wipes, and wipe down the cart handle, the baby seat, the baby seat belt, everything, and then I wipe my hands after locking my purse into the baby seat belt.
I always lock my purse in after almost having it stolen at the store once, so I have to wipe down the whole baby seat, the seat belt, everything, and let me tell ya, people with babies are disgusting.
There's always something nasty on the baby seats, I have to hold back my gags every time I'm wiping the seats down.
*gag*
Maybe I should just buy some hazmet suits for when I have to go out, at least until my immune system gets better..
I'm sick of being sick.

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April 26, 2009

Three more than I was expecting!

My friends Dustin and Stacey called at about 9:30pm, (our plans were for them to get here at 9-9:30pm) and said that they were running late.
They had a drunk friend crisis.
One of Stacey's friends, Amy, had just gotten broken up with in a very bad way, and Amy, the friend, had gone to a bar, started drinking, was super upset, and so they were trying to get her out of the bar before she did anything super stupid.
They also unexpectedly ended up with Dustin's 11 year old niece Mariah with them for the night, and they were calling to ask if it would it be ok if they brought them along.
I said of course!
I so very rarely get any company, so it would be nice to have a full house of all kinds and ages of people, plus, I always make enough spaghetti to feed a small army, and I had bought a large loaf of garlic bread, so I had plenty of food to go around.

When they got here, I felt like maybe there was some unknown to me announcement, or maybe a HUGE flashing red neon sign on my roof that says all are welcome, come on in! because I'm having a economy hotels promotions for dinner, entertainment, and lodging for the night, for one super low price! Welcome! Come in!
Not only did they bring Mariah and Amy, but they stopped by the babysitter's house, and picked up Amy's 10 year old son Adam.
They wanted to make Amy realize that she had a lot more good in her life, that all of the cruel things the ex-boyfriend had said to her, didn't matter in the big scheme of things.
She had a good job, a great son, and good, caring, and loving friends around her, and in her life.

I really didn't mind at all having the extra people, I enjoy meeting new people, and both Dustin and Stacey are good people, so I was assuming that they have good people in their life too.
I was right, Amy is a doll, a total sweetheart.
When she came into the kitchen where I was finishing up dinner after Sebastian had welcomed everyone in the house, she immediately offered to help me get everything done.
I told her that I was good to go, the spaghetti was totally done, I was mixing the sauce and pasta together, (I HATE pouring sauce over pasta. That may be the correct or fancy way, but mixing it in makes the noodles absorb the sauce, the meat and onions stick to it, and it just tastes so much better that way) and I was just about to stick the garlic bread in the NuWave.
Stacey and Dustin hadn't seen it use yet, and Amy had never even heard of it, so they watched with awe as I placed the garlic bread slices (I cut the loaf into thick slices) on the 4inch rack, and turned it on.
I finished mixing the spaghetti, getting all of the plates and forks ready, got the parmesan cheese out of the fridge, and we all just chatted away while they cooked.
They were done perfectly in just 4 minutes, and they were all like OMG! that thing rocks!
I think Stacey was most loving it because she is a cook too, loves to be in the kitchen cooking stuff up, so she asked me a bunch of questions while we plated up everyone's dinner.

Then we all went into the living room and made ourselves comfy while the movie started up, and they all raved about my spaghetti sauce, and kept asking me what I put in it because it was so flavorful.
Stacey kept trying to guess, "Oregano? basil? garlic? is that honey I taste? brown sugar? wait wait, I taste something else too, marjoram? Parsley? Thyme? Is there red pepper in this too? OMG Kat! I love this sauce, tell me what's in it!"
I said I couldn't tell her, it's a secret, and she said she'd figure it out before the night was over.
She didn't.
Oh, Adam is not a fan of horror movies, so he went into the other room with Mark and Sebastian to play video games.
He played Gears of War 2 on the xbox 360 with Sebastian, and Mark was on WoW of course.

The movie started, it was called Slaughter, it's one of the 8 Films to Die For, for 2009.
Faith thinks she is leaving her abusive relationship behind when she moves in with Lola on her family farm. Each night the girls go out, Lola comes home with a man. When Faith realizes these men never make it off the farm, she starts to believe Lola's family might be killing more than just animals in the slaughterhouse.
It was a fairly decent movie, lots of gore, the plot wasn't too bad, the acting was actually pretty good, (surprised on that one!) and the ending was a total surprise and shock, not a happy ending at all.
Wow, I was so not expecting that.

The movie ended a little bit past midnight, they needed to get the kids home, the very well behaved kids I might add, and so they packed up all of their stuff they brought with them, but they left me one of the movies to watch, and they'd either pick it up tomorrow night or on Tuesday when Dustin takes me to my doc appointment.
They left me The Butterfly Effect 3: Revelations.
The third installment in the series. A young man with the power to time travel attempts to solve the mystery of his girlfriend's death...but in doing so, is he causing the death of many more?
I've seen the first two, so I'll watch this one too.
The trailer for it didn't look half bad, it has gotten poor ratings, but I think a lot of people who watch the 8 Films to Die For series are expecting like, regular mainstream horror movies.
They are not, they are usually pretty cheesy, mostly bad acting, but awesome kill scenes with gross-you-out gore.
I enjoy them because of that, I love close up kill scenes with a ton of gore, and these movies provide that.

Anyway, it was a very fun night, everyone enjoyed themselves, got full up on food, good conversation, and laughs, so I would say it was a successful night, and I'm looking forward to the next get together which will be at their house next weekend.

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April 25, 2009

Food, friends, and lots of cleaning to do.

I have a ton of cleaning to do for tonight, all of the dishes, clean the kitchen and bathroom, vac the rugs, and then make a huge pot of spaghetti for dinner and a movie with Dustin and Stacey tonight.
We're going to eat my awesome spaghetti and then watch a bunch of movies from the 8 films to die for series.
Both Stacey and I are huge horror fans, and while some of the movies in this series are total cheese fests, they always have awesome gore and special effects, so it will be a lot of fun to eat and get grossed out. LoL

I better get cracking on the dishes, both sides are full up and some of them need some extra elbow grease.
Yuck.

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April 23, 2009

Be here everyday but you can't eat.

As most of you all know, Mark has passed his graduation test and will graduate on May 30th.
In order to march with his class in cap and gown, Mark has to go to school every single day, where he does absolutely nothing all day long.
There is no classwork for him to do, nothing educational at all, he's not allowed to help out in the office, run papers, print copies or anything, so he either sleeps at his desk or plays games on the computer all day long to pass the time.

Today he goes to lunch, gets his tray, goes all the way through the line getting his food, and goes to punch in his pin number to "pay" for his lunch, and the cafeteria lady tells him his pin number is no longer working, that his lunch has been canceled.
So he goes to the teacher and asks what's going on.
The teacher tells him that all of the students who took the test and will graduate, have had their lunches revoked, they will not be allowed to get any lunch for the rest of the year unless they pay cash for it.
The teens get free hot lunch because I am a disabled parent receiving SSDI, so they are allowed to have lunch every single day, it won't cost them anything because I don't have the money to afford lunch every day.

Mark's teacher then dismissed him at 11:30am because of the no lunch thing, along with several other students who also had their lunch pins turned off and were told that if they wanted to eat, they had to pay cash.
Mark came home, told me what was going on, and I called the school wanting to speak to the principal, Linda Nook.
I was told that she was unavailable, so I spoke to her secretary about the issue, and asked how they could just shut off the lunches for all of these students, explained that Mark receives free lunch, he cannot afford to pay, I cannot afford to pay, I am disabled receiving SSDI, the free hot lunch program is something we depend on, AND if the school is going to insist that Mark be there every single day for the rest of the year, the last day of school for students is May 29th, then he needs to have his lunch every day.

She said she would look into it and call me back.
About 45 minutes later, the secretary calls me back and tells me not to worry, Mark's lunch pin has been re-instated, he can eat lunch everyday, and then she hung up.

I am glad his pin was turned back on, but I still want to know what right the school has to just shut off the pins of students for the last month of school.
The only students they did this to are the ones who took the exit option and the early graduation test, about 50+ kids.
I'm pretty sure, that legally, they cannot deny any student lunch, that they cannot just shut off the pins of these students, especially if they receive free hot lunch.

When Sebastian came home, he told me that Mark's teacher had gotten yelled at by the principal, Linda Nook, because a parent called to complain about the pins being shut off, and to "Tell Mrs. Cooper, that her son's pin has been turned back on", and the teacher was very upset about the principal yelling at him about it.

See, the majority of other students they did this to, have decided, and with their parents permission, to just leave school at 11:30am every day because their lunches have been revoked.
But, if they leave school early every day, it doesn't count as a full day's attendance, and those students will not receive their diplomas, and not be allowed to march and graduate, they will be given a GED.

It is my opinion, since learning this information, that the school shut off the lunches of these students and are allowing them to go home early everyday, so that they will not be able to march with their class.
The principal, Linda Nook, does not want them to march with their class because they did the early exit option, they are not considered regular and "good" students, so she doesn't want them at the very public graduation at Robarts Arena.
She yelled at the early exit option teacher because Mark wants to be there everyday, wants to graduate.

Mark busted his ass to be able to graduate with his class, he took all of those tests, studied like crazy, worked super hard, he will not be denied the right to march with his class no matter what kind of stunts this principal tries to pull to make him just leave.
His lunch pin is working again, he will be there every single day, he WILL march with his class.
I will make sure of it.

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April 22, 2009

Food, computers, and stocking up.

The other day, I said that I was going to make my own video of how to cook with the NuWave Oven Pro, and post it here and on youtube, and maybe get NuWave's attention, so I can get the new pizza kit they have. (Hey, it could happen)
Tonight, I made a 5lb chicken in only 1 hour and 15 minutes, it was perfect, I put bbq sauce on it for the last 10 minutes of cooking time, and it came out incredible, tasted way better than those rotisserie chickens you can get at a deli, super yummy.
My video was so packed full of info too, I even got the names of the 3 ways that it cooks correct from memory, not having to read them this time, conduction, convection, and far infrared.
The last 2 times someone asked me how it cooks, I kept forgetting their actual names, and said conduction, infrared, and the circular heat cooking method.
haha
But I really did pack the 4 minute video with a ton of information, instructions, and even rattled off some of the foods I've made in it since getting it.

Anyway, I made videos every step of the way, I edited them in windows movie maker, it was a really kick ass video, and then I screwed up.
I wanted to name the video the same name as I had saved the first part of the videos I had made, and I wasn't thinking clearly, and I deleted all of the smaller video clips I had used to make the final video, and even deleted them from the recycle bin.
I tried 3 different programs to restore all of the clips, but nope, they were already being overwritten by my computer.
Sometimes, not all of the time, as soon as you delete a file, and also delete it from the recycle bin, your computer thinks that it's freed up space, so it starts overwriting the space on your hard drive.
I did find all of the video files, but they had already been destroyed and partially overwritten.
*sigh*
I'll just have to do again the next time I cook something in it, which will probably be tomorrow night.

With hurricane season coming up soon on June 1st, I've begun stockpiling our supply bins.
I start getting a ton of canned foods that can be eaten cold, plastic utensils, paper plates and bowls, batteries, water, snacks etc.
I think I may have gone a bit overboard last year though.
When I opened up the bins that I keep in my closet, I found some stuff that I left in there.
I have quite the surplus of toilet paper and baby wipes.
I have 10/4 packs of toilet paper, and 10 refill packages of baby wipes with 1 brand new container of wipes still wrapped in the plastic.
Well, at least I won't have to buy any of that stuff this year, now I just need to cross those items off of my shopping list so I don't buy even more of them.
I just need to find my list now.
Hrm.

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April 21, 2009

How would you say....

something like you need immigration lawyers, or ask for directions in Spanish?

I keep seeing commercials, on CW44 mostly, for that computer program that teaches you different languages, and I've been thinking that maybe I'd like to get a copy of the Rosetta Stone program to learn how to speak Spanish.
I don't know about the rest of the country, my friend Shell has told me that there are a lot of Hispanics moving to and living in Maine now, but here in Florida and where I live in Sarasota, it is heavily populated with Hispanics, and they work in almost every type of place you get customer service.

Most of the places I go, like Publix, make sure that all of their employees speak clearly and in English, but sometimes it is still very hard for me to understand them if they have a heavy accent.
And sometimes I hear a couple of Hispanic employees speaking to each other while stocking the shelves, and I wonder what they are saying.
Yeah, I'm nosy like that.
And there were the times that a Hispanic employee, a woman, was working in the deli at Publix, and she was making the subs on 1 of the days we went there.
I usually let the teens get subs when we go and do the big grocery shopping for helping me get everything, bring it in, and help me put it all away, as like a treat, a thank you for all of the help.

Back-up.

On several of my shopping trips, she would be working in the deli cutting meats, doing customer service, and I would order like a pound of the Publix brand Sweet Ham, or Publix brand roast beef, whatever, and she would talk back to me in Spanish.
I guess she was asking me what I wanted, like she didn't understand me or something, so I would repeat it, "1 pound of Publix brand Sweet Ham, sliced sandwich cut please."
Again, she would say something in Spanish, raise her hands up, and sorta shake her head like she was confused and didn't understand me.
I would keep repeating myself, and she would keep doing the didn't understand me thing until another deli employee would move into the slicing area.
The teens would be over ordering their subs, probably about 5-7 feet from where I was, and they would be sorta giggling at me and whispering to me to not make a scene at the same time.
But like I said, as soon as another employee would get close, she would suddenly understand what I wanted, and she'd cut the meats I ordered.
This happened a whole bunch of times, on almost every single trip to the store, and when I would buy meat from the deli, for about 1 and a half months.
I go to Publix approximately 3 times per week, and buy lunch meats 2 out of the 3 trips.

Then 1 day, I had already gotten the meats I wanted, the deli manager had waited on me that day, and then I went over and ordered all of us subs for dinner.
The deli manager was now waiting on other customers, and the Hispanic woman must have just clocked in, and she came over to the sub station to wait on us.
Again, she acted like she didn't know what I was asking for, 3 whole subs, white rolls, Publix brand sweet ham, white American cheese, mayo, tomatoes, onions, pickles, salt, pepper, and sub sauce on all.
All 3 of the subs were going to be exactly the same, we've ordered the subs like this a gazillion times over the last 12 years that we've lived here, and this woman is standing there shaking her head at me, hands up, making a confused look on her face, and saying "No comprenda."

I had had enough of this game, it happened every time she was working the deli, and it appeared to only be with me, and she would immediately "get it" when another employee or the deli manager would get close enough to hear us and me repeating myself over and over.
The Hispanic woman walked off to go to the walk-in meat cooler, and I ran over to the deli manager and asked her if the woman speaks English, she told me that she did, and I quickly explained what had been happening
The deli manager got as close to the sub station as she could, but not so close that it would look obvious that she was trying to hear us.
The Hispanic woman came back with a tub of sliced tomatoes, a tub of sliced pickles, and a new jar of mayo, so it's obvious that she did understand me because those are some of the things asked for.
Then she just stood there looking at me, and so I repeated the order again, 3 whole subs, white rolls, Publix brand sweet ham, white American cheese, mayo, tomatoes, onions, pickles, salt, pepper, and sub sauce on all, and once again, she raised her hands up, shook her head side to side, and said "No comprenda."
So I repeated it, and again, she shook her head at me and said "no comprenda."

The manager came over, yelled the woman's name, and asked her what the hell she was doing.
The woman suddenly spoke perfect English, crystal clear, "I'm waiting on this customer, making her 3 subs, all the same."

The manager said "No, what are you doing speaking to her in Spanish and pretending that you don't understand her. No comprenda means that you don't understand what she's asking for, why are you doing that?!"

The woman stood there, turning red in the face, giggled and said, "I'm just having some fun."

The manager said, "Fun? You think pretending that you don't speak English, that you don't understand what the customer is saying, making her repeat herself over and over, is fun? You think that's fun?! Do you know what I think is fun?! Watching people stand in line at the unemployment office. You're fired!"

The woman asked if she was joking, the manager said no, get out of here, you're fired, leave, now, and the woman almost started crying, said she was just joking, turned to me and apologized, said she was just joking, and she didn't mean to upset me.
She must have said sorry to me a dozen times, and the manager just kept telling her she was fired, to leave now or she'd call security to get her out.

As the woman walked off crying, I felt sorta bad, but not really.
This had been happening every time I went there, and it was really frustrating, I felt like I should have been able to speak to her in Spanish, that it was my fault that she didn't understand what I needed.
I know it wasn't my fault, Publix has rules for employees about speaking in English and clearly, but I still felt like maybe I should have tried to speak her native language.

That was about 3 years ago, and since then, Publix has hired even more Hispanic employees, some of them have very thick accents, it's very difficult for me to understand some of them, and it's like this almost everywhere that I go and have to use a customer service employee.
Grocery stores, 7-Eleven, Wal-mart, Target, Subway, and almost every single fast food place like McDonald's and Taco Bell.
Even just walking up and down the aisles at the grocery store, sometimes a Hispanic person will ask me something, in Spanish, I have no idea what they want, and I say as nicely as I can that I don't speak Spanish, and they look frustrated and upset, they try to say whatever it is in English, but they can't seem to figure out the words needed.

I'm one of those people that believes wholeheartedly that if you move to a new country, that you need to learn the language of the country that you chose to live in, to not expect the people who live there, have lived there all of their lives, to learn your language.
Like, if I decided to move to France, or Germany, India, China, wherever, I would start studying the language of the country that I had made the decision to move to, and I would learn it as best as I could before moving there, and then keep on studying it and learning it until I became fluent in it, had an excellent grasp on the language, so that I could properly communicate with the people of that country, buy my groceries or items for my home, or a sandwich from a store or vendor.
I would never expect those people to learn mine, to make my life easier in their country, the place that I chose to live in.

But it is becoming harder and harder to communicate with employees almost everywhere I shop now, or have to call for customer service help, and the language most widely being spoken is Spanish.
I am really feeling the pressure to learn it just so that I can get customer service at a place I have shopped at for years.

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April 21, 2009

Friends, food, and fun.

The teens and I had some company on Monday night, my friends Dustin and his girlfriend Stacey came over to hang out with us for awhile.

Dustin had taken me to my doctor's appointment and the pharmacy, and then he asked what we were doing tonight.
I told him nothing, the usual Monday night routine of dinner, maybe a movie or just some regular tv, and then bed for the teens at 11:30, and I'll probably stay awake all night again.
He asked if we'd like to have some company, if he and Stacey could come hang out for a few hours, he'd buy dinner, we could watch a movie, he could play some video games with the teens, and Stacey and I could hang out and get to know each other a bit better.

I only met Dustin about 5-6 months ago, and just met his girlfriend about 5-7 weeks ago.
Dustin and I talk to each other almost daily, he helps me get to my appointments and stuff, and as soon as Stacey and I met, we were like instant friends.
She is my age, she grew up in Maine like I did, in Portland and the Biddeford/Saco area, she moved here to Florida about 16 years ago, and I've been here for the last 12.
We both love horror movies, we've even worked at the same types of jobs our whole lives.
We're Jills of all trades I guess you could say, because whatever job was hiring, we took it to make ends meet and take care of our kids.
Yup, she's also a single mom, she only has 1 kid though, but it's still one of those camaraderie things.

Dustin dropped me off about 6pm, then he went and picked Stacey up from work, (her son is at his dad's until Thursday) they swung by the store, picked up some Mountain Dew for him and the teens, a gallon of water for Stacey, and some Diet Coke for me, and then they came in and we started our fun evening.
He ordered a super large pizza and a ton of Buffalo wings from Pizza Hut, and we picked a movie to watch while we ate.
Stacey and I both love the movie Stir of Echoes and hadn't seen it in awhile, and Dustin had never seen it, and after, he said he really liked it, so it was a good choice.
After dinner and the movie, Dustin and the teens went in the other room and played a few games, Resident Evil 5 and Gears of War 2, and talked about the upcoming game, Batman: Arkham Asylum, which we all want to play wicked way bad.

Stacey and I hung out here in the living room, talked about how much we have in common, which really is a lot, our lives practically mirror each other, it's kind of freaky.
We talked about our fave horror movies, our kids, our health, and then we watched a movie on my computer, "The Last House on the Left", the remake, because she hadn't seen the new one yet, but she has the old one, and we're going to have another movie watching night to watch the classic 1972 version too.

And we also planned our next get-together hang out night for all of us.
Sort of.
We didn't pick a night yet, but we decided on the menu at least, my awesome spaghetti and some of my killer garlic bread, and we picked the movie(s), The Burrowers and The Haunting of Molly Hartley.
She said it's good, that I'll like it even though it doesn't have the best user ratings and reviews, she liked it so I'll probably like it too because our tastes are so similar.
I'm going to talk to Dustin tomorrow afternoon when he takes me to my appointment with the cardiac doctor, about what night would be good for them.

It's really nice having some company, having some friends over to hang out and talk to.
Since my surgeries, I don't get out much, really can't go out and party and go to clubs and stuff anymore, so most of the friends I had, sorta left me.
They all go out and hang out, go to bars and clubs, go dancing, and those are all things that I currently can't do anymore, I haven't been able to do any of that stuff since September, so most of my friends just stopped coming around, stopped calling, and just sorta faded away.
That saying that says you find out who your real friends are when you either get arrested or are in bad health, is all too painfully true.
Your real friends stand by you, they come bail you out or are sitting right next to you in the cell, or they visit you in the hospital, come visit you at home, just come by or call to see how you are, they don't just fade away.
Both Dustin and Stacey are homebodies, they like quiet nights at home watching movies and eating a decent meal, and they don't mind one little bit that I can't go out and party because they aren't party people themselves.
They both thanked me about a gazillion times for having them over tonight, they thanked the teens for letting them be here too, for playing video games, and the pleasant conversation and funny jokes.

It's me who should thank them, and I did, repeatedly as they left.
I've been stuck in my house for so long, only going out to see a doctor or go grocery shopping, so it was really wicked nice to have company, conversation, and make some new friends who don't mind my situation, who help me get to places, and just enjoy spending time with me, I had a really good time and can't wait to do it again.

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April 19, 2009

I should write to them.

The NuWave Oven Pro people that is.
I used to be in sales, a long time ago, in another life it seems like now, I did sales, I did sales training of new associates, I hired and fired people, I knew my stuff.
Anyway, I could totally sell this product for them.
I absolutely love my NuWave Oven Pro, it is so awesome, it cooks every single meal that we generally eat aside from some skillet meals, and I could totally be a sales person for them showing people how to really use it, not like the infomercial people do, but how normal every day people can cook with it.

Ever since getting it, I have NOT used the regular oven, not even once.
I took a board and laid it on top of the stove burners and put the NuWave right there because I don't have a ton of counter space in my kitchen, and we have been cooking with it ever since getting it, and I have not even opened the regular oven door again.

On the weekends, there's not a whole lot on tv, so we watch a lot of the infomercials and laugh at them and the super bad acting, but every time the NuWave Oven Pro one comes on, we watch it even though we have it.
The infomercial is totally cheesy, really bad acting, and they never actually show you how to cook with it.
Sure they throw some food in it, tell you that it will take 15 minutes for a frozen steak and 2 sweet potato halves to be done, and then they walk away to show you some salmon, or the turkey that cooks in just 2 and a half hours.
But they don't show you how it really cooks, how really easy it is to use.
Honestly, I should make my own video with this bad boy one of these days because it is just an awesome cooking appliance, and you do have to read the instruction manual carefully, but so far, I have not burned a single thing in it, and I will be making a turkey in it very soon.
I think that "chef" who tested it for Fox, simply didn't follow the instructions, because I have cooked a 10lb chicken in it, it fit perfectly with room to spare, and it cooked it all of the way through to perfection.

Last night, I had totally forgotten about dinner, so at about 7pm, the teens started giving me the feed us or die stare, so I opened the freezer, took out a package of chicken legs, and grabbed a box of shaken 'n bake, and made dinner.
In 35 minutes.
The legs were frozen solid, it took a minute or 2 to snap them apart from each other, I ran each leg under some water so the coating would stick, and then laid them out on the cooking racks that I sprayed with a light coating of non-stick cooking spray.
I put the dome on, pressed the cooking power button once, pressed cooking time once, pushed the 3 and the 5, and then pushed start, and walked away.
After 35 minutes, it beeped, and I went to check on them thinking they might need a few more minutes, they were frozen after all, and this is what I saw when I looked through the dome.

They were completely done, well done, all of the fat and grease had drained off into the bottom pan, and I served them up with some rice a roni I had made in the skillet on the counter top.

They were perfect.
They were plump and juicy, and incredibly tasty.
I asked the teens how they were, and the most they could manage was a few grunts, some "mmms", and a couple of thumbs up.
After they finished eating, I asked again for a more verbal reply, and they told me the chicken was really fantastic, they loved it, that I needed to make them more often exactly the same way.

This afternoon, we were watching some cooking shows on PBS, like Every Day Food and a few other cooking shows, and one of them was about burgers, so the teens decided that we were going to have bacon/blue cheeseburgers for dinner tonight.
I didn't have any of the stuff to make them, so the teens went to Publix and picked up the Bubba Burgers, an onion, a package of ready cooked bacon, a tomato, some regular cheese, and also some lunch meats for later on in the week.
I already had a package of blue cheese from when I went shopping the other day.
I also had them pick up a pound of roast beef sliced sorta thin, so I could test out the NuWave's claim to making beef jerky in 1 hour.
My mom used to have a food dehydrator, and I would borrow it from time to time to make the teens some jerky and dehydrated apples, orange slices, banana chips etc.
It would take all night to make jerky and dried fruit.
The NuWave says it can make it in 1 hour, so I'm going to give it a try.
I had them grab a bottle of teriyaki sauce, I'll marinate the roast beef while the burgers cook, and after I clean up the NuWave from dinner, I'm going to make some jerky.
I'll let you know how it goes.

Also, the NuWave infomercial has been updated, they have added a special pan for cooking frozen pizzas, which I do admit is a bit odd to do with the NuWave right now, but that new pizza kit looks like it works, and it also has a cutting board and some other new utensils to go with it, that aren't available on the site yet.
I am going to write to them and share my experiences with it, maybe make that video, and maybe they'll send me the new pizza kit stuff.
Hey, it could happen!

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April 16, 2009

Meds, food, and trying new things.

The plan for today was to get up early and go to CVS, get Sebastian's migraine meds, and then go grocery shopping at Sweetbay because it's right there, I didn't want to go all the way in one direction to get his meds, and then turn around and go all the way to Publix which is in the other direction, which would have wasted a lot of time today.

I let Mark stay home from school today to be my shopping helper, but he got up at the usual time, walked Sebastian all the way to the street the school is on*, and then he came home and we were gonna go.
Well when he got back, I was still wicked way tired, so I told him to go back to sleep for a few more hours and then we'd go.
I woke up at 10:30, and started making my list, woke Mark back up, and then I was going to start getting dressed to go.
Good thing I decided on getting a late start because the school called about Sebastian.
He ended up getting a wicked bad migraine and needed to come home, the nurse said he was completely pale and near tears sitting in the nurses office, so I told her to definitely send him home.

I waited for him to get home before I went shopping, and decided to have him go with me instead of Mark.
When he got here, I gave him the last pill in the bottle, and 2 Tylenol, and one of my diet sodas so he could get the caffeine to help with the migraine.
Then he and I headed out to CVS to get his meds and then shopping.
One of the things I like about CVS over Walgreen's is that they are super fast getting prescriptions ready, they said it would take 15-20 minutes, but they had it ready in 7 minutes.
I barley had time to go around and find the things I wanted to buy while there.

They had the Venus Embrace razors on sale for $7.99, I had a coupon for $2.00 off, (thanks Mom!) and buying them earned me $4.00 in CVS extra care bucks, which I am still learning how to use and what they are all about, but seeing as I have to get Sebastian's meds at CVS** every month, I figure I might as well learn all about the ECBs and start taking advantage of their program.
So the razors were on sale for $7.99, you earn the $4.00 in ECBs making them $3.99, and I had $2.00 off, so I really only paid $1.99 for them.
That's a really great deal, I think, I'm still really not sure how this whole ECB thing works, but I'll figure it out.
I also wanted to try the Garnier Nutritioniste Skin Renew eye roller thingy because I always have really big dark circles under my eyes, and they had it on sale for $12 with the card, and I had a $5.00 off coupon, so I only paid $7.00 for it.
I also bought a big package of Excedrin Migraine, they had it for $10.99, I had a $4.00 off coupon, and I want Sebastian to give these another try.
The Tylenol does work, but it can take up to an hour to an hour and a half for them to kick in, that's far too long when he's battling a big one, so I want to see if these will work better for him.
So after we picked up his meds and bought the stuff, I gave him one of his pills and 2 of the Excedrin right away, and by the time we were done shopping, his migraine was gone, so I think they do work a bit better than the Tylenol even though he was complaining last month that the Excedrin didn't really help.

After CVS, we went and did the shopping at Sweetbay.
I got almost everything on my list, they just don't have as much selection as Publix in my opinion, so probably this weekend I'll have to go to Publix to get the rest of the stuff I couldn't get there.
And while I was gone shopping, Mark snapped the handle off of the cold side of the bathroom faucet.
It's not his fault even though he doesn't know his own strength, this is an old house, and I swear these fixtures are the exact same ones that have been in here since the day this duplex was built in 1976.

So for now, it's duct taped until I can go buy and have someone help me install some new bathroom faucets.
*sigh*

Looks great huh? *LoL*
If it isn't one thing breaking and needing to be fixed or replaced, it's another.
That's just the kind of luck I have.
I was just telling someone this morning in an email, that if I believed in all that past lives and reincarnation stuff, I was probably a really horrible person in a past life and this life is my payback or punishment for it, because if something can go wrong in my life, it most certainly does.
I like hardly ever get a break from the chaos.
Oh well.

Continue Reading �

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April 16, 2009

Tummy flips are mending.

On Monday, Mark got a card in the mail from a relative, it had $50 in it, so he decided to order dinner for all of us.
He ordered from a place that makes a wide variety of food, so he got wings, and Sebastian and I ordered some burgers.
The burger was really great, but by Tuesday morning, I felt like I had been kicked in the stomach a thousand times.
My muscles hurt, they kept tensing up, and I kept on running to the bathroom.
Over and over all day and night Tuesday, and pretty much all day Wednesday too.
It totally ruined my plans for today.

I had planned on going and picking up Sebastian's meds and then doing the grocery shopping.
Nope, the sight of food made me feel ill, the smell of it made me run to the bathroom.
And then Mark calls me in the bathroom this afternoon and asks me how he can remove blackheads from his face.
He's standing there popping all his zits and trying to squeeze out a huge blackhead.
I flipped the toilet lid and just let my stomach drain itself of whatever was left in there, which shouldn't have been much considering how many times I've puked since Tuesday morning.

I'm finally starting to feel better.
My stomach still hurts, but at least the sickness has stopped.
I am pretty sure it was food poisoning as Sebastian said his stomach wasn't feeling all that great either.
He wasn't anywhere near as sick as I was, but he said he just didn't feel right either.
I am hoping that by the time the teens get home tomorrow afternoon, (Thursday) that I'm feeling much better, we really need to do the grocery shopping and get some more cat food and cat litter too.

Oh, we did watch a most gory and awesome movie called The Midnight Meat Train.
Vinnie Jones stars as the butcher, and he is absolutely terrifying!
Bradley Cooper is decent in his role as the photographer on the hunt for real and gritty images for an art gallery show, and the rest of the cast is likable and they do a good job with the script they were given, which really wasn't all that great.
But what the movie lacks in script, it more than makes up for in action and special effects.
This movie is NOT for the squeamish at all, the very violent scenes are up close, in your face, and disgusting.
I am a HUGE horror movie fan and even I cringed and had to cover my mouth a few times to hold back squeals of terror and disgust.
The Midnight Meat Train is probably one of the best adaptations of a Clive Barker story I have ever seen made into a movie.
So if you like horror, guts, gore, check it out, but don't say I didn't warn you about the up close shots of the killings.

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April 14, 2009

Good home cooking.

Oh, the other awesome thing that happened today, was that the UPS guy showed up and brought me this box that weighed 10lbs!
I was not expecting that weight at all.
As he was walking to the door, he was carrying it with 1 hand, the box didn't look big at all, it actually wasn't big at all, but when he handed it to me, I was all whoah!
I have a weight lifting limit, still, because of my spine surgeries.
I am not allowed to lift anything heavier than 5lbs, basically I was told by my surgeon, if it weighs more than a gallon of milk, ask someone else to carry it, and I haven't lifted more than 5lbs since September, so when he handed it to me, it was quite a shock.
I am not sure who sent it either.
Well, I mean, I know it was a book publisher, I get a lot of books from publishers, but this is one that I have not dealt with before, so it was kind of a surprise, but a very nice surprise!

Anyway, the books (yes I said books, it was 2 of the exact same book) I received were The Good Home Cookbook: More Than 1,000 Classic American Recipes.*
These are HUGE hardcover books just chocked full of tons of home-style family recipes!
There's everything in here according to the table of contents;
breakfasts
lunches
appetizers
salads
soups
fish and shellfish
poultry
meat
grilling
pasta and rice
veggies
breads and toppings
pies, cakes, and cookies
other deserts and sweets
drinks

I browsed through it a few times, and there are just so many recipes, all "grandma style", real old-fashioned cooking.
There's not too many people out there that still do everything from scratch, companies make things so much easier for us now, (ready made pie crusts, cake mixes in a box add eggs, water and oil) but if you're looking to learn to cook and bake from scratch, this is THE cookbook to have to learn how.
For example, say that you wanted to learn how to make biscuits from scratch, not from the pop-open refrigerated can from the doughboy, the recipe and full directions are there.
(** recipe below cut)
There are just so many recipes for so many great foods, cooking charts for meats, fish, poultry, veggies, you name a recipe grandma used to make, I'm gonna bet it's in there!
I can't wait to go through this whole book and actually make some of these.
I miss my grandma's and my mother's homemade food so much, they did everything from scratch, my mom still does, but us younger generations, companies just make everything for us, so all we have to do is add water and an egg or 2, and voila! dinner and desert in 30 minutes!
_________________________________

I am seriously going to need to find Mark a new bed very soon, or at the very least, go shopping for twin sized bed frames.
He has grown so much from the small 6 year old boy when we moved here in 1997, and he and Sebastian looked so tiny on their solid pine bunk beds.
My sister got the bunk beds at a yard sale, bought new mattresses, and that's what they've been sleeping on for the last 12 years.
Well, Mark is over 6 feet tall, he weighs about 170, and so that bed is just not the right size for him anymore.
The frame has started to crack under the weight, and his feet hang off from his height.
It's definitely time to get him a new bed or bed frame, and while I'm at it, I should probably just get 2 of them.
Sebastian is not far behind in the height and weight department.

Continue Reading �

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April 11, 2009

Friends, computers, and fun.

A couple of my friends came over tonight, Dustin and his girlfriend Stacey, and we all just hung out and talked for a few hours about all kinds of stuff.
Stacey is a total sweetheart, she came in and marched straight to my kitchen and did my dishes even though I told her like 6 times not to.
She said she wanted to help because Dustin told her what a totally crappy week I've had with the AC and the heat.
Dustin and I talk on the phone several times a week, he has been giving me rides to some of my doctor's appointments and stuff too.
Even though I told her not to do them, and she did them anyway, I really did appreciate her doing them.
The kitchen is just way too hot without the AC, and I tried to do the dishes, but just couldn't.
It was so hot in there, I gave up after just 3 bowls and 1 cup.

Then we sat around my computer and I showed her how to do some stuff.
She really wants to get better at the internet, so I helped her with her myspace page, showed her how to add some stuff to it, how to save pics and then host them so she could post them, and then we're going to slowly do some more stuff together so she can set up her own website.
She has some ideas for what she wants to do, and she brought over a whole bunch of pictures on her flash drive that she wants to have on her website when she gets it up and running.
She wants to start her own dance/exercise studio, teach women how to get in shape through dancing.
She's been a dancer for 17 years, and she's in incredible shape, dancing is all she does to stay in shape, so she wants to teach other women how to dance to get in shape, and how much more fun it is than regular old boring exercises like sit ups and crunches, lunges, and stuff.
I think it's a great idea, and there aren't any of these types of fitness places around here, so I think she's got a really good shot at making it work.
She already has her studio planned out and is meeting with the property owners about monthly rental costs in a few weeks.

Dustin went absolutely nuts when he saw the giant box of Tootsie Roll candies I have...LoL
I swear, no mater how old a guy is, they all act like little kids in a candy store when they see that much candy.
His eyes lit up, he asked how I got it all, I told him I won it, and he was like OMG! You so rock! hahaha

We're going to plan a night of movies and dinner for like next weekend or something, pick a good movie, plan a good meal, and just hang out together.
The teens like the both of them, they showed Dustin WoW, and he was amazed.
He said he had heard about the game from friends, but had never seen it, so he was all "Wow, this is so freaking cool!"
Both he and Stacey like to play video games too, so when they saw that the teens had Resident Evil 5, they said after dinner and the movie, they want to play that game even though it scares the crap outta Stacey, she loves to play it and be scared.
I'm the same way, I love to play it even though it totally creeps me out. hahaha

So anyway, that's how our night was, I have some stuff to catch up on, and even though it's late, I'm still going to try and get some of it done.
I'm wide awake again.
Might have something to do with the amount of sugar I ate today...hahaha

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April 10, 2009

16lbs of candy and some yummy soap is here!

The FedEx guy pulled up today and brought us that huge box of Tootsie Roll brand candies that I won from Lisa Reviews, and he asked if we ordered it.
Sebastian said "No, my mom won it!"
The guy told him he was a lucky kid and to not eat it all at once.
Sebastian couldn't wait for me to open the box so he could see everything inside of it, and of course, dig in...LoL
This is what was in the box;

Two Tootsie Roll banks, lots of Tootsie Pops, Andes Candies, Junior Mints, (which are in the freezer) Fluffy Stuff cotton candy, Frooties, several different kinds of Dubble Bubble, and a TON of all different kinds of the candy that Tootsie makes.
Sebastian was totally excited, and when Mark finally woke up, he was like "Wow, that's all ours?!"
So he was a bit excited to have a ton of candy too. hahaha

The mailman also brought the soaps I ordered last week (after paying off all of my bills from my income tax return) from my friend Lara's homemade soap and candle shop, The Sage Grove.
Lara had made a very specific scent of soap I had told her about, and so when I had the extra money, I bought 3 of the 4 remaining bars she had for sale on her site.
I thought it would have been really mean to buy all 4 bars and not leave at least 1 for someone else.
It is so wonderful!!!
I took a shower with it just a few minutes ago so I could cool off and also wash off the days nasty sweat, and OMGosh! It's amazing!
I love jasmine and pink grapefruit soap!
I used to buy it from another blogging friend who made it, but she hasn't made any in a long time for personal reasons, and so when I was telling Lara about it, she said she'd give it a try.
After she made it, she told me that it smelled "divine!"
Yes it does!
I absolutely love the smell of this soap, taking a shower with it today was awesome, it lathered up really nice, it smells so incredible, and the scent lingers on your skin for hours after showering with it, you don't need to wear any perfume or anything else, the scent is simply scrumptious on it's own.
I still would love a perfume or body lotion made from it some time, I think that would become like my 'signature scent' if I could get it in a perfume.
Lara also packed in the box for me, a bar of Vanilla Sugar soap, a bar of Oakmoss soap, and a bar of Citrus Sherbet soap.
ALL of them smell so so good!
If you love great smelling and homemade soaps, please go check out her shop, her soaps are just awesome, I'll have to try her candles some time when I get some money again some time.

Ok, I guess that's all for now, I need to go eat something for dinner now that it's a bit cooler.
I can't eat when it's so hot out, it makes me feel sick to my stomach, blech.

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April 7, 2009

16 pounds of candy!

On April 4th, I was entrant # 301 and #302, out of 607 entries, to win 16lbs of Tootsie Roll brand candies.
Today, Lisa told me I won.
I won!
This is the pic from her site, but when I get the box, I will take a pic of exactly what all was in the box that we get when it arrives.
Lisa said we should probably have it by the end of the week because she sent them my address as soon as I emailed it to her.

Tootsie sent Lisa her own big box of candy to try out, and she was thrilled to get it, and also to be able to have a contest to offer another lucky blog reader of hers the chance to win their own box.
I only did 2 of the things you can do to win, and I was totally surprised and shocked that my number got drawn when she pulled the winner today!

When I got her email telling me that I won, I screamed out "Yeusss!", and Sebastian came running to ask what was up.
When I told him that I won 16lbs of Tootsie Roll brand candies and showed him the pic, he spotted the Fluffy Stuff cotton candy right away, and started screaming himself...LoL
I love regular Tootsie rolls, the Caramel Apple Pops, I also really like the fruit flavored Tootsie Rolls called Frooties, and just like Lisa, I also love and remember the Tootsie Roll banks.
A big Tootsie Roll shaped bank filled with Tootsie Rolls, and when they are gone, you can use the can as a coin and dollar bank.
I loved getting those from my Grandfather as a kid, he would get me one of those every year for my birthday along with a new doll or something that I wanted.
I have such great childhood memories attached to Tootsie Rolls, they just always make me smile, so this is a really cool prize to win.
16lbs of candy is a lot, and Lisa asked me in an email just a few minutes ago, to make sure and let her know exactly how long it actually lasts in the house. hahahaha
I told her, "Mark is not a huge candy eater, but he does like Tootsie rolls and some of the others we saw in your pic, so he will eat some.
I'll probably set some aside, and only put out a small bowl of it to be eaten freely, and fill it back up slowly.
Sebastian will be going to the dentist over the summer, getting his teeth cleaned, getting any cavities filled etc, to start working on getting his braces finally, so I'll have to make him eat the stuff slowly, and to also brush his teeth more frequently.
But I'll hazard a guess that it will last until school starts in August."

How long would 16lbs of candy last in your house?

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April 3, 2009

I DO love them ya know.

I've gotten a couple of strong comments both in the comments and by email on the post below.
Things like I'll miss them when they've grown up and gone from my home, that if I hate having them home so much, why don't I send them to their grandparents for vacations, or why don't I tell them to go play outside, go hang out with their friends all week, stuff like that.

It is NOT because I don't like having the teens around at all.
I LOVE the teens, they are my everything, but they are teenage boys, brothers, just 2 years difference in age, they both want their space and privacy, they want to do what they want when they want, they are still growing so they eat, a lot.
On weekends, they can easily eat a whole pound of lunch meat, a whole loaf of bread, all of whatever leftovers we had, drink a gallon of milk, and devour pretty much anything that isn't nailed down.
So home 24/7 for a whole week?
It gets a wee bit expensive to feed them.

They are brothers who both play video games, they both want to play the same video game, at the same time.
This causes bickering and arguing over whose turn it is and for how long.
They have a computer to play WoW on, surf the net, whatever, and an Xbox360 to play a crapload of our other video games on, but in typical sibling fashion, they both always seem to want to play the exact same game at the exact same time.
Let the arguing begin!
After 24-48 hours of listening to that, yeah, I don't like it, but it doesn't mean that I want to send them away for their vacations, I love them, I do enjoy the good and fun times we have together while on their vacations.
We hang out and watch movies, we get to talk about anything and everything, we sit and laugh over really silly stuff, and we play games together.

I'm sorry if the post below sounded like, or seemed like I hate having them around.
I really don't hate having them around, I adore them even with all of the fighting and bickering, even if they eat everything in sight, even if I have to remind them a thousand times to shut off lights, fans, computers and video games when they are not being used.

The teens are probably THE best thing I've ever done in my life.
They have grown up to be really awesome young men, (even if they do bicker like all siblings do) they are kind, caring, and generous.
Generous of their time and with their love.
They are compassionate, empathetic, and incredibly loving.
So no, I don't want to send them away, I was just mentally preparing myself for the week to come, what was in store for me because of the whole sibling bickering that goes on.
I never want them to go away, even when they get older, which isn't too much longer now, I never want to spend a day when I don't see them or hear their voices.
They are my everything.

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April 3, 2009

It's gonna be a long 9 days.

The teens are officially on spring break from now until Monday the 13th, the day they go back.
It's going to be a very long 9 days of them eating everything in sight, saying how bored they are, fighting and bickering, playing video games, fighting over video games, and so on.

I'm already tired just thinking about it.
I'll end up going food shopping at least 3 times during the 9 days due to excess food and milk consumption, I'll have to remind them repeatedly to shut off lights, fans, video games and computers, so they don't waste electricity and my money, and I'll probably break up at least a dozen arguments.

I feel a headache coming on.

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March 30, 2009

Antsy pants.

The teens and I ended up going to Ross because I totally forgot that the Beall's by our house closed down a few months ago.
Oh well, we still got some good deals.
They both got 2 brand new pairs of Dockers shorts, normally $45.99, on sale at Ross for just $12.99.
We also found Sebastian a pair of sneakers that are normally $89.99, on sale for just $16.99, for a total of $73-something after taxes.

We also stopped in at EB Games and traded in a bunch of games that they have played and beat, to get a game that they really wanted to have.
They traded in enough games to get a used copy of Resident Evil 5 for $53.73, and they still have about $10.00 left over on their card for another day.

Then we went to Panera so I could get a Frontega chicken panini that I have been craving for ages, and then onto Publix to get the teens what they wanted to eat, chicken tender subs, some more soda, and then home so I could put my foot back up again.
I will be posting a picture of my hobbit-looking foot on KatScan in a few.
It's really gnarly looking, and I'll also post an update on how that is going.

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March 26, 2009

1 of 4 called me back, plus food.

Early this morning, I posted that I needed to call our families 4 doctors and set up appointments.

Call my cardiac doctor and set up an appointment for surgery clearance testing.
Call my primary care physician and set up an appointment for surgery clearance testing.
Call Sebastian's neuro and ask if he can call something in for breakthrough hellish migraine pain.
Call the teen's doctor and set up an appointment for Mark, because he's getting wicked back pains again.

I called my cardiac doctor, spoke to a nurse, she said that Jenn the appointment setter would call me back.
She did.
I called my primary care physician, left a message with the girl who answered, for the appointment setter to call me back.
No one did.
I called Sebastian's neuro, had to leave a message on his voice mail because it went straight to it, no rings.
He did not call back.
I called the teen's doctor, left a message with the girl who answered.
They did not call back either.

So out of the 4 calls I made, only my cardiac doctor called back, I have an appointment on April 6th at 10:30am for a cardiac stress test and surgical clearance, as well as see if I have any type of blockage or something because of my feet swelling.
My surgeon saw that my feet were swollen on Wednesday, they weren't even that bad really, he asked if that happened a lot, i said no, but when it does they get pretty bad.
So he said he wanted the cardiac doc to run some sort of dye test that would determine if there's any blockages in blood flow, and if not, then it's a water issue, and my dose of high blood pressure meds may have to be upped.

After waiting as long as I could, I decided to go do the shopping that we needed to do.
I left Mark in charge of taking the phone messages, gave him a notepad and a good pen, told him to take the first date and time they offered if they called back, and I'll work out transportation to those appointments later.
When we got back, no one had called back.
Gah.
Now I have to call them back in the morning again. *bangs head on keyboard*

When we went to Publix, it was a nightmare!
It was like every old, mostly dead, blue-haired, snowbird was in there shopping, and they were all in a wicked bad mood, maybe in need of a deep and thorough enema, because yowza, they were all just really snappy, grabby, pushy, and yelling at everyone they came in contact with.
They didn't take a number at the very busy deli, but demanded to be waited on, they stopped to chat with other old, mostly dead, blue-haired, snowbirds, right in the middle of the aisles totally blocking shopping traffic, they knocked things off of shelves and didn't pick them back up, they made the poor woman in the bakery cut a loaf of bread 3 times because the "thickness wasn't exact", and they kept trying to cut in the checkout lanes.

Ok, this turned into a rant and I didn't intend it to be that way, but I'll be glad when season is over.
Hurry up Easter!
They all go back up north after Easter...LoL

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March 15, 2009

A late birthday surprise!

The plan for today was for my sister and her husband to come on by with the girls, (my super cutie nieces) bring us all some lunch, and then sis and her husband would go out for awhile, out to eat, go see a movie, do some shopping without the kids in tow, and the teens and I would babysit.

Last night, sis called and asked if we'd like some Chinese food for the lunch, we all said yes, of course, and that they'd all be here around 1pm.
Sebastian and I got up a bit early, went to Publix, grabbed some juices, and some snacks that the girls can have, (food allergies) and then we came home and finished the cleaning we started yesterday.
Sis and the girls got here at 1pm, no husband, he's not feeling well at all today, sis said he woke with a migraine and his stomach was bothering him, so she decided that she and the girls would come anyway.
They brought a ton of Chinese food with them, and a present all wrapped up in some really pretty Disney Princesses pink wrapping paper.
The girls had also made me some beautiful paintings, and they came in, handed them to me, wrapped their little arms around my legs, and yelled happy birthday.
It was so stinkin' cute!
They made me open my present before we could eat, Susan and Skye were all excited for me to open it up because they said they helped mommy pick out 1 of them.
Sis gave me some super cute black linen shorts with a nice embroidery on 1 of the pockets, a black peasant style t-shirt, and a black retro-tattoo-ish kinda Betty Boop t-shirt too.
That's the 1 the girls said they helped pick out, and everything in black because it's my favorite un-color.

Then we all sat and ate the food and watched Santa Claus Is Comin to Town again, because the girls are absolutely fascinated by the Burgermiester Miesterburger.
They love that character, Susan said today that he must have had no toys when he was a kid, and that his mommy and daddy were really mean to him, so that's why he hates toys now, hates laughing, playing, "happy".
Interesting idea, maybe she's right, it's never truly explained why the Burgermiester Miesterburger hates toys and kids, but Susan's explanation sounds good.

Then after that, I showed sis and the girls how much the kitties love the video catnip, and they laughed and laughed.
Shahiro was especially funny today, she was back on the side table, watching intently, and then she dove at the tv, paws outstretched, meowing loudly, hit the screen and fell to the floor.
It didn't deter her, she tried again and again, and Nova just kept standing up on her hind legs and pawing at the screen, same as in the pics I posted yesterday.

After that, sis went out to Barnes and Noble by herself for awhile, the girls stayed and played with us.
They ran around the yard, dug through all of the toy boxes, ate some chips and salsa, drank more juice, and just had a great time as always at Aunty Kat's house.
They love coming here so much, that as they were getting in the car to leave tonight, Susan told sis she wanted to live here. hahaha
They are just such awesome little girls, I love it when they come to visit me, it just cheers me up and makes me smile.

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March 4, 2009

Stressful days just fly by don't they?

I've had one of those days where the stress level has been so high that I've totally forgotten to eat anything at all.
I don't need to buy diet pills when I'm just a huge ball of stress, I completely forget to eat!

Why have I been so stressed out today?
Because a nosy busybody has been reading my blog and taking extremely innocent posts that I've written, and totally twisted them around to hurt a family member.
I had to stop this from happening, so I spent a better part of the day learning how to block an entire range of ip addresses using .htaccess.
I can't go into any details just in case I didn't do the .htaccess right, I won't know for a few days I suppose, I'll have to watch my stats and see if the person is still getting through, but I do know that blocking that whole range has blocked someone else out.
But it was the only way that I could do it, and I hope that the other person will understand.
Nasty, cruel people bother me, and this has had me so upset today, a totally innocent post, not having anything to do with anyone at all, was twisted around so maliciously, and intently, to hurt someone close to me.

My family member understands that this is my blog, my place to write and vent, share the good and the bad, they don't want me to change anything at all that I do here, so I had to find a way to stop this vile person, and I so hope that it works, I really do, because the thought of them reading any more of my posts and using them against anyone else, or taking any more innocent stories and twisting them around to become horrible and terribly untrue stories, makes me sick to my stomach.
I'm so sick and stressed over this I couldn't eat if I wanted to right now.
Just please let it work.

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February 28, 2009

Done but the night isn't over yet.

The teens and I spent most of the day doing the cat urine cleaning that we needed to do, and I can finally say that we're done.
I am just so glad that we only had to take apart my bed and bedroom furniture, and not something as big as, for example, something like home theater furniture with all of those bolted together seats and stuff.
That would have been such a pain in the butt.

We went in, took off all of my bedding, started the wash, then flipped the mattress and box spring against the wall/closet doors, then the frame, then the headboard, and then went through all of the boxes of stuff I had under my bed, salvaged what we could, (what didn't get peed on) and tossed everything else.
Then we ripped up all of the carpet which really wasn't much, maybe the size of a 6x9, maybe a bit smaller, and then all of the padding, tossed it all, and then I did all of the sweeping and mopping.
In total, it probably took about 5 hours to do because I washed the floor multiple times.
I just had to make sure that any trace of it was completely gone.

Once that was all finished, Sebastian and I headed up to CVS to get his migraine meds and some hamburger buns for tonight's dinner.
I am so totally giddy over the NuWave Oven, it made the hamburgers perfectly, so yummy!
Mark helped me make dinner tonight, we just used the pre-made frozen Bubba Burgers with sweet onions, and some more corn on the cob.
I showed Mark how to lay them out, set the cooking power and time, and he did all of the rest.
They cooked in 8 minutes, 4 minutes per side, so that's how we set the cooking time.
4 minutes, beep, flip, 4 minutes, beep, done.
I was absolutely amazed at how much fat and grease came off of them, the bottom drip pan was full of grease, and Mark said, "We used to eat them like that?!" with this horrified look on his face.
I said yeah, when I fried them in the skillet, they just soaked all of that grease back up.
He looked grossed out.
He loved cooking them though, and they came out perfectly cooked.
We are so loving it, another food item tried and loved, this thing is so totally awesome, dinner has been done perfectly from frozen, almost every night this week, in way less time than it used to take, and the teens are happy to help me, it's just so easy for them to use.

In a few hours, I'll be closing down comment entries for my birthday contest, and finishing numbering them all, tallying up all of the extra entries, and getting ready to draw a winner in the morning.
It was an excellent turn-out for entries, over 450 individual entries.
I think that is by far the biggest number of entrants I've ever had on a contest, and I probably won't be doing it like that ever again.
My next contest, not right away, this one has me wiped out, the rules will be much different.

Ok, off to start numbering more of the entries, I'm like 150+ behind on numbering them, but the drawing isn't until morning, and I won't be drawing it until after the teens and I have my birthday breakfast together.
Later days!

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February 27, 2009

Last few days update.

Ok, now that I'm starting to feel somewhat human again, I'll give you an update on the goings on around the Cooper household.

As you know, Mark took his graduation test, the test giver said he passed, we have to wait a few weeks for the official state grade, but basically he's done with school.

I also took Sebastian to the neuro who did a bunch of tests, asked a ton of questions, and then gave him 2 different medicines to try.
We will go pick those up tomorrow morning at CVS and start him on them.
He has to take both every single day as they are preventative migraine medicines, so we'll start and see how it goes for him.
I really hope they work, if they don't, we have an appointment in a month to do a check up, report if they work or not, if not, we'll try 2 more the neuro said.

I don't know if we're going to be able to keep Carmine the kitty who adopted us.
I fully believe that he is a feral cat as we have tried and tried to get him to stop peeing all over the house, but he simply will not stop peeing everywhere.
He used the litter box for the first month or so that he was here, but he's now resorted to peeing on the carpet in several spots, and if you have cats and have or ever had a cat that peed in other places other than the litter box, well you know the smell is pure nasty ammonia.
He has taken to peeing on the carpet underneath my bed over and over.
The smell in my room is so nasty and strong, I haven't been able to sleep in it for several days now.
Tomorrow, the teens and I are getting the box cutter and tearing out that carpet.
We have to, we don't have a choice.
The carpet has been ruined by some of the flooding that happened anyway, and most of it got ripped out after the last big huge flood that we had about 2 or 3 years ago.
Now it all has to come out because he has peed all over it and the smell is absolutely disgusting.
We've been trying to train him, every time we caught him peeing someplace other than the box, we picked him up, rubbed his nose in it, and put him in the litter box.
He just will not stop peeing there, and then he has tried to pee other places, too, like the bathtub, and tonight, he peed on the kitchen floor.
I simply cannot have a cat that pees everywhere.
No amount of enzyme urine stain cleaner can get rid of that smell no matter how good they claim their product is.
If we can't get him to stop this, the other cats will start peeing in other places too, and then the smell will be in the entire house and none of them will ever ever stop peeing in those places.
I hate to have to get rid of him, but a feral cat will never learn.
I will take him to the humane society, I'll pay the $50 or so bucks they want to take feral cats, and hopefully they will know what to do with him, give him to a no-kill shelter, or give him to a family that wants an outdoor cat.
I really hate to do that, I love him, the teens love him so much, he's beautiful and so loving, but a feral cat who pees is simply no good.
If anyone knows what to do, knows how to make him stop peeing, please, please tell me what to do, it's breaking our hearts at the very thought of having to get rid of him.

In NuWave Pro Oven news, it rocks my socks something fierce!!!
So far we have cooked frozen chicken breasts in just 16 minutes, 8 minutes per side, a steak, which came out absolutely fabulous in just 7 minutes per side, oh my goodness, it was simply incredible!
I cooked some of those Barber Foods stuffed chicken breasts, the broccoli and cheese ones, and they were totally cooked perfectly in just 7 minutes instead of the 45 in a conventional oven, with no turning at all.
Tonight we cooked some bourbon marinated salmon fillets (they were on sale for just $6.99 for 3 big fillets) in just 4 minutes per side, and they came out perfectly!
I also made to go with the salmon, some corn on the cob halves, and by the time the salmon was done, so were they, perfectly with no turning, from frozen.
Tomorrow night I'll be making some frozen hamburgers, it says they will cook in just 3 minutes per side, and some french fries which the chart says will be done in just 6 minutes with no turning using the baking sheet that it comes with.

The teens absolutely love the NuWave, they think it is simply incredible and easy to use.
Both of them have been helping me cook every night because I haven't been feeling well, and they have done so good at it.
They got the food out, they sprayed the cooking racks with Pam, they put the food on, read the cooking time chart, set the power and time, and flipped the food.
It is far too easy to make good food in no time at all, and clean up is an absolute breeze.
It all comes apart really easy, and washes up in seconds.

I do need to pick up some parchment paper to cook pizzas though.
The pizza flipper it comes with, yeah, that's a must.
You need to place the pizza, cheese and sauce side down on the paper, cook it for just 3 minutes, then use the flipper to turn it ride side up.
It will cook the pizza without flipping, but the crust doesn't get as crusty as we like it, so yeah, next shopping trip, I'll get some paper and it will make the pizzas perfectly.

It is just so easy to use, easy to clean up, and the food tastes incredible.
The teens could not stop saying how good the salmon tasted tonight and the steak last night, they love it, so I know that after the next surgery, they will be eating good and healthy food all cooked by themselves.
Thank you guys so so much for getting it for us, you've made a huge difference for us.
They are not afraid of using it like they are the really old and temperamental oven that we have, they love it, they love cooking with it, it's really awesome.

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February 22, 2009

NuWave Pro Oven product review.

Like I posted yesterday, I received the Nuwave Pro Oven as a gift from some friends, and I used it to cook our dinner tonight.

I had a really good reason to test it out tonight, we had a bit of an accident here at the house.
I had posted to Twitter how good I was feeling so I was going to do some house cleaning.
It's been awhile since I've felt good, so I wanted to do all of the dishes, the laundry, and vac the carpets.
Within minutes of posting that, the bathroom flooded, which subsequently had spread to the back bathroom and hallway.
The landlord is trying to fix up the duplex apartment next door after the old neighbors moved out about 6 months ago.
He's had to do an insane amount of work, they really trashed the place.
He had torn up the carpets and decided to never put any back down again after what they let their pets do to every full room of carpet in there so no other tenants do that again, and today, he decided to power-wash the terrazzo flooring in there.
He hooked up the power washer to the sink or tub faucet in the bathroom, and proceeded to wash the floors, suck it all up in a wet vac, and he dumped it all down the toilet drain and then left.
This old duplex is still on septic, it can't handle that much water going down the toilet that fast, and so, it all backed up into our side of the duplex.
I spent the entire afternoon soaking up water with towels and then doing all of laundry, having to wash all of those towels.
So by the time the teens and I had finished cleaning the house, it was nearing dinner time and I was no longer physically feeling so great.
My back, neck and shoulders were fried, and not to mention, I was so busy cleaning up the watery mess, I had forgotten to thaw out the frozen chicken breasts for dinner.

The NuWave Pro Oven says that it can cook from frozen in less time than thawed or fresh, in a regular oven, so I decided to test drive it tonight.
It's all digital, you just place your food inside, check the chart for cooking times, set the temperature and time, click start, and it cooks your food.

I got it all set up and placed the frozen chicken breasts on the cooking rack making sure the drip pan was beneath, and set the cooking temperature to high power (350degrees) which was 1 button, set the time for 16 minutes which was 3 buttons, and clicked 1 button to start.
A total of 5 button pushes to make dinner.

Within just 3 minutes, they were thawed and starting to cook!

They were starting to turn a nice golden color at about 8 minutes.

And just like the infomercial says, all of the fat and grease drips off of the food and into the drip pan below, making your food healthier because it's not sitting in it's own grease.

At 16 minutes, they were completely cooked all of the way through, but the teens wanted some BBQ sauce on them, so I opened up the NuWave, poured some on, and set it to cook again for just another 3 minutes to bake the yummy sauce onto the chicken breasts.

I made a side of Pasta Roni fettuccine alfredo to go with it, and wow, it was so good!

When the infomercial says that your food cooks in less time, has less fat and grease, and the meat is tender and moist, they are NOT lying.
The chicken breasts were so full of flavor, they were tender and juicy, and was definitely done in far less time than if I had cooked it in a regular oven.
If I had cooked them in the oven, it would have taken about 45 minutes, the whole house would have gotten hot, I would have had to bend over and keep checking to see if they were done, which stresses my neck and back out, turn them over so both sides could get brown, and then I would have had the baking sheet to clean up which is always a mess after making anything with BBQ sauce.
BBQ sauce sticks to the baking sheet something fierce, and I usually end up having to soak it for about an hour or two in order to get it totally clean.

When dinner was over, it was time to clean up and wash the NuWave.
It was SO easy to clean!
The top dome comes off of the digital cooking head simply by turning it counter clockwise, and the dome itself doesn't get dirty because the food didn't splatter at all, it simply had some condensation in it, so I just rinsed it out under the faucet head.

The drip pan was also super easy to clean, just a few wipes around with my dish stick, and all of the fat, grease, and BBQ sauce drippings just came right off.
No sticky mess!

The baking rack was also wicked, wicked easy to clean because I had given it a light spray of no-stick cooking spray, so again, just a few wipes over the rack grids with the dish stick, and it was totally clean.

Overall, the NuWave Pro Oven is awesome!
It is super easy to use, cooks in less time than the regular oven, really easy to clean, and the food comes out moist and full of flavor, just really, really great.
I absolutely love it and can see us using this for everything that we would normally cook in the oven.
It is so easy to use that the teens will not have any problems at all learning how to cook with it, so when I do go in for my surgery and begin recovering at home, they will be able to eat food that is good for them.
No more take out, junk food, no more microwave meals, no more cold lunch meat sandwiches or subs every night for months on end, they will be eating good and tasty food that they cooked themselves.

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February 21, 2009

Friends, food, and cooking.

I have had a day here and I can't stop crying.
Ok, I sorta can.
I've been crying off and on since this morning over all kinds of things.
I'm like a pressure cooker right now, slowly letting out steam every 20 minutes or so.
A few days ago, I blogged about all of the stress and other things building up in me, my lost trust in people, my lost faith in people, I felt like I was losing my mind.
I still do sorta feel that way.
It's just one thing after another, all of the little and big things keep piling onto all of the things I already am trying to deal with.

Today though, some of my faith in people has been restored.
Through kindness and generosity, true caring from friends, and that set me off crying again.

The teens and I walked to the store late this afternoon, and when we returned home, we found this big huge box at the front door.
My son Mark brought it in, we put all the groceries away, and then I opened it.
It was the NuWave oven I've been wanting to get to help make it easier for my sons to cook and eat good food while I'm having surgery and after.
After both of my last surgeries, they ate nothing but junk food, microwave food, take out, cold lunch meat sandwiches day after day for months, except for a few meals that Mindy brought over, and a few times that my sister stopped by with some stuff that didn't need any cooking too.
The teens fear getting burned by the regular oven, they are getting a little better about it, but they still are afraid to reach in and take out hot items.

There was no card inside the box, only a packing slip with one person's name on it, so I emailed her and asked her why as well as to say thank you.
I asked why because I know that when I blogged about losing my trust and faith in people, I had written even friends I usually could trust and talk to, and I know that it hurt her.
I was in such a bad place last week, I was angry, hurt, felt betrayed, and I lashed out at everyone, and I know that was wrong, but shutting down and shutting off from everyone was the easiest way for me to handle what I was dealing with.
I didn't know any other way to deal with it than just shutting down and blocking everyone out until I could sort it all out.
I did apologize to the close friends who I know I hurt with my words, but I was and still am, feeling very badly about hurting them simply because I couldn't figure out how to deal with any of what was happening.

But the NuWave wasn't just from her, about 12 people all pitched in and bought it for me and the teens, to help us all out when I have the next surgery, so the teens will be able to eat real food, not all of the junk food and microwave crap that they ate after both of my last surgeries.
I would link to them all, but I don't know if they want me to do that, they know who they are, but I want to say thank you and thank you, and thank YOU, and thanks to the woman who thought the whole plan up, contacted others and got it all going.
It was wicked nice of her to be thinking of me, wanting to do something to not only cheer me up, but also help the teens and I after the next surgery so they will be able to eat better and easier.

It is the NuWave Oven Pro, the exact one that I wanted, it came with all of the things that the infomercial and website says it does.
The instructional DVD, the pizza flipper, 25 recipe cards, 2 recipe booklets, the extender ring kit, 2 cooking racks, a round baking pan, and the Twister blender.
I can't wait to try it all out, I'm sure I'll do a product review of it, I love kitchen gadgets as most people know, and this really is going to help make it so much easier for the teens to cook good meals for themselves after my next surgery and during my recovery.
It's not big and scary like the oven, fits perfectly on the counter top, and from reading the instruction manual, seems very easy to use.

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February 19, 2009

And green can be big like an ocean, or important, Like a mountain, or tall like a tree.

I remember when being "green" was considered un-cool, people who recycled and cared about the trees were called tree huggers and hippies, but now everyone is going green, now it's cool to do.

People are really starting to become more earth conscious, care about their local environment and the planet, but if you're just starting out, how do you find the best ways to get started?
I found a great site full of going green tips to help you get started on saving the planet, recycling, and saving money as well as the trees.

At Green Hangout, you can find all kinds of tips to help you go green at home, at work, you can get green lifestyle news to help you get started.
They have product reviews of the best green products out there, companies that are helping you go green for less but still get great quality products.
You can even report "Green Violators", companies that are ignoring the green initiative.
And if you're really new to all of this green stuff, they even have a green terms page to help you figure out what all of the words mean.

They also have forums where you can just read along to find new ways of saving money and the planet, you can post to share ideas, find resources, and even vent frustrations about green issues in your community.

I know I have some issues with recycling in my community, they no longer allow us to recycle a whole lot of stuff.
They will only take corrugated cardboard, for example, they refuse to take other forms of cardboard like soda boxes or beer boxes, magazines, phone books, and much much more that we used to be able to recycle.
They have a huge list of items they will no longer let us put in the recycle bins, and if we violate the recycle rules, we get fined.
Heck, we get fined if we accidentally swap the red and blue bins one week.
Red is for cans and glass bottles, no plastics, and blue is for corrugated cardboard only.
Everything that is on the list of do not put in the recycle bins, has to go in the trash.
They are forcing us to put recyclable items in the trash instead of recycling them.
To me, that is totally wrong.
If it's an item that can be recycled, we should be able to put it in the bins, not in a trash bag, and they shouldn't fine us for doing that.
It's kind of crazy that they are keeping us from doing as much recycling as we possibly can.
This city prides itself on having the cleanest and whitest sand beaches in all of the world, yet they are forcing us to put more and more stuff in the landfills than we should be.
If it has a recycle logo on it, if it's a box or plastic with a logo, then they should, instead of forcing us to put it in the trash, force us us to recycle it.
This city is so pretty, we get thousands of tourists every year, we even have new hybrid school and local transportation buses, so what's the deal on recycling Sarasota?

Seeing as my city won't let me be green with my trash and recyclables, I have to find ways to be as green as I can in other ways.
Changing to all CFL bulbs, using my cloth grocery bags, using less chemicals to clean my home, washing in cold water, using less, wasting less, and whatever other ways I can find and do.
That's why this site is so great, it is helping me find other ways of being green.

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February 16, 2009

Dishes, cleaning and cooking.

I hate doing dishes, hate it, so they end up sitting in the sink for about 2 days before I do them.
I walk by, get disgusted by them, and walk away.
But I have to do them today.
As soon as this post publishes, I'm off to tackle this:

Here's what will happen.
I'll spend about an hour washing, rinsing, drying and putting away all of these dishes, and then by the time the night is over, at least 1 side of the sink will be full of dishes again from dinner.
I'm making enchiladas tonight, so there will be the pan I cooked those in, the skillet I cooked the meat in, and then the plates and silverware from the family actually eating them, and then whatever else the teens end up using before the night is over.

I wish my kitchen was big enough for a dishwasher.
Maybe I could get 1 of these Countertop Portable Dishwashers , and I could somehow squeeze it on my counter.

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February 15, 2009

Snackage, money, and diamonds.

These Chex Mix chocolate chunk snack bars are awesomely tasty.

I bought them because they were on sale and I had a $1 off coupon, so I only paid $1.50 for them,
I would never have bought them otherwise, no matter how much Sebastian begged me to get them.
When he saw them on sale today, and then he dug through my coupon envelope, he said; "Mom, you gotta, you said if they were ever on sale you'd buy them, plus you have a coupon. Pleeeease?"
So I bought the 1 box, and they really are pretty tasty.
I don't like regular Chex snack mixes, they are too dry and have some weird stuff in them, but these have chocolate, and chocolate makes everything taste better.

I didn't do too bad shopping today, I saved $87.50 using coupons and in-store specials, and sale flier coupons.
I would have liked to have done a little bit better, but eh, that wasn't too bad.
My total bill before the coupons was $226.50, and I got it down to just $139.00.
__________________________________

I am slowly working on numbering the entries for the contest, to make it easier when I draw the winning comment number on March 1st.
So far, there are 109 comments, but not all of them are entries, there are a few comments from myself and Katy from Gem Affair, so I'm only numbering the actual entries.
You can still enter to win the diamond necklace, so go leave me a comment and enter to win!

Ok, off to number some more entries, (I only got up to #50 last night) and then read some blogs and stuff.
No school tomorrow so we can all sleep in.
The teens are wicked excited about that especially after having to carry home a ton of groceries today.
The cloth grocery bags were loaded to the top and wicked heavy, but we all made it back home in 1 piece despite the teens saying they felt like their arms were going to fall off.

---

February 15, 2009

Food, cooking, and shopping.

The teens and I are getting ourselves woken up and ready to head out to Publix to do the grocery shopping.
We're all going this time because I have only enough money to buy food, not take a $10 cab ride back home, so we're taking all of the cloth shopping bags, and the teens are taking their backpacks, and we're going to get everything and carry it all home.

We've been sitting here this morning watching all of the infomercials that are on Sundays, and I am still coveting the NuWave Oven Pro.
I really do want it, and will probably buy 1 before my next surgery because it will help the teens be able to cook for themselves a lot easier.

I can't help thinking about the risks of the surgery, I don't mind the halo brace so much, it will suck, but if it helps keep my head straight, then I don't really care so much.
But the whole trach tube thing, yeah, that's got me a bit freaked out.
I won't be able to breathe, eat, drink, or speak through my nose or mouth, only breathe through the trach tube, I'll be fed through a feeding tube in my stomach.
It does have it's benefits though.
I won't need to diet or take any sort of diet pill, my food will be some liquid goop shoved through a tube directly into my stomach, so I'm like pretty much guaranteed to lose weight.

But I was thinking about the teens, I won't be able to eat, I will probably have a very hard time doing things like cooking because of the halo brace, and the teens, while they do know how to cook, the oven still freaks them out.
So I was watching the infomercial for the NuWave Oven Pro, and how it is less intimidating than the regular oven, they'd be able to eat good and healthy foods, real food, not microwave nuke 'em bad for them crap, and so yeah, I think at some point before the next surgery, I'll buy it.
I'll test it out, teach the teens how to use it, let them cook with it all of the time before I go, and then they'll be used to it, will be able to cook for themselves when I get back, and probably get really good at it because it's so easy to use, like no brainer cooking.

Ok, gotta get myself ready, brush my hair and get dressed, get my list and coupons, and head on out to buy some food that the teens will inhale.
They have tomorrow off, no school because of the holiday, so I need to pick up some easy to eat and lunch meat stuff for sandwiches and stuff like that.

---

February 6, 2009

I'm a kitchen geek.

Remember how I told you I won an 18-piece food storage container set from Rubbermaid and the Graco Baby Blog?

Well anyway, Lindsay Lebresco emailed and said she was sending them out, that it would here on Friday, today, and man, she's good!
They showed up this morning, FedEx delivered them right on perfect timing like Nixon watches keep perfect time.
I love it when companies keep their word and do things so perfectly and you get the things you ordered or won in this case, exactly when they say you will.

It also wasn't an 18-piece set, it turned out to be a 20-piece set.
18 regular pieces and 2 fruit and veggie crisper containers.

The fruit and veggie crisper containers come with a special vented lid and a special insert to help keep the food from turning brown and going bad.
There's 1 large and 1 medium lid and insert, and they fit into any of the large and medium containers.

All of the lids do snap together so you don't lose them, and the lids also snap to the bottom of the containers, making it super easy to store and stack them so none of them get misplaced.

It's a really great set, I love this kind of stuff, I know, I'm a total kitchen geek, so when it got here, I went in my cupboard where I keep all my storage containers, and tossed out all of the old, stained, lost lidded containers, and the lids with no containers, and put all of these in there.
They are all in the perfect graduated different sizes, but they all stick and stack together, so it's wicked easy to keep them in the cupboard above the stove.

So thanks again Newell Rubbermaid and Lindsay for holding the contest!

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January 23, 2009

Neurologist in the near future.

Sebastian is not getting much relief from his migraine meds, so the doc has referred him to a neurologist to get looked at.
I can only imagine how much it's going to cost, probably somewhere in the same price range as some New York Yankees tickets I bet.
We'll go see the neurologist after February 16th, the doc we have been referred to is out of his office until then.
Poor kid is going to have to go through a lot of testing I think in order to get to the root of his migraine issues.

But for now, the doc called him a new med, so we went to CVS to pick it up late this afternoon, and then we went and did a little shopping at Sweetbay.
I don't like shopping there, but the CVS is over by that store, and Publix is the opposite direction.
I didn't feel like going all the way that way, and then home again.
Wasted trips and time.
The reason I don't like shopping there is because the store always smells dirty, it always smells like rotting meat and dirt, and the employees are never ever happy.
None of them ever smile, they don't say hello, thank you, come again, nothing.
They are a miserable bunch of people over there.
The cashier we had though, said when I asked him how old people had to be to work there, that they weren't hiring any new people because all of the other stores in Sarasota are being closed down, and the employees that aren't being laid off, will be coming to work there.
I don't know why they are closing down the other ones, they should close down that one, it's yucky, dirty, and the other stores are all brand new and much cleaner with happier employees too.
Oh well, I don't shop there often enough to really care, but I know other people who do who might be upset about it.

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January 22, 2009

The crampy potty virus.

Ok, now both Sebastian and I have the virus from hell.
He had to stay home from school today because every 5 minutes he was cramping up and running to the toilet.
I gave him some antibiotics and some Tums to help deal with it all, but it's miserable and nothing really helps.
You cannot take anti-diarrhea medicine when you have a stomach virus.
If you do, you are only helping to keep the virus in your system.
You have to let it run it's course, run through you, and it usually takes roughly 24-48 hours to run it's course.
If he gets a fever and it doesn't go away after 4-5 days, if he gets dehydrated, I'll take him to the docs, but it should be gone soon, Mark had it and he's all better now on day 3.

I have been sick since yesterday morning as well as dealing with the cold weather that Florida is having.
I moved here for several reasons, one of them being the weather, I knew even back then that my back couldn't handle the cold, and so having this cold front come through here is really no fun at all.
Last night's lowest temp was 30 degrees here, and once again tonight they are calling it to be another "hard freeze warning", meaning extremely low temps again.
I know I complain a lot about the cold weather and the titanium, but if you could only feel what I feel when it gets cold, you'd be complaining too.

I would never ever hire something like a Lexington personal injury lawyer and go after my surgeon for what happens when it gets cold, it may only be me who deals with it, I honestly don't know if other spine fusion patients go through it too.
But what happens when it gets cold is, the titanium rods get cold, they get freezing cold to the point where it feels like I have popsicles inserted in my skin right on my spine and spinal cord.
It is unbearable, I didn't sleep at all last night and the night before, I just tossed and turned, tried to warm the titanium up anyway I could think of, but nothing helped at all.
My doc's nurse Cindy, did call me back yesterday, but she had sent out a new prescription for something a little stronger, so it came in today's mail and I went and got it filled early this afternoon.

Because I'm sick, the smell of food is making my stomach cramp up, Mindy has offered and will be bringing some home made lasagna over tonight around 5pm so that at least Mark and Sebastian can eat if they feel up to it.
She picked Sebastian and I up from Walgreen's this afternoon too after my script was filled so I didn't have to spend another $10 on a cab home.

Anyway, I'm really hoping that this runs it's course very quickly, I have work I have to do and I am sooo behind on it.
Later days.

---

January 16, 2009

My winning streak continues!

I have been on a winning streak lately!
First, I won a diamond pendant, then I won 4 more pieces of jewelry, and now I won an 18 piece food storage set from Rubbermaid!

I had entered a scavenger hunt on the Gracobaby blog, and had a choice of 4 different products.
The teens and I don't like omelets enough for the pan, I don't need a humidifier, and as cool as the Dymo label maker would be, I just don't have enough use for something like that, even in my "get organized in 2009" state of mind.
So I chose the cheaper but far more useful to me, 18 piece set of Rubbermaid Easy Find Lids prize they offered.

With 2 teens, I've lost quite a bit of storage containers and lids.
I currently have a whole bunch of containers with a whole bunch of non-matching lids, so getting an all new set is a much better prize for me.

There are many companies on Twitter these days, and if I hadn't been following the Rubbermaid people, I would have never found Lindsay Lebresco and the Gracobaby blog where she posted the contest.

So thank you to Newell Rubbermaid, Gracobaby, and Lindsay, for the fun contest.
I enjoyed playing it and really enjoyed winning it!

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January 16, 2009

Headaches and buy-outs.

I took Sebastian to the docs so he could be looked at for his headaches, he asked Sebastian all kinds of questions about what triggers the headaches.
When do they usually start, do lights and sounds bother him, what makes it go away, does Tylenol work, darkness, cold etc etc.
Sebastian answered all of his questions, and the doc said it does sound like he has been dealing with migraines, so he gave him a medicine to take when they come on.
I don't know what it is yet because I have to go to a different pharmacy to get it.

We left the docs and went straight to Walgreen's where I was told that they no longer take Sebastian's insurance membership card, because CVS bought the rights to anyone who uses that particular insurance.
So now I have to get up to a CVS and get his medicine.
Ugh.

But after we left Walgreen's, the friend who drove me needed to do some grocery shopping, so we all went and did that, I picked up some more stuff that I didn't get last night, and then we came home.
When we were getting the groceries out of her car, Sebastian accidentally brought the van trunk door down on my head fairly hard.
I was stunned, shocked, in pain, I dropped the bag of food and grabbed my head, spinning around out onto the grass.
I was dizzy, my head spinning and throbbing.
I am ok though, it didn't hurt my neck, just my head, I have a pretty decent sized egg on it now, but I'm ok.

Poor kid felt absolutely awful, he was crying, he thought he really hurt my neck, he ran in the house and threw himself down on his bed and cried, he really thought he hurt me badly, but I swore to him that I am A-o-k, fine, just an egg, it's ok.
I'm wicked tired though, I barely got any sleep again last night, so I'm gonna go lay down and watch my soaps and chill.
Later days.

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January 6, 2009

My mommy sent me some lovin' from the oven.

Do you know what this is?

No?
Let me show you.

It's my mom's home made blueberry muffins.

Yum!
My sis and nieces spent the Christmas holiday up visiting our parents, and my mom knows that for years I have tried to perfect her recipe for blueberry muffins but have failed miserably every single time.
She doesn't even have this written down, it's all in her head, so when I asked her for the recipe, she really had to think about it, it's in her head, it's just something she does.
Measurements?
Write them down?
She did write them all down and emailed them to me, but still, I can't get the taste and texture just right.

So when sis and the girls were getting ready to come back to Florida, mom had made me 1 whole dozen of the blueberry baked goodness and stuck them in my sisters suitcase.
Jo stopped by yesterday and dropped them off and I couldn't wait to dig into them.
I opened up the package, stuck one in the microwave to warm it just a little, put a small dab of butter on it and ahhhhh, bliss.

Thanks Mom!

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December 27, 2008

One of these days, they're gonna kick me out.

Mark and I went and did the grocery shopping tonight, Sebastian wanted to stay home and play WoW because by the time I was ready to go, he was knee deep in some sort of quest, mission, whatever, thing.

Anyway, I had a lot to get, more cat litter, cat food, toilet paper, soda, a lot of food and stuff, so the cart was pretty well loaded up, but everything fit in the cart in a neat and orderly fashion.
I'm checking out and one of the managers was doing the bagging for us, and I told him to please put all of the heavy items, the soda 12 packs, the 4 bags of cat litter and cat food, on the bottom where I had them, and to please not put any of the many cleaning supplies I bought in with any of the food.
I absolutely hate it when a bagger puts the box of fabric softener in with the loaf of bread, and by the time you get home, your bread not only smells like fabric softener, it tastes like it too.

What did he do?
He put all of the sodas, cat litter, and cat food, in the top part, and started putting cleaning chemicals in with food items.
I told him no, move the heavy stuff to the bottom and keep food with food, cleaning supplies with cleaning supplies please.
He shot me a wicked dirty look and then moved the items, but I bought a lot, so he just started throwing bags into the cart, smashing bread and chips, throwing stuff on top of my purse, he dropped a 5lb whole chicken onto the box of donuts Mark picked out, and I lost it.

I started yelling at him, I couldn't help myself, he was an asshole, he knew what he was doing, and knew he shouldn't be doing it, yet he did it anyway.
I started moving all of the bags around, properly putting them in good places so as not to crush other food, and then the cashier handed me my receipt, asked if I wanted help out, I yelled NO, and started to walk away.
That's when a bag with a huge package of paper plates that he stuck on the bottom, rolled off, and as I was picking it up I started yelling again.
"Asshole! Douchebag! Moron! A fucking manager should know better than to bag things like this, the 14 year olds who bag groceries, know you don't bag things like this! What kind of fucking asshat bags groceries like this and thinks it's ok!?!?!?"

Another manager came over to me, asked me to keep my voice down or they'd have to ask me to leave, I said "I was leaving anyway, the food is bought and paid for, crushed, thanks to that asshat manager, but I own it and I AM leaving right now!"
She was trying to apologize, she called the other manager over to apologize, and I told him to stay away from me, and the woman manager asked me why I was so upset so I showed her the package of donuts he crushed with a 5lb chicken.
I told her that my son picked those out from the bakery, and this idiot dropped a 5lb chicken on top of the box, he did it on purpose, he was looking right at the donuts when he did it, he didn't try to stop, he didn't even blink when he did it, and he also put chemicals with foods, and did not listen to me about the rest of the items being placed in the cart the right way.

She said she was sorry, she'd get us more donuts, I said I don't want any, I just want to leave now, I need to go home, my neck and back are hurting, I have been in here for over an hour buying over $200 worth of food and other products, and I would like to leave.
She kept trying to say she was sorry, I said I'm going NOW, and I walked out.
We went outside and waited for the cab, and she came out and handed me a gift certificate for $25 because of what happened, and that's when I realized that I didn't use the gift card I brought with me because I was so busy trying to make sure my food didn't get destroyed, that I forgot to use it.

Most of the time, like 99% of the time, Publix is a really great store with really great employees, but there are times and employees that make that 1% of bad times really, really bad.

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December 27, 2008

Slow going day.

I don't drink much anymore at all, like maybe twice a year, and I definitely didn't drink last night at all, but today, holy hell man.
I woke up with pounding headache, my whole body is stiff and sore, and I just feel like utter crap.
Here it is after 4pm, and I have things to do, I really need to get to the store but my body is not cooperating.
Sebastian keeps asking me when we're going, and I'm all dude, as soon as my body decides to move without creaking like a 90-year old.

I need to try and get this body going.
Blah.

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December 26, 2008

No sleep even if I wanted it.

I finally decided at 6am that I would try and get some sleep before the turkey cooking began, so I went into crawl in bed and laid smack on a wet spot.
Of kitty pee.
Kali is seriously, literally, pissed off about the stray cat in her home and she will NOT tolerate the stray on HER bed.
So, she peed on it.
Thank goodness that I bought that waterproof/allergen proof padded mattress cover earlier in the year, or else that pee would have gone straight down into my mattress and the smell would have never come out.
It was still soaking wet, so I grabbed the sheets, blankets, and the mattress cover, and ran them to the washing machine.
I put in an extra helping of laundry soap and a full cup of febreze in the rinse cycle cup, along with 1 full cup of baking soda mixed in with the wash.
This does work, all of the cat urine smell comes out using this method, I know because Kali did this when we got Shahiro too.

All the new kitties we've ever gotten, Kali marks my bed as hers, if she so much as sees another cat aside from her and Nova get on it and sleep on it, or sleep with me, she pees on it to warn them that it's her bed, I'm hers, lay there again and die.
So once the washer stops, I'll give them another quick shot of febreze, and then throw them in the dryer before putting them back on my bed.
As soon as the washer is done, I'll go take a shower and get rid of the kitty pee smell from my skin.
I can't take a shower while it's running because I'll get blasted with cold water when it goes into the rinse cycle, and hot water while it's in the spin cycle.

Oh well, I gotta start the turkey soon anyway, so sleep?
Psfffht!
Sleep is for the weak.

---

December 23, 2008

Yay for free Dr. Pepper!

Awhile back, Dr. Pepper announced that if the Guns n' Roses album Chinese Democracy came out in 2008, they would give one free bottle of Dr. Pepper to everyone in the United States.

Well the album got released and Dr. Pepper kept their word.
Now either it was the bad economy or people just like getting stuff for free, but when the day finally came to sign up for it, the website couldn't handle the load of people trying to sign up for their free bottle.
Dr. Pepper ended up having to run the promotion for an extra day, add some new servers, and at one point, the whole website was nothing but text on white with the links and sign up form being the only thing you could access.

I did manage to get through after a few tries, and I had actually forgotten about it.
In today's mail, I got my coupon for my free 16oz bottle of Dr. Pepper.
Yay!
So later on when Sebastian and I head out to the store, I'm going to let Sebastian have it, he likes it way more than I do.
But anyway, if you managed to get through and sign up, your free coupon should be on the way too.

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December 19, 2008

18 days?!

The teens are officially on school vacation for the Christmas and New Year holidays, and will be home for 18 consecutive days in a row.
18 days of sleeping in late.
18 days of bickering with each other.
18 days of eating everything that isn't nailed down.

It's ok though, now none of us have to get up early, so that totaly works for my insomnia issues.
If I'm wide awake until 2-3am, I won't have to worry about getting up with them at 5:45am every day, and then being awake all day and night again, I can just let my body sleep if that's what it's going to do.
__________________

Sebastian and I ventured out today to go to Walgreen's to pick up my meds and then to Publix to get some food and stuff.
We've opted to have a different kind of Christmas dinner this year because I still can't cook a whole turkey and stuff with my neck like this, so we'll be eating some super easy foods and just having a really casual holiday meal
I bought 2 big bags of chicken wings, and we'll be doing a combo of hot and some honey bbq, some french fries, and other really easy type foods.
Hey, the teens got their turkey for thanksgiving even though it was just thighs and wings, so we're going for ultra casual and fun.
The teens are totally happy with this choice, it was their idea, so I'm totally ok with it.

While at the store, I got slammed into by this crotchety old man who yelled at me to watch where I was going.
What?!
He slammed into me, yet he's yelling at me?
Um, no.
But I can't help being all sarcastic, so I turned to him and said, "I am SO so SORRY that I was standing here picking out some apples when YOUR cart slammed into my backside. Please sir, forgive me for standing here."

He looked at me, looked at the neck brace around my neck, his wife grabbed his arm and pulled him back a little with this look on her face like I might haul off and deck him, and believe me, I was thisclose to doing just that when he had the nerve to yell at me, but I didn't.
Sebastian tried to pull me back, he could clearly see that I was super pissed, and then the guy apologized to me, said he was sorry, he "didn't realize".

"Didn't realize"?
You mean he didn't realize that I was in the neck brace, or he didn't realize that he hit me?
I think it's that he didn't realize that I was in a neck brace and that's the only reason he apologized.
If I hadn't been wearing it, I think he would have just kept yelling that it was my fault, because I'm young and he's old and entitled.
I'm so sick of that kind of crap.
The seniors in this damn town are the biggest, the most miserable, entitlement assholes I've ever known in my life.

---

December 17, 2008

M&M's Premiums review.

While grocery shopping yesterday, I had a coupon for $3 off* 1- 6 ounce package of the new M&M's Premiums, which are normally priced at $4.29 at my local Publix.

Sebastian and I had to choose from all of the incredibly tasty looking options, Chocolate Almond, Mocha, Triple Chocolate, Raspberry Almond, and Mint Chocolate.
We settled on the Triple Chocolate ones, and it was a fabulous decision indeed!
We opened the package tonight, and took a good look at them first.
It's a small package, but if you have an M&M lover on your Christmas list, it's nice enough to make a really good looking (and tasty!) stocking stuffer.

They come in these pretty speckled pinks and purple colors, and much bigger than regular M&M's.

I bit into one so I could get a look at the 3 layers it has.
Did I tell you about the 3 layers?!
Triple Chocolate M&M's Premiums are milk chocolate, white chocolate, and dark chocolate, all in one M&M candy.
There's the very thin candy shell, then the dark chocolate, the white, and then the milk chocolate in the middle.

Oh my gosh! These are so so good!
Just 3 of them are the perfect size and dose of sweet to satisfy your sweet tooth.
I ate 3 of them and that was enough to totally satisfy the craving for chocolate I had, and it ensures that I'll have plenty of them left over for another sweet craving on another day.
That is if I can keep Sebastian away from them, I may have to hide them. hee hee.
Mark is not a big sweets eater, he's more of the salty kind of snacker, so it's usually Sebastian and I fighting over the last morsels of chocolate in the house.
I also have to be careful not to eat too much sweets, my diabetes, but 3 of these are ok for me to have, I just keep an eye on myself, and I'm good to go.

So anyway, if you like M&M's, or know someone who does, these would make a really nice stocking stuffer or just a nice surprise treat.

Continue Reading �

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December 4, 2008

I feel violent now.

I got a phone call from the principal at a little after 3pm, but I was in the middle of an email with my sister and some others, so that's why I'm just now updating this.

Basically, the principal said that this was the first time she has heard about this kind of issue, and when I told her that it's because the students are afraid to speak out about it because they have been threatened with being beaten up, she still insisted that if she doesn't know about it, she can't do anything to resolve the issue.
She said if anything like that happens again, that the boys need to go to her office right when it's happening, and tell her right as it happens.
Yeah, being threatened with an ass kicking is really going to motivate students to go tattle tale right then and there huh?
That's like walking around with a big sign that says I just told on you, come kick my ass please.

I don't even know what my next step should be.
I want to alert the media, but the principal saying this is the first time she's heard about it, it will make it seem like it was a one time incident, and that it doesn't happen every day, that my sons and the friends who've been to my house, are all lying about what happens, exaggerating it, and the media will want to interview my sons on camera, and that's like another big sign that says I told on you, come kick my ass please.

When I told the boys what she said to do if it happens, they both looked at me like I was crazy.
They said "Mom, some of these kids are fucking huge huge kids, some of them are football players, some of the hispanics bring knives to school, they get in fights all of the time, we've seen them beat the piss out of people, if we go tell what happened, we'll get beaten up or stabbed or some shit. Fuck it, we just won't eat. If we have to choose between tattling then getting beat up, or just not eating, we just won't eat."

So what the hell do I do now?
If I go to the media, they will want to interview the boys or they won't report the story, the boys will be on tv, and then they'll surely get beat up.
I so wish I wasn't in the shape I am in, I would go to the school every day, take pictures, hang out in the cafeteria, and film what happens myself, post it all up on youtube, label it as the name of the high school and where, just and start being a royal pain in the ass to the principal, force her to do something.
Most of these bullies don't know that I'm the teens mom, there are several different middle schools, school choice rules etc, so I could sit in the cafeteria and take pics and the boys wouldn't get blamed if these rotten asshole bullies got suspended or something.

This whole thing is frustrating me, but what do I do?
Make the boys tattle every single day directly to the principal, if she's even in her office, risk them getting beat up in order to try and make eating lunch safe again?
Is it worth it to try and force the school to have more adults in the cafeteria at the risk of my sons getting beat up?
Go to the media and have the teens filmed telling what happens, which will get them beaten up, called names, and bullied even worse?

She said she will try to have more supervisors in the cafeteria, but that she cannot guarantee that things will be seen by anyone, and as for the frozen turkey sandwich, she is still investigating that part of the story.
None of the lunch ladies admit to not serving Mark his hot lunch like they were ordered not to, so she will have to go through the computer records for the keypad where the students type in their student number after the lunch lady enters in which type of lunch the student was served.
If he was served a sub lunch, it will be a certain number code, hot lunch is a different number code, the salad bar and $2 a slice pizza bar, is another number code.
If he was given the sub lunch and the lunch lady entered that code, then he entered his student number, it will prove what kind of food he was served, but she does not believe that he was given a frozen turkey sandwich.
She said the sub lunches are simply pre-packaged cold lunch meat sandwiches for students who choose not to have a hot lunch that day, and she doesn't think that his sandwich was frozen.
Basically, she is calling Mark a liar.

Both the boys have said that the lady who ordered them not to serve him his lunch, is like a big bitch meanie, not the head lunch lady, but just a bitch who barks orders at the other ladies, yells at students, and is usually just standing around not doing anything other than yelling at people, and is not usually a supervisor during lunch.
The principal did admit though that the usual supervisor was not there yesterday or today, so she doesn't know who pulled Mark out and forced him to eat the sub lunch, or even if he was forced to get the sub lunch at all.

I really just want to go up there and speak to her face to face, she was doing everything she could to get me off of the phone.
She kept saying that she can't do anything if the students don't tell an adult, and I kept saying they have told adults and no one does anything.
They complain about the line cutters, the bullies, the ones who push them out of line and call them cracker, to the adults in the cafeteria, to actual teachers, and none of the adults in the cafeteria do anything at all about it, and that's why so many students have just given up on even trying to eat lunch at all.
Tattling to an adult doesn't get them any help at all, so most of the students just don't even bother trying anymore.
They either bring a bag of chips and a soda in their backpack and eat that for lunch, or they just don't eat at all, and wait until they get home from school to eat.

Thinking back on this, I now realize how many times the teens would ask me at night if we could go to the corner store, get a small bag of chips and a soda to take to school, maybe a beef jerky stick or two.
I thought they just wanted a snack, something to be different, or just a treat.
They were just trying to have something to freaking eat.
I never put 2 and 2 together.
I never connected the bully line cutters and the mom can we get a soda and chips to take to school, together like the puzzle pieces I should have seen.

I can't go to the school tomorrow, I have a doc appointment in the morning and won't make it back in time for B lunch period, but I am going to do everything I can to go to the school on Monday, I'll take my camera, and the lunch room has plenty of windows so I won't have to use the flash, and I'll just start snapping pics.
I'll post them to my blog, I'll take videos and post them on youtube, I'll make a total pain in the ass of myself to get the principal to actually investigate this fully, to hire more resource officers for the lunch periods if need be, enforce the anti-bullying policy on the actual bullies, and I'm going to email these last few posts to the local news channel.
I'm not dropping this.

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December 4, 2008

Will investgate and call me back.

I have not yet heard back from the school board person, honestly not surprised, this is a touchy subject that I'm sure they cringed when they heard my voice mail message.

I called the high school this morning at 8am and left a message for the principal to call me back, the secretary did not want me to leave a detailed message, just name and phone number, so I did.
Considering it's almost lunch time for Mark, (Sebastian was sent home by the clinic because he barfed in history class) I wanted someone to call me back before he goes to lunch today, but no one called me, so I called back again just now.

The secretary said the principal is on campus, walking rounds or something, they have my name and number, but this time she asked for some details because I've called twice now, so she assumes that it's important.
I explained it as quickly as possible, gave good details about what happened, the racist name calling, the frozen turkey sandwich etc etc, and the secretary made an audible cringe sound.

Yes people, I know, it's a totally crappy and touchy subject, but this must be dealt with.
The way these students feel entitled to cut the line, the reverse racist name calling, accusing the white students of being racist because they won't let them cut the line, other students not even bothering to try and get lunch because they are tired of what happens, tired of being bullied, tired of being called names and threatened with violence while just trying to get their lunch, it's ridiculous and needs to be dealt with.

Someone at that school needs to grow a pair and deal with this.
I'm sure they are afraid of a lawsuit over the race issue, but making students who have a legal right to eat their hot lunch, not eat that lunch, is against the law, and if it's being denied to one student, is it being denied to others as well?
How many other kids have been forced to get the "sub lunch"?
How many others have been yanked out of line, called a troublemaker and refused their lunch because other kids were cutting the line, pushing, shoving, and name calling?
Does the school really want to risk losing the federal money?
I mean, I'll call the 800-number on the free hot lunch approval letter I got sent at the beginning of the year, and then filed it in the big yellow folder labeled "School Stuff", if I have to go that far, but I really don't want to have to go that far.
I shouldn't have to go that far.
I don't want to have to involve the media, I don't want to have to go up there and film what happens myself because the so-called cafeteria supervisors aren't actually supervising and handling the situations correctly.
The school says that they have a zero tolerance policy for bullying, yet it happens day in and day out while students try to get their lunch, and the wrong students are being dragged out of line, sent to the end of the line, and then refused their proper lunches.

I called the school at 11:02am, have been typing this post since 11:09am, and it is now past 11:30am, and no one has called me back from the school board message I left yesterday, or the 8am, or the 11:02am phone call yet.

Seriously not surprised, but getting more and more pissed as the minutes tick away.

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December 4, 2008

WoW and a big blue blanket.

Ok, I am trying to calm myself down, so I'll talk about other stuff.
I got a really late payment in tonight, so I'll be able to go to my doc appointment on Friday and pay for that, the prescription, get some more groceries, and take care of any other expenses that come up.
*phew*
I was seriously stressing over paying for the doc on Friday because the payment wasn't here yet, and then the crap with the school happened, so not a whole lot got done here today that I originally planned to do. (Sorry Brett! I will try to do it tomorrow)
But the money issue is settled, (yay!) and I'll deal with the school tomorrow.

I've already gotten the teens most of what they wanted for Christmas, the video games they asked for to play on the xbox, and the Wow games, now I just have to get what they need.
I'll be combining the money that my Mom and Dad mailed out yesterday, along with what Aunty Heather and whatever other relatives decide to send, along with the next 2-3 child support payments, to get the boys the rest of their stuff.
This month's disability payment comes in on the same day as a big doctor's appointment on the 10th, so I'm sure I'll be paying out the wazoo come next Wednesday.
But I know I'll be ok financially for the holidays, especially if I get some more work between now and xmas, and even if I get money late, like right before xmas, I'll brave the crowds to go get what they need and want.
Both the teens need some more shorts, a new pair of pants each, some more socks, boxers and shirts, and new winter hoodies or jackets, whichever they prefer.
Sebastian prefers hoodies, and Mark wants a big thick flannel jacket like mine that I got from an ex-boyfriend years ago.
The ex-bf was 6 foot 4, about 225lbs, and a wrestler, so this flannel jacket is enormous, but it is oh so freaking warm and comfy, I love it, and Mark claims it every winter.
He's been wearing mine for the last couple of years, it's ok, it's not like I go many places, so I don't ever really wear my jacket anyway.
As for extra wants, Mark wants some WoW gold (in-game money to use) and Sebastian wants a new comforter for his bed.
A big blue one he said.
It has to be full or queen size, either baby or medium blue, and super soft he said, so I'll do my best to get him a big blue comforter, and I think my sis already agreed to get Mark the WoW gold.
Then the Christmas shopping will be done, and maybe next weekend we'll put up the tree and decorations.
I might have to get some new lights for the tree, not sure yet, I'll find out when I get the tree and stuff out of my closet and start the decorating.
Hopefully Shahiro the kitten-sized 3 year old kitteh, will be nice and leave all the decorations alone this year.
Last year, she thought my really old plush Santa that my Dad had when he was a kid, was her personal play toy.
She'd grab it in her teeth and drag it all over the house.
It was funny because the Santa is bigger than she is, and she'd go crazy trying to grab it with her teeth and drag it around the house to play with because of how big it is, so she'd bite it, drag it, drop it, and have to start all over again.
No matter where I put it, even on a shelf, she'd do whatever she had to do to get it, and when she finally got it where she wanted it, she'd curl up and sleep with it.
I have no idea why she likes it so much, but it's very old so I need her to stop playing with it, I don't want it to get ruined by the stupid kitteh.

Ok, I have emails and other stuff to take care of, I will update on what happens with the school after I talk to the principal tomorrow.
Later days!

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November 30, 2008

Balls, bombs, and pasta.

It's been cold and rainy all day long here, well more like cool, humid, and rainy all day long here, so it's the perfect night to have spaghetti for dinner.
I hate it when the weather here can't make up it's mind.
The day started off sunny, then it got cold and windy, then rainy, then sunny, then humid and rainy, and now it's sorta cool, sorta humid, and drizzly out there.
It sucked because there was something I needed to do outside today with a remote control toy and my video camera.
Oh well, maybe tomorrow after school will be better weather to do it.

None of us have done much today, video game playing mostly, but I did watch a few movies on Netflix today and Sebastian watched them with me off and on.
First I watched A League of Their Own which Sebastian loved and laughed most of the way through.
And then I watched Fame which Sebastian watched all the way through and liked it a lot.
I was surprised he liked it, he usually hates musicals, but he enjoyed the stories of the kids going to school at the NYC school for performing arts.

Tonight, we're going to watch Jericho on the CW network, it's starting off with the very first episode, and the CW said they are going to show the entire series.
I missed this show when it was on CBS because CBS is one of the channels that is extremely difficult for me to pick up with the antenna here, but I know a lot of people who absolutely loved the show so I'm anxious to see if it's as good as people said it was.

Ok, off to finish making the spaghetti.
Later days!

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November 26, 2008

Shopping wasn't too bad today.

I wasn't able to get the teens the turkey legs, they were all out, so I had to get them some huge thighs and wings instead.
I got the mashed potatoes, gravy, I have a veggie here already, and the chocolate cream pie for dessert, and that's that.
The line at Honeybaked Ham wasn't bad either, my ister was in and out in a flash.

I just so wish I felt better.
I have a sinus and head cold, so I'm all gunky and stuffed up, in addition to the regular pain that I'm always in.
I just feel like the holidays are a complete screw up because of my health this year.
I'm really trying so hard not to be down about it all, but it seems to be beyond my control at this point.

The food will be good, it will be a nice quiet day, just us.
If you don't see me blog again tomorrow or whatever, I hope you all have a happy thanksgiving.

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November 25, 2008

We're gonna brave the grocery store tomorrow.

My sister is coming over tomorrow around noon to pick me up, head first to Honeybaked ham to pick up the hams for turkey day, and then on to Publix to brave the crowds to get the rest of the stuff to go with it.

I am hoping that Publix has some single packaged turkey legs, that's what the teens want to eat, (along with the ham) pick up some of their mashed potatoes and gravy, some veggies and rolls.
Seeing as it's just the teens and I, we will not be making or having a ton of food, just enough for us, and something for dessert like a chocolate cream pie or something like that.

My sister and nieces will be coming over on Thanksgiving morning for a little bit, but they will be going home for their own dinner with her husband later on.
The teens and I will watch the parade while the food cooks, and then while we eat, we'll watch some movie that we've all agreed on, then I'll nap while they play video games, and it will basically be like any other day around here except for the excessive food.

The only thing the teens like about Thanksgiving is the food.
Actualy, I think that's what everybody likes about the day.

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November 17, 2008

Awesome customer service at Publix.

The teens have been doing like 99% of our grocery shopping since my surgery on September 8th, and they do a really good job most of the time.
I needed them to go to Publix tonight to get us some dinner and some more Nyquil because a) we ran out, and b) we still need it to help all 3 of us get some sleep tonight.
The both of them are still coughing and sniffling, still feeling a bit like crap.

They went to the store and got everything we needed, and they paid for all of the groceries at one register, and went to the service desk to pay for the Nyquil because I left them a note before I went in for surgery.
I specifically went to a manager before surgery so that there would be no issues with the teens doing the shopping while I recover.
They photocopied my ID, wrote down all my CC numbers, the teens names and ages, and specifically wrote down that the teens can buy anything we need including over the counter medications like Tylenol and cough medicine.
That manager assured me there would not be any problems at all.
Wrong.

Whoever the manager was that was at the service desk tonight, would not let them buy the Nyquil, refused to go look for the note, and refused to call me too.

I hemmed and hawed and stewed about it for a few hours while I calmed down, and also got as much info about the manager as I could so when I called to complain, I could be really specific with the details.
I called a little before they close at 9pm, and spoke directly to the general store manager.
I explained everything to him, how I had surgery, how I had gone to the trouble of making sure that all the managers knew or could at least go look for the note, and the boys knew to go to the desk and tell them about the note.

The manager was really nice about it, I even explained that I know that people under the age of 18 cannot legally buy OTC meds like Tylenol and Nyquil, but that's why I had them write the note.
Just in case I couldn't do the shopping, like tonight.
After I told the manager all of this, he said he would look for the note himself and also speak to the managers who were there tonight, and then he asked me if we still needed the Nyquil.
I said yes but explained that I have no car, and even if I did, I can't drive it, so he asked for my address and said he'd bring it.
I gave him my address and about 10 minutes later, he was pulling into my driveway.
I tried to pay for it, but he said no, apologized for the problem earlier, I thanked him about a half dozen times, and then he left.
That was wicked nice of him to do that, he didn't have to, but he said that they really try to accommodate their customers special needs, even more so when the customer has left them with all the information explaining why they need certain help with their shopping.

I really think that things like this are why I continue to shop at Publix instead of Sweetbay, no matter the prices.
Sweetbay and Publix are exactly the same distance from our house, we could easily go there instead, but the customer service at my particular Publix cannot be beat by any other store I've shopped at.

So now tonight we will all get the sleep we need so we can beat this cold hopefully for good.
It really sucks so much that the boys were totally bummed when they got back from the store tonight because they couldn't get it.
When the manager brought it to us, they were so happy.
They must have thanked him a half dozen times too.

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November 13, 2008

Poo and pizza.

As I said earlier, both the teens are sick, they've been laying around most of the day coughing and feeling miserable, and I am super tired just from taking care of them and doing various things around the house.
One of them took a dump earlier and clogged the toilet, they couldn't unclog it with the plunger, so I had to, and now I'm just worn out.
I hate plunging the toilet, it's one of those tasks that just really suck to have to do.
I need like a super easy plunger thingy, so I sat here thinking of what might a super duper plunger be called if anyone has invented one so I could look it up and try and find one the next time I'm out shopping, or have to order it online if that was the only way.
I was thinking of one that had like a spring in it, so your one push of the plunger would cause it to spring back up and down again on it's own, so you didn't have to.
So I typed into Google, "spring plungers".
Nope, no toilet spring plungers, it seems those are car parts or something, I really have no idea.
I know there's some sort of super plunger out there, I've seen commercials for them, but I can't think of the name right now.
What I really want though is for the teens to finally learn to not use so much toilet paper.
Then we wouldn't have to get a super plunger to make it all go down.

So anyway, I'm too tired to make dinner so I decided to order out.
I decided to order from Pizza Hut tonight, got some of their Tuscani pasta, the chicken alfredo, because the last time we ordered it, it was really good, and some wings.
That should be good enough for everyone for dinner tonight.
I'll make the spaghetti I was planning on making tonight, tomorrow night.
I'm just too tired and sore to do it, so I'll let Pizza Hut do it for me.

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November 12, 2008

I wanna bulk up.

That's what Mark said to me today after school.
He's been taking weight lifting at school, and now he wants to get big.
Some of the other boys in the class have been taking some sorta bodybuilding supplements to help them bulk up, but I told Mark that he doesn't need to do that.
He needs to eat right, eat more protien, work out more, and he will get big naturally.
I'm not a fan of the huge muscles on anyone, I personally think it's absolutely disgusting when a guy has these huge muscles, veins popping out everywhere, they are red in the face because of so many steroids or whatever running through them.
Luckily, Mark agreed that that look is totally gross, and said he'll try eating more lean proteins, and work out more.

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November 11, 2008

George Foreman G-broil product review.

If you're like most people these days, like me, then you are trying to do as much healthy living as you possibly can.
That means working out, buying healthy foods, getting plenty of rest, drinking tons of water, and doing a lot of healthy cooking.
One of the easiest ways to do a little healthy cooking, is to cut out the fat from the foods you eat.

I recently got a chance to review a new George Foreman G-broil grill, and I love it!
I have one of the very first grills that he made, and it's tiny (the old one) in comparison to this one, the G-broil.

It has a much, much bigger cooking surface, and comes with 2 drip trays and 2 spatulas, to make getting your food off the grill and cooked on foods, slide right off.

The new George Foreman G-broil grill has a floating hinge lid so that you can broil (duh!) steaks or chicken, and cook thicker cuts of meat or thick, juicy burgers, and is great for melting cheese or browning the top of foods you are cooking in it.
And just like all George Foreman grills, it's non-stick so you don't have to use any oils or cooking sprays which can add extra fats to your food.
It has the same slanted design as all of his other grills, so that the grease and fats drain off of your food, not stay in it.
If the fat stays in, it goes inside of you!
One of the things I really like about the new G-broil grill, is that it has a locking mechanism on the sides so that you can lock it up, and store it up right on your counter, or in your cupboards, for much easier storage.
I now have mine on my counter because it's a cooking gadget that I have used almost every single day since getting it.

I wanted to make a quick video to show you how nice and easy this G-broil grill is to use, so I made a practice one of the dinner I'm making for the teens and I for dinner tonight.
I'm actually cooking those for our dinner right now, but I made the practice one for my lunch today, and made the video as I went.
The really super easy recipe is right here;

Grilled chicken cordon bleu.

3-6 boneless chicken breasts (based on family/serving sizes)
3-6 slices of your favorite ham sliced from the deli (based on family/serving sizes)
3-6 slices of extra sharp cheese (based on family/serving sizes)
bread crumbs

Flatten the chicken breasts inside plastic wrap with rolling pin or meat mallet (no mess!)
Place 1 slice of ham, and 1 slice of cheese on chicken, roll up
Roll in bread crumbs and place on grill for 5-7 minutes or until chicken juices run clear
and enjoy!

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November 8, 2008

Almost done with the AC wall.

Mindy and her husband Chris came back over today to finish the wall where the AC goes.
Chris tore down all of the old rotted drywall, and installed new drywall, and then next week they'll come back, do the sanding, and then it will be all ready to paint.
My sister has tons of paint leftover from panting her house, the colors are really nice, and so we'll paint my living room an all new color, probably the warm golden beige she has.

I can hardly wait, it's going to look so nice in here and the new AC unit is sill keeping the house really cool, it's not leaking inside the house at all like the old unit did, and it's just really super nice.
Maybe once everything is all done, I'll get another set of wood blinds like I have on the front window, or maybe some bamboo blinds in the same dark cherry color as the wood blinds, (I like to mix up patterns and textures) and put them on the other living room window on the side of the house.
They need to be dark colored and easy to close up tightly, because that side of the house gets blasted with the afternoon sunshine.
I actually have cardboard in that window as a way of keeping the sun out, and it acts sort of like an insulator.
It keeps the cold AC in, and the hot Florida sun out.

I took some pics of the work Chris did today.
This is the wall right after they took down all of the old rotted drywall, you can see the cinder block of the house.

This is the wall with the new drywall up and spackled.
Next week, Chris said he's going to come back and sand it all down, and then we can paint, which my sister said she'd come do because I can't do it yet.

While Chris and Jeff (their son) did the wall work, Mindy was cleaning my kitchen and bathroom.
She did my dishes even after I told her twice not to do them, but she did it anyway.
I really can't thank Mindy and Chris enough for all of this work and help they have been doing for me.
I really needed the AC fixed, I get so hot from some of the meds I take, and it's been really difficult trying to keep up with the general house cleaning.
I simply can't do all of it like I want to, heck, I can't even clean off the table of death.

That's right, I didn't even touch it the whole time they were here.
Instead of cleaning off the table, I took that time to enter in all of the codes for the Pepsi points.
I have 84 points leftover after getting 1 DVD, and I just need 6 more points to get another DVD.
But with Pepsi points ending on December 31st, I may not be able to find 6 more codes unless I buy 6 individual 20oz bottles, because Pepsi stopped making 12 packs which had codes worth 2 points each.
Yup, Pepsi stopped making 12 packs, and now make 8 packs which cost the same as a 12 pack, and new 18 packs which cost the same as two 12 packs used to cost.
If they keep shrinking the sizes of their packages and upping the prices, I'll just switch to Diet Coke permanently.
I LOVE Diet Pepsi, I prefer it over Coke any day of the week, but I hate being ripped off.
Charging the same price of a 12 pack for the new 8 packs, 4 cans short, is not cool at all.
Ya hear me Pepsico?
It is not nice to rip off your customers this way.
We don't like the new 8 packs at all, they suck.

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October 30, 2008

Haunted house and cooking fun!

My ex-neighbors showed up again today and wanted to take Sebastian with them tonight to go to a haunted house down near the arena.
The arena is used for all kinds of things year round, but mostly for farm and animal shows, so at Halloween when they fix up the whole grounds for haunted houses and all the various food vendors and games to play, (think state fairs and carnivals) they have to move most of the cattle supplies around or remove them completely to make room.
They actually use the cattle barrier fences to help make the maze-like patterns in the haunted houses.

So anyway, Sebastian is gone to that, he'll be eating with them, and he'll be home around 10pm or so.
Mark didn't want to go, he said he was too tired.
He gets like this every "winter", the cooler air just makes him wickedly tired and drained until he gets used to the weather and the difference in time and daylight hours.
It is dark out when they leave for school, and dark around 7pm every night, so it always feels more night-time-ish than it really is, and it affects him for a couple of weeks.

Dinner tonight is deli-meat sandwiches for Mark and I, and hopefully I can go do some grocery shopping tomorrow to get more food and the food supplies I need to make on my new George Foreman grill to do a product review of.
I tested it out today to make a ham and cheese sandwich for my lunch, and it works awesome!
I love the little grill marks on it, and it tasted so good.

The grill was wicked easy to clean up too.
A little bit of the cheese melted out and onto the grill plates.
Once the grill was cool, I just used the little scraper/spatula things that are included, and the cheese just slid off.
Then I just wiped the plates down with a wet paper towel, and bammo! It looked as good as new, like I didn't even cook on it at all.
I freaking love this new grill and am so excited to show you how awesome it works.
I absolutely love kitchen cooking gadgets, love love love, I would buy every single cooking gadget out there if I could afford them all and had a much larger kitchen, and I have confessed this for eBillme's new shopping confessions contest.
Did you enter it yet?

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October 28, 2008

Wii and cheeseburgers.

Mark called me from school today to ask if he could go to his friend Jeff's house after they got out, and if Jeff's grandmother could give Sebastian a ride home.
I said yes to both, and so Mark went to his friend's house, and Sebastian came home.
When he got here, I needed him to run up to the ATM for me and get me $20 because I have to go take care of some stuff tomorrow.
So he went and did that, I let him buy himself a soda and a snack for doing it, and then he played some video games for a couple of hours before our old duplex neighbor called.

Bobby (my ex-neighbors son) wanted Sebastian to come to his house and help him install WoW on their computer, do some of the updates after the initial install, teach him how to do the rest of the updates, and while they are waiting, play some games on his new Wii.

My old neighbor, Letty, loves to play the scratch-off lottery cards when she has the extra money, so yesterday she had $10.00, so she bought a $10.00 scratch-off and won $1,000.00.
Yup, $1,000.00.
That's not the first time she's won big money on those things either.
One time, she bought 1 of the $20.00 holiday cards, it was last Christmas, and she won $2,000.00.
She's won anywhere from $1.00 all the way up to $2,000.00 on scratch-off lottery cards.
Every single time she buys a card, she wins something, I've never seen her get a bad card in the years I've known her now.

So anyway, she won $1,000.00 yesterday, and because Bobby has been wanting a console game for the longest time, all he's ever had is one of the first generation PS2s, and she bought it at a yard sale, it only worked for a couple of months before it died, so she asked him what system he'd like to have, he said a Wii, so she bought him a Wii.
It was a pretty good deal too.
She went to Wal-Mart where they have all kinds of video game bundle deals for Christmas, so she got the Wii and a whole bunch of games and different controllers in the bundle pack for a little over $500.00 she said, because she also got another Wii fit game for them to play.
Letty said she was so happy that he chose the Wii console because when they were at a friend's house for dinner one night a few weeks ago, they all played their Wii after dinner, and she absolutely loved the Wii fit games, she could actually play them and it made her feel good to be active and having fun, so now that they have one, she can do some "exercise" and play video games with Bobby.
There are no kids at all in that neighborhood for him to play with, so now she can play with him, he won't be quite so bored anymore, she won't have to listen to him say he's bored, and she won't feel bad that she moved him away from Mark and Sebastian, he misses them so much she said.
I told her once again that he's welcome here on the weekends, he can come spend the whole weekend anytime he wants to, and vice-versa, Sebastian can go there too, which is what they are going to do this coming weekend.
Sebastian is going to help him finish the WoW installation if he hasn't completed by then, teach him how to set it up right, and give him some of his gold, and teach him how to be a gold farmer or something like that.
I have no idea, I don't play the game.

Later on when she was bringing Sebastian home, it was about 8 o'clock or so, Sebastian called and asked what Mark and I wanted from McDonald's, (Mark had come home around 7pm) and I told Sebastian that I didn't have money to spend on hamburgers, I have to do other stuff with my pay this week, and he said no mommy, (he still calls me mommy..LoL) Letty said it's her treat and she won't take no for an answer, so what do you want?
I could hear Letty in the background saying "Tell your mom if she doesn't tell me what her and Mark want, I'll just get them what you tell me they like to eat. I'm not taking no for an answer, we're already in the drive-thru line so she better hurry up or they're both gonna get quarter pounders!"
So I said ok ok! and told Sebastian what we wanted, and about 10 minutes later, they were here, and that's when she told me about buying the Wii and all that, and then her and Bobby went home, we ate, the teens took the trash to the curb, played video games, and I watched Gossip Girl and One Tree Hill and stuff.

But it was wicked nice of her to buy us Mcky D's and have Sebastian over her house most of the afternoon and evening.
The teens are in bed sound asleep, it's after 1am, and I'm still wide awake.
Insomnia again.
I never frigging sleep.

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October 26, 2008

I love kitchen gadgets!

I do, I love kitchen cooking gadgets.
If it's some sort of machine that can cook, chop, blend, deep-fry or whatever to food, I am all over it and I want it.
I have a sandwich maker, I WANT an Infrawave Speed Oven, I have an older model George Foreman grill and am getting a new one, I have a mini-chopper, a Betty Crocker Bake n' Fill cake pan set.
I have entire sets of some of the best bakeware you can buy, I love Corningware products like their casserole dishes that can go in the fridge, freezer, microwave and oven! I have a bread machine, a sno-cone maker, popsicle makers and all kinds of things.
I want one of those Bullet blenders and any other kitchen appliance you'd see on late night tv! So when I saw that eBill me was having a shopping confessions contest to win prizes, and all I had to do was confess a shopping addiction or tell them about an item that I have to buy all the time, I jumped at the chance.

My shopping confession is my love of kitchen cooking gadgets.
I covet them, have to have them, I stay up late at night and watch all the infomercials about them and just drool over the gadgets and all the super cool and yummy amazing foods I could make if only I had the latest one!

Do you want to confess a shopping addiction?
All you need to do is head over to Shop and Confess to register, (It's Free!) and then
please add my blog's URL (just right click and copy link location, and then right click and paste it in. http://www.mysinglemomlife.com/blog/) where it asks you for a URL.
That's how they will know that I referred you** to enter this contest, and when you are done registering, tell them by text or make a video of your shopping confession.
That's it!

eBillme is giving away $33,000 dollars in prizes to maybe do some holiday shopping, and YOU could win some of that simply by registering, using me as your referral, and then either write out your shopping confession, or make a fun video and upload it to youtube.
That's it!
Don't believe me?
Just check out the contest video and see for yourself!

** details are below, click

Continue Reading �

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October 25, 2008

Sebastian is an awesome kid.

Yup, I'm bragging about my youngest son, because he is truly awesome.
I decided that I would try my hand at doing the grocery shopping today, him and I like we used to, but we had to cab it there and back as I can't walk that far yet.
But I did it with his help.
I can't lift stuff, or see the high shelves to get food items and stuff, so he helped me the whole way through the entire store, and didn't complain not even once.
I ended up very tired when I got home, it took a lot out of me to just get what little bit we did get, but it felt really good to be able to do the shopping again.
I have been getting a little depressed here and there over my neck stuff, so doing something as boring as the food shopping is a big accomplishment for me, and lifted my spirits up quite a bit today.

I accidentally ended up leaving Publix with 2 of their logo promotional pens because I had to sign the credit slip at the register, and then I had to sign another paper at the service desk giving the teens the right to shop with all of my debit/credit cards if I can't do the shopping myself all of the time.
The manager photocopied all of my cards, wrote down my full name as it appears on the cards, the teens names and ages, and my state ID number, and so I had to sign that for them or they wouldn't let the teens shop with my cards.
Sometime last week when they went, one cashier refused to let them pay for the groceries with my card, she thought they had stolen it and were just buying stuff they wanted, and it probably did look that way.
I told them to go to the store and get dinner for themselves, whatever they wanted, and get me some tomato soup, pudding, and more yogurts to eat, and they bought subs, hot wings, chips and dip, some beef jerky, a 12 pack of coke, and some candy, so I can sorta see how she thought the may have stolen it, and she was a new cashier.
So the teens had to go to the service desk, talk to the manager on duty, and give her my phone number to call me and verify "their story".
The manager on duty knows all of us, but she had to follow protocol, and speak with me.
I explained my health issues to her, read my card number back to her, (I'm like the Rain Man, I have all of my debit/credit card numbers and security codes memorized) and told her that yes, the teens had the right to do the shopping and buy all the food they did, and when I could come in, I would show them who I am and set this stuff up again.
I had set it up before going into surgery, but I guess they lost it.

But enough of that stuff, wanna see some pictures?
Sure you do!
We found this little guy in the driveway tonight, he's alive, no one and no animal hurt him, well not my animals anyway.
He was just taking his sweet time sliding around on the smooth concrete, going who knows where.

This is so cute in my opinion, Kali and Shahiro have taken over the end of my bed ever since I put my really thin "winter" blanket on it now.
Every time I go in my room, there they are, sound asleep curled up with each other.

I have some other pictures I have taken over the last few weeks too, but I'll post them later.
I really should start using my photoblog again eh?
I have gobs of pictures on my pc that I haven't uploaded to that blog in like 3 years now, it's just sitting there wasting away.

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October 22, 2008

Random brain dumping.

Pepsi will be changing it's core logo icon as a way to reinforce it's core business.

Changes will include a graphical redesign of core Pepsi CSDs Pepsi, Mountain Dew and Sierra Mist and a rebranding of some products. Mountain Dew will be renamed as "Mtn Dew" on packages, and Diet Pepsi Max will be known as simply Pepsi Max. The brand's blue and red globe trademark will become a series of "smiles," with the central white band arcing at different angles depending on the product. Pepsi, Diet Pepsi and Pepsi Max will use all lower-case fonts for name brands. Gatorade will also receive a redesign, focusing the brand on the letter G.

This is how the change will look:

And this is how people are reacting to it:

I'm a diet Pepsi drinker, have been for years, but I buy what's on sale every week, if that's my fave diet Pepsi, great, if that's diet Coke, great, but my heart belongs to diet Pepsi.
___________________________

The other day when the teens went shopping, they remembered to get the Nyquil for me and all the food items I had written on the list, but they forgot to get their acne stuff which was also on the list.
They were in the health aisle of Publix, they got the Nyquil, they just forgot to get it.
So tonight when they went back to get subs and puddings, I wrote it on the list again.
This time they remembered.
It's their faces, this is something they should not forget to get or else they will be icky pimple oozy-faced teens at school.

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October 22, 2008

And away they go!

The teens have gone off to Publix to get some food, and asked if they could take one of my self defense products with them.
The answer was a big no.
Knowing them, they'd start messing around with the pepper spray and blast each other in the eyes with it.
They went to get some subs for dinner for them, and some easy foods for me.

My old neighbor swung by again to see if I was doing any better.
Nope.
I feel like crap on a cracker.
I'm tired, achy, hungry, and annoyed.
Why am I annoyed?
Because it's non-stop Rays coverage on the tv.
The news is on and the top freaking story is the World Series?
The stock market took another dump today, and the top news story of the day is the Rays?
Gag.
I understand it's a big deal, the team had sucked forever it seems, and they are finally in the world series, but the top story of the day?
I don't think so.
Honestly, I'll be glad when this is all over.

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October 18, 2008

At least the teens aren't bored.

The teens are totally thrilled and thoroughly addicted to the WoW, but they are being good and sticking to the chores they all agreed to.
It's been a long day today, just total boredom on my end, but at least they aren't torturing me saying how bored they are.

Next weekend, they will be members of the local teenage free for hire/will work for food, moving companies to help Mindy and her family move into their new house.
Mindy has been like my personal helper for months now, she's taken me to like a gazillion doctors appointments, took me to my surgery, stayed there the entire day through all of it, made phone calls, and cleaned my house, took me shopping, her and her husband spent several weekends repairing and installing a new ac, all kinds of stuff, so my teens can spend a day or two, however it works out, helping them move.
I only wish I could help too, but I can't.
But once I get to a point where I can do stuff, I will have to do something to repay all of the help and kindness they have shown me and my family.

I guess in need to get cracking on those teens right now about dinner.
They need to go hit up the store for some food stuffs.

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October 17, 2008

Yummy way to a late start day!

Sebastian and I decided to make a really late breakfast today, we took the bag of Pillsbury Grands Cinnamon rolls from the freezer, and baked them up!

We put them in the pan totally frozen, and baked them for about 12 minutes.

They looked good right out of the oven with no icing!

But nah, they are so much better tasting with it.
We baked up 6 of them, but they were so big, I could only eat 1, and Sebastian could only eat 2.
But they were damn tasty.

Sebastian helped me put them in and out of the oven, still not allowed to bend over to pick stuff up, oven stuff included.
The boys laugh at me for this too, like I just tried to throw a diet coke can in the recycle bucket and missed, and I heard Mark behind me yell "EPIC FAIL!"
So because I can't bend and pick it up, I stomped my foot into the can, and it caved around my foot, and I lifted my foot up, and scraped the can on the side of the bucket to drop it in.
I turned around and yelled "EPIC SAVE!"
Mark just laughed at me, but hey, you gotta do what you gotta do.

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October 16, 2008

No school tomorrow? What?!

Yeah, there's no school tomorrow because of a "professional day".
Basically, the teachers take a day to prepare the lessons and other things because they say they don't have enough time during the regular school week to do it.
Whatever.

All the teens were really good, they've all gone home now, but they were all well behaved while they were here.
At one point they started talking about Halloween and trick or treating, parties, and what Halloween costumes they were all going to be wearing.
I told them all they were too old to go trick or treating, it's for much younger kids, not teenagers, and they laughed, said they knew, but it's always fun to try.

They weren't too loud which is good, because I was busy trying to fill out some papers for my medical stuff.
I have this huge packet of papers to fill out and get mailed by the 23rd, so I was atrying to finish them all up when it hit me that there was no school tomorrow.
It's going to be a very long weekend around here.
The teens are already at each others throats just 5 minutes after all the friends left.
Great.
Just great.

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October 16, 2008

New product review coming soon!!!

I'll get to that in a second, but first, the teens just arrived home from school with their friends, and Sebastian was wearing one of his funny t-shirts that he got to start school with, and I realized it's on the site I mentioned last night.
The duct tape one.
Silence is golden, duct tape is silver.
Yeah, he's a funny kid, I guess I'm just surprised he hasn't been sent home from school for his shirts yet.

All of the teens are in the other room playing video games now.
Sebastian on WoW, Mark and his friends on the xbox.
They came in and did all of their chores first, so hey, they can play all they want.

Now, onto the new product review coming soon.
I was chosen to try out one of the new George Foreman grills!
Yeussss!
I absolutely love my little one that I have, it's one of the first ones they ever made, the super small one only big enough to cook like 2 hamburgers or a chicken breast on.
But I still love it, it's awesome.
But now that the teens are bigger, I need a bigger grill to cook more food on because teenage boys eat tons and tons of food.
I cannot wait to get it and use it, I'll take pictures and maybe even a video of us using it.
Yeah, I'll make a video of one of the teens cooking us dinner with it, because one of the great things about these grills is that anyone can cook with it.
It sits on the counter-top, it's safe for anyone to use, and really easy to clean up.
Some of the newer models have removable grill plates to make cleaning so much easier, I think the one I'm getting does.
My little one doesn't, and it is a pain in the butt to clean.
I can't wait!
I love cooking gadgets as you all know, so this is going to be perfect for me and the teens!

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October 16, 2008

It's gonna be a long afternoon.

Mark called at lunch time and asked if a couple of his friends could come over after school.
I said yes.
They want to play video games and hang out I guess, I don't have a problem with it as long as everyone behaves and doesn't get too loud.
It'll be like an acne treatment companies dream in here, all kinds of teenage boys with acne covered faces, eating greasy leftover pizza and chips, and drinking soda.
At least the WoW game finally finished downloading so they can all play that and not bother me too much.

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October 12, 2008

It was a kid filled weekend.

On Friday afternoon, Bobby, the boy who used to live next door to us in the duplex, called and when Sebastian answered the phone, he asked if he could speak to me.
I hopped on and said hey Bobby, what's up?
He said, "Hey Kat, I was wondering, I was hoping anyway, that maybe I could come over and spend the night? Would that be ok?"
I said of course, you're always welcome here, we miss you guys.
And it is true, I do miss them, Bobby and his mom anyway.
Despite all of the drama and problems during the 4 years they lived right next door, he and his mom were good people deep down, they tried to be anyway.

He told me he had to go help his mom do some shopping and then he'd be over.
When he got here, he told us that he and his mom hate the new house, he hates it the most.
There are no kids at all in the neighborhood, not even babies or toddlers, no older kids, no one at all for him to play with, and how mu