July 3, 2009

If my health doesn't kill me, my guilt will.

All these last years of having to deal with all of my health and spine issues have been incredibly hard, not just on me, but on all 3 of us.
The teens were forced to grow up way too fast, they had to take care of me, help me, their life has not been easy dealing with this for sure.

There have been a few times now that we've had some conversations where I swear my heart is just going to explode on me over how all of this has affected them.
They are not angry with me at all, they place no blame on me for anything, but man, just knowing how this has been for them is enough to eat me alive.

Tonight was one of those nights and one of those talks.

July 3, 2009

Need to up my intake.

It's no secret that I hate veggies, peas, carrots, spinach, all that stuff, can't stand it, makes me totally gag, but I like seriously need to do more to make my system stronger.
I think the only veggies I actually like are green beans, broccoli, and corn, and we all know that corn has no nutritional value whatsoever, so yeah, I need to increase my intake in order to stop getting so sick all of the time.
What happened this past week was definitely a major wake-up call that I need some serious immune system boosters, or I'm just going to keep on getting sick.
I take a daily multivitamin, a cal/mag/zinc supplement, and I even drink those Boost protein drinks, a 6 pack of them, every week, so basically one of those per day.
I don't eat a lot of junk, but I also don't get a lot of exercise, so yeah, it's like no wonder that when I get sick, I get like deathbed sick, and it appears to get worse every single time.
I have to find a way to increase my immunity to other people's germs and stuff.
I very rarely go out, and when I do, it's to a doctor's office or shopping, and I am super careful to wipe everything I have to touch down with an alcohol wipe first, I carry little wipes with me these days, but it's not enough anymore, I'm still catching what other people have, and getting super sick.
It' stopped being fun to be super lazy and in bed for days at a time a long time ago.

July 3, 2009

Amazingly, a lot got accomplished!

I had finally started to feel better on Wednesday night, really late at night, but I still couldn't sleep, so while the teens were sleeping, I figured I should try and catch up on some of the household chores that I couldn't do while I was down for the count.
So I headed for the laundry basket and found it totally empty.
I opened the washer, nothing in it.
I opened the dryer, nothing in there either.
On top of the dryer, I found all of my clothes as neatly folded as 2 teenage boys can fold a woman's clothes, the dish and hand towels, and I found all of the bath towels hung up where they belong too.
Hrm.
I headed for the kitchen, I had to put the clean dish towels away anyway, and I found the dish strainer full of clean dishes, and not a single dirty dish in either side of the sink.
Double hrm.
I started looking around the house, everything was neat and tidy, things were picked up and put away, and the coffee table was dusted off, so was the tv and stand, all of the pictures, the wooden blinds, everything was just clean and I didn't do it.
While I was down and out of it, the teens did all of the housework.
They said they felt totally helpless to help me, so they decided to help me the only way that they could, to clean everything up.
That was wicked awesome of them to do.
Mark even went so far as to go around and wash all of the doors, door handles, door jams, and light switches.
I still thought this was kind of suspicious behavior though and asked what was wrong with their gaming systems, were they broke, was the internet down, what was the problem.
They insisted that nothing was wrong, they just really wanted to do something nice for me to help me out so that when I did get feeling better, I wouldn't have to do all of that stuff.
Way cool.
The only thing that I really have to take care of before trash day on Monday night is to get out my box cutter and cut down some shipping boxes that I stacked up in the other room from some packages I've received over the last few months, and then take them out to the bins.

Oh, I finally got Verizon to admit that they totally screwed up when they mapped this duplex for Fios.
Like 2 and a half years, maybe 3 years ago, verizon came through and mapped the street for Fios, when they did, they mapped this duplex as a single family home, not a duplex, so when my old neighbors wanted to get Fios, no problem, that side of the duplex is the address number that the Verizon mapper put down as the single family house number, so they were able to get Fios.

I went over many times and checked it out, i loved how fast the internet was, I didn't care about the tv or phone, but man that internet really was super fast, so I called and requested Fios.
I would give my phone number, thanks, then I would give my address, and the would tell me, "I'm very sorry, but Verizon Fios is not available in your area yet."
I would explain to them, it's a duplex, my neighbors in the other half have it, look up their address, they would, and they would tell me that it was a single family home, not a duplex, there was nothing they could do, they cannot change the map.

So just for fun every couple of months for the last few years every time I saw a Fios commercial, i would call them up and request Fios, they customer service rep would get all excited because they were gonna make a sale, and then they'd get to the address question and realize the map was bad and they couldn't sell me Fios.
Bing!
No Fios sales commission for you today!

Today, Mark and I were sitting here and the newest Fios commercial came on, the one where the Fios guy installs it in the whole building and Ted betrays the red-headed cable guy, and we were laughing about how Verizon is taking over the world, they have bought out Alltel, Chad is gonna be out of a job soon, and the poor red-headed cable guy is gonna end up going postal on the Fios guy one of these days, when just or the fun of it, i decided to call Verizon again, it's been at least 5 months since my last call, so why not.

I called and got connected to a rep named Mel who was really happy and helpful until we got to the good old what's your address question, and he said the whole "I'm sorry, Fios isn't available in your area yet" speech, and I told him nope, sorry Mel, it is, and not only is it, but the frigging box is actually attached to MY side of the duplex, it's on my side of the property, if you all don't believe me, I can go outside, cut all the wires, stuff the box in a box, and mail it to you.
Mel asked me for both of the addresses on the duplex, the one with Fios and mine again, he found that the other side is hooked up for it, they did have it for a year and a half before they moved, and that yup, the mapper placed this duplex down as a single family home with only one address number, not two.
So I asked Mel what could be done, can it be re-mapped?
I already knew it could be, a friend of mine actually lays the Fios line in the Tampa area, he is a mapper, he knows how easy it is to map and re-map if necessary, and he said it's as simple as typing the correct address into the computer system, waiting about 2 minutes for the system to acknowledge it, and bammo! it's re-mapped.

Mel told me that yes it could be re-mapped, it would take about a week and a half in total for them to re-map and then send a tech out here to run the lines into my house and hook up the router and computers etc, and did I want it.
So I said to Mel, "Mel, for 2 and a half years I have been calling and asking for Fios and been told repeatedly that I couldn't have it because it wasn't available in my area yet when it was actually hooked up right outside my bedroom window to my duplex neighbors because the mapper couldn't tell the difference between a duplex with 2 mailboxes, 2 address numbers painted on the house, and a single family home with 1 mailbox and 1 address number painted on the house. I have called approximately every 3 months for all of that time, been told the same thing every single time, and including that no, it can't be re-mapped, and yet I kept calling, so Mel, do you think I want Fios?"

He said,Well it sounds like you do, but it also sounds like you're kind of upset.
I said "Uh, yeah, I am upset. 2 and a half years of being lied to Mel, when I could see the box out my own window, when I knew how easy it was to re-map it, and no one at Verizon would actually check the addresses until you decided to do it today. So tell me Mel, what kind of deal can I get on the price of just Fios internet every month? I don't want the phone and tv, just the internet. The website says that just internet is $44.95 every month, but come on, you guys have been jerking me around for 2 and a half years, I think I deserve a price break, don't you Mel?"
He asked me to hold for just 1 minute.

When Mel came back on the line, he said that his supervisor agreed that due to all of the mess and confusion, all that I have been told for the last 2 and a half years, and that re-mapping this address was nowhere near as complicated as previous customer support persons had claimed and told me it was, that yes, I did indeed deserve a break on the price.
So for the entire first year, I will have Fios for exactly $5 more than what I pay for my DSL right now.
I am currently only paying $19.99 a month for DSL because Verizon had screwed up my DSL account so bad for like 8+ years, even they couldn't access it on the website, they could never figure out why I couldn't make debit or credit payments online through my bank or with my paypal debit card, and because of the whole "Sorry, Fios isn't available in your area yet" fiasco.
So for $24.99 a month for an entire year, I'll have lightening fast speeds, after that, it will go up to it's regular price of $44.95 per month, or I can just go back to DSL again.
I decided to take the offer for the price because come on, after playing the calling game every 3 months for 2 and a half years, there had to be a pay off ya know?
I would have been totally stupid to say no to that price, plus it will be fun to have really fast internet for a year, I know the teens will love it for the gaming.
The tech will be here in about a week and a half, he'll install a 4-port/wireless router, I can set everything up exactly the way I currently have it, or the tech can set it up for optimum speeds, whatever.
I'll let him hook it up his way, and if I don't like it, I'll just hook it up my way later on.

So that was my day Thursday.
A lot got accomplished, sure most of it the teens did, but things got done and that's all that matters.
Now for today, I am going to tackle cleaning out the microwave, cutting down those boxes, and I'll do the rugs if i am still feeling up to it.
I do feel better, but i don't want to push myself too hard or else I may just fall back down again.
I know that my strength is definitely not back up to where it needs to be at yet.
I need to eat more, get more fluids in me, and attempt to get some rest too.

July 2, 2009

Long time no see, no blog.

Hey all, it's been about a week since I've posted anything here, sorry to have worried any of you, a few of you emailed and Twittered me to see if I was ok, thank you.
I have been extremely sick since my last post last Thursday, I have no clue what it was, but damn, it hit me hard.
It was a non-stop puke fest for me all week long, and no sleep, so it was pretty much hell.
I probably dropped about 10-15lbs though between all of the puking and not being able to keep anything down, not even any water or anything.
I was extremely dehydrated, hallucinating, and in horrible pain too thanks to the super crappy rainy weather we've been having.
Seriously, it's been like my own personal version of hell.
I was barely able to swallow and keep down enough liquids to take my pain meds, and then spent the entire week going from one piece of furniture to the next in vain attempts to get comfortable.
My bed, the couch, the floor, back to my bed, back to the couch, Sebastian's bed, back to my bed, rinse and repeat.

I thought about going to the ER a few times, but they always treat me like total crap.
I get there, they take me to triage, take my blood pressure, it's high, they then ask me if I take any meds, I list them out, and that's when they start treating me like crap, like I'm a drug seeker.
They completely ignore the reason I came in, my reason of complaint, the non-stop puke fest, and accuse me of being a drug seeker regardless of how many times I tell them I am not there for drugs, that I have drugs at home, or I even bring my pill bottles full of pain meds with me because I know how they're going to treat me by now, and they still treat me bad.
The last time I was really super sick and brought all of my pain and heart meds with me, it was clearly obvious I was not drug seeking, and the ER doc actually said to me, "It looks to me like you have a drug problem."
They ignore the reason I come in, they discharge me, and send me home.
So, I decided to just stay here and deal with whatever this was this time, and I was actually very scared a few times, really scared, i wanted to call 911 but I knew how bad they would treat me, so I just stayed home and hoped it would pass.
Luckily it did, but man, it sucked, it was really very scary too.
It sucks that I have to be alone and frightened instead of in the hospital being taken care of by professional doctors, but they do not act like professionals due to the amount of pain medicine that I am prescribed to take.
The way my head is stuck, it's a very bad thing to vomit at all, and so a non-stop puke fest for a whole week, yeah, very scary, and a few times I was unable to breathe, nothing but bile was coming up, it had like a pinkish color to it, I was terrified, but I refused to go to those doctors who I knew were going to treat me bad because of my other health conditions that I have explained to them a million times, they have my xrays, my medical records, letters from my surgeon, everything, and they still treat me that way.
It's not right and it's not fair.
I was very scared this time, I really wanted to be in a place that would help me, that could help me, but they never do, I really hate Sarasota Memorial Hospital for making me feel this way, for making me feel like I had to stay home and be afraid and alone, but that is how they have treated me the last 3 times that I have had to go there for any type of emergency.

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 22, 2009

Things to do today, gotta get moving.

Leaving in about 20 minutes to go get the MRI that Doc still wants me to have done, and then off to the high school to pick up Mark's diploma.
Sebastian needs to get a haircut, too, I'm trying to talk him into going now, we could drop him off when we head out, but as usual, the 2 of them are coming up with a million excuses as to why they should wait and go do it with me instead of on their own.
I don't know why, but they get super embarrassed having to do things like haircuts and stuff like that without me going with them.

Ok, gotta finish getting ready.
Later days!

June 21, 2009

1 hour! I got an hour!

Of sleep that is.
I had insomnia last night and then babysat my nieces for most of the day today, from 10:30am to 4pm, and I'm wiped out.
Sorta.
I took a quick 1 hour nap after we all ate lunch, I was passing out in my chair, but once I woke up, that was it, I'm back to being wide awake again.
I can't sleep again, but the teens?
They passed out right after the girls went home, that's how worn out they are from taking care of 2 little ones all day.

Susan and Skye are typical siblings, they fight over stuff, they instigate each other, they tattle on each other, and they love getting the other into trouble by instigating and then tattling.
I'm still not sure exactly what happened, but from watching how they were interacting most of the morning, I am pretty sure that Skye did something to set Susan off.
It's hot, everyone was hot and cranky, the intense heat makes you tired, (the temp was about 93 with a heat index of 110) and so Susan who gets upset easily anyway, kinds lost it for about 3 minutes.
She had a minor meltdown, and it really was minor compared to some of the others she's thrown, so I just kept trying to talk to her (she's 6) about why she was upset.
She did some screaming, threw some stuff which I made very clear to her that she is never allowed to do at my house, she shed a few tears, and then I asked her if she was done.
She said yes and we got back to playing and watching movies.
Minor.

Seeing as the teens are asleep and there's nothing at all worth watching on tv, I think I'm going to reboot and load up the Sims of Sunset Valley.
It's time to get their lives fully in gear, they are engaged, now it's time to get them married, make it all official, and then work on their careers and lifetime wishes a bit more.

Oh, gotta go pick up Mark's diploma tomorrow after my MRI.
Mindy has to get Jeff's, too, so she's taking me to my MRI, and then we'll go get their diplomas.
Later days!

June 21, 2009

Sims of Sunset Valley.

I have wicked insomnia again, nothing new there, but I hate how it's always the worst insomnia on the nights before I have things to do.
Like today, I am babysitting my nieces all day, and here I am, going to be doing it on absolutely no sleep at all.
It's ok though, I'm kind of used to being dead tired and having to do stuff.
The girls will be fine though, I'm sure of it.
Kids always behave worse for their parents than they do for anyone else, so I'm sure they will be great for me, and then they go home and drive my sister crazy.

Seeing as how I couldn't sleep, I stayed up and did more with my Sims.
They live in Sunset Valley, so because I know that I'll be doing some Sims posts once their stories start going, I've added a new category for them.
I didn't get a whole lot done story-wise because the customization tools are just awesome.
I love how you can take any pattern and color from any piece of furniture, wallpaper, marble counter tops, whatever, and place it on a completely different item.
Your entire house can match perfectly because of this, so I have been messing around with the customization tool and making things match.
I found the most awesome re-color set from Parsimonious, it's called Gotharama, and so I took the patterns and colors of the chairs and coffee tables, and placed it on the dining chairs, the bar stools, the table and counter tops, because the down stairs is an open floor plan and I wanted it all to match.
The walls are a gray-violet color and the carpet is a gray color, and it looks amazing.
My Sims are so totally happy with their house, their mood icon, whenever they are downstairs, is at the highest it can be, and the message says "Kat and Tony love their exquisitely decorated home."
And speaking of home, I took a couple pictures of their house to show you.

The house came with that fence around it, but I'm going to remove it, I don't like it.
The house at night taken from the waterfall side of the property.

It's really quite amazing, the graphics are incredible, you can zoom all the way in and it doesn't get blurry or pixelated, it just looks fantastic.
I love this game because it gives me the chance to create, to decorate, to do interior design and I love doing that.
Sebastian used to get mad at me because I would spend hours and hours building and decorating a home, but now he understands why.
When your sims are totally happy in their surroundings, they are happy with every other part of their life too.
If the living room, for example, is flawless and beautiful, if they are in there flirting or being romantic in front of the fireplace, their happiness over the beautiful home helps them be happier in their relationship.
The good mood is contagious, they do everything else better if they are happy.

I guess I'm going to go back and play for awhile again.
My nieces are coming around 10:30, and if I try to sleep now, it will be impossible for me to wake up later.

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!

June 15, 2009

Touch and brush! I wants it!

The teens are just absolutely disgusting with their toothpaste, that is why they have their tube, and I have my own tube that I keep in the medicine cabinet and they are not to touch it, ever.
They do not squeeze from the bottom, they squeeze from the middle, they let the toothpaste goop up the cap really bad and they don't clean it off, and no matter how often I clean it off, they just goop it up again.
It always looks like this;

and this;

I just found a cat hair in their tube.
Gag!

I was sitting here clicking through the tv channels, just looking for something to have on in the background to keep me company, and I saw a commercial for the most awesome product that would totally end the toothpaste cap gooping issue forever, AND! it would also make sure that the tube got totally used up, it squeezes from the bottom, it uses every last bit of the toothpaste up!!!
It's called the Touch N Brush, and I want it! LoL

You stick it on the wall or mirror with the suction cups, it sticks to just about any surface, insert the tube of toothpaste, slide on the cover, and that's it, it will dispense the correct amount of toothpaste every single time just by placing your toothbrush in and pushing forward, it dispenses the toothpaste out onto your brush.
No messy caps, and it uses up the entire tube, no more wasted toothpaste, which means no more wasted money.
It's not electric, it doesn't require any batteries either, it uses vacuum force to get the toothpaste out.
It's only $19.99 + $7.99 s/h of course, but you also get a free sonic 4x toothbrush, and you can order a limit of 3 per shipping address.

I really do want this thing.
If I have enough money left after paying for my doctors appointments and prescriptions and stuff this week, I am so buying one, and I'll hook it up and test it out and then do a review of it.
I just love all of this stuff. hahaha

June 12, 2009

Need some time.

I am dealing with a lot right now, a very big decision regarding the surgery has to be made, a decision that will affect the rest of my life.
The wrong decision will be a truly wrong decision.

I am dealing with a crap load of emotions that go with this too, all kinds of stuff, so I want to apologize if I may not be around for a few days, or if I don't answer any emails for a few days, I can barely think straight about what I'm doing for the next 5 minutes and so having to do all kinds of other stuff just isn't going to happen until a final decision is made and I fully accept and comes to terms with it.
Whichever I choose, it will have lifelong consequences for me physically and emotionally.

I'm really not in a good place right now.

June 10, 2009

Doubts.

I went and did all of my pre-op testing stuff, had a new chest xray, blood work, urine test, ekg, and met with the anesthesiologist who talked to me about how we might have to do the intubation for the surgery.
Because my head is tilted down, I cannot be intubated normally.
Normally, they tilt the sleeping patients head all of the way back, and then insert the breathing tube.
Because my head can't go back, they would do what's called awake guided fiber optic intubation, where the patient is sedated, the mouth and throat are numbed up, but the patient is totally awake and they have to swallow the breathing tube.
Once it's down, they put you totally to sleep with the anesthesia.
I finished all of my testing, and then had to wait about 2 hours for my appointment with my surgeon.

I got there and they did more xrays, about 10 new ones so they could see my neck and shoulder area much better, and then he came in to talk to me.
He said that everything looks good, I've healed up nice, never gotten any infections, I would be in the halo brace for about 3 months, and then he told me about all of the risks.
A 5-10% risk of paralysis, a 5-10% chance of nerve damage, and then he said that he would like me to consider not doing the surgery.

He said that it's a very small risk, but if it happens, if during the correction, they over-correct me, my head would end up facing up, and if that happened, there would be no fixing it, ever.
He is removing 2 vertebrae, bringing my spine back together, you cannot un-do that kind of thing once it's done, so he would like me to consider not having the surgery.

The risk is very small, like a 5-10% chance, but if it happens, it cannot be undone, so I have a wicked lot to think about.
I have to decide if even that small a risk is worth it.
If it gets over corrected, it can't be undone, that is a tremendous amount to think about.
Plus, I have total trust in my surgeon, I know that he would not be telling me this if he didn't have his doubts that this surgery will work, so I have to trust him, I have to really think about what he is saying and go with that.

I have had an extremely emotional night since getting home, been going over this repeatedly, talked to my parents, still thinking it all over and I have some more time to think it over, but right now, I am thinking that I need to trust what he is saying.

June 10, 2009

Poke me, prod me, any way you want me.

I am leaving here in about an hour for my full day of pre-op testing for my next spine fusion on June 29th.
I have a very long meeting and testing with the anesthesiologist for like 2 hours, then MRIs, xrays, blood and urine work ups, and whatever the hell else they want to do to me.
Then at 1pm, I meet with the surgeon to go over all of the details of the surgery and everything else.
I am wicked nervous, probably more than I've been for the previous 2 surgeries because of what happened last time, and because of the halo brace.
I've been doing some research and been in touch with a woman who had 1 for 3 months, and it wasn't a pleasant experience at all.
Sores from the brace, crashing into things, lack of balance, having to lay totally flat, clothes not fitting, scarring on the forehead from the screws, and having to cut my hair really super short, like pixie short because long hair is just not going to work with the brace at all, hell, hair can't even be washed for the time you are wearing the brace, and I'm scheduled to wear it for 3-6 months.

So yeah, a bit nervous, a bit emotional, terrified, a giant bag of emotions and all I want to do is drown them out, I'm exhausted from feeling this way.

Ok, I have to go take a shower now even though my body is still no where near ready to move yet, we have to leave here at 7am for the long car ride.
I will do my best to update everyone when I get home.
Later days

June 9, 2009

My Sims 3 are here!!

I have been awake all night, still haven't slept, not even a wee little nap, and I posted at almost 4am how I was hoping that Fedex wouldn't take my Sims 3 to my local post office, that they would just deliver it straight me.
Well they didn't deliver it straight to me.
But!
They somehow got it from Orlando to my local post office, and my mailman knocked on my door at about 12:15pm, and handed me my mail and a box with my Sims 3 inside!!

It's here!
My Sims 3 are here!
And I LOVE the usb plumbob key chain that came with it!
I haven't looked at the special content that is on it yet, but the key chain itself is really pretty cool looking, I dig it.

I made a promise to Sebastian like 3 days ago, man I am a total sucker haha.
I told him that on the day came, that I would install the game on my computer, I would get all of my special downloads, the sports car, the extra town of Riverview, I'd register at the the Sims 3 site so I could get the $10 in store money to spend, and then I would very quickly watch the game opening, take a quick look at the town map, and then I would exit the game and then go install it on his computer and let him have the 1st play.

Go ahead, tell me that I am the worlds biggest sucker, I deserve it. hahaha
I have been waiting for this game since the day they announced it, I pre-ordered it way back in December, I have been counting down the days, stalking the Amazon, Fedex, and the USPS websites and going back and forth with Amazon's customer service about why my game wasn't shipped on game day, and here I am letting him have the 1st play.
I am the stupid that's what I am. hahaha

June 7, 2009

A very lazy Saturday.

The Cooper clan didn't do anything at all on Saturday.
Not a damn thing.
I laid on the couch the entire day watching movies while the teens slept in late and then alternated between playing video games and watching movies with me.
I was so tired today, I don't know what was wrong with me, maybe I was still working off the effects of the medicine mix-up from the other day, but I could barely keep my eyes open.
I tried though, especially when Moulin Rouge! was on the CW.
That movie is just so bizarre that I love it.
All the weird imagery and the music, it's fabulous.
I can only imagine how good it would look on a HD LCD tv like this SyntaxBrillian that is on
sale at Buy.com this week for 54% off with free shipping.

That's a wicked good deal.
Eh, someday when things are better.
I have way, way too much going on right now to even think about buying a new tv set, but someday I will catch up with the times and get an HD LCD tv and start looking at tv the way the rest of you do. hahaha

What else did we watch?
Oh, we watched Gladiator, Red Dawn and The Road to El Dorado.

Mark went and spent the night at his friend Jeff's house, and so it was just Sebastian and I here at home all night.
We spent a lot of time talking about the Sims 3 which we still don't have because the shipping got screwed up even though I pre-ordered and paid for it way back in December.
Yeah, I am NOT happy about that at all.
Sebastian and I have been looking forward to this game for a very long time, it is one of the things that he and I do together, that we talk about and play together, and so not having it yet has really upset us both.
I wanted to have enough time to get it installed and learn how to play it, teach him how to play it before I have to go have my surgery so that nothing goes wrong with the game or the computer while I am away in the hospital.
They decided to ship it to FedEx, and then FedEx will ship it to my local USPS, but so far, the only thing that has been done is the shipping process has been initiated.
The game was released on June 2nd, and here it is, June 7th.
I am so not pleased with how they decided to ship this out, but because it's in the shipping process, I can't cancel it.
There's basically nothing I can do but wait.
I sent them an email asking about it, and they sent one back explaining how they shipped it and then said that if I don't have it by 6pm on June 16th, to email them.
Wow.
If that happens, I am going to be absolutely furious. .
And no, it is not Buy.com that I bought it from.
I have never had a bad shopping experience from Buy.com.
Ever.

June 5, 2009

I don't think I could do it.

I have insomnia again, so I have been browsing around the internet and I decided to just go through google images and look at stuff.
I googled all kinds of things, monsters, various kinds of surgical procedures, hairstyles, flowers, shoes, cars, and then I googled hotels and came across the Stratosphere hotel.
I really do not think that I could ever stay at this hotel.
Ever.

It is 113 stories high.
It is 1,149 feet high, and is the tallest building in the west!
I love roller coasters and thrill rides, but at the top of this hotel, they have rides, extreme rides.
There's the 866 foot high X-Scream teeter-totter, the Big Shot, and Insanity, the Ride.
At the top of the hotel.
Ack!
I really do love roller coasters and thrill rides, but I am not a fan of heights, really big heights, so a roller coaster or ride at the top of this hotel would absolutely make me puke, I just don't think I could do it.
I would try it, maybe.
haha
No really, if I could, I would go to Vegas, I would go all of the way up there, I would buy my ticket, I would get on, and then I would have to keep my eyes closed the entire time.
I know that if I opened them and realized that I was at almost 900 feet off the ground, that I would be in an absolute panic and that would make me puke.
Maybe. haha
No, I could probably do it, I'm sure that I could do it, I really do love roller coasters and fast speeds, and roller coasters go by so fast, that the ride would be over so quickly that I wouldn't even have time to realize how far off the ground I was.
I would definitely do it if I could.
Yeah, I would definitely do it.

June 4, 2009

My dark circles are getting better.

I have been using an eye cream around my eyes for about 2 months now, and am very pleased with the results.
I have always had very dark circles underneath my eyes, and over the last few years, I've started getting the bags to go with those dark circles, and the wrinkles too.
I am 39 after all, it's definitely about time to start looking my age.

I had never used any face creams or lotions because while my face isn't oily, if I used anything, I would break out almost immediately.
One day while browsing CVS.com, I spotted an eye product on sale, and I had a coupon for an additional $5.00 off, so I went and picked it up when I went to pick up Sebastian's migraine medicine, and I've been using it every morning and night since buying it.
It is working.
My dark circles are definitely lightening.
My bags are gone.
My wrinkles are most definitely less noticeable too.
I am very pleased with it and it costs far less than the more expensive eye creams that are out there at department stores and online.
It cost me less than $12, and one tube has lasted me for the last 2 months, and it will probably last me another 2-3 months, there's quite a bit of product in the tube.
It's very easy to use, once in the morning, and once again right before bed, that's it, and it helps to erase bags, dark circles, and wrinkles.
The more you use it, the more it works.
I love it, and I am not having to put something on my entire face which would cause my face to break out.

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.

May 30, 2009

He is officially a graduate.

Out of the 20 or so pictures we snapped, that was the best.
Yeah.
It was extremely difficult to get good pictures because of how the whole thing was set up.
And don't even get me started on his hair, but it is his hair so I deal.

We got there early, like we were supposed to, at 7am so that the graduates could go in at 7:15.
They were supposed to open the doors for guests at 8am, but instead they started letting in guests at 7:15am!
So if I wanted one of the coveted handicap seats, we had to go in then.
So we went in, got good seats right at the floor level on the right hand side where Mark was going to be.
We had to sit there from 7:15am until it started at 9am.
The people sitting directly behind us had a 2 year old boy with them, and they let him do whatever he wanted to do.
The seating at Robarts, I swear, it's been there since they built the arena in the 1970's, so the seats totally sucked.
They were hard plastic bucket seats, close together, and that kid crawled behind me, kicked my seat, cried, got snot everywhere, and grabbed my hair, pulled my hair, and swatted at my hair.
Repeatedly.
His parents did nothing about it.
I was ready to turn around and beat the snot out of him with my cane.
That was before graduation even started, so I was in quite a bit of pain between having to sit in that miserable seat, even with a pillow it was absolutely miserable for me, and the kid pulling my hair and head backwards, which it doesn't do, I was in agony.
My sister went and found an administrator and asked if once Mark walked, got his diploma and picture taken, could we leave, that I was simply unable to sit there the entire 4 hours, and they said yes, that we could take him.
So we did.
Seconds after that picture was taken, we grabbed Mark and left.

My sister took some pictures outside, well she tried to.
My camera doesn't have a view finder, only an lcd monitor, so the screen was very difficult to see, so the pictures came out kind of bad, but she tried, so we will buy some of the professional pictures that got taken.

Then George took Mark and Sebastian out to eat, my sister brought me home, and then she had to go to work this afternoon.
I came home, took some pain meds, and passed out.
The boys came home and took naps too because of how early we all got up, the heat, and everything, it was just a very bad setup for graduating 950 students.
Yes, 950 students got their names called and diplomas handed to them one by one.

Anyway, it's all over, he is officially a graduate, and I am so proud of him.
I did end up getting him that watch.
He earned it.

May 30, 2009

Off to graduation!

We're all getting ready to head off to graduation, should go well, I hope...LoL
It's going to be a very long, very busy day, and I am hoping that I can physically make it through the day.
I'm going to need to come home and take a wicked nap after graduation before I do anything else like we're supposed to.

Ok, gotta finish getting ready.
Later days!

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 26, 2009

Get there early if you need a special seat.

I called the arena where the graduation is going to be on Saturday to find out whether or not I'm allowed to bring a pillow or cushion with me to sit on, and a bottle of water or soda so I can take my pain meds if I need to.
The ceremony begins at 9am and ends at 1pm.
The graduation is going to be 4 hours long because they have something like 950 students graduating, and each student was given 5 tickets for family and friends, so there will be about 2,000+ people in the arena on Saturday.
While the arena is air conditioned, they admit that once you put that many people in there, it tends to get a "bit warm."
That's a direct quote from the girl I spoke to when I called the arena.
The girl did not know if I can bring anything with me, so she told me to call the school.

I called the school and spoke to the guy in charge of the graduation, and he said that I can bring a pillow and something to drink, that I may get stopped by security, but to just tell them or show them any proof of my disability/need for the items, and it won't be a problem.

He also told me that they have special seating for people with disabilities and can't climb the stairs.
But it's first come, first serve, so if I want to be in one of those special seats, I need to drop Mark off at 7:30 when they students have to be there, and then just wait until the doors open at 8am in order to get one of those seats.
Definitely need to bring my meds and be ready for a long day, but it will be worth it.

Mark just got back from picking up his cap and gown and the tickets.
I need to get him to try it on and take his picture.
I am so proud of him.

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*

May 22, 2009

Insomnia! Leave me hangin' on all ni-ight! oh-oh-oh, damn insomniaaaa!!!

So uh, yeah, I've been up all night with insomnia again.
I did finally get some sleep yesterday afternoon, I was able to sleep for about 3 hours, and then I just woke up, and was totally ready to go again.
It's now a little after 4pm, and while I'm tired, I cannot sleep.

I had so many things that I wanted to do today, I have all this work that I wanted to do, I wanted to get it all done, but did I do it?
No-o-o-o!
I spent like the entire day just answering emails.
The whole day, answering emails.
That is not what I wanted to do today, but that's what I did.
I kept saying to myself,
"Self, as soon as you get done with this email, you need to get crackin' on all of that work that you need to get done or it's never going to get done."

And I would even answer myself,
"Self, I KNOW that I have work to do, but these emails, these are important, they must be answered. These people took their time to email me, the least I can do is take the time to email them back. As soon as I get done with this one, I will get started on the work that I need to do."

But then as soon as I replied to that email, I got another one that my insomnia deep-fried brain told me was just as equally important as the previous 7 emails.
So no, I did not get a single thing done today that I meant to do.
But I do feel like I accomplished a lot though.
It usually takes me like 2-3 days to answer emails, and I did them all today, so that in itself is a huge accomplishment.

All of the stuff that I needed and wanted to get done today is all work I can do on my computer, which is a good thing because my arthritis is flared up today big time.
My right knee is HUGE, it's all swollen and sore from the arthritis, I have been limping around all day long every single time that I needed to get up and pee or get a drink.
Owie wowie, painful.

I am really hoping that I will still be able to get at least some of what I want to get done, done, but I don't know for sure if I will be able to.
Dustin and Stacey are supposed to come over tonight for dinner and a movie, and then when they leave, whatever time that ends up being, I hope that I'm going to be somewhat coherent enough to get some work done.
I have a couple of product reviews that I need to write up, not telling you what they are for yet, you'll have to come back to find out, but I can tell you that none of them will be weight loss pill reviews because I haven't been allowed to take any weight loss pills since the beginning of September.

Ok, I need to get off of here for just a little bit.
I need to pee again, (damn blood pressure meds make me pee like a racehorse on lasix), get another drink, (that could be contributing to the pee thing too, hrm....) and call Dustin to find out what time they are coming and ask about what they want to eat for dinner, and also fold the last load of laundry in the dryer.

Ok, really gotta go now.
Later days!

May 21, 2009

Toofs, food, and freebies.

Last night my sister and my girls (my nieces) came over for a little while, and my sister had called me on the way to tell me to have my camera ready for when they got there.
She said that Susan had a surprise for me, so I made sure the camera had freshly charged batteries, and we all went outside to wait.
Just about 5 minutes later, they pulled under the carport and they all unbuckled, sis told Susan to get out and to "Go smile for Aunty Kat!"
So Susan got out of her big girl seat and out of the car, and as she made her way to me, she was giggling all of the way.
When she got close to me, she stopped, and sis had motioned for me to be ready, and then Susan smiled a huge smile.
This is what she had to show me!

She lost her front tooth! Her first big girl lost tooth!
She was so excited about it, and then told me that mommy gave her $1 for putting it under her pillow last night. (Sis is also an atheist, and we both have raised and our raising our kids without made-up stuff, if you don't believe in 1 fairy tale, you don't believe in any of them)
Sis and the girls also stopped at McDonald's to surprise us with dinner, and the teens were totally happy with that, even though they also wanted what I was going to make for dinner.
When I went grocery shopping the other day, and Mark and I got to the meat department, Publix had packages of huge turkey legs on sale for just $1.99 per pound, so I bought 2 packages with 3 legs in each package, and my plan was to cook them up in the NuWave for dinner.

Well sis brought McDonald's, so I left the turkey legs in the refrigerator and planned on cooking them tonight, Thursday.
They were perfectly fine, as a matter of fact, they were still frozen solid.
My sister and the girls left around 6:45pm, and almost an hour later, Mark asked if I was going to cook them up.
I told him that I could, but they could handle being in the fridge for 1 night and that I would cook them Thursday night.
He gave me the ol' puppy dog, please mom, I'm gonna starve to death if you don't cook those look, and he really didn't have a huge meal like he usually gets when he goes to McDonald's with George or whoever, so I agreed to cook them up.

The NuWave comes with 2 racks, a 6inch that flips over to become a 1inch, and then a 4inch rack, so I grabbed the 4inch rack, and placed all 6 legs on it.
They were packed on a bit tightly, but they all fit in there.

I set the power level to high, and pushed the timer button...

Because they were still frozen pretty darn solid, I set the cooking time for 30 minutes per side, for a total of 1 hour of cooking time.

I didn't even think of wrapping the bony end of the legs in aluminum foil like I normally do when cooking a whole turkey in the oven, I don't know why I didn't, you can use aluminum foil in the NuWave.
As a matter of fact, you can use any type of utensil, foil, parchment paper, or cooking pan in it as long as it fits.
If it fits inside the dome, you can use it in the NuWave.
But I forgot to cover the bony ends of the legs, so of course the skin and meat pulled back, but they still came out so freaking good!

Look at that gorgeous golden brown color!
I didn't eat any, and neither did Sebastian, but Mark took 1 and we will reheat the remaining 5 for tonight, and I will also make the mashed potatoes and gravy that is supposed to go with it.
I took a tiny piece of meat off of Mark's so that I could see how it came out, and it was super awesomely good.
The meat was cooked to perfections, and totally tender and juicy.
I swear, the NuWave is actually making me be a better cook...hahaha

One of the benefits of cooking with the NuWave aside from how quickly and perfectly it cooks everything, is the fact that it drains off the fat.
The infomercial makes a claim that I didn't believe, I know, infomercials are all hard to believe, and I fell hook, line, and sinker, for the NuWave. (But the NuWave really does do what the infomercial claims as far as cooking goes!)
But they claim that if you cook with your NuWave at least 3 times per week, that because it cooks and drains all of the extra fat, greases, and oils out of the food, that you will lose weight and lower your cholesterol.
I've now had the NuWave for 4 months as of today, I received it on February 21st, and I have monthly doctor's appointments where they put me through the wringer and test for everything under the sun.
I'm always being weighed, measured, and tested for all kinds of things, so anyway, because I have only been cooking in the NuWave, and have not used the regular oven even once since getting it, my cholesterol has lowered, and I have lost 12lbs.
I think if I could get my hands on the most perfect and best diet pills for me and my body type, and continue to use the NuWave for every single meal, I bet that I could lose even more weight.
I was shocked when my doc told me that I had lost 12lbs.
She weighs me every single month, and sometimes she tells me if I'm up or down, but she usually holds out for a significant change before saying anything.
12lbs is pretty dang significant in my opinion.
W00t!

And I've been up all night again, insomnia, again.
So I made myself useful while I was up.
I went through the fridge and took out all of the food that was in there in its original packaging, not sealed up good, and was going to spoil if I didn't get them packed up correctly, and so I packed everything up nicely with a whole bunch of my new Rubbermaid storage containers.

I put the deli ham, cherry tomatoes, salsa, the sliced cheese, the block of extra sharp cheddar cheese, the leftover salad from Tuesday night, the tortilla chips, the Werther's caramel and chocolate candies, the leftover sour cream, everything that needed to be sealed up and stored better, into the new Rubbermaid storage containers.
Doing this had an added benefit.
The fridge now looks all nice and organized.

If you're new here or haven't heard about it yet, in the post directly below this one, you can enter to win your very own 20piece set of Rubbermaid storage containers.
Entering and getting extra entries is really easy, so if you would like your own set of Rubbermaid containers, go read the how to enter rules and enter.

And now I think I'm finally tired enough to go to sleep.
If you do enter, I will verify your entries when I wake up and send you a notice that you've been entered.
Please do make sure that you do the required entry or I'll have to disqualify you.
I am only saying this because I've now had 3 people fail to do that 1 thing, and it has disqualified them.
I was even really nice about it and emailed them letting them know that they needed to come back and do that 1 thing.
Oh well.
Good luck and later days!!

May 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.

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.

May 12, 2009

I want some memory foam.

I had a very rough night of sleep last night, I couldn't get comfortable to get much of any rest, and no matter how many pillows I used or where I slept, it just wasn't working out for me.
I want one of those memory foam mattresses or some memory foam bed wedges to try and see if they will help.
This one looks like it would actually work out well for me, for how my body is right now, and would help after the next surgery too.

See how that is shaped?
At an angle like that?
That's how my body is able to rest the best, at an angle, raised up just slightly, but my pillows eventually flatten and squish throughout the night, so I don't stay like that, I end up laying flat by morning, and then my back is all flattened and stiff.
With a bed wedge like that, it could go right at my lumbar curve, instead of at the hips where she's got it in the picture, and then my lumbar curve would have the support it needs to stay curved instead of trying to flatten like it wants to while I sleep.
Now, my back can't actually flatten, my spine doesn't bend because of the titanium rods, but the muscles want to, they want to totally relax at the lumbar curve, and because the rods are there preventing the spine from relaxing, only the muscles relax and flatten out.
Then in the morning, my muscles are totally flattened out around the rods, and it's extremely painful to get them back in place and straightened out so that I can stand up straight and walk upright instead of half-hunched over for the first hour or two every morning.

With a wedge like that, my back would be getting the support it needs in the lumbar area, the thoracic area would be at a comfortable angle, and then with a regular pillow, my head would be getting the support that it needs to stay raised instead of trying to lay flat which it can't due to the collapsed vertebrae at C1 and C2.
Every morning my lumbar is stiff and sore, and my neck and shoulder muscles are stiff and sore from the muscles relaxing and attempting to lay flat, and they really can't either due to the rods.

I'm sure that after the next surgery, the stiffness every morning will be even tighter because I'll be fused to the occipital bone, and so no part of my spine will be able to move all of the way from my tail bone to my skull, but the muscles will still want to relax all of the way down to the mattress and pillows.
I think I'm just going to try and get a bed wedge like this between now and the surgery, or even after if I have to, so that maybe I'll be able to sleep without so much stiffness and pain every morning.
This post is basically a bookmark of the site that sells that wedge so that I can find it easily when I am ready to buy 1.
That is definitely the kind of wedge I think my body needs, it is perfectly angled right how my body is able to rest the very best.

May 11, 2009

Single and happy.

I've been wanting to write about this particular subject for some time now, but things in my life just kept coming up, and so posting it would have just felt like the wrong time.
It still does feel like the wrong time, but enough procrastination.

I'm part of this huge community of bloggers, all bloggers, and then we get broken down into groupings, and my particular grouping is the single mom bloggers.
But I don't seem to really fit with most of them either.
Almost every single mom blogger I know is either currently dating, looking for a date, dating multiple people, using online dating services, living with a boyfriend, looking for a boyfriend, just looking for mr. right.
And I'm not.
I'm not dating or looking for anyone to date.
I haven't been looking for that for a very long time, and guess what?
I'm happy.
I'm happy being by myself, I don't feel like I need someone to complete me, to fix my broken and single life.
I don't need any diamond rings, I don't need a piece of paper, I'm really quite happy being single.

I've been raising my sons on my own for 15+ years now, and we're all doing ok.
We've had our share of hard times and bad times, the teens have wanted me to be with someone so that I could be happy, but I always have told them that I am happy.
I enjoy being single, I can come and go as I please, I sleep on whatever side of the bed I want, I don't worry about having to please someone else, I don't worry about breaking up or doing something that would cause someone to break up with me, I am just truly happy being single.

There are other people out there who are happy being single too, not feeling like we need to be partnered up like society tells us that we need to, and there's a website that's just for those happy single people, Single Edition.
It's not a dating website, it's just a site for happy singles.
There's articles on travel and leisure for singles, expert advice, tech and gadgets, shopping, money and careers, and single living.
It's a really good site set up for truly happy singles.
There's life beyond dating, living life on your own terms, you are not defined by whether or not you have a partner, you are defined by who you are, as an individual.

Who said that we have to be with someone?
Who decided that we have to be a couple, that the only way to true happiness is by being partnered up with someone else?
You can have a truly happy and meaningful life being single and living life on your own terms.

May 11, 2009

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.

May 7, 2009

Food, gack, and email.

I can once again put my search for the absolute best weight loss pill on hold for a little while, especially after today.
I spent the entire day, from like 2am until about 4pm, just gacking up my entire insides.
It wasn't fun at all.
When I finally stopped puking, I felt like I was going to die.
After hours and hours of puking, your body is just worn the heck out man.
No clue what brought it on, but I'm glad it stopped.

The teens just got back from going to Publix to pick up some Totino's pizzas, there's simply no way that I can cook or eat.
Yuck.

If I owe you an email, I'll be getting to it after I take care of some must-do stuff that I have been unable to do for a few days because I didn't have everything I needed to do it, but now that I do, that's my priority, and then I'll take care of all the emails.
Later days!

May 5, 2009

Friends helping friends.

Both the teens stayed home from school today, not sure if it was that they caught what I had, or if it was the chicken at school yesterday.
Both the teens came home and said they weren't feeling that great, and that the chicken at lunch tasted more like fish than chicken, and it smelled like fish too.
Chicken should never taste or smell like fish, ever.
They both had bad stomach upset this morning, so I let them stay home.

Last night we had some company for awhile too.
Stacey and Dustin came over for awhile, and Dustin and the teens went and ran a few errands to the pharmacy, Publix, Dustin's grandmother's house, and his house, to pick up a few things for Stacey.
Stacey had surgery last week, and so while the guys were gone, I helped Stacey take a shower, her first shower since the surgery, and so I know how awesome that first shower is, it's like pure bliss.
Another friend of hers was supposed to be helping her the last few days, but flaked on her, so Dustin brought her to me because I know what it's like to need help and not want some total stranger helping with personal needs like a shower.

Then we all hung out for a few more hours before they needed to head back to Dustin's grandmother and take care of her for the rest of the night.
She was in the hospital over the weekend, so Dustin needed to be there to help her too.
Dustin is such a good guy, he helps so many people, he takes them to the docs, to stores, whatever he can, I'm really glad I met him and he and Stacey have become good friends to me.

They let us borrow a movie for the night too, it wasn't half bad.
We watched The Uninvited, the story of a girl named Anna who gets released from a mental hospital after the death of her mother.
It has a couple of twist endings, and it's a remake of an Asian horror flick called a Tale of Two Sisters.
Like I said, it wasn't that bad, but it wasn't that great either, I was hoping for something a little scarier and got something more like an M. Night Shyamalan.
Oh well.

May 3, 2009

Mesothelioma, Swine Flu, repeat.

It seems that the top two health news stories these days are mesothelioma and swine flu.
Three schools are closing in Hillsborough County right here in Florida this week, after 5 probable cases of swine flu were reported.
They are closing the schools, scrubbing them from top to bottom, scrubbing all of the buses, and every single inch of the schools, and all extra curricular activities are also canceled.
"Freedom High School and Wilson Middle School will be closed because two people suspected of having swine flu attend those schools.
Also, Liberty Middle School will be closed because it shares cafeteria service with Freedom."

Mesothelioma is in the news a lot lately too because they have come up with new and better ways to diagnose and treat it, and because people are starting to win wrongful death lawsuits.
I found the wrongful death lawsuit interesting because of this;
"A Florida jury awarded nearly $1 million to the widow of a power plant worker who died as a result of mesothelioma caused by exposure to asbestos. However, the majority of blame for the worker's mesothelioma death was attributed to Gulf Power, who was not a party to the wrongful death lawsuit."
Say what?
How can the majority of his death be blamed to a company who was not involved in the lawsuit, but the widow won the case anyway?
I don't understand any of this stuff.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm getting kind of tired of all of this sickness panic that the media loves to do.
Honestly, I don't know if the swine flu is at pandemic levels, there's only a reported 717 probable case of it world-wide, so does that really qualify as pandemic?
Every single year, 36,000 people die from the regular old flu, and only 20 deaths from the swine flu world-wide so far.
So should we all be panicking right now?
I know we should all be cautious, wash our hands, don't go near people who are sick, don't lick any doorknobs etc, but panic the way the media is portraying this whole thing to be?
Nah.

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.

May 1, 2009

Tired, really, really tired.

I don't know what's come over me the last few days, but I could just sleep and sleep.
I have no appetite at all, and when I do eat, everything tastes weird, like bitter and spoiled.
I'm eating the same foods the teens are, and they say their food tastes just fine, but to me, it all tastes bad and I'm not sure why.
I'm just exhausted, and all I've been doing is sleeping and laying down, and I just haven't felt like blogging much, and there really hasn't been much to say anyway.
Meh.
Sebastian is off with my sister tonight, she'll bring him home sometime tomorrow afternoon.
Mark is in the other room playing WoW of course, and the kitties are all sleeping in various locations.

We've been watching some movies in the downtime, like last night, we watched The Wrestler with Mickey Rourke.
It was a really interesting movie, a good human story.
I felt so bad for the character, wrestling was all he knew, all a lot of them knew, they still lived in their glory days of giving people a good show.
Rourke was incredibly good in it, he was believable right from the start, this was his role to play, he was the wrestler.
The supporting cast was excellent too, Marisa Tomei, wow, probably the most gritty and realistic role I've ever seen her do, was also very believable, I know a few strippers, and so yeah, an excellent portrayal of their lives.
When the screen faded to black, we all sat here in silence, and slowly each one of us said wow, tragic, but how he wanted it to go.

Tonight we watched The Burrowers, a horror movie set in 1879 in the Dakota Territories.
When a family goes missing, the hostile Indians are immediately blamed and hunted down, but it's not Indians doing the kidnapping and killing at all, but almost vampire like creatures that live underground, and have the ability to paralyze their victims, then bury them alive so they can come back and eat their rotting organs later.
Another group of Indians, the Ute, know how to destroy the creatures, but an over zealous military leader played by Doug Hutchison, kills the last Ute Indian who knows how to make an antidote for the poison, and our main character has figured things out and can save the lives of other settlers with that Indians help, but it's too late.

This was a straight to DVD release, but worth checking out, just like a lot of straight to DVD releases are.
Most people don't give those films a chance, but The Burrowers is one of those movies you should definitely check out.
They only had a budget of $7million, but it's a very good looking film with some major players in it like Clancy Brown, whom I've loved ever since Highlander.
The scenery is gorgeous, the colors are muted but fabulous looking, and the acting, terrific.

A funny happened while we were watching The Burrowers, a couple of our cats, Nova and Shahiro, kept hearing the noises the creatures made as they were stalking their prey, and they did the same thing they do when I put the cat video on.
They start trying to climb up on the tv stand and tv set, to catch them.
It was amusing to me to watch them do that, trying to catch the creatures in the movie.

April 29, 2009

Blood drippings and cat water.

Yesterday, Mark* donated blood during a blood drive at school.
It was his first time donating blood, so he was really excited and nervous about doing it.
He said it wasn't bad, didn't hurt, although the pin prick to the finger to test his iron levels and get his blood type, didn't feel quite so good.
He had a much older nurse, and she just "sorta jabbed it and then squeezed the crap outta the middle finger", he said.
They had a hard time getting his vein to pop up, so they had to tighten the tourniquet and make him squeeze the ball a bit longer than usual, but they eventually got their pint of blood.
Then they gave him 2 16oz Gatorade's, a Rice Krispie square, a chocolate chip cookie, and a bag of hot fries.
They also gave him a t-shirt and his blood type card.
He's O negative and RH positive.

I knew he was RH positive because I'm RH negative, and he's my first born, so I had to get a shot in my ass to prevent RH disease at 28 weeks and 34 weeks, and another shot right after he was born, like immediately after he popped out.
So there I am on the birthing table, legs spread, getting my episiotomy stitched up by the doctor, and a nurse is jamming a needle into my ass.
The epidural had long worn off, so this was not a pleasant experience.

All of the students who had donated blood, were allowed to be dismissed early, so a lot of the seniors signed and lined up to donate. haha
He got home before I left for my appointment with the cardiac doc, and he was looking a bit pale, so I took him with me.
But now that the blood bank knows that he's O negative, he'll be getting phone calls every few months asking him to donate like I do.
And even though he's a match for my blood type, he can't ever donate to me if I ever end up needing blood during one of my surgeries because he's RH positive, it's non-compatible.
Oh well, I'll just have to self donate again if they tell me I need to.
1 pint a week for 4 weeks, it's rough I tell ya.
Your body just recovers from losing that much blood, and you gotta do it again.
They gave me this huge list of foods to eat to boost my iron and protein back up, I swear, I never ate so much peanut butter and broccoli in my life.
Not at the same time of course, that would be gross.
_______________________

I also wanted to say thanks to Joy for sending the cat water dispenser for my kitties.
It is so perfect for us.
With 4 cats, we were constantly having to wash the water bowl and fill it, sometimes twice every day, and it was this huge mixing bowl that I no longer used, but man, those cats can drink.
So this water dispenser is perfect, it allows just the right amount of water into the bowl, and it keeps the rest of the water free of hair and any other gunk that used to get in the big water bowl.

So thank you very much Joy, it is most appreciated!

And yes, that is cat food on the floor.
Carmine likes to scoop the food out of the bowl with his paw, and then eat them off of the floor.
Weirdo kitty.

April 29, 2009

Permission, not humiliation.

I totally understand how other people see that post, I knew there would be people who did not agree with the post, or that I'm so open with my sons and tell them all of the things that I do.
I made a joke in the post about hoping that my sons don't find that post, but for the last 7+ years now, I haven't posted anything about them without their express permission.

On the walk to the barber shop where they were laughing about it, I said I am so blogging this, and they both said go ahead.
I asked them twice more if it was really ok to blog it, and they again said "go ahead, it's funny, post it up mom", so I did.
They both read the post today and laughed, so I am really ok with other people feeling the way they do, but if my teenage sons tell me that I can post something, that I have their permission, then I do.

Every single post that I write about them, is done with their permission.
I write up the posts, save them in draft, and wait till they come home, read them to them, and they give me the yay or nay.
Hasn't anyone noticed how late in the day, or the next day, that things get posted?
I'm not angry or upset by anything that anyone thinks about the post, I knew there would be people who didn't like it, thought it to be humiliating, whatever, but again, it's all done with their (my sons) permission.
Every post about them is either approved or disapproved by them, and I respect their decisions.

As for teaching them about trimming things up, my oldest son came to me, told me he was having an issue, said that his brother was too.
I asked him what the issue was, and he told me.
He then called his brother into the living room and asked him if he wanted to talk to mom about it, he said yes, so we talked about it.
I also remembered a post on the local area forums where the male members had started a thread about that very subject, my sons and I sat here and read the thread, read what the guys had to say about it and the advice some of the guys gave the other guys about how to deal with it, and the clippers were what they advised.
My sons asked if we had any clippers and if we did, could I explain how to use them so they didn't get cut.
I didn't have any clippers so we went out and bought 2 sets, 1 for each because sharing clippers for such an area is gross.
I posted this information in the extended entry of that post.
And as for the words I used to speak of their private areas, that is what they call it, every single term I used in the post and in the extended entry, are words that my sons have used to describe it, so I posted them.
If those words offend anyone, don't read them.
I'm not going to apologize for speaking the truth about living with, raising, and having very honest discussions with 2 teenagers who are almost adults now.
These aren't little kids, these are 1 who is almost 18, and the other is set to turn 16 in 1 month, I'm not having these talks with 10 year olds, I'm having these talks with 2 very mature young adults.
I'm not crossing the line of parent and friend, I'm being the parents, both mom and dad, having to do what dads would and should do, and because I am, my sons don't do drugs, they don't drink, and neither of them has had any kind of sex.

I'm extremely lucky that I have an incredible relationship with my sons, they come to me about everything, they are open and honest with me, and I in return with them.
There aren't too many parents out there who have such open relationships with their kids, most of them don't even have a clue what their kids are doing and who they are doing it with.
Because of how open and honest I've always been with them, I know everything that goes on in their lives.

Back when my youngest son, Sebastian, was in the 6th grade and rode the bus to and from school, he saw a lot of behavior that would make the parents of those kids have heart attacks.
I mean, here's some kids in middle school between the ages of 11/12 and 14/15, who are riding the bus to and from middle school, and having sex in the back seats, girls giving blow jobs to boys.
My son came home and told me that a girl gave one boy a bj, and then another, and then another.
On the bus, a moving bus, with an adult driver who either ignored it or pretended to not see it.
And then she asked him if he wanted 1 too.
My son declined her offer because of the talks we've had.
Maybe the parents of those boys and that girl should have had some talks too.

My oldest son sat next to a girl all year this year, who told of her sexual exploits on a daily basis, in class, and the things that she allowed the boys and men to do to her.
She didn't have a steady boyfriend, she was basically passed around by the men in her life and used sexually, but she said that they all loved her, they told her they loved her, so she saw absolutely nothing wrong with them inserting beer bottles in her vagina and anus.
Yes, a call was made to the school guidance counselor about seeing if anyone can help that girl who is so obviously being sexually abused.

The world is a much different place than it was when I was growing up, teens just weren't so openly doing and discussing these things with other kids on the bus, in school, and in class, but it's a whole new ballgame folks, totally new.

Kids are having all kinds of sex at school, in empty classrooms, in bathrooms, in the closed off hallways where repairs are being done, and they don't care who sees it or who knows about it.
But I'll tell ya, their parents must not know, if they did, they'd be doing something about it.
At least I would hope they would be doing something about it.

It's a frightening world out there now, I almost don't want to ask my sons how their day at school was because of what they come home and tell me.
I get sick to my stomach over hearing about what goes on, how sexually aggressive some of these kids are, and I feel nauseous when I hear about oral sex taking place in the bathrooms, right in the stalls, but it's happening, if you think it's not happening at your kid's school, I got a surprise for ya.
And this isn't happening at a bad school in a bad neighborhood that's just full of poor kids and the stereotypical kids that might be doing these things, nope, the school my sons go to is one of the better high schools in the city.
It's the school where most of the wealthy people from the city have their kids go, this is not the high school in the ghetto, and it's not the massive high school downtown where they have metal detectors installed and a cop in every hallway.
This is a 5-star rated high school in a very nice neighborhood, it's the school that gets most of the funding, the football team is in the top 3 of the state, the band is the number 1 band in the state who have won a ton of awards, this school has money, and so do the majority of it's students.
And there's exactly 1 school cop.
These things are happening, the students are having sex and oral sex at school, all over the school, and most of the teens (my sons) friends have either had sex or oral sex.
Most of their friends drink and do drugs or have tried them.
One of their friends caught gonorrhea from the girl who has offered oral sex to Sebastian twice.
One of their friends lives with his grandparents because his father is long gone from his life, his mother is a junkie in jail for the next 3 years, and this kid comes and goes as he pleases, smokes pot, and is verbally abusive to his grandparents on a daily basis.
Mark's best friend since first grade switched schools at the beginning of this year, he goes to the school in the ghetto because they have a massive tv/movie department, and the school administrators promised him and his parents that he'd get the best education in this department and move on to the tech college where he'd be ahead of the other students.
In November, he dropped out of that department, started failing all of his classes, started drinking and smoking pot, has been caught having sex at school, and punched his father in the face after an argument over grades, moved out, and then dropped out of high school in February.
At age 17.
My sons get up at 5:45am every morning, shower, go to school, and come home.
They argue with each other non-stop, but they are home every night, they don't want to go hang out with any of their friends or other kids from school, they don't want to go to any of the parties because of the things they have heard happen at these parties, they don't drink, they don't do any drugs, they don't smoke, and neither of them have had any type of sex.
Mark's Big, George, is always asking him if he has a girlfriend or a girl he likes, and Mark always tells him no because most of the girls at school are sluts.
Sebastian has no interest in any of them either, for the same reason.

So people may totally disagree with how I'm parenting my sons, they think I've crossed the line, that I tell them too much, and that's fine with me, everyone has a right to their opinions.
I was told that the post was, let me quote it so I get it right, the post was "TMI personal information about your sons personal anatomy to be shared with the Internet. If any of their friends and god forbid girls got a hold of this information they would be humiliated. They would learn that not only do your boys have hairy sweaty balls, their "mommy" is telling them how to deal with it, oh and how to trim their hair ball area as well."

The humiliation? I asked my sons if I could post about it, they said yes.
I typed up the post, put it in draft, read the whole thing to them later and asked if it was ok to post, did they want it changed, did they want anything deleted, they both said "no, it's good, post it."
The friends? They and their friends talk about this same stuff and many other subjects that would make most parent's ears bleed, or they'd die from the shock of hearing what their kids are really doing in school.
The girls? Did you read what I wrote about the girls at their school? Neither of the teens want anything to do with any of the girls because of how sexually aggressive and sexually disgusting they are.
The pubic hair and sweaty balls? They came to me and asked for my help. I helped them because I'm the parent, that's what I'm supposed to do.
I'm not angry or upset about what other people have to say about the post or any other post that I've written or will write.
I didn't take anything anyone said as mean spirited, not at all, I actually laughed because everyone just thinks I'm writing all of these personal stories unbeknown to my sons, when half of the posts I write about them, they're the ones who told me to write them up, and the other half are only posted if I have their permission.

I'm really not going to apologize, and this post is not an apology, it's an explanation, making it very clear how the posts get to be posted here, and if the posts here offend you, if any of the words offend you, make you feel squeamish or uncomfortable, that's on you.
I have nothing to do with how you feel, but I'm glad that you're feeling something.

April 28, 2009

Powder your balls son.

I am a single parent, a mom, (just sayin' in case the name of this blog isn't clear enough) so that means that there isn't a dad in the teens lives to have certain conversations with, to teach them certain things.

Potty training was easy.
When I was teaching them to poop in the potty, I gave rewards at the end of the week if they did not have any accidents and used the potty for every single poop.
I didn't give lame rewards like a piece of candy, or a sticker on a chart, or something like that, nope, I would take them to the store and let them pick a new action figure. (they were cheap then, $3-$5 per full size action figure)
They were both fully poop potty trained in about 1 month.
They were both heavily into Batman and the Power Rangers, so getting them to poop was as easy as singing the theme song.

They've got a power and a force that you've never seen before
They've got the ability to morph and to even up the score
No one will ever take them down
The power lies on their side
Go, go, Power Rangers
Go, go, Power Rangers
Go, go, Power Rangers
You, Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers

They know the fate of the world is lying in their hands
They know to only use their weapons for defense
No one will ever take them down
The power lies on their side

Go, go, Power Rangers
Go, go, Power Rangers
Go, go, Power Rangers
You, Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers

I've had to be the one to talk about where babies come from, sex, safe sex, oral sex, (that was one hell of a conversation!) explain puberty and all of the physical body changes that were going to happen to them.
You know, like hair growing in thicker and darker, and in places like their arm pits, chin, upper lip, the possibility of a unibrow and what we could do to take care of that, and hair also growing in really thick, really dark, and curly, in their private part areas.
I've had to tell them that hair would grow all around, and on their balls, that it would get really thick as they got older, and that eventually they would need to trim it down so as not to get it caught in any zippers, because that would be so painful they would want to die, and to also not look like a throwback to the caveman days.
They each have their own hair/beard trimming kits with the clippers and all of the attachments, and I've had to show them which comb to use with the clippers on their pubic hair so they wouldn't cut themselves, and so they get the best trim*.

I've had to have the pregnancy/std/unwanted pregnancy talks, and explain what a condom is, what it does, and yup, I've even showed them on a cucumber, (just like my sex ed teacher did in 6th grade!) how to put one on.
I've had to discuss childbirth and babies, baby care, and abortions, and the woman's right to choose, and child support, and how very important it is if the girl chooses to keep the baby, and that they would get jobs, pay support, buy diapers, and most importantly, spend time with their child because while the money pays for what the baby needs, being a father, a real dad, is the most important thing a real man can and will ever do for his kid(s).

And just yesterday, (Monday) I had to have the sweaty balls talk.
When both of the teens came home from school and started complaining that their balls were sweaty and sticking to their thighs, I knew it was time to teach them the "sweaty balls no more trick", they were obviously ready if they were complaining out loud instead of just grabbing at the crotch of their shorts and tugging while sort of shaking their leg and squatting up and down.

I took each of them into the bathroom 1 at a time, and handed them 1 baby wipe**, a folded up 2 square of toilet paper, and 1 each of the travel sized bottles of baby powder I bought a few weeks ago*** just for this special day.
I told them 1 by 1 what to do with this stuff, and then left them alone to do this themselves.
I told them to wash their dick and balls with the baby wipe, then take the folded up toilet paper and pat the entire area dry, and to then pour a small amount of baby powder in their hands, and gently pat it on the entire area.
I explained that this will not only prevent ball sweats, but it also will prevent the balls from sticking to their thighs, it will prevent chafing, and it will also leave their entire ball area feeling cool and cleaner during the super hot summer months.

They were of course, super embarrassed to even be having this conversation, but to be having it with a woman, their mother, was really embarrassing. (Hope they don't read this post! ha!)
But about 20-30 minutes after doing it when we were all walking up the street to the barber shop to get Mark his hairs cut, they both started giggling.
I asked what was so funny, and Sebastian said, "I can't believe my mother knows how to prevent sweaty balls that stick to your thighs, and that you were prepared for it to happen, and it actually works!"
This caused the both of them to bust out laughing even harder, they both kept saying, "You were ready for it, like you were just waiting for us to tell you our balls were sweaty!" and laughing some more.

I admit that it was quite hysterical, but I did know that it was going to happen, I just didn't know if or when they would tell me about it.
I only know this trick because of past boyfriends who were open and honest with me about their hygiene practices and stuff, and because guys just share this kind of information with each other once their dad tells them about it.
The teens dad isn't in their lives to tell them this or anything that a father should say to his sons, he hasn't been around in any sort of quality father-like capacity for 15+ years now, so that leaves it up to me to do all of these things, have all of these talks with them no matter how awkward it may be for them to hear coming from their mom, and how awkward it can be for me to have to have these talks.

I'm just really glad that they take it well, they listen to me, and they ask questions if they want more information on a subject.
When they tell me that it really works and start laughing about it, or in the middle of cracking a joke, or relaying a story about a girl named Jessica who gives bjs' in the bathroom at school, and they slip in a quick and barely audible 'thank you', I know that I'm helping them get through all of these awkward and embarrassing to talk about things that I know would be so much easier to discuss with a dad, it lets me know that I'm doing it ok, that they appreciate it, that it's really helping them, and I can feel good about the job that I'm doing in both parental roles as mom and dad.

April 26, 2009

It's just a box. Only a box.

I was once again awake all night last night after my friends left from our get-together dinner.
My insomnia is going through a very weird phase, I'll try to explain it later.
Anyway, I had been awake all night long, I knew that my sister would be bringing my niece Susan over around 2:30-3pm this afternoon for us to babysit until about 7pm, so I definitely needed some sleep.
I started to get extremely tired around 10:30am, and luckily, Mark's Big, George, called for him to go meet today, so I woke Mark up, and told him to wake me up when he was leaving with George around 12:30pm.
After my very quick 2 hour nap, I got up, ate something, and then just chilled until they got here.

Susan came in and brought me this absolutely adorable little flower pot with these gorgeous flowers in it.
She had a super big smile on her face, and said "I love you Aunty Kat", and gave me a huge hug.
I hadn't seen her in about a month and a half, 2 months, so we were both missing each other a lot.
Susan had been bugging my sister for weeks, she said, to "go see Aunty Kat", so today worked out perfectly as my sister had to work a few hours this afternoon.

The flowers are so pretty, I don't think the picture is really doing them justice, they are just so vibrant in person.
I had to move them off of the coffee table though, because the cats seem to think they are a snack.

Sometime around 5pm or so, I dozed off in my chair, 2 hours was simply not enough sleep, and so my body forced me to sleep.
I was only out for a little less than 30 minutes, but during that time, Susan spotted my gift boxes and wanted to play with them.
It's a set of 3 boxes, all of them matching colors, but different retro flower designs on each box.
Mark, not knowing that I had bought these really pretty and super sturdy gift boxes for a very particular reason, gave Susan the largest box.
He took out all of the packing stuff which was that crinkled, sorta shredded, colored paper that matched the boxes.
Then he took a black Sharpie and wrote on the cover of the box, "Susan's box of super awesome stuff."
I woke up to Susan standing next to me showing me her super cool new box, and I almost exploded.

I was going to use the boxes to send 3 friends some special gifts that I've found over the course of a few months, within the next couple of weeks.
It took me forever to find the most perfect gifts for each of them.
I had found and picked out the gifts that I feel truly represent these women and friends the best, and I had found the boxes on sale, they were the last of their particular kind, but they were still somewhat expensive because they aren't just gift boxes, they had divided sections and stuff inside to be used for keepsake boxes after the gifts are removed.
So imagine my shock to wake up and see one of my boxes now written on in Sharpie, and the beautiful green ribbon used to tie up the box, now all twisted and grimy from dirty little fingers and hands.

Susan ran back to the other room to play and add more of her toys to the box, and I asked Mark in a not so nice way, what the hell he was thinking giving her that box, why the hell did he write on it in Sharpie, and just a general OMG I want to kill you scream fest began.
I swear, I almost lost it, if I had had a kettlebell nearby, I probably would have flung it at his head.
Months of picking out gifts, finding just the most perfect gifts and the most perfect boxes to put them in, all gone in under 30 minutes.
And I know, not really gone, it's just a box, only a box, but they really were special boxes, they were the last of their kind, there were no other gift boxes that turned into keepsake boxes anywhere else in the store, and I just felt absolutely crushed.
It took me like an hour to calm down, but I did.
I watched Susan carry that box from room to room, hugging it against her chest, finding little things to put in it, and she was just so happy, so I let my anger go.
It's just a box, I'll try to find another one somewhere, maybe the store has gotten another supply of them in or something, and then I can send out the gifts for my friends.

I did apologize to Mark for yelling, and he apologized to me for doing it, he said that he had no idea the boxes were important, and he said Susan's eyes just lit up when she saw all of them and she fell in love with that one, so he didn't see the harm, it's just a box afterall.
And he's right, it is just a box.

April 25, 2009

He has to go.

I ended up passing out last night from the killer and blinding migraine I had from the lack of sleep, plus the stress from it all.

Yesterday morning, a teacher called, asked why I sent Mark to school, she said that he was done, graduated, he would march with his class but does not need to be there at all.
They had shut off his lunch PIN the day before, they removed him from all of the class schedules, it appears like he really doesn't have to go.
One teacher is still insisting that he has to go, has to be there everyday if he wants to graduate, but the other says nope, he's off the schedule, keep him home.
I called and left a message for the principal to call me back, need to know what he hell is going on, keep him home or not.
She finally calls me back around 7pm, apologizes for the lateness, then tells me that he absolutely has to go to school, if he doesn't, he will not graduate at all, no cap and gown, no diploma, no GED either, it will all have been wasted.
I explained to her everything that the teachers have been saying, that he sits there and does nothing all day, that they have said with a wink and a nudge, for him to stay home, he's a distraction to the other students.
She says that he has to go, why those teachers are telling him that, she doesn't understand, she said they all know that he has to go and if he doesn't, that he won't graduate.

So at least now I know, he has to go, his lunch is reinstated, he still has nothing to do, but at least we know that if he goes every day, that he will graduate with his class.

April 24, 2009

Update on the school issue coming soon.

The principal did finally call me back, told me the real deal, and I will update it all in a little while.
Right now, I am battling a major migraine from not sleeping all night and day now, plus tons of stress over this whole issue.

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.

April 22, 2009

Paying it forward giveaway.

My good friend Jenn is having a giveaway for a gorgeous (I know this personally!) diamond journey necklace from Gem Affair.com, on her blog.
She's calling it the pay it forward giveaway, and you can go enter at her site and read the rules on how to win a ladder diamond journey necklace.

This necklace is absolutely beautiful, I know firsthand, because I own this necklace.
I won it from Gem Affair back in January.
And Jenn was the winner of my birthday giveaway that I had here on my blog back on March 1st!

This is a picture of the diamond journey necklace that Jenn is giving away, I took a picture of mine and posted it to my blog on the day it arrived.
You can click to see it bigger.

The rules to enter Jenn's giveaway are really pretty simple, and I am posting them here so you can see what you have to do and decide if you want to enter.

1. Leave me a comment telling me one positive thing about your fabulous-self. It can be about friendship, the work place, parenting or just the first thing that comes to mind when you think about "you." This is a requirement.

2. Since we're going to try and keep paying it forward, we ask that you please have a blog as the winner will be asked to then hold a contest themselves (however they prefer) promoting the notion of paying it forward. This is a fun way to spread some positivity throughout the blogosphere, because way too often we get caught up in our busy lives and forget just how wonderful we all really are.

It's that simple!

I have known Jenn through blogging for quite a few years now, and I was really touched by what she said about me in her post.
Like I mentioned, I was having a moment today, a moment of self pity and some self loathing, so when I read her words, I immediately felt better, and so thankful to have such good friends.
I always find it a bit odd or weird, when people say they admire me, tell me how strong I am, and other things like that.
I don't feel strong all of the time, I'm not always positive, things are very hard for me most of the time, but I have to keep going, I don't really have a choice in that.
There are times, like today, when I just fall apart, when I feel like I simply can't go on another moment, and so when I come across the nice things people say about me on their blogs as I'm reading blog feeds or Twitter, I feel better and humbled at the same time.
I am truly greatful to all of the friends I have online and off, who care so much about me, it's a really good feeling to know that I am thought of and cared about, so I thank all of you who are in my life, and like Jenn, you all have changed my life in ways I can't even tell you.

April 21, 2009

Eventually, both will happen.

Eventually, I WILL get some sort of life insurance to help pay for my "final expenses", and if there's anything left, for my sons to have.
Yes, I know, a very morbid thought and post.
But it does have to be done eventually.
I am not going to live forever, none of us are, and I have even come close to death a couple of times during my spine fusion surgeries, so this is a "thing" I have to think about and find a way to take care of.

What I need is a really good life insurance lead for a company that has super low rates, and takes on high risk customers.
I'm asking for the impossible I think.
I don't want to pay a lot in premiums every month, preferably way less than $20, but for good coverage.
My health is not great, it's not even good, and I dare to say it couldn't even be classified as "fair."
I am in very poor health, I admit it, and it took me a wicked long time to come to grips with the facts of my health situation.

I have been a smoker since I was 17, so for 22 years, I am stone deaf in my left ear, I have bad eyesight and wear corrective lenses, my entire spine is fused from C1 to S1, (the tip top vertebrae to the very end of the spine at the sacrum. You can view a labeled spine chart here: View Chart) my next surgery will be extremely invasive and totally life changing.
Right now, I have very limited movement of my head.
I can turn left and right, but only a very tiny amount, and I can put my head down, but not up at all, and it is currently stuck in the down position.
My next surgery will be removing the titanium rods that are attached from C1 to T3, they will leave all of the pedicle screws in place because they will be using those again, and then they will attach a metal plate to my occipital bone, which is the skull itself, they will use some sort of screws to attach it, and then they will re-attach the titanium rods to my spine, tighten the pedicle screws, stitch me back up, and then attach a halo brace to my skull.

I suffer from random but debilitating migraines, I have had most of my toes broken, my nose was broken twice, I've fractured my left ankle twice, fractured 3 fingers on my right hand and 2 on my left.
I've had a Pneumothorax, (collapsed lung), a second degree sunburn that left scars on my legs, a vaginal/anal fistula from pushing too hard during labor and delivery of my oldest son Mark, I've had about a half dozen ovarian cysts, my heart has stopped twice and was restarted, I have high blood pressure and take medication for it, and I have the white cell count of a person dying from Leukemia, yet I don't have Leukemia or any other disease or ailment, so the high white cell count is of unknown origin.
I have rheumatoid arthritis, and have been on varying dosages and strengths of pain medications for the last 10+ years.

I've actually thought about either donating or selling my body to science or to something like the bodies exhibit, because of all of the things wrong with me.
This post would have probably been better suited to KatScan, but because I have no life insurance, my final expenses would fall on my son's shoulders and lives, it fits here as well.

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.

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!

April 17, 2009

May 30th at 9am, Mark will graduate.

Mark came home from school today with his test scores from his graduation test, and some info on his graduation.

Of the 5 test areas that students needed to pass with a minimum score of 410, Mark passed each well above that minimum.
Language arts/reading - 790
Language arts/writing - 620
Mathematics - 540
Science - 540
Social studies - 680
Yay Mark!

I was worried about getting him his cap and gown for graduation, the school makes you buy them, but the school has a scholarship program that I didn't know about until today, and so they will be providing him with his cap and gown due to our financial circumstances, and because Mark has overcome a lot of hurdles these last few years in order to be able to graduate with his class.

His freshman year was 2005-2006, he had been doing great until I went in for my first spine surgery in February 2006.
I spent 18 days in the hospital, and then when I came home, I didn't have a home nurse for the first week and a half, so I relied heavily on the teens and my sister to help me during that very difficult first week and a half.
Mark missed a lot of school during that whole time, and he started to fall behind.
He signed up for summer school and had almost completed it, just 4 days away from finishing, when he got to school just 3 minutes late one morning and the teacher would not open the door and let him in, which voided out his entire summer of classes and grades.
That put him very far behind, so his sophomore year, he was doing both sophomore and freshman classes.
It was too hard on him, he started falling way behind again.
He did summer school again, and managed to finally get his freshman courses done, but was now behind in his sophomore classes.
By the time his junior year came around, he was totally frustrated and had such a heavy course load, he gave up, he just quit working so hard and didn't want to even go to school anymore.
It was a battle every single morning to get him go, he said that it was just too much work, that he couldn't keep up with all of the classes for basically 2 years worth of classes being done in just one year.
In his senior year, they gave him 2 choices, go back to being a junior, graduate a year later but only if he could complete every single class with at least a C average, or take the exit option, which is all self motivated work on a computer, doing things called modules that allow the student to read several chapters, take a test, read, take a test, read, take a test and repeat, until every single class is done by taking tests.
Mark had 17 class credits to do this year, over 2,000 chapters to read, and over 400 tests to take in order to graduate on time with his class.

The teens hadn't even started school yet when I was given the news about the neck surgery.
I was scheduled to go in for it on September 8th, right at the beginning of his new school year.
It was not a good experience with that surgery, there were a lot of complications, I was put in a medically induced coma for 4 days after the surgery, Mark knew everything that had happened to me during the surgery, he was worried sick, he once again felt like giving up on everything because it was all just too much for him to deal with.
Trying to complete school and dealing with his mother, the only parent he has ever lived with, almost dying, he broke down a lot in the months that followed my surgery.
He's such a caring young man with a huge heart, and it was so much for him to deal with, but I just kept encouraging him, telling him that he could do it, that I knew he could do this, to not worry about me, just do his work and graduate so that he could fulfill his dream of becoming a police officer.
He buckled down, he worked his ass off, sometimes doing as many as 20 tests per day, doing some of them at home on the school's website, just really busting his ass to get them all done so he could graduate.

He took his graduation test over 7 weeks ago, we have been waiting all of this time for the test results, and we finally got them back on Monday, he passed, he will march.
That's when I found out that the cap and gown would be about $100 or so, I had no idea where I would get that money because I just had to borrow money to replace the AC, and I have 4 doctors appointments plus prescriptions to pay for this coming week, and I'm trying to like crazy to do as much work as I can even when I'm feeling like total crap.
I was SO HAPPY when he came home today and told me about the scholarship program, that the school is going to give him his cap and gown so he can march with his class.
He has a senior night bbq and gown pick up on May 19th from 6-8pm, and graduation rehearsal on May 29th, and then he graduates May 30th at 9am at Robarts Arena.

I am so incredibly proud of him for all of his hard work, overcoming all of the obstacles that he faced, for not giving up when it really would have been much easier to just drop out, when some of his teachers even told him to his face to just drop out, that he would never be able to complete everything with passing grades, he did it, he really did it, and I am just so so proud of him for doing this.
When he walked through the door today, he had a huge smile on his face as he showed me the paperwork and told me about the scholarship, he really did it, and to see him that happy and proud of himself for doing it, it made me happy.

I will be taking a TON of pictures at graduation, maybe even a little video of him getting his diploma handed to him.
It's such a big deal because of all of his hard work, I want to make sure that the graduation is well documented so he can look back on those pictures and keep on smiling, keep on being proud of himself.

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.

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.

April 6, 2009

It's driving us all insane!

The AC is STILL making the rattling noise, and it's blowing a fine mist of water spray from the cooling vents.
I can't get in there to look at it, can't raise my head up, and even if I could, I have absolutely no idea what the hell to do to make it stop.
I did Google it, and from every site I read, it sounds like I have something stuck in it, something stuck in the water drain, and so that's why it's rattling and spraying a fine mist.
The water can't drain, so it's blowing back out.
The rattling noise is whatever the hell is stuck in it.

I called my friend Mindy and asked her if her husband could come take a look at it.
Her husband Chris is the one who installed the new AC for me back in October, so it's still relatively new and shouldn't be broken or anywhere near to being broken so soon.
At least I hope not.
Man, that would really suck if I had to replace it again so soon.
They are going to come over after they take their son Jeff to work at 6pm, and hopefully it will be a super easy fix, something that won't take a lot of time or trouble.
I really would hate it if it turned out to be a really big and hard job like it was when we had to install this new one.

The other reason I hope it's a fast and easy fix is because of the noise.
It's never ending, it hasn't stopped, and it gets on my nerves and is making Sebastian's headaches just really horrible.
I am giving him his meds and Tylenol, trying to just keep off any full blown migraines from starting, but this noise is giving me a headache, I can only imagine how it sounds and feels to him right now.
I feel like I'm going crazy listening to it, so it's kinda good that he stays and plays in the other room.
If he was out here with this, he'd be hurting really bad right now.

April 1, 2009

Migraines and badly behaved children.

Mindy and I took Sebastian to his appointment with the neuro for his migraines this afternoon.
He and I answered the doc's questions, and it was decided to remove him from one of the medicines, and increase the dosage on the other because it works better.
He won't be taking the Topamax any longer, but will increase the Propranolol to 3 times per day, with a 2 pill dose at night.
They seem to prevent the migraines from coming on better than the Topamax does, but if he still does get a migraine, to treat it with Tylenol or whichever OTC pain med works best for him.
The doc said that because he once again mentioned Excedrin Migraine, but it didn't work at all for Sebastian, so he told us to use what works best.

Before we even went in to see the doc, Sebastian was clutching his head, he usually gets migraines in the mid-afternoon or really early morning, so seeing as it was after 2pm, it was about right for one to come on.
The noise in the doc's waiting room didn't help matters.

I've had small kids, boys, I know how loud they can be when they play, but I don't know what has happened with this generation of mothers.
There were 3 young boys there, between ages 5-7, and all of them were running around, yelling, screaming, and making a total mess with the toys in the waiting area.
When I opened the door to enter, I had to step over toys that were right in front of the door with no one playing with them.
The mothers all just looked at me like it's perfectly ok to make other people step over your child's toy messes in front of a door at a doctor's office.
They had toys everywhere, yet they were only playing with a few of them.
Blocks here and there, trucks over there, more blocks over that way, just all over the place.
And they kept running around, jumping up and down, several times I had to pull my feet back because of their running around, I was afraid one of them was going to run across my foot, trip on it and land on it, or run by and kick me.

When it came time for them to leave, it was not the kids who picked up the toys, oh no, the mothers did.
All the mothers did while their children ran around making noises and messes, was sit there and gab with each other, they paid absolutely no attention to their kids at all.
They also gave their kids stickers and lollipops for "being good".

Excuse me?
That's being good?
Running around a doctor's office yelling and screaming, making messes with toys everywhere, not cleaning them up when finished, is considered being good?!
Sorry, but even at age 3, both of my sons picked up their toys when finished playing with them, and when in a public place like a doctor's office, they were only allowed to play with one toy at a time, when finished with it, put it away, and then they could play with something else.
They also knew not to run around, yell and scream.
They knew that when we were in public, they had to be on their best behavior, use manners, clean up their toys, and use indoor voices.

We were only in there about 5 minutes, before Sebastian had to leave and go wait in the hallway where it was quieter, and when it was his turn, I called him to come in.
One mother even totally lost control of her kid while we were in with the doc, and the kid came running down that hallway, yelling and screaming as he went.
What is wrong with today's mothers?
Don't they know that they have to teach their kids to behave when in public?
If they want their kids to act like that at home, fine, but when in public, your kid needs to be on their best behavior, indoor voices, no running, no making a mess, and teach them to clean it up.
This isn't your living room, it's a doctor's office.
Teach them to behave when in public, it's not ok to let your child run around in a waiting room, there are other people there besides you and your kid.

April 1, 2009

iTunes has crappy custome service.

See that?
That is a $1 authorization charge on my credit card for Apple's iTunes. (scroll down to the $1 charge FAQ)
I DON'T HAVE AN iTUNES ACCOUNT!
I have never had an iTunes account, the teens don't have an iTunes account, they also use a totally different computer, no access to my credit cards, and no access to my computer's saved information, this is a fraudulent charge.

So, I try and contact Apple from the 866 number you see on the charge.
It's a recorded message that tells you to go to this support page for Apple iTunes.
As you can see, that page says support/itunes/store/creditcard/.
They don't have a live person you can contact for support, you have to use their chat window, and talk to people who type slower than molasses on a cold winter day.
It took 10 minutes for "Tremain" to finally type out the number to speak to someone in Apple's fraud department.

I called that number and got a recorded message saying that it could take several business days for someone to call me back regarding the fraudulent charge on my card.
Actually, not someone, just 1 someone, a man named Robert.
1 guy handles ALL of the fraud issues for credit cards and Apple iTunes.
1 guy.

So I called my credit/debit card holder, Amscot.
I asked what I should do, I explained everything, and the woman I spoke to said the only thing that we can do is to cancel that card.
I can't cancel it right now, my SSDI gets direct deposited to it at midnight tomorrow night, I have all of my rent and bills to pay, plus my doctor co-pays and prescriptions.
Then I asked how long it would take to get a new card sent to me after this card gets canceled.
7-10 business days.
I asked if they had like a rush delivery service, to get it overnight or much faster, she said yes, but it will cost me $26.00 to get a new card in 4 days.
The number on the card will change, but my checking account and routing number will not change, which is good, because I have money that gets direct deposited to it every other week and once a month.

A few months ago, this same thing happened but with some other online company, I think it was Best Buy and some promo they were doing, but a ton of credit card numbers had been stolen from compromised data from a grocery store.
I think that's what happened with this one too.
And guess which store I shopped at within the last month?
Sweetbay.
Sweetbay is the same store that my PayPal debit card got compromised at, I don't shop there all of the time, but about 1 month ago, I went and did some light shopping there because I was at the CVS picking up Sebastian's medicine for his migraines, and didn't feel like going all the way back to my Publix.

So now I have to get an all new card.
I'm tired of having to do this, and if I find out that it is because of Sweetbay not protecting their data again, or some Sweetbay employee stealing credit and debit card numbers, I'm going to be pissed.

April 1, 2009

Useless internet day.

The teens are off to school, Sebastian has his note to get out early because he has his neuro appointment this afternoon, and poor Mark had insomnia again all night, yet had to go to school by law because we are still waiting on his graduation test results.
It is SO stupid that he has to go, sit there, and do absolutely nothing all day long.
It infuriates me.

Today is April 1st, April Fool's day, and the internet is officially useless today.
Youtube is showing all videos upside down, Google's Gmail is doing their usual stupid April Fool's Day jokes, people are linking to the usb pet rock, again, this year, and I'm sure there will be many more absolutely stupid jokes posted all over the internet by major sites, blogs, forums, and whoever just thinks they are oh so clever.
I can't stand it.
I absolutely hate stupid humor, I can't watch Will Ferrel movies because of all the stupid humor jokes and such.
Today on the internet, is going to suck for me and people like me who just hate the dumb jokes.
It is officially useless internet day.

March 30, 2009

Is insomnia hereditary?

Last night was a really rough night, for Mark.
He could not fall asleep no matter what we tried, and I don't give the teens any medications other than what their docs prescribe, so I didn't give him 1 of my sleeping pills to try and help.
It was far too late to try that route anyway.
Poor kid was awake the entire night though.
I finally drifted off to sleep around 4:30am, and woke back up when the alarm went off to find Mark just sitting on the other couch with giant bags under his eyes.
I asked him if he got any sleep at all, and he said no.
I feel so bad for him, insomnia sucks big time.
So he stayed home from school today, and finally fell asleep around 10am.
I'm not going to let him sleep all day, I'll wake him up when Sebastian gets home at 2:38pm, and hopefully he'll be able to sleep tonight.

The teens start spring break this coming Friday after the school day ends, April 3rd, and don't go back until April 13th.
It's basically 9 days in total including the weekends.
That should be fun.
Two totally bored and nitpicking at each other teens for 9 whole days.

When Sebastian gets home, we also need to head down to Beall's and pick them up some new shorts.
They have grown so much just since school started, they both need new shorts again, so we'll take a cab down there and pick them up a couple of new pairs of shorts each, and Sebastian says he needs some new shoes, so we'll see if they have any there in his size and that he will like.
Should be interesting hobbling around shopping. ha ha

March 28, 2009

Boredom, death, and movies.

It's very boring when you can't do anything but lay around with your foot up, I should be used to it by now, so many surgeries and recovery time laying down, but gah, the boredom gets to me after awhile.
Not being able to do much of anything drives me nuts.
I have tons of dishes to do, but can't.
Must stay laying down with my foot up, so sorta as a joke, but kinda hoping someone would say 'hey! I could use $50 bucks!', I posted to Twitter that if anyone in Sarasota wants to make $50, they could come do my dishes.
So far, no one has tweeted back.
*sigh*
The way I'm going on with my health these days, 2 major surgeries, tons of colds, quite a few illnesses of unknown origin, another surgery coming up, and now I'm starting to randomly break bones just by moving, I really think it's time for me to seriously look into getting some low cost term life insurance.
I am always saying that I'm going to do it and I never do, but it's starting to be one of those things I really need to do, like right away.
I mean, what if my next trip to the bathroom results in some sort of freak accident, and I end up dead?
And don't say it couldn't happen!
Kali (1 of the kitties) is always following me in there and tripping me up.
Just last night, she followed me in there, and when I started to stand up and get off of the toilet, she practically threw herself at my legs, causing me to plop my ass back down on the seat, grab the sink counter with my right hand, and the towel rack with my left, to prevent a fall.
All 4 of the cats are always getting underfoot, and let me tell ya, they are not fond of me walking with my dragon cane at all.
I think that may be the cause of the increased underfoot-edness since yesterday morning.
All 4 of the cats have been following me around when I get up to use the bathroom, go into the kitchen, or in to see how the teens are doing, and each of them has been rubbing on my legs, or dashing directly, like within an inch, of me as I walk. .
Damn cats are trying to kill me!

I got our new Netflix movies in today's mail, I hope they will relieve some of the boredom for a few hours at least.
We have, Punisher: War Zone, the teens wanted to see that one, and Twilight, so I can see what all of the fuss is about.
I never read the books, and I know, the movie is not the same as the books, and I did watch a copy of it online, but it was really grainy, it was skipping, all pixelated, and the sound kept going in and out, so I didn't really 'see' it.
I'm sure that as soon as I put it in, the teens will haul ass to the other room and shut the door.

Both the books and the movie have been all the rage with like every single girl at school for a long time, and the teens are totally fed up with it.
They make fun of it at every chance, so I'll either get to watch it in silence by myself, or they'll be out here giving their play-by-play sarcastic commentary as it goes along.
But hey, at least I won't be bored anymore.

March 28, 2009

Sad way to find the happy memories.

Wednesday morning when Mark and I went to get my script, food, cat food and litter, I also needed to pick up a sympathy card for my Uncle Bill's family.
On Tuesday morning, my cousin Billy, Little Billy as he was called, Uncle Bill's son, was taken into a hospital in Pennsylvania for kidney failure and cardiac arrest.
He was not a good candidate for kidney transplant, and dialysis would have only prolonged his suffering.
By 2pm that same day, he passed away.
That's why I needed to pick up a sympathy card.

I didn't find one at the Walgreen's or the Publix we were at, and didn't really have a whole lot of time to look that morning either.
So when Sebastian and I did the shopping yesterday afternoon, I had more time to spend, so I looked through all of the cards they had, it would have been totally wrong to send online greeting cards at such a time, but my regular Publix had some nice ones, and I found a really nice one to send to my Uncle Bill and his family.

The last time I saw my Uncle Bill and Little Billy, was like 21 years ago I think.
I know that it was Thanksgiving, I was just a little kid, and we had driven to Pennsylvania from Maine for the annual gigantic family holiday dinner.
We'd spend about a week there visiting everyone, I do remember that it was always a lot of fun and there were so many people there.
The table would stretch all of the way from the front door to the dining room stairs, it was huge.
I do remember that the yearly trip down there was always so much fun, Nana, my Aunt Josie, Aunt Ruthie, Aunts Barbara and Lorraine, all of the Uncles and cousins, just a really wonderful time every year.

While Mom and I were chatting back and forth through email about Little Billy, I started remembering all of those good times.
Little Billy's death was a sad way to recall all of those great times I had as a kid.

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.

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

March 26, 2009

Stop the ride, I want to get off.

There's gotta be an exit sign around here somewhere, I want to get off of this ride like right now!

I had my surgeon appointment this afternoon, er, on Wednesday afternoon, you can read all about that over at KatScan.

I had a rough start to my Wednesday though, because I had to go to Walgreen's first thing in the morning and get my pain meds refilled, because on Monday when the new pain doc wrote out the scripts, it was 2 days too early for my insurance to cover them, and there was no way in hell I could afford them without the insurance.
Without insurance, just 1 of the pain meds is $595.95, my part D drug coverage insurance costs me $20.00 per month, and then my script co-pays run between $2.40-$5.80 depending on what the medication is, so yeah, I totally waited till this morning to go have it filled.
I cannot imagine being without insurance the way pharmaceutical companies price medications, it's really no wonder some people have to choose between food and their meds.
Crazy!
But I digress.
I had called Walgreen's on Tuesday night to verify they had the generic in stock because my insurance only covers the generic, they said they had it in stock.
So Mark and I walked down there this morning only to find out that whoever had told me that Tuesday night, was wrong, they didn't have it.
So the pharmacist called a ton of other branches, most of them didn't have it either, but the 1 that did in the entire city, was clear on the other side of town.
I called a cab, spent $18.00 to get there, stand in line with like 90-gazillion blue-hairs who were trying to cut me in line, being pushy with their shopping carts, and here I was in a major time crunch.
It was now 10am, I had to get my med and get back home to take a shower, and be ready to leave for my surgeon appointment at noon when my sister would be here to pick me up, because it's (the surgeon's office) on the north side of Tampa, in Safety Harbor up near Mease Countryside Hospital where I had my first surgery, and where I'll be having this next one.
The pharmacist said it was going to take 30-45 minutes to fill it, (ack!) so Mark and I decided to run next door to Publix and pick up the much needed cat food, the even more needed toilet paper, a sympathy card, and some food and sodas for the teens to eat and drink while sis and I were gone, because I knew we wouldn't get back home until around 6pm because my appointment was at 2pm, and we would be dealing with rush hour traffic in Tampa on the drive home, snowbird traffic on the interstate, and even worse snowbird traffic once we got back here to Sarasota.

But before we went into Publix, I sat down on the little brick wall and called my friend Dustin, to beg him to come pick us up because I simply couldn't afford another $18.00 to get us back home, because I had a doctor's co-pay to pay for when the appointment was over.
I was worried about that big time, but really shouldn't have been, because the co-pay ended up being only $9.00.
Why?
I have absolutely no idea, but biggie W00ts! for small favors!

He said no problem mama, (his nickname for me) he was on his way, he'd actually meet us at the Walgreen's because that's where we had to go back to, and Mark and I ran around Publix getting everything we needed, paid, and ran across the parking lot with the grocery cart, Mark waited outside with the cart and food, and I ran back into blue-hair, snowbird hell to hope they had my script ready.
It was now 10:47am.
ACK!!!
They had it ready, I ran back outside, Dustin was there, he and Mark had put the groceries in his car, and he drove us home.
He and I sat and talked for about 10 minutes, (11:15am) he left, I tried to hurry and add just $10.00 to my pre-paid Virgin mobile cell phone because I was running way low and the teens needed to be able to reach me in case of emergency and vice-versa, (I only had $4.65 left) their site wasn't working for just my kind of luck, so I had to call them and add the money, then I ran into the shower and took THE fastest shampoo, shave, condition, soapy clean of my life, ran out, got dressed, and just as I was starting to brush my hair, my sister called to say she was 5 minutes away, she had picked up lunch for all of us at McDonald's, I brushed my hair, pulled it into a pony, slid on my sandals, went outside to put stuff in the mailbox, walked back to the front door, and proceeded to barf on my front lawn.
I hadn't slept at all on Tuesday night, I hadn't eaten anything more than 2 yogurts all the sleepless night, I was wicked way stressed out from all of the running around, with no sleep or sustenance, my body decided to show me who was boss just 2 minutes before sis pulled into the driveway.
She showed up at exactly 12 noon.

The appointment went well as you can read at KatScan, I came home and just tried to rest before I started calling family and friends to let them know how it went.
After I called everyone, I finally sat down and ate a meal slowly, really being able to eat it and taste it, we watched a movie, Mask, Sebastian had added it to the Netflix, and then I began attempting to catch up with things online.
I didn't get very far as you can see because this post which should have been posted on Wednesday, is now posted at almost 5am on Thursday morning.

***

What do I have to do today, Thursday?!
I have to:

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.

All of the stuff that is wrong with me is genetic, so I am worried about him.
He's 17 and has wicked bad back pains every 6 months or so.
I don't think he has scoliosis because I don't see any curve of his spine, nor do I see any rib hump, I don't see uneven shoulders, no uneven shoulder blades or hips, and no preference for leaning to any one side.
But he may have 1 or more of my other genetic screw ups like stenosis, disc damage, and/or a multitude of other neuro-muscular abnormalities that I may have given him through our genes, or maybe he has some nerve impingement going on, but all I know is that when he and I went for a walk to the corner store, he couldn't even stand up straight, he was leaning forward, said his back hurt wicked way bad, and trying to stand and walk upright, was really painful.
Because of my medical history, because doctors now know that scoliosis is indeed genetic and hereditary, it concerns me a great deal when he has bad back pain.
With his dream of becoming a police officer, if he does have scoliosis, we need to get him treated now.
They have come so far in treating this disease, far more advanced than when I was diagnosed in 1982 at the age of 12, and if caught early enough and at a younger age, he would never, ever, have to go through any of what I've been going through for all of these years.
Children, teens, and people under the age of 25, recover from the surgeries faster than adults do, usually within just 6 months, whereas adults, age 30 and up, can take anywhere from 1 year all of the way up to 5 years, to fully recover from spine fusion surgery.
He could have it now while he's young, it wouldn't interfere with his career choices, and he wouldn't spend his middle years in horrific pain and multiple surgeries like I've had to do.
Making those phone calls as soon as doctor's offices open at 8 or 9am this morning, is my #1 priority today.

March 25, 2009

No school times 2.

When I woke Sebastian up at 6am to take his shower for school, he immediately started crying and clutching his head, said in a barely audible whisper, that he had a wicked bad migraine, and he had big giant tears streaming down his face.
He'll be staying home from school today, I can't send him when he's like this, it takes hours for these bad attacks to go away, so there's simply no way he could go to school like this.

I have my appointment with my surgeon this afternoon at 2pm, and an errand to Walgreen's and Publix this morning before I leave here at noon to head to Safety Harbor for the appointment, so it's a good thing that I have been giving Mark every Wednesday off.
He'll be here to take care of Sebastian, give him some Tylenol every 6 hours, make a cold compress if he needs it, and he can also call my sister's cell phone, or my cell phone, if it's a true emergency and we need to rush home as quickly as we can.
I don't think it will get that bad, I gave him his every morning prescription migraine medication and 2 Tylenol, made a cold compress, and I have him laying on the couch so I can keep an eye on him.
Someone suggested that I give him Excedrin Migraine when he has an attack, but it rips his stomach up he says, makes him feel nauseous, so I have a whole bottle of it sitting here.
Maybe it will work for me when I get a migraine or even just a headache, who knows, but what I do know is that with all of the prescription pain medication that I take, not a single one of them work on regular headaches, never mind a migraine.
I usually end up having to take about 4-5 Tylenol to kill any migraines that I get, so maybe the Excedrin will work for me.
I'll give it a try the next time I get one.

I have been awake all night long, I couldn't sleep no matter what I did, I even took some Wal-som, Walgreen's version of Unisom, a sleep aid, and nope, no go.
As a matter of fact, it wired me up even more, I had so much energy that I was seriously thinking about washing all of the dishes and vacuuming the rug in the living room around 3am.
I decided to do the laundry instead, it's a much quieter chore to do that late at night.
It's amazing how loud doing the dishes sound when the whole house is dead quiet, it sounds as loud as a restaurant kitchen during the dinner rush.

I am going to be so freaking tired by the time we leave here for my appointment, I'll probably be nodding off in the car which is bad because I'm the co-pilot, the person with the directions, the person who always gets lost no matter how many times I've been there, but I think I've found the absolute most perfect route this time, so hopefully we'll get there with no screw ups on my end.
Part of the route takes us through some really old parts of Tampa and Safety Harbor, and I love all of the old buildings, I am always looking out the window on the way up to doc's, (probably why we always get lost *grin*), and the route I have mapped out for today takes us through some of the older areas, so I'm hoping that I get to see some of the really super old buildings, some of the historic hotels, the old factories and other buildings.
If I do see some of them, I'm going to have my camera with me and ready, so I'll try to snap some pics as we drive through.
Hey, maybe having a goal like this will help keep me from nodding off.
If I fall asleep, sis will probably kick my ass or turn the radio volume all the way to scare me awake. ha ha ha

March 24, 2009

Wasting time by law, migraines and money.

There hasn't been a whole heckuva lot happening around our house the last few days, same old same old I guess you could say.
The teens have been getting up and going to school, coming home and helping me out around the house because I haven't been feeling well, and I'm trying to figure out what to do with Mark.

Mark took his graduation test, but we don't have the results yet, so he has to go to school every day by law.
The teachers though, tell him in a round about way, that he doesn't have to be there except for Mondays and Fridays, because those are the 2 days that the test results might come in.
So they say to him,
"Mark, I can't tell you that you don't have to be here because I could be fired and lose my pension and all of that, but technically, you only really need to be here Mondays and Fridays for the test results, but by law, you have to be here every day. Do what you think is best for you to do."

So, I've been sending him Monday, Tuesday, and Friday, and giving him Wednesdays and Thursdays off until we get his test results back.
He doesn't do anything all day long as far as education goes, he can't.
Well he can, but whatever he does, it doesn't count toward anything because he already took his graduation test.
He's basically taking up a desk, eating lunch, taking naps, and playing video games on the computers all day long.
The other students ask why he doesn't have to do any work, and the teachers say that Mark is done with school but fulfilling his attendance by law, but none of the teachers want him there because he's not doing anything and the other students see him not doing anything, so they want to do nothing, too, so the teachers repeat the above to Mark, and so I let him stay home as much as I can get away with.
So far, no truancy officers have shown up at my door, and if they ever do, I'll explain what's going on and they can confirm it with the school, that we are simply waiting for the results of his graduation test.
These results are totally holding him up though.
He can't apply to the tech school until he gets the results, so that means he can't sign up for the summer classes that he needs either.
They said it would only be a few weeks, but it's taking a long time, and I really hope they get the results soon so that when he goes to the tech school, the classes he needs won't be full up.
That would really suck because he really wants to take those classes over the summer so he can go to college in the fall.

Sebastian is still dealing with the migraines, they aren't happening as often anymore, he was getting them 3-4 times per week, and now he's down to about once a week, so the meds are working for preventing most of the migraine attacks, but when he does get one, it's bad, and so I give him Tylenol and make him lay down in his dark bedroom with a cold compress and wait for it to pass.

Does anyone remember the Airborne class action lawsuit?
They didn't admit to any wrong doing, but they agreed to pay out for a max of 6 packages per person with your proof of purchase from select retailers.
I had filed for it and I had my receipts because I only ever bought it at Walgreen's, and I save all of my pharmacy receipts for my taxes, so proof of purchase was easy to prove.
Well anyway, when Sebastian came home, he got the mail and in it was my settlement check for $34.95.
Saweeet!
And we all got paid several days early from work, so yay!
It's a good money week for me.
I had been panicking all weekend about money because I had a doc appointment with a co-pay on Monday, I have my surgeon appointment with a co-pay tomorrow, and I have several prescription co-pays to pick up tomorrow, too, and I don't have to worry now.
Plus, I'll finally be getting my income tax refund on Thursday the H&R Tax website says.
I have no idea what the hold up was, I filed quite awhile ago, like as soon as I got my forms, but it's finally going to be deposited on Thursday the IRS and H&R says, so yay!
Now I can pay back a loan, pay off some bills, and pay some of my medical bills from my surgery off too.
I don't owe a lot to my surgeon, it's under $1,000 which is awesome, but my refund isn't quite enough to pay the whole thing off.
I'll be able to pay off half of it, and then I can make small monthly payments to pay off the rest of it, and then I won't owe anything to anyone again.
I love it when I don't owe any money, when I'm all caught up on bills, have everything paid off and up to date, it's such an incredibly good feeling.
Does anyone else get all excited when they don't owe any money and are totally caught up on bills? ha ha

March 18, 2009

Cheap clean hair and a dirty shower.

The teens did it again.
They ran out of shampoo and forgot to tell me, forgot to write it on the list that's on the front of the fridge, and forgot to tell me all 3 times we've been to Publix in the last 5 days.
I'm broke until tomorrow, and they need to wash their hair for school in the morning, so I made some shampoo.

I took all of the freebie sample-sized packets of various shampoos I've gotten and collected over the last 6 months or so, and squeezed them all out into their shampoo bottle.

I had about 30 or so of those packets, all different brands, and just kept cutting them open and squeezing them into the big bottle until they were all emptied out.
I had packets of 3 different kinds of Dove shampoo, Sunsilk, Tresemme, Herbal Essences, and a bunch of other brands too.
I used a funnel to get them all in the bottle and not waste any of it.

When I was finished, I shook it to mix them all together, and I ended up with almost a full bottle of shampoo.
I'd say it's about 3/4's full.
Now I don't have to buy another bottle of shampoo for awhile, so I saved money.
I love saving money!

After I took my shower this morning, I pushed the button on the Scrubbing Bubbles automatic shower cleaner because I know the teens don't ever do it, and it did it's usual 10 beep warning, a bit quiet, but I didn't think much of it until it started to spray the cleaner.
Or should I say, didn't spray the cleaner.
It sort of just trickled out slowly kind of like one of those low flow wall fountains do, just a light stream of liquid came down.
I checked the bottle it's almost full, I just replaced it last week, so it must be the batteries are dead.
I went looking for more double A's in the usual location, nope, none.
So I went looking where they may have ended up.
Yup, 2 were in the guitar for GH, and 2 were in one of the controllers.
Instead of charging the rechargeable batteries and packs for their games, they took the only alkaline ones I had in the house.
Now I need to add batteries to the shopping list.
But hey, at least I don't have to buy more shampoo.

March 18, 2009

Movies, music, and hospital stays.

I just got back from doing my CT Scan so that my surgeon has the most recent images of my neck for when I see him next Wednesday, and he can decide how to proceed with the next surgery.
I see my new pain doc on Monday, and hopefully everyone will be on the same page and we can get things going in the right direction for the next surgery.

Being in the hospital is boring, once they wake you up from the medically induced coma anyway.
The rooms are blank and boring, and the only form of entertainment is the tv.
It's usually on a wall across from the bed, and the channel changer and volume controls are in the control box on your bed.
The control box makes your bed go up and down, and it's also where the speaker is for the tv.
I'm mostly deaf in my left ear, so having to try and listen to the tv through that little speaker is kind of a pain in the butt.
I have to either lay it on the pillow next to my right ear, or hold it there.
Now, I've been giving some thought as to how this next one will go.
I'll be in that big halo brace, screws and metal attached to my skull, I have no idea how much movement I'm going to have, or how painful it will be to try and hold things, and yeah, holding that speaker control box up to my ear might be hard.

I was looking over the weekly deals that Buy.com has on sale this week, and I found this.
An 8GB MP3/MP4 1.8" Media Player, for just $39.99, normally $149.99, that's a huge savings, and it just might be what I could use.

It's called a V-Bop, it's like an mp3 player, plays mp3, mp4, WMA, and WAV files, and it has 8 hours of playback time, just like the better known name brand (think of the fruit) mp3/WMA players, do.
I've compared the two, Buy.com actually has both on sale this week, the V-Bop and the Apple iPod Nano, and while the iPod can hold 16GB and the V-Bop only 8GB, they actually do the same exact things.
Both charge through a USB flash drive, both last for 8 hours, both play the same formats, except the Nano doesn't support or play WMA files.
It doesn't have all of the bells and whistles that the Nano does, but it does basically the same things, play music and videos.
The Nano is normally $194.99, on sale for $169.97, and as I said, the V-Bop is normally $149.99, on sale for just $39.99.
If you're just looking for a very basic player, then this is it.

If Buy.com still has this on sale next week when I get paid, then I'll snap one up so I can take it with me to the hospital because then I could watch movies on it and use my earbuds with it, I'd be able to hear everything really well.
Yeah, it's a small screen, but I could prop it up on the blankets and be able to be entertained while I lay there instead of straining to see and hear the tv.
And most of the stuff they have on tv is boring anyway.
The hospital I was in last time, had a channel that did nothing but show the hospital's church room.
Seriously.
I'd fall asleep watching one thing, wake up, and someone would have switched it to that channel.
Kind of annoying that they did that, and I know it was a religious hospital, St. Josephs, but still, if I fall asleep watching watching the sci-fi channel, leave it alone.
There's nothing creepier than waking up to some guy preaching.
With this, I could load it up with some movies I like to watch and music I like, and not be bored.
I did use my mp3 player the last time, it totally helped pass the time, but being able to watch movies and hear them would be really great too.

March 16, 2009

Sleep and pain.

I finally got some sleep after about 6 days of getting approximately only 5 hours of total sleep during those 6 days.
It was really awesome to catch up on my sleep finally.
I fell asleep this morning around 8am, and then slept the entire day away, and woke up around 3pm.
Yeah, the whole day was pretty much wasted, but at least my body decided that it had enough and let me sleep.
I'm really hoping that now that I've caught up, that I can get back to working, get back to doing the things I need to do.
When you aren't getting any sleep, your brain is in like a constant state of confusion, a fog, you can't think straight, so trying to blog, trying to write, just wasn't happening for me.
I'm really hopeful that things get back to some sort of normal with me so I can get stuff done.

Neither of the teens went to school today, they both woke up in massive pain this morning, so I couldn't make them go.
Sebastian woke up with a blinding migraine again.
I went in his room and woke him, his face immediately grimaced, he asked me to shut off the light, he put his hands over his eyes and head, I asked if it was bad, he said yes, so I got him a drink, his morning meds, and a couple of Tylenol, and sent him back to sleep.

Mark was going to try to go even though it's pointless for him to go because there's nothing for him to do at school, the teachers aren't giving him any work, even if they did, it wouldn't count, because he's taken his graduation test, he's done with school, so he sits there all day doing absolutely nothing but taking up space.

But that's not why I didn't send him.
Yesterday morning when he mowed the lawn, he pulled something in his middle back.
He complained about it all afternoon yesterday, I kept giving him Tylenol, rubbed some Cura-Heat on it, but this morning when I woke him up, he was crying the pain was so bad, bent over, tears falling, crying from the pain, and Mark never, ever cries, so I knew that it was bad and he wasn't faking how bad it was.
I had him take a hot shower, I rubbed on more Cura-Heat, gave him more Tylenol, and sent him back to bed.
When I got up this afternoon, I gave him some more Tylenol, more Cura-Heat, and am just trying to keep him from doing anything more to his back.

I need to get him in to see the doc about his back soon.
Scoliosis is genetic, it can be passed down parent to child, and boys can get it, too, even though girls seem to get diagnosed with it more often than boys do.
I'm not sure if he has it, but he does complain about lower back pain every few months or so, and sometimes it looks like his shoulders aren't level, an almost sure sign of scoliosis.
I absolutely hate to think that either of the teens may have it, everything I have been through because of it, years of pain, all of the treatments, the surgeries, I know that it is genetic, it would not be my fault if they end up with it, but I know I will blame myself if they do.
It wouldn't really be my fault, genetics are genetics, but I would feel responsible for it, so I need to have him checked again, and then again a year from now.
I have both of them checked at least once a year, and his last check was about 10 months ago, but with the pain he gets every so often, and now that he's pulling muscles, he needs to be seen again.
To help with his back and keep him from slouching (a very, very bad habit) when he plays video games, I make him sit with pillows behind his back on the mismatched discount dining room furniture chairs they use in the game room.
The chairs that went with my dining room table were cheap miserable things, fold up wooden slat chairs, no cushions at all, just absolutely miserable, so I bought some mismatched ones a few years ago at a store that was having a showroom sale.
I got each of the 4 chairs, none matching, for $10 each.
Hey, at least they were all the same color, not style, but same dark cherry color, and they all had seat cushions.
Before bed tonight, I'll give Mark some more Tylenol and slap on some more Cura-Heat, and hopefully by morning he'll be feeling well enough to go sit there at school all day even if he's not doing anything.
I really need to talk to the school and find out what can be done to stop wasting Mark's time, the teacher's time, and taxpayer money by making a kid sit there all day doing absolutely nothing at all.

March 13, 2009

I HAVE to say this.

As I said below, I try not to judge people, but ya know what?
I AM a judgmental asshole.
I am constantly flabbergasted by things other people do.
I just read something that simply stopped me dead in my tracks, I read it 3 times, I read a particular sentence quite a few times, and then I was like, WTF?!

A woman was in a sorta relationship but not really, she admits it, she also admits that they had unprotected sex, is now 5 months pregnant, the sorta relationship didn't work out, she's now all alone and pregnant, about to be a single mom in a few months, and she's dating.
Dating.
DATING.

Am I the ONLY person who thinks this is so NOT the time to be dating?
That NOW is not the time to be looking for a new man?
Is there something wrong with me that I just don't get this, that I am simply not ok with this?!
Am I just really old fashioned?
Am I just old and don't understand all of these new relationship rules?!

The sorta relationship failed, you are pregnant, you immediately want a new man?
You want a new relationship with a man for what reason?
That the new guy will be by your side all through the rest of the pregnancy, hold your hand, go with you to Lamaze class, tell you to push during labor?!
In the hopes that he'll step up and want to play the part of daddy in the families 2009 Christmas portrait?!?!
What?!
For what reason do you think that NOW, 5 months pregnant, is the time to be dating?!?!

What about giving men a break for awhile, how about just taking a big huge break, and taking care of you, your body, your baby, planning for the baby that IS coming, getting your priorities in order, and let me tell you, dating right now, at 5 months pregnant, is NOT a freaking priority!!

Please, someone tell me the new rules, explain to me how this is ok to do, how it's the right thing to do, why someone would do it.
I do not understand it at all.
I get loneliness, believe me, I understand loneliness better than anyone should, but wow, dating while pregnant is not something I could ever do, I just couldn't.
There would be a life inside of me, needing me, my body needing rest and nutrition, a home that needs preparing, things to figure out and plan, and getting a new man wouldn't be on the top of the list, it wouldn't even be on the list.
I really don't understand how a woman can go from dating a man, getting pregnant, un-dating that man, and starting to date a new one.

I am getting old and I am a judgmental jerk, I admit it, but wow, this made my stomach turn.
Go ahead, call me names, tell me I'm a horrible person who "just doesn't get it", tell me I'm an asshole, just tell me how this is ok because I really don't get it.

March 12, 2009

I have enough of my own drama.

I try to stay out of all of the "blog drama", I really do have enough drama in my own life, but some of the drama on other blogs has been totally unavoidable the last few days.

I may not have been blogging a lot due to pain from my fall and feeling like absolute crap, which caused me to reschedule the MRI was supposed to have yesterday, but I would hop on, check out the work forums, read some blog feeds, check out Twitter, and so the drama was kinda unavoidable.

There was the battle of the bloggers who went to some blogging convention, and 1 mother whose baby was at home and she forgot her breast pump, breastfed another mother's baby who was hungry.
Accusations were thrown out about drug abuse, HIV, and some other stuff, but apparently the 2 mothers in question had spoken about it, questioned each other, asked questions about health issues, drug use, etc, and so they felt it was ok to do this.
It may not be something that I would do, or you would do, but breastfeeding mothers know about this sort of thing and so they did it.
It really angered some people, a lot of nasty things were said, feelings hurt, and the blogger's readers on both sides went out and left comments on the other bloggers posts, which creates even more drama.
After reading it all, I was like *phew*, so glad I am so not a part of this stuff, glad I don't go to these blogging conventions where people are there to learn about blogging, and making money, and being the best blogger possible, but it turns out to just be 1 giant gossip fest ya know?
Every single time people go to these things and then come home and blog about it, there's always some drama to be had.
Someone breastfed another mother's baby, someone got too drunk for someone else liking, someone cried, someone ate too much for someone else liking, someone sat with or talked to a blogger that someone else doesn't like, gossip, gossip, gossip.
If I ever went to one of these things, I'd be the woman sitting out on the patio furniture smoking and drinking, just watching it all.
I would be far removed from it, not talking about it, in no way shape or form any part of it at all, because I absolutely hate it when people do this kind of stuff.
By "stuff" I mean, put their opinions and lifestyles onto other people, expect other people to live exactly as they do, behave exactly as they do.
People are different, we all live differently, and I for one am glad for it.
What a boring world it would be if we were all the same way.

*yum. I have a big piece of pink cotton candy. *

I do find myself sitting and judging people sometimes too, I am far from perfect, but I try so hard to not be mean about it, I try to be constructive.
I failed at it this time.
A woman fooled around with a man who doesn't even live in her country, he only goes there to play in his extreme sport and womanize.
The woman admits this, she knew what kind of man he was, she also admits that she wasn't on any birth control.
She and the man decided to fool around anyway knowing the risks, and yup, she got pregnant, he doesn't want anything to do with her or his child, and while I do support her, I do know what it's like to be a single parent, been doing this on my own for 16 years this coming June, all I could think (and say) was wow, that was stupid.
It was 1 of those gut instinct comments, it came out, I said it, no excuses at all, I did say it, because well, it was, stupid.
Other people call it careless, and so yeah, if we're going to go with that word, it was very, very careless.

We've all (women) made some stupid mistakes before when it comes to men.
We've been drawn to those bad boys, we've all had unprotected sex at some point in our lives with someone we shouldn't have, and a few weeks later, we are all greatful when Aunt Flo comes to visit.
We can all say after the fact how stupid it was, and when I read her story in her own words, I saw the warning signs, she had known him for 5 years, had known that he's a womanizer and sleeps around, hated the fact that he was a total womanizer, even told herself to stay away from him, but in the end decided to fool around with him anyway knowing full well that she wasn't on the birth control pill.
After the fact, we can all say things like, well, knowing what she did about him and his ways, and knowing for herself that she wasn't on birth control, why did she fool around with him without some other form of protection for 5 whole days?
There are many other methods of birth control out there, the easiest being condoms, which would have not only been some sort of protection against the pregnancy, but also against STDs, which according to her, were a very real possibility because she admits he was a total dog, slept around, a complete womanizer.
That fact alone sent shivers up my titanium spine.
A man she knew who slept around with a lot of women, she slept with him with ZERO protection for herself against any diseases he may be carrying around, not just zero protection against pregnancy for 5 whole days of very careless sex, but nothing, nada, zilch, zippo, nothing to protect her from anything he may have had.
And people said to me, well you know how guys are about condoms, it's a battle.
And I said I know, but no glove, no love, especially with a guy who is a known womanizer.
All I can think is eww, gross, ack, awful, how could she?!
And that is how I failed.
Instead of being sympathetic to her plight of now being a single mother, I judged her behavior and actions.
I think the whole reason I judged is because it wasn't just a 1 time, 1 night fling with this dog, it was 5 whole days of unprotected sex with this dog, totally careless, stupid, irresponsible behavior for 5 whole days.
Part of me can see the 1 night "ooopsie', because oops, many, many years ago, long before I was married and had kids, I had a couple of 1 night ooopsies, but never a 5 day spree of oopsies.
I do feel for her, I am sorry that she is now a single mother, it's hard, it's the hardest job I've ever had, I do wish her all of the best, and just like the rest of us single parents out here, she will get through this, it will be hard, but she can and will do it, she has to, she now has a tiny little person depending on her to do it.

But I still failed at being constructive, failed at not judging, and so I am not perfect, I am not immune from the "blog drama" at all.
I left a couple of comments on a blog post that was already full of drama, and I threw my 2 cents in the hat.
I have apologized for offending her and anyone else who may have read or will read my words, but I still feel like it was a very careless, very stupid, big bad ooopsie, with a man who was a known womanizing dog for 5 whole days.

March 10, 2009

FCAT, tests, and vacations.

Sebastian has FCAT testing Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and then he can stay home Friday because the higher grades have FCAT testing that day, and the teachers have nothing at all for any of the other students in any other grades to do.
That's pretty stupid in my opinion.
It's not like his grade teachers will be doing the testing for the higher grades, so why are there no lessons planned for Friday?
Oh I know, it's because the less students they have in school, the less work they have to do, so they told their students that they don't have to come in on Friday because there will be nothing to do because the higher grades are testing and the school needs to be quiet while they test.
Yuh.
Suuuuure.
Mark is basically finished, so he doesn't have to go to school at all Tuesday and Wednesday, and Friday.
Why he has to go Thursday, I have no idea.

In other news, my brother, niece and nephew, and sister-in-law, Jenna, have booked their upcoming Orlando vacations for this year.
Jenna has MS, and I blogged in the 2007 blogathon for The Montel Williams MS Foundation, and raised a decent chunk of money basically, because of her.
I saw her go from a vibrant working mom with a ton of energy, to a vibrant mom who gets super tired, has really bad days, has days where the effects of the MS completely wipe her out.
She was diagnosed 12 years ago and is now in the secondary progressive stage, but you wouldn't know it talking to her.
She loves life, she lives it, and that's why she's always going and doing as much as she can every single day.
When making their vacation plans, she worked closely with her travel agent, made sure that every bit of their trip would be handicap accessible, they will have someone at the airports to assist with changeovers and transfers, their hotel room will have a roll-in shower, and she made sure that every question she asked, she got an answer to.
I know that they will have a great time on their vacation because Jenna took the time to organize and plan, wrote all of her questions down, asked those questions, made sure that her travel agent knew exactly what her needs were going to be on every part of their trip, and that those needs will be met.
I hope to be able to see them when they come in October, I'm not super far from Orlando, but depending on when my surgery is, recovery and all of that jazz, I don't know if I'll be able to meet up with them.
My sister might be able to take the teens, but we'll have to wait and see if I can go too.

March 8, 2009

Bathtub stickies for the kitchen floor.

I think it's time to get some of those bathtub stickies or some other kind of safety equipment for the kitchen floor after what I did on Wednesday afternoon.

Sebastian and I had taken a walk to the corner store, come back, I started to make dinner, washed some dishes, we ate dinner, I watched a little tv, and then I went into the kitchen to toss my soda can in the recycle bucket and get a new one, and I didn't see the water on the floor, and I slipped with my left foot, tried to grab the counters, but couldn't stop myself from falling.
I came down wicked way hard on my right knee, heard and felt something like a knuckle popping in my right hip, and pulled like every single muscle in my lower back.
It's been on fire since, I can't lay on my right side at all, my right hip is just so freaking sore.

All of the floors in this house that don't have carpet, like the kitchen, bathroom, hallway, and now my bedroom, are terrazzo, and when they are wet, they are a bit slippery.
The smallest bit of water makes it like an ice skating rink.
I need to put something down on the floors, not throw rugs, because those can slip really easily and then I'll be up-ended and land on my back which is worse than landing on my knees.
I think I just need to get a whole bunch of those bathtub stickies, and stick them all over the terrazzo floors to prevent any more accidents like I did late Wednesday afternoon.
It really sucked.

But this gave me a lot of time to watch movies.
We watched and absolutely LOVED Religulous!
Bill Maher is not only funny in this, he's truthful, and he doesn't just go after one or two religions, he goes after every single one, he speaks to a person of every faith, and it's not just a funny movie, it's a movie with a message, a very powerful one.
I highly recommend it.

We also watched Body of Lies which was really good, and we also watched The Princess Bride, (thank you Katy) and every time we watch it, we love it.
I think we've now watched the dvd 3 times since getting it this past week.
It's just one of those movies that makes you smile no matter what kind of mood you started watching it in.

I'm still not 100%, I am having a lot of trouble sitting up here, my lower back is freaking crazy sore, my right hip too, I have a massive headache, and I'm exhausted.
I've barely slept at all in the last few days.
Being in so much pain makes it near impossible to sleep, so I have huge bags under my eyes, and I'm just wiped out, totally wiped out.
I really hope I get some sleep soon, even just an hour soon, I need some sleep in a bad way.
I DO have an MRI and CT scan scheduled for Wednesday morning, so if I did injure something in the fall, they will find it.
That's been scheduled for about a month now, that's why I didn't go to the ER or anything, I knew I'd be getting the proper test done soon, and without all of the hassle of going to the ER.
Every single time I go to the ER, they check my vitals in triage, my blood pressure is always crazy high, they freak out, they don't listen to me about how long it's been this high, the meds I take for it, and so they freak, rip my shirt off, stick all of those little pads all over me, do an EKG, do a sonogram of my heart, they start prepping me for an angiogram which is really invasive, and then they say, "Oh, you didn't have a heart attack", and then they do an xray of what I came in for, they see all of the titanium, freak out over that, and then they tell me I need to see my surgeon, that my spine fusion is far too complicated for them to handle.
It's totally pointless for me to go to the local hospital for anything more than absolutely necessary.

Ok, off to get some more rest, will answer emails and such when I can.
Later days.

March 4, 2009

Maybe someday again.

I have a friend through my blog, Kelli, who was asking me just the other day about ellipticals and which ones were the best in my opinion.
Well the only one I have ever used for any length of time is the one I own, and it's a Nordictrack, and I love it.
I haven't been able to use it since June 2008, but man, I freaking loved it when I could use it every day.
I was doing so well, I was working out for an hour every single day, I was losing weight, I was toning up my leg and arm muscles, as well as my back muscles which definitely need to be toned up and worked on.
I was having massive pain in my left shoulder for months, and while searching for the answer as to why, they found that whole thing wrong with my neck, told me I absolutely had to stop working out, and that I had to have surgery ASAP.

I do hope to get back to my elliptical someday soon though, I plan on asking my surgeon about it when I see him on the 25th, asking him if after this next neck surgery, if I'll ever be able to use it again, because honestly, the elliptical was the only real exercise other than walking, that i have been able to do since my first spine surgery in February 2006.
It's the best too, I loved it, I really did love it, still do love it, miss it, so I hope that he'll say after the next surgery, that I'll be able to use it again.

March 4, 2009

Hairs and migraines.

Sebastian stayed home from school today because he woke up at about 4:30 in the morning, crying his eyes out, holding his head, and begging me to help him stop the migraine.
I got up, gave him some Tylenol, had him take a shower to cool his body down and also calm him down, and then I gave him his script migraine meds and had him lay down on the couch with a cool compress on his head.
It still hadn't eased up by the time it was time to leave for school, so I let him stay home and try to sleep it off.
It didn't go away until almost 5pm.
He took 2 Tylenol every 6 hours, stayed laying down, napped off and on all day, took his scripts on schedule, and it finally passed.
I feel so bad for him when they hit him that hard, and I hate it when they happen in the middle of the night when he's sleeping.
I can't figure out what brings on those ones, the middle of the night explosive migraines.

Tomorrow after school, I'll be taking Mark up to get his hair cut at the barber shop.
It's totally shaggy, out of control, and he looks like one of those big English Sheepdogs.
When I said haircut, he didn't even mind, he just said ok, sure.
I was well prepared for a fight over it, but nope, no fight, so it must be getting to him too if he's not putting up any fight at all.

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.

March 2, 2009

The school nurse is gonna end up with a...

foot in her ass if she keeps talking to Sebastian and myself the way she does.

I sent the paperwork to school this morning with Sebastian, from the neuro that explains that he does indeed suffer from serious migraines and is taking 2 medications for it.
I wrote on the paperwork that the medications will not be at the school due to other students claiming they steal medications, and that he will be taking them 3 times a day at home.
She called me this morning to yell at me, again, that "There's absolutely no way that any student is stealing medications from the nurses office. It's impossible."

I told her again, how the students say they are doing it, the types of medications they say they are taking, and anyway, the school won't allow Sebastian's medications there because of what they are.
Even these new ones are on the banned list of medications.
She told me again, that it's impossible for students to steal medications.
I told her again, the types of medications that students claim they are taking, other students ADHD meds, bottles of Tylenol, Benadryl, whatever is in the closet, they take it.
She yelled at me, again, that it's impossible, that I need to give her the names of the students claiming they are doing this, and I won't, I refuse, because if I rat out the names Sebastian and Mark have told me, there could be consequences for them from these other students.
She told me that's a lie.
I said, "How dare you call me a liar!? There are students claiming they are taking medications that belong to other students, and because I won't give you their names, you are calling me a liar?!"
She said I need to take it up with the principal if I really feel that students medications are being stolen, I told her that talking to the principal is like talking to a smiling brick wall, she will say anything to avoid confrontation with parents, it goes in one ear and out the other, nothing gets done, quit badgering me on this issue, his meds will not be at school, end of discussion, period, done, and I hung up.

Sebastian has told me that when he goes to the nurses office to come home because his head is exploding, that she has called him a liar, told him he doesn't really have migraines, that he just wants to go home from school.
That's why I made sure to send the paperwork this morning, it has the doctor's signature on it, his name and phone number, the doctor's official stamp with his license number on it, the diagnosis of severe migraine, and the names of his medications along with the amounts he has to take.
I swear, if she calls him a liar one more time, I'm going to go up there and put my foot up her ass.

February 28, 2009

Going to have to keep an eye on him.

I just sat down and read through the literature on the medications the neuro gave to Sebastian for his migraines, and then decided to do some internet searching to see real people's side effects, not the list of possible side effects on the literature.

One of the medications is called Inderal, 40 MG, he has to take it 3 times per day for migraine prevention, once in the morning, once in the afternoon, (after school) and once at night time, like after dinner.
These are some of the possible side effects as reported and listed on the literature:
* nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, constipation, stomach cramps
* decreased sex drive, impotence, or difficulty having an orgasm (he's 15, these shouldn't be an issue ha!)
* sleep problems (insomnia) or
* tired feeling.
But like I said, I wanted to see real people's side effects, so I just Googled Inderal side effects, and found an anxiety forum full of other side effects not listed, like very vivid dreams, chest pains, a fear of going to sleep because they feel like their heart is going to stop.
One person wrote:
"I just started taking Inderal (propranolol, 40 mg x 2 daily) for migraines and I am having the same issues while sleeping. Chest pains all night, insomnia, and (while laying in bed) I'm afraid to go to sleep. It feels like my heart is stopping, and it wakes me up. If I go to sleep, will I wake up? I don't have nightmares, but some vivid dreams. The chest pains all night, and the sense that my heart is stopping periodically is the worst."

The other drug is Topamax, 25 MG, and he has to take it twice a day for 1 week, then 1 in the morning and 2 at night for 1 week, and then 2 in the morning and 2 at night ongoing for migraine prevention.

Both of the medications have some pretty severe side effects that would require emergency medical attention, like if he's allergic to them, both of them say the same thing for these emergency side effects:

Get emergency medical help if you have any of these signs of an allergic reaction: hives; difficulty breathing; swelling of your face, lips, tongue, or throat.
Call your doctor at once if you have any new or worsening symptoms such as: mood or behavior changes, depression, anxiety, or if you feel agitated, hostile, restless, hyperactive (mentally or physically), or have thoughts about suicide or hurting yourself.

It really scares me that the medications used to treat migraines, to prevent them, could have some really serious side effects, and this is my baby, I don't want him to hurt, be scared, have chest pains, a fear of his heart stopping etc.
I know that's what one person said, but others on that anxiety site had similar effects, so yeah, I'm a bit worried.
I'm going to keep a close eye on him, especially at night, I don't sleep much anyway, so I'll be able to check on him throughout the night and watch for any signs of trouble.
I haven't told him any of the side effects at all, I don't want him to panic or worry, but I did tell him if he starts feeling weird to come to me and tell me, and then I'll ask him specific questions about how he feels weird, and we'll go from there.

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!

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.

February 27, 2009

Pretty much done.

Mark went and did his 2 nights of testing at the local tech school, we have to wait about 2-3 weeks for his grade, but the test giver looked it over and said that he passed, we just need the official grade from the state to make it so.
So he's basically done with school.
Yay!

I'm down for the count.
I did too much on Wednesday and seem to have caught some sort of cold on top of wearing myself out, so I've just been on the couch the last couple days, same with today.
Just totally worn out.
I'm hoping that all of this rest I'm getting lets me back up by tonight or tomorrow at least.
I'll be back around when I'm feeling better, just wanted to give you all the good news on Mark.
I am so proud of him.

February 25, 2009

Busy busy busy go go go.

We're leaving here in like 20 minutes to go get Mark his state ID, and then this afternoon at 1pm, Sebastian and I are going to his neuro to see about his migraines.
Too many things in just 1 day for me..hahaha

I don't know how much I'll be around after all of this stuff gets done, my body gets worn out very quickly from doing too much.
Later days.

February 23, 2009

Wednesday is going to be a busy day.

I don't think I've posted what's been going on with Mark and his plans for the future, so I figured I'd give you all an update.

Mark is planning on becoming a police officer, that's what he wants to do with his life, and even though it's a very risky job, it's a very noble job and I stand behind him 100%.
There are a bunch of classes that Mark needs to take at the local technical college over the summer, but he needs to get started on that very soon, so I gave him permission to take the early exit option from school.

The early exit option requires that Mark take a test and pass in order to graduate early, by April instead of May when all of the other kids graduate.
The test is Wednesday and Thursday night from 2:45 to 7pm, and he and a friend who is also taking the early exit option, will be going and riding home together.

In order to take the test and graduate early, Mark has to have a state ID.
He doesn't have his drivers license yet, he wants to wait until summer for that, so I have to go with him on Wednesday morning to the building downtown, and get him a state ID so he can do what he needs to.
He doesn't have to go to high school Wednesday or Thursday because of the testing at night and because he's taking the early exit option.

If he passes the graduation test, he can take the classes at SCTI over the summer, just 2 classes, and then go to MCC in the fall for the law classes he needs, and start his 2 years there, then after graduating from MCC, he can apply to the police academy.
In order to get into the police academy, he needs at least 3 personal references.
He has his BIG George, who was a detective in Washington DC for 25 years, our landlord who is a Sarasota County Sheriff, and his teacher at the high school who has been helping Mark get all of this school stuff scheduled and getting him on the right track.
Mark had started to give up on his education for a few reasons, he lost interest in school, he missed a lot of days because of my 1st surgery I had in his freshmen year, and then again this past September, and he just became really unfocused.
The teacher really helped him get back on track, he started taking a special class at school which allowed him to do all of his classes at his own pace on a computer instead of in a regular classroom, and he started to really do well, he pulled ahead, got all caught up on everything he missed during those times he missed school, and he actually completed all of his high school credits about 3 months ago, he's done with school basically, he has every single credit needed for graduation, but in order to get out early, he has to take the early exit option test which will give him a GED instead of a general diploma, but even though it will be a GED, he actually has all of his required credits plus about 10 more credits for doing more work than he needed to do.
Going into the self-motivated classes was the best thing for him, working at his own pace, not having to deal with a regular classroom and all kinds of students, not having to deal with teachers with no time, and not having to sit through a lot of stupid stuff that teachers do, was the way for him, it worked for him, and now he gets to graduate early and begin taking his law classes at SCTI this May instead of in the fall.
Now, he will be done with the law classes, and can go straight to college in the fall for his 2 year degree in law, and then on to the police academy when that's done.

So, no school for him Wednesday and Thursday, his testing at night, and so in the morning on Wednesday, I need to get him downtown to get his ID, and then in the afternoon, I have to take Sebastian to the neuro for his migraines, so neither one of them are going to school on Wednesday because of the timing of when we have to leave here to get to everywhere we need to go for the both of them to get everything taken care of that they need to.

It will be a busy day for me, but worth it.
We'll finally start getting some answers for Sebastian's migraines, and Mark will be well on his way to his goal of becoming a police officer.

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.

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.

February 21, 2009

They all looked guilty.

I don't know which cat did it, we do have 4 of the little fuzzballs, but 1 of the cats peed on a blanket that was left laying on the floor of Sebastian's room.
Not a good blanket thank goodness, just a really old 1 that I've had for about oh, 15 years now.

The cat urine soaked through the blanket and onto the linoleum, so I had to clean it all up today.
I had the teens bag up blanket and anything else that was under it on the floor and now covered in cat piss, and toss it all out in the garbage.
Then I had the teens sweep the whole room, and then I mopped that whole room, then my room, the hallway, and then the bathroom and kitchen.
Don't worry, I did change out the mop bucket water and cleaner before doing all of the other rooms after cleaning up the cat pee.

It was like all 4 of the cats knew what I was doing because they all came to watch.
They were all up on Sebastian's bed just watching me, so I looked over at them and yelled, "OK! Which 1 of you did this?!
Which 1 of you peed all over the blanket and the floor?!
Huh!?
Which 1 of you did this?!?!"
They all looked away and at each other, as if to say, "It wasn't me mom, they did it!" *wink point wink*.

I don't know who the kitty culprit was, but there's just 1 thing that I cannot stand about cats.
The pee.
Even if they all used the litter boxes all of the time, and the litter boxes stayed clean all of the time, the smell of cat piss is enough to make me want to commit caticide.

I used some of the Clorox "green" cleaner, it seems to have cleaned the smell off of the floor pretty well, but I need to pick up some more cat urine enzyme cleaner when I get paid next.
I think I'm going to try the new Rug Doctor Urine Eliminator that they have.
I've used Urine Gone before, and it did work well, but I'm always up to try something new and see if it works better.
Rug Doctor says their product can totally get rid of all urine stains and smells in 2 applications or less, with the Urine Gone, I know I had to use it at least 3 times on some spots that were heavily contaminated by multiple cats.
I hope I can find the Rug Doctor stuff in a local store, I don't want to have to order it and pay a crazy $7.95 shipping fee on it.

When Sebastian and I walk to the store later, I'll check and see if they have it.

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.

February 18, 2009

Off to the neuro we go.

I called the neuro yesterday morning, got his voice mail, left a detailed message, and waited for a call back.
The phone rang a little after 8pm, and it was the doctor, I was shocked.
He was calling from his home too, as I heard him do the famous parent yell, "I'm on the phone! On. The. Phone."
He apologized, I said no worries, I have kids too, but wow, thank you for calling me back from home, I don't think I've EVER had a doctor do that.

He asked a bunch of questions about the length of time Sebastian has been getting the migraines, how severe they are, how it's affecting him at home and school, and then we set up an appointment for next Wednesday, the 25th, so yay!
Finally we're going to be getting him checked out and getting him some help for this, it's really starting to affect his schoolwork and his overall well being.

February 17, 2009

Migraine migraine go away.

All day long I've been dealing with a massive migraine, it's probably from not sleeping all night, but I did sleep today.
I went to sleep on the couch around 9am all wrapped up in Sebastian's big and cuddly Sferra comforter, for about 4 hours or so, woke up at 1pm.
I took my pain meds and decided to try and sleep off the migraine, but it was still with me when I woke up.

I'm still working on getting all of the contest entries numbered and published, so if you are looking at the comments and don't see yours yet, it will be posted soon unless you didn't follow the 1st rule.
A lot of people are not doing the very simple 1st rule, and sorry, if you can't follow the entry rules, you won't be entered.
I also have to clean up some of the contest entries, people decided to number them themselves, or say things like +5 for doing a blog post, yet they don't even have a blog, and others are numbering their own +5 for subscribing to my RSS feed, yet they didn't actually subscribe.
I can check it ya know. *wink*
It seems there are people who will do anything to try and win even if that means cheating on the entry rules.
I'm checking each and every entry, verifying everything, so don't say you follow me on Twitter if you really didn't, or follow me long enough to think I verified it, then un-follow me.
Those entries won't count folks!

Ok, off to do more work and verifying entries.
Later days.

February 17, 2009

Pains in the neck and shoulders.

I've been up all night again, just couldn't sleep at all, so I decided to be productive.
I did some light and easy cleaning over night in the kitchen.
I tackled all of the drawers and threw out some broken or just really old and worthless cooking utensils, ratty dish towels and pot holders, split up sets of measuring cups and spoons, and found some stuff that I had long forgotten about too.

I found the set of hooks I bought and meant to use for a home decorating project, my old wallet which had all kinds of pictures of the kids in it, some rubber stamps from when I used to try and be all crafty, and 3 boxes of kid's Valentines cards that we never used.
I don't know why I kept those.
Maybe I thought that eventually we'd use them.
I threw out all the old and useless junk, and then put the cards back in the drawer along with the hooks, the stamps, and old wallet.
I didn't know where else to put any of it.
*shrug*

Today is the day I can finally call the neurologist about Sebastian's migraines.
I tried to call yesterday, but it was a holiday, so no one answered the phone, just got the same message that he would be out until February 16th.
So around 9am, I am going to give his office a call, and try to get Sebastian in as soon as possible.

Both of the teens are still complaining that their necks and shoulders hurt from carrying the groceries home on Sunday.
The bags were heavy, I'm not denying them their pain at all, I know back pain, but they have to go to school.
I gave them each some Tylenol just now, and I'm hoping that they will survive the day at school.
They had a 3-day weekend due to the holiday, so they have to go.
I keep telling them that if I haven't died from my back pain yet, they certainly won't die from carrying some groceries home.
I know that they did hurt pretty badly on Sunday night, but they've been playing GH and other games and not complaining about the pain, they didn't start really whining about it until bed time last night, and now this morning.
They just want to stay home.
Sorry boys, you're going to school!

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 14, 2009

Just kidding!

The last few days have been pretty stressful for me, I've been shown, once again, that there are people who are just terrible human beings.
I don't sleep much anyway, been battling insomnia for years, but the last few days, I've barely slept at all, barely ate at all.
Who needs diet pills when you are so stressed out and sickened that you can't even eat.

I have lost trust in people, I don't know who to trust, who not to trust, I am lost.
I am hurt, angry, feeling completely betrayed, and I have this absolutely horrible pit-of-my-stomach sick feeling that someone pretending to be my friend, is a part of what happened.

I know that by blogging, by being online, I have put myself in this position of being a target, but at the same time, I always try to believe that people will be good to each other, treat each other right, fairly.
People often tell me that I shouldn't put so much trust in people because most people are only in it for themselves, would trample you in a heartbeat to get for themselves, that I shouldn't take anyone's word for anything, that people are liars, thieves, just all around rotten people.
But I always want to see the best in people, I always want to look past whatever mistakes people have made, and try to find the good in them.

But now?
No, I can't do that anymore.
I *know* I am being lied to by someone who is claiming to be a friend, there's just too many coincidences in timing, in things said, in their behavior, and it really saddens and angers me that they were a part of this plan to hurt me.
I have lost all trust in people, I am completely lost here.

I am also very upset with myself, to be feeling this angry and having intense feelings of revenge.
I am NOT a mean person, I am not the type to seek out revenge, intentionally hurt people, but I am feeling that way and I hate it.
I hate that I feel like this, I hate that someone spent almost 2 years hating on me because I post a lot, post to my blog, post to forums, and when push came to shove, they claimed it was all a joke, "Ha ha, just having some fun, never meant to hurt you, just kidding Kat, just playing around."
Just kidding for almost 2 years?
I don't think so.
You can't have all that hate for someone for that long, and then turn around and call it a joke when the center of your hatred finds out and handles it through legal means.

I talk a lot, I post a lot, sorry if that bothers people, and if it bothers them now, just wait.
The revision surgery I'll be having may make it so that I can't speak at all for a minimum of 3 months.
I'll have a trach tube in my throat, and a feeding tube in my stomach.
I won't be able to eat, drink, or speak.
I won't be able to even talk to my own sons for months, all communication even within my own home, will be done through text.
I have a lot going on, and maybe that's why after several emails back and forth last night, they took it all down, they removed everything they said, they felt guilty for doing it, but still, calling it all a joke, a 2 year long joke?
No, you don't get to play that card.
And you don't get to call yourself my friend.

February 12, 2009

Complete chaos at pain docs today.

My appointment was for 10:15am, I arrived about 20 minutes early, as always.
I got out of the cab, shut the door, he pulled out from under the carport and left.
I saw my doctor pull in, I wanted to say good morning, I hadn't seen hm since the very first days of September.
He got out, walked around to the right side back seat passenger door, leash in hand, and went to get Holly, his very large black and white spotted Great Dane out.
He always puts her on a leash, but Holly must have seen something, and when she got out, she went left, to the end of the car,about 4-5 feet past it, out into the parking lot.
That's when a small truck, like a little Toyota, came screaming through the lot at about 60 mph, and nailed Holly.
The truck totally took off after, too, and with a lot of front end damage.
It hit a very large Great Dane.
Holly is so big, my nieces would think it's a pony.
It was awful.
My doc screamed, I screamed, we both ran to her.
She was very badly hurt but awake.
Her legs looked broken, how could they not be?
A huge dane got hit with the bumper and front end of a small truck.
She looked like she was having trouble breathing, she was bleeding.

She's such a sweet girl, Holly is with him every single day, she wanders in and out of patient rooms all day, has her own room in his offices with a big bed in it, toys, raw hides, all kinds of things, but she loves to come say hello to everyone.

We both ran to her, I couldn't kneel down, I can't, but my doc was on his knees at her side, I ran in for help, and came back out.
I asked him what I could do, tell me what to do I begged him.
Doc lifted her up, handed me the keys to the car, told me to get the back door open, I opened the back door, and he laid her in.
He yelled to his staff and me that he would be back, we all thought he would.

I sat there in the waiting room for over an hour, I would have sat there all day, I had a lot to talk about, slowly, 1 by 1, patients were called to the desk to be told he wouldn't be coming back today, he wouldn't be coming back until Monday.
I asked them what am I supposed to do?
My surgeon released me to his care, he didn't give me my meds on Tuesday because he wanted another test done today, today he was going to give me my meds, but he needed me to have an MRI this morning, which I did go and get, brought the films with me.
I had a lot I had to discuss with him.
My surgeon released me from his care, told me to go to this doc ASAP, tell him everything that happened in surgery and after, all of it.
The collapsed lung, the breathing tube, that my heart stopped twice on the table, the medically induced coma, the neck brace stuff, the jaw and vomit issues, the blood pressure issues, the upcoming surgery and the very serious risks it involves.
I also wanted to asked him about all of the new plans and any weight loss pills he had been working on and we had discussed before I left for surgery.

When his staff told me he wouldn't be back until Monday, I panicked.
A whole weekend without my pain meds?
With my body the way it is?
The constant pain I am in 24/7, the more than likely very ugly drug withdrawals?
When I do not have my meds, I cannot do anything other than lay in bed or on the couch.
My body has spasms, the weather effects me, cold, rain. I get sick, it's not a plesant thing to go through.

The nurse told me to go to the ER.
I said I can't, they won't treat me, I'm a surgical pain patient, I have signed a Florida state drug contract, I cannot go anywhere but here for my meds, where is the PA (physician's assistant) that he used to have? I'll wait for her to get here.
They said they no longer have a PA.
I asked about them calling in the lower dose med for the weekend, I will come back on Monday for the other one.
They said no, they couldn't do that, sorry, go to the ER.
I explained to them, again, the ER will not treat me, they will not cover my pain meds for even just the weekend, I'm a surgical pain patient, they don't even want to touch me due to the length of the fusion.
They apologized, but said there was nothing they could do.

I went outside and called a friend, I was crying, very upset.
I had just witnessed a beautiful and loving dog get hit by a car, I was going to be hurting all weekend due to the lack of my pain meds, probably end up sick from not having them, I was scared and I admit it.
If you've never been through drug withdrawals, you have no idea what it does to your body, it is a nightmare I wish on no one.

So I called her, told her what had happened, she said she was on her way.
She came and picked me up, gave me a couple of her meds, not what I take, but enough to hold off being drug sick for awhile.
I came home and started Twittering my bad morning.
I've spent like the whole day Twittering back and forth about it, mostly support, people understand what I was trying to say, but others were not ok with some things I said like this;'
Wow. NOT illegal in Fla for doc to bring dog to office * if he calls it a "personal emergency" perfectly legal for him to cancel all appts.
I got replies like this;
@mskat I'm sorry, but my pets (furkids) would take place over anyone, anytime. I imagine he's really upset about what has happened. I would.

Yes, he was upset, I was there, I saw the whole thing, I do care about the dog, but the vets wouldn't let him stay with the dog while they operated, they made him sit in the waiting room, and meanwhile, every patient he had today and tomorrow, were all being rescheduled for Monday and Tuesday, double booking everyone, forcing all his Thursday and Friday patients to suffer in pain all weekend because he wouldn't come back, was taking a 4 day weekend over this.

Yes, I get it, he loves his dog, I love my Kali kitty more than almost everything, BUT, if I had to choose to save my sons or my cats lives first, it's a no brainer, my kids.
He's a doctor, he took a Hippocratic oath to serve, save, and protect his patients, and he was leaving 100's of patients to suffer all weekend over a dog he could do nothing for but sit and wait for the vets to fix her, try to help her.
But his patients?
Ah, screw 'em, they can wait, his animal comes before the patients who need and trust him to help them.
We're all surgical patients, we rely on him to help us, we cannot go to the ER, we cannot seek out other docs, we have to see and be seen by him, but he put his animal first.

During all of this Twittering all day, I lost 5 followers who were upset with me because I didn't care about the dog, only myself and my drugs.
I was told I had no compassion.
Don't even give me that crap!
I ran to that dog's side as fast as my doctor did, I tried to help, I did what he told me to to help, I do care about Holly, but I also care about the 100's of human lives that were being left hanging while he sat in a waiting room doing nothing.
We all needed him to help us just like he needed the vets to help Holly.

I was told by the nurse that if he decided to come in on Friday, they would call me.
No one called me by 4:45pm, so I called them, was met by the answering service.
I thought great, until Monday, if I make it that long.
Finally around 5:50pm, his nurse called me and asked if I could be there at 10am, but warned me it would be double booked.
I said I could and I will, I'll be there.

But no, don't any of you dare tell me I have no compassion, I probably have far more than you in just my pinky finger alone.
The big difference between us is that if I saw an accident, saw you and an animal get hit by a car, both of you in horrible shape, I would choose to save YOUR life.
I value human life above all others.
Even those of you who choose to be mean to me, spread lies about me, tell me that I'm a horrible person, I would still choose to save your life.
Yours is what I value above all else.
I'd run into a burning house to save a human life, I'd break the glass on an overturned car to save your life, I would do whatever I had to, to save a human life

February 11, 2009

Working on my taxes.

I'm working on getting my tax stuff all sorted out.
I've finally separated the 2009 receipts from the 2008 receipts, and now I just need to get all of my prescription receipts printed out.
Most of the receipts in my 2008 taxes box, are for prescriptions and doctors appointments.
All of that medical stuff can be written off, so I need to get everything printed to make it as easy as possible to get my taxes done.

Walgreen's allows you to print your payment receipts for prescriptions from home over the internet from their site, so I printed those out, but I've also used a few different branches of Walgreen's, and for some reason, they are not included in the ones I printed out last night.
And then there's the other pharmacies I've used, so I need to physically go to each of them and ask them to use their receipt printer to print out all of my 2008 prescription receipts.

Hey, all of that stuff is a tax write off, and considering how many meds I take and how much they cost, you can bet your butts that I'll be printing them all out and writing them off to get a decent tax return.

February 10, 2009

The Octo-mom.

I've refrained from posting about the Octo-mom, but the more news stories I watch and read, the angrier I get.
I don't think I have a right to be angry, but it does anger me what she's done.
This woman, Nadya Suleman, is a 33-year old single mother of 14 kids now.
She has no job, she lives in the basement of her parents very small 2 bedroom home with her previous 6 kids, some of whom have been reported as being disabled in some way, and she's collecting welfare even though she adamantly denies that what she gets is welfare.

She gets $490 per month in food stamps, and she also receives 3 monthly SSI payments because 3 of the first 6 kids she has, are disabled.
She doesn't consider the food stamps welfare though.
"In Nadya's view, the money that she gets from the food stamp program ...and the resources disabilities payments she gets for her three children are not welfare," he said. "They are part of programs designed to help people with need, and she does not see that as welfare."
She may not see that as welfare, but those programs she's talking about and getting for people in need, is called welfare.

She says she plans on attending school so she can become some sort of counselor or therapist so she can take care of her kids all by herself, but who is going to be paying the bills while she attends school?
And that job she wants to get, only pays about $45,000 per year.
She has 14 kids now, they will cost far more than that $45,000 per year by a long shot.
"Money? Money is necessary to raise children. But it's - it's paper. It is paper. To me, it is superfluous in contrast to the importance of my kids."
Maybe what Nadya could do is get some sort of jobs in finance, because she is certainly doing something with money to have done and even attempt to do what she's trying to do.

She's going to use her student loans to help raise her kids while she attends school, her dad is going back to Iraq to work and try to make enough money to pay all of the bills and to help take care of his single daughter with 14 kids.
Her mother is fed up, has been taking care of the 6 kids while Nadya was in the hospital and now doing all of these interviews, and she's (the mother) tired of doing it, is disgusted by what her daughter has done, calling it unconscionable.

This whole thing makes me sick to my stomach.
I'm a single parent of 2 kids, been raising them on my own for the last 15 years now, I've had help here and there from friends and family, (thanks) but damn, it's hard, and that's just with 2 kids.
I've had to use welfare, it's no way to try and raise kids, it's simply not enough money, and those SSI payments her 3 kids are getting, even combined, it's not even close to being enough to take care of 6 kids, never mind all 14 of them.

I just have to wonder what she was thinking, I am not buying that whole "for all my life, I just wanted to be a mother, I love kids" story, I really believe that she had another motive, and that it was money.
You take a look at The Duggars and Jon and Kate + 8, and we all see how well their families are doing with corporate sponsorships basically, and tv shows, and all of the money they are making, the free products, and it leaves me wondering if maybe Nadya thought that she could do that too, make it rich by being 'the only single parent of 14 kids', that tv and companies would all line up to put her in the spotlight as some sort of 'super single mom' doing it all on her own.

She divorced her husband, didn't want any alimony or child support, it is being reported that the sperm donor is someone who proposed to her and she turned him down, said that she wants to do all of this on her own, be a parent to all of these kids on her own, but she's worked her own mother, a woman she blames for her dysfunctional childhood, made her take care of her kids, and will probably want her help to take care of all 14 of them while she attends school too.

But is is my personal opinion, that this was all some sort of plan to make money, to get her own tv show, get a special house built and paid for by some company, get free clothes, food, diapers, cribs, strollers, etc etc etc, for being like I said, some sort of super single mother raising 14 kids on her own.
I wonder and worry about those children, all 14 of them.
Who will really care for them?
How will they be cared for?
Nadya may think that money is just paper, but money is going to be needed to take care of all of those kids, and it is not right that she's using welfare, and will probably continue to do so, to take care of all of them now.
Welfare is for people in hard times, for people in true need, and if you can't afford to take care of yourself and the children you already have, you have no right what so ever to go and have even more, be an even bigger drain on welfare and society, just because you want to have more kids.

This story continues to develop, I'm watching ET right now, and either tonight or tomorrow night, they are going to have some segment on how Nadya is a liar, not who she says she is, that something is seriously wrong with her.
I imagine we all can tell already that something is seriously wrong with her.
She's a few cells short of full functioning.

February 10, 2009

It's a zit-o-rama!

I feel wicked bad for the teens, they inherited their father's bad skin genes.
I rarely ever had any acne growing up, and if I did, it was 1 itty bitty pimple, and I would zap it with cleansers and toothpaste, and it would be gone by morning.
But their dad, well, he would break out something fierce.

So I was tucking them in bed last night, I know I know, I still tuck in my 15 and 17 year old sons, but they ask me to, so I do.
Anyway, as I was tucking in Sebastian, he requests that I tuck him in first, do the blanket flip and tuck, he wiped back the hair off of his face and told me to look at his forehead.
It was covered in acne.
I asked him if he's been washing his face like I taught him to, if he's been using the acne treatment I bought for them, and he admitted that he hasn't been doing it, so I said, "Well, if you're not taking care of your face properly, the way you've been taught, this is the end result."
He laughed and said, "If you think mine is bad, go check out Mark's face!" and he let out an even more evil laugh.
I said goodnight, left his room, and shut off his light.

I then went into Mark's room, had to do the blanket flip and tuck with him too, and I had to wipe the hair from his face to see what the evil laughing was all about.
His face, too, was covered in acne, all over his forehead.
I didn't even get a chance to say anything, he just announced that he hasn't been using the cleansers I bought, so he only washes with soap and water in the shower.
I asked him if he liked zits or something, and he said no, but "I have long hair, no one can see them anyway. Ha ha."

He said he uses them sometimes, when he remembers, but most mornings he's just too tired and lazy to do it.
Hey, at least he's honest about being lazy about doing it.
I just feel bad that they inherited bad skin, and I wish I could clear it all up for them, but they need to do it, they need to actually take the time to wash their faces right, use the cleansers, dab on the treatment gel at night to dry them all up, but they don't, and I'm not going to hover over them like a super protective mother hen and nag them to do it.
Eventually they will figure it all out, good clean skin with no zits has it's bennies.

February 9, 2009

Old age has officially set in.

My kitty Kali is old, she's 11 now, and so that's like what, 44 in people years?
She's an old lady now, getting gray hairs, sleeps a lot more, has to be on special food because of her age, and just like in humans, pets go through the pretty much all of the same symptoms of old age as humans do.
I have to wonder if female cats and dogs too I suppose, go through things like menopause.
Do they get hot flashes, night sweats, vaginal dryness, and other things like human women do?

I've posted before about how she shudders, has spasms at night, and how I looked for answers as to why, but yup, she is definitely getting to be an old lady now.

Today, she was on Mark's lap, he was petting her and she let out a yelp, and that's when he saw it.
One of her front lower teeth, was like sticking out.
I had Mark hold her down so I could open her mouth and take a look, and when I did, the tooth just fell out.
She's losing her teeth just like old people do.
Now that the tooth is out, she's letting people pet her again, but it's no wonder that for the last few days, she has been very upset and not wanting anyone to touch her, she had a loose tooth and it hurt.

February 6, 2009

Smooth Away product review.

I wrote up a review of the Smooth Away hair removal product on my other blog, so if you're interested in how it works, you can go to my other blog, KatScan, and check it out.

February 5, 2009

Masters in nursing from home.

I've had so much done to me medically, I know more medical terms and names of tests, and what all of those tests do, and had big huge surgeries, and know how all of them went step by step, that I know more than some of the doctors I've seen.
I've actually been in the ER and seen a few doctors who didn't even know that the things I've had done, could be done.

Since all of this stuff started, I've become rather interested in all of this medical stuff, mostly by need, because if a nurse or doctor didn't/doesn't know, I need to be able to explain it to them so they don't try and treat me the wrong way, do tests to me that I can't have done.

I think once you're in the medical profession, that you should constantly stay abreast on all of the latest medical advancements as you can, so that you can provide your patients with the best possible care.
At ST. Xavier's University, nurses can get their MS nursing degree, a masters of science in nursing, online.
In order to qualify, they must already have a bachelors degree from a regionally accredited college or university, for admission, but they can do this from home, on their time.
Nurses are very busy at their jobs, they probably see more patients than the doctors do, so they need to know a lot, but time to get an education and work at the same time is difficult.
That's why being able to do it online can help.
They can get their masters in nursing at their own pace, day or night, and then do one weekend of applied campus experience, and they will have their masters degree, make more money, and be able to help even more patients with their more advanced knowledge.

My surgeon's head nurse, Cindy, is currently getting her masters.
She works with him 5 days a week all day long, and then leaves at 3pm 3 days a week, to attend classes at USF right down the road from his offices.
She is doing this so that she is better prepared to handle all of his patients, be able to do more in the operating room, and take better care of the thousands of surgical patients they see every year.
I think it's pretty awesome that she is continuing her education like that, and if a college wasn't as close as it is, knowing that an online college is there to help her get her masters if she needed it, pretty cool.
I adore my surgeon and his whole team, so yeah, knowing that they are always on top of everything new in medicine and continuing to educate themselves, makes me feel a whole lot better when I have to get on that table again.

February 4, 2009

It figures, totally the way it goes for us.

I ran out of the vitamins for the teens about a week ago, and mine have extra iron so I can't share them with the teens, and I didn't have the money, nor did I go anywhere to pick up more for them, so guess what?

Tonight around 10pm, Sebastian came to me and said he wasn't feeling well, I asked him to explain, give me symptoms, because not feeling well doesn't tell me a whole lot.
He said his stomach hurt, he had a headache, his body felt all stiff and sore.
I felt his forehead, it was extremely hot.
So I gave him 2 Tums and 2 Tylenol, and made him lay down.
About 20 minutes later, I hear Mark running to the bathroom and yelling "Puke!"
He finally finishes in there and I ask him to tell me symptoms.
Same thing, stomach hurts, puke, headache, body feel stiff and sore, his forehead is burning hot too.
I give him 2 Tums and 2 Tylenol, and make him lay down too.
I didn't take their temps because it seems I misplaced the thermometer from the last time.
It's definitely not in the first aid kit where it should be.

I'm going to have to see how they feel in the morning, but as of bedtime, both of them were white as clean bleached sheets, clutching their stomachs, and both had fevers.
I cannot send them to school like that, if whatever it is turns out to be the flu or something else that's contagious, then I have a duty to not make other kids sick.

But when I go out tomorrow to get my script filled, I'm going to pick up some more vitamins and some more discount supplements like an extra vitamin C, and another bottle of an antioxidant, and start the daily regiment again.
I've found that the store brand of most vitamins and supplements are just as good and in some cases better, than the really expensive brand named supplements.

It just figures, I run out of their stuff, forgot to get more, and they get fevers.
If it's not me feeling like total crap, it's one or both of them.
We are the house of sick and decrepit.

February 3, 2009

Live on a porch?

I've been not feeling too well the last few days, it was the weather affecting my joints and the titanium, and my body freaking out because of the rainy and cold weather, and it all was making me feel like I had the flu in a bad way.
I wasn't sleeping very well because of this, so when I did sleep, I had wicked bizarre dreams.

I had a dream that my landlord was selling this duplex, but he wanted to keep us as tenants because we've been living here for 11 years at this unit of the plex now, he likes us, trusts us, we're really good tenants.
So he had another property, it was a 2-story unit, and he had porch like apartments, all open floor plans, windows on all sides, super small efficiency kitchens, stand up showers, no bathtubs.
It was really weird, it was like they were porch apartments, all of the windows that went all the way around the big rooms, all had bamboo blinds on them, the light coming in was absolutely blinding to me.
I just couldn't see us living in one of these weird porch apartments.
I asked him if he had anything else, we do love him as a landlord, and he kept saying no, this was it, just give it a try, live here for a week and if we really hated it, he'd see what he could do.

Well after a week of completely open floor plans, no actual bedrooms or walls to separate us from each other, the cats all clawing and chewing on those blinds, I had had enough and had to get out of there.
He finally said that he just bought another duplex, the sale of this one we live in now went through, so he showed us the new duplex he bought, we loved it, and he rented it to us at the same price we pay now.
But it was soo much better than this one!
A one-story duplex, all brand new stainless steel appliances in the kitchen, huge bedrooms, a huge bathroom, the master bedroom had it's own big bathroom and an enormous walk in closet, it was so much better and more beautiful than any house I've ever rented, and I was shocked that he was going to rent it at the same price we pay right now.
I must have asked him 3-5 times if he was sure on the price, and he kept saying yes, we're good tenants, he didn't want to lose us.

And then I woke up in a wicked sweat again, knees and ankles, as well as all of the joints in my hands just swollen and stiff, and I came out to the living room, looked out the front door window to see more rain, sighed and opened the door.
It was another windy, cold, and rainy day here in Sarasota, so I took one of the new pain pills, and laid down on the couch to try and sleep for another 15 minutes at a time again.

January 31, 2009

WWSB ABC 7 turned off their analog signal days earlier than claiming.

This is the message that all local Sarasota residents have been seeing on channel 40, WWSB ABC 7 since 5pm today.
WWSB ABC 7 claims that they will be shutting off their analog signal on Sunday February 1st, because they need time to finish construction at the transmitter sites, yet they actually shut it off today, January 30th 2009 at 5pm.

They claim that their digital signal IS broadcasting, but it's a very weak signal due to the same transmitter site construction, but it's not.
They also are claiming that Brighthouse cable is not picking up their signal relay, and blaming Brighthouse for that error.
But when I called WWSB ABC 7 at 11:05pm tonight and spoke with some guy who answered the phone, he fully admitted that they are not broadcasting a full signal at all, but will be on February 17th.

Between February 1st and February 17th, the digital signal for them will not be very strong at all, but they keep saying that it is working on both 40.1 and 52.1, and Titantv.com does indeed say that they are supposed to be transmitting on 52.1, but no, they are not.

11:00 PM, 35 min
Fri 01/30/2009
WWSBDT 52.1 (40)

It pisses me off that WWSB ABC 7 has decided to shut off their analog signal completely before February 17th.
There are so many people in Sarasota who do not have cable, cannot afford it, may not even have a digital converter box yet, and rely on the local channel for news and more importantly, weather for our immediate area, and now we cannot see it at all.
They claim they shut off the analog signal after the 6:30pm broadcast, but I have been seeing that above message since 5pm.
They were also talking all week long, about a report that was supposed to air on tonight's 11pm news broadcast, all about the digital switch, and how they were going to have some tech person on to explain it all.
Well a lot of good that did telling us about the special report, NO ONE COULD WATCH IT!!!!!!

There are several local stations who I am having trouble picking up with the digital converter box and the digital antenna that I bought, and I am desperately trying to get someone to come install the antenna on the outside of the house for me, I cannot do it, the teens cannot do it, because time is running out for me, the switch is happening whether I'm ready for it or not, and other stations may decide to shut off before the 17th as well, which really is NOT fair at all.

Hell, the government was discussing delaying the switch until June, because there are still about 6.5 million American households that rely on analog televisions, and are not ready for the switch, but the delay didn't pass the house.
Not everyone can afford to get cable, not everyone can afford the digital converter boxes, and those coupons expire, a lot of stores that were supposed to stock them didn't even have them in stock at all, and so those coupons expired and people cannot get any more at all.
As of Wednesday, more than 47 million coupons had been sent out, but only 21.8 million had been redeemed. While 14.3 million had expired, 11 million were still active.

This whole switch to digital has been a huge pain in my ass.
Stations stopped broadcasting in analog, like channel 28, ABC Action News, a few weeks ago, and now WWSB ABC 7.

I can't afford cable, even if I could I wouldn't get it because it's far too much excess crappy channels.
I can't afford Fios either, because even though Verizon says it's only $99.99 a month, my old neighbors bought into that supposed deal, but never had a bill less than $200 the whole time they had it living next door.

I should be able to plug in the converter box, plug it into the digital antenna, and it should all work beautifully, but it doesn't because I live in a concrete block house, so it needs to be installed on the outside of the house, on the roof, and I can't do it.
You have no idea how frustrating this all is to me.
I am so used to being able to do all this technical stuff, I fix everything in this house myself, well, I used to.
All I wanna do is unhook the digital antenna from the wall where we attached it thinking it would work, take it outside, attach it to the roof, run the cable line through the air conditioner area, and plug it in.
But I can't.
I can't raise my head up to undo the screws holding it to the wall, I am not allowed to get on a ladder and climb it to attach it to the roof, I'm not alowed to do freaking anything and it sucks so freaking much.
I hate relying on other people, I hate it!
And I hate that tv stations lied to people tonight, they are running a message that says the switch is taking place Sunday, and yet, they shut down their signal today, and are not broadcasting a signal strong enough to even be picked up by a local cable company.
Screw you WWSB ABC 7!
Fuck you!

January 30, 2009

Blogs, books, single parent dating.

I won a book from Ms. Single Mama's blog a few weeks ago, called Getting Naked Again: Dating, Romance, Sex, and Love When You've Been Divorced, Widowed, Dumped, or Distracted, it came in today's mail, so I'll probably start reading it soon.
I really don't want to start dating anyone, no desire to, especially not with how my body currently is, more upcoming surgeries and stuff, it really wouldn't be fair to anyone, but it did get me thinking about all of that relationship stuff, "getting back in the saddle" as they say, and whether or not I even feel comfortable enough with my body to get naked again or even wear some sexy lingerie.
I have so many scars now, over 28 inches of scar running down my back, a 12 inch scar on my stomach just to the left of my belly button, a scar on my left butt cheek from the bone graft, and a scar under my right breast from the chest tube when my lung collapsed during surgery.
And then I think about the upcoming surgery, and all of the new scars that will be added.

Not exactly attractive ya know?

Anyway, I was on Twitter last night checking out what everyone was up to, noticed I had some new followers, so I went to check them out.
I check out every single new follower, I read their bios, I click on their links, check out their sites or blogs, whatever.
I came across one that sorta annoyed me, so no, I didn't add them back.
It was a Florida divorce attorney, sorry, too late, I'm already long divorced, but as I was checking them out, reading some of their tweets, I saw a word that was just like the final straw for me.
"Momflict."

I am so sick of these types of stupid words!
Momflict is NOT a word, conflict is, but no, momflict is not a real word, and I'm tired of seeing people use made up words to describe their or someone else mommy blogs or problems.
I see the stupidest words on people's blogs and on Twitter all of the time, made up words, and it annoys the crap outta me.
I get it, momflict, it was used to describe a problem a mom is having, but it's not a real word, and honestly, when people use these types of stupid made up words, I am immediately turned off.
I don't know why, maybe it makes me think they are stupid, they probably think they are being super clever or something, but it's not clever, it's stupid, and I refuse to add people who use stupid made up words.

January 29, 2009

Spinning my wheels.

I feel like I have just been spinning my wheels and getting nowhere fast for the last few weeks.
Everything always happens in groups when it happens around here.
My life is basically boring, it's generally the same thing day in and day out, but once 1 thing happens, every other possible thing that can happen, happens.

As I've posted about, Sebastian has been getting some really severe migraines.
The medicine to try and help control them, Fiorinal, isn't really helping him all that much.
He's supposed to take 1 every 6 hours as needed for the migraines, but they don't last a full 6 hours, so I called the doc and he said he can take 1 every 4 hours as needed, but no more than that.
Well they still don't help him much, they wear off rather quickly, but if he could take them at school, maybe he'd be ok.
The problem with that is the school's zero tolerance policy against drugs, even prescribed drugs, they said he cannot have them at school.
Not even in the nurse's office with her dispensing them as he needs them.
They do not allow any type of narcotics, even prescribed ones, to be on school property at all.
Heck, students aren't even allowed to have Tylenol at school.
I argued with the school nurse for over an hour on Tuesday morning when they called to tell me they were sending him home due to his migraines.
We went back and forth over the issue, it's a prescribed medication, he has a script, a note from the doctor, he has to take them, he will be seeing a neurologist after February 16th, please, please, make an exemption, or tell me who I have to speak to about getting an exemption.
They said I'd have to take it up with both the principal, and possibly even the school board, if the principal feels the medication is too strong.

Here's what Fiorinal is:
Aspirin, Butalbital, and Caffeine.
That's it, that's all that's in it, but because the main ingredient is in a class called barbiturates, the school will not allow him to have them.
If he takes even 1 pill to school in his pocket (because they won't allow them in the nurse's office under her supervision and dispersion) to take when a migraine comes on, and he gets caught taking it, he will definitely be suspended, and possibly expelled due to their zero tolerance policy.
Even though he has a prescription and they will not let him have them in an adult's care.
It makes me absolutely furious that he is suffering and has medication that helps somewhat, yet they will not allow him to have or take them as medically prescribed.
So tomorrow, I'm going to call his doctor and see if he can help me force the school to allow him to have his medicine when he needs it.

The way they are handling it is, if his migraines come on and get too bad for him, to where he's putting his head down, near tears from pain, they are simply sending him home so he can take his medicine at home, but not allowing him to return for the rest of the day.
He's sent home, so it's an excused absence, but how ridiculous is it that they would prefer to send a student home for the day rather than give them their prescribed medications?!?!

Today I had my appointment with my surgeon, and once again, it's all really overwhelming news, more than I even want to think about, but I have about 2 months to think and decide how I want to proceed.
My quality of life now verses a possibly even more degenerated medical state, or a possibly better medical state.
But we won't really know the total risk percentages until a few more specialists have been spoken to, ideas talked about, all of the pros and cons gone over with a fine tooth comb.

But man, getting there today was the pits.
We (Mindy and I) left here at noon, usually takes about an hour and 30 or so minutes to get there, but I blinked and missed the exit which caused us to be just 2 exits off, but with no turn around area, and in a city that does not have cross over roads to get back to where we needed to be.
So I called people for help with directions.
I called my sister who got us much closer, then I tried to call my friend Jimmy who drives a truck for a living and knows that area of Tampa/Hillsborough/Pinellas County/McMullen Booth Road very well, and when he didn't answer, I tried another friend who lives out in the Wesley Chapel area and drives to and from the Tampa area all of the time, only to have him text me rather than call me back, and then when did, he said he never travels on McMullen Booth Road because it's "scary."
So then I called my friend Tina, who practically lives near my surgeons office, drives to and from work up and down McMullen Booth Road twice a day, who couldn't tell me actual directions because she uses landmarks, not street names, and between road signs that pointed us the wrong way, bad directions, roads not even marked, and construction and digital signage pointing us in all of the wrong directions, I was over an hour late for my appointment, my blood pressure was through the roof, it was hot, I was sweaty, we had been in the car for 3 hours and 15 minutes, both of us having to pee like race horses, and it just made me absolutely crazy.
I was on the verge of tears at one point, laughing so I wouldn't actually start crying.
The stress of everything over the last few weeks is just building in me, and then to get the news he gave me, blah, my day was just absolute crap.
Mindy is like a total saint, she didn't get frustrated once, and if she did, she certainly didn't show it, she even joked about how we had now taken the scenic route and how we both should know the Tampa area a little better now.
Ha ha. eh.

There's another cold front coming through, so it will be another few days of being frozen from the inside out, which my surgeon says other patients also report feeling, trying to get Sebastian some help, and trying to teach him some relaxation techniques to help him cope with the migraines.
I know how he feels, I get them as well, so I'm trying to teach him how to calm himself down, to breathe slowly, to take his mind someplace else, trying to deal with the school's idiotic rule about medicine, trying to get all of my health stuff sorted out, trying to deal with work, and people who lie and cause problems, hypocrites, and more.
I wish I could open people's eyes, help them see, but people choose to see what they want, they believe what they want, and nothing will change that for them until they get burned, again.
That bothers me, a lot, because I don't like seeing people I consider friends get burned by other people's lies and hypocrisy.
I need to remember that I cannot take on the weighty problems of others, I need to remember and keep telling myself over and over, that I cannot make others be logical or think logical, that they must get there on their own.
I cannot reason with people who cannot see reason, people who are continuously blinded by empty promises.

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.

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 21, 2009

Down for the count.

Not only am I dealing with the cold spell here killing every joint, muscle, and freezing my titanium, I've also caught some sort of stomach virus.
Sorry I'm not around, but I'm really not well.
Doc did call me back, new med is on it's way to help with the pain, but the virus is going to have to work itself out I guess.

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.

January 15, 2009

Teenage migraines.

Every couple of days for the last few months, Sebastian has been getting some pretty bad migraines.
His head pounds, lights and sound bother him something fierce, he ends up laying in my room for hours in the dark with a cold compress on his head, Tylenol ingested, and just waiting for it to pass.
He sometimes gets them at school too, which interferes with him getting an education.
He's in so much pain he can't focus on the text books or computer screens, he comes home and goes straight in to lay down.

The doctor's office finally called me back this morning, they can see him tomorrow morning at 10am, I already have transportation worked out, I just hope that the doc can figure it out and help Sebastian.
I hate seeing him in so much pain and suffering.
I get migraines myself, so I know all too well how badly the hurt.

January 11, 2009

The economy is totally sucking.

So many people ae losing their jobs, their homes, everything.
Companies are shutting down left and right, it's a mess.
It seems that the only semi-stable jobs are the ones that do extreme service work like jobs in health care, hazmat cleanup, repossessions, and other stuff like that.

My sister in law Heather, does hazmat cleaning, mold, mildew, water damage, and suicides and murder cleanups.
Yeah, tough job right there.
She cleans up all the stuff other people don't want to do or can't do, hazardous materials.
She cleans up murder scenes and suicide scenes.
Can you imagine?!
But she loves what she does and it's an industry that will always be needed, she will always have a job because there's always stuff to clean up.
She makes good money doing it too, great money.

My sister Jo was telling me about something her boss told her.
Someone her boss knows in Tennessee was telling her about a murder/suicide that happened, and they don't have hazmat cleaning companies down there, so a family member had to come home and clean it all up himself.
All the blood splatter, pieces, mess, clean it all up himself.
Yuck, I can't even imagine.
So when Heather called me a few days ago to chat, I was telling her about it, and she was like wow, her bosses company could like start a franchise down there, and build up his business because there is no one to clean any of that stuff up, no mold and mildew cleaners, no water damage cleaners, no blood cleaners.
It's all left up to the families to clean up.

January 10, 2009

I'll pay for this mood later on.

I'm in a cleaning mood, part of my get organized in 2009 mood, and so I finally put away all of the Christmas decorations, took the ornaments off the tree, packed them all away, put the tree away, and started in on other projects.

I've got the laundry going, I did most of the dishes, cleaned off the coffee table, and I'm about to dig into my desk.
I really need to go through it and throw away all of the useless crap that is outdated, not needed, broken, the scraps of paper, old memory sticks, old hard drives, and about a gazillion manuals to computers and parts that I don't even have anymore.
I swear, I keep everything for years and years, and then forget that I even have it all.

And in between all of this cleaning and stuff, I've been blogging, reading and replying to forums, checking in on work stuff, reading and posting to Twitter, (follow me dammit ha ha)and trying to get Sebastian and Bobby to get back here to the house before it got dark because this street is so dangerous to walk on during the day and it's worse at night.
By the time I get done with all of this organizing my life in 2009 mood cleaning, I'm going to need like some sort of Seattle injury lawyer to sue myself for totally over doing things today.
The good thing to come out of all of this is that the house is getting clean, things are getting put away, and I'm doing all of the things that I should have done as I went along.
It's like 10 times more work to have to clean all of this stuff months later, in some cases, years later.

January 9, 2009

Clean again, but for how long?

I finally did what I said I was going to do for like the last 3 months, I cleaned off the table of death.
This is how it looked at about the halfway point, so you can tell that it was a really big, horrible mess.

I threw like 80% of what was on it, in the garbage can, I filled up 2 whole 30 gallon sized bags with crap that I've just let pile up.
I think I may have thrown away some important stuff though, like a couple of the performance parts for the elliptical, just extra screws, I think, I know I tossed the bag of grease that is used to keep it lubed up.
I also tossed a few extra pieces to the new AC that I got, they weren't needed, or at least I hope they weren't needed. hahah
This is what it looks like right now, I still have a few more things to put away and find homes for, and that's what you see left on the table along with like 4 out of the 5 neck braces that I've gone through since September's surgery.

I'm really hoping to be able to keep it at this point of clean, but it's difficult for me. The table is where I read my mail, report cards, send stuff from, it's my work station, and it gets away from me all of the time.
I start tossing receipts on it, boxes, tissue paper, all kinds of crap.
I had stuff on there that I don't even know why I saved it.

January 7, 2009

Wake Up Your Life book review and tour.

I am always thinking about how to better myself, how to be a better mother, a better friend, a better human being.
I have faltered at times throughout my life in all of those areas.
When I first got divorced and became a single mom, I didn't think I could do it on my own, I thought the boys needed a man in their lives, their own father didn't want much of anything to do with them, he was far too busy with his band and his groupies.
Heck, he still is after 15 years, but the boys needed a man, or so I believed.
I went from one failed relationship to another, repeatedly.
I then thought I had found a really great guy, we spent 2 amazing years together, he loved my sons as his own, he called them his, they called hm "Daddy A". (Name withheld for privacy)
Then one night he didn't come home.
For 3 days I panicked, worried, freaked out, had my friend with contacts at the police and fire departments make some calls, he wasn't dead or locked up, so where was he?
It seems that he had gone out that night after work and had one of those love at first sight experiences that everyone talks about, and that's why he didn't come home.
When he did, he was there to pack his things.
He apologized like crazy, told me how sorry he was, how much he loved me, but this woman, he knew that this woman was his soul mate, he had to go.

I was really angry at first, then it hit me and I fell apart.
I was a giant heaping, sobbing, destroyed mess on my kitchen floor.
Another friend had been trying to call me, it wasn't like me to not answer the phone, so she came over and found me on the floor just crying uncontrollably, my sons in their high chairs eating hot dog and french fries, scared.
Mommy was on the floor, crying, babbling, a mess.
My friend picked me up off of the floor and took me to my bed and tucked me in it.
She got my boys things together and took them to her house for the night so I could rest, cry, slam things, whatever I needed to do.
What I ended up doing was calling my sister here in Florida and asking if we could come live with her, if there was work, help me, my life has fallen apart and I can't deal with it anymore, help me.
I ended up having a yard sale in which I sold everything that I could move from the third floor apartment down to the driveway, bought 3 one-way plane tickets, and left, all in a matter of 3 days.
I ran from my life there.

In "Wake Up Your Life", Doris Roper shares how 1 woman interfered in all of her major relationships, and how it became her wake up call to change her life.
She chose the moment that her life came crashing down around her to do something about it, to look inside herself to find out what it was about her and her reactions to things that played a part in what had happened.
She didn't run from it, not like I did, she looked inside and made the choice to change how she reacted to things in her life, she woke up.

I love reading these kinds of books because they really do help me see all the mistakes in my life, the times that I took what was happening to me and the things that hurt me, and how I allowed myself to run from it instead of taking that pain and changing how I dealt with it.
Doris Roper talks about how to take those rejections and turn it into redirection, change how it affects you, and redirect it into something positive, how forgiveness can release the power in you to be something better.

I am not at that place of forgiveness yet, I'm almost there, but I have a lot of hurt to still deal with not only from that relationship that caused me to run away, but from my failed marriage.
I know now that I was young, it was a stupid thing to do, and I know that at the time I had alarms going off like crazy, and I completely ignored them.
I don't regret my marriage, without it I wouldn't have the 2 most amazing sons a mother could ever ask for, but I know that I ignored all the warning signs that the marriage was doomed from the start.
I thought love could conquer all, love could make it all better, but that only works if both people feel the same way, want it, and are mature.

I will probably read "Wake Up Your Life" a few more times, the words in it are really hitting home for me, helping me wake up and see how I sabotaged myself and still do.
I totally recommend it for any woman who is limiting themselves, ignoring their own inner voices, and wants to change how they react to what's going on around them to help make better choices, better reactions to what may feel like the end of the world.

For more information, you can read more about this book on Amazon by clicking here.

I am so very pleased to be a stop on author Doris Roper's Virtual Blog Tour.
Each time a visitor comments here or on any or all of the other blog stops, they will be entered in a random drawing for a 6 month Gold membership to The Smart Woman's Success Connection.
This membership has everything one needs to know for money management including information about having a financial plan and starting a business, and includes a copy of her book in audio and PDF.
Please share your thoughts and comments today with Doris.
She will try to check in throughout the day to answer questions.
To purchase her book please click here.
For more information about Doris Roper and her virtual tour, check the schedule here.

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January 5, 2009

Safe, sound, and a powerball.

Laundry is finished, alarms for 5:45am are set, shoes, backpacks, pens and pencils have been set out and replenished, we are so ready to go back to school in the morning.
I have also gone around and locked up the entire house.
Twice.

I have this ritual I do every single night, I can't help it, it's part OCD, and part disabled single mom paranoia.
I have to go around to every window and door, and make sure they are locked up super tight and with all of my little gadgets and stuff to help make me feel secure.

On the back door, I have it locked with the regular doorknob lock, the chain lock, and one of those really loud annoying personal alarm things.
I have it set up so that if the door is opened at all, even just a little bit, the sensor will dislodge from the door and the alarm will sound.
And let me tell you, that noise is so loud and so ear piercing, that when I have to check the batteries and replace them, (I do it monthly) it is absolutely deafening until I get it set up correctly again.
The teens shove their fingers in their ears, the cats all run and hide, and I just cringe until I get the pin back in with my hands trembling because the noise is just so loud and piercing.

On the front door, I have the regular doorknob lock, a deadbolt, and a hotel flip over bar lock.
It's the kind that you close the door and flip over the latch, and it prevents the door from opening once it reaches about 1 inch of space.
Then I also jam a 2x4 up under the door knob which also prevents the door from being opened.
And I won't even tell you how I secure some of the windows, they are little tricks I learned from George, Mark's Big, who used to be a detective in Washington DC for 25 years, and if I tell you, then you'd know, and then I'd have to kill you.

I do all of this stuff every night because I'm terrified of someone breaking in.
I don't have a CWP, (concealed weapons permit) and I don't have a gun, so I feel like I have to do all of these things every single night to try and feel safe so that if I do fall asleep, (insomnia owns me) I can feel somewhat safe actually being asleep.

I wish I had the money to have a security system installed, like an ADT system, and be able to afford the monthly monitoring of it, because then I'd feel a whole lot better about being asleep or just being alone in the house while the teens are at school.
Home security is a HUGE issue for me, like I said, part OCD, and part disabled single mom.
I cannot fight back if someone came in, and I can't shoot back because I don't have a gun or a CWP, and I can't get one until I'm able to take shooting practice and pass my CWP tests.
In Florida, if someone breaks into your home, if you feel that your life or the life of your family is in danger, you have the legal right to shoot to kill.
I know that if someone did come in and threaten us, I would not hesitate for a single second to kill a dangerous intruder in order to protect my sons and myself.

So yeah, I'd love to have an ADT system and the monitoring, just for my own peace of mind, knowing that if the alarm goes off, that someone is watching for my home's alarm, and that they will send help for us immediately.
I also really like the new Safepass system they have.
If you don't want to remember the codes, or have trouble remembering things like when under pressure, you can just wave the little keyfob in front of it to arm and disarm it.
It would make it so much easier for children to be able to arm and disarm the system too, or older people who have trouble reading the displays, or remembering the code numbers.
I'm really good with numbers, I still remember my best friends phone number from when she lived on Ocean Ave and we were best friends for like all of our growing up, but trying to recall an alarm system code number when you're really tired or under pressure, or heavily medicated, or been drinking, can be cause for some false alarms to happen.

But until the day comes that I can afford to have the monthly monitoring without any worries about money and being able to afford it, I'm just going to have to stick to all of my nightly rituals, my strange, but really good ways of trying to make sure that no one can break in.
Florida just started doing Powerball in our state, maybe I'll buy 1 Powerball ticket per week, and maybe I'll get really lucky and win like a mega jackpot.
Tickets just started going on sale today, and the first drawing is going to be on January 7th.
I might just have to buy myself a ticket for Wednesday night's drawing.
Wouldn't that be awesome if I bought 1 single ticket and won?
I could pay off all of my debts, buy us our own home, and get an ADT security system installed.
It would be awesome.
Yeah, I think I'll buy a ticket tomorrow and hope for the best.

December 31, 2008

Last post of 2008.

So many bloggers out there are doing their end of the year posts, stating resolutions and goals, tallying their yearly blogging income, and all the rest of that stuff.
I don't do resolutions or make lists of my best posts of the year, and I never do blogging income posts.
I'm not going to get into what was good or bad about my blogging year, I'm not going to make a list and link back to my best posts, I'm just going to keep going.

I've been through a lot this year, but who hasn't?
I just don't see the need to dwell or beam on what has already happened, it's in the past, done and over with.
I prefer to just keep going.
I have no idea what all is in store for me and the teens in 2009 aside from another surgery.
I don't know where this blog's direction will go, I don't know anything beyond what I know right now, and right now all I know is that I will keep going.
I'll keep going and doing the day to day, I'll keep trying to be a better version of me, I'll keep trying to be a better mother to my sons, I'll keep trying to be a better friend to all of the people I care about, and I'll keep trying to just be a better human being.

That's all I know right now, and that's good enough for me.
Have a happy New Year, see ya in the morning.
Later days!

December 29, 2008

No sale on the Twin Draft Guard.

I asked in the entry below about buying things from the As Seen on TV website or calling the 1-800 #, and said how I was interested in the Twin Draft Guard they sell.

When my post showed up in my Twitter feed, BJByrne said;

@mskat do a google search for a review on anything you are looking to get. A lot of the "as seen on TV" is not the quality you expect.

But I took BJByrne's advice and did a Google search for "Twin Draft Guard review", and came upon many, many unsatisfied customers.

I also did a search for "Infinity Razor review", because while I was on the As Seen on TV website, they had some special savings if you bought certain products, and one of the deals was like $5 off the Infinity Razor.
I had both items in my cart, ready to purchase based solely on the uber convincing commercials I had seen and the product information on the website, but after doing a search on the razor, I found that it too, is a complete piece of craptastic shit.
They claim that the razor is super sharp, that you'll never need to purchase another one, but I read quite a few reviews from people saying that the blades show up dull fresh out of the package, that it takes 4-5 hard strokes to get even a halfway decent shave, and most people ended up having to use one of their old razors to finish the job.

So I dumped both items from my cart.
I'll have to keep using my caterpillar stuffed animal for a draft dodger for now, and I'll have to keep buying blades for my Venus Embrace razor.
So far, the Venus Embrace razor for women is the best razor I have found to use since having spinal fusion.
The handles are slightly longer than most other razors, men and women's razors alike, and because I can't bend and reach as far as I used to down my legs, can't bend and reach as far as most other women, a longer handled razor is a must.
I even tried duct taping a long wooden ruler to my razors to help me be able to reach lower down my legs, but the tape gets wet and softens after just 2 showers, and the wood also gets wet and softens, and then breaks, and then you get splinters in your hand as well as nicks on your legs because the ruler snapped in half and caused you to slip when the splinter jammed into the palm of your hand.
So not fun at all.
I was hoping the Infinity Razor would be true to it's claim because the handle looked like I could tape a round wooden spoon handle to it, and also because for awhile after surgery I have trouble going shopping for replacement blades, (hell, I have trouble going shopping for anything after having surgery) so the "blades never dull" claim sounded like an awesome thing for me because I have another spine fusion surgery coming up again.
I'll just have to go stock up on Venus Embrace cartridges before I go in for surgery.

Anyway, thanks BJByrne for reminding me to do product reviews first.
I usually do, but I guess the commercial for the Twin Draft Dodger had really permeated every inch of my brain after seeing it a million times, and I was all gung-ho to buy it without question.

December 27, 2008

Christmas day and the day after...

Christmas day and the day after, and it was in the low 80's all day long, really warm for what is supposed to be winter holidays, but I'd rather be in shorts and a t-shirt on Christmas than dressed up 3 layers deep just to stay warm inside the house. haha

I do miss Maine this time of year, I miss how everything looks, a beautiful layer of clean white snow in the backyard and covering the trees, drinking hot cocoa at night while watching Christmas specials, and being wrapped up in big crocheted blankets my mom made.
The last time we went up there, in February 2007, it was -5 degrees with a wind chill of -10, so it was so incredibly cold.
That is my biggest issue with living up North, I can't handle the cold weather anymore.
It doesn't even really get cold-cold here, but during our "winter" which happens in like late January and all through February, it can drop down to the low 40's, sometimes even get as low as the high 20's, which still is not as cold as Maine in winter, but it's enough that my body just aches and aches, and no matter how much or what type of pain medicine I have to take, or things like Ben-Gay, or Icy Hot, or Curaheat I can rub on, I end up just laying around covered in layers of blankets and hoping to get warm enough to move a little each day to at least prepare a hot meal every night.

I am thinking, depending on what the weather guys say about this coming winter temps, that I may look into buying myself a heated blanket, a nice one, queen size, so that it covers my whole bed, keeps the whole thing nice and warm while I sleep, cuz I gotta tell ya, there is nothing worse than rolling over in the middle of the night, and hitting the cold part of the bed.
The part of the bed nobody is sleeping on, so the sheets are icy cold, and when that happens, I am instantly awake and have to try and warm myself up again.

Or, I may just buy myself an all new comforter set.
Sebastian swiped my comforter, so I don't actually have one, and now he has two.
He sleeps on top of his and covers up in mine.
On my bed, I have my fitted sheet, top sheet, and one of those thin hospital blankets, and that's it.
Yeah, not very warm huh?
Or! Maybe a new comforter set that IS an electric blanket?
Do they even make those?
A really nice patterned comforter in like a wine color (to match my sheet sets I have) with a matching bedskirt, matching pillow shams, and the whole thing heats up.
That would be the bomb diggity!

December 25, 2008

Merry Christmas 2008!

Hey all, Merry Christmas!
I hope that all of you have been having a wonderful Christmas day with your families, we have all been struck down with the coughing, sniffling, sneezing, fever crap, so we will try to celebrate Christmas tomorrow.

Both the teens woke up sick this morning, and I woke up around 5am absolutely freezing to death, but sweating my ass off under my blankets.
I got up and took my temperature while I went pee, 103.8.
Yay.
Both the teens have fevers as well, so it's been a Tylenol and Nyquil day around here.
Totally sucks, but whatcha gonna do right?

The turkey will be fine, it wasn't completely thawed anyway, so I'll wake up early tomorrow and start cooking it, and then I'll cook the mashed potatoes, gravy, veggies, and crescent rolls when the turkey is almost done.

But the teens did have a nice xmas anyway, they got some really nice shirts, some new winter hoodies, more socks, boxers, gift cards to Best Buy, cash, and they also got some new video games I bought for them, as well as their WoW games which they got back in October, because they and my sister wanted to be able to play each other now.
Plus they had all kinds of candy and treats in their stockings.

I got some Cadbury eggs in my stocking, and I got some new Marc Jacobs perfume, a gift card to Publix, a cooking magazine subscription, and I think that's it for me, but it's enough.
Christmas has always been about making the kids happy.
It just sucks we all woke up feeling like crap today, but the day wasn't a total loss, and like I said, we'll do the turkey feast tomorrow.

I hope that you all have a wonderful holiday with your families.

December 22, 2008

I won 3 pairs of Ficklets!

Back on December 7th, I posted an entry about how I had entered a contest at Lisa Reviews to win some Ficklets for my niece Susan's glasses.
Ficklets are cute little clip-ons for the ear pieces of your glasses that make wearing them fun and stylish.
I entered the contest because my super duper adorable niece Susan wears glasses, and I know she would love to have these for hers.
She's very good about wearing her glasses, but these will make it even more fun to wear them all of the time.

Lisa drew the winners for 3 of the contests she was running, tonight, and one of the extra entries I had put in to win, was drawn.
I won the Ficklets!
Yay!

Lisa emailed me to ask which 3 I wanted and for my mailing address so they can be shipped to me.
Susan loves bugs, flowers, and anything blue, so I chose the following 3 sets for Susan
Aqua cutsie worms,
Blue and yellow smiley face daisies,
and Blue sparkle stars.
I know that she will absolutely love to wear them on her glasses.
I can't wait to get them and give them to her!

December 21, 2008

You could die.

We had a great time with the girls today, we played games, watched Christmas movies, played ball outside, and ate some yummy snacks.

My niece Skye was so cute and it's not funny, but it was.
She was like an ad for smokers life insurance or the just say no group.
She saw our neighbor outside smoking, and she started telling us that if you smoke, you could die, it will kill you, smoking is bad, and then she started yelling it at him.
Here's this little 4 year old yelling as loud as she can, "Smoking could kill you! You could die Mr.!"
Mark and Sebastian are cracking up because she was pointing her finger at him, waving it at him, one hand on her hip, and just kept saying it over and over, "You could die! Smoking could kill you, make you dead!"
She wouldn't stop, so we had to pack up our ball and go back in the house, but man, I so wish I had filmed that.

I did get the girls singing on camera, but it came out wicked dark.
I may upload it anyway, the 2 of them singing is just freaking adorable.

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.

December 15, 2008

Lifted spirits.

I had a very productive day, never did get to play with my Sims, my body ended up getting totally exhausted, but I got a ton of housework done that I haven't been able to do for quite awhile.
I didn't get to the table o' death, but I will do it this week, that's a promise to myself.

I really struggle to do pretty much everything since the surgery, my head placement makes doing even simple things like laundry very difficult, but after getting the news that I'll be having my revision surgery after the new year, knowing that I'm going to be reimbursed for over 2 years of over-payments, has really helped lift my spirits up.

I've been so down and hard on myself, I get so damn frustrated with how hard it is to do even the simplest of things around the house like dishes, laundry, general cleaning, hell, just reaching for my electric toothbrush on top of the medicine cabinet is difficult.
I get angry at myself, angry at how I'm stuck like this, and then I get even more mad because my house is such a mess.
I hate having people come over, I know the house is messy, the dishes piled high in the sinks, the carpets not vacuumed, stinky litter boxes that can't be cleaned by me, Sebastian has to do them, stuff and clutter everywhere, I get embarrassed to have people see it all and know that it's because of me that it's like this.
No one minds, they know how hard it is for me to do stuff, and Mindy has been so great, always helping me when she can, giving me rides, even cleaning my house for me a few times because she knows how hard it all is, but I still hate having people in here seeing all of the mess.

But today I woke up and felt really good, still had the usual physical pain, but emotionally I felt great and decided to try and do all of the things that needed to be done, that I usually cannot do due to the pain it causes and my head placement.
I started with taking the sheets off of my bed, the sheets and blanket off of the couch, and throwing those and some of the dirty towels through the wash.
I folded the load in the dryer from last night, and then started in on the dishes washing all of the plate holders, bowls, and pots and pans first, and then taking a small break before going back to switch out loads of laundry.
I ended up doing 4 loads of laundry, I got all of the dishes done, I thawed out some chicken tenders to cut up and use to make some chicken alfredo for dinner tonight, and I also did some general clutter pick up and dusting around the living room.
By the time I finished all of that, my back, legs, and neck were on fire and I knew it was time to quit.

I wanted to just chill out for the rest of the day until it was time to make dinner, by watching some mindless crap on tv.
The switch to digital is getting so much closer now, analog ends in February, but a lot of stations have already started reducing their signals.
I tried to tune in CW44 with the antenna, this usually works fine, I can usually get it clear enough to watch with no static, no flipping or blue screening, but it just would not go today, so I tried a few more channels, same, bad analog transmission.
So I hooked up the converter box and hoped for the best.
I managed to get exactly 1 station to come in with no pixelation, no "stuttering" of the sound, and no lost signal, and it was this totally crappy kids movie.
Ugh.
The switch to digital frustrates me beyond anything, I hate it, I hate the pixelation that happens, that super choppy "blocks" that show up, the stuttering of the sound, it's worse than static with the regular antenna, and it's been like this since getting the converter box months ago.
I'm extremely happy that the government paid the majority of the price for that stupid converter box, (It was $49.99, converter box coupon program paid $40 of the price) because if I had to pay for that piece of crap, I'd be seriously pissed off right now.
It DOES NOT tune in all of the channels, it DOES NOT pick up any of my local channels, even stations that have an antenna just 15 miles down Clark Road from my house.
Does it convert analog to digital?
Yes, but without some duper duper high powered antenna attached to the outside of my built in 1976 concrete walled duplex, barely any damn channels come in.
I cannot afford cable or Fios, I just can't.
That kind of money, even Comcast's really super basic cable package ($59.99 per month) is way more than I can afford, it's just not in my budget or ever going to be in my budget.
I know $60 a month isn't a lot of money to most people, but it is to me, and it's just not a necessity to have cable when analog has been perfect for this house for the last 10 years.
I am totally dreading the full switch over in February, I mean, I know people who have digital cable who suffer pixelation issues, so I know that my issues will probably never go away.
I'll be stuck with the pixelation and stuttering sound permanently after February even after the antenna I have gets installed on the outside of my house soon.
I only ever really watch a few channels, NBC, ABC, the CW, and Fox, and not a single one of those channels will come in with the converter box and antenna.
I am really hoping once the antenna gets installed outside that they will, I only watch those channels and only a few shows per week on each one, but the damn tv is like my entertainment.
I spend so much time in the house, and a lot of it is spent alone.
I usually have the tv on during the day for sound, and at night I watch a few shows on different nights of the week.
After my revision surgery, I'll be spending a lot of time laying on the couch recovering, the tv will be the only thing I can do to ease my boredom for awhile before I get permission to sit at the pc for longer than 20 minutes once every few hours, and trust me, after an hour of pixelation and stuttering sound, you'd be ready to fucking slit your wrists, rip the cords out of the wall, and throw the fucking tv and fucking stupid ass converter box out the fucking front door!
Nothing drives me more bat-shit insane than stuttering sound.
I could deal with the pixelation, I mostly just listen to tv shows, as long as I can hear it, I'm all good, but noooooo, if it starts to pixelate, the sound stutters too.
Digital tv sucks fucking ass unless you have cable, Fios, or Satellite.

Ok enough complaining.
The house is looking pretty decent, just have a little more to do and the table o' death, and then it will look ok in here again for a little while longer.

December 14, 2008

Going to get thing done. I am.

I finally got some decent sleep last night for the first time in what feels like months.
Although I woke up completely confused as to what day and time it was, I feel good, I feel like I have energy to get things done, like I took some Ephedrasil hardcore or something and could just do a million things.
Sleep is good, sleep is great, I honestly haven't felt this awake and good to go in quite awhile.

When Mindy and I went shopping the other day, I finally bought some more dish soap and laundry detergent, so now I can finish up all of the laundry and dishes that have been sitting around for a few days.
I hate it when I run out of dish soap and don't have an extra bottle stockpiled below the sink.
I usually always make sure I have back-ups, but last months budget was a bit tight, so my back-ups didn't get bought.
I'm gonna finish up what I'm doing here on the pc, and then get cracking washing sheets, bedspreads, and the remaining laundry and then the dishes, and then maybe fire up my Sims2 for awhile.
I haven't played with it in ages, ever since I heard about Sims3 I think, which I will get for myself when it comes out in February.
My birthday is March 1st, so it'll be my present to myself.
I think my pc can handle it especially once Sims2 is uninstalled.
If I run into video card display issues, I'll just save up and get myself an upgrade.
The game will be mine, I'll be able to play it during recovery and stuff, but it will be mine.

December 10, 2008

Calling calling, frogs traveling north.

Things went really well at my surgeon's office today, I am going to chill, relax, and have an awesome good Christmas because of the news today.
Yay!

Mindy drove me there this morning, and when I got out of the car all the way up in Safety Harbor, I noticed a wicked tiny tree frog had come along for the ride on the inside of the car.
I should have taken a picture of him sitting there right next to the seat handle, I had my camera with me, but I felt bad that he was now a super long way from his home in Sarasota.
I scooped him out onto my hand, and placed him on a tree at my doc's office, at least he would have grass and trees, bugs to eat, in his new far from home, home.
I thought about leaving him in the car, taking him back to Sarasota, but I figured by the time we got back here, he would have hidden himself down inside the car somewhere, and we would have never found him.
His colors blended in perfectly with the interior of her car except for a few small black spots on his back.

Now for the calling calling part of this post.

December 7, 2008

This drives me nuts!

I have wicked OCD about certain stuff, and this would be one of them.
I cannot stand it when the teens make a huge mess of the toothpaste tubes and caps.
Just look at the mess!

They have done this to not only their tube, but my tube as well.
It's gross!

How do they manage to do this every single time?
I can take the tube and not goop the cap all up, but them?
Nope.
A brand new tube will be gooped all up in a matter of minutes and it drives me absolutely nuts.

December 7, 2008

Win a set of Ficklets at Lisa Reviews!

You're probably wondering what Ficklets are right?
Ficklets are small clip-ons in cute assorted shapes and designs like bugs, pets, flowers and more, for the frames of your child's glasses to help make wearing them fun to do.
They even have some really stylish designs for older children or adults.

(Gif from Ficklets.com)

This is my super duper cute niece, Susan, and she has been wearing glasses for awhile now, she's really good about it, but I know that if she had some cute little Ficklets on her glasses, she would love wearing them even more.
I've entered a contest to win a set of Ficklets for Susan, and if you have a child of your own who wears glasses, or a niece, nephew, or even yourself if you would like them, (they fit adult sized glasses too) you can enter the contest that Lisa is having over at her review blog, Lisa Reviews.

To enter the contest, you need to follow the really easy entry rules that can be found on this direct link to her contest post titled Ficklets Giveaway, and make sure you tell her which set you'd like to have in your comment and not forget like I did when I entered.
D'oh!
You can see all of the cute Ficklet styles on their site, Ficklets.com
I chose this pair of Aqua cutsie worms for my niece, because I know she loves to be outdoors and look at little bugs, she loves that color, and also loves caterpillars, so these would be perfect for her.
I hope I win them!

December 5, 2008

Oy vey! Such a long day!

I have had such an incredibly long day that started out well enough at the doc's office, and then escalated into madness by the time I hit Walgreen's.

Their computers were down again, which caused me and about 7 other people to have to just sit there and hang out waiting for the store manager to figure out what to do.
It amazes me how flustered they get when the computers go down, like what did pharmacies do to fill prescriptions before computers?

And I certainly don't envy the people who work there at all.
I remember all of the years and all of the jobs in retail that I worked over the years, and I recall how crazy this time of year is, but it seems to me that people, customers, have gotten far more pushy, far more rude, and feel more entitled to things and to do things than the years I worked those jobs.
I know I haven't worked in retail or restaurants for over 8 years now, but I really don't remember people being that rude.

Like when I got told the computers were down, please have a seat and we'll figure out what to do to get your script filled and bill the insurance when the system comes back up.
I said ok and sat down, but other people decided to be completely belligerent about it.
An older man started yelling at the top of his lungs, at how no, he was not going to take a seat, he wanted his medicine right now, and no, he was not going to pay cash, he has insurance, they needed to give him his damn meds for what his usual co-pay is, and bill his insurance tomorrow or whenever the hell the computers came back up.
The pharmacist, the clerk, and the manager, were completely flustered, at a loss for words, and said they would try to call his insurance and set it up so they could do it the way he wanted without using the computers, and because they said that, 3 more people which had been sitting quietly on the chairs with me, decided they wanted the pharmacist to do that for them too.
Talk about a major hassle.
Have you ever had to call your prescription insurance just to find out if your med is covered, or for another reason?
You're on hold for like forever, and just because they are the pharmacist, doesn't mean they have like a direct phone number to speak to someone immediately, they dial the same number that we do on the back of our insurance cards.
I thought for sure one of the clerks was going to cry.

But the pharmacist, the clerk, and the manager, all called for those customers and somehow got it all approved to do it that way, and I still just sat there waiting.
I was in no rush, the teens were at school, and hey, I was getting a free show to watch, (all the crazy screaming people) so I just chilled and waited to see how they would help me.
Then after about 15 more minutes of them trying to figure out what to do for me, we all heard this beep, blip, chugga chugga noise, and what do ya know?
The computers rebooted and were back on line, so they let out this collective huge sigh of relief, a kind of nervous chuckle, and they filled my script.
They thanked me for being so super patient, and I laughed and said no worries, I'll have something to blog later.
They gave me a curious look, but rang me up and I started to the front of the store.

I wanted to buy a soda, I needed to wash down the blood pressure med my heart doctor gave me today, and so I grabbed one from the cooler and attempted to make my way to a register.
I had to step over merchandise that had been knocked on the floor by another customer.
An angry one.
I saw a store clerk trying to clean it all up, she looked like she might cry at any moment, and so I asked her if she was ok.
She started to sniffle, tears were forming, and for a moment I thought to myself, 'crap, total mistake Kat, you're gonna end up hugging some strange store clerk', and she started to tell me about the crazy, pissed off customer who threw almost every single item off of a shelf because they were completely sold out of a sale item they had listed in the flier.
It apparently, was a really good deal, max purchase 5 per customer, so every customer bought their 5, the clerks refilled the shelves over and over until they ran out, and that's when the angry lady came in.
She asked for it, they explained they were out, and she lost her marbles right there in the health and beauty aisle of Walgreen's, threw a tantrum, demanded the item, they almost had to call the cops, and then she ran her arm along a shelf and threw everything to the floor.
The same clerk who had been yelled at by the woman, now had to clean up everything from the floor, and she said that tons of customers have been behaving this way for weeks now.
I apologized for the bad day she was having, said I wish I could help you clean it all up, but as you can see, neck brace, bad back, surgery, I promise I won't make any messes at all, and I'll be on my way.
She smiled a little, thanked me for at least wanting to help her clean it, and then she opened her register at the photo center so I could check out without having to wait in the longer line.
I thanked her, wished her a good afternoon, and headed home.

I don't understand people, customers, who do that kind of stuff.
Throwing a fit, throwing things to the floor, does not somehow magically make the long sold out item appear, it just makes them look like spoiled brat children.

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!

December 3, 2008

Make all the sickness stop.

I am still battling the cold/flu from h