March 7, 2010
Debating if I need it or not.
There are a couple of things that didn't come with my new cell phone, a Kyocera X-tc, that I'm debating on whether or not I really need or want, and would need to pick up at some point.
One of them is a micro SDHC card for storage, as the phone only as 70mb of storage space available, and so if I wanted to store more pictures or music, I would need to get one.
The other is a must have if I want to be able to play music on my phone, listen to it through my earbuds, is a micro USB data cable like this one in the picture below.
I was hoping that Buy.com would have one on sale, but all they have is the one that I linked up there, but I don't want that one because it comes with a house charger that I already have as it came with the phone, and a car charger which I don't need because I don't have a car.
I'm really debating on getting those items.
Like, do I really need my phone to be able to double as an mp3 player?
I have an mp3 player, so I don't really need my phone to be one.
While having a ton of pics on my phone is nice because then I can show them to everyone, it's not like I really need the micro card for storage because I can upload all of my pics to the Virgin Mobile 'My Pix' account page, and they also automatically get uploaded to my Facebook page too.
I guess it just depends on how much stuff I want to carry with me when going on long distance trips like our trip to Maine.
Do I want to carry my phone and charger, and my mp3 player and it's USB charger, or do I just want to carry my phone and charger?
It's too late for this trip to get the micros USB data cable, but I'll have to think about it for my next long distance trip.
February 27, 2010
Window shopping and dinner out.
I was really hoping to be able to find a desktop gaming pc on sale at Buy.com a little sooner, but it hasn't turned out that way.
Did I mention in the post that we are wanting a gaming pc?
I didn't?
Well yeah, seeing as the teens really only use the computer for playing WoW and other video games, Sebastian does all of his digital design stuff on the mini-netbook, they use the desktop to play WoW and do a few other things, but mostly gaming.
Buy.com does have a couple of refurbished desktops on sale this week, an HP, and a Dell, but they really aren't built for what we are needing, so we're going to do a look in-store later this afternoon and see what we can find, check out prices, and then I'll probably come back to Buy.com and see if they have a good gaming pc in stock to get.
They do have some other great stuff on sale though, like a Kingston 4GB microSDHC Card, for just $12 bucks with free shipping, which I could use either in my camera or in my cell phone.
I did buy myself a new cell phone today, I bought a Kyocera X-tc, I bought it for my birthday present to myself on Monday.
It was totally on sale too, just $59 down from $129, so yeah, I got a really great deal on a birthday present for myself.
They also have the hard rubberized cases for the X-tc, I want the purple one, but it's currently not in stock in that color, so I'll add it to my wish list to get later on.
Those are only $6.55 including the shipping, so yeah, I'll add that for a later date purchase.
What?
How old will I be turning?
40.
Yuh.
The big 4-0.
I feel like I'm 80 today, the cold and rain are kicking my butt, but after we get done doing some window shopping for the pc and go out to eat with sis and Susan, I'm going to come home, take a long hot shower, and bundle up under some warm blankets for the rest of the day and night, maybe curl up on the couch with my blankets and use the netbook from there for awhile.
Ok, this soon-to-be 40 year old needs to go get myself ready to go, hair brushed, teeth, clean clothes, ha ha.
Later days!
February 12, 2010
Slowly coming back to life.
All I can say is please let this sickness finally be over, please.
I have been so sick for going on almost 3 and a half weeks now, it's been horrible, and I certainly have absolutely no need for any kind of diet supplements right now or probably anywhere in the near to see future.
I haven't been able to eat anything, cook anything, not even look at any kind of food, or else I have ended up running to the bathroom to hurl up nothing but stomach bile.
Tonight, my friend Nic was out running some errands and called to ask me if the teens had eaten dinner yet.
I said no, not really, they had some cereal I think, I couldn't be sure as I was in laying down on Sebastian's bed with all of the kitties, so she said she'd bring them back something to eat.
About an hour or so later, she knocked and then just came on in, (friends are allowed to just walk in) and she had brought the teens some burgers and fries from Checkers.
She just grabbed them each 2 cheeseburgers, 2 fries, and a drink each, off of their dollar menu.
The teens were thrilled and started chowing down almost before she set the bags down.
I was eternally grateful because there was simply no way that I could cook anything at all.
On top of being sick, it's been cold here for the last 2 days, and then it rained all day today, so I was sick and in horrid pain all over my entire body.
I'm just now able to really sit up and do anything at all.
I tried to combat the pain and stiffness from the weather, and took a Soma.
Bad idea.
It's not nicknamed the Soma Coma for nothing.
I'm glad that it started to wear off though, I couldn't take it much longer, I was so out of it.
I was like a walking zombie.
I couldn't see straight, think straight, walk straight, very bad idea.
In bio-family news.
My bio-brother Randy sent me an envelope full of pictures
It was pics of all of us from when we went to NYC.
I thought that was cool, Randy and I don't get many opportunities to talk or anything, he's always so busy working.
I will text him tomorrow and say thanks, hope he texts back.
We play cell phone tag more than we actually talk to each other.
Anyway, I'll have to scan some of the pics and post them, they are really nice, there's one of just he and I.
I don't even recall that one being taken, everything that happened was such a blur that morning, but now I have one of just my brother and I.
I really miss them.
That time we spent together was simply not long enough, not at all.
I want to get together and hang out, talk, spend time getting to know each other.
It's so hard, me down here in South-west Florida, and all of them up in Northern Maine.
It's very hard to learn that you have these siblings, this family that you never even knew that you had, and never get to see them.
January 5, 2010
Even the hot water is cold.
It's taking about 1 minute to warm up the tap water in the kitchen and bathroom, and I don't want Sebastian to step into a freezing cold shower when he has to take his shower for school, so when the alarm goes off at 6am and I get up to use the bathroom before waking him, I'll turn on the shower to get it warmed up and ready for him.
The water is seriously cold coming out of the faucets.
Our hot water heater isn't inside the house, it's in a closet in the carport, like where we keep the lawn mower and and outdoor junk, so the water tank is super cold from the cold weather we're having.
That's Carmine kitty up there.
He's sound asleep on 1 of our quilts, and Sebastian covered him up in my baby blanket.
About an hour or so later I went to check on Sebastian because he's got a cold and not feeling well, and I found that Carmine had rolled around and got himself all curled up in the blanket.
It was just too cute so I had to take a picture.
I pet him and he started purring wicked loud, I know that he's happy to be inside at night.
He goes in and out all day long, and at night when you open the door and call his name, he comes running to get back in the house because he's so cold.
He gets in, runs straight for the food bowl, gets a drink, and then he finds a blanket to curl up on to try and get warm.
When he came in tonight, he laid right in front of the portable heater for about an hour, his fur was so hot, I thought to myself how could he stand it, but I guess after being outside all day long in the chilly weather, it was exactly what he needed.
But yeah, both Sebastian and Mark have colds, they are coughing, sneezing, and just plain miserable.
Sebastian had a bit of a fever before bed, so I don't even know if he's going to be able to go to school tomorrow.
The school has rules about fevers, if you have one, stay home.
That's just great huh?
He's perfectly healthy and fine for the entire Christmas vacation, and he ends up catching a wicked cold the weekend before he has to back to school.
Ugh.
December 22, 2009
Perfect cookies. Yay!
At 1am I decided to make some chocolate chip cookies, and Mark thought it would be a great and fun idea to add a Hershey's Kiss to each one just like we did with the Peanut Butter Blossom cookies I made last night.
My cookies, both times now, have come out perfect.
I used to always burn cookies, no matter what I did, greased cookie sheet, un-greased, cooking spray, lower temp in the oven, whatever, I would always, always, always burn the bottoms of my cookies at least a little bit.
About a week ago, I found a recipe for some different types of cookies, and the directions said to use parchment paper to line the cookie sheet with.
I've only ever used parchment when working at the Italian bakery when making the pizza and calzone, but never when baking cookies, and they never did either, and they would make hundreds of cookies every single week.
Because I wanted to make those cookies, I bought a roll of parchment but haven't made those cookies yet.
Last night and tonight, I decided to try the parchment paper when making the cookies to see if it would really help in me not burning another batch or 2 of cookies like I always do.
It totally did!
4 batches of cookies and not a single 1 got burnt!
Maybe parchment is the secret baking tool that I just never used the right way for all of my cookie baking sessions.
I swear it really made all the difference, if I had baked them straight on the cookie sheet, they all would have been burnt or very close to burnt.
All 4 batches of cookies have come out absolutely perfect, soft baked, chewy, nice and golden brown with not a single spot of dark crispy cookie.
I'm definitely going to keep parchment on hand from now on and use it every single time that I am baking any cookies.
I can't believe that it has taken me this many years and dozens and dozens of burnt cookies to figure this out.
D'oh!
December 18, 2009
The best Christmas for me in years.
So far I am having one of the best Christmases that I have had in a long time, I got my broken tooth of 14 years fixed, I have received a ton of Christmas cards from friends and family, and today I got a box in the mail from Joanne, my bio-sister.
In the box were 3 huge thick and cuddly black hoodies from her and her fiance Jamie, for the teens and I.
She also sent me a photo album full of pictures of my bio-family.
I think that's the best Christmas present ever, not the pictures, but having found my bio-siblings.
I am in constant contact with Joanne, almost daily, it's been really awesome getting to know her again as sisters, not as classmates in school.
We get along so incredible, we never end an email or text, or call, without saying I love you, and we do.
Flipping through the album, I sat here crying looking at all of the pictures, these are the siblings I didn't know that I had, that I never thought I would ever have or find.
She included a picture of my bio-mom, and as I sat here looking at it, at her, some of those old feelings of anger came back up, of being abandoned at the hospital by her when I was born, but without her, I wouldn't have my bio-siblings.
All of us kids know that she wasn't well, that she had some major problems, but without her, we wouldn't be here, and we wouldn't have each other.
I am just so happy right now, to have my bio-sister in my life after all of these years, it's just such an incredible feeling.
December 4, 2009
Disney Christmas Tree review.
I was so very fortunate to receive a Disney Christmas tree animated/musical/light-up Christmas decoration for review and to keep from Collectibles Today.
I am seriously grateful for the opportunity to get this tree and be able to add this to my home's Christmas decorating items.
This will be a treasured and cherished decoration for many years to come.
Each and every gorgeous level, and each and every single one of over 50 Disney characters that are on it, are all hand painted with incredibly fine detail.
There are so many characters from most of the Disney movies on this tree.
It has quite a few of the princesses and their princes, Belle and Beast, Sleeping Beauty and Prince Phillip, Ariel and Prince Eric, Pocahontas and John Smith, Cinderella and Prince Charming, Snow White and her prince too!
There's Donald Duck and Daisy, Minnie and Mickey, Peter Pan, the 101 Dalmatians, the 7 Dwarfs, Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Piglet, Simba, Bambi, Pinocchio, Tinkerbelle and so so many others on all 4 levels, it's just incredible how many of the beloved Disney characters are on this tree!
There's motion on all 4 levels too!
There is the train run by Mickey Mouse on the bottom and second level, the princesses and princes are dancing around on the third level, and on the fourth level, it's Mickey Mouse at the reins of the sleigh as 'Santa' with Pluto as the lead reindeer circling just above Cinderella's castle.
The whole tree lights up with 20 bright LED lights, and it also plays a medley of Christmas carols.
I haven't heard all of the songs as I haven't started decorating the house for Christmas yet, (Sebastian is so bugging me to do it now! He's been bugging since Thanksgiving day!...LoL) and I have only taken it out of the box to look at it a few times since getting it on November 10th.
The box the tree came in is pretty damn nifty too.
It has a perfectly sculpted styrofoam insert (top and bottom) to protect the tree all year long when not in use so the tree doesn't get damaged at all during storage.
I know, I am totally impressed by a box. Ha!
This tree is hand-numbered, mine is B4419, and has a matching certificate of authenticity as an original from Hawthorne Village.
I've shown the tree to my sister and any of my friends who have stopped over for a visit, and they all just love it, I've gotten a gazillion compliments on it!
My pictures and the video I made DO NOT do it any justice at all!
I am not quite sure where I'm going to place it for this Christmas, I am thinking about putting it dead center of my coffee table as it doesn't have to be plugged into the AC adapter to run, it can run on batteries.
It has 2 settings, you can run it with lights, movement and music, or turn the switch the other way, and it will just light up and move.
After 1 hour of continuously running, it will automatically shut off, that's a great feature because with the music off, I can totally see myself just letting it sit on the coffee table lit up and moving all day and night once I get the house decorated for the holiday like I do with our little Christmas tree.
I made a video to show it to you so you can see it lit up and moving with both music and without, and I admit that the video quality is not very good, I'll redo it tomorrow, but I just wanted to show you all how awesome it is.
I need to redo the video and pictures during the day as the lighting in my house is very low at night, I do not use really bright bulbs, I like very soft light, but soft light sucks for trying to get a good picture or make a video.
And yup, I probably sound like a total idiot gushing over the tree, but I was just so excited...hahaha!
This Disney Christmas tree is really perfect for me and my house as I am a HUGE Disney fan and have a massive collection of Disney toys from happy meals, I have a Snow White Evil Queen coffee cup and an Ursula coffee cup, an Ursula doll from the Great Villains Collection
I told Sebastian that after he gets home tomorrow, we will get out all of the decorations and decorate the house for Christmas this weekend, I know it will make him totally happy, he just loves Christmas and all of the trimmings.
This tree is going to look so good on my coffee table, I just love it, so thank you Collectibles Today, thank you so much!
This review is a result of a feedback campaign by Collectibles Today.
I was asked to give an honest opinion about the product I received.
Good reviews are not incentivized and poor reviews will not be censored for the opinion of the product. **
November 3, 2009
It will kill me one of these days.
Stress that is.
Oh to be a cat and be able to sleep wherever and whenever I wanted.
That would truly be the awesome.
Shahiro has taken over my Publix shopping bags and claimed them as her bed.
They do look rather comfy don't they?
I have been so stressed out over these last few days, I'm feeling so overwhelmed with the situation with Mark and his health care.
It is on my mind constantly while waiting for a call back from a Medicaid specialist who is apparently the only one who can answer all of the questions that I have regarding his coverage.
How long will he be covered for?
Is it to age 18 or is it 21?
Or is it for longer due to my being disabled?
Will his surgeries be covered or will I have to fight like I did for myself for 4 and a half years?
Can I take him to see the specialist at All Children's Hospital and have it be covered, or will I need to pay for that consultation out of pocket?
Oh to be a cat and find that one little strip of sun coming through the window, and fit whatever part of my body will fit into that warm sunny patch.
I love how Nova the fat no-tail kitty finds that one little strip of sun, and puts her nose into it and falls into a deep sleep.
I wish I could sleep like that.
I have barely slept at all these last days, probably no more than 6 hours in total since Thursday night.
That was the last time that I got more than 5 hours of sleep.
It's been a game of hurry up and wait.
Mark's doctor said that he needs to go see the neurosurgeon immediately, but we have to wait for Medicaid to approve the referral.
Mark's doctor said that he needs to start physical therapy immediately to strengthen his core muscles, but we have to wait for Medicaid to approve the referral for that too.
These are all things that the Medicaid specialist can answer for me, but I have to wait for them to call me back.
I called them first thing Monday morning, bright and early one minute after the office opened for the day, 9:01am.
The call intake worker took all of our information, said that they were passing it on to the specialist people, and that someone would call me back within 24 to 48 hours.
If I don't hear from someone by the close of office hours tomorrow, I will have to call them back first thing on Thursday morning, and play the waiting game again.
It's very frustrating and stressful.
Hurry up and wait.
Hurry, he needs to see the neurosurgeon.
Hurry up and wait.
Hurry, he needs to start physical therapy immediately.
Hurry up and wait.
Oh to be one of these lovely cats and just fall fast asleep and be at rest for hours.
I love how they can just lay anywhere, lay any way that their bodies want to, and be totally comfortable and able to sleep.
Every time that I lay down to try and sleep, I cannot get comfortable.
My body aches everywhere and I know that the stress is a huge factor in that.
When I'm in better moods, my body isn't so painful when it comes time to sleep, I'm able to just relax and sleep when I'm happy, at peace.
But stress makes my muscles tighten up and spasm all night long, sleep is nearly impossible.
I toss and turn all night long, I hear every single noise going on in the house.
The creaking of the teens beds as they roll over, the cats eating their food or getting a drink, the cats playing or fighting, or knocking things over as they play or fight, Sebastian's occasional snores, Mark clearing his throat, both of the teens mumbling in their sleep about WoW or Nazi zombies they have to fight in their video games.
All of the noises and sounds of the house and it's occupants all night long as I struggle to get even just one hour of sleep.
Oh to be one of my lovely cats who are all sleeping again right now in all of their favorite places.
Nova asleep and drooling on my sandals, Kali under the coffee table, Shahiro on the back of the couch, and Carmine in his box by laundry basket.
I can only hope to be able to sleep even half as well as they can.
I'd love to be able to sleep as well as they do even for just one night.
That would be awesome.
October 19, 2009
Sunny-side up!
Carmine is our indoor/outdoor stray that we adopted last Christmas kitty, and a cat that we absolutely love to have as a part of our family.
We consider all of our kitties to be members of the family, they are all wonderfully unique, but I am really just so beyond glad that Carmine is the only one that is allowed to go in and out, and boy, he was loving to be outdoors all day on Sunday.
It was just absolutely perfect out all day Sunday.
The sun was shining as bright as always, but there was no heat, no humidity, as a matter of fact, it was a wee bit chilly out there in the early morning hours, and again as it turned to night.
I think the "hottest" it reached yesterday was about 72 degrees, and the lowest it got was around 50 degrees.
I love it when the temps are like that and the sun is still shining brightly.
Carmine laid on the cool concrete ground of the carport for most of the day, letting whatever warmth from the sun that there was, shine down on him as he stretched out on his back and groomed himself for awhile.
After about 5 or so minutes of warmth and grooming, he heard a noise coming from the other half of the property, and he looked up and in that direction to try and spy whatever it was that was making the noise.
He got up and slowly walked over to the other side.
He practically tip-toed off the carport concrete and into the grass.
He stretched himself long and low as he moved further into the grass.
Staring intently straight forward to whatever it was that he had heard and was now tracking like a great hunter.
In a move that happened so quickly I would have missed it had I blinked, he had sunk the claws of his right paw and his teeth into the prey he had quietly stalked.
He held it down with that same right paw while he ripped at the creature with his teeth.
He then picked up the animal with his teeth after making sure it was no longer moving or breathing, and he turned and carried it back to me with a slow but confident stroll.
He stopped no more than 2 feet away from where I stood watching it all, and he dropped it at my bare feet.
He looked up at me squinting his eyes from the bright sun, and he let out a loud mew of satisfaction.
I aimed my camera down and pressed the shutter at the same moment that I realized what he had dropped.
He was quite pleased with himself, purring loudly, he started rubbing his head and body all over my legs, dropping down with a quickness to rub his head on my bare feet.
I have no need to even try any of the best diet pills for quite some time after this freshly delivered meal.
Because it is morning and some of you may be eating your breakfast like I had been planning to do when this happened, I'll place the very fresh gift that I was given behind the cut.
You've been warned, don't blame me if you lose your morning coffee and eggs.
Continue Reading �
October 5, 2009
Sickness, movies, and mice.
Sebastian and I spent the entire day feeling like crap even with some Nyquil to take.
We both spent the entire day sleeping off and on, and now that I took naps all day long, I can't sleep.
I've been up watching tv and surfing the net all night long.
I found a bunch of free online auctions to look at to pass the time.
It's amazing to me how much some stuff is worth, like old toys.
I wish I had hung on to more of my old dolls and toys, some of them would be worth a ton of money now like my Tuesday Taylor doll that I had.
I think she was like less than $10 back when she first came out, now she's selling for about $100.00
Damn.
I watched a bunch of horror movies, some I had seen like Children of the Corn
It wasn't too bad, but it's not something that I would watch again unless someone paid me.
Death Tunnel that is, not Children of the Corn, I love that movie.
"Outlander! Outlander! We have your woman! Outlander!"
Malachai was one of my fave characters in that movie, so perfectly cast in my opinion.
Carmine is our kitty that goes in and out of the house.
He was the stray kitten we found last December.
Yes, I said that we were only going to keep him for a little while, try to find his owners or give him away, but we fell in love with him, he's such a good kitty, so well behaved and loving, we couldn't part with him.
Anyway, he goes in and out all of the time to do his business outside, play around, whatever it is that he does out there, and then he always comes back.
When he came back in tonight, he brought us a gift.
A mouse.
A big fat field mouse.
He came running in the house with it in his teeth, and then dropped him at my feet, looked up at me, meowed loudly, and then rubbed all over my legs.
He brought me dinner I think.
We of course picked up the mouse with tissue and threw it away outside, but he brought it to us as a treat or a thank you, not really sure, but it was meant as a gift, so I rewarded him with lots of love, pets, cuddles, and kisses which he absolutely loved.
I also gave him a piece of cheese which he gobbled up quickly and then joined me on the couch.
It's now just a few minutes past 4am and I'm wide awake.
I still feel like crap, but I'm wide awake.
October 2, 2009
It's the 8th Annual Blogger Boobiethon!
It's that time of year again folks!
It's time for the 8th Annual Blogger Boobiethon!
In the past 7 years, we (bloggers from everywhere!) have raised over $50,000 for breast cancer research.
You can learn all about this event and it's history here, but basically, bloggers from all over the world and internet, join together to raise money for breast cancer research by getting people to donate to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure charity which helps to fund research for a breast cancer cure.
We also raise money to help a fellow blogger in need, bloggers helping bloggers.
Please read that page to learn all about this part of the boobiethon, it's been something that we've done every year since the whole start of this, and is actually the entire reason that the boobiethon exists.
Last year I was the recipient of this part of the boobiethon after my spine fusion in September 2008, and I am still, and always will be, eternally grateful for all of the help, donations, encouragement, and support my fellow bloggers, readers, and supporters of the boobiethon, gave to me during that time and continue to give to me.
This year's recipient of the bloggers helping bloggers portion is Joan, aka, DaGoddess.
Donating to the boobiethon is really very, very easy.
Simply click the button up above or this link right here, and choose who you want to give money to, Komen or Joan, akaDaGoddess, and then follow the super simple instructions on that page so that the organizers of the boobiethon can add your donation to the total, and send you a confirmation email thanking you for your support.
This is now the 2nd year since the thon started that I have not been able to volunteer my time doing photo editing for health reasons.
Last year I had just had spine fusion surgery, and this year I am still dealing with some of the problems that are the result of that surgery, and my recent life-changing experience of discovering my bio-siblings and getting to meet them on the Today show in New York.
I feel terrible that I am unable to donate my time, it's something that I absolutely love doing every year, but because I can't volunteer my time, I am going to make sure that I post about the thon at least once every day until it ends, post updates about it on my Twitter stream, post on forums, and wherever else I can post about it to help spread the word and raise money for the cure.
Breast cancer effects all of us in some way at least once in our lives.
I know friends who have fought the battle with it, some won, some lost, I have had scares in my own family, and currently I have a friend whose Grandmother is losing the battle.
We need to find the cure.
Together we can help find that cure by raising money to fund research so that someday everyone who gets breast cancer can win the battle.
The 8th Annual Blogger Boobiethon began at midnight on October 1st and will run until midnight on October 7th.
In 2008, we raised $9,300.00.
So far on just this 2nd day of the boobiethon, (as of the time of this post) we have raised $2,705.00.
Let's beat last year's total!!
Donate, send in your picture, (mine will be sent in soon!) blog about it, tweet about it, put a button on your blog, do one thing from that list, (do several from that list!) and help us raise more money than we did last year!!
September 25, 2009
Kitties, pictures, and belonging.
I have 112 more emails/comments to answer, I am working through them as best that I can, but it's going to take me awhile, I apologize.
I had said that Mark stayed home, he wanted to be here to take care of the cats, and his other reasons, and he watched the segment Wednesday morning.
He said that as soon as it was my part, when I started talking, all of the kitties came running into the living room to try and find me.
All of the 4 cats get really upset when I'm not home, and they get really upset when I go away and don't come back for a long time, like gone overnight, so when they heard my voice through the tv, they came running to greet me, they thought I came back.
Mark said that they were really confused when they didn't see me in the living room but I was still talking.
That's when Nova saw me on the tv.
She ran to it, stood on her back legs, and tried to touch me through the screen.
Then Kali realized that I was "in the box", she got up on the tv stand and started pawing at the tv and meowing loudly.
Then Shahiro did the same on the other side of the tv stand.
Mark said Carmine was freaking out, he was running all over the room, up on the couches, jumping up on the coffee table, running to the tv and meowing, pawing at it, all of the kitties were crying he said, confused and upset, they could hear me and see me, but couldn't get to me.
That made me feel bad, just thinking of my kitties all crying and confused like that.
When we got home around midnight, they all came running to see me, meowing, rubbing all over me, following me as I unpacked, mewing like crazy, and pretty much wherever I went, they were all right with me.
When I finally laid down to get some sleep around 8am, Kali, Shahiro and Carmine all laid on the couch with me, and Nova laid on the back of the couch within reaching distance so I could pet her every few minutes till I passed out.
From left to right, here's Gary, me, and Randy.
From left to right, Joanne, Randy, Gary, and me.
It's really just so cool to have people who look like me.
I can totally see my face in theirs, their faces in mine, and features of both of my sons match all 4 of us.
It's really an amazing feeling, I can't even really describe how this feels.
I may have been able to hold back the tears on the show, but I keep looking at these pictures and crying.
It was really so awesome meeting them, I can't wait to get in touch and stay in touch, figure out holidays, all of it, this is what I've been searching for my whole life, where I belonged.
I think all adoptees have that feeling, where do we belong, do we look like someone, is there anyone out there that is a part of me.
I have that now.
I finally have that feeling of belonging, fitting, looking like someone, that empty feeling from knowing that you were adopted, from knowing that out there somewhere may be someone who is like you but you have never found them, is finally filled up.
It's all so overwhelming, I'm like exploding on the inside, all of the years that I just never thought I would find anyone, I had pretty much given up on it, and now all I want to do is see them again, talk to them, any kind of communication with them to get to know them better, to start making up for the lost time.
The size of my family just exploded, I have all of these people in the families of my siblings who are so thrilled for all of us, they can't wait to meet me, and I can't even tell you how that feels, it's so hard to explain.
And none of what I feel about this, about finding my siblings and being welcomed into their families, can ever take away from what I feel about my adoptive family.
I love my Mom and Dad so much, they raised me, took care of me, loved me like I was their own birth child, they never made me feel like I didn't belong, I belong with them too, this is a different kind of feeling, this is the empty spaces being filled, all of those empty places where there were no answers, those places are finally filled and I don't want my family to think that they aren't my family anymore, they will always be my family, they are my family.
My family just got a lot bigger is all.
September 19, 2009
Parking, pictures, teens & shopping.
I've been up all night with insomnia again, and I was super bored around 2-3-ish am, so I went outside to see if anything was up in my hood.
One of my neighbors in the duplex to my left, had a party last night, and it looks like he was a good host and didn't let anyone drive home drunk.
The driveway is full of cars, about 6 cars can fit in a straight line from door to street, and 1 of his guests couldn't fit his Mustang in the driveway, so he had to park it in the street.
With all of the sidewalk construction, he took a risk parking there, somebody might have hit it because there are still barricades and tractors, and piles of dirt and sewer drain piping everywhere.
Well he didn't want his wicked nice and shiny blue Mustang getting hit, so he made use of the construction barricades, this guy was clearly thinking with his beer brain.
This is 1 smart guy.
Uh-huh.
Yup, he put those barricades to work letting people know to not hit his pretty blue Mustang...
Till the police came by at 7:45am and wrote him a ticket for parking in a construction zone and tampering with city equipment. ha ha haha
Man, he's gonna flip when he wakes up and comes outside to sees the ticket.
The cop let me take the pics by the way, and I asked him what the fine was for the things he violated, and he told me the total ticket is $1,200.00
Ouch!
I hope the party was worth it dude. ha ha hahaha
Later on today, like this afternoon, I need to go to the grocery store and grab some more food.
I always forget like 1 or 2 crucial food items when I do the food shopping, even if I have a list and the items are on the list, somehow a couple of things always get skipped over or forgotten.
For example, I bought the super yummy Bubba burgers that we love, and forgot the buns.
Sure I could just make the burgers without the buns and use bread, but then every time I even think of doing that, I start thinking about Eddie Murphy's welfare burgers (WARNING foul language, but hey, it's Eddie Murphy...LoL) and then I am laughing so hard while making them, that I can hardly breathe or speak while trying to tell 1 of the teens to go to the corner store for burger buns.
"We got McDonalds, and you ain't got none, cuz you mommas' on welfare". LMAO!
I forgot some other stuff too, and we need more lunch meat, soda, more bread, (for mommas' big, greasy, green pepper welfare burgers HA!) and some other stuff, it's on the list that I wrote out earlier this morning after the drunk car protection and the cop thing.
Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you why I wasn't blogging all of that much the last few days.
I'm having this weird random body part swelling issue.
It's probably water retention, I do take a water pill everyday for my high blood pressure, so water retention might be why, but the pills usually work good so, maybe, maybe not.
Anyway, all day on Wednesday, my feet and ankles were swollen up, on Thursday, my knees were swollen up wicked bad, it like actually hurt really, really bad to try and walk, and sitting down and standing up, like having to pee and then leave the bathroom, was so freaking painful I wanted to cry!
Then all day yesterday, my hands and face were swollen.
My face wasn't too bad, I didn't look like a Campbell's soup kid, but my hands, holy crap!
My hands were swollen up so bad, like sausages in a microwave about to explode!
They were swollen and painful, they were like all tingly, so typing was out of the question.
I just laid on the couch most of the whole day until the swelling went down enough to at least use the mouse.
Once they got to that point, I was at least able to check into the forums and stuff.
It is very unusual for my face and hands to swell up like that though, my knees and feet I'm used to, they do that every few months or so, it is water weight in those areas, but the only time my hands and face ever swell up is when I've either eaten peaches or drank a juice with peach juice mixed in, or breathed in peach fuzz.
I am allergic to peaches (in case you didn't guess..haha), like really bad allergic to them, and swelling up is what happens as the allergy attack, it's like my warning sign to get some Benadryl in me, (I use the children's liquid, it works faster than the adult pills) and if I don't get some, I will have trouble breathing in about 45 minutes or so.
I usually get it and everything is ok, and last night I did take some allergy pills, I didn't have any Benadryl, and it did work, just not as fast.
The point is though, that my face and hands have never been that bad, they have never swollen up to that big and tight before.
I was really worried that the skin on my fingers was going to either crack or rip open, it was scary man.
I also have no idea what caused it, there are no peaches in the house, no peach products unless 1 of the teens brought it in, but they know what happens to me, they wouldn't do that on purpose, and I have not had anything out of the ordinary food wise, and to my knowledge, nothing where it could have been mixed in like a juice or food product.
It's very odd, I'm just going to have to be careful for awhile I think.
August 15, 2009
I'm in the middle without any plans, I'm a boy and I'm a man.
18 years ago today, I gave birth to the boy that changed my life.
Before I had him and even while pregnant with him, I was thinking that my life wouldn't change.
I was a little over 3 months pregnant with him on my 21st birthday on March 1st 1991, I couldn't celebrate the big 21 the way most 21 year olds do with a drink, and yet I kept on thinking my life wasn't going to change.
It was a long and hot summer waiting for him come, one of the hottest summers in years in Maine.
I spent most of the end of July and the beginning of August standing in an ice cold shower or laying on the cold kitchen floor with 3 box fans all aimed at my swollen belly.
When he finally decided to come out after several false alarms, it was a long and painful delivery, but the moment he came out and they placed him in my arms, I fell in love and my life was forever changed.
I couldn't believe how one tiny little baby could make my heart swell and ache so much, I loved him with every part of my body, I just wanted to hold him and never let him go.
He was so stinking cute, big brown eyes, lots of soft brown hair, and a playfulness that was totally contagious.
He loved to play in the laundry basket like it was a car or a choo-choo train, cover his head with his blankie and play peek-a-boo with me until I played back, and then he would laugh and smile and I'd laugh and smile back.
If I gave him anything that could be made to be played like a guitar, like a broomstick or a fly swatter, he'd stand in front of the oven door glass so he could see himself playing rock n' roll.
He'd pretend it was a guitar and tell me to play music, and he'd rock out on his pretend guitar and bang his head while Metallica, or Pearl Jam, or whatever, was blasting out of the stereo.
He loved music like I love music, something was always playing on the stereo, and he'd play and sing along.
I remember his 1st day of school, he was so cute in his 1st day of kindergarten clothes with his little name tag on it, and an apple sticker that had his teacher's name on it, in case he got lost in the building, any teacher could help him get back to class.
I remember putting him on the bus and how scared he was.
He sat in a seat near a window looking at me, his big brown eyes just staring at me, I knew he was wondering why mommy wasn't on the bus with him, and when it started to pull away, he realized mommy wasn't going to school too, and he started to cry, and then so did I.
All of the other mommies standing at the bus stop were crying too because I was crying watching my baby boy cry.
Another little boy on the bus sitting with him held his hand and told him it was ok, but he kept looking back out of the window and staring straight into me.
My heart was so broken up, I never wanted to put him on the bus again, I never wanted to ever let him go again.
But the next day came and he was ok getting on the bus, and then so was I.
The past 18 years have just flown by, I am amazed at how fast they have gone and I wonder where they went, what did I miss, did I see it all, do I remember it all, will I forget it all?
He graduated from high school at the end of May, he refused to get a hair cut, he wanted his hair his way, not mommies way, he wanted to be himself, be the person he had become.
He's 18 today, no longer my little baby boy, he's all grown up now and soon I'm going to have to let him go.
He wants to take criminal justice classes in college, and then apply for the police academy so he can become a cop like he's wanted to be since he was 3 or 4 years old.
As far back as I can remember, he's wanted to be a cop, and he's going to do it.
He said he's not going to move out until he gets a job as a police officer, and he promises that he won't move too far away from me, but some one of these days, he's going to be on his own and I'm going to have to let him go.
I never want to let him go but I know that I have to, and my heart aches just thinking about the day he moves out on his own.
It's so hard to look at him some days, looking at the young man that he has become, wishing that I could have him be that small adorable boy for just a little bit longer.
At exactly this time 18 years ago, 2:15 am, I gave birth to the boy that changed my life.
I am a different person because of him, I am a better person because of him.
I admire the person he has become, and I know that the man he will eventually be will be a good and caring man, a strong man, he'll be fine on his own, I know that he will, but still, I never want to let him go.
I know that I'll be ok once I know that he's ok on his own, it will be like that 1st day of kindergarten except that I'll be the one staring out the window watching him go and crying.
Today is the 18th birthday of the young man that changed my life.
Continue Reading �
June 22, 2009
No diploma, but we have pictures.
After my MRI, we (Mindy wasn't feeling well, so her husband Chris and her son Jeff brought me. Thanks guys!) went to the satellite office for the school to pick up the diplomas like the school said to do.
They said that diplomas could be picked up between 10am and 2pm Monday through Friday.
So we get there and we find out that diplomas can now only be picked up on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 7am to 11am.
Do you know much fun that's going to be?
The parents of some 900 students all trying to pick up diplomas on just 2 days in just 4 hours.
Ha ha ha! Oh man, that's going to be so much fun!
Not!
If they knew that the school was going to be closed due to construction, they should have set up the satellite office hours for more time.
4 hours is simply not enough time to do all of those students in just 2 days.
People have to work, they have schedules to keep, so standing in a long line is going to piss a lot of people off.
Good going RHS!
_________________________
I had posted about the graduation photography companies and the trouble I had not getting notified on time when they said, or being able to look at his pictures on their site because I didn't have the password they were supposed to email, and that they did not answer emails either, and Tim, one of the customer service guys, had Googled the company looking for public perception of the company, and found my blog.
He left a comment which turned into a series of emails between he and myself, and Tim really went above and beyond to rectify the situation and make me happy with their service.
Tim sent me a package of pictures, several different sizes, the different quality papers they use, and some of the nice picture folder frames they have too.
The pictures came by UPS while I was out this morning.
The pictures are really great quality even though it's the picture of him not looking at the camera.
There were 2 shots, 1 of him being handed his diploma and not looking, and the other of him by himself holding his diploma and looking.
I could have sworn I told Tim to send that one, but then again, their site was having issues the day I sent him the email responding to his offer of pictures, so maybe I sent him the wrong link to the picture that I wanted.
Not a big deal, I will order some of the correct pictures next month when I have more money, especially now that I know they are really good quality images.
Also, Bob Knight Photo and Grad Images, are now just 1 company, not 2, so parents in the future will only need to pre-register at 1 of the sites for their images.
Tim said that this graduation season was very chaotic, they had several Sarasota high school's graduations on the same day, over 3,000 students between the schools, and things ended up not going according to plan otherwise they would have definitely emailed within 24-48 hours like they said.
So even though things got really screwed up initially, Tim went above and beyond to make sure that their customers are happy with the pictures.
So thanks Tim, it's much appreciated.
June 5, 2009
I don't think I could do it.
I have insomnia again, so I have been browsing around the internet and I decided to just go through google images and look at stuff.
I googled all kinds of things, monsters, various kinds of surgical procedures, hairstyles, flowers, shoes, cars, and then I googled hotels and came across the Stratosphere hotel.
I really do not think that I could ever stay at this hotel.
Ever.
It is 113 stories high.
It is 1,149 feet high, and is the tallest building in the west!
I love roller coasters and thrill rides, but at the top of this hotel, they have rides, extreme rides.
There's the 866 foot high X-Scream teeter-totter, the Big Shot, and Insanity, the Ride.
At the top of the hotel.
Ack!
I really do love roller coasters and thrill rides, but I am not a fan of heights, really big heights, so a roller coaster or ride at the top of this hotel would absolutely make me puke, I just don't think I could do it.
I would try it, maybe.
haha
No really, if I could, I would go to Vegas, I would go all of the way up there, I would buy my ticket, I would get on, and then I would have to keep my eyes closed the entire time.
I know that if I opened them and realized that I was at almost 900 feet off the ground, that I would be in an absolute panic and that would make me puke.
Maybe. haha
No, I could probably do it, I'm sure that I could do it, I really do love roller coasters and fast speeds, and roller coasters go by so fast, that the ride would be over so quickly that I wouldn't even have time to realize how far off the ground I was.
I would definitely do it if I could.
Yeah, I would definitely do it.
June 2, 2009
Not impressed with the photography companies at all.
There were 2 photography companies at the graduation, Bob Knight Photo, and Grad Images.
Both companies had parents pre-register, and had the students pre-register at the dress rehearsal as well.
Both companies said that they would email everyone within 24-48 hours immediately after the graduation.
Neither Mark or myself, have received any emails from either company.
I have now emailed both companies 2 times, and tried to call both companies today, and I have not gotten any communication back from either at all.
I was placed on hold for over 15 minutes, and then told that all customer service reps were busy, and to try and call back at a later time.
Not even an automatic email confirmation saying that they got my emails.
I am seriously not impressed with either photography company at all.
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 27, 2009
Carmine sleeping on pile of clothes. his fave spot.
May 27, 2009
Just testing flickr from cell. it doesnt always work for me.
May 26, 2009
Bob Knight Photography?
Has anyone out there ever had any experience with Bob Knight Photography from Tallahassee Florida?
They are the company hired by the school to do the graduation pictures, and because of the class size, the number of people in attendance, I am afraid that they will prevent parents from getting close to the stage to take pictures during the ceremony, and that we will all have to rely on this company for our pictures.
I scoured their site looking for prices and testimonials, but did not find any.
I Googled them for reviews, and found nothing.
I need to know if they will do a good job, first, and second, what the prices will be like.
If anyone has any experience with them and event photos, please leave me a comment telling me what your experience was like, and how much the photos cost.
Thank you!
May 13, 2009
Stopped by the memories.
I am still going through all of the pictures of the teens to have scrapbooks made for them by Christine, but I keep getting stopped by the memories the pictures bring up.
I keep finding all of these super cute pictures of the teens when they were little, things they did like pretending a laundry basket is a submarine, or eating a slice of pizza that was bigger than their head.
I have found about 20 pictures so far that I want to use, but in what order, what captions, what things should be on the pages with those pictures?
I know that Christine will do an amazing job, she is so very talented when it comes to scrapbooking, she's even had some custom rubber stamps made up of her kitty Squeaker, and has been featured in Scrap and Stamp Arts magazine, so I know that once I pick all of the perfect pictures, that the scrapbooks will be done beautifully.
I just really need to get my butt in gear and pick the pictures so that she can get started on them.
I need to stop sitting there remembering the moment, getting all emotional, and crying that my babies have all grown up now.
May 5, 2009
Purex Complete 3-in-1 laundry care review!
A few weeks ago, I saw a thing to sign up to become a product tester for Purex, the laundry detergent, so I signed up.
I never heard anything else about it, so I assumed that I didn't get in.
Today, the FedEx guy knocked on the door and handed me an envelope that said "TOP SECRET", so I opened it up and was blown away by the incredible smell.
I read the letter, and it said, "Congratulations! You are 1 of just 200 people in the whole country who get to try a great new product from Purex to simplify and revolutionize laundry care! You're a Purex Insider!"
See, here's my cute little badge.
So what is this new product that will simplify and revolutionize laundry care?
It's called Purex Complete 3-in-1, and what it is, is 1 single sheet that is laundry detergent, fabric softener, and static control, all rolled into 1 easy step.
This is the basics of it,
I admit, I was so totally skeptical.
1 single sheet could clean, soften, and keep everything static free?
"Yeah right!" I thought.
But I gave it a try.
I took the load of dirty towels from the teens taking showers, some of their shorts, and their smelly t-shirts, and started to fill the washer and dropped 1 sheet into it first.
This is what the sheets look like;
The blue part of the sheet is the laundry detergent and some fabric softener, and the green stripe is heat activated by your dryer, and is also fabric softener and static control.
After you run your clothes through the washer, you move them and the sheet, into the dryer, and that's it, no cup of detergent, no cup of fabric softener, and no static control stuff either, just 1 easy step.
After the dryer stopped, I opened the door and was once again blown away by the incredible smell of the Purex, it really smells great!
I reached in and grabbed a towel, and it was sooo soft!
It wasn't sticking to anything else, and it was just incredibly soft, smelled so good, and was really clean.
I was very impressed, but wanted to try it again, so I did another load of clothes! LoL
The second load came out just as great as the first, clean, soft, no static, and smelled fabulous!
Why didn't someone think of this sooner!?!?
This really does simplify and revolutionize the entire laundry process down to 1 easy step, just 1 sheet does it all, and it does it really, really well.
I absolutely LOVE it!
I have a coupon to get a starter kit absolutely free, and I also got to share it with 3 friends after completing a short questionnaire, and so those ladies will be getting their starter kit free coupons in the mail very soon too.
I can't wait to go get the kit at the store, may have to wait a little bit, they aren't on sale until sometime this month!
April 29, 2009
Blood drippings and cat water.
Yesterday, Mark* donated blood during a blood drive at school.
It was his first time donating blood, so he was really excited and nervous about doing it.
He said it wasn't bad, didn't hurt, although the pin prick to the finger to test his iron levels and get his blood type, didn't feel quite so good.
He had a much older nurse, and she just "sorta jabbed it and then squeezed the crap outta the middle finger", he said.
They had a hard time getting his vein to pop up, so they had to tighten the tourniquet and make him squeeze the ball a bit longer than usual, but they eventually got their pint of blood.
Then they gave him 2 16oz Gatorade's, a Rice Krispie square, a chocolate chip cookie, and a bag of hot fries.
They also gave him a t-shirt and his blood type card.
He's O negative and RH positive.
I knew he was RH positive because I'm RH negative, and he's my first born, so I had to get a shot in my ass to prevent RH disease at 28 weeks and 34 weeks, and another shot right after he was born, like immediately after he popped out.
So there I am on the birthing table, legs spread, getting my episiotomy stitched up by the doctor, and a nurse is jamming a needle into my ass.
The epidural had long worn off, so this was not a pleasant experience.
All of the students who had donated blood, were allowed to be dismissed early, so a lot of the seniors signed and lined up to donate. haha
He got home before I left for my appointment with the cardiac doc, and he was looking a bit pale, so I took him with me.
But now that the blood bank knows that he's O negative, he'll be getting phone calls every few months asking him to donate like I do.
And even though he's a match for my blood type, he can't ever donate to me if I ever end up needing blood during one of my surgeries because he's RH positive, it's non-compatible.
Oh well, I'll just have to self donate again if they tell me I need to.
1 pint a week for 4 weeks, it's rough I tell ya.
Your body just recovers from losing that much blood, and you gotta do it again.
They gave me this huge list of foods to eat to boost my iron and protein back up, I swear, I never ate so much peanut butter and broccoli in my life.
Not at the same time of course, that would be gross.
_______________________
I also wanted to say thanks to Joy for sending the cat water dispenser for my kitties.
It is so perfect for us.
With 4 cats, we were constantly having to wash the water bowl and fill it, sometimes twice every day, and it was this huge mixing bowl that I no longer used, but man, those cats can drink.
So this water dispenser is perfect, it allows just the right amount of water into the bowl, and it keeps the rest of the water free of hair and any other gunk that used to get in the big water bowl.
So thank you very much Joy, it is most appreciated!
And yes, that is cat food on the floor.
Carmine likes to scoop the food out of the bowl with his paw, and then eat them off of the floor.
Weirdo kitty.
Continue Reading �
April 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 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
Flips are all the rage.
I keep seeing and hearing people talk about those Flip Video cameras, and how much people love them, everywhere!
I was watching The View yesterday, and Joy Behar was showing clips of her trip to Washington DC, the White House, and some of the other things she did on her trip, and the videos weren't bad at all, and she used one of these Flip Video cameras to do it.
You can watch some of those clips on their video page.
People everywhere, are talking about them, raving about them, and posting video clips like crazy because of those things, and Buy.com has refurbished ones on sale right now for just $79, the normal price is $179.00, so that's an awesome $100 off!
They do look pretty cool, and they have some great user ratings, mostly 4, 4.5 out of 5 stars, and customers are saying things like;
"Purchased a "reconditioned" flip ultra; it arrived in a sealed package and worked with no major problems."
and..
"I used the Flip 5 minutes after opening the box."
My friend Charlotte, actually bought 1 of these and posted a review on her blog about it.
I also have several other friends who have bought and love their Flip Video cameras too, so it's a cool and cheap camera if you are looking to get 1.
April 19, 2009
Where did ALL of the time go?
That's my baby boy, Mark, at his first birthday party at my Mom and Dad's house blowing out his very 1st birthday candle on his very 1st birthday cake.
On May 30th, he will graduate from high school, and on August 15th, he will turn 18.
Wow.
Mark is my 1st born, I was 21 years old in August 1991, it was like the hottest summer on record in Maine that year, with temps in the high 90s all month long.
It was absolutely miserable for me.
I lived on the 3rd floor of an apartment building with windows facing east, so my apartment heated up all morning long and most of the afternoon, and I had no AC.
It was Maine, it really only gets hot there during July and August, but not so hot you truly needed AC all summer.
I was huge, 9 months pregnant, and sweating my ass off every single day just waiting for my 1st born to make his arrival.
I spent most of July and the beginning of August taking cold showers and then standing naked in front of the window fans just trying to cool off and feel better.
I went into labor, a very rough and long labor, and gave birth at 2:38am on August 15th.
He had a full head of dark brown hair, big brown eyes, and I instantly fell in love with that little baby.
I felt love like I had never felt before in my entire life, it felt like my heart was going to explode every single time I looked at him, held him, rocked him to sleep.
Here was this baby, my baby, he depended on me for everything he needed, and I was so scared that I was going to mess it up, mess him up.
When he was 9 months old, he got sick and was put on amoxicillin, and that's when we discovered he was deathly allergic to it.
He ended up getting pneumonia and almost dying.
I called my mother that morning, crying, absolutely frantic, "Mom! He's burning up, throwing up, help me please!" I screamed into the phone.
My mother drove over, picked us up, and we raced to the ER and they took my baby from my arms and started doing all kinds of tests and things to him.
There were so many wires and an itty bitty little oxygen mask, and doctors and nurses running around the room doing all kinds of things to him, and someone yelled that he wasn't breathing, and I couldn't handle it, my baby wasn't breathing, and I ran out of the room, my mother grabbed me by the shoulders and yelled at me to tell her what was happening.
I told her through screams and tears that he was dying, he wasn't breathing, mommy help me, and she ran into the room.
I collapsed on the floor in a pile of tears and panic in the hallway.
After what felt like hours, a doctor came out and told me that he was ok, he was going to be ok, but he was allergic to the amoxicillin and had an anaphylactic reaction to it, that that's what made him so sick and stop breathing, but he was going to be ok.
They got his fever to come down, they gave him something to get all of the amoxicillin out of his little body, and they were pumping him full of fluids, and I'd be able to take him home much later on that night.
From that day forward, I protected him like crazy.
I knew where he was and what he was doing every second of every single day, I didn't hire any babysitters to watch him for a very long time, I just stayed home and was his mother 24/7.
I made sure that when he started school, that on the forms where it asked for allergies, that amoxicillin was written in Sharpie and capitalized.
I wanted to make sure that if he ever got hurt or something at school, that no doctors or nurses would ever give that to him again, I never wanted to ever be that close to losing my baby ever again.
And here we are, all of these super fast years later, my baby boy is almost a grown man, he'll be attending college, taking pre-law and criminal justice, and later on, he will be applying for the police academy so he can become a police officer.
One of the riskiest jobs that I know of.
My heart nearly stops when I think of that.
Ever since he was a small kid, he wanted to be a cop or a lawyer, always something in the law field, and he also wanted to do some sort of art and/or writing on the side.
He would play with his Batman and other action figures, take old cardboard boxes and get the scissors, and use a whole roll of Scotch tape, my markers, his crayons, and he'd spend hours and hours making buildings, banks for the bad guys to rob, jails to lock them up in, hospitals to have Batman's injuries taken care of, and he'd play for hours and days.
I remember one morning when he and Sebastian were little, it was very early in the morning, and I woke up to pieces of dry cat food being shoved up my nose by Sebastian, and Mark was sitting on my chest yelling into his small plastic walkie talkie, "Backup! We need backup! Hostile witness! Hostile witness!" as he pointed a small plastic gun in my left eye, and trying to slap some small plastic handcuffs on my wrists.
I have no idea why Sebastian was shoving cat food up my nose, but as soon as he realized that my eyes were open, Sebastian tore off out of the room laughing like a maniac.
Mark stayed sitting on my chest still screaming into his walkie talkie that he needed backup.
Perhaps I let him watch too many repeats of Law & Order on some cable channel every afternoon.
He still loves to watch all of the cop/crime dramas with me.
It took me hours to blow out all of the dry cat food pieces from my nose.
I can't believe that my 1st baby is all grown up.
He stands over 6 feet tall, he's built like a linebacker, I pity the dumb criminal who tries to get one over on him because as kind and as loving as he is, he is very strong, he doesn't know his own strength at all.
He used to think getting body hair was disgusting, and I remember the day he noticed he was growing some armpit hairs, how he came running out of the bathroom with a huge grin on his face, arm raised above his head, yelling and screaming for me to see how he was becoming a man.
I oohed and ahhed at the 2 barely there single strands of hair growing in each armpit.
I laughed and smiled with him, and now, not only does he have pit hairs, he has hair everywhere, growing a small mustache and sprouting some chin hairs that I catch him rubbing every now and then.
My baby boy is growing up, grown up, and I sit here and marvel at it, yet completely lost over where the years went.
Did I miss anything?
Do I remember it all?
Will I forget any of it, or all of it?
I want to be here for every bit of it, I never want to miss another milestone in his life.
I'm going to talk to my surgeon about postponing my next surgery until June, after he graduates so I don't miss it.
I want to be there and see it without that awful halo brace and whatever else I end up with, I want to take pictures and video, I want to see him graduate, I want to help him fill out his college paperwork, I want to see him get accepted to the police academy, I want to be there to see it all, every single thing he does in his life.
I still have that same heart exploding feeling when I think of how much I love him, how he changed my entire life for the better.
I am a better person because of him, because of both of my sons, they changed me in ways I never thought possible.
I know what real love is, how deep it can go, how powerful and overwhelming it is because of that very 1st day I laid my eyes on him and held him in my arms.
He gets all embarrassed when I try to hug him now, but he lets me, he gives me these giant but gentle hugs, tells me he loves me, but he has no idea just how much I love him, how proud of him I am, and how much I want to see him succeed and be happy, have a good life.
It's just amazing that he's all grown up now, these years went by way too fast, and I really hope that I didn't miss anything, and I never want to forget any of it, it's been an incredible pleasure being his mother through all of the good, the bad, the fighting, the hard work, all of it, I wouldn't change a single thing even if I could.
March 29, 2009
Moving pictures.
I just found one of those digital picture frames I covet, on sale at Buy.com in their weekly deals, and I want it.
It's an Aluratek Hi-Res Digital Photo Frame, normally $139.99, their price is $99.99, and after the rebate, just $79.99, and free shipping.
It has a nice quality wooden frame, built in speakers so it can playback music while you run your pictures in a slide show, or have no music at all, up to you.
It has 256MB of built in memory, which is great because a lot of the digital frames I have looked at need memory cards, or have to have a usb thumb drive attached in order to show the pictures.
The LCD screen is 10.5", so your pictures display in a really nice size, and it's true color, so however you took the pics or cleaned them up, is how they will look.
It also has room for a memory card in case you want to have more pictures in it than just what the built in memory will hold, but 256 is pretty darn good for most jpegs.
It supports all kinds of formats, too, like picture / video / audio formats such as JPEG, MJPG, AVI, and MP3, so you can have just pictures, or play a little movie, and have music too.
And the other cool thing is that you don't have to just have it on a table, you can hang it on your wall, and turn it on only when you want it to run through the slide show.
So it will look like a normal picture in a frame on the wall, nobody would really notice it until you turned it on with the remote control it comes with.
I have been wanting to get one of these for a really long time to not only have for myself, but to test it out so I can buy one for each of the grandparents, and then fill them both up with pictures of the teens, and then send them with the instructions on how to turn it on and off with the remote.
Make it as easy as possible for them to use, so all they would have to do is turn it on and enjoy the pictures.
There are much cheaper ones out there, but this one has the built in memory like I said, so it's the one I would definitely like to buy for the grandparents.
When I go to buy theirs, I have to make sure it really is as simple as turning it on and off, or they could get frustrated with it and never use it.
Well, not my parents, they are pretty good with their computer, but Great-Gram is very old, refuses to use a computer, and does not have any electronics in her house that are harder to use than a VCR.
We all (all the kids and grand-kids) wanted to pitch in and buy her this email to phone machine thing, so that we all could send her emails over the phone, and the machine would print them out when she pressed a single button.
We would have always supplied and replaced the paper and ink, Aunt Heather sees Gram several times per week, but when we discussed it with Gram, she said it sounded far too complicated to use, so no, do not buy it for her.
*sigh*
So now that I have my taxes back, have paid back my loan and paid off a bunch of bills, I think it's finally time to get one for myself and test it out so I can buy the Grands theirs too.
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 14, 2009
Stalking their prey.
Do your pets watch tv?
Our cats do, they love watching tv, I am always catching Nova and Kali, especially, watching certain shows that I watch, or certain commercials, they actually pay attention.
A few days ago, my sister gave me the video that my cats absolutely love to watch, her cat Binky didn't pay any attention to it, so she gave it to me for my kitties.
It's called Video Catnip
It's all birds and squirrels right up close.
I turn the volume up pretty loud at first so that if the cats are in another room or sleeping, they can hear it, and they come running to watch it.
They can hear the birds chirping and squawking, the woodpeckers chipping away at the trees, and the squirrels chewing on nuts or food, or scratching at a peanut.
They love this movie and it is so funny to put it on and watch them try to catch the animals.
I love having our digital cameras close by, I keep them right on the coffee table, my camera, Sebastian's, and even my cell phone has been used a few times to catch the kitties stalking their prey.
Check these few pics out from earlier this afternoon when I put the movie on.
Here's Nova the fat, no-tailed kitty just watching the birds at first.
And here she is trying to get up and close so she can "catch" 1 on a bird feeder.
Finally, here's Shahiro trying to get the birdie from another angle, from the side table, paw outstretched, trying to reach into the tv and get the birdie.
She kept pawing at the screen every time a bird or squirrel moved to the side of the stump they were on and eating the birdseed that was there, or if 1 of them moved to her side of the tv.
Hahah!
It is so funny when I put the video on for them, one of these days I really need to take a movie of it because all 3 of the cats will try and catch the birds and squirrels.
All 3 of them meow really loud when they try and catch 1 and they can't, they look at me as if to say;
"You saw me grab it with my paws right?! How come I didn't actually get it? I had it in my paws woman! I had it! What the hell kind of birdie is this that I can grab it and not get it?! I wants it! Gimme that squirrel!"
Oh, and they love the squirrels the best, every time there's a squirrel on the screen, they go nuts and will get up on the side table, the tv stand, they will go behind the tv to see if there's another way "in", they get on top of the tv, they jump at the screen, it's freaking hysterical to watch!
I promise, I'll try to get a video of them watching it and trying to catch their prey, it's the funniest thing ever.
Continue Reading �
February 28, 2009
Too early to start cleaning.
I've been awake all night again, can't sleep, but hey, what's new about that?
Nothing!
I'm feeling tons better and have so much to do today, but it's far too early to start, I'll wake the teens, and they need all the rest they can get because we've got some heavy duty cleaning to do today.
They are gonna be tired tonight!
So because it's so early and I can't do much of anything that needs to be done, I figured I'd go and see what's on sale this week.
I found this 7-port LED USB hub, which would be totally useful for me.
I have 3 USB ports on my pc, but I have a whole bunch of things that use the ports, so every time i need to use 1 of the different electronics, I have to unplug something else.
I have my Cannon scanner, my printer, my photo printer, my mp3 player, my picture keychain, my camera, , and a couple other things that either use the USB ports to upload, or use them to charge the items.
One USB hub would be perfect.
I could always have all of the USB cords plugged in so at any given moment, I could just plug in what I needed to use, instead of having to unplug 1 or 2 things, find the other USB cords, plug those back in, when done, find the right USB cords to plug the other stuff back in.
Yeah, totally confusing and a total time waster too.
It's not a bad price either, but not right now.
I'll just add it to my list of things I want when i get ahead on bills and other things.
February 22, 2009
NuWave Pro Oven product review.
Like I posted yesterday, I received the Nuwave Pro Oven
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.
January 26, 2009
Clay kitty.
Years ago, like when we first moved here to Florida, so 12 years now, my sister made me a clay kitty.
She's quite the artist, clay, paint, photo, sculpture, wire, all kinds of artistic mediums.
Anyway, she made me this clay kitty and I love him so much.
He's seen some bad times in the last 12 years, a fall off a shelf which resulted in his head being broken off, dust, dirt, his real hair whiskers coming out, but he is still beautiful to me.
He's made of clay, he has blue marble eyes, his whiskers are her hair, strands of her real hair, most of them have now come out, he was baked slowly in an oven, had a broken neck which is now super glued, but he is still the most awesome little clay kitty ever.
She is currently working on building a mini carousel, she's started to hand paint each individual clay horse, and she will be building the whole carousel, adding music, and making it spin as well.
This is one of my most fave things she makes, trees out of wire.
This is one that she currently has entered into a local artists fair, and when the judges were going around to just look at new entrants, they all stopped and remarked how they had never seen anything like this.
This is a huge one, but she has made small ones out of gold or silver wire, mostly scrap wire from old electronics that broke.
This is a whole bunch of scrap wire she found in a junk pile, and she made this amazing tree out of it.
I'm almost positive that she will win the artists fair for this piece.
*EDIT*
Jo left a comment, she did win first place for the tree!
"I did win a first place ribbon on the tree".
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 8, 2009
Picture project!
As I said in the post below, I would love to have some nice scrapbooks of the teens, but I suck at that kind of stuff.
Both Leeanne and Christine offered to scrapbook some pictures for me, and I appreciate the offers so so much, but I know Christine's scrapbooking work really well, and we've known each other a very long time now.
Every year for my birthday, and the teens birthdays, and holidays, she has made us THE most beautiful handmade cards, I've kept each and every one of them and so have the teens.
Anyway, I've known Christine for so long, (online now for something like, oh gosh, 7 years. I've been blogging since 1997 as of this month on the 10th, so 12 years blogging for me, and I met her through blogging shortly after that when she started blogging in 2002) and I know what kind of scrapbooking work she does not only because of the cards she has made for us, but I've seen her post many of her works on her blog, and she's even been featured in scrapbooking magazines like this one she did of her beloved Squeaker kitty who sadly passed away.
So anyway, we are going to start doing 2 scrapbook memory books for the teens.
She's going to get 2/ 12 x 12 inch screw post albums, in each, we will have layouts for each year of their lives, from birth on.
At least one two page (facing pages) layout for each year.
So what my part of the project will be is to go through all of the pictures of the teens, (there are so many!) and picking out the 2 best pictures from each year of their lives, scan them at high-res so she has the best possible images to work with, and tell her a little bit about each picture so she knows what kind of pages to make for each picture, and then I'll email the pictures and details to her, and she'll make the pages and memory books.
This is going to be a huge project for both of us, and lucky for me, Christine loves to scrapbook and she's so good at it.
She said it's a lot of fun and that she'd love to do it for me and the teens, so yeah, I'm totally taking her up on the offer.
I will be paying for the albums and any other supplies she may need to get, and if she'd take it, I'd pay her for doing it, but I know she won't take my money, but it won't stop me from trying to give it to her...LOL
So beginning tomorrow, I'm going to go dig out all of the photo albums, boxes, the suitcase, and all of the various packets of photos that I have around the house, and get started sorting them out by kid, and then I'll go through them all and find the best pictures from each year of their lives for their memory books.
This is going to be a lot of fun, but I'll bet you anything that as soon as I start going through all of the baby and younger year pictures, that I start bawling my eyes out and wondering where all of the time went.
I was looking at some pictures the other night and got all teary, so this is going to make me need to stock up on the kleenex. haha
Added some samples behind the cut of the many cards Christine has made and sent us over the years.
Continue Reading �
January 8, 2009
What to do with it all?
I have just tons and tons of pictures of the kids, some in albums, some in boxes, some in bags, I even have a ton of them in a suitcase.
I would love to do them up right and do some scrapbooking with them, make all those really nice pages and stuff, but A) I don't have the patience, and B) I don't have the talent for it.
I really would love to, but I can't.
I wonder if there are companies or people who do that for a living?
Scrapbook someone else pictures for them?
If there isn't, there should be.
It would help all of the non-scrappy talent people like me have nice picture books of our families.
January 6, 2009
6th picture folder meme.
Belle didn't actually tag anyone for this one, she said You, you, and YOU, so I figured she meant me, so here's the rules and my 6th picture folder picture.
1. Go to your Picture Folder on your computer or wherever you store your pictures.
2. Go to the 6th Folder and then pick the 6th Picture.
3. Post it on your blog and tell the story that goes with the picture.
4. Tag 5 other glorious people to do the same thing and leave a comment on their blog telling them about it.
Here's mine:
These roses are 7 years old, I know, they look like it too...LoL
They were given to me by an ex-boyfriend, and they were so pretty, that when they started to die, I couldn't stand the thought of losing them forever, so I saved them.
I went out and bought a can of Aquanet, and then hung the roses, the whole bouquet, upside down, and once a day every day for a week, I sprayed them with the Aquanet.
As they died, the hairspray kept them from falling apart, no petals fell, no leaves, the babies breath didn't fall apart either.
They are still in pretty good shape, I dust them off once a month with my blow dryer, and the petals and leaves still don't fall off.
That's probably because I soaked every single part of each flower with the hairspray, they are stiff, so nope, they aren't budging.
I kinda think they are even prettier all dead than when they were fresh.
And like Belle, I'm not specifically tagging anyone, so like she said and I'm quoting, "I'm tagging you, you, you, you, and you. Yeah, YOU! And be sure to let me know if you did it!"
January 2, 2009
He likes yarn.
Carmine is a yarn cat, he really digs the stuff.
I bet if I were to give him a ball of yarn, he'd be in kitty heaven.
We know he really likes it because he chewed a whole in my blanket, and he has been going after some home made ornaments on my tree.
My mom and a few aunts, had made me some crocheted and knitted ornaments over the years, and Carmine has been attacking them constantly.
So much so that I had to take several of them and move them higher up on the tree.
The tree will be coming down Sunday, but he really, really wanted this little yellow peanut M&M ornament that my Aunt Josephine had made, and a Nutcracker one that my mom had made.
I moved both of them higher up on the tree, and he got sad.
I'm not kidding.
He sat below the tree staring up at it meowing mournfully over them.
So I gave him the nutcracker and he's been in kitty heaven all afternoon.
December 28, 2008
Carmine chewed a hole in my blanket.
He did, and I caught him doing it, so I filmed him.
Little bastard is so cute I can't be mad at him.
And yes, I think I am falling in love with the little fuzzball, I sound like a total dork, and I cannot believe I uploaded it to youtube, but oh well.
December 28, 2008
Dead Possum!
Dead possum in the street. ha! i hate possums!
December 28, 2008
Carmine the kitty pictures.
I uploaded just some of the pictures the teens took yesterday of Carmine the kitty, to my flickr account.
They had taken a ton of pictures, not all of them good either.
Blurry, fingers in the way, hair strands in the way, out of focus, just messy, so I only uploaded some of the better ones.
Christie had asked to see them, so there they are for everyone to see, and my flickr is public so anyone can see all of the pictures I've uploaded there.
I'm not a great photographer at all, not even good, it's not even a hobby, I just like to take pictures to have the memories.
I would LOVE to be a great photographer like Robyn, or Jen, those ladies are simply fantastic, and I love their eye for those just so perfect shots, the beautiful colors they get, the softness and beauty they capture, but I'm just a mom with a Sony Cybershot
I took this picture of Mark the other night petting Carmine who has commandeered one of the boxes from Beall's that had one of the hoodies for the teens for Christmas.
Mark is seriously in love with this cat.
December 24, 2008
Just until we find his owners.
It's been a bit cold here at night the last few nights, and about 3-4 days ago when taking the trash out around 8pm, I heard this wicked loud meow from the bushes in the side yard.
I saw this bundle of white and orange fur come running from the bushes toward me, but it stopped before reaching me.
I went inside and had Mark get a small bowl of cat food and another bowl of water, and we set them out and called to the cat.
We backed up a few paces and let it come eat.
It scarfed down the food and practically drowned itself drinking the water.
I have been feeding it every day since, and tonight, it let me pet him, and then it started rubbing all over my legs and Mark's legs too.
Seeing as how it was going to be cold again tonight, we brought him in the house.
At first, I thought it was a female, that's what I told Christine in my email a few hours ago anyway, but nope, it is a gorgeous, long-haired, fluffy, and soft-as-a-bunny, male cat.
Feeding him outside.
He made himself right at home on my living room sofa laying on Sebastian's big quilt. (Formerly my big quilt, but Sebastian pilfered it)
He is quite the lover, he absolutely loves people, loves to be on laps, loves to be pet, loves to cuddle right up against people, so when Sebastian laid down and took a quick nap, he just cuddled right up between the couch and Sebastian's arm pit, and went to sleep too.
He then found his way to my room and jumped up on my bed and dozed off with Nova, who isn't quite sure what to think of him, but at least she's not hissing and being all pissed off like Kali and Shahiro are about this new feline in their home.
We are going to be on the lookout for posters on telephone poles and the windows of the corner store, I'm going to print a few out myself and hang them up, and hopefully the owner will be found.
I really can't afford to keep another cat, but for the time being, I cannot leave him outside in the cold at night.
The way he devoured the food and water those first few nights he was outside, tells me that he's been outside for at least a week with nothing to eat.
He's in good health, not emaciated, no fleas, but also no collar to tell us who his owner is, but somehow this beautiful cat got outside and is lost.
He smells like old lady, you know how old ladies smell right?
Well he smells like that, so I'm thinking that some old lady either accidentally let him out, died, or was rushed away by ambulance, and in the ensuing chaos, this lovable guy got out and got locked out.
He is such a sweet lover-boy kitty, someone loved him a lot, he just loves people so so much, so I know whoever owns him took care of him until he somehow got out and got lost.
I'm really thinking that his getting out was some sort of accident, and either the owner is in the hospital or dead, or maybe just away on Christmas vacation, who knows, and I'm going to do everything I can to find his owner, but in the meantime, he's going to stay here in the house where it's safe and warm, and he can get and give lots of good loving like he's obviously used to.
November 24, 2008
Yay! It works awesome!
About 2-3 weeks ago, I bought an HP photosmart printer off a guy on the local forums for just $25.
I just now got around to testing it out, I haven't been feeling well enough to exert the energy required to plug it all in and stuff.
But anyway, I plugged it in, and the guy even included the ink cartridge with it, it has almost full ink in it, (yay!) and so I printed out a picture to test it.
And my friend Christine had snail mailed me some 4x6 photo paper for it, so I got to see how the pics would really look.
I chose to print this one of my nieces when they were here a few weeks ago.
I got them to smile so big by making them scream boogersnots instead of the standard cheese.
They were laughing so hard from saying boogersnots, they gave the perfect big smiles.
I love the new printer, it's small, only a little bit bigger than an alarm clock radio really, but it works freaking awesome.
Now I can take really nice pictures of the teens and send them to Great Grammy.
She's the only family member who doesn't have a computer, so getting pictures to her is actually difficult for me.
Well not difficult, but time consuming you know?
Gotta take a memory card to Walgreen's, put it in the machine, mess around with it and print them out, mail them etc.
Most of the time I would just email pics to Aunty Heather and tell her to print them out, but now I can just print pics at home and mail them out to her myself.
All for just $25.
The printer normally sells for about $100.
Bargain!
November 23, 2008
It would look nicer.
I'm going to start looking for some cheap, really cheap, but nice cabinet pulls.
I want you to see what I've been dealing with for the 10 years I've lived here.
Check out these nasty pulls!
I've even removed them and soaked them in that lime-away stuff, and they do not come clean, so after all these years, I'm just going to look for some new ones, cheap, and just replace all of the cabinet pulls in the kitchen.
There are 16 individual pulls, so that's not bad at all, I've been in huge kitchens that had over one hundred pulls, so I can handle finding 16 cheap but nice looking pulls.
They need to be sorta brass looking to match the drawer handle pulls, but these yucky things have got to go!
November 11, 2008
George Foreman G-broil product review.
If you're like most people these days, like me, then you are trying to do as much healthy living as you possibly can.
That means working out, buying healthy foods, getting plenty of rest, drinking tons of water, and doing a lot of healthy cooking.
One of the easiest ways to do a little healthy cooking, is to cut out the fat from the foods you eat.
I recently got a chance to review a new George Foreman G-broil grill, and I love it!
I have one of the very first grills that he made, and it's tiny (the old one) in comparison to this one, the G-broil.
It has a much, much bigger cooking surface, and comes with 2 drip trays and 2 spatulas, to make getting your food off the grill and cooked on foods, slide right off.
The new George Foreman G-broil grill has a floating hinge lid so that you can broil (duh!) steaks or chicken, and cook thicker cuts of meat or thick, juicy burgers, and is great for melting cheese or browning the top of foods you are cooking in it.
And just like all George Foreman grills, it's non-stick so you don't have to use any oils or cooking sprays which can add extra fats to your food.
It has the same slanted design as all of his other grills, so that the grease and fats drain off of your food, not stay in it.
If the fat stays in, it goes inside of you!
One of the things I really like about the new G-broil grill, is that it has a locking mechanism on the sides so that you can lock it up, and store it up right on your counter, or in your cupboards, for much easier storage.
I now have mine on my counter because it's a cooking gadget that I have used almost every single day since getting it.
I wanted to make a quick video to show you how nice and easy this G-broil grill is to use, so I made a practice one of the dinner I'm making for the teens and I for dinner tonight.
I'm actually cooking those for our dinner right now, but I made the practice one for my lunch today, and made the video as I went.
The really super easy recipe is right here;
Grilled chicken cordon bleu.
3-6 boneless chicken breasts (based on family/serving sizes)
3-6 slices of your favorite ham sliced from the deli (based on family/serving sizes)
3-6 slices of extra sharp cheese (based on family/serving sizes)
bread crumbs
Flatten the chicken breasts inside plastic wrap with rolling pin or meat mallet (no mess!)
Place 1 slice of ham, and 1 slice of cheese on chicken, roll up
Roll in bread crumbs and place on grill for 5-7 minutes or until chicken juices run clear
and enjoy!
October 30, 2008
Multi-action pictures.
My sister Jo is really good at anything artsy, pictures, photoshop, clay, painting, all kinds of stuff, but one of the things she does that I just love are these multi-action photoshopped pictures.
She took some pictures of the girls, and then photoshopped them in sequence.
I just love them, they look so cool, and I'd love to have her do some of the teens at some point doing something.
I also wish I could find the one she did of her sister Janice riding her horse in all her equestrian riding apparel, in sequence riding around the farm and even doing jumps with her horse.
I posted one of these she did of her stepdaughter Kayla before, but she just did these ones.
She'd love to be able to do this as some sort of business, people could take a whole bunch of pics in as close a sequence as possible, and then she could fix them like this, and then the people could frame them and hang them up.
They are really neat, check them out! *clickable for biggie size*
October 25, 2008
Sebastian is an awesome kid.
Yup, I'm bragging about my youngest son, because he is truly awesome.
I decided that I would try my hand at doing the grocery shopping today, him and I like we used to, but we had to cab it there and back as I can't walk that far yet.
But I did it with his help.
I can't lift stuff, or see the high shelves to get food items and stuff, so he helped me the whole way through the entire store, and didn't complain not even once.
I ended up very tired when I got home, it took a lot out of me to just get what little bit we did get, but it felt really good to be able to do the shopping again.
I have been getting a little depressed here and there over my neck stuff, so doing something as boring as the food shopping is a big accomplishment for me, and lifted my spirits up quite a bit today.
I accidentally ended up leaving Publix with 2 of their logo promotional pens because I had to sign the credit slip at the register, and then I had to sign another paper at the service desk giving the teens the right to shop with all of my debit/credit cards if I can't do the shopping myself all of the time.
The manager photocopied all of my cards, wrote down my full name as it appears on the cards, the teens names and ages, and my state ID number, and so I had to sign that for them or they wouldn't let the teens shop with my cards.
Sometime last week when they went, one cashier refused to let them pay for the groceries with my card, she thought they had stolen it and were just buying stuff they wanted, and it probably did look that way.
I told them to go to the store and get dinner for themselves, whatever they wanted, and get me some tomato soup, pudding, and more yogurts to eat, and they bought subs, hot wings, chips and dip, some beef jerky, a 12 pack of coke, and some candy, so I can sorta see how she thought the may have stolen it, and she was a new cashier.
So the teens had to go to the service desk, talk to the manager on duty, and give her my phone number to call me and verify "their story".
The manager on duty knows all of us, but she had to follow protocol, and speak with me.
I explained my health issues to her, read my card number back to her, (I'm like the Rain Man, I have all of my debit/credit card numbers and security codes memorized) and told her that yes, the teens had the right to do the shopping and buy all the food they did, and when I could come in, I would show them who I am and set this stuff up again.
I had set it up before going into surgery, but I guess they lost it.
But enough of that stuff, wanna see some pictures?
Sure you do!
We found this little guy in the driveway tonight, he's alive, no one and no animal hurt him, well not my animals anyway.
He was just taking his sweet time sliding around on the smooth concrete, going who knows where.
This is so cute in my opinion, Kali and Shahiro have taken over the end of my bed ever since I put my really thin "winter" blanket on it now.
Every time I go in my room, there they are, sound asleep curled up with each other.
I have some other pictures I have taken over the last few weeks too, but I'll post them later.
I really should start using my photoblog again eh?
I have gobs of pictures on my pc that I haven't uploaded to that blog in like 3 years now, it's just sitting there wasting away.
October 9, 2008
Some yummy goodness coming soon!
I was contacted and asked if I would like to try some new frozen meal products from a very trusted and well known name brand, I, of course, said yes, and I'll be posting about it very soon.
I got some of the products from them today in these really huge boxes.
The UPS man showed up around 9:45am, and just started bringing these big boxes in, I had him place them on my couch because I'm not allowed to lift more than 5lbs, and to also not bend over to pick stuff up off of the floor.
The boxes weren't heavy at all, less than 5lbs, maybe a little more, but I only carried one at a time out to the kitchen, and then I unpacked them.
There was so much stuff in those boxes!
I am so excited about it, and I promise you that once I go and get some of the frozen meal products from the store, they gave me coupons to get these items absolutely free, I will tell you all about it.
I can hardly wait!
They included a ton of information about the frozen meals, a DVD that explains everything, press releases, the coupons, and a whole bunch of printed out recipes to use with some of the other products they sent me, and some blank recipe cards to jot down my own recipes on.
Inside both boxes were several rolls of each of the following: Pillsbury Cinnamon Rolls, Cinnabon to be exact, minis and regular size, some Pillsbury Pizza Crust, and some Pillsbury Crescent Rolls.
There are so many printed out recipes for some very tasty sounding foods like, Caramel Apple Strudel, Crab-Filled Crescent Wantons, Mini Pear Brie Bites, Prosciutto Spinach Pinwheels, Rosemary Turkey Squares, and then some recipes for some other things like side dishes, pastas and easy green bean recipes, flavorful mashed potato recipes, and oh my gosh, so so many wonderful sounding foods, and I cannot wait to be able to make some of these and to be ready and able to tell you all about these new frozen meals!
I just need to get up to the only store in my area that carries this new product so far, and then I'll be trying them all out, posting about them, taking some pictures of them too so you can all see them, and maybe sharing a few goodies with all of you! 
October 5, 2008
2 days left for the boobies!
I just wanted to remind you all, that there are only 2 days left for the 7th annual Blogger Boobie-thon.
That means you have 2 days to make a donation, or 2 days to send in a picture, but just 2 days to do something to help fund the cure for breast cancer research.
As of 9:30pm on Sunday October 5th, the boobie-thon reached 100 donors, 150 submitted pictures, and a total of $7,556.00!
We've beat last years total by $1,890.00.
That's awesome!
Over the last 7 years, bloggers from around the world, have raised over $40,000 for the Susan G. Komen Foundation for breast cancer research.
It's so amazing that a bunch of bloggers have been able to do so much good and have some fun doing it.
If you haven't donated yet, if you haven't sent in your picture yet, you still have time, not much, we have just 2 more days to go, but there's still time for you to help make a difference, to help fund the cure for breast cancer.
September 2, 2008
Still no antenna yet.
Buy.com still hasn't put the antenna I want on sale yet, but they do have some really great other deals this week if you're looking for stuff to buy.
They have a Kingston 16gb digital high capacity card on sale for $49.99, it's usually $93.00, so that's an awesome buy.
I only have a 1gb, and I never seem to run out of room on my camera, but I'm sure other people who take gobs and gobs of pictures, could fill the 16gb up in no time flat.
They also have a 4gb Sandisk Sansa Fuze MP3 player on sale for a really good price.
I absolutely LOVE my Sandisk MP3 player, love it! So I always tell people who are looking for an MP3 player who don't want to or have the money to spend on a bigger name brand, to seriously try out the Sandisks, they are awesome.
Everyone I know who has one loves theirs, so I know it's not just me thrilled with mine, it's a great little mp3 player.
They also have an awesome deal on an HD DVD player with 2 free HD movies included, Bourne Identity and 300, for just $59.99, and it was $299.99, so yeah, if you need a new HD DVD player, you may want to jump on that deal like super fast.
They always have some really good deals on stuff, so I keep checking it, waiting for them to put the stuff I need on sale, and figured I'd share ome of the better deals with all of you.
August 30, 2008
Susan and scares.
My super cutie niece Susan is here today, she brought some movies like Blues Clues, and The Last Unicorn
She loves taking it, and she's so good at it.
We talked about her new school, she goes to kindergarten now, amazing.
I haven't seen The Last Unicorn in a long, long time, a true Rankin/Jules classic.
If you've never seen it, you should.
It's just a truly beautiful story line and film.
We're watching that one right now and eating lunch, but we just got done watching one of my all time faves and the one Christine surprised me with this week, The Nightmare Before Christmas (2-Disc Collector's Edition) + Digital Copy
I of course sang along to every song, the teens did too, we all love this movie.
And the DVD version is a great copy, it's mastered so well, the images so crisp and vibrant, the sounds clear, a really good dvd version.
I snapped this pic of one of the ending scenes (Poor Jack) where Jack realizes that he wasn't meant to have Christmas, that Halloween really is his day, it is the reason he exists, and he the reason it means so much to so many.
Well, what the heck, I went and did my best
And, by God, I really tasted something swell
And for a moment, why, I even touched the sky
And at least I left some stories they can tell, I did!
And for the first time since I don't remember when
I felt just like my old bony self again
And I, Jack, the Pumpkin King
That's right! I am the Pumpkin King, ha, ha, ha!
Such a cool movie, I can't wait to watch all the extras later on.
Danny Elfman is a genius in my opinion.
His words, his music, the motion, it's what makes the movie so special.
August 25, 2008
Pit hairs and mommy thoughts.
That is Sebastian's armpit.
He came to me last night right before bed, all excited.
"Mom! Come see! Come see in the light! I have pit hairs!"
Can I take a picture? Can I blog it?
"Yes! You can take a pic! You can blog it! This is awesome! I have pit hairs! Woo hoo!"
Ok, be right there buddy. Hahaa
So I went in the bathroom and he raised his arm up.
There in his little 15 year old armpits, were a few strands of hair, maybe 6 or 7, maybe less.
But the fact that he finally had pit hairs was a major huge deal to him.
He had this huge cheesy grin on his face, his cheeks were beat red from a combination of laughing and embarrassment over his excitement about "starting to become a man."
He called Mark to come in and see it all too.
Mark laughed, he laughed, and then he begged Mark to show off his manly pit hairs.
Mark took off his shirt, and Sebastian's glee turned to embarrassment and a sort of sadness.
"Mark has more than me, he's really hairy, more man than me."
I explained to him that having lots of pit hairs isn't what makes a man a man, it's the things that man will do in his life that will make him a man.
Then he looked down at Mark's legs which are covered in dark hair, then lifted his own leg up, rubbed it up and down a few times, and then told me to rub it, to feel that hairs are starting to grow there too.
I obliged him and said "Yup, I feel them growing, you'll have lots of blond hairs on both your legs soon enough, this is your year young man."
He got that big cheesy red-cheeked grin back on his face, and then ran to jump in his bed where he waited for me to come in and do the blanket flip to 'tuck him in'.
I've been doing the blanket flip almost every single night since he was 3 or 4 years old.
He lays down flat on his back, I grab two ends of his blanket, and do the huge flipping motion to make it float back down and cover him completely.
He always giggles, gets red faced, and then tells me he loves me, he'll see me in the morning.
I give him a kiss on his forehead, tell him I love him, turn off his light, and go to say goodnight to Mark.
Mark who is older, more mature, and hasn't wanted his blanket flipped in several years now, is already in his bed, blanket on, doesn't want to be tucked in or kissed goodnight.
He prefers instead to high-five me, says "love ya", and I tell him I love him and then pull the string to turn off his light and leave his room.
They are my kids, my baby boys, but they are becoming men right before my eyes with all the teenage giggles and embarrassment of growing hairs in all those places that hairs grow.
They are also as different as night and day, two totally opposite people with different ideas of fun, different life plans are being mapped out, they fight all of the time, yet they are also the best of friends.
They are both kind and respectful towards others, they helped our landlord this afternoon haul the crap from the newly emptied duplex apartment next door, to the curb.
It is amazing how much crap the old neighbors left behind.
A washing machine, a huge rusted out meat smoker that was behind the house, a kitchen table, boxes, all kinds of stuff.
He had to rip out all of the carpeting from every room, they really did a number on that apartment, but he's going to be fixing and cleaning, re-painting, and laying down all new carpeting.
He's been in there every day for a few hours a day, just busting his ass to clean up the property.
We asked if he needed help, he kept saying no, but both boys saw him struggling to haul things out and all the way to the end of the drive, and they just jumped in and started grabbing the ends of the carpet rolls and huge wooden beams that neither the landlord or myself, knew where the hell they came from, and helped him take it all out.
In between helping him haul stuff, they mowed our lawn, and Sebastian even did a few rows near the drive, he can't go all the way into the grass due to some underground hornets nests and his allergies, but he helped as much as he could.
Mark has a head cold, he's all congested, so Sebastian is trying to help him with his chores.
It was hot out there, Mark had to keep coming in, drinking a lot of water, and standing in front of the AC to cool down.
When they finally finished with everything, I gave him a couple cold tablets and told him to lay on the couch with the cold AC blowing on him, and kept refilling his water glass.
I finished making dinner, they ate, and are now playing some video game together.
It's quiet in there, a little too quiet actually.
I fully expect some name calling or some sort of disagreement to break out soon.
That's how they roll.
One minute, best buds working in perfect harmony, the next, shouting at each other and ready to gouge out each other's eyeballs.
It still amazes me every day that these are my little boys, my babies.
They used to be so small, so needy, so cuddly.
They are grown up, growing up, and becoming really cool and interesting people.
I marvel at this whole mommy job every day.
It's constantly changing, my role that is.
It used to be the do it all for them role, cut up their foods into itty bitty pieces, bathe them, cuddle, read, play, tie their shoes and all kinds of other things.
Now my role is basically cook and laundry do-er.
They can do everything else for themselves, they don't need cuddling anymore, they don't need help tying their shoes, they just keep on growing up and doing for themselves, becoming their own individual people and doing it all on their own.
It's been such an interesting ride, at times I feel like I missed a few things along the way, but watching them, having some intense conversations with them, I think whatever I did miss out on seeing or being a part of, I somehow caught up with it anyway.
They really are turning out pretty freaking awesome.
They are mine, they are their own, and they will be really awesome men when they get older.
August 18, 2008
Bye, thanks for the mess to clean up.
My neighbors have officially moved out.
They were mostly finished on Sunday evening, they came back today for just a couple more things, and then her husband came back over supposedly to clean up all the trash.
Wanna see his idea of cleaning up all the trash?
You can click for bigger.
He pushed all of their trash cans over near mine, and just dumped a bunch of stuff on top of them.
Broken garbage bags, pool floaties, moldy wet carpets, all kinds of crap.
Then over on that side of the duplex, is all the rest of their garbage.
There's no trash pickup tomorrow, it will come on Wednesday instead, but they aren't going to be coming back to put theirs to the curb.
Her husband said to me after I went out and told him about the no trash pick up due to the storm, "Well your boys can take care of this on Tuesday night then. You were good neighbors, the wife is really sad about leaving you, you were a good friend to her. All she's done is cry because we're moving away from you. Call her every now and then would ya? She really cares about you and your boys."
She is a good woman deep down, no matter how messed up their lives were, she did try to be a good person, she did care, and I know that when we said our goodbyes on Sunday, she was really choked up about moving away from us.
She said she didn't know what she was going to do now, what will happen to her when she has another diabetes spell, I was always there, I always heard her and came over to help, what's she gonna do, she just kept saying.
I told her she could call me anytime, I couldn't go to her, no car, but she could talk to me whenever she wanted.
She just cried even more.
But damn that man for leaving all that fucking trash for us to take care of.
The boys and I will take care of it, I don't want the landlord to have to deal with it, he works so much as it is, and he's going to have to do some major cleaning in there before he can rent it out again, so we'll deal with their trash on Tuesday night.
Well, whatever doesn't get blown away in tomorrow's storm.
I just can't believe they left all of that crap.
At the curb, he put a huge blue sectional sofa and a microwave before I finally realized someone was out there and told him about the no trash pick up.
I should have just let him take it all to the curb had I known he was going to be an ass and not come back to take care of it himself.
Sometimes, I just don't think things all the way through.
August 18, 2008
Fay makes pretty painted skies.
Tropical storm Fay is no longer a cat 1, but it will still be windy, we may still lose power, but right now, the skies are gorgeous.
Like fire, pinks, blues, it's just beautiful out there.
August 14, 2008
Digital picture frames.
If I didn't have to still get the teens all of their clothes, shoes, and backpacks for school still, I would totally take advantage of Buy.com's weekly sale they are having right now.
They have a Nextar 7" digital picture frame on sale for just $39.99.
They are normally $120.00, so this sale price is a HUGE savings of $90 off the normal price.
I want to get two of them, 1 for each grandparent's house, and then every few months, fill up a small memory card with all new pictures, and mail it off to them with the super easy instructions for taking out the old one, and popping in the new one.
It would make it so the grandparents have fresh pictures of all of their grandkids every 4-6 months, that would play in a rotation on their desk, coffee table, or nightstand, all of the time.
It features:
* picture Rotation And Review
* slideshow Functions
* black and Acryllic Frame
* supports Jpeg Pictures
* compatible With Sd", Mmc, Ms Cards And Jump Drives
Buy.com is also offering free shipping on this item, so I could get two of them, for less than the price of one, and pay no shipping on them.
They only have a limited stock, so by the time I do get the money for them, they won't have any left, and then the price will go back up, which is my standard luck.
Oh well.
I will keep looking at the weekly deals.
I'm still waiting for them to put up HD tv antennas.
August 3, 2008
Now I need new sandals.
Thanks to Kali and Shahiro, I now have to buy new sandals.
See, they are always rubbing on, licking, and chewing on my sandals whenever I come home from anywhere and take them off.
I'm not exactly sure why, but I think it may have something to do with my diabetes.
When I get even a little bit sweaty, my skin smells very sweet, like candy almost, it's weird, I've heard it's not a good thing to smell like that, but it's not an unpleasant smell at all.
I find it rather pleasant myself.
Anyway, the two cats have rubbed on, licked on, and chewed on my sandals, so when I was at the grocery store I was having problems.
I couldn't figure out why my right one felt so weird, it just didn't feel right, and I was so busy walking around and getting what I needed, I didn't stop to take a look until we were almost done.
I finally looked down and the left side of one of the sandal straps on my right one, was completely unattached!
I couldn't very well leave it like that, it was driving me crazy, so I had Sebastian undo the stitching on the other side of the strap and take it off.
I placed the strap into my purse, and maybe I'll fix it or just go and buy some new ones if I can remember where I got them.
They are Dr. Scholl's, and they were so so comfy!
I loved these sandals!
I can't be having the kitties destroying my shoes all the time, so maybe I could find and take them to some kind of sneaky vet or a charlotte north carolina dentist, and get their little incisors filed down or coated in like rounded plastic caps or something.
I can't lose good and comfy shoes and sandals because they like the taste of my sweet sweaty feet.
August 2, 2008
She needs to be on a diet.
This is Nova the fat cat after we just gave her a bath.
I had to give her a bath because she is so fat that she cannot clean herself.
The funny thing is, she really doesn't eat all that much.
Shahiro is the piggy kitty, Nova gets whatever crumbs Kali and Shahiro leave in the food bowl.
Sometimes we do slip her some people food, she is the one who likes Corn Pops cereal, spaghetti, Gold Fish crackers etc, but we don't give her people food all of the time.
Part of her weight issue is her breed, every cat who has been the same as her, has been a big huge fat cat, it's something in their genetics.
She's a combination of Egyptian Mau and standard alley cat.
They need to make a special cat food with diet pills in it for super fat cats.
Like, Purina Fat Cat Chow, now with Fenphedra!
"Help your special fatty kitty lose weight while they chow down like the piggy kitties they are!"
Hahaha!
Some cats do need the help, Nova is seriously a huge fatty, I weighed her the other day and she is BIG.
I held her in my arms and stepped on the scale, and then I put her down and stepped back on the scale, and then deducted the weight of her and I together, from the weight of just me.
Nova weighs 26.5 pounds.
She needs some diet pills!
August 2, 2008
Pretty pictures at my fingertips.
I've been randomly surfing around the internet tonight, following links from one blog to a site, then from that site to another site, and then to another and another, and I don't recall what site I was on, but I saw a link for Winter Park real estate, and thought it was for homes in Winter Park Florida, so I clicked on over because it's a really nice area, and if I was going to move to another location in Florida, I'd definitely look there.
It's a nice place.
But the link was for Winter Park Colorado, where it snows, and I don't do snow anymore.
No more cold, no more shoveling, no more trapped in because of a blizzard.
But it looks like a really nice place to live for people who like the whole snow thing.
But I forgot to tell you all that the digital keychain I won from Today's Gizmos, came in the mail the other day, and it's really pretty sweet.
The company that sponsored the give-a-way, Wholesale Keychain, was even nice enough to do custom engraving on them for the winners, so I had them just put my name on it that way no one would want to steal it from me.
Heh.
The menu options look simple enough to use, the screen is bright and very easy to read.
Now all I need to do is load a bunch of photos to it so I can take all of the pictures out of my wallet, and then the next time someone asks to see pictures of my giant teenagers, I can just click and show them in all the beautiful digital glory!
July 20, 2008
Maybe not so lucky after all.
I am going to end up taking Mark to the ER after all.
His hand is swollen up again, he says it hurts quite a bit more tonight, he can barely make a closed fist without wincing, and forget about flexing his fingers all the way out.
I know it's kind of hard to see in this picture, it's not black and blue anyway, just puffy and swollen, but the flash was whiting it out, no flash was too dark, synchro flash still whited it out, so I just used flash and pulled back as far as I could, and took the pic in the bathroom because it has the best light.
But you can tell that his left hand is 'bigger' than his right.
So for now I've wrapped it in an ace bandage, and am having him ice it, rest, ice it and rest for a little bit now.
I feel awful, he's such a good kid, he didn't tell me it was hurting really badly until I woke up just a little bit ago.
I was so tired after coming home from the musical, that I had a little bit to eat and then laid down on the couch.
My intent was just to take a little rest, watch a little tv, but I dozed off within minutes of falling asleep around 8pm-ish, and woke up around 11:40-:45pm.
He said he came out while I was laying down but saw that I was asleep, so he didn't want to bother me.
Ugh. 
So I gave him a few Tylenol and then wrapped it up and now he's sitting on the couch with an ice pack on it.
I'll need to get him to the ER tomorrow, uh-er today, and get it looked at.
He says he doesn't know what a broken bone feels like because he's never broken anything, but he imagines this is what it feels like.
I asked him how bad it hurts using the pain scale, 1 it doesn't hurt at all, to 10 being OMFG it hurts so bad I'd rather be poked in the eyeball with a hot needle than to feel like this anymore, and he said it's about an 8, so yeah, he's in some pain.
I do think (and hope) that they have learned their lesson about fighting with each other.
For like forever now, since they were little kids first starting to be annoyed with each other, that one of these days their fights were going to end up with one or both of them getting really hurt.
That day has finally come.
July 18, 2008
They are so lucky.
I woke the teens up just a bit ago, Mark has plans to go out with his Big, George, for lunch today, and we have plans this weekend that they need to be healthy for.
I checked Sebastian's noggin, and it looks much better this morning.
Still a little puffy, still a little black and blue, but otherwise he's good.
He says it doesn't hurt anymore.
I took the duct tape and popsicle sticks off of Mark's fingers, and the swelling has mostly gone down, he can move them, a bit better, so it looks like a sprain is all he did.
I'm going to let him go with George and see how he does.
It's his left hand that he hurt, he's left handed, so we'll see how he fares with eating with utensils today, if he's in a lot of pain when he gets home or not.
I am utterly exhausted.
I barely slept because I was so worried about Sebastian's head.
I was afraid to let him sleep straight through, fear of a concussion.
This picture was taken this morning, and trust me, last night, this looked so so much worse.
It was this HUGE black and blue puffy ball on his forehead.
Being a mother is so dang stressful sometimes.
They have fought almost every day this summer, they are bored, there are no "summer" jobs down here.
It's the reverse seasons here.
Up north in the summer, kids are out of school, people take vacations, teens can get jobs.
Down here in the summer, no one vacations here because it's too hot.
People vacation here during the winter when teens are in school, so yeah, they are at home and at each other's throats day in and day out, but this is the first time they have come to hard blows.
You know, when they grow up and move out, I'm going to start looking for a new home in another state, like go look for some Wilmington real estate, or Wyoming, or Virginia, find myself a nice little cozy 1 bed/1 bath cottage size place, and then not tell them where I moved to, and if they find me, ooops!
Sorry sons of mine, but my house is too small for you to live with me.
Dang.
July 13, 2008
I have a special visitor today.
My cutie-pie niece Skye is here for the day, and we are having some fun despite the heavy rains that are coming down, and despite my extreme tiredness.
She's coloring and and playing, and we're watching a couple movies she brought with her.
That cute little stuffed American eagle, is the one I won from MomLogic.com.
The Fedex man showed up on Friday, and that was inside.
I didn't even know I won it till then.
Ok, off to have some fun and mail some Skye drawings to Nanny and Pop Pop!
Later days!
July 11, 2008
They grow up so fast it seems.
Here are just two of the pictures I mentioned in the post below.
Look how tiny my boys were!
Sebastian had turned 4 on June 1st, and Mark would be turning 6 in August.
These were taken in June 1997, just a few weeks after we moved here, and I cannot believe how small they were.
They both look the same, same faces, but my how they've grown!
Mark is over 6feet, Sebastian is at 6feet, and Mark will be turning 17 in about a month, on the 15th of August.
They used to be so tiny, pulling them around on that inner tube was so easy because they were so light.
There's no way I could pull even one of them now.
July 11, 2008
They were so little!
My sister had been digging around sorting through some boxes in her closet, and found some pictures of the teens and I from when we first moved here.
It was June 1997, and my gosh, they were so tiny!
I'm going to scan them and upload a few to show you.
In one of them, I am pulling them through the water on a small inner tube, and you can clearly see one of the scoliosis humps on my back.
That hit me kinda hard how visible it was.
July 5, 2008
Climb, slide, and crush.
Today when my sister Jo brought Mark back home, she picked us all up in her new car, and we went to grab lunch at McDonald's and let the girls play in the indoor play-place.
She traded in her Chrysler Town n' Country Minivan for a new Mazda5.
It's better on gas mileage, and it has enough seats, as many as the minivan did, so that we can all go out together and not be cramped in a tiny little car.
It's really nice, have you seen these?
They look very small from the outside, but the inside is just as big as her van was.
It's kinda crazy how that is, but I swear it's the same amount of room on the inside.
They completely remodeled the McDonald's on Bee Ridge road.
It's been done very nice, and it's much cleaner than the old one they had at this location, and oh so much better with the indoor AC.
I rarely get to see the girls, so it's always nice to spend even just a couple of hours with them and watch them laughing and having fun.
Susan on the slide.
Skye climbing up the tunnel stairs.
Then we went over to Big Lots to see if they had any good and sturdy bunk beds for the girls.
They didn't, but they did have a really nice glider/rocker office chair, that I want.
Most chairs have lumbar support, that bulge in the back cushion at the bottom which is good for most people but not me.
This chair doesn't have that, it curves in at the bottom.
It was so comfortable, and only $159.00, so I might have to go back there this week and pick one up.
It was beige suede microfiber too, very soft, and the color matches my sofa and love seat.
They also had a ton of other stuff, I've only ever been to a Big Lots once before and it was just disgusting inside, so it was nice to see this one was neat and clean, organized, and the staff was busy helping people and cleaning things up.
They even had an electronics department, and if you don't know what a Big Lots is, it's basically an outlet store of items from all kinds of stores that either didn't sell the items or the package was damaged during shipment to it's original store, so some of the electronics boxes looked a little banged up.
I saw printers, cameras, desktop pcs, laptops, something that looked like a used cisco router because the box was so banged up, but we were in a hurry so I really couldn't check it out more, ethernet cables, headphones, mp3 players, so so much stuff, and it was all way under price from most electronics stores, like way cheap.
When I go back for the chair, I'm going to make sure I have just a little bit more time to at least look around the electronics department.
I won't buy anything, I don't need any computer stuff right now, but I want to look and see what they have in case I ever do need another part so I can go there first before going to a specialty store and spending too much money.
June 27, 2008
Coral and over cast.
My medical tests went off without a hitch, and much faster than the estimate they had given me.
They said it would take any where from 2.5 hours, to a possible 4+ hours.
I went in at 10:30am, and was out by 12:15pm.
I really, really liked the seated/open MRI machine.
That was awesome.
They had a huge flat panel tv in the room with it, it was on the Fox news channel, *gag* but eh, it was better than nothing.
They did my neck MRI first, then I had to sit sorta sideways while they did the shoulder MRI.
Then I went in for the CT, and when it was done I went out and waited for Mindy to pick me up.
Then we stopped off at Publix really quick so I could get the cat food, toilet paper, paper plates and trash bags I didn't go get yesterday.
Just as I was heading out the door yesterday afternoon to go, it started raining a little bit.
Rather than risk getting soaked, I just waited.
I took the above picture while waiting at the medical park for Mindy.
These bushes of flowers were all over the place, and they were just so pretty and bright in today's over cast skies.
I love that beautiful coral color of the flowers.
I have no idea what kind they are, but they are just really pretty I think.
I barely got any sleep last night, perhaps 3 hours, my alarm never went off, so I woke with a quick-start panic to my day.
Mindy's clocks at her house were all off by like 20 minutes, so she was running late as well.
We had a good laugh about that though.
It's kinda funny that we both were totally screwed up this morning.
Tomorrow, both our families will be getting together to spend some time hanging out.
Maybe the beach in the morning, a little bbq in the afternoon.
The teens can all drive each other crazy playing video games.
It'll be nice to be leaving the house to do something fun, rather than the usual leaving the house to go do sucky stuff like doctor's office visits.
I need a just take it easy kind of day.
I'm always doing stuff, so it will be really nice to just chill out for a few hours.
Well, off to try and catch up on all my blog and forum reading and stuff I do with those.
Later days.
June 26, 2008
W00t! I won!
A little bit ago, I posted my entry to try and win a digital photo key chain from Today's Gizmos.com.
Well I just swung by her blog to check and see if the winners had been drawn yet, and using random.org to choose from all the entries, I was chosen as one of the 3 lucky winners!
Winning it is very cool, I've over loaded my cell phone with pictures of my kids and stuff, so this will be awesome!
It can hold up to 70 pictures, and you just add them to it using a usb cord.
What I didn't know about the contest, was that the winners would also get to add a small custom engraving to it.
Now to think of something to engrave on there.
Hrm....
Thanks again to Today's Gizmos for having this contest, and to Wholesale Keychain for providing the prizes and doing the custom engraving for the winners!
June 25, 2008
Watch reruns if they replay your memories.
I love how Dove chocolates come with happy little sayings printed inside the wrappers.
June 24, 2008
I probably glow in the dark by now.
I cleaned out my SD card from my camera, so I have tons of room on it to take pictures with, and in a little bit, Sebastian and I are heading to Publix to grab some easy and light food for dinner, and then something for the teens to eat for lunch tomorrow because I won't be home.
I always take my camera with me because I just never know what I'll see along the way, or even while I'm in there.
Tomorrow I have to go have a 3D CT scan done at 12:30, and then a cervical (neck not cervix) and shoulder MRI at 1pm.
I'm hoping my sis can drop me off at least, and then I'll take the bus back home.
The radiology place called me back this afternoon (at frigging 3:45pm) with these appointment times, and so I had to ask sis if she'll be able to drop me off because Mindy already has plans to take her daughter swimming tomorrow afternoon, and I'm not going to screw that up.
I'd rather be swimming with them instead of spending 2 hours inside giant machines being scanned I tell ya.
Katie, Mindy's daughter, is such a good sport.
She goes with us to my doctor's appointments, and it's boring as hell.
I get bored sitting there waiting, so being an 8 year old in a boring doctor's office is pure torture.
I think she does great though, she does her best to behave and wait it out, and my doc was running behind today, so yeah, major long boring waiting time.
I'm pretty sure bus 15 runs the full length of Clark road, so I should be able to catch it and ride it back to at least the intersection by my street.
I've had so many of these tests in the last 6+ years now, I wonder if my organs glow by now.
Seriously, I've had 17 MRIs, 13 CT scans, 4- 3D CT scans, well over 100 xrays, and then about 10 or so specialized radiation type tests where they strap you to a table and inject dye in your spinal canal and tip the table all over the place.
I'm not a fan of the 3D CT scans though.
That stuff they inject you with, it makes you get instantly hot, you get nauseous, and it feels like you pissed yourself.
It's not too much fun, and then I have to go straight from that test into the MRI machine.
I think Doc M. checked off that I can use the seated MRI machine though, which is cool because you sit on this special chair, and the front of the machine is open.
So it won't be as claustrophobic as the laying down machine.
I'm just going to go do it and get it over with though.
I don't have much choice anyway, so do it and then sit and sweat while for the bus to come back home.
That's another reason for me to need my mp3 player charged up.
It'll keep me from losing my mind while waiting for the bus.
May 21, 2008
Try to keep still!
Have you ever taken a video with your camera and it ends up being all shaky?
I hate that.
But Buy.com has an awesome sale price on a Case Logic flexible tripod.
It can stand on just about any surface because it's legs are flexible for those times when taking a picture means putting a tripod on uneven ground.
How much is it on sale for?
$10!
That's it!
That is such an awesome price for people who take a lot of pictures or make videos and don't want the shaky hand appearance.
Look how cool this thing looks!
Check out some of it's features;
Segmented leg design allows for flexible joints that can rotate 360 degrees
Lightest and most versatile camera tripod available today
Firmly secures your compact digital camera to virtually any surface
Ideal camera accessory for photographers on the go
Throw it in your pocket or backpack and you'll be ready for your next adventure
Wrap it around a tree branch
Hang it from a pole
Perch it on a jagged rock
Standard 1/4 diameter 20 thread count screw mount
Designed for use with digital cameras weighing up to 9.7 ounces (275 grams)
Rubber feet gives extra grip
It sounds like it's small enough to take anywhere and use on just about any kind of surface.
I may actually pick this up this week. I would love to try it out and for only $10, it's totally affordable to try.
Buy.com has tons of awesome weekly deals every single week, and I've gotten into the habit of checking them out every week now because they really do have some amazing prices on certain items.
May 21, 2008
The rainy season begins.
Yesterday after my massage appointment, the skies opened up.
Lightening, thunder, and gallons of rain came down and didn't let up until about 5pm.
The teens walk home from school everyday, we only live about 7 city blocks from the high school, it's barely a 10 minute walk.
I knew they would be soaked when they came in the door, so I positioned myself at 2:37 and waited for them to walk in.
They get home every single day at the same exact time, 2:38pm.
I don't know how they do that perfect timing every day, but they do.
Anyway, like I said, it was down pouring really bad at that time, so I waited for my perfect moment.
Ha!
They were soaked right down to their boxers, their shoes were just like little spongy buckets for walking, their backpacks were full of water, all their notebooks and everything were just water logged.
That part wasn't so funny, we lost a really expensive calculator, but hey, school gets out on the 30th, so not a huge loss.
But damn if it wasn't funny watching them come in.
Sebastian loves getting wet, playing in the rain, so he was all hell yeah baby! That was fun!
Mark on the other hand wasn't quite so pleased with being so wet.
Haha!
I made them go straight back to the laundry after I snapped my picture, and strip out of the wet clothes and place them straight in the dryer, and then dry off and put on clean dry clothes.
I'm hoping it doesn't rain again today, but it has that look in the sky, it's a little gray, a little cloudy, and the humidity is way up.
If they get soaked 2 days in a row, they may get a little mad.
Well, not Sebastian, he's a puddle jumper.
April 28, 2008
Incontinent pets?
The above kitty is Nova, she's 9 years old, and she's becoming incontinent.
It is not a bladder infection, she's just losing control of her bladder.
Yesterday, she was sleeping on my bed just as she is in this picture, and when I entered the room to grab my clothes for the laundry basket to do today, I reached out to pet her.
She got so excited that I was going to pet her, that she piddled a bit on my bed.
Lucky for me I had replaced my mattress pad with that new allergy relief padded one, which is also waterproof.
I bought it because I'm allergic to dust mites, the padding and waterproof layer was just a major bonus.
So I took the sheets and the pad off the bed immediately, and threw them in the washer while the pee was still wet.
I added the laundry soap and a 1/4 cup of Urine Gone, (love this stuff!) and when it hit the rinse cycle, some Febreze mixed with the fabric softener.
They came out very clean, no sign or smell of any kitty pee.
The trick with cat pee is getting it while it's still wet.
If I hadn't noticed that she had peed, it would have dried in and the smell would have been near impossible to get out.
But what I'm really trying to talk about is how she's incontinent.
Has anyone ever had a pet with a piddle problem?
Do they make Depends for pets?
April 26, 2008
Mix and match or just match?
I was doing a bit of cleaning around the house again today, dusting stuff off mostly, when I took a good look at all the pictures on the wall.
No two frames are the same.
Not sure why I did that, I think I only bought a new frame as I got a new picture, and I just bought whatever frame was on sale or something.
I know that one day I went to Michael's with my sister, and they had a huge shelf full of clearance items, most of them picture frames, and no two alike.
But they had so many sizes and they were all super cheap, like $1-$2 each, so I bought about 10 of them.
But now that I'm looking at all my pictures, I'm not so sure I like the whole mix-match look anymore.
Now that we've been talking about painting the walls here with some different colors, maybe some custom picture framing would look good too.
All one color and style of frame.
Of course the color of the frames will depend on which color I choose for the walls.
I know there's a green , a light purple, and a sorta light copper/light gold color.
Not so sure I could handle that bright, I'm not a bright color liking person, but maybe it would warm this room up, make it softer, which would make it actually appear darker and warmer.
April 12, 2008
It ain't that bad, but it ain't pretty either.
I got Sebastian to help me get a picture of my back, because the doc and nurse said there was some discoloration happening back there.
So here's what you're seeing. It is clickable for bigger.
Looking at my back, (it is labeled correctly, that tat in the far upper right, is on my right arm) you would think the part where the biggest swelling is, on the right, would be the painful area.
It's not.
That is swelling from all of the muscles that run across the spine from each shoulder blade, being tightened and pulled because the left shoulder muscle is severely constricted.
That whole area is slightly discolored, yesterday it was a whole lot worse looking, black and blue across my entire shoulder blades on both sides.
That weird indent right in the middle, that is from I was still at the hospital, and an orderly had taken me down again for what was supposed to only be one xray.
I ended up going down, and back up 6 times in a 3 hour span, because no one recorded that it had already been done.
On the sixth and final one, the xray tech jammed the board directly under me instead of under the inch thick xray pad I was laying on, and one of the sharp corners ripped open the stitches in that spot.
When one of my surgical team, Doc. C., came in after I was brought back up, I was crying, told him what happened, and he had me sit up so he could take a look.
It was ripped wide open and bleeding, and he had to go get suture kit to close it back up.
Very painful.
So now I have a weird little indent for the rest of my life, smack dab in the middle of the scar.
It's like a deformed innie belly button on my back.
I've named it Paidin.
You can see the top of the scar, which starts right at the very top of the shoulder blades at T-3.
That's the third thoracic vertebrae.
The scar runs all the way down into my ass crack, and stops at S-1.
That represents the very last Sacral vertebrae right before the coccyx or tail bone, as most people know it.
This is what my back looked like about 4 weeks after coming home and most of the stitches had been taken out.
You can see how long the fusion is, and even though the pic doesn't show my ass crack, trust me that scar line is in there.
I have my CT scheduled for Monday morning at 9:30am, and I am hoping that the pain will be greatly diminished by then.
I know I'll probably end up in another 6-8 weeks of physical therapy, and possibly massage therapy again too, which I loathe, but as I've said before, it's not that it doesn't feel good afterwards, it's that I am not comfortable being mostly naked and having someone rub their giant hands all over my back and glutes.
I just don't like it.
I think I should be allowed to have my shirt on during it. haha
Anyway, I just wanted to show you my back.
It's been awhile since I've posted any pics of it, and now while I'm wide awake again all night, it seemed like as good a time as any.
My left shoulder is still on fire, I can hardly move it or press it against anything.
Let me tell ya, even squatting to pee, is a nightmare.
When you sit or squat, you use every muscle in your back to do so, and it's pulling on the injured area something fierce man.
Every time I have to pee, I cover my mouth and try to quiet the screams of hell.
Just keep your fingers and toes crossed for me, that on Monday they say it's just a torn muscle and not something worse like actually being caught on a pedicule screw or that a nerve is pinched off on a screw.
Either of those scenarios may mean having my back opened up to repair the damage.
A torn muscle will heal on it's own, it will just take some time.
Having it opened back up will be a world of hurt I'm afraid to even think about.
And now I suppose I'll attempt some sleep.
It's very late, and I am tired, I am just fearful of pressing my back down on the bed because it hurts.
Oh, and when you get out of bed every morning, you use every muscle in your back too.
It hurts like being branded with a cattle iron because I've been asleep, the pain meds have definitely worn off over night, and so yeah, burning, stabbing, terrifying pain.
April 12, 2008
Pic #116.jpg
Just testing layouts with flickr.
April 12, 2008
Pic #127.jpg
Nova asleep on my hand with her eyes open. it creeps me out man.
April 11, 2008
Pic #128.jpg
Alligator on my street again.April 7, 2008
I forgot how much fun a school bus can be.
We went down to Marina Jacks and did a tour of all of the art pieces that border the park.
First, we walked around the diversity panels, because they are all done in photoshop, that's what part of this class is currently studying.
The students weren't even remotely interested, and it was hot out.
Like way hot.
They all just wanted to sit down.
Then we went and looked at the statues.
These are the art pieces I have talked about before, costing the city millions of dollars, but the class we were in is art and digital design, not local politics, so I kept it to myself.
Here's a pic of one of the pieces, it's called Andy.
It's by far one of the more interesting pieces there.
After that, we ate at O'Leary's, and then hopped back on the bus to the Hollywood 20 for the film fest films for the schools to see.
They were really great shorts, I liked them all, but my faves were Dear Lemon Lima, One Rat Short, and Snakebite.
Snakebite was so adorably cute, a great and classic little kid story.
Dear Lemon Lima was weird but funny and poignant.
One Rat Short was a love story for rats with a not so happy ending, but done brilliantly.
Fabulous animation in it, and a good story with no talking at all, just visuals.
I wasn't crazy about Gandhi at bat, I just didn't find it all that humorous.
We were shown a commercial before the shorts started, and this one was just so wrong on so many levels.
You know I'm all about kids not starting to smoke, but this commercial for the tobacco free Florida you care contest, is slightly offensive.
I just don't think the part about sounding like a transformer, was necessary.
There are people out there who have to use that little machine to talk for reasons other than throat cancer, and so yeah, wrong, but funny all at the same time.
Instead of taking it seriously, the students laughed out loud.
Then we hopped the bus back to school, and man, teens these days, wow.
I think at times they forgot there was another adult on the bus besides the teacher, and I was sitting back there with them, and they just talked the way they always do.
Sex, prison sex, drugs, more sex.
I was like whoa.
The girls don't look like teenage girls, they look like 20 somethings, and the boys all look like teenage boys.
The girls were by far the worst talkers if you catch my drift.
I was so glad to get home.
All that walking around the park in new sandals?
Not a good idea at all.
I have blisters and torn skin, and now my feet are all swollen.
But all in all it was a good and interesting day.
April 1, 2008
Kitty in the cabinets.
I went out to find a little snack to munch on, and once again, I found Shahiro sleeping in the cabinets.
She knows how to paw at the cabinet knobs till she can get her head in there to jump in.
She finds the weirdest places to sleep.
She goes in the kitchen cabinets, on top of the tv, on top of the book shelves in the living room, on top of the toy shelves in Mark's room, and in just about every window that has a sill.
She also loves to sleep on top of the computer monitor in Sebastian's room.
She's a strange cat.
April 1, 2008
She's 10 today.
My pretty Kali baby is 10 years old today.
Born on April Fools day, and been the best pet anyone could ever ask for.
I gave her a can of special cat food today, I sang to her, and she meowed back to me in her squeaky little 'mew' of a voice.
I love this cat, I don't know what I would do without her.
She's just the awesomest.
March 30, 2008
The hazards of long fingernails.
I went to the fridge to get a soda, it was the last can in the 12 pack, so I took it out, and tried to take the box out.
When I did, the teens cans of regular Pepsi started to fall and I tried to catch them with my left hand, while still hanging onto the empty box with my right.
I proceeded to slam my left thumbnail straight on, into a shelf.
Head on, direct slam.
This resulted in the following, and will probably cause the loss of the nail, as it has already started to "bubble" and "lift".
To say it's painful is an understatement.
The crack goes down a lot further than it looks, and the right side of it is where it's bubbling and lifting.
I've wrapped 3 band-aids around it after trimming off what I could of the really cracked part, and then taped it to hold the band-aids on secure over night.
Freaking ouch man.
March 30, 2008
Fun and tiring, all at the same time.
We spent the whole day with Susan who just seems to be growing up at such an amazing rate.
She's smart, funny, and keeps you on your toes.
My sister has her enrolled in Tae Kwon Do classes, and so I had her show me a few moves.
She showed me the bow, a straight kick, a punch, and a target punch, and then a side kick.
She's just too stinking cute.
I love how she pretends the basketball hoop is a horse or a rocket, or a car.
I love how she's fascinated by nature.
Bugs, lizards, and the strange nut things that fall out of the palm tree.
When I was getting dressed this morning, I had to grab some underwear from the clean clothes on top of the dryer, that I hadn't yet put away.
I couldn't figure out why all my clean stuff was covered in cat hair.
Now I know.
Looks like I'll be re-washing everything again.
And this time, I will put it away, right away.
Dang cat.
March 30, 2008
Susan glow.
Susan is here spending the day with us, and she posed for a picture.
We will be going for a walk soon, maybe to the playground or somewhere for lunch.
March 30, 2008
Cat-mowing.
God morning!
It's absolutely gorgeous out today.
It's a little warm, but the sky is beautiful.
I have decided that if I could get enough cats, I could open my own franchise of lawn mowing cats.
It would be the perfectly ecological friendly grass cutting system.
No gas, no electricity, just 100 cats in a row, chowing down on the lawn.
Cats love grass, and Nova especially.
My lawn would be kept short, Mark wouldn't have to be out there sweating his butt off, just 100 fat cats keeping it short.
March 24, 2008
3 little pictures.
Niece Skye playing all silly with some shaving cream.
Niece Susan playing all silly with some shaving cream.
These things were surely made by some kind of devil, to intentionally sabotage a good woman's diet and workout progress.**
Continue Reading �
March 19, 2008
Money in, money out.
Well I won't be going on any luxury vacations for a long while.
I won't be going on any vacations for awhile.
I just get caught up and slightly ahead on my bills, and something big breaks, like the lawn mower.
But I finally replaced the charcoal exploded lawn mower on Sunday.
Wanna see the one that got blown up?
I kept it in the shed until I could get another one, so the explosion holes are rusted around the edges now from the weather, but just check out what happens when you run a lawn mower over charcoal briquet's that have the lighter fluid already in them.
It blew a massive hole in the side, and it's no longer connected to the rest of it here.
It blew the handle completely off on the left side, it's no longer connected there either.
The back piece where it faces you, this is where sparks were flying out and hit Mark in the face.
He's lucky he didn't get hit in the eyes.
The front of the mower where it got ripped open and sparks were flying out.
I was going to go to the dreaded Walmart to get another one on Sunday, they were cheaper than even Home Depot. They had a mower for $138.99, but one of my neighbors said they had a friend with a mower for $75.00, so I went and took a look at it.
It was a brand new mower that they had sitting in their shed since they bought a riding mower.
They replaced the fuel hose because it had dry rot from just sitting for the last 4 months, but other than that, it was like new, no rust or dull blades or anything, so I bought it.
Mark mowed the lawn Monday after school, and it worked great.
Now I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that nothing else breaks and needs replacing.
March 15, 2008
I woke up confused.
I try not to take the Somas because when I wake up, I am confused and don't know where I am.
Well it was raining for several hours last night, coming down pretty hard, and my back would just not loosen up.
So I took one around 8pm, and finally went to bed around 2:30am.
When I woke up this morning, I was really lost, or so I thought.
I woke up not knowing where I was, and when I realized I was home, I didn't know if the teens were home, what day it was, and I came flying out of my bedroom and scrambled from room to room to find them.
Sebastian was up and playing on his computer, and mark was still asleep.
But I hate that.
I just really hate that about that pill.
They work really well, but damn, why do they make you as confused as an Alzheimer patient?
I need to take a shower and go do more grocery shopping. The other day was just the odds and ends, household stuff, a small bit of food, today is the big food shopping with multiple coupons.
Always trying to save money ya know.
I wanted to share a pic with you, and seeing as today is Caturday, Christine declared it so, here's the cutest and funniest pic of Kali and Shahiro napping together.
Kali is one of those cats that likes to sleep on her back, all sprawled out, legs opened wide, and she can get in this position just about anywhere she feels it looks like a good napping spot.
Well, Shahiro thought between Kali's open legs looked like a good napping spot, so that's how they slept.
I walked in and found them like that, and just started laughing.
They didn't even flinch when the flash went off, so it must have been the perfect, and most comfy spot ever.
I suppose I should get in that shower now that half the day is wasted.
Later days!
March 10, 2008
I have the perfect frame.
One of the things I would eventually love to buy for myself, for my home, is one of Michael Parks prints.
All of them are amazing, so full of details, unique and beautiful.
My sister has this one in a gorgeous frame, and it's fascinating to look at.
There's so much to look at it in every part of it, so many little things to see.
I love that one tiger is stone, the other is real.
Beautiful.
But this one, this is the one I want.
It's called The Creation.
You can click it to see it a bit better, isn't it beautiful?
So many things to see.
The tiger and his reflection, 'she' as she creates man.
I will have this print someday, not the actual painting, I could never afford the real painting, but just a print.
I have the perfect spot for it on the wall above my couch.
February 27, 2008
Sebastian wanted to show off his PS skills.
Sebastian has been learning how to use photoshop CS3 at school, and we have it at home now too, so he made this picture to share.
He tried sending it to ninny and pop pop, but it wouldn't attach to the email.
So anyway, here's his awesome picture.
He's way better at this stuff than I am.
He showed me how he made it, and I was all, um, uh, I can't do that.
I suck at this stuff, but he rocks.
February 27, 2008
They are far too cute for words.
The other day my sis came over with the girls, and brought us dinner because I wasn't feeling very well at all and just couldn't cook anything. I was on the couch just being absolutely miserable.
My niece Skye came in and walked up to me and handed me this picture she colored.
She said "this for you aunty kat, you feel bad? you sick? i love you."
She then told me it was 3 telephones and a star, and to call when I feel better.
That's just too damn cute man. I love these girls.
Just look at how beautiful they are, my girls are so stinking pretty, and so smart.
From left to right, Susan, my sister Joey, and Skye.
And look at how gorgeous Skye is. I can't get over how absolutely beautiful she is.
Every time I see them, they just get bigger and more beautiful, and so smart.
They have learned so many new things between now and the last time I saw them, and they are funny.
Man, Susan is just a whip. She cracks jokes, she's sarcastic, she's just awesome.
It's gonna get her in trouble in school someday, being that snarky, but right now it's freaking adorable how witty and sarcastic she is.
February 23, 2008
I think it's sick.
The baby squirrel that is.
It came back today, and made his little high pitched squeal again, to let me know he was there.
I opened the door and it took me a second to find him, but there he was, on top of the screen door.
Don't wild animals usually stay away from people and homes unless they are sick or rabid or something?
I'm kind of concerned about this little guy, but don't really know what to do.
I took a little video of him, but I haven't edited it or uploaded it yet.
He was wanting to come in the house, he was not afraid of me.
Very odd.
In other news, I can thank the teens for making me sick.
I have been so tired today, coughing, sneezing, and I have an earache.
This is not good.
I have an appointment with pain doc on Monday morning at 11:15am.
I have to be at that appointment.
We have so much to talk about, but I'll probably end up canceling anyway.
I'm not gonna start thinking about it right now though. It's just more stress, and bah, I don't need that right this minute.
But between my medical appointments and all the over the counter crap I had to buy for the teens while they were sick, I'm in a tight spot.
Not gonna think about it.
Not gonna think about it.
*poof*
You know the saying the more you try not to think about a pink elephant, the more you'll think about a pink elephant?
Apply that, and well, there's a giant pink elephant in my house.
I think I'll go edit my baby squirrel video. I may not post it though.
I think Sebastian, or both the teens, said something not so nice in it, and I don't want PETA or any other animal lovers jumping on my shit over it.
But then again, it was said in a joking manner and nothing at all happened to the baby squirrel.
I closed the door after I saw his momma coming back for him again.
He's fine.
November 13, 2007
Keeping up appearances.
After my last post, I decided to go for my daily walk, help take off some of this stress and work it out so I didn't take it out on anyone else.
I walked around my neighborhood, some of my neighbors have really nice homes and gardens, but one of my neighbors goes a wee bit overboard.
As I was walking down the street, one of his lawn aerators was spraying way out into the road, completely missing his lawn.
There are droughts in some parts of our country, and here's this guy watering the street.
*sigh*
I kept walking and looking and another neighbor had a gorgeous yard, flowers everywhere, roses, wildflowers, all sorts of beautiful flowers and plants everywhere.
He takes part in the natural Florida lawns, but he's added other plants like roses and peonies. It looks gorgeous.
He was out there plating some new grass seed.
Some parts of his lawn are dead from the scorching sumer heat and the lack of the normal seasonal rain.
He had seed and sod, and was busily working away on his yard.
One of these walks, I'll go take some pictures of it.
It's the kind of yard I'd love to have.
So beautiful and peaceful looking.
Like just looking at it calmed me down and made me smile.
I would love to be able to do something as beautiful in my yard, I've lived here 9 years and the best I've done is keep the lawn mowed.
Maybe tomorrow on my walk, I'll take the shots.
It's really gorgeous.
October 29, 2007
Did my Flickr blog upload start working again?
October 26, 2007
Snails in the hood?
Perhaps I should get myself some fishing tackle and gear, and find out where the water is, maybe I can catch a fish or something.
Why?
I was outside today and on my way back in the house, I notice this thing stuck to the cinder block walls that make up my house.
This is right at my front door.
So I looked really closely, and it's a snail.
A tiny little snail was climbing up the side of my house, so I went in, grabbed my camera, and took this cool macro shot of the little guy.
You can click it for bigger.
October 2, 2007
Lots of snail mail this week.
Yesterday, I got a Sony 1 GB Memory Stick PRO Duo Media
That's awesome!
I'll be getting a package from UPS this week with a new denim jacket in it for Mark, the 2nd copy of the video game will also be here this week, and then a mystery package.
I have absolutely no idea what it is or who the sender is.
None.
But whatever it is, it was mailed priority mail yesterday, and will be here tomorrow.
I received an email notice about it about an hour ago.
I haven't ordered anything else, not that I recall anyway. No, I don't think I have.
I know at some point, I'll be getting a personalized story book for my niece, but I'm pretty sure the mailer would be from the company.
I have no idea what this package is.
I'm dying of curiosity! *LOL*
September 25, 2007
The boobies are back!
That's right, it's almost time for the annual boobiethon to begin!
From October 1st through October 8th, bloggers around the world, take pictures of their lovely breasts, and send them in for us to post!
Once again this year, I've donated my time to help out and will be doing photo editing of the submitted pictures. (and my rack too of course *wink*)
All this requires is cropping and resizing the images down to our standard size, and then labeling them for the team to post either in the covered breasts free section, or the bare and paid section.
The boobs shall be posted to help raise money to fight breast cancer, and as tradition, the first $359 will be for bloggers helping bloggers charity portion of the event.
You can visit the site by clicking the banner below, or you can help us out by sending us your rack now, (or any time during the boobie-thon) so we have lots of submissions to post on the site.
I hope to see a lot of beautiful boobies submitted again this year!
Send us your photos!
Also, if you are a Blogads blogger, would you please consider donating some ad space?
This is the text for the ad;
Our fronts are back - the sixth annual blogger "Boobie-Thon"! Features bloggers showing their (covered and uncovered) breasts in order to raise money for charity. Submit your photos. Make a donation. It's the charity drive that gives YOU a little somethin' in return.
And this is the image; (please save to your own pc, no hotlinking)
Thanks so much, and let's raise those donations this year!
September 24, 2007
I am totally going to order one of these.
With fall and soon winter coming, it's time to dig out all the blankets and comforters, the throws for the couches to curl up with on cool nights.
It doesn't get super cold here, but just chilly enough to need a small throw to cuddle with on the couch while watching tv or movies.
I saw these awesome photo throws, and I want one!
Check this out!
You can get them in various sizes, the pictures of your choosing go on one side, and the throw itself is made of polar fleece, that super warm, fluffy, cuddly material.
There are 13 different colors of fleece to choose from, different picture layouts to choose from, and you can even add a line of text for free, like if you get your families pictures done on it, you can add a line at the bottom with your family name, like have it say for example, The Coopers.
They are all shipped by UPS ground unless you specify next day air, they take about 7-10 days to make, and, they are all made one at a time, right here in the USA.
Quality work, one at a time, made by the USA. No outsourcing to some mass manufactured plant in another country where workers are paid a penny a day, these are made here.
That's a huge plus in my book.
So once I take some super nice pics of the kids, I'll probably be ordering one of these.
I would love to have one to curl up with on a chilly night.
September 1, 2007
Um, it has a face.
Nova the fat cat, was laying on the coffee table in a wicked cute position.
She sleeps on top of just about anything, so I took a picture of her with her head resting on an Xbox controller, and on top of all kinds of papers, toys etc.
All pics are clickable for bigger.
It was cute. Then I started taking pictures of my blinds. I love them!
So I kept taking shots, and the next one, I didn't notice till I uploaded them.
It has an orb in it. With a face.
Do you see it?!?
I took 1 more shot, then uploaded all the pics to my pc.
So I uploaded all the pics, and was looking at them, and that's when i see the huge orb.
I used the flash in all 4 pictures.
No other orbs of dust appeared in any of the other 3 pictures, just that one.
And it has a face!
Hahah! I creeped myself out for about 10 seconds before remembering that dust particles are often caught on digital cameras because the lens has a super high shutter rate, and reflects the light off dust particles that are right in front of the lens.
August 10, 2007
Missing kids screensaver.
Source
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has developed a screensaver to help find missing kids.
Developed in partnership with a private software company, Global Software Applications, the rotating screens display a missing child's picture and profile, tailored according to the region of the United States where the computer user is located.Ron Koning, Global Software's vice president, hopes the screensaver will be used everywhere from police stations to office buildings and "any area with high traffic," he said. "Where it will catch the most eyes."
Since the milk carton advertising of the 1980s, the organization has tried working with private companies who fax and regular mail the pictures. Any method to get the pictures to the public works. One in six children featured has been found as a result of someone seeing their picture.
It's incredible to think that the milk cartons and the mailers you get in your mail box, are actually helping to find missing kids, so yes, do anything that it takes to get their pictures out there and bring home missing kids.
April 19, 2007
I tossed out my old pc in Monday nights trash.
Now you're thinking, ok, so what Kat?
Well I'll tell you what.
I meant to remove the hard drive from it but completely forgot.
I did not wipe it clean.
See where I'm headed yet?
Lots of things were on that pc, some stuff I could care less if someone finds, but I had pictures on there.
No, not full nudes, get your minds out of the gutter!
But I did have pics of myself from past boobiethons.
*sigh*
Now this all wouldn't be so terribly bad if the garbage/recycle people had gotten to it. It would be destroyed.
But it never made it to their truck.
We put our trash out Monday night, Tuesday morning it gets taken by waste management.
Tuesday the garbage and recycle people never came till mid-afternoon, but I noticed when I got home from my appointment, various bits of my garbage were missing.
Two old broken fans, an old chair, a broken lamp.
The computer was gone as well.
It never even clicked with me that it was missing from the pile of trash until last night.
I was sitting here going through my stats, and I came across a hit from this years boobiethon.
I sat bolt upright.
"My hard drive!" I screamed.
"Huh? What mom? Is the new computer broken?!" my sons said.
I slunk back down into my seat, said no no, it's fine, don't worry about it.
I sat here panicking to myself. My hard drive! My pics! Oh dear freaking god! I am a fucking moron!
Someone had picked my trash and taken my old boobie pics.
I can only hope that the drive which was dying a painful death and was the reason for my new pc, somehow died even further sitting in my room since December.
Maybe it rained a bit on Monday night and helped kill it a bit more.
Maybe they will plug the thing in and it just won't fire up, or if it does, that they have no idea how to retrieve files.
Maybe monkeys will fly outta my butt too.
March 20, 2007
Kayla* by the dozen.
My sis does these cool pics with photoshop.
She takes about a dozen pictures, then blends them all into one so seamlessly, that you can't really tell it's not one picture.
Ok, you can tell it's multiple pics because the subject is the same, but check it out.
I love these, I want her to do one for each of the boys, much bigger though, so I can frame them.
Click for biggie.
Continue Reading �
January 16, 2007
Seen on my street.
I went for my daily walk and saw this affixed to a telephone pole.
Click for bigger.
January 12, 2007
Fatty McNotail.
December 31, 2006
Ooooh tonight is gonna be fun.
Tonight is the annual B&H New Years eve party. I am so stoked about this!
Last year was crazy, stripper pole, ice luge for doing shots, a wet t-shirt contest, and projected porn on the walls and all kinds of crazy antics.
This year promises to be even better because a live band will be there.
I plan on taking pictures and not drinking too much. I never do anyway, can't really drink much with all the meds anyway.
I'm going to take lots of pictures and post them up tomorrow when I wake from the dead..LOL
I have some c leaning to do here before Tina arrives, tons of dishes. I need a dishwasher.
Wait, I have two. Oh boys..., time to wash some dishes...LOL
Later days.
May 28, 2005
Just a couple pics for now.
I am slowly editing the wedding pics down to size.
Some of the ceremony are acting up. Like you can see the thumbnails but when you go to view larger or edit, it's not there or only half there. Oh well.. I have a lot of pics anyway. Eventually, they will all be over at the photo blog.
