Smellyann Strikes Again

Zero. Nothing. Nada.

That's pretty much what I accomplished today. I'm not proud of it, but there it is.

I woke up at the buttcrack of noon (and probably only then because I was having a dream about my grandmother burning me with her cigarettes), fooled around a little online, and by 1:30, had completely worn myself out again. Don't know what the deal is; I've been back on the iron wagon since the weekend. I guess the last few days of running around have taken their toll on this old lady.

What the hell? I'm not old. Why am I getting so tired??

So I took a nap, an hour and a half after I got up. At NOON. And slept 'til it was time to go for the bus. Pretty ridonkulous, huh?

I got nothing worthy of a post done today. I didn't clean, not one little bit. I'd planned to, it was all over my to-do list, but I glanced in the dirt's direction and then snoozed soundly.

Whatever. It'll still be there tomorrow, if the yesterday-to-today dirtiness continuum is any indication.

Right after the kids got home and had a snack, it was time to get Curls ready for her Jazz class. All the way to class, I made good and sure that the girls both wanted to NOT do soccer again in the Spring (it wasn't even a question for Sophia; she is all ready to stop now) and go back to dance class.

Well, of course, Chloë is all ready in dance, but she's only been taking one class - the Jazz - this year instead of three (tap and ballet). She decided not to do Spring soccer, since she misses her ballet classes.

So when we got to dance, I talked to Miss D about starting up Sophie's Creative Movement and Chloë's Ballet I classes in December. She was excited to have them back, and told me how much the monthly tuition would be: $130 dollars! Eep! Much more than the $53 I've been paying thus far.

And not only that, but the balance for Chloë's costumes is due in December, another 88 bucks, for a total of $218.

What the hell? We don't have that kind of cashola lying around, you know. I guess I better sell my other ovary, but dang, soccer really was a whole lot cheaper.

Speaking of selling things I shouldn't, I might sell my CPAP machine. I don't use it. Ever. Really, EVER. I just sold our seldom-used camcorder on eBay for a measly $49, which sucks. I should have set the reserve at fifty bucks and gone from there! But it's not digital, so I'm not terribly surprised.

Anyway. I'm rambling.

After I talked to Miss D about that, Miss S (the ballet teacher) came over and gushed about how "amazing" I looked, how I've lost a whole person, yadda yadda. She kept using that word, "Amazing!" I blushed and smiled and thanked her. It's hard to be complimented, y'all. But it does make me happy. Really, really happy. Like, I can't even wait to get our pictures taken for Christmas cards, with me actually in it and not trying to hide. I'm proud of how far I've come this year. It is amazing.

I talked to my sis on the phone after that, and we shared our kids' Christmas present wishlists and then shared how neither of us has any money for Christmas, so good luck squeezing something out of each other.

But we'll try.

And then I talked to my gran'pappy, who had a procedure yesterday for his enlarged prostate. He was really worried about the catheter, and it turned out to be just as bad as he'd thought. Poor old guy. But he's doing better now, and I'm most grateful that he's going to be fine. Plus it's pretty funny hearing my grandfather tell me "they put it on my, you know, private" and "they went up the rear" and all that. We are a TMI family, apparently!!

Home again, jiggity jog. Time for dinner. I hadn't even thought about it, in my sleepy stupor today, so I just put in a couple of frozen pizzas. Well, really, I put in one frozen pizza, they quickly gobbled that up, and requested another. I was happy to oblige. When your kids are practically  midgets, seeing them scarf down food is akin to winning the lottery, I swear.

Homework after that. Jack (ew, the dog is behind me, farting, and she smells like a dead skunk) did great again today. He was in a really whiny, fussy mood, so it was hard to get him to actually do it, but once he did, he was great.

Chloë had half of yesterday's homework to make up, plus tonight's, so she was up again until 2300 doing her homework. :( Poor kid. I made her stop then, even though she still wasn't done with her spelling homework. Although don't feel too terribly sorry for her, because she fooled around and played and acted silly the whole time, so it could have been done in half the time or less. She drives me crazy! Focus, child!

Yesterday, for her math test review, I showed her a conversion thing I learned in high school, to see if maybe it would help her with inches and feet and yards. It didn't. She came home today and said, "I couldn't do that college thing you showed me. I'm a kid, and you're a MOM, so of course I don't understand it!" Ah, okay, because I'm a MOM!

Oh well, I tried.

Oh, tomorrow, I will have finished Luke booties to show you. I worked on them after talking to Grandpa, but I don't like taking flash pictures with that POS camera, if I can help it.

And now, I wait for Hubs. He should be home soon. And I shaved my legs, so, you know...

;)

Fin.

Still Scrapping After All This Time

So I didn't get enough sleep last night and was therefore not very productive today. But I didn't take any naps so that I would be able to sleep tonight.

I pretty much spent the day on the computer, most of the time with Soapy on my lap (she's getting so heavy!), working on my digital scrapbooks.

What's that you say? Digital?!

Yeah. I've been resisting going digital for years now, but my Consultant for Creative Memories introduced me to a free webinar series for their digital scrapping, and I was absolutely mesmerized! I got my software and went to work.

OMGosh, it is SO fun! I already made my Great Wolf Lodge StoryBook (what they call a digital scrapbook after it has been uploaded, reviewed, and ordered for professional binding and printing), but I am going to wait to order it until, well, we have the fundage for it.  And now I'm working on our 2009 yearbook - I'm already into March and learning so many fun tips and tricks. It looks great!

Anyway, if you're interested in doing something with all those photos you have stored on your computer, let me know and I'll send you the link for the free webinar. It's four one-hour classes, in four weeks, and you can take it over and over again if you want. (Or there are recorded sessions so you can just do it all at once, if you're the impatient type like moi.)

I didn't crochet at all today, I barely did any cleaning, I didn't shower, I'm still wearing yesterday's clothes... and I went grocery shopping like that. (Our money was finally freed up, phew. But oddly enough, the kids have been eating better than ever since I've been cooking them bacon, eggs, oatmeal, etc. instead of just cold cereal in the morning! Will wonders never cease?)  And I saved 30 bucks in coupons because I rock like that.

Tomorrow, Jack and the other K-ers get to eat lunch in the cafeteria! He's beyond excited about that. He asked me about 567 times to make sure I gave him "two moneys" ($2) to buy lunch. I hate to tell him he won't be sitting with Chloë in the cafeteria like he thinks he is...

Anyhoo, that's it from here. Sayonara, y'all.

Fin.

P.S. For the first time in two months, I'm going to hit my protein and water quotas for the day. Woot!

Back To Reality

Well, the kids don't go back to school until the 20th, so we're not quite back to "normal" yet, if you want to call our lives that, but no more holidays, vacations, or days off for Rob.

Although, he is finally transferring out of his God-awful duty station on the 20th, so before starting all his checking-out process, he has been inundated with last-minute tasks. That's those a**holes for you, though.

Anyway, so I overslept waaay late today. Overslept for what, you may ask. Well, nothing in particular, but I should not have been sleeping as last as I did. I can't explain it, other than that I didn't get any kind of decent rest in OBX, and I really am in love with my CPAP lately and wanted to stay on it as long as I could? Whatever, I am well-rested now and shall not make that same mistake again tomorrow.

We didn't do a whole lot during the day, sadly. I've nothing fun to report about that. Unless you count the fact that I let Sophia adopt the Tiger Snake Webkinz, which she named "Bibble." She picks the best names! So now we have 55 adopted 'kinz, and 15 more in the closet waiting to be loved. A nice little collection, eh?

It was back to tap class for Chloë, so I showered, got everyone dressed (we lolled about in our PJs for most of the day) and out the door, and off we went. One good thing: I hadn't been able to fit in my seatbelt for a few days (Yes, I've gotten THAT fat!), and I could buckle it up today. So I shall keep up the Slim-Fast routine as long as necessary.

While she was dancing, I made numerous phone calls to doctors and insurance and what-not to straighten out the latest surgery mess. There is yet another annoying delay with getting the proper referral in the system, and if they don't get it soon, they're going to close me out and I'll have to start the process ALL OVER. I couldn't get an appointment until the end of the month and was freaking out! But I managed to coax them into squeezing me in for this Wednesday morning, thank God. Fingers crossed that this will be end of the nonsense and before long, I'll be under the knife having my organs rearranged.

After the phone mess, I spent the rest of the time reading the "January" chapter of Elizabeth Zimmermann's wonderful Knitter's Almanac, from which I just completed that February baby sweater. Oh, I have not shown you that, have I? It's all knitted up, but I have not yet sewn up the sleeves or added the buttons that Steph picked out. Perhaps tomorrow!

Back at home, I took the girls potty while we waited for Rob's imminent return from The Job. Jack broke the surfboard off his new VW Beetle that we gave him from NC and cried like I've never heard him cry before. Seriously, it was agonistic. But then we figured out that it was supposed to come on and off, and all was right with the world again. Whew.

When Rob drove up, we set off. First stop was to pick up these awesome stocking holders from a fellow Freecycler. Aren't they nice? Brand-spanking-new. They weigh about 5 lb each and will be for Rob's and mine next year. Now I just need to find 3-5 more (much smaller, simple) holders for the kids and pets, and we'll be all set. Sweet.

Then we went to the Redbox to get two free movies: Kitt Kettridge: An American Girl (ostensibly for the oldest child, but hopefully the other two will enjoy it as well), and Dark Knight. So far, we have watched neither. Have you seen them? What did you think?

We went into the grocery store together, as a family, so I could use four of those $5 in free groceries coupons. Unfortunately, the $@##$@%$ rules say you can only use one per order, which sucks my butt. So I put together five orders of just over $5 apiece, took two and gave two to Rob, and got in two separate lines. It was a bit of a hassle at the registers, but I don't care. I got my $20 in free food.

At home, after I scanned the groceries, Chloë and Sophie sat with me while I prepared our dinner. Rob doesn't like to have them in the kitchen when he cooks, but I prefer to have them near me and let them see what I'm doing. I'm certainly no wonderful cook, but the more they watch, the better off they'll be in the future, right? Especially if they help, too.

 

I bought the shrimp the other day, during our big shopping trip, and had the store steam them without seasoning at that time. They've been chilling ever since, so all we had to do was peel them and add the cocktail sauce for some nice shrimp cocktail! It was really good. The Littles didn't want any of it, so the rest of us dug in and enjoyed it. Recognize the dish? It's my, well, it's technically an ashtray, but I don't care, it'll never be used as such, from Pisa, Italy. Remember?

 

Then I cut up some cubes of Monterey Jack cheese and mixed up a nice Caesar salad. I spied and tried Briannas Asiago Caesar dressing at the grocery store, but I shouldn't have. It's okaaaay, but not anywhere near as good as my old standby, Cardini's. Now that's the stuff. My late friend Beth introduced me to it many years ago, and it's the best Caesar ever. Added in some Croutons, and voila! Salad. Oops, forgot the Parm cheese. Oh, well.

 

Lastly, I sliced up some fresh sunflower bread from the bakery. Someone was hungry and snagged that missing piece in the middle, and her name is me. Good stuff!

The Littles didn't get dessert, since they just ate bread and not much at that. But Chloë did, and she chose to have the Kozy Shack Cinnamon Raisin Rice Pudding that was on sale and for which I had a coupon. It was REALLY good. You must try it. She ate a bunch and filled her little belly.

 

Oh, I lied, Sophie did eat a bunch of Monterey Jack cheese during meal prep and declared it her FAVORITE, very histrionically. Of course, she's at that age where everything is her favorite. Please, Lord, don't let this child turn four in April. She's an amazing three!

And that's about it, folks.

Fin.

First Of The First Of The First

 

So, today was all right, for the most part, kinda sorta.

How's that for equivocation?

And, what, no comments about the make-over? I like it. Especially that it's not all squunched up. Plus I think it's homey and inviting.

Anyway, today.  First thing we did - after eating and showering and all that good stuff, of course - was go grocery shopping. Because I am now a f**king invalid, I had to take the whole family along, and ride around in the cart.  This whole thing is very upsetting, but I don't really want to go into that. Suffice it to say that it, for some reason, I don't get approved by insurance for this surgery, we are going to pay for it ourselves. I need it, and fast.

I kicked ass at the shopping today. There were lots of great deals in the ad, that we could use and that matched up with my coupons and our needs. I "only" saved $58 this time (which is fantastic but not as good as last time's $80ish!), but because of the deals, I got another $45 off my next grocery trip kicked back to me at the register! Forty-five dollars in free groceries! The only kicker is I have to use them before the 15th, but I'm sure we can come up with some needs before then.

The kids all helped carry in and put away groceries. They are getting to be so big and strong! And they love having little jobbies, so I'm always trying to come up with tasks for them to do for mommy. Other than the dreaded cleaning up of toys. We haaaate doing that!

Shortly after that, once the kids had gone down for some rest, Rob left for work. He is standing watch tonight, until 0600 tomorrow - our 8th anniversary! So that sucks, but we are getting out of town for the weekend by ourselves, while Stim watches the kiddies. We're going to the Outer Banks of North Carolina (OBX) for the second time; the first time was when Jack was about 5 months. (The kids came that time, of course.)

Chloë came down after less than a half-hour, so she helped me clean up the office and living room quite a bit, as much as my back could tolerate. (Pretty lame to sit on the office chair while I vacuumed, though...) When the Littles got up, we had just snackies for dinner and played on the SmartCycle.

At bedtime, I flossed their teeth with the new flosser I just bought (okay, I'll throw you a bone: flossing is one of my resolutions). Chloë loved it; Jack tolerated it; Sophia clamped her hands over her mouth and shook her head NO!

Then we sat around awhile, took a few pictures, and I answered all their evening stalling questions. "Do you have to brush your teeth after you die? Do you have to go potty when you die? Can you play video games after you die?" and so on went tonight's theme!

So now, I guess I'll go knit and fall asleep. I should be doing laundry, I should be packing... but I'm sleepy and will do it in the morning. Oh! Since my CPAP appointment, I've been wearing it every night and actually kind of enjoying it! Shocker, I know. I feel better and more rested in the morning and have stopped whipping the mask off in my sleep. I do somehow end up with it in my mouth half the time, though!

Hope you all had a great start to the New Year. What did you do?

Fin.

Manic Monday

 

I stayed up last night doing paperwork, catching up on the kids' school papers, and knitting the second of these little socks for my friend C's little baby. It's cold up North where they live, and she wanted something with long cuffs to help keep Baby from pulling them off. I hope these do the trick, C!

The yarn is the super-soft and squunchy KPPPM, aka Koigu Painters Pallette Premium Merino, which I think I mentioned the last time I showed the first sock. It's my first time knitting with it, although I have a small stash of it waiting to be used. Now, I can't wait to figure out what to make with the rest of it!

It's going to have to wait, though, since I have started on my next commission, the pile of 50 kitchen dishcloths for a customer at the big craft show earlier this month. I've only gotten one done today, but they go fast. Which is good, because so does my attention span.

Sophia and I had a quiet morning, as both of us were really tired. We snuggled on the couch, and she dozed off on top of me for a little while; I dozed right back. I love holding a sleeping child. It's so rare now that they're not tiny babies, I've really got to soak up the warm fuzzies while I can get 'em!

In the afternoon, I tried to get up and be productive, since Sophia had more energy and Jack came from school in top form. He'd had a good day and was raring to go. I didn't really get anything of note done, but we made quite a mess in the living room doing it. It was a busy dress-up day for the girl and still all about the Escalade for the boy.

When Chloë came home, I realized I better get in gear, so I hustled everyone upstairs while I took my shower and got dressed. She dressed for tap class, and then we left. We sat at dance class the whole time, instead of running off to shop somewhere, so I could do some crocheting. I only stitched for the first half of the time, and then I fell asleep for the second half.

At home, Rob was there, so we gave over the Littles and then set off to deliver more Fall Product. {Both kids are behind in homework from being sick and traveling, so I  nixed the skating party. Neither even mentioned it.} Only a few people were home, but a neighbor who we'd delivered to the day before found us and came up to the van to buy more candy from us on the spot! So then, of course, I had to call up and order some more to replace it. Easiest sale ever.

When we hit all the houses, still missing a few who weren't home, we returned home to find dinner on the table. Rob made a hodgepodge of garlicky shrimp, spicy tomato rice, corn, and biscuits. The kids ate really well; everyone was hungry. During dinner, the Schwan's guy who we didn't expect until Thursday arrived. Rob was P-O'd that he came three days early during dinner time, but we accepted the shipment. Half of it was missing, so now I'm annoyed, too.

I went upstairs to tackle the enormous mound of laundry that has once again built up. I manage to fold one basket before I realized I had to go pick up the Fall Product that I'd ordered earlier in the evening. Oops. So that was the end of the laundry, although I'm awake now and may go work on it some more after this. My main objective is making sure the kids have enough undies and jammies in their drawers, and getting together Chloë's wardrobe for the photo shoot on Wednesday afternoon for Dollar Tree. I'm supposed to bring a lot of stuff.

So in my braless t-shirt and shorts - way inappropriate for the freezing weather but, like I said, I'm down on laundry - I ran to pick up the Girl Scouts stuff. I shivered repeatedly while I waited for her to do the paperwork, and then I high-tailed it back home. Hopefully, we can deliver the rest of the goodies tomorrow. She's two away from the next reward plateau, though, so maybe we'll sell some more to get there! (Or, uh, order it ourselves...)

I didn't feel like more laundry, so I sat down to watch TV and crochet, and I've been back and forth between there and here ever since. Rob never came down again after putting the kids to bed, so I'm all by my lonesome.

And I don't like it.

Think I'll go up and join. Even if it does mean doing laundry, tossing and turning in the bed, and using that dreaded CPAP. My insurance apparently covers a change in mask, so I think I'll go for it. Maybe it's the mask that I hate so much?

[Confidential to MIL: Thank you for the card. I cried, of course. You made my day.☻]

Fin.

CPAP-alujah!

Well, last night was much better. Sort of. I was able to sleep (thanks, in part, to the fact that Rob and not I spent the night on the couch) with the mask on and get back to sleep when he woke me up to say goodbye in the morning. And I actually kind of liked the feeling of, well, being oxygenated!  The mask started to leak a lot when I tried to go on my side, though, so it looks like I'm sleeping flat on my back for the next... oh, forever.

But the one thing that I'm hoping for didn't happen: I was even more tired during the day and even passed out in the middle of the day for about three unexpected hours after Jack got on his bus! I thought I was going to be getting better sleep and therefore be wide awake during the day, but no. And when I did wake up - barely on time for Jack to come home again and only thanks to the UPS guy ringing the doorbell - it was very strange. I was so out of it and couldn't quite 'come to.' I didn't like that at all, and that's not good for being a mom and stuff. So we'll need to work on that... but I'm going to keep using it and hope for better and better results.

We were supposed to go register Jack for kindergarten today, but we'd have had to leave right after I dropped Chloë off at school, and that is wicked early for the non-twins. (For newcomers, I call them that because they are 3 and 5 but roughly the same size, both blonde, and everyone asks me if they are. And since Jack, the 5yo, did have a twin, Sophie is his non-twin. See?) Neither of  them were ready to wake up at that point, so I didn't push them. The main reason to go - since we can go in and register any old day - would be for Jack to see the school and get to ride on the bus.

But he rides on his bus all the time to pre-school, and he has seen Chloë's school numerous times and will visit again in the summer for his kindergarten picnic, so I'm not too worried about him missing anything. Y'know? I can't fully register him anyway until his 5-year check up at the end of the month, so... we played hooky.

Aside from all that and taking Chloë to ballet after school, it was a non-exciting Earth Day for us. I had grand plans to take a nature walk with Sophia, but again, I zonked. And I can't blame the vikes, because I didn't take any since last night. I don't know.

So, tomorrow I'm going in for my allergy appointment, and I'm SO EXCITED, y'all. I have been putting up with this itchy rash for months with no real solution, and now finally I am going to get it taken care of. Not that I expect anything to happen at the clinic tomorrow - they are maroons. I plan to get a referral. But it's a start!

Barbara's coming to clean tomorrow (woohoo!) so I am going to do some picking up and then try for a few more giveaways before bed!

Fin.

CPAP Smear

My husband is a half-asser when it comes to housework.

For instance, he'll take out some of the garbage but not all of it - on garbage night. He'll put out some of the recycling but leave some in the house. He'll make the bed with the fitted sheet but not put on the top sheet. He'll wash the dishes but not the table and counters. He'll wash a load of laundry but never put it into the dryer. And so on.

{Don't get me wrong. I appreciate all the hard work he does around here. I'm just trying to get to a point.}

But when it comes to me, he goes all the way, to the point of being an enabler.

For instance, he lets me sleep as much as I want when he's home, even though it means not sleeping well the next night. He gets me whatever I want to eat, and brings home little treats, even though we may as well be Jack Sprat and his wife. And when I bitch and moan about the CPAP, he tells me I don't need to use it if I really don't want to.

Here's the part where I bitch and moan about CPAP.

I used it for a short while last night before developing a really sore throat (only on one side, the most annoying kind) that has yet to disappear. So, I thought, I'll try it with the humidifier. I got my jug of distilled water and hoisted it up to the little tank, dumping a half-gallon on myself in the process. I overfilled the tank and tried to dump it back into the jug before having to stalk off to the bathroom to spill perfectly good distilled water down the sink. Eventually, I got the humidifier adapter all set up and attached to the main machine. Good to go.

Except water burbled down my tubing, even though the water level was now well under 'max,' and my face kept getting all wet. I finally managed to just deal with this and get back to sleep, but it definitely did not keep me asleep. I woke up again, with a wet face, a sore tummy from the position I had to use to keep the mask leaks to a minimum, the sore throat, and this time, a cough and a post-nasal drip.

Now, you may say I probably was going to get sick anyway, but I blame the CPAP for the sore throat. And the cough. And the post-nasal drip. Because I can.

And I don't like it, and I don't want it, and I don't care if I die! HUMPH. *Insert major pouty face here*

So I ripped it off and went contentedly back to sleep without it, and I expressed all of this to Rob in the morning. When he made the statement that I could stop using it if I wanted to.

This is where you, my friends, come in. You need to keep on me to keep going with it. Because I really do care if I die.

Fin.