Smellyann Strikes Again

Friday Fragments, Episode 6.14.13

Link up with Mrs. 4444 Unknown Mami, who is taking over for summer, if ye be fragmentin' today!

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Is it seriously Flag Day already? Holy cow. Where is this month going? It's flying by, that's for sure. For you, too?

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I was talking with Rob (Hubs) in the car today about Kate Middleton and how I enjoyed following the Royal Windsor (right?) family ever since I watched Lady Di marry Prince Charles back when I was five years old, in 1981. He was surprised I remembered it. Who could forget this:

I've long been a fan and was honestly crushed when she died in 1997. Here she was, in her 30s, blonde and blue-eyed, dying suddenly and tragically, leaving behind two young children of the same sex... hm. Similarities to my own story much? Anyway. So I have followed Prince William's marriage and the baby bump story and all that with keen interest.

Rob posited that the Di/Charles story was a bigger one than the William/Kate one, on the world stage, as far as news stories go. I heartily disagreed. So I thought I'd ask you guys. What do you think? Is Kate as big a fairy tale story as that of her departed mother-in-law? I say equal.

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So sorry for the shameless begging request, but could you please comment on this review post? I don't have a huge ton of readers and need to get back to my sponsors with some feedback from folks. Thanks, y'all rock for helping me out! I promise I'll be a good little blahgger and visit back this week, too. No slacking for once, swears!

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Didja get your free donut on at Dunkin' Donuts, Krispy Kreme, or anywhere else on Friday? It was National Doughnut Day. Yup. We partook. I didn't eat a single bite, though; I am behaving so I can stay put in Rob's jeans! 

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The kids were sent books and pens (because you write in books?) by my dad on Saturday, and the girls dove right in. Jack just rolled his eyes and sarcastically said, "Oh, yay, another book." He's picked up reading a little more in the last couple-three months, but I definitely wouldn't call him a bookworm yet. We've instituted Family Reading Hour as of yesterday, and so far it hasn't stuck. We'll keep at it, though. It's important to us.

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We made Pillsbury Cresent Rolls the other day, and Sophia took the ends off the tube and turned herself into a housefly! I loved it. She's so fun, so creative, such a happy-go-lucky girl... I do adore her so, like all the children, but Sophie really has a knack for making us laugh!

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I took the kids to the $1 movie on Tuesday for Regal Cinemas' summer movie program. Used to be a free one by AMC or Cinemark or something too (nope, I just checked; it was Regal itself that used to be free), but apparently they're all a dollar now.  It's a bit of a hike to get there, too, or we might have gone back for The Three Stooges on Wednesday. We saw Ice Age: Continental Drift this week, and it was really pretty good for a multiple-sequel flick! I'd brought my knitting along, expecting to be buried in it, but I actually didn't get that much done because of having my eyes on the screen. I can't wait to go again next week. Looks like we'll have to choose between Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days and Parental Guidance for next week. We've seen the first, and isn't the latter not for little kids??

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The rain actually let up for once today, so we headed out to a park we haven't been to before this. Of course, as we made our way there, the sky completely opened up and down it came. Rob and the kids sat in the van when we got there and, hopeful, applied some sunscreen. Finally, the downpour slowed to a trickle and they got out to fish (the boys) and rollerskate (girls) while I stayed inside to knit. My nausea and dizziness returned with a vengeance after a few days off today, plus it's no fun to knit with wet yarn, or I'd have been happy to join them.

I actually did come out temporarily when I got bored of being by myself, and the whole fam-damily was all gathered on the fishing platform. I caught up with them as they watched a turtle chug down some shrimp left behind by a previous fisherperson. {As for Rob, he was using some crab legs that we'd gotten from Omaha Steaks for bait. I gave him my blessing to do that because I really didn't care for it the first time we tried it; I don't think I'll order from them again, since they're pricey and yet, a letdown! If we ever order frozen food to be delivered again, I already known Schwan's is the way to go - at least for Team Odette!}

After a spell, with no fish biting, we decided to make our way over to the restaurant at the park marina for dinner. The kids ate French potaters and mozzarella sticks - too much fried food, anyone? - while Hubs and I noshed on spinach and artichoke dip (meh, it was okay, but I wasn't wowed by any stretch) and tilapia sandwiches (total blech. I took two bites and ran to the bathroom, overcome with nausea). Rob will finish my sandwich, and I'll gladly be returning to full-on vegetarianism after this, I think!

We all shared chocolate mousse cake and Key Lime cheesecake for dessert, and I remained underwhelmed. For our limited budget to be spent on a dinner that I didn't find terrific, I was bummed. I know the grille at the park we usually visit will cook your catch and provide sides for just seven bucks a plate, so I'm planning on Rob catching some fish in the future! I won't eat it, but I can still proudly Instagram him doing it, right?

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Speaking of today's failed fishing venture, Rob managed to catch his karaoke kabuki suzuki sabiki rig on the bottom and get it stuck. He ran over to the van and got out his dive booties, so he could jump in and retrieve it. I was just looking on with interest until he said, "There are no crocodiles around, right?" Duh, Melanie! We were RIGHT NEXT TO the croc warning sign, and yet I'd forgotten about them. Instantly, I freaked out on him and refused to let him jump in, despite his protests about what we could do with his life insurance funds if he got eaten. Um, no thanks. Twelve-and-½ years ago I swore I didn't care if we were poor and living in a shack with nothing but each other (and our future children), and I meant it, dadgummit!

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Well, that's enough, I'd say. Nothing else in my brain rattling around right now. Lucky you - I'm finished! Have a good weekend, folks.

Fin.

Oh, My Dawg, I'm So Excited!!!

...or, How We Spent Our Tax Refund!

        ...or, Man, We Should Be One of Those Couples Who Has To Spend a Million-Dollar Inheritance in 24-Hours Flat!

                   You feel me? But let's move on from these 77 alternate titles and get to the meat of this post.

If you hadn't realized, our federal tax refund hit our bank account yesterday. Here's how we've spent it on the kids and household goods in the day since then:

1. First stop, our local post office. We had to mail five or six packages, including the Progressive Snapshot device I'd never plugged into our Odyssey, Penelope, some video surveillance equipment for a mystery shop I'd (never) done, and the keys to our Virginia Beach house to our realtor back in that town. Plus, I had to buy a roll of stamps. Yes, some of us do still send snail mail. And also, we had to bring our lease in so that we could FINALLY get the keys to our mailbox. It's been 3 weeks, and we still have almost NO mail, save for the little bit that trickles down into our PO Box. Speaking of which, the kids and I went to check it while Rob finished up with the lease business, and there were two cards in it from Aunt Stacey (my sister). She sent cards and money for the two birthday babies, Jack and Sophia, having decided together with me that money was the way to go for our kids' respective birthdays from now on.

2. Next stop, Walmart. We spent a buttload of money on household necessities (and a few un-necessities, but not many) there. And Jack spent his new birthday money on this remote-controlled boat he'd been eyeing for a while.

Sophia spent her birthday money on this horse, which goes with her doll that she'd bought with birthday money from others earlier in the month. Granted, it's not tax money, but it happened yesterday, so I have to tell ya.

Also, Chloë and...

 

 

... Sophia both got new pairs of skates, which was and wasn't a splurge. It wasn't an absolute need, no, but they did need to get more and more varied exercise, and I needed a skating partner! Rob wanted to buy me a bike, too, but I figure I'll keep an eye on Freecycle for that. (Side note: Sophia fell on her butt a million times but is already zooming skillfully around the block. Chloë is still falling, but she'll get there, I'm sure. Soon as she lets go of all the tree branches, that is.)

 

 Other spending at Wally-World included food (absolutely necessary, right?), an iron (Rob had left ours back at the Va Beach house, oops), toilet bowl brushes (because, eww, he forgot those back there, too), a plunger (same story), towels and accessories to match the new shower curtains and mats in both our and the kids' bathrooms (splurge-y), a garbage can (forgot it, too), aaaand new bedding for all three kids (Sophia ruined all the old ones. She does that).

 

 

 

Next up, back at home, I went online to the Florida DMV website because we both need new state licenses, and then we'll need to register Penelope and the motorcycle, and then we'll need to get new insurance policies. (And I still freakin' need to fix the gigantical crack down the middle of my windshield, but that'll keep a li'l longer, won't it? It's been a month and a half already, after all...) But the next appointment - you make 'em online, here - for the DMV isn't until May 6th, so I looked at the docs we'll need for the new licenses. Crap, I need a new Social Security card. So do the kids; ours got stolen, which is not awesome. Lots of other stuff did, too; someone stole our "important papers" lockbox I kept under my desk. Ugh. Anyway. We'll go do that business tomorrow. Of course, they'll want my driver's license, among other things, to get the new card, so now I understand dogs and cats chasing their own tails!

 

 

We don't need cable TV - -haven't had it for years- - but we do need internet service. This is 2013, after all, and we have numerous electronic devices needing wi-fi. Not to mention the fact that our iPhones get crap for signals in the house on the LTE network, or 3G or 4G for the matter, and we don't have a landline. So, we put in about a half-dozen phone calls to Comcast to sign up for supah-fast (and cheap, compared to what we were paying for Cox in VA) cable internet service. We'd have done it sooner, but, ah, that's neither here nor there. It's done now, and they're coming Sunday, and I can't wait, and yeah.

 

 

Next stop, JAFRA, to place an order. I have gotten several from clients that needed fulfilling, plus I plan to start kicking that into high gear, so I needed a few things myself for said purpose. Yeah. I love JAFRA packages. They smell so damn good and always bring promises of buttery soft skin. Mmm, me likey.

 

 

 

Speaking of our iPhones, I've been boosting off my 5's Personal Hotspot to get online and do all the important stuff like tell you on this blahg about that important stuff, and so I had to go on the AT&T website to pay our big, fat bill. That was that. Can't wait to whittle that back down after the Comcast guy comes with our new, um, nothing?

 

 

Speaking of paying the bills, I hopped over to our bank website and put in an extra payment for Penelope, and...

 

 

 

...Elsie, Rob's BMW motorsickle.

 

(Yes, I spelled it that way on porpoise. C'mon, now.)

 

And then, the really exciting stuff started. Well, wait, first dinner. The kids must eat. The husband must eat. I... must nibble. I gained about 10 lbs during our move and realized it even before I got my scale back a week ago to confirm it, so I've been eating very carefully and am already down 4 lbs since then. I was hoping to take it off by my birthday in September, so yay. But what? am I talking about??

 

 

For dinner, after Rob and the kids cleared off the table and cleaned up the kitchen enough for me to cook in it properly, we laid down the new bamboo runner we'd gotten on clearance from Walmart (a minute splurge, yes, but it went with my Fiestaware, and hey, bamboo!) and used the also-clearanced new cloth napkins (hey, reducing paper waste is a good thing). Since we were going fancyish, I decided to make the kids promise promise promise they wouldn't break the wedding crystal we'd gotten from Dr. Lisa and Uncle Faris, and they did pinky-promise, which is as good as gold 'round here. And guess what? The only person who came even close to breaking one was ME. Yup, I'm still the same ol' klutz I always was, rest assured. PS, the candles were Sophie's idear. We are SO decadent. ;P

 

 

I'd gotten this Ninja Chopper from my friend, Yet Another Stephanie, back in VA, but I hadn't put it to good use yet. We had avocados, we had guac mix, and we had tortilla chips, so it was time. And guess what? After a few pulses, we had delicious-ish guacamole. It wasn't the best I've ever had, but compared to the improvised batch I made after Rob and - yes! - the kids quickly polished off this one, it wasn't bad at all. Heh. (Mine wasn't either, but it lacked salt. And lymes. And cilantro. And had too much onion. And tomato. And not enough avocado. Damn, it must've sucked worse than I first rememberated.)

 

 

 

This picture is way washed-out compared to the actual scene, but then I whipped up a pork steak dinner from a recipe I'd gotten on the back of a can of Campbell's chicken broth. There was pasta instead of rice, because that's what I had, and I needed to squeeze fresh juice from oranges rather than use bottled juice, because that's what I had and hello, yummier, but other than that, it was pretty much according to the recipe. Kinda. Anyways. Rob says it was good enough to make again, which is high praise coming from him, but all three kids had upturned noses, the punks. I don't see them doing the whole presentation-is-everything thing on me with hummus and pita, or anything, so humph!

 

 

 

However, Jack and Chloë did enjoy the orange slices in the dinner so well that they requested more for dessert. Um, okay, twist my arm a little bit, why don'tcha.

 

And NOW for the rilly, rilly exciting part!!!

 

(You'd better be sitting down now.)

 

(I mean it.)

 

(Because this is heady, heady stuff, coming up here in a second.)

 

Are you ready?

 

All right.

 

You asked for it.

 

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I bought stuff for homeschooling!!!!!! Yeah, school, baby! I can't WAIT to delve back in and get the kids back on track and have tons and tons and TONS of fun in the process. I love teaching them!!

 

Here's what I bought over at the Homeschool Buyers' Co-op:

 

 

 

All FIVE levels of Latin American Spanish from Rosetta Stone!!! Whoop!! For cheap! I have been wanting RS for aaaaaaaages, ever since I did a mystery shop at one of their kiosks (oops, I'm not supposed to tell you that) and saw how well it works. Chloë started angling for German, and I would have been thrilled with Latin, but we all settled on the LAS after thinking about what would be the most useful in our lives right now. I can not WAIT to get my teeny-weeny little hands on this baby. Sirrusly.

 

 

I usually piece our Science and Social Studies curricula together myself, but this year (starting now), I'm going to get a little help from the award-winning Adaptive Curriculum. I cannot wait to see how that works for us, especially in Social. Science, I've got down, but our Soshe has been a little, well, piecemeal, so I'd like to get it more organized in their brains, y'know?

 

For teaching Grammar rules more concretely, I got us a lifetime passport to Grammaropolis, which looks very promising. Sounds like fun, too!

 

 

For writing and all that goes with that business, I bought us a year's subscription (which is really enough information, with what I got, to last us through the end of high school if I choose) to Brave Writer, a highly rated program about which I've heard nothing but good stuff. Eeeeeek!

 

And now for the reeeeeealllllly exciting part!!!!

 

Can you stand it? I can't!!

 

Because we want the kids to be technologically savvy, and because so much of their work is computer- and internet-based, I have been wanting to get them each their own laptop or tablet for a while. I've been researching and thinking and debating about it; we've had ONE laptop for the kids up 'til now, and it just doesn't work that well when all three kids need to be online to do assignments. With three, I wouldn't need to constantly rotate them out and cut them short on projects - they could all work simultaneously! So after tons more research, I bought them each a Kindle Fire HD 7" tablet on Amazon.com! Wooohoooo, the
y are going to be so stoked, man!

 

 

 

 

Of course, to protect their shiny new electronical toys, I got them each a case in a different color. Jack's is green, because, well, it's his favorite, and I couldn't find a boyish pattern to suit him.

 

 

I think this one will be Chloë's.

Sophia will like this one.

I don't know how much they'll need or use them, but it remains to be seen, so I got them this pack of 6 styli for their Kindle Fire HDs, and also one - yes, just one - wall charger to share. I figure that much we can do on a rotational basis, right?

But I'm still not done outfitting the kids for the coming year. Nope, nope, nope. I did s'more shopping on ye olde Amazon first:

Sophia needs a new queen-sized mattress for the bunk bed she'll now be sharing with Chloë, because we had to leave her old one behind in Portsmouth (doesn't really matter; it was gross). I got her this memory-foam one, which has really good ratings. Remind me to air it out for two days first...

Oh, and for us, I got a new bed frame since Rob left our old one behind at the Virginia Beach house, which sucks because they aren't as cheap as I thought they were. Booger.

For Jack, I picked up a Yamaha keyboard stand (and a new wall charger, since he lost his). Even though he's decided not to pursue lessons for now, the music store folks convinced us to hang onto the keyboard in case one of the kids picks it up. And I can play, albeit slowly and gingerly, so we can all bang around on it for our music lessons in Sweet Pea Academy. It's cheap but comes highly-rated, so I think this one'll do us just faaaahhhhhn.

 

And finally (as you all breathe a sigh of relief, I know), the kids have been doing some growing since last I shopped for summer clothing for them. Especially Sophia; she's now, like, a foot taller than Jack! No lie. She needed a new bathing suit and picked this one out at Sears.

They all needed shorts and tees, so I bought bunches upon bunches of those for each kiddo, too, along with one dressy outfit for each kid. Inexplicably, after making a painstaking order there, Sears canceled several of my items and let the rest go through. Buh-wha-huh? I have to call them. I want those things, dammit! They need 'em! But it'll keep 'til 0900. Which, oh, is four minutes from now. Serendipity, baby!

Oh, shit, I totally forgot one more big splurge! Well, not like, a boat big, but Shamu big. *Ahem*

 

Yep. We're going to Orlando on Monday and Tuesday! Rob still has a little bit more time (a month, maybe) on Active Duty, so that means he and three dependents still get in for fah-reeeee at Anheuser-Busch parks through their ongoing Here's to the Heroes Salute program.  That leaves one kid out, so I bought another ticket, along with our parking pass, dine-all-day passes for Rob and the kids (I'll nibble and graze meagerly), and a stroller rental voucher. I can't wait, and the kids are ecstatic! (The stroller is mostly for Jack, who still has trouble walking sometimes, especially for long periods of time, thanks to his tight Achilles tendons, and also to keep the kid out of the sun here and there, and also in case we want it to carry things around the park without holding them.) Can't wait to see the shows, can't wait to see Shamu, can't wait to see my babies' faces when they get to feed a fish or two to the dolphins. Wheeee! That'll be Monday.

I think we'll do this on Tuesday, but we might not. I don't know yet. We'll see. Maybe we'll just come home Tuesday, or we might hang out with my online friend, Gloria, whom I've not yet met, or maybe we'll... hm. I don't know! Suggestions?

NOW I'm finished.

I have some mystery shops to go do today, along with my doctor's appointment for this thing growing on my chin, soooo.... whew! This post took forEVER to write.

Fin.

P.S. I'm such a liar. That's not all. HAHAHA. The cats got new beds and litter to poop in - LOTS of litter.

Not-So-Wordless Wednesday: Earth Day 2013

It's super-annoying that Typepad doesn't seem to wanna auto-save anymore, and I lose almost an entire kick-ass post when the screen freezes. But anyways...

While I was going about my business preparing for our Earth Day picnic on Monday, Rob came out wearing this Navy-issue peacoat, with the Meerschaum pipe in his mouth, saying, "Picture me on the bridge of our boat, steering across the Atlantic..." and I totally could. Can you? Course you can. It's still our dream, y'know. In a heartbeat, we would...

I had been searching on the old innernet for Earth Day activities and crafts when I came across The Nature Conservancy's All Hands on Earth picnic website. The idea, in a nutshell, is to foster sustainable food-eating practices by buying local and in-season to reduce, you know, gas and energy consumption from the production and distribution of worlds-away, out-of-season, uh... I said that way better the first time, but you get the gist, right? Right.

I had no fundage available at the time to run out to the Farmer's Market and pick up some deliciousness, so I figured I'd just use what we already had on hand to reduce waste, live frugally, and other great things we try to practice on a daily basis. I had cooked a bunch of chicken tits in the Crock-Pot the night before and still had half a -Pot left, so I tore that up and added some gorgonzola cheese crumbles leftover after our salad fixin's were used up, along with some apples I diced to add some sweetness and crunch. Along with some seasonings and Miracle Whip (Rob's fave), it was aces all around. Total yummo.

We chose Biscayne National Park as the nearby destination for our picnic because, despite the fact that it's too far to walk or ride a bike for us, the idea of Earth Day connotes (to me, anyway) surrounding oneself in the beautiful precious natural resources of our planet, and so it seemed a fitting locale. The last time we were there, I'd gotten a wicked bad sunburn from being too stupid to put on SPF before lying down on a towel with my library book. I just discovered what appears to be a melanoma - for which I'm going to the doc in about 7½ hours - on my chinny-chin-chin Monday morning, so I wasn't taking any chances with those harmful UV rays. We took along everything from SPF 30 all the way up to 85+. Although, really? Is that fo'real?

 

Aside from our afore-mentioned chicken salad on both spinach and sun-dried tomato wraps (also already on hand), we had mango cubes (I'd searched for a YouTube video on cutting them perfectly:

 

and it was spot-freakin'-on. Worked like a charm, after many failed attempts on my part.)

Plus, I threw in a bunch of bagged cereal for snacks, and Sophia snuck in half a pound cake for good measure. We served everything on reusable napkins and wrappers, and a pitcher of fruit punch was served in regular ol' plastic kids' cups. Leave no trace, leave the place better than when you found it, and all that.

When Jack dropped a piece of his cereal, this duck walked boldly up to him and looked askance. Not in the "how dare you?!" sense of the word, but "how dare you not feed me?" sense. He stayed there, quacked a few times, and made Jack squirm and squeal a whole bunch. It was hilarious.

We really laughed out loud a moment later when the two ducks on the bottom and left waddled up in perfect unison, speeding zip-zip along the sand to get their pieces of the proverbial pie. They didn't get any from us, although I noticed Sophia "accidentally" dropped one or two their way. Soon a fourth joined the flock, and by then we were surrounded by Muscovies looking to join our Earth Day picnic. Fun times.

After lunch, I sent the kids off on a Nature Treasure Hunt geared for kids aged 8-11, which, hey, is perfect since that's what range my kids all fall into, hey? The first one (of ten) was: "Find a place where an animal made a home," so off they went toward the mangroves to find nests or burrows. The three quickly spotted deep, wide holes in the ground and decided something had dug its way in, and I couldn't argue with that, so I gave them credit.

The second one directed them to make fairy homes out of natural objects, so Sophie had the idea to make teepees out of dried-out palm leaves. Chloë and Jack quickly followed suit; all but Chloë got them to stand without being held.

3. Find a seed - Easy! They just had to look up at the big palm trees everywhere to find them hanging out like so many, um, testicles. (What can I say? It's where the mind automatically goes.)

4. Make a tool, like a hammer or drawing stick. Jack, not being terribly imaginative, picked up a stick and started drawing. Okay, fine. Sophia, surprisingly equally unimaginative, picked up a stick and started hammering the top of her fairy teepee. Okaaaay, Chloë? She picked up a stick and pretended it was a screwdriver, driving, er, screws into the dirt. Better, but totally uninspired. Still, we moved on.

5. Find or name two things that all living things need to survive. The kids shouted out things like, "A home!" "Air!" "Food!" "Water!" etc. This one was too easy for this age group, IMO.

6. Listen for five sounds, including both human ones and otherwise. They listened to birds singing, people shuffling their feet on a nearby path, folks talking, boats' engines starting up at the marina next to us, and the wind whispering through the trees. That last one was my favorite.

7. Find a place where a plant-eater would be happy. Again, in a national park, way too easy.

The eighth one was super-cute. They had to spy on a bug. Jack crouched down first and watched an ant go ten ways to Sunday, all over the sand. Sophia and Chloë traced their own insects, and soon they all met up, head-to-head, with their daddy. I was thinking he probably wished he had a magnifying glass to light 'em on fire, because that's just the kind of Bob he is, but maybe I'm wrong. Maybe.

9. Find a pattern in nature. They all came up with A-B-A-B-A-B patterns, so I challenged them to find something other than that. Jack was the first to do so; he found spirals projecting out from the center vein of a leaf, and I was proud.

10. Find something other than an animal that can live in water. First, they named about 3400 different animals before noticing us crossing our arms over our chest, tapping our feet and rolling our eyes all over the place. "Ohhhhh! Like seagrass?" Yeah. Duhhh.

We were done with that, and rather than do sunprints, they decided to go swimming again. Fine and good, but I was freezing and wasn't joining in. The lifeguard came over to speak at us about letting them go too far out without a parent right there (in zero waves, with a lifeguard spitting distance away, but whatevs), so Rob went in while I lay in the sun and fried a little more. My SPF 85+ was failing me, y'all! I reapplied.

Then, Rob rigged up his fishing poles and took us to go fishing. Well, took the kids, while I followed along for some Instagramography of whatever they caught (big fat nothin', it turned out). But check this sign - crocodiles?! In Florida? Gators, sure - we'd seen an 8-footer the last time out, in the canal near our house - but crocs? Who knew? Not I, not me, not us. Jack was determined to find one, but we didn't.

Also, I'm pretty sure they stole that croc drawing from Peter Pan.

 

Rob didn't have any bait, so he used a Sabiki Rig to try and catch some. He cast waaay far out, and then near, and then far again... but not even the pinfish were biting. So the kids and I went exploring while he kept trying.

We went up to the end of the walk, which culminated in, like, a pier, and looked out at the water. Another fisherman was next to us, so they meandered over to him to see what he was doing. "Fishing." What do you have on your hook? "Bait." He amused me. The kids kept pressing. My kids are pressers. So we learned this about him: He was originally from Ithaca, New York, now lived in Texas, and was here in Miami on temporary extra duty. He had never fished here before and insisted that pinfish couldn't be used to catch snapper, grouper, or larger fish, but Rob taught him how to rig the baitfish for better success (not that he was having any, but he had on previous outings, after all). He was fishing with live shrimp. I had about seventy-nine more facts about him on the tip of my brain, but they all just scattered because of course, I need them right now. Oh, and he gave Rob a beer. That was nice. Maybe it was a consolation prize, since neither man was having any luck with the fishies that day.

 

Rob gave up for a while, and just then, a manatee came into view, swimming toward the harbor. Another, smaller (I'm guessing female) sea cow swam toward him, and they met nose-to-nose for a few moments before the female turned, and they both swam away in the direction of the marina. It all happened too fast, just like with alligator the other day, for me to get a good picture, so all I have is this one of the four of them looking and pointing. It was SO breathtaking, Chloë was near tears, Sophia couldn't stop exclaiming, and my heart was racing. What wondrous things we've seen in our month here so far!

 

And then, if that weren't enough, a pelican flew in and landed near us. The kids thought that was just fantastic; they walked over and got in the big bird's face, not knowing how aggressive those things can be. They want fish, and they want it now. The pelican squawked, flapped its wings, and moved toward them. They yelped and jumped back, while I laughed. A third fishergent caught a pinfish - at last! - and threw it in the center of the pier. The kids gawked while the pelican stormed over there and gobbled it up. Only, the fish was spreading its rays, and the bird couldn't swallow it. We all watched, helpless, as it gagged and regurgitated the fish repeatedly, struggling to get it down its gullet with no success. What to do, what to do? Call a park ranger? Finally, with one loud gulp, the fish was choked down and bulging in the pelican's neck. Whew! What a relief.

We went home, exultant in our beautiful day, reliving all the amazing sights we'd seen.

Hope you all had a happy Earth Day, recycling and reusing and reducing. Remember to link up here if you're wordless - or not - today, too!

Fin.

Miami Move Mathematics

Hey, you guys! What's up? Well, as for Team Odette, I'm now coming at you from sunny South Florida! Woohoo, we made it - and we could not be having a grander time.

Our move, by the numbers:

0 = Number of times we want to do that again

1 = Different homes we want to have this time around

2 = Homes Rob almost single-handedly moved us out of to get us here

3 = Kiddos in our Honda Odyssey, Penelope, for the drive down here

4 = Times I saw groups of deer next to the highway, mainly in the Carolinas

5 = Times we had to fill up the ol' gas tank to get from Virginia to Florida (Penelope was loaded from rooftop to undercarriage, and we got horrible gas mileage!)

6 = Cats in carriers we brought along for the journey

7 = In thousands, times we heard, "Can you put a new movie in the DVD player?"

8 = Actual hours the kids slept straight through on the trip - really! They did faaaabulously well. Thank you, God!

9 = In tens, fastest speed I drove while en route - but only until I realized. Swears!

10 = Approximate number of times I cried while saying good-bye to our Virginia/Carolina friends. I won't list you guys, because I'm sure to leave at least one person out, and I can't deal with the hurt feelings that would cause!

11 = Total number of poopers in Penelope for the drive. Dudes. That is a lot. I don't recommend it. (On a related note, only ONE cat had an accident, compared to 2½ PEOPLE on the trip, including yours truly. As Chloë hilariously put it, "I have to go to the bathroom. I have to go to the bathroom. Oh, no. Oh, no! Oh, noooooo! I went! I pooped my pants! Wahhhhhhh!" And call me a bad mother, but I really did laugh listening to her. So did Rob. Quietly, to ourselves, natch, but come on! It was funneh!)

1,000+ = Miles logged on this journey. Hey, I got a free buck for Amazon.com from the iPhone (not sure about Android) app, Ride, just for having it downloaded and running in the background during the trip. I could have saved it, but you know, I'm not so good at delayed gratification lately.

4 GB = Notification from AT&T I literally just received, saying I've reached my max data usage and am now going over our plan limits. No free wi-fi in the Motel 6, y'all. Sucks! On the other hand, Personal Hotspot rocks so I can bring you this post (and the following ones, I'm sure) until we get set up in a new place with innerweb service.

Hey, that was fun, recounting all that... pun intended. Stay tuned for more pictures and posts!

Fin.

Sunday Stealing On A Tuesday

Linky linky is here, pals, friends and chums!

 

Sunday Stealing: The 5000 Question Meme, Part Five 

 

101. What does happiness/joy feel like physically? 

Warm and fuzzy, like an itty bitty bunny ... ♥

102. List five things you love starting with the one you love the absolute most. (My interpretation: People aren't things, so I'm not including them!)

A - Yarn. Natural, vibrant, soft, knittable YARN.

B - My iPhone 5!

C - The beach

D - Singing a great song at the top of my lungs while driving with the windows down on a warm day

E - Itty bitty babies, whether they're people or other animals

103. How many movies have you gone to see this year? 

We just went to the movies on Thursday for a mystery shop! Once, so far in 2013. It was Escape From Planet Earth, and I really liked it. It was surprisingly good! I want to get the DVD.

104. If you could have 3 wishes...but none of them could be for yourself, what would you wish for? 

A - I would wish for lots more money for my husband. ;) (What? I didn't SAY he had to share!) (But he would.)

B - I would wish for an end to all the world's "issues" caused by the exponential population growth of human beings.

C - I would wish for mandatory parenting classes for all first-time parents. I've seen some bad shit, man.

105. In what ways do you relax and de-stress when you are really tense? 

If it's that bad, I have to pop a Klonopin. And then, if I can't nap, I'll read a bunch of magazines and/or knit something mindlessly simple.

106. How much money would it take to get you to sell your blog address?

I don't know. At least tuppence.

107. Have you ever been hunting?

LOL I thought that said "hurting," and I was all, have you met me?! No. I have never been hunting. I never will, either. Bambi's safe from me. 

108. Have you attempted this 5000 question meme in the past?

I don't know, but probably. I've been blogging for a while now!

109. What do you think of cloning? 

Everything in moderation. The world doesn't NEED another me or you, but repetition certainly has its place.

110. Do you read or watch TV more often? 

Since we don't have TV, it's pretty much reading by default.

111. With all this talk of terrorism going around are you willing to sacrifice rights and freedoms for increased safety?

Pfft. If you're not constitutionally allowed to go into a crowded movie theater and yell "FIRE!" then even the 2nd Amendment has its limits, thank you so much. Anyone who thinks that the right to bear arms should be absolutely limitless is a TOTAL FUCKING MORON, and I have no problems saying that to ANYONE. And yes, this is a bit of a passionate issue for me. ;)

112. What is the punishment you would have come up with for Osama Bin Laden if you caught him alive? 

I don't know, an eye for an eye, I guess. So would I put him on a suicide plane mission? No. Would I put him on the plane as a terrified passenger? No. Top of a tower about to be hit by a plane? Nope. I would make him love someone with all his heart and soul and then have to bear the pain when that person was tragically ripped from his life forever. Worst pain ever. I know.

113. Have you ever named an individual part of your body?

No. However, I am an odd duck, and I feel bad for my left hand for not getting as much use as my righty, so I often favor it to give it more attention. Wow. I can't believe I'm admitting such kookiness so publicly! 

114. Have you ever been on the radio or on TV? 

Yeah, both. I posted here recently about the rug store commercial I was on when I was a kid. I have also been interviewed on a radio station about my charity in memory of our son. Twice. That was pretty cool.

115. Have you ever won a lottery or sweepstakes? 

I have won a few things, but I'll be darned if I can remember any of them at the moment. Oh, and when I turned 18, I won about $3.50 the first time I played the lottery. The next two weeks, I didn't win anything. Haven't played since.

116. Have you ever won a contest or competition? 

Similarly, yes, several things, but I'm hard-pressed to name them!

117. Have you ever watched The Joy of Painting show with Bob Ross (check out this link if you don't know who he is.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Ross_(painter)? 

Yeah, but I like the South Park version of Bob better than the real one! 

118. Do you know what your grandparents and your great-grandparents did for a living? 

My mom's dad worked at Tingue Brown as a factory laundry installer for many years. He was a hard-working man up until he died. 

My mom's mom was ... a stay-home mom, I guess? I really don't know if she worked before I came along, ever.

My dad's dad also did hard physical labor, but I can't remember the specifics. Both he and dad's mom died before I was born.

I haven't a clue what the greats did. However, my great-aunt (dad's side) was a longtime secretary for Exxon corporate.

119. Is there anything really interesting in your family history? 

I tend to think so. My dad's side of the family came from Germany to the Caribbean island of Saba several generations ago. It's a very tiny, not well-known isle, with historically unfriendly harbors, so you have to fly to get there. My dad's father was born there, along with his older sister. The great-aunt, Amy, mentioned above, was born in New York City, though. So I'm a 2nd generation American, right?

On my mom's side, my grandparents met just before World War II. My grandpa asked Grandma out, but she turned him down. She did NOT like him. Then he left to join the Navy and go fight in the war. When he got home, she had had a change of heart and started dating him. Three kids, five granddaughters, and six great-grandkids (so far) have come from that union!

120. Is there anyone you trust completely? 

Do I trust anyone 100%? Hmm. Not myself, definitely; I'm too impulsive. I couldn't think of anyone I trusted completely for a while, but now that I think about it, I trust my therapist that much. Maybe she's an odd choice, but she is absolutely fabulous. I'm really sad to be leaving her behind when we move in a few weeks. We've talked about doing remote therapy, though...

Oh, wow. I didn't realize I was at the end, here.

Welp, have a great week, y'all! I'll have more to post soon. 

Fin.

Random Schtuff Taking Up Space In My Brain Right Now

It's 0404 on a Tuesday morning, and I can't sleep - partly because I'm coming off a 5-day migraine in which I slept a TON, and partly because, well, I never sleep at night anyway. And I've got a lot on my mind right now, so prepare ye for a massive, totally random brain dump:

I'm really trying to rev up my Jafra business so that I can promote to Manager later this year. Really bad timing, considering we're going to move soon, but the exciting part is I have K joining my team soon! On the Saturday after next, we're having a Jafra spa party at her place, complete with smelly-good foot soaks, mud masks and way more, and whatever we earn at her party is going in to placing HER first order and getting her case. She's excited, I'm thrilled, and it's going to be a great send-off for me and instantly-built clientele for her. Yay!

Oops, I just realized I have two logos in that picture. Meh. It's a two-fer.

We visited my friend Saritah and her family last week, and we're going again the last week of February - along with Jenny from the Block and her kiddos, whom we haven't seen in ages upon ages. Trés fun! I have presents for both of them, so I hope I don't forget to bring 'em. Plus, Chloë is "in love" with older son Sebastian, and Sophia is "in love" with younger son Trevor, so Saritah and I are planning future double weddings. Sophie and Trevor have even locked themselves in his closet and smooched on the cheek already! What! I have to stop playing with that cute baby up there, Tempe, and pay attention to the rest of those rapscallions!

(holy huge picture that won't let me scale it down... awesome)

We're supposed to be moving to Miami right around March 1st, and I'm kind of totally freaking out about it, because we are not even remotely ready. Still to do: clean up this house, our rental, so we can move the remaining at-least-half of our crap out of the old house, which we still own, into it; get the old house cleaned up and listed for sale post-haste; set a date for the movers to come; freakin' FIND a place to live in Miami - hello, apartment managers? Returning my phone call and/or email requests for information would be a good thing, 'kay? - and, gosh, that's enough for starters. Rob thinks we won't move in time. I'm stubborn as hell about that March 1 deadline, but I'm starting to agree with him. Cue major sad face.

Oh, and considering each of us is something of a medical marvel, once we do find a place to live, I have about 27 bazillion doctors to find and appointments to make!

I have a cold. Make that aNOTHer cold. Like, my third in 2013. Plus, I'm coming off a five-day migraine (post-publish read-through realization: oh. I told you that already. Meh. It's another two-fer) in which I did a lot of lying around in bed and not much else. With that, moving, building my business and everything else, it's like, WHAT homeschooling?! so far this month. I feel pretty shit-tastic about that. Well, we'll be making up for it by doing lots of school this summer, in between beach visits and dips in the pool. 

Rob's last day in the United States Navy is on Valentine's Day! Squee! We're not having a party, since no one could be bothered to come to his 40th birthday party in August, but don't think we won't be celebrating. Horizonta---um, TMI. ;) He has been counting down the days by telling me how many times left he has to shave, cut his curly locks, press his uniforms, and so on. I think the man is excited, y'all! 

Every Sunday, we have a family meeting. Someone different runs it each time, but the agenda is always the same:

1. Calendar, wherein we go through everyone's plans for the upcoming week,

2. Compliments and appreciation, wherein every person goes around and pays everyone else some C and/or A,

3. Allowance, which is everybody's favorite part,

4. Snack, which almost always involves a drive (for me) to 7-Eleven, and,

5. Fun activity, which for the last two weeks has been a gross-out contest!

Anyway, at this past Sunday's Family Meeting, my #2 for Rob was thanking him for 20 years of service to our country, and congratulating him on his terminal leave, which starts Friday. Chloë responded by throwing her arms around Daddy and sobbing happy tears. It was a very touching moment.

I have been super busy teaching coupon classes this month. So far, I have taught one at the library, 3½ "personal sessions" at various folks' homes, and taken one friend and her daughter on a shopping trip to see how I do it in real life. Total women taught so far: eight! With at least that many more to go before we move. I'm not charging much, either, so the personal satisfaction I get from imparting my money-saving knowledge and helping these women and their families out is what's really paying me. Warm fuzzies all around!

This is just a gratuitous kids-in-the-sun photo, because I like to close with an image. There's more on my mind than all this, but that seems like enough to dump on y'all for the time-being. Can ya keep some good thoughts for us that we'll be able to get out of here and move to Miami as close as possible to our self-imposed deadline? For my sanity's sake? Thanks. Much appreciated.

Fin.

Friday Fragments

Link up here if you've got bits and pieces floating around in ye olde brain this week!

☼

I've had a busy week. For starters, we've all been sick, especially the kiddos, so I proclaimed it Fall Break and gave them the week off to lie around in bed and cough an stuff. I was sick, too, in the same way and gastro-intestinally (TMI?), so I did a lot of sitting around. I wasn't sick on Monday and, feeling pretty good, so I did a ton of laundry and cleaning house. Then I went downhill, so ... this will mostly be a pictorial of our week.

☼

On Sunday, I went (by my lonesome, because we didn't have childcare) to the qualifying party for the radio station I to which I listen to send someone to Live in the Vineyard. I just KNEW I was going to win the trip, but alas and alack, I came in tenth out of about 11 times as many people. Close but no cigar. At least I got a $20 gift card to a wine shop and the latest Matchbox Twenty CD out of it - not to mention a very strong gin & tonic that had me announcing something kind of embarrassing, on the microphone, to the ENTIRE room.

☼

Also on Monday, aside from cleaning and attending to sick kids - and speaking of sick kids, actually - I signed up to be a Point Radio change bandit to benefit The Children's Hospital of the King's Daughters (CHKD). You can look at the sidebar on the right to see how much I've raised and (please, please, please) donate a buck or two to my efforts. I fervently believe that if I'd had my twins at CHKD, Robby would still be alive; aside from that, Jack has had surgery there, and Sophia has been followed there for her ongoing breathing issues, as well, so I help them out however and whenever I can. I'd greatly appreciate your support!

☼

Since I fell sick on Tuesday, and Chloë especially was ailing, I canceled their instrument lessons and spent time on eBay in between nursing sick chirren. I've had a good month: over $700 in sales! Woot!

☼

On Wedneday, Rob's and my Halloween costumes came in, so we tried them on:

Oops, that one's not for trick-or-treating. Heh heh heh. Let me try again:

I kind of hate this picture, because I look fat in it, but whatevs, it's fun. We still haven't decided where we'll go trick-or-treating -- definitely not here in the new neighborhood -- or even if we will, as opposed to trunk-or-treating at church, so I guess with five days to go, I better figure it out! At least we've only eaten ¼ of the candy I've bought for handing out!

☼

On Thursday, I really didn't feel well, so I skipped Jack's Cub Scout pack Halloween party and sent the rest of the family without me. The kids were SO excited to dress up in their costumes:

Sophia is going as a pretty princess (yes, I will be buying more appropriate shoes for her before Wednesday night!);

Jack's a dangerous dinosaur (LOL I just realized I left the tags on his costume; d'oh!); and,

Chloë's a cute kitty cat. Guess I need to find some black shoes for her, as well!

Group shot, including our landlord in the background. Argh.

☼

I'm on my way out for therapy in a bit, so I'll leave you with some cute shots of the adorable tommy-kittens Sophie and I rescued a week ago.

That's Pepper on top and Ginger on the bottom.

A trio of cuteness!

Soap cuddlng Ginger, "her" kitten, while studying her guitar lesson book.

Chloë mimicking Jack's portrait with the kitties.

Me canoodling with my "grandkitties," looking an awful lot like my mum in this photo, face-wise.

And finally, Pepper peeking out of Rob's camo work pants pocket! Aww!

☼

That's it from me. Hopefully after therapy I'll be able to do some visiting of y'all Fragmenters, too!

Fin.



FRESCHETTA® Pizza Team's THE STRENGTH OF 1™ Campaign

Disclosure: I occasionally receive compensation in the form of products for posts. However, the opinions I share are solely my own.

Every ONE of us has the power to make a difference in the fight against breast cancer. The makers of Freschetta® pizza are looking for women bloggers to help spread the word about their The Strength of 1™ campaign to help further its mission - to inspire everyone to realize they can make a difference in some way - big or small - in the fight against breast cancer. So here I am.

Now through the end of October, 2012, the makers of Freschetta® pizza are helping to promote breast cancer awareness through their new The Strength of 1™ campaign, which includes sponsoring Bright Pink, the only national non-profit organization focusing on the prevention and early detection of breast and ovarian cancerin young women, while providing support to high-risk individuals. The mission of this The Strength of 1™ initiative is to inspire everyone to realize they can make a difference in some way in the fight against breast cancer. 

Take The Pledge - Join other women and take the pledge to show you have The Strength of 1™ power within you. You can do so at www.facebook.com/freschettapizza.

  

So, join the movement in one of many ways, including: share a story about how someone has made a difference; take The Strength of 1™ pledge on Facebook; or help spread the word on Twitter. Women can also support The Strength of 1™ Thunderclap. To do so, visit www.thunderclap.it, click on Explore Thunderclaps, and choose "Cause" in the drop-down menu to find The Strength of 1™ Thunderclap. Click on the "Support with Twitter" or "Support with Facebook" button to help further spread the word about this The Strength of 1™ mission.

 

As someone who has been personally affected by breast cancer, I thank you for reading and supporting this cause!

 

Fin.

Friday Fragments

It's that time again, when all the bits and pieces floating around in the ol' noggin get gathered together and shared with Mrs.4444 at Half Past Kissin' Time. Join us here, won't you?

☼

First things first. My keyboard is driving me crazy. I don't know what's going on with it, but it's skipping letters and symbols I'm typing, like, every four characters. How do I fix it, other than replacing it? I'm afraid I don't know. And since I've just had to replace BOTH my fried hard drive and, a week later, my monitor, I'm thrilled to death at the prospect. :\

☼

Secondarily, I've been on a major mystery shopping spree lately. I go through fits and starts where I'll go nuts doing tons of shops and then get burned out and refuse all but the most plum assignments. This is the 'nuts' part, which it seems I always do in the summertime. It's fine, because we get to have lots of fun, travel, and lots of paychecks come in to boot! Once September comes 'round, I'll slow down and get back into the school groove with the kids full-time, so it's now or never next year.

☼

One such shop was last Thursday, a trip with me and five kids 7-11 years, to our local waterpark. Oy vey. I paired everyone up: Chloë with her little beau, Jack with his bestie (the beau's younger brother), and Sophia with - Mama didn't raise no fool - ME. Guess who behaved the best out of all of them? If you know anything about my kids, you'll be shocked to hear it was Sophie. Chloë and Beau disappeared without checking back in for HOURS, Jack and Bestie kept splitting up, and Sophia stuck by my side and did everything she was told to do. Now that's crazytown. Like a parallel universe.

☼

Last night's series of shops found us driving all over the Hampton Roads area - well, the Southside, anyway, not the Peninsula - and all the way up the Eastern Shore of Virginia, almost to Maryland.  Yes, it pays well, or else I wouldn't put that much gas into it! This picture is cruising along on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel (CBBT), before we hit the Eastern Shore. I like Virginia's ES okay, but it's not very beachy-kitschy, which I tend to prefer. I like the scene in North Carolina's Outer Banks better - and the Florida Keys best. Wonder what I'll think of the San Diego area??

☼

Of course, mystery shopping involves lots of dining out, so we found ourselves at a popular steakhouse on kids' night Tuesday, where the kiddos had a great time getting these balloon animals and such. Sorry for the poor photo quality; guess I need to clean my iPhone lens!

☼

Aside from shops, there's this latest excitement in the house: I'm signing the kids up for lessons on their respective instruments, starting in September. Chloë's had her flute, and Sophia her guitar, for a while now with no action, so it's time we got into it. Jack settled on keyboarding, so we went to the music lesson shop tonight and picked him out the starter model. Can you believe this thing? When I was his age, a similarly-priced Casio was given to me, and it was about 1/100th as cool, with way fewer bells and whistles. He's absolutely giddy over it, which I love to see.

I can't wait to see how they do, learning music professionally. There's a slight chance I might give up my role as their voice teacher and get lessons in that as well, but I'm not sure the budget will allow for it. Besides, I've been classically trained, and despite the fact that it's been 18 years since I sang in an ensemble, I still know a thing or two about singing. So we'll see.

☼

I have a billion other things going on, but I should get some rest. I'm taking the older two and myself to the doctors' offices for various ailments tomorrow afternoon, and then Rob and I have a mystery shop date at a bar. So I'll leave you with these latest personalized plates spotted around town:

AWESEEM!!! I don't know why I like this one very much, but I do. It tickles my fancy.

What the what?! Someone explain it to me. For the longest time, I thought it was somethin like "SEX PIMP," (hee) until it dawned on me that it might be "PMS EXPERT" or something. But why in Heaven's name would you want to advertise that?!

And finally, an "aww" one: This parent is proud of her/his "TWO LITTLE PEAS." Cute stuff.

☼

Anyway, I hope you all have a weekend of fabulosity, and I'll fill you in on the fun stuff we're doing next week. Same place, same time. 'K?

Fin.

Friday Fragments

Link up here if you've got bits and pieces to string together for Mrs. 4444 and the gang tonight!

*~*~*~*~*

It's certainly been an up-and-down week for us here at Chez Odette, but I'd like to start off this post with one major announcement:

After SIX (originally typed "SUX," which would also have been appropriate!) WEEKS, THE LICE ARE GONE, THE LICE ARE GONE, THANK GOD ALMIGHTY, THE LICE ARE GONE!!!!

Now, I had to totally chop off ALL of Chloe's long, luscious curls to do it, but desperate times call for desperate measures, y'know? Thankfully, her hair grows back wicked fast, like her dad's and Jack's. It'll be back before we know it.

*~*~*~*~*

Downpoint:

Two weeks ago, my CPU died. We replaced it. Last week, my monitor died. Can't afford to replace that, too, just yet... UGH! I'm stuck using the laptop. I hate laptops. Can't say why; I just do.

Plus, this one doesn't have a number pad, which is why I can't do my special ALT characters. Bah.

*~*~*~*~*

Upside:

(SPOILER ALERT if you haven't seen the Olympics yet tonight)

Gabby Douglas, Virginia Native who trained at Excalibur, where Chloe will start next month in rhythmic gymnastics after a switch from another gym that doesn't offer rhythmic, won All-Around Gold tonight! The first African-American to do so. I'm SO super proud of her and her teammates! USA, USA, USA!!!

*~*~*~*~*

Downswing:

My boys, Hubs and Son, are at Webelos (Cub Scouts) camp all week. They were supposed to get there on Sunday, but we messed up and thought it was supposed to be Monday. On Monday, we didn't get paid, like we thought we would, and so they still couldn't go until Tuesday. Suck! But the main point is, I miss them so much!!! I can't WAIT to pick them up tomorrow (today) morning and hear all about their adventures!

*~*~*~*~*

Upside:

My dad and I had a major falling out several months ago. I mean, MAJOR. I thought we'd never speak again.  We've made a lot of progress through emails, however, and finally, I called him on his 70th birthday on Tuesday. There was no awkwardness whatsoever, which was a huge relief to me. I don't do confrontation - especially with my father - well at all, and there just wasn't any. Very anti-climactic, and I'm glad for it.

*~*~*~*~*

Downbeat:

Today, my toilet overflowed all OVER the bathroom, and indeed, it still IS. I cannot seem to plunge that da*n low-flow piece of crap for the life of me, and so it waits until Rob gets home from camp tomorrow. Not a fun time. To top things off, I broke a jelly jar pulling something else out of the fridge tonight, got glass lodged in my foot, and can't find the foxtail and dustpan anywhere. So that mess will be waiting for Rob, too. Unless I can find some paper towels somewhere... and yes, I'll put on some shoes. Oy.

*~*~*~*~*

Upside:

I had multiple sales in my Etsy shop, I was commissioned to do knitting for another WAHM's Waldorf-inspired mini-dolls, my blog post about Virginia Beach was featured on a national travel blog, and I was invited to submit a chapter in a textbook. I'm not sure I'll do that last one - who has the time?! - but I might give it a go. Either way, cool. I do want to write my own book at some point, so it would be good practice if I did it.

*~*~*~*~*

Down-another-thing:

My wrist, which I unwittingly somehow injured at the end of May, is still not even remotely healed. I think there is nerve damage, since the fracture we thought was there seems not to be, judging from later x-rays.  I'm in a hella lot of pain, and I refuse to take pain medication on an ongoing basis for it.  Back to the doc I go, I guess...

*~*~*~*~*

Upside:

I had a LOT of me-time this week, with the boys away and my friend Saritah taking the girls along with her kids to Vacation Bible School - up to four hours a night! SWEET. I took advantage of it, because my migraines have been plaguing me lately, and did a whole lotta nothin'. That's difficult for me to do, but between the wrist and the brain-pain, not so hard at the mome.

*~*~*~*~*

Guess that's all I feel like jabbering about for the time being, though I feel I could go on for another half-hour or more!  I'm going to try REALLY hard and visit other Fragmenters this weekend; a rarity for me with all the chaos our lifestyle brings.

*~*~*~*~*

Take it easy, peeps, and, you know, stay away from Chick-Fil-A and stuff... ;)

Fin.

Friday Fragments

Link up with Mrs. 4444 if you're playing along this week!

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TGIF!

That's all I have to say.  Not, you know I have more.

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So, you may or, more likely, may not have noticed I haven't fragmented again in a few weeks. Our lives are always, well, let's be honest, chaotic at their calmest, but things have been even crazier lately. For example, this week:

Monday: Rob had the day off, and I was exhausted, so I slept much of the day away. Nothing newsworthy there. But...

Tuesday: We decided to move.

Wednesday: I hunted around and found a potential place.

Thursday: I met the landlord inside the house with the kids, decided to go for it, signed the lease, paid the rent and security deposit, and got the keys.

Friday (today): We can move in.

I'm a little dizzy, but that's how we roll. Well, that's how I roll, anyway. Hubs is a tad bit freaked out by the whole thing, but we'll be aiight.

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I'm still on Project Vanity Plate, and this is today's find. Hopefully they're talking about God and aren't egomaniacs! If you missed it, I posted a whole bunch of them on Wednesday here.

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Today, in addition to checking out the house and stuff, was total nutballs. I took Rob to work at the buttcrack of dawn, and then I was supposed to take the daughters o' mine to the dentist, but I ended up konking out on migraine medicine and missing that appointment. Gah! I woke up just in time to shower and go meet our new lord of the land.

After the new house visit, I stopped to get the kids a semi-celebratory lunch (thank you, Wendy's Dollar Menu), zoomed home to update Chloë's résumé and grab her new headshots, and then dropped Sophie and Jack off at Jenny From the Block's house before racing to Chlo's audition. I didn't get to watch the actual audition, but I'm still tremendously proud of her. I was a nervous wreck for her, shaking and trembling, but she was confident and relaxed. How?! I don't know; she didn't inherit that from me, but hopefully her nurturing has had something to do with that poise.

Anyhoo, it's for an episode of a TV show I can't name at the moment, but we'll find out Wednesday if she got the part. Fingers, toes and eyes crossed! She really wants the role. I'm highly biased, but I think she was the cutest kid there, and she did great practicing her scenes for me. Stay tuned!

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After the audition, I raced to pick up the Littles before heading to pick up Rob, two hours late, from work. We headed over to the BMW place to pick up his supposedly 'fixed' motorcycle, a month after it was put in for repairs. After a freakin' MONTH, you'd think it'd be in excellent shape, right? Ha. More on that in a mome.

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We went straight to a Thai restaurant for a semi-celebratory dinner (not really; we just have not much food in the house currently, and we had a gift certificate to use there). Aren't these roses so cute? They were the straw wrappers atop each of our drink straws. Love!

We ordered family-style. This was my dinner. Well, that and a wee Spring roll. It may not seem like a lot, but apparently it was too much for me, because I didn't keep a single bit of it down, dang it. Um. It tasted better the first time. I probably could've kept it down, but I had the Jasmine rice with cashews, and, stupid me, I should've known better. I can never eat rice. It just looked so good. Anyway....

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All was well and good after dinner. Rob hopped on his motorbike, the kids and I buckled into the van, and off we went toward home. Only, I zipped into a 7-11 on the way home to refill my giant keg of Diet Dew and, well, hurl, and he followed me into the parking lot. By the time I restarted the van, his bike was smoking and leaking more fluids than a ... ah, skip that. Every metaphor I can think up is gross and graphic. Awesome. So not only was the BMW not fixed, but a freakin' panel was missing off the side, too! Really?! I'm way disenchanted with the place that had it for so long. They can bite me hard, right on my hindquarters.

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So, short story long, we sat there for an hour while Rob yapped on the phone to our insurance company, who basically solved nothing, and then watched him make the necessary repairs himself. I've dated some pretty useless guys before, and lemme tell you single ladies this: Marry a handy guy. I don't care what else you like about him, you will appreciate this advice. The other day, our toilet handle broke, and My Guy fished one out of his "pile of crap," as I not-so-tenderly call it, and fixed it on the spot. Pretty good. Back to the bike. While he was working, I went back into the 7-11 and bought a big bag of White Cheddar Popcorn. The kids pretended they were watching a movie while they ate it - and Dad was the show. I don't know how he felt about that, but I was entertained, and that's what counts, y'all.

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I don't know what else to tell ya. I have a million and one anecdotes I could share, but (a) you probably don't care, and (b) I should probably start packing. To move. Because we're doing that. Eek.

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Have a fab weekend, folks!

Fin.

Friday Fragments

Link up here if you're fragmenting with Mrs. 4444 today!

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Is anyone else shocked it's May already? For Heaven's sake, our pool will be open in 3 weeks already! I can't believe how fast the time is flying. We are so busy all of the time, it's almost hard to keep up with flipping the calendar pages, I swear. Man. I wish I could clap my hands and stop time temporarily, and just... breathe.

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I haven't been here in a few weeks, again, because of our packed schedule. Aside from our usual nutso routines, we've had a billion and one doctors' appointment, and Rob's had an accident that has kept me occupied carting him to those, work, and everywhere else, so... I am off my blog routine again. But! I am here now, and that's what counts, amiriiight?

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If you've ever thought about visiting my town, Virginia Beach, I just wrote this sponsored blog post about many of my favorite places and things to do here. Check it out if you're interested!

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I love this cute picture of Jack eating wings during a mystery shop a couple of days ago.  With the watch and everything, he looks so grown up! For a nine-year-old shrimp, that is. I've been doing lots of mystery shopping again lately to make some much-needed extra fundage. It's fun, but man, all the reports! Ugh.

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I swear, Virginia must be the vanity plate capital of the world. They're so cheap here, after all. Even I have one! I'm going to start taking pictures of the ones that amuse or interest me and posting them as part of my Fragments posts each week (or month, as it were). Can you see this one that I snapped today? It says "RR M8T." Arggghh, Matey! Hee. Do you have vanity plates?

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On Wednesday, the kids took part in the coolest thing. We drove up to the Mariners' Museum in Newport News, VA, to attend a special event: a ham radio chat - which NASA said couldn't be done - with International Space Station Astronaut Donald Pettit! Here, the kids first learned about the early age of exploration, in the times before, during and after Columbus' life, so they could later relate that Age of Exploration to the current Space Exploration.

Then, we migrated over to the closed studio, where we connected with three classes (in New York, Michigan, and Louisiana) and the astronaut in outer space, about 400 km above Earth, over Italy. Selected students were able to ask questions and hear Pettit's answers in real time, and we learned a lot about living aboard the ISS. Did you know it only takes eight minutes to get up there, but two days to transfer into the space station? Wow. I would kill to have that opportunity. Maybe one day they'll take an old fart like me and see what they can do with me. I'll be like the female John Glenn. Anyway, it was really cool, and my kids - especially Jack up there - got a lot out of the experience. Way cool!

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I took Rob in for his Neuro follow-up today, after his mini-stroke scares and subsequent finding of a benign brain tumor back in November. I was hoping for a more thorough check-up than the five minute "How are you? Fine? See you in six months" that he got, but I guess no news is good news. He hasn't had any weird things going on like he did six months ago, even after his accident, so I suppose all is well for now. He'll go back in another six months.

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Also today, I went in for a my regular dental check-up, fully expecting to have two new cavities. My teeth have been ultra-sensitive lately, especially in two places, so I thought fillings were going to be the order of the day, if not a full root canal or some badness. But the diagnosis was surprising: I grind and clench my jaw and teeth so much that it's causing my gums to recede, and my enamel to wear, which is causing the pain and discomfort. The dentist said he'd be happy to sell me a $600 mouth guard, or I can go pick one up at any drug or sporting goods store for five or ten bucks and try that. Hmm. Tough choice. But yay for no new cavities!

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Stay tuned for a post about our train trip up to Richmond last week; we had so much fun in our two short days. I'm so glad MIL suggested it!

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Aren't these newsprint nails so cool?! I am totes going to do this as soon as I find where I put the rubbing alcohol. Hopefully that'll work, since Rob drank all the vodka and stuff. Kidding. There's probably not even a beer in this house. I love this manicure, though. Trés cool.

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And finally, my 10½-year-old, Chloë, has a "boyfriend," S. Yeah. We've reached that stage. They're mad about each other. I even had to go on a ride with them to make sure they didn't kiss!!! WHAT?! She's TEN, FPS. I'm keeping a tight rein on this one and don't let them hold hands or anything, but S did recently give her a necklace in her favorite color, with hearts on it... oh, my word. I'm not ready for this part!

Since Chloë had a photo shoot for her acting and modeling "career" recently, my friend Saritah - S's mom - was joking about, "Great, my son is dating a model. That'll go to his head..." but yeah. He is. Hee.

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Well, I hope you all have a great weekend, and I'll be back in a bit with my Aloha Friday question & some more updates from our latest travels and adventures. Ciao for now!

Fin.

Something's Fishy At Sweet Pea Academy...

So with the help of my MIL and her brother, along with lots of bonus points from doing community service with the Scouts (both Cub and Girl), we turned in enough Labels For Education to get the following goodies:

(Photo from LFE site) A world map, which hasn't come yet, or I'd have a better picture to show you,

a dozen bottles of tempera paint for our artistic pursuits, and,

 

our new 5-gal fish aquarium! The kids are decidedly most excited about this new swag.

We ran as soon as possible over to Petco to get some gravel, silk plants, food, and dechlorinator to set up our tank, as well as figure out which fish we were probably going to get after the tank had time to set up for a few days. I put it together, and the kids were beside themselves the whole time. Jack kept saying, "I'm going to cry happy!" He said it again today when we went to go get our fish.

This is Steve, who helped us both today with our new fish and the other day when we picked out what we'd need to get the tank ready, pulling out Chloë's Starfire Red Glofish and Sophia's Galatic Purple Glofish (both are Danio rerio).

The girls with their new fishies!

Then, Steve plucked out a Neon Tetra (Paracheirodon innesi) for Jack. We were originally going to go with something else, but Steve said no, too big. Jack recovered quickly from that setback.

Does Jack look like a little white monkey when he's super-excited, or what?!

We also picked out an algae-eater (Hypostomus plecostomus) for the tank, although eventually it'll get too big for our tank. That's okay; we planned on upsizing eventually anyhow. Sophia got to carry it on her lap on the ride home.

 

This is Hallie, the very friendly Scottish Terrier we met at Petco today. I always wanted to get a Scottie and name him Hamlet. Hallie was all over me; cute pooch!

 

I went against common knowledge, sense and practice and unceremoniously dumped our four new fishes into the tank, instead of taking the proper time to acclimate them to their new environs. Sue me. They seem fine.

I stopped at Jenny From the Block's house after Petco to bring her a few things, and we collectively decided that, since she's the tank "maid," we'll name the plecostomus Alice. Get it? C'mon, please tell me you get it. We briefly considered "Hazel" as well but quickly decided that was too old school for Alice. Hey, Alice? You lookin' at me?

And finally, we have Jack's Tetra, originally named "Little Frankie" but renamed "Speedy" since "he moves so fast" on the far right; Chloë's hot pink Glofish named "Moon" on the bottom left, and Sophie's "Starlight Starbright" above Moon. They all seem happy with their new home.

The kids are totally thrilled. I mean, it's been a couple hours, and they're still in their staring at the tank. Jack exclaimed, "This is even better than going to the Aquarium, because now we have our own aquarium!" Ha! I'm so happy they're delighted. So. Happy.

Fin.

P.S. Thanks, Mamacita and Unc!

 

Aloha Friday (Open To See Embedded Poll)

Link up here to play along with Kailani and friends this week.

My question for you this week comes courtesy of Polldaddy:

  

I'm hoping this coming weekend will bring me some Facebook-sharing worthy news, since that's who I share the good stuff with, following Hubs. And you, too, of course... Stay tuned for Friday Fragments!

Fin.

Oops, They Did It Again!

Welp, folks, it's that time of year again: the annual Cub Scout Pinewood Derby! Jack's Pack raced yesterday, after he and Rob spent the week hashing out the details of how to build The Car. Every year, Rob asks him, "Do you want it to look cool, or do you want it to be fast?" And every year, Jack goes for fast. It's completely his choice, as it should be, although there are some folks who, like my high-ranking Boy Scout Mama-in-Law said, need to be a "wet blanket" on that theory and always make it look cool. Whatevs! Jack wants to build the car, he doesn't necessarily want to watch the races, and he wants to take home a trophy. That's Jack. So, let's see how it went down, shall we?

First, the Tiger Den raced. It seems like just yesterday, that was Jack. Hard to believe it has been two years since he won that race! And those boys are so little and young-looking and eager and cute. (Rob took the kids to go do the crafts in the other rooms while I knitted a hexipuff or two, watched the races and times, and suffered a horrible migraine that I've been nursing for over a fortnight now...)

After that, the Wolf Den raced. That was last year for us, and whew, it has flown by since Jack won that race, too. Those boys are still so cute, just a little bigger, same amount of eagerness... just adorable.

Lunchtime was next. I helped serve the food, because I haven't really stepped up much in the Pack, and I wanted to be useful in some way to them. After everyone ate, the Akela gave out the Popcorn Sale prizes. Jack had chosen a catapult, but it wasn't in yet, so I don't have pictures of him earning that for now.

And finally... his den, the Bears ("da Bearz" as everyone kept saying) were ready to race!

There were six boys, and there are six track lanes, so each boy's car races on each lane once to account for speed differences. It's a calibration technique. You know. Anyway. They drop the slowest time and average out the rest to determine the places. Five out of six heats, this popped up on the screen, with this one representing Jack's fastest time:

It was all very exciting! (I purposely didn't bring the Nikon, so these are all iPhone pictures. I didn't want to risk losing/dropping/breaking the dSLR, so that was intentional.) I don't have any involvement in the races except to go there to cheer on the boys - all the boys - so I don't take any credit. However, I was fist-bumped and congratulated as much as Jack and his dad were, I think, and I enjoyed every second of it!

Here are the Top 10 standings for the Bear Den - that lowest score was dropped, remember, so basically, well, he did awright. ;)

After we cheered on the Webelos 1 & 2 dens, it was trophy time. Jack earned the First-Place spot for his den, which meant three things: (1) Trophy, (2) Smiles, and (3) Participation in the overall pack race. And yes, he was every bit as just-rolled-out-of-bed-rumply as he looks here. Ha! What a mess. His crooked, looser-than-loose front tooth, really needing a haircut, and sleepy eyes make me laugh, but his happy face makes me smile and warms my heart. This is a boy who enjoys his trophies, and he was PROUD of himself. That matters, "cool-looking" car or not.

 

Right after that, they ran the Pack race, and Jack's car whizzed down the track heat after heat, to take First Place again!! I'm so happy for all the boys, every single one, and it was a fantastic day of racing... but yeah, I was super-proud of my guys. ♥

 

Here he is with both of his First Place trophies! Whoo! We're hoping for a third one to add to the collection, from the Districts, now.

Finally, the traditional First-Place Akela (parents and Leaders, basically) vs. First-Place Cub Scout race took place, and it was back-and-forth for all six heats, as they went from lane to lane. Guess what? Jack's car DID NOT WIN! This guy, Mr. P, who is cool as HELL, won. That's Team P's car on the left, and Jack's green car on the right, with Mr. P checking that they were on the track right. His son, Junior P, moved up to Boy Scouts last year, but he was the One To Beat up until that point, so Mr. and Junior P have talked to us many times about tips for making The Car be fast. Mr. P was totally and thoroughly thrilled for Jack, and he'll be at the Districts to cheer him on! I'm a huge fan of that guy. Just a really nice man, truly.

On the way home, as he held and admired his new trophies, Jack asked if could keep them on his dresser instead of the mantel with the others. I was all, "No way, dude!" For one thing, that's their place of honor. For another thing, we have Sophia up there to lose or break them if we let him do that! So on the mantel they went, as soon as we came home.  They're up there on the right, with all the others, sandwiched between the girls' soccer trophies from a couple years ago.

So, not a bad day of racing and camaraderie. All in good fun. Everyone was a good sport. (But psst: YAY! YAY! YAY! YAY!!)

Grandma was very proud, too, to hear the news, and I loved sharing it with her!

This report will be continued on March tenth...

Fin.

Eleven Years Out Of My Life

OMG. I never blogged that it was our 11th anniversary?! Thufferin' thuccotash! That was a week ago tomorrow, now. Sophia took this picture of us on that day. The sun was in our eyes, and my hair is in a very awkward-growing out phase, so it's not ideal, but hey, she's six and we're not Brangelina, here.  I made a super-awesome video for him (15 minutes long, I might add) that made the man-person tear up a little (shh, don't say I told), but I can't upload it to YouTube or Vimeo 'cause of copyright reasons. But I could email it to you if you wanna see it. Just ask. It's cute and stuff.

Anyway. Eleven. Have we had our share of problems? You bet. Are we still madly in love with each other? You better believe it.

Here's to eleven more!

Fin.

What A Pain In The Brain

It has been brought to my attention - by my Self - that I haven't really blogged about Rob's branial-cranial sitchyation, which is so weird, because I tell you every damn thing else that happens to me. (You're going, "We know, we know...") So, having gotten permission from Hubs Himself, I'm going to give it to you here in timeline fashion, as that's the easiest way for me to remember it all, and I may yet get it wrong because the days have blent together in me' noggin. But here goes:

October 29, 2011: While the girls and are camping out with the Girl Scouts, Rob stays home with Jack and endures probably the worst migraine of his adult life. (He used to get them badly as a kid, and has had a few here and there, but none like this.) Nausea, vomiting, sensitivity to light and sound, the whole bit. Classic migraine. Pain scale: 10.

October 30, 2011: We return home. Headache still present. Rob simpers that complaining to me about having a headache is similar to (example I can't remember, but unfair, basically, because I suffer from them frequently and badly myself), to which I reply that he is free to complain away, if it helps, as I sympathize.

Halloween: A better day, but we skip trick-or-treating (kids being disciplined) and do some shopping, during which headache worsens. We cut trip short and go home to medicate Rob.

November 1-2: Migraine present, but not vomiting, at least. Rob goes to work but comes home early both days, in pain.

November 3:  Headache persists and is so bad, again, that we go to ER. Doc takes history, gives Dilaudin, Phenergan, and Benadryl. Relief is immediate. Eventually, he is released and sent home.

November 4: My BFF, Dr. Lisa, inquires about Rob's visit to the ER and headache status. She insists symptoms are not normal and that he should NOT be at work but in hospital instead. Trusting her instincts, I inform Rob of this. He immediately comes home. We head back to ER. They perform CT scan and bloodwork. Labs appear normal, but CT pictures show evidence of TIA's, transient ischemic attacks, aka "mini-strokes." Hi, I freak. We are told they will contact NMCP (Naval Medical Center Portsmouth) to get his Neuro appointment bumped up ASAP. He is released.

November 5-6: Headache persists. Because of mini-stroke scare, I cancel my camping training trip for Girl Scouts to stay home with Rob, who is miserable.

November 7: Headache very bad. Stressed and anxious about TIAs (both past and possible current/future), I call civilian ER and implore them to call NMCP to move up the Neuro appointment. They inform me that 11/30 is earliest available as they have already done so, and to return if symptoms worsen or new ones appear.

November 8: Bad, bad headache. We return to civilian ER for treatment. ER doc once again takes history from onset of headache on 29 Oct and performs an exam. Finds right side neurological deficit, including weakness in hand and low/no reflexes in leg. I implore him to repeat CT scan, to see if there are changes (new mini-strokes?) since Friday's scan. He agrees. CT performed. New spots are noted but not ruled in or out as TIAs. Because of right-side weaknesses, he is transported by ambulance to NMCP and admitted to hospital. I go home, pack kids and food for co-op cooking classes, and drop them off at friend Jenny From the Block's house before heading to NMCP. I find him dozing and in the company of - surprise! - three male roommates, which means I will not, as expected, be spending the night with him. Sad. Neuro does rounds, checks on Rob. Says no food or drink until MRI is done in morning, which sucks because he's starving. Neuro orders pain and sleep meds by IV.  BP still high. I'm kicked out after 10 PM, more than two hours past visiting hours, over the protests of his friendly roommates.

November 9: In NMCP, Rob gets MRI of soft tissue, MRI of hard tissue, MRA (basically, an MRI of the vasculature). TIAs not necessarily confirmed, but not ruled out, either. Diagnosed with benign cavernous angioma, a tumor that's (correct me if I'm wrong) a tight cluster of blood vessels in the back left area of his cerebellum. "Benign" does not mean "not harmful," just "not cancerous." Bleeding could occur, which could cause blindness, kidney, pancreatic issues, and death, among other fun things, so there is much cause for concern. MRI is still needed for thoracic and cervical spine, to see if there are more tumors, as Von Hippel-Lindau disease is now suspected. It is decided to release him that evening and do the MRI on outpatient basis (scheduled for 21 November), keeping Neuro appointment for 30 November. Released with script for compazine only, for migraines.

November 10-11: Headache persists, possible migraine, not helped by Compazine at all. Extremely, worrisomely sleepy. Gets time off work (thank God) and sleeps most of time.

November 12-13: Rob okay, mas o menos, but again very sleepy. Sleeps most of weekend.

November 14: Migraine up to an 8-9. Two doses of compazine don't help. Recommended to take to ER by ??? (someone one of us called, but I was so tired, I can't remember who now), but again, I was too tired, I did not feel comfortable to drive. So, Rob takes an Ambien in order to sleep through the pain, and goes to sleep. Me too.

November 15: Migraine persists. New symptoms: Hyperesthesia, in that the pizza boxes I bought from 7-11 for the kids' dinner and hand over to Rob so I can drive are almost dropped, from the sensation of burning heat. I take them back; they are not at all hot. Not anywhere on the box, despite his protests that they are. Also, later in ER, tingling and numbness along jawline, from middle of ear to center of chin.

So, Immediately following my breast cancer gene appointment (see previous post), decision is made to return to civilian ER for migraine relief, after all-day suffering. Compazine not effective, at all, ever, so Dr. Melanie orders stoppage. What? You didn't know I was an MD? Me neither. We head to ER, which is unusually full. A long wait is promised. I decide to page the NMCP on-call neurologist, to see if we can't get a new migraine treatment med prescribed while we wait. In the meantime, Rob is called back to the exam room in short order, but waits a long time to see the doc. Finally, kids and I are allowed back, just as he is getting hooked up to IV saline drip. We wait another long time, during which NMCP Neuro returns my call, pissily asking what he can do for me THIS time and complaining that I am abusing the call-back privilege. I state that we have, in the meantime, gone to the ER for pain relief, that his primary care is NOT available in the off hours, and so therefore I should do what instead?! Neuro says, "Come see me at 0800 tomorrow so we can get a management plan in place until his upcoming appointments." Yay! Agrees that compazine should be discontinued (see?) and that we (he) should seek pain relief from ER doc until morning.

ER Doc then visits, takes history of this issue (from Oct 29-present) and proceeds to examine Rob. Agrees that compazine should be discontinued and new med prescribed, but upon hearing that we have an appointment the following morning with NMCP Neuro, tends toward providing immediate comfort and letting the Neuro make future medical decisions. Nurse eventually administers Dilaudid for pain, Phenergan for nausea, and more saline for dehydration. Observation ensues. Pain level goes from 9 to 2 quickly. YAYYYYYYYY. Doc decides to give another half-dose of Dilaudid to bring it down further, observe for 10 more minutes, and release Rob. We go home, Rob high as a kite and happy about it.

November 16: 0800 appointment with Neuro. Will update when possible.

Thank you to all of you who have been thinking of Rob and us, praying and sending good thoughts our way. We appreciate each and every one of you. I won't be sleeping tonight, as the kids and Rob have to get up in ~3 hours to get to NMCP on time for Neuro appointment, and I don't want to oversleep. Feel free to entertain me with lovely comments! ;)

Fin.

On Being Crafty

Since this guy:

has been freaking me out since Thursday with his possibly having had a stroke or several (hi, two ER visits later and we have yet to have him see a Neurologist, grr), I've been what you might call "productively unproductive." Huh? Welp, instead of doing (mostly) what I ought to do, like school the chillens and clean the house and sech, I've been spending the time trying not to be One Big Worrywart by being crafty instead. Crafting helps soothe my frazzled nerves and so, in this case, I gave myself a free pass to do whatever it was that I needed to do.

Firstly, I was determined to conquer this beast, which all of our girls - including the little 5-7-year-old Daisies - were supposed to have made at our encampment last weekend, but which proved to be next to impossible for just about everyone (including us adults). Chloë massively impressed me - and, I think, several of the other Leaders there - by reinventing the wheel and coming up with her own successful way to do it, but even then, it wasn't "right," as the directions given were confusing and, well, it turns out, just wrong. Since we had several 2-L bottles in the recycling bin, I decided to take another whack at it, and behold! Once you follow the dang directions, it's really not too bad. And it looks kind of cool, so I ended up making, like, five. (Hey, it was nerve-soothing, remember??)

Ignoring the background, and the fact that I couldn't get off the entire Coke label, I think it turned out pretty well. I filled it with glass beads and water, then went outside and snipped what may be my last lily of the year to snap this picture. My mistake was leaving it there alone. Half-hour later, I went into the kitchen, and I found our two wee kittens had battered the flower and drunk all the water they could reach out of the vase. Cats!!

Ah, but they're so cute and sweet and innocent when they're sleeping (not unlike the kids, eh?), it's hard not to forgive them and just laugh it off...

I was enjoying the craft so much that when I ran out of 2-L bottles, I decided to try making one out of a much smaller and more rigid SoBe LifeWater bottle. That took all my strength to cut! But, I rescued what was by then left of the flower and think it turned out mighty purty with some blue glass beads (I almost typed "glue blass" instead, as I am the queen of Spoonerisms). Right?

I then turned my attention to making my SWAPS ("Something Whimsical Affectionately Pinned Somewhere") for my Outdoor II (camping) training session that I was supposed to be at, well, right now. (After the Rob scares, I had to cancel my attendance, but I didn't know that at the the time.) So what's this jumble of mess?

Since our group's chosen Patrol name, with the overall camp theme was "Under the Sea," was the Sassy Sharks, I came up with this SWAP(s) first: A Sassy Shark intentionally pinned to the TOP of the crocheted chain. Get it? Sharks are apex predators, at the top of the food chain? Yes? You see? C'mon, it's jeenyus. Okay, okay, whatever, I liked it.

This was the second set of SWAPS I worked out. Up close:

A baggy containing a little card reading, "Make no bones (get it? Get it? Sharks have no bones! I'm so damn clever) about it, we Sharks sure are Sassy!" with another sassy, dancing little shark clip-art photo, and some frou-frous thrown in there for extra sass. I wanted to make a third set of SWAPS, but time was running short, and I still needed to make our Patrol's name tags, for which I was responsible.

A lot of Google Imaging, printing, cutting, laminating, and badge-attaching later, and my name tags were done. I was SO proud of them, and that's probably the one disappointment I had about not going camping this weekend; "that" being able to explain to each of our participants why I assigned them the sharks that I did. So, you'll have to sit through while I explain them to you, 'cause someone has to know the truth of the matter.

Top, L to R: Hard to see, but N was our "Ghost Shark," because she was absent for our initial training and planning session, so we only had her in spirit. J was our Hammerhead, because they're one of the few sharks that really school in groups and they're quite dominant, and I got the sense that J was a real team player but also a natural-born leader-type. See?

Middle, L to R: S was our Wobbegong, one of my favorite sharks, because she struck me as gentle and shy, like these more docile fish. D wanted to be the Great White, and I forget why, but I gave that to her. She had a strong personality as well, so it seemed fitting, anyway. And, my Assistant Troop Leader, Miss D, was our Patrol Leader, a.k.a. the group cheerleader, so I made her our Megamouth Shark. Get it? Like she had a megaphone to cheer us all on with? Ha. I kill The Me.

Bottom, L to R: I made myself the Nurse Shark, because I was our Patrol's elected First Aider (which makes it suck even more that I couldn't go! Hope no one gets any boo-boos...). The next one was a Chimaera, which I LOVE because it belongs to AD: The overall camp trainer, she gets a name tag from EVERY Patrol to keep for her collection. So why a Chimaera? Well, they are related to sharks, but not really sharks, for one, and for another, in mythology, chimaerae are thought to be able to change themselves into different things, and since she gets to be part of all the Patrols, technically, she's changing roles depending on which one she's with. Love it? I do!! Our Patrol Trainer, C, is a runner, so I made her our super-fast Mako Shark. And last, but not least, A, the oldest (by far) in our group, was the now-extinct but long-lived Megalodon Shark. Heehee.

Yup. I'm proud of these and hope everyone was able to figure out their sharky identities without my help. Am I a nerd? You betcha!

Once I finished that, I was still distracted by my fretting, so I turned to the one guaranteed nerve-calmer for me: needlework. The knitting project (my Sparkle! dress), I deemed to be at a point to stressful to get the job properly done, so I switched tactics and started a pretty doily (Ravlink) instead. (PDF here) I was so glad to finally finish those 10 flowers last night! After about six, I was bored of that. But sometimes, a little tedium is just what the doctor ordered, so that was okay, too.

Last night, I worked on the center of the doily, a fast work-up, and am now at the point where I'll switch colors again (this is actually a light mint green, if you can't tell from the pic; click to embiggerate, as usual) and start attaching the flowers. I can't wait and will jump into that as soon as I finish this post!

And finally, I made the creamed corn at which my teen cooking class balked,and since I was so exhausted from my ongoing Hell Week, I gave them a pass and let them have Study Hall instead, agreeing to make the four (nope, three, since one student did agree to make the rice dish, so I sent her home with the ingredients for that) side dishes on last week's cooking agenda myself and report back to them. My report? Utter deliciousness, and I have since engulfed about 2/3 of the dish. Rob's pronouncement? "Ugh.That is all you." Fine by me! Yum!

Today, I'll make up the other two dishes and show you those, later.

Have a swell week!

Fin.

Friday Fragments

Link up here if you need to get some crap stuff off your chest today, too!

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This has been a week of injury, pain and crisis for Team Odette. Wanna hear? Good, because that's pretty much all I've got to share right now.

Sunday, 6yo DD Sophia slammed her hand in the van door. Cue major crying and agony, as her hand swelled up to double its regular size and turned 15 shades of red and purple. So we drove home from where we were and then Daddy took her to the ER for X-rays. Thankfully, nothing was broken, but as there were a half-dozen booboos on the outside, too, they bandaged her up to high heaven and sent her home with Tylenol and Motrin.

(P.S. She's fine now.)

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Monday, Chloë had her braces put on by the kids' dentist, Dr. C., on the top row of teeth. None for the bottom. She's been practically howling in pain ever since, whining and complaining that everything is poking her in the cheeks and gums, it's too tight, yadda yadda yadda. As her mother has had them twice, and her Daddy once, she's at least got sympathetic parents. And lots of yogurt in the fridge so she can eat.

(P.S. I had to make a special stop at Dr. C.'s office on Wednesday for more wax already. I asked her to use it a little more sparingly, huh? 'Cause I can't be driving down there every two days for more, y'know?)

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Tuesday, the third day of crying in pain, Jack's own dental pain became so bad that we had to take him in to Dr. C. at night on an emergency basis. He had to keep his staff there late and everything, to treat the poor boy. Turns out, he had an abscessed tooth, which they immediately extracted (it was a baby tooth, fortunately). The poor kid is prone to cavities and has about eight right now that need filling under general anesthesia, so we're trying to get that taken care of at the Naval Hospital.

(P.S. He's fine now, as long as we keep him dosed on the same Tylenol/Motrin schedule as Sophia's hand required. His only complaint now is, "It feels weird where my tooth was." Well, yeah, duh.)

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Wednesday, I was shopping at Wally World cooking classes in the wee-wee hours of the morning. So maybe I was a bit tired when I got back home at 0400 and started taking bags out to bring into the house.... I use canvas bags as much as possible, this trip being no exception, and have a number of drawstring ones. Well, I thought I had the canned-food bag right-side-up, but apparently I didn't, because as soon as I lifted it out, PLUNK-DUNK-PLUNK-PLUNK came out all the cans - plus a 68-oz bottle of olive oil - onto the toes of my right foot. I said a lot of bad four-letter words and ran into the house to check things over. Not unlike Sophia, there was blood, swelling, redness, and pain involved. I was pretty sure I broke between 1-3 of those toes.

(P.S. I still am, but since I can walk, and there's not a lot they do for broken toes other than confirm it and dummy-tape them, I've done nothing for it but take the occasional Tylenol. I'm beginning to think we should buy stock in that company, eh?)

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Thursday, my husband came home from work acting funny. Not his usual self. That, combined with unusually high blood pressure (he's usually healthy as a horse, fit as a fiddle, you get picture), a horrible puking migraine that gave him residual headaches every day since, and a few other symptoms, had us driving back to the emergency room as soon as our Girl Scout meeting ended. A few tests later, we found out that the CT-scan showed several spots which indicated he'd possibly suffered a mini-stroke!

(P.S. !!!!!! Yes, I am super concerned. I want him to go to the neurologist, like, yesterday.)

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Also Thursday, I was supposed to go to the Onco-Geneticist for counseling to see if they would do the breast cancer screening test on me, based on my family history of it. I mean, they're going to do it, but this was my intake appointment. I totally forgot about it, so I didn't go. Hopefully, I won't get a $50 missed appointment bill. Ugh.

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Friday hasn't quite started yet, but things are already looking interesting: I'm seeing my prescribing shrinky-dink in the afternoon, and I have the following symptoms to share with him (and no, I'm not to copy my husband, lol; I think these are all/mostly medically-induced): sudden and severe occasional stuttering; muddled thinking and inability to do things I can normally do; the front of my tongue curling so that I talk funny, which I can't stop no matter how hard I try; more visual hallucinations; acting "drunk" according to my husband; and, tremors in my right hand. Awesome, right?

(P.S. I have to go camping again for Girl Scouts this weekend. I totally don't want to go. I'm tired. It's been a rough week. Think good thoughts for me out in the woods, will you, please?)

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That's all I've got. Nothing Halloween-y, as we didn't Trick-or-Treat, or pass out candy, or decorate, or anything. This is not our usual custom, but the kids had 10 days (ten!!) to get their rooms clean, and they didn't do it, so they had it taken away. Le sigh.

Hope you all had a better week than we did, and here's hoping to a better one ahead for us!

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Fin.

September 11, 2001 - September 11, 2011: Our Story

Our 9/11 "where were you when ..." story goes this way (and it's long, just forewarning):

We were living in Panama City, Florida, at the time. I was eight months' pregnant with Chloë Raine, with an extreme case of polyhydramnios going on. So we were headed, on 9/7/01, to Pensacola for a 4D-level ultrasound to find out exactly what was happening there and make sure Baby Girl Odette was fine.

Along the way, I writhed in agony over each and every fine bump in the road as Rob drove the three hours to Sacred Heart Women's Hospital in P'cola. It got worse as the trip progressed, and by the time we got to the hospital for my test, I was half-crying, half-screaming in agony.

Fast-forwarding through the stress of not knowing where to go and being brought all over the hospital while the wheel of the wheelchair rubbed against and burnt my thigh, all the while with me hollering and moaning in severe pain, we finally ended up in the L&D ward for Maternal-Fetal Medicine patients. Basically, I was a high-risk pregnancy without being aware of it, for several reasons: My weight was high, we had the polyhdramnios, I had developed pre-eclampsia but NOT been told about it, and Chloë's triple-screen test had come back with a high risk indicator for Down Syndrome.

Anyway, we got to L&D, and by that point, my blood pressure was so high, and I was shaking badly. They were doing everything in their power to calm me down, and I overheard someone tell someone else (maybe I'm the "someone else," I can't even remember anymore) that I was on the verge of having a major stroke that could be deadly. So things were quite serious, you could say.

I had about 24 people, including the janitor I think, reach up into my cervix and push through to check on things. At one point, they decided to break my stubborn amniotic sac, and holy crap, that hurt. Not only that, but there was SO much extra fluid that the staff of this teaching hospital laughed as they had never seen such an amount come out, and it flooded the floor all around my bed. I remember everyone calling for "Towels! More towels!" It even splashed the feet of Rob, who was holding my hand and standing near my head.

When the rush of fluid poured out of me, it dragged Chloë's infant hand out with it, so that when they checked me again, they felt her hand instead of the tip of her head, as things should be. So now I had complicated presentation on top of everything else! With that, the severe pre-eclampsia, and the determination that my placenta had abrupted after one long, continuous contraction on the drive to the hospital, a decision was made that I needed to have her by emergency C-section. I was devastated, having had my birth plan written up for months, and it didn't include no damn surgery!

(An emergency c/s is pretty much a slice-and-dice operation, and the focus is obviously more on getting the baby out and keeping her and the mother safe and healthy, rather than on having a pretty scar. And I've had three emergency sections now, plus a hysterectomy, plus gastric bypass surgery. Not that you asked - but my abdomen is basically one big scar now. It looks awesome.)

So we readied me for surgery as fast as possible, and when Rob was let into the O.R., I was singing "Come Sail Away" to him for reasons I can't explain, other than that I was high on meds by that point and it was one of the songs he sang/played for me during our brief courtship, being a Sailor in the US Navy and all.

I have to admit, also, to being disappointed I was having my baby for my 25th birthday, because all I really wanted to do for my birthday was not give birth but go swimming! With the polyhydramnios, I was freaking e-NOR-mous, and the only time I was comfortable was when I was swimming in the base pool. I even asked the surgeons, during the surgery, if I could go swimming the next day. Their answer came in the form of chuckles and guffaws. I easily guessed that meant it was a big, fat "no." Dammit.

Anyway, moving along. The surgery progressed rapidly, and Rob looked over the hidey-sheet they put up so Mom can't see anything, and he saw lots and lots of blood all over the place. I think that will stick with him; not sure it traumatized him, but it definitely made an impact on him. When they pulled Chloë out of me, she dipped her head back and gulped in some of the fluid, which was not supposed to happen. Uh-oh. I'm unclear on whether that's what led to her subsequent breathing problems, but they had to put her on O2 for a while to get her to breathe normally. I can't remember the exact numbers, but her APGARs were low to medium. She was not a healthy baby.

They brought her over to me, and I had just enough chance to see how freaking cute she was - especially her tiny nose, I noticed - before I started to barf all over her. They whisked her away to get her clean and then took her down to the NICU, where she remained for ten days. Meanwhile, I was sewn up and brought out to recovery, where my blood pressure continued to be sky-high. I was one stressed-out and fearful Mama!

I'll skip over my own recovery mostly, but Chloë was in the NICU for a week and a half with one problem developing after another. At first, it was the breathing issue I mentioned. Then, she refused to eat. I tried nursing her, and she just didn't "get" it. I was pumping away, but my milk didn't come in for 10 days, so they insisted on giving her bottles of formula which, again, greatly upset me. When they gave her a pacifier, too, I flipped out on them, having done my reading and research on nipple confusion. Argh! I was adamant that she would be a breastfed baby, and this was especially aggravating to me. Anyway.

At another point, she developed fluid outside her lungs, and they were going to have to do surgery for that. Then that cleared up, miraculously and through the many prayers we had for her, by the next day. The following day, it was determined that she had a messed-up shunt in her heart, whereby the blood wasn't flowing properly through her body. They were going to do surgery on that, the next day. Can you imagine? Her parents were now 25 and 29, young enough to be terrified about her baby. At one point, I asked a nurse, "Is my baby going to die?!" and was relieved when the answer was no, she would be all right. But it was an extremely stressful time in our lives.

Meanwhile, four days into this huge, personal ordeal for our own family, September 11th came along. You all know what happened that day.

We did not, not at first. See, after it was determined we would be spending some time in Pensacola for Chloë's sake, Rob asked one of his colleagues to check into our house and look after our beloved dog and cat. Well, this particular guy, Z, was never able to get INTO our house, and so our pets had been locked in their cages with no food, water, or potties for four straight days! Upon finding this out, my blood pressure went through the roof again. I was certain they were dead. Freak out was my main response...

Then, Z told Rob to turn on the news and see what was happening. At that point, the North Tower of WTC had just been hit, so we all still didn't know what was going on. I was lying in my hospital bed, Rob next to me, and Baby Chloë down the hall in the NICU, when we watched the events unfold. I was transfixed. Utterly immobile. What the hell?! What was going on?

Then the phone calls started. Rob was in the Navy (still is), so everyone wanted to know what this would mean for him, as far as a deployment or what kind of duty, etc. He never did deploy and was put on security duty for several month after that, so thankfully I had him home with me while we were adjusting to life with a semi-sick little baby. (She still never wanted to eat at first, and then when she did come around and start nursing, she didn't want to stop! BUT, she had major reflux and would projectile vomit at least a dozen times a day, so she didn't gain any weight. We had to have weight checks done on her twice a week, and it was months and months before she regained her birth weight of 7 lbs and then hit the 10-lb mark...)

And finally, a couple days later, I found out that my boss from my law firm, where I'd worked until I got married, and who was like a second father to me, had dropped dead while watching the news of the attacks, on September 11th. I cried for days over that. I loved that man. He was wonderful to me. If Sophia had been a boy, her middle name would have been his...

So.

That's our story for September 11, 2001. For this anniversary, ten years later, I will be remembering all of that (well, I just did, didn't I?) as well as our country pulling together. I will remember all of the commercials with people from around the U.S and, indeed, the globe, saying, "I am a New Yorker," and I will remember the feeling of shame I felt that everyone was so focused on NY and that the Pennsylvania crashed flight and the Pentagon flight were somewhat ignored and forgotten by the media, it seemed like.

But mostly, I will remember how, as the TV showed clips and ongoing coverage of the horrific attacks, our country banded together and showed unity for the first time in... maybe ever? And I will remember as well the fear of, "What kind of world have I brought my baby into?!" that I had for a long time.

We don't have television service, so I will not be watching coverage of that day, but I don't need to. You see, I really AM a New Yorker, and I spent a lot of time in that city throughout my childhood, and the World Trade Center towers were common sights for me then. And with their disappearance came shock and many other emotions too fragile for me to even name. We're all New Yorkers - no, we're all AMERICANS - on this day, and we will never forget.

God Bless you all and keep you safe, on this day, and always.

Fin.