Personaly Stimulating the Economy & Healthcare System

So you know how busy I was those last couple weeks? Yeah, well writing about it didn't jinx it or anything. It has still be crazy busy.

Yesterday, I got a call from school to come pick up Big. She had a stomach ache. She's been on meds for reflux since April & they don't seem to be cutting it anymore. They seemed to help initially, but now it seems like they aren't lasting as long & the frequency of her stomach aches are more often. I made an appointment to have her seen today, so they could refer her to a GI doctor for more testing. Did you know, the way they determine if your kid has reflux is to give them the meds. If the meds help, then volia, it's reflux, if not, then they test them for other things. No, really that's how they decide if your kid has reflux. Before we move to do anything else, I want her tested for to be sure it is reflux. So I will be dealing with this during the holidays. They also changed her meds, just to see if this other brand might help more. Doubtful.

Big also complained of a tooth hurting her yesterday. She said it felt like food was stuck in-between her teeth. When I went to take a look, ACK! She had an abscess! DaddySpeak thought it might be a really bad canker sore, but I wasn't messing around with it. Trust me, it was NASTY! Funny, I can watch you bleed out or someone take your heart out & it won't phase me. But if it involves the mouth, I get grossed out so easily. I actually considered (and so did the dentist) that the new tooth might be coming in, but because it was so crowded, it was being pushed out. Strait out. Like toward the front of her mouth. Ewww! It gives me the heebie jeebies just to think about it. Anyway, we had a 7 PM dentist appointment to confirm it's an abscess and the tooth needs to come out. Her baby canine is being crowded out by the tooth right in front of it, which is an adult tooth. The new tooth's root is crowding out the baby tooth's root, which is not ready to dissolve just yet. So the new tooth ended up killing the nerve in the baby tooth and causing the abscess. We're going to a pediatric dentist so she can have nitrous. They can't get us in till tomorrow. I am also getting my permanent crown on tomorrow. So it'll just be a dentist sort of day for us Speaks. It's a party!

Not to be left out, Little has had a runny nose this week. Nothing big, but she has to blow a couple times a day or so. On the way to the doctor for Big she complained of her ear bothering her. She's been grumpy because of this cold/runny nose I told her I'd get the doctor to look at it, to get her to chill. Worked too. Doctor looked at it and she seems to have the start of a an ear infection. Great!

Tonight after dinner & bath, I drove over to the pharmacy to get reflux meds for Big & antibiotics for Little. Somewhere in between all of this I'm going to pack to go on vacation. And at some point in time I'm actually going to sleep too. I swear it's going to happen.

The Post that Became a Drinking Game

"The Proverbial Chicken" was supposed to be the title of this post. But as you can see it evolved a bit. Read on:

That would be me. The proverbial chicken, running around w/my head cut off. I know you've gotten the gist of my moaning and groaning this week. But along w/the general aches, pains, coughs, stomach- & head-aches, life has not stopped to accommodate me. Quite the contrary, it's just starting to get moving. I feel a lot like I'm barely keeping my head above water these days. Stick w/me here, I'm pretty sure I'll manage to get in several more cliches before this is done. Perhaps we could make it a drinking game, that should keep you reading. (Take two swigs!)

We are at the end of soccer season, which means this weekend is the big tournament. All soccer, all the weekend. At least 4 games, perhaps 5, I think. And, in case you've been living under a rock, (drink!) the holidays are upon us. I'm still feeling a bit floored by this, as if they've managed to sneak up on me somehow. At the end of next week we fly to Kansas for a week. (Insert obligatory "We're not in Kansas anymore" joke here. I think that one deserves a shot, it's cliche-ish, so drink!) This means I need to get to packing a weeks worth of winter clothes for all of us this week. If you're a mom, you are thinking, "that means getting all the laundry done,"aren't you? And you'd be right. Just to keep us on our toes, (drink!) the school has scheduled parent/teacher conferences this week. Parent/Teacher conferences means half days at school. All Week. I'm sure this will help greatly w/my time management. Wonder how Big feels about laundry & packing? Guess we'll find out. Don't forget the end of year soccer banquet is this weekend! I will be missing it, as I'm starting off to the Holiday Party Season by attending the SVMoms Group Holiday Party. (You will be very jealous when you see all the cool sponsors. I'm one of the mom's driving a Chevy to the party and all this week. If you follow my Tweets I'm sure you're well aware of this. I'm driving the Equinox & will be providing my review soon.)
When we get back from Kansas, it will be the first week of December, which includes my Dad & I's birthdays. (I don't want to talk about it, I'm about to be in my 40s. Not just 40, but in my 40s, and this is bothering me greatly.) Being December, everything will suddenly rocket into full speed; (drink!) there will be Christmas programs at church & both girls' schools. My family has scheduled to take the girls to see the Nutcracker one afternoon (I think we're going to go to tea too!) We have a day of baking in the schedule, a night of Caroling, several neighborhood parties and just for fun, Big will be bridging in Girl Scouts ("bridging up from a Daisy Scout to a Brownie). Somewhere in there we will get a tree. If the weather agrees, we'll make a day of it & go to the mountains to cut it down. If not, we'll have the annual Christmas trek to Home Depot. We Speak's, we're all about traditions.

I'm kinda tired just writing it all down. Seriously.

Right now, I'm still trying to catch up from my outlaws visit. You could say I'm getting wiser in my old age. Instead of stressing while they're here, I just live w/the piles while they're here and tackle them once they leave. I've learned it doesn't do me much good to try and pick up too much while they're visiting. Once I clear a space someone will start a new pile there (I wish I were joking). I figure I'm cleaning up the same amount of stuff, just all at once. But like I said, I'm still trying to wrap my head around it. (drink!) And because we work well under pressure, (drink!) we must, why else would be keep doing this to ourselves? We decided to refinance our mortgage right now. Pick up your chin off the floor, it's unbecoming. We talked about this earlier in the year, but just now have the rates gotten to the point where it's worth our while to do it. It will be worth it in the long run. (drink!) If I keep saying that, at some point I'll believe it, right? No, really, it will be worth it. We're going to pull money out to redo ALL the windows, get a new front door & add French doors in our dinning room. It will soooo be worth it. AND we're going to have a lower monthly payment. So yeah, very worth it. Though I do admit, giving up those ill-fitting, rattling windows does mean giving up some blog fodder, but I've decided I'm willing to make that sacrifice. I'm sure I'll manage to schedule the window install right in the middle of all the crazy holiday activities. That should make up for any posts I'll lose to the rattling windows, dontcha think? Today, I spent my day stressing because I COULD NOT locate 2007's tax return. The mess of the house was a lot of my stress. (This is the mess that is still here from the outlaws.) The return was missing from the file, and everything else was there, so it was misfiled. That meant it wasn't going to be anywhere logical. I also could not find it on our computer (remember my laptop crashed on me two weeks ago?) We back up our files in triplicate, (that means on 3 separate back up drives, not carbon copies) so I couldn't understand how it could be that I couldn't find it. Having Little home all day, I couldn't take the time till tonight to really delve into trying to locate it. So I was freaking out inside my head all day. Woot! I was lots of fun to be around, trust me. I did finally find it. I also found several other missing things, so I guess it wasn't a total loss. I guess.
Ok, insert appropriate pun laden cliche here, drink! and I'm headed to bed. I do have an early soccer game to get to after all. Drink!

Melancholy Me

Lately, I'm feeling all melancholy.

I think it's the weather, or my Fibromyalgia (Fibro) symptoms. Probably a little of both. Depression is a symptom of Fibro & I often feel I'm "one straw" away from breaking that camel's back. I guess for me melancholy is one step away from depression. It's so easy to get into a rut & feel sorry for yourself. Especially when your day-to-days seem to run into each other. I've been very reactive lately w/the girls being sick, my laptop dying, feeling like crap, etc...it's not good. That final straw seems to weigh more and more. I need to get more proactive, to take some of the weight off, but if you've been where I am, you know that's easier said than done. Don't worry, I'm not about to go off the deep end. I'm not walking around sulking & pouting, but it's in the back of my head. It's almost like I can see the blackness sitting on the horizon, waiting.

I'm still working on getting a handle on this Stay At Home Mom (SAHM) gig. (It's only been 18 months, after all. Looking like I'm not going to get a handle, huh?) I've gotten much better at learning my boundaries; read: "How to say no". I believe that my herniated disc was my teacher on that one. It's a hard lesson for me. Ms. Type A, unable to volunteer for everything under the sun. I hate being a flake more than I hate not being in charge, so I have taken big steps back on those fronts. Now, I don't volunteer for things until it's closer to the event. It's unusual for volunteers to get turned down, and since I'm not always sure how well I'll be it's been a good ploy for me. But it's hard on my ego. Now I'm working on my discipline. The lack of hard deadlines is still a tough one for me to wrap my head around. There is no "done" for a SAHM. I knew that going into it, but living it can still a hard adjustment. I know, if I get routines in place, and actually FOLLOW THEM, then I'm golden. It's that whole follow thru thing that seems to elude me. There's always laundry, dishes, picking up...it get old. But I also know if I get off my high horse & do it, I'm happier. I guess I wanted to remind myself of that. I also felt a little like, if I get this out of my head maybe it'll stay out.

Thanks for hanging, pity party is over.

When It Rains It Pours

Hello!
Yes, I'm still here. Been having a Fibro episode. Trying to deny it was happening, but there's really no denying it now. Too many symptoms, too many reactions in all the right (or wrong) ways.
I had started feeling like my pain was coming back in my back. It's the side from my surgery so I was making excuses to myself. You know typical stuff; I slept wrong, I picked up Little when I shouldn't have, etc... But in my head I knew what I was doing, so I started going low carb to see if it would help things. I wasn't super good, so I didn't think it was helping. Then, Saturday we celebrated my niece's birthday. I was good till it was time for cake. The thing about when you have chronic pain is that you crave things that will make you feel better.
Chocolate makes me feel better. Well, sort of.
Chocolate causes an endorphin rush. The endorphin rush gives you an sense of pain relief. You can see the conundrum this creates, can't you? So I have no self control when it comes to chocolate. I had no chance against the cake. (It was one of those big Costco chocolate ones, w/the chocolate pieces layered on the sides,) I ate a whole piece. And the next day, I was a mess. The back pain, pain in my ankles (that's a new spot for me) and the headache. The headache's from tension in my neck & shoulders. Usually those are the first spots to really bother me, but I didn't know how messed up they were till I went & got a massage & had to tell her to back off. I'm usually a dig your elbow in & put your full body weight into it kinda girl. But my neck & shoulder area was so tight I couldn't let her do too much. Not a good sign. The result of all that tension in my neck & shoulders is that I clench my jaw. Jaw clenching (teeth grinding) in turn give me bad headaches. All of this effects my ability to sleep well. And the cycle continues.
Oh yeah, with all that the girls got swine flu, my outlaws were visiting, Halloween occurred, my laptop died, etc.... My point is that it's been busy around here.

Wordless Wednesday - Halloween Edition

I think this pretty much sums up our Halloween week, dontcha think? (This was my costume before it was caught, so my theory is that karma has no sense of humor.) And, Internets, don't say I never give you anything, cuz this is such an awful pix of me, but I posted it anyway. Cuz, I'm a giver!

Happy Halloween!

OK, really it's Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead)! Halloween was Kra-Zeee!!! Fun, but Krazee! We went Trick-or-Treating w/our neighbors, which meant about 20 kids. (No exaggeration!) It took us about 2 hours to basically go around the block, and the kids scored with all their loot. (And Mama & Daddy did pretty well on Trick-or-Drink, I love Halloween!) Very Mayberry USA. We had georgous weather, wore sweatshirts & jeans, and had a nearly full moon. Perfect. Not much else to say, it was perfect. Perfectly uneventful & normal.

The Face of Swine Flu

So this is the face of swine flu. Oink. OK, the faces.
Yup, we got it. Both of them. Guess that sort of absolves me in my lack of posting.
Sort of.
The irony is that I didn't think they had it. That's how mild their cases are. My mom got her panties all in a bunch over the fact that they had fevers that came & went and came & went...and next thing I know I'm on the phone with the after hours advice nurse....And now I'm finding out, all about all the kids we go to school with, play soccer with, in Daisy scouts with, etc...who have already had it. They said their kids were "sick" no one fessed up the flu until they heard we had it. Then they're all like, "Oh yeah, watch that cause I thought DD was better b/c we were without a fever for 24 hours, and a day later it came back." So that's why you sent her back to school? And exposed my child? I'm not really bitter about that. I mean, there's no way to know where my kids got it; school, grocery store, pumpkin patch, restaurants, doctor's office (getting seasonal flu shots)... I get that. But, it does irk me that it's already been so rampant in our area & I really had no idea. I know it's around and I know there are places where it's been crazy. I just didn't think our school had been hit all that hard, yet. Now, who knows. I don't know that I would've done anything any differently had I known. But, maybe I would have, and the fact that the choice to do something about it was taken from me is what irks me about that.

Water under the bridge, I guess, right? For what it's worth, I reported our cases to the girls' schools & have called or emailed the clubs, sports teams, classes they may have exposed. I have also been very open with any and every one about the fact that they have it. I mean it's the flu, not leprosy.

Our reality; we're out of school for the week. ACK! Any suggestions? I have two bored kids, who are occasionally running a mild fever (and knock on wood, by the time you're reading this we've probably gone more than 24 hours w/out a fever). They can't go anywhere other people really are, but they have plenty of energy. Wish me luck!

Dude, I can't make this shite up!

Both girls are in bed right now with fevers of 103 & 101. I anticipate mine should hit sometime around 3ish (that's when Little's hit today, I seem to be 24 hours behind her all month).

So to recap:
Little has been sick for 2.5 of the 3 weeks of October.
She had a virus w/a fever, Which turned into
A rotten cold, which turned into
a sinus infection. And now seems to have a
NEW VIRUS!!!

Just for shites & grins:

I got Little's virus 24 hours after her
I got the rotten cold, which
went into my sinus (I don't think I got the full blown infection). And now
Big has her NEW VIRUS.

Should we start a pool on what time my fever shows up?

Absent

I know I've totally been MIA. Like I mentioned Little was sick & then I was sick. Then we had the weekend o'craziness; (drunken) MNO, soccer game, Halloween party, CCD, etc...you get the idea. Throw in a nap for mommy cuz I wasn't 100% yet. This was followed by Round 2!!! Yup we're still sick!!! Or maybe it was really Version 1.1 Little's virus basically evolved down to a mild cold. As did mine. And while she did have a cough, it was mostly at night & didn't seem to bother her. I wasn't even giving her medicine for it, cause it's supposed to be better to let your kids work thru it. The cough is helping bring it out. Right??? So much for that theory. Sunday I was up most of the night w/her and an ear ache. Actually, she said her ear hurt & her mouth. Wha? I suspected sinus b/c that's how mine seem to bother me and neither of my kids really gets ear infections.

I think Big had maybe 2 ear infections that we knew about. Both of which we found out when we were at the doctor for other things. "Hey, did you know your kid has a double ear infection?" Um, No. Parent of the year here. Little had one 2 years ago (dr told me during our appt on Monday).


Obviously, I have a lack of experience in the ear infection arena. I was even on Twitter asking for remedies for the pain since Motrin & Tylenol didn't seem to be helping. Let me tell you there isn't much I can think of that will give you worse mom guilt than your 3YO asking you to call the dr to fix it at 2AM. Dude! I did notice that she was exhausted, but her cough seemed to be keeping her from fulling falling asleep. I gave her cough medicine & while I don't think that made it stop hurting, she did fall asleep. So she could bounce off the walls and act FINE all day Monday. Seriously. I was exhausted. She was not. There's an understatement. Finally got into the doctor's office (where she had to wear a mask. OMG!!!) And, yup, sinus infection. She's on antibiotics & doing fine.

I, on the other hand, have a low grade fever, chills & sinus headache. Bah!

Wordless Wednesday--First Orthodontist Visit

It's still Wednesday (barely).
Title says it all.
These are her "baseline" pix. Nothing for now, giving it 6 months & then will probably start spacers at age 7. Gah!!!
Do love that they sent me this photo! "For my records." Bwahahahahaha!
Total fodder for boyfriend embarrassment later. I'm a mean, mean mommy. :-) (Somehow, I think this will not be the reason she needs therapy later in life.

Opps! MIA

I started a couple posts this last week, but never finished & posted any. Basically it all boils down to: ILL.

Girls were each sick and then I got sick. And this weekend, I was exhausted. All week (and weekend) we got through our usual crazy schedule, w/out fail. But I guess it really got to me. On Sunday, when we got home from church (yes, I went, first time all year) and the Farmer's Market, I had a raging headache. I took some aspirin for it and laid down in our bedroom (usually I just hit the couch). This was a bad one, on it's way to a migraine, so I went strait for the eye pillow (dark) & bedroom (quiet). I fell alseep for 3 hours! Got up, ran an errand & helped w/dinner. By the time we finished dinner, I could tell it was creeping back, so I laid down on the couch & crashed again! Because my sleep can be fleeting, Daddyspeak lives by the philosophy of not waking me if sleeping. Ever! So I woke up, alone, at 11 PM, when Little had a nightmare. I laid down w/her for 10 mins in her room (till she was out) and then went to bed in our room & slept all night! Normally, a nap alone would mean my night time schedule was shot, but TWO NAPS & still falling right alseep? Unheard of! Soooo, I'm either fighting something or my Fibro seems to be rearing it's ugly head. In the past, I haven't really dealt w/CFS (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome), but it is a part of it for most people. Usually, my issue is that I CAN'T sleep. Not that I sleep for 15 hours of the day. I'm holding out hope for, I'm fighting something, but I have other symptoms (pain) which would imply the Fibro. So keeping my fingers crossed that things calm down. But, just in case, anyone have a good referral for a rheumatologist? (Mine isn't taking new patients & it's been so long since I've been, that I'm now considered a new patient. How f'd up is that?)

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday - Last Days of Summer

Pictures from watching our friends band Sunday night.
Fancy, outdoor mall, cooling off from 100 degree day, good music, good food, good friends. Nice way to spend one of the last days of summer.

Weekend Recipe - Provencal Lemon and Olive Chicken

Found this one on Disney Family Food. don't ask me how I found it, I'm sure it was through some slow cooker search or something. (Queen of the Crock Pot that's me!) Anyway, I didn't get to eat any of it! I know! I made it on the day of my tooth issue, so wasn't much in the mood for anything. The kids, however, raved, about it. Super easy (obviously it's coming from me) and super good, so I'm passing it on. Happy cooking!

Link to recipe: http://family.go.com/food/recipe-cp-630077-proven-al-lemon-and-olive-chicken-t/

Link to website: http://family.go.com/food/

Provençal Lemon and Olive Chicken
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Hands-On Time: 15 minutes
Ready In: 6 hours
Yield: 8 servings

Ingredients

2 cups chopped onion
8 skinless chicken thighs (about 2 1/2 pounds)
1 lemon, thinly sliced and seeds removed
1 cup pitted green olives
1 tablespoon olive brine from jar or white vinegar
2 teaspoons herbes de Provence
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup minced fresh parsley

Directions

1. Place onion in 4-quart CROCK-POT® slow cooker. Arrange chicken thighs over onion. Place lemon slice on each thigh. Add olives, brine, herbes de Provence, bay leaf, salt and pepper. Slowly pour in chicken broth.
2. Cover; cook on LOW 5 to 6 hours or on HIGH 3 to 31/2 hours or until chicken is tender. Stir in parsley before serving.

Note
To skin chicken easily, grasp skin with paper towel and pull away. Repeat with fresh paper towel for each piece of chicken, discarding skins and towels

If the Moisturizer Gets Thru the Terrorists Win

Last weekend, I went to a "Mom's Crop Weekend". (A crop is slang for scrapbooking BTW.) I flew down to the LA area and met some friends from down there. We drove to a hotel near Channel Islands and had a very fun, relaxing, foggy weekend. I may write more about it, but it was pretty much what you would expect from a crop weekend. More sleeping than most I think, but mostly I think it was pretty boring, from a blogging perspective.

I did have a little "experience" w/security at the airport. I actually have been debating writing about this. I'm figuring I might end up on some "watch lists" over this (I hope not). On the way down to LA no problem. Extremely uneventful. On the way home, bit different situation. First, I was flying out of Burbank. They had one of those new, fancy scanners. They actually had two lines; one for the new scanner & one for people who didn't want to have the full body x-ray. While in line, a man (late 50s/early 60s I'd guess) apparently opted out on the new version. He didn't realize it meant he needed to go to the next line and the TSA agent ripped him a new one. That right there, gives you an idea of the tone of the area. Tense. I was the one waiting to put my bags on the conveyor belt next while all this was going on. The TSA agent sitting behind the machine admired my bag. Even wanted to know the brand (Vera Bradley) and such. So then I put my bag on the conveyor belt and go through the old style metal detector (they got so backed up while the agent was yelling at the guy, one of the other agents started sending the rest of us through the old style scanner. I get to the end and wait. And wait, and wait....my bag is obviously a problem. Grrreat. While I'm watching my tray w/laptop, shoes & liquids comes through. The agent sitting behind machine has now called in reinforcements. Uh oh. I go to pick up my shoes and a third agent has come over to my tray and tells me not to touch anything. Ummm...OoooK. So I'm standing there, barefoot, while she's going through my stuff, and my bag is going back and forth through on the conveyor. The agent realizes I'm not very comfortable standing barefoot and allows me my shoes (flip-flops). She continues scrutinizing my "liquids". I have skin cream medicine, moisturizer, tooth paste and saline solution. I had to buy hair gel in LA & leave it there b/c my brand doesn't come in a small bottle. Finally, she decides the moisturizer is an offending size, (4 oz, instead of 3, even though it obviously isn't full & was OK to bring to LA) and tosses it. My main bag is still having problems and there are like 5 agents looking at the monitor, pointing and discussing now. Finally, one of them brings the bag over to a table and starts to go through it. So all my unmentionables are on this table, which has sides to offer some privacy, but still. My bluetooth ear piece charger was apparently the problem. It was in a side pocket and it had an odd shape on the screen. "On the screen, it looked like it was wrapped in the middle. Like it was trying to be hidden." Once she saw it she said ok. So I after all that I was out a bottle of moisturizer and got to repack my bag. Here's my favorite part; while I was repacking my bag she had to ask what it was. Killed me, since she would've let me go, still not knowing what it was. I'm feeling very safe now.

I know the TSA agents were doing their job. I want that, I want my TSA people to be on the ball & paying attention. But yelling at people who don't really understand what's going on, and trashing people's hair product, etc...isn't going to stop the terrorists. A couple of questions would've made both situations shorter and less stressful. And I would have way more respect for what they're doing, if they would've asked me what it was before letting me go.
And I'm pretty sure none of those terrorists are using moisturizer anyway, have you seen their skin??

Wordless Wednesday-Bedtime Stories

Don't be fooled. This example of Beaver Cleaver-like family bliss, lasted about as long as it took to take the pix. They like the idea of Big reading to Little, but in actual practice, not so much. Big gets frustrated w/some words, Little gets impatient & wants to turn pages. Yelling, grabbing, screaming ensues (by the kids too)...You get the idea, but it is gonna make a really cute scrapbook page, dontcha think?

The Toof Fairy is a Man (and I married him)

I spent the weekend away at a Mom's Crop (Scrap) weekend. It's the first time I've been away from both the girls and Daddy alone. It was really nice. Got more sleep this weekend, than I usually get in a whole week. I did get some cropping done as well. (Not as much as I would've like, but than that's typical, I guess.)

I do have a review of where we stayed I'm planning on writing. But in the meantime....I spent this afternoon at the dentist. On Friday, at lunch, I cracked one of my old fillings. I thought I'd just gotten a lot of food caught in a tight space. When I was able to floss I went to town. I figure then, that the pain was from overdoing it on my flossing. Same story on Sunday afternoon. But this AM when it was still achy, I called the dentist. He took x-rays, but when he looked at it, he could see that I'd cracked it. This afternoon I had it replaced. Dude! It hurt like heck! He had to give me multiple like 8 I think,) shots. When he got into the actual tooth (after drilling out the old filling) he had to give me 5 more shots to numb the nerves inside the tooth. He said it was a "hot tooth". Whatever. Once the numbing started to wear off, I'm dying. Like really, really intense pain. Very, very glad I had pain pills in the house. Got home & took ibuprofen & half a pain pill & crashed on couch. Felt better when I woke up 2 hours later. It's wearing off now & I can really tell. I've never had dental work hurt like that. I think the pain is actually from the shots. (Two were in the roof of my mouth.) Guess I'll know better tomorrow.

So I had this post all ready (in my head) to complain about the status of my house when I got home. But Daddy totally saved the day this afternoon. Any ill feelings I was having, I'm over it. I was reminded how lucky I am when he left work early so I could get my tooth fixed, while he took the girls to gymnastics. Then he made sure they were fed, bathed and off to bed (while I slept on the couch). The house took 30 mins to clean (more or less). I can't put a time frame or dollar amount to measure the love he showed me today with his efforts. I am a very, very lucky woman.

A Day in the Life of a SAHM...grumble, grumble

Wow am I having a day! Not a go buy I bought a lottery ticket kind of day. More like a, the lottery (for the whole state) would some how break if I bought a ticket. THAT kind of a day.

Started last night, Little woke up w/a really, really bad dream. Neither of my girls will ever talk about bad dreams, is this normal? Anyway, when this happens I usually hug her & put her back in bed. Sometimes, I will lay w/her for a few minutes. Last night was bad, so she wanted me to lay w/her. After 10 minutes I said I was going to go, and that was fine. Ten minutes after that, I hear her in her room screaming again (she's got a potential future in horror films w/this scream). Go through the same drill. Three's a charm! Only this time, she's not letting me leave. She's had it w/this nightmare crap & apparently a parent in her bed is the only thing that will help. After a good hour of me thinking she's fallen asleep, only to have her freak as I'm trying to sneak out, I allow her to come to our bed. Didn't have to ask her twice. She jumped into our bed & snuggled right up to daddy, who has managed to sleep through the entire episode!

Three a.m. I wake to:
Little: "Daddy! Daddy! I peed my panties."
Daddy: SH**!! Yup. OK, go take off your panties & put on a pull up.
Me: "She wet the bed?" (She has NEVER had an accident, of course her first is in our bed.)
Daddy: "Just a really small amount. I'm putting a towel over it.
In other words, he wasn't getting up to change the sheets. I let him get away w/it (because it was in his side, and) it really was a pretty small amount. So I'm washing sheets right now, and will be remaking our King sized bed when he gets home. (Something I avoid due to my back.)

Love to stop right there and say my night sucked and I'm tired, but my morning continued this direction. I hit my exhaustion point around 4: 30 yesterday, so I didn't eat dinner (unless Oreos count). When I woke up, (and ate my dinner of Oreos and Diet Dr. Pepper) I watched Glee (new favorite guilty pleasure!) and I went to bed. Daddy unloaded the dishwasher & did dishes (or so I thought). When I got up this morning I realized he unloaded the dishwasher onto the counters & piled half of the dishes in the sink. Not a deal breaker for our morning routine or anything, but it is a pet peeve to have dirty dishes around the clean ones. Grumble, grumble...
Got girls off to school w/little incident, but did notice that my clean shirt has a stain on it. Grumble, grumble....
Got my Starbucks mocha, only to realize their chocolate syrup must be close to being out. (Tasted more like a sweet Latte) I even went back & asked for an extra pump. Added another when I got home. But you know, it wasn't perfect. (For $4 a day it ought to be perfect.) Grumble, grumble...
Have a bunch of important emails to send/answer, so I sat down to get to it, and my laptop locked up on me. Grumble, grumble....

After that I decided to cut my losses, nap (on the couch, cause my bed has no sheets!) and see if I can't start this day over w/less Grumble, grumble...

Wordless Wednesday - First Dentist Visit

First Dentist Visit














First Orthodontist referral














And this is where my bank account and I start crying....

Lincoln Took the Labor Out of my Weekend

Labor day weekend I test-drove a Lincoln MKT, courtesy of the Ford Motor Company. Normally, when I think of a Lincoln, airport limos come to mind. I have a history w/Ford cars, so there is a bias there, but mostly it's toward "it's a car my mom & dad would own." I can certainly say my time w/the MKT changed my perception of Lincoln. And between my 5 day stint w/the MKT and my test drive w/the Taurus SHO I'm certainly rethinking my perception of Ford cars in general.

The timing of the test drive for the MKT was certainly gratuitous for us, considering my husband's accident. Having it coincide w/the holiday weekend was also a nice touch. We were basically down one car when they dropped the MKT off Thursday morning. I got to have a dual experience with it. Thursday and Friday, I put it thru the "soccer mom paces". That included a trip to Costco, carting kids to school, daycare, practices, etc... I also got to make a trip to urgent care and some other "special" mom type duties for good measure. (The reason this write up wasn't last week in fact.) We did make it to the beach, but just for a day. So we got the "road trip experience" to an extent as well.


This car is luxurious, elegant and sophisticated. Yes, I said that about a Lincoln. And not in a "my g'ma's car" kinda way. More in a Lexus kinda way. The perks were many and made us very happy. My favorite thing: the 3rd row seats. That may strike you as odd, w/all the perks like the cool GPS Nav system, the SYNC system w/my iphone (meaning I could talk on my phone or play my ipod music using steering wheel controls,) and the moon roof. Yeah it was those 3rd row seats. I could configure those seats w/the push of a button and the pull of a strap. For someone who has a very bad back and is constantly hauling kids and stuff, this was a HUGE thing for me. It was so easy! Pull a couple straps & my backseat is big enough for a full Costco run. Press a button, pull a strap (or two) and I'm carpooling the soccer team to practice. I think it was my favorite thing partly b/c it was so unexpected. I expected seat warmers (altho seat coolers, nice touch), and I know people w/the steering wheel controls/SYNC system as well as the cool GPS & navigation systems. While I have the room in my minivan for the Costco run, it's a minivan, and really it was no comparison. The MKT was so much nicer to do anything in.

Other perks that surprised me: the blind spot lights. A little light in the corner of my side mirrors to let me know someone was sitting in my blind. I used to have a small car that no one saw, so I kill myself trying to make sure no one is in my blind. Not a problem in this car. Someone's there, the light goes on. They move out of the blind, light goes off. Such a simple thing, but such a huge benefit.

In the past I would not have considered a car like the MKT. My husband & I argued about the minivan but agreed b/c of the roominess issue. The MKT addresses the 3rd row seat issue and adds in the luxury aspect. Having to go back to driving my minivan I think svtwinmom put it best, "Now I feel like Cinderella after the ball".

I ask my husband give me a quick paragraph on his thoughts. As a guy, his focus is a bit different from mine. Here's what DaddySpeak had to say:

I was excited to drive a new car with a 400hp rating. It definitely took off at a high rate of speed but the 4 wheel drive kept the wheels from spinning like most rear wheeled drive cars would. I think you could sip a drink at full acceleration with this car. Getting backed up in highway traffic and deciding to google maps our way around it I used the full acceleration to merge onto the off-ramp to another highway was no problem. Driving over notorious hwy 17 was very comfortable even in the tight turns with the fast traffic. Watching one lane slow down for no reason as happens on 17, the blind area alert allowed confident lane changes. The blind area is rather large in this car, so if I purchased, the sonar is a necessity. The backup camera was great for backing up in a neighborhood full of kids. Again backing up in this car with out the camera would be difficult.
There is less room then a minivan but has plenty of room and is a much more fun and confident ride.

Sadly, our insurance did not total my husband's car. (Although, they're replacing part of the frame, so it better be perfect or we won't accept it.) When we are in the market for another car the Lincoln MKT will be on our short list. It made a busy, crazy weekend much more fun and comfortable. Imagine what it could do if we had it all the time?

Weekend Recipe -- Chicken & Sweet Potato Stew

So I was just tweeting (there's a big surprise) and my little crockpot addiction came up. Yes, I have like 5 or 6 of them, want to make something of it? I use them quite often, usually 2x a week. It's become one of my secret weapons since my back surgery. I've mentioned that I often have trouble holding it together by the end of the day. I will throw the ingredients in a crockpot earlier in the day (when I'm still holding it together) and the family still gets to eat at dinner time. Often, I don't eat, that's how tired I am by the end of the day. Knowing that, easy is really key to my choices. Most of these recipes are NOT my original creations. I find a lot stuff on the web. I will give credit and link when possible, but I don't necessarily have all the links any more. I also don't brown my meats before hand or things like that. It may not look at pretty, but it still tastes yummy, and that's all that really matters. If you have picky eaters, these may not all be for you. My kids are incredible eaters. (Better than most adults.) I'm also big on changing up my recipes. We find that most things are on the bland side, so I often double my spices or change them altogether. When I do that I'll try to make sure to tell you what the real deal is, and what I like to do. Ok, enough already here's the first week's installment:

So this week I found this new one here which is linked via the title.

I made some changes, noted below:

Next time I'm going to try adding Cumin I think or yellow curry. We served this over white rice. Kid's raved about it.

Chicken & Sweet Potato Stew

Hands-On Time: 15 minutes
Ready In: 6 to 8 hours (LOW) or 3 to 4 hours (HIGH)
Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces (used boneless, whole ones)
2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed (bought the precut ones from Trader Joe's)
2 medium Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cubed (used fingerling's, not cut up)
2 medium carrots, peeled and cut into 1⁄2-inch slices (used baby ones, not cut up)
1 can (28 ounces) whole stewed tomatoes (used cut up, not stewed, what I had)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon celery seeds (omitted, I was out)
1⁄2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1⁄8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1⁄8 teaspoon ground nutmeg (was out, so I used Allspice)
1 cup nonfat, low-sodium chicken broth (all out, used tomato can w/chicken juice & water)
1⁄4 cup fresh basil, chopped (used dried & probably about 2 Tbsp)

Directions

1. Combine the chicken, potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, salt, paprika, celery seeds, pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg and broth in the 4 1⁄2-quart CROCK-POT® slow cooker.
2. Cover; cook on LOW for 6 to 8 hours or on HIGH for 3 to 4 hours.

Tip
You may double all the ingredients when using a 5, 6 or 7-quart CROCK-POT® slow cooker.

Note
This light stew has an Indian influence and offers excellent flavor without the fat.

You Knew It Wouldn't Last...

All that posting in a just a week or two. I'm truly a bi-polar blogger. (Now there's a new blog I could start!) I was all set to write my experience w/the Lincoln MKT and it all came to a screeching halt w/this:



These pix actually makes it look good. Little (aka--Little Miss Accident Prone) got a fight w/a chair and lost. Friday night at Big's soccer practice Little & a buddy were picking flowers & collecting them on my beach chair. (I was standing watching practice at his point.) All the sudden, Little trips (over her own feet I guess?) and falls. If she had been a few inches back or anywhere else on the field she would've fallen & it would have been no big deal. But she had the perfect storm where she cracked her eye/head on the edge of the chair. We've been in recovery mode ever since. Truth is she's been fine. I've been on edge.

Friday we didn't do anything to it. Got it to stop bleeding (mostly), but she wouldn't really let us do much to it, including cleaning & ice. Soccer team goes out to dinner after Friday practice, and since our girls are deprived when it comes to eating out she was absolutely game for that! While we had to dab it a little, (still bleeding a bit) she seemed fine, played w/the kids & happily ate her dinner. We figured we'd let it go & depending on how it was looking in the morning we'd take her to the doctor.

We were also supposed to head to the beach house for the weekend in the morning. When she got up, it wasn't looking stellar. Now I know, often these things look worse for a couple days while they're healing. But the big thing was that the edges of where the split was weren't meeting up and it was still weeping quite a bit. So off to the doctor we went. Luckily, our pediatrician's office has Saturday morning hours. I called & they said bring her in, and her doctor was the one who was working. So first things first, they looked at it & felt they needed to clean it to decide if it needed stitches (or more likely glue), so had to wait for a nurse. Nurse came in & brought Little some dayglo bracelets. So Miss Happy laid there & let the nurse have at her eye w/nary a peep. Nurse was amazed at how chill she was, so I told her Little's stitches story. Not sure she totally believed me, but she didn't completely doubt me either, considering how calm she was now.

Let me preface this part by saying that usually blood & guts stuff does NOT bother me. I was in a science magnet high school & our senior year physiology class was all lab practicals on animals AND we got to go to UCSF and take cadavers apart. (Didn't continue in this area b/c I couldn't hack the upper level math. Well wasn't motivated to at least.)

So the nurse is cleaning and when she gets to the where the actual split is, she pulls it apart to clean it better, and umm, gross! My stomach flipped acouple times. Seriously, I'm pretty sure I turned green. You know the slot that opens for your eye to see thru? Well, Little's is a bit longer right now. Ugg! I'm still recovering from it. Like I said, Little was fine, mom needed some help. After being cleaned the doctor came back to check it, and decided it was "borderline" glue. But didn't want to be the one to make the decision for sure, so she called in another doctor, who did the same thing. Finally, we had a little party, w/all 4 doctors working that day, a nurse, me & Little. Seems none of the doctors wanted to be the one to make the final call. Learned that day that it takes 4 doctors to decide NOT to do anything.

They did put suture bandages on it to hold the skin together. Then the told us to keep in clean & out of the sun (there goes the beach!) Little managed to pull the bandages off about 2 hours later. Of course. Daddy put a Barbie bandaid on it, and that stayed put (so there doctors!). It'll be a week tomorrow and if you're looking you can see her eye is still swollen, and there's scab, but nothing huge. Kids heal fast.
My emotional scars will take much longer and require many more margaritas I'm sure.

Obama Goes Back To School

Apparently President Obama is going to speak specifically to our children next week. He's going to televise this so that the kids can watch it live, and the White House has provided "talking points," if you will, for the classroom. The suggestions were,

for pre-K through grade 6 suggests questions students think about during the speech, such as "What is the President trying to tell me? What is the President asking me to do?"

for grades 7-12 a "guided discussion," with suggested topics: "What resonated with you from President Obama's speech? What is President Obama inspiring you to do?"

Conservatives are all a dither over him "speaking directly to our children" and "brainwashing them."

My understanding is that basically President Obama is going to talk about how important education is, and why kids need to stay in school. So knowing that,

Seriously folks? You really think President Obama is going to "brainwash" your children about what? Healthcare? The War in Iraq? Going to college? The humanity! Your kids might actually be inspired to do well in school & get a higher education!

I can't imagine what you think he's going to say to our kids that will suddenly turn them into flaming liberals. I actually had to look up the article to find out what the fuss was about. I thought for sure he must be talking about some controversial topic. I believe the "talking points" are basically to help make sure the kids are paying attention. It's no big secret that the kids like to screw around in class when the TV goes on. I'm pretty sure there isn't any indoctrination into "liberal" politics that will take place. It's noted in the news article, that Reagan, and George H. Bush both addressed students when in office. Which means!?! that I was addressed when in school. And guess what?? I'm an Obama girl. Obviously, it didn't hurt me. I turned out OK, or at least more or less the same. I wasn't a fan of President Reagan when in office (I actually didn't speak to my dad for a week after voting for him the second time) and I wasn't a fan of him after he (Reagan) spoke to me and my peers either. Actually, I don't remember it, so there you go.

As a parent, part of my job is to teach my children what I think is right and wrong. If you don't agree with the President's policies it's your job to teach your children what you do believe and why. While I don't think our President is going to say anything that will need refuting on any level, I think it's good for our kids to get different views on different topics. It helps them develop into critical thinkers. You know, well rounded individuals who can take in multiple viewpoints on topics and then develop a well thought out opinion. I'm crazy like that, wanting my kids to grow up to be smart and all.

I think our kids are all going to be OK.

Can I just say that I know several of you are "conservative". I hope this doesn't offend you and prevent you from coming back to read more (since I don't usually get on my big ol' political soapbox anyway). Most of my family is very conservative, thus my sarcastic tone. ;) Here's the thing, I'm topic by topic and when you add it all up I usually come out on the side of: Common Sense. If you don't like what I had to say, tell me (respectfully). And we can agree to disagree, just so long as we can all go get Starbucks later, okay?

I'm Cruzin--another (Not So) Wordless Wednesday

In light of recent events, it seems appropriate to show off what I'm driving right now.

No, we did not get a new car (yet). In a weird quirk of fate, I was offered the opportunity to test drive the Lincoln MKT for several days. It just worked out that we were able to take advantage right after our other car went into the shop. Still waiting to hear about the other car BTW. (Current fix it cost is $12K & potentially rising, Insurance is reviewing at this point to determine if it will be fixed or scrapped.) I'm actually pretty excited about it. I don't know what I expected (Towncar) but it was not this, that's for sure. The girls, especially Little, are beyond the moon over it. Got to do a little driving in it this afternoon, but will be minus the girls tomorrow for part of the day when I can really play with it.



All I need now are my gold rimz & rhinestone grill & I'll be chill!

The Law & Breastfeeding

What is it about breastfeeding (BF) that seems to freak conservatives out? Now, before you get your panties in a bunch, by conservative I mean people who are conservative in nature or modest. I don't mean that by identifying w/the Republican party you are automatically conservative in your thinking toward BF.

The Ohio Supreme Court just upheld a case in which a woman was terminated for taking unscheduled breaks from work to pump. Umm, which century are we in here folks?

I guess my question to the Supreme Court of Ohio is, "Would you have found the same result if the person was taking these breaks for going to the bathroom?" "What if this person had a medical reason/need to take more than the average person? (Like a small bladder?) My guess is that it wouldn't have made it to the Supreme Court, but that a medical reason would deem that a resulting termination was discrimination of a person's handicap and would be deemed illegal. (In this case, a small bladder.) They also determined that it wasn't gender or pregnancy discrimination because the woman had continued to "choose" to BF 5 months postpartum and after a period of time, lactation is a condition of breastfeeding not pregnancy. Really???? How many men do you know who lactate? It just doesn't make sense. I want to throttle these people. Seriously. The stupidity behind this ruling floors me.

I BF both my kids. My second child had all kinds of health problems and couldn't eat anything, BUT breast milk. AND as a lactating mother, I didn't have leakage issues, which are bad enough, but I had engorgement issues. Engorgement is painful and can cause mastitis which is awful at best. Honestly, I'm currently wishing a flaming case of mastitis on each of the justices right now. If you start to become engorged & don't pump to relieve it you can cause all kinds of additional health issues.

One thing for sure, I will NOT be purchasing products from Totes/Isotoner any longer. If you know of any other ways we can help to get this changed and prevent it from becoming law in other states, please let me know. I'm so fired up over this one, I can't tell you. I don't understand how this kind of thinking has made it into this century. I believe my 6 year old could have told you that this ruling was a form of gender/pregnancy discrimination. Of course, my 6 year old was breast fed and we all know those kids are smarter.

The Flip Side or Daddy got a little Junk in his Trunk (specifically a Chevy S-10)

So the flip side of last Friday's post is that we are down a car now.

Friday was a really weird day.

Thursday night was one of Little's all nighters. Where she gets up every couple hours & wants to come to bed w/us & throws tantrums, All. Night. Long. I got about 2 hours of sleep (I wish that was an exaggeration) and not all at one shot. So Friday morning started out a bit less than stellar. I was so tired I was nauseous. Big, after her first full week of school, was understandably ready for the weekend, and less than helpful that morning. Grumpy was the the keyword that morning. Little, was of course, chipper and on her game. I was dreading my day. Oh yeah, our toilet was broken & I had "Lake Speak" going on in the girls bathroom too. Five beach towels later... In the middle of the morning chaos Daddy called. He wanted me to get online & find out what was going on by his work. The exits were all closed from the freeway. Gah! Really dude? I'm kinda in the middle of something. Hearing the screaming & fusing in my background he told me, no rush, but he was considering coming home. *Que sound of tires screeching* Umm, what do I have to do to get you home? Found out there was a hazmat situation near his work and the whole area was closed for the day. Woo! (Obviously not Woo! for the company & people this affected negatively. But Woo for a nap for me, OK?) Three day weekend for him! And zomg! I can get a nap in to make up for the night before.

So he got home not too long after I got Big off to school. And he and Little set off an a Daddy/Daughter day. They went to the library & then to a posh outdoor mall, where they had lunch together. It sounded like they both had a blast. AND I took a 3 hour nap! Obviously I needed it. It was hotter than hot here on Friday & while the girls wanted to spend the afternoon swimming I vetoed in favor of laying low till Big's soccer practice. (100 degree heat does not result in a canceled practice.) About an hour before practice Daddy declared he needed another part for the bathroom (he'd been working on it all afternoon) and would be right back. Normally, Little is ALWAYS on any trip to the hardware store. To say the child loves Home Depot would not begin to describe her feelings. But Daddy was going to a local store instead of Home Depot for a change. She debated, but ended up deciding to hang w/Mommy & Sissy for one more episode of Wonder Pets.
Thank God for Wonder Pets.

About 20 minutes later the phone rings.
Daddy: "I'm OK, but I've been in a bit of a fender bender."
Mommy: "OoooK"
Daddy: "Cops are making a report, so probably not going to make it back in time for Big to get to practice & I have Little's car seat." (Meaning I can't drive, because I don't have a car seat for Little.)
Mommy: "Crap! OK, let me go so I can find a carpool for Big."

No problem. Got a ride for Big. Another hour and Daddy walks in. I go out to see the car.
OH. MY. GOD!

"That is not what I would call a fender bender. Are you OK?"

He's fine. But THANK GOD Little didn't go with him.

It was a 3 car accident. Car in front of him stopped suddenly, so he had to slam on his breaks. No problem, for him. Not so much for car behind him. Suddenly the Chevy S-10 behind him had joined him in his back seat. The truck pushed him into the car in front of him. No obvious damage to the front of his car, but sometimes you can't tell. The back of the car was a different story. The Chevy smashed the trunk of our car, popping and pushing the lid into the back window. It hit hard enough to shatter it. That's why it was good that Little wasn't with him. She would've been showered in glass if she'd been with him. Definitely would've involved a hospital visit, at the least. Fortunately, it (so far) has only involved car-seat replacement, rental car, towing, police reports & lots of calls w/the insurance company. Oddly, the truck was a company truck for the hardware store Daddy was headed to, the manager was driving by a few minutes after it happened & stopped to help. He insisted on a police report for his company. The upside of all of that is that everyone had insurance, there's lots of documentation, we should be completely covered and no one was hurt.

How was your weekend? ;)

Addendum: As of Monday evening, the cost is over $9k. "BUT, it's worse then they thought and are still pulling the car apart to figure out what all needs to be fixed." Also, while the front end isn't obviously damaged, they may have to remove the batteries (it's a hybrid, but Nissan, not Toyota) to weld as the rear axis frame needs to be replaced. If they have to do that, it will have to go to the dealer for that part of the repair (cha-ching). Will know more later. Keep you posted.

Ford You--Product Review

So last Friday I was invited to attend a blog event.

I know, it's like I have credibility or something. Who knew???

The sponsor was Ford & the product was the Taurus SHO. No, I'm serious. Really. They were interested in what someone like myself (a regular Jane,) thought of their new car.

Stop laughing!

So, of course, I was game to go check it out. It involved a MNO (Mom's Night Out) in The City (San Francisco) after we were done. When does that happen? Like never. And yes, I'll admit my first priority was not driving the Ford Taurus. It was more toward getting out of the house. Gasp! Having been in PR, yes, I do realize I just committed a cardinal sin. Know what? I'm not a PR/MarCom person anymore. I'm a SAHM (Stay At Home Mom). While I know the "rules" of PR & events, I think part of the point was the the people reviewing the product didn't necessarily know those rules, and therefore, gave you an honest review. So, that being said, I went w/small expectations at best.

I was floored.

I guess when you start w/the bar low (as I did) it isn't too hard to impress, but I have a couple things I should declare before I continue. Bar probably wasn't actually as "low" as I'd like to think.

My dad worked for the Ford company, (in it's various shapes, sizes and names,) while I was growing up. He wasn't in the car business, and was, in fact, one of those Silicon Valley workers who never changes their desk/location, but works for 7 different companies in 4 years. Eventually, his division became part of Loral, but for most of my life it was Ford. As a result of that, I happen to have driven a lot of Ford cars. (Go Figure.) You know those used cars that are like new? Yeah, we were one of the families who put the miles on them to make them used. Deal worked like this; we paid a monthly lease fee and Ford paid all maintenance & insurance. Go ahead and mull that one over for a minute. Yes, they paid the car insurance of a family w/two teenagers. During that time I got to drive; a convertible Mustang, (it was fire engine red too), a Capri (punishment for something I did w/the mustang), a (turbo) Taurus, (which I bent the frame on, don't ask, just don't get your teenager a turbo boost engine), an Escort & a Mustang. There may have been a few more, but those are the ones I specifically remember driving. Additionally, my folks have always owned a Ford, including a Taurus, for a long period of time. So, yeah, I probably have more than your average experience driving Ford cars.

I have to say, this was one of the nicest cars I've ever driven. (And, they didn't pay me to say that.) It's extremely posh, and has all kinds of bells and whistles. The one we drove wasn't stock, but it wasn't totally pimped out either. We were driving in San Francisco, so the fact that I enjoyed my experience is saying something. The City can be a bit stressful to drive in, one-way streets, lots of traffic, oh and those famous hills. The car drove like a charm & honestly I felt like I was in a Mercedes or a Lexus. It was smooooooth. In addition to the fact that the car was super nice, drove really smoothly and very comfortable, it was super quiet too. My family currently owns a hybrid, (not a Ford, sorry) and I thought it was one to be honest. It's not, it's got "EcoBoost™ Twin-Turbocharged Power". Ok, whatever that is. Actually, the way it was described to me is that it drives like a v8, but w/a v6 engine. (Now that I understood.) What I also understood is that it handles really well.

If you want a well researched and more complete review you might want to check out Glenna, who actually got some facts about the car and wrote things down and such. I was excited to get out of the house, so next time I'll do more than reference Glenna, (maybe, she does such a nice job, why compete?)

Bottom line, it's not a car I would've considered prior to having the opportunity to drive it. If I were in the market for a car, I'd give it more than a once over.

And driving my mini-van kinda sucks now.

First Day Follow Up

Of course, everything was fine. She was excited (we were FIRST in line, on her FIRST day of FIRST grade!) The G'parents came & walked to school w/us. This made her extra happy, made her day seem special.

Wisteria Lane lives on, but things have mellowed. She's already griping about the homework (we had to read for 20 mins tonight.) I've already started setting the "homework" schedule; you get to watch a TV show, while having a snack, then homework. I'm sure she'll complain about getting up tomorrow and it'll be like summer never happened.

First Day of First

Sigh.

Tomorrow (or more likely today, cause I writing this close to midnight) my preshus baabee is starting FIRST GRADE!!!!

She'll be in the big kid classrooms & have lunch at school, with more BIG kids. (Some of those girls are as tall as me!!!) She'll have recess and lunch at school, on the BIG playground! And she'll be gone for most of the day!...

Maybe this doesn't sound so bad.

Like most parents, I have mixed feelings over this whole thing. Sad to see summer over. Sad to mark another year older. But excited for summer to be over, so I can get some mom time occasionally. I'm excited for her to start a new year w/new experiences. I'm excited for her excitement.

The usual stuff.

It's sort of ironic that I refer to her as my baby. She's a tall kid. She's easily the height of most 2nd, if not 3rd & 4th graders. I refer to them as the BIG kids, but she actually towers over many of them. In many respects Big is still very much a little girl. That's the thing I worry about. I love that she's not growing up too fast, but I worry about her being teased or left out because of it. That has the potential to become more and more of an issue the older she gets.

I know, I know, she's 6, leave her alone, stop creating issues where there aren't any. I'm trying!

And of course, as usual here on Wisteria Lane, the cliques are already in action. This is part of why I have the fears that I do, I guess. Some of my actions this summer may have already affected her standing in social circles at school. Yes, the drama is that much in this neighborhood. I try to avoid it, but I worry that maybe my attempts at avoiding it have already not worked favorably for her. Of course, I have no way of knowing either way, so I should just move on, umm...yeah, good luck with that. I'm a mom. We worry, it's in the job description, and I'm really, really good at that part of my job. ;)

I guess as long as she's excited and doesn't know I'm worried it's all good, right?

All right, guess I should make those lunches before it's time to get up for school already.

(Not so) Wordless Wednesday--vacation version

Yes, I know you're onto me. My wordless Wednesday is just a half-assed attempt at posting. I know you see right thru it.

But you keep coming back, don't you? ;-) Well, interwebs I'm to you too! I know you think my girls are beautiful & can't get enough of them. Oh wait, that's me. Well, whatever, it's getting me back into the swing of things and that is something.
Besides, in case you haven't noticed, I can't keep my mouth shut. So once again, it's my version of (Not so) Wordless Wednesday.

I'm pretty sure I haven't posted these yet. Once again, in trying to keep up w/our travels this summer, I missed posting while we were on vacation in Disneyland. 10 days & nights in the LA area, half of which where spent at the DL Hotel & parks. This is a special gift my parents give to us whenever a grandchild turns 3. This was our 4th trip in 12 years (every 3 years, we plan so well). They take my brother's family, our family & get a suite (3 bedrooms & living room) for us all, and they get our 5 day passes too. No, they are not taking applications for adoptions, and if you're past age 3 you're out of luck anyway. So this one was Little's big trip.

Because my folks treat us to all of that, we are able to do a lot of the extra's. This time the big extra was Bibbidi, Bobbiti Boutique, aka-"Pimp my Princess". The Girls LOVED it. They do make up, hair & nails. You can do much, much more (all w/Disney prices, of course). But we brought our own dresses, crowns, shoes, etc.... (FYI--they do boys too; not as princesses, although who knows, I didn't ask. The packages we saw were for "knights" & they gelled up their hair into faux-hawks and added color & confetti. Very cute). These are pix of the girls seeing their images for the first time (they have a "reveal" at the end, of course they do).

And this third pix is of them dressed in their full princess regalia. The "castmembers" at Disney address all girls as "princess" in the park, but they really pull out the stops when the girls get done up like this; opening doors w/a flourish, bowing to them, etc...The girls eat it up. (And obviously, so do their folks.) It wasn't cheap (it was Disney, that's a given, right?) But I did feel like I got my money's worth. My girls loved the attention & I got enough pix for a scrapbook just on this subject. --Not so wordless Wednesday

Electronically Addicted

Hello, my name is Mama (No last names here).
Crowd: Hello Mama
And I'm an iphone-ic (like an alcoholic, get it?)

The first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem. And I am addicted to my iphone. There is no doubt about that one. My family has declared that the thing has become merged into my left hand. And it's true, I pretty much go nowhere w/out it now. I even sleep w/it next to me at night. I know I have a problem, I just admitted it to you. But if you think about it, is it my iphone I'm addicted to or is it my ability to be connected 24/7? It's a gray area in my book. Part of my addiction has it's ties in Twitter. I'm also addicted to that and Facebook. (Of course, I am) So, which is it? Twitter or iphone? And I do love being able to check my email at any given time. Not to mention my web access, Facebook, and real time traffic updates....You're getting the scope of my problem here now aren't you. I love that I can snap a quick pix of something cute the girls are doing, add the caption and upload it right then to my Facebook page. Then I shoot it off via email to the grandparents. It's so much less involved than doing that w/my regular camera (although, nothing replaces my DSLR, but that's another addiction to post about). When we're waiting in line somewhere I have downloaded free games for Little (and Big) to play, so it's become a bit of a babysitter for me (what's not to love about that?). And I've loaded some big kid games too, I like to play solitaire in bed to put myself to sleep. (What? That's pathetic? Oh, hey anything that gets me to sleep is good in my book.) We've avoided numerous traffic jams because of it; not only do I see the traffic on a Google map, but I can see a way around the traffic because it's a Google map! And I have the most awesome music app, Pandora. You type in an artist & it creates a radio station w/music based on that. And it's been spot on for me. I love it. Trust me, I could go on and on and on (obviously!)

I pink puffy heart my iphone there is no doubt about it. It is worth every penny we pay for it. And while I agree I do probably have an addiction, I'm not giving it up. (Wish I knew how to quit you. Not really.) Nope, I might have a problem, but I'm no quitter! I'm sticking w/my iphone.

Wordless Wednesday - Soccer Mom

You can call it wordless Wednesday, but I can't keep my mouth shut, so there you go.
I believe I officially have fulfilled my demographic now:

*kids - check
*minivan - check
*soccer player -check

Now, just gotta get Daddy to start watching Nascar...like that's gonna happen.