The One I Miss the Most is...

Turns out in Kansas you have to get a couple of hamsters to run on a wheel to get the interwebs going....kidding. But my internet access while visiting in Kansas last week was pretty limited, as was my posting. I have much good blog fodder, as you might imagine, after spending a week w/60+ cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, etc...It was a very crazy, but fun time. The girls has a blast & we had the first good weather we've ever had when visiting Kansas. Still, I'm really, really glad to be home.

Happy to be back in my own bed has taken on a new meaning for me. We slept in my husband's childhood room, which seems to have been frozen in time. What's up with that? My brother took over my room 2 minutes after I went to college (and I was coming back). And my mom couldn't get our crap out of the house fast enough, so she could paint & redecorate. My MIL (Mother In Law) on the other hand, seems to think DaddySpeak might suddenly decide to move back in & would want his room just as he left it TWENTY-something YEARS ago. Maybe DaddySpeak was a more likeable teenager than I, hmmm.....
I digress, (how surprising,) my husband's bed is part of this 20+ year set, and the mattress is HARD. Since we know I'm such a delicate flower, I didn't handle this sleeping arrangement so well. By day 2 I was taking muscle relaxers so I could actually move. During the night, I'd wake myself up every time I tried to move from the pain. My Fibro was rearing it's ugly head, it wasn't good. I bought my Outlaws a new pillow on day 2. I gave it to them after I used it for the week. ;-) That helped keep my neck in check for the rest of the time. My neck still hurt, but it wasn't unbearable anymore. My lower back was pretty unbearable by day 4.

I used to feel bad about the bed my Outlaws sleep in when they come to visit, but I don't anymore.

Amazing Women

This post started out as a recap/review of the SVMoms Holiday party. "Started Out" would be the key words there. I loved all the great companies that were there. It was awesome to get to talk to their representatives & see the products in person. But first I wanted to mention all the incredible WOMEN I got to meet! And the post just mentioning who they were got SO. INCREDIBLY. LONG. The result is that my recap of the companies is going to have to wait a little longer. Tonight is just about the WOMEN!

It was very exciting for me to meet so many of these women IRL. And if you know me, you know I like to talk a bit. So the number of people listed here, shouldn't really surprise you. (And I KNOW I left someone off. I'm sorry! I tried to remember everyone I talked to, but I just know there are people I left off.) While these are the participants I got to hang w/there were many, many more. SERIOUSLY. I feel so blessed to live in a place where so many women are so powerful, talented and excited to share those things. I'm even luckier that these women have included me in their fold. They are my idols, mentors and friends. If you have an opportunity you should take a moment to check them out. You will not be disappointed.

To start I drove up (in the Chevy Equinox, loaned to me by Chevy for the week). My cohorts in crime were;
MommyTwinGirls--Aka Linda, Blog: It's Never Easy, But It's Always Fun
Sharon, Blogs: "Whatever Things Are True", & "Be Bold or Go Home"
And
Amy (who is a twins mom, and has yet to commit to posting on SVMoms yet, but we'll bring her to the dark side yet)

The ride up was fun. We got to talk about who knows, who and how. How we got into blogging, our kids (duh) and how excited we were to have a night out about us!!!
At the party I finally got to meet:

SV Mom (herself, I KNOW, I feel like I met a rockstar! Squeeee!) Jill Asher
Alix, med nauseum blog
Ana Garza, The Garza Girls
Ana or Bongamom, Finding Bonggamom & Bonggamom Finds
Beth, Techmamas
Darryle, Cluttercast
Jane, This Week for Dinner
Myrna, TangerineTimes.com
Nicole, Not Just a Working Mom & Not Just a Working Mom Reviews
Sheila, Xiaolinmama

And, of course, SV Moms, I already knew:
Akemi, Chalk and Cheese Chronicles
Linsey, Me Too You & Whereas

I'm not done either! If you're still with me? There were mom's who are not contributors to SVMoms, but are very active in that community. If you know me at all, you know I'm VERY active on Twitter. I've become "good friends" w/several people on Twitter & a few were there also. So fun to meet them In Real Life too!!!

@GraceD, Grace, State of Grace
@vdog, Vdog & Little Man
@Glennia, The Silent "I"
@kikarose, Jessica, It's My Life
@citymama, Stefania, CityMama
@babyjidesign, Carla, babyjidesign

Still here? Good. If you take the opportunity to read some of the things these women write you will not be disappointed, I promise. My "real life" friends have trouble understanding my "virtual life". If you take the opportunity to read these women, I know you'll understand. So many people and so much talent, and I got to meet them all In Real Life! I'm all hot to go to BlogHer now.

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....