Wednesday, January 30, 2008

I was so close to a wii today, but I got caught in a cyberspace traffic jam. I guess I'm going to have to rely on my niece's husband to score one for me. I'm putting a lot of trust in this guy. We'll see what happens.

This week has just about worn me out -- sick kids, politics and work deadlines. Fortunately, my major work deadline gets to end tomorrow night with a concert by Casting Crowns. They aren't performing just for us. The two events just happen to coincide. I will definitely need to hear their uplifting words after dealing with the negative thoughts I've been having the last couple of weeks. To put it mildly, I have not been the kind of compassionate, loving, Christ-like person I should try to be. I have been kind to people, but I have not spoken too kindly of them. It has been a very frustrating situation that has not brought out the best in me. However, it has given me a clearer understanding about my stand on a certain political issue and reaffirmed my belief that our current governor is pretty ineffective.

Anyway, hopefully, the week will end better than it started -- the work deadline will pass peacefully and all the kids will be healthy.

Monday, January 28, 2008

Happy Birthday, D!

My sweet husband turned 39 on Saturday. His wonderful MIL made him a turkey-and-dressing dinner as well as cherry cheesecake. I gave him money to pick up Bad Brad's bbq for dinner on Sunday. I also made an even greater effort an opened a Betty Crocker (or was it Pillsbury?) box of Devil's Food cake mix and used a snowman cake mold to make him a birthday cake which I decorated with canned cheesecake frosting a plain (they'll never be milk chocolate to me) m&m's.

As for gifts, Anna wisely chose something from the list of items he had emailed me -- an emergency roadside kit. Jeremy selected a fishing pole so they would each have one on those boy scout campouts. Jackson, for reasons known only to him, chose a monster truck, AKA the Grave Digger. Not as useful as my blender, but it was chosen with just as much love.

I went all out and bought him some Black & Decker item he'd been requesting for awhile and a skin for his iPhone. But wait, that's not all. As one of my friends and former co-workers once told me, you should celebrate your birthday long and celebrate often. So with that thought in mind, we will be going to the Casting Crowns concert this Thursday. While I was able to purchase these tickets discreetly, I still was not able to surprise him. And my ability to surprise my husband is a topic for another post.

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Say what?

The three year old and I have been having something of a power struggle lately. It's my own fault really. I've babied him along this far, but enough is enough. This morning I decided to compromise. He could get his pajamas off, and I would help him get his clothes on. He didn't want to do that. I asked him who was the boss? His answer? Jeremy.

Obviously, I'm doing something wrong when a seven year old wields more power than me.

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

So far, so good

I tried the cash-only, envelope system for groceries. I've stuck to it fairly well and have done OK -- for me. I've depleted the envelope and had to dip into other cash to restock the milk supply, but that's not too bad, right? We had to go by the store tonight to buy diapers, and D wanted to know if we needed to buy anything else for dinner tomorrow night. I told him I wasn't sure what we were having, but it didn't matter because we had enough stuff at home to make something. That is great progress for me. As a result, we are having Uncle Ben's Hearty Broccoli and Cheese Soup out of a box. It's got to be something D bought sometime because it's not the kind of thing I would pick up.

My other way of not spending as much money is to buy a 1/2 lb. of boneless bbq wings at the store on Monday and eat it for lunch on Tuesday and Wednesday. It's also a good way to control my portions. The other day is left open for leftovers or to pick up something downtown. However, tomorrow I'm going to eat leftover pasta bake. Again, I'm making amazing progress -- I'm actually eating leftovers!

Also, it doesn't take much for me to find an excuse to go out to eat to celebrate and tonight would have been really easy. Anna was the alternate in her class for the third-grade spelling bee, and one of her classmates wasn't there, so she was chosen to participate. She made it to round five, even spelling "vehicle" correctly. Pretty impressive considering we never practice those spelling bee booklets they send home. Anyway, I asked her what she wanted for dinner to celebrate. Before she would've said McDonald's or Braum's or Chili's. I'm happy to say she chose hotdogs. Progress.

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

A few images from this weekend

I finally hung the curtains in Anna's room. That's about as clean as her bed was going to get. Jackson kept running across it yelling "cannonball" and jumping onto a beanbag. At the same time, Spencer kept climbing onto the bed and the window seat, so I was trying to keep him from falling between the cracks. Fortunately, he did not suffer any additional bumps or bruises to his already severely bruised forehead. Back to the room -- aren't those circles great? D did a wonderful job of painting those. The dark blue stripe is magnetic. It's not incredible strong, but it's still a fun touch. The next project is either their bathroom or my bedroom. Yes, I'd like to have a "sanctuary," but I don't think that's possible right now. I think the only way it could happen would be to throw everything out of the house and start over.


Jeremy was quite proud of his red, white and blue pinewood derby car. Anna is already planning to enter in the open division next time.



Horrible picture, I know. But I had to take it quickly and my camera/phone is not a great one. I'm just very luck that I didn't lose it. For anyone who does not know who this person is (if I haven't already said it enough), he is Stacey King, former OU and NBA basketball player. And yes Jeremy's eyes are closed too. I really need an iPhone.

Saturday, January 19, 2008

What an amazing day! I'm too tired to put it all into complete, witty sentences, so I'll piece it together the best I can.

First, Jeremy's pinewood derby car came in 2nd in his den. Second, we had tickets to the ou/texas tech game with sooner club passes -- penny you are soooo awesome. The passes are very key to the awesomeness of this day because during the game they retired Stacey King's jersey. For those who are unaware, King played on the OU team 20 years ago that played for the national championship and unfortunately got beat by Kansas - a team they were playing for the THIRD time that season. Anyway, because we had the club passes, we were able to hang out in this special room and get his autograph.

We were also able to get Billy Tubbs autograph. He is one of the reasons I came to love basketball so much. His teams played such a fun style of run-and-gun basketball and usually scored a hundred a game.

Now, I am exhausted. It was a thrill for me to be in the same room as Stacey King and Billy Tubbs. Only my mom can truly appreciate the excitement I was feeling. Fortunately, my husband can understand the importance of it all even though he's an Oregon Duck fan.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

I try to set a good example. I don't swear (at least in front of the kids). I don't drive over the speed limit too much (of course the kids can't drive yet). I always wear my seatbelt. I don't drink carbonated beverages in the morning (of course I'm not drinking them much at all now).

Obviously, I'm falling down on the job when it comes to breakfast. They don't usually see me eat a nutritious breakfast, but I tell them to eat something -- cereal, poptarts, toast, fruit snacks (that counts, right?). Anyway, this morning, the oldest ate Oatmeal and Everything Cookie Bars for breakfast while I had Rice Krispie Treats. They didn't ask if they could have the bars. They just assumed it was OK. Did I say no? Not this time. I just wanted them to get to school on time.

It wasn't my best parenting decision, but it wasn't my worst either.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

When given the opportunity to stretch out in a huge king-size bed, a child will 9.75 times out of 10 choose to sleep as close to me as possible, which usually involves legs dangling over me, head shoved into my back or some other body part on top of my head. In the winter time, there is also a battle for covers -- I want them. The child doesn't. When you are a new mother, you selflessly give up your precious sleeping space to your offspring and even forego covers so as not to disturb the slumbering child. Four children later, I don't really care. I just want to sleep undisturbed to a certain extent. Spencer is sleeping through the night - FINALLY - so I think a full night's sleep is well deserved.

Saturday, January 12, 2008

I have begun week two of the new meds, and hopefully, it will be better than week one. By Thursday, I was ready to check into a hotel and hibernate until I felt normal again. At that point I realized some of the headaches and the emotions were probably hormonal. So there is some hope.

I have managed to go two days without taking any significant pain reliever. All I have used is a few baby aspirin. Who knows what kind of damage I am doing to my body? I'm trying not to think about it.

On Thursday, I took the stairs at work twice, which is no small feat. I hiked from the seventh floor to the 14th. And yesterday, I walked to the school to pick up the kids, but that doesn't count as very strenuous exercise because Jackson was following on his scooter and it wasn't going very well.

I've been drinking a lot of water and very little coke. These are all baby steps, but maybe soon I will feel like a normal person again.

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

My apologies to my two friends who may or may not read this post. (I have more than two friends -- I think -- they just aren't all fortunate or unfortunate to know about this blog.) This is going to be a complaining post. I have been on the new meds for a few days now, and I'm not ready to say they work or don't work yet.

The reason is I'm still getting headaches. Of course, the reason I may be getting headaches is because of caffeine withdrawals. Of course, I'm having caffeine withdrawals because I haven't been drinking much caffeine. Why haven't I been drinking much caffeine? Because of all the strange side effects this drug could have, it can make carbonated beverages tastes bad. That is just so wrong! Why couldn't it have been something I didn't like? Maybe coffee? Tea? Anything else?

I've still had a few sips of coke a day, but it is just not the same. I wasn't a pop-a-can-as-soon-as-I-open-my-eyes-in-the-morning person, but I definitely liked to have a drink with my lunch -- maybe (OK usually) one with dinner.

Since I'm down from at least a full glass/can a day to maybe a few sips, I think I'm going through withdrawal. So we'll see how I feel after I make it over this mountain. And, yeah, I had a headache today.

On an unrelated headache note, but still a complaint, I attended Anna's soccer ceremony tonight for the fall season. It's nothing too exciting, so D took the boys and ran other errands while I sat and chatted with the PTA moms. Anyway, here's my gripe, Anna's team finished 3rd, but the team that came in 2nd should not have even been in her division. They should've have been moved up a division. Now if they were younger and finished ahead, I'd say, "you go, girls" but no they took advantage of the younger girls. I noticed their coach happened to be involved with the soccer leadership. Hmmm. Anyway, I'm still proud of our girls. Several of them are pretty petite, but they are scrappy.

Monday, January 7, 2008

I approached the near-death migraine last Thursday. Fortunately, D took the afternoon off because I'm not sure I could've made it there. I got two shots -- one for nausea, one for the pain -- but I'm not sure they helped much. The kind doctor gave me some sample migraine meds to get me by until the evil insurance company would let me refill my own prescription.

He also put me on a preventative medication. The major downside to this med is that carbonated beverages may not taste good. There aren't many liquids out there I enjoy drinking. I don't care for alcohol. I'm not much of a juice drinker. I like milk but only with certain things. However, there's just nothing like a good coke, especially when you're eating pizza, a hamburger, an enchilada, or just about anything. So this potential side effect has me very bummed.

One other side effect is word searching. This could be a problem since I write for a living and deal with a lot of names. But since I have had some type of head pain every day for over a week, I'll try anything.

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

This is not a New Year's resolution. It's a I've-got-to-do-something-about-these-migraines-or-else-they-are-going-to-kill-resolution. I'm cutting down on chocolate and caffeine. I don't think they are major triggers, but they don't help when combined with my real triggers which are lack of sleep and wacky weather changes. I am also resolved to try to go to sleep by 11 p.m. I'm not sure how that's going to work out, but I've got to do something. I'm going through the prescription stuff like it's candy.

The paint smells probably haven't helped, but it was worth it. Anna's room is very cute. It would be even better if I had the energy to get the curtains up and if we had another place to put Spencer's crib. Oh, well. Next project is either their bathroom or our bedroom. Both involve the removal of wallpaper, so I'm not sure when I'll get that ambitious.