Last night I couldn't sleep because all I could hear was the crackling of the tree branches around my house with the weight of the ice on them and I kept hearing branches and limbs fall. I was so worried a limb would go through my roof into one of the kids' rooms I couldn't focus on anything other than that.
I did get about 85% of my taxes done. I'll be getting back a little less than I was hoping but... I'll readjust my plans for it a little and move on! After I did my taxes I flipped back over to the old blogger and checked my feed of all the awesome blogs I am loving. I had decided not to do a blog hop this week because my Internet connection seems to be moving at a total crawl and flipping through all the sites and trying to read their posts and comments and follow is just nearly impossible at this speed. I want to be able to take my time and get to know each of your lovely blogs a little and really sink my teeth into them and it's very frustrating not to be able to do that because our ridiculous Internet service provider (that has a monopoly in my area so I'm pretty much stuck with it) tends to suck most of the time lately.
BUT I digress... On the feed I noticed a blog hop called "Where in the World are You" and I thought... this sounds interesting... I clicked and read about this hop that's been going on for several weeks now and I just loved the idea. The people on the hop tell you where they're from and some interesting facts about their location each week. I instantly thought that was a fun and great way to get to know your fellow bloggers a little and learn some great little trivia tidbits (I love trivia! LOL) sounded like too much fun.
So at like 3 am I typed up this great little post about my location (Ohio!) and included lots of funny and cute and interesting and weird little facts about Ohio. And even though my Internet was barely moving I managed to include several pictures of the things about which I was writing. And I finished it at like 4 am. And then I promptly lost it. LOST IT!! I don't even know how that's possible because blogger saves everything automatically like every 3 seconds but... it was gone. UGGGHH!!! So I went to bed.
So here's some very very abbreviated fun fact about where I'm from. I'm from Ohio. It's cold here. We're the Buckeye State. We have lots of cornfields. We even have one that's made of concrete. It's supposed to symbolize our agricultural roots that have been overtaken by urban scrawl or something like that. I would post a picture but again... not enough Internet speed. I promise I will try and post it someday soon... For now just try and picture that you're driving down a road full of office buildings and you pull up to a stop light only to see a giant field of diagonal rows of like 10' tall ears of concrete corn sitting next to you. It's kind of surreal, actually. So that's the best I can do right now for fun Ohio facts. Sorry no pics or anything more exciting. :(
We're in the middle of ice-pocalypse 2011. Tomorrow will be the 3rd day of no school this week (officially 3 days over our calamity limit for the year already on Feb 3) and it's something like 7 degrees outside and the ground and trees and cars and everything else in sight is covered with about 4" of ice. Which is super fun and not at all anxiety-inducing for someone who's spent the past 6 weeks dealing with and recovering from an injury that was caused by ice. So I'm really loving it.
In other random news... Brody has a fever again. 103.6 tonight. His nose hasn't stopped running for about 4 solid days. And of course the stinkiness from a couple of days ago. I don't know what to do with the boy. The doctors keep just saying there's nothing wrong with him. Clearly there's something wrong with him. I don't know. :( My poor baby. I hate that he doesn't feel good so much. I wish I had better answers.
Also... remember the post a couple of days ago about the little secret thing that my mom and I started working on the other day that would be such a huge step towards Living My Best Life? Well we made some serious progress in that area today. I got some troubling news and some very good news sooo.... who knows. But it's a very far out of my reach concept for the time being so... I'll just leave it at that for now. I'll keep you updated!
And finally... I think I finally fully committed to kicking boyfriend out tonight. I think I officially reached my limit. There is a lot I haven't mentioned about boyfriend but obviously you know that there have been some serious major problems going on. I do classify myself as a "mostly single mom" after all. And boyfriend has been in the picture for nearly 4 years of my 6 and nearly 5 year old's life not to mention our 1 year old. So there are clearly some issues there. I've tried to kick him out probably 2 dozen times before... and he has always talked me out of it. Or just refused to leave until I gave in. I won't dwell too much on such a downer subject but... truthfully I know that this is a GIANT step towards Living My Best Life. It's something that I've needed to do for a long time but I've been scared to stick to my guns about it because I always feel like, a "mostly single mom" is still not a "completely single mom," and I've been there before (actually, in both categories... ex-husband wasn't much of a help either) and at that time I only had 2 kids. Now there are 3. And a bigger house. And more bills. And a million other reasons that have kept me scared. But safe is not happy, and happy I am not. I'm on my way there, and this will help. I know I'll be a little sad about the end of something that has been such a huge part of my and my kids' lives for the past 4 years but... I know it's for the best. It's been a long time coming and it's time I stop letting fear control my mind and do the right and best thing for me and for my kids.
OK that was a big downer. LOL. Sorry!! Let me leave you with this... Greys and Private Practice are finally new tomorrow night! Are you as excited about that as I am? Can I give any more proof as to how little it takes to excite me in my life??? LOL Good night!
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Work Stinks. So Do Sick Babies. They Stink. Literally.
Well these past couple of days have been a big dose of reality smacking me in the face! I went back to work yesterday, and after having been off for 6 weeks recovering from the torn ligaments in my foot, I am quite literally... exhausted. I went back Monday and if you read my last couple of posts you know that I didn't get much sleep Saturday or Sunday night. And Monday is my long day at work. Blah.
Of course on my first day back I would get a call about a sick kid. This time it was Brody. He was causing quite the "stink" at "baby preschool." They called after his 3rd "incident" (it's a 3 strikes and you're out policy there when we're talking about this kind of illness! LOL) asking him to be promptly removed. Actually that's not true. They're so freaking sweet there they are always like, it's ok, no rush, get here when you can, we totally understand... I could not love this place any more, I swear. Anyway... I couldn't very well leave work early on my first day back soooo... it's Grammy to the rescue!!!
Mom went to pick up the kids and cracked up... Brody was in what she called "isolation" in the 1 year old room... separated from the other kids trying to minimize the infection possibilities! She said the whole school stunk... apparently Brody wasn't the only one afflicted. Although with Brody, I'll be honest, on any given day I don't know if you'd be able to tell the difference from his normal ridiculous stinkiness to actual sick stinkiness. That boy is something else, I'm telling you. He defies the laws of nature.
So back to a sick baby again. He goes through bouts of feeling better and then needing to nestle in with mommy for long periods of time. When I got home from work this afternoon he had been asleep for about 2 1/2 hours. I waited and waited for him to wake up and finally at 530 I threw in the towel so he wasn't up all night tonight and had boyfriend wake up Brody. He was less than thrilled to be pulled from slumber. I can dig it.
Here's a funny thing about Brody... I don't know if any of you have babies that are strangely addicted to sweepers of all kinds but... mine is. He got one of those Laugh and Learn vacuums for his birthday and it fast became his favorite toy. He loves to walk around the house pushing his little sweeper. It has 3 different settings on it, music, learning, and one that sounds like a real vacuum. He gets really ticked if it's not on that one. He doesn't mind the other settings if he's sitting down playing but when he's ready to sweep... it better be on sweep sound setting! And if it's turned off (this toy can get pretty annoying!) he gets really ticked.
He likes to "sweep" with his little vacuum at any given time, but especially if he sees someone else using the real vacuum. Then he runs and gets his and follows them around. Cute. But this cute little habit has quickly become a weird obsession. He LOVES the real vacuum. If he sees it he goes crazy trying to pull the plug down and start pushing it. I have had to relocate it from its previous spot tucked between a shelf and a wall in the dining room to the mudroom. Oh and he loves brooms. The kid has a serious thing for brooms. He's constantly maneuvering himself around the gate to get into the mudroom to get one of the brooms and then he walks around sweeping. He does a pretty good job, to be honest! Or he tries to get the vacuum. It's a constant struggle with him. I'm pretty sure he wants to be a janitor when he grows up. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I'm just surprised that he's found his life's calling at 15 months old.
So anyway back to tonight. He was mad about being woke up. He got a little happier when he laid eyes on the broom. He went right for it. He was smiling and giggling and, well, sweeping. Boyfriend tried to take the broom away from him only to be met with screams and wails and tears. He got so upset. He ran to me... still holding the broom. I tried to pick him up to comfort him but he wouldn't release his grip on the broom. So I just picked it up with him. That's when I noticed that his fever was back and he decided since I picked him up he was going to start the "snuggle in with mommy" session of the evening. But he wouldn't let go of the broom. No matter how hard anyone tried. So I held him, and he held the broom. Weird kid.
Here is a pic of the little weirdo. Boyfriend took the pic with my cell. He clearly is not a photographer.
Anyone else have babies obsessed with something strange like brooms and vacuums? I'd love to hear about it!
OK well I have to stop blogging to get back to my main task of the day: my taxes! I am hoping to get them done soon and hoping to get a nice big fat return. Or at least a pretty decent sized one. Filing my tax return is today's step towards Living My Best Life. A lot of people take their return and go on vacation or buy new furniture or something else along those lines... Since my divorce I've used mine to supplement my income. I take a little of it off the top for some extras and put a little bit away for our big summer vacation and generally have to use some of it to catch up on some bills... but most of it goes in the bank to be divided up over the next 12 months to add to my income. I wish I could use it for something much more fun, like... a big down payment on a nice new minivan... or... 6 big vacations instead of 1... or... I don't know... anything. But to me, it's income.
So I'm off to turbotax to continue my return! Good luck to all of you in your tax filing! What do you all like to spend your return on if you get one? I'd love to hear!
Of course on my first day back I would get a call about a sick kid. This time it was Brody. He was causing quite the "stink" at "baby preschool." They called after his 3rd "incident" (it's a 3 strikes and you're out policy there when we're talking about this kind of illness! LOL) asking him to be promptly removed. Actually that's not true. They're so freaking sweet there they are always like, it's ok, no rush, get here when you can, we totally understand... I could not love this place any more, I swear. Anyway... I couldn't very well leave work early on my first day back soooo... it's Grammy to the rescue!!!
Mom went to pick up the kids and cracked up... Brody was in what she called "isolation" in the 1 year old room... separated from the other kids trying to minimize the infection possibilities! She said the whole school stunk... apparently Brody wasn't the only one afflicted. Although with Brody, I'll be honest, on any given day I don't know if you'd be able to tell the difference from his normal ridiculous stinkiness to actual sick stinkiness. That boy is something else, I'm telling you. He defies the laws of nature.
So back to a sick baby again. He goes through bouts of feeling better and then needing to nestle in with mommy for long periods of time. When I got home from work this afternoon he had been asleep for about 2 1/2 hours. I waited and waited for him to wake up and finally at 530 I threw in the towel so he wasn't up all night tonight and had boyfriend wake up Brody. He was less than thrilled to be pulled from slumber. I can dig it.
Here's a funny thing about Brody... I don't know if any of you have babies that are strangely addicted to sweepers of all kinds but... mine is. He got one of those Laugh and Learn vacuums for his birthday and it fast became his favorite toy. He loves to walk around the house pushing his little sweeper. It has 3 different settings on it, music, learning, and one that sounds like a real vacuum. He gets really ticked if it's not on that one. He doesn't mind the other settings if he's sitting down playing but when he's ready to sweep... it better be on sweep sound setting! And if it's turned off (this toy can get pretty annoying!) he gets really ticked.
He likes to "sweep" with his little vacuum at any given time, but especially if he sees someone else using the real vacuum. Then he runs and gets his and follows them around. Cute. But this cute little habit has quickly become a weird obsession. He LOVES the real vacuum. If he sees it he goes crazy trying to pull the plug down and start pushing it. I have had to relocate it from its previous spot tucked between a shelf and a wall in the dining room to the mudroom. Oh and he loves brooms. The kid has a serious thing for brooms. He's constantly maneuvering himself around the gate to get into the mudroom to get one of the brooms and then he walks around sweeping. He does a pretty good job, to be honest! Or he tries to get the vacuum. It's a constant struggle with him. I'm pretty sure he wants to be a janitor when he grows up. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I'm just surprised that he's found his life's calling at 15 months old.
So anyway back to tonight. He was mad about being woke up. He got a little happier when he laid eyes on the broom. He went right for it. He was smiling and giggling and, well, sweeping. Boyfriend tried to take the broom away from him only to be met with screams and wails and tears. He got so upset. He ran to me... still holding the broom. I tried to pick him up to comfort him but he wouldn't release his grip on the broom. So I just picked it up with him. That's when I noticed that his fever was back and he decided since I picked him up he was going to start the "snuggle in with mommy" session of the evening. But he wouldn't let go of the broom. No matter how hard anyone tried. So I held him, and he held the broom. Weird kid.
Here is a pic of the little weirdo. Boyfriend took the pic with my cell. He clearly is not a photographer.
Anyone else have babies obsessed with something strange like brooms and vacuums? I'd love to hear about it!
OK well I have to stop blogging to get back to my main task of the day: my taxes! I am hoping to get them done soon and hoping to get a nice big fat return. Or at least a pretty decent sized one. Filing my tax return is today's step towards Living My Best Life. A lot of people take their return and go on vacation or buy new furniture or something else along those lines... Since my divorce I've used mine to supplement my income. I take a little of it off the top for some extras and put a little bit away for our big summer vacation and generally have to use some of it to catch up on some bills... but most of it goes in the bank to be divided up over the next 12 months to add to my income. I wish I could use it for something much more fun, like... a big down payment on a nice new minivan... or... 6 big vacations instead of 1... or... I don't know... anything. But to me, it's income.
So I'm off to turbotax to continue my return! Good luck to all of you in your tax filing! What do you all like to spend your return on if you get one? I'd love to hear!
Monday, January 31, 2011
Vaseline Does Everything But Pay The Bills
Sooo here's what I got done on my "blog to do list" this weekend: A whole lotta nothin'! Well, a whole lotta not much, anyway. I am ashamed to admit that I spent almost all day today with my kids and my mom and put off everything else. Well, I'm not really ashamed to admit it because, don't we all need to do things like that once in awhile? And my kids have really missed my mom so they were dying to spend some time reconnecting. I told them I figured after one day she'd be ready for another vacation. LOL
I did get a little bit done on the blog... mainly, I reached a goal of having 100 followers!!! How cool is that??? It's pretty freakin' cool if you ask me. I'm such a total nerd... all day long I was kind of sneaking glances on my phone as I was inching closer. I don't know why it was such a big deal to me but it was! I laughed and said, I'm famous! LOL!!! :)
I am posting just a very quick little post tonight (this morning) because... I have to go back to work tomorrow!!! :( I have been off for 6 weeks with my leg injury and just this last week, as I really started to finally feel and get around a lot better, it was starting to get nice. :) But I guess we all have to work sometimes. I'm lucky to only have to work 3 days a week and 2 of those days are only for 6 hours so I know I should count my blessings. That doesn't make it any easier to psyche myself up about going back, though!
Of course Saturday night Brody woke up at about 2 am and I never really got him back down until just before 6 am. New teeth I think. He's done things like this a few times over the past couple of weeks. But this time I thought, of course my last chance for a whole night's sleep with some sleeping in time before starting back to work you would do this! LOL.
And there was no sleeping in, either. He and I were asleep in the recliner this morning for a whopping 2 hours before Olivia woke up asking for some Vaseline to put on her chapped lips. The girl's top lip is totally cracked and bleeding and she refuses to use chapstick, but she'll put Vaseline on it. Yummy. Whatevs! It does seem to be working! If you ask my mom Vaseline pretty much cures everything so... I guess this is just one more example of that! In fact, 2 days ago, when I was begging her to let me put chapstick on her lip she was crying, pleading with me not to do it. (She has a weird thing about creams and lotions of any kind... for some reason she feels sure that they are all going to burn or hurt worse than what I'm using them for.) I said, I promise, it won't taste great, but it won't hurt at all. At this Ava pipes in and said, "Olivia, it really doesn't hurt. Remember when I had a sore bottom and mommy put Vaseline on it? It didn't hurt and it made it all better!" I'm glad we were at home for this exchange! But I figured all of my 105 new lovely blog followers are now privy to information like this! LOL. And to round it out... Brody has a horrible diaper rash right now (normal... we go through this pretty much a few days out of each week and nothing seems to help) and Vaseline was my treatment of choice for that today, too!
So after being up all last night, and no naps today (boohoo!!) I figured... I really need to be in bed by 10 tonight. I've been off work for 6 weeks so tomorrow is going to be exhausting just because of that, but now I'm coming off a night with about 2 1/2 hours sleep total so I have to get a good night's sleep tonight. Except here it is at 1 am and I just got home from my mom's about a half hour ago (I brought the kiddies home earlier and got them bathed and to bed at a more normal hour, don't worry!) so there goes that plan!
I just wanted to post and say that yesterday and today I, with the help of my awesome mom, worked on something that if it comes through... which is a HUGE HUGE IF... I mean, like 1000 pieces have to fall exactly into place for it to work out... but if it does, it will make a HUGE HUGE dent in the Living My Best Life plan. I don't want to say what it is just yet because I'm so afraid that if I say it out loud it will be jinxing myself and there are so many obstacles that need to be overcome I figure jinxing myself shouldn't be one of them. But I do want to let you know that hopefully I have something BIG in the works... but please say a little prayer for me or send some good vibes my way because I will really need it!!! I should know more soon if there's any progress on this, and I will let you all in on it as soon as I feel like it's safe to talk about it! :)
OK so I'm off to bed... big day tomorrow!!! I'll let you know how my first day back goes!
I have some pics I want to post, but for some reason my Internet connection has been in serious need of help these past couple of weeks and they're not loading. I will hopefully get them on once I get (unnamed cable company that I really can't stand....!) to come out and hopefully get things working correctly again!
I did get a little bit done on the blog... mainly, I reached a goal of having 100 followers!!! How cool is that??? It's pretty freakin' cool if you ask me. I'm such a total nerd... all day long I was kind of sneaking glances on my phone as I was inching closer. I don't know why it was such a big deal to me but it was! I laughed and said, I'm famous! LOL!!! :)
I am posting just a very quick little post tonight (this morning) because... I have to go back to work tomorrow!!! :( I have been off for 6 weeks with my leg injury and just this last week, as I really started to finally feel and get around a lot better, it was starting to get nice. :) But I guess we all have to work sometimes. I'm lucky to only have to work 3 days a week and 2 of those days are only for 6 hours so I know I should count my blessings. That doesn't make it any easier to psyche myself up about going back, though!
Of course Saturday night Brody woke up at about 2 am and I never really got him back down until just before 6 am. New teeth I think. He's done things like this a few times over the past couple of weeks. But this time I thought, of course my last chance for a whole night's sleep with some sleeping in time before starting back to work you would do this! LOL.
And there was no sleeping in, either. He and I were asleep in the recliner this morning for a whopping 2 hours before Olivia woke up asking for some Vaseline to put on her chapped lips. The girl's top lip is totally cracked and bleeding and she refuses to use chapstick, but she'll put Vaseline on it. Yummy. Whatevs! It does seem to be working! If you ask my mom Vaseline pretty much cures everything so... I guess this is just one more example of that! In fact, 2 days ago, when I was begging her to let me put chapstick on her lip she was crying, pleading with me not to do it. (She has a weird thing about creams and lotions of any kind... for some reason she feels sure that they are all going to burn or hurt worse than what I'm using them for.) I said, I promise, it won't taste great, but it won't hurt at all. At this Ava pipes in and said, "Olivia, it really doesn't hurt. Remember when I had a sore bottom and mommy put Vaseline on it? It didn't hurt and it made it all better!" I'm glad we were at home for this exchange! But I figured all of my 105 new lovely blog followers are now privy to information like this! LOL. And to round it out... Brody has a horrible diaper rash right now (normal... we go through this pretty much a few days out of each week and nothing seems to help) and Vaseline was my treatment of choice for that today, too!
So after being up all last night, and no naps today (boohoo!!) I figured... I really need to be in bed by 10 tonight. I've been off work for 6 weeks so tomorrow is going to be exhausting just because of that, but now I'm coming off a night with about 2 1/2 hours sleep total so I have to get a good night's sleep tonight. Except here it is at 1 am and I just got home from my mom's about a half hour ago (I brought the kiddies home earlier and got them bathed and to bed at a more normal hour, don't worry!) so there goes that plan!
I just wanted to post and say that yesterday and today I, with the help of my awesome mom, worked on something that if it comes through... which is a HUGE HUGE IF... I mean, like 1000 pieces have to fall exactly into place for it to work out... but if it does, it will make a HUGE HUGE dent in the Living My Best Life plan. I don't want to say what it is just yet because I'm so afraid that if I say it out loud it will be jinxing myself and there are so many obstacles that need to be overcome I figure jinxing myself shouldn't be one of them. But I do want to let you know that hopefully I have something BIG in the works... but please say a little prayer for me or send some good vibes my way because I will really need it!!! I should know more soon if there's any progress on this, and I will let you all in on it as soon as I feel like it's safe to talk about it! :)
OK so I'm off to bed... big day tomorrow!!! I'll let you know how my first day back goes!
I have some pics I want to post, but for some reason my Internet connection has been in serious need of help these past couple of weeks and they're not loading. I will hopefully get them on once I get (unnamed cable company that I really can't stand....!) to come out and hopefully get things working correctly again!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)