Our Christmas

So, we didn't spend the entire day in the pool. TD turned on the heater in the morning and it was over 70 degrees.

The girls started Christmas Eve night with their traditional new Christmas PJs. They get a new pair every year and I try hard to make them different from the year before. They actually fell asleep on time. I think it had a lot to do with their evening. We had dinner with some friends at a local fire house. They had invited the missionaries and when it came time to take them to their next appointment, we all hopped in the fire engine and had a great time. Moe got to ride up front and turn on the lights and siren. She said it was probably the most exciting Christmas Eve she had ever had.

Buttercup hopped up at 5am and TD sent her back to bed. Their noise woke me up just after 6am, which was the threshold time. We had Moe's friend from work and church spend the night with us. Her roommate was away and she was going to be all alone. No one should have to spend Christmas Eve alone! Buttercup and I found a fun present for TD. It's a velocity ball that measures how fast your pitch is. I can't remember the last time he was genuinely excited about a present, even when I bought him his own golf clubs.

Buttercup got her own football. She has been complaining that the boys bring their own footballs from home and never let the girls play with them at recess. She also got tons of new clothes, which made her very happy.

She also got a bike, the big ticket item. In contrast, Fiona just got a bunch of presents, lots of arts and crafts things. It was Moe's first Christmas away from home. I think she enjoyed herself. It's fun to be around little kids on Christmas. I also did a good job finding her some fun presents.
I got a new MP3 player, one that actually makes playlists. I hate shuffling through songs when I'm jogging on the treadmill. I also got a new camcorder, which we had to take back and get a different format one. You guys should look forward to my attempts at posting video. We'll see how that goes. I also got some more See's candy, yum.

Then we had fajitas for dinner. I gave Moe the choice between that and a traditional ham dinner. I have a Chevy's restaurant cook book and the food I made was so good!

It has to be a better Christmas than last year. I was so ready to get back to house painting that I took the Christmas tree down on Christmas Day.

What Did You Do on Christmas?

Christmas Eve Eve and the Irony

I remember when I was a little kid and would count today as Christmas Eve Eve. It was pretty exciting because it meant that the next day was Christmas Eve. Moe and I wished each other a happy one this morning.

The irony? I spent the morning with the girls hanging out and watching shows. I asked Buttercup if she wanted to find anything fun to watch on YouTube. She reminded me that I promised to find some old Mormon ads. You know, "It's about time?" We spent over half an hour watching the commercials and laughing at their out of date clothes and hairstyles and reminding ourselves of good values. Then I sent the girls off and literally less than 15 minutes later Fiona was in my room describing the horror of Buttercup manhandling her and how she was the innocent party. Of course Buttercup was hot on her heels to talk about how Fiona is totally different when she's alone with Buttercup. Ugh, seriously? It only took 24 hours to go from a great Christmas Vacation to me wanting to maim something. Hey, don't mess with a mom who can't clean her own house. Fiona was off to write, " I will keep my hands to myself" a hundred times. Kills two birds with one stone, her handwriting needs the work. Buttercup was off to sort our 7 loads of laundry, she even had to redo the towels she had allegedly folded. I say allegedly because when I asked her if she felt she had done her best work, she admitted no. After an hour of fairly constant housework, I deemed them rehabilitated enough to watch a few Christmas cartoons and then do the activity of the day.

Inclement Weather

Not us, it was really cold this morning, but I can't complain. We made our weekly trip to Walmart for groceries pretty quickly.
I have been reading everyone's blog and comments on Facebook and I can't believe what you guys back in Oregon are dealing with. I can't ever remember it snowing that much. The last time we had to deal with it was during Fiona's steroid phase in January of 2007. We got snowed in and she desperately needed shrimp. I think only someone who has ever been on steroids or pregnant would truly understand. At that time my sister had a Tahoe and was able to come over and take her to Albertsons. Now that same sister is almost 9 months pregnant and no longer has the Tahoe and is further from bigger civilization. (my little brother promised to come and get her in his work truck should she go into labor. My other sister with 4 wheel drive ventured out today and got rear-ended by a police officer).
Anyway, I was despairing at the thought of the girls home for the next two weeks, even with being able to go places and do things. So I started coming up with things for them to do (besides all of the chores I can't do). I thought I would share some with you that you might be able to do at home with your kids, without having to go out for supplies, which we all know isn't happening.
Go here for a ton of easily printed templates for beautiful snowflakes. Not that you guys necessarily need them, but it will give little bored hands something to do for a while. Then they can spend a little more time vacuuming up after themselves.
Go here for the recipe for those cinnamon applesauce ornaments. When they are dry, I plan on the girls gluing different kinds of glitter on them.
We are also going to play spa party. I got a $5 can from Walmart that even has nail art in it. This might not be the best thing for you with boys.
We are going to see The Tales of Despereaux. We have buy one get one free coupons and I might ask some of our local friends to come with us.
You Tube is awesome for finding old Christmas cartoons to watch.
The girls from our Young Womens' group lip synced this at our Christmas party and Fiona could and has just sat and watched it several times in a row. We also get them off the Boomerang channel. We watched Christmas in Pacland, who knew.
I also managed to get some of those Costco Willy Wonka gingerbread house kits, which will be great for a few hours of silence. You can make some frosting and use graham crackers and just let them have at it.

Our dollar store had felt Christmas stocking kits, but you can always use construction paper. Boy, they always tell you to have your food storage ready for times like these, but you should also have entertaining the kids kits available too, huh? We had that problem after Hurricane Ike.

Hopefully Santa will bring plenty of entertainment and you won't lose power.

A Vent

This might not make sense to everyone.

But bear with me. During the holiday season, requests for donations really go up and the one that gets me is St. Judes. I love all of the work they have done and I know it's places like this that have created the protocols of chemotherapy that have made success rates for diseases like leukemia skyrocket to 75-80%, which is amazing and wonderful. But, I go into the movie theater to escape life for a while and I am confronted by stars like Jennifer Aniston with sweet little bald people asking for money. They ask on behalf of our healthy kids. Well, I didn't have a healthy kid and reminders of things like this bring some bad feelings back. It always closes my throat and makes it hard to swallow. I don't know when feelings like these are going to go away. Maybe five years out when she officially becomes a long term survivor.

I guess I am just saying I wish I knew when these commercials were coming on so I could avoid them. I appreciate their work, but I don't appreciate bawling during "The View" when Marlo Thomas comes on and talks about her work. (I didn't know she was going to be on there either). **** Just to show I'm not truly ungrateful, check out these stats!! I cannot believe that one form of leukemia gets cured more often than Wilms Tumor, which is what I had and used to be the "good" cancer. Also, in the beginning I was happy that Fiona had lymphoma and not leukemia. Maybe I should rethink that.

Seriously So Busted

I went to the doctor yesterday for my post-op visit. I saw the nurse practitioner because the surgeon is on vacation for this week and the next. She was really no help. She did tell me the cyst wasn't cancerous, which was good, but I wasn't really too worried about it. But she didn't have the surgical report, so we couldn't talk about anything that went on. Which, I really wanted to talk about. She did so much stuff we didn't talk about before the surgery.
The NP did tell me that I wasn't cleared to vacuum, sweep or mop for at least another week. Uh, oops. Nobody really talked about what to do or not to do afterwards. I also have to wait to take a bath for another week and when I do get to take a bath, someone has to clean the bathtub before I do. I can't do Pilates or lift weights for another 2 weeks. I can walk... I should've told her that she needed to be more specific than that because give me an inch and apparently I'll take a mile. You know, at the Y, "walking" 4.3 mph because it's not jogging.
So, I promised TD I would take it easy today to make up for all of the inappropriate behavior of before. Plus, I think I need to reserve my strength for Christmas Break. I have a feeling the girls are just going to make me postal.

Bustin' Out

That's right Mugsy, I busted out. TD never hid my car keys yesterday, so I drove very slowly and carefully to turn in library books that were due yesterday. I did stop by McDonalds and got a salad and then could only eat half of it. I told my dad this and he asked if I had gotten gastric bypass as well. I am wondering. My stomach seems to fill up pretty quickly.
Today, I waited until I was really hungry and left for Walmart for dinner ingredients for tonight. I can only plan for one meal at a time because, well, I guess I just don't care. I got some stuff and then I went over to the Whataburger in the parking lot and got in line. Here's where it gets weird, I wanted cheese on my burger. I have never ordered cheese on my burger. I also got the fries because hey, they are so good. Then, here's where I throw caution to the wind (literally), I got a Diet Dr. Pepper as well. It's been a week, I should be okay with the bubbles by now and I have missed it. Not that I am addicted or anything, it's just that diet soda is my little special treat. I drink it to avoid trashier foods.
Then, I got home and I ate the whole thing and really, really enjoyed it. I mean, I might sit here and sniff the bag for a while. I must've needed the grease and beef. I lost 4lbs this week. Plus, all of that stuff the surgeon took out should've weighed something. My stomach is smaller than it was before, yeah! I was starting to freak out because I wasn't gaining any weight, wasn't eating more, was working out and my stomach was getting bigger. I have my follow up tomorrow and I am going to talk with her more about what she did while in there. TD isn't entirely helpful.
Now, I think I might go sleep off my food hangover...burp.

Yeah I've Been Tagged

Thanks Mrs. B. I've certainly got nothing better to do, huh?

8 Favorite TV Shows
1) The Office
2) ER
3) 30 Rock
5) Arrested Development
6) Desperate Housewives (Moe and I love yelling at the TV on Sunday nights)
7) Biggest Loser
8) Food Network shows

8 Books I recommend
1) Such A Pretty Fat
2) Time Traveler's Wife
3) Elsewhere
4) The Book Thief
5) The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
6) The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes
7) Child 44
8) East of Eden

8 Things that happened Yesterday
Huh...um
1) I only took one pain pill
2) I got to spend 3 hours home alone
3) I made steel cut oats for the first time and loved them
4) Watched Dark Knight for the 1st time
5) Sat with my legs in the hot tub
6) Ate some rice krispie treats
7) Cultivated my garden on Facebook
8) Laughed myself silly watching Just Friends

8 Things to look forward to
1) Christmas morning
2) Taking a bath again
3) Going back to the Y
4) Large stack of unread books next to my bed
5) Making and eating some sugar cookies
6) Swimming (TD says that he will heat up the pool on one of the upcoming holidays, pool party anyone?)
7) Lunch
8) watching my girls grow up

8 Things I love about winter (here)
1) flip flops almost year around
2) sun shining
3) feeling in my fingers and toes
4) mild mornings and my sunroof
5) being able to open all of the windows
6) being outside
7) school in session!
8) Christmas

8 People to Tag:
Danielle, Lori, Stacey, Jennifer, Heather, Sarah, Ped, Katrina... if you guys have time. Not everyone is sitting around watching TV all day.

Oh My Back

I heard that in my head in the voice of some crabby old guy. In reality it has more to do with the gas. When they invented the modern miracle that is laparoscopy, they figure it should involve gas, in order to separate the gooeyness that is your abdomen. Hey, I am all for no more cuts in my abdomen. I have never been able to come close to a real six pack because I have a large slash mark across the left side of my stomach right under my ribs. But in their incessant need to see more and more of my guts, they kept pumping more and more gas in. Apparently I am not very good at getting rid of it. Things like Gas-X and such pills have no effect. You just sort of have to wait for it to dissipate through your skin and it rises, much like the carbonation in your favorite soda, something I am also forbidden to have.
My main pain has been in my neck and upper back. It's like someone came up behind with very large, strong hands and simultaneously pushed down and gripped really hard. If I lay down, it feels better, but then I can't really see the TV or read a book well. It also makes me not hungry, maybe because my stomach already feels full.
My stitches are starting to itch and hurt a bit. I wandered around today. I am not sure exactly what I am going to attempt tomorrow. I told Moe if TD hid my car keys she should see where he hid them and call me later. I promised not to rat her out.

Still Alive

Things are looking better today. Kind friends have been by with yummy dinners and special treats and people have been calling. TD has taken over phone duties. My throat was really sore and scratchy for a bit from the tube. I took off the four bandages. My belly button is really bruised, which is kind of weird. My stomach doesn't really hurt any more. The chest, neck, and back pain has been annoying.
I was able to take a shower this morning. I hate showers, they are too much work. My kitties were kind enough to follow me into the bathroom and keep me company. I think they were perturbed at me being in TD's shower. I can't take a bath until I see the doctor next week and she clears me for it. That makes me sad.
What is kind of surprising to me is that my stomach isn't any bigger than it was before. This includes all of the gas they pumped into me. So, all of the stuff they removed was clearly taking up some space. This gives me some hope for when I am deflated. Which, hopefully, is soon.
I did slip up this morning by rinsing a few dishes. TD heard me running water and came hollering. I will try and avoid the more hazardous areas of the house, you know, kitchen, bathrooms, and laundry room.

First Update

Well, it's 4:30am and I am awake. It's probably because I had so much sleep yesterday, haha. If I sound a bit addled it's probably because of all of the drugs. But I am awake and bored and I don't know where my book is, so this is how I can entertain myself.
When we got to the hospital yesterday and were taken back, I started crying. I didn't feel particularly nervous, but I realized it was because the last time we were in such a situation it was with Fiona. Every time we took her in for a procedure or surgery, we weren't sure of the outcome or whether or not she would make it out. TD just told the nurse it was because I was so done with hospitals and doctors and pretty much anything medical. I told the nurse to warn everyone else coming in just to ignore me and do what they needed to do.
There was good news and bad news. She got my left cyst and didn't have to take out the ovary. She found one on the right ovary and took it out too. Apparently she found endometriosis everywhere. I guess I was her last surgery of the day and she wasn't planning on spending that much time on me. Td said it felt like it took forever. I didn't get a chance to talk to the doctor, which was a bummer because it sounded like the bad news might be pretty bad. TD got the feeling that if I had been older she would've removed everything, we are talking total hysterectomy. As it stands, it sounds like I will be back in in a few years because she is sure it will all come back.
So, as of now, I am not missing any body parts, except those unwanted items. But I might have to do this again. It wasn't too bad. Waking up was awful. It felt like I had been kicked in the stomach and every time I moved I start trying to puke. But with a dry mouth, sore throat (from the tube) and sore stomach muscles, it was pretty tough. I finally puked a very small bit when we got home and then I started feeling better. Moe was kind enough to get me a chocolate shake and I drank some of that.
So that's how I feel about 12 hours after the surgery. TD is staying home for the rest of the week. I have few plans to leave my bed, much less the house. I am taking it really easy so that when I go back to my routine I won't hurt myself.

Seriously...

Our forecast is predicting rain/snow showers. I didn't even know it did that down here. Part of me is feeling baited and switched. I wanted to move down here because everyone I met told me how hot and brown it was. Big giant fibbers! Of course, last year TD was swimming in our pool on December 9th. Ohhhh! Maybe I should ask him if he wants to observe his anniversary. I did and he said if he got to use the pool heater. Cheater. I just checked and it's 44 degrees, but feels like 39 degrees. What is up with that? I noticed Portland's weather for the next week and now I don't feel so bad.
On the other hand, between the weather and the real wreath I bought at Costco today, it's beginning to feel a lot more like Christmas. I think I will buy a real wreath for indoors every year. It helps with the fake tree.
This should be the last post I make while not being under the influence. I am not scared or nervous. I was getting nervous last week and just decided that I couldn't deal with it. I think that activated my non stress button. I went for my pre-op appointment yesterday. They took 6 vials of blood, part of that was to type and cross blood for me. It's a good thing. After all of that blood they took, I feel like I need a transfusion. I also got an EKG. Huh. I guess I understand that they need to check everything out, but weird. Made me feel elderly.
Keep your fingers crossed for me and show me some love! You guys haven't been commenting at all lately.

Buttercup's Big Mouth

Buttercup has always been queen of the one liners and quotables. She actually, at one time, said "Dweams do come twue". So funny. She was the instigator of a large family squabble. We had a big family dinner in preparation for a family member's wedding and also as a bit of a surprise party for my mom's birthday. The family member and fiance got up and stormed out during dinner. Most of us were completely oblivious as to why. Come to find out, they were peeved because Buttercup told them not to kiss with their faces dirty. And they got offended and stormed out without saying anything to anyone. Seriously.
Another time we were driving down the road, Moe and another sister and the girls. I saw some gross guy walking along the side of the road. I said, "Hey Auntie J, I found you a boyfriend." Buttercup looked him over and said, " Auntie J, it's okay, you get skinny you can have a good boyfriend."
A few days ago, I dropped my hairdryer on my foot. Buttercup's response? "Mom you must have really big feet because people are always stepping on them or you are dropping stuff on them." Just for the record, they are a 9, which at 5'10" isn't really that big!
Yesterday morning I was disciplining the girls for playing 'tag' instead of getting ready for school. I made them take turns sitting at the table and getting ready. Buttercup got up to brush her teeth and left her notebook. I started to read what she had written. " I am mad. My mom yelled at me for playing with my sister. She should be happy I am finally getting along with her." Right...because it's so hard to get along with Fiona.
This made me bring up all of the things she has said over the years. She could not believe some of it. I am glad she is learning a bit more tact. Now, if she could get less irritated with me.

This Month at the Hospital

Princess Fiona and I had the best time at the hospital this month. How good was it? I didn't even open my book. Usually I finish one book and start another. I paid for less than 2 hours in the parking garage. We got up there on time and were greeted with a wild Christmas party. Santa was there, a few of his penguin friends, Mrs. Claus, a juggler that also rode a unicycle, strolling guitar player, catered food, face painter... a place to choose your own present.

First we had to visit Santa in order to earn the present. Fiona was shy, which is a bit shocking. I think she was as surprised as I was to find this circus in the clinic's lobby. There I am in the back, holding the big book I expected to read in its entirety while we were there. She let him hug her but didn't tell him what she wanted. A little help in that department would've been greatly appreciated.
Then she picked out a present. They had some good stuff. There was a Leapfrog Leappad. A Barbie head to fix up. Fancy Nancy's new board game, which I thought she would've gotten. But she ended up with a Barbie image tracer. That works just fine for her. She's a big fan of drawing and being creative. When she was five and in the hospital, she called herself a coloring machine.
Then we headed over to the catering area where she had chicken strips, a slice of pizza, a Dr. Pepper, a frosted brownie and chocolate chip cookie. Then she had a bit of a stomach issue. Go figure that one. But I managed to distract her with some face painting. We asked for a poinsettia flower in order to keep in the holiday mood. The face painter was amazing! She also had glitter to add to the regular paint.
We got right in after all of this and saw the doctor and headed right home. I could've brought Fiona back to school, but we took the opportunity to go Christmas shopping for a present for Fiona to give to Buttercup. She had two excellent selections and had a hard time picking.
When we got home she couldn't wait to start using her new toy.
I am delighted that our doctor's visit is over for this month. One less thing to do.

I have a Date

It was down to December 10th and January 5th. They weren't sure if they could squeeze me in on the 10th, so I was pretty sure it would January. I just found out yesterday that it would be next Wednesday for my surgery. So now, I am in a sort of Christmas frenzy. I wrapped half of my presents today and made half of my Christmas goodies. The house is a mess, of course. You can't go through all of those dishes and baking paraphernalia everywhere without it migrating into other parts of the house. Not to mention the wrapping paper and tape and scissors, etc.
TD says he will take at least Wednesday and Thursday off. He mentioned Friday as well and I told him that sometimes it's just as annoying to have someone hanging around as not have someone around.
Fiona keeps studying me. I know she knows a little too much about hospitals and I think she thinks I'm invincible. Which, of course, is true. I have been reassuring her that I will be fine. And I will be. I just don't want to deal with recovery. Especially around Christmas.
I am also sad that I will have to take time off from the Y. It's cookie season. I need cookies, ergo I need the Y. I am also a little creeped out that bloating and temporary weight gain can last for a bit. Yuck. But hopefully things will be better at the beginning of the new year.

I am so Proud

No seriously. I think you have to be more of a workout junkie to understand this one. Today I went to the Y and did my cardio and then went upstairs for a pilates class. When I was done with the class, I started to put my shoes and socks back on. The left one was kind of damp, but I have been wearing a brace on my left foot, for the ankle sprain of October. The right one was more than soggy. Seriously soggy. Maybe I should've tried to ring it out, that would've been really interesting. I contemplated not putting it back on, but what would I have done? I didn't have anything else to wear out to the car. But I was very proud of myself. Must've been a good workout. That always makes me happy.

Finally Home Alone!!

I am finally home alone!! It's been six months since Moe moved in and I haven't hardly been alone at all. I think I got really spoiled in the first 6 months we lived in our house and I was by myself some. Last winter Fiona was home from school a lot during cold and flu and strep throat season. But I really enjoyed being able to get my stuff done and being excited for the girls to come home. With Moe here, she worked late almost every night and I had to keep things quiet while she slept in the morning and sort of reorganize my days around that.

Already this morning, I have folded all of the laundry, vacuumed half of the house, put a bunch of stuff away and started cleaning bedding. And it's only 9:30am. I have plans for grocery shopping this morning and other errands to be followed by a long trip to the YMCA.

I am excited for Moe's new job, I know she is. It's going to be great for her. I am also glad to get my house back to myself. I will miss having a ready companion for shopping, movies or some random trip somewhere. I will especially miss her willingness to take the girls places when Christmas Break comes around.

Least Favorite Part of Christmas

Absolutely has to be the commercials from the jewelry stores. The number one culprit has to be Kay's. I have been sitting here watching television commercials and it seems as if every other commercial has been for jewelry. I am not sure what my major beef is with jewelers. It might be the idea that a young couple, just starting out, needs to spend at least 2 months salary on an engagement ring. Or maybe it's the idiotic way the women in those commercials act. Anything can be excused and gushed over with some sort of jewelry purchase. I hate that my girls are watching them. They can't help but absorb the message. It adds to the whole happily ever after idea that's not reality. Give me a guy who will pick up after himself, or take the kids out, alone, to give me a break, versus the guy who does whatever he wants and then brings home some bauble or flowers to "say" sorry.
Now, it seems we won't get a break for the next six months from these sort of commercials. We will get through Christmas and then they will start recycling them for Valentine's Day and then for Mother's Day.
Oooo- I take that back. It's a toss up between Kay's and Jared's. You know..." He went to Jared's!" Now it's not only will everything be okay with a purchase, but all of your friends will be jealous too. Gag.

Thanksgiving and Holidays

I got most of my cooking done on Wednesday and only had to make the potatoes, shape the rolls and roast the turkey breast on Thursday. TD was finishing our fence repair and Moe had gone for sparkling cider when everything was done. We ate, did our usual what we were thankful for and then it was over. By the way, I said I was thankful that Fiona was finally done with chemo and that TD had such a great job. Then I started the clean up. But all of the while, I felt strangely let down. I thought about it a lot while I was cleaning up and finally came to a conclusion. As a child, everything about a holiday was fun and exciting and yummy. As a grown up, we are now in charge of putting everything together ourselves, which seems to take some of the magic and fun out of the day. I think also, for me, I miss the huge groups of family. We could've gone back to Oregon for the holiday but I don't think it would've solved anything. I love the idea of family, especially my big one, but actually being around everyone is sort of depressing.
I think I also like to cook for a lot of people. There's something about cooking for someone who doesn't eat (and sneer) at my food on a daily basis. Thank heavens for Moe, she never has an unkind word to say about dinner. It helps that I don't serve her two least favorite foods, baked potatoes and green beans, very often. We did get an invitation to a Christmas Eve dinner and I think we will take them up on it. I have been used to being around large groups of people at the holiday and I think I really miss it.
PS, I think next year, I will make a couple of different kinds of pie. Pie always makes me feel better. Of course, I think I will be better prepared to eat lots of pie next year. I won't be feeling so miserable and not so much wanting to work out.

I Couldn't Resist the Pressure

***Semi Spoilers below

So Moe and I were all set to see the movie of Twilight just about the day it came out. Then I started reading the reviews and they pretty much all said the movie stunk. So, I told Moe we would wait and rent it from Redbox and throw popcorn at our TV. She said, " You would let us do that?" I told her if we promised to vacuum it up right after the movie, we could totally do that.

Then I read all of your reviews and women whose intelligence I value and entertainment IQ I respect were all saying they enjoyed it. So, I thought that it couldn't be that bad. I told Moe that if I got my chores done today, we could go and watch it. I figured we both were going to earn it this weekend being stuck home with the girls.

We went all out. We even stopped by BJs and got an order to go, smuggled it in and ate it while watching the previews. Mmmmm.

So, I was getting ready to take the movie with a grain of salt. I am glad I went in with such low expectations. I did enjoy myself. A lot of the movie was pretty hokey and Moe and I guffawed in several places, but we had a good time together discussing the movie while watching it. I don't think it's something we would buy, but it was great for girl bonding. I told TD we will rent it when it comes out and he can have a good chuckle

So, Carlisle? What was with his fake hair and really bad makeup job? I also noticed that the white makeup didn't extend to Edward's neck. I thought Bella was as white as the vampires wanted to be. What was with the twin fit at the end of the movie? Our newspaper warned us that there would be a dramatic part that just invited hysterical laughing and the sight of Ed sucking out the venom was too much. I think the worst part for me had to have been the casting of Edward. He, how shall I put this?, just didn't do anything for me. I remember him being cute in Harry Potter. Here, he just glowered at everything. I thought, in the book, he seemed to be more of a suave ladies man.

But it definitely served it's purpose of entertainment, at least for us this afternoon.

Keys

Remember when I blogged about TD's new Honda? We recently sold his truck because Moe starts working at TD's place of work and they can ride in together and on the weekends we can share the magic school bus and TD's Civic. It was nice to get rid of the truck because it was a severe gas guzzler and I am pretty excited to have some money in the bank. I don't know about you, but the economy is starting to freak me out and I am just grateful that we seem prepared, so far, to weather the storm.
Anyway, we only have one key to the Civic and in order to minimize the fuss and make it easier for TD and Moe to share, we have to get another one. I called up a nearby Honda dealership to find out what that entails. We managed to get a spare key for the truck at Walmart because it didn't require computer programming like apparently the Honda keys do. We have to take the car and all of the key(s) we have and go to the dealership. After paying $165, they will present us with another key. What is up with that?! We told Moe we would go halfsies with her on it, thank heavens for both of us. That's still $82.50 a piece. Thank heavens the mini van came with two keys. I guess I should never have to worry about either car getting stolen. Which would be sad. I think I have a whole 'nother post inside about the joys of driving my van. Whoever thought anyone could write about that? Let's just say it has a lot to do with my height and finally finding something that fits.

More TMI

I got my ultrasound on Monday. This time I got a chatty tech, which is so much better than the ones who won't tell you anything. It's a good thing she was, because half way through it, she said, huh... I need to check out your old ultrasound. Nothing like trying to strike fear into your heart, right? She came back and said I just had weird anatomy, which included a tipped uterus, which apparently doesn't help with pain, just makes it worse. Awesome. Then she asked how big the cyst was last time. It was 4cm and now it's 6cm. And it's not a simple cyst, it's complex, which means there is stuff in there and it won't resolve on it's own. I should guess not, since it's been there since at least May. The tech recommended that I have it removed before my next cycle, which I don't think it's possible. I guess maybe I should take a bunch of pills every day that week and hope for the best.
I was looking at things online. Don't worry, I don't take everything at face value. Trust me, I learned my lesson after Fiona was diagnosed. Some of those sites were incredibly scary and didn't differentiate between kids and adults. The odds for adults are so much worse than the odds for kids. Anyway, if the doctor can just do it through the camera, it will probably take a week of recovery. If she's forced to make it a bit bigger, we are looking at 4-6 weeks...during the holiday season. I can't wait to talk to the doctor and discuss everything with her. I told TD he has to come to that appointment because he's such a worrywart, I think he needs to hear everything from the doctor herself.
The main thing I am worried about is that I don't do narcotics well. So unfortunate. I get an injection in my line and literally 30 seconds later, I am sitting up puking. So that's something I will be discussing with the doctor.

See's Candies

When we moved to Texas, I started looking up familiar places in order to find out where we could visit them. Disney Store? One of the few here was close by! YEAH! My favorite restaurant is actually here, when I thought it was a NW institution, BJ's. See's Candies store....WHAT? I called TD up and said we had to move back, there were no See's stores in the entire state of Texas. What is up with that? When we lived in Oregon, if you asked Fiona what her favorite store was in the mall, she would say the chocolate store, it even beat out the Disney Store. And who doesn't love the free samples?
When Moe moved out here, she brought me 2 1lb boxes of See's candies in her carry on. Because she loves me. And she probably figured I wouldn't let her in my house without it. Which may or may not have been true.
So, yesterday I was at our local mall getting a water filter for our refrigerator. We cannot drink the water around here without it. Then I was headed to the Disney Store because you can't go to the mall without doing that. Between the two stores I saw a familiar logo. I was SO excited. They had a small temporary kiosk in our mall! The lady there saw me coming and figured this was not my first time there. I told her my See's stories and she gave me 4 samples! Plus two suckers when I told her I had two girls that would be disappointed they missed this. I also bought a box of chocolates. I came home and told Moe that she and TD had better buy some more and put it in my stocking... because I have been a very good girl this year.

Peer Mediation

So, Buttercup was picked to be a peer mediator. Nope, this isn't going to be a post on the merits of such an idea, but more about the peer mediation graduation that I went to this morning. Buttercup got up this morning, moaned about her split ends and got dressed in normal school clothes. That's right, split ends. She doesn't even know what that means, because I asked! It's not something she hears me moaning about. TD and I had a discussion about little kids and the things they come up with and how we need to not bust out laughing and mocking her. TD says it's hard especially when she speed talks about boys. It makes him nauseous.
Anyway, I walked her to school and sat down in my spot, while she sat down in hers. They had a pretty good little baked goods buffet going but when little kids served themselves in the midst of their hacking coughs, I figured it would be best to stay away from that. So, I turned my attention to the kids and their parents. The dads pretty much all looked the same. It was the moms and their children that ran the gamut. There were the usual sweat outfits that have become regular everyday clothes. Then there were the moms who were obviously on their way to work and then there was even a mom who wouldn't have looked out of place at a more formal dinner, her suit jacket was that fancy. The kids were dressed in their regular clothes, but there were some girls who had sheer black nylons and nice dresses on. One poor kid had starched khakis, a pressed long sleeved church shirt and nice leather belt and loafers.
Poor Buttercup. It's tough that she's my first kid and we moved in the middle of her elementary experience. I don't know that I would've encouraged her to dress up. She still has to go through the rest of school. Also, I just wore jeans and a polo shirt. I don't know where that put me on the spectrum. I also forgot the camera, which just makes me a bad mom. It was actually okay because when they put the kids together for a photo op (which they do a LOT at this school) she refused to smile. She had a pained, pinched lip sort of thing going on, even though I can making goofy faces at her. I gave her a hard time about it and she said she couldn't smile when she was so nervous.
So, I guess I am lamenting that I don't know exactly how things work down here. It would never have occurred to me to tell her to dress up, especially with the shoes those girls were wearing, how can you run on the playground in 2 inch heels? Several girls were wearing those kind of shoes.
But all of this gives me something new to think about. Do I encourage her to overdo things in order to fit in and probably make her feel uncomfortable in one way, but more likely to fit in. Or do I just keep things how we were in Oregon and she can make her own way of thinking, which might make her feel comfortable, but uncomfortable when she doesn't go with the status quo?
I guess I might just have to amp up my predicting of things that might happen...

A Few Updates

Let's see, I went to the lady doctor and they ordered another pelvic ultrasound. What is up with that? But based on what she's seeing already, I should basically be ready to have the cyst removed around the first week of December. That's fine. I am ready for it to come out. It's at least the size of a golf ball and I don't have that much space in my stomach area, no wonder things are irritated.
TD has his second sleep study appointment next week, which is a good thing. I have had no sleep and I am sniffling and having a hard time swallowing. I told him this and he said, well, it's going around. Both of the other managers have been out in the past week with something similar. Great...not only is he depriving me of sleep, but he's bringing illness home? Not to mention! I just remembered, he emailed my Dad when I called him yesterday and told him what the doctor said. Which led to a phone call. TD, don't we have rules about those things? I was going to give them the obligatory phone call when we had a set plan and plenty of answers. Thank heavens I didn't call before with the kidney problem news. I merely mentioned one doctor said maybe kidney stones and of course this is set to freak out my parents. Which, I can understand. We all kind of fought for the one kidney I have. Anyway, so now I feel awful and I had to call and cancel a baby playdate I had for tomorrow, which included two babies at once! The girls are going to be so bummed too.
I did manage to take care of the study, the wii room, the pantry and Fiona's room. That last one was kind of a shocker. To go into her room after she leaves, her room looks nice and clean. I managed to remove 1 large trash sack of junk from her room. I am not sure where it came from. So four areas down, another 12 to go. I don't have that many rooms, but clearing our large walk-in closet should not be lumped in with cleaning my bedroom and master bath. They are each their own area.
Are you starting to plan your Thanksgiving? I am looking forward to making all of the food! Yum.

Fall Cleaning

Twice a year, I try and thoroughly clean pretty much every part of our house. Baseboards, doors and corners wiped, etc. That way, the rest of the time I can clean normally and not make myself totally crazy. I started in the study. It looks so pretty and nice now that everything has been organized and decluttered. I have forbid the girls from going in there, at least as long as I can. Yesterday, I couldn't stand it any more and started in our pantry. Moe and I went to IKEA for some of their clever organizational products, which ended up not fitting or working as well as we would've thought. Then we went to our good old standby Walmart and got totally hooked up.
Now, to make everyone feel better, I will show you the before. The girls love to go shopping in there and not put stuff back where they need to.

What dump. Plus it was totally frustrating to deal with, I could never find what I was looking for and people would eat food and not tell me they had and I wouldn't know, until I went looking for it.
It took forever to clean it out. The kitchen was totally trashed, plus I brought groceries home yesterday and didn't bother unpacking everything that went into the pantry because I didn't want to do it twice. But everything got wiped down and organized and grouped together in reasonable spots.

Isn't it pretty? I got up this morning and spent time just staring at it. Of course, it's not quite as exciting when I realize that I have cleaned 2 areas and I have about 14 more to go. That makes it not quite as happy. But I think today I will clean the Wii room...I like that room so much I don't mind being in it. Not to mention, it's quite a bit bigger than being stuck in the pantry for several hours.

What a Week Part 2

Fiona had her 3 month CT scheduled for Friday. I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to make it. TD took the day off to be there to get Buttercup off and be home when she was if I needed it. I figured he could go in my stead if I didn't feel well. When I got up at 5:15am, nothing felt wrong, so I decided I could be the one to take her. I am glad I did, after our day.
I numbed Fiona's arm up before we got to the hospital. When we got there, they didn't like the veins in the arm we numbed up, so they put some numbing cream on the other arm while she drank her contrast. That takes at least 30 minutes, so that would be enough time for the cream to work. Fortunately she was numb when the nurse started because they dug around for quite some time. They resorted to a freeze spray and the back of her hand. That didn't work out so well. They sprayed her hand and went right to work. Fiona started crying, I don't know if they gave it time to work. I felt so bad. She informed me that I now owed her $4 for the two sticks. I told her she owed me $2 for my flu shot.
She was feeling a bit traumatized after all that. After a few minutes in the scanner, she asked the nurse if I could stand next to her. The actual scan didn't take long, so we were soon off for a breakfast of doughnuts and milk. Oh, she doesn't get to eat before the scan, which doesn't help.
We were 3 hours away from our Dr.'s appointment. We had them leave the IV in so that she wouldn't have to be stuck again for the blood draw. I signed in early at the front desk and then we took a seat. We hadn't been sitting for a minute when a woman approached wanting to know if Fiona wanted to record a song. Seriously. Um let's see...Fiona...sing? There is an actual recording studio at the clinic. She was in there before I could say anything. The director interviewed and they settled on writing a song about the cats. During this, our beeper (think Olive Garden) went off and we went for a blood draw.
Another problem. Her IV wasn't working very well. We did all sorts of things to get a better blood return and then the nurse started talking about a finger poke or another needle. My sweet girl just started weeping. I felt so bad. We had had enough trauma today. Wasn't being off treatment supposed to be easier. I had settled on another needle because she hasn't had a finger poke and she doesn't like new medical procedures. The great nurse took pity on us and sent back what she had in the vial and luckily, that turned out okay.
After another long wait, we were able to see the doctor. Once again, Fiona's scan is clear, nothing to see. The poor baby fell asleep on the way home. After dinner, I got her $4 out of my purse and put it in her money jar. We counted it and found out she had $17.81. I asked her, " Aren't you glad we didn't take you to the dollar store to buy silly things and now you are saving up. What do you want to get?" " Oh, I am going to buy a flat screen for my room." Of course she is. Aim high honey.
PS: I am trying to get a link to a place where I uploaded her song

What a Week

I think it was Tuesday that I got the results of the IVP back. They said they couldn't see any stones. What the radiologist from the CT might have seen was the natural changes from having a kidney removed 23 years ago. You think he might have looked up on the other side and noticed it wasn't there. I guess you can never been too cautious. I was relieved to know that the one kidney I have seems to be doing it's proper job.
That night TD had his sleep study. I know, he actually made the appointment!! You get two appointments. If you flunk the 1st one, meaning they find signs of sleep apnea, then they call and make another appointment. He got into the car just before 9pm and drove to the address on mapquest. What he found was a Residence Inn. How nice is that? Instead of some sterile, antiseptic hospital room and bed, he got to hang out in a nice hotel. Of course, this was attached to electrodes, but you can't have everything. The guy, on the way out, reminded him he had two appointments, so he must have flunked the first one.
Moe worked that night and when she got home after 10pm, she found me hunched over my bed. Once again, I had another one of my episodes, meaning an extraordinary amount of pain, so much so that I can't even lay down. What I do is take some good painkillers and basically wait to pass out. You know, where my need to lay down and sleep is more than the pain. Moe had some nice sticky heating pads and I put those on my stomach. After about two hours of just standing there, I was able to carefully lay down and sleep periodically. And that's how I spent that night. TD came home thinking he would win the lack of sleep competition, but I don't think so. I spent that day pretty miserable. Kind of like having a really bad back spasm, only in my stomach area.
I had made an appointment the day before with the OB/GYN to talk about removing the cyst from my ovary. Unfortunately, I remembered why I hated that sort of doctor. Their first open appointment was the 11th...of DECEMBER! The day after my episode I called the other doctor and I could get in with the nurse practitioner the 13th of this month. I figured I would at least get my foot in the door. Hopefully I can avoid any of those episodes. By Thursday, I could just about stand up straight.

Voting Rights

So I hopped on to a website where the topic was appropriately titled Hot Topic Tuesday. It asked if we were voting and if so why? I got on there and said I wasn't voting because I didn't feel properly informed (unfortunately Texas doesn't have that big booklet we got in Oregon, so I have no idea who people are and in fact, half of what they do... railroad commissioner?). I also said Texas is a firm red state and it wouldn't matter how I voted. Plus I promised not to complain because either our taxes were coming down or I could say I told you so in four years. Good grief, you would have thought I was advocating drowning kittens and puppies. I wasn't the only one who said they weren't voting, but I bet more people wouldn't admit to it after what people started saying. One person even said she contemplated voter fraud because she didn't get her new voter registration in, so she should've gotten an absentee ballot in California because that was where she had moved from. But she was sad because after this historic election she was going to have to lie to her grandkids about voting....and she was casting aspersions on my character? Ugh. One lady said she felt sorry for the kids of people who didn't vote because we were essentially teaching the kids that their opinions didn't count.
Well, call off DCFS.... TD and I went down and voted. And guess what, he voted one way and I voted the other, Texas has already been called for McCain and Obama has pretty much already won the election... So yeah, I don't feel my vote was particularly relevant. If we had lived in a swing state then I am sure I would've been more excited about voting.

Girl Stuff

Yesterday, Moe told me that we should stop by Target on our way to the Y and get a flu shot. They were holding one of their flu shot clinics. Since TD was home, I told him that he and Buttercup had to follow us over there and we would get it done in one shot, haha. Buttercup instantly started crying. Part of me felt sorry for her. I told TD he owed me a hand holding because the day before, when I had my IVP, the nurse used a monstrously sized needle and had a hard time getting the vein. She actually brought tears to my eyes with all of her digging around. ( Still waiting for the results on that)

We all got our shots and then TD took the girls back home while Moe and I shopped a bit. We had to make a trip back to the house because I had forgotten my MP3 player. I also wanted to give Buttercup a little special treat for getting stuck to keep her baby sister healthy. Last year I bought them both a book for their flu shots and they get $2 a poke. So, I bought Buttercup this book. I love that my girls think of books as special treats. Girls after my own heart. Which then led to this:

Because every good Girl's Book needs to give instructions on a proper facial, right? I told Buttercup that she doesn't look a day over 7 and a half. She assured me that she could rid me of my wrinkles and bags under my eyes. Thanks, honey.

PS

I cook too!

Happy 7th Birthday Fiona!!

Here is the birthday girl. Check out how cute Moe was when she was 11. Buttercup is the new big sister. Also, get a load of those huge cheeks on Fiona. If she wasn't wearing that outfit you could check out the fat roll on the back of her neck. Have I mentioned that she was 10 and a half pounds at birth?

Here is what I used to have to deal with on a daily basis. My little Fiona. She is such a delightful little girl...now. But this is pretty much the view I got for the first 8 months of her life. I was the only one who could make her happy and there was only one way I could do that.

But, by the time she reached her 1st birthday she turned sweet. However, with her sweetness, came a new daring sense of adventure. So, half of my time was spent wanting to just chew on her yumminess and the other half was putting out fires. Sometimes it would be convincing her that climbing on the dining room table and attempting to swing from the chandelier was not a good idea. Or getting her off the kitchen counter. We had to upgrade our babyproofing in the kitchen. The white plastic that you push down to open the drawer? She could brute force it open, we had to go with the magnetic opener.
Her love affair with food continued and I had my hands full cleaning up after her. This was back when she would eat, or at least try, just about anything.

This is a sight that would greet us regularly. We would put the girls to bed and shut our bedroom door to watch TV for the evening. Around 10pm we would go out to make sure everything was locked down for the night and this it what we would see. She would grab a pillow and her blanket and fall asleep in front of our door.
Then here's where our sweet little 4 year old was diagnosed with cancer. She still had her big mess of hair we would call a fro. And then she became the cutest little bald girl I have ever seen. She went through this time with an attitude and dignity I don't see in many adults. I was truly proud to be her mama and be given the privilege of serving her during this time. We had some amazing times together. And now, I am so delighted to tell people that she made it to seven. Back when she was four, I wasn't sure she would.
Happy Birthday sweet girl, thanks for picking me to be your mom.

Why Wallow in it?

So, I got an appointment for my IVP (specialized kidney x-ray) for Friday. I have to fast until about 11am...we all know how I feel about that. But I've had two days to think about this stuff. For a while, I contemplated hysteria. The last time I had an IVP, it resulted in a cancer diagnosis and loss of one of my kidneys. I have successfully pushed my lack of a kidney to the back of my mind, for most of my life. It resurfaces every once in a while, when I have an awful pregnanc(ies) that "most likely didn't have a permanent effect on it". Or when I have a kidney infection that goes septic and almost kills me. But most of the time I just take it for granted and ignore the perils.
Anyway, today I had to explain to someone my exhaustion and busy schedule, which led to larger explanations. She looked at me and said, " But you are always so cheerful...why?" I told her, I could be irritated or sad for about half a day, but after a while, I wouldn't like myself any more and neither would anyone else. If I can't change something, I refuse to dwell on it. Plus, I think my mind has a fail safe shut off switch. It refuses to let me worry about things.
TD and I were talking tonight and I told him I think my body is falling apart after two years of constant struggle with Fiona. I told him that I wanted to take a good vacation that is just us after the start of the year. I think we should just go somewhere and just chill, sans children. Thank heavens Moe is here.
When I was pregnant with Fiona and depressed because I felt so awful, I had the privilege of watching a session of our church's conference and a talk came on that spoke to my heart, then and now. Here is an excerpt:
Another fundamental scripture describes Jesus’ having trodden the winepress of the “fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God” (D&C 88:106; see also D&C 76:107; D&C 133:50). Others can and should encourage, commend, pray, and comfort, but the lifting and carrying of our individual crosses remains ours to do. Given the “fierceness” Christ endured for us, we cannot expect a discipleship of unruffled easiness. As we seek forgiveness, for example, repentance can be a rough-hewn regimen to bear. By the way, let us not, as some do, mistake the chips we have placed on our own shoulders for crosses!
Uniquely, atoning Jesus also “descended below all things, in that he comprehended all things” (D&C 88:6; see also D&C 122:8). How deep that descent into despair and abysmal agony must have been! He did it to rescue us and in order to comprehend human suffering. Therefore, let us not resent those tutoring experiences which can develop our own empathy further (see Alma 7:11–12). A slothful heart will not do, and neither will a resentful heart. So being admitted fully to “the fellowship of his sufferings” requires the full dues of discipleship (Philip. 3:10; see also 1 Cor. 1:9).
Moreover, Jesus not only took upon Him our sins to atone for them, but also our sicknesses and aching griefs (see Alma 7:11–12; Matt. 8:17). Hence, He knows personally all that we pass through and how to extend His perfect mercy—as well as how to succor us. His agony was all the more astonishing in that He trod “the wine-press alone.
I am so grateful for the teachings that buoy me up in times of trial. I am still cheerful...currently. Just don't ask me to be nice on Friday morning when I am surrounded by squeals about candy and I haven't had my cereal.

Seriously Inconvenienced

That's what TD said. I called and left a voicemail for him at work telling him that I had gotten the results of my CT scan and could he please call me back. He calls back and said, "Well you don't sound upset, but you do sound seriously inconvenienced". I called the doctor's office this afternoon on my way back from the Y and the receptionist (very small office) said they had just gotten the report back. It was a bit hard to hear her on my cell, but she started out with a large ovarian cyst.... she couldn't tell me how large it was because it wasn't listed on the report. Then she said they also found calcifications in the bladder, most likely kidney stones. She was going to get me pre-certified, through the insurance, to see the gynecologist and also get another specialized x-ray for the bladder and kidney. Plus, I still get to see the dermatologist to get my moles removed, which was why I had the appointment in the first place. Score!
Seriously, here I got pretty annoyed. TD said, it's tough being married to me. I don't exercise as much as I should, I drink way too much soda, never eat vegetables, etc and I get headaches and sick occasionally. You work out all the time, eat tons of salads and limit your caloric intake and you don't get sick hardly at all, but you have major system failures. I told Td I wanted to kick something and he said, seriously, you will hurt your foot... and that's so true which was even more depressing.
I am about ready to start eating fried food, laying around all of the time and not doing a thing. The extra sad thing about that is I am sure the reason I don't have more wrong with me is that I do the things I do. Plus, I have had problems that require hospital intervention every other year since we got together and since Fiona has been sick I haven't needed it, and I was due last year. I am grateful for that because I don't know what we would've done if something had happened, but does that mean I need to make up for it with two things at once?

Ironing Part 2

My ironing post got so much interest, I felt like I should comment more publicly than at the end of all of your comments.
Liz and others, I am all about ironing in front of the TV. In fact, I use ironing as a way to excuse trashy television watching. Like there is really an excuse for my watching Lipstick Jungle,Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, Private Practice and even Grey's Anatomy. I also feel guilty for watching any TV during the day, so my TV stories usually start, " I was ironing today and I turned on....".
Lori, I thoroughly enjoyed your rambling. I think it was that virus you were fighting.
Stacey, I didn't see her post, but there must be something in the air. Of course, when the weather gets colder, it seems that guys switch from the easy polo shirts to the more annoying long sleeved dress shirt. I suppose I should be grateful that my mom made me practice ironing by having to iron my dad's shirts.
As for finding a place to iron for me, if TD wears 5 pairs of pants a week and 5 shirts, times 4 weeks a month times $1.25 a piece, that's $50 a month and I am way too cheap to pay that. Plus, TD is always so grateful when I go through a bunch of his clothes and iron them.
K Kid, welcome. You can procrastinate until your see your hubby wearing clothes you don't recognize or don't quite fit any more. You know, the equivalent of weird outfits on laundry day, in college.
Thanks for the encouragement. I am going to try and iron what I wash that week. Usually I grocery shop and do laundry on Mondays, then I iron on Tuesdays. I should just make sure to save good shows to watch.

The Fun in My Morning

Remember when I blogged about my female problems? Shortly after, the doctor found a golf ball sized bleeding ovarian cyst, on my left side, which would account for some of the problems that were annoying me. I had another 'episode' on Tuesday, luckily I had a Dr's appointment that same day. I had to call TD to come home and take me there. Buttercup was home with a 'fever of unknown origin' (that does sound cooler than running a temperature, right? Buttercup thought so).
Anyway, Moe was home and could take care of her.
I went to the doctor and she said, it could either be my appendix or another ovarian cyst and recommended that I get a CT scan to rule these things out. I was able to get a one on Thursday and on my way out, I was given two of these lovely things. Two of the big ones.

Here is where I give you permission to laugh along with me and pretty much everyone in my family. It's okay. I have long accepted that my main problems in life are health related, starting when I was very young.

So, my morning started without breakfast. I am not one of those people who 'forget to eat'. Never happens. I live to eat. Then, since it didn't get it's usual high fiber diet, my stomach was already revolting. I opened the jar? of liquid and a very fragrant berry smell wafted out. Shudder. The girls were standing in front of me and watching apprehensively. I took a breath, let it out and started chugging. Maybe this would've been easier if I had ever played any sort of drinking games in college. The only thing I chug regularly is water. I got about one quarter down and put the jar back on the table. It tastes like berry flavored Mylanta. I hate Mylanta! And you have to drink the whole bottle.

Fiona looked me over and said, "I am going to get you the barf bowl." Thanks for that vote of confidence. I chugged another quarter. Oh gosh, my stomach has started revolting. Do I really have to get all of this down? I get another quarter down and start seriously contemplating Fiona's barf bowl. I get another eighth down and that's it. I can't get that last eighth down. Here I figure it's better than puking ALL of it back up. I get the girls off to school and it's almost 8:30am. I am supposed to start the next jar then. But I have to get out of the car first, there is no way I can drive and chug that stuff. I sit down at the registration desk and the woman starts filling out my paperwork. I open the jar. I start chugging again. The poor receptionist can smell it and watches me. I tell her how awful it is. She picks up her McDonalds apple pie and sniffs the box because she's starting to get nauseous from the smell. I finish the same amount as before and she kindly offers to throw away the jar. She takes me back to the Radiology waiting room and then I get called up to their reception and she offers me another large mug full of something. I start backing away, "Um, I've already taken something." Thank heavens, she didn't know I had already had it. I didn't have to drink anything else. I get scanned and out of there. On the way out, the tech said that I should drink a lot of water today because barium tends to bind up your guts. Swell... just what I need. I get home, eat and start feeling odd. About 10 minutes later when I google the stuff, I found out patients are talking about the laxative effect it has on them. She could've told me that instead.

Ironing is the Bane of my Existence

When TD was promoted to a lower level manager, I took on the duties of ironing his clothes. Previous to this, I was kind of busy and didn't care! He relied on his family's weird habit of throwing stuff into a warm dryer for 5 minutes and calling it good. Seriously. One time, one of his uncles spent the night at our house and threw his sweats into our dryer, for the allotted five minutes, for the 3 hour drive home from Eugene to Medford....this one still hurts my brain to think about. Were they really that wrinkled? Was he expecting to see someone who would scorn his 'wrinkled' sweats? Ugh, I can't think about it any more.

Anyway, he got promoted again and I ironed through Fiona's treatment and now he's a high level manager in his office and I HAVE to iron. I put it off a few weeks, including his vacation, and today I was overwhelmed by the clothing that needed to be ironed. Plus, there are a few items of the girls that have to be ironed. I need to be better at finding things that are no wrinkle, although, we have a few things and I don't really believe them, they seemed to still need at least a swipe of the iron. What I really need to do is stay on top of the few shirts and pants that come through every week. We'll see how that goes.

Catdog and other things

Catdog, Catdog, Alone in the world is a little Catdog. Does anyone remember seeing this? The only reason I know of it is because TD let Buttercup watch copious amounts of unsupervised television when I was recovering from having Fiona, dealing with her and TD was dealing with his shoulder surgery.
I bring this up because we have our own very Catdog. In fact, I am going to start using her as a parlor trick when people come over. I am going to put her in the powder room and when she starting begging to come out, I will ask people to guess what animal is in there. She sounds just like a whining puppy, she also goes to the bathroom on our lawn, just like the neighborhood dogs.
It has been awesome having the cats outside for the night. We haven't had any accidents yet, knock on wood. We had a close call when Catdog was whining at the back door and then went under the table and sat on the rug. I had a sneaking suspicion, heard her make a 'stinky' noise and grabbed her. Buttercup was quick on her feet and unlocked the backdoor and opened it in time to have me toss the cat out. I gave her a big giant hug for that one. Buttercup, not Tessa.
If I started a food blog would you guys read it? I love to cook and I love to talk about it almost as much, as well as share cooking tips. I read several food blogs, but I really only get something out of the treat blogs, simply because it's so hard to replicate interesting sounding dinners with my family. TD will eat lettuce, corn and potatoes for his vegetables and nothing else. Fiona is still obsessed with salty things, due to her steroid usage, and extremely picky. Buttercup is game for just about anything and Moe is delighted with the food in general. I figure most families have picky people and I could talk about my dinners as well as get tips.
Once again we are in the best part of the year for Texas, that being Fall, Winter and Spring. A very small part of me misses how beautiful the leaves are when they turn in Sherwood, but all of the rest of me enjoys being warm and mostly dry.

How Ridiculous

So, I thought the national media had learned their lesson back in 2000. Of course you remember this, when the presidential election wasn't decided for weeks, while recounts and stopping recounts went back and forth, until the Supreme Court finally decided to end it. Part of this was due to the fact that the media called Florida for Gore, an hour before all of the polls had closed in Florida, maybe discouraging people from going out and voting. So, in 2004, the anchors stayed back and didn't call any close state until they were sure who had actually won it.
TD and I turned on CNN yesterday to find them already calling the ENTIRE election for Obama. HUH? Are you kidding me? They are already calling the entire election before anyone even votes. They do throw out a few caveats, such as, people have to get out and vote first. How discouraging would this be? If you lived in a red state and wanted to vote blue, would it be worth it? How about the other way? What if your state was the color you wanted to vote? Why go at all. Back in Oregon, it was very simple. We got a ballot a few weeks ahead of time, voted in the comfort and convenience of our home and mailed it in. Here, we have to make an effort of actually going to a poll and waiting in line and voting. What's the point? And we have 19 more days to listen to this. So, if the next election is in another 4 years, does that mean the next candidates should start campaigning now?

What happens when Fiona is Bored

We were making a short drive. I told Fiona that I was not going to find her a movie and put it in and let her watch it for 10 minutes until we got where we were going. Could she please just entertain herself for a few minutes. Of course, she can. Not more than 3 minutes later I hear, "Hey! I pulled out my tooth... and I didn't even know it was loose." I think that should be the end of losing teeth for a bit. She has lost all four little ones on the top and the bottom and the replacements are coming right in. Of course, as much as she loves the money from the tooth fairy, she might start wiggling the ones in the back.

One More Reason to LOVE Texas

That's right! When we filled up in Corpus Christi, we did so at the ripe old price of $2.55 a gallon. How awesome is that? I filled up again today at our local Walmart and it was only $2.66. I love that price of gas is coming down.