My Book

Speaking of my new book... the hubby picked it up at Barnes and Noble yesterday, kind of as a joke, and I bought it because it seemed like a great deal. Still does.. 10 books for $23! It's called The Great Book of Amber The Complete Amber Chronicles, 1-10. I read the first Amber novel, Nine Princes in Amber, when I was 16. I love these books but haven't read them in a long time - I've mentioned them before. Anyway, this is a rather thick (2 1/2") paperback that has 1258 pages in it and I plan to finish it by the middle of May, or by the time my first summer class starts.

The picture on the right is a first try... Did I ever tell you that the cats think that if you get down on the floor, or put something there, that their presence is required? Well, they ALL had to come see what I was doing. First Gandalf came and stepped on the book and sniffed my nose as if to say, "And you're not petting me? Why not?", then Ginger came, about two feet away and wondered why I was acting so strange. Finally Izzy (Isabelle) got in the action (because Gandalf left) and sat her big butt firmly on the book wondering why I was not spoiling her. That is Izzy's head in the picture on the right.

So now you know what I'm reading. I should also be reading Practical Ethics in Public Administration, Criminology Today, and Intimate Relationships but somehow they are just not as fun!

Updates

It's March 31st and it's snowing again. I swear, when I find out who's ordering this weather, heads are going to fly. Seriously, I'm done! I don't care if I do live in Colorado - ENOUGH!

Lindsay got her ears pierced - again - yesterday at the mall. We bought her some cute little earrings and then discovered her holes were closed so we went right back and had them pierced. The studs are tiny little 'pink opal's', ummm, okay.

On the neighbor front... because I know you've been on the edge of your seat waiting to find out. He's alive, and I only know this because he made a mistake - because I'm sure he would be happy if we all thought he was dead.

I came home from a lunch date with Crystal (where we were supposed to have sangria but didn't...), ran in the house because it's snowing and when I got in, realized I'd forgotten my book. I dropped my purse and jacket (because I'm an idiot) and went back out into the snow to retrieve my new book from the car. As I headed down the driveway to my car, I looked over at the neighbor's house and I realized that something about his front door looked wrong. That's because I couldn't see the window - because the door was open and his head was sticking out.

Cool - no dead guy across the street. Just a cranky old man who isn't putting out his garbage, doesn't answer the door, and who's house we will continue to watch for flies. (Ewwwww)

The Little One

This is Lindsay at our (the hubby and I) graduation last May. She wore lipstick that night, something she normally wouldn't get away with - and wouldn't have if I'd been sitting in the audience with her instead of getting my degree. I'll have to take some better pictures of the kids to post. Maybe I'll even post pictures of the hubby and me! Ummm, or not.

And Now My Boys

World, Jake and Matt. Jake and Matt, World.

Matt is on the left. Jake is stuffing his face on the right.

This picture was taken after a football game last fall - with my old cell phone. Sorry the quality sucks.

Drumroll? Oh, no it's a BLOGROLL!

And now there's a blogroll of everyone I enjoy reading. Okay, not everyone, just the ones that I read nearly every day. Try them out, you might like them.

First Soccer Loss

Alas, the Soccer Cheetahs lost their first game. Lindsay did well as the goalie in the second half and looked as if she was enjoying herself. Here's a picture of one of her saves.



I guess this is the first picture you've seen of my family. World, Lindsay. Lindsay, World. Glad you've met.

First Soccer Game - Ever

Lindsay's first soccer game is today and she is playing goalie for half the game. She's wanted to play for a couple of years but I've never been organized enough to get her signed up in time, but last fall I got all of the information and the sign-up dates for spring so here we are. Lucky for me, this first game is at 1:30 in the afternoon. Next week however, we have to be at the field across town at 7:30 in the morning! Yikes!

We'll be taking pictures today, and some video if we can pull it off. We don't have a video camera but we have a camera that takes video (that sounds weird) and my new cell phone takes 30 second video clips. I'll post pictures if I get anything good.

Matt is coming to the game but Jake has agreed to help someone move. We've also got grandparents and an aunt and uncle coming. How fun. I'm still having problems with being a 'soccer mom' though. I've been a football mom for years and am totally comfortable with that, but being a soccer mom evokes thoughts of mini-vans and cheerful normalcy - I have neither going for me. I never think of my family as normal, even if we are. The parents of these girls seem so different from us, like we're not part of their club. There's one mom that, I swear, shouldn't be allowed to have caffeine or sugar. She's so hyper, she talks a mile a minute, and she's one of those people that 'one ups' everything you say. If something good happened to me, something better happened to her. If something bad happened to me, something worse happened to her. What is up with people like that? It's one thing to tell your story, it's quite another to say something like, "That's okay, once I ....." or "That's nothing, last week I ..." Weird.

Enough of the weird thoughts - it's off to the soccer fields.

Look Familiar...? or Oh, Damn! Part 2

We're not having any luck in our family, but of course the hubby will be quick to point out that this hasn't happend to him. I'm thinking his time will come, but he's lucky so it might be a while.

This is Jakes's new truck. And yes, this is a ticket for running a red arrow. A $75 ticket!!! An expensive lesson.

Morning Snow... Gone?

By the time I got to work the snow was totally gone - GONE! It was pretty while it lasted, sorry I didn't get a picture up. Here's the view out the front door of where I work - it was gloomy out there.

SNOW!

It's the 27th of March and it's snowing big, fat, juicy snowflakes outside. It's beautiful, don't get me wrong, but it's cold and wet and keeps me from having lunch in a park with my friend Crystal.

I'll have to get a picture and post it later today.

I guess my dinner idea is fitting now. I'm going to make au gratin potatoes with ham. It's hot, creamy, cheesy comfort food.

Hope your Thursday is without snow!

My Dream

Because I just can't get this dream out of my head, I'm telling you - as if that will make it better?

Last night, or early this morning (whatever works for you), I had a dream in which my right ankle had many (as in like five or six?) IVs in it. They were all inserted and then taped down as if there would be some use for them all later and I get the impression that they were for pain medication. Weird, I know.

I also had a shunt in my chest and had an IV bag filled with fluid hanging up and dripping in. Then - this is where it gets creepy(er) - they started me on chemotherapy.

Then, I woke up.

My right ankle was sore, it was in pain but I couldn't tell why. It wasn't stiff, there were no cats on the bed, it wasn't wrapped in blankets or sheets. It just hurt, badly.

I can't get this out of my head because it was really creepy.

Theories

I've been given the day off and that's never a good thing. I've been sitting at my desk emailing friends - neighbors, actually - that know about the weird neighbor guy issue. We've come up with a few theories as to his disappearance besides being dead:

• He's in a coma and nobody can get any info because of HIPAA
• He's in jail
• He found his long lost children and is on vacation with them in the Bahamas
• He hates us all and he's hiding in his house watching and laughing at our discomfort...

I'm obsessed with this now, especially since he didn't put his trash out today. Tami mentioned that movie "The 'burbs" and I'm just sure that's how it's going to turn out! Minus the dead bodies in the basement thing. Ewwwww.

The Screaming Neighbor

As requested, here is the story of my neighbor yelling at me five years ago.

Jake was 13 and, like most 13 year old boys, did things without a lot of thought. One day, he and a friend were out in the street in front of our house hitting small clumps of dirt with a hockey stick. I'm sure you can already see where this is going. The two of them were pretending that they were Tiger Woods, I guess, and were swinging with all they had. The little dirt clods flew straight and true, right into the cul-de-sac we live on the neck of. Luckily, there were a couple of empty houses and most of their flying debris landed in the driveways.

This may not be an approved, parent-sanctioned activity but since they were only hitting little (the size of small marble) dirt clods, I allowed it to continue... My bad.

Five whole minutes later, my hermit neighbor came out of his house screaming at the two 13 year olds about breaking his truck windshield. I heard the yelling/screaming and ran out to see what was going on. I asked the gentleman, nicely, if he would stop yelling at the boys and talk to me at which point he decided that there should be threats of suing and juvenile delinquency. I asked him to calm down and had the boys go inside, following them within a minute because the man was still yelling.

I went to his house about 20 minutes later to see if we could rationally discuss what had happened and so I could assess any actual damage, which had magically cured itself before I got there. He pointed out a small crack on the side of his windshield and I mentioned that I'd seen him out inspecting his window the previous week and had seen that crack then. Again with the yelling. He told me he was going to call the police and I asked him to do it, since they would calm him down and I wouldn't be risking bodily harm, and neither would he....

He never did call the police, he never said another word about the windshield, and he never smiled at me again. I never let the kids hit ANYTHING with a hockey stick, baseball bat or golf club in our neighborhood again. They can cause plenty of damage with Frisbees, footballs and soccer balls.

The Missing Neighbor

So there is an older man, maybe late 50's, that lives across the street from me who is, for lack of a better term, a hermit. I've lived across from him for seven years and I don't know what his name is, have never had a civil conversation with him (he came over and yelled at me about five years ago), and know almost nothing about him. What I do know is that he has on the same clothes every time I see him, he doesn't have a job, family or friends, and the first time I ever saw anyone knock on his door was last week - and they were process servers!

I began to worry when the process server poked around his whole house and there was not a peep. I realized I haven't seen the old man in weeks and that I hadn't seen smoke drift from his furnace in at least as long. Both of his cars were in the driveway, the sun shield in one of them had fallen down, something he would normally fix immediately. My friend Crystal and I were standing at the end of my driveway talking about the 'what-ifs' of a dead guy on my street. We finally decided that it was neighborly to call the police and have them do a welfare check on the older gentleman. An officer showed up and poked all around the house but no one answered the door and she didn't see anyone move inside. She also didn't smell anything (gross, I know) so she said she couldn't do anything.

The officer noticed that there was trash in his trashcan, but I do remember that he didn't put out his trash for pickup last week. I'll be watching this week - trash pick up is on Tuesday.

I bet it sounds like I'm nosey. I'm outside a lot at night, talking on the phone and smoking (I don't smoke in my house) so I notice a lot. I pace, walk up and down the street, and rarely sit still on my porch so I'm in a position to notice things that other people wouldn't. I know that the people right across the street from me don't call their kids in until dark, the guy that lives two houses over from them comes home late every night and then walks his dog. I also notice when people have no schedules, like the family in the cul-de-sac that don't seem to have jobs? Just a guess. I know a few of my neighbor's, the woman who lives right next door is a good friend of mine, and I say 'Hi' to the lady on the other side.

I bet the rest of the neighbors hate me. I don't care.

Happy Easter

Normally, we would spend Easter with the hubby's family (they have a bunch of little girls so it makes hunting eggs more fun) and spend Thanksgiving with my family. The last year has been a little weird though. We spent last Easter and Thanksgiving with my family - I have no idea why we would do such a thing - so we were supposed to go back to the traditional holiday schedule this year. I guess it just wasn't meant to be.

The hubby's family celebrated a week ago because his grandparents were going out of town for a motor home rally or something like that. I thought, "Hey, we can spend Easter with my family." Can I just say, this isn't a good idea? Okay, I've said it.

Last year, all one of my aunts could talk about was how bad a mother the EX-daughter-in-law was and how horribly she did everything and how much she hated her... Can we get anymore white trash? It's EASTER! My grandmother is very religious so this was NOT the appropriate conversation for the day but my aunt just kept on going. I vowed never to attend another holiday with her. Then we went there for Thanksgiving. I love my Grandma and the dinners are at her house so I just had to go.

This year for Easter though, we stayed home. I made a ham and garlic mashed potatoes. I made asparagus, which only the boys and I ate. I made Jell-O eggs, which everyone but Jake ate - because five years ago my mother-the-vegetarian told him how they make gelatin, he hasn't eaten it since - thank you very much. (I love you, Mom.)

We sat at the table like an actual family for two meals today! We made pancakes and eggs for breakfast. Yum. Everyone chipped in with the cooking and cleaning. It was a great day.

Teaser for Tomorrow: I think the old man who lives across the street from me may be dead in his house... I'll have time tomorrow to tell the whole thing, so check back!

Class Preparation and The Blog

I wasn't able to drop that class I'd talked about. They said something about finally taking the number of credits that I said I'd take… Okay, fine. I'll do it. But I don't have to be happy about it. And I don't have to care, right? I do? Fine. (stomping feet, throwing a temper tantrum)

I read the two chapters for the class yesterday, wrote up my notes for the paper then actually wrote the paper. Wow - focus, where did that come from? Ummmm, I'd rather not say. I can tap into that sometimes - when I chose to - but normally I just procrastinate because it's easier.

I have to be in a classroom for four hours tonight. I'd rather poke a mechanical pencil in my eye than sit in a classroom four hours once a week for five weeks… honestly, I've got better things to do with my time… like blog?! Duh!

This class is called Intimate Relationships and somewhere in chapter 1 it claims that books like 'Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus' are completely bogus. Men and women are not as different as everyone claims they are. ........I've written like four sentences here and have decided to leave this alone. It's in my best interest to not go there.

There's really interesting stuff going on at the place I work. I really can't talk about it much except to say that somebody had better be careful or he's going to get his butt fired. Dude, you can not use the company stuff that way! It belongs to the company - didn't anyone tell you that when they hired you forever-and-a-day ago?

I keep telling myself that nobody reads my blog but a lovely lady from Kentucky, my children and myself, but a friend of mine proved me wrong the other day and actually commented. I must have seemed desperate and about to drown in my own tears. I think it was pity. :) Anyway, I've got to be vague about work because, well you know, it's what's going on in my life but I have to protect the innocent (and the not so innocent) and my own butt. Geeze, what kind of double-speak was that?!

On a more physical note - I seem to have shaken the regular headaches that seem to have no source. I only have tension headaches now. I guess that means that my hormones have leveled out - finally. My cramps are down to a minimum again but I've been thinking about taking the advice of some friends. Basically, they said, "GET ANOTHER OPINION." They said it just about like that too. Two friends have offered me their doctor's names and the more I think about it, the more it sounds like the right thing to do. The only barrier now is the change in my health insurance at work. It's going to cost me a lot more to see someone now and I'm not all that sure I can afford it.

UPDATE:
I went to class tonight and there are only seven people in it - four of which I've had classes with before. It could have been considered fun - if not for the instructor being kind of long-winded. So I think I'll survive it. Notice the excitement in that statement? NOT.

Oh, the instructor mentioned that there was a certain level of trust in the class and that we shouldn't be concerned about anything we say making it into an email or someones BLOG. I almost fell out of my seat. I swear. Of course I won't tell about what's said in class - that doesn't mean I won't mention my own impression of the experience as a whole.

I've Had Better Days

I totally forgot to mention my extremely embarrassing moment at soccer practice last Thursday. Keep in mind that I don't know the moms yet and I've never been very good at first impressions.

The team, who is now known as the Cheetah's (I think that's what Lindsay said), was near the end of practice and the coach had them in a circle talking to them about practicing over spring break. He told them to take their ball outside and kick it around with Mom or Dad or brothers.

One of the other little girls said, "I have three brothers." That's good, that's fine - she's got lots of people to kick her ball with... A thinks this is great too and says, "I have three brothers, but one of them died."

All of the sudden, my head is hung low in my hand and I'm groaning. "Oh, no." The mom standing right next to me says, "What did she say? Did she say her dog died?" Let me tell you, I wish that's what she had said. I should have lied and agreed with her.

Unfortunately, I told the mom what Lindsay had said and explained the comment. I hate to explain. The other person seems obligated to say something lame like, "I'm sorry." What do I say to that? It happened 19 years ago. They didn't know me, they didn't know my son and it wasn't their fault!

Oops, seems like I've gotten a rant going on. Sometimes they just come out like that. Let me tell you what other insensitive things people say that make me crazy...

• God never gives you more than you can handle.

Really?! You mean, if I'd been a weaker person, this wouldn't have happened to me at 16?

• What doesn't kill us makes us stronger.

I felt as if I should have died. I do not feel as though I'm stronger.

That's enough for now - I don't want to scare people. I'm not a crazy woman but I have a difficult time coping sometimes.

General Malaise

I've been having a tough time in the last couple of days. I've been thinking a lot about losing Michael and what other parents go through. I've tried to find blogs written by those who've lost children to SIDS but it's not happening. Miscarriage, stillbirth, infant loss of various causes... I feel for these parents, I cry when I read about their losses, but it's not the same as connecting with another SIDS parent. I know that sounds strange.

In other news, I'm feeling against a wall with classes but that's nothing new. I always feel pressured. I'm supposed to start a class on Tuesday night but I'm going to call the school and find out if I'd be in any trouble if I dropped it - I'm thinking I won't be but you never know. I have enough on my plate right now. Somehow, it feels as if I'm always saying that.

The kids are on spring break now so they will be home annoying each other or out with friends - annoying the friends parents! How lucky am I that I have to work? VERY! I love 'em, but they need to be occupied, have places to go and people to see. The Girlfriend is in Mexico this week so Jake is in withdrawal. Matt has, once again, glued himself to his computer and is working on his site. Lindsay started soccer practice last week but she has this week off - what a bummer for her.

Awesome Birthday Facts

I totally forgot to mention that my husband shares a birthday with Chuck Norris. This is notable because my weird teen boys quote Chuck Norris and jokes about his super-human strength all of the time and search sites like this. And another thing - all nine planets aligned on his birthday. Cool? Yes. Okay, so not on the day he was born, but on his 11th birthday.

Find out what cool stuff happened on your birthday here.

I know this is my third post today. I'm a procrastinator, remember?

Blogging Addiction?

I don't know why I do it. I have things to do, textbooks to read, papers to write, posts to make (in my online class, alas not here), laundry, a birthday dinner to cook, and work to prepare for in the morning and I still manage to get glued to some new blog. I become obsessed. I read a couple of current entries and decide that I must know everything that has happened in their lives since they began their blog. It doesn't matter if it started in 2004, I'm going to read every post and then I am going to check their blog every day for the current news in their lives - like I don't have enough going on in mine? Yeesh!

I need to start a blog roll, or whatever they're called. Forgive me for still being a newbie to all of this, this wonderful world of blogging. I read this, and this, and this, among others. I'm obsessed, I tell you! The newest blog is really quite interesting. I think I liked her right off because for a time she lived only an hours drive from me. She spoke of the Pearl Street Mall in Boulder, Colorado and I'd actually been there. She also has some personal interests that I can relate to - and for a minute my husband and I could have sworn we'd met her (in relation to those interests). See? Obsessed! Anyway, I haven't caught up on her blog but she is a strong woman with drive trying very hard to be a mother, dishwasher, laundress, cook, tutor, playmate, on top of figuring out how to pay the bills......... and she seems to do it with flair. Very much like the other blogs I read.

To get to my point, and I do have one - these are amazing blogs, you should check them out!

Happy, Happy, Happy!!!

Happy Birthday Rob!!!!

He's 37 years old today and for a few months I'm two years younger! Okay, not really, but it makes me feel young. I'm going to make him dinner tonight - not that I don't cook several nights a week, but this time I'm going to try and make him something he actually likes. And will eat. Not sure what that will be exactly, but I'll attempt to make him something yummy... Lasagna?

Sunflowers

Can you tell I love sunflowers? I don't even know why, I just do. When we first moved into our house almost... Yeikes - 7 years ago, I stenciled sunflowers on the hall bathroom walls because for the first time I could paint the walls - we owned it.

I found the banner picture in the public files of my new computer - yes, I know I bought the thing nearly two months ago, but sometimes it takes a girl a while to dig that deep. Anyway, I found it and I thought it was perfect - for a little while.

Oh, what busy lives we lead...

I've been totally preoccupied with life. Two of my classes started on Monday and since they're online and accelerated, I've got 30 hours of homework to deal with. I've done rather well so far. I've posted on time, found it much easier to enter discussions without feeling like I'm a moron making idiotic comments. I've actually sounded semi-smart!

Between now and Sunday night I have two papers to write. One is only one and a half to two pages and the other is three pages. Hallelujah. I'm used to having the requirement be five pages for weekly papers. I've got a pretty good idea about what I'm going to write and I'm going to use class discussions to add to it since they've been interesting.

In my life-outside-the-computer we've been busy too. Jake got his first vehicle on Wednesday night. I'm normally an overprotective parent so his having a car scares the sense right out of me. It's a 1983 Chevy C10 Pickup - it's OLD. What's scary is that I didn't even have a license - I was a preteen - when this thing was built! It seems to run fairly well and even though it's four different colors (rust is a color) C is extremely proud of it - and of himself. We went to get temporary tags yesterday and last night he was out there scrubbing out the interior and sweeping out the back. If I'd let him hook up the hose and turn on the water (it's still pretty cold here folks), he would have given it a bath.

A had a program at school last night. It was called "It's Saturday!" This was probably the most fun I've had at an elementary school program in years. The hour passed quickly and I wasn't sorry I'd gone. It helped that Jake had taken her to the school early and saved me a seat.

Matt is going snowboarding at A-Basin tomorrow on the final trip his school is sponsoring this season. He's got to be in the school parking lot by 5:45 AM! Last time we did this I came home and slept until 9:30 or something crazy like that. This time though, we're going to buy the snacks and sodas tonight rather than waiting until morning to stop at a gas station and buy them. That should make it less painful.

Tomorrow the hubby is having a calculus study session here with a friend of his. That should make the house nice and tense. I suppose I'll spend my day doing laundry, watching videos, and... Oh, yeah - writing two papers! There's that procrastinator that lives inside of me.

On the Lovely Lady Parts subject, I went to see my doctor and would you believe...? I let her put me back on the NuvaRing. Apparently, the endometrium is still healing and during that process it still produces prostaglandins which iritate my system causing pain and cramping - the solution... wait it out, use ibuprofen, naproxen sodium, or hormones until the lining is healed - about a year from surgery. My doctor thinks that I will be fine then and that we can re-evaluate then and I'll probably be fine. Although, she did admit that I could have undiagnosed endometrosis or adenomeyosis - something she'd flatly denied before I had the surgery, except she won't schedule a laproscopy until next year. Nice. In the end, she says she won't consider a hysterectomy. I'm thinking about getting a second opinion.

Now that I'm back on the NuvaRing I have headaches, cramps and pain - this is different from before how? Oh, yeah - the headaches I had before weren't as bad. That's right. Hopefully those side effects calm down soon. The other reason I didn't want to go on the NuvaRing was the price; she shut me down on that one by offering to give them to me as long as I need them. That's a plus because we tried to get the insurance company to reduce the cost based on medical necessity and they flatly refused saying my plan didn't allow for a drug price reduction. Nice of them to tell me that when I called (totally sarcastic here). The were all nice when I talked to them and told me to have my doctor call and they would set it up - the doctor called and they said "NO." I think they just wanted to make her the bad guy since she had to call me up and tell me.