Monkey Fur (A.K.A my kids)

Pain....misery...thy name is Gall Bladder.

2010-04-08T09:04:00.000-07:00

Okay, it's been almost two weeks since I was in the Emergency Room writhing in pain so I thought now would be a good time to recount my experience.

It all started on a seemingly normal night. Honestly it probably started quite a while prior to this but this is when it became critical, so I choose to use this date as the start. It was a Wednesday morning, I woke up at 3am with severe stomach pain, and general feeling of crappiness (not sure if that's a word but it should be). I got up and proceeded to lose everything that was in my stomach, which made me feel a little bit better. I took the day easy, didn't eat much but by Thursday I was feeling fine. I was able to do everything normal, I went down to Fresno and did the weekly grocery shopping, picked up the kids from school. Madeline even had a friend over after school and I made chocolate chip cookies, and yummy Mexican food for dinner.

Then that night it hit again with a vengeance. Again I was awoken at 2am, and this time it was violent. The pain was excruciating, nothing I did made me feel better. I took Peptobismal and it came flying out, which was lovely (sarcasm). I would go and brush my teeth after each attack, and try and drink water and it would come right out. Nothing helped and nothing made me feel better. I was able to get the kids to school, (how I don't remember, but they made it, and I made it home). I spent the day curled into a miserable ball on the bed, and losing stomach acid into the toilet. I was leaning over the toilet so much I got a bruise on my chest!

By 2pm I was pretty sure that something major was wrong, and that there was NO way I was going to be able to drive and pick up the kids from school, so I called the school and asked them to tell the kids to take the bus home. The kids got home around 3:30pm, and I started thinking that I needed to go to the doctor. I called Matt at work and he wasn't there!!!!! Aaaaagggghhh, what do I do now?! I waited a few more minutes and called back, and he was there! Thank goodness. I told him that he needed to come home and take me to the doctor because I felt like I was dying and that if he didn't want to come home, I was going to call 911. He said he was on his way and that I should call the doctor to let them know what was going on and to see what they said. Smart, smart man. I knew there was a reason I loved him. So I called Kaiser, and got a nurse practitioner and gave her all of my symptoms. She conferred with a doctor and she told me that I needed to come to the Emergency Room as soon as possible, and that if I fainted on the drive the the ER, for my husband to pull over to the side of the road and call 911!

I got off the phone and started watching the clock. I was telling myself that if Matt wasn't home by 5pm, I was going to call 911. He made it home at 4:55, there was an accident on hwy 41 and traffic was horrible. Traffic is normally bad on Fridays, so add in an accident I think I was lucky he made it home in a hour. I grabbed a bucket, and my wet wash cloth (it helped me not feel so nauseated) and got in the car. I took off my glasses, and tried to brace myself from all of the bumps, and turns. I have never hated living in the mountains so much as I did Friday night on the drive to the ER. The drive was living HELL. Hell I say because I was in soooooo much pain, and every time I moved it made it worse, and there's no way to drive to Fresno from Coarsegold without moving. It was by far the worst drive of my life.

The Kaiser ER isn't very well marked, and we ended up driving around trying to find it, being miserable and in pain I wasn't able to help very much, but we did find it, and Matt let me off and the went and parked the car. I hobbled into the ER and gave the clerk my Kaiser card, she was able to bring up my information from my call in earlier, and she told me to take a seat. About 20 minutes go by and I am called into the triage nurses station. He took all of my vitals, asked me some specific questions and then he told me it sounded like my gall bladder, and that he put me in at a "2" because I was in so much pain, but that there were two people ahead of me and that I may be waiting for two more hours before I would get into an ER bed.

While I was in with the triage nurse, Matt called his parents. Thank GOD for Bonnie and Joe! They came and picked up the kids from the ER and took them home with them. Matt came back and we proceeded to wait. We listened in to our neighboring patients. What an interesting collection of people. There was a guy who had the crap beat out of him by his sister after he started beating on her! He was sitting there talking to anyone who would listen telling everyone about how she beat him with a lamp, and then he whips out his cell phone and called the police to press charges against his sister! Crazy people.

When I went into the triage nurse, it was 6pm. At 7pm I was finally called into the ER and was given a bed. Ahhh, I could lay down again. The ER nurse's name that was assigned to me was Kurt, he was very nice, and he checked me out and then called in the ER doctor. While we were waiting for the ER doctor, he tried to get my IV started. I was so badly dehydrated that it took three different sticks to finally find my vein. That HURT! Right after he got my IV started the ER doctor came in, and did a quick exam, and ran out to be sure to get an order into the ultra-sound department before they left for the night at 8pm. So, before I could get hooked up to fluids and be given liquid and pain medicine I was wheeled down to the ultra-sound department, and they did an ultra-sound on me. It wasn't nearly as much fun as my ultra-sounds that I had with my babies. When the ultra-sound tech was done with her exam, she told us that she couldn't tell us the results, and that a doctor will go over the results and get back to us in about 20 minutes. As Matt put it, nothing like foreshadowing

So, back to my bed in the ER. There were just lovely curtains separating three different beds. The curtains didn't block any sound at all. One of the patients on the other side of the curtain had fallen off of a ladder and landed on his face! Another one I don't know what happened to him, I think it was a car accident and he had a DNR, and he sounded horrible! He would be quiet, and then all of a sudden start breathing this horrible liquid, phlegm sound coming from his lungs. Horrifying.

After I got back to the ER bed, Kurt was finally able to give me IV liquid and morphine. I really thought morphine would have put more of a dent in the pain, it did make it a little more bearable, but damn it still really hurt! Just a few minutes latter the ER doctor comes in and tells me that she's called in a surgeon because the ultra-sound showed gall stones, and my white blood cell count was elevated, which meant that my gall bladder was inflamed and that I was going to need surgery to remove it. By this time it was around 9pm. Not a half of an hour goes by when the surgeon comes in, and he starts pushing on my stomach, "Does this hurt?" and then he pushes right on the most painful spot, right under my right rib, and I about came off of the bed, and scream! His response, that that was a successful gall bladder examination! Asshole! Okay, I know that he had to do that to insure what was wrong with me but, damn that hurt. He goes on to tell me what the gall bladder is and where it is, and what it does. I asked him what I should do after and he tells me "eat lots of fruits and vegetables and lose weight." Nice, I am in excruciating pain, and he's telling me I am fat. He tells me that I need to lose weight three times! Not once but three times, the last time he said that I need to lose weight because he doesn't want me to become morbidly obese! By this time it was funny. Matt and I are looking at each other and giggling, because it was just so blunt.

I am then checked into the hospital, and transferred up to the surgical floor. I was in a very nice room all to myself by 10:30pm. The surgeon told us that he had one more surgery before mine and that it would be around 12am before he would get to me. So, we tried to get comfortable and get a little bit of sleep. I was given another shot of morphine, and that helped me sleep. The anesthesiologist came in at 1am and they stared to prep me for surgery.

Oh, I almost forgot the weirdest thing that happened. When I got into my room, I was given a sponge bath!!! Okay, that was soooo bizarre. I was stripped naked and two female nurses gave me a full sponge bath! It was so weird, I have never ever, ever, ever been given a sponge bath and honestly I hope to never get one again. Talk about an invasion of privacy! Yikes!

After the bath, Matt and I took a short nap and then they came and got me. It was a little past 1am. I am transferred to a gurney and wheeled into the surgery area. I was able to give Matt a quick kiss bye, and then I was into the OR. The last thing I remember is the nurse, Diana, and the anesthesiologist Russell talking about the start time, the start time was 1:27am.

When I woke up it was strange. I could hear the TV on and I remember thinking "Why is Law and Order on?" I vaguely remember Matt coming in to give me a kiss and tell me that he was going to run home. He later told me that it was 3am when I was in recovery. After a little while I was taken back to my room where I could sleep. My right arm hurt from where the heart rate monitor kept taking my blood pressure. I felt pretty good after the surgery. That sharp stabbing pain that I had been dealing with for almost 24 hours was gone, it was replaced with soreness.

I was again woken up by the need to get to the bathroom. It was pretty urgent, but I was hooked up to machines that were plugged in, aaahhh what to do. I called the nurses station and I was unplugged. It was around 8am, and I had a new morning nurse. Her name was Susan and she was super nice. Everyone had been so nice and considerate of me the whole time I was at Kaiser. She came in and checked out my surgical incisions. I had bled all over my blanket and bed, yuck! She then told me that if I wanted to go home that day I would have to burp and fart! How very indelicate. I asked how to move things along, and she told me to get up and walk. So, I got up and started doing laps around the floor. I would do a lap, go back to my room, try to sleep, and then get up and do another lap. At 10am the surgeon came in to check on me. He told me that I would have to stay away from greasy and fried foods, and to eat lots of fruits and vegetables. I told him that I had been doing laps and that yes, I was burping and farting. He then tells me that he was going to discharge me! Woohoo!

I called Matt and told him that they were discharging me. By the time he made it down the hill they had everything ready for him, he went and picked up my pain medicine and then brought the car around and loaded me in, Bonnie and Joe brought the kids and we all went home! I had never been so glad to go home. There is no way to rest in a hospital, and being able to go home and sleep in my own bed was heavenly.

Now, here it is almost two weeks later, and while I don't have the gall bladder pain, I am dealing with new pain. The surgery pain, the incision pain, and the pain of having NOTHING stay in my stomach. I am not eating fatty foods. I have been very careful and am eating lots of whole grains and fresh fruit and veggies, and absolutely everything comes flying out. It's gotten to the point where I don't want to be far from a bathroom for fear of having one of my incidents. That is super gross, is things are flying through me undigested. I can see what I've eaten in the toilet! Gross! I have been told that there's an adjustment period, but I just really want the adjustment period to be done, and I want to be back to normal!

Recycling

2010-03-25T12:50:00.001-07:00

Here's my adventures in recycling.......adventure is putting it mildly. You will soon see why it's putting it mildly.

Let's set the stage, imagine finally convincing your husband to go through all of the crap that has been in boxes in the garage since before we moved into the house. I labeled and dated all of the boxes and there were some from April 2005! Okay that's 5 years of sitting in a box, if we haven't needed it in 5 years maybe it was time for the stuff to go. We rented a huge dumpster for all of the trash and we went to town. In the process of going through everything I was hopeful to find my old photo albums and my kids baby books. How bad is that? I have no idea where those precious things are, but I can tell you that we had 5 boxes of motorcycle parts!!! 3 boxes of books (my bad) and a multitude of boxes of miscellaneous crap. We also found the boxes of copper wire that Matt had collected when the house was being built. He would come up to the house and collect all of the scraps of wire which filled two little boxes and then he also found a bucket filled with brass fittings. I have no idea where that stuff came from but all I really cared about was getting rid of it.

Set the stage for the next day, it's Monday and I research online for a recycling company that takes metal. I find one that LOOKS like it's in an okay part of town on the Google map. Bwahahahahaha, that's funny now. I plug the address into my GPS and off I go. The GPS takes me right to the place, it wasn't too bad, I get out grab a box of the copper wire and walk into the center. I tell one guy what I have and he gets this horrified look on his face and tells me that they don't handle metal like that anymore, they only handle cans, bottles, and plastics. He then points down the street and tells me that there's a place just a few blocks down that takes metal. Okay, I hop back into my mom mobile and head down the street. As I am driving it is getting more and more apparent that this isn't the best part of town, but I am here, and it's a bright sunny day what could go wrong.......

I turn down the street with Skee's Recycling Center on it, and am pretty well horrified at the neighborhood that I just drove into. I suck it up, and walk with a box of the wire into the yard. This place was crazy, it was filled with piles of metal (duh, I know it's a recycling center) and there are forklifts driving all over and the entire center was surrounded with tin fencing and topped with concertina wire, you know that lovely razor sharp barbwire they use around prisons.

I finally get the attention of one of the guys who works there and tell him I have copper wire and some brass, he tells me to go get everything and set it by the scale. So, I make two more trips out to my car and back with arm loads of stuff. The one guy who was helping me apparently was the manager of the center, he takes one look at the copper wire, and goes, "You found all of this!!?" I told him that my husband had been collecting it, and I just cleaned out my garage. He then whips out his camera and tells me to go stand next to the copper wire. He proceeds to take my photo with all of the copper wire!! This other guy who does the work of weighing out all of my stuff when he is done asks me which car is mine. So I tell him the silver Saturn, and he goes out and writes down my license plate number! He comes back and hands me the slip with all of the weights of the different stuff. Did you know that copper wire has different types? I sure didn't.

I take my slip up to the "counter" I say "counter" because it really was an enclosed booth with bullet proof glass. There was a little square cut out and the manager guy takes my drivers license and swipes it, then he tells me that he is required by law to take my right thumb print. Okay, whatever, I have submitted to a photo, my car license plate number, my drivers license so what's giving him my thumb print, no big deal. He rings up my tag, and tells me that the total is $126.03 and that I can come back on Thursday to collect my money. At this point I was pretty horrified at the thought of having to come back so I asked him if he could mail me a check. He was a little startled at my question and he told me sure, he could do that. I explained that I lived up in Coarsegold and I didn't want to have to drive back down the hill. He then told me that he would give me the money right then. That it would be a $1,000 fine for him for giving me the money early, but he would do it for me. I told him Thank You, and quickly left the place.

As I was walking back to my car, I saw an obviously homeless man smacking something with a hammer, and across the street was a truck with a camper shell and they were unloading God knows what out of the back. I quickly headed back towards the freeway and as I was driving under the freeway a woman walked across the street in front of me wearing no shoes and not walking very straight.

It was about this time that I realized how very sheltered I am, and that I like being sheltered. I like having a nice clean house and not having to worry about druggies or crazies coming into my yard. I like having my life nice and orderly and clean. Did I already say clean? Well, I am going to say it again, I like having my life be clean. This part of Fresno should be in a "scared straight" video. All in all the men who worked at Skee's were very nice. Inside the center I felt okay, not comfortable, but okay, but the instant I walked outside the fence it was like walking into a different world. A world I am lucky enough to not have to live in. It was just very surprising to me how incredibly sheltered my life has been. And that the next time we have wire to recycle MATT will be doing the recycling!

Postal

2010-02-23T09:05:00.000-08:00

Everyone has heard the phrase, "going postal" but I just recently discovered that it is sooooo true. I absolutely hate the US Postal Service. Yes, I know hate is a very strong word, and I try to teach my kids to not hate anyone or anything, but damn it I hate the USPS. Here's a little back story.....

Imagine, you are deployed and you have your mail forwarded to your lovely parents/in-laws, now imagine that you are home from said deployment, and wish to get your mail delivered to your original address. Imagine the frustrations of dealing with the USPS for two months and being continually reassured that everything is fixed and still having your mail delivered to some where other than your address.

Here's what happened. We moved to Alabama and then Florida, rather than have our mail forwarded over and over again, we just forwarded it to Bonnie and Joe's and they put what was urgent in an envelope and sent it to us where ever we were. This worked out great, I had no problems with this situation at all. When we left Florida I forwarded our mail from our Pocahontas Drive, Ft Walton Beach address to our Coarsegold address and canceled our forward to Clovis, no problem. Until we got home.

We are home about a week and I was concerned, we had only one delivery of mail. So I went down to the post office and they said that there was a forward in place, and I told them that I canceled that forward. They went and looked at their handy dandy computer and they said, "oh, so there is a cancellation in place, we will make sure this is fixed." Okay, foolish me believed them.

Then Joe gave me a handful of mail and it was all addressed to us in Coarsegold, but it was delivered to him in Clovis! WTF!!! So, off I went back to the USPS. I went in calm, and I explained what happened. What did the Postmaster tell me? He told me (and this is a direct quote) "It is physically impossible for mail with one address to be delivered to another." Really? Are you sure? Because it happened. He called me a liar, and told me to go get the mail and prove it. He fully expected me to come in with mail with the snazzy yellow sticker of a forward on it, but NO I had physical proof that he's full of crap. He did apologize and then he said that he personally would make sure it was fixed. Okay, again I believed him......

I got a message on our phone and it's the postmaster, he personally fixed the problem and it wouldn't ever happen again. Again, really? Are you sure? Okay, I will take him at his word, and it did seem to be fixed, until about a week later, there was mail with a forward sticker delivered to Joe in Clovis!!! WTF! So, again I troop down to the post office. They "fix" it while I am standing there, and they showed me the print out of their system showing that the forward was deleted. Here's another direct quote; "As of February 8th there won't be any more forwards to the Clovis address." Aaaahhhh, finally it's fixed, I can breath easy.

The kids went and spent the night over at Bonnie and Joe's this weekend (02/19/10) when they get home Madeline hands us two letters with our Coarsegold address on them that were delivered to Clovis!!!! AARRRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!!!! What the F**K!!!! The letters were our insurance cards, pretty important stuff, and they were addressed to us in Coarsegold and delivered to Clovis!

Un-freaking-believable! So I went back to the post office, and I get a COMPLETE blow-off! Oh, I was pissed, the oh so "helpful" postmaster is conveniently no longer at this office, and they don't have a postmaster, so they are going to put in another delete of a forward. I was COMPLETELY stonewalled. I tried sooo hard to be polite, and nice. I tried sooooo hard not to turn into a screeching banshee. But honestly I can understand the urge to go crazy and start taking people out at the post office. I am not a violent person at all, I love people but damn it I was shaking when I left because I was so mad.

There's a little sticker on the door of the post office that has a penal code written on it saying that it is illegal to bring firearms into the post office. I had seen the sign several times and I always thought it was funny, why would anyone bring a firearm into the post office, teehee. The laugh is on me, I can completely understand why that is on the door.

aaahhh, I do feel better now. A little calmer, but every time I think about it my blood pressure rises.

Irritated

2010-02-17T12:54:00.000-08:00

Okay, I know that I am newish to blogging, but damn if I couldn't get spaces in between my paragraphs in my last post! I went into edit post and I put the spaces in, but the just won't show up in the final post. aaaarrrrggghhh. What good is an "Edit Post" tab if it won't actually let you edit the post!? I am sure that it's operator error but it was horribly aggravating for me. Sigh, now I feel better that I have whined and complained.

Home~

2010-02-17T12:13:00.000-08:00

It was recently pointed out to me that I haven't posted anything new in quite a while. It was news to me that anyone actually reads my blog. HA! So, here's a shout out to my loyal followers, "Hey Judy. Hey, Jen. You guys rock!"

We finally made it home to California. I never really realized how much of a California girl at heart I am. I am not saying CA is better or anything, but for me it's home. I like the fog in the winter, I like the freezing cold mornings followed by sunny beautiful clear days. I love watching the fruit trees bloom, and the normally golden hills turn stunningly green and lush for a few months. I will even love the 110 degree heat in the summer.

Driving across the USA was fun. I dare to say, I would actually do it again if the opportunity presented itself. I enjoy seeing the variety in scenery in the different states. I got to see a wild alligator in a swamp sunning itself on a log in Louisiana. Matt and Madeline saw two zebra's, somewhere in the hills just inside of Texas. We saw antelope in Texas, and I saw a huge porcupine (dead on the side of the road). The best part of the entire trip for me was when we took a short side trip to Tombstone Arizona, and as we were leaving the sun was setting and the colors and the mountains were just stunning. At that point I knew we were almost home. How I had missed the mountains. I never realized how much I missed having mountains around me.

Now that we are home, and the kids are back into school. I have dedicated my days to exercise, (gasp) and finding a job. First off exercise because I am turning 40 in less than 6 months and that scares the crap out of me. I want to start my 40's in better shape than I started my 30's. Granted I started my 30's pregnant, but there really isn't any excuse.

As it turns out exercise is the easiest part of my day. Finding a job in California is next to impossible! I have been rejected by just about everyone I have come into contact with. I even got rejected by the IRS!!! The freaking IRS doesn't want me, who on earth would have ever thought that I couldn't get a job with the IRS in the middle of tax season!?

Rejection has become part of my day. Get up, get the kids to school and Matt off to work (thank goodness he still has his job), come home eat oatmeal for breakfast, do my hour on the elliptical, and weights, then I sit my butt down at the computer and start getting rejected.....At which point I get irritated at my continued rejection and go on Facebook.

Facebook is a HUGE time drain. I can be on for what feels like just a few minutes, and then I look at the handy dandy clock in the corner of the computer screen and notice that it's been 2 hours!!! Holy, freaking Cow! Yet, Facebook has become the balm to my continuing rejection at the job hunting part of my day. I enjoy Facebook because I can communicate with friends who are also unemployed and hating life. Misery loves company.

I try to enjoy the time I am home. I love being able to pick up the kids from school and help them with their homework. Heaven knows that Connor needs extra help to get him caught up from the sucky Florida schools. I like being able to sit and enjoy the silence, no noisy neighbors stomping around overhead, no angry wives talking on cell phones directly outside our door. (Can you tell I didn't really enjoy apartment life?) I just really wish I didn't feel like a complete drain on society. What on earth am I going to do if unemployment ever runs out?! Welfare?

Happy Birthday to the best husband in the world.

2009-12-08T09:27:00.000-08:00

Today is Matt's 40th birthday. Wow, can I say that I never thought that I would be 40? Not that I am yet, but my better half is now 40 so I must be close, right? Give me 6 months and I will be crying my eyes out about how I can't be this old and blah, blah, blah more junk like that. But today is Matt's day and I have to say that 12 years ago on his birthday when we first got "together" (the quotes are because this is a PG blog) I never thought that we would be where we are now. We've been married for over 10 years, and have two of the most wonderful kids on the face of the earth.

Life with Matt is never dull. He is always thinking of new and interesting things to do, and places to go. I have never in my life ever met anyone who is so fearless. His buddies in the Army call him the Kashi Guy, and then they laugh but honestly he is the Kashi Guy, he does everything, he knows a little bit about a lot of things, and damn he's a ton of fun to be around. Personally I think of him as the Dos Equis Guy, and when at the end of the Dos Equis commercial when they say "He lives vicariously through himself." that's pretty accurate.

The little shy geeky girl in me is constantly amazed that this cool, handsome guy choose to be with me. I am not adventurous, I am not hyper cool. I am the total library girl who was more comfortable with books than with doing things. He picked me out of the multitude of women who continue to drool over him and that was my lucky day. Every day with Matt is my lucky day.

Bad Signs

2009-10-21T08:02:00.000-07:00

I am not a big fan of the Florida school system, but I was always taught that teachers have the hardest job. I was also taught that teachers deserve respect.....hummm. I got a note home yesterday that Connor has a 31% chance of passing 2nd grade! Nice so, basically he has a 69% chance of failing. How do they know this, oh, they gave him a test and he did very poorly on this test so, he's going to fail. Never mind that they aren't teaching him at this school, what it seems like is all they do is test. Then yesterday, they gave him another test and because he didn't follow directions and bubble in all of the answers like the teacher asked, she marked all of his answers wrong, even though his answers were right, he didn't follow directions so they were all wrong and she gave him an "F", along with a "nice" note that says that he didn't follow directions.

I know that I am biased when it comes to my kids. I love them and I think that they are wonderful, so when I get told that my child is stupid, it sets off every single psycho mama bear instinct I have, and I want to rip this teacher a new a$$hole. Connor is an out-of-the-box kind of kid. He looks at things differently, and sees things differently. He's the type of kid who will make a game out of throwing away a piece of paper. He is very creative and adventurous and this school is trying to make him into a drone. I also know that Connor has a short attention span, if he doesn't find something interesting, he doesn't want to do it, and that's bad, but forcing this poor little boy to sit all day in class without recess, and then telling him to take tests all day, and when he doesn't do well basically tell him he's stupid, is a recipe for disaster.

Add to this, when I drive around the area, I see signs like the ones here. This is the school system that is telling me my kid is dumb. This is the type of people the Florida School system churns out.

New Orleans

2009-09-29T11:22:00.001-07:00

We've been in Florida for almost two months and we are bored. HA! How many times can we go to the beach? So, Matt and I started looking at a map and were checking how far things were from where we are in Florida. Just for future reference, Fort Walton Beach is in the middle of nowhere! In looking at the map we started talking about where to go and what to do, and we had talked about New Orleans. It has always been sort of a running joke with me and Matt about Mardi Gras and the whole bead issue. As in, he can have beads to give away but I wasn't "allowed" to get beads. Which is fine with me because normally you get beads by flashing guys with beads, since Matt is the only man who will ever see my boobs I was destine to never receive any beads anyhoo.

We wake up on Saturday morning (9/26/09) and Matt asks me if I want to go to New Orleans, and I say sure, let's go. So we pack up an overnight bag, grab the kids and are on the road by 10am. It's a 4 hour drive from Fort Walton Beach to New Orleans, it's a boring 4 hours too, I kept looking out the window at the swamps we were driving by trying to see an alligator.....I don't think I saw any, saw something but we went by to fast to be sure it wasn't just a stick in the mud. We drove through, Florida, into Alabama, then into Mississippi, and finally into Louisiana. We crossed Lake Pontchartrain, a very, very long bridge and we got into the outskirts of New Orleans. I think Matt put it best, "It looks gamey." There were so many water damaged houses, and half finished repairs, it looked very depressed. I would have loved to see the area before hurricane Katrina to have a basis of comparison.

I had the GPS set to the French Quarter of New Orleans so we got off the 10 freeway on Canal Street and then drove down through downtown New Orleans to Bourbon Street. I think most adults have heard stories about Mardi Gras and know that the French Quarter is all about partying. Let me tell you Bourbon Street isn't very kid friendly, with Larry Flynn's Hustler bar, and every imaginable sex shop dealing their wares right out on the street. I was worried that we had made a horrible mistake. So we drove down Bourbon street, and then got off of Bourbon street and on to Royal Street. We were looking for a hotel, so I was calling places as we were driving by to see what their rate for the night was and if they had any rooms available. I had read about the Andrew Jackson Hotel online before we had left and it sounded nice, and so when we drove by it, I called and they had a room at a reasonable rate ($119 per night, some of the other places I called wanted $250 a night).

Now parking in the French Quarter is non-existent. We were able to stop long enough to unload me and the kids with the luggage and then Matt had to go off and find public parking a few blocks away.

After getting settled in our room, and Matt had made his way back to the hotel, we set off to explore. In the entry way of the hotel they had all of those many, many flyer's telling all about the many, many things to do in New Orleans. Madeline LOVES to grab one of each of those things every time we go somewhere new. I was looking at them along with her and I found one that talked about a Haunted History Tour of the French Quarter. It started at 6pm and went to 8pm. Perfect, not too late but late enough that it would be dark by the time we were done. It was to meet in front of the Rev. Zombies Voodoo shop. We were off, we walked down Royal and then we went up to Bourbon. I should have known better, from our drive in, but it's Bourbon street, you have to go to Bourbon street.....right? Well, we walked the entire length of Bourbon street, and let's just say the kids are fine, but I am mentally scared for life. The "shillers" on the street were crazy. One guy told Matt, "If he's (Connor)got a fake ID he can come in too." He was trying to get them into a strip club. Another "club" had a girl in a very small bikini in the door way and directly behind her was a photo of two girls getting "busy". Very explicit.

On the good side of that, there were musicians playing music in the streets, and it was good music, very festive. There were magicians, and all sorts of different performers. The atmosphere was very much like carnival. Needless to say, I had one kid and Matt had the other one by the hand at all times. It was hot and muggy and at one point started to pour, and of course we were on Bourbon street....where to go, where to go.....we found a gift shop/voodoo shop and went in and looked around while we waited for the rain to stop. Just like in Florida it never rains for very long.

We were getting hungry so we were looking for a place to eat and saw an Oyster Bar, it looked good so we went in, just in time because it was starting to rain again. I ordered a Muffaletta sandwich, and Matt had crab corn bisque. My sandwich was HUGE. There was no way I was going to be able to get my mouth around the whole sandwich, so I took it apart and ate it piece by piece. Oh man, it was sooo good. Ham, prosciutto, and salami topped with an olive salad. Yummy has a new name and it's Muffaletta.

After dinner it was time to meet up with the Haunted History Tour. We had a really good guide, his name was Midian and was very informative. He took us to a lot of different haunted houses and businesses. While we were going we noticed that we were close to our hotel, so I leaned over and asked Matt if I should ask about our hotel, he said sure, so when Midian was done with the Corn Stalk Hotel (apparently where Elvis stayed while filming King Creole) I asked him about the Andrew Jackson, he asked if we were staying there, and I said yep, and then he goes into these stories about how it was haunted by small boys from when I was a boys school and guests can hear children playing in the courtyard when there aren't any children staying at the hotel. Then he tells us about how one couple had a few photos left on a disposable camera and when they went to have them developed they were shocked to see three photos taken of them in the hotel while they were sleeping, and they were taken from the ceiling!!! The kids eyes got huge at that one. He also told us about guests who had the covers pulled off of them in the middle of the night. Okay, so we are staying in a haunted hotel. That was on my life's to-do list, so I can check that off.

The Haunted History Tour was very good. It took us all around the French Quarter and showed us things that weren't Mardi Gras and was filled with history. We saw Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop, the oldest building in New Orleans, originally built in 1770. Then we saw the most haunted house in New Orleans, the Lalaurie House. This place was the sight of some gruesome experiments done on the slaves, and murders. Presently, the house is owned by Nicholas Cage. Apparently, he will have dinner in the house but will not sleep there. The stories churned my stomach, and I was a little worried it was a bit much for the kids. But the kids seemed to be fine, listening and not freaking out. After the tour ended back at St Louis Cathedral, we went and had gelato for dessert. I had a mojito gelato that was super yummy.

The night went by without incident. The only strange thing that I could see was that I was freezing. Matt was laughing at me because it was crazy hot outside, but I was freezing cold. I had to get an extra blanket out of the closet and the instant I got that extra blanket, I fell asleep.

The next morning, we got up and went down to Cafe' Du Monde' It is a famous cafe' at the French Market. It has been open 24 hours a day 7 days a week since the early 1860's. We had cafe' au lait with beignets. Oh, so good. The coffee was so good and the beignets were fresh and hot and covered in powdered sugar. The kids were happy because they were basically getting a donut for breakfast. We walked around a little bit more and I have to say that the atmosphere of the French Quarter from Saturday night to Sunday morning changed dramatically. There was no traffic and hardly anyone was out and about. While we were trying to find Connor an alligator head (that's what he wanted for his souvenir) we saw street cleaners and sidewalk washers. Wow, I have to say how nice it was to smell the sidewalk washer's cleaning solution rather than the icky sewer smell that continually wafted up as we were walking around. New Orleans smelled of sewage and old beer, mixed with an undertone of puke. Of course you have to understand that over the years a ton of people have come through and the smell I would think is to be expected.

We left about 24 hours after getting there. It was a fun trip and memorable. I am glad that we went.

"for your age..."

2009-09-11T10:20:00.001-07:00

I have slowly started making friends with the wives of Matt's army buddies. The women are very nice and friendly and I feel right at home talking with them. The only thing is that I am a good 15 years older than them. I am the old lady!!! Waaaahhhh. I don't want to be the old lady, I am still cool and hip and I have young kids...okay so maybe they aren't as little as they once were, but I don't want to be seen as the old person.

One day I was swimming with one of the wives, she is 9+ months pregnant and is the epitome of the beautiful pregnant woman. She looks like I only dreamed of looking when I was pregnant, she glows and is all baby belly, nothing extra unlike me when I was pregnant....any way. We were talking about recovering our body after having kids and I made the off handed remark that I needed to lose about 10lbs. Her response to me was, and I will quote her here; "You look great (now if she had stopped there I would be okay)FOR YOUR AGE"!!!!! Waaahhhhh! I look great for an almost 40 year old, boohoo, waaaahhh. I want to cry. What an absolute slam to my ego. I honestly don't sit around worrying about growing older, if I have wrinkles it's because I earned them by laughing so damn much at my kids, and if I have gray hair, I fully blame my husband. I just never, ever though of myself as old as I must seem to these young beautiful wives.

My only consolation is the knowledge that in time they too will eventually "look great for their age." bwaahahahahaha

Procrastination

2009-09-03T09:15:00.000-07:00

Who me? Procrastinate? But of course! HA! Okay, maybe I have an excuse, we moved from Alabama to Florida right after we came back from DC, and I didn't have time to finish writing my blog. It kills me that I half way wrote about our trip and then didn't finish. I haven't forgotten about the trip to Washington DC, but the trip has been moved to the back of my head after spending almost a month in the sun down here in Florida.

I have to say I absolutely love Florida. If I could have my house and my stuff right here, I would be happy to stay. We are living in Fort Walton Beach, FL. It is a tourist destination, and there are a bunch of touristy things for sale, and the restaurants are geared towards the tourists. But despite that it really feels like a small town. The apartment complex that we are living in has the most friendly people working here. The General Manager is super friendly and nice and helpful. It feels like a small town where everyone knows each other, and they have all been together for years, but then they are also willing to include this strange outsider from California in the discussions.

Now the beach is unbelievable! Honestly, I am not a big beach person. I don't go out to lay in the sun and get skin cancer. I like to be clean and covered in sunscreen, but the beach here is the nicest, cleanest most beautiful beach I have ever seen. The only thing that comes close is Hawaii. Hawaii has the beautiful beaches and warm water too, but here it is so close and accessible. The beach is almost boring it is so clean and the water is so clear. Matt will go snorkeling and he will be looking for something to look at and he won't find anything. The only thing to find is these little fish that love to nibble on my toes. Apparently I have yummy toes, either that or I need a pedicure really badly.

Washington DC

2009-07-28T09:26:00.000-07:00

So, after sitting around Alabama going crazy, I started looking at maps and seeing how far things were, and I discovered that DJ and Justin lived only 7.5 hours away from Huntsville, and then it was only 5.5 hours from Winston-Salem, NC to Washington DC. I started plotting my escape, uhm I mean adventure. First thing was to see if DJ was wanting to see DC as much as I was, she was so excited that she wanted to go right then, sweet! Let the planning commence. I spent the next week looking at maps, learning the Metro system stops, finding hotels and trying to see what we could do in two days. There's so much to see and do in DC, and since this was my fourth trip to the Nations Capitol I wanted it to be a good trip for DJ and the kids. I found a super cheap hotel in Alexandria which is on the outskirts of DC, booked it for two nights and then packed up the kids and started driving to North Carolina. We left Monday morning (7/20/09) we have traveled Hwy 40 so much that I feel like I know it very well, so the trip was nice and uneventful.

We got to Winston-Salem about 6ish, and DJ took us to the hospital where Justin works as a first year resident. There was a very cool playground on the roof and we were able to look at downtown Winston-Salem and the kids were able to play and work off some energy after being stuck in the car for 7.5 hours. DJ and Justin took us out to pizza for dinner and I had the yummiest chicken pesto pizza, and the kids had their boring pepperoni and olive pizza.

Tuesday morning we didn't wake up quite as early as we wanted but oh well, we got on the road and made it to Alexandria, VA in record time.....me speed? You bet'cha. We got to the hotel about 3pm and immediately went to the Metro station and took the Metro to L'Efant Plaza, got off and walked right into the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. Great news the Smithsonian museums were staying open until 7:30pm! Awesome! It was about 4ish by then so we decided to walk across the mall to the National Gallery since it was going to close at 5pm. I personally love the National Gallery. It is my favorite museum in DC and I could spend a week in there and still not see everything. We wandered around a little, and then went down stairs to try and find the gift shop, I had a mission, I wanted to replace some Monet cards that I had gotten the last time I was in DC with Matt in 2005. On our way to the gift shop we stumbled onto a room that I had never seen it was full of ancient statues! I as stunned and amazed and oh so very happy. Connor found his favorite Auguste Rodin's The Thinker.

It was about 5pm and we were asked to leave by very nice friendly ubiquitous guards.

We then walked through the National Gallery Sculpture Garden which I had never seen before and was very impressed. There was a sculpture of a house that was an optical illusion that was just super cool.

Homesick

2009-07-08T19:52:00.000-07:00

I have been homesick before. When I was only 16 and living in Germany I got incredibly homesick around Thanksgiving and I sucked it up and my time in Germany was wonderful. I have only fantastic memories of that experience. But now I am literally HOMEsick. I miss my HOME. I miss our house with our wonderful concrete floors that keep the house so nice and cool during the 100 degree summers, I miss the bare white walls that we never painted because we couldn't agree (actually Matt likes the white and I hate it but that's another post), I miss the deer eating all of my plants, I miss the absolute quiet on a summer evening only broken up by the sound of crickets and birds. I even miss the rattlesnakes and scorpions that I always end up having to kill if Matt's not around because while Connor is a spider killer he hasn't quite mastered the art of killing a fast moving scorpion and there's no way I am letting them close enough to kill a rattlesnake. Madeline runs screaming like the true drama queen that she is at the mere mention of a creepy crawly.....

I miss having MY stuff around me, having MY stove to cook on, having MY washer and dryer to to laundry in, and having MY bed to sleep in, I miss being able to let the kids go outside and play and not having to worry about who is around because there wasn't anyone around. I miss letting Madeline ride her bike up and down the driveway, I miss hearing Connor play with his cars in his bedroom at night before he fell asleep.

If I had MY house here in AL this experience would be much different. If we had rented a house instead of an apartment maybe this would be better too. I don't know, all I know is while sitting here in this cigarette smelling apartment listening to the neighbors talk while they are out on their patios drinking and smoking, is that I miss California and I miss my HOME.

I was told once that HOME is where all of your stuff is, and I thought I would be fine with just the bare essentials of my HOME. What do you know she was right HOME is where my family and my stuff is, and so I am here in AL only half of a home. Granted the important part of HOME is here, my husband and kids are here, but man I miss my STUFF!

Wud Fer Sale.....

2009-07-07T08:16:00.000-07:00

Those of you that actually read this must know me, and to know me is to know that little stupid things drive me insane. I like to think of myself as easy going, but little things like misspellings and poor grammar drive me nuts, imagine my horror this past weekend at seeing a sign painted on the side the road that read, "Wud Fer Sale"!!! OH MY GOD! Seriously, that's what you put on a sign?! Okay, I know that I was in Butt F**ked Egypt, (BFE) also commonly known as rural Tennessee, but come on, you are going to take the time to paint a sign showing that you have wood for sale and you can't take the time to figure out how to write wood for sale?!

Okay, now that that is off my chest let me tell you about our adventures through rural North Carolina and then into Tennessee. If you haven't ever seen the movie Deliverance then some of my references might not make sense, but if you have seen the movie then let me rest some of your preconceived notions to rest, YES that movie was filmed in TN and in GA and YES, it really looks just like the movie, and YES they will stand out on the street with their banjo's and play duelling banjo's like they are proud of this fact. The countryside is stunningly beautiful, it is lush and green and it looks like if you stepped 50 feet from the road you would be lost forever and nobody would come looking for you.

I try not be be a snobby Californian while we explore this part of the country, we are going to be here for a little time and I really want to enjoy our time here, but man I feel like a square peg trying to fit into a round hole. I can barely understand them when they talk, it's like I know they are speaking English but I just can't understand the words that are coming out of their mouths. We spent the night in Spruce Pine, NC and we asked the lady at the front desk for directions to a place to eat dinner, Matt was standing right next to me while she rattled off something that sounded like "y'all go down right then head towards town and there's a good steakhouse on the left." We get back in the car and Matt asks me what she said, and we end up laughing at the fact that neither of us understood a word she said. We found the "good steakhouse" and it turned out to be a buffet! Not my idea of a good steakhouse, we ended up finding a Pizza Hut and had pizza for dinner.

The weekend was wonderful, (the 4th of July weekend) we went hiking in the Great Smokey Mountains and had a great time with DJ and Justin exploring Tennessee with them and North Carolina with the Gem Mountain Mining experience. I have to say that Gatlinburg, TN reminded me a little like Vegas, with all of the cheesy t-shirt and souvenir shops and they had a ton of wedding chapels. The only thing missing was the gambling. Apparently Gatlinburg is a major destination for the 4th and it was fun to people watch while walking around downtown.

Alabama....

2009-06-24T08:34:00.000-07:00

Okay, I have come to the realization that I am a snob. I do not smoke or drink to excess. I like having a clean orderly house and am polite because I like people. We are here in Alabama, the trip across country was fun, except for getting food poisoning in Oklahoma(hint do not eat hamburgers in Oklahoma!). We are here in Huntsville, and the people are super nice, but there's no sense of urgency for anything. We were told when we moved in that the washer and dryer would be installed on that day (Friday) and after asking about them three times, they were installed yesterday (Tuesday). They are OLD and DIRTY!!!! Scary dirty too, not just dusty, but caked on crap from the millions of load of laundry they did before being taken to our apartment. Old I could live with as long as they worked did it really matter how new they were? But dirty I have a major problem with. I was in tears as I scrapped the caked on crap off of the inside and outside of both the washer and dryer.....deep breathing excersises helped a little.

We have been spending a lot of time down at the apartment pool. The kids are in 7th heaven, they get to swim for about two hours a day. I don't mind because I can get in get wet, get out and sit in the shade and read my books while the kids play. I also get a front row seat to the on going drama of the other residence at the complex. The drinking, I can sort of see, it's stinkin' hot and humid and drinking a cold beer would hit the spot, but the consistent drinking to the point where you can't walk in a straight line to the bathroom is a little excessive. Now add to that two little kids that can't swim and that would be one mom that was down at the pool yesterday. The kids were yelling "mommy!!!" and the mom was just laughing and giggling with the ubiquitious men who were providing the beer. Then there is the smoking. EVERYONE here smokes. There's ash all around the pool, and our apartment stinks. It's either because of the previous residence or it could be the person living below us smokes, but the place stinks. I got a candle and all it did was make the apartment stink like smoke and candle. While watching the drunk mom yesterday I noticed a pregnant mom with a two year old little boy, and I watched in horror as she lit up and proceeded to smoke her way through a whole pack of cigarrettes while we were down at the pool.

I am trying my best to not be judgmental, and snobby. I honestly like the people I have met so far. Absolutely everyone is super nice, and friendly. The drunk people are nice to the kids and they are friendly as the light-up. I am just having a bit of culture shock.

Connor's 1st Grade Performance of Desperado

2009-06-04T10:19:00.000-07:00

Into Perspective

2009-06-01T08:18:00.000-07:00

So, while I know that my situation isn't unique, I still don't have to like it......my hubby left for a year last week. Lucky for me he's not going into harms way per say, he only gets to go learn how to defuse bombs, yeah that's not dangerous at all. I think watching him say good-bye to our babies was absolutely heartbreaking, more than saying good-bye to me. My little ones were so brave and walked off to school without losing it, unlike me waiting in the car I was blubbering like a baby.

What this has done is put my life into perspective. I don't care where we live as long as we are together. If I have an opportunity to move and live in Alabama and I get to be close to him then I am off to the southland. I was born and raised in California but I would leave in a heartbeat to have my family together.

It has also shown me that my hubby is my best friend. I have best girl friends and I love them and would go absolutely bat-ass crazy if I didn't have them, but my hubby is the one I talk to everyday about everything that has happened during the day. We laugh at the same crazy things, and he helps put my crazy fears about little things into perspective. I miss him! We have been talking via Skype several times since he left and I don't know if it's better or worse to see him and talk to him like that knowing he's 2,000 miles away.

He started his school today, and depending on how the next two weeks go, I might get to drive across country and live in Alabama and then Florida for the next year. Adventure here we come.

Stunningly Beautiful and Smart

2009-05-04T10:47:00.000-07:00

I know that I am biased, I am the Mommy I am suppose to be biased, but my Madeline startles me sometimes. I like to think that I am smart, but compared to Madeline I was a blithering idiot when I was her age. She has hit the double digits, she's no longer a little girl, but a tween. Sigh. We had the afternoon together yesterday, Matt took Connor for some Daddy/Connor time before he leaves for his EOD training, so Madeline and I went shopping. I don't normally do a lot of girly things, but Madeline wanted to go to Claires. A store doesn't get more girly than Claires, jewelry, make-up, hats, scarves, etc. We spent a good 30 minutes trying on hats and looking at all of the bling. She looks so cute in hats, I had to buy her one. We then went to a new store called Justice, and she tried on a bunch of clothes, she had a blast and I got to see what her style is, and what colors she likes, she loves things that I wouldn't have normally picked, but she looks great in what she likes. On the way home we were talking about something and she was spelling something, and she couldn't think of a vowel, so she tells me "you know a non-consonant". She loves to talk about metaphors, similes and analogies.

Then this morning I was struggling to get Connor's hair to lay down. No amount of water was getting his swirly to stay put, and I gave up. The kids were in their bathroom brushing their teeth, and I hear Connor complaining about something, and I go in to their bathroom and see that Madeline had gone and gotten a piece of tape to hold down Connor's hair. I had to laugh, it actually worked! I couldn't send the poor kid to school with a piece of tape in his hair, but the tape idea had merit. She is always thinking, maybe not the nicest thing to do to her brother, but it worked.

Evil Giggle

2009-03-20T09:01:00.000-07:00

My best Jen keeps reminding me to blog these little stories about my kids and since I am unemployed I really don't have an excuse.....so here goes a Connor story.

Connor loves Bionicles, these are little robot/machine/weird creatures from Legos. He absolutely LOVES them, he will play for hours with his two Glatorians, he got a new one for Madeline's birthday and it shoots out a little rubber spiked ball. He will plan an attack with his little spiked ball and his favorite thing is to sneak up on me or Madeline and shoot his ball into our hair and run away giggling. He loves it because the rubber spikes get tangled up in our hair and it is hard to get out. I will hear him in his room with an evil giggle as he tries to sneak up on Madeline. Lucky for Madeline he's not very good at the sneaking part because of his little giggle. It is easy to find him because he just can't keep quiet. I find it hard to get mad at him for torturing his sister because he gets such delight in the sneaking and attacking. I think it's worse for Madeline because she is his ultimate target, Mommy is easy to hit, Madeline actually will put up a fight. I warned Madeline that someday Connor was going to be bigger than her and that she needed to be nice to her little brother, well Connor's not bigger yet, but he does so love to sneak up and attack her with that Bionicle rubber spikey ball. I love the evil giggle that goes along with the attack.

Exercise.......

2009-02-11T17:01:00.000-08:00

I am the last person on earth who would have thought that she would like exercise.....but since I was given an elliptical machine for Christmas, I have been using it daily and I have to say, I am having a ton of fun. I am unemployed, so every morning I walk the kids to the bus stop, and then come home and spend 45 minutes sweating my brains out. Don't get me wrong, the first 15 minutes suck, but after that it's fun. I have sweat dripping off my nose, and there's nobody to see. I love it! I am much too self concious to truly enjoy getting all hot and sweaty at a gym, so home exercise is perfect for me.

I have noticed a difference in how I feel, but can you imagine my horror that I am developing a chicken neck?! Loose skin is taking the inevitable trip down....got to love gravity. At least it's loose skin not the horrid double chin.

SUCKS!

2009-01-27T14:57:00.000-08:00

Well it finally happened. I lost my job. Freakin' sucks! I guess I should say that at least I got to work until January, or there are more people out there that are worse off than I am, but ya know what, it just plain sucks! I am now one of the millions of people who are unemployed. What makes this worse it that there isn't anyone hiring. I filed for unemployment, and part of the process is that I HAVE to register with CalJobs, okay no problem, let me see what jobs does the county/state have available....oh, I see there's a total of five jobs available, and all of them are for police officers. WTF! Let me tell ya, unemployment payments are about half of what I was normally making, so not only am I unemployed, but joyousness,we might lose our house too because my income just took dive in to the sh*ter. Woohoo life is great (sarcasm).

SNOW!

2009-01-12T10:02:00.000-08:00

So, there are many things I don't like about living in the mountains, most of those things would have to be the critters that live up there with us. I could live happily ever after if I never had to see or kill another scorpion, or rattlesnake. But, one of the great things about living up in the mountains is you actually get snow in the winter. This is huge to me. We have a crazy steep driveway so if we get enough snow we are stuck and can't get out, ah so sad, too bad we can't go to work/school. We got snow on Christmas this year. Normally it's sunny and warm on Christmas, but this year we got snow. So the day after Christmas we bundle up the kids and drive about 15 miles up the road and get out and play. We live about 25 miles from the park entrance to Yosemite, so getting up into the mountains and playing isn't that big of a deal for us. We bundled up the kids and off we went. I think Matt and I had much more fun than the kids did. They don't understand that curling up into the fetal position isn't the best defence against snowballs. They haven't learned how to fight back and throw balls back yet. I give them one more year and then Matt and I might be in trouble.

New Year

2008-12-30T09:19:00.000-08:00

Okay, so 2008 is almost over, thank goodness. It has been a wild and crazy year. Some good and some bad.

First off the good, my sister-in-law got married to a great guy and had a beautiful wedding where Madeline got to live out one of her dreams of being a flower girl, and Connor bless his heart got up and gave a speech about how their wedding day is one of the best days of his life because his family just got bigger. In August of 2007 I started losing weight, Matt got me Nutri-system for our anniversary and it works. I got down to my goal weight before the wedding, and I was super happy, so happy I started eating not so good things for me and I went up one size. So, for this Christmas Matt got me an elliptical machine. I love the fact that Matt gets me things that I want, he doesn't judge me and tell me that I need to lose weight, I honestly don't think he cares in the least, he just wants me to be happy, so I am going to start off 2009 by being consistent with my health. Watch what I eat and exercise so that 2009 can be my most healthy year.

Okay, now for the bad parts of 2008. A good friend here at work quit, she had enough of the hypocrisy and quit. On the good side of that she started law school so the world will get a good lawyer out of the deal, but work hasn't been the same and a month after she quit the company "re-structured" my department and fired 5 people all in the same day. October 15th will live in infamy in my brain for quite some time, it wasn't a pretty day, lots of tears and drama. On the good side of that I still have a job. My department went from 17 people when I first started back in January of 2007 to 7 people total. The economy sucks and in November what happened in my department happened in the rest of the company, they let go a total of 13 people in one day. Yikes! The company is still here and going, but everything is very slow and it's not a happy fun place to come to work. I continually think that I am next to be "re-structured".

So, here's to 2009, may it be a better year for the economy, and may I get back into my size 8's and keep my job!

Happy Birthday!

2008-11-12T07:58:00.000-08:00

Today is my best Jen's birthday. We have been friends for a little over 15 years. In the past 15 years we have both gone through some major life changes for the better and for the worse, and through it all she's stayed my best Jen. I couldn't ever wish for a better friend. On today her birthday I wish to remember one of the most memorable birthdays in my history.

It begins 15 years ago. We are both young (not that we are old now) and we are looking forward to drinking a little beer and then going to see a movie. I am following her back to her apartment so we could ride together to my house and then to the movies. It's about 5 o'clock in the afternoon and there is traffic, or what counts as traffic in a small farming community. I am behind her, and her car starts to smoke badly. She pulls off to the side of the road, and she hops out of her car. The car is continuing to smoke so I tell her to "turn off your car Jen!" she's hopping around out side her car, she yells back at me "it is OFF!" The car continues to smoke, and smoke, and smoke. It smoke is so thick that it blocks out the sun. Okay, maybe not that bad, but bad enough that cars are slowing down because they couldn't see through the smoke. We were stopping traffic on a busy street all because of her little gray slug of a car.

Needless to say that was the end of the gray slug. Sigh, it was a cool car, and it had the best bumper stickers on it, but it was the end of an era. We never did make it to the movie that night, but we did have some good beer and laughs over the whole smoking car incident. I think it was that night we coined the phrase "Jen Factor". Good Times! Happy Birthday to Jen Factor #1!!!

Smart little Monkeys

2008-10-28T10:08:00.000-07:00

We had our Parent Teacher conferences for our kids yesterday. I wasn't terribly worried. I know that the kids do their homework, and I hadn't gotten a call about Connor being sent to the principals office so far this year (not like last year as a Kindergartner he was sent 3 times!). Madeline couldn't wait, she could not wait to get her report card, the little freak. HA!

We had Connor's conference first. We were told that he was a joy to have in the classroom, and "he always has very interesting things to say." Okay, makes me wonder what he's talking about to his teachers. And that "he has a wide range of interests", translation, he's interested in EVERYTHING. Then the teacher told us that when he's feeling crowded he comes up to the teacher and tells her, "Teacher I need my space." Bwahahahahahaha, that is totally ME.

We were off to Madeline's conference, pleased to have the good report on Connor, we walk into Madeline's classroom. Her teacher is very high energy, and was busting at the seams to talk to us about how Madeline is "such a doll, she's absolutely wonderful to have in class and she's just so sweeeeet." This is a direct quote, it's actually written on her report card.

This is the first year that Madeline's gotten "A's", "B's" or "C's". Apparently Coarsegold Elementary doesn't start the letter grading system until 4th grade. Well, she's on the Honor Roll, my smart little monkey. She got a B- in Physical Education which was horrifying to her, but when we asked about it the teacher told us "when we are playing dodge ball and Madeline gets hit out she's happy to stand off to the side, and watch the other kids play, she doesn't try to get back in the game." bwahahahaha again this is just like me. Poor kid, she would rather stand off to the side and watch the game or read a book than get in the game.

I am a very proud Mommy. I have wonderful kids.

Inappropriate Words

2008-10-14T16:35:00.000-07:00

So, I am not a huge sports fan, but I do enjoy the occasional football game, more particularly Fresno State football games. Well this past Saturday was a Fresno State game and it started at 7:00pm, the kids bedtimes are 7:30pm. As I am getting Connor ready for bed he starts begging to be allowed to stay up to watch the game with us, and in his persuasive arguments he tells me that if I let him stay up he "won't pay attention to the inappropriate words". I ask him what he means and he tells me that the last time Fresno State played he was in bed but he could still hear my "inappropriate words". So, in a nutshell my 6 year old busted me for cussing at the TV while Fresno State plays. In my defense the last game was painful to watch and the bad words were only spoken when I thought my kids were asleep.

"Oh, Just Do it Connor!"

2008-09-11T16:19:00.000-07:00

So, the other morning while waiting for the school bus in the car, Madeline was trying to get Connor to do something and he plaintively wailed "Why do I ALWAYS have to do what you want?!" Madeline's response to her baby brothers complaining......"Oh, just do it Connor!" What made this funny to me and Matt was the fact that Connor actually caved in and did what Madeline wanted. There will come a day when Connor is bigger than Madeline, but right now she rules over him like the queen sister that she is.

Chocolate Coffee Cup Cake

2008-09-09T13:30:00.000-07:00

So, a friend here at work knows how much I love chocolate and she sent me a recipe for how to make a chocolate cake in 5 minutes in a coffee cup in the microwave. Okay, there's so many things about this whole process that makes me giddy with joy. You mean I can have chocolate cake in just a few minutes, and I have all of the ingredients in my pantry? This is a win win situation as far as I am concerned. Here's the recipe:

DANGEROUS CHOCOLATE CAKE-IN-A-MUG

1 coffee mug

4 Tbsp. cake flour (plain, not self-rising)

4 Tbsp. sugar

2 Tbsp. cocoa

1 egg

3 Tbsp. milk

3 Tbsp. oil

Small splash of vanilla

3 Tbsp. chocolate chips, optional

Add dry ingredients to mug, mix well with a fork.

Add egg, mix thoroughly.

Pour in milk and oil and vanilla, mix well.

Add chips, if using.

Put mug in microwave, and cook for three minutes on 1000 watts.

Cake will rise over top of mug--do not be alarmed!

Allow to cool a little; tip onto a plate if desired.

Eat!

(This can serve two if you want to feel slightly more virtuous.)

***And WHY is this the most dangerous cake recipe in the world?

Because now we are all only five minutes away from chocolate cake any time of the day or night!!!***

___________________________________________________________________________

"Get thee hence" to the microwave!!! This is GREAT!!! Got the recipe from a friend, and tried it out immediately. It works! I see multiple applications for this gem: With kids; grand kids; 4-H cooking classes; college dorm room when there's only a microwave; late-night cravings; just enough for one or two servings instead of an entire cake...........ha, ha! My kids added some drizzles of chocolate syrup and some Cool Whip (we didn't put in the chocolate chips). You could add canned frosting, too.

The batter does rise up 'way over the top of the mug, but doesn't run down the side. Fun to watch!

Be careful not to overcook--our microwave is higher than 1000 watts, and three minutes was a dab too long--dried the cakes out a little bit. Anyway, give it a try! And be sure to watch it the whole time it's baking in the microwave!!!

Okay the line "Cake will rise over top of mug--do not be alarmed!" got my kids going. Madeline was watching the cake, and Connor was watching it too, as the cake started to rise over the edge of the coffee cup Madeline started getting alarmed, and was telling me "oh no it's going over the edge!" I told her not to be alarmed just like the recipe said, and what does Connor start doing? He gets down and starts running around the kitchen going "I'M ALARMED! I'M ALARMED!" Goofy little kids, so on that note, be aware that my normal coffee cup wasn't quite big enough to keep it from going over the edge and pooling like a chocolate lake in the bottom of my microwave.

Teppen Yaki

2008-09-04T08:52:00.000-07:00

I had a great evening put on by my company. We were taken to dinner at a new Japanese Teppen Yaki restaurant. There were 93 of us total, and we took over the entire restaurant. I had scallops and steak, and of course the ubiquitous fried rice. I think the evening was so enjoyable for me because it was dinner out with my friends from work. We work together all day, but to get together at a social level was fun. I am not a social person, I am a hermit by nature. If given a choice between dinner out, or home and a book, I would choose home and a book every time, but being forced to go out and be social was fun. I don't think I will ever choose being social over home and a book, but it was good for me to break out of my shell. Plus I have awesome left-overs for lunch today, woohoo!

Irritations

2008-09-03T10:33:00.000-07:00

So, my morning started off well, I got the kids up with little to no whinning, (okay that's a lie, but it wasn't as bad as it could be). I got to drive today so I have my book on tape that I am listening to, and it is good, and the drive wasn't too bad, I got to work early, had my breakfast. And then 8:30am hits, we have a departmental staff meeting, wham. There goes my good morning. We were reprimanded as a group for celebrating a co-workers birthday. We had decorated her cubicle with mini Twix bars (her favorite) and birthday streamers. It wasn't too obsene, it was fun and festive. Now I work for a religious nonprofit organization and I would have never in a million years guessed that celebrating a co-workers birthday was going to be frowned on, ever. So, morale in the department took a nose dive this morning. Anyone who knows me knows that I am like the biggest Pollyanna in the world, and I want everyone to get along, and have fun while we are doing it. I want to come up with a solution to the morale problem here at work, and am going to be brainstorming ideas for the next week so I can have something to give to my mananger on my next monthly meeting with her. Wish me luck.

These are the days.....

2008-09-01T15:39:00.000-07:00

This is how I feel today, nice and relaxed and sleeping with my stuffed bunny. I love how Cinko looks like she's smiling.

Nice long weekend

2008-09-01T15:37:00.000-07:00

I love having three day's off to just lay around and do absolutly nothing. I haven't even gotten out of my pj's today. I get to lay around watch football (Fresno State's winning so far) and relax. My kids are playing outside in their ghetto swimming pool, (aka a blow-up pool on the patio). Life is good.

Yipee!!!

2008-08-29T10:53:00.000-07:00

Friday before a long weekend

2008-08-29T10:23:00.000-07:00

Am I the only person who loves the three day weekend? I think not, there's nothing better in my mind than having an extra day off of work with PAY! After working way too many years in the retail industry, I have come to absolutely LOVE paid days off, and actually get them off. That means that I get all of the silly days off to, like Martin Luther King's birthday, wow. I get the day after Thanksgiving off as well as Thanksgiving, and it's all paid! I cannot even begin to explain to non-retail workers what an absolute wonder it is to have days off with pay during the holiday season. I use to dread Thanksgiving, because that meant the beginning of 6-7 day work weeks and a mandatory 10-12 hour days. Now it means I have an extra long weekend and the ability to celebrate at work! I can actually wish my co-workers Merry Christmas and not be frowned on for being Politically Incorrect. YIPEE!

Back to School.

2008-08-28T16:25:00.000-07:00

School Lunches

2008-08-28T16:10:00.001-07:00

Oh don't get me started on lunches. Last year Madeline was having "issues" with her stomach and we determined that eating greasy food made her nauseous, so no more school lunches. Connor on the other hand has to eat constantly. Constantly you say, really? And I say YES constantly. If he doesn't have something in his backpack that can be eaten at each recess he is dying of hunger by the time school's out. He's an eating machine. So, Madeline in her brilliance wanted to get up at 5:30am to make her own lunch. Yeah right like that's going to happen, so we compromised and she made her own lunch the night before, which most of it came home uneaten. She had a total of a cup of mandarin oranges and some grapes for lunch! That's exactly what she wanted today too. It's not like she's not eating normally, it's just. I think, at lunch time she is much more interested in socializing with her little friends than eating.

Back to School

2008-08-28T16:05:00.001-07:00

Connor's been losing teeth for the past year. The top front teeth are numbers 4 and 5. The 5th one is soooo wiggly but it still won't come out. I think he wanted to have it on the first day of school. He's so funny. He didn't want to wear that shirt because according to him it makes him look like a nerd! The dress Madeline's wearing is the one I made for her this summer with my brand new sewing machine. It was the first thing that I made, and she helped make the straps, so she had to wear it on the first day. I love that she still likes to wear dresses and she looks so sweet. I love her with her short hair. She was beautiful with her ultra long hair, but the short pixie cut suits her face better I think, plus she still looks like a little girl with the short hair.

Summertime Kids

2008-08-28T16:04:00.001-07:00

So this summer while the kids are with Bonnie and Joe, Joe has signed them up for Karate lessons. Connor has really taken to them, and loves to act like he's fighting someone, the other day he goes into his fighting stance and goes "You want a piece of me old lady?!" to me! OLD LADY! aaaahhhhh, my kid thinks I'm an old lady. Actually cracked me up, he's so cute and still so little, with his little spaghetti arms, but he was getting ready to take me down. Then my Madeline was talking about how much she loves to read, and how she wants to start a book club at school, and she wants to have the first book to be Trumpet of the Swan, when I pointed out that she'd read that book back in 2nd grade her response was, "Yes, but I am an exceptional reader." No ego problems at the Finnegan household.

Calvin and Hobbs test

2008-08-28T15:27:00.000-07:00

Your result for The Calvin Or Hobbes Test...

A Bit Of Both

You are 50% Calvin and 50% Hobbes

Calvin & Hobbes, like a scruffy yin and yang, are in perfect balance within you. Like Calvin, you're weird, a bit insecure, and can be a trouble-maker. But like Hobbes, you're down to earth and sensitive. It's a risk to say it here, after just a ten question test, but I'll bet you're smarter than most. Both Calvin and Hobbes are crafty, clever characters, and any one made from equal parts of each is a force to be reckoned with.

Take The Calvin Or Hobbes Test at HelloQuizzy

Monkey Fur

2008-08-28T15:19:00.000-07:00

So I was helping my son take a shower and wash his hair last night, and when I finished he grabbed his sisters hair conditioner. I told him that he didn't need conditioner for his hair, being that he's a boy and his hair is less than a half inch long, and he tells me that it's for his "monkey fur", and that he wants to make sure that his monkey fur is nice and soft. As he proceeds to put the conditioner all over his arms and legs. Go Connor, that's my 6 year old for ya.