Stay at Home Mom Overloaded

OK, I'll admit it...this stay at home bit is waaaaay harder than I thought it would be. There are so many projects, things to fix, kids activities, the laundry never stops piling up, yard work .....

If I could just get a little help around here.......

......not a bad idea!

Good Friday? We'll see.

Here's how it happened.....

I may have had an incident yesterday. The entire day I was focused and on track with household duties. 

When the kids got home from school I even had them doing really well and ready for the evening softball game. 

With an extra 30 minutes to spare I decide to put my research on the baby weeping willow cherry tree infestation problem to work . 

Warning: If you can't handle spiders then don't read the rest of this. 

Hubbie and kids saw a spider on the tree, I found a cluster of tiny bright green egg sacs and there was webbing on the tree. 

I destroyed  the eggs sacs (odd: they were empty), cut back the dead part of the limbs, removed as much webbing as I could and felt a little freakish about dealing with a spider issue - even though I killed it.

I kept feeling as if I had something on me, BUT knew I didn't and just tried to remain calm. 

While hosing down the tree I find an itty bitty something on my right arm. I flick it off and do a ewwww dance. 

I look closer and realize there was more than one. 

Starting to lose it. 

They are all over my arms....on my skin....they can be seen on my white shirt. 

Now. I'm. Freaking. Out. 

My first instinct is to declothe and spray myself down right there in the back yard. I had my belt and shoes off before I got inside. I had mostly everything else off before I got to the washing machine. I make a dash for the shower and toss my underoos and brazier in the sink with the water running. 

I might be on the verge of hyperventilating and crying at this point. Ok. I was crying. I can't stand spiders and I can NOT handle that many on me. Ewwww....on me!!! 

After scrubbing all my 3000 body parts - I hear the dog whining outside the bathroom door. I shush her. She starts again. I shush her. She starts again and this time I can hear the 2nd grader's voice with some alarm in her tone coming towards my bedroom. 

I opened the shower door to see lots of water and realize the sink drain was clogged by the garments and caused overflowing. It only took half a second to realize that the 2nd grader was going to tell me that the water was going through the ceiling downstairs in the kitchen. 

Now I am extremely close to a mental breakdown....... it was pretty bad. Thankfully we had the worst of it cleaned up (using EVERY towel in the house) before hubbie walked in the door. I will say the ceiling could have been WAAAY worse. 

So, apparently the shower isn't the only thing that needed grout work or recaulking. Ugh - add that and ceiling repainting to my project list. 

Somehow we made it to the softball game and the girls won. The 7th grader in the house, walked up to me at the game and said mom - stop. there's something on your.....then she proceeds to remove something from my neck. I freeze (and fight back tears from fear that the shower didn't take) and ask with a very shaky voice if there are more. 

"Nope, you're good."When we got home I looked at the white shirt - there were still some on there - but were not alive. 

I worked on an ambulance and have seen some horrible things, I don't scare easy, I remain calm in emergency situations ...but I can NOT do spiders. 

I still have the heebie jeebies. I may need therapy. 

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Baby Monkey

......riding backwards On a Pig.



Yay! I finally got that I Whip My Hair Back and Forth Song replaced in my head.

Song available On itunes

Wednesday Random Thoughts

• Well here we go. I guess today would be the first official day as a SAHM (that's the abbreviation for Stay At Home Mom's that we give ourselves).
• For an incredibly long time (since early November) I have been off work with bilateral carpal tunnel. After anti-inflammatory, steroids, physical therapy all failed to help - I ended up having bilateral open carpal tunnel release surgery to relieve pressure off the median nerve.
• No, I did not go with the Brown Method.
• For anyone that truly believes that the surgery is a quick fix is incredibly ill informed. (I mention this because I read a comment someone posted about me.)
• The recovery for this takes about a year to be back to normal --- and there is a good chance that 100% flexibility and strength may not be possible.
• I loved the company I was working for and had full respect for management - but maybe the job that demanded so much typing wasn't meant for my skinny little wrists.
• My right wrist is still swollen and painful at time - but it is getting better. I'm on the path to recovery.
• So, after much discussions - hubbie and I decided to attempt to manage to live without my income.
• (Please, please, PLULEEZE someone buy the ole house. FAST.)
• So here we are. Day 1 of At Home Me.
• I need to get some organization to my daily schedule. Any suggestions? There's gotta be some tricks to keep me on track.
• Oh yea, my laptop hard drive crashed over the weekend.
• I just dropped the Family Cat off at the Vet. She is really curious what it means to "get fixed". The vet tech LOVES her and thinks she is adorable!! hahahaha!
• Younger daughter turns out to be quite the softball player. Older daughter - takes after me - she tried out for every sport in athletics to only make the cross country team (which lets everyone run). 
• Hubbie hasn't been committed yet. yet. 
• Keeping plants alive may no longer be my special talent in life. Apparently. 

Breaking news

I'm back to blogging.

Thank you all that sent little encouraging messages while I was on the injured list. More later that fun.
This morning I went back to the doc and was given a full release.
Then I quit my job.
Oh boy. This outta be a journey.

As a gift to you, I bring you a pic of Hot CNN reporter who is covering the situation in the gulf.

I'm not really sure what the situation was or is.

Not a bad idea....

Change from the everyday stoplight to an LED light that shows you how much time is left.

There's a slight chance you can click the pic for the link. Maybe.

Car Derby Friday

I have never participated in a car derby before,, much less an edible car derby.
#1) That is waaay harder than it seems.

Our sweet second grader went with limes for the wheels, two garlic bread sticks for the body, hello kitty pencils for the axles (axles were allowed to be non food parts), orange peels to connect the bread sticks to the pencils, tostito chips with sparkly sprinkles for the headlights, rolos in red wrappers for break lights, macaroni colored black for the door handles and one peanut butter cracker with a smiley face poked into it for the driver.
Front View:

Back View:

#2) I have never been so entertained over kid's creations. You can only imagine what a bunch of second graders could come up with.

(Psst--BG - look at the one with the lucky charms cereal on it....they put their lasagna noodles together like a sandwich. Why didn't we think of that?)

#3) Hers didn't win first (or second, third...etc...) but this one with the green apples for wheels traveled 20 feet and did win:

#4) Hers might have fallen apart when it hit the floor after going down the ramp.

Oh well....
She said she had fun and didn't mind it falling apart. That made me happy and proud.

Good times.

Wednesday Thoughts

I don't generally feel anything until noon; then it's time for my nap. -Bob Hope

• I woke up in pain all night last night. When I finally decided to get out of bed, I realized I couldn't get out of bed. Literally....or physically. Hubbie had to help me out. I couldn't put pressure on my hands down without a jolt of pain throughout my arms.
• So, like any good husband would do for his wife, my hubbie cut up a pain pill in itty bitty pieces for me, got the kittens off to school and put me back in bed.
• I was feeling a little better the last two or three days. I think the moments of using my hands/arms when I probably shouldn't have are catching up with me.
• Yep, I have The Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. I've been moping around the house for a week and in pain.
• I am on restrictions by the doctor's office and can't work until the doc fixes my wrists.
• Right now I am waiting for the insurance company to approve an EMG study ordered by the the ortho doctor and then I go back to the ortho doc to see what he recommends for treatment.
• I'm up for anything at the moment....just.get.them.fixed. 
• I did the steroids. Nothing. I've taken pain pills. Thrown them up. There's one that semi works....it makes me super sleepy - although does nothing for the pain. But I sleep a little better.
• I have splints that are supposed to stay on all the time. They look goofy. 
• I watched Dancing With The Stars last night for the first time this season (and for the first time in a long time). I was disgusted to see Brandy get voted out and Bristol still standing there. Maybe that's why I don't watch that show.
• Could the jawbone found in Arubia be Natalie Holloway? Or could there be a chance that she isn't the only female that has died in the last five years? I'm betting it belongs to someone else.
• Glee....now that was some good stuff. I love that show.....except for the awkward parts. ......like any kissing scenes while the kittens are watching.
• I'm gonna go insane sitting at home all day. Really really soon.
• I went on a road trip yesterday after walking the older kitten to school. The pup and I made it all the way to the Sonic for a cup of Java. My oh my was that good. 
• I figured out on day one of staying home that i can tether the pup to my belt loop, wear a jacket or long sleeve shirt, and walk around the neighborhood forever. 
• This wouldn't be so bad if I had more use of my hands (without pain). 
• And to answer the age old question: would you rather go without your hands or your feet? That's still up for debate. I'm not sure I would be particularly pleasant without my feet. I love to walk and run way too much. It's frustrating without the hands...but at least I can use them a tiny bit here and a tiny bit there.
• Good grief the kittens and hubbie have been getting onto me...."put that down!" "leave that alone!" "wait-wait let me do that!" They constantly hollar at me. 
• Yes, yes...I know, I know.....be thankful for what I have. There are plenty of others out there that don't have the luxury of dealing with a loving sweet family to take care of them.
• But still.....I just wanna be able to help out around here.
• I've figured out I can continue my daily blogging without pain by taking the entire day to write them....a little at a time. 
• Now off to bed. I gotta get some no-rest so I can wake up exhausted and still in pain in the morning so I can call an insurance company to find out what a gal has to do to get an EMG study approved and schedule already. 
• Did I mention they consider this workman's comp? Ugh. 

Thinking Back.....

Remember that wedding in Arkansas we went to last month? I had taken a snap shot of the a couple of items off their gift registry. Made me giggle:

Is it just me or did my cousin leave the scanner unattended for a minute or two too long and let that fiance of hers scan in a couple of items on their gift registry?

(Reminded me of the beer commercial.)

Monday Phone Thoughts

I got a new phone and boy oh boy am I happy camper.
I got the new Epic 4g and dude is it cool as heck. I mean like really really cool.
It had the "swype"technology on the keyboard and is incredibly fast and ready to use when emailing, texting or entering words into anything. It seems kind of crazy to have a slide out keyboard. I think I used the keyboard that slides out twice before I stated testing out the swype technology.
Iphone4? Pffft...forget about it ! I wouldn't trade this phone for one of those for a million bucks....ummm..well then again, maybe I'm not exactly married to it.
The epic also has the dual cameras so I can video conference on it...which I pulled off once so far with a friend that has an iphone 4.
I can also take self portraits with it and be able to see myself on the screen while I take the picture.
So far so good.
Me happy.

Monday Thoughts

Poor puppy. The things I put her through.

 

• Puppy and I sat on the front porch to hand out candy while the girls went trick or treating with a couple of others and hubbie was spliting time between the ranger's game and hanging with me. It was a good night.
• Some of those little kids were EXTREMELY adorable. I can't remember how many times hubbie or I would say...."He/She is SO adorable!"
• Puppy got lots and lots of attention. It's odd how seeing a puppy will cause people to stop, pet her and then proceed to share a story of the animals they have at home.
• I think the crowds of people coming and going were good for the puppy. She was pretty well behaved.....except when she saw other dogs. She seriously has no idea that she is a small dog and not a big one. That spells trouble.
• I was shocked on how many kids were trick or treating. We ran out of candy before 8pm and I had bought 5 jumbo bags of candy.
• When the girls got home they wanted to pass out candy so they started handing out their own. It was cute and sweet.
• After 8pm it seemed as if the only kids left were tweens and teenagers. We are two houses from an intersection in the neighborhood and a pretty big group of kids --- maybe 20-ish, without adults were running rampart around that intersection. They got honked at a couple of times because they stood in the intersection not letting cars through.
• They were throwing something, too. Unsure what but it's very possible they might have been throwing eggs.
• One tween/teen aged child was dressed in plaid, had a mask and was running around after little kids with a fake chainsaw. It was an insane scene.
• That was about the time we decided to head inside for some frozen pizza and to watch Modern Family from last week together.
• One of our vendors at work gave us (as in the company) two tickets to the World Series game at the ball park. To keep it fair - they took a poll of who could go and held a drawing.
• One of the guys at our shop won. Then he was kind enough to send a picture from the game. I'm so hatin' him right now!
• I hate to say this, but I saw defeat in the eyes of a couple of players around the 6th ending. I have the prediction that this will NOT end well. I hope I'm wrong.
• Cowboys who? I saw a guy at a Halloween Party Saturday night that had a Romo Jersey, the dorky hat and had his arm in a brace (broken clavicle).
• The root canal last week wasn't too bad the day it was done....it was late that night that I was really regretting not having pain meds. #1 I am really bad at swallowing pills. #2 I hate the weird feeling that pain drugs give. #3 Pain drugs make me sickly and I hate throwing up. #4 I think doctors tend to give out pain drugs like candy.
• If I can get through pain without drugs then I'm happy...but that night the tooth and my carpal tunnel was too much too bear. Poor hubbie felt helpless and sad because I laid in bed with little tears falling on my pillow.
• The carpal tunnel is hurting a lot more over the last month. Ice and advil aren't cutting it any more. I also completely don't understand why it will keep me up at night or wake me up at night. I'm laying still...I'm not doing anything repetitive.
• I also have a sneaking suspicion that I may have a thyroid problem.
• This is an odd one...earlier this year I was diagnosed with vitiligo. That would be the disease that Michael Jackson made famous. Go figure, I grow up the awkward ugly duckling, blossom into the swan (cause I'm sooooo good looking) and then get vitiligo. It won't kill me, doesn't hurt, isn't contagious, but still....I'm gonna end up looking so weird if it gets any worse. Right now, its mostly in parts of my body that normally can't be seen.
• I'm falling apart. Fast.
• Don't eat too much candy. It'll rot your teeth. But if you do, I highly reccoment Excellent Dental in Decatur. They are nice, nice, nice.
• Plus, Dr. Renfro made me giggle, when he delivered a message from hubbie's blog that said to give me "Ugh" because of the root canal. Dr. Renfro sees me in the hallway and says, "Ugh". I give him a weird, "Huh?" and he mentions he read hubbie's random thoughts for the day. Ah Ha....now I get it.
• Happy Monday.

Happy Halloween!

Fainting Goat Kittens

Quietly watch this video while I recooperate with a little string cheese snack after going under the knife this morning.

(And I double swear I did NOT giggle at the 1:00 mark. That would probably be wrong.)



via

Charlie and Spike are two kittens with myotonia congenita, otherwise known as 'fainting goat' syndrome.


At the slightest sound, the kittens respond by collapsing and falling into a rigid paralysis, which lasts about a minute before they return to normal.

Calling All Nerds

Our living room TV is going, going, going out. Quickly.


Immediately I thought of the new google tv and was excited about everything that it can do….

BUT we have AT&T Uverse and I don’t think they’ll work together. From what I’ve read – the new google tv will only work with DISH Network.



Any nerds smart people out there know any different (or have a better suggestion)?

Spam

I know this comment is spam, but what is the point? I get a bunch of these and just delete them. Most of the time there isn't a product mentioned.

Monday Thoughts

 

·         I spend a lot of time at work staring at the computer screen while it thinks. A lot of time.

·         Monday back at home. Good ole’ Texas. Yeehaw.

·         This weekend was really nice. The drive was looong, but not bad. Don’t tell my husband, but I think the return trip back was actually record time.

·         On the way there, we didn’t quite take off as early as I planned…..so we weren’t at Grandma and Papa’s sitting in front of the TV to watch the Ranger’s play. We could still get the play by play action on the radio until we hit Texarkana and completely lost it.

·         Thankfully, hubbie had my guilt-driven quick reaction/thinking to remedy the situation. It would have been better to see it live on tv, but sitting in the car as all four of us held our breaths up until the very last was pretty cool.

·         Mother’s flight turned into an adventure as the Little Rock airport was evacuated due to a tornado. After all was clear and ok, she had to go back through security. Eek! She did eventually make it home A-OK last night.  

·         Cousin went through with the wedding, had an incredible turn out, looked gorgeous and happy. I’m glad we went.

·         Plus, my older daughter, spotted a lit candle catching nearby greenery on fire. I jumped up, hit another cousin to get a move on to help, and we got it put out before anyone knew any better. It was entertaining.

·         I got really excited when the preacher introduced the new Mr. and Mrs. to the full chapel and the stage lights started flashing along with the music of Happy Together. I really thought they were going to break out with a dance routine similar to another that went viral. Nope, no crazy dancing in the church. Drat. I should have known better…Church of Christ – no dancing.  There was dancing at the reception though.

·         The kids had a great time playing with their cousins and swimming in the grandparent’s pool that Papa had warmed and ready for the weekend.

·         Our sweet little Precious puppy was extremely well behaved all weekend. No accidents at all.

·         I still can’t believe she did as well as she did in the car. She didn’t whine at all.

·         I didn’t even pig out like crazy on food this weekend. I found a stash of Slim Fast shakes at Grandma’s so passing on the temptation of food, goodies and cake was a little easier.

·         All in all it was a pretty good weekend.

 

 

World's Cutest Dog?

I'm not sure I agree with that.



If that really is considered the world's cutest dog, I'm scared to see the ugliest dog.

New Movie Violence

Not safe for work due to language and not safe for anywhere else if you can't handle violence, blood and/or guts.

Super - Clip | SpikeTV | SPIKE.com

Maybe Dwight Shrute's coworkers from The Office will be a bit nicer to him after seeing that video.

via Spike

Dwight: What weapon?
Andy: My bare hands.
Dwight: That is stupid. I will use a sword and I will cut off your bare hands.
Andy: Then I'll get something too.

Lunchtime Thoughts

We’re going to my grandparents in Arkansas this weekend for my cousin’s wedding. That’s a Looooong Drive!

By flying there, Mother is cheating herself out of all the fun we will be having on that incredibly loooong drive. I looked into flying too, but the cost was waaaay too much for the four of us. Roadtrip alphabet game…..here we come!

Grandparents have a new house with a pool –is it too cold for swimming in AR? It’ll be heated – but I’m not a fan of the cold.

We’re. Not. Taking. The. Fancy. Pretty. New. Car. We’re taking his that’s not….quite so fancy, but still a great car.

In fashion news……Big kitten was instructed to wear normal fingernail polish and she was upset with me when I informed her that blue is not what I consider normal. It was pretty close to becoming a full fledge argument.

I’ve been pretty good about keeping my mouth shut on her choices of fashion, but blue fingernail polish to a wedding was NOT something I was going to let her get away with.

Ok, summer is over, and since I am such a guru on today’s fashion….. when I wear a nice dress to the wedding Saturday, am I supposed to wear panty hose? I’ve been wearing jeans too long and can’t remember the panty hose rules.

We went to the book store last night to get a couple of books to keep us busy on the trip. Big kid picks out Gossip Girl. I knew that was a tv show at one point – but I never watched it. Then she hands me the book during supper and asks me to read the first sentence. The second word had the f bomb in it. Uh oh. Ok, ok…so I read/skim through more of the book to see if the content or story line is as bad as the language. Yep. So, she is now forbidden to read that book. It talked about sex, drugs, drinking…… all the stuff that we pretend doesn’t exist right now because she is so young.

She has a band concert tonight and she will be sitting first chair. Yay! First all A’s and now 1^st chair!

Also, the other morning she accused me of being The Tooth Fairy.  Me? Hmpfh! She better be glad The Tooth Fairy already left her money for her last tooth cause I bet The Tooth Fairy wouldn’t leave her another dime if she thought the kitten didn’t believe in …….. Hey, Wait Just A Cotton Pickin’ Minute…… Wow. That kitten is good!

Did you know that calling someone else’s phone and hearing your own voice for their voice mail message is kinda weird? I had to set up someone’s voice mail at work and recorded the outgoing message verbatim to the one we have on everyone else’s. IT never changed it.  

Speaking of weird, I went by the empty house yesterday to make sure there still wasn’t any bums hiding out in there. I went in my old room, opened the bathroom door and was greeted by the Biggest Lizard EVER in there.

I am not exaggerating (this time) when I tell you it was bigger than our kitten. Seriously, it was like an iguana but different.

I have no clue how it got in there. It’s waaay too big to have come from the bathroom or sink drain. There aren’t any cracks or holes in there and the door sits too close to the floor. The only way I could imagine it getting in there was from the AC vent on the ceiling.

Puppy update: We have now mastered TeeTeePoddy, Sit, Leave It, Stay, Down (belly on floor), We’re working on Take It and the bell – which the cat still thinks is a toy so that hasn’t been going very well. Annnd the barking isn’t bad at all.

I bought two dog books last night, one for training and the other for Yorkshire Terriers. I’m so into this dog thing.

By the way, puppy is going on the trip with us, but the turtle, kitten and other dog isn’t. Is $40 enough for a teenager to turtle sit, doggie sit and kitty sit for a weekend?

I think it’s time for my estrogen shot. I’ve been scatterbrained all week.

Monday Morning Video