phew

So Pedro and the girls should be a g-ma's house by now.  He wants to change his rear brakes with his dad's help and I am having a party.  yay!  Also, if no one shows up I'll just get drunk and eat half of a keylime cheesecake.  What?

Oh gracious.  I am sore.  I made it to the gym four times this week.  I know.  I'm not complaining, I hope, but I very sore and tired.  And I've been getting sleep, even lots of naps.  Sometimes I nap for almost 4 hours!  Maybe since I'm coming back to reality, I'm noticing how out of whack my body is after 3 years of sleep deprivation??? 

I don't know.  I do know that I'm going to see my doc next week and see what she has to say.  My finger joints sometimes hurt (arthiritis?), my knees and feet will ache (old running shoes or something worse?)  As for being tired, could it be my thyroid?  I don't know.  I eat relatively healthy, get rest, get exercise.  Yes, I know, no one gets younger but damn, I feel like every week I'm two steps closer to the grave.  o.O

And we got the girls' school pictures back and then are AWESOME.  I know, I need to post them.

Okay, well, after saying lots of bad words, it's obvious that the email is taking it's sweet time.  Also, I think my phone hates me.  I texted Stacy that I was tired and wanted to jump into my jammies.  What did she get? "I want to jump onto my nannies."

Really phone?

Anyway, suffice to say that Lily's picture is awesomeness because of the big gap in between her bottom teeth.

Madi's picture is exceptional because of the beautiful look on her face and her hands lightly touching together.  :)

 GAH!  Well, I waited another five minutes and still no pics.  I hate the internet.  And I have stuff still to do for the pah-tay so see y'all on the flip side!

note: if I do post tomorrow please keep the lights low and the noise to a minimum.  Thanks.

Oh yeah

Okay, so I haven't had any wine yet and this post should make more sense.  I did, however, just scarf down three chicken fajitas so we'll see how long my tummy holds out.

Madi's teacher had three words up on the board when I got there this afternoon.

Picture
Spider
Meow

Three words that Madi said today.  Context?  They were talking to her and she repeated the word. 

Me?  Ecstatic.

So, I didn't drink wine and I'm trying had to make sense and Lily is over in the corner talking constantly.

S.I.G.H.

Lily has had a better week.  Threatened with me driving her to school she's been staying in the green zone.  The teacher has four zones.  Green, yellow and red.  Red means you will be missing out on part or all of recess.  Purple is if you are SUPER amazingly good. 

What else?  Shoot.  ummm  It's like stuff just goes by so fast now.  One of my friends is bored all week (she only works weekends and is waiting for her full-time job to start) and my week is crazy from the get go.  So Lily might say something hilarious, or Madi can do something new and it's amazing but then 18 hours later something else amazing happens.  You know?  It's just all so fast.  :)

Anyhoodles, I hope everyone is having a good week. 

XO

Smile

Well, ladies and gentlemen, I apologize for the delay.  Pedro keeps on "improving" my computer.  Eyes.  To me this means an interruption to my online shoe shopping and blogging.  To him it means that my computer boots up in 13.7 seconds. 

O.o

Anyhoo, so Madi is doing dramatically different.  Crap well.  Ah, I'm on my third glass of Moscato. 

Oh and I'm having people over on Saturday.  I know for some of you that's probably a normal thing but it's taken me a while to feel comfortable enough.  :)

Pedro and the girls are heading down to g-ma's house so it will just be us ladies.  :)  and Brewster.  He is SO good.  Madi was a royal turd to him today - hitting him, grabbing handfuls of his skin and hair.  He laid there and took it.  He's so sweet.  :)

Anyway, so Madi has done SO well at school.  She's putting her toys away, there and at home.  Puts clothes in the dirty laundry hamper.  She's not talking but she responds to requests.  :)  The hat she's wearing, she put on herself.  She's SO different. 

Her teachers are so impressed.  As are we.  I'd still love to here her talk more but she's just wowing all of us. 

Anyway, this is just not as exciting as I thought it would be.  I'm blaming Pedro as he's watching a funny video behind me.  And then there's the wine.  Oh please, it has been a DAY.  Well, what I remember of it.

What?

silly

I only have a few minutes before I have to get Lily off of the bus.  So let's make this schnappy!

A kid was wearing a sasquatch t-shirt this morning and it totally gave me a flashback to when I was a kid and we were camping in alleged sasquatch territory.  That night we heard weird noises but it wasn't until morning when we found a huge pee stain down the side of the tent.  We tried to figure out if it was human but it was a pretty high wide streak.

I hope it was pee.

O.o

So that was fun pretending to listen to the other mom while my childhood horrors flashed before my eyes.

I managed to get up almost on time this morning.  Got Lily on the bus.  That girl fusses if she doesn't get to ride on it.  Good grief.  She has her friends already and she's pretty sure that she's the most popular girl in her class.  Because "everyone sleeps beside me" 

o.o

Anyway, I was proud of myself for jumping into the whole school thing with both feet but this morning I got up and realized that it's going to be this way for the next 10 months.  I start my routine around 7pm.  Set up the coffee pot, make lunches, get outfits ready.  Then get the girls ready for bed and give Madi her sleeping medicine.  She still doesn't fall asleep til 10 or so but better than the alternative!

Then I might have some mommy time between 10 and 11.  Which means that 6:30 comes pretty darn quick.  Today I did crash and sleep for almost 3 hours.  But my throat is killing me, I'm coughing and I'm sure I have the latest school plague.  Lovely.

Anyhoodle, it stopped pouring so I think I'll get ready to go and get Lily.  Whee doggies!

Wheeee!

Lily woke me up last night with a croup sounding cough.  And by last night, I mean 1:30am.  Not a huge deal as she knows what to do and we both just headed to the shower so she could soothe her lungs with hot steam.  But you know, that was the middle of the night and though we got back to bed by 2, that really put a damper on my sleep, especially when Brewster decided it was a great time to pee on the carpet. 

*eyes*

Anyhoo, the week went by relatively smoothly.  Madi seems to hate school.  lol  They make her do work and expect to her follow the routine.  I have noticed new behaviour and vocalizations at home.  Whatever it is that they make her do, art, circle time, etc.  It definitely pushes her.  I talk to her, I promise, until it feels like I'm blue in the face.  Every diaper change, I try to get her to point to a character. 

Sigh.

Anyway, that's why she goes to school.  To learn.  It's my duty to get them there and make sure they have food and clean clothes. 

Lily ummmm, seems to have a built of trouble following the rules.  She doesn't seem upset by it.  She told me she was trying to balance a container of apple sauce on her head in the cafeteria and wouldn't sit down so she was sent to the quiet table.  She just shrugged it right off.  I would've felt guilty for weeks and never wanted to go back!

But at least she likes school.  Oh and she got to see Carson.  Thank goodness. 

OH!

And Madi's boyfriend from last year, Ty, is no longer in her class but he comes into their room and says "where is she?".  LOL  He gives her a hug and then leaves.  I never had anyone watching my back like that when I was 3!  Dang.  Anyhoo, it's time to go out and get groceries.  Madi has slept over 3 hours.  Poor wee thing is probably recovering from school.  She's there from 8:15 til about 2:15.  Lily leaves the house at 7:20 and doesn't get back til 4:30! 

What do I do all day?  None of your business....  O.o

XO

Welcome to the new life!

Or something. 

I'm kind of distracted.  A) Brewster is in the study with me and I have to make sure his mayhem is under control.  B) I'm trying to eat some very hot oatmeal.  C) Do y'all KNOW how good full fat yogurt is????  Mercy.

Hey, I worked out for 90 minutes.  If I want to put a dollop (or two) of yogurt on my oatmeal, that's MY business.  :)

So, Lily and Madi are now in school.  Whee doggies!  Last year, Madi's teacher took it easier on her cuz she was the baby of the class.  Now that she's 3, she's expected to do more. 

She HATES it.

She dragged her feet all the way into the school.  She saw her teacher in the hall and stopped dead.  When I was trying to pull her into the classroom, she yanked her hand out of mine and tried to make a run for it. 

O.O

The TA told me that Janice won't let her comfort Madi anymore.  She says they need to break their bond.  But Na said, as soon as Janice leaves the room, she gives Madi a quick snuggle. 

I know, I know. 

Poor Madi was BAWLING when I left her.  She was never like that before.  Sigh.  I'll be honest, I'm worried what the future holds but then I've always been worried about the future. 

Hunh.

Anyhoo, it's no surprise to anyone that Lily loves everything about kindergarten.  So someone needs to explain to me why she was a total bitch when she came home.  Total.  Bitch.  Kicked Brewster, yelled at me.  Damn.

Anyway, I guess Madi isn't the only one with issues.

So Lily quit horseback riding.  Her choice.  Might try again next year. 

BG was peeing and pooping in the kitchen.  I took him to the vet yesterday and they couldn't find anything obviously wrong with him.  Brewster was in the area between the kitchen and the litter boxes.  He provided quite the gauntlet.  So I rearranged the baby gates and now the cats can reach the litter door. 

hmmmm what else?  Oh Madi dropped the F-bomb in class.  She won't say anything with any consistency except for b*tch and f*ck.  We do actually speak without swearing most of the time. 

I swear.  I mean, I promise.  :)

That's all I can think of for now.  Madi is on new sleep meds and it's helping.  It's not perfect but it's way better than it was.  So I'm getting more sleep but after 3 years of sleep deprivation it's going to take a while to get back to normal.  :)

Peace!

Here we go!

Finally got Lily's teacher assignment today.  I've tried to do some internet stalking but I'm clearly not very good at it.  Trying to find out more on this Ms. Hinkle person.  :)

Lily has also told us that she no longer wants to take horseback riding lessons.  We haven't had a chance to tell the trainer yet.  Maybe it's a bit too much for a 5 year old?  She wants to take dance lessons and/or karate instead.  I can make that happen.  :)

What else?  Still dealing with asthma.  Hate it.

I guess that's it.  I have to meet Pedro in town and all I want to do is nap.....zzzzzz

Viva!

I did something very uncharacteristic of myself this morning and refrained from complaining on Facebook.  Madi slept through the night.  I slept through the night.  The sun was shining and what the hell else do you need?

Yes, the deer attacked my veggie garden.  Yes, BG peed down the front of my stove.  It is Friday the 13th, after all. 

On the plus side, I've been having kickass workouts.  It's amazing what breathing can do.  No really.  I didn't realize how sapped I was from the asthma until I didn't have to suffer from it anymore.  Now I can run until my legs give out instead of stopping because I can't stop sucking wind.  I did have a bit of an attack today but I just focused on breathing and got through it. 

I asked my trainer for a new routine and it takes me almost an hour and a half now to get everything done.  But the results have been pretty quick... I feel like a spaz right now and I'm sure no one cares about my workouts but I care and it's my blog so.  :p  Gosh, I'm getting ornery with myself.  I think I need some fat and salt.  lol

I haven't been eating much because the prednisone hurts my stomach.  Which is lucky because I'd been sitting in bed a lot trying to get over this "cough".  If you go to the gym 4 times a week and then you can't go, and then you are feeling sorry for yourself and making and eating chocolate cake...  Well, you can see how an efficient workout would be nice. 

AND omg I was so mellow last night when I got home from the gym.  I needed to burn off those stress hormones.

I am pissed that I have asthma.  I'm more pissed that it's something I need to take medication for.  I was in a bad way last week.  If I hadn't gone to the doc that day I would've ended up in the emergency room.  That just annoys me.  I know other people rely on taking medicine.  It's not something I'm ready to do yet.  Full-time.

Anyhoo, I'm feeling better, back to losing weight, getting some rad muscles.  And school starts in a month.  wooooo freaking hoooooo! 

The pics are from Wednesday.  Lily had a makeup lesson.  Madi wore herself out running around.  Apparently, we need to get a farm so she can wear herself out and sleep through the night.  What?  Oh and the horses all loved her.  I held her up to pet Shadow (the brown horse) and he was wuffling her legs and sniffing her all over.  I have spent a lot of time and mints getting him to like me.  Madi ran past him and he followed her!  Innis (the white and brown) liked her too.  hmpf  I mean, yay.

Coffin

haha See what I did there???

Nevermind.

So I've been on this asthma medication crap for a week.  FYI, prednisone gives me roid rage.  My doc called this morning and told me to start tapering it off.  I'm coughing, but lightly.  Still annoying though.  She wants me to take it really easy until it's all cleared up.  I'm not good at taking things easy.  I worked out really hard to lose all that weight last year and I'm not good at sitting down watching my muscles atrophy.  So I think I might sneak to the gym tonight... shhhh  No running, just some lifting to make me feel like I'm doing something.

What else?  hmmmmmm  Lily is doing better and better all the time with her riding.  It's been super hot so sometimes the lessons are about horsemanship, care, etc.  I have to admit that I would love to take lessons in the fall and learn how to jump.  Not to compete or anything, it's just something I'd like to do.  Probably one time and my buttocks will say "enough!" This is how it starts.  You get into your two point position before the jump. 

Then back into the three point after. Obviously, she's just going over a log but it's to prepare her timing.  I guess.  Mandy, the trainer, and I were chatting and I just happened to watch Lily do exactly what she was supposed to do out of the corner of my eye.  She's a great kid and a smart kid but she doesn't always follow directions well.  That's why I love watching her ride, she listens (and whines a bit) but follows the instructor.  Usually.

And last but not least, honey badger.  With her hand in the peanut butter jar.  Stacy says Madi reminds her of Pooh bear and so it cracked me up to see Madi scooping peanut butter like it was honey.  :)  She's doing okay.  She was 36" and 28lbs at the doc's office today.  26% for height and 16% for weight?  She's teeny.  But the doc says that she's following her own growth curve and no one can really predict how she'll turn out. 

Gasp

So....  Remember when I was pretty sure that I was dying of the plague?  That was a few weeks ago.  Turns out that I have asthma.  I couldn't understand why I was coughing stuff up but my cough never went away.  Things got progressively worse I wasn't getting rest due to coughing over night so I went to an inpatient place last Monday.  She said my lungs were clear but that I had mild asthma, possibly due to throat irritation from post nasal drip.

Sexy.

So I took steroids for five days, used an inhaler and prescription strength cough suppressants.  whee doggies!  When I was still bad after the prednisone, I broke down and used the z-pak.

Sigh.

So five days of gastrointestinal distress and I STILL wasn't better.  I called my doc's office yesterday and asked if they had appointments for today.  July 4th.  Yeah, I was pretty lightheaded.  I told them I was coming in and luckily Pedro came home early.  I was face down on the bed fighting for air.

No, seriously.

I got to the office and my doc said that my lungs sounded like a squeeze box.  She got me started on a nebulizer.  As I leaned over to turn off the machine, I noticed that my toenails were turning blue.  I've told EVERYONE I know about this.  lol  I pointed it out to my doc and she only said "Yeah, it's a good thing you came in today."

*eyes*

I'm back on steroids, which taste AWFUL, by the way.  She prescribed Advair which cost me $200.00

TWO HUNDRED FREAKING DOLLARS!

I'm glad I could pay for it but shit fire.

So it's get up in the morning, use the Advair, take my steroids, zoloft and acyclovir (for my eye shingles inflammation). And then use my rescue inhaler as needed, which is pretty much every 4 hours.

And drink a crap ton of water.

On the plus side, I was enjoying taking deep breaths yesterday.  I'd do it for the sheer pleasure of it.  You don't know how bad it is not to breathe, until you can't.  Well, duh.

She thinks it's a summer allergy thing.  It is DAMN hot outside and the air quality ain't great.  She says she has the same thing in July.  She uses Advair before July to prepare her lungs.  Well, good grief $200 a month....  A nebulizer is a lot cheaper and I have a great excuse to stay in bed and play video games.  What?

So yeah, this year has been a little rough.  We had that bad storm on Friday which knocked out power to millions of people in the state.  Ours was out for only a few hours.  I try to be grateful for things like that but ding dang it, I'd like to be happy about something good!  Not something less bad.

*eyes*

Well, Pedro wants to take Lily to watch the fireworks tonight.  He took her to a movie recently too.  He's been stepping up his game as a dad.  (bout damn time)

What?

Another first!

Lily FINALLY lost her first tooth.  I say finally because it's been loose for months.  Dang.  Pedro tied string around it and gave it a good yank.  He thought the string came off because there wasn't any tooth with it but I watched Lily cough it out.  :) 

She looks so cute.  It's another piece of childhood bites the dust.

hahahahah No pun intended.

Lily is getting better at horseback riding too.  I make her do squats to help strengthen her legs.  I have taken English riding lessons.  ONCE.  Since taking them again as an adult I have total admiration for how people ride English style and compete.  I was aching after 20 minutes!  So I forgot what my point was, but I think it was that riding is hard and I'm proud of Lily.  The trainer had the horse walking a little faster today.  It kind of freaked Lily out.  :)

Madi is still Madi.  Making more babbling sounds and being a honey badger.

So goes my life.  Oh yeah, Brewster got neutered on Friday.  I've already had to duct tape his cone.  Damn Labs.

Confession

I know this is weird, but fireflies make me nervous. 

A long time ago, there was a show on tv.  Amazing Stories?  There were two similar shows so I don't remember exactly which one it was.  Anyway, it was about a vampire.  A very old man moved into a young boy's neighborhood.  The boy found the old man suspicious and started snooping.  He found a fridge full of blood.  ooooooh!  He was caught, of course, by the old man but the two of them became friends.  One night, the old man took the boy to a cemetery and showed him some lightning bugs, and told him to remember.  It was sweet but kind of so what.

In the meantime.... the other people in the neighborhood were complaining of aches and pains and some kind of flu.  One night, they all morphed into monsters and went into the old vampire's house and killed him.  The old man had explained to the boy that it was human's natural protection against vampires.  And he was waiting in his arm chair with a glass of blood.  eeeeek! 

So the next morning, everyone is horrified at the murder in their community but they all feel surprisingly better. 

The boy remembers what the old man says and goes back to the cemetery to see the fireflies.  And what happens the next day?  Everyone starts sneezing at him.  Run kid, run!

So there weren't fireflies where I grew up.  I'm not sure how old I was when I finally saw one.  But there are a lot where I live now and I get nervous whenever someone sneezes around me.  Not that I've ever met a vampire, mind you. 

It's silly the stuff that stays with you, huh?

Oh my

I guess it has been a while.  It's kind of hard for me to get to the computer and also hard to blog from my phone.  Haven't tried it from the Kindle yet...

So life is plodding along.  Lily had a great time at her grandparent's house.  She also had a great time with the babysitter today.  Yes, a baby sitter!  Madi and Lily seemed to like the girls that watched them in March and one of them is her teacher's daughter so...  Malaina really likes Madi and Madi seems to like her so... I feel like I'm guilty of ellipsis abuse.  So I finally got to go to the range.  I love that 22!  It's so easy to shoot.  Then I shot my 9mm and I swear that thing is trying to kill me.  I wore a baseball cap today to protect me from the hot spent casings (did that sound dirty?) and sure enough, they started flying at me out of the FN.  *eyes*  I did pretty well with the shotgun too.  It was pretty busy, I thought.  We were at the plinking range and a little after we showed up, someone else showed up.  But we all worked pretty well together.  I think the guy in charge took himself a little too seriously as he'd ask us if we were ready to put up more targets and when we said yes, he'd yell "CEASE FIRE!" 

*eyes*

I get it.  He was trying to be safe but it seemed like overkill to me.  Also, usually Pedro went alone downrange.  *cough*

So what else?  I know there's a lot and I have pictures but it's a matter of getting them from my phone to the computer.  Oh yeah, I think I can copy off of Facebook... Alright, not the best pic of me. 

Everywhere we went today we were rushing, so I had to take a fast pic or Pedro threatened to throw my cell phone down range.  *eyes*  Do you really want to threaten a woman with guns?  Jeez.

So Lily starts Nature Camp tomorrow.  No idea what to expect and I should probably be packing up a bag for her.  Right.  Now.

I'm excited for her because she's excited.  :)  We have to figure out what to do with Pedro's transmission.  I think the plan is to take his car over to the local place and get them to flush it.  If they get a close look at it and agree that it's toast, then we have to figure out how to get a rebuilt one.  A new one is just too much.  I'm hoping that flushing the transmission fluid (that the dealership admitted is filthy) will help. 

Sigh.

Madi is still being Madi.  Brewster is getting to be a better behaved puppy.  He was alone for 4 and a half hours today (not the norm) and no accidents nor did he destroy anything out of boredom/frustration.  Yay, Brewwie!

Okay, one more for the peanut gallery....

E

Betty Bangs and a shotgun

Happy Mother's Day!  No, nothing fancy for today.  I spent over two hours at the salon yesterday.  I kind of commandeered some time for myself.  I got my haircut and my feet done.  woohooo!

This morning, dropped off Madi's prescription (she's still coughing), got a donut, got a paper, took Brewster to the dogpark, then picked up the prescription and went home.  It was kind of a nice morning.  I went to the gym, but I had to leave after my run cuz I was freaking starving.  No, really.  It was awful.  I'm ordering some Italian food for tonight.  Once I clear off enough room to eat on the dining room table.  *cough*

I feel kind of... content?  Relaxed?  I'm glad that school is over.  Just all the rushing around and driving I did each week.  400 miles?  500?  One tank was not enough.  So it will be nice staying close to home for a while.  AND holy crap the "art" work.  I just brought a stack of it into the study to process.  It's never ending when they're in school.  How many stick figures can you keep???


Well, I guess that's it since I have to finish up before I can get my dinner.  And I can't drink until I'm home for the day so I'd better get cracking.....

Oh yeah, and Pedro got his shotgun.  Mossberg something 90.  Pump action, 12ga.  Now I just need a babysitter.

And zombies to shoot.

OMG

Well, I was rolling on in here expecting to write something sort of witty but the new blogger template has me all a twitter.  ha.  No, not the other twitter.  I cannot believe how small Brewster was when we got him.  Took him to the vet for a booster and he's 16 weeks and 32.5 pounds.  Sh*t fire.












 

Let's see, just getting over some stomach issues.  Holy crap it was bad.  I won't go into the gory details but I had to use some of Madi's diaper cream.  *eyes* 

Madi and Lily aren't well.  They aren't super sick either but it seems like Lily now has Madi's cough, Madi still has her cough and she's teething.  Add a puppy and a sick mom to the mix and you get....  I don't know but it involved me taking vicodin to sleep last night.  What?

Both girls are done with school this week.  That sounds simple, right?  Nope.  Two parties to bring food for.  Teachers to buy presents for.  And I still haven't mailed off my cousin's birthday and baby's presents.  Mercy.  Well, Madi was sick, then we were out of town, then I was sick...  I really can't wait for the girls to be done with school so that we can chill a bit.  I'm worn out, yo.  Yes, the handle on my door broke.  But also, Lily and Brewster play hours each day together.  :)




 

 

So it rained when we went to Busch Gardens on Saturday evening but I think we made the best of it. It wasn't as busy, of course, we were able to go on some rides again and again.  However, puppy was in g-pa's garage so we didn't want to let him feel totally abandoned.  What else?  ummmm  That's all I can think of.  I'm tired and under the gun.  Oh, Pedro's shotgun arrives tomorrow at the store in town.  It's a 590 pump action, 12ga.  They are hard to get a hold of, so he found one online and quickly had it transferred to our local place.  No, you cannot buy firearms off of the internet and have them sent to your house.  :)  At least, not in this country.

I guess that's it.  Just trying to claw my way through this week.  We have puppy class tonight.  yeehaw!















And this should be obvious as Lily in one of her riding sessions.  I love the trainer "There's no crying in horseback riding, and if you say you can't again, you're going to owe me a penny."

HA!