Ramblings of a SAHM

Monday, February 28, 2005

All and all it was a very good weekend after I got over my mini-hangover. I recovered 2 kitchen chairs and started a 3rd (total of 6). We went out to dinner with the in-laws last night and I almost finished all the laundry yesterday.

Now the fun begins. We leave at noon on Thursday. Between now and then I have to clean the house, put away all my scrapbook supplies, go grocery shopping, prepare all the meals for the time we are gone (or at least buy stuff like chicken nuggets and frozen pizza), vacuum the van, write lists for the babysitter, make a VHS tape of Little Bear episodes (long story), finish recovering the kitchen chairs, have all the laundry done, and go to 2 dentist appointments for me (cleaning today, crown fitting on Wednesday. I feel so royal).

Oh and I guess sometime in all this I need to prepare for the actual vacation. Off the top of my head, I need to buy sunscreen, give myself a pedicure, and visit Half Price Books for some cheap trashy novels. I'll pack Thursday morning. And we won't get into the fact that "Aunt Flo" hasn't visited yet. Bitch.

So my first stop is the drycleaners to pick up my Superwoman costume. haha

Katie at 9:03 AM

Saturday, February 26, 2005

As an attempt to strengthen my alcohol tolerance before vacation (it's an all inclusive resort, Greg says he wants to get his money's worth of fruity drinks with little umbrellas) and to drown out my crabbiness, I drank 2 Long Island Ice Teas and played EQ2 until 1 in the morning. See this is what stay at home moms do to live on the wild side, drink the equivalent of 8 shots of liquor and play computer games past their bedtime.

And this morning... Ow...

Katie at 8:41 AM

Friday, February 25, 2005

I hate hormones. I know they do all sorts of wonderful things like make women physically lovely, sustain pregnancies, and allow nursing but when it comes to this monthly cycle crap, I really hate them. And anyone who says they don't have mood swings due to hormone fluctuations are either lying or on some really good drugs. Hand them over now!

I think someone could analyze my last 15 months worth of blog posts and ignoring any "my period started today" posts, you could pick out what day of the cycle I was on according to my mood. Days 1-6: "that" time of the month, a little crampy but generally subdued. Days 7-13: cheerful and upbeat. Days 14-20: what I would call my baseline, no extreme emotions either way. Days 21-28: I hate life, I'm crampy and bloated, "go away!", why am I crying, I don't want to cry because it gives me a headache, ow I have a headache, did I mention "go away!"

It's not fair. Because I distinctly remember only have one day of PMS way back before I went on my pregnancy and nursing spree for the better part of 7 years. And now a week of this? Ye gods are truly cruel.

So I've spent the last few days yelling at the kids, curled up on the couch with a quilt, being weepy, downing Advil like candy, and avoiding Greg because I really would like to stay married to him so I'm attempting to spare him my Medusa act. I've also had zero motivation to do anything beyond meals, general kitchen clean-up, laundry, and taking the kids to school. It's been a dismal week.

And for any of you counting along at home, this being my Day 21-28 period, "that" time of the month falls during next week. When we fly to the Bahamas. *bangs head on desk* If anyone needs me, my crampy bloated self with puffy red eyes will be on the couch with a quilt over my head alternately eating chocolate and Advil.

Katie at 9:57 AM

Thursday, February 24, 2005

What a way to start a Thursday. The kids have a 2 hour delay due to snow. And I look outside and ask "what snow?" Sure there's a dusting of white stuff on the grass but it's not even bothering to stick to the sidewalks and roads. And last time I checked we drove on the roads and walked on the sidewalks so what does snow on the grass matter? It was another one of those days where I wouldn't have thought to check for a delay. Kyle saved us a useless trip to school by asking to watch Little Bear for the ten millionth time. But what do I care, next time this week I'll be flying to the Bahamas!

Quote of the Day: "What we call progress is the exchange of one nuisance for another nuisance." -Henry Havelock Ellis

Katie at 9:39 AM

Wednesday, February 23, 2005

Hey I did it! Thank you Talam and The Back of My Mind! If you come across anything weird (waiting on blogrolling to fix my * color for updated blogs), let me know. I tested it in Opera and Mozilla and while you don't get the dotted lines between posts like you do in IE, it's not bad. Also I think there's a small line between the columns in Opera that doesn't show in other browsers but I'm okay with that. If I have any 800x600 users, this template should work, you might still have a horizontal scroll but the main text areas shouldn't need scrolling. I haven't decided exactly how I'm doing links, whether to make them another color like before or just leave the different font sizes as is. (regular text=13, link text=11). Archives are currently in the old template design, I will fix that in a bit. Blah, blah, blah. It's blue! Woohoo!

Katie at 10:07 AM

Tuesday, February 22, 2005

I swear to God I am going to find an online grocery service that delivers. Or at least has a drive-through pick-up. Because grocery shopping in an actual store with a 3 year old and a 2 year old is going to be the end of me.

A new promotion for grocery stores: upon entrance, a complimentary prozac for the parent and unlimited sedative shots for the children. Repeat after me: drugs are our friends...

The stupid thing is that I do this to myself every week. We drive to the store. We have to use the entrance opposite the groceries because the restrooms are there and Kyle always has to potty even though he just went several minutes ago at home. Kyle then begs to walk. I grab a cart that seats 2 just in case (okay so maybe I've wised up a tiny bit). Walk all the freaking way across the store to the grocery department. Begging for candy and a free cookie begins before I even put the first item in the cart. Kyle usually ends up in the cart before we make it through aisle 2 due to some misbehavior: running too far ahead, bumping into someone, grabbing things off the shelves... Today it was stuffing a handful of bulk candy gum balls in his mouth while I was distracted with Kelly trying to free base jump out of her seat.

Other highlights from today's trip: my brother in law called my cell phone during the dreaded evil cereal/cookie aisle (I'm so never going to be an aunt), Kyle (after being put in the cart) screamed until his face turned red and then shoved his head in the arm hole of his coat, both kids refused their free cookies and wanted doughnuts instead (I didn't buy doughnuts or candy), we accidently ended up with 3 different types of children's toothpaste and a guarantee the kids will hate all of them, Kelly lost a shoe somewhere in the store and I didn't realize it was missing until I was buckling her into her carseat, and (surprise, surprise!) I developed one of those "stabbing ice picks in my temples" type headaches.

Oh and the best part? Spending $150 and having no idea what's for dinner.

Katie at 4:11 PM

I'm falling behind again. I really need to make some to do lists to get back on track. For example I haven't thought about anything going on this week beyond taking the kids to school and grocery shopping today. Which isn't very far ahead considering I usually have the next 30 days mapped out.

*drum roll please* Greg and I are going to the Bahamas next weekend! (First weekend of March for those of you who confuse the definitions of "this weekend" and "next weekend") I'm feeling very spoiled because he arranged everything: plane tickets, hotel, and babysitter. But I still need to make sure the house is cleaned, everything is in an easy to find spot (medicines, etc), and meals are planned for the time we're away. Oh and I have to find my summer clothes since it'll be at least 40 degree warmer down there (*blissful sighs*). So if you only read glowing accounts of the children for the next several days it's because I'm trying not to scare off the babysitter. hehe

Katie at 9:29 AM

Saturday, February 19, 2005

Big news! Greg has a photo blog! His PDA/cell phone broke about a month ago (the flip part wore out from too much flipping) and he replaced it with a camera/cell phone. He has wanted a camera phone for awhile because he comes across some really random bizarre stuff when he travels. Which brings me back to his photo blog, I'm not sure how often he'll update but check it out: The Things I See... (named edited and changed). We won't go into the fact that he's paying for TypePad and I'm still on freebie Blogger. *winks*

Katie at 9:38 AM

Friday, February 18, 2005

It's days like these when I really miss fridayfive.org (it's gone, don't bother to try to go there). Blog MeMe's really do serve a nice purpose on occasion. Especially on days when all I'm doing is wishing it was warm outside and recovering kitchen chairs. Wake up there, sorry I didn't mean to put you to sleep in the first paragraph.

I've lost that inner voice that says "I can't wait to blog about this!". It's rather weird. I'm tired of the same old topics here: the kids are sick (or me), the weather is cold, I cleaned the house, etc. The funny thing is that I'm not bored of my life at the moment. I'm quite happy humming along with the radio as I drive to school 3 times a day and run errands. I'm loving this cuddly phase Kelly is going through. I'm enjoying Kyle's odd thoughts that pop out of his head and Emily and Ally's countless drawings and Zach's "books" he's been writing in Word. I'm beyond thrilled that Greg is home at the moment, this last week was THE.LONGEST.EVER. I guess the problem is that I can't find a way to write about all these little pieces of my life and make it interesting enough to post for the whole internet (or the 10 or 12 of you who read this, whichever).

I'm amazed and envious of those bloggers who do just that though. Write every day about their semi-normal lives and make it extremely captivating. I won't name names but anyone who usually has a * next to their names over there on the right every day is definitely on that list. My hat's off to you, you are truly making the internet great.

And then back to me. Maybe I'm just being lazy and not trying hard enough. Maybe the creative writing well has dried up (oh geez, I hope not!). But I sit here and look at the beautiful roses Greg gave me for Valentine's Day that are at the perfect stage of openness with all the petals curled back but not quite to the point where you see the yellow centers and I can't think of any way to describe them other than Gertrude Stein's "A rose is a rose is a rose" quote. Which isn't saying much about them at all. *sigh*

Quote of the Day: Alice came to a fork in the road. "Which road do I take?" she asked.
"Where do you want to go?" responded the Cheshire cat.
"I don't know," Alice answered.
"Then," said the cat, "it doesn't matter."
-Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

Katie at 2:03 PM

Thursday, February 17, 2005

Another day, another dollar. Nothing too exciting happening here now that everyone is feeling well. I had the prep work done on my root canal'ed molar for the crown earlier today, yippee... The abscess is clearing up nicely, thank God for antibiotics. Greg returns home later this evening (he's flying out of Dallas/Fort Worth so cross your fingers his flight doesn't get canceled as usual). Sometimes it's very good to be boring.

Quote of the Day: "To poke a wood fire is more solid enjoyment than almost anything else in the world." -Charles Dudley Warner

Katie at 3:08 PM

Wednesday, February 16, 2005

Finally found the camera battery charger (long story) so here are pictures of our newest pet. Meet Piggy!

He (she?) is only about 5 weeks old and about half the size of a full grown guinea pig. So far he doesn't do much other than devour hay and squeak. Oh and poop, I need to clean his cage already and we've only had him 5 days.

Poor Piggy has some serious cow licks going on. I wonder if they make a gel for that. The kids are quite thrilled with him, messy fur and all, especially Kelly pictured above.

Katie at 10:38 AM

Tuesday, February 15, 2005

So to get back to this business of writing... All creative processes have been hard for me lately. Which would probably upset me more if I had time to dwell on it but instead trying to be healthy has kept me pretty busy. And as inspiring as puking bile for the seventh time in one day while five children dance like wild Indians around the house and eat all the cereal sounds, oddly enough for me it's not so inspiring. Unless "oh crap, oh crap, oh crap, I can't believe I'm so sick, oh crap, oh crap" is going to win me a Pulitzer. Yeah, I didn't think so.

I've tried to finish this blog post a dozen different ways but nothing seems to sound right (see what I mean about creative difficulties?). So I'll end with: you know that soul stirring feeling when you open up all the windows in the house on the first sunny spring-like day after a long hard winter?

So there right now.

Katie at 2:03 PM

Monday, February 14, 2005

Weeee!!! It just keeps getting better and better. *sarcasm* I have a Phoenix Abscess! Which is an infection you can get right after having a root canal. The dentist put me on antibiotics so it should clear up in a few days. In the time being I'm going back to sniffing my roses and eating chocolate.

*afraid to ask "What's next?"*

Katie at 2:20 PM

I'm alive! Sort of... On Saturday, I wasn't so sure. Somewhere along the line I caught a stomach flu bug. Every time I tried to get semi-vertical, I was puking. And since I couldn't keep anything done including pain meds, my root canal hurt like a sonofabitch all weekend. "You'll be a little sore for a few days..." I hate dentists.

So today I'm feeling a bit better but still very worn out. The kids seem fine and Greg's safely at a trade show in Dallas. The house is a wreck however, it's going to take awhile to straighten up this mess. Blah...

Oh and Happy Valentine's Day! My gifts already arrived, a dozen red roses and chocolates from Greg. Thank you, thank you, they are exactly what I needed to brighten my day. :)

Quote of the Day: "Love is much nicer to be in than an automobile accident, a tight girdle, a higher tax bracket or a holding pattern over Philadelphia." -Judith Viorst

Katie at 11:24 AM

Thursday, February 10, 2005

Sick husband, sick kids, it's a barrel of monkeys around here. It's also snowing and freezing outside. And oh yeah, I had a root canal this morning. But I'm not complaining because it could probably be worse. Although I'm not sure how. Oh I've got it, I could have had two root canals.

Quote of the Day: "The basis of optimism is sheer terror." -Oscar Wilde

Katie at 11:15 AM

Wednesday, February 09, 2005

I'm throwing in the towel on this Good Week ™ madness. I'm sick. Which is just bonus on top of having another night like last night but this time with a headache so painful, it hurts to breathe. There's nothing quite like being exhausted and having a pounding headache and then having to wake up every hour to deal with whiny crying sick kids. I feel so sorry for the kids who have been putting up with this flu bug for the last few days.

Yesterday we did manage to go to the grocery store and the pet store. Today I'm not even taking the kids to school. Not that they'd probably go anyways, they all look about as good as I feel. Greg returns home tonight (he's been out since Monday morning), I bet he's going to be thrilled to walk into the House of Illness.

Quote of the Day: "A family is a unit composed not only of children but of men, women, an occasional animal, and the common cold." -Ogden Nash

Katie at 8:55 AM

Tuesday, February 08, 2005

Oh boy... I think there's a cloud of germs that waits outside of our house and when they see I'm motivated and productive, they swarm in and infect the kids. *sigh*

My Good Week ™ started out well enough. The kids' dentist appointments couldn't have been any more perfect. The ladies at the office gushed over Kelly's cuteness (she dressed herself in her princess snow boots, jeans, white fur trimmed hoodie, and wore her white fur hat and mittens) and she was so good in the chair that they were able to give her a fluoride treatment. But my first indication that things might be going downhill was when Kyle started to look a little drowsy while we waited for Emily and Ally's cleanings to finish.

And downhill we slid at neck break speeds. When we got home, Kyle nibbled at lunch and said he wanted to go to bed. And this is the kid that fights at bedtime to stay out of bed. Uh oh, fever of 102. So I gave him a dose of medicine and let him sleep. We'll go grocery shopping on Tuesday, I decided, hopefully Kyle will feel better then.

After school, the kids and I made sugar cookies to decorate with sprinkles. I think I'm never going to learn my lesson with sprinkles. They always get everywhere and at the time I curse myself for thinking sprinkles and my children together are a good idea. And a few months later I forget about the mess and it sounds fun and lather, rinse, repeat...

So then Kelly and Emily couldn't finish their second cookie (and they weren't big cookies, Zach could have eaten 6 if I let him). Uh oh... More fevers. I gave them medicine and made them comfy. Around dinnertime Kelly was really fussy and would only calm down if she was sitting in my lap. Since I hadn't made it to the grocery store and didn't have anything quick in the house to make, I ordered pizza from the crappy delivery place that the kids like. Kelly fell asleep on me and I had to wake Kyle for dinner (which he didn't eat). Bedtime was relatively easy since I just had to move 3 sleeping kids from the sofas up to their beds.

And then the fun started. At around midnight Kyle had a coughing fit that caused him to puke a little. But since he hadn't eaten dinner it was just water. Still, yuck. And then Emily woke up and "couldn't sleep." And then Kyle needed a drink of water. And then Kelly woke up in a fit. And Ally woke up at some point but I don't remember what she wanted. Finally Kelly ended up in my bed around 3:30 and I remember hearing Emily and Ally playing in their room at 6. Needless to say, I'm rather tired this morning.

Still I'm soldiering on. Em seemed fine this morning so I sent her off to school. Kyle still looks rotten and Kelly is being whiny. I hope Kyle feels well enough to make at least a quick trip through our local grocery store for a few items like Cheerios and fruit.

Today after school I had planned for us to all go to the pet store. Oh, oh! I haven't told you the news. We're getting a baby guinea pig on Friday! Ally's classroom has two guinea pigs and it turns out Miss Piggy is really Mr. Piggy. hehe I saw the babies at Ally's parent/teacher conference last Thursday and when the teacher asked if we could take one, I couldn't resist. They are so cute! So we need to buy guinea pig stuff since they have completely different requirements from gerbils. I've always wanted a guinea pig too. I'll take pictures on Friday to post. Anyway depending on how everyone is feeling this afternoon, the pet store may get put off until Thursday to do along with our weekly trip to the library (Wednesday is Zach's hockey practice).

Good Week ™ , good week ™ , good we... *snores*

Katie at 9:31 AM

Monday, February 07, 2005

"Another opening, another show..."

Happy Monday y'all! I am determined to make this a Good Week ™ if it kills me. I hate weeks like the last one. Nothing getting done, everything dragging, me feeling mildly depressed. It's like I was treading water and trust me, I cannot tread water to save my life. I like to get things done. And when I don't feel the desire to get things done then something's wrong. I need to watch out for those weeks, I don't want to begin the fall into the downward spiral of depression.

So this going to be a Good Week ™ ! Even though my Good Week ™ involves 6 dentist appointments. Only 1 for me though and it's a doozy. My root canal is scheduled for Thursday. I'm visiting the De Nile at the moment but I'm sure Thursday morning I'll be in full panic attack mode. I'm not so excited about the kids' dentist appointments today and all I have to do is sit in the waiting room.

On my list to make this a Good Week ™ , we're back into the swing of our weekly library trips. The library remodeled back in November and was closed for a bit and then Christmas and so forth messed us up. We just finished Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing. I think Zach sympathizes with Peter over having a little brother (Kyle as Fudge). This week I'm going to push the twins to look at the early reader books, last week they picked out their favorite "Where's Waldo?" type books.

More Good Week ™ items, I have a few sewing projects in the works. I need to recover the kitchen chairs again. And then I need to make slipcovers so I'm not recovering them again next year. A friend has also asked me to make her some nurses scrubs, I need to look into patterns for that. And soon it's going to be Easter! So that means Easter dresses! Woohoo!

I guess that's it for my planned Good Week ™ . Hmmm, I suppose it doesn't sound like much. But it's going to be Good! Otherwise I may have to find a new line of work. Maybe as a dental hygienist? *shudders*

Quote of the Day: "Good afternoon. We're gonna have a great jump today. Okay, first crank a hard cutback as you hit the wall. There's a screaming bottom curve, so watch out. Remember: rip it, roll it, and punch it." -Squirt, Finding Nemo

Katie at 9:38 AM

Friday, February 04, 2005

Congrats to Ben for winning the "I'm as boring as..." contest! Ben Stein does have the most droning voice ever. hehe

Katie at 4:36 PM

Thank you all for entering my "I'm as boring as..." contest! I'll let you know the winner as soon as I can get Greg in front of a computer.

So back to me. I'm still feeling blah and boring. It's very weird. Like I managed to make the kids' quilts in about two weeks time but now I can't get the motivation to read a magazine for 10 minutes. There are days when I can get so much stuff done that I even amaze myself. And then there are the days like now when if I get the dishwasher unloaded and loaded, it's a successful day.

I think the lack of important anything to do is making me feel more lazy and unable to do the simple stuff. Like if I know I have ABC to do before lunch, then I zing through breakfast clean-up and so forth. But if I have an open stretch of an entire day, then it's not such a pressing matter to finish. So I sit and watch TV with the kids or surf the internet or stare at the walls... And the housework gets put off and then I have a huge mess at the end of the day and by that time, I really don't feel like cleaning. And having a messy house makes me feel like crap and too overwhelmed to start cleaning. I need a kick start to get out of this lazy boring cycle. Blah...

Katie at 9:43 AM

Thursday, February 03, 2005

I'm feeling very boring today. So boring in fact that I put myself to sleep while looking at a book with Kelly this morning. Let's have a contest! Come up with the best ending to "I'm as boring as..." and post it in my comments. Prizes, prizes... How about 3 songs on iTunes? Rules: I'll have Greg guest judge, game ends tomorrow morning at 9am, enter as many times as you like. Ready, set, go!

I'm as boring as...

Katie at 1:19 PM

Wednesday, February 02, 2005

Crabby, crabby, crabby.

I'd like to begin this post by saying I love my children, I love my husband, and I love my life. But I'm in one heck of a crabby mood this morning. It's probably PMS, I'm too grumpy to check the calendar to confirm. Plus...

I swear having Greg home is making me fat. I hit an all time high of 142 pounds right after New Years. On last Friday, I was 136. Weee!!! Then Greg came home Friday night. The scale said 139 this morning. It's totally because I make big dinners when he's home. Last night we had baked porkchops, glazed carrots, noodles, asparagus, and brownies for desert. Last week while he was out, I fed the kids some kiddie type food (chicken nuggets and fries, frozen pizza, etc) and I had an egg roll with soy sauce (I'm so in love with soy sauce). Tonight for dinner? Eggrolls... (No really it'll probably be chili and I'll try not to eat the kids' leftovers.)

The kids' sleep habits are going to make me blow every logical gasket in my brain (and there aren't many). On a school morning, I often have to wake the kids up at 8:15 to get ready for their 8:30-8:45 drop off window. My alarm clock can go off for 30 minutes and they snooze right through it (although I'm sure Greg doesn't appreciate that part). Weekends? Just read the Saturday and Sunday posts here for a few months (the worse was Kelly's 6:45 wake up call). So this morning... One hour delay for some teacher in service crap. I figured I'd get to sleep until at least 8:30. You see where this is going? 7:45. And it was probably earlier but that's the time I saw when I finally pried my eyelids apart to check. Yeah, yeah I know I'm being terribly whiny but like I've said before I hate waking up before 8am. And I don't have many logical brain cells left, remember?

Happy (*Bah Humbug!*) Wednesday.

Katie at 9:14 AM

Tuesday, February 01, 2005

Happy Birthday Greg!

(I'd love to post a baby picture of him but my &@%!#*$ scanner doesn't want to work at the moment. Maybe later.)

Quote of the Day: "A birthday is just the first day of another 365-day journey around the sun. Enjoy the trip." -Author Unknown

Katie at 9:46 AM

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