Weekend Wrap-up

Kiel had a great birthday. I think short of getting to ride in Lightening McQueen itself, it was everything his little 4 year old heart could want.

The party itself was perfect. Since it was a karate party the kids had plenty of opportunity to run, jump, kick and punch. Most of the activity was set up around an obstacle course, and Kiel was able to lead the pack when he wanted to.

This is the first time we have done a party like this. We had one girl come that did not RSVP, one last minute RSVP of a child that I did not know Rich had invited, but then we had two kids that did RSVP not show up, so it was basically a wash. Just the right number of kids.

I was excited at how many kids did come, because the party itself was not close to his school, so most of the kids came a fair distance.

It was fun watching Kiel with his friends. So interesting to see how he and the other boys tackle each other and wrestle. Are all boys so physical?

Noah handled himself marginally well. There were no real problems during the party, other than having to be held back from blowing out the candles himself, and his obsessive need to have a gift bag before any of the other kids received theirs.

Today we opened the last few presents, including a Cars 2 sleeping bag from grandma and grandpa. He insisted on sleeping in it on our floor tonight. I just checked on him and he is asleep on the floor, but not in the sleeping bag.

I had a few hours to myself today, and took a relaxing bath. Then I cleaned out under my side of the bed, where I found some odd socks, five books, three sippy cups, a remote to a fan that we no longer have, some hair ties, and about a dozen Matchbox cars. And that was only my side of the bed. Maybe tomorrow I'll look under Rich's side. Maybe I'll find the missing vibrator. Damn is my life exciting.

Noah has coined a new term: explosive farts. He explained them to me after I walked into our bathroom and found poop sprayed against the back of the toilet seat and tank. For the second time this weekend.

I'm still trying to understand 1. how he managed to get the poop to spray up and back like that, and 2. how Rich could go in and check Noah's poop (we require visual evidence at this point if he doesn't want to face down another enema) and completely ignore the shit spray.

They were both brought to task and shamefaced (well, Rich was anyway), they cleaned the toilet together. Of course I had to remind them to use a cleaning agent. Honestly, did they really think I was just going to let that one get by?

And now I'm hiding in Kiel's bedroom (you know, the one he has never slept in) waiting for my ambien to kick in and so I can't hear Rich swear and yell at the TV during the Eagles game. He seriously stresses me out when he watches football.

That was my weekend. How was yours?

Monday, Monday

I woke up this morning covered in little boy pee. Damn diaper failure. At least it wasn't my own though!

The bus was early, but she waited for us. The bonus was I had a few extra minutes to myself before I had to leave for work.

Too bad I didn't take that time to remember to put my laptop in my briefcase, because as soon as I arrived at work and turned on my desktop I realized that the project I was working on was saved on my laptop.

Fortunately, I'm only about 12 minutes away at that time of day, so I was home, project retrieved, and back at work in less than 35 minutes.

Unfortunately, on my way back to work I drove by a police officer standing on the line in the middle of the road, shooting an injured deer on the side of the road.* I mean I literally drove by as he was aiming the rifle. He waited until I had just passed him to pull the trigger but I heard the crack of the shot. What made it even worse was that the deer was laying down on all four legs, but her head and shoulders were up and she was obviously conscious. She was gorgeous. I know there wasn't anything else that could have been done, but it was still shocking to witness. Of course I started crying and sobbed the rest of the way to work. Just because I grew up a country girl doesn't mean I want anything to do with hunting, even if I understand the practical need for it. I could only think of two things:  that she probably had her own babies that would miss her (I don't care of that is probably romanticizing deer family life) and worse, what if I had had Noah with me and he had witnessed it. He has enough confusing thoughts and nightmares without having to see something like that. Thankfully it was just me.

Work went fine and the day flew by. I even managed to score a couple Pillow Pets at Kohls for $16 a piece with free shipping. Whoo hoo!

Noah got off the bus this afternoon and I could tell his body and mind were moving fast. It took him almost twenty minutes to change into his karate uniform. He spent five minutes of that time running around the house naked. Every part of him is on hyper-drive when he's like that. He talked non-stop to and from karate and during vision exercises, homework and dinner. It continued until his night time meds kicked in and slowed him down enough he could go to sleep. This is his second "manic" period in less than a week. I think it is safe to say that he needs the mood stabilizer we are trying to take him off. He has been off it for ten days and in that time he has had two of these manic episodes and eight out of the ten days he has had major meltdowns in the evening. It sucks that the only way to know for sure if he needs something is to try and take him off of it.

Right now Kiel is in the middle of a bedtime strike and is attempting to charm his way out of the bedroom and down to the couch. Good luck kid.

Better day tomorrow right?

*I live in the 'burbs in an area that was once only farms, fields and woods. It still has plenty of all of that interspersed in the developments that have been built in the last 10 or 15 years. This was a very wooded area.

Thinking out loud

I love my job. Really!

It's often stressful. Occasionally tedious. But mostly it pushes me and makes me want to learn more and become even better at what I do. I am able to meld my love of science and my need for creativity. The really cool thing is that part of what I do is so unique that I'm only one of a few people in the country (maybe the world) that has the knowledge and ability to do it. (Yes, I'm being intentionally vague, sorry.) 

I'm incredibly lucky to do something I'm passionate about that still allows me the flexibility to be home with the kids when they need me. I'm home to get Noah on the bus and then back home to get him off in the afternoon.

I'm allowed tons of flexibility if I need it and have a boss that not only respects me but that I know values me and trusts me.

I doubt I'd have a problem getting another job where I make a shit load more money, but I can't imagine I could find one that is as flexible or understanding as where I am now. Or where I would have the resources that I have now or the amazing people that I work with. Or is only ten minutes away from where I live.

I'm also lucky that I rarely have to travel. Occasionally I have to go to DC for an FDA meeting or drive to see one of our local clients. I've flown in and out of Chicago in a day a couple times. There are two or three international conferences a year that I could go to, but because of the kids I have chosen not to (the last one was in Athens, Greece - that was hard to turn down). While my boss would like me to go to some of these, she understands that 1) I don't like to be away from the boys for more than a day or two, and 2) when I am away it creates a scheduling nightmare for Rich because of Noah's school schedule and his work schedule. And 3) parenting Noah is stressful and exhausting with two of us, with just one of us for more than a couple days it is beyond tough. The few times one of us has had to go away we usually have to get a baby sitter, which of course costs money. For just a day or two its doable, but beyond that... Well, lets just say the budget is tight right now, in large part because of Noah's therapy and doctor bills.

Today my boss told me there is a week long training program she wants me to go to this summer in Minnesota. It would definitely be useful for what I do and would significantly increase my knowledge in this area.

But, to be gone for a week would be a logistical nightmare for Rich. And would be intensely stressful. And would cost us several hundred dollars in babysitting fees, when we are already paying for summer camp at that time for Noah and daycare for Kiel.

And more importantly, I really don't think I could be away from Kiel for that long. I don't even know how to explain it, but he and I are so connected that I think I would be just as miserable as he would be to be apart like that.

So missing my kids aside, if theoretically doing something like this is going to cost me close to half of what my take home pay is for the week, does it make sense?

I know my boss can ask me to go and that the company has no responsibility to help me with baby sitting expenses. I'm sure I could also say that I can't go, although that wouldn't be the most prudent thing to do for my career.

I guess I'm just thinking out loud here. Feel free to throw out any ideas you might have on how to figure this out so it doesn't end up costing us money, and more importantly, Rich isn't put through hell for a week.

Just remember we have no family that can help out and unless things change in the next six months, Noah doesn't have friends that are local that he could spend time with either.

Post-Frankenvulva repair update.

My apologies for being away for so long. I had such plans for you MNT, but as is often the case when I make plans, they never quite see the light of day.

So here I am 3 weeks post frankenvulva repair and I have yet to tell you about it!

It was...hmmmm...It was, well, OK I guess.  I had spinal anesthesia since they needed to be able to wake me up midway through the procedure to have me cough. The spinal was a bizarre feeling as I had absolutely no feeling or control from my waist down to my toes for several hours.

I talked with the nurse anesthetist during part of the procedure. I'm not exactly sure what we were talking about, but I'd bet money I embarrassed myself in some way. 

The procedure went well I was told and the anesthesiologist in the recovery area told me my vitals were like a teenager's. It was all I could do to keep myself from saying, yeah, that's not the only part of me that is like a teenager again after this surgery. Surprisingly however, I refrained.

Rich was waiting for me in my room. I felt pretty good until the spinal wore off, and then I realized what they did to me really sucked. And that there is no doubt that I am indeed a big baby. Between the IV, the urinary catheter, the blood pressure cuff, and the compression stockings on my legs I couldn't even roll over in the bed.  And then Rich had to leave so the baby sitter could go home and I cried. Actually, I cried even before that because it hurt, and as I said I'm a big baby.

The nurses were wonderful and did every thing they could to try and help the pain. The doctors weren't quite as generous. Damn, but my doctor and the resident covering with him must have thought I was some kind of drug seeking housewife because they were awfully stingy with the pain killers. "Ohh, we don't want you to get constipated," they kept saying. And I kept thinking "Ohh, I don't want to have to grab your testicles and rip them off, so give me the fucking Dilaudid."

They were pretty stingy with what they sent me home with as well, and I was like really, maybe he needs to have someone cut him from his anus to his testicles and see if he can handle that without anything more than ibuprofen.

I was a little grumpy.

But finally I was home and I slept a lot and read or watched tv when I wasn't sleeping. I had it all planned. One week to recover in bed. One week to recover in bed but do some paperwork type stuff, organize photos, catchup on emails, etc. Then two weeks to knock out some smaller home projects I have going on here. 

Are you done laughing yet?? Don't worry, I'll wait, Get it out.

Because yeah, here it is the beginning of the fourth week and all I've done is sleep, catch Kiel's upper respiratory tract infection, take care of Noah one day when he brought the stomach flu home, catch the stomach flu myself and feel miserable and vomit-y for three days myself, in the midst of which Kiel also came down with it.

Kiel's combination of URTI and fever and vomiting required a trip to the pediatrician. The visit itself went well. But on the way home I heard a gurgle in the back seat. I looked up into the rear view mirror just in time to see Kiel projectile vomiting orange liquid a la a bad horror movie.

So there I was, with my eight pound weight limit, trying to clean up the car seat without actually taking it out of the car. To which I finally gave up and just lifted the damn thing out while trying to clench my pelvic muscles together to stabilize them. (I have no idea if that works of not, by the way.) There was no way I was leaving orange vomit in my car until I could talk Rich into taking it somewhere to get cleaned.

A week later the kids are fine, but Rich looks like he is coming down with something. He's been so awesome taking care of all of us for the last three weeks. I'm sure he's ready for someone to take care of him.

As far as  my recovery I had my post-op appointment a couple days ago and the nurse practitioner said I'm healing fine. She lifted my weight restriction for lifting to 12 pounds, but said I still can't vacuum. I told her I love her.

I have a week left until I go back to work. Maybe I'll get something done this week, but I'm not going to hold my breath. I just finished the second book of the MIllenium series and if the third is anything like the first two, I doubt I'll be able to put it down until I'm done. 

Like I really needed a hole in my head...

I feel like I've lost my writing mojo lately. 

Apparently most of it was contained in my bottom left rear molar. 

This molar. 

The molar that was removed three weeks ago.

At first I was in too much pain to write. Because I felt like this:

And was doing some of this.

OK, a lot of that.

Because...

nataliedee.com

Pain peoples, pain!

The pain is gone, but the hole is still there. 

And, I'm still looking for my writing mojo. I'll be back as soon as I find it!

If you can't wait, I think I forgot to tell you I wrote a little something here a few weeks ago.

I'm alive, really!

Yikes, it's been over two weeks since I've posted! I've been a little crazyer than normal the last couple weeks just catching up on work and other writing commitments, not to mention the laundry and cleaning the bathrooms and just general mom/wife stuff! I even made a meatloaf recently! I know...I am rockin' this mom shit! 

Then I had a fun episode of strep throat thanks to the giving nature of my 7-year-old last week, and since I'm a big baby when I'm sick I got even more behind in everything. But I did get totally addicted to Virtual Villagers 4: The Tree of Life while I was lazing in bed, too weak to do anything but move my finger on the touch pad between naps.

I have a big deadline at work this week, then I should be able to breathe again. But in the meantime here is a little bit of what's been going on:

Two weeks ago Thor ran out the door on a rainy night and didn't immediately come back inside once he realized his little paws were getting wet. He spent that rainy night and the next miserable rainy day outside. When the sun came out again on day three he still wasn't home. We all freaked out and spent several hours walking the neighborhood and surrounding woods looking for him. We also put up 65 fliers around the neighborhood. 

We have awesome neighbors and one of them found him romping happily at the edge of the woods about two blocks away. He didn't seem all that happy to be home and I'd bet money he scored some kitty smack while he was gone, because he was pretty goofy. We've managed to keep him close to home since then, but I'm not holding my breath that he isn't going to try this again. Teenagers...ughh

Noah had strep throat, Rich stayed home with him for a day, then I got sick and spent four days in bed, because (see above) me = big baby.

I wrote this on the Philly Moms Blog.

And the post I wrote before that was one of the SVMG's Hot Posts of the Week.

I have some new reviews and giveaways up on MNT Review Blog here and here. And have two more to get up in the next couple days.

Earlier this week I dragged Rich and the boys with me to a blogger event hosted by MomSelect and Energizer to launch their Energizer Recharge Smart Charger and announce their "Kids Take Charge" video contest. The contest goes live tomorrow, so as soon as I have a link to it I'll post it here.

Yesterday I attended a mom blogger seminar sponsored by MomSpace. It was awesome! And I finally got to meet the gorgeous and super genuine Joey Fortman, who is going to be my new best friend, I just know it! And if not I'll just stalk her and pretend she is, until the restraining order takes effect anyway. And, Shannon from Chester County Moms, and one of the moderators of the event, absolutely made my day when she came up to me at the end of the morning and introduced herself. She's been a regular commenter on my blog and on Twitter and goofy me didn't put two and two together when she was up in front of all of us doing an amazing job keeping the panel on track!


Noah started spring soccer today and also has his academy soccer going on for another 5 or 6 weeks as well.

And, Noah and I will both be promoting to our next belt rank in karate this week! More about that soon.  

OK, you are now caught up on life in the MNT household. I'll be back soon with more fascinating blog posts, so consider yourself warned! Because at least one is about sex and one is about the frankenvulva, and they aren't even related!

I've been remiss

First, thank you thank you to everyone that commented, emailed, left messages on Facebook and Twitter with words of concern and support! I hope each and every one of you know how much it means to me!

And second, I am so sorry to have left some of you hanging this past week as to how Rich is doing. I did answer emails and it was posted on facebook, but I never quite made it to MNT until now.

So, Rich is doing great! He was released from the hospital late Monday afternoon on oral antibiotics and with strict orders to return if the pain or swelling increased. He isn't going back to work until tomorrow so had some time to rest and enjoy having the house to himself for a couple days. He did laundry for me and caught me back up on the folding that didn't get down while he was in the hospital.

The boys are obviously both ecstatic to have him back.

So Rich's hand is almost back to normal. It swells a little if he uses it too much and there is still some pain if he hits the wrong place. It is a good thing he is going back to work tomorrow. Just saying...

So I am now even further behind than I was before he was admitted. When I came up to bed at 10pm to have an hour to read or write myself to sleep, in actuality I had to give one cat his pills, then his treats, then rotate a load of laundry out of the dryer so I could put another load in. And while doing that I realized the cat was peeing in my wicker laundry basket. So I had to scrub that out. And then I cleaned out the litter box since I'm fairly sure he was protesting that. And then I realized that I never washed Kiel's sheet and blanket for daycare tomorrow, so that load is in there now. I just hope I remember to put it in the dryer in time. And then I had to feed the cats, refill the canister I store the food in, get them clean water, and pull out Kiel's clothes for tomorrow.

But we are all fine now. Kiel is recuperating from his double ear infection and is just as cute as ever. Noah had two great days on Thursday and Friday at school. And we had our first water ice of the season yesterday and sat out on the deck today.

I went to a very interesting conference on autism yesterday which I'll have to take some time and tell you about later. I found some new resources that may be helpful and heard of another grant I think Noah will be eligible for.

On the sleep front Noah has not brought any more bologna into bed with me. Whew. Unfortunately he is still having a lot of trouble sleeping and is awake for hours at a time (like right now) or at 3am. In fact the other night he managed to order a $6 movie on demand from Verizon. Guess we need to utilize those child locks on the remote. I am stumped as to what to do with him when he's so wide awake. He says he just wants to go down and watch TV, but it makes me very uncomfortable to have him downstairs in the middle of the night when we aren't there. He gets into all kinds of food, which really isn't a big deal, and so far he hasn't damaged anything like he did a year or so ago when this happened (honey all over the dining room floor and piano). But still, I'm always on alert now and I do worry about what he might do, but even more I worry about how his next day will be because he didn't get enough sleep.

So tell me? How was your weekend? Did you do something fun?

Nice try Universe

Took that one as a challenge didn't you Universe.

Well hah, I'm still smiling.

Noah waking me up to get in bed with me and Kiel at 12:30. No problem.

Rolling over to put my hand on bologna. Yeah, you might have had me for a few seconds there. But by then Noah was ready to go back to his own bed after a firm warning to never bring bologna into my bed again.

And at 2:30am when Kiel woke up and projectile vomited chocolate milk and scrambled eggs into my face and all over the bed. Well fuck you, because by then I was too tired to to do anything but be thankful Kiel was fever free and all I had to do was change our clothes and the sheets. And besides, when I found four more pieces of bologna in the bed I had a good laugh.

Realizing Noah was down stairs at 4am watching TV and doing who knows what. Ehhh...at least he didn't have any more bologna to spread around the house.

And when I did make it downstairs I felt the need to praise him because at least he kept the two bottles of dish soap he had emptied in the sink! We have made progress over honey on the piano! Yeah Noah!

So, plan for the day is to take Kiel to the pediatrician as soon as they call. One of Noah's ex-TSS's is taking Noah for a few hours. She's going to earn every dollar I pay her, but she loves him and won't put up with any of his shit. And he loves being with her.

And since Kiel seems to be better I may get a few hours to go over to the hospital and see Rich this afternoon.

So yeah Universe, game on! I call bologna on you!

Seriously universe? Seriously? Is that all you've got?

So Rich is still in the hospital, but he's improving. He'll be there until at least Monday, but I'd be surprised if it was any longer than that. (Don't read the rest of this paragraph if you are easily skeeved.) They haven't completely eliminated the possibility of surgery, but they want to see how he's doing tomorrow and do an MRI before they open him up. There isn't any visible evidence of actual pockets of infection (essentially pockets of puss) so they'll use the results of the MRI to help decide if there is anything to go in and drain. Of course we are hoping for no surgery, because the place they lanced in the ER is really the only part that is super painful for him and cutting in more places is just going to make the pain worse.

Rich's extended family has been great checking in and offering to help not only with the kids but with his mom. Our baby sitter has been amazing and super flexible. And, good friends of ours took Noah for the afternoon today despite the fact they have a shit load of family crap going on themselves.

Thanks to everyone on my side of the family (extended) that has checked in and sent good wishes!

Unfortunately, I came home this evening to a little boy with a 102 degree temp. He hasn't been himself all week, probably longer. Between the Fifths Disease rash, and the sinus congestion he's pretty pathetic. Of course he really misses his daddy and having me gone all day isn't helping.

So, I'll take him to the pediatrician tomorrow and if he isn't feeling better I'll stay home with him. I know I never wanted anyone but my own mommy with me when I was sick.

I hate that Rich may be by himself all day but since he's doing so much better I think I really need to be with the boys. Noah is asking if Daddy is going to die and showing more of his "stress" behaviors. If Kiel is feeling better I'll try and get Noah over to the hospital to spend a little time with Rich.

So yeah, Universe? You'll have to try harder, because right now I've got this covered.

Bear butt

I couldn't fall asleep last night so I came downstairs to get my book and walked into the family room to find this.

It's a sad state of affairs when the stuffed animals in this house are getting more booty than I am.

'nuf said

The best excuse for being late ever. Ever!

I was on my way to karate this morning with plenty of time to spare to get to my 11:40am class.

OK, I may have been running a few minutes late. One or two minutes at the most. And only because I had to run back upstairs and shove a Poise in my pants.

Shut up! We do a lot of jumping during the workout!

Anyway...there I am driving to class, when what to my wondering eyes should appear?

Why yes? It's true. St. Nick was in front of me. But instead of his miniature sleigh and eight tiny reindeer he was riding on top of a big red fire engine. Lights and sirens on. But they weren't exactly in a hurry.

Noah still doesn't believe that I was driving behind Santa. I'm not sure my instructor did either.

But friends, it is completely true. Santa Claus made me late.

Save a buck! Earn a buck!

I promise, I'm not turning this into a review blog or money saving blog. There are so many great women out there who do that so much better than I could! I do enjoy running a giveaway every once in a while though, and when I find something I really like I enjoy sharing that as well.

So today, since I'm not feeling up to tackling a lengthy blog post which I really plan on doing soon because I still owe you all an update on that behavior program we tried with Noah, and I owe Kiel his two year letter. Soon peoples, soon!

Anyway, today I'm going to share two websites with you. One saves me money and one helps me make a little extra money.

I'd actually be surprised if you are the parent of a baby or young kids and you don't know this website, but just in case... it is diapers.com.

Enter Referral Code: mntblog  Fast Free shipping for orders over $49. Most orders will arrive within 2-4 business days from time of order. Not Valid for existing Diapers.com customers. Other Terms and Conditions may apply. See www.diapers.com for more details. No cash value.

 
I've been ordering diapers from them since before I was pregnant with Kiel. They offer free shipping for orders over $49 (I've never had a problem coming up with an order that qualifies), they accept manufacturers coupons (so you can take advantage of all those great coupons diaper companies send out when you first have a baby), and you can easily see and reorder products you've purchased before.I also love that with diapers they break it down and show you how much it costs per diaper, so it is easy to compare cost between brands.

They also sell way more than just diapers. Every time I log on they are offering something else. I've always found the prices to be reasonable and competitive.

This weekend they are having a great toy sale with discounts up to 40% off.

If you haven't ordered from them before you will receive $10 off your first order. If you use my referral code mntblog I'll receive a credit towards my next order.

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The next site is Swagbucks

It's basically a search and win site. I have it set up as my home page and do any searching from there. It uses google and ask.com for its search engine. You earn Swag Bucks from searching and also from swagcodes that get posted. You then redeem the Swag Bucks for a variety of available products. The most popular item is a $5 Amazon e-gift card.

Just by using Swagbucks as my homepage and doing my searches in it I've earned enough swagbucks to redeem for $30 worth of Amazon e-gift cards since I joined in September. You earn even more swagbucks by getting referrals. I don't have any referrals yet, but if you happen to be intrigued by Swagbucks and sign up by following one of the links on here I will!

I've been having fun seeing how many Swag Bucks I can earn in one day, plus its a bit of a game to see if I can find the swagcodes or figure out the swaghunts. It's basically free money from doing what you normally do online. So click here, check out the website and see what you think! Then signup!

How It Works!

1. SEARCH

Search the web using www.swagbucks.com and receive results from Google & Ask.com.

Click here to get the Toolbar.

2. EARN

Swag Bucks are periodically awarded as you search the web.

3. REDEEM

Redeem your Swag Bucks for exclusive swagbucks.com products and
more in the Swag Store.

Random stuff

If you are looking for the DigitalRoom.com rolled canvas print giveaway it is here.

If you are looking for the Curious George:  A Very Monkey Christmas DVD giveaway it is here.

If you haven't noticed, I'm doing NaBloPoMo. 30 posts in 30 days. It's day 17. Are you tired of me yet?

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My lady bits are still falling out of me. I have a doctors appointment next Monday. I'm pretty sure surgery is in my near future.

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I was cropdusted by one of our students in my office yesterday.  It was horrifying, and nasty.  And horrifying.

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Noah's behavior has taken a turn for the worse in the last week and he has become more hyperactive and aggressive at school. Why oh why did I write that blog post where I said we were seeing improvement?

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For the first time in a while I didn't pee myself during my karate workout. Probably because we didn't do any running or jumping. We did however do a million and 27 kicks and the chance that I won't be able to walk tomorrow is pretty high.

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Kiel's 2nd birthday is Thursday. We are having a party for him on Saturday. I'm not making his cake myself and I'm actually almost OK with that.  Well, no, not really, but I'll get there.

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Kiel's 2nd birthday is Thursday. We are having a party for him on Saturday. Our house is a mess. I'm slightly more OK with that than I am that I'm not making the cake.

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Kiel's 2nd birthday is Thursday. We are having a party for him on Saturday. Rich's brother and his wife are coming. I am not OK with that, but I will do my damnedest to pretend that I am. I will also do my damnedest to make sure the kids that will be there, including Noah, have as much fun as possible, which guarantees lots of noise and running around. I may or may not have bought them each train whistles and punch balloons.

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Rich is basically refusing to talk about Thanksgiving. I think he's hoping that his silence will wear me down and I'll just give in and let us all go. We've been married almost ten years, does the man not know me at all?

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I just found out that a friend of mine @AnissaMayhew had a stroke today and is in the ICU. This is a woman that is more alive than any person I know. She has the biggest heart and the biggest sense of humor of anyone I have ever met. And she and her family have already been through way more crap than any family should ever have to go through. Please pray, send positive healing thoughts, whatever you do, to Anissa and her family! You can find updates on Anissa here and information on how you can help.

An open letter to Jennifer Weiner

Dear Jen,

First let me say that I love your books. I may have been a little bit late in finding them, but that's just me. I'm typically late to the party, if I even get there at all...

Anyway...like I said, I love your books. I love the characters in your books. I love that I can relate to them.  I love how you tackle subjects like weight and body image and dysfunctional families. I love that your books are set in the Philadelphia area. I love your story lines.

And I really love your snarky sense of humor. In fact, I think we'd make great friends. If I wasn't too shy and awkward to actually meet you in person that is. So no worries there.

But this letter isn't about blowing sunshine up your tuchus. This letter is about my hair.

You see, this weekend I read Certain Girls (and yes, I know, I'm a little behind on my reading - but I paid full price for the book, so I think that makes up for it - also, see above). And you made me fucking cry. The ugly cry! The LONG ugly cry. And then my eyes were all puffy the rest of the day and my contacts got all blurry and I had to put in new ones. And I took a Xanax.  And then I went to get my hair cut and colored and had a glass of wine while the color was on. And between the ugly puffy eyes highlighting my fat, makeup-less face, the Xanax, and the wine, I told the stylist I wanted a change and she could do whatever she wanted. And she did. And now I have SHORT hair, and it totally highlights my eyes, which are still red and puffy. See how it all relates? And how it is all your fault?

So yeah, seriously bitch, you could have warned me Peter was going to die. I totally DID NOT see that one coming. At. All.

Anyway...could you give me a bit of a heads up on Best Friends Forever?  Because if I'm going to do the ugly cry while reading that one I need to schedule it a bit better.

Thanks in advance and all that,

Mommy Needs Therapy

mutterings and tidbits

Tidbits: Took Ambien to the vet this morning and they took 350 mL's of fluid out of her abdomen. A surprisingly easy procedure. The vet let me go back with her and assist, which I think kept Ambien calm. They did a quick ultrasound on her abdomen and there is a large mass on her spleen that was not there a week ago. What ever has taken over her is growing fast.

She is still happy though and following me around the house. She wants to be cuddled now more than ever. She doesn't have the strength to jump up on the couch or bed herself anymore, but she will meow at me until I lift her up. Right now she is laying on the arm of the couch with her right front paw on my knee, and purring. I think she feels better without all that fluid in her abdomen. She's not eating at all anymore though, so I know we are just on a slow march to the end.

Thank you to everyone here and on Twitter for all the support and love you have given me and Ambien!

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Muttering: I just put my hand in the couch and found a wad of bubble gum. Son readily confessed that it was his from last night and he was trying to hide it from Daddy. Am using all the patience I have to control myself. Not worth yelling about MNT, you yell enough as it is.

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Tidbit: So I mentioned in an email to my ex boyfriend that I had a blog and I was up for a local award, and that I occasionally wrote about vibrators. He must have googled me and found my blog. Hi Fred! Guess if you didn't know I was a bit crazy before you do now!

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Muttering: Why does Noah make a big mess and then assume I'm going to help him clean it up? How do I get him to understand if he throws a deck of cards all over the floor he's quite capable of picking them all up too? Six year olds can be such butt heads! But, truly six is so much better than four.

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Muttering: The odor that comes from my son's butt is unbelievably obnoxious. Stop farting when you sit next to me! And this damn encopresis is going to be the end of me. If I have to clean poop out of his underwear any more, well, I'm really not sure what I'm going to do. I truly don't understand if he can control it or not. Which makes it hard to know whether or not to punish him.

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Muttering: Does he ever stop talking? I swear I hear him talking in his sleep!

Reminder: It is not OK to use duct tape on your child.

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Reminder: You can vote for me every day for Best Local Blog in Nickelodeon's Parents' Picks Awards! It would be nice to at least stay in third place. It would be even better if I could get more than 10% of the vote! I'm not to proud to beg! Please, Vote here!

One more day!

Sneaking this one in under the wire. I actually had to get out of bed to write it.

I survived day eight of Noah's Thanksgiving vacation. Noah, Kiel and I had a pretty decent day. Lunch at Chik-Fil-A and then some time at the playground.

The playground is pretty cool. It's an "everybody's" playground, that is wheel chair/handicap accesable. Great for little ones who are still a bit wobbly on their feet. I tried to put up some pictures but I crashed twice in the process, so maybe I'll try again tomorrow.

When Rich got home a little before 4pm we went and got the Christmas tree. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to get stuff ready for it so we can put it up when Rich gets home from work.

I wasn't excited about Christmas last year, with the PPD and still being in pain from Kiel's birth. This year I have the spirit again! Yeah!

Hopefully tomorrow I can come up with something better for the last day of NaBloPoMo so I can go out with a bang.