Daily dose of shame

As I mentioned we have a new puppy.

I've been getting up early to let him out to help him get into the habit of going out side instead of on my floor.  Maybe once he knows not to poop on the floor by the door he will be able to hold it a little longer and I won't have to get up early.  Ugh.

As I have also mentioned, the kids have been sick, and I am highly sleep deprived...  and to add to the fun, I am sick.  Stomach bug.  Awesome.

When I got up this morning, I was clearly looking awesome.  I had spent the night between sweating like a was sitting in a sauna, and throwing up.  Fun!  My hair was sweaty and matted, and my bun and somehow migrated from the back of my head, to the side of my head.

Okay, so now that I have that pretty picture painted for you...

I opened the door to let Pikachu out to pee, and he darted out the door, full speed ahead toward the road.  And lucky for me, there was a car coming.  There was also a jogger, jogging past my house.

So, I started to yell "Pikachu!  Pikachu!" and ran toward the road, hoping that if nothing else the driver would see me running, and slow down.  The driver, thankfully saw Pikachu, and stopped.  The jogger on the other hand did NOT see Pikachu.

He just saw me, running toward him in my no-bra-grody pajamas, with my side bun flopping in the wind like an escaped mental patient coming at him yelling Pikachu.

Yeah.  I ruined his morning.

There is no end in sight...

I forewarn you... this blog is going to be full of whining and complaining.

9 days ago Zaile came down with a fever... she generally sleeps like a champ, but not when she is sick.  She tosses and turns all night, and I don't really blame her.  I am the same way... but it generally prohibits me to get much, if any sleep.

She was sick for about 4 days, and 4 days ago, Micah got sick.  Really sick.  He broke out in a rash, has had super stuffy nose which results in him having trouble breathing, and high fever....  I've kept him in bed with me every night because I am terrified he will get so congested he will stop breathing... (I'm not that paranoid, but it happened to Zaile when she was a really small baby.)  And because he has been having trouble breathing, he is snoring like a freight train.  Which adds to my inability to sleep.

And as an extra bonus I downloaded this app when I got my new phone that tracks my sleep pattern... so I get to see JUST how little sleep I have been getting.  For the past 10 days, I am 31 hours in the hole, sleep wise.  This is assuming I should be getting 8 hours a night.

What happens next you ask?  Why am I not in bed right now?  Why, because Zaile is sick again!  A stomach bug this time.  She first threw up around 6 pm... all over my mother in laws dining room.  It is now 1 am, and she has thrown up 6 more times.  Once in the car on the way home, once on my living room floor, and three times in her bed.

I will say this though, Zaile's sunny disposition is an epic blessing right now.  She laughed when vomit came out of her nose.

Though, I am SO tired I just want to cry.... but I can't go to sleep because every time I hear a cough, I run into her room to make sure she isn't throwing up all over herself.

Please, please, please let this be a 24 hour thing.  I will not make it otherwise.

Puppy for Christmas!

I briefly lost my mind yesterday, and we took in a puppy in need of a home.

Micah and Zaile have been asking for a puppy, and we had just put up the tree....and I was all in the Christmas spirit when I got a text message with his picture attached.

So, Merry Christmas kids, we have a new puppy.

I figured I should let the kids give him a name, because if I named him, he would be named Dexter Morgan.  Or possibly The Outlaw.  =)  

So his name is Pikachu.  As in the Pokemon.  

It's cute, and I suppose it is fitting as he is a little 6 or 7 pound dog and yellowish.

The only problem with this name is when I take him out side to to pee, I stand there in my yard shouting 'Pikachu! Pikachu!' like an idiot.  And when I say 'Pika! Pika!' I sound like I am trying to imitate an actual Pikachu. 

And btw, we have had him for about 14 hours, and I have cleaned up two piles of puppy poop, and a pee spot.  So glad that we have tile flooring.

Christmas tree fun! ....

I am one of those people who rearranges my living room every 6 months.

Which means, every year at Christmas I have to re-rearrange  my living room to find room for my Christmas tree.

You see, I mistakenly bought a Christmas tree in the hight of my Christmas spirit about 5 years ago...  Which resulted in my buying a six foot tall tree with a six 6 foot base.  It is entirely too gigantic.... So, it is hard to squeeze it in to my living room with out taking out pieces of furniture... which I don't like to do.  I end up squeezing everything in the room, and after a week of the tree being up I get annoyed with the cramped feeling and then gleefully take it down December 26th.

Sure, I could rectify this by just buying a smaller tree, but I never really remember just how annoyed I get until I am annoyed about it.  Even now, I am only mildly annoyed at having moved every piece of furniture in my living room three times.  

Perhaps I will get another smaller tree during the after the holidays sale... and man, I am going to get a pre-lit one  because Christmas tree lights make me want to stab my self.

Black Friday! Dun dun dun!

I wasn't real sure what I was going to be thankful for today, but I figured it out tonight at Wal-mart.

For my sixth day of Thanksgiving, I am thankful for human decency, because, holy crap do I notice when there is a lack of it.

This year I decided to do the black Friday thing.  I've done it a few times, but not to the point where I get up super early, and wait in lines... I just go a few hours after the the store opens, get what I want, and go home.  I don't do door busters... I don't bring food or folding chairs to sit in while I wait for the doors to open.  I don't trample people, or any of those fun things... I just go with in the specified time limit for the good deals.  5am to 11am?  Great, I'll go at 9.

Though, this year, there were several things that Micah had specifically requested that were on sale today and thankfully this year Wal-Mart had two different door buster type deals.  Midnight for the normal items, and 5 am for the crazy cheap TVs and the like.

I am normally up at midnight anyway, so I was excited... I thought I would just go at midnight, get my stuff  and the crazy people would be the 5-AMers.

No.

Wrong.

Wrong-ity-wrong-wrong!

I got there at 11:30-ish and people had already begin to huddle around the more coveted items, like bikes, and 2 dollar DVDs.  They were all stacked up, wrapped in plastic, with signs on them "Not for sale until 12:01!"

I just wanted Legos, Moon Sand and this baby doll set for Zaile.  I was with a really good friend of mine who wanted to get three bikes.  (Super amazing lady with seven kids, yes.  Seven.  She is super woman, I love her to death.)  So, we circled the store, located all the items we were there for so we could quickly get back to them, and headed to the bike arena.... and yes, I mean arena, not area.  

I wish I had taken a picture.  They had several 5 foot high pallets of bikes in the middle of the main isle... all wrapped in cellophane. ... There was a three people deep ring of shopping carts around the bikes... So my friend and I parked our cars and kind of made our way through the maze of carts and stood near the bikes she needed.  It is about 11:45 at this point.  So I chatted with my fellow shoppers a little, ya know cuz they were seriously in my armpits and found out the tiny old lady next to me needed 4 bikes.  It was also louder than a freaking jet engine in there... Kids screaming everywhere.... people yelling. Wal-mart employees on their walkie talkies. Just general chaos.  So it helped that she was in my armpit.. I could actually hear her from there.

As the time ticks closer to midnight the huddle around the bikes gets tighter and tighter... and it gets more and more quiet... Until I have people actually in my pockets in dead silence.

It was SO eerie, and I was so tense it is not even funny.  I was breaking a sweat in a near panic.  I was sure at 12:01 people were going to start pushing and shoving, and I was going to have to choke someone unconscious, make headlines across America and then go to jail for assault.

At 12:01 they nicely rung a bell for us... you know, like animals... and everyone roared to life and unleashed all the crazy that had stored up all year and dove at the bikes like wild animals.  Thankfully, there was no pushing and shoving... just you know, wilding jumping, flailing and ripping of clear plastic that you generally don't see adults do in public places.

It starts to rain cellophane as people shred it to get to the goodies underneath.  I got bonked in the face like 90 times by the $39.99! balloon that was on the display... and after a brief of stunned stillness, I sprung to life, grabbed a bike, stowed it between my legs and toss two of the bikes into the cart little old lady next to me.

I was however, able to totally keep my calm once the initial countdown to insanity was over.  Even when I was pinned in a maze of people attacking a red cardboard display of DVDs like birds on a landfill.  I even apologized for being in the way when people crashed into me, repeatedly, and I'm pretty sure deliberately.

Tonight I found out there are two types of people who do black Friday sales.  Normal decent people, and people who I am pretty sure crawled up from the pits of hell just to shop....  And holy crap, you do not really appreciate a sane person until you are surrounded by lunatics.

So, I am thankful for all the sane people tonight, who made Wal-mart tolerable.

Thanks funny guy who high fived me for taking pictures of the craziness.
Thanks Wal-mart employee who helped my friend pick up a heavy box.
Thank you, you three old ladies with the REALLY squeaky shopping cart for making hilarious jokes about it.
Thanks nice cashier who was polite while she checked me out even though I am sure she hated her job tonight.

And thanks Mandy for braving the storm with me!  I actually did have a lot of fun in spite of the general lack of all that is decent and good in the world.

Good deals... I am also thankful for those!

Thanksgiving!!

Today was Thanksgiving.

It was amazing.

I have 5 brothers and sisters, and for the past 10 years we have not all been able to get together for a holiday.  Someone always had to work, or had to be somewhere else.

But this year, we had everyone together.  All of Micah and Zaile's cousins were there too.  It was so great!  Everyone was in a good mood, the food was delicious, and ... man, it was just awesome.

I am so thankful for my gigantic family.  =)  And by gigantic, I mean, in number and actual size. All of my brothers are in the 6 foot 200+ pounds... even my 'little' brother.  And we had 19 people in my parents house today...  and normally, I am not a fan of being over crowded, but I so enjoyed it.  Reminded me so much of when I was a kid.

I can't translate all of my warm fuzzy feelings into words, so I will just leave it at that.

I love my family and I am so so thankful that I have all of them!

On the 4th day of Thanksgiving

-Day four of Thanksgiving-

A few weeks ago I was sitting on my son's bed, watching him play a game on his computer.... and I realized that my 6 year old son has more then a lot of families on this planet.  He has a bed, a dresser full of clean clothes, a computer...granted, it is my old hand me down computer, but still...  He has more toys then he knows what to do with, not to mention a roof over his head, and a room to call his own.

I don't mean to say that we have a lot... We don't.  We sacrifice a lot so that I can stay home with the kids, and homeschool them, but even so, we have a lot in comparison to most of the world's population.

I have a car, a fenced in back yard with a swing set, pets, clean running water, electricity, air conditioning, and heating.... for the two times we need in a year here in Florida. I am thankful for all of those little things that people normally take for granted.

I am also thankful that I AM able to make sacrifices to stay home with my kids.  A lot of people aren't able to do that.

Thanks, Al Gore.

-Day Three of Thanksgiving-

For inventing the internet.  =)

Today I've not got much to do... house is clean, kids are happy, Micah doesn't have school this week...  So
 I've been a little bored today...  So I have been poking around the internet.

Which leads me to a few other things to be thankful for....

Clean house
Clean laundry
Happy kids

And, I am thankful for boredom.  It is nice to have nothing to do every once in a while.

Thank you for the simple things...

-Day Two of Thanksgiving-

It is the little things that can make or break you sometimes.

Really, really comfortable jeans

Good hair days

Flip Flops

Coffee

Feel good movies

Books

Music

Silent gratitude isn't much use to anyone.

-Day One of my Week of Thanksgiving-


Thanksgiving is this week, and in honor of the turkey fest, I am going to blog everyday about something I am thankful for.  I know Thanksgiving is only Thursday, but I think Thanksgiving is really under played.  We all have SO much to be thankful for, yet in this must have day and age, most people always seem to talk about what they want, or what they don't have.  Or complain about their circumstances in someway.


I heard a story this morning that really stood out to me.  It was about two Jewish sisters who had been imprisoned in a concentration camp, and the barracks were totally over run with fleas.  They had been able to smuggle a Bible into the camp, and in it had read in all things they were to give thanks to God.  The two sisters argued over whether or not they should thank God for the fleas.  It seemed insanity to one of the sisters to thank God for fleas while she was being imprisoned, but she ended up doing it anyway.


Over the next several months a wonderful, but curious, thing happened. They found that the guards rarely entered their barracks. This meant that women were not assaulted. It also meant they were able to hold Bible studies and prayer meetings in the heart of a Nazi concentration camp.

Only at the end did they discover why the guards had left them alone and would not enter into their barracks. 


It was because of the fleas.



All things happen for a reason, and we should be thankful.  Always.

So, today, I am thankful for my children.

They amaze me on a daily basis.  They fill my life with joy, love, and wonder.  I would be lost without them.

They teach me so much, and I have learned more about myself in the 6 years that I have been a mom, then I had in the 22 years before I had them.

They also make me thankful for many other things.... like, potty training, peace and quiet, and sleep.

Please excuse this blog....

I'm about to squeal like the little fan girl that I am.

As I have mention before, I love Dan Hardy like a fat kid loves cake.

And almost like with my teammates, when they lose a match, I feel more love for them and want to support them even more.  So, I ordered one of Dan Hardy's new shirts.

It came yesterday, and very happily it came with a free gift!  An autographed picture!  Yay!  You can get one of these awesome shirts for yourself at www.danhardymma.com.

And here it is on my body... pardon my lack of head.  I utterly fail at photographing myself.

Sci-Fi lied to me!

We are 2 years from December 21^st, 2012.  The end is neigh, people.  Ya know, if you buy into that theory, which, I do not.  I am actually planning a Being-Alive-Party on December 22^nd, 2012.  You are all invited. 

Anyway, to my point, I’ve noticed that we have passed or are approaching many landmarks in some of my favorite sci-fi movies.  It disappoints me.  Sci-fi, one of my greatest friends of all time has apparently been deceiving me my entire life.  And I mean that in a way that makes me sound less nerdy and pathetic then how it sounds.  So, I thought I would take a minute, and list the ways I feel sci-fi has most disappointed me.

Robots – It is 2010 for crying out loud.  Why do I still clean my own house?  Why do I not have a robot maid to do it for me?  Why do humans still walk dogs, and deliver my mail?  Seriously, Hollywood, you have single handedly formed and destroyed my childhood dreams of never having to do dishes as an adult.  You couldn’t see me, but I was shaking my head while I typed that.  Granted, robots also seem to be a popular theory for a very large scale extermination of the human race… but still, if you ask me, it would be totally worth it.  I mean, how long between robot maids hitting the marking, and robots becoming self aware and revolting?  Surely, I would have a decent period of time in which I wouldn’t have to clean or fold my own laundry.  Totally worth nuclear war with robots, blacking out the sky, and then becoming a human battery, right?  =)

Flying Cars – My car does not fly.  Can someone explain this to me?  It is Twenty-Ten!  This is the most sci-fi sounding year that I have had the pleasure of living in, and yet, my car does not fly.  It doesn’t even hover or drive itself!  What is wrong with this picture?!  The great Dr. Emmet Brown said, “Roads? Where we’re going we don’t need roads!”  This was a lie.  We still need roads… and I am pretty sure we are still going to need roads when I am teaching my now, 3 year old daughter how to drive…. And speaking of Back to the Future, my car doesn’t run on garbage either.  Nor does my skateboard hover, and I don’t own a food rehydrator.

Colonizing Mars – On July 20^th, 1969 humans first set foot on the moon.  We have been back, five times.  In those six trips to the moon, twelve men have stood on the moon.  These are the only times in our history that men have stood on another celestial body.  Cool?  Yes.  But this is nowhere near COLONIZING MARS.  In 2015, Blade Runner suggested we’d have replicantes (yes, see my above rant) working on mars.  And we will have a full blown second earth going on, on Mars by 2080 if you listen to Total Recall… but, here we are, sitting pretty, in 2010, still on Earth, never even have visited Mars.

Deep Space Travel – As you know from my previous rant, we haven’t been past the moon.  This does not bode well for our time line falling in line with Star Trek.  As you all know, in 2111 Jonathan Archer was born, and after a breakthrough in warp technology in 2151 he commanded the first true star ship.  ….  You all know that, right?  Or is my nerd totally showing?  Either way, we have a mere 150 years to get our Earth sitting rears into deep space.  Clearly, I won’t be around to see that happen… unless we get on the ball of cryogenically freezing people…  But, I am pretty sure I will never have a holodeck.  This deeply saddens me.  Warp speeds, inertial dampeners, photon torpedoes, Beam me up Scotty?!  

Get on it scientific community. 

New Phone!

I got a droid yesterday, and discovered they have a blogger app. So this is me, checking out my new app!

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.4

Vote like it is 1776

Today you get your say.

This is your country.

Vote.

 Vote like your freedom depends on it.  

This is the America my children will grow up in, and you can bet the farm I will do my best to help point it in the direction I think it should go.

“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” - Edmund Burke