Toes…..

Elizabeth and I had a different kind of Girls Night Out (GNO) today. We chopped some firewood this morning, got a decent start on our winter’s worth of firewood (that wasn’t just girls though), and then came back and showered and dropped Clayton off to spend the night with Joe, and we headed into town. We had to run some errands first, one more puppy (Jag-the black one) has found her home with a foster family, we are sure she is going to be pretty heavily loved on! 

Then we went and got haircuts. Elizabeth tries SO hard to not be excited about ‘girl things’, she even tried to refuse the haircut. But Patti is great, she’s the sister of the gay guy that I used to go to, the one he took to Utah to ‘get her boobies done’. I admit it, I had to look . Patti is one of those girls that will forever be a teenager, so she was able to cut and style it just like Elizabeth had wanted.

After that, we were off for Pedicures. It was Elizabeth’s first and she didn’t quite know what to think of the massage chair, she actually turned it off after a while. It was a little agressive, haha, I think it was about to massage her right out of her chair!

Then, we went to Elizabeth’s favorite sushi place, IOU Sushi (www.iousushi.com). It is pronounced E-Yo Sushi, and is sushi with a micronesian twist.  You’ll often find things on their menu that you wouldn’t usually see in a typical Japanese sushi bar, and all of their rolls are named after local things. Ironically, my favorite is named “Bogus”, for Bogus Basin Ski Resort. Elizabeth likes the “Bronco” roll, named after the BSU Broncos of course (tonight is their season opener!) and it has some shrimp, cream cheese and crab and is coated in tempura batter and fried, then covered in a sweet sauce. It is almost like a dessert!

Anyway, after we pushed ourselves out of there, we filled a small propane bottle and sang along to the radio all the way back up the mountain!

Now, the water heater is lit again and here in about a half hour, you’ll find me soaking in a very warm bubble bath!

One of those days…..

Don’t worry, at this point, I’m just laughing about it….I’ve given up. Or maybe it is lack of oxygen…who knows.

Got a propane delivery arranged finally. Had to be home so they could pressure test the system. They delivered a day early, I wasn’t home. I called, proceeded to throw a hissy fit, got them them to agree to send someone up on Thursday (original day of delivery, my day off) to hook it back up. Didn’t pass pressure test. Told me to call someone to come find the leak. Finally find a company that will come all the way up there, takes all of a half hour to find out that there is a gas line that comes up behind the refrigerator and the cap is just loose enough that it leaks. Whew! Easy fix. Gets fixed, repairman hits the road, call gas company, hoping they can come back up, retest and hook propane up. Nope. Next week sometime. Reminds me of this little funny that I found last year and had set as my work wallpaper for a long time.

A Gabe Funny….

I can’t believe I forgot to write about this, I’m going to have to remember to write about ‘kid funnies’ because my kids say some of the funniest things I’ve ever heard in my life.

The radio station that I listen to does a lot of trivia type stuff, which I love because I’m generally pretty good at trivia. They have a “brainbuster” thing that comes on shortly after 6, which is when I leave for work. Generally, even if I know the answer, I get screwed out of answering because there is no cell signal and by the time I get to town, the question is usually answered, but last week, Gabe and I were on our way in and the question of the morning was something like:  ”X% (don’t remember the amount) of men do this, that women find extremely annoying”. That isn’t the exact phrase, but something like that. I’m thinking “holy crap, you want that list alphabetized?” and Gabe shouts out “I know the answer mom!” As it happened, we had a signal before it was answered so I handed him my cell phone and he of course already knew the number (we listen to this station all the time).

I’m not really thinking too much of it, my mind is already on work and traffic and getting the day started and I heard him redialing (busy signal) over and over again and then suddenly I hear that little voice from the back seat asking “Is it trimming their nose hairs and leaving it in the sink?”. I about drove off the road.

As it turns out, that was not the right answer, but he got on the radio. I guess he remembers mom getting upset with dad for doing that!

That is the one part I’ll miss the most about him being in school with the big kids, no more interesting trips to town in the morning!

1st Day of School!

At last….

I’ve been pretty proud of us, we’ve managed to get clothes laid out, shoes lined up, backpacks ready and all they have to do is get up, brush hair and teeth, put clothes on and out the door! I leave for work before they leave so it is their responsibility this year to get themselves ready and out the door and we’re adding Gabe into that mix this year.  If we can keep up our routine, it will be pretty easy!

Tough Times….

This is going to be a hard one to write, because I’m not usually a girl who reveals a lot of, let alone writes about…emotion. Especially when it comes to weakness. We are all weak in some way though and lately it is piling up.

It’s been really tough going from a successful kitchen designer career to an entry level job. I can’t even say entry level because what I make is technically good wages for this state, and to be honest, I can survive on it. That makes me better off than a whole lot of people. But I still have these moments where something becomes a problem. They say money isn’t everything, and it truly isnt, but it sure makes things a lot easier sometimes! We’ve made adjustments well, we really aren’t going without anything. I’ve gotten some great deals on clothes for the kids for back to school, though I didn’t spend a whole lot, they did get stuff that fits in with what the other kids wear.  We are a house of iPods, tv’s, Blackberries, a Wii, a new bike every now and then, musical instruments. There is truly not a lot that we go without.

But the one thing that is getting to me is propane. My kitchen stove and hot water heater use propane. This is wonderful when the power goes out, but not so wonderful when the propane runs out.  I ran out of propane in the middle of the winter this last year and there was no way a truck could make it up, so Jim brought me up a 20 gallon tank. That was great, except it runs out in about a week and it is SO heavy, so I’d have to tote it into town, fill it (almost $100), get it back to the house, and wrangle it over to the hookup. I’m a strong girl, Mike didn’t tell me I was built like a brick shithouse for no reason, but that thing is HEAVY. Doing that once a week is frustrating and expensive. The minimum delivery of propane for up here is 100 gallons. That costs just under $300. I did a minimum deliver a few months ago and last week it ran out. Tuesday, the same day I ended up in the hospital, I had taken a small tank into town to be filled up, and of course didn’t get it done that night but was able to the next night. I thought that should last a week or so and if I can just keep that going for a little bit, I should be able to get enough rearranged to get the tank filled for winter.

The problem is, thanks to my wonderful ex husband, my credit is screwed up just enough that they won’t open a credit account for me. It is stuff that I can get fixed, but that doesn’t do me any good at the moment. 

So, today after church, I went to throw some chicken in the oven for lunch and the gas was out already. Literally like 1 meal cooked and a couple of showers, and whole 5 gallons of propane are gone. I sat in the kitchen floor and cried.

It is times like this that it overwhelms me. The little things I can take care of. I have money, I can feed us, buy clothes….but I can’t fork out nearly $5k to fill the propane tank. Filling the little tank every few days is much more expensive and will be a non-stop chore. Add that onto the pressure that I’ve been under with the house, school starting, job stuff, being sick…I was just overwhelmed.

I still don’t know for sure what I’m going to do, but my friend Jim offered to drop off a fresh propane bottle tomorrow morning, so at least that is one less thing to worry about tomorrow. I’ll get mine filled midweek, and somehow I’ll figure this out.

I suppose the problem does not lie in the fact that I have these things to deal with, it lies in the fact that after a while, i begin to let all these little things overwhelm me. I have to remind myself to put it down, it isn’t my burden to carry.  I have so many other wonderful things in my life, great friends, a roof over my head, children who have their moments but are overall really good kids, I have the best guy in the world and he loves me. What more could a girl ask for?

What a week!

Lets see, we were short staffed at work all week, so that makes it just crazy to begin with…then Tuesday, I got hit with several calls in a row that were just difficult, a single dad wanting to commit suicide, 3 that weren’t even our patients that had nearly deathly high blood pressures and a woman whose husband of 20 some odd years had walked out on her that morning unexpectedly and she couldn’t cope. At about 4pm, I suddenly started having stabbing pains under my rib cage on the right side, at first i could kind of stretch out and it would almost go away, but an hour later, I was having difficulty talking through a call and Julie asked if I was ok…I said I didn’t know, explained what was happening and when I got off the next call, Talitha was standing there.

I explained it to her, she dragged me back to Dr Nielsen, who said it was likely my gallbladder. He gave me a prescription for painkillers and ordered an ultrasound for the next morning and i headed back to my desk. I was trying to finish out the day, with only 15 minutes to go but I simply could not talk through my calls, so Julie went and got Talitha again, who told me she was taking me home, there was no way I was driving, and to log off the phones and get ready.

So…I did. Logged off, got my stuff and went back to wait for Talitha to finish up a few things and just as we went to leave, it hit me so hard. I was doubled over, on the floor, could not take a breath, could not talk, could barely move. It didn’t go away like it usually does. For about 10 minutes it was like that. Talitha was getting a little scared and said we just needed to go to the ER instead. So, we went, but after that last really bad one, it seemed to be getting better. Well, no one wants to be the one sitting in the ER, making a big fuss over absolutely nothing….

They ran a whole bunch of tests, put an IV in, got me up for an ultrasound and basically the long and short of it is, they are almost certain that I actually passed a gallstone, which is fairly rare apparently, and there are no more in there.

So, I’m extremely relieved that I don’t have to have surgery, besides a little bit of weakness and fatigue, I am fine now. I wouldn’t have expected something like that to take a toll, but I’m just not quite back to normal yet. I did go into work at 10 am the next day, because I knew there was no one else to help out.

Thursday was my day off, and I got the kids registered for school, all three of them in for a Dr appt for the first time in a year and a half (they haven’t been sick or anything!), all three are healthy as can be. Then I surprised them with a trip to Roaring Springs, the water park. We had fun, got sun baked, unfortunately I was feeling pretty tired, but we still went on everything in there, some of it more than once and had a total blast!

Friday, the nurses at work came up and asked if I wanted to come with them for a drink after work and I agreed, with the intention of getting a quick one and then heading home. I’d only had a few hours of sleep the night before and was pretty tired. We headed over to the Ram restaurant for a couple of beers and I let them talk me into going on over to the Buffalo Club. Gabe was with his dad and I figured at 12 and 13, Clayton and Elizabeth should be ok at home for a bit, heck I was babysitting at that age.

We had a lot of fun, did some dancing and just made outright fools of ourselves. Apparently the tradition is, they always say it is Rosie’s birthday (unbenownst to her, she tries to watch them every time to keep them from doing it, but they get sneaky and do it anyway) and she got cake and a Happy Birthday at the Ram, and then at the Buffalo Club, a song and called up to the stage to do a shot.  Terrie and I faked our way through the “Cotton Eyed Joe” out on the dance floor alone. I had not actually been out to dance and stuff since before the kids were born! Definately not something I’d want to do all the time but the girls are a great group and we had a lot of fun. It is nice to spend time with other people who don’t mind being dorks!

WARNING: Though innocent in nature, the photos below may not be suitable for those with sensitive natures!

Sick Kids…

Something is going around, everyone I know is sick, or so it seems. Wednesday night, Clayton woke up and was throwing up.  I got a few hours of sleep, he was fine by later in the day. Thursday night, Gabe woke up throwing up, a few more hours of sleep and late to work before I could get him to stop enough to get him to his dad.  Last night, Elizabeth started throwing up. What is ironic, is that it starts at almost the exact same time of night….3 am, give or take a few minutes.  Luckily, I’d made it to bed (or rather simply fell fast asleep) a little sooner than the other nights and after she got done and went back to bed, I was able to go back to sleep and sleep till 11 am!

So it looks like the worst has passed, I had a stomachache Thursday night so I’m hoping it bypassed me and my invincible immune system fought it off.

Why don’t I…..

Write more about my relationship and my trip and stuff like that? I’ve been asked that several times lately….

And the answer is just that this blog is open to a whole world of people, if I wanted to write about stuff like that, I’d feel like I needed to make it private. Even then, I’m not so sure I’d want to share every detail with everyone out there…if you need to know, I’ll have already told you.

Also, those moments are very special to me and I’d rather remember them a certain way rather than writing about them. Moments that belong in my memory, not on paper (or the internet).

But thanks for asking!

Vampire Prom

It is ALL Talitha’s fault. Let me just start with that!

A week and a half ago, Talitha and Beth started telling me about this series of books that they read and love. Vampire type books. I shut them down pretty quickly because I’m really not into that sort of thing, but on the Thursday that I was going to be flying to San Jose, Talitha brought me the first one so I’d have something to do during the day instead of pace back and forth . That book was about 2 inches thick and I finished it 10 minutes before I left work that day.

On Tuesday after I came back, I hit the bookstore and bought the first and second books, Elizabeth loves vampire things and the set really is a series aimed at teens, and very clean, so I thought she’d enjoy them. I finished the 2nd book that night. I stopped by Wal Mart on Wednesday morning before I went to work and bought the 3rd one. I finished it later that night.

The 4th and final book was due to be released on August 2nd, and I discovered while I was in the bookstore on Tuesday that the event would be celebrated with a “Vampire Prom”. So….Talitha and Beth and I talked about it and decided it would be fun to go!

I decided to talk Elizabeth too, even though she was only partially through the first book, and the day of the release, Jeremy and I discovered that although Ruthie hadn’t read them, she was wanting to, so we kidnapped her and took her with us too!

We had lots of fun getting ready at Beth’s house, posing for the camera and just goofing off in general…

 

Me and Beth

 

Beth posing....

Talitha is always the sexy one!

Ruthie and I goofing off...

Yeah, we'll never grow up...

Enjoying my glass of wine before we leave...

All 3 of us...

 

Ruthie and Elizabeth patiently waiting..

Or not so patiently waiting....

My turn to pester Ruthie...

We did have a lot of fun, we got our books shortly after midnight and headed home!

Finally!