The line has been crossed...

Frodo turned 8 in March. A short while before that, it was starting to not be cool anymore to get a hug and kiss at the curb when I dropped him off at school. I was ok with that. I was still getting smooches and hugs at home. I figured it was a pretty normal stage.

But recently, it's becoming not cool to give a smooch to nor is it cool to receive a smooch from mom at all. Even at home. Even as I tuck him into bed after reading him a story. Waaaahh!!! And put that with no more "Love you too"s from him, and I'm just crushed.

Something to ponder....

This list hits a little too close to home....

And a definition is included for supplemental information in case you're worried that this is all just *spin*.

It's Friday???

And I should add, it's April??? Hello? Just a few days ago I was in shorts and sandals. Tonight we've got flurries. Who's in charge of the weather?? I'd like to file a complaint!!!

The past couple days have been a huge blur. Sooooo busy at work, and then busy when I get home from work. My inconsiderate hubby didn't bother to do his share of the house/yard work yesterday, (he decided to sit inside and play video games instead....) so once I got home from work, I fed myself and Frodo (hubby leaves for work at 6pm), then I mowed the yard and did some cleaning since hubby was having some friends over this afternoon.... Grrrr.... Needless to say, I reminded him he owed me. ;) And I'll remind him again.... LOL.

Then tonight when I got home from work, Frodo and I went to his school's carnival. They only do this carnival once every three years, and after being there, I see why!!! OMG, it was huge! All sorts of games and prizes and food! It was too crowded for my tastes, but I don't like crowds anyhow, lol. They had tons of cool raffle prizes, and the tickets were anywhere from 25¢ to $1 depending on the size of the prize. We spent maybe $5 on raffle tickets and Frodo won a gift certificate for an overnight stay at a VERY COOL hotel with a HUGE indoor waterpark!!!! Woo Hoo!!!! He was pretty psyched to just win *something*. He didn't realize how big this *something* was until I showed him the hotel's website. ;) I'm pretty darn excited as I'll get to go too!

Ok. I've had a couple margaritas tonight and I'm crashing fast.... Good night.

I think I'm adding a photo!

Ok.  I think I'm adding a photo!  This is the rock outcropping I was at today.  Isn't it pretty?  And note how I'm pretty far back.  There are plenty of people that sit right on the edge and hang their feet over like it's some sort of chair....  I'm all jittery just *thinking* about it, lol!

More playing in the nice weather...

First off, I have to say, my little Weather Pixie down there is wearing a hot little number! Me? Tshirt and comfy shorts, lol.

So I decide to play more in the nice weather today. Here's my idea of playing today:

• Go hiking up a hill where the elevation changes over 300 feet in a quarter mile distance
• Reach top of hill, huffing and puffing
• Find desired place at top of hill - lots of rock outcroppings....
• Scootch (yes, that's a word in my vocabulary) close to the rock outcroppings for the spectacular view. (If I can ever figure out just how to add a photo, I'll be glad to share the pretty picture of the view!)
• Did I mention I'm afraid of heights?
• The drop from the rock outcropping to the base of the valley is something like 294 feet
• Sit down and scootch AWAY from the rock outcroppings
• Resume hike back down hill, on the nice, safe, paved path where it takes me 10 minutes to stop feeling dizzy

Yippee!!!

I think I'm a glutton for punishment the past couple days. Send me back to work where I'm nice and safe just poking little babies with needles....

Here's my idea of *playing* in the nice weather...

• Go to Home Depot and buy 10 bags of mulch and a bag of topsoil and stuff them into my little Geo
• Unstuff the Geo and spread purchased mulch around various garden areas in the yard
• Pull some weeds that are found while spreading the mulch
• Send hubby back to Home Depot to buy 8 more bags of mulch because I waaaay underestimated
• Take bag of topsoil and patch the CRAPPY job they did last year when they added sidewalks on our street
• While hubby is at Home Depot, call his cell phone and ask him to bring home another bag of topsoil because I underestimated that one too.
• Add grass seed to the topsoil
• Try to water said grass seed and topsoil with a sprayer on the hose that obviously didn't survive the winter and is spraying every which direction except the desired one
• Go inside and change out of wet clothes
• Call it a day and have a margarita

Phew!

Frodo is feeling much better. We're still struggling a little with the asthma, but not enough to make him stay home from school.

So today I'm going to go play in the nice weather. I have lots of gardening to get to work on! I'm loving it! I hope everyone else is having nice weather too! :)

About three weeks ago...

...I took Frodo in to the doctor because I knew he had strep throat and needed it cultured and treated. While we were there, the doctor listened to his lungs and said, "he also has pneumonia." What???? He's hardly coughing! But the doc could hear it. Sledgehammer doses of Zithromax and a couple days later, Frodo is feeling pretty good.

Fast forward to about 7-10 days ago, and Frodo starts having some spring allergy symptoms. So we start treating him for that. The symptoms continue, and he starts feeling a little worse. Then a little worse. The past 3 days he's been coughing and asking for his inhaler. Tonight, I come home from work to find him running a little bit of a fever and I say, "we're going back to the doctor - I'm worried you have pneumonia again." And off we go.

So we see the doctor, I explain the symptoms, the doc checks his ears, then his throat.... "Wow! His tonsils are huge!" the doc says. What???? He's not complaining about a sore throat! And the doc cultures his throat and once again, he has strep and pneumonia. And his asthma is ~misbehaving~. So now we're back on Zithromax, and sledgehammer doses of prednisone. YUK. I sure hope he's feeling better after just a couple days he's feeling better once again.

ARGH!!!

I've got one of those...

...twitchy nerves by my right lower eyelid. You know the kind - it stops twitching only if you're pressing on it. It's driving me insane!

I guess I'll have to walk around all day with my finger almost poking my eye out.

Yippee!!!

My boring "enrichment" class I was supposed to go to today got cancelled! So I did a little happy dance, then promptly sat my butt down and surfed the internet instead of getting anything done this afternoon, lol. Actually, I did get some laundry done while I surfed. Then when I finally reached the end of my information superhighway, I did a quick house cleaning. (Is there any other way?!?!?) It sure was nice to have a veg afternoon on a dreary, rainy, cold day.

Got my refill from my dealer today. Same discussion, different day. (Weather, my blood pressure, etc....) He just requires these every 90 days visits to make sure I still look ok to him. I'm doing fine and have been for awhile. Believe me, if I ever felt like I needed an increase in my meds, I'd contact him in a heartbeat! I know better than to try and live without an adequate dose of my meds!

By the way, it looks like cat hunting is off the agenda for at least a little while. Sorry if anyone is disappointed. Try Minnesota or South Dakota if you're into hunting cats. It's legal there.

I don't know why I'm still awake. I have to be up extra early tomorrow! I better get outta here before I find another exit to take and interest me....

It's Spring!!!

Yesterday, hubby and I were watching Headline News. There was a story about all the snow in Denver. We decided it sucked to be them as we were sitting on the couch in shorts and t-shirts, with all our windows open, enjoying the flipside of this freakish spring.

In case I've never mentioned it, I hate housework. But strangely enough, I LOVE yardwork! This weekend I spent much of my time outside, enjoying the gorgeous weather. I cleaned up all my garden areas. I bought seeds for my veggie garden. I trimmed shrubs. I enjoyed the buds on all the plants and trees. I was out until it was too dark to see anymore. Last spring, I couldn't do this until Memorial Day weekend. What the heck has happened to the weather?!?!? All I know is that my snowblower is still in the garage with some gas in it, and I won't be putting it in the shed for a couple more weeks yet. I've used the lawnmower and snowblower in the same week before. I know better.

I got out and went for a hike today. I went to this pretty little park that is usually empty. As I hike up the trail, on my left is a steep bank covered with trees that leads towards a smallish river. Lots of oaks and pine trees in this area. At the trail end is a large open field with a picnic table and a fire pit. Then the trail loops back around through a prairie that I'm sure is just gorgeous in late summer with all the prairie flowers in bloom. Such a varied terrain in just 114 acres! As I reached back to my car, I could see a great blue heron standing on the shore getting his mid-morning meal. Such a majestic bird! And of course, I left my camera at home....

Anyone up for hunting some cats??? You might get your chance in Wisconsin if this becomes law. Maybe the next law will be for the dogs that shit along the sidewalk. Or the owners that won't clean up after them!

Tomorrow I get to go visit my drug dealer. We always have such pleasant little chats about boring shit. (Just gimme my Effexor prescription, dammit!!) Then tomorrow afternoon I have to go to an "enrichment" class for work. Our HR department has multiple "enrichment" classes and my supervisor has asked that all of us in the clinic go to two of them this year. Barf. I'm so NOT a meeting person and I'm done with school and have my degree for a reason. I don't wanna go to school anymore! The only reason I'm going is twofold: 1) It's part of my annual review and 2) I'm getting paid.

And speaking of getting paid, I recently got a raise! Just a little one - almost a dollar an hour! (As stingy as our company has been the past couple years with raises, this is the biggest one I've had in a LOOOOOONNNNGGGGG time!) It was for a "market analysis review" or some other mumbo jumbo crap like that I don't understand so I'm glad someone else has that job and not me. I guess *they* figured our company was on the low end of the scale in comparison to similar companies in the area, so they had to do a "market adjustment" so we all don't up and leave to go work somewhere they pay more. I'll take it! After 4 years, I've FINALLY caught up to what I was making before I started here. But that was the price to pay to work with an awesome doctor and to have set hours during the week instead of wacky evening and weekend and holiday hours!

I am just a ramblin' queen tonight! Good grief! Someone just tell me to shut up already!

I've had some really wonky dreams lately...

I don't remember my dreams very often anymore. I don't know if it's just poor quality sleep or just less of it that's the cause, but my dreams really don't reveal themselves to me much. But recently I've remembered TWO dreams.

Let me preface the first one with a little history:

I don't get along with my dad. He's an alcoholic. He was verbally and physically abusive when I was growing up. I don't feel the need to *forgive* him for the actions he took, and I'm sure many of you reading might slam me for that. (Oh well. I figure to receive forgiveness you must apologize for your actions and ask for the forgiveness, but my dad is still an alcoholic and doesn't really think clearly.) So anyhow, on with the dream....

In one dream, my dad died. My sisters (I have two younger sisters) and I were talking about his funeral. My baby sister (the youngest - she's actually not a baby - she's 24) said she couldn't afford to pay for anything towards the funeral because she was broke. And she left. Then my little sister (the middle one - she's 31 now) said because they just had a new baby and had to buy a minivan, they couldn't afford anything either. And she left.

So here I was, sitting all by myself, hopping mad because I had to pay for my dad's funeral in it's entirety, when I didn't even really care for the man!!! I tell ya, I woke up that morning with this pressing need to visit a funeral home and start pricing things.... UGH!

In the other dream I recently had, we were installing a wood floor. I was all up in arms because they forgot half of the materials that were needed and obviously didn't know what they were doing. That's all I remember.

Looks like I spend a bit of time mad in my dreams, lol. Anyone care to psychoanalyze? (Good freakin' luck there!)

Insomnia

It doesn't happen to me often, but every now and then, I just can't sleep. And tonight (or is it this morning?) is one of those times. Sometimes it happens because I have a low activity day. But that sure wasn't the case today! I dragged Frodo out for a hike, swept winter out of the garage, made dinner, did the dishes, and went for a walk! Why can't I sleep?

Some of tonight's insomnia is probably due to the time change a bit. Some is because I have in my head about 7 things to do just for tomorrow. Some is just general stress.

Aha!!! I think I've got it! Where's that tequila?!?!? Then I'll be able to sleep! ;)

One more day of spring break and Frodo will be back in school. I can't believe I've survived this many days with first hubby on vacation, then Frodo on break. 24 days with one of those boys home the whole time.... Mama needs a break.

Didn't someone mention tequila?

This is the best...

...article I have read regarding the Terri Schaivo situation. Read it and think....

A nice, quiet Saturday morning...

I'm sitting here trying to type while reaching around the warm, furry, purring kitty cat on my lap. Our 10 year old kitty is our firstborn (and I think she's just now FINALLY forgiven us for adding Frodo to the family). Frodo and hubby are both still sleeping. I'm liking this quiet time. I sure haven't had much of it lately with Frodo being on spring break from school and hubby had been on vacation from work prior to that. I can't wait for the routine to kick back in again next week! I've had my coffee. I've had my breakfast. I have no plans for the day. Life is good.

Our trip to Chicago was a hit! On the drive there, we cross the state line and reach a tollway. (You've gotta have an ashtray full of change to drive in Illinois because they make it impossible for a visitor like me to find my way around without using the toll roads. I've tried.) We reach the first toll plaza. I'm following a semi and can't see the signs up ahead very well. I've got my $1 in change ready to throw into the little drive-thru basket. Next thing you know, I'm driving thru the "I-pass" lane, set up only for folks who have that little barcode sticker on their car. I have no choice but to drive thru it! I totally expect lights and whistles and screeching alarms to be going off.... nothing happens....

I'm trying to decide what to do. (I'm too damn nice and honest. Curse that midwestern upbriging!) Do I turn around? (Nowhere to do that.) Do I pull over? (On a highway with people driving 80mph? Suicide.) I have no choice once again, so we keep driving.

We reach the next toll plaza. I drive up to one of the manned booths and surprisingly find a friendly middle-aged gentleman named Garth who hands me a blue envelope. He nicely explains to me that all I have to do is write the following information on the envelope: my license plate number, my name, the location of the toll booth I missed, and the approximate time I drove through the missed toll plaza. Then I can deposit the dollar for the missed toll into the envelope and I won't get a ticket. He collects my toll for the current plaza and wishes me a nice day. I decided "Garth" must've been an alien imposter because toll workers never smile or say more than "hrgnh".

More on the trip later.