I have a dear friend...

...who is desperately trying to get her own business off the ground. She's worked hard to make this from an initial internet only business to also include now a brick-and-mortar storefront. It's not going well. She really would like to have her business do well so she can leave her current job that is a source of deep stress for her.

Her store sells purses, jewelry, candles, scarves, and handmade cards. If you might be interested in helping her stay afloat, you can see her online store here.

I just thought I'd try to do something to help her out by posting a link to her store here. I hope nobody is offended by it.

~Mel

A follow up on my Pat Robertson post...

Yesterday, it was reported that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez may seek to extradite Pat Robertson to face charges of terrorism.

My favorite line from that article though:

"We could offer him free psychiatric treatment . but he could be a lost case," Chavez said sarcastically of Robertson and controversial statements the conservative commentator has made in the past.

Katrina

Weather fascinates me. It's amazing to see the forces of nature at work. It really puts in perspective how *little* we are on this planet. And to get an idea of just how little we are, all you have to do is look at a US Satellite Image map - As Frodo pointed out, Katrina is as big as Texas. If you wanted to drive across Texas, it would be 800 miles as the crow flies. If you kept a constant speed of 15mph (the current speed of Katrina), it would take 53.3 hours. So by the time one side of Katrina hits, it would be 53 hours until the other side was leaving. That's a long time to sit thru a storm.

Why do people stay behind during such a strong hurricane? If I knew for certain a tornado was headed for my home, I wouldn't stand outside and watch. (At least, not for long, lol.) I'd head to safety. So what is it about people insisting on "riding out" a hurricane? I can imagine staying put for a weaker hurricane. Part of me at one time considered going on vacation during a category 1 or 2 hurricane just to experience it. (Hey, I'm a weather freak. What can I say?) Maybe some of you that live in hurricane areas could enlighten me on this. Being from the upper Midwest, we don't see hurricanes much.

No wonder so many countries...

...think Americans are horrible. Look at what kind of insane statements from outspoken "leaders" (I use that term loosely) make the news:

"Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson suggested on-air that American operatives assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to stop his country from becoming "a launching pad for communist infiltration and Muslim extremism."

(By they way, I took that quote and linked to the Fox News story so nobody can accuse me of listening to only "liberal" media.)

Hello? Isn't this man supposed to be a Christian leader? I thought the 6th commandment said, "Thou shalt not kill". How can a man who claims to be a foremost Christian leader suggest KILLING someone?

People like him give Americans a bad name. It's unfortunate that only the extreme people like him make the news that the whole world sees.

Can you say...

...slacker??? LOL. I've totally been slacking on the blog this week. I'll give the usual, "I was really busy" excuse though because I really was.

Right now, I'm working on a garden. For lack of a better term for it, I'm calling it a "memory garden". I have a stepping stone from 20+ years ago with my handprints, both my sisters' handprints and the dogs' pawprints. I'm making a list of favorite flowers of family members. (My grandmother loved dahlias. My late mother-in-law loved irises. My mom loves daisies.) And I'm looking for other flowers with cool names, such as the names of all my nieces and nephew. I have a niece, Karley. There's a pretty, decorative grass called "Karley Rose". I have a nice list going, I'm just trying to figure out how to fill it all in. And I'm going to have Frodo make me a stepping stone with his handprints too.

Before I lose any more of the day, I'm going to go enjoy the beautiful fall-like weather. :)

I hope that I never...

...know the pain of losing a child in this manner.

My prayers tonight are with the mothers and fathers, wives and husbands, sisters and brothers, and sons and daughters of each and every soldier we have lost in this war.

Update on BA Day...

So after my appointment today, I stop at work because it's on my way home and I need to have a TB skin test placed or the employee health nurses will be all over me. Then I get a call from my father-in-law asking if I'd stop at Best Buy on my way because he and mom are looking at cameras and want my input and then they can take me and hubby and Frodo out to dinner. So after camera looking, then out to dinner at Country Kitchen we finally get back home. And they had asked me to mow their lawn one last time but I couldn't do it earlier today so I went over there to do it tonight. Only their lawnmower wouldn't start so I drove back home and wrestled my mower into the back of the truck and go back to their house and mow the yard. Then come back and chat with them for a bit. Then hubby calls me. Then Nurse in Space calls me. Then I finally get Frodo tucked into bed for the night. Then another friend calls. And I'm dying for a snack by now so I have a little bit of strawberry ice cream. And now I've finally got a moment to be here. It's almost 1am my time. Sheesh.

I made it to the appointment on time, even though I drove >right past> the exit I was supposed to take from the highway.... LOL. After I checked in, the nurse took me back and did the obligatory weight, height, and blood pressure. My BP was a teensy bit high - maybe because I was a nervous wreck??

She took the brief history, gave me a gown and I sat in the room for only a couple minutes and in comes the doctor. We chat awhile, go over a few things, and he takes a look. His words: "Oh yeah. The insurance will pay for this no problem." Woo Hoo!!! His estimate is that he will be able to remove about 1500 grams from each side. I won't be cruel and make you do the math. (I had to bust out the calculator myself.) That comes to 3.3 POUNDS from EACH breast. (And he can't even guarantee that will get me down to a C cup for anyone that is trying to picture that....)

He sends the nurse back in to schedule the surgery. She flips open the book and says they have an opening two weeks from today. (OMG!!!) As much as I want to take that very appointment, it would be difficult to line up the time off work, a pre-op appt. with my regular doc, and Frodo starts school that week too. So we compare calendars and the date is set: September 26th. Six weeks from today!

And get this - here I was all worried I was gonna have to come up with documentation of medical problems and they would tell me I'd have to try and lose more weight and that they'd be doing all sorts of photos and measurements and whatnot and I'd be waiting a couple weeks before I'd even hear back from the insurance company. Turns out his office has an arrangement with the insurance company - if he determines from his exam and history that a procedure needs to be done out of medical necessity, they will just cover it without tons of paperwork and all that jazz. My jaw just about hit the floor! I've never heard of an HMO being that easy-going! (Big kudos to my HMO!!!)

I am one happy camper tonight. :)

The day is finally here!

I've been counting down the days for about 6 weeks now. Today is "BA Day" - Boob Appointment Day. This afternoon I am seeing a plastic surgeon about a breast reduction surgery. (Sorry to any guys reading this! It's not always *the bigger, the better*!) The girls are outta control and I'm hoping to finally rein them in. I'm excited. And I'm so nervous I could barf.

Why would I be nervous? I honestly don't care that the surgeon is a male - once you've had a baby with all sorts of male doctors checking out your hoo-hah, having one poke around at your boobs really isn't a big deal. (They're just lumps of fleshy tissue is all.) I'm not too nervous about the prospect of surgery, except for the part about having to undergo anesthesia, but I'll cross that bridge when I get there. I'm nervous - petrified actually - because this is the appointment that will be the deciding factor as to whether my insurance will cover the surgery. I'm about 80% certain they will. That 20% of doubt has me shaking like a leaf today. You should see how many typos I've made to this post, lol. (I've fixed them by the way. I'm sorta anal like that about spelling. Yet another peek into Mel's psyche.)

I'll be back on tonight to let you know how it goes!!! Keep your crossable parts crossed for me!

I'm quite enjoying...

...this mommy night. The boys are gone at a baseball game, so I am at home enjoying some spicy indian takeout, a glass of wine, and the internet. Life is good.

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My baby sister told me she called our dad to tell him about her engagement. She said he sounded drunk - was slurring his words and not making sense. She says to me, "I'll talk to him again in a week and he won't remember the conversation and will tell me I never told him." So yesterday I run into my little sister at the grocery store. (Little Sister is 3 yrs younger than me, but 7 yrs older than Baby Sister.) I tell my little sister what my baby sister said, and Little Sister insists dad was not drunk. (She is in constant denial about our dad and his drinking.) Little Sister even tells me she has spoken with dad since Baby Sister called about her engagement and he told Little Sister that Baby Sister never called.... (Surprise, surprise!) Little Sister tells me she thinks dad has Parkinson's. (Our grandpa had Parkinson's.) But guess what - there's no specifically known hereditary link to Parkinson's. And dad's symptoms look NOTHING like grandpa's symptoms. Dad's symptoms look more like DT's....

I get so tired of trying to get Little Sister to "see the light". Even when dad got all jaundiced from alcoholic hepatitis, and told us the doctor said it was from "excess fattening on his liver", she fell for it. (But guess what is a cause of excess fattening on the liver? Alcoholism!!) She is just so damn clueless.

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I think I've done enough damage here tonight. ;) I'll come back later with something a bit more upbeat.

The gates of hell...

...must surely be swinging open in preparation for the upcoming apocolypse. You're wondering how I can make this prediction? Frodo ate grapes. And said he liked them. This is MY child? The one who NEVER eats fruits or vegetables?

There can be no other explanation.

The landfill...

...that was also known as Frodo's room, no longer resembles a landfill. You can actually see his carpet! And that reminded me that his room needs new carpet.

We put a LOT of stuff in boxes to keep it stored in the basement so it's out of his room, but still available if he wants it. However, in a bad mommy moment, I actually *meant* that anything he doesn't ask for within 12 months will be put out for a garage sale. He just has so much shit and his room is too small. I had to do SOMETHING. The kid is such a packrat that if I said we would be getting rid of anything, he'd keep EVERYTHING in his room. I kid you not. This is the same child that bawled his eyes out because he found out I did not keep every single scrap of paper he brought home from school. First grade alone created enough paper that had I kept it all, we would've had to build an addition just to store it.

I also put up a couple shelves on the wall so he has somewhere else to keep things. He's been putting together these Star Wars Legos like a little madman, but refuses to take them back apart. He wants to keep them together so he can play with them, and originally wanted to keep them all on top of his little dresser. (But that was only after I vetoed keeping them all on the kitchen table.) So I've added the shelves to give him more "display" space.

So for now, his room is known as "The Room Formerly Known as a Landfill". It will probably go back to being known as Landfill in time.

Somedays I think my hubby....

....is part puppy.

Why is it that whenever I need to get anything done such as drying my hair, the dishes, my shower, he feels he needs to follow me? (Dude. I'm going to use the bathroom to poop. Back off.)

Before everyone leaps outta the woodwork to let me know that he's probably looking for some, ahem, *attention*, I already know that. My hubby is like a 14 year old boy - he wants that kind of *attention* every 30 minutes or so. A gal can only do so much before she loses her mind. And her ability to walk and talk.

Aaah... Much better.

Nothing like Aunt Flo packing her bags to leave to help a gal feel better. That, and Frodo and I split a pint of mint chocolate chip ice cream tonight. ;) Ice cream is always good. (Hence the reason I am not a slender gal!)

Frodo and I went out to buy cat food at the pet store last night, and after the pet store, he asked to go to Toys*R*Us. In a moment of sheer insanity, I said yes.

We wandered the clearance stuff a bit because I love trying to find good deals. (None to be found last night though.) He looked at the video games then, he asked to see the Legos. (This has never happened before.) We found some mini Star Wars sets on clearance for under $5 each, so we bought three that looked neat. He put ALL THREE together last night. So tonight after meeting my sis-in-law and her hubby and kidlet for supper, he asked to go to the other Toys*R*Us. (Yes, the big city has two of them.) Who am I to decline a boy some Legos? It's waaaaay better than watching tv or video games. There are a few things I rarely say *no* to when I shop with Frodo - books, puzzles, decent board games, and now I will add reasonably priced Legos to the list. So we picked up two more of the mini sets and one bigger one. He's about 1/3 of the way through the bigger one already and decided to take a break. That's when we ate the ice cream. If that were my Lego set, I'd have to finish the darn thing because I hate to leave a project unfinished. (Yet another peek into Mel's psyche.)

Now he's talking about wanting to paint his bedroom black with white stars so that when he plays with his Star Wars models he will have a cool background for it. Now *THAT* I'm pretty sure I will be able to decline. I figure (hope) I can talk him into a poster or some fabric on one wall so I won't have any permanently black walls in the house. Not that black walls are bad. It's just that the day he decides he doesn't want black walls anymore, I don't want to do the nineteen coats of primer to cover it back up. Because it would be either that, or we'd be ripping the walls out of his room and putting up new drywall. And either one would be waaaay too much work!

26 days....

...until school starts. Which means only 27 days until hubby's sleep study. I've just gotta plow thru August. September is going to be much better. I can just feel it.

I feel so unmotivated today. But I don't feel bitchy anymore. (Hooray!) I've got all sorts of ideas in my head but I feel too lazy to get up and do any of them. Maybe another cup of coffee will do the trick. (Yeah, right.) But then, I've gotta get up and make that cup of coffee too....

Have any of you ever scrapbooked? I've never been into that craze, but we now have three poster boards covered with photos that were part of mom-in-law's memorial service. Dad-in-law is selling his house and as he moves out, we're getting *stuff*. First, it was two boxes full of photo albums. Then, all sorts of boxes full of assorted stuff. Next came a riding lawn mower. (What??) Now we have the poster boards of photos. I asked hubby what he wanted to do with the photos. "Some sort of album" he replies. So I'm thinking we should scrapbook them. (See? I can go out on a tangent and then come back!) There's a scrapbook store in town. I suppose I'll stop there and ask where to start. But if you have any suggestions, I'd appreciate them!

Just feeling bitchy today....

And I completely admit to it. I'm always upfront about that.

I think Aunt Flo is due for her visit. I never know for sure when she's coming or how long she'll stay. But I'm awfully irritable to just be blaming it on 'the weather'. The wench just needs to make her exit from my life post-haste. I could totally live without her.

Other than that, I've just had this feeling of being *overwhelmed* this week. I can't even specifically pinpoint why. Maybe it's because I was gone all Saturday and Sunday, then really busy on Monday, then I don't even know what the hell happened to Tuesday, then today just being busy as well. I know a big part of it is feeling like I'm constantly using all my time and energy to take care of everyone else and everything else and leaving myself on the back burner. Why do we moms do that to ourselves? It's soooo NOT good.

The overnight sleep study...

...is scheduled!!! Hubby saw the sleep doctor. Based on the history my hubby gave, the doc thinks hubby has sleep apnea. The doctor thinks everything from hubby's snoring, to his asthma problems, to a 15 pound weight gain, to a stint with depression and his constant fatigue are all interconnected and probably due to sleep apnea which worsened last year when he changed shifts at work. So an overnight stay at the hospital's sleep clinic is set up for September 2nd.

It took almost every fiber of my being to not say, "I told you so!". I think this doc is going to become my new best friend.

I have another sister...

...who doesen't have in-law issues *yet*. But she will. She called me tonight to let me know she and her boyfriend have gotten engaged! Woo Hoo!!! I'm so happy for them! He just walked in on Friday morning while she was blow-drying her hair to get ready for work and asked her then. (Awww....) Her ring is a family heirloom from his family. (Awwww.... again!)

This is actually my baby sister's 2nd engagement. She was engaged to another guy a few years back, but broke it off a couple years ago. At first, we were all so sad because we liked that guy so much. Then she started seeing the guy who is her current fiance and we were all a little cautious because he was so different from the first guy and worried that maybe she was just on a rebound. But as time went by and we learned more and more hidden info about the first guy, we liked him less and as we learned more and more about the second guy, we liked him more and more.

This sister of mine is 10½ years younger than I am. She is the one human being on the planet that can make me feel old. (So far, Frodo doesn't make me feel old. Maybe because he's only 8½.) I remember holding her as a newborn infant, changing her diaper, playing with her. I remember the fact that she missed her first day of kindergarten due to chicken pox. I remember playing pictionary with her and a friend of hers when they were only about 8 and they were so enamored with my boyfriend's drawing abilities they just put the game aside and kept asking him to draw things. (And he did. He's now my hubby.) I remember when my parents divorced when I was 22 and she was only 11 - how I felt such relief that my parents finally separated and I'm pretty certain she did too. I remember being the first person to take her driving after she got her driving permit and she never braked for that first corner she took. (Eek!!) I remember her high school graduation and I had her party at my house since my mom's apartment was too small. And I remember some of her friends coming in for the party and saying something to my baby sis and some other classmates about so-and-so having a party and "they had beer!" And at the time, there were three off-duty cops in the room, lol. (My hubby and two other friends.) I'll never forget how embarrassed they were!

My baby sister and I never had a lot chances to get really close due to our huge age spread. By the time she was old enough to remember doing things with me, I was at a point in life where I was hanging out with friends a lot and starting high school and getting a part-time job and doing extra-curricular activities. But now we spend a little time on the phone every now and then, venting about our drunk dad and our ditzy other sister. She tells me she will soon be getting internet access at her home (you'd think they live in the middle of nowhere since they don't have internet yet!) so hopefully by the beauty of email we can get to know each other more.

Now, she and her fiance are trying to figure out how to pay for a wedding. She can't count on our parents much since our drunk dad hasn't had a job for over 3 years now, and mom is sort of "retired" so has very little income. So she's in a situation not to dissimilar from my own when I got engaged and paid for my own wedding. She's looking for inexpensive wedding ideas that don't involve flying out to Vegas. She wants a little outdoor wedding and a little reception and dance. She's going to make her own invitations. Her future mother-in-law will make a cake. Our mom will make her a dress. So far, so good. Anyone have suggestions for a cheap reception?

I'm so excited for her!!!