Monday, March 31, 2008

another week closer to Christmas

Ha ha I know that got some people groaning and some shivering in horror. Let's see, pretty quiet since my last post. Friday we went and played Canasta at a friends house. Mikey hates playing cards but he played with us and I really enjoyed it. Saturday we went to the world of wheels car show at the Qwest center in Omaha. That was kinda cool, Mr and 411 got their pictures taken with Lightening McQueen. Bubba got his taken with Bumblebee from Transformers. Then we found Jason Earles from Hanna Montana. For those of you that don't have a preteen daughter, thank your stars. Chick, 411 and I stood in line for an hour to get his signature. He was really sweet, took the time to ask each little girl a question and posed for all the pictures they wanted. I have a couple on my phone and as soon as I can get my computer to co-operate, I will load them. Anyway, after that we watched I NOW PRONOUNCE YOU CHUCK AND LARRY (Adam Sandler)and DAN IN REAL LIFE (Steve Carrel). I liked the first one, the second one was kinda boring. Sunday I got up and rearranged the kids beds: Blondie got Mr's old bed, 411 got Blondie's old bed, Mr and Bubba got Chick's old bunk Bed's and Chick got her full size bed back. Of course, I needed to shovel out the rooms first before any rearranging could be done. My mom gave me a dresser for Blondie since the one we had for her was thin and wasn't holding all her stuff. The one she gave me is old and sturdy, you gotta love the way they used to make furniture. So after I got that done, we went up and got a dishwasher. Thank you GOD!! So today I get to work on my quilt, I can't wait till the recipient gets it.

Did I forget to tell you guys about my dental adventure? So, when Mikey started working at the new job, he got these insurance cards. One was blue cross blue shield and one was avesis which said it was vision and dental. ( I thought what a weird combo but what do I know?) When I was having such pain, I went on the hunt for a dentist that would take the insurance that had at least a whisper of working with cowards. I have been over my fear before, you know what I am talking about. So anyway, after 3 hours of comparing names and numbers with the "list (ha ha what a joke)" of providers, I found one in the 'Gentle Dental' office on the other side of Omaha. OK, made Mikey get off work to go with me. We drive all the way up there, it is in a strip mall (red flag #1) with rust stains from the letters running down the building (red flag #2). We go in the door, the receptionist is 2 feet in the door(lack of space, red flag #3), I look to the right and I can see a chair not even 20 feet from me (red flag #4, no walls). The deal breaker was when the lady behind the dirty counter says "you know we don't take your insurance, right?" NO, dumbass, do you think I would be standing in what Mikey described as worse then a redneck vet clinic if I thought you wouldn't take my insurance? I turned around and walked out. I was in tears, I felt so bad for wasting Mike's time but he was great about it. He called the guy at his work that takes care of the insurance and Andy tells him, that isn't the dental insurance we have anyway. We have this other company, didn't you get the cards? once again NO! So after a lot of calls and comparisons, I found out that I can go to Chelle's dentist who she has witnessed as being kind and very gentle. Bonus, she will go with me and not harass me for being a pansy. So now all I am waiting for is my insurance cards from this other company (they are supposed to be on the way) and I will be going in. I'll keep ya'll updated.

Friday, March 28, 2008

Here is Chick's new colors.....














Here is my new color, it is starting to fade though














This is how Mikey "hides" the eggs......














Then gets on his knees and throws them......














Here's the end result.














JJ went straight to the mother lode

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Thank you God for school

To recap the last week, all 5 kids were off for spring break. Blondie went to her mothers house so I had 4 very bored kids on my hands. Which I don't think is fair because they were busy about 75% of the time. Thursday I took them all grocery shopping with me ( I should get an award just for that). Friday we cleaned the house and went to Riley and Danny's birthday party, Saturday we went out to Uncle Wein's and saw the new baby bunnies, sooooo cute. Sunday was Easter complete with massive egg hunt and dinner at Aunt Chelle's (or Dudette as Mr calls her). Monday Chelle and I took the kids to Spaghetti Works in Old Market part of Omaha and to see HORTON HEARS A WHO, Blondie came home that night. Then Tuesday was filled with doctor's appointments. So I am really, really enjoying this morning's peace and quiet since all 5 of them had to go back to school. The noise and the drama are going to kill me this summer, I can see it now.



Chick and I went to a meeting about the Washington DC trip that is coming up. I found out that all the fundraising they do, they get a check about a week before they leave. Now it is up to you whether you take that to recoup what you have to pay for the trip or let them have it for spending money. I told Chick she could have it for spending money since there was no way I would be able to come up with a lot extra after paying for the trip especially since now Blondie wants to come too.


I got some pictures to upload but blogger is being persnickity, I'll try again later.....

Friday, March 21, 2008

Teeth

So, here is what is new in my world. Last weekend we all went to a poker party at Chelle's house. I was doing great (for me) 5 hours later on my initial buy in. Then my tooth started killing me. I mean like bring tears to your eyes, feel like you would rather be shot pain. I had had a couple of drinks, for which I am thankful because I can't imagine how much more painful it woulda been without their numbing help. So I basically gave my chips away and we came home. Overnight the side of my face swelled up and I was quite miserable. By the afternoon, I called Chelle and asked her to take me to a doctor (seeing as it was Sunday and no dentist was open) to get something for the pain. The doc said the infection was in my gum and expanding into my cheek (since I couldn't open my jaw more then an inch, I wasn't surprised) so she gave me penicillin and vicodin which I took the moment I could. By Monday morning, the swelling was starting to go down but I had a headache from hell and felt like I could have been doing the technicolor spray at anytime. And I was falling asleep every time I closed my eyes. It was no fun at all. I am finally feeling normal (for me) again and I have a dentist appointment for Tuesday. Let me tell you about that little adventure. It took me 3 hours to find a dentist in my area (ha ha the office is 680 and pacific, about an hour away) who took my insurance, and when I finally got up the courage to call, the first thing they said after they told me a time was they needed 20% of what ever the cost is that day. Good info to have and I suppose it was to be helpful letting me know but it reminded me of the last dentist that I went to that was more worried about the $ then taking care of his patients. Arrghhh I hate the whole thing!!

On a brighter note, I got report cards this week. 411 is doing well, Bubba is on the B honor roll, Chick is on the A honor roll and Blondie on the B honor roll. That last one I have mixed feelings about. In November she had all F's except one, then they did her IEP (individual learning plan) and now she is on the honor roll. I am all for them adjusting her schoolwork to a level that is more achievable to her skill level but I think they went too far. On the other hand, it is giving her an ego boost to know that she can achieve good grades. But is it challenging her to learn enough? I don't know, I pretty much leave that up to the school personnel, they know more about it then I do.

Mike has been flying to Indianapolis and driving semi's back all week. Not really being here most of the week, makes me feel like a single parent. I don't know how the women who are married to truck drivers do it all the time. He's here, he's not here. The military was kinda like that but it is weird, when you know that the person is going overseas or even just to the field for training, you get a mindset, ok, I know they will be gone and you adjust. I have gotten to be spoiled, I expect him to be here. Although, there are still times that I wonder, man, can't he go on some training for awhile? :)

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

411 and the crown she made















Mr showing off his new shoes


















Dying Bubba!















Chick trying to look fierce
















Blondie being a kid

Thursday, March 13, 2008

where did the week go?

I just looked to see that it has been a week since I last posted. It was a crazy one though so I guess that would explain it. Last Thursday my niece Kristi came down with her daughters to spend the weekend. I don't get to see the girls very often so it was a lot of fun. Friday Kristi went and got her boys. That is big news because no one has seen them for a year, including Kristi. So my house became a party zone. I made a big ole pot of Gumbo (which didn't turn out right, I am still pissed about that) and lets see, we had, at one time, 17 adults and 18 kids (roughly) here in the house. This is after a freak snow day for which I had my five kids, 2 of Michelles and 2 of Kristi's here allllll day. So by the time the night was over, I was sooo ready for the sister breakfast on Saturday. We got up and went to the first "garage" sale of the season, (yeah!!) and then went over to Deanne's for gift giving. Cindy brought these scrumptous apple dumplings she got off of this website http://www.thepioneerwomancooks.com/ OMG so worth it just for that recipe. And the ladies that were having a meeting in Deanne;s shop had a wonderful apple pizza made with sugar cookie dough and carmel. There is a reason the calories don't count on a sister breakfast. Then we all went up to see some hellaciously expensive condo's, that was a total blast. I still don't get the balcony that you can't stand on in an atrium that has no fresh air. I guess I am just too low class to understand the point of it. ANYWAY, we then took off to the Horseshoe casino buffet. LOVE it! I would like to try a new resturant since we have gone there so many times but I am good with going there too. Great food. Then came the shopping portion of the day. I got a couple of things for easter baskets and just enjoyed being a grown up. I got home around 6:30 -7 some where in there, to find out that not only had Mikey not gotten the kids dinner, he went out and left Chick in charge (with Gage but still that is alot of kids). Jake and Emily came over and helped keep the killing down to a dull roar. We ordered pizza, 6 large. Mike, Kristi, Susan, Gary and Bill came back and by the time that it was all said and done, everyone had eaten, there was 4 pieces left. good gravy. Sunday I was not feeling good at all, when everyone left around noon, I felt so bad but all I wanted was to go to bed. Mike ended up wanting to go to walmart so we did that. Then of course, all night long I was up and miserable. Monday I had to take Blondie to an appointment and I was still dragging. Today is the first day that I feel mostly normal. I say this after I overslept this morning and almost made my kids late for school. Now Mikey has it though so watch out!! We were talking about the weekend, though and he was telling me that the craziness is how he remembers his parents house being on the weekends he was home on leave, everyone would show up at some point to hang out for a while. I love visiting so I was in heaven. Chaos doesn't usually bother me too much so that helps :)

I reread all of the Suzanne Brockmann books I have in the Troubleshooters series so I am so ready for the new ones to come out. I have them all in paperback so its killing me to wait till they are released in that form ( I do not care for hardback) . I also have collected all the material for my current project, I am excited to share it when I get it completed.


Here is my little spelling stud..



















Mr. Dorko!

















Chick and her hat. Nuff said.


















Just to give you an idea how nuts it was, this is just half of one room!!






















Partners in crime, I tried to get a good one of both of them but that so wasn't happening.

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

I am sooo depressed!

Blondie has a link on her myspace to find your celebrity lookalikes, so I thought, hey I have a couple of minutes, lets check it out. So I go and upload a rare picture of me and you know what? it returned 5 celebrity matches (four of whom I had never heard of) and only one of them was a woman. Yep, my ego boost for today was that I look like Larry Bird 50%. Needless to say I didn't keep the results :)
Blondie is doing ok, it's looking more and more like a long term thing. I'll know more next month, I hate HATE the wait and see that we do so much.
Chick is trying to be nice. She is working on it, it is hard for her. Mike, Chick, Blondie and I had a this-is-how-the-cow-eats-the-cabbage meeting. We told them they don't have to love each other, they don't have to even like each other but they do have to get along. I am so tired of the 'she hurt my feelings' drama, I have enough to deal with.
Bubba went to his spelling bee last week. He got third place out of 12, I was very proud of him. His word that threw him out was atmospheric, I don't know that there are many 4th graders that wouldn't have been thrown off.
411 is stretching her boundaries, testing me daily. I love my child has become my constant mantra.
Mr is getting ready for Kindergarten round up. Already. Yikes, this is as bad as when Chick went. Mikey asked today if we could adopt a baby in a couple of years. I asked him to share the hallucinogens that he's taking. Now don't get me wrong, if the circumstances presented themselves, I would agree but I am not going to go looking for them. I am kinda looking forward to having all my kids gone all day.
Speaking of Mikey, he is getting antsy for summer. Camping really, doesn't care what season as long as he can go to the river.
We went and got our taxes figured, still have to pay Iowa. Damn, they are some greedy bastards. I am going to get my washer and dryer set when we get them back. I am so looking forward to that. I am getting the front loaders that can wash 18 pairs of jeans at a time. With 7 people in the house, it will be very helpful to have appliances that can handle what we produce. I am excited. I looked at couches the other day, Mikey hates the set that we have. We got it 8 years ago and it is starting to show. So I am on the hunt for a double recliner loveseat with a matching sleeper sofa. Yeah wish me luck on that.
I talked to my sister the other day, apparently her son is graduating college in May, she asked me to go with her. So my mom, my sister and I are going on a road trip to the evil state (Kansas) to see Lewis graduate. I don't care for him, I think he is an arrogant prick, most anyone who meets him agrees. My sister however, this is her only son. He is next to peanut butter in coolness. I am going to spend time with her and my mom. His new wife is interesting, I wonder if she will bring out the sex toy catalog again, that was a different ice breaker when I met her the first time.
My niece Hadleigh is back in the hospital. She got to come home for the first time since she was born in October last week and Stacy had to take her back to Children's Hospital because she had a fever and diarrhea. With all the surgeries this poor thing has had to go through, they are keeping a very close eye on everything. Her second stage surgery for her heart should be coming up soon. I feel for Stacy and Curtis. No matter what other junk has gone on, no one should have to deal with not knowing if your child is going to make it.
I watched Extreme Home Makeover this week, I knew it was going to be hard on my tear ducts when I was tearing up to the "tonight on..." segment before the show even started. And Toby Keith was on it, the family got to meet him personally. I just loved the house too. I was truly jealous this time.