Because I said so

I just realized it's been more than a month since I've posted here. Mostly because we've been busy with hockey and people being sick around here. You know, the usual stuff. Oh, and I've been spending a lot of time on Facebook, so LJ's sort of taken the back seat, even though I can write on here in ways that I cannot on FB. Ah, well.

The girl seems to have another UTI. She ran a high fever off and on for the past 4 days and since nothing else was coming with the temp (like vomiting or a cold), I suspected we needed to check her urine. Her blood count was way up, and there was a bit of protein in there, and also a higher amount of ketones due to her not eating well. All she wanted to do was lay on the couch and sleep. Fortunately, she would drink when offered anything, so she didn't get dehydrated. She didn't have any potty accidents, either, which is why it took me four days to get a clue. So it looks like we're heading back to the urologist because this cannot go on anymore. The poor child suffered because we thought she was past this problem, so now I'm more aggravated that usual. She started antibiotics this morning so by Thursday she should be better.

I got a sinus and ear infection last week (of which the ear part is ridiculous to me at age 36, but what can I do?). When I went to see the ear, nose and throat specialist last month he discovered I have a deviated septum which needs to be corrected so that my sinuses will function properly. So I will be having outpatient surgery next month. I have heard mixed reviews about this surgery, but one of my good friends had it and swears it changed her life. Also, there is like a 90% success rate in clearing up the chronic sinus infections and inflammation problems I have with this surgery so to me it is worth the risk. This doctor is also running allergy tests on me again to see if the past three years of allergy shots have even done any good. Apparently, my allergist should have been checking in with me this way at least once a year and they have failed to do so. Needless to say, I am probably dropping my care with him and moving on to this ENT because 1. He seems to know his shit and 2. His office is much closer to my house. Hopefully by the time I see him next my left ear will have finally popped, because several days of antibiotics have not cleared it out and I'm starting to worry.

The boy has been having a stellar month or two playing hockey and has become obsessed with it. He wants to try out for next year, so I have been screwed into another year of endless practices and games. But he is so excited and enthusiastic that I can't deny him this. My husband is thrilled as he also played hockey all through his childhood, and our son seems to be talented. We have another three weeks left in the season and then I think we are done until the fall, but then baseball starts up in April and both children will be playing, so there goes my life again. Oh, well. So in case I don't update again for another month, you know why.

I had my physical last week and finally addressed the fact that I have had constant sinus pain and pressure for a while. My doctor sent me for a ct scan of my sinuses on Monday. I was just getting over a cold but figured it wouldn't make that much of a difference since the worst had passed. Yesterday my doctor's office called and says, "What doctor did you make your Ear, Nose and Throat appointment with? Call us back! Bye!" To which I was like, what the heck, you made the referral, and then, why? I called this morning and found out the report from the scan said I have chronic sinusitis and inflammation. Well, Jesus. Tell me something I don't know. But I guess I have an expensive x-ray confirmation of it now. My husband has warned me there will mostly likely be a scope going up my nose in a couple of weeks. You can imagine my excitement about that nonsense, but if it stops me from being congested and having pain all the time, it will be worth it.

That's pretty much all I've got other than to complain about my fellow drivers over the past week. A few days ago, I was driving up the road when I saw a cop who had pulled someone over right next to a gym. Evidently, someone leaving this gym thought it was a good idea to watch the cop rather than me driving along because she nearly drove into me. IN FRONT OF THE COP. Maybe I should have let her destroy the hateful minivan, but I leaned on my horn instead. Dumbass. And then this morning I was driving home from the grocery store and this person in front of me drives 15-20mph under the speed limit until they turn off. Who drives this slow, especially in a 40mph zone? I almost called the cops to complain, but I was too lazy to get out my phone.

Speaking of the phone, I lost it at the ct place. It fell out of my pocket. Fortunately, the tech must have picked it up because they had it when I re-traced my steps from Monday. No doubt if it had fallen out in the waiting room, it would have been gone for good.

I got woken up this morning by an automated message that school was closed today. I wasn't really surprised, as we were supposed to get snow, sleet and rain all day. When I went outside, I thought the superintendent of our schools was slightly off his rocker, since there were only a couple of inches of snow on the ground, but later it turned to sleet and it was a mess so I said, fair enough, he was right.

Anyway, I had an appointment to build on a couple of my allergy shots (grass and weeds, I think) and I was determined not to cancel it. On a good day, my allergist's office is about a 15-20 minute shot down the highway. I rounded up the kiddies and it took us about 30 minutes or so, because I went between 45-50 mph the entire way. Now is the part where I am all preachy and smug: There were several cars off the highway. No one was hurt that I could see. Why did they think they could drive so fast? How are their cars better in the slush than mine? What makes them think you're such good drivers, anyway? Stupid people. When the roads are bad, you should drive slowly or stay home. Also, when your car starts to skid, take your foot off the gas and turn into the skid. It works, people. It's certainly a better alternative to doing a 180 degree spin-out on a major highway. Did I mention these people were stupid? Most of them were driving in the high-speed passing lane. Duh.

We made it back home without incident and by then the roads were better. I haven't heard from my husband or mother so I assume they made it into Boston ok. I'm pretty sure with all the snow days they have had so far my kids will be going to school in July. Fun!

And we're closing out 2008 by going out to dinner with the kids. That's pretty much it, because we got around five inches of snow today and we're not sure how the roads are. I am glad my husband didn't have to work. We hung out, cleaned the house, that's been about it. Will the excitement ever end?

You all enjoy your respective New Year's Eves. Happy birthday, Dana.

The girl is sick again, this time with the runs. I had it on Sunday but was so paranoid about cleaning afterward that I thought I had gotten all of it. No such luck, I guess. This morning I wiped everything down in the bathroom again and also wiped down the keyboard to the computer and the phone. Die, germs, die!

It sounds like this is the time of year to be sick. We were supposed to have a playdate today, and when I called to cancel that it turned out one of the kids there also had the stomach bug, and her two sisters had suddenly come up with bad coughs. Another friend of mine had to take her son to the doctor yesterday, turned out he had croup. I swear I'm going to start applying that anti-bacterial stuff to my hands every two seconds.

I read 100 books this year! Go, me.

The girl got better in time for Christmas day, thank God. Both kids were thrilled to get a Wii, which we had insisted we were not getting due to the cost, but then my parents kicked in some money so there you go. My arm got sore from table tennis but I enjoyed it and it got me off the couch, so not a bad thing in my opinion. We spent yesterday opening gifts and running around, so today we did nothing but clean and play with the new toys. I also took a nap. It was a good day.

The girl is laying on the couch, trying to recover from getting sick with the stomach bug this morning. The boy complained of a stomachache last night, but got better pretty quickly. However he had the virus last week, so I'm wondering if he just got a mild version this time while the girl got the real thing. Sigh. So we're bagging the Christmas Eve party we usually attend, which is fine by me because I don't always enjoy it that much. Fingers crossed that we'll all be ok for tomorrow, as my stomach is a bit on the queasy side and I am worried. The bug has been 24 hours in my experience, but I also had it last month so hopefully I just ate too much today or something like that.

Anyway, all the gifts have been purchased and wrapped at this point, so there shouldn't be much to do tonight. My husband and I went to Wal-Mart last night to get stuff for each other and I'm pretty sure it was the fifth circle of hell. We waited in line 20 minutes to buy very little. We ended up at Kohl's this morning and finished up our shopping for each other in a surprisingly quick and quiet trip. So that was good. I am supposed to bake cupcakes and cookies for tomorrow but I think I will wait until later on that.

I hope everyone on here has a wonderful Christmas/Hanukkah/Yule.

I think I just got through most of the entries I've missed in the past couple of weeks. I haven't felt a huge need to blather on as of late plus the fabulous New England winter sort of threw a wrench in the works, but mostly I think I've been ok and not as cranky as usual and perhaps that's why I've been quiet? Hmm.

It seems like it was a long time ago, but last Friday morning at around 2:30am, the power went off in our house. I realized this rather quickly since my CPAP (for you, Lisa! CRAP!) shut off and there was no more wind rushing air down my throat. Also it got very quiet in the house. I woke up my husband and told him to set his cell phone alarm so he could get up for work. He came in and woke me around 7am and said the kids had no school because there was still no power and I was all like, uh-oh. When I had gone to bed the night before I thought we were just having a bit of a rainstorm, but no, it was a gigantic ice storm and it ripped down hundreds of tree limbs and electrical wires. Well, shit. The house got down to about 58 degrees before the kiddos and I fled to the warmth of lunch at a restaurant with my dad, and then to the mall.

The next city over had power so then I had to take my son to hockey practice, where the rink didn't seem quite as cold as usual because I was already cold. We ate out again at a pizza place with my parents, then drove down to a Motel 6 in another city because there was STILL no power at home as of 6:30pm. This Motel 6 accepted pets without an additional fee, so both my dog and my parents' dog came with all of us. We settled in with my daughter and our dog (my son stayed with my parents). At some point during the night, our daughter and the dog migrated over to our bed and slept down at the end. When our daughter woke up for good, she jumped on both of us, and then the dog came up and licked me ON MY EYE. Fortunately, my eye was closed at the time but it was still a very weird feeling.

We drove back home to take the kids to ice skating, and my husband discovered that our power was back on, huzzah! So we checked out of the hotel, went home, and cranked up the heat. Unfortunately, my parents (who live three minutes from us, mind you) did not get their power back. We have a pull-out mattress in our sofa, so they set up camp in our living room Saturday and Sunday night.
( More about the winter of '08 )

Borrowed from dana:

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Both.

2. Real tree or Artificial? Fake, mostly because we hate spending $40 on a tree for two weeks only to have it shed all its needles everywhere and then die. I just can't justify the cost. Plus if the dog tips it over, it's not the end of the world. If he pees on it, though, he's a dead man.

3. When do you put up the tree? Mid-December, usually. We're away on Thanksgiving weekend and usually too busy to deal with it until then.

4. When do you take the tree down? New Year's Day.

5. Do you like eggnog? Yum. Especially with booze in it.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? I'd say my Barbie dream house (which is not at all like the one they put out today). It had a working elevator!

7. Hardest person to buy for? My mother. I ordered a personalized sweatshirt for her so far (shut up, she likes them), but I'm not sure what else to do. Jewelry? A sweater? Ugh.

8. Easiest person to buy for? Either of my kids, because they make lists.

9. Do you have a nativity scene? Somewhere in the house, but right now I really have no place to put it.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail. I am hardcore on this one.

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? My mother-in-law must have been smoking something good last year, because she got me plastic fruit. I still don't know why or what I did to deserve it.

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? A Christmas Story. Ralphie!

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? This year I picked up a Boston Celtics World Champions blanket for my dad shortly after they won. I've been hanging onto that sucker for months. But mostly, I start sometime in November.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? I don't think so.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? My aunt's mother's broccoli casserole. It's cheesy goodness.

16. Lights on the tree? Yes. Multi-colored.

17. Favorite Christmas song? The Christmas Song, by Nat King Cole. I love most anything sung by him.

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Travel locally. Just to my parents' and my aunt and uncle's houses, all within an hour of home.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen; Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blizten. But do you recall, the most famous reindeer of all? Rudolph, of course.

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Sometimes a light-up star, but usually Marvin the Martian and his dog on a shooting star.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? All in the morning.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? The threat of a snowstorm on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. Fearing the crap my mother-in-law has given us this year. The rest is just details.

23. Favorite ornament theme or color? I collect penguins, so there are lots of them on our tree. Also, we like to get ornaments from different places we have visited.

24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, butternut squash, green beans, broccoli casserole and lots of gravy.

25. What do you want for Christmas this year? I have no idea, and neither does my husband. I'll probably end up getting some books and clothes for myself at the very last minute.

Off to NYC for the day tomorrow. Yay!!

We made it back and forth to my in-laws in one piece. It was exhausting and yet not long enough, because I didn't get to visit with my husband's sisters and extended family nearly as much as I would have liked. My mother and father-in-law? Meh. I could have skipped the dinner with them, as I find my husband's stepfather completely irritating, and he always undercooks the turkey. It's a wonder to me that none of us have ever gotten food poisoning. I also got a miserable cold the day we left, which added to the fun. The night one of my sisters-in-law took the kids for a sleepover, my husband and I went back to where we were staying, watched tv for a bit, and I went to sleep. The end. Sigh. It was fun to visit with our friends who just had a baby, though. I even got to hold the baby, although I was afraid to breathe on him lest I contaminate him with my germs. And my husband's cousins are lots of fun, it's just that all at once they tend to overwhelm me and I forget to speak.

So now I get to worry about sending out my Christmas cards and my very delayed thank you notes for my daughter's birthday. I wish I could just bag sending them, but that's not how I was raised. My daughter's room needs to be cleaned desperately in time for Santa's arrival because it's frightening in there. I also still have to finish up my shopping and try to get through the next few weeks without turning into a giant stress-ball. Any suggestions, other than upping my meds and/or drinking more alcohol than usual?

From Lisa, because she asked and it's only five things. I should be able to handle that, right?

I should expose five odd things about myself, and then challenge 5 friends to do the same.

The oddity number 1: I like to sleep naked. My children often out me inappropriately on this, and at this point I just tell people I don't like to be hot when I sleep. I keep a pair of sweats at the end of the bed, should something happen. Try not to picture this in your head.

The oddity number 2: I know way too much about popular culture. If I hear a pop song, I can usually tell you who is singing it. I can talk to you at length about "The Girls Next Door." It's quite ridiculous for a 35-year-old homemaker, especially one who spent a lot of money and time getting a college degree.

The oddity number 3: I can't stand having dry skin on my hands and alternate between putting lotion on them multiple times a day and picking and/or biting the dry skin off. I really don't know how I don't get infections.

The oddity number 4: I can't stop myself from double-checking stuff over and over again, like the amount of the last bank deposit I made, or if I sent the right book out to the right person from Amazon, or if I got everything on my grocery list. I know this is an OCD thing. I hate it, but I can't seem to stop.

The oddity number 5: Many years ago I once decided that my eyes were hazel instead of brown. I don't know why. They're brown, although they have a lot of green in them. I think I was just sick of having brown eyes that year or something. I am back in reality on that one. My eyes are brown.

And now to pick 5 friends to challenge.
Angel_Smut
Bloody_Keri
irishspongie
perchmommy
dana

I had to go back and see what I had written in my last entry, guess it's been a while.

My daughter's trip to the urologist went well, I guess. She gave another urine sample while we were there and there were still traces of blood in it. But the doctor felt because it keeps showing up as a microscopic amount, it's nothing to worry about. He said he saw quite a few children with this problem and it usually comes down to two things: She is not completely emptying her bladder when she goes, and she is not wiping front-to-back as all girls are supposed to. We are supposed to make her go every 2-3 hours, which we had been doing anyway, and just making sure she is done, even when she thinks she isn't. Her accidents have lessened somewhat, and I'm pretty sure that's more because she thinks she's a big girl now that she's five years old than any of the other stuff we are doing. She's definitely still a work in progress with the bathroom stuff; it's frustrating, but at least it's not serious and the doctor didn't feel the need for more invasive testing, thank God.

That stupid stomach bug hung on forever with me. It was a rather unpleasant 10 or so days for me, never knowing whether or not I was going to hang on to what I just ate. I'd like to say I lost weight, but I'm pretty sure I didn't. For a few days I thought it was something more annoying like a sudden lactose intolerance, but I've been drinking milk again for the past several days and seem to be ok. Which is great, because I love me some milk.

I've had to wash the dog twice here at home in the past six weeks because he has become the master of dog funk. We're pretty sure at least once he peed in his crate for some reason. Fortunately he hasn't done it again (we think), but he is still a little on the smelly side. He goes for his "professional" bath and grooming tomorrow, hopefully they can figure it out. Also, in spite of brushing, he keeps getting knots in the hair on his ears. I think they might need to clip it shorter, although I don't know if that would make him look like a freak.

What else? I've been to four birthday parties in the last two weekends and by God, I hope I do not have another one until after Christmas. This past weekend was the first one where I ran into one of my daughter's classmate's moms who did not RSVP to my daughter's party. She apologized and said her son got sick at the last minute, but up until then they had planned on going. I let it go because I didn't want to be a bitch and didn't have to pay for her kid anyway, but every time I talk to another parent with this same problem of people saying they are coming and then not showing up, I wonder why the hell we put all the time and money into these parties when other parents are so irresponsible and selfish. It's ridiculous.

We are headed to my in-laws for Thanksgiving in two days. I am somewhat fortunate this year in that we are staying at one of my sisters-in-law's houses, because she and her family are going out of town. I am tired of staying at my husband's parents' house, because they are a pain in the ass. I know I should be grateful that we are up there to share in a dinner with them, but it will be the blandest meal and I hate that. There will be turkey, mashed potatoes, some sort of weird vegetable like cauliflower, a 24-hour salad that should really be a dessert and not part of the meal, and rolls. Bleh. I will bring a small serving of peas for myself and possibly my daughter, and that will probably be the only color in the meal. Last year I made huge servings of peas and butternut squash and no one ate them but me, sigh. One of the other grandkids just got diagnosed with a gluten allergy; I am going to see if I can bring something for him to eat for dessert because I doubt anyone else will be thinking of this problem. I am also bringing two bottles of wine and might drink one of them all by myself. I guess it depends on whether or not my husband's stepfather chooses to make a scene as he did last year by screaming at my mother-in-law for being in the way in the kitchen. It wouldn't be a holiday without some sort of drama, right?

The good news is that going up there forced me to finish my holiday shopping for that side of the family by today. So I am done with half of my shopping, and pretty much all of it is gift cards so I don't even have to wrap. Sweet! And our kids are also pretty much done, because after much discussion and hemming and hawing, we are getting our kids a Wii. As long as I can find one. This was one of only three things my son asked for, and my husband and I will use it too, so it's probably more of a family gift than the kids realize. My husband and I aren't even sure what to get each other this year. I would like a new (used) car, but I don't think that's coming right now. The minivan from hell lives for another day! I think we'll be filling our stockings from Santa and that will be about it.

Hope everyone on here who celebrates American Thanksgiving has a good one.

Halloween was unusually stressful for me this year. My daughter kept telling everyone who went to hand her candy that she was allergic to peanuts, and this continued long after I told her multiple times that I would check her bag when we got home and exchange out what she couldn't eat. All the kids kept running ahead of us and wouldn't stop no matter how many times we told them. My son lost the whip that went with his Indiana Jones costume and he started crying (my husband and Beth went to look for it and it was long gone). He also got extremely upset when we had to remind him a bunch of times to say thank you. The one bright spot of the night was the weather was clear and over 50 degrees (warm for the end of October in New England). I swear next year I'm taking half an ativan so I won't spend the night yelling at the kids. Ugh.

We suffered through my mother's birthday without too many problems. My mother is very needy and wants appreciation at all costs, so her birthday is somewhat tricky every year. This year we got her jewelry and went out to a nice lunch at a restaurant of her choice. I feared for the worst when we got a waitress she didn't especially like, but it turned out ok. My daughter misbehaved a little, but got over it, thank God.

My son went to the orthodontist. They took lots of digital photos of the inside of his mouth, and then we sat down to talk to the doctor. I am embarrassed to say I got nervous around the doctor, because he was quite handsome. I haven't done that in a long time, because I am 35 years old and married, for crying out loud. The doctor was probably a year or two older than me and very nice, but I turned into a bit of a stuttering idiot when he talked to me. Fortunately, my son was there to defuse my social anxiety, and the hot doc explained that my son didn't have a true crossbite, yay! He just has a small top jaw, and hasn't found a comfortable bite. He did say my son appears to grind his teeth, although we haven't heard him do it. Since my son takes after me with the nervousness, I'm sure it's true. Also, my son does in fact have a low frenulum that is pulling his two top front teeth apart and causing a space, but the doctor felt that we needed to wait until all my son's adult teeth come in before operating on it. So that was good news, too. AND we didn't have to pay, because the consult was free. Win-win, all around. We have to see the doctor again in several months, because he wants to follow my son's tooth growth and make sure that his jaw isn't getting bad.
( Read more )

I go off-line for a few days and lots of stuff happened. Typical. I think I'm all caught up on everyone now. I needed a little break because I was dealing with silly, stupid people, lots of Mite level hockey, and a grown-ups only Halloween party.

Last Thursday during the day, I went to two different Targets in our area looking for costumes for my husband and I. I needed a plus-sized costume, and this proved to be very difficult to find. The costumes at Target were extremely picked over, so I gave up and went home. We all spent that evening on another short and frustrating search. We went to Jo-Ann Fabric, there was nothing there, and then Wal-Mart was just hell. The costumes were all a mess and it was crowded and I was like, we're out of here, after about 10 minutes.

Friday morning I committed myself to finding a priest and devil costume. I went to a party store that I figured would have a larger and nicer selection, which they did, but no plus-sized devil costume for me, sigh. So I got my husband the priest costume, and then got myself a red cape, sparkly horns, a plastic pitchfork, spider-web earrings, fake scary fingernails and eyelashes, fish-net stockings that would actually fit me, and some black lipstick. Then I went back to Target and picked up a black sleeveless dress in my size, along with regular black pantyhose. Then I made a little sign for the back of my cape that said "failed exorcism." And that's what we went as; the priest who was lousy at his job and his devil. The people at the party seemed amused by this if they noticed the sign, otherwise I was just another devil (there were at least three of us) and he was just another priest/brother/nun.

I wasn't sure how that party in general was going to go. I tend to be nervous and somewhat shy in new situations such as this, and we certainly didn't know many people at this party. We ended up talking with some other new hockey parents, though, and it turned out ok. The mayor put in an appearance until about 9:30, and then he left because he apparently didn't have a babysitter. You would think being mayor of a very small city would afford you at least one decent babysitter, but I guess not. We ended up leaving at about 11:45, which was mighty late for us. I haven't seen that time of night in ages, possibly since one of my husband's company Christmas parties a few years ago. I was so wound up when we got home we ended up watching SNL for a little while and it wasn't that horrible.

My son's team lost their first game on Sunday. The other team was pretty good and played slightly dirty, which I am not making up just because my kid's team lost. It's totally true! They were big and mean :) Seriously! There weren't any injuries or anything but the ref did stop the game and yelled at one kid who practically tackled a kid on our team to stop him from scoring. My mother told me twice to stop yelling like a hockey parent. Too bad I still almost lost my voice.

Why in God's name is there an ad for Tom Cruise's website on the side of my page? He is such a tool, and I think this is the first time I've even mentioned him here. I bet God is punishing me for the whole failed exorcism thing.

My son is singing the national anthem in the shower. Just thought I'd share.

I can't decide if I have a cold or some sort of late fall allergies. Given that we had our first official frost last night, I'm thinking this is a cold. I went to get my allergy shots today and was told they were cutting back on my dust mite dose because it's now dust mite season. Too bad we can't hunt down and kill the little critters they way some people do with deer.

Anywho, my extravaganza of giving crap away on freecycle.org so far has gotten a box of plastic fruit out of my house, and three other things are supposedly on their way out as well (as long as the person who emailed me shows up tomorrow). I sold three of my books so far on Amazon. I'm thinking I need to list a few more things on freecycle and start donating some old clothes to charity and then this house might actually be 1. cleaner and 2. have more room. Although the cleaner part I doubt; I cleaned this place like a madwoman Friday morning because I was babysitting my friend's baby on Friday night and it stayed clean for about 24 hours and then settled back into mayhem. Sigh.

My husband realized last night the reason I had been so cold all weekend was that one of our bedroom windows was cracked open. Probably by me. Because I love to waste money and freeze my extremities that way.

We've been invited to what is apparently the Halloween shindig of the year in our city. I still need to RSVP but my parents are taking the kids so it's pretty much a done deal. We got invited because our son plays hockey with this couple's son and my husband has been friendly with the husband who invited us. The mayor of our crappy little city is going, and invite list was over 200 people long. Although my husband hates the idea of wearing a costume, he actually wants to go because if our son doesn't play hockey again next year, we probably won't be invited back. When I told my friend Pam we had been invited, her eyes practically bugged out and she said I had to go because it was THE party. I've begged one of my other friends to look for her Raggedy Ann and Andy costumes that she thought she had; otherwise there is going to be a last-minute trip to Target or Wal-Mart to see what we can scrounge up. This will be my first costume party in years, and I am bringing a couple bottles of wine because if I don't know anyone, at least I can be less awkward with some booze in me. Any and all costume suggestions will be considered, so don't hold back. Just realize I am not capable of sewing.

This past week was really way too busy for my fragile little mind so I have been vegging out all morning. I did post some books on amazon.com to sell and some random stuff on freecycle.org to just get it out of my house. The stuff I am trying to freecycle is mostly from my mother-in-law, who I thought said was no longer going to give us Christmas gifts. Apparently she couldn't resist some really shitty stuff at her local Christmas Tree Shop and decided to pass along her $1 treasures to me to make up for the whole no gift edict. Don't get me wrong, I love the Christmas Tree Shop, but only when it's stuff that I actually want or need. Why on earth would she buy me plastic garland to put around candles? I have no room for this type of thing in my little house, and there are no mantels to be found. She also gave me some plastic fruit that I still don't quite understand. I hope someone else can get use out of that crap because I am stumped.

Enough carping about my MIL's poor taste. My son went to the Baseball Hall of Fame this weekend with my parents, so there was no hockey for me this weekend. Yay! No hour spent freezing in the rink for me today. I probably should have gone to church, but we've had no Sundays to ourselves in months and I figured God would understand my need to just sit in the house. My husband and I slept in until 8am, and our daughter played quietly out in the living room until then, which was amazing. She went to her learn to skate program with dad yesterday and then I took her to a birthday party for one of her school friends, so it was a busy day for her. We went out to dinner with our friends and she went to bed without complaint after that. I think she was really tired.

We've had my parents' dog with us since yesterday morning and it's been fine. He and Jack rolled around together a few times until they were tired and since then they've retreated to separate perches on our furniture, Jack on his usual chair and the other dog on the sofa. The only tricky part is feeding them since they eat different foods and both want to sample what the other one has. They seem to be pretty happy, though.

In addition to taking my daughter to see a pediatric urologist next month, I also now have to take my son to an orthodontist. On his dental visit this past week, the hygienist discovered he has a crossbite, which I don't fully understand, but I get the gist that it's not a great thing to have and it needs to be fixed. I called our dental insurance and the one we have right now covers 50% up to $1,000 lifetime orthodontics, which sucks but it's better than nothing. We're changing to a different insurer in January so we'll see what that one offers. The boy also has a low-lying frenulum under his top lip, which is causing a gap between his front teeth. My husband also has this, and although his gap is not that big our dentist is all, "Your son needs to get that fixed." So we will be speaking to the orthodontist about this, too, because he is the tooth-spacing and alignment expert, so to speak.

Have I mentioned I need to start some of my Christmas shopping so I can haul it up to my in-laws at Thanksgiving? Yeah. And the only people I've started are my kids and my dad. I'm so organized.

I have mentioned this before, but it bears repeating: I hate my minivan. Last week I blew out a tire. I called Triple A and it took a good half hour for the tow truck to get there, and then the guy couldn't get my spare out because the cable holding it on is stuck. Grrr. He towed it to the garage and I had to buy a new tire because my mechanic couldn't repair the enormous rip in the side of the tire. To be fair, it was pretty much all my fault for not taking a turn quite right and bumping the tire, but I believe it's also because this van is cursed.

Two days later, the van started making an extremely loud grinding sound. My husband took a look at the brakes and they were shot, of course. Back to the mechanic to have those fixed. For those of you playing at home, this meant I spent over $200 on that stupid van in less than a week. I have never wanted to get rid of it more. It's paid off, which is why we keep it around, but I was on-line looking at "new" used cars and I'm putting that bastard Dodge on notice. My husband's car is older but he drives way less than I do and usually not with the kids. Plus his car seems to be more reliable, knock wood.

One of my sisters-in-law came down this past weekend to visit. We had a pretty good time. My son had a hat trick at his hockey game (which means three goals in one game). We only saw two of them so how he got that third one I will never know. God help us if he turns out to be a really good player and wants to continue. He'll need to get a job now, I don't care if he's only 7. Hockey is expensive, and also very cold for the people who have to sit in the stands during practices and games. Le sigh. At least I have to only do the Learn to Skate program with my daughter this weekend because the boy is going out of town with my parents.

Crap, I have to get ready to take the kids to the dentist. Wish them luck!

I realized that I've been negative and miserable on here lately and lest I become a negative Nelly (ha! I slay me!), I wanted to remind myself and tell you all that I do have good things happen to me sometimes:

1. The house is now completely insulated on the first floor. It took my husband and one of our friends several hours, but they managed to finish it and it cost $150 (plus buying our friend dinner) to do the entire job. The cheapest insulation company was going to charge us $2K and ruin our aluminum siding, and probably would have been far less thorough. I'm not sure if the house is warmer yet but I expect we'll know in the next couple of months when we check our heating bill.

2. My husband and I went away overnight to an inn about 40 minutes from our house while my parents took the kids and the dog. My husband is celebrating his 37th birthday in two days so we went away for that. We had a nice dinner, walked around through the city's downtown for a while, went back to the inn, had "we're away/no kids/birthday" sex, overslept the next morning, had a nice brunch, and went to Wal-Mart in peace and quiet. Then we went back and got the kids and the dog. We hardly ever go away like that, it was fun.

3. While the CPAP has not been an overwhelming success, it has helped. And the sleep doctor wasn't even upset that I increased the settings on the sly (although he did notify the home healthcare company. The called me and sounded pretty unimpressed about the whole thing).

4. I got my hair colored last week and it's a little more fun and adventurous that usual. Also, my hairdresser is pregnant and beyond excited.

5. There is lots of good TV on right now. As in: The Amazing Race, The Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother, Heroes, Fringe, America's Next Top Model, Ghosthunters, Survivor and the Ghost WHisperer. I have something to watch every night but Saturday, and there is always Tivo for that.

6. My son's hockey team won their first two games. Although the jury is still out on whether or not he'll play again next year, he seems to be having a good time.

7. In spite of the blood and the repeated doctor visits, my daughter is happy and is not in pain, so whatever is causing her problems seems pretty benign (fingers crossed!).

8. The Red Sox beat the Angels! Up next: Tampa Bay.

Stolen from angel_smut:

My LiveJournal Trick-or-Treat Haul
nellymom goes trick-or-treating, dressed up as britney spears.
angel_smut gives you 9 dark blue peach-flavoured gumdrops.
barmaidblog gives you 9 light orange watermelon-flavoured wafers.
bloody_keri gives you 3 yellow passionfruit-flavoured nuggets.
danatheb tricks you! You get a dead frog.
irishspongie gives you 10 softly glowing grape-flavoured pieces of bubblegum.
lindapendant gives you 1 teal chocolate-flavoured gumdrops.
lisa_e_is_me gives you 8 mauve mint-flavoured pieces of chewing gum.
morrigan_circle tricks you! You lose 10 pieces of candy!
perchmommy tricks you! You get a broken balloon.
sunnybananas gives you 10 tan cinnamon-flavoured jawbreakers.
nellymom ends up with 40 pieces of candy, a dead frog, and a broken balloon.
Go trick-or-treating! Username:
Another fun meme brought to you by rfreebern.

Today was not so great. There was a huge detour on the way to my daughter's school that took me 10 minutes out of the way and therefore about five minutes late. Fortunately, I was not the only one. The cop by the detour was absolutely useless. My tax dollars at work!

Then I went to the dentist. I have been having tooth pain and sensitivity in a spot where I just got a filling, so I was pretty sure it fell out. Good news was that it was still in there. Bad news was that I chipped a tooth, which was causing my problems. Sort of good news was the chip was so small if I hadn't whined like a little baby they probably wouldn't have even noticed it and then they laughed at me and slapped some fluoride on it. Also, I had to have part of my gums numbed between my two crowns because goddamn some plaque got in there and it hurts and I can't reach it with floss and my God is this over yet??? Oh, yes. Thank you, Jesus. I promise to use my water pik from this day forth forever and ever amen.

I managed to pick my daughter up by running across a construction zone, therefore shaving time off the commute. Got home and realized after we ate that I needed to call to make an appointment for my daughter with a pediatric urologist (or pee pee doctor, as we fondly call him here). I called into Boston to set up an appointment and after giving them all our info was told I had to wait until Thursday to get an appointment set up.

I called the pediatrician's office to find out the results of my daughter's latest urine dip, which took place on Friday. The receptionist told me it was all clear, except for some trace amount of blood. At which point I was like, she's had blood in it for six months THAT'S WHY I AM CALLING IS HER DOCTOR THERE? Alas, he is on vacation. Of course. I started to explain my whole waiting for the urologist to call me back, and then she recommended trying another urologist. So I called that one, gave all my info, and was then told my daughter would need a test. She is already having an ultrasound of her kidneys, and this other test was something I was a little afraid of. I said I would take care of it, and then I called the pediatrician's office back and explained what happened. The juggled the ultrasound around with the lab in order to get both things done at once.

Then I went on the internet and talked to my mother. Five minutes later, I was back on the phone with the pediatrician's office again canceling this other test. Right now, she's just going to have the ultrasound, and I am going to wait for my daughter's pediatrician to come back before I schedule this second test, which involves getting a catheter and injecting her bladder with dye. From what I understand, it's very painful. So I'm trying to hold off until I know more, and also until I know she can be sedated so she won't be in pain.

It's freaking me out. I don't know what else to say.

My daughter has a UTI. She's been on an antibiotic since Friday and seems to be fine, although it was pretty hard to tell she had anything wrong to begin with. She never had a fever or complained about being in pain. We're going back next week to make sure the infection is gone, and then discuss why has this has gone on for so long.

In the meantime, she also managed to catch our family's first cold of the fall and bring it home to everyone. My husband got it especially bad, and by Monday I kicked him out of the bed because he was keeping me awake. I also made him go to the doctor to get good cough medicine that will keep him quiet at night. He's had to take twice the dose recommended to get any relief, but the doctor said he didn't have anything like bronchitis, so there's not much else we can do but let it run its course. We also gave our son a tiny bit last night because he is coughing a lot, too. The regular cough medicine sort of helps during the day, but nighttime is a killer.

Fortunately my husband is off this week because he's putting the insulation in the wall so the loss of sleep for him wasn't as bad as it would normally be. And now I have to go clean up the mess my house has become.