3 Things

This came in an e-mail but I thought it might make a good post...I'm lazy. This is a free-blogging world, people! Copy, Paste, Edit, and Post!!

3’s ABOUT ME

Three Names I go by:
1 Deanna
2. Mamamamama
3. Hot sexy sweet lickin’ sugar cake – Just kidding! – “Dee”

Three jobs I have had in my life:
1. Farm worker aka ‘professional hay stacker’ aka “dammit kid! Do what I say!”
2. Chemistry Lab Assistant – don’t mix zee bottles with zee X on dem!!
3. Engineer

Three places I have lived:
1. North Texas
2. West Texas
3. South Texas

Three things I like to watch:
1. wildlife in the wild cause like that’s where they do that wild thing!
2. My husband and my little boy interacting – especially cute when the child isn’t biting and the husband isn’t turning red
3. children singing at church – they always scratch themselves in the darndest places in front of everybody.

Three places I have been:
1. New Mexico
2. Washington DC
3. Colorado

Three people that e-mail me regularly:
1. A friend from work
2 My mom
3. That spam dude that’s always telling me I have 12.8 billion dollars waiting in an offshore account – freak-o

Three of my favorite foods:
1. chocolate chip cookies – I don’t share very well
2. green chile chicken enchiladas – I bloat from these
3. chicken fried steak – All that grease is good for lubricating the intestinal tract

Three things I am looking forward to:
1. My vegetable garden actually growing something besides worms – of course, if times get tough we could eat them too.
2. Upholstering our headboard – and no that’s not code for something dirty
3. Losing some more weight – this crap isn’t supposed to be like a souvenir that sits around and gathers dust

Diarrhea, Hormones, and Chicken

Last week was so fun! Can you see the half smile on my face and the weary expression in my eyes? No? That's because the 28.7 ounces of coffee I've consumed so far haven't kicked in. Get more sleep, you say? Well, I tried, okay!? I was all nice and ready for bed at 9:15 CST last night and then WHAM!, I had to grab a magazine (Good Housekeeping for those of you that are interested) and run to the bathroom. Being constipated for three days is no fun. Having a bad subway sandwich remedy the issue within 2 hours and 3 bathroom visits is no fun either. Nuff said.

So last week we didn't get K-man's MRI done. He started running a fever at 6:00 the night before and it lasted for a full three days. On Saturday, the fever broke and the rash started. I sat down and cried. My husband consoled me while telling the baby to let go and quit biting. We're rescheduled for the imaging for tomorrow and I think we're more ready this week than we were last week. We're worn down - just tell us what to do...we can't stress any more because our adrenal glands have finally shriveled into hopeless little raisins. You're thinking you can revive them by jumping out of a bush and scaring the bejeebers out of me, aren't you? Well, I won't jump but I may just knock the ever living crap out of you for getting in my way on the sidewalk. Did I mention I'm hormonal this week? Life is fun. Where's the chocolate cake?

Over at Coalcreekfarm.com they're slaughtering chickens. Actually, they slaughtered them a few days ago, but she's posting about it now. I'm highly interested. I think chicken is one of those things that you probably don't want to know about because you'll never look at it the same...like sweetbreads from a cow or calf fries from a calf. You ever made sweetbread before? Do you know what it looks like before you batter and fry it? It's disgusting. Whatever compelled anyone to eat that crap in the first place? Of course, I grew up in an area where they also slow cooked the head of a cow and then ate the brain with scrambled eggs. Nice way to stick with one theme, people...brains, eggs, scrambled...oh yum! Where's the wheaties?

Think I'll go back to drinking my lukewarm coffee...only by now it's cold and disgusting but I'm still drinking it.

8 Things

Sandy from Cheaper Than Therapy tapped me to do the "8 Things" list. Here goes!

8 Things I'm looking forward to:
1. Upholstering our headboard
2. Moving Kelton’s room to the back room and decorating it
3. Finally hanging photos and artwork in our bedroom
4. Planting my garden (grow baby grow!)
5. A vacation this summer (or rather a staycation)
6. My next pedicure
7. Losing some more weight
8. The next Twilight movie (yes, I’m pathetic)

8 Things I did yesterday:
1. Attended a company conference
2. Ate out at an Italian restaurant – it’s hard to beat spaghetti and meatballs
3. Polished off two chocolate chip cookies from the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory
4. Took a 3 hour nap
5. Fed the baby chicken nuggets and french fries – while wondering why we didn’t buy 3 chocolate chip cookies earlier in the day
6. Checked my pedometer, thought a bad word, and went for a 30 minute walk
7. Put my hair in pigtails
8. Tried to pick a dried booger off K-man’s face while he slept (unsuccessfully)

8 Things I wish I could do:
1. Landscape our backyard
2. Install a salt-water pool
3. Have the courage to paint some of our walls a different color
4. Remodel the front bath with a claw foot soaking tub and bidet (while living somewhere else until all the work is finished)
5. Bring K-man’s scrapbook up to date
6. Lose all of the weight I want
7. Be creative when it comes to weekend activities with my munchkin
8. Bake biscuits as good as Hubby’s mama

8 Shows I watch:
1. NCIS - regularly
2. Lost - regularly
3. Platinum Weddings (while going “Oh my goooosh!”) – when I can’t sleep
4. The Girls Next Door (while going “Oh my gooooosh!”) – when I can’t sleep
5. Jack’s Big Music Show – unwillingly
6. The Backyardigans – unwillingly
7. Curious George – unwillingly
8. Sanctuary – when SciFi was showing it I was hooked on that show!

8 Songs on my music player:
1. The Watermelon Crawl – Tracy Byrd
2. Walking After Midnight – Patsy Cline
3. What a Crying Shame – The Mavericks
4. Some girls do – Sawyer Brown
5. 18 Wheels and a dozen roses – Kathy Mattea
6. Gone Country – Alan Jackson
7. Meet in the Middle – Diamond Rio
8. Would You Go With Me – Josh Turner (how does he sing like that?)

8 Favorite warm weather activities:
1. Air Conditioning (warm weather in Texas = hot as hell)
2. Swimming
3. Floating the river
4. Gardening – except if it’s 110 degrees with 97% humidity, oh wait, that’s August!
5. Summer festivals and arts & crafts shows
6. Making lemonade
7. Making margaritas (okay, so it’s lemonade with good stuff in it...it counts!)
8. Fishing

8 Favorite Happy Things:
1. The way Kelton grins at us first thing in the morning when he’s had a really good night’s sleep
2. Watching the birds in the backyard clean up the birdseed
3. Watching the squirrels irritate the birds
4. The way Sunday afternoon feels after church on Sunday morning
5. Hearing the congregation singing slightly out of tune at the little church I grew up in
6. Spring time when all the little animals are born and running around
7. A kiss from my baby
8. Curling up next to my husband with my head on his chest

8 People I tag:
1. Sandra
2. Debbie
3. Joanna
4. Kaycee
5. Moose
6. Jaci
7. Val
8. John Deere Mom

The Waiting Game Starts

Back in October I posted THIS about K-man's gastroenterologist sending us on an emotional rollercoaster over the size of his head. At the time, although his head measured large (as it always had) the rate of growth was normal. In the past three months, that rate of growth has taken a few jumps. Enough of a change to cause some concern with our pediatrician and we have an MRI scheduled for next Wednesday.

While worrying about the MRI results is enough to cause me to go into a vegetative state over the next ten days, what is really bothering me is the impending IV that they will have to do in order to sedate him. Do you get that? They're going to put my baby to sleep. That scares the hell out of me. It's not complete sedation where they have to take over his breathing, but it is still sedation. My baby won't have complete control over his body. The imaging will take a minimum of 45 minutes to an hour to get the pictures they need. Those drugs will be going into my child for at least that length of time. From what little we've been told so far, he can't have any food or drink for 6 hours beforehand and we don't know if we'll be the first ones in the morning or not. That's not their problem, though, is it?

Our last, and only, encounter with an IV and K-man was last year on one of our emergency room visits. The baby had been throwing up constantly and was dehydrated. They were doing an IV to get a blood sample, get fluids in him, and to get some antibiotics in him. I wrote about it HERE. I don't want to go through that again...I don't want him to go through that again. I hate this. I hate being the bystander. Why can't I just take the IV for him? Or just do his test for him? I already want to go in there and get in the face of every nurse and doctor and tell them that they better be on their A-game or else....or else I'll crumble into an absolute sobbing heap beause there's not a damn thing I can do to help my baby except just be there.

And no matter how much I want to wallow in worry and self pitty and pitty for my child, I just can't. I have no right because I know there are other families out there who are traveling much harder roads than we are right now. We are incredibly blessed and thankful for such. And we know and believe that no matter what path we are on or about to be on, that God is in control. So we reside in that and pray and watch and wait.

The debate

In the second grade I was positive I wanted to be in ballet class. Never mind that I had just come out of three quarter's of a soccer season with four black eyes and multiple bruises. I never got the gist of getting out of the way out of the soccer ball as it carreened towards my head - the result was never pretty. My mom got tired of me running around looking like some little forlorn beaten child and asked if I wanted to quit soccer. I readily agreed and we decided that a good alternative would be ballet. I thought the shoes were cool. Which, looking back, I was right; ballet shoes are way cooler than white canvas Keds.

So, ballet it was and we got me outfited with little pink shoes, pink tights, and a black leotard with the little foofy shoulder things. I went in to a dance class with about 8 other little girls in the same garb. Some taller, some shorter, some skinnier, some not. You could definitely tell which ones had been in ballet class before. Even at the ripe old age of 7, little girls can be real snots when it comes to being better at something. Never the less, I adjusted and started learning all of the different positions and stretches and leaps and bounds. We eventually got good enough to practice a routine for a dance recital. About three-quarters of the way through the season, I decided I wanted to quit - I was tired of dancing. Mom stood her ground and made me see the season through. At the end of the final recital, I received the award for most improved dancer. I accepted my plaque, took my little bow in my hot pink too-too, skipped off stage, and never put another set of ballet shoes on again. Case closed. I now wanted to be a cowgirl astronaut.

Now, here I am 20 something years later (oooo...that hurts to think about) and have a little boy who I am positive would benefit from the grace, strength, and poise that ballet teaches. I'm thinking one little ballet season. Hubby is thinking one little ballet NEVER. I'm thinking if Herschel Walker can take ballet and play football, then it can't be all bad. Hubby says the little guy can take karate for poise and balance (but he doesn't use the word 'poise'), can skip football, and go straight to baseball. I'm trying to be open minded and go for a comprimise...I'm thinking tap dancing now.

I'm a sucker

I was up late last weekend and happened across Jack Lalane's infomercial for his juicer. I mean, how can you NOT want to buy the juicer when you see this guy that's like 117 years old and still moves around better than some 60 year olds I know. Really and truly I should have been asleep by the time that infomercial came on, but I had duped myself into believing that the baby might sleep in. He hasn't slept in a day in his 16.75 month life, but I really thought he might do it last weekend. Call it mother's intuition or just plain stoopid...either way I was really tired the next day.

Anyway, so try as I may I just can't get this idea of getting a juicer out of my head. I mean, how healthy would that be to cram a few veggies and fruits down its juicer throat every morning and consume a nice fresh glass of turnip-rutabega-strawberry-celery juice? Not to mention the health benefits of getting out your daily frustrations first thing by sending pieces of fruit to their oblivion! I even figured out that I can wash the veggies the night before and keep them in their own "soon to be juiced" bowl. Jack Lalane makes it even more appealing because you don't have to peel anything (except citrus fruits, but really, who wants to drink pithe??). See? Jack is the MAN when it comes to this whole juicing thing! He wouldn't lead me wrong, would he? Let's not talk about the fact that I barely have time to grab my lunch in the mornings...I'm sure I can figure something out to make sure we get fresh juice every morning. [Translation: Hubby can do it. I love you!!!]

Bed Bath and Beyond carries Jack Lalane's juicers, and I happen to have a few 15% or 20% off coupons stuck down in the glove compartment in the vehicle. The other thing I've been thinking about is getting an epilator so I don't have to shave my legs anymore. (same store carries those, too!) My husband is already disturbed by my intense fascination with tweezers. I have to control myself when it comes to my eyebrows or else I won't have any left. Then I turn my attention to his eyebrows. He sees "the look" and starts screaming and running. I got to pluck his eyebrows ONCE and he swore up and down that it was some form of wicked torment. Geez, I only pulled three hairs. Try as I may to convince him that over time it hurts less, he still keeps a distance between us if I have tweezers in my hand. So, when I found out that epilators are like a thousand tweezers pulling your leg hairs out, I'm so wanting one now! It's like waxing...only not. I'm assuming there are plenty of women out there who use these since the companies are coming out with new models. They must have a market to sell to, so I can't be the only sick-o out there that wants to tweeze her legs smooth.

So, there you have it...my two current fascinations...juicing and tweezing. Maybe this diet is getting to me afterall.

Germs

Oh wow...I've gone almost a month without posting anything. My blogger creativity went ker-plunk, so I took a break. Can't guarantee that I'm off that break, but I actually have a few random thoughts running about that I decided I needed to let loose via a keyboard and the world wide web. Because, of course, sooooo many people are interested in the crap I've got floating around in my brain! Right? (I'm rolling my eyes....honest!)

So I read an article in a magazine last week while hiding in the bathroom from a rambunctious 16 month old. (you've done it, too! Admit it!) The article was about the top ten germiest places you need to protect yourself from. As I was reading it, I was trying to remember if I washed my hands after wiping K-man's booger off my shirt - which he deems as a darn good kleenex. Anyhoo, it listed all those standard places - kitchen countertops, bathrooms, door handles, grocery cart surfaces (whatever), and the most surprising - the ketchup bottle that's setting on the table at your favorite restuarant. As the article so kindly and disgustingly pointed out, there are a lot of people who went to the restroom, didn't wash their hands, and then handled that ketchup bottle before you sat down there. Ewwwwww. The article suggested you slather your hands and the bottle with sanitizing gel because a napkin is a porous surface that the germs can get through. So, two thoughts here...

1. If I douse my hands in alcohol gel and then eat my french fries with my now sterile ketchup, my french fries are gonna taste funky from the gel. Who wants that?
2. All those times I used to put toilet paper on the public restroom toilet seat before sitting down, I was apparently just fooling myself into a lull of germ safety. If those germs can go through a napkin, they sure as heck can go through toilet paper. Furthermore, if they can go through toilet paper, then they can probably go through those toilet seat covers some restrooms supply. There's no winning!!!! So just sit down and take it like a big girl - you're gonna have a germy butt. Wasn't it that way to begin with, though?

And after that last thought, all of a sudden I wasn't so concerned about getting santizing gel on my french fries.

The kicker here is that I don't use "sanitizing" stuff at our house. Not the labeled kind, at least. I don't want ya'll thinking I'm all gross and stuff (just pay no mind to the kitchen floor - there's no winning with a baby in the house) We "green clean" around the house - baking soda, borax, and vinegar. They kill the germs and mold and get things all nice and sparkly- they just aren't labeled for "sanitizing" or "disinfecting". About the only time I'll break out the Lysol and Clorox Wipes (yes, I do keep them handy) is when a daycare bug is spreading amongst our family of three. When I see that coming, I start fumigating and wiping down all surfaces. Since the baby has decided that he loves to give big ole slobbery kisses, I find myself ever more on the watch for the slightest tingle of an impending sore throat or the teeniest gurgle from a stomach about to hurl its contents. If you happen to drive down our street and think you smell "linen fresh" lysol, don't bother ringing the doorbell - we're sick and you don't want it - and you'll have to use the sanitizing hand gel.

It's Monday

I have a cold, my husband was sick all weekend, the baby was up all night coughing, Hubby snored most of the night, Aunt Flow came to see me and brought her friend Cramps, I am entering tons of repetitive data in excel, and to top it all off, I have the Backyardigans theme song stuck in my head.

In the back of my mind I also have a running list of things I want/need to do around the house, including but not limited to:

• plant my heirloom seeds before they all die from living in paper envelopes
• clean up the yard so I can put my soon-t0-be-seedlings in actual ground
• clean out the baby's closet because I reach in, grab, and slam it shut before diapers fall on my head
• figure out why Clorox Green Toilet Bowl cleaner has indeed left our potties with a green hue (I started to blame Hubster, but then realized it was the cleaner and not him)
• return a picture frame to Target that arrived with broken glass
• mail a package to my mom - which will include heirloom seeds
• Put some actual photos in the two frames that arrived with glass intact
• Which will mean actually hanging some things in our bedroom
• go shopping for fabric to cover our headboard and turn it into an unpholstered headboard instead of a metal-crack-the-back-of-your-head-on headboard
• resume that whole "exercising" thing...it was working before I stopped doing it
• cook the chicken that's now been marinating for 24 hours in the fridge
• pull the new external hard-drive out of the box and utilize it to back up our computers and save all of our photos before some lightening bolt erases everything -again

And it's only Monday, folks.

Photos for Friday

I finally got some pictures uploaded from the camera. Then I downloaded them to Blogger. Get it? Ha ha ha! Up-loaded and Down-loaded? Okay, so I'm really tired and stressed with my mom coming in to town and even weird little opposites seem extremely funny today. I'll be getting out the Cuervo and the limes, and we'll be having margaritas tonight!

Kelton's Valentine's gift from my mom - it was a monkey that whistles. He's still not too sure if he trusts it or not...he kind of walks sideways away from it like he's afraid to turn his back on it.

Playing the grass. I cringe at this picture. They let dogs pee in their yard. We broke out the hand sanitizer afterwards (before he could get a hand in his mouth).

He loves the water!!

Giving me one of those grins that melt my heart.

Back from la-la land

I've been void of blog fodder lately. Yeah, the baby's been doing some cute things, but when I don't have pictures to go with it, well...ya know...there are only just so many baby stories to tell before you know that people will start dropping like flies.

On the home front, we're working on a better balance for ourselves. Our weekends are not refreshing...or recharging...or re-energizing. They are a leech on what little energy and sense of self we have left after 5 days of a strict work week routine. And it has to change. We'll be tag teaming more on the weekend so that each of us gets some alone time. We will be getting out Saturday evening or Sunday morning and going to church. It's good for our souls...it's good to have contact with other adults...it's good for K'man to have other little kids to play with for 45 minutes.

As for our little guy, he's 15.5 months old. He's learning new words and expanding his sense of the world every day. He has so many teeth and will bite you with them if you stick your finger up to his mouth trying to take a peek at his chompers. Hubby and I are still unsure as how much discipline this little guy needs. He understands "no". That is MORE than clear. At times, you can tell him "no" and he'll stop what he's doing. Or, conversely, you can offer him a drink of water and if he doesn't want it, he'll tell you "no". What's frustrating is the things that he does where he doesn't respond to "no". Our biggest sticking point right now is the tv. He loves to go and touch the buttons on it. You can tell him no and he will stand there deliberating about whether or not to touch it. So, when he does and you, consequently, tell him no and then go to physically remove him from proximity of the tv - he grins and takes off. Then we scoop him up and go over to the time-out mat, where he proceeds to throw a real fit and scream and cry while we sit there and hold him (just making sure he doesn't get up off the mat) for a count of one minute. When the time is up, we calmly walk away, he grins, hops up, and dashes right back to the tv. And we will do this over and over and over. I've even done time-out in the pack and play and it's like he still thinks he "wins" once he's removed and allowed back in the play area. So, what gives? Any ideas?

I also finally figured out what I want to do with our bedroom, so I should have posts in the next few weeks showcasing before and after.