Friday, July 31, 2009

The Ol' One Two Punch

Nope not pregnant this month. On Tuesday morning I took a pregnancy test and it was negative. My stupid period didn't start until Thursday which technically made me a day or two late. So for two days I kept thinking, well maybe I tested too early, maybe I'm one of those unusual ones that gets a negative pee test, but positive blood test, blah blah blah. Oh no. I woke up Thursday morning and there it was.

To top off my sadness, I stopped at the Humane Society Thursday afternoon because they had a dog that they put in our paper last week that I absolutely fell in love in with. She was a golden retreiver mix. Mike and I talked about it for a little bit but never really decided. So since I was sad on Thursday I decided to stop in and see if this dog could cheer me up. Well someone put in a really good application on her and she's probably adopted out by now. Good for her, sad for me. So I'm looking at petfinder.com for little dogs that are good with kids but Mike is not on board with getting another dog. I figure if I can't have another baby, I'll get another dog. Maybe I'll turn into an animal hoarder.

In good news, I'm down 20 pounds! Yay me! However I stayed the same this past week and I'm afraid I won't go down much next week. I'm an emotional eater and I'm eating stuff I shouldn't be.

Tomorrow is the first day of August already. Yikes. Gotta get the kid some school supplies pretty soon. My baby will be in kindergarden....so weird.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

I Really Am A Judgemental Bitch

This should come as no surprise to you, but allow me to confirm. Today I'm perusing different car seat websites to see what new high weight harness seats are out there so I can update my work list that hasn't been updated, in oh, over a year. So I stumble onto this website with message boards that people can post questions, reviews, etc. It's mostly women and their signatures are out of control! I must share with you.

J, mommy to C 7yrs, 52" 46lb Harnessed in a Regent w/mom, PW w/Dad and Gma, E 4yrs, RF'd to 3yrs 35lbs in an EFTA, now 41" 40lb, harnessed with mom & dad in a Nauti, Vivo w/ Gma

C, SAHM to J age 5.6yrs, 43" overall, 17" torso in a SK Monterey (2004 Chevy Impala) and Britax Regent (2005 Honda Accord)

DD2 - 3.5yr, 41", 33lb, RF in a Lauren BV/Cowmoo MA/Olivia MA (with a tiara & ponytail on her head in the pic - she just fits rf)DS2 - 22 mo, 32", 25lb, RF in a Aqua BV/FPSVD/Odyssey DCDD1 & DS1 safely using adult seat belts (12 yrs & 10 yrs)

Me & DH FF'ing in seatbeltsDS 6/04 Harnessed, FFing in a Graco Nautilus/Matrix (in a 2004 Toyota Matrix) and a Radian 65/Champagne in a 1999 Mazda 626.

W, mommy to P, (7/26/02, 45.5", 40#)2004 Audi A4: Parkway, 2001 Nissan Xterra: NautilusTravel/Occasional Needs: RSTVAnd a little girl to be going into a True Fit Premiere, 9/19/09

DS1 4.5 yo - 35 lb (40.5") - FF in 2Radians/TrueFit/Traditions/CowmooMADS2 20 mo - 24 lb (30") - RF in 2AOEs/2Sceneras/MarathonAlso in possession of an outgrown Graco SafeSeat, a spare EFChase and 2 Clek Otos, just because...

I can decipher most of them, but seriously? Car seats save lives, I get that. But seriously, these women must sit on the computer all day and just wait for a question. As soon as one is asked, at least 5 pounce on it and repeat what the other said. It's quite humorous.

On my mom's group message board there is this big ass discussion about public vs. private schools and some of the comments have really rubbed me the wrong way. Alot of "I heard this, I heard that." Some are totally bashing East High, and while I at first bought into the bad school rap that East has, I've come around. Everyone is going to think some school is bad because of something they heard from one or two people. Some are dissing private schools. WTF?!?!?

Yesterday I had someone walk in unannounced for a car seat. I told our secretary to have him call me when he gets home because I HATE WALK INS with a passion. I ended up meeting with him and as I walked out to our lobby, he was talking with one of our Child Protective Service workers, then as I was making the appointment with him, one of our Economic Support workers came out to meet with him about food stamps. It was like one stop shopping for him. How fun. He was actually a pretty nice guy and I felt bad for being such a judgemental bitch (see I have feelings) so I went into my friend's office to tell her about this. We end up looking him up on our case management system and find out he was just discharged from Brown County Mental Health 2 days earlier. Yeah! I guess he was totally wasted and talking about how he was going to hurt himeself or someone else and then he refused follow up services after he was discharged. Good thing we take appointments in the same building as the police department.

So the appointment before him should be a good one too. I was checking my vmail messages with my friend in my office and all of a sudden she's like OMG that's the chick I've been trying to get a hold of! This chick, A, we'll call her, has 3 kids and knowingly moved into a lead filled duplex before the landlord could get the lead taken care of. A lied to my friend and said she had her kids tested for lead, then also told her landlord the kids were tested, their results were normal and my friend said it was ok for her to live there. All lies! My friend keeps calling her, but A won't answer. So she has a 10 month old baby crawling around in a lead infested apartment and won't do a damn thing about it. Oh yeah and she's getting a free car seat.

I am so sick of our fucked up system.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Boring

It's been a week and a half since my last blog entry. I really don't have much to say. I figure people are sick of me bitching about my pinkeye, but I'll just say a few more things about it. It. Sucked. The. Big. One. Last week Wednesday I went to an opthamologist because after a week my eye was still crusted shut in the morning. I had a 2pm apt. and was seen by Dr. Wonderful at 3:30pm. Super. He looked in my eyes for about 2 minutes, proclaimed he couldn't see discharge (um, what? So what's been crusting my eyes shut every morning for the past week?), said it may be viral, but he'll prescribe a new kind of drops anyway. Thank god, they worked. I'm now done with eye drops and my eye is back to normal.

Moving on.

So a summary of the past month. Kenny Chesney rocked! We had such a nice weekend away! Sugarland rocked too, and the fact that I got completely tanked probably added to the fun of the night. The Brewer game was a lot of fun too, we went with good friends, had great seats, and the Brewers won!

This past weekend, Mike, Paige and I went shopping, ran errands, etc. on Saturday morning. I was THIS CLOSE to leaving Paige at either Fleet Farm or Shopko. She was truly obnoxious. I got her 3 pairs of school shoes and 4 school shirts and she whined the whole time that "I NEVER get her anything!" Ugh. We went to a festival with the same friends we went to the Brewer game and their daughter Grace then went back to their house for supper. We love getting together with them because the girls disappear for hours and we can actually, you know, have adult conversations. It's a good thing. On Sunday I invited myself over to Melissa's house because her husband was working crappy hours. Paige was....weird and obnoxious again. I was ready to crawl in a hole when she told Melissa her living room was a mess. I think I liked her better when she didn't talk. Let's go back to that Paige. They have a big swingset and a trampoline but she found sitting on my lap or a patio chair much more entertaining. Came home and was actually productive around the house. Mike cleaned out the garage and I cleaned the house. Why I even bother to wash the floors I'm not sure. They're dirty already.

See, told ya this would be boring.

Friday, July 10, 2009

Damn You Pinkeye!

Tuesday night I felt the telltale goop and weird filmy feeling in my left eye. Look in the mirror and PINKEYE. UGH!!!!! So I decide to save myself time and money and just use Paige's eye drops from 2 weeks ago since I have the exact same symptoms. Called the pharmacist on Wednesday and he agrees that's fine. So after 3 full days of playing outside with Paige in the sun with no contacts (=no sunglasses) and 3 mornings of my eye crusted shut I realize that my eye is not getting better. I go into Urgent Care tonight and the NP thinks that Paige's drops may have been contaminated and she gives me new ones. I hope they work quickly because this is so annoying. I hate waking up with crusted shut eyes. I hate driving with my sunglasses over my glasses and then squinting in the sun while we're at the park. GAH. I know this is minor shit, but it's super annoying.

So Paige "graduated" from Safety Town today. I'm so glad I signed her up and that I took the week off. She learned so much! I have to admit though that I felt like the country bumpkin in the big city. Or maybe more like a 14 year old trapped in a 33 year old mom's body. I easily had the crappiest car in the parking lot. I saw many a Lexus, Acadia, Volvo, etc. I was the only one who had just one kid. All the other moms were walking in at least 1-3 other kids. I would hold the door open for these moms and very few said thank you. As we passed in the hall, they wouldn't look at me, smile or say hi. I just think that's rude. I really got the impression that alot of these women thought their shit didn't stink. Maybe it was because I didn't do my hair, had hardly any make up on, and had a t shirt and knit shorts on. I am not a morning person, and didn't think I needed to get all prettied up to drop my kid off and run errands while she was gone.

I had a super heartbreaking moment today. As Amy and I were walking down the hall at the school, Paige grabbed Amy's 3 year old daughter's hand and walked with her down the hall holding her hand. It was just so dear. Brought tears to my eyes then and it does right now. She's meant to be a big sister, why can't it happen for us?

Tuesday, July 07, 2009

SUCCESS!!!!

As of last week Wednesday, I'm down 15 pounds in 6 weeks! I weigh in tomorrow and I think I'm only down another pound. I didn't eat any JC food this past weekend and drank a few too many beers. Damn you MGDs for going down so smooth on Friday night. I haven't been feeling too hot the past few days and have had no appetite which I think helps. I have the weirdest symptoms, my stomach is a little off, I feel a little stuffed up, but the worst is how achey and tired I am. But since I haven't been feeling too hot, I haven't been able to exercise either. AGH!

Anyway, what I'm so jazzed about is that on Saturday we did some shopping and at Old Navy I tried on some stretchy pants a size smaller than I normally wear and THEY FIT!!!! YEAH!!!! I tried on a pair of jeans in a size smaller and while I could button and zip them, they were quite tight. I'd maybe wear them with a long shirt covering up my rear. But I didn't get them. I think they'll fit when I lose another 5 pounds. So that will be my reward when I lose 20 pounds all together.

Paige is going to Safety Town at Howe Elementary in GB this week. I'm on vacation. I drop her off there around 9am, kill some time in GB then pick her up at noon. Yesterday we went to a park with my friend Amy and her kids, then today we went one of the libraries with Amy and Lisa and their kids for an arts and crafts thing for school age kids. They had a potter who made a couple of things on a wheel and then the kids got to make something with clay. Paige LOVED it! It has been so nice and relaxing and making me wish I could stay home. WTF?!?! Did I just say that? I know every day wouldn't be like this, but it has been fun to just bum around with her. If I wasn't feeling icky, I'd be enjoying our time together even more. Then I check my work email from home and see that we may have to take some unpaid days off this year yet to save the county money. I think this year it could be voluntary, but next year not. ARGH! Then someone in the union writes back is the county board going to cut down on travel? Are we going to make our board smaller? Are they going to take unpaid time for their meetings? Makes sense. I do like my job most days I just hate the county politics bullshit.

OK I just have to say this....everyone around me is getting pregnant!!!! It sucks!!!!! I'm taking Clomid right now and we'll do insemination the day after I get a positive ovulation predictor. It's exciting that I could get pregnant within a week or so, but what if it doesn't work the first time? How many times are we going to do this? Will we do IVF? Adoption?

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Thank God He's Home!

Holy shit if I had to go one more minute of being a single mom, I think I was going to check into the looney bin. Friday was LOOONNNGGG. All I could think of was "hang on until 3:45pm when we leave for Grace's birthday party at Badger Bouncers." Well while we were running errands Friday morning Paige complained that her eye hurt. I really blew it off, because, well let's face it, I'm a bitch. I stuck her in "quiet time" (read: watch a movie while I get an hour or so to myself) and pretty much ignored her. By around 2pm, her eye was all red and swollen and I thought shit, pinkeye. So I called her doctor who was booked solid the rest of the afternoon, but after hearing Paige's symptoms, squeezed us in. Yep pinkeye. Yep eye drops 4 times a day for 5 days. And yep, no birthday party because she was contagious. OMG, I felt like crying along with her when I broke the bad news to her.

On Friday night I get the bright idea to take her to the Milwaukee Zoo all day Saturday because we couldn't go play with any of her friends and we needed to do SOMETHING. So we packed up and headed to Milwaukee for the day. Driving in Milwaukee by myself with no help to help with directions was slightly nerve wracking, thank God Paige listened to me when I told her to be quiet so I could pay attention.

Grace's parents took pity on us for not being able to make Grace's kid party on Friday so they invited us to her family party on Sunday. That was really nice of them. Mike got to Kristin and Tom's around 3:30pm, so we got there, I dropped Paige off and sped home to have a few minutes to myself.

I'm so glad we went to the zoo on Saturday! Paige had an absolute blast and I pretty much let her do any thing she wanted. We got popcorn, ice cream, rode the train, she rode the carousel, and I think I spent $100 on goat food. She loved seeing all the animals too. The lions were pretty cool because the male lion paced back and forth right by the glass.

Babymaking news: my cyst is gone! YEAH! So I'll start Clomid on my next cycle with insemination the day after a positive ovulation predictor.

OK Mike is unpacking my Jenny Craig food so I better go help him with that.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Confessions of a Single Mom

Be prepared to be grossed out. Mike has been gone all week and I am living in filth. Here goes:

Mike loaded and ran the dishwasher on Sunday and I still have not unloaded the clean ones or put dirty ones in there. The dirty dishes have overflowed from my sink and are now taking over my counter. I promise to load and run it at least once before he gets home.

I cannot remember the last time I gave Paige a bath. It's been in the 90's several days this week and I'm justifying her lack of hygiene on the fact that she swam at home and ran through the sprinkler at her sitter's. That counts, right? I am remembering to dress her in clean clothes and underwear so I guess that's something.

Recycling and garbage pick up was yesterday morning and my recycling bins are still sitting outside. Not gross, just lazy.

The cat went outside this morning like he does every morning with the dog and we couldn't find him before we left. On our searching adventure, Paige discovered a dead bird in the front yard that looked pretty fresh. I have a hunch that Max had something to do with it and is off somewhere celebrating with his cat friends. I left a bowl of water outside for him and said screw it, he's staying outside all day. He's probably sitting by the door pathetically meowing and whining. We have shade in the yard and it won't be as hot today so he'll just have to suck it up.

Usually once a day, I use my handheld vacuum to clean up the litter around Max's litter box as he takes great delight in scattering it about. I haven't done that all week and I think the scattered about litter has migrated into the living room.

My floors are disgusting.

I can't wait for Mike to get home, not because I miss him but because I plan to throw the kid at him and run. OK, I miss him a little.

My alarm goes off at 6am, but I ignore it. I awaken to the sound of Paige walking in my room around 6:30 am and saying she's hungry. A few mornings I've told her to wait so I could sleep some more. Yeah that lasted all of 5 minutes.

I know what time it is in the morning based on what TV show is on. 6:30am: WonderPets, 7am: Max and Ruby, 7:30 am: Diego. If I hear Dora come on at 8am I know we're running late.

In my defense, it has been an unusually crazy week. Paige had t-ball pictures on Monday night so we had to get there at 5:15pm. We got home around 4:30pm, wolfed down quick supper then rushed up there. Tuesday night I worked late and didn't get home until around 6:30pm. Last night I didn't get out of Dr. O'Toole's office until 5:20pm so we didn't get home until 6pm.

I'm taking this afternoon off (well if my boss lets me) to go to lunch with a high school friend and then do some shopping. It's my birthday and I'll celebrate however I want!

Friday, June 19, 2009

I Married a Good Man

Alternately titled: Another Reason Why I'm Glad I'm Not a Stay at Home Mom. This chick who is in my mom's group drives me insane. She decided to join FB and friend requested me three times before I finally caved on the third request. We'll call her HTH. So HTH posts this little gem as her FB status: "I feel sort of bad though, but not too bad ... hubby is sick now. It sounds like he has what I had over the weekend and earlier this week. The biggest difference though is this ... he gets to lay in bed and sleep while I put the kids to bed. When I was sick, I had asked him to put them to bed without me, and he refused. He gave me some bull about how he has to work, while I can just lay around the house all day, since I'm a SAHM. He's in bed right now." A couple of moms posted how they agreed with this and I'm thinking WTF?!?!?!? To me that just shows a huge lack of respect to the mom. Why would you marry and have children with someone who thinks that little of you? I would honestly kick Mike in the balls if he ever told me to put Paige to bed if I was sick. That man has his flaws, but one of the many good things I can say about him is that he treats me as his equal and if I'm sick, I rest. If he's sick, he rests. That's just how it is. We both created this child, we both contribute to running this household, we both raise this child.

In medical news, I had my annual exam back in February and my Pap came back unsatisfactory for evaluation. This means: "An inadequate specimen does not mean that something is wrong, it just means that the laboratory cannot be certain that there is nothing wrong. Sometimes the Pap smear submitted to the laboratory is inadequate for evaluation, because it contains too few cells for accurate evaluation or the sample was not representative of the area from which most cervical disease occurs or there was excessive blood or inflammation on the slide." OK fine. So I had to come back for a repeat and I did that about a week ago. That one came back unsatisfactory too. ARGH! So I have to go back in a couple of weeks for a colposcopy. Honestly every time I see Dr. Gibson he sees my crotch. I'd like for one time to just go in there and talk to him and not have my feet in the ol' stirrups. At first they wanted to schedule me for next week Wednesday, but I have a follow up pelvic ultrasound with Dr. O'Toole and just though the colposcopy and a pelvic ultrasound might just be a bit much for my va-jay-jay. So next week pelvic ultrasound, week after colposcopy. Jeez, my life is just a frolick in the meadows.

In even more medical news, Paige had a t-ball game a few weeks ago and thank god they had a porta potty there. She peed 5 times in the 45 minutes we were there. It was awful, because she was so traumatized by it. So we left the game early and headed to urgent care. Did I blog about this already? It seems familiar. Her urine sample was normal, but with how often she was going, the urgent care chick gave her an antibiotic. Luckily, it kicked in fast and she was better in a day or two. However, her t-ball game this past week was at the same diamond and she flipped out when we got there. She got all stressed about having to pee a bunch of times so we had to reassure her that she was fine. She did run all weird though like she was worried about peeing her pants.

I read somewhere at work that our health insurance claims are up 31% this year. I like to think that I singlehandedly caused that increase. We went on my insurance in September of last year and since then I've seen 4 different podiatrists, had an ingrown toenail removed, 2 HSG's, 1 pelvic ultrasound, several visits to a reproductive endocrinologist, and bloodwork for both Mike and I up the ying yang.

Mike is leaving on Sunday for the Boundary Waters for a week with my dad, brother in law and a friend of brother in law's. I would absolutely hate it, but he's excited. I'm kind of nervous about being a single mom for a week. Hopefully Paige and I won't end up in the looney bin.

Wednesday, June 03, 2009

7 Pounds GONE In 2 Weeks!!!

I'm 7 pounds lighter than when I began Jenny Craig on May 20th! I'm so excited! I lost 2.8 pounds this week and almost dropped over when I saw the number on my scale. I really didn't stick to the menu very well this past week and "cheated" quite a bit, also didn't exercise as much either. But I must be doing something right. If I had a snack that wasn't on the menu, then I wouldn't have my JC snack. And I cheated mostly with reduced fat wheat thins, not sweets. I have been craving crackers SO BAD and couldn't resist them at Target. The food is expensive ($245 every 2 weeks), and I still have to buy my own dairy and produce, but IT'S WORKING! That's the most important thing. I got a new shipment of food yesterday and they sent a few meals that I know I won't like (meatloaf with BBQ sauce-YUCK), so I'll have to substitute a Lean Cuisine or some other meal like that. The first month of food was pre planned for me, so after this is gone, I get to pick my own food. Most of the food is pretty good. I have to start thinking of some things to reward myself for every 10 pounds I lose. Here's what I have so far:

10 pounds: New Kenny Chesney Greatest Hits CD
20 pounds: new pair of workout shoes
30 pounds:
40 pounds: family picture (I've been avoiding getting my picture taken)
50 pounds: shopping spree for new clothes!!!
60 pounds:
70 pounds:
80 pounds:
90 pounds:

Any ideas?

Our Memorial Day weekend in Eagle River was really nice. Mike took Paige fishing a lot, so I had lots of time to hang out with Dylan, read and relax. The weather was perfect so we really lucked out. We took Paige mini golfing and go-karting which she loved.

It's been a long few days. Paige's 5th birthday party was on Saturday. I hate getting ready for parties and this year was no exception. I was Queen Bitch working my ass off to get the house clean and ready and just about bit Mike's and Paige's head off a few times. Why do I do this every year? But everyone had a blast so that's what matters. I'm so annoyed with how rude people are. I invited around 30 people, put regrets only on the invite, got no phone calls from anyone saying they couldn't come, and only around 15 showed. Basically, family and some close friends from GB with a daughter a month younger than Paige. So we had an insane amount of food leftover and sent some home with people. My father in law and step mother in law (M & B, you'll remember them from my post about my in laws being pigs), decided to stay until Paige's t-ball game on Monday night. UGH. All I wanted on Saturday night and Sunday was my quiet house back and time to relax and do laundry. But noooooo, M and B decide to make themselves at home for the next 2 days. Even better, B's daughter and her boyfriend came up on Sunday so we had to get lunch ready for them. They redeemed themselves only by keeping Paige occupied and Mike keeping his dad busy in the garage. But the last thing I wanted was to entertain so I kept to myself. I really don't care if they thought I was rude.

I seriously cannot stand my FIL. When I was taking pictures of Paige by her birthday cake we were saying "say frosting!" or some gay thing to get her to smile for the camera and his dad yells out "say cowshit." I said we don't say that and he goes "well our kids' photographers said that." I don't give a rats ass what they said, don't say cowshit around my 5 year old who goes to a Catholic school, my mom Sister Mary Monica and my 82 year old grandma, thanks. He threw away his chew can in my bathroom trash can, hogged my chair all weekend, and when he wasn't in my chair he was stinking up my one and only bathroom. My poor toilet. On Sunday night he turned on some show where they were bleeping out every other word, and Paige asked him nicely to watch a different show. He totally ignored her. I was livid. And Mike (bless his heart, I love that man, I really do) has no balls around his family. He didn't say a word to his dad about that. He always says "oh grandpa's girl" but has yet to push her on the swings, play a game with her, draw, play play doh, etc. All he expects her to do is sit on his lap.

So on Monday, they were in my house all alone while Mike and I were at work and Paige at school and the sitter's. Not weird at all. They ended up going to GB, and were at least 20 minutes late to Paige's t-ball game...the one thing they stayed for. And Paige had a rough night. She went to the bathroom at least 4 times in the 45 minutes we were there and was so traumatized by it. We left the game early and took her right to Urgent Care figuring she had a bladder infection. Her urine sample was negative, but with her constant peeing, the NP gave her an antibiotic anyway. She's better already. But Monday night was rough because we were at Urgent Care for over an hour, didn't get home until after 8:30pm and Paige would not settle down and sleep because she kept having to pee and then was getting all upset about having to pee. She slept late yesterday morning, and wanted me to stay home with her. Major mom guilt. I had to go in to work because we had car seat appointments. It just killed me that I couldn't stay home with my kid because I had to go take care of irresponsible parents who basically do whatever they want. As I'm putting Paige in her car seat to leave, my cell phone rings and it's work. I ignore it. Work called again and I ignored that one. It was one of our secretaries and she didn't leave a message. I get in and realize some chick meeting with a CPS worker wants to come in that day for a car seat appointment...that's why I was getting called. Seriously, not an emergency. We were booked up yesterday, but I scheduled her for a couple of weeks. If she remembers, I'll be shocked. So car seat appointments all morning, a meeting at the hospital in the afternoon, and then back to work until 7pm last night. Back at it today at 7:30am. And it was just a long day...one of my coworkers is absolutely useless and lazy and my boss coddles her. Drives me up a wall.

Back to work.

Friday, May 22, 2009

Crabby

I'm ornary today. I know it's because I'm tired, got to bed too late last night and the kid woke me up too early today.

I really want to go to a concert coming up, but can't find anyone to come with me.

I'm feeling like a loser with no friends.

Just checked my work email and my boss won't let me go to a 3 day conference coming up in September because she can't afford to have me out of the office for 3 days. Whatever. All my expenses would be paid for. Maybe I can convince her if I work the next 3 Fridays.

I'm hungry and already sick of fruits and salads. I don't like the food I have to eat today for lunch and supper.

We're going to Eagle River this weekend. It sounds crazy but I've spent almost every night this week getting organized and packing for it. I'm trying to pack light, but we're basically camping in Kristin and Tom's cabin, so we have to bring our own sheets, pillows, towels, eating utensils, food, etc. Plus I had to sit down and look at my Jenny Craig meal plan and list out the foods I have to bring along with my yogurt, fruits, veggies, salad, milk, cottage cheese, etc. There is no way all of our stuff is going to fit in one cooler. I've been wondering why are we going to all of this trouble for one weekend, but it's better than sitting around here driving each other crazy. Plus I've been trying to do laundry all week so we don't have a huge shitpile waiting when we get home, plus keep the house semi clean. ARGH!

ETA: More reasons I'm crabby. Paige's bus was 5 minutes early, so we missed it. I feel like we will always have medical bills. I'm close to paying off my HSG and other crap I had done at Aurora last year, and we have about $150 left on Mike's chiropractor bill from last summer (about $500 total). Well we found out Mike's ER visit from last November goes towards his deductible so that's another $535. His entire ER visit for 3 stitches in one finger, and 5 in the other cost around $700. $200 for the "facility" charge, the hospital and supplies, and $500 for the physician's assistant to put in 8 stitches. His infertility workup at Aurora is another $450 and we're responsible for that too since it was this year and goes towards our deductible. UGH. Everytime I think we're getting ahead....WHAM something else happens. I still can't believe we have to cough up $700 for an ER visit because Mike was cutting deer with some machete weilding Rambo-wannabe who had no idea what he was doing.

I can't believe how much I have to do this afternoon: vacuum, finish packing, make a casserole, clean out the litter box, water all my shrubs and flowers, shower (well wash my hair, then take a bath), shave my legs, pack the cooler, pack a supper for Paige, etc. All I want to do is take a nap.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Day 1

So my Jenny Craig food was waiting for me when I got home. Luckily the neighbor girl was home and free to play so I shipped the kid there so I could unpack everything. Holy crap those meals are small. It took me a while to make room in my freezer and pantry, but I was able to fit it all in there. I ended up having to go to the Pig (Piggly Wiggly) to stock up on fruits, veggies and assorted other healthy items. Healthy food is EXPENSIVE and hard to find at a small town grocery store. I can't believe how many fruits and veggies I eat, I will probably turn into a strawberry at some point. Everything is all laid out for me and I follow a meal plan. Today for example, at breakfast I had a "bowl" of their cereal, Cranberry Almond Crunch and it was delish. I told Mike it was good, but I wasn't going to share a bite since there was only like 5 in there. Then I had a 1/2 cup of cottage cheese (half and half of low fat and regular, I can't make the switch to low fat cottage cheese just yet) and a 1/2 cup of mandarin oranges. My morning snack is a cup of fruit and one of their bars, but I didn't see this particular bar in my shipment of food, so I bought some Kashi bars last night. Lunch is their Turkey Burger, with a salad I provide, their dressing, and one piece of string cheese. My afternoon snack is 2 cups of fruit, then supper is their spaghetti and meatballs, soup, and my veggies (2 CUPS!!!!!) and my evening snack is a cookie and 1 cup of milk. Pretty much all veggies are "free foods" so I can eat them in addition to all of this stuff.

Last night I spent a lot of time cutting up fruit, measuring out my portions for breakfast and lunch today and reading over some of the materials they gave me. This is definitely going to take some time to adjust, but I'm sure I will get comfortable with this in a week or two.

I am going to stick with walking and strength training for exercise right now. I definitely want to get at least one 15 minute walk in at work every day and I really should walk the dog more often too. My main focus in these first two weeks is the food.

I have a phone consultation with one of their people tonight, and that will be once a week.

I want to lose 90 pounds and that will get me to a weight I was at 10 years ago in the summer. I was interning at SC Johnson, working out a lot and I have to admit, I looked pretty good.

I WILL DO IT!!!!

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Houston We Have a Problem

My mission if I choose to accept it (which I kind of have to) is to turn this into a comfortable sleeping space for MIL and step FIL who are coming over in 2 weekends and spending the night:






This would be our infamous "back bedroom" aka "How to Control Clutter in a Small House." If you are looking for something and can't find it, it's usually in the "back bedroom." It's our catch all room for after we go shopping, as illistrated in the above picture, and we don't feel like putting the crap away. I have to admit I've never let the room get quite this bad.

The big blue and brown blob in the middle of the room is the new comforter I bought months ago and we just haven't bought paint yet for the bedroom. In the picture directly above, you will also notice a big bowl with epsom salts that I used to soak my toe, Paige's Easter basket, Paige's outgrown fall and winter clothes, and a bin filled with household stuff I got at Target this week.

The middle picture contains clothes I'm selling on ebay, and a couple of baskets of random crap that I have to go through to donate to Paige's school rummage sale. Yes that's a measuring tape, someone wanted the measurements of the clothes I'm selling. I'm selling that ride on toy of Paige's if anyone is interested. $25. I'm slowly starting to put her outgrown toys in there too in hopes that she doesn't notice they are gone and then I can sell them. I've already hid that toy and the Leap Frog alphabet thing from the fridge and she hasn't noticed. I'm quite surprised as she usually doesn't miss a thing.

There are actually 2 twin beds in that room that each have clean sheets that just haven't yet been put back on. The closet in that room is pretty well full too, but somewhat organized. If we do have another kid, we are so screwed.

Oh yeah, that top picture has my wedding flowers. Aren't they pretty? So rather than actually going to clean it out while Paige is at the neighbor kid's, I'm just sitting here blogging about it. I'm being somewhat productive though, I have a load of wash in right now and am going to hang it up when it's done. '

I think I have to put out tonight. I knocked my rearview mirror off my car and scraped the side of it pretty bad when backing out of the garage this morning. I left Mike a very apologetic phone message and he never called back today. When he didn't call back I knew he was pissed. He usually calls every day just to chat for a few minutes. So I offered to put out tonight as soon as he walked in, but he didn't seem to enthused. I bet I can change his mind.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

A New Start

I'm done being this heavy. I've finally reached the point where I'm ready to do something. I've tried Weight Watchers, but I don't have enough willpower to stick with something so flexible. I've gained even more weight in the past month or so, and have gone up a size. Nothing in my closet fits. I have a double chin and don't want to be in any pictures. I'm done.

I've decided to do Jenny Craig. I need something extremely structured and laid out. I've ordered 4 weeks of food and I get a daily breakfast, lunch, dinner, 1 dessert and 1 snack. I can supplement the food with my own fruits and vegetables, but the food will come with a detailed menu plan so I'll know exactly how much I can eat. I want to lose 90 pounds. Once I lose 45 pounds, I'll get $50 off my next food order, and once I reach my goal weight and keep it off for a year, I get half of my membership fee back. I have a once a week phone consultation with a Jenny Craig person.

Mike is 100% supportive. He knows I'll be a huge crabby bitch at first and that him and Paige are pretty much on their own for supper. We might cook a few things on the weekend, freeze them and he can heat up during the week.

My goal is to lose 15 pounds before my high school reunion in 2 months. Wish me luck, I'm going to need it!

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Do I Really Have a Five Year Old?

How has it been 5 years since my life changed on May 12, 2004? Seriously, how did this kid go from this:














to this:















It's just not possible. To quote my friend Melissa, I guess I blinked and she turned into this:















I then I must have daydreamed for a little bit because all of a sudden she was potty trained and sitting on Santa's lap:


And then I guess I blinked again because she was 4 and having a Princess Birthday Party:



Then like a day after her party, she started school!


And now I have a 5 year old who is old enough to feed her cousin:


My sweet Paige, I love you so much. I don't think you'll know how much I love you until you have a child of your own. Thanks for making me your mama.

Monday, May 11, 2009

Doctor's Appointments

This morning was my repeat HSG. First I had to go to Women's Speciality Care to pee in a cup and have them confirm that I really am not pregnant. The worst part of that was when the receptionist goes "oh this is exciting!" when I told her i was there for a pregnancy test. Ouch. Stick the knife right in my heart. Then over to Bellin for the HSG. I had moment of panic when they told me that a different doctor who've I heard is not very nice at WSC signed the order for my HSG so they weren't sure of that not nice doctor was coming or Dr. O'toole. THANK GOD Dr. O'Toole walked in. I was expecting the worst part to be showing my crotch to yet another man I barely know, but YOWCHA. This one for whatever reason was way more painful than the first one. I was doing Lamaze breathing. The AWESOME news is that IVF is not our only option. YEAH! The dye spilled through both my tubes, but for whatever reason one of my tubes is really, really big. It's not blocked, but it's big, meaning that the little hairs that are inside your tubes (I didn't know they existed) aren't reaching the egg to sweep it down. So after my repeat ultrasound in about a month, I'm going to start Clomid with IUI. My insurance pays for that!!!! YAHOO!!!! Please pray for us that this works. I still can't believe how much that HSG hurt, I'm still feeling crampy.

Bellin has valet parking, which I've never done before. It was pretty cool. Then I had about 3 hours to kill before my appointment with Dr. Van Beek, the best podiatrist ever. So I spent over an hour and $200 @ Target, then hit the mall to make a few returns. Dr. Van Beek cleaned out the dried blood, put a ton of antibacterial stuff on, then re-bandaged it, the toe only. No more surgical shoe, YEHAW!! Still can't get it wet though.

Then home to dig up my dead shrubs, off to pick up the kid, then True Value to return my dead shrubs that didn't come back this year, home for a quick supper and then to Paige's first t-ball practice. She was so cute! She was one of very few girls, I think there's only 3 girls total on her team and I think there were 12 boys. I was so proud of her, she hit the ball better and ran the bases better than a few of the boys! She really seemed to have fun which was the most important thing and so fun to watch. Her first game is next week and she has games every Monday until about the middle of July.

It's about 10pm right now. 5 years ago today at this time, I was asking for the anesthesiologist and in the throes of intense labor. I'd already thrown up and wondering how long this hell would last. I went from 4cm to delivered in 4 hours, but it was a very intense 4 hours. I can't say this enough, I still can't believe my baby is 5! More to come on that tomorrow on her actual 5th birthday. I love you Paige!

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Dear People In the Pew In Front of Us at Church,

Church is not a party, it's a mass. It's sacred. We receive a sacrament, Jesus's body and blood. Therefore, after Communion, please refrain from speaking so loudly that I can't hear the singing, take the disgusted looks off your face when the 1st Communion kids did the May Crowning after Communion, and also refrain from impatiently gathering your things and being shift and ancey during the last song. I realize you must have had brunch reservations to get to and those were obviously your priority and the May Crowning added an extra 5 minutes to church, but seriously, some of us go to church and pray, so chill out. I'm sure Mass is long forgotten in your minds while you are stuffing your faces at an overpriced brunch. I've never seen you at Mass and I'm sure I never will again.

On that note, has Mother's Day turned into a Christmas/Easter holiday where it's one of only few times that people go to church? Church was PACKED. I realize that some people were visitors, but they had to put out extra chairs, I can't imagine we had that many visitors to our little town. If you don't go to church every week, don't go on Mother's Day.

I know I sound really judgemental, but I feel very strongly about this.

Paige experienced getting hurt by friends for the first time yesterday. She was playing with her friend Jen, across the street who is 10. There's a couple of other girls who play together with Paige and Jen and I think they are around 8 years old. You may think it's weird that we let Paige play with a 10 year old, but Jen has been at Sandi's since Paige first started and has always been like a big sister to Paige. She's a very nice girl and her parents have said several times that Paige is welcome there anytime. Paige played there almost every night last week and even ate supper there a couple of nights. Yesterday she was there for most of the morning and afternoon. Around 3pm she came back home all upset. Apparently Jen told Paige it was time to go home and then asked another girl if she could sleep over. I really can't blame Jen for not wanting to play with a 5 year old anymore, but it broke my heart to see my baby heartbroken. Paige is so sensitive like me and I have a feeling she will get her feelings hurt many, many times. Do you know how hard it was for me to keep it together and not break down crying too? I will need strength to get through the many years of school, that is for sure!

Mike is attempting to keep Paige out of my hair today as my Mother's Day present but it has not been successful. She is extra annoying and pesty right now and will not get out of my ass. I think she can tell that Mike is trying to keep her out of my hair and she's doing everything in her power to stay in my hair. My Mother's Day present to myself is lots of coffee, donut holes and the Sunday paper. Aaahh....

Wednesday, May 06, 2009

Drained

OK so I'm really not drained right now, but had I written this Friday night I really was drained. Last week was, shall we say, oh a nightmare at work. Maybe nightmare is a little strong but it was absolutely insane. All I did was swine flu. I put in an extra 10 hours. Not fun. And I was pretty much working in hyper overdrive mode all week.

Paige's daycare situation did not help matters. Copied and pasted from an email because I'm time efficient so here goes: A couple of weeks ago, the new county certification lady visited Sandi and told her that she had too many kids and had until April 30th to correct the situation (i.e. get rid of some kids). So Sandi decided to get state licensed so she can have 8 kids under the age of 7. Well that takes a while. She applied right away and got her paperwork turned in ASAP, she’s just waiting for a state person to do a home visit. So she asked those who can to have family, friends, etc. watch the kids until she gets state licensed. Well, we obviously have no one close by. So after thinking about it, we decided to send her to Building Blocks (BB, the only daycare center in town) for at least until the time Sandi got state licensed. Then as we looked at our schedules more, it made sense to just keep Paige at BB. Well finally on Friday I had to tell Sandi and I had a knot in my stomach all day. So when I told Sandi Friday, she started crying, which got me going. As I was watching Paige play with the other girls, (after Sandi and I got it together) I just knew in my heart of hearts, it wasn’t the right decision to pull her from Sandi’s. It’s so hard to explain but I think other moms will get it. Sandi’s is her 2nd home. And she knew that Paige was one of the kids that didn’t have family in the area to watch her while she waited for her state license, so she expected to have Paige there. Then on the way home Paige tells me that Makayla, a 4k kid in her class who also goes to BB, told Paige and everyone else that Paige was going to BB. That’s how she found out. Paige started bawling on the way home and said she didn’t want to go to BB, she wanted to stay at Sandi’s. So Paige and I both walk into the house crying, Mike was like WTF?!?!?! So after Paige went to bed, Mike and I talked and figured we could live with her schedule because it’s worth it to us to have Paige stay at Sandi’s. I know other people may not think it’s the right decision, but it works for us. Like I said, Sandi’s is truly Paige’s 2nd home and she is so comfortable there and I know Sandi truly loves her. So Mike went over to Sandi's on Friday night and told her we're keeping her there and they talked for a while about her schedule. She said as long as I call ahead if I'm going to be late and just let her know when Mike needs to pick up because of my car seat appointments, conferences, etc. she's totally fine. Before Mike left, Sandi goes "THANK YOU Mike" with so much happiness in her voice. It works for us and that's all that matters.

I really have not seen much of Paige lately. As soon as she gets home from school, she quick changes and then runs across the street to play with the neighbor kids. I try to keep her here to talk and hang out, but it's not worth it, she really doesn't want anything to do with me. She's been there since we got home a little after 4pm today.

I had my ingrown toenail removed on Monday. THAT was fun. They gave me some pills to "take the edge off". Well it made me "sleep all day." The two things that really suck is this ugly uncomfortable surgical shoe and not letting the bandage get wet. I attempted to shower yesterday with a plastic bag tied around my foot and that didn't work. Today I washed my hair under the running faucet in the tub, and then bathed with my right foot propped up, more info than you wanted to know I'm sure. So then I swing my right foot out of the tub, start to roll out and grab the towel bar to lift me up. Well the towel bar doesn't hold me up. So that option is out. Before you laugh, try giving yourself a bath with your right foot propped up and then getting out with just one foot down and your arms. I'm going to have to have Mike lift me out like a fat cripple.

In even more medical news, I had an ultrasound yesterday to check for endometriosis. Dr. O'Toole saw "something" on my left ovary and wants me to come back in 4-6 weeks for a repeat u/s. Next week Monday I'm having a repeat HSG and I honestly don't have high hopes for it. I really think I have blocked tubes and that is the cause of my infertility, not the endo. But I found out Women's Speciality Care is one of the sites that I can have the monitoring done with that one program that covers 6 IVF cycles. Carmen said they deal with a lot of IVF clients who are in that program and have the egg retrieval and transfer done in IL or MN. so I'll probably go there for the monitoring (blood work and ultrasounds).

OK my kid and hubby are back so off to enjoy some family time before the kid goes to bed.

Friday, May 01, 2009

Friday Fill Ins

OK so Friday is almost over, but I'm still playing this fun game. The stuff highlighted in red is what I filled in.
1. The first rule of working in an office and getting along is mind your own business.

2. I don't eat clams.

3. When I think of carnivals I think of weird looking carnies.

4. Tulips are my favorite spring flower.

5. Things on my desk include pictures, post it notes, unorganized papers, phone, computer, hand sanitzer.

6. The fact that people are wearing masks at Walmart makes me wanna lose my mind.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to chilling out, tomorrow my plans include meeting Kristin and Dylan for some rummage saleing then taking Paige to YMCA Healthy Kids Day and Sunday, I am meeting high school friends for lunch in Appleton.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Oink Oink



So you had to know this post was coming, right? And these words may come back to bite me in the ass, but please people STOP PANICKING!!!!! Do you realize that seasonal flu kills about 35,000 Americans EVERY YEAR?!?!? Honestly, I'd be a hell of a lot more worried about seasonal flu than swine flu. Did you get your flu shot? Did your kids get their flu shot? I read today that the seasonal flu has already killed 13,000 Americans this season. How many Americans has swine flu killed? Zero. The little boy that died in the US was from Mexico.

We have been preparing for a flu pandemic for years. We just thought it would be bird flu, not swine flu. Someone on FB is worried about delivering her child in a swine flu infested hospital. Please. Hospitals are so ready for this. My coworker's sister works for St. Vincent's and she's forwarded me a bunch of stuff that their infection control nurse sent to all of the staff there. And I think people with a contagious disease will be far far away from the nursery. Doctor's offices have been instructed to meet a person with flu like symptoms at the door wearing a mask, mask the patient and take them to an exam room. I would imagine hospitals will do the same.

The CDC said Wisconsin has one of the best pandemic flu plans. We are ready for this. Do not panic.

So what can you do? Number one, don't panic. Number two, be prepared for this outbreak to spread. Make sure you have a 2 week supply of food, water, prescription meds, cold and flu meds, and any special needs your family might have (diapers, baby food, formula, etc.). Most importantly and this won't sound like much, but it's HUGE: wash your hands, cover your cough, and stay home when you are sick. If your kid is sick, keep them home. If you go to church, don't shake hands with people who are coughing and sneezing. If you do, use hand sanitizer. Don't touch your eyes, nose or mouth. Do not stockpile masks. Do not stockpile antivirals. Save them for people in highly affected areas. I heard on the news tonight that several stores are out of masks.

I also just heard that WI has three probable swine flu cases. Let's put this in perspective. In one day, we got a call from one of our doctor's that 6 kids, 6, tested positive for influenza A in one day. And that's in one town of 4500 people.

Stepping off my soapbox now.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

And So We Wait Some More

Got a call back from Carmen @ Women's Speciality Care who is an overall rock star and my new BFF. Dr. O'Toole reviewed my HSG films (Thank you Aurora for getting them there so quickly!) and wants me to have a repeat HSG. He says my left tube is definitely swollen and basically the radiologist, Dr. Gibson and Dr. Severino all had different opinions about the results. Great. In order to do the repeat HSG, Dr. O'Toole wants to be 100% sure I'm not pregnant, so we have to abstain for 2 weeks, then I have to have a pregnancy test the day before the HSG, and we'll do it on days 5-1o of my cycle. Kind of bummed about the 2 week abstaining because I've really enjoyed trying this cycle and have been looking forward to having sex just to have sex. What a concept. I'm going to still have my ultra sound next week because of my painful periods. I am just a mess. So if my tubes really are blocked, we are back to IVF.

I just found out a friend of a friend who has been trying for a while with no luck is pregnant. I'm really starting to feel like it will never happen for us.

Next week Monday I get my ingrown toenail removed and found out I have to wear the surgical shoe for up to 3 weeks. WTF?!?! I refuse to wear it to the Keith Urban show on the 16th. Mike is making fun of my vanity saying "so you'll have a better shot with him if you don't wear the shoe." I informed him that I'm saving myself for Kenny this summer. I'm rather pissy about my left heel because I've been wearing flip flops lately and it's been hurting like a mo'fo. If I really do have plantar faciitis that will suck the big one.

I was supposed to have car seat appointments today but my co worker offered to take my place. Thank god because the idiots that I work with decided rather than schedule people for other days, they would just start to schedule them before AND after our usual 2pm-5:45pm appointment times. It's bad enough doing car seats for over 4 hours straight, but those yahoos scheduled the first one at 11am and the last one at 6:15pm and she has 2 seats. I was super pissed about the 6:15pm one. I was gone almost all of last week, so I'd normally be busy just catching up. But add this swine flu BS in and I'm swamped. But I still make time to blog so my 5 readers aren't left hanging on the edge of their seats.