Friday, July 28, 2006

Where's my lead suit?

Ruh-roh.

My daughter's sitter called this evening to tell me that she'd (the babysitter) been throwing up.

Both my kids were with her today.

I'm hoping that this is something that I can feel bad about instead of bracing myself for something. She had Leah 'the day after' and I'm wondering if she picked it up from her.

I really really don't want to deal with this again...back to back.

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In other news, I found out that my 24 year old cousin has a horrible case of shingles. What makes this even scarier is that her dad, my favoritist uncle, has battled rheumatoid arthritis since his early 20's. The two are strangely related. The diseases, not my cousin and uncle people! Even thinking about everything that he's had to deal with is overwhelming and I hope and pray that this is *just* shingles. Nothing more.

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Strange things are a brewin'. Weird weather across the country, strange, old, diseases resurfacing. The stomach flu floating back and forth between the coasts (as per all the mommy bloggers I've read about dealing with this) with no end in sight. I best start diggin' my underground shelter now!

Thursday, July 27, 2006

A little ditty

Sing to the tune of Happy Birthday (it's a stretch, but come on, work with me here):

Happy Anniversary to Me
My husband's in another countr-ee

I spent the daaay keeping Leah from drowneeeng
Guess I'll have to celebrate in January

Yes, the best way to celebrate ten years of wedded bliss when your spouse is far, far away, is to take your kids swimming. The government has finally deemed its personnel and families as human and have provided community swimming pools. We don't live on base anymore, but accepted an offer from a friend to join them for a lazy day in the pool.

Leah, my fearless wonder, went under so many times I lost track. The worst one was when I saw her slip under (she refuses to wear any sort of floatation device--they get in the way) and as I ran over to grab her saw that she was completely under, including her outstretched hands. I saw her little eyes wide open under the surface and that panicked look on her face. She was struggling to surface. I reached down and snatched her out of the water. She cried for less than a mintue and ran back to the pool. What am I in for?

Bill comes home in January as long as nothing crazy happens so we'll have to really celebrate our day then. When you're in front of the most important people in your life, promising your love from one another you never expect to revisit that day so far apart. Retirement is only 5 1/2 years away...but who's counting?

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Feeling Verklempt

Do you ever feel like God's just letting things pile up on your plate to see how you'll react? Are you going to blame Him, or see it as a future blessing? Is this an opportunity for you to grow, witness or reflect? Yeah. I've had the pruning shears on me for quite some time now. There's apparently a tradition in our household. Not one that I'd like to repeat, and I pray each time that it won't happen again but I guess that's just part of being us. Like clockwork, Bill's two weeks away from the home leads to someone or everyone in the house with the stomach flu. We were doing so good. I'm always on my kids to wash their hands as soon as we come home. Don't touch this, don't lick that don't share the cheeto with the pigeon, but guess who woke up at 3:30am, 4am, 4:30am and 6:30am throwing up? My sweet little Leah. Not. Fun. I just had to shake my head and wonder why. There's not enough going on that I'm struggling with right now. Emotionally I'm drained and not just because my husband is thousands of miles away. There are so many things I could list but for the sake of word getting out to the wrong person I just have to leave it at that. The blogosphere is a very small world.

I took Trey to school hoping that Leah would make the trip there ok. Success! However my little man had a mighty big meltdown. I think the stress of daddy being gone has finally caught up. I was able to leave him there for the day so I could tend to the baby. He finally settled down and when it was time to leave, he asked to stay. Isn't that always the way?

Praise God her flu only lasted a few hours. I found her asleep in front of Elmo's World, body on her toddler couch, head on the chair for her kitchen set and I took her up to bed. She slept and slept and slept some more. By the time it was time to get my manchild she was still knocked out. I woke her up and she was a new woman. We got home and the temp dropped, cool winds blew and the heaven's parted. Ok, they didn't really part but they could have!

I don't know what I'm being prepared for, but I'm not sure I really want what's coming my way!

Saturday, July 22, 2006

Holy Oleo, Batman!

My Weather Pixie is telling me it's 102 degrees. It's not supposed to be 102 when you live in a city on. the. Pacific. Ocean.

My AC is not working. It's a 'cool' 80 inside. I went to open the house up this morning, before nine and as I opened the sliding glass door, felt like I was breathing the air of a steam room. I quickly shut the house and turned the air on. Within the hour, water was pouring from the recessed light in the upstairs hallway and onto the floor. No air today. At least a week before the air guy can come out.

102. In a coastal city. No good.

Thursday, July 20, 2006

Liquid Phenomenon

Trey is going to grow up to be a banker, or a stock broker or a lawyer based solely on his preference for boring hair. He likes it parted on the side and combed over neatly. I've tried to gel it, spike it, mohawk it. He's just not that kid. When he messes around with it and spikes it I make a big fuss over it, telling him how 'cool' he looks. (Don't get me wrong, I compliment him when he has Ken Doll hair too). A few days ago, I sent him into the bathroom to wash his hands. He was taking a bit longer than usual to scrub up so I figured he was either admiring his reflection or having deep thoughts on what to do with the rest of his life so I left him alone. Alone.

This is the child that didn't require child safety locks on anything. He never got into anything that he shouldn't have. He never drew on the walls. He didn't climb out of his crib. He never picked up anything off the floor to put in his mouth.

He came out of the bathroom, obviously having just styled his hair. "Oh, look how cool you look, Trey!"
"You like it?!"
"Absolutely." This is where I run my fingers through his wet, spiked hair.

I got the water from the toilet.
"WHAT??! You mean, from the sink?"
"No. The toilet."

Yeah, we had a little discussion about bathroom sanitation after we both scrubbed up with anti-bacterial soap.

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This morning, I had a MOPS leadership meeting. My travelmug of coffee is harnessed to me in some way, shape, or form whenever I'm required to be somewhere before 10am.

As we're leaving, Trey always makes it a point to stop by the front office and say 'hello' which really means, 'do you have candy for me.' The kids got a peppermint disk and everyone was happy.

Leah accidentally opened her mouth while we were walking to the car and the candy fell right onto the asphault. She was on my hip and the baby bag carrying my travel mug was on the same arm, pushed behind her. As I bent down to pick up the wayward treat, cool liquid spilled up my back...from the diaper bag. Coffee. All over my back. Nice. Do you know anyone talented enough to spill coffee on their back?

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Finally, it's been so hot and dry here that the wild bunnies who think that my backyard is their buffet were caught trying to figure out how to turn the kiddie pool into a drinking fountain last night. I didn't find any drowned bunnies this morning, so I guess it all worked out.

Sunday, July 16, 2006

Phone-ics 101

Fortunately, my husband is a smart, rational man. Had I been on the other side of the phone--the one calling and not getting an answer when the other person should have been there I would have assumed that a freak tsunami had come inland and dragged my family to the depths of the Pacific. Like I said...Bill is rational. Something I am not. He called back an hour later.

Whew...

One of the great things about Bill being in Japan this time instead of Iraq other than insurgents, 120 degree heat, sand storms and lit oil wells is the fact that there's no time delays on the phone. Before, we'd have to pause or say 'over' (ok not really) to indicate that our speaking portion was done and the other person could talk or you just hear yourself talking over what the other person said five seconds earlier. Another good thing about Japan is that Costco sells the phone cards needed there whereas they didn't sell the brand needed in Iraq. Wouldn't you know it, we still had "Iraqi" phone cards left from last time and now I need to go get new ones. People who know and love me know how much I hate going to Costco. Really. Uh huh. Hate it so much that I purposefully will not get something I know I'll be out of within a couple of weeks so that I have an excuse to go back.

As for the phone...I have a cordless. I have a cell. He called both. For some odd reason, the company that we use for our cable/internet/phone has a voicemail option which we use for my other other other business which is sort of on the backburner now (the business, not the phone company) but causes the phone to ring the four times from the caller's side but only three on my side...and the cordless only picks up two of those rings. If I don't make a mad dash to the phone, that person is sucked into voicemail limbo. Oh, and the cell was in my purse. In the car. In the garage. Downstairs. I was upstairs. In the house. With my banshee children.

But now we have a plan. I know when he's going to try and call next so I won't have to sleep with my phone under my pillow. I wouldn't want to mistakenly answer my pistol when the phone rings.

Kidding. I keep the pistol under Trey's pillow.

Saturday, July 15, 2006

Time Mathagement

Bill just getting out of church
+
Jennie bathing the kids
=
Jennie missing Bill's phone call....s

Yep. He called. And called and called again and I missed it due to being in the very noisy, echoey bathroom with two tub fishies who love to make noise.

Sucky suckerson.

Hey, uh, let's hurry this along shall we?

Let's see...

I've gone to work
hit Target and Wal-Mart
gone grocery shopping
done a load of laundry
cleaned my bathroom
made dinner for the kids twice, once for me
lunch for the kids twice, once for me
made muffins for breakfast
emptied and reloaded the dishwasher
changed the sheets on the baby's bed
lathered them with sunscreen so they could play in the pool
set up service with the gardener
tried to fix my stupid digital cable
read blogs
responded to and read email
organized my Tupperware cabinet

...and it's only been how long since Bill left??? Surely, it's been at least two weeks. Right? Oh yeah. Two days..and counting.

Thursday, July 13, 2006

Start the clock over again

1 Day down.

183 to go.

Saturday, July 08, 2006

On the Agenda for Today

Take the kids to the beach for our last Saturday as a family for a while.

Bring 'em home, throw them in the shower and put them to bed for a restful(?) afternoon.

Prepare to have a nice little visit with a lender/friend from church to see what the heck we should do in preparation between now and when Bill returns to get the best place we can qualify for.

Peace Out.

Thursday, July 06, 2006

Momma needs a new pair of shoes!

When I was a kid I hated going to places like Marshalls or Ross or anywhere that didn't scream "please pay full retail". They felt cheap. The lighting was bad. And we'd stay there for EVER. Then it was time for me to get a job. Guess who was hiring? I was one of eight people hired at Marshalls when I was in high school. I got to see the stuff before it was spoiled by grubby hands that don't care about merchandise. The stuff was clean. It was in tact. It was 60-80% off retail! WOOHOO!! I love a good bargain. Most of my paycheck would go back to the store with me buying Express, Billabong, Limited, all for supercheap.

Last night was a night where the momma needed some me time. First I headed out to a place called Tilly's to get some Reefs. I swore I'd never buy a pair of $20 flip flops but I've been told they're the best. We'll see. I spend 80% of the year in flip flops and they do have arch supports so I'll let you know if my feet can tell the difference come November.

I wanted to go somewhere to look for capris, maybe a new tank top or something. I was going to hit my old standby, Target, but something told me to hit Marshalls. This is why I heart Marshalls:

Tank top for me: MSRP $28 Paid $14.99
Carter's slides for Leah that I drooled over in Kohl's six mos ago: MSRP $24 Paid $13
Carter's PJ's for Leah: MSRP $15 Paid $6.99
Carter's t-shirt for Leah: $12 Paid $3
T-shirt for Leah: MSRP $8 Paid $4
Skechers sandals for Trey: MSRP $28 Paid $7
Hoity Toity Joseph Abboud polo shirt for Bill: MSRP $68 Paid $8
And the pies de resistance...a comforter that I've been searching all over for months.
Dean Miller comforter for Trey: MSRP $110 Paid $29.99 The print I got him is no longer on the website because it's "past season" but since I've been looking for it since it was the season, I don't really care!! I just need to get some matching decor when I redo his room, which is a whole other post, but other than that, he's set.

Total retail price: $293 I paid $86.97 Saved 70% Gotta love that.

Trying to look for the sunshine as we get ready for the storm.

Monday, July 03, 2006

Thursday
I got up at o'dark thirty and put on "club attire", put on some funky makeup and done did my hair to meet up with some girls at 5:45am (AM) so that we could drive to L.A. Why did we drive to L.A.?? My goofy friend/co-worker Fallon got four free tickets to a taping of So You Think You Can Dance. I had never seen the show before, but I'm all about doing something memorable. We had to be there at 8:30. Because of the famous L.A. traffic, we got there at ten to nine. They still let us in. They made us walk through metal detectors, checked our purses and didn't close any zippers back up after they'd rifled through them and we entered like livestock. MooooooOOO. We waited and waited and waited. The studio is super duper small, but then the camera adds ten feet, right? Two of the four of us, and when I say "us" I do not mean me, are ever so petite height wise and couldn't really see from where we were standing. We noticed stadium seating behind us with a few people occupying the space and decided to join them. Then more people joined us. Then the official looking lady with her headset on told us that we needed to come back down. There was no bouncer at the bottom of the stairs. You should tell people this before they get all comfy in their plastic folding seat! Finally some British guy came over and asked us to move up to the front...like right on the edge of the stage. Did I happen to mention that I did not want to be on camera? Guess it's like Disneyland where the signs read that you will get wet, for this is a water ride. Don't like it? Go ride Dumbo. I was standing on THE white line, the line that separates the audience from the dancers as the leap, roll, or are shot onto the stage. We spent an hour and a half watching these guys do ONE dance. Different ways, different camera angles, different this and that. I thought we'd at least see a wardrobe change. We saw how amazingly perfect they looked up close and personal. They are extremely outgoing, something I am not. One of the girls complimented my ring. Did I mention how perfect they looked? Without airbrushing? Man, they suck. We saw the show that night and I saw the side of me for a split second during the opening song. 90 minutes for three minutes of the show. Hooray for Hollywood!

Since all we'd had that day was Starbucks (who happens to open at 5:30, thank you Seattle) we were slightly famished. I took them back to my old stomping grounds....er...near my college and we hit South Coast Plaza for lunch. This has always been the hoitiest toitiest mall on the planet. Well, maybe Barney's in NY is moreso but you usually have to dress up to go to South Coast. It's mentioned on all those dumb teeny bopper "OC" things but come on, it's a MALL. You can either buy your kids some clothes at Christian Dior...or Sears. The first time I visited this strange place, my mom and I were followed by a sales associate in Saks 5th Ave. Because, you know, we looked like the total shoplifting kind my mom and I. We just laughed and pointed out the irony of a lace and underwire bra that was tagged at $150. Oh, good times.

Friday
Back to work...and the mysterious-thing-that-really-isn't-that-big-of-a-deal-but-I-don't-know-who-reads-this-so-I-cannot-comment-until-I-know-day. My awesome babysitter held onto Leah a bit longer so I could do my thang. The plan was for me to meet her at her friend's house to get my girl. When I called she invited Trey and I over to swim at the girlfriend's house. Unfortunately I don't carry swim attire with me wherever I go. However, she just happened to have an extra set of swimtrunks for Trey. We got there and this wild haired, greased up, brown baby came running up to me and then I realized it was my daughter. My fearless wonder in the water. She went under at least five times but that didn't deter her from thinking she could keep up with the big kids. Strap a floatation device on her and she's good to go.

Saturday
My mom took the boy to see Cars. Once his snack was gone, he was ready to leave which didn't make Grandma happy. What's wrong with this kid?? I told her I'd go to the movies with her next time. After that, Bill and I headed out for our first date since we've been home. Lunch...free thanks to a Christmas gift card then to the beach. Every time I go to the beach, I tell myself I need to go more. We just acted like tourists and took our shoes off to stand in the water. I didn't have my camera (then I'd really look like a tourist) but snagged this off the internet. This is a city and a half down from where we were:
















Sunday
Church/work normal stuff

Today
Gotta get the house cleaned. We're having three couples and all their kids over for a BBQ/Farewell Bill (although we still don't have his exact flight date). Gotta get the yard picked up. Gotta turn on the AC. The utility co is going to lurve me. Hopefully the air conditioning will deter any major meltdowns by my perfect little angels...and us.

Good times, good times.

Happy Fourth!

Saturday, July 01, 2006

Guess This Supports the Next Post




You Passed 8th Grade Science



Congratulations, you got 8/8 correct!

D'oh!




You Are Lisa Simpson



A total child prodigy and super genius, you have the mind for world domination.



But you prefer world peace, Buddhism, and tofu dogs.



You will be remembered for: all your academic accomplishments



Your life philosophy: "I refuse to believe that everybody refuses to believe the truth"