100th Posting

Last night my breaks almost went out on us. So NG took the day off to try to fix them. We got his dad over here to help out and everything. Should be quick and easy, right?

Wrong.

Apparently my tires have a special nut on them to keep anyone from just stealing them. Now, keep in mind that I don't live in a big city or even in a place where it's common to park your car someplace, come back fifteen minutes later, and find it completely stripped. Having a tire stolen just isn't a big concern.

So what should have been an hour job, maybe two tops, has turned into an all-day affair.

Also, my daughter, for whatever reason, just will not be happy. I mean, her daddy makes her happy but he's been working outside, and she's left indoors with me. And she's not pleased about it. Nothing I say or do is right. I'm tired already.

Add to that a band of rain moving through the area, causing my body to be stiff and unhappy.

But at the same time, I'm happy. My whole little family is here and I love it. I feel cozy.

I hope everyone has a good weekend. Stay safe out there.

Long week

We've all been sick this past week. NG and I both had some sort of stomach bug, which wasn't fun but really didn't last too long. We're still tired and a bit weak but we're back to our old routines.

Sweet'ums popped a fever early-early yesterday morning of 102. She hadn't really been acting like herself the evening before, and we should have seen it coming. Problem was that she was showing no other symptoms besides the fever. We took her to the doctor, who said that it was some kind of infection that probably hadn't really set in yet. No signs of anything wrong with her throat, ears, chest, or stomach. The doctor gave us a prescription to help take care of a little rash that has persisted on her belly, but that's unrelated to her being sick. Her fever broke sometime during the night and she's been fever-free so far today, but she's acting more sick today than yesterday. Ornery, yet cuddly. Nothing makes her happy, but darn it, she's not getting out of Mommy's lap for anything other than to go grab her sippy cup. We've spent the last three days doing nothing but keeping her sippy cup full and watching Disney On Demand.

I love my job.

I hate so much that she's not feeling good but I love the chance to be needed and even wanted (usually her daddy is her preferred buddy). I love the opportunity to cuddle with her all day, just for once, and watch the same couple episodes of Handy Manny over and over again. I love sitting with her, watching her rock back and forth singing the intro and end songs to Little Einsteins.

Yep, that's my girl. And I love those moments.

We're all tired and none of us are really feeling good again yet. But we're getting there.

Photo update

I haven't posted many pictures lately so here's an update from over this weekend.


Sweet'ums got a bicycle for Christmas. It's been nasty here most of the time since then, being either too cold or too wet for her to go out and play. So she finally got to spend some time on it.


She looks like she's up to no good, doesn't she? She'd been into the Pop-Tarts and the evidence was on her face.


I finally finished her dress. Now I gotta work on her quilt some more. This is the finished product.



She likes looking at herself in the mirror. The second picture is a little eerie to me... A glimpse into the future, perhaps? She looks so much older than she is.

So that's my girl. She's growing up too fast. Her daddy says if she looks anything like that mirror image when she's older he'll have to put in landmines around our house and bring in heavy artillery to keep the boys away. I'm just too overwhelmed to think about it!

I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe weekend.

Four Years

Four years ago yesterday I became Mrs. Nice Guy. Ever since I've done my best to be a good wife and, slightly more recently, a good mom.

We have our ups and our downs but we try hard. My biggest fault in our relationship: remembering to be patient--not everyone (especially my husband!) does things the way I do. His biggest fault: remembering that women and men function and think very differently--and I'm not a man.

We've overcome a lot and learned tons of stuff the hard way. We've made financial mistakes that we're still fixing and we've made a few smart moves too. We've started a great little family and hope for wonderful things in the future.

I don't know what the future holds but I look forward to continuing towards it with my sweet husband.

COLD!

I just thought I would announce that in my particular location in Florida we are currently experiencing a "wintry mix", as the forecasters call it. We're getting rain, sleet, and snow flurries (in some spots--I've only seen one snowflake so far). Our high was 40 degrees and that was hours ago. Now we're down to 36 with wind chill bringing us down to 24.

We're going out to look at houses today. Can we say CRAZY???

Hope everyone's staying warm!

I can't believe I'm saying this

Tonight I came to a realization as I was thinking to myself in the shower, and said the very thing we all come to admit at some point or another (usually, begrudgingly).

My mother was right.

In my case it was something not necessarily negative. She and I talked the other day and she was telling me that she'd told my dad that I'd matured a lot over the last few years and had become quite thrifty. While I'm not really sure what thriftiness and maturity have to do with each other, I took it as a compliment, especially seeing as how it came in the midst of a conversation about my brother and some of the rather immature things he's done lately.

The "Mom was right" moment didn't come until tonight, though.

A couple days ago I noticed that I needed to buy new blades for my razor. (Sorry if that's a bit TMI for anyone) So, today while we were out shopping, I stopped to grab a pack. I spotted a pretty, flowery little razor with a wide grip and its own neat little shower caddy. It was only $4 so I thought, hey, it couldn't hurt. After all, it came with two blades, and if I didn't like it I hadn't really lost any money. I don't really like spending over $10 for four cartridges for my Quattro, and since this little razor is put out by the same company, I felt like it would be the smarter purchase for the time being. So we hurried home and after Sweet'ums was tucked in for the night I decided to try out my new razor.

Mind you, I began shaving sometime around the advent of the triple-blade razor, and the first one I ever used was one of my mom's little double-blade disposables. So it has been a LONG time since I've used a double-blade razor, and I'm not really sure if I've ever used one that wasn't just a cheap disposable.

Long story short, I love my little two-blade razor. It's wider so I can get a better grip, and I can't see where more blades necessarily make the shave better or quicker. I've got bad skin so any razor burn would be quickly evident, and so far it seems that this shave was no different than a shave with my Quattro. It's the same brand, so I don't feel like I'm showing brand disloyalty or anything. What I do believe is that it's a far better value for what seems to be the same results.

Replacement cartridges for my little Silk Effects Plus razor are somewhere in the ballpark of $6 for a five pack, compared to $10.64 for a four-pack of my Quattro blades. You can also find double packs (10 blades total) for S.E.P. for about $14 if you look carefully. And, should the razor start to grow "that funk" as razors kept in the shower often do, it's cheap enough to replace without really wasting money.

All of this was going through my mind in the shower earlier, which resulted in me coming to the above starting conclusion.

Mom was right.

I'm getting thrifty in my old age.

I make my own laundry detergent. I try to only buy things we can get good use out of and I'm happy to spend a little bit more for something that has multiple uses. I don't really do a lot of second-hand stuff, but I try to keep our stuff in good enough shape that if it comes to the end of its usefulness for us, I can find someone else who might need it. We don't eat at home as often as we should, but I love to cook and try to maximize the nutrition we get out of the meals I do fix while keeping expenses as low as possible. I like making things myself, and I'm one of those weird women who actually enjoys getting "useful" gifts (like my sewing machine). I can feed us for a week on a $50 grocery budget between Publix and Walmart, and anyone living in Florida knows that this isn't always easy--stuff can be expensive down here.

With all of that tumbling through my brain I realized that Mom was right. I never thought I'd become "thrifty" but I have. I'm not what I'd consider a penny pincher. I don't clip coupons and I don't even shop by the sale pages, but since Sweet'ums has been with us and we began stumbling financially we've really learned to stretch what we have. I prioritize our expenditures and even though some things go unpaid sometimes, or low-priority household needs might have to wait a week, we still have what we need to keep ourselves clean and fed and happy.

I'm not sure really why I felt the need to say all of this here but I thought it was worthwhile to stop for a moment and enjoy my mom's compliment, since part of my "love" theme this year is learning to love myself and finding the good in myself as well as in others. And I'm proud of the fact that, while we don't always have the things we want, we nearly always have the things we need, and on good weeks we have enough left to pick up the slack for the other weeks and still come away with something we wanted.

I'm sure there will be many more "Mom was right" moments to come in the months and years ahead, and not all of them will be nearly as pleasant as this one. Has anyone else had one of those moments lately? Care to share?

Thanking God

NG went to the doctor today to see if they'd found anything out about his chest. GREAT NEWS!!!

All this time, we've been afraid that the chest pain was something awful. Instead, it's kind of a good thing. Apparently, 50% is the typical left ventricle ejection pressure. NG's was 66%. So his heart is good and strong. It's operating as if he were an athlete, from the way the doctor was talking. The problem comes in with his weight. He's overweight enough that it's creating unnecessary pressure on his heart. His heart is basically fighting against all the weight to get his blood to flow. That's not a problem for now, but if it's allowed to continue it could result in an enlarged heart.

So the doctor put him on a strong appetite suppressant and "wake up" pill. He said that in smaller people it can cause hyperactivity, but in someone his size it should make him about normal.

So I'm excited! It's something we've got to fix but it's not something to worry about. And it's actually good that he went--before, the doctor thought his high blood pressure was a sign that his body was overstressed, overworked, and overweight. Now, we know it's just a sign that he's overweight and nothing more. The doctor is positive that it'll go away as he loses weight. We were also afraid to let him work out and afraid to let him take the other medication the doctor had given him to help with his energy levels. Now, the medicine the doctor gave him is even stronger, because he's not worried about the blood pressure and feels like having the extra energy would do him good.

So we're definitely thankful today!

I can't do it

I can't stay away. There's just too much to talk about.

For starters, my hands have been sore and stiff for long enough now that it has almost stopped bugging me. They still hurt, but it's like having a headache for a few running days--you kind of stop noticing it after a while. The only problem is that major body parts, like my lower back and my knees, are harder to ignore, and I ran out of my medicine two nights ago (can't refill until tomorrow). It's hard to forget that you hurt when you have to have your husband haul your rear out of bed! But I'm trying to stay in good spirits about it. It's something I've gotta learn to live with.

I've also had a lot going on with the family. NG went for an ECHO yesterday and goes for a treadmill stress test on Friday. He's already had an EKG done. Apparently his doctor heard something funny during his physical last week. I wouldn't worry so much except I know a girl whose husband, who isn't much older than NG and is about his height and build, basically walked out his front door one morning and collapsed. He was in Stage 2 heart failure and went into end-stage heart failure shortly after. Luckily he got a transplant and has done well, but their situation plays through my mind every time I think about NG. It's a scary thought, especially with a small child at home.

We're beginning the house hunt from scratch again. The other place was a real winner for me, except that the guy lied to us about why there was a delay. Now he wants even more money and we're afraid that we'd start the process and have him keep upping the asking price. Plus, he's shown us that he is completely unwilling to negotiate, and that's not entirely fair--he's asking $15k more than it's appraised at, and in our area it's common knowledge that they appraise higher than the actual value so they can get more in property tax. So to spare us what could be a highly unpleasant buying experience, we've decided to move on. We have a few backup places that we're going to check into and we'll go from there. I just hate to miss out on such a nice place, but hey--it's not worth that kind of stress.

I think I've also decided on a word for the year: Love. It's so easy to love the people you live with and the people you've hand-picked for involvement in your life, but it's not always so easy to love other folks who cross your path--people you interact with at work, the cashier at the grocery store who never bags your stuff right, or even people attached to the people you love through marriage or family or other social connections. Something I need to learn to do is to love, or at least try to understand, the people in my life that I don't have a natural connection to. I have too much anger and I need to learn to love more. Show the kind of love to the "undesirables" that Jesus showed. Remember to give the criminals and tax collectors and in-laws a break, you know? I also need to find ways to rekindle the love in my own household on a daily basis because even if we have nothing else, we have each other, and we can't forget that.

So that's my busy week. I'm gonna go chill out for a bit, give my hands a break, and hopefully fall asleep before it gets too late.

Stay warm, ladies!

Back Momentarily

I'm back for a few minutes, just to say thanks for the wishes of wellness and warmer days. I love the cold, I just hate that I can't be out enjoying it! Last night a nearby town had an overnight low of 24 degrees--not entirely unheard of in this area, but definitely not a yearly occurrence.

What I really came back for is to marvel for a moment--I just came to the startling realization that I have less than two weeks until mine and NG's anniversary! I knew it was coming but it kind of crept up on me suddenly. I'm thrilled we've made it this far. Almost four years down, about another... Oh, ninety-six or so to go!

Now just to figure out what I'll make him for dinner that day!

Time out

It is COLD out there! It's 45 degrees outside right now and it's only about a quarter after 6. We're supposed to get down around freezing tonight. And, according to the forecast, it looks like we can expect to stay pretty cold for the next week or so.

I just wanted to let everyone know that until it warms up a little, I might have to take time off from writing.

As long as I'm inside the house my joints stay loose enough to get by, but I still ache. The moment my heat kicks off and the house cools down though, or as soon as I step foot outside, my body locks up and it hurts to even move. I made the mistake last night of going down to the store and by the time I got home I could hardly walk because of my knee or carry my daughter to bed because of my shoulder. So as whiny as I sound, I'm probably going to just have to hide under a blanket and keep as still as possible until it warms up a little. At this moment I'm not doing too bad but it's getting colder out and regardless of how warm it is inside, I get stiffer at night. So it's probably going to be a rough week for me.

I'll keep up with reading everyone's stuff but I probably won't say a whole lot. I just wanted to give everyone a heads-up so that no one would think I dropped off the face of the earth.