A big pile of many things.

Accomplished, that is.

This weekend, despite the illness that had overtaken K-'s throat, was quite busy for Hubs and me.  We worked in the yard, cleaning through some of the plants, Hubs worked on clearing the shed out, ditching unneeded stuff (mainly Pergo remnants from last year) and reset everything.  I got the mums planted, trimmed up the ivy that was overtaking one of the basement windows, trimmed up the old mums and the attack rose bush, was finally able to take down the last tomato plant, drained the rain barrel and stowed that away, trimmed the peonies down to the ground, helped Hubs haul leaves for pick-up and helped to get the outside furniture picked up for winter storage.  Whew.

:side note:  K- is feeling back to her ole self.  I should have probably put that first.

I had a goal to have the Christmas card done this weekend.  I had an incident with our photo program about 2 months ago, where I had (what turned out to be 10,993 photos) photos in limbo that I could not find.  You see, we replaced our Kodak Easy Share printer (don't buy one, they are horrible) with a lovely Epson Work Force 630 (I could kiss it and tell it how nice it is to me).  When I removed the Kodak printer out of the computer, it decided to take all of Kodak off and took my Easy Share camera software with it.  That is the software that I use with the Nikon and I had years of photos (many on disk, but not since last Christmas!) that I just could not find after the program decided to take hostages with it. 

I was hating on Kodak Easy Share anyhow, but that really ticked me off.

Back to the subject at hand, right?  Well, I decided that if I re-installed the Kodak Easy Share camera software, perhaps God would smile on me and put the photos back in their proper creature home.

God is good.  He did smile.  My photos are back.  :deep sigh of relief:

It took quite a while to re-install and to import the photos back into the program.  Since the program has had an update or 10 since I originally had it, I fumbled with the workings.  After hours, and I mean hours, of work, I was able to get all the photos off the Nikon, combine photos that I pulled, burn a disk and download them to Shutterfly.  Because I failed to read the fine print, I designed a card that didn't qualify for my free 50 cards, so I had to readjust.  I went ahead and designed a few cards last night, but decided that I would order the cards this AM, when I had a fresh brain.  (We skipped church because of K-'s strep.)  What card did Hubs and I decide on? 



The merry moments collage Christmas card!  You can also get it with green blocks instead of black.

I'm thrilled.  Since what I chose was a flat stationery card, I could give a quick run-down on the back of the card and include one more photo of our family.  It negates the need for the holiday Christmas letter. 

:side note:  Yes, Aunt Patti, I know your fondness of the letter.  I tell you, I got quite a whisker lickin' for the letter last year as I had three women at a family dinner tell me about how depressing my letter was.  It wasn't my aim to list depressing things and have people all funky about them.  My aim was that though crappy crap happened, we were all taken care of, everyone is well and all is good.  Besides, Grandma was dying and I wasn't as chipper as I usually am.  Still, I had people give me a very hard time.  Sheesh.

Now that I have Aunt Patti's note all handled (hi, Aunt Patti!!!), I shall share with you the dealie-do of the day.  I purchased 65 cards.  Of those 65 cards, I had 50 + shipping provided to me for free from Shutterfly for blogging about their Holiday card selection.  I had no problem doing that, of course.  Then, when I received K-'s school photos, there was a $20.00 code for Shutterfly included in there.  On the remaining 15 cards, I was able to apply the 40% discount sale that they are currently running and the $20.00 credit, which left me a balance of $7.05 for a little over $200.00.  Hubs was impressed.  His second question was, "Do people really spend that much for their cards?"  "Yes, there are some.  I'm not one of them."  My sister told me that I was her hero.  God bless her.

I'm now left with a bathroom to clean and laundry to fold and! to put away.  Hubs has been quite the man today and in Mike Holmes style, he pulled the entire dryer and lines out, cleaned them all and put everything back together.  The dryer is running so much faster now.  It really needed a good clean-out and Hubs spent a few hours doing an awesome job.  Now he's tidying the basement.  What a man!

Dinner is in the crock pot and if you'll excuse me, I have a date with a toilet bowl brush. 

Have a wonderful day!

If it walks like a duck and looks like a duck . . .

. . . it is probably the duck that you think that it is.

Yesterday, K- woke up complaining of a sore throat.  She looked fine otherwise.  She said that she had a belly ache, but if I kept the child home everytime she said that her stomach hurt, she'd never go to school.  I gave her a dose of Advil, sent her off and called the pediatrician for an appointment later on that day.  Normally, I wouldn't call for a sore throat, but I knew that she had been accidentally exposed to strep on Monday.  The mom reported that the rapid strep came back fine on her son, even though she insisted that strep was the problem.  She was sent home with nothing, thinking that he was fine, she sent him to school on Monday, the doctor's office was closed on Tuesday, then she found out Wednesday that his culture came back positive.  She kept him home, did the 24 hour hold on antibiotics, then farmed him back off.  In the meantime, children have been falling ill in their class and all over the school.

Yesterday, K- was one of them.

I was wheeling down the hall, distributing shirts out to the classes, when my dear sweet child was on her way down the hall.  "What's up, Babe?"  "Mom, I'm going to the nurse."  "You don't feel any better?"  "No." 

She went down, the nurse gave her a once over, asked me, "Are her tonsils usually that big?"  "I don't know, I've never looked at them before."  (I should be embarrassed to say that, but I don't know what I'm looking at.)  She handed me a flashlight and without knowledge of what I was looking at at all, I could see.  "Whoa." 

Of course, yesterday was a day that I could not leave.  I had to finish distributing t-shirts, had to finish directories and pass those out and I had a pizza party for 45 K-2 kids.  I gave Hubs a heads up before work telling him the spot I was in. 

God bless him.  He came the 35 minutes in to grab her up and take her home so that I could press on with what I had to do.  It was National Metal Day on VH1 anyhow, so it wasn't like it took much coaxing.

I had a 3:50 PM appointment and we went together as a family.  K-'s pediatrician didn't have any appointments left, so we saw the other doctor in the practice.  Before K- even opened her mouth, she said, "She smells like strep."  She explained that while there was a lot of viral funk going around, she would lay money down on the fact that K- had strep. 

Her rapidly rapid strep came back positive. 

I cruised by Big Bird to pick up the prescription.  Of course, I was the only person in line.  "Oh, we just received the fax.  Give us 15 minutes."  I decided to do some shopping (their ploy, I'm sure) and by the time I got back, it was like the entire NE Ohio population was in line.  I waited and waited and then! K-'s prescription needed mixed calling for me to wait some more.  Hooray!!! 

I got the Rx in her and she kept it down, even though she had a vomiting session to rival just about any other she's ever had.  (Advil is what put her over the edge.)  Later, she opted for 1 spoonful of Advil, which she successfully kept down, she slept through the night and I woke up to, "Mom?  Um, I think I need to stay in bed all day and watch TV, but I can swallow now and my throat doesn't even hurt!" 

Thank God for modern day antibiotics.  It also doesn't hurt that they were free.

Be healthy!

The week that keeps on keepin' on.

Magnet available from Quotable Cards.

This has been my week.  I'll tell you, I didn't let go, so there were some areas that I felt dragged through.  Allow me to let you in on some of the things I've accomplished:

1.  Joe and I finished 3 major displays involving 4 trees.  I decorated the trees and he did two of the three display areas surrounding the trees.  One, I must admit, was more like a double display area. Bless him.  He rocked it. 
2.  I've become quote proficient in climbing the ladder sideways.  (Foot on the rungs long wise and not short wise.)  I tried to avoid it, but it was just unavoidable.  There is a certain point where I'm kind of a control freak with the trees (must get the top right!) and I just can't hand it off, as it is a dance.  I can't see if something is going to work out until I go and live with it up in the ceiling. 
3.  Yes, my foot hurt.  Yesterday was my third day of pulling nearly 12 hour days on a still bum foot and I assure you, the swelling in my foot confirmed that yesterday was the last day of the long haul.
4.  I picked up and have now bundled probably 75% of the 202 shirts needed to distribute throughout the school for Walkathon prizes.  I requested orange shirts with blue printing.  (Our district school color is orange.)  I assure you, they are orange.  Hunting orange.  Whoooo-boy, we'll see the kids.  Sheesh!
5.  Kay, wonder of wonders, has started working on getting the directories distributed for me.  She was able to put room numbers on all of the PTA membership cards that I have, so now I can staple and bind.  Yipee!
6.  Report cards come home tomorrow!  K- is excited and I hope that math grade is excitable in a good way.
7.  My brother is still federally housed, received my card, has been calling the house to talk to me but since it is a collect call (on my caller ID as "A call from Texas" even when we live in Ohio), I can't accept it.  We were victims of phone slamming this past summer and we changed the account to where we can't get charges like that again.  When he calls mom, he'll find out that I'm not ignoring him.
8.  We have another part of our family going through some tough times and that has been of big discussion this week.
9.  ISSUE 2 FAILED!  Hooray!  We only knew of two people voting for it.  I'm glad that my husband will continue making his smallish pay with the retirement and insurance benefits, that we pay into, will remain intact. 
10.  Our school levy failed by just less than 1 percent.  Really?  There was a fire levy that failed near where Hubs works.  Yet another one I can't get.  That one I have a harder time understanding.  Not everyone has a kid, but everyone needs the ability to phone the police or fire at a moments notice.  I don't understand voting down a fire/EMS/police levy.  Let's face it, if your house is burning down, who are you going to call?  Even if you vote it down, you'll expect them to show up and do their best work for you. 
11.  I have a pizza party tomorrow for 45 kids.  I have the same thing next week. 
12.  I worked until 9 each night and there was one night that I actually fell asleep sitting up on the couch.  :so tired:
13.  It's supposed to snow some tonight.  It's not going to be a high stickage situation.  It'll be mixed precipitation, but wow.  SNOW!  I embrace it.  Truly, no use in fighting it around here. 
14.  I'm scheduled for allergy testing this following week.  I had to dump my Allegra D in preparation.  The choking and gagging that I'm doing in the AM only confirms that the Allegra D is a very good and necessary thing for me.  I'm hoping that the allergist can figure out which items I'm allergic to and perhaps we can use a more targeted therapy for them. 

Have a wonderful weekend!

Busy week = bloggy break.

I had a busy weekend, one that was more busy with home stuff than outside stuff. That's good.  For the first time since ye ole snapping o' the metatarsal, all laundry is brought up to speed, folded and! put away.  Navigating the steps with laundry was not something so easy for me to do up until this point, a day of going through K-'s drawers for items grown out of and making space for new things, hauling laundry up and down landed me with a rather sore foot at the end of the night.  No, I don't think it is what Dr. W- meant by "don't do anything crazy," but at least I accomplished good things for the pain that I endured.  A good thing is that now I can stand on the front of my feet (like I'm standing in heels.)  I showed Hubs.  He asked that I not do that again.  I think that the loud crack is still too loud in his head. 

I've assembled 290 PTA directories for our school.  The assembly alone took me probably 7 hours, but that part is done.  I now have to staple membership cards to the front of each book and sort according to classrooms.  The classrooms I have to look up, so that will take an awesome amount of time, as well.  All told, so far this membership gig has taken probably 60 hours in in-put and directory creation.  I easily have another 3 hours to go in just membership card stapling and piling for distribution.  The lady who handed this job off to me never made mention of all that.  Argh.

Yesterday, I did grocery shopping with many coupons.  I'm not an extreme shopper and they wouldn't at all be impressed with my spending vs. saving, but I did save $35.00 in coupons and yes, it is for things that we need.  A lot of baking things were on sale and I had coupons.  We needed cereal and granola bars.  I bought toothpaste and other basics.  It took a lot of time, though.  Thank goodness K- brought her DS with her.  She sat in the cart and played while I shopped.

This week, I have the final decorating push before the Holiday Open House.  I'll be working longacious hours. 

Sometime this week, 200 shirts will be ready for me to sort and distribute at school.

Friday, I have a pizza party for 45 kids. 

K- has decided to grow her bangs out.  That leaves me trying to figure out how to pin her thick bangs out of her face everyday so that she looks nice and not like a shaggy dog.  I think I'll get it figured out.  This morning, a touch of hair spray had to be used.  She was none too pleased with that, but I told her that girls aren't having bangs so much in the 3rd grade anyhow, so it is perfect that she's decided to grow them out now.  Once they get far enough along, I'll take her for a real hair cut (it'll be her first not done by me) to blend those puppies in.  I'm not thinking that is until late spring, though.

:deep breath:

Oh, and did I fail to mention that my brother has managed to pull a stint at our local federal housing?  What does that mean?  What that means is that he got tossed in jail.  It's a big mess of yucky detail, but I can say from the bottom of my heart that though I know that he's made bad decisions, he could have left and didn't, I believe that he was falsely accused and that he's in the big house for sheer stupidity.  :glove smack:  I love my brother with all my heart, but until he starts making better decisions for himself and removes himself from toxic situations, we can't do anything to save him until he comes to that conclusion on his own.  In the meantime, we pray.

I shuttle onward.  I've borrowed a big ole stapler that I have to drop off at school while on my way to work.  The PTA directory is going to kill me before my brothers dumb decisions do. 

Have a great week!

Darned that VH1

I've loved Rush since I was in college.  I dated a guy who liked them very much and we listened to them a lot.  Imagine my surprise last night when Hubs, knowing my affection for Rush, said, "Hey!  Rush is on VH1 tonight.  Do you want to watch it?" 

We proceeded to watch it for hours. 

I told him that I knew that I had Rush on something (cassette or CD), but I couldn't remember what.  (Though I knew I had Roll the Bones, since I had just listened to it a few weeks ago.)  "Well, I own them.  I used to own more, but those were the tapes I loaned you in college that ended up all over your car."  I told him that the one guy I dated listened to them and that's where it all started.  "When you broke up, did you return them?"  "He never gave me any of them."  "Well then, he's a smart guy." 

Hubs never did get over the fact that one of the tapes he loaned me, Faith No More- Epic, fell out of my car when it was really cold and literally shattered in the driveway.  I don't know that we've ever replaced it by CD.  (And no, I didn't mistakenly call it a tape.  CDs came out in mass production when I was in college.) 

It brings us to another point of discussion that Hubs and I had.  He is a CD hoarder.  He's organized about it, but dude had our bed specially built (waited 6 months for it) so that he could fit the rolling containers of CDs he has under the bed.

No, I'm not kidding.

He has them carefully arranged by genre, I believe, and padded with pool noodles to keep them from flapping against the side of the box when pulling in and out.  Each is pristinely cleaned, housed and loved. 

Then there is me.

I have stacks of CDs.  I have them in the studio, the living room, the truck and the bedroom.  I listen to a bunch of different stuff (excluding country), but mainly alternative.  Hubs, as part of a birthday gift, took CDs and put them in a lovely binder for me and has them in my RAV.  I have a few CD cases in there, but most of everything is in the binder.

They are not pristinely cleaned.

They are not carefully housed. 

They are loved, but on different levels of love depending upon my mood. 

My CD hygiene has never been in line with Hubs and I think that he would probably claim that is one of the bigger pet peeves about me. 

What I do know is that Rush is now playing on the stereo in the living room.  Where was the CD?  In the Little House on the Prairie episode binder that Hubs gave me last year for Christmas, just where he put it. 

I know I have the case somewhere here . . .

Today's theme is miscellaneous bits of life and stuff.

1.  I dislike Old Navy.  I ordered things online, again, and for the second time I found that their sizing is just not in line with what my child is.  Today, I took the things back to exchange, found that the online regular items are now the store clearance items and I ended up having to spend $11.00 more to get the same number of rather like items.  Argh.
2.  I have left a message with the referral department of the doctor's office.  I'm wondering if Dr. W- can refer me on to a lovely allergist who can figure out this pesky bee thing and to see what generalized "seasonal" allergies I have.  This year, I have been on Allegra D since June.  It's kind of a forever thing, I think.  I sure would like to know what I'm allergic to and if we can, I'd like to try to work that allergyness out of my system.  Words of advice, Janeen?
3.  K- got her health project done.  She had to do a Family Fire Safety Plan and she did a great job.  They had two weeks to do the project and K- really threw herself into it. 
4.  Grades close tomorrow and I'm holding my breath on that math grade.  :turning blue from lack of oxygen: 
5.  I picked my rings up today from the jeweler and whoever worked on them this time to retip the prongs did a better job than anyone ever has.  Truly, I don't recall anyone having tipped all of the tips before.  I only recall them having given attention to the center stone.  My, oh my are they clean! 
6.  I left a note on someones window today about a low tire.  I hope that they were able to get their tire aired back up.  I would hope that if someone saw the same problem with my car, they'd leave me a note.  My car would have thrown an idiot light at me, but I think that this van was pre-tire pressure idiot light.  Still, I hope that they are safe.
7.  My friend called crying to tell me that her niece had stopped breathing 4 times today and that she had prayed and prayed but could I pray, too?  So there I stood in Old Navy while the child was trying on shirts and belting out a prayer for Rachel, Kay and her family.  Turns out that Rachel is holding her breath and passing out.  (I did that when I was three.  Rachel is 8 or 9, but she has Rett's Syndrome.)  She had a seizure and fell flat on her face, if I have the facts right. 
8.  Don, our neighbor, had a great report today from his orthopedic surgeon.  He can ditch the coumadin, walk with the cane, drive himself to the store and get back to some light volunteer work at the church.  Don had his hip replaced three weeks ago and has truly done fantastic. 
9.  I'm tired.  It's amazing how I'm as tired as I was when I broke my foot initially.  Having gotten out of the boot, but being very careful with walking, driving and everyday tasks takes a toll.  I forgot my mid-afternoon 2 Advil snack and I felt it.  (I've only been back to that since I have been de-booted.  In boot, I hadn't taken Advil for quite a while.)  I have to remember that the foot won't be fully healed for another 7 weeks and it is going to take time.  It's just surprising quite how tiring that healing process is. 

It's time for bed.  I have a long day tomorrow.  'Night!

Smiles in my day:
-  K- and her excitement over her project.
-  K- was up and ready well before scatter time in the AM.  This last week has been difficult to get up and out.  Time change is Sunday.  I'm sure that won't help matters at all.  :(

Have a great day!

Samaritan's Purse: Operation Christmas Child

It's that time of year again!  Operation Christmas Child boxes will be collected from November 14-21.  We choose to do the Follow Your Box donation, so that way we can see where our box went to.  Last year, our box was sent to Iraq. 

Need to know drop off locations?  Click here.

Need to know what to pack and what not to pack in your box?  Why lookie here:

What is in our box?  We have a set of marbles and a book on how to play them, a mini bowling set, buildable animals, a slinky, a whoopie cushion (every culture has to think it is funny!), a tic-tac-toe wood board game, a reusable steel water bottle filled with hard candy and suckers, toothpaste, deodorant, floss, a tooth brush, stickers, a paddle ball game, a bar of Ivory soap, a pan flute, a kazoo, a rainbow pencil, a wood peg jumping game, pencils, pens, a highlighter, glue sticks, a pair of scissors (blunt end), a wood ruler, cap erasers, a pencil sharpener, a box of crayons, a box of markers, a box of colored pencils and a set of watercolors.  I still have a tiny space that I can put a compressed wash cloth into.  (The pop-up kind that you buy at the store.)  All of this fits into a plastic latch standard shoe-sized box.  Sometimes I do trim the packaging a little to make it work.  I also work hard at engineering everything into the box so that our kid gets the maximum amount for the space they have.  I like the idea of the plastic latch lid box.  I've always done those and I look at it this way, it is an extra gift that they can reuse forever.

We do our box for boys age 10-14, because that is the area where the donations are the lowest. 

We love doing a shoe box!

Have a great day!