Injured Players List

Poor Peepers. Yesterday while ice skating, a friend ran into her at high speed. Emily fell and when her hands went down, her blades came up. She has quite the gash on her right thumb. She'll be out of commission for a bit.

I'm very impressed with the stitch job, I must say!

Let's Get Sirius

Attention Sirius/XM radio fans... did you notice anything today? A while back they talked about merging. Then it became official, but still nothing happened.

Today while out tooling about town, I found that the Kenny Chesney Channel is now Elvis, and FRED, my favorite alternative channel is now First Wave. There are many other changes, but I was flying through the dial so fast in excitement, that I couldn't keep track of the newbies.

I LOVE the new changes, but can't find the Chesney Channel to save my life. There seems to be a bit more talking by the DJ, but it's still quite GROOVY! Wooohoooooo!!

I promise to try and blog more. I had a pretty crappy month and everything I would have posted would have been very dark. So I just tried to "get by".

My First Time

I remember it like it was yesterday. I almost remember what I was wearing when it happened. It was 1992. I was in college. I was so scared because it was my first time, yet I was assured that everything would be fine. When I went into the room, my heart was beating a hundred mph. What I was about to do was a VERY grown up thing to do. It was the end of my childhood as I knew it. There would be no turning back. After I did the deed, I reeled over it all day long in the comfort of my friend Cherie's house. I couldn't believe that I actually did it. I voted. What were you thinking I did? Get your mind out of the gutter and go vote!

Broken.

I'm broken. Absolutely broken. Something happened to me the other day and I am completely stumped as to how this happened. I did something so out of character that I feel really lost. It was so unlike me, and so strange that I still can't believe it happened.

We spent 2 hours at Borders Friday night and I DIDN'T BUY ANY BOOKS!!!!

This is so strange for me because I LOVE to read. But here is the kicker. They had a GREAT history section. LOTS of local history about different cities, including Detroit. They must have had over 200 books just on this. Cute little paperback books. They were $19.99... and weren't even 1/2" thick. I just couldn't bring myself to buy it.

Then there were the romance novels. I LOVE romance novels. But I just couldn't bring myself to spend the $6 on something I would read in 2.2 seconds.

And then there were cookbooks. If you know me at all, you know I don't have to answer this one. Let's just say that my mom called me out on my love of recipes cookbooks. She cut this out of the paper, because that old bag is me, and the little girl is Emily... minus the glasses!

Another Conversation with Greg

The Scene... Paulees Restaurant.

The setting, an evening dinner with Emily & Greg. We sat in our cozy booth, talking about how our favorite waitress who has recently graduated from college, is moving to Wisconsin. She is took a job with a casino as a the promotions director. After a short conversation with her, she walks away.

Greg: "When I grow up, I'm moving to a COUNTRY!"
V: "You ARE in a country"
Greg: "I'm moving to Britain, because they speak ENGLISH there!"

On the Next Dancing with the Stars!!!

Product Review

The Swiffer duster

I'm not one for too many chemicals around the house. So as you can guess, I definitely have this product in my home. The concept of this product is great. It magnetically attracts the dust, picking it up. Unfortunately I am giving this product a thumbs down. This past week as I was dusting, I noticed more dust flying around, than was being picked up. I have a black wood TV stand, and a large black bookcase. As you can imagine, it shows EVERYTHING... but I love it. Seconds after dusting the tv stand, I immediately noticed the airborne dust landing on it again.

Hence, I had to get out the vacuum and use the dusting attachment for 100% success.

Meap Madness

Ahhh yes, it's that time of year again. Time for the Meap tests. Time for all of the studying to be put to good use. Time for Emily to show off her big brain. This morning she was up before I was. She was in and out of the shower before her Daddy and she had the biggest positive attitude I've seen in a long time. She chose a healthy breakfast, and had her snacks packed in her backpack. She chose comfortable clothes, and mentally prepared herself for the big day.

On the way to school, she chanted over and over "I hope I do good, I hope I do good", while I said over and over in my head, "I know she'll do great, I know she'll do great". As we pulled up to the school, she turned, gave me a kiss, told me she loves me, and popped out of the car. She turned towards the building, ready to take on the world, and the Meaps. Althought I tell her often, the child will never know how much I adore her. How I watch her while she sleeps, praying that she will always make good choices, and will continue to excel in her own life. How I pray that she will always be healthy, and how I thank god for the opportunity to be her mother. I am the luckiest person in the world.

This says it all!!!

My reaction if he becomes President!

Relief!

I'm sure I've mentioned before that sometimes when Greg speaks, I sweat. You NEVER know what is going to come out of that kids mouth. Trust me when I tell you that he is not the least bit shy.

Today I took the kids to Johnnie's Barber Shop. It's such a cool little "out of the way" place, where interesting conversations are held. I would LOVE to sit in there for a day and just listen to the barrage of stories that come and go.

While Emily's "edge trimming" took a mere 5 minutes, Greg's took much longer. Johnnie must be a perfectionist, and from the look of Greg's new doo, it shows. It was worth the wait... and so was the conversation.

Greg made small talk to Johnnie, and Johnnie told Greg jokes. My favorite? Why did the boy throw a stick of butter out of the car window? He wanted to see a butterfly, lol. OMG, I'm LMAO.

Anyhow, as we were leaving, and Greg finished his stories about Muskie, Sturgeon, and France, he turns to Johnnie and says, "You were very nice. I hope to see you next time I come in here."

All I heard was a gasp and saw a HUGE smile on Johnnie's face. My thoughts? THANK GOD... my child is polite!

Tink, Tink, Tink... Is this thing on?

Wow, where have I been? All of those blog links on the bottom right, are blogs that I look at EVERY DAY. From the looks of it, everyone else has been as busy as I have. Plus I must admit... lately I haven't been online much. I have been so busy trying to get some things done, that a couple days have gone by, where I didn't even turn on the computer.

Add to that my dark frame of mind. I will be fine though. Just sick of media hype.

I have some exciting news to share! Emily has been invited to join the EXCEL team at her school. It is a team of talented and gifted students. Something that I would have NEVER qualified to be a part of. She scored very high on her MEAP tests last year. I went to the parental meeting tonight, and was so excited to see a bunch of people that I know. Looks like her class must still be the bumper crop, that her preschool teacher loved so much.

As I was driving home from the school, I suddenly realized how many opportunities our children have, that we were never given. As far as I remember, I do not recall having any type of after school activities, other than sports. I do not remember the teachers pushing their students to be the best. I... am a product of that environment. I... am so glad that my kids won't be.

Shocker!!!

A Halloween favorite, Original Skittles, has 47 grams of sugar in one serving, some of it in the form of corn syrup. Would you ever have your child sit and eat 12 packets of sugar? That’s the amount they are getting from eating one bag of Skittles. This info came right from the maker of this candy at www.marshealthyliving.com. Their idea of healthy living must be different than ours?!?!

I found this in a newsletter I get from Nourish Your Kids

I'm Not Funny

I miss myself. Sometimes I find things so funny, that I just can't stop laughing. I'm not laughing lately, and I'm sorry, but here comes a dark post. I would like to say that I am witty, but I don't feel it right now. I would like to say that my glass is always half full, and the sun is always shining, but lately it isn't. I would like to say that the air feels so light, but it doesn't.

Yesterday while we were at Meijer, I had a very short conversation with a woman in the produce section. BTW, Meijer had cheese on sale... 3 for $6... thank you very much Kroger, you can stick your $4.49 cheese sideways up your hoohaa's.

Prior to this conversation with this lady, I definitely took notice of the faces people were wearing that day. Doom and gloom. I honestly don't think I saw even one person smile. Den and I noticed a sharp increase in many prices.

The conversation with the woman was brief. She commented on how 4 peppers in a cellophane bag for $4.99 will NEVER sell at that price. I agreed. She went on to say how she is a nervous wreck, as she had just left her bank, and was expecting a call from her banker. I mentioned to her that we too, were feeling the pinch. I only had in my basket, what I absolutely needed. The days of frivolous shopping are definitely on hiatus.

This whole thing is wearing on me. Personally, I think we are doing fine, and we will be ok... but as I look around, and especially on the news. OMG the news... It literally sucks the life out of me to watch it. Everything is so bad all the time.

It is absolutely shocking to see how bad things have gotten in 8 years under the village idiot. I am scared to death that the walking corpse (McCain) will get in, because he and the idiot seem to share a brain. On the flipside, I'm not so sure that Obama is any better. I am so scared for this country... so scared. Then there is that nitwit that is running with the corpse. Did you see the clip of her with Katie Couric? Katie asked her about which publications she reads as far as news papers goes, and nitwit goes on and says, "Oh I read all of them", and basically dodged the question. Can she even answer a question at all? BTW, GMA went to Alaska today to see if you really CAN see Russia from "her house". Unless she lives on Little Diomede, there is no way she can see Russia from her house.

Regardless, I hope I find my sense of humor soon. As of now it is just sitting at bay, and I hope that the fire isn't diminished completely before it surfaces again.

Remedy & Research

And so it starts.... cold and flu season that is. In about 2 weeks, I've had both. Last week, Emily came down with the stomach flu or "Gastritis". At first, I really thought maybe 4th grade was already stressing her out. Much to my relief, it wasn't so. I'm quite certain it came from that petri dish they call a school. Regardless, she missed a day of school.

Then the next day, Den came home from work around 11pm. He was sick. At 4am, I woke up sick. It was the week from hell... and my tummy still isn't back to normal.

So here is what I found...
About a year ago a woman gave me a "tip". I remember her words exactly, "When you get the stomach flu, start drinking straight tomato juice right away. Not V8, it HAS TO BE straight tomato juice." As I was laying in bed with my tummy rolling and rolling, this womans voice popped right into my head. Immediately I got up, went to the pantry and popped open a jar of tomato juice that my mom had canned the season before.

You may be cringing at the thought, but in all honesty, it wasn't bad at all. I too was thinking, why on earth would you want to drink THAT? So I did some quick research and I found this.
Let me tell you... 1/2 way through the first jar, my stomach had stopped turning. Unfortunately I didn't follow the instructions as directed, and had a horrendous relapse. So the next day, I tried it again and I followed the directions to the letter... and it worked! I am happy to say I am almost 100%!

While my new found remedy has worked quite well, I have a new mission. I AM SICK OF BEING SICK!!!!! I have had enough, and it's not even October yet!!! I have started thinking about probiotics. I don't know a lot about them, but I have heard that they can work quite well to keep you healthy. I would like to find something that my whole family can take. I am sure I have a lot of research ahead of me, but then today something occurred to me. Who better to ask, then you, my health conscious blogger friends!

Inquiring minds want to know.... do you know anything about probiotics? What are your thoughts on them? At this point, I am willing to do about anything to just stay well this winter, so please make your recommendations.

Honesty

Johnny is a friend of the family. His parents are my sisters godparents. Johnny is a detective in a nearby city. Shortly before he was hired on to the department, he and I hung around together frequently. He always told me... "If you get pulled over, TELL THE TRUTH. The cop will know if you are lying".

And so I did.

One summer night, I was on my way home from Crittenton, where I worked in the ER. I came barreling over a hill, in the dark and immediately saw him. I just passed a sheriffs car. As soon as I saw him, I looked down and realized I was doing 15 over. I looked up and saw his break lights in the mirror. I pulled over. He wasn't even turned around yet, and I was already on the side of the road.

He walks up to the car and asks (as if I'm stupid), "Do you know why I pulled you over?"
I reply, "Yes, I was speeding".
He says, "Do you know how fast you were going?"
I reply, "When I saw your brake lights, I looked down and I was doing 15 over".
He says with a smile, "Exactly"
He then proceeds to ask me where I worked, and why I was in a hurry. I explained to him that I was an ER tech and I worked at Crittenton. He asks what an ER tech does, so I told him, "Start IV's, draw blood, foleys, whatever."

And then he asks... "Are you going to be nice to me if I ever come into the ER"
I replied, "Not if you give me a ticket!".
He steps back, looks into my window and says, "What if I give you a ticket?"
And I told him... and I was honest...
"I'm going to stick you with the biggest IV needle I can find, when I start your IV".
He handed me back my license/registration, and says, "Have a nice night!".

The Crease

When I was about 12, which was last week, I remember watching the Oil of Olay commercials and thinking... That's for old ladies.

And now I have the crease. Yep. The parentesis in the dead center of my forehead. The one that comes screaming off my face when I look at someone like they are crazy. And now that I am registering patients at work, I find I am using that look more frequently.

Regardless... I'm the old lady. I'm the old bag that is suddenly quite interested in Oil of Olay commercials. The one that was greatly disappointed when I found the Garnier Nutrisse "bags under the eyes" roller ball cream, out of stock. Now that I am keenly aware of my "you're nuts" look, and know that it is cutting that crease deeper into my face, I'm trying to avoid doing it.

Directly related to this new set of wrinkles, is my job. Working the front desk brings a whole new perspective. I think it's the fear of our "gear" in the back that keeps patients strangeness at bay. But the front desk... the gals that work up there, see it all. One gal who shall be called "J" is constantly getting her face ripped off by patients. So much so that it has become a well known joke. The gals up there have become quite witty (as you've seen in my Laura post), and deal with these people well. I just hope that amongst all these wrinkles, I get that wittiness too. Unfortunately my "chop busting" as Den calls it, will actually get me fired. So I just keep my mouth shut, smile on, and crease firmly planted in my forehead.

I am NOT a dog person.

I like other peoples dogs. Just not dogs in this house. I'm the "cat lady" from what Dennis tells me. I like my boys. They are sweet, loving, and sooooo easy to care for.

And then came along Izzy.

Saturday we spent an amazing afternoon with a group of friends we don't see very often. It was warm, it was sunny, and it was summer. We shared wine, martini's, and dinner with this wonderful group of people. Dennis, Joe, Scott, and Mike all went to high school together. The three stood up in our wedding, and Dennis stood up in 2 of theirs (Mike isn't married... yet). While us gals haven't known each other long, we share a great bond.

Izzy is Joe & Mary's dog. And boy is she sweet. Izzy met us on the driveway. While Greg locked eyes with her and stopped dead in his tracks, sweet, curly little Izzy just sat there with her little pink collar on, wagging her tail like crazy. How in the world would he think this adorable little girl would want to eat him alive?

After a short stint on the couch flipping out, Greg finally realized that she is one special little dog. She had us in stitches all night long. The bottom of their screen door was taken out by their former "big dog". While they wanted to fix it, they realized that it still keeps the bugs out, and Izzy can run in and out when need be.

Izzy is a Cavadoodle? Not a Labradoodle, but something with a Cavalier, and a poodle and a something else. She's a mutt. And boy did she do a number on me! She is the cutest little thing that I swear I could TOTALLY be a dog person. She actually has catlike qualities. She LOVES to be held, and loves to be cuddled. She loves to lay on her back, and loves the back of the couch like a cat.

Thanks a lot Izzy. You ruined me.

Nautical Nephew is Up and Running!

Well not literally. Just a quick note to tell you that my nephew is back to blogging. You can find the link to him down on the right. Send him your regards, as he is protecting your freedom.

Grande Finale

The picnic was a HUGE success. It was actually a lot of fun running it. Next year I think the torch is being handed to me, and luckily I already have a small army of volunteers waiting. I never thought I would become this involved in the school, but it is amazing how it has transformed my life. I think about the friends I see every day now, and realize that I would not even know them if it weren't for my children. Some of them I've known since Emily was about 2 years old.

Being a parent is such an amazing gift. I look at Emily & Greg and realize how lucky I am to be given this opportunity. I am having the time of my life, and can't imagine what I would be doing otherwise. My life feels so much richer, so much more complete. Our favorite saying around here comes from Jerry McGuire, but we've tweaked it a bit. "You had me at Waaaaaaahhhhhh!"

As for now though, I'm ready to get back to our regulary scheduled program. Life.

Now that I've calmed down...

Have you been to the grocery store lately? Inquiring minds want to know... What the hell happened? I used to LOVE grocery shopping, that is until I started working. I'm not sure what happened there either, but truth be told, I HATE grocery shopping.

Today I ventured on over to Kroger. First couple aisles weren't so bad. And then it happened. Right there in the cracker aisle. I knelt down to look at the Teddy Graham crackers. $2.29 for a 10 ounce box. Right next to it, were the 100 calorie packs. Same product 4.6 oz $2.69. That's 4.6 ounces TOTAL for the ENTIRE PACKAGE my friends. Not PER PACK... that's the whole flipping box. I literally almost fell over. You've got to be kidding.

Then the dairy section. This is where I started talking to myself, under my breath, but loud enough for people to hear. Kraft cheese. I wanted to get the little bricks. Not the super huge one... the little one. $4.49 PER brick. AND I needed 2. That my friends is almost $10 for 2 little bricks of cheese. WTH! What happened to the days of 2/$4?

I was so bent by the time I left that store. I spent $175, without buying anything extravagant... I didn't even buy any meat! Oh and I didn't buy the cheese or the Teddy Grahams either.

What the hell happened?