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Isn't it interesting how when you hear of someone else's problems, your own seem so trivial? I'm so ashamed of my little facetious complaints yesterday morning. I would rather try to get Putt-Putt out of the maze-with-no-end for 15 hours than to hear the news of my friend's marriage being broken. Heck, I want to just give Rhett my pillow and just be grateful that he's still here and puts up with me and my quirks.
My heart is so heavy for my friend's situation. I hurt for her and her children and know I can't imagine the pain they are going through. Please pray for her. I know in the end, she'll come out on top 'cause she's that kind of person. She's a doer and a fighter. There is no doubt in my mind that she'll make it and that God has a bigger plan for her and her children's lives. But it will be a long hard road.
Mama Said
I am so out of sorts today. For whatever reason, Rhett slept on MY pillow last night! Just fell asleep on it before I could even get to bed. I was so mad. What was he thinking? That is my pillow. Does he not get that? My $25 memory foam pillow, the only one I can sleep on, the kind he refused to let me buy for him . . . Ugh! But I didn't have the heart to wake the poor boy up. So, I had a restless night and now my back hurts. And I just spent 15 minutes trying to get Putt-Putt the car (computer game) out of a maze that he wasn't even supposed to get out of. There was no end to it. I guess he was just supposed to cruise through and look at the vegetables and come out. It would have been oh-so-nice to know that before my blood pressure hit the roof trying to find my way out of that thing for BFG.
Off to complete my 30-odd SHE cards for the day,
Mama Said
Well, I don't know about ya'll, but I am familied out! Now, I love, love, love my extended family. But I can only take so much before I need to be alone. I have been so busy this weekend. I went to two homeschool curriculum sales (one Friday and one Sat.). We went to my grandmother's on Sat. evening and spent the night and stayed all day Sunday to visit with my aunt who is in from out-of-state. We were home Monday by ourselves and I used that time to finish painting the first coat on the floor of the never-ending room. Then, today my aunt, grandmother, my mom and dad, and my sister and her kids were all here most of the day. The funny thing is that the things that annoy me about my family are the same ways in which I am most like them: the loud, excited talking, the too-strong opinions, the trying to prove your way is right, the worrying way too much about things that don't matter or that will more than likely not come to fruition, the same old stories told over and over and over again, etc. I guess BFG will be complaining one day about the same things about me that I complain about now in my relatives. Plus, there is just always drama. Every year, my dad pulls some crap which gets us all upset and fighting before we ever even get there. Then, this year one of my cousins is separated and more than likely getting a divorce. The catch is the entire town where they live knows about it, but for some odd reason none of the family is supposed to know. So, that was tense and awkward since we all do know and we know most of the gory details. Weird.
You wanna know what the best part is? We get to go back on Friday for my other cousin's wedding and spend another weekend doing the same thing! Ooooh, it makes me tired just thinking about it. And poor Rhett. His family is the calmest family I know and very small. If nothing else, I know he loves me based on the fact he's willing to deal with all our craziness.
Mama Said
Has it really been since Tuesday that I wrote? Wow! Can you tell that I have been super busy?
I am embarrassed to tell about this, but I have been paying major stupid tax in the way of time. I have been painting the spare room upstairs (soon to be playroom/schoolroom/craftroom) for about 6 weeks now. I kid you not. It has been a nightmare that has included painting the entire room ceiling to floor, primer and paint with a brush. No rolling these rough wood walls. And, yes, I've had several people tell me that there are rollers that would work, but we didn't do it and I don't think I would trust it. Not to mention, I don't think I would be strong enough to press it down hard enough.
I digress. Okay, we swallowed a bottle of stupid pills and painted the floor with latex paint on top of oil-based even though we knew you can't do that. We are insane. I'm telling ya'. Call the looney bin and sign me up! I guess we just realized we had the wrong thing but were in a hurry and BFG was gone so we chanced it. Big, big mistake! If you don't know what happens: Latex over oil-based won't bond and you can scrape it off with your fingernail. So, I've spent the whole week rubbing the floor down with alcohol and scrubbing the latex off with a ScotchBrite pad. Hard, hard time-consuming work on a hard, hard floor. Every joint and muscle aches. Not quite as bad as the kitchen floor episode, but painful just the same. I am way to old for this crap! So far, every floor I've dealt with in this house has been cursed. What is the deal? I guess it's just our inexperience. I have kicked myself for not trying to get us signed up for a reality show on HGTV. I think we would have made a good one: "What NOT to Do in Decorating."
And get this crap (literally) . . . I washed towels yesterday and pull them out of the dryer and found a piece of dried cat poop. What the heck? How did that happen? The laundry room is where we kept Milo during the rabies scare. But he didn't poop in the dirty towels. Trust me, I cleaned plenty out of the litter box. I just can't believe that. I wanted to throw up. Needless to say, I rewashed that load in super hot water with extra, extra detergent. I hope that works. Our water is set on the wrong temp. and is steaming hot. Blech!
This was one of those days in which I found myself wondering Why, oh why do I do coupons? Some shopping trips are just harder than others I guess. But I learned to never, never, ever go through the self-checkout at Kroger if you have coupons. I don't really care how long the lines are. You are not going to beat them. The people I didn't want to get in line behind were probably already home and had their groceries unpacked by the time I was through the self-checkout. Not to mention the argument I had to have with the guy that I did in fact have the correct Barilla pasta. I was not trying to sneak by with one of the other Barilla pastas. He was so convinced that I was trying to get away with something that he wasn't reading the label on the box. Give me a break! Do they really have a problem with this? It's all computerized. I just can't see tons of people trying to walk out of the store with items that don't match the coupons. It gets on my nerves being treated like a criminal because I'm using coupons. And that's at other places, too. The cashiers must get in some kind of trouble if they make a mistake with them or something. And the guy jilted me out of one of my coupons, too. I had 2 of the pasta ones and I had only scanned one, but he had grabbed them both. After our argument, he went ahead and sucked them up in the machine despite my protest. But at that point, a $1 wasn't worth dealing with him anymore. Plus, I really didn't have time to wait around and see how they got the coupons out of the machine and he had sucked my coupons up someone else's machine. They have so few lines open at Kroger anyway that I really hated to block up two of the self-checkouts.
Then, of all things and this is really unusual, Publix only had one line open and there was a line. So, the lady at the self-checkouts accosted me to come over there and she'd check me out. Bless her little heart. Unbeknownst to her, I had coupons where I was getting some cat food for free. So, she had to scan it and run over to her computer and back and forth and back and forth. It was a mess. She was super nice though and I felt really sorry for her. But once again, I was reminded how superior Publix is at customer service. Although one time, I did have the slowest lady ever who with each item she went through my coupons and matched the item before she'd scan it. But she was older and maybe she didn't understand that the computers do all that for you.
Anyway, maybe when I'm eating my cheap food it'll be worth it.
Mama Said
Three words you do not want to hear from your 3 year old:
"I pooped everywhere!"
Enough said.
Mama Said
Am I the only one with this problem? Every time we send BFG to spend the night with the grandparents, I struggle with how to spend my "kid-free" time. I've always had this problem and now it's alot worse because of the house. Kid-free time is sort of rare for us because I'm so darned overprotective. Whenever BFG is gone, I want to make the most of my time. I want to sleep/rest, do things I can't do easily with her here like stamp/scrapbook, or I feel like I should clean, or make a run to all the thrift stores while I can shop peacefully, and I always feel like Rhett and I should spend time together. Now, I've added a gigantic list of stuff to do to the house while she's gone. It's so tough to decipher which thing is the most pressing. Sometimes it's just such a relief to have kid-free time we just walk around like zombies and do nothing. I really think mine and Rhett's time should take the top spot. But it is soooooooo hard to make ourselves take time to go out on a date and relax and just be together with all this work hanging over our heads. We managed this weekend though and had a really nice time together and got a little work done, too. Aaaaaah, priceless!
Mama Said
Don't you just hate it when your kids repeat the stuff you say? Yesterday, BFG repeated a phrase I say alot. The painters had arrived and were outside getting stuff together and whatnot. BFG was watching from the window and said, "Hey, Mama, does he think he's cool in that shirt?" After a quick prayer of thanks that she said this out of earshot, I was stammering around trying to think of what to say. I was like, "Um, yeah, that's a really nice shirt, isn't it?" I use the "he thinks he's cool" phrase ALL the time. Usually to vent off frustration. You know, Rhett will be making faces and weird voices and crap and I'll yell "Would you just stop it?" Then, BFG says, "What's wrong, Mama?" and to save face I have to say, "Oh, Daddy just thinks he's cool." Or we'll be driving and someone will pull out in front of me or something and I get mad and say something like "You stupid idiot." And BFG says, "What's wrong, Mama?" And to save face, I say "Oh, that guy just thinks he cool." I think I say it to tone down my reactions because I don't want BFG to grow up and fly off the handle like I do. But, man, it really doesn't sound very nice when you just start applying it to everyone you see like BFG did. Hmmm . . . what else could I say? Dang! I may just have to learn to be calm.
Be cool,
Mama Said
Sorry, ya'll. I'm off my game a little bit. We're having two ceilings scraped and painted. So, as we are inhaling lead paint dust into oblivion, we found out my sister's puppy next door has round worms. So, I'm busy trying to contain and clean dust and come up with a plan of action for the whole worm thing. Aaaaaah! It's always something! Sometimes I hate the internet. I think I've diagnosed myself with 20 things just since moving here. But I am grateful for the internet 'cause our pediatrician said that kids can't really get round worms which is a load of bull!
Anyway, I better go.
Mama Said
Nothing big going on right now except we have painters here scraping the ceilings in the living room and foyer so we are probably all dying from lead poisoning as we speak.
I thought I had my first hot flash at my in-laws Sat. night. But I think I was just sunburned. So far, the Chlomid hasn't been that bad. I'm really glad. Thank you for all your prayers that this works for us.
Anyway, so my fake hot-flash episode was uncomfortable for me emotionally because my in-laws know nothing about our infertility. My mom knows because I've had to have my parents watch BFG while I went to the doctor for numerous tests. Every once and a while, I'll think about telling Rhett's parents. In some ways, I think that it is our business and I don't feel emotionally stable enough about it to answer questions. In other ways, I feel like they have a right to know in case BFG is their only grandchild. I really wish my mom did not know because she's always telling me that we just need to relax or some tidbit she'll hear on TV like "you need to eat a bowl of ice cream a day" or "you should be taking folic acid." I know she means well, but I could just scream. Relaxing DOES NOT make you get pregnant!!!!! If that were true, all infertile women would just take Prozac or something and everyone would get pregnant.
Anyway, I can't decide how my MIL will react. I really think she will start crying when we tell her and that would be my worst-case scenario. I cannot handle that. On the other hand, if she starts in with the tidbits and platitudes, I don't think I can handle that either. I'm sure I won't tell her until after we see if the Chlomid works and after laproscopy.
So, what would you do? Would you tell your parents and in-laws? Or would you prefer them not to know? If your family does know, how have they reacted?
Mama Said
I wanted to be sure to post this deal I got since it might be the last day. I went to Kroger yesterday intending to purchase the Schick Quattro for Women with a $4 off coupon making purchase price $2.99. Well, when I got there, I saw Schick Quattro for Women Disposables (a 3 + 1 pkg) on sale for $5.00. There was not a picture of the disposables on my coupon, BUT my coupon said ANY Schick Quattro for Women. So, I took it up there and asked. It worked! I got my razors for $1.00!!!!! Yea!!!!
I went to my ob/gyn yesterday. I felt so bad for him. He had an emergency in which the family was losing the baby. Isn't that so sad? Sometimes when I hear stuff like that, I just want to kick myself in the hiney for wanting another baby so bad. Why can't I just be content with what I have? Maybe God is sparing my family from something like that happening.
Anyway, he gave me a prescription for Chlomid. I took my first one last night. Do ya'll know what it does? I thought it was just like extra estrogen or something to boost egg production. Um, no, that's wrong. It tricks your pituitary gland into believing that you are going into menopause which cause your body to react by releasing more eggs. So, he said I may have hot flashes over the next five days. Good thing we got the A/C in! That is just wild to me. It's amazing what God has allowed us to accomplish with medicine. It also says that it changes your mood. So, to anyone who knows me personally, I am apologizing ahead of time for anything I may say or do over the next five days. Of course, I'm really grumpy alot. Maybe this will change my mood to happy! LOL!
Better get off here. Rhett's buying an old truck today and I've got to drop him off.
Mama Said
So, I had a list of stuff I am planning on buying at Kroger that is on sale and I have coupons for. It's all health and beauty aids like razors, toothpaste, toothbrushes, etc. All of which I have at least a year's supply for already, but I'll give you one big guess on where it all is. You got it! Boxed up in storage right along with 2/3 of the rest of our belongings. Can you tell it's starting to get to me?
Anyway, I had the bright idea of going to the Dollar General Market in a small town that's closer than Kroger in "big town." I was just sure that I could get the same items for the same price or maybe close enough to same price that it wouldn't be worth the gas to go all the way to big town. Boy, I was so wrong! Everything at DGM would be significantly higher than what I could get it for at Kroger. Plus, DGM didn't carry everything like a Schick Quattro that I can get cheaper at Kroger than buying a cheaper razor at DGM. I had BFG with me so I didn't get to write it all down and really calculate how much difference and the cost of buying papers for coupons and the extra gas to go to big town and yada yada plus the time of cutting out coupons. If anyone does that, let me know. I'd love to hear the actual numbers. But I could tell with a quick glance that my couponing on sales at the grocery stores definitely pays off in that area.
Today was my mom's birthday. We went up to my grandmother's and my sister and I took them both out to eat for mother's day. I hate to do the combo thing, but I am not a fan of mother's day at all. And all those Hallmark holidays eat up so much of our immediate family time trying to make our rounds to everyone. Do I love my mother? Yes! But I don't need a holiday to tell me to let her know that and I already see her at least once a week if not more. BTW, if you need a gift idea for next year. I made the everyday photo book on Snapfish this year. I waited for the 25% off coupon code and then it's another 20% off of duplicate gifts (or vice versa, can't remember). So, I made four identical 20 page photo books of BFG and total cost with shipping was only $40.00. Pretty darn good if you ask me. The books are super cute, easy to do, and were delivered within 3 days to my house.
Better run. I'm missing ER.
Mama Said
Our A/C is finally done! Whoopee! Man, is it cold in here! I think I forgot what central heat and air felt like and it is so weird to look at our old floors and see air vents. I'm just so glad to have the house to myself again! Yea! At least for awhile.
The whole A/C process went pretty much without incident except the lead paint thing. But a couple of little things happened that I thought were humorous. Both are bathroom stories so you may want to stop reading here.
It's such a funny thing to have strangers in your house and to try to go on about your business. Esp. when it's three men and your home alone with your daughter. So, I would try to wait to use the bathroom til they went outside. The bathroom has two doors and neither of them shut well and I didn't want to leave BFG unattended. So, on day 2 I think it was, they went outside and I ran to the bathroom and sat down. Feeling a draft right next to the toilet, I realize what a dumb idea it was. They had already cut the holes in the floor for the vents and when they went outside, where were they going? Under the house! Dumb-da-dumb-dumb! I finished on the edge of the seat just waiting for a face to appear right next to me at my very personal moment! Luckily, it didn't happen and I changed my strategy until they had the ducts connected.
However, BFG was not as lucky. On the day they were hammering the metal stuff inside the vent holes (Don't you love how technical I am!), BFG and I were playing out at the barn and, boy howdy, she had to go No. 2 in a hurry. She couldn't even walk all the way back to the house. I had to carry her about half way. Yes, my back still hurts! Anyway, one guy was inside and one guy was under the house. Where were they? At the bathroom, of course. So, the inside guy told the other guy to hold on we had a bathroom emergency. So, I throw BFG on the toilet and she proceeds to po*p the most I have ever seen her go. The guy crawled away as fast as he could, but I felt so sorry for him being trapped under the house with the smell. I kept trying to spray air freshener so that was probably choking him out too. It was also the longest I've ever seen her go. I didn't think she was ever going to get done! I was embarrassed for her! Lucky for her, she didn't have a clue that she was in an embarrassing situation. And it turned out that the guy she stink bombed was someone I went to school with from kindergarten on, which I found out on the day I looked my worst in my old black maternity pants. Oh, well. At least it's over.
So, during the whole A/C deal (which is still not done BTW), they had to put the vents upstairs and the one in the sunporch in the ceiling. Well, after it was done, I realize OMG! I bet the bead board ceilings had lead paint in them and now the dust is EVERYWHERE! And not just upstairs and in the sunporch. When they cut the return for the upstairs (in the ceiling), all of that crap fell right down the spiral staircase into our foyer and all of us had tracked it everywhere all day long! Now, I know I'm a little paranoid (Stop laughing! Okay, I'm ALOT paranoid), but if you look up lead paint poisoning on the Internet, they act like one lead paint chip can take out a family of four and every time you blink your eyes you are sending lead dust swirling around your home to be inhaled and ingested and it will poison your body to the point of no return. So, honey, I scrubbed and I mean scrubbed this house on Saturday. It was insane. I was so mad and upset. 1) "They" say to only clean it up wetly. Um, okay, how do you clean up a 2 inch layer of dirt and sawdust wetly? 2) "They" say to absolutely not use a broom or vacuum. Okay, great, I've poisoned us into oblivion because I caved and used the vacuum. 3) "They" never mention how to clean it up off of carpet. I'm sure "they" never mention this because you are supposed to cover your home in plastic and wear a hazvab (sp?) suit before any removal or work to your home. Um, whoops! We were not prepared. The a/c guys didn't even wear masks. So, they are probably poisoned into oblivion too.
Anyway, it was the weirdest thing. The more I cleaned the more upset I got and I kept going back and forth between opposite ends of the spectrum. On one hand, the more I cleaned,the more I felt compelled to clean. Well, if I don't clean this part right here, we'll be spreading dust around and a certain to face an untimely death. On the other hand, the more I cleaned, the more I felt sure the whole lead paint poisoning was a conspiracy led by the paint companies who paid off members of Congress to ban it so that we would all have to buy paint more frequently.
So, here I am. Body aching, back hurting, knees bruised, just all around worn out. My question is how worried would you be about lead paint poisoning if you had a three yr. old daughter and were trying to get pregnant? The ones most at risk are children under 6 and pregnant women 'cause it deforms the fetus. When I mentioned to my parents that I had scrubbed the house, they just rolled their eyes. And that's kind of how I feel. If you listen to the liberals, there is no way anyone from my parents' generation should even be still be alive. They've lived through everything possible that is supposedly a great danger to us all. But lead poisoning is real. So, how much risk do you take?
So tired of . . .
-thinking about how I hurt my friend's feelings. In an e-mail, she reminded me of my exact words and it was pretty rough. Whoops! I don't regret saying something, but I'm surprised at myself that I was that mean in the way I said it.
-having gotten up early and dressed every day this week. I finally gave up on looking decent today and pulled on my old black maternity pants that I've asked to be buried in if they are still around when I pass. They are the most comfortable pants ever!
-having workers in my home and having to be on my best behavior all week. It wore thin quick and the AC is still not done! Aaaagh!
-Waiting all morning for said workers to show up every day at lunch time except for today when they show up at 8:00am and I was totally unprepared.
-Not being able to get the upstairs room painted. Will it ever get done?
-Being home and waiting for people to give us bids on work to be done and them NOT showing up. Oh, yeah. The economy is just terrible. (Note the sarcasm.)
-Wasting so much time on the phone and on the computer. Only myself to blame.
-BEING HOME EVERY DAY THIS WEEK!!!! (except for grocery night Monday night) It might not be so bad if we were alone and I could be working on stuff and if BFG wasn't sick. Hey, maybe I'm getting sick and that's why I'm so grumpy.
-Sneezing from dust and allergies.
Okay, that's enough. What are your gripes for the day?
Mama Said
I recently read Sidetracked Home Executives which is the book from which Flylady based her book. I've done Flylady before and did great for about 10 months. Then, BFG was born and I've been going downhill ever since. I can't keep up with ANYTHING! Most of the time I don't know who I am or where I'm at. I can start running my bath water, walk away, and within 2 minutes completely forget that I ever started it. I hate being like this. Once upon a time far far away, I was really, really smart. Now, I can't even utter a complete sentence to my 3 yr. old without stammering. What is wrong with me? constantly goes through my mind. And the messier my house gets, the less I want to do anything about it.
I really think that I'm like the authors of S.H.E. and totally sidetracked. I might start something, but something else catches my attention and I'm off and may never get back to what I started. This is why I asked Rhett to take over paying the bills. I could look at a bill for a week straight and think "I have got to pay that today" and get sidetracked and never pay it until the last day and would be in a mad panic to be sure it wasn't late. I think I am so overwhelmed esp. with the new house that I must have something concrete to keep me in order. I am so tired of living life in a mad panic, a chaotic day late and a out-of-budget dollar short. I have to say I am scared though. Scared to start one more thing and months later mourn the fact that I never finished it. So, if I start this SHE plan, I have to see it through. I have to.
If your are FLYing or are a Flylady dropout like me, you may be interested in Sidetracked Home Executives. I really like things from both plans. But, sitting on this side of the fence, I think I like SHE's plan for task organization better. You use index cards in a file box with numbered dividers. To me, I need that "okay, on May 16, I am doing this, this, and this." I think the lists with Flylady were too vague and too easy to put off. And, if you throw a little Dave Ramsey philosophy in there, a list keeps me concentrating on what all I have left to do. With the cards, I can complete one at a time and get my momentum going by feeling I have accomplished something.
So, I was thinking about trying to start off really slow to ensure success. I thought I'd get my feet wet with something like wake up early and make the beds for a couple of weeks or so. But, I talked my sister into doing this thing with me and she started buying up index cards and dividers and such and is ready to jump in. So, I guess I'll try to get up to my shins wet at least. We're really hoping our friend Melissa will join us and keep us motivated. Hint, hint. (Casi, we would ask you, honey, but you are the one we are all striving to be like! LOL! You don't need it. You are what they call "Born Organized.") So, whisper a prayer for us, everyone. Our families need it!
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