Well, gosh, maybe next year?

I had some high(er) hopes for Christmas this year regarding Kevin and his gift receiving reaction as compared to last year's "nada" reaction. Granted, it was a smidge better in that he'd take a gift that I had to unwrap for him and run off to play with it quietly on the couch, but he still didn't get involved in the whole unwrapping thing himself. *Sigh* When I pulled off the "Santa Sack" from his "Bounce and Spin Zebra", he ran away whining.

WTF?

He did wind up playing with it, cautiously, a little later, but still hasn't gotten on it and really let loose, yet.

He did much, much better this year at the family gathering at my brother's. No withering or whining...just running around and pretty much at ease for the most part.

I did a lousy job at getting any pictures, ya know, with all the freakin' unwrapping I had to do. I got a pic of him in his little suit and a few pics of him off on the couch with his favorite toy still in its box...

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

"What is it?"

Can you stand another video?

We got a freakin' nice little snow storm today. I stuffed bundled Kevin into last year's snowsuit which is a little like putting sausage into its casing snug and took him outside to experience it.

His reaction, "What is it?". He says it twice...as usual, turn up your volume.

It's the best I could do and DAMN I wish I would've made my bed before I took this video!

The proof....sorry it's so choppy and dark in places. I couldn't let him see the recorder or I wouldn't have gotten even this much. Turn your volume up and listen to the grunts and groans while he's trying to carry Mickey up the steps.

It can't possibly last...

It started last week out of the blue. I refer to Kevin's compliance willingness eagerness to take a nap. I thought the first time was a fluke, but it has continued.

He was starting to fuss, as he is wont to do, around his nap time one day last week and I said to him, "It's time for a nap" and turned to get his bottle ready (yes, I still give him a bottle at nap and bedtime...I'm a chicken, OK?...OKAY?! Are ya happy now?).

Eh-hem.

Sorry. Back to it.

He started to run back to the living room while I was pouring the milk and I figured I'd be chasing him in a minute. Much to my surprise, when I turned around he was holding his Mickey that he sleeps with (that's my boy!) with a big smile on his face. I cautiously walked toward him, not daring to hope, and he turned and walked over to the baby gate at the bottom of the steps. I opened it and he started climbing the stairs while holding Mickey. I followed him up in utter amazement. He hustled through my room and into his, walked over and turned on his sound machine, and turned to me with his arms up to put him in his crib. I. could. not. believe. it.

He's been doing this ever since. I don't expect it to last, but it is so adorable. I want to try to videotape it, but I'm afraid he'll just stare at the camera and then, of course, not do it...

Totally humoring me

While shopping today, I came across some Santa hats so I plopped one on Kevin's head. He immediately pulled it off with a disgusted look. I said, "let mommy take a picture first" and put it back on his head.

Behold the look I got:

Flashback

Have you ever had a memory from your younger days that came at you from out of the blue? It happened to me today as I was driving home from getting groceries. I believe it was a defining moment in my life.

It happened about 30 years ago when I was 15 or 16 and my friend was 13 or 14. I walked to her house to get her so we could go hang out. When I arrived at her house, her father met me at the door and walked me back to her room. A bit unusual, but I had no idea what was coming. When we entered her room, her dad picked up a pack of cigarettes and said to me, "are these yours?". They weren't. I had a split second to make my decision whether I was going to throw my friend under the bus and let her get beat up by her abusive father, or if I was going to take the blame for her and take the chance that her father would tell my father and I could be beat up by my abusive father. I glanced at her face and knew I had to take my chances. When I saw the look of terror there, I saw myself. I said to him, "Yes, I asked her to hold them for me. I'm sorry.". He walked over to me, handed me her cigarettes, and walked out of the room.

I knew I did the right thing.

It was the moment I knew who I'd become.

And he never did tell my father...

Seriously! Lowe's is having a 50% Christmas decorations sale.

I just bought this today. I never would have spent the amount of money on it that was the regular price, but 50% off! Now, they were speaking my language. I've never had such a nice tree before. That would be the reason i felt the urge to actually blog about it. Much to your dismay, I'm sure. Sorry about that...

I put it up, but, obviously, it's not decorated yet.

To take your mind off the above nonsense, I will shamelessly use my adorable son:

He has taken to climbing up and down time and time again on the dining room chair for some reason. Naturally, when I pulled out the Flip, he stopped.

Again, he stops doing his adorable antics once he sees the Flip. Sigh. Of course, he was singing and clapping to...wait for it....The Wiggles. (BTW...You can see part of the old, crappy Christmas tree in this video that, when I plugged it in, some of the lights were burnt out...hence, my justification for buying the new one.)

I've done gone and lost my mind

We went shopping on Black Friday. Not in the wee hours, mind you, but we did venture out in the afternoon.

Just for shits and giggles.

I had never seen a HDTV in real life before. As I muscled my waysauntered through the electronics department, I gazed upon these most wondrous of inventions. I stood there with Kevin just gawking. Drool escaping from my mouth as I stared in amazement. Where have I been? How have I never seen these before? Why haven't any of you told me about this?

Can you say "impulse buy"? Yeah.

I don't have the actual HD hooked up, yet, because my appointment is not until next Wednesday, but this thing is pretty sweet already.

The WALL!

This, my friends, is the new wall separating my bedroom into two, count them, two rooms!

Bliss, I tell ya. No, it's not primed or painted yet, but it's THERE. I can now sleep in my bed again. Last night was my first night in my bed in about 6 months. I was able to read and
eat my peanut butter cups in peace. Without stealth! What a beautiful thing.

The blankie

I have to say that I'm terrified that something awful will happen to Kevin's blanket. Or that he'll carry it around when he's 22. Whichever. The reason this comes to mind is because of
this post by The New Girl (who is a fantastically funny blogger, BTW). If you scroll down a couple of paragraphs, she is talking about switching her daughter's old doll with a new, identical doll and her child's reaction.

Hence, the fear.

The boy is totally attached to his blankie. There is a particular corner of it that he searches for. He'll start turning the thing around to feel each corner until he finds the "right" one. It's frustrating to watch when he's frantically searching and he's felt 3 of the corners, and I think it's almost over, but then he reverses his search and starts covering old ground. I've taken to putting the correct end of the blanket toward his face (yes, I know which friggin' corner it is) and hope he finds it right away. If he start twirling the damn thing, I step in and just hand him the correct corner. He then takes it and rubs it between his fingers like a talisman, or rubs it against his cheek. We take it on vacation with us because, simply, it is a lifesaver at times. WHAT. IF. I. FORGET. IT. AT. HOME?! Worse yet, OMFG! what if I left it at a hotel?! His stuffed Mickey Mouse is his second choice. I'm trying to keep him from taking the blanket out in public with us because he drags it around and, um, yuck, so I make him leave it in his crib. He's gotten used to that and will just drop it now and pick up Mickey instead. Roni, on the other hand, would let him take it anywhere (although she did put her foot down when he wanted to take it in the bathtub while on vacation).

Do your kids have a similar object of love?

I think I did it...

I may have found a way to upload the Wishes video... make sure you watch it all the way through. What you may think is the Grand Finale, isn't.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1406988204156394590

If you click the link, you can watch the video. You can also download it to your iPod/iPhone. It actually plays better on there. The colors are better....

Wishes video

The trip down went very well with Kevin. He was completely different than our trip in January and I was so proud of him.

One near miss while driving...which, if you read my last trip blog regarding the idiot drivers that seemed to hone in on me, was a huge improvement. I don't know how you guys are when driving beside an 18 wheeler, but I constantly watch the side of the truck where the turn signal is under the truck. I've never had a problem before, but this time it paid off. The trucker was passing me and my old habit kicked in and started watching the turn signal. I don't know if he forgot I was there, or what, but the turn signal came on. I kept watching it. Waiting. I knew I was in his blind spot because he never finished the pass. I just knew this was going to be a bad thing. Here he came. I could see the people in the car behind me looking horrified. I'm thankful that there was a shoulder on the highway and I wasn't caught on a bridge or a construction zone. I swerved off and laid on the horn. There wasn't much else I could do. He heard me and jerked the truck back which, BTW, is kinda scary to watch in and of itself. It was a pretty big swerve because his front end was already halfway across my lane. Other than that moment, it was a good drive.

The Universal hotels are gorgeous (and pet friendly). We stayed at the Hard Rock and I'd stay there again in a minute, but it will probably never happen due to the cost. It was really a once in a lifetime thing for us. I enjoyed the Universal parks, but wish I could have spent more time than we did at Disney. Katie was in heaven at the Hard Rock. This trip was mostly for her because I think she's about done with the Disney trips now. I'm sure she won't be going on our next trip. Staying at this resort was also for Roni because she's more about the hotel than I am. I don't much care about where we stay as long as it's pretty decent. Three stars are usually what I shoot for. I'm glad I was able to do it for them this time.

As for the video with Kevin running through the fountains...it's gone, just gone. I don't know what happened, but I can't find it on my computer anywhere. Every other video is there, but not that one. I'm so upset because I adored that time with him and wanted to save it for posterity.

The night at the Magic Kingdom was perfect. I was in my happy place made twice as happy when it's decorated for Christmas. Kevin saw his first fireworks when the Wishes Holiday fireworks began. Hey, if you've never seen Disney fireworks, you don't know what you're missing. I wasn't sure how he react so I held him for it. He was mesmerized. Toward the end of the video, I jiggle the camera a bit. Excuse that, please. I had to switch arms holding Kevin. It was that or drop him. I thought about it for, you know, the sake of the video, but then decided against it.

O.M.G. I can't get the video uploaded because it's too long!!!! Argh! I tried through youtube and it won't allow it either. Any ideas? I'm sorry....I've been trying for hours.

Back from Vacation

Let me just throw some pics at ya tonight. I'm tired....

This was Kevin's first time running through sprinklers/fountains and one of my favorite memories. He absolutely loved it. I have video that I'll post at another time...

My two favorite rides at Universal:

Now for some Disney magic...the Christmas party. There is nothing, to me, that compares to being in WDW to see the Christmas decorations. We only got to see MK decked out because we were there too early, but I love, love, love Epcot's decorations also. Check out the castle...I also videotaped the holiday version of Wishes....which I'll upload when I have some more time.

Because she must have a portable outlet, or something

So Katie calls a few minutes ago from trick-or-treating. At 15, but whatever. She asks if she can come in the house to get her phone charger (she stays at her dad's on the weekends) because she forgot it. Now, normally this wouldn't be an issue, but the boy just got done screaming crying fighting going to sleep and ain't nobody going up those stairs before morning and taking the chance of waking him now. Especially since it's a Friday night. Eh-hem.

She has to be at her dad's house by 9:30. It's already after 9. She's bitching that her phone is going to go dead before she gets there. Uh-not if you get off the phone now and quit wasting the battery on this lost cause. So she says, "Now I'm going to be on the streets without a phone." My eyes are just about stuck up under my eyelids from not being able to stop rolling them over this one. How about the 87 friends that you're with that all have cell phones? And, even more curiously, how the hell did she think she was going to charge it while roaming the streets?

Just pick it up in the morning, kid.

I'm still marveling that I ever survived childhood without all the things that kids have now-a-days. I also marvel that said kids feel that it's their God given right to have them to begin with.

Not a drop of snow at my house....

....but check out this video from just a few minutes north of me! Whoa.

Wait. What?

A snow storm tomorrow? You've got to be kidding! If this really happens, I'll post pics. It seems a bit early to me....

Update on Mom

Mom finally got her type of leukemia diagnosed. She has CLL...which I think is a good thing. Well, as good as it can be when you are diagnosed with, you know, cancer. *shudder & wince* She hasn't seen the specialist yet. Her appointment is at the end of the month, but her family doctor cannot feel any swollen lymph nodes. With her blood count being normal except for the WBCs, it sounds like she'll be staged low. The usual prognosis is 10-20 years. She's 70. Looking at it logically, and not emotionally, her lifespan really shouldn't be affected too much. Does that sound callous? I don't mean it to. It's just the way my brain works. Of course, things could change at any time and it could accelerate tomorrow. I pray she continues with her life which is filled with vitality. She puts most 70 year olds to shame. Hell, she puts me to shame. I can't imagine her any other way. I don't want to.

New thingy in my sidebar...

OK, I had no idea this thing existed. I was on my dashboard page and saw someone was listed as a follower of my blog. (Thanks, Janet ) I was, like, WTF is this? I'm still trying to figure the thing out because I'm not sure what all it involves...

I will tell you this much...if nobody else clicks on that thing, it'll be off my sidebar in no time flat because, you know, advertising that one person follows my blog is not exactly good for the ol' self esteem. You know?

No pressure, though.

Why me? Sigh.

I swear. It's always some damn thing that goes wrong for me in any plan.

I, being the kind soul that I am, decided to make things as easy as possible for the delivery guys today. Besides, it was the perfect chance to wash the walls in the laundry room. As I mentioned, I took the washer and dryer outside last night. Today, I washed the walls where they were because, I don't know about y'all, but I don't move out my washer and dryer to clean behind them on a regular basis. Maybe I should. Then I cleared all the furniture out of the way between the front door and my kitchen for the stove. My house looked like it had been tilted on its side.

As a side note, I decided I'd love to downsize my furniture. It's amazing how big the rooms look when all that big ol' furniture is out of the way. The furniture never looks that big in the furniture store until it gets home and then it's, like, huge.

Anyway.

First of all, these guys were nice enough, but I'm sure glad I wasn't paying them by the hour because they took 3 times as long as I would have if I did it my damn self. Honestly. I was just about to hip-check the stereotypicalfatbellyheavybreathingasscrackshowing one guy the hell out of my way and say, "Just let me do it, already!" It took about an hour just to take the old stove out and bring the new stove in! WTF?! It took Katie and I 10 minutes to take the washer and dryer outside last night. A fifteen year old girly-girl and a 5'1" woman.

After I rolled my eyes through this, while all the while being as sweet as could be, they went back out to the truck. They were gone about 20 minutes. You really have no idea how irritating this was for me. Finally, dude #1 comes back to the door and tells me that they didn't notice at the store, but there's a dent in the dryer on the side and they can knock 10% off if I wanted to take it and, if not, they can bring me another one back tomorrow. I asked which side of the dryer. He tells me the right side. Figures. The right side is the side that would be showing. He asked if I wanted to see it. Yes, I did. I went out to the truck and it was a pretty big dent. I said, "You can only take 10% off for that? Because that's pretty big." He said he could call in to the manager and I told him to do just that. The manager, after yelling at the guy for not noticing the dent and me looking around like I couldn't hear him blaring out of the 2-way, said to offer $150 off. I was cool with that 'cause I'm all about saving money. They finally bring it in, lose one of the screws to hook the plug up to, spent at least 20 minutes looking for it, until I went to my toolbox to see what I had available. I had one. They tell me they can't hook the vent up to it because it's a plastic one...I know that's not their fault so I kicked them out of my way and did it mydamnself. Then they tested it....THUNK...THUNK...THUNK...THUNK and it got HOT. Sigh. Disconnect and take back outside.

Bring in washer. I had left the hoses from the old washer hooked up to the water source because I had no idea if new hoses would come with the new washer, or not. Now, this is very important...the old hoses were hooked up to the water source. The other end of each were not hooked up to anything. Dude #2 wasn't sure if the water was turned off before he was going to remove them...Do you see where this is going? He turned the fucking water on. I about bit my entire face off to not scream, "YOUSTUPIDFUCK,IFTHEWATERWASONITWOULDBEFLOWINGOUTOFTHEENDOFTHEHOSEALREADY!!!

Sigh.

Now I have no dryer until tomorrow. I work 16 hour shifts on the weekend. They are not allowed to hook up the vent hose. Roni can't do it. Ergo, I have to wait until Monday to move the dryer back out, to hook up the vent and do some laundry. Laundry that is really piling up, BTW.

Changes....in a hurry

Because of the washer/dryer changes coming tomorrow, I'm trying to get the new floor down in that half of the laundry/dog room.



I did mention that I'm putting a new floor down, right? Yeah, I did...OK...well, when I first started a couple weeks ago I went nuts and started cutting the carpet into about 5 foot sections and ripping it out. I got almost all of it out except the last 4 feet, or so, and came to a screeching halt because of having to move the washer and dryer. It's a general PITA to do this stuff when you have to shuffle stuff around to do it. With the new stuff coming tomorrow, it gave me the kick in the ass I needed to get going again. Rather than shuffle the stuff, though, I took them right out the back door and put them in my back yard. I can imagine what the neighbors think. They'll be taken away tomorrow by the guys making the delivery. I promise I'm not going to leave them there....honest.



I didn't take a pic of the old carpet....that would be too embarrassing, but I did take it of the floor before I laid the new tile down and, of course, after:

Before:

After (well, actually it's during...semantics):

What are the odds?

My dryer is near death. Runs for 2 hours and the clothes are nowhere near dry, all of a sudden. To be fair, I don't even know how old the thing is. I got it second hand, from a friend, about 10 years ago. I certainly can't complain. Especially since it was free. Along with the washer. My stove is about 8 years old. It's a smooth top and we cracked the top in the beginning of summer. The crack goes right across one of the large burners, so I've made do with the one large burner and 2 small ones while waiting for the moment some liquid goes down the crack and electrocutes me. Don't worry. I've covered the crack with blue painter's tape to help to keep that from happening. High class all the way. I've been meaning to get a new stove since it happened, but you probably know by now how much I procrastinate. I decided to buy new rather than replace the ceramic top because, with the stove being 8 years old, I just know I'd get a new top and then the whole stove would die, or something.

I also had to buy a new A/C this summer. Do appliances always die within a short time of each other?

Although I've made do with the stove while risking life and limb, but cannot survive without a dryer. This is the thing that has finally prompted me to get shopping. My intent was to buy just about the least expensive dryer I could find. I also intended to buy an inexpensive washer because I figure that I might as well replace my ancient one at the same time since the clock is probably ticking on that sucker, also. That was my intent. But. I wound up ordering a HE washer and its matching dryer. I'm inordinately excited about my purchase. I wish the pics could do them justice, but, if I try to enlarge them, they just get all fuzzy:



After I told the salesman that I would take those, I told him I needed a stove. I'm pretty sure the one pictured is the one I ordered. To be honest, once I heard the ridiculously inexpensive price he gave me (It was on clearance and he knocked another 30% off), I swooned and can't be absolutely positive of it. I'm pretty sure this is the one, though. I love, love, love that it has dual burners on the two large ones. Both large burners are in front, also, which I also love.



You just know that I'll be shopping for a refrigerator soon, don't you?

Woot!

Just a few pics

The weather was picture perfect today and we spent some time outside after grocery shopping and dinner.

I can't believe how big my boy is getting:

This one is while grocery shopping and he's showing how laid back and cool he is:

After 7 years of trying...

Pennsylvania has finally passed the law banning mandatory overtime for nurses. It is on the govenor's desk and he is expected to sign it. It will go into effect on 7/1/09. They finally saw how unsafe it is for a nurse to be mandated. This is a huge win for nurses and patients alike.

Confirmed

Well, the only new thing I know re: my mom and her diagnosis is that they re-did the blood work and her WBCs came back at 96,000 this time. The doctor said that there is no doubt at all that she has Leukemia. She has to see a specialist and I'm still waiting to hear what type of Leukemia it is. I have a call out to her, but she has not called me back yet.

ION (in other news): I had to postpone my interview yesterday because I was totally exhausted from my weekend at work. It was unfreakin' believable at work Sunday. I got to bed around 2:30AM and, of course, Kevin woke up at 6. I called the new place and told her that I would come across as a babbling idiot if I showed up for an interview that day. Oh, yes I did.

So....I went this morning. They want to hire me. Alas, they can't afford me. The Personnel Manager said that "Corporate" was working on coming up with new pay rates. Yeah, they need to. They don't even come close to our STARTING rates, let alone someone with my experience. She looked so sad, I almost felt guilty. I told her to hold onto my application and give me a call if something happens. I'm glad I went, though. For one thing, I got to do an interview for the first time and got that out of the way. For another, I got to see how I'd be in an interview. I thought I'd be nervous, but I was very comfortable and confident. It was cool.

Prayers, please

My mom just called me. She had bloodwork and pulmonary tests done today. She also has Shingles. The covering MD just called her to say her WBCs are at 100,000 and that she has Leukemia. That's all he said to her except to say that if anything happens this weekend, to go to the ER. If not, to call her regular doctor on Monday to see what she wants to do...

We have no idea what kind it's supposed to be. We have no idea what the prognosis is. We don't know anything, yet.

The story of my life...

This right here?

Yeah. It about sums things up right now. Finding my sewer line blocked by tree roots was the capper on my week. Two hundred and eighty dollars later...that is 2-8-0 y'all...and we can use our plumbing again. You just don't realize how precious it is until you don't have it.

After playing phone tag half the week with the Personnel woman at the facility I called to ask about a position, I have an interview for Monday. Monday. My worst day. I can go and look like I'm hung over because I'm just not at my best on that day...sigh. In a way, though, Monday is good because I will have been reminded over the weekend why I am trying to leave a job I've been at for so long. See, by now, my memory becomes foggy and my irritation level with the place is way down because I've been away for days, but I'm sure that by Sunday night I'll be aggravated again and will be happy to check out a new place.

I'm making myself a nervous wreck thinking about it. I've never had to have an interview before. I was pretty much just hired on the spot for this job that I'm at. What the hell do I even wear?! I have nothing! I live in jeans or shorts and scrubs. All my "good" clothes from when I was a manager are either gone or outdated.

I think I'm gonna puke

Exploration

I've finally decided to look into another job. The corporation that I work for has pushed me to the brink with their "We don't give a damn about our employees" ways. I've been gleaning information from several sources within the facility and comparing notes from what each person is saying and have come up with a scenario that may be paranoid, but I don't think so. Apparently, they are setting a situation up that puts the supervisors' licenses on the line and that is a bit scary. From what I understand, they are going to have the RN supervisor work a floor while supervising all 4 floors. This is not a safe practice in my opinion. The icing on the cake, and the thing that has expedited my desire to leave, is the sneaky way they are going about this transition. They have not asked for a meeting with me or the 3-11 Supervisor to explain what they have in mind and this transition is supposed to take place after this weekend. I have to hear this stuff through the grapevine. I have also heard of a master plan to do away with the 16 hour weekend program. The plan I heard is quite detailed and it involves me moving to the 4 day weekend program, which consists of Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. The kicker is that they expect me to do the 3-11 shift. I can't, and won't, do 4 days 3-11. I'd rather do a 10 day 7-3 shift with every other weekend off if they do get rid of the 16 hour program. Working an 8 day schedule and losing every single weekend is not worth it to me. Doing the 16 hour shifts and having 5 days off every week was worth giving up every weekend, but having off only 1 extra day with the 4 day program, is not. They have proven time and time again that they are sneaky bastards and cannot be trusted. I'm sick of wondering what is going to befall us next so, for the first time in 13 years, I have made a phone call to explore a position somewhere else.

We'll see how it all turns out...

This whole thing has me a nervous wreck and I've been covered in hives since I made the phone call last night. At least I hope it's hives.

Aaaand here I go again....

Another home project. I'm going to lay a new floor in my dogs' room/laundry room.

What? You want to know if I ever finished the bathroom? Well, uh, not just yet...but we did buy a palm sander today so it could be finished. I just couldn't manage to hand sand the massive amount the walls and ceiling. It's tough, man! Today, since the bug bit me to work on the house again, we bit the bullet and bought the damn thing. So, soon on the bathroom...K?

I've been yapping for a while over here about needing to pull the nasty carpet out of the dogs' room. Having 2 big-ass shedsomuchthatit'sawonderthey'renotbald dogs in that room is not conducive to carpeting. It cannot be kept clean, plus the smell after they come in from the rain just stays in there. So, yeah, yuck.

Today I bought the flooring, came home and starting cutting the carpet out of that room. It's almost done being torn out. I just have the end to do where the dryer sits and my back was just hurting too bad after moving and lifting the washer to continue. I can't wait to get it done. Hopefully the bug will keep biting me throughout the whole project.

The writing on the wall

There was no cooking in my house tonight. Roni took Katie shopping for some personal items *cough* bras *cough* so I took Kevin to BK for dinner. I love taking him out to eat because he's just so darn cute sitting there, like a big boy, scarfing down unhealthy food. I decided to treat him tonight and get him a Sprite (sugar, but no caffeine-I'm not completely crazy). He's never had a Sprite before and was in heaven. I got the biggest smile when he tasted it and realized it wasn't the usual milk. Now that he was on a sugar high, I decided that taking him to the park to run it off would be a good idea-especially since the weather was so beautiful. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a picture of us going down the slide for obvious reasons, but he was somewhere between thrilled and terrified. It's a thin line. He did want to go a second time so I guess he had fun, although he clutched me just as tight the second time.

Mommy aiding and abetting getting the child wired (horrible picture of me-wow):

Oh, yeah, he's feeling good:

He's not giving up that cup even thought it's mostly water at this point:

Just as we were winding things up (I was trying to time his "crash" to get home for bath and bedtime), up pulls Renee squealing tires and laying skid marks and then running pell mell across the park who walked over to me to lay The News on me. The DON in my facility has been fired. It is the 9th time I've heard this news in one form, or another, in my almost 13 years of working at my facility. That is an awfully high turnover rate. They either quit or get canned after a relatively short period of time. It really didn't surprise me knowing the history of this position, but it makes me nervous. Again I have to wonder who we'll get next and what she/he will be like. We sure have had our share of nutcases there. I also have an uneasy feeling about a major shakeup may be happening and maybe my job, or my hours, being in jeopardy.

Keep your fingers crossed for me that it doesn't get too crazy there...

Cherry Cheesecake!

The weather was beautiful today. While Roni was getting ready for us to go shopping and then to dinner, I took Kevin for a walk:



Kevin and I went into ToysRUs while Roni was shopping for clothes next door. I've been on the hunt for wooden blocks of different shapes for Kevin to play with because he loves to stack things. I found some blocks, but they're smaller than what I wanted. I swear they don't make the ones I'm thinking of anymore because I can't find them anywhere. I also scored a new insulated straw cup, 2 new Wiggles DVDs, and a travel MagnaDoodle for the trip. Afterward, we picked Roni up at the next store and headed to Old Country Buffet. I love buffets with Kevin because there's not a bit of waiting involved, hence, no trying to occupy toddler while waiting for waitperson/drinks/food/bill. He also eats very well at a buffet and they lose money on the boy. His favorite thing is the breaded shrimp. This cracks me up because Katie, at almost 15, has never even tasted shrimp. The only problem with a buffet is that he has trouble comprehending that, when we get up from the table, we will be right back and starts to cry.

We went and got our desserts and one of the items I got was cherry cheesecake. Kevin wound up with it and was in heaven. I, unfortunately, forgot his bib...After he took the first bite, he actually shimmied in his seat with delight:

"Wow! This is good!"



"What is this stuff called? Cheesecake? Odd name..."



"Thank-you, Lord, for cheesecake!"



"I just can't get enough!"



"Is there any more?"

Apparently he prefers the tougher look...

I put his hat on this way....



Two minutes later he did this...

WTH are the chances?!

Yeah. So we leave for Disney/Universal on November 7th. Right? Uh-huh. Check the date on the ad below...This is the arena that I watch the hockey games from and is, like, 10 minutes from my house. I can't stand it, already. Do I deprive the boy from his favorite thing? Sigh. I guess I'll see if I can change our ressies...

My email address...

For contact purposes re: facebook, if you'd like to send me info on how I can get you on my friends list, email me at: Ratherxbxatxdsny at aol dot com.

I was trying to think of a good way to do this without all of us putting our entire names on my public blog...even though they're there on facebook. I'm weird.

I need friends!

Facebook is irritating the hell out of me. I just joined and am really having a tough time navigating it. It seems so UNintuitive to me. I'm trying to persevere and not junk the whole thing already, but MAN!

Anyway, I'm feeling lonely on there. I sent out some requests for "friends", but I don't think anyone knows who I am. I say that because one (Hi Barb!) actually wrote back to ask who the heck I was....OK, she didn't say it like that. She was very nice, but she really didn't know who I was until I brought up this blog. Jane knew who I was (Hi Jane!), but we have actually exchanged emails before so maybe that's why *shrug*. So there I sit...2 friends...well 3, if you count Roni...

Pathetic.

Wanna be my friend?

Yikes!

Let me tell you something...Last night was something else altogether with Kevin. I've never seen such a display from the boy. We actually were discussing taking him to the ER due to his inconsolable crying/screaming. It was so bad that I didn't even bring out the video recorder...

First off, he refused to nap yesterday and was way over tired. On top of that, he didn't eat much all day (probably because he was over tired). The combination of these two things caused a meltdown of epic porportions. At the time that it was happening, we weren't sure if that was the issue or if he was having severe belly pain because he kept pulling his legs up while screaming and screaming and screaming. We're both nurses and were starting to wonder if he had an impaction, or something. I'm telling you that it was nonstop for about an hour and we were getting really worried...especially when even the Wiggles didn't help!

Roni finally said that maybe he was mistaking hunger for pain and needed to eat. That was a good thought, but how was I going to get food in him while he was like this? He wouldn't eat. I finally decided that I would take him upstairs, away from the stimulation, with a bottle. I was praying this would work because, if it didn't, we'd be headed to the hospital. When we got upstairs, he continued his crying/screaming for about five minutes while I held him. Then he picked up his bottle and handed it to me. I held him and fed it to him. I have never seen him take a bottle so fast. As soon as he was done, he sat up and said, " What's that?" while looking out the window. He was a completely different kid and I was extremely relieved. I knew then that he was OK. Now that he was energized, he didn't want to go to bed so I took him back downstairs to play or awhile. After another half hour, or so, he took his bath and went to bed with no problem.

Today he woke up on a fabulous mood. I will never allow that combination of events to happen again. Believe it.

Remembering

I'm sitting here watching "102 Minutes That Changed America" on the History Channel. It is still unbelievable the events that happened 7 years ago today.

Sad. So very sad. I am at a loss for words to express the feelings this brings out in me.

I'm sure you understand.

I'll never forget what I was doing the very moment I heard about the World Trade Center Towers...I was in the basement of the building I work in. There are no windows, radio, etc., down there and you are completely cut off from anything going on outside. or even upstairs for that matter. I was in the process of implementing the Weekend Program at work and I had a chart in front of me of employees who were switching to the program and employees I was calling to ask if they wanted to go Monday-Friday. I was working on the schedule to be implemented in a couple of weeks. A guy who worked there at the time had his office down there and came down and said to me, in a not-so-convincing manner, that 2 planes had hit the Towers. I was barely paying attention to him and kinda chuckled because I thought he was playing around. A few minutes later, my boss's boss came down and told me the same thing in a much more believable tone of voice and I was like, "Wait. What?!"

Those moments very clearly stand out in my memory like it was yesterday.

Do you have a memory to share?

God bless all the innocent people who died and their families & friends who have suffered so deeply.

Yo Dawg, I'm not afraid of you!

Check it. Notice the big can of spider killer? Now, notice the spider that is hanging by its web from the spider killer? I have it circled in red.

Uh-huh. I believe it is flippin' me off....