Alive and kicking

Just a brief post to let my 2 readers know I'm still alive. I'm in the process of writing up a post explaining the past several months but for obvious reasons it's taking a while.

I'll give a brief overview and then explain in more detail in another post:

1. My Grandfather died
2. My husband was shipped off to Okla-fuckin-homa
3. I had a nervous breakdown
4. I found out I had cancer
5. I had several surgeries and a lot of unpaid time off work
6. I am still recovering from the financial burden

Thank Jeebus that's all in the past!! I am hoping to start up my WTF Wednesday posts again too very soon.

Please let this be the last

For many reasons, I have not posted in a long while. I have had many things to deal with that have taken every ounce of my being just to keep moving day to day.

I've been doing OK trying to keep up but today I felt as if a noose took a hold of me....something so rare that even the doctors don't know how they are going to treat it.

Thanks for listening.

Ouuuuuuuuuch

I realized I forgot to mention something - I had surgery yesterday.

But really, it's no big deal.

2 years ago I found a lump on my shoulder which I had removed. 2 months ago, I noticed the lump was back. This time when I went to the doctor he was a bit concerned - it had grown in size, changed color and become painful in less than a month.

Had it removed for a second time yesterday. I now have an incision that is about 6 inches long and 1/2 inch deep along with about 60 stitches. I hurt a bit today, but the darvocet takes the edge off, which is good enough for me.

Hopefully he got it all this time.

Huh, wha....where am I?

I have no idea where I've been or what's happened for the past month....it's all been a big blur, but I remember a few things:

wake up
make and serve breakfast
make lunches
take youngest to school
go to work
work
take lunch from work to pick up youngest from school
take youngest to babysitters
go back to work
work
go pick up youngest
run errands
go home
feed kids
fight with kids
put kids to bed
pass out
start over

I am so glad my husband finally came home!!

Update

There will be no funeral. Apparently my Grandfather, always the one to stir the pot, decided before his death that the would not have a funeral. He wanted a wake 30 days after his death where everyone would get together and have a big party!

My Step-Grandmother managed a compromise and the wake is next Saturday, August 2nd.

Just like Jack to keep everyone on their toes!

UPDATE

His obituary has been posted and gives a brief history of the amazing life he led. If you would like to read it, please click HERE.

He's gone....

At approximately 4:30 PM this afternoon, my Grandfather passed away at 86 years old.

No additional details at this time.

Take care Grandpa Jack, we love you and miss you:

This is going to hurt

As many of you know, my husband is being sent to Oklahoma for work. We decided to go see a movie last night since it was our last night together.

While sitting in our seats waiting for the movie to start, I noticed my cell phone was going off. I picked it up to see who was calling and noticed it was my Mom.

I froze...

My Mom never calls my cell phone....NEVER, so I knew it couldn't be good.

I didn't answer. Maybe I was being selfish but I knew that answering that call would simply ruin my last night with my husband, and I didn't want to let that happen. I noticed she didn't leave a voice mail, and started to hope that perhaps everything was fine. I did my best to put the missed call out of my mind and enjoy the movie (we saw Dark Knight).

The movie was fantastic and we talked the whole way home about what parts we liked best. I had almost forgotten about my Mom calling....then I saw a message on the answering machine. It was my Mom and she needed me to call.

My Grandfather was admitted to the hospital with pneumonia & congestive heart failure and placed in ICU. They don't expect him to survive long, and he has already established a DNR (Do Not Resuscitate). I hope they are wrong....they have been before...

Please please tell me now

I'm confused.

My husband....

• the man who willingly drank Bud Light Chelada....
• has a zombie fetish....
  
• threatened innocent sailboats....
• and vividly described (much to my chagrin) his nightstand.....
  

is currently doing the yucky dance and being grossed out by the Ped Egg!

You have got to be kidding me.

Crazy!!

You may or may not have noticed, but I have been extremely amiss in my posting lately. Lots of stuff going on and it's been hard to keep up with! A brief rundown of my life for the past couple weeks is as follows:

Got Promotion at work.
Love new job.
Still have to do old job.....but I've been blowing it off.
Youngest turned 5.
Eldest got braces.

I'll find my groove soon and post more then.

He's not a baby anymore...

My little boy is 5 years old today!

He will be starting Kindergarten in the Fall....

Wow, where does the time go?!

He went from a little baby:


To a Toddler who loves his snacks:



and now a BIG BOY!


Happy Birthday little man!

But they're in STYLE!

Last week at work, I broke my glasses. I'm not sure how, but the entire arm fell off. I asked Contagion if he could fix them, and after a search we managed to find some epoxy and glue them back together.

They lasted until today.

I once again asked Contagion to see if he could fix them. This time, rather than epoxy, he found some sort of glue that hardens to be like steel! Yay!!

...But the glue takes about 24 hours or more to set.

Great....

I can't see the words on my computer without my glasses. This.will.not.do. How can I work if I cannot see?

So, I headed to Lenscrafters. I can get glasses in a hour there!

Approximately 3 hours later (apparently an hour is relative) I can see again! I head back to work to proudly display my new glasses, which are Versace by the way, and everyone says they really like how I look in them...except Contagion.

Him: They look like military birth control glasses!
Me: ...

Regardless, I like them, but what do you think?

Highland Garden of Memories is disrespectful to the dead.

If you need to bury a loved one heed this warning: Don't purchase plots at Highland Garden of Memories in Belvidere, Illinois. It's at the corner of IL route 76 and Squaw Prairie Road. If you do have to deal with them, make sure you are real clear on the details and expect to be lied to.

As some of you may be aware, my husbands Grandmother passed away last Thursday after a long battle with Parkinson's Disease among many other illnesses. Grandma had pre planned most of her funeral arrangements with Fitzgerald Funeral Home. They were wonderful to the entire family, and everything was beautiful and went according to plan. Until we arrived at the Highland Garden of Memories cemetery (where Grandma had her burial plot next to Grandpa) in Belvidere Illinois for graveside services and burial.

Every person who came was under the impression that Grandma would be buried. Every person was confused when we were led into an on site chapel. When the person working at the cemetery was questioned, the only answer he would give was "it's too dark for them to do the work so they were going to do it the next day" and that "the workers had already gone home". What?!?! Seriously, 3:30 PM is too DARK to work outside?? 'Angry' doesn't begin to describe the emotions that went through each and every one of us.

I don't know about anyone else, but the purpose for the graveside services is to create a closure for the family. Most of our family didn't receive this closure because of the inappropriate, uncaring, and indifferent attitude of the cemetery supervisor. Today when my Husband and I returned for the internment with some of his family and the funeral home, we requested a written apology.... and were told "I said I was sorry yesterday".

So many ways to cause him pain went through my head at that moment.

I couldn't BELIEVE he just didn't get it.

Contagion and I feel that this type of behavior cannot be tolerated, and are both outraged by the events. He has a post up regarding Highland Garden of Memories as well, with a few more details. Hopefully our words will strike home to someone and things like this wont happen to anyone else.

We will miss her

Contagion's Grandmother passed away last night at 8:10 PM.

It was a long road and a hard struggle for her. May she rest in peace.

Looking forward to the next 8!

As some of you know, today is Contagion and my 8th Wedding Anniversary. It's hard to believe that I could have gotten so lucky to catch a guy like him! He and I are made for each other and complement the other in so many ways.

For our anniversary, I bought him something he has been asking for.....well, since I can remember! Just as a thank you for...well, for putting up with me!



Happy Anniversary Honey! I Love You!

For the first time in 10 Years...

For those of you who don't know, Contagion is actually celebrating his birthday this year...and I'm not kidding when I say it's the first time in 10 years.

Every year we argue because I decide I'm going to do or buy something for his birthday and he decides that he's not going to celebrate it. The argument gets old.

Here is where I need ya'll to help me...

He has posted a couple times regarding the Blogcrawl....if anyone, ANYONE at all can join us I would be incredibly grateful! You see, this is a big deal. Even if you can't join us in person, leaving zillions of comments for him, or if you choose, I'll be more than happy to provide the information to let you DRUNK DIAL him :)

Yeah, this is gonna be GREAT!! Work with me people!!

I'm beginning to wonder

As some of you know, our eldest boy Boopie is 14 years old and started high school this year. The entire summer I have been talking with him about the expectations for this upcoming school year. Apparently, he thought I was kidding.

The other morning as I was finishing getting ready for work, Boopie went upstairs to take a shower. He goes into the bathroom, shuts the door and turns on the water. Ok, nothing different there. I continue getting ready, when I hear the bathroom door click shut....Odd...considering it was shut earlier when he went in.

I check the bathroom door, which is shut tight, and I can hear the shower running on the other side. I thought it must have been the wind since the bathroom window was open. I take Clone downstairs and a few minutes later (while I am in the process of putting on his shoes before we leave) I hear the bathroom door open...but I can STILL hear the shower running.

WTF?

Just to give you a visual, we have a two story home and our bathroom is directly at the top of our stairs, so I can see the bathroom and upper hallway quite clearly. Sure enough, the bathroom door is open and there is Boopie....standing in the hallway outside of the bathroom with all of this clothes on.

The shower is still running.

"What are you doing?!" I yelled up the stairs.

There was a long pause....he was obviously startled to find me at the bottom of the stairs questioning him. I see him quickly take off his shorts before moving into a direct line of sight with me. Apparently he believes that if HE can't see ME then I can't see HIM!

"I..." he began, "I forgot to take off my clothes so that I could get into the shower, so I came out into the hall to do it."

I honestly think that the look on my face must have spoken volumes....for my brain actually stopped and went "WHA????"

After blinking and shaking my head several times to clear the "WTF" moment from my brain, I proceeded to say....or maybe it was more of a growl... "then why is the shower still RUNNING?"

"Wuh....uh...I forgot to..."

"RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT, you FORGOT that taking a shower requires you to be NAKED!"

Seriously, I just wanted to throttle him! I mean, I knew the boy couldn't lie to save his life, but WOW...that is one damn impressive HORRIBLE lie! I mean, in the past he's told some real doozies...but NOTHING quite like this!!

Needless to say, it's not the first lie I've caught him in, and I'm sure it won't be the last. For the record, he does see a counselor who has helped him quite a bit with other things, however I'm putting this crap off to his biological father. There's A LOT more I could say about that, but I won't.

He had better figure things out soon, or he's gonna REALLY be hating life 'cause Momma don't play that.

I need some help

I need to reach out to all of you for assistance. I have a HUGE problem, and I don't know what steps I should take to resolve it.

My CD Player in my Van died and we are set to take a vacation on Saturday. To Kansas.... with both kids....and no music.....THIS IS AN EMERGENCY!

According to the dealer, the entire stereo system will have to be replaced at a cost of $500 plus labor. GAH! I don't think so!

In retaliation, I went to a local stereo place today where I was quoted $350 for a new Panasonic (including labor) but apparently the most expensive part is some stupid harness set up because the Air Bags, DING noise (your door is ajar, your keys are in the ignition, turn your lights off fool!), and several other items are wired through the radio! WTF? What sort of GM Genius came up with this idea?

Anywho, is this right? Is the guy trying to screw me out of more money than is necessary, or is he being honest? I would search the internet, but I have NO CLUE what I'm looking for.

Please, if you can provide any insight on this, I would really appreciate it! Oh, and BTW, I have an appointment scheduled Wednesday morning, in case I decide to fork the money over....

Age is relative

Today I turn 36 years old....and I'm actually not bothered by my age for the first time in years!

I don't look too bad for the Mother of a 14 year old soon-to-be Freshman in High School and a 4 year old who melts my heart with every glimpse of his bright blue eyes. In addition, I have an incredible husband who helped make me the woman I am today. Without him, I'm certain things would have been quite different for me!




Thanks to everyone!

4 years old today!

I can barely believe it. It seems like just yesterday he was born!

Happy Birthday to the little Sproingtagion!

Disney on Ice

Thursday I took Clone to see Disney on Ice. He's almost 4 years old, and I figured he was at the right age to watch and enjoy the show. I didn't realize how much *I* would enjoy it as well!

We arrive at the show and head straight for the souvenir booth. I knew it would not be possible to get through this without purchasing something that lights up. He found what he wanted, we purchased it (as well as a pair of Flotsam and Jetsam binoculars) and headed to our seats. I hadn't realized, but our seats were in the second row, right in front of the ice! We were going to be up close and personal with the skaters!

When the show began, Clone was very happy and excited. He sat and watched the whole show with very little complaining. He would clap and laugh, point out things to me, and smiled a lot. I loved watching him enjoy himself, and although that was my favorite part of the whole show, there was a close second. I never realized (or maybe it was because I'd never been so close to the ice) just how tight of a backside the male skaters have!

You could bounce a quarter for MILES off those butt cheeks! Tight pants and rock hard buns....yeah...Disney on Ice is worth every penny!