One more day...

I have only one more day of work until I am off for five days. If I can make it. Today I had noticed that my unit manager has taped a face pain scale to the nurses station, you know, 1 equals no pain 10 as severe. Only this one has faces on it so you can judge a persons pain based on their facial expression. I joked we could use it to rate how well the day is going. the pain descriptions were a little different than the one shown here. My day started out "distressed" (2)when one of the student CNA's transferred a resident incorrectly and put a gash in her leg so we had to send her out for stitches. My day ended as "excruciating"(5) when one of my residents pulled out his PICC line halfway through the administration of his IV antibiotic. It was a day that I definitely felt like I deserved a raise.

Afterwards, I took Sean to the pediatrician to get a Dr. note allowing him back into day care. Of course, his eyes were as clear as could be. The Dr. ( who wasn't his regular Dr.) was more concerned about his eczema, I assured her that what she was seeing today was the best it has been in a long time, so that was the least of my worries.

I had an appointment for him to see Dr. yesterday but foolishly cancelled it when his eyes were so clear for 24 hours. Then yesterday afternoon they strated to get all goopy again-at day care- which is how I ended up having to get the Dr. note that he was okay. He was miserable at the Dr. It certainly didn't help that we waited an hour. He wanted to play with the computer in the exam room, the sink, the cotton balls, the hand soap, the garbage can, I was already exhausted froom my lovely day at work, so I was not in my greatest mood.

Anyway, skip to three hours later and you would find me relaxing in a bathtub full of bubbles that smell like lavender and my smelly candle nearby as I did the newspaper crossword. Delightful, I assure you.

Sure, it annoys me when my husband talks while he's yawning in the morning,("What the heck did you say again!?") Or blows his nose in the kitchen while I'm eating breakfast(eww)

But he lets me relax whenever I feel I need it. And boy did I need it today.

Ho hum, here's to hoping tomorrow is better that today was...

"pink" eyes ARE really pink!

I do believe that Sean has conjunctivitis. Especially in his R eye. It has a moderate amount of mucousy drainage and it is rather inflamed. Poor little guy-he just catches everything! He still on his antibiotics for his bilateral ear infections,BTW-Dr. put him on another round since his infections hadn't completely resolved.
Meanwhile, Seth hasn't ever needed any antibiotics (knock on wood). I've lost track of how many times Sean has. Damned ear infections...I guess a couple in a year isn't too horrible.
Now the eye though. Fortunately I was able to resort to my child care emergency back up plan and call my mom to watch Sean tomorrow. I figured there wasn't any way I was going to be able to sneak him into day care without them noticing the draining eye. They would take one look and say,"Hells, no!, that child needs to go on home!"
My mom is going to call the Dr. tomorrow while I am at work and try to get Sean in for Tuesday. I just hope Seth doesn't get it. It's bad enough that David said, "I think I'm going to catch it, my eyes have been really itchy" ( Remember, he lives in David World where, no matter what happens, it always comes back to him in some way, and don't ever complain to him because his life is always much worse)

Oh, he is working these days!! Hooray! Yahoo! He is doing the house remodeling thing and getting paid about $180.00 per week. Not bad. Certainly helps out alot. I am so glad that he is working-you can not even imagine the amount of stress it has relieved me of. Thank God. But two of the guys that he works with are severe alcoholics and I kind of don't like David to be too tempted, y'know. He says they influence him in a positive manner because he sees how they act and he doesn't want to be like them. And he has never, ever been one to drink liquor very much or drank in the early part of the day(to my knowledge)
But i just don't want him to pick up any worse habits than the one's he already has.

Suddenly, I am tired. I worked 16 hours yesterday and 8 today and still have 8 more tomorrow before I have a day off so I suppose I had better sleep. Sleep is good.

My poor baby Sean

The whole household is sick, I think this is the worst cold I have had in ages. We are all cough-y and stuffy and miserable. Seth's nose is running like a digusting snotty faucet and Sean's as well. Only with the addition of an extremely high fever.
This morning David took him to the Dr. where he was diagnosed with brochiolitis and bilateral ear infections. How's that for a bad day?!
So now we are giving him albuterol neb treatments and amoxicillin. Poor little kid. It' so sad to see him so sick.

I have a cold.:(

The boys seem to be adjusting to day care-actually enjoying it! But David still doesn't have work...so their time in day care will be over this week if nothing changes.I won't pay for daycare so he can sit at home alone. So tired of my rollercoaster life- up and down all the time. Blech!

And on top of it all I am catching a cold so I feel lousy. Darned daycare! The boys brought this cold home from daycare. Aww, how kind of them to share.

Wow! Daycare isn't the end of the world!

The boys seem to really be enjoying it. Well, Seth, at least. Sean is still adjusting. Today we sent him to school with Chi-chi (his stuffed chicken) and it seemed to help him a bit.
Yes, i was off work today and still sent my kids to daycare. I'm not proud. But they were only there for four hours.
I was crazy lonely at the store, I'm just not used to going shopping alone. And I dont think I like it.
David was supposed to start working full time in the day this week- but so far there hasn't been any work. He knows that he's going to have to work if the boys are going to have to go to daycare. If he doesn't have work by the end of next week-the boys are coming out of daycare. I don't need another bill. In the meantime I am going to keep David very busy.

Seth told me that a girl in his class "with a white face like brother Sean's" was very pretty but she had messy hair. (Some guys are so picky!) And another girl in his class had purple arms, purple legs and a purple face. (weird!-I'm thinking she was actually, maybe brown colored. Where did the purple come from unless he has alien girls in his class?)
He seems to have alot of fun and is making some friends. I'm glad.:)

I am the CEO of my household

How is it that men and women are the same species but actually are only compatible physically simply for reproductive purposes.? Sometimes it seems like David is going to be a Toys R US kid forever. Myself, I grew up long ago. From what I have heard from other wives is that their spouses are extraordinarily similar. Women just learn to deal.
Meanwhile I tend to wonder how men would suvive without women. Would they just live in messy houses with dirty sheets and dirty dishes piled to the ceiling? Would the socks ever make it from the floor to the laundry?
In any case, I feel like I have to be the CEO of the household, especially one with three men in it. I assure you it is hard work that I think I deserve to be paid for. And it all starts after I come home from eight hourse at a job tht I do get paid for. Sometimes I really honestly feel like everyone I see wants something from me.
Today I was entering new orders into the computer at work and this one family memeber kept bugging me with piddly requests. He states "You always look like you're busy when i come up here"
I wanted to respond , "Thats because I am, dumbass, do you think I am sitting here playing solitaire on the computer?"
I thought my eyes were going to cross from staring at the computer so long. So why am i sitting at a computer right now? No clue. I'm a foolish fool.
An overtired foolish fool. So excuse my poorly written story, my brain has shut down for the night.
until we meet again..

This computer is slooooooooow lately..

Which is exactly why I am not on it too often these days. Well, that and new episodes of House and American Idol have been on. I am such a dork..
I have alot of charting that I have to do on a regular basis so I suppose I am sick of looking at a computer screen by the time I get home from work. Work has been so ridiculously busy, some days I feel like my head will esxplode if ONE MORE PERSON bugs me while I am trying to accomplish something else. Obviously, as a nurse, I have to be able to multitask. But there comes a time when you can only do so many multi tasks at one time. And I am certainly not super nurse. And at work we have coined a phrase "compassion fatigue". Which seems to occur when you deal with extremely needy family members or patients every single freaking day.
Heartless as it may sound, sometimes a girl starts to feel numb to everyone's issues. Not important ones, of course, but petty little things. I swear it seems that some patients' family members sit at home and think up silly questions to ask the nursing staff.
I might remind you that I work in long term care where the patients are stable for the most part-so many of the issues that the familys have seem to stem from their own past guilt about their relationship with their family member/patient.
And I have never seem so much denial about disease process as I have in the last year. Families just don't seem to want to accept their 90 year old mothers dementia/ weakness/behavior issue/terminal condition.
If men dominated the nursing field, I guarantee that the pay would be far, far better.
Nurses (and CNAs) just don't get enough credit. We honestly are good caring people or we wouldn't have gone into that profession. But we are not infallable, we are human.
I think there should be a National Hug-A-Nurse Day. :) We deserve it.

Boys are good. David is good. Working a few days a week, which is really helping. We got a letter from Countrywide mortgage that they could decrease our monthly payment significantly. I faxed a bunch of financial papers and am now awaiting a response. I hope it all goes well.
I guess I should be glad that no one bought our house when they auctioned it off last month. Maybe we will be able to keep it after all.

Happy flippin' new year

I should be more sunshiny since really, things are not all bad. David has been working a couple days a week remodeling houses with this guy he knows so that's been helping with our $$ situation considerably. We applied for assistance with gifts for the boys at Christmas and got some "Toys for Tots" for them- I thought we would get one toy per kid. We got quite a few! The boys did pretty well for the holiday.
We just seem to busy around here.The fun never ends.:)

Fortune keeps smiling upon me..

That does not even make sense. But it sounded good at the time.

David and I are learning that the holidays bring out the generous nature in people. Strangers and coworkers, family and friends.
One lady at the dollar store gave me $5 one day with instructions to get Sean something special. Which I did, he got some cute farm animal toys..
My dad gave me an early Christmas present of some cash. And then told me how proud of me he was ( that meant far more than the cash).
A couple people at work gave me their Publix gift cards that was distributed through the company.
I received $140.00 from the resident gift fund at work. Not to mention I happened to win a gift basket raffled off at the holiday party!
David's mom gave us some $ for Christmas.
We received quite a decent haul of toys from the Toys for Tot's program for the boys and some food for us as well.

And today David's new boss bought us a bunch of groceries. What a shocker that was!!

I am absolutely amazed at everything that has happened. I cannot believe how much toys the boys have under the tree! And I am still floored that our kitchen cabinets are so full!!! We haven't had this much food in ages!


David has found some work. He met this very nice man who remodels houses in Cape Coral and he's been helping him out. The guy even picks him up. And David can work whatever days he can since childcare is not available every day. A couple days a week is about all we can pull off. But it really helps. We have been invited to his house tomorrow for a Christmas party thing-even the boys.
And to think I was just whining yesterday that nobody ever invited us to Christmas parties.

"I'm freezing like a chicken!"

That is what Seth proclaimed the other evening as he got out of the bath tub. I'm not sure I know why a chicken is a freezing animal. But it sounded funny as heck.
Not so funny was when we were at Wal mart and Seth looked over at a rather large woman in the aisle and stated " Mom, that is a big fat girl!"
I wanted to crawl into the floor, never to be seen again.
I apologized but thankfully she was a good sport and told him, "You're right, it's true."
She smiled and said, " It's okay, I have kids at home. I know how it is."

I am also noticing that when people ask Seth his name, he responds not only by telling him his name, ("Sef") but introduces Sean and me ( "That is my mommy, her name is Jenny, and that's brother Sean")
Sean, on the other hand, enjoys waving to people. And throwing them kisses. Oddly enough, if we are with someone that I want him to talk to he won't say a word but will say "Hi" to a stranger in the grocery store. He also says water(wa-wa), juice (joo), banana (nana), night night, mama, dada, done (du), c'mon, there you are, i see you, one, two, three, kitty, baby, phoebe (our cat), grandma, stinky, and No! ( but oddly enough, he doesn't say yes)
There are more but I cannot think of them.
He also can make cow sounds, and donkey sounds, and cat sounds. And Santa Claus sounds. He says "ho, ho, HO!" It would make the crankiest, crochety scrooge smile.

God give me strength, please.

Because I don't seem to have much left. I keep hoping things will get better but things ,instead, just seem to get worse and worse.
Our house is in foreclosure since we cannot afford to pay the mortgage with only myself working. David got a phone call a couple days ago to tell him that our house will be auctioned off on December 17th. Blech.
Of course, we are not foolish enough to be truly surprised by this but it sure would have been nice to have it happen AFTER Christmas. As it stands I am not sure how Santa is going to be able to get the boys very much of anything.
Apparently, from what I have heard, after the sale we will receive some type of notice in the mail and we will have at least 30 days from then to get out. Most likely 90 days since we have kids. Then we were hoping on using our tax return to get a rental. But with my luck the government will take it all to pay on our Small Business loan that we haven't been able to pay on...
We'll find outrselves a nice rental somewhere.
I just hope I will have some sunshine coming my way before too long. I need it.

I love this song

I am not the biggest Shinedown fan but this song (Second Chance) is absolutely beautiful. Every time I hear it I love it more. It just makes me feel good. Weird.

Merry christmas to you! Merry christmas to me!

Yes, that time of year is upon us again... Our house is lit up with Christmas lights and we finished decorating the inside tonight. Including the Christmas tree. This year we will not be getting too much in the way of gifts but we have to at least make it look good for the boys!
Besides getting all Christmassy is so much fun. I will miss all of the shopping, but I haven't done too much in the last two Christmases so I'm kind of getting used to it.
It is past my bedtime so I must retire for the night. Sleep well all.

"Hey, that's a nice dog you have there!"

Taking a walk around the block with Seth was an interesting experience, to say the least. In addition to yelling at poor elderly dog walkers he also had a comment for every single person he encountered. For example:
"What are you doing? Are you doing yardwork?"
"What's your name?" ( This question was asked of about everyone)
"Your dog likes me, I'm a kid. He likes kids"
"Do you have any kids?"
" My name is Seth and this is my mommy. Her name is Jennie"
" I love dogs!"
" What are you doing? Are you building something?"
"What are you eating?"
"You have a nice tree in your yard!"
" Hi there! What are you making?"

It was a lovely evening for a walk. And actually we ran into David and Sean taking a walk on the way home. Beautiful evening. The fresh air was nice. I am still emotionally exhausted though.

Cry baby Cry (or the world is full of lovely people)

Times are tough these days so yesterday I tried to apply for some government assistance for food or cash. While we were there we took advantage of the food pantry. Yes, I am as low as I've ever been. My pride is completely gone...
I happened to mention this to someone at work, simply complaining that I am constantly annoyed that I am never poor enough to qualify for any aid. But I am so broke it's pathetic.
She whipped out $40 for me. "You don't owe me anything." she said, "I've been there before."
I wept.
Later in the day another one of my coworkers took me aside,"This is for you" She handed me a $40 gift certificate that she hadn't used and $20. Then she gave me a hug.
And I wept again.
Then another woman met me in the hallway."This is from a group of 6 women" It was $15 gift certificate for Publix.
I wept a little more.

As I was leaving work my supervisor asked if I needed any more money. I reminded her that I had received $40 in the morning. She told me to let her know if I needed any more.
Yesterday my mom bought us a few items at the grocery store and made some pancakes for the boys.
Needless to say I am all wept out. I am feeling sorry for myself but also am deeply touched at the goodness in people.
I never wanted to be where I am right now. But one day when these lean times are over, I may come across another person who might be having a difficult time as I am now. And I will help them with what I can. Because I know that a little help can make a big difference. Not just in a financial way-but it also restores your faith in people. And that means a whole lot.


We ate well tonight. Even me.

My new guilty pleasure...

Framing Hanley- Lollipop
This is a rock cover of a rap song and the lyrics are so very dirty...but I love the song! Very catchy, just hope I don't start mindlessly singing at work...
BTW, the song doesn't even start until the 2 minute mark in the video.

Yes, my boys are handsome and no, you can't have them

Poor David was long overdue for a haircut. So we all went to the hair place Saturday so I could explain to the hairdresser how his hair should look. I am never sure why he can't do that himself, but anyway...
While we were there I thought maybe Seth could get one ,too. He actually agreed to it and watching Daddy get one , maybe, made the idea more appealing for him.
So Seth got his first big boy haircut.
He told the hairdresser that she was beautiful in the process. What a nut.
Anyway, Seth looks so handsome! Oh, and David does as well, of course!
I feel so happy when I am out with my boys all looking so sharp. I feel so proud.
Since Seth was such a good boy during his hair cut I took him for ice cream and to play at the playgound at the mall.
He's not a bad kid. He's acting more grown up all the time. My oldest baby isn't a baby anymore...

More Melancholy Musings

I am just in such a blue funk lately. I find just about everything irritating. And I just feel so sad about everything. Things that are personal : house foreclosure, bank overdrafts, bills that need to be paid but there isn't any money for them...
Even things that are happening in the world sadden me: poor economy, hordes of unemployed, ridiculous govenment people that have no idea what goes on in the real world. Large stores going bankrupt and closing stores left and right. The world seems to be in a mess. A big one.
I feel like a failure for being poor.
And I really don't have anyone to talk to. No one likes to spend time with someone feeling so blah. I understand. When I feel really good I don't want someone to bring me down. So I talk with poor David who is feeling the same as I am. I am sure I drive him nuts though.

It seems that life since Hurricane Charley four years ago has been especially trying. Life has been a bumpy road.

I do hope that something good happens before too long.

Someone recently reminded me of the story of Job, about how Satan was challenging his faith in God by taking everything good away from him and making his life miserable but good 'Ol Job hung in there, faithful as ever. And eventually he got everything back and more.

Dear God, give me something good! Anything to remind me that there's a light at the end of the tunnel!

How'd I forget to mention our pool party?

At Seth's 4 th birthday party my dad told us that he was watching a house for one of his clients that was up north for much of the year and they told him he could uses their pool anytime. Now, how a guy goes from mowing lawns to being trusted with people's homes while they are away for long periods of time baffles me. But my dad is a very professional, honest person so maybe they can tell. I don't know.
Anyway, he offered to let us use the pool. After making sure it was okay with the owners, we met him at the house last Thursday for a swim. Well, my dad didn't swim. But it was my mom, sister, neice and my boys, and myself. It was beautiful day and we all had a great time. It really was alot of fun!!! Now, my boys were a little cranky towards the end of our pool party since they were simply exhausted but that's okay because they slept very, very well that night.
My mom had brought along a lovely selection of snacks so after we swam we all ate. So it wasn't really a "pool party" but if you get some of your favorite people together and have a fun time at a pool and food is involved...doesn't that sound like a party?

Melancholy musings

There never seems to be enough money to pay everything. Even when we cut important things out (like mortgage) There STILL never is enough.
I know you are thinking,"Hey, didn't you just take a vacation to Disney?"
Why, yes I did and I assure you we all needed it. We haven't been able to take one in years and we've never done a family vacation before now. I assure you we found some great deals in order to stretch the $$$ to go.
And the whole vacation still cost us less than one months mortgage would have cost us. Believe it or not.

In any case, I have two great kids, a loving and wonderful husband, and we are all generally healthy (At least physically, ha ha)
And little did I know when I went to nursing school just how very wise my decision was. These days health care is one place you can easily find a job anywhere. Thank goodness for my good sense (yes, I do have some good sense, sometimes)

I am optimistic that once David takes the phlebotomy class he will be able to find some steady work. He has scheduled his entrance test for the vocational school already. I will have to save up $300 for the 10 week Health Core program ( a prerequisite for the class) and another $300 for the 10 week phlebotomy class after that. It will take awhile since he will be going in the evenings a few days a week. But I am grasping at some hope for the future that his learning a carreer ,especially in the health care field, will be a great benefit for us. It will be hard in the meantime.

Okay enough blahness for one evening. I should sleep. Tomorrow will be a better day.

Monty Python's Holy Grail Camelot

One of my favorite movie lines EVER!
"On second thought lets not go to camelot. It is a silly place."

For Mom

Enjoy!

I love a good party

WE had Seth's 4th birthday party today and we all had a grand time. Lots of good food, good company and the kids had tons of fun playing. I think we all will sleep well tonight. Seth got some very cool gifts: A leap frog game from Mamaw, a remote control car from grampa, sea monkeys and books from Sean and me, and webkins figures from my mom. Also my Dad's next door neighbor gave him a Lightning McQueen hoodie jacket for winter. Very cool.
Thank goodness birthdays only come once a year. I couldn't do this too often!

Sean's eczema update:

The poor kid wakes up in the night itching the heck out of his feet and arms and behind his knees. We give him his anti-itch medicine nightly but it doesn't seem to work all night. So at our Dr. follow up he took some blood ( he had to move the needle around under the skin to access the vein, yuck. I know how painful that is!) to check for some food allergies in case that is contributing to his problems. He prescribed some prednisone to help- which (I might add) has worked wonderfully, his skin looks beautiful for the moment! And we also need to consult with a dermatologist. Of course, the ped dermatologist in Sarasota does not take my insurance so I am going to have to take him to an adult dermatologist somewhere.
And he's been have not just loose, but watery stools x 1 week now. This started prior to the prednisone so that is surely not the culprit.
So now instead of waking up itching, he's waking up poopy in the night. Oh, joy of joys. Poor kid. He just can't seem to get a break!
Did I mention that his appetite hasn't seemed to be affected in the least. I assure you this kid eats enough for him and Seth. And probably a couple more kids...
Seth won't eat hardly anything. Unless it's just or dry cereal. It hasn't seemed to affect his enegy level at all..

Happy 4th birthday Seth!!!

I cannot believe I am the mother of a 4 year old. It seems like only yesterday he was a little baby...
We ate at McDonalds at lunch and he played on the playground then we went for a nice walk down a nature trail looking for bugs. A very pleasant day indeed.
The big birthday party will be this Saturday.:)

Message to mom re: beef stew.

It was superb! David and I both rated it 10 stars and David wants the recipe. Unfortunately the boys didn't get any because David and I ate it ALL. Thanks!

We're back!

And we had a delightful time! We stayed at a resort in Orlando that had two bedrooms and a kitchen so the boys had plenty of room. We spent Wednesday at the Magic Kingdom and both Seth and Sean had alot of fun. And David and me also, I should add! I am truly glad that we went. More on that tomorrow, I am exhausted! :)

Disney World here we come!

First of all, why would any man start an amusement park and name it after himself. I certainly would not start a place and name it "Jennifer Dreyer World" because one would assusme the entire place would be about "Jennifer Dreyer" and really, that is not all that interesting and I am fairly sure no one would pay to see it.

We are about to embark on our first family vacation. We found a really great deal for lodging at a resort so we are going to stay for 4 nights! And included in that is two $25 tickets to the magic Kingdom. The only thing is that David and I have to sit through a high pressure 90 minute presentation. Um, we know it's high pressure because we sat through one before several years ago for EPCOT tickets..
At least we are prepared this time! But since we have been to the resort before we know it's nice place. It has two bedrooms and two bathrooms and a kitchen. Lovely place. So I am excited but there is going to be ALOT of stuff we need to bring and I am not sure how we will fit it in the car... I'll think of something by tomorrow. I'd better think fast since we are leaving Monday. This should be interesting!

No Tennessee this week.:(

We just don't have enough $$ to go this week. Hotels and gas would be especially expensive...
So plan B is that we are simply going to go to the Nickelodeon Hotel in Orlando and possibly go to Sea World or something for Seth's birthday. At least we are going to go do something. I was really looking forward to leaving the state.
We are going to postpone our Tennessee trip a couple months, that will give us some time to save up some more $$. As God as I my witness, I will leave this state!! Eventually..

My crazy life...

1. My mom and her husband and my sister got into an argument the other evening that apparently ended badly. It supposedly involved drunk people, cheesecake, and some foul language. The moral of the story I got was," Alcohol and cheesecake don't mix, it can only lead to trouble."
2. Today my unit manager asked my friend, Marva, what her silver bracelet said on it. Marva stated "It says 'Barbados' " To which the unit manager replied," Oh I only saw the first few letters and I thought it said 'barely legal' " We all got a good laugh about that. I can only imagine my 36-year-old friend trying to pull off wearing a bracelet stating "barely legal". It still makes my laugh thinking about it. I know what Marva's getting for Christmas...
3. Today I told Seth that I was going to take a shower as I tucked him in. He responded, " But you don't look dirty!" As I laughed he added," Do you have hair under your arms?" Huh? Where did that come from?
4. Every day is a battle of man vs. nature in my house, we are becoming overrun by ANTS!! The more I spray the ant killer and clean every nook and cranny they keep coming in through different places! I feel like it's a constant war and I think I am losing. I am thinking about giving up and moving out, they can have the stinkin' house. Maybe I should take my family with me.
5.Taking care of forgetful people is good for my self esteem: If they like your hair, or outfit, or eyes, or generally think you are pretty you will hear it every time you see that person. It could be several times in a day. But then again, if they don't like you..oh, heck they won't remember it.
6.My buddy, Herman, asked if I was getting married. I told him I already was. He asked if I was going to marry someone else. I reminded him that I can only be married to one person at a time. He said," That happened to me too. I wasn't happy about that." Good ole' Herman. I love my job.
7.One week until Tennessee!!!!This is going to be interesting.

Today is my future's past.

I need to remind myself that every day happens only once and I should appreciate it now instead of longing for it many years from now. Memories are being made every moment so I need to enjoy them. Besides, life is always changing. Who knows what changes will occur tomorrow or next week?
Why does time seem to go by so fast as I get older!?

David loves it when I sing the Robot Chicken theme song

Robot Chicken-Behind The Music

Bock,bock, bock, bock, bock, bock,
bock, bock
oh, you get the point....

September 28th..

Is when we are going to leave for Tennessee. We decided that David and I ( and the boys, of course) are going to drive up there for a week to check it out.
I'm getting excited about this upcoming adventure...

Yee haw! Tennessee is looking better and better.

David and I have decided to move away from Florida. We despise the weather and the economy stinks. David can only get very low paying kitchen work here and it's not enough to pay the bills. We are tired of struggling so we have dedided to go somewhere that actually has some decent jobs available...and while we are at it we want some seasons.
I have a friend in Nashville that sent me lots of links with lots of Tennessee info and she only had positive things to say comparing it to FL so I guess you could say I am sold on the Tennessee thing.
There is plenty of industry there so David could get a job, a decent one, pretty easily. Maybe he could get a job at the Gibson guitar factory-no experience neccesary. :)
Next paycheck I am buying David a plane ticket to check it out for a few days. I also need to get a TN nursing license and we'll be in business!
I'm getting scared and excited. We estimate we'll be gone in the next six months...

Why do I love this song?

MGMT-Electric Feel

It's not like the music I usually like but I can't help but enjoy it.
It's a little modern disco. Very different and interesting. Catchy and soothing.

And the video is crazy wild!

Unfortunately, I cannot get the vid to play on my blog.:(
But definitely look it up....

Do you have to like NASCAR to live in North Carolina?

Because I despise NASCAR with a passion!

But the mountains are lovely.

*sigh* I love this picture...

Herman's in the hospital

Herman is one of the patients at my work, we refer to him as the mascot of "C" wing, the unofficial hallway greeter. Everyone loves Herman. He has a certain place he sits in his wheelchair across from the nurses, chatting with all of the other patients and staff. Do his conversations make sense? Many times they do not. Herman is what I like to call "pleasantly confused".
He is a genuinely good person who always has a smile and a kind word for anyone.
So when I learned that they had to send him to the hospital yesterday, I decided I had to visit him. Especially after about every staff member at work was asking about him today.
So I took Seth along for the adventure. And my friend Marva who is Herman's regular nurse.

You know, it was all worthwhile to see how happy he was to see familiar faces. He was happy that I brought my "young one" as well. Even though Seth was more interested in looking out of the window of his 3rd floor room and also looking for doctors. And wanting to climb on the empty bed in the room.

I was relieved that Herman was okay and hopefully, will be back at the nursing home very soon. Does it make me dumb to be concerned about someone that isn't even my family?

Hi Ho! HI Ho! It's off to work he goes..

David has a JOB!!!
He is working part time at a local restaurant called "Luigi's" as a dishwasher.
Now it's official-every man I was ever in a relationship with has been a dishwasher there at one time or another. But David is ,by far, the most overqualified for that position. But it is $$-about $160 a week, which is about $340.00 a month.
That makes me happy. You see my paycheck covers bills. I just need him to contribute toward food and gas. He already saves me money by working evenings so that we don't have to worry about added costs of child care. There is always a light at the end of the tunnel. And i have a feeling that it will simply get brighter.

Oh, BTW, my jaw is working again, thank you. I can eat and brush my teeth with ease and without pain!! Next paycheck I am going to buy myself a stinkin' mouth guard for when I clench my teeth at night. I don't want to wake up thinking that I have developed lockjaw while I slept, again.

You know, I haven't ever taken Prednisone before but it makes me feel really good! I have administered it to many a person in my nursing career and was aware of it's many serious side effects if taken over a long period of time but haven't needed it.
I really feel healthy and energetic. No aches, no pains. Physically I feel superb which, in turn, makes me feel good mentally. I am certain I had (have) inflamed muscles in my mid back and shoulders causing the aches and pains that I have experiencing for the last six months. Not to mention the kinks in my spine most likely caused by carrying a very large 18 month old who loves to have mommy hold him. ( why does he have to be so darned cute? Why does he have to be such a good eater?)
So an anti-inflammitory medication would indeed cure what ails me. I guess I'd better enjoy it while it lasts!

I've been a busy little bee

This day has been a full one.

First, we ( Sean, Seth and myself) spent a few hours at Mamaw's house playing (Seth and Sean) and chatting (myself). We also had a delightful lunch. I had to hurry home so I could drop the boys off so I could ....

Go to my Dr. appt. It was merely a follow-up to my appt. last month regarding my headaches. I made sure to tell the Dr. about my jaw problem. He told me I probably have some severe inflammation in the jaw and gave me a Rx for some prednisone for a few days which should fix it. He also advised warm, moist heat compresses, soft foods, talking less. Simply giving my jaw some extra rest. Then...

Seth and I decided to check out the new library down the road. Seth really had a good time playing with the other kids. He didn't want to leave but we had to get home so that david could take the car....

I actually stayed home doing nothing for a few minutes while David brought my old broken gold necklaces to the jeweler, which he actually got $100.00 for! Whoo hoo!

Then we left again (all of us) to go pick up my Rx, and go to Gallery walk in Punta Gorda which we ended up not doing since it was raining intermittently when we got there. So instead...

We walked along the water at a new park in Charlotte Harbor and watched the sun go down. Then, courtesy of my broken necklaces, we treated ourselves to Wendy's. It's been so long since I had a Frosty-it was absolutely delicious!

Wow, am I exhausted!

Jawbreaker

First of all I Tropical Storm Fay brought along a very dreary day. That's about all. No excessive rain or wind. Pathetic. But we did not get the brunt of it, other places suffered severe flooding.

Somewhere along the last week or so I have begun clenching my teeth at night in the most horrible way. Maybe I have been clenching them for longer-I only know when I wake up with jaw pain.
From past experience I know this only occurs when I'm under stress so it's not shocking that it is happening again, besides I have always had issues with my temporomandibular joint (TMJ).
What is shocking is the apparent strength that my jaw is applying when clenching my teeth because L left side of my jaw seems to be displaced or something. I have alot of jaw discomfort and find that opening my mouth wide causes a disturbing popping sensation and pain. I am literally afraid that my jaw would lock open.
I can place two fingers vertically between my front teeth and that is the widest my mouth opens without forcing and pain.
Nevertheless, I can say a whopper is not in my near future.

I go back to the Dr. tomorrow for a follow up regarding my headaches so I am hoping he can give me some advice. Maybe I just need some deep massage, I hope my jaw isn't out of alignment because I think it would be far too painful to pop it back into place.

*Sigh* it's always something...

Rock me like a hurricane

No one really knows if Tropical storm Fay will become a hurricane or where it(she?) will hit land. Yeah, I know, all of the meteorologists like to pretend they have a clue-but when it really boils down to it, you can only guess. Only Mother nature truly knows.
I think it will be like a really bad thunderstorm-lots of wind and rain. After Hurricane Charley I feel like an old hat at hurricane preparedness and survival.

I am just concerned about how the weather will be in the early morning hours when I have to go to work. They have suggested staff get there really early to avoid the really bad weather but how early? I don't want to go to work at 3 AM!
And how will I get home if there is flooding?
I am not worried about my family ,they will be here safe in the house during the storm. I'll be out in it! :(
It's starting to get a little breezy outside. And very overcast. People are boarding up their homes, filling up their gas tanks and buying every drop of water in town.

Wish me luck!

Spin Spin Sugar

Picture it: Two young boys in a bedroom. One begins to spin around and around, the other follows suit. And they both spin around and around until they are dizzy and stumble into a wall falling onto each other laughing hysterically.
Meanwhile,mom sits in the corner observing the craziness wondering how they don't become nauseated.

Speaking of spinning.....A tropical storn is spinning in the caribbean predicted to hit Florida. The predicted target is the entire state. Go figure. Hopefully it will go somewhere else. I don't want any more stress!

All is not yet lost.

David has the cold now-I am better.
No work as of yet but he did have an interview at Lowe's today. He's had to fill out all of these questionaires and surveys and has to go through two more interviews.
I thought that was odd, I mean it's not like he's applying for the position at the U.S treasury or something.
Meanwhile he's been slowly packing and going through crap in the garage and keeping ears and eyes open for rentals.
Hopefully we can save up some $$$ here pretty soon. Right now I am training David on frugal money management and buying only things we NEED. He's doing very well so far. I give him an A+++.

My boys are supremely superb. Michievous (spell check, please?) as always. These two boys can destroy a small house in minutes! I assure you. You'd understand if you saw my floors. I wonder why I bother sweeping and washing and sweeping and washing.
I feeling a tad blah with all of the stress going on, just like I am going through the routine every day. I'm not unhappy but not as carefreee as I prefer to be. I'll get there again. Just bear with me.

Jobs are scarce and money is tight. The price of everything goes up more and more all of the time. At least I know I am not the only one having issues. Everyone I know is having some financial difficulty to some extent (needless to say, I don't hang out with too many wealthy folks, LOL) .

In any case we are healthy and we have each other. I don't think anyone in the world would disagree that love is far more important that money. And if I were to be judged simply in how much I love and how much I am loved I am wealthy indeed.

The common cold makes me feel uncommonly crappy.

I feel congested and lousy. My nose is drippy and my head feels "full". I feel so blah. Give me a few days to feel peppy again.
Until then I may just do as little as possible. So if no one hears from me, that is why.

Like sands through the hourglass... so are the days of our lives

We are going to begin packing soon. Packing for what, you ask? We have decided to let the house go, and rent. We really NEED a bigger house and there is no way on God's green Earth that we would ever be able to sell ours with the way the housing market is and all.
Besides our mortgage is way too high for a teeny house. It's increasingly difficult to pay mortgage and be able to pay other bills also. We just don't make as much $$$ as we used to. So Dvaid and I are feeling rather pathetic. We both thought buying a house would be such a great investment, we never anticipated that our home would lose value. We are so upside down in our mortgage it is really sad. And we made so many improvements to our home... Oh well.
Once we get a house to rent we are going to consult with an attorney regarding bankruptcy. Our loans and credit cards are simply farther and farther behind and I am so tired of all of the phone calls and threatening letters.
Why did we spend money and buy a house we weren't going to keep?
Simply, we made much more $$$ when we used the cards and got the loans and bought the house. We assumed that David and I would always have work.

But don't cry for me Argentina, because this is an opportunity to start fresh and new. New (to us) house and wipe out our debts. So what if our credit sucks. It already does.
And what good is screwing up in your life if you don't learn from it?
David and I have definitely learned alot. We have learned how to be frugal and how to get more for our money ( Dollar General Rocks!)
Something we never cared about before because we were too busy spending money like it was going out of style.

David has turned in a plethora (how often do I get to use that word?) of applications. Tomorrow he is going to turn one in for a part time county job.
Turns out the Director of Human Resources for the county is the daughter of one of my patients ( who happens to absolutely love me and my boys-I have brought them to visit her). So I did sorta mention to her that he was applying for the job so she was going to mention his name to her daughter. ;)
Hey, desperate times call for desperate measures, you know! :)

My adventures in CT scanning

Today I had my first CT scan. Perhaps my only one in my life, who can say?
It was a relatively quick procedure. I had to lie (lay?, I always confuse those) on a table while it moved me under the scanning area while the camera(I presume) spun around and around me. Not too comforting that there was a warning on the top part of the machine that warned not to stare at the laser beam because it could cause blindness. I was wondering where the laser beam was and wanted to make sure I avoided looking at it. Obviously no idiot would design a machine that a laser shines into the eyes of any person using it, but I wanted to be sure...
Then I received some IV contrast dye so they could take the pictures again. The lady running the machine advised me that I might experience a warm sensation in my body from the IV dye.
Heck yeah, I did! Not a lovely feeling either . Oddly enough, the only place that I felt the warm sensation was in my groin area. I was worried that maybe the IV dye had made me lose control of my bladder, the feeling was that extremely warm, almost hot!
David immediately assumed that if he hooked me up to IV dye every night I would be a wild woman in the bedroom. Just like him to see the bright side in everything.
Remind me later that I have to find a flip flop to beat him with. ;)

I am curious as to what my pictures will look like. I really would like to see what the inside of my head looks like. How cool would that be.
I would totally frame the pictures and put them on my wall. :) I'd call it art.

Treximet rocks!

So I finally saw a Dr about my recurrent headaches. After ten years I figured it was about time, besides they are becoming more resistant to over-the-counter medications, not to mention they are becoming more frequent and last longer. Dr. asked me a ton of questions and decided to order some blood work, a CT scan of my head and gave me a prescription for a medication called Treximet. I now have a diagnosis of atypical migraine headaches.
I was a little hesitant about the possible side effects but aside from the little green antennae I have now grown, I feet a little sleepy and dizzy. But more importantly, my headache is long gone. I feel not even the slightest trace of headache. I feel really good.
Tomorrow I go for my CT scan. I hope they find a healthy brain in my head-no strange growths. My blood work was normal and I am sure my CT scan will be, too.

In other news, Sean is feeling much better. His blisters have healed up and he's back to attempting to start mayhem in every moment of his day.
Now we have to get a Dr's note clearing everyone in the house before David will be allowed to return to work. Blech.
In the meantime David has turned in many, many applications at other places throughout town. If nothing better comes along we will have to get the stupid Dr's note.
It's not like Sean had TB or typhoid or something ridiculous. Whatever. His boss is an imbecile.

Seaweed face masques feel very bizarre

I'm talking about when they dry and become all rubbery.Thank God that nobody was around to take a picture of me-I'm sure I looked quite frightening.
My first facial was a lovely experience, though I am not sure what it really accomplished, aside from an hour and a half of kid free relaxation (totally worth it!). I also got a brief hand and feet massage while my face masque turned to rubber. I even got my eye brows tweezed. I haven't ever done that since I never felt they were unruly. Now I have movie star eyebrows! Ok, not really...
The only part that I did not like was when they had some type of steam blowing at my face for a period of time. I literally felt like I was not receiving adequate oxygen intake. Slightly suffocating, not pleasant. I think that contributed to my headache this evening.
My skin looks very nice though.:)

Coxsackie A-16 and my poor Sean

Otherwise known as the lovely "Hand, foot, and mouth disease". My sick little guy developed blisters on his lips and inside his mouth earlier this week. As they got worse and he was having discomfort with eating, I decided to send him to the Dr.-where he was diagnosed with this lovely virus.
I am guessing he contracted it from an indoor playground we took the boys to a couple weeks ago. Since Sean loves to shove about anything in his mouth, it certainly is not a surprise!
He had a low grade fever today and seems to be just cranky and irritable at times- but he'll live. His blisters are drying up and healing so he's getting better. Poor guy.:(
Tomorrow we are doing a "Dreyer family beach outing" , very early-before the temperature reaches 400 degrees farenheit.
Ha ha, David just loves it when I make him do family outings. Actually, I think he might have a little bit of fun. Myself? I simply enjoy watching the boys be happy. I feel like I am doing my proper job as a parent if I can completely wear them out by the end of a day. Trust me, that is not any simple task when you have two little boys with seemingly endless energy!!! Okay ,it's actually only one-Seth never seems to get tired-ever. It takes ALOT to exhaust him...
Not so much to exhaust me, on the other hand. Speaking of...my bed is calling me. Night Night!

Does old hurt?

The other day Seth asked my mom this lovely question after he stepped on her toe and she said,"Ow!".
What is his thing about asking people if they are "old girls" or telling them that they are old? It's embarrasssing as heck!
If it's not that them he's critiquing people's oral hygiene, telling them that they have icky teeth or bad breath. What am I going to do with him!?

A couple more from the BBQ...

my sister, Fonda. Her daughter Amber and my mom

Mom and Amber

more BBQ pics

Mamaw, enjoying some watermelon
Sean being cute
Seth and Sean
Seth and I pushing Sean around in the toy car

Me, pushing both boys in a toy truck. We had alot of fun!

Pics from BBQ at my Dad's

These pics were taken a couple of months ago...

BBQ Ribs YUM!!!


Sean and David
My neice, Amber

my bro and his girlfriend-the life of the party, LOL

Um, me..bad pic.

And MORE pics!

more random pics

Finally, just what you've been waiting for...

I will post more pics tomorrow

The wisdom of the innocent

Today Seth insisted that I sit down on his toy box. Then he instructed David to do the same. Once we were all in our proper positions we asked Seth why we had to sit there. "'Cause I said" he replied ( This is his response for everything. ) We asked again, " Why did we have to sit here"
He replied, " Because we are family."
Made sense.
I keep attempting to rememeber all of the witty and clever things that Seth says in a day but I seem to forget them. Simply because these moments occur so frequently!
Like yesterday, as we were waiting in line at Big Lots, Seth had to take a survey of everyone's names that were in the line with us. Or the extremely embarrassing moment at the convenient store when he told an elderly lady that she was old and her teeth were "icky". ( I wanted to DIE)
Or the thousand times a day he informs me that his little brother is adorable.
He's a good boy.
Sean is trying his best to talk these days. Sometimes he babbles on and on like he's actually conversing in his own language. Sometimes I can pick up a word here and there. He says ," Nigh-nigh" and "behb" (baby) He says "Hi" and "Bye" very clearly and always waves at the appropriate time. Often, he will wave at say "bye" to random people in the store as we pass. them.
He says " ba" (bottle) "dooce" (juice) "me" (me) "yeah" ( yes) "bock-bock"( chicken sounds). I know there is more but my tired brain is slowing down.
"nigh-nigh":)

Happy independence day!

I always felt odd saying "happy fourth of july" because it's simply stating the day, technically. It would be like wishing someone a "happy fifteenth of November". The fourth of July does not state the purpose for the holiday. Independence day is more appropriate, in my opinion...Anyway.
David is at work so I was going to do some sparklers with Seth after I put Sean to bed. I only ever handle a lighter to light candles so fireworks were not on my list of favorite things to do. I prefer to let David blow stuff up. He enjoys it, I do not.
Oh, what luck!!!! Fortunately someone on the next street over- actually a couple people, I think- had some very cool fireworks and put on an rockin' display! Seth and I watched from the front window of my kitchen. We would hear the "boom" and then see the various sparkles and colors light up the smoky sky. Seth would state," The purple one is my favorite!" then "The red one is my favorite!" etc. They were all his favorite. I'm guessing the person must have spent a fortune on those fireworks because they were shooting them off one after another for a good 45 minutes! It was pretty neat and I am glad Seth and I got to have that experience.
I am so extraordinarily tired. Good Night.

Oooooh, the pain..in .my.head..

So I finally made an appt. with a primary physician about these recurring headaches. I have noticed that they are not responding to pain medications any longer. And it's not like I was taking them excessively-I only take them when I need them every few weeks when I get one of my headaches.
Tylenol, Ibuprofen, Vicodin, Percocet, Darvocet, even my trusty Excedrin migraine does not work any more. Nothing. Instead I am simply grumpy and irritable and want to claw my eyes out because it always feels like the headache is in the front top part of my head behind my eyes. If I could only open up my skull and scoop out the pain I would feel better.
Is it hormone flucuations related to my cycle? Lack of proper sleep? Poor diet? Stress? Eye strain? Brain tumor?
This has been going on for ten years and I am flippin' sick of it. Oddly enough I was headache free during pregnancy.
Good God, I need some relief. Ugh.

He's got the music biz all figured out...

Seth was dancing today in the living room to some song on the TV and as he tried to pull his hair over his eyes he explained," I'm a singer, I have beautiful hair."
I'm not exactly sure what one has to do with the other but it sounds good.


Per Sean's Dr. visit, he's all good. He is pretty normal (As normal as any kid of mine can get) but if his skin doesn't clear up in three months they will do blood work to determine if he has any food allergies. Bleh.
Apparently Sean cried during the exam and said" Da-da, da-da, bye-bye" at the appointment which absolutely broke David's heart.
My little Sean is cute as heck. I love my boys.

I feel the reason as it's leaving me, no, not again.

That Korn song lyric has been circling around and around in my head all stinking day! Good thing I really like the song.

The other day my sweet Seth grabbed a few dollars that were sitting on the kitchen table and ran to David handing it to him. "Here's a million dollars!, I got it from the bank!"
He's a good kid.

chaos

Oh my goodness. Normal people could not survive a day in this house. And I am not extraordinary my any means....
Of course, as soon as David left the house to pick up our Chinese food, Seth managed to somehow drain water from the fish tank through the bubbler tube creating a lovely pond in my living room. On my wood laminate floors, no less.
While I scrambled to mop up the water, Sean was in his high chair flinging his plate -and honey mustard- all over the floor.
I quickly tried to plop them in the bath, where ,at least, the walking disasters that are my boys could destroy merely one room in the house. And at least it would be a clean mess, right?
I decided to get the clean sheets out of the dryer. Once I got to my washer I had discovered that the clothes had not been transferred to the dryer. So I had to do that quickly as I heard the pitter patter of wet soapy feet running down the hallway.
I hurredly closed the garage door and went to get his PJs and diaper ready, expecting that Sean would follow me there. Since he was slipping everywhere I had to mop up the water puddles in the hallways not absolutely positive that it was all bath water, if you catch my drift. Once in the room I discovered a few plops of icky poopiness on the rug. Peeking across the hallway I noticed a small naked, formerly soapy, boy with horrible poopiness running down his legs, standing on the toilet lid next to the bathtub.
As I ran to clean him, I see more plops down the hallway leading into the kitchen. Did I mention that Seth, meanwhile, had thrown all of his bathtoys out of the tub because he "didn't like them."The floor was also quite puddly.
I did manage to clean all of the poo. And an awful poo it was..Eww.
Yes, it did all eventually get cleaned up. But it was no easy task.
I am exhausted.
I need to train them to clean up their own poo. And water puddles. And sweep up their own crumby messes. Heck, they should wash their own clothes, too. Why not?

Korn with a "K" or a "C"? I'm confused.

This isn't a recent Korn song by any means but there's nothing like a little rockin' bagpipes to make me smile. It's as cool as roskin' cello. BTW, Seth loves the Apocalyptica album. He says, " I like the violins playing"
Seth likes Korn now as well. Lately he says he likes music that is "faster".

Tonight we had corn on the cob for dinner. After David and I had a corn fight with the boys while Korn was playing in the other room, we had to specify it was corn with a "C".
Once upon a time my dad asked if I ever heard of a band called Korn with a "K" so now it has stuck. They will always be "Korn with a K".

Please pass the aloe cream, I'm pink and sore...

Today was Dreyer family beach day. And a very successful one at that. I assure you that in my youth I don't think I ever had as much fun as I do with my boys. Well, I probably did but that was long ago...
Anyway, since I am an old lady now with a bit of a belly pooch and stretch marks, I don't care to look sexy on the beach anymore. I could care less. David thinks I am hot stuff ,so as long as he's happy I need not worry. I am now secure in my imperfect skin. So I could concentrate on just having a nice time.
Sean just enjoyed running around the beach chasing sea gulls and waving "hi" to other beachgoers. Seth had alot of fun playing in the surf and playing in the sand. I just sat in the sand and made sandcastles with them. David and I took turns bringing them in the water. The water temperature was absolutely perfect and there was a slight breeze so it wasn't too hot.
We had a beautiful day. Unfortunately, the sunscreen I applied on everyone must have missed a few spots of something because we are all a bit pink and sore.
Oh well, the day was worth it.

Happy birthday to you and me!

That is how Seth wished me happy birthday yesterday. Not sure why he has such difficulty with the whole concept of birthdays. If anyone is having a birthday he thinks it's his as well. I think egocentricity is quite common in kids of that age, so I won't worry just yet.
We had a delightful meal at my grandmother's with all of my favorite people in attendance. And I had a birthday cake! I fully agree that one isn't ever too old for a birthday cake. ( We want cake! Where's our cake!) I love cake.
Then, later that evening, I picked up my brother's girlfriend (And one of Seth's very favorite people) Heather. We went out to Red Lobster and had appetizers. I rarely go out after dark, or by myself, so it was nice to go have some adult time and a nice chat.
I don't feel 31. I've decided I am going to go backwards as of age 30 so that would make me 28 now.;)

Fabulous Disaster

I may be wrong but I think that rings a bell as a title of an Exodus album title many, many years ago. Why do I remember that? I never even liked Exodus.
Anyway, maybe I remember that title since it seems to relate to something at one point of my day-every day.
Like when Sean dumps his pomegranate blueberry juice onto his pizza and splashes it around. Or when the boys are playing in the kiddie pool with their toys and somehow they have every toy out and strewn from one edge of the patio to the other. Or either of their rooms at about any given time of the day.
All of these things qualify as Fabulous Disasters.
Sometimes I think that it could describe my life in general. Not necessarily a horrible thing. My life could be a miserable disaster, right? So a Fabulous Disaster isn't bad, just imperfect. Aren't we all?

Have I become jaded?

These days I am finding it difficult to sympathize with people when they do stupid things and then something bad happens to them.
Like the patient at my work that was in his 50s but appeared much older due to his liver cirrhosis that he developed from many years of heavy drinking. AND he was on the transplant list for a new liver-since he had been clean for 10 years. Clean or not I think a liver could be used by my someone more deserving.
He never got it. He died. He was a nice man though.
Or another patient that was extremely morbidly obese and was barely mobile by the age of 60. He had heart issues and diabetes and, of course, a history of drinking. And overeating as well. Hard to feel too sorry for him.

So when my youngest son dives off of the back of the couch splitting his lip open after being told many, many times NOT to climb up there. And having his hand smacked several times. It's hard to feel too horrible for the poor kid. As my son came crying to me, I asked him," Well, what did you think would happen when you jumped over the back of the couch onto a wood floor?"
Of course, since he is only 1, he did not respond. He just drooled some bloody saliva onto his chin.
I know, I know. I am very cruel, but come on! Will he learn now? Not likely. He'll make the attempt again tomorrow.

Then David comes stumbling in the front door comaplining that he tripped and fell and hit his head really hard and he was having blurry vision and could not walk straight. First of all, I wondered why he even drove himself home if he felt so poorly.
Then I asked if he had been drinking at all.
"Not really, I had a couple martinis"
I'm still baffled by the thought that he actually thought his symptoms were caused by his fall- not the alcohol. Denial is not just a river in Africa, my friend.
But I told him to go to bed. He felt badly about it all, and was feeling rather ill. I figured that in the morning he will suffering enough.

Poor guy. But I am concerned about his health. He doesn't live healthily, at all. Unfortunately I've seen too many people that abused their body throughout life and it just doesn't end well. Their golden years aren't as golden with all of the hospital visits and rehab and surgical procedures. I'd rather spend those years traveling and taking cruises after the kids leave home.
I don't want to go all alone.

Side note to the previous post...

After seeing the AFI video for Miss Murder, Seth kept trying to pull his hair to one side over his eye like the singer, "Like this?" He kept asking.
Weird.
I told him he was far cuter than the guy in the video could ever hope to be.
Am I going to have to go back and watch a Faith No More video to get the AFI guy's uglyness out of my head? Ugh. I need pleasant visions in my head before bed.
You have to admit, the AFI guy is cerainly no trip to Hollywood. I guess we can't all be pretty..;)

Um, that was sarcasm there at the end in case you didn't catch that.

I am my own Jedi?

AFI-"Miss Murder"
For some reason David thinks it sounds like they say "I am my own Jedi" So that's what Seth calls this song- and he loves it.
Cool song but eye shadow on thi singer isn't doing anything for him, neither is that hair...

The Perfect Caper will save the day!

As many of you already know, The Perfect Caper is the name of the restaurant that David is employed by.
Also, as many of you may know, my oldest son is a sponge. He has an exorbitant memory. Even so, I found it quite funny when, after his bath, I wrapped him in a towel and he decided that he was the "Perfect Caper!" David thinks it's hilarious and shared this story with his coworkers.
Now ever night when I wrap him in his towel post-bath he proclaims that he is the Perfect Caper.
Other times of the day he decides that he is a talking racecar, a talking squirrel, a talking wallaby, a robot boy, or a super hero. I never know what he is going to be. But he ceratinly does not lack imagination!

Rommy's saddest night.

Yesterday while I made my bed I noticed that the house was very silent. Silence with two young boys in the house =TROUBLE. Anyway I was pleased that they were playing so well in the living room. As I sat down on the couch Sean was removing the cover for the storage pocket in the center of their Cars table, Seth was yelling at him because his lizard was in there and he might get away.
"Lizard?" I asked. Setth explained that he had caught a lizard on the porch and he was going to keep him as a pet.
I immediately got a plastic Gladware container and put holes in the top for his lizard. No way any lizard was going to live in my furniture!
Seth decided to name him "Rommy" (Rommy?, who knows) Seth kept shaking the container and turning it upside down and spinning it. I said Rommy's going to get sick if you keep doing that.
When Seth went to bed I decided I was going to let Rommy go.
Unfortunately I forgot and poor Rommy sat on the kitchen table in a plastic container all night. Poor little lizard, now between my son's torturing him and being trapped in the container all night he will require years of therapy.
I let him go this morning. The cat was sitting outside waiting for breakfast and immediately ran after Rommy. I didn't wait to see if she caught him or not.
Maybe he was better off on the kitchen table...

My new favorite song..

Apocalyptica featuring Corey Taylor ( Slipknot/Stone Sour)
This is a Finnish band that is made of one drummer and three classically trained cellists. They sure can make them sound like guitars though! I never thought I'd hear heavy metal cello, but this is cool. I couldn't get the actual vid to play on my blog so I had to pick this Anime cartoon that is set to the song.

I guess he's no box of rocks.

Today as Seth was looking at the picture encyclopedia he proclaimed," That's a chameleon, they eat bugs. And they change colors,too"
I replied,"Yes, you're correct. You are one smart cookie."
He corrected me," I'm not a cookie, I'm a boy."
What a nut.

If I stop watering my kids, will they stop growing?

Yesterday at gallery walk David remarked that the stroller with the boys in it was awfully difficult to push. We joked to Seth, "You need to stop growing, you two are getting too big!". Seth replied, "Okay, I stopped."
Later that evening David was misting the garden in the backyard and the boys were running throught the water. It apparently was enourmously great fun since there was lots of laughter occurring. I stated to David, "If we water them, will that mean they will grow more?" We laughed.
Today I told Seth that he was getting taller and taller and getting to be such a big boy. He told me," That's because you water us, Mommy."
Makes sense to me. If only it was so easy, I could save a lot of money on my grocery bill.

So I'm on a Faith No More kick tonight..so what?

I guess if David hadn't come along I might have held out for Mike Patton. He's a very, very good looking man. Not as hot as my husband, of course..

Faith No More - Midlife Crisis

One of the best songs EVER!Does it make any sense at all? Do I care? It's a kickin' song.

Free food rocks

Yesterday the nursing staff at work was ( were?) treated to Olive Garden for nurses week. It was superb, of course. And then today we were treated to a "fish fry" for having the most participation is some employee survey late last year. It was also superb.
I sure wissh my work fed me lunch every day. Then again I might end up a bit on the large side. Did I mention that I had two pieces of cake today? One was sent by a home health agency for nurses week and the other was at the fish fry.
I love cake. ( We want cake! Where's our cake?) :)
I got my stimulus check in the bank today, Yippeee, I get to go stimulate the economy tomorrow!
I love stimulating the economy. I wish I could stimulate it more and give money to my friends and family so they could go stimulate it as well. Oh, good times.

It's a beautiful day!

Seth seems to proclain this on a regular basis. He seems to find the bright side in most things.
I am quite certain he cannot truly be related to David nor I.
Sean is quite the little ball of sunshine as well.
How did two blah pessimists who are prone to depressive episodes and extreme moodiness create two little exceptionally happy little people? Is it because they are young yet? Or are we doing something right?
I hope they always stay happy. :)
I love my little smiley guys.

Motherhood is not for wimps!

The youngest occupants of my household were formerly known as Boy 1 and Boy 2. Eh, it kinda stuck and I always seem to call them by their incorrect names-good thing I don't have more than two!
Now they are Monster 1 and Monster 2. Today was awful!! How awful, you ask? (Since inquiring minds want to know!) Horribly awful..
While Sean was napping I was laying down on my bed. Seth was playing with his cars on me. I was " Mommy Mountain". While playing this game I got smacked in the head twice witht the car. Damn, that hurt. Not his fault though. Sean slept only briefly and woke up with a God-awful smelling poopie diaper. It also appeared as if a tornado had just passed through his room. While I fed him his snack Seth made a horrible mess in his room.
Then I made the ridiculously stupid decision to spackle and paint a little in Seth's room. While I was spackling Seth stole my paintbrush and Sean took my screwdiver....Then while I was touching up with the paint Seth climbed up on hte table and stole the spackle which Sean then "painted" on the TV, coffee table, windows, oh and there were plenty of the chunks on the floor. Then he was trying to eat the stuff,too. While I was trying to clean that Sean was making body prints in the paint, destroying his nice outfit.
I threw them both in the bath.
Then all evening it seemed while I was cleaning up after one kid the other was trying to climb on the kitchen table or open the cat food bag or destroy something. I went into the bathroom for one whole minute and I hear screaming from the living room. Who knows what happened but there wasn't any blood, so it couldn't have been that bad...It was constant. Just when I think I've locked them out of the proper rooms and put everything hazardous out of reach they have found some new way to detroy something, or someone is sitting on the top edge of the couch or turning his sippy cup upside down to watch the juice drop, drop, drop out until there is a big ol' puddle.
Good God, these two will be the death of me.
They are super duper loving and huggy boys, and insanely happy, which is how they always redeem themselves after running me ragged. But I don't know how people have done it all of these years, since the beginning of time , without going a little nutty.
I need a vacation from these two. Eh, maybe simply a nice massage will do...

To all of my fellow nurses..

On a sad note..

Two of my long term care patients have had children die on Thursday. One of which was one of the Hager twins from "Hee Haw" that has sorta been in the news( if you really look). The mom has been very upset since she found out yesterday(obviously). The other one is the daughter of another lady I take care of. She used to come in almost daily and spend at least one meal a day with her mom. Very nice lady. Both were sudden deaths.
I have seen my share of death in my line of work and I haven't been too affected by it. When you see someone suffer you feel almost relieved when they go. Besides, everyone I take care of is very elderly-so they have had long and fruitful lives.
But the thought of outliving a child really bothers me. Whether the child is 6 or 60 I don't know how I would handle it. And I hope I never have to find out.:(

Are you old?

Seth has to ask this of every poor elderly soul he sees. It's horribly embarrassing. Fortunately, much of the time they don't hear him well enough to know what he actually said. I've been trying to tell him that older people don't necessarily like to be reminded of the fact. Unless, they are 90 and then they like to brag about it.
Today Seth found a dead bug on the windowsill. He claimed it was dead because his wife killed him because he was too mean. She also lives in the bushes outside the window. How does he think up this stuff?

Now showing on ESPN 8 "the ocho"!

Yesterday the boys and I went to the Redfish tounament festival thing going on in Punta Gorda. Now, apparently, according to the newspaper, this event was televised. I wonder who in the heck would televise it and even more puzzling, who would watch it?
A bunch of guys go out in boats and catch a redfish in the harbor and then they weigh them ( the fish not the guys) to see who caught the biggest redfish. Boooring. Well, I did go to the festival, but I was just looking for something to do outside on a lovely day. Seth liked to look at all of the colorful boats- they all have ads on them from different companies so they were very pretty. Seth also wanted to see the fish but they were too far away, besides I don't think that he was clear on the concept that the fish were not in the water. I'm not sure if they release the fish after they are weighed or not. We walked around the park aimlessly and Sean napped in the stroller. Of course, by the time we got home he was all slept out and wanted to stay awake..
After Sean's nap we are going to the beach, it's another spectacular day so I am going to make David get his buns out of bed and go with us! I just cannot stand staying in the house on a day such as this.

Hilarity at its finest

One of the funniest Adam Sandler movie moments ever!

It's all fun and games until someone gets hurt..

Sean is now sporting a lovely laceration on his L eyebrow.
While Seth and Sean were wrestling in the clean clothes somehow Sean's head smacked into the rocking chair in his room. So in a mere millisecond laughter become crying. I was rather unsure whether he needed a couple stiches, you would think I would be able to assess that adequately being a nurse and all, but I guess not. Anyway, I called my personal ask-a-nurse, my mom ( who is also on my speed dial as 1-800-icancook, 1-800-iknowkids, and 1-800-iknowstuff) who advised me to simply place a butterfly strip over it to hold the skin edges together since it wasn't very big. While I was on the phone Sean was happily destroying a birthday card on the table like nothing had ever happened. So I knew he wasn't going to be emotionally scarred for life.
I guess I was more afraid that his cute little face would be marred for life but I suppose his eyebrow will cover the scar.
Good God, I'm tired. I'd like to take one whole day to simply catch up on sleep. How long until I can retire?

Did I ever tell you that I dislike change?

I like everything same, same, same!!! But today I got crazy and decided to stray from my usual hair dye color- Loreal's Red Penny. The cream kind. I got Loreal Ferie bright auburn which pretty much turned my hair, um, brownish red. Mostly brownish. I assure you that the girl on the box had much redder hair.
I dyed David's hair as well, I suppose it will just give him some highlights.
That's what I get for changing.
Earlier today a patient made the wonderful remark that I appeared to be about 20 or 22. She was surprised to hear I was 30. She is now my favorite patient.
Anyway, I suppose with this much darker hair I probably look 40. Blech.

It that time of year again! Yard work, Dreyer style.

We ( All four of us) have been working hard fixing up the yard and our garden. No easy task with two little guys running around! David and I mostly take turns doing the work while the other chases the kids. Seth isn't too bad but Sean likes to run into the road, play in the neighbors yards, play in antpiles, splash in the birdbath, eat mulch, eat dirt, eat rocks, eat flowers, eat weeds...I'm seeing a pattern here.
Seth is content to play in the sandbox or with his bubbles. He even helps pick some weeds and pick up plant trimmings and put them in the garbage can. He tries.
Now I have a lovely garden of various herbs, a few veggies, and marigolds. My landscaping looks nice for once-minus the less that beautiful lawn but we can't really water it these days. Water shortage and all..

It's going to take some work to keep it looking nice and no task is simple with a 1 year old and a 3 year old hanging around. Isn't it funny that the two of them will follow Mother Hen (me) around the house all day but as soon as I open the door they will run in opposite directions away from me?

And now for something a little different...

The Kooks - She Moves In Her Own Way - Apparently this band is big in the UK but I haven't heard much from them here. Wonder why. I like them. :)

And now by special request..Little Einsteins!"

David is now taking song requests, just so you know. Yesterday Seth requested the Little Einsteins theme song and amazingly enough, David figured out out to play it on his guitar in, oh, 5 seconds and sing much of the song to Seth's great delight. Seth's hand suddenly morphed into a spaceship and he ran all around the room making it fly. This morning Seth requested I sing it. Sorry kid, no can do.
Today is the first day in my recent history that bedtime hasn't been a horrible, painful, sordid affair for all parties involved. Sean actually went to sleep without crying and jumping out of bed several times and Seth was content to merely finish "reading" his books in his room quietly and them putting himself in bed. Without crying and screaming.
I guess I'll have to take them to the mall playground at 7 PM every day. Heck, it seemed to do the trick.
Sean's problem may be the fact that he's got two molars coming in, just a theory though. Maybe that's it. Seth on the other hand, he's just a night owl like his mom and dad.

Today is David's 35th birthday. And he's working, poor guy. But we are going out to eat tomorrow to celebrate. Geez, I can't believe I'm married to a 35 year old. (I bet he can't believe he's married to a 30 year old!) Honestly, David doesn't appear 35, or act it. Or maybe it just seems that way to me since I met him when he was about 25.
David and I joke that we are old people now. It sure feels like it, but maybe it has something to do with us both having full time jobs and two young boys. Maybe.
I can't imagine my life without my wonderful spouse and I hope I get to keep him for at least another 10 years.
Happy Birthday, David Dreyer. Muah!

What the heck was that!?

Late yesterday evening ,after I had put the boys to bed, I was sitting at the kitchen table when I began to experience horrible upper abdomen pain. I thought maybe it was just awful gas pain or something. But it got worse and worse over a few minutes and I went to go lie down. It still got worse and worse-it felt as if a tight band was around my upper abdomen and pulling tighter and tighter and tighter! It was killing my back, but I couldn't figure out which hurt worse my front or my back. I was bent over my bed with one arm bracing my back and the other bracing my front wondering if my esophagus was strangulating or if I had some perforation in my stomach somewhere. In any case I started to think that maybe I should seek medical assistance in case I was having a ruptured aneurism or something. (Um, I'm serious here, it was that bad! I assure you that too much knowledge could be a bad thing in my case.)
I started to put my shoes on to go to the ER and wait for David to get home, I was hunched over standing in the middle of the driveway trying not to hperventilate from panic. The pain was increasingly intense, It reminded me of labor contractions. But the contraction got stuck, and it was in my upper abdomen.
Anyway, very soon after David arrived, it went away completely leaving only a little soreness in my right upper back ( I still feel it very, very slightly) It almost feels slightly bruised inside my back.
David told me to rest in bed and I went to sleep early.
What happened to me? Maybe I will never know, but it apparently resolved itself within about 15 minutes, thank God.
Gallstones? Pancrease or stomach inflammation? Aliens attacking me from the inside? God smiting me for something?
I just hope it doesn't happen again.

Chef David

David is apparently doing excellently at his job. His bosses are very impressed with his performance and are really taking a liking to him. Supposedly they will be expanding the restaurant before too long and David may be promoted to prepping food for the head chef. David actually seems to be enjoying this job as well. He always cooks dinner at home and he's quite good at it. I certainly can't complain!