I didn't used to be drama, did I?

Went to the urologist - for matthew - today. Let me first complain about appointment times. Ours was at 1030, I was told to come early to fill out paperwork. We showed up at 1005 (pulled Matthew out of school), filled out paperwork, then waited in the waiting area until 10:50 when I asked if the dr was even there. (this has happened a few times with ob/gyn) They call us back to his office, then at 1122 the dr comes in. How rude is that? I pulled Matthew out of school for that? anyhow, apparently matthew saying his body isn't telling him when he needs to pee might actually be the truth. Your bladder is a muscle, and him holding it all this time so that he can keep on playing, has increased the muscle mass around the bladder. It might still be sending the signals, but he honest-to-God might not be feeling them. Solution - we need to atrophy his bladder a little bit. He needs to pee every hour for a few weeks, then stretch it out to every two hours and see how that goes. Plus he needs to 'double-pee" when he actually does go, because he probably isn't completely emptying out his bladder when he goes. The nighttime problem wont even get addressed until the daytime problem is resolved. We revisit the dr in about 2 months to see how things are going. Plus, (YAY) we get to go back to our favorite X-ray place for an organ scan (ultrasound?) to make sure his kidneys and bladder are fine. I'm going to try to get a copy for home, so that he can take it for show and tell. With me taking the anatomy class, he seems to be very interested on what's going on inside. how many days til Christmas?

out of the mouths...

***warning - not for the weak***
I'm getting Brandon ready for bed tonight, he's naked. Naturally, he's um, checking out the parts. Anyhow, he goes "Mommy, I think I feel balls in here. Why are there balls in here?" My first reaction (an audible gasp) goes unnoticed by him. He's just staring at me, waiting for a response, I guess. Then he goes "I think that's where the gnocchi is." I did all I could to not spit my laughter in his face. It was awesomely brilliant! I was proud and disgusted all at the same time.
Happy thanksgiving!

priorities

We had a lovely, crazy weekend a day or so ago. Saturday was our God-daughter's 9th birthday party. Saw a fun movie, had some good food, chatted with some peeps, then headed to Elk Grove to sleep on a marshmallow. I swear, I do not know how people sleep on such soft cushy beds. It was HORRIBLE. Then Sunday spent 3 hours with an agent touring homes in the area. Found the perfect house, yard, and neighborhood, only not within one specific house. We are in the fact finding portion of our journey. Finding what we agree on (pool)(big yard) vs what we don't agree on (proximity to Dos Coyotes, for example). Caylynne and Selene watched the kids for us - they think we were out Christmas shopping. Which is sort of true - momma wants a really BIG present this year. Then it was off to Novato for dinner and grandchild drop off. Matthew is out of school this week while Brandon and I are not. Which reminds me, I need to call him right NOW and say good night. Ok, done. He sounds beat. Excellent. Anyhow, then it was back home by about 8pm, and I was snoring by 815pm. Hectic hectic weekend. And we get another one in just a few days. More house hunting, bad sleeping, a birthday party, and Thanksgiving right around the corner. Can't wait!

the light bulb came on

I had an epiphany today while driving. It really was an ah-ha kind of moment. I was driving back from Sacramento, after an annoying chat with a nursing school person, and it hit me. The reason I want to move. I actually side tracked a little through Davis and got on the 113 there to head back home, and the sheer beauty of their own little highway just really overtook me. There was this huge green grass area between northbound and south bound lanes. Then on the sides there were trees, with leaves changing colors. The freeway wasn't 8 lanes wide, with industrial buildings and billboards along the side. It was beautiful. Then I got to 80, and on the sides of the freeway there, was farmland. Green unadulterated land. It just kind of caught me off guard for how much I missed seeing areas without buildings. Then I thought about growing up in Santa Maria. If you traveled south from where we lived, it was hills, cows, shrubbery. And I mean, like one mile south. I thought about it and realized I don't want to live on a farm. That's not why I want to move. It was the simplicity of everything when I lived in these places. Growing up seemed rough at the time, but it was simple. Homework was short, and then it was over. School was what you did to be social and see your friends that you didn't see on the weekends. The weekends were for part time work to earn some money to go see a few movies after work. No health insurance woes. No "can't lose my job or else how will we eat" struggles. No "where should we raise the kids" discussions because we were the kids and our parents picked a great place. Then there was Davis and Sacramento. Even then, I worked mon-friday and my money was my money. Sure there was rent, but I never worried about it. I guess if I had lost my job, I would have asked the parents for help until I found another job. Still pretty care free. Then I moved to Oakland and everything changed. It's hard to grow up, with the glory days of my youth behind me. I just can't help but believe that it we get back to a town where I have heart, things will be simpler and easier and more carefree for my kids and their parents.

Happy halloween!

translation needed

On the walk to school this morning a mom came up to me and said, "I really like your style - it reminds me of the grunge look." ummmmmmmmmmmmm I told her that I didn't know how to take that. It's apparently mostly to do with that I wear long sleeves under a short sleeve shirt. I wasn't even dressing up for Halloween. It's seriously just the way I dress. Grunge. What a way to start my day. I HATED grunge. Kurt Cobain. ew. But now, that's how I look. I'm slightly crushed. And now I'm going to think about it all day today.

the day formerly known as "Wednesday"

We should have all stayed in bed yesterday. Period. The day would have been better, I am quite sure. It started at 605am when my alarm went off. I noticed Steve was already up and in the bathroom, so I didn't get up right away. Got up, got the kids up and going. Steve was downstairs hustling around, so I just assumed he was getting breakfast ready for the kids. OOPS. don't assume, Heather. We get downstairs at about 715, I leave at 730. steve was cleaning up the kitchen from the night before, not doing breakfast. Ok. I get the kids situated with breakfast, get their lunches ready - set them by the door, and head out at 737. 7 minutes late, but still make it to class on time. Cell phone vibrates during class around 9am. Check the VM around 905. It's the preschool saying Brandon doesn't have a lunch and would I bring it by before 1130? Take my quiz, then call Steve to find out if he left the lunch at home or if he took it all the way to work. No, it's at home. and by the way, the director of the preschool mentioned this morning that one of the children have H1N1. School is not closing, but it's there. Now, it's 930am and I'm getting all of this info. I still have 75 minutes of school left. Finish my chem lab, stop by the house, pick up Brandon's lunch, take it to school, get home, shower, and check the pediatrician's website for H1 vaccine info. Amazingly, they have "limited amounts" of the vaccine and will be offering a drop in clinic from 2p-4p that very day! Ok, I'm board so far. Leave at 1220 to pick up Brandon, then drove to another preschool to pick up Charlie. Get home. Start a movie, then leave at 120 to pick up Matthew and Maggie. Get home. Matthew's complaining BIG time that he's starving and i didn't give him enough for lunch. Tough. Send everyone to the bathroom while I pack up snacks for the dr's office. Head to the dr's office, get off the elevator at the 3rd floor to a sea of people. Ask about the location of the end of the line and someone told me it was down the stair well. Someone else tells me that they only have 60 doses of the vaccine anyhow. Ok. Go look for the end of the line down the stairs. At the bottom of the 3 flights of stairs is the end of the line. Give up entirely and play at the park across the street. Play for an hour or so, come back home. I'm realizing we had a revolving door on the house yesterday. It's about 315, we are home, I need to eat, kids need to eat, do homework, etc. I make some bean n cheese burritos for the kids (except Charlie), get some food for me. At 345, Hannah and Alex show up for their hour here. 430, start packing up food & water because matthew has soccer practice at 5. Hannah and Alex get picked up at 5, we pull out of the driveway right after them. Bay Bridge is closed so traffic was super light. Get to practice, let Maggie, Charlie, and Brandon run around while Matthew is playing soccer. 3 kids eat everything I brought. leave practice, drop off Charlie and Maggie, get home. 638pm. Make the boys dinner, get them showered, and we all fall into my bed at 725. Steve was enjoying a lovely night of frisbee somewhere else. By about 815 I'd guess, we were all asleep. Phew. Hoping for a better day today.

focus heather, focus

It's Tuesday today. All day, as some will say. (those some are lame, I must add). We still have some sort of sickness hanging in the house. I woke up with a stuffy head today and I still hear Brandon and Matthew coughing. Steve seems to be oblivious to all of it. Catching it, hearing it, helping out with it. By helping out with it, I mean Steve's just not willing to be at work all day then come home and make dinner and do laundry and put the kids to bed all by himself, while I lay in a lump on our bed. Yea, I ask a lot. But if you ask for a lot and only get a little, that's still better than asking for nothing and getting it. Right?
Halloween's coming. Finally (two days ago) got Matthew a costume. Some golden dragon ninja knight thing. I don't really know, but he liked it, and more importantly, it fit. Brandon is going to be a red Power Ranger - without a weapon. Trust me, he's not happy about not that part. No Power ranger sword or gun thing. I keep telling him that if he's holding a weapon, he wont be able to hold the candy bag. Not that I'm against arming my children, mind you. I just think we have enough weaponry already. Do I really need something else to get beaten by? The answer here is no. Clearly. I haven't decided if I'm dressing up or not yet. Last year I was feeling it a lot more than this year. So probably not. I never found the beautiful golden wig I wanted for the angel costume (my true self), so I scrapped the whole idea. BAH humbug, I say.
On the plus side, I found out I currently have a 93% in my chemistry class. Yay! Of course, it doesn't count for anything - it's just a pre-req for microbiology in the spring. But still, it's nice to see. And if I don't leave now and start studying for my bio exam tonight then I wont be seeing that B I want.

the sickness needs to go away

Another day, another list of unfinished things to do. Matthew stayed home today, Brandon was supposed to go to a play date, but since he was still coughing, I kept him home too. Let me just say that both boys home for several days, at the same time, well, it's just not a good idea. Then today's thing to do on MY list was take the car to the shop. So we did that anyway. Then during the 2.5 hours the car was in the shop and we were wandering around Lafayette, the kids were bored. We did spend 1.5 hours in the cleanest Jack in the Box I've ever seen. Get back to the repair shop only to have the mechanic tell me he would drive me to the nearest BART station, but he wouldn't let me take the car home. "It's not safe to drive" he said. Fine. Get that little snafu wrapped up, get home for the cost of a hopefully yummy burrito. (cabs are cheap around here). Then it's off to my hematologist, who annoys me. My appt was for 215, I was there by 2 because I only go once/year and they always have to update my records. Get seated in the room by 220 and am told that the dr just called and should really be in (to the office itself) by 230. Yay me. Finally shows up at 245, which I'm kind of expecting because he's never been even close to on time. Rush out of there - kids in tow - to stop at the gas station, then get home, cleaned up, head out (with Steve) to Novato for Steve's bday dinner. Home at 8pm'ish. Should be making lunches, doing homework, picking out clothes for tomorrow, etc. But the Italian Job is on and it's distracting me. I love this movie, so sue me.
Tomorrow is a quiz, homework due, must get to Lafayette for the car, childcare in the afternoon, soccer practice at 5. It was so busy today I forgot to feed the kids lunch. How bad is that? What ever should I make for dinner tomorrow?

schedule, what schedule?

You know how when you wake up, you have a general idea of how your day will go? School, studying, library, home, meals, laundry, etc, whatever. Then life happens and laughs out loud in your face at why you even bothered to make a mental plan.
I started the day knowing I needed to get home right after class this morning because Steve was home with a sick Matthew, and needed to get to work. In between my two classes, I call the dr and get an 1115appt to have my finger looked at. Get out of class early, smooth, get home much earlier than anticipated, Steve gets to work, Matthew and I leave for the dr. Still gravy smooth. (for those of you who like "bits" in your gravy, you'll get your wish, also). From the dr, we travel to the xray lab. Where we sit and wait and sit and wait and wait and sit some more. Over an hour later, we were home. Phone rings, answer it, chatting, door bell rings, it's a contractor. Hang up the phone (which I just now remember I need to call her back still), walk around the house with a contractor, he leaves. I remember to return a call from earlier this morning about babysitting this afternoon. As I'm talking with this dad, saying yes, I can babysit your son today, my cell phone rings. Thinking it's the dr's office (way too soon, I now realize), I hang up the phone with a promise to call back and pick up the cell. Right, it's the preschool asking me to come and pick up Brandon. Hang up that phone, call the dad back suggesting I not watch his son this afternoon, go and pick up Brandon. As of 145pm, this was my day. Poor Steve took his sandwich bread for lunch, but left the tri tip at home. It's just one of those days today. stay tuned for future pinky posts.

Weds brought to you by M&M

not the good kind. Migraines and mid terms. Honestly, I blame the whole migraine on the stupid pinky splint. It was probably the most painful migraine I've ever had. Took the midterm, don't even remember driving home (no stalkers today, thankfully), took some meds, found a bag of frozen blueberries to put on my face and went to sleep for an hour. Woke up and it was worse, which really stunk. Puked, went and picked up brandon, came back, nibbled on graham crackers, left 40 mins later to go get Matthew. By about 3pm, everything was over. Except for the starvation and exhaustion. Made some yummy dinner then started feeling the pain coming back, so had another dose of excedrin. Thought I was so exhausted that it wouldn't matter. Alas, I was wrong. It's 90 mins later and I'm awake. Probably fine, since I have a quiz tomorrow night on the major arteries and veins.
Heard a 4 year old use the term "gravy" yesterday. Was quite funny. Brandon was showing his friend some of his artwork and his friend said "oh I did that at my school. It was so gravy easy." I cracked up. Kids are amusing.
My husband however, is not so amusing. He stays up late watching stupid stuff on tv like this Sandra Bullock movie about her husband who keeps dying. There HAS to be something better on. And if there's not, he should be able to turn the tv off and I don't know, read a book, or surf the net like the rest of the world. Nope. I think this is because he was deprived of tv as a kid. Not me. And not my kids either. I don't want my future daughter-in-laws to know the TV face like I do.
Oh, I forgot to mention the 3 different piles of cat puke in the house today. I'm so loved, it's ridiculous.

Slowing down

My sister (ER Nurse) made me splint my pinky because it's been swollen for several weeks now. says its not healing properly because I keep using it. I made my own splint today - remember those old school ice cream cups? You know, the ones that came with their own flat wooden spoons? yep, I found two of those spoons in a drawer and taped them around my finger this afternoon. Oh yea, this was after I slammed the drawer open (open, seriously. Didn;t know you could do that, but you can) and smashed the light bulb which was inside the drawer. This led to an impromptu cleaning of the drawer, which surpringly didn't lead to my getting cut.
Being dumb and avoiding studying again. Worked hard on chemistry until about 1130 this morn, then chatted with my niece, went to the grocery store, and then caught up on grey's anat and desp. housewives. It's all gonna be ok though because I say so. Went to mom's this weekend for my little sister's engagement party. Took warm clothes because it was supposed to be 80. I don;t think it got past 65. Thankfully they have a macys and I have a credit card! Did you know when you are getting your blood pressure taken, the nurse is listening for the start of blood flowing back into your arm? They cut off the circulation with the pressure, then ever so slightly lessen the pressure so blood can start coming through again. It makes a sound - how cool is that? Or did you all already know that?
Oh yea, I'm slowing down on my posts because well, I just can keep up to be honest. Still have all the random thoughts flowing through my head, just can't always sit down to type them out. Like parking stalkers - have I complained about them yet? Last week, I started walking zig zag to my car (at school) just to screw with the stalkers. is that wrong?

how cute are they?

Yes folks, grown men dressing up. In costumes. Elizabethan pirate costumes, if you will. All for the love of the Renaissance Faire. This was actually a couple of weeks ago, but I just figured out how to post a picture here (thanks, Nancy) AND this is the only pic on the new laptop. More to come, I am sure. Left to right - Steve, Scott, Rob

my pre-lunch lunch

Put the curry chicken in the crock pot at 730 this morning, went to school. Came home at 11 and was really disappointed that the house didn't smell of curry yet. But thinking of the curry while at school made me hungry. so now I sit with my bag of lightly salted trader joes ridge cut potato chips. And some sour cream for a dip. And a diet pepsi, duh. I have many things to write about, but I must go get Brandon from preschool. Feel free to pull up an easy chair for the next post or two - it's gonna be a long one.

Monday monday

Just found out today was school picture day. A little frustrated with that news. The payment envelope came home on Friday, but since we were at the dr's on friday, we didn't get the note. Jennifer said I should have known from some other source, but I didn't. So now, I'm taking a button front shirt to the school after their lunch hour to see if I can get a decent picture of matthew. I usually don't buy the school pictures because they are so bad, BUT negligent mommy failed to get matthew's annual picture taken on his birthday this summer. This mommy stuff is very cumbersome.
Matthew is doing much better today. Went to school without the crutches.
Brandon got a poor haircut yesterday. I mean poor by about all standards. Steve almost took him back to Supercuts to have them fix it. I ever-so-slightly fixed it enough to make it look better, but I'm hoping he doesn't have picture day anytime soon. Hopefully I wont know about that one either, so I wont need to stress about it in the meantime.
My school gets more difficult by the day. Steve's company merged with another, a process he's quite used to by now, but there are no job worries there. Which is too bad, really. He'd really LOVE to be laid off, with some sort of package, of course. I would be fine with that also. Would be nice to have an extra set of hands around this house.

so much for a well oiled machine

Where to start today. Flash backward to Thursday evening. Matthew, Charlie, and Brandon are all jumping in the trampoline. Steve comes home and I leave to go to school. I call at my 8pm break (clearly a mistake that will not happen again) and find out Matthew hurt his ankle shortly after I left. No biggie, he's a kid, that's what happens. Then at 10p, I'm home and going to bed. Steve checks on Matthew's ankle and I hear "Uh, Heather, you should look at this". Yea, he's got a baseball where his ankle used to be. Zoom to Friday 9am: call the dr's office, get a 950 appt and get ready to head out. I did a lot of piggy backing Matthew while holding Brandon's hand on Friday. I was on the heating pad off and on throughout the afternoon. That kid is big. Anyhow, went from dr to xray lab - different location. Nothing broken, fortunately. From xray lab to Longs to pick up some Motrin, (and a pepsi for mom), then a drive through Wendys for a special treat for the boys - which worked well for me, meaning I didn't have to make them lunch, then home. I found a nice parent in the neighborhood who had crutches for us to borrow, but I didn't have the energy to piggy back Matthew to the neighbor's house to get them. Waited for Steve to get home, then I walked over. He's hobbling around ok today. It'll be 1-2 weeks to heal, but he will definitely be back in school Monday. Yesterday was totally exhausting. I'm happy for the weekend.

ode to Ed

In my first attempt at college, one of my housemates would occassionally make a heart attack sandwich. I just about replicated it today: toasted whole wheat english muffin (he used regular bread), mayo, slice of tillamook sharp cheddar, heated up some linguica slices and put that on the cheese, then fried an egg in the linguica fat, and put that into the sandwich last. OMG. My dietary habits are so bad.
Matthew and Maggie decorated Halloween tshirts yesterday. Though what started out as a ghost and a monster ended up with rainbows and sprinkles and polka dots. Not scary, but that will come with age, I suppose.
October first is here and it's put me in a quandry. A panic, if you will. Oct 1 is the start of the application season for many of the nursing schools. It's already 11am and I haven't applied anywhere yet. I'm feeling way behind, but I'm also scared of the whole thing too. What happens if I don't get accepted anywhere? What happens if I do?
On a positive note, both of my Christmas cactus' are starting to bloom. YAY.
And folks, there's a lot of sadness going on these days. Hug your loved ones and let them know they're loved. It's so easy to forget all of what and who we are greatful for when we get lost in the pressures and chores of our day. Which reminds me - Happy 9th anniv to Matt and Jen.
The weekend is approaching everyone. Love and happiness to all.
Man, that is SO not how I thought I would end today's post.

another reason to become a dr

I get a call from my hematologist's office today - time to schedule my yearly waste of time appointment. Anyhow, here is when he sees patients: Tuesday AND Thursday, 215p - 445p. Impressive isn't it?

T & O

Today's breakrast (not a typo, it's how my kids say it) has been brought to you by the letters T and O. T as in tea, my favorite caffeinated way to start the day, and O as in oreo. The oreos that didn't all get eaten at the campout and apparently, I'm the only one who likes them since we still have at least 1.5 rows left. For the locals reading this, I'd love to pass them out if you are so inclined. Anyhow, I'm pretty sure it's a breakrast of champions, and I should really be on the cover of the Wheaties box.
I have clothes in the dryer right now. Why is this a big deal? Well it isn't even 9am yet and I'm getting ready to start the 2nd load, but that's not it. It's the first time in a few months that I've used the dryer. It's a little disappointing for several reasons. The cold damp fog has returned, ew. That's the biggest disappointment. Though, October is usually hot right around Halloween, so I at least have that to look forward to. The other reason I like hanging my clothes dry is because it gives me time. I don't have to get the clothes off the line the INSTANT they are dry, and they all take different amounts of time to dry. This means, I can pick off the pj pants and the tshirts and fold and put them away. Then an hour later, I can get the sweats and maybe a thin blanket. Then in another couple of hours, the denim. yes, it means laundry gets stretched into a day, but it's much less annoying to do it in between cooking and napping and picking up the kids and such.
I have Charlie here today, which makes for fun. He just told me that he likes to go to Dylan's house because he has a bunch of guns and swords. Hmmm... Anyhow, they are painting figures now, then it's off to play Light buzz year, then maybe off to the Asian market because i need more curry boxes and cheap panko. The kids should love this part. Ok, maybe I'll tie in a trip to Michaels for more cheap crafty stuff. As long as Charlie's mom keeps working, I can keep buying cheap crafty stuff. (Got that, jen??) The kids are wearing two of Steve's old tshirts to paint. They say CAMEL on them, but the kids don't mind. they probably would think it was cool if they noticed, but I'm not bringing it up.
Hope for sun, and happy Tuesday. Oh wait, for you 5 weirdos who subscribe, (which is another blog entry story involving words like Rocknroll and Sikorsky) does that mean my new entries go right to your email?

dark ash brown

Dyed my hair today. Only, I left it on a little long because I got sucked into the season premiere of Grey's Anat that I was watching on tape. yes, on tape. So now the hair is a little darker than I anticipated. Ah well, it will fade over time.
Got a couple of quizzes back from my O-chem class and got 10/10 on one and 13/10 on the other. That made me happy. Might help the whole "I need a 3.8 gpa to get into the sac state nursing program" problem, but probably not.
On the plus side, I am bbq'ing a trip tip for dinner this afternoon. Don't know what the sides will be, but maybe just a big slab o'beef for dinner. Sounds good to me!

Weekend Updates

We went camping this weekend. well, actually, yesterday. I don't think we were even gone for 24 hours, but trust me, we were able to get the full experience. Where did we camp, you ask? Oh, Oakland. Up above the hills in the forest type area. It was really great - and hot! It was a cub scout event, and we were home by 11am today. Bad part was that i had bought a new air mattress and failed to try it out at home with our pump, before we left. The pump didn't line up 100% so the mattress was about 1/2 full as the pump died. yes, I also failed to fully charge the pump before we left. See, it was only camping in Oakland, so clearly I didn't do a TON of prep work. anyhow, as Steve and I climbed onto the air mattress last night, the foot end lifted up and reminded me of those Craftmatic adjustable bed commercials from the 80's. Our feet were probably a good 3' off the ground. So we slept feet to head which help keep the mattress flat most of the time. I really don't know why the waterbed was so popular - I am actually more tired today than I would have thought possible. Definitely more than my regular weekday tired. but it was fun, the kids got super dirty even just for one day. We got home in time for the Rockridge street fair, which was fun - and yummy too. There was a new local company sampling linguica, so naturally, we are now adding linguica to the dinner plans. Up and coming for the week - hmm.. quiz on the heart on thursday, quiz on something else on Wednesday, my niece's birthday on Monday which I don't have time to send anything to Hawaii for, watching Jen's kids each day, and I think the weather is supposed to turn cool and yucky and overcast again. This recent heat wave has been awesome, I'm sorry to say. Have a lovely week, though I'm sure you'll hear from me again soon.

welcome!

So nervous. My first ever blog post. thanks for reading. Thanks for your patience in watching me learn how to do it. How I send this out, I'm not really sure but if someone other than me is reading it, I guess I was successful.
I jammed my pinky yesterday, wrestling with Brandon. We weren't really even wrestling. I was trying to grab his foot and make him fall (not as bad as it sounds, honestly) and I timed it poorly and he kicked me with his shoe. My pinky is all swollen and it hurts. And now it's changing colors, into the palm of my hand even. I really would like to crawl back into bed. It's foggy and cold and damp and I'm cranky because my hand hurts. But alas, we have swim in a few mins so I must carry on.