Friday, October 30, 2009

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.

Thursday, October 29, 2009

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.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

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.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

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?

Monday, October 19, 2009

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.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

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.

Monday, October 12, 2009

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

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

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, October 5, 2009

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.

Saturday, October 3, 2009

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.

Thursday, October 1, 2009

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.