Repotting the Family Tree

New Year's Resolutions

2012-01-05T10:25:00.000-08:00

I have three resolutions for the New Year. They are simple and I hope that combined they will create a calmer atmosphere in my life.

1. SPEND LESS MONEY. We don't spend a lot of money anyway, because we don't have a lot to spend. But we do on occasion spend money on wasteful things that only contribute to the two problems mentioned next. So what we have done is look at our budget and where we are and where we want to be and cut out or down everything we could, and reallocated funds to where we'd really rather they be. We don't go out very often, whenever possible we like to stay home and appreciate our couch and our tv and being together as a family. So even though it is our one monthly bill that is voluntary we're keeping the satellite, but we're going to cut out other things like fast food to make it more comfortable. We also are hopefully planning a move in the next year or two, so we really don't need to be in acquisition mode, if we don't want to pack it in a box, we won't put it in a cart.

2. MAKE HEALTHIER CHOICES. I didn't say "lose weight" this year, because I want this to apply to everyone in the family, and I certainly don't think my children need to lose any weight. The main thing I'm doing is cutting out all soda, and limiting fast food to a very once in a while special occasion (as per #1). I'm also going to try to keep more fresh fruit and veggies in the house, and somehow in our crazy schedules we're going to try to exercise more often. There's a pool going at work, every day we're putting a dollar in a jar and the person who has lost the most weight/inches in 6 months gets the pot. I decided I am going to win this.

3. GET ORGANIZED. This is vague, but what I mean is that our house is getting very cluttered and messy. So first of all we need to clear a lot of stuff out and find places for the rest of it to live. I don't want a mad dash of sorting while packing for a move like I've done every other time I've moved. Also we need to get chores and responsibilities straightened out. Zoe's only real household chore (other than her room of course) is the dishes, and Jimmy's is the garbage. I think we can all pitch in a little more and if we have a schedule for what day is laundry day, for instance, things will go much smoother.

So these are my goals, and I'm very serious about them. I have an idea in my head of what kind of person I want to be and what I want to look like and how I want to feel, and I think it's high time I got there.

Christmas

2011-12-13T06:10:00.000-08:00

I don't actually have time to blog today, making this no different from the preceding weeks and months. However what DOES make today different is that I am very sick. and at work. These two things combine to keep me awake and yet not altogether mentally aware. Thusly I'm taking a break from making large tax payments with other people's money to update my blog.

Since I last blogged I have done some theatre. So much in fact that at the moment I don't even want to talk about it. I have done some good things at work and made my boss very happy with me, and that makes me very happy. It's nice to have a job I'm good at that I like so much.

My kids are happy and very old now-Jimmy just turned 8, and Zoe turned 10 in October. I feel old, and then I remember that I'm still only in my first year of being 29, and that makes me feel better.

Chris is done with his exams and will start on his dissertation soon, he's already applying for jobs. I would love to move to Ireland, but I'll settle for any job that pays him in real money instead of tuition wavers.

We're leaving for Utah one week from today because the calendar seems to think that Christmas is coming soon, but I really couldn't be less prepared or less in the right spirit if I tried. I wore my favorite Christmas earrings today, so we'll see if that helps me along. This lack of cheer worries me a little, because Christmas has always been my favorite time of year and I usually annoy everyone around me with my enthusiasm. I imagine it will come eventually, I just hope it comes before 2012.

Happy Easter

2011-04-24T18:10:00.000-07:00

The last few days have been pretty funny, in very different ways.

On Thursday my boss heralded the end of tax season by taking the whole office out to dinner and drinks. This was really fun because I started there right at new years, so everyone's been really stressed and busy and I haven't had too much chance to get to know them very well. The next day my boss had to leave early so we all got to leave early and I took the opportunity to go to walmart without the kids to get Easter stuff.

I didn't worry about getting much stuff because of the easter egg hunt we were planning on going to on Saturday at the Shamrock Club. We went to this last year and it was so much fun. They have lots of land around the club and they section off areas for different age groups and hide thousands of eggs filled with candy. So the kids get to absolutely fill their buckets without worrying about being nice to the little kids and its a total blast. Then there's food and music and a raffle and its just really really fun and we started planning this years trip as soon as we left last year.

So I'm standing in line with my cart and feeling happy that I was getting out of the store in one piece, when I looked at my phone and saw something weird on my calendar widget. I had completely forgotten that that was the day I had scheduled to take my CPR class. It went from 8:00-5:30 and there was no way I could change it. So not only could I not go to the Shamrock Club as we'd had planned for a year, but I couldn't spend the afternoon dying eggs and doing my homework that was due by midnight either.

So I broke it to the kids that I couldn't take them, and went to my class. It was fine, the teacher was really really good, and I'm glad I learned how to do it. It didn't do anything nice for my costochondritis LET ME TELL YOU. Chris brought the kids over and we had lunch together though, so that was nice. And then when I got home I found that he had had them clean their rooms and the family room so we could get right to egg dying.

We don't hide the real eggs at our house (I know that if we ever did we would lose one), but we still like to dye them. So we cooked and dyed 27 eggs while we talked about the real meaning of Easter. And I introduced the kids to the little shrink-wrap sleeves. I've never bothered with that before so they've never seen it and they thought it was pretty neat. Then I did my homework which was two chapters and a quiz in Advanced Medical Terminology which had to be done by midnight. You may well ask why I hadn't done it before Saturday, to which I answer, hey man, I don't answer to you!

I finished my homework at 11:51 and I still had to do baskets and hide eggs and do all that stuff. I was grumbling and whining about not feeling well and being in pain and being tired and why do we have to hide crap anyway when I went into the living room and found a note very carefully placed where it would be seen immediately upon entering the front door. It was addressed to "Mr Bunny". It very politely asked Mr Bunny if he knew Santa Claus and if so could he pass along a message to him? My son is adorable.

All in all, we had an okay Easter, and at the end of it of course is the realization of why we celebrate it at all.

Oh yeah, and to keep you up to date, a week or so ago I had a very very bad headache that wouldn't go away and so early in the morning I cut my hair. off. Very very short like it used to be. I think I did a pretty good job-but it took me a couple days to remember how to style it right! And in case you're wondering, yes my headache did go away, but only for a day. It was worth it.

Season's Greetings

2010-12-04T14:45:00.000-08:00

Last week we had the audacity to leave the dog alone while we went to two grocery stores in the pouring rain. I know, we're horrible people. Well we got home around 7:30 and she was so excited to see us she actually knocked me down. 7 hours later I got home from the ER with a sprained ankle. I would like to point out that it has been 3 1/2 years since I sprained an ankle, and this one was entirely NOT MY FAULT. In the ankle spraining spectrum it seems worse than others in that its actually quite swollen (which is weird) and turned pretty colors. But it isn't broken, and its my left foot so I can still drive, it won't be long on crutches, blah blah blah. Here's the important bit. For those of you who remember, I'm pretty good on crutches. I've kinda had some practice. But see, when I used to do that all the time I was a)in good strength anyway and b)not fat. Put all this together and you get a seriously tired person with arms that may never move again. I'm typing this with a pencil in between my teeth.

Which leads me to my next story, entitled, "A Bad Day. Or, How a Testing Center Employee made me Cry"
Today I had my last chemistry lab on campus, and I figured that since getting around was so difficult, I would take my last three tests while I was there. So I got to school, parked in the best spot I could find, and went to Chemistry. I was dreading the long walk over to the testing center but there was no way around it so I put my workout music on my iPod and started off. I made the 5 minute walk in only about 20 minutes, stopping to huff and puff and die every 20 yards. Finally I made it into the building, got down the stairs and stood in line, and when I got to the front of the line the woman said, "Oh, your tests aren't in this building. Your math test is in *** hall which is this way and your psych tests are in *** hall which is the other way." I was still, at this point, gasping for air, and I said, "You've got to be kidding me! I don't even know where those buildings are, are they far? I'm so tired from getting here!" And she rolled her eyes and actually said,

"take a deep breath and get over it."

So I gathered my things again and crutched up the stairs out of the building where I lost it and cried and called Chris because I was so tired I wasn't sure I could move any further, let alone find buildings I'd never heard of. I looked at the map she gave me and found that the building for the math test was closer than the car so I sucked it up and made my way over, only to find that it was the least handicapped accessible building I've ever been in, so I had to go down two more flights of stairs to the area where the overflow testing was being held. As I was walking down the hallway I was about 30 feet away from the sign in desk when the woman yelled, "Oh My Hell! Who told you to come here?" So, naturally I started crying again, thinking she was going to send me somewhere else. Apparently I could have taken my tests at the testing center and the woman was never supposed to send me anywhere else with the crutches. The people at the overflow place were so super nice and told me they were so sorry and they set me up and brought me the sheets and the proctors came to me to sign me in and they let me do all my tests there so I didn't have to move anymore. While I was working I had at least 3 people come by to tell me they were so sorry, and when I was done the manager of the testing center asked me who had sent me over and what they had said and I told her and her jaw dropped and she said, "I WILL fix that." So I got all the way back to the car, and I finally made it home and I will never leave my couch again. Ever.

wait, what?

2010-11-08T18:14:00.000-08:00

I'm sure it can't be November already, so I'm going to assume that it isn't.

We're all doing pretty well, Chris is plugging away, being awesome. The kids had some trouble with the charter school they were in, it was a great school last year but this year the atmosphere turned really toxic and not one day went by without one of the kids saying they had been made fun of, and the day Jimmy came home with two black eyes we said enough is enough and moved them back to the neighborhood school. We toured the school the friday before they started and two girls in Zoe's new class recognized her from 2nd grade and there was a little 9 year old squealing party in the hallway. She had more friends in the new school before she started than she ever had at the charter school! Plus they can wear their own clothes now instead of uniforms and let me tell you something, that is such a relief on the wallet!

We also are taking care of a puppy (2 years old) for the next couple months, her name is Eliza and she's an American Bulldog-I have pictures on facebook, I'll take more and post them here and there eventually. She's huge, 90 pounds of pure muscle and at first glance very fierce and mean looking, but actually the sweetest little thing ever. She thinks she's a little lap dog and if you're not careful she'll just plop her big hind end in your lap (or face). She's very well trained and has somehow cured Jimmy of his paralyzing fear of dogs. Its pretty amazing actually, he used to be so afraid of dogs that once he ran out in traffic to get away from a little dog on a leash, but since we got Eliza he's warmed up to pretty much every dog he's met. Yesterday a 7 month old beagle jumped up on him and licked his face and he just giggled! It's also kind of weird what she's done for us as a family-I've always told the kids they can't have a pet until they can keep the house clean, but since we have her the house is staying cleaner than ever. Plus we're a little bit more active which is always good.

And on a side note...my hair is pink. pictures to follow ^_^

Old pictures

2010-08-09T15:46:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple pictures I have laying around on the computer. They're very old, but absolutely adorable.

This is Zoe, around 2 1/2.

This is Jimmy, or as we called him then, The Ferocious Beast.

This is Joel, Zoe, and Jimmy at Yellowstone about 6 years ago, putting them...um...doing math...I guess 8, 2, and 6 months.

Cute no? What's really weird is how much Jimmy looks more and more like Joel every day. Couple of handsome devils.

Hang on, I need to find the camera. And the cord. And figure out how to do this.

2010-07-17T06:54:00.001-07:00

Would you believe it's been 2 days since I wrote the title of this post?

I won't bore you with the details of my life the last few weeks, I went to Utah (which is another post) and left my kids with my wonderful parents and Chris and I have been left to our own devices for 18 days. Let me just say that we are very different people without children.

So lets get on to the main attraction, shall we?

This is Christmas morning at Grandma's house, from left to right we have my sister-in-law Erin holding Max, Zoe, Holly, Jimmy, and Sam. They're waiting by the door to the livingroom while Grandpa checks to see if Santa really did come.

Apparently he DID! Those are all ELEVEN stockings, all hand-knitted by my mother and stuffed full of candy and peanuts and fruit and cereal and presents.

This is back in Ohio, the day after we got back in January. Jimmy is wearing his new coat and doing some sort of awesome dance.

Close up on the awesome dance.

He's very good at shoveling unstepped on snow.

Helping Daddy.

I had to put this in-this is a bad picture of my nutcracker collection. I have many different kinds, but my favorite is the one just to the left of center -a Mountie that my parents brought me from Canada.

This is a Zoe's 3rd grade class performing Thriller at the end of the year. I was about to tell you which one she is, but she's the only white girl in the picture ^_^. She's also wearing the best costume...

And has the least rhythm. Notice how everyone else in the picture (especially the girl in the front) is in the middle of some great move and my beautiful daughter is just kind of standing there? Yeah. Funny thing is, she worked really really hard on this dance and practiced all the time so she had everything memorized. I guess you either have it or you don't. It's cute though because Jimmy somehow ended up with it.

Pictures

2010-05-20T17:44:00.000-07:00

I've been told I don't post enough (read:any) pictures. Well I'm sorry. If I knew how to use the camera, I would. If you're wondering why I would buy a camera I can't figure out, ask the person who picked it. Which, in case you were wondering, isn't me.

The other part of the problem is, simply, that I am not a picture taking person. I love to take pictures, don't get me wrong. It's just that I never remember to. When I was growing up it was always my dad with the camera. Then my mom got frustrated that there were too many pictures of trees and not enough with people, so he started taking pictures only of people which was better but where was the beautiful scenery we drove so far to see? So she got her own camera and started taking pictures as if the fate of the free world depended on it (which it might, you don't know). They both have taken classes and know wonderful things about picture taking that I will never know, like moving your finger away from the flash and taking the lens cap off.

But now that I am far away from both of these photogs, I really should make more of an effort to remember that when my son is walking like an egyptian in front of the whole school, posterity should know about it.

Plus, if I'm the one taking the pictures, I'm only in them if I want to be, so its better for everyone.

Spring in Ohio

2010-04-12T19:12:00.000-07:00

I wanted to blog, because I'm happy today, but now that I've started I don't have much to say. My job is going well, things are seeming to pick up a bit which is nice. I'm still having massive migraines and they're starting to branch out into new symptoms that are not very fun and last week resulted in my coworkers calling 911. ugh. But I still love my job and I LOVE spring here. Everything is so green and there are citywide gardening motifs that all include daffodils which is awesome.

The kids have new schedules at school, Zoe spends half the day in 3rd grade and half the day in 5th, and Jimmy splits his time between kindergarten and 1st. Since this started she's been happier and he's stopped acting up so I think it's a really good thing. They're just too smart for their own good.

Chris is finishing his thesis and getting ready for his defense date in May, and we're all very very excited for him to be done with it and get his Masters. I'm hoping we'll be able to afford graduation announcements before its too late, but if we don't then keep an eye out on facebook.

We (the kids and I at least) are coming to Utah at the end of June, I'll stay about a week and then head home and leave the kids for a while to be spoiled rotten by any and all. I can't stay longer because I'll be starting rehearsals for "Dancing at Lughnasa" with Solstice, and especially if Chris can't come then I don't want to stay too long. But its also my 10 year reunion, and that's going to be awesome (and freaky-that makes me old).

I'm also anxiously awaiting news from my nearest relatives-my cousin Ben and his wife Amanda are at the hospital (having an excellent time I'm sure) having their first baby boy and I'm very excited for them!

Whingeing

2010-03-18T18:03:00.000-07:00

Slice of my life at the moment.

I do NOT feel
*optimistic
*creative
*encouraged
*energetic
*hungry
*comfortable
*cold
*patriotic
*argumentative
*sexy
*like chicken tonight

I DO feel
*irritated
*grateful
*grouchy
*nervous
*a breeze
*sentimental
*thirsty
*frustrated
*tired
*blank
*dissatisfied
*mortified
*proud

I see
*clutter
*homework
*laundry
*pictures
*cards
*books

I hear
*a breeze
*motorcycles
*teenagers
*ducks

I smell
*a breeze
*water
*downy

PSA

2010-02-15T12:50:00.000-08:00

I would like to take this opportunity to say that I have had a migraine nearly everyday for the past 5 weeks. It's getting really old, and I would appreciate it if it would knock it the heck off. I need my brains at the moment, and having them leak out my ears while I throw up is not my favorite activity.

thank you, that is all.

News

2010-01-07T20:17:00.000-08:00

So many things to say!!!!!

Okay, so obviously I didn't post in Utah. But that's only because my fingers were frozen. No really, we were so busy and there were so VERY many people I didn't get to see because we barely had time to see the people we did. If I didn't call you, it's not because I don't love you, its just that other people called me first.

So we had a great flight there, the kids were well behaved and we even landed several minutes early. And our really great friends lent us a car so we were a little more independant. The first few days were filled with a crazed frenzy of shopping and baking and enchiladas, the result of which was me losing my mind and curling up in my mom's room and crying/sleeping for several hours. But then came Christmas, and it was great! It was so fun to have Christmas morning back in that house with my parents and my brother and his wife and their kids-there was so much to do and all the kids were so excited about EVERYTHING! With all the people there were so many presents under that tree Santa couldn't even fit them all in and piled some on nearby chairs.

After a few more days of Christmassing and partying and singing about Christmas Monkeys, we had Zoe's baptism on Tuesday. It was absolutely lovely. I cried. And our friends came back early from Idaho just to be there (the ones who lent us their car), and some people from our old ward, and the whole family was there. It was just really nice and a very special day for Zoe.

The next day I went to lunch with my mom and sister in law to the Garden restaurant at the top of the JSMB. It was a snowy day so the view wasn't very far, but the temple was covered in snow and that is my favorite view of it. The food was wonderful of course, but I was just starting to be very extremely sick with some sort of absolutely terrible cold. Once we got back, Chris and I left to go to the Sheraton downtown and a night at P.F. Changs to celebrate our 9th anniversary. We got to the hotel and then decided while we were parking that we should drive the two blocks to the restaurant and see if they had parking because I was so sick Chris didn't want to make me walk in the cold and snow. On the way back to the hotel from our reconnaissance trip we turned a corner and when Chris put on the brake to slow for the light a block away, nothing happened. It was snowing and very icy and no matter what method he tried (and we were so far away he had time to try EVERYTHING), we slid and got into a car accident. Not just any car accident mind you, he ran into the back of a port-o-potty truck. With a port-o-potty on it. It was just great. Remember this is our friends' car. So we had to get out and call the police and fill out tons of forms and exchange all the information-all this while standing in the snow, on December 30th, downtown. This means that there were lots of people walking past on their way to the big parties. With cameras. Yeah. It was awesome!

But eventually it was all done and we had a great time at dinner-my aunt and uncle were at the same restaurant for their anniversary too! And can I just say, after several days in a 61 degree house on an air mattress on top of a futon mattress on the bottom bunk of bunk beds, a king size bed with egyptian cotton sheets and a huge duvet and a 52 inch flat screen TV was HEAVEN for my head cold! I shouldn't complain, because of all the extra people in the house nearly all the kids were sleeping on the floor and everyone was very very very squished. I'm sure they don't miss us-we took a lot of room and probably made a big mess, but I miss them very much. I really like Ohio and I LOVE my house, but I wish we weren't so far apart!!!

But our friends didn't disown us for killing their car, and I got to spend time with both my brothers' families and my parents, and we ate MANY of ENCHILADAS!!! ha ha ha. And I only gained 2 pounds, which is fairly good for me I think. (I managed to hit my goal of 30 lbs lost the day we left for SLC so I'm fairly happy with that)

Then came January 1st and our flight home. The plane left at 8, and with holiday traffic and heightened security we got there just after 6. I was a little worried, because it was so early the kids didn't want to eat anything and I knew they would be starving on the plane, but snacks would have to do. We boarded the flight to Cincinnati and got all settled in, with the kids and I on the right side of the aisle and Chris just across on the left. We took off and the plane was really swervy and turny which really turns my stomach and after about 20 minutes I had just decided to take a motion sickness pill when the pilot came on the intercom

"Ladies and Gentlemen, I have some bad news"

Well if I didn't need to throw up before, I certainly needed to NOW.

"It looks like we've lost our left engine, and we're going to have to turn around and make an emergency landing back in Salt Lake. Now a plane can fly with just one engine, I've done it HUNDREDS of times. In a simulator"

He was actually pretty funny and forthcoming which helped a lot to calm everyone down. We landed amidst tons of emergency vehicles which the pilot assured us quite emphatically that these were "just in case! ...and because the engine started smoking as we landed. But its FINE!" they were able to get us back to the terminal, which, I have to admit, disappointed me a little bit. Since we were on the ground and safe, I kinda wanted to have to exit by the emergency slidey things. I mean, come on. it's the least they could do. But anyway we got off and ran to find other arrangements-we only had an hour in cinci to make our first connection, there was no way we'd make it now-and we ended up with a new flight there, a new connection, and $84 in airport food vouchers. I know! Then the next flight was delayed, so we missed the new connection anyway, and they gave us $56 more in vouchers at the cinci airport. So it was a very exciting day, and we were all safe and together and EXTREMELY well fed, so I didn't particularly mind. We had nowhere we had to be (except watching football, darn it), so we had an adventure instead.

So then...(I know, really long posting, sorry)...I was replaced at my job. :( It's a bummer, because I was counting on that income, but really its okay, because I already had a much much better job. I've been hired by a well known life insurance and financial company. Its really exciting-its all about helping people make the most of what they have and helping them prepare for the future, and its also going to really help us. Its going to be a lot of work, but the hours are whatever I set (so like if someone's sick I can stay home with them), and the pay and benefits are amazing. It's a real big girl grown up job and I'm really really excited. I have a lot of training to get through before I launch full time (and make any money, unfortunately), but I'm doing really well at it and it's going fast.

And lastly, Chris and Zoe are very sick right now with Strep throat. I don't know if that's what I've got, but I don't think so. Jimmy has resisted it so far but I'm hoping if he gets it that he gets it tomorrow when I can still take him to his doctor and get him medicated over the weekend. But knowing him he'll get terribly sick sunday afternoon. ^_^ Chris is funny when he gets Strep-and he gets it a lot-but his whole throat swells up. Tonsils (yes he still has them. Silly boy), glands, and his uvula gets so big he either has to swallow it or rest it on his tongue just to breathe. He can't talk very well, and really can't eat much of anything either. It makes me sad when he gets so sick because I don't have magical mommy healing properties with him like I do with the kids. Zoe's really sick too-they think she might actually have scarlet fever, and when they asked if she wanted the yummy bubblegum medicine for a week or a huge shot of penicillin in her rear end, she actually chose the shot! lol poor kid. But at least she's done with that now and can just get better.

And lets all hope and pray that it keeps snowing all night and the schools are closed tomorrow, because then no one has to leave the house (except when I have to make the obligatory popsicle and soup run).

Christmas!!!!!!!

2009-12-21T20:59:00.001-08:00

I'm not blogging now, because my best friend is over and I'm leaving tomorrow and then she's leaving and I'LL CRY and CRY and CRY and CRY and then in 6 months I'll be happier.

Tomorrow I'll blog from Utah. Maybe.

I...I...I...

2009-10-28T18:11:00.000-07:00

Okay. I'm going to try to get through this. Today I was cooking and baking all sorts of things. I had a burner hot because I made hard boiled eggs and I had just taken a tray of chicken out of the oven and put it on the stove to cool. Then I remembered its my friend Erin's birthday tomorrow so I decided to make a cake for her. I made a double batch of chocolate chocolate cake and got out my favorite cake pan-an 8 inch springform-and greased it. I put in on the stove in front of the pan of chicken and poured the batter into it. When I put the mixing bowl in the sink and went to pick up the pan and put it in the oven I heard a strange sound.

It was a soft sound, but it gave me a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. It was the sound of the spring on the springform pan breaking.

The sides of the pan came up with my hands and the bottom stayed on the stove. So did the double batch of cake batter. Which proceeded to ooze to the right and burn to the still very hot burner. And to the rear to mingle with my baked chicken. And to the front.

All. The. Way. Down. To. The. Floor.

Now, maybe you have some experience with this, but I'm not really sure the best way to scoop up a double batch of cake batter from the hot stove and the floor. I'm still not sure how I did it but I know my washing machine is full of chocolately towels. And after I got it all cleaned up and I was putting the next pan full of cake successfully in the oven I noticed it. The insult to the injury. A lone drip down the inside of the oven window. Deep in the middle where it can never ever be cleaned. Mocking me.

Children

2009-10-22T18:08:00.000-07:00

Okay. First of all the official story about Jimmy's hospital visit. Then the funny stuff.

Last thursday he woke up with a headache, but that was all so we gave him some ibuprofen and sent him to school. When Chris picked him up he said that his throat hurt and he was so tired he laid down in art club and even fell asleep. He had a fever so we snuggled him up on the couch and gave him more ibuprofen. this is around 5:30. So Chris left for his rehearsal and I was just sitting in the family room with the kids watching Arthur, when Jimmy got up to go to the bathroom. Immediately I heard him cough a lot and then start to wail-usually a telltale sign that he's thrown up-so I ran in to help but he said it was just his throat hurt so bad and he couldn't stop coughing (or crying). I went into the kitchen to find some cough medicine and before I could even find any he started choking and the strider started. If you've ever heard a child with croup you will know that sound. It is the worst sound I've ever heard and i will never ever forget or mistake it. If you haven't heard it, it's the sound a child makes when his windpipe has swollen nearly closed and he is trying desperately not to die from suffocation. Their mouths are open like fish out of water and the skin around their nose, mouth and throat sucks in with every almost-breath and they have a look in their eyes of fear and pain and confusion. I ran to find a steroid pill that we have for just these occasions, but it was too late for that so then I grabbed his albuterol inhaler thinking that might get more time to get to the ER, but he couldn't even take a breath of that either.

I called my friend Amy during all of this and kind of yelled/cried that I was taking him to the hospital and could her Dad meet me there to give Jim a blessing and take Zoe, and luckily she made me talk to him (he's an RN) and he heard Jimmy and said to call 911. I realized that he was right-Jimmy was too far gone and I was not in a state to drive him, especially since I didn't exactly know where I was going. So I called 911 and the dispatcher heard Jimmy over the phone and I immediately heard the sirens going. I put him at the front door to try to get the cold air in him (that helps croup) and had Zoe sit with him while I grabbed things I needed and when I got back she was saying a prayer for him-it was very sweet. The ambulance pulled up and they didn't even start working on him in the house, they immediately got him inside and in an oxygen mask. Amy came right after and I gave her Zoe-Zoe was VERY upset that she couldn't come help me, but I'm so grateful that she didn't experience the ambulance ride. It was incredibly traumatic for me, I can't imagine what it would have done to her. Jimmy kept throwing up through the mask and drooling because he couldn't swallow and the blood vessels in his face and eyes were bursting from the effort to get a breath. We were lights and sirens the whole way to the childrens hospital and I was thinking it was a shame that Jimmy wasn't in a state to appreciate that-he would have thought it was really cool. (I guess, if he was able to appreciate it, he wouldn't have needed it. oh well.)

So we got to the hospital and Chris was waiting for us. Jimmy actually responded to Daddy where he hadn't responded to any of us. Chris gave him a hug and Jimmy pulled him closer and booped his nose. it made me cry. They put us in a trauma room and there were never less than 10 people in there trying to figure out what was going on. It was obviously croup-that sound is unmistakable. But croup doesn't come on that fast, from 0-60 in nothing flat. And it certainly doesn't get that bad that fast. Also, he had the burst blood vessels, which they said could be hiding a rash, and he kept falling asleep and not responding-which could have been him exhausted from fighting to breath and relaxed from having oxygen, or something worse. So they brought an x-ray machine to make sure he didn't swallow anything and then decided to save his airway by intubating him. They took him to the OR so they could have everything around them they needed in case of-whatever-and they sedated him and looked around and took samples of everything and eventually decided they didn't need to intubate (thank goodness) but they were going to keep him sedated and in the ICU. He stayed in the ICU until late on Friday when they moved him to a regular room, and let me tell you-everyone was so much nicer and more attentive in the regular room! I was so glad to be there and out of the ICU. The final decision from all their tests was that he had something bacterial going on that he was fighting off, and then he got the croup on top of that, and all of a sudden his little body said that was too much and gave up to both at once. They sent us home on saturday, and he kept up the near constant sleeping until Sunday, and then Monday (except for the cough) you could hardly tell there had ever been anything wrong with him. He lost weight though-and that freaks me out a little. He feels a little too skinny now, and he has nasty bruises in several places from various IVs, but I'll take it. He's been in the hospital for croup before, but never this bad. I've never been so scared and worried.

Anyway, like I said, he's pretty much fine now, so on to the funny stuff.

When I went to tuck her in tonight, Zoe handed me a list of Laws she would like entered into the family constitution. I will reproduce it here for you in as true a manner as I can-including spelling.

Law$
1. no obgecting!
2. writing from 4:00 Am to 9:00 Pm
3. Bed-time 8:00 on week-days, and 8:30 on weekends!
4. no letter enspecting/snooping/spying!
5. 2 deserts after dinner!
6. More books!
7. More snuggling!
8. toy/pen/wand/pointer thing privlages at all times!
9. no Thomas/cars/incredables/meet the robinsens at any times!
10. no exepsions!
plese consiter these laws quickly.

nice doing buisness with you,
Miss. Hill

she actually wrote Zoe Hill at the bottom, but crossed out Zoe and wrote Miss.

I have the video from their Paragon Night (kind of a 'look what we've learned in social studies') and once we figure out how to upload it I'll post it. It's very very cute, and don't worry, I didn't film the 8th graders being appallingly horrifically illiterate.

kids and work and all that jazz

2009-10-08T18:17:00.000-07:00

So very much to say, and absolutely no energy or mental strength to do so. 3 weeks ago my boss said he didn't want to run my cafe anymore so there were two options. The first option was to close it down and i'd need a new job, and the second option was for ME to take over. So basically I was handed a business on a silver platter. Its a very good situation, but its a whole heck of a lot of work that I'm not used to or experienced in. Plus, as good as any situation is, it's all on me to do something with it. I have the weather on my side (no one wants to walk anywhere for lunch when it's raining and cold), and everyone's being really supportive, but I'm still scared silly.

My children are crazy. Every day I pick them up from school and they say something else that suprises me. It's ridiculous how smart they are, and everyday I have some member of the staff or faculty telling me so. And yet when we get home, all of a sudden they're selfish lazy bratty kids who only use their brains to try to outwit the other or worse, us. That's not entirely true, but it sure feels like it sometimes! I'm perversely grateful for the times when Jimmy is hurt or legitimately sad and Zoe rushes to comfort him. Its makes me so happy to see that they actually DO care about each other. Saturdays are my favorite because we all cuddle together and do nothing. An outside observer might think that our couch is too big for our family room, or that we need more seating, but our favorite family activity is everyone piled on each other on the couch watching movies or tv or football or pretending to while we're actually asleep.

I think I started rambling back there so I'm going to bed before I lose it completely. I'm so glad tomorrow is Friday-here's hoping its a really busy day!

isn't it always the way

2009-09-17T15:54:00.000-07:00

So wednesday this week there was a promotion in the building where I work and everyone got free lunch. This is great for them, not so great for the deli trying to stay afloat. Long story short I had the day off so we didn't waste labor. I got to thinking, and I realized it had been a really really long time since I'd had a day off with no children. Don't get me wrong-I love being with my kids and wish I was with them more. But a whole 8 hours of grown up Allison time was enough to make me drool. I had big plans. BIG! I was going to sleep in, do some dishes with MY music blasting, go to the grocery store and have a leisurely stroll down EACH AND EVERY aisle, watch some crappy daytime tv reruns or maybe a movie or two with lots of gunshots and screaming and loud adventuresome music. (you totally thought I was going to say chic flick. ha ha! I can watch those at night when people are sleeping).

My plan went well-I studiously ignored all the goings on and rushing to get the kids out the door, rising only to give Chris a couple dollars so he could bring me a toasted bagel from Tim Hortons in bed. It was absolutely lovely. Until about 10:30, when the school nurse called and said Zoe was sick. Poor thing. She could hardly talk her throat hurt so bad. I went and got her and put her to bed and she was out like a light. She slept for more than two hours-so I was still able to pretend like she wasn't there, though that did cramp my plans for going places.

Also this week we got some Interim report cards. I didn't realize they'd been in school that long already! Zoe's was fairly normal and as expected, disgustingly gifted in reading, advanced in math, above average in social studies and science, and all of that was balanced with her nice note that she has absolutely atrocious handwriting. But Jimmy's was very interesting. It's his very first report card ever, so we had no standard of what to expect. His 'areas of strength' include 'follows directions independently' 'attentively listens to teacher and classmates' and completes all work with quality'. Math, social studies and science are labeled 'meeting expectations' (which is the highest), and his handwriting is listed as 'legible' (also the highest). But the most interesting of all is reading, which is above 'meeting expectations' at 'reading independently.' THAT LITTLE STINKER!!!!!! there's a note on it saying he's admitted to his teacher that he can read and is advancing rapidly. He's been telling us for months that he can't read at all and no matter how we try nothing was sinking in to help him read. Every once in a while we'd think we'd catch him reading but he'd just say he recognized the picture or logo or something. What's amazing to me is not so much that he CAN read, but that he's BEEN reading and HIDING IT!! I'm really happy about it, now that he's showing me a little bit he's been really good at church lately because he reads the programs and the hymn book. I'm just still a little bit bowled over by the whole thing.

What impresses me more actually, than his reading of words, is his comprehension. I read him a story at night, and a while ago I decided that I was bored with all his little story books and I wanted to read him a real big boy book. I started reading harry potter to Zoe when she was about 4 so I figured I was even a little over due with Jimmy. He didn't want Harry Potter, so I decided on Peter and the Starcatchers. If you haven't read it the angels weep for you. Its (actually a trilogy), written by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, and it's kind of the background story of Peter Pan; how he came to Never Land, how he and Captain Hook met, how he and Tinkerbell met, his connection with the Darling Family, etc. So I read a chapter or two every night to Jimmy, and a couple of weeks in I was worried that he was just hearing it and not really listening so I started asking questions. He could remember everything that happened in nearly perfect detail-even the words that he didn't understand! Pretty awesome. It looks to me like he's following in his sister's footsteps. I wish we could take credit for it, but I don't think it's anything we've done at all.

As a small side note, there may be some interesting news in the near future, but in the interest of discretion I will wait to disclose it-suffice to say I'm getting pretty excited for January.

Jimmy

2009-09-09T17:44:00.000-07:00

I did actually, just make cookies, and I thought about sending some to you. But I didn't. sorry.

I have some quotes from Jimmy to brighten your day. The first two were said to me around 2 am last night and the night before, as he shook me awake.
"Mom" crying "I want everything I see on TV"
"wha? Like what honey"
"an extra life in table tennis"

"Mom, I need our home address"
"why? go back to bed"
"I can't. I need our home address"

After which he immediately went back to his bed and slept.

But the best one is the other day when we were driving home and there were kids in the road. We don't have sidewalks in our neighborhood, so I know they have nowhere else to walk, but you'd think they'd at least move a little for the cars. Anyway, there were three teenagers walking in the road (two boys and one girl in very short shorts), and as Chris started to complain that they shouldn't walk in the middle of the road Jimmy looks out the window and says, "But, wow, that girl's a really great walker!"

please?

2009-06-22T16:29:00.000-07:00

I know I know I know. It's been a really long time and you've all written me letters and cards wondering if I'm okay and when oh when will I update my blog!?!

Well the problem is that I don't have a bunch to say on one thing. I do have some cool pictures, but as i have no idea how to get them off my phone and onto anywhere other than facebook, you'll have to see them there. So for this blog I will not try for consistency of theme or any kind of linear timeline, and feel free to make of it what you will.

My laptop is dead. It's still technically alive--I think the light is still blinking, but it's sitting in a corner of the family room and we don't dare to touch it, let alone open it. It got a virus that got in and turned off my firewall and and my task manager, so I now have no control over anything and every link takes me to an internet porn site. and then when we tried to fix it we got the blue screen of death and it shut off. I didn't realize how much i relied on my laptop until it was dead and chris is too busy actually using his so all I'm left with is the one in the office. I know, whine whine. I'm glad I have one, but it's so FAR AWAY. If you don't know the layout of my house you don't realize quite how FAR AWAY the office is from EVERYTHING ELSE.

My daughter is gone-it's been just over two weeks now, with 5 left to go, and I'm handling it much better than I thought I would (and much better than chris), but again I didn't realize what I had until it was gone. As in, I didn't realize how much she actually does play with Jimmy (especially on saturday mornings) until no one's there to play with him but me. Jimmy and I have now beat the Incredibles Underminer game 3 times and now we're working on Finding Nemo. I'm very very good at the incredibles, and I don't think ANYONE is good at Finding Nemo. That's seriously the worst game I've ever seen. I'm trying to get him to like tetris.

My job is going great-business is slowing down, which while sucky is not unexpected, but my tips are going way way up. I take this to mean that everything is fine with the business, the customers must be happy or they wouldn't be tipping as much as they are, and it's just the nice weather that makes them go out.

Creepy Fruit Cup Guy (you remember him from the earlier post), who by the way CALLED me on my birthday to say Happy Birthday (how did he get my number?), came by today and asked me why I had so many pimples on my face. Apparently he used up all his tact last time. Jerk. It's not my fault my skin still thinks its 15. Seriously-who does that?

I'm designing the set for Doubt, and while I'm happy to be doing it, I was the director's THIRD choice, and he keeps telling me what to do. And both of my children, upon hearing what I was doing, became very upset that someone would stoop to asking ME to draw anything when they could have simply asked THEM. Also, I have never seen a full production at this theatre, and I have no idea what materials are available to me (which would be really useful information as I have a budget of exactly $3.72)

I have the day off on July 3rd, and there's a big fireworks show downtown and we're going to go see it. I'm really really excited because I've never seen the 4th here in columbus and I bet it's going to be really cool.

Also, we're going to go back to Old Man's Cave and hopefully Ash Cave sometime soon because it was totally awesome and we'll be better prepared and take a real camera with us. And a walking stick. But we'll stick with the red vines, they were a good choice.

My gazebo blew over the other day in a very quick and violent storm that may, or may not, have been rotating at some point somewhere in the vicinity. it's quite broken too, but I think we'll be able to fix it with some duct tape and rope. okay a lot of duct tape. But I LOVE having the table and chairs out there-we're in the midst of firefly season and it's the most magical thing I've ever seen. They even look like fairies up close!

And lastly, I'm trying to plan all sorts of things for when my Dad comes out in July-I know he's not going to be here for very long and I know Jimmy's making very elaborate plans for the things they're going to build together, but there's so many things I want to do with him and see with him. Doubt opens that weekend, and I really want him to see Old Man's Cave. And the tadpoles at the park which won't be tadpoles by then because some of the ones we saw on saturday had legs already. and he needs a thurman burger. definitely.

mmm...thurman burger...

27, a time for reflection.

2009-05-15T17:14:00.000-07:00

So, I just turned 27. No, I didn't eat my whole cake myself. Didn't even have a cake actually. I figured since I'm the one that makes the cakes, I wasn't going to bother. This didn't go over very well with Jimmy though, because a birthday with no party, no cake, and no pinata was just a regular day with presents-not a proper birthday at all. We did go out to dinner though, with our friend John, and Chris was very mean and subjected me to cruel tortures that were bad enough at the time, but then he took pictures and posted them on facebook. Jerk. Anyway...so that same day another picture was posted of me on facebook at Candie's wedding. Now, I had a great time at the party, and I know that while I was the ONLY one dancing for about an hour, eventually everyone was dancing and having a great time and I started that and that's awesome. BUT. this particular picture is of a really really fat chick dancing all by herself (chris was next to me but not really dancing). I learned several things from this picture:

1. A-Line haircuts are great for other people.
2. My awesome purple shoes truly are as awesome as I thought they were.
3. That particular top has a certain potential but...
4. I really should tan more
and
5. I really don't care how much weight I've lost since then, it's not NEARLY as much as I thought it was, and what were all you people thinking letting me look like that?

(did you like how I blame others for my own problems?) Feel free to look up this picture, I'm tagged so it's easy to find. Just remember when you see it that YOU PEOPLE saw this often, and NEVER brought it to my attention. Now that I know, steps will be taken! Oh yes, you heard me, STEPS! (not literally though, 'cause, you know, my back, and I'm so busy, yeah, excersize is just like really not an option right now).

So...come here often?

2009-05-02T19:17:00.000-07:00

I was at work the other day, minding my own business, and one of my new regulars comes in and starts chatting about this and that, the weather (which is a completely different subject), his day, blah blah blah, and then all of a sudden he asks if he can buy me a fruit cup. I know! Like it's some kind of dimly lit night club. I seriously had no idea what to say so i quickly changed the subject to how I'm actually deathly allergic to the melons in the fruit cup. Awkward... even more so when he tried to announce a boycott of the fruit cups so i wouldn't have to subject myself to the dangers of making them anymore. I just couldn't win!

But good news--I'm getting a blackberry for my work! My boss is paying for it and he's going to set up an email address for me so that people can email orders and questions and things like that and i don't have to give out my phone number to (slightly) creepy people who try to hit on me. I really don't get it but it seems to be quite popular to make innuendos to the deli manager. Most of them are my friends so I know it's just joking, but some of them... Anyway, I'm really happy about the blackberry (even though I'll miss my purple phone ^_^).

Okay, so the other day I went into the office to print something out for work and I saw that a very important financial form (that was sitting on the desk waiting for some info before I mailed it out) had been signed Zoe Hill over and over in red ink. I asked who did it, and was told quite emphatically that no one did, and if someone did it must have been Jimmy. Yup.

I'm sorry--I think LOL cats are so cute. So here's another one for your viewing pleasure

And, in closing, a Jimmy story. He and Zoe were in the living room playing and i overheard the end of a conversation about who was going to play what part in the game.

Jimmy: I don't want to be a girl, I want to be a boy.
Zoe: It's so easy to be a girl, all you have to do is wear makeup and kiss all the cute boys.
(at this point I was about to have a talk with her about what it actually means to be a girl, but then Jimmy spoke)
Jimmy: Oh! I can do that!

Duck

2009-03-28T14:53:00.000-07:00

I was going to blog about a Duck. But blogger is having trouble uploading my pictures, so I will blog about a duck another time. Rest assured that I WILL blog, I will blog SOON, and I will blog soon about a duck. Yup. Gonna blog about a duck. maybe two. two ducks. Later. duck blogging.

"I'm afraid you're a little off" said the Doctor

2009-03-17T17:50:00.000-07:00

Okay. So on Monday I decided to cheat Murphy's Law and clean my house so I wouldn't have to have surgery. This actually makes sense because everytime I get injured or really sick or require someone to come into my house for any reason my house is a complete disaster and only gets worse with my being laid up. It NEVER happens when the house is clean. So I figured that if I clean the house and do all the laundry and make everything really nice-I even dusted my bedroom--then I wouldn't have to have surgery. It really makes sense if you think about it, plus on the off chance it didn't work then I'd have a nice clean house when people came to help me.

So I went to the actual surgeon today and here's the verdict. I do have a herniated disc between T5 and T6 which is causing me topical pain. I also have a thoracic strain, probably the same one I've had since November that hasn't healed yet. But the nerves from this disc are not being disturbed which is a very good thing because the doctor told me that this particular operation is one the most dangerous and difficult operations there is and no surgeon in his right mind wants to ever do it unless he absolutely has to. Whew, dodged that bullet. But because he is the nerve specialist who is not intimidated by MRIs, he noticed what no one else had noticed yet. My pain and nerve problems simply can NOT be caused by that area of the back. They have to be caused by the Lumbar--so basically because a lot of my pain is thoracic they did that MRI and found a relatively inconsequential disc problem and heaped the blame on that instead of finding out the real problem. So he went out in the hallway and came back with a physical therapist and they discussed many things in very technical terms. The surgeon wanted to order a Lumbar MRI to see what the problem is down there, but the physical therapist convinced him to wait a month and let him see what he could do because he thinks that won't even be necessary.

So then I went over to the physical therapist's office because he just happened to have a free several hours (I know?), and while we were talking about things he suddenly stopped and asked me why I was standing with my weight on my right leg. Apparently because I'm right handed I should be standing on my left leg. Long story short, my right leg is 2-3 mm shorter than my left. This is enough of a problem that my entire spine is curvy--it goes off to the right and then tries to straighten up by curving back left around the thoracic area, hence the thoracic disc bulging to the right. He said he would bet good money that I have at least one if not two discs bulging to the left in the lumbar. So now I have to wear a lift in my shoe. How retarded is that?!? Good news though is that with the lift and lots of physical therapy he thinks that he can fix not only the pain but also the underlying disc problems. Woohoo!

So I win twice! Because I don't need surgery AND my house is all sparkly clean for me to enjoy! My activities are much more restricted--I'm not allowed to do ANYTHING that hurts that I don't absolutely have to do, for instance he said I have to find a substitute and I'm not allowed to play the piano again until he says so. :( I can't mop the floor at all or drive more than I have to, but the promise of being done with this mess soon and non-surgically is awesome. And he says that I should be able to play golf this summer which I'm really excited about since we have such awesome courses here.

And the happiest thing of all is that my Mom is coming here in 16 days!!!

My new car!!!!!

2009-03-02T13:57:00.000-08:00

This is just a picture I took off the net...my car doesn'thave those stupid wheels. But other than that this is the car we bought on saturday, a 1996 Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited. Some of you might remember that we used to own a 93 that was blue, well when we saw this one we knew we couldn't pass it up. It's in absolutely perfect condition, with new tires and very well maintained. And it's grey on the inside, so it's perfect for us Buckeye Fans! I'm really really happy with it and incredibly relieved that we have a second car. We were making it work, but it was horrible. The family time was really nice, but I was driving for 4-5 hours everyday and the kids were with me for most of that and it was just too much. I'm trying really hard to avoid surgery and driving is something I'm supposed to limit if not avoid completely. I have to drive a little but now thankfully I don't have to be running around everywhere all the time. Hooray!! (I'm a little excited, can you tell?)

However I did something really bad on Friday--I don't know what I did exactly but I was trying to stretch my back at work and found a new stretch that I thought was great until suddenly I couldn't move and my arm went numb. It eased up after about an hour but I've been in absolutely incredible pain ever since. I'm laying here on my heating pad with my pain pills and still want to cry! (But on the bright side when the ambulance came to church yesterday to get the sister with shortness of breath and chest pain it wasn't ME! That may sound mean to those who don't know me, but it's happened before and I was happy to be on the helping the ambulance find the building end this time.) My appointment with the neurosurgeon is on the 10th so hopefully he'll give me some physical therapy and pain management techniques and shelve the surgery for now. I have lots of other things I'm doing now and this back thing is getting in the way. I got a raise at work, so I'd like to work a lot, I'm trying to get a few springcleaning/organizing things done and there's two rooms I'd like to paint. Not to mention some excersizing!

On that note however, I have great news--I bought new jeans on saturday and they are 2 sizes smaller than the ones I wore when I moved to Ohio. So I'm pretty happy about that! The girl scouts are trying to derail me though--drat those cookies!

OOHH the big red letter stands for the neurosurgery, OH the big red letter stands for the neurosurgery...

2009-02-18T17:36:00.000-08:00

It's bulging! Fun fun fun, into the nerves fun fun fun, and the SPIIIIINAL COLUMN two below T3!!!!

Okay the last bit was a stretch but clever no? (for anyone who didn't grow up in utah, that was the Jell-O song...I don't know why it morphed that way in my head but it did and there you go).

So I went to the doctor a bit ago because I felt another lump like the one I had removed last year. She thought she felt a few but that maybe they were cysts. So she sent me to the hospital for an ultrasound and figured as long as I was there they'd do an MRI on my back since it's not much better from when I hurt in in November. Well I got the results back yesterday, and the lumps, of which there are two, are seemingly benign fibro-whatsits and small so they're fine we just need to check them in 6 months. However the MRI showed that the disc between T5 and T6 is bulging on the right side and pressing in on my spinal column and regularly messing with the nerves on that side. Which explains the shocky snappy pains I've been having but in a very creepy way. So I have to go see a neurosurgeon who is probably (because he's a neuroSURGEON) going to say I need surgery, to which I am going to reply, "yeah right". I'm not afraid of surgery (how could I be at this point), but I can't afford to take that amount of time off work. First of all because they'd probably just replace me and secondly because we need my income. And also because I'm afraid of THIS surgery. Backs freak me out. I was looking around online to see what it involves and the thoracic surgery USED to be an open chest thing. They couldn't reach it from the back so they'd open your chest, crack your ribs, deflate a lung, and who knows what else. Supposedly now it's easy and they do it with lasers. But it's still creepy--if they screwed it up I could get meningitis or be paralyzed or something nasty. I haven't talked to him yet though, so we'll see what he says. Maybe I can make do with some physical therapy and stuff.

Also, my kids are cute. I don't know if you knew this, but they are. They're pills, but they're cute. I see quite a lot of them lately because Chris totalled the car in January so I'm driving everyone everywhere all the time, but you know something? As irritating as it can be to be in the car all the time, I do see my family a lot, and when we're all in the car together we talk and play games and have nice family time. Until they start screaming, but generally that comes in the afternoon/evening time. Mornings are nice.

Oh yeah, and I joined a book club and we just read the most horrendous book ever, "The Traveler's Gift" by Andy Andrews. But one of the points in it I did decide to try to remember and impliment in my life and that is to Choose to be Happy. Typical glass is half full stuff, but if you think about it especially nowadays, things are not nearly what they could be. Yeah, my back hurts and I'm afraid of what that means. But I don't have cancer. I don't have to have surgery right now with no arguments. I HAVE a job that I love and don't want to take time off of. I have a home, food, clothes, washer and dryer (that I love much more than I should), a car, two healthy intelligent children, a healthy intelligent loving husband, two Dr. Who seasons on DVD, a friend (who buys me chocolate sometimes), another wonderful friend who takes Zoe to school in the morning so I can work a few more hours, more friends from church, I could seriously go on and on. I've been thinking a lot about this since I read the book and that's a good thing, so I guess I can't say I'm sorry I read it, but really, don't read it. It's terrible!

Well after that terribly thought out and poorly put together post I'm going to say Good Night and go to bed with my kleenex and Nyquil because I'm actually pretty sick at the moment as well--but at least it's just a head cold.

How SWEET it is!!!!

2009-01-03T07:28:00.000-08:00

Wow. Can I just say, WOW. That was an awesome game!!! It was the best possible outcome I think. Not just that we won, but that we won decisively. You can't look at that game and say it was luck or anything like that. Everyone played well, and we played BETTER. I am incredibly proud to be a Ute.

In other news, we had our first Christmas in Ohio and it was nice. Weird, but nice. My parents came out the week before and we did all sorts of awesome stuff that my mom already wrote about on her blog. Christmas morning the kids woke up at a semi-reasonable time and found that the hallway to the livingroom was blocked with wrapping paper. Santa does this to prevent any sneaking of presents before parents are awake. So we broke through it and found that Santa came! The kids had lots of cool presents and new watches, I got Twilight books, and Chris got the best present any red blooded american 31 year old married grad student could wish for:

A Carol Channing Ventriloquist Doll

Seriously! It's so awesome! and a little scary... No really, I was with my mom and we couldn't fiure out what I should give him because anything he really wanted or needed was over my budget and I didn't want to get him something dumb like handkerchiefs (again...) and we turned a corner and there it was, the only one left, and 30% off. How could I resist?

We spent the next 4 days in post-Christmas bliss, the kids were playing with their new toys, Chris was doing, um, something, I unfortunately have absolutely no idea what anyone was doing because in case you didn't catch it before, I got two Twilight books for Christmas and in those 4 days I read them both...twice. I finally resurfaced Monday morning and dragged myself off to work to get my paycheck so I could afford the last book and immediately lose myself again. Which I did.

Now I need to see the movie...

Too tired for pictures

2008-12-05T12:35:00.001-08:00

Hi Everybody!!! (psst...this is where you say, HI DR. NICK!) I just got home from work and I feel the need to tell you all about how much I love my job. No really, I do! The new location opened yesterday, and it's beautiful! It's in an office building in an area kind of like Sandy or Fort Union (only brand new construction), so the area is nice, the building is nice, all that stuff. I've been getting the place ready for about a week and a half now, cleaning and organizing and moving stuff in...made all the more difficult because last Tuesday (right before Thanksgiving) we were moving a cooler from the kitchen in Powell into the car to take it to Easton for the new cafe, (it's one of those glass fronted half size Pepsi cooler things), and something went wrong the first time I picked it up and I sprained my back. Yes, I said the first time I picked it up. I picked it up a few more times that day as well. I never said I was smart. so I've sprained my back really bad, and by the time I get home from work I feel like throwing up or passing out or just dying. But it's almost worth it to get this store going! I took some pictures of it on Wednesday, but the cord for the camera is not sitting next to me on the desk and I hurt too bad to go looking for it. so you'll have to wait a little longer for pictures (I'll get better ones on Monday anyway--we've added stuff).

But I have to say how much I love my job. We didn't tell anyone we were opening on Thursday--we just wanted to open our doors and see what happened while we're training ourselves on procedures and what these particular people are looking for. But we had people coming in before we even opened the doors and they never stopped! Today we frequently had lines out the door and down the hall (we're in our own little suite right by the door to the courtyard between buildings where an inordinate amount of people go to smoke--so they all see us), and we barely kept up. we ran out of soup on both days, roast beef, parmesan, provolone, buffalo chicken, and nearly out of containers. It was awesome. I hope this keeps up because all day, even though I really was in a lot of pain, I kept thinking how lucky I was to have this job and how satisfied and happy I am. Also my boss has already had several problems and surgery on his own back, so he's very understanding and careful that I'm doing what I should be doing (I'm not allowed to lift more than 15lbs, etc). I'm just really really happy!

Oh yeah, and because I mentioned this in the last post I thought I should let you know that we caught things in time and Zoe is Spot Free! Hooray! She's a snotty little thing, but I'm told that that's genetic...^_^

Jimmy's Birthday Party is tomorrow--I told Chris that I'd need more help than usual because I can't move very well and he said, "oh yeah, I forgot to tell you I have somewhere to be at that exact time..." and I said, "that's okay, you can take all 7 five-year-olds with you then!" I hope 7. I only had 2 people tell me yes, so who knows if the other 4 will come or not?

Speaking of that, I need to actually stand up now so I can take Zoe to Walmart with me before Jimmy gets home. Poor kid. I've NEVER actually made his birthday cake. ME. NEVER. He doesn't care though, and thank goodness for that because a big cake hurts my back on the best of days...I can't even imagine what would happen if I tried now!

update

2008-11-04T07:12:00.000-08:00

Sorry sorry sorry. I'm very busy. And I'm sick. I'm very busy and sick. And I found a new version of online sudoku which takes up all my computer time. (I mean lets be honest here).

I don't have a lot of time, I have to go to work in ten minutes, but I feel bad I haven't said anything about anything for weeks. so here's a really fast update from Ohio:

My job is great and perfect except for the fact that the new location hasn't opened yet, which means much less money than there should be. Hopefully that will all change very very soon and we will be able to breathe a little easier! Chris finally got a paycheck though, and that's very nice indeed. Also my boss has agreed to sell my faerie cakes at one of the other locations as well as the new one that I'll be in charge of, so that's really cool. I brought in the first bit of them yesterday so I'm anxious to see how they do.

Halloween is MESSED UP here, we were lucky that our neighborhood had trick or treating actually on the 31st, a lot of places didn't, but even then, the time was restricted to 6-8pm, so it wasn't even dark. And on top of that, the whole process was jacked. The best part of Halloween is the walking around the neighborhood in the dusky darkness, knocking on doors and waiting suspensefully for them to open up so you can yell "trick or treat" and then the nice old people say "oh how cute you all are! you scared me!" but no. no fun surprises here in Ohio. You walk along the sidewalk, and every driveway has people in it sitting in lawn chairs with a bowl of candy. You walk up to them, maybe say trick or treat if you feel like it, and they give you candy. then you walk to the next driveway, and the next, and the next. It was weird and dumb. I was thinking all of this as we were going, but I wasn't going to say anything because I didn't think the kids would care all that much (I mean, they were getting a TON of candy for no work at all), but then they both started complaining that it wasn't any fun because they weren't surprising anyone, and Zoe said it was like the cafeteria at her school (which I thought was pretty astute of her). Then they decided they were tired (after only about 30 minutes) and they wanted to go home and go to bed. Early. Oh well, good for me I suppose.

I also had my first choir rehearsal on sunday (I'm the new choir director in case I forgot to tell some of you) and it went very well, I had 4 TENORS and even 2 basses. Unfortunately the Bishop didn't approve all the music I wanted, he said that even though "Though in the Outward Church Below" was in the old hymnbook and was very pretty and upbeat, it still had a "little too much Hell and Damnation" for sacrament meeting. So I said, "but what's Easter without some Damnation?" I got a rather interesting look for that one. Oh well. We're still doing "Come thou Fount of Every Blessing" for Thanksgiving so I'm pleased.

Zoe is out of school (yesterday and today) so I'm taking her to work with me. Poor kid, doesn't even get a vacation! At least it's better than sending her to school with Chris!

Oh yeah, and I have strep, and as soon as I was officially diagnosed I called and got Zoe an antibiotic too, but I found a bunch of spots on her head last night so lets all hope and pray that we caught it in time...I really really don't want her to have to deal with a full break out this first year at the new school.

And last but not least, it's November 4th, so go VOTE!!! I know there's an election because in the last week I've had at least 4 calls EVERY DAY from Edward Norton, Michelle Obama, Obama himself, several Kennedys, and lots of random people from Obama's campaign offices. All with the helpful information of where my voting location is. Funnily enough, I haven't heard a single word from the republicans. I want this over just so everyone can calm down.

mmm...food...

2008-10-08T18:03:00.000-07:00

I know right? Stare at it long enough and you start drooling...or noticing that the burger looks rather dry which only leads to fantasizing about the many different ways to dress it up that happen to be in your fridge RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, so we're dieting. kind of. Alright, Chris is dieting and I'm too lazy to not to. Why is Chris dieting? Cause I'd rather not put him through school just to have him die of heart disease and diabetes the minute he graduates. So we're watching calories and cholesterol and sugar, and we've learned a new appreciation for our wonderful friend Tivo that lets us fast forward the food commercials. We're doing well, probably mostly because Chris is too busy to eat anything at all, and I'm, again, too lazy to cook with him gone all the time so I just eat salad.

Which reminds me that I haven't written in so long you guys don't even know about my job! My job is completely awesome and I honestly don't know how I got so lucky to get the perfect job, but I did. I work for Dish Mobile Cafe, which brings food into small office buildings that don't have their own restuarants. I'm helping out at a few different locations right now, but in a few weeks I'm going to be managing a new location closer to my house with more hours and better pay than right now, but I'll still be able to put Zoe on the bus and be back with Jimmy by the time she gets home.

Which, in turn, brings me to Zoe. and the bus. The school bus. The big mean school bus full of bullies. I opened the door to meet the bus this afternoon and found that it had just come and all the kids were converging on my lawn (with their mothers) around my poor crying baby. My first thought (other than that the bus was insanely early) was that she'd been hit by the bus, but no, she'd been hit by another kid. It's raining a lot today, and at a big turn she'd lost control of her umbrella and it got a little too close to a bigger girl across the aisle. When this girl passed Zoe to get off at her stop she punched her several times in the leg while yelling unintelligibly. When I got her inside and looked at it it was red and swollen and fist shaped, but it's gone down considerably. Now I know that lots could have happened as far as provocation, but since all the other kids were telling me this girl completely flipped out over nothing, I have to believe them. I called the school and the bus driver supervisors and they said they'd figure out which girl it is (it shouldn't be hard since the buses have assigned seats and we know which stop she gets off at) and talk to the principal. She didn't tell the driver at the time because her regular driver wasn't there and she says they don't do anything anyway. I suppose this is just regular kid bullying and all, but this is my BABY and I'm going to make a big stink about it.

Also, I'm coming to SLC weekend after next to testify at the hearing. I don't remember if I've said much about that here, but Judy (shudder) is suing Buffy (from Haxton Manor), saying that she broke her wrist at work and so Buffy and the state should pay for it. I'm really really unhappy about the whole situation, but I get to go home for a couple days (and Jimmy's coming with me) so that's good. I'm still not sure that it makes up for the inconvenience and uncomfortableness and mess of it all though.

I think I'm going to go to sleep now though, and maybe then I can wake up when Chris gets home from rehearsal instead of falling asleep right when he gets home.

Whew!

2008-09-23T11:23:00.000-07:00

We're fine!!! You've all been waiting so patiently for news of our safety, sending all those care-packages and cards, the email alerts for "hill" in the columbus obituaries, the prayers for our safety, well it all worked and we're ok!

No but seriously, that was, um, fun. This first picture is actually from a few weeks ago in a bit rainstorm. It's taken from inside my garage a little before noon. the water flooded everyone's yard up the street from us but it stayed in our ditch where it goes so that was lucky. There's a pipe under the driveway and the water was just as high on the other side.

Then, on Sunday, (Chris' Birthday), we met Ike. The wind was getting pretty bad, but when our cable went out we went outside to see what was going on. The first thing we saw was the shingles flying off the roof as fast as they could. Still not realizing this was Ike Chris borrowed a ladder from a neighbor to climb up and check the damage to the roof before the rain came and soaked through. While he was up there (with me holding the ladder), this happened:

I was standing with the ladder right in front of Zoe's window there, and when I heard it I thought it was the close tree and I couldn't figure out whether to run and have both the tree and the ladder fall on me, or stay where I was and hope it didn't hit me. Unfortunately, my neighbor (who was helping me hold the ladder) decided to run and flung the contents of her coffee cup all over me in the process. I didn't notice at the time because I was so relieved to still be alive. So Chris wisely got off the roof and we all went inside to huddle around the windows.

Here's a better picture of my poor tree. We lost part of another on on the north side of the house, tons of shingles, our cable/internet/phone for a week (which explains why I haven't posted in a while), and our water was rationed. However we never lost our power for which I am extremely grateful considering there are still people in the city without it. We had more that 350,000 people lose their power and it was pretty scary for a while. Ice was in major demand, people were buying it right off the truck, bottled water was flying off the shelves (lots of people here are on wells so they didn't have any water at all). We had potable water but it was such low pressure it took forever to shower and I was really happy I'd already done all our laundry that morning. It was cool though, to see people come together. People were driving around with chain saws to help remove downed trees, businesses were making room in their freezers for other businesses product so it didn't go bad, people had extension cords hanging out their windows so their neighbors could have a microwave and a lamp. Apparently it was a category 1 hurricane still when it reached us, 75mph winds, and though we didn't get the rain the rest of the mid-west got we got harder hit with wind than they did. I think I'm going to get a kit together to keep in the garage--water at least, but a full 72 hour kit wouldn't go amiss I think. I've heard too many horror stories about the freezing winters here.

Ta Da!!

2008-09-10T07:21:00.000-07:00

Okay. Here's my house. Half of it anyway. We'll start with the kitchen, since that was put together first. This is looking from the corner where the garage door is over toward my lovely stove and dishwasher. The little cabinet on the right has my microwave on top and it holds my cake pans and pasta dishes. I haven't decided exactly how to set up the little dust catcher on top of the cabinets--I'm using it to store my less used pretty things, but I WILL NOT be putting dumb decorative crap up there that gathers dust and breaks when you clean it. Maybe a plant, but that's as far as I'll go. I like my cute little curtains over the sink, and it's just nice to have a window there at all! When you turn to the left in this picture you come to the next picture,

my Dining Room! No but really it's a nice space for my table and that's the sliding door to the back yard. When we're not using it I push the table more into the corner, but when the Missionaries came over we brought out the 6 foot folding table so we could seat everyone and that fit in the space too, so it's bigger than it looks. The door to the left is the door to the office/laundry room which I don't have a picture of yet because we're using it constantly. I really need to post a picture though because my washer and dryer are the most awesome things e-v-a-r EVAR!!!

Except possibly for my couch. Okay, so when we were here in July we found a great couch at a store by our house and it was on sale for $277, so we put $50 down on it to keep that price until we got here. So we'd been looking around at other stuff to go with it and finally decided we needed to get the couch in the house first. We went to pay the rest and pick it up, and thought, we need to sit on it one more time. We walked over to the corner where it lived, and sat on it, and promptly bought the one next to it instead. This couch, we decided, is the one we would always regret not having bought. It's leather and suede, and the best part is it only cost $20 more than the first one!!! The ottoman was a great find too--we got that from their clearance area for cheap cheap cause it was the last one. It has a little drawer in it and it's leather too. The paintings are from Chris' mom, and I like them the best of anything I've seen from her.

Here's a slightly different view with my piano in it (yes it made it all the way here!) so you can see how cute that is. We still need a few chairs and maybe a rug, but that's going to have to come slowly. I also want a tree in that corner. I don't know what kind of tree, but a tree. and maybe a lamp.

And I just accidentally deleted the other picture for the living room, so I'll have to put that in another post. It was of my front window with the cedar chest and drapes. oh well.

here's the other wall in the livingroom, the front door is on the right, and the door you see on the left is to the water heater and furnace. That's Grandma Matheson's stereo (that was in her kitchen) and it works great AND has a plug in the back that we can plug in our mp3 players!

This is the family room, I'd like to point out how clean it is. We need something on the walls, but other than that this room is very nice and cosy. Well, there's that other thing too. The intake for the a/c is in that room. sooo, everytime the blower kicks on you have to turn the TV up really really loud. We played around with it though, and it looks like if we put a piece of furniture in front of it it will quiet down without blocking the air. Now we just need to find something big enough to block it and thin enough it doesn't block the hallway.

So that's my house, stay tuned for the other half of the house, including Jimmy's race car room and Zoe's new and improved Tinkerbell fabricated room.

Little Boys

2008-09-02T14:29:00.000-07:00

Well, not to be outdone by his cousin Sam, Jimmy decided to have a golden speaking moment today as well. Chris is under the weather right now with a bad sinus thing. (either that or he blew out his vocal chords and entire respiratory system at the Utah-Michigan game). So he's coughing stuff up. We were in the car today, and Chris said, "sorry, this is going to be gross" and he leaned out of the door and spit on the street. Jimmy wanted to know what he had in his mouth that he spit out. Chris told him "gross stuff. Mostly boogars." Jimmy got a big smile and said, "Hey! I eat those!!"

Oh yeah. Like I'm gonna kiss him again!

The Gateway Arch

2008-08-30T10:22:00.000-07:00

So they're not of the house, but at least they're pictures. This is the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. When we were discussing the trip to Ohio, the subject of the arch came up and I immediately laughed and said NO WAY am I going up in that thing! But then we got there and I realized I simply couldn't waste such a golden opportunity, and what kind of sightseeing traveler would I be if I didn't take the chance to get out of the blasted car! So we went. This is a picture of where we parked. Yes. It really is that far away. And yes that is the Big Muddy. And yes, it is big. and muddy. And quite gross. If you'll notice, the parking area isn't next to the river, it's IN the river. The ground was wet under my car. Very odd. It was also trying to decide whether or not to storm, so the air was so thick with humidity you could chew it.

This is a picture of me on the inside of the arch. I know it's hard to tell but you can kind of get a hint of the weird tiny slanty space up there. It looks like I'm leaning over because I am--nothing up there is a 90 degree angle. I had to beat out two grade schoolers and a toddler to get this picture too, they wouldn't move and since the windows are only big enough for one eye to see out at a time there was a bit of intimidation required to get a good picture.

This is a picture looking straight down from the very top. You can see the shadow of the arch and those triangle things at the sides are the feet of the arch. You'll notice the angle...creepy.

This is a picture of my cuties trying as hard as they can to get washed away into Lake Erie. It was a pretty lake, incredibly big, and lots of sand which surprised me...I don't know why it should but it did. Lakes around Salt Lake worth going to are surrounded by rocks. Little smooth rocks to be sure but rocks nonetheless.

This is our trip to the Zoo. We took more pictures of the zoo, however this one portrays the spirit and theme of our visit so succinctly that I just didn't feel the need to add any more.

We left after 5 hours having seen less than half of the exhibits.

We had to hurry VERY quickly past a certain group of monkeys...doing monkey things...that monkeys really shouldn't do...especially RIGHT in front of the glass...with really smug expressions on their faces...

One final note, the rain last night was crazy! Chris and I were in the laundry room and we heard a weird rushing noise like a plane was landing on the house so we rushed to the front door and couldn't open it because Noah was sailing down the street. I wanted to take a picture but we literally couldn't open anything-windows, doors, anything. There was a big flood warning on the tv telling us not to let our children play in the water. Pretty cool.

Yeah Yeah...

2008-08-18T15:57:00.000-07:00

I know. I said I'd post pictures after the truck arrived, and here it's been a week and yet there's no pictures. Give me a break will ya? Let me give you a little taste of what's been going on here and maybe then you'll understand.

First, we were trying to get ready for the Taste of Reynoldsburg--the little fair I was making my start in. This is hard to do when you don't even have a kitchen table. so we had to buy one. Then we realized that I had packed the cake pans on the truck. so we had to buy some. Then we found the cake pans where they were carefully packed and realized that what was on the truck was cookie sheets. so we had to buy some.

Sooo, then the truck came and we actually had tons of people come to help us out and it only took a couple of hours to get it all unloaded. Everything we packed carefully came out perfectly--the piano, the dressers, the stereo, the cedar chest, the castle, the bouquet, etc. But...we kind of used the entertainment center as a wall, and since it's about 6 years old and made of Shopko particle board, it didn't fair so well. We got it kind of propped up now and it even holds the TV! You hardly notice the slant... a few dumb little bookshelves gave up their lives, but the real tragedy is my Dragon--most of you probably never saw him but he was beautiful and sparkly and purple and now he's slightly...less. Mostly on the front. I looked for the piece that broke off so I could glue it back on but there was nothing in the box but dust. Apparently I slacked off a bit when i packed that box. But everything else came through great, dishes, glasses, pictures, everything!

So Chris immediately unpacked the printer so he could hook it up and print off the labels I needed for the Taste, but there was no power cord. At this point we had no choice, so we had to buy one. (are you seeing a pattern here?) Not buy a power cord mind you, a new printer. I'm not so sure that I believe it was an accident because I know for a fact that Chris has been wanting a new printer for some time. He even showed me the one he wanted at sams club (that we ended up buying early tuesday morning). Highly suspicious...

So the Taste. We worked hard, all three of us, and got over 600 peices of baked goods made, wrapped, labeled, and ready for sale. I got a premier spot, away from anyone else selling goodies and right next to a bridal boutique, and at the end of the night I counted everything and discovered that I had made a whopping $91. So now my freezer is full of bars and cookies...I donated a big box of sugar cookies to the police officers who were at the Taste...and we took the banana bread with us on our trip to Cleveland. Oh well.

So the next day we slept until about 10:30, stumbled out of bed and into the car and were a good 100 miles away before we realized we forgot EVERYTHING WE COULD EVER NEED. My mom broke her glasses that morning, so she was a little distracted trying to find a store that could replace them while packing in her sunglasses. Chris assumed I knew what he needed, I assumed he would pack/put in my hand anything he needed, and basically we didn't bring anything necessary except for the kids' swimming suits (which we promptly left at the first hotel). I say we went to Cleveland, but though we went through it's boundaries we never actually saw it. We went to WildWater Kingdom at Geauga Lake. It was SO AWESOME!!! It was kind of stormy, but since it was free and the people at the park said the radar looked good, we decided to give it a shot. The best part was that everyone already at the park thought the storm would get worse so they all left!!! Seriously, we got there about 4 and people were leaving in droves because there had just been lightening so the lifeguards made everyone get out of the water. We went in and found our cabana (my brother in law who set this whole thing up for us got us a cabana! it was so cool!!!) and by the time we had ordered food (brought right to us at our reserved, shaded deck chairs by the wave pool) everything was back open and we played and played and played until they closed at 8. It was a ton of fun, and I don't even like water parks.

So that was a good day until we got back and read Chris' email to find that because of the way they are paying his stipend his financial aid is basically nil. So that combined with the less than stellar launching of my little business means that I have to get a job. Which Stinks. Oh well. We also found out that Jimmy has a spot in the day care at OSU, so that's good. expensive but good. so here's the new plan. I'm going to get a job and work this year, promoting my business in my spare time (there's a few little shows I was invited to participate in), and then by next fall when Jimmy's in kindergarten I can just do Faerie Cakes in the morning and be done when he's done and have the rest of the day with my kids. It seems really big and disappointing to me right now, but really it's just making me take more time to ease into this new thing. All that happened was the window for success closed by quite a lot so I have to take the time to open it again myself. No biggie. The thing I'm most excited for is that bridal boutique I was next to in the Taste wants me to create a dummy cake to put in their shop. That should bring me something good I think!

Anyway, I have more to say, mostly about Kirtland, but I have to put kids to bed now and watch more Olympics!!!!!! (I love olympics).

going and going and going...

2008-08-09T20:22:00.001-07:00

We are finally here! Let's see if I can condense the last week down into a post small enough to write before I collapse.

We got the truck loaded on Friday, managing somehow to use just over 10 feet of the truck. I say somehow, but it was completely due to my Dad's awesome Tetris skills. Then we cleaned and cleaned and went to a wedding and cleaned and then we loaded up the cars and took off early Monday morning. We each drove a car loaded to the gills with stuff we urgently needed (or forgot to put on the truck) and had walkie talkies and a huge bag of back up batteries so we could keep each other awake. I thought before we left that that would be a bit superfluous because we had cell phones, but actually I was really grateful we had them with us.

I was also extremely grateful we DIDN'T have the kids with us. I missed them, but I barely made it 600+ miles per day--I can't imaging trying to make that drive with kid friendly music and tiny bladders. (I still had to deal with Chris, but at least he was in a different car!!) Just kidding--although I have to say he insisted on more bathroom breaks than I did. But maybe that was him being sweet and looking out for me cause he knew I was trying to muscle my way through.

Anyway, we stopped in Denver the first night and went to dinner with Nikki and Joel and Nikki's fiance Brian (whom we hadn't met before). It was actually a lot of fun, and we ruined the poor waitress' night by sitting there taking up the table for hours.

The next day we drove through Kansas, which was actually a lot prettier than I thought it would be. That's not saying much, but some parts were quite beautiful. Kansas City MO offered a strange welcome--we started across the bridge that takes you over the Missouri river into the city across the state line, and as soon as we saw the "you are entering Missouri" sign, there was an absolutely horrible smell like lake stink and yellowstone and landfill all combined into one. Then we got out of the car and practically drowned just trying to breathe! We drove through several little thunderstorms, so every bit of the drive was extra humid. We were so tired that we couldn't bear the thought of staying up any longer even to get good KC barbeque. So we went to Dennys. I know. But it was really late and we were so tired!!

So then we drove to St. Louis, and as even though I swore I wouldn't, I simply couldn't pass through the city and not go up in the arch. Well that was interesting from the get go. First of all there's a huge security check point to even get into the ticket office. Well, we had been moving and cleaning, and Chris had his big knife in his pocket. you know, the big giant one that flips open, the one he bought from a cop and was (barely) legal in Utah? Yeah, it's not legal in Missouri. So much so that when Chris tried to surrender it they wouldn't take it because they couldn't be in possession of it either. So we had to go put it in our car which was like two miles away down six miles of stairs and through several clouds, literally on the bank of the Mississippi. So we went back and bought our tickets for the tram. The tram was interesting--8 round cars that supposedly seat 5 people but really were made for gerbils--attached on in a row so they all swing independently from each other. Yes, I said swing. Often. Creakily. The tour guide said that the trip up takes 4 minutes and the trip down takes 3 minutes because gravity is on your side. I couldn't help thinking that I didn't want gravity on my side--I wanted FRICTION on my side. and big fluffy pillows. And WIDE OPEN SPACES!! It was very odd at the top, because it is very very apparent that you are inside the arch. That's hard to describe, but you know how the inside of cool looking buildings is usually nondescript and it's hard to tell that there's a difference until you look out the window? Well the inside of the arch is triangular just like the outside, and you lay on the slanty carpeted walls and look out the tiny slits for windows. We took pictures, but the camera's dead so you'll have to wait.

We drove on and on and on and on and finally we made it to Columbus. It was just at sunset and absolutely beautiful. Since we got here we've been going crazy, unpacking boxes, organizing, baking, shopping, building furniture, cleaning, you name it, and all the while Zoe and Jimmy and running around yelling and screaming and fighting and playing and whining and eating (or refusing to eat). FINALLY, after dinner tonight (saturday) we've got the cable all fixed and working so we can watch the Olympics and check email and, of course, blog.

I have to sleep now, but when we get the truck and the furniture I'll post pictures!

The Proverbial Wire

2008-07-30T06:18:00.000-07:00

We're in the final countdown now--the paperwork is all signed with the new tenant, services are canceled, we're eating off paper and plastic, and the end is in sight. It's kind of disgusting how much stuff I have in the kitchen alone. My mom saved up all her newspapers for days and I went through them in just a few cabinets.

I found a cool thing though, well I guess I didn't FIND it so much as decide to trust in a commercial. I took the glass castle that was on my wedding cake over to the UPS store to have them pack it for me. It took about 10 minutes and less than $10 and now I don't have to "worry 'bout a thing." But the real test will be unpacking it in Ohio and seeing how good a job they really did.

And now on top of packing and saying goodbye and all that, now I also have to type up a statement for a deposition. Fun stuff. My former boss is being sued by a former employee of hers who is lying through her teeth about everything including me and my actions. Buffi should have fired her long before this ever happened.

But enough of this nonsense--I have so much crap to do today. It's my goal to have everything packed by tonight, and even though I know that's not going to happen I'm going to do the best I can to alleviate stress at the end of the week.

It's a Bird! It's a Plane!!!

2008-07-26T16:04:00.000-07:00

Here's another moment from my beautiful boy.

He put on Zoe's tinkerbell wings and ran around the livingroom yelling,
"I'm TINKERMAN!!! the Fairy Boy!!!!"

Oh yeah. I shoulda known this would happen when I agreed to marry Chris...

Jim Croce

2008-07-24T16:58:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I went golfing with the Dispatch Gang, namely Chris, Brett and Carlos. I was worried about it at first because I know that Carlos golfs more than I do, like that's hard, but then I found out that Brett had only gone golfing once before in his life so I figured we were pretty closely matched. I was fairly ok when I first started golfing, but then I fell down the stairs and I hadn't gone in 2 years. When we got to the clubhouse there was a sale on women's golf balls, specially made to accommodate a lower powered swing, and I thought I should give them a try. The fact that they were pink had absolutely nothing to do with it. Brett said I'd lose them so I shouldn't bother, but I figure that I don't ever hit the ball hard enough to lose it so I might as well.

So my first few holes were right by the road (we were on the U course), and I was really rusty so I didn't use my new balls just in case. And I was right. I certainly didn't hit ANYTHING hard enough to lose it. But I didn't do terribly horrible either. By the third hole I decided I could break out the new equipment and I really like them. I don't know if it was just getting back into the swing of things (I just made my own head hurt with that one), or the boost of confidence having a cute girly ball, or if they were really better, but i started doing pretty well. I even got par on 2 holes! I also didn't lose the day, either. Brett did. Ha ha. But not by much, so I shouldn't be mean. I was 20 over, which for 9 holes makes just over 2 extra strokes per hole. Not bad considering I'm so out of practice.

Anyway, the rest of the day I spent in the office packing. I assumed it would be about the same as the last day I spent in the office packing--unfortunately the last time I was just emptying bookshelves and the hardest thing I had to do was decide which of the 37 thousand Mary Higgins Clark books should come with me and which I should take back to the DI where I found them. This time I was packing up piles and piles of papers and notebooks and a basket of laundry probably from when we moved in that got stuck inside a box accidentaly. It seemed like every box and pile had pictures in it, which had to be looked at. I was browsing through one such pile and came across one of my mom holding tiny baby Jimmy at Snowbird. I couldn't see the next one because I was crying all of a sudden for no good reason. Then after that I found my marriage certificate signed by my Dad as the officiator and that set me off too. Even the pile of laundry was difficult because it was so old it had tiny Jimmy clothes from before his gigantic growth spurt that were given to him for various special occasions by various special people. I found a broken key chain my mom brought me from Paris, pictures of Zoe building a snowman in my mom's backyard the week after Jimmy was born. I think you get the idea.

The main problem is, basically, that if I cry on my husband's shoulder, he'll start feeling guilty and get less excited about his wonderful stuff that he's doing. And he shouldn't feel guilty, because what he's doing is for everyone's benefit and if I didn't want to go I would have said that 3 years ago. But I can't cry on my mom's shoulder either because then I'll make her even more depressed and she'll be upset because I'm upset and we'll all be upset together and that would make my last week horrid.

Sooo, instead, I'm going to blog about it so EVERYONE can be upset. That makes sense. No--I'm just crying on a virtual shoulder so that people can scroll down really fast and pretend like they read it while really thinking that I should have just sucked it up like a big girl. So that's what I'm going to do now...after I listen to the appropriate Jim Croce song.

10 days and counting

Columbus

2008-07-22T14:13:00.000-07:00

Sooo, I went to Columbus last week. Chris was in some dumb little park in PA working for his brother, and he met me there so we could look around. First of all, as I'm flying eastward, I'm noticing a disturbing trend in the way the ground is getting flatter and flatter. We landed in Chicago, I didn't have to change planes, but I did get to get off and use a REAL bathroom and grab some food. I sat on the plane and looked out the window at the city-it was SO pretty. When we took off we kind of circled around so I got a great view of the biggest city I've ever see, and then we went off over the water. I was practically giggling it was so cool.

So then we got to Columbus and everything was so GREEN. Everywhere you look there's trees and grass and rivers. One of the coolest things, to me anyway, is that there's baskets of flowers on all the lamp posts downtown. Big baskets of pretty flowers! That aren't dead! The airport is only about 4 miles away from our house, so we got there pretty quick thanks mainly to our TomTom. Our neighborhood is very odd. It's not a typical suburban neighborhood. It looks to me like there was a big farm or open field in the middle of a bunch of normal neighborhoods, and someone decided to plop some houses down on it. There's no sidewalks or fences, everything is green green grass and the houses are abnormally spaced. It's really cute and nice, just slightly odd. And full of FIREFLIES!!!!!!!! I've never seen fireflies before, and our block is so full of them! It makes me think of Shakespearian woodsy parties, like Midsummer Night's Dream.

But the house itself is perfect. I was so relieved! The front room is very large, and the carpet all through the house is brand new. The kitchen is nice, with more counterspace than it looked in the pictures. Chris' office is very very long and will work perfect for his office at one end and the laundry at the other. The kids rooms are large and my room is not huge, but comparatively, it's gigantic. There's enough room for everything to fit inside and still have walking space. There's also 2 full size closets. The little bathroom is already painted PURPLE!! ha ha ha ha . The big one is white, but I'm sure I can spruce it up a little. I'm totally in love with my new house, and I wish I could show everybody...sniff. You'll all have to come visit me. So there.

The city is really nice. We're 15 miles away from Ohio State, but it doesn't feel like we're really far away from the center of everything. We looked around everywhere, Campus, just outside of campus, German village, campus, the stadium, campus, and then for kicks we poked around campus for a while. You have to figure a University has to be pretty big to have Barnes and Noble as it's official Bookstore. But it was a beautiful campus, and much the same as the U with all it's quads and cuteness, and much different in all it's lakes and hugeness and blessed flatness. I tell you, if anywhere should be flat, it's a campus and a zoo. We didn't go to the Zoo by the way, although everyone said it's fantastic. We figured we'd wait for the kids and go all together.

We were only there for two days basically, so it was a whirlwind tour, but I'm really glad we went, because now I know a little more about what I'm getting into. Instead of this vague nowhere place called Columbus Ohio, now we're going somewhere I've been before and I liked. I have a kitchen that's already stocked with chips and salsa and even some plastic cups. There's toilet paper in the bathroom and extra lightbulbs in the garage. I'm able to get really excited now--which is good, because if I think too hard about it then I get upset...12.5 days and counting

My son

2008-07-08T08:17:00.001-07:00

I have to share something my wonderful son said the other day. We were talking about names, and how they each were named after someone--Zoe Elizabeth after me, and James Robert after my dad. So I asked Jimmy if he knew what his middle name was.

Jimmy: Jimmy
Me: No, that's your nickname. What's your middle name?
Jimmy: Jim
Me: No, your first name is James, your nickname is Jimmy, like how Daddy's name is Christopher but his nickname is Chris. What's your middle name? What's your whole big long name?
Jimmy: I like cheese
Me: That's fantastic. But what's your big big long name?
Jimmy: (shouting) James Robert Hill Put That Down!!!!!!!!

I guess it's true that children are a reflection of their parents. I just wish the mirror was a little more blurred.

2008-07-03T09:15:00.000-07:00

Here it is! My name and my logo. However I have to say that all the names suggested by my brothers were absolutely hilarious and well worth a click on the comments link for my last post. Chris spent about 3 hours getting this logo together exactly right and making templates for stickers and things.

Just so no one thinks I'm nuts (like my husband did) faerie cakes are cupcakes. So I can sell pretty much anything I want under this name because cupcakes are so loosely defined. Plus I like that she's a very woodsy faerie, and yet has a cute little star wand. So I can play up either side of the coin depending on who I'm targeting with a specific product. I'm very happy with this.

I think it is time now to post one of the funniest things my daughter has ever said, and for those of you who know her, that's saying a lot. We were talking about onions at lunch the other day:

Jimmy: I'm never gonna cut onions cause I don't ever wanna cry!
Me: You'll have to get your wife to cut all your onions.
Jimmy: I'm never gonna have a wife either!
Chris: Why not? A wife is a great thing to have, they help you all the time and they're nice.
Jimmy: Ok, fine. I'll have a wife. I'll marry Zoe.
Zoe: NO!!! Sorry Jim, we can't get married, you're my brother.
Jimmy: Why not?
Zoe: I don't know.
Me: First of all, ew, and second of all, if the Mommy and Daddy are too closely related, like brothers and sisters or cousins, then the baby usually has birth defects.
Zoe: what does that mean?
Me: It means the baby just doesn't come out right.
Zoe: You mean it comes out your butt?!?!

Yes Zoe, it comes out your butt. A prospect so horrible it's no surprise there's a law against it. Chris laughed so hard I thought parmesan chicken was going to come out his nose if he didn't have a heart attack first! That's my darling daughter for you!

Fine, I'll do it myself.

2008-07-01T08:02:00.000-07:00

Okay, so no one wants to help me come up with a name. That's okay, now I don't have to give anyone cookies! I came up with one all by myself, and I think I like it a lot.

"There's No Cake Like Home"

Chris is helping me make a logo, which is slow going because he knows what he thinks it should look like, and I know what I think it shouldn't look like, but I have no idea what I DO want it to look like. He's tinkered with it so that it's pretty good but I think it's still missing something. I tried to put it up here but it's still a pdf and so it doesn't like it. I'll get it up here soon.

I also found out yesterday that the week after we arrive there's a festival called the Taste of Reynoldsburg, and they're going to have tons of booths and advertisement and stuff. Like an Arts Festival of food. I am so excited about this, because there's all kinds of advertisement involved and it will have my business name on it, flyers and signs and everything. People will get to sample my stuff and PAY for it! You can't give anything away for free, everything has to be $1-3, so I'm trying to plan what I'm going to make and how much to charge. Last year 5000 people came to this festival, and while I don't want to end up with boxes of uneaten cookies, I can't run out in the middle!

I'm so excited about this--what a great way to start out my little business!

my own pictures

2008-06-25T07:50:00.001-07:00

Okay, so here are some actual pictures from our trip, but don't be too critical of them because a) they haven't been cleaned up yet and b)I didn't take them.

Here are my two cuties, happy as all get out to finally be out of the car and in the weirdest place they've ever been. See what I mean about the logs being impossibly straight and impossibly bent?

I'd also like to point out the expression on my son's face--that's his "excited face". I don't have any of the accompanying audio for the excited face, but hopefully you can use your imagination.

This is a kids ranger talk at Old Faithful about Bison. It was a pretty cool little program that the kids had to attend to get their Junior Ranger badges, and they got to touch the buffalo hide and bones and horns and stuff.

In this picture, please notice Zoe's eyes--they're a little too bright for the picture and her expression. Kinda makes you think of Crazy Eddie...

Family picture by the Yellowstone River, this would be after Chris got a geyser shower and is fairly cold and stinky. I hear some people pay good money for mineral water baths but i don't think this is what they had in mind.

This is lunch at Otter Creek picnic ground, about 3 miles south of Canyon. We had lunch there and then let the kids run around a bit. Not too much because we were about 4 feet away from that nice drop-off to the freezing cold gigantic river, but...

This is, again, very typical attitudes and behaviors from both of my children.

Here's the Grizzly and her cub that we saw by Fishing Bridge. The funny thing is that this picture isn't even zoomed in--they were that close! The cub is so cute and fluffy and he's just like a kid, he tries to follow mama and do what she does and then he gets distracted and has to hurry back to her and pretend like he's been there the whole time.

The movie star at West Thumb.

Moose at Jackson Lake Lodge. This is a mama and the bit of brown you see just behind her rear end is her baby. This is what we saw in the afternoon, but when Chris and I went back later to try to see a doctor about his back we saw them both crossing the road right in front of our car, but it happened too quickly to get a camera out. The baby was so cute though, trying to walk with his mama's dignity but then a little yappy dog in a camper started barking at him and he jumped and ran as fast as his spindly little legs could carry him

Eating ice cream at our Tent Cabins. I have nothing more to say about this picture.

This is something interesting that we saw on the way out of the park. I don't remember what, but we stopped and took a picture. I do remember that right before this Jimmy slammed the door on his own arm and it was incredibly hard to tell whether it was broken and swollen or just cute and baby-fat. He did have a few cuts though and he screamed and cried for a long time.

The Smell of Sulfur, the Roar of the Buffalo

2008-06-21T08:32:00.000-07:00

Well, we're back from yellowstone, and I must say that I, for one, am not glad. True, I spent most of the time walking wishing I was sitting and most of the time sitting wishing I was sitting somewhere else, my husband did something horrible to his back, my mom wasn't well, my dad spent his entire trip trying to help out and relax at the same time (which, sadly, never worked), my daughter threw fits at every mention of geysers because of the smell she knew was coming, and my son--well, my son is 4. All the same, it was Yellowstone. One of my most favorite places in the world. We drove up early friday morning through Idaho to the west entrance. I have to say that we only stopped twice for pottys and one of those times was also for lunch so it doesn't count. We went to the visitor's center at Madison to get the kids started on their Junior Ranger badges, which was more of a hassle than I would have thought. The Junior Ranger program is apparently for kids over 5, which the nasty woman told us in a very haughty voice, because you have to be able to read to complete it. Like every kid can read at 5 anyway. So we said what if we read it to him, because he's 4 and a half and if his big sister is going to do it then so is he. She told us that he would actually have to do all of his work because, "Yellowstone really wants the kids to work for themselves and earn these badges" we looked at her like the moron she was and informed her that yes, of course he would do all his own work, what were we anyway? So we got the papers and took pictures of the buffalo and the elk and the bald eagle that we saw and headed on to Old Faithful. I love old faithful, but mainly the inn. I don't know why, I think it's because it's so unlikely. The wood is either insanely straight or insanely bent and it all works out to be fantastically awesome. I usually don't mind that the bathrooms are down the hall either, but this year I had two little ones who can't ever get through the night without getting up at least once. There was also a big mess with my mom's wheelchair, but that's for her blog. We had dinner that night in the cafeteria that's just on the other side of the geyser from the inn. I love that place, it's huge and they have just about everything to eat, from buffalo meatloaf to trout to spaghetti and meatballs. The problem is the aforementioned distance from the inn. Zoe rode the whole way on my mom's chair, but Jimmy walked with Chris and my dad and me informing us very politely the whole way over that he was hungry and tired, "legs hurt...macaroni...legs hurt...macaroni...legs hurt..." you get the idea.

The next day we drove up through Norris and Canyon down to Lake Yellowstone where we were staying in the Lake Lodge Cabins. I like these cabins because you have a bed, a carpet, a bathroom (including a shower, thank goodness), and electricity, and yet you are still in the middle of the woods in a cute little cabin where coyotes eat bunnies all day and night. seriously. We like to stay at Lake because we always take a Jammie Run up the Hayden valley very early in the morning to see the buffalo and usually a bear or two. Well unfortunately it was too early to see many buffalo, and we were two seconds to late on two seperate occasions to see bears. hmph. But we drove up and saw the falls and then up to Mammoth where I haven't been in years. It was Father's Day too so we gave presents and cards and had fun. On the way back for dinner however, after we had split up for the day, Chris and I came across a huge traffic jam, the kind of which is unmistakably labeled "BEAR SIGHTING". We jumped out with all our cameras and kids and ran across the road and saw a Momma Grizzly with her little cub, cute as can be, not 25 yards off the road. So cute! I had just about given up on seeing a bear that trip and boy was I wrong! I've got a bunch of pictures that are unfortunately at this moment in Pennsylvania, so I'll have to post those later. When we got back to the cabin to tell my parents all about the coolest bear sighting ever, we found out that it was my dad who actually spotted the bear in the first place and caused the huge traffic jam. So it was a dream come true for everybody.

After two days at Lake, we went on to the tent cabins at Colter Bay in the Tetons. Zoe asked me and my mom what Tetons means. We told her big pointy mountains. Chris hates camping, and the tent cabins make it a little better, but unfortunately not much, you see, he still has to walk to the bathroom. In the dark. Through the woods. In, again, the dark. In his defence though, the ranger told us that two days before we got there there was a bear in the cabin we were checking into...not the best thing to think of when you remember again that my son is 4! But it was nice because he had been so good in Yellowstone trying to remember that he had to stay on the boardwalks and trails and not run wild because of hot pools and buffalo. In the tetons he could run wild between our cabin and my mom's and not worry about anything. It was so funny though, because he wanted to be everywhere with everybody. If anyone was doing anything other than what he was doing, he would jump up and follow them until they gave him something to do to help. Poor grandpa got the worst of it, mainly because everything he was doing involved the car or the fire, both fascinating subjects for a little boy. I decided that I had to do some dutch oven cooking, so we had huge a breakfast and dinner the day before we left, so big in fact that we basically skipped lunch because we were still snacking on the extra scones. Mmm...scones...

Another fun bit was the breakfast buffet on the last day--they had a huge platter of fruit and I asked the girl who was refilling things if she knew if the fruit had all been cut together. She happened to be the Garde Manger and had done it herself and said yes, but when I explained that I was allergic to cantaloupe she immediately offered to cut me some honeydew seperately. Which I thougth was very nice and I ate the entire bowl she brought me because it was the ripest best melon I've had in a long long time (which is even longer because you can never get honeydew by itself). A few minutes later I started feeling a familiar feeling in my throat and started drinking everybody's water trying to keep breathing! We asked the manager to check if they hadn't been as careful with the honedew as they said and she checked and they followed the allergy procedures with seperate knives and boards and tables, so apparently I am now allergic to ALL melons. poo. I love melons. Maybe someday before I die they'll come up with an allergy cure and then I'll eat melons all day. Especially watermelon. oooh. watermelon. I love watermelon. a lot. a whole lot. Oh well. Till then, I'll just have to eat strawberries.

Well this post is already too long, so I'll end it by saying that we had fun and now we're home and if I don't roast in my own juices I'll post some of our pictures soon.

Contest!

2008-06-11T07:00:00.000-07:00

First of all, I'm not sure why "bay area vegetarians" have a site about chocolate chip cookies, but they do.

Secondly and much more importantly, I have recently found out some very interesting things about the Ohio Department of Agriculture's rules about home baked food. As long as it is labeled properly, I can bake things in my own home and sell them anywhere I want to without being inspected or licensed or anything. I can't sell any "potentially hazardous food", the definition of which was drilled into me at culinary school, which includes basically anything that has to be refrigerated, and while I am allowed to sell things like chocolate dipped pretzels, I can't mix pretzels and nuts together and sell them together. I think that has something to do with repackaging trademarked stuff or something like that...

Anyway, what this means is that now instead of having to find a job and a daycare for Jimmy and possibly Zoe after school to bring in the money I need, I can stay home with them and do what I love to do! I am SO EXCITED!!! Don't worry that I think it's going to be easy, it's going to take a lot of work on my part to get stores to carry my stuff, but it'll be totally worth it!

But I need help--I need a name for my little company. I've always liked the name BabyCakes, but unfortunately that's already taken in Ohio. Chris came up with the best name I've ever heard of, Sweet Nothings, but that's already taken also (no surprise there, it's perfect). So I need ideas. I need a name that conveys what I sell and at the same time implies that the impact is negligible. So Sweet Nothings is good because it gives the idea that you can eat the gigantic brownie and yet it's worth nothing caloricaly--it conveys airiness and lightness.

So I know all of you are more creative than me, so lets hear those ideas!

oh yeah, I said a contest...um...okay, whoever has the winning name gets...uh...a plate of tester cookies. Yeah, that's it. So hop to it!

Allison Simpson

2008-06-08T20:24:00.000-07:00

So, I've heard about this simpsonizer thing for a long time, but only just decided to try it. So here's me--the picture I used was from last fall so my hair's shorter, but I think it's pretty good!

Here's Chris, I think it's cute! The beard could be a little grayer, but it's good enough! ^_^ I also like how his hand is out as if he's explaining something in a very didactic way.

Here's my little Jim--I don't think his is as good, since it's hard to get that messy hair and rosy cheeks and perpetually backwards pants. But it's cute!

And here's Zoe, looking all cute and adorable and simpson-like. My mom cut her bangs today so we can actually see her eyes now, and it's good. The next thing is to square off the back of her hair so she looks less like a ragamffin--she's insisting on growing it out though. Frankly I think it's adorable. Give it two more inches and even it out a bit and it'll be the cutest cut she's ever had.

I'll probably post again this week before our Yellowstone trip on Friday.

2008-06-02T10:21:00.000-07:00

So, starting at the beginning, I had a really bad sinus infection, and the first round of antibiotics didn't work. So the doctor gave me a new one and immediately I started to feel weird--tired and dizzy and weak, and then thursday I was driving back to the office from my last house of the day along I-80, and I looked over at my mirror and instead of seeing my partner Glenda in the passenger seat, I saw this:

I nearly crashed the car! I was seeing things like this all over the road, and it was like mom says how you see in slides instead of movies. I called my doctor when I got home, but of course she was already gone. So I didn't go to work on friday and called the doc and she said that was a very rare side effect so don't take it anymore and the symptoms would go away. Except they didn't. So I went to the ER on sunday so they could check things out and make sure I'm not dying, which I'm not.

I'm crazy.

Apparently I have the sort of mind that gives up after a while (which I'm sure some of you already knew), so starting with being sick for a while, then moving very far away, signing a lease on a house I've never seen in a city I've never been too, dealing with a broken swamp cooler that my landlord is dragging his feet on fixing, two kids who are getting off to a bad start with the summer and already fighting and throwing huge fits, my husband out of town two weekends in a row, working 9 hour days at hard labor, cleaning and packing my house, and then to top it all off a medicine that made me dizzy and confused--my brain gave up and took a vacation.

When they first started talking about making me talk to a crisis worker I thought it was stupid--I'm not crazy, I'm just sick. But this theory actually makes a lot of sense to me, and I'm thinking they're probably right. It sucks though, because I'm not allowed to drive or work until I've seen a psychiatrist and she signs off on me. Which all makes sense, but I don't have to be happy about it. I would like to put in a little plug for my boss now...I think he has to be the nicest boss in the world, I brought him the work release this morning saying I can't work for two weeks, and after the first quick intake of breath all he said was, "don't make coming back to work your first priority, make getting well your first priority. Then coming back to work would be really good"

The weird part about all this isn't the hallucinations. I pretty much know that what I'm seeing isn't real. The hardest part is my swiss cheesy memory. I can't remember what I did and what I thought about--for instance, did I eat dinner or just think about it? Did I call that person or just think about it? Chris says I called him twice yesterday to tell him the same thing, but I only remember the second time. I haven't dared give the kids a bath, because what if I forget they're in there? I've stopped using the home phone because my cell phone records what calls I make so I can keep track (especially useful for when I called my work), and I've reread this blog 5 or 6 times so i don't repeat myself!

It's nice having this time at home with my kids, I only wish I was a little more with it so I could get more done and enjoy it more, but I'll take what I can get!

2008-06-01T11:45:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my new house! Isn't it cute? I'd like to point out the nice new siding and the new roof. It's on the corner (to the left of this picture) so there's a bunch of lawn to play on which looks disturbingly green to my utah sensibilities. Note the two car garage which will bring me (I'm told) a world of joy come bad weather season. Not to mention the safety of having the car doubly locked. Moving on...

This is the entry/living room, which was described by Ben as being "not especially spacious, but it will do", to which I have to wonder what exactly he has been smoking, since I know full well he was living in student housing for quite some time and should look on this room with the same awe and wonder that I do, based on the next picture which is of the same room...

See? It's huge! I suppose that it wouldn't look as big if it was the only room of that sort in the house, but since it is accompanied by a family room just down the hall, it's fantastic! I have one room for the clutter that comes with kids and a huge dvd collection, and a nice living room for my piano and china closet so when people come to my house they won't be scared away. The landlord is putting in new carpet (dark charcoal grey) and repainting (we can paint whatever we want to as well ^_^)

I might post more pictures later, but it's freaking out when I try to do lots.

I'm trying to get quotes on moving companies, whether it's worth it to drive ourselves, (which I doubt), or the upack thing, or more of movers. I've done a lot of research on moving scams and reviews and abf comes off really nice. I even read a post from someone who moved her piano with them and packed it really well and nothing bad happened to it. So that's encouraging. I'm really excited about this house though, I wish it didn't entail moving away from here and family, because I want to move NOW, but I don't want to leave yet!

ha ha ha ha ha. Whew. Glad That's over.

2008-04-03T14:13:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I finally talked to Buffi and everythings fine and apparently always was. As my mother is always saying, Communication is the Key to Everything! Seriously, every time she watched the Scarlett Pimpernel, she points out that if the husband and wife would just talk to each other, there wouldn't be any problems, and nobody would have to be upset and/or arrested. So the only reason there was a problem was that Buffi was in major training and thusly didn't call me, and also didn't feel a great need to call me because she wasn't upset or anything, she was happy for me and thought everything was fine.

Soooo, anyway. I'm trying to get my house clean before I start my new job, because I'm pretty sure that I won't want to clean other people's messes all day and then come home to my own big mess. So I figure that if my house is really really clean to start with, then all I'll have to do is just keep it that way (which takes a lot less effort). I am optimistic, but I also know that it's not going to last extremely long--hopefully long enough that next time I have to get things back under control again I can just pack it all up in boxes. Lately I've just been throwing it all away. My mom told me to save stuff for a yard sale in the summer, but I don't have anywhere to keep it, and it's worth more to me to have it AWAY than make the 2 bucks it'll bring in June. I told the kids that any toys they sell they can keep the money for themselves--but Jimmy got so excited about that he wants to sell his Thomas tracks. I asked him why, because then he'd be sad his trains didn't have anywhere to do. He told me that he would just buy new tracks with the money he got from selling the old ones. Oops. But hopefully we'll get that sorted out.

My cousin is looking at a house for me today in Reynoldsburg. We are trying really hard to get into the Reynoldsburg school district because they've made a really attractive plan for Zoe's schooling. So I found a house on craigslist the other day that might work. It's 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, backyard, garage, basement, all that stuff. We'll see what Ben has to say after he's been inside it. He drove past it yesterday and said it looked nice, and it's not a split level, which is a point in its favor right there. Several points in fact. Another nice thing is that they don't want to rent it until June, so they would be more willing to work with us I think. It would be really nice to have housing all set up and done--but I don't think it will happen for a while yet.

I shouldn't be doing this.

2008-03-31T10:01:00.000-07:00

I'm supposed to be cleaning my house right now, but I thought I would drop a little note to try to get some things down. My boss sent me an email last night in response to the one I sent her telling her I was done. She seems surprised that I would feel that way, blah blah blah. I feel guilty now, but at the same time, still upset. She says she wanted to hear it from me that I was leaving and what was going on, but yet she never called me. She says Judy was making things up and why did I listen to her when I know she makes things up. Well, unless she's psychic, she didn't make it up that Buffi told her I was leaving, because how else would she know? And since Buffi wasn't calling me herself to talk about something I think SHOULD be pretty important, I could only go by what Judy said. I would never have believed half of what she was telling me if Buffi had only called to talk to me herself. If Buffi knows, (and she does, because she told me) that Judy is nuts and makes things up, then why would she rely on her to find out about my quitting and pass things on to me? Why is Judy getting a pass on every stupid thing she does, and I get left in the dark? I'll tell you why, it's because Judy doesn't have kids, and she'll come in whenever Buffi says. She'll grumble and cry and threaten to quit, but she still does. I come in all the time too, but I have refused several times to come in on nights and weekends. The thing of it is, is that even if I didn't have kids, or I always had a babysitter, what makes her think that I always have nothing better to do? I don't make enough at that job to justify being on call. Or to be the manager. Buffi always says she doesn't want another manager besides just her. But she won't BE the manager. She doesn't like it, and she makes everyone else do it. Someone has to be the manager. Someone has to be on call, and make the schedule, and if it's not going to be her then she needs to buck up and hire someone else to do it for her. I shouldn't have been enabling her as much as I was, but I was always kind of hoping in the back of my mind that she'd see what I was doing and make it official. That's not going to happen, and I'm not going to wait around any longer. She thinks I owe her because I got two weeks off for my surgery in January. Funny, I got one day off for my surgery in March, and that was the day OF the surgery. I worked the next 6 days in a row! It's ludicrous and I'm done.

I'm going over there to talk to her today, and my mom wants me to work out the week, but I don't know. I don't want to burn any bridges, but the thought of going back there makes me physically ill.

That is slightly depressing.

2008-03-30T11:38:00.001-07:00

Okay, I just googled my name, and you would not believe how many thing came up. Allison Hill is apparently a (bad) neighborhood in PA, an artist, sculptor, finance manager, a photographer, and who knows what else. Allison Wells is a classical singer, a kindergarten teacher, an author, and a 16 year old girl in Hawaii. It's kind of a lot to live up to--I'm going to have to work hard to get my name up there with all the rest of them. If you google my brother he's the first one to come up--however, this is kind of cheating because he has his own website that's CALLED robisonwells.com. And of course, the computer thinks you spelled it wrong.

I don't remember why I just googled my name, except that I'm trying to keep my mind off the job I just left. It doesn't matter, I have a new job, a BETTER job, but it still sends me into a panic to quit--especially when people are so immature about it. Why do people take things so personally? I'm quitting for better pay and better hours, something I accept I'm not going to find in the B&B industry as a whole (until I own my own, of course). I gave notice, I did everything I should have done, and yet my boss is being a baby about it. Maybe it's okay, because now I don't feel guilty about finding another job--instead I'm relieved to be getting out of what is obviously a messed up place. It's the final insult though, because I've been defending my job to my family for months now. Everytime I had to work weird hours, or no hours at all, and my husband or my mom would say, "why do you put up with this? This isn't what your job is supposed to be!" or "I just saw that you could work at McDonalds for more money than you're making." And I defend it, every time. And this is what I get. It makes me sick.

I need to get my mind off it now though, because it's over. Maybe I'll watch Doctor Who...that usually helps.

Underappreciated...at least by me

2008-03-12T17:51:00.000-07:00

So, do you want to know the best word in the world? Here it is: Benign. Yup. Here's another good one: fibro adenoma. To start at the beginning, I had a lump removed from my right breast last friday. They had to remove it because it was too big to biopsy. Think about that one for a minute. It's too BIG to stick a needle into. But it makes sense if you think about it, because one part could be benign while the rest is a raging inferno of nastiness. So I had it removed. Let me paint you a picture.

There I am in the little room in my cute little gown and socks with the little sticky stuff on the bottom. A guy comes in to draw blood. Does he start an IV at the same time to limit the amount of poking I will undergo? Of course not. And it hurt. So then a girl comes in whom I met at my first visit to the surgeon two weeks prior when this chickie was on her surgical rotation. Apparently now she's on her anesthesia rotation, and jumped at the chance to start my IV. The first thing she did was numb the skin--which I have learned is a very bad sign because it indicates that they don't know what they're doing. And I was right. She poked around for a while and then did something extremely painful and started to laugh. I looked over and she had blown the vein. There was a HUGE ridgey lump on my hand where my vein should be. She held gauze on it to stop the (external) bleeding, and proceded to laugh and show the other people in the room how funny that was. I don't need to tell you I was not pleased by this. It hurt so bad that I was starting to get a little woozy, and my mom turned to this girl and said, "how many IVs have you started in your life, 3?" She stopped laughing. The next guy didn't seem any more competent at the outset but he did get the needle in first try and it didn't bruise.

Then they took me in the operating room. This sucked so bad, I don't even have words to describe it. They put a blanket over my face and tied my arms down (which was good because I could feel them keep trying to move down and "help") and injected the local. They did give me some happy drugs at the beginning because I remember dozing off a few times. But then they wore off and I remember everything after that. I think I've watched way too many medical shows because I understood way more of what was happening than I wanted to. When the doctor finished and left the nurse to close they started bickering about the proper way to close, "I like to do it this way with a little wrinkle, but Dr. Neumeyer doesn't like that. She's never here when I close so I do it my way anyway." "I like her way of doing it, don't you think you should use an extra stitch there?" "no, it's good, I've done hundreds of these" and on and on and on. By the time I got back to my mom I was so ready to go home and get away from that place. I cried all through the surgery and didn't stop until my mom took me home.

But on the bright side, I am done with it, and they called today and said it was a totally benign fibro adenoma. I have a very orange/purple/green/red bruise where I can't show people, and a dark purple/green bruise covering the back of my hand. Yeah, it's really funny, isn't it.

You know, when you're preparing for this surgery, they tell you how easy it is because it's not into a muscle or organ, so the recovery is really easy. But I don't think the average person realizes how often they use that part of their body on a daily basis. Tearing off a paper towel from the roll, carrying more than two things, bumping into doors, folding laundry (if you can't figure that one out I'm not going to explain it to you), etc. I'm sure I for one, will not be taking those things for granted any more!

Slurpees

2008-03-05T18:35:00.000-08:00

My husband won't buy me slurpees anymore. He says that just because I never finish them, I shouldn't get them in the first place. It's really not fair, because he always buys the ones with fake sugar. Gross. So of course I can't finish them, because they're gross. Last time he went to get some, he called me from Sev to ask what flavor I wanted if I didn't like what he picked. He was absolutely astounded that I wanted Coke. Huh? This from the man who practically had to go into rehab to get off the Cola, is amazed that I would want a Coke slurpee. Go fig.

I was looking for a job in Columbus today, and it's looking hairy. There's tons of jobs, that's not the problem, the problem is that I don't know anything about them. When you're looking for work, you weed through the ads looking for places you like, that you trust, that you would feel comfortable telling people you work there. But in a city I've never even visited, what do I do? I don't know the neighborhoods, or the businesses' reputation. It's a total crap shoot, and I don't like it.

I'm not going to write a long blog because the new season of Ghost Hunters is on. ^_^

Cogito Ergo Sum

2008-03-03T18:29:00.000-08:00

You're probably wondering why I have called you all together. I have decided that in light of the coming life-changing event that is soon to, you know, change lives, I should record the process. And what better way to record the personal issues of my family than on the internet!

I'll start at the beginning for those of you coming in late. My husband Chris is graduating from the U in May. This is a big deal because he's getting TWO bachelor degrees with honors and all sorts of nifty things, including a "Stole of Gratitude". This sounds a lot like the "Penguin of Knowledge" but stick with me here. It's a very pretty sash you wear around your neck that means basically nothing. You buy it yourself if you want one, but then after you graduate you're supposed to give it to someone you are grateful to--a family member, friend, etc who has supported you in some meaningful way. It's kind of like a gameball. My husband decided he's going to wear one and give it to me--which doesn't mean the sweet thing you're thinking it does--if he gives it to me he gets to keep it himself. Anyway, he's graduating and then he's going to grad school. He's been accepted to The Ohio State University so unless Pittsburgh throws tons of money at him we're moving to Columbus in August.

I'm actually pretty excited to finally know where we're going. We've been talking about this move in very vague, general terms, but now we know exactly where we're going which changes everything. Now I can research schools for Zoe and jobs for myself and get moving quotes and find a house. Ah, house. There's the rub. I have no idea what we're going to do. I do NOT want to go back to living in an apartment again, so we need to find a house to rent. But it's silly to rent a house and not get any equity out of it, so we'd love to buy a house but that's not going to happen. Rent to own might be an option--we'll have to see.

I feel like I have one foot in both places. I'm trying to get that life set up and ready to occupy, while trying to have as much fun as I can here before I leave and never come back. I grew up in Salt Lake, and I think it's beautiful--and of course, familiar. But on the other hand I'm really excited to do something new. The only time in my life I've lived more than 5 miles away from my mother was my senior year of high school when she sent me to Tuacahn in St. George. That was only 9 months, and only 300 miles away and I had a car...and you know, I look back at that time in my life and I have no idea how I came out of it alive. You'd think that I did a lot of stupid things, and don't get me wrong, I did, but I did molly-mormon stupid things. I stayed up way too late and ate too much junk food and drove too fast and kissed THREE boys. It's after I came back that I started the really stupid things--but that's another story. I do wish that I hadn't gone on a credibility destroying rampage the second I got home...

That paragraph kind of got away from me, but the point I was trying to make is that now that I'm at a ripe old age I know that my mother is not only much smarter than I am, but MUCH more capable, and I'm scared silly to move away from her. Luckily I have two incredibly cute kids so she'll have to come visit me all the time if only to see them.

So I'm going to spend the next 5 months having as much Utah fun as I can, which I can only assume involves green jello and sing-alongs.