Sunday, June 27, 2010

Clumsy Me


Hiya! Ok, I'm going to try and keep this blog short since it is after 1:30 in the morning and I really should go to sleep. But I've been having fun today going onto imdb.com and looking up trivia on all the movies, and I wandered over to the Lord of the Rings movies and suddenly had the urge to watch them! I watched half of Fellowship earlier with my hubby while we folded laundry, but then he pretty much zonked out so I figured I'd be courteous and wait for him. I forgot how much I love LotR! It is the perfect movie trilogy, it has the big huge main plot, and all the little side stories and subplots, and every genre there is! Action, adventure, romance, fantasy, horror, everything! It's so cool! There's even a bit of foreign film in there if you count all the Elvish they speak.

I also discovered that they are finally coming out with the next Narnia movie in December. I love the Narnia books and for the most part I loved the other two movies. I liked Lion better since it stayed much truer to the books, and Caspian pretty much shredded the book and created the most awful romantic subplot between Susan and Caspian. So very, very wrong. But they were both great, so I'm very excited for Voyage of the Dawn Treader, although very sad since Peter and Susan won't be in them anymore. Especially Peter, since William Moseley is a hottie that could be my husband's twin, no joke. Yeah, I'm lucky. They're only four months apart in age, too, how funny is that?

So, you wanna hear what I did for fun today? Here's a bit of background. #1, I have completely screwed up ankles, and I do mean screwed up. If I ever have to have a body part replaced, it will be my ankles. #2, I have been ridiculously clumsy the past 2 days for reasons unknown. #3, it was a pretty big step down. I was digging a hole around one of those green metal fence posts that you wire fencing too so we could take it out. After finally digging deep enough (and realizing that there was no cement at the bottom of it like I though, as demonstrated when my father in law just tugged it out like it was stuck in runny pudding) and getting it out, I was going back inside with my husband and as I was stepping down from the dirt to the patio, my ankle totally freaked out on me and it got sprained and twisted at the same time. That's talent, right there. And typically, since one ankle is competely out of commission, I landed on my other knee and I now have a very impressive scrape that covers my whole kneecap and there are still little bits of dirt that I haven't been able to dig out yet. Left ankle, useless, right knee, almost useless, both of them, PAINFUL!

Here's the funny part. I have a pair of black boots, the ones that have a chunky squarish heel about 3 inches tall, and they zip up almost to my knee, kinda like the ones in the picture, just a titch taller heel and longer up the leg. I call them hooker boots, and I love them. They are the only shoes I can walk in with my stupid ankle right now, because there is a stiff support around the bottom half of my ankle, and they are form-fitting enough that I get plenty of support to keep my ankle braced and my foot stable. I've been sitting around all day wearing canary yellow gym shorts and calf-high black pleather hooker boots. Sexy, huh? At least I haven't been whining about it, except for right now, since nobody is reading this anyway. It really does hurt like the dickens, and the dumb bandaids won't stick to my stupid knee! And the kicker is that I don't even have bad swelling or any bruising on my ankle at all. If I'm going to suffer, I want visible proof, people! Stupid ankles.

Ooh, I just thought of another thing! My sister in law found a little scrapbooking store yesterday and she took me there because they were having a sale on paper, 10 for $1.00! Yeah, I spent $14 and change. *Sheepish grin* I won't need to go scrapbook paper shopping for a long time, that's all I'm gonna say. But I've got some of the cutest stuff!!!!!

Other than that, the only things worth noting are that I cleaned my room today, our laundry is folded and put away, and for the Fourth of July I'm gonna dye my hair red. Not clown red (although sometime I'll have to tell you about this one time in high school . . . ) just an auburn red. I've always wondered what I'd look like with different colored hair, and I want to try red, lighter blonde, and dark brown. I decided red is next, since it's patriotic. I'm also debating doing a blue streak with Kool-Aid (yes, it is possible) but I'm not sure my boss would approve. Still deliberating. Anyway, that's all, I'm gonna go to bed now and try to figure out how to modestly wear hooker boots to church tomorrow. G'night!

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Great Expectations

Not the good kind of great expectations. The kind of expectations that it's just impossible to live up to, that people just won't keep pestering you about. At the moment it's the expectation of doing "more" on top of a job that is physically exhausting, a 2 year old that has entered the most exasperating phase of being spoiled, ornery, bratty, and so clingy that I seriously considered running away from home yesterday, and dealing with trying to get my husband through school that is sucking up every minute of his time. Where, precisely, does it sound like I have the capacity to do more?

I wake up to that same patience-testing 2 year old every morning after seeing my husband off to school by 7 every morning. And at that point I get ready, and if I'm lucky I get to take a shower, and then it depends on when I work. If I work in the afternoon, I get ready for that. If I work at night, I wait for awhile, trying to control the patience-testing 2 year old and keep her from making more of a disaster of my continually chocolate-milk-stained room. She has no respect for the fact that I just barely changed the bedding, which now sports a whole host of new chocolate milk stains. So, anyway, I go to work, which is, if we're being honest here, a 4 hour workout in which I do squats, stretches, lunges, weight lifting, and more walking that some people do in an entire day. Yes, I'm a librarian. You wanna argue with me about the physical aspects of my job? Bring it on.

So, after this four hour workout in which my feet are substantially abused and aching by the end of it, I usually get picked up late because I'm frequently forgotten, and head home starving, exhausted, sore, and just wanting to take a break. No such luck. I am either immediately expected to make dinner, or I am greeted at the door by a certain 2 year old who demands in a very loud voice "Cocoa!" and "Boney!" (baloney) and "Teewee!" (TV). And I spend the rest of my night catering to the whims of the 2 year old. Then, after I wrestle her into bed, I help my husband with his homework. I'm a good writer, though you may not think so since I'm really not making any literary effort to write this right now. And since writing is not his best area, I pretty much do most of his homework for that class. When he has a writing assignment in his film class, I help with that too. He's completely on his own for math and computer.

At this point, it is usually somewhere between 11 p.m. and 4 a.m. Leaving me exactly no time for myself. So on the nights that it is 11 p.m. I stay up til all hours of the night, trying to restore a sense of equilibrium to myself. Usually it works. This week, however, it is not working.

And now the 2 year old is screaming at me because I won't let her eat cookies for lunch, throwing things at me, and looking about ready to demand I put yet another movie in for her. I also have laundry going in the washer and dryer with at least 2 more loads to go, bedding that needs changing again, and a room that needs cleaning since the 2 year old has so destructively graced it with her presence. I want to run away from home so bad right now.

Who wants to bet that when I come home I get reamed for not doing something else good enough or often enough? I've got pretty good odds on it. My husband and I got whaled last night because we can't afford to buy his parents' car that they don't want anymore. They want us to sell all of our movies and his video games so we have more money. I wanted to tell them to *$#! off. We tried to get a loan to buy that car two months ago and they wouldn't do it. So we got criticized for not doing enough, not being enough, and not paying my in-laws enough.

Lifestyles of the Poor and Unknown are sucking right now.

Well, I have a load of laundry that needs to be changed, a daughter that has gone from being violent to being clingy with the speed of light, and a room that still needs to be cleaned and a bed that still needs to be made. If anyone wants to trade lives with me, let me know.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Frustrations of a "Single" Mommy


I feel like I haven't blogged in FOREVER! Probably because I haven't. I've been a bit crazy busy this past week. Summer finally decided to make an appearance, much to my dismay, and for some reason I always forget exactly how much I hate summer until it's here. And I'm in the throes of a perspiration-dampened, stuffy aired, constantly overheated state of discomfort. I have never wanted to wear shorts more than when I'm at work. We aren't allowed to wear shorts or capris, it has to be pants, and my legs get so warm and it is so unbelievably awful. I really, really hate summer. And I am probably going to comment on that many more times before October comes.

This last week my hubby finally started his other classes in school, so now he's on a complete "part time" load. It feels more like full time plus some to me. Whenever he's not at school, he's at work. And those rare hours that he is home, he is in the other room buried in homework. I hate this new schedule! I hardly ever see him at all, and it just sucks. We have at least 4 more years of this. I'm gonna go insane. Whenever I'm not at work, I feel like a single mom.

I'm going to stop griping for a minute here. I have good news. I may have settled on a muse that I'm going to extend into a novel. I have upwards of 40 muses to work with, but this one I've been working recently on has been magically turning out so I know what's going on and how to get there. Getting from point A to Z is never as easy as it sounds, especially when the only letters you have are E, J, Q, R, S, and X. I need all the fillers now, but I have a solid plot line. Yay me! So now I have to balance my little free time between writing, finishing the stack of books on my nightstand, and finishing the movies I borrowed from my brother's wife. I have three left, so those shouldn't take long, but the books might. Half of them are more for research rather than just straight reading. I'm a lover of Greek Mythology, and I have two kids books with great pictures about the gods and goddesses and popular stories. I was going to work on an on-going project I've been doing for about 8 years, writing down all the info I can get on Greek myths, but I think I'll just consider this a refresher course in the interim and go back to my other stuff. I also want to paint, sew, and play with my online music. I am exhausted just typing all that!

Ok, so at the moment my daughter is on a Dumbo binge. She has watched Dumbo at least 4 times today, and that is not counting the 12+ times I have turned the TV off when she left the room, only to turn it back on 10 minutes later when she re-enters the room and demands "Dubbo!". I'm kinda tired of Dumbo, I admit. I also admit that there was absolutely no point to that paragraph.

Aaaand . . . my brain has stalled. I'm laying across my bed and I want sooooo badly to just collapse and go to sleep. It is almost 8 p.m., and I want a nap. I am in so much trouble. My train of thought has left the depot. My happy meal is missing the toy. My inner library has no index! *Gasp!*

Ok, so it's after 9 now. In between the last two paragraphs, I apparently succumbed to the temptation and completely zonked out. I even had 2 text messages on my phone that I didn't even know about, and my phone beeps and vibrates every few minutes until it's answered. I was out. I didn't even hear Dumbo, for which I am grateful.

I'm leaving now. Somehow a grumpy mood has installed itself while I was sleeping, and I just found out that my husband has a test Thursday and tons of homework due inbetween now and then. So I'll be single-mommying it for the next few days. *frustrated sigh*. And by the way, I have no idea what the animal is in that picture, but that is exactly how I feel.

Saturday, June 5, 2010

Rain Puddles and Special Moments


I played in puddles today. It rained most of the day up at my parent's house and my daughter was outside in it helping Grampy plant trowels in the garden. Yes, you read right. Trowels. So after she came in all wet, I decided on an impromtu puddle-jumping session. Now, normally I'm a bit picky about the puddles I jump in, but I wasnt' today. The biggest puddle was the dip in the gutter at the end of the driveway. So my mom, my siblings, and my daughter and I were splashing icky water all over each other until we were completely soaked, and we didn't mind a bit. The pants I have all are a bit too long, so they hung partly over my feet and acted as perfect scoopers to send big waves of water when I swung my leg through the water. It was fun! Their dog Miko, a white Miniature American Eskimo with a curious patch of yellowish fur low on his back, was more gray than white by the time we were done. So while the kids trooped into the house for baths, I gave the poor dog a bath with the hose outside. He did not appreciate that AT ALL. And he kinda looks like he's been through a losing battle with a blender. All his fur is matted so bad you can see clear down to his skin. Poor puppy.

Anyway, so that was probably the highlight of my day. Earlier we watched a movie I've added to my Must Get list. It's called Leap Year and has Amy Adams and a guy whose name I cannot remember, and it was really cute. So I now have 5 movies currently on my list, at least until I remember any other ones. Blindside, Shrek 4, Benny and Joon, Leap Year, and the new Alice in Wonderland. I just saw that one with my sister-in-law this week and I liked it. I don't like most of Tim Burton's movies, and I haven't seen a lot of them, but I love Johnny Depp so I went for it. Johnny Depp may just be my favorite actor of all time. There is not a role he cannot play, and the more crazy and over-the-top, the better. He is simply amazing. And freaking hot as well, which only improves things.

Also today I made chocolate covered strawberries with my sisters and youngest brother. We had fun, and it has been decreed that I am the master at chocolate covered strawberries and making garlic bread (yes, the garlic bread was a completely random point, but I made that tonight too and I have my own "secret" recipe for the perfect garlic butter topping). Also, I have invented a new delicacy. Strawberry Volcanoes. That's when you cut the tops off of strawberries, put a circle of melted chocolate on a flat surface (like a pan or something), set the berry flat side down on the chocolate so it covers the bottom of the berry, then with a spatula or fork or whatever, drizzle chocolate over the top of the strawberry generously. It kinda looks like a volcano. And Chocolate Strawberry Mountains are just the topless strawberries dipped in chocolate. Hey, the more chocolate the better! But none of this cheap, crappy chocolate you get in the baking aisle that come in those plastic bags that have pictures of different candies on the front. You must use a really good chocolate. My favorite is the plain chocolate Symphony bars. Hershey's chocolate chips or bars, or if you're of a mind to be a tad more expensive, Lindt Extra Creamy bars would probably work fabulously as well. Add that chocolate to perfectly perfect strawberries, and you have achieved heaven in a candy.

Let's see, other than that, I went to the store with my mom and sisters today and finally bought a new floofah (my lingo for loofah). One of the dogs chewed up my old one two weeks ago (the turds) and I've been needing to get one ever since and I finally did! And I got an extra for my travel bag. Yay me!

Oh, and I have two more things to report. The first is that when we were out playing in the rain today, a train was coming by the house. My parent's house is right across the street from where the train tracks are, and my daughter loves to watch it go by. So my dad took her over closer to the tracks to see it better, and it was just the perfect photographic moment. It was raining, so the light was soft and pretty and bright colors stood out great. They were holding hands and watching the train, and one thing that is kinda cool is that my grandpa, my dad's dad, loved trains. He had a model train set put up in a room in their basement with a whole landscape that he built, and it was wonderful. Trains were his thing. So we got a great photographic moment there. Grampy and granddaughter watching the train go by, holding hands. It was so cute. I think there's a good Father's Day present right there.

The last thing is that my hubby got a letter today. It's a letter that he wrote to himself Senior year of high school for an assignment that they said they would send out five years later. That would be now. After quite a bit of pouting and threats, he finally let me read it. And although I am sworn to secrecy about what it says, it made me smile. In it there is one part that says that he doesn't care about anything else as long as he's married to me and keeping me happy. It was kind of a blast to the past to our dating days, and I miss those days. We had lots of fun and we didn't have to be adults yet. I was talking to my mom today, and if couples didn't have to worry about money, marriages would be so much easier. It's being the adult that sucks when you get married, not the marriage or your spouse. I've said before that I was completely ready to be married, even though I was only 18. And I was. It was being a responsible adult I wasn't ready for. Bounced checks and car payments and overdue rent. The love, however, I was always ready for.

And on that note, I'm going to do my calendar (what exactly is the point of calendars if you don't write down what you do that day? Calendars have kind of become my mini diaries) and read the next chapter in my scriptures (I'm on David and Goliath, I'm excited) then kiss my husband and go to sleep. Sounds like a plan to me.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Politically Uncorrect, and I like it.


I am going to be politically and culturally offensive here for a minute, are you ready? Judge me, I dare you.

Ok, here goes for some cultural offenses. I think that Robert Pattinson, the guy who plays Edward in the Twilight Series (never seen it, never read it) is one of the fugliest guys I have ever seen (thing ugly with a very meaningful F on the front). And Kristen Stewart, who plays Bella, constantly looks drugged, grumpy, and like she is so totally above everyone else. I can't stand either of them. I hated Robert Pattinson in Harry Potter, and his position has gotten worse on my Like List. However, kudos to whoever cast Taylor Lautner. I don't know if he can act, but through sheer gift of his genetics, he brought millions of people to watch those movies. He is very hot.

Another Twilight related culture offense. I cannot decide if I want to read or watch them. I don't like vampires, I don't like werewolves, I think the whole storyline is creepy. I like romances, but that kind of stuff sounds way too screwed up for me. And I have heard from several people that it's cheesy. I like some kinds of cheesy, but there is a point at which I lose complete respect when it ventures into that zone of cheesy that not even a desperate person would go to. I'm pretty sure I don't want to read it. Also, that fact that I was able to glean almost the entire plot simply from reading the absolutely RIDICULOUS number of flairs on Facebook was incredibly annoying. Anything that has that many crazed fans I am not interested in.

I'm now going to be politically offensive. I found out the other day that someone very close to me got an abortion last year. I wasn't exactly shocked, but I was still very, very sad. Abortion should be illegal except in cases where the baby will not live anyway or have life-threatening deformities, or in rape cases. That's it. When you get an abortion, you are not just taking an easy way out on your own screw up. You are murdering a person. You have no right to do that. It's not just an inanimate bit of tissue that you're removing, it's a living being. Shame on anyone who has ever done that. There is ALWAYS a better solution. You just didn't look hard enough. For the record, this person that I know that had the abortion regrets it. If she could go back and change it, she would in a heartbeat. She hates herself knowing that she did it. She can't even say the word abortion, she feels so horrible. Hindsight sure is a bugger.

Now I'm going to offend sports players, politicans, celebrities, and businessmen who make more than $50,000 a year. I think that for all of those people we should halve their salaries. Did you know that some athletes make more money in a single game than teachers, firemen, nurses, military servicemen, and police officers make in a whole year? Sometimes ten years? And politicians and celebrities are often the same. Celebrities spend more on an outfit that they will wear once than I spend in an entire year on groceries. That is sick. And some politicians, especially the high up ones like Senators and Presidents and offices like that get salaries and benefits that are often continued throughout their whole lives.

I am one of the thousands of uninsured Americans. My family of three, with both myself and my husband working part time earns about $600-$700 every month. One visit to the doctor is about $130, not including prescriptions. I know this because in the past 2 weeks we have had to go to the local Instacare three times, once for each of us. I had a virus that mimics strep throat, then an ear infection, and now a cold and I still have that ear infection and a very sore throat. We're going on three weeks with that now. My husband got everything I had except the cold, then he got pink eye. My daughter got the cold, the pink eye, and an ear infection. It was $75 for my husband and I just to see the doctor, then we had lab work for the strep cultures and two prescriptions for my husband (I didn't get anything, which is probably why I'm still sick). Luckily we're poor enough that our daughter is covered by Medicaid. Now wouldn't it be nice if we could take half of all the earnings of all of this country's filty rich people and funnel it into the bank accounts of people who need it?

Those politicians and businessmen who write speeches and plan projects wouldn't be able to without those teachers that taught them to read and write. Those athletes wouldn't be playing without the nurses that healed all of their injuries. Those celebrities would probably have a lot harder time if the police weren't there to assist with crowd control. And everyone would be in for a world of hurt without firemen and servicemen and every other public service employee that goes to work every day for a short wage, long hours, and little appreciation. Food for thought.

Ooh, I though of another culturally offensive pet peeve! This country is America. We speak English here. If you're gonna live here, learn the language. I totally know that learning a second language takes time, and I know people have to work to live. But if you can't speak English or your accent is too thick to be understood, do not take a job where you will be speaking. Fast food restaurants are out. If I can't understand a fricking word you are saying when I'm in the drive through, you should not be working there. And whoever hired you should be fired. I have absolutely no problem with immigration (as long as it's legal) but acclimate already, people! We're a melting pot of cultures, but we speak ENGLISH here. Learn it.

Did I offend anybody yet? I hope I at least made you think. You know, few things actually really piss me off, but I guess I'm just in a griping mood tonight. It's been a crappy day, I'll admit it. Except between 6 and 9 p.m., I was playing with my daughter then and we had fun. But the rest of the day pretty much sucked. I had to do an extra batch of laundry thanks to a leaky sippy cup, a dog that is not mine threw up ALL OVER my bedroom carpet, I'm still sick, and since I have been sick my check this week is going to suck. We have to buy two textbooks for my husband for school, we have two doctor bills to pay, and our phone bill. All with about $150. It's gonna be a great week.

My final thought: I finally have a firm grip on reality. Now I can STRANGLE IT!!! Have a nice day!