Goodbye

I'm hanging up my blogging hat for awhile. I'm not sure when I'll return, but I'm sure once life simmers a bit I'll find the writer in me again.

Wishing the best to all my readers. Thank you for everything.

Rest In Peace

Life has been very busy for me lately. Packing. Sorting. Getting stuff set aside to sell at a Moving Sale. Stressing. Relaxing when I can. Keeping on top of the munchkin's schedule. Getting more boxes. Getting more packing materials. Organizing paperwork. Buying plane tickets. Orchestrating departures and arrivals to various addresses. So forth and so on.

But then yesterday evening came.

We received news of a fatal car accident.

The son of a dear friend of my family was driving home from work and he was in a collision with a dump truck which took his life.

He was 19 and heading off to the Coastal Guard soon. Friends with everyone. Close with his family.

It's a shock really. I had known him since he was three.

Life slowed down. I've stopped rushing and worrying as much. I pray that Will has found peace.

I can't possibly begin to understand the horror his mother is faced with right now.

Our family will continue to do all that we can to help her family in this great time of need, but the one thing...the only thing could help right now - we can't do...and that's bring him back.

Rest in Peace.

Nacho Cheese - More Please!

The three of us went out to dinner at the pub up the street tonight. It was a nice day out today, so the evening air was still fairly warm and lots of people were out and about. We were able to eat outside in the beer garden and enjoy the fresh air along with the good food.

The munchkin had nachos for the first time. My husband documented it with his camera phone since I didn't have my camera with me. Note: The pictures were taken ~after~ we wiped her up a bit. She had taken a few very cheesy chips and smeared them across her entire face. She was covered from hairline to chin in nacho cheese and even had it nearly in her eyes and up her nose!










There were times when she'd nibble off the part of the chip that had cheese on it, and then hand back the bare chip for my husband to add more cheese to it.

Hermit Lady's House

A couple blocks away from my house there's a house that has always piqued my curiosity.

To walk by it, you would notice a yard full of a variety of stuff. From plastic gnomes, to wooden dolls, to other animals made from a bunch of different materials and plants that were unruley, grass thats wild and unmowed, and piles of wood scraps and broken semi-jointed fence lines that seemed to start and end with no rhyme or reason.

Upon looking at the house itself, you'd see wooden porch doors with no doorknobs that had some sort of wire apparatus that I can only guess would be a make-shift doorbell? but the wires tied the doors shut so I'm not entirely sure about my idea. The steps leading up to these wooden porch doors were half broken and uneven with no apparent handrail, although it could just very well be covered over by the crazy plant life.

The windows, and I do mean each and every one of them, are covered with fragmented sheets and blankets so that not a spec of light could shine in.

Beyond that all that I have is what my imagination is left conjuring up.

One might think that no one lived in this house, but I know that someone must have because the yard ornaments would change some and at the very least rotate around amongst all the mayhem.

But this morning my husband called me just after he left for work...

"OMG! The Hermit Lady's house is ON FIRE!! and there's a crowd!! go check it out!!"

So now I wonder if it got struck by lightning during the bad storm last night? or if it just caught fire from the furnace or portable heater or stove or oven? or if it was actually condemned and the fire dept is doing a controlled fire and leveling it.

I wonder.

1:45am

I tossed and turned endlessly last night. I was having one of those half asleep half awake dreams. I thought there was street cleaning going on or that the garbage men were making some special trip. But when my mind finally came to a full awake, I realized there were flashing lights beaming through the second story windows into my bedroom. I peeked outside and saw a fire truck in front of my house - an ambulance next door.

I peered out for a little bit and then decided I should lay back down in bed. It really wasn't any of my business being a lookie-looer into the unfortunate happenings next door.

But then as I laid there in bed, I became worried that perhaps something had happened to the nice neighbor man, Richard, that we've become friends with.

At this thought, I got back out of bed as I heard commotion in the front yard. As I looked through the blinds again, I just caught the glimpse of feet under a sheet on the stretcher as the EMTs placed the person in the back of the ambulance.

Then I worried that my husband would come home (He was out with the boys.) and see the fire truck and ambulance outside our house and freak out thinking something had happened to us. But shortly there after, the ambulance and fire truck drove off.

Whoever it was that they took to the hospital, I hope they have a comfortable and peaceful recovery or a smooth moving on.

I always hate seeing things like that, because my heart always feels for the person and the family.

I couldn't really sleep much the rest of the night.

Lately

Lately I just seem to be rehashing different scenerios I've faced during my life while teaching. My mind keeps filtering through so many troubled lives and I'm not real sure why. I can't seem to pin myself down long enough to blog about some of the stories, but maybe when I travel to Oregon for a week or so in the coming near future I'll spend some of that time writing.

I've been a HORRIBLE packer lately. Actually, one couldn't really even call me a packer because I haven't been doing it. So last night my husband went on a packing mission and got a lot of ths stuff in the house packed up. Today there's more to be done and I'm trying to help.

I'm really tired of being sick. I've actually been throwing up which, lemme tell ya, isn't any fun at all if you haven't experienced it recently. But not only is it not any fun, it just can't be good for the coming baby...all that puking. Good times..good times. Not so much.

One

The appointment at the doctor's this morning went GREAT!

The doctor said things couldn't look any better than what they do. There's only ONE baby...whew! I was concerned there might have been more given how nauseous I've been.

"Oh so you've got a lot of nausea?"

"Oh very much so yes! It's worse with this pregnancy than with my little girl."

My doctor smiles.

"You see, this is great. I just love it when you come in...tell me you feel like shit...and I get to stand here and smile about it. Because if you feel like shit, that means the baby is healthy."

Thanks Doc!

He's such a smartass. A very nice man though.

I got pictures of the baby today too. We saw the head, the body, legs, arms, beating heart, umbilical cord...

Estimated Due Date: December 20, 2005. However, I'll probably be induced early.

A Smidge Better

My nausea is a little bit better - thank goodness! Not entirely, but now at least I can stop focusing on it every.single.moment.of.the.day.

My inlaws are coming out in a couple weeks and I have so much to do before they get here. Granted, they are coming to help me get us in order, packed up, and the place all situated, and the moving van loaded and on the road....but, I want them to think I've done a little work at least!! It's just been entirely hard to do with the munchkin and being sick. It will be nice to switch off with my mother in law for watching the little one and packing. I know she's excited to spend some time with her grand daughter.

I wish I was magic and could zap boxes full of household items all packed perfectly and safely and without effort!

Manababies Come Play!

I ditched the idea of Anarchy Online...and bought Guild Wars today. It also doesn't have a monthly fee and I like the way it looks and plays better!

Guild Wars has PVP and is a decent game you can solo in as well. I played it on a beta week awhile back. They've made quite a few changes...the graphics look great to me and so far it seems like I can come and go pretty easily from the game. Which is a good thing because I certainly don't have a lot of time.

So Far So Good

The cleaning of the PC went well so far. I'm just getting things resorted so we'll have to see how it goes as it goes.

What a job though!

A Frest Start - I Hope

Well, I'm just having too many computer issues.

So I just got done burning SEVEN cds of munchkin pictures and now it's time to say buh-bye to my computer as I know it.

I'm going to wipe it clean and reinstall my OS.

Hopefully then I'll be issue free. Well, I mean, my pc anyways.

So if I don't make it back - I'll worry about all this once I'm in CA so I may be on a break here.

Wish me luck!

Anarchy Online

I used to play Anarchy Online and I really did like it. I could adventure, and socialize, and dress my avatar in endless ways...it was fun.

So, I decided to just take a look at their site again.

And what did I find?

I can play for absolutely NO CHARGE! I can download the basic game for free. I can also sign up for a free account to play for free.

That came as a surprise. I happily paid before, but I'm certainly not going to complain about getting to play for free.

Sure, it doesn't include any of the expansions, but I doubt I have time to play enough to fully enjoy an expansion anyway. Not now at least.

Flowers

Copyright Insanity Infusion

Wowza. My parents sent me these flowers today for Mother's Day! It was a complete surprise. I guess they are a bit excited about another grandchild on the way.

Remembering

Copyright Insanity Infusion

I was sitting in English class on the lasy day of high school. A girl that sat in the next row over that I rarely ever talked to turned to look at me and then turned away again. We didn't chat much. Not because I didn't like her, or that she didn't like me...it was high school. Silly. I just didn't know her - she didn't know me. We hung in different crowds.

She turned to me again and this time spoke.

"Do you have any Senior pictures left? Do you want to switch pictures?"

I'm not sure if this was a common occurrance in high schools during the Senior year, but at my high school, everyone got their Senior pictures taken, with lots of wallets included in the photo packages, and then you swapped photos with people to keep as a memory of who you knew in high school.

"Sure!" I say.

We each spend a moment signing a little something on the back of the photo and then exchanged our pictures.

It just wasn't ~cool~ to jump at reading what the other person wrote on their photo, so I thanked the girl and we each tucked our new photo away.

Later on I read what she had written -

"Remember, a weed is just a flower that hasn't been found useful yet."

That quote has always stuck with me.

I carried it with me through college and into the real world and it's always helped me see people for who they are.

I don't think I was ever a person who didn't strive to know the ~real~ person and I've spent my life getting to know people from all walks of life...but it's always bothered me that the girl in high school might have thought me shallow.

New Glasses!

Eyeglasses by Kate Spade

I ordered some glasses today. They should be in in about 7 to 10 business days. Since I normally wear contacts, I thought I'd go with a bit more of a drastic 'glasses' look for when I wear my glasses.

Naturally, my mother will say these glasses I ordered are 'birth control' glasses - So ugly I'll get no action while wearing them.

I think they are cute. I wanted something different than what the normal ol' me would wear.

Ever get tired of the regular ol' you? It's time to break the mold a little.

It Was Going To Cost ...HOW.MUCH???

My doctor's office called in a prescription yesterday for me for some medication that would make me feel better. A month's supply. Upon reaching Walgreens Pharmacy to pick it up, the pharmacist said she called the doctor's office back and asked them to prescribe a different medication.

It seems the medication my doctor originally prescribed was BARELY covered by my insurance. The medication is the safest and works the best. I'm not sure why Blue Cross Blue Shield covered such a minimal amount, but they did.

"I am just getting your new medication fixed up for you and it should be ready soon."

"New medication?"

"Yes, the first medication was only covered a little bit by your insurance and even with them covering part of it, the bill was going to be over...TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS for a month's supply."

"Good gosh! Well, that's a bit much! Thank you for calling in for a second medication."

I called my husband to let him know what was going on. He was upset that the insurance wasn't covering the orignal medication more substantially...but what are you going to do? And knowing that the original medication was the SAFEST for a pregnant woman especially in her first trimester, well, he was curious as to what the alternative drug would be.

I wasn't sure the name and just told him I'd call him after I got my prescription.

Once I got home, my husband did some research on the drug that was prescribed as an alternative.

There are a few studies that show that 1 in 20 babies born to mothers who took the drug during their first trimester had birth defects! ACK!

So taking that medication was immediately out of the question. My husband called my doctor and while he agreed it wasn't the best of medications, he didn't think the risk was a big risk. Excuse me? but 1 in 20 babies with birth defects seems like a lot to me....

So here I am. Still sick. I just have to push through this and try my best to not focus on this miserable nausea. It's so consuming that it's going to be a hard challenge, but I don't have an extra 2k to toss out on a month's worth of pills, and I certainly don't want to endanger my unborn child.

~*BLURG*~

I Was Tagged

Marianna tagged me with this list of questions to answer. I'm not a big fan of these things, but I divulged anyways...

Reveal What Is Your Most Embarrassing Moment?

It was second grade. The entire class was standing in the hallway waiting for our teacher to lead us to our destination. She must have become distracted or pulled into a discussion, because I recall having waited in the hallway for quite some time. It was my lucky day in that I had lined up right behind the boy I liked in my class. So there we were – him and me…leaning up against the wall in line with time to spare while our teacher gabbed. I thought what better time than right then and there to show him that I like him and hold his hand. I was going to be outgoing. I was going to be forward. I really liked him and how sweet would it be to hold his hand in line? Truth of the matter is though, I wasn’t all that outgoing and I wasn’t all that forward of a person. So, I was going to have to do this hand holding discreetly and just sneak my hand to his without looking at him. I couldn’t look at him! I mean, what if he looked at me strangely? What if he scrunched up his face because he didn’t like me holding his hand? Yes, definitely wasn’t going to look at him while I held his hand. So I thought out my plan of attack in my head. I had to also keep in mind that this boy was a lot shorter than I was…would have to gauge for that in my sneak hand holding maneuvers. I waited for what I thought was a good time to put my moves into action, and then I reached my hand out and lowered it and kept my gaze straight ahead not looking at him and …and…and reached for his hand. But sadly, I was a bad judge of aim and since I wasn’t looking I couldn’t see just how far off I was….

I ended up grabbing his ~you.know.what~ instead!!!

Needless to say…it didn’t improve our relationship. I was mortified.


What Band/Singer You Would Never Admit Listening to?

I don’t have a band/singer I wouldn’t admit listening to. I listen to all kinds of music...


What is The Cheesiest Movie You Could Watch Over & Over Again?

I personally don’t think the movies are cheesy, although I’m sure my husband would disagree….but ‘Sabrina’ (version with Harrison Ford) and ‘Ever After – A Cinderella Story’ are movies I’ve watched over and over and over and over and over again. They are my two most favorite nap movies. However, I haven’t had that luxury since having my daughter….where I could enjoy a movie and nap to it.


Which Superhero would you be?

I’ve always been a fan of Storm.


Which Movie Character Do You Most Identify With?

I’m not sure I have a movie character that I most identify with. I can usually relate to awkward, clumsy, goofy, silly characters.


What Book Would You Recommend?

Sailing the Dream


What is the Last Dream you remember?

I was walking around a city neighborhood area and ventured into a parking garage. The drive sloped down in a spiral way as parking garages do, with parking slots on either side of the drive. Suddenly I was driving a stick shift car and I had my daughter in the car with me. As we were driving downward, the clutch gave out and wasn’t working and the car was slowly getting out of control. Just as I turned us around the corner, it slowed to a stop and we got out. Now my daughter was in her stroller and we were standing there looking down the ramp at two cars that obviously had had car troubles on the same slope I had just drive down. One car had rammed into the back of another car. All crunched up. Gasoline flowing all over – spraying and pooling. I knew with the state of the cars, that the gasoline was going to ignite, so I took the stroller firmly by the handlebar and went running the opposite direction back toward the top of the garage to the street level. Upon reaching the entrance, it was now in shambles and shaky looking – semi boarded up with bits and pieces of metal frames and nails hanging loosely. Out of desperation to exit the garage before the gasoline blew up, I took the stroller and we went busting through the blocked doorway. As we pushed our way through, the entire frame came crashing down around us and boards and metal were flying and shortly after that the gasoline exploded. Then I woke up.


What is Your Favorite Board Game?

Scrabble.


What is Your Unusual Talent?

I’m an average run-of-the-mill type of person. I don’t think I have an unusual talent.


If you could be any animal, which one would you be and why?

A puppy. Who doesn’t love puppies? They always get treats, snuggled with, kissed, and taken everywhere.

I'm not going to tag anyone to do this quiz. I'll leave it up to free will. If you want to take this quiz, steal it from me and have fun!!

Which Star Wars Color Are You?

With 19 days left to go, the Star Wars stand-a-thon is underway.

Nineteen days is a ~long~ time to wait in line! If I was childless and well rested, I'd probably want to fly to New York and be part of the fun myself!

I thought it was neat that the people standing in line are actually raising money for a charity. $x/hour of standing. This has been done for each episode of the new trilogy. And apparently some people that met standing in line, have actually gone on to get married...wow!

..."Victor Lundberg, 27, from Gothenburg, Sweden, said he met his wife Emily Schildt, of Seward, Nebraska, in the first "stand-a-thon" formed before the 1999 premiere of "Episode I: The Phantom Menace."...

Could you imagine meeting the love of your life while standing in line to watch a Star Wars movie?? and on top of that...being from completely different countries!

What I also thought was neat, is that people standing in line get a color coded, glow-in-the-dark badge to wear. Red meaning you don't want to know ANYTHING about the movie! (Manababies' husband would definately be wearing a RED badge.) Blue badges meaning you'd know any official information such as trailers-but don't you dare tell this person plot and story details! And then there's the Green badge meaning you want to know it all - TELL ME MORE MORE MORE! And again, they.glow.in.the.dark.how.cool.is.that!?! I want a BLUE badge!

I'm not even sure if I'll get to see Episode III in a theatre, but it sure is a fun daydream to pretend I'm in New York waiting in line for May 19th to arrive.