Girls’ Weekend

For the first time since she was born, 14 months ago, Maddie and I are spending the weekend alone. Gerald had to go down to help his dad finish up the new roof on their house. If we had all gone in my minivan, it would have cost us $150 in gas. No thank you. So, Gerald went by himself in his fuel efficient car.

Maddie and I are going grocery shopping today and to Good Friday service at church. Tomorrow, I think we’re just going to hang out at home and play. Gerald’s hoping to be home late Saturday night, so we should be together for Easter. We’re going to church and then to my dad and his wife’s for dinner.

P. S. Sadie came home from the vet yesterday. The good news is that her hip wasn’t dislocated. The bad news is that she has SEVERE hip dysplasia. The vet gave us two options. We can spend $60 a month on pain medication for her or spend $350 for surgery to remove the joint. Of course, I chose the surgery. Not only will it be less money in the long run, but it’ll be better for Sadie. She’ll get complete relief from the pain instead of partial relief. (Or even NO relief when I forget to give her a pill because that is completely my M.O.) She goes in for the surgery on Wednesday and should be home Friday or Saturday.

Reading this post, I realize that it’s quite possibly the most boring post EVER. But it’s all I got, kids. Sorry.

Touchy Subject

I read an article on CNN this morning about a woman in France who was dying a horrible and painful death and was denied euthanasia. I immediately felt the need to talk to you about it.

Why is it illegal to take your own life? How is that a crime? The only thing we truly own in the world is our lives. We’re free to make decisions that kill us slowly like cigarettes, alcohol, fattening foods, and not wearing sunscreen. But if you’re suffering from a terminal illness, you are not allowed to die with dignity on your own terms. Am I the only one who thinks that’s the height of ridiculousness?

Sadie, our nine year old German Shepard, is at the vet’s office right now. She spent the night there, under sedation so the vet could exam her hurt leg more closely. He thinks she may have dislocated her hip. This will require a surgery to remove the ball on the end of her femur, effectively removing the hip joint entirely. She’ll still be able to run and walk afterward. Actually, she’ll probably be better off. The reason I’m telling you all of this is because she’s the first thing I thought of when I read the article. If there was something much more serious wrong with her, such as cancer, I wouldn’t hesitate to euthanize her. She’s nine years old, for goodness sake. I’m not about to put her through something painful that will make her even more miserable. Why do I have the right to ease her suffering but not my own?

I don’t want my husband or my daughter to watch me waste away slowly and painfully from some disease. I watched my mother do that very same thing over the course of two years and it was the single worst experience I’ve ever had. If she had asked me to hasten her exit off the mortal coil, I would have done it. Without hesitation or question. I think it’s the ultimate act of love.

I know this is a controversial subject and I welcome your opinions on it.

Fierce

Here are the Before and After pictures of my new ‘do. For the record, I LOVE LOVE LOVE. it. I wish I had done it sooner. In case you’re wondering, it took me six minutes from start to finish to fix it this morning.

Before (in my bathroom, with no flash so forgive the coloring):

Notice my tiny little ponytail? Sexy, huh?

After (in the same bathroom, right after I got home from THREE HOURS in the salon):

After #2 (in Maddie’s room where there’s more natural light and after I fixed it myself this morning):

Close Up of Color:

It’s a dark red base color with bright “redlights” in the front.  As Mom of the Year mentioned, my hair finally matches my inner self.

More about my HAIR

First, thank you all for your advice on the stinky laundry. I have a bucket of water and Clorox 2 in the laundry room that I put all of Maddie’s bibs and stained clothes while waiting for laundry day. It’s really just her blankies that are stinky. She sucks her thumb with them, and often right after drinking milk. Hence the spoiled milk smell, even though they get washed twice a week. I tried the Dreft last night and they smelled better. I’m going to try baking soda in the next load later this week.

Now, more about my hair. After my last cut, I decided I was ready to let it go. Today at 3:00 and I’m getting it cut again. Super short, even. And colored. Professionally colored, even. I’m so excited I can barely see straight. I’m so ready to ditch this “mom ponytail” and embrace an actual style. Of course, I mean no offense to those of you currently rocking the mom ponytail. *ahemTessieahem* It’s easy, effortless and often cute. I’m just tired of it for myself. I feel so BLAH with a ponytail everyday. And without one, I’m constantly trying to keep my hair out of my face.

Anyhow, pictures will be forthcoming. Whether you want ‘em or not.

See ya on the flip side.

Stinky Laundry

Ok, I’ve got to ask you sort of an embarrassing question. I mean, here I am, 31 years old and a mother and I have a laundry question for The Interwebs.

First, let me tell you that Maddie has mild eczema. Nothing troublesome, but it does flair with the use of too many scented products. We have a delicate balance going with her body wash and lotion and scented laundry products seem to tip the scale in favor of more eczema.  So, we use unscented/dye free detergent and unscented Downy. I do, however, used scented Clorox 2.

My problem is that Maddie’s blankies come out of the wash still smelling vaguely like spoiled milk. It seems the detergent and Clorox 2 aren’t really getting her things clean enough. Or the milk smell has just permeated her blankies beyond repair.

Do any of you have this problem? What did you do about it? Baking soda? OxyClean? (I bought a bottle of Dreft at the store this weekend, in the hopes that it will help, but I haven’t tried it yet.)

Suck it up

I took Maddie to the zoo yesterday. It was Maddie, me, my friend D, her eight month old son, five year old daughter and 15 year old niece. The weather was perfect; Sunny, 75 and a cool breeze. Of course, this meant that everyone in the entire state of Texas was at the zoo with us. I’m always so surprised at the lack of common courtesy in the general public. People were so rude and oblivious. Like their kids were the only kids who deserved to see the animals. And their kids were just as bad, if not worse. Pushing, shoving, screaming. It was horrible. After an hour I was ready to leave. Unfortunately, no one else was. We ended up staying for three hours. Maddie was tired and crabby and so was I.

I’m not sure what I’m going to do in the future. I mean, Maddie’s going to want to go out and do things like this and I hate it with the fire of a thousand suns. I guess I’m going to have to learn to suck it up.

Things I am SO over right now

1. Maddie’s desire to throw EVERYTHING she touches. She throws her sippy cup, her chicken nuggets, her green beans, whatever she’s eating. She also throws every single toy out of her play yard until there’s nothing left to play with. What the heck am I supposed to do? Let her throw everything out and learn that if she does then there aren’t any toys to play with? Yeah, except that she gets upset when that happens. For the record, I dislike the throwing and wish it to stop, posthaste.

2. The futility of cleaning my kitchen floor. I sweep and within hours, there’s crap all over it. Dog fur, cat litter, miscellaneous food items that may or may not have been thrown there by a certain toddler. I mopped on Sunday and you wouldn’t know it to look at it today. Can’t everyone just sort of float through the kitchen? Please?

3. All of my pets. ‘Nuff said.

4. My hair. I’m ready to just shave it off and be done with it. Who’s idea was it that we should have to style our hair? Isn’t that ridiculous?

5. Breaking out at the age of 31. Isn’t there some sort of statute of limitations on breaking out? Aren’t I too old for that?

6. $60 to fill up my minivan. I remember the good old days when I was in high school and gas was $.88 a gallon. Wow. I’m like somebody’s grandpa waxing poetically about the yesteryears.

7. Authors not writing books fast enough. Why do I have to wait a year or more for the next book in a series?

8. Blogs that try to hard. This is not one of them. Trust me, I give this a bare minimum of effort. Although, I’m guessing that’s patently obvious to you right about now.

#2 Pencil

Um, have you seen this? All I can think of to say about it is: WTF?

Speaking of crazy, I had the first part of my psych eval yesterday. It wasn’t nearly as glamorous as you might think. First of all, I got there at the appointed time and walked into an empty waiting room. There was a clipboard full of paperwork and a note for me to fill out everything. The pen that was supplied was out of ink. I dug one out of my purse, only to find that it was ALMOST out of ink. So, I made my way through the paperwork, answering as honestly as I could. It was pretty mundane stuff, really. Medical history, questions about binging, questions about my expectations of the surgery and how I was going to change my lifestyle afterward.

All of that took me a half an hour. No big, right? I get to the final booklet on the clipboard and it’s an “inventory” in the style of standardized tests. You know, fill in the circles with a #2 pencil. Except, I didn’t have a pencil. The dr didn’t provide one and didn’t tell me to bring one. So, I sat there. And I sat some more. Another half hour went by and I had been there an hour without seeing a single person. I considered my options. I could complete the inventory in pen, or I could write her a note and leave. Instead, I waited. I figured I’d have to see someone EVENTUALLY, right? Another half hour goes by and by then I had been waiting for an hour. Getting pissier and pissier, I might add. The dr finally checks on me and I explain, as nicely as I can, that I finished everything but the inventory since I didn’t have a pencil. She laughs and says “oh, I’m sorry. I forgot to give you one.” I wanted to say “sure, no problem. I didn’t mind sitting there for an hour because you’re incompetent.” I believe what I really said was “no problem.” So, she takes me back to her office, collects my check for $280 and gives me a pencil. It was 3:30 and she says “you should be out of here at least by 5:00,” and goes on to tell me where there’s a bathroom, water fountain and pop machine, should I need any of those things. I sat back down in the waiting room and did the inventory. The questions were insane. Like am I afraid of medical procedures or devices. Am I lying about my answers to make myself look better? Are you sure you’re not afraid of medical procedures? It had NO relevance to me or WLS. It was 150 questions and I was done in 15 minutes. I put my paperwork in the designated box and walked out. I passed the dr in the hall as I was leaving and she was all “are you taking a break?” And I was all, “no, I’m leaving. I’m done.” She was shocked and asked if I finished the inventory. I said “yes. it wasn’t hard or anything.”

I got in the car, called Gerald and bitched about how I could have been on my way home over an hour ago if only the dumbass dr had given me a freakin’ #2 pencil. Although, I probably definitely used quite a few more swear words in there.

So, she’s going to call me this week to schedule the second part of the eval which is “an interview” with her. Like I’m trying to get a job or something. WHATEV. I’ll be sure to bring a #2 pencil with me next time.

True Story. The End.

I’m too lazy to think of a witty title.

So, my psych eval is this afternoon. I feel like I should be studying or something. You know, in order to appear less crazy.

I may have to take back my scathing criticism of DST. Maddie has slept until 8:00am every day this week. Although, that may be due to the fact that she is firmly in the “one nap a day” camp now. Either way, DST doesn’t have to kiss my ass. I’m sorry I was so mean, DST. Friends again?

Maddie loves singing. Have I mentioned this before? She’s obsessed with it. You know that sun that’s on ALL the Baby E!nstein stuff? When she was little bitty, I started singing The Sun Song from They Might Be Giants whenever she played with the sun. Now she cannot see that damn sun without turning to me and demanding that I sing the song. She’s also discovered the bumblebees on her crib sheets and so I started singing “I’m bringing home a baby bumblebee” for her. She refuses to go to bed until I’ve sung it eleventy billion and seven times. And don’t get me started on that damn “la la la la” Elmo song.

I think the only reason I drink coffee is for the flavored creamer. I get so excited when there’s a new and yummy flavor to try. Coincidentally, Black Cherry Streusel? Not so good, actually. Tastes like a candle or potpourri.

Remember how the new dog has a bad leg? Well, this week she’s been crying out when she gets up from lying down and she’s limping something fierce. I’ve been giving her doggy aspirin, but I’m pretty sure I’m going to have to take her to the vet and have it looked at. Damn dog suckered us in with her whole “I’m an old girl and no trouble at all” routine. Not bitter at all. Nope, not me.

Not yet psycho

My appt for the psych eval was canceled due to bad weather. The shrink wasn’t able to make it out of her neighborhood and I didn’t want to make the hour-long drive with the crazies. So, we decided to reschedule for Wednesday.

She told me more about the appointment when we had the rescheduling conversation. Apparently, the first appt is about an hour and a half long and all paperwork. Various medical histories and questionnaires. I’m picturing ink blots and “tell me about your mother.” It will be interesting to see what it really involves.

And don’t worry, Tessie. I will totally tell you all about it.