Archives for December 2007

After about a week of hacking and coughing, and such extensive coughing fits that my abs have been aching for days as if I’ve done nothing but stomach crunches all day, every day, I woke up this morning determined to get an appointment with the doc as early as they could see me today. I put it off when I first started feeling icky – if it’s only a cold, there’s not a thing they can do but take my copay money and send me on my way.

But today, they decided that it’s most likely I have a sinus infection (sounds so hot, right?), since I’m prone to them, and along with antibiotics, the doc – not my normal doc – wrote a script for a prescription decongestant and cough syrup with codeine. I’ve now had two doses of the antibiotic and two of the decongestant and now have the pleasant symptom of feeling like I’m gonna puke. And I am STILL coughing.

As far as I can remember from previous ventures into the codeine arena, it doesn’t zonk me out – but I haven’t wanted to take it yet, because zonking out when I’m the sole responsible adult in the house (Hubby hasn’t been home) didn’t seem a super fantastic idea. The girls are safely tucked in now, so I may medicate. I’m afraid though, if memory serves me correctly, that I won’t zonk out – but rather will be rendered completely wired and slap happy by the codeine. Hate that.

I’m under doctor’s orders to drink water “until you float” and I have an overwhelming urge to just hang out in my pajamas and sweatshirt. I hate this.

I got up this morning, got dressed and ready to go – only to get a text from BFF at a few minutes before our approximate departure time saying she wasn’t feeling well, didn’t think she could make it on the trip today. Waaaaaah. I texted back, “Okay.” She texted, “Going to take Tylenol and see how I’m feeling.” Text back and forth awhile. Decide instead of road tripping it, we were going to stay local, but still get out of the house.

And we did for a few hours. But, I’m bummed anyway. It’s hard when you are home every day – and there really is no break or relief from your life but to actually get out of the house. If you are a mom and are typically on “mom duty” than even when you are home and considering yourself “off duty”, well, you know that ain’t gonna happen. Mom is mom, right?

We were able to get out for awhile and Hubby took the kids out for awhile, and now that we’re all home, I admit, I’m somewhat hibernating in the office, far away from everyone. Out of sight, out of mind is what I’m hoping for. I don’t dare head downstairs before dinnertime, lest I somehow get roped into cooking it. Remember, I was supposed to be out of state ALL DAY. Me jumping in to help was not going to be an option.

Hubby sounds pretty annoyed – I can hear the kids whining from all the way up here. I’m not jumping in. Going keep hiding…

I’m currently on “hold” waiting for customer service chat to figure out why on earth Windows keeps crashing on me. I was online with customer service awhile ago – I ran a Systems Restore at their request. They neglected to mention that it would boot me offline to restart, and that I would end up having to rejoin the queue for support. Fantastic. Doesn’t quite seem fair. The systems restore actually may have helped – at least, my computer didn’t crash when I restarted it like it’s been doing (Anyone else hate Windows Vista? Show of hands, please). HOWEVER, the suckiest part is that I’ve lost some programs that have been installed in the interim… and I’m NOT happy about that.

Gearing up to head out of town on a day trip tomorrow (YAHOO!). I can only say that I am in such need of time sans kids that we could go spend the whole day doing darn near anything, and it would be fine with me. We’ll be spending mucho time in the car, and I just don’t care. Can’t wait. Bring it on.

I made over one hundred cookies today in prep for Sunday’s cookie decorating party. After baking the gingerbread cookies, my house truly smells festive. But now I’m hanging out FAAAAAAAAR away from the kitchen. Must. Not. Eat. All. The. Cookies.

I also got a headache.

The Hannah Montana concert has secured my position in the running for Mother of the Year (I met my other competitors last night, actually – lots of quite lovely moms and dads, and the not-so-lovely shove-ahead-of-you-in-line-for-souvenirs variety). When we got downtown near the arena, we found that parking was not going to be as easy to find as we had hoped – and there were kids EVERYWHERE. The Princess and her friend, L were getting antsy in the backseat (“Just find a parking spot already!” – Sure, I’ll get right on that). I finally told them to zip their lips and we’d find a spot when we found one. I wasn’t in the mood to drive around town all night!

We entered the chaotic arena, found our seats and got settled in. I left the girls with L’s mom to go get souvenirs for the kids (a Hannah shirt for The Princess, and a Jonas Brothers shirt for Stepson, who will probably hate it, in which case, it’ll fit me, and I’ll wear it around the house, because why not). The line was a complete chaotic mess – and there were people with their kids, obviously. Kids were getting completely freaked out because it was so jam packed, they would lose track of their parents in the crush. It was NUTS. That was about when I started wishing Hubby and L’s stepdad had taken the kids – figuring the men would have been a bit more aggressive in getting through the line. Took me about a half hour.

I arrived to our seats in time to see the Jonas Brothers open the show – they were more enjoyable than I thought they would be. Of note: they wear their pants too tight. I don’t get the whole skinny pants thing. I don’t like it. I REALLY don’t like it on guys/boys. Ick. But their set was short and sweet, and the girls loved it.

Then waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaiting for Hannah.

I have to say, the coolest part for me was seeing the look on my daughter’s face when Hannah arrived on stage – all the lights and pyrotechnics stuff. The Princess was truly amazed. Though there were way more wardrobe changes than I thought were necessary (man am I old), it was an entertaining show for the kids and they really liked it. We were able to exit quickly enough after the encore to beat the rush getting to the cars. We arrived home at 10, and The Princess crashed in bed.

This morning, she’s wearing her Hannah t-shirt and carrying her Hannah glowstick for show and tell.

As for me, I have Hannah songs stuck in my head (if you were wondering, it’s the Hannah/Jonas Brothers song), my head hurts a little, and my abs hurt because even in the midst of all that preteen excitement, I never stopped coughing and I now feel as though I spent last night doing 10,000 sit ups.

I’m all about random since for the past two mornings, I’ve woken up with the Nyquil hangover – you know – when you don’t get quite enough sleep to wear off the effects of those big blue Nyquil horsepills. Two more hours of sleep this morning, and I probably would have woken up feeling human. However, Pumpkin was up at 6 and so I was.

You know where I’m going with this – I was exhausted, had to get out to the Starbucks drive through for yet ANOTHER Gingerbread Latte. Just so y’all don’t think I’m totally losing my head here – I’m really no fun, this is a nonfat, sugar free gingerbread latte, with no whip. This should ensure that a crane isn’t necessary to tear the roof off my house and lift me out by the new year. Or so I’m hoping.

Tomorrow is the big day: Taking The Princess (along with another mom and her daughter) to the Hannah Montana concert. I know that my kid is so freakin’ excited about this – I also know this could well be the BEST NIGHT EVER of her 5-year old life. But, honestly, the thought of listening to THOUSANDS of screaming kids for hours on end? A bit scary. Because The Princess is prone to being sensitive to loud noises, Hubby picked up some kid-size ear plugs for her at my dad’s recommendation. What these should do is tone the noise down, while still letting her hear “Life’s What You Make It” over the sound of too many other screaming kids (just like her). I may have to shove a few of those plugs in my ears as well.

Then Friday is my day of making about a hundred bazillion cookies for our second annual cookie decorating party to take place this weekend. Last year, we had such a fun time. It was messy, it was completely sugar-buzzed, but man, the kids had a blast. Friday, I’ll be making dough, rolling cookies and baking in preparation for the festivities on Sunday.

Which takes us into Saturday. Saturday I’ll be taking a day trip with my BFF – gonna be a lot of hours in the car (because really, that’s what we do – no one does road trips quite like her – very fond memories of our 1995 Crawfordsville, IN road trip!), and only a few hours at our destination – but that’s alright. She’s already been informed that I must load up on coffee and Chex Mix to remain a happy camper (though she knew that anyway!). I’m really looking forward to getting the “duck out of fodge”, as we say, and spending some time sans kids.

In other news that no one cares about – but I’m telling you anyway because, well, why not? – I got my hair trimmed last night… I had forgotten how much I love the smell of Aveda ShamPure shampoo (have you never smelled it? If you haven’t, you should – it’s very yummy smelling). I decided I must have some again… it’s been awhile since I’ve used it – and now, I’ve been sniffing my hair all day. I’ll blame the Nyquil hangover.

Okay, it was bound to happen – the kids have been sick off and on for weeks/months (Years?!). Even the little ones that come hang out before and afterschool have had coughs and sniffles and who knows what other crud for the past few weeks. This weekend, it has hit me and I’m NOT happy. Sure, I’m doing okay, and it could totally be worse – I could have an upset stomach and be pukey (I hate that). I just have a stuffy nose and a horrible cough. I took DayQuil thinking it would help, and it kind of sort of has quieted my cough… but I’m freakin’ tired. DayQuil shouldn’t make you tired, should it?

Pumpkin is napping, and I’ve decided to go all out and let The Princess watch a nice long Mickey Mouse movie – the quiet is nice, and it gives my brain a chance to rest.

It’s never a good sign when your day starts before 6 a.m., but mine did today. It was a late-ish night, attending the wedding of my cousin and his new bride. I wore my lovely dress – the one that I could eat in and dance in without being uncomfortable, and while I was more than comfortable (though freezing my butt off), the dress proved to be tremendously unflattering in photos. But that’s alright.

Last night also brought the first REAL winter of the season. As we were driving to the reception, the roads were already becoming slick. By the time we left the reception, the roads were nothing but straight ice all the way through.

The highlight of the wedding for me was being seated with my sister and her boyfriend. My sister is ten years younger than me, which means that when we were kids, we didn’t get that whole sisterly thing. It’s hard when you are at completely different stages in life. Now that we’re older, though we don’t necessarily have a lot in common, we have a lot more fun together. She came over in the morning to flat iron any of the wave out of my hair (she’s in cosmetology school, which comes in handy for special events!), and then I saw her later at the wedding. I didn’t really know her boyfriend well – he’s quite shy – but he had a bit of liquid courage at the wedding (which was probably a good thing – he met A LOT of our family in one night! That is very overwhelming!) – not so much “courage” so as to be obnoxious, but enough to get him chatting, which was fun.

Because my sister and I are a snarky pair, we did have fun “discussing” family that we hadn’t seen in awhile (including another cousin who was dancing like she needed a pole). We even had a few laughs at my mom’s expense – including our reply to her yelling to our table to ask if we were behaving ourselves: “No. We’re not sharing our crayons and we’re eating all the paste.”

The bride was from a huge Italian family, and the groom (my cousin) is from a huge herd of Polish and German, so dinner included both kielbasa and pasta, among other pretty standard wedding food stuffs. There was (happily) no polka, but several other weird musical interludes including a long 15 minute endeavor which included both the Michigan State fight song (boooooooo!) and the U of M fight song (Go Blue!). I still don’t get the purpose of that whole exercise, to be honest. It was quite weird. But whatever. The bride and groom were lovin’ every minute of it and it was their day.

After a long drive home (and a stop for a decaf gingerbread latte on the way because it was COLD! I needed to warm up! I had on strappy sandals for crying out loud!), I feel asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow, and was unfortunately awoken too soon this morning.