Awhile ago, I posted about my friend’s nephew – since I’ve posted, Little Man had surgery to remove all the medical doodads going into his body, including the Hickman line as he was suffering from a pretty ugly fever and an infection of some sort.

Since the removal of the Hickman line, his white blood cell count is going down which is awesome news – means the infection is going away. He is now a week behind in his chemo protocol, but his family thinks he may start again next week.

His spirits are definitely better with the dissipation of the infection – but Little Man still has a tough road ahead of him, so please continue to keep him in your thoughts.

The Electric Company + Wyclef?

I like it.

1. After spending most of the lesson working on Green Day, we moved over to “All The Small Things” by Blink-182. Soon, we’ll move back to the other stuff – but it was a nice diversion anyway.

2. Tomorrow is the 97th birthday of the Oreo cookie. Celebrate accordingly.

3. Yeah, it’s “American Idol” time. Nice that they let that big ball of crazy, Tatiana, come back. Girl can’t go five minutes without crying. Fun stuff.

4. It finally felt warm around here today. Winter lasts far too long. I actually tend to avoid watching the weather – especially because at this time of year, it’s just depressing to see temps in the single digits all those days in a row, but man it feels nice today.

5. Song of the week seems to be “Jai Ho” from Slumdog Millionaire.

6. The Princess’s fish still seems to be absurdly bloated. I still am really hoping the fish just needs to lay eggs or something, otherwise… there’s something not quite right with it.

7. This morning, rather than stopping at Starbucks I swung through the MickeyD’s drive through for a cappuccino. It wasn’t good. At all. Bleeeeech.

8. Whoever invented the fan that goes on the treadmill? Sheer genius.

9. I recently had some of my pictures from the 365 project put into a Shutterfly 8×8 photo book. It was awesome and came out looking pretty neat even considering I’m not a hardcore photographer by any means.

10. It took me a month and a half to read “Catch-22” and two days to read Chelsea Handler’s book. I just cracked open “The Count of Monte Cristo” and have already decided to take it easy with that one… Like, maybe, two pages per day? You get a book that big and it’s not even comfortable to hold. No fun. (I just went to look for TCOMC, and I can’t find it. It’s probably being used as a paper weight somewhere).

Today is going to be a good day. Do you know how I know this? I’ll tell you how:

• Pumpkin slept in until 6:30. That means I slept in until 6:30.
• The girls didn’t fight at all about ANYTHING this morning – and they always find something to bicker about
• I didn’t have to suck in to zip up my jeans (it’s tax season, the jeans get a leeeeetle bit snuggier in tax season)
• The sun is shining
• My to-do list is considerably less painful than it was yesterday

In light of the above, I’m being optimistic about the day and hoping that it’ll stay as good as it is right this moment. Cross your fingers.

So, this lovely lovely honor has been bestowed upon me by both Raeanne and Susan. I adore them both and am kinda giddy that they thought of me to tag for it (it’s the little pleasures in life, really). They’re both awesome peeps… so R & S, THANK YOU.

The rules for this magical butt-pocket award are as follows:
1 – Put the logo on your blog or post.
2 – Nominate at least 10 blogs with great attitude and/or gratitude.
3 – Be sure to link to your nominees in your post.
4 – Let your nominees know they have received the award by leaving them a comment on their blog.
5 – Be sure to link this post to the person who nominated you for the award.

And for the people that I’M telling you to check out? There’s so many, but you won’t regret visiting the following people:

1. Alli, aka Mrs. Fussypants (Her inappropriate photos crack me up, and somehow she got a sneak preview of Jen Lancaster’s new book, and I’m SO JEALOUS)
2. Ali over at Alidotes or The Blessed Treehouse
3. Rachel from A Southern Fairytale
4. Jenny (and her cousin Emily) from Mommin’ It Up
5. Zoey Jane at Mommy Is Moody
6. Malia at Live. Laugh. Love.
7. Kat the oh-so Sassy Irish Lassie
8. Farm Wife from Memoirs of a FarmWife
9. Shannan from Mommy Bits.
10. Colleen from Mommy Always Wins.
11. Robin from Pensieve

And really, I can count. I know I picked 11. But you’ll be glad I did. I read so many more blogs that I’m bumming because I know I left some amazing peeps out. Maybe that will be somethin’ for Thursdays – to mention someone awesome I’m reading, because there’s so much good writing that is hanging out in my Google Reader – it’s not even funny (And really, I only read the good stuff. It’s like “Project Runway” when Tim says, “Don’t bore Nina!” — yeah).

I saw this MeMe on Facebook so I interviewed Pumpkin. Note: Never interview a three-year-old.

1. What is something mom always says to you? – “You love me.”

2. What makes mom happy? – “Me.”

3. What makes mom sad? – “Fishies.”

4. How does your mom make you laugh? – (She made a funny face at me)

5. What did your mom like to do when she was a child? – “Pet puppies.”

6. How old is your mom? – “I don’t know.”

7. How tall is your mom? – “Probably that tall.”

8. What is her favorite thing to do? – “Work.”

9. What does your mom do when you’re not around? – “Go somewhere else. I mean, stay home.”

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for? – “Yourself.”

11. What is your mom really good at? – “Hugs.”

12. What is your mom not very good at? – “Going underwater.”

13. What does your mom do for her job? – “Work.”

14. What is your mom’s favorite food? – “It’s my favorite food too. It’s salad. I really want salad for lunch.”

15. What makes you proud of your mom? – “Daddy.”

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be? – “A doggy.”

17. What do you and your mom do together? – “Go.”

18. How are you and your mom the same? – “because”

19. How are you and your mom different? – “Because”

20. How do you know your mom loves you? – “Mommy!” (then she came to hug me)

21. What does your mom like most about your dad? – “Me.”

22. Where is your mom’s favorite place to go? – “You like to go to the bookstore.”

1. Yes, I’ve been to Starbucks twice today. I went after dropping off a tantrumming Pumpkin at school this morning (Tantrumming? Is that even a word? Doubtful), and once after guitar lesson because I was STARVING. Not the best use of resources but I was craving something kinda sweet and stopping at Starbucks the second time seemed a little less damaging than the peanut butter cups I really wanted (and no, I’m not even PMS-ing, just jonesing for a little sugar).

2. This morning as I was getting the girls ready to go, it must have hit Pumpkin that she woke up at 5 a.m. and she should really start screaming. So she did. For a good twenty minutes. Heaven knows what my neighbors thought, but OH MY GOD. She screamed about what coat I put on her, about her boots, about yes she wanted to wear mittens, no she didn’t want to wear mittens, wanting cereal to eat in the car… but not that cereal. Meanwhile The Princess was rolling her eyes and saying, “THIS is why having a little sister is NOT FUN.” As The Princess got on the bus, Pumpkin (already fastened in her seat to go to school) continued screaming, so… I just turned the radio up a smidge and waited for her to chill out. She did eventually, and asked to hold my hand. And then she was fine.

3. This was not one of those days that I left daycare all mopey about leaving daycare. Somedays aren’t that way. Somedays I think it’s best for both of us to have our lives outside each other.

4. New music this week? NOT MUCH. I downloaded “Basket Case” by Green Day which is older, but I was reminded of this song at the Red Wings game last week because they played a snip of it between plays. Love this song. BUT, I need more music – please tell me what you are listening to (and loving).

5. This week in guitar lesson, I learned “Brain Stew” also by Green Day. It’s fun because they are musical idiots and it’s not that hard.

6. It’s nice that my week has mellowed out. On Tuesday, I didn’t know if I was going to make it out alive. It was so hardcore with basically every project I touched turning to complete chaos. Yesterday was a little bit better, and today? Aside from tantrums? It’s been good. WHOO!

7. Every week when I do my Thursday Ten list, I’m always kind of afraid that I’m going to inadvertantly leave a number out and y’all are going to think that I can’t count. And I CAN count. Really.

8. I should move down south somewhere that I can use the word “y’all” without people looking at me funny. I love to say “y’all”, but it’s tough to pull off in Michigan. Doesn’t stop me from tryin’.

9. Today, I took about 50 of my 365 Project pictures and had them made into a photo book on Shutterfly. Ultimately, when I’m done with the project, I’m going to make a book with ALL my pictures but I wanted to give it a whirl since they currently have a promotion going for a free book (retail of $29.99). It took me awhile to put it together, but I’m pretty excited to see the final result. I kind of juggled things around for an aesthetically pleasing format for this shortened version, but I think for the full 365 I will likely put things in chronological order, despite the flow. (overthink much?).

10. I went to a meeting at the local elementary school last night to hear about proposed budget hooey that could ultimately affect Kindergarten in Michigan. I’m pretty sure the school superintendent was hoping to get us all riled up with all this horrible-ness and stuff with the proposed change, but all I could focus on was that 1) whoever did the screen shot of the state of Michigan website and printed it out was still using Internet Explorer and still had their search for “Northwest Airlines” in the search tool bar, and where do they think they’re going anyway and 2) this guy really oversimplified some things that should not have been oversimplified… and he did it wrong. (He also talked so long I missed the first 20 minutes of American Idol, which is an issue on its own).

My day started before five a.m. yesterday – that’s how I knew it was going to be a crazy one. See, as the mom of an early bird, I’ve come to accept the fact that I probably won’t get to sleep past 8 a.m. ever again until I drop Pumpkin off at college. In actuality, I’ve always been kind of an early bird, myself (exhibit A: I was in the gym in Nashville at 4:30 in the morning during BlissDom and NO, no one needs to be at a hotel gym that early in the morning — but on a plus side, there was no one there to hear me bellow along with my iPod, so it’s all good. Insomnia? Not so good) – but 4:45 yesterday? Too early.

Then, as I got the girls ready to go and we sat at the end of the driveway waiting for The Princess’s school bus the girls would NOT. STOP. BICKERING. It got so crazy I actually responded to the “She started it!” cry with, “I don’t care WHO started it, you both better STOP IT. NOW.” Great.

The bus picked up The Princess and off I went to drop off Pumpkin at school, where she wouldn’t peel herself off my leg and instead clamped on saying, “Stay here! Stay here, mommy!” And while I love that she loves me, I sure feel like a chump leaving a kid begging me to stay. (NOTE: I know that she was fine as soon as I walked out the door. I was fine as soon as I got to Starbucks. We all heal in time).

So, I ventured on to Starbucks where I got my lovely cappuccino and while I was at the store, picked up an assorted six-pack of packzi because along with being Mardi Gras, it was also Paczki Day. Don’t know what a paczki is?
That’s a paczki. For the uninformed, it’s pronounced poonch-kee.

I dropped the rest of the six-pack at Hubby’s office (a girl doesn’t need more than ONE paczki. She doesn’t even really NEED one. By the way, thank you Internet for not posting the nutrition content of a paczki yesterday. Mwah). I found a lemon one in the box and took a bite. Frozen. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I ate a bit of it anyway so I could get my picture of my Paczki Day paczki, but couldn’t finish it. Grrr.

It was right about then that I realized I totally missed my appointment to volunteer in The Princess’s classroom. Mother of the Year committee? I’ll accept my award now.

I got home to crazy mad amounts of work that kept me busy all afternoon. I found out that a weird glitchy thing on our website was caused by something I did (Yay me) and had to fix it, I spent thirty minutes fixing the wrong thing, and then spent several hours catching up on some stuff I had kind of set aside for a better time (there is no better time).

To make a short story long: Yesterday kicked my butt.

Let’s see if we can do it a little better today.

A few weeks ago, a friend of mine told me about her nephew who the family calls Little Man. This adorable little guy was diagnosed with charoid plexus carcinoma, a malignant tumor in his brain. He’s currently in Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri. This five-month-old sweetheart is currently undergoing chemo. He has wide, engaging eyes and the sweetest face. Currently, Little Man has a shunt to drain the excess cerebral fluid that is gathering in his head.

Little Man was supposed to go home today but he’s spiked a fever and so the docs at Children’s Mercy will be giving him meds for 48 hours and he’ll need to remain fever free for 24 hours after that before he’s able to go home.

Little Man’s aunt, Jamie, has been a friend of mine for years and she asked me to share her nephew’s situation with you all because her family is one of faith and believe that the more people wishing positive things for their Little Man, the better. Little Man’s daddy (my friend’s brother) is in the Army and has just returned to Iraq. Please send your prayers, your positive thinking, your good juju – whatever you want to call it – for the health of Little Man and the safety of his dad.

The family has set up a Caring Bridge site, and if you’re in Missouri, there will be fundraisers planned to help his family offset the cost of the mounting medical expenses. In the meantime, keep this little cutie in your thoughts and send wishes of good health his way.

This morning, The Princess said to Hubby, “Daddy, Goldie looks like she’s getting bigger than Rainbow.” Hubs told her, “Maybe Goldie is just a bigger fish.” We were downstairs, she was upstairs – we kinda did the nod, smile, “Uh huh, yeah.”

I was tucking The Princess in tonight and she said, “See mom, Goldie looks really big.” I got up and went to the aquarium. Um. Yeah. Goldie does look big and I’m thinking to myself, “OH. MY. GOD. I really hope fish can’t be pregnant. And seriously? How do we know if we’ve got boy fish or girl fish? And, do fish… um… do a little dance, make a little love?”

I realized I remember NOTHING from what I learned in biology. So yes, I had to google, “Where do fish babies come from?”

Stop. Laughing.

Turns out, it depends. Some fish have live births, some lay eggs.

Not helpful.

Google: “Where do GOLDFISH babies come from?”

Well, they lay eggs, and you’ll know the fish is about to lay eggs because she “looks a little rounder“.

Crap.

Apparently, the female fish will lay eggs and the male fish will chase ’em around and give ’em a little somethin’-somethin’. Greeeeeeeat.

So, y’all cross your fingers that there will be no fish-fornicating going on under my roof. Two fish is ENOUGH.