Thursday, February 26, 2009

Soccer Mom flies again...

Yesterday afternoon I got my soccer mom cape out of the closet and dusted it off. Here we go again, four days a week. I'm not sure I'm ready.

Allergies...

Zack's doctor called with his allergy test results Monday night and we made the mistake of talking to him on speaker phone (I'll tell you why that was a mistake in a sec).

The results showed a considerable reaction to dust mites and a minor reaction to cats. He had no reaction to any other allergens, no trees, mold, grasses, etc and so forth. I was really relieved to hear that because those are hard to control. Doc said that if we get the dust mite sitch under control the cats may or may not bother him any longer. We went over all the allergy control info (that I already knew because I have allergies but don't follow because I'm a lazy ass) and came up with a plan. (Remember we're on speaker phone the entire time).

We decided to get an allergy friendly mattress containment cover type thing, allergy friendly pillows, wash all bedding on hot weekly, vacuum frequently, and reduce any contact with the cats.

There are a couple of challenges that we need to address. First, do we find the cats a new home (HELLO Grammy) or do we keep them from Zack's room and give them baths weekly? We should really replace all our nasty ass carpeting with wood floors but that costs $$ and the coffers are empty. It will go on the list of things we need to take care of soon. Add to the list our couches which are still comfortable but are nine years old and are probably mostly made up of dust mites and skin cells at this point. I wash the covers fairly often, but... I'm guessing that isn't doing it. These are things we'll be working on. (Does anyone know...if the doctor tells you to replace your carpeting, is that tax deductible?)

So, we have that conversation with the doctor, discuss it ourselves, and didn't think much of the big ears in the house. The rest of the evening Zack asked questions like "Can I touch the cats?" and "Where am I going to sleep?" or "Can I sit on the carpet?". We got a chuckle out of it each time and then sat him down and tried to explain that touching the carpet was not going to send him to the hospital but that we were going to make some changes and be more vigilant about keeping his room crispy clean. He's now convinced that keeping his room clean is best for his health *evil Mom grin* and is ready to help us out.

I went to Bed Bath & Beyond and Target yesterday envisioning a vinyl piece of horrendousness that was going to cost a fortune. I was pleasantly surprised to find exactly what I wanted at Target for $39.99 AND it fits Zack's really deep mattress. They also had some fantastic allergy friendly pillows that can be thrown right in the washing machine. The mattress cover wasn't vinyly at all and will actually be pretty great. Once I performed the gymnastics required to get it onto Zack's lower bunk bed I ran out and got one for Skyler's and I'll eventually get one for ours too. It can't hurt to cover all bases.

That's where we are on the snot issue. Oh and can I just say "BLECH" and "EW"!


Wednesday, February 25, 2009

The Chicken Game...

Spring is slowly springing around here. The flowers are all confused and are starting to peep up. We're starting to see Springy Eastery stuff in the stores and I found a fun little game to play with the kids. It stars this little guy who still doesn't have a name:



Bloggers Doc Maureen and Swistle debuted the INTERNET PHENOMENON of The Chicken Game yesterday on each of their blogs. It's crossing the nation people. You'll hear about it on facebook LOL.

The idea is, you take this little chicky, and you hide it somewhere and the person that finds it, gets to hide it and so on and so forth. Kids get a kick out of it. For instance, I told the kids about it yesterday and then hid chicky in the box of cereal. I heard Zack yelling this morning. He was QUITE excited to be the first one to find him. He's now plotting where to hide Mr. Chicky (is that his name?) next.

These little guys are sold in a box of six for a couple of bucks at Michael's. Go forth and play The Chicken Game!

She's a six year old now...

You GUYS! I'm so far behind I don't even know where to start. I'm not good at going too far back so I'll just jump back to Sunday.

Skyler had 7 of her girlfriends over for her sixth birthday party on Sunday afternoon. She was quite the little party hostess and had so much fun doing arts & crafts and dancing. When all was quiet again and we were playing with her new toys I said "Didn't you have fun? Aren't you glad that everyone followed the rules?" She looked at me all wide eyed and said "and we didn't even have to make a sign". I can't tell you how many times Matt and I joked about "flying kicks to the stomach" this weekend.









Here are some from her actual birthday. First she's opening presents from Gramma in the kitchen and then from us in the living room:









She loves these goofy Hannah Montana boots and I'm loving that little denim jacket I found at Old Navy.

Typical big brother whose birthday it is NOT.


All in all it was a wonderful birthday for her. She's quite proud to be six and was thrilled to be the center of attention for a day.

Friday, February 20, 2009

February 19, 2003...

Yesterday was Skyler's sixth birthday and I got more than a little sappy when I pulled out the box of 2003 pictures.

This was the day before she was born. I was SO over it! And what exactly was going on with my hair? I had obviously given up entirely and stopped getting highlights or doing much of anything at all.

This is Skyler's photo debut. She was handed over to "Dr. Doogie Howser", as we affectionately named him. Seriously, he was like 12, maybe 18.

Matt cut the cord.

The first time I layed eyes on her.

She still has these scushy cheeks and loooong fingers. Why don't I have her playing piano?

Now that I know what I know this picture pisses me off. This particular hospital had a policy that newborns go to the nursery for four hours, moms who have c-sections go to recovery for at least two hours. Here is Skyler screaming her fool head off because she was HUNGRY or wanted to suck or wanted her Mommy or HELLO was left in the nursery not wrapped up. It's newborn jail I tell you. I so would have done that differently, but alas, I was young and stupid and she's made it this far...

Snuggles with Daddy.

Snuggles with Mommy.

AND this is a picture of Zack's last day as an only child:


My ovaries were twitching yesterday. I think I'm over it. Maybe I should go in search of a newborn at 2am, that should solve the problem. She was just such a sweet adorable baby, heck she's a sweet adorable child. *sigh* Why are your kids' birthdays so bittersweet?

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Fieldtrips, the kitchen, and Birthdays...

I got through last week with nary a scratch on me. The field trip on Friday, although not a second grader's cup of tea, was fun. The kids were bored out of their trees looking at artwork but they were well behaved. One of the girls in my group threatened to talk my ear off before the bus pulled out of the school parking lot, but we got through it. Saturday and Sunday were a challenge to our little family's ability to work together. I forced them to power clean the kitchen. This was a throw down, pull out the stove, empty out the cabinets, scrub the floor on our hands and knees, war. None of it was pretty, none of it was pain free, especially the whining, but we did it and the kitchen looks and smells much better. The best part is that we're no longer in danger of being reported for any health code violations! The kids have a bit of post traumatic stress syndrome but we're putting them into therapy now so they should be okay before the teen years kick in.

Skyler's little friend Alena had a gymnastics birthday party Saturday evening. We all had fun at that. There are pictures but my card reader is currently in pieces so you'll have to wait for those. Matt acted the fool he is and had everyone in giggles.

This week, well this week, I'm having a bit of emotional trouble with the fact that MA BAYBY is turning six. I just have such a hang up with the age six. She's five today. Today she's still my baby, still needs me, still not quite a big girl. Thursday she'll be six. A big kid. A school ager. No longer my sweet little girl, but a sassy little thing that's on her way to being and knowing and doing. To make matters worse she's set to lose a tooth annnnny minute now. Her first tooth AND turning six all in one week. I may not make it!

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Snot and lots of it...

To make this week even more fun, I had to take Zack to the doctor's yesterday afternoon. Monday, his already larger than normal volume of snot was coming out a lovely shade of yellow leading me to believe he had ANOTHER sinus infection. He's not sick so at this point I'm thinking the poor kid has allergies and I'd like him tested. Could it be the large dust bunny population or the cats making him sniffle and sneeze? His doctor agreed that he has a sinus infection and that allergy testing would be a smart next move (isn't that what I just said? They should call me DOCTOR Molnar). He said he can either send us to an allergist for a full round of scratch tests or start with blood work, testing for the basics. Uh, option number two please! I can't see putting him through the horror that is scratch testing if we can take a couple of vials of blood and see if it is indeed the dust bunnies and kitty cats causing all the snot. If he does need scratch testing, I'm sending him with Dad. I don't think I can take the whining that would be produced by the horrible horrible itching. I can remember MY OWN childhood whining over scratch tests and just the memory makes my ears bleed.

So, does anyone want two cats? They're dumb as a box of rocks, nearly identical, don't shed much, go out all night, and sleep all day. Anyone? Hello?


Tuesday, February 10, 2009

BIRTHDAYS...

February is the month of birthdays for us. Every little girl I know was born in February (slight exaggeration). With the addition of Valentine's Day and it's associated parties, the 100th Day of School, Zack's school concert, a field trip, and of course Skyler's Birthday Extravaganza, I'm about to lose my damn mind.

Really I would like to give each of these girls the birthday wishes that they deserve and fear that I won't live up to that so I'm going to give it a try right now. In order of the calendar,

Mia, Happy Fourth Birthday. Four is such a fun, creative age. Enjoy every minute!

Alison, Happy Sixth Birthday. Six is SO big. No more little girl.

Drew, Happy Fourth Birthday. I wish I had the chance to enjoy your pink cupcakes with you!

Skyler & Lashelle, the birthday twinsies, Happy DAY! I'm so thrilled that my little girl gets to share her birthday with someone so wonderful and important to her!

Montana, Happy Eighteenth Birthday. You're 18? Holy cow! I miss you.

Carolyn, Happy Twenty-ninth Birthday ;-) I hope we get to celebrate with you!

Brooke, Happy Ninth Birthday! I can't believe you're almost into double digits. Every time I see you you've grown more and more mature!

and Uncle Ted - Happy Birthday to you too! I didn't want to lump you in with all those girls! I hope you enjoyed your day.

A whole lot of crazy...


We had beautiful weather this weekend so we decided to do something outdoors and took the kids to watch the local Polar Plunge. This is the 17th year this fundraiser has been held in our area and the first time we've gone to check it out. I had NO idea that there was a whole bunch of crazy involved. The beach was crowded with people in costume preparing to jump into the Atlantic Ocean, in FEBRUARY. Mind you it was hovering around a balmy 60 degrees so people were pretty happy considering they could have pulled the 30 degree card just as easily.



I also annoyed the kids by taking tons of pictures of them:

















Friday, February 06, 2009

Do as I say, not as I do...

Last night, Mike & Amy, and cutie patootie Nate, came for dinner. Mike was sharing Nate's new found love of Laurie Berkner songs when I remembered that I had a bunch of them on cd because my kids loved her when they were little too. I have a bunch of old cds in a basket up on a shelf above my computer. I made the asinine decision to stand on the computer chair to look for them. I found what I was looking for and proceeded to get myself down and my body moved a fraction of a second before my brain said "STUPID IDEA DUMBASS". I attempted to jump out of the chair onto the floor. The force of my body leaving the chair caused it to spin, causing my foot to catch the arm rest and trip me. The chair and I went down with a giant BANG. Everyone in the kitchen heard BANG and then didn't see me where I was before. It took them all a minute to figure out what the hell I had done. I hurt my already painful shoulder, back, knee, and hip. I also bruised my pride because it was so obviously a stupid thing to do and I have probably told my kids a million times not to stand in chairs, especially not ones that move.

Apparently adults never learn either!

Yawn...

Sleep. Oh how I crave thee.

I've been having trouble sleeping lately and since I'm supposed to be getting more than your average bear, I've been feeling it. Last night it was like a circus, or more accurately a clown car, in our room. I think I might have been asleep by 10pm but it was hard to fall asleep and I was sore from falling earlier in the night (WHOLE other story). Around midnight, I heard Skyler sort of whining in her sleep and thought she was having a nightmare until she started yelling at the cat to leave her alone. She stumbled into my bed and I didn't have the energy to move her. A couple of hours later Matt finished his nap in his chair and came upstairs and kicked Skyler back to her own bed. She was back shortly after and climbed in on my side. Shortly after that Zack came racing across the hall having had a nightmare. He was NOT impressed that his sister had beaten him to my side of the bed and proceeded to demand that she go to her own room. I finally convinced him to just climb in on the end of the bed. To say it was crowded is an understatement. The last couple of hours weren't restful in the least.

I've been yawning all day and can't wait to crash in my bed tonight.


Wednesday, February 04, 2009

Skin...

Waaaaay back in November I was tooling around on TwitterMoms where they had an offer for bloggers to try some skin care products and blog their review. I signed right up because I love new skin products and I love free. They were really great and sent a box out right away. Right about the beginning of December, I started into Holiday Stress Mode and my skin health took a nosedive. I didn't think that was the time to start a new product so I put it off. Once the craziness of the holidays wore off I started a new skin care regime that had me taking better care of myself and my skin and so I finally tried the product they sent me.

For the past month or so, I've been using La Roche-Posay Active C and I love it. I have to admit that I'm frequently told that I don't look my age, but the fine skin around my eyes is starting to bother me so I've started taking more care to remove my eye make-up at night and make sure to use the Active C all over my face twice a day and have really noticed a difference.

If you care about my opinion and have read this far, I've got a little treat for you. If you click HERE you can collect a $20 coupon from SkinCare RX. They say:
Once on the page, the individual will be asked for their first name, last name and email address. When they have submitted their details, an email will be sent to them with a unique gift certificate code. This email will come from the address 'promo.sk@skincarerx.com' with a subject line 'SkinCareRx.com Free $20 Gift Certificate. This gift certificate will allow them to purchase products from any of our three websites (SkinCareRx.com, Apothica.com & SkinBotanica.com). The certificates can not be combined with any other coupon promotion and can not be transferred once they have been partially used.

SkinCare RX sells the high end skin care lines that you see in magazines. I recognized a bunch of them like, StriVectin-SD which seems really popular right now, and others were foreign to me.

Go forth and moisturize!

Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Sunday in the park...

Thinking that we were all getting a little pasty from too much time inside, Matt and I took the warmish weather on Sunday as a sign to get the kids outside. We went to a local park that has a giant hill to run up/down and a path to walk around a lake and a play area. They bitched about the walking but otherwise had fun.







Goofy kid. She sat there and said "OM" until we caught up with her!

Z was seriously irritated with me and the camera that day. This is what I got from him.



The trees already have buds on them.





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