Guess who's back, back again

And now I have Slim Shady stuck in my head. And I just realized I completely forgot what I said last time I posted, so I'mma gonna go read for a minute. OK, I'm back.

Nick is still doing really well at school. He is still participating and mostly staying out of trouble. His biggest problem is staying awake in the morning. I think it more has to do with him staying awake for 2 hours after bed time yapping at himself. I've been having him take Melatonin but it doesn't always do the trick. He did have a bit of trouble a few weeks ago but he had an excuse and I think he controlled himself pretty well. You see, I was in the hospital. It's the first time he has had to deal with a big illness and he didn't get to see me while I was in the hospital. But he explained to his teachers what was going on and really did a good job of stepping back when he got upset.

Yeah the big news that happened since the last time was me ending up in the ER and then being admitted a few days later. I missed 3 1/2 days of work. Heck, I have yet to work a full weekend since before Thanksgiving. Anyways, on the 28th I went to work in some serious pain. I couldn't do anything without wanting to cry but I couldn't afford to miss work. Well by 3pm I was in so much pain I was crying so I left. My folks didn't seem to think there was a problem and sent me home with Nick. I took some pain pills and later took a nap. When I woke up at about 7:30 with a fever of 104.8. I called the help nurse at the clinic I go to and she recommended I head to the ER. Called my folks and Dad took me in while Mom took Nick back to their place so he could get some sleep. Had a bunch of blood work done and they said massive UTI. I did one bag of fluids with antibiotics in it and was sent home at about 2:30am with a scrip for more antibiotics. I spent the next two days only moving enough to take the kid to school and bring him home. Wednesday morning I was still in so much pain I called my urologist with the intent to ask for a pass for the weekend because it was my kidney stones causing the UTI and back pain.

Well the doc starts looking at my chart and discovers that the ER had tried to call me the day before to recommend I be admitted for a day due to bacteria growing in my blood! Doc ordered me to the hospital asap. I had originally intended to just call my mom to let her know I was heading to the hospital but I broke down and freaked. The last time I was in the hospital was when I had Nick and that was 1999. Mom ended up taking me in and I spent the next 3 days on IV antibiotics. I had two surgeries done. First was to insert two stents to help the kidney stones gtfo of there so they would stop blocking things up and causing the UTI and pain. That was on Wednesday within like 2 hours of being admitted. On Friday I had one of the stents removed and the doc used a laser to blast the hell out of my stones. I finally got to go home that night but I still didn't get to see Nick until Saturday afternoon. He spent the next week hugging me and telling me he loved me. :) He missed his momma. I had the other stent removed in the office about 10 days after I got out of the hospital. Not a real comfortable procedure. I recommend being knocked out for it if your insurance will cover it.

Well, since this whole mess I have been one tired chick. OK, so I am normally pretty tired but I've been really tired since I got out. I'm no longer peeing blood and no longer feeling any stone pain, which is good. What sucks is that the snow and cold showed up while I was in the hospital. And of course my snowblower doesn't want to work. The belt that runs the blades slips and only works when it wants to. So I've been having to shovel the drive myself. Most of the time I feel like I just went 10 rounds with Mike Tyson. It feels like the palms of my hands are bruised but there is nothing there.

And, of course, the neighbors are still refusing to shovel at all. I ended up yelling and, regrettably, swearing at one of her kids for climbing on one of the piles of snow next to my drive and tossing snow all over the place. The snow in the driveway has been the only thing I've been able to control lately and here was the kid of someone making that more difficult just destroying my drive again. I was livid. I've been stewing about the whole driveway ordeal and I just exploded. I don't even remember what I said to the kids. It was either "shit" or "damn" but I was so mad I don't remember what I said. It makes me feel about half an inch tall thinking about it. I know there is no excuse but I've been having my ass kicked by the snow. I'm constantly in large amounts of pain from shoveling and they twit next door just plows right through the snow and refuses to shovel. Hell when they can, they drive through the end of my side of the drive and onto their side because they are too lazy to shovel where the plow has buried the end of the drive. She has lived there at least 4 years and I've only seen her shovel 3 times. This is Iowa. It's not unusual to have to shovel 3 times in one DAY when it's snowing bad unless you want to wait and have it take you 2 hours to shovel the drive when it stops. sigh I know I need to let it go but it's hard to keep my side clear when her side is full of snow and she doesn't give a crap if the snow ends up on my side when she drives across it.

But in good news, I did finish the shawl I started last month. It's quite small and I really want to a larger one in thicker yarn at some point. I'll be using beads instead of doing nups though. I hate nups. And what is cool is that I used yarn that my friend Summer sent me for the little shawl and Summer sent me some of her handspun as a pick-me-up gift and I'm knitting a scarf from it. It's the Moon River Scarf available free on Rav. I deleted 2 repeats of the pattern on the scarf because it was getting too wide. It's a very easy pattern and I'm loving my first chance at knitting with handspun.

I've got all the Christmas shopping done thanks mostly to our annual Christmas bonus card for Wal-Mart. I ended up overdrawn on my checking account though thanks to a huge ass heating bill. I got used to maybe a $70 bill but the last one was $189 and it wiped out my checking account just as my internet and phone bills came in. Thankfully my check was deposited the next day so I'm back in the black. I'm going to have to try and work some overtime after the new year to make up the $75 in overdraft charges though. Oh and yes, I called the gas company and I'm now on an even payment plan. I think it's something like $52 a month. Much, much better. I'm already on even pay for my light bill because of a huge unexpected bill when it was so hot this summer. And in other shitty financial news, I got picked up the Monday after I got out of the hospital for expired tags. Had to borrow money from my folks to pay for new tags but I still have to pay the fine yet. I want to talk to the judge and hopefully only pay court costs but the weather has been so bad I haven't been able to get into town for traffic court. I really hate this time of year. Really and truly hate it.

I'm depressing myself here so I'll quit. Suffice it to say I will be doing my taxes the moment I get my W-2 from work. I need to go cash in the scratch off winner that my supervisor gave me ($1) and get me a lottery ticket. My luck has got to change sooner or later.

hmmmm

Not going to try and explain. I have no good excuse.

Finally got the monkey diagnosed with mild PDD and mild ADD. He has been on medication since school started. He stopped throwing things and throwing tantrums but was still screaming at his teachers regularly. We added on another medicine and holy crap! I have a happy kid again. One that actually likes school and can play dodge ball without having a meltdown. He is still having some issues but he is finally getting good marks on his behavior.

And the biggest change lately? I'm actually knitting a lace shawl! I'm knitting the Knitty pattern Annis in some lovely green lace yarn that my friend Summer sent me ages ago. It's been ages since I've felt the pull of the yarn and I like it.

I added a little widget over there ---->

It links to all the things that I liked on google reader. I had to make the switch over to google reader after bloglines shut down. I like reader so much better. It's much easier to load on dial-up because you only open one post at a time and not every single new and saved post from a feed. I have a tendency to get a bit behind on some of the busier feeds. big shocker :P

OK, time to go get monkey moving a bit. We had a 2 hour delay due to fog this morning and the boy needs to get dressed and eat something.

Another update!

see more dog and puppy pictures

Bet you thought I would forget about the blog for another few months again. heh Nope I have been wanting to post but I got busy.

Managed to survive my birthday without too much trouble. My middle brother forgot all about it of course. Yes, that is the one I was raised with. I ran into the older brother and, big shocker, he actually talked to me. Hadn't seen him since baby brother's wedding and he only spoke to me for like 30 seconds then. He didn't realize it was my birthday but it was still nice to chat with him. Baby brother had his little girl call me during dinner. It was really cute but it got my mom upset. It really bugged her that baby brother remembered my birthday but middle brother didn't. She raised me and middle brother together as the others are my bio dad's kids from his other marriages and we didn't know each other growing up.

Anyways, Mom and Dad took me and the monkey out to dinner at a local pub. They have awesome cod and I fully intend to go have lunch there real soon. Monkey, of course, wouldn't eat a damn thing. I still haven't figured out how to convince the child that not all food has to taste ZOMG delicious to be edible. Not that the stuff he likes to eat is all that delicious. McDonald's hamburgers anyone? lol After dinner we went for DQ. Monkey actually liked that part. lol



see more dog and puppy pictures

Lots of things have been going on with Monkey. He has been going to see a social worker since the beginning of the year. I'm not totally sure it is helping HIM a whole lot but it has helped me realize that I'm not nuts. 0.o Ok, I'm not delusional about him. Better? :P Anyway, we are working to get him evaluated again. Between the social worker and the new sociologist at school, they really believe that Monkey may have a mild case of ADD and some amount of Autism. The whole wrestling match about food may actually be hard wired into his brain by Autism. While it would be nice to know he isn't just being difficult about it, it would be hard to know it isn't going to get much better. So we are working on getting that moving. I've put in an application to have him go to a summer camp for kids with Autism that helps teach the kids how to deal with social situations. I'm hoping that this will help him finally get why some of the things he does are so rude.

Also I'm going to call and get the booger's eyes checked. Come to find out that sitting at a normal distance his school papers are blurry to him. He has never mentioned this before. If I had any clue he was having trouble seeing I would have gotten his eyes checked ages ago. He always passed the screenings at the pediatrician so I thought he was fine. I am fine with him getting glasses and I think he looks cute in them so no "mommy worries" there. lol I just hope this will help him participate in class more. Maybe those times he had such trouble with tests was because he couldn't see the darn test. sheesh



see more dog and puppy pictures

I am still really not doing any crafts lately. I did knit a few rows on the sleeves of the never ending sweater of doom. I think I'm about halfway through the upper arms. heh I haven't been painting either. I got stuck on Draco's hair and I just don't see how I can paint it using a mouse. I can't bring myself to spend the money on a tablet right now though. I've been really a lot of fanfiction still. I think I'll always be addicted to it. Much cheaper than buying paperback books all the time. lol


see more dog and puppy pictures


see more dog and puppy pictures

I'm still rocking my Sansa mp3 player at work. We had a new guy start last fall and he dominates the radios. I swear he hates anything recorded less than 20 years ago. Dude is a pain but he has been less annoying lately. I think it's because he is thinking of moving to Florida. lol I have such an eclectic mix of music on my player that it is almost scary. I just put a ton of Eminem on there and some Lil' Wayne. Some of their shit just makes me laugh my head off. You have to find the song Kids by Eminem. I damn near pissed laughing. I'm sure eventually I will delete a good portion of it off there but I like to give new stuff a bit of a chance before I hit delete on it.

I've also recently added Lady Gaga and Adam Lambert to the mix. :D There were a few LG songs that got the boot right away. Poker Face and Disco Stick just could not be allowed to live on my playlist. lol The first time I listened to Lambert's disc, I have to admit, I didn't like it. He is just so over dramatic and over the top. But like I said, I like to give things a few listens to before I give up on it. And now I really like quite a few of his songs. They are both good singers to listen to when I'm getting tired. They both get me bouncing.

Never fear, I haven't given up on the rock music. I've got Static-X's entire library loaded into my playlist. Brainfart is by far my favorite of their stuff. I really do love me some good drums. I have loaded on my entire library of NIN too. I never realized before just how much silence is in some of their songs. I thankfully can fast forward within a song to get past the quiet feedback that starts out some of the songs.



see more dog and puppy pictures

OK, enough blather for now. I've got phone calls to make and I need to get ready to go help Dad out. He is getting a dish installed today and he is afraid he won't be able to figure out how to use the DVR. Dude could barely understand a VCR. lol

motherhood

sigh

My son has a really nice bike that I bought him last spring. I've refused to put training wheels on it because they really don't help. He had them on his last bike and I found him riding it leaned all the way to the side so the training wheel was holding him up rather than trying to balance.

Learning how to ride the latest bike was put off after he broke his arm last July. My father has decided it is now time for him to learn.

bangs head on desk

I am not a happy camper. I am not strong enough or fast enough to help him learn. He can't seem to get the idea that HE needs to balance himself and I'm not supposed to be holding him up. I have to push him to start because he can't get the peddles going. The moment he starts to loose balance, he stops the bike. Half the time when I get him going, I realize he isn't even peddling. whimper

I have no clue how to help him with this. He spends the whole time whining that he can't do it. Then he squeals and whines when he looses his balance.

I've already warned him that we are going out again tomorrow. I'm dreading it though. It's times like this that I finally regret not having a guy around. It would be so nice to have someone to make do the hard stuff. lol

groan

It is never good to hear a small child yell out "mommy!!" in the middle of the night.

Just as I get in there and turn on the light guess what I saw. . . . projectile vomiting. Oh joy!!

I was just getting ready for bed too. I guess I get another day off of work tomorrow. ::insert eye roll::

I have a very sensitive tummy and OH MY GOD the smell damn near sent me into vomitous lurchings myself. Mix together curly fries from Arby's, teddy graham's graham crackers and lemon aid that smelt super strong when it got drank. . . . And now the house smells like a cheap version of febreeze. I can't stand that shit but the lysol just wasn't killing the smell enough.

I had to empty out a loud of clothes in the washer, so the dryer is going. That damn thing takes forever and a day. I threw all his blankets in the washer and washed em once and reset it to wash again with hot water. Damn the gas bill. LOL I still have a small basket with a pillow and his sheets and some clothes in it that isn't going to be washed until morning. I'm sure that is just going to smell lovely. gag

I just feel itchy and gross right now. I made the kid take a shower. He is feeling much better now. I reminded him that if he wakes up with a tummy ache he needs to RUN for the damn bathroom and not puke on his bed and dresser. groan I put lots of towels on his bed and put a garbage can next to it. Hopefully he will just sleep the rest of the night. I'm going to have to keep him home just to keep an eye on him though. He normally doesn't just puke once.

Gahhhhh I need to go wash my hands and face again. I had to change my shirt earlier cause I leaned into the washer when I was filling it and just covered the front of my shirt.

Ok, I'm done grossing you all out. I think I'll go have myself a little drink now. whimper

Yeah!!!

The stealth kitting???

She is done!!!

She is knit, knat, bound off and yarn cut!!! Off the needles!!!!

I need to do a little cleaning and moving in the living room and then she will be blocking in front of the tv. I think it would fit on the bed but well I don't want to get going only to realize it is too long. I'll of course take some pictures.

But you can't see them. :P Well not yet anyway. lol

After I show it off at the fiber guild meeting on Wednesday I have to pack it up and ship it off. Once it's new momma has seen it, I'll post pictures and tell y'all about it.

Mr. Nicky had an eventful weekend. He got to go on a plane ride on Saturday. He was thrilled. I was surprised that he wasn't the least bit nervous. My folks took him and he asked the pilot lots of questions before hand. Mom said that most were kind of goofy. But well he is my kid and all. lol He went up for a short ride in a little 4 seat Cessna. Call me a chicken but I don't think I could have done it. lol I was on a plane once when I was about a year old. I haven't flown again. Where I to win the lottery, I might relent and fly to Hawaii or Alaska. I really want to go on an Alaska cruise.

Ok, off to figure out which of my shawls I'm going to work on. I've got 4 or 5 of them left to work on. LOL

I hate Iowa in winter

Way too much shitting snow is going on around here. Go on over to Flickr and check out the pictures I took of the snow we got this last 2 weeks. It sucks.

Mr. Nicholas is still sick. This time it is a sinus infection. He has spent more time here with me at home than he has at school since before Christmas. It makes it very difficult for me to get anything done. I can't go anywhere because it is so dang cold.

I'm also getting over a cold. :( This last weekend was horrible. TJ was sick too so we made each other nuts. The tension between us is out of control right now. I swear either he better leave his gf/wife or whatever the hell she is or I better find myself a boyfriend or we are going to end up killing each other. LOL

Did I mention that I won a contest over at WEBS? They had a yarn of the month contest with Stoney yarns and yippy I won!!! This month I got a skein of Sheep Number 3.



Isn't it pretty?? It's a 100 gram skein at 325 yards of 30% silk and 70% wool. Yummmy stuff. :) And they even sent a pattern that uses just one skein of this yarn. Way cool.

I also got a picture of the Helen's Lace that I got.



Couldn't you just eat that up?? It's Chino. I can't wait to find the perfect pattern for this yarn. It is soo soft. Must resist urge to buy more!!!

If you go through my pictures a bit, you will find pictures finally of all the JaggerSpun yarn that I picked up at the end of the year. Some of it is laceweight and some is fingering weight. There is Navy, Claret, Pewter and a blue heather color. So much yarn and so little time to knit. lol Only 20 or so and I'm done with the stealth knitting!! Yeah then I'll be able to do some stuff to show y'all.

Ok, time to get the kid fed. He insisted on some tator tots. Then it's back into the pants for me before I get yelled at. :P

Surviving

Yup I'm still here. I'm tired as hell but I'm here.

I swear there is a conspiracy to kill me out there any my subconscious is in on it. lol Thursday I damn near burned my house down. The fumes were damn near enough to do me in too. When I made eggs for breakfast, I somehow left the burner on real low. I had placed my cheapy spatula back in the grease so as to not dirty up the stove top. The spatula was nothing but a mass of melted plastic when I got back to the kitchen after eating. And the smell was horrible. I had such a horrible headache and I kept coughing. Nasty shit man.

Then my damn smoke detector went psycho at 1am Saturday morning. I had gotten up to use the bathroom and it started going nuts. It would beep really loud and in a loud voice say "Low Battery!!!" It repeated this crap every 90 seconds or so. I thought it was one in my son's room or the hallway, so I shut my door and tried to go back to sleep because I knew I didn't have a battery to replace the one in the detector. Well guess what, it was the one in my room. grrrr So, I got the stepladder and I tried to get the damn thing down. No such luck.

After about 20 minutes of trying, I was in tears and damn near hysterical. Every time the detector would go off it was like an explosion in my brain. I felt like I was going nuts. I ended up calling my folks and begging my dad to come and fix the detector for me. It took him about 20 minutes to get here and about 5 to get it fixed. It was near 3 am before I finally got back to sleep only to get up at 4:30 for work. :( I was a very very tired girl Saturday.

Cut to 3am this morning. I thought my ghost was back and bugging me. I rolled over this morning and I could hear a woman's voice saying something. It kept repeating. So, I got up and checked to see if maybe my phone was picking up the neighbor's phone since mine is a cordless. Nope the voice wasn't coming from the phone. The computer was off and so was the tv. I thought it had stopped, so I went back to bed. Then I heard the voice again more clearly and I could hear what it was actually saying. The kid has a Read With Me DVD game thingy and it was going off and saying how to set it with the dvd remote control. Only I wasn't so sure where the hell the damn thing was. lol And this time the voice was coming from a different direction than earlier. I finally found the controller in the hallway and I had to find a screwdriver and take the batteries out.

I never did really get back to sleep this morning. I've had a nasty ass headache all day thanks to that. I had to run the kid to a checkup appointment today and damn near bought it on the icy roads. I watched a car spin out in front of me and end up on the wrong side of the road. Very scary! The doc says that Nick's lungs sound real good. He will get a chest xray next month to make sure that all is clear this time.

Been making real progress on the stealth knitting. It's going along swimmingly. I'm trying to get my yarn straightened out. I've got 3 under bed storage containers full of yarn. hehe Someday I'll get it all up on Ravelry. . . . maybe. lol

Yawn

I'm on my way to bed but thought I would update y'all on me and mine.

Nick was admitted to the hospital Wednesday night with pneumonia in his right lung. We stayed over night and we finally got to leave tonight at 6pm. He is doing really good. He is probably going to spend the whole weekend at my folk's house so that he doesn't have to get up early for me to go to work.

He slept pretty good last night but omg hospital beds are not made to be comfy. I didn't sleep for shit. The bed was hard and so was the pillow. I woke with a massive backache and headache.

And now I'm going to hit the sack. 4:30 am comes way too god damn early.

FO

I've been knitting. I present Nick's Fake Isle Hat. :)


It's not perfect, but I like it. I saved off this pattern quite a while ago. It's been a long time since I've made a hat though. When the kid got ready for school on Wednesday we realized he had a hole in his hat. So I cast on for this one. I didn't work on it at all this weekend thanks to work. So really it only took me about 2 days of knitting off and on. Not too bad for me. hehe

Blame it on Ravelry

Yes, I've been sucked in. It's all Laurie's fault. I wasn't going to even sign up for it knowing it would suck up all my time. I was right.

I've been busy with other things too though.

I worked Tuesday and that always kicks my butt. Wednesday I actually went to the fiber guild meeting!! It was so fun to actually watch people knitting. There were 3 people there with spinning wheels. One lady was spinning her dogs hair. hehe It looked like wool though. I would have never guessed it was dog hair. 2 ladies were doing needlepoint. Very nice stuff. Nick managed to behave himself for the most part. We ended up staying 2 hours. I do believe next time I'm going to have Mom watch him so he doesn't end up staying up so late. It is the day after Christmas but still. He just doesn't deal well with staying up so late.

Thursday was the kid's winter program. I met up with Mom and Dad for the kindergarten, first and second grade's program. All the kids did a great job. They did a few other holiday type songs but none were specifically Christmas. I ran into one of my cousins and he of course ran as soon as I said hi to him. He is just an ass. It wasn't like I planted myself in front of him and started yammering on. He just happened to be there when I turned around to go find the kid and said hi and how are ya and he bolted. But who cares. As I said, he is an ass. Nick insisted that we stay for the 3rd, 4th adn 5th grader's program. My folks hit the road, but I'm glad Nick and I stayed. The older kids program was hilarious. They had some really funny songs. As soon as they brought the lights up at the end, we bolted. We were the first people out of the parking lot. hehe I hate crowds and trying to get out of an event.

Here is a picture of the new haircut. I hate this picture but it was the best that I could do. It's hard to take a picture of yourself. My face just looks huge in this picture. bleck Not to mention my nose looks huge. lol Oh well.

Ok, I need to go try and break up the ice in the driveway. It's horrid. There is over an inch of it. When I parked the car in the driveway last night, it didn't even dent the snow and ice. I poured a whole dang bag of salt on the driveway so hopefully most of the ice will break up. Oh such fun.

Photo heavy post

Here are the pictures that I promised y'all of the kid.



Isn't he scary??



Here are some of the animals from the petting zoo.



The kid loved the goose and the bunny.





Here are the lil goats that I thought looked like lil sheep.



They stayed bunched up the whole time. And those lil bits of fluff on the left are actually some sort of chicken.



The kid was excited after making it through the hay maze.





He is such a lil ham!



And a couple pics of the parents new dog Toots. She just had a bath before these pics. She is impossible to catch still. hehe



Ok, I'm off to play on Ravelry a lil bit more while I knit on the halloween shawl.

Catching up

Hmmmmm where to start. It's been a long weekend really.

Thursday I did take Nick to the Halloween party. It was kind of cool. He went as Frankenstein's Monster. We had managed to find a black suit jacket at the second hand store. It was a woman's small and thankfully had huge shoulder pads. Other than being a bit long it fit him really well. We just went with jeans and an old tshirt and his regular shoes to round out the outfit.

The makeup and such was much more of an ordeal. First I had to spray his hair black. I had him sit on the side of the tub and lean back into the tub. I figured that the overspray would be easier to clean from the tub than the rest of the bathroom. OMG was I wrong!!! People, do yourself a favor and only use the colored hairspray OUTSIDE!! At first it didn't look like too much of a mess. And then it got wet. There was black everywhere. It's been 4 days and I still have black in the shower and all over the sink. With work I haven't had a chance to really scrub at it. But man what a mess.

The face painting went much more easy. I ended up drawing on the scars as I couldn't find any premade ones at the store. I really wanted to paint some marshmallows and stick them to his neck for the monster's bolts, but I just can't figure out how to make them stay on. He did get green makeup on his coat but it just makes the coat look moldy so that is fine.

There was a light mist falling when we left, but Mom had assured me there were things to do inside at the party. The party was at a pumpkin farm. When we got there the ladies manning the entrance wanted to make sure that Nick entered the costume contest but that wasn't for another hour and half so I begged off with a promise that if we were still there we would enter. He got himself a bag of candy and we went into the barn to see what was going on. The had a large pit of corn for the kids to play in and some rope swings. A lady I work with was there so Nick sung on the ropes with her kids for a bit but wouldn't allow himself to fall into the hay.

Next it was around back for the petting zoo. They had maybe 9 goats of different breeds. 3 of the little ones looked sort of like mini spotted sheep. They stayed together the whole time. They also had a goose, a chicken, a rabbit and 2 strange fuzzy birds in the corner that I thought at first was just a pile of feathers. hehe Nick had fun following the chicken around and clucking and waving his arms like wings. He had decided that the best way to pet a chicken was to make it think you are a chicken too. hehe I had fun trying to pet the goose. He kept ducking when my hand got close to his head. I won out in the end. I've got lots of pics that I'll upload later. I'm just not awake enough to take em off the camera right now.

After the petting zoo, it was off to the hay bale maze. There were a bunch of kids climbing on top of the hay but I told Nick to not even think about it. He ran through the maze a dozen times or so. Then we took pictures with some pumpkin cut outs and a John Deere tractor. Then it was back into the maze. That is where we met with disaster. On his last run through the maze he slipped on the mud. His right leg and arm were covered in mud and he got upset. I showed him how to wipe his leg off on the hay bale. He got the big chunks off and wiped his hands off too. With that he was ready to go home. So there was no costume contest for us just as I had figured.

Then it was out to the folk's house to show them his costume. I had just meant to stop for a few minutes. But since the kid was all muddy, Mom offered to give him a bath there. I warned her that the black hairspray was going to make a mess. She didn't care though. So the kid was hosed down and then mom filled the tub so she could wash his face good. The dog kept trying to get in the tub with him. She can barely get her paws on the top of the tub though so I let her keep begging. Dad however had other ideas. He gave her a boost and she got a mini bath with the kid. hehe Once Nick was all clean and dried, we stuck around for another half hour or so. When we got home I still had to wash his face again with some cold cream. He had a very unhealthy green cast to his mouth area. hehe

All in all we had a real good time. And this has turned in to a mini novel and I only covered one day. lol I promise I'll post some pics later this morning. I've caught myself a nasty lil cold and I need a lil bit of a rest after the kid goes to school. Then tonight I'll yap about the rest of the weekend and why I've got to set up a whole new budget for myself. groan

It's Monday, Must be time for an update

My son's school is giving me a complex. The kid has been doing so good this last week or so. He hasn't brought home any reports that he has gotten in trouble. We have been thrilled. Lots of praise sent his way.

So of course this morning I get a call from the counselor that she wants someone to come in and observe him because she is concerned about his coping strategies. uuuuuunnnnnnnggggggg She says the kid has been doing some odd things to keep himself calm in class. Hand flappings and talking to himself. The crying and getting mad have subsided for the most part. But she says he is still being disruptive with "hand puppets and voices."

I swear I wonder what the hell they would be doing with a child that has tourrettes or some other disorder. Would they be having a fit about them disrupting and distracting the class? The kid is trying his hardest to behave himself in school. He hates having to make up time during recess and miss out on the fun. He has been getting his work done at school so he doesn't have to bring home any more homework than absolutely necessary. And still it isn't enough.

So the kid is a lil weird. So what?? So is his mother. :P He is sensitive like I am too. I can get upset very easily. Which I am right now. I was feeling fine this morning. A bit tired but not ill in the least. I even managed to eat something before 9am which doesn't happen often. And now I'm sick to my stomach. I have no clue if I'm going to keep my breakfast down. I don't get why they can't just be happy that he is behaving and give him a lil while to see if the weird stuff doesn't just fade out as he gets used to behaving.

It's not like the kid isn't doing well with his school work. He is quite bright. His reading is awesome. I am amazed at the words he can read already. Very rarely does he have to ask for help with words. He brings home huge sheets of math problems and they never take him more than a couple minutes to fill out. Most of the delay time in it is him being a goof and asking me answers that he already knows. He is just looking for a reaction out of me. ( I sit with him while he does his homework.) He isn't real good at the spelling yet. Shit I'm 35 and I suck at it. He would much rather just spell phonetically. He tends to write words the way they sound to him and not the way they are actually spelled. The becomes du. Cutting becomes choding. He has sinus issues so sometimes his ears are stuffed up and he has trouble hearing.

I just wish they would cut him some slack. Just be happy he isn't hitting anyone and isn't throwing crying fits anymore. He finally has his cast off and is finally allowed back to recess and gym class. He has to get back in the swing of just being another kid that doesn't need help with stuff.

I'm gonna go lay down and see if I can get my tummy to calm down. I just hate that they keep trying to label him. It's just not fair.

I suck

I promised pictures. . . . . I haven't touched the camera other than to move it out of my way.

I promised a surprise. . . . . I haven't worked on it at all.

I have knit a bit though. I've got 12 rows left of the body on the Galveston shawl. The row I'm currently working on has 898 stitches. Each row has an additional 8 stitches. Each row takes a very long time. lol

I haven't started clue 2 of the Autumn shawl yet. I did download the clue. And I've looked at the finished pics. But I haven't knit it yet. I haven't touched the Swan Lake stole or Etain. Or any of my other projects on the needles or hooks.

I got my stitches out this morning. Doc said my cut looks great. I had expected it to hurt a little, but there was hardly any discomfort at all. I just have to watch it for a few days to make sure an infection doesn't develop.

I spent the morning at Mom's trying to fill out an application online for some insurance. Their server kept taking a shit on me. Only the first page would save. There are like 10 pages. So in the morning I have to call the 800 number and see if I can just fax one pay stub that was missing in the first place or fill out the app that I printed and fax that.

While messing with that, I downloaded a program that lets you snag videos off of YouTube. I also downloaded a nifty little program that lets you watch the flv files on your pc easily. So I now have about 5 videos about Alan Rickman on my flash drive. hehe He is just too damn hot. I have got to see Snow Cake. I downloaded a preview of it and omg, he is just awesome.

Nick got his cast off this afternoon. He was very nervous at first. He was afraid is arm was going to hurt. After the nurse left after removing the cast, he asked if he was getting another one. He got upset when I said no. After he moved it around a bit though he realized that his arm wasn't going to be all wiggly like when he broke it. I guess he remembers more of the pain than he has let on. The doc says that his arm looks really good and is healing well.

Nick has to sit out PE and recess for the next 2 weeks. He is not happy about that. We had a long talk about how he has got to be very careful for the next few weeks. No running and jumping and no bouncing on the bed. I think I got through to him that he has to be careful that he doesn't hit his arm on anything.

We made a short visit out to my folk's house so they could see his poor lil skinny arm. The muscles have really disappeared big time. The skin looks real icky right now. Lots of dead skin. We have told him not to pick at it. I put lots of lotion on his arm after he soaked in the tub for awhile. The doc says the skin should look more normal in a week.

I'm having some very annoying pc problems. I think it has more to do with the fact that it has been on all day long. Lately I've been having to shut it off a lot. I can't leave it sit powered up for more than 2 hours without using it or it will lock up. The only thing I can do when it locks up is to flip the switch in the back. Well today I have been at the pc every hour or so, so I haven't had to shut it down. I think it is just being cranky. lol

Kind of reminds me of my body. I am soo tired. It doesn't matter how much sleep I get. I'm still beat. The alarm actually went off this morning for 15 minutes before I heard it. Granted it was on the floor and partially covered by a shirt and it isn't very loud. But still. 15 minutes!!! And I got no nap today. I was too busy doing stuff today.

Ok, I need to hit the sack. I've got stuff to do tomorrow before I go wash dishes. Not to mention I need to get the house cleaned up. Turns out there may be an inspection next week. gggggaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh I hate inspections. Plus, I need to find the envelope that has my new credit cards in it. I have a bad feeling I threw it away thinking it was an application for a new card. sigh And I'm almost out of checks. So pretty soon I will have no way to pay my dang bills. lol Wonder if the phone company takes PayPal. lmao j/k

I'm ok, U'r ok

Well varying degrees of ok anyway. lol

BTW this happens to be my 400th post. Pretty scary if ya ask me.

I finished the first clue of the current autumn mystery shawl from GoddessKnits. The thought of setting up for pictures and then connecting the camera just makes me wanna cry. I am Tired.

I took a nap today but it wasn't quite enough. Shoot I even laid down again a little while ago and fell asleep for a few minutes. I am not really all that psyched up for work tomorrow. At least Bluto won't be there. hehe He won't be back from a trip with his girlfriend until sometime tomorrow night. The man just makes me want to smack him half the time.

The elbow is fine and dandy. it looks like it is healing just fine. No scabs and not obvious infection. Hopefully the nurse will be pleased on Monday when I get my stitches out. The kid's arm is doing fine. I do believe he gets his cast off on Tuesday. I'm looking forward to him not having an excuse to make annoying noises with his cast.

Once again he got in trouble for making noise during class today. He has not had one day this week where he didn't get in trouble. He was already warned that if he didn't behave himself at school that he wouldn't be going to the school festival. So he gets to spend the day at his Nana's house with no tv or computer instead of getting to play games. We are having a really difficult time getting him to behave at school. He doesn't seem to care if we take away his tv and computer. I'm about to take all his toys away too.

I've got a secret project I'm working on. I'll be ready to share it with y'all next week. I need to get some pictures taken and get some links together before I can really share it.

For now, I'm going to go find something to munch on and then hit the sack. Have I mentioned that I HATE getting up at 4:30 in the morning?? lmao

Feeling guilty

Yup, I've been ignoring y'all. I'm a baaaaad girl. If there were someone here to spank me for it, I would let them. Ok, so maybe I might enjoy that just a lil bit too much for it to be punishment. lmao

Today was my first day off of work without the kid around in almost 2 weeks. And what did I do with my day? I slept of course. lol I've been so tired lately it isn't funny. Not very unusual for me though. Tomorrow I have off work too. But, the kid will be home. We are going to spend the day cleaning and doing art projects.

We just got back from Wal-Mart and the Dollar Tree. We picked up a bunch of art supplies. I got two scrap booking type storage drawer units to house it all. The kid is an awesome artist in my estimation. I may be a bit biased, but I swear he is good.




He drew these all on his own. I had nothing to do with it. All I did was scan them and sharpen the images. You can see more of his sketches at my other Flickr account. The kid draws better than I do.

There has been knitting. I've put aside the apricot mystery shawl called Etain. I'm very close to finishing the second clue, but I discovered something the other day. I am on the last clue before the edging of the purple Galveston shawl!! I'm actually halfway through the clue too. Row 18 of 34. I am tickled beyond all get out. So, I'm going to concentrate on finishing this one.

That doesn't mean I'm not going to be starting the next 2 mystery shawls from GoddessKnits or the Secret of the Stole KAL. God damn I'm weak. lmao I've got the yarn for the fall themed mystery from GK. I just paid for the yarn for the Halloween mystery shawl. It should be here within a month. I'm not too worried about keeping up cause I know I'm not going to. In the same order, I've got 3 more colors of yarn to chose from for the SoS.

I swear tomorrow I'll take some pictures of the yarn I've bought in the last couple months that I haven't talked about. There hasn't been much but still I should have posted pics. I've got 4 colors of Purewool laceweight ordered. Basically they are not solid colors but not variegated. I ordered 2 skeins each of a blue, green, brown and red. The red will be for the Halloween shawl. Any of the other 3 should work for the theme of the SoS. Or I just may go with the yellow lace weight I have in my stash. I'm thinking it might be Purewool too. I will have to dig it out to be sure. But it is the same yarn as what I'm using on the Galveston shawl but a diff color of course.

And I just started a new crochet project. When we were at the Dollar Tree, I picked up 3 finger towels with Halloween appliques on them. I'm going to make them into refrigerator towels for my mom. I've almost got the attaching row done on the first one and then it won't take much time at all to finish. Hopefully, she will like them.

Ok, I'm off to try and get some work done. I've got so many projects going that it isn't funny and I need to get some done. I swear from this moment, only the projects I'm signed up for already will be cast on. No other new projects. It's time to finish some stuff. Yeah right! lmao

Update

Firstly, the kid is doing great. It only took about 10-15 minutes for the doc to get his arm set and get his cast on. We were at the hospital for about 3 1/2 hours total. Most of the time was spent getting him to go to sleep and then waking him back up.

He has a cast from his hand all the way up to near his arm pit. He says it is pretty heavy but that is because it is a plaster cast. Mom and Dad already beat me to signing his cast. He has a bigger sling on now too. It is making it much easier on him. This one doesn't keep sliding off and it is padded on the strap.

He had a bit of a tummy ache this afternoon, but his Nana brought him some white soda to settle his belly. He was just out in the living room singing his lil head off. So I guess it is safe to say he is feeling much better.

I haven't finished clue 1 on MS4 just yet. Here it is done up to row 32.



I've got it on a huge KnitPicks needle. I ordered some smaller cables but they are taking forever to process the order. I'm using Zephyr in Apricot on size 4s. I'm really liking how this yarn is looking and the fabric that I'm getting.

And now an update on MS3. Here is a closeup of how the colors are changing.



There is a lot more color variation there than I though there would be. I thought it would be just brown to blue and back. But there are several variations on the blue color in there and the color changes aren't as even as I though.



I'm up to row 242. I've got a long long way to go before I get caught up to everyone. Clue 5 comes out tomorrow and Melanie promises that it is going to be a big surprise. She is also going to reveal the theme. I'm going to have to wait until after work tomorrow in order to find out what is going on. I wish I had a fancy phone that I could download stuff off the internet. Then I could sneak a look at lunchtime. hehehe

Next week I'm really going to try harder to get some quality knitting done. I did get about 2 or 3 rows done on the Galveston shawl today while we were at the hospital. It looks exactly the same anyway, so I didn't take a picture of it. hehe

We're off to see the wizard

Nick is doing a nebulizer treatment as I write this. We will be heading to the hospital in a few minutes. My stomach is not being very nice to me but Mom is coming along to keep me company. I'll be taking the Galveston shawl along to work on.

Prayers have been said for all of those up in Minneapolis that were affected by the bridge collapse. Such a horrible thing to happen. We have 2 bridges close by that cross the Mississippi and it is scary to think of either one falling. shivers

I'll update y'all when we get home today.

Tuesday ramblings

Well, Nick didn't get his cast today.

Turns out the doctor he saw Saturday night was a wackjob hack. He shouldn't have manipulated Nick's arm at all. Protocol says that he should have sent him to Dubuque for treatment. With as bad as the break was, he should have had it set that night by an orthopedist. There was actually an orthopedist that was expecting to see Nick on Monday. We were not even told that this doctor was talked to. The doctor we saw today was not at all happy that the one on Saturday took it upon himself to straighten the kid's arm.

The orthopedist's office was not happy with the insurance issues either. We had to talk to a social worker from the hospital in order convince them that they would get paid. If the Hawk-I insurance doesn't come through, I'll apply for Title 19 again. Found out that my folk's home owner's insurance will only cover $1000. Not so sure that will cover everything or not. I actually had to give the office $300 before they would even see Nick.

Tomorrow, Nick has to go in for a mini physical to make sure that he is healthy enough to be sedated. Thursday morning he has to go into the hospital to have his arm set and casted. They have to put him under so they can fix the mess that the other doctor created. The arm is pretty straight, but not as straight as it needs to be in order for a cast to be put on. The doctor today didn't realize just how badly broken Nick's arm was I guess. Basically, it came within millimeters of having the bone come through the skin. That would have meant immediate surgery. Not to mention and totally hysterical mother. hehe

On the bright side, Nick is not in any real pain. Occasionally he complains about a headache. No he didn't hit his head. I think it is just the strain on his body. He has winced a few times moving around and when we have to adjust his sling he gets uncomfortable. But sheesh the kid is strong and brave on that front. The only time in the whole ordeal that he has cried or anything was when the ER doctor was stretching his arm to straighten it. He is much braver than I am. hehe

In knitting news, I'm up to about row 26 on the new mystery shawl. No pictures yet. Once I get the whole clue done I'll take a picture. I'm up to row 235 on the mystery stole. I've got a long long way to go before clue 4 is done for me. I will be doing at least one increase in length. Once I get that done, I'll decide if I want to go for another increase. I just haven't been able to concentrate on the knitting for very long. But I think I deserve a pass on that one. hehe

Ok, I'm gonna go watch Singing Bee and drool all over Joey. He so reminds me of a guy I had a crush on about 15 years ago.