And this is why I need to stop watching VH1...

Shit-tacular week

Let's see, where to start.

We had to put our cat down. She had a tumor in her chin we didn't know about and by the time it presented itself, it was too late. We had the option to bring her home with pain medication until she couldn't eat anymore or to put her down.

No offense, the idea of waiting for her to stop eating just seemed rather morbid. I'd rather she be happy in kitty heaven than here with me in pain.

But here's the thing. I've had her for almost 13 years. I keep thinking I see her in the house. She was a constant presence and I really do miss her.

Telling Little Man was the hardest (well, no, holding her as she died was the hardest). He cried very hard and told me how he wanted her back and missed her and it just broke my fucking heart all over again.

I'm from the school of being upfront with them, obviously there are somethings we shield them from, but a pet dying is part of life and part of owning a pet. so there you go.

My MIL has breast cancer again. It's the same kind, in the same breast, so she will have a mastectomy this time. Fun, fucking times, let me tell you.

I struggled with that one as I've know it was a possibility since Monday (FIL had a moment of verbal diarrhea and told me) and my MIL asked me not to tell Gumby. I tell him most everything, but I respected her wishes.

Which for anyone that knows me, knows that's near-fucking-impossible. She got the biopsy results yesterday and I obviously didn't want to tell him before his Winter Ball (a work function) and afterwards was much too late to deal with such heaviness.

So today was a bit brutal for the family. Gumby ended up vomiting (I'm thinking the big 'ol t-bone steak did not help that cause). I'm still working on an upset stomach.

I watched the new episode of The Office tonight and almost died. Also watched last week's SNL with Neil Patrick Harris (who, was on Sesame Street this past week as the Shoe Fairy and I almost peed my pants).

Opps.

So my MIL and I have a mild addiction to Rock Band. I've been trying to play at night, after the kids go to bed, because really, watching Mommy play video games is not the image I'd like to project on their very impressionable brains.

But sometimes after I pick up Baby Girl from preschool we head over to the in-laws for the afternoon.

And my MIL got Rock Band 2 for Christmas. The set. Which is it's own post, really, but I digress.

So the other night the beasties were in the tub, Gumby and I were folding laundry in our room (attached to the bathroom! Jeez). Suddenly you heard:

So what 'cha, what 'cha, what 'cha want? I said what 'cha, what 'cha, what 'cha want?

Err. Is the 4 year old singing Beastie Boys?

Hmmm.

Yeah.

Well then.

After much laughter, I think, well maybe that's a bit too much Rock Band? Nahhh.

Yesterday, we head over to the in-laws. G-ma had Baby Girl's new mittens and was going to make a new "string" for them and I needed to get them before this weather set in.

We chatted for a while with Mary Mac, doing our thing. I laid the kids down in their rooms for a nap and Mary decided it was time to head back to the city. To which my MIL said, "Are we going to Rock Band now???"

Sure, we'll Rock Band.

Fast-forward 2 hours.

*blush*

Little Man is up from his nap and I send him in to mess with his sister (because I'm considerate when my kids wake up and make one of them the bad guy, heh).

Grandma asks Baby Girl what song she had been singing in the tub.

"That's what you Get!." - Paramore (yes, from RB)

No, that's not it, hon.

"Was it, 'Hey, ho! Let's go'? - The Clash (yep, RB)

Er, no, not that one babe.

"The fishing song?" - Bon Jovi (Dead or Alive from Deadliest Catch and yes, from RB)

Um, no.

"Maps?" - The Yeah Yeah Yeah's (damn, also from RB)

OK, babe, you were singing, "So what 'cha, what 'cha, what 'cha want?"

To which she promptly spent the remainder of the afternoon singing it.

But it's gotta be better than her wanting to watch either the Fall Out Boy, "I Don't Care" video or The All-American Rejects, "Give you Hell."

*sigh*

I really need to stop watching VH1 around her. And considering cutting back on RB at Grandma & Grandpa's. Wait, Grandma isn't well and this makes her FEEL better. I'm doing a great service by playing this game with her.

Heh. And feeding my ever-growing addiction.

But, on to better parenting topics.

Baby Girl starts gymnastics on Thursday. I'm very excited for her. It's her first "big girl" class that I won't be in with her. I tried to get Little Man into the toddler class (I'd participate with him), but we are on the waiting list, unfortunately.

I'm excited for the prospect of summer. I'm thinking I will keep Baby Girl home with me and they can take non-stop swim classes all summer. I want them swimming like da fishes by the end of summer!

I start my classes in 2 weeks, which is exciting. I'll be happy to be back in school.

I'm a blog slacker.

Er. Yeah. So I haven't posted in a few weeks. I've thought about it, I really have, but just haven't gotten around to it.

But that seems to be a theme around here lately.

So to recap.

Christmas Eve was here with both families. I was a bit panicked in the morning, trying to get ready. Made an appointment for Little Man to get a hair cut. Ran around getting ready, realized I would not make the 11 AM appointment, so I called to reschedule. Got Noon. Left at 11:45 AM to get there (it's snowing like you wouldn't believe) and realize Gumby had the keys to the car (when we bought it, it only came with 1 key and of course, it's a special key that's almost $300 for..we'll work with 1 for now thank you!).

I'm pissed. I'm going to be late to another hair cut appointment. It's snowing, my children are running around like the beasts they are and I suddenly realize, who the fuck cares?

All the kids wanted to do was to build a snow man. So a snow man we built.

Gumby came home, took Little Man to his hair cut appointment, I ran to the store with Baby Girl and came home and relaxed. Got the food ready and didn't stress. Overall, Christmas Eve was very chill after building the snow man. Heh.

Christmas Eve and Day was very nice. Very relaxed. I did get Rock Band 2 (as did my MIL, God help us both). So now I've been staying up much too late after the kids go to bed playing. It's addictive, fun and really needs to be controlled. Ha.

New Year's Eve was going to be here, but my FIL fell and sprained his ankle, so we went to their house. Our usual seafood fest. My BIL was able to get us some lobster and he prepped it for me, so I just had to finish cooking it (so freakin' yummy). I did the filet, shrimp and mussels.

Little Man passed out in Grandma and Grandpa's bed around 10 PM (I was meanwhile, passed out in the recliner, opps). Baby Girl was still kicking at 11:15 PM, but we left then. Got home and the kids in bed just in time to have 5 minutes to spare before the new year.

Popped open our bottle of sparkling grape juice (we live hard peeps) and brought in the new year.

This past weekend we had a night without kids. The in-laws had the kids sleep over Saturday night. We went to dinner with my folks for our collective anniversaries and then went to a movie.

Oh, don't waste your time or money on "The Day the Earth Stood Still". What a piece of crap. We wanted to see the Benjamin Button movie, but my Mom was anti-Brad that night, so we went to the other movie.

Ugg.

Word to the wise, don't delay in picking your college classes. I'm used to going to smaller schools that you can always get into a class. Apparently UWM is pretty serious about those class limits, plus, there are so many more students looking to get in. Now I'm stalking the registration website every few hours trying to get into the classes I needed and wanted (I had the whole damn scheduled perfect in my head. Fuck).

Meanwhile, I've signed up for classes I do need, but the other classes are classes I need to take (prereq's). Apparently the college algebra course I took is not enough and now I need intermediate algebra, followed by calculus and stats. Bugger.

Why did I pick this major? Oh yeah, I'm a nerd/dork.

Alas, on the a happier note, Gumby has decided to go back for his bachelors (hell yes!), so starting this summer we'll be able to take a bunch of classes together again. I know it sounds strange, but it's a good time for us to have the commute in the car together, we take the classes together (keeps us on top of what's due and usually when one doesn't get something, the other does and can explain it). Plus I love being his partner on projects...means I don't have to leave home or my pj's (ha!).

So I'm super-duper excited about that.

I turn the big 3-3 in 2 days. Actually it's not all that big. Birthdays don't typically bother me (weird ones do, I had issue with 23...hmmmm...wonder if that means I'll have issue with 33???).

Wish me luck.

On a final note, I'd love to hear suggestions on how to get a 3 year old boy to stop picking his nose. Seems to be a boy specific thing, as we were able to break Baby Girl of it rather quickly.

Blech.

ETA: UPDATE!!! I got into the algebra class I wanted! Guess who gets to take algebra at 8 AM on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays?!? And who's actually excited about it? I'm such a dork.

Baby Girl's Christmas Concert and a lesson in child protection

Baby Girl's preschool class performed Christmas concerts Monday and Tuesday. I brought the video camera Monday, only to find out there was no tape in it. Damn it.

Tuesday morning, we searched high and low, but could not find any tapes. Fuck.

So Gumby quickly downloaded an app to his iPhone that allowed him to video take it with it (crafty, that one!).

Baby Girl is 2nd from the end in the gray sweater and pig-tails. Sweet Jebus, that kid is cute.

And today she got "big girl boots". Up until now, she has always gotten boots that Little Man can wear the next year, because I'm cheap thrifty. So we currently have several pairs of navy Land's End boots.

While we were visiting Santa Monday night, we realized Little Man's boots were too small. Normally he would get Baby Girl's boots and she'd get new boots. Except when we went to Land's End today and tried on the next size up, they were way too freakin' big for her. She couldn't walk and they would not stay on.

So I had to buy the same size she had, but figured I might as well let her get a girly colored pair, since Little Man would just wear the navy ones next year. So she got a pair of light blue ones that match her snowpants/coat lining. Yes, I'm a nerd.


Yesterday we had a minor blizzard here, 12+ inches of snow. The city was pretty much shut down until noon, so Baby Girl's preschool was closed. We headed over to the In-laws for some sledding.

I, of course, have a terrible cold. I stayed in when we got there and ate my Taco Smell. Gumby ate his as well and we watched the kids from the picture window and the dog was out there with him.

Now. A bit about the dog. He's fiercely protective of the kids. And rightfully so. So normally when the kids are out, he's always within 15 feet of them, especially if we are not out there with them (which doesn't happen often or for very long, with the exception of winter, when I will happily watch from the picture window the entire time they become "one" with nature. heh)

All of the sudden the dog took off. Baby Girl was calling him in her best Boston accent, "Hunt-a!". I opened the window and gave a shout out and he didn't come back, so I figured the little shit was chasing some prey.

Alas, I did hear some ruckus by the neighbor dogs, but typically that means our dog is chasing prey and the neighbor dogs want to hunt with him, but they have an electric fence, so it's the worst tease EVER.

Gumby heads out to sled with the kids and the dog come back and they all happily play for at least 30 minutes, maybe 45? The damn dog was so cute, bounding in the snow, playing catch with Gumby. He'd charge up to one of the kids, lick 'em and bound off again.

They all finally start to file in the house and the dog has the biggest grin on his face. But then I notice some blood by his ear.

"Come here booger-butt, what'd you do to yourself?" (don't you love my pet name for him?)

Except it was some blood, it was a lot of blood. On both ears. And his back hind-quarter. And his jowl. Holy hell, what just happened to our dog?!?

My MIL comes over and we clean him up and I'm pretty anxious and she tells me he's fine, he tangled with something, blah, blah, blah.

We wait a while and are still talking about it. Then my MIL says, "Well, we do have both a coyote and a cougar that come through our yard."

Oh shit.

We ultimately decide she should at least call the vet (at 4:55 PM, on a Friday, of a blizzard...righhhht)

Normal vet is closed and referred us to the Emergency vet (hello second mortgage sized bill!). She calls what she thinks is the previous vet they used (she got confused and it was actually the vet they used 20 years ago *smacks head on keyboard*.

They freak out mildly and say we need to bring him immediately and they'll wait for us.

Gumby and I drag booger-butt off to the vet. He gets a very clean bill, but they give us pain pills and an antibiotic for him.

Essentially, what we think happened is that he was out with the kids, got the scent of something he didn't want near the kids (more than likely the coyote) and took off to let him/her know in no uncertain terms our yard was off limits. And when Gumby went out, he had either finished the fight or knew it was OK for the kids to be out because Gumby was there.

I'm not sure I could love that dog anymore than I do at this moment. I'm a bit freaked out now about the kids outside and my FIL is insisting the dog be leashed at all times (not sure how that's going to go down...normally Gumby and the dog play a lot of catch, which isn't happening if he's on leash).

But that dog made out like a bandit last night. Not only did he get several bones from my MIL while she made her beef stock, he got some cinna-twists from Taco Smell and that dog loves nothing more than sugar.

There are times when I look at our goofy collection of rescue animals and my heart swells. They are really the coolest, motley crew ever.

Damn truck

Today I worked at 10:30 AM. As I arrived at work (early!), I turned off the truck and tried to pull out the key, but it didn't move. I slightly twisted the key, thinking I had gone past the "removal" point and had gone into axillary power.

Except it still didn't come out. I bent over to look and saw ice (!) at the top of the metal key part. I flick if off, hoping that was the end of it. Alas, I was again, wrong.

The whole frickin' key was frozen in the ignition. In my 17 years of driving, I've never had this happen. I blame Dodge.

So I had to sit in the truck and wait for it to warm up completely (because the 4 minute drive from our driveway to the Walgreens parking lot was not not enough to warm it). Which meant, I was a few minutes late to work.

At least they had a good laugh about it.

The children had a good time playing Wii tonight. They were playing baseball when I got home and did some Wii fit before bed.

Other than that, not a whole lot in the day.

Taking the good with the bad.

Today was Little Man's first appointment with the dentist. He did well, no cavities and he was patient with the whole thing. First he saw me have my exam and cleaning, then it was his turn. Of course they decided to fit in an emergency between my exam and Little Man's, so poor kid had to wait quite a while.

We were going to meet Gumby for lunch, but were delayed too much before picking up Baby Girl from preschool. So off we went to get Baby Girl and then went to have lunch with Daddy, aka, Gumby.

We went for wings, 'cause it's 60 cent boneless wing day. Mmmmm...wings....

As we arrived, the kids dashed off to the lower part of the restaurant where you can watch the traffic by the mall. There was a table of maybe 7 gentleman from the Army, in camo.

The first thing I hear as my beasts claim their table is, "Watch your mouth now." from the head dude at the Army table.

I look up surprised, mumbled a, "Sorry guys." to them, but was appreciative.

We had lunch and at some point the kids asked about the American flag on the uniforms, so we ended up having a conversation about it.

"Mumma, why do they have American flags?"

"Well, it's their job to protect it. To protect us from bad guys."

"How come?"

"Well, that's their job, they decided that's what they want to do."

I really didn't want to get into anything more. But they asked more questions, much too wise for 3 and 4. And we had a good chat about it.

I didn't think the guys were paying attention, but as they left, one thanked Gumby and Gumby was quite confused.

"Why are you confused? There's a huge anti-war sentiment going on right now. We may not agree with the war, but we'll ALWAYS support our troops. They heard us speaking positively to the kids about them."

And I was oddly moved by all of it. I will say, it is moving to see soldiers in uniform, knowing they are protecting me and my freedoms that I completely take for granted (hey, I admit it).

As we were leaving there was a woman, she was huge. I'm a big woman, but was small compared to her. And I knew something was up.

I had Little Man and Gumby was delayed behind me with Baby Girl. I was trying to maneuver Little Man out of the building and this woman was blocking us. Totally stalling and kept moving in front of me.

As we got out into the freezing cold, she turned around and said, "Excuse me."

I, dumbly, thought she was apologizing for being so fucking slow, but oh no, she was not.

"Excuse me, I'm homeless with no money. I slept outside last night with only this bag." As she shows me her bag. "I have no food."

To which I respond by shoving my leftovers at her. And I SHIT. YOU. NOT. She turned her nose up and said, "What's this?!?" As if I'd just handed her rat poison.

"Chicken wings!" I respond with more cheer than a freshly blown elf.

I'm sure she promptly threw them away, which is annoying. But fuck, if you're really that hungry, eat that shit. Clearly you were hanging out at Buffalo Wild Wings, so you're not opposed to the food.

"Have a nice day!" I cheerily sang as I walked away, pretending I didn't notice her trying to see what was in my purse (mental note, close the damn clasp on purse).

It's interesting to me. When "homeless" people approach me for food. I often give them whatever leftovers I have (because either we eat out a lot, or I typically get hit up after eating out). Most times, I've been met with complete disdain. Because you know, I'm not giving them money and the option to get the food THEY want. Umm, hello? If you're that damn hungry, you'll eat it. I think twice, I was met with true appreciation and that was great.

But the rest of them are a bunch of lazy, fucking douche bags that can just go fuck themselves.