Clutzy Week

Wednesday, Calli and I went to the mall. We stopped at Sears so I could look at those exercise ball things. She was climbing on one of the bikes and I promptly told her to get down. I turn around and a few seconds later I turn back and said, Callihan, come here... to watch her immediately fall off one of the treadmills and bash her face into the side of it. Sears employees came SWARMING out of the wood works. "Is she ok? We'll get ice" (please don't sue!) HA. She scratched her nose and forehead and they were swollen, but besides that, she was fine.

We come home and get Nick ready for football. I made Calli stay home with me that night cause it was too cold. John and Nick walk out the door and walk back in about 30 seconds later with Nick crying. I'm like, what the hell did John yell at him for, they just walked out? Then John says, Go in the kitchen buddy. Hmm, ok. He comes to me and I see blood coming out his nose! OMG What the hell happened?? Turns out he missed the last step and went face first into the van. His nose was swelling. After some icing, we checked it out and figured it wasn't broken, but probably close to it. He said, I think I can still play football. Awwwww.

Yesterday, Lea watched Calli for me while I went to another BORING unemployment seminar thing they make you go to. When I got back to her house, no one was answering the door so I walked around back to see if the tv was on. As I was coming back to the front, my foot slipped off the brick path, into the ditch beside it and completely twisted. OMG, I was standing in her back yard SCREAMING as she was calling my cell to tell me they were at McDonald's. So I hobbled back to my car and drove home to sit on the couch with my Boo Boo Clifford and wait for them. It's the same ankle that I've torn the ligaments in twice and the one I broke at shoprite. It's just not having a good life. Today, I have a pretty bad limp and if I step wrong, I'm screaming. Needless to say, workout are on hold. I did end up getting the exercise ball though, so I'll do some crunches today.... maybe.

Let's see, I haven't heard from Jessy, Lisa, Margaret, Aunt Irene, Jackie, Wilson, Valerie and a few others. Come to the party, it'll be fun!! Hell, Nick's teacher is even coming!!

Off to ice my ankle. Later gators!

OMG OMG OMG!!!

I got tickets to the Rachel Ray Show!!! I'm soooooo excited! I had put in for them like 6 months ago. At the time Shelly said, yeah, I keep putting in for them but never get picked. Friday I got an email that said "Tickets available" YAYAYAY. Of course I called Shell right away. So it will be me, Shell, Tim and either John or Lea. The only bad side is that they are not a guarantee. They offer more tickets then seats, so it's first come first serve. We are going November 6th for the 10:15 shooting. Shell was here last night and we looked over the train schedule. If we catch the 7:30 train, we can be there by 9am, catch a cab (subway was way to confusing) and be there by 9:10. That gives us a little over an hour of leeway. Hopefully that's enough. I'M SOOOO EXCITED!! I love Rachel. Her man hands annoy me and her obsessive love of her dog is a little out of control, but hey, she'll feed me!!

Weight check.. I am now 214 down a total of 43 pounds. 7 pounds to 50 and 15 pounds until I break into the 100's!! So even though I HATE working out every day... I guess it's working. YUCK not to mention the fact that I haven't been keeping my food down lately. I need to start eating slower. I'm still eating very little, but I eat so fast that my tummy gets pissed and sends it back up. I'll figure it out sooner or later.

YAY, I have party goers!! Anyone else??? Jessy? Lisa? Valerie??

Off to do more laundry.

Hey People, Seriously need to know if anyone is coming to the party... Anyone Anyone?

We had a miracle on Saturday. Nick's team actually WON A GAME!!! We played against Jefferson (who had lost all their games as well). I was watching Nick and realized that when he was on defence he would get down, then get up and stand there with his hands up just waiting for the guys to come at him. I pulled him aside and said, don't wait Bud. As soon as that ball moves you plow right in between the guys in front of you and hit the dude with the ball. A few plays later (and me yelling from the side lines to remind him every play), that's exactly what he did and he PUMMELLED the quarterback. WOO HOOOO GO NICK!! He was so proud of himself. He ended up with two sacks this game.

I think the parents were more excited than the kids. We were all standing on the side lines just screaming!! LOL They did good and at least they can say they won one game.

I made John help me clean today. I'm sick of this disastrous house. I'm really trying to go through room by room and clear out. It took me about 2 hours to do the computer desk on Friday. Arg. I spent most of today in the bathroom. There was shit in the cabinets that expired in 2002. Yeah, I'd say that's not good anymore. LOL Stuff just gets pushed to the back and you forget about it. Now it's all nice and neat in there. ... ... ... for now. I figure if we focus on one or two rooms every Sunday, by the time the party rolls around, we'll be in good shape. (if anyone comes... damn, I need more friends - or at least less busy ones)

Update on the van. Most of you know that in MAY!! my driver's side door jammed shut and has been stuck that way ever since. We've had multiple people try to get it open and it's a no go. Friday we went over to Donna's and her son took a turn. We ended up ripping off the inside panel to get at the part and it still wont budge. It's just not worth it anymore. I told John we should see what we could get for it as a trade in and buy a used car. (Unless anyone has a car they don't want anymore that runs and all the doors open??) LOL It has to be inspected in a couple of months and it's going to fail. Might as well get something else now, or at least start looking.

OH, I forgot. I went for my interview and from what it sounds I'm exactly what they are looking for and have all the qualifications. They said they would let me know in a few weeks. If I get this job it will be a cake walk! It's basically what I did as an Admin for Cendant for a department of 60 people and 500 entities except this company is 3 people and 5 entities!! Rock on! Plus they are really easy on hours and such. They're like, "We don't take a head count here. You come in when you come in and your leave when you leave. As long as your work is done, we don't care." NO MORE FACE TIME!!!! Gotta love it. I was soooo not interested in going on this interview, now I'm glad I did. We'll see what happens.

Going to veg out before dinner. Don't forget to let me know that you are coming. Stroke my ego folks, it's freaking depressing.

Mark Your Calendars!!

The Annual Toy and Lingerie party will be held on November 15th at 8 pm. Feel free to come early and get your drink on. We all know it's way more fun when you're not so inhibited!! I figure everyone should come around 7pm, eat drink and find a seat. Please either email me at flutterbyheaven@gmail or add a comment to the blog to let me know if you can make it. I need to know how much food and drinks to buy.

I've now been working out for an hour a day 5 days a week. This morning I added 45 minutes of Yoga (which is really freaking hard by the way). I started doing it and when Calli woke up, she joined me. I was really jealous of how flexible she is. All the poses were like nothing to her. I struggled with every breath. Damn kids! Needless to say, after all this working out, everything prettu much hurts. My shoulder, my back, my arms, my legs, hell, sometimes my hair hurts!! But I keep telling myself it's all worth it.

I went to Lane Bryant yesterday to get an outfit for my interview tomorrow (since my suit doesn't fit anymore) and almost everything I tried on was in a 14. I was shocked. I love that store but one more size and I wont be able to shop there anymore. So Sad! :o(

Nick's school is doing Book It! which is a program they run with Pizza Hut. The kids have to read for 15 min a night and at the end of the month they get a personal pan pizza for free. HA, the kid is so excited about that. It cracks me up. But hey, if it gets him to reading I'm all for it. He's sitting her next to me reading now. Oops, should I be listening???

I'm so excited about the party. This is the only party I ever have (adult wise), so I enjoy it. I hope lots of you can come. I'm giving you a months notice people!! The first one of these I had, the place was packed!! It's dwindled down to only a few now. It's more fun when it's lots of people (not that my regulars aren't fun!!) but you know what I mean. And don't forget, it's co-ed so all the guys can come too!! I don't care if you're prude or not, close your eyes when the toys come out and just look at the jammies, eat the food and hang out.

Oh, Nick's birthday is the following Saturday, November 22. We'll be having a party here for him with a very special "Cake by Michelle" WOO HOO So mark that day on your calendar too. I can't believe my baby is going to be EIGHT! I feel so old. Jeeze, I remember when he was 2 and thinking that 10 seemed so far away. Now it's right around the corner! WWAAAAHHhhhhh

Ok, dinner is begging to be made. TTFN - don't forget to let me know if you can come. Let me know if you can't come too so I can talk you into it!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

To all my Canadian friends that is! Hee Hee

So, I'm supposed to do some call today in about 20 minutes for a job at Cadbury (yup, the candy people). The only problem is it's in the tax department. Arg. I don't really want to do that again. Tax is a pain in the ass. Everyone is stressed ALL THE TIME and they work insane hours. I don't want to say straight off, No, I wont work overtime, but she has to be aware that during busy season (which for tax is like, 9 months out of the year) I can't stay till 8pm. We'll see what happens. Hey, if they offer me a crap load of money, I can't really say no I guess. Not that I want to go back to work at all.

It's crazy being home. There's ALWAYS something to do. Whether it be cleaning, cooking, laundry, baths, shopping, bills, kids, it's just never ending. I don't know how I ever got anything done working full time. I don't want to give this up, but I know unemployment will only last so long. Bah Humbug. Why can't unemployment just pay me forever? Or why can't they offer to double John's salary? I shouldn't bitch though, considering they layed off a couple people at his work last week. I should just be happy he has a job.

We were standing around football practice the other night with a bunch of other parents and John was the only one in the group with a job.. (SHOCKER, I KNOW!!!) They were all talking about how their companies were just laying people off left and right. It's a scary time. I'm just picturing us turning into the poor from the great depression and everyone standing on line for a loaf of bread and a hunk of cheese that needs to last us for a week. HA Talk about a diet! I'm sure it will turn around sooner or later.

Ok, this lady is gonna call soon. Gotta go bond and gag the kids.

Nick's team lost again yesterday... no big surprise. But Nick played a lot more than usual. I guess giving the coach a what for and then plopping our chairs right behind the bench so the coaches had to look at us really does something. Hee Hee Hee. They did really well and they always try their best. That's what counts, even if they suck! lol

My cousin Valerie stopped by today to bring me some clothes. I pulled out a pair of size 14 jeans and told her they would have to be put away for a while. She said no no, try them on. Now keep in mind that they were stretch jeans, but.... They fit! Well, no, they didn't extactly fit. They were really really tight, BUT, I got them BUTTONED!! I haven't been in a 14 since... uhm.. well, I don't actually ever remember being in a 14, but I had to have been at some point right? Probably 6th grade? I can't wait till they really fit and I don't get that sausage roll over the top of them. And then I can't wait till they're too big! Sooner or later I guess.

John cleaned out the garage today and moved all my boxes of crap from the back to the front so that I now have no excuse for not going through them and getting rid of everything. I have to do a lot this week because the mondo garage sale is this weekend. For those of you that live in Jersey, BARKS Garage sale is this weekend at Wild West City. This thing is awesome. It's huge and you walk around, grab a ton of stuff and they look at it and say, Uhm, $5 for everything. Sunday afternoon they have $1 bag sales. You pay a $1 for the bag and fill it with as much as you can. I've gotten some really good stuff there including Bovarian china that completed my grandmother's set. Check it out if you're in the area. If you're not, it's worth the trip!

That's it for now, gotta tuck the kids in.

I am putting in a Mary Kay order. If anyone needs anything, please let me know by Monday! Check out the site. They have a TON of new stuff. All new colors and compacts, and don't forget about all the skin care, holiday gifts, etc. And you know you all get discounts! www.marykay.com
Because I haven't been doing it a lot, my web site lapsed. So just go onto the main site and then email me with what you want. Don't order on the site! flutterbyheaven@gmail.com

Monday night will be the deadline.

Congratulations to Beth and Mike!! A new house is so much fun and it's good to know that someone is buying and selling in this market! Dang, you should've bought the house down the street from us. It's GORGEOUS, huge and going cheap! But I'm still happy for you. You're really close to me now. Poor Mike, he's gonna have to see me more. hee heee heeeee.

Party Time!!! I talked to my chicky who does the shows. We still have to nail down a date. The 14th is no good for some, so it will either be the 7th, 8th or the 15th. I'm trying to shoot for the 15th. Mark your calendars folks. Pencil it in all the dates! I'm hoping for a bigger group this year. Come one come all! Lots of new stuff to see. And I'm much skinnier now, so I can try on some of the clothes without looking like a sausage! Woo Hoo

I was a gymnastics yesterday and saw my reflection in the glass... it was very bizarre. You know how you picture yourself in your mind is never what you really look like. I'm used to having a thin picture in my mind and then seeing a reflection of the michelan man. Yesterday, what I saw was much smaller. I must have looked like an idiot standing infront of the window turning this way and that. HA LOL

I kept Nicky home from school today. Poor kid could not get to sleep last night. We tried everything. Normally he's a good sleeper and is out within 5 minutes of his head hitting the pillow. Last night he was up till after Midnight!! And do you know he was still up before the bus came. (I left a message for her but I guess she didn't get it) I'm glad I kept him home though cause he's really congested. He's coming down with something. Might as well head it off at the pass. That's probably why he couldn't sleep.

Off to do laundry.... YAY! :o( It's never ending!!

Steak is not my friend. It's soooo yummy, but I guess I don't chew it well enough or eat too much, but damn. It wasn't even a stomach ache. It was just pure pain, like it was stuck (which it probably was). The puking lasted a while and I felt like I pulled all the muscles in my chest. Then I get up this morning and I can barely move my legs from yesterdays workout. I don't think working out today would be a good idea. I think it might cause more damage than good. I'm sure Lea will talk me into it, but I'd have to do all upper body, and that all hurts too. I don't want to do something major. Knowing my luck, I'd tear a muscle or something and then not be able to do anything for weeks. I think I'll lay low today and stick to laundry. Cross your fingers that Lea agrees.

TV TALK

I have become addicted to the Duggar family. You know them, the ones with the 17 children and one on the way. They live in a HUGE beautiful house in AR that they built BY HAND themselves. Anyway, they have a new weekly show on. Last night, their oldest son Joshua, now 20, called some chicks parents and asked to "formaly court his daughter". Ok, now in our world, that's cute and that would mean dating... not in the Dugger world. In the Dugger world, it means he PROPOSES to the girl and they get to know each other during their engagement. Not only is that bizarre, but they are only allowed to hold hands. There is no intimate contact allowed at all, including kissing, until the wedding day. Hmm okkkkkk. They have to have a chaperone with them at all times. Now, if this was me, I'd run away from home. Not only are they ok with all of this, but ALL 17 of the Dugger kids are on the same page. "Oh no, it makes it so much more special if you save the first kiss till the wedding day" WHAT??? What if they are really sucky kissers and you're now stuck with a wet slobbery kisser for the rest of your life? Hey, to each his own. The Dugger's have a happier home life than ANYONE I know so they must be doing something right.

So, I go to bed last night and I'm flipping through the chanels and realize that the world is coming to an end. I mean, what is happening when they have televised the "National Rock, Paper, Scissors Championship". ???? That's right folks, it seems that our old game of throwing out hands to see who wins something is a.... dare I say.... Sport??? Tell me it ain't so!!! Of course, I got sucked in and had to see who one the ... get this... $50,000 grand prize. SHIT, If I knew I could win $50,000 for THAT, I would have been in a long time ago. What the Hell??? I just don't get it. I mean, seriously. What's more unbelievable is that they put it on TV. That's just wrong. I'm sure there are much better things people can be doing with their time. And yes, I know that I watched it, but that was only for a journalistic point of view so that I could report this nonsence to you.

I've only lost one pound this week. I'm not really happy with that, but I had to figure that I worked out 5 days straight and I'm sure I built a little bit of muscle. And considering that my body has never had an ounce of muscle on it, it probably weighs a lot. So, I'm down to 217 that's a 40 pound loss. 18 more pounds and we have a party!!!

Speaking of parties, it's October, which means we need to plan the November "toy party" (this is adult toys, not kid toys). I'm thinking November 15th. Let me know if that's ok for everyone. This is a boy girl party (cause it's more fun that way)

Ok, off to do my workout ..... again.... wwwaaaaaaahhhhHH!!!!

Before I go, I had to share this. (Thank you Margaret) There is a New Presidential Candidate... It's someone we know!
There's an effort to elect an unknown random person as President. I think this is an incredible idea! Watch this online video about the surprising new nominee:

http://www.tsgnet.com/pres.php?id=357563&altf=Lbzmfof&altl=Qfbsdf

OMG, I soooo did not want to get out of bed this morning. My alarm went off, and off and off... lol, but I got up to get Nick off to school. This past week he has been sleeping in. I'm gonna have to go buy him a cheap alarm clock cause he's a bear to wake up in the morning. It's so much easier if he's up playing the Wii when I get up cause then I can just get him moving. Otherwise I'm dragging him out of bed.

After getting him out the door I debated about whether to stay up or go back to sleep.... sleep won out. Calli crawled in with me at about 8 and I turned on Disney for her. She let me sleep till almost 10. Of course then I felt even more tired. The thought of going to work out was horrible. I thought about calling Lea and telling her I wasn't coming. BUT, I toughed it out and went anyway.

APPLAUSE TO ME!! Come on people, I want to hear some major ooo's and aahhh's. I did an ENTIRE WEEK of work outs. You should all be very proud of me.

My major thing to talk about today is that I got the new Jenny McCarthy book "Mother Warriors". It talks about her battle with her son's autism and has a bunch of other stories from parents. She is a huge believer in the vaccines causing autism. As I read through the book I was shocked at all the similarities. Not just in the autism characteristics, but in WHEN they became evident. Also that these kids (not all of them, but a good amount) can recover with the proper diet and vitamin supplements. WITHOUT MEDICATION.

One of the biggest eye openers was that a B 12 deficiency can cause a lot of the outburst behavior in autistic kids. I have a B12 deficiency and so does my niece, so much so that she has to have the shots for it. There are a bazillion tests you can do to find out what they are deficient on and what toxins and metals they are high on. And all of these things can be fixed.

They have these doctors called DAN! doctors (Defeat Autism Now) that only treat biomedically (no drugs). There is one in Hackettstown and I'm going to try to get in to see her. The biggest problem... insurance doesn't cover autism. How STUPID is that. They cover Nick's doctor's appointments and meds but that is because he also has ADHD and OCD. They wont cover speech therapy, occupational therapy, or group therapy. Thankfully his school offers all of this for free as part of their program. They most likely won't cover a DAN! doctor. But it's worth a shot.

Jenny is going to be on Ellen today, which starts now, so I'm gonna go watch it. I have more to tell you about the mercury in the vaccines and getting them while your kid was sick. Tomorrow.

I did my first workout today. It felt pretty good. Except for maybe the crunches (that made me want to throw up) but I'm sure as I continue it will get easier. Lea has no stomach at all, so it must work. We did the treadmill, the giselle thing (which takes a while to get used to) then we did stomach stuff. We were gonna do some yoga but we couldn't figure out how to use the dvd player. LOL She's gonna ask her hubby so we can do it tomorrow.

We'll be doing Monday - Friday at 11:30. I think working out 5 days a week is pretty good. Plus I'll still walk around the field at Nick's practices and Shelly offered to loan us back the elliptical, so I can do that at night. DAMNIT I'M GONNA BE SKINNY IF IT KILLS ME! And let me tell ya, those crunches damn near did kill me.

Nick's game is tonight at 6pm but it's not at Thomas Jefferson. It at the new fields on Main Street by Grandma's Attic. Come one come all. He's so excited that Shelly's coming. He keeps telling everyone. "Shelly's coming to watch me play!!" LOL So cute. Hopefully they at least score once tonight.

I got my unemployment checks today!! YAYYYYY!!!! I can pay the mortgage. WOO HOO!!!

That's it for now. I'm stinky and need a shower. See you tonight if your coming!

GAME ON!!

So far so good. The game should be Tuesday night at Thomas Jefferson. Most likely it will start at 6pm. Hope to see you all there!

Slow go on the weight loss. I'm at 218. Arg. I only did 1 protein shake last week. I know, I know!! I'll get back to it. I just wish they didn't take like shit.

We got a lot accomplished yesterday. John cleaned out the smoking room/sun room and then we tackled the play room. It was all Nick's stuff since we haven't moved Calli's back down yet. We made Nicky do "Keep one, toss one" He did great. Plus anything that was broken he tossed too. He is ready for Birthday and Christmas!! There's actually hardly anything in there now. It's amazing.

Now I have to take on Calli's room. Oh lord. That'll be fun. She has about 4,000 stuffed animals and she plays with all of them. Getting her to get rid of some is gonna be hard. She actually negotiated to keep one of Nick's trucks for herself yesterday though. She gave up a stuffed giraffe. At least I know she's got the concept. But then I have to figure out what to do with all those stuffed animals. They're all in like brand new condition. I really would like to sell them, but I don't think many people buy used stuffed animals. I'll probably have to freecycle them.

OH ya know what someone needs to invent.... Barbie hair that doesn't become a rats nest or that you can brush without pulling all the hair out. Am I right people??

Ok, off to shower and then to call Lea and see if she wants to start our workout regime today. TTFN

GAME CANCELLED

Tomorrow's football game has been cancelled. I guess no one wants to sit in the rain. It has been tentativly scheduled for Tuesday night at the TJ field. I'll let you know as soon as I do.

Saturday's Football Game Info

Saturday's game will be held at the Wharton Field folks. I know it's not right around the corner and it's supposed to rain, but he was really excited at the idea that some of you might come to watch him play. Game starts at 11:30 but feel free to come around noon or so. The games usually last about 1 1/2 hours. If you need directions, go here:

http://www.leaguelineup.com/location.asp?sid=222427210&url=jrpatriots&locationid=561967

Check out my AWESOME cousin!! She's on TV!! This is an episode of "The Secret Lives of Women".

Skip past the scary vampire lady. Go to about 2 minutes in. Laura is the first one you see talking at the table. OMG!! I wanna be on tv. :o(

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6orhXL7_vr8&feature=related

Crap, I can't remember how to make the you tube video just come up, so you're gonna have to click the link.

Nothing much going on here. Although, I got the worst mother of the year award yesterday. I totally forgot about gymnastics. She was PISSED. I'm going to call them and see if maybe she can make up the class.

Unemployment called yesterday. The went through all the questions and then said they were going to call work and get their side of the story or something like that. They said I would have a determination in a week. That I'd either get a check or a letter of denial. Well, jeeze, thanks.. uhm... how about a hint?? Nothing. The guy had NO sense of humor at all. Cross your fingers that it's a check folks!

Ok, gotta run. I posted on craigslist that I needed clothes for Calli and a lady has offered me some. Going to go pick them up. TTFN

Pics Pics and more Pics

Calli and Muffin napping

Our new pool - which is now empty cause it's been freaking cold
Lunch, pool side
It was THIS BIG MOM
Nick and his "girlfriend" Jackie
Nick and his AWESOME teacher Maryanne
Feeding the baby cow (what's up with the ladies face?)

Me too, Me tooDA BEARS
Feeding the animals

My Monkeys feeding their monkeys

Pony rides

Here is our pic with John (Bo Duke) Schnieder

Calli's first time at gymnastics which she LOVES by the way. If anyone is thinking of gifts for her for christmas/birthday, she would love to be able to continue this.

Going backwards on the balance beam

tumbling down the hill
forwards on the balance beam
Look how HIGH I can jump Mom!
Here comes my kartwheel

That's it for now. Football pictures to come.

Get this... yesterday at football practice, I did my normal walks around the field. On the second time around, Calli came with me and we decided to race. I JOGGED PEOPLE!! And it felt good. Not like normally where I would go about 10 feet and want to die right there. She couldn't keep up so we stopped and started a few times. But I think I probably did at least one turn around the field at a jog. Aren't you proud of me?!?! I am.

If I didn't fear that I would be squished like a squirrel on my road, I'd go around here. I have to find a place to go that's close by and doesn't risk my life. LOL

Mom called, told me to bribe Calli with a treat to see how many of the letters she actually knows. She said Andrea (my sister) did the same thing and she actually knew all her letters, she was just being a brat. LOL I'm gonna pick up some M&M's or something today just to test her out.

I put in a few applications for jobs. I really want to stay close to home, but there's not many jobs around here. We'll see what happens. I've had a lot of calls from job agencies, but I don't want to go that route just yet.

Hey Shelly, where are you? Long time no talk. Call me babe!

Well, it's Monday again...

Weight check... I am now 222 pounds. I think I miscalculated on my last weight check cause I've lost a few pounds since then. I am NOW down 35 pounds. I have been remembering to take my vitamins, but I'm still fighting against the shakes. YUCK! Calli and I are going to start doing some of the Fit TV workouts. LOL OH, and if I can find them, I'm pretty sure I have some kick boxing tapes somewhere... hmmm, I'll have to look for those.

This weekend went pretty well. Nick's team lost miserably again. 6-25. Oh well, they have fun. Someone has to loose, right? I didn't get to go to the game. I went to the Mary Kay Holiday workshop and then to Fashion Bug for their fashion show (we get names from it). The workshop was great. We had to leave early though which sucked, but I still got a lot of good info. A lot of ways to do a gift giving service for the holidays. Ya know, like, make a list of all the people you have to buy for and price ranges. I get it all together for you, wrap it and deliver it. It's really pretty cool. They also showed the new BIG MAMMA COMPACT. The last one we had was ridiculously huge. This one is much smaller, but still fits a ton of stuff. And, it's way prettier.

None of you have called me yet to say you've got people together... what's up with that? I'm going to put together a flyer or something that tells all my old customers that I'm back in business. Hopefully that will bring some business.

I did our homestead rebates today. Hopefully they won't screw it up again like last year. Our lots are split and we only pay about $100 a year in tax on the other property. Somehow that's the only info they had, so we got back $20! Uhm, yeah.... NO!! We got it straightened out, but it was a pain in the ass.

Question for all you mom's out there... Calli is 4 1/2. She can say her ABC's and can count pretty high, but she can't recognize them by sight. Is that normal? Nick was so ahead of the curve that he could tell you letters by the time he was 2. How can I help her learn them? I have flash cards that we've been using, but it doesn't seem to help much. Since she's not in preschool right now (no money) I want to be able to teach her something.

Off to clean... never ending. Oh we did get our kitchen back in order. John fixed the fridge and we moved the other one out. I'm not sure what to do with it now though. Keep it.. Sell it... Anyone need a fridge? $150

I'm at a loss people. I really don't want to go back to work, but we all know that's not even an option.

John thinks I should do Mary Kay full time (did you hear that Margaret??) But when you just start out in the business, it takes a while to get into the full swing and make some money. Not to mention the fact that I know that I'm REALLY LAZY!! Don't get me wrong, when I get to the people's house and start my thing, I have a BLAST! I love it. But, I hate all the work behind it. I hate having to call people, keeping track of everything, setting up. I procrastinate too much. Hell, Margaret told me to call 5 people I know to have them do a party and I still haven't done that!! 5 stinkin people, and I haven't done it. What the hell??? I am doing a fashion show this weekend which will give me some names to get off the ground with though.

I think maybe I'll look for something part time as well. Just to keep some definite money coming in. Part time wont be a lot of money, but it's something, and then I can supplement with MK.

There is one job here in town that is a full time Admin. I'm going to put in my application and see what they pay. If they'll pay me what I was making, I think maybe I'll take it. I don't know. I'm ready to just pack up and move to Utah or something.

I can't keep my mind straight. I'm forgetting things, I'm tired, totally out of it. I need to get myself back together. Ug, such is my life.

So anyway, I need five of you to get together 3-5 friends. Hell, I'll bring the wine! (Not guaranteeing good wine) Just get some friends together that have a little dough to spend. I need to get MK rolling. If you guys call me and say you have people, I'm going to have to get off my ass. Come on folks, save me!

OMG, I soooo did not want to get out of bed this morning. My alarm went off, and off and off... lol, but I got up to get Nick off to school. This past week he has been sleeping in. I'm gonna have to go buy him a cheap alarm clock cause he's a bear to wake up in the morning. It's so much easier if he's up playing the Wii when I get up cause then I can just get him moving. Otherwise I'm dragging him out of bed.

After getting him out the door I debated about whether to stay up or go back to sleep.... sleep won out. Calli crawled in with me at about 8 and I turned on Disney for her. She let me sleep till almost 10. Of course then I felt even more tired. The thought of going to work out was horrible. I thought about calling Lea and telling her I wasn't coming. BUT, I toughed it out and went anyway.

APPLAUSE TO ME!! Come on people, I want to hear some major ooo's and aahhh's. I did an ENTIRE WEEK of work outs. You should all be very proud of me.

My major thing to talk about today is that I got the new Jenny McCarthy book "Mother Warriors". It talks about her battle with her son's autism and has a bunch of other stories from parents. She is a huge believer in the vaccines causing autism. As I read through the book I was shocked at all the similarities. Not just in the autism characteristics, but in WHEN they became evident. Also that these kids (not all of them, but a good amount) can recover with the proper diet and vitamin supplements. WITHOUT MEDICATION.

One of the biggest eye openers was that a B 12 deficiency can cause a lot of the outburst behavior in autistic kids. I have a B12 deficiency and so does my niece, so much so that she has to have the shots for it. There are a bazillion tests you can do to find out what they are deficient on and what toxins and metals they are high on. And all of these things can be fixed.

They have these doctors called DAN! doctors (Defeat Autism Now) that only treat biomedically (no drugs). There is one in Hackettstown and I'm going to try to get in to see her. The biggest problem... insurance doesn't cover autism. How STUPID is that. They cover Nick's doctor's appointments and meds but that is because he also has ADHD and OCD. They wont cover speech therapy, occupational therapy, or group therapy. Thankfully his school offers all of this for free as part of their program. They most likely won't cover a DAN! doctor. But it's worth a shot.

Jenny is going to be on Ellen today, which starts now, so I'm gonna go watch it. I have more to tell you about the mercury in the vaccines and getting them while your kid was sick. Tomorrow.

OMG, I soooo did not want to get out of bed this morning. My alarm went off, and off and off... lol, but I got up to get Nick off to school. This past week he has been sleeping in. I'm gonna have to go buy him a cheap alarm clock cause he's a bear to wake up in the morning. It's so much easier if he's up playing the Wii when I get up cause then I can just get him moving. Otherwise I'm dragging him out of bed.

After getting him out the door I debated about whether to stay up or go back to sleep.... sleep won out. Calli crawled in with me at about 8 and I turned on Disney for her. She let me sleep till almost 10. Of course then I felt even more tired. The thought of going to work out was horrible. I thought about calling Lea and telling her I wasn't coming. BUT, I toughed it out and went anyway.

APPLAUSE TO ME!! Come on people, I want to hear some major ooo's and aahhh's. I did an ENTIRE WEEK of work outs. You should all be very proud of me.

My major thing to talk about today is that I got the new Jenny McCarthy book "Mother Warriors". It talks about her battle with her son's autism and has a bunch of other stories from parents. She is a huge believer in the vaccines causing autism. As I read through the book I was shocked at all the similarities. Not just in the autism characteristics, but in WHEN they became evident. Also that these kids (not all of them, but a good amount) can recover with the proper diet and vitamin supplements. WITHOUT MEDICATION.

One of the biggest eye openers was that a B 12 deficiency can cause a lot of the outburst behavior in autistic kids. I have a B12 deficiency and so does my niece, so much so that she has to have the shots for it. There are a bazillion tests you can do to find out what they are deficient on and what toxins and metals they are high on. And all of these things can be fixed.

They have these doctors called DAN! doctors (Defeat Autism Now) that only treat biomedically (no drugs). There is one in Hackettstown and I'm going to try to get in to see her. The biggest problem... insurance doesn't cover autism. How STUPID is that. They cover Nick's doctor's appointments and meds but that is because he also has ADHD and OCD. They wont cover speech therapy, occupational therapy, or group therapy. Thankfully his school offers all of this for free as part of their program. They most likely won't cover a DAN! doctor. But it's worth a shot.

Jenny is going to be on Ellen today, which starts now, so I'm gonna go watch it. I have more to tell you about the mercury in the vaccines and getting them while your kid was sick. Tomorrow.

OMG, I soooo did not want to get out of bed this morning. My alarm went off, and off and off... lol, but I got up to get Nick off to school. This past week he has been sleeping in. I'm gonna have to go buy him a cheap alarm clock cause he's a bear to wake up in the morning. It's so much easier if he's up playing the Wii when I get up cause then I can just get him moving. Otherwise I'm dragging him out of bed.

After getting him out the door I debated about whether to stay up or go back to sleep.... sleep won out. Calli crawled in with me at about 8 and I turned on Disney for her. She let me sleep till almost 10. Of course then I felt even more tired. The thought of going to work out was horrible. I thought about calling Lea and telling her I wasn't coming. BUT, I toughed it out and went anyway.

APPLAUSE TO ME!! Come on people, I want to hear some major ooo's and aahhh's. I did an ENTIRE WEEK of work outs. You should all be very proud of me.

My major thing to talk about today is that I got the new Jenny McCarthy book "Mother Warriors". It talks about her battle with her son's autism and has a bunch of other stories from parents. She is a huge believer in the vaccines causing autism. As I read through the book I was shocked at all the similarities. Not just in the autism characteristics, but in WHEN they became evident. Also that these kids (not all of them, but a good amount) can recover with the proper diet and vitamin supplements. WITHOUT MEDICATION.

One of the biggest eye openers was that a B 12 deficiency can cause a lot of the outburst behavior in autistic kids. I have a B12 deficiency and so does my niece, so much so that she has to have the shots for it. There are a bazillion tests you can do to find out what they are deficient on and what toxins and metals they are high on. And all of these things can be fixed.

They have these doctors called DAN! doctors (Defeat Autism Now) that only treat biomedically (no drugs). There is one in Hackettstown and I'm going to try to get in to see her. The biggest problem... insurance doesn't cover autism. How STUPID is that. They cover Nick's doctor's appointments and meds but that is because he also has ADHD and OCD. They wont cover speech therapy, occupational therapy, or group therapy. Thankfully his school offers all of this for free as part of their program. They most likely won't cover a DAN! doctor. But it's worth a shot.

Jenny is going to be on Ellen today, which starts now, so I'm gonna go watch it. I have more to tell you about the mercury in the vaccines and getting them while your kid was sick. Tomorrow.

So we had our first MAJOR clutz incident on Friday.

We were over a friends house and Calli had gone upstairs to play. I was in the kitchen and heard a huge BANG. But no tears or anything after, so didn't go running or anything. Just figured one of the kids dropped something. 1 minute later I hear Calli coming down the stairs saying, "MMmmaa maa, I hurt myself". THEN I went running.

I get to the bottom of the stairs and see blood coming from her forehead. I yell to Lea to ask where the bathroom is (it was our first time there) and she came around the corner and turned white. Ready to run back to grab the phone so she could dial 911, I just asked again where the bathroom was. (Ha, just realized this second that I could have just used the kitchen sink. HA, oh well). By the time we got to the bathroom she was covered in blood. She saw her self in the mirror and her eyes got so big and she said, "MOM, I'M BLEEDING!!". Normally when she said that it was a scratch or a tiny drop of blood, now she knows what it really means to bleed. Poor kid. Lea grabbed a bunch of paper towels and I started cleaning her up expecting to find a huge gash in her head. When I finally got it cleared, all she had was a tiny little hole. But that sucker was bleeding good.

After wringing out the paper towels for about the 5th time, I finally got the bleeding to stop. Lea told me that she had a cross on the door upstairs. It was made out of building blocks and spelled out Jesus Loves Me. Calli must have tried to open the door and it fell off and hit her in the head. HA, Jesus didn't love her that day. LOLOL

She had a little head ache that night, but nothing else. She's fine now. The Clutz strikes again!

Weight check... I'm down about 35 pounds. Still have to drink more of my protein shakes and remember to take my vitamins. I'm working on it.

Ok, gonna go do some job hunting. woopee. :o(

I know I haven't written in a while, but the rain just never stops falling around here.

Fridge, cars, bills.... AND, to top it all off.... I got let go on Tuesday. I was told that they decided that they needed someone that could work in the city. Freaking wonderful.

Amazingly I didn't panic as much as I should have. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's just being in shock or something. Who knows.

We did end up getting a cheap fridge, so I don't need one of those anymore. But if anyone knows about a JOB!! THAT would be great!

Honestly, I'd rather not work at all. Just stay here and deal with the house and kids. Unfortunately, the bill man doesn't like that idea. We could never pay our bills on just John's salary.

I am getting back into my Mary Kay. That will at least bring in some money. So all you people with skin out there, start thinking of 3-6 people that you want over your house for a few drinks one night. I expect at least 3 or 4 of my friends/family to hold a party for me to get me off the ground since I'm basically going to have to start over.

No nervous break down yet... although I am about to go through all my bills, that should bring it on nicely. Yay ME!

Oh, Nick's first real football game is this Saturday at home. Let me know if you're interested and I'll give you directions.

When it rains... if FUCKING POURS!!!

The cars are both in need of repair.. The freaking van driver's side door hasn't opened since Memorial day so I've been climbing over the passenger side for months.

We're a month behind on both mortgages, plus all the other freaking bills. They're gonna shut everything off soon. Which wouldn't be a big deal except for the fact that I work from home and need electric and internet.

The fridge died yesterday. We got someone out to look at it today and he said that we're basically screwed. The part we need is really hard to find and would cost a minimum of $300. He said might as well by a new one.

And the electric company showed up today and said $1,700 or they shut us off. Like I had that money. I wrote them a check anyway in hopes of figuring something out before they cash it.

I hate my life right now. Why do we have to use money? I don't get it. Why can't we go back to bardering???

I took all my jewelry down to the "we buy gold" place and the guy only offered me $98 for my wedding rings. I told him hell no. And the price for the other stuff was equally as bad.

Ok, so, basically, if anyone has a fridge they're not using... I NEED IT BADLY!!!!

Just shoot me now.

I forgot to tell my story from the weekend. On Saturday I drove down the shore to my Aunt's house for my little cousin's 3rd birthday. He's the cutest little thing you've ever seen. We had a really fun day. The kids played football in the yard. The funniest thing was that Calli wiped the floor with the boys and made 2 touchdowns! HA LOL

So we pack it up to drive home. John calls (he had to go to some safety training thing for work) and said he had the guy he car pooled with drop him off about 7 - 8 miles away from our house and that he was walking home. (the guy was annoying and John didn't want to sit in the car with him anymore. lol Cause we all know how patient John is!) So I was like, well we've left already, so I'll pick you up about 1/2 way home.

Did you know that sun glare can make it so that you can't see any signs on the highway? I ended up on the wrong highway. Lordy. But, it was 1 & 9. I said, no big deal, I can take that up. Forgetting of course that I had to get on 78. So, me and the kids took a lovely trip through Newark, Jersey City and Hoboken (for those of you that don't live around here... not the BEST areas of Jersey). We went over the lovely Polaski Skyway (that's scary). So, as we're driving dangerously close to the Holland Tunnel, Nick's in the back seat yelling, "CALLI, Look, the Empire State Building!! We're going to New York!!" Considering I had all of $10 on me and the tunnel costs like $8 or something, I said, Not if I can help it!! John called and said, How's it going.... Not so good honey. LOL

After driving around Hoboken for about 20 minutes, I finally found signs to get me back where I was going. Needless to say, a drive that should have taken about an hour, hour and a half took me 2 1/2 hours. The funniest thing... I picked up John about 1/4 mile from our house! LOL Poor guy.

Well, at least it showed how much the kids really want to go into the city. HA Maybe when we have some money we'll take a trip in. Go to the top of the Empire State Building. That'll be fun. I've been wanting to take them to the Central Park Zoo anyway. We're booked up for quite a while. FOOTBALL!!

OH, Nick got weighed in last night and he ... MADE WEIGHT!! YAYAYAYAYAY We're very happy. This week is all football. Practice Monday - Thursday, a pep rally on Friday and a scrimmage on Saturday. At least he's enjoying it.

Our roomates are moving out Sunday/Monday. She's getting the truck Sunday but can't move into the house until Monday. We're going to help her pack up on Sunday, but we have plans with Shelly for Monday. So my house will finally be stinky dog free next week!! YAYAY

Here's a good story for you. Last night Heather and I are sitting here watching one of those documentaries on the Duggers (the family with 17 kids) and I hear Maggie outside barking like crazy. Then I hear what sounded like garbage cans outside. THEN, I put 2 and 2 together and said, Oh shit, BEAR. So we run out to the deck and peak around to see if we can see it. Then realize it wasn't the garbage cans, it was Heather's cooler. That's the second time they got the cooler. LOL She like, damnit, get me a flashlight. I said, what are you gonna do when a 500 pound black bear decides not to give you back your cooler???? Dumb Ass. We went up to my room and went out the back deck to look. He had the cooler dragged up into the back yard and we heard him back in the woods. He didn't come back out.

UNTIL... lol. I went out this morning to take Calli to school and saw that he decided the cooler didn't have enough in it (juice boxes and snack stuff for Heather's kids) cause one of the garbage cans was pulled back there too and opened all over. Damn Bears!! At least be out there when we're looking for you so we can take your picture!! hee hee hee

Ok, now that I talked long enough to avoid work.... gotta go do some.

Sorry I haven't written in a while.
Update.... I'm still at 230. I didn't drop any weight this week and I'm not really happy about that. I don't know if it's cause I was kinda constipated for quite a while, or cause I haven't been drinking enough, or maybe not getting in enough protein. I don't know. But at this point.... I start freaking out wondering if I went through all this for just a 30 pound loss. I'm not happy with that. I can eat food and I don't think I should be able too. Like, I think I should be throwing it up or something. LOL I can almost finish one egg with a slice of cheese and a couple slices of turkey bacon. I think that's too much. Although, that one meal can last me all day. hee hee. I think that's part of the problem... I'm not eating enough meals. Oh I don't know. I don't know how to work this stupid thing.

I did get some Arizona Diet Iced tea. It's something I can drink and get it down. Hopefully I'll be able to get in all my liquids between this, the protein shake and some water. Protein and liquids... that's the main thing.

Nick's really starting to like football. I'm glad. His first game is next saturday. Hopefully he makes weight. I'm trying to get him to drink more fluids too. And cutting out his snacks has been are real pain. He's really doing well. He LOVES to tackle!! lol Surprise, Surprise, Surprise!

Ellen and Portia got married. The pics in the new People were great. I love Ellen. I think she's great and really funny. I'm glad she's happy. They really look happy together and so in love. Congrats Ellen and Portia.

Work is busy. I need to clear the voicemail every week and call them all back. I called in today and there were 78 messages!! Oh lord. I charged my phone last night and I used the entire battery today. It died, so I finally stopped making calls at around 3. Ug.

Ok, going to put dinner in the oven. Have a great day folks!

Hurricane has hit Florida. No word from my sisters. I talked to my niece today who said everything was cancelled/closed. Can't get a hold of my sister though. I told Cassy to tell Joanne to "phone home". They already got hit with it and now it's turning around and going over them again. Lovely. Cross your fingers that all is ok down there.

It's cold here today. It's beautiful outside, but it's really chilly. My house stays really cool as it is, so when it's chilly out, it's freezing in here. I'm about ready to start a fire! The kids want to go swimming!!! Nut jobs. The pool is only 70. HELL NO!

Still kinda hurting. I just could not get comfortable last night in bed. I ended up taking a pain pill. Once I finally got to sleep I was ok. Today's a little better. I'm just afraid to move around too much.

I also have a fear of eating. HA, funny isn't it. Now that I can eat a little more, I'm afraid to eat anything. Not because it might make me sick, but because it will slow down my weight loss. How sick is that?!?! I know I need to eat, but 1/2 the time I'm not hungry and the other 1/2... I think about the scale. This is very bad. I need to stop that. It's 12:30 and all I've had today is a polly-o string cheese. I need to try something else.

My cat is sick. All the animals in the house got fleas, so John bought flea collars for them. Mom had said, be careful cause cats can have a reaction to them. Well, guess what.... Mocha is wheezing, coughing, sneezing, her eyes and nose are running. I called mom today and she said that's really really bad. Mom bred cats so she knows what she's talking about. She said the vet can't really do anything about it except for to give them fluids. It's a waiting game to see if she'll make it through or not. Cross your fingers for that one too folks. The kids will be heartbroken if the cat dies. DAMN FLEAS!!

I need my hair dyed. The grays are making quite an appearance. I just haven't had the time to do it. I really need to get around to that. Maybe I'll go red again. We'll see.

I need an ice cream maker. Does anyone have one they don't use?? I found this blog of a woman who had the same surgery and she has awesome recipes. She also has a TON of protein ice creams on there!! YUM. Hence, my need for the ice cream maker. If anyone has one shoved in the back of their closet that they never use, HAND IT OVER!!

Off to get Nick ready for football.

The pain and burning has continued. I think I might have done way too much walking the other day. Turning over in bed is a nightmare and don't even ask about sneezing. OH LORD. It's a little better today though. So that's good. I plan to walk again tonight, but not as far or as fast. Aunt Irene says... A "Stroll".

I'm supposed to drink this Skim Plus milk. I don't like it. I'd rather just have skim milk. This is thick and has a odd flavor. Blaaa (Ha, I always thought it was SKIN milk. I mean, that's how I always said it anyhow)

I was hoping it would be warmer today so the kids could go in the pool, but ... nope. I think it's barely gonna hit 80. I'm finally home during the summer and it's a spring!! Arg.

Ok, today's a short one. I need to go call Shell. Haven't talked to her in a while.

Friday night we see a commercial for a car dealership that's having some big Dukes of Hazzard day. John Schneider was going to be there. (He played Bo for those of you who don't know) Since the kids love Dukes of Hazzard (and so do we) we figured we'd go.

Ok, should have left WAY earlier. We waited in line for 2 hours!! Thank god it was under a tent. I had to sit a couple times cause my tummy wasn't liking standing there. They had free burgers, dogs, snacks and drinks so the kids didn't complain too much. When we finally got up there at about 2pm... Can I tell you... that man had been STANDING there greeting people since 10 am and he was the sweetest thing! We had read that his son also has A.S. and we asked. He said oh yes, and actually took a couple minutes to talk to us about it. I was so impressed by him. We have a picture and I'll post it as soon as I can. 25 years later and he's still gorgeous!

Yesterday was a really nice day. John blew up the jumpoleen which is too small for Nick really, but since it was so cheap, we didn't care and let them jump in it. Later, we put it in the pool and the kids had a blast. The water was wayyyy toooooo cooolllldddd, but they were in it anyway.

Then at like 7 I said, how about we go for a walk? We walked around the lake. A real nice walk. We decided to do that every night. And on nights that Nick has football, we'll walk around the field. I can't quite work out yet but I thought walking would be ok. Although... my left side is hurting a lot. I left a message for the nurse to ask her if it's normal.

Ok, update...

As of today (2 weeks post surgery)... I am down 27 pounds. John and Mom say they can see it... I still can't really. Oh well, I'm sure I will soon. I was 257 at the start of surgery and I'm at 230 now. That is 2 pounds less then my high school weight. My lowest weight was 205 after I had Nick. So I still have 26 pounds till I beat that. I just can't wait to get under 200. Too see 199 ... I think I'll cry.

I had to keep telling myself last night that we love our son and that we signed him up for football so he could get some much needed exercise and socialization. All that being said didn't help much as I sat there in the POURING rain watching him play. Did I think to bring an umbrella? NOOOooooo. Calli has a couple little girls (other players sisters) who she plays with and the ones mom had a huge umbrella that all the girls sat under and played. John had his rain gear and Mom was smart enough to bring an umbrella. I just got soaked. LOL Loverly. But Nick had fun, so that's all that matters.

My house still freaking smells. 2 more weeks until the dog is gone. And I think the cats have finally decided to protest and are peeing all over. ARG. When these guys leave I'm gonna have the carpet and furniture cleaned. Anyone know of a cheap place that will get the smell out??

My tummy hurts today. More like a tummy ache then any surgery issues. I had some cottage cheese this morning. Some people say dairy doesn't work well. We'll see. BUT, I got up this morning, before 8 am, took a shower, did a load of laundry, sorted out all the other laundry upstairs, did a load of dishes and got Calli off to school. All before 9:30am. YAY, here comes the energy I guess.

Off to clean more.

PS - I forgot to thank Lisa and Jessie for coming to see me in the hospital. That was very sweet of you guys. Can't wait to see you again! The November Toy Party is right around the corner!!

Last night I experienced my first "dumping syndrome". Let me tell you... I will NEVER drink orange juice again!

I was told I could have watered down fruit juice. So I grabbed some OJ last night and drank almost a whole glass. Probably way to fast. By the time I was almost done I started to feel weird. Like all the juice was just sitting above my ribs. Lots of pressure and then pain started. Went potty and started throwing up. Do you know how much it hurts to throw up when your stomach is barely back together? A LOT.

I ended up tossing my cookies (which was actually all dry heaving and phlem) from about 10:30 - sometime around 2am. Combined with lots of pain. It was horrendous. So yeah, no more OJ for me. I plan to call the dietician today to find out what I can and can't actually have.

I didn't get to see the end of the women's gymnastics last night. Arg. I was so sick that them swinging around on the bars was just making it worse. So, I turned it off. Now I have to go look to see who won. Hopefully there will be a site I can watch it on.

Ok, off to try to put something in this stomach... .ug, I don't wanna.

Doctor's appointment went well. I got all my staples removed (24) and I've lost 10 pounds! Yay Me! Cellulitus is mostly cleared up now. Feeling crappy and down today though. I'm really tired.

Things I learned yesterday....

Nick realized that his penis "looks HUGE" when he's wearing a cup. He said, Hey, it looks like an elephants nose. - I swear, I thought John and I were both gonna pee our pants last night listening to him.

Calli has come into her 6th sense. She's said a couple things in the past that made me think it was there. Like she's seen people's eyes in the living room if she wakes up at night and comes down stairs. Just kinda weird stuff. Last night we were at Nick's football practice (hence the cup) and she was sitting on my lap. All of a sudden she said, Mommy, who's that man?

What man?

That man over there. (Pointing to the bleachers across the field).

I kept saying Where?

She said, MOM, Don't you see him? He's got on funny make up and he's wearing a costume. Let's go over there and see him.

Hmm.. WHERE??? (This went back and forth for quite a while with her trying to describe where he was and what he looked like)

Right.... Hey, where did he go?

10 minutes later she said MOM MOM, There he is again, do you see him?

I said the bleachers over there or over there? (There were two sets)

Over there.

Ok. See the man sitting there with the black baseball hat on?

Yeah.

Is he by him?

Yeah! He's right there! Aaaand Now he's gone again.

There was no one sitting by the man with the hat the entire time we were there. Now, Calli has an active imagination and talks silly all the time, but she was ADAMANT that there was a weird guy over there. And, Calli can't lie to save her life. If you look at her and say, Are you fibbing? Her hand immediately goes to her mouth to cover her grin as she says No.

John just said... Ok, is it time to go now. LOL Chicken.

Welcome to our world Calli! Hold tight to it.

This is going to be a VERY long blog, so hang in there folks!

Tuesday morning I had to get up early. I am NOT a morning person. I was brought into the back room pretty quickly and they started hooking me up to everything. The had me all ready and the doc comes in and says, "Ok, just so you know, I just left the party 20 minutes ago, so I should be good." HA LOL Then... uhm... crap, I don't remember. I don't remember leaving the prep room or getting into the O R. Weird.

I then remember hearing aliens talking, feeling an amazing amount of pain, AMAZING AMOUNT OF PAIN, saying OMG, I can't handle this. The aliens saying something about, ok, we're going to change your pain medicine. I then remember being wheeled out and hearing John say "It's about time!". Supposedly the dr. had come out after about an hour and told him everything went ok, but they left me in recovery for hours and hours. Don't know what was up with that.

In my room... Don't know how I got there. Just know I was there. They set me all up and I don't remember much else. I had one of these sponge on a stick things that I could clean my mouth with.. nasty. I ended up just swishing water in my mouth and then spitting it out. Mom came after John left and hung for a while.

Day Two - I had a couple bought of vomiting, well dry heaving really since there was nothing in there, which was horrid. they had me on Delauded, a very strong pain medicine. They wanted me to get up and pee. I had some real problems getting the pee out. It didn't wanna come out! I also kept falling asleep on the potty. So I didn't push my pain button for hours so that I could do a little bit of walking. Well, it still felt like I was hitting the button. I was in a constant haze, in and out of sleep and not able to stay coherent for very long. Well, since I always like to be in control... as most of you know... I started to freak out. The nurses came in and I just started bawling!! Totally freaking out. I do remember hugging the nurse at some point. I don't know. Like I said, totally out of it. Well, they immediately removed the pain meds. Seems this is not a very good reaction. HA I went to shots of morphine and percocet. Right after that, Shelly showed up (I think it was after that) She got her hair cut and looks really pretty. I don't remember what we talked about or how long she was there. But I remember her hair cut.

Mom, John and the kids came later. Don't remember much of that. Then sleep again. Wake up to try to pee, sleep, walk a little, sleep, pee, throw up a little. It was a very hazy 3 days.

Thursday, The dr. came in around 10. Said everything looked good. He said "You ready to go home?" I said .. uhm NO. He said "Great, let's get the tube out and call your ride." Uhm... k. The tube... yeah, so they have this drainage tube coming out of your tummy going to a bulb thing that they drain. I said, is this gonna hurt, he says.. "Noooooo , ok, on four. 1, 2" PULL. OMG. That was the most awful, bizarre feeling. He pulled out like 3 feet of tubing that was all wrapped up inside me. Just sooo weird. Hurt a little, but just mostly really weird.

I called John and said, k, come get me. He's like, huh? So I went home. My friend Margaret came to pick up Calli and took her for a play date. They went swimming in the lake and late lunch at Mcy D's so the girls could play in the play room. That day wasn't too bad. Kept on my pain meds.

Friday I realized that all that pushing to try to pee gave me a roid... oh joy. Never had one of those and it wasn't too bad. Mom went home... booo hooo hooo. I told her that when she retires, she needs to move in here and be our housekeeper. She kept up with everything. It was so great to have her.

Saturday I got up and did something stupid. I had John drive me down the shore to a baby shower. It was for my friend from high school that I hadn't seen in years and I really didn't want to miss it. We left pretty late unfortunately. We ended up hitting a lot of traffic and it took us 2 1/2 hour to get down there. The kids were on the brink of death. They couldn't stop the entire way, touching, hitting, fighting, screaming... omg... it was horrible. When we got there, she was sooo surprised to see me. I'm glad. Made the trip worth it. She opened her presents and then people started to leave. John came back with the kids and we ate lunch there. (They had pizza, I had really way to salty onion soup - just the broth) Then we headed back. Only took about an hour and a half to get back.

Well, 4 hours in the car with a small roid makes a very big painful roid. I was up most of the night. At 3 am I was only looking for a cure. I got up in the morning just crying in pain. John ran to the store to buy me stuff. Then I went to take a warm bath since that's supposed to help. As I go in to take my clothes off, I realize that my leg hurt. Look down and the entire top half of my thigh is bright red. Looked like a had a really bad sunburn. Felt that way too. John said it looked funny. So after my bath I called Mom, who said call the Dr. Dr. said, sounds like cellulitus. Get to the ER and spend 4 hours there which was not fun. Cellulitus was the correct diagnosis. Turns out it was something that I had to have gotten in the hospital. They made me do a round of antibiotics through IV before I left and sent me home with a script. I also got stuff for my roid! YAYAY. The stuff the ER gave me for the roid works SOOOO much better then the shit we bought at the store.

Got home and was running a pretty good fever. I was freezing! Felt pretty crappy. But I slept well last night.

I got up this morning feeling pretty good. I go to the Dr. today to get all my staples out and to get weighed in. I'll let you know what happens,... I have a pretty good idea though. :o)

Ok, before I boar you all to death....

Signing off!

This is it folks. My last day in the eating world. Well, actually, yesterday was my last day since I'm not allowed to have anything but clear liquids today.

So, my bathroom is really nice... I've been spending a lot of time in there. Noticing all the little things that need to be done. Ceilings washed, floor redone, repaint... it's still nice though. All the pretty blue flowers. I think I'll be able to count all the flowers by the end of the day. The shit I had to drink wasn't too bad. It was actually sickeningly sweet. And it works... FAST. I was on my first run to the potty within 10 min. Ug. It's funny, I wasn't really scared of the surgery, I was scared of that drink!!!

My surgery is scheduled for 7:45 tomorrow morning. I have to be there at 6:15. So by the time most of you wake up tomorrow, I'll be out of surgery. I will be at St. Clair's Hospital in Dover. Feel free to come visit. Bring flowers and balloons and shit... NO FOOD!! I will be there till Thursday some time. So this will be my last post till probably the weekend depending on how I feel. I plan to be completely drugged. Say YAY to Drugs!!

Saturday I have plans to go to a baby shower. HA. LOL I got an email from the sister of my best friend from high school. She's having a little girl and the shower is on Saturday. Her sister and Mom are so excited I said I would come. They said I would be the only thing they could surprise her with. LOL I already bought all the presents, so I"M GOING!!! John's gonna drive me down and I'll be drugged. I'll bring my little shakes and drinks. No baby cake for me... waahhhh. :o(

Ok folks... that's it for me. Think about me tomorrow morning. Cross your fingers!!

Love ya all.

Sorry, I haven't written in a while. Not much was going on.

Thursday was the football meet and greet. They had a little bbq for everyone to meet their coaches. It was fun. I talked to the head coach to find out where Nick was supposed to go. After looking at him, he said, ok, go over there to that group. They had told me at sign ups that Nick would be on the flag football teams this year. He really wasn't happy about that. He didn't like the idea of not being able to actually tackle. lol Well, turns out that the group they put him in is pre-clinic, which is full contact tackle. OH LORD SAVE ME. He is THRILLED. He was so happy even when they had them run sprints. Monday is his first practice and he's bouncing off the walls in anticipation. Now, I know... I was the one who said from birth that my son will NEVER play football. It was too dangerous a sport. And now... well, I still believe it's totally deadly, but it'll be good for him to get some exercise and burn off some aggression. Again, Lord Save Me.

Yesterday we went to the NJ State Fair (better known as the Sussex County Farm and Horse Show). For those of you that don't know, this fair is massive! We were there for 7 hours. That's right, I said SEVEN HOURS. By 9pm, the kids wanted to do more rides, but we were exhausted and broke. We said no and then of course 5 minutes later, they realized they could barely walk anymore. They won stuffed animals, ate their hearts out, did rides, watched shows, did the pig races, rode the elephants and ponies. They had a very full day.

Oh, they have a huge green house there and the "Master Gardner's of NJ" were there. It's a group of ladies that offer advice on gardening. I asked them for something that I could plant and not kill. They thought I was kidding... I wasn't. I kill everything. I have black thumbs. They gave me something called Wegilia. It's a SHRUBBERY!! (From the Knights who say NIH!) It's got dark purpley leaves and she said they get little pink flowers on them. Cross your fingers folks. I'm gonna try to plant it tomorrow. Ug.

Today, we woke up with plans to go to Wild West City. We live right down the street from this place. Literally 1/2 a mile down the road and Nick hasn't been there since he was two and Calli has never been there (except for the easter egg hunts). So, we get ready, head out the door towards some breakfast, get 2 min down the road and what happens... DOWN POUR! So as we are eating our breakfast and watching the cats and dogs hit the pavement, we realized that going to Wild West City where it is walking along dirt roads that would now be mushy mud, was NOT the best idea. It started to let up a little so we thought maybe Space Farms. We asked the kids which they wanted to do and Space Farms won.

It turned out to be a very fun day. We walked around Space Farms, saw and fed all the animals (I'll post the pictures of the kids bottle feeding a baby calf. So cute) and looked at all the antique toys, cars, and farm equipment. Lions and Tigers and Bears.. OH MY.

2 more days folks....