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 |  Breaking the laws of blogging, one entry at a time. |
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Wanted: For repeated blog faux pas, including, but not limited to: Obsessive ranting - guilty on 92 counts. Repeatedly beating a dead horse - guilty on 17 counts. Unnecessary use of curse words - guilty on 142 counts. Boring daily recounts - guilty on 45 counts. Pointless entries - guilty on 214 counts. Contradictory statements - guilty on 72 counts. Recounting toilet actions - guilty on 15 counts. Overdramatization of insignificant things - guilty on 152 counts. Overreacting to meaningless gestures - guilty on 22 counts. Unnecessary temper tantrums - guilty on 75 counts. Cruelty towards animals, superiors, peers, and inferiors - guilty on 146 counts. Repeated bad grammar, spelling, and opinionations - guilty on 214 counts. Suspect is considered armed and dangerous. Do not confront directly, instead call the authorities and slowly back away. Do not provoke suspect, as she is easy to agitate. The best action to take is to smile and nod. Any other response could lead suspect to rant and rave for days without ceasing. REWARD OFFERED FOR CAPTURE Dead or alive. Offending evidence: ![Merit Badge in Journaling
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Because I never knew what to expect from your Follow the Leader entries, but I'm oh so glad you played!](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/general-Variety-2500.gif) (Exhibit B) (Exhibit C) ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** |
| I'm so sick of this. I'm tired of my house having one illness or another. I'm tired of the way I'm being put off by my doctor's office. I threw up something like 25 times yesterday. I'm so dehydrated that I'm having charlie horses all over. How do they treat this? They want me to take an anti-nausea suppository to see if that helps me keep down liquids so I can get rehydrated. Sure, whatever. The highlight of my life, along with puking 25 times, is sticking something up my ass in hopes that it will prevent me from vomiting some more. And as with all anti-nausea medications, there's no guarantee that it will actually work. Anyway, whatever. Jason goes to pick up the damned things, and there's a problem with the perscription because the fucking ass plugs aren't made in whatever milligram that they doctor's office perscribed and it's going to be another HOUR before it'll be straightened out. Someone just give me a fucking GUN so I can blow my brains out. I'd rather have just gone into the infusion center and have a needle shoved up my arm, but they don't want me there because they don't want me spreading this contagious whatever to anybody, even though the flu part is gone and now I'm just dealing with the dehydration. I'm so frustrated right now, it isn't even funny. I'm tired of laying down. My shoulders and legs are in a permanent charlie horse and I haven't peed since about 2 o' clock this morning. But sure, let me shove something up my ass to see if it'll help me keep some water down. |
| I have been sick since 4 o' clock this morning. This is my punishment for not having any compassion for Jason's plague: throwing up every 1/2 hour for 7 hours. |
| There was no body bonfire when I got home from work. How disappointing. Both of the boys seem to be on the upswing again. We've found that Tylenol seems to help Ethan, so I gave him some before bed. I'm hoping we get 2 nights without vomit. We all went to the mall because they needed to get out of the house, and I have no summer clothes of the maternity variety. I went to Motherhood and got 2 really adorable tops, a jean skirt, a pair of capris, and a lightweight dress. Now I'm all good for a week or so, when we go to Michigan City over Easter weekend. My mother-in-law decided today that we need new windows in our living room, so she went and bought us 2 for our anniversary gift. Our anniversary isn't until June 21, but whatever. We'll now have a good cross breeze in the living room, and I guess that's all that matters. We had a high of 75 today, which is insane. Last week, they were saying we could have snow, and this week, we're all wishing our swimming pools were out. I now understand what it is to be pregnant in summer heat. I was miserable for the 25 minutes I wasn't standing in front of the fan or in my much cooler clothes. When I went into Motherhood, I had a frumpy mumu type dress on. It was comfortable, but I felt icky in it. I tried on the skirt and this pink shirt, and asked if I could wear it out. I think I look hella sexy now. And that's all that matters, isn't it? |
| My house is infested with some kind of plague. That has to be what this is. And it won't go away. Jason has come down with it, again, too. So, I have 2 sick children at home. I was lucky in that I could escape to work this morning, although I left my mother-in-law in the clutches of this thing. She has stayed and taken care of my son all day so that J can get rest, which must be nice because I never ask for nor receive that kind of preferential treatment.  On the other hand, I am not a child of her womb, so I'm lucky that she will usually help me out for a morning.I called the doctor's office just to make sure there wasn't something more I could do to help them feel better. He said to make sure I sanitize every door knob, faucet, and toy in my house. Anything that anyone else may have or may eventually touch needs to be cleaned. Also, keep doing what I've been doing with the both of them. No solids, no dairy, only clear fluids and maybe some mild things like toast, crackers, and applesauce. The upside of that is that I don't have to really cook anything for a few days. The downside is, of course, that they both have the plague and thus I will get absolutely beans done around the house that doesn't involve catering to them. Blah. If I go home to find them all dead from the plague, does that mean I have to burn their bodies?  |
| I'm not quite sure what is going on with Ethan. You can almost set your watch by the time he has thrown up each night for the past 3 nights. Right about 1 am, he gags and vomits. If we're lucky, that's the only time it happens. Unfortunately, the first night he threw up about 5 times. The second night, only once. Last night, twice. He wakes up in the morning and he's a little lethargic, but once he gets some breakfast he perks right up and acts like everything is fine. He doesn't get sick at all during the rest of the day, and doesn't act like he's sick. I just don't know what to do. I've never had to deal with chronic sickness like this with him before, nor have I dealt with a lack of sleep of this proportion in my life. We're talking a month's worth of loss of sleep in one form or another, every day. And since he isn't sick during the day, it's not like I can nap while he naps. Most of the time I have too much crap to do or I'm working. It's a neverending job, being someone's mother. Someone can tell you that till they're blue in the face, but you just can't possibly understand until you're living it. Life Lesson # 31: When you're a Mom, there is no "rest room." |
| I'm so disappointed. I went on American Idol's website to look at what next week's show was going to feature, and happened to see a little blip of Elliot Yamin's new album. The only thing was, this guy didn't really look like the Elliot I came to know and love on the show. So I went out and Googled and found his web site (http://www.elliot-yamin.org) and took a look. It looks like he's had reconstructive surgery of his face! His nose looks different to me (although that could be the haircut), I think he's had his ears pinned back, and he's grown his hair out into this 'fro that I don't like. I know that part of being famous is making your image more appealing, but I really liked Elliot the way he was before his makeover! Now he just seems fake and unapproachable, whereas before he seemed like a normal guy with an extraordinary voice. Actually, I think he went from Mr. Tumnus (http://www.freebeerandhotwings.com/pictures/ElliotTumnus.PNG) to Boris Said (http://www.borissaid.net/pictures.htm). Not really much of an improvement, in my eyes, other than it makes me lose respect for him and his confidence in himself. If you feel like you have to totally change your appearance in order to appeal to the masses, instead of using your talents, then he must not have very much confidence in his singing ability. I was going to buy his cd, until I saw this transformation. But now, there's no way I want to promote that in order for you to be happy with yourself, you have to completely change the way you look. Sure, I would change a couple of things about my appearance if given the chance, and things I have changed because I had the chance, but I would not change myself so much that I become unrecognizable! It's just disappointing to me that he went to such an extreme. |
| I went to the tour of the Gospel Mission today. The Kalamazoo Gospel Mission is the largest of our homeless shelters in the area. They allow families and chronic homeless to stay there for 30 - 45 days, while they get back on their feet, sometimes more if they are working hard and just can't seem to catch a break. We saw each of the situations that people experience. The first is a family room, of which they only have 3. That is for married couples with children who get their own rooms to stay as a complete family, rather than the woman and children having to stay at the women's shelter, and the man having to stay at the men's shelter. We saw the single woman units, which are similar to the single men's units. We saw the "Good Sumaritan" quarters, which is basically set up for the bums who live on the streets the rest of the time, and consists of mats that go on the floors. We also saw the women and children's shelter, which has several different room sizes. Then they took us down to the kitchen and invited us to join them for lunch. Their budget, per person, per meal, is 11 cents. Can you imagine trying to eat for 11 cents a meal? It isn't easy, but they get a lot of donations. For lunch, we had yesterday's unsold hot & ready pizzas from Little Caesar's, some day-past-expiration pastries from the bakery across the street, some chicken soup with spaghetti noodles, some lemon jello, and flat Diet Rite. It wasn't the best meal of my life, but it really made me feel fortunate that I can eat fresh food everyday and not rely on the castoffs of others in order to be able to sustain myself. I had a hard time eating the food. Not that I'm too proud or too good for yesterday's leftovers, but it didn't look or taste as appetizing as my finicky stomach can usually handle. I felt bad that I still had food left on my plate by the time I went to leave. Do you know how close many of us are to becoming homeless? All it might take is one illness or getting fired from your job. Statistics say that most of middle-class America are 2 paychecks away from becoming the working poor. I don't know about you, but it makes me want to make sure I'm spending my money better. |
| My laptop is being an asshole this morning. It is taking forever to think about everything! Ugh! I guess I'm going to need to do that full reinstall that I was supposed to do a month or so ago pretty soon. I'm getting tired of dealing with it. Ethan was up last night puking again. I don't know if it's because he spent too much time playing outside yesterday, or because Jason's Aunt (she had him for a couple of hours while Jason's Mom got her hair done or something) fed him too much popcorn and sweets, or because he was overtired from not getting a nap and the combination of the three was too much for his still-healing stomach. All I know is that I shouldn't have to send a caretaker's manual along with my son. Common sense is common sense. If he doesn't get a nap, he still needs some quiet time. Popcorn is fine, so long as you make sure he's not eating a lot of kernel and he eats no more than a cup at a time. Sweets are OK if he has... a sucker, or a couple of gummie bears, or a few M&Ms, but not all of them together. For crying out loud, it saves me a lot of missed sleep when people just follow normal parenting rules. |
| I am soooooooooooo tired! I feel like I have run a marathon and I'm not even through this week, yet. Work is so super busy and I feel like I'm never going to get caught up. The Suitcases for Success program is right at its peak. Suitcases have come in, we're trying to get everything bought to put in them. We've got our needs assessment meeting coming up with the parents and we're trying to get that planned and coordinated. Spring break is in two weeks, so we've got a whole week that I won't be working (probably, unless I can't get caught up next week). I feel like everything is running through a strainer and there's no bucket underneath to catch it. I'm probably going to have to work a 40-hour week in order to get everything partially under control next week. I hate feeling like I'm putting my mother-in-law off by asking her to keep Ethan for all of that time, but I seriously feel like I'm floundering and need to catch an extra wave in order to get back with the rest of the fish. I got the approval from my boss. I just have to wait to see if MIL will agree to watch him all of those hours. I know Ethan is tiring, and I miss spending so much time with him. If I can get caught up, though, I'll be able to spend an entire week, just him and me, playing and having an awesome time. Plus, we can use the extra money since I've had to miss over a week of work between being him being sick and my headaches. I imagine I wouldn't be as far behind if I hadn't had to take all of that time off, but I'm doing the best I can. I just feel like I haven't been as reliable as I need to be for my boss. I'm losing that feeling like she thinks I'm a rock star, so I need to get that feeling back from her. When I get in tomorrow, I think I'm going to make a to-do list so that I know what I need to do, what I've done, and where I need to go still. Then we have the shelter tours. Technically, it's a non-working day for me, but we have those tours, so I need to be there, and then I have a training class in the afternoon so I can learn KPS's web design stuff so I can update the programs within my office's web pages. Do you think I could put anymore hats on me head, seriously? Mommy hat. Coach's hat. Wife's hat. Data collection assistant's hat. Title I Parent Office secretary hat. Title I Parent Office web designer's hat. When do I get to put my hat back on? You know, the one that says, "Melissa" on it. I'm getting tired of juggling more than one hat at a time, and to be quite honest, I'm a good multitasker, but I'm not that good. |
I just made it through my first GOTR practice and I'm alive to tell the story!  Actually, it was a lot of fun and all of the girls on our team are the sweetest. Every single one of them came in with this attitude that just seemed like, "I'm going to be too cool to do anything stupid," and by the time we got through practice we had them giving themselves bunny ears whenever they wanted a turn to talk. Isn't it amazing how one loses her inhibitions when everyone else stops trying to be cool along with you? We only had one slight problem, but it wasn't with the girls. There's one third grader on our team whose mother is a little overbearing and wants to be very involved, which is both good and bad. My co-coach and I appreciated the help that she offered us during practice. On the other hand, she wasn't really allowing her daughter to enjoy herself and was constantly commenting on her to pay attention and commenting on her behavior. I had already told the mother before practice that sometimes its best not to be too up close while we're practicing so it allows her daughter to experience some independence and come out of her shell. But that wasn't even the worst of it. At once point, we were all in a circle doing warm-up stretches. There's a couple of white girls, a latino girl, and the rest are black. One of the black girls can speak English, Spanish, and Japanese, which we had learned while we were doing our warm-up game. After this girl told us what languages she could speak, the mother, who was standing just outside the circle, makes a comment as though she's mocking the girl, "And my mother came from Africa." My co-coach and I both kind of looked at each other and then at the girls. The girls didn't seem to react to the comment, so K and I just ignored her. We figured if the girls weren't openly bothered by the comment, then we wouldn't make an issue out of it. Basically, we just didn't want to cause a scene if it wasn't necessary. Later on, after practice, the mother then comes back to me and K and starts admonishing us because we let her daughter play with some label stickers while everyone was trying to talk. "She needs to focus, not play with stickers." Uhm... the girl is in the third grade, was taking part in the program, and was giving her own input and interaction. As far as K and I were concerned, she was a normal 3rd grader, and sometimes children can get distracted. Since she wasn't distracting the other girls and was taking part in the conversation, neither of us felt that her having the stickers was a big deal, but whatever. K and I are just trying to figure out how we're going to deal with this mother in the future. We can't tell her to not come to practices, and at this point we can't really voice any true concerns to the GOTR directors, but we are going to make sure that we inform them anyhow. Hopefully, this Mom won't make anymore inappropriate comments if she comes to a practice. It makes for a really uncomfortable situation for both K and me, and we want to be able to have as much fun as our girls are having. It'd be a shame if we spend all 11 weeks worrying about what's going to come out of the mother's mouth next. |
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Whatever you do, hang in there, he'll be sleeping like a big boy in no time!