Friday, February 27, 2009

Gokey Girl!

This year American Idol has begun like all the others... I'm bored to tears with the auditions and I just want to see some real singing! I DVR the shows and I usually get to watch them later the night they aired or the next day.

So like usual, I loved Gokey's song! I think I love his spirit as much as his voice. This man just seems to be the all around perfect kind of guy. He's handsome, wholesome, hip, cool mannered and seems to be pretty sincere. I've heard a lot of crap about how he's trying to pull votes by using the death of his wife, and that just makes me wanna go out and punch people. Now look, if anyone on the show was a moron that would be bikini girl and the short-bus riding del Torro. Her laugh alone makes me pleased at the thought of fingernails on chalkboard. I hated her personality, but I thought the girl could sing.

Then there's Anoop. Poor guy. He's got a great voice, I just don't think America is going to embrace an East Indian pop artist. That's like the Asian rappers who try to desperately to get heard on Youtube in hopes of a break. I just don't see it... at least not yet. Gradually, I'm sure this country will get off its high horse of thinking the music world revolves around white folks and black folks, but until then, I don't see Anoop in this competition.

Can I just say THANK GOD Tatiana got booted. The girl was a drama queen from day one... attention seeking, self-absorbed DRAMA QUEEN! Good God girl, take a break from the mirror and fix what's inside! Her voice was perty though, I'll give her that.

I'm glad and not surprised at all that Adam made it this week. He's a great one that will make it to the very end. He's a hot rocker type with an amazing voice and range. His drama background helps him a lot. I like his expressions when he sings! I think he and Gokey will definitely go toe-to-toe. They are my two faves so far.

In other years of this show I've favored the ladies a bit more than the men, but this year is different. I'm not that impressed with the ladies, but the guys...woah, what a competition this is going to be!

The Desk Project, Part II


I didn't get to take a pic of the desk before he started, shame on me! Here it is after one coat of stain and one glossy coat. We decided it was dark enough with one stain coat. He said he's got to sand the gloss and then put another glossy coat on it. The picture doesn't really do it justice, but it was taken with a cell phone lol.
Anyway, from the way it looked prior to him starting anything, this is a MAJOR transformation to this desk. It looked really rough and old and yucky. I can't wait until it's finished so the girls can see how purty it is and know that daddy fixed it for them!

So far this game is wonderful. I come up with ideas, make out some initial plans and then he runs with it doing all the manual labor. See... a creative mind with a lazy body (that would be me) and a great man (that would be Andy) do wonderful things together!

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Bloggers and Cats, Go Figure!




Ok, so I'm sitting here, obviously avoiding work, and nosing my way through some blogs. I'm new to this and I feel like a short-bus rider (don't laugh, I actually rode one when I was a kid) with a brightly colored helmet labeled "Dunce" in big letters! The only thing that is missing is I'm not surrounded by a bunch of window lickers picking their noses.
I've subscribed to a few blogs today that I found interesting. The more I look around and read, the more I'm noticing almost every dang blogger has a cat! Are cat peeps more prone to creativity? Do cat lovers have a better way with words, or far more interesting lives than others? OF COURSE! It was like a ta-da moment for me.

I'm an animal lover, but in our current home (rental) we aren't doing the pet thing just yet. I'd rather wait until we move out to the sticks and when my dog chews the molding off the doorways or the cat pisses on the curtains, the owner will be me and I can't get in trouble for it lol. When Andy and I got together (almost a year ago YAY), he moved in with me a few short months later. I had two cats... Gino and his brother Elvis. A friend of mine had a mean ass cat who gave birth to a wonderful multi-colored litter. I couldn't handle just one cat (they tend to be quite mischevious alone) so I opted for two of them. Gino loved to be inside snuggled up next to me, while his brother was the late night whore type who would rather be out and about until dawn.
Well, when we were deciding to move, I knew I was going to lose my precious boys. Andy found them a great home (at least that's what he says) and I donated all of their condos and cat toys to Pets 4 People. I miss them, but I know (HA! at least in my own little head) that they are being taken care of and loved like their mama would!
Wow I side-tracked.
Anyway, the whole point was that I had some devine revelation about bloggers... they are cat people. Cats are quite inquisitive, creative, naughty, quiet (unless they are like Gino and screamed at me when he was hungry), moody, fiesty, playful, smart, self-contained little creatures... quite like a lot of bloggers.

School Lunches

So I'm reading a forum I post in regularly and they have a daily debate. Today the question was:

No Free Lunch. Schools get tough on deadbeats...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29385572/

At a time of recession and we just keep giving millions and billions to banks dont you think we can give children a free lunch!!! I dont know, but in the end we need to recognize that some families hard as they try need help. I am glad that some schools actually put something in place, but is it enough? thoughts??

Well... here's what I had to say about that!

I think it's fine. What's wrong with a damn cheese sandwich? Spoiled kids and lazy parents. If you can't afford to feed your kids, perhaps you should stop creating them!

First of all, it costs about 5 bucks to get some PB&J sammiches in a bag for the kids that will last more than a week! You can get a big a$$ bag of chips and put that in baggies. Parents just aren't doing it. Parents again are relying on someone/something else to provide for their children.

I'm all for the reduced/free lunch programs, and they aren't that hard to qualify for. So what if you are waiting a week and actually have to PROVIDE your child with food while they process the application. Good GOD people! Talk about a spoiled nation!

My oldest kid was on disability until I just got tired of the red tape crap and the "gubment" constantly in my business, and she qualified for free lunch regardless of my income. That was nice. It was a blessing. But c'mon, if I have to put back the Doritos and crablegs at the grocery store for me so that I can afford some lunch meat for my kid then sobeit. Hell, half the folks who qualify for free/reduced lunch are on food stamps in the first place. Buy your kid some bologna for Pete's sake!

I know there are people struggling to feed their families, I'm not doubting that. I'm saying what's wrong with the school systems EXPECTING the parents to provide a flippin meal for their kids at school for a week or so while the paperwork is filled out. And let me say another thing... these forms are available when the office at the school is open PRIOR to the beginning of the school year. There is absolutely NO excuse for a child going hungry at school. And they ARENT going hungry. They are provided with food. They may not like it, but they get something to eat.

Oh -- and for those families who are struggling... swallow your pride and try going to a local food closet or church to get some staples. Try contacting your local DHS and getting a Community Resource Sheet that lists all the available places in your area to get some food, laundry soap, toothbrushes and even clothing. C'mon people, it's not a dead-end street here and it's not the responsiblity of the school to carry YOUR burden. These are YOUR children we are talking about.

I send my kid to school to learn... not to get some ala carte meal that the rich kids are eating and ends up costing $6 a day! I'll pay for that $3.40 hot meal each day to ensure my kid is getting a balanced meal while she's not under my supervision. Just wait til they get to high school and it's not cool to eat the "hot meal" everyday and the kid refuses to eat it. Then you've got to pay that ala carte price! Enjoy the tiny price to feed the kids while you can!

Ugh, sorry for ranting, it just burns me up how lazy people can be and how folks sometimes lay their crap on someone else's porch to figure out. Feed your own damn kids!

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

School Night, UGH!

School tonight, and although I feel like a student again after Xmas break, I really don't want to go to class tonight. I don't feel good. I'm such a whiney baby when I'm sick too. Poor Andy and Nish... they are the ones that have to deal with me lol.

For the last two days my neck has been sore and today it moved to my throat. I have the cooties! I'm not sure if this is swollen glands or what, but I've got some antibiotics called in for me and I'll start those tonight. I look pasty white and almost dead. It's almost like my face gets a few more pre-wrinkles (I'm only 35, I'm NOT admitting to full blown wrinkles just yet) when I'm not up to par. Like because I'm laying on the couch, dying and having a pity party for myself, my body thinks I'm aging at some marathon speed and proceeds to pre-wrinkle me.

I guess it wouldn't be so bad if I could work alone in the class, but we are in groups for this particular class. Now I'm going to risk giving my other team members the cooties too (and we are self proclaimed "The Happy Group"). Great. I'm sure they'll be thrilled about that. I would skip tonight, but I skipped the first night of this class and you can only have one absence per class and repeat the class at full price. At $4K a semester, I'm not repeating ANY classes! Four hours of Discrete Math tonight and then I'm going straight to bed. Ugh!

I'm leaving dinner plans up to Andy and Nish... I say it's a fish-something-out-of-the-fridge-yourself night. I can't even open my mouth wide enough right now to shovel food in there. I'm hydrating myself with Pepsi, and keeping the pain low with handfuls of ibuprofen. I'm sure that's a perfect balance for boosting my immune system to kick this bug. I think it's moving to my ear now... as I type... there's some odd sensation going on my my left ear, like a fullness or something. I'm falling apart!

It's almost 5 and I've got to be ready to go in 30 minutes. Andy is taking me to class tonight and delivering our entertainment center we no longer want to his ex-wife (see what a wonderful person I am, giving my furniture to the ex) so he'll need the truck. All the better for me... I don't have to drive with medicine-head feeling.

So I'm going now.

Maybe.

As soon as I can pry my big arse out of this chair...

The Pepsi Bottle

I crack up still just thinking about this! I absolutely LOVE living with this man!

Yesterday, I'm at home with the two babies I keep during the day, and I go to the fridge to get my trusty Pepsi pick-me-up. Well, I can't get the 2 liter bottle open. Andy was apparently the last one in the bottle the previous night and he screwed the lid on so tight I couldn't open it. I couldn't budge it with my bare hand or with a rag. I know you're not supposed to use your teeth, but I even tried that. I was almost in a complete Pepsi-withdrawl panic when I grabbed a knife and jabbed the bottle near the top. Whew! I tipped the bottle over and squeezed it and there came a steady flow of my life saving carbonated beverage right into my cup. All was good again!

Ok so fast forward to that evening. I mentioned to Andy in passing that I had to "poke a hole" in the Pepsi bottle because of HIM! He shrugged it off and went back to staining the desk.

About 3 hours later, I'm moving my homework from the livingroom to our bedroom and getting ready to jump in the bed. Andy comes stomping down the hall yapping about Pepsi. I didn't really listen until I saw his shirt! I was cracking up. Apparently, he either didn't believe that I poked a hole in the bottle or he forgot... needless to say, the front of his t-shirt was soaked!

Red-faced and pointing a finger at me, he doesn't say a word... but I'm backing up until I'm in our bathroom between the toilet and the wall with a towel over my mouth to hide my laughter. I'm sure the tears in my eyes gave it away!

He says, "You didn't tell me you stabbed a GIANT hole in the bottle!"

Moral of the story: Don't drink Pepsi straight from the 2 liter bottle.

What The Hell Do I Call Him?

Andy. That's what I call him. Simply put, he is the love of my life. We've been together a year in March and still going strong. But when I'm referring to him, other than by name, I don't have a title.

He's not my husband... yet.

He's not my fiance because he hasn't proposed. We've looked at rings and know we are going to get married, but no proposal as of yet, so I refuse to call him my fiance.

I'm in my mid-30s and I feel like a teenager saying "my boyfriend", so that one doesn't work either.

I've read blogs where ladies refer to their husbands as DH (dear hubby) in their posts, but again, we aren't married. I guess I could label him DB lol. Or what about LOML (love of my life)? I guess until I figure out a label, he'll remain just Andy.

Hmm, that makes me wonder what my label is...

The Old Desk Project

When we moved into this place, there was a giant fake tree, an old solid wood student desk and an antique sewing machine still left in the house. Being the collector of junk, I told Andy we wanted to keep that stuff and to tell the manager to just leave it for us. He did!

I thought the tree would go great as a semi-separator for the diningroom and livingroom. The livingroom is painted in a burnt orange color, pretty dark in there. Then the diningroom is painted in this ridiculously bright green. It's like a lime color. I about had a hissy fit when we first moved in there about that color and immediately wanted to repaint it, but the more I thought about it (and consulted my sissy, the master decorator) the more I grew to like it. We decided to go with a Tuscany decor in both rooms. And let me tell ya, the lime green is PERFECT! I love it now. I'm still working on the livingroom, but the colors are there... I just need my sissy to come finish it for me lol. Anyway, the tree acts as a perfect semi-separator there and is very eye-catching.

I'm not sure what to do with the sewing maching yet so it's still sitting in the den/office/garage room lol. That's my favorite room in the house. It's like my own thinking tank.

The desk was going to be a project. The older girls decided they wanted it in their room, but refused to have it moved in there until it was not ugly. LOL, a teenager and a tween, go figure! So while Andy and I were at Lowe's getting all the stuff for the garden, we bought some stain, sandpaper and the gloss coat stuff. I opted for a mahogany stain. This is a kids room and I didn't want anything that would show stains and scuffs... plus the molding and a built-in shelf in their room was already this color. It doesn't match the color of the bunkbeds, but I figured they'd grow out of them soon enough.

Anyway... Andy, much to my suprise, has taken over this desk project and has made it his baby! He has already got it sanded down and the first coat of stain when on yesterday evening after he got home from work. The stain is gorgeous and the girls will really love it when it's finished. I wish I would have taken a picture of it prior to him starting so I could show off his hard work. I'll certainly get a pic when he's finished and showcase it for him lol. I had no idea he liked doing this kind of thing! I can't wait to find the next project for him (after he puts my garden beds together, paints them, rototills up the backyard and helps me get all the plants out there first of course) LMAO! I'm going to keep him a busy little worker bee this summer... I can already tell!

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

The Marvels of Myspace

I don't get down the myspace nearly like I used to... I check in there from time to time, and send birthday wishes and stuff, but that's about it.

A few days ago I get an email alert from "Jenny" who sent me a message. I immediately was thinking of Julie's niece and wondered what she had to say, so I looked. Low and behold it was my best friend from elementary and middle school in California! She said she had been looking for me for a decade and finally found me on myspace. Since I moved to Oklahoma many years ago, I lost touch with most of my younger days. Jenny and I had last seen each other then we were 18. She just had a baby and was trying to make it in the world with her man. Boy how the pages have turned for her. She's a proud mommy of 4 now, happily married to a wonderful man and living a great life! That's awesome! We've been emailing back and forth for a few days, trying to catch each other up on the last 15 years of our lives. Maybe the next time I'm out in Cali visiting my sissy, I'll hook up with Jenny too!

Fantastic Fish!

The fish was mahhhhvelous! I didn't actually go to the grocery store alone, I took Andy with me, and we ended up spending $60 on that dinner. But... we got a pound and a half of shrimp and some Basa catfish as well. The kids loved the Basa, and weren't crazy about the tilapia. Andy loved it all. He even bragged to his friends at work about it! Instead of the rice I made a butter and garlic pasta and did the grilled veggies. Man o man! The veggies were super! I can really taste a difference when I use fresh garlic!

So, we'll see what he comes up with next. This is a silent competition, so I know he's not going to tell me what he's got up his sleeve. I just have to wait and see...

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Healthy Heart

So I've been looking online today for recipes that will help me incorporate fish into our diet without smelling up the house. I'm not a fish person, unless it's fried catfish or tilapia. I don't like the way it smells. Strong fish stinks! And I'm not sure who likes to eat stinky things, but it certainly isn't me.

We've moved away from most of the red meats, and cook a lot with turkey and chicken these days. So why not venture out and find some fish recipes that we might actually like. I'm the type of person that thinks everything on the grill tastes better, so I found a recipe for grilled tilapia that I'm going to try. Ok that's a lie. I found a recipe that I'm going to alter to my taste lol. I'm going to also grill some fresh squash and zucchini to go along with it and probably bake a brown rice dish. I thought about an avacado salad or something else other than rice, but I'm probably just going to do the rice. It's easy and less shopping lol.

We'll see how it turns out. I've got to remember to get to the liquor store for the wine (b/c the bible belt doesn't sell wine in the grocery stores like the rest of the Nation) and get the vittles that I'm going to need to cook this meal. I'm going to suprise Andy tomorrow after we take the kids home.

See, cooking in this house has turned into a competition. Andy is a fantastic cook and I can't just go in there and throw together my world famous spaghetti and meat sauce that I've made for 20 years. I've got to get fancy and find new stuff to impress him with. I'm determined to be the best chef in the house. He blew me away with his chicken "packets" a few months ago, and last night he made some fantastic italian season marinated grilled chicken, brussel sprouts (that I introduced him to HA) and some brown rice with mushroom soup instead of just water. It was really good and the kids loved it too. Oddly enough, they will even eat the brussel sprouts. I've made my chicken and veggies over bowtie with a Velveeta cream sauce... a recipe that I absolutely LOVE, and he wasn't that impressed with it. He's not a cream sauce kinda guy I guess. Give him a marinara and he's a happy camper. He doesn't care for my spaghetti either, b/c in HIS spaghetti sauce he puts mushrooms and zucchini. Wanka wanka wanka. Ok so maybe I'm not as open minded as I could be, or just the fact that he thinks he's a better cook than me kills me. I have always prided myself on my cooking skills. Hmph! I can't be out-done!

So, we are going to Tony's wedding today... then I'm going to the grocery store ALONE! I'm going to hopefully blow him away tomorrow evening with my fish. Then we'll see what he comes up with next lol.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Discrete Math?

What's so discrete about math? I don't get it! I don't want to take this class, I have no interest in learning about Euler or Hamilton algorithms, and I feel like a doof in a remedial class.

I didn't go to last weeks class (and it was the first one in this class) b/c our whole family was infected with some horrid tummy virus. Good thing we have two bathrooms! It was so bad I had Andy call Erin and tell her we were sick and she shouldn't bring the babies. They had it a few days prior to us and I just didn't want to reinfect them. The baby was having a hard time getting over it as it was!

During Andy's doctor fiascal yesterday and an hour or so at home of working on homework I still wasn't prepared for class. I hate that I missed the first class, b/c you get so much information about how the next 4 weeks will be, and I knew I'd walk in there lost. Plus I didn't have all of my makeup work done. At least what I thought was my makeup work... It was just an intimidating feeling. And of course I didn't know where the flippin class was either. I'm on my way to school and realize I have no clue where I'm supposed to go. So I've got my bookbag in one hand and my faithful 44oz Pepsi in the other, trecking through the halls of one building for about 10 minutes until I ran into a lady from financial aid who told me where to go. Ok... now I've got to walk into the class unprepared AND late! Ugh!

I get in the room and the professor seems pretty cool. He doesn't make a scene as I meander in and take a seat. I'm getting my books out and following him during the lecture. Then he seats me with another group of 3 folks to work in their group. Lucky for me, they are very pleasant and accepting folks. They all seemed to know each other outside of school, so of course I'm the outsider, but they pulled me right in, explained how things work and we got busy. I felt like a big dummy at first, but I found my place and worked right along side them. It turned out to be a good night. I caught on pretty quickly, but I was still worried about getting big fat zero's on my missing assignments.

After class I went and talked to the professor, and much to my surprise, he cleared everything up for me, gave me the missing assignments and even told me I had 2 weeks to turn in that work. Woo hoo! I don't need that much time, but he was very forgiving for my absence and I totally appreciated that.

Two of the girls in my group are in the same program as me actually, and they walk in May. Congrats to them! They gave me some much needed information and encouragement actually about the program. I enrolled in this program alone and I don't have any friends that go to this school. C'mon, I'm 35 and still trying to get my degree! LOL! It's not like I have a lot of friends in my situation. They either are working and don't want a degree, or they are working and already have their degrees. I never did do things the easy way!

Anyway, last night kind of gave me the boost I needed to be excited about school again. With x-mas break (the tiny one we had) and then missing a couple classes as of late, I couldn't find my mo-jo to get back in the swing of things and learn some crap. Last night changed my attitude and now I'm ready! Only 3 weeks left of this class and then I'm off to the Holocaust class. As interested as I am to learn about this subject, the syllabus is VERY intimidating. I guess we'll see how that one plays out soon enough!

He's All Good!

Well, yesterday certainly was a "fiascal". We went to the southside imaging center for this angiogram and they ended up sending us to the northside heart hospital b/c the machine apparently broke just before he went in. He'd been NPO since 9pm the night before and it certainly wasn't good news, but we felt more comfortable knowing that if there were something wrong, they were at the location that could fix it all.

So they get him in a gown, shave his netherland region, open up the Hep-lock and get ready to take him back. We got to see him only for a minute or so before they took him back. So we hugged and said I love you as they wheeled him out of the room on the gourney. I could tell he was pretty anxious, but they were going to give him a sedative to help him relax. They told us it would take about an hour and we would hear from the doctor. It wasn't even an hour before they wheeled him back in there. The doc came in shortly after and said everything looked great. What a relief! I didn't really think anything was wrong in the first place, but hearing the news from the doctor erased any doubt any of us might have had.

Yay! He's got a clean bill of health and now we don't have to revisit this scene until the next year for the routine stress echo.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

You need a what?!?!

Last week he has a routine appointment with his cardiologist for his annual echo and such. Being post-heart attack, he does this every year. Well this time, after the tests, the nurse calls and tells him that there was something abnormal at the doctor wants to see him. She calls Friday, just before a 3-day weekend, and tells him not to worry but there is something wrong on the tests. How nice. Well, obviously anxious, he goes back to the doctor today to see what the heck is going on. His doc tells him that he thinks he saw something on the echo and wants to do an angiogram just to make sure. With my background, I know a little about this type of stuff, but my experience is only in listening to the doctors dictate, not actually being there in the room with the patient's. I know they have to stick him in the leg and run a catheter, shoot dye that will run straight up to the coronaries and then take some pictures (x-rays). That's about my extent of knowledge on this one.

I wasn't there today to hear the doctor say anything so I don't know many details. This irritates me because I know the lingo and I have to depend on him to tell me the details. Not good. He's not an idiot by any means, I just like hearing from the horse's mouth exactly what this entails and be able to ask questions. His mother was there with him today, and I'm grateful for that. She's been a terrific support system for him and I know how close they are.

So the appointment is tomorrow at 8:30. I'm going this time. I guess I'll pack up the girls and drag them with me. It's early enough that they will be able to sit still for a while. I've got to remember to get the baby's spoon so I can feed her while we are waiting, and pack some snacks for the other one. I should get a bag ready with some toys in it too, so she has at least something to play with while we are there. I think we will all be fine. His mom will be there too, so she can help me with the kids.

The only hard part about this for me is trying to gauge his reaction to my reaction. He is so worried about me being here especially if something is terribly wrong. Bless his heart, he tries to hide it, but I know he thinks about it. I can't blame him. I'd probably feel the same way in his shoes. So I try to keep my reactions to medical only and not personal. I stay pretty calm and collected. I mean this isn't life or death. It's an angiogram. But I don't want him to worry either. Worrying can't be good for his blood pressure.

Anyway, the procedure is in the morning and I've got a ton of homework to get done tonight.