Why is the cat pink?

I wake up this morning bright and early. It was before the alarm rang and everything. Was it early enough? NO!!!!!!!!! I find Patrick in the kitchen, he dragged a chair over to the countertop, climbed up and I caught him opening up a container of brown sugar.

That wasn't the worst of it the floor was covered in food coloring. The cat had pink polka dots on it and there were trails of multi-colored kitty footprints all over the rug. Thus begins my day.



Then I have to trace down a tax ID for one of our doctors so our insurance would cover it. Of course then I have to call the insurance company. Why does it take so long to get a pre-notification number? That sucked up my whole free morning.

In fact this is my first quiet moment to myself all day. After a doctors appointment and watching my nephews add to that soccer practice, gardening and the normal mommy duties this was quite an eventful day.

Oh and the poor kitty is still covered in pink polka-dots.

It all Started at McDonald's

Friday I went through McDonald's Drive-Thru at breakfast. Brianna just wanted a sausage. We picked up our order and I drove home so we could eat. Did I check the bag? NO!!!!!

So When we get home Brianna doesn't have any sausage. I gave her the sausage from my McGriddle and called to complain. They told me to ask for a new one when I am next there for breakfast.

So this morning on the way to her school we go through Drive-Thru and Brianna wants a toy too. Usually they will give them to us no charge if I ask and there is a child in the car. Not all McDonald's do that even though they are supposed to. At least that is what my brother tells me, he is an overnight manager there. They won't give me one cause I didn't buy anything.

So to avoid tears and I was hungry anyway I order a dollar menu item. Do I have money with me? Again, NO!!!!! So out comes the bank card. Ooops I forgot the money in the bank is waiting for the never cashed check that still hasn't been cashed.

I remember the bag of pop bottles in the car and when I picked Brianna up from school the bak in the store was finally open so I turned in pop bottles to get the dollar to deposit in the bank before the Tonawanda Soccer Club cashes the check during the few hours that we are under the amount in the bank. Somehow that is always when the checks are cashed, LOL!!!

We end up with $1.55 in bottles so I bought some M&M's for us to share. They were 2/.88 so I knew I would still have that $1.00 to put in the bank. The cashier hands me .98 change!!!! We can clearly see the M&M's are .44 a bag, not the .62 they rang up as. SUPER REFUND!!!!!

I ended up with $2.10 plus .23 back from the refund. Bonus when I was at the bank I found out our checks were still free and we just ran out so I got new checks too.

It all started with a sausage order at McDonald's end ended with a profit for me and free checks. Not a bad mornings work, LOL!!!

Lens Envy...

Well I finally did it! I broke down and bought that SLR I've been eying for so long... yes, I have given in to the lens envy pressure of the other mama-razzis : ) I finally settled on the Canon Rebel XT - which so far is suiting me well.

I am still learning the basics of the features, and have discovered that I will need to use some more of the custom settings to get the results I want, but so far, here's some of the pictures I've gotten from using this camera...

Sara:



Erin:

Both Kiddos...

Stupid Pink Monkey, LOL!!!

Brianna and I went into the Dollar Tree and she saw a stuffed monkey. This was in November and seemed innocent enough at the time. She really wanted the Monkey and it was just a Dollar so I bought it. Well two days later she has lost it and is DEVASTATED, I mean tears and cries and on the floor upset. We survived that great loss though. Maybe a week later we go in again (I admit it I am a dollar store junkie) and she spots another monkey so I bought it because I remember how much she loved the first one. The first one was purple and this one is blue. Brianna now is mentioning how much she wants a pink one.



Now if you ever go to the Dollar Tree you really don't know what stuffies they will have. Bears are usually a given but monkeys, especially 8" pot bellied monkeys are not as prevalent. The beginning of December I spot a brown one and buy that too. Now Brianna is aware of Christmas and its proximity so she announces that Santa will bring her a pink Monkey.

I go back mid-December and there are no more pot bellied monkeys. Not blue, not purple and especially not pink ones. Brianna is telling everyone about how Santa is bringing her one and I am starting to panic. I am asking everyone I can to look for one if they go into a Dollar Tree. I ask my WNY Mommies friends, I ask my other on line groups to keep an eye out for them. I ask out of state relatives and friends. NOTHING!!!!

Now it is almost Christmas and I am now going to the Dollar Stores again because she is so sure she is getting this stupid pink monkey. It is the only thing she is asking for. I am frantic trying to find it. I am digging through the stuffed animal bins looking for it. The clerks are telling me I am brave, they wont even do that. I am finding valentine toys, but no pink pot bellied monkeys.

I went into one store where some shelves were empty from all the Christmas shopping. Finally I go into one last store and I find one brown pot bellied monkey and two pink dogs that looked kind of close to the monkey. So I bought them all. I wrapped them up (okay I put them in a gift bag after all that shopping I took the easy way out), and put them under the tree.

Christmas morning comes and Brianna is so excited to see her stocking.



She unwraps gifts and announces that Santa did bring the monkey and she couldn't wait to unwrap it. She loved all the coloring books and crayons that Santa left but started to ask where her monkey was.



Then the kids notice the tree has gifts under it too.



Brianna runs to the gift bag opens it up hugs the pink doggie and says that Santa did indeed bring her pink monkey and I knew all that running around and digging through bins of stuffies was worth it. It doesn't matter that it really is a doggie. In her eyes it is the pink monkey that she wanted.

It's Always the Little Things

My tooth has been bothering me since mid-October. Of course it is a wisdom tooth. I have had three dentist appointments about it so far. The last one they tried to remove it. It is infected and the antibiotics haven't worked well. The pain as they tried to pull it was intense. I would rather go through natural childbirth again before they do that again. So I got another two prescriptions for pain and a stronger antibiotic.

Another two prescriptions on top of the multitude I already take for so many things. My body won't regulate potassium so I have to take that. My blood is acidic so I have to take another pill 4x's a day for that. Oh and there is the depression which ran out this week and I didn't notice. So I spent a night without it.

If I miss a dose I get a bit emotional and dizzy. So Dennis went to get my meds and picked up three scripts. He brought them to me and I opened the bag and emptied them out. I was dizzy and didn't want to walk so I had a couple other scripts next to me. All the bottles kind of clanked together as Brianna came up to me to snuggle.

All of a sudden I was crying. I looked at all the bottles of meds I have to take. It just looked like hundreds of bottles at that moment. I looked at Brianna and hoped she never had to take all the pills I have to. It is such a regular thing for mommy to take meds. Brianna keeps me on my toes and reminds me. My baby already knows what prescription bottles are.

Oh and then I took out a pill for my depression and dropped it in-between the couch cousins. I panicked. I am already upset about taking so many meds now I am worried I won;t be able to find the pill and the kids will find it and take it. So I reach for it and It falls all the way down to the bottom. SO I get hubby to lift the couch and there is a liner. No we have to play tilt the couch to get at the pill and it wouldn't come out.

Remember I didn't take the depression meds the day before and I am already emotional. I want that pill found I am focused on that and Dennis really doesn't seem to care because it is in the liner and thinks the kids won't get to it. This is one of the meds that has a risk of suicide for children under 18 so again I panic. Now I think of how the kittens play in the couch and might eat it

Yes I am going berserk over a pill. It took us 20 minutes to get it out. I calmed down took my pill and tried to calm down.

It is always the little things that seem to effect us the most. Oh and I still need this wisdom tooth pulled. Hopefully before Christmas!!!!

Such a first time mom...

My little guy has had a rough week. He has been having trouble falling and staying asleep, crying during bath time (which is usually his favorite!) and bursting out in tears for what seems to be no reason at all. There have probably been a dozen people who have said to me, "he must be teething!" I didn't pay much attention to this because Lincoln has been drooling like crazy and chomping down on teething rings for what seems like his entire life... so, it couldn't be that, right? Well, just a few days ago he started refusing his dinner, which is totally not the usual behavior for my little piggy. He screamed through his entire bath and then only slept about three hours total that night. The next day, I discovered that a tooth had, indeed cut through his bottom gums! My poor little man! I could have been giving him Tylenol to ease his discomfort... I could have been giving him frozen washcloths to chew on to help his hurting little gums... I could have been more patient with him at night when he was fussy at all hours... I could have listened to those dozen people telling me that he was teething!!!

Thank goodness he is feeling better now, but I can see that the "neighbor" tooth is on it's way up and out, so I'm sure we'll be dealing with a sore mouth for a while. Boy, there certainly are a lot of lessons to be learned from a first born!

More Christmas Decorating!

Today was a great day! Scott and I cooked our turkey dinner - well, he did the dirty work - I mainly dictated LOL... but I did whip up a winning batch of peanut butter cookies!!

After dinner, we put up and decorated our Christmas tree with our very eclectic collection of ornaments both from my childhood and newer ones from recent Christmas'...



They goofed off a little....



But in the end...




It came out great! (the tree is behind them somewhere!!)

It's so nice, as the kids are getting older, to enjoy this time with them! They are finally at the age that they "get it" - and it makes the season so fun!