Tuesday Randomness: Hot dogs, vents and ER

Ah, Tuesday. Already? My how time flies. And you know what Tuesday means: Time for some random thoughts! Want to join in the fun? Click on the button above and start randomizing!

We’ve started getting the house ready to sell this week. As part of the process we had some painters come out to paint three rooms in our house. It took them FIVE days!! And to top it off, it looks like something my 8 year old could have done! I had to go behind the painters and tell them all the areas they needed to re-do, something the should have clearly seen on their own. I’m just glad they’re out of my house! Hoping to get the house on the market by the end of April…wish us luck!

Alyssa and I made a solar hot dog cooker last night for a school project. I think we screwed it up somehow because our hot dog didn’t cook. I was hoping we could test it again tonight, but it’s raining. Can’t test a solar cooker without the sun. Hopefully the teacher will take pity on us.

My husband is in Texas right now visiting his daughters. Last night, he was at their moms house and apparently WW3 erupted. His ex got some sort of bee in her bonnet and started yelling at him. She was then ganged up on, by not only Ashley and Amanda, but also her mother. I guess when you’re own mother is against you, you KNOW you can’t be right. I’m loving the snark that Ashley is turning into, mostly because it’s not directed at me. And I love even better that it’s directed to her mom. Makes all those years of sitting quietly while her mom raved like a lunatic worth it. I wish I could have been there to see it. Is that petty of me?

I’m getting fed up with the Webb County child support office. Tony went today and told them he was ready to sign whatever he needed to get the child support review finished. They insist that he has to personally appear in court before they can do anything (even though he’s never had to appear in court before). Doesn’t matter that he lives 1,100 miles away and has military commitments. Oh, but they will be gracious enough to give him a 10-day notice before he has to appear. So, now we need to hire a lawyer to appear on his behalf. It’s no wonder so many people spend time ducking the system. They certainly don’t make it easy for people!

We had to unplug our router and cable modem while the painters were here. After they left I connected everything back up and had everything working but the internet. I disconnected the router and connected the modem straight to my computer, still no internet. So, I called my cable company and the first thing he told me was that it was a problem with my router…uh, no go, buddy, it’s not connected. He gets it working again. Yay! So, I disconnect the computer and reconnect the router. Suddenly, it’s not working again. So, I call the cable company again. I’m on the phone with this guy for 30 minutes trying different things to get the router to connect. Nothing works, so he connects me with Netgear (my router manufacturer). I get disconnected from them. As I’m muttering swear words under my breath, I go look at my router again. That’s when I realized I connected the modem to the wrong port. Oops!

I can’t believe Thursday is the series finale for ER. I’ve watched this show almost all of my adult life. It’s been a part of my Thursday nights for as long as I can remember. I just know I’m going to cry when I watch it. I’ve already been getting teary at the commercials! I feel like I’m losing some good friends. I’ve rejoiced at their triumphs and cried at their heartbreaks. I’ve enjoyed watching Archie grow from a hated weasel into a good attending physician. I loved watching Carter grow from promising medical student to a doctor out to save the world. And I cried like a baby when Dr. Green died. And again when Dr. Pratt died (that one STILL gets me teary eyed thinking about it…such a heartbreaking episode!). I’m going to miss County General. What am I going to do with my Thursday nights now?

Depression and HASAY don’t mix

The other day I was gathering information about our move to Italy. The more I looked, the more depressed I got.

I know all the good things about this move: it’ll be a great experience for my kids. Professionally it’ll be a great move as I’m almost guaranteed to get promoted out of it. If we play our cards right, we should come home debt free and with some extra money in the bank.

But as I was sitting and looking at the pictures of the smiling kids at the elementary school, I couldn’t help but think “That’s not my kids’ school.”

As I drive around town here, I get teary thinking of all the things I’ll miss here. And one thing is clear to me, all the good things that will come out of this assignment don’t outweigh the one bad thing: I’ll have to leave what has come to be my home.

What’s funny, is if you’d told me I’d feel this way when we first moved here, I would have laughed at you. Now, 8 years later, I’ve finally found a place I could grow some roots. I’ve lived here longer than anywhere in my adult life. Heck, I’ve lived here longer than I’ve lived anywhere IN MY ENTIRE LIFE!

I’m sure I’ll whine about this a few more times before we actually leave. And I’m sure once we actually make the move, I’ll be wondering what I was freaking out about. But for now, I’m wallowing in my sorrows over it. And trying hard to get my heart and mind in the right place before we leave.

Oh and I am totally counting this as my HASAY post today. I spent most of my week walking around in a haze of depression. First because we weren’t sure Tony would be joining me in Italy. And then because he WOULD be. And when I get depressed, I eat. And I did exactly that this week. I ate. And I ate. And then I ate some more.

I also made a decision. I’ve decided that the number on the scale is what bothers me. It’s the not being in shape that bothers me. So, my new plan is to commit myself to an exercise program while watching what I eat. We’ll see how that works for me!

A List…and a sappy one at that!

My husband and I have been attending a Relationship Communications Skills class. In the first class, during the introductions, they asked us to name one thing we love about our partners. It was kinda funny watching some of our classmates as they pondered what they were going to say. Mine came to me easily and I could have named many more. So, I decided to do a list:

I love the fact that he’s a great father to our daughters. Watching him interact with our girls makes me fall in love with him all over again. Every time.

I love how protective he is of me.

I love that when I proposed he drive 20 hours with a 2 year old and a 4 year old, he didn’t bat an eye and agreed without argument.

I love that when we discussed permanent birth control, he had no problems making an appointment for a vasectomy. And I love that when I changed my mind after the initial consultation, he cancelled the procedure without argument.

I love that he’s not threatened by the fact that I out rank him. I love that he doesn’t let the good-natured ribbing he gets from co-workers affect him. He just tells them I’m his “sugar mama.”

I love that he takes care of the house. Not just the outside stuff, but the inside stuff too. And he does it all…laundry, dishes, mopping, vacuuming, you name it, he does it.

I love that even though he’s rarely able to surprise me, he never stops trying.

I love that he’s still attracted to me. I look in the mirror and pick out all my faults…the sagging boobs, the skin once stretched tight by babies that now sags in all the wrong places, the extra “fluff” I’ve picked up over the years. He sees none of it.

I love that he takes care of me when I’m sick. I can be the world’s biggest baby when I’m sick and he lets me be one.

And most of all, I love that he loves me.

Spin Cycle: Quirks

This week’s Spin Cycle assignment is all about quirks. What quirks do you have? How about your spouse? Which ones drive you batty? Which ones drive your spouse batty?

When I first read the topic, I thought “Hey! I can DO quirks! I have plenty of them!” But then as I sat down to write about them, I could only think of two:

1) Whenever I eat a bag of plain M&Ms, I separate all the M&Ms by color before I eat them. Doesn’t really matter where I am, I dump them all out and start sorting. But it doesn’t stop there: I then count the number of M&Ms in each pile (or sometimes I’ll arrange them in such a way to tell which pile has the most). I’ll then eat one M&M at a time from the pile with the most M&Ms until it’s equal in size to the next biggest pile. Then I’ll eat one M&M from each of those piles until they both equal the same as the next biggest pile. I do that until all the piles are the same size. Then I eat the rest of the M&Ms, taking one from each pile until they’re gone. I ONLY do this with plain M&Ms, NOT the peanut variety. I also ONLY do it with the 5 oz bags. Snack size? I just rip it open and dump it in my mouth. The 1 pound bag? I eat them by the handful. But give me a 5 oz bag and my compulsion begins.

2) I love Big Macs. I used to eat them at least once a week. However, I have never once in my life eaten one intact. I start with the top half…the middle bun, beef patty, and top of the bun. I eat that just like one would eat a regular burger. I then take the bottom bun and beef patty, fold it like a taco and fill it with french fries. I then eat my french fry taco. Yum!

So, there you have it. My two quirks. I’m sure if you ask my husband he’ll give you a whole list of them. But I’m going to stick with these two.

Want to read more about quirks? Visit Jen at www.spriteskeeper.com for more Spins!

Praise the Lord!

WE (as in all of us; the whole family; my husband, my kids, and I) are headed to Italy! YAHOOOOOOO! Guess we finally got the right person’s attention and they’re doing the right thing!

Wordless Wednesday: Passed out

Random Tuesday

The other day Angelina came running into my room, looked me straight in the eye, and said, “Mom, I need a book light!” What the heck is she watching???

Debbie has me hooked on Sorority Life. I need to grow my house. I only have 8 members. I need more, but I hate asking people I don’t know to be in my house. What if they reject me? I can’t take that kind of pressure!

The good side of Facebook: I’ve been able to connect with people I haven’t seen or heard from in years. The bad side of Facebook: some people I’d rather NOT connect with have found me. I was “conversing” with one such person the other day. He and I had a mutual friend (well, he had a huge crush on her and she was a very good friend of mine…she’s the one who taught me to drive a stick shift!). He told me she’d written him a letter a few years ago and told him some stuff that helped some things make sense for him. Like he always wondered why she’d never go out with him and this new revelation made him think THAT was why. I let him go on thinking that even though I know the real reason is that she thought he was creepy, but was too nice to hurt his feelings and tell him that.

Sometimes my boss’s boss’s boss can be a real tool. Every since I got my assignment, he’s been making jokes about it. This morning, as I was walking down the hall he said, “You’re still here?” Other mornings he’s come in to give me Italian “lessons.” I’m glad he finds it humorous because I don’t find one stinkin’ thing funny about it right now. I guess somebody should get some enjoyment out of it!

And speaking of that…thanks to all who have provided supportive comments. Still no answers as of this afternoon when I left for the day. I hate waiting.

HASAY: What the?!?!?

Sometimes you do everything right. And despite all your best efforts, the scale doesn’t budge.

Sometimes you can’t help but be frustrated.

I had a great week. Counted every last morsel of food that went into my mouth. Passed by the candy and other sweets. Even watched what I ate when at the luncheon for a co-worker who moved.

On Saturday, I realized the payoff: I was down 3 pounds!! And more importantly, just 2.6 pounds away from the goal I’d set for myself before heading out to Texas.

Today (official weigh in day), the news is not so good. While I’ll readily admit I didn’t count or track anything this weekend, I can also say I didn’t eat THAT badly.

I’m sure it’s just water weight and will be gone by Tuesday or Wednesday.

At least I hope.

Italy or bust!

I’m actually hoping for bust at this point!

STILL no resolution on our assignment crap. Friday I called my assignments manager and I really get the feeling that he was pretty much done working it. He recommended we file a “formal application” for a join spouse assignment a week or so ago. I’ve been working on that ever since, but I really wonder what, if anything that’s going to do. The answer I’m given is “Well, they’ll have to answer the letter.” OK, haven’t they had to answer the questions/emails being sent too? They’ve pretty much said no every way they know how and claim to have looked at “everything.” So do we really think that when they receive the letter they’ll say, “Oh, now that we have a letter OF COURSE we’ll approve a join spouse now!”

I asked my assignment manager if he’d looked at all the people who were recently informed they were getting promoted to see if any of them were volunteers to go overseas. My understanding is that at least one person said they were interested in going to Europe when my Career Field Manager told them all to go update their dreamsheets. He said, “Well, I’ll have to ask for an exception to policy for that.” YOU’RE FUCKING KIDDING ME!?!?!?!?!?!?!? It’s perfectly OK to him to ask me to spend 2-3 years away from my family and/or husband, but he has to ask for an exception to policy to see if someone is a VOLUNTEER to take the fucking job??? My Chief is making a call to his Chief on Monday and I asked him if he would please bring this up as well.

Friday night the weight of it all came crashing down on me. I’d been holding up really well, but I think the combination of my conversation on Friday and realizing I was getting ready to get my visit from Aunt Flow was just too much. I had a bit of a breakdown after we went to bed. It started out as just tears, but then escalated to all out jagged crying. I don’t think my poor husband knew what to make of it. I’m just incredibly pissed off about the whole thing.

I’m mad that for 17 years I went where they told me to go without complaint. I’ve volunteered for some pretty crappy assignments that nobody else would ever THINK of volunteering for. I did two short tours before I had kids so I wouldn’t have to be faced with being separated from them.

I’m mad that several people in this chain of events have the authority to make this right and none of them are doing it. I’m mad that they can still look themselves in the mirror knowing that they’re willingly splitting up a family with very young children. I don’t care how much they say their hands are tied, I know they are not.

I’m mad that my assignment manager actually had the gall to say, “Understand that if I do this, you’ll still be the number one nonvolunteer for the next overseas assignment.” (He said that in response to my asking him to check for volunteers to take the assignment.) My response to him was basically: “Understand that the ONLY reason I’m asking you to do this is because my husband did not get a join spouse assignment. I wouldn’t have been happy to go because the timing is really bad, but I would have gone and you never would have heard my name. But I have a 2, a 4 and an 8 year old and taking them away from either their mother or their father for 2-3 years is NOT an option for me.”

So, now I’m just waiting to see what comes of the exception to policy. I’m also still moving forward with the formal application. My next step will be to write my congressman. I’ve seen people write their congressman for less and receive results, why shouldn’t I do the same? I don’t care if it makes my name mud with these people…I bet it’ll certainly make them think twice before they do something like this again!

Just Call Me Mrs. Clean!

I hit a bit of a cleaning frenzy today. Ok, it wasn’t really a frenzy…more like a focused cleaning job. I cleaned my washing machine today. We’ve owned this machine for almost 8 years and it’s never been cleaned. I figure you put soap in it every time you wash clothes, that should do it right? I’m sure there is some domestic goddess out there who’s going to tell me they clean their washing machine, inside and out, every week because the laundry detergent really doesn’t cut it. My machine HAS had an occasional wipe-down, it just never occurred to me that it needed more than that. Until today.

The whole thing started out innocently enough. I was transferring clothes from the washer to the dryer. I don’t know if the light hit it just right today or what, but I noticed a nice black stripe around the top of the agitator. I thought, “Wow, that’s gross! Let me clean that!” So, I grabbed my Mr. Clean Magic Sponge and started cleaning. That did the trick!

Then I glanced into the fabric softener cup. That was equally as gross (this I HAD noticed before but it never bothered me because we use a Downy ball instead of the cup and I figured the clothes never touched it). I was able to pull it out and was greeted with more grossness…apparently water DOES get under there because it was covered in mold! Ew! Ew! Ew! In I go with my Mr. Clean Magic Sponge and again it does the trick!

Then I looked at the lid. Again, another area that the clothes don’t really get near so we’d kinda let it get to the point of grossness too. There was a thick layer of dust back there. This one required more than my Mr. Clean Magic Eraser. This time I had to grab the screwdriver. Yep, that’s right, the screwdriver. I performed some minor surgery and removed the lid so I could effectively get at that dust. With the lid off, I grabbed my trusty Mr. Clean Magic Eraser and went to town.

Once I got the lid back in place, I glanced at the knobs. They’ve actually been cleaned in the past, so they didn’t look too bad. Since I was cleaning stuff anyway, I yanked all the knobs off and cleaned them too!

The result: I have a squeaky clean washing machine now! It almost looks brand new again.

Next stop: the refrigerator!!!

Disclaimer: My last sentence was a joke. I DO and HAVE cleaned my fridge in the last 8 years, more than once. I promise! However, it DOES need to be cleaned right now. Somebody spilled something in it and it’s pooled at the bottom of the fridge, I just haven’t had the chance to pull everything out and clean it. I might do that tomorrow.