death by star wars

i don't think i've blogged about it but for xmas B's ma & pa gave us a wii. it's some dandy. wish we would have had it when we lived in hell the desert, would have made it much, MUCH more tolerable. i like playing the sports, tennis took some getting used to but it's good exercise. one day i got a lil carried away & whacked the wii box [it should have known to run] oopsie!

one feature i'm not exactly sure if i like or not is you can test your skills & keep track. i thought that was pretty neat, so although i hadn't really practiced much, i thought "bring it on". i did some tennis, hitting a baseball & bowling....& [get this] my age was 44.

wtf?
no, i repeat WTF wii?
[ok, maybe that's when i whacked it....whatever....i was alone so no one will ever no for sure now will they?]
anyways, that wasn't what i was supposed to talk about...

Z's favorite game is still lego star wars [remember?]& he's TOTALLY & COMPLETELY ready to join the legion of all those ridiculous neat star wars losers aficionados. [ahem]

it's still one of the first couple of phrases out of his mouth first thing in the morning & at bedtime; he even manages to fit them into dinner comments "i like this rice bc it reminds me of darth maul" [or whatever his name is, he's "bad scary dude" to me].

so B said something the other day about getting the movies beings Z has joined the star wars cult is so into it. first we went to walmart & they had 3 single movies [we were hoping to get a package] then we went to glorious target & they had the package of 3 so got that too.

at home we made dinner while Z got the first movie ready. i made sure to tell him not to open the other package of movies bc we were going to return them, then B said we weren't & i was confused. i didn't know that although we had 6 [count them, six] movies, they were all different, that there are 6 [s!i!x!] movies in the star wars story!!!

this is going to be torture.

bush whack phase II

um, there wasn't a post about phase i, deal with it, k?
phase i was me cleaning up the bushes along the back fence in an effort remove warm, comfy housing for the yard vermin. you remember them right?
so i cleaned up the bush bottoms, raked out all the leaves, B went on the other side of the fence & trimmed 4 years of growth...in some places our bushes were bigger on the wrong side of the fence!

we'd decided to leave the the bushes along the north fence as they were bc we were going to pull them out & plant some grass, that would give us an extra 2 feet or so of yard.

fast forward 6 months & them bushes are still there, still providing lots of breeding spots for said vermin. B's been totally busy with school, so i decided i could at least clean those bushes up a little bit, it would probably make it easier when we go to remove them right?

so i trim & rake, over & over & i'm finding all kinds of stuff in there. i found an old ball [that looked like it was from the 70s] & one of lady's orange-brown rope toys [ah her long lost friend]. then i stumbled across something that made me pause.

it was black & about 2-3 inches long. at first i thought it was a dead bird, but then i realized it was more fur-like than feather-like. at this point all sorts of obscenities are right at the tip of my tongue as i'm panicking & thinking it's dead rat/mouse/opossum creature.

then i figured out it was a piece of lady's baby.

note to self - from now on, lady's toys can only be bright-non-animal colored.

updated, i forgot to write about the part where i figured out why lady had a little pukage last week...i found leftover pieces of charcoal in the yard. one day last week B was going to grill, but the charcoal was wet & he left the lid off the grill, well girlfriend's been eating used charcoal to get the minute yet tasty drippings. anything to get people food...anything!

random Z

i'm not sure what the deal is, when i'm not at the computer i think of tons of thinks i need to write about & when i get on the computer i'm everywhere else but here. then when i finally get here i'm reading everyone else's stories, then i start messing with my layout. even when i post, i write something & it takes me a few days to get it typed out & presentable.

a few Z stories:
- the first time Z bathed with his slinged arm i wrapped it up in a big plastic [heavy dept store] bag & used a large twist tie to fasten it. a few days later when B was helping Z get ready for his bath & Z told him what i'd done, B said "sometimes your momma does things like a man"

- B made his own cast-cover-upper - it was a trash bag & scotch tape wound around Z's tiny arm in every conceivable direction at least 4 different times. [trust me it was fun getting it off while Z was telling me his arm was hurting bc it was on so tight.] although B's wrap up may have been more water-proof than mine, his was also cutting off Z's circulation, so this "woman's man way" is how we do it!

- the other day we were at Z's school & noticed the fire hydrant is now completely encircled by several large trashcans that are all chained together. a little late for the Z...wonder if they're going to pad all the playground flooring next?

- one night Z was in the tub, B & I were wrestling in the living room. [yeah, i totally wrestle a marine that's 2x my weight & 8 inches taller than me....bc i'm dumb like that!] evidently Z heard the grunting,snorting & laughing & knew exactly what was going on & in his sweet little voice he hollars out: "get him momma!!!!"

i get to saw, hammer, play with fire & i'm creating (not destroying)??

so superbowl isn't a big deal in this house [actually superbowl notates the day when we went house hunting & found this one, but that's not the story we're delving into today...] & without realizing it, i signed up for a wire-wrapping [say it correctly please, in elmer fuddish so it sounds like "why-uh wapp-ing", got it?] class for that sunday.

i didn't realize it was game day until the sat beforehand & was only disappointed that i was going to miss the day's commercials. the class was alright, it was mainly so i could get confirmation on what i had learned via books & online was being executed correctly.

i also signed up for a metalsmithing class & that was a whole new world. i didn't know how to put the blade on the jeweler's saw, then i managed to break 3[!!!] of them cutting out the copper tag [pic here]. so, i'm getting better at that part! the rest of class 1 i spent texturizing & detailing the tag.

in class 2 i got to play with fire & soldered the 2 pieces together. i also cut out a silver ring, texturized & soldered it. only problem is although i thought i made it a little big, it came out a little small & i've been working for days trying to stretch it out. [fyi, it's a b*tch & ring-making is not my friend]

my left palm, thumb & pointer finger are bruised & each holds it's own strategically placed blood blister to show the fruits of my labor [bc the ring's diameter has barely increased at all]. the amount of time i've spent attempting to stretch this ring, i probably could have cut out, texturized & soldered another 5 rings...& i'd be that much better at all those other things instead of having a beat up left hand.

oh well, it's my first ring & i'm gonna make it fit!!!
maybe...
we'll see what's on the schedule for my last class.

the trip

i hardly slept sat nite beings i was so filled with anxiety about what the impending days' events.

as anticipated, mom didn't say anything & surprisingly i was able to hold my tongue.

nana is doing well thankfully.
my oldest uncle has decided it's time to cut back on some of her care. my mom spoke with him yesterday while we were down there & she said he made a valid point - we don't really know what nana is capable of at this point bc the caregivers do everything for her.

what really saddened me though was how things were at nana's.
she was practically out of food; the freezer was almost bare, the fridge held milk & eggs but that was about it & they had only a couple of slices of bread. i went to walmart & got some basic supplies & a bunch of groceries.

i almost had a meltdown as the stuff was being rung up. it's so hard for me to understand that nana had 8 kids, a lot of grandkids & great-grandkids, but no one comes around to help or even to say hello.

my nana's caregiver was talking to my mom & she kept on saying how i was the only one that came by, that somehow i always showed up in there time of need, that i was such a good person for coming by & helping as much as i did.

i could see hesitation in my mother's face when she agreed with her.

this is going to be....fun...no, not fun, very, very, not fun

so things are better with my mom, she's even calling me now, still acting like nothing happened though. she actually called to ask me if i would like to go with her to visit nana.

i said yes...while my head went in a gazillion different directions about how weird that was going to be:
- what were we going to talk about?
- will she say something finally?
- will i say something?
- will i go totally #$*(&#*( batshitcrazy & then finish the trip in tears?

so it's going to be AWKWARD^{[to the power of infinity]}

i have to let my mother run the show & only then will my presence be accepted. if i say anything or try to question her i will be met with silence, this i know. but will i be able to hold my tongue, is something i'm unsure of.

the thanksgiving blowout 2009 was just the tip of the iceberg as far as my mother's MIS-perceptions me, my life & my family. her distortions actually go back awhile & unfortunately she has chosen to believe her interpretations rather than talk to me about them.

she chose the martyr path & i'm the bad person [although i didn't know a situation existed].

i wish my mother would just *^*&$ GROW UP ALREADY, I'M REALLY ^&*%$$ TIRED OF BEING THE ADULT IN THE RELATIONSHIP!!!

school boys

B signed up for a crazy school schedule this semester - spanish II, anatomy & microbiology. i'd warned him beforehand that the 2 science classes alone were going to be hard to handle, but he really wanted to take his spanish courses back-to-back.
fast-forward a few weeks into the semester to his first anatomy test & spanish fell through the cracks [i don't blame him one bit, i think it's better to do well in 2 classes than ok in 3] & guess what?

he got an A in both parts [lab & lecture] of the test!!!! woohooo!!!
not only that, he ranked 3rd in the class, i'm so proud of him!!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
remember Z's biography report on GW? he just got his grade on it & he got 100%!!!!
we're so proud that he got such a good grade on his first report!!!

but then i was worried & i asked B "do you think that means i helped him too much?"
B said "no, you were just being a momma bird & telling him 'that's not good enough' until it was good enough".

hammerhammerhammer....that's me!

i made sure he fulfilled everything on the teacher's checklist, he chose the pics & glued them on to a background that he cut out & he even typed the report himself. he's actually quite a good typist already, i'd say in about a year he'll be faster & more accurate than B!

Z's school is a little over the top & not necessarily in a good way

for valentine's day, Z's class had a lil shindig....it was quite a conundrum.
which it shouldn't have been, um, hello, 2nd grade.valentine's day.cupcakes. candy.rice krispy treats.chocolate.jello. literally TONS of options, right?

nope

Z's school is all healthy, healthy...to the extreme.
at first i thought it was all good, considering at the old school he was fed absolute crap in the cafeteria. seriously, one day they had pb&j that wasn't even on bread, it was like a cookie/graham cracker/sugar laden crust-like encasing that was pre-packaged along with cookies & punch!

so i get the healthy thing & yes, i like it, but come on, moderation people!

no sweets what.so.ever allowed at school. i thought about different ideas & looked & searched for things to bring to class & finally decided on zucchini bread, healthy right? well, i've never made it before & didn't have a recipe so, when i looked it up, it's not so healthy - lots of oil, eggs & sugar. not only that, when i asked teacher about it, she was not receptive at all, nor did she offer up any other ideas.

last minute i decided to make cranberry muffins, they're red & i found a recipe that only used 1/3 cup of oil, 1 egg & not a lot of sugar, basically is was flour, milk & the berries [sounds like paste with chunks - yum! & i drew the line at putting wheat germ in them...] & no frosting or icing or anything good like that. when i told Z i was making cupcakes he reminded me "no sweets momma" & i told him i found a healthy recipe, but i was going to sneak the cupcakes into school under my shirt anyways.

then get this - when i brought them to school & walked through the office, the school vice principal confronted me "i hope those are following school guidelines?" [Z's school has nutrition police?]

yes, they're chunky paste muffins with dents in them that are supposed to look like hearts [that ball of foil trick didn't work so well...]. & they went over like chunky paste muffins, i brought almost 1/2 of them home. i got to try them though, they weren't that bad, a little dry though.


& as if that isn't enough:
today when we got ready for the dr appt i gave Z 2 cough drops to put in his pocket & take school. after the dr appt, he started coughing so i told him to pop one & when we got to class i told his teacher about it so she wouldn't think he had candy in his mouth. she told me he wasn't allowed to have the other one, it had to be taken to the office & if he needed it, she would send him up there for it.

so i got the cough drop, brought it back to the office carrying it like it was nitroglycerin & told them i was told my son was not allowed to have it.

one.cough.drop.

the teacher said i actually needed to leave handwritten permission for them to dispense said drop, but they didn't ask for it.

just in time for a broken elbow update

instead, we have another emergency, bc that's how Z rolls....

i heard the sound in his throat when he was crying about something weds night. on thurs am he woke up coughing & with stridor & beings we've been doing this for awhile i decided the best thing to do was head over to the new dr office to have it documented.

yup, croup, with stridor [where's my medical degree?]

she gave us a prescription for decadron & sent us on our way. glorious target didn't carry it nor did walmart so we ordered it at our last stop - walgreens. i made sure the boy had plenty of fluids, had the humidify set on jet engine with heavy saturation & he still coughed a couple of times throughout the night & woke up wheezing.

the coughing wasn't real bad, but the wheezing was. we sat at the back slider with the door open, wrapped in a blanket with his head out the door for 15min. it helped, but not enough, so back to the ER. just getting dressed he was out of breathe, i felt so sorry for him, he already is having a hard time with the cast, now he can't breath either! guh!

[can in interrupt this lil jaunt to the ER with a little something i noticed - the only time B drives the speed limit is when there's an emergency. i'm totally serious. the last time i remember him driving that slow was when my water broke & we were on our way to birthing Z. note to self, although i realize the man is trying to keep the situation calm, it drives me bonkers, so in the future do not let man drive in emergency related scenarios. i don't know that he'll survive a 3rd trip.]

they took Z back right away, gave him a chest xray, some prednizone & a breathing treatment. Z was asked about 20x about his arm, B finally convinced him to say he injured himself wrestling sharks or something along those lines. they observed him for a couple of hours & let us go even though he was still wheezing quite a bit.

tonight will be the true test, it's past 9:30 & he's still up [the steroids]. i opened his window earlier to let in cold air & when it got too cold i closed it & put the humidifier back on; hopefully he'll we'll all have a good night's rest.

9 years

today is our anniversary.

it some ways it seems impossible that we've been married 9 years. should i go into how even more inconceivable it is that we've been together for 14 years? nah....

i made this tag in my metalsmith class on tues & gave it to B. well, actually, i gave it to him & said i needed it back bc it's not finished [the heart needs to be soldered on the tag & he asked me to make the hole bigger so he can put it on his keychain] other than that we just exchanged cards. oh & B got a cheesecake for me! [woohoo!]

B had spanish class in the morning, which he ditched so he could study for an anatomy test, then he was gone until about 9:30pm. i looked at last year's post & we did more, i guess we felt like we needed to.

lady has a baby....not a real one!

Z has never really been in to stuffed animals much, although he's got quite a collection. i've tried thinning it out over the moves, but we still have a few items from the baby shower.....
one of the stuffed animals was a cute little dog; what makes it even cuter is it's colored just like Lady - black all over with tan paws. the other day Z decided he wanted to give that toy to Lady even though he knew she typically chews toys up within a matter of hours.

for some reason, we were wrong about this one though. she's had it for about a week now; she carries it around the yard & up to the top of the hill for some afternoon sun. beings she hasn't destroyed it & she even cleans it up, i let her bring it inside the house & we call it her baby. we'll even tell her "go get your baby" & she does!

it's darling.

i took a closer look at her baby though & i think she's had it with being a mom - the baby is missing an ear & it's little tail has been nibbled off!

update thurs pm - i came out of the bathroom & Lady's baby was in pieces, motherhood was not her high point.

that's not a sticker on the wall

all kids like stickers, but Z has issues about where to place the stickers....
- he used to put them on himself, but his skin would turn red
- then he put them on his shelves, bed, dresser & they'd peeled off paint or varnish so we told him that was a no, no
- next option was the walls, which looks even more ghetto, so we nixed that one too

but he forgot.

well, no i guess he didn't really forget.

i came walking down the hallway & saw something [no glasses, so something is as good as a description as you're gonna get] on the wall, so i say "Z, you know you aren't supposed to put stickers on the walls".

Z - it's not a sticker, momma

me - [cue deep breathe in] ok, whatever the object is, which has an adhesive substance on it, to which it is affixed on the wall, said object needs to be removed? [lawyer speak 101]

so he takes it off the wall & puts it on his dresser...

1 week elbow update

Z had one week check up this morning, they xrayed him again & said he was healing fine (YAH!). the cast has to stay on another 4 weeks though, then we go back in. at that appt they'll remove the cast, xray then decide whether or not he'll need another cast. they said children's healing rate vary so much that it's possible he may need one for an additional 4 weeks.

so i'm glad all is well, but i have to say that already, i'm a little concerned.
about the smell.
worrywart, i know....

but in my defense i've never had a cast before & B does call me the super-sniffer for a reason. i think he may be saying it all to taunt & freak me out [fyi, it is totally working] but i'm already about to gag on just the thought of what that little arm is going to smell like in a few more days!

weeks is unimaginable...
F.O.U.R. of them

either i'm going to have to pour clorox in the cast or place cottonballs drenched in mouthwash up my nose.

walking & talking

remember how Z's primary dr said she didn't want him going to school until he got his cast on? girlfriend knew what she was talking about...

so the elbow incident happened mon during lunch & he didn't go to school (by himself) until fri. taking that into consideration i figured the boy would really appreciate some time at his afterschool place.

he did. so much so that within an hour i was called to come pick him up. ONE hour, that means we paid $50 for that hour of care...Ugh! he hit a kid with a stick...again.

M & I talked about it some & she brought up some good points that i hadn't considered (thanks M). i don't know how closely they watch him; did they see him pick up the stick & wait to see what he was going to do with it? did they tell him to drop it immediately but he didn't? did they see the kid get hit or were they told it happened?

not that any of it would be an excuse, you would think by now Z would know to just not pick up the fricken stick right? [playing by the rules is for pansies, Z likes to make life interesting]

so i spent the weekend looking for new options & came up empty handed; where he's at now it the best [read: easiest & most affordable] place. i sat him down & told him he really needed to make this work, he needed to follow the rules, that although i'm totally loving this time i am looking for a job & the day is going to come where he has to go everyday, that right now is just for fun.

this week i've had him go for an hour each day except mon. the weather's been excellent so i walk over to get him & as we walk home we talk about how his day went. throughout the walk/talk i'm constantly interrupting him with: "don't do that, don't go over there, stay away from the rocks, no you can't walk on them, you already have one broken arm let's try & not make it two".

if i got a dollar for each time i had to say something to him i wouldn't need a job.