When it rains...

This week has been utterly one of the most annoyingly awful weeks that I have had to go through in quite awhile. As a matter of fact, I'm not sure it is over yet due to the fact that it is Friday. I still have to get through Saturday without any massive mishaps. We shall see.

Today we got a lovely kick in the head. You see, as of the last month, Alex has been suffering more and more with his allergies. I am not surprised in the slightest seeing as how Josh (Mr. no allergies) has found out that he, too, shall now be added to my medicine board. (I have a dry-erase board that I keep track of all medicine taken in the house.) Anyhow, so he has developed allergies in his old age. We finally broke down and got him started on Claritin. Joy of joys...more money to shell out. As if Alex's medicine wasn't enough. This isn't the kick in the head either. You see, Alex has also been getting Xopenex breathing treatments more and more often since allergy season kicked into full gear. I thought that this was normal for a kid with allergies and asthma. I was apparently horribly mistaken. His constant bouts of coughing has become more and more frequent. It isn't bad until around bedtime. He seems to be worse the more that he plays outside. And so Claritin has been in his system nonstop now for over a week. But each night for the last five days, he has woken up at midnight with a horrible asthma cough that turns into a wheeze. These are his version of an asthma attack/episode. Not good. Not good at all. So I called the doctor to see when I might need to schedule an appointment to talk about options to control it better. They freaked out when I told them he'd had a rescue inhaler treatment for five days in a row. Apparently, well controlled asthma would involve only having rescue inhalers (Xopenex) twice in two to three months. WHAT?!? Why didn't any other docotor tell me this?? Ugh...now how bad of a mom do I feel like? So after a very long appointment with a very nice doctor, Alex is officially on three meds a day for as long as it takes to get him in control. He shouldn't have another cough or wheeze for two to three months before we try to back him down into his least medicated control niche. And to add to our kick in the head, we also got a punch in the gut. The combo of this medicine will be like adding a brand new car payment to our monthly budget. The only thing we found out of interest was that the thing that causes really bad problems with allergies at night and in the morning is dust. He has a dust allergy so that would make sense. But how much more crap do I have to do around this joint to make it cleaner?? If you knew what I already did, you'd be asking the same thing. So all that medicine is kind of scary. What is it doing long term? But the alternative is worse. The doc handed me a book called "Mikey's Mom Didn't Know That Asthma Could Kill..." Great...now I feel better. Sheesh. What the flippin' monkeys happened to my week?

So it's been a B-E-A-utiful week here if you combine into the mix Josh's lack of work flow and the knock-down-drag-out family feud we had on my side of the gene pool. We're talkin' Jerry Springer crap here folks. (Don't ask, for I shan't go into the gory details. But it's pretty funny stuff.) Let's just say that I once thought that Jerry Springer was all made up, but now I am a believer. It's totally real. So when it rains, it truly does poor. Tomorrow is another day...so, bring it on!

A brief moment of non-zen

I woke up today with a rain cloud over my house. No...seriously, this isn't a metaphor. It was a cloudy and kind of drizzly day. So this only meant that outside play time was going to be drastically lowered today. Alex and Abby have become so used to being outside during almost every waking moment, that it is nearly impossible for them to enjoy the days without it. Not a problem for the most part. But today it was only about 60 degrees in the morning and I didn't feel like breaking the pants back out. So they got to stay inside and enjoy the boredom that is our house. I was actually hoping that it would do good for Alex's allergies. They have been in a full blown uproar these past weeks. Poor kid. Claritin and Xopenex nearly every day. It's a curse, I swear that it is. I always find myself wishing that it would be me with the issues. At least, as an adult, I could understand why it was happening to me. But alas, this isn't how it panned out. So on to my moment of non-zen.

In his attempt to make as much mischief as he can so as to rebel against his outside ban, Alex decided to climb up to where I was charging my new cell phone. Before I go on, let me say that I love my new cell phone. It is merely a Net10 phone but could have fun ringtones on it. I had a Star Wars one and a Transformers background. It was my own little personal phone. (Can you see where this is leading?) So he unplugged it from the wall and before I could get to him, he snapped the charger from the phone and pulled the guts out of it, making it forever unchargable. Nice, right? Well, at least I had a nice full battery of charge left on it until I could get a new phone to replace it, right? Yeah...not in a moment of non-zen. Josh got home and took it upon himself to attempt to restuff the pieces back into the phone. One cuss word, a bloody finger, and one dead phone later, my moment of non-zen was complete. Dead...gone...my happy little phone is no more than a fun new toy for the kids. Seriously people, as petty as it sounds, this really sucks. Well, Josh didn't like the idea of me gallavanting all over with two kiddos and no emergeny phone to call 911. So I got a new phone from the same stupid store I got this last one in hopes of it being the same and guess what? It isn't. It doesn't even have different ringtones as an option! What the fart!?! What kind of stupid phone these days doesn't have at least a list of 20 cheezy ringtones to choose from. Take it back to the store, right? No...I stupidly called Net10 to switch my minutes to it already before realizing the phone totally sucks. *sigh* Zen doesn't like me very much.

Happy Birthday Penny, Jasmine, & Logan!

On another Williams' animal note today, Penny, Jasmine, and Logan turn three years old today. Three years ago, Josh and I were living with my parents in an attempt to find a house of our own. I was massive pregnant with Alex and found these wee little kittens that a mama kitty could no longer care for. She died a few days after I took over for her. They had a little brother that didn't make it and the three of them were hard pressed to make it through themselves. Massive amounts of medicine, one eye removal surgery and lots of bottles later, they pulled through against the odds that the vets gave them. Today, they are healthy and strong. They are also spoiled rotten! They spend their time sleeping, playing, and being vultures (scavenging for food anywhere we might leave it out...hey, in their head if it's left out it's rightfully theirs). Happy Birthday Kitties! Our lives wouldn't be the same without you!

We Bid You Adieu

Yesterday evening, Bob, our beloved betta fish, swam his last swim. He has left our humble house for that great fish bowl in the sky. He was a good fish. Always there to greet the day. He had a good life, full of adventure (once again...see the Super Bob posting) and was a good addition to the family. In honor of Bob, all toilet flushings today will be in honor of him. There will never be another quite like him. Here's to you Bob...you'll be missed.

One of Those Weeks...

So it's going to be one of those weeks that everything seems to be against you. Those kind of weeks wear the body and mind very thin and sometimes it seems that those kind of weeks...let me rephrase that. THESE kind of weeks are the kind that makes it very difficult not to want to punch a fist through a wall. What? You've never felt like punching a fist through a wall? Oh...well perhaps that is one of those 'how you were raised' situations. It was not all too uncommon to see fist-sized holes littering the thin walling of our mobile home. Four kids, one bathroom and angry, hot-headed teenage years. Did I mention that three of the four of us were red-heads? Maybe that changes things. Don't go judging me. I'm non-violent for the most part. Just hot-headed.

So let's get on to the week at hand. Apparently Josh is never going to work again. Okay, so that's a bit of an exaggeration. I'd love to blame it on the economy, but who's to know for certain. So he has gotten a whopping 8 hours of work. The upside is that he was home to help shovel the 17 tons of rock around our driveway. There are still about 2 tons, if I could guesstimate, left to haul. It's amazing that between the two of us, we will have lifted around 15 tons of rock. Who needs weightlifting right? What the heck...it builds character...and blisters...and muscle spasms...and a large ibuprofen bill.

Next up, we have the craptacular allergy season in full swing. Alex has been a wreck. Naturally, with the sun shining ever brightly, he wants to be outside all day. How can I begrudge him that? I'm an outdoors person anyway. Unfortunately he either has a massive allergy fit or an awful asthma cough that he can't shake without the joyous world of medicine. The allergens even killed our play-date with Wesley. We had to rush home to get him dosed up before he coughed himself into unconsciousness. Lovely eh?

And to add insult to injury, Bob, (Click here to read about Bob)my beloved beta is looking as though he is on his deathbed. I'm not sure how much longer he will hold on. My prayers go out to him. Apparently, I found out that the betas you buy in the store are more than likely to be over one year old already and they have a whopping long lifespan of 3 to five years in the best conditions. He lives in a one gallon tank with goldfish food (he chose the food seeing as how it was the only kind he would gobble-up). He was originally Alex's fish. Alex lost interest fairly fast. Seeing as how fate has given my son animal allergies, and how I'm an animal lover who needs multiple animals to care for, my family is doomed to animal restriction. So I took it upon myself to care for the little guy. Naturally I've grown quite fond of his fishy little face. He always greets me so eagerly for his meals. He's a good fish and I hope he pulls through. I will indeed shed a tear for him if I am forced to give him the traditional flushing funeral. Poor Bob.

So can the week get worse? Well, duh...of course it can. Anyone would be stupid to say otherwise. But it does seem to suck when a week has more downs than ups. I'm sure you've all been there. So for now, I will control my hot-headed urge to swiss cheese my walls. I shall wait and see what tomorrow brings. For the weekend is the beginning of the next week.

Stuck in the Mud

ROCK HAULING PARTY...
My driveway...
bring a shovel.

Too many times, I've woken up to Josh sitting on the couch on a perfectly good work day, waiting for a tow truck to come haul his van out of yet another sticky predicament. Even on the days when he doesn't have to call in the pros, his tires will spin their way slowly out of the massive mud-holes that have been created in thier well-worn mud pits. Naturally, the massive and constant flow of rain, as of late, has not aided in the remedying of this situation. So...I've had it. No more, will I hear the angry cussing of Josh's frustrating situations. Yesterday, we had a load of the cheapest possible rock delivered to our house. 17 tons, to be precise. Have you ever seen 17 tons of rock? No? well, it makes for a very large pile of rocks. Alex was thrilled to see the humongous dump truck back into the perfect spot and dump it's load. I must admit, that it was impressive from my stand point as well. Kudos to the people who drive and operate those things. It's a bit intimidating. So, as Josh was yet again out of work for the day, (stupid freakin' economy...grumble, grumble) we all went outside to have a rock-haulin' good time. And of course, by 'good time' I really mean back-breaking-give-yourself-a-heart-attack-from-shoveling good time. (if that's your idea of a good time, at least). Abby was the lucky one, snoring away in the bedroom. Two shovels, two wheelbarrows, and two people. The progress was not impressive. Every car that drove by, gave us a nice look. The rock is about two inches from the road and pretty much blocking almost all access out or in to our driveway. We even had a sheriff stop by and tell us how much he did SO not envy us. I told him he was more than welcome to grab a shovel and join in the fun. He didn't take me up on the offer.

Alex was pulling his weight. The rock pile is a huge hit for the kid. He climbed it. Slid down it. Helped us shovel with his mini-shovel and mini-wheelbarrow. He threw rocks into the mud pits. He had a blast. It kept him so busy and entertained that my totally irrational part of the brain thought that keeping a rock pile in my backyard would be fun. (It's a good thing the rational part of my brain works harder) So here are some pictures of the giant pile of rocks. We're gonna be busy for awhile.

Blogging

Alrighty. So I did have this elaborately written blog entry, full of a plethora of interesting information that was cleverly worded so as to entertain you for at least a good 2 minutes of joy-joy reading time...but the fan-freakin-tastic internet company we have decided to have a core meltdown as soon as I hit the 'publish post' button. Go figure. So, nevertheless, I am utterly annoyed at the pathetic excuse for a company that is responsible for this trivial bit of annoyance to my day. It was down for about two hours. And during this two hours was my only spare bit of kid-free time. So perhaps tomorrow, I will be agitation-free enough to attempt to recapture that very special blogging moment. And would you like me to leave you with a bit of irony? Yes? Well, the title of the blog was supposed to be "Bald by 40". The purpose of the entry, you ask? To explain the very things that have been wearing on my much-too-thin nerves, resulting in the pulling out of my own hair. Someone remind me to buy some earmuffs for the kids, cuz mama needs to cuss.

Happy Mother's Day!

To all my fellow Mama's...



A special shout out to my very own mother-dearest. I love ya mom! Thanks for everything you've done for me and taught me over the years. I hope I can be as great a mom as you are. In fear of forgetting someone, I really don't want to list the names. But, if i know you and you are a mom too, this blog's for you!

Attack of Psycho Cleany Mom

I don't know if it is because of the spring or if it is because my kid's allergies are going bananas, but I have become obsessed with making this stinking house clean (literally...it smells bad). Over the last week or so, I've been performing a cleaning exorcism on anything I can reach. And for those things that I can't reach, aka the deeper carpet and ductwork, I hire a professional. That's right folks. You heard me. I hired someone to come clean my carpets this week. And for a very reasonable price, this guy also did a nice little number on the ventilation system. I did some research about unhealthy houses and one of the things I read a lot about was the air ducts in your house. Apparently they can be a comfortable little home for all sorts of nasties. Falling under the 'nasties' category would be dirt, dust, bugs, cobwebs, allergens, mold, and various other things that I'd rather not know about. This guy said that when the hoses get clogged, a number of times it is some form of dead animal that crawled up there to die. (hmm...so that might explain the smell) If you want to be thoroughly disgusted by your home, then get your ducts cleaned. All I can really say is...blech! It was like he stuck the vacuum into a box of cat food or litter and just started sucking away. And that was with each vent he did. Not all of them combined. He showed me a before and after of one of the vents and it was shocking. He also treated each vent duct with an anti-microbial treatment that is supposed to help kill off bacteria, viruses and allergens before they reach your air for a year. I'm hoping that this will change Alex's allergies/asthma for the better. I am also very proud to say that my carpets now look spectacular! I no longer fear the bacteria that my children pick up with every fallen cheerio they decide to eat. He also did a nice little allergen treatment on the carpet too. So here's hoping that we are on the road to recovery as far as detoxing the house goes. This weekend is for redoing the moldy siding outside. And next weekend we tackle the dreaded moldy wall in the bedroom. Sometimes it really sucks having an older house. If ever there was a time I wanted to move soon, that time would be now. Ugh...

Candy + Toddler = Potty Training

Candy, Candy, Candy. It's ALL about the stinkin' candy. What is it with kids and sugar, huh? As you may remember, I've been having bouts of potty training success. Granted, the success seems to be totally related to the candy I serve up as a tasty treat in the wonderful world of reward programs. I started out with smarties. Alex didn't fare to well with those. They were great for a day or two, but he never quite enjoyed them enough to use the toilet. So we moved on. Keep in mind that it is not that easy to find a plethora of candy types to quench his desire for the sugary snacks. Due to the joy joy milk allergy he has been dealt, chocolate is out. So the all-time favorite potty treat of M&M's are out. So we moved on to Twizzlers. They worked. For about a week. Then it became old hat and his interest in using the potty dwindled. So I tried Dum-dums. They were an enormous hit. We even had our first poop on the pot with that little treat. But I couldn't stand giving him ten suckers a day so it had to stop. So it was on to Skittles. Another temporary hit. Jelly beans...hit...potty strike. Sweet-tarts...hit...potty strike. Turns out that the key must be variety. He can't stand to be bored with his treat jar so it's time to mix it up. We found Gummy Bears and Gummy worms. Party mints and past tried and true candies. They all will be plaguing my house until this kid is finally potty-trained. It's a darn good thing I have massive self control when it comes to candy, otherwise I'd be in big trouble (and by big, i mean fat).

And for good measure, here are a couple pics for your viewing pleasure:

It's official, Abby truly does have the monkey genes that Alex was blessed with. Looks like it's hereditary.

Alex loves being cheezy for the camera now.

And look what we have here! Are those little, tiny pony tails I see on miss Abby? Why yes they are! Her hair is finally growing.

Weed Control

Is your yard an annoyingly endless sea of dandelions? You too could have the newest weed control on the market....

Destructo-Toddler

(he he he....priceless. And yes...it was all his idea.)