Flowers

Head for the hills... my mom just planted flowers.... is it a full moon? is there a storm headed our way? if you know my mom... this is extremely abnormal behavior. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Mr Croc...

I came across this picture as I was downloading Alex's pictures from Florida.... Mr Croc isn't looking to happy! Alex did an amazing job taking pictures ! I'm not clear I could have stayed close enough to this sharp tooth character....

The Roundup!

Whew , the good news, I have a working washer and dryer! The dryer just needed a new heating element, and I actually found a local person selling a 2 year old front loader washing machine on eBay ! Its about a 1000.00 dollar washer that I ended up buying for less then 300! It was used by an older man and he was downsizing to an apartment and had no need for it. WOW , I have been using the heck out of it! and to make the deal sweeter, I had an 8 % percent coupon for any purchase on eBay. BONUS! It doesn't seem like much , but when your buying large ticket items. It matters!
Now the frustrating thing.... the youth baseball teams are a mess this year! Aaron had practice at 4 today which requires me to leave work earlier than normal to get him there on time, Andy needed to be in a town 30 mins away for his away game that they changed the actual start time several times within 24 hours. Kinda makes planning DIFFICULT. So the grand plan is that I'm staying with Aaron until his practice is over, Doug is taking Andy to his game (since Doug is one of the coaches it kinda works out...! ) After Aaron's practice I am also driving the 30 minutes to Andy's game ... I arrive and wait, and wait... oh yeah... I waited some more, they moved us from field to field . After being there over an hour and trying to control an out of the blue nosebleed with Aaron ( thank you Heidi for the wipes! )they cancel the game because the field we end up with has no bases, no lines, and there is no umpire. LOVELY! Not only that, when they ordered uniforms no one got the size they ordered, and the actual sponsor of Aaron's team is misspelled. Betcha that company appreciates that! Chaotic . Maybe its just me, but I've spent 75.oo for the boys to just play, sold over a 100 bucks worth of candy , completely rearranged my schedule and this is what they have created. Thank goodness Alex was along to keep moving the chairs and bags . He was a huge help tonight, he just doesn't get enough credit most of time .

Now see I've written a long ranting blog again.... I've gotta stop doing that, I had planned on posting some new baseball pics from the game... so much for that plan.

The not so good day...

There's a song ringing through my head - Daniel Powter- Bad Day. Its like I can hear it right now... it should have been playing there all day... The morning started out rough, Alex had a seizure while getting ready for school ... not a biggie , we have to deal with that at least weekly...still ... stressful ! I manage to get everyone to the appropriate places and head to work. I stopped for a quickie tanning session, since we will be beachfront in the next few weeks I've decided to "ready" myself. The helpful lady tells me after my 20 minutes of fake baking that , yes, those were new bulbs. I've been begging for a vat of aloe to roll in.
I get to work and everything is chaos. I work with some real winners! Not everyone, but people that think the state abbreviation NE must be New England, ummm... No. Lets try Nebraska! That's just a small dose of the duh moments . Lets just say I spent my day rerouting orders and fixing boo boos . Frustrating when your coworker is taking an order and thinks New England is a state. In the midst of the madness... my cell rings ... the principal of the elementary... is that ever really a good sign? it took me a minute to realize it , I think that was my first call ever from the principal . As it turns out my dear little Andy had made an offbeat comment that a little girl took home and told her mother, who in turn called Mr nice principal ,who then called me with concerns. I won't go into details since dear little Andy is a bit embarrassed . I'll just say he got caught up and said something he should not have, not realizing what he was really saying. I'm glad I was contacted at least!
So I get home from work at about 7 , remember that my dryer quit working yesterday and my amazingly handy hubby had not fixed it. No problem, I'll wash some clothes and they can hang to dry since the rain is moving out. WRONG. The washer is now broken with no obvious problem other than NOT working.
Its 7:30 ... that nagging little thought in my head starts ... dinner... ohhh right.! I make spaghetti with some texas toast -- while the toast is in the oven , I start gathering the "must wash" items for tomorrow . I come back to the kitchen ... HUGE GIGANTIC flames coming out of my oven. So what do I do? scream. loud. Which brings everyone into the kitchen including the dogs , small kitchen, big flames.... BAD.
After manhandling those flames, I was off to the laundromat . Joy , happiness and rapture. I decided I could do 2 loads and get through the next few days until hubby fixes whatever ails Mr dryer and Mrs washer. *Crossing my fingers that its something really stupid and simple*I don't know about everyone else but when I buy laundry detergent I buy the HUGE jugs , the kind that sit on their sides and weigh 100 pounds. We are big time laundry fans in this house! * note sarcasm * my point, I wasn't willing to drag that beast to the laundromat. I'm thinking they sell those cute small boxes of detergent . I can live with that. Except the machine is out of order. NICE. I ended up running across the street to a convenience store and buying a small bottle of detergent for a small fortune of course. On the plus side, I found 8 bucks while doing a load of jeans. It has just been one of those days. Crazy , Chaotic , Completely Neurotic. The forecast is calling for sunshine and I'm believing the next couple of days are going to be just that great. I am a believer ;o)

15 years

Yes, its hard to believe we have been married 15 years today, not to shabby for a pair of kids that knew each other 3 months before tying the knot ! I think the good Lord has tested each wedding vow we exchanged times two ;o) The last 15 years have been an incredible journey and I'm looking forward to the next 15 years and what that holds in store for us !

nothing much

Well I've certainly slacked in my blogging haven't I? I wish I had some mind boggling mind news to put forth but alas I do not. We are just struggling through the last few months of school . Deciding which route to take with Alex next year... keep him at home... or send him on to high school. Putting together the final plans of our annual beach vacation, and yes baseball for Andy and Aaron. Alex's bowling league will be starting up in May ... its crazy time in JoAnn Land!
Alex should be getting his braces off very soon, which means Andy is on deck for his " grill " . We are seeing a new doctor with Alex next Friday and hopefully it will explain some of his behaviors...and we will know how to help him ! we shall see! I have high hopes! but for now, I'm going to keep envisioning myself on the beach , pina colada in hand , that alone will pull me through.... ;o)

and he is back !

I don't know if I mentioned last week that Alex was going with my dad and some buddies from work to Florida to do some wild boar hunting. They left early Sunday morning and drove most of the way , stopped over in upper Florida for the night. After finally making it to the camp ... I think everyone had a really good time! Alex shot 3 pigs , had the chance for some turkeys but I think he was pretty focused on getting the big p.i.g. . He came home with some really good Alligator pictures but not so good pig pictures! Go Figure! They stayed so far out in the wilderness that it literally took a certain body position at just the right time to get cell phone reception . We had some interesting conversations .... LOL. Alex did very well ! I'm pretty proud of him - he did have a mild case of homesickness but he worked it out and only had about 2 major seizure episodes! My dad handles Alex like a pro when he has those so I knew I had nothing to worry about ! They have a pretty tight relationship and look after each other! So the silence is broken here at home ... isn't it strange how adding a teenager into the mix stirs the pot up?! Ya gotta love those teen years.... right?! Its good to have him home again , mouth and all!

Health Care ...

Tonight I watched 60 minutes. Anyone that knows me , understands that I'm passionate about health care! 60 minutes did a story on a medical facility in Nevada that actually closed the doors and turned away the cancer patients without health care due to state budget cuts . I know that I've moaned and groaned about our monthly premiums through Doug's job, on the other hand I know we are his insurance company's worst nightmare! Alex's seizure medication runs about 5,000.00 a month. That's just medication . That doesn't include EEG's , all his visits to his neurologist, or the Vagal Nerve Implant he had done in 2ND grade. The surgery for that alone was over 20,000. The battery in the implant is due to be replaced soon , its already outlasted its normal usage. The replacement battery is somewhere in the neighborhood of 10, 000. Granted his insurance has picked up a huge portion of that, but this program on 60 minutes really started making me think what if? Doug could have been one of the many cut recently at work . Yes there is a program called COBRA , even that is amazingly expensive. There is always medicaid if you fit the income guidelines. What a scary thought to not be sure we could qualify for that? - who accepts it? How can we live in the United States of America and have this health care crisis? how can we refuse to treat cancer patients ? or who knows how many other people suffering health problems? I know everyone has their own opinion on who's to blame for the crisis, and I completely acknowledge the United States still has better health care than almost any other country but for me this hits to close to home . So the next time anyone hears me complaining about the health care premiums smack me upside my head please !

Little Reminders

* Little reminders that these are the moments that matter the most *