Please excuse the dust as we are in transition. Thanks!

PS - if none of that made any sense to you, then just click here to get to the real stuff already.

Not ALL of it is wisdom, mind you. It's just that there's enough of it in there to make me want to read it.

Grrrr...

In other news, we did NOT suffer any problems from the recent flooding across the Chicagoland area. Thankfully it seemed to cut across just south of any area that might really effect us, although Brian did have to work from home yesterday because the office he goes to was closed. He was able to still do what he needed at home though, which was fortunate. Looking over the images and reading the stories though - I am really caught off guard by the scope of the flooding. It seemed strange to me to see that areas of the airport flooded - there were pictures online of busses at the airport with water coming up steps into the bus, and people being rescued from flooding baggage terminals. In pictures of other areas - further southwest, I saw an image of the football field at my High School totally flooded and while it's next to a tiny lake, it's not really near one of the rivers that closely. In the northwest, I saw a road I frequently travelled when we once lived in Streamwood - closed off and flooded out. Areas of Elgin were hit too, although that was by the river and further away from where we once had an apartment. It all has that "it could have been us" feel to it. My heart goes out to anyone who's having to deal with the aftermath right now - especially in the seven counties that have already been declared disaster areas by the state. My heart also goes out to those dealing with Ike too, however. I can only try to imagine what dealing with these kinds of disaster must be like. Today, I feel blessed that I am safe and dry.

The rain has, however, made everything look green around here again. Driving home from dropping Jareth off at school this morning, I noticed that the fields I pass looked greener today. It feels like the last great hurrah before everything begins to turn to deep yellows, oranges, browns and reds. Already some of the leaves are turning. I love the colors this time of year. It also helps that we're coming up on a point where my allergies begin to slowly subside and give way for me to open windows and air out the house. I find myself more inclined to do fall cleaning than in the spring and already I was vaccuming like mad yesterday - clearing cobwebs and getting dust off the baseboards. Time to tidy up before we are shut in over the winter. The Fall Equinox is coming next Monday and I need to prep. Brian may take the day off so we can go to the arboretum or some other cool tree-laden place with the kids. I might look for apple-picking places too - I know a couple web sites I can peruse for those. Each of our seasonal holidays are slowly becoming more interesting with each year we do them. I've already had a few people intrigued by our Winter Solstice celebrations. Just explaining them to others has been making me look forward to Solstice already. That's a nice change from the yearly dread that I used to feel about Christmas coming.

Rambling onwards - I had a few fun moments of conversation I heard from the children as of late. A few days back, on the way to school, Jareth and Kayla were discussing motorcycles. I believe they had seen one on the road that had prompted them to talk about what "their" motorcycle would look like...

Jareth: My motorcycle would be pink!
Me: Pink? Why pink? If I had a motorcycle it would be dark blue, or black, or gray...
Kayla: My motorcycle would be gray!
Jareth: (obviously contemplating) Well...
Kayla: And daddy would push me!
Me: Daddy would push you on the motorcycle?
Kayla: (with that excited, dreamy sound to her voice) Yeah!
Me: (slightly skeptical, but amused at the imagery)Oooo-kaaay.
Kayla: AND there'd be helmets!
Jareth: Yeah, I'd have a helmet too!

I shall need to remind them of this conversation if either of them ever actually DOES own a motorcycle. That's my kids... helmeted... awesome!

Then, yesterday, when Brian didn't go to the office for work, it meant that his car was still in the garage when we got back from dropping Jareth off for school. As we backed back into the garage, Kayla - Mistress of Astute Observation - pointed out to me:

Kayla: There's daddy's car.
Me:Yep.
Kayla:Is daddy going to walk to work?

Sometimes I just love how the little wheels in their minds turn, taking what information they have to go on and making assumptions with Kid Logic algorithms. Brilliant. And totally entertaining.

I probably have a million more, but they slip away quickly over the course of the day. I'll try to post them more often as Kayla seems to be a wealth of them right now. She brain-growth-spurting, which is totally fun to watch.

I just have to keep remembering not to warp their little minds with my sad, sick sense of humor. *wink*

Anyway, that's all for now. Still considering what I want to do about the photoblog thing and how I want to handle the transition from this one to that one. I haven't decided if I want to try to import all of this one into the new one and continue from there, or just keep this one as an archived, purely html output. I do want to save this one, as it has all manner of great stuff to blackmail the kids with share with the kids one day. We'll see what happens...

Current Mood: amused

Feel free to check it out:

http://www.rayndragon.com/b2eblog/

Enjoy!

Crap. I'm getting older, aren't I? I think I just felt another hair turn gray...

My little guy was totally nonchalant about the whole thing. And he's totally still young enough to still let me smother him with hugs and kisses before leaving. I think I have at least another year before I start hearing "MOM!!" out of him and have to play it cool in front of the other kids. Fortunately, I'll be able to transfer my smotherings to my daughter at the time.

She, on the other hand, is totally loving the whole "I don't have to share SHIT while my brother's off at school! Mwahahaha!" thing I think. The family room floor is littered with toys and she has been content to let me get some work done around the house while she played on her own. More boxes to unpack and stuff to sort through. I think Jareth will likely be moving on to high school before I get everything unpacked. We're trying to find appropriate long-term solutions for the boxes of old photos and documents from my long-gone family members. One day, I'll find time for those projects. One day.

Meanwhile, I just want to get all the books back out. I think we emptied about 20 boxes over the weekend - just in books! There is actually ONE box of books that I have no use or need for anymore, but I am loathe to get rid of books unless they are really, really, REALLY useless in my life. Which means I still have a shelf half-full of British monarchy-related crap that was my mom's. Because... I might have an interest one day. Or, one of the kids might. Or... whatever. They're books, damnit. They're, like, sacred and stuff.

But the big, honking book on pregnancy can go. Been there. Done that. Two kids is enough for us. We've decided.

Besides, the health crap is still lagging on. Apparently blood pressure wasn't annoying enough - now I find that my cholesterol is crap too! I refused to go on the meds for that one yet, as I'm already on something for the blood pressure (at least it seems to be mostly working), so I'm adding three big, juicy pills of fish oil to my daily routine. Mmmm. Yay. These things look like someone pissed in the jello mix and then turned it into suppositories. And then I'm supposed to swallow them instead...

ANYway...

I think I'll just leave you with that lovely visual image. I'm off to get back to some housework before I go pick up my kindergartener from his first day...

Current Mood: accomplished

As for the meds, I am glad to be off the sleeping pills finally. After over a year on them, I don't think I was getting decent sleep AND they were no longer helping me GET to sleep in the first place. Without them, it takes me forever to get to sleep and I toss and turn and only get a decent sleep about every third night. Brian and I have been working with Melatonin in my system to try and reset my clock though and it's been getting better slowly. I think I have a problem with Restless Leg Syndrome though, and just started new meds to combat that last night...

Of course THEY made me nauseaus and then knocked me flat on my ass, leaving me drowsy again this morning - much like the sleeping pills left me drowsy. Argh. And that was the LITTLE dose. We'll see how the next few nights go, but I was at least getting better QUALITY sleep without nighttime meds when I did sleep, AND I was able to get out of bed in the morning. I don't want to go back to the sluggish, "I can't get out of bed" crap in the AM again - I lose nearly half the day. Not only that, but Jareth starts school again at the beginning of September so I'll HAVE to drag my ass out of bed and then DRIVE! I was having enough trouble before... ugh.

I've also started meds for my blood pressure. I have joked with Brian recently that all my worrying that I'd get cancer one of these days was clearly out of place - I'm going to get EVERY OTHER LITTLE FUCKING MEDICAL ISSUE INSTEAD!!! ARRRGH!!!

*pauses to destress, and thus bring blood pressure back DOWN again*

Ahh, yes. Much better.

I've been through the list of possible things that could cause blood pressure problems and the only one I can really blame is stress. I did have my blood pressure go up at the end of the last pregnancy though, and it has been "elevated" ever since. Now it's high enough that my new doctor has giving me meds to try and help.

Damnit.

Damnit. Damnit. Damnit.

I'm in a phase where I'd like to reduce as much medications from my system as possible, and detox, so to speak. I've already reduced my caffeine intake back down too. Mrrrgh. It's starting to feel like I can't have anything anymore. Nevermind I've been eating salads and slimfast bars for most of my meals for weeks now and not lost a damned pound.

*snarls vicously*

Oops. There I go again. Probably because I'm about to go stuff myself into a bathing suit again and walk down to the beach with the kids. It's wonderful having a little private beach in this neighborhood, only about a block away. It's not so wonderful having to go up and down the Super Steep Hill to get there though. But, more on that later.

Oh... did I mention that I've moved. Yeah. Except it's a pain right now, as we still need to sell the old house. At least it's finally on the market... at the worst possible time to be selling. But we're closer to the school Jareth is going to, and we have more room and a room I've been allowed to claim to be my studio... But, more on that another time. Meanwhile, I've got to get the kids some lunch before the beach. But, I wanted to check in. It's been a while since my last post. Not that I haven't written a thousand posts in my head again. I just haven't had time to write them.

Later!

Current Mood: busy

Well, actually you'd just have to pay a nominal fee to download it. Which I just might. Because it rocked.

Dude. I didn't know Doogie could SING too! Damn!

Enjoy!

Current Mood: amused

Summer also means no school for Jareth. While Kayla still has a few weeks of Parent-Child class, I decided not to go ahead with any classes or camps for Jareth. I thought it would be nice to have him home and we could relax and settle in before we start the hectic fall schedule, and Kindergarten. I also thought that we would have ALL THIS TIME to do the beach, play in the yard, see some sights (Jareth wants to go to the zoo and go on a train ride this summer) and maybe have Brian use up one or two or maybe even THREE days of his "vacation time" from work to do fun stuff with us. I was also figuring I'd have all this "extra" time that I normally spend shuttling Jareth to and fro for school. Extra time to spend working on jewelry.

And yet, it seems that so far the only chance I get to get into my studio is to water my spider plants. Which need hanging. They have baby spider plants growing on them and I'm afraid they aren't getting the right sort of light just sitting there on the ledge at the window. One of these days I'll find time to get the hooks and put them up. I suppose I could have been doing that now, instead of blogging, eh? Ahh, well...

What I AM having time for this summer is my kids! I have been playing with them (in-between all the Errands and Other Important Tasks), and doing my best to set some things up so that we will have "family time" available on the weekends. Last Saturday, we all hit the local beach and everyone except Kayla came back sunburnt! We were so involved with making our great Sand Lake and filling it with water until a wall burst, that we entirely forgot to put on sunscreen! Kayla was less ambitious about playing in the water, and thus stayed in the nearby shade more.

Of course, you'd think we'd learn from such mistakes. I spent the week staying inside mostly, attempting to avoid getting more sun on our already blistering backs. Lotioning up Jareth to try and keep him from peeling - although it peeled anyway.

But we're big, opposable-thumbed APES, really. We went out there yesterday again - more beach, more sand, more... that's right, say it - SUN! And, yes... more sunburn on Brian and I as a result. Somehow, as Brian was slathering sunblock on BOTH of our children, it never occurred to him to say "gee - should we have some of this on too?" And I LOATHE getting all slimy from the stuff so I seem to have been in avoidance mode. Fortunately, we were only out there for about half the time as before, and not at the prime burn hours.

Meanwhile, back at the... well, actually I don't live in a Ranch-style home at all, so I guess I can't use that line. Hrm. Anyway, I've been feeling a bit flummoxed (not sure if that's the spelling, but I don't know what anacronym to throw after it to show that I'm just feeling too lazy right now to look the bugger up) and frustrated. I'm trying to figure out why every morning it feels like I'm having a mild drug reaction even though I haven't changed anything in the mix lately. Grrr. I also noticed that it was HUGELY different the morning after allergy shots, which makes me wonder what's up with that. It's just never pleasant to wake up early in the morning, take some pills and pop back into bed for another hour or so and then practically NOT be able to get back out of bed because your hands and feel suddenly feel swollen and pins-and-needles! Anyway, needless to say, I should be getting off my ass and seeing a doctor. I keep trying to do things to diet and exercise instead, trying to convince myself that if I could just lose weight maybe it would make me feel better and I wouldn't have to worry about it. Except I seem totally unable to actually lose weight - I'm fighting over the same eight-pound range over and over again each month. I may have technically, finally lost a dress size in the last six months, but I am really frustrated it hasn't been better. Especially since I don't actually have any blue jeans that are actually IN that particular size. I'll have to go shopping, come Fall, and it won't be for my new "skinny wardrobe" at this rate.

The only good news is that my old, ugly swim suit actually fits me this summer. Fortunately, it's mostly black and tends to draw the eyes to the front, where the ample cleavage will distract most people from the fact that if you turn me sideways you'll see that my profile is considerably LESS of an hourglass shape than if you look at me front-on. *sigh* Back to relying on the "girls" for distraction again. God, I hate being so cliche...

For the most part, though. It is a quiet summer in. Time for me to figure out which direction I want to take a couple of things in the Fall. I'm considering applying to a college in Chicago so that I can finish my degree - this time in Fine Arts. I'm not sure that we'd be able to swing it just yet though, so it might get put on the back burner until Kayla starts school too. I am also working out how the schedule needs to start working to get my jewelry & art stuff back into gear more. I have at least three projects waiting to be finished in there and more in my head that need to be begun. I am also looking to be more involved at the school my kids are going to - They seem to want to start up a school blog, so I'll at least be involved with that. Possibly more though. There have been some issues within the works of the school - most of which I don't have enough info to really make my own opinions about - that seem to lead to a similar need for more communication between different areas of the school, if nothing else. Perhaps the blog can help facilitate that. Perhaps we will be getting involved in other ways too though, to make sure that if the school is not always what we wanted it to be, we can still have an effect on it being what we expect of it.

Okay, done rambling again. I have tons to say. Tons of pictures too. But I've spent all the time on the computer for today pretty much rambling. Bah. Maybe I'll upload some pics tomorrow. We'll see. Then again, I think tomorrow we plan to hit the beach again... Cross your fingers we remember to use the stupid sunscreen!

Current Mood: mellow

Wild horses couldn't have kept me from being there to see that. Lions, tigers, bears...

I have so much to say about this event. SO much. I shall have to try and put it down in a letter to her, however. This is not the place to be explaining things or voicing my concerns.

Suffice it to say that the bride and groom were beautiful. Stunning. I hardly know him, but I think I like him already. I have high, high hopes for their happiness as a couple.

And I'm hoping she takes my choice of wedding gift in the way it was meant - as a sentimental gesture of love. As much something I wanted to be sure she had with her and to share with her new husband. A piece of her past to start her new future with.

There is SO much I could say... And SO much I can't right now. For SO many reasons...

But I'll just end with Congratulations.

Current Mood: hopeful

Eleven years, and I still love, Love, LOVE him. I get all mushy, sappy, lustfull, and "private smile" when I think about him. Even though, sometimes, he can be totally oblivious - we are so much more often IN synch than out. And we've never gotten SO out of synch that we couldn't reconnect somehow. We always come back. Our friendship is just that strong. (and his ass is just that cute *wink*)

So, for Brian..

Anyways... (tally mark)

Back to my mommy work...

Current Mood: in love

But, time is at a premium and lately I seem to spend my "free" moments knitting.

...

Yes, I did just say that, didn't I? I spend my free time "knitting".

I have two brand new paperbacks calling for me to read them, as well as a really cool new book on jewelry. I have bunches of jewlery-making stuff calling me, begging to be put to use...

and I'm knitting.

The little play scarves I've been making the kids also seem to double as roads for matchbox cars to drive along. Yah.

There goes the last shreds of my tomboyishness, eh? One of these days someone is going to make me turn in the keys to my SUV for a bright pink minivan or something. *shudder*

We started knitting in the parent-child class I take with Kayla, and it all kind of came back to me from when I was knitting years ago during Civil War reenactments. (It gave me something to do with my hands other than smoking - which was not considered "period" for civil war women) While I haven't a clue how to make anything complicated, like a sweater or mittens, I can make simple squares and rectangles. So now one of Kayla's babies has a brand new knit blanket, there is a small red dish towel for their play kitchen, and two long stretches that could be scarves or belts for play, but seem to be mostly used as roads for the matchbox cars.

Jareth keeps insisting I make more "roads" too... I think he wants to stretch them all around the room. The little slave driver...!

I'm also coming off of making over 100 little sewn felt flower buttons on clips for the May Faire that Jareth's school held last weekend. I had other people making about 50 or 60 more of them, but I made over 100, despite claims that I cannot sew. The claims were made by ME by the way. *rolls eyes*

So much for THAT theory.

I also made some polymer clay critters. It's the first time I really played with polymer clay, and frankly I was pleased with the results. Despite the fact that Kayla has already managed to rip both the tail AND the head off the cute little kitty she got to keep out of the lot... Yeah. That's my little girl. El Destructo.

I did keep the first "bunny" I made. I shall have to post a picture at some point. I named him "Proto", as he was the prototype (although we have had several "Proto Lives!" jokes as a result). There's a story in my head, relating to Proto, however, that was part of the reason I couldn't part with him. Perhaps I will relay that when I get the pic up. We'll see...

More later. Knitting now! (Or maybe I'll actually start to READ one of my books...)

Current Mood: weird

Tuesday night, as I crawled into bed, I told Brian how miserable I was feeling. "I'm suffering," I complained. At the time, however, I thought it was just allergies. I'd been gettting progressively feeling worse for about a week, but most of the symptoms seemed to be allergy ones. Kayla, however, had thrown up the night before. She had been refusing to eat much on Monday, so I knew she was fighting something off, and I'd given her Tylenol and such to help ease the discomfort. She'd eaten great at dinner, so I thought she'd been feeling better. Then dinner arrived on her bedsheets. She was pretty upset. She's only had her "big girl bed" for a couple of weeks now and was devastated to have "noodles" (mac & cheese) all over her new butterfly sheets.

Then she seemed fine all day Tuesday. On the mend. Must have been a 24-hour bug...

Then, Tuesday night, she and I both started throwing up around 3am. I believe Brian said she threw up four times, or at least there were that many outfit changes for her. I wouldn't know for sure though - I was in the bathroom throwing up and having diarreah myself nearly every half an hour. Around 8am, I threw in the towel and we all crawled into the car for a trip to the ER. Kayla and I BOTH had IVs put in. My poor little girl was such a trooper. Brian has this picture of her sitting there with her arm all wrapped in gauze on a small board to keep the IV in place. She looks so sad and tired in it.

We were at the hospital for hours and hours - From about 9am to about 5pm. They gave me a couple of things for nausea and I had an allergic reaction to the second one. That's a first for me, so now I know I can't have Phenegran. I keep rolling that word in my mouth, trying to make sure I remember it well, so I can tell doctors later on. Fffffen-eh-gran. Phenegran. After the horrible tingling, pins-and-needles in my hands, arms, legs, and feet, and all the surface muscles in my legs clenching, and the roiling and twitching in my abdomen, and the overall feeling that something was just wrong with me... AND I was hypersensitive to every touch sensation. I haven't shaved my legs in a couple days and I swear it felt like someone had tossed a porcupine under the sheets to snuggle up against my legs. *shudder*

They dosed me good with Benadryl to deal with the reaction and gave me some other stuff. At the time I felt torn between that feeling that maybe more drugs weren't the solution, but still... glad they finally found the concoction to make me feel better. Still, there was a little while where I was torn when they offered to keep me overnight for observation. There was still some numbness and pins-and-needles feeling in my extremeties when we left the hospital, but I just wanted to get home to my own bed. After which, with some meds for nausea and pain I passed out for a good long time last night.

Today is a rest day. Brian stayed home (although he's been trying to telecommute on his work laptop too) to take care of Kayla and I while I rest. Problem is... can't just sleep the entire day away. The pain stuff they gave me doesn't totally knock me out that much. So... my laptop has travelled up to the bedroom for a while to keep me a little entertained. Thought I'd actually throw a blog post up for once. Heh.

Tons to get done tomorrow though, as a result. Grocery shopping has been bounced back to then. I also need to do final preparations for Jareth's birthday party this Saturday, as well as a family get-together for it on Sunday. I still haven't picked up the gift WE want to get him either. And I have some phone calls to make from the RSVPs. Happily, though - looks like it will be a fairly good crowd of kids for his party. He's totally excited.

Alright, enough for now. Tired of typing. More rest...

Current Mood: sick

Summary:

Saturday was my birthday.

Went really great.

Details LATER. Once I figure out why my browser keeps opening the wrong program for PDF files, which shuts it (the browser) down completely AND once I figure out how to disable the damned trackpad on my laptop so I quit bumping it with my wrists when typing - thus losing my entire (rather long) post.

I even tried to copy the last post before the program shut down, to keep the text to retry it. This is what I got when I pasted:

---------------------------
Acrobat plug-in.
---------------------------
The Adobe Acrobat/Reader that is running can not be used to view PDF files in a Web Browser.
Please exit Adobe Acrobat/Reader and exit your Web Browser and try again.
---------------------------
OK
---------------------------

DAMNIT! Let's not even TALK about how many times I have exited my web browser to try again. *grumble*

I think I'll go set something on fire now. Did I mention I got a new torch for my studio for my birthday? Or, maybe I'll just head upstairs and hide under my nice new birthday blankie. It's warm and soft. Not like the computer. It's warm and cruel. Grrrrr.

More later. Grumpy now.

Current Mood: grumpy

It arrived early last week and I've only JUST managed to retrieve all my archives off of my older version of Opera so I can properly log in to all my web crap and such. And I'm still having royal arguements with MS Outlook and iTunes, trying to import archives so they mesh with my phone... bleh. It all makes my head hurt. Needless to say I've been busy importing, downloading, installing, and cursing. Eventually, though, it will all be done and it will be totally cool at my little laptop. Yay! *crosses fingers*

That'll probably be about the time I need to upgrade again... right? *rolls eyes*

I'm looking forward to getting it all into some assemblence of order though. Then I can spend a little time each week working on the web sites that need updating. Like this one. *grin*

Meanwhile, this week is spring break. *twitch* I had the kids home all last week because of illnesses, and now this week there just ISN'T school. *twitch-twitch* I think I'm a wee bit stir crazy in here.

More later. Other stuff to do now.

Current Mood: crazy

Oh MAN, but it slips by so fast.

And she is in this super-uber-knock-you-off-your-feet-'cause-she's-so-damned-CUTE phase right now.

I swear, sometimes I don't get anything done because I'm just sitting there, mesmirized by the cuteness...

Go on... I dare ya... pictures are here! If I get a chance, I will add captions. Some are from the weeks before her birthday, and some are from the dinner celebration we had Sunday night, as well as Monday itself.

Current Mood: jubilant

Meanwhile, now I just need to stop trying to dodge the "colonoscopy" bullet. One of these days. Maybe. Mostly I'm still too terrified of that one to go. No matter how many times people tell me that I won't remember a thing... *shudder*

Anywho... All tests CURRENTLY in circulation come in clean. That's worth something. *nod-nod-nod*

Meanwhile, back at the ranch... in less than a week's time, my daughter will turn TWO YEARS OLD. Already!?!

Pictures coming soon. Ooooh! - and so's that laptop I've been whining about! *bounce*

Current Mood: relieved