DragonBlog

Utter Lack of Copeability...

To be perfectly honest, my ability to cope with the crap life likes to throw at me is just starting to shut down. It's like these little things happen (okay, maybe 4-5 inches of water covering a good majority of the basement/family room floor isn't a "little" thing, actually) and my brain starts to shut off in some sort of panic mode. The tears start welling up, my stomach starts hurting, and my chest gets all tight. I panic. I'm not sure if I'm afraid of trying to deal with the situation at hand, or afraid of what might happen if I can't deal with it.

On one hand, my computer survived the water "disaster" we had here today. All computers that are important seem to be safe and sound. Both Brian and I are hooked up to the internet again from the safety of our living room. I still need to hook up a couple of the printers and what-not, but most of the essentials ae running again, however displaced from their normal locale they might currently be. And, not a ton of papers and other important stuff got wet. A few items here and there have been found that are nerve-wracking, but so far nothing has been discovered (that I'm yet aware of anyway) that was super-important and yet destroyed. I think more things were broken in the flurry of moving stuff around in the cleanup than were lost in the water damage. Unless you start talking furniture. But we can't be sure on that stuff for a few days yet. There are big, loud fans/dehumidifiers all over the basement, drying things out. Time will tell how well the furniture fared.

On the other hand, the carpet and padding were all taken away earlier today by the Servicemaster men who the insurance company sent. There is this butt-ugly linoleum tile down there. We didn't even know there WAS tile under the carpet! There are also carpet tacking strips (those little wood slats with nails sticking out of 'em to hold the carpet in place along the edges?) all over at the walls and threshold areas. The stairs downstairs are soggy. There are watermarks on the walls.

And then there's the matter of the several-hundred-dollar plumbing bill. The guy who was supposed to come between 9 and 11 am in the morning finally arrived late in the afternoon. We wanted the pipe sweat soldered higher up along the wall (the pipe burst at an area by an old water softener we weren't using anymore), but it was $200 cheaper to have him solder it out at the end of the spot where the water softener met with it. Whatever. It cost more than we'd budgeted for all our solstice gifts combined next month, just to solder a little copper elbow onto a couple copper pipes. So much for Brian and I giving each other gifts. We'll scrape enough together for Jareth to get his, but that's probably about it. Let's just say it's a damned good thing Brian has already gotten the first paycheck from the new job. Otherwise we wouldn't have had the money in the bank. But it'll still be tight. And we don't yet know how much the insurance is going to cover and all. We may need to cough up a deductible soon.

It's. just. not. fair.

Just when we thought things were about to start getting better, what with Brian's new job to make the financial end of things a little easier and our schedules about to smooth out. Just as I was starting to think we were formulating plans and things were looking up.

SLAM!

I hate my house.

And I'm feeling particularly bitter about life today. Very cynical indeed.

I want to break something, I'm so upset.

But that would be counter-productive, since so many things are already broken, now wouldn't it?

*sigh*

I'm going to go to sleep now. Maybe things will look brighter (or at least less dim) in the morning...

Current Mood: angry

Because I just didn't have ENOUGH chaos in my life right now...

HOLY FUCK!!! LOTS WATER!!!

I am typing this quick before I sign off, shut down, and pull my computer up into the living room where I hope I can get everything working properly again. I am also typing this with my feet in flip-flops that are resting in about an inch of water. On my family room floor. This is NOT where water belongs.

Grrrrr.

At about 5:30 am this morning I got up to go to the bathroom. I heard water. It's been raining, but not THAT hard. And the pipes were making noise too. So something was running. I went downstairs. The ceiling in the kitchen was raining again, but we have a pan to catch that - we're used to that little problem. Annoyed by it. But used to it nonetheless.

I stopped short when I got halfway down the small flight of stairs to the family room. There was water on the floor. And the water I heard running was gushing. I bolted back upstairs to get Brian. He went down into the danger zone and turned off the water main.

We've got a pipe broken. We had several inches of water in the bathroom, laundry room, and family room. There's stuff inevitably destroyed. Insurance has been called.

Thankfully, my computer seems to be working. I had it on an inch-thick board on the floor, to keep it off the carpet. It looks like it might have been just enough to do the trick. However, it's getting moved RIGHT NOW.

I am NOT amused.

More later, assuming there aren't further problems.

Current Mood: distressed

TidBits...

While perusing the web, I happened across this Art of Rain site. Technically a niche market, but I think it's kind of cool, especially from a metalworking / making something ordinary asthetically pleasing perspective. I may just have to get me one of these some day, when I settle into a dwelling I intend to stay in for a good long haul.

In other news, Brian's folks were kind enough to drop by and bring us leftovers from the Thanksgiving dinner we missed, so we did not go turkeyless after all! (Thanks again guys!! Yum!!) We nearly overdid it on our delicate tummies, indulging in the goodies they brought, but we managed not to "rent" any of it.

Jareth, on the other hand, was throwing up more yesterday, so as a family we're not out of the sickness woods yet. Nonetheless, our friend Matt still came to visit us (something we'd already had planned) even though we warned him how sick we've been. We just made sure there was no sharing of kitchen utensils, or likewise, since this is primarily transferred through direct contact and not airborne. Fortunately, Brian thinks to ask those questions when we're at the doctor. My tummy is still feeling off though, so I've been taking it easy on the food front. I also fought my way through a nasty headache last night, but overall we do seem to be on the mend.

Meanwhile, some stuff is starting to catch up to us again. Like the fact that tomorrow is going to be the end of the nice long weekend we've had over the holiday. I will have had Brian home for a wonderful four and a half days! This is unheard of in recent months, so I've been basking in it, personally.

In other words, screw blogging more right now... I'm going to go spend more time with my family now! Nyah!

More soon. Pics still coming. Honest.

Current Mood: grateful

Not the way we planned it...

First off, while it still IS Thanksgiving, I'll just send out a general wish that everyone out there had a good one. Or, at the very least, better than mine. But that doesn't actually take much. I'm sick. Not only am I sick but, in fact, the entire group of us is sick.

It technically started a few days ago, with my son. But sometimes it can be hard to tell with him. He's thrown up a few times and we were watching him because of it, but he didn't seem to develop any other symptoms than a persistent cough. We all went through a bit of a 24-hour bug not long ago, so there have been some lingering issues from that. I was wondering if the fact that he was refusing to eat, and the introduction of a new cough syrup to ease his symptoms weren't actually the cause for the throwing up.

Until about 12:30 am, Thanksgiving morning. When I started throwing up. For about six hours straight, I threw up at least once every half an hour. Oh, and every time I threw up I had diarrhea too - at the same time.

Let's just say I was not a "happy camper". At about 7 am or so I finally convinced Brian (who was starting to have some diarrhea himself by this point) that we needed to see a doctor. Finding out that Kayla had thrown up in her crib pretty much cinched to deal and after a load of laundry was thrown into the washer we packed into the car and headed to the hospital. On Thanksgiving Day, you don't bother trying to find a doctor or clinic available - you just go to the damn emergency room. Because, frankly, nobody else is open for business. We were reminded of this later too - when we had to drive out to the nearest 24-hour Walgreens in order to get prescriptions filled. And then there was the worry we needed to buy Jello and popsicles fast, before stores closed.

But, let me backtrack just a bit. Aparently it was fate that Thanksgiving wasn't at my house this year, since I would have had to cancel it with all of us being sick! However, there is the matter of the "baked goods." You see, I signed on for "desserts" to bring to the family Thanksgiving gathering. Yesterday, despite an impending, nauseated, kind of doom-like feeling, Jareth and I dutifully dusted off our hands and baked up a storm. I measured, he poured, he helped "stir" and even iced one of the cookies (although only one, when he realized it was a messy job - this same child who can manage to get burrito beans in his eyebrows can't seem to manage having a little powdered sugar icing on his fingertips!). We made spritz cookies with my cookie press, icing some and putting "sprinkles" on the others. We made caramel-apple cupcakes with caramel frosting. We made walnut fudge. We made brownies.

And all of these items are now sitting in my kitchen, uneaten. Not only did they not go anywhere for Thanksgiving, as planned, but they are potentially "contaminated" and cannot be eaten by anyone but us, since we've got the antibodies in our system and supposedly can't catch this particular virus again after this. Normally, the eating of sweets is not an issue in this house - we like our sugar and chocolate just fine thank you...

But every single one of us, including the baby, are on clear liquid diets.

*sigh*

And bugger it all if I didn't miss one of the rare opportunities I get to see my uncle on top of it. I'm so bummed.

But now, I'm going to go crawl back into bed again. I was just awake to pump my breastmilk and keep it flowing for Kayla to have again after she can tolerate it. Which is fine, I suppose, since I'm on an antibiotic (since I also have an ear infection) and anti-nausea stuff. So she probably shouldn't be having my milk right now anyway. But I not only want to keep it flowing, I also need to occasionally release some of the pressure that builds up. Ow.

I'm rambling. I don't have a clear head right now. Ugh.

G'night...

Current Mood: sick

Unintentional Hiatus...

I was reminded last night, while with family to celebrate my sister-in-law's birthday, that I've not been posting as frequently as of late. I'd been trying to maintain at least a weekly post, if not more. Unfortunately, my littlest cutie is just too attached to mommy, and sometimes I don't feel up to trying to peck out a post with one hand while she complains that I'm not paying proper enough attention to her. My "beloved young warrior" indeed! She's a fiesty little girl, I tell ya!

I now have TONS of pics to put up for all to see, including pictures of Lissakatt's little boy. We took the opportunity to venture out to see her last Thursday, despite the late night it turned out to be. We probably wore her out, since time slipped away while we were there. But between the fact that we don't get to see them as often (they live about an hour drive away) and the cute that is their little one, we had a hard time prying ourselves away! Now that Brian has honest-to-goodness weekends again, maybe we can be more social and plan a Saturday gathering every so often to see them. Of course her little boy is being as stubborn as Jareth was when he was born - only giving them 2 hours of sleeping time at any given stretch - so it may be a bit before they get caught up enough to spend a Saturday hanging out and playing the "pass the baby" game we parents love so much. It was amazing to hold her little boy - the weight difference between his few weeks old and my Kayla's eight months just seemed so wierd. I am constantly amazed at how quickly children grow in that first year.

Now that the colder weather is on and the parks aren't as viable an option for parents to let their kids play, there is a relative slew of events scheduled in my various moms' groups too. There's play stuff we've got scheduled in pretty securely for most Tuesdays and Fridays at this point, as well as a bunch of other options for most days of the week. Sometimes there's even family stuff on Saturdays that I'm going to start bundling everyone up to go to. Tis the season to attempt to make use of those evasive social skills I'm supposed to try and have. Gotta set an example for my kids so that THEY don't grow up sitting off to one side "watching" the party go on around them. Of course with the amount of groups I'm in at this point, I'm overwhelmed trying to remember names. I suck at names to begin with, so having about a zillion different moms that I've "met" but only once or twice while we were chasing down our respective kids, is making my head swim. I think I ought to have a pin made that says "My name is "Hey You" too" to let everyone off the hook - possibly including myself. Or something. Urgh. I just end up feeling so bad when I can't keep people straight in my head. At least I'm starting to know the names of the moms at our Friday morning playgroup. Some of them. Okay, like, maybe three or four. Man, I suck at names. *sigh* I do try to lock a new one into my head each week at least.

Anyway, I don't have much more time left to type. Kayla is going to want another quick feeding before we head out to do groceries and I need to get the list ready. I'm also hoping to stop off and get Jareth a haircut today before Thanksgiving. The cameras tend to come out on the holidays and frankly we've been losing Jareth under his bangs again. I wish I could cut hair, since it seems like he needs it so often, but every time I've tried it's come out this lopsided mess. I'm enough of a perfectionist that it's NOT a good combination for me to try, either. Talk about frustration. And I'm not going to try and get my kid to hold statue-still for me while I do it either. That's what my mom tried to do, and I could never hold still enough for her. No, I'm not gonna put my kid through that. I go to a place that specializes in kids' haircuts too, so they are used to wiggly kids while they cut hair. In fact, I usually get complimented on how well he behaves while they do it! But then there's the part where he doesn't want to leave afterwards because they've made the place too kid-friendly fun! LOL.

More another time. Maybe tomorrow I'll even have time to get those pictures up. Maybe. Don't hold your breath or anything. All I can promise is that they will eventually get posted. Eventually.

Current Mood: okay

Still Here...

Yes, I'm still here. Frankly, I've just been too darn busy to post. I had one afternoon this week where Brian was home and I could get some stuff done, but it seems that all the things I wanted to get done with that afternoon got pushes aside for more pressing matters. As seems to be the case these days.

The aforementioned pictures are still coming. I just haven't gotten to resizing them for upload. At 5 megapixels, they are just to freakin' big to put up here as is! I just thought I'd mention them so you would know I haven't forgotten. I know you all just come here to bask in the overall cuteness of my kids. *grin*

The Halloween parties were a blast. Jareth threw a relative fit when it was time to leave any of them, as is his way these days. Any time we go somewhere fun he is great until it is time to go - then the demon inside comes out! I have a new routine in which I extend apologies as I throw my kid over one shoulder and take him out to strap him down into his car seat. Then I come back and extend more apologies while I collect up my diaper bag, purse, and baby. Fortunately, these are moms' events so they generally understand.

Congratulations go out to my friend lissakatt and her husband who have had their baby! On October 25th, the little one was born, a beautiful baby boy.

I was actually supposed to go and see them last night, but sadly I got what appears to have been the flu, so I stayed away. I wasn't about to go see a newborn with a potentially contagious disease! My fever seems to have broken last night though, so I think I'm on the mend today. I'm certainly feeling much better, although not quite up to snuff for my usual level of wellness. However, it appears that Brian is next on the queue to get it, since he came home from work yesterday feeling the same initial symptoms. I hope we don't just pass it 'round and 'round... ugh. Especially since he went off to work today, despite not feeling well. Then again, his new job starts Monday, so if he passes it to the ones at his current job then at least he won't be there to catch it back from them next week eh?

Other than that, I've been quite busy lately. I expected things to wind down for a bit so I could focus on the kids and my jewelry after I finished up the web site I'd been working on. I'd even hoped to get working on my own professional web site and revamp it to focus in more on the web design work I've been doing. But I guess there's still more to do on the web site in terms of design. There's a difference of opinion on that, but I won't go into it. It's frustrating. I've got two more potential clients lining up though, so I'm trying to get some other things around here taken care of before I take on those jobs. Chaos ensues. And the holidays are coming on top of that. *sigh* There's a rant I'll save for another day. The one about the dark shadow that the holidays always seems to throw over us, and the fact that we keep saying we want to do this, that, and the other thing each year and then never make time to do it. We didn't even bother putting up Halloween decorations this year, although I did make such a point of taking the kids to tons of stuff so that Jareth could have fun.

Although it looks like there will likely be NO festivities held in our house this year, at least on the family get-together end of things. The one holiday we actually shared with everyone over these next two months has been moved from our house because of "space." I suppose I should be relieved that I won't have to bother trying to get the house cleaned up in time. However, that had been my guarantee that the house would get cleaned up. Now I don't have a "reason" for the boxes and bins of tools and stored items to get moved out of my kitchen, living room, and family room other than the usual "I'm tripping over these things when I try to cook and clean, and by the way the kids don't have anywhere left to play!" I've been waiting a while to see these things move out to the garage. There's even room out there now. Somehow boxes came IN the house and none made it OUT on the day we all worked on the garage. Hrm. This will also be the first year since we moved into this house that Thanksgiving will be held somewhere else. Bummer. I keep saying we need to be in a bigger house. I guess I was right. Nobody likes our house. I wonder how we're going to sell the damn thing when the time comes...

And then there's another thing...my eight-month-old (exactly today!) daughter. Even my mother-in-law was amazed at how she will NOT allow herself to be put down! Brian's folks were kind enough to babysit last weekend when Brian took me to see a play - our first time out alone together since Kayla was born! I guess Kayla gave even her grandma an earful of unhappiness periodically while we were gone. Even right now, I'm typing this while she eats. Although I'd better finish soon - she's not too pleased about it. I had her in the walker a moment ago, but she's through being patient. My little princess doesn't like me doing ANYTHING else but tending to her whim. Some days it's surprising I get anything done that doesn't involve a diaper change or feeding.

Nope. That's it. End of my grumpy-ass post. So says Kayla, anyway.

Frankly (which seems to be my "word" this week for some odd reason), I'm starting to think my kids are spoiled. Meh.

Current Mood: grumpy