Next Year...We Take the Shot!!!!

Well, it's 11:09. I'm exhausted, Jake's in my bed, Randy is in our bedroom floor on a twin matress, and Bradley is Watching Honey We Shrunk Ourselves. Bradley came home from school yesterday with 102 degree fever. I thought oh, we'll see how he is in the morning. Well, he was worse today, so at 3:00 I take him to the doctor only to confirm my suspisions that he has the FLU! But I did want to know for sure. And don't you just love when you go to the doctor and they take you immediatley to the room, but then you have to wait 35 minutes in the room before the doctor comes in, ask two questions, swabs your childs nose, and walks out???

So at 4:15 we leave the doctors (which I hope to find a new one, this one's not too bad, but we've had better), and we head to walmart to get the Tamiflu prescription which the doctor said comes in a generic! I'm thinking yeah $4, another break with medical expenses. Oh no, the doctor was wrong. The lady said that will be $99 and it will be ready in 45 minutes. Well, I asked the lady if we could please have our prescription back and we would take it to Walgreens with the comfort of a drive through and not having to take the boys into walmart to pick it up....since Bradley is MISERABLE! Oh BTW he did manage to cough in my face when leaving WalMart. After I had handed him a towel and said hold this by you so when you have to cough it will be ready to put over your face. That way you won't get Jake and I sick while riding in our itsy bitsy two door car. Lovely!

So we head to Walgreens and I'm asking the pharmacist to please look up my insurance info when a diesel pulls up and I can't hear a word the guy is saying....so I unload the kids and we all go in together. Bradley is HATING this.

Since they also say it will be 45 minutes until ready, we come home for a few then go back to get medicine. This time I drive up and she says that my total will be $99 and pauses and says well insurance rejected you prescription. I think she was waiting for me to yell at her about the price. I said well they shouldn't reject it but I know that we have high deductible, so they won't pay for anything. So, we wait 30 minutes while she's on the phone with insurance and comes back and long story short gave us smaller bottles so insurance would lower the cost to $86 since Bradley had the flu last year and he met his quota of Tamiflu in one year. Hmmm, If only he got the flu in two more days, the Tamiflu prescription would have been fine. HA!!!

And let me add, when we got home I called the pharmacist to please convert Milligrams(on the dropper) to two tsps (on the directions). Well, the prescription was wrong on the box! It should be one tsp twice a day, not two tsps twice a day. Thanks Walgreens! I appreciate you trying to OVERMEDICATE MY 8 YEAR OLD!!!

Anyway, just wanted to vent. This is, I guess, after all my blog. All this to say, I guess we will be getting the Flu shot next year!

Army of One

 
Look at this cool truck we got to follow most of the way home today. I never knew the Army had eighteen wheelers with their stuff all over them. I thought it would be less obvious if I took a picture of the back instead of the sides. The sides were really cool though. They had service men and women covering the entire sides. I really like to keep up with the war situation and Iran and current events. I find it all very facinating. And yes I did watch and enjoy watching the State of the Union address. Anyway, we just wanted to share this cool truck with everyone. Enjoy! 

Texarkana Trip

Randy and all the football coaches are at a football clinic in Grapevine this weekend, so the boys and I took off to Texarkana to see my best friend Kelley, from when we lived in Atlanta. Kelley and I got together every Friday, so I have really missed my friend. Her husband is a coach at Texas High in Texarkana, so he was at the same clinic as Randy.

The boys always have so much fun together. The favorite toy to play with was the Go Diego Go rescue center. It was a hit. We let the boys stay up till 11:30! What were we thinking! Kelley's friends Laura and James from Fredricksburg also stayed the night, so we all stayed up late and played games.

Kelley was pregnant when we moved and then she came to visit me during football season with her new baby Kyndall. We just don't know how to handle having a little girl in the room to hug and kiss on. She is sooo cute and such a happy baby. I'm so glad we got to go see my friend and Jake was so happy to go see "his Cade and Clay". They are such good friends of ours.

I slept so nice and sound only to find out that Kelley and the other Laura were up most the night with Kyndall. Oops, sorry I am such a sound sleeper. Once I am alseep, I don't hear a thing. Randy has always makes fun of me for this. The boys could have crawled in our bed rolled all over me, Randy move them, give them medicine and then I wake up the next morning and ask Randy why he is soooo tire the next day. HA! He is such a sweet husband. I always tell him to wake me up when this happens, but he is so kind and takes care of it.



Thanks Kelley for letting us come hang out! We miss you guys. Hopefully you will get your computer up and running soon!!! The boys are in their room watching Veggie Tales. BTW- Madame Blueberry finally gave out tonight and broke:( That was one of our favorites about being thankful...In fact this video helped me get through Maymester and several other long nights at ACU. Whenever Bradley would wake up in the middle of the night in college, I would pop in a Veggie Tales. He has always loved them. Anyway I'm going to go put the boys to bed, they are exhausted!!! 

Current Mood: BEYOND HAPPY!!!!!

Oh my goodnes!!! I just saved myself $500.00 It has been tedious and nausiating to get to this point but I finally did it. I have been trying for two months to get the owner of the gas station to call me so we can straighten out my bills for the gasoline in my eyes. He has been extremely difficult to reach. I told him in several notes, that I believed his employees were forgetting to give him my messages:) I loaded Jake in the car today and took a road trip down to E, stopping at every gas station/grocery store he owend and left my number for him to call me. I was also fortunate to meet a man in my defensive driving course Saturday that said if all else failed he would give me Mr. F's address (I decided only as a last resort bc I almost felt like that would be stalking. I know it's not, but I thought I would try to handle it this way first). Well today in my adventure I found out Mr. F's son owns a local business so I was able to reach his son and tell him about the bills and guess what??? Mr. F called me and agreed to paying half of my bills!!!! YEAHHHHHHHHHH!!!! He was very nice on the phone by the way, he just needed a good reason to call me and I believe I delivered that today!

Arlington, Tickets, and My Weight

First of all, sorry for no pictures of furniture as I promised. We had to drive out to Arlington two times Friday once for pick up and then again to exchange the damaged piece we brought home. So, I don't have everything finished in the living room that I wanted. We have to rehang everything, so it may be another week before I post pictures of that.
I drove out to Arlington again today to go to one of my mom's jewelry classes in the Six Flags mall. It is amazing the stuff she can do. We soldered silver and made earrings and ear wires and toggles. Just amazing the stuff she can do and teach to others. I'm so impressed.

Tomorrow I have to go to Rockwall to show the judge that I sat through 6 1/2 excrutiating (sp?) hours of defensive driving Saturday. Never cross the median when you are stuck behind a wreck...you WILL get a ticket! I was the only one below the age of 50 in the class. I think everyone younger did their course on the internet. Yes we have SLOOOOOOOW diiiiiiaaaaalll uuuuuupppp!!!!!!

Now I'm going to share something that I have to in order to motivate myself. I know a lot of old high school and college friends read this so I am so embarrassed to share, but that's what will motivate me to do something about it. When I was pregnant with Bradley I gained 60 pounds and then took it off by the time he was 1 1/2. With Jake I gained 50 pounds, and never took off the extra weight that was not baby weight. I am a good 30 pounds over weight right now. UGGGGHHHHH!! I'm really tired of it. Just something about finding time for yourself after two kids that is sooo much harder than just one kid. But, now that Jake is in Mother's Day Out and he is four and much more independent, I know I can do it. Also we are planning a summer trip with some friends of ours and I really want to feel comfortable in a bathing suit and not have to miss out on fun parts of the vacation because of my weight.

Sooo.....I will be exercising to shed the weight. Dieting does not work for me, I have to be active. Also, I am going to try my hardest to give up the diet coke. No promises on that one, but I'm going to totally try! So there you go, I'm 30 pounds heavier than college. I am setting the goal of losing 20 pounds by this summer. Wow that's alot of pounds, and I can't believe I just told you all that!!!!!! Now I have to do it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But I Didn't Get MY......

 
Sorry, no pictures of the giant slushie that is outside our house right now. First, our backyard flooded and then it froze and then it half way melts and then freezes all over. So, our backyard is really a giant slushie. The boys have had fun in it though.

We've had a good couple of days together as a family, because when school is canceled, dad stays home!!! We came up with a new game today of tackle basketball....GO figure...it was Jakes idea! We've also watched numerous movies. I will list them all and just know the boys did not watch all listed...... Ant Bully(do not recommend), Pirates of the Caribean- Dead man's Chest, How to Eat Fried Worms, The Last Kiss, Invincable, Honey I shrunk the Kids, and of course Honey I Blew Up the Kids. So that's what we've done in this wintry weather, chilled out and watched movies. It's been nice. We hardley ever rent movies.
 
Then tonight we had a hot dog and marshmallow roast in the fireplace. Sorry PaPa no Indian songs were sung :) The boys loved cooking their hotdogs and then catching their marshmallows on fire! We put the boys to bed early in hopes that school does not get canceled again tomorrow. (Okay that's more my hope than Randy's) Well, about five minutes after being in bed Jake comes out sobbing an says in a hardly understandable voice "But I didn't get my cheese soup!" What???? Hotdogs and marshmallows weren't good enough??? Last night for dinner I made cheese soup which consists of half a block of velveeta, ground beef, a can of each- Pinto beans, black beans, Kidney beans, corn, and rotel. The Kid loves it!!! I did give him a bowl of soup. I know I gave in, but the soup is healthy and he eats all those beans!! I'm in shock...I guess I'll make cheese soup more often! 

 
Okay, I miss my Jakey today!!! He loooooves Mother's Day Out though. His friend Juliana was there today. She's been in Colorado, so Jake was soooo excited to see her there today.

The bad part about today is that I'm forced to be at home. Rooms To Go is bringing out a new couch because the first one they brought looks like it got a puncture in the leather and they tried to patch it. I am very impressed with RTG however, because they didn't give us any problems when we said we weren't happy with the couch. So, back to the point, I have to stick around the house. Not that I have other things to do or places to go, it's just that feeling of being stuck and having to be somewhere....you know???

The good thing is I took down our Christmas lights outside this morning. I know, we've been the pride and joy of our neighborhood with our icicle lights hanging and Christmas trees in the flower beds. I just don't like to be cold, but I figured I better do it today before the really cold weather comes in this weekend! 

Like I said .....

 
Okay, anyone have any tips on how to remove burned Walmart plastic bag from your stove top??? I know, another brilliant move by me! 

Cleaning is Not my Forte!

 
Oh My Word....Have you ever felt like crawling into a hole and dissapearing for a loooooong looooooong time? I do right now! I happened to pick up a cleaning job for the lady down the street that is one day every other week. It's not too much commitment to something and it gives me some fun money. She heard me mention one time that I used to clean my mom's house so she asked me if I would clean for her.

Well, today is my second time to clean for her and since she liked me so much she upped my pay today from last time by $10! Well, after today she may hate me and I may be fired and owing her tons of money! I hadn't been there but five minutes and I dusted this mirror on her wall while anchoring/holding it carefully (I was being soooo careful with her stuff) in the bottom left corner. Well, it wasn't on the nail good and it came falling down, but since I was holding the corner and didn't want it to fall and land in pieces, it came down like a protractor would and left a circular scrape on the wall!!! (Look closely at picture above) UGHHHHHH!!!! I feel so mortified and STUPID!!!

I really hope she has touch up paint...If not, Randy and I may be paying for painters to come paint her enourmous living room/dining room/hallway/laundry room so it will all match. UGHHHH! The worst part is waiting for her to come home from work and hear what she has to say! I left her a note.
UPDATE: She called and was sooooo sweet and said she was sure she had touchup paint somewhere (I wasn't convinced that she did.) They just moved in 8 months ago and the walls had been freshly painted. She said her boys could have easily done that to the walls. She was way tooo nice, but I'm glad she was. I told her if she ever changed her mind, that Randy and I would gladly have it painted. I still don't feel like any less of an idiot!
 

The Bold new look of BEHR (paint)

 

Okay, so I know the saying is "the bold new look of Kohler" but I have to say, this is by far the boldest color we have ever chosen to paint with. Let's see, the only other colors we have ever painted with are white and uhhmmm antique white! I know so original. We actually chose Toffee crunch for the living room. I will not do the big reveal until we get the new furniture and the room mostly completed.
Randy is taking his turn at painting. Notice I stop where I can't reach. He goes around the room and finishes the top (my least favorite). I really hate painting, but I really want to paint just about every room in the house. There is a lot of things I want to do in this house. For sure our next project will be to rip down the hideous textured walpaper you see in the picture that is in the entry way and texture and paint those walls. UGGGGGH!

My list of other things I want to do, in order, would be....
1. Paint the light puke green kitchen and dining room walls a nice color.

2. Paint the boys bedroom.

3. Decorate the boys bedroom with camouflage for Bradley and Dinasaurs for Jake. Not sure exactly how to tie it all together, but I think I can do it. I think it would be fun to go to the ARMY surplus store and get stuff to hang on the walls.

4. Replace the sliding glass door with french doors.

5. Paint the trim and cabinets in the the boys bathroom.

6. Paint my and Randy's bathroom and cabinets.

7. Paint the lime green play room, white! I beleive the previous owner mixed the lime green left overs with brown to produce the light puke green in the kitchen :)

8. Replace boys bathroom faucet.

9. Replace kitchen sink faucet.

10. Get a new oven.

11. Get those cheap (but not really) pretend wooden blinds from walmart and replace all the blinds in the house.

12. New wrought(SP?) iron fan in the living room.

13. Tile flooring in the kitchen and some type of NON carpet flooring in the eating room.

And of course my two dream ideas that would only ever happen if we won the lottery and then if we won the lottery we would just buy our dream house!!!
1. Knock a wall out in the bathroom and make his/her sinks and a big garden tub.

2. Get all new kitchen cabinets!!!

I don't expect to get everything done on my list, but it would be nice...at least it gives me something to look forward to. 

Future Artist?

 
I'll take this blogging opportunity to share Bradley's artistic abilities! On Fridays, Bradley goes to a special school program with three centers consisting of spanish, logic, and the medival times era. The room is decorated as a castle and has a large wooden replica that they can climb to the top and relax in pillows to read or listen. Today in the medival times center, the teacher read a book called the Knight and the Dragon. The kids had to draw what they thought the dragon looked like while the teacher read the book. This is what he drew! I couldn't believe all the detail and how many scales he put on it. Pretty impressive to me!
  

What's a Mom to do???

 
Okay so a steady stream of tears down my face (from dropping my sweet Jake off) has dried a little due to the frustration of dealing with blogger. Anyway, today I took Jake to his first day of Mothers Day Out. He has NEVER been to anything like this. Long story short, we are holding him back a year and he will go to the Christian school here in town for pre-school next year. We thought Mother's Day Out would get him comfortable with everything. Jake is VERY shy around new people, so this will help him come out of his shell a little. He will go Tuesday and Thursday from 9-2. I stayed for thirty minutes and watched through the windows. He didn't say a word to anyone for the 30 minutes I watched. Maybe he'll warm up as the day goes on.

So, back to my question....What am I to do? It's been 8....YES EIGHT years since I've had days completely to myself!!!! I've snuck in days here and there from grandparents or Randy having a day off, but this is every Tuesday and Thursday!!! I just don't know how to handle it!!! I know I will be cleaning today because I have been dying to go through toys in the boys closet without them around. And playgroup comes to our house tomorrow, so I have to get it in order for that. This is crazy. There is no Clifford or Curious George on the TV this morning. I don't even know what comes on TV besides PBS kids!

Well, I better get to cleaning. BTW----For those of you who want to see pics of the new furniture, I will post that when the we get the rest of the tables on January 19th. We love our couch and chairs. This is a whole other post in itself and it will be a post, just not now...later
 

On the way to MDO this morning I asked Jake if he wanted his shoes on the right feet this morning or if he wanted to leave them the way they were. This is the FIRST time he has ever cared to switch them!!! He said he didn't want the other kids to laugh and him. And then he told me, "anyways, they are tight when they are on the wrong feet momma." Ha!