GO TEAM GO!!

Well the Chicago Bears did it! We were wondering at more than one point, but they did it. My son and I wore our Jerseys. I told him we could wear them to school on Tuesday if they win, so I will have to do that now. My husband gave me the #55 jersey for Christmas. That is Lance Briggs' number. Those that know me know what connection I have with Lance. I think I mentioned to Tim once or twice that I would like a shirt with his number on it. Well he forked out big bucks and here it is. My son was extremely jealous, because he had a "Bears costume" on his Christmas list. Last week I found one at JCPenny marked down, so I bought him a 54 jersey. I can't get it off of him. I noticed yesterday at Walmart that there were more of a Bears shirt supply. So maybe Tim and Katie will be getting one from there.

I've never really been a big football fan. But I remember the year 1985 quite well. I clearly remember the "Super Bowl Shuffle" song. I guess having a 6 year boy who loves football got me into it again. It's fun. We will see what happens next week. I'm sure most of the country will be routing for the Saints except for us Illinoisans. It will be mighty cold in Chicago for those "southerners."

Mean Mom

Today I am a mean mom. My husband went deer hunting which left me to take the kids bowling. I decided to let my daughter stay home since she's been sick. I feel she needs to get more food in her system. So, she stayed home. It turned out that it was a fun day of bowling today. They played 8 pin no tap. If the kids knock 8 pins or more down it is counted as a strike. My poor son had a lot of 7 count shots. In the second game he did get a double, so his score was a little higher.
After bowling I took Joey to the video store and let him rent a video game. I know it is a long weekend and we're suppose to have bad weather coming up. He gets to keep the game until Thursday. By then we'll be tired of it anyway.
Not long after we arrived home, Katie's phone rang. All of her friends are going to the mall this afternoon. I told her "no," so now they are all mad at me. These kids have a very hard time accepting the word "no." The kids today don't know how to deal with that word. Everything has been handed to them on a silver platter. I recently received an email directed to those born before 1979. It is quite interesting. I'm going to try and past it on. Wish me luck.

"TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED the 1930's 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's !!
First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant. They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes. Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-based paints. We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking. As infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, booster seats, seat belts or air bags. Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat. We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle. We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this. We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank koolade made with sugar, but we weren't overweight because . WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING! We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on. No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K. We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem. We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVD's, no surround-sound, CD's or Ipods, no cell phones!, no personal computers , no Internet or chat rooms....... WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them! We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents. We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever. We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes. We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them! Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!! The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law! These generations have produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever! The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas. We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL! If YOU are one of them . . CONGRATULATIONS!"
I can't give the person who wrote that credit. I don't know who that is.

The Makeover

We decided to give the grass heads a makeover before they have to bite the dust. So I gave the boy a flat top and Katie put a ponytail on the girl. Now they will move on with style.

Today is pretty much a repeat of yesterday with Katie. I'm making her do more for herself, to get her off the couch. I left her alone for a while this morning as I went to her school to turn in some papers and get a couple of books out of her locker. I then went to the bank to cash my pathetic paycheck, got gas and went to the grocery store. I was gone for a couple of hours. I think she'll be fine by Tuesday for school. Monday there is no school.

Now I have my own little disaster. As I was carrying groceries into the house and hit my knee on the edge of the door. It was terrible. The pain stopped me in my tracks. I continued on to unload the rest of the bags. Now it seems every time I get up from sitting down it feels worse. I hope this won't turn into a major deal. Tomorrow is bowling night. I might have to sit out. Oh well...... I'm a little sick of bowling right now anyway.

Speaking of bowling, let me explain my bowling history. Before I met my husband I had some history with the sport. My parents both bowled. My mom bowled on a church league for a few years and my father bowled in two leagues for several years. I bowled in middle school and high school as an intramural sport. I also took it as a P.E. credit in college. I only learned the basics. I always threw a straight or a back-up ball.

Now to my husband, bowling is a serious sport. His whole family is really into it. He carries around a 220 average in three separate leagues. He's been trying for years to teach me the hook ball concept, sometimes I can do it, but then for some reason it tends to go away. He's been working with Katie lately with the hook, and she is picking up on it. I have a feeling it won't be long when she'll be carrying a higher average than me.

I belong to two leagues. One of them is a couples league every other Saturday night. We've been bowling on that league since 6 months after we met. I've not been doing well in that league. The other league is a Tuesday night women's league. I was asked to sub for a team about 5 years ago. I thought that would be great, I'd have my own night out during the week. The next season my sub spot became a permanent position. There is also a men's league on Tuesday nights. It did not take long for Tim to get asked to sub on that league. Well that also turned into a permanent position. So there went my night out concept. One of Tim's sisters stays with the kids on our bowling nights. What drives me crazy is that we don't just bowl on Tuesdays and return home, he has to bowl one more game with some of the guys after leagues. So I'm sitting there watching him. This group of guys are all younger than him. They make it a challenge to beat Tim's score. But most of them don't get the science of bowling. They just try a whip the ball down with the biggest curve they could throw. To Tim, it is much more than power bowling. Now, why is he not out with the pros making big money? The answer to that question comes back to Mother and Father not pushing him to get a college education. I think Tim would have done well for himself if he went to college, but then my life would have been totally different. I met him when he was 28 years old. He would not have been still living at home, that's for sure! Boy have I opened the door for many more blog entries.

The Grass Heads

Today I stayed home with my 12 year old daughter. She has been fighting a stomach virus for a week now. She has acid reflux disease, which causes her to feel nauseated in the mornings. So on the first day of her flu symptoms I sent her to school. That was one week ago today. I went on to work and within 20 minutes I received a phone call from her school nurse. She vomited at school. So I had to make arrangements at work for the rest of the day and then picked her up. She was sick all day long and was having some dizziness. I kept her home of Friday, because she was not able to keep any thing down the day before. She stayed home all weekend, her stomach felt better, but the dizziness continued. Monday I sent her to school and went back to work. I called her doctor and made an appointment for her on Tuesday at 9:30. The dizziness was caused by fluids in her ears and sinuses. She has severe allergies. The doctor told her to double up on her nasal spray and gave her some anti dizzy meds. When the doctor was poking at her she found that her ribs were very sensitive. So she sent us to the hospital for rib x-rays. By the time we left the hospital Katie was missing her lunch quarter hour, so I had to take her to lunch. After eating at KFC I took her back to school and she finished out her day.

The next morning, yesterday, she woke up vomiting again. I decided to let her stay home and I went on to work. I called my mother-in-law who lives next door (did you ever see "Everyone Loves Raymond?) and had her check on her. My mother-in-law is in her 70's and babysits my two year old nephew in the mornings. I can't send my kids over there when they're sick, because you could only imagine what the outcome would be. I called Katie mid- morning and she said she was miserable. So I called the doctor back, which she instructed me to do if her conditioned worsened. The nurse told me nothing different than I expected. I later called Katie and she said she was very uncomfortable. She said Grandma came over to give her some crackers and helped her open up a new bottle of Gatorade. I have several boxes of crackers in the house, but we could always use more, right?

After work I stopped at her school to get her homework and came home. Her condition continued the same. Last night I slept in the recliner while she slept on the couch. I will explain our living conditions in later stories. I called off work for today and here I am. I emailed her teachers and explained that she was unable to complete her assignments. The end of the quarter is tomorrow, so we are in a crunch. Most of them replied and said they would apply the work to next quarter. We do need to turn in one quiz by tomorrow. I will call the school soon to see if there are any assignments to pick up today. I'm thinking there won't be any. She is doing a little better today. She hasn't vomited, but she is still weak. I made some soup for her for lunch. She ate a little, we'll try some more again soon.

OK, enough already about her, this blog is suppose to be about me, right. I thought I'd explain the grass head photo above. Well that pertains to my children and not me also. My kids received them for Christmas from my sister-in-law. My husband has four sisters. They love him dearly, but hate me. This sister is the youngest and smartest. She runs the whole entire family. She and her husband and two year old son live around the corner from us. (hint) Today Katie and I took pictures of the grass heads. We are going to have to put them to rest because they are starting to mold. Katie is extremely allergic to mold, and she's also allergic to grass.

So today, this is my life.

A New Year A New Beginning

This year I decided to make some big changes in my life. I turned 40 in December and I decided I did not like the way I became. I feel like I lost myself somewhere back in time. I got married and had two children, which I truly think are wonderful. I fell in the rut of loosing myself and just became Katie's mom or Joey's mom. I don't seem to do much of anything just for me.
I work only 4 days a week for a special ed. preschool progam. I received my W2 the other day, and became very depressed. I have to take out our family's health insurance through my paycheck and I found that I paid out $1,500 more dollars out in insurance than I actually brought home. Well I really didn't bring all of the other home, I also take out 2 small retirement plans, and a life insurance policy.. My bring home pay is pretty pethetic. But, I married a non-union carpendar. That should expain everything. But, for 4 and a half years I was working two jobs so I could afford day care for my son. Yea, it's been fun. I have a feeling I may have to return to a second job by this summer. But it would be nice to have a career change. One nice new job that will have benefits and some cash to bring home. But that's just a dream. I have many dreams. I think most of my writing will be about my dreams. I want this to be focused on me.