pool in a house?

3-29-13

Thank goodness this week is almost over!

After I found out about being outbid on the house we liked, I dove into searching again yesterday. I spent a lot of time looking into Hawthorne in the Wiseburn School District. I found a couple of places, one ended up being too small and had several bids already, so I didn’t bother with it. Then I found this place.

Ok, it is such a cool and unusual place. I actually really like it. Sadly, no yard. Sure, there is a front yard, but that’s it. However, there is a way the dogs would have access to inside and outside all day long, which is cool. It is different and large and in Wiseburn. The boys and I drove around the neighborhood and by the school and we all loved it. They really like the pool in the house. Yes, you read that correct. There is a pool, in the house. It is freaking odd and awesome all at the same time. Actually, the house has a “key party” feel to me, which made me kind of happy. It is this cute little house with this awesome 70’s style back put on it. It is basically the yard and garage converted into rooms and bathrooms and a pool. It works in a strange way.

The good news is that it is so crazy that no one is bidding on it. This means I have a smidge bit of time to think. I like it, but Ken is worried about the yard and lack of storage. However, there are ways to work with the storage situation (one of course is to get rid of a lot of our crap. LOL!!!). In all honesty, the main concern is he needs a place to have his Lego for classes. I am starting to wonder how much a storage unit would be. Or convert this one room into his Lego room. I don’t know. The thing is, he needs to go through all of his plastic blocks and organize them in such a way that it doesn’t take up so much space. There is a lot of Lego in the garage and in these bins that could be condensed. There is also a ton of stuff he doesn’t even use often, which makes me wonder about storing that stuff somewhere off site?

Since we don’t have to make a decision this second, it means we are able to look at another place in Torrance that came back on the market. In fact, this place has been put up, pulled, put up a million times it seems like. The owner is kind of selling it discreetly, which is fine by me. Perhaps it means he will be more inclined to accept a lower offer. It is on a Cul-de-sac, which I really like, so this will be interesting. If we like it, we will have an offer written up. We see this place at 2:15 today.

Once we are done with that, I am hoping we can come home and start in on coloring eggs. I look forward to that. It is messy and fun and as awful as this sounds, then it will be done! LOL!!!

I took my last antibiotic this morning! YAY!!! Mind you, it isn’t like they were awful or anything, but they meant I had to make sure to take two of these random pills, which can be a pain in the ass. I am still a little congested, but now I think it is just allergy related. I am also pretty convinced that some good old fashioned sleep would help.

My sleep this week has been crazy. What with house fires and Ken’s ref classes keeping me up till late each night and still having my normal work schedule, I am pooped. Plus, the stress of the house hunting didn’t help. The boys are also wound up from having no school all week. Ken and the boys took me to lunch yesterday and I took the boys in the office with me after. This was at noon thirty. These kids were chatter boxes from noon thirty until 8 when they finally went to sleep. Sheesh! I had a limited buffer, too, since Ken was not with me much of the time.

I am at a loss this morning. Dax is still wearing pull ups. I am not concerned since Bobby took some extra time getting dry at night, and my understanding is Ken as a kid also had issue. I also know their cousin had issues, so it clearly runs in the family. He is also a boy, and really, only 6 so no real cause for concern at this point. However, then last night happened.

They had been in bed maybe 10 minutes when Dax comes out and tells me there is a wet spot on his bed from yesterday that is bothering him. I go in, and I see what is clearly fresh pee. I was concerned at first that Ittles had made some kind of rude statement. It was not cat. It was Dax.

Poor kid broke into tears saying he just can’t hold it, which makes no sense. I have seen him during the day be fine with peeing. He is the first to say when he has to go. He also tends to be able to hold it when I tell him he needs to wait until we get to a bathroom. He wasn’t anywhere close to being asleep last night, and yet he peed the bed. What is even stranger is that he was in pullups. These things are designed to hold buckets of piss. Why then was there pee on the bed??? I am confused and frustrated. I have tried the pee alarm that worked well for Bobby. Sadly, when Dax does pee at night, he sleeps through the alarm. I am considering having him sleep in underwear since perhaps the more wet feel will wake him quicker. I don’t know what to do. It is very upsetting.

I need a vacation.

No house

3-28-13

Sadly we will not be living in the cute house where a WWII vet spent his life.

We were out bid by $30K. It sucks on many levels, but that being said, I knew it was too good to be true. It was really a fantastic house. I have prepared myself to be disappointed several times in this whole process. It will be hard since I have to search through crap to find the one gem. Then, once I find said gem I have to really sell it to our financers. Then there is the horrid waiting game. It isn’t a fun process, but hopefully it will all work out in the end. I gotta stay positive.

The boys got their wonderful Zombie Jesus Day baskets from Andy, Scott, Grandma and Grandpa Brenan yesterday. Holy fuck, they outdid themselves. Fully zombie themed, and fantastic! Zombie hats, kick ass zombie dolls, and even zombie books! I have to admit I was a little bummed when the baskets were also accompanied with zombie chocolate bunnies since they have one of those in the baskets the bunny is giving them, but I am ok with it being in the more appropriate basket.

I hard boiled 3 dozen eggs yesterday for coloring. I think the plan is to color them today, but a lot depends on what time Ken gets home. We may need to work on them Saturday night. I do love making the eggs. When I spend time hard boiling them, it is one of those random surreal moments in which I really feel like a mom. I mean, here I am, spending time cooking eggs specifically for a family holiday for my kids. It is really cool.

Ken is bringing the kids to me today right before I am done at work. I am then taking them to Target. I feel so off when I get home during days where they are already home. There are kids running around in our yard and it is already chaotic. I feel like I forgot something!

Last night I had a dream in high school. Normally that means I am thinking too much about something. I didn’t forget any classes this time. Instead, it was a different scenario. I was with some chick who I guess was kind of like the really popular girl. She convinced me that we should go to school in a not cute outfit, and that we would then change in the bathroom when the bell rings into really stylish clothing. I don’t know why her reasoning was sound, but I felt very awkward, so I went along with it. We went into the bathroom to put our bags in there and headed back out to wait for the bell. I left my shoes in there, which makes no sense. The bell rang and we went back to the bathroom and there was now a hall monitor who wouldn’t let us go in there. So I was sitting there, barefoot, in ugly clothing, and now late for class. I was very upset. I then found Ken, who was on a skateboard. I don’t think we were dating or anything, but he seemed so freaking cool. He took my hand and we left the school. It was kind of romantic. Strange, but romantic. Mind you, these dreams were not influenced by any sleep aids. LOL!!

Fire

3-26-13

No matter what problems I have, my neighbors have more this morning.

It was about 7 o’clock and the boys were out back on the swings. I went out to play with them a bit, and managed to injure Bobby in the process (he fell off the swing). But in the midst of his crying, we heard different wails.

Fire engines, and they were close. So close in fact that we then saw the lights.

The boys and I ran up front to the scene. Paramedics, multiple fire trucks and lots of activity. At first we feared it was the elderly great grandmother of Anthony. They didn’t go to their house, though. Instead, they went to Anna’s house which is next door. There was smoke coming from the house. The house was on fire.

The fire seemed to be contained in the back room, which resulted in the firefighters to have to go to the roof and cut in that way. They busted open the windows and sliced through the security screen door like it was butter. It was a terrifying few minutes trying to determine if the family was inside. Thankfully the family wasn’t home from work yet.

Anna showed up about 25 minutes into the ordeal. The fire was out by then, but the house was super smoky and there was cleanup involved. She was shockingly calm. She told me that luckily it did look like it didn’t spread past the back bedroom, but sadly, this was where her sister had been staying and all of her belongings were ruined. While we were talking, the fire chief then let us know that her sister’s cat had been found under the bed and had died from the smoke.

We were then worried about Kona, their little pup. Thankfully we found her ok. She had been hiding, but since she wasn’t in the fire room, she didn’t get the brunt of the smoke.

I took in Kona and gave her a bath since she smelled of smoke. We also had Anna’s kids come and hang out at our house. Jessie, Anna’s son, is a sweetheart. He is about 10, but he is like Bobby in his demeanor. He was very concerned and I ended up talking to him for about 15 minutes just about what had happened. He broke down crying when his aunt came over. Poor kid. It is a lot to deal with.

The boys and their kids watched a movie and Luna and Kona played a bit. Even Lucy was hospitable, making nice with the new pup. Jessie wouldn’t eat, but I did get him to accept a blanket while on the couch. His sister gladly had some dinner.

At about 10 when the movie was over, I let Ken know (he had been over helping Anna and her husband get things in order with the insurance people and helping them make arrangements for a hotel for the night) and the kids went to their folks and off to hopefully some semblance of sleep. It was a long night for all.

Kona is staying with us for a couple of days while the family regroups. Ken and the boys are home all day today, so hopefully they will be able to help out in some ways. The kids still have school this week, so this is good for Anna since it will be less for her to have to worry about while taking care of the house.

My day looks to be slightly tense since our offer on the house will be looked at today. I am crossing fingers, I am wishing on eyelashes and have called in every spiritual favor I have. If all goes well, our offer will be the golden ticket.

One nice thing about having all the kids in the house at night meant I was able to spend some time cleaning up. I had some kitchen cleaning to do anyway since one of the hoses on the washing machine came loose while we were helping next door. I came home to a flooded back area. Not too bad, thankfully, but just enough to encourage me to scrub the floor. LOL!

I also got my new computer yesterday. I didn’t expect it until tomorrow so I was quite excited. I got ambitious and opted to set it up myself. Sadly, I didn’t realize that I should have hooked it up to the laptop during the set up process. We are moving all of that data over and apparently it is easier to do in the initial set up process. Mind you, it isn’t impossible, just harder now. Either way, I am quite thrilled with the machine. It is really nice to have a fast Mac at my fingertips. I am loving their Magic Mouse, too. I look forward to having it all set up with the music and pictures.

I now will count down the hours until I get to go home and continue work on the house. I am in full packing mode. Now all I need is more boxes. 

houses and easter and computers, oh my

3-25-13

Because if it isn’t one thing it’s another.

I seem to have thrown out my lower back. I really wish I knew how I manage to do these things. Maybe it is all the coughing and just the fact that sleep has not been perfect lately due to the sinus infection. All I know is that I am in a lot of freaking pain and spent much of yesterday on the couch, icing my back every so often.

I suppose it isn’t too bad considering the rest of the weekend wasn’t too bad.

On Friday I took the boys to school. They were surprised to see me at home since they knew I had gone to work. I opted to walk with them and even though my coughing fit about knocked me on my ass, it was worth it.

Dax was surprised when he saw me in the auditorium for the monthly awards ceremony. He seemed equally shocked when his name was called to be student of the month in reading. I am so freaking proud of him! These awards are not easy to come by, so for him to be doing so well in class made me happy beyond words.

After the ceremony, I headed home. I basically now had the day off. I needed to go get some cupcakes for Bobby’s class, but aside from that errand, I was able to just hang out. I watched the movie, Butter, which I highly recommend. It is this dark and warped ass comedy that happens to be on Netflix right now. Alicia Silverstone, Jennifer Gardner, Rob Courdrey, Hugh Jackman, and of course, most importantly, Olivia Wilde. I will not give anything away except to say I was concerned I would not catch my breath again from laughter at the end during the last sculpture.

For dinner we took Dax out to Lazy Dog since he won a certificate from there for his award. It was a nice night of dinner and laughing.

On Saturday, we had AYSO registration in the morning. It went smoothly, which is not too shocking. We only signed up 22 kids, which is what we expected since it was only for last year’s coaches and referees. One of those kids signed up was Dax. Bobby has decided to not play this year, which is ok by me. He really isn’t a sporty kid, which is not a bad thing. Perhaps he will choose to do something else.

On Thursday night we saw the house that I had high hopes for. It was even better than I had hoped. It is a good size, nice backyard, and in a fantastic location. We both fell in love with it instantly. The house is being sold by the daughter of the man who lived in the place his whole life. He is a WWII veteran (yeah, I did some cyber stalking (I mean, investigative Googling) on the house) who passed away last November. Seriously, this is a place that we could totally stay in for the rest of our lives.

Now, it is the waiting game. Our financer allowed us to put in an offer and I guess we won’t know what is going on until tomorrow since the house is in probate. We are crossing our fingers that for some strange reason we get the golden ticket.

For now, Ken and I are working on our house. We purchased a new toilet to install. We also priced out flooring which we will start doing soon. We are doing new flooring through the living room, kitchen and entry way. We are going to carpet our room. I have a ton of boxes that I hope to pack some more things this week. Papa Brenan is considering the idea of actually renting out our place instead of selling it. This is kind of cool, actually. So we are putting in a little work, which will make things nicer. It looks to be a busy next few months for us.

On an up note, I managed to score us some free tickets to go to a taping of America’s Got Talent. It is a cheese-tastic show, but it is one in which the boys actually like to watch with Ken and I. I told them we were going and they jumped up and down with excitement. Dax was a little bummed it wasn’t a taping in Vegas, but he was still jazzed. They spent the next hour asking me if the actual host would be there and asked about the judges and performances. Yay!

My new computer arrives on Wednesday, which is way exciting! I feel like things are getting organized in my house, which is happy making.

This weekend looks to be busy with Wondercon and Easter. Now I have to find some time to hard boil the eggs and we get to color them. I will do my best to not go nuts on Pinterest in the meantime lest I end up trying some crazy decorating on my eggs.

Spring 2013

3-21-13

Yay meds!

What a difference even a little bit of these meds have made. I am not coughing up random organs and I don’t feel like I am on death’s door step. It is a nice change all around.

We went and looked at a house last night. It was a shame it wasn’t a house we looked at about 15 years ago. It would have been a perfect starter home. A little small, but it would have been fine for two crazy kids just starting out in the world. Plenty of room to add on, which would cost a shit ton less now than starting over.

We are still looking, though. I sent a couple of new listings to Ken this morning. Now it is about checking with our realtor to look and to check with our money man to see if the place is ok.

We have now had the first place that apparently a buyer pulled out because a guy died in the place. I have NO issues with death happening in the house. I almost wonder if there are dead house listings. People get creeped out by that sort of thing, yet I would take it as a bonus since the price might be lower. I need like a good old fashioned massacre house. LOL! Ok, not really, but you get my drift.

I need to go get a haircut. I don’t want my hair shorter, but I am noting that it is still slightly uneven since my cut some time ago to get rid of the dead.

I have a desire to go on a hike. I am hoping I am up to that soon. Specifically I am still jonzing to go to the M*A*S*H hike. I just emailed someone to see if dogs are allowed on that hike since I would really like to take Luna with me. I have been looking now for a handful of other hikes that we can take the pup. Almost 2 weeks of no exercise due to this sick is getting to me. I need to move!

I took Luna to the school with me yesterday. Specifically, I took her on campus when I picked up the boys. No one has said anything, so I take that as a win. She was super well behaved so I am just going to keep bringing her until someone says something. I see people with their little rat dogs so I think I should be allowed to have my well behaved and gorgeous golden, dammit! She was so funny since everyone wanted to pet her. She was awesome about it.

 I got some pieces of my new computer yesterday. I have my keyboard and mouse. Yay! I have to admit, I am getting a little excited. It will be really nice to have a computer I am not concerned with crashing or running out of space.

I got the spring pics yesterday for the boys. My SOP for these is always to just scan them and send them back without paying. I am kind of tempted to buy this set. I know, it is probably a waste, but I don’t know, something tells me I should. Am I crazy?

diagnosed

3-20-13

First day of spring and I am treating myself with a bottle of antibiotics for my sinus infection.

The good news is I have only taken 2 pills so far of my Doxycycline and I have noticed a difference. My face no longer feels like someone punched me. When I went and saw Dr. O’Bryan yesterday she even noted the puffy under my one eye. The good news is that she said it wasn’t too bad in my lungs and not in my ears at all. She said this stuff should clear it right up, so yay!

While at the doc, we also made some additional appointments. She was quite thrilled with my endocrinology test results. She wants me to come in June and we will do a wellness check along with my Pap. I mentioned my shorter cycles and she said that is nothing to worry about since I am not bleeding gobs each time. She said it just means I am ovulating and it may have to do with me getting things like my sugars back in order. Plus, she said my kidney function is awesome! Woo!! I also made arrangements for my referral for a boob squishing as a follow up to the scary nipple discharge adventure last year. I am getting a lot of work done to hopefully keep me well.

I was happy to have a cause to my misery. It is amazing how much better than can make you feel. I was worried I was just being dramatic, but in reality this cold/sinus infection apparently has been quite common for people lately so she said not to worry.

I was able to go to the boys’ Open House last night, which was super happy making. I loved seeing all the artwork they have done. I am anxious to get some of it home so I can scan it all in. Some of it is truly remarkable. There is this one drawing of a fish that Bobby did that has the fish actually facing you with his body twisted a bit and it is amazing! Dax’s printing is improving and Mr. Williams talked about what a great kid he is. Both of the teachers told us and my parents how much they adored the boys so this was all kinds of good.

We go look at a place tonight that hopefully has some promise. It is only 2 bedrooms, but it is a large lot, so hopefully the house itself is good sized. I have a feeling it will not be great, but it doesn’t hurt to look.

This Saturday has our first registration event for AYSO. Thankfully it is quick and should be a little more fun. It is only volunteers and coaches and people like that, and it is only 2 hours. It means I can get things all organized on my paperwork. I am good with this.

I ordered my new computer last night. I am pretty excited. It is actually small enough, too, that I can take that to registration (not this weekend since I don’t think I get it in time) events, which will make entering everything so much easier. I am very happy! It also unclutters a lot of stuff along with allowing me to have all of my data on one machine. Yay!

tantrums

3-19-13

I am pretty sure it is a sinus infection now.

I have only had pain like this once before. It was when I was pregnant with Dax. My face hurt to the touch. I had been battling a cold for a week or so at the time that just wouldn’t go away. Then I noticed when I went to put my face in my hands it felt like someone punched me. I ended up going to a nose and throat doctor who stuck some kind of magical wand up my nose to clear out my sinuses. It was wonderful. Sure, it wasn’t super comfortable, but the end result was nothing short of a miracle.

So now I sit here, having dealt with this congestion for more than a week and I am noting that even eating hurts the same tender area on my face. I now am waiting for the doctor’s office to open so that I might be able to get in there today. I am willing to go this morning if they will see me. I just need to see a doctor before this evening since it is Open House (for reals this time).

On top of this horrid infection/sick/bleahfest, I had to deal with Mr. Bobby’s epic meltdowns yesterday. The kid was drama intensive over every little thing. I was calm and quiet and basically stuck to my guns on everything. He wanted a snack, despite the fact that I had just watched him licking out a bowl of ice cream he had gotten from class. I told him he didn’t need anything else and that we needed to get homework done. He actually fell to the floor. I told him that he would need to stop acting like a fool or else I would have to come up with some kind of epic punishment. I suggested several, including filming his tantrum to show the world. He didn’t like this and got up pretty quickly.

We started in on the worksheets. He dinked in epic form. It truly was an art form. He doesn’t just space out. He will go all inquisitive child on you. Thankfully I am quite familiar with the routine and can steer him back to the blank clocks on the paper that needed to be told what time they were to say based on the clues at hand.

Sadly, he hadn’t finished even the second page of work he knows how to do quickly when Dax was already starting in on his paragraph. Dax, of course, in true brother form decided to morph into Angel Child since Bobby had claimed the role of Devil Child for the afternoon. When Dax was done with his homework, he decided to make me a scavenger hunt, complete with clues. He also brought in all of the trash cans for me and was super chipper all afternoon.

Bobby kept complaining about his homework, despite my efforts to make it pretty damned easy. So I opted to show him what he would be doing had I not already made life easier for him. I made him do all 15 of his sentences and made him alphabetize his words. He flipped. It was sobs and screams and kicks and every other kind of kid sad you can think of. I stayed calm and just had him stick to it.

It was a long afternoon of homework, but that being said, he is more than halfway done with all of his work for the week. Plus, hopefully he learned to not cranky boy me without expecting punishment. He whined a couple more times in the evening which resulted in quick removal of privileges he was hoping for. I am crossing my fingers that today is better.

Not Much

3-18-13

This sick really sucks.

We are going on a full week of congestion and coughing and ultimately, pure exhaustion, which is truly annoying. We went on a couple of errands yesterday and I was pooped! My meds combo last night did seem to result in a less cougharific morning, so perhaps another dose of that will be good for more sleep. Sadly, in the morning I am still pretty groggy, but that will just have to be how it is. I need to get better.

The weekend was filled with really exciting highs and crippling lows. My hopes were hyper drive when I went into the open houses on Saturday because I was under the impression our range was pretty good. Sadly, we were incorrect and found this out after being really freaking excited about a place. We had even given our realtor the go ahead to submit an offer. Said offer has since be torn up and my dreams of this place are dashed. Couple that with a very real possibility of no place any time soon and you have a pretty down Gena.

Apparently the meds have also made for a distracted Gena. I started this an hour ago and after a couple minutes, I started on something else and only just remembered I had not finished. Neat.

check

3-15-13

I must have some bad Karma with Mother Nature since she is currently kicking my ass.

For some reason my period cycles are getting shorter. It is time to go get checked out. It is probably nothing, but I am going to say that a cycle every 20 days is not acceptable. Especially when I am still in the midst of fire throat and super congestion.

Sleep was not great last night, mostly because I didn’t go to sleep with the intention of coma. Ken had a meeting last night, so I was kind of waiting up for him. This meant when he did arrive home, I had a hard time falling back asleep. I had to wait on him since I was in the midst of a tampon emergency when I realized that I had none and was in desperate need of one. LOL!

The coffee and the NyQuil are currently engaged in an epic battle over my status. I am not sure if I am actually typing this, but I do know I am doing it at top speeds.

We met with our realtor last night, which was fun. We signed our buyer agreement and set to work on some open houses we can hopefully look at this weekend. One is in Redondo! There is another, that although is small, is on a huge lot and filled with awesome trees. We drove by it and thought it was gorgeous. We are really looking forward to seeing that place. There is another at the end of a Cul-de-sac. All of them seem pretty cool so we are crossing our fingers.

I keep telling myself that the only reason I am here is to get my check. There is truth to this. That being said, my check won’t get to my desk until like 10, which means that I if I can make it that long, I might as well tough it out all day. I am looking forward to sleeping in and looking at homes.

The market is crazy right now, what with little inventory and aggressive pricing. Our guy told us that he hopes we can find something within 6 months since this is all going to just get worse. Yie!

Fuck. It looks to be a busy day filled with idiots. 

slumber

3-14-13

Hello slumber my old friend.

I crashed yesterday. I was not going to be able to face the day at 4 am as I normally can. I crawled out long enough to pee and call into work to wish them luck without me for a day. I then slunk back into the comfort of my bed and didn’t come back out until after Ken and the boys had left for the morning.

I considered the mess in the kitchen but after becoming winded and exhausted just from feeding the cats I knew that my plan for the day was to just sit. So sit I did. I worked on some AYSO crap for an audit and I also dinked around online. I ordered myself some shoes because, well, just because. I was able to watch another episode of my show and mostly just chill, which is something my body desperately needed.

My throat is still on fire. The good news is the coughing is less extreme in terms of frequency. I do cough from time to time, and when that happens it is a doozy, but the tickle that causes it has slowed. I took my NyQuil again last night and was able to freak out the boys momentarily, which was fun. I had backed the shot of thick, red medicine and a drop of it fell on my face right below my nose. I didn’t have a napkin, so I had to catch some of it with my finger and then headed to the bathroom to get a tissue. Dax looked horrified when he saw his mother with what looked like a pretty bad nose bleed. LOL!

I think that my plan for taking yesterday off to recover will work well in the long run since the boss has opted to take today off. It means 3 days of no boss man. Woo!

The tea is certainly helping my throat, but now it feels like it is 1000 degrees in here.

My sick was certainly messing with me. On Tuesday, Ken and I showed up at the school and I asked Mr. Manny if the book fair was ready for everyone. He looked confused, and after some more inquiry, it was realized that I was off by a week on the Open House and book fair. Yeah, that happened. Oh, and not to mention the random dreams including one in which I had extensive conversations with people about how all chickens should wear tank tops.

I am still house hunting. I found one on the site yesterday that is located at the end of a cul-de-sac which is super happy making. I am hoping we can go take a look at it soon. I also broadened my search to include Long Beach, although sadly the places I have liked the best are located in rather questionable neighborhoods in the large city. Ultimately, I know I have until Bobby hits Jr. High. Still, I would like to get into a new place long before then.

I have decided that I agree whole heartedly with Ken and with some of the clerical error money coming my way tomorrow I am going to purchase a Mac Mini. My desktop machine at home crashes on average twice a day. The laptop that is there that I have been using for pictures and music isn’t up to the quantity of memory I really need with my mad paparazzi skills. A Mac Mini will allow me to have gobs of space, a speedy machine, and it is small enough I could even take it with me if let’s say I go on vacation. All of this is a super win.

We have now watched up through movie 3 in the Harry Potter series. Bobby was not as impressed with the 3^rd one because truly, the uber bad guy isn’t featured as prominently. What he doesn’t understand is the significance of Sirius and my personal favorite, Lupin, being introduced to the mix. Hopefully the 4^th movie will knock his socks off, what with an actual death because of Voldemort happening.

I received the Zombie chocolate bunnies for the Zombie Jesus Day baskets for the boys. I am quite pleased. I need to dig out Zombieland for our annual viewing.

cough cough cough cough

3-12-13

I really am not here. 

I mean, sure, my body is here. That being said, my brain is not. I feel like a zombie wandering around in a haze. I feel like I have accomplished a lot already this morning in that I managed to shower and get dressed. My Nyquil seemed to be helping when I first went to sleep around 8. At midnight, I woke up with the cough and couldn’t get back to sleep. I tossed and turned and coughed and coughed and coughed. I dealt with hot and cold flashes that actually were making my body twitch, which were super freaky. I finally procured a cough drop from Ken and managed to settle mostly, but I was plagued with funky dreams that messed with my already jacked up head. I spent a good hour talking to Robbie, mostly debating whether or not her deathaversary was today or in a couple weeks. For the record, it isn’t until the 27^th. 

When the alarm went off I almost started crying. I was so very upset. I am very much so out of practice in this no sleep thing. I am the type of person who can sleep pretty much anywhere. Even with the baby years, I didn’t mind getting up to feed them since I could easily nurse and nap at the same time. It was actually one of the more relaxed times for me. Gone are the days when I would work all day and play all night (or the reverse depending on my shift) and a couple of hours of shuteye would suffice for my energy depletion. 

I am not proud of my weakness, but it may be one of those days to just throw in the towel and go crawl back into bed. 

I would like to be rested for tonight being that it is Open House at the school. I always enjoy those sort of things. 

I think I just fell asleep on my keyboard.

yick sick

3-11-13

Stupid damn sick. 

I took Friday off with the intent of being able to rest enough that this sick would not take over. I got home super late from the board meeting and I was sure that this extra day would be helpful. Don’t get me wrong, I did manage to get some rest and some things done. I got to go to Target by myself, a luxury that allowed me to shop leisurely and obtain supplies for Easter baskets. I also had time to watch more episodes of my show while filling the 192 eggs for the hunt. 

Ken came home early and we ended up taking the kids to go see Oz, which was really fun. The movie wasn’t as good as I had hoped, but still a good time. It was just nice to be able to go for a family movie. Ken and I did point out that we may need to set aside some money from the tax return for this year’s movie offers. 

Saturday brought the Fern Extravaganza. We got out to Riverside around 10:30 and managed to get everything set up. It was surprisingly fun! My cousin Billy and his wife Angie were there, which allowed me to get to know Angie. I had never met her. She was awesome! Clearly, she is perfect for my cousin and was super fun. I enjoyed talking with her quite a bit. 

My aunt was not super thrilled about the mess that I brought which was the 30 balloons filled with confetti. She didn’t really express her anger and kept it in check. My mom on the other hand thought it was fantastic. LOL!

It was a good time with Grammie being quite surprised and moved by the whole event. I was able to visit with all of my great aunts and cousins which was interesting being that I don’t get to do that all that often. I met my mom’s one cousin for the first time who when introduced to me said, “Oh, yes, Gena! I have heard a lot about you!” It was surreal how many of these people know me. I mean, sure, they are family, but apparently my social media hijinks have truly made me a family celebrity. Ray, my mom’s cousin, was really funny and told me that I was his new favorite person because I was so happy. LOL! I was in full party mode, being super social and bubbly. I also made sure to help my mom with whatever needed to be done. It was a good party and I am glad it all went so well. 

Sadly, all of that energy left me nothing to fight the cold that is now ravaging my body. Sleep seems to be impossible since it is at that time when my nose goes nuts, despite all of the meds I have been taking. My throat is super sore and my head and neck ache from the sick. I hate this so very much. That being said, I am not as bad off as I suppose I could be. I have not gotten the fever that Dax got last weekend. 

Thankfully we had nowhere we needed to be yesterday. We did go to breakfast, but then after we did some housework. The boys went down to play with a friend for a couple of hours, which allowed Ken and I to catch up a bit on Modern Family. Once the boys came home, we made dinner and watched the second movie in the Harry Potter series. At one point I found myself on the couch with my boys and Monarch curled up on me while we watched Harry fight a giant snake. It was very cozy.

I really wish I had gotten more sleep last night. I am running on empty this morning. I am about to rock another cup of tea, hoping that it will soothe my throat along with give me a nice caffeine boost.

We looked at the house on Ainsworth and although it was quite nice, it didn’t seem worth a fight. There was already 5 offers in on the place and we would have needed to make a move Thursday night. So for now, we are just going to keep looking. I know that our realtor would like us to come in and discuss things. Ken isn’t too keen on this being that he already thinks everyone is on the same page, but I think it wouldn’t hurt. For now, I will keep looking. Hopefully we can find the right place for us.