Selfish being

Over the past few weeks I've complained about my job and how I'm underappreciated and about school hassles. The last few days have woken me to how selfish I am. Obviously with the events of the past few days, my little problems mean nothing. We live in Texas along the gulf coast - the refugees from the hurricane are coming to our state. Tens of thousands of individuals are being relocated from the Superdome stadium to the Astrodome, where they will spend months living. Living with no privacy, no private baths, and no possesions. My son may very well have new classmates this next week, because those who have been displaced have to make Texas their home for the next year, at the very least.
On a more personal level, a friend's daughter has been rediagnosed with brain cancer. She is only 4 and has already been through surgeries and chemo from the last occurance of cancer. Her survival chances are not good. Her parents have to decide whether or not to give her treatment and possibly extend her suffering and she still might not survive or let things just take their own course.
It certainly makes me put things into perspective.

Power outages

Well, I had a very long post going about my baking fiasco from the baby shower (I opted to make everything), which if I do say myself, was quite humorous; then one of the worst things that could possible happen in a bloggers life happened. The power went out. *Sigh*. So frustrating. So now you get this lackluster post. Blame mother nature, she's the one who opted to host a three hour lightening storm outside my door, which made it very difficult for any of us to sleep. Our poor little retention lakes even flooded their banks.*Sigh* So this all you get. Good Sunday to you all.

Rise and shine?

My started much earlier than normal today. At 4:00am the phone started ringing - it is my next door neighbor saying "it's time" (I wasn't sleeping too soundly since I still haven't gotten that new mattress). She is pregnant with her 3rd child, so one tends to believe her when she says this. She was calling me so that I could watch her children while her husband drove her to the hospital. In the time it took me to dress and walk next door, she decided she would rather have me take her, since her husband was whining about needing "one more hour of sleep, couldn't she wait that long? Since you should try to avoid stress while pregnant and in labor, she rethought her plans and felt he could stay home while I took her, that way in case she didn't get admitted, he wouldn't miss his precious sleep.

The hospital she is delivering at is about a half hour away, and it is off a road that has been under construction for 2 years and will be under construction for at least another 5 years - it is a two lane highway being converted into a seven lane highway. So every time you travel this road, there is a good chance your exit has moved or that it doesn't even exist anymore. We discovered this as we were driving since last week there were 2 exits that lead to the hospital, but this morning there was only one, and I missed it. So with had scenic detour that added an additional 15min, and with a pregnant woman "who, who, ha, haing" next to me, that was a very long 15 min.

We made it to the hospital in plenty of time, and in fact were sent home after being there for 2 1/2 hours (her contractions weren't strong enough - at least the nurse didn't think so. If you asked my friend she would have strongly disagreed).

So we came home just in time for me to get my son on the bus (luckily, my husband could go in late to his work and was to get the boy going and keep him going), go to my PTO board meeting (it was at 2hrs long and counting when I left), and then off to work (on what would normally be my day off) to try to catch up on all the backlogged accounting work. I didn't succeed, but I did get a little bit done.
Thank goodness it is Friday. Of course, I still have to prepare for the baby shower I'm throwing tomorrow for this same neighbor. I had planned on doing the baking tonight, but I going to be so tired. Let's see if people can tell the difference between store bought and homemade ;)

Games post

Games
envoy-ette did this for me....and now I'm doing for it her! Here's how it works:

1) Put your name in my comments and I'll respond with something random about you.
2) I'll tell you what song or movie reminds me of you.
3) I'll pick a flavor/color of jello to wrestle with you.
4) I'll only say something that only makes sense to you and me.
5) I'll tell you my first memory of you.
6) I'll tell you what animal you remind me of.
7) I'll ask you something I've alway's wondered about you.
8) If I do this for you, you MUST post this on your blog.

envoyette:

2. "I am woman" Helen Redding - an old one but I can hear you singing it as you tackle your developer.
3. Black cherry - it will compliment our skin tones.
4. Sidewalks are for driving in Southern Italy.
5. She is so funny, I have got to add her to my favorites.
6. Leopard - you are graceful under stress yet are very protective of your brood. Plus you can blend in with whatever surrounding you are placed in.
7. Same question back to you - Where in the Midwest do you reside?

Insomnia

Not much going here. I can't sleep. I hate when this happens. I keep having the same dream over and over, related to some item at work; I toss and turn, until finally I'm forced to get out of bed to putt around the house. Tonight I got to walk down the street to check out why there were 3 fire trucks, an ambulance, and a police car on my street. It was "just" a rescue call, but since we use volunteers around here, everyone comes out of the woodwork, which I suppose is better than the alternative - no one responding to a call.

Of course, that doesn't help my sleeplessness. What would help would be a new mattress. Our mattress is the same lumpy one we've had since we got married. I bought it at the PX, not for comfort but affordability. After all these years and all the moves it's had to endure, I think it is time for a new one. I hate to spend so much money on an overpriced piece of foam and metal springs. I just have to remind myself that this is where 1/3 of my life is spent, so it is a good investment.

Fall out

Well, the joy in my promotion has been short lived. The woman who was passed over quit today. The promotion thing was the straw that broke the camels back - she has has several months of frustration, non-appreciation, and aggravation that has built up to this. So, I'm now faced with having to do her work along with my new responsibilities. Joy oh joy. It will be temporary, but since I've already been stretched quite far as it is, and I'm not elastigirl, I don't know how much more I can take before I break. It should be very interesting come Monday morning (I don;t work there on Fridays). I can't wait to hear how things have turned out

Promotion

Lucky day for me, I got a promotion at work. I'll be doing the same job that I've been doing, only now I have a different title and more money to go with it, plus a little more power thrown in for kicks. That is definitly a positive.
The negative is that another individual at my work should also have been offered a promotion (which she would have turned down) but it wasn't offered to her. Plus, my boss in his infinite wisdom chose not to speak to her first before doing the promotions. So now at work we can all stay cool from her icy gazes. Let me just state for the record that she is totally justified in her anger, but it takes away some of the thrill and excitement for myself and my coworker who was also promoted. We should be celebrating with cake, not tip-toeing around the office.

New neighbor

It looks like we have some new neighbors at the house across the street. It will be difficult for their friends and family to find them, since the street sign/stop sign was knocked clean out of the ground last night. I mention this in relationship to our new neighbor because their garage is showing some indications of a tramatic event as well as their car is showing a rather pole-shaped dent in it. There is also a remarkable lack of any skid marks, which is scary in its own right.

I've only seen one of the people who live there, a businessman by the looks of it. He drives an SUV, not the car that tried to defy the laws of matter. Should I go over and welcome our new neighbors and then nonchalantly ask about the half-raised crushed-in garage door? One thing I defintely know I'll be doing - parking off the street.

UPDATE: It turns out the teenage son crashed into the door this morning when he was moving cars around. There is still a mystery as to whether or not the sign post is the kids work.

First day of school, part 2

The rest of the day went a little better. Although my son did not enjoy his first day, he got through it. He came home saying he had a bad day. To quote him "recess was too short - they kept blowing that whistle. Line up, then go play, line up, then go play, then line up and go inside, no fair". Plus they had some writing assignments to do and he was unable to complete them (he can't focus long enough to come up with a story and write it).
Luckily, we were able to change his bad day to a good day by going out for ice cream after dinner. It was a long standing traditional in my family to go to the local ice cream parlor after first day of school, report cards, dance recitals, etc. and I think it is a nice one to continue. It always put a smile on my face when I was younger and it worked for my son as well - he walked out of the ice cream place saying that ice cream was a great reward for a good day.

First Day of School, part 1

It's the first day of school here and it's already off to a shaky start. Why? Because my dear son, having gotten himself up and dressed early, has now decided to have a meltdown over the placement of the transportation sticker on his shirt. This is occuring even as we speak, while his breakfast of scrambled eggs is getting cold and my patience is getting short. My reiteration over and over again of the phrases "we don't have time for this" and "you need to eat breakfast" is not working, so I felt it was the perfect time to update this blog. Either that or I may need to choke him, which is not a good start to the school year. Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out.

quote of the day

The best portion of a good man's life are the little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and love.
- William Wordsworth

Monogamy

I was just reading how Kate Hudson (Goldie Hawn's daughter) does not believe that monogamy is a realistic goal in a marriage, and that if her husband Chris, who is the lead singer for the Black Crowes, cheated on her she would not want to know. She did state that she believed couples have the "power" to be monogamous and that she would not disrespect her husband by cheating on him.

Hmm.

I've often had this conversation with my girlfriends. If your husband cheated on you, would you want to know, or would it be best to never know; and if you cheated on him, would you tell or keep it a secret. This is actually a relevant question for my friends, since many of them have husbands who travel for weeks to months at a time, and some are still in the military, where deployments can make for lonely nights. I have a very good friend whose husband did cheat on her while he was on deployment and she found out about it by emails left on the computer. She confronted him (unfortunately, it is very common to find one of the couple in a military relationship being unfaithful). So every since, she has had that nagging feeling in the back of her head wheneve he goes away, not quite trusting him even though it has been over 5 years and he has been faithful since then.

With that thought in mind, I agree with Kate Hudson and would not ever want to know. As long as it was a "safe" encounter, it would not benefit me to know about it. True, there would obviously be something lacking in our relationship in order for him to feel the need to stray, and I would want to fix that, but I don't think finding out about an adulterous affair would help that. I have a long memory when it comes to injustices and slights I've experienced over the years. I would never be able to trust my spouse again if he did that and I would be forever suspicous when he worked late or was out of town.

Would I admit to an affair? I would probably feel the need to tell, since keeping secrets in my relationship is not something I can do easily, especially ones that are harmful to it, even though I know that it would be the end of my relationship. My sweetie is a very forgiving caring man, but there are somethings he would never tolerate and that is one of them. He has had experiences in the past that would make that sort of action unforgivable. Luckily, he doesn't have any need to worry.

We all have the "power" to be monogamous, it is just a matter of whether or not we choose to use it.

High Cholesterol at age 7

I just got my son's test results back from his yearly physical. His bloodwork shows an elevated cholesterol level- 206 - which I find so hard to fathom. We are not junk food eaters at my house, nor do we eat out that often. Ask my son to choose between a slice of watermelon (or an apple or a peach) and a cookie and he'll choose the fruit every time. Our favorite place to eat out (his choice)- Souper Salad, where you get to choose from many salad items and soups for your meal. When you ask him if he wants to go get fast food, he usually ask if we can stay home instead.

It could be genetics. His father's family has high cholesterol levels on the paternal side. I just found out today that my mother's side isn't that great either. Yet my cholesterol is fine. I don't know about hubby's since he won't call the doctor to get the results from his last blood work (his theory is that they would have called if there was anything wrong).

I feel bad, since he isn't allowed junk food as it is, now we are going to have to focus on those "heart healthy" foods that I thought were for my parent's generation. Anyone have some coupons for Cheerios or Benecol? Looks like we will buying some.