On Health

Today is the very last day that any of my family can go to the doctor or emergency room on my old company's dime. Yep, I've been "bought out" for three months now, and the free health care that came with it is gone. As of tomorrow, all health issues will be referred to John's employer. And that policy--compared to the one I had--completely SUCKS. So, there is to be NO ONE going to the doctor or getting sick FROM NOW ON! And I MEAN IT.

Of course, that promise has already been broken. Mary went to the dentist last month and for the first time in her eight short years, she had cavities. But, but...how??? She's so good about brushing her teeth! And her teeth were FINE six months ago! The hygienist wants to do a root canal on one of her baby teeth. I say NAY to that. The child has NEVER complained of being in pain (the hygienist kept saying, "Seriously? She hasn't complained her teeth hurt?"), and until she does, that baby tooth can just ROT until the adult one takes responsibility and kicks the little cretin out. While we continue brushing and try to remember to FLOSS EVERY NIGHT.... I did, however, agree to filling the tooth that was NOT a baby tooth.

As for Mary's UTI problems--she has completely bamboozled me. She went several days with no complaints and feeling fine. Then out of the blue, she was complaining of having problems going again. My theory is that she just holds it too long.... Anyway, today she seems fine again, so I guess I'm waiting it out for a few more days again. She does have her annual check-up in two weeks, so maybe she can hold out until then.

Izzy has caught Keith's cold. Although he had more of a cough while she has a bad case of the sniffles. Poor Keith coughed so bad the other day that he pulled an "Andrew" and ended up puking all over his bedroom rug (which I had JUST put down the day before). Anyway, I thumbed my nose at the AMA and have given BOTH kids cold medicine. Keith slept better as he was no longer coughing up a lung (and his breakfast), and Izzy has slept a LITTLE better as her nose was no longer running Niagara Falls. Oh, and she can breathe better, too.

As for myself, I've been having a strange pain in my side for several weeks now, and I can't figure out what the issue is. And of course, I'm just too stubborn to see a doctor about it. Webmd has many theories about what the problem could be, but mostly I'm thinking that once the holidays are over and I've improved my diet a bit, it will hopefully go away. It's already down to just a dull twinge instead of the sharp-ish twinge it was a few weeks ago. If it gets sharp again, I will definitely choke down the astronomical deductible and go see the @#$% doctor.

Now this little hypochondriac is going to prepare for yet ANOTHER boring New Year's Eve. The family we usually get together with is celebrating with their parents this year (although not necessarily "willingly"), so it's just going to be us. The kids were just sent down for a nap with the strict edict that if they didn't actually SLEEP they would not get to stay up and watch the ball drop--um, although Izzy isn't going to get to anyway. Miss Sniffles will be put to bed promptly on time tonight, thank you. I'm a little apprehensive about letting them stay up at all since they have to go back to school on Wednesday and they've gotten in the habit of sleeping in later this break, and I'm afraid they're going to be quite GROUCHY on Wednesday morning. And Miss Mary gets QUITE snippy when she hasn't had enough sleep. And Mr. Keith turns into the whiniest boy in the world. Ugh.

The Christmas Explosion!

Toys and boxes and wrapping EVERYWHERE! Polly Pockets, Littlest Pets, and Star Wars Transformers, oh my!

Let's see:

We opened (gifts)...
We ate (a PERFECT Christmas dinner--I ROCK!)...
Wii PLAYED...

(The Wii is addictive. The kids both kick butt bowling, which is really amusing to watch. And I will probably be setting out buffets of leftovers and ignoring my precious babies until I solve Super Paper Mario.)

We exchanged/returned duplicate gifts to buy MORE gifts (and games for Wii)...
We spent an obscene amount of money at Build-A-Bear...

And at 9:00 this morning (just THREE days after X-mas and FIVE days after her gloriously gift-filled birthday), the eldest came up to me and said:

"I'm bored."


Ah yes. The thrill is apparently gone.

Mary is EIGHT!?

Yesterday was Mary's eighth birthday. 'Scuse me while I attempt to absorb that.

EIGHT years? Wow.

As part of the birthday tradition, we took the family on a scenic drive through Rochester--showing Mary the tiny apartment we lived in when she was born and the hospital where she was born (which is now closed--but her pediatrician's office is still there).

Friday night Mary got to have three of her friends over for a slumber party. We did a reindeer craft (which didn't hold together too well with Elmer's--oh well), played with the balloons, watched Ratatouille, and even built a snowman (which proceeded to melt in the rain yesterday). And she had an "Avatar" cake. It was fun.

Mary, our first-born, is definitely spoiled. She got lots of toys and clothes (she wasn't too thrilled about the clothes--but I know she will be given a few more years!). We tried to get her to pick our dinner location yesterday, but she was hesitant. Apparently it's still too difficult for an eight-year old to fathom eating ANYWHERE but Wendy's for dinner. John chose Friendly's (for the ice cream, of course). I reminded him that our last few experiences there weren't too great, but he wanted to give it another try (different branch). Yeah--we're not going back again.

The last two years Mary's been sick on her birthday, but this year she seemingly made it through and actually got to share her class treat in a timely manner instead of the week after the Holiday break (last year she had pink eye, the year before that it was the barfing flu--both of which hit the rest of the family with a vengeance). She did, however get sent to the nurse on Friday. Peeing issues again. We all thought she was fine (including the school nurse!), but now she's started showing some symptoms that SEEM to point to a UTI. And of COURSE she now won't get to make it to the doctor until WEDNESDAY. She's not in pain, so maybe it's just a fluke, and we'll make it through our presents and our turkey dinner OK.... Let's hope....

And now we're all buckling down for Christmas Eve. We will miss out on a couple of our presents as they were mailed to the wrong address, but we'll just pick them up on Wednesday and extend the holiday out a little longer. Other than that, all the cookies are baked (and exchanged!), the pumpkin pie is made, and I'm looking forward to watching "It's a Wonderful Life" tonight.

Happy Holidays to all! Love you!

Monster Cookies

When my Mom first tried this recipe, she followed all the directions. We had to use a roasting pan to mix all the ingredients. After the first cookie sheet-full, we realized that as much as we like cookies, these were WAY too big for our appetites. Now we simplify the recipe. Obviously, we only make half the batter. And we just drop regular-sized cookies on the sheet--NOT ice cream scoop-sized. We make them every year at Christmas time. So if any of YOU are adventurous (and don't tire easily from mixing all that batter), you might want to try these tasty cookies.....

Here's the whole recipe:

Monster Cookies

12 eggs (are you sweating already?)
2 lbs brown sugar (yikes!)
4 C white sugar
1 T vanilla
1 T maple syrup
8 teaspoons baking soda
1 lb butter (urp!)
3 lbs peanut butter (whoa--I gotta get to Sam's Club!)
18 C quick oatmeal (add that to the list!)
1 lb choc chips
1 lb M&Ms (no comment on how many of these last two ingredients actually make it INTO the batter)

Preheat oven to 350*. Mix all ingredients in order in large pan (where is that darn roasting pan?). Begin by beating the eggs. You can use an ice cream scoop to drop the cookies (if you dare). Flatten the cookies before baking. Bake 12 minutes. Do not over bake.

Now, excuse me while I mix this behemoth batter. 'Cause it's just NOT Christmas without these cookies!

Perfect Souvenir

John brought me back a Harvard hoodie from his trip to Boston.

Now at least when I'm slobbing on the couch, I'll look SMART.

My Routine

...has completely um, crapped the bed.

Somewhere around week THREE I suddenly lost all interest in being together, organized, and housewifely. Know how it all started? When ONE day that third week John needed to get up at the same time as I do--and asked to get in the shower first. So I didn't get a shower right away. So then my day STARTED with kids needing to be awakened, fed, homework checked, lunches packed, and sent on the bus (well, so only ONE kid goes to school in the morning, but the rest are still THERE, demanding my ATTENTION), but withOUT my wake-up shower. At that point, all I could do was mail it in and wait to get in the shower until the precious 1:30 naptime. That's a LONG time to get caught up on one's shower.

And then the next day--it happened AGAIN. John jumped the morning shower spot leaving me frumpy, grumpy and out-of-sorts. And then with a whip of the wand, there you have it--a ROUTINE!

Well, it didn't help that the bus driver had to change his route a bit, having him come to the house six minutes SOONER than before. SIX MINUTES, PEOPLE! Talk about screwing up a routine!

So for some reason, I can NOT physically MAKE myself get out of bed in enough time for this six minute adjustment. I just can't seem to make it to the shower in the morning.

I do NOT do well without my morning shower. In addition to the grumpies and frumpies I now feel that since I'm not awake nor properly attired, it's OK to sit and read or watch TV (Hey, we've only got a few weeks left of those FREE movie channels!) and do other household tasks (just not as much as before) and NOT GO ANYWHERE or pay much attention to the kids except reading to them on the couch. Add the snowfall (which started on DECEMBER FIRST!), and I've transformed myself into a Mother Bear. Snug on my couch in my sweats and blankets, waiting for the nap hour when I can transform myself into an alert--yet still sweat-pants clad--bear who is stuck in the den until APRIL.

I need to find some Mom groups or story hours or something just to get OUT in this bitter cold and get my butt moving and give me a REASON to get up six minutes sooner so that I have TIME to take my morning shower.



Do you think I complain too much? John says my blog is a bunch of whining. (And that's after EDITING.) Hmmmm.....

Golden Compass

John is out of town cavorting with his internet friends (read: FREE Steelers tickets!), so I'm Home Alone--with three kids. (Did I ever tell you that within one week's time in college I had TWO people tell me I looked like Macaulay Culkin--one of them being my now-husband? I don't think I do. But look at pics of my BROTHER as a kid--oh yeah, he coulda been a star. My parents are probably SHUDDERING at the thought of all that money they could have exploited out of him IF ONLY THEY'D KNOWN!)

Anyway, I decided to kill some time Saturday and take the kids to the movies. It's hard to find a movie that a 7, 5, and 3-year old will all sit through--and that the 35-year old can stomach, too. I suggested "Enchanted" (worrying it was going to be a bit too girly for my boy-man). Neither Keith nor Mary took the bait (maybe they're onto my obviously unhealthy Dr. McDreamy crush and didn't want to see me embarrass them OR myself while I screamed "Love Me! Choose Me! Pick Me!" at the screen at the top of my lungs).

Ahem. Next suggestion: Golden Compass. Keith got all shiny-eyed. "YES! I want to see THAT!" Hmmmm....well....OK.

I knew it might be difficult for the 3-year old's attention span, and might be too "much" of a movie for the other two, but oh well....

I don't think I can give an adequate review since I missed most of the dialogue due to the chatter, fidgeting, popcorn-stealing, water-bottle-hogging, lap and seat leap-frogging, and temper tantrum-brimming (after told ENOUGH popcorn and water!) of the 3-year old. But the movie was very confusing to follow, more violent than I expected, and Keith started whining "Mommy! I'm scared!" during the big fight scene. Yeah, I KNEW that was a bad idea. Should have listened to my HORMONES and went to see the McDreamy Fest!

Ah well. It killed some time, and I GOT OUT OF THE HOUSE.

Mommy Brain Moment

"Mommy, I gotta go potty!"

"OK!"

Take three-year old to bathroom. Hoist her up on the johnny. Notice that the dirty clothes basket is over-flowing. Heck, by the wafting fragrance this'll probably take awhile.... Gather up all the dirty towels. Carry clothes basket to basement. Hmmm...still need to move a load from the washer into the dryer from last night. Do so. Better start a new load (waaay behind on laundry despite determined effort to do one load a day). Go upstairs to get a sip of coffee. Stopped half-way up with "Mommy! I done!"

Crap! Kid still on potty!

Realize am victim yet again of the Mommy Brain. Multi-tasking is sometimes just a big no-no.

I See Spots

Red KETCHUP spots. On Keith's face in his school pictures.

Ah well. He's got a brilliant smile anyway.