Walk MS
I have this amazing friend. Let’s call her “Amy.” Okay, that’s her real name, but whatever. ;)
She is one of those people you see everywhere, usually volunteering for something. She serves on boards and committees, helping out at school, at church, throughout the town. She always delivers the prettiest cookies for the bake sale, and makes a homemade meal for her family every night. She accomplishes more in one day than any other 5 women I know put together.
She the kind of woman you might look at and want to hate because how does she do it all? She makes the rest of us look bad!! But you can’t hate her, because she so darn nice. She will do anything for you, for any one of her circle of friends and family, and most especially for her kids. You have to love her, just because she is Amy.
She is strong, and beautiful, and funny, and always smiling. And she has Multiple Sclerosis.
Since this is MS Awareness Week, it’s a perfect time to let you all know I am participating in Walk MS on April 18 with Amy and the rest of her team and we would really appreciate your support. It’s super easy to donate online. If you want to donate but aren’t comfortable doing it online, send me an email (catnip35@gmail.com) and we’ll work it out.
If you have any questions about Walk MS check their FAQ page.
xo
Annette
snippets
I’m going to tell you one little fact that speaks volumes about my life right now; I just *now* (as in this morning) took the Christmas lights down off of my front porch.
~ahem~
Of course, the 5 strings of lights are now wadded up in a ball on my kitchen table and I hope to do something about that before the week day is over. That something will probably be be to stuff the whole thing in a Target bag and throw it in the garage to deal with next November! (At which time I will curse at myself, and go buy new ones.)
————————
I’m sitting at my desk surrounded by paperwork, books, and Legos. I can’t move from my chair for the amount of work hanging over my head. And when I have a moment to stand up and stretch I step on Bionicles and bruise the poor soles of my feet. Sheesh. I’m on a tight deadline with one rush project, and have two more looming. Work is good to have, but well, yeah. Their vacation was not my vacation. I cannot tell you how glad I am that our so-called vacation is over!
————————
On Tuesdays I volunteer at the school library. Mostly I put away books, hundreds of pounds of books. I’m also the checkout girl, making sure they’ve brought back their overdue books before they get another, that sort of thing. Sometimes they ask me to help them find just the perfect book. And once I got to read to a first grade class. (They even listened!)
Some of the fourth graders laugh at me because I’m terrible with names. They try to make me guess who they are. I see the same kids over and over, every Tuesday, bright, smiling faces of kids who want to be in the library, who clearly love to read, who get as many books as they can every week. I love it there, even if their names escape me, their happiness doesn’t.
————————
Today is Tuesday! I get to ignore the pings of emails, silence the ringer on my cell, and forget about the Christmas lights on my kitchen table. I get to go to the library.
how many ways can you say sick
S: Slimy, sniffly, slow, sticky, sleepy, snot, stuffy, sore, sneezing.
I: Icky, infirm, irritable, ill, idle, infectious.
C: Contagious, clammy, cranky, cold, chapped, coughing, crusty, commiserate, contaminated.
K: Kleenex.
We all have it. All I can say is, it’s a good thing we didn’t have big plans for school vacation week.
dregs
Dudes. My blog is depressing. Maybe that’s why I don’t come here so often anymore.
I seem to go to a lot of funerals. Another one of my Aunts died this week, another of my father’s siblings. And another funeral to attend this coming Tuesday.
I’ve seen so many people do this great “best of 2009″ round up posts so to cheer myself up I thought I would take a look at my archives and see what I could link to as my “best of.” Except all I can find are “not the worst of 2009″ posts.
I wrote far too much about trying to lose weight. I posted far too many pictures of my cat. I became a quintessential mommyblogger, (even though I hate that term.)
My one shining moment of true hilarity was cause I was doped up on pain meds. Honestly, I haven’t written anything humorous since them because I just can’t compete with myself. Ooooo, I last saw my funny at the hospital!! Maybe it’s at the lost and found! ~sigh~
See? My best posts are the pathetic dregs of the blogosphere.
Dear 2010,
Bring back the funny.
xo
Annette
ps. Rest in peace Aunt Lee.
Filed Under blogging Tagged blerg, blogging, blogging about blogging, death, life
stress free or stressful?
Everyone around me is frantic. Shopping, wrapping, traveling, baking, planning, cleaning, shopping some more. Some people seem to thrive on it. The craziness suits them. Others not so much, and crankiness abounds.
The complaining; “Oh I have so much to do! I’ll never get it done it time!” Procrastination, resignation, hurry, hurry, one more week. Sigh.
I succumbed to the pressure and stress around me for just a few days last week. And then I remembered. I don’t have to do anything I don’t want to do.
- Holiday dinner? Meh. Let’s have lasagna instead. Check.
- Shopping? Only when I feel like it. Otherwise, online, free shipping, delivered to my door baby. Check.
- Wrapping? Who cares what it looks like? It gets ripped open in 2 seconds flat. Use last years gift bags. Check.
- Cleaning for company. Phhhhhttttttt. It’s just gonna get messy again anyway. Check.
- Traveling? Sure! Any day except the 24th and 25th. My kid gets to open his presents under his own tree. Always. Check.
- Baking. Uh. We’re still trying to eat right thank you very much. I’d rather not make dozens and dozens of cookies and then feel like I’m supposed to eat them. One bag of store bought sugar cookies for the boy, who could care less where they came from. Check.
- Pot luck party? Anything I can cook in the crock pot. Check.
- Homemade gingerbread house? Whatever overachievers. Oooooo, look at the cute, EASY, gingerbread train kit, on sale. Check.
Holidays are supposed to be fun and relaxing. Even for adults. (Christmas spirit! It’s not just for kids anymore!) It’s okay to stop trying to make Christmas perfect and instead, actually enjoy it. Your family and friends might thank you for it. Your blood pressure might too.
Edited to add: I completely forgot to mention decorating! How could I forget that? Well. Cause I slap up a fake pre-lit tree, put a couple strings of lights on the porch and call it done!
this little piggy stayed home
Wednesday evening I noticed Josh had a little cough. Last night when I put him to bed I noticed he was a little warm. Yep, he had a slight fever, 99.2. This morning it was 101. Josh doesn’t get fevers very often so I figured since it’s Friday I’d better take him to the doctor while I had the chance. Why do kids always get sick on Fridays?!
By the time he had his temp taken by the nurse it was up to 102.5. That with a bunch of other symptoms meant the dreaded flu. They won’t test for H1N1 because he is otherwise healthy. Apparently the state is afraid they are going to run out of testing supplies so they only test those with health problems or who are bad enough to be hospitalized. The assumption though, is that it is H1N1 because that is what is going around, mostly among kids. Whatever, either way the symptoms are basically the same, and it’s no fun.
We did get some Tamiflu for him so hopefully he won’t have a bad case, but we’re stuck at home until his fever is gone for at least 24 hours. I have no idea when that will be and it’s really screwed up my weekend! I’m supposed to be in charge of a haunted house tomorrow, but I really shouldn’t go now in case I’m contagious. (If I’m going to come down with it too I would be contagious before I have symptoms.)
We were also supposed to go to my new baby nephew’s baptism on Sunday and obviously we won’t be going to that either. ~sigh~ Darn it, I really wanted to get my hands on that baby!
At this point I’m just hoping Josh is better in time for Halloween. We’ve worked way too hard planning his costume! (Luke Skywalker from Return of the Jedi, all in black with a hooded cape, one black glove, and a GREEN lightsaber. Blue will just not do.)
The final icing on this no good very bad day was finding out my laptop bit the dust. It wouldn’t boot up this morning and my go-to computer guy just couldn’t make it better. The system board is deader than dead. (The laptop killer strikes again!) I either need to replace it or get a new computer. About the same amount of money either way.
I think I’d better get crocheting. I’m gonna hafta sell a lot of scarves to pay for a new computer.
Filed Under family, life, the boy Tagged bad day, computers, flu, life, sick, the boy
sorry, it’s mostly about snot
It’s been that kind of week.
- Josh is on his second day home sick from school. Mostly cause of the pinkeye, but the coughing up a lung doesn’t help either. Neither does the massive amounts of snot.
- He’s missing picture day at school. He still get his picture taken later, but he won’t be in his class picture. Bummer.
- The eyedrops, oh, the @*$&% eyedrops. Every 2 hours.
- I’ve been to Target twice in three days and last night I realized we need more kid cold medicine.
- I can’t go back there again with a sick kid, I just can’t. Yesterday’s trip cost me a $35 Lego set while we waited for his eyedrop prescription to be ready. I just can’t say no to him when he’s this miserable.
- He’s not sick enough to just lie in bed and read a book though. He wants to do crafts! He must paint or die! And puzzles! All. Over. The. Place!
- I’m out of my coffee. The horror! I need my coffee. Especially today.
- How bad would it be to take my pestilential kid to the coffee shop?
- I have a headache.
- I’m desperately trying not to get sick too. I think I need a haz-mat suit. Clean up on aisle eye 7 2.
- I can’t tell if the headache is from lack of coffee or imminent illness.
- I have company coming tomorrow. I should probably warn them about the pinkeye, huh?
- Why isn’t it Friday yet? I need it to be Friday.
It’s been that kind of week. And it’s snot over yet.
apple picking
When I was growing up my family had a mini apple orchard in our backyard. I was spoiled with homemade apple crisp and applesauce throughout every fall. I’m not so lucky to have apple trees in my own yard now, or even enough sunlight to support them if I tried, but we do have lots of orchards in our area.
We went apple picking this morning, and it was a perfect day for it, cool, but sunny. When we got there, we decided to go check out one of the fields a little further away, assuming the close by trees would be fairly well picked over. It was a great decision! I’ve never in my life seen such huge gorgeous apples, nor trees so full of them.
Seriously, every single branch looked just like this one.
The woman working there said it was a bumper crop. Not only did the apples love the rainy weather we had in July, but the owners had brought in extra bees to help pollinate and boy did they ever pollinate! (Did you know there’s been a bee shortage in New England for the last few years?)
Btw, they taste as good as they look too. Those apples were truly glorious.
The scent of fresh cinnamon applesauce is permeating everything in my house right now. I bet if you scratch your screen you can sniff it. ;) I’m definitely making apple crisp later this week. Who’s coming over with the vanilla ice cream?
Filed Under blogging, food, life Tagged apples, cooking, food, life
busy stuff and blood
I’m thinking, I’m thinking. Nope. All I’ve got is bullets.
- It’s only been a couple of days of school and already Josh has a cold. It’s going to be a long year.
- I might need to buy stock in Airborne. I swear by that stuff.
- The amount of work I have seems to grow exponentially with my free time. That’s good and bad.
- The only time I have to relax each day is while I wait for the bus to arrive in the afternoon. I bring a book and sit by the side of the road. No, really.
- I ran 3 times last week, and on Friday I beat my time by almost 2 minutes. I also kinda made my abdominal muscles freak out, twinging and spasming all weekend but it’s fine now.
- I walked my route today and plan to again tomorrow. I’d rather get a walk in every morning instead of worrying that I’m hurting myself by running too soon.
- I have company coming tomorrow night, squee! But, oh dear, my house. Good thing she’s known me a very long time and is practiced in overlooking my lack of housekeeping abilities.
- Soccer starts this week with practices on Thursday evenings and games on Saturdays. Damon and I are splitting this up again with me handling practices while he takes all the games. He’s a good man!
- I’m donating blood and volunteering at the Red Cross this Saturday, helping with a charity yard sale next Saturday, and running another event the Saturday after that. I’m tired just thinking about it.
- Did I mention I got talked into being president of a local women’s organization? I think all my Saturdays are booked for the whole year already. It’s a good thing I love these people.
I’m just curious, do any of you give blood? Apparently only about 5% of the US population regularly donates blood. Did you know that if only 1% more gave blood there wouldn’t be any blood shortages? The volunteer coordinator at my local Red Cross told me that last time our group worked there. It’s stuck with me ever since.
I know not everyone can donate, health-wise, but if you can and you don’t, think about trying it. It’s not as hard as it sounds, I promise. And now I’ll get off my soapbox.
- The cat wants me to snuggle with him. He’s insistent on trying to lay across my arms while I type.
- I have to stop typing now - it’s an offer I can’t refuse! Even if I wanted to.
first first
Josh’s first day of first grade was yesterday. (Wednesday.) Finally!
He needed to go back to school to keep that big brain of his occupied. Not that I mind having him around! That’s not it at all, I love the time I spend with him, it’s just that I can’t play with him all that much and it’s hard to come up with enough to do to keep him busy so I can get my work done on deadline. There are only so many age appropriate chapter books out there for 6 year old boys, and I can only fit so many Legos into my house!
Anyway, we’ve both been looking forward to school starting but there was something we didn’t anticipate. That is how much he would miss me by being at school all day long.
He cried. At lunch. Hard enough that he ended up eating with the new Vice Principal in his office instead of with the other kids. Because he missed his mom. Me. Because he wanted to have lunch with me. All together now: awwwww!!
I only found out because a friend of mine was volunteering in the first grade lunchroom yesterday and sent me an email as a heads up before school let out. I tried to prod Josh to tell me about it when he got home but he refused to discuss it.
It didn’t help that the bus was an hour (an HOUR!!) late bringing him home. Major bus fiasco that I can’t even try to explain because I still don’t quite get it myself. Seriously, I spent and hour and fifteen minutes waiting at the bus stop, knowing he’d already cried at least once. Ugh.
Today was a little better. He told me he only cried a little at lunch and he stayed with his classmates the whole time. He also said that he made a friend. (Yay! None of his friends from last year are in the same class this year so he has to make new friends.) And the bus was only a half hour late dropping him off. Only a half hour. (So yes, I waited at the bus stop for 45 minutes! Grrrr!)
Anyway we got some great first day of school pics:
When did he get so tall??
And ridiculously cute too. This smile slays me every time I see it:
Cute little bugger.
But this was the picture he really wants everyone to see:
Gee, I wonder why! He’s very proud of that backpack!
Even though I have bedhead this one might just be my favorite:
I think I’ve said it before, but I really love this kid.
(And just to clarify - he’s one step up from me! He’s tall but he’s not that tall.)