NaBloPoMo - Entry 20

An interesting holiday situation  has occurred.

On Sunday, the Hubs told me that he'd received a call from his Mom about Thanksgiving.

Hubs: By the way...

Me: What?

Hubs: My Mom said that we wouldn't be doing the gift grab bag this year.

Me: We're not doing it?

Hubs: No. She said we'd skip it.

Me: Okay....is it because she doesn't have a job?


Hubs: She didn't say that, but that's probably why.

Me: Interesting. So when I lose my job, we still do the gift exchange. But when she loses her job then she decides to skip it. 

Hubs: Yeah. That's the way it goes.


Me: Yeah. Typical. She can't save for the gift exchange that she organized, but she could afford to go to Florida for a week. Okay...that makes loads of sense.

Hubs: Yeah. I didn't say it made sense.

I know that lots of people have lost their jobs. We're all on a budget. But she's the one who started this gift exchange about 10 years ago. And now that she's lost her job, she's decided to opt out of it. Hmmm...

But the Hubs and I are thinking that it's just one less thing we need to deal with during this busy holiday season. We can concentrate on the kids and creating a wonderful atmosphere here at home for them. You know?

NaBloPoMo - Entry 19

This morning turned out to be a time for appointments.

I showed up to my dental cleaning about 15 minutes early in the hopes that they'd be able to get me in before my appointment time. They got me in the back about 10 minutes before my designated time but the cleaning was with a new hygenist who was VERY thorough. I appreciate that she was thorough but she was also very chatty. Which meant? The typical 20 minute cleaning took over 30 minutes.

Normally this wouldn't be a problem but I only had a half hour between my dental and hair appointments. Needless to say? I was late for my haircut. Thankfully I was able to grab my phone and make a quicky call to the salon to let them know I was running late.

Of course, my stylist was not phased by my lateness. She's now at the original salon where I found her. And wouldn't you know it? She's pregnant. Almost EIGHT months pregnant! She's due the first week in January. I am such a nerd that I didn't notice during my previous haircut but she BARELY shows.

Anyway, she had a grand old time hacking away at my hair. I was seriously in need to a cut. I was all bushy. She cut at least 2 inches off the back. It's only been about eight weeks since my last cut and she cut TWO inches off. She and I were both amazed at how much she had to hack off. My hair now has some shape to it. I am immensely happy with it. This cut will definitely take me through both Thanksgiving and Christmas without looking yucky.

Woohoo!!!

NaBloPoMo - Entry 18

I keep a dayplanner. One that I write in and keep in my purse.

Yes. I'm one of those dinosaurs that doesn't want to give up my little folder. I just can't get rid of it.

My reasoning? I throw receipts in there. I throw brochures in there. I make little notes in the margins. It's just something I do to keep the little bits of paper together.

But even though I do have my little organizer? I sometimes forget things. Like today.

[ring-ring-ring]

Me: Hello?

Caller: Grace? This is Susan from Dr. C's office.

Me: Oh hi!

Caller: This is just a reminder about your appointment tomorrow morning at 9am.

Me: Tomorrow? 9am?

Caller: Yes.

Y'all? I almost had a heart-attack as I grabbed my dayplanner from my purse to check something.

You see, earlier this week I made an appointment to get my haircut tomorrow. Thankfully? My dental cleaning is at 9am and my haircut appointment is at 9:30am. How is that thankful or good? Because the two offices are about 20 steps away from each other. That's right. Both places are in the same business complex. Yeah!

How do you stay organized? 

NaBloPoMo - Entry 16

I finally colored my hair this weekend.

Wouldn't you know it that the Hubs didn't even notice that I'd colored it?

Folks? I had tons of little white hairs waving out above both my ears and all along my hairline. And he didn't notice those? Sheesh! He definitely hasn't been looking too closely at me.

Seems that now that I'm older, my natural hair color has toned down from black to a brown. It's not even DARK brown. It's lighter than that. So if I haven't colored my hair in a while (like this time around), there is a major difference in the overall look of my hair. Post-process my hair is not only one color (no more waving white hairs) but it's also way darker.

I totally have to laugh because I notice when the Hubs gets a haircut every 6 weeks. I notice. I can tell it's shorter. I can tell the back of his neck is crisply neat and clean. I can tell. I just can.

But this darn man can't even tell when I've colored my hair. [tapping my foot] Why? But you know what? He can't even seem to tell when I've gotten a haircut either. [tapping foot] Anyone? Help? Is my husband just oblivious to this kind of thing?

You know what though? He'd probably notice right away if I'd get a Brazilian like 24 did not so long ago. Now THAT kind of change my husband would notice. Go figure, eh?

NaBloPoMo - Entry 15

The sound of Sunday rings in my ears right now.

Football is playing in the family room.

From where the Hubs is sitting in the family rooms, the Hubs is throwing a Nerf football to the Bear and the Princess who are in the living room.


I'm here in the front den with the kids behind me laughing and talking loud to each other because they're having so much fun.

As everyone else is distracted, I'm here trying to casually do some online Christmas shopping.

A casual and typical Sunday for us. We're all together. We're all happy. We're all healthy.

NaBloPoMo - Entry 14

Tonight we attended the last baseball event of the year. The Bear's baseball team had a pizza dinner so the kids could get their medals.

The place they gathered was much like Peter Piper Pizza or Chuck E Cheese. So the kids played video games and driving games. It was an easy couple hours to spend out. It was nice to get away from the house. Remember I've not been feeling well for a while, so I've
been sticking close to home.

On the health front? Today was the first day that I've felt normal in over 2 weeks. No headache. No dizziness. No aches. Halleluia! And what did I do? I cleaned all our bathrooms, vacuumed the downstairs rooms, swept all the tile areas downstairs, and washed 5 loads of laundry. It was actually such a great feeling. To feel healthy and get the house clean. Yeah!

NaBloPoMo - Entry 13

Today the headache settled into a dull ache. Not the pounding mess that it's been the last few days. I'm so glad I'm feeling better but seriously ready to no longer have a headache. You know?

Thankfully the kids haven't been hit with it like me. The Bear had a milder version of it last week but he's fully recovered. The Princess hasn't shown anything sign of a cough [knocking on wood]. The Hubs felt a little scratchy but hasn't had a headache.

Today I did manage to take an easy run/walk. I ended up only running about a mile and walking the other mile. I did feel good after. Tired but good. The rest of the day I did feel tired. I took a nap around 1pm. What's crazy? After dinner, I fell asleep on the couch! I was THAT exhausted that when I closed my eyes I fell asleep. Hopefully I'm just tired from my run/walk after not been exercising for almost 2 weeks.

Interestingly enough, I got a call from my Mom tonight. Out of the blue. She doesn't normally call unless she's got something going on that I need to know about. The reason she called? Because she'd been thinking about me the last few days. She felt that something wasn't right. She thought maybe it was my medication. I let her know that I've been sick and that I hadn't been sleeping well for 2 weeks. Aha! She had that strange Spidey-sense Mom-intuition thing going. She was very relieved to hear that I was on the upswing to feeling better. But I think she was also relieved that her sense of unease had a reason. Funny how a Mom can just "feel" when something isn't right, eh?

Anyway, I'm crossing my fingers that I'll feel all better tomorrow. It so totally sucks being sick....

NaBloPoMo - Entry 12

Headache all day.

Enough said.

NaBloPoMo - Entry 11

I'm definitely getting older. My body is definitely showing its age.

When I get sick nowadays, it takes me about 2 weeks to recover fully. This cough/throat thing? I'm just at the end of it. Tomorrow it'll be the 2 week mark.

I'm still taking my blood pressure medication. After all the blood work and receiving positive results, my doc told me to stop taking the meds and monitor my pressure. If my readings were higher than 140/90 then I'd give him a call. I stopped taking the meds on a Monday. I noticed that by Thursday my pressure was back up to 145/93. So I'm back on the meds. Even though I'm not overweight or anything my body just needs help keeping my pressure down. Probably a link to the preclampsia I had when I was pregnant with my daughter.

But at the end of this month, I have an appointment with a specialist. You see, during the routine ultrasound of my kidneys they saw what appeared to be a cyst near my kidneys. Yes. A cyst. Now I have to go see a kidney specialist (a nephrologist) to figure out if anything needs to be done. When I was getting the ultrasound on my kidneys, I should have figured something was up when the gal had me turn back to my left so that she could do some additional scans on my right kidney. But dense me...I just thought she was retaking some shots. [sigh]

But thankfully? I'm pretty healthy overall. I'm going to get back onto my run/walk outings in the mornings after dropping the kids off. I stopped working out when I got this cough thing. I tend to breath through my mouth, so when I would run/walk my throat would become inflamed pretty quick with the dry air we've got out here in the desert.

Today was the first day in ages that I've run. And it was a nice one. I was still able to run the entire 2-mile route without walking. I've just got to get my body out there more than twice a week so I can get my blood flowing and stay strong.

How do you stay strong?

NaBloPoMo - Entry 10

Halloween has come and gone.

The kids' costumes are their dress-up box.

The candy that the kids' collected on their night out with Daddy is still sitting in their bags next to the front closet.

The leftover candy that didn't get handed out is still sitting in the big bowl next to the kids' Halloween bags.

What's funny?

The kids aren't asking about eating the candy. Seriously. Since Halloween they've maybe consumed less than 10 pieces each. They're not bouncing off the walls with sugar. Thank goodness!

Sweets aren't a big thing in our house. I know the kids enjoy eating cookies/cake/candy but it's not a prime thing in their minds. Maybe it's because we don't eat dessert? I'll definitely let them eat sweets when we're at a birthday party or holiday event. Yes. I will.

But what's crazy (in a good way)? They don't go overboard. Like the Bear and I went to a birthday party on Saturday. He ate 3 pieces of pizza and then chose not to have any cake or ice cream. None. He said "No thank you" when they tried to give him a little plate. He's SIX and he refused cake and ice cream!

In another week, I'll just throw out all the Halloween candy. You know what I tell them? That the candy "spoils" after a couple weeks. But this year they might not even notice when I do throw it out. Who knows?

Now is your household still in the throws of the post-sugar-high from Halloween?