my mom & sister

that's my Mom, Gail and my sister, Amy, at the fair last week. only my mom would wear earrings and a pretty scarf to a smelly agricultural fair lol GO MOM! WORK IT!
photo credit : Small World Photography(amy's friend)

still sorting it all out in my mind...

but feeling ok. when yogi comes down off the roof hes working on i'll go see mom again. i was there from 7-9 last night, shes bouncing back! gaining strength and getting her movement back. dad looked relieved! i guess my sister was headed there at midnight, and spent the night so dad could go home and rest. he was up for almost 24 hours. at the moment, things are looking up. and we have heat and hot water. and C will be home later today too, with her way cool, "sick" new cell phone she suckered her father onto lol. life is ok. i do have a doug story, but i will tell that later.
my friend over at This Work Stinks(see my side bar) told me i have to do this, and i do whatever she tells me to, so here goes:

Where is your cell phone? in my pocket
Your hair? long
Your mother? very ill right now
Your father? worried as hell
Your favorite food? italian
Your dream last night? weird
Your favorite drink? milk
Your dream/goal? photography school
What room are you in? kitchen
Your hobby? photography, writing, baseball
Your Fear? early death due to my increasing fatness and family history of heart disease and stroke
Where do you want to be in 6 years? still alive and not so fat
where were you last night? visiting mom in the hospital
Something that you aren’t? focused, attentive
wish list item? season tickets, zoom lens
Where did you grow up? right here is southern NH
Last thing you did? ate a lemon square lol
What are you wearing? DETROIT sweatshirt, jeans, Tevas
Your TV? shitty and not worth watching
Your pets? annoying. 2 dogs, one cat
Friends? hardly any that i see, lost one recently. lives changed.
life? tolerable at the moment, but trying as of late
mood? drained
Missing someone? for the rest of my life, and probably after that, cuz we arent likely going to the same place
Vehicle? 9 seater SUV
Something you’re not wearing? earrings? socks?
Your favorite store? Target probably, not much of a shopper. i like consignment shops
favorite color? red, orange
When was the last time you laughed? today
Last time you cried? i dont cry
One place that I go to over and over? my blog? my grocery store?
One person who emails me regularly? Erin in CT, julie in LA
place to eat? Texas Roadhouse

it comes in 3's, right?

bad luck, i mean.
when i started this blog in early 07, boiler/furnace woes were the daily subject of my posts. you can go back to the beginning and read about them to bring you up to speed, by looking at the few posts from 07, but suffice it to say that 8 thousand bucks just doesnt get you very far these days. Yesterday we decided to surprise kristin when she came home for the weekend by getting some supplies and firing up the chocolate fountain i bought her a few years ago. the fountain part wouldnt work, we thought the motor had quit, but we still had the melted chocolate to dip cookies and fruit in and we were having fun when Tim smelled smoke. he went downstairs without raising anyone's suspicions, then came up and told kris to get the kids out of the house while i went down there with him. the electrical box on the front of the furnace was on fire when he walked in, he had put the fire out & killed the power with the emergency switch, but the house quickly filled up with black smoke that hurt to breathe in. we got out of the house and called Sears. so much for service plans, warrantees or 20 year guarantees. NOBODY CARED. this was at 2pm Friday and they gave us an 8-5 window on MONDAY for repairs. no heat or hot water, with 6 kids home? until monday night? i talked to 7 people in 6 different departments and got nowhere. when our 1974 furnace quit, and we got several estimates for a new system, Sears was NOT the lowest estimate we got. but they had the best warrantee and service plan. 24 hours a day! (LIES!) lorden oil gave us an estimate too. guess who fixed my furnace last night? Lorden. i have a huge bill, Sears wont cover it and now my "warantee" is null and void. the warantee isnt worth the paper its written on anyway! screw my life. but we went to bed knowing we had heat and hot water. all was well.

then, at 2am, my mother suffered a stroke. tim & kris kept the kids, yogi was on a roof. i spent the morning with Mom, she is lucid and talking but her left side is paralyzed. her mother died of a stroke less than 12 mos. ago. i better get my ass moving in the right direction huh? My father is holding up ok, hes had a bad week too, they both have. theyve both been laid up all week as it is. dad with a hip problem, fluid and stuff, lots of pain, and my mother had had 3 shots of cortisone placed in her chest for costachondriitis(sp?-has to do with her rheumatoid and osteo arthritis condition, not her heart condition UGH) she was in pain all week with 2 bad ankles and her chest throbbing, my dad can hardly walk.. and these guys are only 60 & 61 years old! trying to take care of each other, -they are too stubborn to ever get help, we all try, -has taken its toll this week. i blame the red sox/angels play off games for this entire episode lol, my poor mother cant take these losses! anyway,when she had the stroke, she was sleeping, my dad was snoring so my mom went to sleep in my old room. she says her mother grabbed her by the arm and dragged her out of bed saying "gail ann, you have to get up! get up! you have to get out of the bed!"(God must be PISSED OFF at her right now for not following the rules lol thats my Grandma!) so my mom fell to the floor and banged her head on a dresser which woke my dad. THANK GOD. its so funny to hear that my gram is still watching everything we do and bossing us around. all 4'11 of her. too funny. i came home at about 1230 to put shawn to bed, nobody else can, hes a horror show, C went home for the weekend, so shes not here to help me. kris is NOT used to being saddled with the kids at all, but she did fine, they were very good for her, she said. i didnt feel i could stay away all day though! so i am here, waiting to hear results of the MRI. On Tv they make it look like the action happens so fast, but really, it all goes sooooo slowly. i will head back later tonight, after everyone is settled here. i wish i knew more, waiting is hard!

wordless wednesday, a day early

The Fair

RAD is a biotch! We FINALLY make plans to do SOMETHING FUN as a family and RAD has to show up. Jacko didn't remember the last fair we went to, it's been a while, so his Fear Of The Unknown TOOK OVER BIGTIME. you know, the usual drill, sitting on the couch watching the entire family take turns showering, doing hair, finding shoes, getting dressed, packing a bag.......he sits. he waits. he makes nonsense noises. he plays dumbo. He needles his little sister & makes the elderly foster dog cower and growl under the kitchen table(thats for another post). Dad finally tells him he needs to put on some clothes, brush his teeth, put shoes on and the like. he fiddled. he foddled. he faddled. he be-dazzled the crowd of on-lookers with his incredible rubber band slingshot skills . he silently refused and was quietly defiant for the next 30 minutes. When i had finally had enough fun, i told him i was aware that his anxiety over the unknown was rendering him a puddle of green vomit jello, but that fact aside, he still needed to dress himself or leave in his vomit jello slathered Spiderman PJ's. He came around to my way of thinking, but not before breaking a lamp. OY. i liked that lamp too. Anyway, we finally made it out the door with only minor injuries unscathed, and jack had loads of fun!

RAD, RAD you stink BAD

Jack's newest annoying habit/behavior is the nonsense chatter, "peanut gallery" type comments. i am GOING CRAZY. I do not want Jackson to know i am GOING CRAZY. this creates quite the dilemma. only in a video could i truly describe this behavior, but suffice it to say that any and every statement made in this house, by anybody, is met with an under the breath comment, sneer, cackle, snort, giggle or other annoying sound or overly expressive, outlandish body language.

SO

FREAKING

ANNOYING!

the most i have uttered is "I'd like you to practice being quiet and respectful when other people are talking."

what i WANT to say is "for the love of Chrysler, will you please just shut your mouth for 5 minutes???? I CANNOT THINK! I CANNOT BREATH! YOU'RE TAKING UP ALL THE AIR!"

um... any tips?

RAD and football games, part 2....

so, a week has gone by since the football game/stolen bike incident of 09. As of wed. night Jackson still hadn't mentioned the bike or what his plan was, but I knew he'd had plenty of time to process the whole scenario in his mind so i mentioned the incident again. We chatted back & forth, I was getting nowhere fast, but my burning question was this: if you left your bike at the building, why were you searching for it in the woods? no real answer. i finally asked him if he really thought someone had taken the bike, or had he just panicked and really wasn't ever paying any attention to his surroundings(he has NO sense of order or direction) and didn't remember where he left it? no real answer, but he jumped in the truck with 'C' and they were back 10 minutes later with his bike. it was "right where he left it". big smile on his face. All is well in 2 wheeler world.
self help skills? -10
attention to detail? -30
abilty to think critically? -7
short term memory/recall?-14
pride of ownership?-100
OY! LORD HELP HIM!