Gimme three steps

Three hours out with the kids.
One Queen Album on Extra Loud with me Singing Extra Loud
One Guns N Roses Album, Me Singing Loud
One Lynard Skynnard Album, one beer, me singing,a and now, at "Gimme Three Steps" I am now resembling something that could be possibly mistaken as calm.

Dont count on it though.

Owie Head

My head is pounding.
The children are being loud.
So my head pounds even more.

I'm at that age where I"m just too old to ignore my very miserable head cold. The only thing stopping me from drowning in theraflu is that I had the last drowsy one last night.

All I have left is the one that proclaims 'may cause drowsiness.' May? May? Not for me. It does nothing except taste bad. Now, the one that says 'may cause marked drowsiness' that's the theraflu of choice. That one put me in a nice state of obliviousness.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to sneeze and bury myself under a blanket on the couch and pretend I'm not home.

Someone please come over and make the children lunch.

Why I can't sleep

Twin B started it on Thursday. Poor Bear. He had a cold, but then got a fever. He slept most of the day Thursday and Friday, looking cute, angelic, and utterly huggable. He needed lots of hugs and being held, but he wasn't cranky. At night, he'd end up in our bed, but our Bear has a strange need. It is absolutely ESSENTIAL that when he sleeps in our bed, our heads must touch: forehead to forehead, cheek-to-cheek, it doesn't matter, and we have to face each other. If we don't, he wakes up, cries my name and tries to phsyically turn me around to face him. It's easier to just play along.

The end result of this, however, is that after two days of fever-sniffly baby-of-mine breathing phlegmatic fumes into my face, I got sick. So sick, that McRed let me sleep til 10, cleaned the entire kitchen, and let me lay about all day Friday. So then I'm recovering.

Oh but No. Twin A, our dear Turbo, on Saturday, then got a fever. And he got a Fever. Along with the serious crankies. This one was not content to sleep on the couch or the black chair, or just lay about watching Diego episodes over and over. Oh no. He needed to cry and fuss, and whine, he wanted juice he didn't want juice, he wanted cereal, he didn't want cereal, Up, no Up, hug, no hug, Thomas, no Thomas, finally, he wanted night night, and he would sleep only to wake up all cranky again. He also spent the night in our bed, but this being Turbo, we were woken up by our personal heat radiator, who suddenly got the energy that some feverish children get. One a.m. and where are we? In the living room watching him play trains.

Finally we get to sleep, only to be exhausted at 10 a.m this morning. Me, who WAS getting better now sicker, and Twin B awake and cheery. Turbo finally passed out for four hours on the couch this morning. Twin B, our Bear, literally walked up to me around 1, and when I picked him up, fell asleep two minutes later.

QUICK, HONEY, NAP!

And that's why I can't sleep now.

The State of Rooms

First, the word count:

1237 words tonight.

That is great. The more nights like this, the quicker this is finished. I actually like this novel better than the first one (which I'm sorely neglecting, and really need to edit).
So chapters one and two are done. WOOT.

Now, the State of Rooms

Yes, it's time to rearrange the house, yet again. This set-up is probably one we'll stick with. We've decided to put all household computers in the finished basement. This means I can come down here and write and work out of sight of the messy kitchen and encroaching laundry issues. It also means that the boys will actually come down here and play in the large play area they have down here now.

I like it a lot. I'm also glad Drama's computer is out of her room. It was too crowded in there with it, and I didn't like not being able to monitor how much time she spent on the computer.

Of course, now we have to clean up the mess from all the moving.
McRed is on a huge House-Purging Mission, so soon, all clutter will be removed.

Later!

1000 words

1000 words, but of not much happening.
Stuff happened in Chapter One. But not much in this chapter. I'll probably have something happen at the end.
But for now I'm stuck on it, so I'm going to go and edit my first draft of my first novel. I honestly am not sure about that first novel, but I think if I rewrite it, it'll be better.

Tomorrow we go to a pumpkin farm, hay rides and corn maze, and hopefully they sell hot cider because I've got a cold and I'm sneezing and freakin' cold no matter how nice it is.

My husband is currently de-clutterizing the house. He's decided we have too much junk. He's right, of course, but I was never quite up to actually doing anything about it. Next week I jump in and am getting rid of most of our clothes, you know, the ones no one's worn in years but we still keep for some reason... Gone. The idea is to have no clutter.

Ha ha ha.

Hating school

Someone remind me why I'm taking this master's program.

I have no interest in working in this field ever again. If I do work, I would prefer it to be in an entirely different field, one that would require a different degree entirely.

ahhhh.

In one hour, I'm starting my writing. I must write daily, for at least two hours, either in the morning or the evening. If I don't, I get grumpy with myself and give me a lecture. Considering how good I am at lectures, the last thing I need is one from me.

So in one hour I have to clean the kitchen and clear out the three weeks of mail I have been ignoring.

HA.

The First Draft

The first draft has been done. I edited the first chapter, because I knew what I needed to do to it. I let it sit for a week and a half, and now I'm ready to go delve into it and rip it apart. It's going to need a big rewrite I think, but much will stay the same.

I'm eager to start my second novel. I'm trying to think if I should rewrite during the day, and do the second novel at night. Not sure yet.

I had three stories to work on, and finally settled on one that is kinda dark but humorous, dark humor. How so me.

I finally decided to write in the first person for this novel. It sounds like a silly decision, but really, it matters!

My Space

I had to join My Space.

My little brother made me.

Now I am Lady Lahdeeda at My Space, but I think it's actually ladylahdeeda.

I don't know.

Apparently, I'm now 'with it' but only kinda, because I can't figure out how to a) change the background colors and add funky stuff to it and b) I only have one friend and c) nobody I know besides my one friend, who's actually related so doesn't really count, has a my space account.

I'm really just a pretender.

And what's worse, I don't even have a hot, sexy-suburban-momma-with-boobs-in-a-low-cut shirt-shot to post as my profile!

I'll have to have McRed take a picture ha ha ha.

Back on the diet track

My new workout: walk 35 to 45 minutes a day, making sure some of it is uphill.

Eating: less

Gym: whatever, I hate the gym except for like in the winter so not likely to happen.

On another note:

Today's goal is to do a bunch of my midterm before Dr. Who.

Priorities people, priorities.

ankle biters -- lock em up

Normally, I'm fond of animals.

But will somebody please come to my neighborhood and shoot that little ankle-biter that hasn't stopped barking since 6 a.m.?

Please?

Cowboys vs Eagles

I'm not a fan of the Eagles. I'm not a fan of the Cowboys. I had nothing really invested in this game, however, I consider the Eagles a good team that won't ever be able to find their way to the superbowl without divine intervention. The Cowboys, an okay team with some issues.

My husband is a die-hard Cowboys fan, so I watched the game today.

I usually mock my husband, and enjoy Cowboy losses, but sometimes, sometimes they are so painful to watch you can't joke, you must sympathize, and say "Yes dear, I don't blame you for crying, crawling up into a ball and crawling in a hole for a few weeks."

You see, their quarterback, has... connection issues. He can't connect with the freakin' two awesome receivers the team has. Nor could he manage to avoid getting sacked a mere SEVEN TIMES... I believe the Eagles may be paying him, now, since that pretty 102 yard run from the Cowboys end zone to the Eagle's end zone... It should have tied the game, it should have let them win, but noooo... instead, it gives the Eagles a clear victory.

Out of sympathy, my husband's friend and I forbade him to come out of the kitchen during some of the worst moments (making chili) but it wasn't enough. He saw. He cried. I mean HOW many turnovers?

AHHHHH

I pity McRed for being a Cowboys fan.

Apple Cobbler

I'm not a huge fan of apple pie or apple cobbler, however, everyone else in my household is, from McRed the "But I don't like peach cobbler..." to the little "GIVE me that apple, get back here RIGHT now that's for the COBBLER NO NO NO DON"T TAKE A BITE AAHAHH thieving tots, to the batter-licking ten year old (almost ten, close enough right?) they all LOVE apple cobbler. Now, here is what I do love.

I love making apple cobbler.

I love the smells of apple and cinnamon filling the air.

I love standing with my daughter at the counter mixing spices and flour, teaching her how to cut margerine into the dry ingredients and listening to her prattle on about completely irrelevant nonsensical things like how she is going to put a cinnamon stick in her tea and how she loves the smell of cinnamon and apples, too.

I love standing next to this kid who isn't a baby and isn't quite a big girl but is no longer little, with her need for motherly affection still strong.

I love the toddlers running around my legs, sneaking apples and playing on the floor right near where mommy is, occasionally wanting to help, always wanting a bite or twelve. I love my husband sniffing the air and coming to investigate and to see how long before he gets a piece of cobbler.

I love how the scents mix in the air to make the house smell like baking pies, and how it makes everything seem warmer, cozier, happier.

I love how apple cobbler makes my house smell like a real home, how often they will smell apples or cinnamon, and associate it with happiness and a pleasant kitchen with vinyl tile flooring and formica counters where mom made apple cobbler. (Some are lucky, and have pleasant memories of wood, or tile flooring... my children will remember imitation-slate vinyl cheerily, while I'm stuck with a fondness for red-brick linoleum)

My husband is the same way about his beef stew, and I get this way about other things, as well.

Things like my onion soup, bannana loaf bread (when I get around to making it), and pumpkin pie. I don't get it just from boxed brownies or ready-made cookies though. I need the whole process, from flour and sugar to pouring it in the baking pan.

Now, riding the wave of this pleasant evening, I'm going to make a cup of chai tea (vanilla, mmm) plop myself down on my comfy slip-covered couch, and read a comfortable book. Comfortable being, I've already read it five times...

Moooo-ooody

I am just in a foul mood tonight.

Stressed, annoyed, and on edge.

I LOVE it. NOT.

Tonight is so a 'tea and book' night.

Kind of mother I am

What kind of a mother am I if I tell you that right now, my children, at 9:45 a.m., are standing in the kitchen with a bag of apple-cinnamon cheerios they pulled out of the box, eating the cheerios straight while watching Dora's halloween episode for the third time in a row....

p.s. no pox. just maybe a boil and a spider bite...

A Pox Upon Your House

Or rather, mine.

Turbo was sporting a teen-aged sized pimple on his knee, and not knowing what the hell it was, we popped it. EWWW. And then were like, 'wow, that's pretty deep' and 'hmm, it left a little pock' and while that comment didn't trigger anything at the moment, it did give me enough pause to check out the rest of him, but I found nothing.

Now, a couple of days ago, I decided the boys were coming down with something, because they've been irritable. Last night, Turbo was a little feverish and we gave him some tylenol.

Today, I notice, on his wrist, another rather large pimple forming, and then, a smaller one on his chin, and a teeny one behind his ear....

ACK.

Out come the 'what ailment does your child have' books and then I go bother my favorite relatives, the life-flight, medic guy who will be attending medical school to become a pediatrician and his 'was a corpman in the Navy and now study microbiological boogies' wife.

Looks like chicken pox.

Send your kids over.

They'll play.

Now, I wasn't expecting this, because, they were vaccinated. It's a common vaccine. Unless you stomp and holler and say "NO" they vaccinate your kid for this. So hopefully, due to this vaccine, it will be mild.

Pox. Two weeks stuck indoors with a grumpy, itchy, pimply cranky toddler.
Three if Bear gets it.

Drama has been vaccinated and is nine. If she gets it, I'm grounding her.

But for the moment, I must do my duty and inform the playgroup and the gym time they attended that the pox is about...

And, it may not even be the pox. He's only got the three... could be something else that will go away really fast on it's own, I would hate to jump to conclusions...

Latah!