No Words

My back went out AGAIN on Sunday. There are not enough words to express how tired I am of this! Luckily, it locked up without completely knocking me to the floor, so I was able to carefully sit on the couch while Jer was working and still take care of Colin, albeit from a laying down position while hollering at him. After the ambulance experience of a year ago, I am scared to death of being rendered helpless again. If Jer had not been home when that happened, I don't honestly know what I would have done. I went back to my family doctor yesterday morning and he sent me to a new sports therapy physician. I saw him today and he ordered an MRI and spinal x-ray, which obviously will require yet another doctors appointment. I am glad, however, that this doctor seems to be taking an aggressive approach. I will be very happy to follow whatever instructions he has in an effort to keep this from happening again. I have never had an MRI before, but I don't imagine it will be that big of a deal.


I have quite a story from yesterday to share. My doctor called in a prescription for a round of steroids and a small amount of pain meds. I have never had a problem taking prescription pain meds...they don't bother me in the least, don't upset my stomach, and don't give me a rush at all. However, they are absolutely the only thing that will touch the pain in my back when it locks up. When my back goes out, it knocks me to my knees, literally. As I have written about before, I am scared to death of being alone with Colin when this happens. Therefore, if my doctor gives me pain meds, I make those 20 pills last for six months. I take them ONLY in an emergency, so that they are around when this happens. I don't touch them unless I am desperate...I save them in the back of the medicine cabinet. I share this because of what happened yesterday. Jer picked up my prescriptions and headed over to get the car inspected. He put the medicine in the center console of the car, still stapled in the CVS bag they came in. After the inspection, he got in the car and opened up the console. He noticed that the bag was tampered with...just slightly smudged and a little wrinkled. He opened up the pill bottle and sure enough, three pills were missing. The script was for 20 pills and there were 17 in the bottle. Jer came straight home with the bag and told me what happened. I can honestly say that I have NEVER in all my life been SO MAD. The hair on my arms is standing up even as I type this. I called CVS and made sure the prescription was filled correctly before I started my rampage. Of course, the pharmacist assured me that they count and recount pain meds. The guy at the lube shop definitely stole my pills. I called the police and filed a report and then called the shop and spoke to the manager. In all fairness, he did seem upset and alarmed that this happened and assured me he would get with the owner and they would get back to me. I figure that we at least deserve a free service of some kind for the theft. Of course, I have not heard a peep back today from anyone. I know it is only three silly pills, which really makes no difference in the long run of life, but I feel SO VIOLATED. Some asshole put his grubby hands into my private prescription medication and helped himself to it. He also thought we were stupid enough not to notice if he only took "a few". As if we would not see that the tightly stapled bag had been messed with. I feel sick about it....I would give anything to do physical damage to this person. Whether it be three pills or a stereo or a car...the feeling of someone stealing from you is horrid. I suppose that it is a good thing that Jer noticed it first because if I had been the one there, I would have raised some serious hell in that place. Level headed Jer forced me to call the police first, then call the manager and would not let me go down there to do bodily damage to that jerk. I am STILL SO MAD! Jer put it well yesterday...that piece of sh*% had no idea if that script was for someone with a bad back or terminal cancer. What a low life. I swear that I lost a good bit of faith in humanity. To cool off, I will post pictures of my precious baby. At least HE is pure goodness!

My Little Soccer Hooligan and Idiot Designers

I had little choice but to post this picture of Colin...it is hard to resist a toddler dressed up like David Beckham. :-) Jer brought home an entire uniform for the Liverpool Football Club and I am pretty sure that Colin is the only kid in the area rocking his European Football gear. He even has the knee socks!

Jer is at home today and Colin has taken TWO NAPS on the couch snuggled up next to him. This is quite the spoiling for the little man and I am sure he will protest when Mama makes him sleep in his actual crib tomorrow. I took this adorable picture just moments ago...I am now hiding in the office to avoid waking him up while Jer watches the news on silent while reading the ticker and reading lips. The things we do for baby love.

In other news, I had a doctors appointment today for a prescription refill that I made since I knew Jer would be home. I almost forgot about the appointment and ended up running out the door 10 minutes before I was supposed to be there. While I am waiting, I realize that I have ketchup from Colin's lunch smeared over my t-shirt. Attractive. I spent a good ten minutes looking at the stain and letting my mind race over the fact that I am now that woman. You know her...old clothes, nails a mess, eyebrows in need of waxing, no make-up, hair in ponytail with a clip holding her too-long bangs out of her eyes, ketchup stained t-shirt...yeah...that lady. While berating myself internally for not realizing that I smell like a bottle of Heinz, I am flipping through the pages of "Southern Accents". I stumble upon a feature about a designer and her newly decorated home. The pictures are stunning...full of all the stuff you imagine you would have if you could just figure out how to change your shirt before going out in public. Anyway, there is a picture of her and her two perfect children, son Whit and daughter Wansley. Not even kidding on those names. Yeah. SO, there is a huge quote highlighted on one of the pages about her main design priority being...wait for it...kid and pet friendly. I kid you not. You should have seen this place...all covered in creams and antiques and vases and glass and well, cream! Are you freaking kidding me?!?! I am telling you, those children live in a hut in the backyard that is covered in crayon, juicy juice, puzzle pieces, glue and dog bones. My doctor picked this moment to walk into the room. He asked quickly if I was okay and my response was, "Yes, but don't look at the ketchup on my shirt." :-)

Kid friendly my ass.

CHEAP DIAPER RANT!

I have used several different kinds of diapers since Colin was born...everything from Pampers to Huggies to Luvs. I have had my favorites that work the best for Colin (Pampers Cruisers seem to be the most comfortable and best protection) as well as the more economical (Luvs is a savings and works just fine!). I usually just buy the box that I have the best coupon for. A few days ago, we all went to Sam's and as I was picking up a box of Pampers, I spied their store brand of diapers. They were for sale for 176 diapers for $32. I decided to throw caution to the wind and buy them...the savings is just fantastic and I decided that there was no need to be a diaper snob. I learned today that I was TOTALLY wrong and being a diaper snob is completely justified. These diapers are WORTHLESS. I just started the pack and the elastic is a joke, there is no elastic at the tabs, and they feel cheap. All of that is the good news. This afternoon, Colin had poop come out both legs all over him, his clothes and me. This is after two weeks of horrible diarrhea with no accidents at all to one small regular poop oozing out the sides. You have got to be kidding me. We have never had an accident like that in 14 months and two days of the cheap diapers and I have poop all over me. LOVELY. I now have a ton of diapers that I can't use. Lord knows that I am not risking it again. These stupid things have just been relegated to my "in case of emergency" pile. I figured that I would post this for the good of my friends who might be considering trying them. DON'T! UGH!!

Monday Stuff

I will start today's post with the best possible news. It rained here all day. Like actual water from the sky rain. It was amazing. Due to the fact that we no longer have sprinklers and our neighbors pool is still a huge ditch, rain is the best possibly scenario for our pitiful lawn. We have been feeling like we live in Phoenix with the lack of rain here lately, so today was a blessing. This front has brought much lower temps, which should stay around all week, so I am loving the weather in general. It feels like I need a jacket when it dips down to 85. HA! :-)

I spent 4 hours on Sunday finishing the painting in the office. I still can't believe how much work painting our small office turned out to be. I chose a very deep green and it simply took a lot of work to get such a dark color to look nice while doing things on my own. Jer watched Colin so that I could get it knocked out. I think the color turned out beautiful and now I am trying to arrange a photo wall dedicated to aviation. I also put together a large mural type frame of lots of Jer's photographs from his aircraft carrier from his Navy days. That is going to look great hanging on the wall! I wish we had the extra funds for new office furniture, but I think the fresh walls at least spruced up our somewhat boring glass desk.

I don't ever touch on news in my blog (I should...it would make for interesting future reading!), but I decided that I needed to add one little tidbit. John Edwards is a huge asshole. After reading all the news articles on his affair, I told Jer that I was going to post an entry here titled simply, "John Edwards Is A Douche". Jer howled with laughter and told me that I should go one step further and add a picture of a bottle of douche for the body of the post. We got a huge laugh out of that one. This whole thing simply boggles my mind, especially the involvement of Fred Baron. Unbelievable. And this tool wanted to be President of The United States. Lovely.

Rain, office paint, and John Edwards. What a random post! :-)

Sunday Sunday Sunday

Today was randomly very cool in North Texas...it never really got too far out of the 50's. Tomorrow goes back to sunny and 80, so the cold front was pretty short lived. Jer's other set of parents who live locally came over to see Colin and took us all out to lunch for my birthday, which is rolling up on Tuesday. Jer's family is always amazing to me on my birthday...the entire family sends me cards and well wishes...even his grandparents. Since I come from such a tiny family, I just love how much they all make me feel like one of them. A couple of days ago I got a card from Jer's grandfather and one yesterday from his grandmother...I just love them! We went to one of our favorite little Italian places today and Colin managed not to cry for the most part, which was good. His mood was slightly better today than it was yesterday, but he is still obviously in pain and not his normal happy self. Again today he napped twice for only about 40 minutes each time. I really hope that this stage passes quickly because I know the rough afternoons are partly because he is exhausted and needs more sleep. Damn teeth! Who knew?! :-)

I had a moment today in the restaurant that was...interesting. Anyone who knows me is aware that I am utterly non-confrontational, but when it comes to Colin, I can see myself changing. I kept my mouth shut today, but it was the first time in a long time that I thought about losing my cool. We had a teenage boy as our waiter today, complete with bad posture and expressionless eyes. (note to self...remind Colin to smile when he is an angst ridden 16 year old!) Anyway, Jer comments almost immediately after we got there about how funny it is to be waited on by people who don't have kids. Everything he sat down on the table had to be moved out of Colin's reach quickly. This happens all the time when we eat out...I don't even think about it anymore. I just absently move everything on the table out of baby reach. Well, when the waiter brought our food out, he sat my Pasta Sampler in front of me and in reach of Colin. This is a dish that is baked in an oven and brought out in the oven hot dish, mind you. It was like slow motion...I was looking at Jer when he sat down my food...I heard him telling me to be careful as the plate was hot, and when I turned my head to look, Colin had his sweet little fingers wrapping themselves around the rim of the oven dish. DEAR GOD!!!!!!!!! It was like time stood still...my heart jumped into my throat and I grabbed his hand as fast as I could, but he had already touched it. He started screaming, of course, and I grabbed him out of his high chair and took him outside. Amid heart palpitations, I checked his fingers and they were fine. He must have scared himself quickly enough that no damage was done. I kissed him all over his face and he recovered quickly. The idiot teenage waiter never blinked over it or even said anything about it. I wanted to kill him. Swiftly. But I held my tongue...I know he did not mean for it to happen and he put the plate in front of me, not Colin exactly. But I really wish that waiters would be more observant for heavens sake!!!!!!!! I waited tables for 5 years, and I can tell you that I NEVER put a dish out of the oven anywhere near a child's grasp. I really think that kids today leave a lot to be desired...that boy today was not paying any attention to what he was doing! And now I sound like my mother....again. :-)