Some Weeks You Just Hug Your Surf Board and Ride The Insanity Wave

And this has been one of those weeks. Put simply, there just hasn't been enough of me to go around.

At the end of this week, Thursday, was Youngest Child's birthday, today is Second to the Youngest Child's birthday. Tonight is Fish Fry night at Youngest Child's school, after which we have to go shopping to finish up the goodie bags for her slumber party tomorrow night. We have to finish up the goodie bags because the ones we started out with aren't enough now because someone kept adding to the original guest list.

Did I mention that I became ill at the beginning of the week, or that I've been watching my 11 month old grandson from 7 am to 6 pm all week, while trying to clean this house and do mounds of backed up laundry?

Like black storm clouds on the horizon are the phone calls from Only Son...he leaves for Afghanistan next weekend and we can no longer pretend that it's not happening, now our discussions are serious, ie in the event of his death what church he wants his funeral Mass at, where he wants to be buried. Sometimes the calls are trips down memory lane, at any rate they are coming more frequent with a sense of urgency. And still life goes on... the baby cries, the laundry piles up, meals need cooked and cleaned up after, birthday girls are needy, colds demand attention, slumber parties need planned and chaperoned, and the house work never ends.

This week I've been hugging that surf board very tight, next week I'm sure that I'll leave my handprints on it.

New Toy

My new toy is a brand spanking new laptop with all the bells and whistles. It wasn't a Christmas gift, even though I practically spray painted "I want a new laptop for Christmas" on our living room wall. All of my hints fell on (Better Half's) deaf ears. My Christmas gifts from him were an odd assortment of objects that I don't recall ever asking for or even thinking I wanted. Not being ungrateful, just stating fact. Sometimes it would just be best not to buy someone something.
Anyway, my laptop was a surprise appreciation gift from Second to Youngest Daughter and Son-In-Law for the "great job you do watching Little Man." Little Man is my 9 month old grandson, he's also my little buddy Mon-Fri.
But I digress, for some reason I was unable to use this new computer to post on Blogger until today. Far be it for me to understand why it decided to let me post today, computers are a vast mystery to me.
Today Youngest Child's godmother, Little Man and I went to Youngest Child's School to have lunch with her. Not only is it Catholic School's Week, but it was also Family Hot Dog Day. We enjoyed a tasty lunch and a good time was had by all.

You won't want to miss this!

Stay tuned, tonight I'm going to drink wine and post about my traumatic Christmas vacation. It's my story and I'll be drunk, so it's bound to have some humor in it.

Serious discussion with a 6 yr old

I have several granddaughters, but some crack me up more than others. Chloe is one of those who do. I overheard a conversation between she and Oldest Child about Chloe leaving the house Saturday without underpants on. Then Chloe and I had a conversation about the same topic...

Me: Chloe, how did you forget to put on underpants?

Chloe: I didn't forget, I meant to not put them on.

Me: Why didn't you want to put them on?

Chloe: I don't like underpants.

Me: Why not?

Chloe: They give you wedgies.

Me: Why did you wear them today, because it's Sunday?

Chloe: No, because it was a little cold this morning.

I really wanted to laugh during this entire conversation, but I managed not to even crack a smile. Chloe just turned 6, and she's very serious and has this very deep voice for a child. It was just too funny.

I must quit living in denial.

My family went to Mass w/o me this morning because I feel pretty lousy...I feel lousy because my fasting BG is 210. If that wasn't bad enough, my asthma is making it very hard for me to breathe recently. These 2 chronic illnesses are like vicious circles, and most of the time I just choose not to think about them. Unfortunately, it's that choice that leads me to days like today-sick and gasping for air.

I can no longer pretend that I don't have an illness. I can no longer pretend that I can eat whatever I want to. I can no longer ignore the fact that I need to lose alot of weight, and I have to accept that it's going to be a very difficult challenge. My only other option is to accept that I'm going to die alot sooner than I'd wanted to, alot sooner than Youngest Child would want me to. I don't want to do that to her, or to the rest of my family. Nor to me! So that means that the denial has got to go, and that the hard work must begin! Starting today!

The Glorious Fourth

We had a very nice holiday, it was very relaxed. Second to the Youngest Childs' husband had to work, so she and the baby came over for a cookout. We grilled marinated steak and chicken, plus marinated vegetables in this really cool grill pan that I have. For dessert we had vanilla ice cream w/fresh blueberries. Youngest Child had a guest for dinner.
After dark some of our neighbors set off some pretty impressive fireworks. While Youngest Child and Better Half participated in the fireworks, Second to the Youngest Child and I drank two bottles of wine. Her bottle of wine was better than mine, and mine was a Kendall-Jackson! :) I really think that I could've drank a third bottle of wine, because I'm still fairly sober.
Now that we've moved I'm going to have to build up my wine collection-we drank my last bottle tonight :( I like to keep a selection, however I can drink it almost as quickly as I can buy it :)

One of my favorite places

We went to Capitol Market today, which is indeed one of my favorite places. I like the market atmosphere, not to mention the choices. I have wanted to go there for some time, my blood sugar numbers have been decent, (Thanks to the Januvia), but they could be better and I need to shed about a bazillion pounds or so. What I needed was fresh produce. What I didn't need was already rotted produce, nor produce grown in some country where the fertilizer of choice is human feces. Those 2 choices seem to be all my local Kroger is offering these days. Don't even get me started on WalMart, I won't even walk through their produce department.

Speaking of food, when was the last time you heard anyone suggest farming to their child as a career? The sad truth is that the American farmer is a dying breed, and the food we are importing is inferior-and that's putting it nicely. My cousin has a farm in rural WV, she once gave me a fridge magnet that put it quite bluntly. It said, " NO FARM, NO FOOD ". I don't get it, we have enough land to feed our own with far superior food than the crap we're importing, we have oil in Alaska that's there for the drilling, not only would this break our dependence on Middle East oil, but it would also provide jobs, good paying jobs, for Americans. What am I missing here?