Cat-Attitude

Or as we affectionately call her…Mika

Now I have had cats with attitude before, but none like her. She truly believes she is superior to we pitiful humans that share her space.

Is it because she was born a barn cat, so she believes she is of the wild?

Is it because she has a “tough broad” attitude that she learned from her mother?

I think she truly believes she is doing me a great favor by climbing up in my lap while I drink my morning coffee and play on my laptop.

Stray hairs in my computer……I should feel honored she left part of herself behind.

Allowing me to run my hand down her back…..I should feel honored she let me touch her.

Claws in my thigh…..I should feel honored that she left her mark.

She is only gracing me with her presence because the kids are gone for the weekend.

I feel so used.

Randomness of the Wingnuts

I haven’t posted much about the wingnuts lately, so I thought I would share some Randomness of the Wingnuts.

Wingnut #1: My youngest wingnut had a “Curriculum Fair” the other day at school. It was a chance for the kids to showcase their work…here we exhibit our earth…

And here we have the inside….

Some random facts about Wingnut #1:
-He is obsessed with Jurassic Park at the moment … it stems from his facination with all things dinosaur.
-He is the instigator in our family. He is the source of all hijinks in our home.
-He can stand in front of a rack full of animal pelts at a Pow Wow, and tell you what each one is, without looking at the tags.
-He eats toast almost every single morning for breakfast.

Wingnut #2: He is trying to get out of having his picture taken…where is that sweet boy who used to ham for the camera?

Can’t you hear him? “Mommmmmmm!!!! Put the camera away!”

And this is the face I get when I tell him that unless he lets me take his picture, I will hold all one million Lego pieces hostage…until he gives in…

I’m such a mean, mean mom! Muahahahaha!
Some random facts about Wingnut #2:
-He is only 3″ shorter than me….he will be taller than me by the end of the summer.
-He is obsessed with Legos, boats, planes, and has to know how everything works.
-He is anal about details. It doesn’t matter if it is something simple like which way to throw the ball, or something major, like global warming. Wingnut #2 will take his sweet time deciding what to do.

And finally, Gorgeous, Stunning, Beautiful, Captivating Wingnut #3:

Am I right? Or am I right???
These photos were taken last Saturday, before my daughter went to her Sophmore Semi-Formal….stag. I wish I had her guts when I was her age. She is so confident in herself….most of the time.
Random facts about Wingnut #3:
-She is obsessed with writing….and wouldn’t you know it, she is really good at it.
-She loves Japanese anime, and all things involving the Japanese culture.
-She is headstrong one minute, and vulnerable the next.

Here’s a bravo to my wingnuts. I wouldn’t be the person I am today, without their wonderful, amazing influence in my life.

Be blessed! I am!!

Whose life is this??

So I had another appointment with my Ortho Doc today…the wonderful Dr. MP. If you don’t know about my shoulder, you can read a bit about it here. In a nutshell, I crushed the end of my collar bone while taking care of a client (I worked as a nursing assistant). That was on 10/22/07. Nearly 7 months ago. I have done PT, Ionto treatments, surgery, more PT, and am worse than before.

I have uncontrollable tremors most days. I had talked to one of the nurses a month ago at work, and she suggested a neurologist. I brought this up today, and Dr. MP agreed. Some day in the near future I will get to be stuck with bunches of needles to find out what is wrong…hopefully.

Now Dr. MP is a good guy, but I seriously think he doesn’t know why I am not healing or getting better. And that is ok, but GEEZ, admit it. Today I asked if I should renew my LNA license…his answer “I don’t know. I can’t say. This time next year you could be great and feeling wonderful, or you could be the same as you are today”. Well, thanks doc for the input.

His new approach is “wait and see”. Which in some respects I am ok with. This is basically what I have been doing for a month, and it is proving my point. The arm is permanently messed up. He also gave me a new prescription for Nabumentone. It is the generic of Relafen. Now it is in the same family as Ibuprofen, and I am allergic to that. We tried Naproxen but that gave me a rash. We will see if this drug does the same. It is a high possibility. But I need something other than just Tylenol for the pain.

Bad thing about this is that the side effect is drowsiness, or dizziness. Not sure if I will take any before I have to drive somewhere. I have only taken one (the dose was for 2/2 times a day), and I feel groggy, despite drinking coffee.

I am also going back to work light duty. I will be doing two days a week, five hours each. Taking it nice and easy, since the last time I tried to go back, I lasted 3 weeks.

Ok, I need to go study my medical terminology…if I can stay awake.

Be blessed.

My Apologies…

Not sure what is up with WordPress today, but my apologies to those reading past posts, and seeing it all in bold

I can only assume it has to do with the update/maintenance that they did last night on the system.

Action Needed….Protect your personal blogs and photos

There is currently legislation in the the works, that would allow anyone to harvest your personal photos from your blogs and such sites as Flickr to use in advertising campaigns as they see fit.

It first came to light for me yesterday while reading Claudine Hellmuth’s blog. Here is the direct quote from her blog”

“There are two bills that are coming up in the House and Senate that will change copyright as we know it.

They were shot down once before because of action against it — but now they are back as bill numbers H.R. 5889 The Orphan Works Act of 2008 and S 2913 The Shawn Bentley Orphan Works Act of 2008

If you post your family photos on Flickr, anywhere on the internet or on your blog read on!

Could you imagine if someone used your child’s photo in an unsavory advertisement and you had no say and no rights to make them stop using it! This could easily happen if these bills are passed. There has already been an instance of Virgin Mobile using unauthorized Flickr photos of children in advertisements & billboards and that is before this law was proposed. We do not need to make it easier for them to steal your family photos!

If you are posting your photos online, you should read below and then send a letter (there is an EASY fill out form on the Illustrator Partnership web site all you do is enter your info and press send!)Takes 1 minute!!!

This is NOT a hoax. This is FOR REAL. And it is scary. Some people say us illustrators and designers are being alarmist, but I would rather err on the side of caution, defeat this bill and keep my copyrights as they are now. These bills were shot down once because of strong resistance from Illustrators, designers and photographers we can defeat these bills again!

This is text from the Illustrator Partnership web site:
Due to the lack of publicity about this bill, the most innocent victims of this plunder – those who put images online – are still completely unaware of it. Who am I talking about? Average American families who have enjoyed the internet as a way to share the happiest, and even saddest, moments of their lives with their friends and family across the country, and even around the world, through the wonders of technology. Google has already said they plan to use these orphan works in the millions. Why should companies like this be allowed to to harvest our property from private web pages, blog sites, share sites and the like?

On all my illustration and licensing boards we have been talking about it for weeks but now the day of reckoning is almost here and not enough people know about it to help us strike it down in the Senate. We need to make our feelings heard.

If you want to protect your rights go here and send a letter. It only takes 1 minute. Here is the link. Then tell all your friends!”

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Do this and protect your photos and your privacy!!!

Pity party over!

Ok, so I wallowed in a bit of self pity yesterday. My financial situation is no better this morning, but my attitude certainly is.

Especially since I have a brainstorm of an idea, and I think it is fabulous! NH Homeschooler’s will be so glad to find out what I have in mind. I can’t reveal the details just yet, but trust me ….it is truly great!

So with that in mind, I am off to do some major planning. I hope you have a blessed day!!

Shoulder Update….

I realized that after looking through my previous posts, that I hadn’t mentioned my shoulder in awhile, so I thought an update was due.

Now, I get compliments all the time on my upbeat outlook on life. It is not something I have to work at usually. It is just part of who I have always been. I always look at the brighter side of all situations. Or try to.

My shoulder issue has been no different. For those of you new to my blog, back in October I injured myself working as a Licensed nursing assistant. At first the doctor thought it was a torn bicep tendon. Due to the way Workman’s compensation works, you have to jump through many hoops. Needless to say, I did 3 months of “guesstimating”. Guesstimating is when they don’t do x-rays, MRI’s or anything else to find out the true problem, but have you do physical therapy, Ionto treatments, and other such “guessing” strategies in the hopes that you will get better sooner.

Three months after my initial injury, I had surgery. It was found to be worse than initially thought. I had crushed the end of my collar bone into my shoulder. So my doctor shaved about an inch off the bone, and cleaned up some arthritis in the area. The outlook was good, or so he told me. He didn’t see any other damage.

Now 7 months after the initial injury I am still far from even being able to do some of the simplest tasks each day. Most days it doesn’t bother me, but lately, it seems to be getting to me. It is frustrating to say the least to not be able to hold a pen and sign my name. I have tremors, or as I call them …. “shaky days”. I look like I have Parkinson’s disease. And by the time the arm is done, usually several hours later, it is so tired I couldn’t use it if I wanted to.

But, I am a strong person. This little bump in the road of my life will pass, and as is usually the case, I will be a better person for it.

Rather ironic if you think about it, that in my job I took care of people who needed help, and now I am faced with the same situation. I hate asking for help. But sometimes in life it is necessary.

Be blessed! I truly am!!

Ahhhh….Sweet Relief

Well, I didn’t get my walk in yesterday, but it was a good day none the less. Hehe love that phrase.

I did get a huge load of laundry done. That is critical. The school frowns on sending your kids to school nekkid. Not sure why, but they do.

And I got my baby back. Yes, I am speaking of my laptop. I should have this baby fused to my hands or something. I was so excited when they called to tell me it was ok. No major surgery required. I did have a light infection (where I got it I have no idea), and they fixed a Windows problem. And the best part is that I didn’t lose anything. Not one photo, not one amount of info from my schoolwork. Whewwwwwwww!

So what did I do as soon as I got home? I backed it all up to my external harddrive like a good doobie. All of it. Pictures, schoolwork, genealogy research. And I will continue to do it on a weekly basis, if not more. I am never going to risk that again.

So I also ended up having to take my daughter to a concert I didn’t know about until the last minute. She is in Chorus at her high school. But it worked out well. She did her concert while the male wingnuts that I love, and I, went to get the laptop and then went to Wallyworld to pick up some fishing hooks and weights. They have a Fish N’ Run Derby this weekend for Scouts. My youngest wingnut will be camping the whole weekend. His first camping trip. So today I have to set up their fishing poles. I might have to look online for a refresher course. It’s been decades since I set up a fishing pole.

I used to go fishing as a kid in the waters across from my parent’s home. But my father doesn’t believe in “catch and release”. He informed me that if I wasn’t going to eat what I caught, I couldn’t go fishing anymore. So I stopped. Little did he realize, I was force fed fish for all of my childhood. My mother made me eat it, no matter what. She was that kind of momma. You ate whatever was put in front of you.

I remember one time, she made liver. I HATE liver. This one particular day, I decided that a revolt was in order. I, at 10 or 11 years old, was going to stand up to this evil woman, who was trying to force feed me something that shouldn’t be eaten.

So, I fussed and carried on. I tried hiding it in my mashed potatoes. I pushed it around my plate, hoping it would look like I had eaten some….because we know 10 little piles of liver looks smaller than one big pile.

I got sent to bed that night with that liver sitting on my plate. And I woke up the next morning to cold liver for breakfast. Apparently my mother was feeling especially powerful that morning. And I complied. I ate the cold liver. But secretly I also made a pact with myself, that has endured since that fateful day.

When I am a grownup, I will never eat anything I don’t like. Period. And I have held true to that pact. I do not eat liver, or fish, or any boiled meat (ie: boiled ham dinner, chicken fricazee, etc.).

While my tastes have mellowed a bit in my old age, and I will now eat onions if they are cooked into something, they have to be small pieces. And I still don’t like cooked green peppers, but will eat them raw.

Ahhh…..sweet relief.

Be blessed!

Staples of life….

We all have them…those little things that make our day more pleasant. Those things that we would rather not live without.

My laptop is one of them. I am going bonkers, having to be tied down to a desk to work on the PC while my laptop is in the shop. I tend to listen to news or other shows on the tube while working on the laptop. I cannot do that while on the PC….well I can “listen”, but I can’t occassionally watch unless I get up. Funny, the routines we get into.

Some other lovely staples of our lives:

Me: MUST HAVE!

And in the mornings, my male wingnuts must have these:

Actually, my middle wingnut prefers the Rice Crispy version, but since Momma has 2 open boxes of this, it will do…as long as it is chocolate. Ahhh, a boy after my own heart!

And technically my youngest wingnut has to have his toast cut in 4 strips, but I swiped this pic off the net, because I really wasn’t in to taking a pic of toast this morning. And for him, it cannot be too dark or he won’t eat it. And not a ton of butter.

Gee……..you think I raised picky kids? Nah, just like me, they know what they like.

Ok, my “to do” is slightly longish today, so I had better get going for the day…Just a snippet of what I have to do, because we really know that you are dying to know (lol):

1. Do dishes (uckkk, the evil empire is conspiring against me)
2. Do laundry (double uckkk when you have to go to the laundromat)
3. Call Miss S – I am taking over the Achievements Chair for our Cub Scout pack and the dvd disk she gave me doesn’t work…need to find out why.
4. Must tackle and entire chapter of Medical Terminology
5. Go for a walk…don’t forget camera…this little town has some cool things to photograph
6. Call to see if laptop might be fixed yet (crossing fingers on this one)

And that is just what I can think of at the moment….there will be more for sure. Oh I just remembered….Darling daughter wingnut has a concert tonight at her high school for chorus….grrrrrrrrrrr so much for a quiet night at home.

Be blessed!

Dreary Sunday morning….

It is raining again today. It makes for a lazy Sunday. The kids are at their father’s for the weekend, and so I am having a hard time motivating myself to do anything. Sadly, I have a ton to do, but just no motivation.

I am writing you today from the kid’s Emachine. Why??????? Because being the dufus that I am…..I never backed up all the stuff on my laptop, and it crashed yesterday morning. Wahhhhhhhhh. I have a beautiful new 320gig external harddrive that I bought when I started school, for just this purpose. Do you think I have used it? Nah….that would be the common sense thing to do.

So, my laptop is sitting at the tech guy’s shop, and I am forced to type on a keyboard that is not set up the same as my laptop. Weird how a different keyboard can throw off your typing. Needless to say, I am taking a break from major schoolwork. I will read the online articles I need to, but am just taking notes in an old fashioned paper notebook. My prayer is that they can recover my harddrive, and not wipe it out. Then I can just add these handwritten notes to OneNote, and continue on my merry way. Sadly, there is the chance I may have to start from scratch with my notes. And if that is the case, then I also lost all my photos taken in the last six months, as well as my genealogy stuff.

But I have no one to blame but myself. Back up your files!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There, that is my Sunday Morning community announcement. Hehehe.

Ok, should really get something done today. I need to go to the dump…yes we country bumpkins still take our own trash to the dump. And I need to declutter a bit before I go, so I don’t have 5,000 bags sitting in my yard. The dump is only open Friday through Monday. So it is today and tomorrow…or wait until next week.

Be blessed….and back up your files!!!!