Saturday, February 27, 2010

Lazy Day

I love my family. I really do. It's just that spending extended amounts of time with them make me cringe. I can't handle my sister in doses longer than a few hours. Today was one of those days where I was forced to.

Caitlyn adores her for the most part, so she spent most of her day with Kayla playing. I had to constantly remind them it was not okay to scream indoors. Yes, a 22 year old woman needed reminding of this, in a mall no less.

We also made a trip to the pet store in the mall, I decided it was finally time to get Caitlyn the fish I've been thinking about for months. She picked out the pink fish. I'm not sure of the name. But we got two since it was buy one get one. She has decided to call them "Mama and one little baby" She is right, the smaller follows the larger one around and snuggles up to it all the time. I also found her a medium sized bowl with bright colored stones (hot pink and purple, a few red) and a little neon 'house' for them. She's fed them once and loves them.

The rest of the shopping day was a bit much. Caitlyn was over tired and having fits left and right with no help from my mother and sister, who would much rather just give her things to quiet her down than let her understand it is not okay to yell at her mother. So at this time. I'm tired and frazzled and annoyed but otherwise okay.

So now I'm settling down for some mind-candy and relaxing for the evening. Hoping she'll fall asleep soon.

Friday, February 26, 2010

Another first

Today was one more first for Caitlyn. Her first trip to the dentist. She did wonderful.

She had the woman who is normally my hygienist, and I love her. She's very patient with Caitlyn. I had a check up in July and took Caitlyn with me and the woman allowed Caitlyn to take the Xrays of my teeth and play with things around the room. She also has a young daughter so that helped, I'm sure.

Caitlyn was all excited and got dressed up to go today. We get there and she hops right on the chair, unfortunately started crying immediately. After a few minutes of the hygienist allowing her to play with the instruments and showing her what she would be doing. testing the water and air, the sucker, Caitlyn was set to have her teeth looked at. We tried the Xrays right away but she was having none of it. So it was the checkup and cleaning first.

The woman even gave her a pair of zebra sunglasses to wear while she worked on her teeth. She let Caitlyn use the sucker to get any water or paste from her mouth. Caitlyn got to pick out her own fluoride (I'd completely forgotten about fluoride treatments for kids. I remember having to sit there for 20 minutes at time biting down on those stupid Styrofoam trays. No more! Now it's some sort of foam and just a minute for the top and the bottom! She picked Cherry Cheesecake flavor *double yuck from me*) And she did a wonderful job using the sucker while biting down on the trays.

Afterward we tried once more to get her to take the Xrays but the tray for that is just too big for her little mouth. So we'll give it a try next time. And my favorite Dr. checked her over, so I was happy. I do not like his new partner and eventually, successor. I don't know that I will stay once he is gone. He's such a sweet man. And its a shame because I do love Megan, the hygienist.

She was then allowed to pick out a toothbrush to go with her new toothpaste and floss, which she was very excited about since she watches me use mine. They even had character toothbrushes for kids! She picked out the Cinderella one and then got to pick out a prize for being so good, and a sticker! This trip was absolutely amazing. My fear of her throwing up on the Dr. was not needed (hey, in my defense this HAPPENED in my family. Everytime we went my sister threw up the fluoride because she didn't understand that she wasn't supposed to SWALLOW it while it was in her mouth.)

My baby is getting so big! How did this happen?

We then get some lunch at the gas station (Taco John's, don't ask, it's rural Minnesota) and I playfully squeeze her neck only to have her yell "You BROKE something!" sigh.

Other good ones from today? During laundry folding she pulls out her underwear from the dryer and yells "Mama! Touch my underwear! They are warm!" and a few minutes later "I will give you $20 to wash this wall" I'm not sure why since it was the laundry room wall.

Constant source of entertainment, she is.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Insert Creative Title Here

Welp, all moved. It took 4 trips with my car, my parent's van and my grandpa's truck last Saturday. Things went relatively well until the third trip when my dad and brother started bickering (frankly I'm surprised it took that long, usually it starts right away)

The day started with them arriving at 9am and us still pretty much asleep. Ok, I was a zombie and she was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed that her grammy and grampy and Dustin were coming JUST to see her! (This is her own delusion. I didn't point out that they were moving us so they had an agenda other than seeing her...)

Around about the second or third trip we got things from my bedroom. Imagine my horror when we move the bed and discover the teeniest, tiniest corner of an unmentionable wrapper which caused my brother to sputter and skedaddle for about an hour unable to look at me.

They (dad and brother) destroyed my dvd cabinet I bought about 4 years ago. It was literally on it's last leg so it was ok. Just annoying. I bought something completely different, takes up less space and of course, is crooked. Not to mention as I was putting it together I find this strange looking tether, with directions to tether said shelf to the wall. My exact reaction was to say out loud "Well this inspires oodles of confidence in your product."

This week flew by because naturally, I haven't had much work in about a month until THIS VERY WEEK I put in my normal school hours plus an extra 10 for work, and went back to clean the other place and dealt with a bit of homework (re:10 page test, two tests, no wait three other tests this week) And also, I've been up past 1 every single night just because it's my place and I can now. Plus, free cable is making my brain turn mush. Vh1 reality shows. Hmph.

I did fairly well on all of the tests this week, thankfully. Was planning on visiting my aunt this weekend but my place still looks disastrous, instead of cleaning and unpacking I am blogging. And staring down the home-made playdough mess that someone made on my table. Promising of course to clean it all up. She did not.

So this weekend will be filled with lots of cleaning and organizing. Not to mention my baby's first dentist appointment is tomorrow. *tear* The one earlier this month was canceled because she had the flu and I didn't feel like chancing her throwing up all over the dentist. Though if she gets Dr. Bitchy McWhore the new woman instead of the sweet old man I'm used to I may pray for vomit. We shall see.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Chicken Pot Pie and a few other things...

I'm on the last few nights in this apartment. Waiting to get everything over to my new place. I've taken a few loads over there and found some random things. I hate that part of moving. I found the scrapbook I made of Josh and I for our wedding. All the "Love never dies" kind of stickers makes my heart hurt. Not because I want him back. Because I don't. But the two kids, and yes, looking at those pictures of us at barely 20 years old it strikes me that we look so young, had a long, bumpy and slightly unfair road ahead of them. But in those pictures, we were in love and couldn't wait to spend the rest of our lives together. Head in the clouds and nothing could go wrong attitude. Not to mention my ridiculous eyebrows. Yikes.

Oh how things change. With a sigh I carefully tucked that scrapbook full of memories into the box I'm saving for Caitlyn when she gets older. She deserves to see those things. They are no longer mine. (Also, much better eyebrows six years later. Jus' sayin')

Fast forward a few minutes and I open another box, to find the letters I'd bought shortly after we were married to hang above the entry way in our new home. It never happened. Those letters, were our last name. I'm not even sure what I'm going to do with them because I don't have a need for them and keeping them for Caitlyn when she grows up would be pointless.

I then come home and get a huge paper cut on my finger taking my textbook out of my bag. Realizing I took all my medical supplies to the new place. I text my friend Becky "So I said to myself, "Self, you can take all the bandaids to the new place, what could happen in the next day and a half?" Self is stupid. Huge ass papercut is what could happen. "

She shows up with her kids to help me pack and organize a bit later and hands me a box when she walks in the door. Of bandaids. I had a laugh my butt off moment because it was really unexpected but just another reason why I love her. She's been my rock through out this whole situation and I can't thank her enough.

Bridgette can't stand her (they graduated together) and went off on me the other week about spending time with Becky because I'd had issues with her before. She even went as far to yell "You can HAVE Becky. I don't want her as a friend" I stared at her during the fight thinking to myself "Did you really just GIVE me a friend? What the hell makes you think she wants to be your friend after this anyway?" Mostly I just blinked at her wondering if someone could really be that big of an ass. FYI. They can. Now it's become a joke between Becky and I.

Off to eat my chicken pot pie. I'm not sure what insane person decided celery would be a good idea and potatoes would not but I hate them. A lot.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

New Places

Welp, I signed the paperwork for the new place today. Brought in some stuffs as well. I'm excited. I just want to be MOVED. I don't want to actually MOVE my belongings. Sigh.

It was one hectic day today, getting to school, working on a case study, which as it turns out is basically answering a bunch of questions relating to one specific type of illness for Pathophysiology. This class is going to kick my butt. Right now I'm pulling a B. I'm not sure how much longer that is going to last. It's gonna be a lot of work to keep my grade up in that class, that's for sure. Stupid diseases.

Then had to make a bank run and ended up being 15 minutes late for the lease signing, the woman was nice about it. I've been early all other times I've had to meet her so it's not like I'm consistently late. Got home, packed more and worked on homework for like 3 hours. And somehow it is nearly 1am. I'm not sure how that happened but I want the two hours I lost somewhere in there back!

Monday, February 15, 2010

Get Thee to a Nunnery!

Every year I go on a ladies retreat with my friends and family (the family I've claimed as my own that is...) This is the 4th year in a row that I've been able to make it. The Chartreuse Buzzards. It's an entertaining time away from life and it takes place currently at, you guessed it, a convent.

I really needed the time away and to relax for a bit after the hellacious year that I've had, combine divorce with evil whore friends who stab you in the back and you get part of the jist of what I've been through. Still going through.

But for five days I get to leave all that and just be me. Not mommy, not ex-wife, not ex-friend, not student, just me. The me I was before I was all those things. It's nice. Of course coming back to be mommy is nice too :) I miss the pumpkin pie while I'm away, after all!

This year was a Mexican theme. We did some crafts that at some point I will update this post and add pictures once I figure out HOW to do so. And spent a lot of time eating terribly wonderful sweets.

Some of the highlights of this year were playing Buzzword with Kristin, Emily, Kathy (Kristin's actual sister) Meranda (Kristin's roommate and my friend), and Tiffany (cousin of Kristin and Kathy) I grew up with Kristin and Emily.

Things said during the game:
Someone as Kristin's having a fit about losing (it was a SMALL fit) "Kristin! It's OK to lose, you know."
Kristin: "I KNOW I just don't WANT to."

A celebration in Boston with the Buzzword of "Cotton"
Emily shouts out "COTTON Picking!" Kathy also answered these ALL as "Cotton Ball" didn't matter that it had already been used.

Emily misreading "Cows grazing over the hill" As "CROWS grazing over the hill" and a discussion was had about what animals do and do NOT graze.

Meranda mispronouncing "Polish Pope" As the polish the furniture version. Much confusion was had.

Also, we were very nearly hit by a train. There is a lot of bumps near the tracks, combine this with the ice and snow building up and we got stuck, with a train not too far from us slowly starting to back up. Tiffany, Meranda and I got out and pushed the car off the tracks, only by digging our feet into the other set of tracks and pushing as hard as we could as Kristin gunned the engine...she rocked out of the dip slowly only to continue driving down the road with one foot out of the car yelling "WOOO HOOO" and Tiffany, Meranda and I running after her yelling "STOP Kristin, STOP!" for a few dozen feet.

All in all, I am glad to be home but excited for next years retreat at the same time! This time around it is DISNEY themed. Can. Not. Wait. Not to mention the fact that I probably have enough Disney paraphernalia around this joint to decorate a castle. But I always figured having a little girl came with any and all things Disney.