Bruno

Well, I went last night to see Bruno.  http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1809922951/info   Ralph did not go – and no, my mom should NOT see it.  It was SO flippin’ funny – but for the right audience.  It was highly offensive…and i mean HIGHLY offensive…and quite honestly, I can’t believe it wasn’t NC-17.  There was a lot of naughtiness in it.  All I know is that the scene where he is asking a karate champion how to defend against someone attacking you with 2 dildos made me cry.  Really, do these people KNOW that he’s fake?  I mean, he NEVER breaks character, but really, they can’t think he’s for real.  But, i guess that’s the premise.  I just went to read Rober Ebert’s review – and he sums up the movie perfectly:  Go there 

I guess I’m a little random today, eh?  So I better stop.

Hearts be stilled – i’m back.

You know, i wouldn’t want to keep all my avid readers waiting any longer.  i’m back baby.  Now, you too can know what is going on.  I know you all have been biting your nails waiting and waiting.  So, news on the little one?  well, for one, he’s not little.  31 pounds and 3 feet tall.   Now that being said, he’s still my little baby.  he’s pretty much settled into that ‘terrible twos’ smoothly, nicely, and in FULL FLIPPIN’ FORCE.  good gravy.  I have so far broken the ‘throw the food on the floor’ habit, we are working on ‘I WANNNNN IIIIITTT!’, and he continues to go to the stairs when he tantrums.  Yes, I realize that all bad habits will re-surface…I’m no fool.  But you know, he’s up against me.  It’s really interesting come about 4:00 when I prety much tell him that he better get away from me….that’s when he stands next to me saying ‘mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy’ over and over and over again.  His other new habit is to get as loud as he possibly can every time I put a phone to my ear.  You know, he gets SO little attention from us…so he has to act out.  for his 2nd birthday, he got a stool, which has been, well…interesting??  He has to ‘help’ with EVERYTHING I do in the kitchen.  Don’t get me wrong..it’s great…until he takes the bowl of veggies that we are chopping and dumps them in the sink. ‘Twash’.  Stinker.  Ralph and I are working on Logan’s favorite phrases, but we aren’t too focused, so, well, that’s as far as it’s been.

On a side note – anybody watching the fasion show on bravo? I flippin’ love it.  yes, LOVE it…and I was SO glad that Johnny got kicked off…he was such a dirty liar.

so, to keep your nail biting to a minimum, here are some new scrapbook pages I have made.  I shrunk the jpeg significantly, so hopefully you can see them…

   

  Oh, and here’s the cake and cupcakes i made for Logan’s Birthday party:

Go Diego Go!!

Dora on the LEft, and Diego on the Right

His New RESCUE PACK.

clipping masks

since school has been out, i’ve become kind of, well, obsessed with digital scrapbooking.  today, I figured out how to do clipping masks.  This means nothing to you, but let me tell you, it’s awesome.  I download a template from scrapgirls.com (the GREATEST digital scrapbooking site) and then i add colors and pics with no prob – quick and easy. WOW.

Okay, so it wasn’t quick – It took me a couple days – but that’s just because I couldn’t figure the dang thing out.

So, let’s see – the stomach flu raged through our house – well, through 2/3rds of our house.  Ralph cleared it.  the Struves did not – the entire family got it.  We blame the doctor’s office.  UGH.  it was bad…but we’re finally all better now. 

Let’s see what else is going on.  Logan is talking NON-STOP.  And i mean, constantly.  It’s exhausting – but no problem…we love it!  He’s turned the corner to classic two-year-old-ness.  As I’m in the kitchen, he’ll peek around the corner from the couch and yell ‘MA!’ – I look and he’s standing on the couch (which is not allowed) saying ‘Sit on couch!!!’, then lands on his bottom…stinker.  This taunting continues throughout the day.  he’s also trying out the constant whine and fussing, which is lovely.  He keeps it fun around here, that’s for sure!!!  i’m sure there’s a lot more – as he’s all I ever talk about – but unfortunately, I’m brain fried after tyring to do the syllabus for kstate classes, so i can come up with nothing!!!

Happy Mother’s Day Eve

I, again, have decided to post.  Yes, the last post was on March 16th.  Wow.   So much has happened.  Logan has won a nobel peace prize, Ralph is finally able to walk again, and I have published 3 books.  Yeah, I know, I’m funny.  You can continue to chuckle all you want.  we have been busy, though.  Well, I have been.  Kstate classes this semester have KILLED me – There are so many students – 36 to be specific…so I spend a lot of time grading..well, procrastinating, then grading, then procrastinating again.  it’s really quite sad.   my back is killing me from leaning over this stupid laptop.  Apparently, i’m quite crabby as well.

Mom and dad are here today and tomorrow for mother’s day.   It’s funny, we’ve found, how on mother’s day, the mothers do all the cooking and then all the dishes.  What kind of crap is that?  We are watching the Alaska experiment now – have been for hours – good ole fashioned marathon.  it’s a great show.  But it’s about tiem to pass out.  here some pictures of my pride and joy, and the reason I wanted to be a mother:

OH – the big news last month is that Logan was moved up into a toddler bed!!!  Where did the decision come from?  Don’t know – just decided one day.  we also thought it’d be good to get him in the bed and ‘trained’ before he learns how to open a doorknob.  he’s doing great – The cutest thing is that when he gets up in the morning, or after a nap, he just goes over and knock, knock, knocks on his door.  It’s so cute.  Here’s pictures from his first night in the bed.  He DOES demand that he is surrounded by his stuffed animals.  spidermen on each side, holding his blanket (Mernin).  sometimes he switches to eeyore, who he calls Albi – or fuzzy bear.  And usually a sheep that goes with a farm toy he has.  Anyway, here’s the pics.

Wow – I guess I’ll post

You know, my posting does go through a definite ebb and flow – nothing, nothing, nothing, then BAM! I post.  It’s how I keep all my avid readers on their toes.

So, today, I went in for the results of my sleep study – yes, I had a sleep study done about 3 weeks back  – super interesting if you have never had one.  First off, they hook up about a bazillion little electrode things all over your head, face, arms, legs and chest – then you are supposed to ’sleep’.  If you have to go to the bathroom, you have to call out for help, b/c they have to unhook the bazillion of wires from the machine.  It took over an hour to hook everything up.  totally cool, really, but I felt like I was being assimilated by the Borg.  So, why the sleep study?  because i’m tired all the time – to the point that after I wake up, I take my shower, and then could fall asleep sitting on the couch wiht coffee in hand.  I can doze at a stop sign easily.  So, my doctor thought mayb eI had sleep apnea. I doubted that, due to the fact that I don’t even snore – but you know, she’s the doctor.  so, today are the results. Guess waht they found?  I need to lose weight.  WHAT?  I HAD NO IDEA?!?!?!    No crap.  I could have told them that without billing insurance $2300.  Mild sleep apnea due to weight.  Duh.  So, that was worth the trip.  BUT – I did get one bonus out of it..that’s that she did write me a prescription for a mouth guard – which my dentist has said I need for about 3 years now – or longer – because I clench my teeth.  Well, dental insurance doesn’t cover that – and it’s $400, so guess who has NOT gotten it.  Well, now it can be a medical issue that I not clench my teeth, because I have apnea, so she wrote that for me, and now I will attempt to get it paid that way.  so, I guess there is a silver lining.  And hey, I found out how a sleep study works.  That was cool.

And speaking of weight loss – I’m now down 13.2 pounds.  I’ve lost 5% of my inital weight.  Now, if I could just exercise.

Going around Facebook

wow.  What a snit.

Chad at the Dentist

So, for those of you who have not seen David after the dentist on you tube…you’ll need to see this:

But, when i went on you tube today, I almost peed, as I saw this ‘response’ to chad at the dentist:

I love pancakes

Yup.  I really do.  I loved them even more tonight when I watched our baby eat them.  YAY!  He ate!!!  He woke us up at 4AM today with a sharp scream that only means one thing in this house…another load of laundry.  so yes, he threw up AGAIN.  Then one more time.  Pretty much at our wits end here.  Completely.  But, I still took him over to sharon…and he did fine all day.  As suspected, getting back in his routine helped him start eating….eating very mild, bland food, yes..but eating nonetheless.  Then, he ate 2 pancakes with bananas tonight.  HORRAY!  So, I’m sure that was super duper important for you to hear…you can more on with your life now.

It’s totally the time of year when I am totally frustrated with my  job.  not so much the kids or parents, mostly with myself.  I feel like things start to spin uncontrolably around me and I can’t stop the progression towards the end of the year.  See, with kids that are going into kindergarten, I have to determine what services they will need, how much services, and where they might ‘fail’.  unfortunately, that is often what the kindergarten teachers want to know.  I have a large group of children transitioning, and I’m already getting completely overwhelmed with the amount of paperwork I’m trying to juggle and keep track of.  Beyond that, they just dished me THREE new kids in the morning class…egads.  In a matter of 2 weeks we almost doubled in size..talk about throwing off a group of kids, you know?  So, the big problem with this time of year is the self esteem – I start to watch the class and think ‘Oh dear Lord, I’m doing NOTHING for these kids’.  I don’t see the obvious progress, I feel like people are watching me saying ‘what in the world is wrong with her….she’s just babysitting’..and I feel like I can not make any good programing decisions.  Down deep in my psyche, yes, I realize that as I do test scores and see a child’s social scores go from a 19% up to an 85%, that yes..they have made progres…but I guess maybe it’s just the ‘teacher’ thing.  Or just me.  More than likely, it’s just me.  I need to up my meds.

on a lighter, ‘get over your pity party’ note…I pushed my fat butt into TWO pairs of pants I have not been able to even squeeze over my thighs since..oh…i don’t even remember.  I mean, THAT long….a long long time.  No, I can not YET wear them in public, but i’m close…oh so very very close.

WHAT????? i’m starving him???

So, this morning, our poor baby threw up ALL of his milk.  Well, egads…between that and the water from the other end, we made our way into urgent care at 11:00AM.  Still barely eating, over a week of diarrhea, and intermittent puking….yeah…. Anyway, went to after hours pediatrics (www.after-hourpediactrics.com) which was a great place to go.  they are pediatricians that only serve families in the evenings and weekends.  Pretty much just for urgent care.  So, it’s great. 

Anyway, what she said was that Logan was essentially being ‘over’-treated.  (he’s on augmentin still for ear and throat).  She said between the augmetin and the pedialyte that they had me doing, he was having what was I think she called hydration starvation.  I THINK that’s what she called it.  anyway, with the constant pedialyte, it was over-flushing him, which was causing the horrible diarrhea.  plus, the augmentin is just tearing his stomach up more…so she said to completely lay off the pedialyte completely…then she said to stop the antibiotic as well…his ears and his throat were completely clear, and his lungs sounded fantastic.  My poor, poor baby.  The virus that he probably did have was/is causing the appetite to be suppressed.  so we are in a horribly cycle..so, here’s $50, doctor.  thanks for telling me I’m starving my child, even though we are CONSTANTLY trying to get him to eat.  Anyway, mommy guilt was AWFUL….although i should be glad that I took him in so we found to do this instead of continuing all the treatment we were told to give him earlier last week.  He’s not contagious, and he just needs to EAT.  So, since he’ll be back at Sharon’s tomorrow, hopefully he’ll start really eating again. We’ve gotten much more food in him the past couple of days..but still not back up to his normal chow down.  My poor, poor baby.  I need to switch to a pediatrician instead of a general practitioner.  anybody have suggestions that are close by?

The Sick Baby

Well, I’m home again today.   this is from logan:

,,.,…/,.//././;/;/;/;/;;//;;/;l;l;l;l;;;l;vlc;lvc;vl;’plvp’;pv’p'vvbpbvopopobpobopopbpooppb

Funny that he wrote ‘poop’ in there, b/c that’s why we are home.  water.  We’ve done a LOT of laundry around here the past couple of days.  EGADS.  So, we are just watching for dehydration now, since he still won’t eat..and drinks very little.  He’s MUCH happier today though, thank goodness.  he wants to go outside..that’s a good sign.

So, here’s video of him in his ‘bacta tank’:

And of him in happier times a couple weeks ago: