Where Have I Been?

I've been on hiatus it seems. Where did I go? No where really, however I've taken a break from a lot of things. Now it's time for me to get my groove back. I want to start posting here at least twice a week. I also want to regularly work on my other blog.

What's this, another blog? Well, yes Bob. It's a blog for my writing, my creative fiction stuff. I'm not sure if it'll be a continuing story or bits and pieces or how it will go exactly. Tis the nature of the creative beast after all. I've only posted there twice since it's birth, so who's to say. The link to this darling pet project is Serial Mommy's Muse and I ask you all to go give it a perusal and keep tabs on it and let me know what you think.

Lately I've been reading quite a few romance novels, or Bodice Busters as Jason calls them. I have been trying to figure out how to write sex in an appealing way. I'm finding in the Bodice Busters it's much too flowery. In Hustler and the like, it's much too crass. I'm trying to find the middle ground. I don't want to just say "They had sex. It was good." After all, that's not how I have sex, and I'm pretty sure others are the same, so why wouldn't I write it realistically?

We got a new printer/copier/scanner/fax dohickey. All right, I KNOW what it is, after all, I'm the one that set it up. The ink cartridges for our last dohickey cost an arm and a leg, and in all honesty, I don't think Jason wanted me to sell Izzy in to future slavery with the company in order to be able to purchase them, so I got something different. Now I get to try to figure out what to do with the old dohickey. I have a feeling it's going to make it's way to the basement or the upstairs storage room and sit there in the dust and dirt until it becomes a true antique about 20 or 30 years down the road. Maybe we'll be able to take it "Antiques Road Show" and find out it's worth something someday.

Now, the new printer comes with ink issues all of it's own. It came with a color cartridge, so I had to purchase the black one seperately. Not a big deal, until I got home and realized, wait a minute, there is a color cartridge in this box. Well eternal Damnation! Good thing I bought it at MY Wal-Mart (that's an entirely different thing, and I'll get to it in a second). I called up there and Bob (yes, that's his real name) told me to come on back. So I did, the manager approved my return, Wal-Mart usually doesn't accept ink cartridge return or exchanges, just so you know. I was going to exchange it for another black, however they were all out. Ugh. So I went across the street to Meijer, paid $2 more and got a black one. I come home, and for some reason the new printer is not recognizing the color cartridge. The one that came with the printer. And of coarse I'm doing all of this at 2 AM and the online chat closes at 11 at night. Whatever happened to all night support for us insomniacs? Long story made shorter, I get a hold of them this morning, the fix it solution they give me doesn't work, they tell me it's a problem with the cartridge and they will send me a new one free of charge. It'll be here in about a week. Whoop dee do.

Now, the MY Wal-Mart thing. I'm not sure why, but that is how we are supposed to think of it, as MY Wal-Mart. It even says on our registers "Welcome to your Wal-Mart". There is an Employee Stock Purchase Program. However, you have to be there for over a year, of which I am currently no where near. Go figure. I don't think that is quite what they are talking about. So I've gotten in to the habit of calling it MY Wal-Mart.

So this year is supposed to be the Year of Moderation. Yeah, not going so great, no big surprise there. I did get two new DVD's in my eternal quest to lose weight and be healthier. I've lost some weight, but let me tell you, it certainly isn't much more than a tiny drop in the bucket. I also keep telling myself that I need to dig out my ab slide. The fact that I have to "dig it out" should give you a big indication about how motivated I am to exercise at all, ever. However, I MUST do this in order to be healthy. Why does healthy mean I have to work out? Why can't I be lazy and healthy?

Izzy is the eternal terror. We have taken to calling him Tiny Terror. He will be 2 in just 2 short months, Heaven help us all. He is still very much obsessed with taking things OUT. This creates for a VERY messy dining and living room. Picking up only does good as long as he's not allowed back in to the room. Why must he take my books off the shelves and the DVD's out of place? Why oh why do they belong on the floor? His toys I can follow the logic on, but that stuff? And my yarn? If it has yarn, it MUST be out, at least it seems to be his line of thinking. At least he's getting some hair. And he's still cute. Trust me, it's the cuteness that keeps him going, because if it were just behavior wise, he'd ALWAYS be cooped up somewhere.

Happy New Year and All That Jive

So it's a New Year. This is to be the Year of Moderation, at least in theory. I don't know if it's going well or not, but most likely not. Tis the way of life if you ask me.

Izzy is now a "big boy". He is officially sleeping upstairs in what is now the Boys' room, no longer just James' room. *sigh* How did he get so big and grown? He is on what used to be the top bunk of the bunk beds. I rearranged the room so that one side of the bed is against the wall and the outer side is the one that used to have the full length railing, which Jason put back on so Izzy won't fall out while he tosses and turns. I also picked him up a new bedding set tonight. It is this set. I think that for James' belated birthday gift I will get him this set, to coordinate with Izzy's. Izzy isn't using pillows yet, at least not regular sized ones, maybe I'll pick him up some when I pick up James' set.

The girls room is slowly progressing, thanks to Jason. He has done quite a bit of work up there. One of my goals for the New Year is to work on their room every day that I don't work at Wal-Mart. My goal is to have it all the way painted by the end of January. I'd love to say it will be all done, however I'm not going to shoot myself in the foot with that.

I think Jason and I have decided that we won't be painting any more walls. We have peeling wallpaper under the paint on our walls. So we need to peel the wallpaper up. However, because our house is so old, we have plaster walls under that, real honest to goodness plaster walls. The wall paper is acting as a protector to those walls, like the layer of paper on the top of drywall. So when we strip the wallpaper, we'd have to put up something else to help protect the plaster. I think we are going to just go with more wall paper. I like this idea because it does open a huge array of designs and color possibilities for decorating. Also I won't have to tape off and paint.

The kids go back to school tomorrow, can I get a Big HOORAY??? I love my children dearly, however they do help create the choas and really don't do much to contain it. Right now, my dining room looks like Tornado Issac hit it. I'd say Hurricane, however there was little to no precipitation when the storm went through.

The nurse from the mid-wives office called me back on Friday after I had left for work, of coarse. She left a message on the voice mail telling me that the results that they have gotten back are normal. I will be calling them tomorrow to ask for more details and to see if they have any other results. Patty, the mid-wife I saw when I went it, ordered enough labs to be done that they took 10 vials of blood! 10! We also discussed other possibilities for the miscarriages. She said she strongly feels it's either developmental/chromosonal as the baby is forming or I'm not producing enough progesterone to suppor the pregnancy beyond a certain point. So the solution is 2 fold. She prescribed for me to take a daily vitamin, though I take 2 children's chewables because the grown up ones don't agree with my stomach and make me throw up, and 2 mg of folic acid a day. She also told me that once I do become pregnant, she will have me come in and do another blood draw and test my hormone levels. Then she will most likely prescribe for me to be on a progesterone suppository for 12 weeks or more.

Jason and I have decided a couple of things. First off is if we have another loss, we won't be trying for another baby after that. The 2nd thing is once our birthdays arrive in June, we will sit down and discuss if we want to continue trying or if we are going to be done and Jason is going to do the follow up with permanent measures to prevent. While we both would love another baby, we do not want to keep doing this for forever.

I'm going to have to say Christmas was a success for the kids. They received quite a bit of stuff. Now it's just a matter of trying to find a place for it all.

With Izzy's crib now taken down and stored upstairs, I have my office space back. I'll be working on reorganizing the mess in here tomorrow. I bought a filing cabinet last night and my hope is that will help.