My co-workers are trying to sabatoge me!

Okay - yesterday it was a plethora of baked goods.....today it was muffins and bagels. What is with these people?!?!? Luckily I've been in meeting after meeting this morning and have been able to resist the temptation. Wonder what's on the menu for tomorrow?

I do have willpower afterall!

Well - so far. It is only day 5 of my new diabetic diet. Yet, twice now I've resisted the urge for the "good" stuff. First time was Sunday. I just had to have a Cherry Coke......not only did I get diet, but I was fine with getting K a treat and not myself. Second time was today at work. Some gal brought in a bunch of stuff she'd baked over the weekend.....all of it looked good and all of it was chocolate. However, I resisted the temptation.

Now the real test will be this Friday - we're having pizza for lunch. Just not sure how that's going to fit into my new diet.

Boys, and mud, and worms...oh my

It rained off and on most of last week and even Friday night. So, Saturday morning we awoke to a beautiful breezy, yet sunny day.....however, not enough sun to dry everything out. Of course with all the rain this means worms.....and with 3 boys they go hand 'n hand.

I think S & R spent about an hour digging for worms. By then I decided I needed to put those worms to good use: plant some flowers. Went to the local Dollar General and picked up 2 bags of potting soil for $4 and four packets of flower seeds for $1. The boys helped me plant the seeds, etc. Of course they then had to dig for worms, but since it was getting cooler and the wind was picking up (and nice gray storm clouds looming overhead) we decided it was time to go inside for the night.

You all can guess what they wanted to do today. They probably spent a good hour or more off and on looking for worms for our newly planted flowers.

See I don't mind the mud or the worms or even the boys getting themselves and their clothes dirty.......it's the fear of what if this little girl isn't a tom boy? I mean I'm out there helping the boys looks for worms and basically giving them amo to torture their little sister. And to be honest I wouldn't understand her "fear" of them. Hate to say it, but this is one time I really hope nuture wins out over nature.

I'm a failure!!! :(

Well, Saturday March 17th I did the 3-hour glucose test. Luckily this time the lab tech listened to me and stuck with the one vein that worked. However, I failed the first two figures and the last one was close so I've been diagnoised with Gestational Diabetes.

Yesterday afternoon meet with the nutrionist/educator and got my monitor. So far, I just test my glucose levels and stick to a new diet. My numbers in the afternoon and evening look good.....it's my morning numbers that stink.

I think the hardest thing to give up will be the Regular Coca-Cola and Cherry Coke from the fountain. Not that I drank a ton, but I did treat myself to a small cup almost everyday. And before you tell me about the diet drinks out there you can just stuff it........they don't taste as good and are no where near as satisfying.

On a good note I've only gained about 7 lbs as of my last appointment. Not bad for being 27wks......just as long as I don't gain a ton in the next 11 weeks I'll be estatic!! Techincally I'll be 29wks tomorrow for those that are truly anal and keeping track.

Keep your finger's crossed that I don't need to continue this once the Bean is born!!

Sorta good news. . . .

. . . .ex-H dropped off S last night after the KU vs KY game. It was later than our agreed upon 6pm exchange time....but hey, KU was playing so no problem. Anyhoo - he tells me that as of April 1st they're moving. Moving to Ottawa.....30 minutes away.

Apparently the rent is cheaper by $300/mo, they'll be closer to his wife's work and her parents. He said it was that or Kansas City and since wifey-poo refuses to live in KC they moved to Ottawa.

As you can guess this will change our custody arraingment. Personally I think for the better. Yes, ex-H will be just a weekend dad....but since I can't get him to actually parent the boy this will be in the boy's best interest.

Ironically I was thinking of filing a modification to the custody agreement this summer. Now that S will officially be starting school in the fall it just seems like the right thing to do. Basically I was going to cut-out the Wed-Fri visit on the opposite week of the weekend visit.

On a side note - I'm wondering if I've finally got through to him in regards to money....either that or his student loan lenders calling me and my parents wanting current contact info. Glad his debt and spending habits aren't really my problem any more!

Lying and Biting, oh my!

You'd think a 3.5yo would know better than to bite. Nope. He's not a chronic bitter, but someone gets bit every weekend he's here. The time before it was K, this time it was S. R knows it wrongs 'cause as soon as he did it he started saying, "I'm sorry" repeatedly.

To be honest that's not the bad part about the whole incident. FWIW - R did leave a nice nickle sized bruise on S's upper right arm. It was the lying about it. I asked R three times if he bit S.....each time "No". After a quick reminder, he was sent to his room to finish crying.

Once the crying was over I told him he could come out of his room and talk to me. Asked him again did he bite S. Once again told "No". Showed R the bruise on S's arm and said I knew that he had and I would like the truth. So, I asked him again. This time I got the ellusive "Yes".

I then proceeded to explain why lying was bad, etc. I really hope he gets it soon.

Speaking of people NOT listening

Friday I had the day off from work. It was a great afternoon just running errands by myself and coming home to a nice quiet house - until the boys got home.

One of the errands was to pick up my new glasses. Now before I ordered them I made sure I told the gal that I'm very sensitive to certain curves, etc.....and the last time I got new lenses the center point of each lenses was off a few mm. Okay - this may not be much, but when you look through the wrong part of the lens you get a vertigo like feeling. So the gal measured everything to confirm measurements before ordering.

Well - of course something was wrong. I tell her this, but she insists on fitting them and tells me to try them for a week. HA! After wearing them for 5 hours I had the worst headache and was on the verge of puking.....wait a week my arse.....I'm calling today. I should mention that I repeatedly tell her that there's something wrong and I should know.....I've been wearing glasses since I was 10 yo.

Unfortunately - I'm not sure when I'll be able to get in to get everything remeasured. Plus I do need new glasses as the lenses in my current frames are cracking. Flaw with these lenses when used with rimless glasses......didn't know this at the time I ordered them over 2 years ago.

I just hope they take care of this issue without treating me like an idiot (like the gal did on Friday)......otherwise I'm off to find a new optometrist.

Ugggg.....blood tests

This is the one thing I absolutely hate about pregnancy......all the blood work. It's not that I hate needles per say....it's just that I have one good vein per arm and if you screw it up you ain't getting anything.

The point to this little blurb.....I did the 1 hour glucose test on Saturday morning. I made sure I drank plenty of water on the drive there and while waiting for the lab to call my name. First draw of blood was easy....the vein in my left arm cooperated. Drank that nasty orange stuff, tried not to puke and drank more water for the next hour. My hour came and went and the lab called me in.

This is where it gets fun. Tried the one good vein on my right arm....nothing. Tried another....nothing. Do you see where this is going? Anyhoo - about 10 needle pricks later on both arms the lab tech thinks she has enough - the vein she found to cooperate colapsed. I'm not a very religous person - but at this point I was praying to God that it was enough. I was also praying that 1) I passed the 1 hour test, or 2) if I do have to come back and do the 3 hour that she's not there.

So - luckily it got colder on Saturday as the day went on so I put on a long-sleeve shirt to hide all of my "track marks".

Oh - and I don't understand people who don't listen. I told her that if the right arm doesn't work she needed to go back to the good vein on the left arm. As you can see above she didn't listen.....even then when she finally got a vein to cooperate.

Ahhhhhh.....a vacation day!

Today S and I had dentist appts bright and early this morning, and then I have my monthly pg check-up at 3:45......so I took the day off. Not only do I get from 1pm to 6pm to myself I get to actually go get my haircut, pick-up my new glasses, and go wondering around a book store. This may seem like no big deal.....but I honestly can't remember when I just took time for myself.

Bonus is that I've even had time to just play with the boys (S & T) from 9:30am - to now. Yeah I made lunch but K has been taking care of everything else in regards to our abode.

As a belated b-day present to myself I'm stopping at DQ on the way home tonight to pick-up an ice cream cake!!

Birthdays

Birthdays come and birthdays go.......when you're younger you look forward to the following milestones:

10 - you're in double-digits now
14 - get your learner's permit
16 - get your driver's license
18 - buy cigarettes
20 - no longer a teenager
21 - legal to do just about everything
25 - lower car insurance

After those......they're pretty meaningless......that is until you hit 35. Let me re-phrase that - until I hit 35.

Yes - today is my big 35th birthday. 29 didn't bother me and neither did 30.....but for some reason this year my birthday is actually a little depressing.

I've come to the conclusion I like my 30's.......but turning 35 means I'm half done with them and also half way there to 40. 40....sounds bad even typing it out.

Guess I need to focus on the positive. When I'm 40 I can look forward to:
* Having a 10yo, 8yo, 6yo, & 4yo.....which means no more diapers!
* Less time to get out the door to go anywhere
* The only debt I'll have will be my mortgage payment

Dang - that's it?? Hmm.....better start thinking of other things otherwise the next few birthday's are going to be just as depressing.

March Madness! ! !

Okay - from my previous posts you'd never guess I'm a huge KU B-Ball fan. (That's the University of Kansas Jayhawks for the uneducated and/or uninformed out there.) The Big 12 (our conference) post-season tournament starts on Thursday and then next week the selections for the NCAA tournament begin. I love this time of year!

Only down side is that Keith and I are so busy watching games that our house goes to $hit. We're lucky if the kids are fed, clean and clothed.

Anyhoo - if you don't have any one to cheer for in the NCAA tourny......we'll take your support!

3 hours......

. . . . .to go through the boy's closets, decide what we keep and what we donate, and then fold and put away their clean clothes - and this was with my mother's help. I can't imagine how long this would've taken had I been doing it by myself! Never mind that T wanted to help - and he did until he decided that everything that went in the boxes must come back out.

I still have two boxes of T's old clothes to go through, need to reorganize their closets - especially S's, and drag out the boxes of S's old clothes that we've been saving for R & T.

Never mind I then get to make room in the shed to store the 3 boxes of donations.

I know I shouldn't complain as saving the clothes is saving us a ton of $$ - but it would be nice if K would help out.....even if it is to entertain T. Luckily I only really do this twice a year - spring & fall.

Anything else. . . .

. . . is what I'd rather be doing than going through the mound of laundry. Yes, a mound.....it graduated from a pile a week ago. Keith does a wonderful job of taking care of the kids and the house and yes, even the laundry.....but neither one of us seems to have the time to put it away. Plus we really need to start sorting through T's old baby clothes and only keep what's gender neutral, and boxing up all the stuff that's too small.

Luckily my mother is a saint and for the small price of Ham 'n Beans and/or Chili w/cornbread she's coming over to help - and bringing tubs to store clothes in!! I know - I could have Keith help, but he's a guy and well, guys just don't get the clothes things unless they're gay - which he's not.

Actually this works out great. T's down for a nap, K and my dad are over working on a mobile home we're selling, and mom will get here around time for lunch at the same time dad and K are done and T's up from his nap.

Unfortunately I get to first sort all of the clean laundry........guess I better get my butt off here and get to work. :(

Finally found the right Currency

For you non-parents out there "currency" refers to what your child would do anything for to obtain. In my case I'm referring to S and his problems with hitting/tripping. This is one of the little issues with ADHD and expressive language issues they don't tell you about. For S his currency is sleeping on the top bunk of his bunk beds.

Seriously - this works. K thinks it's nuts, but I told him if it works we stick with it. When we started focusing on the hitting/tripping issue he'd do it everyday and most days multiple times. We started with time outs - they helped and the incidents were down to one/two times a day a few days a week.

Then my dad and K got their act together and got a railing and ladder built for the bunk beds in S's room. Not sure how it happened, but S was on top and R was on bottom and they weren't going to sleep.........fine, S on bottom and R back in his room.....that's when I noticed that S saw sleeping on top as a reward/privaledge - not just a right since he was the eldest.

So, every night while we're having dinner I ask S how was his day, what was the report from school and did he hit/trip? It was a slow start, but this last week he went all week w/o getting in trouble for hitting/tripping - even with R here most of the week.

In a few weeks if he keeps it up I'm going to add following directions the first time he's told/asked to his list of things we expect each day. It's a slow progress.....but hey we're making progress! Too bad I can't get his dad to actually do anything about the boy's behavior. Once again I think this summer I'm going to request a slight change in our custody schedule so that the boy is at our house more.....especially now that he's going into K next year.

Oh, don't get me wrong......it's no easy task discovering your child's currency......especially when you have more than one kiddo and each is different. Now I'm off to discover T's........I'll post back in a few years when I figure that one out!

WoW - my latest addiction

That stands for World of Warcraft. Keith got the game cheap and started playing. Playing all the f-ing time. So, one night when it was just T and myself and T went to bed early I hopped on and created myself a character. I just had to see for myself what was the attraction.

In the early stages I loved playing by myself in the game and completing quests, etc and attaining level after level - and eventually training and keeping a pet (FuzzyWuzzy the Bear). However, now that I'm a level 21 (I think the game goes to like level 60+) I'm discovering the quests are harder to do by my lonesome.....and I now need to interact with other people in the game.

Unlike Keith, who has about 40 people in his WoW friends list, I have two: Keith and some guy who we mutually helped complete a quest last night. For some reason I just can't get into the cyber chatting with all of these "strangers". But what's even more strange is that if I met all of these people in person I'd have no problem making poliet conversation, etc.

Guess I either need to suck it up and start playing with a regular group or just suffer dying every 10 minutes doing it all myself. Either way I really need to cut back my play time.......and you'd all agree if you saw the ginormous pile of laundry sitting on my bed this morning. (Seriously K and I are both out of underware and the both boy's dressers are about empty.)

BTW - Did I mention how addicting this game is?? I got T in bed last night by 8:45pm and from 9pm to 1am (yes - 1am) I played this damn game. I had plans to log-off around 10pm and go cuddle with Keith......but that's hard to do when at 9:30pm he's snoring so loud I'm glad T's at the other end of the house.

Ah - back to reality..........in my case laundry and taxes. Sounds like a fun weekend don't it?

You know you need a hair cut when. . . .

. . . . multiple people start calling your 20mo old son a GIRL.

Yup - Keith took in the treats for S's V-day party at school and brought along R & T to join in the festivities. Everyone kept commenting on what a cute GIRL T was.

On the way home after the party Keith stopped at the local beauty shop and got T's hair cut. Gone are his cute curls in back....but you can still tell he has curly hair.

It needed to be done, and Keith did make sure they saved some of T's hair.......but I just wasn't ready for my baby to become an offical toddler/big boy. Yeah, I know.....we've got one on the way, but it doesn't make it easier. He does look exceptionally cute......and if I think about it I'll post before and after pics.

The woes of child support modification

My ex-H was unemployed for over 2 years (read no child support), he then gets a job through a temp agency. However, since it was a temp agency the courts couldn't amend his child support. Finally in the spring of 2006 he's hired on full-time, and by June 2006 we're back in court to get child support modified. Of course it goes up and he's pissed - but I don't care.

He decides to file a motion for a re-hearing in the Fall of 2006 since Stephen is no longer in daycare. Well, we goto court on Jan 9th at 11am. Basically it was a hearing to see if a re-hearing was needed on the original child support modification - in other words was there information available now that wasn't back in June - NO. The judge told ex-H that the re-hearing was denied but that he could ask for a court hearing to modify child support.

Ex-H of course heard none of this - he was just pissed that he was going to have to pay more money. I have no sympathy for the man - especially on the way into court he asks me if his car payment is taken into consideration when calculation child support. The Asshole is living well above his means and thinks he can cut his expenses by paying less child support.

Two days later Keith gets a visit from SRS (child protective services). We both knew it was ex-H that called in.....but we had to wait another 5 days to get all of the details. Apparently we were turned in for child neglect for the following items:
1. Not bathing S regularly - excuse me the boy has excema you can't bathe him every night!
2. For a cat scratch on his face that happened 15 mos ago - freak incident and I took S to his
regular doc as well as a plastic surgeon to make sure it was healing okay
3. S playing outside w/o supervision - umm....the boy needs to learn responsibility and we
live on a dead-end street
4. S in the street - have no idea about this one
5. Mysterious bruises on S's legs - the boy is a clutz, has been since he was a toddler.
6. Living near registered sex offenders - hey dumbass, there will always be registered sex
offenders living near you.

Now, not only did they need to talk to us all together (Keith, myself, S and T), but they talked to Keith and I each individually, and then talked to S at school.

Throughout this how ordeal ex-H kept denying he'd called, yet SRS told us the call came in Jan 9th in the late afternoon......hmmmm - same day as our court date.

After my mom and his mom were discussing this whole mess my ex-mil confessed that ex-H did indeed call SRS.

Didn't really matter as I had ripped ex-H a new one any way.........if you have a problem with my parenting then talk to me about it. Plus I'm not the one that has the parenting issues.

So - as a way to be a big B - I call and let him know anytime S got hurt and will show-up at his house with a bruise or mark. I know it annoys him - but he asked for it.


Update: Just got the report from SRS - everything was unfounded. Too bad I can't take that lovely little piece of paper, shove it in his face and shout "nanny-nanny-boo-boo" loud enough for everyone to hear!

Feeling ashamed of myself

Yesterday afternoon L, my ex's new wife, called to ask if I'd heard from him. I said "no", and then she proceeded to tell me that she's helping one of his co-workers on a personal issue and as she was talking to him he asked how C (ex-H) was doing. She had no clue what was going on, but apprently ex-H went home sick as he was having blurry vision accompanied by a horrible headache. She was just curious if I'd heard anything........she was worried she'd get home and find him passed out on the floor or something.

Here's where I feel ashamed of myself - my first thought was maybe he's dead?!?!? Now please understand I do not wish for my son to lose his father, but it would make out lives easier. (Plus the $125k in insurance money wouldn't hurt either.)

Anyhoo - if you care she took him to the ER and he has an impacted sinus causing the headache. (Once again - dang!)

On a side note I just didn't have the heart to tell L that this is typical ex-H........you have no idea how many times I'd try and call him at work only to be told by his co-workers that he's home sick or went home sick. Yes, his lack of communication is something he still posses.