Adonis and Too Much Information

Hi everyone! I hope you all are doing well. My absence means that nothing weird or funny to write about is going on over here, and that is A OK in my book. We are winding down the school year, happy the pool is open, and are tired of Big Dog hunting birds in our backyard. I have just a couple things worthy of mention:

This is Adonis

Greek God of love, youth, and lots of sex partners. Kind of a big deal in Greek Myth.

So....when I got my Iphone a couple weeks ago, the guy that helped me was named Adonis. But he didn't look quite like a Greek God, he looked more like

He was tiny! No kidding, my 10 year old was his size. Nice enough guy and very helpful, just ironic that a man so little was named after some one so grand. Would like to meet his folks, I bet they are funny.

Secondly, you know how I like to read. So I finished Hunger Games and it was good. Trying to get into Catching Fire but it is so depressing that I am having a tough time, but I will get thru it.

HOWEVER, I made the mistake of checking out a book called Skinny Bitch. I have heard it mentioned before, it was written in 2005, and is about a vegetarian life style. Uhhhh...do NOT read this book if you ever want to eat meat/poultry again. I won't go into details because I don't want anyone else scarred like I was and I am afraid to read the section about dairy!! The only thing keeping me reading this book is that the two women that wrote it are funny (though they use a LOT of foul language. And you know me, I like to swear like a sailor, so if I think they swear a lot, you know they do). I will keep you posted. Needless to say, I took hot dogs off our Memorial Day menu.

Speaking of, I hope everyone has a great holiday weekend and takes a moment or more to think of those that have lost their lives for our Country and/or just have lost their lives. This is a good weekend to think about friends and family we have lost over the years.

Hope to see you at the pool! If you want my cell number to call or text to see where we are at the pool, just shoot me an email or ask me on Facebook.

Thanks!
Cat

Happy Mother's Day!!

Hi gang! I hope you all are having a great Mother's Day, whether you are the Mom or are celebrating it with your mom.


Being a Mom is tough. It is the most difficult thing I have ever done. It makes no matter if you have a child with challenges, all kids have some kind of challenge. I am mostly happy (sounds like one of those survey's you take online "are you less likely, kind of likely, or most likely..) with my relationship with my kids. I remember being maybe 13 or 14 and my Mom telling me "I am your Mother, NOT your friend." I remember the two things I thought at that very second: Uhh...I don't know that I considered you my "friend" and "what a crappy thing to say". Mom made it clear she was there to get me thru life's obstacles but that's where it ended. We spent a lot of time with our parent's but it seems like it was mostly stuff they  wanted to do. As a Mom looking back, there is nothing wrong with that and we MANY great family vacations and times together.


I took the same tact, initially, when I became a Mom. I am here to guide you, feed you, do your laundry and an occasional diorama, but that's where it ends. But as my kids grew, I realized it is okay to be their friend. It doesn't mean they are going to get away with anything, to me it means that I am there to celebrate good times, be sad with them in bad, and to go for the laugh as much as I can. I can put the hammer down as fast as anyone but I prefer to laugh and share the things that make us who we are.


I made it thru my 5k this morning, running all the way. I had been up since 3:30am because I was pondering the upcoming purchase I was about to make. I was perfectly happy with my cell phone until Hubby, more than deservengly, got his Blackberry. I became obsessed with the whole 3 or 4G thing. I am gone so much that the thought of being able to access anything, anytime, anywhere, literally kept me up at night. The race I did was to benefit a 3rd grader in Youngest's school who needs a kidney transplant. Can you imagine? I couldn't, hence why I signed up. Standing there this morning, waiting for the race to start and hear the little boy simply say "Thank You" to the over 500 people there for him, brought me to tears. I ran the whole thing and honestly don't know if it was my best time or not. I didn't care. I was doing this for the little boy and as long as I ran it all, I was satisfied.


During my run, I thought a lot about the phone thing and how ultimately stupid it is when I am running for a child that needs a kidney. How greedy can I be? I should be happy with what I have. So I set in, content to enjoy the view of the river, until I caught a wiff of it and almost threw up. But I did my best and I was happy with that. I was even more happy that Hubby and the boys were there to cheer me on. Nothing keeps my legs moving that my boys cheering me on.


Then I went and got an Iphone 4.


Screech...what??


For a long time, I never felt deserving of anything. I had divorce guilt, challenged child guilt and felt that I didn't deserve anything above and beyond poverty level things. Some time after my birthday last December, this changed. I do deserve to get what I want as long as all the needs and bills are met. I started slow with the waffle maker, then the griddle, then the laptop and now my new Iphone. The best part for me is: everyone in my household is for it. They are thrilled I have what I want and that I can relish in a little self indulgence. The kids see it is vital to keep yourself happy while making every one else happy.


This Mom-hood thing ain't so bad after all.
Have a great Sunday!!


Momma Cat

Being Silly

I have mentioned many times just how lucky I am to have the job I have and to work with the people I work with. But there are days when I just don't want to go in. I have a lot of other things I need to get done and those couple extra hours could really help. Today was one of those days.

I trudged into work not wanting to talk or do anything. But my 400lb cohort would have none of that. He doesn't know what to do when I am quiet as I am usually rambling about something. So we created a game called "Sing it like Cher". I hope you all saw the Will and Grace episode ion's ago with Jack singing like Cher and then her appearance at the end. One of the best in sitcom history.

Song after song would come on the radio and we had to try to sing it like Cher. Some were easy: "Rebel Yell" by Billy Idol was a cinch: In the midnight hour-o. Heart's "What about Love" was also another easy one: "Don't you want some one to share it with you-o". But we had a really hard time with The Rolling Stone's "Honky Tonk Woman". You can't Cher-ize that song no matter how hard you try.

A little silliness can go a long way in lifting someone's spirits. I appreciate that the people I work with care enough to notice a bad mood and attempt to lighten me up. I hope I do the same for them.

Have a good night-oooooo,
Cat

Ramblings of a tired Cat

It has been a painfully long week. I am not going to get into details because frankly, I don't want to relive any of it. As bad as it was for me, I am constantly reminded that everyone has some struggles. Whether it is the loss of a parent, struggling to help an Autistic child, or the adorable toddler with Down Syndrome. We all have "stuff".

With that in mind, I move on.

 Husband and I are going out tonight to celebrate our 13 year anniversary. He will be out of town tomorrow, our actual anniversary, so we will go out tonight, have some margarita's and laugh about all the crap we have been thru in the last 13 years.

I had a dentist appointment this week and I have to say that being a Dentist is the biggest scam on the planet. We all know the Hygienist does all the dirty work. The Dentist (I believe I have mentioned what a tool my Dentist is) just comes in, crams his fist in my mouth and says "Looks good". That is crap and we all know it. When the Hygienist told me " I will let the Doctor know you are ready", I laughed out loud and said "You know he's not a real Doctor, right?" I do believe she snickered. My work there was done.

I have a crazy busy week coming up and am hoping to have a relaxing weekend with the kids. We will dine on Hot Head Burrito's tomorrow for dinner as 1) It is Cinco De May, 2) It is my Anniversary, and 3) It's buy one get one free!! Then maybe we will hit the Zoo on Sunday. It will be hard to manage without Hubby here, but we will get it all done.

Have a great weekend, everyone!!

Cat

Cat's Day Off

I used my last day off today. As with most things I do, it did not go exactly as planned.

Husband woke up this morning mentioning he didn't feel well. But he got ready and went to work anyway. He is the kind of guy that is either feeling fine or feels like he is knocking on death's door, there is no in between. So imagine my panic when he comes home two hours after he left for work saying he felt worse and is going to Urgent Care. I want to take him but I have promised Youngest that I will be at his 10am play at school. Husband assures me he is ok to go alone but I tell him I will stop by Urgent Care on my way back from the play.

Youngest played a "Rapping Bee" in an odd production of Rapunzel his class put on. I don't remember there being any bees in Rapunzel but this was their take on it and they made it all rhyme, like a rap. He, along with a few other boys, wore hats backwards and when the narrator would say "sing it bee's" the "bee's" would go "Buzz Buzz Buzz Buzz". It was really quite cute and the kids all did a great job. It always makes me proud of Youngest when he can perform in a group setting like that. Two years ago, that wouldn't be possible.

From there I book it over to Urgent Care and Husband is coming out when I get there. He thinks he ate something bad (note, I did NOT cook the night before. I blame what they brought in for dinner) but they gave him some meds to help with the stomach pain. Phew. He promptly went home and fell asleep and thankfully seems to be feeling better. He's actually a little loopy from the meds, which is reaalllyyy entertaining to me.

Off to have lunch with Middle child at his school. This is a big honor for me as usually he doesn't want me anywhere near him. Sat with him and his bevvy of beauties and had some interesting conversations with the young ladies.

"My parents are divorced and it sucks" one young lady told me. "Indeed it does" I replied.

"I have four brother's and sister's and I don't know if my parents are even married", another one chimed in.  "hmmmm" was all I could muster.

Me to one of Middle child's guy friends "Can I borrow your Hunger Games books when Middle is done reading it?" "Sure, Mrs. Cat" he replied. Slightly embarrassing to ask your son's friend for the book but I don't want to wait a million years to get it from the library. We finished our lunch together and Middle darted off to the playground. My work there was done.

Went home to check on husband, he was asleep, went to get my haircut (lopped about 4 inches off, love it!) then to Giant Eagle. Would like to give a shout out to Heather, my deli girl. It is conversations like these that keep me coming back to her:

Heather: Hey, you got your hair cut!
Me: Yep, I literally just got it cut.
Heather: It looks really cute.
Me: Thanks.
Heather: But she parted it on the wrong side.
Me: Yeah, I know!! It is driving me crazy.

Who, but my deli girl, would know what side my hair is usually parted on?? She needs a raise.

Daughter and I were listening to our "oldies" station. You know the one that plays stuff from the 80's and 90's (sigh)? And Soft Cell's Tainted Love was on. There is a part that says " I've got this burnin, burnin, yearnin deep inside me", daughter says "Ewww...that is so gross!". I asked her what she was talking about and she said, "Why would he sing about his burning urine??". I nearly ran off the road I was laughing so hard. Ahhh..my academic amazon never ceases to amaze me.

So I am safe and sound back in the house, doing laundry and playing Words With Friends. I am getting killed by all of them and I swear the one is cheating (you know who you are!), but it is fun and it keeps me away from Pinterest and Ziplist.

I hope you all have a great weekend!!

Cat

Weekly news

I am happy to report that our household was relatively calm this week. With the exception of Thursday.

* I had an appointment to meet Youngest's new Behavior Therapist. While waiting, I read an article in Good Housekeeping about this couple that had this dog named Molly (my little dog's name) and how they took her in for a routine checkup( I was doing the same with my pups later that day) and found out she had an inoperable tumor. She had very little time left. They took her to their mountain cabin and she climbed in bed with them and died. I cried. Right there in the new therapists waiting room, praying she wouldn't come out. And of course she did. She was surprised I was crying, asked if I was ok and I responded "Youngest isn't the only one that needs therapy!!". We both laughed and I quickly stopped sniveling. I really like the therapist and hope things work out the way we planned.

*Youngest had a crappy day on the bus and school. He does not handle punishment well, so the afternoon was filled with lots of crying (on his part) and feet stomping (still him) and slamming doors. In the middle of all this, I had to take the dogs to the vet.

* I am a really rotten pet owner. They haven't been to the vet in two years, though we did keep up with the heartworm pills. Took Teddy first because I thought he would be the easier of the two (I can't take them together, have to make appt's an hour apart). So he is a train wreck and they have to hold him down to do trim his nails so the Vet does her check on him while they are holding him down. All goes well except he has bad teeth. Get done with him, go home to get Molly. Molly did great at the vet, but also has bad teeth. So I asked the Vet "Who's teeth should I do first? I am worried about putting Molly under". And she says to me "Well, you never know. Molly could die in six months and you would hate to spend the money on it". WHAT??? I started to cry. The Vet said 'Ohh noo... there is nothing wrong with her but she is older and you never now." Oh lord. I am opting to brush their teeth until they die. And I am out $500.

* Daughter's softball team at school has been losing so bad that they stop the games early because of the Mercy Rule. Which begs the question to me: how bad was she that she couldn't make the team??? I think they should put her in, I think she could help. This advice falls on deaf ears.

* Husband took today off and took me to our new IHOP for lunch. I was not impressed and am still getting crap for ordering a chicken sandwich for lunch. I asked him " We have been married almost 13 years. Have you EVER seen me eat a pancake??" The answer was no. I don't think I would go back but Husband and the kids like it so it is a good thing for them to do without me. I like when they do things without me.

Should be a quiet weekend here. I am thankful for that. I hope you all have a good weekend!

Cat

Letter to my Health Insurance Company

Dear Health Insurance Company,
Thank you for your years of service and for keeping my kids, myself and my husband covered for Well Checks and immunizations. Though your coverage for many medications and other OTC things is lacking (I can use my HSA account if my doc writes a prescription for bandaids, sunblock, etc. Really??), I do appreciate what you do and the crap you put up with.

I have a small request: Please cover the cost of immunizations for my other two "kids", my dogs. Husband's employer puts money into our HSA annually to use for family members, I think the dogs qualify. They lick all the germs off the kids, lower my blood pressure when I pet them, and make most of us happy most of the time.

We have oodles of money sitting in our HSA and thankfully (and I really mean that) nothing to spend it on. But faced with the over $500 it is going to cost us to get our dogs annual shots and 6 months of heartworm meds each, I sure wish we could tap into that unused money. I think Husband's company would want us to, they are very philanthropic.

I appreciate your time. Now,get back to denying those claims.

Your pal,
Cat