An Entry Not About the Weather!

Damn iTunes won't let me out of their website! And for the life of me I cannot remember my password, nor the answer to their 'security question.'

We're going to see the movie with Tom Cruise in it. I keep forgetting the name. It's the one that starts with a 'V'. I am a huge history buff, particularly of WW2. (My grandfather was stationed in Germany. He wasn't on the front lines, but instead was housed by a German family who could have gotten killed had they discovered my grandfather was living there. Anyway, he fell in love with the family's daughter Marianne. In fact, he stayed in Germany after the war much to the dismay of my great-grandparents. They were going to get married, but I don't know why they didn't. Years later, Marianne moved to the states, and called my grandfather. My grandmother answered the phone and said that upon hearing Marianne's voice, knew it was her. I'm thinkin' the thick German accent might have tipped her off! Never the jealous wife, she told my grandfather, and then I don't remember what happened. I have seen a picture of her when my grandfather put together all of his pictures from the war. I asked him to do that, and that that is the only thing I want when he passes. It's more special to me than any material possession.) Wow! I didn't know I go there! Hey, at least it's not about the weather.....

***I'll post some things from our Christmas later.

Broken Record

I know I am beginning to sound like a broken record, or someone who is desperately trying to find conversation starter, but yes I'm going to talk about the weather again.......I know reading about the shitty weather in Illinois isn't exciting but I figured I'd write about it anyway.
The last time I wrote, we were in the midst of a snowstorm. Christmas Day was in the single digits. Just yesterday, the streets were all a sheet of ice. So much so, that we didn't even get our newspaper delivered or our garbage picked up.
Today my friends, the high was 64 and rain, with towns that are having flooding issues, which leaves me to ask the following question: WTF is up with our weather?
I promise a more exciting entry next time!

Again

It snowed here again today. So far about 6 inches with blowing. Stupid me deciding to drive to the post office because our bills needed to get to their destination on time. I slid and slid and slid some more. My traction control was on virtually the whole time.
Yesterday was in the single-digits with no snow, so I did the last of my shopping and went to get groceries since I'm hosting Christmas. I am glad that I did! I think this confirms my worst fears, this winter is not going to be any better than last year's. In fact, it may be worse.

The Snow and Ice Storm in Pictures

The ice that stuck to our front windows.

Our backyard blanketed in snow and ice.

Our tree that is full of ice. Did I ever tell you I hate winter!

The Good and the Bad

The good news for which I thank the Lord Almighty, is that we have electricity. We are nice and toasty in our house. Believe me, I am thankful beyond words. I don't know what we would have done otherwise. The bad news is that everything that we had planned has been cancelled. Tot had a Christmas program at preschool. Cancelled for the first time ever. We were set to go to my dad's work for the best holiday luncheon I have ever seen. It's become and annual tradition of ours. Now we can't go.
Well, I best be going as both boys are in their rooms and it's only 9:30AM here. Already they have been awful. This is going to be a long day.

Calm Before The Storm

Apparently we are going to have some more shitty weather today. On Monday, we had rain that turned into a sheet of ice. Yeah, that was a fun one especially since I had a major amount of things to do. Like take gifts to the damn post office. I won't even go there. I then had to add a trip to Lowe's to buy more salt. Then on Tuesday, we had a major storm that left us with a lovely amount of snow. Since Hubby had to work late, I had to snow blow our steep driveway. Picture me getting pulled by a snow blower down the driveway. Not so fun, though better than the trip up the driveway. The snow blower died twice, and after that it would not start no matter what cuss word I used, "Fucking snow!" "Why the fuck did we ever move back here!", were my two favorite cuss phrases, and I don't use the f-word until I am good and mad. On the news I saw that even Palm Springs and Las Vegas were getting snow. What is going on? I thought we had the whole 'global warming' thing going on!



Today, we are supposed to get the worst of the worst. The one thing Midwesterners at least the ones I know, dare not talk about. An ice storm. Hubby was mad at me for using one bag of salt for just Monday and Tuesday. (On Monday our van kept sliding down the driveway, so I had to use a lot salt). Boy this one is going to freak him the fuck out. I am sure I will be hearing about it too. I told the boys to pray that the ice doesn't come, and that we are all safe in our home with electricity. Ice freaks me out. Most Midwesterners are a tough breed. We really are. But even we fear these storms. Think downed wires, no electricity and wind chills in the single digits. Did I mention my cell phone is no longer working??? I hate snow, I hate ice, basically I hate winter...with a passion. But with part of California snowing, where is there to go???

Make That 4's

Now I got a Jury Summons...Lovely!

They Always Come In Three's

I have been so busy lately it's hard to catch my breath. I'm sure that's normal for most of us this time of the year. However, I've encountered a few bumps along the way as I have tried to make this a good Christmas for my family and friends, even though holidays suck big time to me. I won't say anymore lest I cry.

• I haven't made Christmas cookies in a few years because that's what my mom and I used to do together. This year I thought, 'Hey, what a good idea making cookies would be.' It wasn't. Tot made cookies with me. Yes, I let him make cookies with me. Aren't I a good mom?! We made gingerbread men. It took forever and I had a huge mess to clean up. I hate messes in the kitchen. The boys and I tried the cookies after dinner. I literally spit mine out! I never like to do that in front of the boys, but they were awful! Too much molasses I think. I followed the recipe exactly. The boys loved them, though.

• The next day I thought I would make my Grandmother's German butter cookies recipe. It makes lots of cookies, and I thought it would be nice if I gave some to the neighbors and such. This recipe includes putting the dough through a cookie press. I bought this cookie press at William's Sonoma a few years back, and loved it. This year, not so much. I won't get into the gory details, but let's just say this cookie press ended up in our garbage can in not the same condition it was when it left its' box. Some banging and throwing took place, and that's all I'm going to say about that.

• The next day I decided to make my grandmother's meltaway cookies. I had already bought the ingredients, and the recipe is really easy. Plus, it involves chocolate. Yum!....... It also required the use of our hand mixer. The same mixer I had used the day before with the butter cookie disaster. Guys, as I was mixing the dough I smelled something. Then I saw it. Smoke. My mixer was literally starting to burn. I'm thinkin' someone or something was trying to tell me not to bake this year. Not to try to make this holiday better. It blows and in some ways I think it always will.

File Under Things I Never Thought I'd Be Doing

I had to give Tot an enema tonight. It was not pleasant.

HELP -Urelle

Has anybody ever been on Urelle? My urologist just gave me free samples of it. They insist I don't have a UTI even though the AZO OTC strips came up positive. I feel worse now than I did since they started treating me for a UTI. This sucks. I am miserable. I am quickly losing hope that I will ever feel better.

Thanks to Technology

Tot just called me down to his playroom to show me a bridge he had built for his trains. As he said,"Come on down, Mama. I want to show you my bridge.", I looked at him. As I did, I felt a sense of peace. I thought to myself that if it wasn't for IVF, he wouldn't be here. If it were 20 years ago, he wouldn't be in our lives. I cannot imagine that. Come to think of it S., conceived through Clomid/IUI, probably wouldn't be here either. I would have had no children. Having my two boys makes our family feel complete. I can't imagine life without any of my boys.

Am I Talking To Myself???

Yesterday I picked up S. from the bus stop. Some crew has been digging up cables or something. This resulted in a good deal of mud. See where this is going? I told S. to stay away from it. I also told him not to step in the snow because you never know what's underneath it. He did. And there was mud everywhere! I managed to get him to put his boots on the rug by the door, and only had to wash the rug they were on.
Oh, it's not over there. We went to church that night. What does he do you ask? He put on his boots and walked onto my beige carpet on his way to the garage. That would have been bad enough by itself, but he then decided to walk around in the family room on said beige carpet. There was so much mud! I couldn't even talk, and when I did I said to him,"What were you thinking? Of course, he wasn't. I told him that when we got home he would be cleaning the carpet. This upset him, but I firmly believe in natural consequences. You make the mess, you clean it up and maybe you'll think next time before you walk down the stairs in boots. Or better yet, you should listen to your mother and NOT go into the snow and mud. But I digress.
S. was not happy about cleaning the carpet when we got home, but he did it. He actually did a good job too!
Why is it that my kids never listen to me? That it takes them seeing what the result of their actions will be? This has been a very challenging week! Oh, and I still am not feeling well due to the bladder infection I've been sporting around for almost 7 weeks. I'm really pissed off about it, and believe that the doctor needs to give me something strong to knock this thing out. I'm miserable asshole!

The Good and the Funny

Last week we had our conference with S.'s teacher. I love her! In the beginning, she told us what a delight he was to have in class. I remember always starting a parent-teacher conference with a positive thing about the child, no matter how hard it was to find one. I know the drill, and it was funny being on the other side knowing why his teacher was saying a positive first. I actually was then waiting for the bad. It never came. How proud I am of my little boy!

S. is in what Hubby refers to as 'the United Nations', of classrooms. He really is. When I went to be the 'paint mom' a few weeks back, I saw all of the different types of children. Black, white, Arab, Hispanic; it was cool! I want S. to be in a room like that, because that is the way the world is. He also has children with learning and behavior disabilities in his room. He is meeting all of the milestones, so I'm cool with that too. His teacher told me that there is a lot of distractions with kids going in and out to be serviced one on one. S. is handling it very well. I was concerned about this in the beginning, but things are working out.

In S.'s classroom there is a Barack. Every time he says his name, I just laugh. I'm sure his parents never in a million years thought that someday their child would have his name in common with a president. Anyway, I told S. that his classmate has the same name of our new president. S. looked at me, and very seriously said, "No, it's Obama." Well, at least he knows the presidents name!