Our Weekend

Here we are, "official" members of Ardmore UMC!! That took up alot of our Sunday, obviously. We spent alot of Saturday shopping for clothes for the kids. Our big excursion was to the $2 theater to see Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. Both of us really enjoyed it. Oh, and new kitten pictures up on the photo blog!

No Neglect Intended

I've been slammed this week! Soccer has started for Connor, and we had two nights of practice this week. I made it to the gym on Wednesday, my mother-in-law is here until Sunday, and we are (finally) joining the church on Sunday so that's a big deal. I'm taking a 30 day class at Big Picture Scrapbooking, and I'm behind on my homework for the week, and the anniversary crop at Scrap Addict starts this weekend. Busy busy busy! New pictures are up on the photo blog!

Weekend

Hmmm, it was a very VERY busy week at work last week. It isn't going to slow down anytime soon either.

Charles had his sleep study Thursday night, and then another Friday night to titrate the CPAP. Hopefully they'll get him his soon and we'll see some improvements. The kids went with Charles to have lunch with his mother today, and then they went shopping for church clothes. We are joining the church here next weekend, so we're getting ready for that.

The kittens are growing like little weeds and cute as a button. I posted a picture of Morgan attacking my purse on the photo blog.

First Day of School

Ahhh, the day every parent waits for... BACK TO SCHOOL! They are wearing their school tshirts and waiting for the bus (that was super late).

When it rains...

What a day... first day of school among other things. The bus did not show up by 8 minutes until school starting, so we ended up taking the kids to school. In the afternoon, it was 45 minutes late getting the kids home. In between Charles calls me and tells me he's having bad chest pressure and could I come take him to the emergency room?! He's spending the night in observation, and I'm headed there this morning once the kids are on the bus to be there while he supposedly has a stress test.

New picture of Morgan on the photo blog.

Brigit & Morgan

So from the last post, I hope you gathered we brought home two kittens Saturday. They have been (tentatively) named Morgan (black) and Brigit (gray). They are absolutely adorable. Morgan is just a little puff of fur. They are six weeks old. Morgan is having a bit more separation anxiety than Brigit, but she is starting to rub on us and purr. Brigit is the dominant one.. when I feed them she stands over the food plate and trys to push Morgan away. They pounce and run and chase... although where Dexter would make himself into an ankle bracelet, Morgan is more of a toe ring.

My Saturday

I'm Proud of Me

I've chronicled on here how I've started working with an endocronologist to get my blood sugars under control.  We started in mid-June.  At my mid-July appointment, my readings were better, but I hadn't lost a pound.  Today I went back again... and I had lost 13 lbs!!!  Yay ME!

Confessions and a sigh of relief

I am soooo relieved... my camera has been MIA since August 5th, and I just couldn't figure out how I had lost it when I so distinctly remember packing it when we came home from Charlotte. What was worse, is I hadn't dumped my memory card all summer so my ENTIRE summer of pictures was in the camera still.

Relief... it was in a clothes basket in the dining room. Don't ask why or how it was there, just be relieved with me!

Friday

PMS anyone?  Shew, you know you are moody when you are on your own last nerve!!!  Still, it's definitely TGIF here... it has been a very long week, including an 11 hour day on Tuesday, a bad migraine on Wednesday, and stupid people everywhere today.

What's new since I posted on Monday?  Charles had an initial appointment with a sleep clinic -- they are going to do a sleep study in about two weeks to see if he has sleep apnea.    It's worth checking I think.   The kids got to go to "backup childcare" on Wednesday, which they LOVE.   Then they got to go to Chick Fil A for dinner to meet some family friends, so it was a good day for them.  They leave tomorrow with Dad for a week at grandma's... their last fling before school starts on the 27th.

Monday Ramblings

I made good use of my time before leaving work this morning to go visit and comment on most of the blogs in my list.  I've felt guilty lately that folks visit me and comment, and I don't return the favor.  I try at least once a week to run down my list of blogs in my favorites and visit them all; I've been slacking lately but no more -- I've caught up!  I always am flattered someone stopped by, so I try to show people I care too.  Several of you aren't posting anything new though... get cracking! (Ha, ha)

We had a pretty lazy weekend (or at least I did).  I caught up on a week's worth of Big Brother episodes on DVR, did three altered composition books for Charles, filled everyone's pill minders for the week, played some ToonTown and Asheron's Call... did a small run to the grocery store, and generally was lazy.  The kids spent alot of time playing Spyro on the playstation.

I have to give kudos to the doctor that oversees Charles' meds for his bipolar... he changed them again this month because he's still having mood swings.  I am so thrilled that the doc is unwilling to settle for just being "better" and is shooting for "well".  It's a drug Charles has been on before, and he's had some side effects from it before, but the doctor says they'll watch closely and deal with that if it comes up.

School starts back two weeks from today -- YIPPEE!!  I think having a routine back and less time to be bored will help both kids.  Plus scouts & soccer will start back as well, so we'll have busy evenings again.  I expect Connor will have more homework this year so we'll have two at the dining room table doing homework after school.   Charles and the boys are headed Sunday to Charlotte for one last visit with Dot Dot, so they'll miss the open house at school.  I'm a little worried about Connor starting school on Monday with no idea who his teacher is or where his classroom/desk is, but I also know he will pout if he can't go to Dot Dot's so I'll go scope it out for him.

Friday

What a LONG week it has been, don't you think?  I believe it's hit triple digits every day this week, I so love August in the Carolinas.  (Not!)   My saving grace is that I go to work before it gets too hot, and my commute home is short.  I am not a summer person!!

I feel so bad lately, I've had so much fun reading other people's blogs, but haven't posted much on my own... I feel guilty for not reciprocating.  So hopefully I'll be able to leave something interesting for you to read besides my pet woes.

Speaking of that... no sign of Dexter.  I went to the animal shelter, and he's not there.  They put all strays up on their website, so I am watching daily.  We now have him up on a couple of lost pet sites with a picture, so I feel I've done the best I can.  Charles and I both are very pessimistic about getting him back.  We just wish we knew what happened.

What's been up with me?  We celebrated Duncan's 11th birthday last week.  He got a new playstation game (Spyro:  The Beginning), a transformer, another year of Zoo Books, an art set, a trip to see the play "The Lion King", some Yu-Gi-Oh cards, and a pocket knife.  I had been asked before why he didn't have a pocket knife, and I always answered honestly "because he hasn't asked for one."  Well, he finally asked.  We haven't opened it yet, but I'll start working with him on proper use and care of a knife so he can get his whittling chip card and carry it to scout events.  He also got cash, and had a fun trip to Toys R Us this past weekend to spend it on toy dragons.  Connor is quite jealous.

Last weekend I got to go to the Creating Keepsakes Scrapbook Convention in Charlotte, NC.  Two glorious days of scrapbook classes and a vendor faire.   I took seven classes this year, the most I've taken since I started going.  Two were by Quick Quotes, "A Thing or Two about Boys" and "My Big Fat Chunky Book".  I got four 12x12 pages out of the first one, and a table-top book thingy from the second.  I need to finish the chunky book.  Michelle who teaches the QQ classes was a delight, as always.  I took "In Love with Basic Gray", which was a card class.  I somehow didn't realize they would be all "love" themed, but they were cute cards, and had a lot of dimension using chipboard.  Not my favorite class, but ok.  Deluxe Designs sponsored a "Treasured Secrets" composition book class.  Did you know Deluxe Designs is closing???  Cute kit, and I actually finished my book in class (barely).   Charles commented that he wouldn't mind if I covered a few for him.  Wow... now that's a complement coming from a guy.   They always give you extras in their kit, so I feel like I got a good value on that one.    "He's an Extreme Boy" used the new junkitz extreme line to make an accordion album.  It must be a hot line of paper, as I now see it in a kit at Scrap Addict, and I've seen layouts in my latest copy of Simple Scrapbooks.  I'm not a trendy scrapper, usually I'm not into the "hot" items, but for once I'm on the bleeding edge.  Not my favorite paper line, but a cute project, and almost  finished.  This class recommended a lot of inking and distressing, which I'm not really into.  I've now started using more ink, but I am still not into sanding my papers etc to look old.

I took a class called "Boys Go Zoom" by a new company, Cara Miller Designs (www.caramiller.com).  She does board book kits, period.  Cute cute cute.  It used a paper line I had never seen before, Dream Street Papers.  She was really personable, and gave some good instruction.  She has a kit club (like everyone else these days), and I am pondering trying it out.  These would make cute gifts.  Last class was the stinker, "Greetings and Salutations" sponsored by Xyron.  WHAT A RIPOFF!!!   The rep walked in three minutes late and casually informed us that the instructor they had hired didn't show up.  The class was using their personal cutting system (PCS) machine, so we had to drag all of those out, and wait for them to set up the power cords for it.  Alot of the machines didn't work right, or didn't have the right cartridges.  Our kit (this was a 2 hr, $27 class) consisted of 10 pieces of cardstock to fold over to make card bases, ten squares of cardstock to put in the machine to do your cutting, and five short pieces of ribbon.  The class advertised making 10 cards.  They told us they weren't going to "teach" us 10 cards but rather let us "play" with the machines.  I also went back and read the description, and someone was supposed to win a PCS during the class.  Ha!  I walked out after an hour.  Someone who stayed later told us they took the machine out of her hands at the 90 minute mark because they had to be "cleaned up on time".  I think everyone wrote a blistering evaluation to CK about that class.  I have to give props to SEI though.  It was their paper used in the class, and I got a nice email last night apologizing for my experience and asking for my address so they could send me a free tote.  Lesson learned, NO xyron classes for me ever again.

The vendor faire was as always, overload of the senses.  I was excited to see Technique Tuesday there -- it's always fun to be able to TOUCH stuff before you buy.  I bought two sets of acrylic stamps from DJ Inkers -- they had a CUTE alpha that I got as a show special.  Quick Quotes always gives you a free quote per class, so I got those two (plus some others).  I found some ribbons, and some toppers, and some die cuts from the deluxe designs booth.  They had their color blocking templates (pages & cards) on major clearance, so I got several card templates.  My biggest impulse buy was a Croppin Companion binder -- basically something to organize your stuff for crops.  I found it at half price at a both, and out came my wallet!!  I was nowhere near as big a spender as some of the folks I met.  

Can you believe it's almost time for school to start?  My kids start two weeks from Monday.   Duncan will be in 5th grade, Connor in 1st.   That means it's time for soccer & scouts to start as well.  Busy busy busy....

Still Missing...

and very much missed. Thank you for all the kind words of encouragement. This has been a rough week.

We're Sad.

Dexter hasn't come home since Monday morning. Charles is very upset. He normally comes in several times a day. He's not at the local animal shelter, he's not road kill nearby, so we're not sure what's going on. Very sad.

Blog Nonsense - Blame Melissa

Genealogy, Camp, Summer

(I can't remember if I've posted on this before or not, and I'm too lazy this morning to go look it up, so just pretend with me that this is new ground!)

Have I mentioned the genealogy bug has bitten me again?  I haven't messed around with the family tree in a long time, but somehow I got the bug again right before fourth of July, and logged on for a free trial at Ancestry.Com.  I must say, the internet will take genealogy light years forward.  After plugging in what I knew from memory I started looking, and was positively AMAZED at what is out there.  My big success so far is going back a generation on Dad's grandmother.  Until this month all I had on her was her name, really.  I've hooked up with the descendants of one of her brothers (that I didn't know she had) and now have considerable information on her parents.  We're still trying to figure out exactly when they immigrated (I have a different ship/arrival than the other part of the family), but it really makes me feel like I'm starting to know her better.  I've been writing to my grandfather to sort out facts for him and his siblings, which has helped alot too.  My next challenge on that side of the family is to figure out when Charles Somazze immigrated... I found a likely candidate, but much research to go until I'm sure that was him.    On Mom's father's side I've gotten proper dates for her grandparents, the next step is to find their parents.  One big challenge is that the 1940 census records don't release until 2012.  Basically if someone is still alive, it's much harder to research them.  Don't get me started on some of the inaccuracies in records either.  

The hardest thing so far with doing this is that nobody else is around to be excited with me when I find these facts.  I need to find a family history buddy to get excited with me and who likes to talk about immigration records and census records.  Ha!

Duncan attended day camp for scouts last week, and had a great time.  I knew he would.  They worked on weather, geography, archery, BB shooting, art and some other stuff.  It was pirate themed, which he LOVED.  All of us went to the family picnic on Friday night with him.  Connor gets his next summer activity next week when he goes to soccer camp the week of July 23rd.   It's being offered by local high school coaches, and I am really hoping it will help him improve.

Can you believe the summer is already half over??

Just... Thoughts

Hurray for chemistry -- my two overactive little boys are finally calming down this morning. Duncan has been depressed since he got home from Charlotte over having to leave his grandmother. We really are at our wits end with his whining and complaining about this. He called her 12 times the first day he was home. He called her at 8am yesterday morning. He had been told not to call her before 6pm so he was punished by not being allowed to call anymore yesterday. Dot asked us WHY we taught him her phone number. Ha, we didn't, he found it in the phone memory. He starts day camp for scouts tomorrow so hopefully that will give him something new to obsess about.

I've started on a new multi-vitamin. I'm not sure how it's going or not... I've been really nauseous and sick the last couple of days and I wonder if it's from the vitamin. It's more vegetable based, and I am not a veggie girl. The nausea could be coming from the byetta as well, although I find it odd that it took three weeks to kick in. Why is it that you feel the worst when you are actively trying to improve your eating habits? I did a BAD thing last night, we got chinese, and my blood sugar this morning clearly reflected my misdeed. But after the TUMS and pepto bismol last night my stomach finally settled down (it was upset before the chinese).

I discovered (much to my chagrin) last night that Charles hasn't had his anti-depressant in over a week; somehow he didn't realize that those pills had changed colors (different dose) and was skipping them because he thought it was a nutritional supplement. I am really hoping getting this fixed will improve his mood. I need to load pill minders for everyone this morning, not one of my favorite chores. Somehow one of Duncan's minders has gotten misplaced, so I have to hunt that too.

The silly gray furball (aka Dexter) got another mouse this week, and left it thoughtfully at the foot of my bed as an offering. Fortunately Charles found it before I did! He was sleeping at Charles' feet last night in the recliner when Charles wanted more duck sauce, so I was throwing the packets across the room so neither one of us would have to wake up (or disturb the cat). We both laughed when the cat jumped up and tried to catch one of the packets.

Any reality TV fans reading this post? I'm am anxiously awaiting the next episode of Big Brother 8 tonite... I'm really curious to see how the "america's houseguest" twist will go. Tonite also brings another episode of Army Wives, so at least there is some new TV tonite.

One last thought, for my fellow bloggers... go back and read some of your oldest archives. I read the first six months of this blog, and found it very interesting reading.

My Space

So what's all the fuss about?? I have a MySpace page, I rarely visit, and I just don't understand the fuss. Any of you have one? Wanna be buds? LOL!

Independence Day

I'm still depressed, but at least I am doing more than moping. This feels so weird... I've taken meds for depression for a long time, and these blue moods are rare anymore. I was so down I didn't go to my sister-in-law's house for the fourth... just didn't feel like driving. The kids & Charles are spending the night at her house (my MIL isn't feeling well so they are giving her a break).

The rest of my crew will stay at my MIL's house until this weekend. Then they all come home for a bit -- Duncan has day camp for scouts next week so that should keep him busy.

Word of the Day

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source

de·pressed      /dɪˈprɛst/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[di-prest] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation

–adjective

1.	sad and gloomy; dejected; downcast.

2.	pressed down, or situated lower than the general surface.

3.	lowered in force, amount, etc.

4.	undergoing economic hardship, esp. poverty and unemployment.

5.	being or measured below the standard or norm.

6.	Botany, Zoology. flattened down; greater in width than in height.

7.	Psychiatry. suffering from depression.

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[Origin: 1375–1425; late ME; see depress, -ed²]

—Synonyms 1. saddened, morose, despondent, miserable; blue; morbid.
—Antonyms 1. happy.

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.