Hot!

It's calling me.

My goodness it's hot today.  Our air conditioning is acting up again.  It's about 85 in here.  That's probably not really all that hot by normal standards, but when you are spoiled rotten to central air it's hot.  If I EVER get done with work today I am going to get in the pool, but I despair of ever getting done.  I overslept this morning and then my sons were doing a lot of talking this morning and the phone rang several times, then the dog had a reaction to his insulin and between all those interruptions, I'm only a little more than halfway done at 4:00 p.m..  It's going to be a long, long day.  Actually, it already has.

I don't like headaches.

I've had one for several days now, most of the time.  Each day, it is has seriously impacted my ability to work, making it take much, much longer to get my lines done.  I mean like 3 hours longer.  I have really been struggling.  Today I planned my day in my impaired head.  I thought, eventually I'd finish work and then I'd get up, wake my son up for work and go to town to get the Prilosec that I forgot in my headachey shopping yesterday.  Prilosec is a daily necessity for me and I'm completely out.   The only flaw in this plan is that when I woke said son up for work, he got ready for work and took the car that we share.  My husband is gone in his car too, so I'm without transportation.  Whenever he gets home, I'm going to have to go to town.  It frustrates me, because if I had been thinking clearly, I could have went earlier today.  Honestly, I'm barely functional.  If this thing doesn't go away by tomorrow I might have to go to the doctor.

Sunday Stuff.

Today I am better.  I have gotten over (maybe) turning my advanced age, the roof is not leaking today because it's not raining and I'm getting better at giving Max his shots.  I guess.  I'm getting it done anyway.   Max doesn't mind if you poke him with a needle so that's a good thing.  I have not done any random acts of kindness.  I was out at the store today and just didn't think about it, but I am putting it on the agenda for this week.  I'll celebrate my birthday by giving to others and I'll report back.  Yesterday something kind of funny happened.  My youngest son finally got me with an April fools trick that he set up on April fools day, but I just got caught with it yesterday.  He took a pen and somehow modified it so that it had 2 blunt ends and no writing tip.  Then he put a cap on it.  Yesterday I was watching something on my computer and wanted to write something down and I picked up the pen and was confused for a second.  Then I had to laugh.  I said "I think someone got me." and he said "finally."  :-)

Birthday.

It's my birthday and I'm not feeling very celebratory.  I got up this morning thinking about having to give Max a shot, which I did.  :-(   I also discovered that the roof had leaked overnight while I was asleep, which is a complete downer.  :-(   Adding to those 2 things, the fact that I have to work today and I'm just not the happiest of campers.  I'm thinking about trying to turn it around by going out this afternoon and doing some random acts of kindness.  Maybe doing unto others will cheer me up a bit?  Couldn't hurt.

Sometimes I think that I think too much.

I think about things a lot more than I do them.  That's for sure.  Anyone else?  I mean if I'd just get up and clean the house rather than researching more efficient ways to clean the house, it would be cleaner.  You know?  Somehow, though, I don't know if "Do more, think less." is really a good motto for life.  Meanwhile, while I'm not doing much other than thinking about working, I've been looking at some Charlie Brown cartoons.  :-)

Blah, blah, blah.

That's what I feel like today after listening to the same (very bad) physical therapist dictating all day long.  He pronounces words so badly that I have trouble differentiating things like core and quarter.  It is extremely frustrating.  Also, he has not dictated in about 6 weeks and is catching up, so there are a ton of them.   I am downloading right now and if there is another one of his, I will scream.  So brace yourselves.  I've had about all of this guy I can take.  Yes, for the most part I like my job.  I like the hours and the location, but sometimes it just frustrates me to no end.  Sigh.

I wish I could just be a stay at home mom instead of a work at home mom.

I need a break.

Uh oh.

I started feeling kind of bad about halfway through my workday today.  After a while, I decided to take a little break and sit in my chair, which led to me falling asleep for almost 3 hours.  When I got up, I felt worse with a rattling in my chest and chills.  I'm afraid I've got the cold syndrome that my oldest son has been battling all week.

I don't want it.

:-(

Murphy's Law?

It's not been the best day.  Not terrible, just kind of annoying.  I got up feeling all dizzy and went to the doctor thinking I probably had an inner ear infection.  I had one maybe 6 months ago with the same symptoms and she treated it with an antibiotic and I got better.  This time, she only gave me an anti-dizziness pill.  Since my dizzy episodes only last about 5 minutes or less and this pill is for the symptom, not the underlying cause, I don't know that it's gonna help.  Then I came back home and had to finish work.  I had a particularly irritating, really, really long report ended up being 7 pages, single spaced typed and at the end, he said that he wasn't sure why he'd been consulted because this patient's problems were outside his specialty.  I still get paid for it, but otherwise, what a waste of time.  Then I took the kids to youth group, ran a bunch of errands, came home and spilled an entire gallon of tea when I was trying to get it out of the fridge.   The towels we used to clean it up are in the washing machine right now and I am going to relax quietly for 1 hour before bed.  Sigh.

Work, school and life lessons.

It's Friday and I wonder at how fast the weeks just zoom by.  I am not feeling great today due to a bruised tailbone and an aching neck, but I am working.  I pretty much never take a day off, but I would sure like to today.   It is surprising what physical demands a job like mine places on the body.   It's a strain, sitting and typing all day.  One of these days, I'm going to have to do something else.  Maybe soon. I'd kind of like to get a standing desk, but I'm not sure what I'd do about the foot pedal.  I use a foot pedal to play, rewind and fast forward the recorded dictations that I type.

The youngest kid got up this morning at 6:00 a.m., did all of his school work and then fell back to sleep on the couch.  Now he's got the afternoon off to do as he pleases.  The girl got up at noon, as usual (beauty sleep!) and is doing her school work now.  She's got a guitar lesson this afternoon.   Time management is one of the things they are learning, I suppose.  Her Dad took extra time with her this week on math and she's back up to speed and doing fine.

I learned a lesson on envy yesterday.  There's this woman I've met online whose life I have kind of envied.  They are wealthy.  They have traveled and adopted kids from overseas and were starting a nonprofit to help others. She seemed to me to have it all together.  Then yesterday she went public with something that gave me quite a shock and reminded me that no one's life is perfect and made me very thankful for the life that I have.

Perspective.     

January 26.

I love my day off and I had a lot of things planned for today.  Usually it's our clean the house day but the house is in relatively good order (for our house) , so I was thinking of doing some organizing or perhaps putting down the floor tiles I got black Friday (Yes, in November!).  I've been dreading that and putting it off because I really don't think I'll be very good at it and I tentatively set today as the day.  Unfortunately, I got up feeling quite bruised in well, as Junie B. Jones would say, my behiney and I don't feel good about the thought of sitting on the cold hard floor for hours.  I have no idea why this has happened.  My son said I sit too much and that is true, but I've been sitting and doing medical transcription now for many years and I've never actually had this issue before. It's odd.  So, today I have done things that don't require that amount of sitting.  I've taken out the garbage, cleaned up the kitchen, baked chocolate chip gluten free cookies and made my son a gluten free dairy free pizza while my daughter made herself and youngest son a gluten-y, cheese-y one.  My oldest son, bless his heart, said that the pizza was really good, although it just looks sad without cheese. Now I am uncomfortably sitting and blogging and ruminating about what else to try and accomplish today.  I may work on my version of this tablecloth which is halfway done and would involve lying on the floor and not sitting.  :-P

Stressed.

There's just no other way to say it.  I'm stressed.  Working more hours, schooling, raising teenagers dealing with my mom's needs, dealing with my own health problems, trying to keep this house from being condemned ... it all there.  I was just read an article that said that this generation of women are stressing themselves out to the point that we will be the first generation of Americans not to outlive our parents.  I've got to figure out how to somehow get taking care of myself into the equation.  :-(

I knew going into this week with several doctor's appointments, my job with no paid time off, the post Christmas winter blahs and starting back to school (even though the kids are pretty independent with school) was going to hit me kind of hard.   :-P

Feeling kind of down.

I'm feeling kind of down today.  I don't want to do anything.   I have done the minimum today.  I cleaned up the house a bit and cooked, but I've just been watching some episodes of House MD and feeling kind of blah.  I think I need to get out of the house, quit eating junk food and get some exercise so I'll try those tomorrow.

Crazy busy.

I haven't posted anything on my blog for a few days. We've been frantically busy.  We were in a parade Thursday night.  Then yesterday we had guitar lessons and had to get groceries, and had to pick up contact lenses and had to get gifts for a party that the older 2 teens were attending tonight.  Then, this morning, the craft fair that my daughter always makes things for and tonight, the party.  I don't cope well when I'm this busy for too long.  I can do it for a few days and then I start getting seriously crabby.  I'm kind of getting there now.  I'm thinking maybe Tuesday or Wednesday I can get a break, but probably not.  Maybe next Thursday?    I need to take whatever down time I can get whenever I can get it. 

Warning: Post contains whining.

This illustrates what I feel like these days.

I've got a urinary tract infection.  Again or still, I'm not sure which.  I have had symptoms and been feverish since the first week of October.   I have been to the doctor 4 times.  Every time I go, the urinary tract infection does not show up on the initial dip or microscopic examination.  The doctor or nurse practitioner will come into the room where I am sitting and say something like "now what makes you think you have a urinary tract infection?" and they give me this look which seems to say "Aw, poor thing, just wants attention."  but they say they will do a culture and see if anything grows in the urine, which is a more definitive test.  Then, inevitably, 2 days later they will call me with the surprising news that yes, I do in fact have a urinary tract infection (told ya!!!) and tell me that they have called in a prescription for me.  This has happened four times.  Four times exactly the same way.  The only difference is that this time, the NP  has given me 2 antibiotics, not just 1 and wants me to come back in exactly 10 days when I have finished them.   I think that means I'm supposed to go in on Thanksgiving, but I guess the day after will have to do.   :-/.  I am so, so tired of this thing.

Weirdness.

I'm having the weirdest experience right now.  I have a bad taste in my mouth, have had it for days and days.  I don't know if it is related to the iron pills I'm taking for my anemia or the antibiotics I'm taking for my urinary tract infection, or the cold that's running through the family (being me is so fun lately!), but something is making almost everything I eat taste like Play-doh.  Not everything, oddly.  The meatloaf I made yesterday tasted fine as did the broccoli and cheese.  :-/   It's weird.  I'm not sure if I know what playdough tastes like from my own childhood or from having my kids shove it in my mouth when they were little, but it is not a good flavor. 

I have been craving those Brach's Peppermint Christmas Nougats for months now.  I couldn't wait for Halloween to be over so I could get some.  Last night I was in Kroger picking up some medicine and saw them!  Finally.  Unfortunately, they have joined the ranks of  foods that taste like

Play-doh

Oh how I hope it goes away soon!  I guess actually it would be good for me if it didn't go away.  I'd just switch to eating healthy foods that taste bad like spinach and liver.  :-(

Ugh.

Cold and flu season has descended here.  My youngest son has a terrible cold and is completely miserable.  I have got it too, but I don't seem to have it as bad as he does.  My oldest son felt like he was getting it yesterday, but today he feels okay.  We all used Cold-Eeze yesterday which sometimes will head off a cold for me, and it seems to have worked a little bit on me, a little bit more on my oldest son and not at all on my youngest son.  Youngest son is getting a sick day off school today.  I, of course, am working anyway, though I don't really feel like it.  I keep sneezing.  I've been on the phone and email canceling outings, field trips, lunches and doctor's appointments to clear the schedule so that we can hopefully recover from this without spreading it too far.  It's not that terrible, but it's not something you want to share.

One of THOSE days.

I should have went back to bed as soon as I dropped my vitamin pill wrapper thingy in the toilet this morning.  That should have been my first clue.  I guess that could've been worse, because it could've been something I wanted to keep, rather than something I was trying to throw away and the toilet didn't have any contents, so to speak, so that's a good thing too.  But still, in the toilet.  :-(  My morning, since then has been a series of things like that, culminating in the Suburban having an engine light on, which has made us miss our planned field trip this afternoon and now we can't get in touch with anyone to let them know we're not coming.  :-(.

Oh well.  It's a beautiful day.  I guess we'll try and enjoy it at home.  

Still not.

I am still not feeling well, despite taking it easy this week.  I hope I get back on my feet very soon.  :-(

Whoops, I forgot Friday/Friday.

I forgot to post yesterday about my Friday last week and my Friday this week.  Last week, we got up in Athens, Alabama in a really beautiful hotel, drove home and then while the boys were rebooting the house (turning on the air, the water heater and the computers), doing the trip laundry and unpacking, the girl and I went to pick up the dogs and get groceries.  It worked out really well.  We found a terrific dog sitter this time and the dogs got spoiled rotten all week.  ;-)

This Friday, not as fun.  I woke up not feeling good.  I was having palpitations and feeling short of breath.  I went to the doctor and found out that I'm anemic again and that's probably the reason for the palpitations, but it also could be stress :-(.  I get to have an echocardiogram and a Holter monitor next week.  That should be fun.    So, anyway, of the 2, I've got to say I enjoyed last Friday more. 

Thursday/Thursday

Last Thursday, we left the beach and drove up to northern Alabama to the NASA Space and Rocket Center.  The temperature was in the 90s when we left Florida and in the 60s when we got to Alabama.  We had a pretty good time there.  The rockets are just so huge!  Some of the things that were most interesting to me were about how the astronauts ate, slept and used the bathroom.  I really think I enjoy my comforts too much to ever be that kind of pioneer. 

This Thursday, I was off from work so I did some minor housework  (not as much as I needed to do in other words), cooked a yummy chicken, broccoli, rice and cheese recipe from the Zatarain's web site and went and got my hair cut.  The kids did school and not much else.   I had to go to my mom's house 4 times, first to take care of her little dog and then to help mom with her medications.  She's got a very confusing regimen of about 2 billion eye drops a day since she had her cataract surgery.  :-(