Bill is posting on the forums...im blogging....just so he'll get the beep on his phone. Lol

grocery day, and other assorted errands

Ah yes, grocery day.  The day that I use to like, and sometimes look forward to.  However, lately it seems that I LOATHE grocery day.  Maybe it's because the kids are home from school, and I have to buy for an extra few meals a day, or that I have to actually make sure there is snacks for them, or maybe they just are the worst grocery companions ever, and even though my husband would keep them all home for me to go alone, I kinda like the idea (before I leave the house) of not being alone in the grocery store.  However, Shelby will NEVER EVER EVER go with me when I go "big" grocery shopping.  Mostly because I'm not even down the first aisle before she's asking when it's time to go home.  I could probably get, $10 worth of produce in my cart and she'll be saying things like "Salad?  Really?  Just, Really?"  "We just had salad the other day, why do you want me to eat that stuff?"  Or, if we go down the meat aisle, she'll remind me that Zsusanna is sick of what ever meat that I pick up and put into the cart.  (that would be the buggy for all ya'll southern folk)  Then, because the Little Debbie display is right across from the meat section, I hear "Mommy, we haven't had (enter whatever overly sweet box of sugary goodness you want) ____ in FOREVER!"  So, when I say no, and there is a meltdown of epic proportions, everyone in the freezer and meat section will stop and look to see why that child is melting down, and then as she gets more aggressive in her plea for sugar, the dairy aisle will begin to hear, and they then change the way they are walking to come around the back corner to make sure that some poor child is not getting a beat down with a box of Twinkies.

 I just want to say that Twinkie the Kid is a wonderful acrobat.  He has flung himself into my cart unbeknownst to me on SEVERAL occasions.

Anyway....back to the problem at hand.   Grocery shopping.

So, yeah, Shelby doesn't go with me, unless there is an actual emergency that requires said child to accompany me to said public place.  It isn't pretty, and usually I need a couple of anti-psychotic drugs by the time I get home.

The older 3 have their own specific advantages, and disadvantages.  Zsusanna I can send off to get various things around the store, and she'll come back with JUST those items.  Stephanie, I have to worry about if she runs into a slim jim display.  The girl is addicted to dried meat products-and this is the child who wanted to be a vegetarian!  Dude, really?  Actually, it was a slim jim that interrupted her vegetarian run about 6 months ago.  It was the only time she feel off the wagon, until we kicked her off.  She was doing really well on it, but then she started to lose weight, and well, we thought it was the vegetarianism, we didn't realize she had mono.  Poor kid. 

Ok, how did this go from groceries to mono?  Oh yeah....my train of thought.  HOLY CRAP, it's after 11!  I really need to get on that list.  I've been REALLY slack in the past few months about grocery shopping.  Usually I'm really good at getting it organized and such.  But, as said previously-I think it's the summer thing.

Ok, So, back to the kids:

• Zsusanna-good at coming back to the cart with JUST the wanted items. 
• Stephanie-good at getting what she SHOULD have unless there is a dried meat product around.
• Shelby-no way, uh-uh, MAYBE if I have to-but mostly stays with the Daddy.
• Brina....we have not yet talked about Sabrina.

Sabrina is my go-to organizer.  When I come home with a lot of cans (like I will today), she is the one I get to organize the cupboard.  She is awesome at it.  Like, she's been the one in charge of cans since she was like...oh, I don't know-3?  However long I've been with Bill.  Whenever I get home from grocery shopping, she's the one I plop down in the corner, and I tell her, when I hand you cans, please organize them.  (Now, if I can get her to do her room-that would be AWESOME).  In the grocery store, Sabrina is always ready and willing to help.  I can send her to get things, and she'll come back with what I want, but if she isn't sure, she doesn't make stuff up (like a box of slim jims), she'll come back for clarification.  However, as my Special Child, she requires a lot of patience and love, and sometimes we don't get that at the grocery store.  Once in a while, I need a couple of valum when I get home from grocery shopping with her too.  Mostly just out of worry of what other people who are unwilling to share the world with people who are not "the norm" are going to do. 

So, I guess since it's after 11, and we have to meet the missionaries at the Church at 6, and I have not been grocery shopping in...well, I plead the 5th.  I should get off here, get that list completed (at least there are meals on my list), pick a kid and go.  Last time there was a fight over who wanted to go! LOL

ahhhhh, the joys of parenting bored children in the summer.

Family Ties

Does anyone remember that show?  When Alex Keaton was in Kindergarten, he had green mittens that had money signs on the palms.  Skippy had green mittens too, (just with no money signs) that's how they became friends.  Why do I remember that?  Why do I remember any kind of useless crap like that?  My mind sometimes is a non-filter memory machine--but when it comes to me remembering the important things, sometimes I'm a little lax.  Just a little.  But seriously, talking about long term things, I can remember a LOT of stuff.  It's just that short term brain thing I need to work on.

So, family.  How do you define yours?  What is your family?  Today I had to draw on the love I have for my family to stay with my job.  I told my mom about the day I had (because my husband doesn't usually like to hear about the grossness at work), and I felt a teeny bit better.  My husband asked me to tell him about my day, because he knew I had a REALLY bad day.  After telling him, I looked back and I can't believe I let so much ruin my day.

Today was one of those days everything got to me.  EVERYTHING.  I even said to myself:  "If my family didn't need me to keep this job, I would walk out, even though I would lose my license."  I don't like being taken advantage of, I don't really think anyone does, but today it seemed that I was, not belittled, but berated maybe because I am a caring/thourough person in my care as an aide. 

The ADON (that would be assistant director of nursing) called me in to have me ask her what is wrong with a patient.   When I mentioned something she said "Oh, I didn't even see that, what else is wrong here."  Finally I gave in and said "What?!?  What is wrong?"  It did set the tone for the whole day, but really; I'm a DAMN good CNA, and I'm seriously thinking about taking my "compassion" skills somewhere else.  I give good care, I just don't have enough time to give the highest quality of care I can with the current patient load.  I have to do "run throughs" on some people.  I have a resident who actually asked me one time to "run her through the car wash"; meaning she wanted a quick shower.  But, as I sit here I think-how did she come up with that analogy?  Did she think it up?  Did an other aide say that to her?  I don't know, but it's got me thinking.

So, back to family.  My family is the CORE of everything I do.  Whenever I have a thought, I think about how it'll affect my family life.  I don't much go out, because I'll miss out on my family time.  My kids are not going to be home the rest of the life (Despite Zsusanna's adament remarks.)  I have to be here to enjoy them.  I have to be here to encourage them.  I have to be here, to be their mother.  I can go out after they are moved away, or even in college.  (once again, Zsusanna is insistant she is only going to stay in the dorms for freshman year)  Today it just reaffirmed to me that I love my family, and how near and dear they are to me.  So much so, that I would deal with my crappy day and not let it get me to quit.

I came home and warned the children.  "Mommy had a bay day, let me calm down."  Too bad the dog doesn't understand American English!  I was trying to relax in my room, when I stood up to come into the living room, the dog jumped up and knocked the glass of pop in my hand, spilling it on my comforter.  I tried to knock if off/clean it up, before it sunk it, but it was too late.  The splatter reached farther than I had originally thought.

It's alright....
It's ok....

Because this is what makes life all worthwhile:



Thank goodness their room doesn't look like that any more, or I may come home and wanna pull my hair out too!


So, just to give a little shout out to my family here.  I love you guys and you all make my days worth it.  With out you, I would truely be nothing.

So much to say, so much time to say it.

Yet, I NEVER seem to have time to get up here and post anything. I have pictures of the rag rug I made for Bill last year.  I washed it, and took a picture of it since I started making it like, two years ago. 

  
 I also have some pictures of Zsusanna's red cabbage that we had for lunch one day.  She is arguing with me about it being purple, and even though I insist that it's red cabbage, she is insistant about it being purple.  It also stained my pot purple.

 I have pictures of my cutting area in the closet, and pictures of the finished closet.

We were finally able to bring in the games from outside in the shed.  Now we can actually PLAY the games we have!

Even got a rare picture of myself at work.  All decked out in isolation gear.  YUMMY!  (my co-workers hate when I say that.)

Sometimes I log onto WoW just to listen to the music.

bored, uhm....

Today is my day off of work.  I got up this morning and ran some errands, but now I'm feeling a little....eh.

I am crocheting a doggie restraint so we can start taking the dog places again.  I use to take him anywhere I didn't have to get out of the car.  Like, if I had to pick one of the girls up from school, I'd take the dog with me, just to get him out of the house, or if we were going to the park, he'd come along for the ride.  That was until he wouldn't sit still any more.  So, I stopped taking him places. 

Today I decided I wanted to go to what we call the walking park.  We use to go every other week, on my weekends off, and when we got Gator, we took him with us to walk the trails and go on the boardwalk.  Well, when he stopped being a good dog in the car, we stopped taking him places.  So, I thought it would be nice to go to the park on my day off, and take the dog with us like we use it.  Well, I got to searching car restraints, and then I got on ravelry, and then it popped into my head "HEY, I can make one of those!"  So, now here I am; making a seatbelt restraint thingy for my dog for the van.

Tomorrow we are going to what we call the skating park.  There is a small area to play on, and then a quarter mile paved circle.  Not exactly sure how long we'll be there, but I plan on taking the dog, Shelby's bike/scooter, Stephanie's friend, and well, I'm just not sure what else we'll be taking. LOL  We'll be there around 10 I told Stephanie's friend, so I'll pick her up around that time.

Well, back to my crocheting!  This is a pic of what the chest area looks like.  I took it so I could put it on my projects page on Ravelry. 

Wow, my desk looks really messy in the picture.  I got a pile of reciepts back there I need to input; and apparently, my caps lock was on. (the 3 lights in the back, last one on the right)  I know, you don't need to know that right? LOL!!!

"I care"

I have said this past weekend that my "I care" button has been broken.  It seems that there is nothing I can do for myself that will cause me to actually WANT to do something for anyone what so ever.  I'm burnt out on caring.  It's a fact.  I want to walk around flicking people in the ear, or in the back of the head and tell them what's wrong with them.  I don't, because well, that would be REALLY bad, but I sure as heck don't wanna give a crap about someone  I don't like very much.  (no, not my husband-but a couple of my kids maybe...or, well, I'll leave some imagination for you guys.)
Anywho, I really have had a hard weekend at work, actually this whole past week was horrible.  State showed up this week to do their yearly survey.  They walk around, make sure everything is a kosher dill pickle, and all that jazz.  Well, we got one tag, just like last year we only got one tag.  Thankfully it wasn't the SAME tag.  Last year it was dining, this year it was call lights.  So, on top of that stressfull situation, our lead CNA was out on vacation, along with our unit manager, and one of our regular girls.  So, as back-up lead CNA, I got to play leader while state was in the building.  So, I got to do my assignment (which has some very flickable people on it-but I would NEVER. EVER.) make sure all the paperwork was up to date, and make sure all my own paperwork was completed, then run around behind everyone else and make sure THEIR paperwork was completed.  It was too much.  I'm burnt out.  I need a vacation from this past week.  I need a $5/hour raise just because of last week alone.  There were some problems end of the week (I told you I don't really flick people) that I thought I would have to stick up for a resident (even though they were in the wrong) because she fully has her mind and knew the consequences of her actions.  I can not force someone who is there own person to do the right thing, even if they are wrong.  Not my job. 

anyway....sorry....moving on...

Today is Sunday, and we are broke.  I have less than a half tank of gas, a tire with a nail in it, and no cat food.  We have just enough money in the bank to cover the auto payment for the a/c that is coming out at the end of the week.  PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE let Friday get here before we go negative in the bank.  We have not been negative in the bank for a long time.  We do have a pretty strick budget that we pretty well keep to, but there are a few times a year we look and think, wow...did we party last night?  Cause if we are that low, I wanna at least think that I've had fun blowing it all.  Sheesh.  Being a grown-up is hard work, like, REALLY hard work.

I should totally be in bed.  It's 15 minutes past my bedtime.  But at least I can say that our lead CNA will be back tomorrow, and she can have her cursed position.  I would've loved to take her assignment, and have JUST 4 people to take care of, cause then I could actually make sure that EVERYTHING was done properly, and not just "I think" it's done properly.

I can't wait until tomorrow at 3:15pm when I can walk out those side doors at work and say SEE YA!  I mean, really...seriously....I'm gone!  At least tomorrow I'll have that extra 20 minutes that I won't be stuck in the back room supervising breakfast.  20 minutes is an other person out of bed!  If I can get to that tomorrow, I'll be set for the day!  I don't even remember what it's like not having to be all rushed rushed, and actually having time to be able to help my co-workers.  The prospect of it is awesome!  (watch tomorrow be the biggest pain in the butt day)

Anywho....on a COMPLETELY different note...

Saturday is BIG grocery shopping day.  Like, 2 shopping carts kinda grocery shopping.  (oh wait, I live in the south....they call them buggies! ha ha)  Gonna stock up a little bit on some food storage.  Found out the family likes Aldi's instant mashed potatoes.  They only use water, so in an emergency situation, they would be easier to make than other instant potatoes that require water, milk, and butter to make.  Also, their green beans are ok.  Corn is-eh.  I'm a little unimpressed with their corn.  Tastes to me like field corn, but how on earth would I know what field corn tastes like?  Well, that's an other story.


;-)



oh yeah, and the bitch pills worked....crap-well, sorta crap

Ravelry needs a mobile friendly website. And by mobile friendly I mean for my phone~not just "smart phones". That would be awesome!!

I am thinking of buying an afghan hook. I use to have some. But as my mind races about my unfinished blankets~i'm thinking i should get one.

I feel like, I feel like, well, I feel like CRAP

We went swimming yesterday. Here's where we go.  Not exactly the lush clear water white sandy beaches of Florida you think about, but it was the 2 weeks of rain pooling on the beach, stiring up grasscuttings, loose seaweed, and who knows what else on the shore line.  Then, there was the mixed up water.  My kids told me that I looked like a simpson because my body appeared to be yellow underneath the water.  It was kinda gross, but as long as we didn't put our feet on the bottom, and didn't swallow the salt water, we were ok.  Well, I thought we were ok.

Today I'm sick as a dog!  We spent about 2 hours in the water.  Bill sat on the shore and watched us.  Bill is NOT a beach person.  Let me repeat that just so you get it right, and there is no doubt in your mind.  MY HUSBAND IS NOT  A BEACH PERSON.  He loathes the beach.  The sand, the salt, the sweat; yuck.  We have a pool in the back yard ready to be filled up (as soon as the rain stops for longer than a couple hours).  I told him if we fill up the pool, he doesn't have to drive us down to the beach, we can just cool off in the back yard.  We had the pool up for a couple months last year.  Lady down the street gave it to us.  She has been very generous with us; she's the one who gave us the couch, an entertainment center, a kitchen table, and then this pool.  I like having the pool in the backyard.  Makes it easier to get out there and exercise in the pool. 

Yes, she is shop vac'n the pool

Anyway....today I agreed to sub for my friend at Church.  My older 2 children had to help me.  There was NO WAY I would've been able to do it with out them.   We learned about missionaries, the kids even made some thank you cards for the missionaries serving from our ward.  Was a pretty good day for the kids. 

Me on the other hand.  It was not a fun day.

So, maybe tomorrow we'll get that pool filled up, and I can get some more sun posioning!

Oh no....forgot today was day one of bitch pills...i need an old man pill box.

Yes, AN OTHER blog entry today!!!

I had more to say, but I didn't wanna put it all under one entry.  I didn't wanna have this huge entry that ran from my bad day at work to canning.
 :-D

jars o goodies

Zsusanna and I canned some veggies on Tuesday.  We packed carrots, jalopeno's, zucchini, onions, and cucumbers into most of the jars.  I did make one jar with just cucumbers and banana peppers. (as I mentioned early about the 6 year old and her mild pepper "thing")

vinegar "pickling" mix

It was a learning experience. It's been a while since I've canned something. Years since I've done jelly (remember the wedding day thing) and probably at least 1.5 decades since I've canned anything-and NEVER on my own.  

water bath

We opened one of the cans at dinner tonight.  Zsusanna loves it, but there are others who seem to think it is just a little to vinegary.  At the end of putting together the jars, we ran out of vinegar mix, so we had to make our own.  So, I told the family that this maybe one of those jars.  I don't know...it tastes pretty good to me too. :-D

Best part of canning...look what I found in the pantry!

The day from....well, it certainly wasn't something created on a Celestial level

That's for SURE!

Had a REALLY rough day at work.  Laundry person fell at work (she appears to be ok, she came back to work after she went to the hospital), but they didn't replace her position with someone.  ANYONE would've been nice. So, we were unable to give any kind of showers today.  Those who DID take showers either were hording towels in their room, or didn't care if they were being dried off by a blanket.  I however had that one lady who HAS to have a shower with the correct linen.  So, she didn't get a shower.  (yes I reported it-sheesh, I'm not that stupid!)  However, next week the lead CNA, our unit manager, and the back up unit manager are all going to be on vacation.  What?  Is this revenge for my 16 days of vacation in a row?  Is this to get back at me?  Please people...don't do this to me.  Now I get to play lead CNA all next week while working my assignment.  I've decided though, that I'm going to get to work a little early so that I can do the afternoon paperwork at 6:30am and not have to deal with it at 2:30pm.  I know, sounds like over kill right?  WRONG!  I know what I'm capable of, and I'm afraid that I won't be able to drop what I'm doing and run up to the desk and get the paperwork all together.   Oh well.  Such is life right?  I should be thankful they trust me enough to be back up lead right?  Ok, sure...I'll just take your word for it.