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Monday, January 30, 2006
BUSY! BUSY! But I'm fine Scotty...Thanks For asking!
Life has been a whirl-wind for me lately. It can never just seem to go along at an even keel. I'm either bored completely out of my mind or so busy that my head won't stop spinning. At the moment I'm spinning out of control.
~My Personal Life~ Well, there isn't much to tell here. Hubby and I are just going through the motions of every day. He is working unbelievable hours and when he does get a day off there is a ton of stuff to take care of, errands, games to go to, family obligations. We haven't had much time to spend together and I've had too much time away from him and I'm starting to think not so good thoughts. I wonder what it will be like for us after Baby Girl is off on her own. I know it's a few years away but the time will go quickly. Our lives revolve around her and I just don't know what it will be like when she's gone. Hubby and I have a very good relationship and I can't imagine life without him in it. But I also have noticed that he never wants to be "alone" with me. Yes, we are alone to keep the fires burning but other than that we do nothing together as a couple. He doesn't want to go on trips with me (not that we could afford it), and even just the other day there was a mention of Valentines Day coming up. Instead of saying something like "We should go out for the evening" he simply said, "You'll have to go pick up some flowers for Baby Girl since I won't have time with all the hours I'm working." I know his intentions are good but I think what it will be like when she isn't here to buy flowers for. Will he actually buy them for me? I have my doubts.
~ My Health~ So far so good on this aspect. I am completely stressed out about some things but at least so far I haven't got the viruses going around...Knock on Wood! Baby Girl has been sick for what seems like months. The virus she had when I posted last is still with her. She was left pretty weak form it and she now has a head cold that is one of the worst she has had. The drugs seem to be working though. She gets into these coughing fits that just don't stop and that is adding to my stress by keeping me up at night. I did take some ME time this past weekend though and searched a few blogs and relaxed as much as I could. I've noticed lately that I get lame without even doing anything strenuous and that has me a little concerned. My mother has Rhumatoid Arthritis and I know it's hereditary. I guess it's time for me to keep an eye on myself, just in case it doesn't skip this generation. I'm crossing my fingers that the lameness is just from a little shoveling and oddball housework I've been doing.
~My Job~ The basketball season is coming to an end quickly and I can't say that it upsets me. I am more than ready to NOT be coaching the cheerleaders! We had our last FULL practice day today and it was on a sour note. Half the girls just wanted to goof off and not pay attention. A couple of them even got a bit lippy with me and that just didn't set right. All it seemed to do was set the tone for the remainder of the practice session and by the end of two hours I along with the "good" half of the squad was extremely frustrated. At this age level the girls are more interested in what boys are watching them in the stands than they are in doing the elements of cheerleading properly and safely. I am switching up the stunting groups for the remainder of the season, just so the girls don't get bored with the five games we have left to cheer. I hope I don't regret it in the end. We meet again on Wednesday for a double game night and we have about a half hour to warm up, stretch, and try to execute the routine before heading to the gym. I am keeping my fingers crossed that it all turns out fine. I'm sure it will. Again, this is just a busy portion of my life that has me a tad stressed right now.
~ Miscellaneous!~ Along with all my coaching responsibilities, I'm also trying to be the good Auntie and see my nephew and niece in their baskeball games. My niece is done I think and then my nephew has another couple of weeks, but I think only two home games. I'll be glad when February vacation is here so we can put it behind us.
Mom and Dad have been a little better healthwise and that has been a blessing. I have to drive Dad to a couple of tests in the next couple of weeks. Don't I just Love that! NOT! Mom is doing a lot better but slips in and out of depression and of course, living right beside them makes it too easy for me to slip into depressin also. I've been trying to stay away as much as possible and all that is accomplishing is making me more tired and more stressed. At least I'm not stressed in a "Bad" way, just a busy one! Auntie Deb has gone to Florida for the winter and I'm taking care of her mail and looking after her house while she's gone. I think she's lonely, she calls me about five out of seven nights a week, usually late, and talks for at least an hour. Like I have time or energy for that! I even didn't answer the phone one time and that just isn't like me. I usually don't dodge phone calls, makes me feel too quilty. Auntie Dodie has gone to Florida for the winter also. She is the Aunt I work for cleaning the office on weekends. I have had to run errands for her for stuff for the office that the office secrataries can't seem to find time for. At least she's paying me a little extra for my trouble. Her husband will be coming back form Florida ina couple of weeks and I'm going to have to take care of him by doing his laundry and cleaning her house. Should be fun trying to manage two households. I've done it before though and at least cheering will be over by the time he gets back.
~Back to the job for a moment~ Sports Banquet is coming up and I need to speak in front of about 50 people. The sports teams will be dispersing into seperate rooms so the banquet won't take as long, and I won't have to speak to parents I don't even know. I am still feeling like throwing up every time I think about it. I just don't do well with public speaking. I've decided that instead of winging it I'm going to type up a speech of some kind. I think it will be easier on me. I know I will be fine and part of the fun of it is all this anticipation beforehand. Still I have a ton of butterflies in there. I fear looking like and idiot! Gosh I'll be so glad when this coaching stint of mine is OVER! ARGH!
~ Baby Girl~ There has been a few new developments with my wonderful little girl. She came home a few days ago and blew me away when she started talking aobut a seventh grade boy. (remember she's in 8th grade) I guess she has quite the crush on him and according to her he's SO HOT! He asked her tonight online if she was a good kisser and she wasn't even embarrassed to tell him she's never kissed or been kissed. So, I guess it's HERE WE GO! Am I ready for this stage in my daughters life? I thought I was until it happened. (I bet Mel is laughing her ass off right now!) So, I'm sure I'll be posting about thisin the next few weeks. Who knows, maybe nothing will come of it! It'll be interesting to see how long before she brings him home to meet the parents! I'll keep you all posted. Young Love is the best!
That's it for this post. It's really late and I'm so tired I feel like I'm going to drop. I'll try to post more often and rest assured that Julie is OK! Just too busy to enjoy blogging lately! I'll be back soon, hopefully! Kisses to all!
Monday, January 23, 2006
Here We Go Again! ARGH!!!
Ok, I just can't take all the sickness anymore! Once again my baby girl is sick. This time it's her throat. She started Friday night at her game by losing her voice, but felt fine so she went to her dance anyway. The whole weekend, her throat wasn't sore but her voice was a mess. She had that cold a couple of weeks ago and I was thinking it was leftover from that. Eveyone else around here is going through shit like that too. Just can't shake it. Well, today she got up and felt ok, no voice, and that was it...off to school she went. At 10:00 she called needing cough drops. I took them up and asked if she was ok other than that...she said she was. With the snow storm, her game got cancelled tonight so home she came at 2:00. Her throat was sore and I couldn't get her into the docs till Wednesday morning for a strep test. I made her open her mouth and I looked for white spots, which I couldn't find. She couldn't barely do that because it was making her gag. I searched the cupboard for medicine and got out the cepacol, the zicam, and the tylenol! Nothing seems to be working and I never know if she's telling me the truth when I ask her how she's feeling. Taking medicines has always been a nightmare around here. Something simple like chewable Tylenol makes her throw up. So tonight was no exception. She took the Zicam fine, since it has no real taste, just chalky texture. Even the Tylenol went down fine...but the Cepacol was another story...She cried and begged me to let her spit it out the whole way through. Does it ever get any easier for these kids to take medicines? She can't swallow even a tic tac whole so that type of medicine doesn't work for us. Here I am, It's 9:30, and I'm emotionally drained just from the evening of fighting with ehr to take soemthing to make herself well. My own throat is a little sore and since I'm prone to any virus that adheres to the throat, I'm willing to bet that I'll be coming down with it soon...I'll be surprised if I don't get it! Yippee for Me! I really need to go to bed but Hubby won't be home for another hour or so and I'll just wake back up when he comes in if I go to sleep now. I'm totally stressed out and an emotional wreck...I HATE IT WHEN ANY OF US GET SICK! I just don't handle it well. I even go as far as asking baby girl about twenty times an hour how she's feeling even if she only has a cold and I know it. And just think, I used to work in a nursing home where there was nothing but sickness...I even contemplated not too long ago goign to school to get my nursing degree. How could I handle that if I can't even handle what goes on in my own home. It would all be much easier if Baby would just get past this point with the medicine going down...God I'm Drained!
And I really hate posts taht are all about venting...but hey, that's what Julie's life seems to be all about lately. Bare with me people, better, more positive times are coming soon I hope...
Stay healthy all!
Friday, January 20, 2006
Today!
So here it is, another day. My cold is much better...I guess there is something to this Zicam stuff. It seemed to work.
Cheering is going good. The girls did their entire halftime dance routine last night for the first time and it went really great. Nobody feel out of thier stunts and their motions were pretty good. There is still room for improvement but for the overall, they rocked! They were all so nervous that it was making me nervous for them too. We do it all over again tonight and this time I'm adding an element...they are going to be announced before the routine one at a time. They are not very happy about that but I noticed a lot of spectators leaving their seats and doing concessions and things like that while the girls were doing thier routine. Cheerleaders are a part of Basketball and should get the respect of at least being watched while they perform.
Thanks to one of my girls, we now have a little skip in our music. I asked her to stop the tape during practice yesterday and she pushed record instead. So now we have a little silent part in our routine but the girls pushed right past it during the game. Hopefully I'll be able to find the same music soon so I can do another tape. Only about three more weeks of all of this and the season is over. Then I have the task of speaking in front of 200 people at the awards banquet and I'm not looking forward to that. I am gonna throw up I just know it! ARGH!!!
So, what else is happening in Julie's world? Not a whole lot. The truck had some issues and has been in the shop for a couple of days. We got it back last night after shelling out almost $1000.00 to get it fixed. Talk about wanting to throw up! It really put hubby in a pissy mood too. We have been so "nice" lately, in a perfect place in our relationship, and yesterday flushed all that right down the potty. He is now back to being irritable and all he does is sits there and says nothing. I'm upset about having to spend the money also but Hey, it's too late now and it couldn't have been helped! We need two vehicles, just like most people do nowadays. I'm hoping that he gets over it soon. I talked to him this morning, he's at work, and he is having issues at the mill too. He had put in for two different vacations, one in February and one in May, and both got denied. It's all just political shit that happens at mills and, someone throwing thier weight around, and Hubby is getting the raw end of the stick! He is taking it to the mill manager today and I'll be sitting here waiting for a phone call, praying he doesn't loose his temper and get fired! He has so much bottled up right now and it scares me! God, do we need a REAL vacation!
Weather in Maine is sucky! Since my only readers are Maine folk, you all know what I'm talking about. I miss WHITE! I miss SKIING! I miss WALKS IN THE SNOW! I Do love the warm temps and it IS saving on the fuel bill but this is ridiculous. Hmmm, I haven't had any birds to my feeders either...anyone out there know why?
I read something in a magazine last night that I thought was interesting and I wanted to share it. In todays technological world, people have stopped paying attention to proper grammar skills. We use abbreviations more and more and put our own spin on simple words...I'm a huge one for writing the word COOL as KEWL! You all know what I'm saying. Well, this article was about words from the dictionary widely misspelled...here's the list! Amazingly I spell them all RIGHT, except for when my fingers don't push the right keys of course...at least I knew the proper spelling....(For Mel: I just happen to know that you spell a few of these wrong because you've done it typing to me! HAHA)
WRONG...............................................RIGHT
~definately..........................................definitely
~seperate............................................separate
~wierd.................................................weird
~accomodate......................................accommodate
~liason.................................................liaison
~recieve..............................................receive
~rediculous.........................................ridiculous
~nieve.................................................naive
~perogative........................................prerogative
~adament...........................................adamant
~persue..............................................pursue
~genious.............................................genius
~truely................................................truly
~sence.................................................sense
This is just a list of a few that I know about! Come on peeps...lets show the rest of the world that we are not idiots in the USA~ We are well educated people and we DO know how to spell!
Kisses to all...have a great day and weekend!
Saturday, January 14, 2006
Just When I Thought I Was Safe...
Ahhhh.....It looks like I'm not any different than anyone else.
I have made it a mission on mine to avoid illness at all costs. I have hand sanitizer in my purse, in my car, in Hubby's truck, in the bathroom, on the sink in the kitchen...literally everywhere! I take vitamins by the handful, vitamin C at least 3000grams a day, vitamin E, calcium, zinc...all of it that is supposed to boost the immune system. I avoid crownds when I can. When I go to the grocery store I always grab a sanitizing wipe and wipe down the cart handle. At my daughters games I make sure to sit mostly by myself away from other people that just might be carrying a germ of some kind. I eat healthy, veggies every day and lots of citrus fruits. Even have my share of juice in the morning. So you'd think that nothing could penetrate this coat of armor I'm protecting myself with....Boy Was I Wrong!!!! I finally got it! Earlier today I noticed I wasn't breathing all that well but passed it off this morning to dry air in the house. By the time I finished with cheering practice my head was pretty stuffy. So far it hasn't been all that bad. Just full in my head and stuffy in my nose. I can handle this. I went to the local shopping hell store and grabbed some Zicam (someone told me they swear by it and haven't been sick yet this winter) . I thought I'd give it a whirl. So why am I so paranoid about getting sick?
fade to 1995~~
It was late January and I was reeling from a very stressful holiday season. I had a three year old daughter and I was still adjusting to motherhood. There was tension on both sides of the family and I was pretty run down. I woke up one morning feeling not so great and started with the Tylenol immediately. By late evening that particular day, I was flat on my back with the flu. I was vomiting and hacking up mucus, I ached in every inch of my body, and I had absolutely no energy. I left the care of my three year old to my capable husband and my mother. As I lay in bed miserable I remember thinking that it was just the flu and I'd be fine in a day or so. Well, it didn't happen that way. Each day passed and I grew more and more sick. Hubby had to go back to work and my mother continued to take care of my three year old. My symptoms got to the point where I didn't have a choice than to go to the hospital. My breathing was pretty bad, even to catch a simple breath, and I was worried about a lung infection. Off to the hospital I went. In the examining room all I could do was lay on the bed. I had no energy to even sit up. Hubby had taken the day off from work, AGAIN, and was by my side. The doctor came in to examine me and I couldn't even sit up. I just lay there kind of in a daze as to what was happening. The doc gave me a breathing machine and sent nurses in to start an IV, I was pretty dehydrated. It took them nearly an hour to find a vein to start my IV. After hundreds of pokes with a needle, they finally found a vein they could access. Like I said, I was pretty dehydrated. The admitted me into a semi prvate room and through the whole thing all I could do was cry. I was supposed to be home caring for my three year old and taking care of my house...I didn't have time to be sick. The next day they sent me home, with a basketful of meds and strict orders to rest in bed. At home, my house was a mess (nobody can clean exactly the way you like it) and the cupboards were empty. My daughter stayed right beside me, as much as I would let her, trying to comfort me. I started on the meds the doc ordered and was trying to be a good patient...that's when all Hell broke loose. I started having reactions to the meds almost immediately after I started taking them. I was vomitting and shaking uncontrolably. Hubby called outpatient and spoke with the doctor I had seen while there. He said that it was all symptoms of the flu and the tests had come back...it was indeed Influenza B. For the next four days I continued to vomit occasionally, go through cold shivers then sweats. One day I went into convulsions and both mom and hubby had to lay on top of my arms and legs to stop them from shaking. My fever stayed at 104 for pretty much the whole time. doctors didn't seem to be too concerned about it. My whole body ached and I hadn't had a shower in days. The bedding was disgusting and hubby was sleeping on the couch for the most part. I lay there thinking "Why won't someone just clean me up or something?" Well, God must have answered that prayer becasue hubby came in and I managed enough energy to ask him to give me a bath. (Up until then I barely spoke because I was so weak) He Picked me up and sat me on the step of the tub and undressed me slowly. He lifted me and sat me into the water which was very warm but my body, racked with fever, reacted in pain. The warm water felt like ice cubes. I handled it as best I could and Hubby took a cloth to me. Finally I was clean. After he carried me to the couch, wrapped in a blanket, so my mom could do the bedding. Even though it was middle of winter they opened the windows to let in fresh air. My little girl tried entertaining me, but you know how it is with three year olds, she really didn't understand what was going on. This whole scene repeated itself for about a week and then I finally started getting better. I slowly regained enough strength to at least get out of bed and my appetite was coming back. It took me a long time to get back to 100%. Mom was still having to do my housework four weeks later. I hated every minute of it. This was MY home and I was supposed to be taking care of everyone. Eventually I recovered completely and swore that I would never let myself get that sick again. At the end of it all I weighed only 82 pounds and bruised easily. It did something to my metabolism and I no longer burned up the calories like I did before. Now, eleven years later, I am NOT 82 pounds and I hope that I never get that way again.
~~ back to the present~~
So will I let THIS whatever it is get the best of me? No Way! I will take this Zicam stuff and get my rest and take it easy. I will NOT push myself and I will take time to heal. I learned a lot from that time being sick in 1995. I learned what my body can handle. Do I mind the extra pounds I packed on? Not One Bit! I may be round in a lot of places but at least I have something to fall back on and don't have to worry about that 82 pound mark again. So, here I am all stuffy. I am hoping it is just a basic cold (which very well could be since baby girl and mom have both been sick and I've been right with them). I will head to bed early and try to sleep in tomorrow.
Right now I'm off to take a warm bath, one that will steam up the mirrors and open my nasal passages. I have a wish for all of you out there that you DO NOT GET SICK! Like those of you who have had this already, I will survive it. Take care one and all and I'll be back when I'm feeling better. Kisses!
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