Nerowill's LJ

the Good

2009-11-12T02:15:05Z

Finally, after months of searching furniture stores, antique malls and Goodwill, I have found a replacement sofa! We live in a Victorian (style and era) house which does not have space in the living room for one of the big, overstuffed couches which are so common today--it just wouldn't look right. Anyhow, we currently have a 1940's sofa with exposed wood edging and flared out arms which fits perfectly. The Children (and in this group I include The Cat) have basically destroyed it. Currently, it's supported in the back with a pile of books and has afghans artfully draped over it so that kids don't hurt themselves on the exposed nails where the upholstery has pulled away from the wood... Never mind the interesting chew marks that have recently appeared on the wood near where Roo likes to stand looking out the window...

I wanted a replacement that fit with the rest of the house. Husband wanted something sturdy. Neither of us were willing to spend much money on something that we knew would be pounded on by the kids.

Saturday, in the last row of a huge antique mall, my mother-in-law found the perfect sofa and matching love seat--each on sale for only $100! The best part is that last month, while cleaning out the basement, I found a card we'd accidentally packed away 5 years ago when we moved out of New York that had $200 in cash as a gift from my husband's now deceased grandmother. And I happened to have those two bills folded up in the back of my wallet. :) So I paid cash for the two pieces right on the spot!

Now I just have to figure out how to get them delivered! :0

In which Roo attempts to be devious

2009-10-21T01:24:22Z

As I was making the salad for dinner, Roo pulled up her step stool so that she could help me tear up the lettuce. This is a fine activity for her as long as I give her small pieces--she thinks whatever she has should be torn into exactly two parts and thrown in the bowl. When we were done, she and Little Girl both got a little piece to taste-test. It was pronounced 'done' and moved to the counter.

Roo then grabbed my finger (her favorite way of leading parents, siblings, and other dolts around) and pulled me out of the kitchen, through the dining room and into the living room. Normally at this point she would indicate what she wanted, but instead she let go of my finger and said, "Go! GO!" while waving me off. Then she turned around and charged back into the kitchen.

I gave her about ten seconds then followed. She had pulled her step stool up to the counter where I had placed the salad and was standing on it with one hand one reaching for a piece of salad. When she saw me, she got the most "I've been caught" expression I've ever seen on her face. I came so close to laughing and ruining my parental authority-figure image it wasn't even funny. *heh*

Sneaking is bad, but I think it's hilarious that the thing she's sneaking is salad and that she's so un-sneaky about sneaking it. :)

On a less funny note, when I was singing Little Girl's goodnight song tonight (they each have their own), Roo started saying, "Shudup, shudup, shudup," over and over again. Now, we never say shut up and I've never heard LG say it either, so I'm wondering where she learned that...

Busy not getting ready

2009-08-02T03:40:56Z

I'm going on vacation tomorrow (yeah! the beach!) and have about a million things to do to get ready. So of course, instead of doing any of them, I just spent the last FOUR hours watching "The hundred best songs of the 80's" on VH1. That stuff is like crack!

Now I'm marveling that Living on a Prayer was voted in at number one (I really hope that doesn't count as a spoiler out there for anyone) over, well, everything else.

AND I have a million things left to do. *sigh*

Cheers!

2009-03-05T04:18:47Z

In the last hours of the day... Happy birthday to temve and clara_swift! Also, belated Happy B-day to jedi_runya! I hope all three of you have had a fabulous time of it. :)

Anyone?

2009-03-01T04:06:42Z

If you accidentally freeze a bottle of white wine, is it still drinkable after it thaws out (in the fridge) or is it hopelessly off?

Just wondering, no particular reason... *whistles while staring off aimlessly*

good day

2008-12-07T06:33:52Z

Thanks for all the birthday well-wishes! I had a very nice day: lunch with friends and family, cake, presents with more still to come (I have to find just the right piece of furniture...), and the Sooners won the Big 12 (I may live in Missouri but my husband lives and breathes OU football). The only downside of the day was the part where I forgot to put the gas cap back on (after filling up for under $25!!! I'm still excited by that.) and then it got run over and smashed to tiny useless bits. *sigh* At least it's about the cheapest replacement part on a car. :)

In other news, Roo now understands the word "no". It's very cute--she'll start to do something she shouldn't and she'll stop and look over as soon as she's told no. Then she'll desist for about 3 seconds and try again, usually with a bit more care, while looking at the no-sayer. It's actually helped a lot with her hair pulling habit over the last week or so. :)

Question for those SPN fans on my flist

2008-11-29T16:59:00Z

I was just going back and looking at my Supernatural Season 2 DVDs and I realized that I'd never seen the gag reel or any of the other special features. So then I spent about 15 minutes trying to find them on the discs; except for the episode commentaries, I can't find ANY of the special features.

Do any of you know where I can find them? I'm feeling kind of dumb here...

Kane

2008-11-29T02:50:33Z

*heh*

I saw that Christian Kane will be in a new show on TNT 'Leverage'. I'm still not too sure I'm all the excited about the concept--high-tech crime isn't really what gets my juices flowing--but I decided to go online and find out a bit more about it. Somehow, I mainly just ended up googling Christian Kane though... Anyhow, I never realized that he grew up in Norman--where my husband's from and where I am right now! Also, he's doing a show here December 1st, unfortunately the day after I leave... Which probably means he's here now spending the holiday with his family. I somehow doubt that I'll run into him at the local Wal-Mart, but who knows... ;)

happy

2008-06-14T20:59:58Z

I feel great today! I actually got four hours of sleep last night, then when I came home Tiny Girl let me sleep for almost three hours! And now we have the incredibly rare event of simulnap--when both girls nap at the same time and we can relax!!! *relaxes*

Once they wake up we're going to head to the annual local fair and I'm looking forward to Little Girl having a good time. Also, funnel cakes! Nothing better for that sugar high mixed with nausea! :)

Perhaps one of the real reasons I feel so good is that I feel closer to figuring out what I want to do after my contract finishes next year and the uncertainty had been eating me up... Hopefully I'll nail down everything next week. *hopes*

recent events

2008-06-07T23:52:56Z

The Good:
My husband got offered a really exciting opportunity this week to help start up a non-profit. It's the kind of thing he's been looking for since we moved here, so it's very exciting that it's actually finally happening. My contract at work is up in about a year so we had been talking about the possibility of moving out of St. Louis, but now we'll definitely be staying. :) Now we don't have to worry about selling the house and we get to keep all our fantastic neighbors.

The Scary:
Speaking of neighbors, yesterday evening as we were trying to get the house cleaned before my brother arrived, my neighbor J. came running over carrying her two-year-old daughter E. who was seizing. She'd never had a seizure before and J. was frantic. Her husband was calling 911 as she ran across the street with E. She handed E., who was turning a scary purple color, to me and, even though I've seen plenty of people seize before, it was different having it be someone I knew so well. She stopped convulsing after about 3 minutes and by then EMS had already arrived and had oxygen on her. (Have I mentioned before that we live only a long block away from the Police Department/Fire Station? They were darn fast getting here.) Within a few minutes E. was talking again asking to nurse. They headed off to Children's (Weren't we just there last week?) while we took care of their son. Turns out it was a simple febrile seizure and E. is already back at home and doing well. I'm so relieved she's okay!

ER

2008-06-01T04:53:52Z

Yesterday Little Girl backed her tricycle off the porch, fell over backwards, and hit her head on the brick landscape edging. My husband rushed her in for me to see as she's screaming hysterically with blood beginning to soak through her hair. I rinsed off the cut to get a better look at it, and it turned out to be a relatively small T-shaped thing at the occiput with the long part about a fourth an inch long but rather deep.

At first I thought we weren't going to need any stitches and I climbed in the bath with her (which she thought was great fun) to fully wash the blood out and clean it out with hydrogen peroxide. It seemed to gape quite a bit. As I was finishing that up, I realized there was a second cut over the left parietal area which was about an inch long. I'd missed it before because it was bleeding much less as it was quite shallow.

After some back-and-forthing, we decided to take her to the ER to see if she needed a stitch or dermabonding on the deeper cut because it seemed to want to open up. I called the ER at Children's to see how long a wait it would be--they said about 2 hours most likely. So we saddled up Little Girl and Tiny Girl and headed over. As soon as we got there and saw all the sick, sniveling kids, I started banging my head--why had we brought the baby?? (Well, the original thought had been because she would need to nurse, so she should be with me, but I'm also the 'medical' person in the family, so I should go to the ER... Forgot to factor in the germs.)

We checked in and headed to the cafeteria with our pager (they hand out pagers just like at the Olive Garden!) so that TG won't be exposed to the ER waiting room. An hour later we're still waiting (a quick check reveals that little progress has been made on that front), and a severe thunderstorm warning has been issued. Everyone is requested to step away from the big glass windows. A second hour passes and still no progress. We spent most of that hour trying to figure out how to get TG and I home while leaving my beloved and LG at the hospital with a car. The best plan involved stashing the pager somewhere no one would see it (My Olive Garden experience tells me that if you get too far from the base, they go off loudly and continuously, so we couldn't take it with us.) and having my husband drive us home dropping off me and TG before returning. Only we couldn't come up with a safe place to stash the thing.

At the beginning of hour three with a predicted waiting time of about three more hours, I rechecked LG's wound. It looked to be clotting nicely and wasn't gaping much at all. We then discussed the possibility of just leaving. It was 11 pm and both the girls were up way past their bedtimes. It was at this point that I finally used the fact that my badge works just as well at Children's as it does at my hospital. :) I strolled back to the doctors' work area, explained the situation to a sympathetic fellow, and he gave me all the stuff I would need to fix her up myself. (Don't worry folks--I do have some medical training!) Why the heck hadn't I thought of doing that two friggin hours earlier????

We got home close to midnight and I proceeded to set up everything for an at-home scalp dermabonding. Before I actually starting cutting hair away, though, I looked at the cut again and decided that it has closed so nicely on it's own that I didn't have to do anything. Talk about wasting four hours of a Friday night. *sigh*

LG came through the whole thing very well. After the initial five minutes of upset she was bouncing off the walls with energy and completely fine except for some mild anxiety at the ER when they took her vitals. We're already trying to use it as an object lesson for being more careful but with very limited success.

The final topper was getting up this morning and finding a huge tree had fallen over in the backyard. We must have been out when it fell, then not seen it when we came home and ran in through the still-pounding rain. I love St. Louis weather.

random stuff

2008-05-24T00:08:06Z

Tiny Girl is earning a new name... Maybe Babyzilla... We took her into the doctor for her two month follow-up and she weighted 13 and a half pounds. My back is starting to twinge when I lift her out of the crib. She's about to grow out of the outfits that Little Girl was still wearing at 8 months. But mainly I'm thrilled that she's healthy. :)

In other news LG cut her own hair at preschool last week ("What happened to your hair?" *blank look* "Did you cut it?" 'Yes.' "Why???" 'I don't know.'), so last weekend I took her to Great Clips and now she has bangs and a cute shaped cut... AND it's much easier to brush in the mornings! Win, win!

In what I wish were my lamest act of the week, yesterday I forgot where I parked the car and, when I left work, I took the shuttle to the wrong garage. After staring at where my car wasn't for several seconds I realized that: 1) My car was actually in the garage on the other side of the hospital, 2) LG's daycare was closing in 6 minutes, and 3) There was no way I could get to the car then make it to LG on time. So, since the garage where the car wasn't is very close to the daycare, I ran over (and, damn, I'm out of shape) and got her right as they were closing. Then, of course, we had to walk all the way across the hospital campus to the car. The delay in getting home meant that Babyzilla ran out of pumped milk and was strongly protesting the idea that she should eat formula as we arrived home. What a way to end the work day...

The good news is that I have two of the three days of the long weekend off. Hope you all enjoy the break as well!

Mini Birthday

2008-04-09T05:14:49Z

Tiny Girl is one month one today (or, well, yesterday now...)!

She has turned out (so far *crosses fingers*) to be much less of a fussy baby than Little Girl was. Last night she performed an amazing feat and slept for 8 hours in a row. I don't expect a repeat of this tonight, but it was nice!

LG is doing an amazing job with her sister. She wants to help change her diapers ALL the time--her part of the operation is limited to getting the diaper wipe and new diaper, then throwing the dirty diaper away, but it's still a help. Also, she wants to kiss the baby all the time. She would like to nurse her as well and I've had to explain on several occasions that I'm the only one who can do that. :) Overall, she's very sweet and motherly toward her and has yet to show any resentment. She is strongly lobbying to get a bunk bed so that they can share a room when the baby is a bit older...

We did have to go in today to get ultrasounds of TG's hips. She did an awesome job and was happy and cooperative during the whole thing. Apparently her hips are lax, but will likely fix themselves on their own. We have to get repeat ultrasounds in a month just to be sure...

So much has happened in the last month, I wish I had taken the time to post, even just private posts, so that I wouldn't forget some of this stuff. I'll try to do better in the future. (I always think that and it never happens.)

nerowill @ 2008-03-01T20:04:00

2008-03-02T02:08:06Z

Happy Birthday to jedi_runya! I hope you have an awesome time! *hugs*

Strike?

2008-02-14T04:14:49Z

I thought I heard on the radio this morning that the Writers' Strike was over! Can anybody confirm
this? Any idea what this means for SV, SpN or the (I can only hope and pray) possibility of more Blood Ties?

Kirkwood

2008-02-09T04:00:52Z

I'm rather shocked by the shootout in the next town over. Although no one I know was directly involved, it always seems more real the closer it is to home. I'll be praying for the families of all those who were killed.

Is my vacation really over? sob

2008-01-03T07:34:55Z

I hope that everyone had an enjoyable holiday season and is now back home safe again!

I had a lovely Christmas at my parents house. The best part, as it has been in recent years, was watching Little Girl enjoy it. She was thrilled with all of her gifts (a play vet set may have been her favorite--she's spent hours doctoring her stuffed puppy and lion as well as her baby dolls with the thing) and loved spending time with my family.

The second best part for me was getting to see my family. Besides my parents, both my brothers, both my grandmothers (ages 88 and 93!), three of my aunts and two of my cousins were there. Sometimes it got a bit loud, but I really like and enjoy them--I feel so blessed that I have both a family and in-laws that I truly like as well as love!

The third best part was the food. My mother makes wonderful meals (including lots of vegetarian stuff for me!) over the holidays and always makes full breakfasts as well as dinners... I gained 6 pounds in a week! I've now gained as much weight during this pregnancy by thirty weeks as I did in the entirety of my first one. *sigh*

I had to work early (excruciatingly early!) on New Year's Day so that, along with the no alcohol thing, kept our New Year's celebration to a glass of sparkling grape juice and cookies enjoyed at 9 pm. It was New Year's somewhere... I think the Bahamas? :)

It was so hard to go back to work after vacation! And I also checked my work email where I found out that I need to have my book chapter finished several weeks before I thought I did... *sigh* I guess I'll have to lay off the LJ and really buckle down for the next few weeks.

because I usually miss this things and for once I'm ahead!

2007-12-11T04:11:09Z

Happy Birthday inyadreems! It's a couple hours early here, but right on time six or so time zones to the East...

I hope you have a happy one full of love from family and friends!

(P.S. I just received your lovely card in the mail--I think I recognize the photo, or am I hallucinating? It cheered my flagging holiday spirit!)

Even though it's been years since I've been in school...

2007-11-29T04:33:08Z

Little Girl climbed into bed with us last night and insisted on sleeping largely on top of me, thus insuring that I woke up about every ten minutes. Perhaps this is why I remember my anxiety dream so clearly--it seemed to last for hours. It was one of those doozies where I was taking some class where I seemed to have missed most of the lectures and had two papers due the next day that I hadn't started... For some reason I clearly remember that the papers were to be 8,000 and 12,000 words. One was supposed to be relating ancient Greek literature/philosophy to modern life is some particular way, only I couldn't remember the actual assignment in the dream.

I'm sure this all stems from the fact that I suddenly realized a few days ago that I need to get my butt in gear writing the book chapter (on a subject I know very little about) I have to have finished by February. And I won't have much time to work on it in January... So, wait, that only leaves the next few weeks. And it's not like I get time off from the rest of my work to do this. So far I have three pages of a very rough outline. *sigh*

I need to buckle down and work on this lurking monster in my free time. Starting tomorrow. :)

nerowill @ 2007-11-22T08:15:00

2007-11-22T14:23:34Z

Happy Thanksgiving to those with the holiday here in the US! Um, the rest of you, have a great day at work!

I'm all excited because for the first time in years I have Turkey Day off AND, not only that, I have the WHOLE four day weekend! I'm not sure I know what to do with myself... :)

Currently we're about to leave the Best Western in Joplin, MO to finish our journey to my in-laws. (The room is clean, well-heated, has really cheap not-kleenex that has turned my nose red, and less character than any of the places the Winchesters stay, but the clean part is good. Oh, and a door Little Girl has, regrettably, figured out how to open the door on her own...) Anyhow, within a few hours we'll be enjoying the holiday with my fantastic mother in-law and brother in-law, as well as other family members I haven't seen since the wedding.

*hugs* to all!

Update on the DB in the chimney

2007-09-30T19:08:47Z

A couple weeks ago we paid $200 for someone to come out and tell us that they couldn't actually remove the dead animal from our chimney--turns out it was stuck in some inaccessible place. Anyway, so we've been living with a piece of plastic taped up over the fireplace and it's done a good job with the smell.

Yesterday I started noticing a few flies in the house. By the afternoon, there were more than a dozen. Now there are probably a hundred. It is very much of the gross. We've retaped the fireplace (masking AND duct tape now in place) but they're still coming and I can't figure out how they're getting in! Did I mention the disturbing buzzing noise we can sometimes hear from the fireplace when it's quiet? *shudders*

My current plan is to buy Wal-mart out of fly strips and not to eat any food that's been out of the fridge long enough to leave my direct line of vision.

get me out of the car!

2007-09-25T02:50:55Z

We spent the weekend driving to OKC (8 hours with a hotel stop in the middle), spending 25 hours there, then turning around and coming home. The point of the visit was to see my husband's ailing grandmother, and I think it was a good thing to do. Little Girl was an amazing trooper and only spent a total of 10 minutes complaining on the entire car ride. (She developed quite a number of ways to ask, "Are we there yet?" though!)

Only now I'm SO DAMN TIRED and the rest of the week stretches out in front of me like an unending series of sleep-deprived days. And I'm still getting sick regularly. For example, I'm ending this post now for that very reason...

The smell of doom

2007-09-20T04:26:06Z

Something died in our chimney. Guess how I know? I'll give you a hint: I haven't seen, heard, touched or tasted anything dead up there... Fortunately my husband is pretty handy with the tape and plastic and has nicely sealed off the fireplace from general air circulation. Less fortunately it's going to cost us an estimated $200 to get the chimney cleaned out tomorrow. *sigh*

In better news, I haven't thrown up in two whole days! Of course I still feel like absolute crap, particularly in the evenings, but the no vomiting could (I hope, I hope, I hope!!) mean that things will improve soon.

Here's an example of my skill at child-raising. My MIL was visiting for the weekend and LG was (once again) behaving poorly at the dinner table. I asked her, "Don't you want to behave well for Grammy?" (do I sound beaten down?) and received no response.
My MIL then asked her, "Do you have company manners?"
LG's response: "Go fish!" And ain't that the truth...
I'm wondering if that response will work for me with my bosses... :)

I'm increasing! heh

2007-09-10T02:16:07Z

As some of you know, my husband and I have been wanting to have a second child for a while now, and finally, after almost a year of trying, I'm pregnant!

I've actually know about this for a couple of months, but I'm somewhat superstitious about telling people early on (unless I have to-for example I had to rearrange my entire work schedule as well as several other people's for the entire first half of next year).

Anyhow, I've nearly busted a gut NOT mentioning this before (especially when inyadreems mentioned her daughter being pregnant again), but it has protected you all from a veritable flood of bitching about how dang sick I am ALL THE TIME.

So here's the summary statement: I'm about thirteen weeks along, I'm due March 14th, and I vomit daily. Yep, that about says it all!

:)

(7) Quirks meme

2007-09-08T02:13:24Z

Quirks
1. List seven habits/quirks/facts about yourself.
2. Tag seven people to do the same.
3. Do not tag the person who tagged you or say that you tag whoever wants to do it.

acampbell tagged me, so here we go:

1. I love to read fortune cookies and still act like a 15 year old, adding 'in bed' to the end of each fortune.

2. I never thought I'd live in the Midwest, but here I am. I grew up in Tennessee and then lived in (Austin) Texas, California, Spain, and New York. But I really like St. Louis. Really.

3. My very first boyfriend was a cheerleader. He could lift me over his head...

4. If I eat more than about an ounce of chocolate, I vomit. For many years I hated chocolate (probably because it made me sick!), but then I discovered a love for the very smooth, expensive kind. I just have to remember to control myself.

5. I can't stand to have my bare feet touch each other, so, even when it's REALLY hot, I'll still wear socks to bed.

6. I can barely remember my home phone number. I've had it for more than two years now but still flub it when trying to get pizza delivered. Ditto for my zip code.

7. I gave up shaving my legs 15 years ago because, no matter what I tried, I would get a rash afterward. By the time the rash went away I would have stubble, and I hated the stubble more than hairy legs. By now I figure I've saved myself about a month of cumulative time that I've been able to use for other, more important things. Like reading fanfic...

I'm not sure that some of these people haven't already done this one, but I'll tag: jedi_runya, clara_swift, inyadreems, bmagret, arysteia, padawansue, and magdelena1969