Our version of winter wonderland

Well, we got about 15-18 inches of snow yesterday. Its hard to tell for sure because the wind blew a lot of the snow around. Anyway it provided for many photo opportunities. View our fun here!

SNOW SHOW!!!

If you have the tv on this morning, you know the world is stopping because of the SNOWSTORM that is churning up the east coast and causing all kinds of havoc. Are you all prepared for the storm of the century? Here's the list of essentials that you absolutely must have, as carefully compiled by Corey and myself after years of working in the supermarket industry.

1. Milk, bread and eggs. Snowstorms apparently trigger our inborn need for French toast. Even if you don't normally drink milk or eat French toast, you do when it's snowing.

2. Potato chips and hard salami and/or stick pepperoni. If you're going to have French toast for breakfast, lunch and dinner while you're "snowed in," you have to follow up with a nice light snack.

3. Lottery tickets, preferably scratch offs. You know if you can't get out to get your scratch offs, you're going to miss out on the big one! It's especially good if you buy your scratch offs, go home, scratch em and see that you've won 2 dollars. This gives you a reason to go back out on the dangerous roads and go back to the store, so you can collect your big jackpot, and take the opportunity to tell the employees that "The roads are awful. It's a mess out there. You people should be closed by now."

As Yukon Cornelius says in Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer, you gotta stock up on your essentials: Cornmeal and dog food, hamhocks and guitar strings. Never mind buying the things that are actually sensible for snowstorm preparedness, like maybe bottled water and batteries for if the power goes out, and some rock salt for the driveway.

The point of my rant: What is it about snow storms that makes people behave this way? It's just snow! Drive safely, if you have to drive at all, get the stuff you might actually need if you have to stay home for more than a day, and settle in for some quiet time, or as we do in our house, go outside and play with your kids (and dogs)!

the latest and greatest

More pictures! See November and December fun when you click.

A little Christmas magic...

We had our first Santa sighting today....and Santa was undercover! Milo and I were on way out of school this afternoon, when we walked by the office. There was an older gentleman sitting at one of the desks in the office, and the man had white hair, a little bald on top, and a full white beard and mustache, plus he was a bit portly. He was dressed in regular old guy clothes: tan sansabelt slacks and a yellow polo shirt. Milo's eyes got really huge and he whispered "Mommy...that's SANTA!" I said, "Let's go find out!"

Miss Ethel (the guard at the door) buzzed us back into the school, and we went into the office. Milo got really shy, and the old guy asked us what we needed. Milo finally took a step towards him and said "Are you....are you SANTA???" The old guy said "Why, yes, son, I am. And who are you?" Milo said "I'm Milo. M-I-L-O. Write it down." Santa dutifully pulled out a piece of paper and a pencil and wrote down the kid's name. Then Santa asked Milo what he wanted for Christmas, and Milo told him "A red robot with wheels that looks like Fred. But he's red." Santa wrote all this down too, while looking at me like "What the hell is he talking about?" I said "It's a good thing Santa has a helper to keep track of all those notes, huh?" Santa got the gist and said "Yes, I will make sure I keep your name and request at the top of my list." Then I asked Milo why he thought Santa was hanging out at the school in regular clothes. Milo's answer: "To check on all the children!" Santa said "That's right, I have to check my list twice to see who's been naughty or nice!" With that, Milo said "Merry Christmas, Santa!" and we left. Milo talked all the way home about how we saw Santa in his time off, and that he doesn't have to mail his Christmas list now because he was able to tell Santa himself before the other kids got to.

How cool is that though, that the old guy totally played along with Milo's pure belief in Santa, and didn't once let on that he wasn't the big guy. How are we to know he wasn't, actually?

this month is kicking my butt!

Argh. It never ends this month!! First the water heater blows out. Then Quinn gets some almost-killed him bacterial infection. My dad had to go for 3 more stents in his heart, for a total of 5. My sister is currently in Jefferson Hospital recuperating from a major brain surgery to remove a melangioma (not sure if I spelled that right?) sitting on her optic nerve. Turns out that the doctors couldn't get all of the tumor for fear of damaging her optic nerve, so after she is finally recuperated from the operation (as in months from now), she will have to go back for more radiation treatments.

As if all that isn't enough, now Milo has strep throat / scarlet tina or scarlet fever. He came down with 102 fever yesterday afternoon and complained of a bellyache; the fever hung around all through today and then Milo broke out in a itchy red rash all over his body. Off to the doctor we went, to find out he's highly contagious and we have to stay home for at least the next 24 hours, but it would be better if we stayed home all weekend. I've been suffering from near-migraines all week, probably from all the stress in my life, and Corey's been coughing for like a month now.

On the bright side, all our bills are paid. And maybe I'll get to take a nap tomorrow, since I get to hang around with Milo all day instead of going to work.

What a handsome boy!

Milo, 4 years old, for his first school picture. He picked out his clothes himself, he was so psyched about "picture day." And made me do his hair up special that morning. He is so GQ now, I can't wait to see what sort of fashionister he is when he's older!

Things I learned today

1. They make handheld mixers much more powerful than they used to be. I bought myself one today at Walmart for ridiculously cheap ($6!!!) and used it to whip up a pound cake for Corey...on low, it almost blew the mix out of the bowl! Cool! I still love my stand mixer, but the hand held job is good for quick stuff.

2. Dogs really love pumpkin. I sort of figured that out on my own when we were carving our pumpkins this year and Quinn and Lily kept sneaking up to steal the pumpkin guts from the pile on the floor. I proved the point to myself when I purposely bought them a can of pumpkin today and fed them some. Just a tablespoon each, to see if they liked it for real. Judging by the slurping, they loved it. Our dogs are apparently going organic, due to their perpetual stomach distress. Now they are being fed kibbles, rice and pumpkin. Did you know you can get a gigantic 25 pound bag of rice at BJs for around $10? That'll be enough to feed those mutts for two or three months!

3. Milo is growing up. He officially graduated from a car seat to a backless booster seat in the truck today. At least now he'll have lots more leg room! This is a sad moment for me, as all the car seats are now up in the attic, gathering dust. He used to be so small....Although the kid did freak me out this afternoon while we were picking out his booster seat, and told me that he wants a baby sister. I almost died right there in Walmart. I saved the day by telling him that if he has a baby sister, he'll have to share his room and his stuff. Milo then said "Oh. Never mind!"

Milo's Class Photo

This is Milo's first official class picture!!

Featured are:
Back row, from right to left: Ms. Phoebe, Nolan, Nicholas, Milo, Destin (Milo's best bud at school), Nathan, Ms. Brenda, Cody, Chadwick

Middle row: Joe'l (pronounced Joelle), Noelle, Kaitlyn, Madison, Angelina, Christine, Aaron (another of Milo's good friends)

Front row: Connor, Alex, Ayush, Joshua, Andrew, Jayden

PS: No the wall isn't really scribbled on like that, I took the name out of the picture (in a rather sloppy fashion) for privacy purposes.

Pup update

Quinn is doing much, much better. He was perky and HUNGRY this morning, but he's only allowed to eat small amounts of food for a few days. Quinn also knows that I had something to do with making him feel better; he gave me a giant hug this morning as soon as I got out of bed, and was hanging out with me on the couch a lot; two things he never does as he's not normally the world's most affectionate dog.

His poop situation is a lot better too; not as much bloody gunk and not diarrhea.

We're all glad he's almost back to his usual hyper self. Milo told me that Quinn needs to get a flu shot so he doesn't get sick again. What Quinn really needs is a chill pill so he quits worrying about everything!

The furball certainly dodged the silver bullet on this one!

Quinn the wonder pup

Today was a totally weird day. It started off with a bang when the stoopid coffee filter collapsed on itself and my morning java was full of grounds. I don't enjoy my coffee with chunks, thank you very much.

Then Quinn wandered by when I was trying to drink my chunky coffee and I noticed that he stunk really badly. I also noticed that there seemed to be poop blobs in a trail from the direction he had come. I checked out his butt and he had some nasty diarrhea going on back there. Into the tub Quinn went, for a butt bath. I also took the opportunity to give him a hair cut and cut back all the fuzz that grows around Quinn's butt, because I didn't want to have to give him another butt bath when I got home from work today.

That grossed me out, but apparently not enough. then I went outside to do poop patrol, and realized that Quinn's poop was mostly blood. It was all over the patio. I panicked a little bit, then got my act together and called the vet. They couldn't see him until noon today, so I had to take the day off from work. Milo went to school as usual, because I had no idea what was going to happen at the vet appointment.

Meanwhile, Quinn refused to eat (he hasn't eaten since Sunday night, and then not very well) and pretty much just laid around. Except when I took Lily outside, Quinn came along and played with her for a little bit.

I took Quinn to his vet appointment as scheduled and it turns out that if I hadn't gotten him in there, he probably would have died today. He was suffering from something called hemorraghic gastroenteritis, in which his body essential attacks itself and blood starts leaking from the stomach and intestines. High stress dogs (like Quinn) are prone to this, which I did not know before today, because their anxiety levels weaken their immune systems and allow too much of a certain type of bacteria to form in their guts, which leads to dehydration and the internal bleeding. The doc gave Quinn subcutaneous fluids and some antibiotics, along with some medicine to take to help his internal parts heal. She really wanted me to take him for emergency care, but we can't afford that. Our only option is to wait and see if Quinn can conquer this on his own. So far so good. She said that the first 10 hours or so were critical, and that if Quinn lives through tonight, he will fully recover. Quinn did eat some rice and a handful of dog food, and has been taking his medicine like a good boy. Plus he's been drinking a lot more in the last few hours than he was in the past few days, so we think he will be okay.

The thing that upsets me the most about this experience is that I almost didn't go out to do poop patrol this morning. I was in a total rush to get ready for work, after having to take the extra time to give the dog a bath and hair cut, and almost skipped the poop scoop routine. If I hadn't gone out there and seen the bloody poop, I never would have gotten Quinn to the vet in time, and we would have come home to a dead dog. I guess everything does happen for a reason.

The land of crazy dreams

All right, I'm totally going nuts and I know it, because my dreams have been WEIRD lately.

The other night I had a dream that I went to show off my tramp stamp to someone and they gasped in horror, not because the tattoo was gross or anything, but because my butt was overgrown with thick black werewolf hair, all the way up to the small of my back. I had no idea till I reached back to scratch my butt cheek and felt it for myself. Then I had to shave my butt cheeks every day. That was majorly difficult to do. When I woke up, I was so happy to just have to trim back my leg fur every once in awhile!

Last night I had an even stranger dream: I had a massive zit on my face, and I was looking in the bathroom mirror at it. As I was looking at it, the zit started to bulge and pulsate, and some sort of gross hairy thing wormed its way out of the zit and fell in the sink. As it uncurled itself, I realized it was a mouse. I picked the mouse up to take it out in the field, and the darn thing bit me. Not only was it born of my zit, it was rabid. Then I woke up, so I don't know what happened next.

I also had a dream that I lost two huge checks that Corey and I both signed, and had our bank account number on it. The checks got cashed before I realized it, and our accounts were drained. Yeah, I know that one is lame compared to the other two, but it was still stressful to think about.

So dream analysts: What do you make of those zingers?? Perhaps the tattoo ink is going to my brain?

we have hot water!

The hot water heater is successfully installed, it's working great and we can take hot water for granted again, thanks to Corey and his dad and their several hours of work. Woo hoo!

Still no water heater...

Well. Sears strikes again. We were supposed to be able to pick up our new water heater this afternoon. Guess what? I called Sears around 2pm, and was told that the delivery truck hadn't arrived yet for the day, and because it was running so late, we won't be able to get the water heater until sometime tomorrow.

I was really grateful for the phone call that they gave us, so I knew not to come home from work early to take care of things. Oh, that's right! We didn't get one! ARGGGGHHHH!!!!

I wonder what the excuse will be tomorrow, when I call Sears again? Supposedly the water heater was actually on the truck, wherever the truck may be, so hopefully we will have hot water tomorrow afternoon. Keep your fingers crossed.

Next up on my bucket list.....

I want to learn to drive with a stick shift. I need someone to teach me, and I need a car to learn on. Who's willing to volunteer their time? C'mon...you know you want to spend a few hours screaming in frustration as I completely screw up the sequence of clutch, shift, gas. Anybody have an old five speed they want to sell for cheap?

My mid life crisis car will be a 2008-2010 convertible V-8 Mustang with a stick shift. I am diligently putting aside the bucks for it....but I need to learn to drive it before I can buy one!

Yes, I am a person who plans out their mid life crisis ahead of time. That way Corey will be prepared when I go off the deep end :)

Happy Halloween!

We've been busy getting ready for Halloween. For pictures of pumpkins and Milo's school halloween party, check out my facebook page. Click here, too, because I can't figure out how to put two links together yet.

Hey Stanky Pete, you got that water ready yet?

How else do you expect a redneck to take an indoor bath? Heat up the water on the stove and dump it in the tub, yer good to go.

Our water heater crapped out yesterday, and rather than pay an arm and a leg for the propane guy to tell us that we have to replace it, Corey and I ordered up a new one at Sears. (The propane guy told us three years ago to replace the water heater, but we ignored him. That'll teach us!) The new heater won't be in till the end of the week, and then we can't get it installed till the beginning of next week, so in the meantime we have to be creative about keeping up with our personal hygiene.

Corey has a funny name for this variety of bath, in which we dump the hot water in the tub and take a quick swish before it cools off: A cowboy bath.

Even funnier is what he calls a sink bath, which Milo has been getting on a regular basis. He calls it taking a Pirate Bath, because yer just washin' yer pits and privates, matey. While we're doing that we have to say "Arrrr this water be freezin!"

I myself opt for the cold shower route. It's horrible at first but I get used to it quickly. I'm only in there for about 5 minutes, tops, anyway, unless I'm washing my hair, at which point I get out, get dressed and then use the handheld shower on my head and lean over the tub so at least most of my body is warm.

There is always some sort of chaos going on at the Itchmoney palace! Thank goodness all three of us have excellent senses of humor!

Another item crossed off my "bucket list"

I've wanted to get a tattoo for years, but have always been too chicken and too poor, plus could never find a design that I would want to live with for the rest of my life. Well, this year I decided I would seriously pursue the idea, and find out more about it. After many hours spent browsing the internet looking at different tattoos, and thinking about all the things I love the most, I decided that I wanted the Batman logo. But not just a big old black bat, something different and unique and intriguing, which is how I think of Batman and the whole vigilante/dual personality thing he has going on. A couple of different people drew up tattoos based on the ideas that I put together and this is the design I chose. It was drawn by Eric, the guy who did the work.

I would have to say that the experience was not painful at all. Uncomfortable would be the best way to describe it. Unless you really like the sensation of getting shot with rubber bands repeatedly until your skin goes numb. I'm just happy to have broadened my horizons with the experience and to have come away with something that I really, really love!

My tattoo, freshly unbandaged after I got home.

The expression on my face in this one totally reminds me of BurgerMeister MeisterBurger from the old Christmas special Santa Claus is Coming To Town. Eric hit a nerve or something at that moment in time.

Eric hard at work inking me up during my mid life crisis moment. Thanks to Amy for taking the in-progress photos!

I have become a "gamer"

Don't expect to hear much outta me anytime soon. I have been sucked into the world of Wii. It is so much stinkin' fun!!! Corey is now a Wii widow, after many years of me having been a computer/car widow.

Only two more months til Christmas!

Milo is already planning his very extensive Christmas list, which grows longer daily. The kid spends hours poring over the catalogues that come in the mail, and telling us which items he really wants. It pretty much adds up to EVERYTHING.

Anyway, there hasn't been too much new and exciting going on around here. Milo and I did take Lily to school for "d" week, since she is a da-dog, as Milo says. Lily loved being with all the kids, and I enjoyed the time spent answering their questions. Milo was so proud to have us there for his show and tell, and the kids really got a blast out of silly Lily. The teachers liked her too, and went out of their way to tell us what a great dog Lil is. It would have been quite a different story if we had taken Quinn along!

Our digital camera is a bit on the fritz so there's not a lot of new photos to peruse, but to whet your appetite, check these out.

Ha!

Just look at this for a giggle.