And we're off!!

Look out Chicago--here we come!!  A fun filled weekend of shopping and site-seeing await me and my girl.  The American Girl store is our first stop on Thursday--with a luncheon in the store's dining room!  Then let the tearing up of WaterPlace begin!

There are so many fun things we want to do--the weather is going to be good--but it's going to be freaking HOT~  Navy Pier and 95 degrees?  Whew--better pack some extra deoderant!!!

My sister and I have been planning this trip for ages and I'm SO excited that it's finally here!!

We are taking the train--a first for me!  I've never traveled that way and I'm looking forward to seeing how it goes.  It was SUPER cheap and I don't have the headaches of driving or dealing with idiots on the road--woohoo!!!

I'll be back with updates later!!!!  You all have a safe weekend!!!

Rough Night in my "neck of the woods"

With all apologies to Al Roker--man what night!!!

Rain, wind and Tornados--Oh my!!!  While all the major damage was about 15 miles to the North East of us, we had a wild and crazy night around here with 2 major storm systems rolling thru in about 4 hours.

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I have never been in this kind of stuff in the middle of the night beofre and it's pretty scary!  Daytime storms are bad enough around here, but when you cannot see what is coming at you, it gets your heart racing.  We pray for the lives that were lost and thank goodness all we lost was the power for a while.

REALLY ?????????????

Still nothing too exciting going on in my world, but I do have to share a little bit o'the crazy from the in-law front.


We have been sent an announcement for a GRADUATION!!!!  Whose graduation you ask?  Well, I'll be happy to tell you......it's for my just turned 5 year old niece-in-law (you know, daughter of crazy sister-in-law).


They are proud to announce her graduation from PRE KINDERGARTEN and will be having a party at their house for the historic event that we were ALL invited to. 

Ummmm yeah....Graduation from PRE-Kindergarten??  Really?  and not to be a total bitch, but she never really went to Pre-K at a real school, it was at the day care center.

If they are throwing a big backyard barbeque for this, what the hell are they going to do for the kid when she really does something important?  Like graduate from KINDERGARTEN???  Throw a parade????  I wonder what the gift registration will be for that event?

Oh--did I mention that we got this announcement with the party invitation on Sat the 29th??  When is the party you ask?  It was for the next day!  Guess we were an afterthought. 

OH!  I actually do have an announcement of my own!!  DD got an award from school for making Honor Roll for the entire year!  Yeah Child!!  She is so smart--it's scary sometimes.

I'm so proud of her--but I guess I should feel like a failure as a parent since I didn't rent out a skywriter plane to announce it publicly.  I should be ashamed for saying that we would go out for Ice Cream to celebrate her awesome grades.  Bad Mommy!!

Nothing Special...

Hello all!


After feeling like I have been living in Seattle with all the rain we have had here over the last 2 weeks, I am SO excited that the SUN has come out and will be staying the weekend!  Yeah!!


Not much going on in my world so thus the lack of posting.  But I have been wondering why the hell people leave SPAM comments on people's blogs?/  It's so annoying and I really don't read Chinese or want to click on your links about the best deals on shoes or Viagra--so please don't even bother leaving that crap--I just delete it. 


For the new people who stop by and leave nice comments--thank you so much--it makes my day!!


I don't watch American Idol, but since Crystal Bowersox has made the top 3, Toledo is being inundated with Crystal fever!!  The American Idol crew showed up here last night and every radio station, news station, newspaper--all of it--that's all they have to talk about.  I'm happy she is doing so well and I hope she wins, but really, not everyone gives a crap and wants to hear about it all day.


The BROKE City of Toledo is having a parade and a concert for her downtown today--do you think American Idol is footing the bill for all of that so they can get footage?  I certainly hope so, because we cannot even afford to pay our cops to protect citizens on a daily basis--how can they afford the cost of all the hoopala that is surrounding her visit??  She will be singing at the Toledo MudHens game tonight too--I bet the MudHens are thrilled that they will be making the bucks off of her.  Oh well--good Luck Crystal, I've never heard you sing, but I wish you the best.


Heard back from the radiologist--my boobs show no signs of cancer--so yeah me!!!  I have, however, been sick as a dog for the last 2 freaking weeks coughing and hacking--blech, I'm tired of being sick.


That's all for now I guess--I got nothing!  Seacrest out!

Pain and Suffering--it's sucks being a woman

OK--I'm all for the Save the Tatas campaign and such, but there is NO WAY IN HELL that I am willingly having another mammogram!  That shit hurts!!!!!!!!

It was quick and I guess the tech was good, but seeing as I have been "blessed" in the boobage department, there was no way I way getting out of there pain free. 

It's SO not fair!  We women birth the children, take the birth control (which involves yearly invasion of our lady bits) and now I have to get my boobs smashed in the torture chamber?  Men invented ALL of this crap I tell you. 

Why don't they have to do anything?????  Yeah, they are SUPPOSED to go get check ups--but no one MAKES them--no one threatens to withhold their birth control prescription if they don't come in and get checked out.  (hmmmmm, could I threaten to close up "the cookie shop" if he won't go to the dr?--well, that would only hurt me too I guess).  It's just not right!  Maybe they should have to have a "turn and cough" check up of their own every year to get a BEER license or a GOLF license--that would get them wouldn't it.

The tech showed me my boob shots--kind of interesting, I didn't see anything out of the ordinary, but then again, who am I?  She did say--"Oh, don't worry, but now that we have gone all digital, the majority of people get called back after their baseline to get additional screening--just because we don't know what your boobs are supposed to look like"  W.T.F.??????????????  This is supposed to give you a BASELINE of what my boobs look like--if you don't see anything out of whack--then leave me the fuck alone until next time--if something changes, we'll worry about it then. 

I am just so sick off all this Dr/hospital/testing stuff--I'M OVER IT!  Blech!

Quandry..

OK--so it has been almost a month since I had my bloodwork done and stopped taking the Lipitor.  I had not heard back from my Dr., so I put in a call to the office to get the results--guess what--they had not gotten them back!  I go into panic mode--seeing as I had been off the Lipitor for a month now--what if I had to have the bloodwork done again--Oh boy, I'd be in trouble.


Well, I called and the office had to call and get the results from the testing facility themselves--they had ti, but could not give it to me directly--WTF--It's my bloodwork--idiots.  Anyheew.  The office gets the info and calls me back....


Mrs. Lurker?  Yes, I say--whatever you are doing--KEEP IT UP! Your bloodwork came back AMAZING!  My total Cholesterol is 134, the triglycerides are at 124 and my CK (Whatever the hell that is is 43).  The only thing is that my iron is a touch low--but nothing to worry about.  Sigh............


So, I guess the stupid Lipitor did what is was supposed to do.  What do I do?  I still have the script I filled before I decided to go off the stuff--so do I take it and see if the side effects come back?  Or do I just keep up with the Fish oil , vitamin C and the fruits/fiber I have been eating????  I know she will want to run more bloodwork at my appointment in June---if I skyrocket back up, she will know I quit taking the stuff.  I really wish I could have bloodwork done and see where I am at right now with just my diet changes, but that 's not going to happen.  What to do, what to do...............


Next up in my medical world?   MAMMOGRAM TIME!!  Ugh--I have not had one yet and I dread it with everything I am--my mother and grandmother NEVER have had one.  I decided I am going to have this ONE and then push it off for as long as I can.  Cancer doesn't run in my family (except for my Dad's rare and weird thing he has going on)--it's our hearts that get us in the end--and I'm working on that.  Why do I have to have my boobs smashed too??  UGH!

Happy Birthday to my little girl

9 years ago today you were pulled kicking and screaming into our world. Everything changed, nothing has been the same and I am so grateful for it.

I love you baby--Happy Birthday!

Mamma says Lipitor is the "DEBIL"

OK--when my cholesteral came back with a reading of "OH MY GOD", the good Dr. put me on Lipitor. OK I thought, what ever will bring it down right? But there was still this little voice inside me that said--"girlie--try it naturally first--eat more fruit and fish before you drug yourself up with more stuff."

I should have listened to my little voice.

About 5 days into taking the Lipitor, I developed an eye twitch in my right eye. I used to get them from drinking too much caffiene, but I have drastically reduced my caffiene in take since the beginning of the year--so I ruled that out, but didn't give it much other thought.--maybe stress who knows. Then about 3 weeks into the Lipitor, my back started KILLING me. I thought it was because I shoveled some heavy ass snow during our last big snow storm--but 3 weeks after the pain started, it was only getting worse--no pain relief would touch it.

I went for a regular check up and mentioned the back pain and the eye twitch to the Dr. She said that she was going to order some extra bloodwork to see what was going on--but to keep taking everything until she got the results back.

Well that was on the 9th--by the time I was scheduled to take have the bloodwork done (at the 6 week point of the Lipitor), my eye was driving me nuts and I felt almost crippled by the pain in my back. I had the blood work done and I decided to quit taking the Lipitor--screw waiting for the blood tests to come back.

Guess what?????

By day 2--no more eye twitch--it was totally gone. Today is one week later and my back pain is down to almost nothing--It was totally managable by day 4 off the pills and today I didn't even take any Aleve at all.

I refuse to take Lipitor ever again! I did some research over the weekend and found that Statins in general are causing WAY more harm than good--research is even pointing to early onset alzheimer's being caused by them.

Our body NEEDS cholesteral to repair itself--when the body is messed up, it makes more to fix it and the statins kill the CoQ10 your body needs. It's been advised to add fish oil, flax seed and TONS of vitamin C via fruits, veggies and fish (gee, didn't my little voice tell me that?) or via supplements. Since my diet does suck, I have bought the supplements and will give them a go and see how my blood work turns out the next time.

I also hereby promise to eat better and get off my butt to exercise. It's going to be hard, but I refuse to put Statins in my body ever again.

Sirrus Radio, I can't quit you--LITERALLY, I CAN'T QUIT YOU!!

OK when the new car was purchased back in '08 Sirrus radio was included for 1 year for free. DH renewed the following year because they had a good deal going to stay a customer.

This last year we had nothing but trouble with the damn thing--had to get "pinged" to reset the service at least once a month--it just became irritating. Then we got the renewal notice and saw that they wanted us to pay $179.00 for the "priveledge" of having their intermittent service. Um yeah--BIG FAT NO!

Anyheeew DH called back in December to say that he no longer wanted the service, what did he have to do? He was told that it would be noted that he wanted his service discontinue and that when the bill came, just don't pay it and the service will be shut off at the end of the contract date.

Very good.

Fast forward to Feb--when the service was due to end. Sirrus is still going strong (side note--the service has been working PERFECTLY since DH called to cancel--no pings needed, no mess ups, no break up, NOTHING). We come and go past the service date--Sirrus is still working.

Last Monday night we get a call from Sirrus saying that we owe them $179.00 and it's past due.

RECORD SCRATCH--WTF!!!!!!

Dh proceeds to inform the stupid ass on the other end of the phone about the conversation he had with "Dan" back in December (yes, I still had his name--I'm anal--I keep notes on EVERYTHING). Stupid ass says--why yes Mr. Lurker, we do see that note, but "DAN" had no authority to cancel your subscription.

REPEAT WTF???????

Then why is Dan answering the damn phone at Sirrus???????? DH asked and Stupid Ass really had no answer except for: Well, I can certainly stop your service, but you will owe us for the days you have "enjoyed" our service. Yeah stupid ass, I don't think so. We are NOT paying for service that we 1) didn't ask for and 2) TOLD YOU TO CANCEL 3 months ago!

Stupid ass said that there was nothing they could do about that and we had to pay the $27.00--at that point a supervisor was asked for. "MEGAN" ended up hearing the story and said that she would just take care of the $27.00 since we had so much "trouble" and to not worry about it--but our service would be turned off immediately. We said we were fine with that--we didn't want it anyway.

A few days ago we got a notice from Sirrus--"Please renew your account with us" A special rate, just for you--blah blah blah--right in the trash it went!

YESTERDAY I get a YELLOW envelope from Sirrus with "ACCOUNT PAST DUE" stamped on it--with a bill for $27.00. FUCK ME! I get on the phone and ask to speak with "MEGAN"--she of course is not available, but "Antoine" is happy to be of help. I explain the whole damn story again and he pulls up the account--all the info is listed there--with a note saying that we owe them nothing--our balance is ZERO. Then why in the hell did I get a bill? Antoine has no idea--just throw it away. No way in hell am I throwing that away--it's covered in notes of my call with "toine".

OH! 10 days after our call with Megan, our service is STILL on!

STUPID ASSES!

Does it ever end?? and...you had it coming!

OH--so in the world of "Does it ever end?"--my Dad is back in the hospital. If my Dad and I had a Facebook status, it would be "It's Complicated". The relationship is polite and pleasant, but due to "crazy" in my growing up/formative years, it can also be somewhat strained. Things have been better over the last 10 years when I decided to let him back in my life by letting him know he was going to be a grandfather--we're working on things.

Anyheew--he also has a form of Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma--it's not curable, just managable. As long as the tumors can be removed, they can manage it--once it's in the bones, he's done. They do a maintenance chemo on him every 6 months or so to keep it out of the marrow--so his immune system is weak. He had to have hernia surgery back in Jan--they thought it was a simple fix, but once they got in, they found 6 tears intead of one. The night after the surgery, he crashed--stopped breathing, the whole bit--not good. He was in the hospital for a week fighting infection and a build up of fluids. They sent him home with an arsenal of antibiotics and drain tubes. He has been dealing with this for weeks--keeps getting more drugs and never seems to get better. Well, he went back to the surgeon and he took one look at his stomach and admitted him directly to the hospital. It has been determined that he has STAPH!!!! SO they are going to have to go in and clean him out--more surgery ugh! I feel so bad for him to have to go thru all of this. His wife is very good to keep us posted on everything going on and I feel bad for her too. She is a good woman and they have been thru so much since they got married, but their faith is strong and they depend on it to get them thru.

On the "you had it coming" front: DD and I had to haul our ass up to a birthday party for 5 year old niece yesterday. She is the child of "you must spend money to prove your love" sister in law. The party was fine and then it came time to open up the gifts--they opened up everything from the guests and that went fairly quickly--all the usual kid crap. THEN it came time to open up the MOUNTAIN of presents left over that were from the parents of the child--I counted 25 gifts and then couldn't see the rest and gave up. The SIL could tell that the crowd was getting bored with the over abundance of crazy going on, so they decided to have Niece-in-law open up her "BIG" gift from them. There was a huge build up to this gift--that it had to be for last, because she would ignore EVERYTHING ELSE and go nuts when she saw this thing. Well, you could have heard a pin drop in the room when it came time to open up THE BIG ONE.

They bought their 5 year old a REAL ELECTRIC GUITAR COMPLETE WITH AMPLIFIER. IT was some limited edition Disney Hannah Montana Guitar--it weighed more than the kid and she couldn't even pick it up. NIL took one look at it, turned around and started to play with the SpongeBob bath set she got--demanding that she get to play with the washcloths! God love that little kid--way to go for the dollar sponge and ignore the $200.00 dollar gift!!! Needless to say the parents were doing everything under the sun to get her to play with it and she had no interest! That's what you get I guess.