Katerbug Blue

This week the husband and I ventured into the Home Depot. He usually forbids me to go there–cause I seem to be drawn to everything from the cool bath faucet to the awesome new obsidian glass vanity sink. I could spend hours in a home improvement store—well, hours and thousands of dollars (which is why I’m grounded!!). But on this trip we needed new lighting over our medicine cabinet in the master bedroom. Since I stay home all day—I wanted to have a say in just what we got (or how much we spent on it).

While he looked at lights, I meandered around with my 9 year old and I’m happy to report that we only came home with the lights…..and a handy dandy “No Soliciting” sign and a super cool new phone plug. Not to bad for a kid in a candy store, eh!!

My aunt has found the best weight loss pill. She’s only been on it for 3 weeks and already she looks great. She doesn’t have the best health, so I was a little worried about her. Until I saw her. She says that she isn’t hungry on this pill—but that she has a TON of energy. She’s even taken up biking! How would it be?

Of course, right now it sounds miserable to me (cause I’m sick) but seriously—energy to go out and really enjoy my kids? I can’t even imagine it. I always wanted to be the “cool” mom. The mom out in the front yard playing football with her boys. Maybe after I kick this cold to the curb…I’ll check them out. See just how ‘cool’ these old bones can get!

We had the chance to head downtown last Monday to the Lincoln Park Zoo. One last outing before the school year started. We went with some friends from our current house, and met some friends from our old house. It was a fun afternoon and brought back so many memories as we headed home. The kids begged to ride together so we decided to detour through the old neighborhood on the way home. We’ve only been away from it for 2 years—and already so much has changed. The huge Circuit City building is now empty. The library has been turned into the Early Childhood Education center for all of the Kindergartners. Even the neighborhood vegetable stand was gone. Has it really been long enough for all of this to change? It still seems like yesterday that we moved here–and yet—so much really has changed. Time really does fly by!

Our family has gotten addicted to audio books. It’s something that we enjoy listening to in the car and it helps keep all of the kids entertained. We just finished a series about “Uglies, Pretties and Specials”. It all took place 300 years in the future and there were surgeries that you get when you turn 16 to go from being Ugly to being pretty. They make you the perfect height and weight. The recreate your face and teeth. Even your skin is polished to perfection. Sounds kinda nice, eh?

Mind you–I don’t really want any type of surgery–but it certainly beats weight losss supplements in my humble opinion. The kids seemed to enjoy the stories, but also got bored with everything being so perfect.

My oldest is 11. He’s a little round–but I’m a little nervous to see what Mother Nature has in store for him when puberty sets in!! Poor little fella!

Most people have problems with speech anxiety in their lives. This isn’t something I’m familiar with—unless I have to talk on the phone. Then I become a bumbling idiot! I’m not going to get all preachy on you…but in our church we are practically raised speaking in public. From prayers and scriptures in front of all of the other kids starting at age 3 to speaking in front of the whole congregation a couple of times a year starting at age 12. I’m telling you—we are trained to speak.

Last night as we sat at the pharmacy filling the prescription for my daughter, my 9 year old son decided that he would entertain me with his dancing. Now I should say…he’s very good. No training or classes or anything–but very definitely a natural beat is in his soul! So he starts rocking to “Can’t Touch This” yes, MC Hammer. He’s rollicking back and forth on his feet…he’s rippling his shoulders…the boys is getting into it. And he was awesome. He didn’t even care that there was a crowd of other waiting patrons with us. It wasn’t until he broke into his own rendition of “I Feel Pretty” and everyone started giggling, that the slow blush crept across his cheeks and he sat down quietly.

It’s funny–he’d been in his own little world, not caring what other people thought. Who does that??

Every time I’m sick with congestion in my lungs I always start claiming to have something much worse than a chest cold. You know, mesothelioma or the Swine Flu! I’m happy to report that I have neither, but you can still feel sorry for me–I do!

My daughter was in the E.R. yesterday. She has been sick the last several days as well, and Friday night started complaining about severe pain in her right ear. Now you all know how it is in the E.R. in the middle of the night. It takes forever. So I promised her that if she was still in pain when we woke up, that I would take her to the doctor. Well—guess what! Saturday morning she woke up–and the pain was gone. Miracle of miracles, right? Wrong!! Turns out–the intense pressure of her ear infection caused her ear drum to rupture during the night. Thus relieving the pressure and the pain. Problem is—her entire right side of her head was caked in dried blood. Now bleeding from the ears…that’s just plain scary.

So we took her in, they put her on Zithromax and sent me home. In her discharge papers (generic) it says to bring her to the E.R. again if her fever spikes, or if she is dizzy or vomiting or if there is discharge from her ear…blood or pus. So this morning I wake up to another dried blood caked ear. But do the “discharge from the ear” instructions still apply to me–since I took her in with discharge–and it’s the same? Or is this considered new discharge and she needed to go in? Yeah—I’ve no idea either!

So I watched her. Her fever remained gone with no medication. She wasn’t lethargic, and her ear didn’t bleed again the entire day. So I didn’t take her back. Now…..if there is blood caked on her face tomorrow morning…she’s going in first thing!

My computer is running slower than ever. I know it’s a memory problem–and I can fix it by adding some ddr. But you know what…I’m sick today, and I just don’t feel like ordering anything. Silly, huh? When I’m not feeling my best–I put things off. The kids started school last week, so I really should have plenty of time in any given day to get these minor things taken care of. But when I’m sick—nothing gets done. I’m in shut down mode, and I’m hoping tomorrow is better! I have a growing “To Do” list that is getting chokingly long!!

I am the second to youngest of 7 kids. Actually, we are a combined family with the four older kids belonging to my dad and us three younger ones belonging to my mom. But we’ve been together for so long—we really are just family.

I had the opportunity earlier this month to see my sister Lori. She is the second to oldest of our 7, and she just turned 50. She was in town for a convention and I have to tell you, she looked great! I don’t know if she found the best wrinkle cream ever, or if she’s just living well–but that girl hasn’t aged in the past several years since I’ve seen her. I was amazed. I’m not even in my 40’s yet, and she definitely looks better than I do!

She claims to have found the “Fountain of Youth” and from the looks of it…she may be right!

Yes, this is the week school starts! Finally, we live in an area where the kids go back earlier in the month of August rather than later. I know, I don’t sound like a mom who enjoys having her kids home for the summer. But I really do. They just seem to get “bored” a whole lot quicker at home than they do when half of their day is eaten up by school.

The other fabulous thing about this week. Even though the kids don’t go back to school until Thursday, they start their school year bedtime right now. That means that every night from now on, these precious little cherubs will be snug in their beds by 8 pm. That means quiet time for me from the time they head to bed, until my husband gets home a couple of hours later. It’s happening…right now! Can you hear it??? Yeah, neither can I—-it’s silence—and it’s AWESOME!

Do you things in your life that you are fanatical about? Well I spent an evening with my cousin last week, and I have to tell you they are UBBBBBBBBER passionate about BYU. Now, in my home state you are either a Ute fan or a Cougar fan…fence sitting is strictly prohibited! When the two schools play one another in football–it is known as the “Holy War”. I was raised by a man who graduated from the University of Utah. We had season tickets to every Ute basketball game ever played!!! My brother is a die hard, red blooded Ute fan, and I thought his school pride was unrivaled—until I spent the evening in the “Blue” house! They had a “Y” strung out on their porch in Christmas lights, they had pictures on the fridge of them at the beach where they had taken the time to scrawl out a big old “Y” in the sand and then crowd around the masterpiece for a family portrait. They have “Y”s on their motorbikes and automobiles. I didn’t even know they had BYU truck accessories–but they found EVERY one of them! It’s a sickness I tell ya!

Back at home in Chicago I can honestly say, I know nothing about any of the schools here–except that they each cost about $30K a year to attend! But it was really enlightening to find people truly passionate about something!

I was just reading over on my sister’s blog about her aversion to all things electronically advanced! I can vouch for this–she hold onto most of her dinosaurs until they are long dead and petrified! My husband on the other hand is the first in line to own anything brand new. From ipods to iphones, Palm Pilots to Laptops…he’s got the newest, shiniest everything.

Now–I have to admit–my sister probably has it better than I do simply because new devices inevitably cost quadruple the price she’s going to pay by waiting–and all new items come with BUGS! Little irritating bugs that have to be worked out. Super frustrating!! But still—the man must be first in all things!

This morning they had a water party at church.  That just meant that the kids got to dress up in their swimming suits, and get wet.  There were little splash pools, a slip ‘n slide, and water balloon launchers.  My kids got soaked, but they were immensely happy.  Lunch was lemonade, PB&J’s, chips and watermelon with popsicles for dessert.

It was pretty toasty outside, so it made for a perfect day to get wet.  And honestly, aside from a few loaves of bread and a watermelon or two, there really wasn’t much involved in the way of costs.  Not a bad party for anyone on a budget!