Whassup

My new goal is to try and post at least once a week. . .I am about to start a whirlwind travel schedule for work so I may as well just write October off as a month lost from my life! So, sorry if I don't update the blog as much as I'd like. Hopefully the more time away will give me more (better) things to post about.

Here are some more GEMS from The Genius:

1. Me: (convincing him to get a haircut) Don't you want to be handsome?
Him: I'm already handsome. I don't need a haircut for that.

2. Him: (to his dad) Okay, I need for you to call my school every morning to see what they are having for breakfast so I can decide if I want to eat at school or at home.
His dad: **blank stare**
Him: For real.

3. Me: (in between kissing him a million times) I'm so glad God sent me such a smart and handsome little boy. I didn't know you were going to be so smart and handsome.
Him: You thought I wasn't going to know anything when I grew up?

4. Walking through Target looking at Halloween stuff we come upon a skeleton used for decoration.
Him: I can name all the parts of the skeleton.
Me: (intrigued) I don't believe you!
Him: Watch (so he starts as I point to the head) Brain, chest, stomach, arms, PENIS, legs. . .
Me: (laughing loudly and covering HIS mouth) Boy, a skeleton doesn't have a penis!
Him: Is it a girl?

Man, oh man life is just about to start getting FUN!

Bad Parents

Prior to the hurricane my son had an episode of vomiting, high fever and pain in his ear- yep, you guessed it, it was a full blown ear infection. So the doctor prescribes an antibiotic that my son is supposed to take for 10 days.

Two days later we evacuate for the hurricane. Needless to say my son probably received two doses of the medicine. Exactly one week after the hurricane my son throws up again and is complaining about his ear. Shit. So, we go back to the doctor and I tell a pretty convincing lie that when we evacuated we FORGOT the medicine at home and since it had to be refrigerated it ended up spoiling because we lost power. She gave me the side eye but wrote another prescription.

So, September 19th we get another prescription that he is supposed to take TWICE a day for 10 days. Although the hurricane is over the aftermath still lives on and to say our schedule/pace has been harried is the biggest understatement of the year. My son has not taken the prescription- correction his horrible parents have not given him his medicine in two days. My fear is that if we go back to the doctor she will excuse herself and call CPS from the another room.

I seriously feel like a major failure. It breaks my heart when he's sick and although he has been fine- wrecking havoc all over the house- I know the infection is probably still lingering and will rear it's ugly head again and it will be all our fault. If we have to go back I'm going to put a reminder in my phone to ring when it's time for his medicine- I know I should have done that at first, hindsight makes me feel even worse. I pray to God he gets better and that we don't have to go back to the doctor. Internet please send positive vibes our way!

(that picture is from my collection The Genius @ 10 months old)

Slowly but Surely

As you can imagine things have been a little crazy ( or crazier than normal) in my world. We're finally trying to regain some sense of normalcy. . .our power came on Thursday evening around 6:30 and the way we found out was hilarious (in retrospect). My husband- bless his heart- had gotten the hook up with a 15,000 watt generator (yeah, he could have powered up the entire street) and he also had an AIR CONDITIONING WINDOW UNIT- I didn't even know they still made those. . .I have no idea where he got this stuff and while I was grateful I was somewhat leery.

I kept thinking something was going to blow up or we'd have carbon monoxide in the house. So, I was extremely paranoid. At one point I was sitting on the couch watching this monster in our backyard with all these cords coming out of it and all of a sudden I hear this grinding sound and I start screaming. . ."Oh, my GAWD it's gonna blow!" Turns out the grinding noise was our GARBAGE DISPOSAL. Someone had flipped the switch and when the power was restored that was the first thing that came on. After I nearly gave my husband a heart attack we started celebrating. We went outside to tell the neighbors who were all outside in their driveways. My son ran out and started yelling, "hey everybody we got lights!"

Although I am EXTREMELY grateful that the power has been restored at our house (we still have friends and family who are without power) and while I did miss it- things weren't that bad when the power was out. We learned to improvise. We stayed closer together. We went to sleep earlier. We talked more. We were still.

Now that the power has been restored we're back to our frenetic pace. Today was my son's first day back at school and he was feeling the pain. He's been on "hurrication" (vacation due to hurricane- heard that on the news last night) and it was hard for that young brother to get it together this morning. As for me, man oh man, I was already struggling to stay on track and now I have to kick it in to the highest gear possible to get caught up before my ridiculous travel schedule (for work) kicks in next month. Next month. . .do yall realize that' s NEXT week?!

AGH!!

Safe and Sound

Hurricane Ike has come and gone. It tore through Galveston and Houston like a beast on a rampage. Praise God, my family and I are okay. So are the majority of friends that I have been able to contact. We sustained minimal damage to the outside of our house and that's it. No electricity but the weather was great last night and it was our first night back home.

Not sure how much longer we'll stay without power. . .hope the 4 week rumors aren't true. I'm at work today trying to regain some sense of normalcy. At least there's electricity and INTERNET at work! It is surreal to see all of the landmarks I'm familiar with in the city (on my side of town) torn down or hanging by a thread. Ike beat up the city pretty bad. . . but I know H-Town will bounce back in no time at all. It's a big ass inconvenience right now but it could have been so much worse.

My son, just realized the severity of the situation when we were returning home yesterday (we sought refuge in New Braunfels and Katy)- the playground structure in front of his school is GONE! He gasped and his eyes widened (even larger) and he said in his most devastated voice, "Oh, no the hurricane took our playground what are we gonna do?!"

To have a child's priorities. . .hope anyone who was in the area during the hurricane survived and all is well with you and your loved ones.

Things I Would Grab in a Hurricane

You know every since Hurricane Katrina and her sister, Hurricane Rita tore through the Gulf of Mexico people in Texas are always a little on edge when it comes to hurricanes because we have been thisclose to experiencing the devastation that our cousins in Louisiana and Mississippi experienced 3 short years ago. Whenever there is a disturbance in the Gulf we make sure our tanks are full of gas (after taking out a loan!!) and that we have our contingency plans mapped out in case we have to haul ass out of State (it would take you six months to get out of the State so, we all just head as far North Texas as we can)!

Well, the last time we vacated for Rita’s impending arrival I was at a loss when it came to deciding what priceless mementos I should cram into the trunk of my car. Let me stop here and say I am a total nostalgia geek! I have saved everything from ceramics that my late maternal grandmother made me in 1986, my 8th grade memory book, volleyball trophies (and I wasn’t even a starter on the team) photo’s GALORE, and even locks of my son’s hair from his first haircut.

Now I should clarify and say that because I am such a neat freak all of these items are neatly stored away and if you were to come to my house its cozy and somewhat minimalist appearance might shock you. . .there are no photo’s nailed up on the walls or stacks of old newspapers turning yellow in the corner. But there are certain things I just can’t seem to part with just yet.

Anyhoo. . .back to the topic at hand. I’ve thought about it and if I only had time to grab a few things (with the idea that everything else would be loss and this doesn’t include my husband and son) I would snatch up the following items:

1. My purse- contains the plastic loot, my drivers license and my phone
2. My passport- I might need to leave the country and grieve over the loss of my material possessions (might as well grab my son's while I'm at it)
3. Three photo albums (childhood pictures, some travel and my wedding) - the photo’s weren’t digital so this is all that exists
4. My laptop- all of my digital photo’s and some important documents are on my hard drive
5. My Chi flat iron- If nothing else I might be able to PAWN it if times get hard
6. The Power Strangers- the only way I'll have some peace

7. Underwear- we might be stranded somewhere for a minute

Amazing, that’s all I could really think of that I would be lost without. My priorities aren’t as screwed up as I thought. Since Hurricane Ike is hovering in the Gulf like he’s looking for Tina, I might need to start packing tonight!

Next Avengers

My son has been in total superhero worship mode for the past few months. Superman, Incredible Hulk, Spiderman, Transformers and of course his beloved POWER RANGERS. So, Friday when I stopped by Hollywood Video to pick up some new releases I also decided to get one kid-friendly movie for him. After picking my selections (Street Kings & National Treasure 2) I immediately focused my attention on the cartoon superhero section.

Their selection was scarce to say the least not to mention he had already seen most of the movies on the shelves. So, I wander back around to the new releases thinking maybe there would be something worthwhile yet not extremely violent for him to watch. I picked up a DVD case for an animated "movie" called the Next Avengers. It's a story about the children of the Avenger superheroes: Captain America, The Giant, Black Panther, Black Widow, etc.- yeah, I never heard of them either- just Captain America. Anyway, I figure he would like it since it was dealing with superheroes not to mention an old (as in aging) Incredible Hulk and Ironman were on the cover.

I take the movie home and of course he wants to watch it as soon as I show it to him. So, we settle in an began to watch it. I have to admit I was actually planning on reading while HE watched the movie and I would provide the occasional, "wow" "that was awesome" or "cool" in response to the action on the screen that I missed. But instead I actually started watching it and it was GOOD! Really good!

The animators did a great job with the action scenes and the story line was really good. Turns out all of the kids were orphaned (their parents lost a major battle and died- what a twist- superheroes dying) and they were raised under the radar by their "uncle" Tony Stark (yeah, IronMan- he's like a 60 years old). They find Bruce Banner (the Incredible Hulk) hiding out in the desert and need his help to help defeat the evil that has taken over the world. And although Bruce is about 70- the Hulk is still the strongest superhero alive and boy does he prove it! I thought it was a bit overkill (no pun intended) for him to rip someone in half (robots) and pound them over and over with boulders. But I guess he was trying to prove a point.

Anyway, it was a great cartoon and if you have an aspiring Superhero on your hands, he or she will love it! (BTW- I think this maybe debuting on the Disney channel or Jetix pretty soon. If it hasn't already. . .)

Don't Believe the Hype

I've said it before and I'll say it again. . .I consider myself to be pretty involved and engaged when it come to politics in this country but that's not why I started this blog- to debate or promote my views. HOWEVER I am compelled to throw out factual information in the face of bullshit. (Note: This is from a credible unbiased Associated Press writer.)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080904/ap_on_el_pr/cvn_fact_check

P.S. If the audience at the Republican National Convention is any indication of WHO McCain and Palin are representing then I think we all know what needs to be done. . .

Eight is Enough

My new guilty pleasure is watching the show Jon & Kate plus 8 on TLC. OMG! Have you seen this show? There’s this couple, Jon & Kate, who started off with twin girls and they wanted one more baby and ended up having SEXTUPLETS! Yep, that’s SIX kids, three girls and three boys. So, now they have EIGHT kids! The twins are 8 and the ‘tuplets are 4. Straight madness!!!

But the thing that intrigues me is how freaking “calm” Kate seems to be despite the fact that she has EIGHT kids under the age of ten!!! She appears to be a typical mom, cooking, cleaning, playing around, teaching, loving and disciplining her kids. But did I mention she has EIGHT kids. I refuse to believe she is not on drugs. Valium, Paxil, marijuana. . .SOMETHING! I have ONE child and from time to time I just want to turn up the Nyquil bottle.

I know there’s probably some extra’s on hand helping out or something- there has to be. But typically when they show Jon and Kate going somewhere alone (which is hella rare) her sister, Jodi takes care of all EIGHT kids plus Jodi (I think that’s her name) takes care of her own four kids. That’s a total of TWELVE kids!!! AGH!!! My sister would be like, “Um, I gotta wash my hair, I’m not gonna be able to watch them-ever!”.

But what I love most about the show is the REAL relationship between Jon and Kate. There is no pretense. She told him the other day, I love you but sometimes I can’t stand you. And he smiled and said, “The feeling is mutual”. Ha ha! I mean I think I’d be pretty bitter too if I didn’t leave well enough alone with TWO kids and then to have SIX more! I swear if my son would have been a twin I would have been like, “Okay, tie up my tubes right now!” She’s also prone to giving him “love taps” across the head every time he makes a sarcastic comment, which he does quite often.

Another endearing thing about the show is the close relationship between the kids. One episode had Jon taking the boys on a “boys only’ excursion and the little sisters all came over and hugged them and gave them kisses and told them to have fun. It was the cutest thing! I was sure they probably staged it but they all seem to be very affectionate towards each other that is when they’re not throwing toys and antagonizing each other. Even the older girls, Cara and Maddy seem to be taking all the chaos in stride.

Jon and Kate did this thing that I thought was pretty cool but I wonder how often they will be able to do this- each kid had their own special day where they were they got to spend time wherever they wanted with their parents ALONE. So, it was like they were an only child for a few hours and Jon and Kate got to imagine how life would be if they only had one kid.

I guess the reason I really like the show so much is because it takes parenting to a whole new level and it helps me to put things in perspective. My house is a calm, peaceful, RETREAT in comparison to the daily pandemonium that household!

New Initiative

After doing some research and watching programs on television advocating for the reduction of our carbon footprint on the Earth, our family has decided to start recycling plastic containers.

We drink a lot of bottled water and my husband drinks a lot of Gatorade, even my son’s Juicy Juice containers are recyclable. I’m sure a better option would be to get a filtration system to avoid buying plastic water bottles and we could get reusable containers for our water. But you gotta crawl before you can walk. . .

So, we are setting up a slim garbage can in the garage for plastic bottles. We’ve explained this entire initiative and why we’re doing it to my son and he’s quite excited. Although he initially thought we could recycle everything plastic including bags, which is a no-no. Once a week I will drop the containers off at the large center in our neighborhood on my way to work. I’m hoping this is a habit we can start and keep!!

This is just a small step (one of many) we plan on making in the coming years to do our part to help save the planet. Here are some recycling facts from http://www.earth911.org/:

--In 2006, Americans drank about 167 bottles of water each, but only recycled an average of 23 percent. That leaves 38 billion water bottles in landfills.
--Bottled water costs between $1 and $4 per gallon and 90 percent of the cost is in the bottle, lid and label.
--According to the Beverage Marketing Corp, the average American consumed 1.6 gallons of bottled water in 1976. In 2006 that number jumped to 28.3 gallons.
--It takes over 1.5 million barrels of oil to manufacture a year’s supply of bottled water. That’s enough oil to fuel 100,000 cars.
--Eight out of 10 plastic water bottles become landfill waste.
--In 2007 we spent $16 billion on bottled water. That’s more than we spent on iPods or movie tickets.
--Plastic bottles take 700 years before they begin to decompose in a landfill.
--If everyone in NYC gave up water bottles for one week they would save 24 million bottles from being landfilled; one month would save 112 million bottles and one year would save 1.328 billion bottles from going into the landfill.