A Busy Christmas Eve Eve

First thought:  I need a new calendar.  2011 is coming to an end rather quickly.  I already have appointments set for the new year, but I have no next year's calendar on which to solidify them.  If I had a 2012 calendar, then I could rid my bulletin board of all the loose appointment cards that clutter it up.  And speaking of days of the week, The Boy has neglected to keep track of them since he began working.  Yesterday was trash day, and the truck passed us by, without a bin at my curb.  How in the world are we going to fit all the Christmas Day trash in the bin, on top of all of last week's daily refuse, while we wait for next Thursday's truck?!

Okay, enough complaining about the future and the past... let's move on to the present.  Today is Christmas Eve Eve, the busiest day of the year.  The carpet needed a good vacuum, so that it could be shampoo'ed.  I had to shampoo it because Kitty decided to use it as a litter box, because she was thrown off by the baking soda that I sprinkled in her real litter box.  (Whew! Who knew that run on sentences are just as tiring when typed as they are when spoken).  While shampooing, I noticed that my brush heads were not rotating.  So I proceeded to take the machine apart, with the intent to fix it.  However, all that really happened was that I stared at all the mechanisms that I know nothing about, before putting it all back together again.  So the machine will spit water, and suck it up, but will not scrub the fibers, which really irks the OCD side of me.  I'll give you one guess as to who will be shopping for a new carpet shampooer when the tax refund comes in next year.

Since Christmas Eve is the day we choose to enjoy our big holiday meal, today will be spent baking pies, breads, and cookies for dessert ... chopping and slicing carrots, celery, cheese and pickles for the snack tray ... and vacuuming, straightening, and deodorizing the house.  It's 12:30 pm... I'm on my second pot of coffee, and I haven't yet showered and dressed for the day.  I've had to re-vacuum the hallway, as my daughter stepped in the flour that I spilled on the floor, and left white footprints on the carpet.  I still have to season the turkey for roasting tomorrow, and cover the table with cloths and festive candles. While waiting for the oven timer to buzz, I'm blogging to you.  Busy busy busy. 

So what is the moral of this story, kids?  Appreciate your Mama, 'cause holidays don't just happen, they are created by the Wonderful Wizard of Ma's.  And don't you dare peek behind the curtain... all you'll find is a tired old woman, with bedhead, in pajamas and a pumpkin splattered apron, pulling all the strings!

Merry Christmas!          

A Busy (Manic) Week At The Circus

Bzzzzzzzz... this house has been a hive of activity lately.  So much so that I have neglected my blogs.  It's not that I haven't had anything to write about, it's just that I haven't had the time to sit and write it.  So, here, in one fell swoop, I'll give you an update on the status of the circus.

Hubsy is running himself ragged in his new role of Service Manager at the apartments. He is painfully understaffed, in the upkeep of two upscale five-story buildings, two parking garages, and a strip of retail stores.  Aside from keeping everything clean, his typical maintenance duties, the office politics, the inventory and reordering, and a slew of air conditioner calls throughout our recent heat wave... he's also had to deal with the tragedy of a suicide, by a resident that everyone knew well.  Without being too morbid, I'll let you know that it was done outside, at the start of the heatwave, and wasn't discovered for four days.  Hubsy had to guard the body until the police arrived, and then stay with them while they investigated the man's apartment.  Then he had to secure the scene to prevent other residents from gawking.  Then stay with the crime scene clean up crew for two days, while they attempted to remove the blood stains from the concrete.  Although this isn't the first time he's experienced death in the apartment industry, this was the first time he actually knew the victim, and it was difficult.

On the upside, a new family has moved into the neighborhood, complete with a young girl who's age falls smack dab in between the ages of my Princess and my Punkin.  These three musketeers have been together everyday for the last four days.  Of course, it just so happens that Punkin has been grounded from going out during this time, and so their new friend has been coming in.  When they're not on the phone gossiping with friends about boys... or with boys about friends... they're chasing the dog through house, and doing each other's hair.  On their downtime, they fall into heaps on the floor in front of an SVU marathon.  Although I'm not very used to having more than my own kids in the house, I have to say that I like this girl.  She's ultra polite, and coming from a very nice and strict household, she may be a good influence on my girls.  She's been  helping them with their chores, and even nudges Punkin to "shut up and obey" when her alter ego, Miss Attitude, rears her ugly head.

What can I say about The Boy?  When he's not upstairs in his room, on his computer, he's downstairs with me, on mine.  It's been nearly a month since his high school graduation, and he's done precious little in his search for work.  Everything he's done, he's done from home... filled out some online applications, and created an account with an online job search service.  Since no one has knocked on our door yet, to offer him employment, I'm sending him our today.  Out ... into the world ... feet to pavement, with the wind in his hair, and the sun on his back.  He's not happy about it, but ask me if I care.  Go ahead, ask me.

As for me, I'm still in the process of cleaning up the messes I made during the whole "house reformation" project I started two weeks ago.  After refurbishing the new dining room table, I had to:

1)  Rearrange the living room to make space for the office furniture.

2)  Patch and paint the living room walls to cover the holes I left when I moved shelves and pictures around.

3)  Rearrange shelves and pictures in the dining room, after reclaiming it from the office furniture, and place the new table.

4)  Patch and paint the dining room to cover holes left from moving shelves and pictures.

5)  Relocate Hubsy's Star Wars collection to the bedroom, since there's no longer space for it in the living room.  Luckily, all I needed to rearrange, in there, was some shelving.  I will eventually patch and paint the bedroom walls ... but OMG, not now!

6)  I've also had to take some time out last week to finally get my North Carolina driver's licence.  Geez, what's the rush?  I've only been living here for five and a half years.  

Things are almost back to normal, but I'm still struggling with a few piles of paperwork that have made a home on the new dining room table.  Once that is dealt with, I can post the photos I've been promising.  In the meantime, when I need downtime, I've been playing Sims3.  I tend to get completely addicted to it, so I've been up late at night, playing out the adventurous and lavish lifestyles, that I wish were mine.  In fact, I think I hear them calling me now.  I'd better go!

(By the way, this is what a Bipolar hypo-manic phase does to me. I discuss more about my Bipolar Disorder on my personal page).

        

Ten Reasons Why I Couldn't Create A Ten List

Here are the ten reasons why I didn't have time to write a decent top ten list this week.  I've received such wonderful comments on my past lists, that I feel rather guilty about letting ya'll down today, but the last seven days have just ran me ragged.  Never fear... for I have several other top tens in the works, that I will be refining for future publication!  In the meantime, let me explain why I've been a Top Ten slacker this past week.

1)  An epic battle with the insurance company over my youngest daughter's medication.  A growth hormone that was prescribed by her endocrinologist, to accelerate her slow growth patterns, brought on by Turner's Syndrome.  A medication that she's been taking for about three years now, without issue.  Suddenly, bureaucracy, red tape, and the run around are rampant.

2)  A spin off of number one ... the denial of my teen daughter's ADHD therapy, by previously mentioned insurance company.  Therapy that they have approved for nearly five years.  Oddly enough, as I receive denial letters, the therapist reports that she has already received payment.  Someone somewhere needs to get their ducks lined up in that proverbial row.

3)  Insurance Confusion, Part Three.  Yes, it appears to be an epic trilogy, as the insurance czar also denies select psychiatric visits, which are necessary to monitor my daughter's progress on her ADHD medications.  These three occurances have had me filling out forms, faxing, phoning, and emailing all week! 

4)  Injury number 247.  Take one thirteen year old girl, with long, lean legs, and a fondness for risky physical activity... add one cup each of ADHD, hypochondria, a craving for attention, and a hatred of school.  Mix well, and in the end, you get a phone call from the school nurse outlining the latest gym class accident... an overextended knee.  Although she is fine, it had to be monitored since two years ago, that same knee had been dislocated by (what is known as) the Karate Class Incident.

5)  Happy Birthday!  Take that same thirteen year old girl, and add one full rotation of the earth around the sun!  Voila... a fourteen year old girl!

6)  Cleaning.  Yes, it's the time of year to organize closets, cabinets, and drawers ... dust the unreachables... wash and/or deodorize upholstery, and other fabrics... and so on.  I'll get to that stuff eventually.  But this past week has mostly been spent on returning the house to it's original state.  The state it was in before my husband spent two weeks at home, recovering from a back injury.  Two weeks spent on the couch watching instant Netflix movies, and catching up on DVR'd television shows, surrounded by various pharmaceuticals, ice packs and heating pads.  Aside from the muscle spasms, and nerve pain, it was a nice home based vacation, blessing us with that rare time spent alone together.

 

7)  A good book.  I have a limited time to read this 627 page biographical retrospective before it has to go back to the library.  I don't want to have to renew it, because I recently acquired several other books that I can't wait to dive into.  So, please excuse me, if some of the time I would normally spend writing, is temporarily devoted to reading.

8)  The runaround.  No, not the kind that I've been getting from the insurance company, but the typical kind.  Pharmacies, grocery shopping, doctors appointments, carpooling hubby to and from work so I could have the car during the day, department store shopping for birthday preparation, and a visit to the doctor's office to fill out paperwork for the insurance appeal.

9)  Blogging.  Although I wasn't able to finish my intended top ten list in time for today's publication, I did make headway in the draft I'm preparing for next week.  I also prepared a recent posting for Ringmaster, and my other major blog (FascinationEarth).  I made the rounds to my favorite family and nature blogs, and made a few Twitter Tweets, and Facebook updates. 

10)  Sleep.  Aaaah, sweet slumber.  C'mon, Moms, you now what I'm talking about.