Probably TMI……Guys! You’ve Been Warned!

So, I started my period on Wednesday.

This is the first one in exactly two years. I have never had my period while nursing, but I’ve always quit nursing around 14 -15 months, and have always started around 14 – 15 months. Josiah is 14 – 15 months and I started my period BUT…..I’ve not stopped nursing so I’m not really sure what the deal is.

Regardless, it’s been….um….interesting.

Things have always been rather heavy for me, and this one has been unreal.

Over the past 6 months, I’ve been thinking and wondering about what to do because we’ve been taking steps to using less “consumables” and making more ecological purchases and decisions, and I wasn’t sure what to do when I got my periods again.

I had looked at Glad Rags, but I hate pads and wasn’t really overly excited about that option. I know someone who is making reusable cloth pads for girls in 3rd world and developing nations, and I might buy some from her for my girls when the time comes. I do like the idea of no chemicals and less waste, but I personally don’t like using pads.

I’ve also been looking at (with a great deal of interest) at the Diva Cup. I know two people who have used it at they’ve both said the same thing. It’s great, but they wondered about having to deal with it in a public restroom when they were working.

For me that’s not a huge deal as I’m home the majority of the time and should be able to work around being out and not needing to fiddle with it when I go out, but dealing with it all before I go anywhere.

Soooooooo, I bought the Diva Cup today and have used it so far and I LOVE IT! So far, IT’S AMAZING….no leaks and no mess. It was easy to insert. It wasn’t difficult to read or to figure out the instructions. Removal was easy. Clean up was a snap.

It cost about $40.00 and by the time I finsh using it next month….It will be paid off. I will have gone through 4 boxes of tampons by the time this period is inished. I typically have a heavy flow and so for me this will be definately a money saver. Between the money saved, the product not consumed, the lack of leakage….I could just go on and on about how much I love this thing so far.

If you’ve been thinking about or wondering about getting it…..it’s money well spent, in my opinion.

It’s a New Day

So, it seems that Siah has made a miraculous recovery.

He was bad enough yesterday that I called the Dr.s office to ask what the “magic temperature” was. I didn’t want Siah’s fever to hit 105 or 106 in the middle of the night, and to not know what to do. It always seems to be the worst in the middle of the night when you can’t call anybody and your only option is a trip to the ER which is almost the WORST thing that can happen out here. It’s a zoo, and you will pretty much get better service if you just wait it out ’till the morning and check in with your family Dr or with a walk-in clinic.

Anyway, I called yesterdy around 4:30pm and they didn’t like the fact that his temp had been hovering around 104 all day and that even with Tylenol it was only coming down to 100.something.

I went in and they checked him out and couldn’t find anything right up front. Which I knew….I knew there wasn’t a ear infection, and he wasn’t coughing or barfing or didn’t have a runny nose…..NOTHING.

He was just listless, lethargic, and freaking hot.

He did a swab of his throat and took a urine sample, but I don’t think that it was either of those either.

Now that he seems to be on the up swing, it’s easy to see that it’s probably just a virus. Stupid Viruses!

Jon is gone all day today training people on how to do something “website-ish”. It’s nice to have the house to myself and it’s a little weird, too.

He’s always “just downstairs” and to have him not around…the house feels a bit empty.

Well as much as I’d love to stay and yab on and on and on….Siah is fussing. He’s not 100 percent his happy cheery self just yet, so I’m off to snuggle some more.

103.8 and Vision

That was Josiah’s temperature this morning when I finally was concerned enough at how hot he was and took it.

Not fun! NOT FUN AT ALL!

He slept peacefully until 3:45am and at that point I didn’t notice anything. He nursed and went straight back to sleep. Then when he woke up at 5 something…..Jon cuddled him and when he finally got him down he said that when he picked him up he was shivering badly.

He woke up again at 6ish and I went to go and get him and he was shivering terribly and I noticed that his head was quite hot. I brought him to bed and nursed him and he laid beside me and shivered. It was so sad.

Finally at about 6:45am was when I took his temp.

So, he’s been sleeping off and on since then. He is still trying to be happy and funny and chattering about things, but only for just a word or two and then he lays his head down like it’s way to heavy for him to hold up.

I gave him a bit of Tylenol because I figured that his temp was quite high enough and because he seemed to be really uncomfortable.

He perked up right around the time that the Tylenol would have kicked in and although his temp didn’t go down as low as I’d have liked, it’s still down some.

I have a feeling that I’ll be sitting, cuddling and nursing a fair bit today.

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I’m hoping that IMAGE OPTOMETRY calls me today. Last Wednesday, I was wearing my glasses…. (click here to see my lovely beauties. It’s a bad shot, but seeing as I’m the one ALWAYS behind the camera there aren’t so many of me.)….and they fell right off my face, hit the table and landed on the floor in two pieces.

The arm had fallen off.

They’d had a good life – I bought them 3.5 years ago and have worn them just about all the time.

See, I have really light sensitive eyes. It’s not so bad when I’m pregnant, but I noticed it back in between when I was pregnant with Geli and Xandra, and has pretty much been wearing sunglasses ALL THE TIME since then.

I’ve gone and had my eyes checked and all is good – I have a slight prescription, and my eyes tend to run on the dry side, but all of this completely unhelpful information is just to let you know that if you see me, I’m not “rock star-ring” out. My eyes are just bothered by the light. Outside is really bad, but I’ve also noticed that inside is bothering me too, and so I just wear my lightly tinted glasses all the time, now. I also get wicked migraines and light can be a trigger so…..yah, so. I don’t know whereall I’m going with all that so I’ll just stop….

Anyway, I popped off to Image Optometry which is where the BEST OPTOMETRIST in the world works.

A big shout out to Dr. Jesse Manhas – amazing AMAZING Doctor. We love him.

Anyhoooooooo, I got the coolest glasses….and when I actually pick them up (they’re calling me either today or tomorrow to come and get them) – I’ll take a picture and show you.

They have tinted the glass and then used the Transitions technology on top of that….so they will always be tinted but they will go dark outside. Sweet! I’ve wanted this for a while, but just never did it.

I’m so excited. I can’t wait.

I should take a pic and show you the cheap “in between” pair that I bought in the mean time…..maybe if I get around to it, because I’m sure you all want to see them, don’t you? You know you do….

Well, I’m off to finish getting ready for the day (makeup and hair and all that crap) and to call the kids school to let them know that I won’t be helping out at lunch today….stupid fever.

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I do have a bunch of new jewlery to add to the store, and if I have the time today…I’ll try to make it happen. I’ve got some really cool necklaces and bracelets and even some mens necklaces to add into the mix.

So, check back soon to see the new stuff.

Hey! What’s up With You?

Well, actually – that should read “What’s Up With Me?”

Basically just take the past year and hit rewind and and then play again, and all that whining about being tired. Yah! That again.

Siah is cutting his molar’s and it’s about as fun as it sounds like it should be. We’re back to the up every hour thing, and it’s getting old.

I feel bad complaining about it, because I’m not actually complaining about the fact that Siah wakes up and that we go to get him (our choice – I know) It’s more just the “feeling tired” as a result of our choices.

I’m not ready to make him cry it out – although some nights I’m so darn close. I’m still in the “so thankful that he’s alive and here and with us” and sometimes it feels sureal……like the years of the immediate and intense pain from the loss(es) and grieveing couldn’t be seriously over.

I think that as much as I’d like to be able to post here every day or at least even just during the week….until Siah starts sleeping through, I figure there’ll be up swings of energy and down swings of tiredness.

How about you? Do you or did you let your kids cry it out or do/did you go to them when they wake/woke up in the night…..or do/did they just sleep in the bed with you?…..which kind of makes the other options moot then, doens’t it?

In other news, I have failed FAILED miserably at the 30 Days of Nothing.

The good aspect of the FAILING MISERABLY part of it is that – I have EVERY receipt from this month so far, and at the end of the month – I’m going to go through them all and figure out a “decent” or average grocery budget and then one month….”maybe January – it’s typically a tight month anyway – Hmmmmm, I’ll have to give that some more thought” I’ll actually do it with a specific number and all in CASH. I really think that would make a HUGE difference.

And now for some really funny news,

I bought the kids some plastic or foam or whatever material those craft pumpkins are made from. Yah! I bought some of those craft pumpkins for the kids. I thought it would be fun to cut them up and then to see see how the kids “craftiness” improves each year. It should be fun!

But….Jeremy had to name his.

He comes into my room this morning, and shows me his pumpkin that has only one eye cut out so far, and he informs me that his pumpkin’s name is “One Eyed Willy”.

Then he asks me what happened to Willy’s other eye and how come he only has just the one eye…..

Yah! Gotta love that kid!

But…kids are home fro+m school+++++++++9+- (Siah was helping me to type – he’s so helpful like that)

So, as I was saying, the kids are home form school, and I gotta go and figure out a snack, and also – DINNER….AAAAWWWWWKKKKK!

Announcing the Winner

Alrighty….are you guys ready to find out who won the giveaway?

I know that I was. I woke up this morning and my first thought was, “Now we get to find out who won!”

That thought was followed closley by, “What time is it?” and “I gotta take a shower this morning.”

So, now that you are all informed as to my morning musings….

Let get this party started.

I typed out all the names of the entries and printed them out.

I was going to use the random generator from here, but then I thought that what could be more random than this…..

Alright, so as you all saw and heard…..

JANNINE IS THE WINNER.

Yah, Jannine! If you could e-mail me your address and let me know which piece of jewelry that you’d like – I’ll get that mailed out right away.

To the rest of you who entered, as my way of saying “THANKS SO MUCH!” for entering and speading the word, if you order something between now and December 31st, 2008 I’m offering a 20% discount off your order. Just enter this code GIVEAWAY20 during checkout.

Thanks so much to you all.

This was so much fun, that I’m already thinking about my next giveaway………stay tuned!

One Last Reminder and….Buttons.

Hey, so I’ve been asked a few times about shipping in regards to the giveaway.

If you win – I will ship it to you. It doesn’t matter if you live near or far. If you win – YOU WIN!

So, you still have about 8 hours until the comments will be closed, and then tomorrow morning is the draw – so check in tomorrow to find out who is our lucky winner.

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There is not a lot new to report about the downstairs people.

They were rocking out the music this afternoon, but have been fairly quiet except that their phone rings 24/7. I kid you not. 1, 2, 3, 4am – the phone is ringing. You’d think that if they were up that late then they’d want to sleep in, but it starts ringing again at 7am and goes ALL DAY. I don’t know what is going on. Their door still hasn’t been fixed, and I feel so incredibly uncomfortable. It sucks!

In other news, Siah is chatting up a storm, and the kid LOVES buttons.

It doesn’t matter if it’s a keyboard or a cell phone or the remote or my calculator….He is obsessed with buttons.

You can hear me “whoop” at 00:36 when he almost falls off the chair. Great Mothering…encouraging the child to perform circus tricks up on the furniture.

But, isn’t he cute?

Busy, Busy, Busy

I’d love to sit around and chat with ya all day today, BUT…….duty calls.

I’ve got to do something about my house. My bedroom looks like my dressers threw up – there are clothes EVERYWHERE. Does your room ever get like that? Plus I’ve got laundry to do – like OOOOOOODLES of laundry to do, and my kitchen…..OH MY GOODNESS! Don’t even get me started on my kitchen. I’ve been avoiding it hoping that the kitchen fairies would do something.

It doesn’t seem to be working. My kitchen fairies are WAY smarter then my mom’s kitchen fairies. (I’ll have to tell that story sometime soon – remind me, okay?)

We helped my grandparents move into a gorgeous townhome on Saturday, and then on Sunday we were off to Vancouver for the day. It’s been fun, but busy and now I’m paying for all that fun – with the disaster that’s left behind in it’s wake.

And the drama with the downstairs people……I’m a little too upset to laugh about it all right now, and even talking about it is getting me upset, but I’m sure I’ll be able to talk about it – heck, maybe evn laugh about it all soon. BUT NOT RIGHT NOW!

Let’s just leave it with mentioning that the neighbor’s fence was smashed in, their front door has been kicked in so badly that you can’t close or latch it or anything, we have a connecting door through to our house, they are talking drugs, having parties until 4am, with all sorts of creepy looking guys,we’ve called the cops and they say that they can do nothing……alright – I’m getting workedup again. I’ll come back when I’m not so upset….and not so busy.

BUT…..we are almost ready to choose a winner in the GIVEWAY.

Enter to win, and if you name is chosen, you get to pick one item from my store….ANY ONE ITEM, and I’ll send it to you for free! Just because!

How fun is that?

Click here for all the details, and leave me a comment. You have until Tuesday at midnight my time (PST).

Don’t be shy! I’d love to be able to give something to YOU!

Mindless Blatherings

I really should have gone shopping this week – we are OUT of fresh fruit and veggies but I’ve been trying to stretch things a bit this week, and to use up some of our frozen or canned stuff and…..well….here we are. It’s Friday and I did spend – well dangit – I can’t find the reciept.

I’ll have to find the recipet and then I can update…it was approx $50. I bought a large block of Sheep Cheese.

There is a part of me that is feeling a little bit pressured to hide things like paying a large amount of money for cheese when that money could be someone else’s entire weeks budget for food.

At the same time, I’m not trying to live anyone else’s life. We have made some choices for our life (and health), and some other choices were made for us (allergies, intolerances, etc) and we have to live with (and within) our choices.

Yes, I do buy speciality cheese, but not all the time, and we ration it out. I won’t be apologetic for the choices that I choose to make. So….that’s that.

That’s the deal with being open about stuff, and then dealing with the reality that you make choices that are different than others, and then dealing with your preception of what others might be thinking based on your choices.

It all comes down to judgment doesn’t it?

It’s amazing how judgmental we can be, and I think that we expect the same kind of judgment to come to us that we dish out. I hate judgment. It sucks! I try hard to not judge, not that I’m always perfect at it, but I try.

Okay – I could get all deep here, but I was just trying to whip up an update about how we are doing and what’s going on, and I’m getting all sidetracked…

I blame it totally on the downstairs renters. They are totally blaring their music right now and all I can hear is the thump, thump, thump of the bass in whatever song they are listening to. It’s AWESOME!

They’ve had a party every night for the past week and a half and it’s getting old. We’ve asled them to be considerate of the fact hat we have a family living upstairs, and then….that night they are still going strong at 4am. IT ROCKS! In SO MANY WAYS!

So, I’m tired! I’m also wondering how this fall/winter/spring’s cold, wet, dark, rainy season is going to affect me. I can feel the tiredness already starting to hit. That sucks, too!

Alrighty, well, now that I’ve spread my love and cheeriness all over the Internet – I think that I’ll just be done now.

Don’t forget to check out the store and to ENTER THE GIVEAWAY! Click here to read about the details.

And seriously, if you’ve never commented here or are lurking and unsure about de-lurking….come on….I won’t bite. I promise! Well, maybe only a little bit and only if you ask me to.

Someone has to win, and it might as well be you. Right?

A GIVEAWAY!

Hey! Guess What?

It feels like party time around here. I don’t know why. I think I just LOVE fall. I love it when the air gets colder and you have to wrap up in layers. I love it when the leaves are all turning colors and they fall in piles on the ground. So, in light of my cheery mood……….

I think it’s time for a Giveaway.

I’m going to be giving away one item from my store. ANY ONE ITEM – of YOUR choosing.

You enter – then I will randomly pick a number – then you will choose your prize – and then I will mail it to you! YAAAAHHH!

This Giveaway will end at midnight (PST) on Tuesday October 21st and the winner will be announced on Wednesday October 22nd.

To be be entered in the draw, is SOOOO simple, just leave a comment (just one per person, please.)

To get an extra entry, mention this giveaway on your blog and link back here or….. if you don’t have a blog, you can e-mail 5 of your friends and include me on the list.

I can’t wait to see who will win.

Falling Off the Face of the Planet

Hey! How’s it going? Did ya miss me?

It’s been a busy, crazy, wonderful, terrible weekend.

How ’bout you?

On Friday we went over to my sisters house for a fun night with friends….Saturday night Siah was up from midnight until 3am barfing – although this time I think it might be the flu. I finally got to bed around 4am (so much fun). Sunday we had Thanksgiving with my side of the family and on Monday we had Thanksgiving with Jon’s side of the family. Today, Angelica is downstairs in her room barfing.

IT’S BEEN AWESOME!

I also spent more this weekend than I probably should have. SUCKS, eh?

Well, it breaks down like this….

Entertainment (this could have totally not happened- Bad, bad, bad!) – $90.79
Gas (We got $22.02 free gas – YAH Superstore!) – $78.31
Groceries (Thanksgiving extras included) – $250.90

So that’s were it stands and the total for the month is $650.35. AAAAAWWWWK!

I’m gonna try and reign it all in again this week- get things back on track! It’s a good eye opener for me to see it all laid out here and to have to be accountable to you all. It’s just “keeping it all real“, eh?

Thanks to Cool Mama and Lala for your comments. I appreciate your honesty.

I had never even thought about the “guilt” side of it. It’s amazing how we view things through our own “grids”…through our own struggles and strengths and pain and….and…..well, it’s just interesting to hear that you felt or feel that way. I never got that message from the book, but then again for me…it wasn’t exactly about the “book” per se as about what I took away from it all after reading the book. I guess that’s more the case…the book made me think, and I got really exited about what I was thinking or feeling that I could do or feeling stirred up to do.

Regardless, I love hearing what you all are thinking. I love to hear different points of views. I think that when you are able to hear what others are saying, it helps to “round out” your views or even to challenge or strengthen your beliefs and convictions.

I am feeling rushed and pressured today because I have to go and help out at the school at lunch time today, and that just throws my whole day off just slightly….just enough to make me feel rushed. So, I think I’m gonna wrap this up for now.

I’ll leave you with my two most favorite moments from this weekend.

#1 My dad tearing up when we (the family) gave him and mom their anniversary gift – an overnight trip to Harrison Hot Springs

#2 My dad telling the story about the time that he hooked Grandpa Kennedy in the nose with a fish hook when they were fishing and the hilarity that ensued as a result. He (and we) were laughing so hard as he was retelling the 40 year old story. It was amazing.

What was YOUR most favorite moment from this weekend?