I thrive on Chaos

I don't know why but it is but there are moments in my life that life gets a bit crazy.  I feel that since last February that is how my life has been.  My car going bust and the downward spiral that followed, then BJ's car giving us trouble over and over.  Then we bought my mother's car, then more car issues, then changed jobs.  Then this is how my morning went.

I was getting ready for the day and some where between putting in my contacts and putting on my make-up I thought, I think today is a good day to try cereal for the first time since last week.  When we finally came down I made myself a bowl of cereal.   I ate just about half the bowl when **DING** the milk feels like it has been sitting out for about 2 hours or so.  Odd, I think I just made it...didn't I??  As I said something to BJ he checked the temp and realized it was a bit high.  He hit a button and left for work. It only took until the garage was closing that it dawned on me.  What if the fridge is broken?  Then all the food in it would be gone.  There was a lot of food in it.  I quickly called my neighbor who had the biggest chance of being home and I was out of luck.  So what do you do in that moment of your life when your on the verge of freaking out? Call MOM!  Not like she would be able to do anything since she was at work, but that is just the back fall for when you don't know what to do. 

As I call my mom asking her what to do, cursing the fact that when ever her fridge broke it was always the middle of winter and the back patio became the freezer and the garage became the fridge.  She then told me to grab a cooler and fill it with ice on my way to work then on lunch get more ice.  Which set off a brilliant idea.  I grabbed as much meat as I could and threw it into an empty diaper box, then as fast as I could ran it to the garage and put it in the car.  On the way back to the kitchen I grabbed a tote bag.  I had to make choices.  I had to decide what fridge items were worth the save.  More or less, I took meat and cheese to work with me.  I left almost all the condiments at home except the mayo and I had already given up on all the liquid dairy.  I then grabbed the child, his shoes and threw it all in the car.  Off to day care with the A/C cranked.  I barely slowed the car down, and pushed the boy out when we got to daycare then off I went to work. 

I showed up to work with my box-o-meat and my bag-o-deli and filled the work fridge.  Now I wasn't freaking out about losing over a hundred bucks of food, I had to figure out what to do about the fridge.  I called my lovely sister and asked her in the best I need you now more than ever voice to go sit at my house.  The repair people informed me that someone would be at my house between now (8:00) and 5:00.  Thanks for the narrow block of time bud.  But at least Megan was there.  At 11:00 I left work for home and pulled into the drive about 5 min after the repair man.  Wahoo!  I sat at home for several minutes to learn about what was wrong, how much it would cost, and how long.  I left my sister the credit card and thanked her a billion times over. 

Few, that is something I don't need to repeat in the near future.  But it is over now, and all the food is tucked in the fridge safe and sound.

Stinky

I was able to function in the real world today.  Well kind of.  I went to my continuing ed class today, however, the first time I ate anything solid was at 7:00 this evening.  It is still in me just so you know, but being the first solid food for almost 3 days my system is not being very nice to the rest of us. 

On my way to work, from my class I pull up to a stop light and am waiting for the light to turn green and someone pulled up next to me smoking.  Because all my windows were down the smell got into my car, and it snuck into my nose.  After I got to work, I closed my windows and went in for an hour or so.  When I cam back to the car to go home...Stinky smoke smell.  That makes me angry.  BOO to smoke.

Sick

I hate being sick.  It is such a waste of time.  I spent the day on the couch sleeping or watching TV.  I couldn't clean, I couldn't work, I couldn't even do fun things.  I ate for the first time at 7:00 pm.  If I'm not better by tomorrow I don't know what I will do.  I am so done with this stomach thing, or intestine thing or what ever it is.  As long as the only thing in my system is Gatorade and saltine crackers I am fine.  But I really wish I could eat something with more flavor or nutrients.  I have a continuing ed class tomorrow and if I don't get there I am going to be super frustrated.  SUPER frustrated.  Cross your fingers.

The petting zoo: By Elijah

Yesterday we went to pick out pumpkins and visit the petting zoo.  Daddy told me that Great-Grandma Okel used to work at this petting zoo.  I asked a bunch of the animals if they remembered her but most of them didn't want to talk.  They were just really hungry, they just wanted to eat.  I really didn't like the big donkey and goats, even though they looked like big Rescues I got real scared when they came over to me and held on to Mommy real tight.  I thought they were going to eat me.  Then we saw some baby chicks.  I didn't want to pet them.  They looked real funny.  Mommy kept telling me they were like the ones in my farm book but those chicks to move, or flap.  The we went to visit the baby goats.  Those I got close to, but I still didn't want to touch them.  They were the size of Rescue but definitely not doggies.  I wasn't real sure what to think about them.  I decided to stay by Daddy just in case they weren't very nice.

 Mommy kept trying to take my picture but I was not going to stop looking at those goat things.  Are you kidding me?? What if they charge?  I can't run that fast but I can certainly climb.  I just need enough warning.

 Then we went over to see some bunnies.  Look Daddy bunnies.  Mommy says they say "Hop, Hop, Hop."  Why are thy just laying there?  Make him go!

 WOW those ducks are huge!!  That one over there is as big as Rescue!

 Here duckie!  Quack, Quack.  Come here duckie!

 Oops!  I mean geese.  Those are geese.  Farm geese says grandma.  What does a goose say?? Either way they are big too.

  Mommy these ducks are real cool, but I don't feel very well.  This is my best smile right now. 

 Ohh look, little cows.  Not baby cows just little ones.  The one in front didn't like Daddy to much.  He ran at him when Daddy peeked in his gate.  Daddy ran away it was silly.

 Cow, come here cow.  You look funny.

 Grandma, I don't know about this corn maze thing.  I can't see the animals anymore.  Where is Mommy?  Can we be done soon?  I still don't feel well.

 Mommy I found you.  Look the three little pigs.  They are hanging out by the house of straw.  The one pig in the middle kept sitting on the other pigs.  He was kinda a pest.  But they like to oink.  It was silly.

 Grandma, I don't feel well, can you carry me please?

 Baby cows and mommy cows.  They are snuggling, just like I want to do.  I want to take a nap, I don't feel well. 

 Let's pick our pumpkins quickly and go home.  Look her is a pumpkin.  It looks good.

 Look at how big the stems are on these things.  Again this is the best smile you are going to get.  How many times do I have to tell you, I don't feel well.  I think my medicine is starting to wear off.  Do you like my skeleton pumpkin shirt?

 Okay I can get one smile out.  Look at all these pumpkins.  They are huge!

 Whoa Daddy don't drop me... or the pumpkin.  That is Mommies pumpkin, she likes how round it is.

 Snack time.  Apple cider donuts are yummy.  Let's see how much I can put in my mouth at once.

 My mouff if fu, bu my hands are empty.  More please.

Yum, need to lick my fingers clean.   

 Okay guys, I really don't feel well.  I don't want to be here anymore.  I want to go home, I want more medicine, I want to take a nap, I don't want to smile anymore.  Please take me home.

As always love Elijah

We don't feel well

Last night after we got home BJ and I started to realize Elijah felt a bit warm.  We took his temp. 102.7 Yeah that's right, over 102.  We quickly gave him some medicine his fever came down to under 100.  BJ then headed to bed around 8:30 and I was close behind him around 9:30.  I then woke up around 11 and was not feeling so well.  I then went to check on Elijah and he was still doing alright but I could tell the drugs were starting to wear off.  When BJ woke up at 1:30 i got up too and gave the baby some more drugs.  We then both slept until about 6:30.  Elijah then took a 2 hour morning nap and after a couple hours at the petting zoo slept for another 4 hours.  He woke up long enough to down half a bottle of Gatorade and eat some soup then he was down for the count.  Let's see how long the baby sleeps.  I hope it's awhile because then I can sleep and get better too.  At least all I have is stomach issues and I'm not sore or groggy like normal. These pictures were taken of Elijah in the process of getting off the couch.  Out.

Things your doctor shouldn't say

Yesterday I had my yearly physical with my doctor.  Typically, I am fairly healthy throughout the year and the only time I see my doctor is at my physical.  If I end up getting sick it usually is something that I know a doctor can't do anything for, so I just stay at home and sleep it off, anything else, I typically need to get in ASAP and don't have time to wait a day or two to get in.

Anyway, after my checkup and all, the doctor leaves the room and I get dressed.  Fine all is good.  Then in comes the doctor with my script and before she hands it to me gets this look on her face and says "I have some bad news."  I start internally freaking out.  What did she see? Please don't let me be pregnant, so couldn't handle that.  What if my insurance doesn't cover this visit and i have to pay for it out of pocket?  What is she going to tell me.  She then follows it up with she is leaving the practice and moving to Ohio.  Okay that wasn't bad news.  That is a bit of an inconvenience for me and that means I will need to find a new doctor, but bad news, nope.  Not really.  Growing a third arm out of my neck, bad news. 

It's started!!

Two more spiders died today.  One got away... I wasn't wearing shoes and neather was my co-worker.  When I went back a bit later, it was gone.  All three of the spiders today were of a different kind.  I mean really typically you only see one or two different types of spiders in one place not here, it's crazy.  I can't wait until the weather is done changing and all the in door spiders have died. 

On another note, this week has been awesome with all the new shows starting.  However, I really wish the good ones like Big Bang Theory would be on later than it is because that is Elijah's bed time.  I also feel the need to watch all the TV because we do not have TiVo like he rest of the world and I don't know what shows are going to be on onDemand, you know the poor man's TiVo.  I spend to much time in front of the TV, however, I blog while I watch so it's a win for you. 

Last on my list tonight, I'm very warm.  It was 90 here today and now my computer is as hot as the sun. Oh and happy 15 months Elijah.  Sorry about the big bump on your head right before bed. 

Spiders!!

I have only worked at my new job for about 4 weeks now.  In that time the weather has begun to change and all those creepy crawly animals have begun to make there way to the warm areas...AKA where I work.  I have seen at least 5 different types of spiders oh wait 6, I saw three just today.  And they all try to kill me...  They wait until the best moment when I'm not paying much attention to anything and BAMM they show up on my paper that I'm signing, or start crawling on the wall right next to me, or best yet stand in the middle of the floor so I have to go get someone to kill them so I can pass.  I don't know if these things think they are like the 3 Billy Goats Gruff but let me just tell you Billy Spiders Gruff... 5 of you have been killed and the 6th one will be dead tomorrow if I find you.  Most of the time I have to bribe the office manager to kill them for me.  I hate the things. 

Kellyisms

For those of you who know me I frequently do things that make you question where my brain was.  Some of the most frequent events are...

• Occasionally over the past year or so I have been using bubble bath as body wash.  I didn't realize this until my wonderful husband pointed out that he noticed the bubble bath was going down, but he didn't realize I had been taking baths.  Ding that's when I realize it wasn't body wash, it was bubble bath, that's why it has a stronger sent than the soap I usually use. 
• On Saturday, I was loading the car with the monster stroller and I didn't want to open the garage so I semi opened the back of the car while in the garage.  I then folded up the stroller and was trying to figure out how to lift the darn thing when ***Bamb*** My forehead got in the way of the door.  Now my forehead hurts when ever I smile or do anything.
• While in the process of trying to keep Elijah from spilling his 8 oz cup of milk, I knocked over my 20+ oz cup of iced tea.  While we all jumped up from the table, only BJ was thinking enough to move the baby out of the flash flood. 
• Frequently while talking to parents about there child's inability to communicate, I get word blocks or have moments of complete articulation loss.  Which makes me look like a great SLP.  But on the inside it makes me laugh.
• The other day after I took off my socks, to put on my flip flops, I took 5 steps toward the door before I realized I forgot to put on the flip flops.
• I spent over 5 minutes looking for my car keys today to realize I had been holding them the whole time.

I'm sure there are so many more...I just don't remember them.  LOL

How do you know when to clean the floor?

When your child starts pointing out all the spots on the floor. That is when the steam mop decided to stop steaming. Oh so frustrating. Wahoo. But when I started to vacuum tonight, Elijah was determined to help. It was so great. I think that was his way of asking for a vacuum his size for Christmas. Too cute, At least someone in this house wants to keep the floors clean.

Issues with the Car

HAHA

Since purchasing the car from my mother I have found some flaws with it. First of all after my last car I told myself that I will never get leather seats again. I get so hot and gross while I drive on leather seats I start to smell by the time I get to where I am going. I also have wet marks from sweat in every fold of my legs, hips (make you look like you have peed) and knees. Next I used to drive with my knees on occasion, like when the steering wheel was to hot to touch or both of my hands were busy doing other things like changing the radio and talking on the phone, or eating. I have had to stop doing that now because no mater how I try to move the wheel the I can't reach the accelerator and the steering wheel at the same time. It really is a bummer. Guess I have to be safe now. My old car had the temp. gauge and the direction of driving. This car does not. And the last one, BJ decided to buy our cars steering wheel protectors. Mine was made of some sort of mesh like fabric. Looked good, at least it wasn't one of those horribly gross ones with all the hair on it. He put it on and we went inside for the night. Today I could barley get a block away from my house and I started feeling VERY VERY anxious. I got a tight feeling in my chest, my arms started to cramp up and I got a very weird feeling in my stomach. I would move my hands around the steering wheel and when I wasn't touching the wheel I felt better. Weird. I figured as it was a sensory aversion to the tactile feel of the wheel. GREAT well if I could just drive with my knees I would be fine. Oh wait, right.... it was a long and horrid ride to work. The second I got to work, I ripped off the steering wheel cover and threw it across the car. The funny thing is the material is the same material that all the office chairs are made of at my work, but that doesn't' bug me. Just on the steering wheel.

Random

I had a great question earlier but have now forgotten it. So I will do a list of random.

-I sometimes want to do a secret blog but think it would take to much time.
-I love my new job.
-What color does a smurf turn when he is being strangled?
-I can't wait for the new smurf movie.
-Elijah is almost 15 months, Crazy!
-I lost the first family Fantasy football game
-I'm sleepy
-Started a new book about a child with Autism who is the only witness to a murder and it's interesting.
-My blogs have less pictures than they did when I started blogging back in 2005.
-I had to drive my new car with it's headlights for the first time since June the other day on my way home.
-To get the most out of the nice weather I eat lunch in my car in the middle of our parking lot.
-Elijah hits Mom and Dad when he gets frustrated.
-Elijah is the best kid at daycare.
-My child will eat anything...I mean anything-food, bugs, rocks, you name it.
-I'm sleepy.

Baby for Rent

Ever since Elijah was born all the grandparents have been wanting him over night. The first 6 months I kept saying no because I was the child's sole food source. the next 6 months Elijah was getting to be such an awesome baby that the highlight of my day was when we went into his room and he gave us the biggest smile ever. Then right before his first birthday we really needed a sitter. We asked my dad to watch E while we did a late night, early morning at church. I survived, missed the little guy a while lot, but i survived. Then in July we had a wedding and wanted a sitter for Elijah and decided it would work out best if BJ's parents took Elijah. Again I survived and I was getting better at this whole thing. In August BJ and I were off to the Black Eyed Peas concert (which was awesome if you happened to miss that blog) and since my mom donated the majority of the funds for that evening she won the baby too. Then came September. Grown up night out to celebrate our anniversary of buying our house (see below) and it was BJ's mom's birthday. So what better gift than to let her hang out with her grandchild. We have even already plan that in October my mom will get Elijah back so BJ and I can celebrate another anniversary (really we make up reasons to go out to a nice dinner and fork over our child to someone else). Therefore, process of eliminating in November sometime, my Dad will get Elijah back for another evening.

This made us realize that if BJ and I work it right, once a month we will rotate through our parents and have Elijah spend the night. If BJ and I are clever enough we can make up some reason to go out to eat and hopefully sleep in the following day. December will be off limits to all families and the sign up sheet for the months of January, February, and March will be posted in mid-December and we will see if BJ and I can think of a reason to "give up" our child for those days.

Happy Anniversary

Not to BJ and I but to us our house and our fantastic neighbors. Okay this comes a day late but it is all the same right??? Three years ago on 9-11 both our little families signed on our house. It didn't mean that we gained new neighbors, but we gained super awesome friends. Let me see, the first time we met Jon and Katie was because of one of my stupid moments. I went out and bought a take and bake pizza and cooked it in our oven before I realized, we have nothing in our house. We weren't moving in for another couple of weeks, we were just there for fun. So we quickly had to find a neighbor that was around and had something of us to get our food out of the oven, i.e. pot holders. Jon and Katie to the rescue... they had a pot holder of something to grab our hot food out of the oven as well as some paper towels. The second time we met our neighbors was due to another stupid me moment. I was painting the laundry room before we had our washer and dryer and I wasn't paying attention, go figure, and i dumped a whole lot of paint on the floor and down the back of the door. Well we needed something to get it up quick so BJ ran over to our neighbors and got some paint rags from them. Again to the rescue they came. Over the next year we became really close friends and after Elijah was born BJ and I decided to adopt them and have them be Elijah's Godparents. Now we are at a point in our relationship that when BJ and I both accidentally fall asleep at their house, they just leave us. Which makes for a very acquired waking up in someone elses house and them no where in sight.

But it doesn't matter. Thanks great friends, thanks great home her es to several more years equally as wonderful.

Dear Vikings

Dear Vikings,

I would like to request another great football season from you this year. Last year, when you were wonderful, my hubby was never happier. He was proud to wear your colors and cheer as much as possible for you. It was also fortunate for me that many of your games were at different times than the Bears and we were able to watch the games on our home TV. For the shear courtesy of me having to give up my beloved television on Sundays, Mondays, and sometimes Thursdays, I think you owe me a season like last.

Thank you, Go Minnesota,
Kelly

Labor Day: By Elijah

Last year this was me:
I was little then, I couldn't do very much. Look at the the picture, Daddy had to hold me up. I couldn't even sit. That was like forever ago. This Labor day I had lots of making up to do. Mommy said that Labor means work. So I had lots of work that I needed to do. I needed to start early and just keep going.

First I needed to jump on my wild and crazy giraffe and get my morning ride in. What Mommy couldn't get in the picture is that I can drive my giraffe forward AND backward. Turning is a bit tricky though, usually I just hit something then move the animal.
I thought I should probably try to eat something too while I was out riding around.
Something in this house stinks...Yup it was my shoes, but just to be sure, I should make sure I take care of everyone else's shoes too. I think I will just put Mommy's shoes right over here...Now it's time to do the laundry, because that stinks too. Wait nothing is in this one. Daddy, Where's the dirty clothes?This doesn't go here, Daddy and Mommy have NO idea what goes in the laundry basket. I better let someone know that the clothes were stolen. Who would want dirty clothes. Wait a second, Daddy is folding clothes on the couch, I better go help him and move the clothes after he folds them...You know I should probably get dressed. It is about that time. But you have to catch me first. HAHAHA DIAPER CHANGE!!! I love throwing out my diapers. I know right where they should go in every room of the house. I'm so smart!Mommy! Open! Actually it sounds more like this doh-din, but sometimes I get in an "Oh"
Phew! I need a breather.Mommy, stop taking my picture...Do you need a hug??? This might be the only time you get today. I'm sitting all nice and quiet you have 5 more seconds, 4...3...2...Just in the nick of time. Daddy, you need one too?

Alright back to work. And I'm off. And that was only 10 minutes of my day. I don't understand why Mommy and Daddy are always so sleepy by the end of the day. I mean I have a lot of stuff I need to get done. I can't just sit around and wait for you.

Oh and today I said "bye bye" while I waved goodbye to daycare. Mommy almost cried. She was so happy. I don't know why. But Mommy said that I am learning to talk to nicely. I love my Mommy and my Daddy.

As always Love Elijah

It lives in the sink

With my new hours at work I am actually able to get some house work done. Today however, I was not very motivate to do so but I see in the future a nice schedule going, every week the kitchen gets wiped down and dishes put away, Island cleared off and table cleaned. Every other week, the bathrooms get super cleaned and parts of the upstairs such as the bedrooms. Once a month the kitchen gets deep cleaned. And some where in there the living room and floors need to be done. Anyway you look at it, this is the most "on top" of my house work I have ever been. My house might not look crazy clean but I am getting better and once I can start putting my child to work it will look even better. Especially since most of my time is spent picking up the buckets of things he is moving around the house.

As I was cleaning the sink today I almost died though. I can honestly say I do not remember the last time I Comet cleaned or even wiped it down. And since we ruined our sinks the first week we moved in by putting paint in the sink we bought those rubber sink mats to hide all the paint. Those things do a good job of hiding stuff. I thought about taking a picture of what was under these things but then I thought that that was WAAAAY to gross so I passed. Let me just tell you I didn't know stainless steel could look that brown, and was that really mold?? No wonder we all have horrible allergies. Thank goodness DCFS doesn't do spot checks on all families and the cleanliness of the food preparation area. I would have been shut down for sure, however, since the amount of times I actually cook, I don't see how that would affect us to much. With the least amount of surface area I picked up the rubber mat with my forefinger and thumb and through it into the half full dishwasher. Then I thought, maybe I shouldn't wash dishes with these things because all that stuff is touching my dishes, then I thought, what would I do with the dirty dishes then? In went the second one. I dumped about half the bottle of Comet into the sink and scrubbed, then sprayed it down, and scrubbed again. Then I took the vinegar, which I have recently discovered as a wonderful cleaning agent, better than any expensive chemical you can buy, it even cuts through dog snot stuck to your glass and baked on stuff on the oven. Wonderful stuff. Anyway, went at the still semi brown spots with the vinegar and scrubbed more. Now the sink is shinny and lovely. If anyone needs to wash their hands or has a dirty dish they will need to either use a different sink, hold onto it for about 10 more hours or wash it themselves. Keep that sink clean until I wake up tomorrow, Please.

**PS that is not a picture of my sink, and I do not wear rubber gloves to clean. Just for the record.

Fantacy Football Draft (Finally)

REWIND to Sunday night!

And Play...Okay wait, Rewind a bit further that way you get the history that leads to Sunday night. Okay Play for real now.

BJ and I are sitting around one night on the couch, surprise surprise. We start talking about our Fantasy football league that we have done the last couple of years. This year there were a bunch of the old group that is not around here as much, so we were thinking about doing a league with just our family. We start counting it out on our finger and realized we could have the perfect number of family members for a league. Between my family and BJ's family it would be awsome.

Fast forward (dude if I could figure out how to do those little arrow things that would be awesome). Play, again.

Sunday night the majority of us meet up at BJ's parents. Now FF has been around for several years now and I was surprised to learn that out of the 10 teams, 11 people, we were there were only three of us that had ever done this before. So we had to walk people through on how this was all going to go, some people enjoy making things more technical than they need to be and that is why I feel the need to help explain. I figure if I can explain it, you should be able to follow. We had the 8 teams at Bill and Mary's, my brother was on Facebook messenger with me and BJ was on Facebook messenger with his brother. We drew # in alphabetical order, Brett ended up with number one. The rest of us get our numbers and we all sit down to fill our teams. After each pick BJ and I both have to send the info to our brothers so they can keep track of everything. After three hours, we all had a full team, my step-mom was mad at my dad for taking the player from her old school, my sister had drafted a guy that graduated with our brother and she went to college with, I did not have Adrian Peterson, but I did get my staple FF player, nobody had yelled at anyone, and we were ready to go with some quick smack talk to each other. This league will be interesting, Good luck to the family and whoever is the winner gets to smack talk the rest of the year.