Feeling better today!

My cold is doing much better today. Dh took pity on me and the whole house when he came home last night and realized that it was 88 inside. We were just melting and so he turned on the A/C. I know he didn't want to but it was pretty miserable even with the fans going. We keep the temp pretty high, about 80ish, but it was enough to get the humidity out of the house, cool it a little and with the fans, made it so I could sleep last night. That helped my cold more than anything. With our new furnace I've noticed that it's blowing more cool air and it's cooling it down much faster than it did with our old furnace.

Even though I'm better, I'm still not 100% and am a bit annoyed that DH won't call off our weekly BBQ with Steph. In an effort to get us all used to each other, she's been coming over on Wednesday nights, we've been grilling something, having dinner and hanging out. Last week I didn't feel great because of my "monthly friend" but I we had her over anyways and I think that was good. This week however I still feel horrible and cleaning the house in the heat and sick is not what I want to do. I didn't keep up on things like I wanted to over the weekend, I didn't get a lot of help either, and it seems like a daunting task from someone not completely well. He is right that she will eventually see my house looking less than it's best when she is living here but still I have the idea of "family" clean and "company" clean in my head. I got the kitchen and dining room done this morning, I made some shortcake for strawberry shortcake for dessert, and got some fresh green beans cleaned and ready for cooking. This afternoon I'll get the bathroom and living room done and the boys will have to pick up their room when they get home. I'm going to try to nap this afternoon while G is in school. Even though I slept pretty well last night, I'm still kind of tired and a rest sounds good.

I still have not gotten to play very much with my beads. I was still too sick to stitch yesterday. Every thing I looked down my nose ran, so I didn't stitch more than a few minutes before giving up. Today I'm cleaning, so maybe tomorrow I'll get a chance to try them. The bugle beads fit and look awesome but there is the one bead I'm not so sure of....

Thanks Mr. Meth Head!

It's not often that as a law abiding citizen that a "drug" law affects you. I don't do illegal drugs, never had, but yet thanks to those who do, I'm suffered most of the weekend.

I watched with interest as a law was passed that made it so a safe, legal and effective, decongestant, had to be put behind the counter, signed for and dispensed by a pharmacist, because certain people could extract it and turn it into Meth. I understood why and I thought, oh big, deal. Then as spring progressed and my allergies kicked in I realized, what a pain this was when I tried to buy Tylenol Sinus to relive the pressure from my sinuses. It became an even bigger ordeal when I got sick with a terrible head cold on a holiday weekend.

I wasn't feeling good on Saturday, not awful, and because we got hit with our first bout of pretty hot/humid weather I thought it was maybe it was that. I went to bed early on Saturday night and woke about 3am feeling just awful. I had the chills, pounding headache, sore throat, dry cough, and congestion. In the "old" days I could have hopped in my car, gone to my 24 pharmacy near my house,bought some Ny-quil, or some other multi-symptom cold reliever, and felt better in about 20 minutes. Now because this safe, legal, effective, OTC, medication has be be dispensed by a pharmacist, and it being a holiday weekend, no such thing was available or at least not until after Noon on Sunday, and then they only thing they had was some liquid Day Quil(the pharmacist told me they just don't stock very much of it anymore). It's just so frustrating that it's become such an ordeal just to buy something so simple and easy. You can't even stock up on it when you do find it cause you can only buy one thing at a time. I think from now on I'm going to make it a practice to keep stuff like this in the house. Normally I don't, I would buy it when a cold would hit, use it up, and wait until the next cold set in before buying more. And it got me to thinking that thankfully I live near a big city, I have 5 drug stores within 5 miles of my house and one of them had a pharmacy open on a Sunday afternoon. I'm sure there are lots of towns that don't, what would I have done then? Suffered until today before I could buy the safe, legal, and effective, OTC decogenstant?

Being sick in the summer is just h horrible. That's not saying that being sick any other time is Ok, but when it's cold out, it's nice to crawl into bed, cover up and sleep or rest until you are feeling better. I had to get sick when we were hit with 90+ degree weather with high humidity for my illness. I can take one or the other, hot or sick, but both together is no fun. Even now at 6am it's still 75.

Being sick kind of put a damper on the weekend. I did get to the bead shop on Saturday. DH and the boys came with me since it was my birthday and they wanted to spend the day with me. It was a nice thought, really it was, but I would have rather gone alone. I felt like there was a clock ticking on their patience. I would have loved to have looked more but I got what I went there for, the beads for "Forest Goddess" and I got them at a discount because of a coupon they had on their site. I'm not sure yet how the beads are going to look on the piece since I was too sick to really do much stitching over the weekend. I had to pick very different beads then what I had originally thought. Some had to do with not a lot of color choices in Delica 6/0 beads and because when I put the beads together that Mira did pick, I didn't like them so much. The 6/0 bead, the bugle beads, and one of the seed beads I know will look great together and great on the piece. One bead, I'm not so sure of, but I can always go back and try again. Since I had the coupon(20% off), I bought beads from my next project, and treated myself to some gold beads since I always need those and didn't have any in my stash. It was fun, but I felt a bit rushed and pressured. Next time I will insist on going alone.

After the bead store the guys took me out to a late lunch/early dinner in honor of my birthday. It was D's idea and he was very proud that he thought of it. It was cute that in the middle of the meal he tried to convince me 39 wasn't really that old. After that we went to my MIL house where she gave me a gorgeous Celtic cross stitch book which I didn't have the heart to tell her I already owned. Still I made a big fuss and I figure I can always eBay my other copy or offer it up for trade. I was slightly disappointed that DH didn't really do anything for the day. I didn't get a card from him or the boys, no cake, no ice cream. I know my Jason tickets were my gift but it would of been nice to feel like Saturday was a little different than any other day. He said he just didn't think of it and he wasn't sure if I wanted to celebrate the day since I was kind of funky about turning 39 so he didn't do anything. It would be nice if after 18 years he would get it but I have to remember that birthdays growing up were very different from mine. Still it hurt a little especially all the things I do for him and how great I've been about all the extra time he's been spending on hockey. I know life isn't a score card where even thing is equal and balanced but still, a little something, a card at least would have been nice....

Memorial Day was Ok, but so hot. I felt a bit guilty because I didn't go up to see DH and the boys in the parade. I had slept horribly the night before because of my cold and I wanted nothing more than a nap before going to the lodge picnic/BBQ. After I got everyone dressed and out the door I went back to bed and slept until DH called to tell me that they were done with the parade. The boys didn't seem to mind me not being there and had a blast. They helped pass out over 1000 flags.

After that was the Lodge picnic and with my cold I should of stayed home but I dosed myself up on the Day Quil and went anyways. Thankfully it was at Mary's house, who has A/C, and except for helping to bring in the food from the grill, we spent the afternoon in her well cooled house. I washed my hands a lot, tried not to breathe or sneeze on everyone and Mary told me she was glad I came, cold and all. It was a nice afternoon.

I slept horribly again last night. I couldn't get comfortable and about 4am this morning I just gave up and got up. We are headed to near 90 again today. The heat is supposed to break late this afternoon with some thunderstorms and we will have more moderate temps the rest of the week. Hopefully my cold will clear up to.

I hate Dh's job!!

I was talking this morning about my planned trip to the bead store by myself tomorrow to celebrate my birthday since I already got my "main" gift of the concert from DH. I was also kind of asking if we had about $20 bucks to spend on me. I saw him make the face. Great! He then launched in to "I was going to tell you speech..." About how they are printing this weekend and that he might have to make a quick trip to the office for a little while on Saturday. I could still go but it might be later in the day or I might have to take the kids with me in case they call. You know, I don't mind that he is a hard worker, I know this is a good thing, but damn it, they are taking complete advantage of him at this point. He's not only running the department but they have him doing the new payroll software(someone is *supposed* to take it over but hasn't). All morning Monday's he spends talking to people who don't have the concept of punching in when they enter the building and punch out when they leave. Then there is the IT stuff he is doing. Add in that he's making about $12,000 less than his last job, no overtime, and they are getting him to do 3 jobs, well, I get pissed. Yeah, there is that mythical bonus we haven't heard about...GRR!! Yes, I am thankful he has a job, but he is working way to hard for what he is making and he has to learn to say no, but he doesn't seem to have that capability. Ah well, it's nothing I can change or control.

Instead I spent the morning surfing bead sites(while listening to Jason of course). The big problem is the pebble bead, there isn't a good Delica match size wise or color wise. I don't want the squared off edge of a Delica seed bead and then a regular donut shaped bead in the bigger size. Yes, I'm anal about matching things. So I think I've come up with a good match in some regular Japanese seed beads in the 11/0 size for the regular Mill Hill and a 6/0 sized bead for the pebble bead. I think I did a pretty good job. Now to just find the a place that sells the flower bead. I only need 3. If anyone is interested I'll post my the links to the beads I'm thinking of using. I'm not sure yet if I'm going to order them online or maybe try the bead store next weekend.

Give Denise a gold star. She guessed it, we are having someone rent our basement for the summer. It wasn't so much that we decided to do this but who we are letting stay that caused the flack. I'll just say that DH and I have talked about it, a lot, and I'm comfortable with it. And at this point it's hard to say no to the money.

Our house is very well designed to have someone come stay. In fact the old owners rented it the basement out the whole time they lived here. It's a big basement, fully finished, with a bath/shower, and even a kitchen area. It had a stove when we moved in but we took it out. Still with a microwave, you don't really need a stove. Plus the person moving in doesn't eat at home that much. I can still access the laundry room and my craft room without having to go through the her living space. It has doors that can close it off and lock. With a side entrance, we don't have to see her, or she us, if we don't want to. Part of the deal was the help with the garage and she is also going to help us with a few painting projects this summer as well.

It is very understood from the beginning that it will be* very* temporary, from July to the end of September. Not only will it help us, but her too, who is kind of at a cross roads and needs to figure out what she wants to do. If her family was closer I think she would go home for awhile but since they are in Florida and way up north in Michigan, it's not really an option. Again I'm really comfortable with this decision and I think in some ways it may make things a lot more fun this summer too. At least it allow us some cash to do a few things(not a lot but some)

I know my friends were coming from a place of friendship but no one wants to be thought of as a fool, and no one knows my situation as well as I do. I've been with my Dh now 18 years and I think I have a good idea of what is going on. Having this person here in some ways will put my fears more to rest(trust me, I'll notice if he's in the basement). She has been around a lot lately and I see the connection between her and Dh and it's not at all sexual or more than friends. She is very much like DH and I can see why they get along. She is also fun, great with the boys, and we've become friends somewhat too. Dh and his family also have this way of kind of absorbing people. It's hard to say but my BIL and SIL have had lots of people in/out of their house to stay for awhile.

I can see where there could be pitfalls having another person in your house, I really can. But on the other hand all I wanted was a little support, know what I mean? If it turns out badly, then fine, say I told you so, but until then how about a little trust that at almost 39 years of age that I have learned a thing or two and that I was a part of this decision. Though I will admit I did initially say yes, thinking it would never happen, then she showed up, paid for the dumpster and cleaned out my garage.

I've felt a definite cold shoulder from some since then. I don't know how to fix that, I really don't. It's a bummer because I enjoyed the GTG's and now I don't feel welcome. Ah well, it will save some money in the long run and I do have some good memories of the past ones. Maybe it will change, maybe when Steph leaves, who knows.

I'm trying to look forward to the weekend, birthday and all(can you tell turning 39 is really bugging me?) The weather in Michigan is supposed to be beautiful all 3 days. On Monday Dh and the boys will be in the local parade with the lodge and after that there is a lodge picnic. We did this last year and it was a lot of fun. The boys got to hand out flags and they are so excited to be doing it again. I just have to think of something yummy to take with us to the picnic.

Have a great holiday weekend!!!

Indulging in Jason once again!!

After going several month without listening to any Jason I suddenly find myself listening to him all the time again. Damn, how did I forgot the magic of his music? The way it soothes my frayed nerves, the way his voice gives me chills? The concert once again re-awakened my love for him. Dh just rolls his eyes at me....

It also helps that there seems to be a new outlet for my obsession. I was looking at his fan board seeing if there were any pictures from the concert I saw recently. I was happy to find these two:





Then I discovered YouTube. Now I had heard about it on the news and thought it was just a site of stupid videos. Then someone posted a clip from my concert. He did a very funny bit with the opening band. The band was kind of heavy metalish(a surprise to me considering the mellow vibe of Jason). Jason jumped on stage and did a full blown metal head impression complete with jumping, yelling, kicking the mike stand etc. It was very funny because it was so unlike Jason and the opening band was none to thrilled about it either.

From there I've discovered a HUGE amount of Jason video's clips, some good, some not so good. I discovered there is a video of my FAVORITE Jason moment ever. I have a concert on CD from 2003 that he did at the House of Blues in some city. He does this very soft, very sexy, lead in to the most incredible high note, into one of my favorite songs, "In love, On Sadness". I've listened to this song probably a million times and I get chills every time I hear it and when he hits that note, well, it's just incredible(the note is at 3:03 in). How did I not know that there was a video of it. OMG, I'm drooling. You can see it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msUL1xLXcpU

I know, I sound like I'm 15 or something, but I just so love this guy!!

Things continue to go well here. This past weekend DH and I had a chance to help out his brother and SIL who work for an organization that puts on Health Fairs all over the area(they are called "Project Healthy Living"). They do a multitude of testing from simple height/weight/BMI, eye tests, hearing tests, to offering a panel of blood test for a nominal feel. My BIL made sure they set a site up at the lodge so we all were there on Saturday helping it. I helped check people in and I even got to renew my Blood Pressure taking skills. My SIL even said she might have a way for me to help out in the fall(the run the shows through late winter, through the spring, take a few months off, and then start up again) which sounds like fun, considering I'll have some time on my hands in the fall. It probably won't pay but it would be a good thing to put on a resume.

Anyway my BIL is learning to draw blood and in exchange for letting him practice on DH, they ran a bunch of blood tests on him. The results came back yesterday and DH is completely healthy. Everything was in normal range, his PSA was very low, they did some kind of test to assess your risk of heart disease and he was below average on the risk, his BMI was low and his cholesterol was 133. All this from a guy who lives on red meat and coffee, doesn't eat veggies, and until he started playing hockey, didn't work out. This is up from the 129 it was when he was 28. According to my SIL even the breakdown between the good/bad is excellent. How does he do it?

Another positive note was that both boys are currently seeing at 20/20 or better. Both DH and I wear glasses and both of us needed them quite young(DH was 8 but he says he needed them sooner, I was 9). I try to keep an eye on both boys and was eager to have them take the eye test. D could not only read the 20/20 line but could read the two smaller lines under it. G didn't do as well at first. I thought that meant he was struggling to read the letters but he was trying to take the letters and make words with them. Once we figured that out and I explained that they were just letters, no words or reading required, he did just fine. He too could read at least one line below the 20/20 one so he is doing well too. It was also good that one of his Uncles was doing the test and I was glad to have a chance to get that done and I don't have to worry about it for a few more months.

The upheaval continues at home. We cleaned out the basement over the last few days which was good. We found a few things we had forgotten we had(like a webcam and a zip drive) It's so clean and nice. We still haven't figured out where the computers are going to be but worked out where we will have at least one of the computer printers hooked up which is good because I wasn't sure if I could go 3 or more months without printing anything. We finalized some more of the details as well last night. I'm trying to remain positive but I saw last night how it will be a bit of an adjustment, for all of us. It will force me to be much more social that I normally am. I know shocking to think that even though I'm online a lot, seem to talk a lot here, in real life I'm not that social. I'd rather be at home, I'd rather not talk to people if I don't want to.....Still I have to keep thinking it will be good, and if it's not, at least it will be temporary, and will help us all out.

2 days until my birthday...UGH! When did I get old?

It's been a month!!

Wow! A whole month without a blog entry. My life is really that boring that there hasn't been anything that exciting to report. Let's see if I can think of a few things recently:

D is still doing excellent in school. He got another 24 out of 24 right on a spelling test this week. He also got the highest score in his class on a story he had to write. It was graded not only on content but grammar and all that. It was graded on a scale of 1-4, he got a 4, only one of two she gave. The teacher said this would normally have been a 4th grade assignment a few years ago. He was struggling with math but I think he has finally started to "get" it more. It's not as easy to him as spelling so he doesn't think he can do it. We have started to seem some fractions and multiplication tables I hate math!!

G is doing well too. I spoke with the speech therapist and while he has made a lot of progress, there are still a few area's that he will need to work on again next year so he will see her 2-X a week all of next year too. She said that he is very sweet, very moral, and very competitive. All things I knew! I also ran across the reading teacher(she has a big fancy title but I can't remember it). She reads with all the kids to see how they are doing and seeing who may need help. G she said is doing really well, in fact is reading above the Kindergarten level and she feels with a bit of coaching he could easily be at the 1st grade level in no time. She also said that if he can't do it perfect, or has to struggle at all, he gets upset. She said he is quite the charmer as well.

Dh is still having a blast with hockey. The won over the weekend 5-0 and he was so thrilled when he came home. He said that while it really shouldn't matter whether you win or lose, winning is a *lot* better. His team is now in second place and he printed out the standings and put them on the fridge with all the boys papers from school! I got to go see a game last weekend that ended in a tie but it was a really well played game. His skills have come a really long way. I still get somewhat annoyed with the amount of time he is gone but he is having such a great time doing it that it's hard to stay mad for long. They will have a bit of a break this week with the Memorial Day Holiday so he will be home almost every night this week(they might try to squeeze in a practice over the weekend but aren't sure). The end of the season is drawing near and I know he is looking for a way to fund the summer season

The coming Saturday is my birthday(yuck) and I got my birthday present on Thursday the 18th. Dh got me tickets to see Jason Mraz when he was here in the Detroit area(about 3 miles from my house). Yes, I know I said that I was mad at him BUT he broke up with his girlfriend, is back to posting quirky journal entries and finally came to *my* town. I had to see him!! The tickets were General Admission which I was concerned about but I have to say for a younger audience they were well behaved. DH and I found a railing where we could sit, and then stand during the concert. It was a lot closer seating wise than the other two times I saw him so maybe GA wasn't so bad! I felt a little funny at first, standing in line, because he draws such a young audience. The only people our age were some kids parents. Still once we got inside being the oldest person had it's advantages....no line at the bar, ever!!! We had a few beers, DH surprised me with a concert t-shirt, and the concert was AMAZING!!! I'm not just saying it because I'm a total fan but because he kicked butt at the show. It was the best show out of the 3 I've seen. I was worried that it was going to be all his crappy songs from his new CD but he opened the show with two acoustical numbers, and oldies at that. He did play a few from the CD but the songs I liked, thankfully no Wordplay(may we never hear that again). He did sing "You and I both" which is fine because it's "our" song, the song he was singing when I discovered his greatness, and yes, "The Remedy", but he mixed it up. The first verse he sang straight, the second in French, then he did a really funny bit about being a rock star and how we should all "rock" in our daily lives, being the best people we can be. I could go on forever on how awesome the show was but I won't. It was fun to let go, feel the music, dance a little, sing a little, cheer really loud and just soak up his positive vibes/energy. It was also great it was so close to the house because it meant we were home by 11pm. Frankly it took longer to get out of the parking garage then it took to get home.

I was thrilled last night to discover that someone taped this particular concert(Jason allows taping of all his live shows). The quality is not the greatest since it was just some guy in the audience but it was fun to kind of relive the moments on my own computer. I'm bummed that I didn't take my camera and don't have any pictures. The last two venues were really strict about not allowing them, even though Jason states he allows that too, so I left mine at home. I haven't seen any pop up on the fan board as of yet, but maybe soon. He looked good!! Kind of scruffy but he's been on the road a long time so it was to be expected.

I may drop out of sight again for awhile. We are going through a bit of an upheaval here at home and I suspect it will be a busy couple of weeks. It's a long story, and frankly, I talked about it somewhere else and got a huge amount of crap for it, and I don't want to again. It has caused us to have to shuffle our computers around and at the moment we are down to one computer instead of our usual 3. My computer time is pretty spotty since it seems like every time I sit down someone else needs to use it, so a lot of the time lately I just don't bother. I'm hoping in a couple of weeks we will have decided on the spots for them so we will at least have two back online. Of course I'm getting a lot of cleaning and stitching done so maybe it's not so bad only having one system going at the moment.

Speaking of cleaning I have to talk about an amazing achievement in our house. We bought our house from people we knew(never do that by the way, it sucks) and the people left behind an ASTOUNDING amount of stuff in the house and in the 3 car garage . We slowly but surely over the 9 years we have lived here got their stuff gone from the inside of the house, but the garage, well, it was never a priority. We added to their stuff, a few other people stored some things in it as well since it was so huge and before you knew it, it was packed. In 9 years we've never parked one of our cars in there(a friend did once for a weekend), and we've had several dead cars in there as well, but not any of our cars. Part of the upheaval in our house requires storage space in the garage and someone came to help us accomplish that. We rented a 10 yard roll off dumpster that was delivered to our house on a Monday morning. Monday at 5pm we started cleaning, and by 8pm the dumpster was FULL and the garage was clean. I'm not just talking a little clean, I mean, swept free of dust and so amazingly clean. We cleared out the rafters and except for a china cabinet and a desk, everything was pitched. The dumpster was not our idea, but a a friends, and they paid for it, and what an idea it was. If we ever move from here, I'd order another one in a heartbeat. The drop it off, in one week pick it up, and except for a few rules like no toxic waste or concrete, you can pitch whatever you want in it. The garage is now more clean than we've ever seen it!!! Here is the dumpster before the picked it up:



and one of the 3 bays of our garage:


I've been stitching a fair amount. I'm down to maybe 3 colors on the dress of "Forest Goddess" and her head, face, and arms to go and I'll be done. It's now time to start thinking about beads. Someone is kind enough to send me what they have left from their project. On Saturday, as a birthday treat, I think I'm going to head to the bead store and see about making some substitutions. I'm not sure if I'm going to use all Delica's because there is a pony/pebble bead in the piece and it's a very different shape from a Delica. Delica does make larger sizes but not a lot of color choices, so I'm not sure if a what the two different shaped beads on the same piece. I'm willing to use any kind of seed bead that is not a Mill Hill so I should be able to come up with something.

I did finish an ornament early in May so I'm doing good with that:


I can't remember it's name(Christmas Tree Sampler, I think). It's a freebie for Rainbow Gallery, designed by Erica Michaels, and I bought it as a kit so it had all the specialty threads for it. I started and completed it in a day.

and just because, here are picture of the boys in their hockey jerseys that are just like Dad's. Their Aunt and Uncle bought them for the boys:



And this past Saturday(the 20th) Dh and I celebrated the 18th anniversary of our first date. We didn't do anything special really but it's quite a milestone. I can honestly say that after all this time he still makes my heart flutter and my toes curl, just like he did on that first night. This coming August will be 17 years of marriage so we must be doing something right.

See when I wait a month to post, I sound like I actually have a life.