Every woman should read this...

It could have been as long as 5 years ago that I had a benign mass removed from my breast. After recovering I was told that I needed to have a mammogram every 6 months until I turned 35, then I could have them yearly. Since then I've probably been three times. Yes, I know...I need to go have one done. Anyway, I stumbled across this blog entry yesterday and couldn't resist passing it on. Every woman should read it...

The Origins of Swine Flu...

MEF is a good influence...

Wow…how time flies. Apologies for not posting in so long, I really haven’t had anything to say.
Lately I’ve been trying to go green. The first time I went to visit MEF we went to grab some groceries. She was using reusable shopping bags…and what do you think I did when I got back? You got it. I went out and bought some. Now I have tons of them…big ones, small ones, insulated ones…I even have Ohio State reusable shopping bags. I’ve gotten pretty good about using them…I hate when I bring home plastic shopping bags even if it’s just a couple. I don’t see me being able to phase plastic shopping bags out 100%...let’s face it. That raw chicken is not going into one of my reusable bags unless it’s in a plastic bag first. But to redeem my evil ways I always take them back to the store for recycling. And by all means, if you can tell me a way not to get gross chicken juice all over my bags that does not include using a plastic bag…PLEASE share. I hate those plastic bags.
This past March (I think it was March…) I went to see MEF again…guess what kind of habits I picked up from her THIS time? Thanks to MEF, I can no longer bring myself to part with a glass jar/bottle that I can repurpose. Seriously, I use a glass jar that originally had artichoke hearts in it to hold kosher salt. I’m saving spaghetti jars to use for canning…and if it’s a cool looking bottle, you might as well give it up. I’m keeping it. I have a really cool bottle in the fridge, its current purpose? Salad dressing. It’s next purpose? Well, I don’t know yet. But I do know that I’m keeping it. Oh, and thanks to MEF, we’re also recycling. I know, I should have been doing that all along, but I haven’t been. My kids are excited about doing their part…Husband…maybe not so much. Oh well, I’m sure he’ll get over it. =]

13

Thirteen. I love the number thirteen. What’s so special about the number thirteen? Well…it’s the number of pounds that I have managed to lose so far by just changing the way I eat. I’m not going to say, “I changed my diet”…I hate the word “diet”. Diets are things people try and fail at repeatedly. “Diets” are what you do when you deprive yourself of the foods you love or crave. That’s been my experience anyway. I’ve been on the weight rollercoaster most of my life. Up and down…up 10 pounds, down 4. This time it’s different. Currently I eat everything I want. I refuse to deprive myself of the foods I love. That is a recipe for failure as far as I’m concerned. At first I was motivated by the fact that I’m on medication to lower my blood sugar levels. Now I’m motivated by the fact that I’m losing weight. THIRTEEN POUNDS! Yesterday my friend said, “Syl, you know I love you…but never wear that shirt again…it’s too big for you”. It took a moment to sink it…”it’s too big for you”…I’m not sure I’ve ever been told those words before. I know that I have a long way to go…its taken almost 5 months to lose 13 pounds, and at this rate it’s going to take a long time to lose the rest of the weight, but I don’t feel myself slipping back into old habits. No, I’m not exercising other than walking…but now that the weather is nicer, I see myself out playing with the kids more often. I’m just really excited about my progress; I’m losing weight and getting a better handle on controlling my blood sugar. I might be on blood sugar medication for the rest of my life (genetics suck)…but at least I’ll be at a healthy weight.

MEF and Me

I finally made it out to see MEF. I thought it had only been around 6 months since I’d seen her last…come to find out I was way off! We figured it had been almost a year since my last visit. This, of course, is unacceptable.

The drive out to No-man’s-land, Illinois went much better than I had anticipated. I left at 12:31 pm and got to Illinois at, oh heck…what time was it...I can’t remember exactly what time it was, but it was a lot earlier than I thought it was going to be. Of course somehow MEF and I both managed to misunderstand arrival & departure times because of different time zones. J Hopefully next time around we’ll be able to figure it out. **Seriously, can you believe that anyone let us ‘raise’ a baby when we were 19? We can’t figure out time zones…**

And what do you think happened that evening??? Yep, you guessed it, they dragged me, yes dragged me kicking and screaming no less, to the local waterin’ hole. And do you know what (not who) was in that bar?? A dog. A big black dog lying on the floor as his master’s feet. When you walk into a bar and see a huge dog on the floor it is safe to assume that you’ve officially reached “the country”.

We stayed at the bar for a few hours and then headed back to the house. On Saturday morning Beth and I went to Alton to do some shopping. We had lunch at a bar called Fast Eddie’s. This place was just cool, the outside ‘smoking area’ was impressive with its full bar and radiant heaters (of course we didn’t need the heaters because it was so darn nice outside). This bar has quite possibly the smallest menu I’ve ever seen. Beth and I decided on the $.29 (each) jumbo peel and eat shrimp. We started with 30 shrimp…and then went back for another 30! In hindsight we would have been fine with just ordering 20 shrimp for our second go-round (but really, who could resist them…they were SO good!).

We spent most of the afternoon just lounging around watching Burn Notice on DVD. Which of course, was incredibly fantastic for me, it’s not often that I get to relax without my offspring disturbing me. We, okay Beth, cooked some while I was there. Not much though. We were too busy being sloths on her couch. J

On Sunday we managed to get a little accomplished; Beth finished a beautiful necklace that she had been working on and I managed to string a lanyard for my work id badge. After inclement weather rolled through I packed up my car and begrudgingly headed back to Indianapolis…you know; I’m a very lucky person to have someone like Beth as my best friend. There have been times over the past twenty plus years that I’ve managed to fall off the face of the Earth and lost touch with her, but she’s never given up on me or our friendship. Even though we live 200 miles apart, I’d venture to say that our souls are connected at the hip.

100%

I know I'm a mom. I'm not a SAHM, but I am a mom with a full time job, 3 children and a husband that works nights. So, as you can guess most of the parenting responsibilities fall to me. And that's fine. I get it. Being a mother is a thankless job...but does it have to be? Yesterday morning I was ready to run out the door to go to work when I remembered that all three kids needed lunch money. Since neither Husband nor I carry cash that meant checks had to be written. I am instantly annoyed...but I write the checks. As I'm writing the checks Teenager grumpily comes out of his room in nothing but his boxers (seriously dude, put some pants on) and turns the television down. Yep, that was the straw that broke the camel's back. I start in on him about how we (the little ones and I) have to listen to him playing FIFA 09 in his room with that not so mainstream music cd that GirlFriend made for you every single God forsaken day of the week so get your hands off MY television. This of course wakes Husband...who really should know after 11 years of marriage to just keep quiet and let me rant for a minute. I'm not even sure what he said but off I went on him with a "Here is your daughter's lunch money now do something with it because I'm going to work". Why didn't he just say "Ok, I'll take care of it"? Why did he say, "Why didn't you write the checks last night". Why didn't I write the checks last night??? What in the name of all things holy was he trying to do??? Make my head explode??? I spun around and said, possibly even shouted (at this point I have no idea), "Last night when? When I was making dinner? Or running Teenager to GirlFriend's house while I was making dinner because you were too busy watching a movie to be bothered? I know, how about writing the checks while I was cleaning the kitchen or doing laundry so YOU would have clean clothes to wear to work..." I stomped back to my bedroom to get my bag that I use for work shouting at the family as I went, "It's 100% me, 100% of the time with ZERO gratitude from all of you!!!" I made it to the door before I realized that I hadn't said goodbye to anyone so I turned around and gave the kids the "I'm still angry but I love you and I don't want to to walk out the door without saying goodbye" kisses and said "I love you, have a good day". Same for the Husband...then I slammed the door behind me and drove mach 3 all the way to work. You know those women that you hear about sometimes in the news? The storyline reads "Mother of 3 leaves husband and kids to start new life"...yeah, I used to wonder how in the hell a woman who has a husband and children can just walk away from it all. I used to think they were crazy...and maybe some are. But I bet that some of them are just like me...frstrated with being taken for granted, frustrated with the "it's mom's job" expectations. To all you husbands out there...say "thank you" once in a while. Tell your wife that you think she's still beautiful and offer to help out from time to time. And for you kids out there...clean your damn room without a temper tantrum.

I love CVS

About a year ago I became very sick...so sick in fact that I took three sick days. I remember going to the doctor and getting some prescriptions. I dragged my achy, flu ridden body to Wal-Mart to get my prescriptions filled. The woman at the counter told me I would have to wait roughly 20 minutes for the medication. So, I sat on the bench waiting patiently...20 minutes goes by...then 30...finally after almost an hour I ask what the delay was. Now, keep in mind that I was so sick I was literally reduced to tears. The pharmacist told me that they had a bunch of customers come through the drive through so they hadn't gotten to my prescription yet. After waiting an hour and a half I was finally handed my prescription. I vowed never to return there for prescriptions...of course I did though. Bear has 4 meds that he's on daily and I figured that I was at Wal-Mart often enough that it made sense to get his meds from there. But, nothing changed. The lines were long, service was crappy and one time I was actually followed through the store by a pharmacy employee because I didn't pay for Bear's meds at the pharmacy (I had more shopping to do so I thought I'd pay for the meds at the register). I finally got fed up when I went to pick up Bear's meds and the pharmacy tech got snotty with me because I had a vendor coupon ($25 off an Advair inhaler...yeah, I'm not letting that coupon expire!). So, I transfered all the family prescriptions to the nearest CVS, which is around the corner from my apartment. Not only can I get a prescription filled in 5 minutes...but they PAY you to bring them there! I waited until to transfer the prescriptions to CVS until I had a coupon for a free $20 gift card when you transferred a prescription. And can I tell ya...it's been heaven ever since. CVS will give you $1 (extra care bucks) for every two prescriptions you get filled if you use their "Extra Care Card". With 9 prescriptions to be filled every month it really adds up. And let's not forget about the sales at CVS...if you know how to work the system the savings add up. Last week I managed to get a $10 coupon from them..I used it last night along with others I managed to receive and bought (4) 12 packs of 7-Up (on sale for 4/$12), $20 worth of Revlon products, 2 bottles of nail polish remover ($1.99 each) for $19.35 out of pocket (I used $17 in CVS coupons). What's so great about it is that when it was all said and doneI still walked out of there with a $10 coupon, a $4 coupon and a $2 coupon...that's $16 in coupons (which I like to consider money back in hand)...so if you think about it...wasn't it like paying $3.35 for that stuff??

My Journey to NOT Being Diabetic II

Just the other day I blogged about Valentine's Day. In that post I mentioned that Husband asked me to buy a new outfit for our date, but what I neglected to mention is that the outfit I bought was ONE SIZE SMALLER than the clothes I've been buying lately. The pants one size smaller and the shirt...one size smaller!!! I was so stoked I couldn't stand it. Of course there was the part of me that said, "No, Sylvia...you are not one size smaller...the clothes are just cut bigger". Well, now I'm not sure that's the case. I went to the doctor yesterday for a follow up. I knew I had been losing weight but I just wasn't sure how much (you can read about it here). Yesterday I found out how much I had lost. I'll admit, I was nervous about getting on the scale at the doctor's office...I mean, what if my 'weight loss' had been in my head? What if the clothes I bought really had been cut 'bigger'?? I'm happy to announce that in roughly 3 months I've lost 9, count 'em N-I-N-E pounds!! Does this mean that I'm ready to sport an itsy bitsy tweeny weeny yellow polka dot bikini to the pool this year? Hell no! But what it does mean is that I'm on my way to a healthier life. I know that a nine pound weight loss is not substantial by any means (I still have roughly 60 pounds to lose) but it's a start. And it's enough of a start that I can buy smaller clothes...and who doesn't love buying smaller clothes??? I'm still taking the blood glucose medication (no big surprize there) and I'll probably be on it for a while, but I lost 9 pounds! I've lost the weight just be changing my eating habits. And I'm not necessarily eating differently than I was before...I'm just not eating as much as I was before. Now that I'm bonafiably losing weight, I'm motivated to start exercising. Maybe an itsy bitsy tweeny weeny yellow polka dot bikini is in my future for next summer...

Valentine's Day...

Okay, there's always a sense of apprehension when I get this phone call from the husband, "Hey, make time this week and go buy yourself something nice...I made plans for us". First of all...uh-oh! Plans that I wasn't involved in making? YIKES! And second...I suck at shopping under pressure. Seriously. It's hard enough to find an outfit that I like when I have a lot of time to shop. Turns out that luck would be on my side. I found an outfit that I loved!

On Saturday Husband said we needed to leave the house around 11:00am...no problem! We got in the car and headed toward downtown Indy. Here's the part that meant most to me...he was so nervous about our plans that I thought he was going to have to pull over. See, we don't normally celebrate Valentine's Day. We've been married for 11 years now and somewhere along the way it just fell by the wayside. Needless to say, I was really excited about his plans. He told me that he was really nervous because he didn't want to disappoint me. It's no big secret that we've just been through a really rough patch in our relationship, so for him to make plans for us...well, that's a big deal. AND for him to be nervous about disappointing me...wow. I was floored. Yeah, I know...sappy. His plans? He bought us tickets to see Crime and Punishment at the IRT. And can I just say...it was FABULOUS. I loved it...an no. I'm not just saying that to make Husband happy. I truly enjoyed the play...and the wonderful dinner he took me out for after the play. It was so wonderful getting to spend time with him without the offspring. Oh! I almost forgot...not only did we go to a play on Valentine's Day...he bought us tickets for THIS weekend as well. We'll be seeing To Kill a Mockingbird at the IRT. It's the second half of my Valentine's Day gift. Man...it would be wonderful if he was this sweet all the time! LOL!

Who'd a thunk it?

We've all heard old wive's tales...but I found one that actually works! Seriously! I burned myself on the oven this morning. After about an hour of endless burning I put toothpaste on it. I read in my mom's book of old wive's tales (yes, they actually have books about this kind of stuff) that toothpaste makes a great salve for burns. So, I put toothpaste on my burn...and it took the heat out of it INSTANTLY. I know what you're thinking...toothpaste? On a burn? YES! My burn is not burning and now smells minty fresh. So, if you ever find yourself burned by a hot surface...remember...TOOTHPASTE.