have you ever been so angry???

Imagine my rage when I signed on to my bank account this morning only to find the balance far lower than I had expected. The real rage ensued upon seeing exactly why this was so. There are 8+ pending debit card purchases, at about $42 a piece to ITunes. Well, two of them were less than $10....but who gives a crap!?

I stormed into Satan's room, at approximately 8 a.m. to awaken him from his deep slumber, demanding his account information, and for him to descend the stairs to enter it in and explain himself. I feel slightly bad, because I also had to go wake Lucifer up for the same reason. I don't feel bad because of that, but because of the fact that only one of the purchases was made by Satan, the rest were made by 12 y/o Lucifer.

Yes, at times like this they are referred to by their devil names.

It doesn't help that there is no phone call support for billing/purchase disputes at ITunes. You have to email them. Either that, or you can go in and opt for the "report a problem" choice. You then click on "report a problem" that shows up next to the item in question, and fill out the form.

So, we're talking over $300 in purchases. The average purchase was $42. That would be great if that was for one item. Each order, at about $42, had about 20 or so songs, and then some videos, or movies to go along with them...at least.

The average purchase on ITunes would be the songs at 99 cents a piece....$42 equals 40 or so songs...if songs are all that a very bad boy purchases!!!

You try and fill in reports for each song, video, or movie!!! I did it for several and then got wise and decided to opt for emailing customer service. I had to make a list on MSWord of the order numbers. You can't cut and paste from ITunes because they wont let you select for copying and pasting!

Hopefully they'll resolve this matter via these methods, otherwise I'll have to wait until the "pending debit card purchases" are no longer pending and have the bank dispute them.

Happy Frickin' Holidays!

Well, up until this morning the holidays were quite nice.

Mom and Dad were here for the week and I took them to the airport yesterday. I bawled half the way home. It takes about an hour and I knew I had to stop to pick up a few essentials for dinner, so I got myself under control as quickly as possible.

Have you ever been to a Wegman's grocery store? I had never been and it was very cathartic, to say the least. It's like a food mall! You could literally spend hours upon hours in there! There's even a seafood bar, to go along with the huge bakery, deli, and wine store.

I don't frequent these elite grocery stores often, and would never do full-on food shopping at one, but they are fun to go into for the infrequent purchases.

The pane Italiano was quite yummy. It was warm still, when I picked it up out of the bin. It went along nicely with the stroganoff type dinner I made out of left over roast beast for dinner last night. My father-in-law and his lady friend are here for a visit and I had to throw something together.

Christmas morning


The following two pictures are of the boys opening up the boxes I wrapped their Ipod Touches in. Darn those Ipod Touches!

just a tad tired, but found a gem

Hmmph, I am so very exhausted, but need to stay awake a while longer. My mom and dad are coming in, in the wee hours of the morning. So it will probably be about 2:30-3 a.m. before we're settled back here at home and ready to head to bed. We'll leave in about 45 minutes to go pick them up from the airport.

In the meantime I am reading up on some other student nurses' or new nurses' blogs. I came across these tips from Christy at My Journey from a Student to a Nurse and just wanted to share. Christy is now a practicing RN and has been for about a year now, I believe, and these gems are from when she was deep in the thick of her schooling.

I did everything I set out to do today, and then some. As far as "straightening up" LB's room, note to self: never think walking into a teenagers room is ever going to be simple. If a tree could be reincarnated out of all the paper I found under his bed we'd have a 100 year old oak on our hands! Yikes! His room took me a couple of hours. I also cleaned the kitchen, the bathrooms, and my bedroom. My back hurts.

I baked one of the types of cookies I planned on and that would be the pumpkin chip cookies. They're scrumptious as always. I got the recipe from a friend's mom who had been visiting a while back. She's since passed on and I love that we carry her delicious recipe on as a tradition in our house during this wonderful holiday season.

Have I mentioned I'm tired?

just can't stay away!

The peppermints are glued together with hot glue. Yeah, it hurt sometimes! I love how it turned out!
I've been pretty busy the past couple of days, making up for the lost time from being slowed down with the abdominal pain. I did go Friday for my ultrasound and the tech didn't see anything remarkable, but of course deferred diagnosis to the radiologist. The pain has not come back. That evening I worked on some crafts while we watched The House Bunny. The boys played Spiderman on XBOX 360. Later we watched The Dark Knight.

Saturday we spent cleaning up our computer room. There were stacks of papers that needed to be sifted through, and my bookshelves were a wreck. It's technically Big B's room, as it's his sports themed room. He's a big fan of the Phildalphia Phillies, Eagles, and Flyers. There's memorabilia smeared all over the place. Oh, and we can't forget Nascar! There's a little section of wall dedicated to it, mostly Dale Jarrett. But yeah, I've let things go over the past few months and the place looked like a train wrecked in it. Now it's all neat, tidy, and organized! We watched Mamma Miathat evening. We had seen the Broadway version in NYC, and loved it so I couldn't wait to see it when it came out in theaters. We never got to go!

AW went over to a friends house for a sleepover, and one of LB's friends came over to our house to crash.

Yesterday I wrapped presents, organized my closet (the train had made its way upstairs), and sewed the boys a couple of stockings.

These are the stockings. The green one is LB's and the red and black one is AW's. The tree is what I worked on Saturday evening. It's a little cone with balls and buttons I hot-glued on it.

Today I need to clean the bathrooms, the kitchen and my bedroom. Oh, and I need to straighten up LB's room. My mom and dad are coming in for the week and they stay in his room. We only have a three bedroom house and LB has our old queen-sized bed. Heck, he and AW end up sleeping downstairs on weekends and during holiday break anyway!

They fly in at 12:30 a.m. Big B bought the tickets for them with some of his mileage points and that was the best time he could get, and the best route...considering the weather. They'll fly from Texas to ATL and on into VA...avoiding the Midwest. He's so smart!

Our tree. AW and I decorated it.

The star is made out of a white pipe cleaner and Borax. The photo doesn't quite capture how it sparkles.

See the little black and blue ornament? AW painted it. He has a thing for Geico. Don't ask me why!

This is our china cabinet decked out for the holidays. The snow family up top is placed there because I found them in the jaws of one of my resident Labrador Retrievers. They take that retrieving thing a little too seriously sometimes!



Minnie had to get in on the action. Sandi was undoubtedly snoozing upstairs on my bed.

Now I must go scrub toilets! Where's Cinderella when I need her!? I could never do that to a person though. We'd scrub together!

Both boys are elsewhere now. AW stayed at his friend's house again, and LB went to the friend's house who came over Saturday night. So I woke up to peace and quiet today. Of course that's how it would be anyway as the slugs sleep late on days off from school. However! I will be able to get everything done today that I need to without warding off requests from teen and pre-teen boys once they've awakened! I really do miss them when they're not here, though.

After cleaning I'll bake some cookies. I plan on baking snickerdoodles, pumpkin chip cookies and nutty spice oatmeal cookies. Yummee!

christmas week

Just wanted to wish everyone a happy holidays! Probably wont be posting much this week.

happy anniversary girls!

Last year on this very day I had a reduction mammoplasty done. It was one of the best decisions I've ever made!

Here is a before and after.

ever feel like an alien?

I feel so much better as of yesterday afternoon, after taking my first dose of Nexium. Interestingly enough and this is going into TMI territory, and hopefully I'm not repeating something I've already said, but anyway-somewhat coincidentally, I accidentally started my quarterly (I take Quasense, a generic of Seasonale) on Monday, the same day the abd pain had started. I say accidentally because I somehow (maybe amidst the stress of studying for finals???) forgot to take 4 of my BCPs last week! Oopsy!

Along with yesterday's first dose of Nexium I also stopped menstruating. Back in 1992 I was diagnosed as having had endometriosis, post exploratory laparoscopy. I ended up pregnant with my now 15 y/o soon after and haven't suffered from endometriosis since.

I have my ultrasound this morning. I don't think it's likely that they'll find anything. I think it's either acid/nerves related...or maybe endometriosis sneaking back up on me. I did start my pills right back up from where I left off and my actual menses is supposed to be this coming week. If it is endometriosis then in theory I would most likely go through this pain again, next week. Merry Christmas to me.

Let's just hope it's acid/nerves related.

Nonetheless I am feeling tons better, like my normal self and now I can finally enjoy this holiday season.

out of africa

Does nobody in Africa own a computer?

I'm just wondering because I was looking at my Clustermap, found down on the right side of my blog, and there are NO hits from Africa. Hmmpph.

I'm in a bit of a pissy mood and should probably not even blog, but what the hell...this is my place to let loose if I feel like it.

My abd pain is still present and accounted for. I woke up at 3 am about ready to head to the ED, but what would they be able to do for me?! Well for starters they could do imaging that I wouldn't have to drive all over God's country to attain. It didn't help that I was stuffed up and my sinuses felt like they were going to implode. WTF?

Is everything falling apart on me this week? The week I should be enjoying so much...and am unable to!!!

I'd put this in all caps, but find that rather annoying, so just know I'm yelling in my brain.

We just had to go and have a family meltdown yesterday evening. It wasn't pretty. I wont get into it. Let's just chalk it up to stress, and the need to have a good sit down family discussion on how we treat each other.

You'd think things would get easier as the kids get older, but no they have to go and have opinions of their own and are no longer able to be thoroughly controlled by mom and dad. Ever lived with a 12 year old and a 15 year old? One is trying to spread his wings and is testing every boundary possible, the other knows EVERYTHING!

So I'm headed out here in a bit to spread the almighty $$$ as thin as I possibly can. Darn tuition. Why do they have to make it due BEFORE Christmas!? And I still need my textbooks.

If it weren't for my mom and dad coming in next week I would be saying that I wish this holiday season would just hurry up and be over with!!

Maybe tomorrow my ultrasound will let me know that nothing is wrong and my pain is psychosomatic r/t being a nursing student/mom/wife/etc. We'll have that good ole family discussion tonight. I'm hoping upon hope that things will just get better over the next 24 hours and we can enjoy my parents' stay and I can enjoy this break...finally!

Thanks for listening.

hmmm...at a loss

I went to the the local urgent care today and saw a FNP. She did the usual assessment, ran some labwork, and I left with no idea why I'm having my abdominal pain. Of course the pain was worse since my abdomen had been palpated. She did write a Rx for a free 7-day supply of Nexium, suspecting it may be acid related. She also referred me out for an abdominal ultrasound. This means I get to drive all over God's country to go get poked and prodded some more. When I first called they told me it had to be a bladder full procedure. I had to call back because my order had yet to be faxed over and at that point I was told it is to be a fasting procedure. I'll take empty stomach over full bladder anyday!

drum roll...peas and carrots

lice and laisins. My Grandma Goldie used to say that when I'd say "please" by saying "peas and carrots". Ahh, memories!

The results are in, and I get to move onto next semester's edition of Nursing Student. This is being thought to the voice of Ryan Seacrest, as he announces results on American Idol.

Yep, the self-diagnosed adult-onset ADHD is in full swing. Too bad I still, in all actuality, feel crummy. This time it's not my head...it's mah belly! What was that guys name on Austin Powers? Oh, yeah "Fat Bastard." Anyway!

I woke up with abdominal pain on Monday, and by that evening it felt better. It hasn't totally gone away, so today I'm headed over to the urgent care center to find out what is standing in my way of being fully energetic and getting some things done 'round this joint!



Oh, yes! I almost forgot to tell you my grades! I got an A in my Nur100-Intro class and a B in Nur105-Basic Nursing Skills! Not a bad way to end the semester considering I would've been happy with Cs! I do have to say the 105 grade is slightly perturbing. An A in my program is a 92 or above. I got a 91.4. Grimmace.

I also must add we're losing two of our classmates. One we knew about. She's preggers and will be having her baby in the next couple of weeks. So she'll take the year off and then start up next Spring. The other is being hit by the almighty $$$...or lack thereof I suppose. If I had a million dollars...

first semester of nursing school=O-V-E-R!

Ok, so maybe the sun didn't literally come out today, more like drizzly, cold rain.

And maybe I didn't get to revel in my accomplishment of finishing my first semester of nursing school, right after finals were finished, because maybe I was suffering from yet another migraine.

We even went out to lunch after the finals, but by the time we finished I felt like an ice pick was twisting into my brain above my left eye. It was all I could do to arrive home safe and climb into my bed with a cold, damp washcloth on my forehead, after taking my pain reliever.

Now I am feeling much more like celebrating, but am opting for a more sedate type of celebration.

The rest of the evening will be spent relaxing with my family and then tomorrow I will set off my plans in motion...cleaning, shopping, baking, organizing, etc.

Never thought I'd be so happy to be able to clean with no other worries!