10 posts tagged “steve”

Today is a school holiday for Steve and Simon.  I like having them home to keep me company, but I'm really glad that Simon is home because he woke up not feeling well.  He had a cough this morning, and has been listless all day.  We've been watching "The Presidents" on The History Channel, and Simon is sound asleep on the sofa.  Actually, Linus is asleep on his doggy sofa, and the cats are sound asleep on our bed.  I've been a lazy bum all day, but I haven't actually gotten in any shuteye.

We went to Costco last night, and I picked up a cookbook and a book on organic gardening.  I flipped through the gardening book, but it's mostly a reference of organic solutions for gardening problems I'm not currently experiencing.  It's actually a compilation of Rodale's All-New Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening and The Organic Gardener's Handbook of Natural Insect and Disease Control. I think it'll come in handy later, but for now I'm all engrossed in my new cookbook.

The cookbook I got was How to Cook Everything: Vegetarian by Mark Bittman.  They also had his older (omnivorous) How to Cook Everything, so I had decide which one I wanted.  Since my ultimate goal is to eat less meat, I decided to get the veggie version.  I haven't looked at the non-veggie version, but I'm not at all disappointed with the one I got.

I spent a good portion of my lazy day coming up with a menu and grocery list to get us through to next Tuesday. 

So far I've got the following:

• chicken and dumplings (I still have the stuff from the other day.)
• stir fried leek dumpling with miso carrot sauce with ginger and salad greens
• stir fried tofu with fried rice
• white bean and mushroom ragu with polenta
• homemade pizza
• either salmon or scallops with risotto and sauteed spinach & mushrooms
• edamame stew with couscous
• Chicago Diner burgers with sweet potato fries and salad
• seitan "chops" with sides of some sort

We'll see if that's what we wind up having.

I couldn't let Pancake Tuesday pass without remark, since my very blog is named in this saint's honor!  ;)

Actually, I'm not even making pancakes today.  I overslept this morning, so poor Simon had a cereal bar for breakfast.  They are serving pancakes at our church tonight though.  Steve will be running late to get over there from work, so he won't have time to swing by and pick me up.  He's going to try to get Simon over there early enough to get some pancakes, but Steve'll have to get right to work on setting things up for children's choir.  That should be done by 6:30 so I'm planning to have dinner ready at 7:00 tonight.  I'm not making pancakes for dinner though.  I have stuff in the fridge that needs to be used before it turns south, so I'm finally making the Parmesan Crusted Chicken topped with lemon dressed greens and broccoli and bow ties on the side.  I'm actually glad I'm making it today.  It's lemony, and kind of springy, so it'll be good for today since it's kind of warm and springy outside today.  (It's only 9:00 am, and it's already 56 degrees.)

I can't believe how warm it is outside!  We actually had thunderstorms last night.  It's obnoxiously humid, but I'm still considering opening the windows and airing out the house this afternoon if we get above 60.  It seems so springlike, that I'm actually feeling motivated to get some stuff done around the house!  (And no, I'm not nesting. Flo is officially visiting. I'm sending Steve to pick up my Clomid this afternoon.)

This house is a disaster area right now.  It started when I spent more time over at my mom's house cleaning everything out, and I've never caught up.  It is truly driving me nuts having my house this messy, but I've been feeling overwhelmed.  (I'm sure the hormone roller coaster that I've been no hasn't helped.)   I've actually had days when I just sat here because I couldn't begin to figure out where to start.  It's sad.  Fortunately, I'm feeling this awesome, spring weather motivation today, so I'm going to try to take advantage of it!  I might start out with some FlyLady chaos cleaning.  (Where you just move from room to room and spend 15 minutes at a time in each room.)  The best part about that method is when you're done you at least see some progress all over the place.  Wish me luck!

I just got back from the doctor, and I don't really know any more than I did before I went.  My beloved aunt hasn't arrived, but Dr. B. said that the Clomid could have made my cycle longer so I should just hang out for another day or two.  I got a negative test on Saturday, but I still didn't imbibe during the Super Bowl just in case.

Steve went with me because his school had a fog delay this morning.  I like it when Steve goes, because Dr. B. goes into a lot more detail when Steve's there.  (I think Dr. B. assumes that I already know and understand everything, but explains things a little more throughly for Steve.)   When I get test results back, the nurse usually calls and says if things are ok or not.  Today, Dr. B. went into a lot more detail on the results on a few of our tests, which was good.

We got the obligatory "Advanced Maternal Age" talk today.  Dr. B. told us that he doesn't think there's much to worry about, but he's obligated to tell us about the risks of having a baby after the age of 35.  He said that if it was his wife having a baby at age 37, he wouldn't be all that worried about it.  Since I'm healthy, they'll just keep an eye on me to make sure I don't have any problems.  He said that we can also test for chromosomal issues if I want to, but that most people don't bother.  My mom was 38 when she had me, and I turned out mostly ok.  (Mostly.)  Anyway, that was a real upper. 

Also a big upper--Steve pulled a muscle in his back over the weekend, so he's been in agony for the past couple days.  I feel bad because I'm sure moving heavy things at my mom's house last week didn't help.   Our basement has some water in it this morning, so Steve went down to move some things around to make sure the water had a straight path to the sump pump.  I don't think he realized it, but he was gasping and groaning while he was moving things around.  I suggested taking lots of Advil, and getting some ThermaCare wraps.  Hopefully he'll feel better by the end of the day.

Hopefully I will, too.  I'm cranky.

We had an *interesting* day yesterday.  It started normally enough, although we had gotten a cold front and gone from light jacket weather the night before to an arctic chill by morning.  Steve went out to warm up the car, and it would crank but wouldn't start.  It had been working just fine the night before when we went to the grocery, so we figured that maybe we had some condensation in the gas line that had frozen or something.  Steve walked (in the -9 windchill) over to the gas station, and bought some gas line stuff.  We put that in, and then pushed it farther down the drive so it would be sitting in the sun.  No dice, it warmed up a little but still didn't start so we had to call a mechanic.  The tow truck came about an hour later and got it started, but told Steve that it looked like the fuel pump was going out.  The good news is that Steve was able to drive over to the station and save the tow charge!   We talked to the mechanic throughout the day, and he asked us if the gas gage had been working properly.  It hadn't.  We had to pay attention to how many gallons of gas we had put in, and then kept track of how many miles we should have been able to go before we'd need gas again.  It wasn't as much fun as it sounds.

Eventually we got an estimate for fixing it, and it will most likely cost us around $850 to fix.  Ouch!    The fuel pump is inside the tank with the gas sensor.  They have to replace the entire tank, and the part alone is $600.  It should be done today.  The good news?  The gas gage will be fixed when we get it back.  No more gas math!  Yay! 

I also got a call about the job that I had interviewed for last week.  I didn't get it.   I can't remember if I posted about the interview or not, but I had called about a church secretary job here in town.  I had what I thought was a decent interview, but I think they decided to hire a member of their church.   The guy did tell me that he and the pastor really enjoyed talking to me about church growth, and that they wish they had another job to offer me in that area.  He also kept saying that they felt that God was really going to use me based on our long talk about church marketing.  He actually said that after our interview, he and the pastor sat there for an hour and debated the points I made.  His positive comments were nice to hear.

Steve got a ride with a coworker to work this morning, and we called the mother of a classmate of Simon's to take him to school.  Simon's classmate's mom seems to have forgotten him though, so he's home again today.  When I called the school, I spoke with the aide in Simon's class.  She told me that half of Simon's class was out sick yesterday, and his teacher is out sick today.  Maybe I'm glad Simon has been home so he hasn't been marinating in all of those germs.  There's actually a decent chance that Simon will be home again tomorrow because they're predicting a lot of snow tonight.   We should be ok because his aide said she'd bring Simon's schoolwork he's missed over tonight on her way home from school.  (I always forget that she lives a few blocks away.  She said the next time Simon needs a ride, she'd be glad to pick him up.  I'll have to remember that!)

Throughout everything, I'm feeling very PMS-like.  I had a blood test last Monday, and the nurse told me that I did ovulate, but with the stress we went through finishing everything at my mom's house, I make no promises.  The upside of not being pregnant is that I am so going to have a much needed stiff drink--or three.

My goal for today is to get everything cleaned up and wash blankets and stuff in case we lose power tonight.  They're saying we should get four to eight inches of snow, but it's possible that we'll get some ice before the snow starts.  I've lived through a week of no power after an ice storm, so I always try make sure the laundry is caught up when they start predicting ice.  Fortunately, my laundry is mostly caught up, but I need to wash blankets and towels.  It'll be nice to have it done even if we don't get any ice. 

I promised Simon that he could play Webkinz on the basement computer while I'm working down there.  I figure he can play a math or word game and it will *almost* be like school.  Ok, maybe not. 

Over the weekend I finally started to get into the Christmas spirit.  I started watching holiday movies while I worked around the house.  I watched "Elf" and "The Holiday" while I cleaned the kitchen and tidied the living room. 

I also followed the tradition I started when Simon was a baby, and watched "Enemy of the State" while I put up the artificial tree that we now put in the den.  I have no idea how I got started watching that movie every year.  My guess would be that the first year we had just either rented or bought the DVD, and I watched it while putting up the tree.  The next year I decided to watch it again because I hadn't seen it in a while.  Now I watch "Enemy of the State" every single year while I put up the artificial tree. 

By now, I've got it down to a science.  As I put each branch on, I wrap it with lights.  By the time the movie's over, I'm done; and all of those lights look amazing!  I use colored lights for the fake tree because it is the one that gets all of the hodge-podge ornaments.  We have a mix of homemade ornaments, Hallmark ornaments, gifts that Steve has gotten from students, and a lot of cartoon character ornaments that we've gotten for Simon over the years.  I don't think there's an ornament on there that doesn't have a story.

Around the time Steve and I were married, I lived in an apartment with 12' ceilings and huge windows in the front part of the house.  Every year we bought huge cut trees to go in the front window.  That first year we were married, we bought the Griswold family tree, used white lights that we had inherited from my ex-roommate, and then I made a tree skirt, angel, and several ornaments along with the ornaments that we had gotten as wedding gifts to go on the tree.  Shortly after that, we moved into a tiny duplex with a very small living room.  We went to Franks and bought one of those artificial trees that are tall and skinny so it would fit in the room--and I still had to leave off a few branches from the back so I could push it farther against the wall to make more room.  The first few years we still used white lights and started using the hodge podge ornaments .  The year Simon was born was the first year I bought colored lights for that tree.  My thought was that Simon was only four months old, so blinking colored lights were pretty much all he was going to enjoy about Christmas.  That first tree was the tackiest thing!  It had zillions of colored lights, and no two strands blinked at the same time.  Simon was memorized.  It was perfect!  For the next several years, we used that tree with all of the colored lights, although after Simon started school I stopped making it flash. 

When we moved here,  I decided that we finally had room to have two Christmas trees so I could have a themed, decorator tree like I usually had before Steve and I got married.  Steve wanted to start getting cut trees again, so the cut tree goes in the living room and has white lights and a lovely snow theme.  Our den is about the same size as our old living room, so the colorful, fake tree goes in there.  This year I'm even going to let Simon put the ornaments on the den tree. He's very excited about that since I was a complete control freak about the ornaments on the snow tree.

He has a doctor's appointment after school, then I might bake cookies and let him decorate the tree.  That sounds fun and Christmassy!

We went out for sandwiches last night for dinner, and before our food arrived I went to wash my hands.  On the way, I noticed that they had a jukebox.  (We've eaten in this restaurant for at least 15 years, and I never once remember hearing it play.)

I took a look at it.  There were a lot of old songs, so I was going to play a dollar's worth.  That's when I noticed that songs were three for a dollar or seven for two dollars.  Jukebox songs should be five for a dollar!  I realize that I haven't used a jukebox in a while, but are they all so expensive now?  I wouldn't have payed that much for those songs when they were new.  Why would I pay that much for them now that they're old and stale?

Steve pointed out that I could buy the song on iTunes for the cost of playing it three times on that jukebox.  He volunteered to let me download whatever song I wanted. Then he'd put it on his iPod, put the ear buds in his ears, turn it up really loud, and sing it as many times as I wanted.  I'm sure that would have been the highlight of the other patrons' dining experience. 

Isn't he such a thoughtful and caring guy??

An Alberta clipper brought our first snow of the season overnight.  At ten till six this morning, Steve got a call telling him that their school had a two hour delay.  (I was, of course, already awake since I wake up at 4:00 now a days.)  I immediately turned on the TV and found out that Simon's school is also on a two hour delay.

A few minutes ago, we got the call that Steve's school is now closed; so I keep watching the crawl on the bottom of the screen to see if Simon's school is canceled.  (I doubt it though, Steve's school is out in the country and they always get more snow days than Simon's school.)

This is our first snowy day with Linus, and he is cracking me up.  I opened the door to let him out this morning, and he slid across the back porch.  He then stuck his nose into the snow and started poking around to figure out what to think of this fluffy stuff.  Now he keeps going back to the door because he wants to play outside, but he wants me to play out there with him.  Sorry puppy, maybe later.  I was out a little while ago to clean off the car, and my socks are still damp.

Named solely because I'm currently enjoying a Champagne cocktail called a poinsettia.  I have to.  Really!  I bought all of the stuff to have poinsettias as my featured drink at Bunco in two weeks. I have to make sure they're tasty before the party.  (They are.  For the record:  3 oz. cranberry juice, 1/2 oz. Triple Sec, fill the flute the rest of the way with Champagne and enjoy.  Two poinsettias and I'm feeling a little buzzy.)

My surgery day went fairly well.  I got pulled over for speeding while driving to Steve's appointment with our doctor.  I swear I always thought that stretch of road was a 40 mph zone, but I now know without a doubt that it's only 30.  I got busted for going 45 in a 30, but he's a local boy so he only gave me a written warning.  (And you can call me and I'll tell you exactly where he was sitting so you too can avoid that particular speed trap.)   Steve just got home from running an errand and saw that same officer on the way there and back with two different people pulled over.

Steve's appointment as fine.  His cholesterol and uric acid were elevated, so he got the "Avoid High Fructose Corn Syrup and Concentrated Sugars" lecture.  I needed to be at the hospital by 10:15, so I hinted that he needed to wrap it up at around 10:05.  (We were still late.) 

I finally got there at around 10:30 for surgery at noon.  The day surgery unit was backed up so they didn't actually come to get me until 12:30.  They tried to blame it on my doctor, but he stood back in the surgery waiting area with me for about 15 minutes before they were finally ready for me, so I have a hard time believing that he was the late one.

I truly adore my doctor.  When Steve and I were trying to get pregnant with Simon, we went to a pregnancy thing at the hospital, and I went to a seminar my doctor was giving on what giving birth is like.  Steve and I both really liked his personality, and stayed after to ask him if he was taking new patients.  That was almost ten years ago, and I still think he hung the moon and the stars. 

When they finally wheeled me in, my doctor was telling the nurses and the anesthesiologist a story about some raccoon that has been eating his cat's food.  I missed the first part of the story, but as I was coming in I heard the anesthesiologist say something about my doctor has Mormon raccoons.  Being me, I turned to him with the most indignant look I could muster and said "I happen to be Mormon, and I don't think that's funny at all!"  He looked horrified until I cracked up and informed him that I was kidding.  Everyone laughed, and the nurses asked my doctor where he found a funny patient.  I can't remember what he said after that, but I remember that as they were putting the mask on my face, my doc came over and tried to tell me the rest of the raccoon story while holding my hand to help calm me while they knocked me out.  (My niece is always telling me stories about her horrible ob/gyn practice, so I had to tell her that not only is my doctor awesome, he even holds my hand when I'm scared!  She lives too far away to go to him, but she wishes she could!)

When I came to, I was groggy but not in pain or sick or anything.  They had given me some anti-nausea medicine, so they let me sleep it off in recovery.  I swear I slept for something like three hours in there, and then Steve brought me home and I slept four more hours that afternoon/evening.  I couldn't sleep that night after that, and my sleep patterns are still screwed up five days later.

Fortunately I didn't have many of the symptoms that other people have.  The next day I was up and at 'em and took Simon to school.  One of my pre-op nurses was dropping her kids off at Simon's school and was surprised to see me doing so well.  I didn't start to have any problems until two days later, and then I still wasn't in bad shape.  I had to force myself to take it easy and not over-do.  Steve cleaned the house before Thanksgiving, so all I had to do was get up on Thursday and cook.

Steve went to the nursing home and got mom at a little after 2:00, and we had a nice visit.  We took her back around 8:30, and she said she really enjoyed herself.  The food was really good, but I'm pretty sick of Turkey by this point.  We had turkey pot pie for lunch today, but went out shopping this afternoon and picked up some steaks for dinner. 

On Friday, we went to a local Christmas tree farm and cut a tree.  It is lovely.  I didn't have the energy to do much more than help Steve get it in the stand yesterday, so we strung the lights today.  It still doesn't have other decorations yet, but we still have plenty of time.  I'm just not in the Christmas spirit yet, but the minute it hits I'll be all over it.  We got a dusting of snow on Thanksgiving morning, but it all melted when the sun came out.  I need more snow to fully realize my Christmas spirit.

My days are all messed up with the holidays, so I keep thinking tomorrow is Monday.  I get my pathology report on Monday, so I'm eager to find out what they learn.  They did call earlier in the week to tell me that I ovulated this month and that Steve's test came back fine. I can't wait to see what the pathology report says about the tissue they removed.   I'll let you know what I find out.

I woke up at 6:00 am, and couldn't get back to sleep so I took my shower.  They told me I had to shower in antibacterial soap, so the good news is that I'm MRSA free at the moment.  The bad news is that my skin is going to be completely dry by lunchtime because I can't drink anything or use lotion or any other product.  (I'm a rebel and using deodorant anyway.)  My hair is going to look a fright, and of course my face is broken out since I'm stressed. Yay.

We're really going to be running this morning.  I'm taking Simon to school while Steve goes over to take care of Mom's dog.  Then we're going to meet here and go to a 9:20 appointment Steve has with our GP to discuss some blood tests he had.  (They said something about high cholesterol.)  After that, I have to be at the hospital at 10:15 to start my fun for the day, and my actual procedure is at noon.  And of course the whole time I'll be running around with no hair product, no make up, and wearing my "cool mom" sweats.  Like the procedure isn't embarrassment enough for one day.

I was nervous enough last night that I pre-packed Simon's lunch and got everyone's clothes ready to go.  I'm kind of glad that Steve has an appointment this morning.  It gives me something to think about other than myself.  ;)

Well, it seems Simon is not starting swimming today.  He has a cold that is prohibiting him from breathing, and I'm told they value breathing when you're learning to swim.  In addition, Steve has twelve other places to be today.  We've decided to either skip swimming for this session, or just find out if we can start him next week.  (This is his third time in level two, so I don't think he will have missed much this first lesson.) 

Simon spent the morning in his jammies, on the living room floor, surrounded by Tinkertoy weapons, watching Scooby Doo.  Somehow, that seems more like the correct thing for him to be doing on this particular Saturday morning.

Steve is on his way to accompany our friend (and favorite 16 yo babysitter) Katie at Solo & Ensemble contest.  She is very talented, and has two music teacher parents, so I have no doubt she'll get a first.  After that, he's off to St Mary to play for their 4:00 mass.  He should be home around 6:00, and I'll finally get to go to the grocery--which I've been trying to do since last Tuesday.  I might even break down and go to the new Super Wally, even though I've been trying to avoid it like the plague.

I have been thinking seriously about cleaning up this house before it is condemned.  It is amazing to me how quickly a home can go to heck in a handbasket when mom is sick.  I think we might also actually need or want some clean clothes at some point during the weekend.  Big fun afoot around here!

Wheeeeeee!