Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Too Busy to Blog

What can I say? Life has not slowed down one little teeny bit. I have great excuses for not posting, and they are way better than "the dog ate my post." Here we go:

1. Enigma got appendicitis. So, she had her appendix removed. I was too busy taking her to assorted medical specialists and having a lousy bedside manner ( I accidentally dropped my bag on her tummy) to think about posting.

2. I was focusing on trying to get an A in my psych class. My boringest paper of all got the best grade!

3. Papi got a kidney stone. For all we know, it's still in there somewhere. Men take a lot of time when they are sick, so I couldn't write.

4. I was otherwise occupied because I decided to finally make time to figure out our average income and expenses, now that we are both on fluctuating pay for the last year and a half. It is not pretty. I'm not surprised.

5. Papi gets dizzy a lot. See excuse #3.

6. Our oven died. It takes even longer to think of what to make when you take ovens out of the picture, and all baking projects get put on hold. Or you have to be really creative, or beg for the use of someone else's oven. Very time consuming.

7. Papi's truck broke down. I was busy trying to juggle cars and people.

8. Our microwave died. So I had to get creative about thawing things out and reheating things too. It just takes longer to do these things the old fashioned way.

9. I was trying not to ignore Christmas, which is so time consuming. Christmas came and went. Thanks to the boys, the tree went up and we managed to get some presents under it. Papi wasn't in excruciating pain that day, but wasn't at his best either.

10. I was delayed from writing on New Years while I made pasta and heated a precooked fried turkey in the toaster oven. Papi was still trying to feel better.

11. I couldn't write because some people need constant vigilance and shadowing to get their school work done and write their papers. How can I write while helping to write something else? The some people who need supervising would be most of the people in my house, by the way.

12. I was distracted from writing because I had to make sure the Young Women got their YW in excellence program by year's end. It turned out nice, thanks to lots of help.

13. I forgot to write because I was trying to get into my next class, but it got full before I could sign up for it. Maybe next semester. Just as well; keep reading my excuses.

14. I was too busy having a nervous breakdown. Papi went out and bought a new truck. I think it will get repossessed.

15. I was too entangled in the fiasco of Carino's surgery getting delayed again, due to the fact that we couldn't make it to the pre-op. There was a huge storm that buried us in snow and it took nearly two hours to get out of our driveway and past the 2 houses between us and a paved street.

16. I had an emergency. My bedroom exploded. I had to remove everything that didn't have to do with bedrooms out of it to make walking space in there again.

17. I was too busy taking Carino to get a filling fixed and they found another tooth was abcessed to the root. Dentist doesn't think even an endodontist could put him under and operate in any way shape or form till his jaw is fixed. The dentist put him on an antibiotic.

18. I was busy helping bacteria develop resistance to antibiotics. Had a lot of help on this one too. Carino's antibiotic turned out to be the old fashioned 4 times a day kind. We finally managed to have him take it 4 times a day on the last 4 pills. Not for lack of trying on my part.

19. I had to drop everything immediately after seeing the dentist and get Carino in to see his plastic surgeon. He is going to have an operation, if they ever decide how to do it. We had a CT scan a few days after that appointment. All in Salt Lake. Fun, and might I remind you, time consuming.

20. I was too busy doing other exciting things to write, like making another trip to Salt Lake for a boring bureaucratic but essential training session on our new invoices at work.

21. I was busy trying to convince someone who's 19 that you actually have to have money in order to move out and go to school in California in March. Your parents can't so much as pay your gas to drive out there. Some people don't like reality.Did you know you can get old at age 19 if you wait a year or so to get a job and earn money first? Old and terribly behind the game at age 20, how sad would that be?!? We must not let that happen.

22. Papi and I have been spending quality time with Gigio. He is sad all the time. Can you imagine in all this mess he feels like no one even notices him? He needs more quality time. So he is getting it. Obviously before this blog does, which should make him feel better. Next the Things will probably need the same thing. Can you believe they haven't caused all the work around here? Life has changed so much. I guess it's just easier when they go around saying things to amuse you and entertaining themselves. The only reason I can't use them as an excuse is that I haven't gotten around to finding their bedroom floor again yet. That will be time consuming. Thing 1 had a play date with a girl over Christmas. Too cute, she adores him. Me too. Thing 2 makes awesome artwork on his homework, but thanks to Concerta, he also gets the job done! We went from me pulling teeth and losing my mind trying to get him started on homework to the biggest problem being getting mom focused enough to help him when he has a question. I catch him doing hoemwork all on his own, and it feels like a Sylvan Learning commercial. Now that I snuck the Things in on #22 with Gigio, he will feel lost in the shuffle again. That's what happens when you're a child in the middle. I survived, hope he will too.

23. People need to have a science fair project done before February 3. Need I say more???

24. I have been in great demand. Every dang week you need to make sure something is ready and runs smoothly with YW, every flipping week! Plus, also, there are way too many meetings. Presidency meetings, Laurel presidency meetings, correlation, bishop's youth committee, stake trainings galore, stake camp meetings, ward camp meetings. Camp is this huge thing. How could 5 days involve so much to know about and plan? I think somebody ought to simplify it. Also, girls need lots of TLC, so do their moms, and getting them working on Personal Progress and following through on assignments for activities just takes time. Not complaining here, just a fact. My Second Counselor just moved away. She was so awesome. Sigh. It's actually going quite well, all things considered. The girls are fun.

25. I was just about to think about writing again, except I couldn't get on the computer even if I had managed to get the beginnings of a thought into an idea of starting a post. First, our internet service kept going out. We have that problem almost fixed. Enigma was busy getting an e-mail from a high end salon in Las Vegas saying they were doing interviews Monday. She read it late Friday night. About a week after she got it. She decided it might be way better than going to school. So, we found a room and I rode out with her Sunday night since she's under 21 and can't get a room there on her own. And what if the car broke down on the way? We slept a little and got her to the place on time that a.m. They will have her come back to spend a day in the salon working to see how she operates, just as soon as her license can be transferred to Nevada. Could take weeks, could take months. What to do? Drive back home Monday night so mom can be to work Tuesday morning. Her life is in an upheaval. What if she puts everything on hold and then doesn't get hired? Of course, if she worked between now and then, her original plan would just be delayed, and she might be able to afford it. Maybe getting old isn't such a bad idea. If only she will find somewhere to earn a paycheck between now and then! Anyhow, hopefully she fits in and is ready for this opportunity. It would mean abject poverty the first year but things would gradually improve and turn into something good from there. It's like practical mentoring in real life work while actually being paid for it, and a chance to not only go through intensive learning but do many things she's interested in doing. It could open more doors than school could and I think she would be really happy with this company; the culture is very positive-very Paul Mitchell. I know she could do really well there; she was such a go getter in school. We shall see. If nothing else, it has opened her mind to other options. And made her realize it might be wise to pay off the loans to one school before doing the next, so as not to spend your whole income on student loans. Or end up moving back home. I think her frontal lobe is developing right before my eyes. See, I learned something in psychology.

And now, I need to stop posting because I have to get ready for Young Women's New Beginnings which will probably fall right on the same day as Carino's surgery. Plus, all the adults in this house need more work so as to afford life, so we need to drum up work. I no longer have my over the phone contract as they went back to set schedules, which would make it impossible to do hardly anything at court, and seeing as how court pays infinitely so much better, reluctantly, I had to let my fill in the gaps job go. Now I need a new fill in the gaps and quite frankly, my gaps need to be bigger so we are back to the old time management issues, which as you probably know by now are gigantuan in my life, so truth be known, that is why I never post to my blog, or visit others: I haven't learned how to manipulate time in my favor yet. The End.

Let's see if I can leave you with some pictures of some of Erika's photo shoots. She has more. Anna's photography blog also has a post of some other shots. This one was inspired by the book Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson.
This is a sci-fi shot; she did these shoots all on her own away from school, got the photographer, did the head piece, everything on her own steam.
This one was at school for a Halloween shot. Think dumb scary movies about killers slashing all the character's throats by the end...
This next one, her teacher did the makeup and she did the hair with the chandelier in it. She was so proud of herself that day that she had figured out how to do it.
This one was another one she did on her own with a photographer.
This is just the start, she'll be doing things that are even more amazing. I think she should do one that focuses on an awesome cut she's done. Like mine, if I can ever sit still long enough for her to be able to do it. She has colors and everything just waiting for me.

5 comments:

RAQ said...

bless you, bless you, bless you! you are one amazing person and not many people could handle all that you do!

The Cranes said...

What Rachelle said. I'm speechless. Hang in there! Can I help? Somehow?

4boyzmdmom said...

Ditto to what the other two said!

Oh, we love concerta...a real wonder drug! :)

Patty O. said...

Wow, you are soooo busy. My husband is the YM president (and I was YW pres back when I was single and actually had free time) so I know how time consuming it is. I think it's pretty much the busiest calling, besides possibly bishop. I sure hope the surgery and everything else works out well!

Gerb said...

I'm finally catching up on blogs. And can I say, in comment to these words:

"Camp is this huge thing. How could 5 days involve so much to know about and plan? I think somebody ought to simplify it."

AMEN! I have TRIED, sister! Boy, have I tried.