Do you know the drowning you see on television isn't usually the way drownings occur? Every parent should read this article here. I had no idea.
Another important article to read, about dry drowning, can be read here.
I received a letter today about saving a few hundred dollars a year on car insurance rates. With us living check to check right now due to reduced hours the last year, and falling behind, saving a few hundred dollars a year would be nice.
I've not shopped around for automobile insurance rates in years, which is bad when I think about it. It just becomes so easy to pay that monthly auto insurance bill without thinking too much about it when you've been running after six kids.
With the economy down the drain right now, it's forcing us to think about how and where to cut back on what we can and save on what is necessary. Our cars are a necessity for work so car insurance is a must.
Will the next hurricane in the Gulf be an oily hurricane? The National Weather Service is predicting an unusually heavy hurricane season. With oil spills just off the coast, will a storm surge drench people's property in oil?
Will Tropical Storm Alex turn into Hurricane Alex?
I hope not.
I was online last night looking up my dry shade plant options and got sidetracked looking at pond plants. I'd love to have a water feature in our yard with a small rock bed of water going downhill into another pond to catch it. My father-in-law did this on his property and it is really neat. The kids love it because they can watch the frogs and turtles enjoy it as well.
I have big ideas on redecorating and landscaping. Only problem is I didn't marry Bob Vila or even Tim the Toolman Taylor. I have to stick to the very basics when it comes to redecorating with my hubby:)
I am looking for a good point and shoot camera. My husband told me to start researching digital cameras for my birthday. I told him that's not until October but hey, I'll start now.
I have a good digital SLR camera but I want a smaller, more casual camera for everyday picture taking. It needs to have a better than average zoom on it with good picture clarity (mega pixels) for using it at the stable taking pictures of my daughter on her horse. I don't take my SLR camera to the stable often because of the dust. I'd hate to get arena sand in my lens. The camera I am looking for also needs to be able to take video. It needs to be able to go from a birthday party, to a school music program, to the stables. I'm not sure what to choose from. Any suggestions?
It appears that my hospital stay and treatment for PID ended up giving me something new to treat - C. Diff (aka Clostridium difficile, C. difficile colitis). What a pain in the behind! Um...literally. I'm taking new antibiotics now to get rid of the infection caused by the treatment from my other infection...makes sense eh? Sure doesn't help my trust in the medical community at the moment.
It also makes me want to learn more about natural remedies because if the pharmaceutical treatment for one infection gives you another (and a nasty one at that)...that's just stupid! If I hadn't figured out what was wrong with me, I wouldn't have needed any weight loss products because the symptoms of C. Diff. make it pretty difficult to enjoy eating anything or retaining any nutrients from what I could eat. I'd have wasted away.
It's been one very long month and I am looking forward to the day when I don't feel sick anymore. It's coming soon. It has to.
We're trying to plan another vacation in July to visit family and I have my fingers crossed that my transmission will make it to and through that vacation because we're driving. Besides the rumbling being plain annoying, I hope it doesn't give out during the drive to or from. That would really stink. They initially thought it was a wheel bearing but I paid to replace that and guess what? Still rumbling and shaking! They told me to drive it until it goes, unless I'm ready to spend $2,000-$3,000 to replace the transmission, so I'm driving it.
I'm never sure if I'm overpaying, especially being a woman. I did pretty good negotiating the brakes and rotors I needed this past winter but sometimes, mechanics make me wonder how much they are trying to get away with because of my gender. I found this great site to get approximate estimates for different car repairs. It's called Repair Pal. For instance, if you are looking for Chicago auto repair for a water pump for your Toyota Corolla, you enter that search criteria and it gives you repair estimates for your area. I used it to see if I overpaid on my brake pad and rotor replacement and it was within the range, on the lower end, which makes sense for our rural area. I did good with that negotiation!
This is a pretty cool site. One I will bookmark for future reference.
My flower garden has turned into a jungle with all the rain we've had. Weeds have been out of control. My four kids and I went out there to weed today but we waited too long. The ground was too dry and hard and nothing wanted to come out. What a pain. I need to get all the weeds out so I can plant impatiens and other annuals between my perennials.
I don't have a green thumb to begin with and I'm definitely not at the level to need hydroponic systems for plant growth, but I'm managing the very basic. I'm just happy my Stella D'Oro Daylilies and Hostas have come back a third year in a row! Now if the weeds don't choke them out, they'll come back next year.
Well, I tried to get satellite television service but the Direct TV rep ticked me off so I didn't sign-up for a two year contract.
What happened was they wanted to charge us more for the service than they would a new customer because we used to have Direct TV last year so we are considered returning customers. How does that make sense that a returning customer would be charged more? I would think they'd give a discount for loyalty or something! I told them that too. I guess they didn't want a returning customer bad enough.
I wonder if we'd be considered a new customer if it was in my husband's name because I was the customer the first time - different name but same address? Not sure how they view that.
I guess I look at our other television options for our area besides Direct TV. You'd think in this economy that businesses would be working to gain customers, not lose them.
The Tour de France runs from July 3 to July 25th and if I don't get television service back up by then (we've not had it for months and I've been enjoying not having television all year long so far), I think I'm going to be in need of some Relationship coaching because my husband probably won't forgive me. I'm just teasing...he'll forgive me but he won't be too happy for the month of July.
The Tour de France is a really big deal to him. He used to race bicycles. When I met him, he was more cross country through trails (hitting trees and getting thrown over his handlebars...sounds like fun right?). Then he switched to road cycling when he started to feel too old to keep getting knocked around on the trails. Eventually, his knees put a stop to his racing but he still loves to watch the Tour every year.
It looks like Lance Armstrong is racing again this year. Yup, I better get the satellite company out here soon.
School is out for my children for the summer. Instead of one little one home, I now have four kids home including one teenager whose moods swing back and forth so fast they give you whiplash. Here's hoping for a smooth summer!
I'm thinking it's not going to be that smooth though, especially where my teen is concerned. She likes this boy...who is the ex of her best friend. Her best friend still likes this boy. They both say it isn't going to come between them and I hope it doesn't. They are really, really good friends. The one good thing is that she won't see this boy over the summer (and neither will her best friend probably) so while the girls are spending time together, hopefully they are both getting over this kid.
That's the problem with living in a really small town I guess. Eventually, crushes are going to overlap because there seriously aren't enough decent kids to choose from. Ha Ha.
She is only 13. I have several more years of this. Straitjacket anyone?
My 13-year old is complaining that her stomach is big (believe me, it isn't at all...she has an athletic body). She was also complaining yesterday that her legs were too long and she didn't want long legs.
Where do kids come up with these things? Most people love the idea of having long legs and a flat belly. Why are legs too long and bellies not flat enough?
If she starts trying to diet or look for natural weight loss products, I will get upset. Hopefully, this is just normal teenage complaining (she's really good at that).
My stepdaughter is getting her driver's license in a couple weeks. She's actually a couple years late getting it. In fact, her little brother is in driver's training right now too. I don't know if she took her time getting it due to her schedule or fear (anxiety, OCD).
She doesn't live near us so my car is safe from a teenaged driver thankfully. Otherwise I'd be looking for the best anti wrinkle cream because I know my nerves would be shot knowing when one of our kids was on the road. My oldest is 13 so I have a couple years before I need to worry personally. I know I will worry too. The thought of my kids being teenage drivers, knowing some of the things I did as a teenage driver, scares me.
From what I've read, there are higher incidences of thyroid disease than what the doctors find because labs aren't read correctly. If you're experience fatigue, memory/focus problems, skin problems, weight gain or loss, or worried about hair loss prevention, and other unexplainable symptoms, you need to ask for thyroid labs be drawn (Free T3, Free T4, TSH, T3, T4, ferritin (iron) come to mind off the top of my head) and see if your problems are your thyroid (or your doctor's inability to read the lab results correctly. There are new standards in place for some thyroid lab results that the labs and doctors don't even follow!
It took doctors almost nine years to figure out I had a reverse T3 problem!
Crazy, right?
I am so behind with everthing since getting sick this past month. I have to get caught up on balancing the budget, paying bills, doing paperwork and filing, and so much more. I forgot that our auto insurance is due tomorrow and I haven't paid that yet either. Mom gets sick and it all goes to heck, lol.
I should get another auto insurance quote while I am thinking about it too. We've been with the same auto insurance company for 15-20 years now. I wonder if there are less expensive options out there. I guess I'll just add one more thing to my "to do" list.
I found out after asking for copies of my hospital labs from my hospital stay a couple weeks ago that the CT scan also showed gallstones and diverticulosis. Neither of the hospital doctors said a word about it. I'm glad I went back to the hospital and requested copies!
Now I'll use my scanning software to scan them all in and send them to my family doctor so I can talk to him about what needs to be done next. I've already called them and told them about it so they're expecting more information that they also didn't get from the hospital doctors.
That's just crazy!!
Pelvic Inflammatory Disease (PID) can be a very serious infection and if you suspect you have it, you need to get to the doctor ASAP. I was hospitalized with this a couple weeks ago. It was caused by an overgrowth of regular bacteria found in my body (not an STD which the doctors assumed until the cultures came back proving otherwise). The antibiotics they gave me in the hospital were not fun but the morphine they gave me for pain gave me a couple hours of bliss. Ha ha.
I was released from the hospital after my fever and pain level went down. Boy was I ripe! When you can smell yourself, you REALLY need a shower. The acne was bad too. When I looked in the mirror for the first time on my 3rd day (day I was released), the zits were horrendous. How disgusting. I didn't have chin acne but the nose acne made me look 14 instead of 38. How embarrassing. I wonder how long I had whiteheads around my nose and didn't know it!
I am on the mend now. I am not back to 100%. The pain still comes and goes and I am still on antibiotics. It will take me longer to get better because I can't take my medication during the day because they make me really sleepy and I have a little one to take care of. When I take them at bedtime though, boy do they give me a hard night's rest (and leave me real groggy in the morning).
The long-term prognosis is unknown right now. I may have scarred my reproductive organs up enough to be infertile. I just don't know the extent of damage yet until more tests are done.
My daughter's 7th grade trip this year was to Chicago - a few states away from us. We couldn't afford to send her and didn't think it was a good idea that she went anyway (due to problems we've had with one of her teachers) so she missed it. We have been looking at pictures her friends took while in Chicago. They should get hired for brochure printing for tourists with these pictures. It looks like it was a fun trip, not necessarily educational but fun. I'm not sorry we didn't spend $400 to send her on this trip at all.
She's asking to go on the 8th grade trip already for next year which is to Washington D.C. Oh lordy help me. At least that would be educational but spend money to send her to Obama's house? Hmm...lol.
We never did field trips like this in junior high. Boy how things change.
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