Red to Red and Black to Black

My husband’s car has been acting up and he needed my help jumping it tonight. I have been sick for the past 3 days and thinking clearly just isn’t working for me. We went out to the car and and he handed me the jumper cables. Big mistake.

Him: Ok, so you know how to put the cables on the battery, right?

Me: Ya, the red goes to the red and the black goes to the black.

Him: Yup, make sure they don’t touch.

(Then he puts his cables on my car and goes into it to turn it on. I place the jumpers onto the battery.)

Me: Ok, turn it on.

(Smoke starts coming from each of the jumper thingies I just placed.)

Me: Uh, honey? Should there be smoke coming from the battery?

Him: What? (Jumping out the car) What did you do?! Take ‘em off, hurry!

Me: (Scared) Hell no! I don’t want to get shocked!

Him: (Pushing me out of the way as he pulls off the clamp thingies) Why the hell did you say you knew how to put the cables on if you didn’t? How hard is red to red and black to black?

Me: ……

Ya, as I said. I was sick. When I’m sick don’t ask me to do things that require complete concentration.

Or color matching.

Flashback Friday – Earliest Memory

 

I always find it amazing just how far people can remember back in their lives so today I thought it would be interesting to flashback to our earliest memories. How far back can you go?

I think my earliest memory was of my Mom falling. My Mom has Multiple Sclerosis, and she can remember it affecting her since she was 16. She was at a hay ride with her church and she went to jump off the back of the hay truck and her feet just stopped working. It caused my poor mom’s body to go flying off the back of the truck, but her feet were caught in it still, which dragged her. Poor thing. So, my first memory had to have been when I was between 2 and 3. I was in the living room with my mom and we were the only ones home. My mom was sitting in my dad’s recliner while I played and she suddenly slumped over to the side. She couldn’t get up. She was stuck that way, crying. I ran to my Grandma’s house (my Dad’s Mom) and got help for my Mom. Luckily my Grandma lived just two houses away, with my uncle living right next to us. The next memory is again, of my Mom. It is in the same time frame. We were home alone in the daytime and Mom was walking through the doorway leading into the living room when she suddenly fell, face down. She couldn’t move. I remember crying because I thought she was… well, I don’t remember if I thought she was dead. I am not sure I understood that concept as a 3 year old, but I definetly remember thinking something was very, very wrong. Finally she came to and asked me to run for help. I ran to Grandma’s again and got help for her. Shortly after that she started walking using a walker, then a wheelchair, then an electric wheelchair, then back to a wheelchair as she lost the use of her arms.

I always pray that there will be some sort of miracle fix for her. She has so much to offer this world, and she is trapped inside herself. She is one of the most intelligent people I have ever had the honor of knowing, but so many people look at her and only see the wheelchair. If only she had the medications available for her back in the 80’s that MS patients have now. They would have surely slowed the progression of this horrible disease.

My Mom and me, this summer on an outing to the movies

Things I Love Thursday – Crazy Weather

As you know, I live in Arizona, where it rarely rains and is usually hot enough to melt the mascara on my lashes, causing my eyes to fuse together. When I was younger, growing up in the *then* small town of Surprise, we would get hit with massive monsoon storms. Huge raging storms that would knock our electricity out, forcing us to all sit in our living room while Daddy told us ghost stories. Now, we barely get any rain. Oh sure, it’ll be humid in the daytime, but we rarely get any good relief from that humidity. We barely get any type of rain anymore. I believe it has to do with the urban heat bubble that the stupid, careless developers have caused by taking away the fields and putting in concrete and houses. But I won’t get up on that soapbox. I find it hard to get down from there once I go up.

Two evenings ago the wind kicked up and we had hot air blowing around. Then the lightening started, which is so weird to see in the middle of the day. I walked out to the back yard to look at the storm that I thought may be rolling in. It was just wind. Then out of nowhere, I got pelted with a huge, fat raindrop. They were coming down, but randomly and not at all as though it was raining. These raindrops were so huge that you could make them each out, one by one, as they laboriously made their way down onto the grass. I finally went inside, but opened the front door, hoping to catch some of the wind to clear out the kitchen area.

Suddenly the temperature changed and cool air was swirling into my house. I heard loud clanks outside. I ran to the front door and found hail coming down. HAIL?!

 

The girls and I ran outside. I haven’t seen hail in years. It was so chilly suddenly. I loved it. Desiree ran out into it and yelled. Apparently she didn’t think chunks of ice would hurt if they pelted her skin. Wrong, girl! The hail came down for a good five minutes. Then it and the rain stopped completely. The temperature shot back up again. The wetness dried up and everything was back to normal.

I love crazy weather.

Things I Love Thursday – Twilight

Let me know what you love! Play along with The Diaper Diaries Thursday meme by clicking the button above.

A year ago or so my oldest daughter came to me raving about this book she was reading called Twilight, written by Stephenie Meyer. As she gushed over the story of a vampire and his unnatural love with a human teenager I couldn’t help but brush it off as just another kid book. When I heard they were making a movie about it, I put it in the ranks of something like Spy Kids or Sharkboy and Lava Girl and didn’t pay any attention to it.

Then, I witnessed a couple people at work discussing Twilight and I was intrigued by the simple and beautiful cover of the Twilight book. My favorite colors, red and black stood out to me.

 

A simple apple held in the palms of two hands. Just as Eve was tempted with an apple by the fallen in the Garden of Eden, I too was drawn to this book. I suddenly had to read it. I scoured the bookshelves at our local Target, KMart, Walmart, Costco and Sam’s Clubs. None of them had the book. Finally, almost a month after the last book, Breaking Dawn, was released I found them. My husband, seeing my eyes glaze over, bought them for me. All of them.

I can’t even begin to explain how obsessed I am with Twilight right now. I read all four books in a matter of four days, and it only took that long because I had to work in between. I keep kicking myself for brushing the books away so long ago. I could have had Edward the Vampire in my life so much longer. I was such a fool. This man, this vampire… he is perfect. I sometimes catch myself secretly looking at my husband and wishing he were Edward. I am trapped in a world of fantasy right now. I want to move up to Forks and find Edward. I want the scent of my blood to drive him insane. I want to press my face against his hard, cold, sweet smelling…

Sorry ’bout that.

Once I finished the series reality hit.

Hard.

The world of Edward and Bella isn’t real. I will never meet him. I live in freaking hot-ass Arizona where the sun always shines and where Edward won’t spend his life. Well, vampire-life. Then again, Bella is from Phoenix, too!

So that is what I love right now. Twilight. I don’t think I’ll get over it anytime soon. I am going to re-read it again after I finish The Host, another book of Stephenie Meyer’s. I am now eagerly anticipating the movie, which will be released in November. Harry Potter was pushed back until next summer, so Twilight was moved up in it’s spot. Can’t wait!

LOST on ABC.com

MRSA, MRSA, I hate MRSA

On Sunday Dani was complaining of a cold sore on her lip. I had her put Carmex on it, as that is what we usually do when a cold sore is starting and it helps to get rid of those nasty things. I went to work Sunday night and when I came home on Monday morning (at 7:30am) she came running into the kitchen, near hysterics, crying that she couldn’t go to school because the cold sore got worse. I instantly thought, “DRAMA QUEEN!” then I saw this:

Obviously I didn’t think that’s your normal run of the mill cold sore. The night before she went to sleep with a normal, non-puffy face. The next morning she woke up looking like someone took a crowbar to her lip. I couldn’t believe how swollen it was ! It was hard and hot, too. I called my mom to explain what Dani told me. The first thought that came to my mind was MRSA, as Dani has already had a history of it in her knee. What really worried me was that when someone has MRSA on the face they are immediately sent to the ER to have it drained because it is EXTREMELY fast moving and can be lethal. So I explained to mom was was going on and she talked to Kim (Dani’s PA). Kim said take her directly to the ER.

When we got to the ER they laughed at me, because I had just left there not one hour before. After they looked at her, the Dr determined that it was MRSA. Luckily they didn’t have to drain it or anything because Dani did that before we got there. She’s now on Bactrum and although the puffiness has gone down she still looks really bad. The swelling has not completely gone away yet, and of course there’s the big pussy sore above her mouth.

Wait. Pussy. Is that how you really spell that? I swear, I’m talking about a pus-filled sore. NOT a cat or female genitalia…

Dani has missed this entire week of school. I am very concerned, as she has problems in school and missing a week of class can’t be good for her. She can do all the homework at home, but she is still missing educational time. I didn’t send her because it is on her face, and looks horrible. Plus, this is the school that flipped out when she had MRSA last year. She had it on her knee, which was being treated with antibiotics and the affected area was kept covered and hidden. But remember, last year we had that huge MRSA scare and schools were being closed because of it across the country. It was all the news wanted to talk about. Dani ended up telling a friend who told a friend who told their mother that she had MRSA. I got a very concerned call from Dani’s school nurse wanting to know what was going on because the school was then getting angry, freaked-out calls from parents wanting to know why the school wasn’t closed down because of this one little girl who had MRSA. So with that in mind, if they freaked out on me about some treated, covered-up MRSA… imagine what they would do with her going in there with a deformed face literally oozing MRSA from it?

I hope this is the last bout. I am so sick of MRSA!!!

Beautiful Eyes

Ok just ignore me for the moment. The day this was taken I had worked til 7:30am, then came home and started doing stuff around the house. I had been awake for almost 24 hours when I decided to start taking pictures of Dani. She wanted to snap one of the two of us so here it is. So, as I said, completely ignore the fact that I looked like one of the walking dead and only look at Dani.

Aren’t her eyes beautiful? I’m actually jealous.

So Happy to Have a Normal Kid

Dani usually gets home after riding the school bus at about 3:10. I was sitting at my computer today and 3:15 came and went and she wasn’t here. Five minutes went by and I got a little nervous, but just told myself that the bus may have been running behind. Ten minutes passed and I started having scenarios going through my head… Dani getting beat up, Dani being kidnapped, Dani being hit by a car. When the time lapse hit the fifteen minute mark I jumped up and ran outside.

I found her standing at the street corner talking to two kids who must go to school with her. Ok, that sounded worse than it is, we live on the corner of the street and she was basically on the sidewalk bordering our house. She was talking to two boys, and these boys weren’t the type that I would be afraid of her talking to. They were kinda dorky looking. Totally harmless. Although, the one that had flaming red hair and pale skin looked as though he were going to keel over from sunstroke. The beauty of it was that they were talking about cartoons! My daughter loves anime, and they were discussing it. Whew!

I’m so happy that my daughter is normal this year. After having her makeover done, she is a completely new person. She still hates doing chores and tries to sneak on my new computer now and then, but at least she speaks to my husband and me. At last now she doesn’t walk around jumping back and forth between sulking and being on the verge of tears. She’s a little more fun now. She is a normal girl.

Bliss…

No Harry Potter?

I am distraught!

Now before I get people telling me there are so many other things to worry about out there, rest assured that I do know that. But, it still doesn’t change the fact that my beloved Harry Potter will not be coming to the big screen to us in the latest installment of his journey to rid the wizarding world of one Lord Voldemort as soon as I thought he would. If you remember, a few weeks ago I posted the movie trailer for Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince and was positively beside myself because I finally had a huge hint about how the movie was to be portrayed. It was set to be released in November. Oh sweet November.

It was just announced that due to the writer’s strike leaving next summer’s blockbuster season a little lackluster, the release of our brave Harry’s movie was being pushed to July 2009. JULY 2009?!?! Does the studio not understand what this is doing to us hardcore fans? It’s like cutting your arm in front of a vampire. The scent of blood gets in their nose and they have to drink and will go crazy until they are able to feast.

Oh this winter was to be fabulous. First Harry, then Edward and Bella in Twilight, which will be released in December. Now I will only have Edward to satisfy me.

Flashback Friday – Proposal

Some of you knew it was coming and for others it was a complete surprise. Some of you were given grand romantic gestures and some of you experienced something very simple yet very beautiful. Most were asked, but some did the asking. Some had flowers, most had a ring, and some just had a moonlit night. What am I talking about? Marriage proposals. This week we are flashing back to the day when your Hubby popped the question…

When Will and I decided to get married, we didn’t have a long drawn out engagement, nor was there a grand proposal. We had already been living together, I had two daughters and when my third, OUR third was born and we just knew we were meant to be together. We discussed how to do it, what type of wedding we should have – we were both ok with just having a small wedding because he doesn’t have a lot of family here, and my huge family scared him. I was fine with that as well. The biggest party I had ever had thrown for me was by my sisters for my 25th birthday, and I didn’t even know everyone there. Let’s just say that coming to a party for Tiffany isn’t usually the type of thing that most people feel like doing on a Saturday night. I just don’t have that many friends. So, the thought of having to do up a guest list, send out invitations, hold my breath and cross my fingers waiting to find out if enough people would show up to my wedding was something I just wanted to avoid.

I remember going to Vegas (for the first time in my life!) for my sister Sara’s wedding in the beginning of March 2002 and we were SO tempted to just run into one of the little white chapels off the strip and become Mr. and Mrs. In retrospect, Will’s cooler mind prevailed. It would have been a horrible smack to the face to my sister to get married on the same day (or day after) as her wedding date. So we left Vegas, still just heathens living in sin.

In October 2002 we finally decided it was time to just do it. He had changed jobs, and his new employer didn’t believe as his old employer did. You see, his old job considered domestic partners to be worthy of health benefits, which covered our kids and myself. His new employer did not. We were already starting to plan a wedding, which was to be held in 2003, but we seeing as we had three children who needed health insurance as well as myself, we needed to speed up the process. Well, Alexis was automatically covered under his plan because she is his “biological” child and he was is not the stepfather to my older girls. So we decided to get married that month.

It was a small wedding, well, would it actually be called a wedding? I don’t think so. We got married by Justice of the Peace at the court house in Glendale. Only my mom and one sister were there along with Will’s parents, brother, his ex-best friend Danny and my girls. It was short and sweet. My other sister threw a reception for me at her house the next night, where we invited all of my immediate family and some friends. I got the obligatory cake in the face, thanks to my sister whispering to my husband that it was tradition - thanks sis! All in all it was small and simple, just as I would have had it.