Dear 2012...

We are only a touch over two weeks in, and I am already pretty tired of these shenanigans. Today was yet another freakin' cherry on the Ice Cream Cone of Despair. I managed to lose my wallet today. I swear something about the school is a suck hole... first my phone and then my wallet. No, really. I had nothing better to do than to be on the phone for an hour or so with various banks closing things out. What was the last check I wrote so they can cancel the remaining ones in the book? Um...... I don't know, the carbon copies are IN THE BOOK. That is GONE. Sigh.

You, 2012, are a Shenaniganizer. I don't LIKE Shenaniganizers, they... shenaniganize.

But it's cool. No, seriously. I got my eye on you, 2012. You bet' watch yo' back. Foo.

To top the cherry on the ice cream with another cherry... my youngest kidlet had a meltdown this evening. She must not be napping great in school because it was like dealing with a prepubescent teenager. Don't you DARE look at her! STOP thinking about putting her clothes away in her room! Not THAT macaroni and cheese for dinner, I wanted HAM in it, not HOT DOGS! JEESH, MOM! Shoot me now, this is only going to get worse.

So anyway, moving on.

First day back in classes today - and way to start off the semester with my longest day of the week. Tuesday and Thursday are my longest and by the end, I felt like my brain had melted. It will definitely be a challenge to keep my mind focused that last class. At least it's my favorite one, which is Normal OB/GYN.

Thank goodness tomorrow is just one class and its Lab. Onward!

Alternate Plans

You may have noticed an absent post for yesterday. Or maybe you didn't... I guess it doesn't really matter. My intention is to blog a little bit every day, but as yesterday kindly pointed out to me, life gets in the way. 

I ran some morning errands, as was the plan. Made a Scentsy drop-off, stopped at the bank, went to lunch with a friend. During our meal and conversation, I get a call from my mom. Mom can wait until we're done, not too much longer now, and I silence my phone. Well, then Hubby calls. He doesn't usually call just to chat, there is usually a reason.

"Yeeeesssssssss?"

"Where are you?"

"Why?

"Your mom was just in an accident."

So pretty much from there my mind goes on auto-pilot. I'm not really one that freaks out in an emergency (probably good for the health care profession) but I get on the ball. I ask about the severity while packing my things up, pay the check and head over to the site. Luckily, it's not far from my mom's house and I know exactly where it is when she tells me. 

My mom was travelling southbound on a pretty main road in her neighborhood. An oncoming car was in the turn lane facing her, and turned in front of my mom, and she ended up t-boning the other car. The rear passenger the other car is pretty messed up, but definitely driveable. My mom's car is kind of missing the entire front end... pretty bad damage to the hood, fenders, the bumper fell off, the front impact bar was smashed, which displaces the radiator, and *may* have shoved the engine back (we won't know that until they crack it open). The air bag deployed and proceeded to break the front windshield and gnash up my mom's left arm pretty badly. I had no idea that the air bags are so forceful that they often break the front window, which is what the woman at the repair center told us. At first we thought she'd hit her head, but she wasn't disoriented or acting weird (weirder than usual... hehe), nor did she have any kind of cut to her head. 

The other woman said she had a protected green arrow, and my mom says that *her* light was green so unless there was a malfunction, someone is mistaken. I know my mom is a great driver and hasn't had a ticket in 20 years, so I'm way more inclined to believe her. But who knows. Naturally no one stopped to help, the cameras in the intersection are just motion cameras to help with light timing. The police officer felt that she probably thought she had the green arrow but only had the green yield light, but really it comes down to what the investigators think and if they don it the other lady's fault or mom's. It's possible they will just say for each person to fix their own vehicle. 

I feel terrible, mom's car is paid off and she likes it. The other woman's car is a 2011, so pretty new. 

On the other hand, we got a rental car, and since the wrecked car is actually mine, I get to drive a rental. We got a Nissan Cube. Wow, what a strange car. Quite a bit more room in it than it seems there'd be. I don't want to buy one, but it's kind of cute.

In the end, it's just a car and cars can't be replaced. No one was seriously hurt, which is good because you really can't replace moms. :)

Batten Down the Hatches!

Let me make it clear that I live in southern Texas. We don't get very cold in the winter, and I am certain that those in the north will laugh when I say that tomorrow morning I will be putting the girls' clothes in the dryer to warm them up prior to them putting them on. Coats, scarves, hats and mittens will be donned. I haven't ruled out the possibility of double-socks, but it may be taking it too far.

We, my friends, are supposed to hit low-to-mid 20s tonight. (GASP!) That's pretty stinkin' cold for an area of the country that sees snow once every 8-10 years (last year was that year), and even when it snows, it's 1/2", melts by the time the sun comes up, and the city shuts down. Warnings have been all over the new about the "Protect the Three P's... pets, plants, pipes" and we've been told to "brace ourselves."

Hard to believe I spent my formative years in Montana, isn't it? I remember watching the weather report, and the announcer said it'd get up to 55*F and we'd jump up, cheer, and yell, "SHORTS WEATHER!!" Now when it's 55*F I grab a scarf to wear around the house, don fleecy pajama pants and a big, fat sweater. Maybe it's that old age thing setting in. Coincidentally, my knee tells me it's going to rain this week.

Seriously, though. I love the snow. I love to sit by a crackling fire (in the fireplace we don't have) and watch the snow (that we don't get) fall though our big picture window (that we don't have) overlooking the forested hills and the lake (I think you know where this is going). Sometimes I wonder why we live in a place where it's unbearably hot in the summertime (100*F and up for about three months, solid. And last year had very little rain to counter it) and little to no winter. I'm jealous of those that get snow. Yeah, go ahead and laugh. I think I'd do perfectly fine in Maine... rural area, snow everywhere, ahhh.

Speaking of of cold... I'm going to go grab my big, fat sweater. Must be 40*F outside right now. Brrrrr!

Strike That, Reverse It

Remember when I said that Firstborn will be going to school today? You can just forget I said that. She woke with a 100*F fever. Plans thwarted yet again! And after this morning's dose of ibuprofen, she continued acting like a crazy lunatic. Let's just see how tomorrow shapes up. She better not wake up sick or I am going to pull the rest of my hair out.

But... joke's on her, I didn't make any plans for tomorrow. Hah! She's not fooling me. Again. Muuahahaha! She's going to go to school and Mom's going to pretend to stay at home and be bored. And in all reality, I'm going to go to the POST OFFICE. Aww, yeah. *fist pump*

I never said I led a glamorous life, but I am starting to get a little cabin fever.

They Just Know

Throughout my years of parenting, I have learned that if there is something you really need to do sans children, one of them will invariably fall ill, break a bone, explode, or in some other way destroy your plans.

My Spring semester hasn't started yet, but we have homework. I planned to get that done and start working in our study group so we can get back in the swing of things. We meet at a local restaurant and sit in a lonely corner, discuss anatomy, and eat soup. It's what we do. 

Now, the restaurant is child-friendly, sure. And we all love children. LOVE THEM. They do not, however, love Mommy cracking open a big boring book with boring pictures and writing boring things in a boring notebook with a boring black pen. They will be deeply involved in Play Doh time, pause, hear that textbook creeeeeak open and suddenly you have two leg leeches that need a drink, a snack, a butt wiped, that toy they aren't supposed to have, or they broke that thing you love.

And naturally, as soon as plans were laid to have a short get-together is the exact moment in which Firstborn (six years old) spikes a 100*F fever at school, thwarting plans for any sort of get-together.

I will cut her some slack. She is a very active kid. And by "active" I mean the only time she rests and stops talking is when she is sleeping. And that might even be questionable as we stopped using a baby monitor in there years ago. But even this super-mega-ultra-supremo-active kid was laid up on the couch and was content watching all three Toy Story videos. She snoozed, she didn't eat her lunch (also a major oddity), her fever went up and down according to the duration since her last dose of ibuprofen or acetaminophen.

She woke up this morning with no fever (it went up during the day, but to a eentsy 99) and acted like a tornado. She's going back to school tomorrow.

So now, I am flecking tired, it's 9:15 PM and I am about to start some homework that needed to be done days ago, really.

Side note: The other day I went to Walmart for a few school supplies. I laid all my goodies on the belt and the cashier laughed as she scanned four 1" binders, four sets of dividers, steno notebooks, and a bottle of Visine for Tired Eyes. She said I either have kids, am in school, or both. Yep. This was after she'd scanned the Nutella and breaded chicken patties.

Why, hello there!

Hello there! Why don't you pull up a seat next to me while I rant and brag and rave about my life? Sounds good, right?

Eh, this blog is something like that. While I say it's a documentation of the goings on in my life, I hope that it's at least a little bit entertaining. I enjoy writing and this is a great way for me to do it. So... voila! My blog. It's cute, isn't it? :)

Who am I? Hmm. As the title suggests, I am a married mom of two girls and I am back in college. When I first met my then-boyfriend-now-husband back in The Day, I was attending college studying graphic design. Cut to many, many years later and bypassing a cross-country move, a wedding, two births, and numerous other events and we arrive at the current status quo where I am back in college at the age of thirty-something, studying sonography.

Yes, a drastic change from graphic design, I know. But, there you have it. Allied health = my job. Graphic design = my hobby. My hobbies also include cooking (I've been enjoying new recipes lately) and moderate crafting. Often my crafting starts off with serious passion, then fizzles out mid-project. So you'll see me post links to my favorite stuff here and there. I have many crafty friends that make and sell stuff.

So there you have it! Me in a nutshell. Help! I'm in a nutshell! *teeheee*