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January 3, 2010

Timing, His Stinks!

Posted by fixitmommy under Phone calls, Uncategorized | Tags: , |
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On my other blog, I just wrote about the Big Ones great timing with getting sick the other day. I wish the Husband could get some of that timing vibe from her!

Now that the deployment is coming to an end, one would thing we would have the timing of phone calls down, unfortunately we do not. I know he thinks that I have spent the entire time he’s been gone stressing out, yelling and generally being annoyed with the girls.

Yes, there have been a lot of those type of moments, but not all the time, just every time he calls.

I’ve written before about the morning of dog diarrhea that followed a night of kid-puke; he called at the exact moment that I discovered the dog diarrhea, so yes I was stressed.

Then yesterday we were at WalMart. We were fine wandering around looking at things. The girls were fine. Then he called just as we got to the frozen pizza aisle. So as I am trying to talk to him, the Big One is darting in between people trying to open every door and whining that she wanted every kind of pizza in the cases.

Meanwhile I am trying to maintain a conversation with him, while assuring that the Big One didn’t completely disappear into the abyss of people that is a Super WalMart on a Saturday morning. So yes, I was a little stressed and annoyed all at the same time.

Of course then he gets angry that I am not devoting 100 percent of my attention to him, so he ends the conversation and then I feel guilty for the rest of the day. It’s a great cycle.

Then this morning, I took 20 seconds to walk out the front door and halfway down the driveway to get the newspaper. Guess who called during those 20 seconds? I swear the phone must have started ringing the millisecond that I closed to front door to go out and then stopped ringing the millisecond I opened the door. I didn’t even hear it. Of course the girls were yelling, “Your phone was ringing!” as soon as I got in the door.

So now I sit and wait for him to call back. I know as soon as he does, he will make some smart comment about me still being asleep at 8 a.m. Then I will get annoyed because I haven’t slept that late in ages. Ahhhh, I love the drama of morale phone calls.

 

December 10, 2009

Getting Into the Spirit

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I finally have all the outlets in my living room working again.  Apparently it was just a wire that had somehow wiggled loose.

So we were all excited to put the Christmas tree up.  It’s been hard enough for me to get into the Christmas spirit this year. I am just not quite feeling it.  It’s very sad because the girls are both really into it and I am not.

I started playing Christmas music before Thanksgiving (horrific I know!).  But I knew that I was going to need all the motivation I could muster.  I know that we will still have a wonderful Christmas.  I know the girls have no real idea what it means for Daddy to not be here.  And I know that we will get through it.  I just hope and pray that we can enjoy the holiday season, and not just survive it.

So anyway, the outlets were working and I dragged the 200-pound fake Christmas tree into the house.  I have never been a fake tree person, but when we were at Wright-Patt  we found this great tree at a great price and bought it.  It’s made things easier to not have big fights over what real tree looked best!

So I pull out all eight zillion branches, sort them all by color (with my trust 2-year-old assistant).  And was ready to start the assembly process.   I look in the box, pull out the four-legged stand, set it up and then picked up the main support for the tree.

I tried to put it into the stand and it wasn’t working.  Clearly something was missing.  I set the tall branch down, go look in the box and find it’s empty.

I ask the Little One if she took anything out of the box.  No, she didn’t.  I am missing a rather important part to my tree. So now I cannot put the tree up.

The problem is the Big One is so excited to decorate the tree after preschool, I have to do something.  We live in the middle of nowhere, pretty much. We have an Albertson’s and a Rite Aid for shopping choices. I don’t have time before the Big One gets picked up from school to drive the 20 minutes to Wal-Mart and buy another one.

So we headed to Rite Aid figuring we will get whatever they have. It’s a good thing I didn’t have my heart set on having a big huge full tree.   The one green tree that they had claimed it is 6-feet tall. I knew it was going to be bad when I saw the size of the box.  I am not exaggerating at all, it is about 1/8 the size of our regular tree’s box.

The Little One and I bought it and then headed up to pick up the Big One from preschool.  I didn’t say anything to the girls about a tree, just fed them lunch and put them upstairs for resting time.  As I took the 12 minutes to set-up the new tree, it took everything I had to not cry.  This tree was not going to help me get into the Christmas spirit.  It was sad.  It was pathetic.  It was a cheesy, skinny tree like you’d see in a bank lobby.

Oh well, I put one strand of lights on it and called it done. When the girls got up from their naps and came downstairs, the look on the faces defied the $20 I paid for the tree.  They were thrilled to have a tree in the house.  They were over the moon excited to put the ornaments on it.

It was a good lesson in perspective for me.  They don’t care how big it is, or how full it is, they just knew we had a tree to decorate.

We have been so blessed over the past year.  And my girls helped me to remember that focusing on what we have instead of what we don’t have is going to be the key toward getting through and enjoying the Christmas season this year.

Of course, the Husband’s presence will be missed enormously. But he will be home shortly after the New Year. YAY! We are getting closer!

 

December 1, 2009

Murphy’s Law #7

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Electrical Outlets

Murphy’s law is an adage that broadly states: “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.”

So I had been having challenges with the computer, as I’ve told y’all.  The other day, I came downstairs to check my e-mail before the girls got up.  The 10 minutes in the morning with a hot cup of coffee is usually an indicator of how the day will go.

If I get to enjoy 10-15 minutes of coffee, it’s generally a good day.  If I don’t well, it’s usually a long day.

So I made some coffee and sat down in the computer chair.  The monitor was black, as usual.  It goes to sleep at night. So I jiggled the mouse to wake it up.  Nothing happened.  And it was silent.  There was no chugging coming from the self-destructing hard drive.  Then I saw that the power lights were not illuminated.

So I figured we must have lost power during the night and I just needed to reset the power on the surge protector.  I crawled under the desk and fought with the 6 inches of dust (living in the desert is miserable!).  I turned the switch off and on and off and on and off  and on. Nothing.  No lights, no chugging, no nothing.  Then I noticed that the wireless router had no power either. I thought that was strange because it’s plugged into a different plug.

So I grabbed my jacket and headed out to check the circuit breakers.  It’s about 35 degrees outside and I was struggling to get the freezing cold metal box open.  My neighbor was leaving for work and came over to help me open it.  He had a tough time too, but managed to pry it open.

Everything was on.  So for good measure we flipped all the ones that say, “lights and plugs” (nice and vague, huh?) Figuring that solved the problem, I thanked my neighbor and wished him a good day at work.

I came back inside, still no power.  So I went out again and flipped all the switches that were marked for places downstairs.  I came in again.  Still no power.

So I grabbed the baby monitor (it’s the smallest thing around that is plugs in).  I took it around to all the outlets in the living rooms.  I found three outlets not working.  Well technically, 2.5 outlets not working.  One outlet is split between a wall switch and just a regular outlet.  So the half controlled by the wall switched works fine, but the other doesn’t.

It makes no sense to me. There is another outlet five feet away on the same wall as the one the computer is plugged into that works fine.  The half an outlet and another non-working outlet are on different walls.

Frustrated with it all, I got a big extension cord from the garage, plugged the computer into a different outlet and went about my day. I figured I’d deal with the outlets later.

By this time both kids are up and whining.  My coffee is cold and I am crabby.

Just for fun, I check later in the day and miraculously one outlet and one half of the “broken” outlets are suddenly working.  So now I have two outlets that are only half functional.

Did you follow that? The one split on the wall switch is still not working.  And the one the computer was originally plugged into is not working.   And to be honest with you, I don’t care anymore.  It’s at about the same spot as the lawnmower in terms of my priorities.

 

November 25, 2009

Murphy’s Law #6

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The Computer

 

Murphy’s law is an adage that broadly states: “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.”

 

 

Chalk it up to another one of those things.  Yes, computer crash.  I know it will happen that’s why I back-up frequently. It’s again just one of those timing things.  We are fortunate that our deployment is short.  It’s only four months so one would think that the number of “Murphy’s Law” entries wouldn’t be that long.

 

I mean yes if we were subject to a 12- month deployment, I can see how lots of things might break or need repairing within a year, but four months?  C’mon.

 

So it started a few weeks ago, I was playing some dumb game on Facebook when the computer froze.  It happens often (but not often enough for me to stop playing dumb games!).

 

I tried to close my browser, all I got was that loud chugging sound.  You know the one that indicates the hard drive is working way too hard in there for a simple task like closing a browser.  As I sat there waiting for smoke to come out of the CPU, the screen went blue.

 

AHHHHHHH! The blue screen of death. The problem is that I hadn’t backed the computer up in about three weeks.

 

I went into panic mode.  I booted up the laptop and got a “registry” error.  Are you freaking kidding me?  Yes, we bought them both at the same time, on the same day but it cannot be possible that they would both self-destruct at the same exact moment.

 

I went to work on the laptop figuring it would be easier to fix than the blue screen of death.  It was.  I googled ways to get around the blue screen of death, without much success.

 

I couldn’t even get the thing to start up in “safe mode.”  So I turned it off, then turned it back on.  I then sat on the couch and started praying.  It didn’t seem to do any immediate good.  So after an hour of blue screen I went to bed.

 

I kid you not, when I came downstairs the next morning, my computer had re-booted and looked just fine.  The computer fairies came in the middle of the night.

 

I immediately backed everything up and waited.  It was slow, but still working.  Periodically the hard drive would start making the horrible chugging sounds as it seemed to be eating away at itself.  (at least that’s how it sounded!).  I proceeded to back up new files every day for about 2 weeks.

 

I gave up on it two days ago and now am still in the process of reloading all the important programs and drivers on the new one.   The silence coming from the new machine will take some getting used to.

 

November 14, 2009

Murphy’s Law #5

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The Smoke Detector

 

Murphy’s law is an adage that broadly states: “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.”

 

This time it’s not so much that it’s broken, but the timing of the need for a new battery.

 

This week has been tough. There has been a lot of puke and diarrhea.  There have been too many hours of crying and fussing and not enough hours of peaceful sleep.

 

So after getting everyone medicated and down for the night, I was optimistic that I, too, would get some well-needed sleep.

 

I headed up to bed and read for a while, then drifted off into sleepy bliss.  I will admit that I did get a very good chunk of sleep.  I slept for close to six hours, which is practically unheard of for me.

 

Something woke me up.  I heard a *chirp*.  In my brain I tried to rationalize that I was imagining it.  Or that it was the yippy dog that lives behind us.  *chirp*  There it was again.  Still in a sleepy fog, I thought maybe it’s a cricket.  *chirp* I can sleep through a cricket.  Nobody is awake.  Nobody is crying.  The dog is blockaded in my bathroom where there is only tile.  I am not getting up to chase a cricket away . *chirp*.   So I counted to see how often it was making noise.  *chirp*  Twenty seconds.  There is no way I can fall back asleep in 20 seconds.  By now I am awake and keenly aware that it is cold outside of my flannel sheets and blankets.   *chirp*  I am now fairly certain it’s not a cricket, rather it’s the smoke detector.  *chirp* CRAP!  I have to go change the battery.

 

So I roll out of bed and stand in the hallway trying to determine which one is chirping.  *chirp*  It’s not the one outside my bedroom.  Please dear God, don’t let it be the one at the end of the hall by the girls’ rooms. *chirp*

 

WHEW! It’s on the one downstairs.  So I head downstairs, get the stepstool.  Climb to the top step and try to figure out how to open the darn thing.  There is writing on it, with directions I presume.  *chirp*  DAMN! It’s loud when it’s 12 inches from my ear.  I don’t have my glasses on so I have no idea what the directions say.  *chirp*  I know I need to get this figured out.  My toes are frozen by now standing on the metal stepstool.  I can barely reach the thing anyway. *chirp* By the grace of God I pushed something and a little door opened and there was the battery compartment. *chirp*

 

I go back down the stepstool, find a 9-volt battery and pray that I remember which way it’s supposed to go.  *chirp*  I put the battery in, close the trap door and count.  *chirp*  Are you freaking kidding me?  So I climb back down the stepstool, go upstairs get my glasses on, go back downstairs.  *chirp* SHUT-UP, stupid smoke detector.  Climb back up on the step stool and find the button that says, “Push to Hush.”  Seriously, was someone trying to be cute with that one? It doesn’t even rhyme for pete’s sake.  *chirp*  I push the dumb button and count.  Wait! I got to 30 and there was no chirp. Hallelujah!  No more chirping.

 

I put the stepstool away, climb back in bed, just start to snuggle in and then I hear, “Mooooommmmmmyyyyyyyy… Mooooommmmmmyyyyyyyy… Mooooommmmmmyyyyyyyy”  Oh well at least nobody can take away my almost six hours of sleep.

 

And yes, if we are healthy enough I will be going to the store to buy more 9-volts and changing all the batteries today.

 

November 10, 2009

Learned Something New

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The last couple days have been rough. The Big One is having some issues. I don’t want to say she is sick necessarily. I really think it’s more allergies than anything else. She’s complaining that her forehead hurts and her eyes hurt. Sounds more like a sinus issue than a cold or flu.

The problem is she also threw up and had a low-grade fever.

So as a result, she and I have not been sleeping well. I am tired, there is no doubt about it.keurig

Today it may have come to a head. I have a Keurig single cup coffee brewer. I love it. It’s fabulous. It’s awesome. I know that I grabbed a K-cup (the thing that holds the coffee) and put it in the appropriate place. I then selected which size cup I wanted to brew. I pushed the button and walked away to feed the dog.

After feeding the dog, I went to the refrigerator, retrieved the Gingerbread Spice creamer and returned to the coffee pot. There was no cup. So I looked across the kitchen, thinking maybe I grabbed it and put it on the counter. No cup.

So I went back across the kitchen, replaying the last two minutes in my brain. I knew I pushed the button. I ever heard the coffee pot brewing. Yet there was no coffee. I was ready to pinch myself to make sure I was truly awake when it dawned on me.

The receptacle that the cup rests on while the coffee is delivered is a few inches thick. I gently popped the top off and there was my coffee all pooled together in the bottom receptacle.

Yes, I am losing my mind. But the amazing thing is there was not a drop of coffee on the counter. I may try it again, just to watch it!

 

October 29, 2009

It Sneaks Up On Me ~ Part II

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It happens at the strangest times.   Well, I guess strange isn’t the right word.   I guess maybe random is a better word.   The Husband has been gone for two months now.

 

So today “it” caught me off card. It, of course refers to how much I miss him.  Like many people I have different ringers on my cell phone for different people. When my sister calls, it plays, “We are Family.” When my niece or my mom friends call, it plays “The Wonder Pets” theme song. And when the Husband calls it plays, “Good Morning Beautiful” which was our first dance song at our wedding reception.

 

Yes, it’s sappy. But it makes me smile every time I hear it. It’s been a good two months now since I’ve heard it.  It’s really strange to go from hearing it at least once a day to never hearing it.

 

Now I know he is gone and I know that my father-in-law is using the Husband’s cell phone while he is gone. {We are trying to convince FIL that it’s good to have a cell phone, so before taking the plunge himself, he is “testing” out the Husband’s).

 

As I was hanging out with the Little One while the Big One is a preschool, my phone started playing, “Good Morning Beautiful.”

 

I can’t explain it very well other than to say, my heart skipped a beat and my face began to smile. It was a nice, but bittersweet moment.

 

It took just a split second for my smile to fade and change to worry though, because I knew that it meant FIL was calling and I also know that the Husband’s Grandpa is having surgery today.  Fortunately he just had a silly question for me. And Grandpa is just now being prepped for surgery.

 

 

 

October 22, 2009

Murphy’s Law #4

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HIS Car

Murphy’s law is an adage that broadly states: “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.”

Are you freaking kidding me? Is about the only thing I can say about this one.   I have been so good about starting the Husband’s car at least once a week. He harasses me about starting it and honest to goodness, I really have been good about it.

It’s parked up on the top side part of our driveway.  Our next door neighbor’s are putting in some cement right next to where the car is parked.  So I’ve told them when they needed it moved to let me know and I would gladly move it so they can get the wheelbarrow up where they need it to be.

So today was the day.  I started the damn car last Friday.  It’s been 6 days.  My parents were here, they can vouch for the fact that I started the car and that it did in fact start.

So just a bit ago, I went out to start it.  I was chatting with the neighbors.  They were giving me a hard time about when I was going to wash it.  The Husband is religious about washing the cars.  He does it at least every other week.  I don’t wash cars.  So they haven’t been washed in the seven weeks he’s been gone.  His car is filthy.  You can barely tell it’s black, it looks more tan with the dirt coating on it.

Anyway, I put the key in and tried to start it.  Nothing.   I tried again.  Nothing.  It was not turning over for anything. Seriously, it’s been SIX days since I started it.

So the neighbor moved his car over, jumped the Husband’s car and I moved it to the other side of the driveway.   Not sure what I am going to do now.  I don’t want to leave it where it is.  Our driveway is on one nasty slope and I don’t want it sitting there for the next three months.  But going and getting a new battery doesn’t like much fun right now either.  UGH!

 

October 11, 2009

It’s All in The Timing

Posted by fixitmommy under Phone calls, The Little One, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , |
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The Little One has been sick for about three days now.  It started on Thursday night with eight hours of puking. No joke, no exaggeration.  She threw up every 20 minutes from 9 p.m. until 5 a.m.  It was pleasant.

Then on Friday she started complaining her ears hurt.  She had a low grade fever, but seemed all right after a few hours sleep. She was a bit grumpy on Saturday morning, then was fine.  But by Saturday night she was a grouch again.  Again she started telling me her ear hurt.

So I decided that today, Sunday, would be the day we made the trip to Urgent Care.  If she had an ear infection, it had already been a few days and I wanted to get her started on meds sooner versus later.

We had made arrangements to try out Skype with the Husband this morning.  So I knew I needed to wait for his call and then we’d head to Urgent Care.

Now one other aside about the Little One’s sickness; She had not pooped since Thursday.  Considering her decreased appetite with the large volume of puke, I was a little concerned, but not overly concerned.  I figured I would bring it up at the Urgent Care visit along with the other symptoms.

So what do y’all think happened the second the Husband called? I had just answered his call, spotted him on the computer, showed the Big One where to look for Daddy when it happened.  Not only did the Little One poop at that exact moment, she had the most disgusting liquid explosion in her entire life.  We are talking spilling out of the diaper, soaking through her sweat pants.  And the smell?  Oh my Lord, the smell was horrendous.

I’ve been a mom for 4.5 years.  I have dealt with my share of stinky poop, but y’all I was gagging on the floor, while trying to clean up the mess.  As I tried desperately not to get it on the carpet, the Big One continued to talk to Daddy as the video cut in and out.   Each time he disappeared, she was yelling, “DADDY? Are you there? DADDY???”

I’m not sure if it was a case of too many people clogging the server on his end, or if it was something that I had done wrong. I just know that he was cutting in and out as I was trying desperately to clean up the poop explosion.  Both kids were freaking out for different reasons.  The dog was trying to figure out where the smell was coming from by nudging the diaper with her nose.  I was holding the Little One’s legs and butt up in the air, while trying to clean up the mess and at the same time shooing Gracie Lou away from the diaper.

Meanwhile, the Husband is just sort of staring in disbelief at the computer trying to figure out what all the chaos was about.  I contemplated telling him we’d try back in 5 minutes, but then I figured what’s the use, there would surely be something else going on, so we pressed on.

We did get to talk and see each other off and on for about 10 minutes.  It was pretty cool, that’s for sure.

Of course, now the Little One keeps looking at the computer and saying, “I want to talk to Daddy!!”

 

October 5, 2009

It Sneaks Up On Me

Posted by fixitmommy under Time, Uncategorized | Tags: , , |
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It happens at the strangest times.   Well, I guess strange isn’t the right word.   I guess maybe random is a better word.   The Husband has been gone for a month now; One down a few more to go.

Over the last few weeks, the girls and I have gotten into a decent rhythm.  We are learning what to expect from one another and how far we can push each other before we all become very miserable.

I really have gone into a survival-type mode. More days than not I feel like I am doing what I can just to make it to bedtime.   I don’t dwell too much during the day on the fact that the Husband is gone.   If I start thinking about it, then inevitably my mind wanders to how long it will be until he gets home.   And quite frankly, that is too depressing to think about.

So most days, we simply go about our business and do whatever it is we need to do.  Obviously we do think about him and talk about him throughout the day, but we don’t put a whole lot of emphasis on time.

Anyway this routine works for me.  If I don’t stop long enough to get sad, I won’t get sad.

Yesterday in church, I was sitting behind a couple.  They were probably in their late 40’s. (for those of you who read my Facebook updates, they were NOT the ones texting during  the sermon!)

At this particular time in the service, we were standing singing a song.   For whatever reason, I was watching them while I sang.   They both had their hands resting on the pew in front of them.   At one point the husband swayed with the music and his fingers brushed up against hers.   Over the next few seconds, I watched as their fingers all slowly became intertwined. Then as they held hands for the rest of the song, it all hit me.

As my eyes filled up with tears, I realized that there was nobody around to hold my hand.  Now normally I am not a big hand-holder.  After a few minutes, your hands get all sweaty and all the romance of the moment is gone.

I guess it’s the realization that there is nobody there to quietly brush up against.  There is nobody there to give you a hug when the kids are driving you bonkers.  There is nobody there to scratch your back when you have that one elusive itch.  There is just nobody there.

{Yes, I am turning into a big ole sap. Leave me alone, okay!}

 

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