A couple of things

Sometimes you just get a reminder that you need to step back, look around, and remember what's important. After a bad scare with Bart last week, a visit to my psych, one really bad dream involving a drawbridge and being in too big of a hurry, and some tears of sympathy for a couple of friends who have recently lost loved ones, this is what I have determined:

What's really important to me:

#1) My kids - no explanation necessary

#2) My husband - since we're stuck with each other for a reallllllllllly long time, we'd better work on our compatibility issues

#3) The people who raised me, changed my diapers, loved me despite knowing me during my "big-hair" phase, or otherwise had to put up with me + hormones (parents, grandparents, siblings)

#4) Church and friends - they are the people who are really there for you & love you, after your family, of course, but you're not obligated to see them on holidays, special occasions, or buy them gifts

#5) Love - (this one needs some explaining since I've learned it can be translated two completely different ways, depending on whether you speak Female or Male. I do not speak Male, so I have learned by trial and error that Love can also mean Sex in that language. In Female, it almost NEVER means Sex, but usually always means a nice dinner, a movie, cuddling, an evening walk, holding hands, complimentary words, and even a new pair of shoes if you play your cards right---------- but this actually is probably the most important thing I have learned so far----------- Love means compromise whatever the language, so you have to be willing to do stuff you don't want to do when you REALLY don't feel like it because you love the other person)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

#6) Possibly the dog - the jury's still out on that one, he peed on the laundry hamper today but he does this cute thing where he stands on his back legs and gives "high five"

#7) Sanity - it doesn't matter if I get everything done anyway if I get myself committed since the house will just be trashed again by the time they let me out, which leads to:

#8) Simplicity - if I'm not doing #'s 1-4 (and possibly #5) well, then it's time to cut back on the things that don't matter a hill of beans at the end of the day (this basically includes blogging, So You Think You Can Dance, keeping my toenails painted, and - luckily for me - vacuuming more than once a week). I am also using this one as an excuse for bombing my Precalc class this summer.

I'm not wise or anything, but after being with the same person for almost 14 years and raising a kid or four, you begin to notice certain patterns. Plus I just spent three hours in front of this computer doing Anatomy and Physiology homework and am pretty sure this is all a dream anyway!!!!!!!

It Figures

Wouldn't you know it? I decide to grow my hair out a little so that I can put it up in a ponytail on those days when I don't have time to blow dry and flat iron. And of course, my hubby tells me he prefers my hair chin-length like I got it cut last summer.

And this is after almost fourteen years of telling me that he likes my hair long. I've had it cut chin-length on several occasions before. Did he not notice? Did he black out for several years between 1997 and 2005? I just don't know. Is it because we're getting older? Does getting older mean you have to start liking short hair?

I've always liked a cute/sexy bob, but George has never been one for short hair on women.
I'm totally rambling, but I'm practically falling asleep at the keyboard after three hours of wading through quadratic equations and linear functions. Nothing makes sense. If my life were a function, it would be f(x)=-1. Constant, flat, unchanging!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Brain is mush. I hate parabolas. Math is not a language I'm fluent in.

Guess where I went?

Yep. The hospital. Well, actually the Express Care, but it's attached to the hospital. Close enough.
That makes the third time I have been there in less than four months. This time, thankfully, it wasn't for Lulu.
I got bitten by a fire ant on my foot this afternoon, not a big deal. We get fire ant bites all the time. They hurt and itch like heck, but you put Benadryl spray on them and they're gone in a couple of days. This time, two of my toes and the top of my foot swelled up and over the neck half hour or so, I developed horrible itching and hives everywhere. It was so bad, even my scalp and the inside of my ears and my earlobes itched like the devil. My eyelids itched. It was gross. I didn't want to wear clothes because wherever my clothes touched, it was torture.
We had earlier gone to Skylar's non-dress dress rehearsal for her recital, and were headed home to get her ready for her very first school dance. (I don't know if she was excited about it, but I sure was). I was so looking forward to the whole thing - the getting her ready, helping her do her hair and paint her toenails, and giggling on the way over. I had bought her this really cute shirt to wear, and banana yellow nail polish.
I WAS NOT going to miss this, even if I swelled up like a balloon!!!!
It was close. By the time we got to the school, I was miserable. I couldn't stop itching for a minute, and the cafeteria where they held the dance was so hot, it was awful. My skin was so red and itchy and you could feel the heat coming off it. Hannah's mom offered to take Sky home for me if I wanted to go to the Urgent Care. At first, I refused to even think about leaving, but as the itching started to spread up my neck and face, I decided to take her up on her offer.
My Express Care experience was not too bad. I didn't even sit down in the waiting room, but was called right into Triage and given a room. While waiting, I got to watch some of Toy Story and The Incredibles on the Family Channel. In between the kids' movies were commercials for the Family Channel's "runaway hit" (their words, not mine), The Secret Life of the American Teenager. In the one commercial alone, the high school kids mentioned two different couples having sex and confronted a teen girl about a pregnancy. It's disgusting. The only thing more disgusting than the dialogue and plot is the acting. Shame on you, Molly Ringwald, for being a part of that!!!!
But I digress.
When the doctor came in, he said right off that I had had a bad allergic reaction to the insect bite. Luckily, it hadn't affected my breathing. He said that the swelling and itching wouldn't have just gone away by itself, that it likely would've lasted several days. I got a shot and some prednisone and they kept me for a couple of hours until they were sure that the swelling had gone down. I felt much better. I was no longer burning hot and itchy, just tired.
Once the swelling went down, my toe started to HURT!!!!!! And I was starving. Pizza Hut commercials kept coming on to remind me I had not eaten breakfast and had eaten very little lunch and even less dinner. (I had grabbed a couple of pieces of turkey bacon on the way out the door to take Sky to her dance).
Now I'm just whiny because I want pizza and even the back side of my ears hurt. Also, I hate fire ants, and I missed out on Skylar's first school dance. Oh, and I'm mad at George because when I texted him that I was starving and wanted pizza, he texted back "Sorry" and made me make my own canned cream of mushroom soup when I got home. And all of this after I didn't even flinch at helping him keep his junk iced with bags of frozen peas after his vasectomy!

MIA

I feel like I've dropped off the face of the earth. Honestly, the last two months have been so full. My brain feels like if it has to absorb one more piece of information, it will explode. Kind of like that Spongebob episode where Squidward turns the Krusty Krab into a fancy restaurant to impress his rival from high school and Spongebob becomes super-waiter. He knows everything there is to know about fine dining, but when he's asked what his name is, his brain malfunctions and he goes berserk.
Yep. That's pretty much me.
Let's see....for some bizarre masochistic reason I decided I would enjoy taking four (yes, four) classes this summer. That's in addition to working and trying to be slightly involved in my kids' lives and do my church calling, too. What was I thinking????!!!! Especially when one of those classes is Precalculus. I have literally been up until two and three a.m every night for the past week trying to complete homework and tests.
The good news is that I feel like I finally know what I want to go to school for, what would make me happy.
The ironic news: had I realized this just a few weeks sooner, I wouldn't be struggling to pass Precalc. I wouldn't even have needed to take it!
So bear with me while I ramble and post some really adorable pictures of some really cute kids.
It's nice to be back.