and that's the reason my grandma wouldn't let us watch that show. That, plus apparently some kids that were alone watching the show said that the smurfs came out and scratched them. Never mind the fact that the entire show revolved around an old guy trying to commit genocide and a town with only one female and a surprisingly large number of children and babies with no visible parents.

But that got me talking to a few people and then everyone started spouting off their favorite eighties cartoon shows which brought back a lot of memories. Rainbow Brite, Strawberry Shortcake (the original, not the weird version they came up with recently), She-Ra (or She-Man as she was called in our country), He-Man, Thundercats, Voltron, Transformers, and who could forget Jem and the Holograms. Man, I wish I was back in the eighties. At least then you knew what to expect from cartoons and it wasn't wondering whether or not this picture is true:

So I got my first unemployment check this week. Turns out that when you quit because your spouse is relocating bc of the army you qualify for it. Sad part? Even though I'm *technically* getting less than half of my weekly paycheck, I'm actually seeing much more of it since I don't have to pay daycare and gas to work. Seriously, before after I paid daycare, gas, tithe, and bought groceries I had less than $50 left over per week. And that was after we dropped the health insurance through my job, my leftover money was even less than that.

The Hubby's been gone all week for field training. Sucks to be him, I've had unbridled access to both the car and the bank account. I spent about $500, probably more than that. But I did get enough groceries for the next two weeks (minus fruits, they go too fast here to keep for long) and bought some things that I wanted and was told by The Hubby that "when you're working and bringing home a paycheck you can buy it."

He's gonna go to war. Of course mr. dumbo listens to everything others tell him no matter how laughable it is thinks that he's not going to be gone for a full year because the president said that the troops were coming home. He doesn't listen to the news and can't see what I see, that if they're finished in Iraq before the year's out, they'll just be sent over to Afghanistan or maybe even Pakistan (who knows what's gonna happen with them in six or eight months?). The clock is ticking down and before the year's out he will be sleeping under strange stars and looking at an unfamiliar moon. It's a good thing that his stint at AIT turned me into a darn monk. Otherwise I would've never survived a year without nookie.

For some odd reason that only Katie can understand, I find myself wanting to say that to my children. Somehow, deep down, I have this need for them to know that phrase and would love for them to randomly say it alongside their "that's bigger than your head!"' and "Holy poop on a stick!"

I swear to God, I'd never been so glad to see a bathroom in my life. You see, we had to take the rental car back to the airport. I was driving one car with the kidlets and The Hubby was driving the other car. Five minutes into the forty minute trip it hit me. I had to go, and badly. I think I prayed to God more fervently than in those scary minutes when I thought Ducky was going to die at birth. We finally stopped at a gas station but it had no bathroom. I then went to a store behind it but it too, was bathroomless. I had to run across a large highway and down the block before I found a bathroom and it was just in the nick of time. I was thisclose to going behind a bush, that's how bad it was.


Sorry for the TMI peeps.

Geez, where do I start. Well, the plane ride's a good place as any. Imagine: a stroller, two carseats(kiddos sat on these in the flight, NOT checked in), six suitcases, two backpacks, a huge diaperbag/purse, a three year old, a one year old, two planes, 14 hours travel time.


Oh, and did I mention that I did this all by myself? Yeah, it was a wild ride. But thankfully the kidlets were on their semi best behavior and things went along without a hitch. Except when The Kid got a weird rash all of a sudden from one of the plane's blankets. He got so weirdly hivey that the flight attendants considered having EMTs meet us at the airport. Thankfully we still had over eight hours flight time to go and the hives went down before we landed. I def needed to get myself into a bed and sleep. The second biggest problem we've had is the time change. We're six hours behind and these kid's body clocks are not behaving. They've been waking up between 2-4am (hawaii time) every day and going to bed at eight pm with no naps in between. And someone forgot to tell Ducky that it is NOT okay to stop eating anything at all and only nurse. He's worse than a newborn lately.

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This is it! My very last day of working here. I leave with a bittersweet heart. On one part, there are some awesome people that I've gotten to know (M, A, J, M, E, R) and there are also those whose name shall go unmentioned. I will miss seeing and talking to my girls here but I won't miss the office mama drama and all that it entails (and I'm mostly looking at the local crazies, i.e. S). This is also my very last day with real internet access. Probably by the time I get home, the pc AND tv will have been unhooked in anticipation of the movers. I still have SO MUCH to do it's not even funny. I have about two loads of laundry left (mostly diapers) and have to buy more almond milk for Ducky since his princess tummy won't tolerate anything but.

Speaking of him, he got whatever it is that I have. Poor baby woke up eleventeen times last night and nursed nonstop. Woke up with a face crusted with snot (looked like those children you see in walmart). The poor The Kid also is getting whatever it is that I have as well, I heard him coughing several times during the night. He slept in the air mattress in his room since their beds have already been dismantled. Poor thing, he tried crawling to my room sometime during the night. I found him asleep on the floor. Half his body was in my room and the other half in the hallway. And the little snitch also pulled the stopper on the air mattress. When I went to wake him up this morning (I'd put him back on the bed when I found him), the mattress was completely squoshed and the stopper had been taken off.

cross your fingers for me, The Hubby finally got the amended orders and will be trying to get our tickets on the same flight as his. Hopefully they'll still have seats available. And I'm going to go all out and not use 'sposies during the transition. I'd briefly considering using disposable diapers until we're in our own house in HI, but I'm going to try and not do it. I will use the laundromat in town until we leave, making sure all the dipes are nice and clean the day before. I don't think I'll have a problem using cloth on the plane. FBs are very good at holding things in, but just in case I will put a fleece cover over them. I will, however, make The Kid wear a pullup on at least the first leg of the trip. Last thing I want is to find out the altitude gives this child the runs. Until I can post again:

Hele me kahau 'oli

Monday the movers came to pick up the small shipment. I was at work and The Hubby supervised. According to him, these guys were slower than a caravan of one legged men. And then the moving truck wouldn't start so he had to jumpstart their battery. Talk about efficiency, lol. Today I'm nursing a terrible head cold. Hopefully it'll go away soon. Tomorrow's my last day at work (cake day yay!) and I know they're planning some sort of surprise thing.

Onto serious things now, my pc will be disconnected tomorrow and unless I go to the airport or the mall, I won't have 'net access. Still don't have my tickets though, it's been one snag after another. The Hubby leaves next Friday (that's one entire week 'net less here) and I'm hoping we leave either that day, or the day after. And then we have to wait until our stuff gets to us before having regular internet.

That's right, We're going to HAWAIIIII!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Everything is happening pretty fast now. Suffice it to say that we will be there before mid April. I put in my notice at work yesterday (how awesome was that?!), my last day will be the 27th. My internet and cable will cut off the 31st which will leave me with about a week of no 'net while still in FL and it will be several weeks while we set up housing and have our furniture and pc delivered. Who knows how long that will take. For now, nyanya nyanya nya nya, I'm going to Hawaii to LIVE and you get to freeze your tushies. The Hubby wants me to find a job once we're settled but with the way the economy is and the high costs of daycare, I'm going to try and convince him to let me stay home with the kidlets. They're growing up so fast and I'm missing out on so much...



Go ahead, hate me.

And to top it all off, I got a brand new (Charlotte Russe) two piece business suit at a garage sale for two dollars. Fits me like a dream.

If you needs to get your blog all nifty spiffy, you should check these guys out at allblogtools.com. You can get just about anything for your site and they will answer any and all of your questions. 'cept they won't give you their phone number. Something about a girl calling them at three am repeatedly asking what the heck a rss feed was..




oh wait, that was me last week. Sorry guys, I messed things up for the internets again.

I'm dying to tell you guys the news. I'm dying to tell you guys how absolutely amazing it's going to feel doing it. But I can't. In case my job knows about the internet. The good thing is that I'll be able to tell you guys either on the eight or the ninth. But it's awesome news!


In other less private matters, my mother is coming over to visit next weekend. Not sure if I'm glad or drearing the time. Thankfully it's going to be short so I won't have time to kill her if the urge comes.

Ducky has finally decided that he's going to walk (only like 80% of the time). I swear, this child does these things to drive me crazy. He's known how to walk for months now. We've seen him do it, he's seen us seeing him do it, he's done alone. But he still chooses to crawl. GR! It's not that he is afraid of falling or can only do a few steps at a time. This child will be sitting on the middle of the floor with nothing near him and is able to get up, walk, stop, turn around, take corners, in short he KNOWS how to do it. He's not doing it because he wants to be held either, that's the part that confuses me. Unless we are out (like shopping or something), he's on the floor. He doesn't like to be held for extended periods either....

The doctor found a hernia on his tummy last checkup. He says it's benign and that nothing needs to be done. Great, more things for me to freak out about. He also told me that he's monitoring his growth and brain development. Not because the kid is not meeting his milestones on time or has a problem, but (and get this) because someone messed up when they measured his head at an apt. They said that his head was smaller than normal. Now, granted, they remeasured his head right away and it was normal sized but apparently it's an automatic red flag and my kid will forever remind me of a shrunken head.

Seriously! Geez, I called the auto repair shop to get the estimate on The Hubby's truck. The guy answers the phone and when I tell him what I want he goes: can I call you back in 15 minutes? I'm in the bathroom.





EEEEEWWWWWW!

I dropped off The Hubby at the airport on Saturday. Sorry I hadn't come visiting in a while. There was a ton of hubub around when he came and with the holidays and all, life got to me. I was so down to see him go. At least it's only for three months tops this time. And soon we will get together again. BTW, guess where we'll be living?? Go ahead, guess.

Here's a clue, "there's no ice in paradise"


Whoever guesses wins a prize.

Yesterday I was playing cowboys with The Kid (we even had our own make believe lasso) when I had the strongest memory flashback. It's amazing the kind of things that can happen to a person and one can put so far out of their minds that the person can't even remember it happening anymore.

It was horrible and I started crying inconsolably. My "father" and I use the term loosely, tied my hands together and my feet together and then tied them to each other in such a way that I had to be laying down on the ground because I couldn't sit up or stand up straight. He did the same to my sister, he also gave us a beating beforehand. Our crime? I can't remember, but if it's anything like previous times that we got beat, it was probably because my mom didn't western union him all the money that she got from her paycheck. I can't remember the exact age I was at the time, all I know is that we lived in that apartment from when I was around six until I was eight. God, if I ever think of doing something like that to one of my children; please smite me. I don't ever want to inflict that kind of pain on a child, any child.


runs off to cry...

But the cat was already dead. Not really, but yeah. See, in my random caribbean island of birth there exists no such thing as spaying or neutering pets. For that matter, pet food is nonexistent and vets are only there to provide forms when someone wants to take an animal out of the country. So most people's forms of pet natality control is laying out a bunch of traps and killing them. Mean, sad, but true. And the butcher on the corner was most interested in keeping the cat population in the neighborhood under control.

That said, one beautiful spring morning we woke up to a dead cat in our garden. We being curious kids with nothing else to do started poking and prodding the cat. You know, for fun. It was a beautiful orange sherbet tabby and it's eyes were wide open and staring off into space. Or so I thought. Apparently the cat must've been only paralyzed because it started to stare at me. No one else saw it, but it kept on looking at me and freaking the heck out of me. Not sure what happened to the carcass of the cat. I'm sure that it eventually died off and was stuck in a garbage bag by one of the adults and then thrown in the trash.

On weds as I was getting ready to go to work, tragedy struck. I'd been in the kitchen getting some things prepared for The Kid when I heard a gutwrenching bloodcurling scream.


Duckie had falled out of bed. This wasn't your normal day to day kid fell out of bed. He'd somehow fallen at an angle and was actually balancing his body on his nose.

Poor thing, he had blood coming out of his nose like it was nobody's business. Several phone calls later to the pedi's office found me on my way to the ER to get x-rays done to make sure his nose wasn't broken. Thank God it wasn't, but holding him down while they took the xray was almost as bad as holding him down while that inept nurse that drew his blood poked him several times and shook the needle back and forth and to and fro because she couldn't find his vein. I wanted to hurt her like she hurt my baby.

He's on the mend now, all he has to show for it is a scrape on the tip of his nose but now that I'm doubly sure that he can get out of his crib and land on the bed and then land on the floor; I think that I'll put his mattress on the floor.

I pulled into my sitter's driveway yesterday to drop off The Kid. She has a long driveway that fits three and a half cars in it and her car was parked (and off) in its usual spot. I stopped about 1 car lenght away from her car, turned it off and was about to get out when her car turned on, break lights came on and she started to back up. I honked at her and she saw me and stopped literally inches from my car. She didn't see me..... Thankfully the car was okay.


Still, had me wondering just how much attention she pays when she backs up. I mean, she lives in a residential neighborhood and there are tons of little children around.

before

after

ain't it a beaut? You must forgive the dirty floor, it's been rainy outside and everytime we come in, we drag stuff through the entryway.


And don't even mention anything about the dozens of bent nails. YOU try to hammer in some flimsy nails to concrete.

Or I'd have tore him a new one. You see, one of the biggest arguments that we have is regarding money. Not how much I spend or he spends, but the actual paying of the bills, budgeting kind of fights. The problem was that he wouldn't let me see the bills and he would pay them himself. I'm not kidding you when I say that we've had several talks with the pastors regarding this. They were always on my side because as his wife and a bringer of money, I should know what the money is being spent on.

Well, the past few days I've been going over the finances and let me just tell you that angry does not even begin to cover what I'm feeling. Let's just say that our take home income is about 1/4 of our monthly bills. Where was the rest of the money coming from you may ask? From an equity line of credit that we have. Said equity is emptied out and mr. sourpatch decided to run away instead of getting a real job and doing his part.

Don't get me wrong, it's not that he hasn't been working. It's just that since The Kid was born and he quit his job so that he could study and then start his own business things had been going downhill. Especially since the construction business is slow. Especially since he'd been getting work from a good for nothing "christian" and I use that term loosely. I'd been telling that man to get a job, any job but the man had his sight set on that he could only work at a Lowe's or a Home Depot. Not sure why, since he used to work in the corporate world and made good money. He also didn't want a job that would pay less than 15/hr. because we wouldn't be able to live otherwise. But yet it was okay for him to stay home and wait on his good for nothing boss that owes us several thousand dollars for back pay to call him up and give him more work. I tell you, I'm seriously thinking of suing that good for nothing. And he called himself a christian. Any christian worth their salt would borrow money if need be so that they could pay their employees NOT take the money that they received and pay their own bills totally forgetting the employees.

Right now, I have to come up with several thousand dollars to pay all the late bills and hopefully stop some things from getting cut. Keep in mind that after health insurance is paid, my paycheck only covers gas, daycare, and groceries. That's it. I guess it's time to break out the stripper clothes and go hang out in the corner.

He's gone and am all alone in the house with the kidlets. Keep trying to make myself be busy so that I don't have to miss him. It sucks big fat monkey butt cuz I already got used to him being around all the time and now I have to get unused to it. I won't hear from him for the next few weeks cuz they like to keep their newbies sequestered for awhile. After that, we'll be able to talk to him on Sundays until he finishes up Basic. I so wish that we could pack up and move with him to his class after that but it's not financially feasible.

I am making a list of all the things that I want to get done around the house to keep me busy:
rug- the edge where it ends and the tile starts was ripped by the previous tenants and because The Hubby was going to retile the entire area he never got around to fixing it. I know exactly how to fix that problem and will be heading over to Home Depot this weekend to fix it. Wish me luck cuz I've never drilled through concrete nor sawed metal before. Am planning on using womanly wiles to get the Home Depot workers to cut the metal for me.

kidlets room have to figure some sort of storage space in there. Plus have to fit Ducky's crib in there as well

backyard since The Hubby used to do all his work in the backyard and was dumb enough to throw nails and broken glass all over it, The Kid could never play in it. Am going to separate an area just for him, comb through it for any nails/glass/sharp object, and then will throw one of those plastickey outdoor rug thingies on it in case I missed something. Will be second on list as I will then be able to let him out to play while I cook/clean/sleep.

laundry room he has a million things in here that he will never use. I will go over everything and throw away what's not needed. Get some organization in there as well.

computer/rumpus room Since he's gone, I can move things around and put them where they should be and gasp! get an actual computer table instead of a big long table that takes up half the room. Seriously, this has caused more fights than leaving the toilet seat up. Concurrent to that, I will be installing Microsoft Word AND Excel in the computer. He is mortal enemies with these two programs and forced me to go to the library and do my homework because he wouldn't install it. He thinks that WordPerfect is just fine and that "teachers have to understand it." Umn.. no, they fail you if you don't submit your work in the format required.

Am sure the list will get bigger as I think of more things that have not gotten done around the house.



In other news, Ducky would.not.sleep last night. I'm sure that he caught wind of Diana's sleepless teething night and decided that it was high time he did that as well. He was screaming horribly and was so tired and sleepy but just couldn't stop crying. I could see why some people shake their babies, because it was so bad that all I wanted was for him to stop crying. If I'd been told at that point that shaking him would've made him stop, I would've done it too. The desperation, sadness, tiredness, all combined with the fact that now am all alone with the kidlets kinda got to me. Thankfully the most harmful thing I did to him was give him Tylenol but even that didn't work. He finally fell asleep exhausted around 5:30am. Just in time for the alarm to ring.

Mr. Sourpatch is joining the army. It came on just as suddenly for me as it's for you. He leaves on Tuesday for Basic Training and from there will go straight to his class. He won't graduate there until sometime in Jan or Feb. So I will be a single mom until then.....



It sucks. I made a pro and con list of his going and the only things in the pro list are: less laundry and not as much cooking.