jank

November 20, 2008

I get it, I get it

Since we started looking at the new house we've been told over and over by almost everyone that a pool is a huge expense. Since this house is a forclosure, we've considered ourselves very very lucky to have it in such great condition. It's clean, not destroyed, has many upgrades, a good location and is, aside from it's pink carpet, perfect. We have kept our minds open to the fact that the pool might be a bit of a problem. Especially since people tell us that all.the.time. Well, yesterday I had a pool guy come out and tell us just how bad it is. It's uhhh...bad. The guy said that he'd worked on the pool years ago and it was poorly cared for. There's a big ol crack which will cost us somewhere around 12k to fix. Woops. So it looks like we'll have a gaping hole in the yard for now and fix it when we can. Either that or we'll open a skateboard park in our back yard and call it a bowl. I'm fine with it either way.

Otherwise, we're doing very well with our house thing. We've signed a billion papers and are going to closing on 12/9, barring any problems.

Posted by krystal at 5:51 AM | Comments (5)

November 6, 2008

Home is where the debt is...

Here's the house we're sposta get. I now officially love it enough that if something falls through either with the loan process or with the home inspection, I will be heartbroken. If everything goes according to schedule though, we'll be moving in by Dec 10...Max's 1st birthday! Maybe we'll take a few years off before planning anything else huge so that I can have a Christmas free of stress.

Speaking of Christmas...eek. It's not far from now and I'm afraid we're going to only be getting stuff for our kids because we've got all this expense of moving etc. So....we expect the same of our friends, let's just get together and have fun this Christmas rather than spending dough, please? Maybe if we get into the house in time we can have a new years party at our place!

ok, the girl is screaming for warm milk. toodles!

Posted by krystal at 6:35 AM | Comments (3)

October 5, 2008

day of rest

Today I will not do anything.

Posted by krystal at 7:55 AM | Comments (1)

September 17, 2008

we are the dinosaurs marching, marching

-Jake had a possum in his bed this past Sunday.

-Dan used a really new (to me) word at lunch today. It always makes me love him more when he does that.

-Max has 2 teeth and looks like a jack-o-lantern.

-we're having tessie's birthday party on a wednesday which is weird to me, but perfect for us.

-I have my first pampered chef party this saturday and I'm not having panic attacks yet.

-Jake has a "lady friend" and won't tell me her name. It's become our main topic of conversation. This is good since we really don't have much else to talk about except that he's reading Rant by Chuck palalalalunatic and I love that book too.

-Tess loves going to suzie's house so much that when I walk in the door she screams GO AWAY!! I secretly love it and little does she know that I'd really LOVE to go away sometimes.

-I just read my bottle of vodka and wondered why it says "potato vodka". I thought that's what vodka's made of. Add one more thing to my google list.

-I'm supposed to be dieting but the closest I've come to it is giving up my mcdonalds breakfasts and ditching dinner for beer.

-Lately I can't sleep much past 3:30am. I have so much to do, but then I wake up and I can't think of what to do.

-We're going to the river next weekend for Becky's birthday and I'm so stoked, but also very curious about how we'll set up rock band 2 in the yard and project it onto the house. Also I don't know if we should cook or just take a shload of kfc and already-fixed stuff.

-I love the word shload

-Max is up.

Posted by krystal at 5:46 PM | Comments (1)

August 29, 2008

If it were fun, it wouldn't be called labor (day)

The first week of school is OVER and I'm here to tell ya, it sucked. Hell, I only worked 4 days and it sucked. We've each been given more schools this year and there have been so many changes that it's just hard to keep up. We all busted our butts though and I can honestly say that I can now see the light at the end of the tunnel. I'm so tired. This three day weekend is so needed.

Max is feeling only a little better and I've got this infernal ringing in my ears. I wonder if his antibiotics aren't working. I also have to admit that at my age everytime something goes wrong I think "is this death?" So like, I hear this ringing in my ears or I have a bad headache and I think "hmm, I wonder if I'm having a heart attack?". I guess this is what happens with old age? I just know that I'm not dead yet and I don't plan on going yet, but I do wonder about these 40's. They're interesting, that's for sure.

We're leaving tomorrow morning for the river for a few days. My main goals are to a. take some good pictures with my camera and b. read my book oh and of course, c. take a nap. I love naps at the river because I feel like I'm slipping away while the rest of the world is so active around me. It's like I'm cheating on the world and getting away with it. Speaking of naps, ms. Tessie just woke up from a nap after her 2nd day at Suzie's house. She's soooo crabby. I just hope she's being good because Suzie's not sending me bad reports and that's just unusual.

Monday at some point we're expecting grandpa and great grandpa O'Brien. This is sort of exciting because the kids get to meet more family. Then grammy comes out at the end of the week for a jaunt. She's a better woman than I am for making such a long flight for a few days but we'll be very happy to see her (bring my sister-in-law please, I haven't gotten to play much rock band since she left).

Oh, so yesterday I was working at one of my more special schools and the teacher was telling the kids about jamestown and other historical crap and this one kid goes "I know about pocahontas...her dad was chief pakistan!" I held in a giggle but I'm sure it gave me gas.

Posted by krystal at 5:31 PM | Comments (2)

August 2, 2008

jank

Just when I thought I could not be more boring, I have gone from not having time to blog to not having a thing to blog about.

Work has been the epitome of slammed. I'm working at an insane pace to get stuff ready and done before teachers come back and I'm thinking it's most likely not going to be done. I'm the sort of person who worries about stuff when it's not a real issue, but this is slapping me in the face daily because teachers, while they are supposed to be off during the summer, keep coming in to work and complaining that things aren't ready for them. REALLY? I HAD NO IDEA.
I still love this job more than any other job in the world but I think I could use a day or two off. Maybe in October.

This week we made a point to go swimming twice. I took the kids to the pool for the swim team pep rally and Tess had such a good time that she threw a mind numbing fit when it was time to go. I had Max to take care of too and Dan was working late so thankfully Trevor helped mme get her out of there before we were asked to leave. Last night we went again and stayed a longer time. Dan was there to help and it was a much better experience. It's just a shame that it's taken until August for us to get to the pool. Kendall makes the pool dues worth it since she's there everyday but we all love going. Maybe August will be the month my skin finally sees sunlight. (tan fat is thin fat)

Jake's working at Allmans. He's a bbq slinger. I think he likes it but he seems to pretty much hate anything that's not hanging out with friends having fun. Welcome to reality, sport. I think he's a good waiter though, he's bringing in good tips.

Tess is almost done potty training. She sleeps in undies, wears undies all day and everything's cool except for her pooh issues. She walks around on her tippy toes screaming in agony until she just can't hold it in anymore. Most anyone who reads this blog has already been around during this fiasco so it's not news, but man oh man it's SO UNFUN. Entire days worth of plans are made and broken depending on this childs bowels. Who wants to go to a pool or restaurant anywhere around other people when Tess's bowels might explode and wreck everyone's fun time? We're resorting to laxatives and googling as many tips as we can find about this before taking her to a dr. Hopefully in a few years we'll look back on this as her dark period.

Max is creeping up on 8 months old and has already learned to crawl and pull himself up on stuff. He's insanely cute and mostly good, with a touch of crab. I think he takes after me, dan thinks he takes after him. We both just wish he'd sleep longer in the mornings.

welp, he's awake (thanks to tess blowing dan's lifeguard whistle) so i have to go.
peace.

Posted by krystal at 12:58 PM | Comments (1)

June 22, 2008

Languishing in the Day

I have just 20 minutes to write this because at 12:30 mom will be here to pick up Kendall and me for the dinner theater. We're going to see Grease. I've been forwarned that there are sexual references and *gasp* curse words. I hope Kendall makes it out alive.
I'm really glad to be getting out today because for the past 2 days Max has been crying. He's either teething or got rabid. He's been drooling like a mofo and hasn't slept much since Thursday night. This means that Dan and I also haven't slept much. We're so fun to be around right now.

Last Sunday we had Max christened. He was perfectly beautiful. Our California family was there as well as nannie and papa and Terri and Kayla. The weather was great for our cookout afterwards at my folks' house. Tessie had such a fun time over the past week getting to know Brenna and I got to know my seestor-in-law which was very cool. We've got an almost world-famous rock band now so hopefully she'll be back so we can move farther than Chicago.

This past week my 10 hour workdays started. I was so wiped out from the partying/visiting/christening/rocking/going out at 9pm with Stacy to throw darts-ing and all of the rest of the things we've done, that I purposely planned a weekend without events except for the dinner theater. My plan would have worked, too, if it hadn't been for that pesky baby. I hope he gets over it soon.

Next weekend we're to Old Town Alexandria to hang out with Stacy n crew again. We're going to stay at a HOTEL and then on Saturday we're going to the crime and punishment museum. Booyah! I'm so stoked about that. Bonnie and Clyde's car is there!!!!!!!1111 The only thing that would make it more perfecter is if mom and dad took the babies for us. Oh well...we'll line them up for another day. This is our minimized version of a vacation since I used all of my vacation time on maternity leave. This is way fancier than the year after Tess was born when our vacation was a trip to the Ramada Inn a mile away because our water pipes broke. See why we're stoked?

Check me out. I still have 9 minutes to get ready for the theeeeahhtahhh. dahling.

Posted by krystal at 12:31 PM | Comments (1)

April 29, 2008

pway with me fowwest

I'm currently studying. Scratch that, cramming for my next MCSA test. I'm going to take it Thursday and I'm not yet done covering the material. That does not mean that I won't pass, because as a rule, I don't fail these damned things. It just means that there is a better chance I could fail. And if I fail, I'll take it again. I'm determined to make more money and get my cleaning people back.

Posted by krystal at 7:27 AM | Comments (4)

April 6, 2008

Sunday, Bloody(mary) Sunday.

It started at 12:30. That is when I decided I'd studied enough to start drinking. I hadn't had a bloody mary since back when we had non-drinking supper club at the mormons' house and I decided to start predrinking (at 11 that day). It had been so long that Dan forgot how to make my drink. I sighed heavily as I reminded him how I like them. He's in the kitchen now fixing my 3rd one and I believe he's gotten the hang of it now! Delish.

We've had a really nice weekend. I decided Friday that I will take my MCP exam on Wednesday. I scheduled it and paid for it in advance so there's no backing down now. I feel 80% prepared but I'll spend the next 2 days studying in my every spare moment because once I get my MCSA (2 more tests after this one), I will get a nice big fat raise and without that raise we can't afford my beloved cleaning ladies. So I have goals. I have inspiration and I have vodka. What more can a girl need? I fret endlessly when facing a test so I'm sure my bowels will be all aquiver for the next few days and I'll probably be mean to people around me. Sorry in advance. I just don't fail well...who does, right? At the end of this rainbow is girls night out. I can.not.wait. I really really really love this night once a year. We've planned it well too, there are no last minute worries about filling the HUMMER LIMO and I've even bought my beer for the road already. Woohoo! It's gonna be so fun. While we're out, the guys will be playing at my house with whichever kids of mine are still around. I believe Dan will just have Tess and Max and Kendall, as Jake and Trevor are leaving for Bugs Island for their yearly guys fishing trip. Dan will have his hands full and that'll keep him sober enough to be my DD at the end of the night.

***

At this very moment it'd be hard to say who is being the baddest kid in the house. I'd vote for Tess and I'm sure Dan would vote for Jake. Let me make my case though. Just this week she's filled the toilet with beanie babies, destroyed her room within 10 minutes of Kendall cleaning it, emptied the salt and pepper shakers allover the living room floor, used the word "boogers" at least 100 times, woken up during the night 5 out of 7 days, screamed violently everytime she poops and for the 2 hours prior to pooping (she has poop issues like her mom i guess?) and is just an all around TURD. As for Jake...well, he smokes. What's one more thing to add to the "why jake's a shitwad" list. At least he's friendly and well behaved these days.

***
Max turns 4 months old this week. He's growing up way way way too fast. He laughs all the time and he rolls over now. I need to update his baby book which has been severely neglected so I guess this is a good place to write his milestones so I can go back and see what I've forgotten. He sleeps around 6-7 hours straight and is a really really good boy. He reminds me a lot of Trevor as a baby because he is very cuddly and easy to hold, but his personality is a lot like Jake's was when he was a baby. I can't wait to see how he turns out.

***

Diet-wise I'm doing ok. I've been trying my damndest to make healthy wise choices. I have tons of weight to shed still but I'm viewing this as a lifelong project. I have not *NOT* NOTnotnot exercised at all. I suck there.

***

Oh yea...right now, the joy of my life is that the writers strike is over and our shows are starting to come back on. I can't wait to finally see 24, Grey's Anatomy, Bones and House though...where the hell are they? We're also netflixing The Wire...starting with season 1. Love it.

I think that's it for now.

peas.

Posted by krystal at 3:22 PM | Comments (1)

February 14, 2008

list

Good things:
- survivor and big brother. need I say more?
- This weekend we're going out. Like..out out. Mom and dad are watching the babies so Dan and I can do a meal and a movie or whatever on earth we choose to do and then we can sleep one entire night without waking up for babies.
- Work rocks. I love my job. I do need to start working on certifications but that'll happen. Right now I'm just happy to be back.
- The kids are all healthy. Dan and I are doing a tango around the symptoms and I'm sure we can avoid it. At least I can. Dan's a boy.
- It's valentines day and while it's a shitty holiday, dan took care of it last week and avoided my mood swings.
- I'm about 3 hours shy of being caught up on soaps.

Great things:
ha. you know me better than that.

Shitty things:
- we're poor and I'm suffering from end-of-winter wanderlust. I want to go on a trip. Even just a little one.
- my diet isn't great. I don't think I gained anything this week but I do need to be diligent and get back on track. I am not going to fall apart.
- Tess may have actually hit the terrible two's for real. She's into EVERYTHING and her attitude is a bit uh, shitty. I'm hoping it's a phase that ends soon.
- Max still isnt' sleeping through the night. He's cute 'n stuff but he needs to sleep.

Posted by krystal at 6:19 PM | Comments (0)

February 9, 2008

holy vomit, batman

I went back to work Monday and it's been fabulous. I have so much ahead of me with our schools converting to Windows from Novell. I'm really busy and then I get home and the kids are there needing dinner and attention and I don't mind giving it to them. It'd be awesome if Max slept longer but we're making it.

This week was Tessie's turn to be sick. I went into panic mode because I finally went back to work and now there's no sick leave and I can't stay home with her yet. Fortunately for us Dan's job is awesome and they let him work from home to take care of her. This worked very well because I don't do well with puke and he's a man of patience with iron guts. She's better now aside from having a bad case of the back door trots and some croup.

Right now I'm sitting here in my pajamas and not feeling one bit sad about not having anything to do this weekend. The house isn't too messy and I'm cooking a pork tenderloin that's been marinated in jim beam, soy sauce, garlic and brown sugar. My parents gave us half of a pig for Christmas so if any of you have pork chop, ribs or sausage recipes that you love, please send them to me!

Dieting was a bust this week. I blame my back-to-workness and maybe some PMS for the 1.2 lb gain but I'm not discouraged. I just need to find time to work the gym back into my schedule.

Also, girls night out is April 12. If anyone who is not on fredtalk wants to go and reads this, the cost is $45. We have a limo with a stripper pole and the funnest girls in town. The only stipulation is being female and paying in advance. Hurry because there is limited seating!

Posted by krystal at 2:48 PM | Comments (1)

January 26, 2008

layers

I got a haircut this week and now I feel like I took a fast train back to '85. It's my fault. I went to my dr's appointment Tuesday just to be told that they told one of my kids that the appointment was cancelled. (jake...who else). So I drove on over to the haircuttery and told the girl "I've been trying to curl my hair and it falls out, will you just give me some layers and keep the length". This girl was so nice. We hit it off right away and she chopped chopped chopped while we chatted and since I can't wear glasses when I get my haircut I had no idea that she was giving me the haircut perfect for slut wings...crooked ones. I'm not sure what the hell is up with this haircut. After 4 days of fiddling with it, and anyone who knows me knows that I don't give much time to my hair, it still does NOTHING but look like a busted bail of hay. Maybe I'll just pretend I mean to have hair that looks like this. Maybe I'll get paid later this week and go somewhere else and see if it's fixable. Most likely I'll just do the same thing I do with all other haircuts and ignore it til 6 months goes by and it's time for another haircut.

We have an entire weekend with nothing to do and no money to do it with. I know there will come a day when that's great news but right now it's just more of the same thing I've been doing all week. My brain aches for stimulation and my body aches for something that isn't fat free. I'm a big fat whiney baby and I want to go out somewhere other than to the grocery store or to pick up Jake's lame ungrateful ass from work.

Let me see, there's got to be something good to type about. Here goes... a list.

1. I saw Kendall practicing for Annie. She's playing Tessie, one of the orphans. It looks fabulous and I can't wait to see the real play.

2. Max slept almost 5 hours one night this week before waking up to eat. If I can get him to do this nightly I'll be less of a bitchy zombie. Eeeh, at least I'll be less of a zombie.

3. Tess just brought me the nail clippers and asked me to clip her nails. She's on the ball even when I let things go.

4. Trevor has been an angel. Twice this week he watched max and tessie so I could go pick up Kendall from play practice.

Posted by krystal at 1:37 PM | Comments (3)

January 17, 2008

I confess

I have started watching soap operas again. I watch Y&R and ATWT and sometimes I watch GL. I even added some to my tivo. Haus frau = me. Instead of bonbons I eat sugar free jello. I'm back on weight watchers and going strong. I lost 2.6 lbs the first week and now I have a mere 50some lbs to go. ha. I'll get there, don't you worry. I haven't started back at the gym yet. My 6 week checkup is on the 22nd so uh, my time is counting down. I have 2 weeks left of maternity leave and I'm hoping that by then I can fit into my old clothes. If not I'll be living in the same pair of black pants that fit me no matter how fat I am.

Saturday is my pampered chef party. Just when I thought I'd gotten everything I could possibly want from them, I've added a lot to my wish list and I would have added more but I'm trying to get back on a financial diet as well. I hope I sell enough stuff that I don't have to pay for most of what I get. (ps thanks for your order grammy!!). As usual this party will not be typical. Aaron's bringing Rock Band so that he and Dan can play down in the basement with the kids. I'm making some turkey chili and some jerk chicken nachos for snacks. I'm trying to keep things low in points for this party but I'm sure I'll have a few naughty things there for those skinny people who are not on a starvation diet.
Sunday is supper club up at Sarah's house. I'm stoked about that night because not only do we get to hang out with friends and eat great food, but we also get to leave Tessie and Max at mom's house overnight. It'll be our first night without him. I've not wanted to leave him with mom because he's still not a great sleeper but she says she can handle it. I know she can. This baby is not for the weak of heart though. He demands attention pretty much anytime he's awake. I spend the majority of my days holding him. I don't mind. I love holding him and have found that I can do laundry, prepare meals and change the sheets on the bed all with Max tucked in one arm. He allows that, but he does not allow me to put him down. I won't call him a brat yet, but I can't promise I won't use that word in the near future.

Speaking of brats...Jake got suspended for 3 days for cursing a kid and threatening to kick his ass. I'm not sure of the details because I'm firmly planted in the "Jake's on his own" camp. I drug tested him (he's clean) and then I stuck him in the PASS program in Stafford and he got to spend his suspension days there doing school work, group therapy and community service. He hates it. I win.

We still don't have our car back from the shop...I hope we'll get it next week.

Posted by krystal at 1:10 PM | Comments (3)

December 27, 2007

Plenty

I wish I could gush about my Christmas and leave it at that but that's just not how I roll.
We have our new baby and our health and more good stuff of the physical variety than anyone could ask for. Dan gave me a journey diamond necklace w/ a diamond for each family member and a big honkin' external hard drive that just makes me tingle. Even the kids got gifts for us and Jake used his own money and bought gifts for his siblings on his own. I didnt even hint that he should. Christmas morning was splendid. Everyone got lots of stuff and nobody fought on the way to my folks house. That, on its own, was a huge gift. Most of the time we can't go anywhere all together without all hell breaking loose.

The day at mom and dad's was perfect. We all ate tons and got more stuff. Dad said that we're also getting 1/2 of a pig. This is great news for my freezer. We're gonna be loaded w/ sausage and pork chops and ribs. hoorah! My dad had been searching his mind for something that he could give Dan that they could do together and finally decided on gun stuff so they can shoot targets in the back yard. I fear a new militia is in the making. I just hope this practice means they'll each be better shots than they currently are.

Everything was wonderful until time to go home. Jake and Trevor got into a fight over who was sitting in the backestest back seat. It moved on to Jake saying "LET ME OUT OF THIS CAR" and then ended with us picking him up as he ran down the road being chased by a very angry and very tiny dog. I have to say, had it not been for that tiny dog chasing him, I'd find nothing at all funny about the entire scene.
Let's add to all of this the fact that Tess has the same cough/crud that Jake had last week and Dan's had for like 2 months now. She wasn't in a good mood for most of Christmas and clung to Dan like his touch was keeping her alive. She did enjoy opening gifts and she loved all of the food and parties but she felt so bad. It seems like finally today she's better. Her cough is better and the baby is now snotty. I pray he doesn't end up with her cold since he's so tiny. I keep hearing about babies getting RSV and I find myself staring at him constantly making sure he's not sick.

I have been eating way too much and it's not good for the fat I haven't lost. I'm going to get serious about this diet thing as of uh, right now. (I would have said *today* but I just ate 2 pieces of pizza). I can't go to the gym for 4 more weeks but I'm gonna. I am.

It was a good holiday. I wish I could stop thinking "it would have been great if ..." insert; jake wasn't such a gigantic jerk, Jake didn't crash our car, Tess wasn't sick, I wasn't so tired, I had clothes that fit, ...blablahblahblah". I just wonder why it's so hard for me to accept that families and life are just not perfect. We try to do the best we can and we love without reservation but there's nothing to stop bad things from sneaking in. It happens to everyone and it is not the end of the world. Yea right. I'll be doing this again next year.

Posted by krystal at 3:01 PM | Comments (2)

December 21, 2007

Christmas eve eve eve eve

Merry Christmas!

It's weird...we've gotten everything ready for Christmas and it's not here yet.

Today Max had another checkup with his pediatrician and he's fine. His weight is normal, his color is great and he's got the prettiest eyes ever...that's what the doc says. I agree. Now we just have to go back at 1 month and start teaching him to hate the dr's office. It's nice to have Dan home on Fridays to go to these appointments with me.

I have to admit, while I haven't had the baby blues, per se, I've lost my energy and desire to see people, answer the phone, shower and socialize. This isn't like me and I'm sure part of it is due to the fact that percocets ran out before pain ended. It's also due to lack of sleep and I'll self diagnose and say that I'm fine and this is all normal. If anyone wants to donate percs though I'll be eternally grateful. :)

When Grammy O'Brien was here she got me a gift card for starbucks and even gave me coupons to treat someone else when I get my coffee so I'm hoping that sometime today I'll get out of the house and practice the art of paying it forward. Thanks grammy! That was so nice of you.

I guess I've run out interesting things to say for now except that today at the dr's office when the receptionist asked Tessie if she's ready for Santa, Tess replied with "i want a hippopotmedicine for christmas!" causing the ladies behind the counter to start singing to her. It was beautiful.

Posted by krystal at 12:19 PM | Comments (2)

December 7, 2007

mi oh mi oh my oh

Just when we'd grown tired of home cooked meals, delivery pizza and chinese food, Terri and I discovered that we could indeed get the folks from Mi Pueblo to deliver to my house. Last night was our Thursday night date night which has happened less frequently during this season of Survivor. We had mexican food delivered. It was the best thing since sliced bread. There's always leftover pizza and leftover chinese food. Not the case with Mexican food. That stuff was gone. As far as Survivor goes, I see that company leaves faster when ordering double beans, no rice. Just sayin'.

Today I'm getting a pedicure and my eyebrows waxed. You may not realize it, but this is an important part of having a baby. It won't matter nearly as much that I'm like 100 lbs overweight as long as I don't have straggly eyebrows and crusty feet, I know it's demented and I'm at the point of making my entire family want to move to Iceland or something, but hopefully within a few weeks I'll be back to a semi-normal level of insanity and we'll just call it "quirkiness". For now, they all hide from me lest my bizarre requests start to involve them. (on that note, Jake's alarm just went off...I can start bothering him early today!)

I love woot-off's even when I don't have any money. It's happening right here, right now. Every single bit of my Christmas shopping is done and I'm still giddy wondering what crap I can get on the innernets today. Hooray!

Posted by krystal at 6:02 AM | Comments (2)

November 26, 2007

Time OUT sucka!

Tess is in the corner for the 2nd time in 2 days. I'm elated because both times it was Dan who put her there. She's very vocal so there's just no reason why she needs to hit people to get her way. Kendall bought herself a new pair of shoes today and Tess was infuriated when Kendall dared to wear her own shoes. Tess got new shoes too, but that doesn't matter. She's pulling 2-4 minutes in the brig, then she'll be free. This is too fun. Dan just said "are you going to be good now?" Her reply? "no".

I went to the regular dr. today because my family infected me (lovingly) with their crud. Thankfully she gave me an antibiotic for my ear infection so hopefully I can shake this before the 10th. Dan's still sick from 2 weeks ago and his Dr. said it was viral, so he suffers on. I'm planning on being healthy by Friday. Mind over matter.

Four more days of work. If I'm not healthier by tomorrow it'll be 3 days of work and 1 sick day. Either way, the countdown is on.

Posted by krystal at 7:14 PM | Comments (1)

November 5, 2007

nagzilla is nesting

This weekend Dan didn't let me stress him out. I woke up Saturday with 100 things on my mind to get accomplished. When I say "get accomplished" I mean "have Dan do". He stayed in bed til after 1pm. This means that only a small portion of my stuff got done and my attitude SUCKED because not only did he not do the stuff on my list, but he also didn't help with Tess like he usually does. Sunday we got stuff done and I got better but my brain is still swimming with lists.

I feel like I know how frustrating it is to be old or disabled because I want so much stuff done but due to my "condition" I can't get anything done. My condition also includes taking Tess along with me. I wanted some socks so I took her to Kohls with me and by gosh I got socks, and a my little pony just like bella's and this only took about an hour. I had to corral Tess through the store and convince her to put back everything she picked up. I did like it though because she kept saying "mama we're SHOPPIN!!" which made everything ok. I just suck at going slow and I suck at being patient and I suck at not having everything done when I want it done. I want my baby's room done and I want those fake pumpkins back up in the attic. I want my Christmas shopping done so I can get everything wrapped before baby time. I'm neurotic and mean to everyone I love, but I can't stop it.

We're still middle-name-less for our baby. We have 5 more weeks though so it's ok.

peas.

Posted by krystal at 2:50 PM | Comments (2)

October 15, 2007

Where'd all this come from?

I just realized that I'm sitting here on my bed alone and that not one child has asked for anything in at least 5 minutes. Trevor did ask to use the phone, but that was 6 minutes ago. Twitter just let me know that Dan's on the way home from work. I have time to jot, so jot I will.

The weekend was good/busy/tireing. Friday I had lunch w/ Dan at bangkok blvd and then dinner at Hard Times w/ some fugs. I went out without Dan and without kidlets. It was fun, but I felt as though I'd left part of me at home, mostly because I had.
Saturday was nonstop movement. I took Jake to work, grocery shopped, cooked for supper club, took the kids to the pumpkin patch (again without Dan because he hadta stay home and work...wah) and then home to finish cooking, get Jake from work and then go to supper club. Supper club, by the way, was stupendous. We had fondue night at Terri's. It was my first time seeing Terri's new place...very very nice. If they made those townhouses in 5 or 6 bedroom varieties I'd be tempted to move. We got home at 9something all stuffed full of fondue goodness and zonked out in front of the telly. It was the perfect busy day.

Sunday was much more low-key. I did take a shower, but that's about it.

Our families seem to be running through a spell of serious illnesses. Our niece, Brenna, is sick and in the hospital and my dad found out today that he's got something wrong with his heart and has to have a catheterization next week. As if that weren't enough, he has to also have an MRI on his knee. Mom's thyroid is acting up and the tests they ran show some irregular results. It stinks to be so far from the O'Brien clan when things aren't going well.

Let's think about something good.

Kendall made the step team at school. You can easily recognize her...she's the white one. If the amount of stomping around the house you do is in direct correlation with your talent and ability as a stepper, she should do just great.
Trevor is in the drama club and doesn't seem too put out by the fact that he now shares a phone with Jake again.
Jake's been an angel...eerily so. He cleaned the kitchen last week on a night where he didn't even eat dinner at home. He hasn't complained about uh, anything. He hasn't asked to drive and he hasn't mentioned the name "megan". It won't last most likely but it's been cool for these few days.
Tess is 2 and a brat. We wouldn't have her any other way though. I love that she argues with me about things. It makes telling her "no" all the more fun. She's pretty much got Dan snowed but the rest of us are on to her. I keep telling him that he's doing her no favors by letting her do anything she wants, and he just smiles and does it anyway. There's balance though...and he has to leave her with us sometimes. We'll keep her straight.

Posted by krystal at 5:14 PM | Comments (0)

September 25, 2007

right round baby right round

The kids are running Tess around the house in her stroller. The dog is running behind them barking. Tess is squealing at the top of her lungs. I just talked to my folks for a good long while on the phone (sorry cell minutes but I couldn't find the land line). It's pretty normal here tonight. I just can't seem to get comfy though. I think it's because I know that I'm sitting on my butt when I should be figuring out where I stored the griddle. We're having pancakes and bacon for dinner but I can't find the griddle which is just enough to make me say "oh well, dinner is cancelled. suck it up". Unfortunately nobody here is happy with that answer. Nobody wants to hear that we won't be eating pancakes except the person who is to cook the effing pancakes. I'm just not even hungry. What I could use is an end to the room spins and flashy lights. What I could use is a nap. Oh, but good news...the doc's office called and said I passed my glucose test. Hoorah. Now...why.the.hell.can't.i.see?

We've been blissfully watching our season premiers this week. I remember a few years ago before I ever watched tv. I used to spend my time reading or being a mom or being social or something, but now I wait like a crack addict for my next hit. I have spent my day happier about the return of House and Bones than about the fact that Tess turns 2 tomorrow (and I haven't made a cake or anything since it's on a Wednesday and I suck...who has time to make a cake in the middle of the week? I have static ips to put on 20some workstationsin 4 locations). I'm stressedthehellout. For what reason? To what end? It's self-inflicted stress. I KNOW.
I'll make the cake tomorrow. It's not too late.

ok. off to make pancakes.

Posted by krystal at 5:46 PM | Comments (2)

August 29, 2007

exhaustion

This past month has been the most insane time for me. I've worked my ass off at work just to come home and do more of the same. I've all but given up on keeping a clean house but try very hard to keep track of my keys and work radio. It's rare that I cook dinner 3 days in a row and I have turned into one of those people who spends the entire weekend making up for not doing laundry during the week. I used to be able to sleep less and do more but that was probably when I had a job where I surfed the web a lot and didn't actually walk. I'm always in search of a bright side and I can generally find one when I get home and listen to my kids talk my ears off about very important things. Kendall senses that I'm very tired and seems to hang around me a lot more than she used to. I like it a lot. She's a good person to be around because she's upbeat and kind. I give everything I have to make sure she knows I appreciate her but deep inside I worry that she'll think I'm not attentive enough or that I'm boring because I'm tired. Trevor has a guitar now and is not very good at helping around the house but he's WAY good at making Tess squeal. As much as he tries to be her buddy, she says NO and pushes him away, only to continue the game forever. She loves being coy. I'm unable to find a pair of work shoes that look cute (most important) and feel good. I sucker myself into thinking that my feet won't hurt and wear the cute brown shoes that hurt the balls of my feet by the end of the day or the black ones that rub a blister on my pinky toe and then I feel like a criple by the end of the day. Oh well...I have stylish cripple shoes.

While I'm having my piss and moan-fest I might as well mention that there's just not enough to watch on tv. We watch our regular summer shows but by the weekend when there's not much to do these days, we're all out of shows and I can't figure out what to do. I could read but I'm incapable of picking up a book right now. wahwahwahwah. I want my grey's anatomy and survivor and house and bones and 24.

Think happy thoughts think happy thoughts think happy thoughts.

Last night I went with 11 ladies to Melting Pot for "Ladie's Night". The night was very enjoyable and delicious but our server was WAY past normal slow and the entire event lasted close to 4 hours. YES...4 HOURS OF EATING. I'm not bitching about it though because it was wonderful. I just want to note that after 4 hours even a fat padded butt gets numb.

We also had supper club this past weekend. The theme was cooking with wine and manohman it was wonderful.

***
I have so much more mean shit overflowing in my head now so I'll wrap up. I don't know that this much mean is normal or healthy...I'm going to just vote that it is healthy and continue on my non-merry way.

Posted by krystal at 5:36 PM | Comments (2)

July 25, 2007

green green, is green they say

Tess just colored the toilet lid w/ a green marker. It's beautiful. I need to buy stock in Mr. Clean magic erasers because it's really the only thing that removes most of the damage the love child does around this place.

I've been working SO hard lately that my head feels full and my body aches. It's not BAD, it's just hard work. I come home so tired every day and then I dream about computers at night. Well, the combination of Harry Potter and computers. I finished the book yesterday so I'm still rolling things around in my head and trying to solve things...only see, I have computers in my dream. If Harry had computers he'd have been way better off. "hermione...google he-who-must-notblhablahblah and see where he's been". It'd be the most wicked smart way to do things.

I'm suffering from wanderlust again. I think what we need to do is plan a cruise for sometime next year. I need to see a beach soon, and not while I'm knocked up. I just needta figure out how to do one of those things where you make a deposit and pay on it or something. yea. that's the ticket.

Posted by krystal at 5:50 PM | Comments (2)

June 19, 2007

Life in a nutsack

Over the past few weeks I have been forced to live outside of the box. It's not easy for me. I don't care for change, especially changes to my fundamental beliefs and rules. Jake broke our rules for the umpteenth time in a short period and I punished him saying "you will be on restriction for June. All of June. If you can not live by the rules of this house, you have the option of living with your father". To my dismay, he chose to live with his father. It would be a huge lie to say that I was not devastated. I gulped down the information, called his father and told him to pack his stuff. Even a week later I'm still trying to figure out if I'm hurt that he'd choose to not live here, or more-so that I'm disappointed that he'd choose to live with his dad, rather than do the right thing and be a good person by following the rules...basic simple rules. Don't leave the house without telling someone where you're going. Don't look at porn on my computers. Don't ride in cars with teenagers unless we've said it's ok. He went on vacation with us and will be coming over enough, but he lives with his dad now. To be brutally honest, life is so much more pleasant around here. I still believe that Jake will change his future by living with his dad. I think his influences will be "different" and I'll still worry myself to death over him, but I think, I hope, I pray, that living there will give him either some discipline or at least a wake-up. If he comes to visit sporting a mullet, I'm calling in child protective services.

So, vacation was fun. It rained a lot and I visited the pool 0 times. I did read the latest Chuck palalaughuuekekeanuek book called Rant. It was fantastic. Terri came down for the last few days and got to live through "game night" which may as well equal "fight club".

Now I'm back at work and the 10 hour days are a bit much to get used to. Luckily I've teamed up with a few guys at work who are really smart and we're working on stuff together. I love learning and I'm doing so much learning that my brain is overflowing into my dreams. I woke up this morning worrying about updating bios's and making new images. I really need a hobby.

Oh, speaking of hobby...I'm having another pampered chef party this weekend. If you haven't already burned out on it, come over at 6. We're having a battle of the sexes cook-off or something. Amy will have to splain it to us.

One last note. I'm in my 15th week of pregnancy now...we're officially in the 2nd trimester. I haven't been totally public about the fact that we're having another baby. Partially because I'm not very vocal about being pregnant because pregnant people are fucking annoying, but mostly because at my "ADVANCED MATERNAL AGE" there are risks. On July 2 we'll go in for amnio to make sure everything's ok. I feel fine though and we're happy. I just know I'll breathe much easier when we have test results.

Posted by krystal at 8:46 AM | Comments (6)

June 8, 2007

v-a-c-a-t-ion

In just 7 short hours I'll be on vacation. It's not like I'm horribly overworked but I'm crazy excited that we're going away, out of town, leaving the house. I can't wait to spend an entire week not giving a frog's fat ass if the kids pick up their clothes or if the dog chews up anything. Even better than that? We're going in my new car. Dan's honeywagon had become *my* honeywagon over the past month in order to save gas money on his long commute. I went into that arrangement kicking and screaming, all the while, not really caring except I had this screeching whine everytime I turned the steering wheel. Yesterday Dan took it to the mechanic who said something along the lines of blahblahblahblahathousandbucksblahblahblah. So we rigged it up and traded it in quickly. Dan gets to drive the black car, I get the white one. I told him it's a yin/yang thing. Evil/good. I might be evil but my white car will balance me.

On the down side...I have so so so much to do before we go. The house is a wreck, all of our clothes need to be packed still, and there's this huge long list of stuff I want, no, NEED, to have done before we leave. I need to add "get nails did" and "dye hairs" to that list.

Posted by krystal at 8:03 AM | Comments (5)

May 12, 2007

all the ps's in the world

I'm up and ready to move today because I have a busy day ahead of me. Busy busy busy. I've got to take Kendallpops to my neices birthday party this morning and then this afternoon is dad's 60'th birthday party. We're having pork bbq and a keg...wootywoo. This means that we have to run over and pick up the keg, get ice, get some balloons and all that jazz. Mom's got the pig parts done, but I have the cake and beer (the important stuff). I thought I was pre-ready last weekend because I'd bought and sent all cards and gifts for mothers day but as expected, I've forgotten things. I forgot that Jason turns 3 this coming week. I need to get him a gift today since I get to finally see him again. Also, grammy O'Brien...this year I did not let your son be in charge of getting your mother's day gift because he forgets...so I ordered your gift last Friday and uh...so much for great planning, I don't know if it'll be there in time. I'm uber stressed about it because I don't like anything to be late, but Dan said you expect it from him at this point...so...well, it's not his fault this time. It's LONDON's fault since that's where I ordered your gift from. I'm not even lying...you'll see. Besides, we love you all the time...so you have to forgive our tardiness (again).

Speaking of mother's day. I'm not going to church tomorrow. I don't want to and even though I feel bad because mama will not see me...she will see us today and um, I have more kids so I get to do what I want to, and what I *don't* want to do is go to church, so that's settled. Someone remind me of my bravery when it's time to tell mama this. k thx. Instead I'm going to watch Dream Girls and Casino Royale on dvd while the kids ask me to take them places and I say no.

I got pink crocs for mother's day.

Posted by krystal at 7:38 AM | Comments (4)

April 17, 2007

spongebob square pants ate my brain

Tess has been sick for 2 days now. She's got a high fever. She spiked at over 105 for 2 nights in a row now and it's really scary when something that small puts off that much heat. We took her to the doctors yesterday to have her ears re-checked since she'd had an ear infection last week and is still finishing her antibiotics but her baby ears are all clear. She's apparently got a virus. Virus pisses me off because it's so non-descript. I want to give my baby's fever a name, not "virus".

This past weekend Dan got stuck working 2 12 hour shifts again but it's paying off I think. He's getting lots of extra time off next week and we do love that. I just hate that last weekend he had to sleep through supper club.

Allow me to rave a bit about supper club. For the past 2 months we've had some of the most fantastic food I've ever eaten. We've become a pretty small but regular group and we all seem to "get it" when it comes to the way things should be done. This could be because of my hitler-esque set of "guidelines" at the beginning of the year, or it could be that lots of people just hate us and don't want to come deal with me. Either way, it's so awesome and now I can't stop thinking about eating new potatoes and baby peas in cream sauce and crab cakes and polenta and trifle. These folks know food....trust me.

Posted by krystal at 9:01 AM | Comments (3)

March 31, 2007

It's 5 o'clock on a saturday...

Only it's saturday morning, so I can't get all Billy-Joel-Bar-song- happy around here. I have, however, already gone out for my groceries. Ya see, I woke up thinking about supper club and what I'd fix. Nothing like waiting til the DAY OF and figgering this stuff out.

So I decided on this:
Bubba Gump Shrimp Company Forrest's Shrimper's Net-Catch

2 pounds medium shrimp, de-veined
2 red potatoes cooked and quartered
12 pieces carrots, cut into 6-inch strips
12 pieces celery, cut into 6-inch strips
4 lemon wedges
4 ounces melted butter
4 frozen corn cobbettes
2 tablespoons Cajun Seasoning
1 tablespoon minced garlic
Dash Liquid Smoke (optional)

Poaching Liquid
1 gallon water
1/4 cup Durkee’s Hot Sauce
4 bay Leaves
1 tablespoon Bubba Gump Brand Seafood Boil spice
1/4 cup beer

Combine all Poaching Liquid ingredients and then bring to a boil, then reduce to a medium simmer. Add Shrimp, vegetables, corn, potatoes, and lemon wedges and cook until shrimp is completely done. Remove from poaching liquid, strain and place in stainless steel bowl. Add butter, Cajun spice, garlic and Liquid Smoke and toss together.

Serve on large platter with extra lemon wedges.

I'm considering throwing in some sausages too to make it like a low country boil.

After dinner we're going to stop by Aaron's new pad for a bit. The mean mommies never seem to find enough time together but when we do...someone always falls down.

***
This past week seemed to be a mixture of "it can't end soon enough" and "why don't I have enough time?" How can this be? It could be that when I get home, I can't get a damn thing done because Tessie has had croup and the steroids make her a wee bit clingy. It could be because Leeroy is a pain in the butt even though he's "trained" now. It could be because I sit down with a beer and the tivo remote and don't do my laundry.

My dad sent some workers out to clean our yard this week. Oh Em Gee...it looks so nice. If we had a patio table we could actually cook out and stuff. Course, it'd be nicer if we had grass or a brick patio but still, it's looking really good out there. I'll take some pictures when I'm done with the other hundred things I need to do.

***

Here's a rundown on the kids...

Jake: Spring fever has him outside for as often as possible. His grades are better than I'd imagined with the exception of his Health grade which was terrible. I made him run laps. I think we're nearly past his rebellious phase.

Trevor: He's always helpful around the house because he's not allowed to leave the damn house. If he got something other than F's on his report card, he'd most likely be still inside, but in front of the computer, rather than parked at the table studying. It's a phase, right?

Kendall: Perfect. duh. She's proven to be quite the dog nazi since Leeroy got home. She takes him on long walks and makes him follow the rules. She's also constantly reminding us of all of the errors in our handling of him. It's adorable. Oh, and her grades? Perfect. Please...do not let it be a phase.

Tess: The child talks nonstop. It doesn't make a lot of sense but she talks. She clearly says "what's that?" "Here she is" (when asked, where's tessie?) , "hi doodoo" (to trevor) and "hi baby!" (to kendall). She can also do animal sounds for cats, dogs, elephants, monkeys, horses and butterflies (meow). Oh, and if you ask her ANYTHING....the answer is "nooooo". She's also learning to share, thanks to Gayleypoo and Bella.

Posted by krystal at 5:35 AM | Comments (2)

March 19, 2007

schmeekend schmukdate

Dan's new job sucks. He likes it well enough I suppose, but his hours are crap. He's sleeping through the weekends and when he's awake it's just so we can wait til the next time he goes back to sleep or til it's time for him to work again. Blah. I hope one day he can get a nermal schedule so our life can resume. I'm suffering from wanderlust and want to go away for a weekend but we can't go any effing where because dan's working all the time.

I made it to the gym Thursday and Saturday...yesterday I had enough pizza to make up for any good I might have done for my body. Today I'm gonna try and get back into it. I don't mind the gym so much since I've only done water aerobics stuff so far. That's fun...me and 15 other fat old women workin' up a tsunami in the 4 footer. I have to stop myself from giggling during class when I think about what the casual observer is thinking when he looks in. Be that what it may, my body was a little sore yesterday and I slept great.

I read the book Night this weekend. I know I should have been reading my book club book but Night is much smaller. Baby steps. Baby steps. By the way, Night's worth the read if you have a few hours.

I also spent a good deal of time adding songs to my Ipod. I tend to spend lots of time in my car w/ this new job so I've been wanting to get my favorite tunes added to it. Now there's the issue of getting names in my ipod to the songs I've stolen or been given at cd exchanges. They should just BE THERE.

Posted by krystal at 5:04 AM | Comments (3)

March 16, 2007

wootywoo

Thankfully the week is over.

My mom was always telling me "you're going to wish your life away"...but just like the kid who skips eating dinner to devour dessert, I just want to have the good parts of life and I rue the rest. So I am often forced to live by my own advice and "deal with it".

My week got better Wednesday when my boss came back to work. She's the most awesomeist boss ever and she brings calmness and "ok-ness" to the chaos that tends to happen at my job. I like order ...she brings it. That's just how we roll.

The rest of the week has been pretty ok. Wednesday I got to see Jessica, Manda, and Amy all in one day. I loved that. Thursday we went to the gym and then went to see our puppy. He's almost ready to come home. Believe me, he's missed. He's been a bit tougher than the trainer thought but he's making lots of progress. Tonight Jake is out at a friend's house, Dan's sleeping and the rest of us are preparing to chow down on some pizza. Two days of rest may not be restful but they're highly anticipated.

Posted by krystal at 5:07 PM | Comments (0)

March 11, 2007

do amish people observe daylight savings time?

I love the time change, don't get me wrong. It's just that THIS YEAR we my job became a pain in the ass because of it, Dan's coworker came in an hour late, making him late coming home this morning, and Tessie will most likely have her sleep a little screwed up because of it. Not to mention, I have about 300 digital clocks in this house that I have no idea how to change.

***

Today I'm taking Tessalitapitabread and going to church. I don't know why I bother since there's no nursery and I always end up leaving to sit in the nursery alone w/ my own kid. I could just as easily stay home. Of course, then I wouldn't be able to leave the baby with mama and daddy today so Dan and I can go to Deannas.

***

The house phone is somewhere buried in one of the boys rooms downstairs. Dan and I heard it ring faintly on Friday night and decided to just not have any phone calls this weekend. So it's still down there. If anyone's called, we've not even heard it. I kinda like that. Maybe I'm amish at heart.

Posted by krystal at 8:54 AM | Comments (0)

February 13, 2007

Because I can, that's why.

I got up at 2:30 when Dan left this morning. It's sposta snow and sleet and I was hoping for a nice day off w/ the kidlets but much to my chagrin, there's nothing going on. It's spitting sleet a little but that's not gonna cut it for me. I need some major weather action. I had a flashback to when I used to commute and went to walmart at 3am. That is always fun. I needed orange juice. Yea, and uhh, cottage cheese. andotherstufflikecookiesthatyoumusthavewhensnowedandsleetedinwith4kids.

So yesterday I started cleansing my colon. I'm a follower so since Terri and Scot are pooping regularly, I needed to poop regularly. I'm draggin' Dan along on the journey as well because he's a follower too. We need clean insides. So far I'm just HOPING, but soon I'm sure the cleansing will begin in full force, if you catch my drift. I'm gonna give up red meat for a while, too. That's the best I can conntribute towards my diet at this point. Until the weather warms up I'm stuck in comfort food mode. I'll get past it...just as soon as I see my fat body in spring clothes.

Right now the puppy is alternating between eating firewood and trying to eat Tessie's toys. We're considering taking him to puppy boot camp. It's pretty expensive but if we're gonna keept his little mutt, we might want him to stop destroying our shit, ya know? He's not horrible, but he is kind of obnoxious. Sort of like Jake. :)

Posted by krystal at 4:46 AM | Comments (5)

February 7, 2007

Grateful that Ryan Oneil is not my daddy.

Today was the bomb. The kids didn't have school and I had a 2 hour delay. A day of peace and quiet and "gettin' my nails did", was just what I needed. Since I work for the schools, if there's no school, there's not a whole lot to do...I just have to be there. That's ok, cuz I needed to spend my day paying bills, inviting folks to my pampered chef party and tying up loose ends.

Tess says more and more things now. She says "pizza" "Izzy" (which sounds a lot like pizza), and a large quantity of "nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo". Also if you say "ready ...set..." she says "go!".

I really need to get busy studying for my next MCSA test so if anyone wants to sit here and read me questions, say the word. My eyes go screwy reading all of this stuff.

This weekend is book club/candle party at Amy's house. I read the book right away so I hope I can remember enough about it to discuss it.

Posted by krystal at 3:54 PM | Comments (2)

January 25, 2007

Izear

It's important that Kessie fixed my blog...because I had something important to say.

The other day I was waited on by a guy at wawa named Izear. He was old and hunchbacked and sort of odd...and I wondered to myself as I read his name tag..."did his parents mean to name him Isaiah but they couldn't spell it?"

That's what I've wanted to blog for the past 2 weeks.

thanks so so so much Kessie and Dan. I won't ever touch those important files again!

Posted by krystal at 8:59 PM | Comments (3)

January 2, 2007

Juan more time

There comes a time when you have to stop making excuses for the fatness, the poorness and the laziness. Why not today? Yesterday was a holiday and the day before was New Years Eve, the one before that was new years eve eve. Today, all I could come up with was the burial of a dead president. So that does it. Today I hopped back on the scales and saw the huge amount of damage I've done to myself over the past few months (years) (since tess was born, actually. Though it could hardly be called baby fat anymore). Good times, all of it.

Time to diet, time to find new jobs and time to throw out more of our junk. If you hear my family shrieking in horror, you know why. You've been warned. They have not.

Posted by krystal at 8:17 AM | Comments (1)

December 1, 2006

Oh...so you wanted to comment? ok!

We're still working out some kinks w/ the change-over of the webhosting thingy...sorry bout the comment thing being b0rked. Luckily Dan fixed it this morning.

Last night was whine and wine with Peggy and then beer with Terri. My head has forgiven me even if my liver has not. Good times though.

Today I was "helping" put together the fake Christmas tree in the liberry because I like hanging out there. My cousin's daughter came in and I was telling her and a few other kids about how her dad and I went to school together. Then we got out the old yearbook from 1980 and I showed her all of us from back then. The kids giggled so much to see how we looked. Then I told her the story about how her dad and my brother got in trouble for jumping the fence at Loriella Park to play tennis back when they were teens. She was so tickled by that. While that was going on, one of the male teachers came in and was listening. He told me that I'm very lucky to have such deep roots around here. I think I might be one of the few people who realizes just how fortunate I am to be from here and to have stayed. I love having roots.

Posted by krystal at 10:16 AM | Comments (0)

October 6, 2006

Hocktober

As I type this, there are 3 kids in my classroom talking to me about how they used to just LOVE NSYNC but now they're just SO lame. They are supposed to be typing a report for History. Oh well. I love this job. The days seem to be so full and I'm always busy with stuff I love. The kids aren't bad, the work is awesome and everyday I get emails saying how great I am.

We've had a full month already and it's just October 6. I can't remember the last time I had a chance to just breathe. Dan's folks have been visiting and we've had birthdays and just all sorts of stuff. I need to clean my house. It's a pit. I need to get back to studying for my CNA. I'm going to have some head-clearing alone time this weekend while the kids are at their dad's house. Dan and Tess will just have to suffer through (watch cartoons) while I get my ducks in a row and while we watch the 40+ shows we have tivo'd in our room. I adore my tivo.

Jake brought home a gynormous ping pong table a few weeks ago and it really does take up most of our basement. I've been thinking that maybe we should capitalize on this by holding ping pong tournaments. If each person pays a $10 entry fee in hopes of winning half the pot and a trophy (which gets passed to the winner the following week) then we could afford groceries in NO time!

We made cookies using fondant this week with grammy O'Brien. They taste just as great as they look.

Posted by krystal at 10:56 AM | Comments (5)

September 27, 2006

Deep thoughts

I was reading "nick is cute!" on the bathroom wall here and it occurred to me that maybe bathroom stalls were the first blogs.

Posted by krystal at 8:24 AM | Comments (6)

August 13, 2006

What we did on summer vacation...part d00

Since we were able to open the windows yesterday and the kids have new jeans and shoes, it must be time to wrap up our summer vacation. All I can say is. THANK GOD. I'm exhausted.

In July Jake went to Fredcamp. This was his second year going so, being a veteran, he seemed to have an even better time than last year. I thought we'd have some trouble with him not wanting to leave his girlfriend, but that wasn't the case at all...really. Fred Camp is a camp where teens from rising highschool freshmen on up get together in fellowship and spend the week doing repairs to homes for poor, elderly or sick families in the area. I went out to the camp 3 times this summer. There's just something about teens doing GOOD things that chokes a girl up, much in the same way as watching your 6 year old sing a solo at the school play...you know that chokey-uppy feeling, right? I know that Jake's been a real pain in the butt and the last year has been such an insane growing experience for the entire family. But I'm still so proud of him and his desire to do well. You stick 80 teenagers in a room and watch em singing inspirational hippy songs and just try to keep a hard heart...I dare ya.

Two weeks after Jake got home from camp it was time to take Trevor and Kendall down to beautiful Goochland Va. (That's really the name of the town...I'm not even kidding) They spent the week at Westview on the James. Their camp is more fun, bible study stuff and crafts and singing and blahblahblah. They've been before too so there was no homesickness and as expected, we only got a letter from Kendall. Trev made some lame excuse about not being able to find a pen. They had a great time though and Jake got to be the semi-only child since Tess doesn't seem to demand much in the way of "a ride to the mall" etc.

Tess is standing and scooting along and says words that we interpret as "duuuuuude" and "crap". I'm sure that's not what she's really saying, but parents need to have fun somehow, right? She's ten months old now and until this past week had never had a doctor-worthy illness. She's got croup now and it's been heartbreaking for us because we hate to watch her coughing and fighting for breath. She handles it way better than we do. The steroids the docs gave her seem to work one day and then not the next. I'm sure she'll be fine, but I don't like that she sounds like darth baby. Dan's been so good this whole time. I think we'd started to take for granted just how easy our baby is, but this week he got the crash course in Sick Kid 101. He's still here...he gets an A++

Less than 5 days after coming back from camp, Kendall took off to Puerto Rico to visit Stacy and her family. We'd talked about visiting since they moved and this year we sent our proxy. As I said before, Kendall cried at the airport when she had to leave. It's a big deal, sending your 10 year old to another land all alone. But she got there and they called all excited. Stacy was just as happy as the kids were and my baby girl just seemed to grow up so much. They picked avacados and bananas and she went to like 4 different beautiful beaches searching for sea glass and shells. Kendall called everyday and only once did she get homesick. I was a mess without her. I just kept telling her that once her little butt got home, she'd never be allowed to leave me again. Stacy developed her film before she left and sent Kendall home with tons of pictures of the kids hugging and just loving each other. It was like they were never apart. I wasn't surprised to hear that they all had a huge cry-fest at the airport when it hit the kids that they wouldn't likely see each other for a long time. As parents we try to do so much to make our kids happy, but losing a friend to distance is just inevitable and a really hard pill to swallow. I was reminded of how painful it was to see them move away. The day after Kendall got back, as I looked through her pictures, I cried all over again, the same throat-aching cry that I cried when they moved away.

I've had more interviews and more jobs-not-gained than I care to mention. Maybe the interviewers could look into my soul and see that I just don't want to leave my family? I don't know what my problem is, but I have finally come to the conclusion that it's time to just suck it up, babysit kids from home and try really hard to stay sane. I love the idea of staying home, but the budget thing is hard to get used to. I used to be able to just buy things as I want them. Now we don't eat out, we don't buy things that we don't need and we pay attention to lights left on, long showers and other things that might make us even more strapped than we already are. For now these are small sacrifices, but things are really tight. I'm a little concerned about how Christmas is going to turn out and stuff like that...but eh, it's minor...we'll figure it out. We always do.

So Autumn is coming and there are some bumpy times ahead for a lot of our friends...I know that we'll all just stick close and take care of each other and because of that, we'll have happiness and good stuff to hang on to.

/generalfoodsinternationalcoffeesappycommercial

Posted by krystal at 9:43 AM | Comments (2)

May 25, 2006

interview this.

By 2something today I will have had 4 interviews in 3 days. I am so exhausted from smiling, wearing pantyhose and not cussing. My head asplodes.

If I get a job from these interviews, that's swell. If not? I'll just keep playing with Tessie all day. I do love the options.

Posted by krystal at 10:28 AM | Comments (6)

May 22, 2006

waiting for my baby to wake up so we can go to wal*mart

Saturday was the birthday party for Tree's little boy, Jason. He turned 2. It was such a great day. Tree had everything looking great, her mama had her man slave cooking, and we got to see lots of familiar faces. I loved being back in the back yard. It's been way too long. Jason handled everything like a champ and it looks like he raked in mad loot. He didn't care much about the toys, he was thrilled with the bubble machines though.

Sunday we proved (well, Dan did) that it's possible for a human to stay in bed all day. I was busy doing "stuff" but I came back to check in on him every so often. Tessie did too. In the afternoon we went to another party. This one was for my cousin Joanna who just graduated from GMU. They're cousins we've recently become reconnected with after many years. You know how families and friends drift in and out of touch? We're back in. I'm not fond of drift so I'm going to do my best to keep us all in touch. I don't like when people go away. (ain't that right Trish? STAY PUT!)

Last night the kidlets came home from their dad's house. They were plenty thrilled to be back. I think things are sucking pretty good over at dear old dad's house, mostly because of his wife. I lectured James this week about how her treatment of them is starting to have an impact on their desire to visit him. He must have said something to her about it because the kids said she was even worse this weekend. I may have to break crappy on her very soon. I'll be more than happy to just keep the kids here all the time. Grrrr.

I am sosososo tickled that this coming weekend we're going to the river for the first time this year. I miss that place. We're going down Saturday and then coming back Monday so the kiddies can get some time in at the swimming pool. I'll have 2 kids on the swim team this year and one doing life guarding. The summer is going to rock.

Posted by krystal at 10:45 AM | Comments (1)

May 1, 2006

My inner archivist

I think I've mentioned before that I blog in my head all day. Most of the time (especially lately) none of that actually makes it here. I just think things, realize they'd be funny to write about, then forget them or tell so many people that it'd be a rerun by the time the few people who come here actually saw it. Lately I've had just so much going on and so many changes that I either can't find time to write or don't feel at liberty to write about the things in my head. I don't like to censor myself (obviously) but I feel that consideration for the folks in my life is sometimes warranted. Sometimes.

Yesterday we had a scrapbooking party here at the house. I have always thought it looked like a really cool hobby and recently had an opportunity to NEED to know how to do something nice. So we had friends and boxed wine and got our pictures out to make the beginning of our albums. I'm so excited to do more. It's like when we made our pysanky eggs and I just wanted to spend the next week doing nothing but painting eggs. I want to glue stuff now!!

I always say to people that I'm not a packrat. Dan saves everything he can possibly hide from me and I try to be understanding about his need to hold on to THINGS that mean so much to him. My show-to-people face is that of someone who could possibly walk away from my house without a single item, just my loved ones. I always felt like stuff is just that...stuff. I now realize that this is a lie. It's not even a good lie. Things and events and memories are very important to me. They remind me of friendship and love and of course of humor. All of these reminders might just be "things" but they're the things that matter to me. If there was a way to get into a wayback machine on the innernet, we'd find that I've been writing down my thoughts and documenting my life in writing for the past 10 years. (That's mostly gone now, thanks to my OTHER need to hide myself from people once I've thrown it out there...whatever)

So as I was feeding Tess this morning in the kitchen I caught a glimpse of a sticker on my fridge that said "hi, my name is AARON BURR". I chuckled out loud because I remembered the pub crawl. We decided AFTER we'd already written our names on our tags that we should use fake names. I ended up being Krystal Meth. Dan was Don Knotts, Becky was Becky Sue and Terri was Kerri. Aaron was shot in a duel. Our names sucked, but not nearly as bad as the rednecks on our bus.
I realized this morning that my fridge is a scrapbook (scrapfridge?). Plastered to it are pictures of Adrianne and her hubby, taken every year since they got together and now ones with Paige in them too. There are cards and post cards from Tree. One stating that men are grapes and one of some natives smoking together...Shared joy is double joy.
We have Spotswood Sparklers from when Kendall did great in school and Trev's award from camp last year saying he's a trooper. There's a magnet from Stacy and a drawing that Alexis made for Kendall that says "You're my best friend!". There's a post card from Peggy with women breast feeding on it. There's a card that Steph sent saying that no matter how mean I am, it's ok to blame PMS and there are several cards from Adrianne just reminding me that she's my friend and she thinks about me. I can't put into words how helpful those cards have been over the years. We have pictures of Jake in camp, ones of me 30 lbs heavier, Tessie's sonogram, Dan wearing a baseball cap looking very fetching, Trevor's history test with a 95 A on it, ticket stubs from movies, plays, flights and concerts that we've seen. Magnets from Australia and weird animal magnets that came with Dan when he moved in. We also have a Ruby Tuesday menu and several coupons which have most likely expired but were important enough to be there so I wouldn't forget them.

Little by little we've documented the important people and events in our lives by sticking them to the fridge. I might throw out the moldy leftovers inside, but the outside is aged to perfection.

Posted by krystal at 11:03 AM | Comments (5)

February 9, 2006

one more...

The other day when I was trying to figure out why my hair's falling out, I thought "hmm, maybe I have cancer". Sometimes my synapses just don't fire.

Posted by krystal at 2:40 PM | Comments (4)

December 19, 2005

Malaise

I feel like poop. My head is pounding for the 4th day in a row, my insides have come out in any way possible and I really can't stand these bright lights at my desk.

Someone shoot me!!

Posted by krystal at 7:21 AM | Comments (1)

August 8, 2005

Tuesday vacation etc.

Last Tuesday I'd had the worst day in a while. I got threatened by some tool salesman on the phone at work, Kendall barfed 4 times during the day while I was at work and unable to help her. Then to make matters worse we had a flood without an ark. I asked the boys to clean out their little pool and hose it down so we could put it away because it was filled with green stuff and the pump broke. I was on my way home from work when Jake called to let me know that as Trevor turned the nozel thing, it came off in his hand and water was spewing across the yard. I called my dad to have him come over and turn the water off (thinking that my kids were just inept).An hour and 15 minutes later when I got home, I saw the water still spraying full force and my dad on the phone with a plumber. I sighed heavily and got out of the car as my dad turned the water off at the meter in the front yard and ended the flooding of my yard and basement. Dad left, the plumber came over, he had a plumber's butt and smelled and looked as though he'd had a really long day. I don't think I reacted very well when he said "ok, see ya tomorrow. I can't fix this tonight". Five of us in the house without being able to flush is just not a good thing. I was ready to cry by the time Dan got home and took us to a hotel for the night. The kids got to swim and we ate taco bell for dinner and we pretended we were on vacation for one night. It all turned out ok in the end. The water was back on by 11 the next day when we checked out of the Ramada and now the kids can't officially say they didn't get a vacation this year.

***

Saturday we got the basement cleared out. I mean it this time. The floor could use some sweeping and there are some things to go in the dumpster but for real...it's empty. We hired Ronald, my dad's worker guy, to come help us with the move. He and his cousin and Dan had that place emptied and all of the stuff moved to a storage unit within 2 hours. I feel as though 100 tons has been taken off of my shoulders now. It's just a shame we had to spring for a unit to store things in, but at least it's temporary. I really hope the basement gets finished in time. This week we have a plumber, an electrician and the heating and air guy coming...after that there are just walls and floors and lights to do I think. Hooray. After that we can work on painting the upstairs bedrooms for Kendall and Tess and I'll have a place to put this baby stuff people keep giving me.

***

This weekend was kid-free again because James and I pulled a week-swap since we're taking the kids camping this coming weekend. We're going with Traci and Allen and their kids for a few days. I hope I can sleep. My gut is so huge now that it's hard to even sleep in my own bed much less in a camper. I'll make the best of it though and try to not bitch (too much).

We also have our fondue supper club this Friday. I am so looking forward to this. I not only get to meet someone new, but mmmm fondue!

Posted by krystal at 8:16 AM | Comments (1)

July 14, 2005

3rd trimester

I'm sitting here at my work desk with my makeup spread out all around. I haven't yet found the energy to put it on and it's only 1:51pm, so why the rush, right? I'll get to it eventually. It seems like lately no matter what I do, no matter how fast I work or how much I complain to the family to help...nothing's done and I need stuff done. My work work is done, but the house stuff is so not. It's put a huge damper on my mood and I'm sure there's a trickle down affect on the kids and Dan. I just want stuff to look nice, is that too much to ask? We're tripping over each other...the basement being finished will remedy that, so why am I being such a bitch while I wait?

We have 10 more weeks til the baby comes. She's still kicking like a field goal kicker and I can't wait to see her. Being pregnant has been really fun, I can't believe it's almost over. I know I'll miss it, but I'll miss it with a beer in my hand and hopefully wearing size 12 jeans instead of size humongous. She's got tons of clothes now. I've even gotten them washed and stored, just waiting for her to have her own room instead of my womb. (har!).

This weekend Trev and Kendall leave for camp. It's Kendall's first time going to Westview and I'm just positive she'll love it. I still feel weird letting her go though...she's just so tiny. What if I miss her too much? I wonder if they let homesick parents come get their kids?

We got a new kitten from Alex's mom. Her name used to be Houdini but you know this family. We can't let things have a normal name. The kitten's name is now Kooky Corndog. That's right. Kooky for short? I don't know because so far I just call her "kitty". I'm afraid kooky corndog just doesn't seem like a fitting name for the little sweetheart.

OK time to wrap this up and get my makeup on. Actually, I just have one more hour to work, so why bother, right? Perfect.

Posted by krystal at 2:02 PM | Comments (2)

June 9, 2005

The things I could write about if I wanted to

I could write about my recent ebay purchases, which include...
A bottle warmer, a baby bjorn, a baby bjorn diaper bag and this maternity shirt that's sure to make me look even more like orka than I already do but it looked cute on the manequin on ebay.

I also bought the first season of The 4400, used, from Amazon today. I need someone to please remove my card from my clutches so that I will stop buying things.

I could write about the events of last weekend. Like the book club where we LOST a whole entire person. (yes, we really did) Or the supper club where we (not we, peggy!!!) almost burned down my kitchen 7 times whilst making fried twinkies. This is AFTER Dan melted the lid of the fry daddy right down into the hot grease.

I could write about the things we MUST get done ASAP. Like, cleaning out the basement, getting an oil change for my honda, purchasing fathers day stuff, did I say cleaning the basement yet? That's a biggie.

I could write about the pregnancy, which is going very well. My new obgyn is fabulous and I love her and I love having a baby. She said she thought I'd written down my birthday wrong because I couldn't *possibly* be 38. I love her eternally for that lie.

I could write about the kids and how we're gearing up for a busy summer full of camps and going to the river and hopefully joining the Spotswood pool.

I could write about how wonderful Dan is to me, never letting on if he's tired of my mood swings, never ever letting on that he really does know I'm a big fat hog. He's just always good to me and I'm sometimes terrified that he'll figure out I suck and go away. I hope not though.

I could write about my job, where the most important thing I do is decide what to have for lunch.

But I can't...it's time for lunch. I'll write something later.

Posted by krystal at 11:32 AM | Comments (6)

June 2, 2005

an itch to scratch

I woke up this morning the same way I went to sleep...covered in hives. Aside from being itchy like I'm wearing a burlap sack, the discomfort is superficial. It's obviously not enough that I'm the size of a dump truck. I also need to have an unsightly rash, just to make sure I don't get anything even remotely resembling that mythical glow of pregnancy.

***

Last weekend we went to the river w/ my folks. I was so stoked when Jake got up on water skiis on his 2nd try. . I'm good at sitting in the boat saying "he's down" when the skiier falls, that's about it.

Dan got to catch a fish and he skiied too. The water was just freezing but the kids and Dan braved it out while mom and I sat on the beach and got sun. I really wish we could just have the summer off to spend lounging on the river.

***

There are 12 days left of school and I'm a bit concerned about the condition of the house while kids are home during the day. I've got visions of my life for the next few months, and they ain't good.

***

This weekend is the book club and the supper club, both at my house. I don't mind hosting, in fact, I look forward to it. I'd be much more social if I never had to leave the house.

Posted by krystal at 8:28 AM

May 9, 2005

Mother of all days

Yesterday was the most wonderful mothers day I've ever had. In fact it was more of a mothers weekend. Dan's folks were in town so we got to spend time with them, then yesterday I got treated like a queen by my wonderful husband. Sometimes I feel like I'm just waiting for something bad to happen to remind me that life can't be this good. I'll let ya know if it happens.

The highlight of my day yesterday was watching Dan and Jake fight over a large plastic flower pot that I want thrown away. Jake wants to jump it with his skateboard and Dan wants to plant something in it. They ended up chasing each other around the yard ...over a flower pot... with my parents watching in awe. Just when they thought I'd matured and settled down they see what our life is really like. It's ok though we were all laughing the whole time.

Posted by krystal at 1:20 PM | Comments (2)

April 28, 2005

save me from myself

Save my family too. My mood the past few days has been horrid. I bitch that Dan's not helping and then when he does, I bitch about how slowly he helps me...then I get called a lunatic. I guess I am one. I think I need a vacation.

I need a goddamn beer.

I need 10 beers...and a visit from the extreme house makeover people.

So this morning I checked my account and saw that aside from the budget payment electric bill which they took 2 weeks ago, today they took $105 from my account. This brought me down to BIGFATZERO after money was moved from savings to cover it. Last month they took the budget amount twice and I overlooked it hoping they'd see their error and knock it the fuck off. WRONG. So I called Dominion power this morning and put on my nicest voice (as nice as I could be anyway)and the lady said she'd turn off the automatic billing. I said "thanks!" She said "now you have to go online and pay your budget amount". I said "no, I want that to still come out, I just want you guys to stop taking EXTRA".
She said "oh, well that can't be done". I said "yes it can" She said "no.it.cant" I said "I bet someone there can do it, even if you can't" She said "you're wrong". I said "ok, let's give it a try then, you put me through to your supervisor and I'll discuss it with them". So she said "ok, thank you, can I do anything else for you today?" I said "you can type in my ticket that I have just received the worst possible customer service from you". She said "thanks, you have a great day" and transferred me to the person who got the problem resolved. I DON'T FEEL SATISFIED. AUGH!!

I wonder if there's pregnant kick boxing or something. I need to maim someone.

Posted by krystal at 8:31 AM | Comments (2)

April 12, 2005

Feelin' groovy

I swear, the last time I wrote here I still had some yellow (banana) lifesavers left on my desk. Now I'm down to lavender ones (berry something) and green ones (watermelon). I hate those two flavors. Gone are the cotton candy pink ones. Life is unfair sometimes.

Right now I'm listening to Peggy's cd from the cd exchange. As usual, it's full of songs I love to hear and sing and I'll most likely listen to it a hundred times before it goes back into a rotation. I'm freeeeeee todowhatiwant anyol'time.

Last Saturday Dan and I went to my brother's house in Richmond for dinner. We sat out at the table in his back yard while his kids played with Rufus, the guinea pig. Ellis had protested the girls bringing him outside but Megan overrode his decision. Sure enough my brother heard himself saying "ANNA. DO NOT FEED STICKS TO THE GUINEA PIG!" something he'd never imagined he'd ever say. It wasn't long afterwards that Rufus retreated under the playhouse and all adults were called in to fish him out. Dinner and the company were great and as always, ended with "we really should do this more often!". We won't though.

Dan's house is under contract and soon, if all goes well, we'll be rid of that albatross and we can start fixing up our house to fit our new person. Speaking of the new person, we have amnio next Thursday. Hopefully they'll be able to tell us right away that our baby is healthy and that the test is just a formality. I do hate waiting. I also can't wait to find out what we're having. I was never good at guessing.

Tomorrow I'm leavin' on a jet plane for Austin Tx. It's the last of my work trips. I enjoyed last week's trip to Asheville but it was only 1 day. 2 days away will feel like forever I'm sure. Once I get off of the plane I'm picking up Jason for the weekend. We'll get to practice having a baby for 3 days. He's such a good little science experiment.

Posted by krystal at 9:23 AM | Comments (2)

March 22, 2005

Celebrations

Today is Dan's birthday. He's back to being just 9 years younger than I am. (enter a badly sung rendition of Mrs. Robinson). Tonight we're going to have sushi and then I got a chocolate cake for dessert.

The chocolate cake isn't the only cake in our life this week. We've also got some wedding cake left over. I know I didn't write about getting married in my blog, but pretty much anyone who reads this knows already that we're married and that we're expecting a baby in September.

Our wedding was at the house. The kids stood up with us and we were surrounded by family and friends and lots of happiness. After we were done with the wedding we all went to have mexican food and drinks. Tree stealthily picked up the tab AGAIN even though I'd called a week in advance to tell them that under no circumstance was anyone else to pay for ANYTHING. I vow to one day repay Tree for everything she's done for me but at this point it'd take 2 lifetimes. I LOVE YOU TREE!!

Our honeymooon consisted of going back to work the next day. Mom and dad are sending us to a bed and breakfast in Williamsburg for a weekend as their gift, so that'll be cool. We're just going to wait til it's a little warmer out for that. I am really aching for a vacation though.

As far as our baby goes, things are fine. I'm going to have amnio in April just to be sure that there's nothing wrong and otherwise we're just going to have to figure out where to put everyone in our house. We're bursting at the seams. I think the key is to get rid of all of the extra crap and get back to minimalist lifestyle (Oh, how I hate clutter).

Posted by krystal at 2:33 PM | Comments (7)

March 8, 2005

Do I have spinach in my teeth?

There are 8 days from my most recent entry til this one. I know everyone's just been dying of anticipation. Well, not Mike and Kate who somehow got banninated from seeing my site, I hope we have that fixed now.

Since I last wrote, I had an accident with my car and got 2 appraisals averaging in damage of around $1500. For once it wasn't my fault and for that we are very grateful. Also, since I last wrote I've developed a thyroglossal duct cyst. That's a very fancy word for "lump". It's painful as hell and makes me look like I have the mumps or just the lack of any neck at all. I'm taking drugs for it and hoping to resume having a neck sometime soon.

In the past week I also finished reading Digital Fortress and moved briefly on to the book club book. (the one I need to finish by Saturday...no pressure). I fell asleep on that book 2 times before putting it down in exchange for Jennifer Weiner's new book "Little Earthquakes". I never know if books go in "'s or italics. I'm going to do quotes though because it's my blog and I can. Little Earthquakes is rocking my world and I already don't want it to end even though I'm only 1/4 of the way into it.

Jake's hives are gone and his dorky attitude is back. Thank God for small favors, right? Kendall is doing gymnastics on Saturdays starting this Saturday. She's had Dan doing flips with her...now THATs funny. Trevor has worked himself into a tizzy about SOL's and no matter how many times I tell him that those tests are bullshit and he's smart enough to pass without even showing up, he's still stressed out. I hate that. There should be a law against kids having stress. You get enough of it as adults.

Several things have come together for Dan and I and I just love him so much.

I know that I'm inclined to bitch nonstop about the cluttered state of my house and how I hate cooking and all of that, but really, I'd never give it up (unless someone hired a maid for me. hint hint).

Posted by krystal at 12:13 PM | Comments (7)

February 22, 2005

Mind fodder

Today I found myself searching for TV shows to watch. Currently I only watch Survivor on a regular basis and I was thinking of how it'd be cool to rot my brain a little more. I also figured if I can get addicted to a few more tv shows, I might be able to stay up past 8pm. I've become such a sack that I fall asleep as soon as I hit the couch and that's getting earlier and earlier.

So I was talking to my coworker, Diane, today and she suggested Lost. In between projects today I've been reading the synopsis of each episode I've missed. (I've missed a mere 16 so far..ugh). The show sounds awesome and I plan on watching tomorrow night. I bet I can keep up if I can just stay awake.

***

The boys are now sick. Dan's recovering a little at a time and Kendallpops and I are hiding out trying to dodge their germs. My boss is still sick, which proves that this crud has staying power. I am continually doing the "stay away" dance with all germ infested parties. (except Dan...I can't resist kissing him as much as possible).

***

I'm almost done reading Digital Fortress by Dan Brown. It's a fast read and very entertaining. I love geek talk and this is chock full of it. I *should* be reading The Know It All for our book club but uh...I haven't yet. I'll get to it.

***

We did lots of entirely entertaining things this weekend even though people were sick and work had to be done.

We had Carls Ice Cream, Pizza Hut, went bowling, ate out twice on Sunday and then again on Monday we ate out and we saw Because of Winn Dixie. We all loved the movie and I think we might have each gained 5 lbs this weekend.

The work side of things wasn't as productive but Dan did paint some of his house (there's still lots more to do) and we got the preliminary work done on listing it. So we crammed lots into our long weekend and by last night we all sort of retreated to separate corners and entertained ourselves...it was nice.

Posted by krystal at 1:57 PM | Comments (4)

February 1, 2005

Singled out

Looks like Heidi and I are now famous. (only not?)http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2005/022005/02012005/1650530

Ok now it looks like I need to go back a few days. Friday night I was pissy and tired as I tend to be on Friday nights but this time it was because I had to sit at my eye dr's office for an hour before he gave me a 5 minute eye exam and then I delt with the always inept eyeglasses chick. I told her she sucks, left and headed home to meet Dan so we could go see his folks off before they made their final trip to California.

Saturday was the Fredtalk book club's first meeting and I made a shitload of snack food and stuff. There were 9 people (I think?) there and I think the last folks left around 7:30. It was really fun and relaxed and I might be a nerd but I'm very anxious to get my new book for the next meeting.

Sunday was the ultimate in laziness. My brand of lazy means just means that I didn't go anywhere (cept the mall). I cleaned out the kitchen cabinets and made room for more of Dan's things. We watched The Clearing. It was a sundancy sort of movie with Robert Redford and Willem Defoe. I liked it well enough but it was sort of mundane. We ran a few errands on rt 3 and then while Dan took a (ultra long) nap I watched ConAir and Unfaithful on tv. The kids came home starving to death so we had breakfast for dinner. After that, it was time for the new week to begin.

Monday I worked out and cooked dinner for the kids. After reading for a long time in bed I found myself surrounded by my entire family combing each others hair. (it was a very weird thing but not the strangest thing in my house I assure you). Dan made cookies which lured me out of bed called to me from the kitchen.

So here I am, fat and full of cookies and completely happy.

Posted by krystal at 12:38 PM | Comments (3)

January 24, 2005

human hibernation

I feel fit to argue the truth and validity of PMS as a true affliction and if asked to testify in a court of law I'd feel like an expert witness. I will admit that I know my cycle very well and I am in tune with my body, but sometimes pms hits when I'm not even thinking it's time.

Last Friday, for example, a man was rude to me at Park Place Diner where I go to get my pita bread, hummus and green veggies sammich for lunch. He was a filthy redneck and I was in a hurry to get my food and get back to work. So when he mouthed off to me, I told him in very few words how fucking rude he is and then turned on my heel and left. Once I got safely to my car I could barely contain the rage and the urge to go back inside and kick his ass into next week. It was then that I realized I was there...the pms zone. I carried that rage all the way through my 2.5 hour drive home and even through dinner with Dan's folks that night. In fact, I went to bed with the rage. I was pretty well full of delicious seafood and light beer and good times with family but bubbling below the surface was the rage. Fear it.

Saturday morning I awoke with a new joie de vivre. I knew that snow was coming and kids were leaving and there was a Russian party to attend. Everything about Saturday came together perfectly. We had a big fat breakfast (ok, the family did, I just smelled it...reserving my weightwatchers points for Russia, ya know) then we all bundled up and drove to mom and dad's house to ditch the offspring. They were happy, we were happy. To make things even better, the snow didn't come as heavily as planned and we were able to make it to the party. It was such a fun night. We had some really cool food, lots of good vodka drinks and a great time visiting with friends. The party was held directly across the street from the house I lived in as an infant. We're total party animals and were back home and in bed before 10. yehaw!

Sunday we got the kids back before noon and I swear aside from cleaning and cooking and doing laundry, my ass did not leave the couch. We watched Song Catcher (thanks for the recommendation Tree) and some other crappy but fun movies on tv and ahhhh...by Sunday ol' PMS seemed to have gone away for good. Maybe PMS is not to blame here. Maybe I was just a bitch from hell on Friday, maybe, just maybe, I should have gone back in and kicked that redneck's ass.

I hate missed opportunities.

Posted by krystal at 7:53 PM | Comments (3)

January 19, 2005

Different from the entire grit eating world

Honestly, I have been up to more than taking pictures with my phone. I also took some with my regular camera.

Now where was I? Oh yea. Being fat but working on it.

Last Friday night we went out w/ the Fredtalkers to Mi Pueblo. I had a really good time and ate lots but not more than allowed AND I am happy to report, I've been drinking nothin' but lite beer and it's not so horrible.

Saturday Gayle picked me up for girl lunch with her and Dea and Kate. That was so fun. I'd never been to hooters. The food was good, the company was better. I really enjoyed myself and then we went to Kates to look at her sweet lil puppies. After that I came home and we just laid around *resting* til time to go meet Dan's folks for dinner in Ladysmith. The restaurant was surprisingly good for the area. Once again, I ate too much, but not too too much. (make sense?) and this time I stuck to water.

Sunday was the day of rest indeed. We were both comatose and pretty much lounged and geeked out all day long. I think it was a really necessary day after all of the running around from the week before us. Sunday was awesome.

Monday is the day when lots should have gotten accomplished. I went to the Honda dealership to get my car checked because the airbag light came on and it needs an oil change. Honda guy said I needed an appointment. Fucker. Then I went to my eye appointment and waited an hour for my checkup. Finally I rescheduled because I had a 10:30 gym appointment with Gayle. Oh yeah! We joined Slender Lady. It's this circuit training thing where you do each machine for a certain amount of time then do some running in place and stuff. It's only 30 minutes but it's quite a workout. It's also very fun and I look forward to going. This is quite a development for me since I hate hate hate hate +++++ exercise. I went again on Tuesday night and even though I wasn't going to go 'til Thursday I think I'll go again today if the snow holds off.
So anyway, after the gym, Dan and I went to the movies to see In Good Company. Cute flick. I liked it. Then we bought more fish (to replace the ones dan murdered) and then got the kids.

End of relaxing weekend.

/boring recap.

Posted by krystal at 10:17 AM | Comments (1)

January 13, 2005

Weighty issues

I joined weight watchers today. I was on the program before I reached my goal back in 2002 and quit AA for fat folks. Until I went on night shift I'd done a pretty decent job of keeping the weight off by just keeping my food intake in check. I know it's lame to blame night shift but that's when I started my slide back to the portly side of life. Then I got all content with Dan around and ate like it was my right and THEN I quit smoking and THEN the holidays came along...(I have my excuses lined up). Welp...my clothes are tight and I'm not one bit happy about that. So today I plopped my fat ass up on the scales and gave the nice lady my check. I'm back on track now. I like weight watchers because it allows me to still drink beer. The loftiest decision I have to make right now is if I want to drink fewer regular beers or more light beers or almost unlimited ultra lights. I'm pretty much a beer snob so I doubt I'll ever be satisfied w/ ultra beers. I'm going to just stick to light beer for now and maybe work myself down to ultra.

***

The job is going well. I've spent the week doing things like making reservations and getting things printed and answering emails and voice mails and shredding things (which I ADORE). I love this kind of work. I think I was born to be someone's bitch. I like my boss too. I've been working for her for a month now and she hasn't yelled at me once. Yehaw!

***

Our home has turned into a zoo. I used to say it was a zoo because everyone in the house acts a bit wild, but now it's really a zoo. In addition to our new rat, we also have a frog named Mr. Hopper. (Dennis??) We also have two goldfish, Charles and Joseph. There are cages and computers in just about every room of the house. The cat is out of sorts about this. She looked at me this morning with a disgusted look on her face that clearly read "Am I not enough for you? WHY ARE THESE ANIMALS HERE?". I feel for her, she's the only animal we've had that hasn't kicked the bucket or run away. If I see her eyeballing my suitcases I'll know I'm about to lose her. Poor Kasey.

These are the things I'm looking forward to:
Tomorrow night: Fajita night w/ Fredtalkers
All weekend: no kids, just Dan and I all alone. Yay!
Saturday: Lunch w/ the girls
Monday: nooooo work.

Oh and one more thing.

Last night in bed Dan and I were discussing how the kids don't get nearly enough spankings. We'd watched the first 5 minutes of Nannie 911 and it started us thinking about how we need to catch up on the YEARS of missing disciplinary action that Jake is entitled to. Starting tonight I'm going to beat the kids a lot. That way, by the time they get to therapy as adults they won't be able to say I was apathetic.

Posted by krystal at 1:08 PM | Comments (4)

December 14, 2004

done dirt cheap

It's weekend update time again. Close your eyes, this will be painless. (if you just don't read it).

Thursday I slept most of the day and then wandered around the house doing random chores til time for Trev's tkd and Jake's hockey, where not only did my boy's team win, but he also scored a goal. booyah. It's only too bad that I already despised him for bringing home the most shitty grades I've ever seen.

Friday Stacy and I went to Hard Times at around 11 where we drank ourselves silly, played darts and pool and danced to Waylon. She's not gone yet but I think the sendoff was fitting.

Saturday we got up bright and prettyfuckingearly and got our Christmas tree.

My family has some cool traditions and going to chop down the tree is one of them that I know the kids will remember. I hope they remember the best parts like the hot chocolate and the cool tree-bagging machine and how we all had to agree on the tree. I hope they do not remember the parts like the rain and cold and mud and getting lost on the way home because I have no sense of direction and neither does Dan apparently :)

Saturday afternoon Tree came over and we went for our massages at Ambiance. Dan kept the kiddies (awe what a great boyfriend!) and we even had time for a drink afterwards. I wonder what poor people do on their Saturdays? Saturday night was an especially early bed time since I'd woken up at 4somethinggodawful early in the morning in a complete panic about not taking the trash barrel to the curb.

Sunday we decorated the tree, ate bagle bites and I took the kids to James since he's the babysitter for one final week.

Dan took me to dinner at Damon's where we ate entirely too much food and then went to the movies to see The Incredibles. It is with much self-loathing that I report we then rushed home to watch the final episode of Survivor. We're nerds but I like it that way.

Today I couldn't sleep because I was so excited about having just 2 more days of night shift! I got all of my wrapping done and fixed up my beer bread gift basket thingys and cleaned the house up and did all of the laundry. I finally faced my Christmas list and I see that I have quite a bit of shopping left to do. It's ok though, I'll get it done. I hope.

Posted by krystal at 3:24 AM

November 28, 2004

Thanksgiving weekend (very original, eh?)

This was the first year I officially worked on Thanksgiving, ever. I got off at 6am though so thanks for the holiday pay Verio, but I had turkey anyway so nyah.

I have to admit that I was a little (a lot) nervous about having Dan's family around my family at Thanksgiving dinner. I wanted them there, but I was really really praying that my family acted normal. I tried to warn Dan in advance that I have this cousin who pee'd on the floor once on Thanksgiving. It might also be considered odd that my ex-husband and his brother would be at my parent's house hunting on that day. Luckily James and Mike were gone by the time we got there and the cousin didn't pee on the floor this year because he'd broken his foot and couldn't get on the floor unless he just plain fell. Everyone was fine and dinner was good and it was a really happy day. Politics came up once but we nipped that in the bud super fast. Thursday night we got home by 6, wallowed around in our fatness and watched Survivor. I swear I haven't been hungry since sometime last month.

As always, the day after Thanksgiving was cookie day. Mom and Kendall and I busted our butts and made lots and lots of cookies for the holiday season. It's a good thing I kept that big freezer down in the basement for something other than dead bodies. We were done by noon and then I had my first ever mamogram. It wasn't hard or painful or anything like that. It was just a little weird having some chick flop my boobie up onto a machine. Yuck. Friday night Steph came over and hung out and we really did a whole lot of nothing...everyone was just too tired.

Saturday was the 6.5 hour trek to and from Dale City to take Jake and 2 of his friends to Van's to skate. This is what Jake wanted to do for his birthday so even on the busiest fucking Saturday shopping day of the year, I took him. We ran into trouble with the Van's waiver- form-nazi but the day was saved by Teddy's mom. Tree came to hang out with me and keep me from completely boiling over. After the kids were tucked away in the care of the skateboard park, I went to Tree's house and played with her and Jason. I got to feed him pancakes and applesauce and *gush* he's just the cutest little boy ever.

The 2.5 hour ride home was a little unnerving but we survived. I listened to the boys talk about skating and girls and some video game in a language I did not recognize. It's official, I'm unhip. I did win cool points for my boyfriend though. Jake bragged about him to the guys and suggested I keep him.

Speaking of cool boyfriends, and I was, Dan took care of Trev and Kendall while I was gone Saturday. He took them to Wawa and to the dollar store which made Kendall's day and then let Trevor join his very first ever yu gi oh tournament. I'd rather take a blunt object to the head than do something like that, but Dan was the hero of the day and Trev hasn't stopped talking about it since, especially since he came in 4th place! Saturday night we ate birthday cake and watched Terminal. Tree gave it to me since she and her mom had each bought a copy. I really thought it was sweet. (even though I despise Tom Hanks as a human). After that it was off to bed for the grownups and the kids stayed up to do a little after-hours house destruction.

Today the kids went to church while Dan and laid around reading and making out 'n stuff. I'm reading Angels and Demons by Dan Brown and it kicks ass. It's a lot like Da Vinci Code but instead of the holy grail, it's about the Illuminati. I love his writing.

I hated coming back to work even though it's not bad at all here right now. I just wanted the goodness to keep going. Everything feels alright these days, it's scary.

Posted by krystal at 11:29 PM

November 10, 2004

Quickie

I'm leaving work in 46 minutes so here are just a few things that crossed my mind in the last 24 hours.

1. I like the way Shep calls Tree's baby "beepbeep". It's adorable and I'm going to call him that now too.

2. I learned a new word by reading fredtalk. Peggy and John have the best vocabularies ever. I'm always at dictionary.com trying to keep up. Here's the word: drollery - A comical or whimsical quality.
A comical or whimsical way of acting, talking, or behaving. Cool, huh?

3. I'm wishing I had a beer way more than I'm wishing I had a cigarette. I hope that's a good sign.

4. Dan's got his new house. I'm all proud of him. Homownership is sexy.

5. Jealousy is stupid and it wastes precious time. I'm done with it. (for tonight).

6. Pineapple upside down cake is just an old habit. I hardly think about it anymore. It's in the past.

7. I don't trust people who talk in code or aren't forthcoming. If you have something to say, just fucking say it and don't lie when you do.

8. Fashion faux pas...wearing these white tube socks with my black clogs. I just didn't think. Luckily I take my shoes off as soon as I get to work so nobody noticed.

9. Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat dies in a Paris hospital. He was 75 years old. Funny how I still feel the need to rush and report a celeb death. Old habits die hard.

Posted by krystal at 11:36 PM | Comments (3)

November 8, 2004

What I did do...what I didn't do

I did go to taekwando and hockey on Thursday night and Jake's team lost.
- eat little caesars pizza in the car in the rain.
- go to Richmond Friday
- have beer for lunch 2 days with Gayle
- go to Buffalo Wild Wings on Friday to have beers with an urn and get called a male basher (puhfuckinlease, I love men)(otherwise it was very fun)
- get the car inspected
- go to the church craft sale to get my annual pineapple upside down cake.
- watch Big Fish, Last Samurai (most of it), Man on Fire and Van Helsing
- wrap some Christmas gifts.

I did not go get my blood work done.
- play racquetball (my car was blocked in by Dan's flat tire)
- cook dinner any night after Wednesday.
- go see the Incredibles, even though I really wanted to. The kids would be so mad.
- get Dan's apartment ready for moving
- eat anything that was very healthy
- hang out with Stacy & company, as previously discussed
- shave my legs after Friday (I did shave my armpits though, I'm not *that* gross)
- get out of bed unless it was important most of the weekend.

If I were one of The Incredibles, I'd be the one who is incredibly lazy.

Posted by krystal at 5:25 AM | Comments (1)

October 22, 2004

Upswing

I found out Tuesday morning that I have pneumonia. I knew I'd felt like shit for a few days and couldn't stop coughing but it got to the point where I couldn't breathe so I went on in to the hospital and found out why. I've spent the last few days just sleeping and lounging in my pajamas like a load. I still feel a little crappy but not nearly as bad. Kendallpops hasn't bounced back from her cough so today I'll take her to the good doctor to see what's up in her little body. I hope it's not the same thing. *sigh* At least Trev's better. Dan's been here each night to administer tlc and I'm sure that's helped tons with recovery.
I think the hardest part of being sick is that you don't get to stop being a mom til you feel better. I had 2 sick kids who needed me too...wah. boofuckin hoo. It's ok now.

Tonight the kids go to their dad's and I'm guessing we won't venture far from home.

As usual, natalie dee says it just right:

Posted by krystal at 8:07 AM