Em and the Possibilities There are no guarantees in life…only the possibilities

Went to get the van looked at since Vital Liquids are dripping. $500.

Took the boys outside to play in the mud and mulch piles – that was all KINDS of fun. Well – up until Dan realized he was GETTING DIRTY!!!! Then? Not fun so much. But we persevered, got some great pics of him showing off on the swingset, and I managed to read a chapter for my Soc class.

Got my North State Blogs blogroll page up & running again. I didn’t realize the WP Visual Rich Editor was slightly buggy until I went searching for the answer to WHY ISN’T THIS THING WORKING??!!?? The VRE decided that my javascript was invalidly nested HTML and kept correcting it, and I didn’t realize that the VRE was the thing doing the breaking. Once I turned that mofo off (and BELIEVE ME, it’ll be staying off), everything slid in like water on a hot skillet.

But? The BEST moments of my day belong to the fact that I was FINALLY able to get it together, get out of the house, and make it to my local Blogger Meetup. I got to meet a slew of New PEEPUL!!!!! and talk about blogging. This is a HUGE thing for me because (as most of you know) getting out of the house sans kids usually takes bribery, threats, and/or medication. (And sometimes all 3.) Seriously – the worst part of this portion of the evening was that I missed a turn or three in Greensboro and ended up waaaaaaaaaaay on the other side of town. Kudos go to the two chicks who responded to my yelling out the van window “Hey, how do I get back to 40 from here??!!??” (Although the first chick who gave me directions? Yeah, not so hot. Friendly runs into WENDOVER, biatch, not the 40 exit.) So…it took me about 30 minutes longer to get home than it took to get there.

And then I got home at 11. The boys were still awake. The boys were in our room. The folks were in their room. My daughter (who was supposed to babysit) was in her room. So, who’s watching the boys, you might ask….

Oh. Emm. Gee. MURDER!!!!!!!

Yank open her bedroom door and say “WHAT ARE YOU DOING??!!?? WHYYYYYYY are you NOT WATCHING THE BOYS??!!??”

Apparently, she decided that since my mom was home from church, that meant she didn’t have to babysit anymore.

We must correct this line of thinking, immediately. And boarding school looks more and more attractive every day. *blinks*

My skin doesn’t “fit” me anymore. To be honest, it hasn’t fit properly in a long time. Three pregnancies, breastfeeding, and lack of exercise have contributed. When you’re a new mom, you don’t really have time to think about things like that.

My kids aren’t “little” anymore….and I have time to think about it.

It was brought home most recently with a visit to the Dr. at the first of the month for the boys, and then at the end of the month for me (um. Obviously, that would be *last* month). Y’see, when the kids are uncooperative at the Dr’s office (son, it’s JUST to see how much you weigh GET ONNIT!) I get to weigh myself, then pick the kid up and weigh both of us. Then my weight is subtracted, and TA-DAAAH! One weighed kid.

Almost exactly 14 days later, it was my turn at the Dr. office. I walked in, feeling good about my blood pressure and how it’s responding to the new med. Cocky as all hell, I stepped up on the scale, adjusted it to the weight I was at when we did the boys, and blinked in shock as it thunked to the top. Scooting the weight over, I added 8 pounds before the indicator centered itself. Looking over at the NP, I said “That CAN’T be right, am I remembering the weight from last time with the boys correctly?” (Un?) Fortunately, we made something of an impression, since she confirmed my memory.

Eight pounds in two weeks. I had told my doctor that fluid retention was a problem, but we didn’t have exact numbers.

I digress.

The sag problem makes for some incredibly self-defeating circular logic. I want to lose weight so that men will find me more attractive I’ll be healthier; losing weight will make the sag problem worse; Saggy Baggy Skin is unattractive; Therefore, I can’t lose weight.

“No problem, E! Get that extra stuff cut off! Plastic surgery can do WONDERS now!!!”

Riiiiight. Have you met my empty wallet and lack of “fluff insurance coverage”? Oh, and my Issues? I’m just *now* getting to where I’m OK with the fact that “they” cut me open to deliver my daughter 13 years ago…and I fought it tooth and nail. And you want me to voluntarily lay down on that table?

Not no, but HELL no.

So, here I sit, in my Saggy Baggy Skin wondering what to do next….

I truly love this time of year. The line between the bright blue sky and the trees changing colors crackles with the promise of chilly nights. Moments of watching the kids make leaf piles with their toy rakes, so they can roll around in them. Opening my car door on campus, and smelling the smoke from the wood-burning stoves. It’s chilly enough to wear sweaters (well, sweaters bulky enough to hide my figure flaws and enhance the good stuff ) but still warm enough that jackets are optional.

Into this season I go, sanity fully cracked. The full-spectrum lightbulbs have been purchased and installed. My constant WIP has been brought out, inspected, and deemed unrepairable. As much as I hate to admit it, I have to frog all twenty inches of Ogre-sized afghan and start over. (Ogre-sized? Yeah, it’s 7 feet long.) Didn’t tell you that story? Okay, I’ll make it a relatively easy one:

one fully stocked craft basket + one curious 3 year-old + one distracted Mommy = one Ogre-sized afghan snipped into pieces.

I am having attention-span problems again. I have the “silver computer” sitting behind me, waiting patiently for re-assembly. There is laundry to be sorted/folded/put away. There is school-related reading that I could be doing. Research for a paper that’s absolutely unequivocably kicking my @$$ at the moment…  ARGH!
In other news, I have decided that A is getting a Wacom tablet for Christmas.  Her artwork has improved (though she doesn’t want me publishing it anymore) to the point where I know it’s not just “doodles” for her.  Now, to figure out what to get the boys….

GENIUS! SHEER GENIUS!!!!!

I went back to LJ, undeleted my account, and grabbed my 2006 archives from there. OH YEAH BAYBEE!

…and now, back to your regularly scheduled snoozing.

The last backup I did of Tink.com got corrupted.

Okay, so it got corrupted because I left the window open, went to pee, and came back to Joe typing in the window.  Lesson learned.  

Because I’m a slack-ass, my last backup before that is from May.  Before I was introduced to the Joys of Akismet.  In short, the comments table is HUGE because  it’s full of spam.

Therefore, instead of bringing my archives back today, you’ll just have to deal with what I’ve got so far while I finish my schoolwork.  And?  Every post from May til I started this blog are gone.  Damnit.  Well, sorta damnit.