just something funny from the internet today:

I got the job at Energique!   It is the best possible job for me... contract work, so I don't have to be in the office every day- I can work from home the hours I choose.  I'll only be in the office when I need to research something.   To start I will be working about 20 hours a week, and we will go from there.   I already have one small project lined up to start on Monday and if that goes well, then I have two other major ones after that that will require months of work to complete.  I am SO excited by this prospect.   And I cannot help but be reminded how blessed I continue to be.   Good things always happen to me.

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You don't see this every day.  A lion riding on a horse.

I made a box chair for Payton yesterday.   It wasn't too hard.   Thought I would share.    The boxes were free from the post office.   Three flat rate priority boxes for the base that you sit on, two to make into boxes and one to cut up and use to reinforce the insides of the other two.   Then 4 priority boxes that are rectangular and more flat, and about 13" long, stuffed with newspaper.

 

I have written previously about the Share Iowa program which offers discounted groceries in an effort to encourage volunteerism for people living in Iowa and neighboring states.  I had ordered groceries for the month of February and picked them up last week.  I bought "Package A" for $18 which was the Meat and Veggie package.  I feel that it was definitely a good deal, I got a pack of boneless chicken breasts, breaded pork patties, organic shredded BBQ beef, sirloin tips, a bag of egg noodles, 6 baking potatoes, a small head of lettuce, 2 tomatoes, 4 apples, 4 oranges, 2 grapefruit, Broccoli and a frozen pie.  Just the Chicken alone would have been $7 in the store probably if not more... I haven't bought chicken in awhile.  I know it is expensive lately.  So I encourage you to look into it if you have not already, at www.shareiowa.org They serve the Omaha area too.  I already ordered groceries for March!

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Not just in your email inbox anymore:

Nigerian Fortune Cookie

 

 

 

 

I don't know if it is fixed now?  But in logging out and logging in I found my photos restored.   So we shall see.  

 

 

Had a great time with Johnny and Lindsy and company this weekend.   The hotel stay was great, had fun visiting.   Payton had a great time too despite getting a little sick at the pool.   It was very heavy on the chlorine and it made him choke and gag a bunch.  So much so he threw up a bit.   Later on we all opened the windows despite the cold air just to vent the room since everyones eyes were burning so bad.  But it was bedtime for him anyway so it wasn't that big of a deal and he went right to bed with not fuss.

 

Anyway....   Today we got home from our weekend and I put Tim to work with the two front windows which have been broken for awhile.   He was able to fix one, and the other he will need to get a replacement part for I think (or rather he thinks).   That is what these photos are from (the first one is Payton washing the window after Tim fixed that one):

 

After all this was done Tim went on to fix the front door!  I was sad I couldn't think of any more quick handman jobs of the top of my head that needed doing!  He was on a roll!

I note spaces is having some problems today having deleted all my recent photos albums, and are now cycling old ones from Thanksgiving 2007.  I am not sure what is going on, so I am not going to blog today like I thought I was until they get the problem fixed, and my regular photos back!  I notice some other technical glitches as well so I don't even know if you will be able to read this post!

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Here is another "Garfield without Garfield" only this time the original strip unedited, then the edited version without Garfield's lines.  You will see it is much improved.

It really makes Jon look so much more pathetic, just a loner- talking about how great he is with the women to his cat:

 

Tim is now the same age as me technically.   Today we are celebrating by going to someone else's party.   :)

 

I FINALLY put up new photos since someone suggested she was getting a little bored of my old photos.  But I didn't really have any new ones until last night.   So I made a special effort to put them up this morning in case any one else was bored too.   The circus was pretty good I thought.  It lasted just a shade over 2 hours, and there was a fun fair prior to and afterwards, which was really nice.   I think we got off relatively cheaply because most of the time Payton was running around eyes wide trying to decide what to do, and by the time he did decide what to do he only had time for just the petting zoo (which was free- although a $1.00 for feed) and then one of the bouncy balloon rides, which was $2.00.   He also thought the escaltor was a ride, and that of course was free.   

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Some people (not Jim Davis) are making new Garfield comic strips where they use the old strips and take out garfield's dialog and thought bubbles and leave in only Jon's.  It makes the comic more funny in my opinion:    

 

If you want to find more of these online you can look them up on google under "Silent Garfield" or "Garfield without Garfield".

The surgery has been scheuled for March 31st at 9am, pushed back from the original date quite a bit.  Turns out the doctor had a full booking of surgery on the 3rd, and she is only at this location on Mondays so the 31st was the first available time.  I was able to find out that the surgery IS still outpatient, and the length of time Payton stays will be contingent on how well he recovers and is able to pee/drink water/generally feel better. 

 

So in the mean time we are on antibotics and decongestants until the 31st.

 

This week is going to be extrorinarily busy.  Today it already seemed to start, I had a dental appointment (another perfect assesment, no cavities - no problems!), then I went to go get a few things in Council Bluffs among them headphones for Tim and my MP3 Players, who knew it would be such a process?   I ended up buying three sets, and then letting Tim have his pick between a behind the head or an earbud model... he picked behind the head.  He'll return the unused ones.  I chose an earbud model for myself after my last pair of over the head "sporty" ones kind of lost their ability to stay on my head.  They were cheap.   The earbuds are hard to get used to, but are better than the ones that came with my player.   And the sound quality is miles a head of either of the sets.   Anyway, why is it so hard to find comfy headphones that don't cover the whole ear?   I could go with ones that cover my whole ear but then my ears get so HOT when I work out, and then I sweat on them and that feels icky.  I start to imagine bacteria growing in them or something.  Oh well.  Then tonight I had to get busy doing the business of Treasurer for both the Church and the Scouts, and that took me a good amount of time to finish since I had slacked off for awhile on both of those.

 

Tomorrow night of course is choir, and if I can fit it in I need to start listing our friend's stuff on Ebay.   I agreed to help them sell stuff and when he was here last he brought a van load of stuff with him.  Since then I have been busily categorizing it and getting it all ready to go on Ebay.  Tomorrow Ebay is lowering their fees, so that is why tomorrow is the magic date for that.

 

Thursday is Family Fun Night at the school.   The theme this time is Movie night and we are to bring a blanket and come in PJ's.  Should be fun.   That goes for most of the evening.

 

Friday is the Shrine Circus, which I got free tickets to courtesy of my dad.  Actually we got free tickets for us and another family (friends from Tim's work) and so the bunch of us are going together.   I have not met them yet, but I think it should be fun.  

 

Saturday is Johnny and Lindsy's Wedding celebration, they will be getting married on Friday- but the party for everyone is on Saturday.   We'll be going out to dinner and then going swimming afterwards and staying at a hotel overnight.   It will be a lot of fun.

 

Sunday?  I don't know..... don't ask me to think that much more ahead.  

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Payton will have tubes in both ears.  Also he is going to be having his adenoids out, but not the tonsils.  The probable date for the surgery will be Monday, March 3rd, but they have to call me back to schedule it.

 

When this new doctor checked he had fluid back in the ear that had been better, and the other ear was just as plugged, and she noted that his adenoids and tonsils were swollen, but the tonsils were not swollen enough to take those out.  She felt that surgery was going to be the only way to get this fixed.  She also noticed that all his hearing tests had been poor, and even when the fluid was reduced in one ear he didn't have super great results even though the hearing had improved, it seems that something with the eardrum vibrating wasn't working right... she showed me the graph and it should have been a nice arc, and it was nearly a flat line in both ears for Payton.

 

I am glad that we will be getting this all fixed, but now I will be very tense about the surgery, and I don't want that to rub off on Payton.   I've already started talking to Payton about "getting tubes" and having "adenoids" removed, and so far he seems receptive to that (espeically getting to eat Jello and IceCream), but he has told me on other occasions he does not want to be "in the hospital" like I was.   Luckily this proceedure is going to be done at the Missouri Valley hospital, which is where he has been going for his doctor visits, so he doesn't think of it as the same as "mommy's hospital".  But he will be having antesthesia and sinus xrays which might seem scary, and so I will need to discuss all that with him.  As far as I know this will be outpatient.  I have not heard otherwise.  And that I am happy about.

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Winter weather wear?  weird.

Today is Payton's "second opinion" ear doctor visit.  He also is sick with a cold, so we will see if that has any effect on the ears.  He actually fell asleep in church Sunday which is something he has never done.   He doesn't take naps as a rule. 

 

I posted a video above of church on Sunday (before Payton fell asleep) of the children's choir.   Payton was quite energetic as you will see.  Tim did a great job with the kids.

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Chewing gum sculpture

Yesterday I finally got back in the gym again.   With Payton not being in school, and the weekend and/or bad weather... I don't get to go.  I thought I would have a bad workout but surprisingly I had a good one.   I did my usual 3 miles on the elliptical machine at a level 10 (which just means the amount of resistance I have to push my legs against) and I still didn't feel ready to go so I did a quick mile on the treadmill.   I haven't done that in a long time.  

 

I also had a headache yesterday that has stubbornly refused to leave... and I woke up with it today- though a meer shadow of its former self.   I'll still go to the gym in the hopes that that will help.  Sometimes excercize works when other things don't.   I don't understand why that would be because when my head is pounding, you would think the last thing that would work would be having my heart pounding and my blood flowing around fast.   There is a lot I don't understand about how the body works.

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Payton had his 3rd visit to the Ear doctor today.  Mixed results.  Amazingly his left ear had cleared of fluid after this second round of medicine.  His right ear was just as clogged as ever and still is showing hearing loss.    This is highly unusual for one ear to heal and one ear not to.   So we will go one more week on the medicine and get a second opinion from a different doctor.   This doctor doesn't know if we should do tubes for just one ear, since it does require anesthesia... and wants to get another doctors' take on the situation since he said this is not typical.  My concern would be not doing anything and having the hearing loss be permanent, but that is not a certainty... I am not sure of the % of risk on that.

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I got a new kitchen faucet this weekend.   My old one was looking a little cruddy, and it leaked a little at the base if you turned the water on high.  So I picked out a new fancy one, one that has a long arched faucet and two scrolly looking handles.... and of course a sprayer too.   Gotta have the sprayer. 

 

Tim installed it for me Saturday, but had to make additional trips to the hardware store first for a basin wrench, then today for some plumber's tape to fix a leak.   But I think it is all working now.   Looks very nice.   I was pleased that I picked the one I did too, the other one had a "stainless steel" finish too, but was slightly lighter.  This one matched my sink finish flawlessly.  The other one would have looked ok I am sure, but then I would have always been bugged that I didn't match the colors up just so.  

 

While we were at the Home Depot looking at faucets, I was looking at the granite and corian counter tops they had on display.  Wow!  now that would REALLY make my new faucet look even better.    That isn't even a consideration of mine now though.  But it is nice to imagine.  

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Rhino was here this weekend to watch the Superbowl with Tim and he dropped of a load of Ebay stuff for me to sell for him.   So I was busy doing that yesterday.  I made a little bit of progress but it feels like I have a mountain left to go.  

 

Payton went to the parents this weekend, and I am glad he did because I would not have gotten anywhere on ebay with him underfoot.   But I will be getting him this morning.   He's missing yet another day of school but I thought since he has had the diarrhea issue one more day wouldn't matter.  That should be clearning up soon I would think.  

 

I did find out some bad news about my dad's cancerous growth he had removed, it turns out it was malignant after all.  So he is starting treatment for it soon... not chemo but a type of injection with bacteria that is supposed to kill any cancer.  I don't know about prognosis or anything like that.  They assume they got most of it with the inital surgery so I think this is to be extra sure.

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what is wrong with this picture???  

Tim is still sick hopefully in the final phases now, I am well and Payton, got sent home with diarrhea from school yesterday after I had thought he was better... but Payton said they served him milk, so maybe that was the trigger.   I don't know.   At any rate we are all three home today.

 

I took Payton to the doctor yesterday and she said that it sounded like Payton's illness was a combination GI bug and the medicine he had been on previously.  She told me to wait it out until Tuesday.   Then we could do a stool sample thing.   But hopefully it will clear up by then.  Maybe today!

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Grammar Crackers