Destruction

I came home from work to find that Shane had left the office door open. He had done it before and I left the mess for him to clean up that day since I had to go to the store and get stuff for dinner. So he sent me a text one day and said he thought he left the office door open, but I was too busy to leave work to check. I should have made time since this is what I came home to:

This is in the office (obviously - since there is a desk)

another in the office

in our bedroom

more in our bedroom

and more in our bedroom

I'm knitting a blanket for some friends of ours having a baby. That's the blanket and the yarn. They yarn went from the back of the house where the office is to the front of the house where the master bedroom is. I was able to save the blanket - thank GOD - or else I was gonna cry at the thought of either having to start over or giving up and buying them something not made by me. Oh, and those are all of my grandmother's, mother's and great aunt's hand written recipes and recipe boxes too. Zoey destroyed two of the boxes and only damaged the corner of one recipe - I got REAL LUCKY there. I lost a flip flop in the massacre and Shane said he will replace with a new pair - we'll see.

I got home yesterday and he had done it again - left the office door open. This time she got into the recipes again and not one recipe card was destroyed, just the boxes. However, she did destroy a knitting needle that had the makings of a sweater on it - not sure I'll be able to salvage that knitting project and she destroyed my souvenir bag from the Vancouver Olympics. As in a reusable shopping tote from the Hudson Bay Company - not a plastic or paper bag. I am bummed about that one.

I can't really get mad at Zoey since she is only 7 months old. She gets bored so easily and there are obvious signs of that all over the house (well mainly upstairs), the carpet, the baseboards, my nightstand, a plastic tub she managed to get into...

Thanks!!!

Thanks to Jessica at The Lowe Family News for the LOVE!!! I really appreciate it. Now I got to get back into this and make her proud! And not make her think that she wasted her time and a helping hand. She has the BEST blog EVER!!! Seriously, I stalked it and read all the way back to the beginning - I know, I know, I have no life...

Today is going to be a busy day. First, something is wrong with Zo Bear - again. Last night I noticed a lump on the back of her neck. She is still playing, eating, and pottying like normal, so we don't know what to do. I gave her an anti-histamine pill this morning and we'll give her another one in 12 hours. If the lump is still there then it's off to the emergency clinic - again.

I'm about to get a shower and then my dad is coming up so we can go to Sur La Table (our new favorite store) and get groceries for tomorrow for Father's Day AND for Shane's Birthday.

Technically his bday was yesterday, but we are going to dinner with friends tonight and the family is celebrating tomorrow. He gets a full weekend for his birthday. Yesterday a friend of his took him to lunch and on a tour of the new Cowboy Stadium. They then went to a couple of pubs after that and he got home around 10:00. My presents for him were delivered to my dad's yesterday so he is bringing those up too. We are headed to the Meddlesome Moth tonight - if you are in Dallas (or surrounding areas) or come in town to visit - you have to go to this place it's the COOLEST!!! Any of you folks that ever frequented the old Hard Rock Cafe in Dallas will especially love the stained glass windows they have. Takes me back to when we celebrated our birthdays there, so great.

So I tried to get a pick of Zoey's lump - kinda hard when she insists on not being still. I haven't figured out how to write on my pics yet. Maybe I need photo shop instead of aperture...

It's just at the point of her ear in this one (and the lens made an appearance thanks to the flash - grrr)

And you can see it here a bit better just to the right of my finger

Recipes

Again - I have recipes to review and I will get to them.  I promise.  Only there won't be pictures because I keep forgetting to take pictures.  But I just want to note that it's really, super important to read the labels of what you are putting in your food.  As in make sure you are using VANILLA extract and not ALMOND extract.  Seriously, I did it, not once, but twice in TWO days.  Sunday when I made ice cream and Monday when I made cookies.  Way to go, Kel!

Blech

I could puke right now and be happy.  I ate way too much at lunch.  Instead of eating just 1 gyro and a side salad, I ordered 2 gyros and skipped the side salad.  I'm such a friggin' pig.  I complain about being 20 (in my mind 30) pounds overweight and try to watch what I eat.  Then I get tempted by something like a gyro and PIG OUT!  It wasn't even like they were good authentic gyros, they were from the company cafeteria for crying out loud.  I should have left off the pitas and just had the meat and sauce (you know the yogurt/cucumber sauce - just can't spell it and don't feel like googling it).  Maybe then I wouldn't feel food at the back of my throat trying to get out of my body.  Seriously, I may need to go to the bathroom and just see if I puke.  Would that mean I have an eating disorder?!

 

I'm suppose to go to a spray tan party tonight.  Now I get to be seen 90% naked by a bunch of females (minus 2) that I don't even know.  I bet I'll be the fattest one there too.  UGH!!!  Why do I do this crap to myself?!?!

Check this out...

The Lowe Family News blog (found here) has a great give away going on until tomorrow (Wednesday, June 9 @ 6PM EST). Super cute stuff found at the Gussy Shop. The Lowe Family News blog is one of the best blogs out there. I stalk it on a daily basis and so want to be Jessica's BFF - she sounds so freakin' cool. She also has another blog, Hunduddle Hussy that's HiLaRiOuS!!! For real this chick is awesome! Check out all 3 blogs - right now - go now. Stop reading this sorry a$$ boring blog and go read theirs - and follow theirs too.

Zo Bear

Last night we went to dinner for a friend's birthday and went for drinks afterwards. Which means we got home around 2:00 am. When we walked in the door we noticed Zoey's snout and left eye were swollen. We debated taking her to the emergency vet not too far from us or waiting to see if it was worse or better in the morning. After talking about it we decided to see how she looked in the morning. She was still frisky, not vomiting, not sluggish, so we figured it was serious but maybe we thought it would improve overnight. So we all went to bed. However this morning Zoey was worse. The left eye wasn't as swollen as last night, but her right eye was really swollen and her snout was worse. I called the emergency clinic to get an idea of how much we were about it spend and it wasn't as bad as we had expected, $90 for the exam and then (of course) extra for any meds. So we threw on some clothes, brushed our hair, and brushed our teeth, put a collar and leash on Zoey, jumped in the truck and were off. By the time we got to the clinic, 5 minutes later, her rash was spreading and getting worse. It was down the outside of her throat and had started creeping up her legs from her paws. She was still playful and running around like she felt fine but still she looked bad and it really made my heart hurt. I don't like my babies sick, to someone who doesn't get it, these 2 dogs are my children. I love them both so much and will do whatever it takes to keep them healthy. They give unconditional love to us each and every day. They get so excited just to see us and greet us each day when we come home from work with kisses and wagging tails. They make the crappiest day better just by snuggling up and giving hugs and kisses. These two girls mean the world to me, and seeing Zo Bear like she was this morning hurt me so much and even though I knew it wasn't life or death I was still scared. The vet gave her a shot of a steroid and a shot of an antihistamine. We also got a prescription of an antihistamine (better then benadryl) for any itching or any remaining swelling. After leaving the vet we stopped to get some breakfast and came home. Zoey did so well at the vet and in the car, she didn't get car sick thank goodness. After eating our breakfast we all went and laid down for a bit to get a bit more sleep but also to keep Zoey calm and let her sleep off some of her meds. After about 3 hours she was looking normal again. Her snout is still a bit pink but that could be a sunburn from yesterday, hopefully not. She has slept a lot today and snuggled with me every time I sat in the big comfy chair in the office or with me in bed since I've had a headache most of the day. She never got sick to her stomach, which is good, and she has had a healthy appetite, and drinking plenty of water, so I know she is good. (Xena is sleeping next to me and "barking" in her sleep - must be a good dream) I couldn't get a lot of pics of Zo because she was being squirmy today, but I did get just a few.

Hopefully they show up on Blogger when I email this since the site wasn't letting me do a new post. We'll see...

Insurance!

(Just remembered another issue to write about!)

So yesterday I went to the doctor about an issue I was having. She gave me a prescription and I took it to my local Walgreen's to have it filled. Nothing out of the ordinary. I passed the time waiting for my prescip by reading a magazine and finally heard my name called after about 10 minutes. I walked back to the pharmacy and had to wait for another 15-20 minutes before getting to the front of the line. The clerk gets my prescription and then tells me the total - $300.01!!!!! WTH?!?! AND THIS WAS THE GENERIC! I bought it because I needed it but I really thought about telling her no way (I should have told her no way and left). My brother told me today that Walgreen's does price matching, but it's too late for me since they won't do it after the fact. I get home and call my drug insurance and found out I have to meet a $1200 deductible before I get discounted prices (or co-pays as the guy from Caremark called them). I'm pissed. My insurance sucks A$$!!! (I know some of you (okay all of you) don't have a potty mouth like I do - please forgive me) I really really hate my "Consumer Driven Insurance Plan" that my company offers. I really do. I feel like I need to be on my deathbed before going to the doctor for anything. I had two moles cut off and sent to the lab for testing - uh that cost me $400 since UHC only covered 80 freakin' dollars. I had to get those moles checked , what if they turned out to be cancerous and I had just ignored them?!?!? I'm really at a loss as to what to do about my insurance. Shane has tried to get me on his, but we aren't married and they don't recognize us as "domestic partners" so that option is out, and he was really awesome to even look into it. I had the worst headache last night over stressing about this issue. Hopefully I don't get sick the rest of the year because I'll be screwed. What I don't get is why my antibiotic I got back in January for strep was so cheap - is it because it was an antibiotic??? Okay - I'm done with my rant but still really stressed. I wiped out my HSA account and really don't have a clue how I'm gonna make it the rest of the year as far as prescriptions and other doctor visits go.

Recipes

I've cooked quite a few meals lately and I do need to write some reviews of some recipes. However, I need to get my stuff together for those. Oh and I did not get pics either - cuz I'm awesome like that! Okay, for real, I gotta get some knitting done tonight. I've been on the computer for like the past 3 hours - not good!

The Meddlesome Moth

The night of Saturday, May 8th, Shane took me to dinner for my birthday to the Meddlesome Moth. It was FANTASTIC!!!! The best food, wonderful atmosphere, and the nicest staff. Oh when they showed us to our table I had a huge bouquet of pink roses from my honey! Not only was our waiter AWESOME, but the manager came over to chat with us AND the OWNER came over to chat with us. Granted the place had been open for about 2 weeks when we were there and they were wanting to make sure everyone's experience was perfect, it still made us totally feel like ROCK STARS!!! Okay, I'm a f' up and did not get any pictures of us, or my flowers or us at the restaurant, yeah, I'm a loser like that. I highly highly highly recommend the Meddlesome Moth.

Oops...

About 30 minutes ago Shane left to get some dinner. While he was gone I walked from our office to our bedroom closet to get the power cord for my laptop. I noticed Zoey was standing outside the closet door, but didn't see Xena. I figured she had gotten on the couch or chair in there and walked back to the office to plug in my laptop. Zoey was hanging out on the back of my chair with me and I snapped a few pics of us (I look like a complete dork in ALL of them - so maybe 1 will get posted - maybe), but I kept calling for Xena to come join us in the office. When Shane got back I still hadn't seen Xena and it finally dawned on me. I threw my stuff down in the chair and took off running for our bedroom. I opened the closet door and Xena came running out. I scooped her up and apologized profusely. I'm such a horrible mom. My boor baby was locked in a dark, hot closet for at least 20 minutes, and I was snuggling up with Zoey taking pics. Ugh!

Hospitals

Okay, here is the first in a series of over due posts (if I can get my fingers to type, that is). On Sunday, April 25^th, we had a get together of friends and family for Shane’s Dad, and his fiancée, Rosalie. My parents were there and a few other folks. Well, my Mom told me a few times that she felt light headed so I told her to go sit down. She did, then she went outside, and then she came back inside to tell me she still felt light headed. I told her to sit down and I got her some water. Next thing I knew she was passed completely out sitting at our dining table. I walked over to check on her and noticed her eyes were rolled back, she felt cold and clammy too, needless to say this scared the crap out of me. My Mom never has health issues like this. Ever. Yeah, she gets sick on occasion, but nothing as severe as passing out. So, we got her moved to the couch and the paramedics were called. Luckily, the fire department is about 3 blocks down the street, so they were there in minutes; it was the fastest I’ve ever seen. At first, they really didn’t take the situation seriously, until they checked Mom’s blood pressure which was really low and then they were more on the ball. They decided to take her to Baylor ER near our house, Dad rode in the ambulance and I followed in my truck. Two comments Mom told me from the EMTs, first, they thought I was good looking, second, they said I was following too close and were afraid I would rear end them – obviously they don’t know how much I love my truck and would never intentionally cause it harm (forget about what happened in October). Anyway, we get settled in the ER and they run a few tests and do some X-rays. The EMTs had already started her on IV fluid and she finished that, later, they started her on another bag of fluid (I didn’t understand why they waited so long between the 2 bags of fluid). At around 9:00pm or so a doctor came in and asked a bunch of questions (ones we had answered many times previously) and said she would be admitted over night for observation since she was over 50 and passed out, they wanted to make sure it was not heart or head related. Around 11:30pm-ish they finally moved her to a room. Dad and I got back to my house around midnight-ish and he went back to DeSoto and went to bed.

MEANWHILE…

Michael and Claire had checked into their hospital in Fort Worth to start the inducing (induction) process for her baby. Mom, Dad and I debated on whether or not to let him know about Mom being in the ER. Michael was keeping me updated via texts on their situation. Here is how our conversation went:

Michael: You kids having fun? You are missing this. It’s “fun”.

*I am freezing

*Claire isn’t allowed to eat until an hour after the cervidil

*there is no place to sleep for me

*we have to watch those informational videos on the “newborn channel”

Kelly: We at least have the mavs game

Michael: At least

Kelly: At big Baylor ER

Michael: Yeah, we have cable, trying to get these vids watched so we can sign it off. What time you heading over tomorrow? Cervidil went in about 6:30pm…usually its 12 hours before they start pitosin.

Kelly: I’m at big Baylor hospital ER

Michael: Wait, what? I missed that somewhere…For you? Or?

Kelly: Your mother

Michael: What happened?

You get the picture; he was a bit preoccupied with his wife getting ready to give birth. Oh, and I say big Baylor because I used to live in Ellis county which has a Baylor hospital, but it’s a little one and everyone in Ellis county refers to Baylor Dallas as big Baylor since it’s the main one and, oh yeah, it’s big. HUGE in fact – I’ve walked the whole place a time or two in my former life.

So on Monday, Dad and I went to visit Mom and were expecting to take her home. Wrong. They were still waiting on the echo cardiogram results and decided to keep her another night. I really don’t get that. They had pretty much decided that she passed out due to exhaustion and dehydration, so why the need to keep her another night??? I wasn’t happy about that, and thought maybe Baylor needed some more money for the construction they have going on –no I didn’t really -but money was a key reason in my mind why they kept her. So around 5:00pm Dad and I left.

I went home to see Shane and the girls and then headed to Fort Worth. Had I known, I should have packed a bag for an overnight stay, I really don’t know what I was thinking and why I didn’t do that, because I ended up staying all night. Sleeping on this skinny arse couch that felt just like a weight bench. The worst sleep in some time, but better then Michael, who was very sweet in giving me the couch, because he pushed 2 chairs together and attempted to sleep sitting up with his legs stretched out. The first and second round of cervidil did not work for Claire, so they gave her 2 doses of cytotech (I think that’s what it’s called), which did not work either. At 6:00am (Tuesday, April 27) 2 nurses came into the room and put Claire on oxygen and hooked her up to IV fluids. They told her the baby’s heart rate kept dropping and were going to keep coming in to move her if it continued. Her regular nurse was in another room helping someone else give birth. At around 7:30am her doctor came in to suggest Michael and Claire think about a C-section since the baby’s heart rate kept dropping and the doctor felt the baby was in a bit of distress. At 8:00am Claire went back to the OR, and at 8:41am, Corbin Kiefer McCown was born. I finally got to hold my brand spankin’ new nephew around 11:00am or so. My Dad busted Mom out of the clink – just kidding he picked her up from the hospital in Dallas. They came to Fort Worth to meet their new grandson. Dad, Michael, Bonnie (Claire’s mom) and I went to get a bite to eat at On the Border (on a side note – so long since I’ve been there and soooooo flippin’ good). Dad left Mom with me and I took her back to Dallas since her car was parked at my house. I got a lot of sleep that night in my cozy bed snuggled up with my boyfriend and 2 dogs (we need a bigger bed). Thursday I went back to see my cutey patooty nephew. Now I know what people talk about when they say babies smell so good. He smelled amazing and I could have eaten his little feet up they were so tiny and cute!!! I didn’t get to have these type experiences with my niece since she was born in Indiana. Michael, Claire & Corbin went home that Friday, and had a check up appointment on that Saturday. Poor little Corbin had to spend the weekend in a light box because he was having jaundice issues. He is all good and healthy now and still cute as a bug. Just wish they would have come to my birthday party this past weekend (okay when I originally wrote this it was right after the weekend of May 8th when we had a family get together for my birthday).