Here's the deal

Ok...Here's the deal...hubby just called and said he and I were invited to the Championship game in Arizona (OSU! OSU!). The tickets are FREE but we have to take care of the airfare...the way I figure it, if I can get 1,000 bloggers to read my blog and each one sends me $1.00, that would just about cover it ;) So, what do you say bloggers...wanna help a poor, old, overworked mother (as if there is any other kind) with 3 teenage sons, spend 2 nights and 3 days ALONE WITH HER HUSBAND for the first time in 14 years? I think the OHN charity is even tax deductible ;) WOW--just thinking about it make me all quivery...Phoenix in January--probably won't be any snow--maybe even a pool, and no teenagers for 3 whole days....all I need is the bucks (clever pun intended), someone to stay at our house so above mentioned teenaged boys don't have ANY fun while we are gone and I need to lose 30 pounds by January 7th. (The other couple that invited us will be sharing a room with us and the wife is hot and 15 years younger than me.) Let me know if you need my mailing address or paypal address.....y'all know you want me to go :) Loads of love from your best blog friend in the world.

wild animals

I have always been a "dog person". Never have I ever owned a cat, in fact I thought I didn't like cats. One day about 6 years ago Son#1 was sledding with friends and when it was time for me to pick him up, he asked if a friend could come home too...."sure" I said...always glad to welcome buddies over for hot chocolate and a movie. As I arrived and he was walking over to the car alone I asked him where is friend was....um, he is in my coat mom~ HUH? Yeah--he found an adorable little guy crying his heart out, skinny, freezing (think 17 degrees outside), and obviously hungry. Well, being the "dog person" I am, I said sure, we will take him home, and find out where he lives and take him home. Well...I called 13 area vets, 2 animal shelters, 15 neighbors and nobody was missing a cat. My biggest problem at that moment was I KNEW NOTHING ABOUT CATS--and hubby thought that the only thing cats were good for was target practice (he was only joking but he had never been a "cat person" either). We scrambled to the store, I bought a cheap litter box, a couple of cans of food and came home to the most frightened kitty I had ever seen. He inhaled 2 cans of food and crawled under my desk and went to sleep. That is how we got cat #1. About a year later son#2 was getting a haircut and outside of the shop there was a lady with a shopping cart full of kitties...I immediately started talking to son to distract what I knew would be inevitable if he saw the cart 'o kitties. Yep, we ended up with cat #2 (he is the one laughing in the above photo, yes...he does laugh). Fast forward several years...we are all still "dog people" but we have become "cat people" too. Clean, easy, quiet, cuddly--dare I say possibly the easiest pet on earth! Having just lost both our dogs in the last couple of months..I am glad my kitties are here to distract me. I will stop now, I am beginning to sound like the weird cat lady..you know the one that has 75 cats and you can smell her house 1/2 mile away.

I'm getting worried

When #3 son was ready to start school, I decided that it was time for me to get back to a "real" job. I had been doing daycare at home and it was fun but I was ready to actually use my intelligence for something other than reenactment scenes from Barney. My background between college and arrival of #1 son, (13 years) had all been medical so it only made sense that I stick to what I knew. The only problem was if I went back to working at our hospital I would be stuck with crappy shifts and have to deal with an administration that was less than "fun". Anyway, I told hubby that I wanted to work somewhere flexible, maybe be my own boss, be here to get the kids on the bus in the morning and off in the afternoon, be able to stay home from work if the school called and said one of the little love's was puking and needed to come home and of course I needed to make money (after all that is why I was going to work in the first place). Once he picked himself up off the floor laughing he told me to tell him when I found that job cause he wanted to work there too. Well within 2 weeks, I was up and running with my own company. I contacted some of the docs that I had worked with all those years and told them I have a computer, time and a hell of a lot of experience in a variety of medical arena's and then I asked them what I could provide for them. I landed my first client, handling his office transcription. With my expansive experience in various areas of medicine and the fact that he knew my work ethic he hired me TO WORK FROM HOME~EUREKA! He then told one of his doc buddies about me and within 2 more weeks I had 4 accounts (talk about timing, the lady that was handling all those accounts closed up shop abruptly so I rode in on my white horse and cleaned up her mess, endearing me to my new clients.) Let me tell you I LOVE MY JOB. I am the best boss in the world(no I am not completely conceited, that is what my staff tells me). Now I am getting to the worried part. It seems like fewer and fewer docs are using transcription services. I have added several clients over the years but lost some due to their retirement. I switched all my clients over to digital and with the wonder of the internet, I can have accounts anywhere in the world. The problem is many offices are now "owned" by large corporations (ie: hospitals) and have their own network they use for their office transcription/charting. That doesn't bother me as much as the ones that go offshore for service. It is reeeeeeally unfair and down right un-American besides, how can I compete with someone that is only making $3.00 a day-and is happy with it?! Anyway, this weekend I am going to send out another mass mailing and see if I can pick up more work. I have the best staff in the world and I don't want to lose them because I can't keep them busy enough. God forbid that I should have to go get a "real" job.

World's worst parent award

I was reading Smarshy's blog and it reminded me of the time that I most felt like the worst parent in the world. Son #1 was in second grade and his teacher asked if he had ever worn glasses. He had not and had passed the little exam they give at school every year so I never thought to go to a real eye doctor for an exam. He was reading and writing by age 4 so nothing seemed amiss. Here is where the worlds worst mother comes in.....I took him to a doc in town here and she said he did in fact need glasses. The day we picked them up, he put them on, we walked outside and he stopped dead in his tracks. He looked at me and said, "look Mom $%&(+# is at the theater", naming the name of the movie on the marquee. The theater was the next block up and this was the first time he had ever been able to see that distance. I stood there feeling like I had robbed this poor child of vision for the first 7 years of his life. On the drive home, he was staring at the trees. He never knew that you could see individual leaves on trees when you weren't standing right in front of them. I still feel bad about it. None of the signs were there. He was excelling in school, reading, writing and never even knew that he couldn't see, until he got his glasses and realized what things really looked like. I don't know if I will ever forget that day and I am sure he wouldn't remember it even if I reminded him. Parental guilt-like a kick in the gut.

Sad day

Those of you that are not animal lovers won't understand this post but those of you that have ever had a special 4 legged friend will totally get this. Today at 4 pm we have to have our Tucker put to sleep. It is time. Time for him, not us. If it were up to us we would keep him around till he couldn't move but actually we are almost there. He has had a better life than many of the humans in this crazy world. It is just so hard to play God. I don't like deciding when life is over. I talked to a couple vets and they assured me that a quiet death while Tucker was sleeping in his own bed would be very rare so we have to take charge. I did extensive internet research about what I could give him before bed one night that would ease him to the "other side"..I couldn't find anything that would work for certain and most things could cause pain or distress, so off we go to the dreaded trip to the vet. There will be a hole in my heart. I have made everyone promise they won't get me a surprise puppy for Christmas, I couldn't take that right now. But, putting it all in perspective, reading all the posts of the horrible trials of infertility and loss that many of you (and I) have had this is a small blip on the radar, but it is my radar and it's gonna suck for awhile.

18 years ago today

I don't know if anyone even reads this blog but just in case, I wanted to share the letter that I wrote this morning to our birthday boy. There are so many people struggling with infertility as we did and maybe this will show them a different way to make a family. I am feeling a little emotional today. I do on each birthday. I not only celebrate his day but I also think about his birth mom. I know she is thinking about him too. By my calculations she would be about 34-35 or so and most likely has a husband and children. I have very mixed feelings....I would love to meet her to thank her for her very unselfish act, but I also would be afraid--afraid that they may connect on a level that I won't understand. Dear **** Eighteen years ago today a wonderful baby was born. We had no idea at the time that we were going to be blessed with him as our son. From the moment you were placed in my arms, I completely adored you and knew you would be special. Not just in the normal "every baby is special" way. There was something in your eyes that day that gave me such peace and hope for the future. Each day you progressed you proved me right over and over. There was never a baby that was more loved than you. First by two very loving young people that wanted you to have every possibility in life to thrive, then by Dad and I who promised to fulfill that hope. You have become a wonderful young man. My wish for you is to have the amazing life you so deserve~ happiness, love, contentment and confidence. If you have those, everything else falls into place. Because of who you are, your life will be full of endless possibilities. Don’t ever be afraid to follow your heart. I know you like to keep your heart hidden at times, but those same eyes I saw as an infant are still showing the spirit that you can't hide from me. I love you more than you can understand at this point in your life. If you have a son one day, only then you may understand how much you mean to me. I love you and am so very proud of the man you have become.

HAIR PANTS

My office is in my home. I spend my days working with the best staff. Above is Tucker. He guards my office door relentlessly except to go eat, and pee, and hopefully not at the same time. He is very very old but his tail still wags furiously when I come back from a long time away (like taking trash to the garage or going out front for the mail). Poor Tucker has cancer and his days are numbered and I think I will probably miss him more than I would miss some of the people in my family. Tucker loves me all the time-I can be completely stinky, have horrendous breath, wear my hair up (I have really ugly ears so I don't do that in public), have mountains of dirty laundry, and make crappy dinners, he doesn't care and I love him for that and for many reasons. I especially love his hair pants. Because he is old, he walks like an old man, shuffling and stiff legged and it looks like he is wearing hair pants.

Some people just don't get it.

I have tried to post several times and for some reason it hasn't saved...don't know if it is Blogger or me but I am going to try one more time. We survived Halloween (I am not a big fan of spending hard earned money on candy that is to be given to anyone over the age of 10 or 11 that just happens to grab a pillowcase out of the closet, throw on a wig and come begging). The day I went to buy the candy (actually October 31st), I was obviously very late in getting my purchase because the only candy the store had was CHRISTMAS CANDY, candy canes, chocolate covered cherries, Christmas Hershey kisses etc. I had a choice to either hit the regular candy aisle and pay way more than I wanted to, or I could give the little buggers the freshest, first batch of Christmas Candy. I went with the regular aisle--I didn't want the neighbor kids to think I was weird. I have them all fooled into thinking that my kids have the coolest mom (my kids don't feel that way but their friends tell them I am). I had one mom (not a neighbor but a classmates mom) a few years back snidely comment that I was the neighborhood "popsicle mom." She meant it as an insult but I didn't take it that way because when the other parents shoo the kiddies out the door in the morning and tell them not to return till dinner, I am the one whose house they come to. This particular woman was laughing at me but guess whose kid is in trouble now?? Yep--little bugger got caught with illegal substances. Mom probably doesn't have a clue that I could have predicted this way back when she was snickering about the "popsicle mom".