The spinning is coming to a halt...

Just got home from my parents' house. Mom is doing MUCH better today. She actually made the appointment with her regular doctor for a follow-up. In the meantime, he prescribed some kind of medication (which of course, she couldn't remember the name of!) for the dizziness, and wants her to take it everyday for a week, then stop the next week, and see if it makes any difference. He said that she can then take it as needed.

Did I ever tell you about my parent's GP? Actually, he's also my mother & father-in-law's doctor, and my friend's parents also go to him. EVERYONE loves him. Well, Joe, their doctor, actually went to high school with me!!! How hilarious is that?! My parents were the last of this group to start seeing him. When I told my mom we went to high school together, she says, "Well, we can't go to this kid!" Um...yeah...mom? I'm OLD!! Trust me, he's a full-fledged doctor!!

She got over it pretty quickly. He's a VERY successful physician, and I'm really happy for him. He actually runs the rehab facility that my father-in-law is in right now. He's a big-wig in the Adult Medicine dept at the hospital. In a nutshell, he's done pretty damn well for himself!

Another one of my friends from high school became a neurosurgeon. Way to make me feel like a loser, guys!! The three of us had almost every class together for 4 years. I'm a disgrace to my fellow nerds. :(

This nerd is so ready for bed. CSJ has to work all night, so I'm going to curl up with a good book, and enjoy having my bed all to myself tonight. (Is that bad?)

Day 17

Happy Father's Day! I hope you had a nice one with your dad/grandpa/husband, whoever.

We spend the day sweating our asses off at a picnic, but it's what my dad wanted so we sucked it up. At least Monkey was there to cheer us up. I'm too tired to upload any photos right now, so maybe tomorrow.

CSJ had to work (of course!) so he was gone all day, then went straight to the rehab facility to see his dad. Oh, yeah, I forgot to update you all on that. In a nutshell, they released him from the hospital on Thursday, but he's now in a rehab facility because the knee he just had surgery on needs to heal properly. Anyway, CSJ went from the rehab place to his mom's to hang out with his sisters for a while. He very conveniently missed the whole picnic. Stud and I didn't get home until about 9:30, so he really didn't spend any time with his dad today. They did spend quite a bit of time texting back and forth during the day.

CSJ came home from his mother's with a gift for ME. His crazy sisters all got together and got me a gift to thank me for all I do for my in-laws. They are so nuts!! I wish they'd realize I do what I do out of love for them, just like THEY do. As far as I'm concerned, they have been my "other" parents for 27 years now. Nonetheless, I really appreciate the gift. I will take a picture of it for you tomorrow.

Right now, I've gotta hit the sack. I'm exhausted. Far too much time in the heat today for this little penguin. :)

Day 13

Wednesday, June 13, 2012
What makes your heart leap?

Leap in a good way?

• Spending time with my Monkey
• Spending quality time with Stud Muffin, which is so rare these days, now that he's a college boy :(
• Spending quality time with CSJ, which is on the increase these days :)
• Spending quality time with the babies, without all the politics and bureaucratic bullshit getting in the way

Leap in a bad way?

• Phone calls in the middle of the night
• Not being able to find Stud, especially late at night, when he's out, and his damn phone is OFF

~~~~
FIL update of the day. They didn't end up doing the angiogram until this afternoon. Thankfully, they didn't find anything. Unfortunately, they didn't find anything. We're thrilled there aren't any blockages, but now we still don't know what is causing the problem. When CSJ got home from work we went to the hospital to visit, but FIL was still completely out of it. They plan to keep him drugged up the rest of the night, so he won't be in pain.

Part of why he's been in so much pain is that his arthritis makes it unbearable for him to lie flat on his back, yet with all the surgeries he's had lately, that's what's been happening. Not only is he flat on his back for the duration of these surgeries, the operating table is nothing more than a slab of hard steel. Not good.

Now that he's had the angiogram, he needs to remain flat on his back for whatever the requisite amount of time is (I know it used to be 24 hours, but now I think it might be 12?) and he couldn't do that if he was awake. He has very severe RA, so the pain is a big issue.

OK, enough about that. Thank you ALL so much for your kind thoughts, comments, prayers, etc.

Let me leave on a VERY happy note - I have one and a half days of school left!! Woo hoo!! Oh, and today is Monkey's 11 month birthday. I can't believe that in one short month, she'll be a year old!! How the HELL did that happen?!?

Day 12

Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Where is your favourite place to be?

Short answer - home

Slightly longer answer - home, in/on my bed, with something good to read, my computer, my iPod (for playing games, reading eBooks) and something to drink, all surrounding me.

OR

Out on my deck, in my hammock, with most of those same things around me. =)

OR

Cuddling on my bed/couch with Stud Muffin or CSJ (or both, if I'm especially blessed!!) either watching a movie, or reading, or just talking.

A little update on my FIL:
We just got home from visiting him at the hospital. Yesterday, when he first got there, they thought maybe he had a blood clot somewhere, but by last night, they ruled that out. They figured it was just his nearly 80 year old heart being overworked by all that's been going on with him lately. While we were visiting, the nurse came in to let us know they would be taking him for an angiogram (sp?) tomorrow morning. Hopefully, they'll be able to take care of whatever blockages they find. The last time he had one done, the arteries that were blocked were too small to insert a stent, so they left them. We'll see what they say tomorrow. Thanks to all of you for your well-wishes for him. Keep the good thought and prayers coming. He can use all he can get!

He never ceases to amaze me... (updated)

I was sitting on my bed, talking to Bestest Friend, when I heard a snowblower in my neighbor's driveway. I assumed it was the guy across the street, who usually shovels/snowblows for her. Suddenly, massive amounts of snow were being thrown against my bedroom window. I didn't really give it too much thought, since I knew it was being thrown from the machine. I did, however, get up after a few minutes to look out the window, and saw several of my neighbors out shoveling in front of their houses. As I joked with Bestest Friend about my industrious neighbors, and my ABSOLUTE laziness, I wandered out to my living room. I took a peek out my front door and saw this:

Oh my hell, it was CSJ!!! I had been listening to the snowblower for about 30 minutes at this point, but like I said, I assumed it was my neighbor.


He literally just left. All told, I think he was out there for nearly 3 hours. He did pretty much the whole section of street in front of my house, my neighbors' sidewalks on both sides of me, and both their driveways. My driveway is crazy big for a typical Chicago lot (it's a double-wide, and about 100 feet long, if not more) so it took him a while. He must have had his dad drop him off, and he used his snowblower, which is a really nice one.

Right before he left, I suddenly heard a loud "BOOM" on the side of my house, which scared the shit out of me! I ran to Stud's room to try and look out the window, but couldn't see anything. I then went to the front window, while there was another 'boom.' When I looked out, I saw a truck, with a plow, barreling down my driveway, toward the street. He did it a couple more times, then pulled out into the street, got out, and yelled something to CSJ, then left.
*UPDATE* I just got the scoop from CSJ. I guess his dad met this guy at the gas station, and asked him to come to my house and plow. But, by the time they got there (because my FIL got stuck) CSJ was already pretty much finished. He made a couple of passes, but there was hardly any snow that needed to be removed. My FIL still paid him $30 because the guy waited around while my FIL was stuck.

There was also a big truck with a trailer parked in the street. It was CSJ's dad, who came back to pick him up. I am ever so thankful to the both of them. Except now, I have no excuse to not go to work tomorrow, since now I can get out of my garage. tee hee!

For the second day in a row...

...the Big Cheese came on the intercom, about 10 minutes before dismissal, to tell us that there has been an unusually high amount of gang activity going on in the neighborhood, and that everyone should basically get the hell out of Dodge! He told the kids they should go straight home, and not linger on the playground or around the school. He told the teachers to go to their cars as quickly as possible and leave the area. WTF? Apparently, yesterday morning there was shooting going on right outside at about 9, which is when school starts. One of my friends/coworkers told me she was standing out on the front steps talking to a parent, and actually saw the shooter. She saw the guy raise the gun, and then saw the flash and gunpowder "puff" around his hand. And THEN she came inside and managed to TEACH ALL DAY! They sure as hell don't pay us enough!

Between this nonsense, and the fact that my kids bugged me all day today (I don't know, I must be PMSing) I decided to take a mental health day tomorrow. My son does not have school tomorrow, so we'll get to hang out together. Actually, my in-laws just bought him a bed, and it's being delivered tomorrow, so now I'll be here to let them in, so it all works out perfectly.

Since I'll have some free time tomorrow, I plan to come back and finish the post about the babies. I have many more cute pictures to share, plus some funny things they've said. I've been trying to keep track of the funnies by emailing them to myself as soon as I get a chance. This seems to work better than writing it down. Probably because I never remember to bring the damn papers home, or I lose them in my purse, or whatever. This way, they sit in my inbox until I get around to posting them.

OK, off to clean out Studly's room to make room for his new QUEEN size bed. He's so damn spoiled!

In your face, HWW!

I keep forgetting to share this little story with all my Blogistan buddies. A couple of weeks ago, and shortly after CSJ and HWW were married, my mother-in-law was over because she had picked up my son from school. We had gone down in the basement so she could see the latest progress on the remodel. After my son went upstairs, she leaned over and whispered, "I wanted to wait until L was gone to tell you that I hope you know nothing has changed for us. Dad and I have been talking about it, and we want you to know that we love you, and you'll always be important to us. We don't care who he's married to, you're L's mom, and we love you. Nothing has changed, and we don't want you to feel like you're being pushed out." It was really very sweet.

Well, yesterday, I had called my in-law's house to see if my son was there (because my MIL picks him up every Thursday) and my FIL answered the phone. They weren't there (they were on their way to my house) but I had a short, pleasant conversation with my FIL. You know, the usual stuff, how have you been, how's the arthritis, what's new, and so on. After a few minutes, I say, "OK, Dad, well, I'll talk to ya later." and he says, "You know, I want to make sure you know you're still #1. Ma and I don't care who the hell he's married to, you'll always be #1 to us, and we love you. And, we told N (aka CSJ) that. Nothing has changed for us."

Are you getting the feeling they don't care for HWW very much? And, I'm sure CSJ just LOVED hearing that from his parents. Haha! I just hope they don't think I'm going to follow in my MIL's footsteps, though, and wait around for CSJ to come to his senses and realize everything he threw away. She did that with my FIL. They (finally!) divorced when CSJ was in high school, my FIL ended up marrying some hillbilly piece of white trash (sound familiar?!) who eventually divorced him, too. Then, he had the nerve to ask my MIL if he could come back. Obviously, she said yes, and they've been living together for a little over 14 years now. They're still divorced, but he has all the benefits of a wife. He has someone to cook and clean for him, do his laundry, haul his ass to doctors' appointments, etc. But, you know what, they're happy, so who am I to judge, right? My point was, I'm not going to sit around, ALONE, waiting until I'm in my 60s for CSJ to come back! I really, truly think there's a small part of my MIL that hopes that happens, only because she wants us to be together. Sorry, Ma, I can't do that.