27 April 2009

Time Out

The other morning the kid and I were hanging out getting ready for our Friday when things ran a little a muck. While I was getting our to go bag ready he was running back and forth screaming like a grade school girl. Then the kid started in on hitting the dogs with various vacuum parts.
"R, we don't hit the dogs. Use nice hands."
"RRRuuuuuu." Grits teeth while shaking vacuum part. Hits Katie.
"R, no hitting. Nice Hands."
Hits Katie.
"Do you want a time out?"
Smiles. "Yeah."
"Okay. Then go put yourself in time out."
Walks over to the time out spot and sits down. Fake cries.

Seriously, what are you supposed to do after that? Who is in charge? Clearly it is not me.

24 April 2009

20 April 2009

Worth the wait

Living in Colorado can be challenging but not in a bad way. It is challenging in a personal growth way. (How is that for optimism?) It teaches a person to be patient. We wait for beautiful sunny weather to stick around with out interruptions. We wait for our state economy to catch up with the rest of the US. We wait for the redneck cowboy ideals to slowly dissipate. We wait for local medicaid and insurance offices to get it right (damn it!)

On top of waiting for change on Colorado, I have been waiting for myself. Yes, myself. To wake up and make it on time all of the time. To learn what it means when someone is two, just two (not even.) To let go and be a little more understanding of others and where they are in their lives.

So during all this waiting some great and encouraging things have happened:
1. Made it on time to my 8:00 appt.
2. Made it on time with a cute spring outfit AND make up on.
3. Felt the wonderful support of a new friend.
4. Despite the fact I feel money is flying out the window we added to our net savings.
5. Got paid from an insurance company. (This should be old hat but it still is exciting each time it happens)
6. Peonies made it through the freak snow/rain storm. (Note: it is not really freak weather in Colorado since pretty much every March and April have acted this way in the last NINE years I have lived here. This is part of the Colorado personal challenge. I have to wait to garden. Hence I learn patience....OVER and OVER)
7. Started reading once again
8. Feeling the love towards my spouse--even when he is grumpy.
9. Even though SF lost my SEP check I can still contribute the money I need to for 2008.
10. Navigating the medicaid system is much easier now.

A person spends 1/3 their lives waiting. I guess we had better make it worth while.

15 April 2009

Is This For Real?

Did I mention if one more thing goes wrong I am going to BLOW???
This is my blog so I will whine if I want to. If you don't want to listen then don't read it.

Date back to March 26th. I make an appointment with State Farm to open a SEP retirement plan before I file taxes for 2008. Needs to get done now because we leave on vacation April 3rd. Have to make another appointment because the corporate office was closed.
New appointment is set for March 30th. Agent cancels appointment because corporate did not get paper work.
Sweating.
New appointment set for April 2nd 8:00 am. Kid gets sick the night before and Jason and I pull an all nighter. Manage to make the appointment.
Fill out paper work, make copies, write check and MAIL it! Whew.

April 11th Get back from vacation. Have SEP paperwork from SF. Account established April 8th. Great.

April 14th Look at bank account to make payment on credit card. Note high balance. Huh? Look to see if SEP check has cleared. No. For the love of Bob.

April 15th call SF. Nate tells me there is no image of my check. For CRAPS SAKE! They will have to do a file search. Super. They lost my $$$$ check.

BLOW!

Did I mention my period was 5 days late and I have some crappy rash left over from strep. Whaa. Whaa. Whaa.

PS. Happy flippin' tax day.

10 April 2009

Put Some Windex on It

While we were in on one of the open water dives in Bonaire I had a panic attack and had to be talked back down under the ocean. Once the instructor and I were back down on the bottom with Jason and the naked guy (That is another story) some nasty invisible ocean creature stung my arm (That bastard!). So, after we were finished with our dive I was inspecting my stings that looked like small blisters and Pepe, the dive instructor, came by.
"Oh! Put some windex on it! Hold on!"
What? You are sh@$#g me, right? Pepe comes over with a bottle filled with blue fluid with a taped over label that says "after sting" and sprays me with windex.
The stings were gone the next day.

All of those people who watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding are now laughing all others are like - what is the point?....


For pictures of our adventures in open water visit Randy's blog:
http://www.rubbercow.com/travel-log/
We are on page one and two...

07 April 2009

Scuba-doba-do

Yesterday was divine. I had so much fun with the husband. It had been a long time since we had that much fun. Drove around the Washington Slaggbaai National Park for five hours. Saw crazy new birds, blow holes and beautiful "mountains" (they are really hills). Ended the day snorkeling at Slaggbaai (all the sites have strange names). Super awesome snorkel site.

But today...we scubaed. My first and second official dive. It was so unexpected. The reef just drops off into the great blue Atlantic. I thought it would be flatter. The dive instructor kept pointing out fish (big sturgeon I thought were sharks) and Jason as off in finding Nemo land. Here is a brief re-cap of what I was doing....

Breathe
Breathe
Equalize
Don't touch the coral..Don't touch it...you will kill it
Breathe
Equalize
You're too floaty come down.....too much! too much! Don't touch the coral you will kill it.
Repeat for 51 minutes and end dive.

05 April 2009

Paradise Day Two


SLEPT IN TILL 10!
Snorkeled
Went for ice cream
Cooked out on the grill
Watched the sunset
Rocked in the hammock

04 April 2009

Getting to paradise

It was a long road. Not just in the geographical sense.
Today is Saturday and Monday seems a life time ago. Monday I thought to my self if one more thing goes wrong before this damn vacation I will blow.
Things kept going wrong. Every dang day. Oddly or fortunately I did not have the energy to blow up. Not even when I found out I have $1300 worth of repairs. Not even when the state farm guy canceled on me for opening a retirement fund before I filed taxes. Not even when the kid got croup. And not even when I went to urgent care 2 hours before we left to find out I have strep.

Why?

This is why...