Want to laugh?

We taught the kids to play Charades.  It was funny.  I wrote out cards like "washing your hair" and "Cinderella".  Alex got the card that said "ballerina" and decided to dance an arm-flailing head-shaking dance.  Amazingly, no one could guess what he was.  When I suggested he could end the charade by doing some of the "right" dance moves, he put his hands above his head and spun in circles.  Right away the girls knew he was a ballerina. 
Ashley got "Cinderella".  After 5 full minutes of prop planning and putting on her "fancy" shoes, she walked from the kitchen to the living room, kicked one of her shoes off, and kept going.  She was utterly successful which was made even more perfect by the fact that our friend, Rob, had already drawn that card and didn't know how to do it.  Way to show up the grown ups, Squeak!
Annie was fantastic in the entire game.  She remembered the rules of no talking, she acted with ease and flair, and she guessed right off the bat and with gusto.  We may be finding ourselves with an actress on our hands.  Keep your eyes peeled for Annie starring on the silver screen.

FYI

I am graduating from Washington State University with a BA in human development, a certificate in early childhood, and a minor in general science this semester. I walk on May 8th at 1130 am.
Hooray for me!
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I did, I do, and I'd do it again

it's April Fool's Day again. Or it will be in 45 minutes. That means that in 45 minutes I will have officially been married to my best friend for 2 years.
I love my Aiden. I love his bravery, I love his drive. I love that he takes such good care of our family. I love that he likes cleaning (seriously BIG bonus in that one!).
I love that I have been happier than I knew I could be for the past 3 years that we have been together. Everything I have had to lose to find happiness and love that is truly unconditional has been worth it. I wish everyone could have a life as great as this. But since not everyone gets to, I sure am glad it's me that got it!

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Cue the Jeopardy theme song

Is it no longer recommended that people involved in an argument or discussion (which is just code for "argument", really) stop and think before they fly off at the mouth? Because I have been the reigning champ of fly off at the mouth my whole life. So I decided to try this "gather your thoughts before you proceed method" lately. I have tried it twice and both times the "argument" ended without me.
These were both fairly large "discussions" (one way the heck larger, to be sure) full of emotion and feelings. So maybe it is really just seen as a way to surrender to the other side? But I have more to say. And I am not very likely to bring the whole thing up again, with either party, so now these issues will just sit and fester, unresolved, until the next time.
Maybe I need to think faster or just remove my feelings from the situation.
Or maybe everyone should just remember what even my ex finally found to be true which is that I AM ALWAYS RIGHT!
Hmm...
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So much to say

But I'm going to wait until I can be clear and not strictly emotional.

The problem with blogs is that they are not just online journals where you can say everything you want to, people who kind of know you read this, too, and then there's that fallout.
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The doctor is in.

But the receptionist's minds are out!

Ready for this fun bit of oversharing? I am having a lady problem so I called my doctor's office to order a prescription of diflucan to clear it up. (I warned about oversharing). They have this receptionist who is somewhat new (less than 6 months-ish) and irritates the living crap out of me. She's about 60 and has this reallllllly short hair which she then puts little tiny bow barrettes in.
In the bangs.
"Seriously?" You ask
Seriously.
So she answers the phone and I smother my dry heave when I hear her duck voice (like when someone's tongue is too big for their mouth?) and say I would like to order a prescription for a yeast infection pill. "Hmmm... Is this a prescription you normally get?"
Uh, when I need to!
"Well, when I need it, I call in and order it. It's not like it comes with refills or anything"
I can see she wants me to call and order it through my pharmacy. I also know, because I have dealt with this doctor's office more than she has, that they won't fill this prescription that way.
It took 3 minutes of discussing how I only need it sometimes and what her job should now be with that nugget of information before she moved on. (Yes, I timed it)
"Well," she said in that sensual voice of hers (seriously, you hear it from the bottom of her throat but it's all phlegmy. It's just sooo lovely), "what symptoms are you having?"
..
Normally this is not an out of line question, right? IF YOU ARE A NURSE!!! This lady is NOT a nurse. She is not even close to a nurse. She is a receptionist who can't, after 6 months, ask questions in the right order. (She asked my birthdate, then my issue, then my name. Every OTHER receptionist goes birthdate, name, issue. So guess how I believe the system works)
By now, my kind, patient, placating mood had worn thin.
"YEAST INFECTION type symptoms!!!"
"Oh. And what medication do you normally take for that?"

My question is, are there really NO other candidates to fire from that job? No one lasts more than a year anyway. Can't we skip ahead to the next dingleberry brained person and get rid of this twit? (I just called an old person a twit. Accurately.)

She eventually decided that I had been tormented enough and informed me that my doctor I regularly see is in today so she would forward all this to her nurse, that the forwarding wouldn't be a problem, and that the nurse would call with questions.

I felt like King Arthur, searching for the holy grail of oral diflucan, trying to cross the troll's bridge. "WHAT are your symptoms?!"
In fact, she may now be synonomous in my head with Dora the Explorer's Grumpy Old Troll song
"I'm the grumpy old trollll who lives under the [desk], Hey! I'm the grumpy old trollllll who lives under the [desk]. "

You think the fun is over? Oh no! It's only half done. Because then I had to call Alex's doctor to refill his meds.
The receptionists there are usually fantastic. Not so much, today.
First, they wanted my name. Before his name. Uh, okay.
"Holly Young"
"Hmm, how do you spell your name?"
What?!? It's reallllly hard.
"H-O-L-L-Y" pause "Y-O-U-N-G"
"Okay, and what's your last name?"

WTF is it today??? Is there some receptionist brain sucking alien out there? Because I seriously doubt they all got together and made the resolution to be significantly dumber on the phone.

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Female Pattern Baldness

So, do you want to know all the things wrong with me? I'm going to type and maybe some will come out. We'll find out together.

I had my gallbladder removed a year and a half ago. After that I lost a lot of weight in a short amount of time. It started in May. In August, I went to my doctor and asked why my hair was falling out. She placated me and tested my thyroid but said the handful of hair was "totally normal hair loss" for one shower. Um, NOT FOR ME, or I wouldn't have bothered coming in.

That would be like going to the doctor because my eyes are STILL BROWN! *shocked and appalled look*

Whatever, after that, I started back to school, packed on a bunch more fat (all I had lost plus some, for extra fun). Well, when I started this diabetic-esque diet this fall, I started feeling like I was losing weight. Turns out, I was. About a month ago, I found I was again holding handfuls of hair by the end of my shower. It was the craziest thing.

FINALLY, I put it all together. When your body loses weight, it also loses hair. Something about how the hair cycle gets interrupted and then when you begin maintaining a weight again, your hair resumes growth and actually comes in healthier and thicker than before. So that's good, now if only I can make sure I don't take so long to lose weight that I go totally bald before it's able to grow again!

PS, that picture is NOT of my head.

PPS, I did not share some of the things I thought I might so you're safe. :o)

Resolutely Unresolute.

I think I am going to start a new year's resolution about blogging more often.

Now I just need to find something fun to say.

Last night we went to Goretti's house for New Year's Eve. The kids laid around on the floor watching movies while the adults crocheted and were, generally, OLD about the whole evening.
I have never understood the draw to celebrating New Year's. It just seems really unfair to the rest of the months. Why don't we stay up and watch a ball drop and have fireworks to welcome in any of the other months? And then? Then we take the first day of the year off. We close the stores that don't HAVE to be opened, management always takes the day off, and we set a FANTASTIC precedent for the entire new year! Oy!
Anyway, before we went to Manzo's house we were playing the Moulin Rouge soundtrack and singing along like crazy people, as per usual. Aiden told Annie she's not allowed to marry anyone until he loves her as much as Aiden loves her mom (ME!). She very reverently accepted this rule. It was funny, though, that he said that because I was thinking about how the girls won't be allowed to marry anyone who is not willing to sing Come What May to her. Or any of the other fantastical love songs. Great minds, we are, thinking alike.


Last night was the first time ever that any of the kids made it to midnight. Alex and Annie both made it. The cute part was that Ashley came and crawled up on my lap and said she was ready to go to bed. I love it when she, or any of the kids for that matter, listen to their bodies and admit they are tired.





On a completely different note, but still all about me, I lost 25 pounds, give or take, this semester. I was given a diagnosis of being pre-diabetic (stupid fat fat FAT) in September and then lost my insurance until December. So I have not actually gone to the doctor to get all my blood sugar devices yet (I go on Tuesday). Anyway, since I had gestational diabetes with Ashley, I sort of knew what I was doing without the dang finger pokes and just went to a somewhat modified diabetic diet.


For those of you that don't know, that basically means low carb. I can SOOOO do low carb. It's like a game. And while I cannot lose weight for the life of me (literally), I can win games! So I didn't weigh myself until Christmas break. And I was down 25 pounds before you account for heavier clothes and boots and stuff.

(I do my weighing on the scale at Rite Aid and was not in the mood to stand there and take off as much as possible to still be decent in public while weighing in. Hence, the boots and coat and stuff stayed ON)(which is also why this is not being posted from JAIL!)

Guess What

It's a post! I didn't die! I'm still alive and kicking and here. Just haven't been HERE, per se.

Tons happened since the last actual post. Mom, I'm sorry about that last one there, I don't have a right to "publicly" blogflog you (I made that up. I'm going to copyright it!) when I own half of this relationship. I love you and I am sorry.

So.... I turned the big 3-0 yesterday. and I am still alive today, so that's good. I wasn't actually that worried about it. I don't mind getting older, just make the jokes because it's what one is supposed to do somehow. Couple that expectation with the fact that I am hi-larious (and oh so modest!) and there you have me, making jokes about aging when I don't actually mind at all.

It is kind of strange, though, to be in my 14th senior year of college (or something), turning 30, and surrounded by my friends who are all turning 21 this semester.

Not ALL of them, but a good portion anyway.

Another friend of mine turned 20 on November 30th. I had a great deal of aging pain when I realized for TEN WHOLE DAYS ONLY we were in our 20s together.

Now, still talking about getting older.... I have 5 classes this semester. One of them is Human Development: Adults and Aging. My birthday was on the last day of lecture for the class. In an ultimate act of irony (and sorry if this spoils the ending for you) my birthday lecture day was over the very end: DEATH. It was a great way to turn 30.

*sigh*

I miss my mom.

I miss the relationship we had before we didn't talk for 5 months, basically. I miss the friendship I get to have with her when my siblings are not living in her house. I miss what it feels like to feel important to her. I miss knowing that she is proud of me and my kids. I miss being able to talk to her about anything I want. I miss being able to talk to her at all.

Whatever.