my mom

about a month ago my mom asked for my help to paint her kitchen. this request came soon after i had just finished my living room. i said i would help. of course true to form, bribery was involved. let's face it, i am a lazy person these days and do not live up my free time with out something. so when mom asked i quickly demanded her famous homemade chocolate chip cookie. she not only said yes but threw in some bagels and lox. 
yes, i can be bribed and that was my price. 
my mom does not ask for a lot in life. a card on her birthday and mother's day, daily emails, and a visit once a month. i know you are saying, " once a month? that's rude.".
well since i do live 80 miles from her (one way peeps!) i do have to plan these things out and when you have ms and chrons, your life becomes one long thought out schedule.
i have to say my mom is good about it. she rather me be healthy than anything else. 
my mom has always been great. sure we had our arguements over the years, but hey haven't we all? my mom is a tough cookie herself. she has been through a lot and never gives up. 
she took care of my dad when he was sick, she always made sure my sister had what we needed and never failed to say "i love you".  i would love to say my parents were jerks, just to beef this up but i can't. i have/had a wonderful mom and dad. i am lucky. 
so where was i going with this? oh yea, painting the kitchen. 
well we finally picked a day to paint. mom had done most of the work and i just had the ceiling to do. now normally this would be an easy thing but since the kitchen table and everything else was still in the room, it was not an easy thing. plus the ceiling fan was still up. as i am trying to paint, i am getting paint every where. as i am painting, i am picturing a million different versions about to happen when my mom came home. she was working at the time. i had paint on the floor, the cabniets, the fan blades and everything else. 
i am picturing her yelling at me for getting paint everywhere, missing places etc. 
funny thing, she walks in the door and tells me what a great job i have done. now personally, i am not thrilled with it but she it. that is one thing i did not get from my parents, OCD!!! i look at it and i cringe. when i hit the fan blades again, all my mom can say, "it's the top of the blade, who is going to see it?" now this statement is something we do share because i tried to use that same logic when we had to move everything out of the living room when we painted. 
when all was done i helped her clean up and then we sat and talked. i have to admit going home at times kind of creeps me out because i still expect after almost 6 years my dad to walk in to the room. a lot has changed in that house. now when you walk in, dad is not sitting at the kitchen table watching tv, the living room is neater since my junk is not there, my bedroom is now a den/computer room and when you walk in you are staring straight at my nephew's face. 
how long does it take before i can walk in to mom's and not miss my dad being there? how my mom does it, is amazing. i know at times she thinks she can still hear him shout something across the room, i do too when i am there. 
my mom is not only brave but the best mom and grandma. my only wish is for my mom to stick around a long, long, long, long while. not for just me but for my nephew. i want her to be there for all the milestone's in his life like my grandparents were there for me and my sister. <3 mom!!!

you might not be excited...

I just found out my phone has an app for the blog!
ok this may not be excited by this but I am. so I thought some testing was in order here.

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this is too funny

yesterday in the course of putting life as i know it back together, thumper came home and i decided to make him help us. 
now as i said, thumper lives upstairs. he was ace's best friend and when he lost his job and apartment, i said he could move in. so he did and found a job. he watches lucky so she is not alone all day. he used to be a raging boozer. then one day he found god and gave it all up. cold turkey. he became someone we don't even know. he thinks he knows everything and has this "holier than thou" attitude. he rarely talks to us, hangs out or has anything to do with us. 
which at this point is fine by me. so long as he takes care of lucky, keeps his mouth shut and gives me money, i don't care what he does. 


now i don't like the idea of devoting a blog to him but what he did yesterday is worth it. 
about 6 months ago he had come home and i was on facebook, of course, and i was sharing something funny with ace. i started telling him about it and thumper looks at me and says 
" you know these people are not real. this is all a scam. it's just stupid. why do you waste your time with people you  don't know?" 
well, you know me, i saw red and had to let him have it. i said to him, " some of these people i do know, they are family, friends i have had for years, friends i lost touch with, and people i share something in common with. some i have met because of diseases we share and can help each other. you on the other hand asshole, hang out with a couple who are in their 70's. so before you open your mouth, look at your own pathic life." 
well with that he said nothing and went to his room. 


to get him to help he needed something from me. he wanted to use my laptop to check his email since the library's computers were full. i said ok since it was just his email. or so i thought. i turned around and saw he was logging into facebook!!!! for a second i thought it was MY page he was trying to log into. he asked me why it wasn't working and i looked and saw his email there. so in a very surprised voice i asked, " you have a facebook page??!?!?!"
he said yes. so i loaded his page and i could not help but asked why. he said he wanted to keep in touch with some girl he met in mexico and when he asked her how he could she said facebook! of course!! silly me!!! 
now i wasn't as mad as i was surprised since this was the ass who gave me shit about it but me being me i could not help myself and start giving him shit about it. smart ass he is he replied, " well i know these people and i talk to them and i have famous friends. very famous. but you would not know them since you do not know any of them." 
huh? are you kidding me? seriously? i could not believe it. ace then said  "so you want to be our facebook friend?" to which thumper said, "no. why would i when i live here."
now trust me i would not add him, nor would ace, but that was rude to say and it was a joke. 
with that he signed off and went upstairs. later on i could not help it, i checked his page. 
famous friends, huh. my ass. mommy, daddy, sister, brother in law, chick from mexico, and some rock stars. 
yeah, that's famous friends alright. 
speaking of which i need to get back to my own page and talk with my friends who are famous for being awesome.

what's up in life

well folks it's been a while. i know i have been very lazy coming back and updating. 
i would come up with some good excuse, but let's face it, i am lazy. 
the last two months have take their toll on me. where do i begin???

i guess i can just start where i left off with the ceiling. we finally found a contractor who not only knows what he is doing but also had the personality of a dead fish. he was not a dog person, something i did not know at the time. anyhow's ace and i had our weeks vacation. the first 2 days were great. the 3rd... well... i was stir crazy and he was making me nuts. 
we fought of course. i woke in a bad mood and he thought it was all about him. 
i seem to get that a lot in life. ace always thinks everything is all about him. 
this mood was just because i am used to a routine and it was broken. when the routine breaks, i freak and have no clue what to do or how to handle it. after a while i calmed down and ace finally picked up the clue. so after that all was well. 
lucky on the other hand did not take it well that  mommy and daddy were still home. i guess we broke her routine too and of course our "wonderful boarder" thumper, (he's another story that really does not need a blog mention. ) made sure not to be home or awake when we were around. 
we spent the days hanging out doing nothing. ace did have his birthday that week and thought turning 35 that day was the end of the world. personally i think some drama king was going on here. i mean, it's 35, i turned 40. did you see me freak? nope! i loved it and yes, i plan on turning 40 again this year. 
well ace had his melt down which included some drunking texting. to our boss!!!! 
yup you read correctly. the text was nothing bad, mean, or actually stupid. all it read was " i am 35 today. we should sit down and talk when i get back from vacation." 
now, i know i went a little overboard but really was that text needed? no. trust me when i say, our boss could care less. i do believe that all text messages should come with a  warning before you hit the send button. "are you sure you want to send this text? seriously? think about that long and hard buddy before you push that send button."
all the apps in the world now and no one has made it. 
in the course of all this, we had to pack up the living room and move everything out. the contractor was coming! let me just say 2 people and a dog should not be confinded to one room. need i say more? lucky was having a tough time with this. she wanted to say hi to mr. dead fish and his helper and could not. she wanted to go to her window was could not. she wanted her life. i don't blame her either. i wanted mine back too. 
so we spent 8 hrs in the kitchen that day. finally we were let out to roam our own house. 
the next night dead fish came back to mud. this went on until thursday when he finally finished that part. by now i had realized that never once did he acknowledge lucky. 
i think she noticed it too since every night since he layed down that tarp, she would pee on it. no joke. now we all know she has a weak bladder, but she never really does this at night. so you know she was pissed. it also did not help that it was light a 100 degrees out and i have no a/c in the living room. i have it in the bedroom but for some reason lucky does not like being in there if the door is closed. she likes to be able to come and go. 
so that did not help matters. 
i think she finally lost it on friday night. we all painted the living room. lucky had to hang out in her room with the door locked. i didn't want her to be able to jump over something and go from a black and white dog to a all white one or worse, lick paint. when we were done for the night, we let her out and gave her back her window. we hung out together for a while and then i told her goodnight. well i guess she was so pissed from being in her room that she peed on the tarp and pooped on it. she also dug out some of the stuffing of the tarp and put it on her poop to hide the evidence. well, lucky me ( no pun intended) i found it. your smart, you can figure out how. 
now it's sunday night and we all have our rooms back. i will admit the result is great but no something i want to do again. lucky is still out of sorts. the past 2 weeks her life was interuppted. here is to hopping we can all get our normal every day lives back and i can have some much needed downtime. 
here is how it came out. 

the ceiling is falling and it won't get up

i have a house that is older than dirt and should have been torn down many years ago.
since day one the money pit has been nothing but a thorn in my side. first it was the pump for the well. that was done within the first week we moved in. a year later was the plumbing, all of it was replaced after the main pipe burst. longer story there.
next was the tree that nearly came down on the house when we had the mirco burst back in july of 2007. too bad the damn tree didn't fall on this place but then we would not be having this conversation.
now it's 2010 and time for another disaster. we come home from work and had the surprise of our life. the living room ceiling came crashing down. how? we have no clue.
what scared us the most was that where the ceiling came down was in the exact spot over the window where lucky sits and of course jumps out of. she normally spends most of her day in that spot. i screamed right away for lucky. we didn't see her and had no idea if she was hurt or what was going on. she came out from her room, still shaking but ok.
this is what we came home too.

lots of plaster came down. we have no idea how. we do know there was high winds that day.
we had lots of rain but there was never any sign of a water leak. so cause is still semi unknown.
ace chalks it up to weather and a roof leak. i say it's a sign that this place needs to go.
either way it's now on to step 2 and 3, insurance companies and contractors.
the worst part has been the contractors. they all have been nice and helpful but their ideas of fixing and mine are light years apart. i am sure this will get fixed in the next few weeks, months, years, whatever. in the meantime, note to self: be present when you have the house inspected before you sign the final papers. otherwise you have a money pit and your inspector will be doing 2-5 for fraud. think he is up for parole now.

the dog jumps over the moon. or she went awol

ok bloggers, you have heard all about my baby. lucky.
did i mention she likes to jump out of windows? she does. i think i started blogging after the first time she did this. so let's go back to last summer and catch up, shall we?

one day last summer, we were on our way home from work when i got a phone call from the best neighbor, dog sitter, and friend. shawnda. she started to tell me a very unsettling story how she looked out her front door and saw lucky on her front lawn.
now not having a clue how this is happening, she goes outside and calls lucky's name. sure enough it's her and she comes running to shawnda. now shawnda has no clue how she got out. she knows we were not home yet. she askes lucky what she is doing out. yeah i know like lucky is suddenly is going to talk. lucky looks at her, grabs something off her lawn and bolts. funny thing she bolts back to our house and is sitting on the deck. shawnda walks over and sees the window wide open and the screen popped out. well now she knows how lucky got out, still confused how a dog would open a window and dismantle a screen, but tells her she has to get back into the house the same way she got out.
lucky jumps back into the house via the window.
shawnda tells me all this. i am seriously freaking out while hearing this and urging my husband to drive a little faster. shawnda says not to worry she will stay at my house and keep and eye on lucky.
we get home and realize how she did this. she stuck her nose under the window, which was open enough for some air, the she banged her nose against the screen until it bent enough so she could push it out. presto, dog escapes.
we ask lucky to show us what she stole, turns out it was this big blue ball with a rope attached. how she got it in her mouth is still a mystery. above is the ball lucky stole.
pretty damn big ball. well from then on said window was only open while we were home.
so this now brings us to summer 2010. it was end of may, a saturday, summer day.
well while i was in the shower and ace was upstairs in his den, lucky was left alone with an open window. i am sure you can guess what happen next, but indulge me here, won't you?
i heard her bark and figured some pesky person who we did not know was at the door. it's normally the only time lucky barks. i didn't think anything about it. then i come out of the bathroom and ace comes down. i asked him who was at the door. he tells me he has no idea. we turn and look at the window and yes, sure enough the screen is waving in the breeze.
the lucky puppy had escaped.
we go start to look for her and screaming her name, when all of a sudden here comes that little furball walking out from shawnda's  garage.
lucky is now home safe and sound and we are currently looking into some kind of alarm system, brackets, and/or a gate for keep her from going awol.
anyone know where i can find these things???

babysitting- omg!!!

i know i have not blogged anything in a while. mostly because i have had nothing interesting to write about until now.
a few weeks ago my sister asked me if i could babysit my nephew. my mom would be there too and all i really needed to do was entertain the little one until he was asleep then i could leave. i said yes and was looking forward to it. my mom would stay until my sister and brother in law got home. now for me, this is a schlep since i live 80 miles from downtown chicago. now she would have mom do it all but since she has a lot, and i mean a lot of stairs in her house and mom does not do stairs, i was it.
when i got to my sister's house and she opened the door i was greeted with a smile and a very happy "aunt miss". my nephew knew who i was and said my name. ok it was close to it but let's face it my name is not easy to pronnouce when you are 2 yrs old. i should know since i could not do it at his age either.  so we got upstairs and my nephew takes my hand to show me all his new toys, his buddy elmo and anything else he can think of.
since it was dinner time we sat down while he ate his. he looked so cute sitting at the table in his booster seat feeding himself. i have to say at 2 years old, he does a good job with out spilling food all over the place. it was getting close to the time they needed to leave so my sister and i go upstairs to my nephew's wing of the house so i could see where everything needed for bedtime was. first it's the diapers. which ones for night time, then the pj's, the the stuffed animals or the posse as i call them. then finally the bedtime stories.
next thing it is time to for the rents to go. note to parents, just tell your child you are leaving. let them know you love them but mommy and daddy need some "them" time and that you guys will be back. saves the person watching your child 30 minutes of the screaming that will follow.
so after the screaming fest, going up and down 4 flights of stairs 4 times ( i did. not joke)
i put on elmo and sesame street and he sat down with puppy and panda to watch. my nephew was calm.  the rest of the time went well. we watched it together, we played a little more, then while he was watching tv and in a good mood, i was able to get a video of him talking, laughing and enjoying our time together.
all too soon it was bedtime, 4 stories later, my little angel face was out like a light.

babysitting was fun.