Arguing

My husband and I are arguing this morning about what the top 10 'grunge' albums would be. Of course it is all subjective really, but we both have pretty strong opinions on the subject, seeing how both of us were in college during the heyday of grunge itself. I was a Freshman at EIU when Smells Like Teen Spirit and Alive came out. So it pretty much was the soundtrack for my college experience. When I graduated, Hootie and the Blowfish were inundating the airwaves and though I liked them at the time, it was the end of an era.

So here are my top 10, and of course this certainly isn't relevant to any of my readers being too YOUNG to remember or too OLD to care, (which both have their merits of course, but could never appreciate the joy of Grunge) but if my daughters someday read this they will know that Mommy had the better taste in music than Daddy. Which of course, they already know, having to listen to all that awful Cinderella music he insists on playing.

(For Pete's sake he wanted to put Offspring on the list. Seriously????!)

Top 10 Grunge Albums You Must Have if You Call Yourself Grunge and ever in your Life Wore a Flannel Shirt and it Was Not Cold Outside:

10. Rage Against the Machine

9. Tool, Undertow

8. Smashing Pumpkins, Siamese Dream

7. Pearl Jam, Vs.

6. Nirvana, In Utero

5. Soundgarden, Badmotorfinger

4. SINGLES soundtrack

3. Alice in Chains, Dirt

2. Pearl Jam, Ten

1. Nirvana, Nevermind

And there you have it. Al and Rug and Mo, listen, trade in those Hannah Montana and Jonas Brothers CDs and replace them with these fine classics. You will never be disappointed, I promise. If anything, you would reverse the damage you've caused with that awful "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" remake Miley Cyrus has made to Mommy's brain. Thank you.

I told you all those pictures were of Mo. She is so cute though, no?

I've had so many things in my head to post but of course they all have vanished in the air. The best I can tell you is that my husband thinks he is a Pro at grocery shopping, yet he went Sunday and forgot milk and white bread. Pro--bably the worst grocery shopper ever. We do have tons of chips and beer now though.

The job is going better. My head is spinning with all the new reports I've learned. If you ever need to be scanned for gallstones, I know what to look for. Thoracentesis? I'm your lady. Needle biopsy? Haven't got that one done quite yet. You don't want to be getting one of those any way.

The girls have had their first whole week of school this week, and they've been hanging pretty well. We have NOTHING this weekend except to chill and play Mario Cart on the Wii and probably not drink as much Dixie cup wine.

And if this is sarah, stop reading right now lady.

Monday

Well it's Monday and I said i would update.

Had 3 showings this weekend AND an open house, still no leads. Hanging my head because I busted my TAIL cleaning. Commencing the weeping....

Now on top of all of my stomach problems I have added panic attacks to my repertoire. Nice! I've never had those in the past, but with the new job + selling house + school starting + not feeling well apparently equals a panic attack. Fun for all.

OK I have to get back to work. No more of all this positive energy!

Friday nights

Two Dixie cups of wine got me tipsy.

Clearly this is a sign I need to start drinking more to get my tolerance up, right?

15 years ago I know I was probably doing the same thing on a Friday night, dixie cups and all, but I'm 100% certain I was not as buzzed as I was last night.

Or that I was at a 2-year-old's birthday party.

Road to nowhere

I had a 30 minute conversation with a lead transcriptionist on how to work the software. Okay, I know now, but I have no password to get in to the system. Great. I've called and emailed 4 dfferent people with no response. So what do I do?

I blog!

This pic of Mo is priceless because I have physical evidence of her obsession with her bellybutton. It must be her entire system function button, because she always has her finger on or near it. That button is important and she is not letting anyone else touch it. I wonder if it will launch missiles from Houston if I push it.

Out of the pics I have from Holiday World, 24 are of Mo. I figured I had some catching up to do and I already have a ton of the older girls. Who needs more right?

I'm really praying I can start on this new job soon. I'm very excited but nervous at the same time. My old job was a very small hospital with very little variety in reports. This is a huge account with reports I've never heard of let alone typed. Totally feel like I'm in over my head.

Actually, someone compared my situation to being in quicksand. As soon as I get my footing, I start sinking again, and then get back up, and sink again. Just all the instability in my life that is going on, it's a great analogy. I do not have any firm ground to set my weary feet upon! Everything is in such reflux.

tomorrow I get my hair highlighted and cut so I will be able to close my eyes and relax for awhile. This weekend we will be gone most of the time. I will update on Monday. Have a great rest of the week!

This too Shall Pass...

Well I've started this post at least four times now. My boss called me this morning to inform me my salary has been budgeted at a FRACTION of what I make. Basically it was 'we're kicking you to the curb' but saying it in a nice, financial way.

So much for that new house. I'm going on vacation!

Yesterday I went to run some errands and found that Mo had pooped all the way down her leg, even seeping into the cracks between her toes. Apparently the A T & T store did not have customer bathrooms, so I had to go take her to the girls' school but got caught in traffic for 1/2 hour. She was not pleased, to say the least. Once I arrived, I discovered the grapes and fruit salad from the day before had not so much been digested as it was evident in the whatnot that was spilling from her diaper. it was a lovely sight.

Later that evening LP had given me the Saab to drive (he saw it in my eyes) Al to her soccer game as he went in the opposite direction with Mo and Rug to HER soccer practice. He got a new phone, and text messaged me, "I love you, hope you are having a good night! XOXOXO" but since the new phone was well, NEW, he wasn't accustomed to the pad and apparently sent that message to someone with the number that ended in a "5" instead of a "2" like mine does. Whoops--there goes someone's marriage.

In the meantime I'm going to be searching the internet for job opportunities and perhaps consider going back to school, at 35 years old. (well, I'm not 35 yet, but I will be in September, and that just makes me hurl). What the hell, it's not like I'm using my college degree any, let's just get some more schooling under my belt! I may end up a ph.D after all is said and done! Too bad there isn't a doctorate in transcription, darn!

But first, probably should start by taking a shower.

First Day

Today the girls started back at their school, the one they've been going to all this time. Who knows what will happen next week. They might be going to a DIFFERENT school by then. It has changed so much in the last week, my head is spinning.

Holiday World was a blast. We spent every second enjoying the nothing and I swore to LP if he even brought up moving, selling, or relocating I would pinch his eyeballs out. Of course yesterday we came back to reality, and had two showings, one of which are returning on Thursday for another look.

I don't even know what I want anymore. Today I dropped $800 on a radon removal system. 3 months ago if you asked me what that was, I would have looked at you like dopey. "Wha?" Now I can tell you how radon gets into your house, and how it is removed. And why it needs to be. Radon 101.

I love to compare how the girls have grown up. The one pic is from 2004. Riley was going into kindergarten, Alex into 3rd. My how things have changed.

Mo finally said her name today as well as dropping a very audible F-Bomb, so clearly she has her "K" sound mastered.

I've got a new job on top of my old one, so I'll be in front of the computer more often. Won't that be grand. LP will love that I probably won't be showering as often.

I will post more pics when I get them.

I love Jasper Indiana so much. It is just a nice quaint little German town. I heart it. enjoying every millisecond of my time here.

Check out the German restaurant we ate at last night, and apparently according to my husband, will be eating at again this evening as he cannot have enough German food.

Schnitzelbank

Right now Mo is sleeping, the older two are with their grandparents, LP is downloading every possible iPhone application to my iPhone, and I am having a nice, quiet moment getting to know my new laptop (yes, I know, this is my very FIRST laptop, crazy, no?) and drinking Diet Dr. Pepper and eating the free hotel cookies.

Bliss. Pure bliss.

diary

I stumbled across an old diary of mine from when Al was a baby. Actually, Al stumbled across it and read it. She said to me, "I was in my terrible twos mom, you wrote all about it!"

When I sat down and read the entries, the one thing that stuck out was how I felt like I was missing something. "I don't write as much as I used to" I said. "I can't ride my bike like I want to". All these things, because I had a child.

I wasn't missing a thing. I'd take those moments again in a heartbeat!

I do appreciate the blogging, as it helps me write as much as I used to. Now to just get that bike on the road...

I just finished reading both "Wicked" and the "Year of Magical Thinking". Both worth reading. I actually enjoyed Joan Didion's prose so much I went and got another one of her books and started it tonight, "Play it as it Lays" or something like that. I have to tell you when I was in high school, she was the kind of writer I vowed to be. I wanted that life. I wanted to be able to conjure up a poem at the drop of a hat or reference some old literary quote so obscure I'd have to find it to prove to someone I knew it.

Well then I went and majored in Psych instead of English. I just figured with my social anxiety, I would have ended up teaching English to a bunch of bratty teenagers who didn't care what Shelley had to say about anything. I didn't want that.

So now I blog, and that'll do me just fiiiiine.

We have had two contracts on the house fall through, I'm not even in the mood to talk about it. The girls are just stressed out, they just want to KNOW what is going to happen already, and I don't have that answer. I'm going to take a few days off from work, go swimming, have a beer and a pedicure and come back and think about it Monday.

Ciao.

Lame Things to Keep Me Going

Well it's late and I can't sleep so blogging is the best second alternative to slumber. For me anyway, because if there are any readers out there, this is going to be D-U-L-L.

Some things:

Mo has some new phrases.
"I You?" Which is her way of asking me to sing that blasted Barney theme song. She caught it once on TV and it has forever stuck to her as a perfect lullaby.

"Up Above so High?" Again, lullaby singing request, this one for Twinkle Twinkle.

"That is SO kewl". Usually after something her sister does that makes her laugh.

"Oh, no SHIT" Yeah, well, I drop things. A lot. She is a parrot. (she said this in front of my mom and fortunately she thought it hilarious. Whew!)

"Sit down." "All done" and "Side?" All just your basic demands from a 20 month old.

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In other news, we had two people see the house this weekend. One came back saying it was too small for them. (Dude, we have a HUGE house for this price range. Clearly a couple with eyes bigger than their wallets. Unless we're at their low end price range). The other we have yet to hear from. I hate to be hopeful because once I am, the floor falls below me. It's not bumming me out anymore though. The worst that could happen is we still have a fantastic family in a smaller house. I can handle it!

LP had to replace the sump pump this weekend, and I thought it was going to be a huge undertaking but he got it done in like a half an hour. I was impressed by his Tim Allen male-ness and rewarded him appropriately. He got to watch football and all that other junk ALL weekend.

This week we are going to see Tom Petty and Steve Winwood. It should be fun, but certainly not as emotionally provoking at the Foos were.

oh and I'm reading "Wicked" and it's really good, and I'm going to go read it right now because it should make me sleepy. I have "Year of Magical thinking" on hold for me at the library as soon as I'm done.

That is all.