It was a beautiful day in the neighborhood...

Even though the weather alarm woke me up this morning with a severe thunderstorm watch until 2 p.m. it was a nice day. We had about 3 claps of LOUD thunder a little rain, and that was it. So nice. It looked like we were really going to get some rain, but it all went east of us. Sorry, Iowa.

Our weather was much better than that on the East Coast, that's for sure, with Hurriane Irene wreaking havoc all over from North Carolina to Maine. I'm glad all we have to content with are tornadoes. Okay, occasionally a blizzard or two. And yes, we are on a huge fault line, but I've only felt one earthquake in my life and that was just a small rumble that was actually centered in Western Nebraska, but hey, no hurricanes! I'm glad that as far as I know, all my friends survived just fine and hopefully no one ends up flooded out or blown away.

I was pretty sore from my journey to the zoo yesterday, but Steve was pretty good about things today. He shampooed the carpet in the bedroom and half my hobby room. Not that it did a lot of good, but it looks better. I think Ben has a mild eye infection or irritation. His right eye has been red and had a lot of goober in it lately. Found some eye ointment tonight and used that, we'll see how it goes. I hope we don't have to take him to the vet, but if we do, then we do. Pets are like kids, you have to keep them healthy.

Speaking of healthy, I think I have an infection where my wisdom tooth came out. It's been swollen ever since the tooth was pulled, but I noticed Friday afternoon it was kind of "squishy" and tonight it leaked some vile stuff, so I have to call Dr. P's office tomorrow morning. Wish me luck on that. I'm kind of freaking out since I had to sign that stupid waiver about bone infection because I've taken Fosamax. I'll feel better once he looks at it.

Mel rented a house and she's moving out on September 9th. I'm so glad for her, but worried about dad since we don't know when he'll be going into Grand Island and he'll be alone with Missy. He might as well be alone for all the good she is. If by some miracle she manages to become vertical before 1 or 2 in the afternoon, she can't cook. Plus, they won't have Mel's income to help with expenses. I wish we could hire someone to come in and be with him during the day at least, but there's no money for that. I've been trying to get him into Sarah Care or some other adult care site ever since he came home from the hospital the last time. Mel and Missy both assured me that he'd be going, but he ha yet to go. I'm not going to mention it again; and I'm not going to go out there every day to watch dad so Missy can sleep. Doesn't matter if she's awake or not, he drank the antifreeze while she sat right next to him. I'm frustrated with her anyway - what else is new? She was supposed to come home last night because Mel had to work her part-time job, but she texted Mel and told her she wasn't coming home because the twins could watch him We've only discussed umpteen times that dad is NOT the responsibility of the twins, he's OUR responsibility because he's OUR dad. Right over her head, just like everything else. Mel told her that she was moving and Missy had the gall to ask Mel if she would take Medusa with her! Of course she said she'd come over every day and let Medusa out. Right - until she had a headache or was with Ray, or Garry, or Brad, or Steve, and then poor Medusa would be lost in the shuffle and forgotten. Just like she forgets about them every weekend. I swear, if I have to listen to her cry about how her dog is her whole life I'm going to vomit. If she had moved last year when I, um, invited her to go, we wouldn't be in this mess because we could have hopefully found someone to take care of dad then and wouldn't have to go through all this now. She's a bigger pain in the ass than dad is, and she doesn't even have dementia! I'm betting she'll move back in with Garry since Ray doesn't like dogs an especially doesn't like Medusa. Or maybe she'll move in with Steve, since he was expecting her to move in when dad had to move anyway... There are times I get frustrated and crabby about some things in my life, but I'm so glad that I don't have pieces of my life scattered over the whole metro area, some stuff here, some stuff there, no bed, no place of my own or even a room to call mine. She lives like a homeless person and thinks it's funny when people say she's a nomad. I don't think it's funny, I think it's sad.

Matt called tonight. They sent a settlement offer to Hailey's "mother", but haven't heard anything back yet. I wish he would just go to court and kick her ass, but I know lawyers. Nobody wants to go to court and work for what's best for Hailey. Even if Matt wanted too his lawyer probably wouldn't. I remember my second attorney when I was trying to get custody of Matt. He was all talk about how we'd get Marty on the stand and prove this and that and the other thing. When it came right down to brass tacks he said he wouldn't go to court because we wouldn't win. Made me madder than hell then, and I'm mad now, that the system is so screwed up that you can't even try to prove a case because everyone already has their mind made up. I really worry about Hailey if her mother has her for the better part of the time. Her boyfriend is such a loser, and I think he's the one who broke Hailey's leg. She's only a baby and obviously her mother is more worried about having a boyfriend than she is about taking care of her child.

Well, going to grab some Ambien and hope it doesn't fail me tonight. Stay tuned for more episodes of My Crazy Life, or, How to Live in a Soap Opera and Still Stay Sane.

Now that that's over...

This has been a busy, crazy week. I'm so tired I'm just stupid (shut up, Melanie...) I'm used to sleeping as long as I want to, or need to, in the morning and this week hasn't afforded me such a luxury. Monday was good... I think I got to sleep late. Actually, I can't remember! lol

Tuesday morning mom had her heart catheterization. Steve and I got up at 4:45 (yikes - I have been known to stay up that late...) so we could drive them to the hospital. We had an ice storm overnight and we were afraid the roads would be pretty bad. Turns out they weren't as bad as they could have been and we got them there in plenty of time. She had to be at the hospital by 7, and we got there 6:45. Her cath was scheduled for 9:30, and she was good to go. Unfortunately, it got pushed back to 10:30, so there we sat for 4 hours before the procedure even began! I hate to wait, and I especially hate to wait in hospitals. Nerve-wracking! To top it all off, mom was getting nervous and antsy, I can't say as I blame her. They told us the cath itself would take about 30 minutes and if they had to do an angioplasty or stent it would be about 90 minutes. By 12:30 we were starting to get a little concerned, but she came back soon after that and the news we got was good, she had no problems that needed to be fixed. The cardiologist wasn't happy with her HDL, so he increased her Lipitor, but that was the extent of it. She got to go home that afternoon.

Wednesday I had an appointment with the oral surgeon to get the results of the biopsy from my mouth. At 10 a.m.! That was fine too - thank God. I'm really getting tired of being cut on this week, but at least everything was good.

Yesterday I think the dogs got me up early. To be honest I can't remember yesterday morning either! Brother...

This morning I had a dentist appointment at 10. Why do I insist on setting appointments so early in the morning? Unfortunately I kept hitting the snooze and when I woke up it was 9:32. No way was I going to make it to the dentist's office by 10. I called, hoping to reschedule, but when I called I found out the appointment was really 11. I'm not sure if I was happy that I could make the appointment after all, or mad because I could have slept longer without having to mess with the alarm! The appointment went well and I got my old filling drilled out and replaced with a new one without too much difficulty. The only problem was the stupid numb lip I had until 3:30!

Our stupid computers for work were acting up again tonight. I get so frustrated with it. First I couldn't log in and then it was so freaking' slow all night. Ugh. The only high point of the evening was dinner from Jason's Deli. Yummy.

I think, knock on wood, that my Christmas shopping is finally done! I hope it's done... I can't think of another thing for another person. I ended up getting quite a few gift cards because I really didn't know what some people needed. And I know some people have events - like new babies - coming up and would like to be able to get what they need. Hey, I aim to please!

We were hoping that my brother would get to come home and we could have a family-type Christmas for the first time in over 20 years. It doesn't look that that's going to pan out. He was going to try to come in this week with his roommate, who was coming to town for h is mom's surgery, but that didn't work out. Now he has to go to San Francisco next for a meeting and by the time he gets done he doesn't know if his roommate will be back or not to take care of the dogs so he can come. I talked to him on the phone for awhile tonight, but it looks like it'll be after the first of the year before he can get the time to come back. I'm really disappointed, I really had hoped we could all get together. The only good thing is maybe he'll get to come back when Tony is home from Cuba

So, instead of having a family early Christmas, we're going to have a birthday dinner for Mel next Wednesday. Poor Mel - her birthday is the 22nd and she's never gotten to have a special birthday dinner with the family because everyone has always been in a frenzy over Christmas. Now it's her turn. We're having Turkey, dressing, gravy, mashed potatoes, veggies, and all that good stuff - and a real live birthday cake for Mel. Not a Happy Birthday Jesus cake - a Happy Birthday Melanie cake! I'll have to do a good job on it for her! She's my baby sister don't cha know?

That's about it for right now! I plan on sleeping as late as I want tomorrow! Haha!!!

It's time for the FAIR!

I love the Iowa State Fair. Absolutely love it. I think the only year we missed it was the year I broke my leg, but we're seriously thinking of not going this year. It's so hot that I'm wondering if I even want to make a 2-1/2 hour trek there only to poop out in a couple hours. Even the though of a pork chop on a stick isn't enough to fire up the enthusiasm! We're still debating, but my days off next week are Thursday and Friday and both days are supposed to be in the mid-90s. Ick and double ick. What in the world did people do before the advent of air conditioning?

Speaking of which, the Weather Channel had a survey on their website today that cracked me up. It was something like, "What do you think is the greatest weather-related invention?" And the choices were like, umbrella, rain coat, air conditioning, and thermometer. Well, duh... I remember when I was little and my grandma and I used to walk downtown from her house and we'd go to Kresge's to shop because it was so cool inside. They had a sign on the door "Air conditioned... Cool inside" with a picture of a penguin. Can you imagine having to advertise that you have air conditioning today? Ha!

President Faust passed away yesterday. He was only 87 - comparitively young compared to President Hinckley. I loved listening to Pres. Faust speak at conference, he had such a soothing voice, at least to me. I'm thankful for every day that President Hinckley is still with us.

I'm cured! Heh

I had my surgery yesterday. It went well although the cyst or whatever it was, was quite a bit larger than Dr. E expected. He told Steve it was quite a bit larger than an extra large egg, so a lot of it was up into the foot itself, which really explains the numbness and the foot cramps I've been having as of late. I can't work the rest of the week, I'm supposed to be keeping my foot elevated for 3 days, but I just had to take a second and blog. Maybe I should dig around for Meg's laptop, then I could play with the computer in bed...

Obviously there isn't really much else going on. I stayed in bed after I got home from the hospital and watched the first season of Gray's Anatomy. It's amazing how much better the show has gotten! I've always been a fan, but it's really, gotten better, the dialogue, sets, everything. Can't wait for season 4 to start. I know there's a way to save my season 3 off iTunes and be able to watch them on TV, but I can't figure it out. I'll have to do some playing with it this weekend.

We have some great people in church. Our RS president brought over pot roast, potatoes, and carrots with a wonderful fruit salad, and our home teachers brought over 2 chocolate cakes and some yummilicious home made pecan rolls. I have to get that recipe. I'm looking forward to having the foot heal so I can start walking again. Maybe now that the foot is fixed I won't walk so funny and my back won't hurt so much. Wouldn't that be a great added benefit?

It's going to be beautiful today, only in the 70s. I'm thinking of turning off the A/C, and letting some fresh air in the house. I think the house just starts to get too musty with 6 dogs, and 3 humans. Oh, and 2 recently acquired gerbils whose names I can't remember for the life of me. Toby was as infatuated with them as he was with the corn last week. Meg has them down in her bedroom in a cage and Toby knows it. He sat at the gate at the top of the stairs and whined all night. Meg was out and Steve was downstairs on his radio with his headset on, so guess who was the only one who could hear him. Yeah. Thanks guys.

Okay, time for another pain pill and get the foot up, it's throbbing like mad! TTFN.