Superpaige's Pad

The Trials of a Busy Mom

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I hope this isn’t a sign of things to come

I was at Target today scouring the store for the best deals. I was sad that I wasn’t able to take advantage of the deal listed here because some rude person had come before me and taken all of the coupons out of the cute little candle tins. *Sigh*
But I did find a ton of great party clearance items. There were packages of luncheon napkins (20 count) originally priced at $1.59 on clearance for 38 cents. They only had yellow and blue, but I got 5 packages of each color. They also had the plastic tablecovers marked down to 78 cents each (originally $3.14). I picked up a couple of blue and yellow ones of those two. You never know when you might need yellow and blue tablecloths and matching napkins?

Oh, NO! Yes, I DO! What do they call that cub scout banquet? The blue and gold? WHAT HAVE I DONE? I may have jinxed myself! What was I thinking????

No, no. I’m ok. I don’t even have a cub scout aged child right now. I’ll be sure and use these party items up WAY before he reaches cub scouts.

Or maybe I should be safe and just return them.

medicine in the mail

I don’t really use homeopathic products (or “load of crap natural products” as my husband would call them) that much. Not because I don’t believe in them or don’t think they will work as well as the regular over the counter medicines, I just don’t know that much about them. I have friends who know exactly what herb to take for every thing, and what natural cure will beef up your immune system, or help you get over bruises, or even help with cancer. I just don’t have that kind of knowledge, but I’m open to new things.

So I registered for some free homeopathic children’s medicines, and they came in the mail today!

In my little package it said to spread the word and gave a website address so that all my friends with blogs could also try these samples, but when I clicked on the link it said that the free sample promo was over. Darn. But you can still get a coupon if you’d like to try these products for yourself.

We are doing our best to AVOID getting sick (flu shots tonight for the kids), but especially this year, we need to do everything we can to avoid and then fight all colds and the flu immediately.

And in a totally unrelated side note—you want to know what the best part of the vein surgery was? Well, besides getting rid of those awful, painful veins, that is–I am NOT ALLOWED to exercise for two weeks. NOT ALLOWED. Even if I wanted to! Can’t! It takes all the guilt away. No more getting up and putting on my exercise clothes only to wear them around for an hour or two and NOT get to exercising and then guiltily changing out of them because I need to get on with my day. I don’t even put the exercise clothes on. Because exercise is FORBIDDEN for one more week. Wa-Hoo! Not that I feel like exercising in the least. I did make it through rehearsal last night, which was two hours on my feet. It was tiring and a bit painful, but I made it through. And I made it grocery shopping this week, but really, that’s about all I’m up to. So, it’s not like I feel well enough to exercise, but it’s just so nice to know that I CAN’T.

Is that sick and wrong, or what? Now you know just how lazy I really am, and to what extremes I will go to not have to exercise.

I don’t think there’s anybody back there

Is there anyone actually reading this old blog?

(chirp, chirp)

That’s what I thought. The amount of comments has been underwhelming lately, and when even my MOM isn’t reading, that’s pretty sad and depressing.

What’s happened to my readers? I did have some readers, didn’t I?

A friend of mine who actually gets comments on her blog suggested I install a site meter or a counter of some kind so I’d actually know how many READERS I had, instead of just assuming that since there are no comments there are no readers. I’ll admit I tried to figure out how to install one on my own. Without involving my tech support guy. Because he was probably out of town, or at work or something. I didn’t do it right. But I think that might have just made me more depressed.

Sigh.

Have we all just gone the way of facebook and twitter? We can only read a maximum of 130 characters, or whatever it is?

Do I need more jokes? More contests? More embarrassing stories? More blood and gore? Or maybe I just need to not care so much if there’s anybody reading here or not.

We get by with a little help from our friends


I am so blessed.

I have hands down the most awesome friends in the world. Really. I do.

And if you are reading this, that probably means that you are one of those awesome and amazing friends. And I love you for it!

I’ve been kind of slow since I’ve got the veinapalooza going on. I get around, but I am not getting tons of things done. I mentioned to a friend that we were having an exchange student come, and that I was also having another vein procedure done, and that I was a little worried about getting the house clean before our student came.

Voila! She asked two of my other friends to come on over today and help me. It was amazing! I think the kids’ bathroom is the cleanest it’s EVER been, and we got Cole’s room looking more like an actual bedroom again, instead of teenage junk trap. I’m so grateful! I was seriously embarrassed to have them come in and help me clean, as really I should be able to get my house clean by myself, but then I realized that if the situation were reversed, and one of my friends needed my help, I wouldn’t be judgmental, I would just help out.

And so today I am thankful. I have wonderful friends. I don’t know what I would do without them (and you!)

Be our Guest and Konichiwa

This week we will add an extra member to our family. But only for the week. We are welcoming a Japanese exchange student into our home for a one week program. A whole year would be very daunting, but a week we can handle. I hope. I keep telling my kids every night at dinner that when we have our Japanese student, “this kind of behavior” will not be acceptable. I’m hoping we don’t a)SCARE the kid, or b) SCAR the kid for life. He comes on Thursday night and he will be with us for one week. Mostly they have field trips and activities around the city every day. They are going to work on a farm, go up to Park City, and to this is the place state park. We just have to take him and pick him up from BYU every school day, (we have a carpool in place), then we’ll get to entertain him in the evening and on the weekend.

But what to do? If you were only in Utah for 6 days, what are the essential things to do?

Temple Square?
Thanksgiving Point?
A Corn Maze?
Boondocks?

We have some different options, but we’re not exactly sure what to take him to. We kind of want to ask him what he thinks and let him decide. The kids want to take him EVERYWHERE and do EVERYTHING, but I think they are just using him as an excuse to go out to eat at their favorite restaurants.

What would YOU want to do if you had only a few days to see Utah?

You’re so vein. You prob’ly think this post is about you. You’re so vein. I’ll bet you think this song is about you, don’t you? Don’t You….

As of today, I have one less working vein. My left great saphenous vein is now inoperational. Hooray.

You may remember that I had my first vein surgery back in May, and it was a pretty unpleasant experience. The surgery was NOT quick and painless like they advertise, and the recovery process was long. Not debilitating, but just not jump back on your feet again in a few days fast like they tell you it will be.

I did a few things differently this time.

*When offered a Valium, I took the whole dose, instead of trying to be tough about it and only taking a half a dose. Who cares if I’m out of it for the whole day, right? It was a little bit better to be that much out of it.

*They have new paper shorts!! Instead of the tiny paper underpants that leave nothing to the imagination, they have new paper shorts! They look like long boxer shorts, and they are made out of that not really paper but not really fabric. They are much more comfortable, and I felt much less exposed. I should make sure they know how much I like the new shorts next time I’m there.

*I still had my MP3 player, but this doctor was more chatty, so I had to keep turning the music down to hear what he was saying. In fact, everyone was much more chatty today. The ultrasound tech and the nurse were chattin it up before the surgery, and everyone seemed to be in a good mood. Maybe because it was Friday, or the sun was shining, or maybe they really like making people wince in pain-I don’t know.

*I cleared my schedule. I don’t know if I mentioned this before, but the last time I went in, since I thought it was going to be an in and out things and not really make an impact in my life, I had a relief society thing scheduled for that night AT MY HOUSE, which I totally thought I could pull off. It was just the ladies who had birthdays that month coming over for dessert. And I would have been able to do it, had I not ALSO had a call back for Annie get your gun. That, I thought, would be a quick and easy thing, too. I mean, for Seussical, I had just gone, sung a song, read a few lines, and then they let me go. This was a long grueling process of learn a song in parts, sing it in groups, sing it in other groups, read some lines, sing more songs, etc. I was there until 10:00! And I had people at my house! They went on with the Relief Society thing without me, and I suffered through my audition (no wonder I didn’t get that good of a part! No, just kidding–my part was just fine), and then I felt horrible the next day. In short, I DID TOO MUCH.

This time, though, I’m smart. I came home and went to bed. I only slept for an hour or so, but I did not come out of my room until I smelled dinner. And I locked the door so the kids couldn’t come in to ask me stuff every two minutes. Or climb all over me. I’m not doing anything tonight, except this blog post, and then I’m going back up to bed. My dear sweet husband just went and rented me a movie (not the Proposal like I wanted, but Ghosts of Girlfriends past, which also should be funny. And who doesn’t like a little Matthew McConaughey when they are down? Am I right, ladies?).

My visiting teacher brought me dinner, even though I didn’t even tell her I was having this done. That makes me think that the Relief Society President must have called her and asked her to do it. I wasn’t going to ASK for meals, but if someone out of the goodness of their hearts wants to bring us a meal, my family is not going to complain. And it was very yummy. I have NOTHING scheduled for tomorrow, and I plan on lazing around all day. All day. Stop laughing. I really do. I also weaseled out of my commitments for Sunday, and I don’t plan on going to church that day, either. Just resting, relaxing, and healing. Really. Because I’m really hoping that if I take it really easy for the first three days that I can jump back into my life by the end of next week. We have things happening that I need to be involved in (more about that later).

*This procedure really did seem to go much better than the last one. I think the vein on this leg wasn’t as snakey and twisty turney as the right leg was. They also did NOT do any schlerotherapy at this time (they might do it later) which, I think, will make the recovery a lot less painful. Well, that’s what I hope.

So, there you have it. I’m gimpy, I’m wearing my lovely support compression stockings, and I can’t shower for two days. But I’m “vein free”, if not “pain free”. Ha, ha.

Now, if you’ll please excuse me, I’m heading up to bed to watch my silly movie, and hope I can sleep tonight.

I pledge allegiance..

On the way to the bus stop today, John was telling me the pledge of allegiance. He did pretty well, too. I helped him a little bit when he forgot the words. We got to the end, and he said, “with liberty and Jesus Christ, amen.”
Well, that works, too.

Fridge Fest

It started as a typical Saturday. Places to go, games to watch, jobs to do…you know the drill. As I was just about to leave to take Natalie, Jenna and John with me to go to Natalie’s 9:00 volleyball game, I opened the fridge and realized it just wasn’t that COLD. Same thing with the freezer. I quickly told Ryan and the two kids to hurry and load up all the freezer stuff into coolers or to take it out to the garage freezer, that the fridge had given up. It wasn’t a total surprise, as last night all the little numbers on the digital readout were either blinking or not working, and we knew something in the circuitry wasn’t right. Ugh. This fridge isn’t that old. It’s the fridge I got for my birthday not even four years ago.

Well, let me just say that I am blessed to have a quick thinking husband. Even though he was getting ready to leave for day three of his 3 day geek fest (some sort of open source conference in Salt Lake that he wanted to go to for his birthday, so that was my present to him. Aren’t I such a creative gift giving wife?), he quickly looked up the symptoms online and figured out that our fridge probably had a bad capacitor. After emptying out the freezer, he was able to pull out the fridge, take out the bad little capacitors, then went to the electronics store or the repair store (I don’t exactly know) and got replacement parts.

When the kids and I got home from volleyball, the fridge was pulled out, water was all over the floor from the melting ice, but he was fixing those parts. Hallelujah! It worked. My super smart, handy, industrious husband was able to avoid calling a repair man, and fix our fridge for under $3! AND he was able to do it BEFORE our entire fridge/freezer full of food melted into sludge and creeped out all onto the floor! Double Hallelujah!!!

Once the part was back in, the back of the fridge vacuumed out and the fridge put back in place, Ryan and his two helpers whisked out the door to attend the geek conference. What a man! On Saturday, it’s “Family day”, and he was nice enough to take Cole and Megan along. They missed the keynote speaker, but that’s probably just as well. The rest of the day will be classes, games, free pizza, and other stuff that those teenagers and my geeky husband should just love. He even invited me. How sweet! No, thanks.

I am content to clean out the freezer (since it’s empty and all), mop the floor, and put some of the food back in the freezer. I breathe a sigh of relief and count my blessings that this fridge thing, which could have been a HUGE crisis and could have cost a LOT of money, was only a minor annoyance.

Happy Birthday, Ryan

It’s my sweetie’s birthday today. And to Ryan, I’d like to say:

You’re looking old, dear. Much older than your younger wife. What are you, now, 42? Yep, that’s pretty old. What? I’ll be that old soon? Well, you’ll still be older.

Love you!

Rock the Tots

You can never tell what those kids are going to like. The other night, we faced yet one more in an endless string of “what’s for dinner?” nights, and I thought, “tater tot casserole”. As I thought about it more, I realized that I did indeed have tater tots, but since the great freezer thaw of ’09, I didn’t have any ground beef in the freezer. I did, however, have chicken, and it was already cooked and ready to be used. So, in about 2 minutes, I threw together our dinner.

–shredded chicken,
–one can of cream of mushroom soup
–one can of french cut green beans (also kind of an improvisation, as I usually use regular cut green beans, not french cut, but oh, well, that’s what I had on hand)
–1/2 a bag of tater tots

That’s all folks. Then I put it in the oven for about 30 minutes and declared dinner done.

As we sat down at the table, I was dreading the whole experience. Hubby was was not going to be home for dinner, as he was helping my parents with some sort of cable issue, so I had no back up. It’s just me trying to wrangle these 5 kids and make them eat dinner, which I knew would be fraught with complaints.

I set out the dinner, which was said tater tot casserole and some other stuff (stuff like salad and grapes, maybe some carrots for good measure). “What’s that?” one of them asked.
“Tater tot casserole!” another one said with joy.

They SNARFED that casserole down. They even asked, “Do we have to save some for Dad, or can we eat the rest?” I was in shock. I mean, I hadn’t even made it right, using chicken (which is practically a swear word to one daughter), and they still loved it. Apparently, tater tots make everything better. They raved about this casserole, eating every last bite of it (well, except for John, who when I asked if he had tasted it, said, “I tasted it once before, and I don’t like it.” It wasn’t worth the battle, so I just let him eat his apples instead).

So, every one in a while I hit one out of the park. Even without trying.
And while we’d probably NEVER hear Martha saying this, I’m going to quote her anyway..

“Tater tot casserole. It’s a good thing.”

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