I just spent way, way too much time at naturallycurly.com. Talk about overwhelming. I would really like to find the right "mix" for my hair, but the prospect is daunting. There are SO many products to choose from. And making decisions isn't one of my strong points.

Every time I see an infomercial for music I feel like I *MUST* have that CD. Last night I saw the one for Monsta Jamz and almost dialed right then and there. I just saw one called Singers & Songwriters (my beloved "Blue Bayou" is on it) and I want that one too. There's an 80's one out there that I also wanted. I just never buy CD's and the thought of spending $26.95 (plus S/H!) on a CD just doesn't hold much appeal, even if I *can* split it into 2 easy payments, LOL!

Wow, I've got my own wierd searches. Two recent Google searches which turned up little old me:

Sassy N ipples - well I don't know if they're sassy but they're pretty darn impressive.

Fat + G arbage C an Pictures - OMG, I just searched this to see what it turned up and there is a really disturbing site out there. I'm going to go burn my eyeballs now.

I invited Bob's parents over for dinner and cake tonight for his birthday, as well as his sister, her husband, my niece and his friend. I won't be doing THAT any time soon again.

It was a huge sensory overload for me. Bob's mom decided to talk to me from across the table while my BIL and Bob's friend were talking from the opposite ends of the table, my FIL was in the living room shouting at the TV (football, what else?) while the the three kids ran shrieking through the rooms. I really had to control myself, everything in me wanted to scream, "SHUUUUUUT UPPPPPP" and stun them all into silence, but I didn't. I did make a really kick ass dinner though. I made mini penne with a spicy vodka sauce (with prosciutto in it). Yum.

Well I went for the first of three consultations with LASIK surgeons. I really liked the doctor. He was very honest and I appreciated that. I guess I just expected that everything would go smoothly. That I would meet with these three doctors, listen to them, choose one and then boom! I can see!

Except it's not going to work like that. I apparently have large pupils which he said puts me at a much greater risk for debilitating night halos (i.e. I won't be able to drive at night). I think the risk is still pretty small that it would be that bad, but he said it puts my risk higher because of that factor. So now I'm actually having to THINK about this. He said I was a good candidate because I don't have unrealistic expectations. He put some 20/40 lenses over my glasses and had me walk around for a little bit. I originally thought that I could easily live with that (anything is better than 20/400 vision). But the more I think about it, I see PERFECT right now. I have 20/20 vision with contacts. Will I really be happy with my eyesight getting slightly worse?

What it boils down to is that I have a lot to think about. I didn't expect the decision to be this hard. I've wanted to "see" for so long now. Most people who have good vision, like my dear sweet husband, don't realize how much of a pain it is to not be able to see. He can wake up in the middle of the night and look over and see the alarm clock. He can go swimming and not worry about contacts floating out of his eyes, or having to switch over to a pair of prescription sunglasses. When he runs on the treadmill he doesn't keep pushing his glasses back up on his nose. He doesn't have to put contacts in his eyes every morning and hope there isn't a piece of fuzz on it and have his eye tear for 10 minutes, only to be irritated for the rest of the day from taking it out and trying to remove said fuzz.

I think I'm still leaning towards it, but I really do have a lot to consider.

I put on the Wiggles for the first time in weeks this morning. I got so excited knowing we were going to the concert. I got up, pointed my fingers and did the twist, LOL. We cut back on TV time a few weeks ago, and then after the tickets nightmare, I just didn't have the heart to put them on. Lauren gets so pissed when they stop singing and dancing and do their skits.

I find Tom Hanks incredibly sexy. Just thought I'd throw that out there.

Do you ever drive somewhere, and once you get there you realize that you have NO recollection of driving there? Don't remember the curves and turns of the road or passing anything by? I hate when that happens.

"Utzdat momma?" I hear that about 20 times an hour, and I still think it's cute.

I got my very own peep show last night. I was putting away laundry late last night, when I walked into our hallway and happened to look out the window. It's easy to see right into our neighbor's kitchen, especially when it's dark in our house and the lights are on in theirs, which happened to be the case.

I see a man loving up on one of the two women who live there. She is probably about 45 or so, and extremely matronly. Anyway, they start making out. You'd think I would quit watching and walk away, wouldn't you? Of course I didn't! I couldn't peel my eyes off of them. I even moved into the bathroom so I could look from there without being noticed, LOL. I watched them for a few seconds and then I couldn't believe my eyes. Damned if the woman didn't pull down her pants and wiggle her thonged ass right in the man's face! I almost peed my pants. It only lasted a few seconds but I was almost on the floor. I'm still floored that this woman who is always wearing very matronly clothes had a thong on under there. Anyway, I told Bob about it this morning (he was working late), and he said, "Yeah, I saw them too. They were making out when I got home". I asked him if he watched them and he said, "get out of here, what do you think I'm some kind of freak?". LMAO.

I can't remember if I blogged about my Wiggles tickets nightmare. It's a long and ugly tale, and the bottom line is that I wound up with *A* ticket. One. The LAST one to be exact. For all three shows. Don't ask me why I bought it. I think I was hoping that I could find another ticket somewhere and at least bring Joey and have him sit on my lap (which they allow, as long as the child has a ticket *somewhere* in the theater). I figured I could at least sell it on eBay as a last resort.

Anyway, I dropped Joey off at school this morning and there was a sign on the door that a parent had a few extra tickets to the evening Wiggles show. To make another long story short, I just picked up 3 tickets to see the Wiggles. I would have loved to have 4, so Bob could come too, but I wasn't about to be picky. I talked to Biggie B a bunch of times and she asked me which show I had a ticket for, and wouldn't it be cool if they were for the same show. I checked and the ticket I had was for the 3:00 p.m. show, the 3 tickets I was getting were for the 7:00 p.m. show. Except I got home and looked at the tickets to revel in their Wiggleness, and wouldn't you know it, they're for the 3:00 p.m. show too!!!! So now Bob really can come! I am so freaking excited, I think I was looking forward to seeing them as much as the kids were.

I breathed a big huge sigh of relief today. I dug out my size 16 jeans from last year expecting them not to fit but they did. I think I'm going to have to go buy 2 more pairs, I have a terrible time finding jeans that fit me. All the petite jeans state that they are for 5'4" and under, but I'm not sure how that's possible since I'm not even 5'3" and the jeans are always just a bit too short on me.

I've had this strange desire to go clothes shopping lately. This is really unusual for me since I'd normally rather poke my eyeballs out than shop for myself. I think I've just come to some sort of acceptance with my body, and want to look (and feel) as good as possible no matter what my size is. I will say, however, that plus size clothes were just not meant for my body. There are beautiful heavy women out there who look gorgeous in plus size clothes. I'm not one of them. It's very difficult to find something that fits me properly. Which is probably why I go clothes shopping about as often as I get my haircut, which is close to never!

Bob heard from his worker's comp lawyer. On January 2, 2000 he was working and was standing in the road near a manhole. It was a work zone and he was wearing day-glo orange, but a woman was not paying attention and she ran into him. One of his coworkers saw she wasn't stopping and yelled to Bob to get out of the way. He turned to see what was going on and then tried getting out of the way but she ran into him. He bounced off the car and landed on his shoulder. Early last year he had surgery on his shoulder. The lawyer called to say that he had a tentative court date next week, but that she wasn't happy with the offer from the insurance so it may be pushed off. What does that mean?

We were at the store bright and early this morning to buy Monster's Inc. on DVD. Chicken Piccata tonight for dinner (WW version, I'm trying to atone for my sins during the Steeler's game, LOL) and then we're all going to watch it. We took both kids to see it when it was in the theaters, banking on the fact that Lauren would sleep because it was naptime. She obviously had other plans, so Bob and I took turns walking with her out in the lobby. We're both looking forward to seeing it since neither one of us has seen it in its entirety.

We have birthdays coming up. Bob turns 36 on October 1 and I turn 33 on October 22. Ack! How did that happen? Just last week I was 22 and he was 25 and we were eating at fancy restaurants, dancing, spending weekends at bed & breakfast inns, going to hockey games.......now we stay home and watch Monster's Inc. on DVD, LOL.

I cry every single time I watch Heart and Souls (with Robert Downey Jr.). Cried when I saw it in the movie theaters, and every other time since then. But I LOOOOOVE it. I didn't, however, need to cry again this week. I should be good till sometime next year.

DH and I are looking forward to this evening. Once the kids are asleep, we're going to make some appetizers and he's going to watch the Steeler's game and I'm going to finish reading The Fiery Cross. I stayed up way too late last night reading. Hopefully I'll finish it tonight. Skyra is mailing the Anne Rice books (sorry, A.N. Roquelaure books!...erotica, cool!) tomorrow I think and I'm looking forward to starting them. Anyway, I have bruschetta chilling in the fridge and I'm going to make some crostini. We're also having some stuffed mushrooms and these buffalo chicken rollups (marinated in Frank's, stuffed with crumbled blue cheese, rolled up and baked). Can't wait!

Let's see if I've got a few moments to update about my crappy, crappy week.

The puppy went back. I was/am fully prepared to deal with housebreaking, chewing and training, but was not prepared for a growling, snapping 10 week old. We made the decision after talking to the rescue service and the vet (and about a 372 calls to Biggie B). She is a very fearful puppy and I (and they) don't think she should be in a home with small children. I cried so hard when I brought her back that I couldn't speak. I'm still so sad but I keep seeing her snap at Lauren's face and that's enough to snap me out of it real quick.

My grandmother is doing really bad. I went out to Starbuck's with L. last night and poured my heart out about the whole situation with my grandmother and my family. My mom had called while I was gone to tell me she was even worse. She's now not eating (hasn't for 3 days) and she's so weak. I really don't think it's going to be much longer. I really needed last night, even though we weren't gone very long. I felt human when I was driving home, for the first time in days. I seemed to snap out of the funk I was in.

Joey started preschool again this week. This year he's going Wednesday-Friday for 2 1/2 hours each day. He was pissed this morning that there was no school today. ;o) He's in the same room again with his favorite teacher from last year. He's so happy to be back (last year he went 2 days) but I'm so emotional about it. The house seems so empty when he's not here, even if it is only for 2.5 hours.

New puppy stress + September 11 + my gram doing worse = one fried fat chick. I need sleep.

It's been a fun and interesting weekend. Stay tuned, I may have some really exciting news tomorrow.

We went to a carnival at a local church on Friday night. The kids rode the carousel and some other small rides and had a blast. We got some zeppoles on the way out and came home and ate them in the dark, powdered sugar everywhere!

DH has been building an addition on our friend's garage. He used to be in construction in his previous life, but it never ceases to amaze me how talented he is. I mean I know he's good at roofing/siding and installing doors/windows, but seeing something he built by himself is just incredible. He put a second floor with dormers on their garage and also added a new room off the back of it. I sometimes feel bad that he switched professions. Don't get me wrong, he loves his job. And it was the right move for our family. But sometimes I still feel bad that he switched. He loves carpentry. The problem is that there is no way for him to make any money at it unless he owned his own company. Which is the part of the business neither one of us thinks he'd be very good at. At least he still gets to do plenty of it. He's got people waiting for him to do work so he gets to fulfill his love of it and make decent money on the side.

Oh, and we got our rebate from the state this weekend. $600. Woohoo!!!!!!!

Friday Garage Sale Finds

Spent $10. We got:

- A honkin huge box of Lincoln Logs (complete w/roofs, corrals, horses, etc.). *Totally* cool because I had been thinking about buying more since Joey builds such intricate things with them and always runs out.
- A brand new dress from this season with tags from The Children's Place. Selling that one on eBay next Spring.
- New, sealed Phonics flash cards.
- Hardcover Sylvia Browne (you know, that psychic who is always on Montel. Not that I watch Montel mind you.) Either going to read it myself, give it to my SIL or maybe sell it if I can get a few bucks for it. Maybe all 3.
- Survivor Season One Greatest and Most Outrageous Moments VHS. Figure I'll watch it and then resell it at our garage sale.

Toddler Nursing

Lauren nursing to sleep. Switches sides.

L: Meelty all don dis neenie. Unner none now. translation (Milky's all gone in this nursie. Other one now).
Me: Where did the milky go?
L: Idoeknow. In mout.

Feels like I haven't been here in so long. It's only been six days. I obviously need a life. I have really turned inward these past few days. The situation with my grandmother hit me pretty hard. If that isn't enough, there are a lot of issues with my family going on right now which is why I haven't gone. I've been very confused and just thinking it to death. Emotionally I'm exhausted. I'd really like to blog about it but I just don't have the energy right now. Just be forewarned, it's coming, and it'll be a long one.

I did start to come out of my funk a little bit today. I think staying outside most of the day was the biggest contributor to that. We had a fun day playing and it did a lot to lift my spirits.

I was speeding driving yesterday on the interstate minding my own business, going slightly over the speed limit. When I came upon the car in front of me going about 30 miles an hour (in a 55 MPH zone). I couldn't escape them, the motorists on either side of me were whizzing by. I should mention that I just came from one of the most irritating experiences of my entire life, so I was in a rare mood. I was muttering curses under my breath (so my two year old parrot wouldn't hear and repeat them) and making all sorts of get-out-of-my-way gestures. I finally saw a break in the traffic and broke left. I came on them side-by-side and lifted my hand to flip them off (oh hush, I told you I was irritated) when I realized it was a nun with her nun passenger. My little catholic heart froze, and I changed it from a bird to a big old friendly wave. I hope they didn't notice. I think I'm going to hell.

I'm off to go read for a while. I've been trying to start the 5th book in the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon and have had a hard time getting into it. I finally did, and I don't want to put it down now.