Netflix sucks

Tim and I just had an argument about our netflix queue. Yes really. That's pretty sad, isn't it? Makes me miss the good old days when we went to the video store and would have to settle for something we both didn't NOT want to watch because they didn't have anything other than 50 copies of each blockbuster. Or we'd rent another old Woody Allen because that man has made over 40 movies and I love 90% of them. But now it's been eons since we've seen a Woody Allen because we have Netflix where we put all the movies we want to see. Correction: Tim finds all the movies he wants to see and I bitch about them. This happens mostly because Netflix freezes up on me whenever I try to use it and because I don't even know how he finds out about new movies. I think he must spend a quarter of the day doing it because he has some weird shit on there that I've never heard of. And which I complain about when I get an email that it is on its way to arriving at my door. Which gets a "then reorder the queue." Which I just did. So hopefully after we watch the weird stuff we have now, I'll actually get to watch some normal movies!

I Spent 6 weeks on a show and all I got was this lousy cold

So I have finally caught the plague that afflicted 2/3rds of the Marisol cast. Actually, now that I am sick it afflicted 5/6ths. Only Bastion escaped it. I guess it's fortunate that I caught it AFTER we closed, so I don't have to take to the stage feeling miserable, losing my voice and with a really sore throat. Now that I'm sick, I think I may not have been as sympathetic as I should have been to my fellow actors when they were suffering. I do feel pretty damn bad. Luckily, for the most part, Stella is being very understanding. She doesn't throw too big of a fit when I suggest coloring or play-doh instead of reading a book.

So it was bittersweet to close Marisol yesterday. I think if we'd had one more week, we could have really knocked it out of the park. Every night it was getting leaner and tighter and we were all discovering new things about our characters and what they had to say. I think that probably yesterday's audience got the best performance. They were also a great audience, laughing and really enjoying themselves. I'm really glad we had them after Saturday's audience, who I think might have been on life support. Everyone I talked to said they enjoyed it, but during the performance there was nary a giggle and you just didn't feel the energy you usually feel from an audience. I let it affect my performance, which I'm not proud of, and had a few flubs. Although, once again, everyone I knew who came said they didn't notice. On the other hand, I am ready to go back to regular life. I missed Stella and Tim and they've missed me, Stella especially. So I'm ready to be home most nights again to help put her to bed and to eat dinner as a family. And I'd be fine with no more fast food for a month!

Ignoring the Children

I love this picture from Retro Renovation, it totally cracks me up.

Mom jabbering away on the phone while her children eat all of the cake batter. (That's a lot of left over batter. Is that why the cake in the background appears to have a giant piece missing? Or did she feed them a slice of cake and THEN let them eat the cake batter? Who just lets the cake batter sit around while they cook the cake anyway?) I especially love John Jr. (doesn't he look like JFK Jr.?) balancing precariously on the counter. I just noticed it looks like she actually put a bib on John John before she set him up there. So she's aware of what they're doing! I figure she's calling her friend Jane to come over and later they'll drink a couple of martinis and smoke a pack of cigarettes while they send John John and Chatty Kathy out in the backyard to run off the sugar and play with sharp pointy sticks.* Ah, the good old days.

Oh, on closer inspection I don't think that is a bib, but he's wearing a shirt under overalls. So maybe Mom is as oblivious as she looks like she is. I feel like her some days, especially when I blog or surf the internet and figure as long as Stella is quiet or babbling happily, no need to check. No news is good news right? Contrast this with some of the Moms in my mom's group who, at least from their posts, sound like they are spending all day dancing to children's music with their child, building forts, and crafting organic toys. I'm having a second child to be playmate to my first, duh:)

*By the way, I HIGHLY endorse playing with sticks. Stella can turn them into about a 1,000 different things and there was actually a study done showing that an important part of children's thinking is not developing properly these days because they don't do imaginative play enough.

Small Victories

So this morning at the doctor my $417 for my doctor's fees was supposed to be due. But yesterday I looked at my insurance coverage more closely and discovered that I am only supposed to be responsible for 20% of my Labor/Delivery and hospital charges. My doctor's visits are supposed to be covered at 100% after a $20 copay. Well I questioned the receptionist about this and she just kept saying, "that's 20% of your visits" and completely did not understand my quibble. I was thinking that the 20% I was expected to pay was perhaps for my doctor's services delivering the baby, not the prenatal visits. But she kept saying it was for all of my visits. So they sent me to the business office after my visit.

At the business office, I expressed my concern to the billing person. She explained that all the fees for all the visits and the doctor's services in the hospital are billed under an "OB Global Fee". She said this is the way that the insurance wants it billed and the charges cannot be broken out separately. So in essence, even though my insurance SAYS they cover my visits at 100% after the copay, in PRACTICE, I pay 20% of those OB visits as well. She helpfully offered, "you'll have what, 13 or 14 visits and rather than paying a copay at each one you can pay it all at once!" Oh, that's so helpful. Because $20 at a time is always such a hardship. $400? I have that in my back pocket at all times! And I'm pretty sure that those visits are each more than $100. Because then my $20 copay would be 20% and they would be equal. I'm pretty sure I come out behind in the whole thing though. But I can't know because it's just impossible for them to break out the charges individually! I bet they'd do that if I was paying cash. So anyway, I asked if I could pay there and she said I could have a payment plan. I said, well, I have a Health Savings Account that starts over in January and I was hoping to pay for the baby charges with that, but didn't know I'd have to pay this to the doctor so far in advance. She asked when I was due, checked with someone and said the deposit was not actually due until my 7th month. Which is January! So if as long as I pay in the first two weeks of January, I'm fine. Which means that 1) rather than having to come up with the money now, I can use pre-tax money that is gathered over the course of a year, so essentially it's like a zero-interest loan. and 2) it will count towards my out-of-pocket maximum for next calendar year, so if I do wind up having to pay the whole $2,000 maximum, it will be $2,000, not $2,417. So small victories. Small victories. I'm not saying I'm completely done with this. I will make a call to the insurance company when I've worked up the energy just to confirm that this is the case. But I'm pretty sure I'll lose. Why do they advertise one thing when it's not the truth? And why does my doctor's office SAY you have to pay the deposit at your second visit, when you really don't have to pay it until your 7th month?

More interesting developments at my doctor's appointment: My tests from last week came back great and instead of having something like a 1 in 450 chance of Down's Syndrome because of my age, I have a 1 in 10,000 chance of it. Damn good odds, I must say myself. Unfortunately, my doctor already started harping on my weight. Not now, she said its fine, but she looked back at my previous pregnancy (damn computers, she brought it up instantly) and said again they'd really like to see me gain 30 pounds and that I really need to watch that, blah, blah, blah. I didn't say much other than that I eat much healthier now because I've been through Weight Watchers and I started out this pregnancy about 10 pounds lighter than the last one, but I am not going to get stressed out about this shit like I did last time. If she starts to harp on me, I'm going to be polite but firm that I am confident in my ability to stay healthy even if I gain a little extra weight and that I know I can lose it because I did once before. I hope that's enough to nip it in the bud. Blech, why do doctors care so much whether I gain 30 or 44 pounds. Is it really that big of a difference on my 5'10" frame? Stella was about as healthy as a baby can be. Who cares? That said, I don't plan to gain 44 pounds. I am hoping to keep it in the 35-40 range. But I think that 30 is a rather arbitrary number and I don't know why she chose that when I started out at the low end of the healthy BMI for my height. I've gained 5 pounds so far, which all the books say is perfectly fine for the 1st trimester. Even if my doctor said I'd only gained two (at the first visit the nurse recorded my weight wrong, and so they now think I lost 3 pounds between my first and second visits and so am now only 1 pound up rather than 4. Or something like that. I've mentioned it before but they don't seem to be eager to change it. Whatever. It'll give me some cushion.)

Man, this is a looong post. sorry. I have to go hang laundry before picking up no-nap Nelly at school!

Marisol Reviews!

We've gotten 3 reviews of Marisol so far and they're all good:

Austin.com
Austinist.com
and
Austin Live Theatre Blog

So put seeing it on your weekend calendar!

Also, I'm in the 2nd trimester, yay! No more morning sickness and a little bit less tiredness. I still get sleepy around 2, so my nap is still necessary, though. But this morning I had a tremendous burst of energy and cleaned out Stella's closet. It looks awesome! I'm now inspired to take on my closet, but I need to find a place to take all my too-big maternity clothes for that. I'd like to take it to a maternity resale shop so that I can get some dough to spend on more clothes. Closet cleaning is not at all on my to-do list, but I'm procrastinating things I REALLY need to get done. Ah, yes, the American Way!

No, say it's not so!

Amy Poehler is leaving Saturday Night Live after she gives birth to what is going to be the World's Funniest Baby (Daddy is Will Arnett from Arrested Development) in November. I'm sad. How will I get my Amy fix? I've had a girl-crush on her since Upright Citizen's Brigade. I hope she goes over to 30 Rock and gets to kick ass with Tina Fey. That would ROCK!

First Baby Dream!

So I had my first baby dream last night, the first of many I'm sure. I had the baby, although I couldn't remember anything about giving birth, which I was sad about, because it had happened so fast (that sounds nice!). It was a boy and he was really tiny and very skinny. He had very light brown hair and blue eyes (all babies have blue eyes of course). I was rocking him in his infant carrier, and then he started to get fussy, so I picked him up. Then my Dad said, "woah, that baby is ripe!" So I went to change him, but couldn't remember how. Which is ridiculous because Stella's still in diapers! And then I lost him. That always happens in pregnancy dreams. The baby disappears. The baby had really sharp angular features and pretty much looked just the ultrasound. So funny! I woke up with that "let's get this pregnancy on the road" feeling as well as a bit of sadness that always follows dreams in which you "meet" the baby, even though it's really going to be at least 6 months before I do in real life!

Also, Marisol's opening Thursday went fabulous, way better than it had any right to since it was our first full run-through with tech! Yes, that's right. We struggled and got mostly through a cue to cue Wednesday night before they finally let the actors go at midnight. So Thursday was our first run with tech. But I have to tell you, our techies ROCK, as do the actors for dealing so easily with it. There were a couple of miniscule problems, but nothing major. Last night went pretty much perfectly, except that the phone broke at one point and so I skipped some lines where I was supposed to use it. Nothing plot shattering, but I wasn't going to talk on an obviously broken phone! I felt like I was "off" last night, but everyone said it was great, and Tim thought I was awesome:) Last night I was like, "keep stroking my ego, I never get tired of it!" So please come see Marisol, it's a really great show and you won't walk away disappointed. Details follow. One thing the press release doesn't mention, to my great dismay, is that this show is FUNNY! It's very black humor, but it is hilarious, trust me. Thursday night they were rolling in the aisles, last night they were quite a bit quieter (Tim said he felt sort of weird because he kept laughing), but I can guarantee that as long as you can appreciate a bit of twisted humor, you will laugh.

The vestige group to produce José Rivera's award winning Marisol

AUSTIN, Texas, July 8, 2008 - The vestige group, a local non-profit theatre company, will open MARISOL by Jose Rivera, on Thursday, September 18th at 8 p.m. at The Off-Center. An angelic revolt, urban chaos, social disorder and personal struggle all figure prominently in José Rivera's 1991 drama Marisol.
The millennium approaches. There is Armageddon in Heaven and an Apocalypse on Earth. God has become senile and the angels revolt, leaving humans to fend for themselves. Without her guardian angel, Marisol ~ an Everywoman ~ struggles to live her life with some sense of normalcy. In the face of imminent cosmological disaster, she manages to find compassion, courage, love, and humanity and in the end, her own sense of redemption.
Jose Rivera is one of our most celebrated Hispanic playwrights and MARISOL has been called "the Roman Catholic Angels in America." Rivera has won two Obie Awards for playwriting, a Kennedy Center Fund for New American plays Grant, a Fulbright Arts Fellowship in playwriting, the Whiting Writers' Award, a McKnight Fellowship, the 2005 Norman Lear Writing Award, a 2005 Impact Award and a Berilla Kerr Playwriting Award.

Full Run Dates: Thursday through Saturday: September 18th – 20th and 25th – 27th at 8 pm Sundays: September 21st and 28th at 3 pm Performances are $15-25 dollars. Thursday performances are "pay-as-you wish."

For mature audiences only. Show contains adult content, situations and language.

For more information on tickets, go to www.texasperforms.com or www.vestigegroup.org

MARISOL is directed by Susie Gidseg and Jen Brown. The play features Emily Pate, Julie Winston Thomas, Andrew Varenhorst, Bastion Carboni, Dawnica Mathis and Jenny Keto.

BabyBean Pics!

So we had an ultrasound of the new baby today and everything looks great! It makes it feel a lot more real for both of us to see there's an actual baby in there. I have been so totally the opposite of obsessed with being pregnant this time. I forget quite frequently that I am pregnant, especially now that I don't have nausea anymore (yes!). And I'm bopping around, moving stuff in the show, staying up really late for tech week, and hefting around Stella like I'm totally not pregnant. But I am. And the baby has two arms, two legs, two eyes, one nose, one mouth, a heartbeat of 150 bpm, a bladder, and a stomach. And a small neuchal fold (I think that's what she said). So if there is any elevated risk of down syndrome, the tech said it doesn't show in the ultrasound, although they have to wait and put it with the blood work to get the accurate number, of course. But I'm confident everything will be great, the baby looks perfect!

Unfortunately, still no clue what the sex is, it's too early. We'll find out in another 7 and a half weeks or so when I'm 20 weeks and have the BIG ultrasound!

And yes, my show opens tonight. Holy mother of God!

Girl, stop growing!

Yesterday morning it was a bit nippy in these parts, so Tim dressed Stella in her jeans for school. She hadn't worn them in quite a while, obviously, because of summer, and he mentioned they were "sort of tight". Well when I went to pick her up, her teacher said that she hadn't buttoned them because they were so tight. Oops! She said it was time to go shopping for new jeans. Obviously. I naively had thought that Stella would be able to make it one more winter in her 3T pants. Ha! So I guess next on our agenda is getting that girl some 4T pants. Eek! Sometimes I am really jealous of those parents with more petite offspring. I hear them talking about how their kids wear the same clothes for months and months. Not so with my little Giraffe!

B. Iden Payne Nominations are up!

The B. Iden Payne Noms are up and I feel especially proud this year of the list. This is what I spend so much time on, first seeing the plays, then in meetings every other month fighting for my favorities, then in the marathon annual meeting getting the list finalized. There are a lot of incredible performances and plays recognized, and I'm soooo proud that I have so many friends on the list. Congrats everyone!

Clothes Shopping!

So thanks to a gift from Tim's very generous Grandmother (Stella's Gi-Gi), I went shopping for maternity clothes today at Kohl's. They were having a HUGE sale, plus I had a coupon for 15% off which the kind cashier upped to 20% because "I was buying so much" and I couldn't get a scratch-off card to come up 30% off. BTW, Kohl's is the only department store credit card I have and I cannot recommend it highly enough. They regularly send you great coupons for 15, 20 or 30%, and you can pay off your total on the card right at the register immediately after making the credit card purchase. It's awesome. Anyway, maternity shopping in my closet had become depressing because I was two sizes larger when I got pregnant with Stella and everything looked like it was designed for me to be wearing a fat suit. I put on a pair yesterday and was like, even if I have triplets, these pants are never fitting! Some of my larger regular clothes fit, but they're uncomfortably tight around the tummy. The larger sizes give me saggy crotch. Actually saggy everything except the belly! Anna was kind enough to let me borrow her stuff, but I still needed jeans and pants (she's about 5 inches shorter than me). Plus she has shirts with those cute little cap sleeves which, sadly do not fit around the upper arms that heredity's cruel hand dealt me. Anyway, I got two pairs of capris, two sleeveless tops, a really cute sweater, a pair of jeans and an adorable dress that I fell in love with all for 90 bucks! Most of the stuff was summer so it was on super-clearance, but here it's summer pretty much year round except for two weeks in January, so I'll definitely get lots of use out of them. With Stella I mostly wore tank tops with sweaters because one second you're cold, the next you're hot as pregnancy wears on.
Can't wait to get everything washed and start wearing it! I'm 12 weeks, two days, which might be a little early to wear maternity clothes, but heck, if it fits, I'm wearing it, that's my motto these days!

Happy Side Effect of Mother's Day Out

So this is something I had not even thought of happening, but my mere two days of 5 hours away from Stella make me much more excited to see her and patient around her the other 5 days! I find myself much more likely to sit down and play with her or to weather her whines much better because I've had that breathing room for her. Although I have to say I am NOT digging all the extra time spent in the car. It will get slightly better once rehearsal is over because I can pick Tim up a little later and avoid some of rush hour, but right now I spend an hour and a half in the car each morning, then about 30 minutes mid-day picking Stella up and then an hour to an hour 15 in the evening picking Tim up, then another 25-30 in the car going to and fro rehearsal. So that totals almost 4 hours a day. Not counting time spent running errands if I do something like that! It's probably about to get worse since she's not napping and after this week, they're going to make me pick her up at 12:45 instead of 2. So I must say I am wishing we had a second car right now. But the inconvenience is definitely not worth trying to find the money for a second car payment! If we won one for free, that'd be great though! HA!

Yesterday we were really happy to get some "refugees" from Houston: Kate and Ryan! Yay! They already returned home, but while they were here we were happy to share our A/C, clean sheets, washer and dryer, television and internet with them. AND they treated us to a great Mexican dinner at Polvo's! Ms. Tilly got a haircut and they are almost back home hopefully to electricity. We were only sad that Tim's other sisters couldn't make it out too due to flooding:( I hope everyone's A/C is on quickly!

Holy Cannoli!

So I'm officially in storm watching mode. I'm watching CNN and I cannot believe how the water is already crashing over the seawall in Galveston and the hurricane is not even there yet! I hope anybody who is left there is making plans to leave. I think I'm so hypnotized by the scenes from Galveston because it's a town I'm so familiar with. I've been there twice this summer. I went there all the time as a kid. My thoughts and prayers are with the people all along the coast and my loads of family and friends in Houston and East Texas, riding it out with their water and their canned food and their weather radios. And if you are my brother: beer. Because my brother knows the best way to pass time, God bless him!
Some of my earliest memories as a wee little lass are of Alicia, waiting out the storm with no electricity for several days with my family and watching huge pine trees sway in the wind. In H-town, hurricanes are just a way of life. I really admire officials for having
the courage to tell folks to wait it out so that those on the coast who really needed to leave for higher ground could get there. Like my friends Paul and Racheal and their little ones who live in Clear Lake. Hopefully they are safe and sound with relatives away from the devastation and they didn't have to spend a day and a half in the car just to get across town like in Rita.
BTW, this is probably the first and last time that I will say I admire Rick Perry, so enjoy it!
Well, MY wee little lass is awake, so I'd better go!

People and the Weather!

I get so annoyed at people and their paranoia about the weather! My cousin's little boy is having his 2nd birthday party Saturday morning about an hour north of here, but I had rehearsal. I have spent the last week and a half trying to get that rehearsal moved. Finally, success! So I call my Aunt today to RSVP and she says my cousin is thinking about cancelling the party because of Ike. What?! The party is in Temple, for Pete's sake. The coast is 5 hours away! Apparently he's going to decide tomorrow, too, because why not change all your plans two days in advance when nothing may happen anyway. Sigh. I mean, yes, it if winds up flooding between New Braunfels (where he lives) and Temple on Saturday morning, fine, the party may need to be cancelled. Maybe my Aunt will have to waste a few hot dog buns and freeze some hotdogs. Maybe, gasp, some cake may not even get eaten! But what is the point of cancelling in advance? It's just stinky. Stinky, stinky.

So now I probably won't get to go to the party I went through much finangling to get to go to, and my evening, which I could spend with my SIL and BIL Christine and Brian who will be in town is messed up because the rehearsal is now 4-7. Dammit!

Also, my grandparents are driving my parents crazy about Ike as well, even though it's slated to not hit anywhere near them. My parents are at their ranch in the middle of nowhere and have no way of really tracking the storm, so this makes them have to call my Aunt and Uncle to find out what's really up. I wish they'd just called me because I don't worry about anything:) Well, at least not hurricanes that are hitting 4 hours away. I ain't afraid of no rain!

But Ike, I'm telling you, don't you be battering the coast like you battered Tina Turner, you hear?

Stella survived, but she didn't sleep!

So Stella apparently had a great first day. She apparently was really great with the other kids and she helped clean up. Unfortunately, she didn't sleep at nap time. She kept rubbing against her plastic mat and making a lot of noise, the teacher took it away and she laid on the carpet. Eventually they gave her books to read. She must not have been too disturbing, because when I walked in to get her, there were two other little girls lying right beside her fast asleep. She said she wanted to take a nap when she got home, but she may just be too wound up. She's in her room singing right now. Not a good sign for a nap. Oh, well, I'm inclined to just let her work it out rather than fight it. She'll konk out when we go to pick up Tim at 5:30 for sure.

Apparently today they learned to be helpers and Stella helped clean up. She also did the cute little handprint seen below:


The teacher said they'll give her this week and next to see how the nap goes, and if she doesn't wind up going for the new nap time, I'll have to pick her up at 12:45:( That makes Mama sad because I sure did enjoy my time today! It wasn't much, but I can get things done so fast when it's just me and I don't need to entertain/involve a two-year-old. I vaccumed, mopped, got some emails sent out and blogging done, and freaked out over a mouse. Yes, that's right. There was a mouse in the house. Actually, there is still a mouse in the house. It is behind the kitchen trashcan, so either a) it got in through the doggy door or b) Punky brought it in. I lean towards the latter. I'm waiting for Tim to get home because Julie don't mess with mice. Tim also had to handle the mouse he discovered when he started to step into the shower Sunday night. It looks like the same mouse. We put that one out in the field behind our house, but I really hope Punky has not discovered a new past time.

Yeah, Stella sounds to be asleep! I almost feel guilty about how little I'm going to be playing Mommy today:)

Stella's First Day of School!

Stella started school today without a hitch. Well, perhaps a hitch in her Mama's throat, but other than that, all was smooth! I was actually really surprised that once she got all suited up in her backpack I started to get a little verklempt. And when we pulled up at the church I was really like, "Oh my God, my little girl is going to school!" It's not even really school, it's two days a week for 5 hours each time, for Pete's sake! I blame pregnancy hormones:) After we left I definitely got a little teary. Tim teased me, saying, "your voice is husky and you just put on sunglasses!" Luckily the fact I am wearing liquid eyeliner because my pencil ran out saved me from actually crying. I don't want to look like a raccoon!

Yesterday as I wrote her name on all her belongings with a Sharpie, I felt like such a Mom. Seeing her name like that just made me think of seeing my own name on my lunchboxes and backpacks when I was a kid. I know they have fancy labels for that these days, but I was happy to find that a Sharpie still does the job just as well and costs pretty much nothing!

Amazingly, this morning we got her ready, ourselves ready, breakfasts made for all and her lunch packed all a bit early. Of course, I hadn't attempted the trip in traffic before, and we made it right on time. Stella forged on in and went straight over to the table where 3 little boys were playing with shaving cream and little cars. What fun! She gave us both hugs, gave her Daddy a kiss and we left.

It's so exciting that her life is just starting. All the fun and excitement she has ahead of her. I also can't help but think of all the pain and heartbreak she'll have ahead of her. She's so much like me. She's outgoing and exuberant and willing to try anything and approach anyone. Sometimes that leads to people not liking you. And then you're upset because you don't understand why people wouldn't like you. Hopefully she won't have to experience the cruelty of kids for several years though. I guess it's just life and the only thing you can do as a parent is be there for them and show them extra heaps of love. I know that's probably what saved me from complete breakdown when I was in elementary school!

Wow, that was maudlin. Well, I have to go get the 3,000 things I have scheduled for myself to do before I have to leave to pick Stella up again in 2.5 hours. Can't wait to hear about all the cool stuff she did in school!

Yes I neglected to get a picture of myself with her. Again!

Got Food? Get outta' my way!

So now that my morning sickness seems to be pretty much gone (knock on wood), the voracious appetite has reared its ugly head. I had forgotten that when pregnant you're pretty much constantly hungry, unless you've just eaten a meal way too quickly because you were starving, in which case you are miserably full and heartburney.
I need to diversify my snacks. Any suggestions? I just ate a SuperPretzel, which I'm totally addicted to, a cheese stick, which I'm getting sick of, and a tiny peppermint patty, which was oh-so good! I really like the salty this time around, although the sweet is still good, just not my overwhelming desire like it was with Stella.

Republicans as the party of "smaller government"

My sister-in-law, Kate, had a great post about the RNC last week and the comments on it were from her friends/fellow bloggers who are overwhelmingly conservative. You really should read them. Over and over again they said that they didn't want to have their paychecks pay for things they didn't believe in and that Democrats would just spend all their money on people who did not work to earn money. I couldn't believe that people were falling for that old party line about Democrats being tax and spend and Republicans cutting taxes and shrinking the government! George W. Bush arrived in office in January 2001 with a surplus in the government coffers. We now have over a 3 trillion dollar debt. But yes, the money was not spent on poor people. It was spent to wage wars and to line the pockets of corporations and already wealthy Americans. I can see why you might prefer that because these ARE working people, I mean, no one is going to argue that those poor soldiers in Iraq don't work harder than just about any other American, and yes the CEOs of large corporations also worked their way to get there, even if now they mostly run companies into the ground and take huge payouts to leave. So I see where our philisophical differences about where to spend money come into play. I just sometimes question the Christian principles of people who call themselves "Christian" but don't believe in taking care of our fellow man. It really confuses me because a great deal of the Republicans I know/am familiar with fall into this camp.

Fireworks? Really?

Someone is setting off fireworks. On September 5th. What holiday is it exactly? And where did you get fireworks? And why can't you people just follow the law? It is ILLEGAL to set off fireworks!

They just better be done by the time I go to bed or I'm going to be PISSED!

Aquarena Springs

We went to Aquarena Springs with Anna and Sean and co. Monday and rode in the Glass Bottom boats. It was really cool! And cheap with the $2 off coupon I got online. I think a good time was had by all. I was so proud of us for actually getting out of the house and doing family stuff. We're so bad about that. I can't believe we forgot to get the Larsons to take a family photo of us and vice versa, though! Stella and Daniel check out the fish

I have gone to the dark side and actually started using Facebook. The problem was that I kept getting friend requests from people I went to high school with, and then I decided I needed to have something remotely resembling a profile so they could see what I was up to. Now after looking at people's profiles I have decided they have waaaaay more fun than me. They all seem to beautiful, tan and constantly drinking and having a fantastic time in exotic locals. I, on the other hand, cannot even find a decent picture for my profile. Sigh. I know it's all an illusion, but sometimes it's easy to feel inferior. I am not helped by the fact that the same pregnancy hormones that turned me into Pollyanna when I was pregnant with Stella have turned me into goth girl with this one. I am in a funk so much of the time. My funk is certainly not lifted by the fact that I have NOTHING to wear. I'm in that awkward stage where my old size doesn't fit and the next size up is gigantic. And don't even get me started on my old maternity clothes. Not only are they too big for me right now (and hopelessly hideous), I don't think they'll ever fit! I KNOW I've dropped two sizes since I got pregnant with Stella, but these things are huge! I mean, I could fit a buddy in the top parts of them, the parts that aren't going to get that much bigger (although I am pretty big up there...) I was looking forward to not dropping dough on new maternity clothes, but I'm afraid that's not going to happen. Which is baaad because we are in major saving mode. Trying to recover from the expenditures from: dog dying, vacation, cat getting sick, car breaking, and now, in just 3 weeks I have to pay $400 for BabyBean to my doctor! I mean, come on, I'm not giving birth until next Spring!

Such a change from Stella when I had awesome insurance my employer paid completely. She cost a $250 copay. Now our insurance is crap, we pay through the nose for it, and I have to pay a $500 deductible+20% of both the doctor and the hospital! And someone explain to me why nationalized medicine is bad?

Okay, I am a whiner. I should NOT blog when I am in this sort of mood. On the plus side, we had an awesome weekend. Tim and I saw the HI-larious Tropic Thunder Friday night, we went to a great pool party at Karen and Jennie's Saturday, Sunday was mom's night out and Tim's race, and Monday we went to Aquarena Springs! So all has not been crap.

Will my child ever start school?

So Stella did not start school yesterday due to the (sorry to get graphic) diarrea that she's been having off and on since last Wednesday. The school has a rule that you can't come if you've had the big D in the last 24 hours. We talked to a nurse last week that assured us that it's not contagious, that these sort of germs are in the air everywhere, just walking outside you're exposed to them, and she could be around other young children, just don't let them drink after her. So if you've been around Stella lately, don't worry, your child is not in danger. We finally went in to see the Dr. this morning because it hasn't been getting better and she reiterated it was not contagious. They also ordered me to collect ungodly amounts of poop and take them to the lab. Which Tim collected for me because the mere thought of it had me running for the bathroom. I did drop it off, though. That was sort of gross and weird, walking around with a bag full of tiny little vials of poop. The things we do for our children!

So she's still got the tummy troubles and I'm faced with her probably not going to school again tomorrow. The mere thought of it depresses me. In fact, it made me sob Monday night when I realized she couldn't go. On top of this, I actually have to find time to drive over there and drop off our September tuition. And I need to do it without Stella because can you imagine how upset she would be if we showed up there and she didn't get to go?

I feel a wee bit responsible for the sickness hanging around so long. Other people who shall not be named disagree that children should not have milk when they have the sickness. So these other people have been allowing her to have milk, convincing me to give her milk when I feel she shouldn't. Doctor told me today she should be drinking soy milk, NOT cow's milk. Also, I sort of forgot she's supposed to be having only starchy foods and she had Mexican Monday for lunch. And she stayed with her grandparents twice this weekend and they gave her sausage Friday night and gulp, pickled bologna Sunday night.

This post is totally gross. I'm sorry. In summation, I want my child to go to school, I am scared she's going to be light-years behind and have no friends by the time she gets to go, and that we will both go crazy because she wants play time and I want alone time.