Shrinking...

I feel like my world is slowly getting smaller and smaller.... I have limited contact with friends and family, and my whole world right now exists inside my home.  We only leave the house to go run very specific errands, and since the holidays are coming up and everyone is so busy I'm getting fewer and fewer phone calls and visits from friends.  Which really is okay with me, since I have a TON of stuff going on right now, but I feel like pretty soon I'm going to shrink into this tiny little person that has nothing to say, and that has no substance.  Or maybe all the drugs I'm taking are making me feel like I belong in a Lewis Carroll story. 

Homeschooling Marissa is going really really well.  Bryan has pretty much handled it, and he is such a great teacher!  It makes me so hopeful for his future since teaching is what he wants to do. 

During homeschooling sessions, though, I have to chase Phoebe around to make sure she doesn't distract, interrupt, steal pencils, throw fruit snacks, or pull papers off the desk.  It's been difficult, so I think I'm going to implement the "laundry hamper" method.  You know, shove Phoebe in a laundry hamper and put it in the closet.  I think that will free up some time so that I can sit around the house and think about how I should do the dishes.  And then not do them.

We turned our apartment paperwork in yesterday.  I'm feeling very positive and hopeful about getting the place, and very very disillusioned about how much fun it's going to be to move all our stuff when I'm 38 weeks pregnant.  The prospect of moving is exciting, but I have to keep reminding myself, "Hey, self!  You have trouble getting your ass up off the couch!  How do you think you're going to move pictures and boxes of dishes?  HUH?"  I've been able to shut myself up, though, by consuming lots and lots of Halloween candy.  I like Halloween candy.

Speaking of Halloween, I was SO super mom on Monday.  Like, totally.  I had to finish Marissa's costume, make Phoebe's costume, make Bryan's costume, go to the doctor, buy pumpkins (yeah, we're major slackers) and get everything ready to go.  We pulled it off, though, and Marissa was a beautiful little Japanese girl, Bryan was a (scary) Japanese warrior, and Phoebe was an adorable little kitty cat (total cop-out costume, but what the hell does she know?).  I made Marissa's kimono, and some pants to go underneath, did her wig, made the chopsticks for her hair, made Bryan's kimono, made Phoebe's tail and the pants, and her headband with cat ears.  Yes, that's right.  I busted ass to make outfits for my family that they wore for about an hour and a half, and then came home and ripped them off and threw them all over the living room.

It's a wonder I let them live.

Eye of the storm?

I'm feeling much better since yesterday.  I made some bread, baked some brownies, cleaned the house up a bit, and now I'm going to work on a craft project with Marissa.

Although it won't be official until tomorrow (when we fill out the last of the paperwork), Marissa is going to be homeschooled with a local charter school here in our area.  She's so excited, and so am I!  The last straw came last week when she was in tears about being 5 minutes late to school.  She cried and told me that she would rather not go because when students are late the teacher yells at them at puts them on recess detention.  Now, I don't know how true this is or not (Marissa can be really sensitive sometimes) but that sealed it for me.  School is supposed to be about learning, and I just don't want her dealing with the excess baggage from teachers, peers, and staff.

We called the school district and were THRILLED to find out that the charter school is only a couple of minutes from our house.  They provide all the materials (books, handouts, homework assignments) and we take them home and do them throughout the week.  Every Monday we go in and Marissa turns in her homework for the previous week, and we pick up the new assignments.  At the end of every trimester she's tested, and that's that! 

The next step, once Bryan gets his financial aid check, is to enroll her in some sports or dance classes at the local Y.  The Y out here doesn't really have a wide range of activities, but I think it will be good for her just to get out and play with other kids in a more structured environment.  (Plus sports are cheaper through the Y than anywhere else, so there ya have it).

We may or may not be moving to a different town.... we found a 2 bedroom townhouse with cheap-ass rent (and WASHER/DRYER HOOKUPS, baby!) right around the corner from the Medi-Cal office (he he he).  It's not in the *most* desireable area, but it's affordable, and if we can get my dad to co-sign then I'm hoping we'll qualify.  That's always the hardest and most nerve-racking part, and I'm totally dreading filling out the paperwork, but I'm definitely keeping my fingers crossed that this works out.  We'd be closer to the charter school, closer to the doctor's office, and closer to the shopping center that we go to all the time (with our bank, grocery store, etc.). 

Money is tighter than it's been in awhile, and we have tons of stuff on our plate, but for some reason I just feel like today is a really good day.  Maybe there's something special in those brownies?  Honestly, a large part of me is waiting for the other shoe to drop, but the part of me that I'm listening to right now is telling me to take today for today, and I'll handle tomorrow when it gets here.

My new obsession.

I've been making these things like crazy.  They're awesome hanging in the window, and they look beautiful hanging in my fake ficus tree in the livingroom.  I bet they'd make cute Christamas (get it?  get it?) ornaments, too....

PHEW!

I had my second doctor's appointment today.  The doc reviewed all my lab work and informed me that I don't have any STDs (hallelujah), I don't have gestational diabetes (although he dumbed it down for me and said that I'm not "diabetic during pregnancy"), and that I'm drug-free (heh.  I guess I hide it well).  He flipped through the chart and confirmed what the ultrasound showed (yep, it's a baby) and that was it.  The doctor actually paid more attention to Bryan during the visit than he paid to me, but really there was a good reason.......

Last night Bryan wanted something to snack on.  Generally I don't buy things that come prepackaged, and I don't buy snacks, which means that Bryan waits until he gets REALLY REALLY hungry and is almost *forced* to make himself something to eat.  That's what happened last night, so he was frying up some flour tortillas to make nachos for everyone.  I was on the phone with my mom and I heard Bryan yelling profanities and run to the bathroom.

I didn't think much of it because I figured he'd call out for me if something was wrong, so I finished up my conversation with my mom and went into the bathroom to ask Bryan what was wrong.  As it turned out, hot vegetable oil splashed ALL OVER the right side of his face (forehead, eyelid, cheek) and he was running it under cold water.

Since he did that (obviously before I could tell him to stop) he popped almost all the blisters that had formed on his face.  He has second degree burns all over that side of his face.  I was thisclose to taking him to the ER, but he flat-out refused, so all I could do was dress his burns and tell him to lie down while *I* got us something to eat.  Poor guy.  It looks just awful, and I can tell it hurts him like hell.

The saddest part of all is that I don't have any of that white tape you use with gauze bandages, so I had to use band-aids to keep the gauze up, which made him look like Franken-face.  The doc made him take off his bandage to take a peek at it, and I told him what I've been doing to treat the burn, and he says everything looks fine.

I guess I can add R.N. to my repertoire, and Bryan can scratch nacho-maker off of his.

Damn non-functioning brain.

I keep trying over and over to upload a video of the Pheebs to jusspress, but it's not working.  If I ever get it figured out I really want to post this video, but I'm not going to hold my breath.

In the meantime, some stuff I've been working on.... and

Click on the pics to see more.  I know the pictures are huge, but I'm too lazy to resize them.  So there.