Check out Brandi

Aren't you so proud of Brandi and her "real" job. She stopped by the other day in the dead-mobile. No bodies of course.

But she was wearing her suit and looking all grown up.

I can't believe that they trust her to drive this thing!

Can you believe what people will do for money?

This guy will tattoo a company logo on his arm for only 5 grand!

Click here for the auction listing

A day with a BOON

A few days ago Lily got a Balloon from Publix. We always get one when we go there and most times she plays with it just long enough for me to get the groceries put away.
Not this particular day. I don't know what it was about this Orange Balloon... but she held on to it the WHOLE day. We got it at around 10:30 AM.
This is Lily eating lunch with one hand because she is clutched onto that balloon with the other. Approximately 12:30PM


This is Lily settling down for her nap after Lunch:

Yeah, I'm not sure the reason for the golf bag, but she insisted it be in the bed with her too. I kept checking on her to make sure that she wasn't getting tied up in the balloon string. Isn't she sweet? still clutched onto that balloon while she sleeps.

She held it the entire rest of the day. That evening I took her in the shower with me because I was too lazy to give her a bath. Guess what? Yep, the balloon took a shower too.
She slept with the balloon again that night. However, I waited until she was asleep and took it out of her hand because I was afraid of her getting caught up in the string and choking. The next morning she woke up asking for the balloon. Almost in a panic.
Finally she lost interest in it about mid-way through the next day.

US vs. Zim accent - which will Lily get?

I always figured that Lily would have an American accent because she is bombarded with Americans and encounters very few Zimbos. Well, so far, she has an African accent.

If you couldn't tell, in that video whe is saying that she prefers a Zebra to be called a ZEB-ra, rather than ZEE-bra. This next one is the way that she says "water", it sounds just like Ross.

The word "Bath" is very funny to me. If I ask her, she says "bAth" the American way, but if she is talking to Ross, she asks for a "BaHth". So, if I ask her if she would like to get in the Bath (and pronounce it like Ross would) she will correct me to the American version. It is sweet that the realizes the difference.

cute videos

Mini Me

If you can't tell what she is saying it is "ye ye meh hole" translation, Lily Mitchell. We were practicing naming everyone's name because I want to make sure that she knows Ross and I's names too so when Zelda walked over she made sure to say Zelda Mitchell too.

She has really gotten quite expressive lately. She took a bite of her dinner and spit it back out then I got the camera. (Why does she never have clothes on when I video her?)

I love to tell the story about how a police officer I met one day years back says to me "oh, you are dating Ross from Shenanigans? He runs like a gazelle".... well, I think Lily is taking after her dad.

Chuck E Cheese, Kentucky Derby & sock monkey

A couple of months back I joined a SAHM group and it has been great. I don't really know anyone very well yet but it is nice to finally have some people to talk kids stuff with. They are all much better mom's than me, but we are starting to fit in. They all exchange recipes and post notices about toy recalls. Me, I just try my best to keep healthy food in the fridge and let Lily play with anything in the house that isn't sharp.

So, there are playdates set up for parks and stuff all over the county just about every day. Earlier this week we met up with the group at Chuck E Cheese.

Lily was awesome! She is usually shy at first but as soon as we walked in the door she said "car. ride". We ordered a little pizza and once we finished eating she had warmed up enough that she wasn't clinging to me anymore. She wasn't afraid of the rides that move and even figured out how to put the coins in the slot and buckle her seat belt.


It was really sweet.

Last weekend we went to Mike's anual Kentucky Derby party and won the bonnet contest yet again! I won year before last, Lily came in 2nd last year and this year we took #1 & #2!!

Lily was very well behaved so I was very proud of her.

A couple of weeks ago Lily had an explosive poop incident while in her crib so I just pulled all the sheets, blankets and everything including the pillows and stuffed animals and put it all in the wash. Well, my 32 year old sock monkey that Lily LOVED didn't make it out of the machine. I couldn't bear to throw it out because I loved it probably more than Lily did (hence the fact that I still have it!) so I made Ross throw it out for me. Being the eBay junkie that I am, I found a seller on eBay selling sock monkey kits and I bought two.

I feel so much better about the whole thing now because Lily was so sweet during the making of the new monkey. She identified the socks as socks but once we put stuffing in them she knew right away that it was a monkey. She slept with it the first night when all it was, was a tube with legs. The next day I had completed the arms and tail but hadn't sewn them on yet and she was even carrying around the arms saying "monkey arms". It has been amazing watching how excited she has become each step in the process. I sewed on the ears and she screamed with joy yelling "ears. ears. ears".

Armless & faceless monkey baby above, Complete monkey baby below

New outfit

Thanks Grandad! Look what we got in the mail.

Brandi made me do it

Brandi made me post this on eBay, check it out

CLICK HERE

but, before you go, remember, this is BRANDI's item.... not mine!

Brandi inspired me to cut my hair

At the beginning of the month Brandi came over on her day off asking me to cut her hair. She had decided that she wanted to donate her hair to locks of love and was too anxious to wait to try and find a salon having a drive. So, we looked up the rules and info online and it is so cute. They even have a little video teaching you the steps on how to donate your hair.
So, I cut her hair.
It was kinda creapy cutting off an entire ponytail, especially since her hair is so thick.
The donated hair has to be 10 inches long so that left Brandi with pretty short hair. I cut it with layers all around and it turned out pretty cute. I cut Ross's hair so I figured that would qualify me as a professional so lucky for her, I do free haircuts if the hair is being donated. But, I made her work off her tip by running to the store for a red bull for me.

So, three weeks later and her bag-o-hair is still sitting her on my computer desk so, since I needed a haircut and was cutting Ross's hair today anyway, I decided to donate mine too. I had Ross take a before picture wich we forgot to do with Brandi.

I wish I wasn't wearing a sack dress. You can't really tell from the picture here, but my hair was literally at my waist. The last time my hair was that long was 1994 right before the notorious mullet cut incident! Well, I don't have a mullet this time, but it isn't picture worthy either. This is the after picture but you can't really tell what the hair that remains on my head looks like.

Ross wasn't confident enough to try and even out the cut and put the layers back in so I've got this really stupid looking bob right now. It is short in the back and long in the front (you have to cut the hair while it is banded in a ponytail) and looks just awful!
So, tomorrow morning on the way to the beach I'm going to stop in a super cuts somewhere and get them to make it look normal again.
Ross wanted to give Lily a haircut too because her hair is long enough to get in her eyes but I talked him out of it.
Now here is a great picture of Lily:

She looks like this just about all the time. She loves headbands and bracelets and scarves and pretty much is always covered in dirt (that is from mine & Ross's inability to grow grass in our yard). Those aren't bruises on her face, it is dirt and if her feet could be seen in the photo, I'm sure they were covered in dirt too. Yesterday she was playing in my closet and came out with a pair of fishnet panyhose on her head! I wish I had gotten that on camera!

Spring Break in the Keys & cute videos

Sandy came by on her way to the Keys with her kids to spend their Spring Break with Debbie and took Lily down too. So, while she was on Spring Break in the Keys, Ross and I took a relaxing day to ourselves at the beach. Then, I drove down the next day to join them. We had fun, relaxed and Allison taught Lily how to do a somersault.

Here is a video of her practicing in the yard yesterday

On Sunday we went to a friend's house for brunch. It was so nice. Most of the people were from Zim and most had small kids too. Here is Ross & Lily on the trampoline.

They also had a giant tiger. Lily LOVED it.



Then, Ross let her get in the slip & slide with all of her clothes on!

Lily is talking so much now. She puts two words together and answers questions. It is so amazing to see the progress. Last night Ross was in New York so I treated myself to sushi. I guess Lily thought it was funny because she kept saying it over and over. I thought it was funny too.

I kept trying to get Lily to say that Ross was in the "Big Apple" but she just wouldn't do it for the camera. She'd say it then I would turn on the camera and she would just repeat over and over that Daddy was at work.

Tragic accident over the weekend

Last weekend David and three friends went on a canoe trip. They had canoed this river before but this time it ended in a tragedy. The company that runs the canoe trips had a new employee who made a mistake and dropped them off at the wrong part of the river. They were dropped just before some rapids that no canoe should be on. David and his friend got dumped over about 15 minutes into the trip. The other pair were up the river ahead of them so they didn't know that they had gotten dumped over too. David and Matt were lucky and able to get themselves and their canoe over to the bank. His friends, soon after being dumped out went over a waterfall. The canoe broke and one of the boys didn't come up. After 24 hours of rescue workers searching the river they found his body on Sunday. His name was Craig Bond and I've been searching all over the internet for the story but it doesn't seem to be covered by of the papers. He was the drummer in David's new band.
I woke up five or six times in the night last night feeling sick to my stomach about what a horrible thing this is. I keep praying for his family and friends but I can't seem to get my head around the whole thing. I know that David must be having a really hard time with it. The guy that was in that canoe, the one who survived, lives in the house below Dave's apartment. I keep praying for him too. At some point during the search for Craig, he was told that he was the only one who made it!
David is beating himself up because he and Matt were joking and laughing about how bad of canoers that they were, that only 15 minutes into the trip they had already taken a spill. Not knowing at the time what was happening around the bend. He knows that he shouldn't feel guilty, but he does.
I can't imagine how bad this all feels to those guys.
It makes me sick to my stomach and hurts my heart.

Drunken Foolishness

this is a shot of the boys taking shots... poor Ross, doing Jager through a straw!


My friend Dickson is in town for work and he only has a couple of days left so last night we conned Brandi & Todd into spending the night here so that we could go up to Ft. Lauderdale & meet up with him. Well, you already know by the title of this post that we ended up a little bit drunk.


He works for Howl at the Moon and is helping out down here for spring break so we met him at his work and had a couple of beers there before heading down the strip. We didn't go to that many places and I kept sitting out when they ordered shots, but somehow we ended up completely wasted. We left our car there and took a cab home. I'm not sure what arrangement we made about the car because it was in a garage and we gave Dickson the key when we left. I'm a little concerned now because I had several text messages this morning from him. They go like this:
"How do I turn the lights off?"
"How do I get out of this jeep?"
"I can't get the key out of the ignition"
maybe having Dickson move the car wasn't that great of an idea either. See kids, alcohol is bad!

St. Patrick's Day

Lily has gotten to where she knows when I'm going out and sometimes she gets pissed when she figures out that she doesn't get to go too. She started getting worried when I started putting on makeup and then got pretty upset when Brandi showed up. She loves Brandi, but at that point I think she realized that I was leaving her there with Brandi.
She didn't even enjoy playing dress up!



She finally came around.

This is no way to treat the babysitter!

Thanks Brandi for letting Ross and I have a fun St. Patty's day at Shenanigans.

Catch up ... yet again

Ross taught Lily some gang signs


Last week Lily was sick for a day. She kept making me hold her and then would fall asleep in my arms. Then, she threw up on me. I got her cleaned up and me cleaned up then she threw up on me again. and then again. After three clothes changes and hours holding her she got right back to her normal self!


Well, I haven't posted in awhile because Lily is STILL not napping during the day! (with the exception of the sick day) I had it all worked out where I was finally getting caught up with all my work and have streamlined a few things in order to get everything done in the little worktime I have at night and during the nap. Well, the last two weeks Lily has only napped when she is at the babysitter or when Ross is watching her. If I'm home she has to be attached to me. When I am at the computer she is in the chair with me or screaming to get in the chair with me.


Finally, today she took a nap! Yay. Not quite caught up yet in just one day, but it is a good sign.


Sunday we ran into Sam, Dave & the kids at the beach so that was good fun. Monday... St. Patty's day at Shenanigans, again, good fun. Ross actually worked the day shift to help them out and then got off work and had some beers with me while Brandi & Todd babysat Lily. The Sunday before, I introduced Dickson to the beach life here in Hollywood. Took him to all the happening spots. Both of them. Didn't get any pictures though.... I should have.


And, that is pretty much it for now.


Ross is healing better but still can't open his mouth big enough to eat a sandwich. We've discovered that Shepard's pie is a good meal for someone with their jaw partially wired closed.

Cheese eater

Why are we so collectively stupid?

Back in 2000 our country had a huge debacle over "popular vote" vs. electoral votes and for months we couldn't even decide who our president was. Why weren't things updated or "fixed" back then? Instead, we let the government elect the government, or was it the media?
either way, once it was swept under the rug we just continued on and never fixed a thing.
Well, I can't say that changes weren't made. Some were, some districts switched back to paper ballots, some went to computers, some purchased new touch screens. etc, etc.
No one bothered to look at how broken our system really is.
Now, here we go again.
And of course, being a Floridian, we are right in the middle of it AGAIN.
This system angers me completely.
I think I will be sick to my stomach if it happens again. If the democratic party elects someone that the people did not vote for. I voted for McCain and plan to in the general election too, so it isn't that I'm an Obama supporter, I'm just angry that Clinton could get a free ride because she has more friends in politics.
I was incensed when I heard that Florida's democratic delegates were not going to count and surprised that more people didn't complain about it in the first place. We were damned from the start. How do you tell an entire state that they have no voice in choosing a candidate and get away with it? Have we really come that far away from our core values of a government elected by the people?
Then, there is this issue of "super delegates" that just makes me fuming mad. The electorate system was started back in the days where votes literally had to be counted by humans so it made sense that local officials would poll their area then report to the state then the states would report to the national parties. Now, in our modern world, that system is stupid and antiquated. It made sense to do things that way back then, now, there is no excuse why we couldn't have a straight popular vote. Even in the primaries.
Plus, the super delegates don't even have to vote for the candidate that their constituents want! The entire reason for creating a "super delegate" was to prevent an "un-electable" candidate from winning the democratic nomination. What? How democratic is that?
The people cast their votes to elect candidate A and then the super delegate says "no, I don't think candidate A will be able to beat the Republican candidate, we are going to vote for candidate B instead"
Where is the voice of the people?

Regardless of the way this all boils down in the end, we've screwed it up. Me, for example. I'm an independent. But in order to be able to vote in Florida, I had to pick a side. I am passionate about certain things that are Democratic views, and also passionate about things that are Republican views so picking a side was difficult. So, when I found out that Florida had been stripped of their democratic delegates, the DNC had made my decision for me. So, I switched my registration to Republican. Had the DNC not done that (or Florida not moved their primary... whichever you want to blame) I may have decided to vote Democratic. Who knows.
And then there are those who usually vote Democrat and didn't foresee this debacle and just didn't bother to go to the polls because they knew their vote wouldn't count.
There is no way to say how Florida's vote would have turned out if we weren't' stripped of our delegates in the first place.
Would it be the same? Would it have worked out better for McCain? Worse? Would Clinton have still won? Who knows... there are just too many factors to count.
And a do-over! That wouldn't be fair either. What if people like me decided that we wanted to vote Democrat instead? Would I be allowed to vote on the Democratic re-do?
And where would the money come from? Take it away from the schools? the firefighters? the police?
I'd only recently started following politics and I'm beginning to think I was better off back when I stuck my head in the sand. Certainly would have been better for my health.

Ross is getting better... I am frazzled

Lily took Ross's funny talking better than Zelda did. Zelda acted very strange around Ross for about 2 days. Ross told Lily that he had a boo-boo so now she just keeps saying over and over "Daddy, boo boo, mouth"
pre-accident, Lily would fall or something and come to me saying "boo boo" and then point to where she was hurt. Now, if she falls or crys and I ask her where is her boo boo, she opens her mouth! Silly girl.


We went to the carnival but didn't stay long. The BBQ was killing Ross and since we weren't drinking, eating, riding rides and didn't want to waste money throwing darts at balloons... there wasn't much else to do. I was hoping for some good live music but since the band was my neighbors' band, that didn't pan out so well. They practice at my neighbors house (the one that is REALLY close to ours) twice a week and they are TERRIBLE! Worst band ever. They play the usual southern rock covers and just butcher them.

I thought this was sweet that Lily and Ross were relaxing in the sun but then right after I took this picture the hammock broke!


This morning I was checking my email at the kitchen table while Lily was eating breakfast and I looked up to see that she had put down her spoon and was eating her cottage cheese with a BACKSCRATCHER!!! Believe it or not, she did better with that than a spoon!

Ok, so to the meat of the blog....

Ross is recovering well. It has been a week since the surgery and the swelling has gone down and he is able to speak enough that people can understand him. The phone is a bit of a challenge especially if the person on the other end doen't know that his jaw is wired shut!





Me, I am so frazzled. Lily hasn't taken a nap since returning from Melbourne and I am realizing how dependant I am on that 2 hour break mid-day. I really depend on it to get my work done. I have exactly 4 hours to work each day, 2 hours during the nap and 2 hours at night. If Lily doesn't nap it cuts my workday in HALF! Plus... it is making me crazy. I don't know if it is just that I need my sanity non-baby talk time or if it is that Lily is tired so she is crankier? or maybe it is because I 've stayed up too late trying to get my work done?





Who knows...

Home now!

Ross got out of the hospital today.
Once we got home I dropped him off and went to get his scripts.
What a nightmare! Apparently whatever painkiller they perscribed is very rare to have it in a liquid form. I went to four Pharmacies before finally finding one that carried it!
But, now that we are home I am just trying to take advantage of the opportunity that I have have to work un-interruped, just as soon as I post this pic....

Surgery is over... everything went well

Ross just got out of surgery and everything went ok.
I didn't get a chance to speak to the surgeon so no one has told me the details like whether or not they pulled the two partial teeth or whether or not they had to cut into his jaw from the outside. I'm sitting right here next to him, but they have an icepack strapped to the side of his face so I can't tell. He is in that drowsy state of half consciousness and I'm a nervous wreck.
They told me that if he has to vomit that we have to cut the wires so he can open his mouth or he will drown. Everyone I know vomits after anesthesia, including me! I am so worried. I'm having to write in the blog right now to keep myself busy so I don't just sit here watching every breath Ross makes and giving myself an ulcer.
I've actually been a nervous wreck for hours now. There is a Carlsberg promotion down in downtown Miami and Ross had all the signs and glasswear for it. He didn't have to be there, but the stuff that was in his truck did. So, we came up with the idea for me to drive down to Miami during the surgery to drop it off.
Well, this hospital is in North Broward and the bar that I needed to get to is in the middle of downtown Miami so I knew it would take about an hour each way. The surgery was supposed to be two hours long so we figured it would help me not be so nervous.
WRONG.
As I am getting onto the turnpike there comes on a news report about power outages all over Miami. The reports just keep getting worse and worse. The southbound traffic was mild but the northbound traffic just kept getting heavier and heavier. So, I get to Miami and the drawbridge that is on the street I need to go down is out, assuably because of the power outages. I really don't know my way around Miami and Ross is the one I would usually call for directions. Finally, I finagle my way around the traffic and find the bar, drop off the stuff then start heading back. Worst traffic I've dealt with in years. It took me two hours to get back and about mid-way back the gas light comes on. I'm 6 lanes over from the exit in dead standstill traffic!
Plus, the neighborhood that I'm in is one of those that they tell tourist never to get off the highway in. The actually tell people that they are safer running out of gas on 95 than to try and get off! So, I'm mildly panicking at this point.
Then, BING the check engine light is on. Then I look and the car is on HOT ok, major panic now. I worked my way over to the right lane and see that the next exit has a gas station right of the exit. So, I risked it. I pulled in and got gas just as if I owned the place. I didn't open the hood or even show any indication that something was wrong with the car. I got back in, got back on the highway and guess what.... I guess being calm does actually pay off sometimes because the temp gauge starting going back down.
It went back down to normal temp and I just kept truckin'. So, I'm back at the hospital and I race up to Ross's room figuring that because I am an hour late than he would have been out of recovery.
He wasn't.
Panic again. The nurse (great nurse...from Germany... name's Ana) told me where to go to get to the surgery waiting room. I get there and there is no desk, no nurse station, no no one anywhere for me to ask to find out if Ross is ok. I'm running up and down the halls like a mad woman and finally a nurse appears out of a room.
She told me Ross was fine and that everything went well.
WHEW.
He is going to kill me, but I've taken pictures of him to post here :)

Money.... no, INSURANCE... rules the world

I completely understand that health care is expensive and that the doctors and hospitals have a difficult time sometimes getting folks to pay their bills but some of the things we've encountered in the past couple of days are just downright ridiculous.
I was at work when they took ross to the hospital, but he was admitted to the Emergency Room and they asked him for payment BEFORE anyone ever saw him. He is there with a very serious break, can't speak but relates to them that his pain is a 10 on a scale of 1 to 10 and they ask him for money rather than giving him meds!
Then, yesterday morning the surgen came in to examine him. He looked at him for a couple of seconds and then asked him about his insurance. We weren't sure wether or not Ross's insurance had taken effect yet so Ross told him the situation. He tells Ross that he better get it straightened out or that he was going to have to come up with some way to pay before the surgery could be done.
So, this morning I call the surgen's office and pretty much got put off by his staff. I told her that we DID have insurance (his work confirmed that we did) but we just didn't have the number yet but would have it by the end of the day. I explained that we were just waiting to hear back from the guy in the benefits department. I told her that I didn't want Ross's surgery to be delayed because of payment, and she said that the best way to make sure that doesn't happen would be to send a deposit of two thousand dollars and then proceeded to give me the doctor's name and P.O. Box.
I asked her was it standard proceedure to ask an insured patient to send a two thousand dollar check prior to surgery. She didn't have much of an answer for me. She just kept stressing over and over that the surgery was going to be over ten thousand dollars. I kept answering back saying that we have insurance. It mattered none to her.
I told her I would send the check but pointed out that I felt as though we were being treated like a charity case. She at first got offended and began to tell me the doctors impecible record and whatnot. I told her that I just felt like they were stalling the surgery or putting other people ahead of us strictly because of money. At some point during the phone call I think she realized that she needed to make sure that we were taken care of so that they will stay in the good graces of Blue Cross. By the end of the call, she was giving me her direct line and telling me over and over that if I needed anything to please call.
It is just pathetic that the doctor is more worried about his payment than he is the patient. He didn't explain anything to Ross. He didn't tell him what the surgery would entail, how long it would take, how long the recovery usually is, or even what he was going to do. He only talked to Ross about how he was going to get his money. I don't think that is the role a doctor should be taking.
I don't know if it was because they finally got confirmation that we do, in fact, have insurance or the comotion I caused this morning, but the doctor and his staff lady both called today and checked in. Both being very thorough about everything now.

Sorry about the rant.

Ross is being a real tropper. He is able to swallow a little better today than he was yesterday so he is a little more comfortable. His IV was hurting him so we got the nurse to move it to the other hand. He talked her into letting him take a shower after she took the one out and before putting in the new one. I think this made him feel much better. He had been here for close to three days and had arrived straight from the rugby field. He said he was feeling so gross. He even brushed his teeth a little. Now he has on the gown and is ready for the surgery tomorrow.

It is kinda cool that the hospital has wi-fi so I'm able to get work done and update this blog while sitting here keeping Ross company. Plus, it will give him something to do when I'm gone. Play computer games or catch up with friends on facebook.