TGIF

I voted today. I decided to do it early cuz I've been seeing on the news how long the lines have been in other areas of the country. I worried that if I showed up on Election Day to a wrap around the building kind of line, I might have thought "screw this" and gone home. I mean I'm patriotic and all. But I don't know that I have the stamina to wait 8 hours in a line. Which I saw on TV some are doing. And that's to vote EARLY. Luckily, I timed it just right and went a little after 10am. I was in and out in 40 minutes. It was easy peasy. Now I don't have to worry about it.

I finally admitted defeat and went to the doctor today. For the second time in thirty days, might I add. Some bad sickness ju ju has been following me lately. Don't know what I did to deserve it. But ready for it to be done. My sinuses are so jacked up that it's spread into my ears. You know that feeling when your ears pop on an airplane? Both of mine are like that. They're so clogged up it feels like my head is gonna explode. And the end of my nose is a big ole ugly bunch of shredded dried up skin from too much nose blowing. I'm having to vaseline it up. Lovely.

I plan to spend the evening in my jammies watching Grey's Anatomy and Survivor. I missed both last night since I chose to go trick-or-treating with the T's. I'll have my neti pot and my hot pack close by. The doc suggested the hot pack to put on my ears and sinuses to help with pain. A nice cup of hot tea sounds nice, too. What an exciting way to spend a Friday night.

A far cry from my party girl days of coming home to nap on a Friday night. Only so I could go out clubbing at 10pm, dance on tables, close the bars, go to breakfast and then crawl my ass home at sun up. Ahhh... those were the days. I doubt I'll be doing that again anytime soon. Although the thought is much less appealing to me now that I'm just a few months shy of my 37th birthday.

Speaking of my neti pot, the T's and trick-or-treating....
I knew after spending a couple hours outside I'd have a fully congested head. So I took the neti pot to my sister's last night. Plus she had never seen one. So I demonstrated. But first I told the kids I was going to perform quite the magic trick. They were all captivated as Aunt Krista poured water up one side of her nose and made it come out the other side. They thought it was way cool. What can I say? Pouring water outta my nose for sheer entertainment value. That's just how I roll.

Now it's picture time. Tanner decided he was not only too cool to smile for a photo but he also bailed on us to go trick-or-treating with his friends instead.Here are the middle T's starring Teagan as a puppy, Tatum as a witch, and Travis as a disgruntled race car driver. Okay. I was just kidding about the disgruntled part. He just refused to smile for the pic.Tatum has been a witch in years past as you can see. But when given the choice of costume, she decided she wanted to be a witch again this year.But this time she wanted to be one with a green face. The problem was I think she may have gone to school with the remnants of that green paint still on her face. Cuz when I left the house last night her daddy couldn't get it all off. No matter how hard he tried. And he really tried. LOL!Now isn't this just too stinkin' adorable? She looks like one of those Anne Geddes dolls, doesn't she? This was actually a costume bought for Mia by Aunt Carla back before Tess was even a glint in her daddy's eye. You know, cuz of the whole ladybug-China adoption thing. But since Mia is still just a dream in all of our hearts, the costume got passed down to Tess. Kind of a twisted irony, eh? That Tess gets her cousin's hand-me-downs cuz "the idea of Mia" is older than "the idea of Tess".... but the "real life Tess" is going to be older than the "real life Mia". Now that's a brain teaser.Trick-or-treat action shot. LOL! I kept accidentally stepping on Teagan's tail. Which pissed him off to no end.This is why I love to go trick-or-treating with the kids. Just to see the look of sheer joy on their faces.Okay... maybe the candy has a little to do with it, too.Tess doesn't get what all the fuss is over candy. Oh just you wait, little one. It won't always be only all about the breast milk.All tuckered out after a hard day of being pushed in the stroller and carried everywhere. It's a rough life.

I've Become A Pot Head

Now don't go calling my social worker. It's all perfectly legal. My brother had mentioned these things to me awhile back. He has sinus issues like I do. But I never got around to getting one. Today at work after blowing my nose (or attempting to I should say) for the gazillionth time, another person suggested I try a neti pot.

So what is this thing, you ask? I'm sure some of you already know. But for those that don't, here's the deal. You take this little tea pot looking thing and fill it with lukewarm water. You drop in a saline solution. Then.. now get this... you stick it up your nostril and pour the water up your nose. Uh huh. You heard right. Make sure you lean over the sink though. Cuz the water comes right back out the other nostril.
Now let me tell you. There's nothing natural about pouring water up your nose. And the first time I did it the sensation of the warm water traveling up the side of my nose, across my forehead and back down the other side totally freaked me out. I accidentally swallowed a little salt water, too. Rookie mistake. Don't open your throat while you're doing it. I figured that out.

But see how the chick in the pic has a nice steady stream coming out the other nostril? My sinuses are so congested I had a drip. Like a leaky faucet. Drip drip drip. But the whole sinus rinse thing did help some. I'm breathing through my nose a tiny little bit now.

Oh and be warned... the things you'll blow out of your sinus cavity after this treatment... yikes! Who knew my head could hold that much snot? Sorry... TMI, I know. But you're reading about nasal irrigation. What did you expect? LOL!

I'm off to try again once more before bed. Maybe I might be able to sleep tonight if I can clear an airway. So who else is a pot head?

Tuesday - Bullet Style

• I just got done watching this show. With a big smile on my face cuz it brought back memories of my childhood. I called the T's to tell them it was on and the oldest T said they'd never seen it. Can you believe that? But I did see in the end credits that it was copyright 1966. It's older than me! I'll have to check back and see how the kids liked it. Considering how low tech it is compared to the stuff they're used to nowadays. Man... that totally made me sound like an old geezer, didn't it? Snoopy is my fave. I just love him. I have a raging cold. I know... sick again. I'm not having much luck with my immune system lately. My nose is so congested I can't breathe out of it most of the time. And no amount of blowing will help that situation. The only thing I've managed to do is make the tip of my nose red and raw. That should look great when it starts peeling.
• I lost my bullet up above. It just disappeared and I can't get it back. Hmmmmm....
• My raging cold caused me to miss a dinner invitation with Robin, Marty and Maddy, Paulette and Annalise, and Pipo. But since Annalise was heading to the hospital yesterday to prep for her surgery, I obviously couldn't risk exposing her to my germs. They'll be in town for awhile so I'm sure I'll get to visit with them at some point. Say some prayers that her surgery and hospital stay goes well.
  
• Speaking of Pipo... I think I know what she's naming her daughter. It came to me in a dream. Ya wanna know? It's Olive. Shhhh... it's a secret though. LOL!
• I'm sick of all the campaign commercials. I can't wait until this election is done. So over hearing about it. And yes ... I know it's the most important election of my lifetime...blah blah blah. But I'm still sick of hearing about it. Especially on my sibling's blogs and then watching them go at each other. My sister, the die hard Democrat, and my brother, who's just a die hard instigator. We all know who you two are voting for. And you won't change each other's view point. Done. New subject please. :)
  
• Gas is down under $2 a gallon in a few places locally. Yee haw!
• I hurt my knee at work today and had to go have an x-ray. It's not broken. But I have to wear a brace and go back in a week. If it still hurts I get an MRI. No I'm not gonna tell you how I did it. I'm thinking of making up a really dramatic story about chasing a mass murderer and tackling him. Whatcha think? That sounds like a good one. Much more impressive than the stupid thing I really did.
  
• I bonded with the nurse practitioner who treated me. We had two things in common. We were both married to lying cheating bastard policemen who we then divorced. (But we're not bitter. LOL!) And she has a very close friend adopting from China. Small world, huh? She's checking on her friend's LID to report back when I go for my follow up.
  
• I got to go watch Tatum at ballet practice yesterday. Normally it's behind closed doors. But it was "observation night". Unfortunately, her momma had to work. So I got to be the stand in. I'll try to post the pics tomorrow maybe. I must say... she's really very good. Yes, I'm a little biased. But seriously... she listens and follows direction very well. She knows almost the whole dance routine already without prompts from the teacher. She's a natural.
  
• Speaking of my sister, I'll be glad when she gets that damn Halloween music off her blog. Bette Mid-ler's cackling voice is driving me crazy. I'm subjected to it every time I go over to check out all the cute pics of my nieces and nephews. Not that I don't appreciate the Divine Miss_M. But the Hocus*Pocus music is a bit much, Carla. :P
• I've shed some tears over this whole tragedy involving Jennifer Hud-son's family. Such a sad, sad story. She's truly a bright shining star. It's just a shame this has happened. My prayers go out to her.
  
• And to end on a slightly happier note.... it's been reported the CC-AA is matching as we speak. Or as I type and you read, I should say. Here's to hoping they get thru the end of February. Okay.... long shot, I know. How about just to Ozimum and Pipo this batch then?
  

Fall Festival Pics

A couple weekends ago my sis and I took the 3 youngest T's to a Fall Farm Festival. The older boys were having a sleepover at Grandma's house. And Daddy got a free day of peace and quiet all by himself. So now I subject you all to our day of fall fun.... even though it was 80 degrees outside.

Tess is thinking... "Am I gonna like this place?"

Tatum, Teagan and a couple of cute (expensive) painted pumpkins.

On top of Monster Mountain waiting to go down the big slide.

They were loving this thing.

Tess just hanging around with Mommy.

I think they would've done this all day if we'd let them.

The traditional pic of our heads in the farm sign. LOL!

Teagan enjoying a donut.

Check out the hair on all 3 of these T's. Now do you see why we were so surprised when this one came out with the head full of dark? Daddy is still questioning Mommy about that. LOL!

Tatum eating a cookie.

Grooming the goats.

Tatum just adores her little sister. I think she's just happy she's no longer the only girl in the family.

Looking very ornery in the hay loft.

That's why. A hay cannonball. Or maybe it's a belly flop.

Hope Your Weekend Is Happy!

Cool, eh?

I haven't been shopping for Mia in awhile. Every now and then if I see something that looks interesting I'll pick it up. But for the most part, I'm over the whole shopping thing. At least until this adoption becomes a little more real, ya know. Like I might actually have a baby someday to go with all this baby stuff I've managed to accumulate over the past 2+ years. Anyway, I digress.

I was bored the other day so I decided to check out all things penguin on E*Bay. And look what I found. He's a mesh bag that suctions on to your bathtub wall to hold bath toys.Perfect for me, isn't it? I mean, for Mia........
:)

The Candle Controversy

Remember a couple of weeks ago when the family got together to celebrate my mom's birthday? And how my smart ass sister decided to put 60 actual birthday candles on the cake? Well, you'd expect she'd still have some of those candles left, right? Especially since there were some brand new ones in those boxes that didn't get burned.

But we all know how wives communicate things to their husbands. And then how husbands actually interpret those words into something maybe slightly different than what the wife meant. Right? I was married once. I remember how that stuff works.

So my sister told the hubs to throw out the candles. Meaning the burnt up, half melted ones that were on the cake. He interpreted that to mean literally what she said. Throw out the candles. All of the candles. Even the unused ones. Well, that's a guy for ya.

Last night while the family was over to celebrate my brother's birthday it came time to do the cake part. And here is where the controversy began. No candles. Well, you can't have a birthday cake and sing the birthday song without the ceremonious blowing out of the candles. So what to do? What to do?

We began searching the house for something acceptable to burn on top of the birthday cake. Lil' Travis thought we should use this holiday pillar. Uh...... no.
Everyone waits with anticipation as we try to figure out a solution to this dilemma.
Hmmmmm..... any ideas? We need to improvise here, people.
Here's the candle-thrower-outer himself. But you have to give the experienced father of five credit at least for being able to juggle a baby in one hand and light candles with the other. That's right. We solved the problem.
With tea light candles! A little ghetto maybe but they get the job done. LOL! Hey... that's just how we roll.
Travis finally got to blow out his candles. With a little help from Braeden, his step-son. If my brother were actually married to his girlfriend, I mean. (No pressure though.)
For some reason, Braeden needed to smell the cake. Which I thought was funny and decided to snap a pic of.
Hope you enjoyed your birthday party, little brother.

PS. By the way.... did you check out the mad linkage in this post? That's cuz we're a blogging family. We all have our own blogs. It's quite addicting, you see. But be warned, if you click over to my brother's blog you may be offended. Unless you have a sick, twisted, raunchy sense of humor like the rest of my family. It's definitely not your typical blog. And some of the inside jokes you won't get. Cuz no matter how old they get, little brothers never grow out of annoying their sisters.