Of Course I Hear Voices: I Own Parrots

A culmination of the stress at work (midterms, into the elevator relocation, into finals, to the stress at home (the usual suspects:groceries, cooking, cleaning, bills, birds, kids), standing more than I should and doing physical activities (one activity in particular) I probably shouldn't have, my shoulder injuries from the tornado have flared up at bit. My "good" shoulder is fairing a little better than the bad one. The bad shoulder is in pretty bad shape. It hurts when I drive, do my hair, breathe, try to sleep...it isn't pleasant. Advil migraine reduces the inflammation a bit, but it typically starts wearing off at the end of the work day...and I can only take it once every 24 hours :-( The pain sucks. It is hard to stay on schedule when it hurts to get dressed and get ready for work. It can be distracting...which scares me when I drive. I am hoping that the massage I have scheduled for Saturday will bring me some relief.  Hopefully she will be able to ...

This just in: along with my new found crafty/DIY skills, I have also learned that baking is also in my skill set. Who Knew? Apparently, all I needed was an awesome kitchen and a family to bake for. A couple weeks ago I wanted to make a dessert for a cook out. I was going to make strawberry shortcake, but the logistics were not in my favor. Instead I decided to make a homemade Strawberry pie. I made my own glaze and everything. Amazingly, it was delicious. Also I am happy to report I did *not* inherit Mom's inability to make crusts. At the aforementioned cookout, we were give fresh peaches. Mark said he wanted a peach cobbler. Knowing that Mom sort of sucked at making those types of pastries, and that I had never made one myself made me a little nervous. I found a recipe online and made some small adjustments. The result: It is amazing. It will be made again. I guess the good news is that I am adapting to the domestic life pretty well. The house is clean. Aside from ...

Here are a few things I thought were just common sense: 1) Always read everything carefully. 2) Follow all the directions. 3) When you fail to do items 1 and 2, don't be rude about it. You screwed up. The other person is under no obligation to help you. 4) Addendum to item 3: IF they choose to help you, don't be a jerk. 5) Be aware of your location and surroundings. 6) Do your own paperwork. 7) If you do not do your own paperwork, you still need to know all the required information. 8) Addendum to item 7:  My Mama/girlfriend/sister did it for me is *NOT* a valid excuse for not having/knowing your required information. You are an adult. Act like one. 9) If you aren't responsible enough to do all the work, maybe you aren't ready. 10) If you may be significantly late to work, and you only have 1 phone # for your boss, voice mail is acceptable. However, you will need to keep him/her updated. If you have 3 numbers, call all 3. If you get VM on all three, again t...

Almost a month later, we are still trying to resolve things with Indiana Punch Crew. We filed three complaints: 1) We asked for a refund from Eversave 2) Mark filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau 3) I filed a complaint with the Attorney General's Office 1) Eversave could not get us a refund, but gave me an account credit. That is awesome and all, but that means Indiana Punch Crew still has my money for services they never intend to provide. That bothers me. 2) Mark received an e-mail saying that his complaint had been forwarded to Indiana Punch Crew and the BBB was waiting for a response. We have not heard back from the BBB at this time. We are guessing that the forwarded complaint is the reason Indiana Punch Crew has contacted Mark 3 times since June 6. On June 6 (mind you this is the first we had heard from the company at all since the incident), a woman left a voice mail asking Mark to text her the day we wanted for our appointment. Mark responded t...

Every day there is a list of work I should get done after work. Most days, getting it done isn't too hard. I make a list. I stick to it. The apartment stays clean. Laundry gets done. Meals are made. My sanity is kept. Some days, keeping my focus is an uphill battle. Some days the work day has been so rough that I find it hard to care about the list (today is one of those days). On those days, I feel guilty for being a slug. Did the groceries get bought? Yes. Did that mean not getting home until almost 8:00. Yes. Should I feel awful that the vacuum wasn't run or the garbage isn't taken out. Maybe? Yes, it would have been a bitch move to ask my boyfriend who is not feeling well help me hang pictures. Some of it is I wonder if I will have time to get it all done. If it doesn't happen tonight, I have to try to make time for it later in the week. That isn't always possible. Just today on my lunch break I was trying to set up a workout schedule. Since moving in ...

I am: Missing this guy: Glad to be spending it with this guy: And wishing this guy would never have sat on those eggs:

I came home to cookies, dinner, Hello Kitty stickers and these last night: Unexpected gifts can do the heart a world of good.

The kids make them so nervous.

I really do sort of suck at this. I love his girls, and I do not doubt that they love me. They are really great kids, but we had a rough weekend. I can't seem to fully recover from it.  It hasn't been a total disaster. I really hasn't, but it has left me feeling very discouraged. I bought them toys. I bought them because I wanted to. I want them to have things to play with while they are here. I want them to be happy here. I am not looking for heaps of praise, but a thank you would be nice. I am not trying to be their mom. They already have a mom that loves them very much. At the same time, I am not their friend.  They have to learn this. This past weekend I was almost in tears several times because no matter what I did, his girls (and their cousins we were watching) refused to listen to anything I said. Most times they just pretended like I didn't even say anything. I actually preferred that to when they would talk back to me. I'm an adult. This is my house ...

I spent most of my week off working on things around the apartment, buying toys, and working myself into the ground. Even when my heart was breaking, I kept it together and kept on a happy face. Getting through the 2 year anniversary of the tornado has been hard. Still, there isn't time to be sad where there are softball games and little ones around. Every day after work, it seems like all I do is work. Cooking. Laundry. Cleaning. Groceries. Paying Bills.  I'm a grown up. These are things I should do.The problem is that  I just feel drained. I should feel accomplished, but I just don't feel like I am doing anything (aside from some shopping on Sunday) that is *for me.* It may sound selfish. Hell maybe it is selfish.  I had the better part of the week off work, and I feel worse than I did *before* my vacation. I really want everyone to be happy in our new situation. I work hard to keep the apartment looking nice and our business in order. That satisfactio...

Why have kids play organized sports if we do not teach them the rules? What is the point of just letting them swing until the hit the ball and then just letting them run the bases? Why in the hell would you have them stand practically outside the batters box instead of actually teaching them how to properly hit the ball? Why lie to them about how badly they lost? Why not try to make them a better team? Why can't the girls learn to pitch? Coach pitch to 8 and 9 year olds? Really? What is so wrong with telling them they are doing something wrong. I am not saying beat them with metal hangers or berate the child, but why can't explain what is wrong so they can better themselves? Guess what? They will never learn to play the game properly if you coddle them. They will never strive to get better if you do not tell them where they need to improve. They will never learn how to be successfully be an adult. They will never learn how to learn from their mistakes. They w...

I think this pretty much says it all:

I will spare you the pictures from before they were cute. No. Really. Google baby cockatiel you and will thank me. Popcorn basically started molesting Weddnesday at 6 months. When she was a year and a half they laid eggs. She abandoned the nest initially, but once Popcorn started sitting on the eggs, she eventually returned. Despite being reassured that Popcorn (he was 21) was too old to fertilize eggs, One hatched on June 3,  2010. He was followed by Two and Three on June 4 and 5, and their sister hatched sometime that next week. I had every intention of finding them all new homes. However, the tornado sort of messed that up. their sister found a new home, but One, Two and Three are still with me.

Mark needed a desk. We didn't have one, but we did have a vanity I no longer needed.  The good news: it was the right size and matched an extra chair. The Bad News: It was in bad shape. It is also a reproduction that is made of laminate.  Painting laminate is a big undertaking. After some Google searches, I was ready to get started. 1) Clean said desk. This required Murphy's Oil Soap and a brush. 2) Tape off the areas I didn't want painted. I still wanted the desk to match the chair, and I thought the two tone look would be fun.  3) Sand until the finish on the laminate starts to come up. Now, laminate won't come completely clean, you need to get up a good portion of it. Wipe away dust. This took about 2 sanding blocks. 4) Prime it. Sadly, my can of primer was faulty, so I had to get dressed and buy another. I used the Krylon Spray primer (it dries in 10 minutes). 5) Now it is time to paint. I used Krylon's Oil Rubbed Bronze. I spr...

Today is the day I decided to tackle my dining room. What I thought would be a 1-2 job turned into an almost 6 hour job. We bought these chairs to go with my grandparents' dining room table. They are pretty stained, and way too light to have (with kids). The first item of business: recover the seat cushions. 1) First I removed the seats from the chairs. This was the easiest part of the recovering project. Locate the screws on the bottom side of the seat. Removing those frees up the seat, so you can remove the old fabric. 2) This is where I ran into an issue. I discovered that one of the chairs had the original hardware. However, 2 of the chairs had 2  screws that did not match the others at all and one chair only had 2 screws. I dug through my spare hardware container (I just need to buy a tool box), but my closest match wasn't even close.  As you can see in the picture below (right to left: The ones that came with the chair, the ones tha...

Ceremony in Millbury honors Lake Twp. tornado victims : The community is gathering in Millbury Tuesday night for the dedication of a gazebo to the seven victims of the June 5 tornado that ripped through the area two years ago.

Two years ago, my life changed forever. June 4, 2010 set the whole situation up. Dad had a stroke. Two ER doctors at  Fulton County Health Center misdiagnosed him ( He had a history of clotting strokes. We could prove negligence, but not that it led to Dad's condition). When they finally called our family doctor, he had Dad moved to Bay Park. Their negligence sealed our fate. Had they done their jobs, we never would have been on 795 that night. We never would have crossed paths with that tornado. We can't change any of that. It has been a long two years that started in a totaled Chevy Cobalt in the middle of 795. As time goes on, I remember more and more of that night. Most are memories I wish I never pieced back together. We lost our mother and became responsible for our now very disabled father in a terrifying moment I relive in my nightmares. In that two years, our lives fell apart, we lost our father, and Amy and I had to deal with our own trauma from the tornado....

Here is the last project for the girls room. My parents bought me a vanity bench at a garage sale. I never got around to recovering it, and since my vanity was becoming Mark's desk (my old bathroom was a shoe box. Our new bathroom actually has space for my stuff.), I didn't have a place for it. Then I decided to make the girls a desk. Now they needed a place to sit. The vanity bench seemed like the best answer. The vanity after I removed the seat. 1) Cleaned the bench (Murphy's Oil Soap and Liquid Gold) 2) Taped off the areas I didn't want to stain 3) Sand off the old finish 4) Wipe off the dust 5) Apply stain 6) Wipe off access stain (Note: I probably should have put wood conditioner on this before staining it. I know this now) 7) Let dry over night 8) Spray with gloss finish and let dry over night. 9) Pick out fabric for bench.  10) Use a staple gun to attach the fabric to the seat 11) Re-attach the seat to the bench....

Here is the recipe *with* the substitution for the cheesy stroganoff packet. 1 Season Packet from Hamburger Helper Stroganoff 1 Cheese packet from the cheap Mac and Cheese 1/2 cup Minced Onion 1 Tbsp Fat (yes...fat that is what she wrote down. butter also works) 1 lb ground beef 2 Tbsp All purpose flour 1 tsp salt 3 4 oz cans of mushroom pieces (I only used 2 because Mark isn't a mushroom fan) 1 10 1/2 oz can of cream of chicken soup 1 8 oz container of sour cream 1 cup milk 1 pkg egg noodles 1/8 tsp pepper Cook the onion and fat (or butter) in a large skillet until the onions are soft. Add ground beef and brown Add mushrooms, flour, salt and pepper. Mix well Cook uncovered for 5 minutes. Add cream of chicken soup. Stir into meat mixture thoroughly. Reduce heat to simmer. Cook covered for 10  minutes Mix in milk, sour cream, the cheese packet, and the seasoning packet.  Heat thoroughly Serve over cooked egg noodles Serves 6