IT'S AAAALLLLLIIIVVVVEEEEE!!!!!

Felix fixed the dryer. The part came in the mail, we put it on and it didn't work. So unwilling to wait another week for another part I found a dryer part supply place in town, sent Jeeves to go get another new part and that evening relished the clean smell of freshly laundered sheets. mmmmmmmm, it's done wonders. Also I have made pretty good strides in getting the laundry put away, I've got two loads at home right now that if I get them put away tonight, I'll officially be "caught up" with the laundry. I have one hamper, it is half full. When it fills I will do two loads of wash and be caught up, that's the new plan.

In other news: the verdict from the Endo is a good one. He is not putting me on meds, and is doing blood work now and in 4 months to determine if I have "postpartum thyroiditus" which causes a few big swings but typically settles down at about 12 months after the baby comes. I'm sort of wondering if that was the issue last time, because the timeline of this surge is pretty dead on to what happened before. I'm not symptomatic and my thyroid gland is not enlarged so I'm not looking at any time of permanent removal right now. (Yay, because both options for that suck like crazy, either take poison and don't touch people for a week or have someone hack into your neck and try not to nick your jugular. awesome)

Pumpkin is doing very well in Kindergarten and is learning at the speed of light. She went in with no letter knowledge and now knows almost all of the uppers, lowers and sounds. She so smart but may need some additional help with staying on task as she gets older. When working on letters and sounds at home we have a hard time keeping her focused. She wants to have a drink, talk to her brother, kick her feet, go potty, watch TV, etc, etc, etc...I get that she's been doing a lot of paying attention and sitting still all day but it's a little frustrating when I'm trying to fit homework into the schedule of the evenings activities. (dude, when did Kindergarten stop consisting of storytime, snack time, nap time and duck, duck goose?)

Did anyone else wake up this morning completely surprised that it's already the end of freaking august. Time is supposed to march, not sprint, what the french!

BEST BABY PICTURE EVAR

Stay Thirsty My Friends

Daily Living Skills: Laundry Therapy

Here's the thing. I hate housework. I really do, hate it,
can't stand it, don't wanna do it, not gonna do it.

Problem is, I also hate having a messy house.

When things start to go squiffy and the clutter begins to heap, my blood pressure goes up a little. I get really snitchy and can't seem to find a way to get less well, awful. (see above for the reason I can't fix my own problems, I realize the hypocrisy, don't judge me)

Thank God for Jeeves
Dude. cleans. house. fo realz
He is my shining armor clad knight armed with a swiffermop and dust rag. I love that guy.
Anyway, he doesn't do dishes or laundry.
Okay, I got that, I don't have to like it, but I'll do it.

Okay the point of this little cleaning rant, my dryer broke last week. I was at work and got a call from Jeeves saying the house was on fire. He was being dramatic, the dryer was smoking and there was a burning plastic smell permeating the house. So we put the dryer out of commission. I was unable to do laundry all weekend, and one of my munches had a few, um, potty incidents. Nothing big IF YOU HAVE A WORKING DRYER.(can you see that this is not having a positive impact on my emotional well being?)

Yesterday, Felix and I pulled the dryer away from the wall and he climbed behind it to discover that a bit of linty-fuzz had made the cord start melting into the wall which caused a short or something and resulted in a fried high limit thermostat. (look it's all very technical but the chap on the Tube of you's says he can show us how to fix it) Ug! At least it's fixable, however the part has to be shipped, I can't just buy one at the local sears.

So, no dryer for about another week. After a remarkably irritating conversation with the customer service lady (and 32 dollars for a part the size of a kumquat) I decided that the piles of laundry simply could not wait until next week, just couldn't do it. I was starting to feel meth-level twitchy

So I packed up my munches, and the endless baskets or dirty clothes, and drove to Mutti's house where the de-yuckifying appliances are still in working order. I did laundry and folded and played with my sneezy and leaking baby until almost 11pm and went home feeling far less psycho and a little better smelling. (bliss)

Also, yes, de-yuckifying is a word, because I just said so.

In related news: I'm going back to finish the laundry tonight, for serious, I have about 4 more loads to complete because after I got home and began putting things away I discovered more stuff lying around the house. Dear God how can one family create this much laundry....

.

A Graves Problem

After a rage-er of a headache last week I went to my primary to ensure I didn't have a tumor growing teeth in my brain. He said it was most likely a tension headache and gave me a heavy duty pain med for when the over the counter isn't working and had me do some blood work. (joy)

After a stint at the lab where a charmingly short Russian man called me sweetheart 87 times I waited with much anticipation to find that my cholesterol was up, i had diabetes and was going to have my left baby toe amputated (expected the worst and you'll be surprised, right?) Got a call back today, I'm perfectly healthy, the CBC, Metabolic and Lipid levels, all fine, but...

and it's a big but,

My TSH is down, to 0.035. It works backward, when your TSH is down is means your thyroid is over functioning and probably your T3 and T4 numbers will be elevated. My level is only slightly lower than the low side of normal, and triggered a need to find a new endocrinologist. (double joy.)

My last Endo was not kind. I was a basket case with a toddler and instead of being supportive and comforting she was brusque and a little dismissive. It rubbed me the wrong way. She would also not tell me my lab results until I came in for an office visit (great, let me freak out for awhile)

My diagnosis came about 4 months before I found out that Sunshine was on her way and during the course of the pregnancy, my numbers leveled out and everything settled down, (remission!)

I'm terrified of this particular issue in my health history. Why? because your thyroid is directly related to weight loss and having one that doesn't function properly can sink any efforts you are making, it's like an evil wizard is casting spells on your food, you eat carrots; he gives them the caloric equivalent of cupcakes, (not cool, magic man!)

And let me tell you the awesome part, stress, childbirth and family history can cause flare ups, right? ding,ding,ding...guess whose had all three (hint: it's me). This is alarmingly similar to my life the last time a flare up occurred. Baby comes, change in living situations, stress at job....BAM!

 Thyroid Crapsville, Population: Me.

Over active thyroid can lead to tremendous weight-loss, (a light at the end of shit tunnel) but not if you also have increased appetite. It ramps up your metabolism and you can get scary skinny in no time. However super skinny tends to come with bulging eyes, creepy goiter and congestive heart failure, not ideal. Not just an unconscious desire for snacks but a real, hunger pain type of need to eat complete with light headed-ness and hunger headaches. (wait, headaches, awesome I totes need more of those)

So, I have another appointment next week and hopefully I'll get the good news that my T3 and T4 are not elevated and we just need to be diligent and watch the numbers swing back to normal. I don't want to take medications for this, I have a hard time remembering to put socks on most mornings, don't give me something else to forget.

I hope everyone out there has a good weekend and maybe next week I'll be in a better mood. Right now I'm tired but I can't sleep, my left boob hurts and I'm so stressed that I'm finding it hard to un-clench my teeth enough to speak civilly to people.(in related news, teeth clenching leads to jaw pain, neck stiffness and oh! headaches!) The vacation we have planned at the end of the month can't come soon enough.

Excuse Me, Do You Pin?

Up to this point I have been a pinner with no follow through. Pinterest for me was sort of like a really expensive jewelry store, very cool to look at, never happening in my life.

If I don't start making these things happen in my life, I will be just another person who has great ideas, notions and plans, but never accomplishes anything.

So I made a sock monkey hat.

Then I had Pumpkin hold up a sign on her first day of school, and will continue to do that, like forever. 

Then last night, I made a recipe I found on Pinterest.

Lemon Cool Whip Cookies.  (I can't link it because my puter is being wonky, but google it, trust me)
Anyway you take a box of cake mix (lemon in my case) mix in a regular sized tub of cool whip and 2 eggs, drop balls of the mixture in powdered sugar and bake. The result is a light, cakey delicious snack that I'd love to share a picture of, but they are all gone. (My sister in law had gone to bed and woke up to eat one, that's how good they are) I will make more and post about the process.

All in all, I like this development in my life. It's good to try the cool things and even if they don't work out, it's cool cause I tried something new.

Tuesday night was my weekly Yarn night, I make food and my house available for all the fantastic ladies I love to come eat visit and make crafts. I call it the Yarn Party because the majority of the crafting is crochet and knitting, so yarn. If you remember, before Squirt was born I made a large crocheted rainbow blanket for my middle child, she's going to end up taking this thing to college with her, she loves it. I am now working on a large blue blanket for Pumpkin that I'm doing in shades of blue in a zig-zag pattern, At the end I'm going to put a tan border and several crocheted fish/sea creature embellishments and she will have an ocean blanket. It sometimes takes me awhile to complete big projects so this might end sometime next year, but I'm plugging away at it, so maybe sooner.

I woke up this morning with a small case of mastitus so I'm going to get a round of antibiotics to help clear it up. It's an infected milk duct in my breast, no biggie but the best thing to help it is nursing and it hurts like ten hells to let Squirt nurse, figures.

oh, OH and I chopped off all my hair, no joke look

I didn't do much with it this morning, but I love it!

Adding to the Flock

So, this weekend my brother and his family came to stay with us at Le Casa De Ninja. We are going to be housemates for a couple of months while they are between habitation stations. It's going pretty well so far, and yesterday we had the chance to have a big dinner care of Felix. He made some pan fried chicken, spaetzel, and veggies with mushroom gravy, it was super yummy. Sort of like a jagerschnitzel but made with chicken rather than pork. It brought me back to my childhood in Germany and made me smile down memory lane.

I also completed about 10 loads of laundry last night, in between trying to combine the two households, get organized, find new places for some things that never really had places in the first place, gak! Tonight I'll be folding and stowing that laundry and trying to gather the last of the errant things and either finding a place or placing them in the goodwill pile so we can get the house to a tolerable level of chaos.

We now have 4 adults, 3 little girls and 2 little boys living under one roof, it's going to be quite the adjustment. Fun, Crazy and really loud is the prognosis for the next few months, hopefully I'll be busy enough that I'll be able to avoid chowing down on junk. I've moved my craft stuff into Squirts closet and I really intend on getting lots of christmas crafting done in the next few months. But first I need to get our Halloween costumes worked out. Here come the Ninja Gnomes.

Fo realz.

Happy Birthday Jeeves!

Today is my awesome husbands 31st birthday. (dude is old, right?)

He's a good guy, probably one of the best I know. He is a good father and a caring husband. I'm not saying we never have issues, sometimes that man makes me mad enough to chew nails, but more often than not I'm in awe of the kindness, faith and remarkable love the man has for his family and friends.

He's not a manly-dude. He doesn't grill, or build things with power tools, or hunt. He reads, watches TV, plays basket ball occasionally and spends the majority of his free time being present in the lives of those love cares for. He, more than most people I know, understands the importance of making time for people. He believes that if you love someone you have to show them by giving them the most precious of your commodities; yourself, your time, your attention.

Happy Birthday Jeeves, I love you and I'm so blessed that you want to spend time with me.  

Waddling Away

So, yesterday was Pumpkin's first day of Kindergarten. I expected to be a basket case but it all happened so fast that I didn't have time to freak out.

And she did so well. She's such a sweet smart girl!

We got up early to allow for "wake up" time and try to get her to eat something before leaving the house, didn't happen. She refused to eat anything and only drank about 3 ounces of the giant "your such a big girl you deserve way more than usual" chocolate milk. (you are going to regret that decision later kiddo)

Then she got dressed and was bouncing around like a little kangaroo ready to go 20 minutes before the bus came. We all packed up and headed outside to take some pictures.

It's says she wants to be a "mommy" Ready: awwwwwww

It was sunny, so lots of crazy eyes. 

Then it was time to head to the bus stop. Another Mom was there and asked what grade Pumpkin was in, I said kindergarten and she said, "Oh I sobbed like a crazy person last year on (whatever his name was)'s first day. The big yellow bus came around the corner and my little champ climbed up and grabbed a seat near the front, she waved and the bus took off. I only let about 2 tears out. It was okay, really.

When's the bus coming Mom?

There goes my baby!

We ended up going up to the school because Pumpkin didn't have her first week of school badge that tells the bus monitor her name, class, and bus number. I grabbed and quickly filled out a badge and hotfooted it down to her classroom where she was already putting her Disney princess lunchbox in the bin, hanging up her book bag and taking her seat. I snapped a quick picture and gave her a hug and she told me, "Mommy it's time for you to go now." (sad face) so I went. Sheesh.

Her Purple Group Shirt. 

Then Sunshine, Squirt and I went out with Jeeves for breakfast, went by my office to visit and then out to a few stores to do some shopping. (shopping is a loose term, I bought ice cream sandwiches, mamba candy and pens) The ice cream and candy were for the munches, the pens were for me. (hi, my name is Ninja and I have been addicted to office supplies since early 1999.)

Then Pumpkin's pick up time rolled around and I waited at the bus stop for my big girl to come home.
and I waited
and I waited.

Dude!, the bus was like 45 minutes late. but then it was there and my big girl was home, Yay!

Hey kid? Where's your book bag?

She was too interested in a snack and a drink to talk with me about school, but eventually we got a brief rundown of the day. She now knows her teacher's name and today she hopped up on that bus again with her sun-butter sandwich and gave a quick wave before being whisked off to school again.

She was surprised that she had to go to school again, welcome to the big wide world baby girl!