So it’s been a while since I wrote last. Life is life, and sometimes it sucks, sometimes it doesn’t. For the most part things are going well and we are all “happy happy happy” {a favorite quote of mine from Phil Robertson on Duck Dynasty!}. I don’t have many readers on my site, just my family and a couple strangers that lurk that I have no idea who they are. It’s still nice to keep family updated when they do visit my site.
Can I complain? Oh I sure can! Will I? Likely! I’m not really a whiny cry baby type, but sometimes things get to me. This time let’s start with the positive news though 🙂 So Matt has been working at his “new” job at his old company Computer Associates (aka CA Technologies). They change their name every now and then. I’m not out there to brag about my husbands job, and I could get flamed for bragging because people who don’t have as much sometimes get touchy. This new position is good, great, and horrific all at the same time and I’ll explain why. It’s great because his base salary is $105,000.00 per year.
In a non-holiday, non-birthday type of month, we can bank about $2,800.00 a month. That’s the “good” part. It allows me to still stay at home with the kids… which I get more slack about that than anything. The only person that has something to say about my stay-at-home mom gig is my chronically unemployed brother. I have been pretty useless as a stay-at-home mom for the last year due to everything that has gone on, but oh well, I’m getting over that I hope. The great part about this job is that his actual salary could be $125,000.00 per year. The really BAD part about that is in order for that to happen, Matt has to be gone a lot. I am not a fan of that right now because I’m not quite ready. Four kids is a lot to handle, especially when I still have blood issues. He’s already spent weeks in Ottawa, Ontario. I think he went to Georgia for a few days, and I know he’s been somewhere else but I can’t remember where. Starting on January 29th he’s got to go to Indianapolis, Indiana for however many weeks. The good part about his company is he can come home whenever he wants pretty much and fly back a couple days later for a break.
This wouldn’t necessarily be a problem if I didn’t have to wake up the girls at 6a.m. and take the boys to Meijer’s for their bus pickup. So anyway, I won’t complain too much about that, I will only talk about the positives. That extra potential $25,000 is our travel money for the year, as well as another minivan of some sort… used hopefully. What sucks again though is it’s not guaranteed. He has to be billable to clients 60% of a fiscal quarter, which he fell just under this last period because of training that he didn’t need. He’s got a lot of experience with this company and clients wanted him so in his first month he was working with Liberty Mutual and Bank of Canada. After that they sent him on new-hire training in Georgia, ridiculous! lol. It was basic stuff like filling out time sheets and all that, which he is already pretty good at. Another plus is that he can still be billable while working at home remotely for clients. So he doesn’t HAVE to be gone. I like it when he’s here because I can go to the doctors and get stuff done during the day while the girls are at home napping and he’s in the next room. Selfish, maybe, but when he’s not here, I’m trapped in my own home because I spare the world the wrath of my entire clan. I am one of the real mom’s out there that have a couple misbehaving kids that run around restaurant tables and climb all over them, chop crayons, etc. They should make a show about “Real Mom’s of Detroit (or Monroe)” ha ha. Yes, I need a nanny 911 call here. A real mom’s house is never perfectly clean and tidy. Yes there will be toys and other garbage on the floor (not like real… garbage though!), and laundry will sit in baskets and never get put away. I temporarily stopped putting the girls clothes in their room and now leave them in a basket in the living room. If I put them away in their dressers, they know how to beat the drawer lock system we installed and they proceed to have a “baby fashion show” and pull them all out. One time I went in there and both Caitlyn and Ava had 5 shirts on layered. So, there are pluses and minuses to the whole thing, but as long as it pays off.
I have a goal of 3 vacations this year! I think we will take Julie to Disney World in May for her birthday. We love the magic kingdom! Caitlyn is now old enough to appreciate the whole “princess” thing and character dinners! We also want to get back to England. Also, we need to go up north because the kids want to play in Ocqueoc Falls again and walk the bridge and bike the island. So, my year is full of goals and so forth so no sickness this year! I also need to go to Cedar Point. We missed it last year because of my blood problems and they have a new ride called the GateKeeper.
So what have I been doing lately. Let’s see, I impulsively bought a nice Yamaha 72 key keyboard from the Guitar Center for Christmas. I had an urge to play the piano, which I am working hard at. I’m in love with my ultimate favorite tune called “Bella’s Lullaby” and I’ve been working on learning that piece. Here it is:
If I had the fingers of a pre-Raynaud’s person that weren’t so stiff and uncoordinated, I would love to be able to perform just like this…this is the best rendition of it besides from the Twilight series itself:
I’m in love with the Twilight series now that I have watched it over and over and over again, you can say obsessively. I love movie #1 and movie #4 and #5 (Breaking Dawn). I actually went out and bought the books so I can get more of the back story they don’t talk about in the movies. What is amazing though to answer all the questions you have, such as, “What is a shape shifter?” See, Jacob isn’t really a werewolf, he’s a shape shifter and they only mention that term once in all 5 movies. There is a really awesome Twilight Wiki page that gives amazing background info on each and every character in the movie. This is it: Twilight Wiki
So Christmas was good. I spent way too much money though. It seems like I gave everyone either a Samsung Galaxy Tab or Xbox 360’s. You can imagine how much that is. Caitlyn and Ava got lots of baby dolls and more Calico Critters. I will upload pictures soon.
Caitlyn is getting ready to turn 4 years old already. My how time flies. I am so struggling with potty training her. She has done good the past 2 weeks. We have kept her butt naked because if she has any sort of pants on for some reason that’s an ok reason to pee yourself. She’s had a few accidents and we haven’t put her down at night without a pullup on. At times she still wants to wear a diaper and pitches a BF (baby fit). I hope in the next 2 weeks she’s fully done. I have never had a child go past 3 and I thought girls would be so easy since all they do is sit on the toilet!! My boys trained rather easily compared to Caitlyn. Ava is now 2 years and 3 months old. She is a monster!!! LOL. She is definitely paying me back for all the trouble we went through during our pregnancy with her and all the medications I had to take. But, at the same time she is as sweet as pie! She’s a brute though, just like her brothers. She can rough house like a boy. Caitlyn and Ava are a complete clone of Chris and Andrew, behavior and anything. They fight all the time. My boys have settled in very well at Summit Academy. Needless to say it is a very tough and rigorous amount of work, but it’s paying off and they are catching up so quickly now. I can’t say they like the school as much as I do, but, it’s what’s best for them. My kids have no choice, they are going to go to college and they are going to pay for most of it. We will kick in some, but that is what is going to happen. My kids are smart and Arborwood Elementary in Monroe, MI was dumbing them down. I am so glad I didn’t waste more than a month of the school year. Now my kids get homework every day, have a planner that has to be signed daily, and there is a level of personal responsibility the students have.
So what’s going on with me? I think I can sing Celine Dion’s song, “It’s all coming back to me now”…. because I’m headed for a complete repeat of last spring. I have been having transient ischemic attacks which are also known as ministrokes, repeatedly. The iron deprivation my body is going through is starting to take it’s physical toll on my brain and cognitive function. My attention span and focus are completely shot, my short-term memory is non-existent, and I’m going to end up with more transfusions and stuff. I was told during my last stint in the hospital for my stroke-like symptoms that my blood is pretty icky right now. Iron stores are completely depleted. I’m just a mess.
Psychologically I have convinced myself that I feel better, so I’m not nearly in the depressed mood as I was this time last year. It is really a bummer that I may have to go through that stuff again, but I might wait. Matt will be gone a lot and I have no reliable babysitters to allow myself to go through the treatment. I really am about to throw up my hands. I’m done with it all, I’m done being icky feeling all the time. I will try and get into a hematologist with U of M and see where that gets me. It’ll probably be 3 months before I get an appointment. I need to find a new primary care doc though, someone a little closer to home. I feel really weird going to my doctor I’ve had for 8 years. It’s just been so crazy, with legit things going on that I feel like they think I’m a problem patient. I can’t help it, it’s not like I have any control of this stuff, but they are a clinic geared more towards geriatrics, and I don’t think they are used to some young girl coming in there with all these complex issues. I absolutely hate the fact that I have to see like 4 different specialists. Every time I go to a doctor and get a new script for anything, my insurance company tells every other doctor I have seen. I hate that! It’s like the movie Office Space where Peter says he has like 10 different bosses that he has to explain everything too. That’s what it feels like. None of them communicate to each other so I feel really stupid when I have to explain why I take Gabapentin from one doctor, Adderall from another doctor, sometimes NuCynta from one doctor, and Klonopin on occasion from another doctor and none of which my real primary doctor has a clue about because I haven’t been in almost a year since everyone else sees me. I drive all over the face of the planet to see these people. The worst part about it is, one doctor argued with me over the fact that I am currently severely iron deficient without anemia. She said that wasn’t possible. I said, lady, it’s possible. It has not affected my hemoglobin and hematocrit levels just yet. I bounce in and out of anemia based on the day of the month (due to period blood loss) but I don’t want that anymore. Honestly none of the meds help me any so it’s like why bother.
So about this mid-life crisis thing… well, over the last 3 months I’ve gone from having 3 tattoos to having 9 tattoo’s. Julie did one on my foot and 2 on my back, one that still needs finished. And I did the rest on myself which look pretty good. I’ve also gone from blonde hair to purple hair and now I’m more orange. I also got my annual eye exam and opted for the color contacts which make my eyes violet in color. I also have some vampire red eyes but I don’t wear those out too often, lol. It scares people!! I’ve also started wearing full blown makeup every time I leave the house, which I will post a picture of when I get around to it later. I’m doing it all to keep up the “i’m feeling better” image. Instead of looking old and hagrid I am bringing some youth and spunk back. I realize now more than ever that I can be my own person and stand out in my own ways. Maybe it’s called a mid-life rebellion?? ha ha. I did get my hair cut to my shoulders though, which pained me greatly. It was hideous though because the purple never came out of my hair so I did my best to mask it and it’s less noticeable now that I had 8 inches cut off. It’ll take a year to grow back but I love my long hair 🙁
My mother and brother are pissing me off even more these days. My own mother took the $500 Samsung Galaxy tab 2 10.1 that I bought her for Christmas and put it on loan in a pawn shop because she was hungry….. 3 days after I gave it to her!!!!!! How rotten, there is just no excuse. They have sold off everything in my grandmas house and I’m so glad that I saved some memories. She has about 45 days left in that house before the county has the right to seize it for non-payment of taxes. Not only will she have no home, but my worthless Uncle, Kevin Stegall and his equally worthless wife Janice will be flaming pissed when they realize they no longer have a stake in the house to sell. I could care less about those worthless people. I have never seen a more selfish person than my uncle who didn’t even show up to his own mother’s funeral. I hope he rots away quickly. Yeah, I’m mean like that. My grandmas 2 daughters abandoned her, and my uncle abandoned her a week before she died. He has another son Kyle Fiorani (not likely a Stegall) that he abandoned as well. It’s a shame he’ll never know the rest of the good family. All he knows is stories his mother Christina Fiorani tells him, and it’s probably not good. She was a crazy crazy woman anyway. Yeah, I put the full names in there for a reason. Maybe someday they will google their names and my blog will pop up and they can get the real truth. My uncle told everyone that Tina kidnapped Kyle to Florida and he spent thousands trying to fight for custody. I don’t buy it… he borrowed money off my grandpa for other purposes and just told everyone that stupid story. While she was kind of whacko, she likely ran to Florida to run away from my drunk uncle. And how is that for a complete ADD paragraph where I can go from one subject to another to another seemlessly. Sometimes it’s a blessing, but sometimes it’s a curse. I talk too much.
Well, here are some latest pictures. I have lots of color contact lenses so I was playing around with them and taking photos. The kids were threatened if homework doesn’t become a priority I will wear my red lenses to their conferences. That helped motivate them just a little more! Every day I wear purple lenses, just my favorite color. I have a years supply of violet lenses coming next week from the Kresge Eye Institute. Yeah, this is an abnormal amount of self photos, but hey, I do it like once every 2 years! I like tweaking my own photography skills and using photoshop so it’s good practice.
I apologize, there are duplicates. You also have to click the page numbers at the bottom of this post to see the rest of the images. I’m about ready to tear my blog apart again and rebuild it, it’s acting nutty.
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