potluck

view from my patio... looks like dead leaves but they're really yellow and red

It's early Sunday morning and the light is just beginning to poke through the tree line. Our trees are beginning to show some color... a dot of yellow or red here and there... sort of reminds me of a dye job starting to grow out.


For the record... I don't dye my hair but could start at any time. I have lots of random greys peeking through. My brother Jim (who is 22 months older) has a lot of grey... and my brother Bryan (who is ten years younger) has a lot of grey. They both have fairly stressful occupations (pastor/counselor/college professor and attorney, respectively) not that mine is unstressful. Just... less stressful, I think. I'm not terribly vain about it... I mean, my oldest kid will soon be 25... who are we kidding? One of my pet peeves is hair color that couldn't occur in nature... Nancy Reagan... still chestnut brown? Really?


Watched a good bit of football yesterday... had a great nap... ran the necessary errands to purchase food and such. Looking forward to a visit from Cody and Marquee today. Have birthday cake... store bought, of course. Lots of rain on the way and it's bringing cool temps. I can't WAIT to turn off the a/c and open the windows and let the fresh mountain air blow through. I have to rehang my curtains. Again. Thank you Trouble.

Have you ever seen a cat sleep on his back like this?

Trouble the kitty cat is a very smart cat. He knows that when I say, "beside mama" that he has to lay beside me, not on top of me. Sometimes he'll cheat and lay his head on my shoulder and his body across my arm... but he looks up at me with a pitiful look and so I let him stay. He comes when I make a "tsk tsk" sound... and if I say "noooooo" he aborts whatever ill fated mission he has undertaken.


I have applied for a login for Pinterest. I feel this could be a dangerous thing... I'm big on ideas and short on follow through... but I love to observe creativity. It sort of bugged me that I was put on a waiting list. Am I being judged? Do they KNOW I start projects and never finish them? Do they know that I left my Christmas tree up for nine months - and it would still be up if the fire hadn't claimed it - and I will put another perma-tree up as soon as I find one in the stores.


My stomach is still crampy... I'm mildly concerned because when I threw up at work the other day there was a coffee ground consistency to the "contents of my stomach" but I was so horribly sick at the time I didn't really process it. Is it weird that I noticed what I threw up? Is this a mommy thing? Do you have horrible flashbacks like I do of cleaning up red koolaid and hot dog vomit? I think being a mommy definitely makes you more aware of the color and consistency of all bodily emissions.


Since then, I've been googling "coffee ground vomit" to scare myself. Who needs horror movies? I have Dr. Google and hypochondria to keep me on edge. I'm on such massive doses of vitamin D - still have 13 more weekly doses to go and every time I take it, it makes me horribly sick about 12 hours later. If I balance the Savella with gatorade, the cramps are not as bad. I have two choices for resolution: either call the pain doctor and advise of my symptoms - and they will have me go cold turkey off every med until my next appointment (October 10th) or call my regular doctor and she will have me come in to see her that very day which will require me to miss work that very day. It's hard to properly convey "I'm worried about this situation but must stay at work and continue to stay on these medications until you give me something else that can alleviate the symptoms"... but... anyways...


I'm in a lot of pain this weekend. I probably shouldn't have picked up that 20 pound bag of cat litter at the store yesterday. I just get aggravated/forget that I can't do everything I've always done. I knew as soon as I picked it up that it was a mistake. However... I have painful joints in my hands and feet too so it's looking more like a "flare" than a self-induced situation. I really wish I hadn't picked up that cat litter, though.


Austin mopped the floors last night. They're sticky... but they look clean. I doubt he vacuumed because I didn't hear the vacuum last night... but you can't really tell since we have that high traffic mottled looking carpet that doesn't really show dirt. It does, however, show cat vomit... at least it's visible to me. Cat vomit is invisible to 17 year old boys.

So I've covered vomit and the weather in this post... yep, it's another literary masterpiece. Better wrap it up... day two of my three day weekend is underway... hope you have an awesome Sunday!