This post will be using small words, as my ability to think clearly has left me.

Steve has been gone since Tuesday. In Amsterdam. At least over the weekend he got me chocolate in Belgium. He didn't say where he was, but wouldn't it be nice if he went to Antwerp to get something for me to replace my wedding ring with? (Oy, the bad grammar in that sentence, sorry).

So, I've been missing him desperately, and keeping this house spotless since it's on the market. Not an easy task with two kids, let me tell you. I spent the weekend with my parents, dealt with Emily getting the stomach flu....on the way home from my parent's house. She was feeling a little icky before we left, so we grabbed a wastebasket for the car. Good move on our part, however, we weren't even halfway home when her stomach finally betrayed her. Driving for 45 minutes with the smell of vomit hanging in the car is not exactly pleasant. Now, I've been feeling a little off the past few days which is causing me to panic because.....

Tomorrow we leave for Orlando and Disney World! I need this vacation SO bad. And my in-laws are going too, so we have built in babysitters. However, preparations need to be made today, and Steve doesn't get in until 6:30 or so. I need to finish laundry, take a break so someone can view the house, take the bird to the vet for boarding, clean his cage, print out boarding information (Southwest Airlines), pack - while trying to put outfits together for the girls, they don't have much in the way of warm weather clothes, try not to freak out every time my stomach grumbles, get the kids to and from school and I'm certain there are about 20 other things I'm currently forgetting.

I will be away from here for the next week, so it will look a lot like this past week has. Little to no posts. When I come back, I'll post pics of Mickey and also some of the new house, since the foyer has been opened up and a balcony has been roughed out.

Brain fog coming back....yawning....tired.....so tired.

What started off this morning as a little tingle in my nose has since spread to my eyes. I'm now sneezing and headachy with a runny nose. This is also the busiest week I've had in a long time.

I had my hair done by EWK today, and as usual, he did a fabulous job. Snidge, I think I might have a very similar color to yours, I went dark. Anyhoo, talk amongst yourselfs and don't forget the disinfectant.

It has been a depressing few weeks here in Chicagoland. Get a load of this tidbit I read on the 7th:

With the exception of Dec. 27 when the sun shone for seven hours, we’ve not logged even one hour of sunshine during the past two weeks.
(source: WGN)

Those of us with SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) are, well, sad. Waking up in the morning is downright painful. And the other day this strange glowing ball of gas was in the sky and it was so bright out I think my retinas were scarred. As I'm dealing with the emotional roller coaster that was the holidays, this year is not starting off so auspiciously (damn I hope I used that right, my brain, it no worky without sun). A friend of ours is now in California for basic training and he will be going out to Iraq in a few weeks. He is not the closest friend, yet saying goodbye to him this weekend was more emotional that I thought it would be. All I could tell him was "Be safe".

I'm probably going to be in my winter coma for a few more weeks, but I promise I'll start to post more regularly (and start reading again, I haven't really been around much).

So to those of you that have been wondering, yes I'm still alive, I've just been huddled in my cave trying to wait out the dark days of winter.

How do I know if my 7 year old gets migraines? She's writhing in pain due to a headache and the Tylenol hasn't kicked in yet. Personally I think the dramatics are all for show. She's a drama queen, plain and simple. She hasn't eaten dinner (spit it out - also not new, her picture can be found under "picky eater" in the dictionary).

I'm at my wits end. She refuses any suggestions I make to her, or tries them for a nanosecond before declaring that "It doesn't work". I'm trying to persuade her to lay down in a dark cool room and relax, since that is probably the best remedy. She informed me (at 7:15), that she's had this headache ever since school. If she had told me earlier, we may have been able to head this off.

Woke up to it dreary and cold this morning. NOT wanting to get out of bed, but having to make a milk run to the 7-11 because we ran out of milk last night and by the time I remembered that we needed it for the morning, both girls were asleep. So at 7 am I wrap blankets around Emily and BeDcca, pop them in their booster seats and make my milk run. Writing this, it just occured to me that there was a police officier in the store. Thank goodness I left before him because I don't know what he would have thought about me leaving my kids in the car while I ran in. Nevermind the fact that I could see into the car through the window, our town doewn't have a high crime rate, so they like to criminalize what they can.

I have a Biology tomorrow evening that I'm absolutely dreading. I actually dozed off in class last Thursday. Bonus points were awarded for the fact that I sit right in front of my instructors podium. Thank goodness I didn't snore, that could have been embarrassing.

Did I ever mention that at the beginning of the semester our teacher had us fill out a form telling him what we do as our occupation and how many hours a week we spend at it. After choking back a sarcastic laugh, I wrote that I was a stay at home mom and the hours were terrible. Plus, as much as I love and appreciate my in-laws for watching the kids during that gap between my leaving for school and Steve getting home from work, the stress of them showing up late a few times in a row was no fun. Four classes in a row I walked in 15-20 minutes late. GAH! I may be lazy, but I have time issues people!

Thankfully, my textbook came with a nifty CD-ROM study guide that is actually fun. They have little games and such to help memorize facts. So glad that sanity prevailed and I only took one class this semester. If I had taken Chemistry too, I'd have to up my meds!

When I ask my lovely husband to pick me up Tums or Rolaids on his way home and he comes home with chewable Pepto Bismol, am I a bitch when I tell him I can't take it becaue it will make me gag. It just reminds me of "chewable" Kaopectate, which isn't so much chewable as liable to form a foul tasting mass sticking to my back teeth that even brushing can't fully eradicate.

Aunt Flo popped in for a visit today. She told me she was coming, I just wasn't paying attention.

Mall food.

definition: Foodstuffs of questionable nutritional content found at a mall. See also: Food Court

Updating my fall wardrobe at the mall today, my credit card screamed for mercy. I dropped a few at H&M and I tallked to Victoria about my underthings. Apparently I've been pushing the lifespan of my foundation garments, and that Victoria is one rich bitch now that I shopped there today. I can't wait until the weather cools down so I can start looking a lot more stylish than I have been lately. You know, I love to look at fashion magazines and such, but put me in a store and leave me to my own devices and I can barely put together a decent outfit. I don't know if it's fashion incompetence or overwhelm.

The kidlets were making some noise about wanting to be fed, so we stopped to get something to eat. I hadn't eaten all day and in an attempt to try to make good choices I had a veggie sandwich and fruit salad and Fruilatti Cafe.

I don't think I'm eating there ever again.

Things were fine when we left the mall. We picked up our new friend TiVo at Best Buy. When we got home I grabbed my bags and ran into the house and into the bathroom where some of the most painful stomach cramps I've ever had decided to take over my abdomen. Methinks something was a little, shall we say, off with the veggie sandwich (or fruit salad). Either that or it was confirmation that I have IBS, which is something I really, really don't want to consider. I'm still feeling a bit peckish, but at least I feel human again.

(it just occured to me that it could be my Prozac. That is one of the side effects and I did take it on an empty stomach. Ugh.)

I was out watering the plants this afternoon when I noticed that one of our stormdrains was filled with water. When we had the landscaping done, we had them buried so they wouldn't flood the plant beds. So I did what any person would probably NOT do. I took off the screen and plunged my hands into the fearsome dark water to see if I could find the source of the blockage. I scooped out a few handfuls of slightly foul smelling leaves and seeds (from the birch tree - they are EVERYWHERE). Four scoops later and I can't grab anything else and the water is not going down.

I think I'm going to have to shop-vac the drain and now that I think about it, I'm not sure I like that idea. What if it's something other than leaves blocking the drain. What if it's something more like a dead rodent or something. I checked the other drain and all I found was a tiny rotting apple that some animal must have stashed in there.

I scrubbed my hands three times after coming in and they still have a lingering stench on them.

Ok, there are two main reasons I haven't been on here lately.

1. I've been lost in the world of The Sims 2 (one of my Sims with the Family aspiration wanted, and had, 10 kids.)
2. I have the cold from hell.

However, last weekend we skipped out on the heat and went to The Museum of Science and Industry. We had a ton of fun and we even checked out the awesome Body Worlds exhibit. For those of you who want to know, I didn't find it morbid or creepy at all (but that's me). In fact after the first display I turned to Steve and asked, "Is it just me, or do you have a craving for beef jerky too?". The kids found it interesting, but not scary. Some people might think it a bit macabre, but I thought that they artful way the specimens were displayed showed a great respect for the human body as art as well as science. There was a definate aesthetic to the whole exhibit. We even got to hold a real lung and liver that were treated with the state-of-the-art plastination technique. It was definately the highlight of our day.

I am going to dive back into my trusty box of Kleenex and hopefully, I'll see you guys soon.