Bummed-out.

Yesterday when Sebastian and I went to Publix, we walked past Boogie Woogie, a CD/DVD/video game store.
They would buy, sell, and trade any of those items, I loved going there for great movies and good prices on cds.

Well, they are closing down for good at all locations.
The economy is forcing them to shut down because people just don't have entertainment money to spend right now.
The rent on the storefronts here and in Bradenton is a combined total of $19,000 per month, and they are barely making that.
The girl who was working there yesterday when we went in told us all of this while her eyes filled up a bit.
She said; "This is the best and most coolest job I have ever had. I don't know what I'm going to do now, but this place made me love coming to work everyday."

They are having a closing down sale, pretty much everything in there is marked down substantially, so we got Resident Evil 4 for the PS2 and 5 DVDs all for $49.73.
The PS2 game's normal price was $39.99, so yeah, big time price mark downs.
If you live in Sarasota or Bradenton, head on over to score some really good deals on CDs, DVDs and video games, it all has to go.
They will be shutting down for good in just 2 weeks.
I know I'll be going back to dig through the cds and DVDs some more.
It really sucks they are closing though.
No more close by music store.
Bummer.

I did ok at Publix this week, not great, but ok.
My total bill before coupons and buy 1 get 1 and the in store sales was $206.24.
In store coupons - $2.60
Vendor coupons - $6.74
Advertised savings - $26.52
Advantage buy savings - $2.70
In-store special savings -$1.24
Total savings- $39.70, which brought me down to $166.54.
Like I said, not great but ok.

I'm trying to adjust to the new meds, it's going ok so far.
They don't hold off the pain for the full 12 hours, I've had a few bouts of breakthrough pain, but they make me tired, like super duper lazy tired.
Not the same kind of pass out cold tired as the Somas did, but yeah, I'm like ultra lazy as you can see by my lack of posting today.
At least they aren't clouding my head, no blurry vision, no feeling like my heart is racing like some of the other stuff we've tried, but the tired thing is very annoying.
I hate being so tired.
It's depressing being in pain and it's even more depressing sleeping a lot.
Just not a good feeling over all.
After the boys went to school this morning, I fell back asleep and woke up at 11am.
That kind of sucked.
But I've been doing some reading and the say the tired side effects should go away in 5 days to a week, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it does.

Holy dirt grossness!

I told you all how I bought myself a new Dirt Devil Breeze Bagless Upright for $50 on Amazon.com, because my other vac died and the Roomba, while convenient, just can't pick up all the dirt and cat hair unless you empty it a gazillion times while it's running.

UPS actually delivered to my house today like the said they would.
Miracle or miracles! Hallelujah!
It came while Sebastian and I were at Publix getting the food shopping done.
We came home and put all the groceries away, and then I rested for a few minutes before putting it together.
This was so damn easy to do!
Just 4 screws, that's it, it basically snaps together.
I had it out of the box and built within 5 minutes.

As you can see, it's a little bit taller than a standard door knob height, and it's very, very lightweight.
After building it I decided to give it a go and see how this $50 vac would do.
OMG gross.
I have vacuumed my house nearly every single day with a regular vac, until it died of course, and have been running the Roomba every single day since it died.
I figured the carpet wouldn't be that bad.
How wrong I was.

I was going to take a picture of the dirt it collected, but once I saw just how much of it there was and just how dirty (it was black, like straight up black) the dirt was, I was like oh hell no!
I am not showing the whole world what this Dirt Devil just sucked out of my rugs that have been getting vacuumed every single day since April 23rd by the Roomba.
Mortified.
Horrified.
I was in total disbelief at just how much dirt and cat hair this thing sucked out of the carpet.
It was freaking amazing!

This really cheap $50 vac can suck!
It has some truly powerful suction going on.
I have a dark colored circular throw rug in the kitchen which just collects the cat's hair, and the Roomba was only getting some of it, but the rug had like this film of hair all over it.
One pass using this Dirt Devil, and I could clearly see the deep dark blue of the rug again.
I cleaned the whole thing, it looks brand new again.
I only went over the living and dining room and the throw rug once, and then stopped to see how the bag-less cup was doing.
It was full.
Unfreakingreal.
I called Sebastian out to take a look and he was grossed out too.
It was seriously full to the rim with cat hair and dirt, not to mention the probable thousands of dust mites that were living in my rugs all this time.
I cannot wait to use it again tomorrow and see how much it collects on it's second trip around the house.
I am also wondering just how many passes it's going to take to get all that nasty dirt mostly out of the carpets.

This is seriously the best cheap vacuum I have ever owned, and far superior to the Eureka upright that I had been using for the last 10 years.

Why can't we just eat cereal every day?

I have to go grocery shopping and I don't wanna.
I just don't want to have to go buy the food that I'm going to have to cook.
Blah.
I just want to hang out at home and be lazy, play a few games, watch a few movies.
I don't want to have to go deal with people, spend money, pack it in the cab, unpack it from the cab, bring it in the house, unpack it from the bags, put it all away, and then have to cook something for dinner.

I do have to go though, I know this.
I need to get wasp and hornet killer, lightbulbs, tp, shampoo and conditioner, and all that crap.
Later days.

Is it remembering what I look at?

After last night's post about inheritance, I keep coming across legal type websites.
I was just clicking around between Twitter, gmail, a forum and my feed reader, and came across another site for orange probate lawyer.
Oops, I mean Orange County probate lawyers.
Is my computer remembering what I am looking at and just taking me to those types of sites now?

Anyway, I stopped and looked at it of course, I am curious as heck now about probate law and inheritance laws, taxes on settlements etc.
I have good reason to, Sebastian will get part 1 of his settlement when he turns 18, and so I am curious if that money will be taxed when he takes it out, or if it was taxed before they put it in.
Or what.
I have no idea how all of this works, and I'd like to know so that when the time comes (in 4 years) I'll be able to tell him why the government just snagged a couple grand of his money.
You know he's gonna be like hey, why are they taking some of it, and I'd like to be able to answer that.

So I'm going to read through the FAQs and all that stuff, learn what I can about all these different things in case I should ever need to know this stuff.

Just 2 more weeks! Ack!

I can't believe how fast this year has flown by.
The teens get out of school for the summer in just 2 weeks, on the 30th.
Can you believe that?!?

I was sitting here tonight watching Law and Order, and going through coupons for tomorrow's grocery stockpiling, and it hit me.
Just 2 more weeks to go and then they'll be here around the clock.
Sleeping, eating, playing video games.
Making messes, asking what there is to do, what's to eat, when is dinner, and making the dreaded summer statement, "Mom, I'm bored."

I'm hoping that Mark gets a call back about the applications he put in, I'm going to have him call the game store and ask if they had a chance to look it over yet, and would they be interested in an interview.
He went as far as applying, he can go a step further and show serious interest right?

I'm sitting here at my pc, and Shahiro and Kali are playing together, running all over the house, scrambling across the furniture, and then Shahiro found a spot to hide so she can dive-bomb on Kali.

Yeah, Kali will never see her hiding under that sheet.
Nope.

Loans on inheritance? Say what?!

I had never ever heard of heir loans before in my life until tonight.
I'm rather kind of bored, so I started surfing around the net and saw this ad on someone's blog for inheritance loans.
I clicked it and was all huh?
You can take out a loan on the money you're going to inherit?
Explain please!

So I read the home page then clicked on the FAQs.
How can you get an heir loan?
Well it's pretty simple really, if you are inheriting at least $17,000 from a probate estate which is open or being opened.
The cost of taking out the loan is determined by the size of the loan you want and the complexity of the probate estate.
To get the loan now, you sign or assign, the right for the loan people to get a fixed amount of money out of the heir's share of the probate.

I could totally see something like this being useful if you've inherited a sum of money, because sometimes probate can take years to finalize.
I thought it was pretty cool too that they make sure the person taking out the loan has no judgments or child support proceedings against them.
It would of course, interfere with the payment to the loaners, but they make sure that you don't owe anyone else the money first.
Ya know, like your kids.

No payment.

A day or two ago on the local forums, a young male member asked if there were any freelance workers, people who are self employed on the board, he needed help, a few questions, and one of them was about stop notices.

After no one else had responded to his question after several hours had gone by, I responded that I am self employed, a freelance writer, what did he need help with?
He said he had been doing some subcontracting work, did not want to discuss exactly which field it was in, and that he had now not been paid for over a month even though he had submitted invoices to the company he subcontracts from, what could he do to get paid?

I explained that sometimes subcontractors, especially in the field of construction, do not get paid until the people or company pay the company that he is subbing from.
That it can take weeks or longer, sometimes months, for the company and the subs to get paid.
A contractor can put out a lien on the property they are doing the work on for non-payment, and then the bank steps in and takes over, but it can still take a long time.
With a stop notice also attached, the holder of the construction funds will have a demand placed on them to withhold the amount of the funds equal to the work.

It was only after I had explained it a bit, that some other guys on the forum decided to pop in to that thread and start explaining it all over again.
They basically said what I said, but you know, female equals not knowledgeable in the construction industry, and they all danced around my answers like I hadn't posted at all.
You don't have to be in construction to understand liens and stop notices.
If you do any kind of subcontracting work, it's in your best interest to make sure payment agreements are set up before you begin the job, and if in the event the agreement is broken, you can then file a lien or stop notice to make sure that you get paid for the work you have done.

Opana.

My appointment was at 9:40am, and lasted roughly 40 minutes.
We talked about the shoulder issues, my concerns with it being a pressure sore, the weird bruising spots, and how bad it feels when I wake up everyday, as well as when I lean back in a chair or anything touches it.
He said he doesn't think it's a pressure sore, and then gave me a really big super duper injection of the nerve blocker mixed with cortisone, for the pain.
He injected it into two spots on my shoulder, one above the blade, and one dead center of the pain.
He hopes that mixing the nerve blocker with the cortisone will help reduce the inflammation and pain I'm dealing with.
He said, "It still looks as bad today as it did a month ago. What are you doing?"
I told him, nothing, but I sleep on my back nightly, no moving around that I know of, I wake up flat on my back just as how I fell asleep, and that is why I was concerned it may be a pressure sore.
I told him I looked that stuff up, and the pictures scared the crap outta me, if this is a pressure sore, fix me now before it turns into a freaking crater.
He said he really doesn't believe it is, but gave me a referral to a dermatologist to get the area and the weird eraser sized bruising looked at by someone who may know better.
He said if nothing is showing up on the xrays or the CT scans, then it may possibly be a skin issue which is out of his realm of expertise.

We set up 2 massage therapy appointments with a female masseuse this time, not that I know if that will make any difference in how I feel about being mostly naked on a table being touched, but I'll give the girl a try.

Then he switched my pain medicine completely.
I was taking 10/325mgs of Lortab (hydrocodone), 4-6 times daily as needed, but due to the increased pain I was dealing with, he said it appears as though my body has gotten used to them, built a tolerance up, and so let's try a new one.
Opana ER.

Opana is in a group of drugs called narcotic pain relievers. It is similar to morphine. Opana is used to treat moderate to severe pain. The extended-release form of this medication is for around-the-clock treatment of pain.

I did tell him I was allergic to morphine, but he says it's similar, but not morphine. Well let's hope not because on morphine, I clawed myself, ripped out my own hair, and was in a drug induced la-la land for the entire first week of my hospital stay.

They are extended release tablets, 15mg, and I'll be taking 2 per day to start.
As my body builds a tolerance, my doc will either up how many of these I take, or increase them from the 15mg to a 20 or 30mg dose pill.
You can read all about this drug in the links I provided, but so far, so good, and I did find these side effects a little interesting.
Not worrisome, but interesting.
In clinical trials, some, but not all patients had some of the following side effects. Emphasis mine.

General disorders and administration site conditions: dry mouth, appetite decreased, fatigue, lethargy, weakness, pyrexia, dehydration, weight decreased, edema.
Nervous system disorders: insomnia.

So great, more insomnia is possible, but I could be really fatigued. Love those kinds of side effects.
You're dead tired, but nope! No sleep for you!
And the loss of appetite and weight decreasing won't be such a bad thing to me, I need to lose some weight anyway. (LOL)

So anyway, it will probably take me a few days to get used to these, they are much stronger than what I've been taking over the last few years.
They are like morphine, behave like oxycontin, and yes, may be habit forming.
I have a follow up appointment in 2 weeks so he can see how I'm doing on them.

Now for the fun part.
Walgreen's, CVS, nor Eckerds, carry this drug.
Walgreen's said they can order it, but there is no guarantee on when it would come in.
1-3 weeks possible delivery time.
CVS and Eckerds, said they do not carry nor would they order them.
I was like what??
You won't order this if it's a prescription?
Pffft.
I spent 2 hours sitting at Walgreen's while the gal called every single Walgreen's store in Sarasota to see if they had them, and the answer was no.
I called CVS and Eckerds, learned that stuff about them, and then called my doc.
I'm all dude, nobody freaking carries this pill!
They said we'll call you right back, they did, and told me the name of a single pharmacy on the other end of town who carries it, and away I went.
They said they always have it, but it's a fairly new drug, and some stores will not carry it because of how strong it is.
If my doc puts me on this full time, Walgreen's will get an ultimatum.
Carry this for me all the time or I move all my scripts to the one pharmacy who does stock it all the time.
I don't want to hear oh we won't order that for you, seeing as how I've been using the same pharmacy for 10 years now.
They have my business, if they want to keep it, they will stock this.
But my appointment was at 9:40am, I was at Walgreen's by 10:20am, and I didn't get back home until almost 2pm because of how long it took to find a store that had these in stock.
That's crazy.
I shouldn't have had to call so many places to find a prescription my doc wrote me.

Infant Swimming Resources

I posted in December '07, about Infant Swimming Resources, a survival technique for babies if they fall into a swimming pool, and the Today Show just aired the story this morning.
It's not up on their site yet, but you can lean about it by clicking my link above.

Infant Swimming Resources teaches your child ages 6 months and up, how to roll onto their backs and float, if they were to ever fall into a pool.
With summer upon us, people will be outside in their pools and backyards which may or may not have pool barriers, and all it takes is 1 second of looking away for your baby to fall in and 3 seconds to drown.
It doesn't have to be that way.

ISR teaches your infant how to hold their breath under water, roll onto their backs and stabilize their float until help arrives.
12 months to 6 years old, can learn to control their breathing under water, swim with their head down and eyes open under water, roll onto their backs and float to rest, then repeat this technique until they reach the edge of the pool, stairs, or help arrives.

The American Pediatrics Board has stated that they do not believe any child under the age of 4 can learn to swim, but the ISR technique has been proven effective.
None of the more than 100 infants and small children that have been taught ISR, have ever drowned in a pool related accident since learning the technique.
As soon as former students get in the pool, they instinctively do the life saving moves they were taught.

You can watch some truly amazing videos on the site, and read the testimonials of parents who put their babies in the ISR classes, watch videos and news clips, and learn how you can get these life saving classes for your child.

Summer is here, people have pools and they often turn away for just a second.
If you don't have a pool barrier, get one, make sure the pool gate stays locked at all times, and then teach your child how to save themselves if they should fall in.
Babies and small children do not have to drown, they can be taught to hold their breaths, float, and hold that float for as long as it takes for help to find them, even fully dressed, even in a heavy water-logged diaper.

Remember Wednesday.

Jade has started a new weekly music blog participation meme/thing to do, and it involves music, so I'm all over that because I absolutely love music.
It's called Remember Wednesday.

You know those songs that every time you hear, you draw up a particular memory, or thoughts of a specific time in your life? Well I wanna hear about it!

You can read how to play along on her first post about it which can be found here.

The song I'm choosing for this week is Dead or Alive's You Spin me 'Round.
This song always makes me smile, laugh, and just have a really good time no matter what.
My friends and I used to request this every time we went out to a club, just so we could get on the dance floor and have a blast. We'd make total fools of ourselves, but we were having such a good time that we didn't care what anyone else thought.

I remember on one night we went out and the dj had now gotten used to us requesting this so he just started playing it and gave us the thumbs up, we hit the dance floor and were just having so much fun, when I glanced over and caught the drummer of a popular local band watching us and dancing along too.
We knew each other so it was only natural that if he was going to dance and watch us dance, that he dance with us.
I went over and grabbed him by the hand and dragged him out onto the floor with us.
One of my girlfriends was like head over heels crushing on the guy, and got super self conscious when I did that, and he could see she was a bit embarrassed that he was now with us, so he started grinding up on her and being all goofy which only caused her to be more self conscious.
I just started laughing, that was who he was, a big goof, and to he and I, it was hysterical, but to her, total mortification that the object of her crush was dancing all silly up on her.
She eventually ran from the dance floor to the bathroom where she stayed for about 15 minutes.
Hahah!
He and I just laughed about it, shared a drink while waiting for her to get over herself and come back out.
When she did, she was acting all prissy like, trying to impress him, but he was a goof, he wasn't into prissy, so he basically ignored her.
He whispered in my ear that my friend was cute, but lame, that if she could just relax and have fun, he probably would have asked her out, but she kinda blew it by acting like that.
We spent the rest of the night talking and having fun, and we left and headed for home.
I never told her what he said, it probably would have hurt her feelings or made her even more embarrassed.

But anyway, here's the video, it still makes me laugh and smile, and my my, have you seen Pete Burns in recent years?
Ouch Pete, ouch.

One, two, three, four, pressure.

I have my doctors appointment tomorrow, and I'm going to talk to him about pressure sores.
I wouldn't look that term up if you have a weak stomach by the way.
Pressure sores start out like what I have, inflammation, bruising, redness, feeling like it's on fire, then over time, they turn into bed sores which are huge nasty open wounds on the skin.

Why am I going to talk to him about it?
My shoulder area is still messed up, it is still red and inflamed, hot to the touch, and small eraser sized black and blue spots around the left shoulder blade, the scar line, and a few on the right shoulder blade.

With these titanium rods in, I can only sleep on my back, any other position hurts.
Stomach is not recommended at all by the doctors, it puts too much pressure on the rods, and sleeping on my sides is painful on my hips and rib cage, so I sleep on my back every single night.
The injections he did didn't help at all, the flector patches made me itch, and the bio-freeze, while it numbs the skin's surface, it doesn't get down into the muscle where it's really sore.
I believe after doing some reading, that I have a pressure sore on that area.
I am concerned that it's going to turn into a bed sore.
I need help from my doc with this, I don't want a bed sore, and that may not be what this is, but this thing isn't going away, and honestly, I'm scared that it is turning into a bed sore.

A pressure ulcer is an area of skin that breaks down when you stay in one position for too long without shifting your weight. This often happens if you use a wheelchair or you are bedridden, even for a short period of time (for example, after surgery or an injury). The constant pressure against the skin reduces the blood supply to that area, and the affected tissue dies.

A pressure ulcer starts as reddened skin but gets progressively worse, forming a blister, then an open sore, and finally a crater. The most common places for pressure ulcers are over bony prominences (bones close to the skin) like the elbow, heels, hips, ankles, shoulders, back, and the back of the head.

I need to know what to do to heal this before it gets worse, if I need to get a special pillow or padding to put under my shoulders at night, medicine to rub into it to heal it, get the tissue "living" again.
I'll do whatever it takes because I really am scared, after seeing pictures of bed sores and reading about them, I am sorta freaking out here.
The CT scan and xrays showed no problems with the bones or screws and rods, but the CT scan did show that part of muscle was torn.
I've been doing exactly as I was told, keep my arm in the sling when just sitting or not doing stuff like cooking, cleaning etc, wear it at night, and use the pain patches.
The injections he gave me should have helped with the pain, but they didn't even touch the pain.
This should be healing by now, it's been like this since April 10th, it should be getting better, but it's not.
Each and every morning when I get up, it feels worse and worse, it burns, getting out of bed is just so ugh.
Even wearing the sling over night so my arm is not mobile, unable to move it around, it is just on fire in the morning, like keeping it completely immobile all night, is actually making it worse.

Bah.
This is just all so frustrating, but I'm over it.
If he says I need a foam pillow or a big sheep skin woolly thing to sleep on, I will.
If he says rub on bag balm every day, I will.
This pain has just got to stop.

This commercial drives me crazy!

This is a commercial for Pediasure, the kids healthy meal replacement, add-on drink, to make sure they get the nutrients they should.

This commercial makes me want to slap that kid.
First, she's far too big to be sitting in the baby seat of the grocery cart.
Second, she's a pain in the ass.
"I don't like broccoli. I don't like chicken. I don't think I like waffles."
Yeah?
Then guess who's going to bed hungry tonight you little brat.

I know kids can be extremely picky eaters, but my mom had a rule, I have had the same rule since the boys could eat solid foods.
You eat what is on the plate in front of you, or you go without eating.
How do kids know what they like or don't like unless you put it on their plate and make them eat it?
Sebastian always said he hated broccoli without ever trying it.
Then I made it, mixed it in with some chicken Alfredo, and what do you know?
He ate it, said he liked it, and as soon as I told him he just ate broccoli, he was like oh, it's not that bad.

The faces that little girl makes, the tone of her voice, just makes me want to scream.
I complain every time I see the commercial, I get so annoyed listening to her voice, and the mother just smiles like it's no big deal.
No.
Sorry.
Tell the child to put a sock in it, she'll eat the broccoli, the chicken, and the waffles, or she'll be one very hungry little girl come bed time.
Oh, and she's big enough to walk beside the cart holding her mother's hand or the cart handle.

I've seen the commercial at least a dozen times since waking up this morning, and I just couldn't hold back anymore.
That kid is just so damn irritating.

Sailing away.

I am not a big outdoor person at all, I don't enjoy camping, hiking, trekking, any of that stuff, but my sister does, and luckily Mark's Big George does, so when I was asked to give my opinion about inflatable boats, I had to really think about it.

I like water, but not if it's over my head, I don't enjoy boating at all, you'd have to pay me and sedate me heavily to get me on cruise ship.
But the teens do enjoy that kind of stuff, and like I said, they are lucky that they have people in their lives other than me, that do.

I think an inflatable boat would be a cool thing for Mark and George to do sometime.
They have been boating several times out on the Gulf, so a small fold-away boat might be an ideal thing for them to try at some point.
George could keep it at his house folded up in the garage until they were to use it again, it wouldn't be as costly as the maintenance on the boat he currently uses, and they could go fishing and stuff like that whenever they wanted to.
Just throw it in the car, inflate it upon arrival, and off they could go.
I don't know if they've ever gone fishing from the boat, but they could if they wanted to.

I like the idea that kids who do things with their parents are less likely to get in trouble, but being me and the back problems I have, as well as my fear of deep open water, boating, no matter what kind of boat, is simply not for me.
It is more cost efficient than say, a trip to a theme park, if you own your own small boat, and the family does get to spend quality time together learning how to boat safely and a real chance to talk and bond out on the water.
So even though I'm not into this kind of thing, the boys do have people in their lives who are and might be interested in trying an inflatable boat at some point.
Maybe this summer would be a good chance to try one out.

Give me five Monday meme.

I almost forgot that I told Becca I would play along, even though she sent me a reminder to do it, so here is my first attempt at her Give Me Five Monday Meme.

Give Me Five things you enjoyed about your mother's day yesterday or from prior years.

1. I got 2 seriously awesome musical cards from the teens.
One says Mom, you rock, and when you open it it plays Tina Turner's Simply the Best.
That was from Mark.
Sebastian's was so totally him.
Outside it had a picture of a chicken, and simply said Happy Mother's day, and inside it said to the woman who rules the roost.
It played the chicken dance song.
As soon as I opened it up, he sprang from the couch and did the dance.
Then every chance he got after that, he would open the card and do the dance, laughing hysterically each time.

2. It's those kinds of things that made me smile all day long.

3. My sister and my nieces came down yesterday, and she and all the kids went out for a few hours leaving me to just rest and relax, have some me time.
What did I do? I cleaned of course!

4. I ordered out for dinner.
After all that cleaning, I wasn't about to dirty any more dishes.
The Chinese was super tasty!

5. The teens later on surprised me by going for a walk, and came back with a hot fudge sunday for me from Dairy Queen, that they bought with their own money.