We went to a haunted house last night…not the original one that we intended on going to…but it was still fun.  We initially intended on going to the “Field of Corpses” in Arvada…but were turned away due to them being at “full capacity”.  So we went to “CarnEvil” instead.  It was kinda like the “Killer Clowns from Outer Space” type theme…but cool.

Anyway…I’m taking Dora to see the new horror movie “Saw” today.  That should be a scream!!

So I’m just stopping in to wish everyone a safe and Happy Halloween.

Happy Halloween

I was going to post a Halloween post today…but after talking with my hubby and finding out that Xanga has their heads up their butts I thought otherwise.

It seems that Xanga has emailed Jason telling him that his “Lifetime Premium” has expired.  EXCUSE ME…but how in the HELL does a lifetime subscription frickin’ expire??! For the love of God people…straighten out your records!!  I mean, c’mon…somebody pays hundreds of dollars for a service…they should be able to have the service that they paid for!!

Jason is thoroughly PISSED OFF and I don’t blame him one bit!! He not only paid for Lifetime Premium on his account…but mine AND Wil’s as well.  Xanga frickin’ OWES him!!

So Xanga… frickin’ fix it already!!!

~*The Curse has been LIFTED*~

Congratulations to the Boston Red Sox on an awesome World Series!! I don’t know what happened to the Cardinals…but it was kind of disappointing not having them show up basically.  I guess my man Larry Walker will have to wait his turn yet again for the championship.

But hey…the “curse of the Bambino” is over!! That’s a major accomplishment and the Red Sox deserve to enjoy their time in the spotlight right now.  86 years of struggle is nothing to shake at…that’s a long time!!

I bet all Boston fans are now saying a little thank you to the old Bambino for lifting the curse last night and letting the Red Sox have their long overdue victory.

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I’m not having as good of a morning however.  On my way to work as I was making my way up the on ramp onto I-25, there was a concrete mixing truck to the left of me in the next lane.  I waited for him to pass so that I could merge…but as he was pulling up beside be, concrete chunks were released off of the mixer and cover my car breaking my NEW windshield!!! I’m now PISSED!!

So I move behind and then quickly around the truck in order to try to get the information off of the truck to find out who I need to call in order to report this…and MORE concrete comes flying off of the mixer…so I swerved into the other lane in order to avoid getting hit AGAIN.  So I tried, one more time, to pull up enough so that I could see what the company name was on the side of the truck and possible get a DOT registration number…but I was only able to get the company name. 

Now…before anyone makes a statement that this is a road hazard…let me just say that it is NOT!! Under DOT regulations and law this is listed under the Unsecured Load Law because the debris came off of the mixer…and not the back tire and because I was beside the vehicle and not behind the vehicle at the time of the incident.

SO…according to DOT regulations…they have to replace my windshield or they can be fined up to, but not limited to…$1500 plus court costs and I can file a complaint with the DOT against them for not compensating me for the damages.

I’ve called their company and am waiting for their risk manager to return my call.  However, the longer he waits on doing so…the worse it will be for them if they don’t cooperate.  I’m only going to ask for $194.62 which is the cost to replace my windshield (I replaced it on 7/26 of this year)….I don’t think that unreasonable.

So yeah…

Btw…I HATE waiting on other people…have I mentioned that? No? Well I do.

I just got off of a phone call from one of my good friends from work…we’ll call him “V”.  It seems that my company is at it again.  Overworking people to the point that it interferes with their personal lives.  V’s a project manager and part of that job includes traveling to wherever the work is.  However, he’d asked for some time off after his last job in order to spend some time with his girlfriend who was feeling (and rightfully so) neglected a bit.  Also, his last job was so stressful that I can’t blame him for wanting some time off. 

He was ordered to go onto another job straight away and his time off was denied.  Well, it may have cost him the love of his life…”S”.  She’s fed up with not being able to see him or even talk to him on a normal basis.  Not that S doesn’t understand the nature of the business, because she’s worked for us before as well and she very much so understands how this industry works.  She has two kids, a 10 year old and 2 year old who’ve become very attached to V and are now feeling the affect of not having him around.  He hasn’t seen any of them in over 3 weeks…and is extremely upset…and understandably so.

He was on the verge of tears throughout our conversation stating that besides the fact that his personal life is falling apart, he was promised a raise months ago and has yet to receive anything of the sort (sound familiar?)…he’s having to use his personal vehicle for work because the company vehicle he had is so unreliable and has been in and out of the shop so much. Of course he was told that a new truck had been ordered for him last month…and is ”on it’s way”…but I just overheard the President tell V’s manager that the truck order was just NOW put in…as in today.  Figures eh?  He’s not making enough to because (besides not receiving his raise) the company is only allowing him to be paid for 45 hours a week even though he’s working close to 60.  I told him that was bullshit and he could file a lawsuit against them for that alone.  Most of his check goes towards child support…so he’s basically being left with nothing.

The company was supposed to be sending him workers for this job and he’s seen none as of yet and he’s been there for over a week.  He’s had it…and I don’t blame him.  Once again, this company is going to lose one of their best employees due to their negligence.  I’ve seen this happen so many times it’s not even funny…myself included.

I feel helpless in this case though…because I can’t do anything to help him and I want to really bad.  I feel horrible about what he’s going though…and the best I can do right now, is listen.

Well…this was one busy weekend if you ask me.  Oh you didn’t? Hmm…oh well, I stated so anyway!!

Corin had a lovely birthday and accompanied Jason and I to Target to go Christmas shopping (along with picking out her birthday gift).  We’d put aside some money specifically for this shopping adventure in order to get it over with!

So yesterday morning we embarked on our shopping journey into the wonderful world of consumer’s paradise (yeah right).  The store wasn’t crowded until we’d been there for about an hour and then all of a sudden people were coming out of the woodwork!!  I can’t stand crowded stores…so I wasn’t very happy about this.  However, we carried on with out mission as planned and finished in about 2 hours time.

Amazingly enough we got out of there with a bounty of gifts (even for Corin though she’s unaware of it ) without breaking our accounts.  We are quite impressed with ourselves considering how much we purchased in comparison to how much we spent.  Jason even bought my gifts (he’s sneaky) right under my nose!  I wasn’t able to get his gifts…but I will be doing so shortly.  We did however, manage to shop for all four children and my mother in one foul swoop!! How’s that for a day’s work eh? Not bad…not bad at all!

After stuffing my car full of our purchases, we squeezed Corin into the back seat, in and amongst the packages, and took her to the theater to take in an afternoon show.  She’s previously seen Sharktale…so we opted for the new Hilary Duff movie, Raise Your Voice.  It was a chick flick…and a younger generation one at that….but it was pretty good considering and hey…Corin just turned 7 so it was good.  It made me cry…but hey, so did Finding Nemo so …yeah.

Anway, after slurping down our drinks and munching our popcorn…the film ended and we were off to stuff our faces with …what else….pizza!!  Yup…we took Corin over to Beau Jo’s pizza, home of the original Colorado pizza.  Never have visiting there before…we were curious as to what “Colorado pizza” was.  People put honey on their pizza there!! Seriously…no lie!! I was shocked!  I mean…I’m Italian and I’ve never seen someone do that one before.  But hey…different strokes for different folks right? Umm…yeah.

Honey or not…we ate our pizza and headed home to unpack my overloaded vehicle.  The dogs were overjoyed by our arrival (as usual) and greeted us at the door.  We put them outside while we carried bags in from the car…this was a 10 minute ordeal.  I then sorted through the items as Corin took her new scooter onto the front porch to “try it out”.

Jason and I decided that we want to do as little wrapping as possible, so we purchased gift bags for each child and stuffed them with goodies.  However, I’ll still have to wrap three items that wouldn’t fit into the bags…but hey, that’s not bad.  Once I’d finished sorting and stuffing…I took the gift bags and put them back into the store bags and had Jason hide them from them kiddos.  We put them in different locations as to not chance them finding the whole slue of them in one place.  Smart eh?

We’ve also told them that if we find out that they’ve searched for or have found and looked at any of the items…they will lose Christmas all together.  My brother was notorious for doing this very thing.  Except that my mother would wrap EVERYTHING…so he’s attempt to re-wrap the gifts after he’d opened them.  That didn’t work out well btw…he sucked at wrapping.

So yeah…that’s where we are on that!

I also got my dress yesterday (finally) that I ordered back in August.  However, it’s not quite what I’d ordered or expected.  Poor craftsmanship…unfortunately.  BUT…it wasn’t an expensive dress…so I guess I can’t grip too much.  However, I am filing a complaint with Ebay about the seller.  I doubt that I’ll be wearing it for Halloween though…so I’ll have to come up with another costume.  That sucks.   Maybe I’ll go as a hockey fan…they’re scarce this year.

Oh well…I should’ve known better.  I DO know better and should’ve seen the signs…but I was stupid and took a chance.  My fault…and I shall do better next time.  I’ve found a dress that I’d like…but will have to wait a while now.

Anyway…I’ve got a ton of work to get to…so I should got off of here.  Have a great Monday!!

~*Friday Recap*~

Well…I guess that the Cardinals will be meeting the Red Sox at Fenway Park tomorrow for the first game of the World Series.  I’m not a “fan” of either club, however…my heart does go out to the Red Sox team and fans for all of the years of disappointment they’ve endured due to “the curse”.  I must admit though, the Cardinals have one of my favorite players…Larry Walker, who used to play for the Rockies…and I would love to see him win a World Series as well.

So I’m just going to sit back and watch and see what happens.

Okay…off of the baseball subject, I went to parent/teacher conferences this week, which went something like this:

~*Monday*~

I met with Corin’s teacher and listened to how wonderful she is doing in first grade and how intelligent she is.  I was also told that she is in the highest reading level for her grade, that made me smile.

~*Tuesday*~

Dora and I met with a couple of her teachers.  Dora’s had a problem in the past with turning in homework…but, to my knowledge…she’d been working hard to correct this problem this year.  However, I learned that this is still an issue for her.  Mainly I believe it is due to a lack of organization on her part.  So we’re working on that.  She did get an A in P.E. (she’s always hated that class) and a B in math…which I was thoroughly impressed with and am quite proud of.

~*Wednesday*~

6:30pm…I met with Jonah’s teacher.  Jonah is doing well academically…however, socially he needs some work.  Jonah has an aggression problem and has for a while…so when he gets upset he responds quite spontaneously to his emotions.  Sometimes this involves getting physical with other students.  So…we are going to keep working with him on correcting this issue.

7pm…I was supposed to meet with Caleb’s teacher…but she was in talking with some people, so I waited outside her room for her to finish.  I waited…and waited…and waited…AND WAITED.  Finally, at 7:30pm…she came out and said, “are you here for Caleb?“…I said “yeah, I’ve been waiting here for a half hour“.  Well, she went on to tell me that she and his IEP teachers were just sitting in there talking…waiting on me.  Umm…yeah, well…how was I to know that she didn’t have parents in there?  She walked by the door 3 times and looked at me while talking to these people (who I couldn’t see) and didn’t say a word!  Anyway…Caleb is doing just wonderful!! He’s reading more and still memorizing anything that he’s told (stories, songs, you name it).  He even sat through an art project the other day and completed his own skeleton made from paper plates!! (he usually doesn’t have the patience for that)  So mommy is quite impressed and proud of his progress!!

Overall…the kids are doing well.  Just a few things to work on.  I will be doing my best to help Dora get organized and take a bit more responsibility for her work.  Jonah…well, we’ll just keeping working with him on keeping his hand and feet to himself…and letting out his feelings with words instead of actions.

Corin turns 7 this Sunday…so I’ll be spending my weekend with her.  She’s excited to have some “mommy time”…and so am I.   

Have a great weekend!!

~*FINALLY*~

The Red Sox are finally back in the World Series for the first time since 1986!! Has the curse been lifted??

So far it looks as if it has…at least to the thousands of Yankees fans that filled Yankee Stadium last night… and for the Boston fans that are celebrating a historical victory.

I watched last night, with Pedro Martinez on the mound, as the crowd chanted “Who’s Your Daddy” relentlessly taunting him over and over again.  In a way, I suppose it worked because his time on the mound was short lived in this game and Alan Embree replaced him for the closing, completing the Red Sox’ journey to the World Series…and ending a curse streak of that arrival that spans almost 20 years.

Now…the question is, will the “curse of the Bambino” remain for them in the World Series? Or will this be the year that they finally break the curse and win a championship that hasn’t been theirs since 1918?

We’ll find out starting Saturday…but for now, tonight’s game will decide who will be their opponent in this year’s World Series. Will it be the Astros…or the Cardinals?

What do you think?

~*Appearance Matters*~

I was listening to radio this morning on my way to work and they were discussing liposuction and people’s need for this in today’s society.  One of the disc-jockeys was having this procedure done and was inquiring about the amount of recovery time.  It made me think of why is it so important to people today that we all exude perfection?

Think about it. From television commercials to magazine covers to shows and movies. Everywhere we look today we see girls and guys starving themselves or striving for the “perfect body”.   So much so that it’s the reason as to why America has the highest obesity rate.  If you don’t have the “perfect body” you’re more than likely obese.  Most people have some form of an eating disorder whether it be anorexia or bulimia, or overeating, bingeing…something.

It’s truly sad if you ask me, that we all feel some need to portray the “perfect body” image to the rest of society.  I’m sure that it’s not who we really are.  Now I’m not saying that we shouldn’t be healthy or make healthy choices in our diets…I’m saying that we shouldn’t go from one extreme to the other.  I, for one, am overweight…and have been for as long as I can remember.  I’ve never been what is considered “thin” by society’s standards.  I’m sure that I will never be that either.  However, I do strive to be healthy.

Being healthy is a completely different concept than “dieting”.  It’s one thing to have a surgery done like bariatric surgery because one is “morbidly obese” and it’s necessary to save one’s life…it’s another to have tons of plastic surgery done in order to feel that one fits in with the image of society.

Take actors for instance, these people are the ones that usually set the “image” that most have in their minds as the “perfect body” in society.  But how healthy are these people and how much plastic surgery do they have? Most of them aren’t as healthy as they’d like you to think and let me just say that we all know of at least one actress that literally paid for her body.  Hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent to make Demi Moore (who I personally think looked better before her surgeries) look like she does today (right) as opposed to what she did only a few years ago (left).

It’s not as if she really needed to have all of the surgical work done for health reasons now is it? Umm…I think not.  It’s totally an image-factor here.  I’m not against people having plastic surgery…I’m merely questioning why we as a society feel the need to do it SO much. There are people who go in every year for “maintenance”.  That to me is just sad.

Maintenance? Isn’t that what we do for our cars? Maintenance checks? Yeah…so when did our bodies become that of equality with machinery? Today’s society is so shallow minded that people are putting their bodies through countless unnecessary surgeries in order to “look better’.  Everything from breast implants to tummy tucks to liposuction to butt implants…our society has become high maintenance and an asset for profit in the medical world.

Now I can’t speak for everyone, I’m merely speaking for myself…but I had a surgery just one year ago that I wish I’d never had to receive.  However, I’m glad that I did because I’ve been able to be active again and haven’t had to live each day in pain due to severe endometriosis.  That was a necessary surgery…and one that was long overdue. 

Would I go under the knife for plastic surgery? Umm…not for implants and definitely not for more than a one time thing.  After having four children, my once perky breasts are now well…not so perky anymore.  I do believe that my weight contributes to that factor however, if I ever did get to my goal weight and this was still an issue…I might consider a breast lift…but not implants.  Would I consider bariatric surgery? At the weight that I’m currently at I would actually be a candidate for that surgery and have thought about doing so…but, financially I can’t afford it and to be honest…I’m not what a doctor would consider “unhealthy” even though my BMI (body mass index) is way above the normal range for a female with my measurements.  I do have hypothyroid however, which affects my weight drastically.

Primary Hypothyroid

Primary hypothyroidism occurs when disease of the thyroid gland prevents it from producing adequate amounts of thyroid hormone. Symptoms may vary from mild to severe and from nonspecific to very specific. In general, all metabolic processes slow down. Patients are often fatigued, and may also have depression, decreased intellectual function, and, rarely, overt psychosis. Patients frequently complain of cold intolerance, dry skin, and constipation. The heart rate is often slowed, as is the relaxation phase of deep tendon reflexes. There may be high cholesterol, mild anemia, and high serum enzymes, including CPK.

I’m on constant medication for this disorder, however we’ve not yet been able to quite get it under control.  It’s frustrating and my doctor has mentioned the bariatric surgery to me as a last resort if it continues to worsen.  I still, however, am not what I would consider to be an unhealthy person.  Weight wise I’m not as healthy as I should be…but I’m active, I’ve got normal blood pressure, my cholestoral isn’t high, and I try to eat somewhat healthy.

However, as previously stated several times…by today’s social standards I’m obsese.  There is always pressure to have the better body…especially if you’re female.  I personally find it disheartening.

I am who I am…and am loved by many people, not for my outward appearance, but for who I am…and how I make others feel when in my presence.  Isn’t that what social standards should be?

Thank you all who stopped by Dora’s site to say HI and Welcome.  You all are awesome!!  

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My morning hasn’t exactly started out well.

I yelled at Jason this morning…I’ve apologized since, but I feel bad.  It was over some laundry that I needed to get washed but he moved the clothes and didn’t tell me…so I thought that the clothes got washed with the rest of the laundry…but this morning when I went to get dressed I found out otherwise and lost my temper.

I’ve been having horrible migranes for the past 4 days that just won’t go away!!  My head is killing me.

Jason wants me to go to the doctor, but I’ve got parent/teacher conferences scheduled over the next three days so I’m having to leave work early as it is in order to attend those.  So I don’t know how I’m going to fit in a doctor’s appointment on top of that.

Meanwhile…I need to get back to work…and my head is going to explode!!

Yup…another lovely Monday eh?

Just thought that I’d give my daughter a shameless plug and tell you all to go visit her on her site!

That’s right…Dora has now joined the world of Xanga!  So what are you waiting for? Go say hi.