Day 156 - Packing, Shopping, & More Packing

Let me start off by saying how excited I am that my little family of three has the opportunity to go on a week-long camping trip. My husband and I are both able to take vacation and we can afford the 5th wheel and the truck to haul it down the road, because lets face it.......that is how I camp. No tents and sleeping bags with 2 A.M. trips to the port-a-john....not happening. Call me spoiled if you must, but that is how I roll! (am I getting too old to use that phrase?)

Anywho, so now that all that "thankful" stuff is out of the way......on to the griping. You knew it was coming, right?

It is absolutely insane how much time it takes to get ready to go camping for a week. Especially if you are going to be 3 hours away from home and at least 1 hour from the nearest Wal-Mart. It's not like it's convenient to run up to the store when you realize that you forgot the mayonnaise. Without mayonnaise, our sandwiches and hamburgers would be ketchup and mustard only......I wouldn't be able to make my famous chicken salad and cracker lunch........and there would be no homemade ranch dressing. Now I don't know how things are at your house, but when we run out of homemake ranch dresing at my house........RED ALERT.....THE SHIP IS GOING DOWN!!!

And can you imagine running out of toilet paper in the middle of the night........

Me to Todd: "Honey, I need some toilet paper and we're out"

Todd: "Okay, let me get dressed and run to the store"

Me: "Right.......I guess I'll just sit here and wait on you.....FOR 2 FRIGGIN' HOURS!"

Okay, so now you can see how important it is to remember to pack EVERYTHING. Hence the existence of "The Spreadsheet". Yeah.....I said it.......I have a spreadsheet that contains a packing list for camping. Some people like to make fun of me for it........"Oh look at how anal she is with her dorky spreadsheet.........what a nerd!" Keep talking people.........because I'm going to be laughing my dry fanny off when you're hanging over the toilet to drip-dry for two hours while your hubby makes a 2-hour toilet paper run because you didn't use a list when you were packing.

So needless to say, this week has thus far been fairly busy making preparations for the trip. We did a much hated work night grocery trip last night. Tonight we plan to catch up on laundry and begin packing our clothes. Thursday night is "last call" as we will be leaving Friday after work. If it doesn't make it into the camper either Thursday night or Friday morning before work......it doesn't go on the trip. You can imagine how Thursday night will play out...........I will leave that to your imagination

God Bless,
The Quitter

Day 154 - Captain Random

So we just went to the final home game of the season for the Texas Rangers this past Saturday night. The whole weekend was a blast. I just love those little getaways!

However, it makes it hard to come back to work on Monday.

I truly do wish that I could quit my job and be with my child until he starts school. It's so hard. I guess I kept thinking that it would eventually not be a big deal, but I was wrong. People kept telling me that it would get easier, but they were wrong too. It isn't any easier to drop him off now than it was on my first day back at work!

Don't get me wrong here......it's not that I don't want to work. It's just that I would much rather be the one raising my child. It is the single most important thing that I will ever do, and I'm stuck with only having 4 out of the 14 hours that he's awake 5 days a week. Am I the only one out there that thinks that is absolutely ridiculous?

Day 144 - Just me rambling

Some people have pointed out very lovingly that I have not updated the blog in awhile....so here goes.

Last Thursday while doing my normal bike route with my Mom, she fell and broke her ankle in three places. We took her to the emergency room where they informed us that she would not be going anywhere that weekend (we were all supposed to go to Texas together for some baseball) and that she would be having reconstructive surgery on Friday. So I picked my Dad up at the airport Friday morning and we drove straight to the hospital where we met my Mom in the elevator as they were taking her in for surgery. We got to talk with her for about 60 seconds and then that was that! Her surgery went well and the doctor said she could be back on her bike in 3 months if all goes as planned. I couldn't stop myself from informing him that his platitudes meant nothing considering that we don't usually cycle in January because it's friggin' cold outside. Whateva' Doc......thanks for nothing. Can you tell I'm a little bit upset over losing my riding partner? Well I am! It sucks big time. And I hate it that my Mom, who is a very active person and doesn't do well with relying on others for everything, will be down and out for 8 weeks. But I know that she'll keep a positive attitude and be ready to go again in the Spring. And just think how much stronger she'll be with all that stainless steel or titanium or whatever the crap they used to fix her.

So in the meantime I had to decide if I was still going to haul Jackson down to Texas for the weekend. Todd had to go no matter what because he had to entertain clients at the game on Friday night and then fly to Houston Monday morning and be gone until Wednesday. I decided that being away from him for 6 days was just silly considering that I had already purchased the plane tickets. So we hopped on a flight with him at 4:30 Friday afternoon after the surgery was over and I had already made sure that my Mom was okay.

Then we had a seriously craptastic time in Texas. We flew into Dallas at 5:30 and went straight to the ballpark. Just as gametime was approaching, the Heavens opened up and it began to pour. I'm talking some serious rain. We couldn't even see the stands in right field from the third base side. It was a ridiculous amount of rain. They ended up postponing the game around 9:30 that night and we went to Dad's apartment feeling good that they had made Sunday's game a double-header because we had tickets to that as well. So no big deal. Well then it rained all day Saturday. Todd got up at 6 in the morning and rode over 60 miles in the Tour de Cure in Fort Worth....crazy man! Jackson and I pretty much sat around and did nothing while the rain came down. We awoke Sunday to more rain and headed to the ballpark anyway around 10:45 for the noon start time for the double header. Yeah......you guessed it.....another rain delay. They ended up delaying the game until 5 o'clock. This was awful because Jackson and I had to catch a flight back to Tulsa at 7:30, so we had to leave the ballpark at 5:30! We got to watch 1-1/2 innings before leaving.

I was not in the best of moods when we got the airport, but my dear son lifted my spirits on the plane ride home. He was talking up a storm and everyone around us kept commenting on how cute he was. That always makes a Mom smile! Then when we landed, he did what any good 3-year-old will do from time to time.....he embarrassed the ever-loving crap right out of me! We were in the fourth row so we were among the first people to de-plane in Tulsa. While we were walking toward the door, the flight attendants were going ga-ga about how cute he was, and the pilot opened the cock-pit door to give Jackson a high-five. J marched right up there, slapped his hand with gusto, and immediately turned to me and announced (very loudly) "Mommy, I just pooted"! I couldn't help but laugh as I asked him "well, what do you say?". He turned to the pilot and said "excuse me". At least he's polite about passing gas in public!

God Bless,
The Quitter

Day 136 - No yelling at the POTUS!

While the President of the United States was giving a speech to a joint session of Congress regarding health care reform, some moron yelled "you lie". This was in the middle of a sentence and could be heard on the broadcast.

I am outraged that someone would show such disrespect to the President. We have freedom of speech in this country and you are free to speak your mind, but at the same time, I would think that a member of Congress would have enough respect for the office of the President to not shout at him during one of speeches and call him a liar! Seriously?

Republican, Democrat, or Independent.....doesn't matter. RESPECT THE OFFICE!

God Bless,
The Quitter

Day 130 - College football season has arrived

Let me just first start out by saying that I am so excited about this college football season. Don't get me wrong, I love EVERY college football season. But this year, my team, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, have the highest pre-season ranking in school history. This is very exciting and I look forward to seeing if we can live up to all the hype (fingers crossed)!

Now, I do have something negative to say about the start of the college football season. This time of year always brings constant ridicule for me. I am the lone OSU fan in a family full of OU fans. While my family trades friendly banter with me each year starting in September, some other types of ridicule are not so friendly. Such as those morons at work (and other places) who seem to need to make themselves feel better by bashing another person's favorite team. To those people, I ask this question....."Do you feel better now"?

Why is it that we as humans cannot simply root for what we like/believe in without bashing the opposition. Let me make myself perfectly clear here.....I am an OSU fan, but I also root for OU and TU, because these are universities in the state that I reside and I want them to do well. The only time I EVER root against OU is when they are playing OSU. And by God, I have that right because I attended OSU! Those residing in Oklahoma that take it upon themselves to root against and bash the other universities in this state make me sick. If you are an OSU fan, do not hate OU! And if you are an OU fan, what is it going to hurt if OSU has a good season and makes it to a bowl game? Seriously! And for that matter, I don't root against Texas when they're playing a team outside the Big 12 Conference. I want all teams in the Big 12 to do well.

I guess what I'm basically saying is that people need to grow up and take a long hard look at themselves. If we spent half the time "building up" our own passions rather then "breaking down" others, the world would be better off for it for sure!

God Bless,
The Quitter

Day 127 - No perfection here!

Well I've been sick for over a week now and I'm frankly getting tired of it all. Sore throat, runny nose, sinus headache from Hades, and the ever-present inability to pop my ears and relieve the mounting pressure in my head. I was in the garage yesterday and thought for a split second about taking my husbands power drill to my head in hopes that it might work. That's how bad it is and I don't know how much more I can take before I go completely ballistic!!!!

Okay, now that I feel better about that little nuisance.............

The stress over the upcoming PE is driving me insane. I have to pass this stupid thing the first time. Nevermind that tons of people I know had to take it more than once. I have to pass it. Have to have to have to!!!! This pressure is coming from nowhere but right here, in my OCD/Perfectionist brain. And it's not just that I'm a perfectionist. I don't want to go through all this crap again. The studying and worrying. It sucks with a capital S (see previous post on calculators to get a feel for my current state of mind)!

And the icing on the cake (mmmmm.....cake!) is that my whole "I didn't gain weight when I quit smoking" post is a bunch of hoopla right now! At the time, I hadn't gained any weight. Apparently, no one informed me that my huge butt would have a delayed reaction to quitting smoking (by about 130 days)!!!!!

I can't eat enough these days. It's ridiculous. Now granted, I'm only up 2 pounds, but that's how it starts. Before you know it I'll be at the fat-girl store (Lane Bryant) buying new dress pants because my rear now needs two area codes instead of one. I hate food and exercise. It's a bunch of crap.

However, the important things are that (1) I am eating a ton of fruits and vegetables, so at least I'm not loading up on the wrong foods...unless you count the 1-1/2 cups of chocolate ice cream per day, and (2) I haven't even wanted to pick up smoking again.

I suppose ending this post with a 'God Bless' would be a little silly as I seem to have gone off the deep end. But I'm going to do it anyway, because you know what..........even Christians aren't perfect and have bad days and need to let off some steam. So there!

God Bless,
The Quitter.

Day 121 - This is so scary!

Tobacco to kill 6 million next year, report says
1 in 10 deaths globally is due to tobacco use, American Cancer Society says:

WASHINGTON - Tobacco use will kill 6 million people next year from cancer, heart disease, emphysema and a range of other ills, the American Cancer Society said in a report issued on Tuesday.

The society's new Tobacco Atlas estimates that tobacco use costs the global economy $500 billion a year in direct medical expenses, lost productivity and environmental harm.

"Tobacco's total economic costs reduce national wealth in terms of gross domestic product (GDP) by as much as 3.6 percent," the report reads.

"Tobacco accounts for one out of every 10 deaths worldwide and will claim 5.5 million lives this year alone," the report said. If current trends hold, by 2020, the number will grown to an estimated 7 million and top 8 million by 2030.

Over the past four decades, smoking rates have declined in rich countries like the United States, Britain and Japan while rising in much of the developing world, according to the nonprofit research and advocacy organization.

Some other findings from the report, available:

--1 billion men smoke — 35 percent of men in rich countries and 50 percent of men in developing countries.

--About 250 million women smoke daily — 22 percent of women in developed countries and 9 percent of women in developing countries.

--Smoking rates among women are either stable or increasing in several southern, central and eastern European countries.

--The risk of dying from lung cancer is more than 23 times higher for men who smoke than for nonsmokers and 13 times higher for women smokers.

--Tobacco kills one-third to one-half of those who smoke.

--Smokers die an average of 15 years earlier than nonsmokers.

--Nearly 60 percent of Chinese men smoke and China consumes more than 37 percent of the world's cigarettes.

--50 million Chinese children, mostly boys, will die prematurely from tobacco-related diseases.

--Tobacco use will eventually kill 250 million of today's teenagers and children.

--Nearly one-quarter of young people who smoke tried their first cigarette before the age of 10.

--Occupational exposure to secondhand smoke kills 200,000 workers every year.

"One hundred million people were killed by tobacco in the 20th century. Unless effective measures are implemented to prevent young people from smoking and to help current smokers quit, tobacco will kill 1 billion people in the 21st century," the report predicts