Sometimes you should just sit back and relax...

So it is spring break and you know, I am all for sitting around relaxing. Watching TV, eating bonbons...The whole nine yards. But really, sitting around in your dusty cluttered family room is no fun. You are sitting there all fat and happy with your bonbons(what exactly are bonbons?) with the knowledge that there is no school so I don't have any assignments due. I don't have any exams to study for. You can just relax. For one glorious week I can pretend that I am not in school and don't have to worry about upcoming exams, papers, labs, etc. I can just pretend that I am a regular
run -of- the -mill mother who sends her offspring off to school every morning then has the luxury to work out, clean, cook, shop, have lunch with the girls, visit Starbucks, read a book for pleasure, volunteer...You get the picture. But no, I am not that mother. I am a mother who because of some bad decisions early in life, am now returning to school. College in your 40's, even very early 40's, sucks. OK so back to today. Today I decided I am going to move all of the furniture and clean behind it. I am going to wipe down the base boards and get rid of some clutter and dust and vacuum under sofas. And while I am under the sofas, get rid of all the crap that I push under there when company is coming and I don't want them to see it. Don't act all high and mighty like you don't do that. I know you do. OK, so if you don't you are not normal. Whatever. So I am moving my bookcase and what happens? I will tell you what happens. It fell, tipped over, right onto the front of my big screen TV. Now I would be lying if I didn't admit that for a second, I was hoping it was the end of the big screen because I would love to get a smaller screen TV for our family room. But that was like, only a split second. Because truly, it is a great TV and we can't afford to replace it right now and if we could replace it, I would like to move it to the basement. So I am pretty much bummed to see my bookcase denting the front of my TV. In fact, I am pretty sure I may have cursed. A lot. But it still works and we will deal with the scratch, green mark and slight rippling effect you now have when you watch the TV. Most of it still looks Great though so I am thinking all is well until I go to vacuum and spill an entire glass of iced tea all over the table, floor and of course, my pile of library books. I rescued the library books before the tea had a chance to get on the pages. Luckily they were hard bound books. So again, all is well in my world. But tomorrow,I am not cleaning. It just isn't worth it.

Food for thought...

I haven't had much to say about the new administration. I have been trying to sit back with my mouth shut and hope and pray that the disaster, bail out plan, spending plan is actually going to work. But really, it isn't going to work. We have never been in a more dire situation than we are right now and it infuriates me. I am mad because the MSM(main stream media) refuses to report what is actually happening. They sugar coat and gloss over EVERYTHING OBAMA because they want, hope, pray, that Obama is the savior. But he is not. He is ruining this country. And if I hear one more time that he inherited this mess I think I may shoot my head off. He is an asshole. Pure and simple. Sorry Obama supporters. Those of you who thought he was going to save the nation. You banked on the wrong person and all he is doing is making matters worse. If you cant see it yet, you will soon. ANd if you dont admit it, it is because you are too proud to admit that he is a disaster. IF the tables were turned. If it were republicans pulling the shit the dems are pulling, the shit would be hitting every fan in the country. But because Obama is the "messiah" they give him a pass. Whatever. It is nuts. There is so much going on in that administration that should not be happenening that it is incredulous. I sit back on a daily basis and wonder, what the hell is happening in this country? I know most of you out there probably have no idea what is going on beyond what you hear on the MSM who by the way have an agenda so you will only see reported what they want you to see. I dare you to just put any of the stories to the republical test. If a republican was said to have evaded paying his taxes, would he still be heading the IRS? Um, no! Etc. It goes on and on. Look, I am sure there are plenty of crooked republicans out there. But that doesnt make it right to give a pass to the crooked dems. You can blame what you want on Bush, and I have plenty to say about that, but the past couple of years that he was president, the dems were in control(and that is when the economy started on its road to a shit in a hand bakset). There is very little that the president on his own can control. He needs the house, the congress, senators, etc. backing him/ Bush did not have that but Obama does. And that scares the crap out of me.

Spring Break!

You wouldn't believe how good my house smells right now. I am making meatballs in the crockpot. Spaghetti night tonight, you know, our typical Monday night dinner. But wow, it smells wonderful!

I am impressing myself this first day of Spring Break because I have gotten so much accomplished today.

1. made 60 homemade meatballs. Froze half, other half cooking.
2. cleaned entire first floor including floors and laundry room and half of the garage.
3. submitted my financial aid forms for next year.

OK so I guess that is it but it did take me the better part of the day and really, that's enough isn't it? I plan to spend the rest of the day with my feet up reading. Reading a book for pleasure. Not a school book!

So menu for the week

Monday: Spaghetti and meatballs, salad
Tuesday: Chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, spinach
Wednesday: meatball Hoagies, potato chips, sliced peaches(that we canned over the summer)
Thursday: pork chops, scalloped potatoes, spinach
Friday: fish sticks and oven fries for kids, adults going to traveling dinner party
Saturday: Homemade pizza
Sunday: Beef roast, mashed potatoes, corn, spinach

Monday, Monday....

So it is Monday and that means menu plan Monday. I know you have been waiting with bated breath for this post. But before I get to the menu, just a little public service reminder...

If you drop shoe string potato fries into your oven. And if a bunch of them fall through the crack at the bottom of your oven to where the fire is produced. They will catch on fire and fire will shoot up through the crack and you will take pause. Yes you will. You will stand there looking at your kitchen quickly filling with smoke. You will hear your children and maybe even a neighbor kid upstairs playing. And you will ponder. Do I call the kids down and shove them outside? Do I call 911? Do I dump water on it? Is it a grease fire? You know you do not want to dump water on a grease fire because you saw that video that circulated on the Internet 2 years ago where someone dumped water on a grease fire and the grease exploded all over them. You realize this does not apply to your situation since your fire is not in a pot of grease. Does the fact that the french fries were fried in a deep fryer before you put them in the 200 degree oven(to stay warm not catch on fire) qualify them as a grease fire? No.

So if this happens to you, first turn off the oven. Second get a cup of water and throw it down the crack and onto the flames shooting out of the crack. It is probably best to not waste any time pondering all that other stuff beforehand because really, who needs their entire house smoked up smelling like burned french fries? Oh and the kids upstairs? I probably should have called them down and shoved them outside. But they smelled the burning french fries and thought it smelled good so whatever. The fire didn't get out of hand. Nothing was damaged so all is well in the world. But you never know, it could happen to you too. So I just thought I would give you a heads up. French fries are dangerous!

OK so on to the menu.

Monday: Spaghetti with Italian sausage, garlic bread & Caesar salad
Tuesday: Elk meat sloppy Joe's, oven fries(yea I know-tempting fate)
Wed: crock pot venison stroganoff, noodles, salad
Thursday: homemade pizza night
Friday: Lent- so salmon in a butter/dill sauce, mac n cheese, salad, crusty bread and herb butter
Saturday: brats with sour kraut or corn dog depending on your level of maturity, sweet beans
Sunday: I have no idea. Maybe we will go to Mom and Dads for dinner. :)

Octo Mom

So, let me say that I think Octo Mom is a wack job. From what I understand, she got implanted with all 14 of her kids with no father in the picture or even a job. That right there is nuts. Who does that? But all the talk about not letting her keep the babies scares me. If they decide because her house is too small, or too messy, or she is too poor, that she can't keep the babies, where will that ultimately lead us? Will the government make a point of stepping in and taking away more kids from more families? Cause I am sure there are probably lots of L&D nurses out there that see some pretty wacked out families have babies and yes, take those same babies home with them. When we begin allowing government to make judgement calls about whether we can keep our kids based on the size of our homes, the messiness factor, etc. I think we are embarking on quite the slippery slope.

I think this story has angered many of us for many reasons. Some people are really mad because they feel she is taking advantage of the welfare system. Because clearly, she is not financially equipped to raise those kids without some sort of assistance. And I think people would probably feel differently if she didn't already have 6 kids at home and if she had a husband and if she didn't have 6 embryo's implanted at one time. Those three things really add up to people hating her. Then you add in the cost component of IVF. If you have never had to go through fertility testing or treatment, then you should consider yourself very fortunate. Not only for the obvious reason, you were able to conceive unassisted, but for the financial one.

They say IVF can cost a couple up to $15,000 per cycle. That means every month you have IVF you are paying that money. And most insurance companies do not cover the cost of infertility treatments. Which is another story all together. So how on earth did she afford to have IVF at least 6 times to result in the 14 kids? Think about that. It is an astronomical sum. Even if it was $10,000 per cycle, you are talking about $60,000. minimum. That is assuming she achieved pregnancy each cycle she tried. Which is unrealistic because it usually takes a couple tries minimum before IVF works. And if it doesn't, you are probably not infertile! In any case, how did she afford that? Rumor has it she paid for it with the Workman's comp money she received from a back injury. OK. Now I am getting even more mad. So she injured her back bad enough to warrant her no longer working and receiving in the ballpark of $160,000. but she went on to carry 14 children? In 7 years? Come on! I seriously doubt her back was injured that badly.

Then you have the doctor that did the insemination's. He was in my opinion extremely negligent. He should never have implanted that many embryos into that woman. And after having 6 kids, she should have been discouraged from even attempting more kids. Now she said the eggs were fertilized and they were her babies. I can respect that she feels that they are her babies. I would feel much the same. I am pro-life all the way so I can understand her not wanting them destroyed. But she could have DONATED them to couples who didn't work the system and get a large settlement to fund their desire to start a family.

So back to whether she should be allowed to keep the kids. While I do not agree with what she did. And I really dislike the way she treats her parents and assumes that everyone should just do whatever she wants and deal with it, I do not think the government should step in and just take the babies without solid proof that she will injure them or abuse them in some way. Not having a big house(who really does have a house big enough for 14 kids?), is not good enough.

A menu on a Monday.

I have no idea what I am going to do for meals this week. I can't find my menu that I made up last week before I went grocery shopping. How pathetic is that? lol So I guess I will figure it out right now. Hmmmm...

Monday: we always have some sort of spaghetti on Monday. So....Spaghetti
Tuesday: pork roast, sour kraut, spinach, mashed potatoes
Wed: hot dogs/brats with sour kraut, sugar beans
Thursday: some sort of take out
Friday: pizza for kids-mike and I have our monthly traveling dinner party
Sat: Steak, baked potatoes, salad
Sunday: friends coming for dinner. Maybe artichoke chicken. (unless I come up with something better. Any suggestions???).

So that's about it. I have a busy week with school. My lab practical is Thursday and I am nervous. I am not sure I will ever remember all of the stuff we need to know for this exam. The histology is driving me crazy. I don't even know why I need to be able to identify the type of tissue and what it does based on a slide of the cells. Whats up with that?

Happy VD Day!

So for Valentines day, we decided to do a couple of things that are special. We made pancakes this morning and cut them into heart shapes. The kids got strawberry milk too. They liked that. I also gave them each a candy heart. They loved that. For Mike, well he got a candy heart and a card. I got a homemade card which was very sweet. For dinner tonight I am making Pioneer Woman's French Onion soup. I hope it is good. That is one of my favorite soups so I am hoping we like it. I am also having cheese fondue and then hot wings and fries and for dessert, choc covered strawberries and bananas. Not the healthiest of meals but it is a holiday right? Even if it is a manufactured holiday. Hey, anything to soften the blow we Americans just go thanks to our good for nothing President and his congress/senators. By the way, did you know we are apparently rich? Um, yea. So we wont be getting that big 13.00 a week from the government. Damn. Now I don't know what I am going to do.... By the way Arlen Specter, I will NOT be voting for you ever again. you suck!