Headaches

I have had a migraine, of varying degrees, for 5 days.  Monday afternoon it started and it hasn't really stopped since.  There are times when the medicine works and the pain stops, though I still usually have all of the other symptoms and just that vague knowledge that the headache isn't gone.  Just waiting to attack again.  Right now I feel it throbbing in my temple, sliding down and coiling itself around the base of my skull.  It doesn't hurt a lot but it's there, nagging at me.

I have been getting these since I was in the eighth grade.  One a week, for most of my life, and they have been getting worse.  I've tried 5 different medications without much relief.  I've done acupuncture which helped a little bit but it just wasn't convenient for me at the time.  Now I'm trying chiropractic care.  I'm not seeing results yet but it's only been a week.

Here in Buffalo, there is a place called the Dent Neurological Treatment Center, and they are doing migraine testing there.  It is less than 5 minutes from my house.  They run commercials from time to time on the TV and this week I actually looked into it.  Their premise is that some migraines are caused by a heart defect.  It sounds like most people don't even know they have it.  If the defect is fixed, the migraines might go away.  I'm on the fence right now.  Do I possibly have surgery and get better?  What if something goes wrong?  I'd rather live with pain than be dead, unable to watch my little girl grow up.  Unable to grow old with my husband.  I admit it, I'm scared.  I'm going to try the chiropractor for a few more months and see how things go.  Otherwise, I may have to take more drastic measures.

Ketchup

Annabelle is addicted to ketchup.  It's a fact.  Everyone seems to know it.  She eats it on everything- chicken, pork, ground beef, steak, vegetables, even mashed potatoes.  Are there other people out there that love ketchup this much?  Most people look at her like she's gross for eating her food this way.  I'm just thankful that she's eating anything at all, because without the ketchup, food will not pass her lips.  If something tastes bad, she'll spoon some extra ketchup into her mouth to help her get it down.

Maybe you're wondering why I'm writing a whole post about my daughter's bizarre eating habits.  It's because we ran out of ketchup.  On Monday I made meatloaf for dinner with mashed potatoes and broccoli.  Now meatloaf isn't a favorite meal of mine but it's easy and it was cold out so it seemed like a good idea at the time.  That is until I realized we were out of ketchup.  I slathered Annabelle's broccoli with cheese and she ate it without too much complaint but then she was ready for her mashed potatoes.  Mama you forgot something!  Where's my ketchup?  The look of total disbelief on her face when I told her we were all out.  She eventually forced down all of her food but I was in the doghouse for the rest of the night, believe me. 

So I had originally planned on heading to the grocery store on Tuesday, but I ended up being sidelined with yet another debilitating migraine.  All dinner plans were thrown out the window because of our lack of ketchup.  I just wasn't in the mood for the whining and complaining from my kid.  Luckily we had a frozen pizza in the freezer, something that is rarely in there.  Woo Hoo for lent and buying something random that I can make for dinner on Fridays!

So today I did get to the store and I bought the biggest tub of ketchup that they sold.  Part of me though thinks that I should keep telling Annabelle that we're out.  Maybe I could get her off the stuff.  Or maybe not, I think I'm OK with her addiction. :)

Perfection

Have you even had a perfect weekend?  One that just felt so nice and relaxing.  I just had that weekend.  It may seem boring to some people.  It would have seemed like it was to me at one point in my life, maybe even next week I'll look back and feel like we did nothing spectacular.  But right now, it was just so good.

On Friday we went to McDonald's for dinner.  Annabelle has just become brave enough to play by herself in the play center there.  Before someone would have to go with her, usually Mark because those tubes make me claustrophobic.  Now she'll hang out there for as long as possible, sometimes attaching herself to another little girl and becoming best friends almost immediately.  After we played and ate, we headed on over to BJ's.  Usually I feel like we're so rushed in there, running up and down aisles at warp speed, but we decided to take it easy.  Letting Annabelle out of the cart to try out all the different patio sets they had out and perusing the book area for almost 20 minutes.  It was so relaxing and nice seeing what kind of books Annabelle found interesting.  The to cap off our night, we went to Coldstone for some ice cream.  Again we let Annabelle pick whatever she wanted.  We usually steer her towards something we know that she'll eat, strawberry, chocolate.  But she wanted the neon purple mixed berry frozen yogurt with gummy bears.  At least she enjoyed it is all I have to say because it was gross.

Saturday we went to brunch at my Aunt Pattie's house.  All I have to say is yummo!  Cinnamon rolls, eggs, french toast bake, bacon, sausage, bagels, and tones of fruit with a side of mimosa.  Oooo I ate so much but it was so good.  After we got home I was feeling woogie.  You know when you want to be doing something, anything.  Just not in your own house.  So Mark decides we should go to Dave and Buster's for dinner and some games.  We went through that $30 of game tokens fast, but hell we had fun so that's all that matters.

Then Sunday we decided to call up my in-laws to see if they would want to feed us and let us watch the Sabres game.  Luckily they had no plans and were up for some company.  My mother-in-law made grilled chicken sandwiches and french fries while we watched the hockey game in the living room.  Luckily the Sabres won the game, so we were happy the get those 2 points and a full belly in the process.  I wish every weekend could end up so nice:)

Wasting My Time

Last week, one of the little girls, I'll call her A., in Annabelle's class asked to play with Annabelle after school.  She was with her grandfather, not her mom, so I replied that we would talk next week and set a date.  Monday morning comes around and A. runs over and asks when we will have a play date, so I ask her mother if we could get together.  She replies that Tuesdays and Fridays are good but this Tuesday is busy.  She also volunteers to pick the girls up and that I could pick Annabelle up after a few hours.  Now I usually stay  during the play date but I was OK with the plans.  Then I didn't see A.'s mom pick her up or drop her off all week but that's pretty normal.  I'm always punctual and A.'s mom is not, whatever, we're different, that's fine.  But here's what annoys me. 

This morning, we pull up and see A. and her mom waiting outside the school.  Annabelle runs over and yells, "I'm coming to your house today!"  Then she gives A. a huge hug.  Neither of them say anything.  I don't have their address and have never been to their home so I was waiting for  something from their end.  The classroom door opens and the masses rush in and I lose sight of A.'s mom.  So I don't get to ask any of the pertinent info.

Two and a half hours later. I'm at the school and I don't see A.'s mom.  We get let in, hear the spiel, kids are released to parents.  We wait around for a few minutes but Annabelle's whining about a paper cut on her finger, so I get ready to leave.  As I'm walking out, I see A.'s grandfather walking in.

Now I'm mad.  I was under the impression that we had plans, especially because A.'s mom offered to drive the girl's home, let me off the hook.  She basically made the plans and instead of letting me know that it wasn't happening, she just ignores us!  I'm at a loss.  Both of our kids wanted to play together, we make plans and then you just bail?  Grow up!  If you weren't feeling it, just say you're busy this week.  I wouldn't keep pushing you.  I wasn't thrilled with having our kids having a play date anyways.  A. is so boy crazy, that it isn't even funny.  I don't need that rubbing off on Annabelle.  I'm just so annoyed right now I could scream.

No Time!

• Life seems crazy hectic lately.  Any time I spend on the computer right now is limited.  While I'm not the type of person that likes to spend much time on-line, I'm spending even less time than usual lately.
• I haven't had any urge to write anything here.  I also haven't been reading any of the blogs that I usually read or even go on FB much lately.  I'm feeling like there is just a bit to much information out there to be had right now. 
• I only have one more laser appointment before I get measured.  It had better be worth it!
• I cannot wait to go to the chiropractor tomorrow.  My back is in pretty good shape now.  Now we are going to start working on my migraine issues.  I thought my head might literally explode the other day it hurt so bad.  Pretty much I'm hoping for a miracle here.
• Annabelle is growing up too fast for me.  I had to register her for Kindergarten this morning.  I just had to drop off her medical forms and residency stuff, make an appointment for the testing, but I felt a little bit teary eyed doing it.  It feels like it was just yesterday that she was a my tiny, little peanut and now she's getting ready to ride the bus and go to big kid school.
• Yesterday was Dad's Day at school.  Mark got to spend the day with her at school, making crafts and singing and dancing.  I can't wait for Mom Day in May:)
• We have a little over 5 weeks until we leave for vacation and we still haven't really booked anything.  I need to get going on that.

My Crafty Little One

Annabelle had been asking to scrapbook for months, so when my Grandma asked what she could get her for Christmas, I decided she needed a scrapbook of her very own.  Things got busy with the holidays and play dates and dance classes and regular old life and the scrapbook was pushed to the side and forgotten.  But last week, she began asking for it again.  I started printing out pictures for her and we went to Michael's to get some stickers.  She was hung ho, full out.  Here are a few of her pages.  My favorite ones with her own little bits of personality.

Every scrapbook needs a title page.  How else are people supposed to know what the book is about?

Pooh Bear is still one of her favorite guys.  This is the very first page she made:)

At first she just wanted to put stickers on the page and be done with it.  I encouraged her to draw some pictures of her favorite things about each character.  On this page she drew Jasmine, Aladdin, with Abu on his shoulder and the Genie.  I love the Genie magic stars she drew around him.

I helped her write out Princess Aurora, don't you just love the backwards s?  And the spinning wheel?  I said that she should draw Prince Philip or the 3 Fairy Godmothers but she chose the spinning wheel.

As she kept going she started really getting the hang of it.  She didn't need any coaching about the movie or any of her favorite parts.  I'm most impressed with her drawing of Lumiere.  She did it from memory, not even looking at the DVD cover:)

I had to go out and buy more page protectors because she's asking to make many more pages than I thought she would want to do.  I know I'm just the overly proud Mommy right now, but it's so good and so cute, right?

From Stripper Poles to Flower Seeds

Last weekend was a busy one for us. It started on Saturday with a stop at the gym, my third laser treatment, and then getting ready for the evening. This included packing up Annabelle's over night bag to go to Grandma and Grandpa's house. They picked her up at 2 which left me with just enough time to shower and get ready to out to dinner with Mark. He was jonesing for some cheesecake so we sped on over to The Cheesecake Factory. Except there was an hour and a half wait. People! It was only 4:30! Grrr, it has to be all those Canadians that troop on over on weekends because that is ridiculous! We then tried P. F. Changs and Hyde Park, again super long waits. We ended up going to Bravo because it was only a 45 minute wait, which stretched to about an hour and 15 minutes but who's counting. Once we finished dinner we had to race back home to change because we had a St. Patty's Day party to attend at Stampy's Pub and Poker Place (friend's of ours house).

So once we get there, some drinking ensues. But I was good, 1 shot, 1 pudding shot and one very weak drink. So the evening started out good. Me and my girls take a quick photo op before the real drinking starts:)

Here is the proof that Mark can work that pole. Oh, if he only had some flowing hair.

Then everyone in the place tried on my cousin Mike's hat. Mark really works it don't you think?

I also had my shot with the hat while Krissy wore someone else's hat. Keith's maybe? We are some hot chicks!

The reason there was no heavy drinking for me was because we had tickets to go to the Shrine Circus the next day at 1. Hangovers plus circus would equal H-E- Double hockey sticks don't you think? we ended up having a good time even though it was way too super long. Two and a half hours is overkill in my opinion.

Mark had to buy Annabelle her very own clown nose.

And she absolutely needed that $6 pony ride. But doesn't she look sweet up there?

The show was capped off with an elephant performance. It was Annabelle's favorite besides the acrobats. No pictures of that because Mark had the camera at that point. Annabelle's tells us she will be an acrobat because she already knows how to swing and jump. She's all set!

And to finish off the night, Annabelle had a message on the answering machine from our next door neighbor, Mrs Pierce. We went over to plant some geranium seeds to plant in the back yard if it ever stops snowing. We already have some little sprouts pushing through. Makes me yearn for springtime.