Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Tuesday has been frustrating to say the least

On Sunday I saw this doctor that was the old school type. Ya know the kind that they speak and you nod and agree whether you agree or not. My back has caused me severe pain for three weeks. This doctor gives me naproxin and more muscle relaxers. I'm thinking it's been three weeks, they have had me on a medrol dose pack for five days, muscle relaxers and now this guy gives me naproxin???? I rack this up to 2 hours of wasted time on a Sunday. So today I go back and see MY doctor. He's a great guy, one who listens and truely wants to help his patients. I waited three hours today to see him. His diagnosis is that I need a spine specialist, another steroid pack (12 days this time), and some vicodin. He also said I have poor reflexes in my right knee. I guess that means there is something pressing on a nerve in my back. I'm not really sure. I've never taken vicodin so this could be interesting. I react strangely to medication so I hope the husband still loves me with all this medicine flowing through my body. He says I'm "easy" when I'm this doped up. I believe that was meant to be a compliment. I start my physical therapy on Thursday and see the spine specialist on Monday. Oh and there's a chiropractic visit in between those.
My youngest child is hypoglycemic. She was diagnosed when she was 15 months old. She is now seven. We treat her mostly by watching her diet carefully. The school nurse and principal have decided we should check her sugar levels three times a day for a month. They want to find out when she has low times so that we can adjust her snacks accordingly. I call the doctor for a prescription because testing supplies are NOT cheap. Insurance will pay for it with a prescription. I drive over to the doctor's office to pick it up and take it to the pharmacy along with my handful of scripts. Insurance won't pay for her prescriptions because the doctor didn't specify when her sugar should be checked on the prescription. Of course by this time the doctor's office is closed. I know three times a day but I'm NOT the doctor. Uggh Frustration has settled in.
While at Target getting prescriptions I decide to buy the cake pan my middle child has requested for her birthday. Talk about expensive!!! $39.99 for a cake pan! It's not just any cake pan either. It has two places to put the batter. One side is the bottom of a HUGE cupcake and the other side is the dome part of the cupcake. Once baked you ice the top of the bottom piece and stick the dome part on, then ice it however you wish. This will be a mega chocolate cupcake. Icing has yet to be decided. I'm not sure if my creative side will be coherent enough to do the whole piped icing look. We'll have to wait and see. She also wants multi-colored regular size cupcakes. Ya know where you make your batter, seperate it into small bowls, and add a different food color to each small bowl. Then you pour a small amount of one color batter in a cupcake liner and a different color on top. This makes the multi-colored look. I have a very good friend who loaned me a metal cupcake holder. It holds the cupcakes at different levels so this should display my creativeness well. As long as I don't fall asleep in the cupcakes!
So $39.99 for a cake pan, $10 for invitations for 24 chatty children, and $15 for prescriptions is what I spent today. This does not include all the gas I spent driving to my doctor, then to youngest child's doctor, getting lost and ending up at the boardwalk, and my trip to Tarjay. My justification with the cake pan is the youngest daughter will undoubtedly love my creative cupcake and want one for herself in February. I almost forgot I cheated today and spent $6 at Sonic for myself some lunch since it was 3:30 when I left the doctor's office and my banana and milk breakfast was long gone. Yes, I could have lived without the cake pan but at least I'm not just buying my daughter a cake like so many parents do. As far as Sonic well, I was hungry and I cheated. Tomorrow is a new day and I'm determined to get better at this whole spending thing. I took all my credit cards and sealed them in an envelope and put them in my safe. I can't use them if I don't carry them in my purse. Hey, it's a start! Baby steps towards my goals.
I'm feeling quite drugged so tonight we are having the supreme pizzas from our Angel Food Ministries box. I will pair it up with a nice green salad and fat free italian dressing. The kids will have some orange slices from our fruit box. My husband loved the teriyaki beef stir fry last night and was happy to have the leftovers for lunch. He says I scored lots of points with that meal. That makes me a happy wife! :)
My son did pack his lunch this morning. A ham and swiss sandwich, an apple,some chips ahoy bites, and sour cream and onion chips. He came home starving and begging for extra cash in his lunch account. Maybe he's learning something here. I'm going to make him continue with this lunch packing thing for a least a couple of weeks. Of course I'll let him pack himself much more food than he did today.
I hope someday that I will have some readers to this blog I've created. I know my husband reads it. I'm not sure if that is a good or bad thing but he's at least paying attention so he gets mega points for that! The husband makes me feel alive and gives me reason to get up and try to be better each day. I'm truly blessed to have such a supportive, wonderful husband. The best part is he's ALL mine! Tschüß

Monday, September 29, 2008

Ughh it's Monday

I have a lower lumber sprain. It happened several weeks ago. See, I'm a real clutz and fell down my stairs. Not once but twice! My sciatic nerve is inflammed and the L1 and L2 are hating me at the moment. I went to the chiropractor for an adjustment this morning and start physical therapy on Thursday. I'm suppose to be relaxing LOL! A mother of three children does NOT relax! I just want R-E-L-I-E-F at this point.
I received a phone call at 1:45 today from my oldest child. It seems he was on his way to lunch and didn't have any lunch money. I put plenty of money in his general account three weeks ago. I told him I'd pick him up and get him fed. Upon picking him up from school I find out he's been using his lunch money for cookies, brownies, ice cream and gatorade in addition to his plate lunch. Now I know why $100 didn't feed him for an entire month. Looks like he'll be packing a lunch from now on. It's like he believes that money just appears in that account.
I made our first meal with our Angel Food Ministries box tonight. We had teriyaki beef with stir fry vegetables and whole grain rice. I took the steaks and cut them into strips, made a teriyaki sauce and tossed it in the crockpot. Added the veggies about 30 minutes before dinner and prepared the rice. I must say I was impressed with the quality of the sirloin strip steaks. The meat was very tender and the flavor was great! The husband still isn't home so we'll see what he has to say about dinner. He better like it because it's his lunch tomorrow as well. :)
As for my budget...I didn't spend one penny today so today has been successful! Let's see how well the husband did. Well, it's time to study greek vocabulary words again and start the bathing, bedtime rituals. I have survived Monday, let's hope Tuesday is better. Auf wieder sehen!

Sunday, September 28, 2008

A lesson learned

First off...
NEVER take the husband or children to the grocery store while trying to live on a budget. My goal was to get only the things on my list (about $40) for dinners this week. Easy to do as I didn't need much. Two children and a husband=$120 grocery bill. Yes folks, I'm off to a horrible start here but I'm sure they'll enjoy all their extra goodies. But what they don't know is that they will NOT be going to the grocery store in the future!
On to football..
Yesterday I posted that my Sooners were ranked #4. The husband quickly corrected me that they were ranked #2. After the game last night the University of Oklahoma Sooners are ranked #1!!!! We are an excited bunch around here today!

Anyone else excited about fall programming? Desperate Housewives premieres tonight so I will be forcing the husband to watch with me. A nice, quiet evening is much needed around here.

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Food and football go hand in hand

So today I picked up my first Angel Food Ministries box. I must say I was very impressed with the organization and the amount of food I received. The main box cost me $30 (I ordered 2) and has a ton of food in it. I opted to buy the grill box for this month ($20)and the fruit and veggie box($19). So I've spent $100 and should be able to feed my crew for about three weeks. I'll get back to you on the quality and how long it lasts the five of us. Yes, they are a ministry but noone shoved their beliefs down my throat. The best part is "If you eat, you qualify". Here's the link:
www.angelfoodministries.com
I must mention a little college football. I grew up an Oklahoma State fan but I married a University of Oklahoma alumni so I now bleed crimson and cream. Poor University of Southern California lost and is no longer ranked #1. This makes me happy and is great news for my Sooners who are currently ranked #4. It's time to whip up some football food and settle in with the husband for some OU football. Boomer Sooner!