Was trying not to talk about it too much. I was trying to distract myself with fluffy positive posts about my daughter eating pancakes out of the trash. But really, this week has been a trying one for us (Jeremy in particular).
Jeremy has missed about two weeks of work from this whole bedrest ordeal. And that really hurts, in ways I can’t even tell you. Especially since we’re not exactly saving money these days– we’re spending it. In fact we’re spending $1200 more than we were spending last month. That’s a lot of money for us.
Anyeatingbeansandriceeveryday, we thought we had moved on to better days. Now that the kids were in school, Jeremy could work again. Last week was an adjustment for Jeremy– having to take 2 kids to 2 different schools before work, picking 2 kids up from 2 different schools after work, grocery shopping, errand running, coming home, feeding kids, baths, teeth, books, bed. CHAOS! Poor Jeremy. The poor guy was just thankful through all of that that he was able to WORK and make money for our family.
This Monday, Jeremy gets to work. Noah’s school calls and says he has a fever. Jeremy leaves work and gets Noah. They go to the doctor (yayy! another bill!?), Noah is feeling better by that evening, BAM, Bella has a 103 fever, is coughing and throwing up. Noah is all better but Jeremy misses work Tuesday because Bella is a in a really, really bad way. We talked about it and decided that Wednesday he HAS to go to work, so bedrest or no bedrest, she’s staying with me and I’m going to nurse her for the day. Wednesday morning comes, and? And? Stephanie wakes up bleeding again. After 16 days of no bleeding, it’s back. And it hurts. If I didn’t know any better I would think I was miscarrying because the cramps are so bad. Or, I guess it’s not a miscarriage in the 2nd trimester. It’s premature labor. And my head can’t even go there.
While I lie here and want to cry, I have a 4 year old who IS crying because she’s soooooo soooooo sick. I need to go to the emergency room because my doctor is out of town (again) but I can’t drag a sick little girl to the emergency room! And I refuse to let Jeremy leave work for this because there’s nothing we can do anyways. Ya know?
This too shall pass. Right? This is one teensy itty bitty segment in our lives. And one day we’ll look back on it and it won’t seem so big.
Pray for my sick baby girl, will you? For my tough little resilient baby too. And my sweet husband who is enduring it all…
We’ve spent the last few months researching and learning about starting a rabbitry. As you know, I’ve been doing some things to prepare us for hard times and to help us become self sufficient. Every month I have tried to set a little bit of money aside for adding foods to our emergency closet, or buying other odds and ends that keep that goal in mind. For instance, I bought a water purifier (Berkley Light) last month, I’m so proud of it. And this month I added some more foods and first aid supplies.
Next month, weather permitting, we’re going to start building our small rabbitry. We’re going to have 3 female rabbits, and 1 male. The kids all get to bond with their parent rabbit because they will be used for pets/breeding. It’s the babies that will be disappearing that I’m not sure will be easy to explain.??? The babies will be weened after a few months and then used for meat. How do you tell a child not to fall head over heels for the little baby rabbits!? I guess I could always tell them that I sold the babies because we didn’t have enough cages? Ughhh. I guess I have time to figure it out…
I’ve figured out that I cannot possible kill a rabbit, or any critter for that matter. So my job is going to be the skinner, gutter while Jeremy is the assasin. Are you grossed out yet? Don’t be. Everyone has to eat! And rabbit is very good for you. In addition, you can use the pelts to trade or make clothing with. Rabbit fur hats are wonderful. Yes, I have one. Don’t call PETA.
We were originally going to raise chickens. My great grandma apparently raised chickens and would use the meat for cooking and would pluck the feathers to refill her families bedding and pillows. But I was just going to use the chickens for eggs. That’s much easier, just eat the eggs and never have to slaughter an animal. But we’re not aloud to have yard birds in these here parts. Dangit. So no eggs.
We were talking with the kiddos about the rabbits this morning. I asked the kids what they thought they might name their rabbit. Jeremy has laid claim to the male rabbit and will call him “Conan.” Bella wants to call her rabbit, “Bella.” When I asked Noah what he would name his rabbit he said, “Blue.” I think he thought I was asking him what color his rabbit is going to be. Blue is a great name for a rabbit, even if the rabbit isn’t blue. And, finally, I asked Austin what he was naming his rabbit… “Retarded.” I told him that it was a terrible name, and in addition to being cruel and unusual, it was also politically incorrect. If he wanted to imply that his rabbit was “special”, he’d better name the rabbit “Developmentally Disabled” to be fair…….. Teenagers. Geesh. Anyhow, if I get my own rabbit down the road I will name him/her “Turtle.” Isn’t that cute?
Speaking of hard times and preparing for them… Is it getting bad in your area? The crime rate is rising unbelievably here, there is absolutely not ONE SINGLE building permit pulled in our County (which was BOOMING a few years ago), and the welfare lines are getting long. Every where I look there are “Going Out of Business” signs or businesses that closed suddenly with no warning at all. Jeremy’s friends are all unemployed and can’t find work. Many of them are having to travel long distances, leaving their families behind, to find work in other areas. Jeremy is lined up to do some excavation work on the land around the units he’s built, but when that’s done, there’s no more work (2 months?). Gah! And I’ve been doing some Grant Writing for the Children’s Museum because our funding for our new facility got cut (or postponed for 2 years… same difference). Problem is that everyone wants the few grants available, so it’s extremely competetive. It’s very disheartening, but is a post all by itself and I don’t have the heart to get into that right now. And I’m sure you don’t need help feeling yucky about money right now either. If butchering bunnies didn’t give you the sniffles, talking about the economy sure will.
Would you eat rabbit? If it’s possible to put aside how cute and fluffy rabbits are. How beautifully innocent and pure spirited they are. I mean, obviously if you’re a vegatarian you wouldn’t eat rabbit, but if you’re a meat eater. I used to be hugely against hunting animals. Especially since buying meat at the store is an option. I thought it was some weird testosterone/competition/entertainment/sport thing for men. I thought it was unnecessary, especially since you can buy your protein at WalMart. We’re not barbarians. Put your fargin gun down, grab your keys, and drive to Food Lion if you’re needing a steak.
But I’m starting to think differently. When you look at how tainted the meat is (hormones, antibiotics, etc), how unsafe foods are, how many recalls there are on all kinds of edibles, it is really crazy or cruel that people opt for finding their own food? I’m starting to think it’s crazy NOT to grow and hunt your own food. I don’t know, it’s debateable. What’s your opinion?
And that’s all I’ve got for now… Have a beautiful weekend!
Well, I’ve been thinking about y’all. I have. I’ve tried to picture what your Christmas trees look like. What your cookies smell like. What your kids look like dressed in their cute little holiday sweaters. And you know I love you. And I’m sure you can relate. But the blog? Well, it’s just not a priority right this minute. It will be, no doubt. Got things planned for making it more interesting. But I just can’t do it until the holidays are done. Forgive me… you always do and I adore you for that…
Nothing much going on here. You know, the typical stuff… Snow, tantrums, Christmas, potty training, blah blah blah…
Austin is having some problems. He’s got this teacher that is giving him a hard time. She actually left me a message telling me that Austin “accused” her of not grading his papers on time. Well, if she hadn’t used the words “accused” I might have responded to her differently, especially since I knew about the interaction he had with her before it even happened. But Austin is the most diplomatic person I know. I’m not kidding. So if she’s saying that he’s being disrespectful or non-compliant, I know she’s full of shit. She’s on my bad side now. This son of mine EARNS and DESERVES an A or B in all his classes. I know because I help him with his school work and I’m very much involved. If he has A’s in every class and she gives him an F, I know something is up. And this is where his bad grades started… (some history: the teacher is a proud Hispanic doctorate)
Several Hispanic student were joking around with Austin in her class telling him that he runs fast in sports because he’s black. Austins reply come back to the students, “Well, you jump so high because you are used to jumping borders.” OH SHIT! BAM! Well, the proud hispanic teacher with a doctorate didn’t like his response. And she’s punishing him for it. She consistently gave him A’s in her class until that happened and now he’s earning F’s? Hello, Cruel World. But in my mind, Austin was defending himself, if not just giving them shit where they had given it to him. No, it wasn’t the most diplomatic way of doing it. But he’s 13. The teacher should have been the adult. She should have intervened. Instead she is setting an example of how racism rears its ugly head and perpetuates itself. Not acceptable.
Speaking of 13 year olds. My won wears a 13 in shoes. Do you know how much it costs to buy Nikes every 3 months for a 13 year old athlete who has a foot that won’t quit growing? OMG. There’s the wrestling shoes… the basketball shoes… the football shoes… the school shoes… OMG. Homeboy better get some fargin’ athletic scholarships for college. I’m just sayin’…
Guess what!? It turns out Jeremy has been saving for months to get me the Christmas present I’ve been drooling over. Guess what came in the mail last week?
Yeyah!
And I bought myself some Uggs. Now that I own a pair, I wonder how I lived life before them.
And, lastly… My kids are cute… And we got too much snow last night…
… But I actually have so little to say. I’ve been up to a whole lotta nuthin. Crafting for Christmas mostly. I’m making pajama pants for my loved ones, and a few rag quilts. The rag quilt I just started working on is making me crazy. Instead of sharing the boring details of that, I’ll fill you in on some other uninteresting tidbits. First, the pants… You just take an old pair of pants and use them as a template. Cut out the new pants, sew em up, and you’ve got some new cozy britches. I made these for my sister and her new baby, Naomi. They match. Isn’t that cute!? Matching jammy pants! The fabric is from walmart and has cute birds and fruit on it. I’ll post more pics when I’m done. I used my jammy pants as a template for Candace’s pants (we wear the same size now that I’m a 6 again!) and an old pair of Noah’s 6 month sleep pants for little Naomi’s britches.
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Jeremy’s boss is a very wealthy and happening dude. I was worried about Jeremy losing work soon, but it seems that Jeremy’s boss has suddenly fallen head over heels for Jeremy. You see, Jeremy’s boss had this sewage problem for MONTHS and for some reason he didn’t use all of that money in his wallet to call a plumber, he finally just called Jeremy. Jeremy fixed the problem. Jeremy knows sewage problems because we’ve had a butt load (literally) of it lately too. Anyways, Jeremy’s boss was so happy that he hugged Jeremy, is taking us for some fine dining after the holidays, and gave us this AMAZING antique door. The door cost him thousands he said, but he didn’t think he would use it. He asked Jeremy if he wanted this “old hand-me-down” and Jeremy obviously jumped on the offer. The door is absolutely amazing– too amazing (and too big) for using on the front of our humble home. So, instead, Jeremy is going to use it for a nice living room armoire. I can’t wait– he started stripping and sanding it over the weekend! The only thing I’m a little worried about is the antique glass. On one of the doors is is in tact and beautiful. The other door is missing the glass. Do you know how much a piece of antique glass costs? Yikes! So I think we’ll have to remove the glass from the other door. Anyhow, I guess Jeremy is in his boss’ favor and that makes me happy. At least for now he’ll be working steadily. And, if that changes? At least we’ll have a fancy antique door to float up Shit Creek on.
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I know you have heard about the meteor in Canada, right? Well here’s some shit for ya… The other night Jeremy and I were going home from a Committee meeting from the Children’s Museum. He was about a mile ahead of me in his truck. We were talking to one another on our cell phones. All of a sudden Jeremy says, “OH MY GOD. Steph!? Did you see that?” I didn’t see anything. I asked him what he was talking about and he told me he had just seen a massive meteor cross the sky and land in what seemed to be the field next to the highway. He said it was bigger than anything he’d ever seen and from the fright and awe in his voice, I knew something unusual had happened. When we got home, he was still shook up– I mean, imagine seeing something this massive! What would you think!? We live in Colorado and falling stars are something we see all the time around here because there aren’t city lights to hide the stars. But this was apparently WAY more impressive than any meteor shower or falling star we had ever seen! When we got home Austin was wierded out too! He said he was sitting at the kitchen table next to the window and in his side sight he saw this bright flash across the sky. He said it scared him too and he ran out into the street to see what it was. They both looked at the time when they saw it and it was 7:36 pm for both of them. The one they saw wasn’t as big as the one in Alberta, but apparently it was big enough to be disturbing to two of the strongest and bravest men I know. CRAZY! But no one knew anything about it the next day. I figure others probably saw it too but we don’t have a lot of news coverage out here in PoDunk, Colorado like they do in Alberta, Canada. I can’t help but hear the eerie Twilight jig every time I think about these meteors… In case you hadn’t heard about that Alberta meteor, here’s one of the many clips popping up on YouTube…
"She fearlessly defeats monsters hiding in closets and under beds. She bravely conquers vast worlds of laundry on weekends. And she painstakingly protects her young with her nurturing love and her mighty mommy muscles..."
