Addicted to Ice

I LOVE to chew on ice. I sometimes go make myself and nice big cup of crushed ice. It is delicious! I want to eat it all day, every day. I'm pretty sure I could just stop eating all together if I would fully indulge my ice eating habits. This started back at the end of February when I was in a particualarly horrible situation. I was stressed, and well, I had no control over any of it. I soon after noticed my stomach was hurting. I began eating ice, a LOT. This went on until the last week in April, when I woke up in horrible pain (I'd been doing that for a few weeks) and was going to eat some more Tums, but realized, Tums wouldn't help, I was sooo nauseated. I ran to the bathroom and (don't read this if you have a week stomach) and threw up. I noticed it was very metallic in taste so I flipped on the light, and was shocked to find out it was red. I decided it was time to go to the doctor (I know, I know, DUH, I should have gone a month ago, but I hate doctors and I hate wussy people.) I made the arrangements that morning, and after some blood work, found out my hemoglobin was very low and needless to say I was anemic, and my overall blood count was low. This was caused by a severe case of gastritis. This gastritis was also the reason I lost a wonderful 15 pounds (in a matter of just 3 weeks, don't feel sorry for me though, cause dangit, I looked good, well besides the fact my face had no color and even my gums had turned white.) Gastritis in an inflammation in the lining of your stomach, that had caused me to bleed. I was told to be on bed rest, and to take iron supplements, or just be a big girl and go to the hospital. I picked the bed rest. I realized then that my ice chewing was related to my anemia. Here's what mayo clinic says about that:
It's not known why some people with iron deficiency anemia crave and chew ice. Researchers from one recent study suggested it may be because of ice's pain-relieving properties, since some people with iron deficiency anemia experience tongue pain and inflammation (glossitis). The same researchers found that ice has a new and better taste to some people who are iron deficient.

I must concur. Ice is delicious! I don't think I'm anemic now, I think I just really love how it tastes. Which is funny, because I don't like the taste of water. Any who, I know it's bad for my teeth, but goodness, it tastes wonderful. When I'm done eating lunch I just want to sit there and eat my ice, it takes all I have to walk away. In fact I was at a special luncheon sitting next to the head of our department at school, and while she was talking to me, all I could think of is "how tacky would it be for me to get a big ol bunch of ice and chew on it." I resisted the urge but the second she turned to greet someone else I took a big swig of my drink and let some of that sweet wonderful ice get in my mouth so I could chew on it. AAAhhh relief! I'm no longer stressed, but I just can't kick the habit. It's so good. In fact I'm eating some now, I just poured my drink down the drain in order to access the ice more easily!! YUMMY!!!

Doe's Eat Place

Melanie and I went to the newest restaurant in Conway to get some dinner last night, but it turns out we didn't eat there. Once again, Melanie and I have attempted to eat, and it hasn't worked out as planned. Turns out their dinner menu consists of seafood (gag me) fish (I don't eat things that breath in poopy pond water) and steak. The food is in large portions meant to be shared, so since Melanie had no one to share her food with, we left. This little outing reminded us or our visit to Sonic we made a while back.
Here's the story (names have been left out to save the dignity of the people):
Once upon a time there was a beautiful blond headed girl who is a little bit too high maintenance and another amazing, smart, funny, energetic, mother of the year type (haahhahahahaaa.) These two happened to be working at the same place temporarily and both had been talking on their way to work, stating they were hungry. Both wanted breakfast food, but it was after the deadly cut off breakfast time of 10:30, so Sonic was the decided dining location. Well, The mother of the year jumped into the beautiful blonds car, and off they went. They order their food, and are ready to pay, then the mother of the year realized she left her purse, and had no money. Well, the blond being the wonderful girl she was, said, "don't worry friend, I'll pay for you" and she went to grab her debit card. Turns out, she had no wallet. Well, moty (mom of the year) said "hey, I have an account at that Bank of America over there, but we never use it, maybe I have enough left in there. I'll go over there and see if I can withdraw some cash!" Off she went. She found out she only had like $5 in that account, not the needed $8. Well, turns out a teller just gave her a 10 dollar bill and said to pay her back whenever she came back that way. (this is no lie people, it really happened this way.) Well moty was so excited, there would be breakfast, there would be food! During this time, Melanie (oops, I'll just use names now I guess) had already had a conversation with the lady who brought the food and she said it was okay, we could pay her later, but please do it before her shift ends, or she'd have to pay for it. So the beautiful blond was already laughing, at herself when I ran back into the parking lot. Well I was so excited I just opened the door and jumped in. I turned to tell Melanie of my new found money I realized, "hey, that's not Melanie!" I had opened the wrong door! It was a white suv, but not the one I came in. I mean, I was IN her car, sitting in her passenger seat! I told the terrified, wide-eyed- open-mouthed girl, "oh, sorry, wrong car" and hopped out of the strangers car to go over to Melanie's car. Melanie was laughing hysterically at me. Finally she told me that she'd found a credit card in her car and had put it in to try and pay, only for it to break off in there. We had to go tell the manager that the card was stuck in the machine, but we finally had cash to pay for the food! The manager was mad that Melanie had "broken" his expensive machine. So to sum it up, I borrowed money from a stranger, Melanie practically stole our food (I mean she took it without paying!) and then she broke the credit card machine, made the manager mad, oh and I tried to get in a strangers car, can't forget that. OH, what a day.

Kailyn did this before conferences. I thought it was so cute. I think maybe I love on her too much...

It says:
My mom loves me. Mom hugs me and kisses me too. She does it at home because she doesn't want people to see her. She always kisses me and hugs me. The end.

Laundry

Laundry is the worst of all household chores. I hate it. I don't usually mind washing and drying the clothes as long as someone else will do the folding and putting away, however, lately our dryer has been falling down on the job.
First of all, our home was poorly designed. Our laundry room is in the middle of the house (kind of) and the back of the dryer faces north, the vent for the dryer goes out a south facing wall. What? Who would do that? Oh, ya the idiot that designed this lovely home of mine (this is said spitefully because I'm annoyed.) The vent hose has 2 90 degree turns to make, and we all know how well moist lint filled air travels. Twice a year I have to have a chimney sweep (yes a chimney flippin sweep) come out and clean out my vent hose. When it is that lovely time of year I know because it will take 1 1/2 cycles to dry a medium/large load. Forbid I do something crazy like an extra large load. A couple of years ago when the dryer was insanely bad and the washer was squeaking I had a repair man come take a look at them. The washer, of course, refused to squeak, but he did look at the dryer and explain that this model holds lint and then explained that I needed a chimney sweep to come clean out my vent. He took the dryer apart and it looked like one huge lint ball, he vacuumed it out and put it back together charged my a hefty sum and left. Well the chimney sweep came out that day too and by the time I got home that evening I dried a load and was amazed! It dried about as fast as the washer washed. I was soo happy. I thought it was worth all the money I just threw at it! Well, it is slow again and the last time I just had a chimney sweep out, and I wasn't as impressed with the results. It was better, but not great. This time I decided "hey, I'm handy, I'll vaccum the dryer." Well, turns out I'm not handy I'm stupid and cheap.
I pulled the dryer out from the wall, unplugged it and took a good look at it. I looked on the internet for directions and wasn't impressed. I decided, how hard can this be? (I'm laughing at my dumb self right now) I got out John's ratchet set, found the proper thingy, but couldn't find the attachment to make the thingy go on the ratchet. I improvised (this part is embarrassing so I'm leaving it out, just trust me I'm improvised and it worked) I disassembled the back, allowing me to take off the top. I was impressed with myself. However, all I could see was the drum not to mention there were wires attaching the top the the motor, so I couldn't move it much. I then undid some screws for the front of the washer and realized it was still attached to the dumb drum. I also couldn't get the lower front off, which is what I really wanted to do anyway! I tried and tried and then admitted defeat and reassembled the top and back. What, you say what about screwing in the front? Oh, don't worry I forgot it. So I unscrewed the top, screwed the front back on and the re screwed the top. Then I was moving it back the begin the acrobatic part of re hooking the hose and realized the top was on crooked. So I unscrewed the top again (insert incoherent mumbling here like son of a monkey's butt, etc etc etc) any who I got it all put back together.
I pushed the crapper back and tried to do the hose. There are cabinets above me, the washer to my right and I can't get between the two because of the nice "snug" fit. so I have one boob on one side of the dryer and the other boob on the back side (to help with balance of course) while sitting on the washer. Thank goodness I have monkey arms so I could reach the vent hose. I started to hook it in and realized I didn't have enough hose to reach so I crawled down, hit my head on the stupid cabinets, stepped on an acorn with my bare foot (don't ask why we have an acorn in the laundry room, just remember we have a 7 year old and that explains that) pushed the dryer back a bit, climbed back on the washer re braced myself (with my tatas) and went after it again. I got it hooked up! I got down (watched my head this time) scooted the dryer back, but pushed it too far so I crimped the house, pulled it back out climbed back on, didn't use my boobs this time, so I fell a little bit with my feet in the air caught myself with my hand before I hit the floor with my head (which still hurts by the way) fixed the house pulled my fat self up, griped about how much easier this would have been when I was younger and then looked at the dryer. It was out way to far. I pushed it in slightly, climbed back on the washer, put one leg down behind the dryer bent over kinked the hose slightly, pulled the dryer up closer to me and checked the hose. It was good I climbed out in some kind of cirque du soleil move and left that horrible room to get the wet laundry to put back in the dryer. I hate laundry and am never doing it again!

On a much ummm, perkier note!

So since I have no life (job) I sometimes go hang out at the bookstore with John, well, I go to hang out with John but he has to "work" so he says hi, but then does his job. Since Melanie is a horrible worker, I hang out with her instead!!! So, we were talking having fun, moving things around you know and discussing how we both wanted ice cream, anyway, I was about to leave all by myself (John wouldn't pay Melanie to go with me so she chose to stay, I know, how rude of John.) As I was about to walk out the door some other people came in. Well it was a boy and a girl and as soon as the girl got in, she stood up all straight and stretched her back. Let me draw a picture for you here. She stretched her back by pushing her boobs out farther than I thought was possible and sticking her butt out far enough to match. Well, I have nothing against stretching, but please don't violate my eyes with your tatas. What made it worse is she made this noise that should be saved for the bedroom if you know what I mean. I looked at Melanie all wide eyed and said, Oh, it's time to go (I was really just trying not to laugh.) Mel felt the same way because she grabbed her stuff and came with me!!! We laughed so hard the whole way to pick up Kailyn's cake and to get our ice cream. Melanie said the funniest thing too! We'd been talking politics all day and making not so nice comments about democrats (sorry democrats) anyway, she was talking about how she felt violated by that girls boobs, she said "they were working too hard, they needed to be a little less Republican, and a little more Democrat!" I almost pulled off the side of the road I was laughing so hard!

Sad day in the Baney house (well, for me at least)

So yesterday and today I went through what was left of Kailyn's baby things. All of her memories are now packed up in an 18 gallon purple plastic storage container. Yup, 18 gallons. She turned 7 this week, and it's been over 5 1/2 years since John and I decided it was time for another one. Each year it seems I get rid of more and more things of hers. Why hold on to it? Before placing certain toys in this tote that was already half full of clothes I had to remove the batteries. With each toy I reached into and pulled out the insides I felt like I was ripping my own heart out. I do believe that one day I will have another child, but until then I am going to cry when I hear lullabies, feel incompetent as a woman, and get mad when people gripe about being pregnant "again." I am grateful for this experience though, it has made me a better mom, and I really appreciate how wonderful Kailyn is. I know, I know, it will happen when it's supposed to, as soon as I quit thinking about it, it will happen, and whatever cliché thing you want to say, I've heard it. On a funny note, my Mom did say something funny today. I usually am afraid to say anything about what may be going on with my body because someone always says "are you pregnant?" Example: I'd say "I have a headache" random person would say "are you pregnant" You may think I'm joking, but it really happens all the time. Anyway, so today I was telling Mom that I was not really very nauseated today so she said "oh, are you pregnant?" Oh, she's a funny one!

Since having Kailyn, I have decided that sleep is the most amazing of all of the functions we do as humans, really, it is. I find myself thinking of sleep by like 9 in the morning. Am I really that tired, or is it the fact that my brain no longer works as quickly as it once did and I think a nice power nap will help. In fact since having Kailyn nothing works like it once did. Am I alone in this, or are all you other women keeping it a secret from me?
Before Kailyn I never worried about lots of things like, lotion, sleep, my nails, my diet, if I'd peed that day or not, etc etc etc. Well, now I find myself asking Kailyn if she has to pee and then realizing it's like 4 in the afternoon and I haven't peed since I woke up that morning. I'm so dumb now. Really, I know, I know, some of you are like, Katie you've always been dumb, but that just simply isn't true. I never applied myself, but that doesn't mean I didn't have the capacity. Some people don't seem to notice, but those who weren't as close to me sure seem to notice. This may not make much sense, but trust me it's the truth. People who knew me and saw me frequently just see me as that goofy sarcastic kid they've known forever Oh, and the girl with a bad attitude, but odds are you were pissing me off, which happened a lot when I was like 16-18, due to extra hormones, mean doctors with bad news, and me just holding it all in. Those who didn't know me as well, saw what I was capable of, you know the part I never acted on. They are the ones who seems so shocked with my life, or lack of it. Well, this is just depressing, let's talk about pee again. Anyway Kailyn has given me a super bladder because she cried all the time, so when she was finally happy I refused to move, meaning I'd ignore my urge to go pee. Other things I've developed from pregnancy or birth that are still hanging around are dry skin, brittle nails, an even more super sensitive nose, and a big ol bunch of extra fat,(don't tell me I'm not fat, I'm not fishing for compliments here, I mean I've got an extra 35 pounds hanging around, I'm aware of it.) Was it all worth it? Heck ya, but was it just me? I swear with each push I lost brain cells (and I pushed for just over 3 hours.) I mean, I hear women talk about how they used to look, but is it just our bodies that change, or do we not talk about the rest? Oh, well, maybe it's just me.

Target part 2

If you haven't already read the first blog read it, then come back up here. I'll wait...Ok, so you should know that the friendly people I wrote about previously were checking out when we were ready and they were totally in the way so I actually picked up the front of her cart and moved it so we could pass, she tried to kill me with her eyes, it didn't work. I did notice that she bought 6 2 liters of soda and a bag of jet puffed marshmallows! Nice, eh? Ya, they totally could have gotten those at some other store, no need to ruin my Target with their nasty-ness.

Target

I love Target, really I do. If I could take it out to dinner I would. I also hate Wal-Mart. What? Wal-Mart? Yup, I don't like them. I hate pretty much everything about them, no take that back, I do hate everything about them. I will go to Target and Kroger instead of stepping one foot in that "one stop" shopping heck hole. The point of this is sometimes I see people in MY Target (yes, Target is my boyfriend, but John doesn't care because he benefits from this affair) anywho, these people often make me think, what are you doing here? You can't possibly appreciate all of the wonderfulness that is Target, just go to Wal-Mart, or Freds or something and stay away from my honey (Target.) Well, I saw these types of people just the other day. John and I were there putting off painting our house and we saw this family. Actually we heard this family because they were yelling at each other. We looked at them, and then each other and realized our mouths were dropped. When they passed us we heard the mom yell something about ".... where they was." John and I both are annoyed by bad grammar so I mumbled under my breath were, and John looked at a Target employee (who was also staring open mouthed) and said "where they were, not was, but were." The employee just laughed. Well, this family came back by later and said something, we had been tuning them out because we could hear them even when they were far away. Well since they were close we decided to listen and see what they were saying, then we realized they wanted us to move so they could get by (which annoyed me because the isles at Target are wide enough that you can get two carts through at a time, we didn't really need to move.) Well, we quickly moved and stupid me and my stupid manners I said "oh, sorry" even though I was not in the wrong at all. Well, this greasy haired lady mumbled something derogatory about my lovely husband and I couldn't believe it. Why were these people here. They smelled horrible, well, I don't actually know this for a fact because I refused to breathe when they were around. I mean, one daughter had such greasy hair, I actually thought it was wet at first until she got closer and I saw the dandruff all over it. For future references I am gagging right now just thinking about it. I mean, hygiene it does a body good. It makes the world a better place, just freaking bath people! The point of this whole blog was that this experience got me thinking about why I like Target so much more than Wal-Mart. Here's a list:
Target has
nice big parking places
nice big isles inside
bright lights
informed employees
employees with good hygiene
they have a family bathroom
They have clean bathrooms
they even have nice toilet paper in these bathrooms
they have nice people at the pharmacy!
actually the whole pharmacy experience is amazing
they have cute things for Kailyn
they have cute things for my house, I mean really cute things
when you page for some help, your hear a recording that someone will be there to help in less than one minute, and you know what, they really are!
they donate insane amounts of money to the community with no expectation of a return
you can not sell things on their property (I get very annoyed by this at other places)
I almost never have to wait to check out
It's not loud in there
they have a snack bar (food and shopping, that makes a woman happy)
Ok, that's all I can think of for now.

Here's why I hate Wal-Mart
they are bullies
they often actually make people produce inferior products so they can sell them cheaper
they have small isles and spaces
I see more stretch marks and belly fat there than at the white trash carnival
It is loud
employees are disgruntle
I have never had a successful pharmacy experience there
nobody knows were anything is.....ever
I am often oogled at by old creepy men
Wal-mart is evidently a day care, as I see multiple unsupervised children there
carts squeak and are uncontrollable

Yuck, that's enough for now.
If I've offended you, sorry. More power to the people that have the patience to shop at Wal-Mart. I just don't, and looking at my budget, I'm not spending more money by avoiding Wal-Mart.