hurl factor

if there's some kind of gross-out threshold, I think i reached it today. i was looking at the floor and noticed a grey, rubbery looking thing, roughly the size of a large jelly bean . thinking it was, oh, i don't know -- a piece of rubber, maybe, I picked it up to throw it away... and noticed that it had legs. little black legs and a little head protuding out of a grotesquely swollen body. a grotesquely swollen tick body. yes, tick. as in wood-tick. i screamed, dropped it and then stared at it. i had to get rid of it, but i didn't want to touch it, and my gag reflex was already starting to kick in just by looking at it. i grabbed a trusty baby wipe and tried to pick it up without feeling it's fat squishyness between my fingers, and disposed of it in the toilet.

then i went back and examined the carpet carefully for any more of the horrid things. i swear to God, i'm not letting the dogs (the most likely source) in the house in anymore. i don't think i could have possibly seen anything more disgusting or disturbing.

i told nick, but apparently they don't have wood-ticks in england, and he apparently didn't understand why it was so traumatic for me to find a woodtick of that magnatude in THE HOUSE. I don't think he realized that it was so engorged with blood that it was that size, because he said I couldn't just blame the dogs; it could have gotten in some other way.

hmmmmm.... like by rolling in?

warning to pet owners: if you dog is covered in thick, shaggy fur, no doubt it has become a haven for ticks, that will turn your dog into a walking blood bank until which time they become so engorged that they fall off and just lie where they have fallen, unable to move. your best course of action is to a.) completely shave your pet, or b.) immerse them in a flea/tick solution, or c.) spend lots of money to fight a losing battle against fleas and ticks.

at any rate, its tick season... beware.

happy easter

copyright michelle monson photography

mailto:mlmonson@hotmail.com

(used with permission)

Hope your basket is full of blessings!!!!

family planting

today was lovely outside, so after i took clay for a walk, i planted some raspberry bushes. after i had done that, i went to plant my blackberry bushes, and then wondered if i was planting to early. so i waited.

later on, i was talking to a friend on the phone, and i mentioned that i had been planting, and wondered if it was too early.

"oh, no!" she says. "i mean, you have a lot going on with work and school, but Clay is getting older now, so its a good time."

(what?!) i sit in silence, pondering her response. what is she talking about, and why would work and school and Clay getting bigger affect whether or not a frost killed my blackberries?

maybe i missed something. "so you don't think its too early," i say again, tentatively.

"no," she says again. "whatever time is right for you."

i realize i know what she thinks i am talking about, right about the same time i realize i have missed my exit (i was going a new way to work). being completely distracted, i don't try to tell her that i'm not wondering when to have more kids, i'm trying to PLANT something. plant. with a T.

apparently, she thought i was talking about planning. as in family planning.

i'm still trying to figure out how she thought that... but... she did. perhaps it was because she was watching a movie (she was telling me about it) and wasn't really listening.

thus, i'm a bit mystified as to why she called me if she didn't really want to listen in the first place... and i still don't know if its too early to plant blackberries. am i that boring? is it more exciting to listen to a lecture on dust? hmmmm....

perhaps i am. people don't always read my emails, either. i just sent an email out the other day at work, carefully explaining that there was a problem with some paperwork i had needed somone to fill out (for insurance) and that it had been filled out wrong; so could they please make the corrections so that my insurance would be active. the person who was supposed to take care of it actually called me back and told me (like i was stupid) that if they didn't have the right information it must be because i hadn't given them the paperwork to fill out, and that when you're working with insurance, they always require you to fill out paperwork...

what is the point of writing or speaking to people who don't listen? and why does it always seem that they are the ones who are in charge of everything -- the ones you have to go through to try to get things done? another thing that baffles me.

just some perplexing mysteries of the universe that keep me awake at night.

incidentally, i did figure out what exit i am supposed to take on that new route, so at least i learned something. whether or not its safe with our weather conditions to plant yet... that's another story.

funny how things work out

i have been bemoaning the fact that old age seems to be catching up with one of our dogs, and she seems to have a weak bladder. she scratches to go out, and if you don't let her out right away, she has gotten into the habit of just peeing right there. on the floor. or, if there is a storm outside, she refuses to go out and do her business; instead, she'll go inside.

which is not nice.

this, in turn is destroying our carpet -- but--- i've been wanting to replace the carpet with hardwood flooring anyway.

however... as you know, hardwood is expensive, and we just had a baby. so i was thinking this was probably not going to be an option.

but... nick and i talked about what we were (okay what he was) willing to pay, and set a price limit. he then said an even lower price (which he thought would be even more ideal), and i thought. okay, this isn't going to happen.

but i decided not to be a pill and complain to him, but just wait and see. and pray. this is not easy for me -- i like to make things happen. no sale -- no problem; that's what savings are for, right? wrong. not how nick operates, and... not, i am realizing, how God operates.

guess what? sale on laminate flooring at menards -- for unheard of price, lower than anything i've EVER seen, and lower than even what nick said he was willing to pay.

sweeeet! he stopped by there today, to see if he should get some today and of course, it was going like hotcakes, so he snagged what we needed. good thing we didn't wait until saturday. :)

funny how having a dog that is any homeowner's nightmare would actually make one of my little home improvment ideas a reality.

but i wouldn't mind if she waited til she got outside.

need coffee!!!!!!!!!!

i was going to say something intelligent and witty, but i am feeling neither of these particular qualities tonight. for some reason, i'm very tired, and am having trouble staying awake. i think i shall make myself a strong cup of coffee. the kind they make in the military which is so strong it dissolves the spoon that you stir it with. perhaps that has something to do with working third shift, or just the fact that i'm a new mom and when i want to sleep, clay wants to play? of course, it is my own fault for being tired today -- i could have taken a nap this evening before work, but instead chose to watch House, because the previews snagged me. *sigh*

the thing is, you KNOW the person is going to live, so why watch it and get all emotionally charged up over the patient when there is always a happy ending? i don't know. but i still do it.

my teacher informed me that insanity was doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. perhaps then, the very concept of television is insane.

but then, so could going to work. i.e., you expect a raise, so, you go to work day after day, expecting one (and not getting it); then you are, by definition, insane. hmmm.. guess that means we are all insane!

well, if i don't back to work, not only will i not have any hope of a raise, i won't have a job, either.

girl scout cookies

i love girl scout cookies. i just ate about ten of the caramel delites (which is roughly two-thirds of the box). and this is why i still have a belly from having a baby...

anyway, i ordered thin mints , and shortbread and those caramel delites. Nick likes them as well, so should i be naughty and keep them here at work?

he would never know... (until he read my blog, ha!)

much as i love these cookies, i couldn't do that to him. it would be too cruel.

just another manic monday

the weather outside was glorious today. we took clay for a walk, and he enjoyed himself. i used the snugli, as the stroller was still in the trunk of the car (which was at the shop). we walked down to the neighbors and visited for a while and they ooohed and ahhed over clay. :) of course they did. who wouldn't?

we picked up the car later on, and the mechanic informed us that the reason the car was being sluggish was not from the fuel pump, but from bad spark plugs and wires. and that the reason it was riding the way it was, was from misfiring -- not a fuel pump problem. in fact, according to the mechanic, there's nothing wrong with our fuel pump. nor, he informed us, was there anything wrong with our head gasket (something else the other mechanic had said was wrong with our car). hmmmmm..... what does this mean? did we have a dishonest mechanic? if so, they've made alot of money off of us in the past. it did seem like every time we'd take the car/truck in, it was an expensive problem that they were fixing. guess we'll have to wait and see. if car is fine, guess we don't trust old mechanic anymore! ughhhh!

then i had a twilight zone moment when nick broke out in shop talk (he doesn't normally fix cars), and started talking about misfiring and wires and spark plugs as though this was the only conclusion one could come up with, and that a fuel pump problem was not a very plausible explanation for what was happening.

"I thought you didn't know much about cars," I said, staring at him.

"I don't, but that's just common sense," he states matter of factly, as though everyone should know that bad spark plugs cause the aforementioned problem i had been having (he had said that something didn't sound right when other mechanic said it was a fuel pump problem to begin with).

well... i hadn't known. apparently this is common knowledge.

but it reminds me of a story i read in, "all i ever needed to know i learned in kindergarten", by (i think) robert fullham. anyway, he was talking about when his volkswagon broke down, and he didn't know what to do (wasn't mechanically inclined). another guy pulls up alongside them to help, and they raise the hood of the car and stare.

"well there's your problem," the guy says. "your engine's gone!"

in that particular volkswagon model, the engine was in the back -- where the trunk normally would be.

the author stood there, dumbfounded, looking at the empty space which he thought should have been occupied by an engine, and scratched his head. they both stood there, completely at a loss, until his wife grimly showed them where the engine was located... right where it was supposed to be.

i laugh now, but i probably would have done the same thing... or something equally as stupid.

well, back to the grindstone... work awaits me.

danika gets busted

okay, so i was speeding again and a cop came out of nowhere and flashed his lovely red and blues. he cheerfully informed me that i was going to get a ticket... but when he told me how fast i was going, i couldn't believe it, because my speedometer indicated that while i was speeding, i was not going *that* fast.

*sigh*

one of life's bitter ironies, i guess. i'm going to get speed-o-meter checked, and if it is off, i'm going to contest it. why? why contest a speeding ticket when i was, in fact speeding? because going 15 miles over the limit vs. 9 or 10 miles over makes a big difference, insurancewise. and if my trusty spedometer is off, then i need to get it fix, lest i get yet another ticket.

meanwhile, i have to slow down and let the grandmothers pass me until i know what speed i'm really going.

guess danika's off the track for the time being.

counting my blessings

as you know, i had previously posted that my car had broken down. turns out the seal on the fuel pump was completely useless and the whole pump had to be replaced -- to a tune of about $300 with labor (this is not the blessing).

in addition to that, for some reason the DMV was having trouble getting the car registered -- the VIN # we had for the car was coming back to a different car. therefore, the dealership wanted us to bring the car back so the police and DMV could check the car out and get it straightened out . i was pretty frustrated about both things, and was praying about it and asked my mom to pray, too.

so, when i contacted the mechanic, i explained that the car was at the shop, and i wasn't putting *more* money into it until this whole VIN# thing was straightened out. there's silence for a moment on the other line, and then the mechanic says he'll call me back.

when he calls me back, he offers to replace the pump at no cost to us for all the trouble we've had with the VIN # ordeal. so, car gets fixed, i don't have to pay anything, and that's one less headache. i'm pretty hyped about getting my car fixed for free. (does this mean i can spend $300 somewhere else? hmmmmm...)

right now, that's good, unless we *finally* get the title and discover the car is a salvage, which would explain why the VIN# didn't match; which in turn, means we paid WAY too much for it. However, we'll cross THAT bridge when we come to it. I'll trust God to work things out on this one.

and now, my little flying monkeys, i shall sign off. i have a test on friday, and have some studying to do.

the result of doing nothing

I watched "Hotel Rwanda" the other day. It was perhaps one of the most powerful movies I have ever seen. It was gripping, and as a mother and a wife, it was heartbreaking. It was based on a true event - the geonocide of over a million innocent people. It happend in 1994, and I would have been 16 at the time, but I don't remember hearing about it! Here is an event that should have been foremost on the minds of all the outside world, with other countries scrambling to give aid. Not knowing the history, not remembering the event, I watched in horror as hope seemed to arrive; but they were not to stay. They pulled out, and left the people to die very violent deaths. Nothing was done -- no one sent aid, not one country. The UN soldiers that were there, were instucted to work only as peacekeepers; their hands were tied by their incompetent leaders, who forbade them to use any force. They could only stand by helplessly and watch the massecre unfold. One small man, a Rwandan himself, helped save about 1000 people (including his own wife and children) from the massecre. He fought incredible odds - with very little help. How much more could have been done had people with power stepped in?

It could have been stopped. That's what keeps haunting me. It could have been stopped! Where was everyone? What were the leaders of our country, and other countries doing?

Perhaps the most powerful and shaming statement on the movie was that made by a reporter (played by Joquin Pheonix), who said (of the footage he had shot of the people being massecred) to a Rwandan who thought that surely, once the outside world had seen what was going on, help would come:

"People will say, ""Oh, my God, that's horrible,"" and go back to eating their dinners."

History, unfortunately repeats itself. The Holocaust was largely ignored, until after the fact. When it was too late. Countries were slow to render aid to the millions dying, and then it was mostly due to the fact that the Nazis were trying to invade their own countries.

But those in relative safety when on with their lives, not giving it much thought. Some did, obvously, but not enough.

We can blame the leaders of the country at the time. We can. But a leader is only as good as his people. We have to take action. We have to write to our leaders, and demand justice if we want to see justice happen. Perhaps if people had written and called the president and congressmen about what was going on in Rwanda, something would have been done. The voice of the people cannot be ignored. Especially if it the majority voice.

Raise your voice, people. Raise it against injustice -- wherever you see it.

Grats

I haven't done this in awhile -- so here's my grats list:

1. Clay and Nick
2. my home
3. my truck
4. having a job
5. i'm healthy
6. my family is healthy
7. being surrounded by loving family
8. my pets
9. my seedlings that I planted are actually growing
10. my baby's smile
11. the way Clay stops crying or fussing when I hold him.
12. living in a free country
13. being safe and happy
14. knowing my child is safe and happy and has enough to eat
15. freedom of religion
16. not living in a country that oppresses women
17. having awesome friends
18. ben and jerry's ice cream
19. chocolate
20. hot cups of coffee or chai tea

i'm going to get blasted

i just posted a response to a complete stranger's blog regarding some comments about religion and conservative familes. i found myself there after doing a search on mary winkler, a woman who is accused of killing her husband. instead of getting any actual information from the news, i discovered this blog. which basically said alot of stuff, and the people who left comments said alot of stuff, and i couldn't resist. i had to say something as well. i usually avoid this subject because people like to argue, no matter what your point is. there's always someone who disagrees and has 999 theories on why you are wrong. but i make my own point, because i posted to argue. and i now predict some hapless stranger will happen on this guy's blog, read my response and get angry, and email me a hate filled, indignant reply. however, chances are, it will be about 2 months from now, when i will have forgotten all about it, and i will read my email and think, "what?! who is this person?"

okay this probably makes no sense to you, so i shall stop posting. i've got to get back to work anyway.

more informative and fun filled posts later.

another one bites the dust...

it finally happened. the car died on me. of course, as luck would have it, i was on my way to school -- pharmacology class, to be exact. probably the most maddening thing is that i was only about 4 or 5 miles from the college! why couldn't it have just waited a few more miles? curses, curses, curses!

my cell phone, naturally, did not work in the car; i tried nick, but (as i was to learn much later) the message did not go through. i then tried calling triple-a, but got cut off. my friend becky was not at home. so it was triple a, or nothing -- so, I had to get out of the car, and had to trudge up the hill, in the wind and rain (no, i'm not making this up) where I could get good reception.

however, the cars roaring by at speeds that would rival nascar made it difficult to hear, and i had to shout. finally, help was on its way, and after about 45 minutes of waiting, the tow truck arrived.

i get to the car shop, and i call nick to see if he's gotten my message. he has not... and now he thinks i'm joking. and i'm in a rotten mood. so i hang up on him. and realize that i need a ride, so it would probably be in my best interest to *calmly* convince him that no, i am not joking. however, he isn't crazy about the mechanic i chose, and tells me so over the phone. very loudly. and of course, i'm standing in the shop -- right next to the owner of the shop -- and my phone's volume is turned up (so i could hear on the highway). i go outside to finish the conversation. i'm sure the mechanic heard. at any rate, he informs me that they can't get to the car til monday. fine, i tell him. i'm not even sure we want to fix the peice of crap, at the rate it keeps breaking down. i say this with a laugh, so i don't sound like someone who should be in intensive anger management therapy.

i spend the rest of the time talking to the shop owner's wife, and we discuss nursing (she's a nurse), and then she has to go, and so i pick up a magazine and read a lovely article about matt mcaunahay. he cries when he watches sad movies. who knew?! a sensitive, straight man. wow! my reading is interrupted when nick arrives on the scene a half hour later.

since he would not be in the least imperssed that my favorite actor cries during sad movies, i keep this little tidbit to myself. aside from telling me (again) that he wanted to take it to another mechanic, and asking me why i hadn't called sooner (arghhhh!), we ride home in silence. i contemplate throwing my useless cell phone out the window.

i think he felt bad that my day was so crappy, because he suggested that we go out to eat for supper, something (if you know nick), which is rare. such an occurence warrants being recorded in the pages of history forever. he doesn't like spending money (hence the whole mechanic issue -- he wanted someone cheaper). however, cheap and mechanic don't exist. in fact, the phrase itself is a complete oxymoron. i think the amish have something going there, with the whole horse and buggy thing. not much maintenance, and i bet hay and feed are still loads cheaper than gas! a bit chilly though in the winter.... hmmmm. and yeah, having running water is a plus as well. so, okay, i have it pretty good. i just happen to have an incredibly worthless vehicle at the moment.

*sigh* ah well... such is life, my friends. one can't have everything. i have everything else pretty good, so, as yoda would say: balance one must have. i guess the car (bad) balances out the rest of my life (good). :P

that's all for now. ciao til later.