Carol's Corner

Christmas Wish - Help a Family

2009-11-10T09:52:00.003-05:00

This is something I would like to start this year with everything being so bad is pick a family that needs help each year. This year however it hits close to my heart. My very dear friend Crystal is having a really rough year. It started late last year around this time her husband lost his job and her brother who had a place they could live in, in Texas let them move out there from Florida and her husband found a new job. Well things started going really sour with their marriage after that move and by May he left her stranded in Texas with 3 kids 2 boys and 1 girl ages at the time 7, 5 and 3. By July she was desperate to get out of Texas at least close to family again and I help her find some really cheap airplane tickets and brother paid to send her back home to New Hampshire to be closer to family so they could help her.
Well they only i guess felt the need to help her through the summer, once school started the help eased off to weekends only and only when it is convenient.
She is finally getting child support but its next to nothing and what was originally agreed on, the State of Texas is now getting a part of it so she barely has any money to take care of the kids.

She is staying with her mother until she can find a place to live but that is going to run out as the place her mother lives does not allow people to stay over 2 weeks if they are not on the lease and they already got in trouble and told to get her out immediately.

But anyways my concern is to make sure her kids have a nice Christmas after the year they have had on moves and Daddy leaving and seeing Mommy worrying where their next meal is coming from.
I am sending up my box of Zhu Zhu Pets for her daughter because she sees them on TV and goes nuts and my son liked them but well he is a boy and got tired of them.

But basically I would like to put together a Santa Care Package for her so she knows Christmas will be fine.

The kids are Devon who is now 8, Dylan who is now 6 and Katie she is 4.

If you could donate anything for me to send their way I would be so much appreciative.

I myself am in a bit of a bind for Christmas, who isn't I know, so I can only hope that my blogging community can help me make her Christmas a little better.

I would say if you want I can set up a paypal acct but just let me know.

Thank You,
~Mom with a Scattered Mind~

A life a bit turned upside down

2009-09-14T08:28:00.003-04:00

I lied in bed alone last night. I don't even hear the sound of him breathing out on the couch. Its hauntingly quiet in the house now that the kids are in bed.
I know he is just in the hospital for a few days but it feels cold and lonely right now. There is a bit of uncertainty as to when he will be coming home. Things are not progressing as they should or as they would if I was there to prod.

Just an glimpse into how I'm feeling after my crazy, worrisome weekend.

It started the previous weekend, my 6 yr was quite sick for Labor day weekend. Running a fever, coughing no appetite. Then on Sunday my hubby started not feeling well and started showing the same symptoms as the little guy so now they were both sick. Come Tuesday after noon my 14 yr old came home from school feeling the same way. So there it was all 3 were miserable except for the fact my 6 yr was feeling better by Tues night and got sent on to school for the rest of the week.

Weds afternoon on my way home my hubby tells me his knee (that he hurt at work back in June and that has had a little bit of fluid in it but other than that has been fine) has swollen up to twice its size and turned red and is burning. I try to convince him he needs to come to town with me the next day so I can get him an emergency appt with the orthopedic dr he has been seeing but he says that WC won't work fast enough to get him in same day. I think its bull but don't push anymore. I call Thurs and make him an appt for Friday. Friday comes we go to the appt the dr trys to drain the knee without much luck, he says there is debris in the fluid and that we have to go to the hospital now. We go they hook him up to an antibiotic through the IV and he is scheduled for surgery for Sat morning. The dr explains to us he is going to cut the knee open clean it all out and put drains in and close it back up, if this does not work and to much fluid still starts coming in he says he will cut it back open and leave it open to heal from the inside out.

Thankfully surgery appears to have went well there is not that much fluid showing in the drains, his dr will be talking to him today now and hopefully we will get results from infectious diseases to find out what the infection was. Also hopefully they will get him out of bed today because they didn't yesterday like they should have.

I sure wish I could bring him home today but I do not seeing it happening till maybe tomorrow. I am stuck at work today, he wants out of his bed so much as he has been on his ass since Friday night.

My inlaws watched the kids over the weekend however I still had to make the 100 mile round trip to let my dogs out on Sat, tried to relax, squeezed in a shower and took back off to Orlando. Spent the night Sat with hubby left at noon yesterday to get the kids and go home and take care of stuff at home so they would be ready for school and now here I am sitting at work waiting for my hubby to call me so I can listen in on the conversation he has with his dr today.

I'm drained, physically and emotionally. I keep eating and trying to rest but I really ahve no appetite, my gut is just in knots. Rest is not that easy either. Sat night had to be my best night sleep all weekend since I was by his side but still there was alot of interruptions all night long.

I've requested of my 6 yr olds teacher to please exempt him from homework this week as there is no way I'm going to have time to help him. Its just physically not possible at this point sigh.
However she is a real "Winner" so we'll see what she actually does if her ditzy head can grasp that there is a note in his agenda.

Ok my head hurts, must go.
~Mom with a Scattered Mind~

WINNER - Zhu Zhu Pets GIVEAWAY

2009-09-04T17:11:00.003-04:00

I of course used Random.org and here is a screen shot of the number picked.

and the 4th entry was

I will be DMing you in a few Ethel for info.

CONGRATULATIONS and thanks for following me and showing me the twitter love.

I will be holding another contest in October as my blogoversary is coming up :D a big 2 YEARS.
Be watching for what it will be I'll try and make it a big one.

~Mom with a Scattered Mind~

Back to School Woes

2009-09-04T11:04:00.002-04:00

As the end of the 2nd week back to school comes to an end I can finally relax a little bit.

The first day last week was horrible. I got my little one over to his new sitter for in the mornings and that all went well. Then come that afternoon terror hit. My oldest is waiting for my little one to get off the bus and he was not on the bus. He got on the bus and checked it over asking wheres my brother. No one could give him an answer.
He runs down the street to see if he got off at the new sitters house and nope he wasn't there either.
I in the mean time am calling school in hysterics wanting to know where my child is.
First I get put on hold they ask his teacher and she says her paperwork shows him as a car rider. Which I immediately am like "WHAT!!!! NO HE IS NOT" They call the teachers taking care of car riders and tell me he got in a van. I am going nuts by this point like WTF is wrong with these people. I'm ready to hop in my car and fly the 50 miles to home. After a few more mins on hold they tell me ok ok we have him, he is here in the office. And I get my one neighbor to take my oldest up to pick him up.

So of course after this chaos I write a stern letter to his teacher demanding to find out what happened and am told he was wrote on the list of car riders saying he would be picked up by a blue car to ride home with his Nana.
Um NO!! I wrote he would be a bus rider on all paper work sent back to the school there is no way in hell I wrote that and my mother doesn't drive a blue car.

I really should have gone to the school and raised hell over this but have not had time. It just freaks me out to think why something like that would have been wrote. Was someone trying to take my kid? I just don't know. SIGH

On the other hand my oldest is having a pretty good start to High School so YAY lol
MCJROTC, TV Production and all Honors classes. Busy Busy Year

~Mom with a Scattered Mind~

Product Review & Giveaway - Zhu Zhu Pets ADORABLE

2009-08-19T21:31:00.009-04:00

As a member of MomSelect I am offered some neat product review opportunities. This current one however made my 6 yr old sons very happy.

It is this cute set up of tubes and roundabouts and add on accessories just like a pet hamster set up but this hamster is even better. No mess, no feeding. Just gotta keep its battery happy LOL. Yet you can still pet it and it coos and talks to you and scurries about. If it bumps into something it will stop back up turn and go on its way. They are called ZHU ZHU PETS

We received the Giant Hamster Funhouse which is a two part roundabout that is the kitchen and bedroom, a garage with a car that the hamster can run in. An Adventure Ball just like you would have with a real hamster. A wheel that it can run in and will actually enter and leave the wheel by itself.
A Skateboard with a u-turn, a surf board with a sleep dome, and finally 2 hamsters by the names of Chunk and Mr. Squiggles

A few things I noticed as a spent a good 30 - 45 mins assembling this "Humongous Hamster City" the assembly is not that hard but there is lots of pieces. Everything just clicks together but none the less once you get it together your not gonna want your kids to pull it apart to quickly lol.
the Adventure Ball is quite cool, the hamster acts basically just like a regular hamster in it. However even with the stabilizer under his nose your little guy will tip over occasionally and will require a shake to get back on his wheels lol.

Overall its an adorable concept especially for someone who would not want to get their kids a real hamster. This certainly is a nice alternative. The hamsters are adorable and interactive. I'm almost tempted to keep one on my desk just to listen to it makes its little sounds at me when I pet its head :)

Here is some more pics and a video of the garage and car in action.

NOW Here is the Fun part I also get to give 1 of my lucky readers a hamster and the ramp/slide add-on.

I know your asking so how do I enter!!! My kid has to have one of these!!

1. Tweet about it. add #carolscorner at the end so i can track the entries. (1 a day please)

2. If your not a subscribed rss reader please do so and comment below pretty please ;) I really do have interesting things to say occasionally. If you are thank you and let me know.

3. Comment at least once here so that I know your entering.

4. Eh!! Nope no 4 hehe jsut tweet and show me love. :)

Contest closes September 4th, 2009 @ 5 pm EST drawing will be held shortly after by random.org number generator. So the more tweets ya do the more chances you have to win.

Winner will be notified by DM with a request for mailing address so the company that makes Zhu Zhu Pets can mail you your prize.

*****CONTEST CLOSED***** Comments closed, winner will be announced in a little while.

~Mom with a Scattered Mind~

My Boys Room Needs HELP!!

2009-08-10T23:12:00.007-04:00

My boys Michael 14 and Kason 6 share a room and having a bed in each corner takes up alot of room that they certainly could use more wisely.

If I were to win the $500 Gift Card for Wal-Mart to transform your teens room using their Your Zone Products being given away over at the Dr Mommy Chronicles, the first item grabbed would certainly be a bunk bed as the boys will also tell you in the video lol thats the number one thing they want.

Their room is totally mismatched, and not at all designed. From the moment we moved in a few years ago we have never had the money to make it more.

Now that Kason is getting older he is most certainly gonna need to upgrade out of his toddler bed and I'm not so sure the room can handle to twin beds.

Michael is going into High School this year and I'm sure he could use a better option of a desk so he can do his homework at it also instead of lounging in bed. So over all I would use the money to give them more room, organized and more resourceful of the space so they get more out of their room.

Hope you like the video and catch ya in a few weeks at the end of the contest.

~Mom with a Scattered Mind~

Back to Pencils, Back to Books, Back to Teachers Dirty Looks

2009-08-04T09:40:00.003-04:00

Back to School is right around the corner for my kiddos, and it just caught up to me that we are in fact in August and I decided to look at the High School's website and come to find out my son is expected to come pick up his schedule this Sat. Its a damn good thing I looked otherwise we would have never known. You would think they would send something in the mail for at least the freshmen so they are not so lost over this new process.

I had no idea he had a reading list of 17 books for this summer so of course he hasn't read a damn thing sigh.

So now I'm feeling like High School is off to a real bang before he has even walked through those doors into High School :|

I'm terrified that 9th grade is gonna eat him alive. He is a great kid but he slacks ALOT and I just don't think he is gonna find his niche where his slacking is gonna work out for him this year.

Now my other concern my little one he is going into 1st Grade and we had such issues with behavior out of him for Kindergarten and I'm afraid it is gonna continue because we have not had a very good summer of getting him to straighten out at all.

And now of course on top of all that OMG school shopping AGGGH and we are behind on bills so I can see this not working out so well sigh.

Ah well so is my life,
~Mom with a Scattered Mind~

HAPPY BIRTHDAY my Baby Boy

2009-07-08T10:37:00.003-04:00

After the weekend we had with the plumbing issues and then hubby having Jury Duty on Monday also it had totally slipped our minds that today was the squirts Birthday. Up until 10 last night when he comes running out saying "Mommy, Daddy guess what my birthday is tomorrow!!" and we exchange the oh shit look because we had both forgot. Sigh

I felt like the most horrible parent last night and now have to do something tonight so we have some sort of party for him lol

SO sweety if you ever read this when you get older I'm soooo sorry that Mommy is a bit brain dead at times.

I took this picture of him this morning sleeping in his little pop up tent that he has been wanting to sleep in lately. I tried to wake him up to say Happy Birthday but he wouldn't budge so I took a pic of his sleepy birthday head :)

~Mom with a Scattered Mind~

Waters a flowin again

2009-07-07T15:19:00.004-04:00

So we got the plumber at our house first thing yesterday morning first he fixed the broken valve going into the house so we could get water going back in and then attacked the leak under the slab. Which so happened to be micrometers outside of the fix he did 3 yrs ago. Go figure!

With where it was it took him quite a bit of reaching under slab working as he did not want to bust up my floor anymore then he was having to.

Several hrs and $305 later I got my water back to flowing right and stopped watering nonexistent plants under my house with a leak lol

This whole fiasco of an entire weekend with no water resulted in me having to take a shower with a hose though which was a PITA all in itself sigh. I also ran a load of laundry and washed dishes and kept my toilets free of yuck all by hose lol. Just picture running around the house with 100' of hose in tow with a sprayer attached taking care of all the necessary water chores lol.

Needless to say it was $305 well spent to not have to do that again.

~Mom with a Scattered Mind~

Come on Life put em up!! We are duking it out

2009-07-02T08:44:00.002-04:00

Yesterday I got some great news, our mortgage co is working with us to help us get caught up in a way they never would have before. In a way we can work with and not be screwed, yesterday was great, I was happy and relived.

Then last night comes with making 2 Baked Zitis one of which my hubby was taking to work for a Pot Luck. The other was our dinner. All he could do was complain there was not enough meat in it. I just don't see how he can not see this comment of "Its good but not meaty enough" as not being insulting after all I just did for him. But ok we got over that, not so off the typical for us to get into it over something like that.

Now fast forward to this morning. I walk out to the garage to get his uniform and notice water on the floor coming from under the washer. (I am immediately getting a flashback to April 06, 4 months after we bought the house and had mysterious water coming out onto the garage floor from a crack between the garage floor and foundation of the house. It was a leak under our kitchen, under the foundation :( ) Ok so I am now assuming we have a new leak in the same vicinity and will have to have the floor under the fridge jack hammered yet again and have more pipe fixed. So there goes the break we are getting from the mortgage co sigh. I'm gonna have to get like a $400 - $500 loan from my boss and get this fixed but we can't do it till next Friday as no one is gonna be around till then to be around all day for our plumber to come fix this. SOO until this time we get to have fun with keeping the water off to the house until we desperately need to run water. Turn it on get all our stuff done and get it turned back off for a week, sigh this will prove to be a huge PITA

Thank you Karma for kicking my ass once again but I will prevail, I will beat you back down.

~Mom with a Scattered Mind~