The Crafty Insomniac

For Mrs. Dull

2014-11-13T21:19:00.001-05:00

I won’t ask you for money but I will ask you to (please) REBLOG this because spreading awareness to just one single person is worth its weight in gold. Thank you 10 million times in advance! I owe you. xoxo

Today, November 13th, is the first ever World Pancreatic Cancer Day.

Did you know...

PC is terminal. We hope for miracles (because they do happen), but when diagnosed late, there is no beating this disease.
PC patients are rarely diagnosed prior to finding it at Stage IV and it’s often referred to as the “silent killer” of cancers.
PC is the 4th leading cause in cancer related deaths in the US.
PC has the lowest survival rate out of all major cancers.
73% of those diagnosed will die within one year.
Only 5% of PC patients have a five-year survival rate.

My next-door neighbor, Jean Anne Dull, was diagnosed on Christmas Day 2013. She went to the ER with excruciating pain, thinking that possibly she had an intestinal blockage or kidney infection. Instead, she had Stage IV Pancreatic Cancer. In the ten months after her diagnosis, she fought her illness and lived each day to its fullest.

Please educate yourself about this particular kind of cancer and know the signs and symptoms to be on the lookout for.

And Now We Bring You... The Storm

2014-04-05T00:10:00.001-04:00

So here we are - three weeks later. The tote is still stocked and I never leave home without it. The vests are still green, although one is MIA. We've added cookie costumes to our repertoire, fresh from Etsy, and we still have two girls who are each about 500 boxes away from their goals. Cue the nervous breakdown.

Go ahead and say it... But you volunteered for this gig - you basically ask for it every year! Can it. I've heard it all before, people! This year has been really tough for cookie sales for the girls. Pre-sales were going on when the weather in our area was bitterly cold, so it was really hard for anyone to go out and sell cookies door-to-door. Then there's the issue of The Powers That Be pushing the sale back a month later than usual, making booths start after Presidents' Weekend when all of the shoppers are out frivoisly spending their tax returns. And let's not forget this fledgling economy. Or the increase in the cost of a box of cookies this year.

I still haven't colored my hair. Those three grays stare at me and mock me in the mirror every morning. How can there not be more than three??

Then Tuesday we received an e-mail. Cookie sales will be extended by one week. Seriously? Are you screwing with me right now? Is this a sick joke? Am I being Punkd? As much as I was prepared to share in the girls' disappointment in not reaching their lofty goals of 1250 boxes each (an iPad Mini is at stake here, people!!), I was also chilling a bottle of Glenora in my refrigerator to celebrate making it through another season with my sanity and dignity intact. Funny how life throws you curveballs. Now we've got another seven glorious days to deal with not only our cookies and other regular activities, but also a new sport, softball, and all of its ridiculous practice schedule. The only saving Grace is the fact that A - it's seven days; B - I can follow a calendar; and C - wine improves as it ages.

The Quiet Before the Storm

2014-03-13T23:40:00.001-04:00

The cookies are in; the tote is stocked. The vests are green and the money box is ready...

It can only mean one thing.

GIRL SCOUT COOKIE BOOTHS ARE ABOUT TO BEGIN!

I was going to do my hair color the other night, but I thought, Why bother? It'll be turning gray by this weekend. Didn't you know? Silver highlights are in these days!

Pray for my sanity!

Quiet!!

2014-02-23T16:32:00.001-05:00

We are at my parents' house for a visit right now, and the only reason we're allowed to speak is because of the extended rain delay for the Daytona 500.

God Bless NASCAR!

Again??

2014-02-22T21:13:00.001-05:00

Yes, friends, it's that time again. Time for me to lose my mind. It's Girl Scout Cookie Time!

Booth sales start in three weeks.

Big Ol' Bully!

2013-09-18T22:53:00.001-04:00

I never thought that at my age (for which I'll let you use your imagination), I'd have my very own bully. Lucky, lucky me, though... I've got one!

My adventure takes place at my place of employment. In general, everyone gets along quite well. We do have a couple of abrasive personalities, but we're usually good at keeping each other in check.

In mid-June, our manager left for another job, leaving us all without a leader. As a result, our president/one of our owners & pharmacists has been spending a few mornings a week in our store, plus we've had a consultant coming two days a week for the past two months. What that actually boils down to is *very little* leadership. Very little leadership has led to opportunity for Ms. Curmudgeon to pick on the lowest gal on the totem pole for what seems like no apparent reason!

It started sort of subtly - a jab here or there. Yelling at me from across the store to answer the phone like I was one of her kids. Then she started deciding what parts of my job I was "allowed" to do. Then she berated me in front of a customer/patient. I calmly handled that situation as professionally as I could at the time. The following week I was sitting at my desk working; she came into my cubicle and not only asked me what I was doing, but what website I was on! (I wasn't on the Internet - my computer was on that web page that pops up when you open a new tab on Internet Explorer. I was doing paperwork.) That was absolutely the final straw for me. On the advice of my coworker, I went to our "boss," for lack of a better word. It took me about a week and a few texts to finally catch up with him, but we finally spoke. I took responsibility for my actions, but I made it clear that her actions were unacceptable. It was a good talk.

Guess what? Nothing changed! But guess what else? I didn't care anymore.

The weirdest thing happened. All of a sudden, she's started being her old self again! I've stopped trying to figure it out.

Maybe she just can't appreciate my sparkling personality...

Gee, Mom, I Wanna Go... But They Won't Let Me Go...

2013-06-29T00:39:00.001-04:00

Last weekend was our annual Girl Scout troop's camping trip to our local GS camp. Everyone was looking forward to it - girls and adults alike.

We should have known.

We have a team of leaders that run our troop - C, M and myself. We all have our strong points, and C is our go-to gal when it comes to trip planning. She faxed in the forms for our camp reservations and horseback trail ride back in February, to ensure the dates, accommodations and programs that we wanted... That the girls had chosen. Funny thing, though... as time went by, we never received confirmation. After she called (several times), we found out that they never got our reservation and not only were our a-frame cabins no longer available for the second night of our weekend, but the horses were booked the entire day on Saturday! As a consequence, we re-sent a new & revised reservation. Actually, our supervisor sent it as C watched. After a few more weeks and a few more phone calls, our camping was finally confirmed. Horses? Well, the lesson was changed to an arena lesson on Friday afternoon, and not confirmed until *that morning.*

Fast forward to Friday. I struggled my way through a morning of work, rushed home to pack and we headed out to camp, only to be greeted with the news that one of the girl's sisters was discovered to have lice. Great! I didn't even dare let myself think, "What next?" because I just had a feeling in the pit of my stomach. All of the girls showed up, and troop mom B and I took them to the stable for their horse adventure. When we got there, the horses were out to pasture and there was no staff to be found. Not a good sign, I'd say! We tried distracting the girls by having them read the barn rules, going over to meet the horses and finally resorting to sitting in the stands and playing games while we tried figuring out what was going on. Finally, a car pulled up. This poor girl had no clue that there was a troop booked for the afternoon! She called her supervisor and we heard her say, "It happened again!" So... No horses. The woman I spoke to on the phone seemed quite apologetic and tried to accommodate us by getting us in with another troop the following day, but here's the clincher: she never called us back.

On to the next activity...

We took the girls back to the lodge and managed to find an unlocked door so they could use the facilities, then let them play and eat their bag dinner they brought with them before we started taking our things down to the a-frames in shifts, as C and M weren't there yet. By the time we got finished with that, everyone was there and it was time to get the girls settled in. In the mean time, we obtained massive bottles of Fairy Tales hair products and contacted all of the parents concerning the lice issue. (Had you forgotten about that??) On the way down into the woods, C got a huge branch stuck up under her van, and none of us could get it out. Thank God for Ranger Rick! He came and saved the day! (OK, so that's probably not even his name...)

After we got the girls settled into their bunks and pretty much forced them all to shower using the Fairy Tales, we had our campfire and sent them all to bed. Holy cow, were we beat!!

Saturday actually went pretty well! We moved up to the lodge in the morning after cooking breakfast on the campfire (we do all of our cooking on the fire), and we had activities planned for the day that included finishing our last Brownie badge, earning a Junior Camper badge together, packing hobo lunches, water fun and hiking. We made pie iron pizzas on the fire for dinner and got the girls all settled in for bed with very little drama. It's amazing what an entire day spent outdoors with no electronics will do for a group of girls! :-)

Sunday morning as we woke up, all Hell broke loose as I watched my Sassypants open her eyes, look at me and utter the words, "I don't feel so good... I think I'm gonna throw up." Commence pukage - on camp bed. I just froze in disbelief... Good thing C was in the room and sprang into action, running to find a dishpan! As I snapped back to reality and gained my senses, I stripped the bedding and got Sass a drink of water. She drifted back to sleep as I tried to go between tending to her, readying for the end-of-the-year ceremony that was to happen (with lunch to follow) in less than three hours' time, watch out for the other girls and physically get myself ready. Needless to say, I was no help to anyone. And in the mean time, my Sass, who could not wait to fly up to Juniors and wouldn't miss this ceremony for the world, asked me to call Daddy to come and get her to bring her home. :-(

After Mr. Sunshine collected Miss Sassypants and the ceremony went in without her (it was very nice, BTW), we cleaned up and parted ways. I came home to find Sass sleeping on the couch, but puke-free, and in between naps we had our own little flying-up ceremony. By around 5:00 she was fine... I think she was just overheated and dehydrated.

Please pray for me that next year's campout goes better! Because yes... We'll be back. After all... We're Girl Scouts!!

Which Way is UP Again??

2013-06-19T22:20:00.001-04:00

I just realized that I haven't actually written a post since my work schedule increased. I'm barely treading water here, folks.

"Work extra hours for the summer," they said.

"Help out while So-and-So goes to school full-time for the summer term," they said.

"You'll have extra money in your pocket for summer activities," they said.

"It'll be fun," they said.

They LIED.

The first week of these increased hours, our manager dropped a bomb on us. She was leaving for a different position. Leaving us with one of the owner/pharmacists to take over in the interim. And So-and-So? Well, her "schedule," and I use the term very loosely, is extremely unreliable. I've been there way more than I've agreed to be.

We're all under an enormous amount of stress.

We've kept it together at the office, but have confessed to each other that we've all cried at home.

I'm pretty darn sure that I didn't sign up for this.

On the up side, though, I've made boyfriends with about every 90-year-old man that's come into the place lately. They all love me for some reason. I'm a friggin' old man magnent!!

Dude, Don't Cuff Me, Bro! (Part 2)

2013-05-04T22:02:00.004-04:00

Well, they've caught up with me. Again. And this time I'm a-goin' to jail.

OK, so it's only for an hour.

And alright, it's for a good cause.

But still...

I NEED BAIL MONEY!!!

A group of friends always joke that one day one of us will need bail and today it dawned upon us that this is the day!

I've been nominated as a Jailbird for the 2013 MDA Lockup here in my local area. My bail has been set at $2,400 and I've got 17 days to raise it. I'm headed to the slammer on May 21st and I'm counting on all of YOU out there to bust me out!

If you are so inclined, click on this link: KELBONS's MDA LOCKUP DONATION PAGE to make your pledge to get me out of jail. Not only will you be helping me and these deserving kids, but your donation is 100% tax-deductible!

Thank you so much for your support of the Muscular Dystrophy Association!

Close Encounters of the Ketchup Kind

2013-04-20T20:46:00.001-04:00

Mel and Michele are at it again... Prompting us to share and write about a celebrity encounter that we've had. I have a sneaking suspicion that a few of my friends, by nature of our friendship, may write about Imagination Movers, which is fabulous! I'm choosing to zero in on an exchange that prompted a positive change in my life...

'KETCHUP WITH US' - PROMPT #16

In 57 words or less, tell us about a "celebrity encounter." (We'll let you interpret those terms however you like.)

And, if you can, include a picture.

Unemployed & not having a direction.

Love to scrapbook and paper piece.

At a Movers VIP party, I was approached by Scott Durbin... asking about my work.

One thing led to another; the gears turned... and The Crafty Insomniac was born!

Thank you, Scott, for the vote of confidence!!

Our Trip to DC

2013-04-10T16:44:00.002-04:00

Yes, I survived. Yes, it was fun. But yes, it was stressful! The Girl Scout troop's trip to Washington, DC...

We started out on the afternoon of Easter, right about the time that the rain began. And yes, it rained for the next six hours and 300 miles! We stopped about halfway down at a Sheetz to feed our girls, and everyone laughed at my Fizzonator. Man, they just didn't get it! ;-)

We rolled into Adelphi, Maryland around 8:30 Sunday night and got settled into our condo. Once we figured out our sleeping arrangements and got unpacked, we got the girls into bed and made our plans for the next day; then it was bedtime.

The next morning we all packed our lunches and headed to the Metro station, and headed to the National Zoo for the morning.

The girls loved seeing all of the animals, and we ate our lunch right there in the zoo. We spent the afternoon walking around the city, took the girls to see the White House where we met a security officer who grew up in Vestal, New York - only 45 minutes away from our town! On our walk back to the Metro station, I saw a friend that I hadn't seen in well over 20 years! She was walking past me with her family and I instantly recognized her. What were the chances?? We stopped and chatted for a while and Miss Sassypants took a photo - at an extremely unflattering angle, I might add. We look like we have more chins than Chinatown! It was wild, though. They had just been to the annual Egg Roll at the White House.

Anyway, we went back to the condo and made dinner, then we piled into the vehicles and drove to northern Virginia to the American Girl store. This was clearly the highlight of the girls' trip! It was part of the itinerary, so they were prepared for it. :-)

The next morning, we trekked to the Capitol building and got a tour. It was great! We were actually there all morning, and by the time we were done, it was time for lunch. We ate lunch in the courtyard of the Capitol - the view was pretty amazing. The Capitol in front of us and the Supreme Court building behind us!

We spent the afternoon at the Museum of American History, which was amazing! We saw so many unbelievable things... Items belonging to George Washington, Civil War artifacts, beams from the World Trade Center towers, dresses belonging to the First Ladies, and of course Archie Bunker's chair and Dorothy's ruby slippers!

Afterward, we promised the girls dinner at the Hard Rock Café, so we headed up there. They told us that it would be an hour wait, so we went to the gift shop across the street to kill time. We spent about 45 minutes over there and came back to the Hard Rock to look in their shop since it was almost time for our seat... or so we thought. Almost another hour passed before we were actually seated. In the mean time, other (larger) groups were being seated before us, which led my co-leader to go off on one of the managers. After our meal, the General Manager took all nine of us into his office. After apologizing to us again for the way things happened, he then let us all have our photos taken holding autographed guitars of our choice, then handed each oh the adults $50 in Hard Rock gift cards. I thought that was pretty classy. He also asked us to e-mail him so he could send special patches to the girls for their vests. :-)

After that experience, we returned to the Metro and then to our condo, then got the girls settled in so we could rest up for our last day and eventually our drive home.

Wednesday we were up early once again; this time to pack up our gear and "check out," so to speak. We loaded everything into the vehicles and headed into the city to visit a few monuments. First was Lincoln, which we had never seen in the daylight... Then we drove to Jefferson. I was very impressed by the giant statue inside! Afterward, we drove to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History and were lucky enough to get parking spaces right in front of the building! We spent a few hours there before setting out for home.

Wow, what a difference driving in the daylight without rain!

We made it home around 8:00 that night, and holy cow, were our hineys dragging! And the worst part? I had to work the next morning! But it was totally worth it. :-)

HOLY SH*T... a.k.a. Finally, an Answer!

2013-03-22T23:05:00.001-04:00

This morning when I woke up, my lip was swollen. Really swollen. As in, I needed to literally tuck it into my mouth to go get my daughter out of bed because even though I hadn't looked at it, I knew it was going to be scary! I went to wake her up and it was a little difficult to speak.

Looking in the mirror first thing in the morning is scary enough, but this was way over-the-top. HO. LY. SH*T. I looked like something out of one of the shows on the Discovery Health channel... The ones where they do an operation to remove the 112-pound tumor from the poor sap's face and they never look normal again.

After our (my lip's and my) shower, I woke Mr. Sunshine to show him - it was good to freak him out first thing in the morning - and got the girlie on the bus, then got some things cleaned and organized as I waited for the local Urgent Care to open for the day.

I hauled The Lip into Urgent Care, and let me just say how great they are there! After a few questions from the triage nurse (and concerned texts from friends as I waited), the PA that I saw deduced that I am, in fact, allergic to one of my medications! You see, this is not my first swelling incident. The first was in November, when I woke one morning with a swollen soft palette. The second was not too long ago - in fact, I wrote about it in February - my tongue swelled throughout the course of the night.

Oh my Lord, I am so happy to have an answer to this ongoing mystery! After picking up a scrip for Prednisone, being told to continue with Benadryl for 24 hours and of course being instructed to stop the medication and follow up with my PCP, I hit my phone to look at the side effects for the drug. Not only is facial swelling one, but so is coughing. Whaaaaat?? I've had this cough since Christmas!! I started taking this drug in October, and I read all of the literature that came with it. I don't recall any of this! No matter, though. Hindsight may be 20/20, but I'd rather look toward the future.

After Mr. Sunshine and I returned from our grocery and lunch run, the Benadryl had caught up with me and I zonked on the Magic Couch for a few hours. By the time I woke up, Freaky Lip had gone down quite a bit!

I'll leave you with these lovely shots. Happy nightmares... ;-)

We Coulda Been Twinnies...

2013-03-21T22:22:00.001-04:00

I've been struggling with this assignment for days. Mel and Michele have asked us who our doppelgänger is, and I'll admit... it's been a challenge for me! I was considering asking for suggestions, but I was terrified that I'd get answers like Rosie O'Donnell or Mama June.

Then it dawned on me. It may not be as true anymore, but it was when we were kids. Unfortunately, I don't have any photos from when we were young, so you'll just have to use your imagination.

We met when we were only nine and ten, and the resemblance was undeniable. Cousins... Identical cousins!

Today we look a lot different, as different as our lives, but it was always fun trying to fool people when were together back in the day!

Me and my cousin Melody

Whew!

2013-03-16T15:28:00.000-04:00

I love this feeling. The feeling when you know that you technically don't have to look at another Girl Scout cookie again for eleven more months. It's so... liberating.

Now, don't get me wrong! I love Girl Scouts and everything we stand for. Why else would I have signed my daughter up for Daisies in Kindergarten, allow myself to be roped into a co-leader position the following year and now get sucked into a Service Unit leadership role? (More on that in a moment...) But let's just say that by the time the last couple of weeks of cookie season comes around and you've spent your weekends freezing your own cookies off outside of stores with your girls - hawking Thin Mints and Samoas - that the thrill is somehow gone. So when Miss Sassypants sold her 1,000th box last Sunday afternoon outside of Sam's Club, I'm pretty sure I jumped for joy.

I'm so proud of that little twerp! She really does work her buns off. She starts off the season in January by making a sales pitch video for her family and friends, and doesn't stop there. Here is this year's video:

This year, I wasn't working during pre-sales, so I wasn't able to take the cookie sheet into the office to sell cookies for her. And Mr. Sunshine refuses to take it into his work, but who's to blame him? I mean... he works in a prison. So she ended Initial Sales with exactly 200 boxes sold. Her goal was 1000, so that left (for those of us who are math-challenged) 800 boxes to sell at booths. We knew she could do it... the kid's a born salesperson! So she sold and sold and sold. She was at every single booth that our troop put on, no matter where it was or what the weather had in store.

We were out there in 16-degree temperatures with wind chills in the negative numbers! (Thank goodness for thermal underwear and snow pants!) So I can very confidently say that she deserved to be happy and proud at this moment:

So what is this new role I got roped into? Well, let's just say that there was alcohol involved. Isn't that usually how it starts? Anyway, you are now reading the musings of the new - Oh, what is it, now?? Internal Communications Coordinator for the Pegasus Service Unit for Girl Scout of NYPENN Pathways. Lord help us all. And what we don't do for our girls...

When I Come Back...

2013-03-08T21:26:00.000-05:00

This time, Mel and Michele asked the loaded question, If you could walk in someone else's shoes for one day, who would you choose? This was an easy one for me. I always said that if there is such a thing as reincarnation, I'd love to come back as one of my family's pets. Today, I choose Willie.

You came into this family tiny enough to fit into my hands, and you've been a pampered pup ever since. You have your own chair at the dining room table, complete with a blankie to make it more comfy. You have a car seat for road trips. Milkbones are not good enough for you... no! Your treats are beef jerky and string cheese! You have an eight-year-old little girl wrapped around your finger (or paw, as it were). Mom has your face tattooed on her body, for Cripe's sake!! Yes, when it comes to The Life... you, sir, have got it.

Ladies and Gentlemen, for your consideration...

Willie Jo Mosher

(Utterly humiliated in his bellhop costume that Miss Sassypants ordered up for him...)

And I am so totally not joking about my mother's tattoo...

She doesn't have a tattoo of my face on her anywhere!!

So Far, So Good

2013-03-07T22:24:00.000-05:00

We're nearing the second full week of the new job, and I'm starting to feel at home there. I've got some of my photos and a few of my personal things up; I feel more comfortable with the tasks that I've been given; I'm getting to know the people I work with better; I even have my own filing cabinet now!

Normally, my schedule is Monday through Thursday... 8:30 a.m. til 2:00. Today as I was talking to my boss, she asked me what time Miss Sassypants got off the bus and she said, "Oh, that won't help for tomorrow." I reminded her that I didn't work on Fridays, and she was like, "Oh, yeah!" I asked if she needed me, and she said Sure. So I get an extra day this week. Woo hoo... more money! Plus, I still get to take the time off for our Girl Scout troop's trip to Washington, DC. She's going to let me make the time up by working extra days I normally don't. :-)

In other news, we're coming to that time where some of Sassy's friends' bodies are starting to change. I guess that means that Sass isn't far behind. As we moms were talking at our Girl Scout planning Monday evening, we kind of decided that it was getting about that time to have "That Talk" with our girls. Ugh... Puberty. How in the heck do you even do that?? I vaguely remember my mom talking to me about it, and I remember trying to hide my first period from my mom and my Gram. Yeah... that worked like a charm! So on the way home that night, I dipped my toe into the pool by having a preliminary "Talk" with the Sass. I just asked her if she remembered how I told her that pretty soon, hers and her friends' bodies were going to start to change, and asked her if she knew any of the changes that would happen. Of course, she knew about boobies. We talked briefly about the other things that would happen, and she seemed OK with what we spoke about. Now, none of these changes have started happening with her (thank goodness), but I know that soon we'll have to go deeper into this conversation. The three of us mothers are trying to figure out the best ways to do this, and so far we've come up with this set of books that American Girl has put out:

There is also a program that is put on by Girl Scouts that we're considering having presented to our entire troop - they're third- and fourth-graders. I'm sure we're not the only moms struggling with how to talk to their girls about this one!

I guess it's really no wonder that I've had a headache for four days straight...

Back in the World of the Employed

2013-03-02T21:40:00.000-05:00

And apparently, not a moment too soon! Just today, I received an e-mail from they New York State Department of Labor that informed me, among other things...

Beginning with the week ending April 7th, federal government budget cuts known as sequestration could affect your unemployment insurance benefits. If you are receiving regular UI benefits you will NOT see any change. However, if you are receiving federal extended unemployment benefits that start after 26 weeks, the federal government has directed us to reduce your payments by 10.7% beginning that first week in April.

As if we didn't already know, this country is in the toilet. 10.7%? Are you kidding me?? Not two months ago Mr. President was on TV stating that "all Americans who were actively looking for a job would continue to have the benefits to rely on." How are you supposed to do that?

So I started my new job on Monday. It's so unnerving! On the plus side, though, everyone there has just been so welcoming. I walked in to a clean cubicle, a new computer and a stocked desk caddy. I'm starting to learn the ropes, including the computer programs I'll be using and the procedures to follow for some of the tasks I'll be doing. Insurnace benefits verification is a cinch... I did that in my old job. Only now, it's Durable Medical Equipment instead of Mental Health benefits. By the end of the week, I had some cheat sheets, photos of my family and a filing cabinet too. We're getting there! I just can't wait to feel more comfortable with what I'm doing and to have a routine.

I'll admit... being out of the workforce for ten months, I didn't realize what an adjustment it would be to go back! I'm only working five and a half hours a day, four days a week, but by the end of that first day I had a splitting headache from sitting in front of a computer screen. I couldn't shake that all day! And wow... that day totally wiped me out! I was so tired that by 7:00, I was ready for bed. Pathetic, no? When it was Sassy's beditme, I let her read her book out on the couch instead of in bed just because I didn't want to move. I was in bed by 9:00, which is unheard of for me. It was a good thing, though. I need this. And it got better as the week went on. I felt a headache come on Tuesday, and I nipped it in the bud. No more headaches for the rest of the week. My boss was out of the office on Wednesday, which was good for me because it gave me a mental break - kind of let the pressure off for me and also let me have a chance to get to know my coworkers a little better. It was also a terrible day weather-wise, so it was quite slow as far as business, which gave us all a chance to get caught up on work. By Thursday, I had gotten more training and praise from my boss, which was great.

Friday was my day off, which was much-needed, but so busy! I had to have my car serviced, do Girl Scout business, get groceries, then finally go to my mom's. On to the weekend!

By the way, here's my little home-away-from-home. It still needs some personal touches...

It's awfully hard to reach into that back corner...

A Shift in the Wind

2013-02-21T23:10:00.001-05:00

I suppose it was bound to happen eventually, but to be honest, I've been in no rush. To be perfectly truthful, I put it in God's hands. To be blunt, I really didn't want to think about it. What am I talking about? Returning to the workforce.

When I lost my job last April, I was blindsided. I thought I was going in for my annual review, and I walked out with one less job after ten years of service. And not to toot my own horn, but I was dang good at my job. So much for loyalty. I went through all of the stages of grief - denial, anger, etc. - and finally, acceptance. It was finally after about four months of sort of being lost that I had a routine worked out and then, with a little encouragement from two individuals in particular, a plan. That is where The Crafty Insomniac was born. And I LOVE what I do! It's been my therapy and my salvation. If it was up to me, it would be all I'd do for the rest of my life!

Once school started back up, I've upheld the promise I made to my husband to resume my job hunt in earnest. The reality is that there are changes coming up in our home and with Mr. Sunshine looking at retirement from his state job, we're not sure exactly how the future will play out. Of course, he will continue to work in another field, but change is change and it will be good to have a constant. That's where this new job comes in.

I'll be working during school hours, which is what I've been holding out for and what's taken me so long to find a job in the first place. When we had Miss Sassypants, I dropped down to part-time so we could avoid daycare; then once she started school I became involved in activities like Girl Scouts with her, so I need to be home evenings. Plus, Hubby has always worked second shift, so I need to be home when the bus gets here. Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a job with those hours... Especially one that doesn't pay minimum wage??

So I'll be working in a home healthcare business; where they sell and fit such durable medical equipment as CPAP machines, breast prostheses, power chairs, diabetic shoes, hospital beds and the like. I'll mainly be doing billing. I interviewed on Wednesday, and I was there for an hour... I met everyone there and they seem great. The boss made it a point to say that she doesn't "do" drama, which I LOVE!

So as I turn this page, I do so nervously... I don't like change, but this time I'll *try* to embrace it! (Wish me luck in my new cubicle!)

And no worries... The Crafty Insomniac isn't going ANYWHERE!

I'm a Survivor!!

2013-02-19T22:32:00.000-05:00

With all of my bad humor, sickness and general grumpiness, I'm on the other side to say that yes, I survived.

The first weekend of Girl Scout Cookie Booths.

We started Saturday, mid-morning with an impromptu/non-scheduled booth at Michaels Arts & Crafts. After I clearly overdid it with the hauling cases with my bronchitis, I took it easy for the beginning. My co-leader came and loaded up the cookies and Miss Sassypants and started out. By the time I made my way there, we had two girls, both of us leaders and a pretty good start on our cookie sales. It was cold out, but we were in the sun. With a few hitches, breaks and snacks to keep it all going, we made it from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. before packing it in. Sass and I headed home to take in some dinner with Daddy, then we were back out to another booth at Lowe's for two more hours. At least this one was out of the wind!

Saturday was another day. We started at a very light, very slow booth at a store called Party Time. It was two hours, three girls, but the great part was that it was indoors and warm! So what if they only sold 21 boxes between the three of them??

After we got home, Sassy and I got comfortable and I hunkered down to count down all of the money and separate all of the cookie counts for the girls so I could enter them into the system. Suddenly, I get a call from my co-leader that the troop who was at Sam's Club was leaving early and offered us their spot. Well, Sam's is a prime selling location that you really can't turn down, so we packed back up, bundled back up and were back out the door. We may have frozen our rear ends off, but Sass sold 85 boxes of cookies, all on her own, in the span of less than two hours!

Yeah. It was fourteen degrees and windy as all heck!

We took Monday off. We really needed it! We spent a little bit of the afternoon after Daddy left for work out in the garage with the space heater, sorting the rest of Sass's pre-orders out, bagging them up, separating them by delivery location and then boxing and weighing the orders that need to be mailed. That was the extent of cookies for Presidents' Day.

Today was back to school, and after school we had a booth at the mall. Sassy had her Religious Ed class, so right after I dropped her off I headed there to help with that; then I picked her up from class and she finished off that booth with her sister Girl Scouts.

Let me just say... all of the loot - cookies, money box, etc. - are still in my vehicle, safe in the garage. I can't face them tonight!

At least I have a day off from booths until Thursday after school... Shoot me.

A VERY Exciting Announcement!

2013-02-15T17:14:00.000-05:00

This deal has been in the works for literally months, and I have Scott Durbin to thank for all of it!

It all started back in October, not too long after I started The Crafty Insomniac. My friend Kiki and her family were going to Detroit to see the Imagination Movers in concert, to use tickets that she had won in a contest using some super-awesome earrings that she makes... we call them "gearrings." Well, Kiki and her Mini are my and Miss Sassypants's concert buddies. We've been to dozens of Movers shows together, and we were super-bummed to be missing this one. We decided to make a batch of our homemade Chex Mix to send along with them as a gift, as we know they tire of sweet treats. Then we decorated the container...

After the goodies were delivered, Scott was quite impressed with the little paper dolls. We had e-mailed back and forth and he gave me a lot of encouragement regarding my business.

Fast-forward to November, when we went to the opening of A Very Furry Christmas at Sesame Place in Langhorne, Pennsylvania. The Movers were playing sets all day, and I had made each of the guys a paper-doll version of themselves for Sassy to give to them as a gift. They were a huge hit!

The very next Monday, I got an e-mail from Jessi Sanborn, the office manager (for lack of a better title) for the Movers. She was singing the praises of these little dolls and asked if I'd be interested in selling them on their website. Well, is the Pope Catholic???

Since that time we've been conversing back and forth, and today she sent me a link to show that my sets were now available for sale on the Movers website! This is so exciting!!

Check it out here: http://imagination-movers.myshopify.com/products/movers-paper-figures

It is so strange and exciting to see my products on a website like this for sale!

I wish that I could give Jessi a huge hug to thank her for such an opportunity... She is so awesome for making this happen! I also need to thank Kiki, who has been my support throughout this process - she has talked me down from the ledge so many times and kept me as sane as I get. I will definitely be taking her up on her offer for slave labor, very soon!

Well, Shoot!

2013-02-14T22:26:00.001-05:00

I can't believe it... Miss Brown was right... I DO have the bronchitis!!! I can't freaking believe it. I've never had it before. All of these 29 (cough, cough) years and JEEZ!

After yesterday's cookie debacle I decided it was time to break down and go see a professional. My doctor only works in her office in the afternoons, as she's at the hospital in the mornings, so I opted for Urgent Care down the street from me. They are great there, though! So I'm now on a Z-pack, steroids and a cough medicine with codeine at night. All drugged up, I dare say!

So what happened yesterday?

My troop co-leader and I went and picked up our cookies at our scheduled time, and it went quite smoothly up until the last moment. She pushed on the back gate of her minivan to make sure that it was closed tightly and we heard the doors lock. Her keys were on the front seat. CRAP! Guess what... so was her phone! So we got her squared away eventually; she used my phone and got ahold of her insurance company to access roadside assistance to get the van unlocked, and while we were waiting we helped other troops load up their cookies. Once we got everything back to my house, we unloaded both her van and my Jeep, organized all of the cookies by flavor, then sorted all of our girls' cookies. Times cookies moved: Twice. Then that evening, parents came over a two-hour period to pick up their orders, so I was outside in the cold for that. By the time 7:00 came, I was wiped out beyond imagination. That never happens to me! As I lay on the couch with Miss Sassypants at the other end, too exhausted to even put her to bed, that's when I realized that I needed to break down and seek out medical attention. Not only that, but my niece had her baby last night and I'd never be able to go see Baby G in this shape!

Must... Get... Better!

T Minus...

2013-02-13T11:22:00.001-05:00

It's almost time... time for me to go and pick up the cookies for my Girl Scout troop.

Time for me to give up the next five weeks of my life to Juliette Low.

She seemed like a nice enough lady...

In a little over two hours, my garage will be filled with 203 cases... yes, cases... of Thin Mints, Trefoils, Samoas, Tagalongs and the like. I'll be sorting, freezing and cursing. Not necessarily in that order.

By the way, 203 cases is equal to 2,436 boxes of cookies. So if you're in the market, you know where to go... Just sayin'.

Ain't Nobody Got Time 4 That!!

2013-02-11T17:13:00.000-05:00

Sweet Brown said it, and she meant it. And let me tell you... she was right! I couldn't even get me a cold pop!

I didn't get the Bronchitis, but what I did get was knocked out for the count! An entire weekend of SICK.

Maybe we should back up for a second here. See, it all started last Monday morning. I woke up and got Miss Sassypants up for school, and she came into the bathroom complaining of a headache and a dry throat. Well, she's just not a complainer, and as it turned out, she had a fever. She was out of school for two days, then had cold symptoms for another two.

Fast Forward to Friday evening. We had a pretty bad snow storm, and while we were still at my parents', my cough (which I'd had since Christmas, but had been dormant lately) started acting up again. Once we got home and settled in, the power went out. Sass and I settled in on the couch with our candles, flashlights and lanterns, and while she fell asleep by 8:30, I felt myself getting congested. Nice, I thought. Mommy has always taught you to share, but this is ridiculous! When Mr. Sunshine/Daddy got home from work around 11:00 that night, he noticed that I was starting to sound sick as well. I was in denial, though... Moms don't have time for sickness!

Luckily, Saturday morning swimming lessons had been cancelled due to the weather, because this mama wasn't moving too fast at all. Hack, sneeze, blow... good times! Cough medicine doesn't work on me at all (which sucks!!), but there is one miracle drug that does, so I went to the medicine cabinet for it:

Mucinex Fast-Max is my salvation! I opened the bottle and poured it into the cup... WHAT???? Only a half a dose was left!! Great! So what happens? Does Husband offer to go to the store to get his wife the only thing that will make her feel halfway human? Of course not! But he does offer to pay for it. Shucks, hun... you're the best! So I haul my sick rear end into the shower, where I have a discussion with this virus, giving it no more than two days until it was evicted from this house for good, and then I make myself minimally presentable for the thankfully short drive to Target to purchase my miracle drug. After that, the rest of the day is a blur. I do remember Sass fixing me a bed on the couch and sleeping on the other end that night to "take care" of me, but that's about it.

Sunday I don't spend much time off the sick bed/couch, which is by this time equipped with a bedside tray stocked with Kleenex Plus Lotion, bottled water, Sprees, my iPhone charger and the TV remote. I slept on and off for most of the day, making it most difficult to fall asleep at night. And let me say, when you are all caught up on your DVR shows, you find the most interesting things on the TV late at night! After watching Barbra Streisand and Walter Matthau in "Hello, Dolly!" I flipped around to find Elvis Presley playing a singing doctor to Mary Tyler Moore's nun in a 1969 movie called "Change of Habit." That was... odd. I'm surprised I didn't have weird dreams about that one.

One good thing that came out of all this was that after I managed to cook dinner for my family last night, I decided to sit down and attempt to learn how to use my new Cricut machine. I'd had the same Cricut Create for nearly four years, and this new Expression 2 is a whole new game! First, let me say that attempting to do this while I still had a splitting headache was not, in hindsight, the best of ideas, but I persevered and cranked out a few cute seasonal projects!

Well here it is, Monday again, and there is no rest for the wicked. Back to our regular weekday schedule we go, and I'll admit, it was a rough start for me. I made it through, though! We got ready, got Sassy to the bus stop in plenty of time, and I even managed to come back in the house and clean up the breakfast dishes and take chicken out of the freezer to thaw for fajitas. Then... then I needed to rest. Guess I'm not Superwoman after all. (But we'll keep that between us, if you don't mind...) I lay back down for a bit, and for some reason I literally popped back up at exactly 8:40 and felt so much better! I took all of the blankets and bedding from the couch and threw it in the washer, put all of the cushions back where they belonged, and was back at my desk doing the work I love. Let's keep our fingers crossed that the recovery is complete ASAP! After all, in less than 48 hours, the cookie madness begins for real. I'll have a garage filled with Girl Scout cookies and my time will not be my own for the next six weeks. Ain't nobody got time for that!!

He's My Guilty Pleasure!

2013-02-04T22:33:00.000-05:00

On the Road Again...

Just can't wait to get on the road again!

Oh, yes. My secret is out. Willie, you are my guilty pleasure. Those braids. That guitar. That headband. That voice! The weed... not so much.

It's all Gram's fault...

(He's been known to moonlight, too...)

And since I can't embed a video in here for some reason, click on this link: Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground

The Mid-Night Medical Anomaly

2013-02-01T21:50:00.000-05:00

Tuesday night was like any typical evening at the CI household. Mr. Sunshine was off from work, so after we got Miss Sassypants into bed, we treated ourselves to a snack of chips and dip while we watched the tube. Later on we retired, and right before I got into bed, I noticed that one side of my tongue was a little bit swollen. Strange, I thought, and I mentioned it to Mr. S. in passing. No biggie... I figured that I must have gotten a little nick from a chip or something.

Cut to 2:30 a.m. I woke up and realized that my tongue was pretty darn swollen! I was slightly freaked, but it was only in my mouth and my breathing wasn't compromised, so I wasn't panicked. I got up, got some ice and went to the couch and to Google. As we know, the Internet can be our biggest enemy when it comes to medical information, but I needed to see if I could find out anything... any information that could help me! I read about allergic reactions, swollen salivary glands and all kinds of lovely things. So I went to the linen closet in search of Benadryl, or any medicine that contained diphenhydramine. Unbelievably, out of all of the drugs that we have, nothing! So at 3:00 in the morning, I changed into sweatpants, kissed my baby girl, and woke my husband to tell him, "By tug id swollen - I'b goin' to Wal Mart to get sobe Bemadryl." I got into my vehicle and hauled my cookies to the 24-hour Wal Mart Supercenter to see how that part of the world lives. That was interesting! Anyway, I got my Benadryl and a box of fudgesicles (because popsicles just didn't seem like much fun at that point, and I needed something cold for my tongue), and paid at the one checkout lane that's open at 3:30 a.m. I took the pills in the parking lot, drove home in the thick fog, and settled back on the couch for a while before drifting off to sleep.

When I woke back up at 6:45 to get Sass ready for school, the swelling had gone down slightly, but not by much. At least I could talk without sounding like I had a mouth full of sh__! After I got her off, I took another dose and by about 10:30 the swelling was down, but I could tell that my salivary glands underneath my tongue were still swollen. By Wednesday evening, everything was 100% back to normal.

The only thing that I can figure is a really, really long shot... could I be allergic to my Vivera retainers? After I finished my Invisalign treatment, I was prescribed these retainers, which you wear every night, pretty much forever. A few times in the past several months I've woken up in the mornings with a dry and swollen soft palette. once I even went to Urgent Care because of it because it led to a sore throat and laryngitis. I've been wearing them 24/7 for quite a few days in the past week to correct the shifting in my teeth I'd been feeling (which is now fixed). I still wear them nightly as directed, but still...