Street rat? I no buy that..

Ah for all those Disney lovers out there (or parents!), the movie of choice at present time is Aladdin. Yesterday Omri was walking around singing Aladdins song about being a street rat, in her language of course. Very funny. I love it when she goes into her own little world and sings or acts out her favorite parts. She knows the movements and basic phrases of the opening, and its pretty hilarious when it gets to the part about prehistoric tupperware.. you just have to see to understand. Now I would love to post such a video, but we are currently without photomaking capabilities. I bought a camera in January, a Nikon coolpix that was easy to use, which is of highest importance to me.. I just don't get cameras! Only a month later, and it's nowhere to be found. The house and car have been searched sevenfold and no camera. I keep putting off buying another because I'm convinced that as sooon as I buy one, I'll find the other. But now that I realize that i have about 3 pictures of olive from the last three months, I feel lots of guilt--especially compared to the grotesque amounts that I have of Omri. I am searching ebay for a good deal, but havent found anything amazing yet.

So this whole getting a dog thing is literally like taking care of an infant. Going outside for potty breaks is never ending (although accidents are almost eradicated!), and the new trend is that Jedi will only poop if I'm out there with him. Go figure. On the other side of the pet poop front, our katze Kenny has a mean stink to his excretions. He is famous for it. A few weeks ago, I noticed that he was spending an abnormally long amount of time in his litter box with no effect. Instantly, my mom freaks, because a similar event happened to Thunder that almost killed him last year. Evidentely, cats can have crystallization build up in their kidneys, causing urine to back up, which ultimately kills them in a short period of time. Thunder required a $600 surgery. Now I love Kenny, but not THAT MUCH. As awful as it sounds, its cheaper to put him down and get another kitty. However, there is option 2: switch to brand name cat food. One reason I have great love for Kenny is his love for Kroger Value brand cat food. Seven bucks for 15 pounds-- for some perspective for the catless, $7 would buy you maybe 7 lbs. of brand food-- and he actually refused the 'nicer' stuff on teh occasions that I would get it for him. Apparentely this is the culprit of this kitty epidemic, so now.. I switch him to Purina Indoor Cat formula. Bad idea, the poor guy got the runs--with extra stink! So I got some Friskies today, hopefully this will do better. These pets give me more stress than the kids do!

Olive has become a huuuuge eater recentely, probably around 30 to 36 ounces a day. She has cereal most days now, but with her becoming increasingly hungry, I am going to jump the gun and feed her some veggies tomorrow to attempt to satisfy her hunger. I do need some tips on making your own baby food though--help Sarah! Also, Omri is becoming more and more interested in interactive play. I am forced to become the horrible actress that I am to keep her happy. Let's just say I have no career in children's movies, TV shows, etc. One of Omri's Easter presents was The Cat in the Hat Comes Back. We read it tonight. I forgot how much I loved that book, compared to the first one! My Dr. Seuss collection is decent, although I still need a few classics: There's a Wocket in my Pocket, Hop on Pop, and others. I dont really want any other material thing for the girls except for a complete Dr. Seuss book and Disney movie collection. The new fangled things just can't beat out the classics. Plus, I enjoy them too!

Only 3 more weeks of classes left--thank god! I'm exhausted, and I haven't read any books in a loooooong time. I know there's at least 3 James Pattersons, and a few Chuck Palaniuks. I really want a hammock to have in the backyard for reading, but I keep having these visions of Omri plummeting headfirst into the ground, and ours is not soft!

Allright, time to end all this 'ado about nothing'. The news begins in T minus 3 minutes. Gotta get my fill of Ch. 11.

Peer reviewed journals just aren't my thing

My next assignment due in my Prevention and Control of Disease class is an review of a peer reviewed article based on disease prevention. Using Google as a search engine for this has only given me links to articles that are impossible to understand. I may have found a keeper just now, regarding Vitamin A supplements and it's correlation with reducing Malaria in Africa, but at the late hour, I'll save that stress for tomorrow. It's only due tomorrow night at midnight!! Ah..

What a beautiful day out today. Since Frankie has been quite under the weather, I took the girls to my moms and did some laundry. Omri was outside all day; playing with chalk, pinecones, shovels, balls, Logan. Olive spent some time in her Exersaucer, but kept throwing her toys in the dirt. I don't think she ingested too much!

Came home, and watched Superbad. Now, I was terribly skeptical of this movie. I am not a huge fan of crude, rowdy comedies of late, and I figured this would amount to nothing more than a boob fest. Suprisingly, I found myself quite amused at the banter between the two best friends as they finished out their senior year trying to get alcohol to impress some girls at a graduation party. I think that the one guy in it (also in Juno), was a pretty skilled funny guy. Makes me want to go see Adventureland. Probably wont, but alas, it may be a VOD (Video On Demand) possibility for the future.

Speaking of movies, Starz and Encore movie channels were free this weekend! This enabled us to watch Superbad, and I'm recording Gone Baby Gone overnight. Also watched Vantage Point off and on at my moms--it was ok. Might have worked out a bit better if I would have sat through the whole thing. VERY excited for May 15th, Angels and Demons comes out in theaters. Even Frankie's looking forward to this. Also, Harry Potter in a mere 3 months! Ah... it's sad to think that there will only be one more movie. Even more sad that there are no more books--this also goes for Twilight. Alas, it's always best to go out on top, rather than to drag it on and on and on until the story is soap opera-esque.

SNL's Best of Amy Poehler is on. LOVE her. must watch. farewell.

Now blog it out

Arrrrgh. It's been far too long bloggity-blog. Two 40 hour weeks, a handful of exams, and I am pooped. haha ADD kickin' in: Frankie is watching VH1's 100 Greatest 80's One Hit Wonders and they were talking about this guys career after his hit. Apparentely he was a producer for Christina
Aguilera, No Doubt and Miley Cyrus, but when they said Miley Cyrus, they showed a picture of Stevie Wonder. Silly editors.

So what's new you ask? Well Omri is growing up way too fast, she even has a pimple on her face! (No joke, I was shocked, but I am exercising GREAT restraint in not popping it). She also went poopy in the potty the other day. While she was incredibly proud, she has no interest in repeating this. The beautiful princess, Tinkerbell, and Elmo underpants have no effect on her decision. She'll wear them, and destroy them. O well, every box of Pampers= one vaccine for a disadvantaged kid, so I guess she's doing her part, eh?

Do you realize that buy vaccinating every single person for all vaccinatable(?) diseases could eradicate smallpox and other such ailments from the world!?! Or so my Prevention and Control of Disease professor says.

Anywhos, Ollie is almost a quite grown 4 month old. She rolled over (from belly to back) for the first time a few days ago, yet I have yet to witness it because of work. She is enjoying cereal, and I can't wait to start on veggies here in the near future. She is also sleeping an average of 10 to 11 hours a night. AMAZING! I LOVE IT! SLEEP HAS RETURNED!

Or so I thought.... The next order to discuss: the pup. So we decided that we didn't have enough on our plates and that we REALLY needed a dog. A few days of scouring The Blade classified led to me driving out to Curtice after work to pick up a Boxer. Why a Boxer you ask? 1). Kid friendly, 2). trainability, 3). overall cutness, 4). guard dog capabilities. So I picked out a male fawn colored 7 week old and headed home. The reaction from Omri is worth every pee puddle and whine: "Hi Mom--ahhhh!" Hands to the face, total and complete shock. She apparentely didn't believe me on the phone when I told her I was bringing him home. We christened him Jedi, and set forth to pethood. He and Omri are bestest buds, which is perfect when she is craving more attention that is taken up by Olive.

Time to go. Dog had an accident.. newest story of our lives. More later.

Homework or Heroes?

Ah, screw both and blog! Today delivered some poopy news about my scholastic future. I had a meeting with a nursing advisor at UT. Now, I am not trying to be overpretentious, but I feel that I am overqualified for the nursing program at this point, and I feel like I should jump straight into clinicals. I do only have 6 classes before I can begin, so I am loading myself up with an 18 credit hour fall semester! Yuck! The good news is that these classes are packed into Tuesdays and Thursdays, with 2 of them online. Score! The bad news is that there is an application process for the Bachelors of Nursing program. Heh, no problem, I am a genius, right? No, apparentely not. I was informed today that my GPA is .4 points lower than what I thought (3.4). This is all due to a PSO class that I was signed up for spring semester my senior year at BHS that I decided to not go through with due to a bad case of senioiritis. Little did I know that my teacher never submitted the paperwork to withdraw me from the class, so the University of Findlay has me on record with an "F" in Calc 2. SERIOUSLY SERIOUSLY SERIOUSLY. No wonder I didn't get in the pharmacy program! This information never showed upon my degree audit or unofficial transcript, so I was never aware until now. Now I am barely competitive for the nursing program! The minimum GPA last year was a 3.49, which I am nearly half a point away from now! The only upside is that they are redoing the entire process, making it 3 times a year, and with more spots available, which will hopefully work to my advantage. I am going to be calling Findlay to see if there is anyway I can get rid of this! yuck yuck yuck. The most appropriate word for this situation is: redunkulous.

Which leads me to another story: movies, particularly kids movies. I am amazed at how I have never disliked a single Pixar movie that I've seen. Seriously, they are cinematic chocolate! Frankie went out to get headphones for his iTouch so he could run(see next paragraph for story), and came home with a slew of movies for the fam. For Omri he got: Pinocchio and Bolt. Me: Twilight (still havent watched it due to homework/cleaning/kids/work/life). Himself: The Nightmare Before Christmas. So we proceed to watch Pinocchio (not my favorite Disney classic, but Omri loved it). Then we watched Bolt. This movie was hilarious and I loved it.. I even cried a bit at the end. So sweet. Two thumbs up. Even if Miley Cyrus is one of the voices.. more about Miley Cyrus later. We also recorded Wordplay on the Independent Film Channel (one of the BEST channels ever, if you have to pay extra for it, its worth it!). Funny stories about crossword enthusiasts, and now me and Frankie are on a crossword kick, we almost got a NY Times subscription, but it's slightly more pricey than what we anticipated! Another good documentary that we've recorded from IFC is "I Like Killing Flies". It's about this restaurant owner in NYC, and he is over-the-top crazy! For instance: no parties of 5 are EVER allowed to eat at the restaurant. There's a whole plaque devoted to this! If you can ever find it at a Blockbuster, rent it!! I just recorded "The Pianist", and I haven't watched it yet, but I can't wait to. I have a slight fascination with WW2, I think I could watch any show/read any book on the subject.

Anways, Frankie hadn't been running lately, because it's been cold and what not... So Friday he gets real excited to go and try again. I buy him new athletic shorts from walmarts and off he goes. After I wait anxiously for an hour, he returns, slightly sweaty, but proud of a 3 mile walk/run. Later on in teh day, the feeling of accomplishment has diminished and in its place: painful tootsies. He can still barely walk, as the outsides of his feet are extremely sore! We've tried the cold water soak, some biofreeze, and good ole fashioned foot rubs, but it's still there. A trip to the Andersons for some steakage almost killed him. It's pretty pitiful. Poor guy. Needless to say, I think next time he'll take it a little slower!

Also, funny story: apparentely at the Grammy's Miley Cyrus wanted to meet Radiohead, one of her "like, favorite bands ever!" But they refused. Lil Cyrus goes on the radio and says that she is going to "ruin them" by telling all of her fans to boycott them. I'm sure that one of the most influential and sucessful bands ever is going to feel the dent from this tween crowd. Silly girl. Radiohead released a statement saying that "“When Miley grows up, she’ll learn not to have a sense of entitlement." I used to not have such a thing for Radiohead, despite Frankie's admiration and devotion, but their concert last August was so amazing that I am a complete convert. I guess I should like them anyways, since they are the reason that we named the first girl Omri...

Ah, but I've rambled far too long about nonsense, it's time to do something more productive!

The water stands for hours...

... in my tub. Now what has started as a mildly slow drain has turned into almost complete blockage. No amount of Drano or Liquid Plumber Foaming Pipe Snake could resolve this problem. I even bought a snake, and attempted to show off my handyman capabilities to Frankie (long hair has given me years of experience), but alas, that has no chance with the twists and turns in our pipes. So we call our other handyman, aka Patrick W. Roseman (I'm making him business cards).
Said man removes pipes, only to find a hard substance not far into pipes that wouldn't even budge from the threat of an ambitious butter knife. Time for the professionals. Have to call Roto-Rooter tomorrow for the diagnosis and prognosis. Wished we lived in New England for the slight chance our plumbers would be Jason and Grant from TAPS (or Ghost Hunters). A two for one! My plumbing would be solved and my paranormal concerns confirmed or denied. Alas, I will settle for Joe the Plumber, so long as I can take a shower without standing in several inches of icky water.

Last week on the said sunny day from a previous blog, Omri and Frankie graced the Toledo Zoo with their presence. Needless to say, she had fun. The loves her animals. Now, she wakes up and says "I see animals.?", as a combination statemention/question. She then proceeds to tell me about each animal, and then goes "I say hi to monkey". Wish we had a membership so we could go a couple times a month. She also thinks for some reason that hippos are purple. And that they climb trees. And that they have belly buttons. Must be something from a Sandra Boynton book. Omri can also almost say 'hippopotamus' clearly, making it her longest word that she can pronounce. It's a big improvement from "hippo-party", which she used to say. haha

So our family is having a slight dilemma. You see, we love animals. A whole bunch. I think I would fill the house with animals if they weren't a crazy amount of work. Anyways, we already have one cat, Kennison McGee, aka Kenny. Frankie has been talking about getting a dog for quite time now. An English bulldog specifically, but those slobber mongrels cost more than my computer, and that's just crazy. So we found some Beagle pups for around $150. Not bad, we'll throw them into consideration. I would really love a lab, because I think they're great dogs all around: good with kids, guard dogs, loving, slightly dumb. But our little casa may not support such a large quadriped. Alas, Kenny is a literal definition of 'scaredy cat', and I worry about how he will do with a rough canine. So I suggest another kitten. Omri and Frankie go to the Humane Society, but kittens aren't 'in season', a few more weeks, and they'll be flooding the place. That's a no go for now. I would love another animal, because i think it's important for the kids to have animals, especially this young to prevent/reduce pet allergies in the future. We probably won't even end up getting anything, but the idea is always fun to entertain.

Anyways, time to skidaddle and watch some tele to relax, it's my night to get up with Olive!

Belly Up!

So our second fish, Achoo, is pretty much the most ridiculous pet I've ever owned. I looked in the tank the other day and almost had a cow because he was floating on his side in his corner that he favors. Oh no, He's dead! But no, his mouth was still moving, and a good poke from Popeye righted him. Not much time passed, and I again found Achoo in an upside down position in the middle of the tank. This time, a little push from me with the fish scooper tool, and he was on his way. I begin to become worried, especially since the next time I find him, he is upside down in their hideout log. Oh, Achoo, are you trying to commit suicide. So Frankie, a.k.a. Internet M.D., decides to investigate on the inter-web. Turns out that when Achoo eats (flakes from the top of the water), he intakes water, and this gas in his stomach ruins his buoyancy, causing him to turn over. It's quite pitiful actually, we right him again and again, only to watch him struggle to maintain his uprightedness. Now the fish are to be on a special diet of pellets that will float to the bottom so silly Achoo won't be stuck upside-down for the remainder of his life, however long we can keep him alive.

Anyways, we got a real glimpse of spring the other day with some almost 70 degree weather, coupled with some lovely sunshine. This called for Ollie's first time in exposed sunlight/air/general outdoors in her life. She enjoyed being carried around in her stylish track pants, as Omz and Frankie picked up sticks. Sticks, I must add, we have no shortage of. We have multiple piles in the back yard, and a couple large limbs/trunks from a tree that neighbor Mike took down. I kind of just want to set fire to the majority of the back yard, because there is so much to pick up still! A lawn mower would be destroyed by this stuff! Alas, I don't feel like alarming any Smokey the Bears, so I hope that the neighbors will be needing a lifetime supply of kindling for their firepits--i'll bring marshmallows! Omri also was able to meet Mike's two little boys, Joe (5) and Ben (3). She pretty much thought them hilarious, and I'm glad she'll have some buddies to do sprints and watch trains go by with. Her and Ben hugged it out, though I think his original intention was to pick her up, Omri misread that signal. Another plus to our neighbors: both sides are resourceful when it comes to cars. Our brake lights had gone out and voila! Mike had the parts sitting in his shed. He says he can fix the muffler/exhaust/shivering problem my car has too, and super cheap, since he gets parts at cost from his shop.

Needless to say, I can't wait for it to get warm. I bet this summer will be a blast, with our super huge backyard, and the neighbors that we can enjoy having in close proximity. Even if Kyle has his nipples pierced and and a F.B.I. tattoo (Full Blooded Irish, not Federal Bureau of Investigation). haha Speaking of tattoos, I've entertained the thought of getting a sleeve. I think they're beautiful. But I'm wayyyyyy too chicken.

Patience required

Today was a long day at work. Not necessarily time wise (7.5 hours), just patient wise. It seemed as if there was an abnormal amount of people showing up to drop off/pick up/complain/ask questions. This, coupled with a short staff, made things seem never ending. The drive-thru for instance, I believe is the last thing that belongs in a pharmacy. It drives me nuts to see people who are picking up meds for high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and their type 2 diabetes from being overweight who refuse to get out and walk in the store. Across the board, this lazy mentality that affects so many people discourages me. I don't understand how people can ignore their health and rely on quick fix methods to put a 'band-aid' on their problems. Argghh!! I guess I am not the model for perfect health, but I'm at least more conscious of it. Somedays I think about beginning a running regime, since most of my family can probably kick my butt! Seriously, I used to have a less-than-6 minute mile. I believe I ran the Komen freshmen year at about 25 minutes. Sheesh, that's amazing to think of now. I need a new pair of tennis shoes though, the other pair is slightly disgusting from the basement flood (see previous post).

I'm watching HLN news channel, and "Showbiz Tonight" is on, and Tyra Bank's talking about something or other. That woman freaks me out. Kind of makes me uncomfortable. She's everywhere. Yet I still watch America's Next Top Model reruns like it's my job, haha.

Uh-oh, gotta do the dishes, they've definately been soaking for a good hour!