A little bit of a rant

Okay, I am going to be very insensitive here, but having octuplets when you have SIX other children already is just irresponsible. Taking fertility drugs when you have no children, or only one and you have struggled to get pregnant again is understandable, but not when you have SIX hobbits at home already! Come on, I love babies as much as the next person, they are delicious (with a glass of wine) and you want to snuggle them and kiss them and then when they poop it is lovely to hand them back to their rightful owner. But seriously! Am I the only one who is thinking this?

And Elizabeth Hasselbeck, do you really need a third child? Is it not enough you have two already that you have to have another one during the next great depression?

None of this is helping stimulate the economy people!

The Dog House

What started off as making a little house for the toy dogs, turned into an art project for mommy. And mommy didn't mind one bit. Although Ned did! I did kind of take over but the paint work had to be done just right!

We started off with a bare house and wooden bits and pieces to glue on.

After the paint, came stickers and the wooden pieces.

And here are all the dogs with their new home!

Art and Gross Stuff

So I thought creating a new blog would encourage me to write more. Apparently not.

However, some things this week have prevented me from daily blogging/reading. One was an art project for Ned. He has all those little toy dogs from the new movie, Hotel for Dogs (no I did not buy 8 happy meals from McDonalds, I bought the dogs separately and only 2 happy meals!). He wanted to make a house for them out of a cardboard box, but I had to cut windows and doors, put a chimney on and paint it. While he was at his dad's I stopped by Michael's and found this fabulous small unpainted dolls house so I bought it along with all sorts of wooden bits and pieces to stick on and dog stickers. I will put the pictures up another day as I don't have them here with me at work, but it is a masterpiece and far more superior than the little old cardboard box we were planning on renovating.

Another reason for not blogging is that I have been in incredible pain since Monday due to the fact that I had an infected ingrown toenail. I must point out that it was mainly infected because I had picked at it and tried to get it out myself and made it worse. I went to a podiatrist on Friday who insisted he could do nothing that day and would have to get authorization from my insurance company and that I should come back on Monday. Confused because I have a PPO policy which does not require insurance, but not wanting to argue with the doctor in case I got stuck with a huge bill, I agreed and suffered the pain over the weekend. On Monday I talked to a friend who pointed out that he was just trying to get two copays out of me and I decided to go to someone else who whipped the sucker out as well as one on the other side of the nail. They have both been removed permanently and it was pretty gross. I could not watch because I cannot tolerate pain, but if you need to see what it looks like, go here. The most painful part was the injection to numb the toe - it feels like a huge needle going into your bone and I am grateful for the nurse holding my leg down so that I did not kick the doctor in the face for I am sure I would have done!

Now even though I could not watch this procedure or tolerate the pain of the needle, I had to see the ingrown toenails that he extracted, which were fantastically gross and much to my delight, he gave them to me as souvenirs! Everyone at work seemed so grateful for that as I showed them off!!! Ned thought they were "cool" and has only trod on my toe twice now so we are doing good.

However I was not prepared for the pain I felt when the numbness wore off. Fuck.Ing.Hell. That is all I can say. It throbbed, it hurt, it throbbed some more. Pain killers helped some then I would wake up in the night and have to take some more because the sheet lying on top of the bandages hurt. Two nights in a row I have been up in the night and the doctor is now calling in some stronger pain meds for me. Thank you Toe Doctor, I think I love you.

Last night I took the bandage off to soak the foot in Epsom salts, which is something that is soothing but not when you first put your toe in the water. It hurts! It was the first time I had seen the cuts and they are bloody and disgusting and made me feel sick. I have even come into work each day, hobbling all over the place and wearing sandals in the middle of winter with very thick socks, looking like a gimpy person who has just escaped from an institution of some kind.

I was going to have this done to the second toe, but now I am having second thoughts. I think I would rather have a bikini wax, which is something else I did for the first time last Friday. Again, Fuck.Ing.Hell. I think she enjoyed it too much, she laughed every time I screamed out in pain. However the pain was gone by the next day, so bring on the bikini wax and not so much the ingrown toenail removal!

"For Reals"

This is what my four year old keeps saying. "For reals mom!". Where did he learn this from and when did he turn into a teenager?

My life is flashing before my eyes!

Idiots Among Us

Sorry to keep with the political theme here, but I just heard Rush Limbaugh said this on his radio show:

"My hope, and please understand me when I say this. I disagree fervently with the people on our side of the aisle who have caved and who say, 'Well, I hope he succeeds. We've got to give him a chance.' Why? They didn't give Bush a chance in 2000. Before he was inaugurated, the search-and-destroy mission had begun. I'm not talking about search-and-destroy, but I've been listening to Barack Obama for a year-and-a-half. I know what his politics are. I know what his plans are, as he has stated them. I don't want them to succeed.

"If I wanted Obama to succeed, I'd be happy the Republicans have laid down. And I would be encouraging Republicans to lay down and support him. Look, what he's talking about is the absorption of as much of the private sector by the U.S. government as possible, from the banking business, to the mortgage industry, the automobile business, to health care. I do not want the government in charge of all of these things. I don't want this to work. So I'm thinking of replying to the guy, 'Okay, I'll send you a response, but I don't need 400 words, I need four: I hope he fails.' (interruption) What are you laughing at? See, here's the point. Everybody thinks it's outrageous to say. Look, even my staff, 'Oh, you can't do that.' Why not? Why is it any different, what's new, what is unfair about my saying I hope liberalism fails? Liberalism is our problem. Liberalism is what's gotten us dangerously close to the precipice here. Why do I want more of it? I don't care what the drive-by story is. I would be honored if the drive-by media headlined me all day long: 'Limbaugh: I Hope Obama Fails.' Somebody's gotta say it."

Nice.

Glad you want your country to fail.

Did you ever stop and think that it might be people like you that are the problem?

High Horses

Yesterday was such an exciting day and even though I was at work, I was able to watch the inauguration online and it was very special. On my facebook page I put that I was proud to be in America today, and one of my colleagues told me quite aggressively that she was proud to be in America every day. It really bothered me the way she said it, as though we are all supposed to feel this "American Pride" in the same way that she does. Is it a privilege to be American? Is it a privilege to feel this pride? I think it is a privilege to be on this earth, no matter where you are, and I think that I am entitled to feel prouder on some days and not on others. Does it mean I am anti-American on the days I don't feel proud? Not at all. This whole "American Pride" thing bothers me. I am prepared to take my citizenship test, I am prepared to live in a country that will not acknowledge duel citizenship even though the country I was born in will recognize it. I pay my taxes, I am a good person, I have not committed any crimes, yet I get pulled up for saying that I am proud to be in America on January 20th 2009. It just annoys the hell out of me and I had to get it off my chest, so there, I am done now!

What I'm Listening To

Lilly Allen can be annoying sometimes, but I really like this new song of hers.

"and that's what makes my life so fucking fantastic"!

I Rule Britannia

Well, I like to think I did in the three weeks I was home! This is me in my friend's 1940's themed room (yes, she has a themed room!). Nearly everything in there is genuinely from the 1940's, including this flag which was used in the war and belonged to her grandfather.

I love my friend. Not only is she absolutely gorgeous, but she is such a nice person and I think I saw more of her out of all my friends because she is just so easy to be around. She is also one of Ned's godmother's - he has three!

It was lovely seeing my friends and family, but I really missed America and my "home". So now I have decided to take the citizenship test and make it official, because I never want to live anywhere else. And it will mean that in the future I can vote, so hurrah for that! Also, my lovely sister has decided that it may be in her and my nephew's best interest to come out and live here with us, so I need to get my citizenship so I can sponsor her. If anyone would like to donate to the "Get Ellie Out Here" fund then please contact me, as it costs a frickin' fortune to file for citizenship ($675) and sponsorship ($355)!

Here she is, my lovely lovely sister:

And she is definitely into martinis as well, so you will all really like her, I promise!

Finally, here is a little shot of the christening party - if I say it was fucking freezing, that will be an understatement, but seriously, it was fucking freezing!

And the beautiful old church:Very old and historic church - because you know, England is where all the history is from! At least that's what Eddie Izzard says anyway!

Don't eat me big giraffe!

This is what it feels like when a big giraffe is looming towards you and has a very long tongue and a big head that could swallow your head whole. Or small children, which is why Ned looks so nervous perhaps?!

New home

I came back from England, trying to motivate myself to blog and read again because I have been a bad blogger of late. I decided I needed something new, something that might inspire me to write more, hence the move.

Anyway, we had a lovely time in England, my sister's house was definitely the best option to stay at and there was only one major argument with my mom which my sister actually started but of course, I got dragged into! We visited a castle, had a private showing at a zoo because we have a friend there and got to feed the giraffes and elephants which is slightly scary as who knew how big a giraffes head was when it was way up there in the clouds? Not me, that's for sure, and they are pretty big once they lower their heads and try and get the food out of your hand that you are gingerly holding up, hoping that they don't lick you to death with their enormous tongues!

Ned was christened on Christmas Day, at the church where I was christened when I was 6, so it was pretty special. He seemed to know that he was there for some sort of ceremony and complied very nicely, although when the vicar said "we will now announce your new name in Christ" he turned around and said loudly for all to hear "I don't want a new name, my name is Ned!" Good old Ned!

Another highlight, and I must mention this, is that I got to meet Welshy, Chris and Juliet (can you hurry up and give me your blog so I can link you?!). It was slightly surreal but lovely to meet them, and of course it was made even better by the lovely Thorntons chocolates that Chris and Juliet gave us. I think I may have scared Welshy though as I ate her least favorite food - mushrooms ("you can't trust a mushroom"). All it all, it was brilliant to be in an English pub having a drink with people I have talked to online for such a long time.

Hopefully you will all decide to come on over to the new site, and as and when you do, I will add your links. In the meantime, Happy New Year to you all and I must say, it is so nice to be back home - in America!

I think this is my favorite quote!

I like to drink martinis. Two at the most. Three I’m under the table, four I’m under the host.
Dorothy Parker