Save the Dragons!!!

Please click on each of my dragon's view page! They will die otherwise. I need lots of views from different computers to make sure they don't die - two of them only have about 2-3 hours left, and if they don't hatch, they will...

Please help!

~M

Save us!!!

New rule! Diaper covers at bedtime!!

So, our little darling Boo has become an escape artist when it comes to her diapers. Apparently, she's not always willing to wake us up when her diaper gets dirty, so she's decided in the past few days to remove the offending item completely.

This would be fine but for two items. Item 1: The diaper in question last night was poopy. Item 2: The baby in question then slept for 2 hours with it, and sleep-crawls...

So, at 1:45 this morning Fred went in to feed and change her... And let out a "Holy Christ!"... I knew this couldn't be good, so I got out of bed to help, and found him vigorously scrubbing her down with baby wipes.

"She's covered in dried crap! Dammit! Looks like she's been out of her diaper a good 2 hours."

I looked in her crib and found the offending item, squished flat by a rambunctious baby butt and looking rather forlorne in the midst of the crib. It was in the middle of an ocean of pee, which had apparently been provided post-removal...

"Right," I said. "I'll take care of the crib, you take care of the baby."

"Grunt," came the non-committal reply, along with several epithets as he attempted to hold a now-happy, wiggly baby (munching on her bottle while kicking legs in apparent appreciation for all of daddy's hard work) in place whilst still scrubbing her down. There was some muttering of hoses at one point...

I got the crib stripped of sopping bedclothes, and after removing sodden blankies, sheets and mattress pads, had the crib re-made with a new sheet and blankets.

Fred went to lay her down and I stopped him mid-lay: "No - new rule... Diaper cover before we lay her down to sleep."

"It won't stop her," Fred said, sleepy disguist and annoyance in his voice.

"No - but it will slow her down enough to let us get there first - I hope..."

A tired nod of acceptance, and I trundled her into a diaper cover.

We turned on her turtle (it's a music box with a light show and wiggly, dancing fishes in the belly), laid her down, turned off the light, and laid back in bed with a thankful sigh that at least she hadn't found out about finger painting...

~M

Day 3 of the crankypants march...

So, Boo (aka Crankypants), is working on day 3 without a nap. Oh - I beg your pardon... She had a 20 minute nap on Monday just prior to me coming home, and a 20 minute nap yesterday...

On top of this, she has a cold, is teething in her 2nd tooth, and still isn't sleeping through the night... Apparently, the combination of the teething, the cold, and the new babysitter has caused her to convince herself that she doesn't *need* a nap - and won't take one... And Jess is very soft-hearted. Boo cries and she will pick her up to snuggle her - which is fine with Boo, but does mean that Jess leaves looking like she was pulled through a knot-hole backwards by the end of the day. Poor girl.

I finally had to tell her that if Boo wasn't hungry, and wasn't dirty, then it was ok to let her cry for a while in her crib while Jess took a break. It wasn't going to hurt Boo at all... She said she was going to put her in her crib and try a nap again about 20 mins ago... We'll see how that goes.

On to other updates...

Meanwhile, my dragons need daily clickings... So, if you're visiting on a daily basis, please click on my eggs and baby dragon to help them grow up. Yay for baby dragons!

My thyroid thing is apparently doing better. I'm still tired, but not quite so exhausted, so apparently my iron level is better. My thyroid count is down from where we started, so that's good too. My dr is going to continue to watch it and I'll be tested again in 3 months to see where we are. If it doesn't move from where it is currently, she'll up the doseage.

My computer died a horrible death this last weekend... The processor fan had rattled it's last breath about a month ago, and I (in my obliviousness) hadn't noticed... The processor itself is completely fried, so I now have to look into getting another computer. We'll pull what guts we can save from mine, and get rid of the rest of it. It's yet another expense that I wasn't expecting. I'd say that I was underwhelmed with the prospect, but that would imply that somehow, I'd been whelmed in the first place. *sigh* On the other hand, there's a possibility that I get to have a larger hard drive, so there's that...

Haven't heard back on the job over in the other office. I'd really like to get it, but so far it's been silent. I'm not sure how I feel about that, other than desperate to get out of the call center. I've gotten tired of this office's type of politics and cliques. I'm so done with kindergarten drama...

I'm trying to get into bellydance classes again... Again, an expense that I could most likely do without - but on the other hand, it's not as though I'm splurging on that hot lamborghini or the 4-story house in Malibu. So, I suppose one splurge isn't bad - besides, I can justify it by saying it's exersize, which will help me... LOL.

Other than that, not much is going on in my life...

~M

Here there be Dragonses... hopefully...

http://dragcave.net/incubators/incubator_merripan.png

Click on them! Click them, darn it! You know you want to! Actually, in order for them to hatch, you need to click on them. The more you click, the healthier they are, and the better chance they have of hatching.

~M

Scattergories meme

It's harder than it looks! Copy and paste into a new email. When you are done, send it on, including to the person who sent it to you. RULES: Use the 1st letter of your name to answer each of the following...they have to be real places, names, things...nothing made up! Before you answer them, add 1 question to the list, then answer them all.

Try to use different answers if the person in front of you had the same 1st initial. You CANNOT use your name for the boy/girl name question.

Your name? Merripan

4 letter word: More
Vehicle: Mustang
TV Show: Meerkat Manor
City: Mukilteo
Boy Name: Mark
Girl Name: Maria
Drink: Margarita
Occupation: Mandoline Player
Song: Morphine
Something you wear: Mask
Food: Melon
Something found in a bathroom: Massager
country: Madegascar

Update on my brother...

So, Friday afternoon the doctors put in a tube to clear out the blood and fluid in my brother's left lung. 650l later, he was cleared of all fluids in that area, and the tube was left in over the weekend to make sure everything was functioning properly. X-Rays were taken twice per day to make sure nothing shifted, and he was kept relatively sedated through the weekend.

Monday they removed the tube, stitched up the openings, and let him rest without poking and prodding him. The nurse reported he was in fairly good spirits, but resting practically constantly - which I don't blame him for.

Mom reported Tuesday that they had discharged him to a friend's house, where he is to rest for the next 3-4 weeks with an upper chest brace. After that, they'll re-evaluate him for physical therapy and rehab, to get him back up on his feet properly. Nothing physical prior to that, as there are floater chips from his spine that have yet to be re-attached, and 9 ribs that need healed.

So, the upshot is that he's out of the hospital and doing much better, and for that I'm profoundly thankful.

~M

Obession - it's not just a smell...

OK - so I now have an obsession that is a little too close to bordering on insanity - but I can't help it. They're so cute!

~M

Me-Me... One Word...

Only one word
_____ TYPE ONLY 1 WORD. IT'S HARDER THEN YOU THINK!!!

1. Where is your cell phone? Desk
2. Your significant other? Fred
3. Your hair? Red
4. Your mother? Washington
5. Your father? Passed
6. Your favorite thing? Baby
7. Your dream last night? ??
8. Your favorite drink? butterschnapps
9. Your dream/goal? book
10. The room you're in? cube
11. Your fear? drowning
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? married
13. Where were you last night? In bed
14. What you're not? skinny
15. Muffins? raspberry
16. One of your wish list items? farberware
17. Where you grew up ? seattle
18. The last thing you did? breathed
19. What are you wearing? clothing
20. Your TV? large
21. Your pet? cat
22. Your computer? on
23.Your life? good
24. Your mood? ok
25. Missing someone? Dad
26. Your car? Tri-met
27. Something you're not wearing? necklace
28. Favorite Store? fabric
29. Your summer? 1974
30. Your favorite color? blue
31. When is the last time you laughed? today
32. Last time you cried? Tuesday
33. Who will/would re-post this? anyone

Here's what you're supposed to do...and please don't spoil the fun... hit 'forward,' delete my answers, type in your answers and send it to a bunch of people - including me.

On a lighter note...

Boo decided that she needed to be a little more mobile than she had been... So she's taken things into her own hands... er, feet... er, whatever.

She did this all on her own, and repeated the action over and over again yesterday until her little legs got tired and she got frustrated.

~M

Update on Irony...

Well, it's looking better than we expected. Kelly is due to be out of ICU in the next few days. His spleen is punctured, but there doesn't seem to be as big an internal bleeding issue as first expected.

The back breakage was actually 3 spurs off the side of his spine, where the ribs connect - this is better than actual cracked or broken vertebraes, since it doesn't actually affect the spinal chord. There are still 9 cracked or broken ribs, but they all look pretty good, too.

All in all, he's in good spirits. I called today at 10 on my first break, and spoke with both he and Mom. Doc seems to be pretty upbeat about the whole situation, so that's good.

I'm still undecided about whether I should forgo the event, drop off Fred and go up to see the family. Going to talk with Fred about it tonight and see what he says...

~M

Ironic, isn't it...

So, we had a guy over here this evening talking with us about accidental life insurance, and what we may want to invest into it. The overall consensus was yes, we need it, and yes, it's a good idea, and yes, we'll take it, provided that we get approved (he isn't sure they will, considering our hobby of fire-dancing - but he's going to check).

He leaves around 8:45pm, totally jazzed about the living room decor and the fire-dancing thing, and at 9pm, I get the first of the text messages from my mother and sister.

My brother has fallen 3 stories from the roof of a house he was working on, through two railings, and onto a broken concrete floor. He's in ICU at Evergreen Hospital in Washington, and is expected to stay there for at least two weeks - then moved to in-pt rehab for a while longer... his injuries reads like a laundry list from a boot party, and include:

9 broken ribs
cracked spleen
broken back in 2 places
air & blood in back of left lung
internal bleeding

The good news is, he's concious - if you can call that good news. The man is a non-practicing drug and alcohol addict, and is most likely doped up to the eyeballs in morphine to deal with the pain... Not to mention the fact that he just got OUT of physical rehab about 7 months ago after he had a hip replaced...

So far, I haven't heard anything other than that. Mom's on her way over to the hospital, and Mel is already there. I'm getting updates as they find out about them as texts. I don't know that I'll sleep well tonight, and am not sure whether I'll be up to going to work tomorrow - I'll have to see. I just don't know.

Little known fact about my brother - he and my father (we only shared a mother) never got along until probably the last 6 months my father was alive - it was then that Kelly realized what it was he really wanted to be, and followed through with it. It was the one thing he always respected about my father: he became a carpenter... And now, here he is.

Isn't it funny...

~M

General updating for life...

So, this weekend was the fabric sale at Fabric Depot. I love that place - probably too much, considering we spent way too much money there. I will have to ask Fred for help for this weekend to cover gate and the car rental - thankfully it won't be more than $30, but I do hate to ask for help when it's my own fault for over-spending... Couldn't resist the trim, though I tried... *sigh* I am a sucker for a pretty trim. I introduced Susan, a co-worker, to the joys of Fabric Depot, and promised that at some point during the winter months, I would teach her how to sew and read a pattern.

Boo went with us, and was relatively good for such a long and stimulating outing (about 3 hours, and full of bright colors, new things, and lots of people. She was gnawing on my hand Saturday afternoon, and swapped from her right side to her left, and I was suddenly attacked by a very sharp pain. Checking in her little gummy mouth, I found one little tooth had busted through her gum and was now peeking out at me. Needless to say, she's not going to be chewing on mommy anymore.

Our interviews for a new Mary Poppins is going fairly well. We're leaning toward one in specific, but will continue to interview until the 14th, just to make sure that we have given everyone interested ample time to apply. I'm determined to have it all done prior to this upcoming weekend, so we can go to the event without the worry of having to find someone quickly. This gives a pretty good time frame for most people to set up and get ready for a new position. The good news is that we've had 4 or 5 people very interested in the job, even at the rate we've advertised it at - which is really nice.

Life at the call center is... well... filled with drama. I have, for the most part, tried to simply keep my head down and out of the way to avoid it, while trying to find another position within the company. The level of childish drama has lowered from high school when I first arrived (which is typical of most call centers, and fairly easy to deal with), to almost kindergarten level now. The worst part is that it's the supervisor who seems to egg on a lot of it - which is just sad. There shouldn't be that type of drama at any workside, and certainly not to the levels that it has deteriorated to. The manager has simply stepped out of the loop entirely, and has turned a blind eye to it - apparently she figures that there are growing pains involved, and she needs to let us get over it all. It's been over 6 months, however, and it's no longer growing pains - it's the pain of an incompetent supervisor, egging on her 4 favorite employees to attack anyone she doesn't like, and tattle on anyone who says anything against her...

On a positive note, the position that I've been attempting to get into for several months has finally opened back up, so I've applied for it - I was basically told by one of the gals at that clinic that if I applied this time around, I would pretty much have the job, so I'm so applying for it. The hours are about the same that I'm working now, and it's a better pay that I'm getting, which is nice all the way round.

All in all, life isn't horrible, and things are moving along. I really need to get going on the clothing that I'm working on for Amie - I've been horribly lax on it and should be kicking into it with a vengeance after Boo goes to bed. I should be able to get through at least one every other day (estimating based on some of the more difficult ones to do - the pants are easy-peasy). There's one piece that I'll have to take almost completely apart. I need to definitely put together another pair of pants for her, and get one of the dresses put together and ready for her - she wants to wear it at a specific function... I think I should be able to get both of those done by the end of this week.

~M

As opposed to the exciting version, apparently