Mom to the Screaming Masses

A week in review

I'm taking a page from a few other bloggers that I read, and thought I'd start posting a week in review.  It's been pretty interesting to see what other people accomplish in a week.  But, then, they lead more exciting lives than I, so read at your own risk.

Reading:  I finished Mr. Darcy takes a Wife and I highly recommend it to any Pride and Prejudice fans out there.  A bit of sex, but not too much, and it makes the story believeable.  I started the second book in that set, Darcy and Elizabeth.  A bit slower, but equally good.  I started, also, the newest issue of Above Rubies,  and read the daily paper, maybe three times this week. 

Watching:  I rewatched the BBC Pride and Prejudice - why, yes, I do obsess, why do you ask?  I also watched the first dvd from Homicide: Life on the street, the finest series ever on tv.  Disc 2 awaits.  Morning and nightly news.  Nothing else watched, unless you count the nightly forced overheard That's so Raven.  My girls are obsessed with that show.

Exercise:  I walked 3 miles Monday, 5 Tuesday, 5 wednesday, and 3 yesterday.  Add in 5 today for a weekly total of 21 miles.  Which brings me to my weigh in, which showed a total pounds lost since January 1 of 18.6.  Whoot!  Almost to 20!  Which isn't my goal, but whatever.  I've been very satisfied with my progress - it's been slow, but it's getting there.  I've done 200 pushups. I have eaten 10 oranges this week, 10 bananas, and 15 bottled waters.  AND only one coke, which is ginormous for me.  Coffee every day, though........

Clothing: I was able, for the first time in I can't remember how long, to put away some clothes for myself that were too big.  See, here's the story:  I wore a 10 -12 when married, and was pretty much able to stay there until baby #4.  I was a 12-14 after him, and a solid 14 after #5.  When Riley was born, and we started having so many problems with her, I was in a deep depression and used food to medicate.  I went rapidly to a 16, and at Christmas was horrified by both my presence in pictures and the fact that my "fat" clothes were too tight.  I was unable to buy anything in Ann Taylor, and that embarrassed me immensely, since I love that store.  So, now, last summer's clothes are too big, and I need to buy new ones.  I was totally thrilled that on Sunday, my one pair of black church pants needed to be safety pinned to stay on.  Kalisah was kind enough to give me some suggestions, but I'm looking for more.  What do you consider the one, hot, must have item for the summer?

Family and Friends: Talked to some great out of state friends several times.  Had wonderful email exchanges with another.  Had horrible family stuff happen, but had great family stuff happen as well.  Didn't have my day care kids but once, so no extra money this week: boo. 

Housekeeping: This, my friends, is where I have drastically dropped the ball.  I've washed and dried 16 loads of laundry, and four of them still reside on the floor of my laundry room.  The rest are folded, and sit in the hallway, awaiting their trip to various and sundry bureaus.  I have 8 work shirts and 10 pairs of pants to iron today for The Hubster.  The dishes have been done daily, but food hasn't been a huge priority, so the kids have had lots of sandwiches and quick stuff, and leftovers.  Healthy, but not totally homemade, which I'd like to get back to. 

Writing:  I had someone who is knowledgeable and local read my first third of the manuscript - about 27,000 words.  She loved it, and has restored me to hope.  I've not worked on it in over a month, feeling really unsure of it, and questioning if I should continue.  Sara really reassured me, and now I'm fired up to continue. 

I've driven probably 100 miles, slept about 30 hours, had one migraine, and watched The Hubster give a presentation at school for Math Career day - which made me extremely proud of him.  His job is hard, involving long hours and mental prowess, and he performs flawlessly.  He impressed the faculty at school, and the kids loved him.

So, what happened to you this week?

Muddle, puddle, toil and trouble

So, I've been chastised. Hence the quiet on the blog.  I do have a lovely, mostly empty closet to show for my frustrations, though.

But, I've been asked to do another "Dynamics of a big family topic", and I think I'll give it a whirl.  Remember, read at your own risk, there's a BIG RED X if you don't want to read my vitriol.

Every else still here?

How in the world do you handle multiple activities with multiple kids?

Veddy, veddy carefully.  No, really.  Case in point: yesterday.  Mackenzie had a make up Irish dance class from 3-4:30, and then ballet from 5:30-6:30.  Allegra had soccer from 5:30 - 7:00.  It wasn't bad yesterday, since The Hubster was off, but it usually works like this.  I throw myself on the mercy of my girlfriend, whose daughter goes to soccer with her.  Allegra goes home with them, and does her homework over there.  If I remember to pack her a dinner, she eats there and then goes to soccer.  After I pick Mackenzie up from ballet, we drive down to soccer.  That's the part of multiple activities that I like the least; the fact that I have to put the smaller kids into the car multiple times.  Since we live very close to ballet, less than three minutes, I will sometimes leave the smaller kids with Nikolas and run her up there.  Last time I did this, though, I came home to catastrophe -a spilled gallon of milk, a running faucet, and two screaming kids.  So, it doesn't happen all that often.

What I usually do is spend a lot of time at school, since most of the activites are at school.  We hang at the playground, or if it's cold in the car or occasionally in the foyer of the church, since it's in the same location as school. Soccer game days are tricky - this year all the games are back to back - 8,9,10 or 9, 10 11.  I'll take the earliest to the game, stay for a while, leave my littles with a friend at the game to run the second kid to his/her game (usually waaaaaayyy across the complex, so it's a good thing I'm running now) and dash back to the first.  I load up the wagon, run back to the second, watch for a few minutes and then repeat with the third.

I try to keep the kids to two activies each  but it still adds up.  Nik just does scouts, but stays after for band.  Scouts runs late, so I usually try to get him a ride, rather than take the little ones out of bed at 8:45 to go gethim.  I've done it, though, when I need to.  Allegra has soccer, but that's a three times a week deal  - she's really getting good.  Mackenzie actually has three activites for a while - soccer, Irish dance and ballet.  She seems to have a knack for the Irish, so we may repeat that.  It's just an 8 week course right now.  She's pushing mightily for horse riding as well.  Gabe has soccer, although he's begging to restart gymnastics and Emma has nothing.  Riley has therapy. 

I have been known to ask people to help me out with rides and such.  (I hardly call that asking someone to raise my children, fwiw.) Carpools are a huge help to me, but I still spend tons of time on the road and in the car.  Often I pack dinner plates for the kids and we eat on the road, which I know is horrifying to some of you.  I've got to do what I've got to do, though, and my kids love their activities.  I've been saved repeatedly by keeping juice boxes/milk boxes/granola bars/crackers in the car, and I grab water, apples and bananas whenever I leave the house. 

Did this answer the question?  I handle the overlaps on a case by case basis, but it leaves me ragged more often than I like.  It's a season, though, and I know I'll miss it.

__________________________________________________________________________________

We had a situation here that I thought was kind of interesting:  One of my kids found something that didn't belong to her and read it.  It happened to have been the diary of another, and it wasn't favorable.  I wasn't sympathetic.  "Sometimes," I told her,"When you snoop, you get way more than you bargained for."  What would you have said?

The return of the money pit

So, the final concensus was that the car needed a new computer.  The Hubster called me from work.

"Hey, guess what!  The computer is here.  You'll never believe what happened!"

Try me.  go ahead, I can take it.

Well, haha, it appears that he was curious to know exactly how these things work, and so he unscrewed the cover and took it off.  He admired the interior for quite a while, unhooking and rehooking various connections and messing around in general.  He then attempted to replace the cover.  (I almost had heart failure, certain that he had ruined it.)

And dropped one of the itsy-bitsy teeny weeny screws. Behind his credenza. Which weighs about 459 thousand pounds.  He called a coworker in to help him, and said coworker lifted on end of the credenza.  Far enough for the screw to roll all the way to the back of the office.  He motioned for the coworker to put the desk down, but he forgot that his foot was under it.  And his foot was trapped, and smushed. 

But!  The desk was removed, the foot withdrawn.  The screw was recovered, and the computer was repaired, and taken to the shop.  The computer was installed, and AT LAST!  the car runs well.  The Hubster has driven it to work for the past three days.

Except.

Someone hit it in the parking lot of his job yesterday.  The responsible party was none so responsible, making this a hit and run.  It smashed both the driver door and the front quarter panel, making the door inoperable.

To the tune of a $1600 repair.

Frustration and aggravation

So, I'm grumpy.  Frustrated and aggravated.  If you want a funny, I'm not your woman today.

<sigh>

I went to bed late - I was watching the A&E version of Pride and Prejudice. So I was up late, alternatively walking and running on the treadmill.  After I showered, and got into bed, it was after 11.  Hoping to dream of Mr. Darcy, I instead dreamt of running to catch planes and meeting new people, all of whom hated me. Huh.  I also dreamt of big, chewy molasses cookies, but I know where that came from - I hate dieting.

Emma woke me up at 2, because she lost her pacifier, Riley was up at 3 something, and I woke at 4 convinced I was falling through space.  I was merely falling off the edge of the bed.  A California King is obviously not big enough for me, The Hubster and four of the kids.  And it was H-O-T. At 5:30, the kids woke up - of course, since we didn't have to get up until 7 today.  I was grumpy and I made it known.  "Alright, everyone, out of the bed, now!!"  I think was my response.  When I was asked to make chocolate chip pancakes, and The Hubster replied, "Sure, Mommy will be right down!", I think I missed his kidney with my punch.  Just barely, though.

What I'm REALLY frustrated with is my house, my car, my laundry situation.  WHY - and I know I've asked this before, but I'm all about full disclosure - am I the only one to pick up/clean up anything?  All day long I trip over coats and shoes, cleats, and dishes.  This week alone Nik couldn't find his freshly washed and pressed Scout uniform.  Of course not, when you stick it in the back of a drawer in your closet?  Why hang it up?  I bought new soccer socks for everyone, and yet, today we were missing two pairs.  No one had water bottles, and we only brought one inhaler between the three players. 

I got so annoyed that I pulled everything out of our downstairs closet and totally cleaned it.  Two bags of garbage and two for the thrift store - out of here.  I put all of the tiny baby clothes in the attic.  The high chair, the bouncy seat, the under two year old size hats, all put up.  I'm going upstairs, as soon as this posts, with boxes that I am determined to fill with stuff from the kids rooms.  We have too much stuff!  This is the first day in three weeks that I haven't had my day care kids, and I want to make the most of it. Mackenzie has a diorama and three page report due on dinosaurs, and we have a three day weekend.  I've walked around, cleaning off counters and shelves.  I've hung up pictures and threw away so.much.JUNK.

One of the things I have to do is fold a huge mountain of laundry.  When I went into the laundry room, I found this:

That, ladies and gentlemen, is a shot of my laundry, flipping me the bird.  Which pretty much sums up my day.

But, this is a better shot, one of my street - if you can overlook the big ass dumpster in my neighbors driveway.  I wait all year long to see this pretty, pretty picture: 

Be careful what you wish for....

Ok, gramatically, it should have said, um, what, I don't know.  It looks weird to end it with "for", but that's how the saying goes and I'm sticking with it.  Ok?  "Be careful of what you wish???"

So, tonight, we went out to dinner.  On my way home, I was thinking to myself, "Self, it's been a fairly quiet few days. (Strike one!!!)  I really need to think of something to blog.  Hmm, I could blog about the newest purchase for the never ending money pit car for my son.  Naaah, I've got to think of something else."  I mused and puzzled all the way home - well, for two minutes, anyway, until my brain jumped to another topic and I promptly lost that one.

We got home and I divested the four younger kids of their clothes and tossed them into the washing machine.  I thought to myself, "Hmm.  There were already some clothes here, from the unfortunate milk spilling incident of the morning, as well as some towels, but it's not quite a full load.  I guess I'll wait until tomorrow to run it."  Strike two!!!

I popped Emma into her bed, and, as she does every night, Riley climbed up into her crib.  We took one of the rails off the crib, so she has a modified bed, and every night it's the same.  She gets in, pulls the covers up, and squeezes her eyes shut.  She says good night, and I kiss both girls and go out.  I go to Gabe's room, and sometime during prayers, she's right behind me, sticking her hands up my shirt.  She loves the IDEA of going to bed, but she's not down yet with the actual ACTION.  Then we go downstairs and I rock for her about 10 minutes until she's out.  Yeah, I know it's bad.  Take it out of my paycheck, um-kay?

Prayers, music, hmmm, no Riley.  She WAS pretty tired tonight - could she have actually fallen asleep?  I braved a peek in the room - total silence.  Wow.  She really did it! (Strike 3!!) I went to the big girls room - clean up, prayers, pull everything out of the closet where it was stuck and sigh like a martyr, you know the drill.  I made a quick exit and went back to check on Riley.  Still nothing.  Not a peep.  I decided that I had to see her asleep for myself.  I'm such a good mom that she finally went to sleep on her own, you know.

I stole up to the crib and peered around the blanket on the end.  She was sitting up in bed, and she looked up at me and, around the pacifier crammed in her mouth, uttered the famous, "Uh-oh." 

Uh, oh, indeed.  For, somehow, the child had gotten her hands on of a bottle of "Udder cream", that really thick hand lotion that we use on Gabe's hands.  The poor kid, his hands are so dry that his knuckles are raw and bleeding and his hands are like sandpaper.  I've been using Body Shop Hemp cream, but it's $15 a tube and I was trying to find a cheaper alternative.  How she got this tube, I have NO idea - it's kept up high, since we had the unfortunate "grease your sister, your walls and bureau with Vaseline" activity last year.

She had wiped it in her hair and slicked it back, surfer style.  She had coated  her face with it, ala cold cream.  All you could see was her eyes, and she was busy rubbing circles into her cheeks.  It was on her blankets and pillows.

An 8 p.m. hair washing on a child who thinks hairwashing is a violation of the Geneva Convention. If you heard screaming, it would have been difficult to determine if it was me or her.

Never, EVER, think to yourself that you need something to blog.  EVER.

Dance class party

Emma and Riley are playing a new game, one that they play almost every day.  It's called Dance Class Party, and the rules are as follows:

They are the only two participants.  Their mom and dad are dead - don't even get me started on that.  Dance Class Party involves getting a small tupperware and filling it with grapes and baby carrots, and taking it into another room for a snack.  There is no music involved, and no dancing, although you can dance on the floor if you want.  Which they don't.

And, most importantly, they've decided that they each need an "X" penned on their forehead and palms.

Miscellaneous

Nothing much here to talk about.  Nothing really new.  I did see Pride and Prejudice - what a great movie!  I totally loved it, and bought it this weekend.  I watched it with Allegra, pausing every few minutes to make sure she understood what was going on.  I also bought the book, since I've never read it, and a few other Jane Austen books, as well as a book that was written a few years ago, billed as the sequel to P&P.  I started reading it - it's pretty interesting, but completely NOT a work of Asten - way too much sex. 

I have been Netflixing movies to watch while I'm on the treadmill, and one of those was Junebug.  Ugh.  I only was able to watch about 30 minutes of it, and it annoyed me so badly that I had to stop.  Next on my list: The first season of Homicide:  Life on the Street.  I flat out LOVED that show when it was on the tube, so I can't wait to start this series.

We had soccer games this weekend.  Last week's games were great - temps in the 70's, lots of sun and little wind.  Even though I was so ill, it was good to sit out.  I took these shots of my little girls picking dandelions:

But, this weekend we were not so lucky:  try 42 degrees and 30+ mph winds.

Yesterday Emma was so tired, she started crying.  First, her ear hurt.  I was worried, since she's had tubes since she was one and the right one has fallen out.  She was holding her right ear.  Then, she said her head hurt.  Two minutes later, it was her cheek, and then her elbow.  Then her knee.  So, off to bed with her, at 5:30.  It's 6:30 in the morning now, and she's still out.  I think it was just exhaustion, at least I hope so.

Hmm, what else?  I've decided to be in a craft show at my kids school - I do tie dyeing, and plan to make some dresses and beach cover ups and playsilks.  So that should be fun, if I don't spend too much getting supplies. HA!  I'm going out to dinner with my dinner group tonight - so I got up early to jump on the treadmill. 

  And, every girl should sleep with her pocketbook, heels and baby handy: 

Grocery shopping

Wednesday, my mom emailed me.  "What time do I need to be at your house?"  I scratched my head and wrote back, "Why did I ask you to baby sit?  I don't have anything on my calendar.  Did I miss something?"  We finally determined that I had nothing planned, but she graciously agreed to come over so that I could buy groceries unencumbered.  How exciting my life is!! 

Wednesday being the 15th, the parking lot for Wal-Mart was very crowded.  I decided, before I did all my shopping, I'd stop in the ABC store - what a stupid name for an alcohol store, when I was a kid I thought it was a book store!- and I bought a small bottle of dark rum (needed to make monkey bars with rum soaked raisins) and a smaller bottle of vodka, for chicken pomodoro.  When I came out of the store, I saw an ice cream store.  Not just any ice cream store, but Coldstone.  I loooooove me some Coldstone.  I've been doing so well on my exercise/weight loss - despite the stomach flu from hell and the pulled calf muscle, I've lost 15 pounds - that I decided to to really enjoy my shopping trip and treat myself.  Besides, it's not every day I get to shop by myself, so I deserve something, right? I walked into Coldstone, ordered a Mr and Mrs Cheesecake and went to the restroom while they were preparing my treat.  I walked into the bathroom and turned on the light.  With a dial; it was on a timer.  I guess I didn't turn it far enough, since it went off as soon as I tried to get off the toilet.  Which was an automatic flusher, so I was being sucked through the ground in the dark.  After I turned on the lights, really cranking the dial this time, I tried to wash my hands.  I couldn't find the soap, until I realized that it was an automatic dispenser.  The faucet was automatic, as was the hand dryer.  What a fancy bathroom.  Either that, or I don't get out much.  You be the judge.

Ice cream in hand, I went into Wal-Mart.  I turned on my iPod and began to shop. As I was coming around one corner, I saw an Indian family shopping together, women in saris and men in turbans.  "Oh, how cute, she's holding her sister." I thought to myself.  One of the girls was carrying a baby.  She wheeled around suddenly, and I gasped as the baby fell backward, its head flopping.  My hands instinctively reached out - to grab a life like doll.  Whew.   But, damned, that baby really did look live. 

I made my way over to the pharmacy area.  Next on the list was a large box of generic sudafed, for my allergy ridden children.  I stood in the aisle for a minute, looking for the correct box.  Sudafed PE, sudafed time release, oh, here it is.  Or there it wasn't.  There was a stack of cards, directing me to the pharmacy to pick up my generic $3 box of sudafed.  Alrighty, then.  I popped a card and strolled to the pharmacy, while listening to the Walk the Line soundtrack.  I love me some Johhny Cash, and Joaquin Phoenix did a great job.  I stood in line, tapping my foot and trying desperatley to avoid hip gyrations and pelvic thrusts.  When my turn came, I asked for the medication.  "I need your ID, please."  Oookay.  She took my license, scanned it into the computer, and re entered my social and birthdate.  Sudafed is, apparently now, a controlled substance.  I know the whys, it just struck me as odd.  I bought $15 worth of booze in 2 minutes, without even an ID check for my credit card.  I had to be cross checked for sudafed. 

I strolled over to the gardening section, listening to Butterfly by CrazyTown.  I grabbed the plastic yard bags that The Hubster requested, and saw some really cute gardening gloves.  I bought a pair for me and one each for Emma and Riley.  I buy new gloves every year, get gung ho about how beautiful my yard will be, use them once or twice, and burn out on gardening.  I'm so predictable.

I went to the paper product section to get paper plates and plastic spoons for lunches.  Did you know that you can now buy patterned plastic ware?  It comes in silver and gold, with names such as "savannah".  I think if I ever needed to get patterned plastic ware, I'd REALLY need to get a life.  Kind of like the life I had right now, where I was stopping every few minutes to jot blogging ideas on the back of my shopping list!

To the tune of Black Horse and The Cherry Tree, I took a last look at my list and noticed that I had forgotten the oven bag for pot roast. I turned down that row, and swerved suddenly to avoid the oncoming cart.  Piloted by a 15 year old boy, carrying his younger, maybe 12 year old sister, on the BOTTOM of the cart.  I stopped in shock for a minute, remembering.  Four years ago, I let Mackenzie, then 4, ride on the bottom.  Her hand got caught under the wheel and it ripped her nail out from the nail bed. We had to go to the ER for stitches, and her nail had to be reimplanted.  Should I warn these dumb kids?  Where were the parents?  Would they be upset with me for butting in?  Looking around, I found them in front of the item that I needed, snuggling close to each other.  Yup, they were snuggling, and he kissed her neck, in front of the oven bags.  Ok, that answered that question.

I went to the self check out to pay, listening to Get a Rhythm.  There was no one in line, and so I began to unload.  I like to self check, since I can pack things my own way.  All the cold stuff that goes in one freezer together, all the stuff for the outside fridge in another bag.  The only problem being that the sensor was messed up, and every third or so item would register that I hadn't bagged it, prompting the machine to ask "Do you wish to skip bagging?"  No, dummy, I don't.  After six or so of these, the machine had to be reset.  About 15 times.  It was ok, though, since I was jamming along to Walkin on the sun by Smash Mouth.  Noticing that I was getting some strange looks, I thought it might not be the best place for me to practice my dance moves.  Yes, ladies and gents, I was dancing along with the music again.  Apparently, I have the type of talent that goes unappreciated.

What kind of things happen to you when you go to the grocery store? 

The neverending money pit

My son is 13.  He'll be 14 in May.  He can't drive until he's at least 16. 

The Hubster works at a car dealership, in upper management.  He often looks over the cars that come in on trade, keeping an eye out for good deals.  With tons of nieces and nephews, his daughters and various other relatives, there is always someone in need of a cheap, good car. 

So, about two months ago, he called me.  "Honey, we just took in a car - cheap.  The interior is immaculate.  The car looks like new.  I can get it for about $1500, plus taxes.  It would be a great car for Nikolas.  I think we should go ahead and buy it."

Um, yeah, right.  But, ok, it's your money, and if you feel that strongly about it - and he did, as multiple conversations attested - go on and buy it, bud.

And the car was purchased.  A 1992 Dodge Stealth, for $1800.  Nikolas was thrilled, and he washed it and buffed it and cleaned it with a toothbrush.  One of the belts was squealing, and so the decision was made, between the two of them, to purchase some type of belt dressing.  They purchased and sprayed, and drove around, and the belt squealed worse than ever.  You see, in normal size, bold faced teeny tiny print, the bottle said, "Do not apply to serpentine belts."  Which our squealing belt was.

So, our intrepid wanna be car mechanics took the car to the shop for a new serpentine belt.  While it was in the shop, The Hubster said that the rear was shaking - no comments, please - and after inspection, the car was said to need new rear struts.  No hurry on the repair, take your time - after all, $600 didn't come cheap.

Three weeks later, the car was back home.  But it still didn't run correctly, and so it was taken back.  Where it was discovered that it needed a $163 belt tensioner.  Take your time, no one's driving the car anyway.

Three weeks later, the car was home, and The Hubster said that he would really like the car to have new front struts - since the rear struts were new, and really, what else would the car need? Maybe that would help the rattle that had been in the back of the car.  (?) The interior was *mint*, after all, and the car was 14 years old, so a small bit of repair work was to be expected. Just this work.  Oh, and new spark plugs.  And wires.  And a Tune Up. 

To the Tune Up of $787.

While he was polishing the car, since, after all, the interior was in such mint shape that the outside needed to look good too, The Hubster decided to remove the small mirror affixed to the larger side mirror.  In doing so, he broke the mirror. 

A part which is no longer made.

But really, the car looks good, does it not?

That's because, since it needed so much work, no one WAS ABLE TO DRIVE IT.  The interior is so freakin mint because NO ONE HAS EVER BEEN ABLE TO DRIVE IT.

In which I reveal my weakness

It was Thursday.

At least, I think it was Thursday.  Time has slipped away from me.  Yes, it was Thursday.  I walked 6 miles that day.  Yeah, I know, Whoo - me!

Apparently, I also pulled a muscle in my calf.  The last half mile I was limping pretty badly.  I sucked it up, though, and went on about my day.  Picked the kids up at school, and drove over for soccer practice.  While I was sitting there, one of the other mothers was talking about her son, who was up all night puking.  In a casual, almost dreamy way I thought to myself, "I bet I get sick.  I mean, he's standing right next to me."  Then I wondered how I was going to be able to walk the next day, since my leg was hurting so.

Heh.

We stopped at McDonald's for dinner - I NEVER eat there.  But the kids were so hungry, and I was tired from all my walking, and I thought, "Hmm, easy dinner. Not nutritious, but whatever.  I can go to bed sooner."  There was a hamburger left over, and I ate it.  I was REALLY hungry.

Got all the kids to bed and went to bed myself.  At about 10:30, I woke with a little tummy flutter.  I shook it off and went back to sleep.  Same thing at 12, and again at 3.  Then I started puking. I immediately, and hereafter, SWORE off McDonald's FOREVER.

And then I started with the "other".  I'll leave that to your imagination, thank you very much.  I spent all of Friday in bed, asleep.  When I wasn't up, christening the bathrom, that is.  Thank GOD The Hubster was off until 4 and did the entire thing - carpools, practices, diapers, yadda yadda.  I drank nothing, I ate nothing.  Except some advil for my headache.  I woke during the night - lather, rinse, repeat.  During the night, The Hubster asked me, "Are you ok?"  "No.  I wish I was dead." was my groggy reply.

And today, well, I'm still standing. I keep spacing out, though.  I'm weak as can be, and have zero desire to eat.  I made myself drink a coke and have a few sips of egg drop soup.  I'm having my family over for dinner, since I'm as stupid as can be, and this was planned a month ago, and they don't react well to change. 

Can I use this as a weight loss tool?