Update on missing Swiffer Wet Jet goodies...

Now, I wasn't going to mention any vendor names or anything because I know it truly was not her fault why I did not get my product. Like I mentioned in my earlier post a couple of days ago, it most likely was either ripped off at the post office OR due to the enormous volume of mail at this time of year, came open during shipping and the products fell out. My guess is probably that it came out due to shipping...

I had first heard about MooCowMomma's Etsy shop through some bloggy giveaways that she was having. I am trying to be more green as far as household goodies go, and although I didn't win her giveaway, I did keep her in my list of Etsy favorites so I could go back and purchase some Swiffer Wet Jet pads for my mop at a later date. I loved her cute designs and placed my order...but as you all know-just the envelope arrived.

I emailed Barb and told her what had happened. Of course, she was concerned and after a few emails back and forth I sent her a photo of the package with the sticker from USPS saying it was received without contents and opened when it arrived at my zip code. One of my worries was that she would think I was trying to get something for nothing.. I have seen stories and read about people like that on Ebay, refunding sites etc... and know that as a vendor she also can only do what she can to rectify the situation. Of course, I let her know I would order again once my finances (two kids birthdays and Christmas are not good for someone who gets paid biweekly and only has 2 checks in Dec.!) were back in order and also would be willing to pay extra for shipping insurance as well. See, I REALLY want my chile pepper sweepers, lol!

I went back to work and forgot about it, and was surprised to see another email from her when I came back home. And that email made my day...and also proved to me that MooCowMomma cares-I am very impressed by the level of customer service Barb has for her customers. She told me that she would send me a NEW set, and they'd be shipped out on a few days. Well, let me tell you that was a HUGE surprise and something I never imagined would happen. But it did, and that is why I am letting you all know. Because I will definitely be shopping again at her Etsy shop for more sweepers and other products she carries as well. Thanks Barb, I appreciate your great customer service and communication with me in regards to this issue. Check out her website folks, you might find something for yourself or for a friend as well.

On The Mend...

I can finally say that I am starting to feel like myself. This past week I shivered, trembled, puked, coughed, gagged, sweat, sneezed, cried and just plain felt like crap. With a capital C that is.

I have allergies to dust and cat dander. Which is why I should NOT have FOUR cats nor put off dusting for more than a week. Summer isn't that bad, as the windows are open and the fresh air comes in. Winters can be brutal, with my forced hot air heat ducts blowing dust, fur, dander and Lord knows what else up into the house. The air is dry, and nosebleeds are common. A new humidifier is on the wish list-but until then, I deal with the scratchy throat, dry eyes and general miserable feeling daily.

Tuesday began like any other day, I blew my nose a few times, sneezed and got up and got ready for work. Usually for the first few hours my sinuses have to adjust to getting up and being in a different environment, so I will sneeze and sniffle and blow my nose for the first few hours until my nose gets it. Then I am fine for the rest of the day.

Tuesday I went home for lunch, and started to get the sniffles. Well, I really didn't think much of it, and continued back to work. During the afternoon the sniffles became postnasal drip, and a sore throat accompanied by a general feeling of feeling like shit. I knew I was in for something good-because by the end of the day I had every possible muscle aching (even ones I didn't know I had!) and just wanted to curl up in a ball and lie down.

Once I got home, I did exactly just that. But I couldn't sleep, the drip, the aches and the headache and fever kept me awake and miserable. I began to curse not so silently as I lie there, pissed because there would be no turkey dinner and no Black Friday shopping. I knew I was down and out for the count... and not bouncing back anytime soon.

Around 4 am I called my supervisor and left a message, saying I wouldn't be in. Thankfully, a few hours later I finally fell asleep-which is around the time that I normally get up to go to work. I took my temperature several times during the day, and got regular readings of 101-102. My mother wanted me to go to the ER, that was the LAST place I wanted to go if my immune system was already weakened.

Turkey Day came and went, as did Black Friday. Both days I spent huddled in my bed, with a wet facecloth over my eyes, trying to get some sleep. I did get up from time to time, when I couldn't breathe, and managed to read some blogs and enter some giveaways. But I just wasn't feeling it... and probably made tons of entry errors as I halfheartedly tried to get back to normal. Hubby, bless his heart, braved the BF crowds and went to Walmart to get me the $18 microwave. I always like to have a spare, so this will wait in a closet someplace until my present one dies.

Today I feel better-at least I can function although I still feel lazy and wiped out. The fever has gone away, and I am left with a bit of a dry, hacking cough. But I can live with that. I am not sure what I had--a virus, the seasonal flu or even H1N1. I can tell you it was much worse than the common cold, due to the fever and tremendous body aches. And I will probably feel wiped out for another week or so as my body begins its recovery.

I can only hope your holiday was better than mine... so far no one else has gotten ill, although my son did have a 24 hr virus which was quite a bit different from what I felt. (and knowing him, was probably more focused on his eating 3 different holiday meals with obscene amounts of hot sauce...I think his stomach said "Enough!" and refused to cooperate until he rid himself of some of that food, lol) In the meantime, the turkey is waiting until NEXT weekend, when we'll be celebrating Deja's birthday!

Watch your mail!!!!

A couple of weeks ago, I ordered some Eco-Friendly Swiffer Wet Jet reusable pads from Etsy and waited for them to arrive. I've been sicker than a dog with either H1N1 or the regular flu since Wednesday afternoon, so I missed out on turkey, Black Friday and of course all the fun that goes along with that stuff.

I got the message from the Etsy seller that my package was shipped and although I have been pretty darn weak, I was going to bribe a teenager into mopping the kitchen floor once my pads arrived. Plus they were in a cute pattern that I had picked out, and I was so looking forward to getting my cute pads AND helping the environment as well by not using the throw away ones.

Man, was I bummed today when I got the envelope from hubby. It was flatter than a pancake and the USPS had put a sticker with checkmarks on the front saying: Received Unsealed and Received Without Contents. Apparently, someone at the postage facility decided they liked my sweeper pads and thought they'd make a good gift for the wife or mother in law...

Of course, I emailed the poor vendor to let her know. I don't blame her for anything, and the package wasn't slit in any way. She did use just the gummed sticky strip from the mailer, and no reinforcement tape so perhaps it actually did come out with shipping and the post office isn't to blame either. These things just happen due to this time of year and all the cards, mail and packages that are going out. I didn't insure my package, and I doubt she did either-I just wanted her to be aware that they didn't arrive. I will probably order more after the holidays-with kids birthdays and Christmas I doubt I will have funds to order much before then. Hubby, bless him, felt so bad he gave me 5 bucks and asked me to see if I could find another one on Etsy because I was so worked up. Amazingly I did find a set of 2 from another vendor, and free shipping to boot... for $5. (and that is probably due to the sales going on for Cyber Monday and Black Friday) But I still want my other ones too!!! Sigh... those, like all good things, will have to wait.

But just make sure when shipping out packages to use plenty of tape, especially this time of year as the volume of packages shipped goes up tremendously. (and the thieves are out as well, if not in the PO then perhaps in your neighborhood following the mail truck and taking your packages if you aren't home) The contents of my package were about $14 or so-not huge, but not something I can afford to replace immediately either.

So the kitchen floor awaits, sticky, grubby and totally nasty. I did manage to get a teenager to sweep it, which is a good thing considering the ones that live in my house have a hard time keeping their own room clean. Hubby has volunteered to mop the floor tomorrow, but it is not his idea of a weekend of rest since he cleans floors for a living lol. Plus all those nasty chemicals, while they will clean the floor, they won't be healthy for kids or cats. (and believe me, he uses the STRONG stuff meant for industrial cleaning!)

So don't forget people, watch your holiday mail, contact people to make sure it gets to its destination, and be sure to be good about packaging due to the heavy mail volume at this time of year. Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday-or at least much better than mine, which was mostly spent in bed shivering with a fever of 101-102!

Weekend Fun at Build a Bear

This past weekend we went to the Build a Bear Workshop in the Bangor Mall and had fun making Deja's latest friend, Snow Angel. Deja had saved up her allowance money and got her cute little friend a very nice sparkly angel outfit and some matching white shoes...

It was fun for me because we had gotten an awesome coupon for any $12.00 animal for free or $12 off a larger animal. Deja fell in love with the cute little dog that was already $12 so her new furry friend was free-and she used her money she'd saved up to buy the clothing.

Build a Bear is lots of fun, and lots of kids were having fun making their animals, buying additional clothing and interacting with the elves hidden throughout the store. (Deja got a little pamphlet that had a black dot, you swiped the black dot over a spot on the elf and they talked to you)

When we got back home she continued to have fun by going online and registering her animal and playing in Build a Bearville, which kept her busy for several hours. I can't believe how much fun it was for me as a mom to watch her make her stuffed animal...geez, I wish we'd had this when I was a kid! Hmmm, wonder if anyone would say anything to see a forty something mom making her OWN stuffed animal... (guess I can always say it's for the kids!)

Also, my little grandson decided to visit me again and smile for the camera as he sat in his walker. It's too funny, because he goes everywhere, mostly backwards right now--but is determined to find a way to get what he wants... so it looks like I really need to baby proof the house now! He will be 6 months already on Dec. 5th, time sure flies!

The Blessed Event has started!

Check out my sidebar for the Blessed Event going on at Happily Domestic. If you have a little one or know of someone who does, there will be $1,000 in prizes to win! Her first giveaway is a Kolcraft Bassinet--what a way to kick off this event!

Head on over and check out the ways you can get extra entries too, but hurry-you need to do it by November 30th! See you there and GOOD LUCK!

Grandma got to babysit!

This weekend the kids went to see 2012 so I was home babysitting... it was lots of fun and Deja and I had a great time watching our SciFi movie with the little guy next to us. (unfortunately the heavy rains caused our Dish network to go out several times during the best parts of the movie!)

Now I really wanted to watch 2012 this weekend myself, but hubby was working and so my son and his girlfriend took a desperately needed date night and got some time to themselves to act like...well teenagers. (since in effect they still ARE teenagers at 15 and 16 years old!) Being a parent is hard enough, being a teen parent is even harder.

I managed to get some time in to several craft fairs earlier in the day and succeeded in getting the cats drunk on catnip filled goodies, as Stubby plainly shows in the photo above. For those wondering, Stubby's tail is not cropped, he is an American Bobtail from what I have been told. The kitchen floor was very messy, I was all out of Swiffer wetjet liquid and sweepers. Oh well-mopping floors is not something I like to do, so I was willing to let it go this weekend :) And with all the spilled catnip, it probably was a good thing anyways.

I made the kids promise not to tell me about 2012. I didn't want to spoil the surprise. They came home around midnight and were clearly pumped up from the movie...and they began to tell me all about...you guessed it! I will still see the movie, however maybe now I can wait until it comes out on video if hubby and I can't make it to the movies this weekend.

Work has been super busy, and today was a classic Monday. But we all made it through the day even though it was very exhausting. Not to mention that my darn car didn't start at lunchtime since my alternator had died. It just wasn't my day! This will be my fourth stupid alternator with a LIFETIME GUARANTEE from AutoZone. They are insistent that it is something in my car that is causing the alternators to go bad, but we took it to the dealership and they looked at it, put it on their diagnostic machine and said it was the alternator. So tomorrow I gear up for another fight with them as they try to get out of replacing it for the fifth time in a little over a year. Wish me luck!

I may not get the chance to blog again until the weekend. But wishing you all a great week!

My Two Soccer Nuts

Just thought I would share a photo of my two soccer fans... Deja loves to sit down with daddy and watch the game-back in Sept. she went to her first LIVE game and here she is enjoying herself at Gillette Stadium in MA with dad. Now to take her to that first concert.... she's been asking to go to one so am looking for a good one to take her to. In July she went to a Fishercats and Seadogs baseball game... and now she is asking to go to NASCAR races too...sigh... now if only the tickets were free or grew on trees, lol!

Hubby is Sick... tests being done.

Hubby is sick.... I just don't know how sick yet. For the past week he's had a swollen area in his left inguinal groin area. Ok, so I was thinking hernia. No big deal, people get them all the time. And he does lift heavy stuff and machinery in his line of work from time to time.

So being the wife I am, I scolded him and told him that if it didn't go away he'd have to go to the doctors. And then I waited about a week, it grew bigger, and I called the doc to make an appointment.

So we went to the doctor yesterday and of course it was a newbie. (we go to a place where we have residents working for a couple of years under the regular doctors.) He examines him and then goes out to get the regular doc. The regular doc comes in and feels around and then they both leave the room to "talk." By then, I am squirming a little uncomfortably in my seat.

Newbie doc #1 comes in and tells us it is not a hernia. Um, that much I figured out by the way they were acting. Then he says we needed to go to the hospital-that same day after we left our appointment with him-to get blood work and a CAT Scan done. Having lost my dad this past Feb. to a 5cm mass in his lung I knew what they were thinking.

So I call in to work for the rest of the day, knowing I most likely will be at the hospital. We go to Preregistration and he gets his blood work done and we head to the Radiography area. As we are walking, the lady from registration comes running to us and gives us a paper saying to take it to the Radiography Dept. with us. I glance down at the paper and it says, "Patient has a 3cm mass in left inguinal canal not consistent with a hernia." Uh-oh. And the doctor wanted the results the same day, not a week or so down the line like a normal scan would go.

So we head to Radiography who doesn't even know we are coming. They are super busy, but the nice girl who does the CAT scans tells us hubby has to drink that yucky white stuff and come back in a little over an hour. So we head home and lucky for him his buddy Mario is outside working on a car so while he is drinking that nasty substance he has someone to talk to, not to mention laughing at him because of the faces he makes while drinking it. I of course being my paranoid self hop on the computer and start researching things out. Some explanations of what he has going on are not serious, some are. It gives me a little hope knowing this could just be an infection and that he will be fine when he gets some antibiotics.

So we head back to the hospital and I go with him for the CAT scan. That goes just fine, but we don't leave till a little after three. And of course we are both starving, so head to Wendy's so he can eat. Around 5 pm before the doctor office closes I call and leave a message with the receptionist telling her I am waiting for a call. The doctor doesn't call me until around 6:30, apologizing because it took the radiologist longer than anticipated to read the film. He then goes on to tell me all blood work is fine, and that he was calling in hubby a Z-pack to take beginning today. He explains that the Scan showed enlarged lymph nodes, one bigger than the others and a few that are also a little big. He is going to need a follow up appointment in a week he says, and then irregardless of taking the Z-pack we are going to schedule a biopsy. So now we wait.... he starts the Z-pack today and then a biopsy is going to be in the not too distant future.

I seriously hope it is just an infection. Or something weird going on in his body that goes away and is nothing to worry about. I'm headed to work now, to take my mind off things. I tend to dwell on them too much. I will post again with an update as I know what's going on...

Snowmen...

Lately life has been so busy it only seems like I have time to blog on the weekends... It is funny how there are never enough hours in the day to do what you NEED to do-and by the time you do them, you are too darn pooped to do the things you WANT to do!

I still can't believe we have snow on the ground here. Earlier this week it snowed and although it has melted quite a bit it still lingers on the sides of the roads and in the yards. Yesterday my son, his girlfriend and Deja played out in the yard making snowmen. I came home from lunch to find two huge snowmen in front of where I park my car. This being a family blog and all, I did not take any photos when I saw that my teen son made his snowman "truly a man" in that he made him anatomically correct. I saw him waiting in his window with a big smile as I pulled into the yard and saw what he had done. (lucky for him, his sister did NOT) Said appendage was promptly removed and I threatened to turn my son into a Eunich if he so much as attempted building another anatomically correct snowman again. Unfortunately for me, the lady next door had let her daughter out into the yard and her daughter saw something she probably shouldn't have. These people are kind of funny in some ways, and I thought for sure she would flip a lid. But since she lets her 2 year old son run around the yard buck naked in the summertime in the middle of the hood I am sure his 4 year old sister knew exactly what she was looking at. But at least she didn't complain to me... which was a relief. Nothing against anatomically correct snowmen of course, but my son made the stupid thing look like it combined a few Viagra with some Extenz lol (hubby smiled when he saw it... he thought it was a hoot. And I am sure Fedex and UPS and the mailman who all showed up that day enjoyed it as well.)

So I am off to do laundry, and then work some OT tomorrow. Hubby is off in RI buying me some chiles rellenos, tamales and other Guatemalan foods bless his heart. Have a great weekend everyone!

NovaSure, Post Op Experience

It's been a about 6 weeks or so that I had my NovaSure surgery, and I really don't know what to think. The doctor who did it told me to expect some leaking and stuff (eww! I know, TMI) for 4-6 weeks and I would know how my periods would turn out in about 3 months.

I have to admit, I was excited. I had heard of others who had heavy periods who now have nothing at all. Or if they do, the results are minimal and they can live with it. So I have endured the past 6 weeks of light spotting, and the watery leaking with panty liners and low flow pads. I figured after having my uterine walls burned off and a D & C to boot that inside is just one big ole wound that needs to heal. I've seen my kids get cuts and scrapes, and seen how they leak at times onto the Bandaids, so figured well, that is what my uterus is doing right now.

My period was pretty regular at about every 3 weeks or so... it would always come a week earlier than the month before so I could effectively plan for Aunt Flo's visit. Now, that system is a bit screwed up. I have to admit I was surprised on Halloween to have a backache and the low, dull pain in my lower back and abdomen that announces her arrival every month. I was foolish enough to honestly believe that I could get a reprieve and that she would never grace my doorstep again... or at least MY uterus lol... (with a 7 yr. old daughter, I know she will be waiting in the wings somewhere until the time is right.)

Sure enough, she made her appearance known yesterday. I've gone from panty liners to the heavier pads I wore pre-surgery. I know I am not filling them up as quickly as before, but it is still surprising to have a period this early into the game. Especially when everything had been cleaned out. I have this feeling that it is still early, give it time-and my periods will be right back to where I was prior to my surgery. I'm obviously disappointed and hope that I'm wrong of course, but given what has happened so far I am drawing my own conclusions.

So I am going to wait the full 3 months and see what happens when my body finally regulates itself. And look for good deals on pads at the stores in the meantime, lol. Because for some reason-I don't think Aunt Flo has stopped her monthly visits with me yet!

Giveaways around the Blogosphere

Head on over to Shop Annie's before November 29th to win a Brugo Mug! If you win, I will be jealous, because I love the Jazz collection's bright colors!

Keeper of the Home currently has a great giveaway going on through Nov. 3rd where you can enter to win a Memento keychain or earrings!

If you love cooking, check out Mommys A Waitress. You can win a prize pack from Callisons (1 PACKAGE OF THE SEASONED HICKORY BBQ MEDUIM SKEWERS AND 1 BOTTLE OF THE 3.7 OZ GARLIC HERB SEASONED SALTS)but be sure to get in that entry before Nov. 22nd!

Good Luck!