The WAHM Question of the Week this week is:

Do you work on holidays?

As with most work-related things that’s flexible with me depending on what’s going on in life. This past holiday I did a little bit of coding work but not much else, often times unless it’s a BIG holiday like Yule or Thanksgiving I will work partially because I have a hard time keeping track of when actually is a holiday as my husband’s job is not one where he gets standard holidays off unless his schedule falls that way or he books it in advance.
There have been many times friends have called up or messaged me, “Why is your site saying you’re available for readings right now?” and I’ve said, “Well, the munchkin is napping so I thought I would take advantage as I don’t have any readings booked.”
“But it’s President’s Day!”
“It is?”
This year he is taking off July 4th so I will not do any work either as we’ll be spending the day with friends at their annual barbeque and fireworks extravaganza (wildfire’s allowing) but we’re not often so lucky, especially if it’s a big holiday that everyone is fighting to get off if they’re not scheduled. There have been times he’s actually been at work Christmas Day itself. His first year at the PD was particularly bad for holiday work as he was the rookie and had no seniority the PD itself isn’t closed to it’s officers only office staff because “crime never takes a vacation” and so on those situations we make our own holidays and have a different day we’ll take off and spend together with family.

Cecile does a weekly wrap up of all the QOTW answers. To see last week’s wrap up check How Do You Celebrate Your Birthday?; at the end of this week she’ll have wrap up of the other answers to this question, so be sure to check back with her site!

When I was in high school my Dad went all around our area looking for a pontoon boat. Having a boat and a house with water access was the concession for us moving out of the woods and into the city.
The pontoon boat was pretty cool, but needed work. Dad got the pontoons replaced and then went around and about looking for a boat cover. Eventually we found a pontoon boat cover at a local merchant, for many of the reasons cited in the article on boatcoversadvice.com. It’s hard to keep the boat clean, and if you’re stuck out on a lake when it’s cold and wet the cover can double as a wind and water shield. It kept us dry many times, although it could be very hard to put on as snug as it was. It took us several months to get the cover on our boat. Dad wanted things customized and that meant a lot more negotiations and work, and one of the big things I disliked about the cover was all the work we had to put in to maintain it. We would have to wipe things down, spray off the plastic window parts.
Overall the issue with keeping things clean didn’t compare to the fun we had out on the lakes on the boat; but when you’re a teenager these things make you whiny and pouty because it’s just so horrible that you’re parents are expecting you to work.

Part of the reason I’ve been so AFK lately has been that I’ve not been AFK just AFB (away from blog). I came up with a way to re-design Shades of Blue that I thought would make it easier for me to actually maintain and update BUT it turned out that what I thought would work with a WordPress layout actually wouldn’t. So, I’ve had a rethink and I’ve done some more re-design, and hopefully things will actually work.
Part of the site was a blog from the perspective of Mizuno Ami. I’ve convered that to a Wordpress blog, and am putting another section of the site “Ask Ami” in with it, and I’m thinking I might convert the galleries to Coppermine as those are the main portion which can still be updated as I get more screen shots of things slowly but surely.

We’ll see if I do that, which would mean a third layout to be made, and the site might not have a consistent or workable look. I may yet just convert everything over to Ami’s Journal, although I’m really liking the main page layout as it looks right now and don’t want to lose that. This is what I get for going in half-thought out. Generally I plan out sections for a site and how it should look, but on this one I just went, “Oh, this is a GREAT way for me to actually learn how to .php/WP code rather than finding a layout someone else has made changing the graphics and keeping most of the code, just changing a few sizes here and there (as I did with this layout and well, all the others I’ve made up until now). It HAS taught me a lot about .php and how WP layouts code, but I wasn’t able to make it work with the layout I had done. I had to admit defeat. Which as my husband loves to tease brings about ‘Geek Rage’ to a certain degree. Coding is a battle for me, and I hate to lose.

It’s been five days since I last updated here. I can’t believe it!
It has been pretty busy the past few days though. We finally have a second car again. I’m not sure if I mentioned that before. We managed to get a 1999 Oldsmobile Intrigue for my husband. The owner knocked $200 off the price when he saw we had the munchkin and the car had been recommended to us for purchase by our mechanic so that was really nice. We knew it would be running well.
Today my car is getting it’s transmission pan fixed, finally.
Sunday I took my Mum out to lunch and we had a girl’s day around the mall, which we haven’t done in a while because I haven’t been able to stay out that long before if I had the car and hubbie was working.
Yesterday we visited my ILs, and they looked after the munchkin while we got to meet up with some friend’s and see “Pirates of the Caribbean 3: At World’s End” that was amazing. I liked it a lot better than “Dead Man’s Chest”. I felt it was more on a par with the way the first one was, less slapstick less annoying bits.
That was a nice end to the day though, as the day started out a bit yucky, with us finding out that the munchkin had taken his diaper off in the early hours of the morning and painted his poop all over the place. There’s nothing like going in too a strong smell of poop and finding your son has a brown face, brown hands, brown front…ewwwww. He was so pleased with himself too.
I need to find where I put my digital camera so I can do Self Portrait Sunday next week.

If you could stop imitating a banshee that would be great. I’m right next to you. If you say “Mama” I will hear it so you really don’t have to make my ears bleed and all the glass in the house shatter with this shrieking noise.

I would also really appreciate it if I could go to the bathroom by myself. I’m a big girl. I don’t need your help, especially when that help is you trying to knock everything down off the bathroom counter, run off with the toilet brush or plunger, or flush the toilet while I’m trying to go; also, toilet water is Nasty so don’t try to lift the lid and play in the toilet bowl. It’s great that you wait until I’m washing my hands before trying to do something like that. Thank you, again.
Where did you get my underwear from? Never mind. I don’t want to know. Just put it back. It does not need to be out in the hallway or on the kitchen floor. Don’t shriek at me when I take it off you, don’t you remember what I just said? Right here. No ear bleeding, thank you.

I’ve said it before and I’ve said it again the dishwasher and the cooker are both off limits to you. I’m not the wicked witch from Hansel and Gretel I don’t want to roast you for dinner and you get bathed regularly so you don’t need to go in to the washer.

You have your own food you don’t need mine. Tipping all yours out onto your tray and then waving the empty bowl at me is not going to get you more. Mummy’s pretty smart. She knows you still have food.

Why do you have such bad survival instincts? You want to run off whenever we’re going somewhere and try to climb up the concrete stairs to the rest of the apartment complex, or run out in the road…I swear you want to climb up on our bed just to throw yourself off into the trunk. I don’t understand it at all. Hopefully when you’re older you’ll begin to understand that all these “No”’s are not because Mummy and Daddy are cruel, mean people they’re because we don’t want you to get hurt.

The WAHM Question of the Week this week is:

How do you like to celebrate your birthday?

I’m not one for huge parties so I like to spend times with friends and family. One of my favorite things to do for my birthday is go to our local tepponyaki and sushi restaurant and eat there and then just hang out and game with friends.

Cecile does a weekly wrap up of all the QOTW answers. To see last week’s wrap up check What time do you get up in the morning?; at the end of this week she’ll have wrap up of the other answers to this question, so be sure to check back with her site!

Well, this would have been sooner but the computer mouse decided to bite the dust this morning. I blame the munchkin for this as he would constantly sneak over to the desk and knock down the old one and disappear with it. I would suddenly see the computer screen going crazy and find him in the kitchen banging the upside down mouse on the floor and giggling his little head off. Our I would find it halfway down the hall wet and sticky from him apparently chewing on it. It was only a matter of time before it bit the dust. That’s what I get for thinking the wireless mouse would be a better way to go because there would be no cord for him to strangle himself in.

As for important things, LOL. My tattoo.
Several of you guessed what the last word on my tattoo was, Mary got it right. The last word on my tattoo is: DUTY. It’s constantly getting misread as dirty however. o.O I’m not sure why people think that something which says TRUTH and HONOR would then say dirty, but people are strange. Of course it takes one to know one.

I got the tattoo in April 2001. My grandfather died that previous January and while we were visiting relatives in the UK for his funeral I came to my senses about the abusive relationship I was in.
When I decided to leave I decided to mark the occasion and commemorate him with the tattoo, cementing my resolve to honor certain things such as truth, and that my first duty was to myself and my own ideals, as well as to my family. Never again would I let someone manipulate me away from being true to myself; I would honor my beliefs. The cross is for my grandfather who died, the words I would think explain themselves from what I just said. The scythe because it was death which caused the realization, also because death in tarot (which I read) is the closing of one door which opens new prospects; also the fact that I have a mini-obsession with Death imagery.

The tattoo is a many layered symbol. I hope with my second tattoo I can find something as deeply meaningful. I’ve been trying to sketch certain ideas out for some time but I can’t come up with anything that looks right.
I want to incorporate a pentacle or a pentagram as a symbol of my pagan faith, of being in balance now, and for protection; an ankh, again because of the Death symbolism but also the life symbol because I have given life to my son. I’d like some Celtic knotwork in there if I can because those are my roots my family is primarily from Scotland…I used to have a pentacle where the star was surrounded by a ring of knots. I also used to have a pentacle necklace that a dear friend got me for my birthday last year which was a pentacle with an ankh laid across the star. It was a ‘hold-over’ because she knew I wanted the tattoo. Unfortunately the necklace broke and the pendant disappeared somewhere in the mall

The wildfires down here are getting more than a little scary. I really get apprehensive when I go outside to go somewhere and it sounds like all of our neighbors are having wood fire barbeques at the same time.
Many of my friends have been experiencing ash covering their cars. We haven’t had that itself, but the smoke is still in the air strongly enough that it stings your eyes and makes them water if you go outside for very long and that you can’t breathe properly. I keep hacking up mucus which I haven’t done (outside of being sick) since we visited London. It’s gross!

One of our friends works for Animal Control and got called on to alert over the weekend because the fires are getting closer.

I sincerely hope that we get a hurricane before the entire state is just a giant wildfire.

From the Orlando Sentinel.

This is the way the fires looked for Florida a week ago. I haven’t been able to find a more recent fire map right now; I’m hoping there’s less; but the lack of rain we’ve been having…it’s probably pie in the sky.

I’m working really well here. I thought yesterday was Saturday and then I missed doing one of the Saturday memes anyway because of other things; and well…now I realize it was actually Sunday after all. I think it’s going to be ‘one of those weeks’ at this rate; but at least I have not missed paying any bills that’s the main thing.

So, anyway…

Like last time I was late I’ve done two; but they’re not necessarily going to be embarrassing (any more than any picture of myself is). The top one is taken from the counter just behind my computer, so that’s the computer screen in the bottom of the photo.
The second one is my tattoo. We’re talking about getting me a second one, but I need to decide what I want yet. I don’t think I’m going to do text on this next one because it’s a bit hard to read on this one. Tell me what you think the last word is: Truth, Honor…?
Self Portrait Sunday is a digital meme started by Cass to find out about participating in it yourself go to .
To see the other participants this week (who actually knew what day it was) go to DigiCass.

We no longer have Medicaid after all. Well, actually that’s not strictly true: the munchkin still qualifies for a program called “Medically Needy” which apparently means that we have a monthly deductible, which looks like it will be around $2000 and if his expenses exceed that they will pay for his care.
Somehow I doubt we’ll ever qualify for the munchkin to have coverage again given since the febrile seizure in October of last year, and the tonsilitis and early stage ear infection from the following December he’s been health as a horse.

I was going through our filing cabinet today trying to find a copy of the deductions for the health insurance from my husband’s employer so I can file paperwork for state insurance, and while doing so I found the bills for when the munchkin was born. I had never really paid attention to just how much they were.

From the time he was actually born alone these are the specific fees from the hospital:
Anesth (Epidural)/Delivery 4/26: $950.00
C-Section Anesthetic add-on 4/26: $800.00
Daily Drug Therapy 4/26: $142.00
In Patient Stay (Mother) 4/25-4/29: $6356.00
Initial Care, Normal Newborn 4/27: $112.00

For a grand total of: $8360

$8360 that’s almost as much as I paid for a year of college: tuition with room & board.

That’s not counting two ultrasounds of $300, two false alarm late night E.R. trips of around $650 each. Various bloodwork and urine tests panels ranging from $15-320; and the numerous pre-natal visits of $250 each. These all thankfully had co-pays at the time.

Oh, and the post-partum trip to the E.R. because I got an infection: $536 plus prescriptions!

I think my favorite bill though is the one which says.
[Baby Name] 4/26-4/29: 0.00

That’s the one that speaks the most truth. You can’t put a price tag on such a precious gift.