HOLY SH*T... a.k.a. Finally, an Answer!

This morning when I woke up, my lip was swollen. Really swollen. As in, I needed to literally tuck it into my mouth to go get my daughter out of bed because even though I hadn't looked at it, I knew it was going to be scary! I went to wake her up and it was a little difficult to speak.

Looking in the mirror first thing in the morning is scary enough, but this was way over-the-top. HO. LY. SH*T. I looked like something out of one of the shows on the Discovery Health channel... The ones where they do an operation to remove the 112-pound tumor from the poor sap's face and they never look normal again.

After our (my lip's and my) shower, I woke Mr. Sunshine to show him - it was good to freak him out first thing in the morning - and got the girlie on the bus, then got some things cleaned and organized as I waited for the local Urgent Care to open for the day.

I hauled The Lip into Urgent Care, and let me just say how great they are there! After a few questions from the triage nurse (and concerned texts from friends as I waited), the PA that I saw deduced that I am, in fact, allergic to one of my medications! You see, this is not my first swelling incident. The first was in November, when I woke one morning with a swollen soft palette. The second was not too long ago - in fact, I wrote about it in February - my tongue swelled throughout the course of the night.

Oh my Lord, I am so happy to have an answer to this ongoing mystery! After picking up a scrip for Prednisone, being told to continue with Benadryl for 24 hours and of course being instructed to stop the medication and follow up with my PCP, I hit my phone to look at the side effects for the drug. Not only is facial swelling one, but so is coughing. Whaaaaat?? I've had this cough since Christmas!! I started taking this drug in October, and I read all of the literature that came with it. I don't recall any of this! No matter, though. Hindsight may be 20/20, but I'd rather look toward the future.

After Mr. Sunshine and I returned from our grocery and lunch run, the Benadryl had caught up with me and I zonked on the Magic Couch for a few hours. By the time I woke up, Freaky Lip had gone down quite a bit!

I'll leave you with these lovely shots. Happy nightmares... ;-)

We Coulda Been Twinnies...

I've been struggling with this assignment for days. Mel and Michele have asked us who our doppelgänger is, and I'll admit... it's been a challenge for me! I was considering asking for suggestions, but I was terrified that I'd get answers like Rosie O'Donnell or Mama June.

Then it dawned on me. It may not be as true anymore, but it was when we were kids. Unfortunately, I don't have any photos from when we were young, so you'll just have to use your imagination.

We met when we were only nine and ten, and the resemblance was undeniable. Cousins... Identical cousins!

Today we look a lot different, as different as our lives, but it was always fun trying to fool people when were together back in the day!

Me and my cousin Melody

Whew!

I love this feeling.  The feeling when you know that you technically don't have to look at another Girl Scout cookie again for eleven more months.  It's so...  liberating.

Now, don't get me wrong!  I love Girl Scouts and everything we stand for.  Why else would I have signed my daughter up for Daisies in Kindergarten, allow myself to be roped into a co-leader position the following year and now get sucked into a Service Unit leadership role?  (More on that in a moment...)  But let's just say that by the time the last couple of weeks of cookie season comes around and you've spent your weekends freezing your own cookies off outside of stores with your girls - hawking Thin Mints and Samoas - that the thrill is somehow gone.  So when Miss Sassypants sold her 1,000th box last Sunday afternoon outside of Sam's Club, I'm pretty sure I jumped for joy.  

I'm so proud of that little twerp!  She really does work her buns off.  She starts off the season in January by making a sales pitch video for her family and friends, and doesn't stop there.  Here is this year's video:

This year, I wasn't working during pre-sales, so I wasn't able to take the cookie sheet into the office to sell cookies for her.  And Mr. Sunshine refuses to take it into his work, but who's to blame him?  I mean...  he works in a prison.  So she ended Initial Sales with exactly 200 boxes sold.  Her goal was 1000, so that left (for those of us who are math-challenged) 800 boxes to sell at booths.  We knew she could do it...  the kid's a born salesperson!  So she sold and sold and sold.  She was at every single booth that our troop put on, no matter where it was or what the weather had in store.  

We were out there in 16-degree temperatures with wind chills in the negative numbers!  (Thank goodness for thermal underwear and snow pants!)  So I can very confidently say that she deserved to be happy and proud at this moment:

So what is this new role I got roped into?  Well, let's just say that there was alcohol involved.  Isn't that usually how it starts?  Anyway, you are now reading the musings of the new - Oh, what is it, now??  Internal Communications Coordinator for the Pegasus Service Unit for Girl Scout of NYPENN Pathways.  Lord help us all.  And what we don't do for our girls...

When I Come Back...

This time, Mel and Michele asked the loaded question, If you could walk in someone else's shoes for one day, who would you choose?  This was an easy one for me.  I always said that if there is such a thing as reincarnation, I'd love to come back as one of my family's pets.  Today, I choose Willie.

You came into this family tiny enough to fit into my hands, and you've been a pampered pup ever since.  You have your own chair at the dining room table, complete with a blankie to make it more comfy.  You have a car seat for road trips.  Milkbones are not good enough for you...  no!  Your treats are beef jerky and string cheese!  You have an eight-year-old little girl wrapped around your finger (or paw, as it were).  Mom has your face tattooed on her body, for Cripe's sake!!  Yes, when it comes to The Life...  you, sir, have got it.

Ladies and Gentlemen, for your consideration...  

Willie Jo Mosher

(Utterly humiliated in his bellhop costume that Miss Sassypants ordered up for him...)

And I am so totally not joking about my mother's tattoo...

She doesn't have a tattoo of my face on her anywhere!!

So Far, So Good

We're nearing the second full week of the new job, and I'm starting to feel at home there.  I've got some of my photos and a few of my personal things up; I feel more comfortable with the tasks that I've been given; I'm getting to know the people I work with better; I even have my own filing cabinet now!  

Normally, my schedule is Monday through Thursday...  8:30 a.m. til 2:00.  Today as I was talking to my boss, she asked me what time Miss Sassypants got off the bus and she said, "Oh, that won't help for tomorrow."  I reminded her that I didn't work on Fridays, and she was like, "Oh, yeah!"  I asked if she needed me, and she said Sure.  So I get an extra day this week.  Woo hoo...  more money!  Plus, I still get to take the time off for our Girl Scout troop's trip to Washington, DC.  She's going to let me make the time up by working extra days I normally don't.  :-)

In other news, we're coming to that time where some of Sassy's friends' bodies are starting to change.  I guess that means that Sass isn't far behind.  As we moms were talking at our Girl Scout planning Monday evening, we kind of decided that it was getting about that time to have "That Talk" with our girls.  Ugh...  Puberty.  How in the heck do you even do that??  I vaguely remember my mom talking to me about it, and I remember trying to hide my first period from my mom and my Gram.  Yeah...  that worked like a charm!  So on the way home that night, I dipped my toe into the pool by having a preliminary "Talk" with the Sass.  I just asked her if she remembered how I told her that pretty soon, hers and her friends' bodies were going to start to change, and asked her if she knew any of the changes that would happen.  Of course, she knew about boobies.  We talked briefly about the other things that would happen, and she seemed OK with what we spoke about.  Now, none of these changes have started happening with her (thank goodness), but I know that soon we'll have to go deeper into this conversation.  The three of us mothers are trying to figure out the best ways to do this, and so far we've come up with this set of books that American Girl has put out:

There is also a program that is put on by Girl Scouts that we're considering having presented to our entire troop - they're third- and fourth-graders.  I'm sure we're not the only moms struggling with how to talk to their girls about this one!

I guess it's really no wonder that I've had a headache for four days straight...

Back in the World of the Employed

And apparently, not a moment too soon!  Just today, I received an e-mail from they New York State Department of Labor that informed me, among other things...

Beginning with the week ending April 7th, federal government budget cuts known as sequestration could affect your unemployment insurance benefits. If you are receiving regular UI benefits you will NOT see any change. However, if you are receiving federal extended unemployment benefits that start after 26 weeks, the federal government has directed us to reduce your payments by 10.7% beginning that first week in April. 

As if we didn't already know, this country is in the toilet.  10.7%?  Are you kidding me??  Not two months ago Mr. President was on TV stating that "all Americans who were actively looking for a job would continue to have the benefits to rely on."  How are you supposed to do that?  

So I started my new job on Monday.  It's so unnerving!  On the plus side, though, everyone there has just been so welcoming.  I walked in to a clean cubicle, a new computer and a stocked desk caddy.  I'm starting to learn the ropes, including the computer programs I'll be using and the procedures to follow for some of the tasks I'll be doing.  Insurnace benefits verification is a cinch...  I did that in my old job.  Only now, it's Durable Medical Equipment instead of Mental Health benefits.  By the end of the week, I had some cheat sheets, photos of my family and a filing cabinet too.  We're getting there!  I just can't wait to feel more comfortable with what I'm doing and to have a routine.  

I'll admit...  being out of the workforce for ten months, I didn't realize what an adjustment it would be to go back!  I'm only working five and a half hours a day, four days a week, but by the end of that first day I had a splitting headache from sitting in front of a computer screen.  I couldn't shake that all day!  And wow...  that day totally wiped me out!  I was so tired that by 7:00, I was ready for bed.  Pathetic, no?  When it was Sassy's beditme, I let her read her book out on the couch instead of in bed just because I didn't want to move.  I was in bed by 9:00, which is unheard of for me.  It was a good thing, though.  I need this.  And it got better as the week went on.  I felt a headache come on Tuesday, and I nipped it in the bud.  No more headaches for the rest of the week.  My boss was out of the office on Wednesday, which was good for me because it gave me a mental break - kind of let the pressure off for me and also let me have a chance to get to know my coworkers a little better.  It was also a terrible day weather-wise, so it was quite slow as far as business, which gave us all a chance to get caught up on work.  By Thursday, I had gotten more training and praise from my boss, which was great.

Friday was my day off, which was much-needed, but so busy!  I had to have my car serviced, do Girl Scout business, get groceries, then finally go to my mom's.  On to the weekend!

By the way, here's my little home-away-from-home.  It still needs some personal touches...

It's awfully hard to reach into that back corner...