This may actually work. Huh.

Lawn of the month

Goes to us. This makes me giggle since the plant life is only beginning to come up. We got the award the very last month last year and now the very first month of this spring/summer.

My tulips are in the throes of death though they came up beautifully for a first year planting. Very tall and sturdy with one caveat: they weren't the color I ordered! I had purple, pink and one peppermint tulip. This goes well with my color theme of purples, pinks and blues but I wanted dark purple tulips. Damnit.

The bearded iris I planted last year is coming up with at least 3 blooms. Only greenery showed up last year. My neighbor planted two more irises on my side since only the one deigned to grow. There's also a tiny morning glory beginning to grow by the lamppost. Hopefully it'll continue to grow and wrap around the pole. Between that and the sweet pea, the front part will be covered in flowers.

All of the various lilies which barely made it between the bloody chipmunks and roofing contractors are coming up strong. The four asiatic lilies are huge and getting ready to bloom. Now if I could only remember colors of the other two varieties I'd be set.

My dahlias are coming up again this year. I half-assed conserved them over the winter. I decided if any came up all was golden otherwise who gives a rat's ass since we're moving. Nope, they are coming up strong with tomato cages surrounding them in eager anticipation of their growth. I liked how well the dahlia's bloomed last year I bought dwarf dahlia's for the front of the beds. If we had the time here I'd be growing the fire red dahlia's in the yard. Stunning doesn't give them justice.

I've also lost quite a bit of what I planted in the fall thanks to the aforementioned evil chipmunks. None of the lenten roses I planted on the side survived the chipmunks. Apparently they had a field day in digging tunnels through everything there and stole my bulbs.

My widow's tears are only growing on one side. This is okay since I planted the dahlia's on the other. The liatris are a crap shoot. They started sprouting last year and I don't know what'll happen now. It's quite possible they'll come up late if they weren't killed off by the frost. The poppy anemone's are coming up slowly. Only one bloom as arrived so far. This might be the only one for the season with next year showing stronger growth.

Things are still very sparse and yet we got Lawn of the Month. At least it's better then last year when things were dying. It was the wee fence I put in to corral the mulch which made the day.

Lost in the shuffle

A few weeks back the school nurse sent home paperwork for Brendan's kindergarten dental checkup. We never got it done in the first place and were under a new deadline. Not a problem. I got Brendan in the dentist on my day off yesterday.

He did great with his first round of mouth x-rays ever. Chatted up a storm with the person doing the x-rays. I could hear him down the hall. He loved the bubble gum toothpaste for his cleaning and sat through the fluoride coating like a champ. Everything went great until I had to set up an appointment for his getting the molars sealed. He's not in the system. The person doing billing called Tricare and United Concordia. I'm the only one listed in the dental program. Not something I expected to hear after the appointment.

I get him back to school and check out Tricare online to find out who I need to call about this small snafu especially since the dental deduction is taken out of Jason's pay. One customer service rep said I could enroll the boys online with the effective date being June 1. I told her this wouldn't work especially since I'd just come from Brendan's appointment. Further into our conversation she mentions DEERS automatically enrolling kids when they turn 4. I bring up the fact Brendan and Colin are 6 and 4 respectively. Obviously we fell through the cracks at some point. She sends me over to enrollment so I can ask more questions as to why this didn't happen. Seems our coming from Germany affected DEERS automatic enrollment in Tricare Dental. Our situation isn't unique because the guy I worked with in figuring all this crap out has heard of this before. It's also not the norm. He was able to get things worked out so the boys are covered starting May 1st and will continue to be covered no matter where we move. Got to love the system. Hah!

This is one of the many frustrations we've had since being married. The move to Germany had Brendan and I not enrolled in Tricare even though the paperwork had been filled out more times then I can remember. Every appointment I made at the clinic I was told I needed to make sure I was enrolled the next time. There is no next time. I'm enrolled and have proof. Moving across Germany the same thing happened. Even better, it happened with our move back to the States. Jason filled out all of the paperwork upon arriving at RIA. I filled out the paperwork two more times because one kid was in, the other two weren't. Then all three kids were in but I wasn't.

What I appreciated about this fuck-up was how easily I got things taken care of. Once we figured out what happened the problem was solved. No arguing with reps which is the norm anytime I call HealthNet. No being treated as if I haven't a brain or because I'm the spouse I don't amount to shit. I even had the first person say she didn't know enough about the enrollment process and wanted to transfer me so I got the correct information. This never happens. Ever.

Keep your fingers crossed out next move doesn't bugger things up again.

I love my mom by Colin

I love my mom because she reads me books about the boogie man.

I love my mom because she helps me ride without training wheels.

I love my mom when she makes me laugh by tickling me.

I love my mom because she taught me how to be good.

I love to hear my mom sing because she doesn't sing.

I love my mom because she finds time to play at the park.

I know my mom cares because she always says that.

I know my mom is smart because she plays hide and seek.

I love my mom because she works so hard at her work.

The rain dance isn't working

I used to love the rain until moving here. Thunderstorms never bothered me unless one cracked right overhead. Watching lightening arc across the sky was always a favorite past-time of mine. Not anymore. Last week had our first round of tornado warning's going off. This meant all the kids sat in the bathroom for two hours until their parents picked them up from school. Paul was the unfortunate one stuck in the bathroom with screaming children.

Today work feels damp. We've all been dragging as the day ticked away the hours. My throat is scratchy. My eyes feel swollen. I want to shake the rain off of me but can't since another front is coming through. I feel groggy with the change in weather.

We had plenty of rain last night on top of the rain from last week. The river has slowly gone back down only to start the rise once again. One of my coworkers brought in pictures from '97. The baseball stadium was almost entirely covered in water. Downtown Davenport flooded 4 blocks up from the river. I don't know how much the Rock River flooded on the Illinois side but I know it must have been a doozy. Which meant Moline got flooded on both sides.

This year the river didn't get inside the stadium. This year the bandstand wasn't covered entirely. This year only 2nd Street was flooded instead of all the way up to 4th Street.

Stiff neck or pounding headache?

Which one would you prefer? I'd prefer neither but have the fortune of experiencing both at the same time.

I slept wrong the other night throwing a kink in my neck. A nerve's gotten pinched because I can feel the pain floating down into my right arm. The soreness also radiates through my neck and shoulder. Last night made everything worse. The moment I tried leaning on my right arm so I could lay down I felt pain shooting from my elbow to my neck. Yeah, you know where this is going: crappy sleep with even more stiffness. Slapping myself silly with Tiger's Balm isn't even touching the pain or increasing blood flow in the area.

My headache is bouncing between sinus issues or becoming a migraine. By the time the day is over it'll be a migraine if I can't nip things in the bud. I've already popped two pain killers and nothing is stemming the pressure I'm feeling. Stress induced migraines are the best.

101 Uses for duct tape

#1 : Tape child's mouth shut.

I don't say this lightly considering I have 3 monsters running around my house, the youngest being a screamer himself when denied something. There's one child who has been coming to playgroup for the past year or so who's a screamer. He screams almost from the moment he arrives to when they leave. Mom never takes him out of the building so we get the grand experience of his screaming for 2 odd hours or more every Thursday.

Today was the first day he didn't stay the whole time and I can say I'm glad they left. While I'm not uber busy, I don't enjoy the screaming lungs of a child who refuses his Mom's requests. I know she's frustrated with her child's behavior. We've shared the rolling of the eyes many a times. She's vented to me when I used to be in playgroup before working. Hell, she still vents to me as I sit at my desk while S is screaming in the atrium.

The boys have done their fair share of getting on other's nerves. All kids do this. I feel for mom because she can't shake this behavior out of S for the life of her. It'd be nice for S to come in one day, happy, smilling and not screaming. How come I think this will only happen after we leave?