Doctors, College and Yorkie's, Oh My!

It's been a long time since I had a chance to blog, what better day that Mother's Day to catch up on the life of the Mom Nerd.
Alot has happened since I last blogged. I started nursing school which has taken up every second of free time lately. The diet is absolutely kaput right now (who knew the freshmen fifteen applied to grown up students as well?) My husband has uveitis in the right eye and it's spreading to the left as well. The fear of him going blind has permeated every waking thought I have, which has caused yet more trips for junk food and fast food. Nerd Mom hasn't slimmed down any yet but when you have the Yorkie Bully by your side anything is possible!

SO YOU'RE NOT A NURSE, HUH? LET'S CUT YOUR PAY!

The decision to go back to college was very much prompted by a change at my company. All ancillary staff had their shift differential cut to a flat rate. For those for us that have been there forever this meant a huge pay cut. I work nightshift, have been on it for eighteen years. The decision to ignore my sleep patterns and become a creature of the night was the 15% shift differential I received for the sacrifice of sleep and sanity. With my Hubby being a stay at home Dad, this all worked out well. Starting in january,my pay was cut by $2.19 an hour. For someone who's worked for the company for years this was a huge blow. Then I saw two new grad nurses fist bumping and cheering because they had just received a huge pay raise. Their flat rate is two dollars higher than mine. 

Panic set in. My family barely makes ends meet now. How could I afford this? The answer was simple. I couldn't. No amount of budgeting was going to make these numbers change. So after many hysterical confabs on the phone with the bestie, I decided to go back to nursing school. She's doing the LPN to RN bridge program. I made a few calls and decided on a two year program. I'll be a year behind her, then we'll both start our BSN training and then on to Nurse Practitioner school. It's going to be a long road, but will be worth it in the end. I think I'm going to go the Family Practice route with the NP program. Everyone gets shuffled around anymore by specialists and no primary doctor sees you for more than five minutes. I found a wonderful nurse practitioner who is managing my youngest son now. She inspired me to go back to school and take care of people in a different setting. So bad thing becomes a new adventure. Pretty cool, huh? Nerds Rule!

WE DON'T KNOW WHY THIS WON'T WORK

My husband's eye problems were another big push to return to college. I have spent eighteen years taking care of other people, yet when my own Husband is ill, nothing is working. No answers.
Last fall he starting seeing flashes of light in his right eye. He woke up one day and his right eye was bulging out of the socket. We rushed him to the eye doctor, who started him on steroid drops. Months followed with it weekly visits, sometimes two or three times a week. An injection into his eyelid and oral steroids did nothing. Then the retina detached and he has lost his central vision in the eye. We were referred out to a retinologist which has been a joke. They finally ordered blood testing, took him off the steroids and other than nothing. No meds, nothing. Wait and see. Come back and see us. Now the flashes have started in his left eye. Eye exam. No meds. Nothing. More tests. He's terrified he's going blind and no one is stopping it. We still don't know why this happened. So we go back to these quacks again this week then that's it. We're finding new doctors before he loses his sight completely. This has been a scary when will it be over type of thing. Every move we make seems to lead to a dead end. Well I'm tired of watching him suffer and it's got to stop. So, new doctors coming up. 

TRY TO HANG ON

So between school, work and the doctor's office no free time is out there right now. The kiddos are doing great, prom is next weekend and the Yorkie Bully still insists that if everyone played throw the cow more often all of this stress would melt away.

Nerdy Book Reviews

I believe I've mentioned a zillion times that I love to read.  My mother started taking me to the library when I was four years old and I've been in love with books ever since.  I've passed my love of books onto my kiddos as well.  We keep other informed of new series, new authors, old loves.  I hid Flowers In the Attic by V.C. Andrews in my desk at school and read it on the playground.  Harry Potter was a vacation worthy book, I'd be awake for 2 days when one was released.  So let me pass along some reviews of books I've recently read.  

Lust, Money and Murder by Mike Wells

If you're a Sidney Sheldon fan, you won't be able to put this book down!  I've read Book 1, Lust so far, with the other two loaded onto my iPad ready to go.  Lust is a thrill ride from page one. Elaine grew up with a Daddy who doted on her.  Gave her everything she wanted.  This includes letting his marriage unravel over his devotion to his daughter , no love spared for her Mother.  A hardworking, blue collar man, he paid for his daughter's ever growing demands the only way he could, by stealing.  Our heroine is a spoiled, self involved little Diva that you want someone to pick up and spank, until her world falls apart.  She unknowingly places funny money in Daddy's hands, which exposes all of his sins.  After destroying her father, she becomes a force of nature, vowing to right her wrongs. Nothing will stand in her way.  This books is a thriller, a wonderful read!  Head to the itunes bookstore or Amazon and download this book right now!  Just make sure you have some Diet Mountain Dew and snacks ready, you won't be leaving your chair until it's finished!

The Divergent Series by Veronica Roth

My youngest son told me about this series.  There's 3 books, Divergent, Insurgent and Allegiant. The first books captures you and takes you into a new world.  People live in Factions, based on their personalities.  It's a terrifying concept.  Our main character lives in a Faction where everyone is selfless, wears gray, doesn't look in mirrors.  Her Faction is devoted to volunteer work and humility.  A lifetime of this has made her resentful, restless.  As they get older, these teens undergo testing to determine what faction they should live the rest of their lives in.  Her test doesn't go quite right.   She learns she is something called "Divergent", she fits in nowhere.  This begins her plunging into a new world, a new Faction, with a terrible secret.  Where does she fit in?  What will happen if "They" find out?
The first two books are fantastic.  The third, Allegiant, is perhaps one of the worst books I've ever read.  This author took everything you loved about the characters and destroys them in an uneven, thrown together mash up.  I would say this book should be required reading for every Editor pushing a deadline on an Author trying to create.  This book was obviously thrown together fast, unfinished and with so many plots gone wonky that you want your money back.  So enjoy the first two, but be prepared, there's no happy ending.


Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Wow!  This book peeks into the psyche of a couple who's marriage is falling apart.  You think.  At first.  Wait a minute?  Is someone dead?  Nick tells his story, his creepy description of cracking open Amy's skull to decipher what she's thinking should be a huge clue!  This book is nothing like it seems.  It sucks you into it's spell, weaving from Nick's version of events to Amy's super chirpy diary.  Then it twists.  Again.  And Again.  I can't even tell you that much, it would ruin the entire book!  Go get it, right now!  Be ready, the nasty things married people do to one another is taken to the 100th power in this novel!

The Winter Blues Strike Back!

Winter is a struggle for the Nerd Mom.  I was planning my son's birthday, which is today, with my sister on the phone this weekend.  Ninety percent of the ideas we had were all things you couldn't do during the winter.  Drive up to the winery for a tour?  It's freezing out.  Book a night at the very haunted hospital not too far from here?  Closed til March.  Completely limits your options this winter does!  I'm sure someone in the Netherlands would laugh at us, but we're just not throw on your North Face and play in the cold kind of people.  We're more pour yourself a glass of rum punch and head out on the deck  type of  folks.  So that does limit our options during the cold.  We become pale. Squinty eyed when we walk outside.  The sun is gone by 5pm, sometimes we're turning headlights on at 3pm.   Ah, but when you're a Nerd, this does give one awesome excuses to stay inside and read.  Watch old movies.  Discover new music. Play Bioshock til 2am.  Every season has a meaning and in this house, winter is for books and gaming! 


The Winter Blues

This Nerd Mom has a rough time once January hits.  Thanksgiving has come and gone.  The Christmas tree has come down.  Now we have months to go til Spring gets here.  It makes me want to eat soup and chili, curl up and not move.  Then I flip out when March hits, panic during April.  How did I get so pale?  Why does my bathing suit start to make fun of me when I walk by it?  This is why detox is so important. Last year was one long January.  Stress eating became the norm for me.  Curling up to surf the net and read a book was my year long activity during 2013.  What used to be a month or two of catching up has stretched out to let's recover from the entire year.  Daunting, yes.  Impossible, no way! Last week I started out focused.  Lean cuisine.  Greek yogurt.  100 calorie snack packs. Bottled water.  It ended up with work kicking my booty and sliding back into old patterns.  At the grocery I dutifully loaded up on low fat dinners and yogurt.  Then snuck a few bags of chips that I told myself were for the kiddos.  They were!  The fact the a few fell into my mouth while watching old Seinfield reruns was not too bad. A couple of hot dogs while reading V.C Andrews is normal!  I despaired so much I needed chocolate to get past it.  Not to mention those pesky monthly hormones flaired up, causing dreams of pastries and sushi to dance in my head.  Not a great way to detox.  My friend pointed out that I'm just not ready to suffer everyday, all the time to lose weight yet. It is suffering, that's one of the best descriptions of dieting I've ever heard.  Suffering.  So while I've slid off and on the food wagon, I have been good about taking my vitamins and herbs. Drinking my water each day.  Okay yesterday I forgot but I have been drinking warm water and lemon when I get up.  So all is not lost!

Spring, where art thou?

So even though the weather is still snowy and cold, I'm kicked my planning self back into gear! Last year we didn't do too much landscaping, just hung ferns and plants on the front porch.  My yard has tons of clay in it since we're so close to the river, so it's a challenge to get things to grow in my yard.  This year I'd like to build up some planting beds in the backyard and try, again, along side of my the house.  Jumping online the other day, I ordered tons of herb and seed catalogs.  They get me through til it's time to plant again.

The other tradition spring brings in my neighborhood is the Windchime Challenge! We've had a neighbor for 14 years we call "The Smoking Lady".  She sits outside on her porch smoking and talking on the phone, rain or shine, hot or cold.  Well Smoking Lady and I are engaged in a yearly battle over who has the biggest, loudest windchimes.  Then it's time to see who's ferns are bigger, who's hanging plants are longer.  I can safely say I've been winning this battle for at least 10 years, in no small part to my Hubby.  He reports watch she's done while I'm sleeping, so we sneak out in the middle of the night and put up new ones.  In 14 years Smoking Lady and I have never exchanged one word.  We just nod at each other in passing.  Waiting for spring to arrive and the battle to begin again!

Dieting or Suffering For the Fun of it?

So I've tried the new workout, The Tracy Anderson Method.  The daily workouts are tough!  Be ready to sweat, have tons of water near by.  I was gasping around like a beached whale after my workout, but no pain, no gain, right?  The Yorkie Bully loves to watch me workout.  Then again she loves to watch me dry my hair, maybe I'm just that funny looking!  

My diet has not gone quite the way I've wanted it to the past week.  My 3rd round of steroids is finally over, so maybe my moonface will finally deflate. I'd take a half moon face at this point!  Steroids make you want to gobble sweets like there's no tommorow, so hopefully that craving will go the way of the dodo.  So here's to a new week, new workouts and hopefully a new face!

Survival Skills for the Working Nerd

As a Nerd Mom, I try and find balance with my work life and my home life.  I work 12hr nightshifts at a local hospital, so that presents it's own challenges.  How to get enough sleep without walking around looking like an Orc extra for the Lord of the Rings, how to keep up with my Kiddos, how to keep myself healthy.  When you work in healthcare, keeping yourself healthy is a gigantic challenge.  One of my friends is a master at this!  She always has the latest vitamin supplements, protein powders and a plan for keeping herself germ free.  The past week at work was an emotional and physical challenge, how to survive it without stressing to the point of illness stressed me out!  I applied multiple layers of a zinc chapstick to keep from getting an ugly cold sore, my body's reaction to stress.  My friend whipped out an Emergency C with 1000mg of vitmain c and zinc, dropped it in some water and handed it to me, then zipped back to work.  We all have different ways of coping with emotional and physical stress, I realized then I need to up my game.  In the past, before the year of the 13 smashed me down, I was good at this.  Scouring magazines and health sites online, I tried all of the latest herbs, drank the newest energy drinks, always trying to be better, smarter.  Okay, that was leading into a Bionic Woman pun, I admit it.   But you see my point?  My backpack is called "The Bag of Life" by my Hubby and myself.  You could drop me in Uganda and I could survive on the contents of this bag alone for a week, I used to say.  I wouldn't last 10 minutes now!  A few chocolate covered acai berries and mouthwash wouldn't get me far.  Planning was something I did as naturally as breathing, something  I've realized   has also slipped.  So I'm breaking out my lists and getting my brain back on track.  That's the other thing I've had to swat it the last few days.  Chronic migraines have plagued me since I was sixteen years old.  So many holidays, birthdays and regular days have screeched to a grinding halt by me grabbing my head in pain.  My Hubby and fantastic Kiddos know the drill.  I even reach up towards my face and they all freeze.  They run and turn off lights, close curtains, mute sounds while my Hubby dashes for meds and starts whipping up herbal teas.  The last 4 days were a blur of headaches, vitamins and herbs all drunk down by this Nerd Mom, as my family pitched in to keep me going during a very trying work week.  Once again I realize how lucky I am, how fantastic my family and friends are.  My daughter had coffee waiting and was standing by with a pan to fry up some eggs.  The Hubby filled up my vitamin and herb daily plastic thingy with b12 and multiple herbs for me to ingest.  My friend rolled into work the other night with a Panera Bread soup, a Starbucks Mocha via and more vitamins.  Yes, it takes a village to get a Nerd Mom through work sometimes!


Stress, what is it good for?  Absolutely Nothing!


Everyone has read that healthcare workers have a high rate of drug addiction, alcholism, etc.
Honestly after working in this field for over 17 years, most of my fellow scrub wearers are addicted to food.  That's right, I said it! We are addicted to food.  A bad night?  Let's order out!  A big fat stromboli with 5 cheeses and an order of fried oreos are a phone call away.   We just all returned from a grueling round of work?  How about we run downstairs to the Cafe and get dinner?  We deserve it!    I dutifully drug in my Lean Cuisine's, yogurt and 100 calorie snack packs.  A few bottles of water, some Green Machine.  Trying so hard to start healthy patterns again.  It worked 3 out of the 4 nights.  The last night, as my co-worker and I stood in the hallway, not looking at each other, both of us wiping tears from our eyes, I fell right back into the old pattern.  Still not looking at her, I suggested we run down to the Cafe and get some dinner.  Didn't we deserve it?  We grabbed our credit cards and headed down for the grease and salt that would preserve our souls til 7am.  Did we really need it?  No.  Was it actually going to help?  Kind of.  The calm of carb consumption does negate some of the negative emotions.  But as I've said before, I have to get stop these old patterns.  So I wolf down a cheeseburger and onion rings with diet dew and gobbled up 2 no bake cookies, knowing that if this keep me sane, there's a new workout video just waiting for me at home!

The Tracy Anderson Method is currently sitting on the table beside my recliner.  It looks like an awesome workout!  After my leg injury, I need something to get rid of the weight I've packed on during my months of turtle slow movement.  So I'm hitting that bad boy today, hoping it will jumpstart my workouts.  If I can become flexible anytime soon, yoga is the way to go for me.  I loved how I felt when I used to do a pilates/yoga combo 3 times a week.  It made me feel lean, tall and strong.  Right now I'm still a tad plumpy and stiff, so that's something that needs to change.  I face the world differently when I'm zen, my emotional turmoil is minimal, my focus is unbreakable.  Right now you could swing a yo-yo past my face and distract me for the rest of the day, another goal to strive towards!


Tall People and Small Beds, a Combo of Madness


On the homefront this week, I decided we need to upgrade my oldest son's room.  We live in an old Dutch Colonial, built in 1940.  Older houses have a quirky charm that this Nerd Mom loves!  We might eventually move to a modern house after 14 years of battling an old one, but for right now this 5 bedroom dinosaur is what we need.  My sons have the 2 original bedrooms in the house, which are quite small.  As they've gotten older, it's been a challenge to keep their rooms in balance with their ever growing size.  I'm 6'1", my boys are tall as well.  My oldest is 6'3" and still has a twin bed.  As he's grown, we agonized over his size vs the size available in his room.  A full size will fit, but shrink his space in the room down to micro size.
He works nightshift too, so we usually emerge from our darkened caves about the same time.  I woke up first the other day and when he came downstairs he looked awful.  He'd flipped out of bed, tossing and turning , and was just miserable.  I decided then a full would have to work, we'd just have to figure it out.  I'm sorry, as my Hubby pointed out, he will figure it out. He laughed when I kept saying "we" could make it work it.  I generally come up with a thousand ideas, present them to my guru Hubby who then proceeds to make it a reality.  Once again, this is why this man is my Hero!  So my best friend has family who's giving us a full size sleigh bed and chest, she's donating the mattress and a friend of a friend is throwing in the box springs.  Serendipity!  They needed this stuff gone and we needed upgraded furniture for my son, I love it when the universe sends you exactly what you need! We went to pick it all up today, drove out to my Pa's house to borrow his truck and then...rain.  Lots of rain.  Wouldn't stop pouring.  I called my best friend and we changed the pick up day, allowing us to hang out with my grandpa.  My Pa is 84 years old and is still a mover and a shaker.  My sister and I were on the phone a few week ago on a friday night.  I was in my pj's catching up on my DVR, she was in her pj's eating soup.  It was 10pm.  Both of us talked about how tired we were, how it was nice to just stay in and relax.  Then we laughed, because our Pa is out dancing every friday night. He's 84 and puts us all to shame! We all need to embrace life like my Pa does.


Serenity Now! Serenity Now!


To keep my sanity in check and not devour the contents of the vending machine, I stopped and planned our Spring Break.  The Polar Vortex has eaten up 2 days of my kiddos break, but that's fine.  We'll still have 13 day to relax and play.  So I planned out our vacation, filled out the request form for time off and felt a million times better just dropping into my bosses mailbox.  We'll head down to the lake for 2 weeks and live it up!  Yep, it's the last week of March , first week of April.  Too cold to swim, too cold to play in the water.  The great thing is it's an hour or two from lots of cool places.  We can hit some caves and go eat BBQ.  Play board games and Uno til the sun comes up.  No, it's not Florida or the beaches, but right now some time away at our favorite spot it just what we all need.  And the best part is the geese.  You heard me, the Geese!  The Yorkie Bully, Miss Scarlett, loves being down at the lake.  She runs around the deck like a big dog, snapping at raindrops, chasing ice cubes and on the constant lookout for her foes, the geese.  My parents house is on the water and there is a huge flock of geese that descend several time a day in search of bread and crackers. Last year we counted over 24 geese and their babies that came up the hill looking for food.  The Yorkie Bully feels like she must protect me from all the evils in the world and the geese brazenly walk up the hill right towards me, honking loudly the entire time!  She's never happier than running up and down the edge of the deck, chasing the geese back 2 or 3 steps.  They don't leave, they just back up from the ultrasonic bark omitted from my tiny teacup and fight over the stale honey wheat bread we've tossed down to them.  Miss Scarlett's little tail wagging as she jumps in my lap assuring me that all is safe in the world because she's made sure of it!

Reviews, Reviews, Reviews

As I said earlier, I've tried some things this week to limp through my work schedule.  Here's a few things I've tried and the reviews of them.

Panera Bread Soup-Wow!  The refrigerated version of these soups can be found at Sam's or at Target.  I tried the Baked Potato Soup and it buckled my knees, it was that good.  The Lobster Bisque was fabulous as well.  Their a tad pricey, but so worth it.  Go and pick up some up, you'll see!

Starbucks Mocha Via-If you need a kick and can't get to a Starbucks, or in my case, they're all closed, try this out!  I put mine in a 16oz coffee cup with a lid, mixed it with hot water and a splash of milk.  Awesome!  No, it's not as good as a barista brewing up a Venti White Mocha at the shop, but it's miles above what you can grab at a Circle K. They sell individual packets for $1 at your local Starbucks so you can check it out without buying an entire box.  Try one!

Brookside Chocolate Covered Acai Berries-Nope it's not diet food.  But it's a way to get your fruit and chocolate on at the same time, which is great.  I picked them up at Sam's and was surprised by how good they are.  I loved them, my Hubby likes them and the girls didn't really like them at all.  There's blueberries mixed in too, so if chocolate covered is the only way you get your fruit sometimes,as I am guilty of, then check them out.

Buxom Lip Plumper-Aw, I was expecting so much and didn't get hardly any results!  When I'm tired my lips look thin and drawn.  My Sis gave me one of these from her Birchbox and it gave me good color, but not much else.  I've used Too-Faced Lip Venom for years and love it.  The Buxom didn't have any kick to it at all.  So if you're facing thin lip syndrome like me, stick with Too-Faced Lip Venom and forget the Buxom.

5 Hour Energy Pink- This will keep you awake, kind of.  I drank two of these this past week.  I drank one before work and it did give me a kick for a few hours.  Trying it at 3am, nothing.  

I'm going to pick up some Alegria shoes which are supposed to be great for knee injures, I'll let you know how they workout.  Also, I'm going to try some compression socks to see if that helps with my right swelling while I'm at work.


It's been a long week so far and it's only tuesday.  Ah, the way Nerd Mom's tell time!  The rain slowed us down on the declutter, so we'll be tackling that tommorow.  I'm going to get up some book reviews this week as well.  So come on back and check me out later this week, as the Nerd Mom continues her quest for health and sanity!  And if you get bored, the Yorkie Bully suggests stopping by and playing a few rounds of Throw the Cow with her, you'll feel at peace with the universe when you're done!

The Polar Vortex Challenge

I haven't blogged in a few days, I've been caught up with reading and, of course, the dum dum da, Polar Vortex!  Not being a great fan of the cold, we ran to the store and told all the kiddos to be ready to stay in for a few days.  No running to the mall.  No quick trip to Starbucks for me.  No anything.  We would hibernate as a family, it sounded so good!  Just like the Ingalls' family in "The Big Winter".  How awesome would that be?  Days where my kiddos would be so bored, they'd want to play that game of Monopoly with good old Nerd Mom.  Or a moviefest!  Yeah, the girls would want to watch endless Chick Flick marathons with me while the Hubby hid upstairs in disgust!  It would be just glorious!  

Nope.  None of that happened.  My kiddos scurried off to their individual rooms and had their own alone time.  My boys are big gamers, this was the perfect time for them to blow things up on Playstation.  My girls are different.  One loves opera and history.  The other loves to sing, compose and writes poetry.  Together they can watch Manga til their eyeballs fall out from dryness.  So why this meant my visions of playing Clue at the breakfast nook all night did not come to pass, it did mean that everyone used this time to decompress.  The Hubby cooked giant yummy meals, our popcorn supply dwindled as we caught up on Indie movies and we didn't get cabin fever til day two!

Going Torpid, just a little

My plans to declutter the house couldn't happen with the cold.  Honestly, I could have worked out, but hey, it was really cold...hmmm..outside.  I felt the biological need to stay curled up with a blanket, reading or enjoying creepy movies.  No, I did not lose one bit of weight doing this.  My arms didn't get toned, my belly remained the same size.  Sometimes it's okay to slow down and just chill with the family, as long as I don't fall back in the pattern of doing nothing but that, all the time.  

I was able to devour a few books as well, always the highlight of my weekend.  I'll post the reviews of those later this week.  Each author deserves a well planned, well though out review, so I'll post those soon.

Physical Therapy, Girltalk and Yorkie Bullys

My best friend and I spent alot of time on the phone recently discussing the roles of Mom's.  She's just the opposite of me.  She works on the weekends, goes to school full time during the week, but has the role of primary caregiver.  She cooks, cleans, does homework on top of everything else.  While she launched into a 10 minute rant on how her Hubby acted like she was stabbing him in the throat when she suggested, nicely, that he throw in a load of laundry during a football game, I felt odd.  Really odd.  Yes, I'm sure if my Hubby really thought about it, or more to the point, said it out aloud, it would be nice if I helped more around the house.  So I thought about it, analyzed it.  Then asked my Hubby, again, if it would help him if I helped with the laundry.  He laughed, as always.  It's a snarky laugh when it come to myself and housework, let me tell you.  Hubby reminded me of the disaster the girls and I left in the laundry room the last time he was sick.  Okay, so once again we all know, all of us, that my specialty is not housework.  I'[m domestically challenged, another goal for the new year.  All of the girls I work with love Pinterest.  They pin crafts and recipes while I'm marking book and music release dates in my iphone.  I do like looking at the recipes, which is something I could do without.  It leads to very dark thoughts, of food.

My physical therapy is going well, my limp is getting better, finally.  While in PT yesterday, I was once again amazed at the power of the human body.  While I was doing leg lifts and hamstring stretches, all different types of PT was going on around me.  A man with a shoulder injury was carrying a giant ladder all over the place, with the therapist chasing behind, giving him tip on angles to carry it while his injury recovered.  A teenager with a sports injury with jumping in place, throwing her arms out in circles to get her body ready for softball.  

When I was in college, my favorite class was Anatomy & Physiology.  The intricate way the human body works, the systems that all work together overwhelmed me.  One enymze is low here causes depression there.  Too much of an ion here, high blood pressure there.  It's a dance, everyday, that happens to all of us.  This reminds me that I am, in fact, a nerd.  Given a choice between reading a science or tech article or looking up fun crafts, hands down I'[m going the nerd route.  Oh yeah!

The Yorkie Bully, Miss Scarlett, tells me everyday that I'm a fantastic human.  Those of us that don't fit into society's conventional roles questions that at times.  Am I bad Mom because I'd rather discuss crop circles with the Kiddos than make hand ornaments for the tree?  Is it okay that I tell my daughters I'm going to disown them if they don't make the effort to read all seven Harry Potter books soon?  The doubt doesn't happen often.  I'm blaming this one on the Polar Vortex.

Back to Reality, kind of

My Hubby proclaimed yesterday "Back to Reality" day.  The Kiddos went back to class, I went back to work.  My Hubby went back to running our lives, running the house and managing the zoo that is our lives.  It was nice to decompress this weekend, but he was right! Back to drinking Green Machine for me, making a zillion appointments for doctors and dentists.  So I'm diving into self improvement today.  I have new beauty products to try,new workouts to do and need to put down the bowl of chili and pick up a Lean Cuisine. Did I buy any Lean Cuisine?  Hmmm.. let me ask the Yorkie Bully.  She keeps track of that stuff while I lose myself in a book.  

Nerd Girls Unite!

Today has been one big bang, from beginning to end!  I was determined to embrace my pain, put my nerd girl self to work and take back control of my life.  Yes, I slipped up and took a few bites of a Tasty Kake  Cherry Pie with my Starbucks Holiday Blend this morning...okay, I ate the whole pie, inhaled it is actually closer.  With guilt and shame, I continued to work on my blog template, then joined Twitter, Reddit, Linkedin, Instagram and Tumblr.  The coffee deserves all the credit, promise, without it I would have been drooling whilst playing a mind numbing game on Facebook for hours.  Learning to navigate the realms of social media made my inner nerd sing with glee, all the interactions, different connections, how awesome is this?  I've spent my social media time scrolling through Facebook, enjoying pictures of old friends kiddos, reading recipes, laughing at pictures, but not really accomplishing anything.  As my best friend pointed out before Christmas, Facebook actually made her feel bad about herself.  She looked at tons of people taking their kids on expensive trips, shopping day and night, buying 80inch flat screens for their husbands..she felt so inferior she deleted her page for a few days.  So as with any power, social media can hurt us or help us.  Today showed me the choice is up to us, some luck and once again, how incredibly fantastic humans are!

The Twitter Explosion


I quickly picked up on Twitter and loved it, tweeting my heart about my daily struggle in 2014 to wake up my nerd self, put down the diet mountain dew and take back control of my body and my health.  As a baby blogger and tentative author, I outlined several story ideas between tweets and reading Atlas Shrugged, which is a mind opening experience, let me tell you!  Nerd girls love to multitask, we are never happier than when balancing a laptop, iphone and ipad, while jotting notes into 3 separate college ruled notebooks we nipped from our kids school supply stash.  Then I found the "interactions" link on Twitter and my world was just rocked!  Laurell K Hamilton, an author who I've loved since I found her 10 years ago, retweeted me!  Now to those of you old souls in the Twitterverse, that may not seem like a big deal.  But to me?  A nerd girl whose idea of a great time is sipping a Cosmo in bed while devouring book after book over a weekend?  I jumped up, screamed.  Danced around.  Punched my Hubby in the chest and did a Victory Dance around the family room!  My Hubby is trying to tell my the weather is going to be bad  monday, the temp is dropping to 40 below zero, we have to go the grocery.  I screamed all the way to the grocery, danced in the parking lot at Krogers and generally embarrassed my Hubby and 16 year old son all through the store.  40 below zero?  Pfftt.  Laurell K Hamilton retweeted me!  She saw my picture, read my tweet!  The small world I've inhabited this last year of hell just opened up to a vast new universe!  Now that, my friends, is what being a nerd is all about!

Vitamins and Yucky Things That Are Good For You

So while things are going great on my social media front, the battle for my health continued today.  I dutifully took my B12, Calcium, Magnesium and some herbs my Hubby has ordered and researched to try and boost my immune system.  Juniper berries, dried looking seed balls, for my kidneys.  These tiny wood chip appearing herbs called Astragalus to boost the old immune system, those were fun to choke down, kind of like gnawing on a tree, then swallowing.  I did that once when I was 7, I didn't think I'd ever do it again!   Then waxy herbs like Flax Seed Oil and Vitamin E, along with C and D.  Yes, I drank diet dew with them.  I judged myself for it, then figured I really needed the herbs, so I'd handle the guilt of the diet dew slip.  I'm trying people, its a bitch to break old habits! Even for those of us with nerd power.

Motoring off to physical therapy for my knee, I was pleased that I'd done the excercises twice...let me say that again...I'd done the excercises twice since PT yesterday!  Assuming my therapist would give me a gold star or at least a small medal, I walked into therapy with a limp I'm sure will be gone very soon.  As you might guess, no medal appeared, he just added 10 new items to my workout.  Then helped me get through them and iced my knee while on a box over my head so I could drive home with instructions to make sure to do all of the workouts 2-3 times a day.  Sheesh, a nerd girls work is never done!

PT tackled, I added in some Green Machine and Mango Tango to my list for the grocery.  My diet of fast food and quick snacks with  diet dew is just hurting me.  Yes, I have pneumonia and am not at top form, but  obviously full of toxins. Mango Tango is yummy, Green Machine not so much, but it's green. Green food and I don't really get along, but I'm working on changing that.  If only there was a coffee version I could load up milk and sugar, I'd drink that all day long!

If We All Played Throw the Cow, We'd Be Happy...my Furbaby insists this is true!

My Yorkie Furbaby, Scarlett, is battling her own addiction to a giant cow and isn't even trying to stop, much like I was sneaking that cherry pie!  Scarlett has a 3 foot long stuffed cow that my Hubby bought her as a joke, she's barely 3lbs.  Well that Cow is no joke, it's her baby.  You must throw it, in interesting places, so she can retrieve it, over and over...all day.  She has an ultrasonic bark that will break windows if you try and ignore her demands to throw the Cow, so we, as her humans, must obey her commands.   I was trying the new Stilla moisturizer my sister bought me, comparing it with Clinique Moisture Drink on each side of my face, when Cow was drug into the bathroom by her Highness whose barking made the mirror quiver until we resumed the game.  
I still think Clinique works better for me hands down, the Stilla absorbed well, but an hour later the Clinque side was dewy soft, the Stilla not so much.  So I'll stick with the Clinique for now.  My skin get dehydrated very fast, hence the Vitamin E and Flax Seed.  I'll pass the Stilla on to my two teenage girls to see what they think of it.  Meanwhile, I'll keep playing Throw the Cow with Miss Scarlett Sassafrass and who knows?  The game alone could make my skin soft, my Furbaby insists this is true.

Reading is my Nerd Girl passion

I love to read.  I get all tingly when I see the dates of book releases, dressed up for Harry Potter Parties at Books A Million with my kiddos.  My kiddos grew up being pushed in a double stroller through book stores, learned to eat cheerios and sip their juice cups while Nerd Mom browsed from Fantasy to Horror, Occult to Self Help.  When I discovered how much Janet Evonavich made me laugh, I signed up for a weekend of overtime so I could go buy all of her books at once.  A girl at work loaned me the first three Laurell K Hamilton Anita Blake books.  I read all 3 in 2 days, ran out and bough the other 8 I could find and locked myself in my bedroom for the weekend.  My Hubby just smiles when I come flying in from the bookstore, he knows he won't see me for days and respects it.  He does make comments, such as "There's your Mommy, I told you she didn't move to Mars, kids!"   The joy of having a Stay At Home Husband is that I can escape into my head with my books and know my kiddos aren't feeding the cat Fruit Loops and watching True Blood while I'm reading.  He is truly the best man I ever known and my personal hero!

While nerding away on Twitter today, I connected with so many wonderful writers, bloggers and artists.  Several authors have sent me me their books to read, and a couple of them asked me to review it on this blog.  Aaacckkk! Nerd Girl Nirvana!  So I messaged the other authors and offered to review all of their books for them, what Nerd Mom wouldn't?  I have 8 books to read, they're loaded onto my Ipad right now, awaiting me to slip into my yoga pj's and crawl into bed to tackle them all!   Picking up my Ipad, I'm scrolling through the titles loaded into my library and am giddy!  Eight new books, whoo hoo!  I'll post the reviews on my blog after I read each one.  These writers have tolled and struggled to produce works of art, how can I not want to review each gift they've bestowed upon me?

2014...Bring It!

So now, just a few days into the new year, I feel like a nerd girl being reborn into life.  Downton Abbey starts Sunday, Sherlock not long after that.  Grimm is back, whoo hoo!  Stevie Nicks, the Stevie Nicks, will be on American Horror Story Coven  soon as well.  Nerd Girls Unite!  There's books to read, shows to watch, lists to make, projects to undertake and of course,  the great game of Throw the Cow can  be played 24/7 with my little Yorkie Bully Baby, Scarlett!

The Hop A Long Nerd...

The New Year is finally here!  I rang in 2014 at work sipping sparkling cider from a foam cup with lots of good food and good friends. Walking out of the office later, It felt like a giant manacle of doom had just lifted from shoulders. Time to throw out the junk food, the worry and enjoy my life again, yowza!

Starting it out with a Bang

Okay, I worked again on the 1st, so that can't count, I slept all day!  So the 2nd was really my bang to the new year. Leaving work, I headed straight to physical therapy, to really try and get some intense work done the next week.  Remember the fall in november?  Well that right knee still swells my leg up like a freaky balloon after being on it all night and it causes a crazy limp.  In the last week alone,the names thrown at me have been "Hop A Long", "Walks like a Penguin"....you get the point.  Some go so far as to walk beside me and mock me as I walk. Which is who I thought of today while groaning in pain in therapy. Laugh at me?  Ha!  Just wait, I'll run circles around you soon..but I won't mock, because I'm trying to be a better person.  (So If I fly past you running to my car soon, you'll know who you are, punk)

I did another round of meds for the pneumonia today, but that's okay, as long as it getting better finally!  Trying to get back control of your health and your life after a year such as it was is going to take time, but it's going to happen.  My friend at work suggested I watch some documentaries on the food industry to motivate me, which started the discussion into Whole Foods.  As I mentioned in the last post, we're on a tight budget right now, so I would have to sell  my Windstone Dragon Collection to go shopping for 6 of us at Whole Food!  She brought up Trader Joe's, so I'll have check that out.  Cutting out fast food is number one, followed by my addiction diet mountain dew, which I'm sipping as I write, truthfully.  But I hate, hate plain water, blech.  Which leads me to my first detox drink.  My sis found this sucker online last summer and I'm stocking up today.  It's apple soaked with cinnamon in a pitcher overnight, which she loved.  It's supposed to give you energy and flush out toxins. I'll post how it works after a week or two. 

Speaking of my wonderful sibling, she hooked me up for my birthday.  I have a box with Sephora nail polish, some new Buxom plumper gloss to try out and yummy herbal teas.  She also gave me some Stilla products, which I'm going to try today as well.  I'll post the reviews after I've tried them out.  

Getting my nerd back on, I ran out and picked up a new calendar to start off the new year.  Lists are typed out on my phone, appointments to make, errands to run.  This weekend I'm ready to declutter our homestead, so that will lead to more lists, as my Hubby pointed out tonight.  Snow's coming in and it's freezing outside, but, hey, a Nerd Mom being reborn doesn't let a little ice get her blue!  So back to PT tomorrow and on my way to taking back my life!

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