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Go Ahead & Cry, Nobody’s Looking

by Veronica on July 26, 2010

in Guest Posts

Today’s guest post is brought to you by the lovely Peggy-Sue Brister.

***

I was in a mood one day and my kids weren’t listening to me and I told them if they didn’t STFU I was going to get TAWANDA. They continued to be noisy so I yelled TAWANDAAAAAAAAA!!! My kids thought I had lost my mind. They asked WTH was Tawanda. I explained to DD a little bit about what Tawanda is. How Kathy Bates gets a new personality in Fried Green Tomatoes and stops taking SHIT off ppl. And that momma was now Tawanda momma and I wasn’t taking any more SHIT, so STFU and sit down.

After I told DD a little bit about Tawanda and Fried Green Tomatoes, she started bugging me to get the movie so she could watch it. I went to my Blockbuster by mail/online queue and added it to my list, bumped it up to number one, and got it sent to me in the mail.

It just came today. When my DD saw the Blockbuster mailer in the mailbox, the first thing she asked was , “Is THAT it? Is it here?” I knew what she meant. She hasn’t stopped talking about the movie since I told her about it. Right as we walked in the door she asked if she could put it in. I told her to go ahead. She had waited a week for this thing to come, I wasn’t going to make her wait to watch it.

Right at the first of the movie I explained that the old lady telling the story was one of the ppl IN THE STORY she was telling and they started trying to figure out which one she was. It didn’t take DD very long to figure out the old lady was Idgy. So I told her she was correct. I wasn’t going to make her wait until the end of the movie like I had to the first time I watched it.

I warned them that there were 2 very sad parts to the movie just so they weren’t caught off guard when Buddy dies and when Ruth dies. They sat watching it, transfixed. They didn’t move an inch. They sat perfectly quiet and perfectly still taking it all in, not wanting to miss a single word. DD told DS to turn it up a little. She wanted to make sure she could hear it well.

As I was watching it with them I was tweeting a little bit about it and it started a few conversations with my tweeps about other good chick flick/tear jerkers we all know and love.

Another one that I want to get and watch with DD is Steel Magnolias. I know if she got choked up watching Fried Green Tomatoes, that she is probably going to get choked up at Steel Magnolias too. The part after Shelby dies and Sally Field is having a break down in the cemetery, it gets to me. Then all of a sudden there is a moment of levity, “Here, take a whack at Weaser! Half of Chickapen Parish would give their right arm to take a whack at Weaser. Go ahead Malynn. Hit her!!” Laughter through tears, one of my favorite emotions. (Dolly Parton said that in the movie, I just stole it.)

Another one that gets a lump in my throat just thinking about it is Beaches, with Bette Midler and Barbara Hershey. If you haven’t seen it don’t keep reading this or I might spoil a bit of it for you. Skip to the next paragraph. The last 20 minutes of the movie make me bawl. After Bette Midler takes Barbara Hershey out of the hospital to take her and let her die at the Beach house…I start the lump in my throat there and it doesn’t go away until after she dies and I am bawling. I give this one an A+ on the tear jerker scale. 3 hanky movie, at least.

Another one with Bette Midler, that alot of people haven’t seen is Stella. John Goodman is in it and plays a good drunk. It breaks my heart when she is standing outside in the rain looking through the window at her daughter. And how she gets mean to make her daughter go away. It kills me! If you haven’t seen that one, rent it. Especially if you are a big Bette Midler fan like I am.

Someone else brought up The Notebook. That’s another one that makes me bawl my eyes out. Who doesn’t want to have a love like that in their life? It is heart wrenching to watch if you have a sensitive side. I don’t remember if there is anything inappropriate in it though for DD to see it or not. I will have to check into that one before I let her see it. She is not really old enough to appreciate the storyline of having the love of your life. But that movie made me keep crying even after it was over. I would think about it and start crying again.

Another one that makes me CRY but that it not appropriate for DD to watch is Bridges of Madison County. Who can’t relate to the frumpy housewife who is over-worked, under-appreciated and restless in her life? How fast they fall in love is exactly how it happened with my husband & I. Whirlwind, sweep you off your feet kind of thing. And when he leaves and she decided NOT to go with him. She knows that what they had together for those few days wouldn’t last if she left her family and missed them so she could be with him, and that it would end badly. But man how she wanted to go SO BAD. And the scene where she comes out of the grocery store and sees him parked across the street at the red light, and he just sits there, and she is watching him, about to leave without her, and her heart is BREAKING. OMG I have a lump in my throat just writing about it. She never stopped loving him her entire life. I love the part where her DD & DS are reading her journals, learning about this story/secret of their mom’s and the DD has on her mother’s dress. That is so damn funny. LOVE that movie. I went and saw it at the movies when it first came out with my dad. He is a big sissy about movies too and we both cried right there in the movie theater. I always carry tissue in my purse when there’s a chance for tears. I used them that day.

Another one that makes me cry MULTIPLE times but nobody mentioned is Legends of The Fall with Brad Pitt. That is a long, emotional movie that you simply MUST see if you haven’t seen. I cry several times during this movie but the one that gets to me the worst is when Julia Ormond goes to see “Tristan” in jail and she cries and tells him how she had wanted his wife to die. Then she goes home, cuts her hair off and kills herself. That’s the worst kind of pain a person can experience is the kind of pain that makes you want to MAKE IT STOP no matter what you have to do. In real life, emotions like that involve mental illness, but in the movie, who doesn’t feel her pain? It’s SO SAD. I hated that he made her wait so long for him and that he never came back for her. (earlier in the movie) I hated that she married a man she didn’t really love so she could try to get over the one she did love and move on with her life. She did tell him she would wait forever, however long it took, but DAMN, he stayed gone for like SEVERAL YEARS. He wrote her and told her not to wait for him. Then shows up and is shocked that she moved on! Shame on you Brad!

An old one but good one that is another tear jerker for me is City of Angels with Meg Ryan and Nicholas Cage. He gave up eternity for a human woman and just as they start their life together she gets taken away from him. But he said what he gave up was worth it to be with her for the short time he was with her.

What are some of your favorite chick flick/tear jerkers? Did I mention them here, or is there some I missed and forgot about?

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A Migraine and a 14mth old do not mix.

by Veronica on July 23, 2010

in Guest Posts

This first guest post is brought to you by the lovely Megan, who writes at College and a Novel. Make sure you give her some comment love, mmmmkay?

***

I am a nanny for a great 14 month old. She is smart and happy and plays a lot, she loves to organize and reorganizes her parent’s pantry and of course she likes to make noise lots and lots of noise. I watch her three to four days a week depending on the week. Last week I only watched her for three but I have to say it was the hardest week ever and only because of Tuesday.

The day started normal and fine. Breakfast she ate, watched her TV, she only watches during breakfast and her DVD that we watch twice a day to teach her to read and help her to speak more, and was playing no problem. Lunch again not a problem except that I could see she was exhausted you know rubbing her eye getting food all over her face and making a general mess, but I knew there was no way she was going to make it through her bath before a nap, yes she takes her bath after lunch and no I don’t know why. So a bath was out until after her nap so I got as much food off of her, took her upstairs and to put her down. Okay so she normally takes a 3 hour nap or at least 2 hour 30 min nap and I depending on the day either do some stuff around the house check things on FB or watch TV and every once in a while when watching TV I will fall asleep.

Today was one of those days except I fell asleep towards the end of her nap and did I mention she teething, add in the construction noise from the house being built next door and my what would have been an hour nap turned into a ten minute nap. Now I get migraines and they are tied to the weather, it happens to be the middle of summer here in Texas and well pollen is out in force. So after a ten minute nap I wake to a screaming baby and I feel dizzy.

At first I just sit there and give her a minute or so to see if she will go back to sleep because I know she had only been asleep for 2 hours and has another hour in her. Well of course she does not and I have to get up. I go get her, change her, and let her play. Knowing that she still needs her bath I go start it by now my head is pounding, it felt like a hammer was hitting my left temple every second and it would intensify every time she screamed which was a lot, and I still felt dizzy and was beginning to get sick to my stomach all signs of a migraine. I gave her a bath in a good five minutes because the water and kneeling did not make anything better it felt like I just put her in and took her even though I went through her whole very intense bath routine, she has dry skin. Out the bath and it was only 4:30 I had been there since 8am and was there until 8pm. We moved downstairs.

She did not get quieter and my head got worse, by dinner time at 6 with two hours to go I was ready to give up and go to sleep, but it’s not my child I can’t lock her in her crib while I sleep, besides all she would do if I did that was scream, I remembered that I had Advil with me and got mad for not remembering earlier, I had looked to see what they had but when it was an uncoated pain killer I knew I couldn’t take that because yes I’m weird and can only take my BC was pill and Advil which is coated I hate taking medicine and then suck at it anyway. Well I took the Advil while she was eating and a half hour later it was better but still not really livable. I spent the rest of my time there walking around to keep myself from passing out in exhaustion and pain.

Finally her mom got home; I went home and went straight to bed. I hate getting migraines and although this was not the worst I’ve had pain wise it was the worst because of where I was. I now try my best to stay awake and keep my Advil close because this was not fun and I DO NOT want to have to do it again.

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It’s like being hit by a load of bricks and then run over by a car.

by Veronica on July 22, 2010

in Blogging, Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, Gotta Laugh, Headfuck

Yesterday, we had a Paeds appointment for Isaac. Nothing major, just a touch base kind of thing.

However.

The kids woke up at 9.30am, 40 minutes before we needed to walk out of our door.

Okay, we can do this I thought, as I bustled around getting ready for a quick shower – only, when I turned on the water, nothing happened.

Our pipes – were frozen solid.

A fortnight or so ago, to prevent the pipes from freezing again, I’d asked Nathan to wrap insulation around the pipes to protect them. He grumbled, but he did it. Unfortunately, it had gotten so cold that everything had frozen despite it.

I wavered between going to the appointment, or cancelling at the last minute and decided that even without showers, we really needed to touch base. So a quick baby wipe bath later (ugh!) and a frantic dash to get the kids ready, we were on our way.

Only to run into every. single. set. of roadworks between here and the city.

By the time we were reaching the outskirts of Hobart, I was getting very ill and preparing to vomit into a book depository envelope. I opened the windows wide, let in the freezing air, took 2 pramin and hoped I wouldn’t have to throw up.

We parked, just as my nausea abated and I got the shakes. I know once I start to rattle (normally hard enough to make my bedding fall off me if I’m at home) that I’m not going to vomit. Power walking to the hospital, 20 minutes late, I’m not sure what Isaac thought was happening as I held him tightly and shook around everything.

Unfortunately, once I’ve gone through the nausea/feel better/shakes thing, the next step on the agenda is bone crippling exhaustion.

I was a mess.

We made it through the appointment, however, the drive home was less than fun as I huddled in a small ball in my seat, shaking with exhaustion and wishing I could just teleport home, instead of having to put up with 50 minutes worth of driving + stops for petrol and stuff.

Ugh.

There are huge gaps in my memory of the drive and that’s probably the best thing.

Once home, I collapsed into bed with my feet propped up on pillows (the nausea was likely a huge blood pressure dip) and fell asleep, despite Isaac tucked under my chin and trying to poke my eyes out. I was just that exhausted. It hit me like a ton of bricks.

2 hours later, I woke up, still exhausted and dragged myself out of bed. Nathan had cleaned the house and was in the middle of making dinner. Yay Nathan!

Today, I feel much better – it’s sunny outside which helps and I slept for 8 hours straight.

However, I know the exhaustion is lurking still. The Cymbalta, while working amazingly for anxiety, made me rather manic. Which means I used up all my energy for the next month, rushing around like a mad person, getting things done.

I’ve stopped the cymbalta now (god, I feel like a see saw, I write a post saying ‘It works! It’s brilliant!’ and then another going ‘Ugh, side effects, sort of giving me the shits’ and then another saying ‘I’ve stopped the drug, the side effects were making me sicker than the original thing we were treating’. My body – not fantastic at dealing with meds) and I think yesterday was part of the backlash of stopping.

At the very least, I’ve stopped being so nauseous all the time – instead it just comes in big waves like normal, my skin is clearing up – it just needs to heal a little faster, and my anxiety, well, I can deal with that on my own, better than I can cope without orgasms and food.

So yeah, the Cymbalta trial ended sort of badly. Heh.

Also, seeing as how my exhaustion is just sort of sitting under the surface ready to come back, I’m going to be doing some reposts of my older stuff that you might not have seen. I promise it will be funny stuff at least. Also, if anyone wants to put their hand up and guest post, I’ll accept guest posts too.

It’s like a Sleepless Nights holiday, only not really.

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Online shopping, Ozsale and win one of two $50 vouchers!

by Veronica on July 20, 2010

in Sponsored Posts

We all know that because of my EDS, I find in-store shopping absolutely exhausting. Therefore, I try and do as much shopping online as possible, as exhibited by the fact I’ve not needed to walk into a book shop for months.

So when Ozsale emailed me and asked me if I’d like to try out their online shop, and included $50 credit to get me started, I agreed readily. You see, Ozsale do designer wear at cheap (amazingly so) prices – cheap enough to make me spend money in any case!

Plus, with the 2 kids at home, I barely get into the cheap department stores to pick up clothes for the kids, so being able to shop from home makes things amazingly simple.

I had a look around the site and found it really easy to navigate (huge plus in my book) with the current sales running. Also, once I signed up as a member – which I had to do to get access to the shops – I was getting emails letting me know about new sales.

I had a ball, buying some pretty notebooks for me – we all know I have a major book and stationery fetish, some pretty pyjamas for the kids and a tracksuit set and some t-shirts also for the kids. Minus the shipping, I spent barely over $50 and got lots.

Of course, I’ve spent a lot of time lusting over the gorgeous designer boots, but sadly, I can’t afford them, even if they are reduced drastically. My budget can’t quite stretch to $200 for $1000 boots – even if they are lucious.

On top of giving me $50 credit and letting me run wild on their website, Ozsale has offered me TWO $50 vouchers to give away to my Australian readers.

So, to win a $50 voucher tell me:

What do you find hardest/easiest about shopping for kids?

One comment per person, comment to enter.

Tweet about this giveaway (and include @sleeplessnights so I can track the tweets) to gain an extra entry, but this is not necessary to win.

Winners will be chosen using random.org and the competition will close on the 24th of July at midnight AEST.  Competition is sadly, only open to Australian residents.

I would LOVE to give away these vouchers, simply because I had so much fun spending mine.

AND THE WINNERS ARE!!

Congratulations Kristy and TwitchyFingers! I’ll be emailing you shortly.

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Boobs!

by Veronica on July 13, 2010

in Blogging

So, it’s that time of the year again. The time where we all snap photos of our (mostly) clothed boobs and let Lotus put them on the Internet in aid of breast cancer research and winning stuff for ourselves.

This is the 3rd time I’ve participated, the first time I was in the middle of weaning Amy and the second time I was deep in the breastfeeding woods with Isaac. It was nice to be able to wear a pretty bra for this one!

So, if you’d like to head over and vote, my boobs are #5 and you can vote as many times as you like. Yay me!

For the record, before anyone gets whingy and starts complaining that it’s a huge traffic grab (which hey, I’ve been on the ‘net for a while, I know what gets complained about), all the ad revenue raised this month during the Bewb Fest will be donated in aid if breast cancer research. And that’s always a good thing!

Honarable mention to whoever owns photo #1, awesome photo (I don’t know who you are) and I’m voting for you too!

(I’ll write something substantial soon, I’m finding myself in a small haze of exhaustion and crying children lately. I will resurface, eventually.)

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