A whole week has passed.....

Since I last wrote. I am currently at work. Shortly after 3:am. This has been the most time I have had to myself since my mother descended upon my home last Sunday night. Now, don't get me wrong. I love my mother. I appreciate her. She is a very hard worker, very organized......much like a drill Sargent. Things around my house have really gotten into shape. She has somehow convinced my first ex-husband to come and finish up the flooring that he started last fall and abandoned when he met a new girlfriend. She also pushed the town into getting them to drop off the town truck for us to load up the garbage in the garage (I had been waiting for them for a few weeks). She has gotten more laundry done in a week than I can manage in a month. Unfortunately, I have no place to actually put all that clean, folded laundry.

She will be here for another week or so. I am heading out of town on Tuesday morning for a rendez-vous with a dear friend of mine......well, who am I trying to kid..... I am meeting up with an old boyfriend, who has become a new boyfriend again. Anyway, by the time I return home next Friday night, she should have the kids whipped into shape, the house completely renovated, and the dog should be doing back flips for perogies.

Is it just me????

Or don't you all think that Blogrolling is thumbing their noses at me? I mean really....every blog in my blogroll updated forever......I don't freakin' think so!!!!

Geez.....from one extreme to the other.........ARGH!!!!!!!!!!

I know that people in my Real Life won't believe this...

but,

I am at a loss for words today........

I have nothing...........

Go check out my other blog, Imperfect Perfections to see the other side of me.......

While you go there to read, comment, whatever.......I'll be here looking for my writing mojo.....

WOW!

It looks like Blogrolling has updated everyone on the system......wonder how long it will be until the blogs just start sifting out to the bottom again..........

I actually finally got an email response from them a couple days ago saying that they were looking into the problem. It only took them two months to reply.

I may NOT be around for a while......

UPDATED BELOW **

What do you do when your house is a disaster and your MOTHER is coming today?? And she is staying for 3 WEEKS?????

You barely sleep, you have anxiety attacks all night long, you plead with God for a snow storm so she can't come. But do you clean the house??? Oh no....that would take away from blogging time!!!

My house has been in renovation hell since September. I have not really done any cleaning since then either......since, what's the point?? UGH!! The worst is the laundry. Laundry is piled everywhere........clean in baskets upon baskets, dirty on the floor of the laundry room, floor of my room, floor of daughter's room.......it is everywhere. I have actually contemplated just throwing all the clothes away and just starting fresh.

I have always had laundry issues...but it is worse than ever right now. I have actually been known to go buy new socks and underwear for the kids instead of trying to find clean stuff in my laundry baskets. I hate folding clothes and trying to put things away, I have just never been great at the laundry thing. I really should have made some New Year's Resolutions about my laundry issues, but it seems too late now......especially with MOTHER breathing down my neck.

So if you don't see me here for a while, know it is because I am fighting my way out from under a pile stinking pile of dirty laundry!

**apparently my brother-in-law was delayed today, so they will not be coming out today....BELIEVE in the power of prayer!!!!!

This could only happen to me...well, maybe not......

I have suffered an injury while engaging in my most favourite sport, and a few months back I took up an extreme version of this sport. The injury is incredibly painful. So much so that I actually couldn't sleep last night and had to take painkillers to get to sleep. But like all dedicated athletes, I am going to play through the pain today and jump back into the game. I injured my wrist, my right wrist. The baby finger is almost completely numb, and the ring finger is numb down one side. The wrist hurts when I move it, causing pain to shoot up to my elbow.

You may be wondering what crazy, dumbass thing I have gotten myself into now. What kind of sport would cause such an injury. Hockey??? Mountain biking??? Snowboarding??? Skateboarding???

No....the extreme sport I am referring to is........KEYBOARDING!!! Extreme keyboarding. With a special interest in extreme blogging and excessive mouse clicking. I am assuming the mouse clicking is what has caused the right hand to be more injured than the left. When I was a secretary, back in another lifetime, I had some carpal tunnel issues. My hands would go numb while I was typing and my watch would just feel like it was choking me. I don't wear a watch anymore. If I did, I surely wouldn't spend ever so many hours sitting here typing in my blogs and clicking on blog link after blog link reading. Add this new found sport to my already full fledged internet addiction, and you end up with keyboarding injuries.

Pass me the ibuprofen and a wrist splint, please.

What are your blogging habits???

Are you obsessed like me? I write my post, and several times a day come back to see if there are any comments. I write comments on other blogs, and will check back a time or two a day to see if there was a reply to my comment. Of course, this is the days when I am not at work....then I am lucky if I blog at all.

I know I am an attention hound........I am a Leo and that means Sun sign, and that means I AM THE CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE!! You all heard that, right? THE CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE!!! As I said in a previous post, I am a COMMENT-WHORE.....meaning, I will do anything for comments.....anything. Well....okay, I am more of a HIGH PRICED COMMENT CALL GIRL....I will do pretty much anything, but the comment better be damn good.

Since it is Saturday of De-Lurking Week, time is running out fast. You all need to comment soon. Tell me about some cool blog that I don't have in my blogroll that you think I might like to read.

Okay, today is Friday of De-lurking week.....

I know by the stats, I get WAY more hits here every day than say........7 (I think that is the greatest number of comments I have ever received on a post...and that post was about poop).

I really really want to see who is reading me (THAT MEANS YOU TOO, MY SISTERS AND OTHER FAMILY).

I am changing the comment feature on here for the remainder of the weekend so that anyone can comment. Tell me who you are (if you choose), where you are from, how you found my blog, and what you really think of it. You may have to read back a few posts to find the really good ones. Actually, there is a challenge for my more regular readers........tell me which posts you liked best and point some of the new readers to them.....that way, I will know what to write about most (trying to think up some more poop stories). I feel like such a comment-whore.......begging and pleading. But, too bad.

As you can see I have the attention span of a gnat.....

Well, actually, I am not really sure what the attention span of a gnat is, if anyone wants to Google that for me and post the answer in my comments, I will give you a mention.

As I was sitting here looking at my blog, I realized that "Focused Insanity" just wasn't fitting.....since most of my insanity is way way way out of focus. I wasn't being true to my current state of mental ill health. The first name I had for this blog, "Rissy's Rants, Raves and Recitations"....while it was strong on alliteration, really wasn't all that true either, since I mostly just rant, and besides that, I have pretty much dropped the pseudonym of Rissy. If any of you wonder about that, it came about when I first started chatting online about 10 years ago.

I started chatting in a place called ParentsPlace. Anyone here ever hear of it? It was a web based chat room that was supposed to be for parents to chat about.....well parenting. It turned out to be more of a meat market for bored housewives and equally bored daddies. There were more hookups in that place than in the No Tell Motel. But anyway..... I was looking for a name for myself....the first few times I went into the room, I used the name momof2 (because I had just only had my second child.......seems like a lifetime ago). Pretty boring, huh? Soon I decided I needed something a little more identifiable. So I decided to go with the name that my mom used to call me as a child, Rissy. There were some variations on it.....at Christmas I would become Ristletoe, at Halloween, Risenstein, you get the idea. I had met a lot of very good friends during that time, some of them still call me Rissy or Ris. Then, after a brief hiatus (more commonly known as my divorce), I came back with a more mature attitude. I had metamorphosed into Rhyssa. This was because of the royal rebel Rhys-Jones, I think her first name was Sophie, who just didn't stand for no crap. That is who I wanted to be. In fact, when I met my second significant other (he knocked me up but never officially married me) online, that was the name I was using. He never knew my real name was Iris until we met face to face the first time. Now I am back to owning my own name, Iris. I really like this name. Thanks Mom & Dad!

See how my attention wanders? And I wonder why my kids are all in Attention Deficit Hell.

So as for the name of the blog, I know it is a pain in the ass, you will have to change your bookmarks, your blogrolls (I am still really pissed at them), or whatever way you have of coming back here to read my crazy little disjointed thoughts. But, as I was told earlier, "Iris, you are such major pain in the ass, but I love you anyway"....everyone together now........awwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

Random musings for the evening and edited this morning.........

Blogrolling still sucks. BLOGROLLING REALLY SUCKS!!!!

It is delurking week, please comment. I SAID IT IS DE-LURKING WEEK, PLEASE COMMENT!!!!

I have discovered that I can be REALLY sensitive and really cranky when I am working nights.

I have also discovered that being cranky and sensitive sometimes gets you what you want. (Earl Grey tea upon waking)

I have to work the night shift tonight, Wednesday January 10th.

I am the queen of my household, and my children are my peasantfolk. As long as we all know our place, things should go smoothly.

I am not against a beheading (and yes I said beheading) of those who do not toe the line.

Blackmail is acceptable when a queen uses it against her peasantfolk.

I love this blog, and especially this post. Thank you Humble RN.

My life is filled with snotty noses, snotty attitudes and dog hair.

Dog hair sticks to snotty noses, not so much to snotty attitudes.

Snotty attitudes can be a precursor to a beheading.

Snotty noses are usually just precursors to more snotty noses.

Could it Be???

Is blogrolling working again?? I am probably jinxing it by even mentioning it, so........I stop now.

On another note, yesterday when I woke up in the afternoon from my sleep, before getting out of bed to get ready for the third night shift in a row, my daughter had a cup of tea ready for me in no time flat. Not only that, my 15yr old son brought in a bowl of Mac & Cheese for me, without me even ASKING for anything for dinner. You have no idea how appreciated I felt, and how proud I was of my kids for being so considerate. Actually, even today, though I didn't have to go to work tonight, my daughter made me tea when she came home from school. I then went down to the local coffee shop and ordered cheeseburgers for everyone for dinner and brought them home as a surprise.

It isn't rocket science,I tell you

My children, God love them. He better, because today, their mother is less than thrilled.

I am a single mom. I have, for all intents and purposes, been a single mom for all of my time in this hell we call motherhood. I fooled myself for the first few years, since I was married, I wasn't a single mom, was I? Let's investigate that for a moment.

My first ex-husband worked at a job that took him away for a week at a time, every other week. So, I was the sole parent in the home half the time. He was a decent parent to our oldest son. By the time our second son came along, he had found himself a second job which kept him away long days during his week home with us. He would come home for dinner, at times. When our daughter was born, he moved out. I was a single mom in earnest then.

My second husband, while he was good with our own son for the most part, kept himself distant from my older children, not really parenting them at all. Then he got job that kept him away all week long, only coming home weekends, where he would hide in the bedroom watching TV or with his nose in the computer screen. I was the single parental figure in that house as well. He has since moved out.

So, again I find myself in the role of single mother. It isn't terribly unsettling to me, as it is role I have been used to for so long. I honestly do not mind not having to negotiate issues with another parent on decisions for my children. What I do mind is the lack of continuity my children experience.

I work full time, 12 hour swing shifts. I am always being called to come in to cover this or that for work since we are severely understaffed. My children never seem to know which end is up. The never know if I am going to work or coming home. It is really frustrating.

I make rules, and I hope they are enforced.....the only enforcer is the 15yr old son. While he likes to believe he is the king, frankly, the other kids really do not show him a lot of respect.....he doesn't really earn it. I put out lists of chores, but without someone there to keep my Attention Deficit Disorder brood on task, the chores often go undone, to be left for Mom to complete on her very rare days off. Bringing me to another issue, my days off. I am usually so exhausted that it takes a day or two to even have enough energy to consider doing any house work, then I have to go back to work again.

This brings me to today. I worked last night, just as I am tonight. I got home and basically crawled into bed. I woke up at about 4pm and called to my daughter and my son to come to my room. (I am a princess, you all know, and I beckoned my minions to my chambers). I asked my daughter to please make me a cup of Earl Grey tea and asked my son if he could possibly make me some chicken noodle soup and a grilled cheese sandwich. I was tired still and just wanted to relax before having to get up for work. About one hour later, I was still tea, soup and sandwichless. Not to mention a little miffed. So, at the urging of a friend, I decided to lay down the law. I called them all to my room. Pointed out the time frame and the small favour I had asked. I was on a roll. I then added that I work the long hours to pay for the house, food, clothes, video games, stereos, etc that they all enjoy. I layed down some pretty heavy guilt. It wasn't long and I had tea, soup and two sandwiches brought to my bed for me to enjoy before heading off to the shower before work.

Now, I wonder what will happen today when I wake up from my nap. All I want is a cup of tea when I wake up from my sleep. I ask for the same thing, every time.....you would think that they could remember and anticipate my desire and my need. It certainly isn't rocket science.

Getting back to the blog................

The holidays are over. All the presents opened, the paper trashed, the noise makers blown and the champagne drank.

I see that Blogrolling.com is still not working.....some things do not change I suppose.

2007, a new year....full of new and exciting things for so many of us. My life changed drastically at the end of 2006. I am headed in new directions, all with positive outlook. I am happy, content, excited.......and a little scared. Things are going to be very different for me in the coming year. As things unfurl, I will start to tell you about them here, but for now, I will not tempt fate.

One thing I will tell you about though, happened just before Christmas. I bought myself a new car!!!!!!! Not totally new, a buy back from a rental company, but fairly new and red and shiny. It is a 2006 Chrysler Sebring......and I call him Sebastian. I love it. Of course it is still a 4 door, since I still have 4 children. But to me it is sporty, and sexy and I feel really good driving it. Just one more move towards my new life!