I Need a Shotgun and a Fishing Pole

The furry little rodent didn’t see his shadow, gets everyone’s hopes up and then what happens? He calls his little fish friend, Nemo. Talk about a bad joke. I don’t care about getting lots of snow, that doesn’t bother me at all. It was the power outage that got my panties in a bunch.

Let’s start at the beginning. I did my big shopping on Friday, Sunday and Monday and when I do, I buy four (yes four) gallons of milk and since Stop and Shop had a coupon for bread I grabbed that too. Now the milk will only last us two, maybe three days tops, so Ted stopped a BJs and bought two more gallons on Wednesday. We were set with bread and milk, and pretty much regular groceries. What I needed were snacks.

Thursday I ran to Aldi and grabbed four assorted bags of “crap” and since I was low on water, two more cases of that. I breezed through that store in minutes, I was impressed. Later that day I had to go pick up a prescription and Ted wanted some soda. I wasn’t going to pay the ridiculous drug store soda price so I ran over to Stop and Shop. WHAT A NIGHTMARE!!

All I needed/wanted was soda. They were out of his Diet Pepsi, so I opted for the gigantic 3 liter of “diet cola” and got myself a diet ginger ale; the lines were insane. I don’t get mad about standing in line, like so many other people were doing. Well, it was your own fault people, you waited until 5:30pm on Thursday to go stock up; the weatherman has been talking about this storm for days…no sympathy for you.

We were ready. We had food; we had gas in the truck and for the snow blower, bring it on. Boy did Nemo bring it. There was no school Friday and as the day went on Maizie started to get nervous. When she gets nervous, she’s doesn’t know how to express it so, she gets mean, nasty and destructive. In order to keep “the calm”, the kids and I tried to watch Hotel Transylvania. The lights kept going out, which meant when they came back on, we had to wait for the cable to reboot. This was a huge stressor on the Kraus couch. We finally get to the end of the movie and it’s time for bed.

You can see the little flickers of panic in the three sets of eyes. “What if the power goes out while we’re sleeping?” “How will you know if you’re asleep?” “What if we wake up?” “What do you usually do when you wake up at night?” “Come to your room.” “So what makes tonight any different?” They all slept together in Maizie’s bed.

All passed out in Maizie's bed

Then it happened. At 1:30am, the power went out. The kids wake up and I yell, “Don’t open the fridge?” Then the cold hits. We have gas heat, but of course it doesn’t work without the power. When I’m cold, I’m less than pleasant. Ted told me it was going to be out for about 6-8 hours. (I really think he makes some stuff up, just so I won’t go postal.)

That's snow and ice on the inside

He had been outside clearing the neighborhood of snow along with the usual hardworking neighbors. I stayed inside and tried to explain why the kids were not going to play outside if there was no heat. We ate all the bags of “crap” for lunch and the kids just made a mess of the house. I didn’t care, I was cold. Later on (about 1 o’clock) we all took a nap Ingalls’s style and when we woke up and there still wasn’t power, I lost all hope. We were going to freeze to death, not really but I was unhappy.

Four blankets listening to The Hobbit

We had peanut butter and jelly for dinner and sat in the living room while Ted read the kids The Hobbit. By 8:30pm, I slipped myself a mickey so I would sleep. All three kids were going to sleep in our bed with me and Ted (volunteering for it) was going to sleep on the couch. By 10pm I had had it, it had to be way below 50 degrees in the house. Our thermostat only goes down to 50 and it was there before the sun went down. We were piling on the comforters, getting cozy.

At 10:30pm I turned to see the time. My other clock was flashing, I couldn’t believe it. I turned and looked at the TV, the little red light was on and the neighbor’s outside light was on…WOO HOO!!! WE HAD POWER!!! I couldn’t believe it, I was so happy. I turned on the Disney channel so the kids could watch TV while they were in bed; it was going to take a while for the house to warm back up.

Being the social media junkie that I am, I jumped right on the computer and started typing. I felt as though I had so much catching up to do.

A Snow Day is Coming!!

Snow Days aren’t what they used to be. They used to fun. I used to look forward to them. Now, not so much. There is so much preparation that goes into a snow storm, especially around these parts.

First thing, bread and milk, every house must have plenty of bread. All the shelves in the stores need to be cleared of bread. If you happen to forget, you’re out of luck. You need milk. Don’t ask why, it’s a rule. Okay just kidding, I know why, it goes back to the Blizzard of ’78 when people were stuck in their houses for days. (Back then they didn’t have the stellar forecasts we have today.)

Then you need to make sure there is gas in the snow blower (and the cars). If you don’t have a snow blower and you only have a shovel for this kind of apocalyptic snow event, then I’m sorry. If you’re lucky you live on a street where you have a neighbor like my husband and the one across the street. They each take a side and snow blow the shit out of sidewalks and driveways. Seriously, my husband does the entire block and Mr. Neighbor does the other. We have the best sidewalks in town (the mailman loves our block).

Driveway before the neighborhood.

Once everything is prepared, the waiting begins. Is school going to be cancelled? Is school going to let out early? (That is always a fustercluck.) If they do is it going to be a disaster like it was in 2007? It took me 45 minutes to go 3 blocks, luckily I cut through the park and that only took 7 minutes.

This snow event I am not teaching, although if there is school I will be there (100^th day). If school is let out, it’s only a couple of blocks away and we usually walk anyway.

My dilemma is what am I going to get for snacks? During a snowpocalypse all healthy eating plans go right out the window. If I’m going to be trapped, I’m going to be trapped and happy. Do I want chips? Ice cream? Snack cakes? I know, all of them and then maybe something for the kids.

Once all the snow has fallen, I know it’s going to happen. It happens even when there’s just a dusting, “Can we play in the snow?” I HATE getting the kids ready to go outside. I must admit, it is easier now than it was two years ago (there wasn’t any snow last year). Now they can do most of it themselves. My issue is, if you’re going to spend all that time getting ready to go outside you should spend at least that much time out there. They go out and eight minutes later are coming in, WALKING THROUGH THE ENTIRE HOUSE, telling me they want to come in and want cocoa (which they don’t drink).

He attempted to get himself ready (2009)

Stella hasn't even been outside yet (2009)

Hurricane Irene took that tire swing (2009)

They could pull themselves together better (2011)

This December I only had to help with the zipper and gloves.

I will then put all the wet stuff in the dryer; and it’s a good thing I do because; within the hour one of the three of them will want to go back out, but neither of the other two will. This leads to tears. So the solo Kraus gets himself (can you guess which one) dressed and takes Alabama outside for a whole eight more minutes, only to repeat the cycle again.

Finally Home...Wordless Wednesday

This was taken the day I came home from the hospital when I had my unfortunate heart situation. After spending days (10 total) in the hospital, I was glad to be home to see the kids and glad to finally take a shower. I hadn't taken one once since the morning of my C-section.

Stella and I, together again...and I haven't been able to get rid of her since, she's stuck to me like glue.

 

Why Do I Go Red?

With Go Red getting so much attention this time of year, let me tell you a little story.

I don’t look “sick”, I don’t act “sick” and if you ask me how I feel, I will say, “Fine.” But I have heart disease, peripartum cardiomyopathy and heart failure, to be exact. It's not a popular disease, but it's mine. From what I understand, part of my heart doesn’t work anymore.

All because I had a baby. She is turning into a wonderful little girl. If I knew what was going to happen, would I do it all over again? Absolutely! I wouldn’t change anything about her. There are some things I wish I could change.

I wish the nurses and doctors paid more attention to me telling them I couldn’t breathe, instead of telling me I was just anxious from having a baby. Me? Anxious about a baby, she was my third and Ted was a stay at home dad, what did I have to be anxious about? Mimi said it best, she told the nurse, “Obviously you know nothing about her because she is the calmest person in the world.”

I wish I didn’t get sent home first and then have to leave to go back to the hospital and then not to return for almost 2 weeks. That was the one and only time I didn’t kiss my kids before I left the house, I have NEVER EVER done that again. I wish the doctors didn’t tell my husband they thought I wasn’t going to make it, no one should have to hear that.

Once I was sent through the tunnel from Women and Infants to RI Hospital, I was put in the cardiac ICU, I had no idea it was the ICU until the nurse moved me to the other side and I asked what the difference was. Every time someone told me how sick I was, I just said, “I’ll get better,” because there was no other option. I remember the shocked faces when people would read the name on the door "Kraus" and then see me. They were expecting a much older person.

I am grateful I had a wonderful doctor, who kept telling me, “We’re going to make you better,” and now tells me, “If you get worse, we can always do a transplant.” They give those out like facelifts nowadays.

I am grateful I got to spend Stella’s first year with her, I didn’t do that with the other two.

I am grateful I was able to get better and return to work for two more years before it became too difficult and had to make a choice.

As of now, I didn’t end up needing the pacemaker I was scheduled for (I was pretty much prepped and ready). I tried going back to work, but ended up being a stay at home mom. I became a blogger, which I don’t think I would have done if I was still teaching (contrary to popular belief, teachers have very little free time).

Some days I can only go from the basement to the top floor with a laundry basket once, other days I can make a few trips. There are many days I need to take a nap; and it’s hard to pull myself together in the morning, but I do and I will keep doing it. Someone has to keep writing stories about the Kraus kids.