Ugh with a Capital Uh

My head is spinning. I feel like Linda Blair. lol I've been taking my Meclizine, but according to the package, it says NOT to exceed 2 tablets in 24 hours. I've taken one at about 10am this morning. Here it is about 2pm, and I feel like I need another one.

So what will happen if I exceed the 2 tablet minimum? Is Meclizine habit-forming? It's actually a small, chewable tablet that resembles children's medication. Even has the chalky-orange flavor we remember as kids.

It's so weird, though. I feel like I'm buzzed. If I sit still, I'm fine. Move my head and WHEEE!!!

The first time I got this was Christmas of 2004. I got it again 9 months later in September. Here it is, nine months after THAT, in June. If I get this damned illness again in April, then we'll all know how often it rears it's ugly head.

But since my kids have been sick recently, I can't help but wonder if *their* sickness brought on the dormant Labyrinthitis (dance magic dance). I wonder if being "sick" kind of triggers it in there. I don't know. All I know is I feel like I'm on a ship in the ocean. :P With a head full of cotton.

I think I'd fail a field sobriety test right about now. LOL But is that due to the illness or the Meclizine? Hmm...

~~Becka

Sicktastic

Welp, every year this happens. Someone in the family gets sick, and it spreads throughout the house like wildfire.

All the kids had fevers last week, and we battled that. Now this week, they're all coming down with colds. Miriam is the only one that it hasn't effected yet. But my oldest, Hannah, has a big frog in her throat. Poor thing sounds like she's been smokin' for forty years!

I rarely get sick, and if I do get sick, it's mild. Today, I woke up with a mild sore throat and a headache. I'm hoping it won't escalate into full-blown sickyness. But lately, I've been having dizzy spells, short ones, but it's alarming. No, I'm not pregnant, so please don't jinx me in that regard.

But two years ago, I was struck by an affliction called "Acute Labyrinthitis". Unfortunately, this is not a sickness where David Bowie and his codpiece come to kidnap you back to the Goblin City. Darn it all. :( No, this is a malady that is a "cold" in your inner ear, attacking the "labyrinth", the term doctors use for that nifty little fluid-filled thingy that affects your balance. Needless to say, you have extreme dizziness and vertigo. It's horrid.

To treat this illness, the doctor can't do much for you. Therefore, to save you from a trip to the doc, the icky paperwork, the co-pay, and deductible that you might have to fork over, I'll just tell you the treatment.

Dr. Goings is IN.

Meclizine. That is what you need. It is an over-the-counter motion sickness drug that people usually buy for long car trips. It costs maybe $4.99 a bottle. Save your money and trust Dr. Goings. Labyrinthitis goes away after about a week or so. Until then, don't operate any heavy machinery.

Anyway, as I was saying, I've been getting dizzy spells lately and I think it's coming back. I got it last year again as well. I guess once you get it, it's "chronic". Dammit. My dizzy spells aren't that bad right now. And if I treat them with Meclizine, they won't become worse. But if you don't treat it with some kind of drug, you will need a barf bag. Literally. Labyrinthitis doesn't fool around. I learned that the hard way two years ago. **shudders**

Let's just hope this crappola goes away. I hate being dizzy. Then again, it gives me an excuse to get out of doing housework to sit still on the computer all day. :P

Pass the meds!

~~Becka

The Weekend in a Nutshell

My second daughter Miriam had her birthday party on Saturday. Her actual birthday is on Wed. the 28th, but we decided to have her party on the weekend before the four day Fourth of July weekend. She had an AWESOME day. Her aunt and uncle paid to have Princess Jasmine of Aladdin fame call her for special birthday wishes. How cool is that?! She made out with some LOOT. She got all kinds of clothes, toys, jewelry, a new video game, and a cute little fold-up playhouse I bought at Target. Here are some pics of the party:


Miriam, blowing out her birthday candles on her pretty pink cake. Her sister Simone is between my arms, trying to help out. So cutesy.



The playhouse on our deck. That's Miriam's cousin Nathan standing outside the door, my nephew. You can see Simone's pretty flower dress poking out. :)


See that pool through the slats of our deck? That's our 24 ft. Dough Boy pool. Did we go swimming this weekend? Why yes we did. Finally summer arrived after cool temperatures, soaring into the 90's, after nice, balmy 70 degree weather. We all swam in the pool, and bought cool floaty devices for all the kids. No longer are they grabbing precariously to the edge, they were playing and splashing and floating in the water with glee. I think they'll be swimming for real in no time.

The cool thing about our pool is, we looked at our address on Google Maps, and we're the only house for MILES with one. It's so wonderful to go swimming, because it lowers your body temperature, so even though it's hot outside, you stay cool for hours afterward. And it's nice having a daylight basement in our house, because it stays about 10 to 15 degrees cooler than our second story. Makes sense, since it's halfway underground and has a floor made out of concrete. LOL

We had a yummy BBQ this evening. Jim smelled someone else BBQ-ing on the wind, and that's what he wanted for dinner. LOL So we cheated on our diet and busted out the hamburger patties, hotdogs, macaroni & potato salads, and cupcakes. Today was a good day. I have a feeling I'll be paying for my "sins" tomorrow, however. My body doesn't like the high intake of fatty foods any longer. It might taste heavenly, but boy, do you feel like hell a few hours later. >:D

~~Becka

My Poor Little Dude

So I took my son to the allergist today for his scratch test. Found out he's allergic to grasses and pollens. That means, he'll pretty much have hay fever for the rest of his life. The doc said that it should go away in a few weeks, as after the 4th of July, the grasses aren't as prevalent. So that's good.

He also said the boy was mildly allergic to soy and dog dander, but not enough to be concerned by. He said there's a chance that his allergies could get worse over time, but for right now, he just gets some nasal spray and Benadryl or liquid Zyrtec for his allergies.

But let me tell ya, that allergist was a hottie! LOL He wasn't your HUNK, but he had nice eyes and an attractive smile. It was nice chatting with him for a few minutes. hehe

But Becka, you might say, aren't you happily married?? Why yes I am, I answer. And I love my DH dearly. But I still find certain men attractive. :P Doesn't mean I'm going to do anything about it, just gonna admire from afar. LOL

Went to Fred Meyer's today to pick out DD's cake for her birthday party tomorrow. Her birthday is actually next Wednesday, the 28th, but since the next weekend was close to the 4th, I didn't want to have it that weekend. She picked a beautiful pink cake with hearts and Tweety bird on it. Admittedly, I was a little disappointed in their bakery's selection of cakes. Mostly boy cakes. For those who might not know, Fred Meyer's, (or more affectionately known as "Freddy's" by the locals), is a grocery store chain here in the Pacific Northwest. But not just groceries. Imagine if Target had a full grocery section. That's what Freddy's is like.

Or like one of those Super Wal-Marts. We love Freddy's. In fact, I joke sometimes that I should just set up a cot in the back room or apply for a job since I'm there all the time. LOL Somewhat of a local celebrity there, not because I'm an author, but because of my kids. They're just too darn cute for those employees to ignore. :P That, and my kids are chatty, so it's hard to miss us. Hehe

Here's a pic of the Goings Clan Children:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimgoings/64060649/in/set-1383490/

That's them in their Halloween costumes last year. Too cutesy.

~~Becka

Karate, French, & McDonalds

I am not a soccer mom. I am a karate mom. And a French (language) mom. :P

My kids take both karate and french class, coincedentally at the same place. DH and I wanted them to have some kind of a "P.E." class, since we homeschool, and karate seemed perfect for them. We also wanted them to get into speaking a different langauge, since they're so young and still sponges.

My DH went on Craig's List and looked for a teacher who taught french and was contacted--by the wife of the guy who owns the karate dojo! Can you say "small world"? LOL

Anyhow, we had both french and karate classes today. Usually we have french on Tuesdays, but it was postponed for today due to some conflicting schedules.

The McDonald's came in as lunch for a treat. I got their Asian Chicken Salad, and I must confess, it's pretty good! I've never had edamame or whatever the heck those little green beany thingies are in there. But they were good. Great, now I'm hungry again. :P It was hard, not ordering the yummy burgers, but I was a good girl, despite being tempted to be bad.

DH and I are on Weight Watchers, have been since March, and I've lost 25 pounds so far. I'm fitting into my pants! :D Let me tell you, though, after being accustomed to eating a certain way and then eating the way you "used to", you pay for it a few hours later, if you know what I mean. Better have some reading material in the bathroom. LOL!

But it hasn't been that hard of a lifestyle change, because that's what it is. You can't eat healthy "for a little while", or else you'll gain your weight back and then some. People vastly overestimate their willpower. LOL

Baked potato chips, low-fat to non-fat things, Skinny Cow ice cream sandwiches or cones, rice cakes (which have come far beyond the bland hockey pucks of old)... All this stuff is a great way to have the same kinds of food in your life but cut back on calories. Margarine instead of butter, low-fat mayo, low-fat salad dressing, eat mozzarella, paramasan, or swiss cheeses (less fat and calories per ounce)... And putting more fruits and veggies back into your diet.

It's not for everyone, but since you can eat relatively whatever you want if you're willing to spend the points, it's the perfect diet for my DH and me. So I'm happy with it. And so is my shrinking waistline. :D

~~Becka

Tuesday Toes Day

Got some more NetFlix today. Yay! Two more MONK CD's and one on Horatio Hornblower. DH and I really like the show Monk, and have only just started watching it recently. We're in the second season.

It's a cute show, about a detective who is obsessive-compulsive. It's funny watching him react to a crime scene, wanting to make everything perfect again. LOL

We've also been watching the second season of Stargate Atlantis. We're avid fans of Stargate: SG-1 and had a bunch of Atlantises downloaded, but we haven't watched them. I think we're on show 17 of Atlantis season 2. I love McCay. I think he's my favorite character on the show. The guy is so annoying, but he's cute at the same time. :D

And of COURSE there's Michael Shanks and Ben Browder from SG-1. Who could forget THOSE hotties?? **faints** That's why I watch it. All that eye candy in ONE show? Dang, hope this is the week they all wear tight leather! (You'd be surprised at how many shows they do. LOL)

And yes, I am an uber geek, married to an uber geek. I know Ben Browder from his Farscape days, and even named something out of one of my books after "him". LOL His name in Farscape is John Crichton. That name is where Laith's title, the Third Duke of Crichton, comes from in HEARTS ETERNAL. Ahhh, little Becka trivia there. ;D

We have scads of movies and TV shows in our DVD repertoire. We hate watching TV shows ON TV, so we buy the seasons when they come out so we can vege on a Sat/Sun watching the entire season without having to wait. :P In fact, there are very few shows we watch week to week. One of them being LOST. I mean, come on. That many hotties in one show? Makes me giddy. Jack, Sawyer, Sayid, Desmond, Charlie . . .

Too bad they don't have "leather" week on LOST.

~~Becka

So I forgot Father's Day...

How much does that suck? I totally zoned on Father's Day. I remembered ON the day, but much too late to go buy any cards for either my DH or my father... I felt so bad. At least I called my father and talked to him for awhile before the day was done. Man. I totally thought it was next week. I guess I've just been so busy lately that I simply forgot.

We just had the windshield in our car replaced because something flew out of the sky and hit it while DH was driving to work last week. He has no idea what it was, but it hit the windshield so hard, glass fragments flew into the car! Thank goodness DH didn't swerve or even freak out. I totally would have been all over the road if that happened to me. LOL

But now we have a nice, shiny new windshield. Of course, we had to pay the $250 deductible. I hate deductibles. That's a dirty word in my house. The entire bill was like $340 something. Insurance only paid about $96. Does that seem right to you? For FULL coverage?

**raises brow**

Not to mention the stupid health insurance tries to write off every illness as "on the deductible" nowadays too. I hate insurance companies. With a capital "H".

DH bought some stuff from Home Depot yesterday. We had a $175 gift card from them because they use that as an incentive to buy the front-loading washing machines. Well, I'd wanted front loaders for forever, and we finally bought some in April. We just got the gift card, so that was pretty sweet. But he used it to buy a weed wacker and electric hedge trimmers along with one of those long tree-trimming poles you stick into the branches. So he had fun doing yardwork yesterday. Granted, our front lawn looked like a jungle, and now it actually looks pretty good! :D

But I forgot to set the trash on the street when we were doing yardwork. Guess when I remembered? About 7am, when the trash man drove right past our house. Dammit. LOL

~~Becka

Sleep? What's that?

Man, sometimes I wish there were more hours in the day. I'm usually up really late at night, and I don't get a full night's sleep most of the time. But mainly, it's because I have kids and a house and a hubby to take care of. So I have to do my writing late at night.

Ah well. I love writing. I'd rather be writing than sleeping in all honesty. :P

But last night was fun; I got to chat with Dawn from Inara Press. She lives about 40 miles away from me, and her husband is in one of my husband's D&D games. (Dungeons and Dragons). In fact, our mutual friend, Mike Sigler, was one of her cover artists for a time. He is the one who made my cover for Hearts Eternal.

Anyhow, she tagged along with her hubby and we yakked long into the night. She's very saddened to have let Inara Press go, but it was something that needed to be done. But she's a great person, and I know I'll have a friend in her for a good, long time. She's the only person in the "biz" that I've met face to face, and so odd that we "knew" of each other, but never knew our hubbies got together each Friday for their game night. LOL We emailed eachother one day and was like "Whoa, that's YOU??" haha!

Small world.

But I found out that my book will now be published at Samhain Publishing! So that's wonderful news. It was an opportunity that I couldn't pass up. There's too much going on there to ignore. I really feel priviledged that they picked up my book (and two of my short stories). :D It just kind of dropped in my lap, you know? I have a few author friends who are trying hard to get in to Samhain, and I just breezed past them in the door. I feel kind of bad because I know they reallyreallyreally want to be there, and here I was, looking the other way when I suddenly found the opportunity in my lap. Literally. LOL

But the "biz" is also about who you know. And even though Hearts Eternal was never actually released at Inara, I think my time there was definately a stepping stone to get in with Samhain. In a way, it kind of sucks for those authors who are trying hard to get their submissions in front of the right editor who will sign them. Then again, I'm not going to pass this up! Take what you can get!

I really think this will mean big things for me and my career as an author. I don't mean to sound pretentious, but the potential is there to sell, and sell well.

We shall see . . .

~~Becka

My Back Hurts

I swear, I've updated that darn profile on the side ------------->>>>

I did that yesterday. If you click on my profile, it will even say the correct version. Who knows, maybe I have to republish the page. **shrugs**

I've been depressed for most of the day. Just found out my publisher Inara Press is going under at the end of the month. That means my book HEARTS ETERNAL will not be coming out. However, there is a silver lining in this stormcloud, but I can't share it yet until it's "official", so you can check back on my author blog to find out that news in the next few days at http://www.RebeccaGoings.com.

Did a lot of housework today and lamenting the fact that the lower level of our house is a daylight basement. That means that half of our house has concrete floors. Our house is 3145 sq. ft. mind. So half of that... roughly 1570 sq. ft. needed to be MOPPED today. Ugh. So here I sit with an achy back and a crooky neck feeling sorry for myself about my publisher. LOL

But, I get to sit back tonight and rest for a bit, as NetFlix has sent us another episode of Horatio Hornblower, an excellent series of life on the high seas in the late 1700's. The yummy Ioan Gruffudd stars. Le sigh. But it really is a good show. It's funny to watch how polite they were back then when they were insulting each other. LOL "Will you kindly rescind your words, sir!" "No, I do not believe I shall." "Then do me the honor of meeting me on Banning Hill at dawn for a duel!" "I shall be there, sir!"

It's a hoot.

~~Becka

It's Wednesday. Have you blogged today?

Welcome to my ramblings. I realized in my handful of blogs, that I don't have a place for me to just shoot the breeze, tell of things I've done, and just log what the heck I'm doing when I'm not writing. Yippee, another device for procrastination! :D

So let's get started yakking about my boring life.

I had to call the doctor today for my son. He's been sniffling since the beginning of April. The doc thought he had a sinus infection and gave him medication for him. Turns out the medication is made with amoxicillin, in the penicillin family. Yup, my son is allergic. He had a horrid allergic reaction with hives ALL over his body. However, the medication failed to cease the sniffles. Doc told me to put him on Benedryl.

But he's never had "allergies" before. DH and I decided to take him to an allergist to find out "what" he's allergic to. If it's pollen, I can feel better about giving him Benedryl. But what if, God forbid, he's allergic to my cats? Let's hope it does not come to that. Tough choice... the boy or the cats? Well, we've had the cats for longer, so does seniority count? :P

I doubt we'd have to get rid of the cats. He has nothing more than runny nose and itchy eyes. No hives or swollen throat or glands, so that's a good thing.

Phone guy came today. Now, we are 100% online. Our phone is now on the Internet. Pretty cool that Comcast offers that, eh? Now, no more long distance charges! Yay! AND, I can check my voicemail online. I love technology. Now, I'm going to get my cable, internet, and telephone bill all in one. Convenient!

Took the kids to Karate class today and I got some writing done. Sad to think the only time I can find during the day to write is when I'm sitting on the couch in the lobby of the dojo with a pen and a notepad... A few people looked at me, like "what is she doing?" but never asked me. I'm hoping maybe it will be a segue for me to actually talk about my writing there. :P I don't think anyone knows I'm "the" Rebecca Goings. LOL As if I'm famous. Pshaw. I did give my card to a lady there, and she looked interested, but has never spoken of it since. So hey, I'm shy, what can I say? I've never been one to shout to the world how great I am. Maybe online, but in real life, I pass by opportunities to blab all the time.

Alas, it is 10:30 p.m. and I need to decipher my chicken scratch into my manuscript for Jareth's story HEARTS UNBOUND into the computer. Since I've been online for years now, my handwriting has gone to pot. Ah well, what can you do? I hate writing longhand. It's so passe. LOL

~~Becka