Did I say I was done with sickness?

I so lied! Everyone got up yesterday and was getting ready for the day. Roo felt a little warm. I took his temp and it was 99.5. Hmmm, now for the quandary. Do I give him Tylenol and send him off to school? I had absolutely no one to watch him for me and I really had to be at work because I had meetings and my biennial review. Hubby had to be at work too. He was swamped. I call a few people frantically but no one was available at all. So, I decide that my nephew will have to watch the little guy. Roo loves Brad, so I knew that wouldn't be a problem. Brad has been coming and assisting me at work, so he would still be working, but just at my house with Roo. Brad had no problem with it. He wasn't feeling that great himself, so staying home and chilling with seemed just about right for him. Yeah!

Work was fine when I finally got there. Labs went well albeit a few students were really missing the mark. I have no idea what they had for lunch, buy my presumption is that it was totally organic. Honestly, they probably should have been tossed out of class. My meetings and review went just fine. I wasn't worried about my review at all. I know I kick butt at my job, and they know it too. Of course, there were several calls from Brad informing me how Roo was doing. First one was telling me that Roo pulled a tick out of his ear! I almost didn't believe him. Then I remembered Roo was up tooling around in the high weeds/grass on our hillside while picking blackberries the day before. It wasn't biting him (yet) just crawling! EWWWWww! I HATE ticks! Brad did a thorough inspection afterwards to ensure there were no friends left behind. The next call from Brad came shortly before it was time for me to leave. Roo had waken up from a two hour nap and said he wasn't feeling good and was dizzy. Brad kind of freaked because he had never felt someone with a fever before. He did good though and took Roo's temp. Somehow he had accidentally set it the Celsius and got a temp of 39.1. He quickly got online and found a conversion calculator and found that is was 102.3 (exactly what Lyd's had been most of the time she was sick). He found the Motrin and dosed him up. By the time Roo was back asleep on Brad's lap in the rocking chair. It was quite cute really.

Today, Roo is better. He seems to be on a quicker version of this than Lyd was. I stayed home with them today in case Roo required a trip to the doctor. He hasn't needed one yet, but just started to complain about his ear hurting. I don't know if it is really hurting him or not. He was in his cranky mode and when he is like that he complains about anything he can think of at the time. I called the doctor just to be sure, and they had no more appointments for today, but I have one for tomorrow morning. Lyd is taking it pretty easy today too. She is still not feeling up to snuff with this. She is definitely MUCH better, but still wiped out.

I took my car in to get repaired today. It was hit in a parking lot a couple months ago, and I finally made the appointment to get the repairs done. She just banged up my bumper, but it still costs over $1000 to fix it. It is supposed to be done tomorrow, but I don't know if it will be or not. I got a rental car. It isn't bad. A Dodge Stratus. It is a bit clunky in the ride, but hey the insurance company is paying for it, so it doesn't matter.

I ordered the pink dress from JCpenney yesterday. I also ordered shoes, pants and shirt for Roo. I looked at dresses for Lyd, but didn't care for any except for one that came in a 6x as the largest size. She would be too tall for that, otherwise it would fit skinny minnie just fine. I will go shopping for her tomorrow. I have a sitter all lined up and I am taking the day to do some shopping. I am going to go no matter how I feel. I have a cold coming on. No big surprise. Also, the monthly visitor showed up today. I am taking the rest of today off and taking a nap when the kids take naps.

A new day has dawned...

Today, I managed to get everybody out of the house for their intended destinations! Hooray. It did take a bit to accomplish as both kids were out of the get up in the morning mode, but they did rebound just fine.

After Lyd's power nap of four hours yesterday, she woke up a completely different child! She had been on the antibiotic for six hours or so at that point and you could totally tell it was taking care of things. She was perky, wanted to play, and was very pleasant. It was so good to see my little girl back. Now, on the down side, since she was feeling so much better after her power nap, she wasn't ready to sleep at 8, or 9, or 10, nor 11! She was up until 11:30, which just killed me this morning. She was in her room that whole time laying in bed and playing quietly, but you could tell she just wasn't tired yet. I let her watch a movie in there though. So, at this point, I am venturing to guess that if the first doctor HAD prescribed an antibiotic at the first spot of that high fever she would have felt better much sooner. I am just so glad that she is feeling better now though.

Work is work today. I really don't want to be here. I think I need to take day out just for me. Go for a hike, shopping, scrapbooking or whatever without someone needing something every five minutes. I need a little regeneration time I think. Not sure when I will get it though. You would think with all the time I have been at home I would have managed to get more done than I did. I have a pile of laundry a mile high. I am not looking forward to that at all. I need to get more fabric softener before I commence with the washing though. Now, I did manage to watch a movie all by myself late Saturday night. I couldn't sleep and I have had this DVD laying around for a while that someone gave me. GI Jane with Demi Moore. No, not a fine feature film, but it was mildly entertaining and it was a little bit of good R & R. The Navy s.e.a.l academy they portrayed was very different from the 3 hour documentary I saw on it several years ago. MUCH different. Albeit extremely hard, physically and mentally draining, it wasn't the Hollywood version of explosions around every corner.

We are getting ready to leave on vacation on the the 13th of July. I am so ready! I am still looking for a dress for an evening summer wedding. It isn't formal, but definitely semi-formal. The colors for the wedding are black and white. Most guests are going to be wearing black from what I gather. We are also getting family photos taken at the event. I guess I have been putting off shopping because I am soooo unhappy with my body right now. I can't imagine trying to look nice in a dress. I will manage, and I am sure I am blowing it all out of proportion. I know I keep saying that I need to get it fixed, but fixing it ain't easy! I do need to do it though. I am also shopping for a dress for Lyd. She will be easy. She looks absolutely fabulous in anything at all, and she wears dresses much better than her mother. I am never at ease in a dress. She most certainly is and is so feminine in her manners and posture. She is a Ms. Manners natural! Roo only has one request for the wedding. He wants to wear a bow-tie. Cool with me. I ordered him a cute little black one and now must get the other stuff for him. My husband is a different matter. He let moths eat his last suit, so I am reluctant to get another for him. I am currently looking at this dress or the wedding. I am so not well versed in these matters. Would this be appropriate for the wedding? Should I get it in black like I am thinking, or should I get the pink?

I think I have mentioned our destinations for this summer but it bears repeating. First, we are headed to Missouri for the wedding, but the most exciting part for me is looking at houses while we are there. I am setting aside two days for that. I have a list of houses I would like to see. I don't know why, but I love looking at houses. I always have. Hubby and I used to regularly go to the new developments and check out the new houses. Maybe I missed my calling as a realtor. After Missouri, we are heading to Minnesota to cap off the trip. I will not be looking at houses in Minnesota, but rather spending time visiting family and parading the children around the sites of the town. They are very anxious to Lake Superior and touch it's very COLD water.

I think it is time for lunch.

Are we sure it isn't Winter?

Warning: This is a gripe.

Why does it feel like Winter you may ask? Well it certainly isn't because of the weather. It has to do primarily with the fact that I feel like I have been running a damn infirmary with the kids the past two friggin' months. They had stomach flu, colds, strep throat, more colds, coughs, fevers out the wazoo. I have officially had enough. Lyd got sick last week with a very nasty cough. It just seemed to get worse and worse, so I took her in on Thursday last week. The doctor gave her a very thorough check over and found she had some chest virus really bugging her. She was wheezing and overall just feeling like crap. He prescribed prednisolone and albuterol He said if she got a fever over 101 to bring her back in right away. So, all Friday she was fine. We skipped swim lessons on Thursday and went on Friday. Thankfully, she didn't even swim because it was water safety stuff that was all out of pool. Roo swam, and began coughing shortly thereafter. We get home, I feed them and they crash hard.

Saturday morning arrives and Lyd strolls out of the back of the house obviously feeling terrible, and says, "Mommyyyyy, I don't feel good". I ask her what doesn't feel good, and she comes and lays next to me saying in a very whinny voice, "Myyyy whooooole body feels awful". As soon as she leaned against me I could tell she had a fever. She was also specifically complaining about her right lower hip/abdomen area hurting when she coughed. I take her temp and it is 102.4. I dose her up with Tylenol and give the doctor a call. He isn't on call this weekend and the service says to take her to the Urgent Care center, or I could wait and take her to the on call doctor this weekend who was Dr. Tank. I hate Dr. Tank, so I wasn't going to take her to see him to save my soul. I get her dressed and we get to Urgent Care and get seen fairly quickly. I find out why we got seen pretty quickly. This doctor was spending about 45.8 seconds with each patient. He looked her over very quickly, no ear/throat infection going on, lungs sound clear. He never even looked at her abdomen. Just said the prednisone was causing that. Whatever.

We get back home, I dose her up with Motrin before putting her down for a nap at noon. She slept through to around 5:00 pm. She was burning up when she got up and crying about her lower abdomen hurting on the right hand side. She didn't want to move or anything. I take her temp and it is 102.8 now and she is crying in pain. Mark had just left to go motorcycle riding (with my good graces), and he was already out of cell phone shot in the toolies. I call over a neighbor to watch Roo while I took Lyd to the ER. I wasn't messing around if this was her appendix acting up. ER room was full, but we were seen fairly quickly. Lyd was very scared because she never had been to the ER room, and the only ER room she has seen has been on TV in the trauma unit where they are always doing surgery. She was very concerned about being cut open. When we finally see the doctor he looks over her closely and Lyd is no longer really complaining of abdomen pain at all. He is pushing in on her tummy hard, and she doesn't even flinch. Hooray, at least no emergency apendectomy for her. We return home and get her comfy again for the evening. She continued to run a fever all day Sunday which just would not stay away if she didn't have either Motrin or Tylenol coursing through her veins. At times, it took the combo to keep the fever down.

She woke up today still with a fever. I took her back to see her doctor (the one we saw last Thursday). Finally, there was something definitive to diagnose! She has an ear infection. I am guessing this is what has been brewing for the past several days and causing her fever. If they would have given her antibiotics earlier I just wonder if she would already be feeing better, rather than having to endure an extra three days of feeling like sh*t. She is currently on hour 3 of another power nap. I am going to try and get her to eat something when she wakes up. She hasn't eaten much at all since she has been sick. She has lost a couple of pounds and the girl hasn't got it to lose.

Rooing is doing much better with his cold. I kept him home today as well, but he doesn't seem much bothered by his at all other than a terrible sounding cough. He is my cougher though. If he gets a cough, he always sounds like it is the whooping cough. He will be going back to preschool tomorrow.

Right now, I am very done with waiting rooms, getting prescriptions filled, arguing with kids about taking their medications. I am crabby today. I think my period is coming around the horn here soon. I don't like this feeling. I have been getting crabby before my last couple of periods and let me tell you, I really feel for the women who endure it every month. It is no fun to be on edge like that, almost looking for a fight while everyone else breathing your air is pissing you off. I hope this doesn't become a regular thing.

Other than taking care of my kids, I haven't been doing a whole lot. I have been trying to get things purged from my house. The clutter is driving me crazy. I am getting rid old junk I tend to hang onto for no apparent reason. And, the stuff I do want to keep, but don't need access to really, is being filed in boxes and put away in the garage. I have been shredding old documents and stuff that we no longer need. With ID theft so high I dare not toss a medical statement in the trash! I have shredding 3 bags so far. As I was looking through all my old medical stuff I found the first office receipt for my first ever pregnancy OB appointment. I did miscarry that baby at 9 weeks or so, but I was struck by the due date for that baby. April 19th. Well, I got my April 19th baby, just three years later. That is Roo's birthday.

I am kind of behind at work because I have been missing so many days lately. I will need to go in tonight to get stuff ready for tomorrow. I will also keep packing stuff away tomorrow. I can't believe how much junk we have in this building. My nephew is now working for me, so that is cool. He is helping out quite a bit. My former helper got a better job so I had to get someone else pronto. We shall see what we get done tomorrow.

Summer has begun

Wow, summer is here and it is already going quickly. Swimming lessons have started for the kids. They love those. I discovered on the first day of lessons that 5 of Lyd's classmates were in lessons too, including her favorite Garrett. That makes the lessons go by a bit quicker since I can chit chat with the other mom's who are there.

All the plans are in order for the family vacation this year. We will be heading out to Missouri and and Minnesota. We were originally just going to head out to Minnesota but then a wedding came up in Missouri so we divided the trip. It made for a more expensive trip, but not by too much. I am planning on looking at houses again while in Missouri. I had a great time looking at houses last year. The realtor is fantastic. We will probably just end up buying a piece of property and build if we ever do move there. But for meantime looking at the houses is fun. I am looking forward to the trip, but know it will be work along the way. I am sure arriving home will be very welcomed when the time comes.

I have been quite busy with work, hence the lack of updates on the site. We are still busy packing and organizing. We are told the project is going to move forward regardless of the bond not passing. I heard the latest update from the head honcho himself yesterday that we are marching forward. I am glad. We really do need the building redone. It is going to be hectic, but well worth it when we move back in! Hooray!

Everything lately seems to be a blur. I will have to get back to updating more often so I can actually remember what I have been doing. LOL.

Okay, so I am an Idiot

I got the kids to school yesterday a little earlier than usual. There was definitely the feeling of the last day of school in the air. Children more exuberant bubbling all around, teachers looking very relaxed and unhaggered, and no one seemed to be in a hurry to get anywhere. I told Roo's teacher I would be picking him up early because his sister had a half day today. After getting them to classes I drove to my favorite coffee establishment (non-starbux) and got myself a mocha. I enjoyed a brief conversation with my friend in San Jose who had her baby on Monday. She and baby are doing well. She had an 8 lb 2 oz girl who is a little jaundiced, but otherwise fit as a fiddle. I got home and allowed myself 45 minutes of self absorption on a computer game. I don't get much time to do that stuff anymore so I went for it. It was enjoyable playing whilst sipping my coffee.

Soon enough time came for me to head to the assembly at the school for the award presentations. I got their right at 10:00, when it was slated to begin. However, being the last day of school, none of the teachers got their classes there on time. Remarkably enough, Lyd's kindergarten class was one of the first classes to arrive. I have never seen that class be the first to arrive anywhere. They are usually the last. I went down to the front row where they were sitting and said hi to her and gave her a kiss. She was very happy to see her mommy there. I then took my place in the back with the handful of other parents. Finally the awards started and they went by grade. Lyd's class was first. There were quite a few awards, but not all children received an award. First to get recognition were the merit roll students. Then the honor roll students, and finally principle's list. Lydia received an award for being on the honor roll two quarters and merit roll two quarters. Her penmanship kept her off the honor roll all four quarters. LOL. That is certainly her struggle. There were two kid from her class who were on the principle's list. Lydia also received an award for Outstanding achievement in spelling and phonics. She was very excited. She was also an extreme reader which meant she had read through the entire battery of books for their class as well as all the "extra" books that went beyond that. Though I could have ditched out after their awards were given I opted to stay and watch the other classes get their awards. By about 11:00, I realized that they were not going to be done at 11:30 (when minimum day was to get out). They finished about 11:40 and I walked to Roo's preschool and picked him up. We then went to Lyd's classroom to get her. I met with the teacher and she said they were all getting ready for lunch. I looked at her a bit confused, "Isn't it a minimum day today?" She tells me no, it is a full day. So, we chat about that for a bit and she says I can take Lyd no if I wanted to. I tell her I will do that. So, we pack up and leave and head out for lunch. Lyd starts complaining that we left her lunch box (it had her snack in it). I just tell her we can go back after school and get it then. She wasn't happy with that, but parry off her whining. She was much better after eating. She then tells me she wanted to go back to school for the rest of the day since it was the last day. That was fine with me. We got there before lunch recess was over so that was good. All the kids had their yearbooks (can you believe an elementary yearbook?). They were looking through them, and upon quick glance I seed several of my photos I had taken at their trip to the apple farm found their way into the book. That was cool. I was happy they liked them. After getting her back to school Roo and I went to get me something to eat. I was not going to eat McDonald's when they ate their chicken nuggets.

After my lunch, I opted to take Roo to a new park we hadn't been to yet. It was a nice park, though it could use some trees. It is still in the process of being built, so trees may be coming, but it will be a while before they are big enough to offer shade. I took my place on a bench to watch Roo while two other mom's on the bench next to me engrossed in conversation. They were chatting about this and that with an air that implied they must have though very highly of themselves. Over time, I grew weary of their conversation and walked around the park again only to find myself back at the bench next to the them. This time, I decided, I would try and talk with them if the opportunity presented itself. It did, and I spoke with them briefly, but I could immediately tell that I wasn't really welcome to talk with them. It was something reminiscent of the outcast wolf trying to break into an established wolf pack. I had asked them how old their sons were. One was 4 and one was 4 1/2. I had then asked if the 4 1/2 year old was starting kindergarten in the fall. She said, very haughtily back, "no, he will be in preschool another year". As if I was prying information out and looking down on her child because he wasn't going into kindergarten in the fall. She must have felt defensive about it. One lady was certainly more unwelcoming of others talking to them than the other, but neither were overly friendly by any means. I immediately chalked them up as b*tches and let them continue their conversation about their cars and one of the ladies husbands work who was traveling to Germany or something. I obviously wasn't in their "stay-at-home-mom's club". I figured they were probably like that in highschool too.

Roo enjoyed his time at the park. He linked up with two boys who were playing a bit rough. I was glad he linked up with them rather than the two tippy-toe boys of the lady's who were too timid to play with anyone else. Roo actually tried playing with those boys first, but they were just as shunning as their mothers. The other two boys were a riot. Just running around climbing and being boys having fun. This was certainly the way I remembered boys being. Roo was playing some form of tag with them and they took turns clogging up the tube twisty slide. They were having a ball. After a while they were wrestling a little bit and Roo was a bit overwrought. He isn't used to playing with boys who are rough and tumble. He is one, but there isn't any others in our neighborhood. We have all girls, so one boy wrestled him to the ground and Roo scraped his elbow on the cushiony ground where all the equipment is. I think it was more of an ego issue than anything. I went to look, and the other two boys were looking like they had done something seriously wrong. I ensure them they hadn't, and that Roo wasn't used to being wrestled to the ground. He is usually the one doing it to others, so when the tide was turned, he wasn't sure how he felt about that. On that note, it was 2:00 and time for the boys to ride their bikes home. Roo and I stayed a while longer, and then went to get his sister from school after stopping by at home to get something to drink.

Today, I have both kids home and they have converted Roo's room into a huge "fort". Blanket unds tucked under here and there and others being held down with whatever heavy toy they could find for an anchor. Ahhhhh, the days! I have built many a fort with my brothers. We are going to buzz out of here shortly and get on with the day. They have some serious pent up energy today. Perhaps a trip to the park is in order, or maybe to the beach. That sounds like fun to me.

Graduations

Once again it has been way too long since my last update. I had an update and then this website had an issue and it didn't post and it wasn't saved in the draft mode. So, that bummed me enough that I didn't come back for a while. Also, with school ending for the kids, it has been non-stop activities that they must be present for at X time an so forth.

First things though. I must recount Lydia getting the new horse. I had received it a couple weeks ago and placed it on her dresser in her room. I asked her to go and get her reading book off her dresser so we could get that done for the evening. I followed her down the hall to spy on her reaction. She walked into her room, and then stood dead in her tracks. She just stared for a moment and then whispered to herself, "She fiiiixxed it". She said it as if she were in a trance. She then walked up to the horse, and stared some more without picking it up. I think she was looking for glue. I then ask her, "well, what do you think?" from behind her back. She turns around and asks, "You were able to fix it?" I resisted the urge to lie, and told her that I couldn't fix it, but looked high and low and found a replacement. She was so excited she gave me a big hug and kiss with a million thank yous! I was queen mom for the day!

June 8th was hubby's birthday. He turned fifty! wow, how did he get so old? I guess that happens when you marry someone 9 years older than yourself. I originally had a birthday party planned for him. It was just going to be a BBQ with his friends over. It was also going to be a surprise. However, he saw me making the invitations and so I told him about it. He didn't want a party at first. I talked him into it, though he was reluctant. Obviously, it was no longer a surprise though. Well, about a week before his party, I hadn't got all the invitations out so we decided we would have the party at a later date...namely a combo July 4th party. So, that will come in time. On his birthday though, I made him one of his favorite dinners. It isn't one I make often, nor is it difficult, but he likes it. So, we had meatloaf with gravy, mashed potatoes, fresh bread, and steamed veggies. For desert we had his favorite German Chocolate cake. That was a bit of a disappointment because it was dry. Uggh. The kids were excited to give him his new St. Louis baseball cap they bought for him. I, in turn gave him a romantic evening once the children were in bed.

This Monday was kindergarten graduation. It was at 7:00 pm and it was long. All the kids were yawning before it was over. In my days at school there was no kindergarten graduation, but it seems they all do it now. They did great with their program. Lydia lost her hat once but acted like nothing happened and finished the singing. When the song was over she bent down and picked it up. "Just like Mrs. Adkins told us to do if our hat fell off". Too cute. She did a great job at her turn speaking into the microphone. Easy to understand without being too loud or too soft.
She got her diploma and off we went home to bed. I am going to have to scan her graduation picture. She looks so grown up you would think she were getting her PhD!

Yesterday was her Kindergarten field trip. We took a bus to Santa Barbara to a very nice botanical garden and park for the kids to play at. We had pizza for lunch and thankfully we had enough drinks for everyone because it was hot. The kids had a grand time. It has been years since I was on a school bus. I went along as a parent chaperone. Those seats seemed awfully small and cramped to me. It was also very loud! I will remember to bring earplugs on my next adventure. I can't tell you how many other moms came up to me and told me their son was smitten with Lydia. She is in a class with almost 75% boys and they all seem to really like her a lot. One mom was telling me about an argument her son had with another boy as to who's girlfriend Lydia was. I am not sure what to make of all this, but if it is any precursor, I am going to have to lock her up when she turns 12. Lydia has her water play day at school today. We were instructed to send them with a change of clothes. I sent her with a huge bag of water balloons and squirt guns. They should have a real fun time today. I wanted to stay and take pictures, but I have to work at some point. I won't be at work tomorrow because she has a half day and her aunt who would normally pick her up is leaving for vacation tomorrow. Besides, they are also having award day tomorrow. I would like to watch that in case the little miss receives an award. I have no idea if she will, but I would like to be there in case.

Last night Roo had his preschool graduation. It was thankfully much shorter than the kindergarten graduation. He did great with his songs. There were no solo parts for them, so that was good. They were told by their teachers not to wave so as to avoid them getting out of line and distracted, but Roo came out looking like he was the mayor on the parade route waving away! It was very nice and afterwards there was ice cream with all the trimmings. I am glad it is done now. It made for very two long nights and two very worn out children.

I know there was so much more I was going to post about, but for the fleeting moment, it is gone. Perhaps I will remember more later.