was that an insult?

yesterday at a PTO Board meeting, 2 people stared at me blankly for defending our most successful fundraiser ever and called me a mom.

as in "you're such a mom".  complete with that tone of voice that maybe a teenager would have.

was that a bad thing??


i may have said the word "consequences" as in...  I don't think it's a good idea to save some of this money in case a different fundraiser we may choose next year (other than this really awesome, fun & successful one) didn't work out.  if they want something we can't afford, then that's the consequence of not raising enough money.

and if anyone in the world is reading this, our most successful and awesome fundraiser for the school was with the amazing company called Boosterthon.
Totally needs a googling!  They are AWESOME.

strep

Likely this will all be a giant rambling. 

the bean missed school today.  again.  she's normally quite healthy.  but, even though she missed tue-fri before thanksgiving break due to having strep throat---  she somehow got it again (?) after having been off of antibiotics a total of 2 days.  

so, for those that are counting, when she goes to school on friday, that will be her 4th day of school in THREE WEEKS.  and yesterday was a field trip!!

The Mr. & i are not big into running to the doctor, nor giving antibiotics unless very necessary.  she's on a stronger one & we ran to the dr without giving it any more time to fester.... just in case.
and in this case it was good to stay home (and run to the dr).

almost every person i have told that she had strep, they ask if her belly hurt.  (??) i didn't know (nor expect) that to be a symptom.  

my only experience with strep throat happened 2 februarys ago.  i seemed to have the flu.  high fever, aches, chills.  i was miserable; and The Mr. was gone.  oh! and i also (always seem to do this) should have gone to the grocery store!  for days i was good for not much.  when i finally went to the dr and they tested me for both the flu & strep, only strep came back positive.  the only symptom i didn't have was a sore throat!!!  
[the bean still talks about that time, because with my being diagnosed with strep, The Mr. wanted me to keep my distance as much as i could (with him being gone).  so she had to put herself to bed.  she still remembers that and remarks how much she didn't like it.  NEITHER DID I]

and now, it seems the bean manifests it differently as well.  but luckily, it doesn't appear to affect her quite as badly. 
in fact, when we went on her 3rd day of being home (and my 1,000th asking what bothers her) i told the dr that headache, fever & belly were the only symptoms.
she never thought to tell me that apparently "something felt stuck in her throat".  which came up after they rammed the throat stick for the culture and she wouldn't get over it and said that it's because her throat hurts.  WHAT???

anyways- 1 dose of antibiotic and the next morning fever, headache & belly were perfect.  still couldn't go to school.  
she was missing a very fun week before the holiday break.  

so we have high hopes that today's vague symptoms will be curtailed with the one dose of antibiotics as well and she can get back to school on friday!

(3rd grade is hard!!!  but that's a whole nother rant into itself)

to do list

sometimes, you just need a kick in the face

 and then, you see, you forgive yourself afterwards.

our cat NC had been doing that a bit when i had to document it for all the world.  this is the same cat who can't just outright go outside, but has to go under the table (away from the door) to snake around the chair and THEN go out the door.

surreality

a few surreal things have occurred recently.  in no particular order of importance:

The Mr. will miss our 12th wedding anniversary because he is exactly where he was a year ago when he missed our 11th anniversary. [ obviously, no, i didn't come with.]i am constantly being challenged with the concept of the time change.  it's fun to share with The Bean, too.  we get a kick out of knowing that we wake up when he goes to sleep.
However, time really does seem warped to know that he sent me an anniversary card from the airport when he left.  it came to me as he landed.
it makes sense since his travel day was pretty much 24hrs, but when you put it that way, it just felt pretty surreal.

********

this morning, The Bean asked me if we ever went to Callaway Gardens.  I told her we went when she was a baby.  so after breakfast, i pulled up her blog & showed her a few of the pix I had posted.  which led to a couple of other posts.  which led to me just randomizing my blog...  she was pretty captivated and she captivated me by reading my words back to me.

that's surreal enough- but another great thing-  she gets my humor! 

********

 i have been having lots of deep dreams again, lately.  this is nothing new to me.  whether it is brought about because of (yet another) medication i really can't tell.  what i do know is these are surreal, yes, but not as evil or dark or scary as some of mine can be (medicated or not)

********

 i am currently typing this while watching the Ohio State, Virginia Tech game.  surreal that i care a damn about football that's not even Clemson.  surreal that VT is up by 2 TD's after OSU missed not one but 2 field goal attempts.  the fact that I even know that is surreal is surreal in itself.

********

unfortunately there is some surreal shit going on in my family that is not at all what would be expected (even from my crazy family).    it's life-changing.  and not the good kind.

********

The Bean has had more bouts of odd coincidences.   (The Mr. calls them coincidences.  i'm not sure how to explain them).  

she pretended some squirrels were named Coleman and Lillianna.  Two names that I know in my life; neither of which are amazingly important- but those are not names we know of in her little 6 year old world.  Neither one of them are particularly common.  And who names squirrels anyway??

Also surreal?  she said to me that 90 is old and she doesn't want to be old.  She only wants to be 40.  anyone who knows me knows that is amazing.  and what 6 year old thinks like that.  At breakfast. when we were not talking about birthdays or ages or old or anything that could have led her to this statement.

and lastly?  she spoke in such a way that I seriously had to consider if something is ESP if your own mind is blank.  I will be posting that story on her blog next.....

intentions

ah yes.
intentions are grand, aren't they.
i've been waiting til' the bean goes back to school so i can blog a little bit about the living room update, or how i feel about Dr. New Guy. or how the holidays were. or just about anything...
guess what?  they canceled school. for today AND tomorrow. due to cold weather.

you northerners up there just got a little more fodder for jokes, didn't you?

this happened to me once before when i was a teacher.  the busstop forecast was unheard of around these parts (single digit temps and negative {single digit} windchills).
it is happening again. for the next 2 days we will have a high of 27.

i know that's considered Autumn for some of you.

i *think* what may have happened is they were intending for it to "snow" in the middle of the night....  which (of course) did not happen.  but to give everyone ample warning about closures went ahead and called off the two days.  tomorrow is supposed to be even colder than today.  with 6am temps at 9 degrees/ -3 chill.

i will say that i am at least glad it didn't end up snowing.  though i wasn't really thinking it would actually amount to anything you could play in- i'm glad it did stay away.  b/c the bean- who was sick much of the last week of school- missed the last day of school and apparently left her great winter/snow coat in the classroom.
that would have just been ironic.

in control

it struck me as odd to see a van today for a business.
it is called:
"God's in Control Transportation"

christian or not, i would want someone else more available to be in control of the van i'm riding in!
i mean, what if God was too busy answering someone else's prayer right then?

lying like a teenager

yesterday, while on a playdate, littlegirl lied to me.

kids lie.
i know. 
they lie to avoid being in trouble.  they lie b/c they believe their fantasy world to be true.  sometimes they lie to see how it works.

BUT i had no idea that a ~4 year old would know how (or even think to) lie on behalf of someone else.  without prompting yesterday, she lied to me to keep the other girl out of trouble.  and she was pretty adamant.  even vouched the other girl's story.

we knew both the girls were lying, and finally the other kid admitted to her lie.

ohmigod-  i'm not sure i'm gonna be able to handle her later if she's already acting like a teenager now!  i've been joking for years (yes, years) that she thinks she's a teenager b/c she is not at all into trying to please The Mr. or me.  and she learned way too early how to answer the question "how was your day?" with a "not the stuff that i did"  [which was her cute way of saying, i don't wanna talk about it]  which grew into "it's a surprise."  or "i will tell you after..."  or the ever favorite "i don't remember".   

don't remember?  this kid has proved many a time she has the memory of an elephant.

nobody teach her the eye roll.  i'm really not in the mood for the dramatics quite yet!

to the idiot next to me at Moe's

Dear Idiot,

How adorable that your 3(?) year old was sleeping in the backseat at dinner time.  All the windows are rolled down because yes, we are having a nice day today, aren't we.  How very prudent of you to send your teenage son in to grab dinner for everyone while you continued your phone conversation so that your son could continue to sleep.

But wait!  Your 3year old is snuggled up next to the door.  How is that possible?  OOOhhhh!!! Right!  I guess if you don't have your 3year old in neither a car seat nor a seatbelt (wtf??), it would be possible, and maybe even comfortable to use the back door as a resting place.

Are you kidding me??

Oh!  I see.  Sorry for the misunderstanding.  I guess the Jesus fish magnet on the bumper, coupled with the paying extra for the "in god we trust" license plate is all the protection you need as you pull out of the restaurant still talking on the cell phone.

Silly me.  I take back all my talk of your irresponsibility.  

So happy for you that you can put all of your trust in the Lord.

I mean, you know... because accidents in GA never happen.  We are in the Bible Belt, no? 

Sincerely,

a concerned mom who wishes I had the police number programmed in my cell phone because your license plate is burning a hole in my brain as i want so much to report you to someone.  

*****EDITED TO ADD:
30 minutes later, i see on Yahoo! a news story about a chinese toddler who accidentally opened the car door and fell into a busy intersection.     see what i mean.... are you kidding me???  (sorry, the link didn't go to that story, but to the general "odd news" section)

[sidenote] Kinda reminds me of the age-old joke about the dude in the flood who "trusts the Lord will take care of him".  2 boats and a helicopter offer to rescue him; for him to refuse b/c of his faith in the Lord...... dude decided to ask God at the Pearly Gates what could've happened...

[sidenote 2] i love these people who love the Lord so much who can exemplify such behaviors with their cars.  i bet these 2 ladies are friends.

 

persons unknown

seems that The Mr. and i haven't quite made our mark yet...

our mailman mistakenly delivered magazines to us b/c both of our address #s is 170.  so littlegirl and i went on a stroll so i could put them in the right mailbox.  the lady was outside and as i gave them to her, we talked for a few minutes.  

first, she said she's getting ready for the "neighborhood yard sale"  which, of course, i know nothing about.  
then, she asked where i live.  when i told her, she said "oh the Smiths??" to which i responded "yes, the Smiths house ten years ago".  of course, that prompted her to ask how long we've lived here.  
that would be 10 years.

when i met my first friend in the neighborhood about 7 years ago, i had the same reaction.  she asked if we just moved in.  i said "no, we've lived here for 3 years now"

granted we don't have an HOA in our neighborhood, so i don't know anyone either.  so i'm not sure how i was to know about the yard sales and such.  but still.  The Mr. are out and about in our n'hood waaaaay more than most people.  we always work outside or take walks.
in one instance, i was referred as "oh! you're the lady with the stroller!"

i was just telling my friend that when we lived in our apartment, i couldn't wait  to be in a neighborhood so i can meet neighbors....




**and i got the title idea from a great little show that shouldn't have been canceled that The Mr. and i only just discovered on Netflix streaming.  guess we've been too busy hanging out with our neighbors.

refreshing

how refreshing!
even in the age of stupid reminders, there actually wasn't one listed on the Betty Crocker Supreme Bars i made today.
the brownie package looked like a package of brownie mix. the cookie package looked like a package of cookie mix. you could even see the chocolate chips.

i swear i was having bets with myself to see if it marked all over each package what each one was.

glad they saved their ink & treated us like we actually knew how to make a BOXED dessert! hey, y'all--- i did it!

scratchin' my head

seen while shopping:

a typical 4door sedan with 2 bumper stickers:
"honk if you wanna see my t!ts" &
"if you think i look good, imagine how i taste"

then on the license plate, they paid extra for the "in god we trust"

i'm all for funny. and crude jokes are OK too. but even before being a mom, i was never a fan of calling attention to crassness.
i'm not exactly a prude, but i do think those bumper stickers have left out any subtlety & crossed a line. add to that the god thing- it just made me stop and say hmmmmm

thoughts on re-writing the calendar

i appreciate the feedback on changing Valentine's Day to suit other families.

i guess i'm pretty much a stooge. but maybe not the only one.

my first thought was: poor girl! she has 3 older brothers, so on v-day, she was going to listen to their excitement, and her excitement has passed. i mean, not many 4 year olds can remember and appreciate "oh, ok. i already had my party" i mean- they ask if it's christmas yet- the day after christmas, no?

then i thought: since when did valentine's day become a huge HOLIDAY and nothing more than the excitement of stuffing shoeboxes that were decorated with too much glue, lace and hearts with little cards.... and the hope that the teacher (or one rich kid) would give a lollipop?

and i do know that these parties i am talking about are for mother's morning out programs (as opposed to all day day-care); many parents don't work outside of the home, or have flexible schedules. but when these parties happen in elementary school- i don't expect to be invited [or expected] to come.

yes, i know how things have changed since i was growing up; but wow. little j came home with candy that rivaled halloween. every parent has to outdo each other and send goody bags for gosh's sakes! the food at the party was sweet-laden and plentiful. (luckily it was way more balanced than halloween's party; which if one parent didn't bring in a tray of CFA nuggets, nothing "lunch-y" would've been eaten at all. it was all sweets!)

i remember last year in the 2yo class thinking it was ridiculous to have Vday at all..... it's not like they had any notion to get cards for friends, much less read/write them.

when i taught 1st grade, i usually had a parent want to bring in cupcakes, but that was it. the rule at school was they had to eat the cupcakes at lunch. other than that it was the good old-fashioned dropping cards in to their friends' bags. it was exciting enough to do vday activities in math & reading and have a special "break" for the "party"

oh, and don't even get The Mr. started on this, or even birthday parties! i am routinely in his wrath every year because i do re-write the calendar and have her party on a nearby saturday.

shudder!

re-writing the calendar

Wanted: YOUR OPINION

yesterday, little j's occupational therapist told me that her 4year old already had her valentine's party at preschool..... LAST WEDNESDAY.

i really am interested in your reactions.
then i will share mine.

to give any amount of "background" info, when i asked the OT why?? she said "i really don't know. i think they know that most of us have older kids & want to give us a chance to be in the schools for their parties"

thoughts???

older

should i feel older because this year is the year for a would-be 20th HS reunion? (Go, Irmo!)

should i feel older because this year is the year i've been both a Mrs. & a homeowner for 10 years?

should i feel older because this year is the year that my FIRST first graders from Hampton Elementary should be graduating High School? (Go, Hornets!)

should i feel older because this year is the year that The Mr. & i will be together for half of his life?

should i feel older because i chose the last few months pushing my body in running & exercising as if i were still a 20year old?

should i feel older?
because i do!

stirring it up

i was pretty surprised today to realize that i have something more in common with Bob Marley other than the fact i've spent a few days in jamaica.

we both "steer" things we want to mix.

The Mr. & others have made fun of me for years because i don't pronounce it as "sturr"
i've even paid more attention over the years because i didn't want the bean to pick up my bad dialect.

alas, i'm not the only one.

more WTF

since i don't have FB or twitter, i guess i can just post my ramblings here.

i just spent the better part of 30 minutes calling and re-calling and re-calling some "Emergency Medical Billing & Coding" company regarding The Mr.'s fine day in the ER a month ago.

they are (of course) completely automated. down to the message that was on our machine that told me to call them "concerning our account". so i did. duh.
after waiting through the "para espanol...nueve" bit & the "all of our representatives are currently busy- your call is extremely important to us" and that cycle 4 times intermittent with muzak, the robot lady proudly then exclaims "goodbye!" (extremely important, huh??)

in the meanwhile, i'm online looking at my credit statement to make sure that omg! did something happen to our credit card- have we been declined??

so no less than 8 cycles of that BS and "goodbye!"s, i FINALLY get to a dude. it was a pretty crackly connection. after all that- i led with "ummmm fix your system dude b/c i just had to call 9x to connect to you after waiting on hold each time". he seemed unimpressed. (of course)

the call? it was to tell me what i owe. he wanted me to know what insurance covered and what our portion was. you know- the exact same thing that was printed on the BILL.
that i PAID. last week. before it was overdue!

i was less than pleasant when i just told the guy, "you mean i dealt with this for 1/2 an hour to be told what i already know- even though my bill is not overdue?"

really?

a new battle for anti-aging

we all know how we have stupid warnings on products (ie: McDonald's coffee- caution, contents are HOT..... hairdryers- do not use while bathing).
and you just know they are on there for a reason.

the craving & desire for the "fountain of youth" i think may have stooped a little far.
if any of you out there uses the Olay Regenerist line of products, i implore you to read the back label of them. if you click the link, you see that it is definitively the "anti aging products" category.

i first noticed on my foundation the same warning that is also on the moisturizers that i bought.
"children under 6mos of age, please consult a doctor"

this is really just wrong on so many levels!

unfortunately, i couldn't get a good picture of either of the 3 products. just trust me.

handling some chaos

i've been lax in posting, because the past couple of weeks have been busy.
we planned, packed for, and took a vacation (sans Bean!) and this week was spent getting back into routines & other stuff.

so it dawned on me over the course of the last week or so that i needed to update things.

since i've last posted, i'd been busy organizing the trip which included leaving the bean in a different state with my sister who doesn't have many kid-sized things. (turns out, she didn't use much of the toys or any of the food items i brought. the kitchen items, i think were appreciated)

we also had our friends over for grilling out & swimming. that night, The Mr. burned his fingertips on the grilled potato foil pouch. (OUCH. poor guy!)
meanwhile, he had also played soccer the tuesday before (the day, actually, that i posted) and got elbowed pretty good in the back. i think he casually mentioned this to me a few days later on thursday.
saturday (the day we had company) he decided to run most of his normal 6+mile route. except, this time, his back hurt him greatly, so he walked home.
didn't make a big deal of it (of course!) and proceeded to do ALL of the yardwork, including weeding & cutting the bushes (thus lots of bending)

... y'all, i had no idea he was going that far with the yard work, i swear!

sunday he ran again (with the burned fingers) & came home and said his back was super sore. all day long. yet, he insisted on playing with the bean in the pool..... holding her the whole time. in the deep end. swimming, holding her, & letting her balance by holding on to the diving board.
insisted!

sunday night he even got out of bed to get the bean when she needed to go potty. i was completely unaware, and quite annoyed when i found out later that i was not called upon to help.

in any case, 4:30 am rolls around and The Mr. (poor guy!) is in complete and utter pain. i'd never seen him like that before! not even when he got hit while riding his bike, and he has the "shark bite" gash in his leg to show for it.
i asked if he would please PLEASE go to a doctor afterall! he (finally) conceded. so i asked if we should go now. of course, his reply was "no"
that reply quickly changed not 10 minutes later when he had no choice.

i guess he preferred to go to the ER in style via a 911 call! we joke about it now, but no. that indeed was not funny- when he passed out! was the most horrendous 45 seconds of my life. (and possibly his?) and that includes one hellish labor story!

[i'd like to interrupt this drama by remarking how AMAZING amazing our 3yo little girl is! the girl who used to wake up when The Mr. walked upstairs slept through all of the yelling (pain), screaming (fear), panicked phone call, several trips downstairs to gather items, 5 big men coming upstairs in less-than-quiet fashion (including taking a cellphone call outside of her bedroom door!), walking The Mr. down & strapping him to a loud jostly gurney!!]

ok. so i guess i didn't interrupt the drama, but just spilled it all to you.
oh, and this all occured the day before taking our much anticipated, long awaited vacation.

golden!

so monday was spent shuttling back and forth & just general dealing with all that comes from a 911 call at 5am. we debated about the vacation, and ultimately decided to go.
sure, it changed some of our plans (like bike rides & hiking), but it would still be a vacation, which is the important part of the idea!

the vacation was not without it's own mini-chaos. we spent the first 1/2 worried about the condition of The Mr.'s back pain & the second 1/2 wondering about getting home. our flight was via JFK in NYC, which even though we had the foresight to cut our vacay a little short & go on an earlier flight, obv, that all changed when NYC shut down a day early.

i am so terribly sorry for the devastation that hurricane Irene caused in NC & New England! it is truly unbelievable to see all the flooding in VT & hear about all the power outages along the eastern seabord.

our vacation was actually spent in VT & we spent one night in Montreal. i kept the whole thing in stride, knowing that THIS problem wasn't really all that bad considering we weren't in the eye of the hurricane! (not yet anyway)
as we all know, the storm lessened after it gave NC a big beating. (my niece's college and apartment was pretty torn up in the whole event, though i haven't heard about all the actual damage). i figured if we can't get out Til Tuesday (hush hush) then we'd just have bonus vacation, and i would worry about being huddled scared in a hotel basement when it comes barreling to VT later.

of course, that's not how things ended up. once NYC shut down, we really figured that no, we couldn't just stay and hang out in a storm situation for extra days just for "fun". so we dealt with a lot of old PRTM majors trying to take us tourists back home. some were more helpful/understanding than others. it took both The Mr. & my bright ideas combined to ultimately decide that from montreal we were going to leave our luggage at the now over-booked hotel, drive back to VT to return our rental car (thanks a lot, "Thrafty"!), take their shuttle to the airport, hang out for a few hours, buy (what appeared to be the very last) 2 tickets on greyhound and go immediately BACK to canada to walk to get our luggage & take a taxi to the (incredibly awesome) marriott attached to the airport so we could fly out of montreal the next morning.

hindsight is great. because 3 of the 3 alternative flights we had booked in the course of all this were either canceled or delayed 3+ hours.

i kinda sound like a douche whining about this, when i know many people were actually affected by the hurricane! i know it was frustrating, but i'm very thankful that it was never horrifying. (not like the 45 seconds before all the vacation began!)

so, i guess my meds are holding up. i'm not sure what it would've changed if i hadn't been on them. but we dealt with what the most chaotic/dramatic week we'd experienced thusfar. but even in my most depressive days, i usually can keep things in perspective. i always recognize that many many people have things far worse off! & i can usually find something to be thankful about regarding my situation(s).
it always makes me feel so GD selfish for being "depressed" at all.

good enough

i am trying to accept being an adult. (grrr)
in so doing, i voluntarily went for a physical (read: bloodwork!)
i was only doing it because i'd never had one done. the only cholesterol check i'd ever had was more than a decade ago.

i didn't really expect anything to come out of these results, but was interested in seeing some of these numbers.

well, i hate/detest/despise/fear needles. but i put my big-girl panties on and went "all by myself!" (i can hear littlebean saying those exact words in my head right now).
and when i got the results back, i was amazed at alllllll the millllllions of things they "test".
incidentally, they did not test my iron. i didn't know there was a big push for knowing potassium levels and other random stuff like that. but iron? that one should've been on there. luckily (or unluckily, i guess) that gets tested every year at my other (girlie) appointment.

anyway... of all the zilllllion little numbers and odds & ends on the report, everything was in the normal range. there may have been a couple of things that were in the upper parts. but there wasn't anything on there that my doc suggested i curb/watch out for/etc...

all is well.

so, see, y'all--- a diet riddled with kraft deluxe & doritos is JUST FINE. my veggie "heyday" has been over for, oh, about 2 1/2 years now. and though i really like most fruits, i still don't eat them. and for some reason or another, i have managed to bypass whatever whole grain bread i've had in the house for the past few months.

i guess that's good enough!

i'll probably wait another 36 years to have my next physical (read: bloodwork!)

weekend discovery

Greg Pattillo is awesome, y'all.

sometimes for fun, we sit with littlebean at the computer and image search whatever she spouts out of her mouth.... peacocks, toasters, babies- you name it. lately she's been trying to determine the difference between a flute & a trumpet. so The Mr. did a google of flute, and no doubt greg pattillo's youtube was the first thing that came up.

if you don't know about him, spend some time. youtube was up all weekend long, and whenever we had a minute at the computer we found new and more amazing songs.

here's the mario brother's theme song. (i can't get it to not be a link..... so seriously--- go. leave. click it. you'll be glad you did!)