Okay - I get the whole ‘household turned upside down due to chicken pox’ caper. Honestly, I do. And I understood that throwing autism into the mix wasn’t ever going to make it a picnic. But aughhh! We didn’t leave the house for days and days. And then J started to get better (scabs are falling off! Woohoo!), the hives thing turned out to be a storm in a teacup, and its still roses and rainbows in regards to Boof and Moo so far avoiding their own poxy spots. Life was good folks.
And then, because Someone Up There figured I probably needed a dose of humility, both Talented Hubby and I got sick.
Thankfully not with the chicken pox. No, just colds. But no ordinary colds. Oh, no sirree. These are those nasty Kick-You-In-The-Katooshie variants. I’ve had terrible, terrible sinus issues. I don’t normally have allergy problems and though headaches are nothing new to me, sinus headaches aren’t something I’ve had to deal with in a very long time, if ever. So it’s totally yeowch territory around here at the moment.
I can’t take the pain relievers fast enough. I also got a case of The Snots (sorry…but its true) so my face was pretty much unrecognisable due to puffiness, tears (the kind you get when you have your tenth failed sneeze in a row) and red nostrils from playing Plug The Drip on a continuous basis. It has not been fun. I’ve been miserable. I’m just thanking my lucky stars this did not hit when J was at his chicken pox peak over the weekend (*shudder*).
I tried to use what was left of my fast-dwindling brain power to concentrate on fun things that made me happy. I ate lots of chocolate (then promptly considered joining Weight Watchers for the first time in my entire life - the need to lose weight isn’t new but the sudden pull toward WW is…strange. Must be The Snots talking). I watched a lot of TV. I surfed the net half-heartedly (no energy for a post most of the time) but too long at a session and my headache would flare up. In one burst of energy I sawed some wood (I’m still toying with the idea of a vegie garden and got far enough along in the Cabin Fever stakes to want to build the garden beds Right. This. Second). I was okay while I was concentrating on the sawing motion but collapsed in a little bubble of snot and achey bones as soon as I was done - retrospectively, a mistake.
All this while dealing with a healing (and frustratingly, continuously-present) child who has now had 6 days off school and will have a seventh tomorrow (last day of term before a 2 week school break - not much point in sending him back even though I pronounced him non-contagious today - yeah, I’m totally qualified). I love my son to pieces but this week? It has been tough. With the younger kids still not showing any signs at all of illness - Moo did have a day off school on Tuesday, but it was unrelated - holidays about to begin and this headache that just won’t quit, I’m just not working at capacity. The dishes and the laundry desperately need attention but all I want to do is curl up in a ball. Poor TH is feeling the same so he can’t take over either although the dear man has unloaded the dishwasher and organized nightly bedtime routines on more than a few occasions this week (thankfully for him, its his week off). I just can’t summon up the energy to feel guilty about the mess.
I think we both just kind of want to feel normal again, sigh.
But hey! Next Friday (3rd) is my birthday! I’m trying to petition the Big Guy Upstairs to keep the Pox away from the other kids until at least Saturday because we have family (including the kids’ cousins) coming on Tuesday and a family dinner out for my birthday on Thursday or Friday night. I will be kinda sore if we have to deal with The Pox Mach II (and III). The kids are desperate to take the cousins to the local arcade to have a go at the claw grabber thingy. My husband, gorgeous though he may be, is about as enthusiastic about shopping for a birthday gift as he is about a dry piece of toast. Not because it’s me. He loves me. It’s the shopping experience that he hates. So I make it easy on him and usually tell him what I want. At the moment we’re toying with the idea of a point-n-shoot digital camera I don’t have to use his clunky and awkward digital SLR and we’re both still a bit cabin-feverish so we’re hitting the shops tomorrow to scout out some different models. J’s coming with us now that he’s no longer contagious. Of course it helps that Talented Hubby’s personal oasis o’ calm is the camera shop, LOL. It would be rather cool to be able to tote a camera around with me for a change. I see some awesome stuff on my travels :) So send happy camera vibes my way!
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Monday, September 22, 2008
When A Movie And Some Rain Cause A Heart Attack
Living with Dotty McSpotterton has its moments, folks. Today was a good day - J and I were the only ones home and spent most of the morning curled up in front of the TV. Though I particularly wanted to take another journey to see Mr Darcy woo Elizabeth Bennet, I suspected from the get-go that a nearly-ten year old Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokemon lovin’ boy, sweet as he is, would probably want to rowf approximately twelve seconds in, so I restrained myself. Instead, we chose Evan Almighty.
I’m a fan of Steve Carell anyway, but most of the films he is in aren’t appropriate to watch with young kids. Evan Almighty was an exception - we all thoroughly enjoyed it the first time round, even Talented Hubby, whose taste is known to flow more toward the dubious side :)
So, there we were, my boy and I - kicking back and watchin’ us some Hollywood. We got to the scene where Evan turns up at breakfast in full Noah regalia - beard, robes, the works. The television in the background cuts to God (aka Morgan Freeman) giving Evan the heads up on the date and time of the flood - September 22nd, midday.
Well, I may be a bit slow on the uptake at the best of times, so it took me a few moments to work this out…
Me: “J!” That’s today!”
J: ”No way!”
Me: “Yes way!”
(*I glance over my shoulder at the clock*)
Me: “AND…it’s 12:00 midday!”
(J is, at this point, in absolute hysterics…and I look outside)
Me: “AND….it’s RAINING!”
(I couldn’t make this up if I tried!)
J can barely draw breath from laughing so hard.
Me: “What on earth are we going to do for a boat?!!!”
J just about exploded.
Oh, you should have seen the two of us! There we were, rolling around on the family room floor, tears coming out of our eyes from laughing so hard. We had to stop the movie so we could stop hyperventilating. J’s going to have so much fun retelling this story to Daddy later, LOL.
(And for the record, though we’d seen the movie before, I didn’t remember the date they mentioned before sitting down today - and it really is already September 22nd where I am! :)
I’m a fan of Steve Carell anyway, but most of the films he is in aren’t appropriate to watch with young kids. Evan Almighty was an exception - we all thoroughly enjoyed it the first time round, even Talented Hubby, whose taste is known to flow more toward the dubious side :)
So, there we were, my boy and I - kicking back and watchin’ us some Hollywood. We got to the scene where Evan turns up at breakfast in full Noah regalia - beard, robes, the works. The television in the background cuts to God (aka Morgan Freeman) giving Evan the heads up on the date and time of the flood - September 22nd, midday.
Well, I may be a bit slow on the uptake at the best of times, so it took me a few moments to work this out…
Me: “J!” That’s today!”
J: ”No way!”
Me: “Yes way!”
(*I glance over my shoulder at the clock*)
Me: “AND…it’s 12:00 midday!”
(J is, at this point, in absolute hysterics…and I look outside)
Me: “AND….it’s RAINING!”
(I couldn’t make this up if I tried!)
J can barely draw breath from laughing so hard.
Me: “What on earth are we going to do for a boat?!!!”
J just about exploded.
Oh, you should have seen the two of us! There we were, rolling around on the family room floor, tears coming out of our eyes from laughing so hard. We had to stop the movie so we could stop hyperventilating. J’s going to have so much fun retelling this story to Daddy later, LOL.
(And for the record, though we’d seen the movie before, I didn’t remember the date they mentioned before sitting down today - and it really is already September 22nd where I am! :)
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Chicken Pox Question...Need Help
Master J seems to have come out in a secondary rash that looks an awful lot like hives to me, mainly on his legs at this stage (he won’t let me look elsewhere!) but quite extensive. It is very different from his other (current) legions for chicken pox but Talented Hubby is determined to count it as one and the same disease (if not chicken pox based, then at least caused by it).
We can’t see the doctor until at least Tuesday morning, but as far as I’ve worked out so far, it could be a reaction to some bacteria that got in through the legions when he scratched. I just wanted to know if anyone has seen this same thing in their own kids - what appears to be hives several days into an otherwise very run-of-the-mill chicken pox outbreak - and could give me some advice?
He’s not making it easy for us to check properly either - in fact, we’ve had to come down all hard and heavy on the ‘checking spots several times a day’ thing - now I’m glad I pushed to check, otherwise we may have missed picking this up as soon as we did, sigh. Apart from being generally ‘ick’ due to the pox, and horrible grumpiness/opposition to us looking at his spots, he is otherwise in okay spirits. He’s having a little trouble swallowing at the moment (he has a few legions at the top of his throat, which we were keeping a close eye on - but we did think this was going to fix itself as the spots began to heal over the rest of his body) and he’s ITCHY (that seemed to step up on day 3) but otherwise fine.
We can’t see the doctor until at least Tuesday morning, but as far as I’ve worked out so far, it could be a reaction to some bacteria that got in through the legions when he scratched. I just wanted to know if anyone has seen this same thing in their own kids - what appears to be hives several days into an otherwise very run-of-the-mill chicken pox outbreak - and could give me some advice?
He’s not making it easy for us to check properly either - in fact, we’ve had to come down all hard and heavy on the ‘checking spots several times a day’ thing - now I’m glad I pushed to check, otherwise we may have missed picking this up as soon as we did, sigh. Apart from being generally ‘ick’ due to the pox, and horrible grumpiness/opposition to us looking at his spots, he is otherwise in okay spirits. He’s having a little trouble swallowing at the moment (he has a few legions at the top of his throat, which we were keeping a close eye on - but we did think this was going to fix itself as the spots began to heal over the rest of his body) and he’s ITCHY (that seemed to step up on day 3) but otherwise fine.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
The Pox Has Landed
Remember this post?
Oh, how the universe laughs at me! Yesterday Master J did something extraordinary. He took himself off to bed at FIVE O’CLOCK IN THE AFTERNOON. He likes to hole up in his room and listen to the radio so when I looked up to find him gone I assumed that’s where he was. He was in his room alright. Shoes still on, he’d climbed into bed.
If you knew J, you’d understand this is really, really odd. He’s normally the life of the party and he never, ever sleeps in the daytime. I gently woke him and asked if he’d had a big day at school. Nothing out of the ordinary. He was just suspiciously lethargic and that alone is enough to warrant further investigation with J, so, like any parent would (right? RIGHT?) the first thing I did was to lift his shirt to check for spots. He had a couple, but nothing that screamed “QUARANTINE THIS HOUSE!” - until I caught sight of a tiny little ‘dew drop‘.
Cue the scary music.
He didn’t explode in spots like I expected him to. He still only had the same few spots plus one or two others (could have been mistaken for pimples, very minor) when he went to bed, but the ’dew drop’ had burst. I checked him again this morning and while not completely covered he definitely had chicken pox, with perhaps a 1-2 dozen more spots, some filled with clear fluid as the first was.
Last night I thought I may have been over-reacting after the scare of a month ago (which proved to be either a false alarm or the easiest case of chicken pox ever, with three spots total on Boof and no symptoms at all on Moo, whose friend had it at the time). I get a bit ‘trigger happy’ whenever I see spots on my kids. I once became convinced Moo, when she was about 5mo old, had meningococcal disease and felt pretty foolish when it turned out to be a bad case of urticaria (hives). In my defence, my city had gone through a meningococcal ‘outbreak’ at the time and any fast moving rash created panic and mayhem. The hives had melded together on her face and were forcing her eye closed due to swelling. Nevermind that it looked NOTHING like the pictures of meningococcal, LOL. Still warranted a doctor’s visit of course - but we never did find out what triggered the (we suspect allergic) reaction. The doctor wasn’t worried about doing an allergy test and nothing like it ever happened again. She was never even fussy, no other symptoms. Her mother, on the other hand, was a WRECK.
But no, this time, no over-reaction. J will likely miss the rest of the school term (school was due to end for the term at the end of next week anyway, then two weeks of break before coming back third-ish week of October). He’s none too pleased with Mummy’s constant checking of his spots (read above paragraph, it explains a lot, LOL). Explanations need to be a little clearer and many reassurances given for J. I had a half an hour conversation with him this morning about the symptoms and how the disease can be spread, repeating everything at least twice. I suspect I’ll have to explain again before the day is out. But it helps. He was very concerned that Mum or Dad would get sick. I explained about immunisations and natural immunity (I have had the former, Talented Hubby the latter). Then I told him he couldn’t come out on errands with us until all his spots had scabs, even though he had all that time off school - WELL. Wasn’t too pleased about that. I see Blockbuster in our future….
Quick question - does chicken pox need a formal diagnosis via a doctor? I’m about 96% sure but I wouldn’t want to miss something - perhaps take him in if he gets severe or has other symptoms?
Update: Oh, he’s MISERABLE. I got him to have a long soak in a vinegar/oatmeal bath (don’t worry, I checked for natural home remedies first, and this was the least weird, LOL) but drying him was painful - for him, with his poor little fragile blisters and for me, who kind of values my eardrums. The autism in this situation? Uh, not all that fun, surprisingly. The spots, which at first were kind of at the ‘average’ level and mostly on his torso, are now spreading further afield - groin, thighs, underarms etc. They don’t appear to be severe in quantity, lots of space between them, but they are angry and red and in varying stages of ‘fluidity’ - ick. They must be painful to touch. J also hates me looking at him, which I kind of have to do at this stage so that adds a bonus level of excitement to our daily procedings. I cannot even believe we haven’t yet passed the 24-hour mark. I’d forgotten about the added pressure of playing nursemaid to a disability as well. Sigh. I’m beginning to think that this was The Big Guy Upstairs forcing me to slow down - I can’t go anywhere without Talented Hubby being around to sit with J for a start. Wish us luck!
Oh, how the universe laughs at me! Yesterday Master J did something extraordinary. He took himself off to bed at FIVE O’CLOCK IN THE AFTERNOON. He likes to hole up in his room and listen to the radio so when I looked up to find him gone I assumed that’s where he was. He was in his room alright. Shoes still on, he’d climbed into bed.
If you knew J, you’d understand this is really, really odd. He’s normally the life of the party and he never, ever sleeps in the daytime. I gently woke him and asked if he’d had a big day at school. Nothing out of the ordinary. He was just suspiciously lethargic and that alone is enough to warrant further investigation with J, so, like any parent would (right? RIGHT?) the first thing I did was to lift his shirt to check for spots. He had a couple, but nothing that screamed “QUARANTINE THIS HOUSE!” - until I caught sight of a tiny little ‘dew drop‘.
Cue the scary music.
He didn’t explode in spots like I expected him to. He still only had the same few spots plus one or two others (could have been mistaken for pimples, very minor) when he went to bed, but the ’dew drop’ had burst. I checked him again this morning and while not completely covered he definitely had chicken pox, with perhaps a 1-2 dozen more spots, some filled with clear fluid as the first was.
Last night I thought I may have been over-reacting after the scare of a month ago (which proved to be either a false alarm or the easiest case of chicken pox ever, with three spots total on Boof and no symptoms at all on Moo, whose friend had it at the time). I get a bit ‘trigger happy’ whenever I see spots on my kids. I once became convinced Moo, when she was about 5mo old, had meningococcal disease and felt pretty foolish when it turned out to be a bad case of urticaria (hives). In my defence, my city had gone through a meningococcal ‘outbreak’ at the time and any fast moving rash created panic and mayhem. The hives had melded together on her face and were forcing her eye closed due to swelling. Nevermind that it looked NOTHING like the pictures of meningococcal, LOL. Still warranted a doctor’s visit of course - but we never did find out what triggered the (we suspect allergic) reaction. The doctor wasn’t worried about doing an allergy test and nothing like it ever happened again. She was never even fussy, no other symptoms. Her mother, on the other hand, was a WRECK.
But no, this time, no over-reaction. J will likely miss the rest of the school term (school was due to end for the term at the end of next week anyway, then two weeks of break before coming back third-ish week of October). He’s none too pleased with Mummy’s constant checking of his spots (read above paragraph, it explains a lot, LOL). Explanations need to be a little clearer and many reassurances given for J. I had a half an hour conversation with him this morning about the symptoms and how the disease can be spread, repeating everything at least twice. I suspect I’ll have to explain again before the day is out. But it helps. He was very concerned that Mum or Dad would get sick. I explained about immunisations and natural immunity (I have had the former, Talented Hubby the latter). Then I told him he couldn’t come out on errands with us until all his spots had scabs, even though he had all that time off school - WELL. Wasn’t too pleased about that. I see Blockbuster in our future….
Quick question - does chicken pox need a formal diagnosis via a doctor? I’m about 96% sure but I wouldn’t want to miss something - perhaps take him in if he gets severe or has other symptoms?
Update: Oh, he’s MISERABLE. I got him to have a long soak in a vinegar/oatmeal bath (don’t worry, I checked for natural home remedies first, and this was the least weird, LOL) but drying him was painful - for him, with his poor little fragile blisters and for me, who kind of values my eardrums. The autism in this situation? Uh, not all that fun, surprisingly. The spots, which at first were kind of at the ‘average’ level and mostly on his torso, are now spreading further afield - groin, thighs, underarms etc. They don’t appear to be severe in quantity, lots of space between them, but they are angry and red and in varying stages of ‘fluidity’ - ick. They must be painful to touch. J also hates me looking at him, which I kind of have to do at this stage so that adds a bonus level of excitement to our daily procedings. I cannot even believe we haven’t yet passed the 24-hour mark. I’d forgotten about the added pressure of playing nursemaid to a disability as well. Sigh. I’m beginning to think that this was The Big Guy Upstairs forcing me to slow down - I can’t go anywhere without Talented Hubby being around to sit with J for a start. Wish us luck!
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Slow News Day - What Else But A Meme?
Gosh, these ‘blehs’ just won’t quit! In response, a meme. Seen at Notes From The Cookie Jar and shamefully stolen. I have fifteen minutes before the school run. Lets see if I can crank this baby out…
*********************************************
The A to Z of Lizzie
(the meme is not actually called that. Would be cool if it was and you all had to write things about me, but alas - no)
Accent: I sound completely normal. It’s all you Americans with your fancy Hollee-wood movies who sound funny! (LOL).
Breakfast or no breakfast: I “should” have breakfast. And I “usually” have breakfast. It’s just what I ultimately end up choosing for breakfast may be a smidgeon questionable…
Chore I don’t care for: Just one? Uh… I guess cleaning the toilet? I have two boys. All I can say is, there’s a reason why Mama prefers to use the private ensuite!
Dog or Cat: Neither. I’m a human. Thanks for asking. No, we don’t have a pet but everyone in the family except for Talented Hubby desperately wants a dog. We have a five seater sedan and at last count we had (*counts on fingers*) two adults and three children using it. It would make it really difficult to take Juicy (Moo’s choice, made when she was about four) out on a family trip. I’m pretty sure it’s not safe or legal to have her (the dog, not Moo) sit in the space where the kids’ legs go. Buying a second car (station wagon) seems a little extreme, even for a much-wanted dog.
Essential Electronics: Easy schmeasy. My laptop and my iPod. If I’m not on one, I’m plugged into the other. Makes doing the dishes less ‘poke my eyeball out with a rusty fork’ and far more ‘if I listen to a foreign language podcast while scraping crud from the dinner plates, will it make me smarter?’ See? Everybody wins.
Favorite Cologne: Hmmm. Perfume is one of those things I wish I could justify spending loads of money on but neeeeeever quite get to that point. A few bucks on some body spray and I’m pretty much set. I sometimes buy the cheaper brands but according to Talented Hubby he thinks most of what I spray ends up on the floor anyway because I do the ’spray a cloud and walk through’ caper. What would he know? LOL.
Gold or Silver: Not a massive jewellery fan for above economical reasons. And also necklaces and rings aren’t very practical when you have small kids so I just got used to not wearing them. The only jewellery I wear with semi-regularity are my wedding and engagement rings, and occasionally a teeny tiny dolphin locket TH gave me on my eighteenth birthday (when he was still young, still trainable, and without any offspring or a mortgage to suck up all his moolah!) and a (fake) diamond bracelet I chose from amongst my mother’s things when she passed away two years ago. Handbag I carry most often: I’m so boring with my handbags (purses for you Americans…sheesh! LOL) I use one for all occasions until I get sick of it or it gets damaged. Then I buy another (on sale, and not very expensive at that) and use that to death as well. I don’t ‘tandem-purse’. I’ve never been a big accessories gal. Ditto for shoes.
Insomnia: No, the exact opposite. I am the idiot on the bus who falls asleep sitting up then freaks out when going around corners. Yes, that one. I now have to intraveneously inject myself with caffeine five minutes before stepping foot on public transport…and continuously pinch the fleshy part between my thumb and forefinger. But not too much. I could pass out. Clearly not the intended plan.
Job Title: Uhhh….Special Consultant to the Office of Perpetual Professional Procrastinators? Deputy Manager of Hitting The Snooze Button Eleventy-Four Times Each Morning? No seriously, I have a great job. I just don’t get paid for it.
Kids: Three. Sometimes four. But only if he’s annoying me.
Living Arrangements: Eeking out the typical suburban experience, complete with trampolene and dead houseplants.
Naughtiest Childhood Behavior: Mixing up ‘goop’ from the contents of the pantry (flour, soy sauce, salad dressing, soup, you name it), climbing onto the (low) roof overhanging the kitchen (back) door, and dumping it on top of one of my brothers head as he walked past. I was maybe 7 and he was 16 or so. He could run a LOT faster than I could.
Naughtiest Adult Behavior: Uhhh…(*looks around nervously*) Why? Who have you been talking to?
Overnight hospital stays: Twice. No, technically three times. Two involved births (not counting my own). Master J was four weeks early and developed jaundice, requiring a week-long post-partum stay while they zapped him with the Groovy Artificial Lights. And later when Miss Moo was born, it was my own battle-scarred body that was to blame. I’d been induced, on my due date, due to hypertension - but when my blood pressure didn’t stabilize after the evacuation of the Wee One, they kept me in hospital for five days immediately preceding Christmas ‘01, dosed me up on BP meds and woke me every two hours ROUND THE CLOCK to stick the cuff on again. And in case you were wondering, yes, the alternate two hour cycle belonged to Moo. Fun times. This was the very same Christmas where my entire family was finally in one place at the same time - in my own town no less - after the many and varied children, spouses and grandchildren had scattered to the wind. I think they eventually let me go home on Christmas Eve because they saw the determination in my eye, the emotionally-facillitated milk letdown on my chest and the high-pitched “IF YOU DO NOT LET ME LEAVE THIS HEINOUS MEDICAL ESTABLISHMENT - STAT!- YOU’LL SEE JUST HOW HIGH MY BLOOD PRESSURE CAN GET!!!” in my throat. Ahem. Oh, and once when I got the worst case I’ve ever had of food poisoning and ended up on a drip on an emergency room guerney with the Wee (four month old) One attached to the breast on the other side. Also plenty of fun.
Phobias: Losing one of my children, closely followed by something happening to Talented Hubby at his high-risk job. Oh, and I hate the really tiny snakes. Big ones are bad enough, but the small ones TERRIFY me.
Quote: “My second favorite household chore is ironing. My first being hitting my head on the top bunk bed until I faint.” (Erma Bombeck, literary genius)
Reason to smile: We are here, we are healthy, we have enough money to more than comfortably live on, and I was the first person in our family to get a 100% song on Guitar Hero when no.2 came out last year. Never mind that the level was set to ‘easy’ - or that Talented Hubby subsequently and freakishly broke all natural records thereafter - I was FIRST. Just like my A+ blood type. TH has a rarer type, but you can’t get any higher than an A-plus, so pfffft!
Siblings: Three, all older. Sister, at seven years older, is the nearest to me in age, and I have two brothers. I was the proverbial ‘accident’.Time I wake up: Anytime after the third throttling of the snooze button or the seventeeth knock on the bedroom door followed by the wails of hungry children, whichever comes first.
Unusual Talent or Skill: You mean apart from being born with the ’smartest’ blood type? Oh, okay. Um…I’m drawing a blank.
Vegetable I Refuse to Eat: I’m with ScatteredMom on this one - Brussels sprouts. Shudder.
Worst Habit: I’ve been known to (very femininely, obviously) let out a wee snore from time to time.
X-rays: Not in recent memory. I’ve never actually broken a bone but I remember having xrays after nearly severing my big toe when I was three.
Yummy Stuff: Peanut M&Ms. Sigh.
Zoo Animal I Like Most: Meerkats. Or the sea lions. Or the orang-utans.
*********************************************
The A to Z of Lizzie
(the meme is not actually called that. Would be cool if it was and you all had to write things about me, but alas - no)
Accent: I sound completely normal. It’s all you Americans with your fancy Hollee-wood movies who sound funny! (LOL).
Breakfast or no breakfast: I “should” have breakfast. And I “usually” have breakfast. It’s just what I ultimately end up choosing for breakfast may be a smidgeon questionable…
Chore I don’t care for: Just one? Uh… I guess cleaning the toilet? I have two boys. All I can say is, there’s a reason why Mama prefers to use the private ensuite!
Dog or Cat: Neither. I’m a human. Thanks for asking. No, we don’t have a pet but everyone in the family except for Talented Hubby desperately wants a dog. We have a five seater sedan and at last count we had (*counts on fingers*) two adults and three children using it. It would make it really difficult to take Juicy (Moo’s choice, made when she was about four) out on a family trip. I’m pretty sure it’s not safe or legal to have her (the dog, not Moo) sit in the space where the kids’ legs go. Buying a second car (station wagon) seems a little extreme, even for a much-wanted dog.
Essential Electronics: Easy schmeasy. My laptop and my iPod. If I’m not on one, I’m plugged into the other. Makes doing the dishes less ‘poke my eyeball out with a rusty fork’ and far more ‘if I listen to a foreign language podcast while scraping crud from the dinner plates, will it make me smarter?’ See? Everybody wins.
Favorite Cologne: Hmmm. Perfume is one of those things I wish I could justify spending loads of money on but neeeeeever quite get to that point. A few bucks on some body spray and I’m pretty much set. I sometimes buy the cheaper brands but according to Talented Hubby he thinks most of what I spray ends up on the floor anyway because I do the ’spray a cloud and walk through’ caper. What would he know? LOL.
Gold or Silver: Not a massive jewellery fan for above economical reasons. And also necklaces and rings aren’t very practical when you have small kids so I just got used to not wearing them. The only jewellery I wear with semi-regularity are my wedding and engagement rings, and occasionally a teeny tiny dolphin locket TH gave me on my eighteenth birthday (when he was still young, still trainable, and without any offspring or a mortgage to suck up all his moolah!) and a (fake) diamond bracelet I chose from amongst my mother’s things when she passed away two years ago. Handbag I carry most often: I’m so boring with my handbags (purses for you Americans…sheesh! LOL) I use one for all occasions until I get sick of it or it gets damaged. Then I buy another (on sale, and not very expensive at that) and use that to death as well. I don’t ‘tandem-purse’. I’ve never been a big accessories gal. Ditto for shoes.
Insomnia: No, the exact opposite. I am the idiot on the bus who falls asleep sitting up then freaks out when going around corners. Yes, that one. I now have to intraveneously inject myself with caffeine five minutes before stepping foot on public transport…and continuously pinch the fleshy part between my thumb and forefinger. But not too much. I could pass out. Clearly not the intended plan.
Job Title: Uhhh….Special Consultant to the Office of Perpetual Professional Procrastinators? Deputy Manager of Hitting The Snooze Button Eleventy-Four Times Each Morning? No seriously, I have a great job. I just don’t get paid for it.
Kids: Three. Sometimes four. But only if he’s annoying me.
Living Arrangements: Eeking out the typical suburban experience, complete with trampolene and dead houseplants.
Naughtiest Childhood Behavior: Mixing up ‘goop’ from the contents of the pantry (flour, soy sauce, salad dressing, soup, you name it), climbing onto the (low) roof overhanging the kitchen (back) door, and dumping it on top of one of my brothers head as he walked past. I was maybe 7 and he was 16 or so. He could run a LOT faster than I could.
Naughtiest Adult Behavior: Uhhh…(*looks around nervously*) Why? Who have you been talking to?
Overnight hospital stays: Twice. No, technically three times. Two involved births (not counting my own). Master J was four weeks early and developed jaundice, requiring a week-long post-partum stay while they zapped him with the Groovy Artificial Lights. And later when Miss Moo was born, it was my own battle-scarred body that was to blame. I’d been induced, on my due date, due to hypertension - but when my blood pressure didn’t stabilize after the evacuation of the Wee One, they kept me in hospital for five days immediately preceding Christmas ‘01, dosed me up on BP meds and woke me every two hours ROUND THE CLOCK to stick the cuff on again. And in case you were wondering, yes, the alternate two hour cycle belonged to Moo. Fun times. This was the very same Christmas where my entire family was finally in one place at the same time - in my own town no less - after the many and varied children, spouses and grandchildren had scattered to the wind. I think they eventually let me go home on Christmas Eve because they saw the determination in my eye, the emotionally-facillitated milk letdown on my chest and the high-pitched “IF YOU DO NOT LET ME LEAVE THIS HEINOUS MEDICAL ESTABLISHMENT - STAT!- YOU’LL SEE JUST HOW HIGH MY BLOOD PRESSURE CAN GET!!!” in my throat. Ahem. Oh, and once when I got the worst case I’ve ever had of food poisoning and ended up on a drip on an emergency room guerney with the Wee (four month old) One attached to the breast on the other side. Also plenty of fun.
Phobias: Losing one of my children, closely followed by something happening to Talented Hubby at his high-risk job. Oh, and I hate the really tiny snakes. Big ones are bad enough, but the small ones TERRIFY me.
Quote: “My second favorite household chore is ironing. My first being hitting my head on the top bunk bed until I faint.” (Erma Bombeck, literary genius)
Reason to smile: We are here, we are healthy, we have enough money to more than comfortably live on, and I was the first person in our family to get a 100% song on Guitar Hero when no.2 came out last year. Never mind that the level was set to ‘easy’ - or that Talented Hubby subsequently and freakishly broke all natural records thereafter - I was FIRST. Just like my A+ blood type. TH has a rarer type, but you can’t get any higher than an A-plus, so pfffft!
Siblings: Three, all older. Sister, at seven years older, is the nearest to me in age, and I have two brothers. I was the proverbial ‘accident’.Time I wake up: Anytime after the third throttling of the snooze button or the seventeeth knock on the bedroom door followed by the wails of hungry children, whichever comes first.
Unusual Talent or Skill: You mean apart from being born with the ’smartest’ blood type? Oh, okay. Um…I’m drawing a blank.
Vegetable I Refuse to Eat: I’m with ScatteredMom on this one - Brussels sprouts. Shudder.
Worst Habit: I’ve been known to (very femininely, obviously) let out a wee snore from time to time.
X-rays: Not in recent memory. I’ve never actually broken a bone but I remember having xrays after nearly severing my big toe when I was three.
Yummy Stuff: Peanut M&Ms. Sigh.
Zoo Animal I Like Most: Meerkats. Or the sea lions. Or the orang-utans.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
I Had A Blogging Break
…and it was fantastic. What is to follow is a collection of totally random, sometimes confusing thoughts. I’m too tired to use bullet thingies.
More and more these days, I’m feeling the need to curtail my attempts at taking over the Internet which, thankful for you, probably would only have amounted to a couple of dropped comments on a few random blogs. But I decided to spare you all the sleep-deprived rantings. You’re welcome.
I’m all out of sorts this week anyway. Master J managed to score himself two days off school Monday and Tuesday. In their ‘wisdom’, the school council decided to schedule the annual ’show day’ (more in a second) directly after a student free day and he wound up with a four day weekend. Immediately following Boof and Moo’s school’s show day which was last Friday. The thing is, I kind of like my husband’s work schedule. It goes one week of afternoons, one week of dayshift, and one week off (more or less). As the kids are in school, the week he is on dayshift (ie, this week) is anticipated (by me…not by him….poor mite has to get up at 5:30) well in advance of the blessed event. I start lining up tracklists for blaring through the speakers (thank you $15 iPod-cord-stereo-pluggy thing) - nerdy music that makes Talented Hubby’s toes curl in disgust. Or ballads which scare him worse. I save those for when he’s not around because honestly? I could do without the sarcastic comments about my singing, thankyouverymuch.
With five days of being home alone between 9 and 3 stretching waaaaay out into the distance, I kind of melt into that first Monday like a sleep-starved mad person and usually do the barest possible amount of housework (sorry!) and just kick back. I surf the net, catch up on blogging (okay, not lately, but hey…), sometimes even do some non-blogging writing (articles for publication) and generally have a crazy good time just being by myself.
Because the rest of the time, it’s all about the other people. Some days I feel like I’m using all my available brain cells to make sandwiches for all the little people (and one big man) in my life. Which I love. But there are whole chunks of my year to date that I can’t even account for. School lets out for end of term here in a couple of weeks and I swear, I was just getting them back to book learnin’ after the last term holidays (which were - *counts fingers* - 8 or so weeks ago). Before I know it, my birthday (couple of weeks) will have whooshed by in a fit of self-made birthday cake (sigh…) and then it’s all downhill to Christmas after that, punctuated by three more immediate family birthdays. I’m so TIRED. I’m only (almost) 29 and I’m beginning to feel burned out already.
So anyway - the The Royal Show. Okay, I guess you could liken it to your average State Fair in the US. Hundreds of thousands of people filter through the gates in the 8 days it is on every September. I guess it was a few years ago that teachers began realising their student population was seriously affected by families taking a day off to visit the Showground, so now the Education Department allows city schools to set aside a designated ‘School Closure Day’ specifically to minimise student absentism the rest of the week. It works and it doesn’t. They set the day in advance, and oftentimes families can’t go on that day and will have to take a day off elsewhere in the week anyway. And the Show itself schedules reduced-entry cost days and other special events that may or may not coincide with the day the school decides to set aside. But it helps some. We had a ‘Show Day’ on Friday (Boof and Moo’s school), and one for J’s school on Tuesday, but also J’s extra day off on the Monday.
We still haven’t gone to the Show.
Teachers love us undecided parents. No seriously, everyone’s kind of cool about kids missing school during this week. I want to go to the Show because I am clearly the most immature of the lot of us and the Show is a haven for ridiculous plush hats and $5 cold drinks. The Husband is less enthused. It does cost us a little - something like $55 for entry alone for our family of five - but we take ALL our own snacks and usually sandwiches, and rarely buy drinks there. We are some of the stingiest parents I know, at least according to reports from other families who have been, or the folks who get 3 seconds on air during the nightly Show wrap-up on the News. One woman on the other night says she gives her kids $100 each to spend and then apologized because she didn’t think it was enough!!! This was as part of a segment on the rising cost of living down here (interest rates are high, petrol is expensive etc) and the people they were meant to have snaffled for their soundbite were ‘economical Show-goers’.
Big, deep sigh.
Our kids get ONE ride each (at $5-6 EACH RIDE, per kid). We make use of as much free entertainment as possible - we always go to the baby animal exhibit, watch the piglet racing (don’t ask), walk the dog showroom and coo over the puppies and feign fright over the ‘horse dogs’ (anything bigger than Moo), and the last two years we have waited to arrive until later in the day (around 4pm) and stayed to watch the activities in the main arena under lights in the evening - stunt bike riders, stunt car exhibition team, acrobat whatchamacallits. We did not burn ourselves out with a full day in the crowds. We also allow them to have one showbag each (the biggest drain of parents’ wallets in the history of all state-wide community events, I’m absolutely certain) and even then they have a dollar limit. It still winds up costing us close to $100, which is cheap by most standards. Now, we don’t do this kind of thing all the time, and I’m more than willing to shell out the cash because of that - and probably more. This is why we save, to splurge a little. But splurging to the tune of $500 for a day out just isn’t going to happen for us. If we had a spare few hundred we’d be putting it on the mortgage and delaying the middle-aged panic ulcer just another few months. We fully expect to develop these in about ten years time when Child #2 goes to university. That kid has scientific brains. I would not be surprised if he winds up a very expensively-trained research analyst (note I did not say doctor. That would be tempting fate a little too much, methinks)
But back to the point. Or one of them anyway.
So, my days of Sole Possession of the Stereo Remote have dropped from 5 days down to 3. Actually, it wasn’t so bad. I got to hang out with Boof, Moo and some of our friends for lunch on Friday, and then Monday J and I had a special outing as well on Monday. Oy, that kid can rule the world with a hug, I’m sure of it. Case in point: Because of his disability, J (now nearly ten) usually prefers not to engage in much physical interaction. He will snuggle up on the couch but will usually refuse a hug, hates kisses with a passion and just generally fusses. Well, knock me down with a feather on Monday because he gave long, heartfelt and UNPROMPTED hugs not once but TWICE during the course of our day out. I asked him why and he, in his unique halted conversational tone, said it was because we did things we don’t normally do (go out with just the two of us) and (typical boy) we got to go to the arcade to play some games. Of course after that, he got a big fat icecream and I didn’t even feel like I’d been suckered doing it. Such is living with an ASD kid. These moments of voluntary and unexpected outward love don’t come up very often for J and when they do, we strap that sucker (feeling) down tight.
Arcades are evil places designed to steal your money. A pox on them! But I don’t know who had more fun - J, who managed to score 40 tickets by stopping the counter on 1001 (was aiming for 1000, harder than it looks) or me, who got so enamoured with the claw toy picker-upperer thingy that I wasted $10 trying to get a third stuffed toy after first winning Mr Burns and Apu. We banned the Simpsons from our television screens a few months ago but do you think I could reason with myself that effigies of the characters I hate most probably weren’t needed in our home? Not likely. I was a determined woman. So was the machine. In the ’second chance claw candy grabber’ part I managed to score like $1.35 worth of candy for my $10 investment. SCORE!
But it was fun, and J was asleep on the bus before we even pulled out of the bus stop. Worth every cent.
More and more these days, I’m feeling the need to curtail my attempts at taking over the Internet which, thankful for you, probably would only have amounted to a couple of dropped comments on a few random blogs. But I decided to spare you all the sleep-deprived rantings. You’re welcome.
I’m all out of sorts this week anyway. Master J managed to score himself two days off school Monday and Tuesday. In their ‘wisdom’, the school council decided to schedule the annual ’show day’ (more in a second) directly after a student free day and he wound up with a four day weekend. Immediately following Boof and Moo’s school’s show day which was last Friday. The thing is, I kind of like my husband’s work schedule. It goes one week of afternoons, one week of dayshift, and one week off (more or less). As the kids are in school, the week he is on dayshift (ie, this week) is anticipated (by me…not by him….poor mite has to get up at 5:30) well in advance of the blessed event. I start lining up tracklists for blaring through the speakers (thank you $15 iPod-cord-stereo-pluggy thing) - nerdy music that makes Talented Hubby’s toes curl in disgust. Or ballads which scare him worse. I save those for when he’s not around because honestly? I could do without the sarcastic comments about my singing, thankyouverymuch.
With five days of being home alone between 9 and 3 stretching waaaaay out into the distance, I kind of melt into that first Monday like a sleep-starved mad person and usually do the barest possible amount of housework (sorry!) and just kick back. I surf the net, catch up on blogging (okay, not lately, but hey…), sometimes even do some non-blogging writing (articles for publication) and generally have a crazy good time just being by myself.
Because the rest of the time, it’s all about the other people. Some days I feel like I’m using all my available brain cells to make sandwiches for all the little people (and one big man) in my life. Which I love. But there are whole chunks of my year to date that I can’t even account for. School lets out for end of term here in a couple of weeks and I swear, I was just getting them back to book learnin’ after the last term holidays (which were - *counts fingers* - 8 or so weeks ago). Before I know it, my birthday (couple of weeks) will have whooshed by in a fit of self-made birthday cake (sigh…) and then it’s all downhill to Christmas after that, punctuated by three more immediate family birthdays. I’m so TIRED. I’m only (almost) 29 and I’m beginning to feel burned out already.
So anyway - the The Royal Show. Okay, I guess you could liken it to your average State Fair in the US. Hundreds of thousands of people filter through the gates in the 8 days it is on every September. I guess it was a few years ago that teachers began realising their student population was seriously affected by families taking a day off to visit the Showground, so now the Education Department allows city schools to set aside a designated ‘School Closure Day’ specifically to minimise student absentism the rest of the week. It works and it doesn’t. They set the day in advance, and oftentimes families can’t go on that day and will have to take a day off elsewhere in the week anyway. And the Show itself schedules reduced-entry cost days and other special events that may or may not coincide with the day the school decides to set aside. But it helps some. We had a ‘Show Day’ on Friday (Boof and Moo’s school), and one for J’s school on Tuesday, but also J’s extra day off on the Monday.
We still haven’t gone to the Show.
Teachers love us undecided parents. No seriously, everyone’s kind of cool about kids missing school during this week. I want to go to the Show because I am clearly the most immature of the lot of us and the Show is a haven for ridiculous plush hats and $5 cold drinks. The Husband is less enthused. It does cost us a little - something like $55 for entry alone for our family of five - but we take ALL our own snacks and usually sandwiches, and rarely buy drinks there. We are some of the stingiest parents I know, at least according to reports from other families who have been, or the folks who get 3 seconds on air during the nightly Show wrap-up on the News. One woman on the other night says she gives her kids $100 each to spend and then apologized because she didn’t think it was enough!!! This was as part of a segment on the rising cost of living down here (interest rates are high, petrol is expensive etc) and the people they were meant to have snaffled for their soundbite were ‘economical Show-goers’.
Big, deep sigh.
Our kids get ONE ride each (at $5-6 EACH RIDE, per kid). We make use of as much free entertainment as possible - we always go to the baby animal exhibit, watch the piglet racing (don’t ask), walk the dog showroom and coo over the puppies and feign fright over the ‘horse dogs’ (anything bigger than Moo), and the last two years we have waited to arrive until later in the day (around 4pm) and stayed to watch the activities in the main arena under lights in the evening - stunt bike riders, stunt car exhibition team, acrobat whatchamacallits. We did not burn ourselves out with a full day in the crowds. We also allow them to have one showbag each (the biggest drain of parents’ wallets in the history of all state-wide community events, I’m absolutely certain) and even then they have a dollar limit. It still winds up costing us close to $100, which is cheap by most standards. Now, we don’t do this kind of thing all the time, and I’m more than willing to shell out the cash because of that - and probably more. This is why we save, to splurge a little. But splurging to the tune of $500 for a day out just isn’t going to happen for us. If we had a spare few hundred we’d be putting it on the mortgage and delaying the middle-aged panic ulcer just another few months. We fully expect to develop these in about ten years time when Child #2 goes to university. That kid has scientific brains. I would not be surprised if he winds up a very expensively-trained research analyst (note I did not say doctor. That would be tempting fate a little too much, methinks)
But back to the point. Or one of them anyway.
So, my days of Sole Possession of the Stereo Remote have dropped from 5 days down to 3. Actually, it wasn’t so bad. I got to hang out with Boof, Moo and some of our friends for lunch on Friday, and then Monday J and I had a special outing as well on Monday. Oy, that kid can rule the world with a hug, I’m sure of it. Case in point: Because of his disability, J (now nearly ten) usually prefers not to engage in much physical interaction. He will snuggle up on the couch but will usually refuse a hug, hates kisses with a passion and just generally fusses. Well, knock me down with a feather on Monday because he gave long, heartfelt and UNPROMPTED hugs not once but TWICE during the course of our day out. I asked him why and he, in his unique halted conversational tone, said it was because we did things we don’t normally do (go out with just the two of us) and (typical boy) we got to go to the arcade to play some games. Of course after that, he got a big fat icecream and I didn’t even feel like I’d been suckered doing it. Such is living with an ASD kid. These moments of voluntary and unexpected outward love don’t come up very often for J and when they do, we strap that sucker (feeling) down tight.
Arcades are evil places designed to steal your money. A pox on them! But I don’t know who had more fun - J, who managed to score 40 tickets by stopping the counter on 1001 (was aiming for 1000, harder than it looks) or me, who got so enamoured with the claw toy picker-upperer thingy that I wasted $10 trying to get a third stuffed toy after first winning Mr Burns and Apu. We banned the Simpsons from our television screens a few months ago but do you think I could reason with myself that effigies of the characters I hate most probably weren’t needed in our home? Not likely. I was a determined woman. So was the machine. In the ’second chance claw candy grabber’ part I managed to score like $1.35 worth of candy for my $10 investment. SCORE!
But it was fun, and J was asleep on the bus before we even pulled out of the bus stop. Worth every cent.
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