Saturday Night Fun

I'm fighting with my 16 year old tonight.

I can't help it. 

I am so unreasonable.

I feel the need to make some one's life miserable.

I have to do it.

You see, there is a party somewhere tonight.

It is 10:30 p.m. and Thing 1 wants to go.

I say no.

I know, I know, my reasons are truly unreasonable.

Thing 1 has not been to school for two weeks.  She has had mono.  

I just can't help it.  I need to be unreasonable right now.

Gosh this feels good.  I love being unreasonable. 

In a funk

Well, the job in Denver is off the table.  I didn't love the idea of moving anyway, right?  Still, it hurts to not be wanted - especially when the job sounded perfect and the pay was right where it should be.  The in-house recruiter seems to think I'd be a great fit for the organization, but the hiring manager - who has never spoken to me - apparently doesn't agree.  At first I was scared that I somehow failed the pre-screen assessment tests, but the recruiter assured me I did very well on them

Still looking for work.

Recovering from a 24 hour bug.

Wondering if my daughters will ever go back to school.

No wonder I'm in a funk.

Illness Everywhere!

On top of having an acute case of mono, Thing 2 now has pneumonia.  Can you believe it?   She's had more blood work, an ultrasound of her abdominal organs, and a chest x-ray.  Every symptom of mono is presenting itself, including enlarged spleen, inflamed liver, sore muscles, sore throat, and fatigue.  Now she picked up the pneumonia somewhere.  It seems like we've been to the doctor or the labs every other day, I've been making gallons of hot tea with raw honey and shelling out ibuprofen like it is candy.

Thing 1 still isn't back in school, but isn't quite as bad as Thing 2.

I have the sniffles.  A cup of hot spiced rum with raw honey is tasting mighty fine right now.

Finished!

Another professional certificate is finished!  Woo Hoo!

As always, I procrastinated until the last day to get it done.  I'm sure the facilitator / teacher / professor / whatever just loved me.  It's like a race to the finish line on the last day, keeping track of the time difference, telling the sick kids to stop interrupting me.  Lovely.

It's finished! 

Now I have to find out when the student loan people think I should start repaying.  Then I need to either, (a) find a job; or (b) figure out how to get a deferment.  

I'm starting to miss the days when being buried in debt was cool.  

Yep, it is.

Yep, this is a freaking hospital after all.

Today we found out that Thing 1 has mono, also.

Let's see... with an incubation period of 4-6 weeks, it seems likely they caught this on the cruise.  Spread from sharing utensils, straws, glasses or shot glasses, kisses... sounds a little like what may have happened to my uncharacteristically wild daughters when they went on the cruise with dad.  Yep, payback is a bitch.

She doesn't seem nearly as sick as Thing 2, but the doctor said it was "acute", also.

So far Thing 3 has no symptoms.

That's about all that is new except I got an email from a company that I spoke with a few months ago.  They want to talk about a couple of positions, including one that isn't posted yet.  This is great, except the company is not local.  A move sounds overwhelming, but it is the city that I have wanted to make my home again since I left there in 1975.  Denver.

We'll see.  Like I said, I'm not thrilled about the prospect of a move.  The kids are o.k. with the idea, though.  (As long as we have land and a barn, which might be a challenge.)

As usual, I'll take it as it comes.  Everything happens exactly as is should and when it should, I think.

Have a wonderful weekend, and if you are lucky enough to enjoy a three day holiday - WOO HOO!!

What is this, a freaking hospital? ...And more

Flu season?  Nah!  We had flu shots, silly!

Nope, around here we don't mess around.  Thing 2 (my 14 year old, runaway wannabe) has been diagnosed with mono.  

Oh, joy.

She has what she jokingly refers to as "an angry monster growing" in her throat.  

On Friday she came home from school in good spirits, but asked me to look in her throat.  

"O.K.", I said, "But you know I'm no doctor."  (I never see anything when I look in there.)

I had her stick her face in the sunshine and I took a peek.

"Oh, YUCK!", was my candid and unrehearsed opinion.  "We better get you in right away."

The P.A. was her usual thorough and sweet self.  She was balancing that common question, is it bacterial or is it a virus?  She took no chances.  She prescribed penicillin and ordered blood work.

The lab closes at 4:00 and was inconveniently located for Phoenix traffic on a Friday, so I decided to wait on the blood work until Saturday.  Unfortunately, I found out that the only lab with Saturday hours was also very inconvenient. 

Don't get me wrong, it isn't that I'm not a caring parent, but honestly - remember the days where the doctor had someone draw the blood right there in the office?  WTF?

We finally got the blood drawn on Monday morning.  By then I was quite certain it was mono.  The penicillin did NOTHING.

We have found that the best thing for that monster in the throat is herbal tea with raw honey.  Not that clear pasteurized honey, it has to be that thick, creamy, raw honey.  It coats the throat and relieves the pain better than anything, even the "miracle mouthwash" that the doctor prescribed.  (Miracle mouthwash is equal parts lidocaine, Maalox and Benedryl - you gargle it and then swallow. - ew.)

At one point this weekend I thought that Thing 2's throat might swell shut.  That was spooky. Her neck looked like a football player's.   Then I remembered that Thing 1 was prescribed Prednisone a while back and never took it.  Thank goodness we had it because it provided some relief from the swelling.   When I spoke with the Doctor yesterday she agreed it was a good call.

This morning Thing 1 is requesting a test for mono.  Similar symptoms - throat, fatigue, headaches, stomach aches...  

So Dr. Mom is at it again.  

At least I'm not trying to juggle this and a job.  I don't know how I'd manage all this empathy, pill pushing, tea making, sleep deprivation, etc., along with the demands of a job.  I'm sure I'd figure it out, but I'm lucky I don't have to - I guess.

Speaking of jobs... 

Yesterday there was a job fair at the stadium.  Over 14,000 people showed up for 124 jobs.  Nice.  Real nice.

Valentine's Day...

Yesterday Thing 3 (age 10, 5th grade), with 10 minutes remaining before we had to leave for school, asked me if we could cover a shoe box.  The shoe box was to be the Valentine mailbox, and Thing 3 didn't like how ugly the shoe box was.  (I suspect he didn't like that the box once contained dance shoes.)

Anyway, I was a little frustrated.  I mean, why couldn't he tell me that he wanted it covered the night before?  

First I tried to find gift wrap that was plain enough, and not too feminine.  No luck.

Second I tried brown paper grocery bag.  Too thick to work with quickly.

Third time (a charm) I pulled out some aluminum foil.  That was perfect!  

While I was working on it I started to lecture him on how important advance notice is.  I gently explained that next year....

Then it hit me.  There won't be a Valentine box next year.  There won't be any more Valentine boxes - ever.  This was my last Valentine box.  

Thing 3 is my youngest and this is my last year of Valentine exchanges at school.

There was a time that I thought this would be cause for celebration.  I remember sitting with little girls and long class lists, begging them to write "just one more".  Gritting my teeth, staying patient (on the outside), and wondering why the hell Valentines had to be hand written, and more importantly, what time is it and when is cocktail hour?

Then I started making cute little stickers with my kid's name on them, so that all they had to do was write the other kid's name.  The kids liked that.  They had personalized stickers - which made them feel very special.

I have searched high and low for the perfect shoe box.  I have argued about how every kid has to be included, no matter how annoying and smelly Meryl is, or how big an A-hole Adam is, or Dayton has become.  I have shopped for the perfect Valentines, selected the most healthy treats, purchased the least healthy treats, and carefully counted them so that my kids could divide, argue about, and consume the remainders.  We've been through stages of Tweety and Sylvester, Disney, Britney Spears, Thomas the Tank Engine, Pokemon, and a few years back we simply abandoned getting the little cards and went straight to getting the candy with wrappers you write on.  You name it - we've been there and done it.

Three kids, two years of preschool, plus Kindergarten, plus 5 grades... that makes, uh... tick, tick, tick tick...  that makes 24 Valentine's mailboxes, and somewhere around 500 to 600 Valentines, I guess.

It's been fun.  Well, not really.  I'm sorry it is going to be over, though.  Looking back I'm glad I was patient (most of the time).  I'm glad I tried hard, even though I secretly felt overwhelmed and annoyed.  I feel a little guilty that it has slipped by me.  It is a bittersweet thing - this last Valentine mailbox event.

Motherhood is a wonderful thing.  Valentine's Day still sucks, but Motherhood is my greatest joy, even when there are "angry monsters growing" in their throats, or we need to cover a shoe box in 10 minutes or less.

Oh, guess who needed to sign all of his Valentines this morning - with 10 minutes left on the clock?  

 

Procrastination!

Damn these blogs. I am supposed to be finishing up my classwork for the course that ends at midnight tonight. But nooooo! I can not resist reading my blogroll. Damn!

My house smells fabulous right now. I am cooking a few meals at once because I had meat that needed to be cooked. There is a turkey breast with fresh lemons and rosemary in the crock pot, and a beef stew simmering on the stove top. Yum.

I failed to post about the Cardinals yesterday. Too bad about those Cardinals, huh? At least it was a good game to watch. I agree with Vikkitikitavi, though. Their mascot is cute, no matter how mean they try to make it look. Besides, isn't the Cardinal the state bird of Illinois? So why did St. Louis choose Cardinals? Maybe I don't know (make that I definitely don't know) enough of their history or the proper details.

No matter. I got to dress up (a little) in some clothes that haven't fit for a few years. It felt pretty damn good! I enjoyed beer, pulled pork sandwiches, cheese balls, cheese slices, those little BBQ weenies (which always makes Thing 3 laugh when I mention them), and some Champagne. I was very smart about the quantities consumed, not wanting to gain any of those 25 pounds back, but it was fun to enjoy "regular people food" instead of thinking about a freaking diet. Best of all, I was with other adults - always a big event for me!

My hero for the day is Michelle Obama, who is putting working women, working mothers, and families at the top of her agenda as first lady. Back when I was a mother working out side the home, struggling to be a mother without jeopardizing my career, I never thought I'd see the day this would be an issue openly discussed anywhere but "Working Woman" or "Working Mother" magazine - and really, how many people read those? I fought the good fight to keep my career on the fast track while raising my kids, but finally caved in and let my career go "mommy track". It was a sucky choice to have to make, but my kids had to come first, and the career stalled. Maybe with the new focus on working families, I'll live to see the day where women won't feel as though they need to pretend that they want to actually see their kids, instead of being at work on the demands of a white male who has a stay-at-home mom raising his kids.

I gotta go do that school work. Ugh. One more class after this one and I'm finished!! If only I could find a job...