rain on tulips

I’m convinced that my truck has a target on it: this morning while I sat at a stop light while taking EK to school, I was rearended.

The good news: I don’t think there is any damage to my truck. The other lady’s car had a nice square ‘punchout’ on her front bumper where she hit my tow-package hookup.

More good news: since the kids are out of school, I was able to leave them at home with DA, including CC, so it was only EK and I in the truck at the time, and she was securely seated in her carseat.

The bad news: I’m achy all down my back, and both my wrists/forearms are crampy, and there is an achy/numb area above my right elbow that extends down to my pinky and ring finger. Ouch! (I’ve already talked to the doctor’s office; if the fridge guy — who is due any minute! — shows up and finishes before 2, they still have openings for this afternoon; otherwise I have to wait til tomorrow after EK’s long-awaited ophthalmology appointment.)

The other good news is that I did not completely break down in panic attacks when it happened! I had the few minutes of anxiety, followed by an hour or so of ‘off jitters’, but then I’ve been ok since! (Thank goodness! Thats always a nice break!)

(but certainly not enough to do something crazy… really… I’m not!)

Congrats to Z&M, who are expecting a new, surprise addition to their little family! Once the shock wears off, I’m sure its gonna be thrilling!

(And anyone out there in the blogosphere who has ~no~morning~sickness~vibes~ to spare… well, M would love to have them this time around, I’m sure!)

I wrote today.

Fuul keeps getting on my case about it. I ask if he’d like me to knit him something; he says he’d rather have me writing. *sigh*

I’m trying!

Today, I pulled out the old, one-page story-started I did on the SV project last year, and added another 289 words, for a grand total of 727. Almost doubled what was there.

Those numbers are so pitiful, and yet, they are more than nothing. And I didn’t struggle through every one of them… they kind of flowed for the little while I was able to commit undisturbed to writing*.

But. Progress. And better than nothing. And I did it before I cooked dinner or took the kids out to ride their bikes or picked up my knitting — that is on the schedule for this evening!

*Not nearly so long as I had hoped; still working the kinks out of kids being at home all day every day… and we’re still on day one!

Today was the last day of school for all my elementary and junior high kids! (EK’s program runs through the end of July).

Its so nice to be able to run errands quickly (dropping off papers at the doctor’s office, making a quick grocery run) without all the little ones underfoot! And, all the housework was done before lunchtime, leaving the rest of the afternoon for relaxing and video-gaming!

Its so nice.

(Please feel free to remind me of this post when we are all on one another’s last nerve in about three days! LOL)

(and not the good kind!)

I just deleted 333 comment spam from my moderation folder. If you happened to comment in the last day or so, and your comment did not show up, please let me know, because I don’t want any of your comments to disappear! (And they will, if I don’t clear your name out of the automatic spam-guard system!)

Anywho… back to your regularly scheduled programming…

So, I took the ribbed sweater off the needles yesterday onto waste yarn/lifeline, so I could measure the neckline for the neckband to make sure it was going to work without stretching it out, and … its wrong. I did short row shaping over the tops of the shoulders, and while it worked really well, I didn’t extend it far enough to the front and back of the sweater, so the neckline shape is … wrong.

I pouted yesterday. I bought some Cascade Fixations (98% cotton 2% spandex) yarn and some new circular needles (needed for the neckband), and started swatching for some socks. Or something else fun like that.

In the meantime, I’ve been psyching myself up to just frog all the shoulder shaping I’ve done, and start it over, extending it as far as I needed it to go.

The good news? The last time I tried on the sweater, before the shoulder shaping, I had taking it off the needles and onto a lifeline… which I didn’t remove when I started the shaping! So, now I can just frog indiscriminantly to that line, without fear of dropping stitches!

I told Fuul this morning that if I’m going to go to the effort to make a sweater that I really like, I don’t want to settle for — “Its OK”. I want to really like it, and have it right.

So. Today I’ll run Fuul to work, do a little grocery shopping, tackle the week’s laundry, and frog and restitch the shoulders on my sweater. (At least the laundry makes it look as though I’m doing something productive, yes?? LOL)

I’ve been working on my ribbed sweater again, after giving up entirely on the first rendition, then ripping out a chunk of stitches the other day on version two, and this morning I took it off the needles onto scrap yarn so I could try it on…

and its working out beautifully!

The shoulders need to come up a little higher, the front and back necklines are perfect, the fit is exactly what I was going for… overall, I’m so pleased and excited and just motivated to get it finished so I can wear it — now that its summer and warm and no longer sweater weather! (Well, three out of four ain’t bad!)

So, now I’ve got to get it back on the needles, short row the shoulders a bit more, figure out if I’m putting a cable band around the top for the neckline, bind off, kitchener the underarm seams, and weave in ends… but in the big scheme, that’s nothing!

So, again I say, woohoo!!!

(Sorry… again no photos — I was trying on for fit without an extra layer underneath, because I didn’t want any other fabrics distorting how the stitches lay… pictures will come when its finished, I promise!)

I realized yesterday that I’d not posted in a while, and then didn’t post then, either! Ah, well!

This week has been busy… the kids finally got us to break out the bikes from the garage and do the official ‘revamp, repump, and redistribute’ of said vehicles! In the end, everyone has a functioning bicycle but Fuul and CC, though DS’s current bike is on the small side for him, so probably ought to be replaced. Yesterday we were out letting the kids play on their bikes (sorry, like the title said: no photos), and GC has almost got the ‘no training wheels’ thing down! Though, there was that one moment when she crashed rather stupendously, and Fuul grabbed her and walked back across the street, all the while mouthing to me, “I think it’s broken!” Oh, dear! Turns out that she got a nasty scrape and a bruise on her hand, but her wrist that turned sickeningly under her and the bike is totall unscathed! (Thank goodness!) I put EK on the Little Mermaid bike that AE got years and years ago, and she loved being pulled around on it! I think I pulled her around for a half hour, and she still complained when I took her off when it started to rain. I got out my bike (I’ve not been on it in nearly 3 years!) and hooked up the bike trailer, and let the little ones ride with me for a few minutes! They loved it, and I’m definately feeling it today!

The kids showered Fuul with lots of cute ‘made at school’ gifts for father’s day, and we got him a new Rainbow Six: Vegas xbox game, that he got early so he could play it for the weekend! (It must be good: he stayed up til nearly two saturday night playing!) My big gift was stroganoff for dinner and kids not bugging him during his nap — though that turned to kind of a bust, since they started bugging him the moment I dozed off on the couch! Oops!

The refrigerator repair guy showed up today to finish up my fridge; unfortunately, the part he needed hasn’t shown up yet. sigh He’s rescheduled for the 27^th. At least the fridge is still keeping food cool in the meantime!

I started trying to do a short-row shoulder on my sweater I’m working on, and while it didn’t work out (not long enough, not placed quite right, ripped out saturday), its given me a much better feel for how to do it better. I think. I’m so close to finishing, and I hate waiting on this one little piece!

I wound up walking to the elementary school twice last week — once because I was already out walking and thought it sounded fun, then again because Fuul had taken the truck to work and the potluck for GC’s class that was scheduled to be at the park near home was relocated to the school for rain. Yes, I walked two babies to the school in the rain. Woohoo. GC loved the potluck, so I suppose it was worth it. Learned that I really do need to get a good rain-cover for the jogging stroller, as clear plastic sheeting just isn’t quite the same!

The kids and I are half way through watching the second season of Buffy. Everyone is enjoying it a lot, kitchy though it is! I have the next disk sitting here just waiting to be viewed!

I told Fuul this morning that since my anxiety levels have sort of leveled off (amazing as that is!) I actually find myself occasionally hearing music or something and having ‘wow, that would make a cool premise for a book’ pop into my head! Its a start back toward the writing thing, I think! (And I’ve not needed to take the ‘quick-fix’ pills for anxiety since the first week that I started these others. Its like a whole different world or something!)

Anyway… busy busy, with no photos to show for it! The kids are on their last week of school (not counting next Monday) then we start the Summer Crazies! You’re jealous, I can tell!

Well, after a bit of phone tag in which everyone was certain the fridge guy wasn’t coming, he did in fact show up!

And the good news? The fridge is running and chilling as we speak!

The bad news? Its not going to keep doing that for a long time.

The good news? The needed part is easy to replace!

The bad news? The fridge guy didn’t have the part on his truck, so had to order it.

The good news? It didn’t cost much, so the landlord is happy!

The bad news? It won’t be here til the 18^th. In the morning. When I’m supposed to be at school with EK. And the landlord is offering for his wife to be here instead. I think I’ll see if Fuul can stay home that morning until I get back.

But, the good news: My food is chilling, and in short order, it will be chilling without the fear of failure!

Waiting for the refridgerator repairman to show up. And see if the fridge can be fixed.

Woohoo.

(The landlord is perfectly willing to replace the fridge, except for the fact that the space we have to put one is an inch shorter than all the new models out there. If the repair guy wants too much money, or says it can’t be fixed, then the landlord will just have to go the ‘tear out the cabinets over the fridge’ route and get us a new one. Its getting a little old, tho, living with only a freezer-space worth of refridgerated goods for a family of nine!)

At the risk of jinxing myself…

There is nothing on my calendar today but to have DS ready to be picked up for scouts this afternoon, and picking up prescriptions after Fuul gets home from work… don’t tell!

So yesterday afternoon, I took a nap for a couple of hours (thank you, Fuul!!) because I’ve had this lingering sinus headache*, and was just trying to get ahead of it. Got up, made dinner for the kids, cleaned up the kitchen, and was happily back in bed by 10.

Fuul and I were enjoying some quiet movie watching and popcorn eating in bed (OK, also not a great plan, but sometimes you have to splurge!), when we heard CC start coughing — again. He’s had an on again, off again cough for a few weeks now, but it hasn’t been too bothersome, and non-productive, so it was chalked up to allergies.

Until 11:30, when suddenly he was screaming, feverish, and wheezing.

I dosed him with Tylenol Cold, packed him up into the truck and headed straight out for the emergency room.

Long story short: he’s developed RAD, Reactive Airway Disease, or in other words, Asthma. Oh, and also an ear infection. One nebulizer treatment left him close to 100%, so we left the hospital at 3 this morning and headed home to sleep it off. (Snipping nightmare about hospital pharmacy not wanting to bill our insurance and wanting us to wait an extra half hour so they could make us a billing account before they would even start filling the prescription… at three a.m.! ‘Nuff said!)

He woke wheezing again this morning, and I’ve since filled a prescription at a different pharmacy and dosed him with albuterol — he’s sporting the rosy cheeks as a side-effect of the medicine, but he sounds a lot better.

If things don’t seem to be improving by tomorrow, I’ll take him in to be seen by his regular pediatrician, and maybe see if we can’t get him a nebulizer rather than an inhaler with spacer and mask, neither of which he’s overly impressed by!

So. I’m pretty much writing off the rest of the day as a lost cause. GC is gone on a playdate with a friend from school until 5, I’ve claimed temporary defeat and pulled out the bottles for afternoon naps, and I’m going to see if I can’t sneak in a few winks myself before the other kids get home from school. Maybe.

Ah, the never-ending drama!

Update, 2:30pm: I gave him the albuterol, but he still doesn’t sound good, so I’m taking him in to his pediatrician at 4:30. Hope to have some better news or a better plan of action at that point. I’ll try to update again afterward.

Update, 7:00pm: After arriving early for the appointment, and waiting an hour because the doctor was running late, it was concluded that CC has asthma (trouble breathing out); croup (trouble breathing in); double ear infections; and likely a viral infection of his upper respiratory system. The doctor helped me give him more of his inhaler, then gave him a good dose of oral steroids to clear up the croup. Hopefully everything will be better by tomorrow, and we won’t have to pay another visit to the doctor. Feel free to keep your fingers crossed!

*OK, pretty sure its a sinus infection, but who has the time to deal with that!?

(this may be expanded at a later time… or maybe not!)

• Cleaned out the fridge and freezer. Freezer still keeping things cold but not frozen, so moved salvagable items into freezer, freezer items into chest freezer.
• Deep cleaned kitchen — counters, floors, appliances.
• EK hearing test in Audiology. Mis-remembered the appointment time so were two hours early. Passed with flying colors. Can quit worrying that sound repetition is due to hearing loss.
• Landlord stopped by. Will buy new fridge (hopefully this weekend). Will call about probable re-nesting of carpenter ants. Will clean roof gutters next week. Raised rent again starting next month. (We’re still getting a better deal than a lot of folks around here).
• DA mowed lawn. I swept walkways and pruned camelia back to managable size.
• Fuul slept outside in the tent with AE, DS and GC. Reportedly all had a great time!
• CC and EK tag-teamed awake last night, while I was the only one inside to get up with them. Upside: I got to sleep in til 11:30 this morning!
• Drove to some of the outlying communitites to judge houseing prices and commute times. One we turned around half way there because the traffic was so bad, even on a Saturday! Prices are still ridiculous, even as far as a half hour away. sigh

As I said, this is just a quick overview. I’ll maybe expand on one or all of these later, but if I don’t get them down now, they’ll be gone for good!

So. I think my fridge is going out.

Last week, there was an odd, old, plastic-y smell coming from (we think) the freezer. I cleaned it out, reorganized, tossed, and wiped down the inside. In a day or so it seemed better.

Yesterday, I noticed that my Pepsi didn’t seem so cold as I like. Thought it had just not been in the fridge for long enough.

Last night, when I pulled the Country Crock margarine out of the fridge, it was soft. Not good for something on the top shelf of the fridge. Thought it was just my imagination. (or so I tell myself).

This morning, things still seemed not-quite-right.

I turned up the freezer setting to a colder temp, and turned the fridge to a colder setting as well. It says inside the fridge to give it 24 hours between changing settings and seeing a real change. And granted its been only 8-ish.

But the butter’s still soft. The ice cream is soft. And the popsicles are bordering on squishy.

So. What do I do next? Is there any easy check/fix that I can do before I start going to the landlord — the one who so recently replaced the washer and dryer, and who is due to up our rent anyway next month?

(cringing away in my corner!)

We’re 24 hours (mostly) sans bottles*.

Last night at bedtime was a little rough, but not so bad as I expected.

From one to three thirty in the morning? Rougher. We finally relented and gave CC a bottle of milk, but it was long gone before either of them awoke this morning.

So far today, we are bottle-free. Been through a couple different versions of cups: CC likes the ones with the straws, but he can still drip-drip-drip them onto the carpet, so they aren’t a good long-term solution, and EK will take anything so long as you take the top off and just let her drink it like a cup; also not a good long-term solution, but workable for now.

*CC had the one, at 3:30 am. He went right to sleep, and it went right into the back of the fridge where the kids can’t see it.