Weekend Recap

I'll start with Thursday when we watched the rain we desperately needed to soak the 17 pallets of new sod in our back yard slide by our house in a riotous display of wind and lightening without leaving even a drop.

Friday we again watched that rain pass us by again, although it did tease us with a few drops and even more wind.

Early Saturday morning we began the last minute preparations for M an E's 6th birthday party. $18 for a cake I could have made for a lot less, but in the end it was probably worth it -- Publix makes a great cake. Great fun was had by all. We experimented with Floam and found it lacking and altogether too sticky. We continued the rain watch well into the night hoping against the Weather Channel that said the rain was past us, even if the lightening wasn't.

We awoke Sunday to find we had received just enough rain to give the sod a fighting chance.
Somehow it rained again Sunday afternoon and here we are at Monday morning and there is even more rain (although without the fancy wind and light show).

disclaimer - no we are not complete idiots, we have been watering the sod, but a good rain gives much better coverage and it's free.

I Love

I love that M thinks I'm comfortable.

I love that C is a great big brother - that P and J adore him.

I love how E rolls her eyes at me - eventually this will drive me crazy, but for now I think it's hilarious.

I love that J wants me to play with him and watch him ride his bike. I love how he sucks his thumb and holds his blanket, very much like Linus of the Peanuts.

I love P's curls and her giggle and how her eyes light up when she sees anyone of her family. I love her determination. I love that she knows where we keep her pacifiers.

One Done, One to Go

What a week. Tuesday we had sod delivered for the backyard. Finally the Septic Saga is complete. We have grass in the backyard. It took The Husband and I almost 2 hours to lay a little over one pallet of sod. It took the 13 volunteers (9 from church, my 3 brothers and a friend) just under two hours to lay 16 pallets of of sod.

Today was E and M's birthday party. We are very old-fashioned and have home parties. We don't rent bouncers or water slides. We do a pinata (next year I really need to buy a bat to whack the pinata with), cake and ice cream, some sort of game and open presents. We had small turnout - only 3 of the 10 invited. But at least it was one mutal friend and one girl from each of E and M's classes.

Now on to planning J's party. Thankfully we only have kid birthdays in 2 months so I only have to deal with this stress twice a year.

I promise I will work harder to blog more regularly and have more interesting topics.

For now I'm going to spend some quiet time reading. I'm nearly finished with The Husband by Dean Koontz. I'll give you a review soon.

What are you reading now? I'm always on the hunt for good books.

Feminist I'm Not

I'm considering changing doctors for what boils down to one reason - my doctor, a woman with 2 children would like to "have it all" (and by the way her husband is a surgeon which I suppose it both good and bad). She works 3 days a week, and it seems like those days are only mornings or at least not full days. Which means that if I am sick and can't make my appointment 2 weeks in advance I cannot get into see her because she will either be completely booked (why don't they leave a few holes in the schedule for sickies, the ped's office does, or maybe they do, but they get booked up fast too) or not in the office at all. Which leaves me with a slight chance that I could get in with her PA, but often find that she's also booked up. And the the offer of seeing another doctor in the group has never been made (again this is standard practice at the ped's office).

So I am leaving her for another doctor - another woman doctor, who has one child and will be in the office 4 full days a week. Hopefully this works out better. If not I just might have to go back to seeing the male doctor I use to see. Even if I do have to wait forever, at least I can always get an appointment.

Cleaning Up Is Hard to Do . . .

Yesterday, M and E provided this little tidbit of entertainment . . .

E: We cleaned up P's room AGAIN.
M: Yeah. We cleaned it up before and they just messed it up again.
E: So we put the Legos up high where they can't reach them.
M: They can only play with them if they ask us first.

(side not from Me -- I have put most of M & E's toys on a shelf above their reach, so they have to ask for them. This is to help them learn to put one thing back before playing with the next. Otherwise their room turns into a disaster.)


E: We want her room to stay clean.

This is where I left the room, praising their effort and trying to stiffle my giggles.

Breaking Up is Hard to Do

It's been coming for a while now. I was less than excited about each week's meeting, but kept our weekly appointment out of loyalty and a strange desire see how things would work out.

I approached each meeting with the slightest bit of dread. Just enough to delay but not cancel our relationship, unsure if I really wanted things to end or if I was just tired.

But it seems fate has stepped in. Just hours before what was to be our final meeting I learned from a third party that this really would be the final episode in our story. Regardless of this evening's outcome there would be no new episodes.

I feel a small sense of loss, but am relieved that the decision was removed from my control. But I am also left with so many questions. We weren't allowed to properly end our relationship. There is no closure. I just would have liked answers to a few small questions . . .

What happens to Larkin now that Tom took her to the water? What about her baby? Is Zura really dead? What about all those pushed into the water? What about the pregnant women -- do they survive the delivery? What do the "babies" look like? Where did the lights in the water come from? Are they aliens?

It's Broken - or Maybe Not

Isabelle got stepped on yesterday at church. It was an accident, but she cried long enough (not usual for her) that we headed to the emergency room. We waited 3 hours before even being seen.

After spitting up her first dose of Tylenol with Codeine, which got her the cute hospital gown, Isabelle managed to keep down the second dose. She was quickly taken for x-rays. A combination of codeine and, I'm sure, angels helped keep her still for the x-rays. She was a real trooper.

The ER pediatrician announced definitively that it was broken, had her food splinted and then sent us home with instructions to follow up with her regular pediatrician in the morning for casting.

Her regular pediatrician concurred with the diagnosis and sent us on to an orthopedic, where Isabelle threw a gold-medal-winning tantrum. She calmed down the instant they began taking off the splint. The orthopedic decided that he didn't see anything on the x-ray that need to be casted. When Isabelle didn't flinch while he examined her foot and was able to walk without signs of pain, he decided to send her home. He said if she isn't running around like nothing happened by next Monday to bring her back. He does not expect to see us again.

Isabelle fell asleep as soon as the doctor left the room. She is still asleep now. We'll see how she feels and walks when she wakes up.

But isn't this an adorable picture?