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Lap · Times
Scored moments around the track of my life
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Its been an awfully long time since I updated on LJ. Christmastime was really crazy. My little choir that I direct had nine performances in three weeks, which definitely kept me busy. Add in rehearsals and a Jubilee performance during those weeks. Oh, and Christmas. Nothing busy there, right? To try to keep this from running miles and miles on anyone's friends page, I'll make liberal use of cuts. I do have a funny story from that Jubilee performance. ( Here it goes... )We went home on a whirlwind trip for Christmas. ( Christmas trip stories behind the cut... )The other interesting story happened on the 31st. ( St. Louis adventures... )Thank goodness, things have been slightly calmer since. Now Jubilee is ramping up to do a recording and starting work on our newly revamped Stations of the Cross program, so I have rehearsals with them Saturday, we'll start recording next Sunday and the Sunday after, and on Mondays we're rehearsing for Stations. It's a good thing I love these people. :) |
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The boys have been re-treated, and no lice appeared! Woo! Since we didn't even find a nit on them (and hadn't in days), we went to get haircuts this weekend. Which is when I re-learned that I should never let the husband handle haircuts. I was even there, just getting my own hair cut! Anyway, they now have very short hair on the top, which means their hair won't lay flat. *sigh* I suppose I can just put some gel on them and pretend I meant it. I told them how we usually get it done-- I guess I forgot to tell them to leave it a litle longer on the top.
Parent teacher conferences last week went very well. Ian's teacher says he's doing fairly well in the classroom, and of course he's blowing away the academics. She said that she's going to have to start polling the third grade teachers for ideas pretty soon,. Sean's teacher just adores him. He's reading better than the end-of-grade goal for Kindergarten. Thanks to the both of us working on handwriting, he's getting to be pretty legible there. For some odd reason, when he counts, he skips either 13 or 14. Not sure why, but I guess that's the next thing we need to get done. I suspect I may have another Ian on my hands-- only this one has some better social skills.
I'm tired and the weather's getting me down a little. Too much to do and I don't feel like doing any of it. Blah. |
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I discovered Friday afternoon (of course) that the boys had head lice. I thought it was Sean, since Sean's school just sent home a circular on head lice. No note that someone HAD head lice, though. Now I'm thinking it was Ian, because Ian seemed to have more signs of infestation. No one has been itching or anything-- I was sitting on Ian's bed, talking to him, and all of a sudden I saw something in the short hair at the nape of his neck. We had our backs to the bright light of the window, and I think that's how I spotted it. Well, the boys were shampooed, nit-loosening gelled, combed, washed and blown dry. I inspected them as closely as I can under two different light sources, and I didn't see any nits. The rooms were vaccummed, the matresses have been, too, all the stuffed animals are put away for a week. (Which has them very upset.) Lice are a big pain in the butt. Probably doesn't help that I know I'm being a bit OCD about it. I vaccumed their pillows, mattresses, and floors again this morning. I've held them down and combed and combed some more with a nice, metal comb, rather than the plastic one in the package of shampoo. The amount of little brown eggs (?) that came off of them was discouraging, given how long I combed and combed last night. They are exactly the color of the boys' hair, too. And because it's me who has had to do all the treating and combing, I know I'm going to irrationally feel like it's all my fault if we don't get rid of them. Besides which, all the kids in their classes hang their coats right together. Theirs have been washed and dried on hot, so they should be clean-- but the lice had to come from somewhere, and I'm betting that's where. I'm just cringing. Ew.
Current Mood: |
 annoyed | |
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Yep. I'm thirty today. That feels really odd. And you know what I did to celebrate? I sang for a funeral. Not kidding. (Not anyone I knew, either.) The irony was high and amusing-- the one of us who was traumatized by the big round number birthday is the one who was at a funeral today. It's the husband's birthday, too. He is four years, six hours and eleven minutes older than me. Seriously, we got presents, we had a nice dinner, and he brought me cake at choir practice. (Awww.) Still, though. Thirty. Weird. |
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I'm doing OK. I'm pretty goofy, though.
I look strange with this big wad of gauze mustache. Not at all in fashion, you know?
My throat hurt so badly right after that I didn't even register the nose. My throat is much better now, thanks to some popsicles and cold soda.
Today has been a whole lot worse than yesterday. I tried taking one vicodin this morning (I took one last night) and after two hours I was wanting to take more. I took two the next time and I was still uncomfortable. I took another nap and woke up an hour past the six hour mark and now I'm wishing I could just cut my nose OFF.
I never thought I would look forward to irrigating my sinuses. I hate it. But now I'm breathlessly waiting for tomorrow in hopes that it will make me less miserable. I want to blow my nose and I can't. Ick.
Doc said the surgery was good and he did end up clearing out my sinuses along with fixing my nose. I'm phenomenally lucky-- because I had so little bleeding (and my doc is going on leave next week), I don't have any packing in my nose. That makes me a happier camper. Although it also means I can move my nose, which makes me want to die immediately.
The boys are very cute and want to take care of me. They brought me stuffed animals so I would be comfortable. Awwwww. |
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Having surgery on Monday morning. It should be utterly routine, and he says I shouldn't be in too bad shape. No bending down and no lifting things, take it easy and all that good stuff. I'll be coming home with lovely splints in my nose, but apparently that's much preferable to the stuff-it-full-of-cotton plan, even if it's messier.
I've spent all week trying to tie up loose ends. I had to find someone to cover my Skylarks rehearsals, get all the bell music ready for the next mass we play (which I most likely won't play in, since it's 10/12), try to get some of the mess resolved from R.E. and youth group.
I'm not looking forward to going in to R.E. in the morning. I sent an email to the head teacher giving her some resources I'd found and then politely telling her I thought that the current plan was missing the point of a catchetical religious education class, since all anyone was focusing on was big events outside of class. We don't have enough class time to spend a MONTH on a stupid pancake breakfast. Of course, I was nicer about it than this. I sent the email on Friday and I still haven't heard anything from her, so either it's going to be awkward because she hasn't read it yet, or she's waiting to tell me to shove off in person. I'm not sure I really care if she does tell me to shove it-- I'll just concentrate on the youth group, which I enjoy a lot more anyway.
I have bigger fish to fry with the whole cutting-up-the-inside of my face thing. :)
EDIT: She hadn't read it. I tried to talk to her about it, but I'm pretty sure she completely blew me off. At least it was very grown-up and friendly.
Current Mood: |
 anxious | |
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My mom is doing well. The weather messed up our TX trip so that we barely got there before her surgery, which is why I missed getting in touch with people. Sorry, everyone. Boys are back in school. So far, so good. We found a buddy for Ian on the next block over and they've had some good times. Our circle of houses is almost full now. They let civilians move in, so we have three college boys in one house. They seem like good people-- they have a lot of friends over but they are quiet. I did ask that they not park across from my driveway, though. Seems to have worked for tonight. Maybe I'll take the hooptey-mobile that the husband drives and back it into one of them if they start it up again. Sinus surgery is finally scheduled for 9/29. I finally had to go in and sit in their waiting room until they talked to me because no one would call me back. I got in on the last day they had open time in September, and I think it's just because I was there in the flesh. The husband is working on his PhD candidacy exam. It's due tomorrow at 5:00. He says its 25 pages so far and should have another 3-4 more to go. He's at work right now. He's been at work a lot this last week. Not a big surprise, but I'm ready for it to be done, especially since the boys aren't in school. I miss him. I don't like Ike either. Dayton got creamed, although not as bad as Cincy did, I guess. We had gusts over 65 mph on Sunday. One should not be hit by hurricanes in Ohio. Seriously. We never lost power-- all our lines are buried and I think we feed off the base. Most everyone around us lost power, though. They called tonight and cancelled school for the third straight day tomorrow. The boys are annoyed. I hope we don't have a bad winter, or we'll be in school forever.
Current Mood: |
 tired | |
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I just spent awhile puttering out in my garden. I didn't do a very good job of dead-heading my verbena, but that's because of the bees that LOVE my groundcover there. Still, the front gardens are looking nice. I put in some marigolds along the back of the big garden-- I finally gave up on the zinnas ever showing up in the gardening stores. Anyway, they're not as nice as the zinnias, but they are doing well. They're just not as tall.
I have two big pots on the back porch. I put a daisy-ish plant in each one along with a white superbell. (Think cascading petunias with smaller blossoms) They went opposite directions. One of the daisies is a nice, compact plant, but it doesn't blossom as much. The superbell is nice, but held in check by the bigger daisy. The other daisy went very tall and rangy looking, with lots of smaller blossoms. The superbell had lots of room, and it is HUGE. It's climbing on the daisy now. Probably will kill it eventually, but it's such a gorgous plant that I'm not sure I care,
Anyway. The point is, I had time to putter in my garden. In the morning, so I'm not scorching hot. The kids are in day camp! Hooray!
OK, Sean's just in morning camp, but it is still nice to have a quiet morning. I've been trying to do fun stuff with him when I pick him up. Preferably fun stuff near the kids' museum the camp is at, so I don't have to drive so much. Monday we stayed at the museum until Ian got out. That was fun, but it was three and a half hours. Granted, we spent some of it eating lunch and watching the planetarium show, but it was also a lot of climbing in their four level play area. It's definitely not built for people who are 5'6"-- I have bumps and bruses from running into things-- especially one very twisty tube slide. Every time my feet catch, something new bumps into the wall. Yesterday wasn't as much fun. I had originally planned to have a healthy lunch at Subway. When we got there, the Subway turned out to be right next to a Little Ceasars. I'm a softy, and I have no will-power when it comes to pizza. We got one of their always ready $5 pepperonis, found a park and had a picnic. Then he had to go do grocery shopping with me. (The not so fun part.) Today, I think we'll play at the museum for a little while after lunch, and then when the sun is less intense we'll go to the water park near the museum. I've been saving that for these last hot days.
Not sure about tomorrow. Friday, Sean doesn't have camp. Ian does, and they are taking a field trip to a cave nearby. I think we might pack a lunch and go down to the aquarium in Cincinnati since we have all day.
They're doing more camp next week. (Hooray!) Then we have one full week before we're hoping to go down to TX. We're roughly thinking the 6th-ish through the 16th-idh. As always, depends on the flights. It also depends on my mom's impending knee surgery. It's an arthroscopic procedure, so the recovery time isn't supposed to be too bad.
Must go move the hose. I'm trying to water the backyard a bit before it gets too hot.
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I swear, the kids are TRYING to drive me crazy. I'm downstairs making marinade and trying to clean up and dust when Sean comes down crying that he hurt his foot while dancing ON THE BED with Ian. Who is, of course, still dancing on the stinking BED. I came upstairs and he was JUMPING on Sean's bed. Well, I just about lost it. I yelled at him, and then I took both of their CD players and CDs away. I sent them to their rooms, and when I put Ian in his room, I heard him slam down the legos. So then I went in and took the legos away and made him go in and tell Sean why they didn't have any legos to play with. Now, they're in their rooms until hell freezes over or I quit wanting to smack them. Not sure which will happen first, especially if Sean keeps coming out of his room and pestering me. It's a really nice day and I was planning on going outside with them after I got them a snack about now. But now they're in deep doo-doo and I want to scream.
ARGHARGHARGH. I swear, by the end of the summer I'm going to lose my voice and my mind simultaneously.
OK. Venting made me feel a little better. I'm going to go make them a snack and hopefully by the time that's done I'll feel like I can breathe again.
Current Mood: |
aggravated | |
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Ouch. I went to the Ear, Nose and Throat clinic today on the referral from my primary care doc. He thought that the eternal cough/drainage/yuck I've had is acid reflux. Apparently, this is common, even when you don't have any heartburn.
The ENT stuck a tube up my nose to see what was up. He put some Afrin/Lidocaine spray up there first, but it still hurt enough to make me squirm and cry. I still feel sore.
Apparently, it's all very swollen up there. He pointed out that the spray should have made the tissues go down, so it was probably much worse beforehand. What amazed me was that it was still that bad after being on Flonase for two months. (He knew about that, of course.) Huh, maybe that's why I've had a headache for a year and a half. Actually, the Flonase has been very helpful for the headaches. Hasn't done a bit for the drainage-- in fact, I think it might be worse.
Oh, and apparently I do have signs of reflux, which makes it a chicken-or-the-egg type of deal. Is the reflux causing my sinus problems, or are the sinuses causing the reflux? I'm inclined to the latter, because there have been times where the extra drainage from a cold has made me vomit.
Thus, I get to irrigate my nasal passages twice a day, keep taking the Flonase and the antihistamine, and now I get to take Nexium in the morning to see if that helps. I have a CT scan of my sinuses scheduled for Friday morning and I'm supposed to go back on 7/25 to see if the medicines help.
I want something to help now. I'm tired of coughing. I'm tired of headaches. I want to be able to exercise again without sounding like a consumption patient. I want to be able to sing and not worry about whether I'll have to leave the church and cough up crud for the next half hour.
And man, the scope up the nose thing is really lousy. I really, really hope something helps before I have to go through that again.
</self pity> |
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racingbird's journal