What's up this Sunday?

Sick boys - that's what's up. Paden had a fever on Thursday and Friday. He's been referring to it as "the fever". So, then Gunnar got the fever on Saturday. Now Gunnar has a sore throat, along with the fever. Paden has gotten rid of the fever, but has runny nose (which isn't all uncommon) and has developed some sort of fever blisters around his snot nose. Gunnar has some sort of itchy rash all over his stomach, back & legs. They might be visiting the clinic Monday morning. I have a doc appt Monday morning, which was supposed to be Friday, but the doc was sick. Fabulous!

So, it was a somewhat lazy day around here. We all stayed home from church and did not a whole lot. I am still experiencing that strange joint pain - going down the stairs is a chore. The boys slept in my bed last night, Neil on the couch. So you know what that means - Neil and I didn't sleep all that well. Paden's breathe right strips seemed to help, although it fell off at some point because he's really restless and wiggly. We normally sleep with a sound machine on - babbling brook - it's nice. I couldn't hear it last night over one or both of the boys snoring!

So, for productivity . . . I did put a new belt on the vacuum and cleaned a small portion of my bedroom floor - mainly the part where Paden spilled cocoa puffs in the middle of night when he came into my bed. I did unload and reload the dishwasher and cleaned the counter off - mainly so I could make a smoothie.

And I did do this:

Yea, me! (Bad scanning job by my scanner.) I haven't done any scrapbooking pages for quite a while. A few months ago, I did this layout as a demo for a friend.


Ok, so before that it's been since the last retreat (June '08) I believe that I've actually done any pages. Many a card have been crafted, but not pictures. So, this was quite the accomplishment for me today.

Who?

• Who wishes that Saturday could last a little longer?
• Who wishes for more motivation to do something on that little bit longer Saturday?
• Who is wondering how she/he could get the floor to vacuum itself?
• Who is feeling the need for some Joint-Ritis? (Ok maybe that's a little extreme, this person doesn't have arthritis - just very achy joints - ankles, knees, wrists, elbows.)
• Who hopes that Breathe Right strips for kids help a little tike sleep better, thus increasing sleep in the whole household?
• Who hopes that 'the fever' has left the house? (Update Sunday morning: 'the fever' is still in the house, nearly 103, not good)
• Who is wondering if buying children the following in one afternoon is too much: pizza hut pizza (including soda), Hershey's chocolate bar, strawberry milk, and ice cream cones?
• Who hopes that next week's weather is nice so that the yard can be worked in?
• Who wants to eat some chocolate chip cookie dough but wonders who is going to make it?
• Who hopes that the car will sell sometime in the next two months, at least?
• Who is wondering how 2.5 more months of pregnancy is really going to work? Seriously?

In case you were wondering, it's ME!

Just Venting

I just need to vent for a moment, so sorry to anyone who might find reading this blog somewhat enjoyable.

This afternoon, Gunnar had an eye appointment. It's a follow-up to his appt back in November where we found that he needed glasses. We were supposed to go back in about a month from when he got his glasses (sometime in January). Well, we didn't really like the place we went before and decided to switch. So, we finally get him an appointment for today. Sounds pretty normal thus far.

So, I planned to leave work about 2:40pm to get Gunnar from school and get to Hermiston by 3:20pm. Of course, two people stop me on my out of the plant. Then, just as I backed out of my space, someone else backed into my car, denting the passenger rear door. So, irritated!! As if the 2 inch dirt layer isn't enough to make the car enticing enough to buy! We just put a for sale sign in it one week ago! We really need to sell the car and even though we need to wash it make it look pretty, we thought there's no harm in driving it around with a sign in it. So, yes, now there's a dent in the door that needs to be fixed. It wasn't my fault, luckily, but it did put me a few extra minutes behind. I didn't have time to exchange insurance information, but it's a supervisor and he'll be there tomorrow.

So, I get to the school to get Gunnar and it's not about 10 minutes later than I wanted/needed it to be. We could have made it one time, but I forgot that I needed gasoline. I am thinking I would have ran out of gas had I not gotten some. So, after I had already gotten onto the freeway, I had to get off at the exit 1 mile up the road and back track to the gas station.

We got to the eye doctor's office like 10 or 15 minutes late, I don't really know. So, they say that they are going to have to reschedule. At this point, I almost starting crying - seriously. So, I did get a little upset and explained that I had just busted A%$ (yep, said it!) to get here after I had my car run into in the parking lot on the way there. I didn't go into the forgetting gas part - figured dented car was enough. I don't live in town, it's not that convenient for me to pull my son out of school to get there. The next available appt was April 23rd! Fridays are good days for appts, but the next Friday was May 8th. So, they did check with the doctor again after I had a little freak out and said I could wait for them to work us in. So, I decided to wait. I was supposed to be back to our town for a PTO meeting at 6pm, of which I am the most un-enthusiastic, un-motivated, un-dedicated president.

So, we didn't have to wait too, too long. We had Gunnar's eyes checked and apparently his prescription that he got in November isn't strong enough. We have to put drops in his good eye to make his right eye work harder and his new lenses will have the good eye side smudged (blurred with clear finger nail polish) so that the right eye will work harder too. He does have a "lazy" eye, I suppose. He had a big fancy doctor term for it. He didn't say, as we were told by the previous eye doctor, that his eye could be corrected permanently. It didn't sound like it wouldn't correct itself, but it sounded slightly worse than they told us at the other place. This doctor said that he was disappointed in the prescription he got before. He also said that maybe in a couple of years, Gunnar could be in contacts (well, just really needs one side). So, we'll see. We got the stronger prescription lenses on order and will have him checked after two months.

We got his frames adjusted (straighted back out) and changed out the nose pads to hopefully make his glasses more comfortable. He doesn't like wearing them and lately I've had to be after him to remind him to keep them on his face. The doctor also "prescribed" reading every night and video games (computer or other) also, so that he works his eyes up close. Gunnar was very excited that he has a great excuse to be on the computer. I think we don't need to add time to what he and his brother already spend playing games. Reading, we can add some time. Sometimes his books he reads for school are pretty quick.

So, then after the eye doctor, it was close to 5pm before we got out of there I think, we had to go get this prescription. Because I wanted to get another small spool of ribbon and look at fabric, I decided on Wal*Mart. So, they took the prescription and said, great that will be an hour and a half! I politely stated that I didn't plant on spending an hour and a half in this store. She said to check back in 45 minutes. So, we go wander around, looked at toys, fabric, ribbon, groceries, make-up and then went to check out. We went to eat at Subway where the nice young (AKA dumb blond HS looking clerk) over charged me and said afterwards that she didn't know how to work the computer well. So, I politely said that she had overcharged me $2.50 cents so she should figure out a way to refund it to me. She gave me the money out of the till (I paid with debit card) and didn't make a note anywhere on the receipt, so I do feel bad for whomever has to balance the till at the end of the day (maybe they don't pay that close of attention). We ate. Gunnar is a great eater - ate his whole meal, sandwich, apples and orange juice! He's my healthy eater - was so excited to eat at Subway. He then declared that he wasn't going to eat sugar anymore because it sticks to your teeth and is bad for them. So, that was interesting. He doesn't eat a bunch of candy anyway, usually refuses. However, every where else we went he begged for a Hershey's chocolate bar. I didn't think to tell him the sugar content, just keep denying his request because I wanted an ice cream cone and I knew he'd want one too when we got there.

The prescription pick up line was long and slow, of course. The eye drops we got are in the the smallest bottle I've seen! It's only 5 ml. Seriously, there's no samples of that stuff laying around the doctor's office? We had a couple other places to stop too. So, I didn't make it back for the PTO meeting. Oh well. Let's not get started on that subject. I am in need of getting to bed now, so no time to start my rant on the PTO and my stupidness in agreeing to be on it!

Sunday Thoughts

I feel compelled to unleash some thoughts now (not too long after church) because I might just forget some of them. I don't think that I have too many to begin with anyway. Not all of these thoughts are spiritual in nature, just what I happen to be thinking today.

~ I love chips and salsa. I finally learned how to make what I believe (as do my taste buds) is a good salsa. I've always made a pico de gallo type, which I do like. But, my good friend Nancy filled me in on how to make the other salsa. I embellished a little on her recipe and along with some corn tortillas I fried up myself into chips, I am definitely enjoying it!!! I've got a side of guacamole also (recipe courtesy of Alton Brown from the Food Network). Mmm, mmm, good. I am afraid when it comes to dinner, I might not have much room. The baby is currently occupying the space that my stomach would normally expand into when over-eating!

~ I don't want to jinx anything by saying this, but it is a beatiful day today. The sun is shining, the wind is not blowing (which is a small miracle where we live) and I think that is giving me more energy than I otherwise would have. I was yawning at church, but those yawns have subsided and I can only think that I wish it were slightly warmer outside.

~ The room in which I am currently sitting looks as though a tornado has blown through. Or a hurricane. I think I am naming this storm "Gunnar-n-Paden". That might be out of the normal alphabetic order naming convention for storms, but usually there's only two letters we need to use around here. An occasionally "N" or "T" have have been known to blow through at slightly less wind speed and create some messes as well, but all the credit on this one goes to two little joys I usually like to call my sons. So, I am hoping that the extra energy which is coming from the sunshine will enable me to clean up the aftermath of storm "Gunnar-n-Paden".

~ Along those lines, a rhetorical question (unless someone really does have an answer): Why do freshly steam-cleaned carpets attract things like red gatorade, pink strawbery smoothie, something orange that remains unidentified, mud, dirt, grime and the like?

~ We had a couple of great talks by some friends/neighbors of ours (there's 6 LDS families on our block, like we're in Utah or something!) on provident living and self-reliance. I have really been pondering those topics a lot over the last several months. I have a goal this month to purchase 4 backpacks at "save money, live better" store and put together 72-hour kits for each person in the family. People also say to not forget your pets. I'll think about that too. We usually keep our dog food in a rubbermaid tub, so I guess we can just throw that in the back of th truck along with the kennel (that seems to have been living in the truck anyway) and Max will be a-ok. We've also decided to stash cash, in case of emergency, in a safe place - in case we aren't able to access the bank for any reason. I really like that idea. Our safe place has one little flaw - I can't get into with without Neil, so that could be an issue. There's a great web site on provident living, which you should check out. http://www.providentliving.org/ A great resource for anyone!

~ For those of you who don't know, Paden has super speed and has red beams that shoot out of his eyes. He just informed me of that, so if you weren't aware don't feel bad, neither did I. :-) At least he's speeding around with red beams shooting out while singing a primary song. We have a great music leader in primary!

~ As we sang the sacrament hymn today, a phrase struck me. Hymn number 191 - Behold the Great Redeemer Die has a part that just made me ponder. "Although in agony he hung, no murm'ring word escaped his tongue." How amazing those words and how selfish can we be with our murmmering. . .

So, my Ghirardelli's chocolate brownies are beeping to come out of the oven, so I guess that's my cue to go. Not to mention the speedy, red-eyed, song-singing 4 year old who is climing/hanging on me asking if I am done yet!