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Wednesday, June 20, 2012

The Kiss

A couple people have posted today about a Nivea free lip care giveaway thingy. Apparently it's only on Facebook (click here) so I can't enter. Facebook is lame and I quit after a few months. But the giveaway involves posting a kissing picture of yourself (or someone else I guess). So I went and found the picture I would post and was all ready to participate...and then it turns out its only Facebook. Boo.

This is the picture I would have posted.


We are something like 18 and 19 at the time. He came to see me at college for the day and we went shopping and hung out all day. The only bad thing about his visits was that he had to leave and I had to stay behind. I quit after a year. That place was a hole. Anyway..this is clearly a photo booth photo and we're so young. I know exactly what I'm wearing though, and if you could see the other picture you'd see I'm wearing a giant bow in my hair and my bangs are gigantic and nearly plastic as well. Oh the good old days of 1994.

Feel free to poke fun in the comments.

Thursday, June 14, 2012

The Screaming

I took Tuesday off. I had scheduled the girls' physicals for that afternoon so I went ahead and scheduled the dogs vet/shot visit as well. I was pretty proud of myself, both for remembering to schedule all of it, as well as for remembering to do it in advance enough that I wasn't stuck with a walk in clinic or rush job. So..here's a run down of the day. Don't worry, we'll get to The Screaming.

8am Wake up the girls, get everyone rolling

9am drop the 9yo off at Vacation Bible School

10am take the dogs (4yo with me) to the vet, exam, shots, lucy has a yeast infection in her ear.

11am $350 later- GAH! - leave the vet and head over to pickup the 9yo

Home for lunch and a short visit with the hubs who is also home for lunch

1pm head out to Target to pick up new bedside lamp for 9yo, she's still using the lamp from her nursery. Too short and too dim. and Filthy, Jeeeez do I clean ever. (no).

1:30 head to ToysRUs for a hula hoop detour

2:00 head to Hancock Fabrics for some beading to embellish the lamp, it's a plain white lamp because the most important thing is that she be able to SEE and READ by this lamp, not that its soooo cute and sooo soft and oooo look at the beads. No. $18 later, beads aquired..I really need to check the prices of things more closely before I'm at the pay line.

2:30 head downtown to the doctor office for the physicals

So the girls look at the fish while I check us in. The nurse comes out, ready to test their vision, get height, weight, etc. The girls do great, but the 9yo is starting to get weepy. She knows the appointment has begun and she's been anxious about the potential for a shot since I mentioned the appointment - a month ago. So we go to the exam room, 4yo starts first, temp and blood pressure with the nurse..then 9yo. Then the doctor (ARNP) comes in and we talk about each kid, takes at least 25 minutes to get all the questions answered and discover that 9yo gets one HepA shot and 4yo is due for 4 shots. Ok..doctor is going to send in it the super fast nurse. Great.

9yo is going first to get it over with. She comes in, we're prepped and she asks "arm or leg?" The 9yo's panic is so great, she can't decide, because her answer would be NOWHERE. So I said leg and just do it. The 9yo then SCREAMS. Glass shattering scream. Twice. Directly into my ear and the nurse's ear. The 4yo is now also freaked out because what the wha why did she scream. I did not anticipate that level of panic and screaming. So I sort of got the giggles after that, because I have tried to distract her, to promise her that it's ok that I wouldn't let anything bad happen to her, that these shots keep her healthy. She is unconvinced and her anxiety is so high, she cannot fathom what's about to happen. She admits now that the shot wasn't quite that bad.

Next up I put the 4yo on the table, she's due for 4 shots, so while the nurse is really really fast, it's a lot. I watch her face as I'm sort of holding her down, so I see the shock and pain cross her face with each poke. She is not at all please, but she does not scream. She yells a little and cries but I can still hear. She limps around all afternoon because her legs are "injured" she says. I agree, she's probably in some pain. Wed. morning we wake up, take the 9yo to Vacation Bible School again, come home to get lunch. 4yo has Cocoa Puffs and orange juice..and then pukes all over the table and floor. Apparently a side effect of DTaP vaccine is fussiness (check!), tiredness (check!), and vomiting (check!). She is limping seriously now also, and I have to carry her to the couch to rest and watch tv.

So, that day sort of started out well, but took a nasty dive. Things are  much better today, although the 9yo thought she was going to puke today, the 4yo is much better and hopefully I'll be even smarter next time and NOT tell them when I've scheduled the appointment and maybe also NOT schedule them at the same time/day. (Updated: Also stagger the dog appointments so they don't take ALL my money every time we go there, and perhaps we don't need a $44 exam AND $23 poop test - that's PER DOG - every year).


Lamp turned out really cute though, huh.

Monday, June 11, 2012

A sensitive girl

I am raising a very sensitive and anxious girl. I didn't quite realize it until recently.  I was so proud of myself this year, for scheduling a physical for both girls. Typically it takes some sort of miracle to get into the pediatrician for a physical appointment. They take those specially, you can't just sneak it into a regular visit, and if you don't call as soon as possible, you won't get in. It's super stupid. But this year, before school was out, I called and scheduled them both for a physical. The 4yo needs one for preschool. The 9yo just hasn't had a physical in awhile, so if we're going, they might as well both go.

So I told them about the appointments a month ago. I told them it was in June.  At first it was no big deal, but when school let out, the 9yo started having trouble sleeping. She would go to bed, and read her book for awhile, and then she'd call me in to tell me her stomach was 'jumping' and her legs hurt (growing pains sort of). This went on for a week. Somewhere in there I think she'd talked herself into thinking she was going to throw up. I asked her once what was going on and she said she might be nervous about the doctor appointment coming up. I was surprised to hear that, told her it'll be fine, not to worry about it. The real point though, is that awhile before that she asked if she was going to have to get a shot. I don't like to lie to them outright (except for their own good of course, Santa, Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy...whatever). So I said I didn't know - because I don't. I think she IS due for a booster of some sort, but I don't know for sure. But I said it'd be no problem, quick and easy, no worries.  So a few nights ago she was at it again. My tummy is getting jumpy, she says.  So I massaged her legs and said you have to tell me what's going on. Right now. Tell me.

I'm really nervous about the doctor appointment you said was coming up later in June. Oy. I talked her down, talked her through it, asked her what happens if you get a shot...its over..and then what...nothing. It's no problem. Also, she's been asking about getting her ears pierced, and a shot is a good way to get a feel for that. She's not convinced still, but she has stopped letting the anxiety get the better of her.

Whew. I'm going to have to watch out for that. Both for what I say about things that make her nervous and about reassuring her when the anxiety is unavoidable. This isn't a trait she gets from me, but I think I can help her manage it. And hopefully she'll grow more confident and less anxious as time goes by and life goes on. She is my sweet, sensitive, anxious almost TEN year old first baby girl.

Friday, June 8, 2012

The Master: BEFORE

I'm getting antsy about the bedroom furniture. For several reasons. Is it going to come in the right finish? The catalog where the salesman got the codes had a photo that did NOT look like the furniture finish I expect. The wood sample in the store is what I want. That better be what shows up. Anyway, it's time to show you what the BEFORE room looks like. I've started taking down art, clearing out side tables and prepping things to photograph and try to craigslist. I sure hope these giant chests sell.

Here is a fancy drawing I've done of the current room layout. Hopefully this makes the photos to follow a bit more clear. So, you walk into the room, to the right the closet sort of sticks out, making a little corner there - we put the dog water bowl there. The left wall is blank until you get to the bathroom door, the far wall has a large window, and the right wall is blank.  The purple shapes are my homemade nightstand, which is purple (to match old decor) but has just a shelf and isn't very useful and a round 5-drawer stand I was putting polish into. I'm selling that on craigslist and I'll re-use the other shelf in the basement or something for storage of some sort I'm sure. Maybe :)

The wall paint color is called Pralines & Cream but I can't remember the maker right now. I do still have the swatch though. We started out with a cream and purple theme, but the purple comforter ripped and I haven't found anything I love enough or that I'm confident enough matching with curtains to stay in that theme. We remodeled the master bathroom, and I feel that the color schemes need to match in the two rooms. So since we went with a cream and brown theme..that's where we're headed with the bedroom. The comforter and curtains are taken care of. The rest of what you see..goes away.

view from the doorway
view from the se corner, looking to the doorway, bathroom door on right
view from window on far wall, to the door and closet wall
view from se corner toward master bath.
So, I've removed a lot since these photos. The photo above the laundry basket found a new home in the living room, I removed the candle sconces and the curvy ones above the bed. I LOVE the art, but I'm going to swap it for something that matches. The in-laws are moving to town and they have some of the same art, so if they have room in their new house for it, they can use these as well. Otherwise, I'll keep them and find new homes for it. I'm hoping to find some nice art that can go above the bed at least, the other walls I'm not sure of. The art in the first photo to the right of the window is only there because I wanted to use it and didn't have any other walls. We've also removed the 2nd shelf from the TV holder thing. So there is now more room between the jewelry armoire and the tv shelf. That's an XBOX on the shelf - we use it with Windows Media Center and an extender to watch TV in the bedroom.  I also LOVE my lamps, they're clear lucite(?) balls and I think I'll just update the shades when the room is done to something more creamy and maybe I'll add my own brown accent embellishment perhaps. If the candle sconces don't sell on CraigsList I may keep them and paint them brown and hand them on each side of the new dresser mirror if that looks good.

Now, here is a fancy drawing of the room layout AFTER the new furniture arrives.I'll have a matching nightstand and we'll be sharing a sort of oversized dresser. It's being built by Daniel's Amish out of Ohio and we purchased it at Homemakers in Des Moines, IA which is a subsidiary of Nebraska Furniture Mart. It was customizable so we could make it taller/shorter, more drawers, less.. here is a photo of the store display.

store display
We're getting a more brown finish, I don't like the red/cherry tones with my brown/cream theme. So it should be a whiteacre finish on brown maple. We are not buying a chest of drawers, just headboard/footboard, 2 nightstands and dresser. The dresser you see has a top row of a small drawer, long drawer, small drawer. We're changing that so there will be 2 long drawers on top. That way we don't have to share the middle one, we'll each have our own set of 4 drawers.

Hurry up furniture!