Virus from hell

July 14th, 2005

All three of my kids have a virus. This particular virus gives you a VERY sore throat and the fucking crabbies.

You see, they are not sick enough to be down for the count. But, they are just sick enough that they are not up to snuff and then they go through the day doing everything with a fit or a whine. I am so not exaggerating, and I am one to exaggerate!

I have determined, over the past few days, that if the virus doesn’t leave this house that I will need to find a new line of work. I am so not exaggerating, and I am one to exaggerate!

Examples of a virus taking over my kids bodies:
Crying when eating birthday cake (CT)
Hitting Bible Camp Teachers (PJ)
Throwing oneself on the floor for no apparent reason (CT-PJ-KP)
Tantrums (standing, screaming, crying large tears down the cheeks and stomping legs all because he doesn’t want to stop to look at a babbling brook-no kiddn’) from 5 year old (CT)
Mom wanting to drink copious amounts of alcohol at 9:30 am (mommy dearest)

Picture of the day

July 13th, 2005

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Happy Birthday Sweetie Pie

July 12th, 2005

Today, Adam turns 35. He doesn’t really care. Thank God he married me, because I DO care.

If left to his own devises, he would not celebrate. So, I am doing a birthday intervention that will include people, candles, cake, presents, brats, bootlegs, salt & vinegar chips and a round of “Happy Birthday” sung just for him.

I love you, Happy Birthday!

P.S. Today on YOUR special day, I got the mini-van washed (inside and out), just for you.

A mother’s intuition?

July 11th, 2005

CT and PJ headed off to VBS for the entire week. What is VBS you ask? That would be, Vacation Bible School. Now, I’m no bible banger, but I do go to church (well…I go to church when the planets are all in alignment, there is Sunday school offered and I don’t have a child that is taking a 10:00 am nap). Honestly, I don’t even know what denomination the church is and I really don’t care, all I know is that they would take both my kids for 3 ½ hours and feed them a packed lunch. As long as there were no little red men with horns and pitch forks standing there at the sign in line, can anything really go that wrong?

ANYWAY, this morning CT told me he had a headache and stomach ache and that he didn’t want to go to Bible Camp. Please take 10 steps back with me…During the school year, Clyde had been complaining of headaches, usually on a daily basis. We had LONG discussions with the pediatrician and tried a variety of things related to food, allergies, eyes, etc. Now I never thought for a minute that school could have been the source of the headaches. He loved his school, his teachers and his classmates. Then, summer came. There are no longer complaints of headaches, until this morning, when he needed to head off to Bible Camp.

Bingo, a light in my head came on. It was school. He totally has an anxiety problem.

So, after excusing himself from the breakfast table due to almost throwing-up, he laid down. After about 10 minutes, he decided to come back to the table and try it again. We discussed his concerns and his fears and then he announced he was ready to go.

I piled everyone into the car and headed out. The closer we got the farther down CT slumped in his car seat. I decided to ignore this behavior. He started breathing heavy, then telling me he wanted to go back home and that he wasn’t going in and then making this gagging noise and saying he was going to throw-up. AT 7:30 am I was sympathetic, at 9:00 am I was annoyed, and get over it already…you’ll be fine, you’re just nervous!

I finally got him in, introduced him to the little boy that was sitting next to him and said, “CT this is Atticus, Atticus this is CT, you guys are in the yellow group together, have fun.” And off I went.

Three and a half hours later I picked them up. They had a great time. On the way home I asked CT how his head was, he told me that it still hurt but that it wasn’t because he was nervous, it was because he had so much fun.

I felt his head…I took his temperature…it was 101. Damn, I SOOOO thought I had that one pegged.

PJ’s first photo

July 8th, 2005

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fingers and all

On your mark, get set…

July 7th, 2005

I have my summer girl coming over this afternoon. For two hours. I know, I know, you can’t get shit done in two hours, but I’m going to try. I like looking at it as a weekly case study of how many things I can get accomplished in how little period of time. Hmmm, maybe I should start an excel spread sheet and then graph myself. Wouldn’t that be well worth my valuable time?

On the days she comes, I get this little nervous energy just before I take off out of the house. When I only had CT, I would get that same feeling when I would put him down for a nap. I knew I had X number of minutes to get X number of tasks completed and I was going to do it by god. I would go flying around the house, multitasking my way through my projects, my head spinning along with the twelve plates in the air.

Today, instead of running franticly to the bank, grocery store and pet store, maybe I should take my two hours and run to the coffee shop to read my book. Now that is something I can get done in two hours!

Oh that and a whole lot more

July 6th, 2005

This past weekend, as custom in the morning, we (all five of us) were sitting in our bed watching the morning news enjoying our coffee and milks. The Revlon’s Age Defying Make-up commercial with Susan Sarandon and the other attractive red-headed actor, who of course I can’t remember her name, were sitting at their make-up tables, all gussied up, putting on foundation in the softest of lights and having the most splendid time doing it. CT turns to me and says, “Mom, do you wish you had that?”

I had so many answers for him; I just had to keep my mouth shut.