Happy Halloween

It's my cat's ninth birthday today, or at least when we celebrate her birthday. I got her at the SPCA over eight years ago. She had been a stray, so her real birthday was unknow. Based upon the SPCAs best guess at her age, I picked Halloween for her birthday. It could have been.

Brenna got a can of Fancy Feast (some dead, rotted seafood flavor) for her present. She knows she had special food, but she has no idea why. We do this every year on her birthday and also on her adoption day.

She's been treated with Advantage, too, and I hope her fleas will soon be gone. I looked over N's head this morning, and I couldn't find anything but clean hair. I still have three more rounds of wet-combing with conditioner, but I'm hopeful that the lice are gone. He hasn't been itching his head much, too.

J wore herself out with excitement over Halloween this afternoon and fell asleep. I didn't realize she was asleep at first because I had been hearing a lot of coughing. She's got a cold like N and I.

I don't like the way the time change is making it dark so early, but it was nice to get to sleep in this morning. The kids didn't, though, and I could hear them talking about Halloween for a while before I got up.

This year we are going to put glow sticks in our pumpkins instead of candles. Then we don't have to worry about fire, and we can go away and leave our pumpkins glowing while we are out trick-or-treating.

Well, my timer is going off. I need to go wait for N's bus.

Pumpkin carving

We carved pumpkins this morning. First we went out in the yard and picked them from the vines. We then carved them indoors at the table. It was a mistake not to pick them last night and let them warm up overnight in our house. They spent the night outdoors, and it got down near freezing last night. Cold pumpkin goo is very unpleasant to stick one's hands in.

This is the first time we've ever grown our own pumpkins sucessfully for Halloween. Last year we got a bunch of nice pumpkins, but they arrived in early August. All were rotted by Halloween. We did cook and freeze the pulp of a couple, though, before they rotted.

I've been coming down with a cold the last couple days. My throat is killing me and my energy is gone. We skipped church this morning because I don't feel well enough to go and I certainly don't need to share my germs with the rest of the congregation. The kids have colds, too, but it's not wearing them down the way it is me. I guess I was already half-way worn out from the pregancy.

We did go to the doughnut shop this morning like we do every Sunday. The sunlight made my head throb so I kept my hands over my eyes on the way there. I got smarter on the way home, and wore my sunglasses. Later in the morning, after consuming Tylenol, Sudafed, and caffeine, I started to feel like a functional person again. Before I could take the Sudafed, I had to find the list of acceptable over-the-counter medicines during pregnancy I got from my ob/gyn. I see that Chlor-trimeton is the only cold medicine on the list, so I should probably think about getting some.

I sort of feel like taking a nap right now, but I don't trust the kids with no supervision. My husband is off mowing the lawn at his office and our new rental building. It's unlikely he'll be back so I can nap. I'm sure if he gets home before the day is over, he'll have a lot of stuff to do. Our own lawn is desperately in need of mowing.

Friday I went to shred some paperwork only to find the paper shredder only hummed. I looked down the paper feed area and saw a couple pennies. There is only one person in the house who would do a stupid thing like that so I got her to confess. My daughter is almost four and has no judgement. I tried getting the pennies out with a steak knife. Only one fell out. Then I tried pulling the other out with hemostats. I wasn't strong enough to work it out. Eventually my husband did. The shredder had taken a bite out of the penny. I plugged it back in and tried to shred some paper. It still only hummed. I looked down the paper feed area and could see yet another penny that wasn't visible before. I asked J how many she put in the shredder. She said she thought three. Her counting isn't always reliable, but it was that day. I had my husband extract the third penny, also partially chewed up by the shredder.

I am happy to say that the shredder works fine again. It is sort of ironic that the hemostat we used we got in the surical pack they let us keep at the emergency room after we had to take J there a year or so ago after she shoved a rock up her nose.

Stupid lice

This morning I tried to wet and comb out any eggs or little lice from N's hair. For better light, I put him on the floor near our back sliding glass door. He played with my water spray bottle and must have got his hands wet. I was combing his hair and not finding much of anything, when all of a sudden each combing was full of junk. It looked like sand, though. What I discovered was that his wet hands touched the dirty floor near the door, picked up sand, and then he'd itch his hair and filled it with sand. I called the school and told them we'd be very late since I had to shampoo his hair again.

I washed his hair again, louse-combed it again, and then I blow-dried it since his health clinic person would be looking at his hair dry, and I think a lot more stuff shows up when the hair is dry. Then I vacuumed by the door, and put a blanket down. We sat down with the combs, tweezers and paper towels, and I began picking through his hair looking for eggs. I found a lot. I picked until I found nothing. The comb doesn't remove all the eggs, I discovered. One has to look and get them with tweezer or finger nails, and once in a while I just gave up and pulled the hair. Anyway, I took him to school once I could find no more eggs, and the health person found seven more eggs. She removed them but let him stay. I told her if he went back home with me, I wouldn't be returning him until Monday because we have more insecticidal treatment planned for tonight, and he'll begin the "wet combing" (with creme rinse) tomorrow morning. I guess for a while I'll need to sit with him each morning wherever I can get the best light and manually search for and pick out any eggs along with his regular combing since the combs miss a lot.

N's class just got a bunny that roams free in the classroom I got to see it briefly when I took him to class. It's really cute and uses a litter box. It was eating a carrot when we arrived. I'm amazed that no one has any allergies that would prevent a rabbit in the classroom.

Another long day

I had an ob/gyn appointment at 10:15 today. By 11:15, my daughter was very bored in the waiting room and behaving very badly. When I tried to see about rescheduling the appointment, we found out the doctor was delivering a baby, but it a regular vaginal birth, and I was the third patient she'd see after she was done. Fifteen minutes later, we got called to the check-in area and were told the delivery had turned into an emergency C-section. The ladies tried to reschedule the appointment, but I'm only available on days J doesn't have preschool because they can't guarantee that I'll be done in time to pick her up. Also, I can't do any appointments that will interfere with waiting for N's bus to either pick him up or drop him off. Finally they thought they could get me in and out in time at 12:45 p.m. today, understanding that no matter what was going on, I was leaving to meet my son's bus at 3:30 p.m.

J and I went home, stopping for a sandwich at the Subway at the hospital. We ate and she played in the yard a bit and then we returned to the doctor's office. We did see the doctor and got out in plenty of time to wait for N's bus. When we got home, there was a message on my answering machine. It was from the health clinic at N's school. I called them back. They had found five nits in N's hair and stopped and called me to come and get him at that point.

I went and picked up N. I took him outside to see better to comb him, and found his head full of tiny lice, not the big ones I had combed out earlier. Some were even alive. It was disgusting. I've been combing him with a nit comb every day since we found out about the problem. His itching hasn't relented. Now I know why. I called N's doctor's office and left a message for the nurses. N got yet another shower, and I tried combing him out with his head full of creme rinse. This evening the doctor called me back and told me to do the insecticidal treatment one week from the last (which will be Friday). Then when after I rinse it out Saturday morning, to use something called Step 2 to dissolve the bonds the eggs have to the hair shaft and comb him out again. Then wet comb him (with creme rinse). Then wet comb him with creme rinse every three days for a total of four combings. At that point the lice should be gone.

I've been re-washing his bedding, and I got another can of spray for places like my car and the sofa. This is driving me crazy. Fortunately, all was well at the ob/gyn appointment.

Cold rain

It is cold and rainy today. The last couple nights I've dreamed of snow and freezing rain. I only dream of snow or freezing rain when I am too cold at night. I am too cheap to turn my heat pump up. I'd rather be colder and have lower electric bills.

My daughter dressed herself this morning. She came into the bathrooom to show me while I was showering. She had selected short sleeves and shorts. I had a very hard time convincing her she needed to wear something warmer. I think I need to take all her shorts away until next season, only around here, we could easily get some 80 degree days even as late as December.

My son wore a jacket for the first time today. At first he insisted he'd be warm enough with just an umbrella out in the rain waiting for the bus. It didn't take him long out in the rain, and he agreed to wear a warm jacket.

I went to the bookstore after dropping off my daughter at preschool. I needed to find a book for the nephew we'll be getting in January. K's sisters are planning a baby shower, and they wanted people to give a children's book instead of a card. I don't much like books for small children, but I tried to find Old Hat New Hat. It wasn't there. I ended up getting Brown Bear. I would have preferred to give a Harry Potter book, but it will be years before their son will care for it. My son still isn't interested, and he's five.

I would have stopped at the used children's clothes store to try to find more pants for J, but I had to use the bathroom. I may go out later this morning and look at that store and perhaps the thrift store for more clothing for her and N. Right now N has three pairs of jeans and one pair of sweats that fit him well enough to go out in public. I have to do laundry all the time to keep him in clean clothes.

It's Lunch Bunch day at J's preschool today so I won't pick her up until 2 p.m. instead of at 12:30 p.m. I might start sorting through old baby clothes in the attic. I need three piles (or sets of boxes). One I keep no matter what the baby will be, one I get rid of if it's a boy, and one I get rid of if it's a girl. I imagine I'll have the most stuff to go if it's a boy. I don't have a lot of stuff I wouldn't put on a girl even though they were originally for my son. With J, the problem is she starts crying if she has to wear what she thinks are "boy clothes." She bursts out in tears every time I try to get her to wear a pair of lovely, warm camouflage pajamas that I got for N years ago. I'd wear them if they fit me. On the other hand, she wears a lot more pink, lavendar, and flowers than I do.

I'm still wearing regular jeans. I'm testing the limits of Size 10 jeans at the waist. Soon I'll be forced into the maternity clothing up in my attic. I can still easily hide my pregnancy from those who don't know. Those who do still have to squint and use their imaginations.

What a day

Here I sit, eating a Yoplait Whips! Chocolate Mousse Style chocolate raspberry yogurt, hoping food in my belly will quell the evening nausea. These are really quite good (and alcohol free).

Right after my son got picked up by the bus this morning, I called his doctor to see if he could get an appointment to see what was wrong with his itchy head. I had looked and saw some sores, but I couldn't find anything else. So had my husband. We even tried Head and Shoulders shampoo on him last night. I got an appointment late this morning. It left time for me to take J to her preschool (even though it isn't her regular preschool day--I only send her three of the available four days a week) in order to get a pumpkin with her classmates from the "patch" outside the church her preschool is held in. She did a little craft while she was there and it involved paint. I ended up with some of the paint on my shirt.

We had to go home so I could change before we got my son for his appointment, meaning we entirely missed playgroup this week (playgroup is at a church right near the preschool's church, and not very close to my house).

As you've probably guessed, my son's doctor appointment revealed a case of head lice. We had to get medicine for that at the drug store. Then I had to put in a call to my ob/gyn to find out if I could apply it/use it myself to be certain I don't have it/use some spray around the house. It was the end of the business day before I found out the chemical was okay as long as I didn't take anything orally. Meanwhile I had a lot of bedding to wash.

The toilet fill valve completely died this morning. It was squirting water all over and refusing to shut off. Fortunately I had bought another one when I got the toilet flusher replacement thing at the hardware store yesterday. I had to change that, and it took a long time because it was so hard to get the old one off.

The city housing people who pay most of our new rental property's tenant's rent called because they had misplaced one of the forms we sent them and they needed my husband to sign something before they'll begin sending the rent to us. Fortunately, I was able to direct them to him and they got him in.

My daughter peed three times on the floor. Every time I got busy trying to fix some problem she's pee and tell me how sorry she was.

This evening I've been washing everything washable in my son's room. I'm still working on it. Tomorrow I get to wash the stuff out my my kids' hair (the doctor said to ignore the instructions and leave it in for 8 to 12 hours). Then I get to fine-tooth comb my son's head. Finally, I'll have to drive him to school (late--after the crowds are gone), and take him to the clinic along with the used bottle of medicine (insecticidal hair rinse). If they find nits, he goes back home and I comb him some more and we try again.

Hopefully tomorrow will be a boring day. I like them best. Excitement seems to be caused by trouble mostly.

Fatigue

I'm so exhausted, but I'm unable to fall asleep. I've tried a couple times since J and N are at school. J will be home soon though, so I'll be unable to try again. I'm a little stuffy so I wonder if I'm coming down with a cold.

One of our two toilets won't flush, and when flushed manually, there seems to be some water spraying around when the tank refills. I got a new flusher and fill pipe at the hardware store this morning. I just can't get together the energy even to replace the flusher. One can still used the toilet, but to flush it, the lid on the tank has to be removed, and I have to poke my hand around in the tank. It's a good thing I have two toilets.

I picked up a pack of two frozen espresso mousses at the store. When I got home, I went to check the label so confirm it had partially hydrogenated fats (I figured it did but I wanted to eat it anyway--turns out it didn't). Now I see that one of the ingredients is alcohol. I'm so depressed. Logically, I'm sure the amount of alchohol is about zero. It's probably no worse that eating sweetened whipped cream with vanilla extract to flavor it. Anyway, with the pregnancy, I just can't get myself to consume it now for fear of fetal alcohol syndrome. It's making me nuts to be so irrational. It's very difficult to be around someone who acts on emotion rather than logic, and it is especially annoying when I am that emotion-driven someone.

I can't think of one.

J had her lunch bunch today so I had a couple extra hours without any kids. I got the floors vacuumed and mopped, the mirrors cleaned, and the bathtub cleaned. I also made a trip to Toys-R-Us to find a present for a nephew of mine who will be two in a couple weeks.

I also got lucky and found a Superman costume for my son. That's what he told me he wanted to be when I finally asked him. I had seen one at Target for $30, but I told my son that before I spent that much on a costume, I'd prefer to just take $10 and buy candy for him and skip Halloween. He didn't like that idea.

This Superman costume was on clearance for $6.80. I think it may be a bit large, but he'll just have to live with it. It kills me to spend much money on something he'll only wear for two hours once or twice. My wedding dress was $50 at the Dress Barn. Yes, at that price it didn't have much fabric--it stopped about half-way down my thigh. It was the only off-white dress I could find there the day I was looking, and I hated shopping so much I wasn't about to head for the mall to check out a lot of stores.

J fell asleep shortly before N's bus arrived. N is watching Cyber Chase on TV. It's one of the PBS shows I actually think is educational. It's math-based. I actually like to watch it, too, sometimes.

I'm thinking about making spaghetti and meatballs for dinner. K has been very late from work lately so I'm not sure what time I should even start dinner. I'm feeling a bit ill right now, so I don't think I'll eat any meatballs. Rolling them will be as close to the meat as I care to get. Fortunately, I haven't had any finger swelling, so I can get my rings off before I go mushing around in the raw meat. At the end of my first pregnancy, I had to quit wearing my rings because my hands were swelling. I was miserable going around with a seven-month pregnant belly and no wedding ring. I hate that feeling and hope I'll get to keep my rings on this time.

Painting

I painted more trim and my front door this afternoon. I hadn't meant to do the front door, but there was some leftover paint in the pan, and I hadn't masked the front door so it already had patches of paint around its edges. I'm very messy. The painting I did today looks like it will only take one coat since I painted white over white. When I did the first bit of trim, I painted white over cream, and it took two coats.

J and I went to playgroup at church this morning. Three out of the four of us who showed up are pregnant (one scheduled for an induction next week), and the fourth had her fifth child last December. Anyway, the conversation pretty much centered around pregnancy and childbirth.

Well, it's time for N to get off his school bus. I need to go wait for him. I'm not sure the driver will drop him off if he doesn't see and adult.

Tired

My husband's office person is back from vacation and my husband forgot to bring me work to do tonight so it's been an easier evening than most the past week. I still had a deposit to prepare, but that's done now.

I think Lost is on. My husband is watching it and did all last season. He says it's great. I wouldn't know. I was too busy working in the evenings last season to watch it. Now I still am at times, and I don't often have an entire hour in the evening to devote to TV. If I don't have work for his business to do, then I can usually find other stuff I've been putting off to get done.

I've ordered some customized Christmas cards from Current. They haven't arrived yet but have been shipped. Getting my Christmas cards done will take a lot of time (and money).

Yes, we haven't had Halloween and I'm getting worried about Christmas. My time would be better spent figuring out what my son will wear for Halloween. He loves a computer game called Nethack. It's sort of a dungeon and dragon game, but played with very primitive graphics. The monsters are letters of the alphabet, and the dungeon is made out of ascii characters. I think he plays it too much, but it is what has inspired him to learn to read. You have to type a lot of things (spelled correctly), and you need to be able to read what's going on at the top and bottom of the screen. I was thinking he might like to go as a wizard if I can find a costume. It's his favorite character to play in Nethack. Last year (and for the two years before) he went as Winnie-the-Pooh's honey pot. I don't think that costume will still fit.

Still raining

We still have rainy weather, but we sure aren't flooding. We got over three inches from the remains of Tropical Storm Tammy. It came slowly so it soaked right into our parched ground.

Saturday I was very sick (pregnancy). I couldn't even keep down my anti-nausea medicine. I called my doctor yesterday and got some more in a different form. Let's just say you can't throw it up in this form, and it goes where the sun doesn't shine. I've taken it in that form before, but it burns horribly so I much prefer the pills. I'll only use it when I'm certain I can't keep a pill down. If I had any on Saturday, I'd have used it.

My kids are at school. J has "Lunch Bunch" today and will be in school until 2 p.m. so I am meeting my friend from back in the days when I had a career. We'll have lunch together at Applebees.

Meanwhile, I started prepping my window frame in my living room to paint it. I took down the curtains. They were white, but they are dirty and covered in black cat fur. Fortunately they are machine washable. I rinsed the frame, but it needs to dry before I put up any masking tape. I also need to fill some holes in the wood. I guess I should also rinse off the front door's frame and the upstairs door's frame so I can mask them, too. Hopefully I can get everything set so I can paint the tomorrow if I can find the time. I may have to do it with my daughter around because her preschool is having a coffee in the morning for parents that I will probably attend. I'm planning to give a ride to the mom of the girl we're car pooling with since it's my week to drive. If I do that, I won't be able to duck out early.

It's raining!

We are getting significant rain today. My husband checked the rain gauge earlier this evening and we were at 1 1/2 inches. We certainly need it. Some of my plants will be okay. I think a few things are dead forever.

My kids are in their beds, but they are talking up a storm. Later this year we hope to move my son upstairs to a room of his own. First we need to get the junk out of the room, paint it, and get heating and cooling in the room. J will live with the baby in her room. When the baby gets older, whatever we have two of will share the downstairs room and whatever we have one of will get the upstairs room. Perhaps someday we will get an addition upstairs that will create one more bedroom. That would be ideal.

This weekend will be busy. K's office person is still out of time and I'll be trying to get the work done in the new software I don't understand, and I'll be trying to put together the monthly package for his corporate office. Meanwhile, K won't be home much because he'll need to spend most of his time at the rental, working on fixing up the unrented unit. I'm not sure how I'll get the work done without his being home to watch the kids. The new software makes me yell a lot, and that's not even with the kids bothering me.

I took J to the mall this morning to try to get her some jeans that fit. She's got longer legs and is skinnier than her brother at a similar age so a lot of his old pants just don't fit. Also, she refuses to wear sweatpants because she says (correctly in my opinion) that they are ugly. Anyway, we found only one pair that fit her almost perfectly. Unfortunately, it is a very pale pink, which I'm sure will be stained the first time she wears it. I may try doing what a friend suggested. When I have a pair that fits well, measure the waist and legs and look for one at the thrift store with similar measurements.

My cat is sitting on my lap, purring as I type. She's a tuxedo cat. She's much likelier to come and see me when the kids are in bed. I don't think she likes to spend much time with them. This morning they had her shut in their bedroom with them.

Just waiting around

I'm back from waiting for the bus to pick up my son for school. Now J and I are waiting around for the person to come who will clean our recliner where J peed on it about a month ago. I purchased some kind of a cleaning policy with it just because I thought the chances she'd piddle on the new furniture were pretty high.

Last night I entered my first three invoices in the new software my husband's company is being forced to use. It took me 1 1/2 hours to get them entered. Had I used the old software, I would have been done in 15. It is true that I'll go much faster once I actually learn how to use the new software (which will only come with practice), but with all the stuff that has to be done to enter things, I don't think I'll ever do better than 30 minutes for three invoices.

My husband's office person has gone on vacation for a the rest of this week and part of next week. I'll have a lot more data to enter each night. It will take me a very long time to get everything done. She's much better at the new software than I am, but neither one of us understands it yet.

I'm trying to request a few Caillou DVDs from our library for J. We have three requests. The oddest thing is that about half our our library's copies of these three DVDs are missing. That is unusual for so many copies of a DVD to be missing. I guess Caillou is a really hot item to steal, but it beats me as to why. Maybe they are just lost. Caillou is very whiny and annoying, but J likes him.

If the recliner gets cleaned in a timely fashion, we'll go to playgroup today. If not,we won't.

We've got a reasonable chance for some rain finally. It should mostly come tomorrow. It's been well over a month since we've had a good rain. September was our driest September on record. We beat our a record set in the 1800s. We're hoping to get moisture left over from Tropical Storm Tammy.

Quiet

I've got a little quiet time right now. My daughter fell asleep on the computer room floor. My son is still at school. J (daughter) had "Lunch Bunch" at preschool today. She stayed until two, had a brown-bag lunch, and then did extra activities. I think that's why she's so worn out that she fell asleep on the floor.

She came home very wet. She peed on herself twice. I asked her why she didn't tell her teachers. She said she was too scared. She was probably too lazy to use the toilet and then afraid of getting in trouble (she's been caught wetting on purpose and then laughing about it while at preschool). Sometimes she pees for revenge when she's angry. I'd hate to put her back in a pull-up, but if this continues, I may need to.

I got the trim around the huge opening between my living room and my dining room painted today. My husband had suggested getting a small paint roller for the trim. That was a great help. Then I spent the rest of the time alone on the phone with my husband's office person sorting out how the new software we are required to use works (not well so far). I had hoped to paint more trim tomorrow (such as around the window), but now it looks like I'll be spending my morning at the office. I also think I need another (bigger) can of paint if I am to get all the trim done. Someday, once I get the trim done, we can get the walls painted. My husband was going to, but now he's too busy getting our duplex painted and fixed. I'll have a long wait if I want my husband to do the walls.

My son has his first field trip tomorrow. They are going to a local park that has gardens, animals, and an indoor nature center. My daughter has her first special event at preschool. A city firetruck (with firemen) will come and show off their equipment. They have been learning about fire safety this week.

I guess my entry is done; my timer is going off. I have to go outside to wait for my son's bus.

Monday

It's Monday. Both my kids are at school. It's the first time I've had alone since last Wednesday when they were at school. I've spent my first hour trying to do general cleaning around the house. Right now my kitchen floor and both my bathroom floors are drying from having been mopped.

Thursday I had my screening for Downs Syndrome and a couple other genetic problems with this fetus. All seems well. Getting an amniocentisis is now off the table. That is a great relief.

I'm still wearing my regular clothes. In fact I even put on a belt Sunday because I thought what I was wearing would look better with one. My jeans are definately tightening up at the waist, though. This Friday will be the end of Week 13, which I think will put me into the second trimester. I'm on my third pregnancy and I still don't have that completely sorted out. I guess that's because it's really pretty irrelevant except that I'll be able to get a flu shot in the second trimester, and I'm in the high risk group because I'm pregant so I can get one before the rest of the people. I think flu shots are supposed to open up to the general public around October 24.

Last Thursday we also had closing on the duplex my husband got so we can begin being landlords. He spent most of the weekend at the place, trying to evaluate and fix the vacant apartment. It will be a lot of work and a while before we are ready to find a tenant.