Still no phone, Mama P, where's your blog?

My phone still isn't working. I'm hoping to get a call back on my cell phone from a guy at the phone company so I'll have some idea when it will be fixed. My cell phone spends a lot of time with a "No Service" message, so I don't know if he can reach me anyway, but I do have voice mail.

Mr. K is meeting an electrician at our rental house today. By this evening he's hoping to decide if the second unit in the duplex will be ready in time to put an ad in Sunday's paper for it. I don't want to put the ad in the paper if our phone won't be fixed by Monday morning. It will do us no good to have the line just ring busy, which is what I think people hear when they try to call us now.

J, K, N, and I went to playgroup this morning. We even played on the playground for a bit afterward. It's sort of hot and humid so that didn't last long.



Sarah, where is your blog? It's been a long time since I've been able to reach it, and I haven't seen any pictures of Harry Hoo Ha lately, and I don't know your e-mail address to ask you directly.

Phone out again

My phone is out again. I have no dial tone, but I have Internet connection. I reached the repair person, and my phone should get this afternoon or tomorrow morning. I don't need to remain home this time since they are pretty sure the problem is outside the house. Something wasn't right last time, and the repair guy told me it might go out if it rained (it's been raining for days) so he gave me his direct phone number so I wouldn't have to go through the phone maze torture to set up a repair time and then make sure I was home all day to wait for the repair.

I was at the YMCA this morning to excercise, and I'll be going back this afternoon unless it is thunderstorming so the kids can have their swimming lessons. Not a lot is happening today.

Tomorrow the kids and I are going to a friend of mine's house. She has a pair of twin girls whose ages are between N and J's. She also has a son who is about three. Unfortunately, when I saw her briefly at church Sunday to ask her if her outfit was still regular clothing or if she was wearing maternity clothing, she told me she had miscarried. I was stunned and very sorry I had asked. She was at least 13 or maybe 14 weeks pregnant. Last summer or early fall she miscarried at about six or seven weeks, which I think is a lot more normal. Anyway, I haven't seen her (except briefly at church Sunday) since June 8, when she visited us. At that time she was fine, pregnant, and starting to show (she's very skinny).

First day of summer

It was hot today. We got to about 92 °F at our house. Tomorrow will be even hotter. I spent most of the day inside. I did take K out for a walk around the yard once, but my foot hurt too much to do it more. I guess it's good that I'm not walking around so much. Maybe it will give it a chance to heal.

Tomorrow is playgroup if I can walk enough to carry K in her carseat. Then in the afternoon N and J have their second swimming lesson. They had their first yesterday, and they liked it. Unfortunately, they aren't in the same class even though neither one of them can swim. N is in a class for six- to eleven-year-olds, and J is in a class for three- to five-year-olds. J got very bored and behaved badly waiting for N's lesson to be done. N behaved very well waiting for J's lesson to end. K was bored, too, but it was so hot and humid she just fell into a stupor during the hour we waited for the kids to complete their lessons. I think next time I might get evening lessons in hopes Mr. K can watch K so I don't have to drag her along.

I guess I should get to bed to maximize my sleep opportunities.

Heel spurs

Well I saw a podiatrist for my heel spurs yesterday. It was extremely painful. I preferred my children leave the room before he injected my heels with cortisone, but they didn't want to and assured me they wouldn't care if I cried.

Well, I yelled. I yelled a lot as the needle and as the cortisone went in. I screamed very loudly.

I wimpered and moaned a lot giving birth, but I don't recall actually yelling (but I was very sedated with phenergan in the IV so I wouldn't have felt the pain as much, plus I had the epidural that didn't work very well).

Anyway, I could barely walk yesterday. After the injection the pain was all over one of my feet, including the arch. It wouldn't bear weight for a while. Poor Katie had to sit around hungry and poopy for a while because I couldn't get to her or carry her or get any food for her in the kitchen. N and J trashed the house with spilled pop or orange juice, and they fought a lot. I was able to get around a bit better after I iced my heels for a while.

Today I am much better (but still not completely recovered from the shots--I expect I'll be normal tomorrow, and hopefull the heel spurs will be better). I made it to the gym this morning, and I need to go back this afternoon to take N and J to swimming lessons.

I saw the X-rays of my feet. I have huge spurs on each heel. The doctor gave me some printed information about the spurs. This is what it says:

"X-rays often reveal a 'spur," but this is a result of the inflammation, NOT the source of discomfort. The heel spur is due to small tears in the plantar fascia with walking. The body heals these tears with fibrocartilage which calcifies. Therefore, it will appear as a spur on an X-ray."

Getting ready for company

K is getting baptized tomorrow afternoon. Mr. K's parents and one of his brothers (K's godfather) is coming tonight. One of his sisters was supposed to come and be the godmother, but last minute she had to cancel. Mr. K's mom will act as a proxy.

My family isn't coming at all. We aren't Catholic, and we don't believe in baptizing babies. This event has no meaning to us. I wonder if Mr. K's family thinks it's odd they don't come. I suppose they might if they lived closer, but both our families live about 700 miles away.

I decided to wear my wedding dress. It stops above my knees, it's off-white, and the only pair of pumps I own right now match it. It's out of style, but I wouldn't say it was ever in style. I outgrew all my shoes after I had J, and I bought this pair of pumps to wear with the dress I wore to J's baptism. I don't feel like wearing that dress again. This was much cheaper. All I had to buy was a pair of pantyhose since I don't seem to own any anymore. Then I'll have to get the dress dry-cleaned before I put it back in my closet to sit until who-knows-when. So far, I've worn it to my wedding and to church once on Easter. I guess I'll get my money's worth since I paid $50 for it new about ten years ago. You can probably tell that I seldom dress up.

N's reading over my shoulder so I'll stop here.

Playgroup, phone, carpet, etc.

I made it to playgroup today. I didn't think it would happen because I thought I'd spend the day waiting around to get the phone fixed.

The phone repairman arrived just after 8 a.m. and in a few minutes, determined that the problem was outside of my house. He arranged to have a crew come and fix it, but since it wasn't in my home, I didn't need to be here. When I got back from playgroup, I had a couple messages on my answering machine so I knew the phone was working again.

Right now I'm waiting for the carpet cleaner people. I've arranged to get my bedroom carpet cleaned before this weekend when Mr. K's family is coming for K's baptism. They gave me a two-hour window for their arrival, which I find perfectly reasonable. The phone company had given me a 10-hour window for their arrival.

N will be home from school soon. He's out two hours early for the final three days of school. Tomorrow is his last day of kindergarten. It seems like he was a red, grumpy, screaming baby so recently.

Kate at two months

Kate
Originally uploaded by greycharleigh.

I've got this picture as my computer's wallpaper right now. She sort of looks like she's straining a bit. Perhaps she was filling her diaper.

More Kiwis

Kiwi2
Originally uploaded by greycharleigh.

This is a closer-up shot of my hardy kiwis.

Hardy kiwi

Kiwi1
Originally uploaded by greycharleigh.

Here is a picture of a cluster of hardy kiwis on my kiwi vine. They're not the same as the kind at the store, but from what I've read, the taste should be similiar. These are supposed to reach the size of a large grape and then take a long time ripening at that size. Then they can be eaten, skin and all.

No phone

I tried to make a phone call yesterday only to find no dial tone. I tried plugging a phone into our outdoor box--still no dial tone. I called on my cell phone to get the phone fixed. I never talked to a real person, but someone is suppposed to fix it tomorrow between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. I need to remain home until they've fixed the phone.

Fortunately I had my cell phone's password reset a couple weeks ago. I forgot what it was about three years ago, right after I got the phone. I don't use the phone much so I didn't care. I'm not even positive how to answer the darned thing, but I have a pretty good guess.

I've unplugged all the phones, let them sit a while, and tried again. Still no dial tone. The very strange thing is that I have Internet connection, even though it's DSL through the phone jack.

None

J has a friend over to play with right now. They are both dressed up as Disney princesses. So far they seem to play better and fight less than J does with N.

As always, I'm tired. I probably have a month or two left of this getting up in the night. I can't wait. Lately I've noticed K is lifting up her legs and rolling onto her side. She's trying to roll over but can't yet. I'm not sure how long between when they start trying and when they have a success, but I'm guessing it's a long time because N didn't roll over until about five months old, and J was about four months old. K will be two months old tomorrow. I have learned from experience that early mobility leads to early getting into stuff--not necessarily good. No point in rushing the crawling/walking thing.

N is having field day at his school today. I had to coat him in sunscreen before he left for school. I'm having J's friend over so her mom can go help at field day. She has a son in N's class.

I need a haircut. Hopefully I'll get one this weekend. The following weekend K will be baptized, and people will be taking a lot of pictures. I prefer my hair to be less ragged. The chances are good a picture will end up in the family calendar, and I'll have to look at it for an entire month.

Getting old

I've been driving for 20 years this month. My license arrived in the mail 20 years ago in June while I was working at a summer camp. I had to pick it up between sessions of camp.

My neighbor, the one who always has a beer and cigarette in hand, said he lost his driver's license in 1984, so he's been not driving longer than I've been driving.

Wednesday I went to the YMCA and got the family membership. Friday I had someone there show me how to run some of the fitness equipment. We pretty much had to put everything on its easiest setting since I'm such a wimp and because I haven't been using many muscles for a long, long time since any exertion was setting off contractions when I was pregnant. If I am ambitious, that will change. I'm the last person in the world I would expect to see in a gym. I do not like using working out (never done it and don't want to start), but I can't walk for excercise yet because of the heel spurs, so I need to do something. Also there is an even better reason. I got the most expensive membership, the family membership, so that for two hours a day, if I go during the times the child care is available (mornings and evenings), they have free child care (comes with the family membership) for all the children I have. So I can devote half an hour to riding the bike and using the other machines or swimming if I feel like it, and then spend an hour and a half resting, reading, or writing in a chair in the lounge area while someone else entertains the kids.

I had to buy some kind of membership anyway because I want to get N and J swimming lessons later this month. With the offer of child care and my need for excercise that won't hurt my heels, I decided to go with the most expensive type of membership. Now I just need to use it.

Also, I was happy to see that most of the bikes, the walking-machine things, and the treadmill all have little TVs with cable TV. All I have to do is bring headphones and they will work. Right now I think the bike is the only thing that isn't going to hurt my heels. I used it and the walking-machine thing (I've no idea what the machines are called) Friday and my heels are hurting extra today. I doubt it was the bike.

Wednesday I go off the Voltaren (anti-inflamatory for my heels), and I'm hoping I won't get all crippled up again so I hobble in agony. Right now I walk with some pain, but I don't dread going to the store because it hurts to much to even walk from the car to the entrance. June 19 I see the podiatrist, and I'm hoping he'll be able to fix everything. I miss walking for pleasure.

Hurricane Season Begins Today

Gaston
Originally uploaded by greycharleigh.

This is a picture of the road near my house during Tropical Storm Gaston in August of 2004. Earlier in the day, the fire department rescued the driver of the car in the picture, and he was fine. A lot of places around town suffered damage from Gaston's flooding. Fortunately, we didn't at our house. Flowing water (not part of the creek show in this picture) got as close as about three feet from our deck, but in never reached our home.

The previous September, we had no power for six days because of Hurricane Isabel (it was actually a tropical storm when it got here).

Last year we didn't have any serious problems from hurricanes or tropical storms here. I'm not sure if that means this year we are due.

As a midwesterner who had never experienced hurricanes or tropical storms until moving to Virginia, let me say that they scare me to death even though we're quite a ways from the coast.

After Isabel, we were cooked out on the charcoal grill a lot for a few days after the storm to prevent wasting everything in freezer. We had steak every day for a couple days. Then we had to dump the rest of the contents of the freezer and refrigerator. We ate out sometimes, and I heated soup in a sterno-powered fondue pot. Now I own a propane-fueled Coleman stove (a camping stove).

For a little while, we lost water pressure (the pumps around the city lost power). Then we had to boil the water for a few days before drinking it (kind of hard with limited fuel sources). Fortunately we had bottled water. I have some now, but I need to stock up on more.

I love summer and vegetable gardens and flowers, but I HATE hurricane season.