The Queen's Rambles

*So let me get this straight. The LJ servers are in Russia. The Russian government doesn’t like the Russian people using LJ because it gives them freedom of speech. The Russian government is coordinating these attacks that cause LJ to go down. Is that right? Or am I reading things totally wrong?

*I just had a crying meltdown in a quilting store. It was lovely, as you can imagine.

I hate that I cry when I get mad. It is such a stupid reaction because it doesn’t get me what I want and it’s embarassing.

I never go to the quilt store (Capital Quilts) because they are always rude and it’s expensive. I don’t need fabric. However, I had a punch card that only had $1 left. Once I spent that $1, the punch card would turn into a $26 gift certificate. I want some more fabrics for my Harry Potter Project of Doom quilt, so I thought this would be a fun way to get some fabric.

I picked out a bunch of fat quarters and had a few fabrics cut. I also picked out some scrap bags, which are pretty neat. They are scraps left over from sample projects and classes, which is perfect for a scrap quilter like me.

When I walked in, no one greeted me. They greeted every other person who walked in the door. When they saw I was carrying around a bunch of bolts of fabric no one offered to assist. They were running after other people to assist them when they had gathered up a few bolts of fabric. I have found this to be typical in this store. I don’t have enough gray in my hair, I guess.

I got up to the counter, presented my cards and asked how to best do it so I could use my credit.

“We stopped using that system in March.”

I just stood there, jaw dropped.

“So these are just worthless, then?” I asked, disbelieving.

“Yes, we don’t take those.”

I went back and forth a few minutes and the woman was completely unapologetic and rude about it. Now, I know they never OWED me the credit since it was their own promotion, however, she could at least have apologized for the misunderstanding or been nice or SOMETHING.

In the end I threw down all the fat quarters and told her I hated her store. Every time I’ve tried to use the card in the past they’ve told me I can’t use it because it was a sale weekend (do they ever NOT have a sale weekend?) I had to buy the cut fabric, so I did, but I was throwing things out of my wallet, throwing things into the bag, I told her I hated her store because it always has piss poor customer service and I stomped out of there with tears streaming down my face.

I know I shouldn’t have been so immature, but I had a big plan in my head and it was thwarted. Totally thwarted. If she would have been nice about it I would have bought all the fabric anyway (there were some awesome fat quarters in my pile!), but I am not going to give my money to people who are so damned rude all the time.

I want to support brick and mortar quilt stores, but I think I’m doomed to shop online. I will never go there again. The huge, fancy, wonderful G-Street Fabrics had to move to a new location and they have next to nothing. I have a bigger stash than they do. Patches Quilting in Mt. Airy pissed me off when the owner got mad at Erik for chasing her dog around the store. I will never go back there. I want to have a pleasant shopping experience, not constantly reprimand my toddler for chasing a dog in a STORE.

I guess I’m going to have to check out the two quilting stores up in Frederick.

*Another day of Summer Camp? Sure, why not.

Day 30 – What is/are the most memorable questions or reactions you’ve gotten in regards to being a blogger?

I never tell anyone I’m a blogger, so I’ve never had any one react to it. I did have a psycho bitch from my playgroup find my blog and start stalking me. She e-mailed the link to everyone and let them all read everything I wrote about them. Stupid, stupid, stupid on my part. I was kicked out of the club. My life has been better for it. They were not kindred spirits at all, but at the time it caused a lot of drama.

I suppose the biggest surprise was having a girl I went to college with find my blog and read it, unbeknownst to me. She loved it and we are Facebook friends even though we didn’t really socialize in school.

*Erik learned a tough lesson this week: neither a borrower nor lender be. It’s a motto I live by, but he is young and naive.

He had an old bike that was pretty rusty and was way, way too small for him. Before we left on our trip he said he was going to give it to the hooligans down the street. That was fine with me. I was happy to get rid of it.

I guess he decided they could only borrow it until he got back, though I didn’t hear that part of the deal or I would have made it clear that he could give it away or keep it, not lend it out.

Of course when he got back the kids no longer had the bike. Then they found the bike, but the training wheels and handle bar had been removed. Erik is in a tizzy about the whole thing, but I’ve told him that’s too bad. I hope he is getting the idea that we don’t lend things out.

I do not understand how these kids manage to destroy things within minutes of receiving them. Though rusty, the bike should have worked for the youngest for a long time. Erik rode it maybe three times in his life. Lots of people in the neighborhood give these kids old bikes, scooters and so forth. They can’t keep them decent for 12 hours. What do they do????? I don’t know. You’d think they would treat these items better since they are harder to come by, but I guess not. Those poor kids have a long, hard life ahead of them.

*Baby is awake, so I guess this entry is done.

I got the pictures off Mike’s cell phone! Mainly, I was just being really oblivious. I didn’t realize you could push the abc thing and make letters instead of numbers. I never use a cell phone. I used to laugh at old fogies who couldn’t figure out their e-mail or how to sign into a website. I fear I have become an old fogey. I must admit I really liked texting while we were on our trip. It was a super simple way to communicate. Maybe it’s a good thing my cell phone has died a watery death.

So anyway, the pictures suck as you can see, but at least they will jar my memory of my goofy kid being the star of a show. I’ve always said the kid has star quality (including the sullen pout when things don’t go exactly his way).

How about another bloggy summer camp day? Day 29 – If you could live anywhere for one month this summer, where would it be and why? Would you ever unplug from the internet for a month or longer to go on such a trip?

At the moment, I’d say Vancouver. I’m assuming I have a bottomless wallet on this trip. I’m also assuming I can invite a few friends along. I loved Vancouver. It was so beautiful and it was so nice to get away from the heat. I would want to do a trip down to Astoria for a few days in that month. I loved Astoria in the summer. It’s such a quirky little town, full of stories. It’s beautiful, too, when it’s not raining.

Would I unplug from the internet for a month? Hell no! I suppose I would if that was a condition of my bottomless wallet, but otherwise I see no need to do away with the internet. I most certainly will not be camping.

Erik and I used to go spend 3 weeks in Oregon in July, but that was not stress free. It was nice to get away from the heat and it was nice to see family, but three weeks is way too much. Also, I pretty much hate my hometown. It’s ugly, boring, and filled with alcohol fueled violence. Not a place I would visit if I didn’t have a good reason.

New topic:

Guess what I did today! I made Eggs Benedict!

I thought it would be really hard to poach eggs and make hollandaise sauce, but they were both super easy. I used the blender method on the sauce and it turned out great, except it was a little bland. I think I forgot the salt.

The poached eggs were super simple. SUPER simple. How did I not know about poached eggs before this trip?

Oh yes. I know. My mother is a terrible cook who only eats over-cooked everything.

She kept four spices in her cupboards: salt, pepper, cinnamon and meat tenderizer. I always thought I hated steak, but it turns out I love steak. I just prefer it to be marinaded in SOMETHING for awhile and cooked medium rare. She would just throw on some meat tenderizer, then cook it till it was burnt through.

Eggs were the same: very well done.

Apparently I like things mainly raw.

I’ll never forget the first time I ate normal spaghetti and realized what I’d been missing out on my whole childhood. My mom’s version of spaghetti: Boil noodles. Cook hamburger meat with salt and pepper. Add a jar of straight tomato sauce (not pasta sauce, just unflavored tomato sauce) to the meat. Stir in some sugar. Pour over noodles. Serve with grated cheddar cheese and lettuce.

Is it any wonder I had no freakin’ clue how to cook and was a very picky eater? I was never given any food worth eating.

So poached eggs. Yes. Gimmegimmegimme.

Thank goodness for the Naked Chef and his ubiquitous prescence on Swedish television during my years over there. He taught me about basil, garlic, oregeno, flavor.

The most difficult part of my breakfast? Figuring out how to make hashbrowns. I bought frozen ones and just wasn’t sure how to cook them. Doh! I am not much of a potato person.

New topic:

We are supposed to go swimming today at the big community pool. It is so neat there, but it is way too scary to take the two kids on my own. Erik has had swimming lessons but is not confident in the water. Elsa is a water baby through and through and scares the crap out of me. She enjoys sticking her whole head under water at any given opportunity so I can’t count on her to be cautious. She kept trying to jump into any water source she could find in Vancouver, which was not good given our proximity to the Pacific Ocean.

Today is Mike’s last vacation day before the weekend (no way will I go there on a weekend) so it’s really our last chance. If only everyone would cooperate, we could be on our way. However, Elsa is still down for a nap and I am still waiting for a craigslist buyer to come get some diapers. She said she would come over after an appointment at 11. It is now 2:22. Where the heck is she? I don’t want to miss her because I need these diapers gone and she was the only one who bit. I suppose I could re-list them, but I get so tired of selling stuff. Ugh. I have a whole other batch of diapers (Blueberries and a Happy Heiney) I need to prep for selling and have been putting it off. It is actually easy to sell them on craigslist, but I am just lazy I suppose. So far nothing bad has happened with any of my craigslist selling, but every time I think of it I get tired just from the potential of running into crazy people. I ran into plenty of crazy people when I was selling through online means and I think it has scarred me for life.

Wait wait wait. . . at least Elsa is asleep so I don’t have to be too irked with this diaper lady.

First, how about some more Summer Camp?

Day 28 – What size family do you come from, what size family do you want, and why?

Super easy question–not a single thing to ramble about here.

We had an absent father, a mother and two daughters in our immediate family. We also had a very involved grandmother and no other grandparents.

I am totally fine with my family of four. I suppose it’s because that’s what I’m used to. I have my boy and my girl and I am oooooold and hate pregnancy, so no more babies for me.

Now a well child report:

Elsa finally had her 15 month check-up yesterday after many delays. The good news is: she’s well! Her iron levels are almost up to normal, her lyme is under control, she doesn’t currently have any issues, she’s developing well. All good things. She weighed in at 27 pounds and measured 31.5 inches. She is no longer off the charts. She’s hovering around the 98th percentile. The doctor was very happy to see that her weight has basically flat lined.

She is such a darling little girl. My very favorite thing is seeing her peek around me or whatever is in her way to get a better look at something. The curiosity just shines from her eyes. She is showing quite a temper when things don’t go her way, but in general she is happy and easy to manage. I am totally ready to wean her because she’s talking the nursing acrobatics to all new heights. This afternoon she was nursing with her butt in my face and her feet thrown over my shoulder. My nipples are in serious need of lanolin but I have no idea where I put it.

She did take cow’s milk once, but has refused it since then. Bah.

I really need to take a lot more pictures of her (and her brother). Though this stage is exhausting, she’s just so adorable that I never want it to end. She is big on the copying big people thing, which melts me every time I see her try to shampoo her hair or sit up at the big table and use a fork.

Ok. Enough goopiness.

I need someone to tell me how to e-mail a picture from a Verizon phone. I can figure out how to send a picture message to another phone, but I have no idea how to actually get the picture to me in a usable form.

While we were in Vancouver most of our group watched an IMAX movie at Science World, but that didn’t thrill Erik. Instead, he wanted a snack. The snack bar was across from a stage where a show was going on, so we sat in a place we could see and Erik was immediately sucked in. The scientist was doing a version of the shell game, only with water in non-see through glasses. Have I ever told you about Erik’s love obsession with the shell game? He’s a born gambler, that boy.

Erik quickly forgot about his French fries and ended up in the front row of this show. As a new glass was produced and the water poured into it, Erik got more and more excited. He was easily the most excited person in the audience and was yelling out at every interactive opportunity.

The scientist clearly took notice of Erik because when it came time for volunteers from the audience, the guy carefully worked it so that Erik was number 5 out of 6. This became very important later.

There were six glasses. Glass number 6 was full of water. Each glass would be dumped over the top of a child’s head to prove it was empty.

Erik couldn’t contain himself and kept telling Girl 6 that she was going to get water on her head. He also taught her how to scooch out of the way so she’d stay dry.

Surprise! The scientist played a trick on Erik and had Girl 6 get glass 5, which left Erik with the glass full of water. Erik and the scientist then had a lengthy conversation about this last glass of water getting dumped over Erik’s head and what he should do about it. The scientist had a plan with a raincoat and rain hat, but Erik didn’t feel that was necessary since he would just scooch out of the way.

Erik had the whole audience in stitches, even though he wasn’t trying to be funny. He was quite serious about this whole thing.

And damned, if Mike didn’t have the camera. I just had the cell phone.

Of course, the glass was over-turned and no water came out. Erik’s disbelief was total and complete, causing more hilarity from the audience. I have never claimed my son was shy.

It turned out the glass had been filled with the stuff that disposable diapers are made of. I guess the whole production about going down the line and threatening to dump water over the heads was so the water would have time to get totally absorbed.

The whole thing was fantastic and I need my pictures!

I guess I better go to bed now. We are totally off schedule with bed times thanks to a few days on the west coast. Getting up at 9:30 is wonderful, but not very practical. I have things to do, places to go, people to see! I’m pouting because Mike is only home from vacation for 3 more days, then I’ll be on complete kid duty for four weeks straight. No camp. Send help, please!

We’ve been home about 48 hours, but this is the first chance I’ve had to sit down and write. We had an absolutely amazing time in Vancouver, though I don’t recommend traveling with a toddler. Actually, the travel wasn’t bad at all. It was the “enjoying time in the city with friends” that she wasn’t so keen on. Most meals were less than enjoyable, with one of us ferrying her in and out of the restaurant.

But Vancouver! Amazing! Beautiful! Scenic! Breezy and sunny and wonderful! And holy hell on a stick expensive! I thought we lived in a high priced market, but we have nothing on Vancouver.

We mostly did nature loving activities like Grouse Mountain, this ski resort place reached via SkyTram and Stanley Park, a big park in the city right on the water. We also walked around the city (and from one end of the island to the other. My feet hurt), rode boats, buses and skytrains, visited farmer’s markets and artisan stalls. We even went to a Caribbean festival and had the best Carne Asada I’ve ever tasted.

Erik was a very good boy for a five year old who was not the center of attention for several days in a row. Not to say he was perfect. He can annoy the heck out of anyone with his constant need to be Right. On. Top. Of. You. He found a friend in Rob, Julie’s teenage son. Erik decided that he was Short Round and Rob was Indiana Jones. The rest of us were bad guys. I think Rob mostly enjoyed having a side kick. I know I enjoyed Erik having a side kick.

At one point Erik was playing in the snow and basically making a nuisance of himself with snowballs so I decided to teach him a life lesson. I threw him in the snow pile and poured a handful of snow down his back.

He totally freaked out and was very sad and angry. I believe he threatened to knock my head off. I guess the snow was pretty sharp. Whoops.

What else did we do? We ate a lot. The best meal was an Indian meal recommended by a hotel employee. It was within walking distance, so bonus! I believe it was called India Bistro.

We had some excitement after dinner. We were getting some snacks at a drugstore for the trip home. We were all standing around in the parking lot when I noticed an older lady on her hands and knees. I thought maybe she lost a contact, so I asked her if she needed help. She nodded yes. I went over there and she started having a seizure.

Thankfully Ingrid is much better in emergencies than I am. She knew what questions to ask and how to help the woman, while I just flapped my arms around. A man came up and called 911 and we waited for the paramedics to arrive. It took them a good, long 5 minutes. I hope the lady was ok in the end. We left and didn’t find out. It was pretty crazy.

We were so shook up that we totally missed a spot I was dying to try–The Dessert Heaven. We had to backtrack and found it. It was Transylvanian desserts. Honestly, I was not at all impressed. The girl working the counter was quite dour (she must not have been a real Canadian. They were all so friendly!) and the dessert had an odd taste to it. But now I can say I’ve had Transylvanian cake.

Oh, and how can I forget Erik’s other favorite activity?

“

Plenty more pics at Flickr. I may write more later if I think of anything exciting to say. What else is there to say? We had fun!

We’re going on vacation tomorrow, so no more bloggy summer camp until I get back. I have had a hard time keeping up, obviously.

As a side note to yesterday’s entry about college, I have to mention chapel (mainly because Heather brought it up). We were required to attend chapel two times a week my first three years. They had this crazy attendance system with cards and people standing in doorways. My senior year they added another chapel day, but it was a small group chapel, so you had to go sit around with 10 people you didn’t know, plus a faculty member and bare your soul. It was just about as awful as it sounds. Sometimes we had required evening chapels as well.

Though the school was very conservative, there was one speaker who was even too much for our student body. I don’t remember what he was preaching about, but he was a very special speaker that the school had engaged for a whole week. The first day over half the student body walked out. Most of us used up all our abscences skipping his week, though in the end I think we were all excused because we complained about having to listen to him. I can’t remember what he was talking about, but it must have been pretty bad if he could crack through our thick shells.

We also had several required religion classes, of course.

I worked for the chemistry professor. He also taught Science for Religion Majors, so I spent a week re-typing his self-written text book. It was pretty interesting. He taught the day-age theory and divine guided evolution. He was also quick to say that the Bible was not meant to be a science text book.

Ok, I need to go finish packing. We`have to get up at 5:30 am.

Here’s a repost from FB about Elsa for those who didn’t see it there:

Elsa finished her round of antibiotics last Monday. By Friday she was feverish and in pain. There was no way to know if it was related to the Lyme or a whole new set of problems, so I went to the doctor to hope someone smart could tell me.

The doctor didn’t know either, but prescribed 10 more days of antibiotics. She also told me to be on the look out for meningitis, which freaked me out.

Over the weekend, it became obvious that Elsa just had a cold. Erik also had a fever for a few hours and complained of a sore throat. Elsa ended up with a cough. Her gag reflex is very well developed and when she would cough hard she would throw up. We had a great few nights, as you can imagine.

She was supposed to have a well child check on Monday, so we went in. They ended up not doing any of the well child things. Instead, they swabbed her throat for strep, took a urine sample, and debated doing a chest x-ray. She also had blood work done to confirm the Lyme at the request of the infectious disease specialist.

We met with a pediatric infectious disease specialist this afternoon. The results show that Elsa definitely had Lyme, but we caught it very early. A big thank you to my FB family for encouraging me to take her in!

The doctor really set our mind at ease. She believes Elsa just has a cold and not the lingering effects of Lyme. She says the treatment for Lyme is 100% effective and we don’t need to worry about meningitis or anything else. Good news! And we can stop this second round of antibiotics.

However. The doctor had one last thought before we left and wanted to confirm we had been given the right concentration of antibiotics.

It turns out our original amox prescription was for 250 mg/5 ml. This is too low for Lyme. She needed to have it at 400 mg/5 ml.

That means we have to start all over again. Fourteen more days of antibiotics. Which is fine and all since she is taking them well and we want to be sure. It just sucks because we thought we were not going to have to take them on our trip.

In good news, though, the doctor says this is strictly a precaution and she does not believe we have any reason to be worried about any progressive symptoms of Lyme so she wants us to be calm and happy and enjoy our vacation.

Maybe I just need to become a germ-o-phobe and start slathering Elsa with Purell every few minutes. The kid catches everything that comes our way. I’m sure if she would eat more and a better variety it would help.

I have 18% battery life, which means this will be short. I’ve never tried to write an entry at karate before. Usually I am chasing a toddler around, which is not conducive to happy little journal writing. Actually, lately I’ve been running home, sitting there for 20 minutes and running back to karate. When the weather is nicer I spend the time walking around the shopping complex.
Mike is on vacation for two weeks, but so far he is probably wishing he could be back at work. Elsa is a mess. Last night she had a gigantic fart, then was happy and free. Except? She started coughing. And when she would cough a lot, she would projectile vomit all over us. At least we figured out the sound she was making right before the vomit came, so we were mainly able to contain it in the bathroom instead of our bed. Still, sleep? Who got any? Erik, I suppose.
Who is the grouchiest person alive when they don’t get sleep? That would be me. I was going to try really, really, really hard to be a nice, happy, chipper wife and mother this afternoon. Then Mike snuck up behind me and smacked his lips in my ear. I had a little meltdown, complete with crying. Mommy needs a nap.
We’re going to Vancouver later this week, which means we figured out we better be smart and check the weather. Sunscreen and bathing suits won’t be necessary. I need to get fall clothes and raincoats for the kids. Yikes!
I was upset when I was in Kohl’s this weekend and they were almost out of summer stuff, but I was happy today when I needed fall stuff.
Except? The colors for girls this fall?
Oh. My. God.
So ugly and garish, I couldn’t bring myself to buy much of anything. Who loves poison green and orange? Ugh. Not me. I did find her a few things, but it was disappointing.
Of course they didn’t’ have rain coats at this time of year so I had to stop in the consignment shop and see if they had anything. I found a weird little hoodless poncho for Erik and an extremely cute lavender raincoat for Elsa. I looked around at their other clothes and will never understand how they price their clothes. There were a couple of things that still had the tags from the original store. The consignment store prices were higher. Ugh. I only ever buy toys there, generally. It’s worth the price to buy something that’s already assembled.
So summer camp! I am so far off, but I want to write about my college days.
College was a good time for me, even though I would never want to go back and do it again. I went to a very small, conservative Christian college in Oklahoma. I was really scared of the whole college admissions process and set my sights very, very low when I was in high school. I was one of the few really smart people at this college so I got a pretty good deal on tuition. It also turned out to be an excellent teacher school, not that I knew I wanted to be a teacher. When I took masters classes in Oregon later I was really irked because the classes I took as part of undergrad were exactly the same, if not more difficult.
Anyway, there were only 500 students enrolled with about 250 on campus so everyone knew everyone. I was part of yearbook, including editor for 2 years, so I really had an excuse to be up in everyone’s business. I was also part of the spiritual life committee and secretary of our church’s college ministry club. I even went out to the nursing home most Sundays and led singing. If you’ve heard me sing, you’d know just how desperate they were.
I was a student leader and always helped with freshman orientation. I was not popular or pretty, but I had friends and I had my niche. I enjoyed it.

My only problem was my freshman roommate. She was a nightmare. Bossy, pushy, mean, devious. You name it. She would wear my clothes without permission. She tried to control me at every opportunity—a big mistake on her part since I have always been fiercely independent. When I was done with her I was d-o-n-e. After our sophomore year I literally never spoke another word to her. I’m not proud of it, but I was a master at ignoring people.
As a Christian college, we had lots of rules that most colleges don’t have. We were pretty liberal because we were allowed to wear shorts and males and females did not have to have chaperones when they were together. We were not allowed to dance at all, or drink and smoke. We had a curfew. All those rules were just fine with me and I never had a reason to break any of them.
This was the first time I had experience with really fundamentalist Christians. My church in Oregon was very West Coast. Oklahoma was a whole different story. Most of the students were from the Bible belt and had some notions that I considered crazy. They weren’t allowed to go to the movies (but they could rent movies) and they weren’t allowed to talk about aliens (I loved telling them that if God was all powerful he could easily create aliens, which sent them in a tizzy about my heathen ways). There was a lot of hypocrisy which really started to bother me when I realized what was happening.

Pregnant couples who had the right last name or right connections were quickly married off in a nice little ceremony. Pregnant couples who weren’t “Christian enough” were immediately kicked out of school. There was a lot of judgment on any one who didn’t go to the “right” church or who acted a little different. There was tons of hatred towards gays and lesbians, of course. Two girls were basically run out of school because someone decided they were lesbians. The hatred toward Democrats, Catholics, Mormons, Baptists, girls with short hair, girls who didn’t wear make-up and basically any group that believed “Other” was sickening. At the time I didn’t realize just how sickening, but I surely did realize that these people were extremists. They made the transition to atheist later in life very easy.
And now I have to wrap this up, because there’s a screaming baby (I ran out of battery juice at karate) and I am going to go see HP7p2 in about an hour. I have been ordered to have fun. I’m just worried about staying awake.

I really intended to do my blogging summer camp every day, but things are conspiring against me. I want to tell you about my college days! I was such a different person back then, yet exactly the same. Is that even possible?

Maybe later.

Right now you are getting an Elsa update because I know you are all sitting around wondering just what’s wrong with her this time. Poor baby.

She started puking Saturday night and we had a long, long night of a hot, pukey baby. I didn’t know if I should take her to the ER for meningitis or not, but her symptoms were not what the doctor had described to me. A baby spinal tap is not a good thing at any time, but especially at 3 am. Of course, I would have regretted it forever if I had been wrong. With Erik being sick, it didn’t seem likely. The horse is more likely than the zebra, right?

She’s been feverish since then, so at her well child check today they totally scrapped the well child part and decided to figure out what’s wrong with her. It was a complete nightmare.

First, we had a blood draw at a lab. They should also check for iron, so at least that is out of the way.

Then they swabbed her throat and collected a urine sample. If she continues to be feverish, they want to take a chest x-ray before we leave for our trip.

I thought she was feeling a lot better today. She hasn’t had a fever, so I thought we would have a good night.

But guess what!

She has gas!

Oh my god, does she have gas. I’ve given her plenty of drops, but she keeps rolling around, crying, coughing, farting. I am pretty sure it’s gas. But what if it’s meningitis and the farts aren’t the problem?

Parenting sure is fun.

At least Erik is doing well. He was really unhappy with me because I made him go shopping with me this afternoon, but he got over his dismay and was a pleasant companion. We looked up the weather for Vancouver and realized we are all going to need some clothes for a much cooler climate. I have no idea what size pants to get him, so I took him with me and we found some for him. We went to Kohl’s yesterday to get Elsa some new summer stuff since she has outgrown everything, but they had already switched over to their fall collection. I expected the rest of the stores to be like that, but I had a heck of a time finding any fall appropriate clothes at JCP. They had exactly ONE hoodie thing and it was $50. I don’t think so. We ran to Macy’s and found something a little better.

Why did we have to run? Because I was scheduled to hand out lunches to homeless people.

Other moms had already made the lunches, so there was just one other mom with a two year old and newborn and then me and Erik handing them out. We only gave out 26 lunches in an hour, so we didn’t even need two people but it was nice to have someone there. Twenty-five of the people were just fine. They took their lunch, said thank-you, wished us a nice day and left. There was one guy who stuck around and ate his meal on a bench outside the kitchen. That was fine, of course. But then he came back to the window and wanted another one, which we had been instructed several times not to do. Then he wanted to know the time they were opened on Saturday and Sunday. They aren’t open those days, so I told him. He wanted to argue with me, then he wanted another lunch, then he wanted to know when the hot lunch program at a different church starts back up again. I didn’t have that information, but he kept asking and asking. I was pleasant and friendly, but it was getting a little scary. As soon as he left the little window, we looked at the kitchen door and figured out how to lock ourselves in. He didn’t come back and cause any trouble, but you just never know.

Ok, we need to figure out what we are going to do with this sick baby. I think we are in for another long night. It’s really going to suck. Mike is on vacation this week, at least. Tomorrow he and Erik are supposed to go to Baltimore and have a pirate adventure. I hope he remembers to take some pictures.

You have never seen a mother celebrate a child’s fever the way I was celebrating Erik’s fever last night. Doesn’t that sound so wrong?

He was laying on the couch a few minutes before his bedtime, begging to go to bed. That set off the alarm bells. I felt him and he was pretty hot.

I’m hoping that means Miss Elsa just had a little virus too and yesterday’s fiasco was just over-protective paranoia. But if I have the over-protective paranoia, so did the doctor. We both said we hoped it was nothing but we needed to treat it as if it was something.

Erik is just fine today and Elsa seems to be feeling much better as well. We will still go to our appointment with the infectious disease doctor on Wednesday. Our doctor was very clear: do not miss that appointment no matter what. Even if Elsa seems to be better, you never know with Lyme. They may sign her up for some long term studies or something. It can only be good to have contact with them (it is through Children’s National hospital.

We don’t want anything to happen to this sweet baby:

I need to learn how to have better fine motor skills so I can figure out how to do something with that hair.

By the way, I want you to know that I am now offering a weather and labor service. If you need the therometer to stay below 80 or you need to go into labor, just let me know. We’ll schedule a splash park playdate and one or the other will be guaranteed to happen. Or someone will die, or someone will need an emergency medical appointment, or several of these things will happen at once.

Seriously.

I’ve had EIGHT splash park playdates scheduled this year with various friends and groups. EIGHT. All of the above have happened, causing the date to be cancelled. Yesterday it didn’t hit 80 and Elsa had an emergency ped visit, but I said “GOSH DARNIT WE ARE GOING.” So we went. And it was cold. And Elsa was cranky. And I felt like the worst mother in the world.

But they had fun for about an hour before it all came crashing down.

I would have liked to get a better picture, but the girl unexpectedly ran into the giant water maze so I had to pass the camera off to my friend who wasn’t getting wet (she has a newborn. See above: labor.) I was pretty shocked that the maze didn’t scare her. Even Erik didn’t like it when he was her age until he got used to it. She is much more of a water baby than he ever was, but she doesn’t get nearly as many chances to go swimming. I am too scared to take both of them to the pool by myself (not that we have a handy pool–we could pay to go to the community pool, but it is not like when we lived in our apartment with the pool at the foot of our stairs).

Just the word will strike fear in any parent’s heart: meningitis.

No, we don’t have anyone here with meningitis, thank God. But we are supposed to be on the lookout for the symptoms and take Elsa to the ER immediately if she displays any of the symptoms.

Yes, this mommy is freaking right out.

So what happened?

The stupid Lyme disease.

From everything I’ve read, I thought two weeks was an awfully short time for a course of antibiotics for Lyme disease, but it also seemed like the standard first step.

Today Elsa woke up with a fever, she was really tried and cranky, she was crying like she was in pain. I tried to convince myself it was just a virus, but then I noticed the spot by her tick bite was really red.

I called the doctor and had her in for a visit less than two hours later.

The doctor is also hoping it is just a virus, especially because the redness around the tick bite was gone. However, she says we can’t be too safe and I totally agree. We are doing another round of antibiotics (anyone have tips for traveling by air with liquid medication that needs to be kept cold?) and taking her in for a blood test. Then we have an appointment with a specialist in infectious disease. It’s a good thing we live where we live because we know we will be getting the best possible care. The appointment is actually in Frederick, so just a half hour drive from us.

Before we left, the doctor pulled me aside and told me she had went back to her office to read some more about Lyme and saw that meningitis has a much higher incidence in children with Lyme, so she wants us to keep a close eye on her. I know it is unlikely she will get it, but after having a friend have a friend lose a 4 month old baby to meningitis just a couple of weeks ago, the consequences are fresh in my mind. It’s not something to play around with.

So there you have it. We could use some good thoughts thrown our way!

Summer and I are having a love hate relationship.

Things I love:

Summer camp! I thought getting Erik to camp by 9 am would be impossible, but we’ve only been a few minutes late a few days. Getting up earlier and out of the house has been really good for us all. It seems to give us more of a purpose and a schedule. Best of all, the time fits well with the gym classes I like to take so I’ve been getting back into BodyPump and Zumba. I just have to remember not to put too much weight on the squats so my ass doesn’t enlarge itself again.

Also, summer camp is four glorious hours and it is only a five minute commute. Way, way better than his preschool, which was two and a half hours with a 15 minute commute. I suppose I could feel guilty for enjoying four Erik free hours, but he loves it so why feel guilt? He is a high maintenance extrovert. He needs lots of people and stimulation and it exhausts me to be the sole provider of such things. I am so glad that Elsa is content to play by herself for long periods, as long as I am in the room. She doesn’t insist on being right on top of me 24/7.

The neighborhood! The kids are outside all the time and it’s so wonderful that we have a place where Erik can run free and enjoy all that sort of kid fun freedom that I enjoyed as a kid. Things are so different from when I was young and in a lot of places you really can’t just let your kid free range, but we are very comfortable with it in our neighborhood. We have kids in and out of our house all day long and most of the time they are really good kids and are all just enjoying being alive.

Things I don’t like:

The gnats! Egads, the gnats. I know I’ve complained about it before, but it bears repeating. I even bought this personal bug zapper thing that looks like a tennis racket, but the strings are electric. Sounds really safe around children, doesn’t it? You have to press two buttons at the same time to activate it. Problem is, the gnats are too small so they go right through the holes.

The heat! I am so not cut out for this type of heat and humidity. Being outside is unbearable. I would love to throw Erik out and tell him not to bring his friends in my house, but there’s no way that’s responsible. I don’t particular like having a house full of random boys, but they can’t play outside in this heat.

Weird neighbors! Ok, so I love our neighborhood. That has been well established. I love the way the kids all roam around together and have fun. I just don’t necessarily love everything they do. The good outweighs the bad, by far, but that doesn’t mean I can’t get irked.

I get irked when kids just walk into my house without knocking. There’s a couple of preschoolers who have been doing that (where are their parents???) and I am trying to train them not to do it. They come in with Erik, fine. They can’t just walk in, though.

I am irked with a mother who keeps having Erik over for dinner without asking me. I think it is cultural, but she really needs to contact me or have Erik come ask me before feeding him dinner. It wouldn’t be a big thing if it was rare (still, just ASK, you know?) but it happened three nights in a row and each night she served chicken nuggets. I am trying to train Erik to not eat dinner and people’s houses without asking, but I know this lady and know how insistent she can be. It’s difficult for an adult to resist her social pressure to eat what’s on offer. How is Erik supposed to navigate those waters, particularly when he just wants to eat some chicken nuggets?

I asked a question about this on a parenting debate community because I was just curious about what people do when neighbor kids are hanging at their house around dinner time. I always send the kids away with a “Sorry kiddos, time for us to eat. Erik will be out to play later.” If it was just one particular kid and I knew his parents well, I might invite him over for dinner if I checked with the parent. I don’t feel any obligation to feed random kids who are running in and out of my house.

I was surprised that I am in the firm minority on that one. Several people thought it was rude not to offer food, though I am wondering if they really understood how casual the situation is. They kept talking about guests in their home being offered food, but I don’t really consider these children guests. They are just. . . there. I consider a guest more of a person or child that I’ve invited and made particular plans with the other parent.

Anyway, it was interesting to get different perspectives about it. I know many cultures consider it quite rude to turn someone away without giving them food. Food has such power and strings attached. Ugh.

How about some summer camp?

Today’s prompt was about how we dress and how bloggers in general dress. I sport a casual stay-at-home mom look. Jeans or shorts, t-shirt or blouse. Nothing fancy, but I do like a bit of bling or design detail.

I don’t have any clue how bloggers in general dress. Is there a blogging dress code? I used to follow a blogger who prided herself on dressing fancy even though she was a stay-at-home mom. I finally had to stop reading her blog when I figured out she was a judgmental bitch who only cared about appearances. Duh. Took me long enough. She was interesting, but not interesting enough to keep in my feed after she made rude comments about people with big feet.

I missed the prompt about best and worst job.

My best job is difficult to figure out. I’ve had a lot of jobs. A lot. Dishwasher, waitress, cook, English teacher, bookstore employee, at-risk youth trainer, youth center coordinator, Apple help desk, professor’s assistant, perfume counter at Dillard’s, yearbook editor (got paid for that one year in college), substitute teacher. The list goes on and on.

The jobs I hated the most are a toss up between subsitute teacher in Sweden and Apple help desk person.

The school district in Kiruna, Sweden was run very differently from any school system I’d ever taught in. Basically, the monkeys were running the zoo. The kids had to be treated with respect, but they were not expected or taught to teach adults with respect. They were allowed to do whatever they wanted in the classroom because it was their choice on whether or not they wanted to learn. They could come in late, leave early, talk on their cell phones. I subbed for two weeks and it was the most miserable time I’ve ever had in a classroom. I had asked the teacher what to do about detention slips or just basic consequences and she didn’t have a freakin’ clue what I was talking about. As far as I could tell there was no way to discipline students.

And my God, did those kids need discipline. I’ve never, ever experienced such horrible treatment at the hands of students (except that time I literally thought some teen boys were going to pull a gun on me and kill me). It was unreal. I’m so happy it was only two weeks.

The other worst job was working for a company that provided support for Apple products. As far as the callers knew, we worked for Apple, but we didn’t really. There were all kinds of companies represented in our call center. I hated sitting in a cube for 10 hours a day. I hated that we weren’t really supposed to help the people. We were just supposed to do whatever we could to get them off the phone fast so our call volume was good. I hated the people. I hated the smell. I hated everything about that job.

Oh, I suppose teaching English was a hell job too. It’s the only job I’ve ever had that literally had me contemplating suicide, so I guess that makes it the worst job by default. I think all first year teachers should be required to go to an employer provided therapist. It’s a very demanding job with very little rewards and it is very, very isolating.

As far as best jobs go, I really enjoyed selling perfume at Dillard’s. I only did it for three months so I didn’t get into the politics of it. It would suck to have that as your career because they increase your sales per hour as you have experience so eventually you will get fired if you start making too much money because you can’t possibly keep up with the sales. Since I knew it was just temporary, it was really fun. I got to learn all about these fancy perfumes and win lots of prizes. The work was super easy. I mainly worked on the men’s cologne side, so I took training on how to sell to men. I was always very shy, but since I was doing a job I did it like I was trained to do it, which mainly meant I spent all day flirting with men. I was fresh out of college and really enjoyed that. Who wouldn’t?

I also really like substitute teaching. If I can’t think of anything else to do after the kids are in school, I’ll probably sign up as a sub. I haven’t looked into it here to see if it is worth the money. The money is usually not that great and there are no benefits, but it could be nice for a mom since you don’t work if there is no school and you don’t have to work any time you don’t want to work.