Nothing in Particular

This blog post has no topic. Like the thoughts in my head, it is a jumble of ramblings and thoughts that go every which way.

The kids are almost all over their colds. Yay! And I still didn't catch their cooties which is amazing. I've been washing my hands like I have OCD, but usually that only helps fend it off for a day or two. When a snot nosed kid sneezes in your face, washing your hands doesn't make a difference.

Fenna asked her mom if she buy a new laptop while they were on sale over Labor Day weekend. While discussing this with Keith, Fenna says to him, "you could buy a new laptop for Mary too". Ba-da-bing, I have a new laptop!  And Fenna didn't get one! She can have my old one while she is here, it works fine (usually).  It's led a long rough abused life, but she is more careful than I am with the electronics so I'm sure it will work out this way.

The new washer and dryer are awesome! I cannot figure out how much soap to add to the washer though. All of the instructions say "a measured amount of detergent".  Sure, I can measure it, but how much should I measure? I've just been winging it and the clothes are coming out great. It would be nice to know if I'm using too much or not.

 Our trips to the doctor, lab and pharmacy in San Diego have been really fun. Well, not as much fun for Fenna as the rest of us, but we've been making sure to have a good time each time we go. Also, I know my way around much better now. I hope that once Fenna kicks this infection and finishes the treatment for it, we can go other places and limit our outings to once a week or so. In the meantime, we're having a blast!

The medical community at UCSD in San Diego and La Jolla is the friendliest place on earth! I am just amazed each and every time we go or get a phone call, the folks in the clinics, hospital and pharmacy are sweet as can be. They truly care about Fenna and that just warms my heart. They've all been very accommodating and helpful. The facilities are beautiful too (And, they have an awesome playground). I am more in love with San Diego now that we've had this experience.  The hospital where Katie had her baby in SD was also very nice and friendly.

Homecoming is in two weeks! We have a closet full of formal dresses but Fenna hasn't "shopped" in our closet yet. She's pretty sure nothing that my tall skinny daughters wore will fit her, but I think she will be pleasantly surprised. Hopefully the dresses are still in style.

She's actually more excited about Halloween than Homecoming. I took out two big Halloween boxes and the girls had fun digging through them, trying on costumes and giggling.

Libby's birthday is coming up quick. Her real third birthday! I was feeling confused about what to do since Libby already celebrated her birthday back in May, and she is convinced that she is already three years old. Finally, the calendar is catching up with her!  Keith said we need to have a party for her though because Charlie's party was a lot of fun. So, we'll have a party! I have to hussle up and get it planned because her birthday is soon! Not sure how we'll explain it to her, but it will be fun anyway.

We've been learning a lot about Holland: The flag is red,white and blue but the royal color is orange.  Kids and teachers smoke on the school grounds, even right by the doors.  People in general smoke a lot more there than here and so there is a lot more second-hand smoke to deal with. The Netherlands, specifically Amsterdam, is known for drugs. Katie and Lexie both knew that and Keith and I didn't. Hmmm.  We are learning about each other too!  Kids sing a song when they trick-or-treat in Holland.  We've been discussing how the education systems work there and how they differ here. The food there is the same, but it is cooked and eaten differently. I'm still not sure what that means; I might have to go to Holland someday and find out. They do not have Starbucks on every corner like we do, nor do they have fast food everywhere.

We've also been learning a lot about Cystic Fibrosis. The condition affects respiratory and digestive systems which in turn affects everything else. I thought it was just a constant cough and you hawked up a loogie once in a while. I had no idea it was so involved! It is really eye-opening to learn so much about CF and it makes me count my blessings. A lot of people have asked me if I have to pound her on her back every day. The answer to that is No. Fenna has a lot of medications she takes daily and with her infection she had a picc line placed (an iv that goes in the upper arm and a tube is in the artery all the way into the chest) and she "shoots up" some iv medications three times a day. It's amazing to see her manage everything with so much ease and grace. The picc line is supposed to come out next week. Whew! Just in time for homecoming!

Keith is teaching two evening classes this term, back to back. And he's teaching 63 miles away in Azusa. 63 miles doesn't sound like a lot, but it can take him 90 minutes to get home depending on traffic. After teaching middle school all day and then college, that drive is a long one. Poor guy is pretty tired by the end of the week. But, he's still running the Champ or Chump game at his school! This silly game takes up a lot of his time, but he enjoys it and it helps bring the staff together in a friendly way at work. It's a good thing even though it drives me nuts.

I finished the Belle dresses a couple of days after starting them. I love my serger!  And I finally hand-sewed on the little red roses for embellishment. The Belle doll the girls have has red roses on her dress, but most Belle dolls don't and most Belle costumes don't. But, I really like the red touch! I will take pictures when they both put the dresses on. Gracie tried her dress on and it fits, but she said it was itchy and she wanted to take it off. Libby loves hers. I went to JoAnn Fabrics to look for Rapunzel fabric but I didn't see anything in the right color that cost less than $12.99 a yard. I'll have to wait for a sale. But, I did buy a ton of fabric anyway!  I got Minnie Mouse red polka dot fabric, I couldn't resist! And I picked up a lot of baby boy soft flannel prints to make receiving blankets for a nice lady at Keith's school who is having her first baby.  Now, if I could just find some sewing time I'd be set!

I will briefly blog about our latest outings on my outing blog, with pictures.  In the meantime, I will leave you with some of the questions that Gracie has been asking me at the most inopportune times but she thinks every question requires a thoughtful intelligent answer.  I usually do not have one.

What are teeth made out of? Like what's inside them and what's the outside called?
What are hippos afraid of?
Are there more kinds of talking like Spanish and Dutch and English? What are they?
Where do farts come from?
Why do we call brown people black?
How do airplanes fly?
What's an exclamation point?
Why aren't there any girls on Mount Rushmore?
Why are the clouds gray and yesterday the clouds were white?
What's under the carpet?
Why aren't there more red cars?

We survived the Great SD Blackout

Fenna did it.  I told her it sure is fun to have someone to blame for all the crazy things that go wrong around here. She just laughs.

On Thursday, we needed to go to San Diego to the pharmacy to pick up some medicines and then to a lab in La Jolla for a blood draw. Neither appointment was expected to take long at all, just quickies but they were very important. And, we had to be at the lab at 4pm but had to pick up the meds before going to the lab.  Ok, we can do that (maybe). The timing was going to be tight with school letting out at 2:30 and mucking through after-school traffic always takes a while. There would be no time for Starbucks.

Fenna wasn't feeling well on Wednesday night, she looked like she was at the low point of her miserable cold. It was just after midnight when I suggested that instead of going to school from 7am - 2:30 feeling cruddy and sleep deprived and then heading out to San Diego again how about this idea: Stay home and sleep and eat some soup and sleep some more and then we'll go to San Diego. She didn't have to think very long about that one. I figured she would either miss Thursday at school or Friday. Either way, she needed to take care of her cold. She did just that, stayed home on Thursday to take care of her cold and it really helped a lot.

Since we were racing the clock, we loaded up the little kids and went to Gracie's school to take her out ten minutes early. That turned out to be a very good decision. We hit the road and made it to San Diego in an hour! Fenna opened the door to the pharmacy and rang the bell for service right at 3:35 exactly.

As soon as she pushed the button, the power went out. Poof! Fenna broke it!

Fenna picked up her prescription and we started across town to the lab. The traffic light that we had just gone through was now dead. Not even flashing red. So was the next one. Fenna, being funny, said "I hope I didn't do that!".  Stoplight after stoplight was dead. The streets were becoming more and more clogged because of the four way stops. We were realizing the magnitude of the power outage the further we went. People were pouring out of buildings and everyone had a cell phone in hand. I couldn't get any cell service though. Traffic was going from clogged to pure mayhem. Emergency vehicles were trying to get through but every street was a sea of vehicles.  I started to wonder if we were caught in a terrorist attack.

When we finally got to the lab, we found out that the hospital was closing down. Emergencies only. The lab was closed and the people working there were all sent home. People were all on their cell phones trying to get service, and talking together. We found out that they thought the power might be out all across the county. How can that be? San Diego County is huge! I asked if the power comes back on, would they like us to come back? They said no, they were calling the day over and it would be best if we just come back tomorrow. Ohhhh, no. My brain started spinning trying to figure out the logistics of a Friday trip.

The people in these San Diego medical offices never cease to amaze me with their friendliness. They were so nice! Gracie had to use the bathroom and a lady said she'd check first to make sure there was a light on in there, and there was. (Backup emergency lighting) This lady also gave Libby a little book and Libby was thrilled. They were very nice and apologized for cancelling the lab appointment.  No apologies necessary, it's a freak thing that happened. At least we didn't have to pay for parking this time, the parking permit machine wasn't working.

Before we left the house, we had decided that our fun thing to do today would be to spend some time at the beach. The kids could play and we could put our feet in the water and watch the sunset over the Pacific. Luckily, the power outage didn't spoil our beach plans although it did make getting there quite a challenge due to the traffic. Instead of going further into San Diego, we called Katie and told her not to meet us and we went to Oceanside.

Finally, we arrived at the beach just after 6pm.  The kids had so much fun playing in the water and sand. Fenna and I played lifeguards. The sea was angry. Waves were pounding into the shore and the water was loud. It even threw rocks at us. Libby didn't want anything to do with the angry ocean, but Charlie and Gracie were fearless and they didn't care if the water had a bad attitude; they ran in anyway.  Luckily, I brought lifejackets for Libby and Charlie and I had a leash, er, child harness, for Charlie. We put the lifejacket and leash combo to good use!

We took lots of pictures. The kids were adorable and Fenna too, the waves were huge and the sunset was beautiful.

After twilight, we started to go for a walk down the pier, but the lights weren't coming on. Power was still out!  We decided to head for home. My friend called, her husband works for the electric company, she said that the power will be out for hours if not a couple of days. She was concerned about Katie and Henry.  I told her I would pass along her concerns. Katie called too, and I told her what my friend said and Katie decided to drive up to our place for the night.

Jokingly, I said "I'll race ya!".  Darned if that didn't jinx me! We took the 76 home and it took forever! I didn't realize how many stoplights were on that road. But none of them were working. It took us 90 minutes to get from Oceanside to the 15.  From there, it took us 15 minutes to get home. We got home after 9pm Katie beat  us!

Murphy's Law continued to be the strongest force of the day. If something can go wrong, it will. All of the photos we took mysteriously disappeared off the camera! .  How weird. Luckily, they were just beach pictures and we can go there again. It's good to learn that the photos are super easy to delete on this camera. Nobody knows how we managed to lose the photos but nobody is upset over it since they were just fun pictures of the beach. We'll have to do it over too. 

Luckily, the power was back on in San Diego on Friday so Katie was able to get home. I called the lab and they didn't want us on Friday because the power outage caused chaos and they had to catch up from that. They suggested Saturday or Sunday. Sunday it is!

I'm Armed; They're Dangerous

The kids are sick.  Three out of the four are little cootie-monsters. I'm ready for the battle though. I have the new washer, the rug dr, and a bottle of bleach on my side!

Gracie has been battling a fever for several days. Along with that, she's been vomiting and coughing. My little firecracker has no energy. She's sleeping a lot and when she's awake, she just lays and rests. If that wasn't fun enough for the kid, she shared it!

Libby has a fever too. She doesn't have any other symptoms, but she is a bit "off" with her energy level.

Fenna has a cold too. Hers is different though, and I'm waiting for them all to swap germs.  Fenna has a sore throat, stuffy nose and plugged ears.

She also has the picc line and all of her IV medications to battle her lung infection. The medications make her tired and kind of nauseous too. Only two more weeks of this and then the picc line can come out. Hopefully it will make her feel super wonderful and keep her healthy for the rest of the school year!

Charlie is the only survivor. He's healthy as can be, but he gets his 12 month shots on Friday, so he will be sick all weekend. I wonder if he will get Chicken Pox from the vaccine like Gracie and Libby did. Our family seems to be extra sensitive to that virus.

I'm very happy to report that the new washer and dryer are awesome!  Gracie puked on a quilt and I just tossed it in the washing machine. It came out so nice and wonderfully clean!  This particular quilt is one I didn't like to use much because I didn't want it to get dirty (or puked on) because it just barely fit into the washer. With the new washer, there was plenty of room for it! I even tossed in a towel and it wasn't full.

Having the rug dr ready and waiting at any given moment is a godsend. It is the only way to spot clean some good old fashioned puke on the carpet and couch.

Gracie missed two days of school so far with this round of germs. I looked in the school student handbook and it states that a student is allowed 5 absences per year. This has got to be a typo!  Five?  My kid has missed four already! And it's only the first week of September. Poor child is doomed. Her future as a Kindergarten student is secure for many years ahead. Wonder if I'll ever see her graduate.

Fenna tried to go to school, but I had to go get her after an hour of toughing it out. When I wheeled the double stroller of toddlerness into the nurses office,  I wasn't one bit surprised to see that it was packed with sickly teenagers. The line of waiting chairs were full and a few sick ones were standing. The health clerk was swamped!

This evening we have an appointment to get that picc line checked, a new bandage and restock the meds. I guess since the kids aren't in school today and we have to go, we might as well leave an hour earlier to make the best of the day and go to the aquarium.  Maybe I'll let them lick the glass this time. Hell, why not, they're already sick! We'll test that Darwin theory: Survival of the fittest!

Living in the Fast Lane

We've been living the past couple of weeks in the fast lane!

Since my last blog post, we've had two trips to La Jolla and one to San Diego for Fenna's doctor appointments. Since we were there, we made the trips fun and visited the La Jolla Westfield Mall, San Diego Zoo, and the beach and shopping in downtown La Jolla. Katie and Henry came for an overnight visit and she sang at a back-yard party. I attended "Back to School Night" at MVHS and Keith had his back-to-school night at his school the next day, which is an overview of the curriculum for each class.  Fenna went to the first home football game. I had an orthodontist appointment.  Plus, we've been busy doing homework and on occasion, actually attending school.

To top off our busy couple of weeks, we have seen a lot of improvement in Gracie's pre-reading skills, Libby's art, and Charlie runs faster with less of a wobble. Keith has gone from an amateur coffee cup salesman to a packaging expert. Henry has grown so much that he's ready for a high chair; we had a successful shopping trip to the baby store! The best improvement is Fenna is finally getting the meds she needed to get better. Yay, no more cooties!

I started a sewing project and hopefully can finish it up and give you a fresh new sewing blog post to read very soon. I blogged about our excursions on my other blog; hop on over there and check it out. In the meantime, we have declared this holiday a lazy day. We are catching up on house cleaning, homework and just recharging our batteries for another week in the fast lane.

The Whole Fam Damily

I bragged about Libby, now to give Gracie equal billing here is her latest Kindergarten homework project. She was to paste pictures of her family onto a Tshirt shaped piece of paper.

First, I had to get on the computer and find pictures of everyone. We do not have one picture of the whole  family, someone always needs to stand behind the camera I guess. Maybe we can resolve this problem at Christmas when we have the tripod out and everyone is together and photo-ready.  In the meantime, we have plenty of pictures of everyone, including lots of group shots that include nearly everyone. We sure do have a big family!

I asked Gracie who she wanted to include and she named everyone in our house, Jillian (her best friend), and the grandmas. She also wanted Katie in it since she is her sister and of course, Katie's family.  I talked her out of adding Jillian because it is a family collage, but I promised her she could make one just for home with pictures of her friends.  After she named everyone, we chose the photos to print.

I printed a couple of photos of each person so that she had options when it came to cutting and gluing. Good thing I did, she had a few cutting mishaps and a couple of photos turned out too big. Gracie cut each person out and arranged them. She put herself in the middle and stuck everyone around her. I think it turned out so wonderful! 

Top: Sandy, Great Grandma Gracie holding Henry, Lexie, Grandma, Andrew, Katie. Bottom: Fenna, Libby, Mom, Dad holding Charlie. Gracie in the middle. 

Smarty Pants!

Libby wrote her name all by herself! She knew the letters too, nobody told her what to write next.  I'll let the photo tell the story. 

For the record, she is still only two years old. Oh Yeah, I'm a proud mama!

Two Outings in a Row!

Outings! My favorite!

Sunday we went to the San Diego Safari Park (formerly the Wild Animal Park which is why my folder of photos is labeled WAP). After a full week of school and colorguard, Fenna requested a sleep in morning. I am never one to argue with laziness, bring it on!  I ordered our zoo passes online and printed the confirmation page. We left the house just before noon. Laziness accomplished without getting in the way of our fun day!

The Safari Park was crowded, but not so crowded that you couldn't get up to see the exhibits. The line for the tram was way too long though, we'll ride it another day. I got season passes for the three of us since a year long pass was only $10 more than buying a day pass, plus it's a tax write-off. Good deal.  We wandered all over the park; it was a beautiful day for walking. It was too hot to stop at the sculpture garden on the way home, so we'll add that to another zoo day. It will always be there.

Monday, the girls skipped school for another outing. Fenna had a Cystic Fibrosis doctor appointment in San Diego at 11am, so there was no point in sending them off to school when the appointment is right in the middle of the school day. We usually leave for school at 6:50am but didn't have to leave today until 9am. Another sleep in day!

We took the little girls to Katie's house to play and then Fenna and I made our way to the clinic.  I only got lost once. I thought I was on a street, but it turned out to be an exit ramp and I ended up back on the freeway. I managed to get off and twirl around and find my way back to where I needed to be. Fenna found the problem, on the map it looks as if the streets intersect, but in reality one street is a bridge over the other one. Ah, there is the problem: a two-dimensional map in a three-dimensional world. We found the clinic and used their valet parking to avoid being late or getting lost trying to find a parking space or getting lost afterward trying to remember where we parked. Valet parking rocks!

The appointment went well; the doctor and his staff are very nice. We will go see them again in 10 days or so at their other office in La Jolla. Another adventure with maps! I hope they have valet parking there too. I found a new love: the parking guy. I don't know where he took my van and I don't care. Love it!

I consulted the map and found the route back to Katie's house; Fenna concurred.  We were wrong. Map mishap #2, but we were able to get turned around. We took "the scenic route" back to Katie's house, but we got there just fine. It took us 20 minutes instead of 10, but I'm ok with that.

It was only 12:30 in the afternoon! We could go back and put the girls in school for a half an hour before dismissal, or we could do something fun since we are in San Diego and there are lots of things to do.  Hmmm.  We all voted for doing something fun. After pondering over our options, we settled on spending the afternoon roaming around Seaport Village.

The afternoon was beautiful! The weather was sunny but not hot with a light breeze. Couldn't ask for a better day! We had lunch and then we wandered around the mall. It was nice to just walk and enjoy the day. We sat in the park and watched the kite salesman fly several large colorful kites; we watched an aircraft carrier head out to sea, and we watched the seagulls scavenge for scraps around the picnic tables. Fenna wasn't shopping for souvenirs; I thought she might, but we all enjoyed window shopping quite a bit.

At 4pm, we said goodbye to Katie and Henry and we headed home. It is usually an  hour long drive, but we hit five-o'clock traffic and it took us 90 minutes. I wasn't sure if I was headed in the right direction to find the freeway or not, but I was traveling west and the ocean is east, so I figured west would get me there. Fenna gave me a look that said "Really? you are lost again?" so I confessed.  I have a GPS in the drawer under her seat, but I never use it because I can't figure it out. It always tells me that I'm in San Antonio, Texas. She reached under the seat, plugged it in and bingo, had it working!  How did she do that?  While she was plugging it in, I said, "If that is Grape Street right up there, I know where I am." It was. I wasn't very lost at all this time!  She kept the GPS on all the way home though. Funny kid!

Fenna had colorguard practice at 5:30 and needed to go home to change and grab her bag, I got her to colorguard, but we were about 15 minutes late. I told her the coach was gonna make her do an extra 50 crunches for being late, but she said he didn't.  Ha! Good thing, because she doesn't enjoy doing crunches.

Two outings in two days, not bad for a boring host mom! 


*More photos of our outings on my picasa page.