Sunset over Catalina

Had a nice night out last night at a housewarming party overlooking the beach. A lady who taught at the same middle school where my husband teaches retired and bought her dream home. She gutted it and remodeled. It is beautiful! The rooms were small but open. The dining room was replaced by a full service bar with a granite countertop. It was beautiful! I wanted to take pictures but that would have been odd behavior at a housewarming party. The homeowner invited her friends and former coworkers to celebrate  her new home. Everyone attending was genuinely happy for her. She was beaming all night.

Sidenote: Photos are never allowed at teacher parties. Teachers do not like to have pictures of themselves with an adult beverage in hand on anyone's camera. It is just teacher-etiquette to never snap photos at a teacher attended social function.

It was 100 degrees, but the house was packed full of people as were the yards.  We could see Catalina Island on the horizon and watched the sun set over it. Very beautiful! 

After some lovely hors d'oeuvres, dinner was served.  The food was fantastic! Crisp green salad with mandarin oranges, craisins and walnuts; steamed asparagus, dinner rolls, baked chicken breasts with greek seasonings, olives and dates (or figs, not sure but they were great!), and brown rice. I loved every bite!

It was great to visit with my husband's coworkers. They are all having a good year so far, and everyone was happy, having fun, and telling great stories. They are all great friends outside of school as well.

This was a nice party, wonderful food, complimentary valet service, people dressed nice, said please and thank you and all of that fancy schmancy jazz. 

Except two teachers that Keith was sitting between. The science teacher put her appetizer skewer together to her straw. Stuck together they were about 9" long. Then she threw it at the guy on the other side of Keith, the history teacher. History teacher laughs, picks it off his lap and throws it back at her. He totally shanked her! It stuck in her hand! She had to pluck it out and then she was bleeding!

Who goes to a party and makes a weapon and who goes to a party and throws little handmade weapons into other party guests? Teachers!!! These people spend way too much time in middle school. Beware.

My kid had scabies

To everyone we came in contact with between August 18 - 31st, sorry, but you might have scabies now. Let's think... where all did we go and who did we see?

Gracie spent two nights in San Diego with Katie and Henry.  She had a few bumps between her fingers that were itchy when she left, but the day she came home, her left hand and arm were covered in bumps.  Her sister was puking and had a fever. What a way to end a sleepover!  She really didn't have anything noticeable on her hand or arm until she woke up on  Aug 21st.

This is the first day of (noticeable) scabies:

We quickly decided she has eczema. Yup, that must be it. We rubbed cortizone cream on her and went on with our day. We did decide that the rash was too ugly for school, so we went shopping and got her some long sleeve tops. I also bought her some Eczema lotion.

The next day was the first day of school. I had her wear long sleeves, but she insisted on pulling up her sleeves and showing her friends her eczema rash. They all touched it to feel how bumpy her arm was. In hindsight, ewww.

I decided maybe I should take her to the doctor. Eczema is weird, but this was more weird. My husband insisted it was eczema though, and he's usually right about such things. Here it is on  Aug 24th:

The doctor said, "Gracie, Your daddy is a smart man and he's usually right. But not this time. It isn't eczema."  It was Scabies. I had no idea what that is, so I said, "Hmm, Ok." She prescribed a wash and gave me instructions to spread this wash-lotion all over my child from the neck down right before bedtime. In the morning after the lotion has been on her for 12 hours, shower it off. The rash should go away after that treatment. She also prescribed a steroid cream just in case the wash didn't work. She said if the wash doesn't make it better, then it's probably a contact dermatitis and to use the steroid cream. Give it three days to see if the wash treatment works first. And, she told me that Scabies is very contagious. She was amazed that nobody else in the family had it. Yet.

I dropped off the prescription at the drugstore and went on home to look up what Scabies is. Never heard of it.

Once I googled Scabies and found out that it is little bugs under the skin, I was so grossed out! Disgusting! Ewww! My kid has scabies! AAAAAAA!!!

My husband was equally disgusted, but he knew what Scabies was, just had never seen it before. We looked on Google images. So very gross, but the rash matched what we saw.  The worst part is that it is often a venereal disease. Lots of the google images were of body parts we shouldn't have to look at on the computer, especially icky covered in this rash.  I can safely say, it's not just a social disease, kids get it too. I suppose, in reality, any rash or virus or anything passed from person to person could be considered a venereal disease. But, this sure made the gross aspect of her rash even more disgusting.

The wash was a tube of lotion and the active ingredient in it was the same as the flea powder for pets. So, I picked up a container of carpet cleaner in the pet aisle for killing fleas. Same ingredient. Basically, we spread a pesticide all over our kid.

After showering and waiting a few hours, her rash looked like this on the 25th: Remarkable difference!

And I tore apart her room in an effort to kill any bugs that might be in the carpet or mattresses. I used a liberal amount of the pesticide carpet powder and let it sit for four hours then vacuumed thoroughly.

Anything washable, went into the wash. All toys, pillows, bedding, clothing, etc  was put in the washer on Hotter Than Hot setting and dried the same way. I didn't want any bugs to survive my wrath!

Her rash looked a ton better, but I still had the heebie-jeebies so I repeated the wash just on her arm and hand a couple of days later. The life cycle of a scabe could mean that the next generation would hatch and thrive if the eggs didn't die in the first wash. But, I didn't have enough of the pesticide wash to cover her all over, so I just did the affected area. This wasn't recommended by the doctor, pharmacist, instructions on the lotion, google nor anyone for that matter. But the Mom-Doctor in me thought it was a good idea, so I went with it.

Here is her rash a few days later on Aug 29th:

You can still see that her skin is splotched with what were once bumps and spots. The palm of her hand still had bumps, but none were white like they were before. She was keeping that hand balled up in a fist a lot though, and I wonder if it itched more, plus being in a fist probably made her palm warmer and darker. All the more attractive for the bugs. The little bit of the rash that was left was under my watchful eye, but for the most part the scabies rash was gone. Over the next few days it disappeared all together.

Nobody else ever got it and it never spread beyond her one hand and arm. I never heard anything from any of her friends, so I don't think they got it even though she had her little buddies all touching her arm. And, I didn't hear from the teacher neither. The dog didn't have fleas, so she didn't get it from the dog. Nobody knows where she got scabies or why it didn't spread. But, it was scabies. If it wasn't, it wouldn't have improved after the pesticide wash. Hopefully we never see it again.

It's pretty embarrassing to say, "My kid had scabies" because it's so disgusting. But I decided to post this with full disclosure because I had a hard time finding scabies in kids on google. If anyone is wondering, this  is what scabies looks like on a six-year-old. At least, on my six-year-old.

If your six-year-old has a rash like this, I sure hope she's not so loud and bold and tells everyone she meets, "I have scabies. See? Wanna feel it? My dad thought it was eczema but he was wrong."  So embarrassing!

My Favorite Things

Oprah has her favorite things, well, so do I.  And after my last blog post about things I don't have but I wish I had, I need to balance things out by showing some appreciation for the many wonderful things I already have. I am pretty spoiled.

The tippy top of my favorite things list is, of course, my family. That goes without saying; they are just the best!  But, they are not "things" so they don't really make the list. They're over and above it.

1. Rug Doctor.  This thing is my best friend in messy times! And with a houseful of kids and a dog, there are plenty of messy times.

2. Electric pan. It's amazing. How did I live without this thing for so long?

3. My remote control van doors. Presently, one doesn't work which makes me appreciate them even more.

4. Coffee.  No explanation needed.

5. My Nike cushiony flip flops. I wear them every single day.

6. My laptop. It's my connection to the world and to myself. I'd probably go insane if I didn't have an outlet.

7. My sewing machines. I love them!

8. Dawn dishwashing liquid. Yeah, I'm really saying that.

9. My washer and dryer. They make my life easier.

10.  The portable dvd player.  Long road trips would suck without this thing.
 

11. My books. I have gads of books, most of them I haven't read yet. But, I love them. I always want more books and I instantly love any book that comes into my possession. I hate getting rid of them, but I don't mind sharing.  I wish I had more time for reading, but I need big fat chunks of uninterrupted time so that I can just keep turning pages and that kind of time is hard to come by right now.

12. My china. I haven't even seen it in years, but I love it. It is all packed away snug and tight and safe under my stairs right now. It's beautiful. The china is a huge set of dishes that were a wedding gift to my Great Grandmother circa 1900. My grandma handed it all down to me.

13. My Fun Passes.  I love going out and about and having fun! I have passes to the SD Zoo and Safari Park, Science Center in Balboa Park, Sea World and Universal Studios. I no longer have a pass to Disneyland; I miss it very much but we had passes for three years and it was fantastic! I love having tickets to fun!

What do I want?

My husband just asked me what I want for my birthday, which is tomorrow so I gotta give him credit for thinking ahead.

Hmm.... how do I narrow down the list to a more manageable size? I'll just list the things I want most!

1. Disneyland passes. I want annual passes for me and the girls and a parking pass. Total comes to $936. I know, I know, it's a bit much, but that' s Walt's fault.

2. I-Touch. It's such a cool little gadget and I miss my Palm Pilot that I had 10 years ago. I'd love an I-touch.

3.  An embroidery machine. Everything is better when it's personalized. As if, making something isn't personal enough. But wouldn't embroidery be fun!  Yes!

4. More bookshelves. My books are crammed onto the shelves I have now. They're so cluttery looking without any little spaces between the books.

5. Bread machine. I want to bake some yummy cinnamon/raisin bread and make italian bread. I'm sure there are more delicious breads I could make. We had a bread machine once and it made wonderful bread. But, it died after just a few months.

6. A car. My van is showing signs of aging. I want a 2013 Nissan Altima. No particular color, but not blue or green or any Easter egg color.

7. Clothes and shoes. Seriously, I'm a girl.

8. Smart phones. Note that I said phones in the plural form, one for the hubby too! I think we are the only people left who don't have them and they look so handy-dandy! I know I could use it for the GPS.

9. Kindle Fire. Of course, only if #2 doesn't pan out because I think you can load books onto an I-touch. Since this is sort of a repeat, I guess I will instead say, a flat screen TV in my sewing area.

10.  A new camera. I want a little Canon.

Well, there's the top ten. It's funny, I used to be "ah, I don't want anything, just a nice day" but now I'm all about being pampered with big ticket items. Have fun shopping!  I'll just be sitting here waiting for a parade of presents to walk through the door! Don't forget the cake!

Praise The Lord

I prayed today. Yup. True. I wasn't even in dire straits. I accidentally attended a prayer group at the park this morning. Totally did not see this coming.

Usually I only pray in church (which isn't very often cuz I'm a very bad Catholic), or when I am in extreme distress. For example: when my kid was getting stitches. 

I dropped Gracie off at school, and since school just started, it is chaos at the drop off until the new people learn  how to do it and stay out of the way of the ebb and flow of the parents who know how. So, I decided to walk her into the school instead of dropping her off in the car-line. Plus, I was bringing a donation for her classroom (a clock) and I wanted to make sure the teacher got it.

So, there I was.

I said "Good Morning" to a mom who I got to know a bit last year. Her child is in a different class than my kid this year. She said "Good morning!" Seeing I had Libby and Charlie with me she added, "I'm headed to a playdate at the park, would you like to join us?" Sure! She told me which park and we headed right over. Gotta do these park playdates in the morning since it's still pretty hot by mid-day.

I met up with her and her friends at the park, they had picnic blankets and they apologized for not having snacks and shade umbrellas. Wow, serious playdate mamas! I told them I usually have picnic blankets and beach towels, but I don't today because I washed them and they are at home. I wasn't really planning to go to the park, but it was such a great idea that I came without snacks and my picnic blanket. We'll get by just fine.

We took care of introductions and the kids made fast friends and ran off to play. Turns out, the other moms are all moms from Gracie's school too. A couple of them have their kids at another campus, and one lady didn't have children but she comes to the playdates as a friend. Ahh, nice to meet you all.

We sat on the picnic blankets and I positioned myself to make sure I could see everything and not lose sight of Charlie. This park has lots of opportunity for running off. The boundaries are not well defined. Had to make sure the bench and the trash can were not blocking my view of the playground.  We visited about parenting, sending our children to school, balancing marriage and motherhood, normal conversations among women at the park. Or, was it? One lady was asking rather deep questions and the other ladies were saying, "with the Lord's help" and things like that.

Hey... wait a minute.... they all have leather zip up bible cases... matching.  Hmmm.

One lady whips open her book and reads something about Noah's wife and they all start discussing how supportive and strong she must have been. I'm telling ya, if my husband comes home on a normal day and says, "Honey, I'm a gonna build a big arc and save all the animals on the planet from impending doom." Without hesitation, I would assume he went crazy. I would turn around and go about my business completely ignoring his insane plan to save the world. Noah, dude, good thing you didn't marry me!

This is when I realized I was at a church playdate. Ohhhh. Ok. Well, no harm in that.

But then, they wanted to have a closing prayer. They all joined hands and prayed for each other out loud. I found myself included in this circle of women.  Lengthy too, really, my palms were getting sweaty and I could see Charlie climbing to the top of the highest play structure. He seems fine, but I wish they'd hurry up with the park praying cuz I felt weird holding hands in a circle at the park. I'm Catholic; we don't take it out of the church.

They all said it was nice to meet me and see you next week! Wait, did I just join the group? Oh boy. I accidentally attended a prayer group at the park and Praised the Lord in public, and now I am a member of the park church too?

It was nice to meet them and they were very supportive to each other.  They were not pushy at all! Hard to say that about most religious people that you find in the park. I could feel the empowering positive vibes from their friendships. I'm so glad they invited me and were happy with having me in their little group, but I'm not a pray in the park type so I'm not sure if I will go again. They were such nice people though.

Noah's wife must've been nuts. 

Another Epic Roadtrip

All of our roadtrips are epic. You know what they say, "Go Big or Go Home." We "Go Big"!

We were gone for two weeks, so I think I will have to blog about our adventures in several posts. Every day was blog-worthy, but I cannot blog while away from my laptop which means I am going to be playing catch-up.

Here is a general overview so you know what sort of reading you have in store for you:

We drove 3,000 miles, attended a birthday bash/family reunion, a cowboy wedding, another family reunion, camped, had a very sick kid and we baked in the summer heat. Very adventurous indeed! A few of the things we planned were scrapped from the itinerary, but we managed to squeeze in a lot of sight seeing and visiting. We had a great time. Luckily, no mechanical problems with the van. I like it when we avoid car repairs on the road!

We did get a rock chip in a construction zone in Wyoming. It hit the edge of the windshield and then the chip grew and grew. By the time we got home, it had snaked it's way across to the middle. We called the Glass Dr and we have a new windshield already!

Since we drove, we always drive, we can take whatever we need. We try not to over-pack, but we do try not to forget anything. This trip, we forgot all kinds of things! Apparently, we did not over-pack!  Keith and I forgot our sleeping bags, which made camping a little more interesting.  We left our frying pan in Wyoming, just forgot it along the way. We thought of all kinds of little things that we forgot: extra SD camera cards, flashlights, stuff like that.

We did take over 300 beer glasses with us. Yes, you read that right: beer glasses. Keith designed a couple of logos and had them custom printed on beer glasses and delivered to the house.  Then he took them to the Schumacher Family reunion and sold them to family members for cost. He and his brothers have been brewing their own beers and the glasses are very nice, perfect for the home brewed beverages. Traveling with a van full of glass, kids and a dog was a fun experience.

Luckily, we're flexible with our vacation schedule. That worked well for us because we had a very sick little girl and we had to cancel some of our plans and hunker down for a few days to let her rest and get better. We ended up taking her to the doctor and getting some medication for her, but it was great to be able to get off the road while she was sick. We don't know why she got sick, it didn't seem to be carsickness or food poisoning, but if it was a virus she kept it to herself. Who knows, it was just one of those fluke things. Poor kid.

It was one of the best road trips we've ever had (except for the puking kid), but we missed little Charlie every day. We thought about taking Lexie and Charlie, but she had things to do and Charlie is the type of toddler who likes to be on the move, not strapped into a carseat all day long. We put in some very long days in the van and spent a lot of time in places that are not safe for an active curious toddler. But, we did go to some places that he would have had a ton of fun so we'll be sure to take him when he's a little older and can better handle the long drive. Sure was nice to get home to see him again. We missed our little grandson Henry too, but we often go 2 to 3 weeks without seeing him so we are used to the gaps between Henry visits but the kids especially missed each other and were happy to be together again once we got home. 

I will catch up with the blogging and stories from the roadtrip and the rest of the summer. But for now, my brain is mush. It's so hot out that I'm just not feeling much like doing anything. Even blogging sounds like too much work.

Girl Scout Drama Club - No Thanks

I inquired about Girl Scouts a year ago when my daughter entered kindergarten, but was told all troops were full and she could sit on a waiting list. Sure, that's fine. Ok.

A year passes...

I got an email from a lady who was starting a new troop of Daisy Girl Scouts. She was starting a new group of girls from the waiting list and sent several emails begging for a co-leader. The lady didn't spell anything correctly, no capital letters at the beginning of her sentences, and barely any punctuation. After three poorly written emails requesting all sorts of help in all ways to lead the group, I politely declined. I will not lead a troop.

Soon after, another mom in Gracie's class said her daughter was in Girl Scouts so I asked her about it and she said she'd tell her leader that Gracie was waiting for a group.  The next day a troop leader called and had space for Gracie in a new troop.  This lady seems to be able to speak and write in full sentences so I thought, "Yay!"

I met her for lunch and filled out all sorts of registration forms, read through the expectations, welcome packet, looked at her books, etc. She had so much paperwork it was astounding. I didn't have the $24 registration fee with me in cash and she said she'd allow me to drop it at her house or mail it or pay at the Girl Scout office. Ok, I can do that. In the meantime, Gracie is a member and it will be official when I pay her registration. Sounds great!

In between all of the business that we always have going on in this house, I did drop by her house to pay the registration fee. Nobody home. No mailbox out front because they have one of those group mailbox things in their neighborhood. Oh well, I'll try again later.

She called me several times to make sure I was going to pay it and kept telling me to hurry up. I told her I'd just put it in the mail then so she'd get it quicker because I was busy and didn't have time to run around town (true). She said ok, but then called again and said not to mail it because she needed it and was afraid it would be lost in the mail.

Ok, fine, then she has to wait until after Fenna leaves and I have time.  I told her it would have to wait until the end of June because I was swamped with family activity. That was fine, I could just give it to her at the Girl Scout event that they were having. Oh, easier. That's great.

Event... it was a special showing of the movie Brave just for the Girl Scouts. Sort of. Ok, it was changed to just the Girl Scouts going to the movie at an already scheduled time, no special pricing, whatever, not a special showing just for them, totally not a big deal. Another event change: Pizza after the movie and she chose the 8:00am show. Hold on, a movie at 8am and pizza at 9:30am? Oy.  Ok.... Event change: No other family members allowed to come to the movie.  Only the girl scout and one parent. Wait one minute, I can't bring my other kid to a public showing and pay the ticket price for her? Girl Scouts isn't paying for the kids and adults anyway so why should it matter if people bring their families?  I politely declined. We wanted to see the movie together. We went together and it was great fun! Plus, it was the last fun thing we did with Fenna and I think that was more important to the girls.

Another change to the event: Pizza day was moved to July 21st. I had to decline that one too because we'll be on vacation that day.

I still had to pay the lady though! Went to her house again and rang the bell with check in hand. Nobody home. Arg! I have such bad timing!  Drove straight to the Girl Scout office instead. They had a big sign on their door that said closed but I could see someone in there. Got the kids out and we tried the door, it was open. Small print under the Closed sign had some date in the future, good thing I saw the gal through the window.

I tried to pay her but she said that I should pay the leader, or I have to fill out the registration forms again. Oh joy. She said there was no hurry though, it's the beginning of July and fees do not have to be paid until mid-September. Hmm, cool. I was under the impression that the leader was in immediate need of the cash, but that isn't the case. I told the lady in the office I'd pay her promptly anyway because she's been pressuring me for it.  We looked at the Daisy uniforms and bought the Daisy Guide book.

Then I went to the fabric store and got fabric to make a Daisy uniform instead of paying $17 for a little vest, I paid $3 for a yard of the same colored fabric.

Two days later, I get an email that the leader quit because she is moving due to a job change and the group is being taken over by another mom. I'm starting to wonder if this is going to be worth it with all of the changes and mixed messages so far, and we're just in the sign-up stage.

I posted on Facebook: "Hmmm.... Put Gracie in Girl Scouts or Soccer for her 1st grade year? So far both are appealing to her and neither are appealing to me. :/"  I got 29 varied responses.  The timing was hilarious because minutes later...

New email from the new leader: 

"Hello,
I was just going over all the paper work to make sure everything has been completed. And unfortunately we will have to be dropping Gracie from the troop. We have not received payment and she has not been registered. I know there have been several attempts to complete her regestration with no success. There are over 300 girls eager to be on a troop and we can no longer hold her spot."

Seriously? Did we just get kicked out of Girl Scouts? Payment isn't due for two months and that's not good enough? Maybe new the new leader just doesn't know that I've tried to pay but I've been really busy and this is just a poorly worded request for payment. 

My reply:

I apologize that I did not have my checkbook the day I met up with [past leader] and filled in all the paperwork. I did offer to mail the check but she said not to, and later got a message saying she was watching for it in the mail so I was confused about mailing it in and opted not to since that was safer. I tried to drop it at her house one time but must have been ringing her bell when she wasn’t home, there was a car in the driveway so I figured someone would be there, but I didn’t want to leave it on the step.  I also stopped in the office and tried to pay there, but they wanted me to fill out all the paperwork again and my 3 yr old needed go to potty, so I didn’t have time. Always something.  I did buy the Daisy Guide book. The office told me there was no hurry and I had plenty of time, until Sept. Since you are in more of a hurry, I will stop at the office again and re-file the paperwork and pay there.  Thank you for your attempts to keep us in the group, but we have had a lot of things going on at home in our family and I honestly haven’t had any spare time.  We could not make it to the Brave movie event because we wanted to see it together as a family and the pizza event is happening while we are on vacation. It’s not that we are not interested, but  I understand you have no way of knowing that.

Mary Schumacher

Gracie’s Mom

Cell:xxx-xxxx

She zips one back:
Mary,
I wasn't present for the conversations between you and [past leader] so I am not sure of what was said, or where the disconnect came from. I understand about being busy and have a lot of going on as I have 2 small kids, a husband and a full time job. The Daisy guide book was optional as me and Kristy did not feel it was necessarily for was child to have one, as stated in the welcome packet. I am sure you will be able to return it. It is not that I am in a large hurry, it is that there have been lots of girls begging to join a troop. Again I apologize for the confusion but we have already let another girl know that we have an available spot. Girl Scouts is a huge commitment and maybe with all that you already have going on, it will be too much of a commitment for you guys. I am sorry that it did not work out. If we have a spot become available I can let you know, if you are still interested.



Hmmph. We got the boot! My freshly kicked ass replied with:

I’m astonished that  we were given no warning of removal and no second chance to be involved. If that is how things are done in the troop then it is best to not be involved. I will have to explain to my daughter that you do not want her in the troop; I’m sure we will find a more welcoming activity.

Yup, I really sent it!

Same day, new email. I don't even want to open it, but I did:

"Hi, my name is [4th leader in this mini-drama].  I will be starting a Daisy Girl Scout Troop this October, along with [another name], in the local area.  This will be the first year for this troop.  Girls going into Kindergarten and 1st grade can become Daisy Scouts."

No freaking way.  In less than a month, my daughter was offered to join three troops now and it's been nothing but paperwork, mixed messages, missed calls, miscommunication, changes here, changes there, inclusion/exclusion games and a fun little ride on someone's power trip. I'm not going to do this for a full year.  We are going to the Girl Scout office and return the Daisy book.

Soccer suddenly sounds like a fabulous idea! But the 100 degree fall heat is not one bit appealing. So, I've decided to look and see what City Recreation offers and we'll go with whatever they have. We've had very good luck with their swim lessons, gymnastics and ballet classes. 

Can't believe we almost got sucked into the drama club. That would have been one headache after another. So relieved we discovered the trouble before it even started! I admit, some of it was my fault for not paying fast enough, but I tried and can't help but think fate stepped in the way for me.


I think we earned a cookie.


* I've left out all of the real names of the Girl Scout leaders. While I'm not happy with any of them and their quest to fill my life with catty drama, I do respect their willingness to volunteer and for that I'm not going to post their real names. I will eat another cookie in honor of my last teeny bit of honor and respect that I've been able to salvage after this experience.