Well, we moved Uncle C & Aunt C. The following Monday I woke up with a sore shoulder but that subsided after a few hours. My arm pains were sort of amusing. I couldn’t lower my arms or raise them without discomfort. I had to keep my arms bent at the elbows all day. It was so worth it. We had so many laughs together. Even Aunt C and I. That is especially good news. We haven’t always got along. She has had this crazy idea that my life is so special and I have everything so easy. I think she finally got the hint that my life was no piece of cake. I might go into all of that another time but I their moving weekend made me so happy don’t want to go into all the pettiness that went on for years.
This weekend I made Aunt C laugh so hard she almost couldn’t walk! We got along SO well I just had to blog about it. The Christmas of 2006 was especially wonderful due to Aunt C. She was wonderful and full of cheer the entire time! It made that Christmas the most memorable as well.
Growing up moves where always handled by the military. Those colored stickers with the numbers hold fond memories. I wish I had kept a few over the years but I was a kid so what did I know about keepsakes. I can only recall one time the military actually messed up a bit on moving us. Sure, sometimes our furniture and other belongings were delayed but we did receive them. During our last military move, when my father retired…”Oh this is not your stuff? That’s ok, fill out this form. Keep the stuff, the others will be compensated. Oh? You are missing some items? Fill out this form and you will be reimbursed.” My parents were not happy with this “Why should the other family be without their belongings? Why should we be without ours? Who is paying for all of this? Oh, that’s right, we are…tax payers exist in the military too.” They tried and tried to convince the movers who were subcontracted by the military. Usually we had actual military move us so this was a first for us to have a subcontractor.
The military moved us each time but anyone who has moved knows there is a lot of work to be done once the items arrive at the new home. I suppose due to all of our moving about while we were growing up we grew use to the regimen of moving. This along with the last military move led us to rely on ourselves when someone in our family moved. It usually turns out to be a real family and friends event.
The weekend was full of hard work and laced with laughter.
When I arrived at their new McMansion style house I pulled up into the empty driveway. I was a little surprised the driveway was empty and the garage doors were open. As soon as I had the rabbit cage halfway out of the back of my van …here comes Uncle C leading a caravan of trucks filled with furniture and other household items. We rushed to get the rabbit inside and I moved my van out of the way. Uncle C had gathered a crew of friends to help with the move.
We made quick work moving the large pieces of furniture and such. My brother’s friends were all gentlemen. They believe women should not have to lift such have heavy things. I was given couch pillows, paintings and similarly small items. ManSon helped with the large furniture items with ease. As I watched him lift one large item after another I couldn’t believe this Man was once a helpless, tiny baby I held in my arms.
As he waited for an item to be passed down to him at the ramp of the truck he shook hands with each of the other men and introduced himself. This was hilarious to me since everyone already knew who he was. This was not the first time they met. They have known him since he was a toddler. When he introduced himself to Aunt C’s stepfather I couldn’t help but laugh! “Don’t be silly. I know who you are”, he laughed too. ManSon couldn’t figure out how everyone already knew him but he really had no idea who they were. Then it dawned on me. He had not seen any of these people for at least 8 years. He is only 19 so that is half of his life ago. Just over 8 years ago Aunt C treated me so badly at a family function I never wanted to set foot in her house afterwards. The Christmas of 2006 plus all the fun we were having on their moving day really made me believe all of that was behind us.
After unloading the trucks everyone was invited to partake of Aunt C’s wonderful buffet set up on the island in the kitchen. She really out did herself! The food was wonderful! Her mother even brought her homemade rum cake and pumpkin bread. De-Lish-Ous!
After everyone had time to recuperate and refresh all but one of Uncle C’s friends headed off to the many other things they had to do that day. I was actually surprised since I knew there was a storage unit which still required attention. Uncle C, his friend, ManSon and I headed out to pick up the many items in the storage unit. There was only one moving truck left but I had my van. I asked Aunt C if Snow White could stay at the house so there would be more room to load in my van. She agreed. I went upstairs to J’s room where Snow White was playing on her DS to let her know the plans for the next hour or so. I didn’t want her to suddenly discover her brother and Mommy had left. J was playing with her and keeping her company so I asked her if it was ok if Snow White stayed with her. I thought J would like to feel in charge. I also knew Snow White had been so engrossed with her DS that she barley noticed anything going on around her all day. She was content to have a place to sit on the floor and just play her DS. At most she might ask for a glass of water or to use the bathroom.
With that Uncle C and his friend lead the way in the moving truck while ManSon and I followed in my van. We reached the storage unit in about 30 minutes and started the grueling task of moving the items in the packed to the gills storage unit.
Every once in awhile Uncle C would pick up something and say “I haven’t used this in 9 months so I really don’t need it. Do you want it ManSon?” After a few of these statements I half jokingly said “Hey, I know what you are up to. You want to load up my house with all this stuff huh?” ManSon did really want most of what Uncle C had offered and I never rebutted. Uncle C was actually offering him good things such as a tool box, car mats and things.
Uncle C’s friend joked about a few items in the storage unit. “I think this would catch a good price on the Antiques Road Show! Two kites, brand new, in the box, never used, mint condition. What about this, a 1980’s bathroom sink. In mint condition. And this 1970’s washroom vanity.” His friend was funny and yes these things were in the storage unit. My brother does toss things he thinks he will never use. He usually has no problem purging items from his house. These were mostly things our parents bestowed upon him during their move after 20 years in the same house.
Every once in awhile Uncle C would pick up a box and say “This box is SO heavy! What could be in here?” After a few of these proclamations I said, in a matter of fact tone “Oh, that’s your porn.” I couldn’t believe I kept a straight face! I couldn’t believe I said the word Porn! Out Loud! My brother almost dropped the box! He also turned several shades of red. (he.he.he.) He was over come with embarrassment. He couldn’t believe I said it either. My brother. The super all time Daddy of the Year. The ultimate Family Man. How could I have said that?!
His friend laughed with such might he almost fell to the ground. When ManSon recovered from the fact that I said the word Porn he burst into laughter. I laughed until I cried! I brought three men to their knees, laughing, just by saying one word out loud.
There was one bad incident. While ManSon, the friend and Uncle C were carefully picking up a computer desk with an attached hutch….it broke in half. Uncle C quickly said he could repair it and it was no big deal but I could see the doubtful, apologetic looks on the friend’s and ManSon’s faces. A few minutes later Uncle C picked up a heavy box and….you guessed it “This box is so heavy! What’s in it?” I couldn’t resist! There was another burst of laughter from all!
Soon we were on our way back to the house to unload everything. While taking things out of the moving van and moving them to the basement Aunt C picked up a box. “This box is so heavy! What’s in it?” You know I HAD to say it! Okay, I didn’t say it but I explained the whole situation back at the storage unit. She laughed so hard she could hardly walk! She laughed heartedly for a good 15 minutes! As she walked past ManSon he said “Obviously I missed something. Something really good. What made her laugh?” He had never seen Aunt C so jovial. I explained but he was over that joke after like the 5th time. I still laugh today about it! Porn! As if! he.he.he!
After we finished unloading the sun had gone down. Aunt C told everyone to stay put because we just had to try the fabulous Pizzeria down the street. She called ahead and left to pick it up. Snow White came down stairs to join in our conversations. Well, she pretty much staid glued to her cousin J’s side. She didn’t look up from her game but she made sure she was sitting next to J on the couch when she came downstairs. She was so engrossed in her game that she didn’t notice when J moved from the living room to morning room with the rest of us. She could have seen us if she would only look up from that silly game. Oh well, she was content and I didn’t feel guilty for not spending time with her during the move.
That day I only witnessed one account of my nieces in battle. They have been at each other since the day the youngest could walk. They actually have knock out drag down fist fights with each other. It started innocently enough with the girls giving each other high-fives. Gradually the slapping of hands grew harder and harder until they were punching each other and eventually one of them went crashing into a wall in the kitchen.
Before I could lift up the one who fell the other was already upstairs behind her locked bedroom door. Uncle C came in to hug the one who fell and look her over for damages. Uncle C talked to the girls and they made up shortly there after. This type of behavior has always shocked me. I have seen them at family functions and thought maybe they had outgrown it by now. As I said, I only saw them fight once the entire time we were there. This is at least progress from the constant physical fighting of years ago.
We all joked and chatted for awhile then Aunt C came with the pizza. A few minutes into our pizza Grandma and Grandpa called to say “Hey, you are just around the corner how about stopping by our house.” Pretty much it was a test to see how long it would take me to drive to their house from Uncle C’s new house. We really wanted to get back home after a long day but I couldn’t refuse.
We said our goodbyes and drove another hour and a half to Grandma and Grandpa’s house. After an enjoyable hour visit we took the three hour drive home. Poor ManSon was so done in by the move he slept in the van while Snow White and visited with Grandma and Grandpa. I felt sorry for him but knew if he really wanted to he would have come inside. We left our house at the crack of dawn and arrived home to our beds around midnight.
It was grueling work but I want to remember this day.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Monday, February 04, 2008
Tired, Stressed, Ill Children..
I didn't completely forget about my blog. I will post my latest happenings once I have more than 5 minutes to myself.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Hot Flashes? Really?
Last month during my yearly physical, the doctor seemed extremely surprised to find out I still had all my girlie parts. "Does my chart say I am 70 years old or 40?"
Around 2:30 AM I woke up. Why? I was unbelievably HOT! I pushed back my comforter and the blanket. Surely with outside temps going down to 16 degrees tonight I would be ok with just a top sheet right?
An hour later I was still awake. I was still too Hot. Oh my goodness! Could this be what hot flashes are like? Have I reached that “new” plateau in life? But I am only 40 years old. Shouldn’t this happen much, much later? I decide sleep is still necessary so I take a bath to cool off. This should work right? I tossed and turn and the more I thought about the “change of life” the more I worried and the hotter I became.
At 6:30 AM I give up. No point in trying to sleep now. I get up and get everyone else moving. When I let Pup out I was relieved by the burst of freezing air which rushed in the kitchen door. Ok, I cannot stand at the open doorway all morning. I will let all the heat out of the house. I can hear my father’s voice “We’re not paying to heat the whole outdoors.”
On my way out the door I fight the urge to leave the house coatless. As I passed through the living room I sort of glanced at the central air thermostat. Holey Cow! Who set the heat at 80 degrees?! No wonder I was hot!
Instead of yelling at my children I turned the heat back down to 72 and laughed it off. At least it wasn’t the change of life out to screw me up. It was my children making me feel old. Great way to start the day…relieved.
Around 2:30 AM I woke up. Why? I was unbelievably HOT! I pushed back my comforter and the blanket. Surely with outside temps going down to 16 degrees tonight I would be ok with just a top sheet right?
An hour later I was still awake. I was still too Hot. Oh my goodness! Could this be what hot flashes are like? Have I reached that “new” plateau in life? But I am only 40 years old. Shouldn’t this happen much, much later? I decide sleep is still necessary so I take a bath to cool off. This should work right? I tossed and turn and the more I thought about the “change of life” the more I worried and the hotter I became.
At 6:30 AM I give up. No point in trying to sleep now. I get up and get everyone else moving. When I let Pup out I was relieved by the burst of freezing air which rushed in the kitchen door. Ok, I cannot stand at the open doorway all morning. I will let all the heat out of the house. I can hear my father’s voice “We’re not paying to heat the whole outdoors.”
On my way out the door I fight the urge to leave the house coatless. As I passed through the living room I sort of glanced at the central air thermostat. Holey Cow! Who set the heat at 80 degrees?! No wonder I was hot!
Instead of yelling at my children I turned the heat back down to 72 and laughed it off. At least it wasn’t the change of life out to screw me up. It was my children making me feel old. Great way to start the day…relieved.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
What’s a Mother to Do? The Horror Continues…or Am I just Paranoid?
Thursday at lunch time it started to snow as I drove ManSon to work. School was closed but Snow White went to Daycare as usual in the morning. During lunch, on my way to drop ManSon off at work the Daycare called. “Momma’s World, we saw a bug in Snow White’s hair. You need to pick her up right away.” I look over at ManSon in the passenger seat and say “Am I awake or am I dreaming? This just isn’t possible.” He couldn’t believe it either. What in the world! I was so angry I could have spit nails!
I dropped off ManSon and went straight to the Daycare. I just could not believe there was yet another freaken bug! How can this happen over and over and over again? She had been lice free for 10 days. This is actually the longest length of time she has been lice free while attending both Daycare and school. When she was home for Thanksgiving and Winter breaks she was fine. I started having thoughts of taking her out of school and daycare forever. Maybe even shaving her head and letting her wear a wig too. No, no, that would not do. That would be like punishing Snow White and she has done nothing wrong.
I spoke with the Daycare director who informed me they had to spray all the coats around Snow White’s, vacuum and dust and pretty much do a good deal of housekeeping. She was a little irritated but could still manage a smile. I felt the same way. I told her we have been doing the same things at home in addition to the hours and hours of hair treatments and changing her bed every day. All of her toys had been taken out of her room. Now there is just a bed, dresser, book shelf and desk. I was out of ideas so I said “We are definitely using the dog shampoo again.” To which the director snottily said “You SHOULD use the stuff that ACTULLY kills them.” My blood went straight to boiling and I snapped back “It is the ONLY thing that has kept her lice free for longer than 3 days!” With that I grabbed Snow White’s hand and walked out.
I called a neighbor to see if she could come over to watch her for the rest of the day. She would meet us at the house. As soon as we got home I took out Snow White’s braids to inspect her hair. I was SHOCKED at what I found….nothing. Absolutely NOTHING! No bugs, not one! No eggs, nits, nothing! I was both angry and relieved at the same time. Angry that the Daycare had Snow White excluded from the other children which made her feel bad. I was running late getting back to work and there was no reason for it. On the other hand, I was relieved that Snow White and I did not have to endure the grueling hours of treating her hair again.
I called the Daycare “I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that Snow White does not have any lice, live or eggs in her hair.” The director quickly responded “That is not true! I saw it with my own eyes! Valerie saw it first and then she showed it to me. IF that bug crawled off of her into our office then it is surely dead now. We sprayed the office completely.”
I continued with the bad news “The bad news is I think Snow White picked up that crawling bug from the Daycare. She did not go to school today. She has not been itchy, she hasn’t had any eggs, lice or signs of lice in her hair for days and days.”
The director interrupted me “I saw it with my own eyes! There was a bug crawling in her hair! You CANNOT bring her back today! Well, maybe if you take her to the doctor and have them inspect her hair and give you a letter stating she is ok to return.”
“I have absolutely no intentions of taking her back to daycare today or even tomorrow. I am now thinking the lice might be coming from someone at the daycare. This will give you the weekend to make sure the daycare is clean enough for her to return. I cannot keep going through this. Snow White cannot keep going through this.” The director kept insisting the bug could not have come from the daycare. We both agreed to disagree and hung up.
Snow White was happy to be home. She would much rather be here playing with her DS Lite and watching TV than being at the noisy Daycare all day. I laughed and said “Well, you got your wish. You get to stay home until school starts back up next week. No Daycare until it is absolutely necessary.” Then I went back to work. The computers were down. Later that night my parked Lincoln was in an accident. This was just not my day huh?
After dealing with the accident I talked things over with my sister I thought maybe I should take Snow White to Daycare the next morning. I was not going to leave her there. I would only let them check her hair and see for themselves there is nothing in her hair.
By Friday morning I had changed my mind. The roads were still a bit messy with the snow and ice. Why should I subject Snow White and myself to a treacherous drive on the slippery roads just to prove my point? Instead, I let her stay home and I head straight to work. On my way to work I called the Daycare. They were still insisting that they do not have any children with lice nor do they have lice anywhere in their facility.
The owner just happened to be there when I called. She insisted that they have cleaned the daycare center several times over the past few months “With all the money we have spent on de-licing the facility we should now own stock.” I told her I felt the same way. I also explained that I my fear of these heinous insects is far to great for me to allow her to come back to daycare today. “I just cannot do it. We don’t want to spend our entire weekend treating her hair again. At this point I don’t know if it is the Daycare or School but she didn’t even go to school yesterday and you said you saw one in her hair.”
The owner and director were obviously getting a bit testy. “We spoke with the school and we KNOW there are kids in her class infected with lice. Snow White is the only child we have seen here itching and scratching. Your daughter is the cause of lice in the school and here at the daycare!”
I almost lost it! What? How dare they say such a thing!
“Yes, there are children in her class with lice. There are also many other classrooms infected. What I don’t know is how many of them have contact with other children at the daycare center. Snow White is NOT the only child at the daycare center who attends that school. I am angry that other parents are taking their children to daycare/school and NOT telling anyone that they have lice! I let the daycare and school know about it as soon as we discovered it on Snow White. I have kept everyone informed all through this. I was outraged that the school knew about this outbreak for months but did not alert any of the parents! Maybe this is how it is handled here in this state. The daycare and school grind down hard on everyone but makes them feel like they are each the one and only cause of the problem.”
Owner: “Have you been retreating her hair with the shampoo after 14 days?”
Me: “No, I have not. We were doing it every three days because they seemed to come back every third day when she is in school and daycare.”
Owner: “Three days is too soon. You need to wait the full 14 days otherwise it does no good.”
Me: “If she has live lice in her hair I cannot wait 9 more days to re-treat her hair. That is ridiculous!”
Owner: “It sounds like you are over doing it then.”
And then my head explodes.
Is she kidding? First she says I am not doing enough and that my child is the cause of all of this. The she says I am over doing it? sheesh!
We spoke for a bit longer. The owner and director still insisting that it was all Snow White’s fault. Every class from 2nd -5th grade has 2-5 children per class infected at the school. A bug was crawling on Snow White at the Daycare center on a day she didn’t even attend school. I cannot see the logic in their argument.
I know I was getting angry on the phone. When we both reached the point of yelling I knew I had to stop and just take a breath. “I do not mean to yell at you. I am just angry and far beyond frustrated with this entire situation. Snow White will not return to the Daycare center until school starts back up next week.”
This morning while checking Snow White’s hair she asked me why I was checking again? Because I am paranoid. What does paranoid mean? I thought for a moment and said “It means you are so afraid of something that you think you see it even if it isn’t there. Like when I see a tiny piece of lint or dust in your hair then Freak Out!” She paused for a moment then a light seemed to go on and a big smile came across her face “Oh you mean the lice made you crazy?” Exactly!
When I dropped off Snow White at Daycare, one of the staff comes over with such a sour look on her face. Not the normal sweet “Hello” or “Good morning” with a smile. This morning it was a very stern “Hey, you cannot leave until we check her hair.” I knew they were going to check her hair and I was really looking forward to it. What did they find? The same thing I found…NOTHING!
While saying goodbye, have a fantastic day to Snow White I noticed something different. Four girls at the Daycare no longer had long hair. Apparently, over the weekend they all got short hair cuts. The same thing has been happening in Snow White’s school. I have seen more than 10 girls in different classes and grades all of whom have their hair shorter and shorter from week to week. The tell tail signs that NO, my daughter is not the only one who has been afflicted with this horribleness.
Just after 10 AM I received a call “Is this Momma’s World? This is the School Nurse.” I was ready for it. I was going to loose my temper. Everyone in the vicinity of my office was going to hear me give it to her! But then…
School Nurse: “I received a call from your daycare center saying they found lice on Snow White Thursday. Although school was not in session it is our policy that children found to have lice in school must be treated before they return.”
I explained to the School Nurse that I did not treat Snow White’s hair for lice. Why? Because she did not have any signs of lice when I picked her up from the daycare. I checked her immediately after picking her up.
Me: “I checked her hair this morning. Nothing. The daycare checked her this morning. Again, nothing.”
School Nurse: “I checked her myself this morning and I did not see anything. It is my responsibility to tell you what our school policy is regarding lice. I did check Snow White along with other students Wednesday morning before the break. I found no signs of lice on Snow White.”
Me: “Yet, the daycare said she had one crawling on her Thursday afternoon. I know exactly what the school policy is. I have picked her up from school several times now. If you do find lice in her hair ever again (deep breath) she will not be returning to school until I have proof from the Health Department that the school is finished with this plague. Does the school have a policy that covers private home tutoring for children who are unable to attend school due to illness?”
School Nurse: “Why, I just don’t know about that. I have never heard of such a policy myself.”
Me: “Well, if she catches it again that is the path we are taking. There is no way I can continue to send my child to school to be re-infected again and again. This has been going on for months. She is fine when she is home, away from school and daycare. I refuse to continue like this any longer.”
School Nurse: “Have you taken her to the doctor? A doctor might be able to help you.”
Me: (is she kidding?!) “Yes, she has been to the doctor. I have told you before that we went to the doctor. We tried the prescription shampoo and later with an antibiotic. The doctor even started to “Google” for any other solutions. When a doctor has run out of ideas and results to “Googling” you know he is at his wits end. He doesn’t know what else to do for her.
School Nurse: Well, we have to go on the parents word that they are doing what they are telling us.
Me: “I cannot believe that someone would say they are doing all of these things and not actually do them! Why would someone do that? Why would someone let those nasty things exist in their child’s hair? I have been through hell trying to get rid of them but I never just gave up. Who would do that?! It makes me angry that someone would allow their child to go back to school with it.”
School Nurse: “We don’t have the authority to go into their homes and make sure they are actually taking all the precautions.”
Me: “As I said, if it happens again, Snow White will not return to school until the school is cleared by the Health Department.”
Now I have a headache.
I dropped off ManSon and went straight to the Daycare. I just could not believe there was yet another freaken bug! How can this happen over and over and over again? She had been lice free for 10 days. This is actually the longest length of time she has been lice free while attending both Daycare and school. When she was home for Thanksgiving and Winter breaks she was fine. I started having thoughts of taking her out of school and daycare forever. Maybe even shaving her head and letting her wear a wig too. No, no, that would not do. That would be like punishing Snow White and she has done nothing wrong.
I spoke with the Daycare director who informed me they had to spray all the coats around Snow White’s, vacuum and dust and pretty much do a good deal of housekeeping. She was a little irritated but could still manage a smile. I felt the same way. I told her we have been doing the same things at home in addition to the hours and hours of hair treatments and changing her bed every day. All of her toys had been taken out of her room. Now there is just a bed, dresser, book shelf and desk. I was out of ideas so I said “We are definitely using the dog shampoo again.” To which the director snottily said “You SHOULD use the stuff that ACTULLY kills them.” My blood went straight to boiling and I snapped back “It is the ONLY thing that has kept her lice free for longer than 3 days!” With that I grabbed Snow White’s hand and walked out.
I called a neighbor to see if she could come over to watch her for the rest of the day. She would meet us at the house. As soon as we got home I took out Snow White’s braids to inspect her hair. I was SHOCKED at what I found….nothing. Absolutely NOTHING! No bugs, not one! No eggs, nits, nothing! I was both angry and relieved at the same time. Angry that the Daycare had Snow White excluded from the other children which made her feel bad. I was running late getting back to work and there was no reason for it. On the other hand, I was relieved that Snow White and I did not have to endure the grueling hours of treating her hair again.
I called the Daycare “I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that Snow White does not have any lice, live or eggs in her hair.” The director quickly responded “That is not true! I saw it with my own eyes! Valerie saw it first and then she showed it to me. IF that bug crawled off of her into our office then it is surely dead now. We sprayed the office completely.”
I continued with the bad news “The bad news is I think Snow White picked up that crawling bug from the Daycare. She did not go to school today. She has not been itchy, she hasn’t had any eggs, lice or signs of lice in her hair for days and days.”
The director interrupted me “I saw it with my own eyes! There was a bug crawling in her hair! You CANNOT bring her back today! Well, maybe if you take her to the doctor and have them inspect her hair and give you a letter stating she is ok to return.”
“I have absolutely no intentions of taking her back to daycare today or even tomorrow. I am now thinking the lice might be coming from someone at the daycare. This will give you the weekend to make sure the daycare is clean enough for her to return. I cannot keep going through this. Snow White cannot keep going through this.” The director kept insisting the bug could not have come from the daycare. We both agreed to disagree and hung up.
Snow White was happy to be home. She would much rather be here playing with her DS Lite and watching TV than being at the noisy Daycare all day. I laughed and said “Well, you got your wish. You get to stay home until school starts back up next week. No Daycare until it is absolutely necessary.” Then I went back to work. The computers were down. Later that night my parked Lincoln was in an accident. This was just not my day huh?
After dealing with the accident I talked things over with my sister I thought maybe I should take Snow White to Daycare the next morning. I was not going to leave her there. I would only let them check her hair and see for themselves there is nothing in her hair.
By Friday morning I had changed my mind. The roads were still a bit messy with the snow and ice. Why should I subject Snow White and myself to a treacherous drive on the slippery roads just to prove my point? Instead, I let her stay home and I head straight to work. On my way to work I called the Daycare. They were still insisting that they do not have any children with lice nor do they have lice anywhere in their facility.
The owner just happened to be there when I called. She insisted that they have cleaned the daycare center several times over the past few months “With all the money we have spent on de-licing the facility we should now own stock.” I told her I felt the same way. I also explained that I my fear of these heinous insects is far to great for me to allow her to come back to daycare today. “I just cannot do it. We don’t want to spend our entire weekend treating her hair again. At this point I don’t know if it is the Daycare or School but she didn’t even go to school yesterday and you said you saw one in her hair.”
The owner and director were obviously getting a bit testy. “We spoke with the school and we KNOW there are kids in her class infected with lice. Snow White is the only child we have seen here itching and scratching. Your daughter is the cause of lice in the school and here at the daycare!”
I almost lost it! What? How dare they say such a thing!
“Yes, there are children in her class with lice. There are also many other classrooms infected. What I don’t know is how many of them have contact with other children at the daycare center. Snow White is NOT the only child at the daycare center who attends that school. I am angry that other parents are taking their children to daycare/school and NOT telling anyone that they have lice! I let the daycare and school know about it as soon as we discovered it on Snow White. I have kept everyone informed all through this. I was outraged that the school knew about this outbreak for months but did not alert any of the parents! Maybe this is how it is handled here in this state. The daycare and school grind down hard on everyone but makes them feel like they are each the one and only cause of the problem.”
Owner: “Have you been retreating her hair with the shampoo after 14 days?”
Me: “No, I have not. We were doing it every three days because they seemed to come back every third day when she is in school and daycare.”
Owner: “Three days is too soon. You need to wait the full 14 days otherwise it does no good.”
Me: “If she has live lice in her hair I cannot wait 9 more days to re-treat her hair. That is ridiculous!”
Owner: “It sounds like you are over doing it then.”
And then my head explodes.
Is she kidding? First she says I am not doing enough and that my child is the cause of all of this. The she says I am over doing it? sheesh!
We spoke for a bit longer. The owner and director still insisting that it was all Snow White’s fault. Every class from 2nd -5th grade has 2-5 children per class infected at the school. A bug was crawling on Snow White at the Daycare center on a day she didn’t even attend school. I cannot see the logic in their argument.
I know I was getting angry on the phone. When we both reached the point of yelling I knew I had to stop and just take a breath. “I do not mean to yell at you. I am just angry and far beyond frustrated with this entire situation. Snow White will not return to the Daycare center until school starts back up next week.”
This morning while checking Snow White’s hair she asked me why I was checking again? Because I am paranoid. What does paranoid mean? I thought for a moment and said “It means you are so afraid of something that you think you see it even if it isn’t there. Like when I see a tiny piece of lint or dust in your hair then Freak Out!” She paused for a moment then a light seemed to go on and a big smile came across her face “Oh you mean the lice made you crazy?” Exactly!
When I dropped off Snow White at Daycare, one of the staff comes over with such a sour look on her face. Not the normal sweet “Hello” or “Good morning” with a smile. This morning it was a very stern “Hey, you cannot leave until we check her hair.” I knew they were going to check her hair and I was really looking forward to it. What did they find? The same thing I found…NOTHING!
While saying goodbye, have a fantastic day to Snow White I noticed something different. Four girls at the Daycare no longer had long hair. Apparently, over the weekend they all got short hair cuts. The same thing has been happening in Snow White’s school. I have seen more than 10 girls in different classes and grades all of whom have their hair shorter and shorter from week to week. The tell tail signs that NO, my daughter is not the only one who has been afflicted with this horribleness.
Just after 10 AM I received a call “Is this Momma’s World? This is the School Nurse.” I was ready for it. I was going to loose my temper. Everyone in the vicinity of my office was going to hear me give it to her! But then…
School Nurse: “I received a call from your daycare center saying they found lice on Snow White Thursday. Although school was not in session it is our policy that children found to have lice in school must be treated before they return.”
I explained to the School Nurse that I did not treat Snow White’s hair for lice. Why? Because she did not have any signs of lice when I picked her up from the daycare. I checked her immediately after picking her up.
Me: “I checked her hair this morning. Nothing. The daycare checked her this morning. Again, nothing.”
School Nurse: “I checked her myself this morning and I did not see anything. It is my responsibility to tell you what our school policy is regarding lice. I did check Snow White along with other students Wednesday morning before the break. I found no signs of lice on Snow White.”
Me: “Yet, the daycare said she had one crawling on her Thursday afternoon. I know exactly what the school policy is. I have picked her up from school several times now. If you do find lice in her hair ever again (deep breath) she will not be returning to school until I have proof from the Health Department that the school is finished with this plague. Does the school have a policy that covers private home tutoring for children who are unable to attend school due to illness?”
School Nurse: “Why, I just don’t know about that. I have never heard of such a policy myself.”
Me: “Well, if she catches it again that is the path we are taking. There is no way I can continue to send my child to school to be re-infected again and again. This has been going on for months. She is fine when she is home, away from school and daycare. I refuse to continue like this any longer.”
School Nurse: “Have you taken her to the doctor? A doctor might be able to help you.”
Me: (is she kidding?!) “Yes, she has been to the doctor. I have told you before that we went to the doctor. We tried the prescription shampoo and later with an antibiotic. The doctor even started to “Google” for any other solutions. When a doctor has run out of ideas and results to “Googling” you know he is at his wits end. He doesn’t know what else to do for her.
School Nurse: Well, we have to go on the parents word that they are doing what they are telling us.
Me: “I cannot believe that someone would say they are doing all of these things and not actually do them! Why would someone do that? Why would someone let those nasty things exist in their child’s hair? I have been through hell trying to get rid of them but I never just gave up. Who would do that?! It makes me angry that someone would allow their child to go back to school with it.”
School Nurse: “We don’t have the authority to go into their homes and make sure they are actually taking all the precautions.”
Me: “As I said, if it happens again, Snow White will not return to school until the school is cleared by the Health Department.”
Now I have a headache.
Monday, January 21, 2008
Things That Go Bump In The Night
It started to snow around lunch time. By the end of my work day there was only a few inches of snow on the ground and it was still coming down. I took it easy and made sure not to go up THAT hill on my way home.
On my way home I stopped by the gas station to fill up and use the ATM. I wanted to have cash on hand for a cab for ManSon and maybe some Pizza delivery. As I pulled up in our driveway I thought of parking the van at the very bottom to deter the snow plow from burying us in. I decided to pull the van all the way up to the side of the house. This way less snow/ice would accumulate on the windows and I would have more time to relax before picking up ManSon.
I had not decided yet if I would venture out to pick up ManSon myself or have him call a cab. When I came home Snow White informed me there was a new episode of Inuyasha On Demand. She knows she cannot watch it without my supervision. I look forward to spending this time with her and I have a bit of Anime addiction myself.
I decided to watch this episode with her and then pick up ManSon. We settled down on the family room couch for a relaxing half hour. As soon as Inuyasha started to play my cell phone rang. (stop movie).
It was Oldest Daughter wanting to know if I would pick her up tonight or tomorrow night since she is also off school tomorrow. I explained about the snow, it maybe tomorrow night or even Saturday morning depending on the roads. We chatted for a little bit and laughed a lot. After awhile she needed to go so we said our goodbyes.
Snow White was getting a little anxious about watching Inuyasha so we started the On Demand again. What was that? That noise? Is someone pounding on our front door? (stop movie). We listened for a little bit but heard nothing more. (start movie).
We are just past the intro and then I heard an even louder banging! (stop movie) This time I was sure someone was banging on the front door. When I opened the door there was a man, shaking and stuttering slightly. At first I wasn’t sure what was wrong with him. Then he pointed out in the darkness to where my Lincoln should be. “I am soooo sorry. I hit your car.” But where was my car?
I was looking in the wrong direction. The car was much closer to the house than I thought it would have been. The man apparently hit the back end of the Lincoln, spun it around and pushed it up the driveway directly behind my van. The Lincoln was no longer perpendicular to the house. It was now parallel to the house! Parked sideways near the top of the driveway.
The man’s silver Volvo SUV was halfway into my neighbor’s yard. It apparently missed my mailbox by about 2 inches and stopped on top of my neighbor’s hedge. I was shocked at the sight. I asked the man if he was alright. I would have been a nervous wreck, shaking and crying hysterically, if it had been me.
I went inside to get paper and a pen so we could exchange information. I watched the man write down his name. He was shaking a bit and that made his name a bit difficult to read. He couldn’t remember his insurance number but did write down the name. He promised to call me with the number as soon as he was home. That sounded a little fishy but then again I didn’t know my insurance number right off hand.
The man wanted to move his car so I could move my Lincoln back to where it was before the accident. Or at least move it so it was not preventing my van from getting out of the driveway. I helped guide the man out of the hedge. It was then that the next door neighbors came outside. “We were wondering why someone was walking around in our front yard. Glad it’s only you.” Then…”OH MY G** What happened to your car?! My hedge? What happened?!” I explained the situation and they thought it was best to stay outside with me. They are really wonderful neighbors. They wanted to make sure this stranger wasn’t going to do me harm.
I ran back into the house to get the keys to the Lincoln. Problem, I couldn’t remember where the keys were. We haven’t used the Lincoln in so long. Finally, I find a spare set but the battery was completely dead. No problem I have one of those generator, charger thing-a-me-bobs. Oh, it’s dead too. I forgot to plug it back in after loaning to the neighbors to jump start their vehicle. That’s ok, the man had jumper cables. They were only about 2 feet long. I had never seen such little jumper cables. It was taking a good while for a charge to take so I called ManSon’s work and said he should take a cab home. Not to worry about the cost, Mommy will take care of it. We finally got the Lincoln started and moved it so the van was no longer blocked.
As the man left I thought maybe I should get his license plate number. He did not write that down, nor did he write down what kind of car he had. As he drove away the neighbor’s daughter and I made note of the license plate. I went inside to get my camera. I might need photos when the insurance adjuster comes by. The neighbor’s daughter took photos with her cell phone and I used my digital camera. We must have taken photos from ever angle, the Lincoln, hedge, tire tracks. I think we were out there for a good half hour taking pictures. Then, a policeman drove up. We thought maybe someone called the police for suspicious “flashing”, you know the camera flash? Apparently, my next door neighbor called the police and then went somewhere. Her daughter and I had no idea she called the police or that she had left. The police officer said we pretty much were doing everything we should and there was nothing more he could do for us. So we let him go. Just as he left my neighbor called her daughter’s cell phone. Apparently she wanted us to file a police report but it was too late now. The policeman had already left.
ManSon couldn’t believe how bad the Lincoln was damaged but he saw the silver lining…Maybe this is God’s way of saying ‘Get rid of that old Lincoln and get a car for me.” We all laughed! Yes, maybe it was. See, everything happens for a reason.
On my way home I stopped by the gas station to fill up and use the ATM. I wanted to have cash on hand for a cab for ManSon and maybe some Pizza delivery. As I pulled up in our driveway I thought of parking the van at the very bottom to deter the snow plow from burying us in. I decided to pull the van all the way up to the side of the house. This way less snow/ice would accumulate on the windows and I would have more time to relax before picking up ManSon.
I had not decided yet if I would venture out to pick up ManSon myself or have him call a cab. When I came home Snow White informed me there was a new episode of Inuyasha On Demand. She knows she cannot watch it without my supervision. I look forward to spending this time with her and I have a bit of Anime addiction myself.
I decided to watch this episode with her and then pick up ManSon. We settled down on the family room couch for a relaxing half hour. As soon as Inuyasha started to play my cell phone rang. (stop movie).
It was Oldest Daughter wanting to know if I would pick her up tonight or tomorrow night since she is also off school tomorrow. I explained about the snow, it maybe tomorrow night or even Saturday morning depending on the roads. We chatted for a little bit and laughed a lot. After awhile she needed to go so we said our goodbyes.
Snow White was getting a little anxious about watching Inuyasha so we started the On Demand again. What was that? That noise? Is someone pounding on our front door? (stop movie). We listened for a little bit but heard nothing more. (start movie).
We are just past the intro and then I heard an even louder banging! (stop movie) This time I was sure someone was banging on the front door. When I opened the door there was a man, shaking and stuttering slightly. At first I wasn’t sure what was wrong with him. Then he pointed out in the darkness to where my Lincoln should be. “I am soooo sorry. I hit your car.” But where was my car?
I was looking in the wrong direction. The car was much closer to the house than I thought it would have been. The man apparently hit the back end of the Lincoln, spun it around and pushed it up the driveway directly behind my van. The Lincoln was no longer perpendicular to the house. It was now parallel to the house! Parked sideways near the top of the driveway.
The man’s silver Volvo SUV was halfway into my neighbor’s yard. It apparently missed my mailbox by about 2 inches and stopped on top of my neighbor’s hedge. I was shocked at the sight. I asked the man if he was alright. I would have been a nervous wreck, shaking and crying hysterically, if it had been me.
I went inside to get paper and a pen so we could exchange information. I watched the man write down his name. He was shaking a bit and that made his name a bit difficult to read. He couldn’t remember his insurance number but did write down the name. He promised to call me with the number as soon as he was home. That sounded a little fishy but then again I didn’t know my insurance number right off hand.
The man wanted to move his car so I could move my Lincoln back to where it was before the accident. Or at least move it so it was not preventing my van from getting out of the driveway. I helped guide the man out of the hedge. It was then that the next door neighbors came outside. “We were wondering why someone was walking around in our front yard. Glad it’s only you.” Then…”OH MY G** What happened to your car?! My hedge? What happened?!” I explained the situation and they thought it was best to stay outside with me. They are really wonderful neighbors. They wanted to make sure this stranger wasn’t going to do me harm.
I ran back into the house to get the keys to the Lincoln. Problem, I couldn’t remember where the keys were. We haven’t used the Lincoln in so long. Finally, I find a spare set but the battery was completely dead. No problem I have one of those generator, charger thing-a-me-bobs. Oh, it’s dead too. I forgot to plug it back in after loaning to the neighbors to jump start their vehicle. That’s ok, the man had jumper cables. They were only about 2 feet long. I had never seen such little jumper cables. It was taking a good while for a charge to take so I called ManSon’s work and said he should take a cab home. Not to worry about the cost, Mommy will take care of it. We finally got the Lincoln started and moved it so the van was no longer blocked.
As the man left I thought maybe I should get his license plate number. He did not write that down, nor did he write down what kind of car he had. As he drove away the neighbor’s daughter and I made note of the license plate. I went inside to get my camera. I might need photos when the insurance adjuster comes by. The neighbor’s daughter took photos with her cell phone and I used my digital camera. We must have taken photos from ever angle, the Lincoln, hedge, tire tracks. I think we were out there for a good half hour taking pictures. Then, a policeman drove up. We thought maybe someone called the police for suspicious “flashing”, you know the camera flash? Apparently, my next door neighbor called the police and then went somewhere. Her daughter and I had no idea she called the police or that she had left. The police officer said we pretty much were doing everything we should and there was nothing more he could do for us. So we let him go. Just as he left my neighbor called her daughter’s cell phone. Apparently she wanted us to file a police report but it was too late now. The policeman had already left.
ManSon couldn’t believe how bad the Lincoln was damaged but he saw the silver lining…Maybe this is God’s way of saying ‘Get rid of that old Lincoln and get a car for me.” We all laughed! Yes, maybe it was. See, everything happens for a reason.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
The Grossest Childhood Illnesses
One of the Grossest Childhood Illnesses
Children in Daycare or school have the opportunity to be with many, many other children. They grow with them and make many, many close friends. Friends they tumble with, hug, hold hands in line and while playing ring-around-the-roseies. They might trade cardigans or hats during recess. They also share their colds, the flu and many more other common, contagious illnesses. I can handle the colds, the latest strain of the flu and even the many viruses that stump even the Doctors. “It’s a virus. Something that is just going around.”
We had to deal with a brand new nemesis. November 12, 2007, I received the call from the school nurse I completely FREAKED OUT! I have one child who graduated from the public school system and one who will graduate this spring. We never had to deal with THIS problem. Never! I was not going to write about this childhood illness but I have discovered there are Mothers all over the US suffering through this along with me. I am not alone in this. Some of these Moms might be dealing with this for the first time, just like me.
Have you ever read about my fear of insects? It is HUGE! The call from the school nurse had me scared out of my mind. Oh My Gosh! She has head lice! My baby! I didn’t know what to do. The one thing I did know was I would be the one who had to take care of ridding her of those gross things. That creped me out more than the time I had to pull 3 yr old ManSon’s matchbox car out of the toilet.
I picked up Snow White at the school and listened to the directions from the school nurse. She was actually surprised that I had no idea what to do. The nurse told me to find a lice shampoo at a local pharmacy/grocery/Walmart store. I never noticed how many different products were available to rid your child of lice. Walmart had a full side of one isle in the pharmacy department! Shampoos galore, dozens and dozens of different combs, sprays, and kits.
The nurse said shampoo so I read all the boxes and selected Knix. I must have read the directions ten times before I started. I followed the directions to perfection. I stopped a few times just to double check the directions. After using the shampoo I sat Snow White down in my bathroom to combed out all the tangles. I gave her a book to read, then continued the decontamination process by combing out her hair with the little, bitty, fine toothed comb (came with the shampoo).
What was I thinking?! Snow White cannot read a book while I do anything to her hair. Her scalp is EXTREMELY sensitive. She screams bloody murder when I brush her hair while getting ready in the morning. Now here I was using this very fine toothed comb to scrap her scalp and her hair. Doing this one square inch at a time was so nerve racking! I would have much rather preferred to sit through 3 hours of fingernails scraping a chalk board or have all my teeth pulled without Novocain.
After scraping each square inch, I had to twist that section into a tiny bun then bobby pin the bun in place. With Snow White’s waist length hair this process took 3 hours. Three continuous hours of her screaming and crying. My back and feet hurt from standing bent over her all that time. The instructions for the lice shampoo said I had to repeat the same treatment in 14 days. Thank goodness we had two weeks to recuperate and try to forget the horrible treatment.
The hours of her torturous moaning and my back aching… I was near tears. We finally finished up at 1 AM! On a school night! I gave her a few minutes to calm down while I changed her bedding and put her clothes in a plastic bag. It all had to be done and it had to be taken care of that night. She cannot miss school and I could not take off work.
The next day she went to daycare and I pulled one of the lead staff members aside. I explained there was an outbreak of lice in Snow White’s school. Before we left home that morning I explained to Snow White that she must put her coat in her back pack. “Do not hang it up at daycare or at school. We don’t know who else has it and we don’t want to repeat all that painful work.” She immediately agreed. The daycare staff could not believe Snow White had managed to be contaminated especially since she wore tight braids nearly every single day. Our normal school night routine was to put her hair in braids after her nightly bath. This meant we could skip the screaming from hair brushing in the morning. I am all for a peaceful morning.
Friday, only three days later…the school nurse calls again. Three days! The shampoo said it would kill and repel lice and eggs for two weeks. It LIED! Ok, maybe it was my fault. I had never had to do this before. Maybe I missed a few during our grueling hours upon hours of “treatment”. There I was, at work and I had to leave early again to pick up my daughter from school. She was not allowed to stay in school due to the live lice. I was sure daycare would say the same thing so we went home at 2 PM and repeated the process.
Sunday night, Snow White started itching again. Advice - check every single morning, afternoon and evening. Do not wait for itching. Itching means live lice. I give up on the Knix and buy Rid. For this application I use half the bottle instead of the recommended portion. We repeat the process and we are up until 10 PM. Not as late as before but the process still took three hours. Still changing her bed clothes each night and placing her clothes in plastic bags.
Monday morning - daycare checked her and said as long as she doesn’t have nits she can attend. This is when I found out the lice eggs are called nits. She clears this hurtle. Ring. Ring. Ring. “Ms. Momma’s World, this is the school nurse. You need to pick up your daughter. We found lice in her hair.” They have just gotta be kidding me!
I pick up Snow White from School and the nurse suggested that we put all of her stuffed animals, the clothes she has worn and her bed clothes in plastic garbage bags. My Mother laughs at me for buying up bed sets when I see them on sale “No one will ever need that many bed sets!” I guess I was thinking some day I might need that many. Ok, so all the stuffed animals go in to garbage bags. Unbeknownst to Snow White some of those stuffed animals actually went into the garbage. What kid needs THAT many stuffed animals. I did not toss out any animals with remote sentimental attachment or the Boyd’s Bears collection. However, every stuffed animal was put into garbage bags.
Lather, rinse, repeat treatment…1AM and we are done. This time I took some of the length off. She had waist length hair but now it comes up to her shoulder blades. I thought this might lessen the time it takes to twist her hair in to those tiny buns. Sure, Snow White and I were extremely sleep depraved the next morning but we were both on our way to our required destinations, school and work.
Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, Ring, Ring, Ring! “Ms. Momma’s World” said a different school nurse in a hoity toity attitude. “Your daughter must be picked up right away. She has lice. We do not allow that kind of thing here at our school.” I rush over to pick her up only to be lectured to by this other school nurse about how important it is to take care of “your child.” I did what I normally do when I am abruptly confronted without foundation. I took a deep breath and said nothing. If I had said anything I am sure Snow White would have been expelled…no school in the state would have allowed her to attend their facility…not even the private schools. I would get back to her via a phone call after the Thanksgiving break. When I cooled down a bit.
What did I want to say to that sassy nurse? I wanted to yell at her and explain all that Snow White and myself had already endured trying to rid her of these horrible things. I might have even waved my hands, arms and all body parts in her direction putting to shame any myths of Italian body language. I envisioned this would have accidentally caused some sort of physical impact on the sassy nurse along with real profanity, not the same sort of Mommy cursing of “Oh poop” or “You Giant Frosted Cupcake!.”
On with the story…Later, Rinse, Repeat lice removal torture for hours. Thanksgiving happened. No more lice! Ding Dong doing the Lice is Gone dance!...
Two weeks before Christmas the Nightmare returns! What?! No way! Snow White has been wearing tight braids every day to school! Her coat is never hung up at daycare or school! She puts it in her back pack. How?! How, could this evil thing happen AGAIN?! I know we live in the country now but Come On!
What did I do?....
Doctor Visit - prescription shampoo
Vet visit to dip the animals (cats hid from us for three days after)
Clothes and bed clothes in plastic bags (stuffed animals still in bags)
Purchase new mattress set
Had all of the upholstery cleaned
Purchase new coat, gloves and hat
Purchase lice and egg killing spray (available next to lice shampoo)
Purchase lice Zapping electric comb
Purchase hair flattening iron & 2 bottles of Windex
Purchase new bottle of olive oil (suppose to keep the nits from getting in hair)
Purchase 2 new sets of bed clothes
After using the prescription shampoo it was only two days until the next outbreak. I was determined to get rid of these awful things so the new mattress set, bed clothes, coat was all for the better right? I also used the spray on every fabric surface in the house including her new mattress set, the car and even on her coat (not suppose to use the spray on clothing). After treating/torturing her hair again…they came back!
What did I do next? I used the electric lice comb. I took Snow White out into the Sunroom so their dead little caucuses would not lay on my floors. She screamed and screamed and cried and cried. I had only swept 4 inches of her hair and her face was dripping with tears. This is how the electric comb works…it send out a “small” voltage of continuous electricity until it finds one of those nasty bugs or it’s eggs. I was fed up. I couldn’t take another 3 - 4 hour session of her crying. I actually yelled at her “Don’t be such a cry baby!” Then I showed her how simple this was going to be. I placed that comb against my head and that is when I realized how MUCH voltage was going through my poor little baby’s head!!! How in the world can they approve such a horrendous product to be used on CHILDREN?! The box shows a little girl around 2 years old!! It was about half the stun you would think comes out of a police stun gun! Mentally flogging those who created that ultimate child torture device.
On to the next solution. Repeat 3 hour treatment with prescription shampoo and add the school nurse’s idea of the hot iron and Windex treatment. 2 AM and we are finally done. Again it was a school night and we were both crying and dead tired. Next morning Snow White wakes up with her usual lice treated afro hair do. Most mornings after I do not have the strength to deal with her hair so I just put it in a pony tail or bun. This morning I decided a tight bun of hair encased in olive oil. The next night I notice that Snow White’s raven black hair is now sort of a light brown. That darn Windex and flat iron!! Oh well, everyone says her hair will go back to her beautiful black color.
She was fine until December 20th, the Thursday before Christmas. The school nurse called to say …It was Back! I made an appointment with the Doctor right away. Surprise, they would actually be open Christmas Eve! Yeah! The doctor prescribed using the same prescription shampoo along with an antibiotic. I wish I could share the name of the antibiotic but it is not listed on the bottle since there is no room for the name due to all the safety warnings. Snow White said it was the best tasting medicine she has ever tasted. I am not sure if that is due to the results or the fact that it truly does taste as good as it smells. She was cured…again! The angels sang and I wept tears of joy.
We had a wonderful holiday vacation from work and school. Aside from a few medical mishaps on my part. The dishes were out to kill me but that is another small post of it’s own. Anyway, after 11 days of being away from work and school it was time for us to go back to our normal routine.
January 7th , school nurse calls to say “You need to pick up your child.” NO! NO! NO! I did everything possible there is no way on this earth she has it AGAIN! Apparently she did not have nits (eggs) but she had live lice in her hair! How could this happen! Someone with lice must have come in direct contact with her that day. If she had lice all weekend she would have had nits in her hair but after an AM hair check at daycare and being at school for half a day she suddenly had live lice.
I do have to say the school was stepping up with lice control. Everything in the room is plastic or has a hard surface. The teacher implemented a garbage bag coat room. All backpacks, coats, hats, gloves, etc, must be placed in a garbage bag and hung from the coat hooks in the back of the class room. Can you imagine most teachers worst childhood illness during the winter is the flu and these teachers are faced with the possibility of lice?!
Also the new classroom rules include anyone teasing, starting rumors or picking on anyone they suspect of having lice results in an automatic Red Strike! There are three levels of stricks…Green, Yellow and Red. Red means a note home and in some cases after school detention. This may not seem like a big deal but these are 3rd graders and it is a huge deal to them. Both the Nurse and the Teacher told Snow White in front of me that if any student or staff treated her ill or made a remark about lice to her, she was to report them immediately. It was then that Snow White mentioned the other children making fun of her Lice Afro (result of all that twisting and pinning of the hair) which she never mentioned before, not even to me. She also burst the bubble of the school nurse who continuously tried to convince me that Snow White was the ONLY child in that classroom with lice. Snow White took this opportunity to tattle on classmates who were teasing other classmates who had lice.
The teacher and nursed both seemed to be taken aback that Snow White would reveal this information in front of me. I congratulated Snow White for sticking up for her fellow classmates, even those she was not friends with. Later, in the car I also said that it was very noble of her, she should not look at anyone differently but please, for the love of all that is sweet and tender in the world… “Don’t touch those children in any way shape or form! The whole lot of you might well be passing it back and forth between you!” She understood and agreed.
After picking up Snow White from school I called the Brownie troop leader to say Snow White would miss her first ever meeting/outing ever. I was out of ideas. Shampoos that claimed they would all kill and repel lice had all lied to me time and time again. Even with the added antibiotic! Each claimed to kill and repel for two weeks only to disappoint me after 2-3 days. The doctors tried to push it off as “There seems to be an extremely tolerant vain of lice” or “They are now immune to the over the counter products.” If product promises a two week limit I might be inclined to accept one week but for it to only last 2-3 days greatly falls short of it’s promise. Snow White sobbed to the doctor “I think I am just going to have to be bald. They wont leave me alone. I will always have lice if I have hair.” The doctor laughed and removed his hat…he was bald. Snow White didn’t laugh she only said “You are so lucky you are bald. You will never have lice.” On the way home Snow White verbally weighed out her options…scalp and hair scraping for the rest of her life or shaving her head and wearing a wig for the rest of her life. I felt so sorry for her but I couldn’t help but chuckle to myself about her thoughts of wearing a wig. “Maybe I wont have to go completely bald. I could just wear a fall. Do you know where my pageant fall is?” I almost fell out of the driver’s seat from laughing. “I think they are in one of the suit cases upstairs but really, you need hair to pin on a fall. You cannot be completely bald. Aside from that, Mrs. Madonna lives in Kentucky. We cannot have her travel all the way out here every morning to do your hair and make up.” The idea of a traveling of one of the top H/M persons and all costs had us both laughing. Thank goodness she was smiling again.
Well, here I was, out of ideas and nothing seemed to work. I took Snow White home, fed her, bathed her myself and washed her hair with Dog Shampoo! That’s right. I said dog shampoo. The dog shampoo worked the BEST! It made removing the nits easier. It killed the lice and even gave Snow White’s hair a smooth glossy finish. I would not recommend dog shampoo for any child. I exhausted every other avenue before attempting this. If you reach the end of your rope after repeated outbreaks after exhausting all other options make sure to read the label of the dog shampoo. Some are not to be applied to bare skin. The scalp of an adult can be sensitive and the scalp of a child even more so.
Snow White has been lice free since January 7th but I am not closing this chapter of the worst ever childhood contagious illness, not just yet. We are only on day 3 so I hope it is the last we see of lice but I am not going to count my chickens just yet.
A few tid bits of information given to me by the school nurse, daycare center and the doctor….
Anything that cannot be washed should be sprayed with lice killing spray and/or placed into garbage bags for 48 hours. Lice cannot live without a host more than 24 hours. I am sure nits (lice eggs) can live off of the hair they are glued to until they hatch which can be 2 days to two weeks. Snow White’s stuffed animals are still in the plastic garbage bags from the first outbreak in November. I don’t know if I will ever be brave enough to open them again.
Lice have crab like features. They cling to clean hair easier and can attach their eggs easier to clean hair. Olive Oil can help in making clean hair too oily for crawling or egg laying. This lead to Snow White going to school in the middle of winter with Olive Oiled hair slicked up into a bun. She still caught the lice so I am not sure how sound this advice was.
Windex and hair straightening iron - I do not recommend using this method. It did not make it any easier to remove the nits and it had ill effects on my daughter’s hair. A mixture of the heat and Windex made her hair lighter by stripping it.
All of this plus work and normal every day things made it difficult to post on my blog. I hope all of you understand. I didn’t leave my blog on purpose. I was just extra busy from the time I left work each night until 2 AM most of the time. The other time…well that was the dishes trying to kill me or God telling me never to touch another dish…or at least while I was on vacation from the office.
I hope all is well with you and that the plague of lice never visits your home.
Children in Daycare or school have the opportunity to be with many, many other children. They grow with them and make many, many close friends. Friends they tumble with, hug, hold hands in line and while playing ring-around-the-roseies. They might trade cardigans or hats during recess. They also share their colds, the flu and many more other common, contagious illnesses. I can handle the colds, the latest strain of the flu and even the many viruses that stump even the Doctors. “It’s a virus. Something that is just going around.”
We had to deal with a brand new nemesis. November 12, 2007, I received the call from the school nurse I completely FREAKED OUT! I have one child who graduated from the public school system and one who will graduate this spring. We never had to deal with THIS problem. Never! I was not going to write about this childhood illness but I have discovered there are Mothers all over the US suffering through this along with me. I am not alone in this. Some of these Moms might be dealing with this for the first time, just like me.
Have you ever read about my fear of insects? It is HUGE! The call from the school nurse had me scared out of my mind. Oh My Gosh! She has head lice! My baby! I didn’t know what to do. The one thing I did know was I would be the one who had to take care of ridding her of those gross things. That creped me out more than the time I had to pull 3 yr old ManSon’s matchbox car out of the toilet.
I picked up Snow White at the school and listened to the directions from the school nurse. She was actually surprised that I had no idea what to do. The nurse told me to find a lice shampoo at a local pharmacy/grocery/Walmart store. I never noticed how many different products were available to rid your child of lice. Walmart had a full side of one isle in the pharmacy department! Shampoos galore, dozens and dozens of different combs, sprays, and kits.
The nurse said shampoo so I read all the boxes and selected Knix. I must have read the directions ten times before I started. I followed the directions to perfection. I stopped a few times just to double check the directions. After using the shampoo I sat Snow White down in my bathroom to combed out all the tangles. I gave her a book to read, then continued the decontamination process by combing out her hair with the little, bitty, fine toothed comb (came with the shampoo).
What was I thinking?! Snow White cannot read a book while I do anything to her hair. Her scalp is EXTREMELY sensitive. She screams bloody murder when I brush her hair while getting ready in the morning. Now here I was using this very fine toothed comb to scrap her scalp and her hair. Doing this one square inch at a time was so nerve racking! I would have much rather preferred to sit through 3 hours of fingernails scraping a chalk board or have all my teeth pulled without Novocain.
After scraping each square inch, I had to twist that section into a tiny bun then bobby pin the bun in place. With Snow White’s waist length hair this process took 3 hours. Three continuous hours of her screaming and crying. My back and feet hurt from standing bent over her all that time. The instructions for the lice shampoo said I had to repeat the same treatment in 14 days. Thank goodness we had two weeks to recuperate and try to forget the horrible treatment.
The hours of her torturous moaning and my back aching… I was near tears. We finally finished up at 1 AM! On a school night! I gave her a few minutes to calm down while I changed her bedding and put her clothes in a plastic bag. It all had to be done and it had to be taken care of that night. She cannot miss school and I could not take off work.
The next day she went to daycare and I pulled one of the lead staff members aside. I explained there was an outbreak of lice in Snow White’s school. Before we left home that morning I explained to Snow White that she must put her coat in her back pack. “Do not hang it up at daycare or at school. We don’t know who else has it and we don’t want to repeat all that painful work.” She immediately agreed. The daycare staff could not believe Snow White had managed to be contaminated especially since she wore tight braids nearly every single day. Our normal school night routine was to put her hair in braids after her nightly bath. This meant we could skip the screaming from hair brushing in the morning. I am all for a peaceful morning.
Friday, only three days later…the school nurse calls again. Three days! The shampoo said it would kill and repel lice and eggs for two weeks. It LIED! Ok, maybe it was my fault. I had never had to do this before. Maybe I missed a few during our grueling hours upon hours of “treatment”. There I was, at work and I had to leave early again to pick up my daughter from school. She was not allowed to stay in school due to the live lice. I was sure daycare would say the same thing so we went home at 2 PM and repeated the process.
Sunday night, Snow White started itching again. Advice - check every single morning, afternoon and evening. Do not wait for itching. Itching means live lice. I give up on the Knix and buy Rid. For this application I use half the bottle instead of the recommended portion. We repeat the process and we are up until 10 PM. Not as late as before but the process still took three hours. Still changing her bed clothes each night and placing her clothes in plastic bags.
Monday morning - daycare checked her and said as long as she doesn’t have nits she can attend. This is when I found out the lice eggs are called nits. She clears this hurtle. Ring. Ring. Ring. “Ms. Momma’s World, this is the school nurse. You need to pick up your daughter. We found lice in her hair.” They have just gotta be kidding me!
I pick up Snow White from School and the nurse suggested that we put all of her stuffed animals, the clothes she has worn and her bed clothes in plastic garbage bags. My Mother laughs at me for buying up bed sets when I see them on sale “No one will ever need that many bed sets!” I guess I was thinking some day I might need that many. Ok, so all the stuffed animals go in to garbage bags. Unbeknownst to Snow White some of those stuffed animals actually went into the garbage. What kid needs THAT many stuffed animals. I did not toss out any animals with remote sentimental attachment or the Boyd’s Bears collection. However, every stuffed animal was put into garbage bags.
Lather, rinse, repeat treatment…1AM and we are done. This time I took some of the length off. She had waist length hair but now it comes up to her shoulder blades. I thought this might lessen the time it takes to twist her hair in to those tiny buns. Sure, Snow White and I were extremely sleep depraved the next morning but we were both on our way to our required destinations, school and work.
Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, Ring, Ring, Ring! “Ms. Momma’s World” said a different school nurse in a hoity toity attitude. “Your daughter must be picked up right away. She has lice. We do not allow that kind of thing here at our school.” I rush over to pick her up only to be lectured to by this other school nurse about how important it is to take care of “your child.” I did what I normally do when I am abruptly confronted without foundation. I took a deep breath and said nothing. If I had said anything I am sure Snow White would have been expelled…no school in the state would have allowed her to attend their facility…not even the private schools. I would get back to her via a phone call after the Thanksgiving break. When I cooled down a bit.
What did I want to say to that sassy nurse? I wanted to yell at her and explain all that Snow White and myself had already endured trying to rid her of these horrible things. I might have even waved my hands, arms and all body parts in her direction putting to shame any myths of Italian body language. I envisioned this would have accidentally caused some sort of physical impact on the sassy nurse along with real profanity, not the same sort of Mommy cursing of “Oh poop” or “You Giant Frosted Cupcake!.”
On with the story…Later, Rinse, Repeat lice removal torture for hours. Thanksgiving happened. No more lice! Ding Dong doing the Lice is Gone dance!...
Two weeks before Christmas the Nightmare returns! What?! No way! Snow White has been wearing tight braids every day to school! Her coat is never hung up at daycare or school! She puts it in her back pack. How?! How, could this evil thing happen AGAIN?! I know we live in the country now but Come On!
What did I do?....
Doctor Visit - prescription shampoo
Vet visit to dip the animals (cats hid from us for three days after)
Clothes and bed clothes in plastic bags (stuffed animals still in bags)
Purchase new mattress set
Had all of the upholstery cleaned
Purchase new coat, gloves and hat
Purchase lice and egg killing spray (available next to lice shampoo)
Purchase lice Zapping electric comb
Purchase hair flattening iron & 2 bottles of Windex
Purchase new bottle of olive oil (suppose to keep the nits from getting in hair)
Purchase 2 new sets of bed clothes
After using the prescription shampoo it was only two days until the next outbreak. I was determined to get rid of these awful things so the new mattress set, bed clothes, coat was all for the better right? I also used the spray on every fabric surface in the house including her new mattress set, the car and even on her coat (not suppose to use the spray on clothing). After treating/torturing her hair again…they came back!
What did I do next? I used the electric lice comb. I took Snow White out into the Sunroom so their dead little caucuses would not lay on my floors. She screamed and screamed and cried and cried. I had only swept 4 inches of her hair and her face was dripping with tears. This is how the electric comb works…it send out a “small” voltage of continuous electricity until it finds one of those nasty bugs or it’s eggs. I was fed up. I couldn’t take another 3 - 4 hour session of her crying. I actually yelled at her “Don’t be such a cry baby!” Then I showed her how simple this was going to be. I placed that comb against my head and that is when I realized how MUCH voltage was going through my poor little baby’s head!!! How in the world can they approve such a horrendous product to be used on CHILDREN?! The box shows a little girl around 2 years old!! It was about half the stun you would think comes out of a police stun gun! Mentally flogging those who created that ultimate child torture device.
On to the next solution. Repeat 3 hour treatment with prescription shampoo and add the school nurse’s idea of the hot iron and Windex treatment. 2 AM and we are finally done. Again it was a school night and we were both crying and dead tired. Next morning Snow White wakes up with her usual lice treated afro hair do. Most mornings after I do not have the strength to deal with her hair so I just put it in a pony tail or bun. This morning I decided a tight bun of hair encased in olive oil. The next night I notice that Snow White’s raven black hair is now sort of a light brown. That darn Windex and flat iron!! Oh well, everyone says her hair will go back to her beautiful black color.
She was fine until December 20th, the Thursday before Christmas. The school nurse called to say …It was Back! I made an appointment with the Doctor right away. Surprise, they would actually be open Christmas Eve! Yeah! The doctor prescribed using the same prescription shampoo along with an antibiotic. I wish I could share the name of the antibiotic but it is not listed on the bottle since there is no room for the name due to all the safety warnings. Snow White said it was the best tasting medicine she has ever tasted. I am not sure if that is due to the results or the fact that it truly does taste as good as it smells. She was cured…again! The angels sang and I wept tears of joy.
We had a wonderful holiday vacation from work and school. Aside from a few medical mishaps on my part. The dishes were out to kill me but that is another small post of it’s own. Anyway, after 11 days of being away from work and school it was time for us to go back to our normal routine.
January 7th , school nurse calls to say “You need to pick up your child.” NO! NO! NO! I did everything possible there is no way on this earth she has it AGAIN! Apparently she did not have nits (eggs) but she had live lice in her hair! How could this happen! Someone with lice must have come in direct contact with her that day. If she had lice all weekend she would have had nits in her hair but after an AM hair check at daycare and being at school for half a day she suddenly had live lice.
I do have to say the school was stepping up with lice control. Everything in the room is plastic or has a hard surface. The teacher implemented a garbage bag coat room. All backpacks, coats, hats, gloves, etc, must be placed in a garbage bag and hung from the coat hooks in the back of the class room. Can you imagine most teachers worst childhood illness during the winter is the flu and these teachers are faced with the possibility of lice?!
Also the new classroom rules include anyone teasing, starting rumors or picking on anyone they suspect of having lice results in an automatic Red Strike! There are three levels of stricks…Green, Yellow and Red. Red means a note home and in some cases after school detention. This may not seem like a big deal but these are 3rd graders and it is a huge deal to them. Both the Nurse and the Teacher told Snow White in front of me that if any student or staff treated her ill or made a remark about lice to her, she was to report them immediately. It was then that Snow White mentioned the other children making fun of her Lice Afro (result of all that twisting and pinning of the hair) which she never mentioned before, not even to me. She also burst the bubble of the school nurse who continuously tried to convince me that Snow White was the ONLY child in that classroom with lice. Snow White took this opportunity to tattle on classmates who were teasing other classmates who had lice.
The teacher and nursed both seemed to be taken aback that Snow White would reveal this information in front of me. I congratulated Snow White for sticking up for her fellow classmates, even those she was not friends with. Later, in the car I also said that it was very noble of her, she should not look at anyone differently but please, for the love of all that is sweet and tender in the world… “Don’t touch those children in any way shape or form! The whole lot of you might well be passing it back and forth between you!” She understood and agreed.
After picking up Snow White from school I called the Brownie troop leader to say Snow White would miss her first ever meeting/outing ever. I was out of ideas. Shampoos that claimed they would all kill and repel lice had all lied to me time and time again. Even with the added antibiotic! Each claimed to kill and repel for two weeks only to disappoint me after 2-3 days. The doctors tried to push it off as “There seems to be an extremely tolerant vain of lice” or “They are now immune to the over the counter products.” If product promises a two week limit I might be inclined to accept one week but for it to only last 2-3 days greatly falls short of it’s promise. Snow White sobbed to the doctor “I think I am just going to have to be bald. They wont leave me alone. I will always have lice if I have hair.” The doctor laughed and removed his hat…he was bald. Snow White didn’t laugh she only said “You are so lucky you are bald. You will never have lice.” On the way home Snow White verbally weighed out her options…scalp and hair scraping for the rest of her life or shaving her head and wearing a wig for the rest of her life. I felt so sorry for her but I couldn’t help but chuckle to myself about her thoughts of wearing a wig. “Maybe I wont have to go completely bald. I could just wear a fall. Do you know where my pageant fall is?” I almost fell out of the driver’s seat from laughing. “I think they are in one of the suit cases upstairs but really, you need hair to pin on a fall. You cannot be completely bald. Aside from that, Mrs. Madonna lives in Kentucky. We cannot have her travel all the way out here every morning to do your hair and make up.” The idea of a traveling of one of the top H/M persons and all costs had us both laughing. Thank goodness she was smiling again.
Well, here I was, out of ideas and nothing seemed to work. I took Snow White home, fed her, bathed her myself and washed her hair with Dog Shampoo! That’s right. I said dog shampoo. The dog shampoo worked the BEST! It made removing the nits easier. It killed the lice and even gave Snow White’s hair a smooth glossy finish. I would not recommend dog shampoo for any child. I exhausted every other avenue before attempting this. If you reach the end of your rope after repeated outbreaks after exhausting all other options make sure to read the label of the dog shampoo. Some are not to be applied to bare skin. The scalp of an adult can be sensitive and the scalp of a child even more so.
Snow White has been lice free since January 7th but I am not closing this chapter of the worst ever childhood contagious illness, not just yet. We are only on day 3 so I hope it is the last we see of lice but I am not going to count my chickens just yet.
A few tid bits of information given to me by the school nurse, daycare center and the doctor….
Anything that cannot be washed should be sprayed with lice killing spray and/or placed into garbage bags for 48 hours. Lice cannot live without a host more than 24 hours. I am sure nits (lice eggs) can live off of the hair they are glued to until they hatch which can be 2 days to two weeks. Snow White’s stuffed animals are still in the plastic garbage bags from the first outbreak in November. I don’t know if I will ever be brave enough to open them again.
Lice have crab like features. They cling to clean hair easier and can attach their eggs easier to clean hair. Olive Oil can help in making clean hair too oily for crawling or egg laying. This lead to Snow White going to school in the middle of winter with Olive Oiled hair slicked up into a bun. She still caught the lice so I am not sure how sound this advice was.
Windex and hair straightening iron - I do not recommend using this method. It did not make it any easier to remove the nits and it had ill effects on my daughter’s hair. A mixture of the heat and Windex made her hair lighter by stripping it.
All of this plus work and normal every day things made it difficult to post on my blog. I hope all of you understand. I didn’t leave my blog on purpose. I was just extra busy from the time I left work each night until 2 AM most of the time. The other time…well that was the dishes trying to kill me or God telling me never to touch another dish…or at least while I was on vacation from the office.
I hope all is well with you and that the plague of lice never visits your home.
Monday, January 07, 2008
The Week Before Christmas
Doing a little bit of catching up....
Monday work, some things went well but some did not. Brownies - the girls painted glass ornaments, had a little party which involved a gift exchange.
Tuesday, technical difficulties all day at work. This was also the day of the company pot luck lunch. I was first to sign up on the sheet. My dish would be pasta salad. This year I would not need to tote around my large crock pot. Lunch time for me now consists of driving ManSon to his job. Before rushing off to pick up ManSon at home I dropped off my pasta salad in party room. To my surprise 4 other people had decided to bring in pasta salads. Oh well, at least they did not all look alike. (copy-cats)
ManSon woke up sore from working the previous day. He could hardly lift his arms let alone get out of bed. He explained that he was going to call in to work and explain his pains. I knew that this was a seasonal job and they would likely let him go for not coming in. When he called they pretty much said come in now or don’t bother to show up again. ManSon was stunned. “Mom, I really liked my job. I mean I really liked it. If I go there and I am not able to work, they would sit me in the corner and I would be Looser Dude.” I tell him that if it were me I would take a few Advil and go anyway. He slumped down and the sad look on his face told me everything. I gave him some Advil and he went back to bed.
Since I did not have to take him to work I decided to finally mail Auntie D’s Christmas present along with her cell phone charger (she left it here on Black Friday). Well, I have been extremely busy lately.
Back to work, then pick up Snow White and do a little shopping. I never seem to have enough time alone to purchase presents. Tonight I was determined to buy a TV for ManSon and hope that Snow White could keep it a secret. I kept it in the back of the van since ManSon always seemed to be around when I had a few minutes to bring it in. My idea was to hide it under the kitchen table. No one eats at the kitchen since the dining room table is bigger.
When we arrive home there was a lot of cooking to be done… 17 chicken legs, 8 chicken breasts and 12 hamburgers. This may sound like it would last awhile but I have teenagers and they have friends. This “vast” amount of food would make a few casseroles, lunches and snacks.
Wednesday was a normal morning. Lunch time came and went home to take ManSon to work. I had explained to him the night before that it was the right thing to do. Either they would let him resume his job or they would tell him how to pick up his last paycheck. In stead of just dropping him off I waited to see what happened. He came out of the office happy. They wanted him to stay on.
He expected someone to yell at him and a few to give him a hard time but no one did. One fellow co-worker did tease him about missing work due to soreness. He was only kidding with him and explained it takes time for your body to adjust. I was extremely happy for ManSon. He so wanted to keep this job even though it is only seasonal.
That night I picked him up and apparently there was a bit of excitement that went on during his day. He always chatters on about how his co-workers carry on such. Tonight was a little different. Someone was caught steeling! From the packages! Apparently a few companies ship ipods and iphones by the truck loads through the facility. Someone was taking a few and stuffing them in their boots or socks or something. They eventually became greedy and started taking boxes and tossing them over the fence to pick up later. They were caught only after two days.
ManSon said he wondered why they had to be searched on their way out rather than their way into the facility. Now he knows. He said, “I don’t understand why they had to steel. They have jobs and everything. It’s Christmas time after all.” I agree with him. I have heard of much stealing and thievery on the news over the past few weeks. People feeling the pressure to have the latest and greatest gifts under the tree. It isn’t even for necessities. Not that it would be ok if it were for necessities. Now they have no job (income), were arrested and sitting in jail awaiting their court dates. They are being sued not only by FedEx but also by the company sending them and the companies who were to received them.
Thursday came and I tried to get everything at work taken care of before my vacation next week. My supervisor would also be off next week and he wanted to make sure to perform my annual review and advise me about the yearly bonus. Just before the meeting the school nurse called.
Apparently they had a second out break of lice in Snow White’s school and unfortunately she had been infected, AGAIN!. At first I freaked out!! This was the second outbreak in a matter of months! I had never heard of such things happening but after all this is the country. Since it was not an emergency I told the nurse I would pick up Snow White in an hour. This would give me time to go through my review without upsetting my supervisor first.
On my way to the meeting I stopped by the IT department to have a little work done on my laptop. This would allow me to work from home. My review went very well! A promotion, raise and a bonus. When he said “If there is anything you ever need, or anything I can ever do for you, just let me know.” I took that opportunity to tell him the school nurse called and asked me to pick up my daughter. I added that IT was already making additions to my laptop which would allow me to continue my work from home. He was pleased to hear I had a solution and happily wished me a Merry Christmas.
Off to school to pick up Snow White and then take ManSon to work. On our way I made a doctors appointment for Snow White. They cannot take her until Monday. Surprisingly, they will be open on Christmas Eve.
Friday I take Snow White to daycare but they wont let her stay due to the lice outbreak at her school. What do I do? I take her to work with me until school opens. School will allow her to attend as long as there is nothing walking around in her hair.
ManSon did not have to be at work until 2 PM today so I attended the Christmas Lunch. Every year the company has a catered lunch of prime rib, potatoes, corn, breads, cheese cake and other deserts. When you are finished they give you a grocery gift card, calendar and a cute little flash light.
I rushed through mine a bit since I had a few projects to finish. I was so engrossed with my work that I almost forgot to take ManSon to work. Before I knew it I was again engrossed in my work and almost forgot to pick up Snow White after School. Due to the holiday and nearly everyone leaving early (most had already left for the day) and Snow White could not return to daycare…well, I left work an hour early.
We went to pick up ManSon at work and had the funniest conversation on the way home. I am not sure how it started but ManSon said something about Mary and Joseph’s last name being Christ. “Because Jesus’ last name is Christ.” Snow White quickly agreed with him. I laughed so hard I cried! I laughed and laughed the whole way home! Eventually ManSon said “Well, if that isn’t his last name then what is it.” This stopped me from laughing briefly to think. I could not think of Mary or Joseph’s last name. When we arrived home everyone went for the Bible. We flipped through different books of the Bible but only saw Mary, mother of Jesus and such. I explained that people did not have last names way back then. “When you mention Jesus everyone knows who you are talking about.” To which ManSon replied “What about Mary Magdalene?” I thought for a moment then I remembered that Magdalene was not her last name it was a description of her “occupation”, prostitute. Christ is also a description meaning Messiah or Savior. I reminded ManSon of the lists of begats - so and so begat so and so then there were the references such as Name son of Name. A simple question turned into a nice Bible lesson. My parents and Auntie D all had a great laugh when I told them the story. Friday night with his friends he asked each of them what they thought was Jesus’ last name? They all thought it was Christ. This lead to a lengthy discussion and the use of a Bible. Not how you would think today’s typical teenagers spent a Friday night.
Saturday Pup wanted to go out at 4 AM! Due to all of his whining I figured he must really need to go so I got up. I set about doing various household chores. When the children woke up I made breakfast and we chatted about this and that. Eventually I started to run down. It was Saturday and there was nothing that had to be taken care of so I did the unthinkable. Something I vaguely remember from years ago. I took a nap!
Later I woke up more tired than before I fell asleep. Why does that happen? Was my body protesting, trying to tell me I need more sleep? I fought the desire to crawl back into bed and resumed my Saturday routine.
Snow White and I went out in search of a new TV for ManSon. Apparently the one I purchased from Walmart was damaged. A two inch wide band of purple and green shows up on the right side of the screen. The very helpful employees of Walmart informed me they have no more of these TVs nor do they expect any more to come in. I will bring the TV in after Christmas for a refund and in the mean time I need to find another TV. ManSon suggested that he be allowed to pick out the new TV and include money of his own to upgrade to the TV of his choice.
After dinner Snow White and I put on our coats and grabbed the gifts for our neighbors. We rang door bells and sang each one a Christmas carol then handed them their gift. It was fun! Well, at first I was a little nervous about singing in front of them but Snow White did not hesitate. Her fearlessness gave me the courage to sing right along with her. She truly enjoyed herself. As she skipped back to our house she gleefully said “Mommy, we made so many people smile tonight. It is a good feeling to make people happy.”
Sunday ManSon had to work today. They held a meeting earlier in the week and decided to work Sunday so they could have off for Christmas Eve. I had completely forgot until he reminded me. This meant we had just enough time to get there.
During the evening I was in the kitchen washing dishes when Snow White came in to ask a question. “Mommy, what would you like for Christmas?” I know exactly what I want for Christmas “I want everyone to be happy, healthy, jumping around laughing. I want to see the wonderful expressions on your faces Christmas morning.”
No Mommy what do you REALLY want?
Honestly honey, that is what I REALLY want.
What about jewelry or a new toy or maybe I don’t know…something fantastic.
I have the greatest kids, a loving family, a dog, a nice house, and a great job.
Oh! I know! I know! What about more money Mommy? That would be a good one.
My boss gave me a raise and a bonus so that is already taken care of. See God has been very good to us. We usually have every thing we need and a lot of what we want.
Really, I already have everything I want. The best part about Christmas Day is seeing everyone’s happy smiling faces. Your happiness give me great joy.
I remember asking my mother the same question, each year. Her answer was the same as mine. When I was a little girl I did not fully believe her. Now, I understood exactly what she meant. I hope my children understand that I truly want their happiness.
Side note Gas was at a high...$2.95 per gallon
Monday work, some things went well but some did not. Brownies - the girls painted glass ornaments, had a little party which involved a gift exchange.
Tuesday, technical difficulties all day at work. This was also the day of the company pot luck lunch. I was first to sign up on the sheet. My dish would be pasta salad. This year I would not need to tote around my large crock pot. Lunch time for me now consists of driving ManSon to his job. Before rushing off to pick up ManSon at home I dropped off my pasta salad in party room. To my surprise 4 other people had decided to bring in pasta salads. Oh well, at least they did not all look alike. (copy-cats)
ManSon woke up sore from working the previous day. He could hardly lift his arms let alone get out of bed. He explained that he was going to call in to work and explain his pains. I knew that this was a seasonal job and they would likely let him go for not coming in. When he called they pretty much said come in now or don’t bother to show up again. ManSon was stunned. “Mom, I really liked my job. I mean I really liked it. If I go there and I am not able to work, they would sit me in the corner and I would be Looser Dude.” I tell him that if it were me I would take a few Advil and go anyway. He slumped down and the sad look on his face told me everything. I gave him some Advil and he went back to bed.
Since I did not have to take him to work I decided to finally mail Auntie D’s Christmas present along with her cell phone charger (she left it here on Black Friday). Well, I have been extremely busy lately.
Back to work, then pick up Snow White and do a little shopping. I never seem to have enough time alone to purchase presents. Tonight I was determined to buy a TV for ManSon and hope that Snow White could keep it a secret. I kept it in the back of the van since ManSon always seemed to be around when I had a few minutes to bring it in. My idea was to hide it under the kitchen table. No one eats at the kitchen since the dining room table is bigger.
When we arrive home there was a lot of cooking to be done… 17 chicken legs, 8 chicken breasts and 12 hamburgers. This may sound like it would last awhile but I have teenagers and they have friends. This “vast” amount of food would make a few casseroles, lunches and snacks.
Wednesday was a normal morning. Lunch time came and went home to take ManSon to work. I had explained to him the night before that it was the right thing to do. Either they would let him resume his job or they would tell him how to pick up his last paycheck. In stead of just dropping him off I waited to see what happened. He came out of the office happy. They wanted him to stay on.
He expected someone to yell at him and a few to give him a hard time but no one did. One fellow co-worker did tease him about missing work due to soreness. He was only kidding with him and explained it takes time for your body to adjust. I was extremely happy for ManSon. He so wanted to keep this job even though it is only seasonal.
That night I picked him up and apparently there was a bit of excitement that went on during his day. He always chatters on about how his co-workers carry on such. Tonight was a little different. Someone was caught steeling! From the packages! Apparently a few companies ship ipods and iphones by the truck loads through the facility. Someone was taking a few and stuffing them in their boots or socks or something. They eventually became greedy and started taking boxes and tossing them over the fence to pick up later. They were caught only after two days.
ManSon said he wondered why they had to be searched on their way out rather than their way into the facility. Now he knows. He said, “I don’t understand why they had to steel. They have jobs and everything. It’s Christmas time after all.” I agree with him. I have heard of much stealing and thievery on the news over the past few weeks. People feeling the pressure to have the latest and greatest gifts under the tree. It isn’t even for necessities. Not that it would be ok if it were for necessities. Now they have no job (income), were arrested and sitting in jail awaiting their court dates. They are being sued not only by FedEx but also by the company sending them and the companies who were to received them.
Thursday came and I tried to get everything at work taken care of before my vacation next week. My supervisor would also be off next week and he wanted to make sure to perform my annual review and advise me about the yearly bonus. Just before the meeting the school nurse called.
Apparently they had a second out break of lice in Snow White’s school and unfortunately she had been infected, AGAIN!. At first I freaked out!! This was the second outbreak in a matter of months! I had never heard of such things happening but after all this is the country. Since it was not an emergency I told the nurse I would pick up Snow White in an hour. This would give me time to go through my review without upsetting my supervisor first.
On my way to the meeting I stopped by the IT department to have a little work done on my laptop. This would allow me to work from home. My review went very well! A promotion, raise and a bonus. When he said “If there is anything you ever need, or anything I can ever do for you, just let me know.” I took that opportunity to tell him the school nurse called and asked me to pick up my daughter. I added that IT was already making additions to my laptop which would allow me to continue my work from home. He was pleased to hear I had a solution and happily wished me a Merry Christmas.
Off to school to pick up Snow White and then take ManSon to work. On our way I made a doctors appointment for Snow White. They cannot take her until Monday. Surprisingly, they will be open on Christmas Eve.
Friday I take Snow White to daycare but they wont let her stay due to the lice outbreak at her school. What do I do? I take her to work with me until school opens. School will allow her to attend as long as there is nothing walking around in her hair.
ManSon did not have to be at work until 2 PM today so I attended the Christmas Lunch. Every year the company has a catered lunch of prime rib, potatoes, corn, breads, cheese cake and other deserts. When you are finished they give you a grocery gift card, calendar and a cute little flash light.
I rushed through mine a bit since I had a few projects to finish. I was so engrossed with my work that I almost forgot to take ManSon to work. Before I knew it I was again engrossed in my work and almost forgot to pick up Snow White after School. Due to the holiday and nearly everyone leaving early (most had already left for the day) and Snow White could not return to daycare…well, I left work an hour early.
We went to pick up ManSon at work and had the funniest conversation on the way home. I am not sure how it started but ManSon said something about Mary and Joseph’s last name being Christ. “Because Jesus’ last name is Christ.” Snow White quickly agreed with him. I laughed so hard I cried! I laughed and laughed the whole way home! Eventually ManSon said “Well, if that isn’t his last name then what is it.” This stopped me from laughing briefly to think. I could not think of Mary or Joseph’s last name. When we arrived home everyone went for the Bible. We flipped through different books of the Bible but only saw Mary, mother of Jesus and such. I explained that people did not have last names way back then. “When you mention Jesus everyone knows who you are talking about.” To which ManSon replied “What about Mary Magdalene?” I thought for a moment then I remembered that Magdalene was not her last name it was a description of her “occupation”, prostitute. Christ is also a description meaning Messiah or Savior. I reminded ManSon of the lists of begats - so and so begat so and so then there were the references such as Name son of Name. A simple question turned into a nice Bible lesson. My parents and Auntie D all had a great laugh when I told them the story. Friday night with his friends he asked each of them what they thought was Jesus’ last name? They all thought it was Christ. This lead to a lengthy discussion and the use of a Bible. Not how you would think today’s typical teenagers spent a Friday night.
Saturday Pup wanted to go out at 4 AM! Due to all of his whining I figured he must really need to go so I got up. I set about doing various household chores. When the children woke up I made breakfast and we chatted about this and that. Eventually I started to run down. It was Saturday and there was nothing that had to be taken care of so I did the unthinkable. Something I vaguely remember from years ago. I took a nap!
Later I woke up more tired than before I fell asleep. Why does that happen? Was my body protesting, trying to tell me I need more sleep? I fought the desire to crawl back into bed and resumed my Saturday routine.
Snow White and I went out in search of a new TV for ManSon. Apparently the one I purchased from Walmart was damaged. A two inch wide band of purple and green shows up on the right side of the screen. The very helpful employees of Walmart informed me they have no more of these TVs nor do they expect any more to come in. I will bring the TV in after Christmas for a refund and in the mean time I need to find another TV. ManSon suggested that he be allowed to pick out the new TV and include money of his own to upgrade to the TV of his choice.
After dinner Snow White and I put on our coats and grabbed the gifts for our neighbors. We rang door bells and sang each one a Christmas carol then handed them their gift. It was fun! Well, at first I was a little nervous about singing in front of them but Snow White did not hesitate. Her fearlessness gave me the courage to sing right along with her. She truly enjoyed herself. As she skipped back to our house she gleefully said “Mommy, we made so many people smile tonight. It is a good feeling to make people happy.”
Sunday ManSon had to work today. They held a meeting earlier in the week and decided to work Sunday so they could have off for Christmas Eve. I had completely forgot until he reminded me. This meant we had just enough time to get there.
During the evening I was in the kitchen washing dishes when Snow White came in to ask a question. “Mommy, what would you like for Christmas?” I know exactly what I want for Christmas “I want everyone to be happy, healthy, jumping around laughing. I want to see the wonderful expressions on your faces Christmas morning.”
No Mommy what do you REALLY want?
Honestly honey, that is what I REALLY want.
What about jewelry or a new toy or maybe I don’t know…something fantastic.
I have the greatest kids, a loving family, a dog, a nice house, and a great job.
Oh! I know! I know! What about more money Mommy? That would be a good one.
My boss gave me a raise and a bonus so that is already taken care of. See God has been very good to us. We usually have every thing we need and a lot of what we want.
Really, I already have everything I want. The best part about Christmas Day is seeing everyone’s happy smiling faces. Your happiness give me great joy.
I remember asking my mother the same question, each year. Her answer was the same as mine. When I was a little girl I did not fully believe her. Now, I understood exactly what she meant. I hope my children understand that I truly want their happiness.
Side note Gas was at a high...$2.95 per gallon
Monday, December 31, 2007
First Night
Now that I am back on the computer (slowly trying to get back in the swing of things) My work was good to me this year. I was afraid of getting the same "bonus" as last year. I told a co-worker that last years bonus was enough to fill my gas tank and get a sandwich. My boss explained that my bonus was prorated since I didn't start until August and year end was September. This year was MUCH better! With my bonus I can buy a brand new washer & dryer and many, many sandwiches. Plus a nice big raise AND a Promotion!!!
My raise takes effect in January and I will receive my bonus check sometime in January as well. I am not in a super hurry for the bonus check just yet. I can wait until the end of January if need be. Why? Well, I need some time to reorganize my laundry/storage room before they actually deliver my new washer and dryer.
Today I have been on a mission - Find Coal. It is New Years Eve and I still haven't found any coal! I looked during the Christmas shopping season for those cute little round red tins with a piece of real coal people give out as gag gifts, but no luck. I have started looking for charcoal but due to this being winter and all the stores do not seem to have that either. A few years ago when I was in the same situation someone suggested buying a fish tank filter since many of them have coal inside. That year I lucked out by finding one of those cute red tins at a drug store. This year I had to make due with charcoal.
Why do I need coal on New Years Eve? For First Night of course! This has been a tradition in my family since before my mother was a little girl. What? You don't know what First Night is? It is an Irish tradition which was not practiced widely here in the states. My father did tell me tonight he was happily surprised to actually see a write up in his local news paper today. Well, here is how it goes. The first guests to enter your house after Midnight on New Years Eve usually arrive bearing meaningful gifts meant to bless you all through the New Year (also great for house warming parties as Auntie D reminded me).
First foot (first person to cross your threshold) should have dark hair...Not have red hair. This can be a difficult task in Ireland and sometimes leads to a scavenger hunt for someone with dark hair. Interesting way to make new friends, No?
Second foot is someone bearing a gift (any thing, cake, bell, scarf, car freshener he.he.he)
Third foot you shower with food and drink and ask if they would like to sing a song (they do not have to be in key or even Irish - did I say that?)
For the rest of the guests they can be the bearers of the following items (one person for each, duplicates are also welcome or you can hold on to them until you are at the next house)...
Bread - so you will never be hungry
Coal - so you will never be cold
Spirits - (alcohol or sometimes we use lottery scratch offs) so you will always have laughter to share.
Money - (Usually a coin or a lucky penny) so fortune will always find you.
Spice - (any you wish to give) so your life will always have a bit of spice to it.
A Plant - to give you growth, mentally and spiritually.
Chocolate - so you will have sweetness in your life.
Now you know about First Night.
Here is what my First Night baskets look like. After the stroke of midnight we will carry on a bit at our house and then go knocking on the neighbors' doors...with the baskets. (click on photo to enlarge)
Be Safe, Be Happy. Try doing both at the same time.
I have been writing posts to keep up with the many things we have been doing over here the last few weeks . I will post them later tonight or tomorrow.
Happy New Year to ALL !!
My raise takes effect in January and I will receive my bonus check sometime in January as well. I am not in a super hurry for the bonus check just yet. I can wait until the end of January if need be. Why? Well, I need some time to reorganize my laundry/storage room before they actually deliver my new washer and dryer.
Today I have been on a mission - Find Coal. It is New Years Eve and I still haven't found any coal! I looked during the Christmas shopping season for those cute little round red tins with a piece of real coal people give out as gag gifts, but no luck. I have started looking for charcoal but due to this being winter and all the stores do not seem to have that either. A few years ago when I was in the same situation someone suggested buying a fish tank filter since many of them have coal inside. That year I lucked out by finding one of those cute red tins at a drug store. This year I had to make due with charcoal.
Why do I need coal on New Years Eve? For First Night of course! This has been a tradition in my family since before my mother was a little girl. What? You don't know what First Night is? It is an Irish tradition which was not practiced widely here in the states. My father did tell me tonight he was happily surprised to actually see a write up in his local news paper today. Well, here is how it goes. The first guests to enter your house after Midnight on New Years Eve usually arrive bearing meaningful gifts meant to bless you all through the New Year (also great for house warming parties as Auntie D reminded me).
First foot (first person to cross your threshold) should have dark hair...Not have red hair. This can be a difficult task in Ireland and sometimes leads to a scavenger hunt for someone with dark hair. Interesting way to make new friends, No?
Second foot is someone bearing a gift (any thing, cake, bell, scarf, car freshener he.he.he)
Third foot you shower with food and drink and ask if they would like to sing a song (they do not have to be in key or even Irish - did I say that?)
For the rest of the guests they can be the bearers of the following items (one person for each, duplicates are also welcome or you can hold on to them until you are at the next house)...
Bread - so you will never be hungry
Coal - so you will never be cold
Spirits - (alcohol or sometimes we use lottery scratch offs) so you will always have laughter to share.
Money - (Usually a coin or a lucky penny) so fortune will always find you.
Spice - (any you wish to give) so your life will always have a bit of spice to it.
A Plant - to give you growth, mentally and spiritually.
Chocolate - so you will have sweetness in your life.
Now you know about First Night.
Here is what my First Night baskets look like. After the stroke of midnight we will carry on a bit at our house and then go knocking on the neighbors' doors...with the baskets. (click on photo to enlarge)
Be Safe, Be Happy. Try doing both at the same time.
I have been writing posts to keep up with the many things we have been doing over here the last few weeks . I will post them later tonight or tomorrow.
Happy New Year to ALL !!
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Wonderful Home Coming
Whether coming home from a long day or from an extended time away there are sights that warm us all the way to the depths of our heart and soul.
Your husband waiting at the front door with open arms.
Your children rushing from the front door because they cannot wait for you to make those small steps from the car to enter the house.
Your cat or dog sitting in the front window with tails wagging while doing a little happy dance with great anticipation of you opening the front door.
Add to this the site of your own Christmas tree as you pull up in front of your home. Lights shining in an awe inspiring way. Vague shapes and shades of ornaments accenting and mixing into the beautiful glow. Peaceful. Wonderful. A feeling of “this is the season for joy.” Taking a moment to stop and appreciate all who are around you. All that is your family and your life.
Remember to Refuel and Recharge Yourself
Last week ManSon decided to take a seasonal job with FedEx. I am all for my teenagers making their own money. Since his car is no longer with us, (it died in Tennessee) I drop him off at FedEx during my lunch hour. After work I pick up Snow White and we head straight to FedEx to pick up ManSon.In the morning rush to get Snow White and myself out the door I also try to take care of as many things as possible. Apparently this week that does not include eating breakfast. I make sure Snow White has her breakfast while I am in the shower but I cannot seem to slow down enough in the morning to actually sit down and have a bite to eat before starting my day.
The hustle bustle routine of my lunch hour is mimicking my morning. I go home, let Pup out in the back yard and take ManSon to work. I forget to bring lunch to work or grab something to eat at home. After I drop off ManSon I rush back to my office. This has happened all week.
Yesterday, after work I picked up my children and went straight home. Since I have been too busy in the morning and during lunch my body was starving for fuel. As soon as we were home I slid a full plate of sliced roast beef in the microwave. My arms and legs were shaking from lack of substance. Finally I was able to sit down. I inhaled my dinner. Almost immediately I felt both dizzy and relieved, ill and satisfied. It was a very strange feeling. My poor body.
Last night while getting ready for bed I promised myself I would make sure to eat breakfast and lunch tomorrow.
Morning came a little later than usual. I must have hit the snooze button when my alarm went off. So much for my promise to eat breakfast. I will make sure to slow down and have lunch. Even if it means eating at my desk.
Lunch time rolls around and I am in other peoples’ offices when I should be wrapping up things at my own desk. When I finish up with the other people I RUN to my van and head home to pick up ManSon. Remember that steep hill I slid down during the very small snow fall? I was on my way up that very same hill when my van started to sputter! I glace over at the gas gage and realize I have not only neglected to refuel my body, I also forgot to fuel up my van. Yes, I was running out of gas on that very steep hill! Again I made it to the top of the hill. I thought maybe I could make it to the gas station but no such luck. The van stopped dead just as I turned on to a semi-main road. I thought how lucky I was that it stopped here since it looked like a pull off area. Wrong. There was a no parking sign right next to my van so I tried the ignition hoping to go a little further up the road but the engine would not turn over.
Instinctively I picked up my cell phone to call ManSon to make him aware of the situation. Oh my, this was just not my day. That’s right, my cell phone battery was dead. I remember reading about a number you can punch in to get emergency power but could not remember what that number was. I grabbed my little purse out of my enormous bag and started walking towards home.
As I walked I thought, “This wont be so bad. It really isn’t that far, right?” Sure, there are no sidewalks but drivers will surely notice my bright flowing pink blouse. In my rush to leave the office I thought why would I need my coat? I will be in my van the whole time right? Wrong again. When I thought I was nearly halfway to my house I realized I had not even made it to the entrance of our development and my legs were starting to hurt. One and a half miles later I see my mail box. For a brief moment a feeling of great pride washed over me. I had walked briskly just over 2 miles in 30 minutes. As soon as I saw my Lincoln in the driveway I decide there is no way I could possibly walk all the way to the gas station and back to my van.
I should have junked or donated the Lincoln back in June but I just could not part with it. The Lincoln has been sitting in my driveway for 6 months. Just sitting there. The tags expired back in July and I never registered it here in our new state. The reason it is still with me is the seats. They are by far the most comfortable seats ever made.
ManSon saw me walking up the drive way. By the look on his face I could tell he was confused. All I could manage to say was “Out of gas. Get gas can.” When he came back with the gas can I opened the driver’s door and slid into the seat. “Ahhh. I. Love. This car.” ManSon laughed at me but I had another thought pressing me. Would the Lincoln start after sitting for so many months? Thank God! (literally) It started! YEAH!
Before pulling out of my driveway I said a little prayer that I would not be caught by the police. The tags are expired! A cab? It would take an hour for a cab to make it’s way out here to our house in the country. Everyone I know is either at work or out of state. The Lincoln was the only choice that did not involve ManSon and I calling our supervisors to say “We wont be coming (back) to work today.”
First stop, gas station to fill up the 5 gallon gas can. Next I drive to my van and who do you suppose is right behind my van waiting for me? A friend? Not exactly. It was a State Trooper! I park the Lincoln on a side street and run with the gas can over to my van. The Trooper, still in his car, motions for me to come to his driver’s side window. “Is this your vehicle? You are not permitted to park your vehicle here. We have received several complaints about this situation. Do you realize you even left your purse in the vehicle?” I explain that I did not purposely park my van here, that I simply ran out of gas and could do nothing about where it stopped. As to why I left my purse in the car? My purse is a tiny little thing that fits into my carry all bag (they match perfectly). Not wanting to go in to all of that with the Trooper I played up the Poor damsel in distress by saying “Oh! I didn’t realize. I was so flustered about the whole ordeal.” I was cheerful though my explanation. I smiled and I remember waving my hands around a lot.
Finally, the Trooper smiled back and said he would void the ticket. He also stepped out of his car, picked up the heavy gas can and poured the contents in to my gas tank. The Trooper made sure my van started and even followed me back to my house. How gallant.
After the Trooper drove away we dashed off in a hurry. Halfway up the highway it occurs to me that ManSon must call his supervisor to say he would be another 15 minutes. My cell phone is dead and his is in his bedroom. I laughed as I said “We are really getting back to basics today. First I end up walking to where I need to be and now we are without a cell phone looking for a payphone. “Do they still have payphones at gas stations?” We did find a few non working payphones and eventually found a working payphone. ManSon’s supervisor said it wouldn’t be a problem since today they were not starting until 1:30 pm. Thank you God, again! Instead of being late he would arrive on time.
ManSon was at work, on time and I was rushing back to my office. Apparently no one missed me. I was all set to tell them my sad little story and how everything still worked out in the end.
Well, nearly everything worked out. Not only did I miss breakfast but now I had completely missed out on lunch as well. The rest of the afternoon I was exhausted and felt like I was sputtering, just like the engine of my van when it was running out of gas. Tonight was a repeat of last night…heat up dinner, inhale, feel ill and full all at the same time.
Having my van run out of gas was suppose to be a wake up call to remember to refuel and I still forgot to eat.
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Pretty Snow in the Country
Look! A whole field of Christmas Trees. Maybe I should check out this place Christmas morning...you know, incase there are presents under all of those trees! he.he.he.
This is the view from my office. It is no longer the view of D.C. but it is a pretty view none the less. The reason the picture is so gray? It isn't fog or smog...It's SNOWING!
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
Snow Day 2007
During my lunch hour I normally go home, let the dog out and have a bite to eat while watching the news. Today was different, I postponed my midday routine in order to pick up Snow White from school. It being winter and white fluffy particles falling from the sky meant school was closing early.
I could have let her go to daycare but after thinking things through it was best to take her home. The snow was accumulating in the parking lot at work and I had no idea what the roads were like. Driving from the school to our house was half the distance of driving from the daycare center. This is my first winter with our van which means I do not know exactly how it will maneuver in these conditions. The path to the daycare center would require me to drive up one very steep hill on the way there and another on the way to our house. Sliding down the front or back of either hill would land us in a stream. Gambling with my child’s safety is not an option.
Snow White was THRILLED when the teacher announced she would be a car rider today. She was not thrilled with the idea of spending a whole afternoon at the noisy daycare center. “Mom, you cannot understand how loud that place gets with SO MANY kids in one place. They do not understand how to keep their voices level. I get a headache just about every other day from all of their noise.” Structured play time with rowdy children or free time with her big brother? She will always pick free time with ManSon.
The roads were clear but wet when I returned to work. My mind was not on the roads as I drove back to office. Yes, I went back to work since no one else is trained or capable of doing my work. Ok, part of it is that I cannot stand the thought of someone else working on my projects. That would mean my over active imagination will stress me into believing I will have to work twice as hard to fix all that they mucked up. In reality I think the work would just sit until I returned to work. Sure, some people left early but come on it was only four inches of snow and the roads were fine…at 2 pm.
I could not stop myself from taking a picture when I saw a field of Christmas Trees on my way back to work. (will load pictures in a bit)
This is the view from my office today. An old weather beaten barn across the field which held a vast amount of corn this past summer. That is not a haze or fog you see, that is the snow coming down.
On my way home at 5 pm, what was wet at 2 pm was now frozen. I do not live far from my office but the drive was not what I was expecting. It was only FOUR inches of snow for goodness sakes! Where were all the other rush hour drivers I am so accustomed to seeing on my way home? Why were they not out in droves pushing the snow and ice off the road little by little? FOUR inches people! Did everyone cowardly rush home at the sight of a few flakes?
“WHAT WAS THAT?!” As thoughts of people being cowardly about the meager bit of snow fall passed through my brain…my van began to fishtail (back end swerving side to side). I was only going 20 MPH in a 40 MPH zone. Maybe it was God’s way of telling me to not be so hard on others.
I regained control of my vehicle without incident. It was too late to back track and go another rout. A steep hill ahead was coming into view. I saw a large sedan making its way up and purposely gave them room ahead of me just incase they slid back down. When they made it up to the top a huge sigh of relief escaped from my lips forming that oh so familiar cloud from warm air making a presence in the outdoor cold.
Now it was my turn. I made sure not to go too fast or too slow. I was reaching the underpass, saw the stop sign at the top of the hill and I started to smile. THEN THE VAN STARTED TO SLIDE BACKWARDS!! As I looked into the rear view mirror I could see where I was headed. Straight for the cement walls of the underpass and feeling of despair washed over me. My children are at home. They wont know what happened to me. In a few hours or maybe in a day or so a policeman, a stranger, will knock on my door and tell them he is sorry.
Great sadness filled my soul for a flicker of a second. Then, my Mommy side kicked in and said “NOT TODAY! No Way! I kept my foot off the break and pumped the gas peddle. Eventually my tires made contact with the road and I was on my way back up the steep hill. When I reached the stop sign at the level top I turned off the engine and cried for a few minutes.
When I started the engine again I thanked God for getting me to the top of that hill. I told myself there are no more hills on the way and I have all night to carefully make my way home.
Did I make it home? Of course I did silly! Otherwise I would not have been able to write this tonight. I hope everyone made it home safe and sound tonight. During the winter months please remember to give everyone on the road all the space they need for the unexpected. Another lesson I learned, do not be quick to judge those who decide to head home early from work, a holiday party or a nice visit with you. My usual, very simple, 7 minute drive from work was not what I expected it to be.
I could have let her go to daycare but after thinking things through it was best to take her home. The snow was accumulating in the parking lot at work and I had no idea what the roads were like. Driving from the school to our house was half the distance of driving from the daycare center. This is my first winter with our van which means I do not know exactly how it will maneuver in these conditions. The path to the daycare center would require me to drive up one very steep hill on the way there and another on the way to our house. Sliding down the front or back of either hill would land us in a stream. Gambling with my child’s safety is not an option.
Snow White was THRILLED when the teacher announced she would be a car rider today. She was not thrilled with the idea of spending a whole afternoon at the noisy daycare center. “Mom, you cannot understand how loud that place gets with SO MANY kids in one place. They do not understand how to keep their voices level. I get a headache just about every other day from all of their noise.” Structured play time with rowdy children or free time with her big brother? She will always pick free time with ManSon.
The roads were clear but wet when I returned to work. My mind was not on the roads as I drove back to office. Yes, I went back to work since no one else is trained or capable of doing my work. Ok, part of it is that I cannot stand the thought of someone else working on my projects. That would mean my over active imagination will stress me into believing I will have to work twice as hard to fix all that they mucked up. In reality I think the work would just sit until I returned to work. Sure, some people left early but come on it was only four inches of snow and the roads were fine…at 2 pm.
I could not stop myself from taking a picture when I saw a field of Christmas Trees on my way back to work. (will load pictures in a bit)
This is the view from my office today. An old weather beaten barn across the field which held a vast amount of corn this past summer. That is not a haze or fog you see, that is the snow coming down.
On my way home at 5 pm, what was wet at 2 pm was now frozen. I do not live far from my office but the drive was not what I was expecting. It was only FOUR inches of snow for goodness sakes! Where were all the other rush hour drivers I am so accustomed to seeing on my way home? Why were they not out in droves pushing the snow and ice off the road little by little? FOUR inches people! Did everyone cowardly rush home at the sight of a few flakes?
“WHAT WAS THAT?!” As thoughts of people being cowardly about the meager bit of snow fall passed through my brain…my van began to fishtail (back end swerving side to side). I was only going 20 MPH in a 40 MPH zone. Maybe it was God’s way of telling me to not be so hard on others.
I regained control of my vehicle without incident. It was too late to back track and go another rout. A steep hill ahead was coming into view. I saw a large sedan making its way up and purposely gave them room ahead of me just incase they slid back down. When they made it up to the top a huge sigh of relief escaped from my lips forming that oh so familiar cloud from warm air making a presence in the outdoor cold.
Now it was my turn. I made sure not to go too fast or too slow. I was reaching the underpass, saw the stop sign at the top of the hill and I started to smile. THEN THE VAN STARTED TO SLIDE BACKWARDS!! As I looked into the rear view mirror I could see where I was headed. Straight for the cement walls of the underpass and feeling of despair washed over me. My children are at home. They wont know what happened to me. In a few hours or maybe in a day or so a policeman, a stranger, will knock on my door and tell them he is sorry.
Great sadness filled my soul for a flicker of a second. Then, my Mommy side kicked in and said “NOT TODAY! No Way! I kept my foot off the break and pumped the gas peddle. Eventually my tires made contact with the road and I was on my way back up the steep hill. When I reached the stop sign at the level top I turned off the engine and cried for a few minutes.
When I started the engine again I thanked God for getting me to the top of that hill. I told myself there are no more hills on the way and I have all night to carefully make my way home.
Did I make it home? Of course I did silly! Otherwise I would not have been able to write this tonight. I hope everyone made it home safe and sound tonight. During the winter months please remember to give everyone on the road all the space they need for the unexpected. Another lesson I learned, do not be quick to judge those who decide to head home early from work, a holiday party or a nice visit with you. My usual, very simple, 7 minute drive from work was not what I expected it to be.
Thursday, November 29, 2007
The Christmas Look
This may sound silly but I have been thinking of how sparse under the tree will look this year. My children will receive spectacular gifts but due to the cost of each there number will be far less than I am accustom.
I should be excited at the fact I can afford these luxury items for my children. That they will be overjoyed when they open just one of their presents. As shallow as it sounds I love the look of a Christmas tree with a mountain of presents piled up beneath.
I realize presents nor the cost are the point of Christmas. Me, at 40 years old still loves the WOW factor when you first wake up Christmas morning and see overflowing stacks of presents. It makes the whole room look picture perfect…until the children race in. Sure they have that same awe struck moment of WOW. After the presents are opened, wrapping paper strewn about the room and toys, gadgets, gizmos, clothes, etc cover the floor. This sight is not nearly as pretty as the one moments ago.
Has anyone put up their tree yet? I really should pull out our decorations this weekend.
What is your favorite decoration/ornament/centerpiece, etc. of this holiday season?
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
My Black Friday Experiences
Thursday, Thanksgiving Night
After laughing and taking a few photos of the all night Black Friday campers we went back to my house for a little shut eye. I tried to fall asleep but after staying up so late it was difficult. Around 2:30 am I finally fell asleep. At 3:00 am I was awakened by what I thought was a strange noise which turned out to be my cell phone.
Remember, I had signed up for all the short cuts and emails and everything for the Black Friday sales and secrete in store sales. I answer the phone not really awake “Hello. This is your local Walmart manager calling to say Happy Black Friday. GET YOUR BUTT UP! IT’S TIME TO SHOP!” I had only slept for all of 45 minutes so I was a bit groggy. After this sort of off the wall greeting via phone I softly say “Hum, it must be one of those things I signed up for on line.” Then comes a burst of hysterical laughter on the other end of the phone. It was my brother, Uncle C, giving me wake up call.
Finally, I realize the stores would be open in one hour! I live out in the country now! We had to get dressed and start driving! I grab some clothes and start dressing as I run from my room up two flights of stairs to wake up my sister. “Hurry Up! It’s time to go!” Apparently my running sort of scared her dog Bear. He was asleep on the bed right next to her. At first he just popped his head up but as I ran up the stairs getting closer and closer to the bedroom door….Well, lets just say he almost wet the bed.
I take him out for his potty break. Pup was not about to be woken up at this time of the morning to do his business. I throw food in the cat bowls, dog bowls and rabbit cage. Auntie D was ready in a flash and out we went.
My driving had Auntie D pretty scared. She yelled a few times “SLOW DOWN! Don’t hit that car! Are you really awake!” he.he.he. We made it to Kmart in 15 minutes flat! Wait a minute. Why does it look so deserted? Oh poop! It is almost 4 am and this store doesn’t open until 6am. What can I say? The number one item on my list was the 19 inch, LCD, flat screen TV with DVD player for $197 at Kmart.
On to plan B. We head over the Circuit City for the Gold Nintendo DS and Zelda game for $139.99. On our arrival we discovered the line had indeed grown since midnight but not by much. It was almost time for the doors to open but I started thinking. With the number of people lined up outside it would take a good 30 minutes or so for us to actually get through the doors. Did I mention it was 29 degrees outside? After a few minutes of deliberation I proclaim Snow White too young for a DS and we head over to the mall next door.
While making it across the 4 lanes from Circuit City to the Mall we witness an awful accident at the light heading towards the main roads. The traffic lights were blinking Red on two sides of the intersection and blinking yellow on the other two sides. The problem was an extra large pick-up truck on one of the blinking yellow lights side came plowing through the intersection and sent a large SUV spinning. It made a horrible noise! We waited a few moments to see if they were ok. Given that the SUV and another car next to it started to back up we figured they would be ok. The pick up truck looked like it just kept going but might have stopped a little way down the road where we could not see it. Ok, I am wide awake now!
The mall stores opened at 4am so we started out in JC Penny’s looking for work out clothes for Auntie D’s new boyfriend “Chief”. She was very picky and selective about what was considered good work out clothes and what wasn’t. I wish I had her sense of work out fashion. Me, I am girly, girl. I don’t care about the brand name or what the material is as long as it would look super cute on me. Then again we were shopping for a man.
I picked up a beaded canopy for Oldest Daughter since it was half off and then another 10% off at the register. Those things are pretty expensive. When I was looking at them in the spring they ran from $75 - $150. It was on sale for a really good price so it would be one of her small gifts. We needed to spend a certain amount to get an additional percentage off at the register so I picked up a cashmere scarf set which was normally $30 but on sale for $10. This gave us the amount we needed but were told that discount is for 3pm. Oh well, they were still really good buys. We stood in line for what seemed FOREVER! Each sales counter in the store had four registers but only one cashier. Hey, it’s Black Friday! What were they thinking?
During our 15 - 20 minutes in line we made a few friends and laughed about this and that. Just when I thought the whole world had been put on pause, a lady came up and softly said “I can take some of you over here…in draperies.” Auntie D jokingly said “Oh, so you have been hiding from us?” As the woman unlocked the keys of her register I started to get a little nervous. We had been in the store for a good while and in line longer than we anticipated. Would we still get to Kmart in time for the LCD TV?
We were rung up, checked out and running for the exit. I raced down the highway and we were at Kmart 5 minutes before opening! Wooohoo! We rock! Wait? What is that I see? A line? How dare they start a line now when there was no line at midnight or 4 am. Oh well, to the end of the line we go. It wasn’t a particularly long line. There were about 70 people in front of us. People lining up behind us were complaining a little saying it was already past 6 am and what was wrong with the employees watches?
The moment arrived! The doors were opened! …then it started. People started cussing and yelling and I am still about 50 feet away from the front doors. Apparently some people came out of their cars and walked right up to the front doors. They made no attempt to go to the end of the line. Sure, the people who have been freezing out here in line will have no problem letting them hop out of their toasty warm cars and butt in front of them. “GET TO THE BACK OF LINE!” a group shouted at them. They said other things but I wont repeat them. Did the new comers do that? Nope. They waited next to the front doors and scooted in here and there when they could.
Ok, I am through the doors! Auntie D rushes off to get a cart and I head over to Electronics. I was here just a few days ago to make sure I knew where the store was. There was no barricade to this department then. The employees set it up so only one person at a time could get either in or out of the department.
Auntie D wiggled her way in since she is far braver than I. What was I doing? Guarding a completely empty cart. She is only about 4’8” so it was difficult for me to see her over the barriers. I saw people coming out with two or three of the TVs in their carts. One young woman who might have just turned 20 parked her cart right infront of me like maybe I should get out of her way. Then she started looking over her shoulder and turned her back on her cart a few times. Auntie shouted that the TVs were all gone.
For a brief moment I considered an awful thought. Maybe the next time this 20 year old looks over her shoulder I could just grab… Oh for heaven’s sake. I couldn’t do that! I had to laugh at myself for even thinking I might be able to out run her or not feel guilty for taking one of her TVs.
The woman behind me looked like she was going to really cry when she heard Auntie D say there were no more TVs. Then she raised her chin and said “That’s ok. Walmart has them for a dollar more.” Off we ran for the exist, the woman, Auntie D and me.
We arrive at Walmart and run to the Electronics department where we met Surfer Dude salesman “What? Oh. The TVs? Yeah. They’er gone. You are Soooo lucky you weren’t here for that. There was hitting. And fighting. And cussing. And yelling. Yeah. You were lucky.” At this point it is about 7 am and all I have purchased is a scarf set and a beaded canopy at JC Penny’s. Neither of these were on my list of gifts. Ok so I asked Auntie D where she wanted to go next?
She decided it would be a good idea to head back to the mall. Yeah! the traffic lights were really working now. No more blinking lights to cause crazy accidents. They did have the police there directing traffic inside the various parking lots around the mall. The accident from earlier that morning was cleaned up when we left for Kmart but a new accident involving 4 or 5 cars had happened while we were in JC Penny.
Ok we are at the mall. Gleefully swishing through Boscovs, Hot Topic, Pet Gourmet, a few Jewelry shops and I cannot for the life of me remember what other shops we ventured in to.
It is almost noon and all I had was a muffin and coffee at 3am. My body is starting to give out from lack of fuel and rest. I resign that we must eat before we hit any more stores. Auntie D agreed to eat a quick lunch at Ruby Tuesdays. As we ordered I noticed I was slurring my words and might have only had my eyes half open. I would have mistaken myself for a well dress drunk. he.he.he.
Food was good but not the answer. I still could barely move and realized if I did not get some much needed sleep my body would indeed give out. Auntie D reluctantly gave up her protests that I just needed to get my body moving again.
Oh my goodness, we made it home and not a moment too soon. I took my shoes off and fell asleep as soon as my body hit the bed. Really, I was O-U-T, out! Auntie D tried to wake me up a few times with things like “Your bathroom upstairs is flooding.” Or “Hurry! ManSon just left a message on your answering machine! He is in trouble! He needs you! Help Him!”
In answer to her first claim about the bathroom I say “Plunger. My bathroom.” I might have motioned towards the bathroom door but I am not really sure. When she mentioned ManSon was in trouble I yelled back “MANSON IS FINE! HE IS FINE! SHUT UP! GO AWAY!” Makes you want to rush over and be a guest at my house doesn’t it?
If ManSon was really in trouble he would have called my cell phone, not the house phone. When I said I took my shoes off and fell asleep…I couldn’t stay awake long enough to get undressed and put on jammies. I even forgot to take off my blue tooth. he.he.he. Well, I was extremely tired and only had about 3 hours sleep in the last 48 hours. I played the message and it was some man wanting to sell me a car warranty which I already have, thank you very much. The bathroom was fine too.
After sleeping for four hours I did get up and we headed back out to the shops. First stop, Target. Auntie D was looking for a specific GPS system with all the bells and whistles. She wanted it to talk to her, sing to her and be her very best friend on all her long travels. Me? I just need map quest and one of my children to sing to me on road trips.
I could duct tape the old Game Boy on to my dash and pretend it is a GPS thing-a-ma-giggy. he.he.he. Oh hush. I thought it was funny at the time. I was giddy from shopping, lack of proper sleep, rushing and just well everything.
Oh look! Something Shinny! It was a Gold Nintendo DS in a box inside the square register area. “Why, yes miss. We do have the Gold Nintendo DS with the Zelda game right here. How much? $139.99 plus you will receive a free $10 gift card.” She opens the box and pulls out a few pink ones with the lame Nintendo Dogs game then hands me the coveted Gold one! Here it was, Friday evening and I had one of the coveted Black Friday super sales items in my very own hands! A lady standing next to me also asked to see the Gold Nintendo DS. I held mine tight to my chest but that was silly. The sales lady had a whole box of them right there. She said it was a gift for her daughter and had the same opinion of the dog game. Neither of us Moms were going to give into buying a DS for our daughters just because it was our daughter’s favorite color. We know our girls would appreciate the Zelda game more. Besides, you can buy pink covers called “skins” (creepy huh?).
It turned out buying the DS at Target was much better than standing in the cold waiting to get into Circuit City. The price was the same and I received a $10 gift certificate right there at the register. Some stores offered gift cards with Black Friday purchases but when I read the fine print … “to be used at a later date” or “will be mailed to you in 6-8 weeks.” I did look at the back of the card to see if there was a time limit to use it or anything saying it depreciated if not used. Nope. Not on the card at all so I was really happy. Hey, maybe add this to the Teacher’s gift?
Eventually we went to the mall closer to my house. We walked around a bit but the only store we actually purchased anything from was Bath and Body Works. Aunt C, our sister-in-law is not someone you want to get the wrong gift for. Well, let me put it another way. We really enjoy seeing someone’s face light up when they open a gift from us. If that doesn’t happen I feel like I just chucked money in a garbage can. I thought the Cherry Blossoms would be a nice fragrance for Oldest Daughter but WOW it really packed a punch. I finally found a sent I liked and Auntie D was still having trouble picking out the perfect gift for Aunt C. The staff was super nice, non-intrusive and ready to help. Finally we decided to buy the red alligator style gift bags. We saved a few bucks by going the gift bag rout than we would have had we just bought the bottles. I also saw a manicure set in a case that matched the gift bag…for $10! They looked so cute I wanted to buy one for everyone I knew. Ok it was almost 10 pm and we skipped dinner. I might have been a little light headed but still, they were cute!
The stores in the start to pull down their gates and close the doors. It was time to head home and have a little something to eat. But wait! It is late and nearly everything was closing up. There was no way I was going to turn on my oven in my tired condition. We decided Pizza Hut would be open and cheesy breadsticks sounded like it would really hit the spot. We tell the cashier we would like 4 orders of breadsticks. Auntie D adds “Family size please.” I haven’t been to a Pizza Hut in forever so I had no idea what that meant. The cashier looks at her and then at me “Are you sure you want 4 orders?” All I hear is 4 orders of breadsticks and I say “Yes. I have teenagers.”
We sit at a table and wait for our breadsticks to go. After a few laughs about things that happened through out the day the cashier comes over to our table. “I am so sorry. We seemed to have burned two of your orders. Can I offer you a free drink while you wait.” We laugh it off and agree to have a root beer. A few minutes later the cashier returns with 4 large pizza boxes! Um what? How many breadsticks did we order? Auntie D starts laughing and says “Family size…that means we actually ordered 40 breadsticks.” Oh well, I do have teenagers and they have friends.
At home we each ate maybe 3 breadsticks each and went to bed. Auntie D lives in another state so she wanted to get a jump on the holiday traffic. This meant I would get up at 3 am …again. I did wake up, say my goodbyes and even waved from the front porch as she drove off. Then…I slept until noon. Ahhh.
After laughing and taking a few photos of the all night Black Friday campers we went back to my house for a little shut eye. I tried to fall asleep but after staying up so late it was difficult. Around 2:30 am I finally fell asleep. At 3:00 am I was awakened by what I thought was a strange noise which turned out to be my cell phone.
Remember, I had signed up for all the short cuts and emails and everything for the Black Friday sales and secrete in store sales. I answer the phone not really awake “Hello. This is your local Walmart manager calling to say Happy Black Friday. GET YOUR BUTT UP! IT’S TIME TO SHOP!” I had only slept for all of 45 minutes so I was a bit groggy. After this sort of off the wall greeting via phone I softly say “Hum, it must be one of those things I signed up for on line.” Then comes a burst of hysterical laughter on the other end of the phone. It was my brother, Uncle C, giving me wake up call.
Finally, I realize the stores would be open in one hour! I live out in the country now! We had to get dressed and start driving! I grab some clothes and start dressing as I run from my room up two flights of stairs to wake up my sister. “Hurry Up! It’s time to go!” Apparently my running sort of scared her dog Bear. He was asleep on the bed right next to her. At first he just popped his head up but as I ran up the stairs getting closer and closer to the bedroom door….Well, lets just say he almost wet the bed.
I take him out for his potty break. Pup was not about to be woken up at this time of the morning to do his business. I throw food in the cat bowls, dog bowls and rabbit cage. Auntie D was ready in a flash and out we went.
My driving had Auntie D pretty scared. She yelled a few times “SLOW DOWN! Don’t hit that car! Are you really awake!” he.he.he. We made it to Kmart in 15 minutes flat! Wait a minute. Why does it look so deserted? Oh poop! It is almost 4 am and this store doesn’t open until 6am. What can I say? The number one item on my list was the 19 inch, LCD, flat screen TV with DVD player for $197 at Kmart.
On to plan B. We head over the Circuit City for the Gold Nintendo DS and Zelda game for $139.99. On our arrival we discovered the line had indeed grown since midnight but not by much. It was almost time for the doors to open but I started thinking. With the number of people lined up outside it would take a good 30 minutes or so for us to actually get through the doors. Did I mention it was 29 degrees outside? After a few minutes of deliberation I proclaim Snow White too young for a DS and we head over to the mall next door.
While making it across the 4 lanes from Circuit City to the Mall we witness an awful accident at the light heading towards the main roads. The traffic lights were blinking Red on two sides of the intersection and blinking yellow on the other two sides. The problem was an extra large pick-up truck on one of the blinking yellow lights side came plowing through the intersection and sent a large SUV spinning. It made a horrible noise! We waited a few moments to see if they were ok. Given that the SUV and another car next to it started to back up we figured they would be ok. The pick up truck looked like it just kept going but might have stopped a little way down the road where we could not see it. Ok, I am wide awake now!
The mall stores opened at 4am so we started out in JC Penny’s looking for work out clothes for Auntie D’s new boyfriend “Chief”. She was very picky and selective about what was considered good work out clothes and what wasn’t. I wish I had her sense of work out fashion. Me, I am girly, girl. I don’t care about the brand name or what the material is as long as it would look super cute on me. Then again we were shopping for a man.
I picked up a beaded canopy for Oldest Daughter since it was half off and then another 10% off at the register. Those things are pretty expensive. When I was looking at them in the spring they ran from $75 - $150. It was on sale for a really good price so it would be one of her small gifts. We needed to spend a certain amount to get an additional percentage off at the register so I picked up a cashmere scarf set which was normally $30 but on sale for $10. This gave us the amount we needed but were told that discount is for 3pm. Oh well, they were still really good buys. We stood in line for what seemed FOREVER! Each sales counter in the store had four registers but only one cashier. Hey, it’s Black Friday! What were they thinking?
During our 15 - 20 minutes in line we made a few friends and laughed about this and that. Just when I thought the whole world had been put on pause, a lady came up and softly said “I can take some of you over here…in draperies.” Auntie D jokingly said “Oh, so you have been hiding from us?” As the woman unlocked the keys of her register I started to get a little nervous. We had been in the store for a good while and in line longer than we anticipated. Would we still get to Kmart in time for the LCD TV?
We were rung up, checked out and running for the exit. I raced down the highway and we were at Kmart 5 minutes before opening! Wooohoo! We rock! Wait? What is that I see? A line? How dare they start a line now when there was no line at midnight or 4 am. Oh well, to the end of the line we go. It wasn’t a particularly long line. There were about 70 people in front of us. People lining up behind us were complaining a little saying it was already past 6 am and what was wrong with the employees watches?
The moment arrived! The doors were opened! …then it started. People started cussing and yelling and I am still about 50 feet away from the front doors. Apparently some people came out of their cars and walked right up to the front doors. They made no attempt to go to the end of the line. Sure, the people who have been freezing out here in line will have no problem letting them hop out of their toasty warm cars and butt in front of them. “GET TO THE BACK OF LINE!” a group shouted at them. They said other things but I wont repeat them. Did the new comers do that? Nope. They waited next to the front doors and scooted in here and there when they could.
Ok, I am through the doors! Auntie D rushes off to get a cart and I head over to Electronics. I was here just a few days ago to make sure I knew where the store was. There was no barricade to this department then. The employees set it up so only one person at a time could get either in or out of the department.
Auntie D wiggled her way in since she is far braver than I. What was I doing? Guarding a completely empty cart. She is only about 4’8” so it was difficult for me to see her over the barriers. I saw people coming out with two or three of the TVs in their carts. One young woman who might have just turned 20 parked her cart right infront of me like maybe I should get out of her way. Then she started looking over her shoulder and turned her back on her cart a few times. Auntie shouted that the TVs were all gone.
For a brief moment I considered an awful thought. Maybe the next time this 20 year old looks over her shoulder I could just grab… Oh for heaven’s sake. I couldn’t do that! I had to laugh at myself for even thinking I might be able to out run her or not feel guilty for taking one of her TVs.
The woman behind me looked like she was going to really cry when she heard Auntie D say there were no more TVs. Then she raised her chin and said “That’s ok. Walmart has them for a dollar more.” Off we ran for the exist, the woman, Auntie D and me.
We arrive at Walmart and run to the Electronics department where we met Surfer Dude salesman “What? Oh. The TVs? Yeah. They’er gone. You are Soooo lucky you weren’t here for that. There was hitting. And fighting. And cussing. And yelling. Yeah. You were lucky.” At this point it is about 7 am and all I have purchased is a scarf set and a beaded canopy at JC Penny’s. Neither of these were on my list of gifts. Ok so I asked Auntie D where she wanted to go next?
She decided it would be a good idea to head back to the mall. Yeah! the traffic lights were really working now. No more blinking lights to cause crazy accidents. They did have the police there directing traffic inside the various parking lots around the mall. The accident from earlier that morning was cleaned up when we left for Kmart but a new accident involving 4 or 5 cars had happened while we were in JC Penny.
Ok we are at the mall. Gleefully swishing through Boscovs, Hot Topic, Pet Gourmet, a few Jewelry shops and I cannot for the life of me remember what other shops we ventured in to.
It is almost noon and all I had was a muffin and coffee at 3am. My body is starting to give out from lack of fuel and rest. I resign that we must eat before we hit any more stores. Auntie D agreed to eat a quick lunch at Ruby Tuesdays. As we ordered I noticed I was slurring my words and might have only had my eyes half open. I would have mistaken myself for a well dress drunk. he.he.he.
Food was good but not the answer. I still could barely move and realized if I did not get some much needed sleep my body would indeed give out. Auntie D reluctantly gave up her protests that I just needed to get my body moving again.
Oh my goodness, we made it home and not a moment too soon. I took my shoes off and fell asleep as soon as my body hit the bed. Really, I was O-U-T, out! Auntie D tried to wake me up a few times with things like “Your bathroom upstairs is flooding.” Or “Hurry! ManSon just left a message on your answering machine! He is in trouble! He needs you! Help Him!”
In answer to her first claim about the bathroom I say “Plunger. My bathroom.” I might have motioned towards the bathroom door but I am not really sure. When she mentioned ManSon was in trouble I yelled back “MANSON IS FINE! HE IS FINE! SHUT UP! GO AWAY!” Makes you want to rush over and be a guest at my house doesn’t it?
If ManSon was really in trouble he would have called my cell phone, not the house phone. When I said I took my shoes off and fell asleep…I couldn’t stay awake long enough to get undressed and put on jammies. I even forgot to take off my blue tooth. he.he.he. Well, I was extremely tired and only had about 3 hours sleep in the last 48 hours. I played the message and it was some man wanting to sell me a car warranty which I already have, thank you very much. The bathroom was fine too.
After sleeping for four hours I did get up and we headed back out to the shops. First stop, Target. Auntie D was looking for a specific GPS system with all the bells and whistles. She wanted it to talk to her, sing to her and be her very best friend on all her long travels. Me? I just need map quest and one of my children to sing to me on road trips.
I could duct tape the old Game Boy on to my dash and pretend it is a GPS thing-a-ma-giggy. he.he.he. Oh hush. I thought it was funny at the time. I was giddy from shopping, lack of proper sleep, rushing and just well everything.
Oh look! Something Shinny! It was a Gold Nintendo DS in a box inside the square register area. “Why, yes miss. We do have the Gold Nintendo DS with the Zelda game right here. How much? $139.99 plus you will receive a free $10 gift card.” She opens the box and pulls out a few pink ones with the lame Nintendo Dogs game then hands me the coveted Gold one! Here it was, Friday evening and I had one of the coveted Black Friday super sales items in my very own hands! A lady standing next to me also asked to see the Gold Nintendo DS. I held mine tight to my chest but that was silly. The sales lady had a whole box of them right there. She said it was a gift for her daughter and had the same opinion of the dog game. Neither of us Moms were going to give into buying a DS for our daughters just because it was our daughter’s favorite color. We know our girls would appreciate the Zelda game more. Besides, you can buy pink covers called “skins” (creepy huh?).
It turned out buying the DS at Target was much better than standing in the cold waiting to get into Circuit City. The price was the same and I received a $10 gift certificate right there at the register. Some stores offered gift cards with Black Friday purchases but when I read the fine print … “to be used at a later date” or “will be mailed to you in 6-8 weeks.” I did look at the back of the card to see if there was a time limit to use it or anything saying it depreciated if not used. Nope. Not on the card at all so I was really happy. Hey, maybe add this to the Teacher’s gift?
Eventually we went to the mall closer to my house. We walked around a bit but the only store we actually purchased anything from was Bath and Body Works. Aunt C, our sister-in-law is not someone you want to get the wrong gift for. Well, let me put it another way. We really enjoy seeing someone’s face light up when they open a gift from us. If that doesn’t happen I feel like I just chucked money in a garbage can. I thought the Cherry Blossoms would be a nice fragrance for Oldest Daughter but WOW it really packed a punch. I finally found a sent I liked and Auntie D was still having trouble picking out the perfect gift for Aunt C. The staff was super nice, non-intrusive and ready to help. Finally we decided to buy the red alligator style gift bags. We saved a few bucks by going the gift bag rout than we would have had we just bought the bottles. I also saw a manicure set in a case that matched the gift bag…for $10! They looked so cute I wanted to buy one for everyone I knew. Ok it was almost 10 pm and we skipped dinner. I might have been a little light headed but still, they were cute!
The stores in the start to pull down their gates and close the doors. It was time to head home and have a little something to eat. But wait! It is late and nearly everything was closing up. There was no way I was going to turn on my oven in my tired condition. We decided Pizza Hut would be open and cheesy breadsticks sounded like it would really hit the spot. We tell the cashier we would like 4 orders of breadsticks. Auntie D adds “Family size please.” I haven’t been to a Pizza Hut in forever so I had no idea what that meant. The cashier looks at her and then at me “Are you sure you want 4 orders?” All I hear is 4 orders of breadsticks and I say “Yes. I have teenagers.”
We sit at a table and wait for our breadsticks to go. After a few laughs about things that happened through out the day the cashier comes over to our table. “I am so sorry. We seemed to have burned two of your orders. Can I offer you a free drink while you wait.” We laugh it off and agree to have a root beer. A few minutes later the cashier returns with 4 large pizza boxes! Um what? How many breadsticks did we order? Auntie D starts laughing and says “Family size…that means we actually ordered 40 breadsticks.” Oh well, I do have teenagers and they have friends.
At home we each ate maybe 3 breadsticks each and went to bed. Auntie D lives in another state so she wanted to get a jump on the holiday traffic. This meant I would get up at 3 am …again. I did wake up, say my goodbyes and even waved from the front porch as she drove off. Then…I slept until noon. Ahhh.
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