Monthly Newsletter #33

Dear Landon,

This month has been an eye opener for me in so many ways. You are truly growing up to be a full size person. Complete with thoughts about the way the world operates and how things should be organized.

I got laid off this month, so the very first project I decided to tackle was potty training. Probably not the best choice, but it was my choice none the less. It’s taken about a week, but you do like your underwear better than your diapers. I’m actually having to fight you about putting a diaper on for naps – which is fine, except, that whole thing where you take naps on my bed and I don’t really want you peeing in it.

Your thoughts on underwear in general are interesting to say the least. You have a couple pair of boxer briefs, and every time you put them on you tell me. “Not babing soup, Mommy, unner-wears, not babing soup.” And nearly every time you put on certain underwear, you have to be reminded that the big picture does indeed go on the back – it makes you sad despite the fact that even if it was on the front, it’s not like you’d be able to see it after you put your pants on anyway. Logic is not your forte.

Being home with you this week has been an adventure to say the least. It started out pretty bumpy, I was extremely nervous about being home alone with you, I was afraid that since you were doing so well in day care that taking you out, only to have to put you back in would only cause problems. I decided that since I didn’t know how long I’d be out of work, I’d plan for a couple months worth of stuff to do. I tried replicating the day care’s system of one letter, one number, one color, and one shape each week. And also one big activity each day. Well as it turns out, you don’t so much care what starts with the letter L (except Landon, of course) and the color red bores you and can’t we just move on from this, you silly woman? So I dropped the more structured learning approach in favor of pointing out a few things here and there that you can tell me about.

One of my favorite things you do right now is to just stop what you’re doing and say “It’s time to dance.” And then you dance, a white boy side step, bouncing dance. Or you just start singing. Mostly you sing your “ABCDs.” And you call them that too. Even in the song “Now I know my ABCDs, next time won’t you sing with me?” Also, that last part isn’t an actual invitation to sing, because when I tried to join in, I got a resounding “Not you, Mommy, me.”

One of the things we’ve done this week is go to the public library. A bunch. As in, more than we’ve been since you were born, I’m pretty sure. We went on Tuesday to get the lay of the land. We checked out a few books, played with a few toys and headed out. At the check out line, you noticed a bunch of kids standing around a yellow funnel that you put your money in and watch it spin, on of those make a donation to the library kind of thingies. You were content to watch the other kids put their money in and watch it spin. On Wednesday we had story time and before we even went in you were already asking for money to put in the funnel thing. We checked out a few more books, and you were terribly upset by the fact that there were only 6 computers for children and 17,000 kids and I wasn’t willing to wait patiently while each one was allotted 60 minutes to play on the computer. By Thursday, you had given up on the books, it was all about those computers and the yellow funnel. Knowing that, I timed our outing differently and you did get to play on the computer.

This has been an awfully stressful week for me, and here’s hoping that it gets a lot less stressful in the coming weeks. You have been testing your limits with me, and I’m already on my last nerve, it’s probably not the best combination out there. SO I guess this month I’m just asking for you to have patience with me, and I will try to have patience with you.

Love
Mama

A New Kind of Torture

No nap today. None. None at all.

We went to story time at the library. The theme of the day was buttons. And holy moly were there a thousand little kids there. And holy moly are 2 years olds the most non-compliant people on earth. Except maybe teenagers, and at least they have the decency to just sulk and give dirty looks. It was the loudest gathering with a speaker that I have ever experienced.

Landon was actually complimented on his behavior, which I can actually only attribute to the school thing, since I have next to nothing to do with it.

We did finally acquire a snow cone. Landon specifically asked for an orange one. They didn't have orange, so I asked if the mango was orange or yellow - and they guy told me orange. And he must be color blind, is all I can figure. But Landon loved it, so we're cool with it being the "wrong" color.

Aside from the nap and unwillingness to put on any clothes at the end of the day, I'd say we're making progress.

Better

Things are better today. We went to the park, we got the new license plates for the truck, I found a snow cone place (albeit closed at the time, it did have posted hours unlike all the others I found, and also it's not nearly as far away.)

We're having trouble establishing that I do require him to take a nap daily, nothing that couldn't be solved by the fact that he's still in a crib, though.



I tried to call to check in on my status from my interview, and I got voicemail, so we'll see. I've never wanted a job so badly in all my life.

Not getting better

Fiona just locked me out of the house while the pool guy was here and Landon was inside asleep.

Thank God that Lynn and Kimber have a key, and that I happen to know their home number without the use of my cell phone and thank God that Sarah was there when I called...from the pool guy's cell phone.

Landon never woke up.

Am now walking around inside my house with keys in my pocket...just in case.

Survivor

• I beaned my son in the face with a plastic baseball first thing this morning.
• Despite that, he says he's having fun today.
• He's under the impression that the school is closed.
• I finally got to talk to Scarlett's vet this morning.
• On one hand, I'm not paying for surgery.
• On the other, there is no end in sight for this injury.
• It is a severe sprain/strain, with a torn something or other ligament
• She is to be on cage rest, leash walked, house confined, and crate confined for the next 30 days - and then we'll check in again.
• He said it could be another 30 to 60 days before it heals, but he does expect to see improvement in 30 days.
• Clinton tried to fix the garage refrigerator - whose door wasn't closing completely, by adding a hasp.
• In drilling the first hole, he let all the freon out.
• Thankfully, we were able to get a used one for $100.
• The dump wants us to pay $45 to get a technician to verify its emptiness and then $42 to dump the old one.
• Thank goodness, we can just deliver it to my parents house, whos garbage people ll just pick it up.
• He then attempted to clean the pool, by backwashing it.
• And we ended up with a crack in the filter.
• $1500 later, our pool will probably work again tomorrow.
• He's no longer allowed to "fix" anything until I get a job.
• There is not a snow cone place within 10 miles of our house.
• And that one is closed.
• In 100° weather.
• I did put my claim in for unemployment.
• So I expect to get my first check in 5 to 6 weeks.
• I'd say this unemployment thing is going just great.

Interview update

The interview went really well. Which in my history means I didn't get the job - so, hopefully this is a change of course. The job isn't what I really wanted, but it's an in at a company that has great benefits and they did say that when something comes up that is more structural related I would be considered for it. Which, in this market, is about all I can ask for.

Still no word on Scarlett.

I don't know exactly what next week will bring as far as posting, but I suspect rather than morning updates you'll get - whenever he takes nap updates.

Because why not have another day of updates.

• The vet and I have been playing phone tag since yesterday afternoon. I finally got ahold of him this morning. He hand delivered Scarlett's X-rays to the other vet yesterday, because he couldn't get the quality pictures he needed to send via email for the area of his concern. So we should know something by tomorrow.

• Which in vet time probably means Monday.

• He is calling in a prescription for more painkillers for her in the meantime.

• My interview is today at 2:00. I'd appreciate any good vibes.

More things

My interview got moved to Thursday afternoon.

Landon calls this shirt his "carrot salad" shirt.

Things and updates

• I have an interview tomorrow at 2:00 pm.

• Scarlett's x-ray was inconclusive for now. The vet is trying to get a no-fee consult for us (I mean, we already put a wing on their office with this dog, it's the least he could do) with the radiologist. He said he saw an abnormality in the little bone in the middle of her ankle, but since he's not a specialist, he's not really sure what's going on and wants a second opinion. He said one of two things will come from that, either we are still on complete cage rest for as long as it takes to heal or we are going to be having surgery. Neither outcome will be great, but I just hope she'll get through this without breaking her spirit. She already pretty pissed at us for having to sleep in the crate at night and she's only been doing that for a few days. I have no clue when this consult will happen, but the vet said early next week when I saw him on Friday - which is like yesterday (no word) and today. So we'll see.

• Landon let us buy him some underwear. Yeah - we've asked nearly every time we pass them in Target, and he's all "NOOOO!!! What are you trying to do?!?!?! Kill me with this underwear business?!?!?!?" He relented and has a favorite pair already - although has not worn them yet. He has however, peed in the potty most mornings since the first time and twice during mid day when he announced he was peeing (when in fact he meant, I'm about to pee.) ALso yesterday at school, he peed in the potty twice! We will begin potty training in earnest on Saturday. For him it will be a day of juice and hanging out at the house. For me it will be a day of changing wet underwear and laundry.

Landon on the Water Slide

Onward and Upward

Scarlett's foot will be X-rayed tomorrow. It's more swollen now than it ever was before. I don't suspect they'll find a break or anything, but I hope they decide to wrap it or maybe give me some kind of drug to knock her out for the 4-6 weeks it will take to heal.

This morning, Landon peed in the potty! And then requested a treat for it...I asked if he wanted M&Ms or a lollipop. He said "No, Mommy, lollipops are for poo." Very serious like. So he had M&Ms before breakfast.

Coming out of the closet

No, not that closet.

So, about 5 weeks ago, my department manager called me into his office. Actually to be precise, he emailed me a notice that he wanted to meet with me in 3 hours about a "work load discussion." 3 hours is way too long a notice for such a meeting, so I naturally fretted about it for 3 hours and freaked out. Look, it's not really any surprise that they don't have work. I'm in this building with 7 levels of parking...only about 4 are full of cars, when 6 months ago, if I got here after 7:30 I was lucky to find a space at all.

Oh, right, the meeting, so he called me in and told me about how things might go. Oh wait, it was this day. Basically 5 things might happen. 80% chance of lay-off on June 12. 10% chance that current job will hold over, but we don't know how long. 5% chance of being sent to Norway. 3% chance of being sent to on-shore project. 2% chance something comes up and we have another project that you can go to.

So I went back to my desk and spent the day running numbers through our budget. The good news was that if I got laid off, with unemployment, Landon out of Day Care, and us tightening our spendiness - we'd be fine for 6 months - or until unemployment runs out anyway and honestly, the market should turn back around by then. I took this information along with the possibility of Norway and the slight possibility of having work here home to Clinton to discuss.


Clinton and I made the decision not to tell anyone at that time. We have family members that might have freaked out over the Norway thing, just as much as they would have about the being laid off thing and since nothing was final, there was no need.

We decided that I would try to ride it out. On the hopes of Not Norway, that possibly my job would hold me through until they got more work. Because the very last thing I wanted was to look back and see that the ship was not sinking when I jumped, but only listing. I didn't send out any resumes.

Fast forward, three weeks ago, after just posting about my miserable day, I got a call from my department manager. He remembered that I did not appreciate the 3 hour notice for the last meeting and asked if I could come to his office and discuss work load.

At that meeting, he said that they didn't have anything. He said the my last day would in all likelihood be June 26, and that he expected to give me final notice on or around June 12. He also asked me to train someone else to do my job. And then put me in touch with the company recruiter so that he could look over my resume and help me with some contacts.

I went back to my desk and started Job Search 2009. I set up a spreadsheet, I fixed up my resume, I sent resumes to the company I knew was hiring, I sent out resumes to anyone I knew in the industry to give me their contacts. I got in touch with head hunters. In all I sent out about 20 resumes over the next few days.

I got calls back from a couple head hunters, and come Monday there was radio silence. I got an email from a certain company that I knew was hiring that said, we don't have anything for you at this time. I was dis-heartened.

On Wednesday of last week, I decided to go ahead and plan what Landon and I would be doing while I was at home. I wanted to do more than watch Sprout and play trucks all day, I wanted to try to keep some learning in his day, because one day he'd have to go back to Day Care and I don't really want him to be behind. I had just finished typing out my ideas and printing things for him to color when I got a call from the same company that said they weren't interested in me.

On Friday I had an interview with that Company. I suck at interviews and this one was ok, I suppose. Here's the thing about interviews and me. When I walk out of one feeling confident, I am most assuredly not getting that job. When I walk out of one feeling like "hey, I just spent an hour making myself look stupid." I get those jobs. So this one wasn't bad. I spoke with 4 people there, and they seemed ok with me. The job is doing something I don't actually want to do, but it's a job that will last me until I can find something I do want to do. And it's something I have experience in.

Yesterday they made their decision. It was a no. Not now. But they have something they want to keep me in mind for in about a month. So it's back to square one - I have about 8 companies to send resumes to today bringing my total up to about 30 so far.

It's been a rough month, and this rejection has not helped.

The silver lining is that with a few weeks or a month off work, I might be able to get Landon potty trained before sending him back to school. That would be nice.

Timeless Treasures

What started as a quest to find a recipe for chocolate chip peanut butter cookies. Ended up taking 6 months and hundreds of hours of work. And after all that? That recipe ALMOST didn't make the cut!

Back some time around Christmas, Clinton was asking around for a recipe he remembered his grandmother making for Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies. No one knew what he was talking about and no one had the recipe.

We got the recipe boxes from Clinton's Aunt Nolie and I sifted through, typed and printed them. The recipes had come from both Nolie and Clinton's grandmother. There were close to 350 of them. I printed out 4 sets of binders to have the family review and mark them, so as to narrow the field. As I passed out the last binder, we asked for pictures of the two deceased women to incorporate in the cookbook. And that's when the 3rd box was found. It had the recipe we had been looking for, among others.

In all, I typed 568 recipes. Most family members were given a chance to look through them and add to them. I took their notes and tallied the votes. And narrowed it down to 82 recipes. Their notes included changes to recipes that had happened over the years, how the recipes came to the family, Uncle George's love of Cheese Whiz pretty much indicated that any recipe with it had come from him.

Clint's cousin Jody came up and we stuffed the pages into the sheet protectors.

We used 1 1/2" binders.

I asked each family member to write a little something about their memories of both Nolie and Rose. Without giving them much to go on, they all came back mentioning unconditional love. I asked Allison of The Displaced Texan to create a few sheets incorporating those blurbs and a few pictures. I gave her very little direction, and very little time, and then bugged her with some tweaks on font size and stuff and she came up with some great pages. Those four pages are at the front of the cookbook.

Followed by the table of contents (alphabetical order) and then the recipes.

We chose two different formats for the paper (we had bought some marbled paper in various colors). One format had a header and footer graphic and the other had a watermark graphic. It worked out perfectly with the recipes for them to be on every other page, so that the longest of the recipes had the watermark, and I was able to put each recipe on one page.

In the front pocket we also included a CD with all the pictures, and all the scrapbook pages, scans of all the hand written recipes and all 568 recipes (typed, although not proof-read - so those that didn't make it into the cookbook probably have typos).

We included a final page thanking everyone for their help with this project and expressing a hope that the cookbooks would find their way into our children and grandchildren's kitchens, so that these two women would be forever remembered.

Clinton worked with a friend to create a cover, the cover includes a picture of Rose (upper left) and a picture of Nolie (lower right) and a faint background watermark of a wine bottle label featuring Rosie the Riveter. You see, Rose Wood, worked for Boeing during WWII. Her picture was featured in some history books, and they have saved the articles which explains that even though she worked as a welder, when they took her picture they thought Rosie the Riveter sounded better.

We held a lunch on Saturday to give out the cookbooks. We made several recipes from them, and everyone loved them.

This project was not that costly - I think in total we spent around $250 for 13 fully made up cookbooks (we probably could have made 16 for the same price given all the stuff we had left over.) It was not hard - typing, editing, proof-reading stuffing pages. It was time consuming - thanks to the nature of my job, I was able to type the recipes at work while I waited for other things I had going on. I spent roughly 100 hours typing, scanning, etc. I don't think I could have come up with the pages that Allison did on my own, so I'm glad that I decided to out-source that portion. And I know I wouldn't have been able to do the cover on my own - my photoshop skills are just not that great. But all in all, I think it was worth it and I hope the finished product will be useful to those who get to use it.

Let's see

I’m not ignoring you, blogger won’t let me in.

Something I learned at work yesterday

So, yesterday I went into the bathroom at work to find a co-worker hacking up a lung and laboriously scrubbing her hands as if about to perform open heart surgery. (And no, we are not surgeons here.)

So I asked her: "Hey, what's going on Hacky McGee?"

And she says: "Dude, Angus* put this thing** on my desk that has walnuts on it...it's the ONLY nut I'm allergic to, and normally casual contact doesn't do this to me."

So I say: "Well, I have some Chlortrimeton in my purse if you think that would help, it's an antihistamine."

She says: "Maybe later, if it doesn't get better."

And I went back to my desk to discover that I also have some Benedryl Spray. So I head back to the bathroom to offer the Benedryl Spray. She says - can you spray it in your mouth? And I'm like, uh - I don't think so, I spray it directly on ant bites, so I thought maybe if you touched the walnuts, that you could spray it on your hands or something.

She came into my office, sprayed it on her hands and smelled it...deeply, repeatedly. And within seconds her symptoms were starting to go away. She did it 3 times within a few minutes and was back to normal by the time she walked out of my office.

I had no idea you could snort Benedryl. Well, I suppose I figured you could snort it, I just didn't know it would be effective.

* I was going to make up a name for him, but I couldn't, I just couldn't do better than Angus.

** We had a bake sale at work yesterday so various home made items made the rounds...they even faked a sign saying the second level entry was closed forcing everyone to pass the bake sale on the way into work.

It only took 9 months

But Landon finally actually likes school, I think. Or more accurately, I guess he really likes what they do at school during the summer. Yesterday when I picked up Landon I got there just as they were lining up to go outside to play. He was PISSED. He threw a wall-eyed fit the entire ride home.

He continued throwing his fit for a few hours after we got home. He even told me he was "sad" and refused to eat anything for dinner.

But this morning, instead of fighting me about going to school? He got ready and was excited to go in (it also helped that one of his friends was getting out of his car just as we arrived). Granted, he wanted to wear his same Astros shirt that he wore yesterday, but when he found out it was Field Day, he changed his tune, and also agreed to wear a lighter colored shirt, because black and 95° weather is not a good combo.

So, today is "Field Day." I have no idea what that means, but when I called this morning to ask, they said, yes he did probably need sun screen and bug spray. If Splash Day was any kind of indication, I can only assume it will be tons of fun.

Bullets

• I have a bunch of posts brewing and don't have the supporting pictures for any of them. So you're going to get this boring bullet point list.


• I'm also very tired today for no discernable reason.

• Yesterday I discovered a leak in Landon's class room when I went in to put some stuff in his cubby. Everyone had already been there for an hour and a half. Well, not in the classroom, because both his teachers were sick, but in the building.

• I'm assuming it was the A/C or a pipe, because they just had the roof replaced a couple months back and it hasn't rained in 40 years...or maybe 2 weeks, depending on who you ask.

• We also had a pipe leak in our house over the weekend (one of those brewing posts.) Actually it's probably been leaking a lot longer than that, but we discovered it this weekend.

Movie Monday

We spent quite a bit of time in the pool this weekend. I taught swimming lessons in HS, so I'm working with him on some of the basics, blowing bubbles in the water, kicking, moving your arms, etc. He's still not willing to dunk his whole head under water - but we'll get there.

Happy Dude

This morning, Landon is participating in Splash Day at school. It looks like it will be a lot of fun and I am absurdly jealous that I can not join him.



From getting to wear his bathing suit to school, to getting to wear his new water shoes, the excitement was uncontainable. We had been talking about it all week. A build up, so that he'd be excited about it.



As it turns out, he didn't quite understand what was going on. When we walked out the backdoor this morning, he thought splash day meant he got to swim...in our pool...today. I told him we could probably swim this evening, but that Splash Day was happening at his school, with his friends. He pouted nearly the entire drive to school. But was so excited to tell Miss Kisha about how he was wearing his swin diaper, babe-ing soup, wa-er sues, and swin tirt. (She got all of it but the swim shirt.) He also told her was going to Splash (complete with visual demonstration of jumping in a puddle type moves) and swim (visual demonstration of the crawl stroke.)



And BONUS, he got to take his Cars backpack to school, which he packed last night with various toys and will probably be disappointed to find that I re-packed it with normal clothes and a towel.



When I left, I said "Bye, sweetie!" And he barely looked at me and was all "BUH." Do you think I could convince them to have Splash day more than once a week?

Monthly Newsletter #32

Dear Landon,

Today you turn 32 months old. And you are great – when you want to be. Or when you’re not tired. Or hungry. Or being greatly wronged by a society in which you might actually have to share some things with other people.
You are stubborn – taking a full 20 minutes in time-out before relenting to apologizing for the train tracks you drew on Grandma and Grandpa Logan’s couch.


You are a jokester. Your latest is to say that something is not what it is, but something else. Those are not cows, those are horses! HAHAHA! You go on red, and stop on green! HAHAHA! It’s taken us a while to get with your new found sense of humor, but I think we’ve finally gotten it.



There are moments in our day together that I really look forward to, no matter how small. When I drive over a bridge and say “Bridge!” You say “Water, water!” Each morning when I wake you up for the day, I get 15-20 minutes of snuggle times.

I spent a lot of this month putting together a cookbook from recipes I gathered from your Great Grandmother Wood and Great Aunt Nolie. I never met Mrs. Wood, but Nolie is someone whom I am so sad that you never got to meet. I asked the family to write a small paragraph or sentence about them, so that I could compile them and use them in the cookbook and every one of them mentions unconditional love. I know she would have loved you so much – she had been bugging me for years to have a baby before she passed away, but I just wasn’t ready yet. The mere mention of the possibility perked her up even close to the end – but she also knew it was better for us to wait until we were actually ready – and thank goodness, because otherwise we wouldn’t have you, we’d have someone else.

Oh, thing to work on. For the last couple days when I pull out the camera you do this squinty eye smile. I want eyes. Not lines. I’m just sayin’.

Love,
Mama

Already been one of those days

We woke up early, so we were running late.

I poured, but forgot to give, Landon his medicine.

I left the house stopping to get us breakfast, and realized I had forgotten the medicine.

I returned home to get the medicine.

I brought it out to the car, where it rode in the passenger seat with me to drop Landon off at school. And instead of giving it to him, I brought it to work with me.

At which point I realized I also forgot to give Scarlett her medicine.

Adulthood

My mom likes to tell people that I've been an adult since I was 4.

I think my son may be on the same path to early adulthood. We went to dinner Thursday night and at the table they gave us some bread, so Clinton sliced some for Landon and handed it to him.

The first slice, Landon explained how it needed to be a sandwich and folded it over himself.

I gave him the second slice, which he scoffed at about how it wasn't folded and then folded it himself again - narrating exactly how one folds bread, "like a book," if you must know.

For the third slice he made his wishes clear to Clinton during the cutting process and while he was folding it for him, he even repeated the "like a book" command. And when Clinton handed him the piece of folded buttered bread, Landon said "Good job, Daddy!"

Anti-Beans

Landon's school has this deal where for $5 a week, they'll feed your kid breakfast. I'm all over that, because I think that he needs a little variety and the frozen waffle I would hand him every morning is eventually going to make him completely insane.

So the deal is that there is a teacher on duty in the cafeteria until 7, and then they all retreat to their classrooms. At which time they are still serving breakfast, but if you come in after 7 and before 8, you have to sit with your kid to eat the breakfast and then escort them yourself to the classroom.

I was running late this morning, and on mornings I am running late enough to have to sit with him to eat breakfast, I try to feed him something on the way to school instead so he can go straight back to the classroom, which makes drop off 1000 times easier and the second he sees his friends and his teachers, he's all "Mom, who?"

This morning he rebuffed my offer a a waffle. So I offered strawberries, which aren't the on the go kind of fruit you'd think they'd be, because for some unknown reason I introduced them to him with a dipping component (either chocolate or cool whip). Oh, to be able to turn back time...

Anyway, I cut up about 3 strawberries and put them in a small bowl with some cool whip and since I was going to have to wait on him to finish, I set out about doing a little tidying up in the kitchen. He ate, I kid you not, MAYBE 1/2 a strawberry and then exclaimed. "DERE'S BEANS ON MY STAWBEWWY"

So naturally I'm like "Beans, on your strawberry? Really? I kind of doubt that?"

But he ran over to show me the beans he had found on his strawberry.

"Oh, sweetie, those are seeds, you can totally eat those."

"Oh...seeeeeeds?"

"Yes, seeds."

At that point he decided not to eat any more strawberries. Which, fine. I mean, the have a snack at like 9 and then lunch at 10:45 or something, so it's not like a few hours without much food is going to kill him. We washed his hands and I saw the bananas on the counter and thought - well, that's more portable! So I offered a banana, which he accepted and we headed out the door.

He ate about 1/3 of the banana before noticing the beans in it. And he stopped eating it. "Dere's beans in my bana tooooo."

"Yes, Landon, pretty much all fruit is going to have seeds of some sort, they aren't going to hurt you, you can keep eating it."

"Nope. Here, don't wanit."

UGH.

I totally thought today was Wednesday

Which makes today extra awesome.

Finally figuring out pedaling

Because no holiday weekend is complete without an injury

I will save you some panic time, because the injured is not human. And if you know our canine history - I bet you can guess which dog is the one who is hurt.

We took the dogs to GUL and Kimmie's house on Sunday to play with their dogs - and all was well in whoville. The little dogs and the big dogs got along swimmingly. We couldn't have asked for a better time amongst them. And there were chases around the yard and one of those chases ended with a splash.

I wasn't watching and all I heard was a splash. And I looked around and did not see Scarlett anywhere. And then I saw Clinton looking over the edge of the bulkhead. And Scarlett is standing below on slippery slimy rocks. Shaking, scared as hell. After a minute or so it became pretty clear that she was not going to do anything about getting her own butt out of the lake. She had found a place to stand and that was it. She wasn't even willing to try to make her way down to the place where it would have been easier to get her out of the water.

I was the only one wearing shoes - although they were flip flops, they were better than nothing. So I jumped down and picked her 78 lb chubby butt up. I normally balk at picking up things like 40 lb bags of dog food, but was somehow able to stand on slippery rocks and lift her enough that Clinton and Lynn were able to pull her the rest of the way out.

She limped a little, but after a while seemed ok. So we thought she was fine. But by that evening she was slower than normal and the swelling had begun.

So as it turns out, the likely injury to a person or dog who falls 4 feet off a bulkhead on to slimy slippery rocks is a sprained ankle. Which I suspected. The vet also sustained a similar injury to his own ankle in a similar manner (although not this past weekend, and also probably not while chasing another dog around.) But her ankle was still so swollen still this morning, 48 hours post injury, that I thought it would behoove us to have it checked out and also to find out if they did indeed have something better than baby aspirin to give her. And they do, so he prescribed that and he gave us the admittedly tall orders of keeping her calm, for 2 weeks. So she'll be on a leash and house and/or crate bound for 2 weeks.

Pet insurance would have been a great idea for this dog, but a complete waste of money on the other one. And from what I hear, they have some pretty big preexisting condition clauses, and I'm almost positive that if we apply now for her, they'll be like "we're sorry your dog is entirely too injury-prone and stupid, we will not insure her."

That part aside, it was a good weekend, and Landon was happy 95% of the time.

He got to ride a jet ski, which he may or may not tell you is a boat (a red boat and a white boat and a black boat) and depending on which way the wind is blowing and how the stars are aligned with the planets, he may or may not have had fun while on said boat/jet ski. Not that I was allowed to go over 8-9 miles an hour.


Oh, and look, a new life jacket, because heaven forbid we remember the one hanging on our back porch, that we ALL looked at as we walked out of the house on Friday - to go on a trip - to a LAKE!!!

All in all it wasn't a bad weekend or anything, but part of me is glad to finally be sitting back at my desk right now.

Snot watch 2009 Round 846

Landon has yet another sinus infection - or rather maybe a continuation of that last one. The on-call Dr., since his normal Dr. was out today, said sinus infections are notoriously deep seated and sometimes it just takes a longer regimen of antibiotics to get it all. So when he stopped them at 10 days as per original orders and was fine - I thought we were good, but then 2 days later he developed a hacking rumbling cough again, and here we are 6 days after THAT and now we're back on antibiotics for 14 days - with orders to not allow him to share food or drinks with anyone...which will be hella hard seeing as we're at a family function this weekend and that just tends to happen. I need to get in touch with my inner helicopter momness - and that's going to be kind of hard, since I don't have a helicoptery bone in my body. Maybe I'll make him a "Don't feed the Landon" shirt.

The good news is that we discussed the fact that I think these are allergies turned sinus infections and she gave me some non-drowsy options for dealing with that if that is indeed the case. The bad news is that it's a guessing game, since they can't do the allergy testing skin prick test stuff until he's 5.

More good news, since the origination was allergies and his fever - if you can even call it that - never went above 99.9°, I was able to ship him off to school this morning after his first dose of meds and come into work.

Someone call an ambulance, my heart just melted.

Last night on arrival home, a black and white neighbor cat was in our driveway.

"A cat!"

"Yeah."

"A black cat."

"Yeah."

"A black cat and a white cat."

"Um..ok."

"A black cat and a white cat, right der."


Being that it was ONE cat, not two, you can see why I might have been a little confused this morning when he started talking about best friends.

"You best fends, mommy?"

"Yeah?"

"You best fends, mommy?"

"Who's best friends?"

"Mommy best fends, I best fends."

"We're best friends?"

"Yeah. Two best fends."

"You have 2 best friends? Who are your two best friends?"

"No, mommy, me, one, two."

"Ooooh, we're 2 best friends."

"Yeah."

Roller Coaster

I've been on a rollercoaster of emotions this morning and it's just exhausting.

It's work related, so I don't really want to get into it. But yes, I still have a job.

Plan B

I've been writing this post and erasing it for 10 minutes and I have far too much work to do to be doing that.

Find out about the Chicken Game here. And here. I found one of these chickens in my underwear drawer last week, and it totally made my day.

Redneck in the making

The best place to be is sitting out on your back porch.

Cause nothing's more fun than sitting on your back porch shooting at stuff.

Except maybe getting someone else to join you.

Numbers for last weekend

2 - Number of times I was rear-ended last weekend - thankfully with no damage to the vehicle either time.

2 - Number of bars I went to Saturday night.

12 - Number of bachelorette parties at the second bar.

29 - Number of bras I tried on before finding just 3 that didn't poke me in the armpit, create armpit boobs, or create room for someone else's boobs along with mine.

2,876 - lbs of rocks purchased to line flower beds and moved one by one from the truck to the driveway. You'd think that was an exaggeration, but the guy weighed them.

50 - length of flower bed in feet lined with rocks before it even looked like that pile had been touched.

1 - cubic yard of mulch shoveled and placed.

88 - temperature in degrees of the pool - without any heater action.

6 - hours spent in the pool over the weekend

10 - hours Landon slept after spending 4 hours in the pool on Sunday.

Conversations with a 2 year old

You may need to read Landon's parts outloud, since the spellings are phonetic.

***************************

Landon: Hey wuh sat no-eese?

Clinton: A bird?

Me: A siren?

Clinton: A car?

Landon: No, a cock-a-doo chicken! COCK-A-DOO!!!!

*************************

[We bought some pool noodles at HEB on Sunday morning and Landon was playing with one, he wasn't paying attention and kept whacking Clinton with it.]

Me: Hey, keep your noodle to yourself. It's a good rule now, and it will be a good rule later too.
*************************

********************

Things Landon has his own special names for:

Belts, the kind you wear on your waist: seatbelts

Skulls: head bones

Dough nut holes: dough nut balls

Sausage kolache: hot dog

Polka dots: poking dots

********************

[As we drove away from the dough nut place and I pulled out my sausage kolache, Landon saw what I was eating.]

Landon: I want it, dat hot dog. Peese, peese.

[I gave it to him because I thought that might happen. He started eating the kolache.]

Landon: Mmmmm, dat my fave-it, yum yum.

[Pretty much everything he's eating is his "fave-it."]

I can't move.

We spent a lot of time this weekend with rocks. Unloading them from the truck and then moving them to the back yard and lining the flower beds with them...I am beyond sore. And as such I cannot think. So here.

This guy helped smooth the mulch - although he made it through about 2 loads of mulch before he was too tired to help any more.

Because who doesn't want a rambly post every now and then

Landon's been sick this week [allergies turned sinus infection - as always]. Today is his first day back at school. And man was he pissed to be back in the routine after being out of it for like 5 days. Oh and now I have to sanitize my hands before going into my kid's classroom (not like they singled me out or anything, but they have a note to all parents that this is the new thing)...which 3 things 1) I don't touch anything but my kid and his paperwork, so I don't really see the point and 2) all this hyper vigilance is going to create a new superbug a la MRSA - just wait and see and 3) if I did have a the flu and I came to pick him up, my hands are the least of what anyone's worries should be - maybe they ought to supply us with those hazmat jumpsuit thingies - I want mine to have a helmet like an Astronaut.

The healthnuts are everywhere! I got chastised by a co-worker for drinking ice water all the time. Not the water part, but that he seems to think that warm or hot water is healthier for you. And I said, hey - it's not like I'm downing a 12 pack of coke every day - water is still good for you. So I looked it up and for some reason a lot of Asian people believe that hot water is better for you than cold water. I can't find any actual scientific stuff that says he's right - also can't find anything to say he's wrong, but do now realize it's a fairly cultural thing I'm dealing with, so I've decided to let it go. He also bothers me about the bacon I eat every morning, but I guess he doesn't exactly understand how sugar and starches affect my body and I don't really want to get into it with him, so I can't really fault him for that one.

Someone I can fault for something is my husband and his cousin. Remember that family cookbook I've been working on? Dude, it's taken like forever - I started it in January. but now I have a deadline, so come June 13th, I have to be done - I work better with deadlines, so that's a good thing. Also - the only 2 people who haven't done their homework for me? My husband and his cousin! You know, the two people who originally thought I should do this thing.

And you know who else is bothering me right now? Little kids. That sounds mean, but some times OPK (Other People's Kids) just irritate the ever loving crap out of me. Remember, when we went to the park and Landon was all - "EEEK other small people, I will just DIE if they talk to me!!" Well apparently, what goes around comes around, even in the toddler circuit, because he's totally trying hard to talk to kids on the playground now and about half the time the other kid completely ignores him. It's pretty frustrating really - we spent so much time trying to socialize him and get him to be willing to talk to other people and now they're ignoring him. Granted they're older kids, so they're probably just trying to get out of playing with a baby - but they could at least acknowledge his presence, I'm not asking them to baby-sit him.

Oh and they added these two giant rocks to the playground, one has a hole in the middle, which Landon like to sit in and pretend there's a TV to watch in there.

The end.

Wordless Wednesday

Monthly Newsletter #31

Dear Landon,

A couple days ago you turned 31 months old. You are very insistent that it does not by any means take away from your babyhood status.

“Landon, are you a big boy?”

“No, me a baby.”

“Are you sure? You’re not a big boy?”

“NO, me a baby!”

“Well, I think you might be a big boy.”

At this point you get supremely mad. “NO!!! ME A BABAY!!!”

Fine, you’re a baby.

So many new things have sprouted this month. One is the shoulder shrug. Sometimes you use it while narrating an inaudible story. Mumble mumble mumble *shoulder shrug and lifting palms* mumble mumble mumble *shoulder shrug.* You call your sandals “hot day shoes.” You call the alphabet song “ABCDs” and when you see letters on a sign or a shirt, you get excited saying “ABCDs! ABCDs!”

You like to sing, but you don’t always like when mommy sings. Which, ouch! I mean it’s not like I was hoping to be on American Idol or anything, but you don’t have to be so mean about it! You do watch American Idol – and you almost always agree with Simon. So more or less, you’re almost always right. When someone sings that you don’t like you shake your head and then you turn to better things to do, like poking the dog, or reading a book. When someone sings that you think is good, you bop your head to the beat. So maybe I’m blessed to have a small Simon in my house keeping me from humiliating myself…not that I was going to anyway.

On the way to school each morning we see school buses starting their rounds amongst the neighborhoods. You are super excited to see them and if we see enough of them in a row to warrant it, you will totally count them. Uh…that’s probably from my genes – as you will eventually end up counting everything from M&Ms to stairs. Just something to pass the time.

Also, it appears you inherited something else from my genes. It seems you are allergic to your environment. In fact, you may have noticed this newsletter is slightly late, and that’s due in part to the fact that on the morning it should have been posted, I was busy trying to keep you from dying. Oh, that’s a little extreme. But you did wake up at 4 am with 102° fever, and I took you in to the doctor because you’ve have what I would call and allergy cough for a few weeks. He said you had a sinus infection and we’re starting the antibiotics and you will recover. This isn’t the first time it’s happened. See, some kids get ear infections all the time, but you like to hoard your allergy issues until they become infections.

As a special bonus this has fallen at a time when the whole nation is freaked out about a little thing called swine flu. You see, it’s a pandemic, just because people in two or more countries have it. And I think the media decided it was about time they got to use their stock photos of pigs and ran with it, because the number of cases of swine flu, even globally doesn’t even come close to the number of cases of regular flu – and yet that’s not a pandemic, and oh yeah this: it’s completely treatable if caught early on and you just treat it like the regular flu. Anyway, even your doctor looked perturbed about it, but said they (whoever “they” is) said he had to test everyone with a fever for the flu. Your test came back “very” negative, but don’t think I haven’t thought about teaching you to say “oink-choo” upon returning to school. Except, since they made me sanitize my hands before picking you up last week, I decided to not freak them out any more than they already are. Even if it would have been funny.

Oh and on the extra awesome front this month. You pooped in the potty a lot this month. And like 3 days in a row. And then on the 4th day you kept telling me you had to, and I scooped you up and ran towards the bathroom (we’re going to have to work on the amount of notice you give people) and about half way there you’d start laughing and say “I not pooping!” [Oh, I see practical jokes in your future, you are starting so young.] So on the 4th day, I did that 3 times before giving you a lecture about how at some point I wouldn’t believe you and then you wouldn’t get the lollipop. We had one more false alarm, and then the 5th time, you said you were pooping and asked if you were sure too many times, and you were, but I didn’t believe you thus ending your streak.

This past weekend you discovered yoga on the Wii. And then boxing. And I have never had such a tough trainer in all my life. Between the demands for riding the bike to the park and then not actually wanting to play at the park, but get back on the bike and go home, and then do yoga, and then boxing, and then yoga again. I know you’re not sore, you’re not actually doing it, you’re just pretending to do it while I do it. Except the boxing, you’re really very good at the boxing. Anyway, since we only have the one balance board for the Wii, I’ve decided to get you your own, albeit broken, balance board, so you can do the yoga along side me and not have to use your step stool which is a tad too tall for some of these exercises anyway.

No requests this month, although it would be nice if you felt better, I think you’re already well on your way on that front.

Love,
Mama

This should be a monthly newsletter

but it's not.

I'll do what I can to get one out tomorrow.

We don't have the swine flu or anything.