Conversations With Christine

Finally, here I am to write for you again. 

And once again, I am apologizing for my absence. 

This time, however, I am not suffering from writer's block, but distraction.  Since I last posted, morning (yeah, right) sickness has set in with a vengance.  I am CONSTANTLY thirsty, not in the "I could really use a drink right now" way but in the "Give me water NOW before I CRY because my throat is so dry" way.

On the plus side, being too sick to eat meant a three pound weight loss last week, and I am definitely getting plenty of water every day.  On the down side, I am easily distracted by filling up  my water bottle, running to the bathroom, searching for crackers to help the nausea, being frustrated by the fact that I do not have a due date yet, and wondering when we will find the time to get everything done!

Then I start worrying about Girl Scouts.  What if another parent doesn't step up to help out?  What if no one will be a cookie mom?  This baby should come right in the middle of our cookie sale.  See a problem there?  I sure do! Unless more girls join my troop this fall and someone has a wonderful, helpful mom who will do more than drop off her daughter and bring snacks once in a while, this isn't going to work.  Especially having a split-age troop next year.

So I haven't written anything, because I don't want to have one of "those" blogs - you know, something like "The Joys (or not) of Pregnancy," or something along those lines.  It is necessary to get to the end result, but carrying a child is not one of my favourite things by any means.  I also can't in good conscious fill up a page with "ick." even if that is the only thought in my head right now.

So I work, and I read everyone else's blogs, and wish I had something fun and interesting and thought-provoking to regale you all with. Hopefully, soon I will get my brain back and will be able to do just that.

Until then....

ick.

There has been a story in the news here for several months, progressively developing.  To catch you up, several completely healthy dogs had died suddenly after visiting a dog grooming facility in town.  First it was one, then another one, then a third.  All dogs were in excellent health before their visit.  The owner of the business was finally charged with animal cruelty.  Then yesterday, this happened:  http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2009/jun/03/pet-spa-owner-kills-wife-self-in-w-knox/

I'll give you a few minutes to read the story.

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A tragedy, right?  Those poor children!  I can't see how they could ever recover from such a horror.  But what really gets me is the father of the indictee.  Did you catch this?  "Webb's father, veterinarian Carlos Webb, said Tuesday that he blamed the News Sentinel and a $750,000 lawsuit filed against Happy Tails by the owners of Moxie, the deceased beagle, for the tragedy."

Your son treats dogs so badly they die after a visit to his facility.  He then decides to murder his wife in front of their young children.  Then he has the presence of mind to call a taxi to take him to the "pet spa" where he takes the time to write a suicide note and then shoots himself in the head. And you blame the newspaper for reporting the charges??  And the owners of the third dog that died for suing your son for killing thier family pet?  What kind of human are you? 

It seems the son was taught by example to have no personal responsibility.  If you get caught in a crime, it is the fault of who found out, not your own.  It is the victim's fault they are your victim.  Are you freaking kidding me, sir??  The father was upset because the family's lawyer said he was going to put the pet spa out of business.  As well it should be!  This man caused the death of four family pets by horrendous, cruel, inhumane treatment that caused them to suffer and die.  He should not have been allowed to remain in business!

I am sorry he has to suffer through the death of his son and daughter-in-law, really, and the fact that his son is a monster.  But I have to wonder how the son got that way...

I am sitting here at work, bored out of my mind.  This morning was insanely busy, but sharply died off after lunch.  Crap.  I’d take insanely busy over bored silly any day. 

My Blackberry battery died again, so I can’t even check out my Facebook or Twitter!  Both are blocked out at work.

Tomorrow i am taking my Girl Scout troop to WonderWorks as thier cookie money trip.  This weekend is Scout Weekend there with reduced rates.  They are all so excited!  We are also getting T-shirts with our new council name on them. 

Emma is going on THREE field trips next week!  Monday to see the movie Earth, Tuesday is a trip for the ten students chosen for a Leadership Club (just found out yesterday, insane!) then Wednesday to Dollywood.  Thursday is awards day, and Friday is her last day of school.  She is super excited.  Friday is also the day she gets her phone back.  It’s been a long month for her.

Yesterday I found out I have to have surgery on my wrist/thumb.  I don’t have a date yet, but the surgeon said “ASAP.”  After the surgery I will be in a splint for a week, then will have another two weeks after that of healing time.  I am so glad to have an end in sight of this pain, but wonder how I will be able to do my job well since it’s my right hand and a majority of my job is handwriting.  It will be an adventure, anyway. 

The ants finally went away!  We had a few days of no rain; I suppose they were just wanting shelter.  Although last night it stormed.  I made a pot of tea last night, but fell asleep watching CSI NY.  My husband finally woke me up and sent me to bed, and then I remembered the tea was still on the stove. I was not about to make the full gallon of iced tea in my zombie state, so I just put the whole pot in the refrigerator until I get home from work today.  This morning I saw that in the dark last night a small bit of the tea (with sugar for an entire gallon) splashed onto the stove. Guess what was all over the spot?  Ants.

I am making my first Craigslist purchase today!  Someone listed several girls shorts and tees in Emma’s size, only $15 for the whole lot.  Emma needs shorts!  So I’m meeting the couple on my way home from work today.

I’ve tried to watch the season finales of my favourite TV shows this week.  House was great – I was so surprised at the end, really.  I can’t believe last week never “really” happened.  Lost – I fell asleep halfway.  We watched CSI last night (the original, there are so many now!) and was a little disappointed.  It was ok, but the commercials made it out to be so much better.  Fell asleep during CSI NY.  Recorded Grey’s Anatomy to watch this weekend.  And WTF with Bones???? For months we’ve all known that Booth and Brennan were FINALLY going to be “together” and promised it woudl be for real – not a dream, not a hallucination, not some other crazy explanation.  Then next season would deal with thier dealing with it.  I was so mad last night that it was all Booth’s dream/Brennan’s next book.  And the ending!  SO incredibly frustrating.  It was a good episode, but I feel like they LIED.

This morning started as almost every weekday morning does - arguing with the alarm clock, not wanting to wake up.  Chris got up first, as usual, and after several reminders I was just about to drag myself out of bed when he went across the hall to wake up Emma.  This is what I heard:

"Oh you're up already!  Good!"
"I've been up since 2"
"You're burning up! Take your temperature."

Yep, she was sick.  Her temperature was 99.9.  Ibuprofen and back to bed for her, phone call to work for me.  One problem, though - I had an appointment at 10:30 for some kind of nerve test on my right hand. And we have used all the five parent notes for excused absences she gets for the school year.  Ok that's two problems.

Problem one was not so hard to solve; she spent a couple hours with Daddy at his office. I dropped her off with a book, and went on for my test.  After a bit of waiting (quite a bit) I was taken back for the test.  First my hand and arm were poked a few times with something that gave off an electric shock.  It didn't hurt, but made my fingers and hand move around involuntarily.  Kind of neat, really.  Then the doctor put little needles in various places around my hand and arm, all the way up to my neck.  Sometimes those hurt, but not as much as I anticipated.  Then it was over.

To solve problem 2, I had to take Emma to the doctor.  She was able to be worked in at 3:15.  She had been coughing a bit this week, and had a sore throat off and on since Sunday.  Turns out she has strep throat!  I guess it's a good thing she had to go so her absence would be excused (lots of tests for end of school, she has to be able to make them up!) because I didn't think she was sick enough to go to the doctor.  Oops.

So now we're at home, waiting for Chris to get home so I can go to the store and pick up my troop's cookie incentives from the area cookie manager.  Thank goodness it's the weekend.

The commercials are out in full force.  Mother’s Day is this weekend and everywhere there are ads for stuff –  diamonds, perfume, flowers, iPods, cameras, clothes, anything at all you can think of to buy for your mother.  The ads are louder, brighter, flashier, catchier (is that a word even?) and coming more and more frequently in such a frenzy until the climax on Saturday – buy now before it’s too late or Mom will think you don’t love her any more!  If you care enough you will spend four times the price of your gift for overnight shipping so she can show all her friends how much you love her!!

It doesn’t help at all – I don’t think my mother would want any of the things advertised.  I know I don’t.  (Well, ok, I would like a really good camera, and a new copy of Rent on DVD and the new James Patterson book... but those can be bought anytime and are not “special.”)  Our culture is so materialistic, we feel pressure to quantify our love with monetary spending. 

But who asks moms what they REALLY want for Mothers’ Day?

Here’s what I want:  sleep.  All three meals cooked and cleaned up (and chosen!) by someone other than me.  The house tidied up.  A day without tv, video games, or computers – just us and time together.  The park, board games, whatever.  Just together time without electronic distractions. No pressure, no guilt, no being bashed over the head with ads saying my family doesn’t love me unless they buy me more stuff.  I don’t WANT more stuff!

But, who ever asks moms what they want for their day?   

Today on my way to work I was behind a Head Start school bus for a few minutes.  The driver stopped at one house, and the little boy that came out with his mother was literally dragging her behind him across the yard, running as much as possible while still attached to his mom’s hand, so eager to get on that bus and go to “school.” 

Young children almost without fail have such an excitement for school and for learning itself.  Then, by the time they are a few years in, so many of them profess to hate school.  Why is that?  Is it peer pressure – kids are not “supposed” to like school?  I know from experience that kids who actually LIKE being at school are ridiculed for that feeling.  Is it the teachers, making learning boring and tedious instead of interesting?  Is it other kids being mean, bullies, cliques, lunchroom rules? 

My daughter was thrilled to be starting kindergarten when she was five.  In our school system, the kids come to school and register, meet their teachers, bring the purchased school supplies, see their classroom, and have a small test (repeated at the end of the year to measure progress) two weeks before school actually starts for them.  When she found out there was another two week wait for “real” school to start, Emma actually cried.  She loved her homework and was proud to show it to me every week. 

Now, in fifth grade and middle school, I can’t keep up with which teacher matches which subject, what she has first, second, third period, even exactly how many classes in the day she actually has.  I know she has the early lunch, but not what exact time.  I see her homework after it’s been turned in and graded, things she could have done much better on if she had only brought it to us and asked for help instead of saying “I didn’t understand” a week later in her Friday folder.  Luckily she is still a good student overall, but she did have two Cs on her report card this year that she could easily have avoided if she had only been more open with us.

Some of the fault lies with us, her parents.  By the time we pick her up after work and get home it is a rush to make dinner, feed the animals, and make sure she gets showered and ready for bed on time.  She does her homework at the babysitter’s house, and over the years we’ve come to rely on her to make sure Emma has everything done. But, she is not Emma’s parent, we are.

But where did the EXCITEMENT go?  I know she loves learning; just yesterday she was performing virtual brain surgery and analyzing an accident scene on a website her science teacher introduced to the class.  But put any of that in the school setting, and she loses interest.

How do we get all of our kids excited about education again?  These are our future congressmen, senators, presidents, teachers, scientists, doctors, nurses.  If they don’t care about learning now, what will happen when they are in charge?

Have you ever sat back and noticed how small the world really is?

I love looking at the friend suggestions on Facebook.  A majority of the time I have no clue who the people are, but I still click on their names to see why the suggestion is made.  I am amazed at times at the friends we have in common!

One day the two friends in common were a friend of mine who moved from Georgia to Texas and Tara, one of our Skirt!setters.  I am 99% positive these two friends don’t know each other.  I have had two separate suggestions with the same two friends in common – one lives in Canada, the other in England.  Sometimes it is more local – I “friended” someone I have known since elementary school but lost touch with after high school.  Turns out we have another friend in common, who is friends with someone else I met at a party – so there is another connection. 

When I was growing up we spent a lot of time at my grandmother’s house in Panama City.  As I got older I spent a lot of time walking around the neighborhood.  One day I met one of her neighbors whose relative lived in the same small town I lived in – I actually knew her relatives!  Things like that happen so often; it fascinates me to think that there is a possibility we are all one or two steps away from knowing each other. 

Imagine the party we could have once all the connections were made!

(From April 30)

Emma is still BrokenBaby (although she’d be horribly offended if she knew I ever refered to her that way in public).  Next Tuesday I take her to the doctor for a follow-up visit and xrays to see how her arm is healing.  She is also able to dress herself again.  I still have to wash her hair for her, though.  Her babysitter has a pool that was opened this past weekend, and she has been able to get in and play around after school, but no swimming.  She was actually caught in the deep end on Monday, though, and informed that if she did it again, no more pool time at all until her arm was healed.  She got the idea and has stayed in the shallow end since.  She does have a pinkish tone to her skin now, too, from the sun.

I finally gave in and went to the doctor again for my right wrist. This is the practice I wanted to visit the first time, but couldn’t get an appointment.  I definitely have de Quervain’s tendonitis and possibly a nerve problem, too.  I have been feeling tingling and numbness in my right pinky and ring finger for at least a year now, and have a “dead spot” on my hand that is constantly numb.  The two problems are unrelated, though, and both doctors say it’s nothing I did to cause the problem, it just happens sometimes.  I am having a nerve test next week to check the nerves in that hand, then meet with the surgeon the week after that to discuss results and options.  I just want the pain to go awaaaaaaaaay!  I can’t even write without holding the pen like a toddler.

At Girl Scouts this week we realized there are only two meetings left!  We will still have a fun day this summer, which the girls are all looking forward to.  Last year I did the same thing for them, and the ones who came still talk about it.  So simple, too – we met at the park by the lake and grilled, simple menu of hot dogs, chips, and drinks.  The girls swam, and one family brought an inflatible raft.  They had a blast.  Also in a few weeks we are going on an outing to WonderWorks.  If you’ve seen the upside-down house in Orlando FL (I’ve seen pics of it all over the internet), that is what this is.  We have one nearby now as well. They are having a Scout Weekend in May with discounted admission. 

I’m also thinking about next year for Girl Scouts.  I’ve been in a dilemma, since Emma and about half my troop will be old enough for the next level, but not all the girls.  Since we have so few troops in our county, I don’t want to cause any of the girls to not have a troop to join.  I am thinking now about having a multi-level troop.  Scary, but I think i can do it.  I more than likely won’t have a class next fall, so I will have the extra time.

 

So anyway, that is where I have been recently and why I haven’t been posting here.  I promise to get better about that – I’ll be making a list as I have ideas, so when I sit down to write and they have vanished from my head I can remember. 

I had something terrible happen to me this week.  It is almost unspeakable, it’s so bad.  It was so sudden and unexpected, also! Just came out of nowhere and attacked.

I was simply standing in the bathroom in front of the mirror, getting ready for work.  I finished up my makeup, brushed my teeth, and gave my hair another lookover to make sure nothing was sticking out funny.  Then it happened.

I found a white hair on my head.  It was too long to be a cat hair, and it was attached to my scalp.

Where in the heck did that monster come from??  And why???

The trouble is, if it was only one hair, I’d actually be ok.  All my life I’ve found randomly colored hairs growing in with all the strawberry blond ones.  I had course, dark red hairs, fine blond hairs, and once, even a black one.  No idea how that happened.  So one white one wouldn’t be that big of a deal.

 But no, it was the SECOND one I found in the past two WEEKS!

What is up with that??  I mean, I am only 30!  Okay, if you want to get technical, 30 and a half, but I’m too old for half-years.  Closer to 31 than 30, but that’s still too young for white hairs to be beginning their horrid game of hide and seek. 

Also, that’s only the two I’ve seen with my own eyes.  I mean, if I sat down and let someone look at my head (like that’s going to happen now!)  who knows how many would be found?? That’s another advantage of being six feet tall and favouring high heels, I guess – no one can look at the top of my head that closely. Maybe it’s my karmic payback for laughing so hard at Emma’s remark about my husband’s hair...

I didn’t watch the Miss America (or USA, whichever it was) last night, but along with most of the rest of the country I have seen the clip of Miss California’s Q&A about gay marriage.

I strongly support gay marriage, and disagree with her answer, but I applaud her courage for stating her beliefs and not caving to the pressure I am sure she felt on that stage.  

I know many in the audience disagreed with her, and Perez Hilton, who was the guest judge who provided the question, has blasted her on his blog for her answer, but this is still America, where we are all free to have our own beliefs and opinions. 

I have heard several times today that her answer is to blame for her losing the crown.  If so, that is really a shame.  Maybe it was her stumbling over her answer that was really to blame, and not her answer herself.  Because if the fact that she stated her honest opinion as an answer to a question that ASKED her opinion, then we as a society have just taken a big step backwards.

I learned this week that it is very hard to plan a birthday party for middle schoolers. 

My daughter turned 11 last weekend (Good Friday) and her party was yesterday.  We had the theme (movies) and guests and location (the park) but that was it.  I hadn’t worried too much about activities, because we’d be at the park!  Playground, a dock, ducks and fish to feed popcorn to, lots of room to run and play.   Then we saw the weather forecast.  Started as 60% chance of rain in Wednesday’s report, and ended the week with a 90% chance of rain. 

Crap.

As we had no backup location, the party was moved to our house.  I stopped Friday to get a few last-minute items (like more food!) and thought I’d better get a game for the kids to play.  The trouble is, a majority of the games are outdoor games, and most of those are for smaller kids.  The rest are adult games – either drinking games or stuff the kids just aren’t quite old enough to “get.”  For example, there was a party game that went along with her theme, but the kids had to know who Robert Redford, Grace Kelly, Natalie Wood, and stars of that era are!  Not likely.

Target had the Scene It games on sale for half off, but Emma wasn’t interested in any of those.  We have board games aplenty, so I didn’t want to get another one of those.  Besides, she invited 16 kids and I knew for sure of 8 that were coming (ended up with 11 guests). Not many games for that many players!

Then I remembered what one of her gifts from us was:  Sing It for the Xbox.  I had never heard of it, but playing it I could see it was like a cross between Guitar Hero and karaoke.  There is a microphone, and you sing along with the words on the screen and are scored similar to Guitar Hero. 

Party time came, and the earliest kids played Operation while they waited for everyone to arrive (so much for no board games).  Knowing how easily this age gets bored, I let her open presents first.  She loved everything she got, and I think this was the first year she got NO toys.  YES!!! No more small parts!  She got craft kits, bath products, a CUTE Vera Bradley tote bag, and several kids gave her gift cards or money.  After cake, ice cream, and popcorn, the girls got out Sing It.  It is the Disney edition, with songs from Aly & AJ, Miley Cyrus, High School Musical, Camp Rock, and other singers under Disney’s control on Disney’s label.  Everyone wanted to go first, except Emma.  Finally I ruled that they’d go in birthday order, January to December.  We had quite a few good singers!  Then it was pinata time, and I think we’ll be finding candy in our living room for weeks to come.  Or a dog will.

All in all, the party was a success.  Everyone had a good time, and no one was bored, no drama, no hurt feelings.  Even with her separate groups of friends together there weren’t any issues.  Except for the fender-bender in our driveway, but that was a parent issue.  Good thing they knew each other and get along well!  One parent was in a large SUV when another in a small car pulled in behind him.  Our driveway is uphill, and he couldn’t see her car and backed right into it.  Oops!

I just might even let her have her party at our house again next year.