Monday, December 04, 2006

A Few Quick Updates...

Hey all - seems like I've left some loose ends hanging, so I thought I'd do just a few quick updates...

  • My Mom
    Thank you all so much for the sweet comments and emails letting me know that you were cheering my mom on.
    She had her surgery last Thursday, and they did decide to go ahead and replace her shoulder. So, my mom's a bit bionic now - how cool is that? She spent a few days in the hospital, and is now delighted to be back home again.
    I have to say that she's rocking her recovery. My mom is just amazing....

  • I've Decided Not to Leave Bubba
    Even though he did NOT get me Vanilla Ice's autograph. Sigh...
    but seriously, don't you think that I'm allowed to at least threaten to leave him for not getting it? :)

    And this is where we were both regretting (somewhat) our Luddite position on cell phones. We have 'em. But very, very grudgingly. We pretty much picked out the cheapest, least convenient pay-as-you-go plan, so that we wouldn't be tempted to use them much. However, we were both wishing that he had had a high tech phone with a camera, so that he could have at least gotten a photo...

  • The Little Beaded Tree
    It hasn't been terribly, terribly time consuming - it's more that there's not been much time to work on it! In all honesty, it's probably taking twice as long as you would think. But it looks like one of those projects that would take ten times longer than it should, so I'm pleased with the "twice as long" part.
    I also thought that it would just kill my thumbs, from pushing in all the pins, but that hasn't been an issue either.

    The hardest part was finding materials with which I wanted to work. Michael's selection was hideous, so I did have to wait a day and visit a Hobby Lobby. My first choice of bead was a pretty glass pearl, but it would have been hideously expensive, and I didn't want to sink $75 into this project. I decided the candy colored beads were acceptable, and they were 50% off. Sold! The only problem was that the holes in them are ginormous, hence the use of the glass headed pins (also 50% off, a good omen).

    At first I was really unhappy with it, because it didn't look at all as I had hoped. But then I realized the irony in this position - we encounter this all the time with Schecky.... Bless his heart, he is a little perfectionist. And he loves to draw, paint, sculpt, etc. However, these sessions very often end in frustration because he can't get things to look in real life the way that he envisioned it. I am forever telling him that whereas it can be disappointing to work hard on something and not have it turn out as expected, that he needs to quit beating himself up about what he didn't do, and focus instead on what he did. Instead of getting upset about what didn't turn out, he should look at the good that did turn out.

    So, I decided to quit beating myself up because the beaded tree isn't the tree of my dreams, and instead focus on the things that turned out OK with it. It's a lot more "fun", and a lot less "sophisticated" than I had hoped - but you know what? Who says the holidays can't be fun? And the candy-colors will look good in my bedroom on top of the dresser, a place that historically has never been decorated.

    Now if there were just time to finish it...

  • Speaking of Schecky
    Bless his heart again, he's having a rough couple of days. He's sick - which kind of threw both of us for a loop. He's a really healthy kid; like crazy-healthy*. We've been really lucky that way...
    Or so we thought...

    Turns out that if you dodge all those early childhood illnesses in early childhood, that's no guarantee that they won't come back and bite you in the bum really hard later on. Which is exactly what has happened to poor Scheck. He's got a wicked-bad case of the croup. And he's really freaked out because he can't remember the last time he was sick, and because he feels like he can't breathe. Which would freak me out too.

    He's got some steroids now, and hopefully we're through the worst of it. I've not slept in two nights, and I am crazy-tired, so I am ready for the meds to kick in and work so we can both get some sleep...




*So much so that when I first realized he had a fever, I went to the pie safe (which doubles as a medicine chest, since the real medicine chest is cute, but holds little more than dental floss and toothbrushes!) and got out the "kid medicines" I realized that everything had expired in 2003 and 2004. I debated giving it to him anyway, but feared that would automatically enter me in the "Bad Mommy" sweepstakes. So I went to the 24 hour grocery at 4 in the morning to get new, unexpired Kid's Tylenol.

But seriously, could I have just given it to him anyway? Had it "gone bad" or was it less effective? Or is this a pharmaceutical company plot to get overwrought moms to buy new meds???

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

I *think* it just loses some of it's effectiveness. But what a good mommy you are to go out at 4 in the morning! I've been giving Aidin doses of 2 year old hydrocodone when she wakes up coughing at 3 a.m.

And I really like your tree. It has got me thinking about one I grew up with - with metal pop bottle lids glued to it and sprayed gold. A little glass ball ornament hung from a nail in the middle of each bottle lid. The base was the lid from Aqua Net. My mom keeps promising me that she'll make me one, but I'm not holding my breath.

Cheers!

laura capello said...

dude, those were old-old. not a few days or a couple of months expired, but nasty-old. you did right by going to the store. you need a trophy.

Anonymous said...

Poor Schecky. Croup=bad, steroids=good! He'll be feeling wonderful again, very soon.
Yay for your mom. I would've have thought that would be a rough recovery. Good for her.
I hope you and Schecky get some good sleep tonight!

Anonymous said...

hurray that mom is recovering nicely.

have got to look at photos of this tree! that bad bad hobby lobby.

you are not bad mom for feeding your boy out of date meds. i'd do it.

and i'm totally with schecky on the whole perfection deal. i'm never satisfied with how things come out if i'm going for a certain look. can he try a more organic approach? one with low expectations, so that he'll be pleasantly surprised in the end with his insane craftiness? i aspire to a certain asestetic, but then am stuck with my skills. and that gets me where i am.

Anonymous said...

1. So glad to hear your mother is doing well! Especially after she's been through so much.

2. I hope Schecky gets over his croup soon! Croup is very scary-sounding. We had it here at some point when the kids were babies -- can't remember now who it was though. And speaking of being a bad mom, I've also given them out-of-date OTC meds. Maybe not severely out-of-date, but by a year or two. Probably not more than that.

Anonymous said...

it really doesn't matter if it had expired either way.... he probably could have gotten some benefit from the "old" and of course all benefits from the "new" I hope he is feeling better. We are still battling the cough for the swimmer that has to compete this weekend. How much robotussin is too much????
I love your tree. My trees are killing me.... way too time consuming. I do have three done, but am shooting for three more. I should have started in October!!!! Add that to the bum right hand I seem to have gotten at tennis some time.... I can't devote too much time to that project.

So, when you think of your mom, do you hear Mr Steve, whatever his last name was, from the 6 million dollar man???? That was my immediate thought when I read that. I am so glad, SO GLAD she is doing well!!!! You go Mom!!!!

Anonymous said...

Glad to hear about mom, also glad that you won’t be leaving Bubba, sorry about poor Schecky, & loving the tree. I made one of those when I was a kid with my Grandma. It took me a couple years to finish it. But we used sequins & beads.

Kat said...

I hope you son feels better soon. I am not allowed in Micheals anymore. I go crazy!

African Kelli said...

YAY! SO happy to hear your mama is doing okay. And your little one will soon be better. Croup. Eeegads!

Anonymous said...

Glad your momma is doing good! ;) bionic, but good.
I get the tree thing. I'd go for the cheap supplies too and have to force myself to not be disappointed by the final product. silly isn't it?
And poor boy! to be sick with that nastiness. ;( I hope he's feeling better soon.

Anonymous said...

I'm always afraid that meds get some sort of superhuman strength after their expiration date, so as soon as they pas I toss them in a panic. I know. Weird.