So, my oldest made his way to kindergarten this week. It has truly been a whirlwind, I haven’t had a moment to process this occasion. Hubs has been out of town since Sunday and most of the new schedule has fallen upon me. Besides just being tired of parenting by myself, I think the week went better than expected. It’s the longest hubs has been gone over one period of time.

I think the reason for my “almost” even-keeled demeanor had to do with kindergarten itself. HELLO. One of my kids is gone EVERY morning for over 3 hours. Not just 3 days a week, not just for three hours total. 3 and ONE HALF hours and EVERY DAY. What a difference that makes.

I am quite proud of myself and all that I accomplished during this time. I still look around and see all the familiar things I made a dent in, but all the others that have been sitting in piles in random places are starting to see their demise. For instance, I have this cool tray that we usually have on our coffee table. Well, it has spent months, MONTHS, back in our bedroom, on the floor, while holding picture frames, random kid artwork and some other crap. It was assembled one morning while my house cleaner was here and put away, to be out of the way. And it remained there for way too long. You know how long it took me to go through that pile? Minutes. Items were thrown away, pictures were hung, and the tray was returned to its original home in the living room.

1 down, way more to go.

Besides hanging some photos, I adjusted some others. They weren’t positioned well on the wall and it was driving me nuts. I don’t have it JUST right, but it has inspired new ideas for the wall space. And that’s something.

Back to the kid going off to school. It’s pretty heavy when I think about it for just a moment. My first born is out of the house during school season for the remainder of his time in my house. Crazy.

When I picked Rt up at school today, Day 3, he handed me a certificate. It was an award he “won.” It said congratulations for writing his numbers from 1-100. Um, ok. I had no idea he knew how? I knew he could count to 100 forwards and backwards and even count to 100 by 10’s, but I had no idea he could write them. I was SO proud and totally thrilled by the look on his face when I read him what his teacher wrote.

It was priceless.

Sigh.

Clearly, I am all over the map with this school thing. It’s mind-blowing, heart-inflating and an opportunity for me to get my shit together for once and for all.

I’m excited for what’s to come.

e

Until recently, I had never attempted to make scones. I had tasted a few here and there. They just never did it for me. Too dry, not sweet enough, not sure what, but I knew they were no donuts. I found a recipe I thought I could master and made an attempt. What was so great about these scones, besides their flavor and texture, was their ability to be frozen. I made an entire batch of dough, cut them into rectangles, then froze half of them. I was certainly please last Sunday to find the leftovers sitting in the freezer talking to me saying, “HELLO, LOVER.” One word: Delicious!

Blueberry Scones

Original Recipe: Smitten Kitchen

Makes 12 to 16

2 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar (+ 1 tbs for more sweetness)
1 tbs baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
6 oz of butter, in 1/2-inch cubes
1 cup blueberries (or any other fruit you’d like to use.)
3/4 cup buttermilk

Turbinado or sanding sugar for sprinkling (optional, All I had was regular sugar.)

Preheat oven to 375°.

Place cubed butter in freezer for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, measure other ingredients (except buttermilk and fruit) and mix in the bowl of a food processor.

Add butter to processor bowl and mix until the butter and flour mixture are the texture of coarse cornmeal. Transfer the mixture to the bowl of a mixer and add buttermilk and fruit, mixing on the lowest speed until the dough just comes together.

Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead gently a couple times. Roll dough out to approximately one-inch thickness (or just pat it out with floured hands) and cut into squares. Cut those squares again on the diagonal, creating triangles. Sprinkle with sugar here. (I took half my batch and froze it. Adding a few minutes of bake time when I finally did use it.)

Bake on an ungreased baking sheet or with parchment paper for 25 to 30 minutes, until lightly browned.

Enjoy!

e

The last time I was pulled over by the cops, I was a sophomore in high school. My mom and I were driving back to Oklahoma from spending a weekend in Dallas at one of my sporting events. We were a mere 1o miles from the border when a Texas highway cop pulled me over for doing 10 miles above the speed limit.

This was the only traffic violation on my record until Friday.

I got a ticket.

For holding a phone to my ear.

I was calling the dentist to tell them I wasn’t feeling well enough to come in for my appointment later that afternoon (when actually, we were going out of town and I forgot to reschedule sooner.)

Let’s all welcome Karma to the table!!

I know I am not supposed to talk with my phone to my ear. I know this. I deserved it. I truly did, but when the guy asked me if I was receiving a call or making one, I blurted out immediately, “MAKING ONE!!” then said out loud not long after “And that would be the worse of the two, now wouldn’t it?” (Hangs head in shame.)

DAMMIT.

I can’t even lie on the spot.

And I’m going to pay for it.

There was no dollar value on my ticket, except for court date information. I should be receiving something in the mail with the “pay out of your ass” feature, instead of going to court. Rumor has it, the ticket is $25, but after all the court fees and “you live in freaking CA, now pay us for it” fees, the total is somewhere in the $100-$200 range.

Go me.

Wasn’t I just talking about good news?

Come on already!

e

Join me over at Style Lush today where I write about birthstones and bling!

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Happy Friday everyone! We’re headed up to the Sierras for a little family time before school starts. Do we ever stay put?

e

• Rt started soccer practice this week. We’ve done the whole t-ball thing, so we have a little experience in organized sports for our kid, but soccer was my favorite sport growing up. Buying him Adidas cleats, helping him put on his shin guards takes me back. What I can’t get over is the name of his team, The Barracudas. Ya. These are 5 yr olds here. And what’s really sad, I didn’t know exactly what one was until I looked up how to spell the word. (Who wants to misspell on FB? Not me.) A fish? Really? I thought it was like a Tasmanian devil type thing. Who knew?

• ********

• School starts for Rt a week from Tuesday. Until then, I find myself lounging around the house, getting shit done, eventually, with my pj’s on, of course. I can go to the gym and I do. I just know I have it in my corner pocket in case the boys are coming out of their skin around the house. But, today, they’ve played in the water, ran around naked (which seems to be a common occurrence these days) and played with trains all along the kitchen floor. (I’ve almost died 3 times by stepping on an object that has wheels.)

• *******

• I’ve been watering my neighbor’s plants along with feeding their fish over the past week. They told me I only needed to come over every other day, no biggie. So, yesterday I took the boys over with me and thought it would be fun for them to feed a fish, since we own nothing that moves on its own in our house. I opened the door only to be struck by the worst smell you’ve ever smelled in your life. It was like leaving your clothes in the washer for 5 days amplified times 10. Woah.  I went about my business trying to ignore the obvious, but figured I couldn’t just leave their house in its condition. So, I went looking for the stench. It was in the fridge. The non-working fridge. The fridge that had watery ice cream and dripping meat juice and anything and everything with the word CREAMY on it.  It was horrific. My first instinct was to run. My second was to grab a trash bag and go to town. 3 bags later, the worst was out, but the puddle of freezer juices at the bottom almost made me gag on spot. HOW DO I GET RID OF THE PUDDLE? With an entire roll of paper towels, that’s how. (horribly non-green, of course.) All I can say is, THANK GOD today was trash day, because I don’t think any of those bags could have lasted any longer in that can without disrupting the neighborhood.

• e

What happened?

Just yesterday, we were headed down to the beach for a week long vacation with the sun and surf. But, that was a month ago. And so much has transpired since then.

Should I list them?

Yes, I shall.

• Urgent Care visit (given tips on how to get into ER quickly.)
• ER Visit (Lame excuse for diagnosis.)
• Pediatrician’s office (never seeing that awful back up doc again.)
• ER Visit (Right diagnosis.)
• Ambulance Ride (Pricey!)
• Surgery (woah, nellie.)
• 3 days spent in the PICU (Nothing’s more surreal.)
• Rest, rest and some more rest (all of us needed it.)
• Follow-up Pediatrician visit (clean bill of health!!)
• Acupuncture (Ahh.)
• Swim lessons (Awe, the boy is back.)
  
• House cleaner comes (entire house must be thrown into closet.)
• Acupuncture (Ahh.)
• Swim lessons (Younger is making great strides.)
• Current day (phew.)
  

And then, to top it all off, I recently looked at our insurance bill (EOB). Definitely not something you should do if you are positioned around things that can shatter easily. It can be a big mess and make matters much worse.

Let’s see, where should I start….

How about the ambulance ride?

Out of pocket $500.

Hospital stay?

Not sure on our part yet, but the total bill sent to insurance rang in at $35,000. YES, you read correctly. An arm and a leg and a nut sack. (I’m guessing, we’ll owe $7000, unless more is discounted due to being in-network, but that looks like it could be the worst of it. *I hope.*)

Luckily, once we got home from the hospital, I paid all the rest of my medical bills from the D & C, (I was dragging my feet a bit) which rung in close to $1000.(surgery center, anesthesia, doctor himself)

DUDE.

Don’t you think we’re about due for some good news? I certainly do.

e

e

So, where do I start? It’s been one hell of a week. Wait, it’s been two weeks that our life has been completely far removed from normal. Of course, the first half was the right kind, ideal. This last half? I’d rather be anywhere else.

A week ago Saturday, we headed to the Northern California beaches of Aptos. As I posted below with video, we had a glorious time. We went on a steam engine train ride, hit the Santa Cruz Boardwalk amusement park, played at the beach daily, and took much advantage of the heated pools and hot tubs on the resort property. Oh, and let’s not forget the golf carts that would take us ANYWHERE, well, on the property that is, including DOWN to the beach and back whenever we wanted to. We took advantage of this by roasting marshmallows for smores around a bonfire with friends and beers.

I don’t know if it was the convenience factor of where we stayed, but we really RELAXED and enjoyed each other because we weren’t schlepping around umbrellas, beach bags, kids, and sand toys up and down hills. The pools were warm, so no one complained about being cold when the fog rolled in. Our nights were filled with getting the kids to bed a little late than normal, sitting by the fire and reading (playing on the computer) and if any of you know me, I am a girl who loves her remote, so NOT being in front of the tv was a good escape for me. (and yes, choosing a computer isn’t too far removed, I KNOW….)

ANYWAY, let’s go back to, say, Thursday…..Ryan seemed run down. Hell, we had done SO much in such a short amount of time, his daily “down time” consisted of playing with his Leapster next to us in the den of our suite. His bedtimes were delayed due to getting his brother to fall asleep before we added another to the room. No day was typical, and that just might have been what brought on the rest of my story.

Friday morning: 4:45am. Ryan is standing next to the bed and says his head hurts. He said he hit it on something the night before. I knew he hadn’t and thought he had just been dreaming his pain was coming from some epic event. I pulled him into bed and noticed immediately his feet were on FIRE. I decided to get him back to sleep, but after he said he was thirsty, I got him some water and gave him some Motrin.

Fast-forward two hours. No sleep was had and his temperature was 101. Nothing major, but still a fever. What I was surprised about was his was SO HOT, but yet the temp didn’t agree. Anywho, the day went on, slowly and we medicated when needed. After he slept for THREE HOURS during quiet time, which is so far removed from anything he has done in the past 2 years, he started holding his head funny. He wouldn’t/couldn’t turn his head from side to side and said his head hurt badly again.

Not knowing what else to do besides medicate the fever, we decided on our way home Saturday to go to Urgent Care. They told us to go to the ER, since he was unable to rule out meningitis. At the ER, after blood work and a chest x-ray, he was diagnosed with pneumonia. An IV anti-biotic was given and we were sent home with another.

Next day, same issues with head and neck. Motrin was needed every 6 hours for the pain and the fever continued to come in around 100 degrees.

Monday, we were still concerned with the head and neck, so I made an appointment with the pediatrician. Well, not ours, since he was out of town, but another dude in the practice. I had been to him years ago when we first moved to town. He was fine, but all the mommies I had just met used another, so I switched. I know, TOTAL FOLLOWER.

After a stressful visit, no thanks to a certain 2 yr old who spent most of his time opening drawers “that were not his” as the doctor would say. For the love of God child, do as the man said, STOP OPENING THE DRAWERS. What came out of that appointment seemed even worse, let alone confusing.

He told us that Ryan had some bug, but also had Torticollis. (A wry neck.) Like in, he slept on it wrong, you suck for making your kid sleep on the floor the entire week of your vacation and now he has a stiff neck, AND he may have to do physical therapy if it doesn’t work itself out soon. And this is the queen bee of comments he made to me that day, “You know, I don’t mean to come off this way, but if I’m not worried about him, then there isn’t anything to worry about.” Basically, “I’m that good.”

You know what Dr. W.?, F U dude. You were wrong. SCARY wrong.

The next night, Tuesday, we spoke to our brother-in-law who is a family practice doctor out of state. He wasn’t happy that no one had ruled out meningitis yet, since we never did a lumbar puncture in the ER Saturday night. He INSISTED we wake Ryan up and head to the hospital. We didn’t want to be sorry. No, we didn’t. So we took him.

Well, hubs did. I stayed behind with Hunter and worried myself silly as to what could be happening. I got calls off and on that night updating me on what they thought of Ryan’s situation. The last call I made at midnight told me they thought it was an abscess and were going to give him a CT Scan to verify. The last call I received was from hubs at 1:30a.m. telling me, in fact, it WAS an abscess in his neck (which would actually be in his throat if we are being technical here.) And the real kicker to all of this was our hospital was not equipped with this type of PROCEDURE.

Do you hear me people? I heard PROCEDURE. And I also heard TRANSPORT via AMBULANCE.

Then, I was told to go back to bed to get some rest for the following day. (ya, OK.)

The following day, now Tuesday, I called hubs at 7a.m. to make sure THEY GOT THERE, and when the procedure was to take place. Of course, I woke hubs up since they did not get to the new hospital 20 miles away till 3 something and he didn’t fall asleep till 4:30am. Whoops.

Next call later, I was given the most crushing news. His procedure was SURGERY, going in through the throat to drain the puss ball and he would be in the hospital a total of TWO TO THREE DAYS. And to top it all off, Ryan was placed in the Pediatric INTENSIVE CARE unit to watch his vitals since the abscess was close enough to his airway and could hinder his breathing.

And this is where I lost it.

Too much. TOO MUUUUUCH. We were just on vacation as a family and now we’re here.

in a hospital.

for surgery.

on our boy.

I got my act together, called my mom for babysitting and headed down to the hospital soon after. Once I got there, we spent most of the day waiting for an OR. Our ENT said she would have done the surgery at 9am, but there was no place for us to go.

At 5:45p.m., there was.

29 minutes later the surgeon was telling us it went as well as it could. No tonsils were removed. 4cc of bacteria (goop) was removed and he should be.just.fine.

And so far today, he is.

We should be heading home sometime tomorrow as long as the anti-biotics continue to do their job.

e

(Did I mention the way he got his bout of bacteria lodged back in his throat? THROUGH HIS NOSE. How on EARTH do you prevent that. Clearly, you don’t. Word to the wise, the beach has bacteria. Don’t smell it.)

Happy Friday!

We’re off to the beach for a week!