Taking the Scenic Route

It’s been a long, hard day.  Zane is no worse, but no better.  We are watching closely for dehydration at this point because he isn’t drinking a lot, but appears ok for the time being.

I was perusing MDC and got the first laugh I have had all day.  In “Good Nutrition” was the post looken for a recipie fot a deap fried hamburger.  You don’t have to go there to see the funny part…it is just what it says, somebody looking for a recipe for deep fat frying hamburgers, on a forum dominated by vegan, vegetarian, macrobiotic, and other health food posts.  (named “good nutrition” no less).  The spelling sort of adds to the humor, but I hesitate to really make fun of it since it isn’t really fair…I don’t know their background and whether or not English is their first language, ect.  She only has 80-something posts.  I am wondering how much reading she did before she started posting.

Well, day 2 of Zane having a fever.  Most of the time, he is still his giggly self, but he is certainly more prone to tantrums and has slept a lot more.  I sure hope the fever subsides soon.  He is engaged in a Dora computer game right now.  I think I am going to see if he is interested in a nap soon.

The continuing saga of the knitted pumpkin leaf:..  Well, I like the strategy I chose, I just cast on way too many stitches.  The pumpkin leaf was looking like it might end up bigger than the hat itself.  I just frogged it and am getting ready to cast on for my 7th try.  I WILL figure this out.  lol.  It is a mission. 

Kansas State Fair 2005

We went yesterday, opening day of the Fair.  It was a good choice, even though the petting zoo wasn’t set up yet.  The fairgrounds were not very crowded and the weather was nice.  Perfect weather with just enough of a breeze to keep us from overheating.

My parents met us and brought their wagon thing.  It worked like a dream (the thing was nothing to pull, even loaded down) and Zane actually spent a lot of time sitting and just watching the world around him.  There was a lot to absorb and I am glad we had an option for him other than walking or riding on shoulders.

Getting Ready

Hitching a Ride

Grandpa & Grandson sharing a mutual interest

Can you say “Llama ?”

Waiting for the Pronto Pups (A family tradition since I can remember.  This particular booth is owned by people that have known my mom since she was little)

A Lot to Look At

“I see the train!”

First Carnival Ride (with Dad)

My family

This has to be the bumpiest rocking horse thing I have ever seen.  lol

Heading Home

Update on neighbor gal.  They are not going to do a hysterectomy right now.  They can’t.  Beside the fact she is just too young to have one unless there are no other options, the cyst is a hemoraging cyst, and she could bleed out if she had surgery on it right now.  She can’t even have a lap done to drain it because it is still active and would just refill.  She is being put on birth control pills in hopes of shrinking it.  If that doesn’t work, she will be put on some other meds.  I have to wonder if it will be like the Endo meds I took for a while, which were pretty nasty.  She also has pain meds for the mean time until it starts shrinking and the pain goes away (or at least lessens to a tolerable level). 

She does seem to be feeling a little better today, so I am hoping the pain meds are helping her. 

Some prayers for my neighbor gal please.  She is in the emergency room.  She probably should have gone a few days ago because she has been in such horrible pain.  Her Dr. couldn’t get in to see her and finally today it got overwhelming.  It is probably something to do with ovarian cysts, and her stomach has been distended for a few days already.  She is only 21, but she has 2 kids and tied her tubes after the birth of the last one.  She is hoping for a hysterectomy so she doesn’t have to deal with this any more.  I am not sure that a hysterectomy on a 21yo is a great idea if there are other ways to solve it, but I pray she gets some relief soon and can be at peace with what ever decision she has to make.

Update:  She is back from an 8 hour ER trip.  She is still in a lot of pain, but is medicated to take the edge off.  She has one cyst on her ovary that is larger than her ovary, and they think the one on her other ovary might have burst.  She had several sonograms and a really bitchy ER Dr.  She goes to see her OB/GYN tomorrow about a possible hysterectomy.  I hope her pain meds hold for the night and she is able to get help, whatever that may be, quickly tomorrow.

We played “Memory” for the first time with Zane tonight.  We tried Candyland for a bit, but Zane wasn’t totally getting that, so we moved to this game.  He had a ball!  He was better at it than I thought he would be too.  He even did a good job (for the most part) of remembering to take turns.

Every time he made a match, he would cheer, and then line it up “just so” with the other tiles he had matched.  They had to be lined up, in pattern, before he would take his second turn. 

When we started up a second game, he flipped over one card, then decided that trains sounded like more fun.  lol.  I think we tired out his brain.

For those wondering why people in New Orleans didn’t “just” leave.

Found on the web http://www.scalzi.com/whatever/003704.html

Being Poor

Being poor is knowing exactly how much everything costs.

Being poor is getting angry at your kids for asking for all the crap they see on TV.

Being poor is having to keep buying $800 cars because they’re what you can afford, and then having the cars break down on you, because there’s not an $800 car in America that’s worth a damn.

Being poor is hoping the toothache goes away.

Being poor is knowing your kid goes to friends’ houses but never has friends over to yours.

Being poor is going to the restroom before you get in the school lunch line so your friends will be ahead of you and won’t hear you say “I get free lunch” when you get to the cashier.

Being poor is living next to the freeway.

Being poor is coming back to the car with your children in the back seat, clutching that box of Raisin Bran you just bought and trying to think of a way to make the kids understand that the box has to last.

Being poor is wondering if your well-off sibling is lying when he says he doesn’t mind when you ask for help.

Being poor is off-brand toys.

Being poor is a heater in only one room of the house.

Being poor is knowing you can’t leave $5 on the coffee table when your friends are around.

Being poor is hoping your kids don’t have a growth spurt.

Being poor is stealing meat from the store, frying it up before your mom gets home and then telling her she doesn’t have make dinner tonight because you’re not hungry anyway.

Being poor is Goodwill underwear.

Being poor is not enough space for everyone who lives with you.

Being poor is feeling the glued soles tear off your supermarket shoes when you run around the playground.

Being poor is your kid’s school being the one with the 15-year-old textbooks and no air conditioning.

Being poor is thinking $8 an hour is a really good deal.

Being poor is relying on people who don’t give a damn about you.

Being poor is an overnight shift under florescent lights.

Being poor is finding the letter your mom wrote to your dad, begging him for the child support.

Being poor is a bathtub you have to empty into the toilet.

Being poor is stopping the car to take a lamp from a stranger’s trash.

Being poor is making lunch for your kid when a cockroach skitters over the bread, and you looking over to see if your kid saw.

Being poor is believing a GED actually makes a goddamned difference.

Being poor is people angry at you just for walking around in the mall.

Being poor is not taking the job because you can’t find someone you trust to watch your kids.

Being poor is the police busting into the apartment right next to yours.

Being poor is not talking to that girl because she’ll probably just laugh at your clothes.

Being poor is hoping you’ll be invited for dinner.

Being poor is a sidewalk with lots of brown glass on it.

Being poor is people thinking they know something about you by the way you talk.

Being poor is needing that 35-cent raise.

Being poor is your kid’s teacher assuming you don’t have any books in your home.

Being poor is six dollars short on the utility bill and no way to close the gap.

Being poor is crying when you drop the mac and cheese on the floor.

Being poor is knowing you work as hard as anyone, anywhere.

Being poor is people surprised to discover you’re not actually stupid.

Being poor is people surprised to discover you’re not actually lazy.

Being poor is a six-hour wait in an emergency room with a sick child asleep on your lap.

Being poor is never buying anything someone else hasn’t bought first.

Being poor is picking the 10 cent ramen instead of the 12 cent ramen because that’s two extra packages for every dollar.

Being poor is having to live with choices you didn’t know you made when you were 14 years old.

Being poor is getting tired of people wanting you to be grateful.

Being poor is knowing you’re being judged.

Being poor is a box of crayons and a $1 coloring book from a community center Santa.

Being poor is checking the coin return slot of every soda machine you go by.

Being poor is deciding that it’s all right to base a relationship on shelter.

Being poor is knowing you really shouldn’t spend that buck on a Lotto ticket.

Being poor is hoping the register lady will spot you the dime.

Being poor is feeling helpless when your child makes the same mistakes you did, and won’t listen to you beg them against doing so.

Being poor is a cough that doesn’t go away.

Being poor is making sure you don’t spill on the couch, just in case you have to give it back before the lease is up.

Being poor is a $200 paycheck advance from a company that takes $250 when the paycheck comes in.

Being poor is four years of night classes for an Associates of Art degree.

Being poor is a lumpy futon bed.

Being poor is knowing where the shelter is.

Being poor is people who have never been poor wondering why you choose to be so.

Being poor is knowing how hard it is to stop being poor.

Being poor is seeing how few options you have.

Being poor is running in place.

Being poor is people wondering why you didn’t leave.

I would add:  Being poor means you can add to this list without having to think too hard.

I am so thankful that I am not that level of “poor” any more.  Well, that isn’t entirely true, but we are certainly on our way up and out of this.  I can still identify with a good number of these though.

Good day today.  We met mom and dad at Sam’s so they could do their shopping.  Zane really loves going shopping with them, and especially loves to help unload and then reload the cart when paying for it.  He takes the items from the cashier and enthusiastically stacks them in the cart.

After Sams we went to Braums.  He sat very well, ate all his burger, then grandma went and got him his first official ice cream cone.  He very carefully held it out in front of him all the way back to the table, then shivered every time he licked the cone.  He kept holding his tongue in between bites.  It was declared “very cold”.  lol.  After he had enough of the ice cream, he went to the play structure.  For a while it was just he and grandma in there and they danced and did rhythmic things with the balls.  After a while, a few girls (4 & 5yo) and their dad joined them and he got more brave following them through the tubes.  When he was in the ball pit, the window to the pit looked out on to the table and he declared “that’s grandpa there!”  very cute.

Now back at home I am on my 6th attempt to figure out how to knit a pumpkin leaf.  I think my new plan of attack will work.  I have learned a lot in my attempts. What I really want to do is crawl in bed for an hour or two though.  I am so tired!

As I perused my new blog page on my links, I discovered that I missed a whole lot of people.  Some of my ‘check out every day’ blogs weren’t there.  Oy!  I am trying to remedy that this afternoon.  I am getting down how to FTP again without having to get Zach to help me, so that is one good thing.  lol.

On a happier note, we got Zane a few pieces for his trains and has had a ball making new track configurations and playing with his trains.  We also got some more bubble stuff and blew bubbles for a while, and a Dora video game that is basically a joystick that plugs into your tv that he has really liked.  Today we hope to play the Dora the Explorer Candyland for a while. 

I pulled some knitting out yesterday and put a stem on a pumpkin hat.  I am going to see if I can figure out how to make a leaf and small vine to embellish the hat this afternoon too.  I will see how it goes.