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Birthday present list

Posted on November 15, 2009 7:01 pm by TheAngelForever

Each year at about this time, people start to ask me what I want for my birthday. Most of the time I have no clue. There are things I would love, but when it comes time to list them I draw a blank.

Today, we were out shopping and something caught my eye. I just had to take a photo of it with my cell phone (thus the reason the quality is not the best).

Even though I am a fan of the Twilight series, I can tell you this is something I do not want for my birthday. My friend had mentioned that these existed, but this was the first time I had seen them in person. They kind of scared me. Not the dolls themselves. The part that scared me was who they were marketed to. The usual Barbie fan is certainly not of the age that would be reading/watching the Twilight series. So who exactly are these for? Are teens, college age people and adults really going to buy these for keepsakes?

Now, let’s be serious for a few moments. What do I want for my birthday? Really, I have no major clue. I told TechyDad that we should finally purchase our tickets for BlogHer ’10 since we have the hotel booked. That worked for me. Perhaps a play that is coming to town would be nice. There are some earrings that I would like, but are probably out of price range. Not sure of anything else.

Please help. . . I would love some suggestions.

Categories:
birthday me moments shopping vent

Flu shot frustrations

Posted on September 28, 2009 9:04 pm by TheAngelForever

As I sit here and type this, I am battling some sort of virus. I do not think it is the flu. I have had a horrible headache, body aches, chills and a fever. No congestion, sore throat or the like YET. Being sick on Yom Kippur was rough. Hubby went to services and the boys stayed home with me. Thanks to the television and toys, they were happy. At points, they came to check on me, and I went to check on them.

Still in the back of my mind, I worry and do not have time to be sick. I worry not only about TechyDad and NHL catching what I have, but I am particularly scared about JSL. The little guy had a febrile seizure, stopped breathing and turned gray in February 2008. He was hospitalized for four long days. A little over a year went by and we thought we were safe from a repeat. The reality was two additional febrile seizures in a 30 hour span of time in March 2009.

In August, when NHL went to the doctor for his physical the office already had their flu shots. The three of us (TechyDad had his at work) were ready for our shots. When the nurse came back in, she had to report that they did not have any of the vaccine for children under three years old. She told me to call back in mid-September to see if they received their shipment.

October is quickly approaching and still no flu shot for JSL. Each day it scares me because he is quite vulnerable if he catches something with a high fever. Going to the ER on Friday scared me even more since almost everyone was coughing and so very sick. I have now done some more investigating to try to find out where I could get JSL a flu shot. The short answer, there is no location in our area that has them for children under three years old. According to the Health Department, they have not even been able to get any. When I asked the nurse what the hold up was, I finally received an answer. She told me that the federal government told the drug company to halt production of all of their vaccines and to switch gears to produce the H1N1 vaccine.

*sigh*

Yes, the H1N1 is a very serious virus, but so is the regular flu. People forget that the flu kills thousands of people, including young children under three each year. I can not understand why they would stop producing the vaccine that is used for children if there was not enough for the majority of the population. My phone calls also included a pharmacy where an amazing pharmacist did even more research. She called the company of the flu shot and was told that they will not be able to fulfill any new orders until 2010-2011 – OY!

Please understand that I am not downplaying the H1N1 virus at all. As a thirty something adult it scares me a lot. This flu is attacking and killing people in my age group the most, along with kids that are the same age as my children. I understand the gravity of the situation, but I think perhaps some of this was done the wrong way.

Now I must sit, wait, and pray that my little guy stays healthy. The nurse at our doctor’s office told me today that they will likely get the pediatric flu vaccine in by the end of October, after the H1N1 vaccine will be released. So with any luck, he will get that it in the next month.

Categories:
doctor health awareness jsl looking back photos sick kid sickness vent

Not a beetles fan

Posted on September 6, 2009 9:11 pm by TheAngelForever

Friday afternoon, I called JL at work in a panic. Something caught my eye by the hardwood floors and the wood accent on the wall. With a closer inspection, I saw squirmy white worm-like things. I swept them up, took some photos (I will spare you) and kept looking for more. I was disgusted by finding some additional ones. When JL came home from work, we were not able to find any more. I looked online to see if I could identify what had to be some kind of larvae. It seemed like it was probably powderpost beetle larvae. They basically love moist wood. This summer has been extremely wet and our basement flooded two weeks ago thanks to city sewer issues. When reading more about them, it says that they are very distructive over time and usually are not found until people see the damage. Aside from a few exit holes, and wood dust piles in the basement nothing is very clear to our eyes.

This Labor Day weekend has been painfully slow watching, waiting and cleaning to inspect more. Tuesday morning we will have to call an exterminator to come and see what to do. We clearly have a current infestation and need to get it under control. What we will not know until someone comes is what real damage has already been done. Thanks to this wait, my mind is going a mile a minute:

Is our furniture infested?
Will we need to strip off parts of the floor?
Will we need to vacate the house to fumigate?
How much is this going to cost?
Can these beetles really be controlled?
Did they start from new wood that was added to our walls/kitchen when it was remodeled?
WHY now of all times?

I literally had all of this and more going through my mind last night. Of course finding more of the larvae in the dining room, hall way and our bedroom pushed it over the edge. I cried and rocked myself to sleep for maybe two hours and then was wide awake and crying again. All I could think about were these nasty, gross beetles destroying our house, furniture and other items.

Lots of cleaning and laundry was done today and more will need to be done tomorrow. With any luck, we can get someone here quickly, but we have no clue who to contact since we have never had this before. *sigh*

Thanks to this, I am hereby declaring war on the beetles and other creepy crawly, disgusting things that live and destroy items within my house.

Categories:
bad news house losing my mind messy nasty things vent

Unlucky lip lessons

Posted on July 26, 2009 10:24 pm by TheAngelForever

JL and I have been married for eight years now. Over the years, his parents have only come to visit for day trips. My father-in-law refused to leave their dog at a kennel. It has been frustrating over the years for JL because they have missed out on so much with the kids. NHL was their first grandchild and he has only seen them a handful of times. Even more telling, the other day he had to be reminded about what he calls them.

Not too long ago, my in-laws dog passed away from illness and old age. Years ago, they had promised that they would come to stay for a weekend as soon as they no longer had their beloved dog. True to their words, when the dog passed away they asked if they could come here the weekend that we were scheduled to visit them. We were floored! Sure we thought they would follow up on this promise, but we never thought it would happen so quickly.

So, Thursday evening my in-laws arrived. They spent the long weekend here and stayed at a hotel not far from us since our house is really small. The visit was nice, but it was almost ruined mid-day on Friday. Friday, JL had to run into work to deliver some things to co-workers and fix a problem. While he went there, my in-laws, NHL, JSL and I went to the park for NHL’s tennis lesson. It was interesting listening to my in-laws. They were floored with how much NHL is a mini-JL. Apparently, many of my big kid’s quirks are exactly the same as his Daddy was when he was little. Makes a lot of sense, but they had never told me this before.

After tennis, we met JL back at home and went to lunch. We had an amazing lunch at an Italian restaurant. From there, we met my father at the car dealership. My father-in-law wanted to look at some cars to possibly replace his second car. While they were chatting with the saleman, the boys and I were walking around looking at fish in a little indoor pond with a waterfall. JSL was following NHL and suddenly, CRASH! JSL went face first into the floor, just missing the bricks on the pond area. When JL picked him up off the floor he howled. The agony in his screams brought back memories of a night in March when he fell on his face running.

JL moved him into the light so I could check his mouth. Immediately, I saw a pool of blood in JSL’s mouth. At a quick glance, I could see his teeth seemed fine, but there was a HUGE gash in his bottom lip. It was pretty obvious that he had bitten it when he fell. We had to try to assess how bad it was quickly. NHL went to get my father to come and help. Other people heard the little guy screaming and helped us to get some ice. We went to the bathroom to try to stop the bleeding. By the time we had ice, the swelling was really bad. I went to the car to get water for JSL and some motrin. I knew he would be hurting and need it to help the throbbing and swelling.

Thank goodness we did not need to head to the ER for a fieldtrip with my in-laws. JSL fell asleep in the car on our way to the mall and was clingy the rest of the night. He only ate challah for dinner, but was able to nurse and use his pacifier. So far we still think his teeth are fine, but wil try to get more of a look in a day or two when he is not as swollen and in pain.

Here are two photos of the little guy from the weekend. The first is Friday at the tennis lesson before the accident .

Now a photos of the little monkey Saturday night a little more than 24 hours after the fall.

Oy. . . boys certainly do know how to keep their parents on their toes! More about our weekend with JL’s parents coming soon.

Categories:
bad news family jsl messy nasty things ouchie photos vent

Perhaps the great camera comeback

Posted on July 20, 2009 10:10 pm by TheAngelForever

Back in January I wrote about the death of my little handy dandy point and shoot digital camera. Here is a reminder of what my camera looked like:

I was not willing to invest money in my camera. When we contacted Canon they told us that we could send it in and they would look at it. The cost for a diagnostic check was almost as much as a new camera. Over the months I whined a lot about not having my little camera with me. I missed the convenience of being able to toss it in my diaper bag. Instead I would schlep JL’s big camera with me to events where I needed to take photos.

When we arrived home from Disney World my father was quite upset with his Canon PowerShot A570. It was starting to do similar things that my camera had done. He went to different stores and was quoted prices to look at it. In the end, he decided to purchase a new bigger camera. During one stop at a small camera store Dad happened to mention the problem that we were having with our Canon’s. The suggested that we try something with our cameras. We should use some rubbing alcohol on a Q-Tip to the battery area to clean the contacts.

What the heck, I certainly could not make the camera any worse .

Yesterday I charged up some new AA batteries in my Energizer unit and took out some rubbing alcohol. I put the batteries into the camera and decided to test it out. Much to my surprise, I did not see the flashing red dying battery light. In the past I would see this as soon as I put in fresh batteries, whether rechargeable or not. Today I took the camera out with me and the batteries are still going strong. I am not holding my breath just yet, but it looks like it could be a new life for my little camera.

So far I have taken 54 shots, off loaded the pictures and these batteries are still going. Some of the memories captured include the following:

JSL heading off to get into my car before we went to the post office, Staples (great bargains this week), and Target.

Then it was time for both of the boys to get into their seats in my car.

Before dinner JSL actually asked to take some photos with Daddy. Here they are having some fun.

While doing some cleaning we found an old pair of shades that had been NHL’s. Now they are perfect for the little dude.

Oh my how I have missed my little camera. Who knew that a simple cleaning with a little rubbing alcohol could do the trick. So glad that I did it myself instead of spending ~$100 sending it away. Here is hoping that it continues taking many more photos of our special family moments.