posting this from my phone, so will be brief and lacking in capital letters. weekend was crowded with events, all good. bought clothes, all nice, but best shirt not available in size 14, so bought it in a 12 and will avoid taking deep breaths.
bring on your whines!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
45 comments:
oooh, nice start with the clothing whines! i have reached a crisis de jeans, and i hate jeans shopping. the last time i did it, ended up with 2 pair that only kinda work. and that is my entire inventory, since everything else tried in the last 5 years is a complete fail.
i previously whined about my mailbox place closing. AW: found a new place today! nearby! for only twice the price! W: and then i went a step too far, ordered new business cards. which, totally my own fault, were one.digit.wrong. /faint/
AW: it is sunny, and man, does that make all the difference.
thanks, liz!
aw: we finally had sunshine today. this south texas girl needed some sun really really bad.
w: oh, let's see. the weather. and the inherited cold...mama was the last to succumb. and some potty training regression that i'm just not getting and am really frustrated with. that and the level of snot in my house just about did me in over the weekend.
it's really hard to type without capital letters.
w of a sort: mini baboo will turn a year old next week. sniff, sniff. aw: she is absolutely perfect and i am not considering any type of therapy whatsoever. and adorable. and she can sign "more" and "all done." it is nice to be a proud and non-neurotic mama.
Esperanza - that year marker is a kick in the gut, isn't it? Yay for Mini Baboo!
KathyA - yay for sunshine!
Liz - an admirable clothing whine. Mentally I would tell myself that I would soon fit in the smaller shirt because I was going to lose 5 lb. Like that ever happens to me!
Liz - that's why I tend to steer clear of button shirts. No button is safe near these girls. Good on you for taking the ever-perilous button leap of faith.
kathy a. - believe it or not, the commercials are right. The best jeans I've found are at *gulp* (I really don't like this story) Wa*mart. Riders boot cut or comfort fit are great. They have just enough stretch to make them comfortable and the wash of the denim is somewhere in between "Sitting by the cribbage board in Boca" and "So when do you graduate?"
Esperanza - time does seem to speed up with babies, doesn't it?
W: Tired beyond imagining and sleep-deprived because of (what else) head pain.
AW: I'm taking two nights/three days to head two hours south of here to a beautiful lakeside spa resort for my final week of vacation. I leave Jan 31!!!! That's only two weeks away!!! I have a facial, mud pack, massage and pedi booked.
Best part - I'm going alone.
It's not accessible, so hubby couldn't go even if wanted to. And he doesn't. He cringed at the very thought of the "couples package" massage. So, I get a few days of quiet solitude looking out over Lake Superior and getting pampered. Woot!
esperanza, hope you feel better! and go, mini, go!
sarah, i gave up on the "i'll just lose 5 lbs." justification about a million years ago, because it never worked. and i'm with sue in avoiding shirts with buttons due to poppage issues.
sue, hope you have a great, restorative pampering! gah about the head pain...
Sue, that sounds like absolute heaven. I don't even need the pampering, just the time alone in the peace and quiet. aaah. Enjoy. You deserve it.
my go-to jeans are ll bean flannel-lined jeans
sue - sounds great!
the button leap of faith - brilliant.
w: new stronger, meaner chemo on board. am miserable with muscle pain. in-laws have had the kids for 5 days and counting b/c i am useless right now.
Liz - I've always wanted to try those flannel lined jeans. They would be perfect for our weather up here! Alas, no LLBean around here. However, there is always online shopping....hmmmm......
How do you find the fit compared to your other clothes? ie can you buy your "typical" size and they fit, or are they sized differently? The very thought of measuring my hips this soon after Christmas is quite disturbing.
((( days ))) fireplacing chemo. sending much love and whatever else you need. so glad your in-laws are taking care of the kids. xoxoxo
((days)) from here too. Definitely good that you have some backup. Hugs to you and all your family. And hopes that the fireplacing chemo is working.
W: I industriously put our supper in the crockpot around lunchtime, turned it on high, and went about my Sweet Baboo toting. When we returned, blech. Noodles are not friends with the crockpot. And, my usual mistake of too much liquid. Blech like inedible blech. Suppose I could use a recipe...
aw: good therapy day--speech and physical--for the Baboo.
w/aw: semi-good potty day. I'll take what I can get at this point.
esperanza -- no, noodles don't really work unless you put them in near the end. too fast-cooking. but they soak up excess liquid!
the crockpot is great for dried beans, stews and soups, root veggies, meat. things that take less time to cook [rice, fresh veggies, and most of all pasta] can be added later in the process.
W: pook. so much of it. oy oy oy. i think we need a dreaded vet trip for The Duke of Earl. neither of us will enjoy that much.
W/AW: did i mention my husband showing off by sorting sectors of junk in the homestead? we have a LOT of old textbooks and other kid books to donate. i found a place that will send most of them on to kids overseas who need them! the rest can go to the recycling center's free book exchange.
kathy a, thanks for the tips. But that's exactly my gripe. If I need to use the darn thing, then that means I don't have time to be futzing with it, adding ingredients all afternoon. Bah. I do use it to cook dried beans, frequently. Harumph.
And yes, it is four in the morning and Mini and I are awake. Fun times.
esperanza--I learned to use the crock pot by reading lots of recipes. I found most of them on-line. I have a picky family--one doesn't eat seafood, another doesn't eat pork, the other three of us are generally picky--so I often can't use the recipes but the techniques are transferable.
My gripe about the crockpot is that people oversell the simplicity. For example, you *can* just throw in meat, but my family likes it better if it is browned first (which also improves the gravy, IMO). Now, you can do that the night before, but it still takes time. No pain, no gain, I guess.
The crockpot's biggest advanted, for me, is that it can be left, unattended (please--no horror stories about crockpot induced destruction!).
My whine--the weather. That's both boring and pointless, no? But, since New Year's, we haven't had a full week of school due to weather related closings (with a bonus MLK holiday thrown in). True, these have been of the 2 hour delay, variety (which is good because it removes children from the house for at least part of the day and doesn't add days in June), but they still throw a wrench into my day.
I love my kids--but I love me some alone time too!
(((days))))sorry to hear about the awful chemo. I hope the worst side-effects pass quickly and the good results appear asap!
I agree re: crockpot. Not that I do the cooking, but there does seem to be a lot of morning preparation needed in order to come home at the end of the day to a nice cooked meal. I just don't function that well in the morning, so it's a bit fussy for me.
I do, however, set up the crockpot with my morning oatmeal. 1 cup oats to 4 cups water, set it on a timer to start cooking around 5:00 am, and we have perfect oatmeal at around 8:30. Yum!!!!
Sorry to hear about the pook kathy a. A great big ICK to vet visits.
(((days))) thinking of you.
i like my crockpot, but i like my cast-iron dutch oven better. i sear the meat on the stove-top in the dutch oven, then i add liquids and whatever and put the whole mess in the oven at a relatively-low-temperature for god-knows-how-long.
(((days)))
8 weeks and down 6 pounds. I'm not whining - just confused. Apparently I'm best at losing weight when pregnant not trying. Thanks for the ginger chews recommendation - they're great!
I love them. They burn so good.
You know that feeling you get when the weekend is approaching and you have to attend a workshop Friday evening and all day Saturday and you know that absolutely nothing tangible or productive will result from said meeting and the only way you could possibly make this weekend thingy interesting would be to stand on a table and scream at the top of your lungs?
Ya. Well, that's how I feel. ~~sigh~
AW: Massage booked for Friday afternoon so I can start the weekend all mellowed out.
oh yuck, Sue. I mean about the workshop, not the massage.
Thanks for the crockpot wisdom. I'll stick to beans for a while, I think. I don't generally cook with recipes, so it makes me impatient to have to follow one so precisely.
Today's whine: tiiirreeed. Also, I am in search of organic baby yogurt, which is not to be found here in podunk or neighboring podunks. I hate to make a trip to the city for baby yogurt. Hmph.
I have a pounding sinus headache (and accompanying congestion), so I'll cut to the chase.
The pediatrician's office is giving me trouble about writing a prescription for the tot's OT. The nurse called today and said, in a nutshell, that there's nothing about the feeding issue in her chart, but I pointed to several conversations that she now wants to confirm before she'll prepare the script for the doc to sign.
You know why there's so little in her chart? Because they have always blown me off about the eating problems, and because the last time I did raise a concern, the doc didn't even chart it. Ugh. Meanwhile, I found an OT whom I'd really like to meet, and she sees the urgency of our case and jumped us to the front of the wait list and will see us this Saturday. But, I have to have the script first, and the nurse says she can't get back to me until Friday.
I'm researching new peds, but I have to get through this first now. Time is too short for a brand new doc at the moment. There is more to the story, but nutshell -- see headache, above.
yogurt machine! the new appliance will make the crockpot jealous.
it is after 7pm, and i still have some work to do. and that ugly thing i was hoping to finish monday? ha. its time was 7-7:30 a.m., and it got pushed off the rest of the roster. take that, ugly thing!
oh, amy. cluesticks! cluesticks! xoxoxo
amy, I'm sorry about the headache and even more sorry about the ped. will telling the nurse that you will come and stand by the desk until they give you the script get better service? because i did that once, and it worked.
i don't see that doctor anymore, of course.
on the pants front, i get my flannel-lined jeans in size 8p, but i wear a 6 in most other pants.
ll bean petites don't have to be hemmed for me, so if you have long legs go for regular or tall.
Oh amy - cluesticks on the double!!!
My sister uses her yogurt machine all the time and loves it.
Thanks for the heads-up on the pants Liz. Despite my very petite height (five feet even), I have freakishly long legs and therefore a very short torso, so if I buy petite trousers, I always have to let the hem down a bit. So I'll go with one size up and a regular hem and see how that works out. It's the end of season, so they may even have a sale!!! I love sales!! Plus, I can save the duty charge by having the parcel delivered to the store just on the other side of the border crossing (about an hour from here). I'll be passing by that way for my three-day spa retreat.
i am evangelical on the subject of flannel-lined jeans.
You're making me want flannel lines jeans, Liz. I'd think they'd feel heavy, are they?
Oh Amy - that's beyond ridiculous. Good luck when you can start looking for a new ped.
JenR - pregnancy is weird. I lost weight with each of mine and that helped at the end when I could do things like eat an entire tub of movie popcorn. Just the thought of that makes me sick now.
Sue - wouldn't standing on the table and yelling me kind of fun? No chance of "flu" hitting you and preventing attendance at said workshop?
KathyA - loved your attack on the "ugly thing" project.
W/AW: I bought new pants for the new job. (I work more and having 3 pairs of work pants just made laundry difficult). And I was very annoyed that I had to buy a size up. My old pants were not tight. How can that be? Grumble. And now that I am home and no longer bloated from my visit from AF, the pants are quite loose. Which is annoying too.
In mere moments, I am going to call the ped's office because I think Tater is moving from head cold to ear infection, and I am going to employ a blend of my mom's suggestion and liz's. I'm going to ask if the doc would also like to see the tot. And I'm going to draft a quick list of the tot's history and deliver that to the doc/nurse in person. They can fight it out, they can be as begrudging as they like when they give me the fireplacing script, and then they can say what they like when I deliver a request to have my children's charts sent to the new ped, whoever it is.
I forgot to say earlier (and I know you pixies will understand how much more infuriating this addition makes the situation) that because of our insurance rules, I'm going to have to get the script renewed every 30 days. HAHAHAHAHA! OMG, shoot me now.
liz, is there any increased danger of static shock while wearing flannel lined pants?
The pants feel heavy when you're NOT wearing them, but are perfectly comfy on. Don't wear them when temps go above 55, tho.
I haven't noticed an increase in shockiness.
All my winter static shocks I tend to blame on woolen sweaters and coats and whatnot.
Sarah - the table-standing actually sounds fun now, certainly in comparison to the rest of the weekend's program. I wish the "flu" could interrupt this one, but sadly no, I need to attend.
Thinking of you amy!
Sarah - buying pants is always rough. Sorry to hear about your new purchases. Can you go back and switch them for a better fit?
amy, YES -- lay out the history on paper! if you can, also note the approximate dates you have talked with the doc about the concerns with tot.
it might be worth it to meet the OT even if you don't have the script yet. [e.g., pay out of pocket.] she might be able to suggest peds who have experience with problems similar to tot's, and help you with what kinds of information persuade docs and ins.co's that the OT referral is justified.
{{{Amy}}} Maybe using the force would help? "You will write the scrip for OT!" (Accompanied by light sabers, or Darth Vader breathing, as needed--sometimes you need to move beyond cludsticks)
{{{Days}}}
Sue--enjoy the massage!
The weather continues to vex me. 2-4 inches predicted for tonight into tomorrow. I predict a 2 hour delay (for school opening--at least). And--I *have* to go to the supermarket today--not to stock up for a storm, just 'cuz we need to eat.
amy, what does the ped think you're going to do--sell the OT script on the black market for a quick high? Argh. I am thankful for a ped that does what I ask him to. kathy a., state law in our state prevents people from just paying out of pocket for PT or OT--you must have a prescription (and thus be under a doctor's care for the condition) regardless of your insurance situation. Speaking of insurance situation, amy, that is maddening. Every 30 days? Cluesticks to the insurance company too.
emily, I hate going to the grocery store the day before a storm is predicted. People act like it's going to be a two week blizzard and they're going to have to burn the furniture or something.
oy, emily!
esperanza -- wow, i had no idea there were laws like that about OT and PT. (i was analogizing to getting psychological help for a kid.) but i wonder if the OT can legally talk to parents as a "private consultation" instead of "treatment"? i can't see any state interest in regulating private consultations solely to get more information.
amy -- sending strong brain-waves in the direction of your ped, to support the effort to have him see the light and write the Rx.
Thanks, pixies! And I especially like emily's typo of "cludsticks", because I imagine "clud" as the sound a cluestick would make. :D
I have delivered the letter. I kept it as brief as I could, while pointing to as specific of dates as I could recall. I kept it only about eating stuff -- not her whole medical history -- and it was still just over 2.5 pages, single spaced.
I think the problem is not so much the doc as the nurse. She is the gatekeeper on this, so the letter I addressed directly to the doc. He is only in the office in the afternoons, and he's popular, so he's always booked solid. I will call the office toward the end of the day to make sure the receptionist gave him the letter and to leave my phone number (again). I *believe* he'll sign the script, but I also believe the docs have downplayed the tot's issues throughout her life. In my conversation with the nurse, I discovered that the doc we saw for the tot's last well-child check up (different doc) didn't write anything down about the questions I had for her about how many calories a kid that size and age should be eating. WTH? So, yes, Nurse, there is nothing in the chart for the last 7 months about this, but guess what? That's not my fault!
Ugh. I'm rambling. It's the sinus pressure. And I'm not going to edit. Sorry. :/ I'll let you know how this all turns out. *mwah*
yay, amy! way to advocate! i'm still on the posse, though.
AW: 160 pages of ugly thing are Off My Desk!
in a related vein, i have nothing but the fondest respect for anyone who teaches clear, concise, persuasive writing, either explicitly or in the course of other subjects requiring written work.
kathy a - 160 pages!!!! Oy. That's a whole boat load of writing! Congrats.
keeping the cludstick at the ready just in case, but way to go amy!
Wow KathyA - that's just crazy.
And go Amy! This situation could be the definition of infuriating, complete with 30 day scrip renewals. Fight the good fight.
to clarify: i didn't write the 160 pages; just had to edit them. *extensively.* my ode to writing teachers is because my efforts are unlikely to produce long-term changes in the writing habits of someone decades into his/her professional career. as i anti-whined to a colleague: "at least s/he writes in complete sentences! not all of them do!"
"just" had to edit 160 pages? That sounds worse.
Friday's whine: one swollen-shut eye, mysterious origin (Mini). One sprained ankle (Sweet). Two *separate* trips to the pediatrician to be told, in each case, to do basically nothing but wait. One in-home meeting, with lunch served by moi (only two other people). Nice assists by Mr. E, who is paying for it by working late tonight (it's a two funeral week). Which means, bath and bedtime is solo for esperanza. And I'm fireplacing carrying Sweet everywhere. AW: She only weighs 25 pounds.
Worst day ever yesterday. Didn't and can't get the OT prescription from the doc. Fight with doc still not over, and in the middle of it all, AF shows up and I have mild bronchitis. I can haz nap?
AW: It's mild bronchitis. Also, my husband is behind me all the way.
Oh no amy!!! Definite cludsticks for the Doc and his evil assistant Nurse. What the heck is their problem?????
((( amy ))) and what sue said.
hugs to the baboo family, too.
Post a Comment