C'mon now. Really?!

For me, a trip to the ER has become a little too commonplace.

Because it had been a while, we went ahead and visited on Saturday.

It was the strangest thing, really. I was in the bed, lounging, reading my Twitter feed and a few friends were discussing [something pretty damn gross].

"Hm. I've had that happen before. It is no bueno," I thought to myself.

And then, I turned over to my side, coughed, and [that same something happened].

*sigh*

So I called BD to show him the proof and he was all "ewwww" and suggested that I contact a medical professional.

I made the call, got the answering service, explained my situation, and waited on a call back.

And, because I'm that kind of person, I decided that before we did anything, we needed to go to Costco.

Because I'd be fired up if I ended up admitted and couldn't use my coupon.

Turns out that the advice I got was to go to someone's urgent-type facility, so after I did what I wanted (I know, I know), we went to the hospital. It actually made more sense to go there than somewhere else based on my insurance coverage, plus I knew that if I needed tests, I'd already be in the right place.

Thankfully, traffic was light in there during that time, so we were in and out in a relatively quick 2+ hours. Playette enjoyed the time outside with her dad after I had to kick her out of my room for touching everything and just plain being four years old and I played with my phone in between repeating my same story to every person that walked into the room (what's the point of them taking notes, anyway?).

A chest x-ray later, it was revealed that I, thankfully, do not have pneumonia again some more, so I was released on my own recognizance.

We celebrated with lunch at a new-to-us place and then went home to football for them and a nap for me.

Exciting, huh?

We are some serious party animals over here, y'all.

After that, things were pretty tame for the rest of the weekend. BD put up the tree, I rested and addressed envelopes, Playette did her silly little thing as she is prone to do.

I just realized today that we are sooo booked for the next six weeks or so. Going here, running there, parties, family time. And I just found out that I have reserve duty in January. I'm excited for what I'll be doing, but bummed to have to leave my peeps behind. I know first-hand how Playette gets when BD leaves and the thought of her missing me that badly just makes my icy heart crumble a little around the edges. Poor little boobah.

Or she could just be thrilled to have me gone. Who knows.

Oh, and I know I've kept you all dangling for deets. It won't be long now. Promise!

Maybe I should put a Neicy Nash flower in my hair for Reveal Day.

What I Like

What I like about this Thanksgiving is that my little fam is all together.

Sure, BD is at work right now, but he'll be home soon and, hopefully, phone calls of things going haywire will be kept to a minimum.

Last year, he was on a ship on the other side of the world while Playette and I spent the day sightseeing in San Francisco. He never even got the chance to have dinner since he was on watch and we (well, I) decided to forgo anything that resembled the traditional holiday festivities on that day (we did dine with friends the week prior) for fear of getting all sad and not focusing on what we did have. That can be tough, y'know? We're a unit over here and when that unit gets disturbed, it takes a bit of a toll.

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Hey. I don't think I ever posted any of those pics. I was a little overwhelmed last November. Wanna see some?

We stayed at the Marine Corps Memorial Hotel downtown. Great hotel, great location (the happy hour and breakfast buffet are a nice touch, too). Playette liked the mascot statue in the lobby.


We dined that night on yummy Italian fare. I think we split a plate of gnocchi.


In the morning, we went to Pier 39 where we took a boat tour around the bay.





I remember that I had to make the decision to put my camera away after the tour because crowds + squirmy, inquisitive kid + 1 adult meant something had to give. We did end up going on the carousel though. And also some movie thing. It wasn't a long deal, so maybe a 3D/4D suck-the-money-out-of-a-parent's-pocket feature? I can't recall. She did sit through the whole thing though. I was really happy about that.

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So I'm excited that today BD gets to eat and eat until his heart is content. We don't even have to cook or travel far, so that makes it even better.

My co-worker/friend has invited us to her house and she already has most of my donations. All that's left for me to bring is the carrot cake I made last night, some whipped cream for the pies, and my tupperware.

Because you know I'm bringing stuff home to nosh on, right?

The menu we planned includes things like two fried turkeys, ham, mac and cheese, dressing (I call it stuffing even though it's in a pan and not a bird, but we've agreed to disagree), greens, sweet potatoes (she swears by the kind from Honeybaked Ham so that's what I bought instead of making my own; we'll see), rolls, and...ok, I know there are sweet potato pies and my cake for dessert as well as a million other things, but I'm drawing a blank. It's too much food though, trust.

Oh! I did contribute cans of cranberry sauce, too. Because this girl here? Likes to cut the jelly along the ridge lines. I will never not like to do that. Fancy homemade stuff is fine and all, but I needs me some ridge-lined jelly.

I spent some time yesterday brainstorming on holiday card ideas. For a sorta-Scrooge, I am way into that and I can't even explain why.

We have lots going on for the next month. Good stuff to wrap up the year quite nicely. I even have a dress to go with those sparkly shoes and I can't wait to put them on together to ring in the new year while celebrating the nuptials of a good friend. Yay for parties and glitter and new beginnings!

I'm looking forward to today. And many tomorrows.

I hope that you are, too.

And please hope along with me that today is NOT the day that my cake decides to suck. Does anyone else get nervous like that when bringing food to someone else's house?

Lovely Day

This song has been stuck in my head lately. A version (not sure who sings it) comes on Playette's favorite radio station and I love that I knew some of the words right away and can sing along to it with her. She loves it when I do that.

Despite my lack of sleep and a list of things that still needed to be done no matter how crappy I felt, I have to admit that today was a lovely one.

Playette got up at 3am. Why? I have no idea. I assumed that she didn't know either so after giving her a potty break, I put her back in the bed. I figured that we could pick up our little convo once the sun came up and, thankfully, she agreed and didn't start yelling for me again for about 3.5 more hours.

For some strange reason, we got temps in the upper 70s today, along with sunshine. Since I needed to fulfill a promise to head to the beach with the fam (seriously, in the way of promises, that's a good one), to the beach we went, along with our faithful helper, "Pretend" Jen.

Playette has been asking and asking for the beach since the time had long passed to take a dip in the water, so she was very happy just to be there and have the opportunity to play in the sand in her jeans and tee shirt. I wish we could have stayed longer, but there was a birthday party to attend for one of Playette's school friends. Apparently, she had a ball. Being that I am currently hosting a myriad of germs, I wasn't able to make it. Boo.

I can't wait to show you all what we were doing at the beach though. Really. I'm excited!

But...I need just a little more time to get it all together.

So, please, bear with me and all will be revealed.

I hope everyone is getting in the spirit of the upcoming holiday in the US.

Can I just say that I CAN'T WAIT TO EAT?!

Seriously. The food. Bring it.

What had happened was...

Remember how I was all excited last week to meet the ST that, like, totally had the potential to be my lifesaver?

And we were going to go there after a trip to the dentist?

Well...

We didn't quite get that all done in the manner I was expecting.

And now here it is seven days later and I'm just getting the breathing space to talk about it.

First, let me say this: BD was gone. Again. He had to go back to Norway for close to two weeks. I whined almost the entire time because I was EXHAUSTED and I wanted him HOME and all of the sudden none of the jars in the house would open and there were bugs that needed killing and I wanted to grill things but I don't trust myself with propane (no, really) and blah blah blah, oh pooh.

It's amazing how independent I was before I got married and now? Hmph.

Anyyyyway.

The dentist trip started out ok.

Until I got in the car.

Because that's when I realized that were weren't going where I thought we were going and now we'd surely be late because I hadn't planned on driving that far away. Ugh.

Eventually we got there. Late. And...it just wasn't my type of scene. There were these huge, unsupervised children - pre-teens? - on the play structure meant for children 4' tall and under, which of course my child wanted to play on even if that meant she would be trampled. There was yelling and screeching and...just when were they going to call us up, anyway?

The answer to that would be "five minutes from never."

We waited for over an hour. During that time, I saw a little boy finish seeing the dentist only to come out to the waiting room to no parent or guardian waiting for him. Regardless of the many signs posted NOT TO LEAVE YOUR KIDS.

Maybe one more sign would have helped.

When we finally did go back, Playette did fantastic. I was way more impressed with her performance than that of the staff. Zero patience for that crap, I have.

We happily left not knowing anymore about her mouth issues than we did when we came in and then yesterday? At this feeding specialist appointment we went to? Guess what they told us to do? GO TO THE DENTIST.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Insurance is going to laugh in my face.

"Yeah, I know she just went, but now can we go see a good one?"

And that's when things started going downhill.

After the crappy trip to the crappy dentist, I mean.

Playette seemed fine at first, but then the vomiting began.

First, on the beautiful Middle Eastern rug, then on herself, on the carpet, all over me, on blankets, on towels.

It was awesome.

(Needless to say, we had to cancel ST. womp, womp)

This kid never gets sick so when it does happen, I'm totally caught off-guard. I did my best to channel my great-grandmother and just keep pressing, thinking of how she'd call me a wimp since I only had one kid to take care of, didn't have to pick cotton or tobacco, have indoor plumbing, and (gasp!) there's a machine that washes all the pukey laundry for me. I mean, really.

I figured that if I just kept moving that I'd be ok, so that's what I did.

Somehow we made it to Saturday.

Saturday, there was no puking, but the scary high fevers and lethargy started. I think we watched a lot of TV that day.

I thought everything was done on Sunday. And then Monday happened.

But! BD was home by then, so at least there was backup.

He stayed home with her on Monday and they got some good bonding time in. By the time I got home though, she had a crazy rash on her face and nose (BD: "Didn't she look like that yesterday?") and she was pulling on her ear, saying "Oweeee."

Now, this is "funny."

Nary a week before, I was telling her Ped about how my kid had never had an ear infection and she was all, "Really?!" and I was all, "Really," as I popped my imaginary MomCollar.

So to teach me a lesson, the Ped totally gave Playette an ear infection and called it a flu shot.

Totally plausible, right?

So there we were, six days later, with Rashface McGhee, pulling on her ear, and I called that Ped's office right back. "Y'all are open until 8, right?"

"Yes, but we're all booked up tonight. Please hold for the Triage Nurse."

I turned to BD and begged for him to handle it.

I don't know about your situation, but when BD deals with the Ped's office, things always get done. They are sooo nice to him, wherever we are. The same thing was true when we lived in CA.

They ended up telling him the same thing, but then an hour later, miraculously, there was a cancellation so off they went. The front desk ladies are nice and all, but they would never have called me back with that revelation. Never.

Verdict: double ear infection

Playette and BD and Amoxicillin stayed home together again on Tuesday.

Oh, and somewhere in there, the truck started smoking and scaring the crap out of me while I was driving home from work. Like a doof, I screamed while driving it all the way to our driveway, where I jumped out like it was about to blow and ran to the front door, panting and wondering if maybe I shouldn't have parked it so close to the house because it was going to up in flames any minute.

Wait. Now I remember. That was also Monday.

The truck went in the shop on Tuesday and we got a rental car.

I'm pretty sure that repairs were $8 million, but I refuse to confirm with BD because I will break out in hives.

Yesterday, I took off work to take Playette to that feeding specialist I mentioned earlier and then I had an appointment of my own in the afternoon.

To celebrate making it through all of that, yesterday afternoon, I bought totally impractical, really sparkly girly-girl shoes.


(Photos do them no justice.)

And I'm not even a girly-girl.

Ask me if I care.

S'up, Y'all?

I honestly didn’t mean to just straight disappear for the most part after the end of October, but the last couple of weeks have been some doozies in our household. There’s just a lot going on and I’ve barely had the thought to blog, let alone carved out the time to actually do so.

Work is very busy. Well, sort of. I mean, there’s lots to do and way more confusion than I would like, but…eh, it’s complicated. I’ve had to take off a couple of sick days lately. One day last week for me, one this week for Playette, and then another will be next week for Playette in the morning (She’s slated to see some fancy feeding/swallowing doctor – not a therapist. Don’t worry, I’m confused, too.) and I have an appointment of my own in the afternoon. Best bet was to take the whole day even though I know that will be one hectic day between going to the city, back home to drop her off, and back into the city again. Yeesh!

Tomorrow is a holiday for us, so yay for a day off of work, but since Playette also doesn’t have school, we’re going to try to make the most of it by squeezing in a much-needed dentist appointment (pray for me) and then, in the afternoon, I get to take her to her new SLP. She’s had two appointments so far, but since they’re at 3pm, the sitter has been taking her. I’m glad to have the opportunity to finally meet this woman who is, to me, the representation of all of my dreams of the past year finally coming true.

See, we had out eval with Sara Rosenfeld-Johnson last November, I believe, and during that process, we got connected with a Talk Tools certified SLP that we were able to see twice before we moved. Even then, we had to drive over an hour to get to her because there was just NO ONE closer and I believed with my whole heart that Talk Tools was the way to go for Playette. I liked the SLP a lot and we tried to make an adventure out of it so that the early morning drives didn’t feel so daunting. As you all may recall, we then had the audacity to MOVE at the end of December once BD returned from his deployment, so that marked the end of Speech Therapy for a very, very long while.

Which sucks.

Because what is my daughter’s greatest challenge (well, besides using scissors which is the current bane of my flipping existence)? SPEECH.

When she started school in January, she did get some time with the ST there. But then, y’know, we took her out of that awful place in April after the teacher used the R word in the IEP meeting AND the bus drivers played that precious April Fools practical joke. Such a shame to leave such sweet folks, but I digress.

So, the little bit of ST she was getting disappeared. I was so torn up at the time about what was going on between us and the school district that I didn’t pursue their services at her private preschool. Plus, I just KNEW that we’d be coming up on one of the many, many waiting lists we were on for ST…any. day. now.

Ha! So much for that. If you are the parent of a child with special needs, you have probably noticed that there are a lot of children out in the world with “speech delays.” It’s a pretty common diagnosis. So, getting in to see an SLP, especially one with experience dealing with oral motor issues, not to mention the added bonus of being familiar with or certified to utilize Talk Tools? In a very congested area? Yeah…waiting lists. Long, long, long waiting lists. I made more phone calls than I can even recall, trying to track down someone, anyone, that could work with my girl.

Thankfully, we were so grateful to have Beth come by this past summer (housecall, woot!) to help me learn how not to be so overwhelmed by the whole oral motor process. She is a wealth of information and I am inspired so much by how well her daughter, Hannah, is doing, along with her other children. I hope I can be half the mama she is one day.

To bring you up to speed on this new SLP we have, about a month ago, she called me out of the blue and said that Playette had come up on her waiting list. I was shocked. She went on to tell me that she’s Talk Tools certified. I was stunned. The issues then became dealing with insurance (gag) and the logistics - her only openings were on days/times we were otherwise obligated, plus her office was REALLY far away.

Over the course of a couple of weeks, we got it all worked out. The insurance thing made me want to stab my eyes with a spork, but eventually that was rectified. And then, this woman offered to do some shuffling and got us in not only at a time where we could make it, but also at a closer office! Where has she been all my life?! Or at least for the past 10 months?! So, once I coordinated with the sitter, we were set. Yeehaw. Get along, little doggie. Forward momentum. All that good stuff.

So far, Playette has been twice and things are going well. I’m actually excited to meet this life-saver of mine tomorrow and see what she has to say about possible next steps. As it stands, I still have a massive drooler on my hands (and, yikes, winter is approaching and wet + cold = ugh), and you know that noise I mentioned that started last year? It STILL has not made a graceful exit yet.

And if you think that over time that it would just blend into the background? You, dear reader, would be incorrect. It’s just as grating as it was the first day she started. More so, in fact. More. So.

I felt like I wanted to write more than just about this topic, but my brain is all loopy at the moment. When it comes to me, I’ll be back. Promise.

Loves It

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