Prednisone...I love you , no I hate you...eh I'm conflicted

Friday evening started out grim. I arrived home to find my concerned mother and worried husband standing over my feverish, shallow breathing, moaning son.

I took one look and asked my husband to get him dressed. "We're heading to urgent care" I said.

B had a fever earlier that day which my mom said responded well to Tylenol. When I talked to him shortly after he was happily playing and said he felt "good".

To say I was suprised to come home to him like this was an understatement.

We quickly headed off to urgent care where I had hoped we'd be seen immediately because it was clear my son was very sick. But nope. We waited. When we were finally called in to the exam room , we waited some more.

When the doctor finally arrived, he was worth the wait. He was attentive,thorough and had a great bedside manner.

He listened to B's chest for a while then had the nurse come back and test for flu. When those results came back negative he said B most likely has some kind of respiratory virus that has been exascerbated by his allergies and asthma. He said that he's working really hard to breathe because his lungs are inflammed.

I talked to him about my son's "exercise induced" asthma that we'd been prescribed Albuterol for. "Albuterol is great as rescue treatment and opens up the lungs" he said "But it doesn't do anything for the inflammation once it wears off. We need to treat the inflammation."

After talking with him some more and explaining past issues with my son, we talked about the fact that his asthma is not just exercise induced but the chronic type. This both pleased and infuriated me. I was pleased for a diagnosis which explained a lot but wondered why no other doctor had figured this out before.

I'd told them the same things I'd told this doc. I simply don't get it. And it really pisses me off! * End rant before it really begins because that's a whole other blog post for another day

Ahem...

After a dose of tylenol, B quickly rallied and was up and happily downing the green Otter Pop they'd given him. Dr. Awesome told me that B should take a steroid for the next five days to get the inflammation down.

Cue the doom and gloom music

I know what steriods can do. No, I'm not talking 'roid rage. Asthma runs in the family and when steriods have been prescribed long term, I've seen little kids turn into gigantic kids. Of course I'll do what I need to to get my son well...but I'd hate for him to be teased because of medicine induced weight gain. *sigh*

Remembering this,I asked the doctor about side effects and things to be aware of. The first thing he says is it can cause some kids to "wig out". It can also suppress the immune system making him susceptible to other infections (joy!) but many kids have little to no adverse effects.

So I tucked the information away, smiled at my son, who I could tell was feeling tons better, thanked Dr. Awesome and we headed out to go fill our steriod prescription.

A day later, the fever long gone, the breathing returned to normal, the asthma attacks at bay...my 6 year old turned into someone resembling a crack addict

I videotaped (and coincidentally left at home) my son simply because I couldn't believe the craziness.

He'd be fine one second, then run from one side of the room to the next repeatedly.

It was almost liked he'd have spontaneous tics. Yelling randomly. And loudly

A request for hotdogs started with "Mom, can we cook some hotdogs?" to "IWANNACOOKSOMEHOTDOGS, HOTDOGSHOTDOGSYUMMY HOTDOGS" "J stop talking" "YOUWANTAHOTDOG?" commence dancing in place.

And I'm so not kidding.

I'd like to be. But I'm not.

Pray for me. We've got about 3 more days of this stuff.

When you gotta go...you gotta go...

I came home yesterday to find this lovely artistic rendering of two dinosaurs hanging out and ...pooping.

Drawn courtesy of my son, B.

I both laughed and breathed a sigh of relief that kindergarten is over. I could only imagine the note that would have come home had this drawing been done in school.

Not a real blog post but worthy (like contest giveaway worthy) info just the same

After agonizing over whether to update my last post or do a whole new blog post I decided that agonizing over it is dumb.

*Ahem,*

For those of you Seattle area peeps with little ones I just got offered 4 tix to giveaway to the upcoming Wiggles show at Comcast Arena. My two were ginormous fans (and uh maybe I was too) so I'm passing that pleasure on to my Seattle homies. Because I love you. So go forth to my review blog and enter. Now!

And if you've tried to comment and it's been all wonky , or your comments disappeared believe me I'm well aware. I'm trying to try out Comment Luv for Blogger (when they open it back up for registration) and it's the new widget associated with that that's making my comments all twilight zonesque. So bear with me pretty please.

Mwah,
WM

Last Day of Kindergarten...shedding tears

I remember a mere 8 months ago I was freaked. FREAKED I tell you...because I was convinced the school district was trying to prepare my then five year olds for freshman year of college.

I remember thinking...what in the hell ? They don't even have to time to eat paste because the school district thinks they need to be full fledged readers, writers and illustrators of their writings, counting to 115, counting by 2s,5s and 10s, understanding the value of money, doing basic addition and subtraction all in a 3 hour day. If it made my 36 year old mind want to explode, I could only imagine what it would do to my twins little minds.

But here we are on their last day of kindergarten and they can do everything the school anticipated they'd be able to do.

Why just yesterday my son made a grocery list. He wanted to make sure we got pop, not because I let him drink it, but because he could spell it all by himself with no help from me. And what he couldn't spell he sounded out and came so close. I was ecstatic to go buy my green bens (he has a special recipe he likes to make) and toylet paper.

I'm amazed. And completely proud of my big six year olds. That are now classifying animal species. And making me feel kinda simple because I'm NOT smarter than a kindergartner.

But it's good. It's a great feeling. And while this year wasn't without it's challenges, standing on the other side of it I feel ...lucky and blessed.

We lucked in to a top-notch school with fantastic staff and my children have grown in this wonderfully innocent way that I just really can't put in to words.

It's a tad bittersweet though, because I no longer have babies. I have these grown up kids. We have this changed relationship where I'm needing to recognize them for the big kids that they are.
It's new and different and... beautiful and I feel thankful for every day they are in my life. For every new experience that we can share.
Together.

Let's just say...

That I was right about there being a secret wedding. Did you even doubt me for a second ? You did ? Well don't ever do it again,mmkay?

I drove down after work with Kay and the twins and the trip began with family drama. Their side not ours. I was seriously ready to turn around and go home. Most of the first night was weird to say the least.

But then it got better. There was a wedding Saturday evening on the dock with all of the guests in bathing suits. The newlyweds, the bride in a long flowing sundress and the groom in a short sleeved button down and shorts, took a plunge off of the dock upon being pronounced married. Then there was celebrating. Lots of celebrating.

After dinner, there may have been some drinking of the al-key-hall. Big kids may have been asked to watch little kids and some of the adults may have gone to a restaurant/bar within walking distance where maybe more alcohol was consumed. There may have even been some shirtless men dancing on a bar. One of them may have been my husband.

There may have been a rendevous in the grass which caused me to temporarily lose my cell phone. I might have been overheard by my stepdaughter,TomGirl, saying to my husband that I think my phone fell out of my jeans pocket in the grass when I , er removed them. She may never recover from hearing that. Or she may have said: I knew what you guys were doing when you came and grabbed a sleeping bag and it's all good. At least it shows that you guys love each other. I may just think she's the coolest teenager around.

There may have been wakeboarding, boating, seadoo-ing and there may have been a scary the water is too cold- I have this wakeboard stuck on my feet-I wanna get out but I can't and am panicking water incident. Maybe.

All I know is I'm still tired. Work is fairly busy. So that's all you get.

For now.

Mwah,
WM

Suprise ! It's...a wedding.

Remember when I talked about how my friend got engaged to a man she's known for two months. From what I know, dude seems like he has it together, he seems to really care for her, he's got a good sense of humor and he ain't bad on the eyes. From what I know.

My beef is not so much with him as it is with the need to get married so quickly. To be legally bound to someone she's known for such a short period of time. Someone who has history she has yet to know, with whom she's never hashed out any serious problems, someone who will now be stepparent to her children. Someone with whom she will share her finances. Ya get my point, here?

Ahem...

So I got a call from Kay (the friend in question) a few nights ago asking what I'm doing this weekend.

"Not sure,why what's up?"

" We're having a little engagement party and we'd like you guys to come"

"Sure" I say thinking it would be at her house.

"We're going to Vantage" she said "We're bringing the boat, there will be tons of kids there, R's (her new man)mom will be there, we'll throw steaks on the grill, you in?"

"Sure but we can't get there until Saturday, we've got to pick TomGirl up from Saturday school first and then we can head out"

"Well you need to be there at a certain time"

...For camping ??? It was then that the wheels begin to turn...

"This is a wedding isn't it...you guys are getting married aren't you?"

"I just thought it would be fun for all the kids, R's boys will be there it will be fun, don't go if you don't want to"

The slight testiness only served as further evidence that she was holding something back.

"This isn't an engagement party. It's a wedding isn't it...should I be bringing a dress? You're totally pulling one of those celebrity moves where you invite friends to "dinner" and then suprise it's a wedding"

We went round and round like that for what seemed like forever but she wouldn't budge.

But here's the thing: Dude's mom is in town, his boys are in town and I need to arrive at a certain time.

C'mon, I didn't just fall off the turnip truck.

She's not calling it what it is because she doesn't want me to try and talk her out of it.

On the one hand I'm appreciative that she is including me even though I disagree but on the other hand it's taking everything I have not to shake the fark out of her and say "snap out of it". But since she's an adult, I'm staying mum. I gave my opinion when she told me they'd gotten engaged and I'm leaving it at that.

But for real?

A secret wedding.

Hell, I didn't even get to throw the bachelorette party. In fact that may be what I'm really upset at. She's denying me my "free pass" to get liquored up and receive lap dances from half nekkid, hot bodied men.

Damn her!

We walked, we saw, we're determined to kick major ass next year

My mom, my two aunts and I joined thousands of Seattlelites at the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure yesterday.

The event,in a word, was nothing short of amazing. The sheer number of folks that walked, raced, raised money and dedicated their time to support curing breast cancer was incredible.

I'd joined the walk late in the game. I knew I wanted to get out and walk in support of my mother, a two year survivor, but I procrastinated and just two days before the walk joined the team my aunt's workplace sponsored.

I was humbled to be amongst such brave woman and their families. I was inspired by the hundres of thousands of dollars that had been raised. As I looked around at all the teams I couldn't help but feel like I really could have (and should have) done much more.

The creativity, thought and sheer time put in to organizing, fundraising and coordinating their personal teams was unbelievable. There were teams with pink tutus with fun names like "Jacks Racks",teams with solid black tees with pink sunflowers over each breast. Then there was this team: I loved their slogan (Save 2nd base) so much I had to stop one of the team members and ask her for a picture.

Then there were these guys


With their pink headbands, pink muscle shirts and pink shorts they were just too awesome for words.

And this. Could you just die from the cuteness or what?


Seeing all this energized me to do more.

And so it was born: my aunts, my mom and I are seriously motivated to create the rockinest team ever.

We want a sassy name, we want cool hats and awesome tees. (That's where you come in, internetz. Ideas ? The best team name I came up with was Hotties for Healthy Hooters. But I'm certainly not married to that name)

We want to raise tons of money. We want more of our family to come out.

But most importantly we want to show what we can really do to support such an incredibly worthy cause.

So next year watch out...

p.s.Go check out my latest book giveaway sponsored by Cheerios supporting new and aspiring children's authors.

If I was a comedian this would all be much funnier...only I'm not and couldn't even begin to dream up how to make it funny

So I have this friend. She's my best friend in fact. We've been through a lot together (this is where a comedian might begin the joke) Last night she calls me and tells me that the man she's been seeing for, oh about 2 months, proposed and she accepted (buh dum bum...what? Not funny? Right. I didn't think so either).

Before you jump on her, know that I already did it and apologized. I didn't take back what I said. But I apologized for not reacting the way she needed me to. In the end I told her she's an adult and I'll love and support her regardless.

But it's still weighing heavy on my mind. She's only been divorced a year. And while I do really dig her new guy...two months...seriously?

Ahem....

Then about one hour after that call took place I hear my kids running down the stairs yelling "Mom, it's an emergency". Getting up off the couch at break neck speed I head in the direction of the stairs only to find my kids right there and my daughter with part of her gerbil's tail in her hand (hysterical right?).

Resisting the urge to hurl I listened to her story about how my son pulled it off.

It seems that Cutie, my daughters gerbil who has only been a part of our family for about 3 weeks, had her butt turned towards my son and her tail sticking out of the cage. My son decided to pull her tail. I'm sure he didn't expect it to fall off. But to hear my daughter tell it, her gerbil did squeal which to me clearly indicates one pissed off rodent and hello...stop it little boy! But he didn't and look what happened (I know you're letting out deep belly laughs now right?)

The boy child got the I'm so disgusted with you I don't even know what to do toned lecture about how if he can't properly take care of his pet and be gentle then he will not be allowed to have him any longer. He admitted he felt bad. But then all I can think of is what in the fuck is wrong with my kid ?

I have also lectured my daughter many a time about doing nothing when she sees something bad happening. I've told her she's going to get in just as much trouble as her brother for letting it happen. She got that lecture again...for about the 3,357th time.

Nobody writes that stuff in the parenting manuals.

Chapter 10: What to do when your child dismembers a family pet. Nope don't remember that.

So I decided I would try to clean and bandage Cutie's tail. But she's such a fast little sucker I couldn't get her to stay still long enough to do anything. It was all I could do to pour a little water on her tail and keep my fingers crossed. Luckily she went right back to playing and eating and by morning her tail looked to be healed.

But still not funny.

So my husband is sunburned to a crisp and looking quite lobstertastic these days and he has a man cold at the same time. So again not funny. It's just about as pleasant as you can imagine.

So how am I doing ? Eh

I've seen better days.

I'm WM and I'm here all week.

Thank you and goodnight