Chellisms

Take One

 

Yesterday was a very long day. Bailey had the dress rehearsal for her year end ballet performance, Sleeping Beauty. She is a member of the Royal Court and opens the show.

Her class is made up of six girls, including herself, and they are partnered up off and on through out their dance. Their teacher left after Saturdays regular rehearsal for a summer long trip to PA leaving them without an instructor. Last night they were short one girl, the missing girl is someone else's partner in the beginning of the dance and Bailey's partner at the end of the dance. They also intertwine around each other three different times during the dance, I can't explain it I just know that the girls are mixed up missing one person.  Needless to say things did not go well.

We were at the Performing Arts Center from 3:30 to 8:30, we were actually released at 7:45 but since the girls actually only got to run through their dance once with no instructor help and had no idea what to do being short one person I cornered an instructor and asked her if it was possible that the girls could go over their dance again with a bit of help. You know, since Thursday is the performance and they don't know how to do the dance being one short. They got to run through it one more time with someone reading instructions off of a piece of paper. The dance was better the first time. The school has a strict policy that if you don't make it to a dress rehearsal you will not be allowed to do the actual performance, this does not bode well.

As a parent I am extremely irritated. I completely understand the teacher's situation and why she is spending the summer in PA. The school should have compensated for that, there are several other instructors who could have, should have, stepped in and pointed the girls in the right direction. I realize the girls are 7 and don't expect perfection, far from it. I expect and hope for her to have a good time and to learn ballet, something she absolutely loves. She was not loving it last night, none of the girls were.

The hard part is that Bailey loves her teacher. I am undecided about next year. The school is across town, about 30 minutes from the new place. There is a pricier more established school closer, much closer. The closer school is about 2 1/2 times as much per month and the classes are twice a week opposed to once a week but I think she will learn more.

Yes, I am seriously considering paying quite a bit of money monthly to keep her in ballet. Ballet is her thing. She loves it and is serious about it, even at 7.

I just have to make sure I can work a soccer schedule around it. Sometimes having a husband who works swing shift sucks donkey butt.

Tuesdays Too

Got held up by the train on the way to school this morning, sat forever in massive line of traffic.

A bird flew into the Jeep. Not inside the Jeep, it literally flew into the side of the Jeep. *thwack*

Kids were late for last day of school, trains fault. Bird quite possibly freaked me the frack out as well.

Mondays Blow

Today was no exception.

Thank you for your participation.

Flying Balls

It's not everyday that balls fly at my head.

Driving home this morning along a well traveled four lane highway I passed a well used golf course that is surrounded by netting, so at to protect passersby. To my surprise a white flying object came hurtling straight down through the sky toward the Jeep. I have to admit at first I thought it was bird poo, really big bird poo. Imagine my shock when it was a golf ball that bounced right next to the Jeep and then up and over.

Scared the shit out of me. I am pretty sure had it hit the Jeep I would have freaked out. Then promptly pulled into the golf course lot and tried to have a very calm conversation with them.

Hey, I said tried.

When Spring Break Goes Bad, No I Mean Really Bad

The girls officially began Spring Break on the 3rdwhen school got out for the day. We decided to kick things off bright and early Saturday morning with the first showing of Monsters vs. Aliens, only we didn't make. The little blonde child woke up with a sore throat and a barking cough, she didn't even want to go to the movies. On Sunday and Monday she was still feeling cruddy so we just laid low.

On Tuesday we were all sick of being stuck in the house with a sick kid so we did what any smart parent would do, we bought RockBand 2 for the Wii and more cough syrup.

What? We have all had a ton of fun with it so far. Taylor loves the drums. Tim rocks the guitar and Bailey and I sing off-key. I blow on the drums, Tim says it requires more rhythm than I have.

All week we had been telling the girls that they could either go Woodland Park Zoo or Seattle Aquarium yesterday. Since the aquarium doesn't have monkeys or giraffes we wound up at the zoo.

And then the emergency room.

I swear I felt fine yesterday morning getting ready and for about 45 minutes after we got there. I didn't let on that I was starting to feel bad, I just kind of slowed down and kept going. We almost made it through the entire zoo before I threw in the white flag. I should have said something earlier.

I tried calling my regular doc from the zoo when I first started feeling bad with what I thought might be a kidney infection, having never had one I wasn't sure, but they had no appointments at all until late next week. Once we got home I laid down but could not get comfortable, I finally gave up and told Tim that we had to go to the ER. We left the kidlets at moms (thanks, mom!) and headed out to Highline. They were packed and three cardiac patients came in taking precedence, which I completely understand but at that point I was pretty much in tears.

I finally got taken back after what felt like hours, when in actuality it was about an hour, and got a bed in a hall way. And a blessed IV. I didn't care if they put me in the parking lot, I knew once I got an IV I could have pain meds. I had severe pain on my left side around into my back, the most comfortable I could get was sitting in a chair with my head on my knees. The very first thing they did was get a urine sample and an IV started, then gave me a blessed dose of Dilaudid and sent me for a CT scan. The Dilaudid kicked in immediately, with some very odd side effects. It made me itchy, my ears were plugged and I may have told the nurse that I loved him. But as long as I lay still it felt good, if I moved the pain was still there just not as bad. I had to move for the CT scan... boo.

Okay, long story short. One 4.5 cm ovarian cyst and possible kidney stones. I say possible to the kidney stones because they couldn't see them on the CT but the (male) doctor thinks with that much pain that it is a possibility. Not that I don't believe him but since he doesn't have ovaries, I dunno.

I got another boost of Dilaudid and got sent home with Percoset. Bad news is that either Percoset or Dilaudid makes me puke. A lot.

I feel better today but I want a do over on Spring Break, I think we got screwed.

If this post is a bit screwy, I took a Percoset before I typed it. Trying to figure out which one makes me sick. Am feeling nauseous.

Oh, I did get a real room after 10 minutes in the hall but like I said IV+drugs= less pain so whatever. They made sure to point out several times that they had taken a pregnancy test when they tested my urine sample and it was negative, um, hello. When they took my history and asked about birth control I said vasectomy for the husband. I am not sure what to make of this.

My nurse was hot.

Insomniac Ramblings, Pt. 1

I can't sleep so instead I am watching Unwrapped on Food Network.

Did you know that Pringles are made from potato flakes? They press them together with some other stuff into these sheets that resemble well, kind of a wonton skin almost but not quite and then cut them into shape with some special top secret doo-hickey. The whole process kinda made me gag.

Dudes, now there's a guy who has so much Planter's peanut memorabilia crap that he must be single. Whistles, soap, baby rattles, costumes, rings, purses, watches, belts, oh my. Poor Mr. Peanut.

Beer nuts contain no beer. What a let down.

Sorry you wasted your time, maybe I bored you to sleep?

Java Grumbles

It's about 9PM on Sunday night and I just realized that I drank the entire pot of coffee by myself. My coffee maker brews 12 cups if you make a full pot. I made a full pot. Also, out of coffee beans. Send help.

Wait, did you hear that noise?? That would be my stomach. Somewhere in that 12 cups of coffee I forgot to eat. I managed to make a loaf of french bread but I didn't actually eat any. But I did feed the kids so I should get points for that.

Grumbles! I got a new laptop for Christmas from my Mom and Pete and Tim but that isn't my grumble, that part makes me very happy. It's shiny and new and it doesn't get hot. I have been working on it since 11AM and my legs don't have burn marks like they did with the Vaio, it's a video card and sound thing don't ask. However, there seems to be a huge error between the keyboard and the chair. Yeah, that would be the user. ME! Someone needs to disable the darn user function on this thing. Or read the manual.

Or go scrounge through the freezer for hidden coffee beans. Surely another cup or two will get me through the rest of this work.

There used to be this little coffee bean shop in Redlands, CA right on a corner off of State Street, Tammie is it still there? They had the best selection of beans. Is 1185 miles too far to travel for coffee beans?

An Icy Start

You know the snow from Sunday? It is still here and with the high in the twenties (aieeee!) we now have ice. Not a ton, just enough to make things interesting. The top of the main road is pretty slick and even with new tires on the Jeep and going super slow we still slipped and slid a bit when the girls and I ventured out earlier. The street leading into our development, that is the fun part. It is covered with ice. We live in a gated community and after someone slid through the gate after an ice storm last year the HOA got smart and left the gates open this year, now we just kind of slide through.

Ice of course means late start days for our school district. I like the sleeping in factor but we only have a tiny bit of snow and the main streets are pretty much ice free, I have to wonder what would happen if we actually got more than a couple of inches that stuck to more than the street. I am afraid the city might just shut down, or at least the school district might.

On the bright side, the girls and I got to ice skate in the parking lot at the Post Office. That was great fun, no ass busting even.

Living Room Shower, Revisited

Do you remember back in July when you could take a shower in my living room?

As of 9:35 this morning you really can take a shower in my living room. I will even supply you with the towels for when you are finished though they might be a bit damp from sopping the water off of my leather couch (!).

Back in July the ceiling never opened all the way. It cracked and darkened a bit. We let the owner know and he blamed the neighbor and a leaky toilet, we are in a 3-story townhouse with a common wall. The next door neighbor had a contractor come look and he thought our owner was full of crap and the toilet leak his owner had was very minor and not in a wall. Back to square one, spackle and paint over. Problem solved.

HA! Not in a million years.

Tim and I came in from a walk this morning and both took a shower when we came in. After I got out Tim ran up the stairs yelling for a towel. He was on the desktop pc playing COH when he heard water. Hitting my couch.

Now we can say the house has a water feature.

Shit.

   

Want to take a shower in my living room?

Evidently the master bathroom shower has decided that it likes the living room better than the bathroom. Or at least it has decided to check it out for awhile and see if it likes the view.

Those pictures are not of the same crack, put them end to end and then you have the crack. Oh, ha ha. Ha. Crack. Yeah, not so funny this time. I know you are thinking how in the heck did I miss that?? Easier than you might think, it is directly above the couch we sit on and those pictures came out darker than it actually is.

Paint bubbled? Check. Crack four feet long? Check. Slight darkening to show where a water stain might develop? Check. An owner who wants to know if it can be spackled and painted over? Check.   

Is there a frequent buyer card for the Shoot Me program?