liza thinks

The Beat Goes On

Summer School started this week. Oh boy. It's going well. The kids are adjusting to summer. Gage had a nasty ear infection but the miracle of antibiotics prevailed. We are going camping today -- down to San Simeon -- very nice, coastal, relaxing! Can't WAIT! Life is still feeling out of control but better now. Working 1/2 time makes a HUGE difference! :)

Things are looking up again for a job at my school again next year. Fingers crossed everyone!

My Weekend

Memorial Day Weekend. Wow. Quite a weekend. Here was the plan.

Saturday. Meet the folks to hand over Ushki.
Sunday. Pancake breakfast at the Firehouse with the extended family. Art & Wine Festival. Dinner at my inlaws.
Monday. Take the kids for their long awaited trip to Great America.

Here's the reality.

Saturday. Met the folks and handed over Ushki. They came here full of tails of Alaska and the fun they had on their trip. They brought pilmeni and we feasted. It was a nice long visit. The kids loved seeing Mimi & Bumpa again. We had a good time. I miss Ushki now that he's gone. He's mellowed into a nice dog. Greg and I played Toontown until around midnight that night. Totally fun to play it again.

Sunday. Pancake breakfast and Art & Wine Festival. Dinner. All that went as planned until we got home around 10:30pm. Already reported on Rosie's foot (see update in comments to that post). She's doing okay. I went to bed around midnight. Here's where the BIG changes started.

Midnight-thirty. Gage came into our room crying. He'd thrown up. Yup. Here we go again. So, I grabbed him into the bathroom as he started making gagging noises again. Greg was on clean-up duty this time (stripping bed, cleaning carpet). I made up an impromptu bed for us with his sleeping bag, sheets, and his quilts. I snuggled with him and his pot for the rest of the night. He threw up 11 times that night. Poor miserable kid. He was super brave about it -- just looking at me in the middle of all the wretching saying, "I don't like throwing up. I think it's a bad thing." Finally, around 6:00 am, I was done. He wanted to watch TV so I traded with Greg who had been awake and counting the sessions but got more sleep in between sessions that I had. He sat with him through two more sessions. And, then, he was fine.

But, we weren't even going to consider going to Great America -- rides and junk food on a delicate stomach? Mom and Dad with not enough sleep? Holiday weekend? I don't think so!

I slept until around 10:45 or so. We showered and got dressed and went out to breakfast. Our local Denny's is now the Scotts Valley Diner. Great breakfast. Gage got plain pancakes with no butter/no syrup. He was good with that and ate a lot, surprisingly. Then we took the kids to see Over The Hedge. Very cute movie -- they LOVED it. Half way through, Ruth turns to me and says, "I can tell this is meant to be a comedy." Greg and I had some big guffaws in it too.

Then we came home and puttered around the house. Greg cleaned up all the broken glass. I tended Rosie and washed off the deck. I did tons of laundry. We had dinner (stopped at the store and everyone got what they wanted for dinner). We just hung out. When the kids went to bed, Greg and I played ToonTown again. Totally relaxing. I got a GOOD night's sleep.

What a weekend.

Birds
California Towhee
multiple Barn Swallows
multiple Stellar's Jays
multiple Western Scrub Jays
female California Quail
multiple Acorn Woodpeckers
multiple Purple Finches

Special Delivery

Special Delivery
Originally uploaded by lizalee.

Look what was waiting on my porch today. Isn't that lovely?

Here's a look a little closer . . .



So, whaddya think? Rats much? Sigh. If it weren't so funny, I'd cry!

Shopping Trip

Instead of a love seat, we ended up with two of these. Ikea how I love thee. We had such a great day. We explored -- while reminiscing about doing this when the kdis were younger (not as much fun!). We ate in the restaurant. The Boy Wonder thought it was SO cool to sit and look down at the cars going by. Pretty much 6 year old boy heaven! It was all so fun!

The Princess spiked a big ol' fever again on the way there but we got it under control quickly. Scary stuff. But a full day of antibiotics ought to get this thing under control -- I hope!!! No word from the doctor's office on the test results. Sure hope it is Strep since we're treating it that way.

I opened my new camera lens but didn't get to play with it much. It connects beautifully to my camera. I can't wait to play!!! Hopefully I'll have some nice shots soon!

Gotta go to bed. Headache. Tired. Yawn.

(No word on what the result is on my screwing up my last assignment. :( )

Oh. Yea. We watched Napoleon Dynamite tonight. Hmmmmm. That's all, just hmmmmm.

Done and done.

Okay.

I'm done. And, done! Here is the current status in our house.

1. I turned in everything I could at 12:00 midnight last night. Damn. I did not finish one of my assignments. I am feeling REALLY down on myself right now. Are there reasons why I didn't finish LAST NIGHT????? Yup. Do any of them change the fact that I shouldn't have been finished 4 assignments last night? Nope. It just sucks. I screwed up. Not sure what the ramifications are yet. We'll see.

2. The Princess is WAY better but not before scaring the pants off me. In the midst of my cram session yesterday, I checked her temp at she was at 101.2. So, I gave her a dose of ibuprofen. 1/2 hour later, I checked her again -- still hot (really hot). Took her temp 103.9. Yup. That's a nice thing to see on the thermometer. So, I called the doctor who hadn't returned Mr Wonderful's call of that morning. The receptionist was not real helpful but she did finally figure out what to do and handed me off to a nurse. The nurse was awesome. Told me to give her Tylenol while she went and talked to the doctor. So, dosed her with liquid Tylenol (not an easy task -- she hates medicine) and waited. They called in a prescription for me to Walgreen's. And told me to give her a cool bath. Fortunately, this was when Mr W got off the phone (poor guy -- he's been swampped too) and took over. Gave her the bath (taking her temp right along) and let me know when she was down to 100.2 again. Whew! Then he went and got her meds (and got himself a glucose tester -- more on that later). With two doses of antibiotics in her, she hasn't needed any fever meds. Her temp got up to 100.2 again this morning but was at 97.7 (normal for her) this morning. YAY! First time she's had a temp below 99 since Monday night.

Boulder Creek Weather Station

[click]

We are generally getting more rain than this place does. We're higher in altitude too. But, it gives you an idea. We're under flood watch although our house isn't in any danger. It's just bloody LOVELY. (Not!) We expect this kind of think between Novemeber and January but in April? This is insane.

There is SO much water outside right now. Sigh. There are about 10 chickadees on my porch which is hilarious. They are smart cookies and I put a feeder out there for them.

A little blue changes everything . . .

Clouds and Blue Sky
Originally uploaded by lizalee.

Suddenly things don't seem so bad after all. I've heard it might be nice tomorrow but the kids got recess today and that's a good thing.

So, we don't have heat. So, I'm solo parenting. So, I'm tired and busy and haven't done enough schoolwork. The sun came out today. Vitamin D -- it's a good thing!

Do you want whine with your morning coffee?

Spring is here!

Look at those gorgeous flowers. They are stolen with all due credit and amazement from Julie Zickefoose [click]. She makes me wish it was fall so I could go buy more daffys and plant them so I could be enjoying them right now. They are Salome -- utterly gorgeous. Why don't I have any planted in my yard? I'm so enamoured of the traditional yellow daffys that I forget the glorious nature of other colors! I need some Mt Hoods growing (in honor my father) and some Salomes and other pink daffys to brighten my spirit. I need some itty bitty daffies and some great huge ones. I need doubled and ruffled daffys. Basically, I need a LOT more daffies in my life! There are so many beautiful choices out there [click].

Or is it?

As I sat listening to the rain POUNDING the roof last night, I mentioned to Mr Wonderful that it is one of my favorite sounds in all the world in November but in April it makes me feel sad and dreary and hopeless. I honestly wished that the phone would ring at 6am this morning saying that a tree was down and school was cancelled. Of course what that really means is that our late Spring Break is really too late. By this time next week, I'll be sitting here gloating that I don't have to work. But, today. I do have to work. And, Mr Wonderful will be out of town all week -- oh joy.

I need a theme this week. I think I'll be humming "I Will Survive!" under my breath. Sing it, sister.

The day ahead

Ahhhhhh, what a difference a warm house and running water make in one's outlook! The little things in life truly do make the most difference. A hot shower. Ahhhh. Pulling clean, dry dishes from the dishwasher. Ahhh!

What else. Today, I'm supposed to meet with my principal and my disgruntled parent. Not feeling good about this one. I know that it will all be fine but it never feels good to be complained about and have to defend yourself. Sigh. I met with my mentor on Monday and we outlined a plan for the future of my writing program. I hope it all goes smoothly. I'm feeling really stressed about it.

I finally worked up the nerve to contact Gander's breeder and let her know that its not working. He just isn't happy here with the lifestyle we are currently able to provide. I HATE it but I can't ignore it any longer. Makes me so sad. So, we're communicating on that but it's not easy.

All the uncertainty about my firebug isn't helping either. I hope we learn the outcome soon. Then I could help to prepare my students and myself for whatever the answer is. I'm not sure when we'll know, however.

Boy, I'm a mix of upbeat and negative today. Hmmmmm.

Day

Nice day for the most part. Wanted to knock some heads together in Homework Club. Sigh. They were AWFUL. Anyway, we survived. After we got home, I helped Mr Wonderful bring the guts of our mega-TV in the house and then I took a nap. I emerged about 40 minutes later feel SO much better. We made dinner and collapsed in front of the TV to watch video of The Princess in the Talent Show today. Very cute! She was doing great on key until she waved her flag around and then . . . gone. And, at the end, she did not want to give up the stage. She stood there smiling at all and waving at her friends. Hilarious. Ham!

We watched the end of Ice Age and then watched last night's American Idol. The Princess wept that Kevin Covais was voted off. Too sweet. And, she totally latched on to Mr Wonderful's contention that Bucky should have been the one to go. We found it ironic that Kevin's performance was his best yet in our opinion but he was voted off. Weird. Bucky has yet to do a performance I've liked and he's hanging in there. Oh well.

After The Little Darlings (tm) were safely tucked in bed, Mr Wonderful and I curled up and watched the season finale (double episode) of StarGate Atlantis. Very cool.

Now, I'm supposed to be getting some work done but damn I'm tired. Still got dishes to do, lay out clothes, ought to shower and start a load of laundry too. AGH!