Haiku Friday: Line drying

Clothes hung to dry,

Still toasty from the hot sun,

Drunk from the fresh smell.

Smiles in my day:
- Though panic set in when I realized that the school was trying to get a hold of me to pick a potentially sick K- up, 2 hours after they phoned (my cell and my MIL, not my home phone), I raced up and she was fine. She got very overheated and felt like she would be ill. They cooled her down with some cool cloths, had her lie down for a spell and she is fine.
- We made it through an obnoxiously packed day with no breakdowns. The child ran from 8:30 AM-7:40 PM. That's a long day no matter what the age.
- I enjoyed my free (from the Parade section of Sunday's paper) Strawberry Banana Smoothie from McDonald's this evening. A 12 oz is 210 calories, which isn't so bad, but it does have 44 grams of sugar which isn't so smiley. For free and an evening treat while the girls enjoyed playing in the air conditioned Play Place, it was the right price.
- Spending some time with friends back from Milwaukee.
- I love K-'s summer bridge tutor. She gives me all kinds of wonderful tips, which is certainly what I need. I brought K-'s box of practice words for her to thumb through and she couldn't believe it. She was so thrilled that her kindergarten teacher concentrated so much on word families. She couldn't believe the stack! She also asked me to make sure to break the stack up and not do it all at once with her. I admit, it did get rather overwhelming.
- K- learned about gravity in science camp today. Her team passed the egg test-- theirs didn't break! They sent home a gravity test kit for the kids. It is a pyramid with different cardboard balance items. Check out Mad Science online for more details. I'm sure that they probably have a program in your area. We love their week program and I can't recommend them enough.
- K- and I might be extras in a Hollywood movie on Sunday. No, I won't give details until the movie would release (that would give the entire world my location and I really don't want that), but they did a call out for several thousand extras and my MIL suggested that we go. I've e-mailed the guy in charge of extras and I haven't heard back. Apparently, we get numbers, details on wardrobe and whatnot. How many times in NE Ohio do we get that opportunity? Not that often.

Have a wonderful weekend! We're looking for it to be hot, hot, hot. (Mid-nineties and for us, that's hot.) Stay cool!

A post in which I vent.

Children in the gallery.  Oh, y'all have heard the stories before.  Today was a bit of a doozy.  Wow. 

Pardon me while I vent. 

A mother, a grandmother and two boys came in.  The boys were probably 8 and 10.  I knew when they came bounding in the door that they were going to be trouble. 

They had to touch everything.  Obviously, the statement, "Look with your eyes," has never been said to them before.

They kept going in and out of the bathroom.  On about the 10th trip (not exaggerating), I heard one pulling and pulling on the door. 

(This is the point that I should remind all that I work in a converted house that was built in the late 1800's and the public bathroom is just your standard 1/2 bath with some storage shelves for boxes.) 

I walked to the bathroom and saw a kid pulling with all his might, actually physically contorted, trying to yank the door open.  His brother was on the other side.  They were actually playing tug-of-war with the bathroom door.

I looked at him and asked, "Is there anything I can help you with?"

[still pulling] "Um, no."

"Is he okay?  Does he need something? Is he all right?"

"Yes."

"Then please stop pulling on the door.  I'm certain that he would like to use the restroom and will be out when he is done.  Please don't pull on the door anymore."

I walked back to the counter and the grandmother and mother thanked me for saying something.

WHAT?!  Why couldn't they?  I purposely didn't say anything to them because I figured it wouldn't matter. 

They stayed with mom, surprisingly didn't trash the place, but I did find later that the kid was standing on the toilet.  God only knows why.

Later, I heard the wind chimes.  I heard many wind chimes.  Of course, it was the boys.  Their mother had decided that after a time in our sister store, she was going to send them outside to burn off some energy. 

I opened the door and said, "Boys.  Some of those wind chimes cost close to $400.00 and I really don't want to see one of them fall on your head.  I do believe that it would be a good idea for you to go shopping with the people that you came with."

A few minutes later, the grandmother appeared and stayed out there with them.  They had been running, arms fully extended, to see how many chimes that they could whack on their "flight" through. 

Not funny. 

Apparently, she spent $600.00.  That doesn't excuse the kids behavior.  She was lovely when I spoke with her.  So was the grandmother.  The only time that the mother got upset at the boys was when one of them burped.  My coworker heard it and had to tell me.  After their poor behavior, that is the one that got reaction.  Hmmm.

Smiles in my day:
-  Two rainbows!
-  K- is doing a really nice job with her reading.  This will be our third week of reading/speech tutoring and I can see a definite improvement.  She is reading with more fluency.  Words are coming easier.  The "1" books are becoming less of a challenge for her to read (though still challenging) and more enjoyable for her to read.  She couldn't wait to turn the page this evening to find out what was coming up next.
-  K-'s friend that moved back from Wisconsin will be joining her for Arts Camp over the next two weeks.  They will have so much fun.  I'm so glad that we were able to take advantage of Science Camp this week.  We've had our morning walks.  We've had our morning talks.  Gosh.  I missed that.
-  The massive downpours we've had this evening.  "Mommy, you know, we really needed that!"  Yes we did.
-  When I was doing tutoring homework with K- tonight, one task was to come up with words that rhymed with "sun."  She came up with "bun" quickly, but then I told her, "At Science Camp this week, you are having lots of this."  "Sugar?"  (In reference to the sugar cereal that they serve each morning.)  Well, yes, but not what I was talking about!

Have a great day!

Tales from the Trenches: FrogTape ain't so great.

This is the product that I bought.  On the commercials, people have these beautifully crisp lines and can leave the tape on for 3 weeks.  Me?  Uh, no.

The tape was left on for a few hours.  It did not lock out the white paint, despite the claim.  The tape was rubbed down .  A bonus?  It removed a chunk of paint off my wall.  (Part of that is apparently a white schloof where the roller got past me.  Didn't know 'til later.) 

Nonetheless, it did not do as promised.  I paid $5.00 for a roll of tape that didn't work.  On a different note, I do love the color of the walls!  Now I'll enjoy that color even more when I go back over the spots. 

For the record, FrogTape has some extensive tape instructions.  Crazy, since it is only tape and they make it look all easy-peasy on the commercial.  Wanna know what I'm talking about?  Here's the link. 

Argh.

Smiles in my day:

-  K- had a great time at Science Camp!  They started out with breakfast, which she flipped over.  Why?  They were little disposable bowls of Lucky Charms!  Lucky Charms are illegal in our house, as we only have boring cereal like Grape Nuts (her favorite) or Rice Krispies.  She learned a lot of things other than she's getting the sugar cereal shaft at our home.

-  I picked the kitchen table light up this evening.  I wasn't able to find it online, so I was concerned that they were discontinuing.  (I was able to find it online a few weeks ago.)  Turns out it was $12.00 cheaper at the Lowe's that I went to than the one that we were shopping at.  Now, I think that the ceiling fan is actually cheaper at our usual Lowe's. 

-  Hubs worked on the light above the sink all day long.  Bless his heart!

Have a great day!

My mama.

My mom went this past week for an ultrasound of the fibroid that they found this past spring.  When she went, they found that not only is it 3 times the size that it was three months ago, but that they are having issues "finding her ovary." 

Um, it is there-- somewhere.

So, the ultrasound tech seemed to be cool.  Mom was okay. 

Then the doctor called.

He's scheduled mom for an MRI and a full blood work-up this week.  She's scared to death.  You see, my grandmother and my aunt (Mom's sister) were both diagnosed with cancer in their early to mid sixties.  Both died as a result of the cancers that they had. 

My grandmother died of colon cancer.  She had complained to her doctor on numerous occasions, and she put her on anxiety meds.  It was only after it was too late-- an ovary and spots on her liver-- that the colon cancer was diagnosed.  Grandma lived for 2 years.  I will say that she definitely did not have quality of life.

My aunt died of brain cancer.  She was diagnosed with a glioblastoma, walnut-sized when removed, but also her brain was cancered.  She participated in a study and extended her life from 6-15 months tops to 3 years.  She did have quality of life up until about the last 6 weeks.  However, in her case, the cancer caused swelling and her brain stem actually twisted as a result.  My aunt passed away not even two years ago.

Now back in the spring, they did a biopsy of the uterine wall.  Everything was just fine.  If this is an ovarian tumor or a fibroid that has consumed the ovary, the likelihood that it is benign is about 78%.  Most certainly, my mother will need to have her ovary removed.  At this point, she would be happy to go under the knife tomorrow.  She just wants it out.

This is an important lesson to all of us.  My mother has passed menopause.  She still goes for yearly exams and her midwife told her that since she no longer menstruated, it was important to know that no bleeding whatsoever was acceptable.  If she had bleeding AT ALL, there was something wrong and it needed to be investigated immediately. 

Thank God she told my mom that.  Most women would have ignored the extremely scant appearance that she experienced and would have gone on with their day.

My mother is a wreck about the MRI.  I'm cut from the same cloth-- we're both extremely claustrophobic.  Just talking about the MRI puts my mom into a near panic attack.  She asked me how it was and I accidentally freaked her out more.  I told her to ask for drugs.  She said that she won't and she doesn't think that they would give them to her. 

Knowing what I know, if ever I have to go back in, I need drugs.

So if you will, please pray for my mom.  She's a wreck.  I feel God's peace about this, but it still doesn't hurt to put some folks on a direct party line to Him, eh?

Smiles in my weekend:
-  We attended a beautiful wedding.  It was in an church without air and a picnic reception in an old barn in the 93+ degree heat.  Other than that, it was lovely.
-  It rained this evening for the first time in, well, a long time.  The grass is a lovely shade of brown and is crunchy to the toes. 
-  The kitchen ceiling got painted today.  It was no small feat, but I got it done.  Tune in tomorrow when I vent just a little.
-  Laundry washed dried and ALL! put away.  Ooo!  It was so blasted hot that I ran my tennis shoes through the wash and they dried lickety split outside. 
-  K- has science camp all week at her school, so that means that we'll get our walking feet back on!  Oh, I can definitely tell that I haven't been walking like we were. 
-  Being able to take advantage of some lovely sales and coupons this week.  Hubs took K- out while I was painting.  He called to see if I wanted anything and I asked him to stop by our little home owned grocery chain to pick up some sale items.  He was able to get a dozen of corn for $2.00 and a case of Star Kist tuna for 50 cents a can.  We got other good stuff, too.  :)

Have a great day!