If it walks like a duck and looks like a duck . . .

. . . it is probably the duck that you think that it is.

Yesterday, K- woke up complaining of a sore throat.  She looked fine otherwise.  She said that she had a belly ache, but if I kept the child home everytime she said that her stomach hurt, she'd never go to school.  I gave her a dose of Advil, sent her off and called the pediatrician for an appointment later on that day.  Normally, I wouldn't call for a sore throat, but I knew that she had been accidentally exposed to strep on Monday.  The mom reported that the rapid strep came back fine on her son, even though she insisted that strep was the problem.  She was sent home with nothing, thinking that he was fine, she sent him to school on Monday, the doctor's office was closed on Tuesday, then she found out Wednesday that his culture came back positive.  She kept him home, did the 24 hour hold on antibiotics, then farmed him back off.  In the meantime, children have been falling ill in their class and all over the school.

Yesterday, K- was one of them.

I was wheeling down the hall, distributing shirts out to the classes, when my dear sweet child was on her way down the hall.  "What's up, Babe?"  "Mom, I'm going to the nurse."  "You don't feel any better?"  "No." 

She went down, the nurse gave her a once over, asked me, "Are her tonsils usually that big?"  "I don't know, I've never looked at them before."  (I should be embarrassed to say that, but I don't know what I'm looking at.)  She handed me a flashlight and without knowledge of what I was looking at at all, I could see.  "Whoa." 

Of course, yesterday was a day that I could not leave.  I had to finish distributing t-shirts, had to finish directories and pass those out and I had a pizza party for 45 K-2 kids.  I gave Hubs a heads up before work telling him the spot I was in. 

God bless him.  He came the 35 minutes in to grab her up and take her home so that I could press on with what I had to do.  It was National Metal Day on VH1 anyhow, so it wasn't like it took much coaxing.

I had a 3:50 PM appointment and we went together as a family.  K-'s pediatrician didn't have any appointments left, so we saw the other doctor in the practice.  Before K- even opened her mouth, she said, "She smells like strep."  She explained that while there was a lot of viral funk going around, she would lay money down on the fact that K- had strep. 

Her rapidly rapid strep came back positive. 

I cruised by Big Bird to pick up the prescription.  Of course, I was the only person in line.  "Oh, we just received the fax.  Give us 15 minutes."  I decided to do some shopping (their ploy, I'm sure) and by the time I got back, it was like the entire NE Ohio population was in line.  I waited and waited and then! K-'s prescription needed mixed calling for me to wait some more.  Hooray!!! 

I got the Rx in her and she kept it down, even though she had a vomiting session to rival just about any other she's ever had.  (Advil is what put her over the edge.)  Later, she opted for 1 spoonful of Advil, which she successfully kept down, she slept through the night and I woke up to, "Mom?  Um, I think I need to stay in bed all day and watch TV, but I can swallow now and my throat doesn't even hurt!" 

Thank God for modern day antibiotics.  It also doesn't hurt that they were free.

Be healthy!

The week that keeps on keepin' on.

Magnet available from Quotable Cards.

This has been my week.  I'll tell you, I didn't let go, so there were some areas that I felt dragged through.  Allow me to let you in on some of the things I've accomplished:

1.  Joe and I finished 3 major displays involving 4 trees.  I decorated the trees and he did two of the three display areas surrounding the trees.  One, I must admit, was more like a double display area. Bless him.  He rocked it. 
2.  I've become quote proficient in climbing the ladder sideways.  (Foot on the rungs long wise and not short wise.)  I tried to avoid it, but it was just unavoidable.  There is a certain point where I'm kind of a control freak with the trees (must get the top right!) and I just can't hand it off, as it is a dance.  I can't see if something is going to work out until I go and live with it up in the ceiling. 
3.  Yes, my foot hurt.  Yesterday was my third day of pulling nearly 12 hour days on a still bum foot and I assure you, the swelling in my foot confirmed that yesterday was the last day of the long haul.
4.  I picked up and have now bundled probably 75% of the 202 shirts needed to distribute throughout the school for Walkathon prizes.  I requested orange shirts with blue printing.  (Our district school color is orange.)  I assure you, they are orange.  Hunting orange.  Whoooo-boy, we'll see the kids.  Sheesh!
5.  Kay, wonder of wonders, has started working on getting the directories distributed for me.  She was able to put room numbers on all of the PTA membership cards that I have, so now I can staple and bind.  Yipee!
6.  Report cards come home tomorrow!  K- is excited and I hope that math grade is excitable in a good way.
7.  My brother is still federally housed, received my card, has been calling the house to talk to me but since it is a collect call (on my caller ID as "A call from Texas" even when we live in Ohio), I can't accept it.  We were victims of phone slamming this past summer and we changed the account to where we can't get charges like that again.  When he calls mom, he'll find out that I'm not ignoring him.
8.  We have another part of our family going through some tough times and that has been of big discussion this week.
9.  ISSUE 2 FAILED!  Hooray!  We only knew of two people voting for it.  I'm glad that my husband will continue making his smallish pay with the retirement and insurance benefits, that we pay into, will remain intact. 
10.  Our school levy failed by just less than 1 percent.  Really?  There was a fire levy that failed near where Hubs works.  Yet another one I can't get.  That one I have a harder time understanding.  Not everyone has a kid, but everyone needs the ability to phone the police or fire at a moments notice.  I don't understand voting down a fire/EMS/police levy.  Let's face it, if your house is burning down, who are you going to call?  Even if you vote it down, you'll expect them to show up and do their best work for you. 
11.  I have a pizza party tomorrow for 45 kids.  I have the same thing next week. 
12.  I worked until 9 each night and there was one night that I actually fell asleep sitting up on the couch.  :so tired:
13.  It's supposed to snow some tonight.  It's not going to be a high stickage situation.  It'll be mixed precipitation, but wow.  SNOW!  I embrace it.  Truly, no use in fighting it around here. 
14.  I'm scheduled for allergy testing this following week.  I had to dump my Allegra D in preparation.  The choking and gagging that I'm doing in the AM only confirms that the Allegra D is a very good and necessary thing for me.  I'm hoping that the allergist can figure out which items I'm allergic to and perhaps we can use a more targeted therapy for them. 

Have a wonderful weekend!

Busy week = bloggy break.

I had a busy weekend, one that was more busy with home stuff than outside stuff. That's good.  For the first time since ye ole snapping o' the metatarsal, all laundry is brought up to speed, folded and! put away.  Navigating the steps with laundry was not something so easy for me to do up until this point, a day of going through K-'s drawers for items grown out of and making space for new things, hauling laundry up and down landed me with a rather sore foot at the end of the night.  No, I don't think it is what Dr. W- meant by "don't do anything crazy," but at least I accomplished good things for the pain that I endured.  A good thing is that now I can stand on the front of my feet (like I'm standing in heels.)  I showed Hubs.  He asked that I not do that again.  I think that the loud crack is still too loud in his head. 

I've assembled 290 PTA directories for our school.  The assembly alone took me probably 7 hours, but that part is done.  I now have to staple membership cards to the front of each book and sort according to classrooms.  The classrooms I have to look up, so that will take an awesome amount of time, as well.  All told, so far this membership gig has taken probably 60 hours in in-put and directory creation.  I easily have another 3 hours to go in just membership card stapling and piling for distribution.  The lady who handed this job off to me never made mention of all that.  Argh.

Yesterday, I did grocery shopping with many coupons.  I'm not an extreme shopper and they wouldn't at all be impressed with my spending vs. saving, but I did save $35.00 in coupons and yes, it is for things that we need.  A lot of baking things were on sale and I had coupons.  We needed cereal and granola bars.  I bought toothpaste and other basics.  It took a lot of time, though.  Thank goodness K- brought her DS with her.  She sat in the cart and played while I shopped.

This week, I have the final decorating push before the Holiday Open House.  I'll be working longacious hours. 

Sometime this week, 200 shirts will be ready for me to sort and distribute at school.

Friday, I have a pizza party for 45 kids. 

K- has decided to grow her bangs out.  That leaves me trying to figure out how to pin her thick bangs out of her face everyday so that she looks nice and not like a shaggy dog.  I think I'll get it figured out.  This morning, a touch of hair spray had to be used.  She was none too pleased with that, but I told her that girls aren't having bangs so much in the 3rd grade anyhow, so it is perfect that she's decided to grow them out now.  Once they get far enough along, I'll take her for a real hair cut (it'll be her first not done by me) to blend those puppies in.  I'm not thinking that is until late spring, though.

:deep breath:

Oh, and did I fail to mention that my brother has managed to pull a stint at our local federal housing?  What does that mean?  What that means is that he got tossed in jail.  It's a big mess of yucky detail, but I can say from the bottom of my heart that though I know that he's made bad decisions, he could have left and didn't, I believe that he was falsely accused and that he's in the big house for sheer stupidity.  :glove smack:  I love my brother with all my heart, but until he starts making better decisions for himself and removes himself from toxic situations, we can't do anything to save him until he comes to that conclusion on his own.  In the meantime, we pray.

I shuttle onward.  I've borrowed a big ole stapler that I have to drop off at school while on my way to work.  The PTA directory is going to kill me before my brothers dumb decisions do. 

Have a great week!