Operation Christmas Child: Our shoe box made it to Georgia!

Our Samaritan's Purse shoe box went to Georgia.  Now, I did a bit of checking to make certain that I could share with K- exactly where it went.  It did not go to the State of Georgia, but rather it went to the Country of Georgia.  Last year, our box went to Iraq.

I always pass my box over to the one lady at work who takes it to church to put in their donation pile.  She laughs because she knows that we pack every nook and cranny full.  If there is any type of void in the box, I try to fill it.  "You put so much in the box!"  "I do that so that they can share with their family!"  Who knows if every child in the family scores a shoe box?  At least this way, the child who receives it can share, because there is more than enough.

I love that we can find out where the boxes went off to.  What about you?  If you sent a box, did you find out where your box got off to?

The Force was with her.

Yoda.  Who would think?  I found a Yoda peep-esque pop at the store the other day.  As a treat for K-, I bought it and included it in her lunch with a note that said that she was to, "Eat it at Grandma's house."  Lunchtime got the better of her, as well as her being a glutton for punishment, and she ate the whole thing.  "Mom, it was just so delicious, I just couldn't stop." 

Okay then.

After lunch, they had their class party.  Why yes, with my child's history, you know where this is going.  Apparently, she had pepperoni pizza where she actually ate the pepperonis.  She never does that.  She had a few bites of pizza, then a brownie followed up by a trip to the nurse. 

She made it, but the nurse said that she nearly took her out.

I got the call at work.  "Is this Amy?  Amy L-?"  "Yes."  "This is the Health Aide at -- Elementary." "Oh, no."  "K- is in my office and got sick."  "She just had pizza."  "Yes."  :understanding tone as we had dealt with this in the past:  "I think it is her reflux, but let me talk to her please."  K- agreed that she thought it was reflux, but it freaked her out enough to say, "Mom, can you please come get me?" 

How could I say no?

I left my co-workers stranded and hauled off to get my kid.  I stood at the secretary's check out desk with tears in my eyes.  "You know it's her birthday."  The clerical assistant was so sad.  We moved her birthday celebration to tomorrow night.  We wanted to err on the side of caution.  It's just not worth a slice of cake by potentially taking out the whole family with the stomach bug. 

We hung out.  I taught K- how to weave on her loom.  Hubs built a Star Wars Lego ship (some Naboo thing) with K-.  She played with Squinkies and we watched Christmas Vacation together.  (Yes, some questionable bits, but K- knows what is right and wrong and knows that it isn't a wholesome movie.  She wanted to watch it.)  Hubs brought Little Debbie Christmas tree cakes home and we sang happy birthday to her with an "8" candle in one.  (Not that we didn't have cake that we could have used.  Dad brought those home special.) 

It was a laid back night and it wasn't so bad.  It was the first quiet birthday she's ever had.  Frankly, it was kind of nice being able to just focus on her and not everyone else.   A blessing in disguise, really.

She's back to her regularly scheduled programming.  It's a good day.

Eight is great!

To my girl who loves to do lickety letters with the mixing bowls (minus raw egg, of course!) Baby girl, today you are 8. You wanna know what? Eight IS great! You've been so excited about your birthday that you've reminded your teacher an exhaustive number of times. You went down with your classmate (both with the same birthday) on Thursday to try to cash in on your "Today is my birthday" ribbon and pencil. (Mr. B- giggled, hugged you and told you to come back!) We had your girl party on Saturday-- your first one! You had snow on both Saturday and today and secretly, you think that is a special gift that God sent to just you. Don't worry. I won't tell anyone. ;)

You've become more independent, more of a problem solver and quite a worker if you want to be. I laugh because you kind of freaked a couple of cashiers out the other day when you told them, "I like your store!" I think that holiday fatigue had the best of them at that point. They didn't know what to say!

We hope that you have a wonderful day and a wonderful year of 8. We can't wait to see what 8 brings! 

Happy birthday, K-!

Love,

Mom (and Dad, too!)

Can we have a Christmas without a check list?

Is it possible?  Can we have a Christmas season without checking things off of the ever-growing list of things?  Probably not.

Baking.

Shopping.

Shopping again for the ones that crop up.

Christmas cards.

Holiday parties.

Donations.

School functions.

Birthday parties.  (For those of us with holiday babies.)

Cleaning.

Miscellaneous medical appointments.  (For those of us who have a bee sting that won't go away.)

Wrapping.

Trimming the tree and decorating the house.

Church. 

Church.  Should it be on a checklist?  Uh, no.  Just like we should give the first fruits monetarily, we shouldn't give church/God our leftovers, either.  I think about last week.  We're still extremely new to the church that we are attending, though falling in quite nicely.  They had a church Christmas dinner.  A few in our Sunday School class brought it up to us, but in the end, we just didn't go.  I still don't know quite enough people (I know, I know-- that is a way to get to know people) and I was eyeball deep in cookie dough.  I felt guilty, as I felt that I chose checking things off my list over spending time of fellowship with the members of the new church.  Actually, "feeling" that I was choosing was more so "choosing" cookie dough and baking over them.  Had I known earlier than just that morning, we'd be in a different boat. 

Still, I sit here on a quiet Sunday thinking about what I'm going to cook in the pressure cooker.  (Chicken.)  There is a hum of the computer.  K- is in her bedroom taking a "Mommy Math Practice Test" and Hubs is downstairs working on putting things together for our bird feeding area outside. 

My baking is done.

My shopping list is complete.

The surprise pop-up's of gift needs are handled.

Christmas cards were mailed the day after Thanksgiving.

Holiday parties have been attended or are planned.  In fact, I had to step away from writing this to assemble the craft kits for K-'s party.  Eeek!

Donations have been given, but there's room for more should the need arise.

School functions have been attended or attended to.

Birthday parties. (For those of us with holiday babies.)  One was yesterday and one will be Tuesday.  There will be one on Wednesday for school.  That girl can't say that we didn't properly recognize her holiday season birthday!

Cleaning.  Well, that runs on the rinse and repeat, but it's done-- for now.

Miscellaneous medical appointments. (For those of us who have a bee sting that won't go away.)  I'm thankful for doctors who you can get in to see right away, most of the time.

Wrapping.  Just a few minor incidentals left.

Trimming the tree and decorating the house.  Day after Thanksgiving thankyouverymuch.

Church.  Each week and Christmas falling on a Sunday isn't even enough to scare us away.

I want this week to be check list free.  I don't see that it can completely happen, but I've done everything that I can to ensure a fairly low-stress check list of a week.  It's not how it always goes. 

We can always hope.

Have a great day!

Teachers need to remember that we have a life outside of the PTA.

Today was a fine example of, "Hey, I'm happy to volunteer, but please recall that I have to scrub my toilet, too."

K-'s teacher, lovely woman she is, has now decided that she wants to show The Polar Express next week.  She needs a crock-pot of hot chocolate on and a copy of the movie provided.  She needs no volunteers, though.  Alrighty then.  Please never mind that we have the class party the day before and I can't ask these moms to provide anything else.  I'll be swinging the stuff and I assume that the crock-pot will be returned to me at the end of winter break. 

I had a teacher whose class earned a pizza party back in October tell me today that her kids have been asking about it.  "Oh, when were you looking to have that?"  "Tomorrow."  Really?!  "Is that possible?"  "Barely, but I can make it happen."  I showed her that I had juice boxes set aside, a bag of chips and I need to purchase more, plates and napkins.  She wanted the pizza delivered.  That would be seven additional dollars, so I'll just order from up the street and pick it up myself.  I need to go help to do said party, which leaves me at school in the early AM to help with snowgrams (for my friend Kay that had surgery) and then come back mid afternoon. 

The oil needs changed in my truck.

The sheets need changed on the beds.

My bathroom needs cleaned.

My daughter's "girl party" is Saturday and I was planning on basically not leaving the house tomorrow in hopes of getting things done, but now I can't.

ARGH!

I love the PTA.  I love helping.  I had a handful of teachers tell me independent of each other of how they appreciate what I do.  That is wonderful.  I'm happy to help out.  Just please, for the love of the cleanliness of my toilet and home in general, remember that I do not have a time card and I do not get paid for my position.  I'm just a volunteer!

Holiday Retail Potpourri

My day involved the following:

1.  No one was there to help me open.  I was thinking that I was going to be a one man band.  Turns out, my co-worker was late.  All was well.
2.  A woman bought and wanted wrapped a flower that is taller than me.  I'm 5'1".  The head of the flower was wrapped by a co-worker (as round as our Tercel tire) and the stalk was dealt with by me.  I ended up floofing some tissue with the leaves, put some ribbons on it and did the best I could. 
3.  The perfume assault band of old ladies came in.  It gave me an instant headache and though it was 35 F out, I had to turn the air on with it blowing directly at the desk to hopefully blow it away.  Customers looked at me weird and I decided to just tell them.  "I'm so sorry.  I suffer from wretched perfume sensitivity and I have a horrible headache right now."  My customer apologized and said that it wasn't her.  The next lady in line said that she has the same problem as me.  Geeze people! 
4.  I was told by another co-worker that there was a lady that was sitting down in another room, I needed to take care of her purchases and bring the items to her.  I did that and found a very disabled woman sitting in a chair with one of those seat walkers in front of her.  She was very lovely, we got her purchase handled and then the challenge was how to get her back out.  I told her that I would walk ahead of her to clear the path.  She ended up taking out doorway merchandise (she felt so bad), we got that picked up, then her husband couldn't get her and her trappings all underhand.  I took her purse and her oxygen.  She toodled behind me as I cleared the way and opened doors.  We got her down the stairs, then I had her hang onto my back as I lead her between cars.  We got her to the van in one piece.  Whew.  I thought we were seriously going to lose her. 
5.  We had a return from something purchased nearly 2 months ago because they decided that "it smells like chemicals."  I sent them to our gallery director.
6.  A co-worker (office staff) was sent home because, with the blessing of her doctor, she came to work with shingles.  Still, one of the owners has a supressed immune system and, well, there is the rest of us. 
7.  Someone had my shingle co-worker blocked in and didn't hear the pages to move her car.  I ended up accidentally tracking her down by kidding with her friend about the car being paged, she went, moved her car but was given a hard time by another co-worker.  I apologized profusely and did an extra foofy job on her gift wrap.  She said that she noticed and I told her that I just felt so bad. 
8.  I can't handle hearing that steel drum band Christmas CD one more time.  I think that the other co-workers are going to fling it.  We have one co-worker who insists on playing it and playing it and playing it because we have three for sale.  She put it on while the #7 was lady at the counter.  The co-worker at the counter with me was going to begin to plead with the music CD player to please not and I told her to just let it go.  "It's not worth the energy."  All #7 could do was to laugh and agree.
9.  Self-service caused a customer to reach way high to get something that she shouldn't, knocked down a $35.00 Christmas figure which bounced off the carpet and her friend quickly scooped it up and went to put it back on the shelf.  "Ma'am, may I please have that.  I need to check it.  I'm sure that the drop broke it."  I looked at it and sure enough, the nose busted clean off of its face.  I told them that.  "Truly, if there is anything I can help you with, please let me know.  I'm happy to get it for you."  Apparently, they ducked back out.  No apology.  No offer to pay for the breakage.  Nothing.  Lovely.
10. Of course, we deal with people's inability to just back out of the parking lot.  E-r-e-r.  (That is the sound of them toggling between reverse and drive.)  It's a tiny lot, people.  JUST BACK OUT!  Thank you.

Smiles in my day:
-  The betamethasone that Dr. A-, allergist extraordinaire, prescribed seems to have lightened my redness with just one application.  Let's hope it continues to work.
-  It's Wednesday and that means that the second part of my "work week" starts tomorrow.  I can switch focus and, here's a thought, sit.
-  K-'s teacher called this evening and had a lovely chat with me. 

Have a wonderful day!

From the allergist's office.

Today I went back to have a nice, long visit with Dr. A-.  It seems as though my bee sting from October 23, 2011 flared up when I smacked my shin on the step, it was healing and I itched it, causing the bee sting area to get big, red and welted. 

Y'all, it wasn't so pretty.

On Monday morning, I called the allergist's office to see if he had any available appointments.  He didn't have any, but they said that they would call if he added some to his schedule.  I told her that I would go ahead and make an appointment with Dr. W-, my family doctor.  An hour later, I got a call that there were free appointments and would I like to have one.

Yes, please.

I had to leave work for an hour and a half, but the time was more than well worth it.  Here's the scoop:

Dr. A- said that he was "stunned by the negative bee tests given [my] family history" and my reaction to the yellow jacket sting.  I said that I was rather surprised myself and it was a two-sided coin.  On one hand, I was relieved to have it come back negative.  On the other hand, I told him that I feared that it made me look like a fool.

He assured me that wasn't he case.

He went on to tell me that though I tested negative, he's having me come back in 6 months for a retest on the bee venom (skin only) and to continue with the remainder of the skin testing for general allergies.  Then, I was told the most interesting piece of information. 

He's not convinced that I'm not allergic to bees. 

Seems as though there is 3% of the bee allergic population that tests negative.  Though he has never had such a case in his office, he said that he certainly would not discount it.  Family history (Grandpa died as a result of bee stings) and my reaction are enough to keep me hauling the Epi.  He said that I should have one, especially if I go down south.  "Do you go golfing?"  "No, but we camp."  "Do you camp in cabins or in a camper?"  "No, we tent camp."  "Oh!  Hearty people!"  He asked where we go and I told him Hocking Hills and Ohiopyle were a few places, and those aren't particularly close to hospitals.  He reviewed my concerns, discussed my welted and discolored leg and has given me a delightful prescription for a cream to apply "one week on and one week off" as it can cause skin atrophy.

"I like my skin.  I'd rather not have atrophy."  He smirked.

He discussed that when I shave my legs, I want to make sure to use the cream 12 hours later.  "Dr. A-, it is the winter and women don't shave their legs much in the winter."  "I didn't really know that."  "Just take a poll.  Others will agree."  He couldn't help but to laugh. 

So, the wind-up is this.  I have this cream.  I'll use it as directed.  If the cream doesn't make the bee irritation bit go away, I'll need to go to Dr. W- and have him perform a "punch biopsy" to remove the core of the scar that I have.  Perhaps that is something in there that is causing an irritation and the punch biopsy would possibly take care of it.  Hey, it could be worse. 

What is truly delightful is that Dr. A- is extremely thorough.  He takes his time with you.  He was with me for about a half hour.  He didn't think that I was a nut case and completely understood my concerns.  Hooray for scoring yet another wonderful doctor!

On a somewhat related note, I took my cream prescription to the local grocery up the street.  I was able to speak with the pharmacist at length about my need to fire my pharmacy, my desire to switch over to them and how things will be filled through their pharmacy.  I explained what happened with the Lipitor and he explained that insurance companies will possibly not be honoring the name brand version anymore.  Generics have to be the same active ingredient as their name brand counterpart, but their filler components can be different.  I explained my concern about switching to generic from name branded Lipitor and he understood.  He told me that I would need to have the prescription written "dispense as written" and all would be well with the insurance companies.  He was a wonderful young man who really took his time with me.  I did find out that they only carry Allegra D OTC, so I'll have to have the prescription for that transferred over to another Giant Eagle, or just bite it and leave it there.  Argh.

Hooray for good medical people!  What a wonderful thing to be thankful for!

Have a great day!