My archery kid.

They are talking about having additional league play and starting youth archery competitions.  You know what?  K is good and she really wants to do it.  :)

Hello 15 F and the allergy meds are a nice addition!

K has had an ear ache for a few days.  I decided to be that mom and take her in since I don't personally own an Otoscope.  You'd be glad to learn that she only has "a little fluid" on her ear, but that they both look fine.

"So, would Claritin dry that up?"

Dr. P (but now Dr. L and great with child) said that it would and that as silly as it sounds, I need to start her back on the Claritin and keep her on that run through June.  "It is the coldest spring on record here and last year was the hottest.  As cold as it is, there are still some things in bloom and the allergies are starting to kick in."

So there we have it.  Allergy meds for outdoor allergies for my child.  I am to the point where I have to stay on them all year long.  Hubs has started taking mine (OTC Rx strength Allegra).  He saw my doctor who prescribed it for him, he loves it and he's sticking with it.  He started taking it a few weeks ago in prep for allergy season.

Allergy meds up!  Away we go into the season of yellow pollen!

What I am wearing.

My coworker and I got into a discussion about items crafted in China. I made the comment that I was sure that something that I had on had to be made in China.

I went to the ladies room to investigate.

- Sonoma sweater made in Jordan.
- O'Malley tank from China.
- Bella Crayola shirt from Kenya.
- Warner bra from China.
- Jockey underwear from Costa Rica.
- Gap jeans from the United States.
- Sonoma socks "imported"
- Merrell tennis shoes from China.

 Yikes. Have you checked your labels lately?

Hello. I've been busy.

K skipped off to the in-law's this weekend, Hubs worked and I drove a couple of hours south to join up with my work crew in Columbus for Buyer's Market.

My Friday started with giving K a quick kiss and getting out and on the road.  I wasn't even around long enough to get her on the bus.  Hubs took care of that.  I had dropped her bags off at my in-law's house on Wednesday.  They were getting her from the bus on Friday, taking her to swimming on Saturday and Hubs was coming to work on the finishing touches of their floor (he installed Pergo for them) and then bring her on home.

K hit a bit of homesickness, though.

Saturday night, she called and cried and cried.  She wanted to come home.  "One and done" was fine with her, as she never spent two whole nights away from home before.  I told her that I was 2 1/2 hours away from her and that dad was probably already in bed.  She texted me back and forth. (She DOES NOT have a phone- she was using my MIL's.)  The texts were getting very sad.  Finally, she texted that she was feeling better and going to bed.

She texted me a photo of her breakfast the very next morning.  Grandma made her a pancake in the shape of a bear with blueberry eyes and nose with a link sausage mouth.  :)

You'd be glad to know that she survived the weekend.  Grandma and Grandpa took her out, they had dinner and went to a movie and believe me, she was treated well.

Hubs had the house to himself, but he had himself set up with music video watching.  I think that he had himself set up with Metal Evolution one night and Global Metal the next night.  That's living life off the edge.

As for me, I was shuttling around a mart, visiting lots of booths/rooms with a lot of things that we couldn't physically purchase on the spot, but order, talk terms and ship dates.  I was able to get the Christmas themes set for the trees, serve as a tie breaker and a mart travel companion for my boss.  We ate.  We bought.  Things were generally good.  I did skip dinner on Sunday night in order to drive home before the St. Patrick's Day drunks hit the roads after dark.

I got home, my people were happy to see me and they were pleased with the souvenir's that I purchased for them from the nearby CVS.  I told you that there is nothing to buy in the mart!

Have a great day!

My daughter won a living thing.

She doesn't know it yet.  It is a surprise.  What did she win?  Let me first tell you HOW she qualified.

We had a fundraiser through K's school.  The children peddled pastry and the more items that they sold, the more drawings they would be qualified for.

K sold 15 items.  That 15 items qualified her for . . . a hamster.

A living thing.

So today when I was at work, my neighbor gave me a call.  She is the one in charge of fundraising.  She explained that they were doing the drawings for the prizes and mumbled something about K.

"M, don't tell me that K won the hamster."

:giggle:

"She did.  I am calling you to see if that is okay."

I tried to call Hubs at work, but had more success with texting.  His logic went like this, "I will ASSIST but I will not be the PRIMARY CAREGIVER."

"Okay, so go with it?"

"It will be a good test for her to get a dog next spring."

So there we have it.  K will soon find out when they announce it at school that she will be a mama to a small, furry creature.

She will love it, even when it smells.

It's that smell part that makes me crunch up my nose.

And that it isn't a Zhu-Zhu pet.  That would be so much easier.  The only risk with that is tangling it into her hair.

She is a kid and has to be allowed to be so.  I wish her much success with her critter.  We'll probably get it sometime next week.  This weekend, we're in 10 different directions and she is staying over at Grandma and Grandpa's house.  It would be unkind to abandon a new family member.  Grandma didn't sign up for a caged pet for this visit.  I wouldn't even ask.  Bless her.  She's nice enough to have K as often as she does.  :)

If it is helpful, M told me how thrilled she is that the hamster is going to a good home and about how she feels so much better knowing that it will be loved and not microwaved or something awful like that.  

No microwaving the pets at our house.  I promise.

I'm here. Everytime I write something, someone phones.

Or needs something.

Or something like that.

I am alive.

My people are alive and happy.

Over the past week, we've studied for tests, had fun together and found that K does have the perfect hair for the Van de Graaff.  I've discovered that she is growing out of shoes faster than I can buy them for her (meaning, switched a half size in a month), she is enjoying her glasses, we've had 69 degrees F and now we're back to snow again (Grandma would have called it pneumonia weather) and I made corned beef in the crock-pot overnight thus leaving my husband to think I was having digestive upset instead of remembering that it was just dinner cooking. The time change has thrown us all completely off.  Hubs thought that he would be working out at 6 AM, then at 6:30 AM, and now he may be to working out at 7:30 AM.  K doesn't spring up out of bed.  We took a walk in the sprinkles the other day, only to return not sprinkled but fully rained on later on.  It didn't stay sprinkly like we thought.

:deep breath:

It has gotten blustery.  Snow is swirling around like a snow globe out there.

Laundry awaits.

The tummy is grumbling.

Must resolve both issues.

Have a great day!

The Waiting Blanket

I come to tuck my daughter in every night.  Most nights, she is fast asleep.  Some time ago, she devised a way to check to see if I had come in.

The waiting blanket.

One morning, probably about a year ago, she announced, "Mom, you didn't come check on me last night.  I know because you didn't put my waiting blanket on me and I was cold."

"I'm sorry, K.  I fell right to sleep.  I try to come in each and every night.  I have missed very few nights.  But, I have to ask.  What is a waiting blanket?"

She explained that she puts half of her blankets on and leaves a blanket for me to tuck her in with.  If the blanket hasn't been put on her, she knows I wasn't there.  

Pretty smart.  :)

I know that it will happen one day, but I hope that she doesn't grow out of the waiting blanket anytime soon.